|
Schizotek posted:A is for Adventure. This. We're in the age of legends. Let's live like it.
|
#
¿
Jun 5, 2013 02:17
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 00:39 |
|
|
Options: OPTION A. Racing with excitement! You are going to be a hero just like from the stories! OPTION C. Behind you a few steps, so any monsters you come upon see you first. OPTION C. You want to find ancient lost treasure! Let's find a cave! Maybe there will be snails or something.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 5, 2013 23:22
|
|
|
I'll vote: 1-e (Monster hunting) 2-q (Head for the coast) 3-u (Back via the river) We know how to get food along the coast. That just leaves the problem of the sacrifice. I think our best bet is to wander until we find some opportunity to do hero-things. Then, we'll sacrifice our token from our first real bit of heorism. Monsters will work if nothing more interesting presents itself. (For instance: saving someone from Cannibals) The other options don't seem right for a young hero. Cows and pearls are nice, but they just represent time at mundane chores. And, a pledge is an easy thing to offer; it's a sacrifice on credit.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 9, 2013 18:17
|
|
|
Tomn posted:I'd just like to remind you that many sources throughout our life have repeatedly stated that trying to hunt monsters alone without being a Mighty Man is risky as hell at best and suicidal at worst, with the needle veering towards the suicidal part. We are unarmed and will not be able to make anything beyond extremely crude weaponry. When we find the monster, we will most likely be suffering from hunger, thirst, and exposure. A tablet wouldn't be a bad offering for someone else. But it's wrong for us. The offering is valued based the sacrifice and effort it took to acquire. A tablet, like pearls or a cow, is just a matter of sitting down and doing N hours of basically mundane work. That's a fine sacrifice for someone who aspires to a life of sitting around and doing years of basically mundane work. But that's not the kind of man we're trying to become. And, so mundane-effort offerings are the wrong sort of sacrifice. As I see it, the real choice (now) is between "go somewhere and craft for a couple weeks" or "explore". A life of heroism has to start with action somewhere, and if not now, when? Our eventual heroic act doesn't need to be world-shattering. It just needs to be something that shows potential. I'd be fine with killing a normal 'monster' like a boar or an impressively-horned bull. I'd also be fine with an 'adventure' like getting a flower from the top of a particularly big mountain. The option doesn't need to be stupidly dangerous. But it should be something that, when told to prove our manhood, we can find something more daring than a week of tablet-carving or pearl-diving.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 9, 2013 19:49
|
|
|
Tomn posted:Well, it IS a week of trying to carve a tablet without any tools or particular skills and carrying it around (or keeping it in a safe place) WHILE simultaneously finding food, water, shelter, and anything else needed (without any tools, again), or else diving for pearls in an ocean that is the known home of a hungry demon we have mostly repudiated, and which aside from anything else is in fact an ocean with El-knows-what lurking inside. We started pearl diving sometime around age 4. We'd mastered it, and gotten a big collection of pearls, by the time we were 10. The people inland might find them valuable, but there's no way we'd see a bag of pearls as proof of heroic manhood. --- How staying still in the forest safer than the other options? Regardless of if we're sitting or walking, we'll have to deal with forest dangers. And there's no reason to think that this section is any safer than another. The ocean seems like the clear improvement over the forest. We know the ocean's natural hazards. We know what's edible and what isn't. Following the shoreline also means that we won't get randomly lost. The fish god won't hold a grudge (because its thoughts amount to 'HUNGER!'), so we won't draw its attention unless we specifically summon it. I think the ocean also provides us the best chance for king-impressing (but survivable) adventure. We speak the local language natively, and were trained as a priest. So, if we encounter people, we should expect them to be initially friendly to us. And that opens up all possibilities for awesome sacrifices. We might be able to save someone or steal something. The story of our defeating cannibals would impress the warriors. A fish-tribe token (like a tooth) would seem rare and exotic to the priests. And interfering with the fish-people would represent us sacrificing our option of ever going home again. So, I suppose I should change my vote to: 1-N, let's go see if we can get a token from human-eating fish people
|
|
#
¿
Oct 9, 2013 21:00
|
|
|
