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Lanky Coconut Tree
Apr 7, 2011

An angry tree.

The angriest tree

nothing to seehere posted:

Also, people, remember Deveies is tricky. He will expect us to pull something at the wedding, which is why if we want to make a move we have to make it before the wedding. Showing Lord-Sure proof of heresy is one thing we can do to try and undercut him, flooding the air in the officer decks with a virus tuned to his DNA is another. Trying some big set-piece at the wedding will end like last time we tried to set a big trap for him - he'll wriggle out of it.

I would like to see him wriggle his way out of being declared Excommunicate Traitoris by a legit Interrogator

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my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Don't make plans about what to do at the wedding, it's 72 hours from now. Use this time to investigate.

Speaking of which, find Limosa's rosette, ASAP. We really don't want DeVries to get his hands on it.

edit: Oh, and contact Kozilek. Tell him that someone just murdered cousin investigator, and request instructions.

my dad fucked around with this message at 09:10 on Feb 23, 2015

Kegslayer
Jul 23, 2007
What are weddings like on board the ship between a family member and an outsider? Plan Tran sounds good but I think we should inform the Rogue Trader that we've uncovered Devries' heresy and his replicae. Having an inner circle family member marry a potential replicae would not only endanger the Family but make us the laughing stock within Rogue Trader circles.

Sure we could take care of Devries right then and there but the Lord Sire should be the one most vested in protecting his legacy.

I'm against revealing our status as an Interrogator or Limosa's. Our original mission was to find the heretic onboard and we haven't made any progress on it at all. Somebody here still summoned Abraxnus and we don't want to tip them off that there are other Inquisition agents on board.

There's also the issue of where Devries is getting his help from. Someone's taken great care to hide him from us and there's no we could have missed his romance with Amacita considering we had a servo skull on her at all times and men looking out for him on all levels.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Did we see a picture of this DeVries? It's possible he underwent cosmetic surgery to avoid looking like the captured clone we interrogated.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Well, well, look what I found...

http://mepstein73.com/2014/12/07/collaborative-storytelling-in-the-age-of-the-internet/
(search for CYOA in the text)

Successful Businessmanga
Mar 28, 2010

my dad posted:

Did we see a picture of this DeVries? It's possible he underwent cosmetic surgery to avoid looking like the captured clone we interrogated.



Also there is totally an augment that lets you change your facial features at will :v:. Good ol Twitch Masks!

Tran
Feb 17, 2011

It's a pleasure to meet all of you. Especially in such a fine settin' as this. Just need us some music an' a brawl an' we'll be set.

Kegslayer posted:

There's also the issue of where Devries is getting his help from. Someone's taken great care to hide him from us and there's no we could have missed his romance with Amacita considering we had a servo skull on her at all times and men looking out for him on all levels.

We know who helped him hide. She just admitted to it. Amacita gave him the xenos masking artifact.

Lanky Coconut Tree
Apr 7, 2011

An angry tree.

The angriest tree

He missed that 80% of the tied votes are just us being dicks

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 23 hours!
Oh Amacita, you lovable idiot.
How can we possibly hurt her now.:3:

Clearly we must play the supporting best friend for now and let Devries make his silly accusations (that will make look paranoid)

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands
Gah, the two most intrigue-heavy CYOAs I follow both have major poo poo going down at the same time.

I can't keep track of it all, I'm running out of space on my conspiracy web wall!

Fat Samurai
Feb 16, 2011

To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.
A little late, but...

LowellDND posted:

The Rising Storm

This entire plot twist was brilliant :golfclap:

Pity The Simpsons didn't survive 38 milleniums more. I would have spent the next 20 pages making Sideshow Bob and Selma references.

Green Intern
Dec 29, 2008

Loon, Crazy and Laughable

Tomn posted:

Gah, the two most intrigue-heavy CYOAs I follow both have major poo poo going down at the same time.

I can't keep track of it all, I'm running out of space on my conspiracy web wall!

Did Enkidel finally learn how to poop?

I'm 10000+ posts behind in Diogines' CYOA, so...

Shogeton
Apr 26, 2007

"Little by little the old world crumbled, and not once did the king imagine that some of the pieces might fall on him"

Green Intern posted:

Did Enkidel finally learn how to poop?

I'm 10000+ posts behind in Diogines' CYOA, so...

I'll tell you when you're older.

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands

Green Intern posted:

Did Enkidel finally learn how to poop?

I'm 10000+ posts behind in Diogines' CYOA, so...

