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Pokeylope
Nov 12, 2010
Just caught up with this thread last night and I'm loving it. I especially love the way the world is being revealed to us. At first, despite the option to play as a god, I thought the world was perfectly mundane. All the little details about their culture and the cagey nature of his father's lessons gave the the impression the world was very much like our own and his father was simply a charlatan.
Then suddenly ZAP magic is real, and we now know exactly what he was hiding. Slowly our image of the world is expanding and I'm waiting on pins and needles to see what's around every corner.

Also Greggster, you're an awesome person :) I hope to contribute a little something myself if I've got the time.

For my first ever vote: B, D, H

Did we lose our necklace when we lost the tooth, they were attached right? I'd hate to lose everything we had left from the village, I suppose we've still got our loincloth. Even if we did lose the necklace though, now's not the time to go looking for it.

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Zybourne Clock
Oct 25, 2011

Poke me.
1. B
2. F "What I did there was really stupid. I saw you guys fighting those monsters and didn't want to feel worthless, so I cut open my palm with that accursed tooth hoping to shoot lightning like my fake dad once did. It didn't exactly work out like expected, though. So thanks for saving my hide there... Smattas. Yeah, mom isn't around right now so you can be honest with me. I know you and the king are angels sent by El. I understand your language, and you probably understand mine".

This might prove to be a gibberish monologue from Ishamel's perspective, if he isn't actually an undercover angel.

3. H I originally intended to bring the tooth with us so that it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. I'd vote to pick it up again for that same purpose, but this forest is inhabited by humongous lizards with regenerating limbs. Only the very brave and very stupid would dare to enter these woods, meaning they're a better form of protection that any sort of vault or safe we could make ourselves.

Zybourne Clock fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Jun 16, 2013

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

Pokeylope posted:

Just caught up with this thread last night and I'm loving it. I especially love the way the world is being revealed to us. At first, despite the option to play as a god, I thought the world was perfectly mundane. All the little details about their culture and the cagey nature of his father's lessons gave the the impression the world was very much like our own and his father was simply a charlatan.
Then suddenly ZAP magic is real, and we now know exactly what he was hiding. Slowly our image of the world is expanding and I'm waiting on pins and needles to see what's around every corner.

Also Greggster, you're an awesome person :) I hope to contribute a little something myself if I've got the time.

For my first ever vote: B, D, H

Did we lose our necklace when we lost the tooth, they were attached right? I'd hate to lose everything we had left from the village, I suppose we've still got our loincloth. Even if we did lose the necklace though, now's not the time to go looking for it.

You are still wearing the shell necklace your "mother" gave you.

You dropped the tooth when you grabbed the tree branch.

Also, glad your enjoying it! :D

Cathair
Jan 7, 2008


I really want to ask him questions- it would be particularly interesting to hear his take on the tooth and what we should do with it (as per Deadly Ham Sandwich). However, after he just pulled our rear end out of the fire on several fronts, I feel like gratitude is more important.

tarepanda
Mar 26, 2011

Living the Dream

Pokeylope posted:

I'd hate to lose everything we had left from the village, I suppose we've still got our loincloth.

Given how we've been making GBS threads and pissing and making GBS threads and pissing for the last ten minutes or whatever, I don't think we want to keep the loincloth. :(

alpaca diseases
May 19, 2009

B. C. G.

Stand up and walk back to camp, I can imagine we're feeling chastised, what with the whole Ishamael calling us foolish and awakening an all consuming hunger and all. In saying that though I still want to have tooth options.

Besides, what sort of El hero leaves an evil artifact lying around in a forest where anyone could grab it?, regenerating lizards notwithstanding of course.

e: Tooth options in this instance being the opportunity to use it maybe on other priests of Asherah or the like that we might encounter later, perhaps sending them to ironic deaths. Or maybe if it ends up going that way, stab the guy himself with it, see what happens when a insaitable hunger starts feeding on itself.

alpaca diseases fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Jun 17, 2013

Canuck-Errant
Oct 28, 2003

MOOD: BURNING - MUSIC: DISCO INFERNO BY THE TRAMMPS
Grimey Drawer

Grognan
Jan 23, 2007

by Fluffdaddy

For sure

Ego Trip
Aug 28, 2012

A tenacious little mouse!