Vagon posted:I agree about us being way, way too zealous over El. I don't have a problem believing in him, but by a lot of the posters we're a zealot that prays to him constantly. We've seen power and divinity. We have not seen El. Even in our city theres a faction that says he doesn't exist and gets on fine. I agree. We've met a bunch of super-beings. Accepting one more isn't that big of a stretch. But belief isn't prayer. And it certainly isn't life-long devotion. It just happens that the quest is "fetch a big trophy for the alter." It could just have easily been, "fetch a trophy for the city gates" or "fetch a trophy for the King". The important thing is that the trophy-quest is our chance to show everyone how great we are.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 10, 2013 01:54
|
|
|
Angela Christine posted:1. I like this plan. We tried prayer. Now for the next thing.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 12, 2013 05:42
|
|
|
Lanky Coconut Tree posted:The guy with the ETERNAL HUNGER isn't going to forget about us. This seems backwards. The one-track mind means that there's no way for the god to remember us. The fish god is basically just a force of nature. It's not going to hold a grudge any more than fire or lighting would hold a grudge.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2013 19:09
|
|
|
1. How do you feel about the fact you are currently undergoing hardships that you know pretty much no else has to deal with? G. Something else. Fill in. -- I'm made to be a goddamn hero, not a slave or a babysitter. If this is what it takes to prove that to the king, then bring on the jackals. Bring on everything. HLN 5. Are you going to make an offering of some of the meat to El? W. A little meat from the jackal (like a leg or something) 6. What if any bits and pieces from the monstrous jackal, do you want to hang onto? Fill in. You can try to hold onto the whole thing or specific pieces, but you have to fill it in. This one has too many options for multiple choice. Jackal teeth and spines. I had a necklace once... ...and anything else you want to do which is relevant to your current situation right now, fill in. Let's ask Snarles if either animal seems not-edible. (Spoiled goat/poisoned jackal)
|
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2013 16:24
|
|
|
FoxTerrier posted:Yeah, I voted to call Azz, but after we started chowing down. I'm going to change that up to make it clear we should call Azz first. I voted to eat goat meat first. But, now that Snarls has cleared the monster as not-poison, I'm happy to eat some monster-bits first if people are worried about Azz/want to call Azz. (That said, I suspect he just likes goats the way some people like cats. So the warning was more "don't be a dick to these cool animals" than "Touch not the goats! For I am the protector of goats!") Either way, maybe monster-blood will give us powers. -- One more tiny change. Let's get the claws too. All the pointy bits for our pointy-bit necklace. If we weave in some pearls, I think we're a good ways towards a really cool offering. Pearls = $$$ to impress priests. Pointy bits = coolness for warriors. And the fact that we had to make this kill represents a pretty big sacrifice. We only got here because we're undertaking a trial for a culture that isn't our own, for a god that's not really our own. And we've made some pretty huge sacrifices to do it the Right Way. We could have bailed early and just stolen from farms or something. That would have been easy. We could have stolen water from a dying dude, that would have helped a little. We had the chance to slack off for the whole month. We even could have bought secrets about our family. But we turned all that down. So now we're here, cold, hungry, and having to kill monster-jackals with our god-drat bare hands. The trophies themselves aren't a sacrifice. But they represent the whole hell of a lot we had to sacrifice to even get into a position this bad.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 15, 2013 17:55
|
|
|
Did our village have any customs about where to make camps? I know villages fed Asherah to avoid his wrath. And I'm wondering how they saw being on the beach, away from a village. Also, when our people were traveling, did they walk on the beach, or would they walk in the trees? (It could make sense to set up camp where random people are less likely to trip over us)
|
|
#
¿
Oct 16, 2013 04:13
|
|
|
Nettle Soup posted:1: A and E, a nominal F? - Let's stay here a bit, see how it goes. Practice the fire, fish for pearls, survive. I agree with this, except that I'd like to spend our mornings walking towards the river. If we run into something interesting, great. If not, we'll reach the river a little less fatigued. We could always camp there if we decide we still need pearls.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 16, 2013 22:04
|
|
|
