No clue what the right move here is. Hell, not even sure what our goals are. Stay out of our parents' reach? I don't know anything about what they're going to be sending after us.
@Alivaril How much did we use Skybreaker to travel, and how much better is our horse than other horses? In other words, just how unbelievable would it be for someone to have gotten word here ahead of us?
@Alivaril How much did we use Skybreaker to travel, and how much better is our horse than other horses? In other words, just how unbelievable would it be for someone to have gotten word here ahead of us?
Your horse doesn't seem to tire out nearly as quickly as normal horses, nor does it seem to sustain injuries as easily. Skybreaker was only used to get a head start on anyone else; you didn't use it after the first few times.
So, not too unbelievable, but the work of an Inspired would've been involved one way or another. Either someone rode through the night on a Construct or they have a method of faster-than-horseback communication. The former likely wouldn't have led to public knowledge this soon, though.
I probably should've nipped this in the bud earlier, but Lorelei doesn't even know what a write-in is. The closest approximation would likely be "Unnamed," "Nameless," "Introduction," "Entry," or something else along those lines.
EDIT: Whoops, accidentally double post. Eh, I guess editing wouldn't have alerted you anyway.
[X] Go find an inn or tavern, order a meal, and cheerfully eavesdrop on those inside. News of your exploits shouldn't have reached this town yet, but if it has, that means the opposition has a method of communication capable of traveling faster than you. If it still hasn't, you can still learn what on Earth is going on.
[X] [Name] Equinas
Will be a while before parents look for us here. In meantime, more important for us to understand local situation / how dangerous / profitable staying in this area will be.
I probably should've nipped this in the bud earlier, but Lorelei doesn't even know what a write-in is. The closest approximation would likely be "Unnamed," "Nameless," "Introduction," "Entry," or something else along those lines.
[X] Go find an inn or tavern, order a meal, and cheerfully eavesdrop on those inside. News of your exploits shouldn't have reached this town yet, but if it has, that means the opposition has a method of communication capable of traveling faster than you. If it still hasn't, you can still learn what on Earth is going on.
[] [Name] Name your horse. "You"
[X] [Name] Name your horse. "Neighilist"
I probably should've nipped this in the bud earlier, but Lorelei doesn't even know what a write-in is. The closest approximation would likely be "Unnamed," "Nameless," "Introduction," "Entry," or something else along those lines.
EDIT: Whoops, accidentally double post. Eh, I guess editing wouldn't have alerted you anyway.
Our protagonist is just a huge electoral systems geek, OK? Even if there aren't actual democracies in this world besides an ancient city-state or two, which certainly wouldn't have used paper ballots. That's actually her own idea, and she'd also like to introduce you to this interesting idea she's had for a form of a proportional ranked choice system...
Eccentric geniuses need weird hobbies.
That said this horse deserves at least one person voting for a dignified name, even if it'll lose.
[X] [Name] Name your horse. "Indefatigable"
[X] Go find an inn or tavern, order a meal, and cheerfully eavesdrop on those inside. News of your exploits shouldn't have reached this town yet, but if it has, that means the opposition has a method of communication capable of traveling faster than you. If it still hasn't, you can still learn what on Earth is going on.
[X] Go find an inn or tavern, order a meal, and cheerfully eavesdrop on those inside. News of your exploits shouldn't have reached this town yet, but if it has, that means the opposition has a method of communication capable of traveling faster than you. If it still hasn't, you can still learn what on Earth is going on.
[X] Go find an inn or tavern, order a meal, and cheerfully eavesdrop on those inside. News of your exploits shouldn't have reached this town yet, but if it has, that means the opposition has a method of communication capable of traveling faster than you. If it still hasn't, you can still learn what on Earth is going on
[X] [Name] Name your horse. "Neighilist"
The good news: People barely give you a second glance. Neighilist is snoozing away in the stable behind the inn, the food is honestly better than you'd expected from peasant fare, and the smog seems to clear up a little when you go indoors. The innkeeper for The Blackened Hammer inn is is brisk, but not exactly impolite. Factory workers seem to come here to gossip, drink, and socialize after work hours, which you fall solidly in.
