On the shoulders of giants: a new multiple choices LP!

[Vernydar]

I think I will vote A as well. While we are fewer than the enemies, we have a military. And we have weapons and armor. A well- equipped and trained expedition could make it through anfd come back to give us information. And B seems very dangerous, we might want to avoid another game over immediately

A

 

[Kipeci]

I don't think we'd have a game ending choice right after Curufinwe went through all the trouble to make this again.

 

[m4davis]

I think I will vote A as well. While we are fewer than the enemies, we have a military. And we have weapons and armor. A well- equipped and trained expedition could make it through anfd come back to give us information. And B seems very dangerous, we might want to avoid another game over immediately

A

thats what you say but what if no one made it back due to a powerful gem making them go mad and turn into these things

 

[Esquilax]

I don't think we'd have a game ending choice right after Curufinwe went through all the trouble to make this again.

Neither do I. But that's not the important part. What's important is that our religion seems pretty well-suited to the needs of our people, so dogma aside, it would be wise to heed it. Consider what we know:

Our most ancient, dark legends spoke of a great day of reckoning. Our ancestors used to live in a paradise, green and lit by the life-giving sun, where food was abundant and so was happiness. But we had committed a terrible sin, a sin that could never be washed clean. Because of that sin, the paradise above was destroyed. We were forced to escape, escape deep underground through paths that are now lost to memory, to hide our shame.

...

Just to the south a series of tunnels led away from our cave, steeply heading downwards, even deeper. Ancient texts warned us not to explore those caves, talking of an ancient evil that could be awakened by any excursion down there. Those tunnels were known as the Sealed Corridors.

It's clear that our ancestors committed a "great sin", causing a cataclysm that destroyed paradise and forced the survivors to escape underground. But the part that sticks out to me the most is that the underground passages were lost to memory to "hide our shame". Very curious choice of words. This strikes me as a group of people who made a terrible mistake of some sort, but decided to cover their tracks and destroy the evidence of what happened so that future generations wouldn't follow in their footsteps. It seems to me that it's also why they sealed off large parts of the cave system as well.

I'm not saying we ought to rule out B somewhere down the road. But it looks to me as though it's very clearly a last-resort type option. You don't go for a last resort unless you have no other choice. If our people were starving to death and there was a horde of Morlocks at our gates, I would understand, but we aren't that desperate right now. We still have food for the time being, and we have a good army with superb metalworking skills.

We can't hide behind our walls forever, we know very little about our enemy and we know that opening up the Sealed Corridors is clearly too good to be true. If there were lots of food there and nothing else, why would it be sealed off in the first place? Clearly the people who sealed it off did so for a reason.

So that's why I'm suggesting we vote for A. We can consider B once we've exhausted all other options, but not before.

 

[ScubaV]

A

 

[m4davis]

eh my earlier point still stands but esquilax pointed out a few things to me I missed so flip flopping to A

 

[Smashing Axe]

A

 

[Clotstein]

A

 

[Hirato]

I think I'll vote B.

Esquillax does make excellent arguments in favour of A.
But those caverns are a complete unknown to us - these "morlocks" have likely explored it and will have an advantage due to having knowledge of the tunnels...

Then there's also the fact that they are strange and otherworldly in appearance - which implies they're wicked creations, perhaps even kindred of what was sealed away in the other caverns.
So I'm voting B more in a gamble to strike at the heart of the enemy... Forgoing that we'd likely have more men and resources at our disposal to use against these "morlocks."

 

[oscar]

Esquillax makes a good point. A. Though if that fails I say we explore the sealed caverns.

 

[Tigranes]

A.

I think for our very first choice it makes sense to try our best to defend our home and way of life, and to learn more about the enemy.

Also, that was a gripping introduction - well done indeed.

 

[Zero Credibility]

I stop paying attention to this thread for a while and everyone gets killed.

Sigh.

Voting B.