1.C 2.F 3.M P-4 Keep well fed Q-4 Get pearls R-2 A stick and lean-to are easy enough. Maybe we can get a drinking-vessel, too S-2 Find those snails Then explore and play T-1 U-1 V-1 X-1 Partly, I want snails to bring them back. But I'm also mildly worried about this: Diogines posted:After searching the beach, you find a pearl bed, but it is small. The creatures seem to be scarcer here than in Athar, there is sea life, but not even a fourth of the ridiculously teeming shore which Athar sat upon. You need to decide how much time you plan to spend out here and there are tasks to do each day. We can't be that far from Athar. Maybe the climate is different here. Or maybe stuff's getting eaten by a gigantic hungry fish. Let's use some snails to pay off the hungering-fish, just in case.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 17, 2013 19:48
|
|
|
Diogines posted:Z. Something else, fill in. I was re-reading our early Asherah lessons to see if it made sense that Asherah would be interested in punishing us, personally. I found these things: quote:Your father motions you to reach back into the rocks, to search for more snails, which you do, but he answers your question. "You will meet Asherah when it is your time to replace me and then it shall be your responsibility to see that his will is done. If you stop running off from your lessons. You have no choice in the matter, but this is a solemn and sacred duty and should you fail, our people will starve at best." quote:"Asherah does not care for the prosperity or suffering of our people, except that we obey his commandments. The rituals you will learn when you are a man, shall be those things most pleasing to Asherah, my son." quote:You tell your father that you thought you heard Asherah as a four year old. You pull a snail out of the rocks and drop it into the leather bag your father holds. He frowns. "Asherah does not speak to children and most certainly not to babes." He does not believe you. We're not an adult in either culture. And Asherah doesn't seem to care about the morality of children. Plus, we haven't done anything to specifically disobey the Fish God. We've just been away. So, it seems odd that the horror would be an instrument of wrath directed at us, specifically. This means the creature is either a wandering monster or a divine messenger. I don't think we can run from a divine messenger. And I don't think running is the best way to escape from a wondering horror. We'd probably attract less attention by moving slowly, under cover.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2013 00:45
|
|
|
UnassemblyRequired posted:All of you who are voting to actually confront this thing: Voting this. Maybe it's just here for the El-shrine we put right on its shore. just run
|
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2013 14:23
|
|
|
MiniVote: 3. Guys- guys... um.. we gotta go guys. Thing is scary. Let's not hang out anywhere close to the shore. But, it seems to have trouble moving in the shallows. Once we're in the forests, a steady jog (and not a panicked sprint) should let us outdistance it. If it starts closing distance on-land, then I'll panic. E: Also, I'm mentally patting myself on the back. We pearl-fished in Asherah's domain so hard that the God himself took note. How badass of a story is that?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 21, 2013 00:08
|
|
|
2. O. Run! But change direction 45 degrees The Shoggoth can't catch us. I don't even think it can see us. Change direction. Run. 3. S. I drop the contents my left hand, the spiked club and carry him. Sticks are replaceable. Dogs aren't. E: Or jng2058's plan. That sounds good, too.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 21, 2013 01:45
|
|
|
1B. 2X Drop the stick. We can replace it easily. If the critter still gains we can ditch/sacrifice the other stuff. It can be replaced. Dogs and souls are much harder to replace. We should try to get out of this without selling either.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2013 00:41
|
|
|
FoxTerrier posted:Alright, the tree thing is a lot like what happened last time we fled Asherian wrath with Tudiya (although perhaps a bit more intense--great). But it's still basically par for the course. We just gotta keep moven' inland as fast as we can. I've been thinking about this, and it's making me wonder if Tudiya's seen Snappy the eldrich horror before. Not because he ran. But because he seemed to know when we were safe to stop running. I kinda hope so. It'll make our pearl diving story that much better. E: Though, part of me wants to re-tell the story to Tudiya as if this thing was a childhood pet that happened to turn.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2013 04:11
|
|
|
1.A 2. And your response is... what? Thanks, but we're almost home. Any advice on setting doggy-legs? 3. J / L
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2013 17:45
|
|
|