Let's just say he doesn't have to worry about decades of blockage spilling out at an unfortunate moment any more.

Green Intern
Dec 29, 2008

Loon, Crazy and Laughable

Shogeton posted:

I'll tell you when you're older.

:golfclap:

I'll catch up on it eventually. It's frankly overwhelming how fast that thread moves (and how fast this one moves sometimes!)

This twist with Devries and the artifact is probably my favorite plot-beat so far.

Oasx
Oct 11, 2006

Freshly Squeezed
Tell Amacita that she owes us, for us not telling about her being a member of a large chaos cult, she should be happy that she wasn't shot for being a traitor.

We should review our evidence against them both just in case things go bad, that includes everything the clone told us, Amacita's connection to that Xeno/Chaos cult and her possession of the Xeno device, and make sure there is nothing that can hurt us if we choose to tell the Inquisitor/Lord-Sire.
Talk to Sincera about what we should do.

Oasx fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Feb 23, 2015

Successful Businessmanga
Mar 28, 2010

Fat Samurai posted:

Pity The Simpsons didn't survive 38 milleniums more. I would have spent the next 20 pages making Sideshow Bob and Selma references.

They gave it the old college try But it ended up getting banned for Xeno sympathizing :v:.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 23 hours!
We should really compliment him for his naked ambition choice of bride.

And after that we'll remind him that a man should make the most of his brief existence, just hours ago dear cousin Limosa learned how brief.

Lanky Coconut Tree
Apr 7, 2011

An angry tree.

The angriest tree

Horrible Lurkbeast posted:

We should really compliment him for his naked ambition choice of bride.

And after that we'll remind him that a man should make the most of his brief existence, just hours ago dear cousin Limosa learned how brief.

We uh. Kinda gave him an in with her. Yknow. Using her name.

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Fat Samurai posted:

A little late, but...


This entire plot twist was brilliant :golfclap:

Pity The Simpsons didn't survive 38 milleniums more. I would have spent the next 20 pages making Sideshow Bob and Selma references.

Thank you :D I was quite pleased when it occurred to me.

Toughy
Nov 29, 2004

KAVODEL! KAVODEL!

If Amacita is this far gone trusting Devries blindly, not shaking from withdraw from artifact, no longer trusts us, maybe this is a clone of Amacita that Devries sent? Changing vote to NOT kill her, scan the room, and capture her if its all clear

VanSandman
Feb 16, 2011
SWAP.AVI EXCHANGER
The Virus plan is the most likely to succeed, I feel. We need to do that!
Also do a frame job with the clone video, share it with the Lord-Sire, 'leak' it onto the ship vid-network. We should also go among the lower decks and let it be known Devries is a heretic of the worst sort.

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands
I haven't had time to do a proper analysis yet, but I think we're going about this all wrong.

Right now, all our plans, even the best ones, are REACTING to Dervries. He has the initiative, he has the plan, and all we're doing is flailing around in anger once it's clear that we're not in control of events. The thing to do is to sit back, think things over, poke around and try to figure out what his plan actually IS, how he has prepared for our attempts to derail it, and how in turn to circumvent those preparations. By going immediately into a "Shoot everything, kill 'em all" mentality, we're just being the bull to his matador. We need to be more subtle than that, preferably from an angle he wouldn't be expecting.

VanSandman
Feb 16, 2011
SWAP.AVI EXCHANGER
We should still scan and spray the room. If he's not here Amacita is most certainly wearing a wire of some sort. We should figure out what frequency it's broadcasting on and fill said frequency with garbage noise to disrupt the signal.

VanSandman
Feb 16, 2011
SWAP.AVI EXCHANGER

Tomn posted:

I haven't had time to do a proper analysis yet, but I think we're going about this all wrong.

Right now, all our plans, even the best ones, are REACTING to Dervries. He has the initiative, he has the plan, and all we're doing is flailing around in anger once it's clear that we're not in control of events. The thing to do is to sit back, think things over, poke around and try to figure out what his plan actually IS, how he has prepared for our attempts to derail it, and how in turn to circumvent those preparations. By going immediately into a "Shoot everything, kill 'em all" mentality, we're just being the bull to his matador. We need to be more subtle than that, preferably from an angle he wouldn't be expecting.

Yes, but he is an immediate mortal threat to everyone we care about and many of those we don't. Devries is a snake of the worst sort, and we need to stop him from making inroads among the family. He will try and kill us by proxy soon, I wager.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
And not panicking is a good way to avoid losing even more in the opening volley.

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

besides he won't kill us immediately. If he feels he has the upper hand he is going to keep us alive for as long as possible because we are useful.