Disargeria
May 6, 2010

All Good Things are Wild and Free!

this

Tudhalias
Sep 7, 2009
B D H

Absum posted:


Don't know about ditching the tooth randomly in the forest, but I want to get back to the camp to see what happened as soon as possible.

Edit: Kill? Save? Who's Mereniel? And who is the creepy guy?

Edit: Found a 'Them' and 'Xuriel' as well. Names sound kinda like angels to me?

There's a "me" in there as well, under the left side of the "R". Going by height, it's "Mereniel save me kill Xuriel them."

my dad posted:

Oh, poo poo. I think I got the message.


The Great Flood, right?

Or a famine? "Save [food] for years of hardship"?

SerSpook
Feb 13, 2012




Xuriel is the flying angel we heard stories about.

Diog, have we ever heard stories about a Mereniel?

Ralith
Jan 12, 2011

I see a ship in the harbor
I can and shall obey
But if it wasn't for your misfortune
I'd be a heavenly person today
B, D, ask Ishamel what to do about the tooth

We probably shouldn't just leave it. Someone else might find it and turn into a recurring villain.

Ralith fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Jun 17, 2013

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

SerSpook posted:

Xuriel is the flying angel we heard stories about.

Diog, have we ever heard stories about a Mereniel?

You have never heard any stories about a Mereniel from Jalitha.

tarepanda
Mar 26, 2011

Living the Dream

Do Xuriel and Mereniel sound like names that would fit into the new language we've been learning? Do they sound like names from our language?

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

Xun
Apr 25, 2010

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

tarepanda posted:

Do Xuriel and Mereniel sound like names that would fit into the new language we've been learning? Do they sound like names from our language?

You are an eleven year old child from a primitive and remote fishing village who wears a loin cloth and can't count to 11. I can't answer that question for you.

tarepanda
Mar 26, 2011

Living the Dream

Diogines posted:

You are an eleven year old child from a primitive and remote fishing village who wears a loin cloth and can't count to 11. I can't answer that question for you.

Really? I'd think kids would hear a name and think "Man, that's a weird name" even if they can't conceptualize why they think it's weird.

Janac
May 12, 2010
Change vote to


"Who is Mereniel?"

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

tarepanda posted:

Really? I'd think kids would hear a name and think "Man, that's a weird name" even if they can't conceptualize why they think it's weird.

Every name you have heard outside of your village so far is a "weird" name. Xuriel is from your mothers stories. You have heard it, so it is not weird. Mereniel, you have never heard before, so it is a weird name, just like Tudiya, Ishamal and Danal are weird names.

wibblewobble
Jul 7, 2010
B, F, G

I'd like to ask Ishamael whether its possible to learn how to do the things our father/Ishamael/Tudiya did, where we could learn them, as well as general questions about the metaphysics of it all.

Do we remember anything about sorcery or men who learnt to supernaturally manipulate the world from our upbringing?

wibblewobble fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Jun 17, 2013

Imperialist Dog
Oct 21, 2008

"I think you could better spend your time on finishing your editing before the deadline today."
\
:backtowork:
Finally. After more than a month, reading more than four thousand posts, I have finally read the (Drunken) Epic of Denziroh and the Words of El up to this point. It has seemed like forever, but forever is but a moment to the eternity that is the Fall of Sojenus. I just hope I can cause a skeleton to rise and stab people in this adventure too!

We are on the verge of losing consciousness, but the adrenaline rush of the incredible fall will be enough for us to thank Ishmael before our nervous system overloads and we pass out. I don't think he's Smattas, just one who can tap into the giant's power.

