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Paradise Lost: Diog gives the players a wise, super-powered centuries old mentor and we get mad when he won't reveal all the world's secrets on demand.
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Oct 4, 2014 03:53
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Ask Ishamal: The Bnaimokt we spoke to mentioned 'the noisy one'. Might he have been referring to the 'noise' I made in the goblin cave? Am I in some way responsible for these monsters renewed interest in mankind?
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Oct 4, 2014 03:58
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Mr. Wednesday posted:Ask Ishamal: The Bnaimokt we spoke to mentioned 'the noisy one'. Might he have been referring to the 'noise' I made in the goblin cave? Am I in some way responsible for these monsters renewed interest in mankind? Uh what? The norc was pretty clearly talking about king ahaz, not us
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Oct 4, 2014 04:04
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Maybe we should also inquire about the annoying hangnail on our left pinky that has been driving us crazy for *weeks*!
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Oct 4, 2014 04:05
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Rahul posted:Uh what? The norc was pretty clearly talking about king ahaz, not us This wasn't clear to me at all. He told us this while we could still clearly hear king ahaz fighting. I think he was boasting to us about killing 'the noisy one' without realizing it's us. Why would that work as a boast? Because anyone who could hear the noisy one would know that whoever made that noise is an extremely powerful being.
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Oct 4, 2014 04:07
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Mr. Wednesday posted:This wasn't clear to me at all. He told us this while we could still clearly hear king ahaz fighting. I think he was boasting to us about killing 'the noisy one' without realizing it's us. Why would that work as a boast? Because anyone who could hear the noisy one would know that whoever made that noise is an extremely powerful being. I don't understand how we might expect Ishamal to understand the vague context of someone else's words in the middle of a battle that he did not attend. His guess is as good as ours I imagine.
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Oct 4, 2014 04:12
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I wasn't trying to be rude with the Bareen question. His answer was vague enough I wasn't sure which he meant. Oh well. He can be mad because I questioned him further, I guess.
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Oct 4, 2014 04:14
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the_steve posted:In all fairness, Ish has given more info than I was expecting. Yeah, he's frustrated that we put ourselves in danger, but proud that we succeeded despite the danger. It's almost...paternal. 
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Oct 4, 2014 04:28
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1 A. No. Guys, a vote for yes is a vote to be put on the official schedual and do things at certain times no matter what else is going on. We're terrible at that. We can still take the balls out hunting without being on the official rotation and letting everyone down if we get a bat signal to go running off in the wilderness. 2. I. "Your father was a great man, but I will be your father now." Kids need dads. He needs to know that he belongs. 3. R. Yes, there is no point in outright lying to our teacher. Being able to tell when we are getting closer to disaster is a very useful ability, and makes it much less dangerous for us to do stuff (still dangerous though). Ash is a bro, we won't rat him out, but we can tell the rest.
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Oct 4, 2014 04:39
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Theglavwen posted:Ishamal's just being "clever". Some of y'all gotta learn to deal with a slippery bastard, stop asking multiple questions at once at the very least.
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Oct 4, 2014 04:44
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Numeron posted:Not telling Ishamal that we accidentally did Ball Trance (which is true for the first time) might mean he keeps giving us the baby exercises for longer. He should at least know how quickly our power is growing so that he can tune the exercises accordingly. This was basically my concern, yeah. In other news... quote:"LABARAS!" cried out the voice which caused the entire mountain to shake, the voice of the Ophanim who said to him "You stand upon the Sacred Mountain of the Creator Who is El! Make yourself Holy! Remove your sandals, anoint yourself with oil and cut your hair before you would seek El!" So Labaras made himself holy Hm, Labaras 'made himself holy' in cutting his hair. Shushem saw hair cutting as a blasphemy before Asherah, so there's certainly something going on there. But what about hair cutting is presumed to be holy? Just that El likes it? Maybe, but why does that mean Asherah should dislike it? Let's say that Humans are actually, by nature, demonic beings, or at least creatures whose origins are due to other powers, demons, certain Melachim, Kadmonim gods, etc. There are a variety of humans, tall pale ones, short dark ones, green-greyish ones with fangs called Bnaimokt, perhaps? El is an intruder, or perhaps a progenitor of the other powers or something, but regardless, El is an outside force as regards the demons, other gods, and their creations. Humans are naturally creatures of these other forces, then one of them discovers El, and through El is able to change his nature. Cutting the hair is symbolic then, it represents changing the natural way of things, exerting control over human development, and so turning away from the original human place in life, as thralls. Hell, even clothes and poo poo didn't really exist, much, in Athar. Pretty much as close to nature as they could get. Not sure how holy oils and no sandals fit into this equation though. Regardless, perhaps that's the clash of the heavens. Not Melachim vs. Melachim, or vs. Demon, exactly, but El vs. The Other Powers, or vice-versa. Either El comes upon the scene, shakes things up, and some Melachim decide to go over to his side, or El was always a background force that didn't interfere much, until some faction decided to embrace it and go to war with the others. 