Tomn
Aug 23, 2007

And the angel said unto him
"Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself."
But lo he could not. For the angel was hitting him with his own hands

VanSandman posted:

Yes, but he is an immediate mortal threat to everyone we care about and many of those we don't. Devries is a snake of the worst sort, and we need to stop him from making inroads among the family. He will try and kill us by proxy soon, I wager.

And as my dad says, trying to hit back immediately and in the most instinctive way would just be stumbling blindly into whatever traps he will have prepared - and this he surely would have done, for why go to all the trouble of setting this up without making contingency plans for the crazy tech-priest? This is a situation that calls for a sniper shot, not spray and pray.

VanSandman
Feb 16, 2011
SWAP.AVI EXCHANGER
The Virus plan is pretty much a sniper shot, then. We could even just release it at his wedding, if we wanted to be complete dicks about it.

Nothingtoseehere
Nov 11, 2010


VanSandman posted:

The Virus plan is pretty much a sniper shot, then. We could even just release it at his wedding, if we wanted to be complete dicks about it.

The question is, release it at the wedding where it will have high impact but high chance of a countermeasure, or release it earlier and hope we manage to catch him unawares?

Also, what precautions are we taking to ensure we are not being followed-traced? We have scanned all our possessions yes?

Xun
Apr 25, 2010

Can we please not do anything to Amacita until we know Devries isn't in here? Kidnapping her now would be the perfect time for him to jump in as a big hero and immediately turn her against us

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Dear cousin, I have urgent business to attend to. I'm sorry that you don't trust me, but please remember the sacrifices I made to help you. And, please... Stay safe.

*after leaving earshot and recording device range*

AAAAGH! That goddamn moron, how stupid can someone get?

Green Intern
Dec 29, 2008

Loon, Crazy and Laughable

Vent all of the oxygen in the ship.

Loel
Jun 4, 2012

"For the Emperor."

There was a terrible noise.
There was a terrible silence.



Conversations

Your machine-aided cogitators ran the numbers. Devires wouldn’t have sent her on this little meeting without observing in some way, would he? Most likely, he was in here with the artifact, testing her loyalty. Less likely, he was listening in through some sort of wire or microphone. You reached with your mind, filtering the room through different filters of your auspex. Simultaneously, you checked the video feed of your servo-skulls, looking for disturbances.

Nothing.

Did Devries trust her that much? Subverted her so quickly and so deep that she could go on a mission to her previous patron and tell her no? Or, more optimistically, had Amacita done this mission on her own, without telling him? It revealed a certain amount of backbone still left in her, and perhaps a wedge you could work with. You didn’t think you could peel her away from Devries immediately, but perhaps progress could be made.

Primary goals: get the Xeno Artifact back from her. Persuade her that you were still on her side vis-a-vis the Magos.

“Amacita…” Your tone needful, apologetic. She slowed, stopped.
“We’ve been friends a long time.”
“We were. You went away.” Her voice was sad.
“I had to. The Family.”
“You went under their knife, Ohone!” She sounded near tears. “How could we trust you after that? How could you trust yourself?”
“I know the Mysteries. Even if my body sleeps, I can watch from cameras. I was careful, and needed the added capability.”
“We could have done it for you Ohone. I know people. Not as skilled, maybe, but more trustworthy.”
Your voice was compelling. “Don’t you see? By making them think I trust them, they trust me more. Its a wedge into their plans.”
“And did you find anything?” Her voice was cynical.
“Not yet. Infiltration takes time. You know that.”
“You don’t know what they did to you, Ohone. They could have hacked the cameras like you do. When people go to their labs, they come back … changed.”
“Like how?”
“Different people. Different personalities. They don’t remember things, or remember things that didn’t happen.”
You smiled endearingly. “Does it look like it’s happened to me?”
Sadly: “It doesn’t happen all at once, sometimes. Sometimes, you just slide into being someone else.”
“Well, how about this. If I start to change, you tell me, alright? Then we can look on finding a cure.”
Amacita looked down, her voice quiet. “Okay.”
Fantastic. “Now, I’m going to want to do some more infiltration, okay?”
“You want the artifact back.”
You let your tone slip into fear. “Amacita. I’ve seen some of the labs.”
She looked at you, wide eyed. “You have?”
You nodded. “Between surgeries, I snuck around. I did the surgeries to make them trust me, but I’m scared they might figure it out.”
“You are scared?”
You looked down. “Yes.”
She paused. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“I’ll ask Devires if I can have it back.”
“Thank you sister. If he loves you he’ll do it, I’m sure. We are all against the Magos together.”
“We are.” She looked at you. “He’s a real war hero, you know. Like in the stories.”
“I know.”
“See you tomorrow at the wedding.”
You smiled at her. “I’m happy for you Amacita.”

