CYOA Tales of Lona

[coyoteredmoon]

(sorry to tease you guys, but I prolly wont be updateing till tomorrow, pretty sick today)

[Omnimek]

Health and happiness first.

-Merchant Examine and appraise are new in the playing section.

[m3rchant]

Ah, that makes sense! I knew about appraise but I guess I missed examine.

As for you Mr. Redmoon, get well soon!

[coyoteredmoon]

→ Examine: Focused!

>Relative to her previous condition: Mana has significantly less dick on the brain! She’s laser focused on whatever task she has on her hands and less likely to completely screw it up.

→ Examine: Slave collar.

> A slave collar that she took from the basement of the slave trader’s mansion. She intended to use it to as proof to the guard captain. However, Ano’s righteous indignation concerning the matter of slave trade along with his status, was able to get her point across.
Who knows, though? It may come in handy at some point.

→ Console the boss.

> Seeing the clearly building distress from her boss, Mana decides that she should probably see what’s ruffling his fur.
She sits next to the burly man and gives him a tap on the shoulder. “What’s wrong, boss?”
“All this planning takes sooo long! I just want to go in, steal some eggs and beat up some dragon-wanna-be’s! AND I of course want you to grab those armor pieces for me.”
Mana nods. “Will do! That's what you’re paying me for!”
She sits with her boss, talking until behind them she hears the planning group break She hears a “Everyone know what they’re doing?” along with a few outright acknowledgements. Mana sweats nervously . She hadn’t heard anything. Before she can express that concern though, her Boss yells ”FINALLY! LET’S DO THIS!” He runs into the rookery tower screaming something that Mana isn’t quite able to make out.
Mana looks on in horror as her employer brazenly charges into the tower. She feels the hand of the group’s leader pat her shoulder. “Don’t worry Miss. To a certain extent, we planned for this.” He says with a slight undertone of disappointment. “At least this time he waited this long before running in screaming.” He sighs, then calls for the rest of the group to charge in as well.

>

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>Mana follows the rest of the group in. As she crosses the threshold she drops into a crouch and and attempts to sneak through the room. She was never told what to expect when looking for these armor pieces, but no sooner than entering the first big room she figures out what she’s looking for. Across the room she sees glittering chest plate in a recess of the wall... being guarded what appears to be a juvenile drake… beyond a battle between the adventurers she had entered with and drakes. She should have asked for better pay on this job.
She attempts to cross the room unseen by the larger drakes. She makes it most of the way across, until she finally makes a mistake.
She steps on a drake’s tail as she attempts to pass one of the skirmishes. The lizard-like creature turns and screams at her. She quickly pulls out her dagger and prepares for the worst, but before the reptile has a chance to attack her, one of the adventurers bull-rushes the creature and pins it to the ground. Close call!
Mana makes it to the cubby with the younger drake and the chest piece. She shoos it away, waving the thing away from the armor. It snaps at her hands repeatedly as she tries to move it. She eventually gets tired of the of the snarky little drake and hisses at it angrily.

>

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>Clearly not ready to deal with real opposition from a creature larger than it, the juvenile drake shrinks away with a squeak. She grabs up the armor and quickly stashes it in her cushioned bag. (Shiny Breastplate added). She remembers that she was looking for a set, so she still needs the helmet, pauldrons, gauntlets and and greaves.
She peers around the room looking for the next piece. She doesn’t see another, but she sees a staircase up and a staircase down. More pieces are probably down those paths, but the adventurers only seem to be pushing towards the upward route and ignoring the stairs down.

→ What does she do?
> Fight her way up the staircase, alone. (high risk)
> Sneak her way up the staircase, alone. (medium risk)
> Wait for the adventurers to move up and follow them (low risk)
> Go down the downward case. (Unknown risk)
> Bail out. (No Risk)
> Other (Input Action).