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Oct 4, 2014 05:06
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We've talked a bit about Bareen, and now that the hair cutting thing has come up, there's an old theory that I think might be worth bringing up. We received the message about storms and saving and so forth right after our hair was cut, and during a time we were seemingly near death what with being ritualistically given to Asherah for judgement for the hair cut and all of that. While we didn't see the Uncle Jorah figure the first time, in the future when this happens, we do see him right afterward. According to Bareen, our Dreamscape is basically the Gates of Paradise, though shaped by how we think. Bareen is a liar, but I don't necessarily think she's lying or wrong about this. Hell, we saw Uncle Jorah head on up to where the Melachim live once, to get permission to tell us some stuff. At the very least, Paradise seems very accessible from here. Labaras spoke with El after climbing the Mountain. When you die, you climb the Mountain to Paradise. We see Uncle Jorah when we are about ready to die, at the Gates of Paradise, in other words when near death. I am suspicious that the voice telling us that stuff is the literal voice of El, and he can only actually speak when we are at the Gates of Paradise. Even then we aren't really in Paradise yet, so it's really quiet. Why other people don't have this happen could just be our unique nature. The hair cutting is more that our hair was cut immediately before this first happened. When it happened again we were already all about the whole Ur life thing. This is all speculation but I think it's something worth considering about what exactly that voice was. edit: You can also make the argument that Labaras in a sense died and lived again, though such would undoubtedly be heresy of the highest order, since the dead do not come back to life according to the orthodoxy. But he did enter Paradise, which only the dead are supposed to do, he just went ahead and left after the fact.
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Oct 4, 2014 05:17
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1 Abstain. 2 J 3 O My reasoning for the last one is that based on his reactions thus far, it is exceedingly unlikely that Ishamal will accelerate his lessons to accommodate our recklessness; he teaches us more when we do what he says. Since I do think learning more about our powers is important for our safety, the best option is keeping our mouths shut. Asahel's gift has been helping us from messing up. I think we could be a bit more careful, but we're doing okay. Again for emphasis: telling Ishamal about our experimentation is likely to only slow down our lessons. I want to ask Ishamal: "How foolish was it to have my finger sewn back on?" Also about why our hair doesn't grow and why our pee is clear, obv.
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Oct 4, 2014 06:20
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Maybe one of these days we will break Ishamal. He will just go comatose because of endless barrage of questions. Just like that talking angel statue.
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Oct 4, 2014 07:43
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1. B. Duty is duty. I see no reason to shirk it. 2. I+J. Remember the past, but move on towards the future. 3. R. The hell with it, let's man up and own up. Also I find it great that for all that people moan about my questions, particularly with noted stone wall Ishamal, I honestly don't have that much to ask this time around because everyone else has asked most of them for me. No, John, you are the sperg! Hey, Ishamal, do you take your orders directly from the Melachim? What about the Church of El? Or do you act entirely on your own will and your own conscience? I'm pretty sure I asked this before, but as a refresher: When you say "Mercy is never misplaced," how far does that apply to monsters? The Norcs seemed to believe that I was a servant of Asherah hunting for "meat," and tried to negotiate with me. Are you aware of any diplomatic relations between the followers of different demons? From the conversation with the Norcs, it seemed that they dislike followers of Asherah almost as much as they do humans. Do you know if demons actively dislike each other? The Norcs seemed to have no consideration whatsoever for the minotaurs under their rule. If we were to learn the language of minotaurs, do you think it possible to incite rebellion amongst their ranks if they were to come again? You say my body has powerful healing abilities. If I hadn't reattached my finger, would it have grown back? Uriah used Vayahi Or to burn Norcs to a crisp. Why have I never seen others use that word for combat purposes before? So, dual-wielded shields: Great idea, or best idea?
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Oct 4, 2014 07:45
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You are still the sperg, most of those I can answer. Mercy is never misplaced, Ishamal is beloved of El but there isn't a marching order, our finger would grow back in time, and because the words are a thing not to be used lightly as they draw on a person to dangerous lengths.
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Oct 4, 2014 07:56
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Deadly Ham Sandwich posted:Maybe one of these days we will break Ishamal. He will just go comatose because of endless barrage of questions. Just like that talking angel statue. That's how we break the world.