We know the power of Asherah, now better than any. It is a ravenous hunger that will consume the world if not stopped. The world of men is but to provide sustenance for its devouring rage. Only the forces of El, light and goodness can overcome this horror from the abyss. One day, we might march against it. One day. Not today.

Vote: B, D, H.

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

wibblewobble posted:

B, F, G

I'd like to ask Ishamael whether its possible to learn how to do the things our father/Ishamael/Tudiya did, where we could learn them, as well as general questions about the metaphysics of it all.

Do we remember anything about sorcery or men who learnt to supernaturally manipulate the world from our upbringing?

According to Jalitha's stories, kings have supernatural powers, this apparently goes hand in hand with kingship.

Heroes often have supernatural powers, but not always.

Many heroes are kings and many kings are heroes, but they don't always overlap. According to Jalitha's stories, the world is literally filled to the brim and spilling over the edge with monsters and cannibals and bad people who want to hurt children and women and good people and only very attentive heroes and kings constantly fighting them keeps people safe.

Bad people that try to hurt children and women and who the good guys eventually defeat, sometimes have magical powers.

Diogines fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Jun 17, 2013

tarepanda
Mar 26, 2011

Living the Dream
Are you using "magical" and "supernatural" interchangeably? Or are magical powers different from supernatural powers?

Diogines
Dec 22, 2007

Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

tarepanda posted:

Are you using "magical" and "supernatural" interchangeably? Or are magical powers different from supernatural powers?

There are no people holding spellbooks and engaging in years of careful study in your mothers stories, nor is there experimentation and careful study of what magical reagents to use.

This could be because they do not exist. Or because your mother does not know about them. Or because she left them out, because you have no idea what writing is(and paper has not been invented yet anyway, thus no spellbooks) and thus you had no frame of reference to understand so she left it out of stories meant for a child. Or for some other reason.

If there is any distinction between "magical" and "supernatural", you have not been told about it. Why, could be any of many possible reasons.

Eryxias
Feb 17, 2011

Stay low.
Option B: Stand up


Option D & F: Tell Ishamal about the stuff you saw and felt(particularly that fish dude) see what he knows about it.

Option H

Deadmeat5150
Nov 21, 2005

OLD MAN YELLS AT CLAN

SerSpook posted:



Nope, gently caress you Asherah tooth. If we gotta have something from this pantheon, let's get a claw of Smis or something.

What he said. Again.

Crudus
Nov 14, 2006

Holy poo poo, that picture of Asherah (I'm assuming that's him) scared the poo poo out of me while I was scrolling down looking closely for words. Well played, Dio.

I vote to
B Stand up,
F Ask Ishamal if he is an angel,
G Search for the tooth.


The last one I'm not so sure about, but just because we have it doesn't mean we need to ever use it again, and it might be worth hanging on to if it is some evil that needs to be sequestered.
(Or alternately for lashing to a stick in the future to make it an enchanted weapon that flings enemies off to the ocean to be consumed when they are cut.)

Tudhalias
Sep 7, 2009

Diogines posted:

(and paper has not been invented yet anyway, thus no spellbooks)

I love the idea of mages lugging around wheelbarrows full of clay tablets with spells written on them. "Back demon, or I will curse you! Or just throw a tablet at your head! Or one, then the other!"

Space Kablooey
May 6, 2009


PAss out.


Holy poo poo, Diogenes. :stare:

Theglavwen
Jun 10, 2006

Frankly, I don't know anyone who likes Chinese bronzes, but I have one of the finest collections in the country.
Man, I love these enigmatic image/riddling segments, they always make we want to know more right away.

So, vote. I like BDH at first impulse, but let's see. B, yeah, alright, get up. We've been pretty well shamed, we've only just gasped back to life, with a little boost even; we might feel the urge to lapse into unconsciousness just to keep from facing what just happened, but I think, being quite prone to social pressure, Og is going to feel even more strongly the desire not to humiliate himself in front of Ishamal any more. So yeah, to our feet.