[coyoteredmoon]

((I’m alive again, yay! Sorry for missing that update completely, but I was dead till yesterday morning
So guys, I think i'm going to go ahead and make it so that these are only a Tuesday update. There's not enough response sometimes between Tuesdays and Thursdays to put together a nice rounded out post, and unfortunately those are the only two days I can work on it :/ Plus slowing down makes it easier to produce better posts and what not! ))

[bestusernameEVER]

Well, talking to the captain was useless

I say take the low risk option. I don't see what we could possibly have from going ahead.

[Omnimek]

Welcome back, RM.
Commentary- Kinky, practical souvenirs are the best.

Yell and gesture at the book types that you want to look downstairs for armor. If you need to be persuasive. point out that whatever is below may get them when they go up.
-If they will turn the kill team around. Rope together some Drake carcasses for Ano while you wait to snag armor properly. If you have way to much time Examine the armor piece we are about to hand over for 5gp
-If they don't turn around, sneak downstairs and prioritize armor. We can hopefully catch back up with them and snag armor bits on the higher level.

@Best EVER Its a dangerous place and this visit I'm guessing is time sensitive. Sneaking up may get Mana her prizes before things go bad. Mana may even be the reason things go sour. We know they are going up and aren't planning to go down. We know we don't know any of the tactics they have in play for this and that they don't think we'll be any use in the fight. Fighting up may prevent being surrounded later or being put at a fighting disadvantage. It may also promote and endear our heroine to the others or provide practical lessons in how to hurt and not be hurt. Sneaking up means we want to be able to sneak back down and that the violence coming up behind her may make the sneaking not work... Or at least that is how I see things

[merlin169]

definitely let them go ahead we are here to sweep for armor if they can't get us to the armor that is their problem

[m3rchant]

commentary: Congrats on coming back from the dead, coyoteredmoon!

Input: If we have time, try to see if the baby drake would like to come with us; a pet like that would be awesome! If it's just gonna snap at us forever, however, I guess we're just gonna have to knock it out with the club and move on. As for which way we should go, definitely the path that keeps us as close to the others as possible, 'cause I don't think we want to have to fight our way out of here on our own!

Edit: also, try to pay attention to the others, seeing if any wind up needing help to survive. If they do, try and see if you can help by stabbing whatever drake they're losing to in the butt and turning tail out of its range, making sure to remind them that anytime you have to halt your mission and save someone's butt, that'll cost the team one drake skin on top of the agreed payment.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Mana, "What's that? You don't remember me telling you that before? Huh, must've slipped my mind! Kind of like how it must've slipped your boss's mind to tell me that there'd be MORE THAN ONE FLOOR FOR ME TO SEARCH THROUGH!!!"

[Omnimek]

It looks like most are intent on staying with the group, a focus on drake skins may be the best option while waiting. If the hissy kitty does go leather, something sparse enough for sneakyness and acrobatics, at least slightly sexy, comfortable to wear and passable as not armor sounds ideal. That may just be my delusion rather than a practical idea.

[flai53]

try to get (and later tame) one of the beasts
then do the low risk Option (I mean for what do we have thise adventurers)

[Omnimek]

try to get (and later tame) one of the beasts
then do the low risk Option (I mean for what do we have thise adventurers)

This is just a guess, but those higher risk options I'd wager have a better chance of greater and unique rewards or overall success. There's many things Mana could use. Wealth, reputation, practical experience in leadership/combat, combat capable friends, pets. Heck these adventurers might even have or randomly get some of the potion recipe ingredients Mana needs.

[m3rchant]

Omnimek's right! I change my answer for which way we go to the medium risk option.

[VintageBass]

I would like to go with a medium risk myself, either that or the lower risk. High is... well, high. Medium could pose some interesting fun, while having a better chance of getting out without burning some hair off our tail.

[Crawford]

First thing first, coyoteredmoon is alive! Champagne!

Input: Everyone is going up? Let's go up too, but sneaky sneaky (so if there is any trouble ahead we have some support) "> Sneak her way up the staircase, alone. (medium risk)"

[ThatOldFart]

Welcome back from the dead! Also, it has to be said, d'aaaaaaaaaaaw! konfuzzledkitty is konfuzzled. That's so adorable it should be illegal. No, seriously, I'm callin' the Sheriff right now.