A means going in a completely unknown hostile territory looking for an unknown powerful enemy. What happens when we get to a fork? Spliting forces will leave both of them vulnerable to attack. Staying as one force would give us 50% chance we have chosen the wrong path, leaving the city vulnerable to attacks while we are waisting time playing soldiers in the dark. And the next fork after that and so on? Caves give our enemy huge defensive advantage and this expedition will end about as well as it did for the late king. We are supposed to be different from him - so let's be different.

C means slow starvation - if provisions aren't tight already, then what's up with the mandatory "retirement" age? Fuck religion (look where it got us the last time) and fuck vague warnings about something or the other. If our ancestors couldn't be arsed to pass on exactly why we should be avoiding those tunnels, it probably wasn't that important to begin with.

 

[oscar]

Except Esquilax is correct and religion here serves as pretty practical system of survival. It's unlikely there's some massive cavern full of gems, food and treasure waiting for us. At best we're probably talking a Fire Wielder-type event while at worst it could be some giant underground behemoth or even a "rocks fall everyone dies" scenario.

I agree that we should only open it as a last resort if we are desperate.

 

[kazgar]

But what if the sealed caves are the exit to the surface, which were closed to escape whatever was that required escaping from back in forgotten history, but now no longer exists out there (vault style) All we're doing by ignoring the option is leaving ourselves to die quickly (via beasts) or slowly (via starvation) in a dank cave.

 

[Zero Credibility]

The "retirement" thing is stupid in the first place. It's a band aid put on a fatal wound of our civilization - the limited food options. The only reasonable thing to do would be to find more food sources - those mushrooms, could they be cultivated? The fish in the lake - could they be fed to grow in larger numbers? If not we must get out of these caves to find more food - nothing but stagnation and death (once the limited food sources we have fail) awaits us here. But no, so much easier to pretend nothing is wrong while you shove the weakest link in our society out the door. Fuck that kind of religion.

 

[Monty]

Not all religious traditions start for good reasons. Think of the mass human sacrifices in ancient South America. The 'forbidden passage' tradition could have been started for a good reason, or, as others have said it could have been the way we originally came into these caves fleeing from something - death through attrition/stagnation or blundering off into our deranged enemies' territory don't necessarily seem like better options to me.

B

 

[TOME]

This is awesome starting to a LP! Reminds me of Avernum/Exile series.

A

Know your enemy. We need info.

 

[oscar]

I'm reminded a bit of Arx Fatalis.

 

[Curufinwe]

This is awesome starting to a LP! Reminds me of Avernum/Exile series.

A

Know your enemy. We need info.

Not really a start. Remember, we're still in the same setting, just a different place and time

Never played Arx Fatalis.

 

[TOME]

This is awesome starting to a LP! Reminds me of Avernum/Exile series.

A

Know your enemy. We need info.

Not really a start. Remember, we're still in the same setting, just a different place and time

Never played Arx Fatalis.

I consider this to be a sequel so it is a start

 

[newcomer]

Could this tribe be the ruins of Obsidian Ember?

Anyway, A

 

[m4davis]

I think its more likely there the remains of the rest of the group that went with the wielder before he got his gem

 

[Vernydar]

I really don't think so. Since curufinwe was so set against us playing with some tribe we already know, it's safe to assume these people are completely unrelated to our previous tribe.

Also, I think we are quite far away from our previous zone.

That said, whomever went with the wielder back then got incinerated by an eruption. Nope, they did not survive. Though these people MIGHT be the remnant of a tribe that disturbed a different gem.

 

[newcomer]

Ah yes, I just re-read the beginning of the new chapter, there are 6 civilization but we're only given 5 option. That one must be our friendly wielder's.
Well no problem, let's create an earth / undead theocracy (Read: another NPC tribe)

 

[Curufinwe]

Ah yes, I just re-read the beginning of the new chapter, there are 6 civilization but we're only given 5 option. That one must be our friendly wielder's.

6 civilization? Uh? o_O