Tsyni posted:I don't think sending Snarls back is smart. His paw is just sprained. If Az won't heal him we can carry him or just take it real easy for the first little while. Yeah. This is my take, too. Also, I feel like, in a weird way, we should be enjoying out time abroad. Eyescream sucked. But, at this point, we're free. We're able to survive in the wilds. We've gotten a suitably impressive sacrifice (monster we killed + several cows in pearls) and just had a hero-level adventure. The walk back isn't exactly short. But it's only a week or two of survivable travel and we'll hit the boundaries of our region. I can see wanting to just finish out, independent of our caution around Az.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2013 22:16
|
|
|
Do we really want to make the trip back without Snarls? Even if we have to carry him, he's our friend. Plus, he's our way of ensuring that stuff doesn't eat us while we sleep. Or that we don't die from eating spoiled meat or tainted water. And, I think people would freak out if our continuous companion showed up at the city without us. They'd think we'd died.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 22, 2013 22:37
|
|
|
Mexican Deathgasm posted:1. I'm voting this. And I'm figuring that juice (when we're not really in need) is more of a token of hospitality than 'help'. It'd be like offering someone a hand who tripped. If they'd tripped off a cliff, then we'd be substantially helping. If they just tripped while on a stroll, then offering a hand is just a polite gesture. SerSpook posted:Guys, we might be in the clear for taking this help and the favors could be the Azzazel equivalent of moving some furniture around or killing more of those jackals, but do we really need to set ourselves up like that? I also agree with this. It's a sprain. That'll be uncomfortable for Snarls. But uncomfortable is a long way off from "make deal with an angel or a demon" territory. Even a small deal. There was a chance that Azzazel would round healing down to a minor token. But apparently it's not that minor to him. Which is fine. ---- That said, he tipped his hand a little, and I think the plot-hook is interesting. I'd offer to be quiet about him to everyone except Ishamal/Turyda if he'll agree to check in on us someday and swap more stories. And I'd say it lightly, with a sense of, "Don't worry, we weren't going to go blabbing about you anyway". This is just a token exchange on both sides, with a kind gesture towards him. (He probably doesn't care that much if we tell people). And his response would be interesting. We could learn if Turyda is the person who he's hiding from.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 23, 2013 02:38
|
|
|
To Azzazzel what are the cities like, on the other side of Zepath? Have you been there? Do they worship El or Ashirah?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 23, 2013 02:55
|
|
|
Tomn posted:Well, no. At least not with Tudiya - Diog stated a specific amount of pearls to reach in order to really impress Tudiya, and we didn't reach that amount before we were, ah, interrupted. And while pearls are rare, they're apparently not rare enough that one could buy the whole city - if nothing else, don't forget that when we first came back Tudiya scattered hundreds of the things throughout the city without causing enormous issues with inflation. Zepthans may be a bit ignorant at times, and getting ANY amount of pearls out of the sea is indeed pretty neat, but they're not complete rubes and they WILL assign different levels of respect to different amounts of pearls. I think we're probably pretty good on impressing people. We got dropped off in a desert, days from water, with nothing but a dog. We're coming back with treasure that's probably worth more than an average citizen would make in a year. That, alone, will raise eyebrows. For Tudiya, specifically, I think we've got a lot going in our favor. First: Diogines posted:Tudiya will also potentially be impressed by what you bring. While, according to Tudiya, all that matters is the effort and self sacrafice involved, will he know how you bring whatever it is you bring, if you do not tell him how you got it? We turned down the spiritual tester. We became the first non-Zepath person in several thousand years to sign the obelisk. Then we killed a monster bare-handed. Finally, we trekked to the ocean, got pearls and escaped an eldrich horror from the deep. And we'll have the specific descriptions/trophies/stories needed to prove all this. Possibly more important is that, after all that (and the frankly bullshit test he sprung on us) we're coming back. We were just fighting about our freedom. But now we had the real choice to take the pearls and just leave forever. We stayed out of loyalty to Tudiya/Daniel/Zepath. If he's not straight-up bowled over by all this, he'd be a colossal dick.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 23, 2013 19:21
|
|
|
This was a bad idea, but just kill the goat and be done.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 24, 2013 03:26
|
|
|
HiHo ChiRho posted:On final thought for the night: Azzazzel has appeared before us in disguise before. Well, then, that would solve the whole favor thing...
