Humble Beginnings, a Cultivation Quest

[X] Run away - you have no business getting involved in this fight, and guards will arrive soon anyway.
-[X] Just focus on getting to safety with Wen Jianyu.
 
Man... aiding the cultivators would be cool, but I don't see any reason why we should actually bother getting involved in the fight.

[X] Run away - you have no business getting involved in this fight, and guards will arrive soon anyway.
-[X] Just focus on getting to safety with Wen Jianyu.
 
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As others note, I see no reason to believe they're necessarily actually doing that.
The reason to believe that, would be the behavior of the guy who bought the firelances. He pitied us and gave us money. That doesn't necessarily mean the point of this fight is freedom for slaves, not at all, but we know at least one guy in that faction (perhaps the cloaked leader?) is sympathetic to our lot.

I'd like us to stay true to our character, but what does that mean in this situation?

Even if our Intelligence 2 lets us realize the attackers could be "on our side", I think that our Compassion would more likely be triggered towards the ambushed cultivators, whom we were excited to see and whose mounts we worked to befriend. Doing a 180 and joining the fight against them doesn't feel right at all. Similarly, I think we're smart enough to realize there might be unpleasant consequences to our Master being linked to this attack in one form or another, and warning him sounds like something we would do.

As for joining the fight on the side of the cultivators, does that make sense for our character? We do have Ranged Weapons and Firearms 1, which implies there's either some training, some instinct or both, revolving around grabbing and using a firelance. And we do have Resolve 2, defined as Mental resistance, which could indicate we're not prone to panic and are able to keep our cool in moments of crisis.

So I'm gonna sort-of Write in this:

[X] Assist the cultivators, they'll be overrun before the guards can arrive.
- [X] Grab the firelance and fire it at the leader.
- [X] Write in: urge Wen Jianyu to run to warn Hou Yanlin of what is happening with his weapons.

Let me know if this is doing too much, @Ubiquitouch , like trying to get our cake and eat it, too.
 
[X] Assist the cultivators, they'll be overrun before the guards can arrive.
- [X] Grab the firelance and fire it at the leader.
 
[X] Assist the cultivators, they'll be overrun before the guards can arrive.
- [X] Grab the firelance and fire it at the leader

No hurt deer or we hurt you
 
I'm not expecting the ambushers to successfully end slavery in the empire, or even win here. But they guy who bought all the guns earlier today gave us money, while the cultivators. . . Didn't attack us when we fed the deer. I don't expect this to go well if we get involved.

The story started with the Empire slaughtering civilians and taking children as slaves. I don't think there's gonna be a virtuous path in any direction.
 
[X] Assist the mortals and attack one of the cultivators - this is the beginning of an uprising that may see your station changed!
- [x] Tang Shanyuan

Cultivators are cool except when they slaughter our people and make us into orphaned slaves.

I've also never seen a cultivation quest that goes against the cultivation Empire. Maybe this way we can avoid the typical 'discover the weak mortal > go to sect and meet nobles' pipeline.
 
[X] Run away - you have no business getting involved in this fight, and guards will arrive soon anyway.
-[X] Just focus on getting to safety with Wen Jianyu.
 
[X] Run away - you have no business getting involved in this fight, and guards will arrive soon anyway.
- [X] You need to get home, and warn Hou Yanlin what is happening with his weapons.

We are compassionate not stupid. Also even if we dislike our master we are compassionate enough to warn him.
 
[X] Assist the cultivators, they'll be overrun before the guards can arrive.
- [X] Grab the firelance and fire it at the leader.
 
Tbh as much as the immediate narrative context (just fed the deer an apple, it was exciting, shared the experience with our friend, deer lady pretty etc etc.) makes me wanna join the cultivators, and I'm sure the cultivators would reward us somehow, it feels way to soon to be picking a side. We have basically no information about the real players here and the moves being made, we have basically no idea who here really has the best interests of us, our town, etc at heart. In that context, for a compassionate and intelligent 14 year old, the only option that feels really in character is:

[X] Run away - you have no business getting involved in this fight, and guards will arrive soon anyway.
-[X] Just focus on getting to safety with Wen Jianyu.

I highly doubt the cultivators will lose, but either way we will certainly learn more about this conflict in the aftermath, and I seriously doubt this is the last chance we'll get to influence the outcome or join a team or make our own path.

Let's not commit before we have at least a basic idea of the situation.
 
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[X] Run away - you have no business getting involved in this fight, and guards will arrive soon anyway.
- [X] Just focus on getting to safety with Wen Jianyu.
 
[X] Run away - you have no business getting involved in this fight, and guards will arrive soon anyway.
- [X] Just focus on getting to safety with Wen Jianyu.
 
[X] Run away - you have no business getting involved in this fight, and guards will arrive soon anyway.
- [X] Just focus on getting to safety with Wen Jianyu.
 
- [X] Grab the firelance and fire it at the leader.

this probably won't end the fight though, we probably some idea of what we do after we fire that shot. @Ubiquitouch can we write in a short plan for what we do once we fire?
 
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[X] Run away - you have no business getting involved in this fight, and guards will arrive soon anyway.
- [X] Just focus on getting to safety with Wen Jianyu.
 
By this do you mean you intend to let us react and plan immediately after the shot, or do you mean we should write in a plan now in this vote?
Write in a plan right now, I suppose. I'm not sure exactly how to make such an open-ended vote, tbh. I guess I could just include the base options and request people append their vote with a general idea of how they want to proceed?
 
Damn it could be really fun to join the uprising as an expert artificer, arming our people with the weapons necessary to beat back the Celestial Empire. Hephaestus In Hiding.
 
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