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Oct 4, 2014 07:59
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Tomn posted:You say my body has powerful healing abilities. If I hadn't reattached my finger, would it have grown back? These questions I like. Also, Deadly Ham Sandwich posted:Maybe one of these days we will break Ishamal. He will just go comatose because of endless barrage of questions. Just like that talking angel statue. Have we asked Ishamal about art? "Ishamal, what is Art?"
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Oct 4, 2014 08:25
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These answers really remind me why I hate Ishamal so much.
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Oct 4, 2014 08:36
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Diogines posted:Ishamal says "Because they look like men and some damned fool might place his enemies on El's altars next." Ishamal seems fairly certain of this answer, he did not even phrase it as his interpretation. "Hmm. I would've thought the reason would be deeper than that. Like there was some quality shared between us that made them unacceptable as an offering." (minivote, since this is a statement and not a question) Tomn posted:Hey, Ishamal, do you take your orders directly from the Melachim? Tomn posted:The Norcs seemed to believe that I was a servant of Asherah hunting for "meat," and tried to negotiate with me. Are you aware of any diplomatic relations between the followers of different demons? Tomn posted:The Norcs seemed to have no consideration whatsoever for the minotaurs under their rule. If we were to learn the language of minotaurs, do you think it possible to incite rebellion amongst their ranks if they were to come again? DCBomB fucked around with this message at 08:52 on Oct 4, 2014 |
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Oct 4, 2014 08:46
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Aye, he won't tell us anything about Demon-on-Demon relations, or anything about the Bnaimokt culture, as to do so would be to admit that they have a culture, or that the demons are capable of poo poo like diplomacy and reason, basically anything other than shapeless boogey-men. Probably even for good reason. For whatever reason, it seems essential to Ishamal that people be kept in the dark about how things really are; it's not just that he doesn't like giving out information, but that if word of this sort of poo poo got out, something really bad would happen, be it a weakening of faith in the exclusivity of El's goodness and power, or organized war/activity that would break some celestial pact, etc. He's not going to tell us until we see poo poo for ourselves, until it can no longer be kept from us, or until he can be absolutely certain that we'll never let any of it slip out or act on it, and he's certainly not sure of that last one.
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Oct 4, 2014 09:03
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I hope that centuries later we find that statue and it has an answer to our question.
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Oct 4, 2014 09:34
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Vavrek posted:Have we asked Ishamal about art? "Ishamal, what is Art?"
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Oct 4, 2014 11:10
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Timeskip please.
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Oct 4, 2014 12:11
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There Bias Two posted:Timeskip please. This... for like 100 years
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Oct 4, 2014 13:11
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Mr. Wednesday posted:Paradise Lost: Diog gives the players a wise, super-powered centuries old mentor and we get mad when he won't reveal all the world's secrets on demand. More like we get mad because we're playing the text adventure version of hunt the pixel, and the pixel may or may not exist. It would be nice if Diogenes could just outright say "Ishamal has nothing new to say to you on all of these topics," so we don't waste our time.
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Oct 4, 2014 13:43
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"Ishamel, let's have some beers."
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Oct 4, 2014 13:53
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Volmarias posted:
It usually is pretty obvious when we get to that point, we just seem to insist on trying to find a loophole by asking 10 different variants of the same question anyway. Rahul fucked around with this message at 14:00 on Oct 4, 2014 |
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Oct 4, 2014 13:57
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Rahul posted:It usually is pretty obvious when we get to that point, we just seem to insist trying to find a loophole by asking different 10 variants of the same question anyway. I know, the problem is that one in a while he lets slip some tidbit which just emboldens Tomn.
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Oct 4, 2014 13:58
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How about this....we ask Indor for something that could make Ishamel more forthcoming and then we slip it into his drink after we go on a pub crawl.
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Oct 4, 2014 14:18
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There Bias Two posted:Timeskip please. Please, Ashera, this.
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Oct 4, 2014 14:20
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Theglavwen posted:For whatever reason, it seems essential to Ishamal that people be kept in the dark about how things really are; it's not just that he doesn't like giving out information, but that if word of this sort of poo poo got out, something really bad would happen, be it a weakening of faith in the exclusivity of El's goodness and power, or organized war/activity that would break some celestial pact, etc. I think a lot of people don't realize this about Ishamal when it comes to him not telling us anything. It's not him being tight-lipped just to annoy us; answers to some of these questions (Who is our dad? Do the Bnaimokt have a society? Is El a giant unthinking battery? Is there a pact between demon and man? Was Zepa actually an uptight douche?) would likely cause us to run raving through the streets going "I knew it! Everything we thought true was a lie!". If the common man realizes a lot of the poo poo that is widely believed is actually false, a huge crisis of faith is going to happen that likely crashes society entirely. Ishamal doesn't confirm most of our questions, some which we are relatively sure of the answers already, because he doesn't trust what we would do with the info; I can't blame him. That being said: Rahul posted:It usually is pretty obvious when we get to that point, we just seem to insist on trying to find a loophole by asking 10 different variants of the same question anyway. This is dead on, and why after I got my two rounds of questions out with half of them getting non-answers, I just shut the gently caress up and didn't try to loophole an answer. Q&As should take a day or two tops, but we drag it out asking the same questions five different ways.