|
|
#
¿
Oct 24, 2013 03:42
|
|
|
Diogines posted:1. You place on the altar...(Pick as many as you want) This stuff seem appropriate. The major effort was in survival. We have the jackal stuff to show for that. The pearls are a prize for the priests (who we're told care about cash-value). 'Sacrificing' our other stuff seems weird. It's just crude stuff without any particular extrinsic or sentimental value. It'd be like very publicly giving a church a $10k check and also a bunch of used hockey equipment that happened to be in a box in the back of the garage. The new clothes are also a weird gift. We didn't really work for them. We didn't really get them during the body of the trial. And the messenger of El who gave them to us almost certainly wasn't thinking, "He should have these so he'll well-equipped for an easy awlk into the city."
|
|
#
¿
Oct 26, 2013 18:53
|
|
|
Walkin Goon posted:If they ask about our fancy new clothes, maybe tell them how, at the beginning of our journey, Snarls and Enkidel came upon a lost goat farmer in the desert who was separated from his flock. We gave him some water to get him back on his feet, and he told us a bit about the land before we parted ways. I like the general idea, especially the idea of describing Azzazel as a fellow traveler while omitting the bit about him being 13' and winged. If we gloss over the obvious supernatural-stuff, we're left with a story of an angel-in-disguise who tests people. These seem common cross-cultures. We could probably come out and say that we suspect he's a messenger of El (which many people do) and that after he said we passed our last test, we found ourselves dressed just like we are now.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 27, 2013 02:24
|
|
|
Is there some reason we couldn't bring Jalitha to the party? Mothers typically like graduation-type parties?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 28, 2013 16:38
|
|
|
F/G Also, I'd like to invite Daniel to chill with us while we wait. That's the next relationship I'm worried about . I mean, he's happy for us now. But we're about to get a party where we're the guest of honor. And he's gone from being the king's only son to being the king's youngest son. He's bound to feel a bit overshadowed so I want to take the chance to make sure that we bond.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 29, 2013 04:27
|
|
|
maxhush posted:1 - A Also voting for this.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2013 06:59
|
|
|
Theglavwen posted:I suppose my biggest question for the people voting A is: why? I mean, that's cool if A's what you really want, but is it because that's what seems right or best for the character, or because getting married is some sort of happy-ending requirement? Personally I just don't see why Enkindel would want to get married. He had a brief fling with someone several years ago; he may very well still bear feelings for her, but he's hardly spent any real time with her. I mean, surely we've all had strong feelings for and relationships with people growing up, but how many of us translated that into "must marry at the first opportunity", particularly after several years of cool affections and distance? Throw in the uncertain current situation and future aspirations of travelling, demon-fighting, whatever, why does Enkindel want to immediately book it to marry Naomi? Pretty much no future goals we've ever discussed have involved 'maintaining a stable home-life here in Zepath.' I'm reading the vote as "pursue a relationship with Naomi, generally" instead of, "marry Naomi, like tomorrow". In game, it makes sense that a 20-something guy would want to pursue a relationship. And, Naomi was the person who was best to Enkindel when he was young. Meta-game, it'd be good to create more relationships. Though, what I'd really like would be setting up some sort of diplomatic/trade trip to a neighboring city. Exploration would be fun, and it'd be a chance to lead something. We could even bring Daneil, Naomi and Jalitha.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 30, 2013 17:20
|
|
|