Been lurkin' this whole time but most folks tend t' beat me to the punch so I haven't been postin'. For this one, I actually feel pretty strongly about ASKING the group what's downstairs, so we can decide if the risk/reward ratio is in our favor. Otherwise, let the kill crew do their thing and mop up after - practical experience is nice and all but these guys are professionals. Mana's....fucking adorable. >.>

[coyoteredmoon]

→ Examine: Shiny Breastplate

>Mana takes a look at the armor. It appears to be really well polished steel, but she cannot tell if there are any other properties besides its luster.

→ Ask the baby drake if it wants to go on adventures.

> Mana asks the winged lizard if it wants to go on an adventure. It seems a little too busy cowering from her to answer. It realizes that it made the bigger creature and does not want to be eaten.

>

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>Mana backs away from the drake-ling, slightly disappointed in her lack of a new pet.

→ Inquire to one of the bookish types to what’s downstairs.

>Mana calls to one of the nearby mages and asks what’s downstairs.
The mage she asks looks at her very confused. “Downstairs? The only way is up….”
Mana looks at the stairs down and feels a bit of a twinge like that of an oncoming headache. Apparently she’s the only one that has spotted these stairs, and staring directly into the illusion may cause migraines.

→ Wait for the adventurers to move up and follow.

((It was four and four, coin was forced to choose which option we went with XD))

>Mana takes not of this hidden staircase and watches the team and waits for them to push up the stairs.
While she waits, she notices the many drakes that have fallen to the adventurers’ swords. Remembering that drake skin may have good value, she attempts to harvest some of the skins of the dead reptiles.
Some clumsy skinning attempts later, Mana finds her self with 3 drake hides and some hide scraps (3 drake hides added, 5 drake scraps added).
Mana eventually hears the leader of the group call out for the team to move up. She moves in closer to several of the of the adventurers as they begin to move up the staircase. She remains at the rear and treads behind them.
As they move up, Mana hears a determined scampering coming up the stairs behind them. She turns to see several whelps open-mawed, ascending towards her.

>

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>Mana yowls as a couple of the little beasties latch on to her. She kicks away the others and one of the adventurers assists her in removing the attached whelps, chuckling at the antics of the poor Cat-girl. The areas previously afflicted by baby drakes are plagued with tooth marks, but no more worse for wear.
Arriving on the next landing, Mana quickly spot the greaves. They are away from the body of combat, so she quickly runs over to them and stashes them in her cushioned bag. (shiny greaves added)
She spots the helmet on this floor as well, though in a significantly less easily accessed scenario. A young adult drake has it’s tail greedily wrapped around the shiny helmet. It, unlike the rest of it’s brook on this floor, is more concerned with protecting its prize than fighting intruders. It huddles in the corner, snapping at any of the adventurers that get too close; but as long as its only hoarding the helmet, the adventurers don’t feel a need to fight it.
Mana doubts she can hiss at this one and get it to move, mostly since it is as big as she is.

→ What does she do?
> Fight the drake for the helmet (high risk)
> Attempt to coax the drake away from the helmet with something else shiny (medium risk)
> Try to talk it down and away from the helmet (low risk)
> Return to the first floor, and check the stairs down. (unknown risk)
>Bail out! (no risk)
> other (Input action)

[VintageBass]

Commentay: Awwww, now I want the baby to come with us! It's sooo cute~

Input: Try to talk the drake away from the helmet, use some sweet talking.

[bestusernameEVER]

Attempt to coax the drake away. Announce loudly what you are going to do, so if any of the adventures have a spare moment they may be able to slay the drake while you are distracting it. (Or just slay the drake.)

edit: also that staircase surely is interesting.

[m3rchant]

commentary: I guess we won't be seeing "Mana the Dragon Slayer" any time soon. (Full leather armor with a baby drake resting on her shoulder.)

Input: Lets just keep the extra stair case squirreled away in our minds for now, until we've finished the mission at hand. As for the current problem drake, I'm dieing to know how one talks such a thing down, especially as its brethren are being slaughtered around it!