As she walked away, you let your face slacken. By the Omnissiah, that amount of deception took effort. You had to continuously model her responses and adjust on the new input. It was so much easier before Devries poisoned her against you. You resolved, once again, to crush Devries and take back what was rightfully yours.

You gathered your skulls, wrote some of them a new task. They were to search Between for prospective lairs. Given that Amacita and Kozilek had both been in your labs, you no longer felt secure in them. You mulled over different priorities for them to use, but foremost was ease of concealment. A lair that could be found was of no use at all.

And from there, you requested a meeting with the Magos.

They were in their private labs, a large chamber of vats and pipes. Strange organics and xeno tissue floated in inexplicable fluids, and odd spectrums of lights flickered along them. Who could say what they were for? You knew at some point you should go through the Magos’ research notes - but right now you felt it was unlikely to be able to be concealed. And that was the sort of thing that might draw unwanted attention to yourself.

<Magos. Amacita is plotting against you>
Their tone was amused. <She always is>
<This time she has Devries>
<Ah, our new snake at our breast>
You felt a faint startlement. Did everyone aboard Ship know he was a snake? He wasn’t nearly as clever as he thought, apparently. <Why is Lord-Sire allowing the wedding?>
<Same reason for everything he does. He sees something useful in it>
<Amacita is going to get killed>
<Probably>
<Once the marriage is complete, he’ll be eligible for the Dynasty>
<Is that a problem? You are a Tech-Priest. By long tradition on this Ship, Magos and Lord-Sire are separate roles>
<He doesn’t come from the Ship. He doesn’t know our laws and customs.>
<The only custom a Lord-Sire needs to know is how to improve our Dynasty. Can he do that?>
<Well, yes>
The Magos looked at you. <So what are you worried about?>
You paused. What about Devires bothered you?
<He’s a monster>
<The best Lord-Sires are>
<and the worst>
<and the worst. Do you think he would be?>
<He's wasteful>
<That’s something more worrisome. Do you think you can stop the wedding?>
You frowned. <No.>
<Then what’s your next move? If you plan to follow me as Magos, and aren’t eligible for Lord-Sire - and you dont want him to do it?>
<I need to get him discredited before then. I need to find someone else, and back them.>
<It sounds like you know what you want then>

-

You had perhaps a day or a little less to prepare the Wedding itself. You accessed your comm.
“Hey, Skade.”
“Hey boss what’s up?”
“You know… dresses, right?”
Her voice was amused. “Of course. I grew up on Athens.”
“I’m going to a wedding.”
“Found a toaster of your very own?”
“What? No!” She laughed.
“I know, I know. The Family wedding. I already have a few ideas.”
“Oh thank the Omnissiah.”

You met her outside your rooms. Standing there was an Ogryn.
“... Skade, why is there an Ogryn outside my quarters?”
She reached out, checked a tag on it’s belt. “Says here she’s your bodyguard.”
“What?”
“Yup. One of the officers down below was so happy with your BONE escapades, they gave you one of their Ogryn.”
“What am I supposed to do with an Ogryn?”
“The usual Ogryn things, I expect. Have them teach you to dance.”
“Ogryn can dance?”
“Sure. Famous for it.”
You sighed. “First Fabiyan, now you.”
“The general is a fine and upstanding citizen and I will not have you besmirch him.”
“Fine, fine. Ogryn.”
The mountain of flesh rumbled. “Ma’am.”
“What’s your name?”
Again, the rumble. “Emile.”
“What makes a human?”
Emile thought about it. “To crush your enemies.”
“Orks can crush people.”
“Orks could never crush Emile.”
“So you are human, and they are not?”
“Yes.”
“Works for me. Welcome aboard.”