LLSix posted:Laugh. "I want to do everything. I want to travel the world, sail the seas, compose a sonnet, see the holy mountain for myself, love a woman, cook seaweed cakes, help the needy, save a life, plant a flower, slay monsters, climb a tree, catch a trout, learn of El, brew a beer, swing through the trees, grow grapes, see something never before seen by another man, build a house, make more friends, and bring honor to my fathers house! But that is too much for one day, so I wish to start by:" I like this plan. We want to be a hero/adventurer. Hunting seems like the closest thing to that which might actually get us food and money. E: Diogines, are any of the listed jobs obviously better/worse paying than the others? I have no idea how much an ancient merchant would have made relative to an ancient brewer or an ancient hunter.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 1, 2013 02:10
|
|
|
Sogol posted:I also feel the merchant thing is a pretty big and sudden change in our character, though we have been hit in the head a bunch and that can cause such things. I agree that a merchant who stays in town would be weird. But being a Narod-style merchant could work. I think everyone wants a reason to travel between cities and see new (to us) places. Merchant-ing could be a way to do that. We'd just drag some trade-goods along to pay for our food. As we learn more geography and monster-killing we could shift towards full-on explorer or monster hunter. So, I'll change my vote to H. Also, I'd like to ask Tudiya "What would you have done, if you'd been free to choose?"
|
|
#
¿
Nov 1, 2013 15:29
|
|
|
Tomn posted:Voting A. We've got no particular reason to track down anyone else right at the moment, aside from maybe bro-fisting Danal. Pretty much this. Naomi and maybe Indor are the people who we'd have interesting questions for. Other people we should hang out with, but in a 'during a time skip' way.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 3, 2013 03:54
|
|
|
JT Jag posted:1. A and D: We just want to re-open lines of communication with her, and see how she feels about us. And see how we feel about her. I support this plan. --- And it's making me smile to think of us silently standing there as we talk to a dog
|
|
#
¿
Nov 5, 2013 20:25
|
|
|
JT Jag posted:1: H. This is a kingly duty, and Danal may be king one day. But we will help him, as we help him with many things. Will vote this. Also, I don't want to haggle, but should we read this: quote:You have two years, then I will send Naomi off to the city of Tanaach to be wed to their line. You may have the aid of any so foolhardy as to help you, but the deed must be yours and Aaron's leavings most certainly will not count. Do you accept?"
|
|
#
¿
Nov 9, 2013 22:17
|
|
|
Tomn posted:Just what I was thinking. Voting this, with the addition that if he asks more about it, say something about how, when chasing after a goat at one point when hungry and thirsty, it led us across a surprisingly rich grove of fruits on which we feasted. That sort of thing would certainly help explain why we undertook such a vow, plus it has the additional advantage of not actually being all that far from the truth...sort of. We're giving the goat a supernatural origin. Would it be crazy to just come out and say that the (obviously divine) creature told us it was the protector of goats? And, for its help, it asked us to not hurt goats? Those are both also true-ish, and I don't think they give away much about Azzazel. They also make it really obvious why we made our promise. If we wanted to lie a bit more, we could say that the goat talked to Snarls. That explains how it communicated "don't hurt goats" without it being a story of us making promises to a talking demon-creature. falcon2424 fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Nov 19, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Nov 19, 2013 21:32
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 00:39 |
|
|
Tomn posted:I don't think my plan really gives the goat any particular supernatural origin - it could have just gotten lucky, in the telling, or was else a cunning and clever goat. That said, I do think it's quite a bad idea to say "Yeah, it told us it was the protector of goats" since, as I mentioned just now, the only acceptable powerful entities are El or the Melachim, and since Azzazel is apparently considered a deviant for loving his goats, I doubt any of the Melachim are acclaimed protectors of goats. That seems reasonable. I was worried about a mundane goat raising questions like, "Why not just eat the goat?" or "Ok, it happened to run towards water, why do you feel a need to protect it?" But I can see how your story handles that. The goat could have been lucky. But it sure seemed suspiciously clever... Then, we didn't just eat the thing on the off chance the goat was deliberately helping us.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 19, 2013 22:01
|
|