C, D, E, or F ... C seems reasonable, quite ashamed and all, want to just bury our head in the sand, but D seems more reasonable. We can still stay mostly quiet, but Ishamal deserves our recognition, and we feel the pressure to own up to the fact that we just did ... well something quite extreme. E doesn't work for me, who would we thank? We're pretty damned confused on the supernatural/god front at the moment, our world of faith has certainly just been rocked, we don't know what happened, but I think we just learned a lesson about playing with GodFire, so we'll try to avoid notice there for a while. F, there are certainly questions to be asked, but kind of a lot, and right now we probably don't feel too entitled to start barraging Ishamal with questions. We're just thankful he didn't leave us to die. So yeah, D.

The tooth. Yeah, I think leaving it fits the character. Right now we're probably pretty terrified of Asherah, despite, perhaps, understanding him better than we ever have before. We brushed Asherah and he hungered for us, it was probably the most terrifying and overwhelming moment we've ever experienced. Right now we don't know what to think, but we know we are small, and helpless, before Asherah, and that to draw his attention is to invite our destruction. Although the tooth means a lot, might be an implement of some power, and perhaps shouldn't be left alone, we don't want to touch it, just the thought recalls that overwhelming hunger and that threat of certain demise. We've been excommunicated from Asherah, it's been made pretty clear that we are food if we draw attention; it may be sad, but fear outweights remorse at the moment.

We should probably mention it to somebody when we get back and are inevitably questioned though.

So yeah, BDH

Those images though, those are interesting. Same voice that came to us when we were 'baptized'? Even with a bit of a flashback there, with the salt water. A storm is coming, save for years of hardship. Then an image that certainly brings Asherah to mind. It seems like an El sort of thing, sending cryptic warnings, perhaps the storm is indeed Asherah, and our destiny, given our unique position dangling between Asherah and El, is to stop it, or balance it, or something. And Asherah doesn't seem the sort to send messages; if there was any doubt previously as to what Shushem said, about Asherah not speaking, it seems more likely to be true now. We've felt the thought process of Asherah, and there's not a lot of room for cryptic riddles.

Of course, I'm not wholly convinced it's so straight forward. We managed to muster up the will to do other things, despite the hunger, and certainly Asherah's will is more powerful than ours. Then there were the messages, interspersed amongst the HUNGERS. They seem like they ought to have come from Asherah as well, being so embedded in what is certainly his hunger. Perhaps Asherah is playing some role in a schism in the heavens, maybe he knows something about angels, or angelic traitors. Perhaps he wants to stop some coming 'clash of the heavens', some oncoming storm. Or maybe he wants to further it, to ensure that the clash happens. Too hard to say without anything further, but the weird sea-water in our lungs thing that accompanied the messages seems again to suggest there's some influence here that has nothing to do with El, some other motivation involved with these messages. They only come when the sea is involved ... but then we only seem to be nearly dead when the sea is involved, so who knows.

I love this stuff though, can't wait for more.

Edit:

Crudus posted:

(Or alternately for lashing to a stick in the future to make it an enchanted weapon that flings enemies off to the ocean to be consumed when they are cut.)

Hah!

PandaPropaganda
Apr 22, 2008

Kira Akashiya
Feb 2, 2013
A, D, H

jng2058
Jul 17, 2010

We have the tools, we have the talent!





Soylent Pudding
Jun 22, 2007

We've got people!




: Thank El!

Task Manager
Sep 5, 2008

A weird time in which we are alive. We can travel anywhere we want, even to other planets. And for what? To sit day after day, declining in morale and hope.


"Can we do that again?!"

Not that it matters, since it seems like the majority already decided, oh, about two seconds after the post was up.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous

Task Manager posted:

Not that it matters, since it seems like the majority already decided, oh, about two seconds after the post was up.

You'd be surprised by how quickly the situation can change.

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

Diogines, how does our hand look? is the cut still there?

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LLSix
Jan 20, 2010

The real power behind countless overlords



I really don't want to leave the tooth behind, but running off to get it is clealy a bad idea.

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