The bad: You seem to have overestimated the usefulness of eavesdropping. Yes, thank you, you already knew factory workers are more likely to suffer from black lungs; hearing that the friend of a stranger has them isn't at all surprising or informative. Broken factory components? Again, unsurprising; you get what you pay for. Complaints about long hours? Still nothing new. Hearing about unusually low taxes is a surprise, but considering the air quality here, you're guessing it's necessary to keep people from outright leaving.
Really, perhaps the only thing worth your time is the severe lack of people talking about Inspired, nobility, or even any form of a town guard. Taxes are collected, so they have to have something, but they don't seem to be intrusive enough for anyone to complain about them. At least, not within the sample size you acquired.
You're also noticing a severe gender disparity in the room. There are about two dozen males and one female: You. At least they seem well-behaved. If anything, those present seem to be deliberately avoiding eye contact.
...Upon reflection, you vaguely realize there is one other job involving wrapped parcels, traveling, and an independent lifestyle. Namely, being an Empowered. You're not sure that's why the workers seem to be avoiding eye contact, but it's as good a theory as any other you can conjure up on short notice.
See QM's Note below before voting.
[] Bribe Generously tip the innkeeper and ask him if there's any news relevant to someone traveling through the area. You can afford it.
-[] And if he knows of any job openings for a non-Inspired mechanical artisan.
-[] Who's in charge of this city, anyway?
[] Continue on your way. That was a waste of a perfectly good hour.
-[] ...AFTER staying the night in the inn. You shouldn't be riding after sundown anyway.
[] Wander around the city, keeping your eyes out for anything interesting or useful.
[] Stand up and announce that no, in fact, you are not an Empowered. Such a specific denial will likely solidify their belief in that particular theory, but you can work with that.
[] Write-in
Since this worked pretty well for Fragmentation: Please provide even a little reasoning (not as part of the [X]'d IC vote itself) for why you vote a specific way, even if it's just a sentence or two. What you're hoping to accomplish by voting that way, why it seems like a good idea, something else along those lines. Your vote will not be counted otherwise.
Also under "Informational" threadmarks.
Those who saw the light of Inspiration and chose to devour it whole, Empowered can receive temporary physical enhancements when they experience sufficiently strong emotions. A disturbing number of Empowered seem to consider it their duty to kill Inspired whenever they get the opportunity, probably because their own "gift" becomes stronger with each Inspired slain. Ignorant heathens.
It isn't particularly difficult for an Inspired to create an Empowered. It is, however, considered to be a suicidally stupid plan. Biological creations are notoriously finicky to begin with. Intelligent ones, especially ones which were once human? Ones who directly benefit from killing you? So very much worse.
Just like Inspired, the Empowered cannot automatically recognize Inspired or other Empowered.[/spoiler]
[X] Continue on your way. That was a waste of a perfectly good hour.
-[X] ...AFTER staying the night in the inn. You shouldn't be riding after sundown anyway.
[X] Stand up and announce that no, in fact, you are not an Empowered. Such a specific denial will likely solidify their belief in that particular theory, but you can work with that.
It is very funny and I want to see how she can work with it.
[X] Stand up and announce that no, in fact, you are not an Empowered. Such a specific denial will likely solidify their belief in that particular theory, but you can work with that.
Refuge in Audacity, also I want to see her lie to a room full of people with the truth.
Well, an unexpected Windows update just ate my character sheet update. A brief summary: You have about two pounds of coins divided into two containers. One, a rainproof leather coin pouch, you're using for normal purchases. The other is a wooden jewelry box and contains the vast majority of your funds.
200 of the coins are gold 4-gram coins; you believe one of them might be paid to a factory worker for around forty hours of work, but you're honestly a little fuzzy on that. There might be an extra zero in there or something else along those lines.
You also have a healthy number of smaller (1g) silver coins and you've exclusively used that kind to pay for goods and services thus far.
In its closest modern equivalent: You believe you're carrying about 200,000 USD, 99% of which is in conspicuously large coins. Spending them is probably going to be a pain.