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Oct 4, 2014 15:42
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SKY COQ posted:"Ishamel, let's have some beers." This is my vote.
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Oct 4, 2014 16:07
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Mr. Wednesday posted:Ask Ishamal: The Bnaimokt we spoke to mentioned 'the noisy one'. Might he have been referring to the 'noise' I made in the goblin cave? Am I in some way responsible for these monsters renewed interest in mankind? ALogo posted:I want to ask Ishamal: Tomn posted:Hey, Ishamal, do you take your orders directly from the Melachim? What about the Church of El? Tomn posted:Or do you act entirely on your own will and your own conscience? Tomn posted:I'm pretty sure I asked this before, but as a refresher: When you say "Mercy is never misplaced," how far does that apply to monsters? Tomn posted:The Norcs seemed to believe that I was a servant of Asherah hunting for "meat," and tried to negotiate with me. Are you aware of any diplomatic relations between the followers of different demons? Tomn posted:From the conversation with the Norcs, it seemed that they dislike followers of Asherah almost as much as they do humans. Do you know if demons actively dislike each other? Tomn posted:The Norcs seemed to have no consideration whatsoever for the minotaurs under their rule. If we were to learn the language of minotaurs, do you think it possible to incite rebellion amongst their ranks if they were to come again? Tomn posted:You say my body has powerful healing abilities. If I hadn't reattached my finger, would it have grown back? Tomn posted:Uriah used Vayahi Or to burn Norcs to a crisp. Why have I never seen others use that word for combat purposes before? Tomn posted:So, dual-wielded shields: Great idea, or best idea? Vavrek posted:Have we asked Ishamal about art? "Ishamal, what is Art?" At some point after you finish speaking with Ishamal, you sent Paebel to tell Indor you would pay her a visit tonight. In the dead of night, you, a giant of a man sneak into her home carrying one of the norc-metal knives. Her home is dark and poorly lit. You see piles of herbs on several tables and shelves as well as crystals and metal symbols hanging from the wall. There are many half melted candles spread about the room, a few of which are lit.  Many strange smells greet your nose and a variety of small Presences press upon other senses.  Strange herbs, crystals and unintelligible instruments lay about the main room. As you step over the doorway into her room, all Presences outside of the home seem to deaden drastically. Mount Har feels undiminished and you can feel El's temple, but it feel far... smaller. You cannot feel your Balls, suddenly being unable to feel your Balls is genuinley distressing. A large pot boils in one corner of the room with something foul within. She is sitting at a table and drinking some sort tea. "What have you brought me tonight?" asks the old crone. You place the norc-knife on the table and ask her "What is this?" "A knife?" she asks. You tell her "It is. I took it from the Bnaimokt, it is not like any metal I have seen before." Indor picks the knife up by the handle, holding it only with her pinky and her thumb, the edge pointing downwards. She holds it close to her ear and flicks it once with a finger. She pauses a moment and then does it again. She tells you "Trouble. If you mean to keep it, hide it far beyond the city, a week or more. Otherwise it will surely be found. You would be wiser to simply be rid of it. For one such as you, it is not of great use and will bring trouble to you." You can freely question Indor about anything you like. Main update sometime later. Diogines fucked around with this message at 16:23 on Oct 4, 2014 |
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Oct 4, 2014 16:17
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Thank Indor for all of her help GET RID OF THE loving KNIFE
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Oct 4, 2014 16:20
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Pladdicus posted:Thank Indor for all of her help
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Oct 4, 2014 16:24
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Pladdicus posted:Thank Indor for all of her help Yep. Hand 'em over, boys.
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Oct 4, 2014 16:26
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Do the same with any iron at all that we still have, we do not any and it will most likely get us (or paebal) utterly murdered.
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Oct 4, 2014 16:28
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Pladdicus posted:Thank Indor for all of her help Yep. Do this
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Oct 4, 2014 16:33
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"Can you be... more specific? Why is it trouble?" Also thank her profusely for her help over the years.
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Oct 4, 2014 16:34
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