Your quarters were just how you had left them. Woodhouse had left out clothes for you for Limosa’s party, all that time ago. Now both dead. It gave you a strange feeling, to know you had survived your oldest rival and oldest ally. Skade looked at the clothes thoughtfully, then hung them up briskly. “Not nearly formal enough. Now, what’s your approach?”
“My approach?”
“Your approach!” She said it impatiently. “What’s the bride wearing? Do you want to support her or outshine her?”
“Uh… outshine. This whole thing is a terrible idea.”
She began grabbing dresses, flipping through them. You had never had them, Woodhouse must have selected a whole wardrobe when you came back. You had never noticed, or thanked him. Skade continued, ignoring your regretful silence.
“Okay, sleek or ostentatious?”
You looked at the options. “Ostentatious. It has more skulls.” It was a crimson mountain of fluff and frills, and yes, included several skulls.
“Corset?”
“I’m half metal.”
“True, it would probably need pneumatic squeezers. No corset.”
She began opening cabinets and drawers. You were startled to see you had nearly as much jewelry as Limosa did. “Okay, emphasizing the Family or the Mechanicus?”
“Mechanicus.”
“Try these.” Cogs carved from literal rubies, placed on earrings. You put them on your earlobes.
“No, I don’t like that. Try higher, up at the helix of the ear.” She moved them. “Much better.”
“You think so?”
“I do think so. Hold still.” Skade dived into the bottom of your closet, throwing shoes. “No, no, no… yes. These.”
You slipped them on. “What do you call these?”
“Rocket heels, five centimeter heels.”
“They are weird.”
“You have mechanical legs, you can do it.”
“I will have you know my legs are pure organic.”
“Fabiyan was wondering about that.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Here, try this.”
She handed you a coil of metal. “What’s this?”
“A wig. Put it on.”
It clung tightly to your scalp, a low current of electricity running through it. “Woah, what’s this?”
She started laughing, fell over. “Oh, God-Emperor.”
“What?”
Skade kept laughing from the floor. “It reacts to your emotions. You have a meter of metal hair going straight up.”
You made an effort to control your emotions. “How’s that?”
“So much better. Keep practicing, I’ll say which one works best.”


Picture courtesy of Xun

What will you do at the wedding?

A. Be a polite and helpful guest
B. Be a dissenting guest and try to wreck Devries reputation sneakily
C. Be a dissenting guest and make a big scene
D. Be a dissenting guest, and also try to kill everyone through bombs or family movies
E. Something Else

Loel fucked around with this message at 21:56 on Feb 23, 2015

Sogol
Apr 11, 2013

Galileo's Finger
Does Amacita know about his penchant for cloning? Do we know that Amacita has actually met DeVries Prime? Do we even know if there is a discrete DeVries Prime? Given his nature seems like one of his clones would have murdered him a long time ago.

Probably the most important thing is to devise a method of detecting the field created by that Xeno object. Currently, even if we wanted to go full on aggression, any DeVries we can see or detect is not the DeVries we want.

Second, I would say we need to understand all his planned escape routes.

Third we need to clearly show that he is more dangerous than useful. This is best accomplished by reducing his utility rather than amplifying the danger.

Then we can eliminate him, or cause him to eliminate himself.

In what way exactly does the Lord-Sire find DeVries useful?

JT Jag
Aug 30, 2009

#1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver

Sogol posted:

In what way exactly does the Lord-Sire find DeVries useful?
The Lord-Sire likely sees potential in DeVries to be a fixer like us, albeit with a different set of talents. It's how a lot of outer family have to start out.

my dad
Oct 17, 2012

this shall be humorous
Be a polite and helpful guest, hack every device you can hack safely, have party skulls flying around everywhere keeping an eye on the guests, and order your most trusted servants to take up positions in strategic places around the ship. Message the tribe leaders, have the tribes ready to rumble. Redirect a number of scribes and minor techpriests to help Sincera snoop around. Once all is said and done, enjoy the party.

No matter what kind of party is about to happen, we'll be ready for it. And should something happen to the Lord-Sire once the serpent joins the family, we're not going down without a fight.

e: There is a risk that this is a setup, and that DeVries wants to accuse us of preparing a coup, of course. It's a risk I'm willing to take.

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

A.
First off, Faybian is coming and is GOING TO MATCH US, drat IT

VanSandman
Feb 16, 2011
SWAP.AVI EXCHANGER
B although bring along a gene-tailored virus for Devries. Also plan on him trying to kill everyone at the wedding, because it's just the sort of coup he'd try and pull. Also get together with Sincera and get briefed on EVERYTHING she suspects him of doing while in the Guard.


Also let's see if we can prepare a suite of combat drugs that'll drive him into a murder frenzy, for shits and giggles.


Amacita gets spaced or turned into a calculating engine after this debacle. She's a danger to the family.

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Pinche Rudo
Feb 8, 2005

Stage an assassination attempt on ourselves and kill Amacita before the ceremony can be completed We make Devries look bad and keep him from getting into the family

Pinche Rudo fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Feb 23, 2015

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