Because when you're running away from home, why should you do a poor job of it?
Well, an unexpected Windows update just ate my character sheet update. A brief summary: You have about two pounds of coins divided into two containers. One, a rainproof leather coin pouch, you're using for normal purchases. The other is a wooden jewelry box and contains the vast majority of your funds.
200 of the coins are gold 4-gram coins; you believe one of them might be paid to a factory worker for around forty hours of work, but you're honestly a little fuzzy on that. You do have a healthy number of smaller (1g) silver coins and you've exclusively used that kind to pay for goods and services thus far.
In its closest modern equivalent: You believe you're carrying about 200,000 USD, 99% of which is in conspicuously large coins. Spending them is probably going to be a pain.
Because when you're running away from home, why should you do a poor job of it?
If you're on Win 10, you might want to look into manually setting your windows update active hours to include all the times when you expect to be using your computer, and possibly running ShutUp10 if you're reasonably confident in your ability to use google as a troubleshooting manual.
[X] Continue on your way. That was a waste of a perfectly good hour.
-[X] ...AFTER staying the night in the inn. You shouldn't be riding after sundown anyway.
Since this worked pretty well for Fragmentation: Please provide even a little reasoning (not as part of the [X]'d IC vote itself) for why you vote a specific way, even if it's just a sentence or two. What you're hoping to accomplish by voting that way, why it seems like a good idea, something else along those lines. Your vote will not be counted otherwise.
[X] Continue on your way. That was a waste of a perfectly good hour.
-[X] ...AFTER staying the night in the inn. You shouldn't be riding after sundown anyway.
getting away from our parents is the reason why we ran away in the first place and the further away we are from them the harder it should be for them to find us.
A town with a really bad smog problem and we have just the tool needed to solve it. I bet the local boss would pay a lot to get clean air.
[X] Plan Sell Out
-[X] Bribe Generously tip the innkeeper and ask him if there's any news relevant to someone traveling through the area. You can afford it.
-[X] Who's in charge of this city, anyway?
--[X] Find them and offer them a deal, you will suck the smog into the void (be vague as to how, but offer to demonstrate in advance), they will provide you with all the resources and men needed to mine and build a small underground lair, and basic mechanical supplies for tinkering thereafter. The Lair will be constructed by using Skybreaker to find a small empty space 2km underground (portals goes to the nearest open space if blocked), then our hired minions will expand it, dig it out and fit it with a bed, tools, supplies, a lab, you know, the important things.
--[X] Rent a room for the night first and confirm that you can actually make a portal underground first, it would be awkward if you made the deal and then found out it didn't actually work.
Our family is after us, and this will make it easier for them to find our general location, but we probably need a base somewhere if we are going to get good stuff built. With an underground bunker lair, when they realize we are in the area they still need to actually find us and capture us, which gets tricky when we can teleport to safety at will.
We will still need to venture out for supplies. Later, when we are a bit better prepared we could probably help the townsfolk with their supply issues, and track down those weak inspired who are having that ugly war.
[X] Plan Sell Out
-[X] Bribe Generously tip the innkeeper and ask him if there's any news relevant to someone traveling through the area. You can afford it.
-[X] Who's in charge of this city, anyway?
--[X] Find them and offer them a deal, you will suck the smog into the void (be vague as to how, but offer to demonstrate in advance), they will provide you with all the resources and men needed to mine and build a small underground lair, and basic mechanical supplies for tinkering thereafter. The Lair will be constructed by using Skybreaker to find a small empty space 2km underground (portals goes to the nearest open space if blocked), then our hired minions will expand it, dig it out and fit it with a bed, tools, supplies, a lab, you know, the important things.
--[X] Rent a room for the night first and confirm that you can actually make a portal underground first, it would be awkward if you made the deal and then found out it didn't actually work.
We can't hide from our parents forever; what we need is to be too well-established (in terms of inventions and allies) for them to take us back when they find us. A city ruler that wants something we can provide on an ongoing basis is ideal.
