Remove ads

THRONE//FRINGE: Normal Human Mech-Girl Quest

Reader mode
[] The Knight, Don Hidalgo.

The temporary alliance. With his supreme ambushing ability, we could win the fight. But afterwards? Well, intriguingly enough, there is something worth salvaging from Hidalgo. The Hotel did try to rehabilitate him. But could Arachne succeed where they failed? I have my doubts.

The other issue is why his Master is permitting this. I suspect it's because an even more valuable prize is at play: The stored souls each Catalogue vessel carries for sale. I believe that he's not even allying with us to stab us in the back at all! Just instead to get those very valuable souls, and give/sell them to his unknown master.

[] The Enigma, Concierge.

Oh, look, a permanent upgrade! And something exceedingly powerful! All it costs is... well, one can only speculate. A copy of Arachne as a permanent guest? Some very invasive edits? A removal of the imprint from the Cylinder? The Concierge reveals himself as one of pure heart and intentions beneath his mysterious, negotiating nature? I may like the Concierge, but this level of trust might be the biggest gamble of all three choices.

[] The Gamble, Wildcard.

This entity doesn't care about casually killing people. As evidenced by killing Peeper II and creating "disposable" sentients. Additionally, while this costs "nothing" it also aligns us with a political faction. In a political conflict we know nothing about. So very much not a nice person, but a capable one...? He certainly postures as someone very, very deadly.

Another thing to consider: Unlike our other two options, not using the Wildcard now means we can use it in some future conflict.
 
Last edited:
Derpmind said:
Oh, look, a permanent upgrade! And something exceedingly powerful! All it costs is... well, one can only speculate. A copy of Arachne as a permanent guest? Some very invasive edits? The Concierge reveals himself as one of pure heart and intentions beneath his mysterious, negotiating nature? I may like the Concierge, but this level of trust might be the biggest gamble of all three choices.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Sorry, just to be clear I had forgotten to clear up what a software port is: It'd be a powerful temporary upgrade for the purpose of the fight. It is very difficult to actually permanently share signature applications in part because they are so powerful. Just having it for the fight can be a gamechanger. It would however open it up as a possible permanent option in the future: players will be able to choose from a few and then that will open up a project to get it permanently.

His uplink access would not be permanent but he would be able to see within you during the period which obviously has many issues.
 
Last edited:
[X] The Gamble, Wildcard.

Honestly I want to see just what kind of misbegotten cosmic horror we're going to be calling upon for assistance, so this option has no downsides for me.
 
Last edited:
Cetashwayo said:
Sorry, just to be clear I had forgotten to clear up what a software port is: It'd be a powerful temporary upgrade for the purpose of the fight. It is very difficult to actually permanently share signature applications in part because they are so powerful. Just having it for the fight can be a gamechanger. It would however open it up as a possible permanent option in the future: players will be able to choose from a few and then that will open up a project to get it permanently.

His uplink access would not be permanent but he would be able to see within you during the period which obviously has many issues.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Plus the option to potentially leave some very nasty backdoors if we aren't careful.
 
The Concierge continues to have pricy, convenient help. The card knows more than its saying. The Spaniard, as much a problem as they are with their strings, did give us a freebie.

[X] The Knight, Don Hidalgo.
 
Cetashwayo said:
There were some minor errors with the color coding, fixed it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Did those fixes not propagate properly, or are these places where the colour-coding is off compared to usual, deliberate?

Cetashwayo said:
<:: What-no!
I:: No.
<:: Ishtar-!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Cetashwayo said:
I:: That's - that's a lot. Hm.

<:: Can we at least - think about it?

I:: He's - well, he's not our only option. What about the -
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
[X] The Gamble, Wildcard.

Going with this for now, will be back once I have reread and processed the chapter properly.
 
Well, this is why I wanted to max out our Legion drones. Although I will admit I was not expecting 4 elements.
Couldn't say this at the time, as violating causality is a heresy.

[X] The Knight, Don Hidalgo.
Keep your enemies closer. Also, needlecaster.
 
[X] The Knight, Don Hidalgo.
The Concierge asks a high price, and the Wildcard remains true to its namesake. But the Spaniard is a known force, and likely to be left weakened by his own aid alongside us.
 
Also, I propose that Don Hidalgo henceforth be described as 'The Knave' instead of 'The Knight'.
Preferably to his face.
 
[X] The Knight, Don Hidalgo.
...
if my read is right... Knight's sworn to either a bad King or a dead one, in a way that he can't find a new master.
Concierge is I think the closest to Good civilization. But that is QUITE the ask, and I can see ways for him to not be all that good on top of not all that nice.
That Wildcard and the talk about it's Master taking deals VERY Seriously? Devil's in the details there...
The Knave has the risk of going 2v1 into a 1v1 by the winners, I think.
...
I think I'd rather the Knave. Because the other two come at the price of strings to be pulled in future. The Knave at least allows us our freedom, for a time.
 
[X] The Gamble, Wildcard.

Cetashwayo said:
???:: That's exactly the kind of deals my master specializes in! You get exactly what you bargained for. And sure, you might get roped into a serious political dispute within a polity you don't know anything about yet or else you'd know my master and know exactly what he's capable of, but it looks like you're going to get involved in that already if my guess of what exactly is bringing you down here is right.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

According to the wildcard (which of course might be lying), Arachne is probably already involved in this sort of complicated political dispute that we know nothing about for reasons that she doesn't understand. Given that, the risk from this seems to primarily be taking one side of that dispute before we know anything about the dispute itself, which is a huge problem sure -

but I suspect that in general, the side that doesn't come at Arachne guns blazing is probably the side Arachne wants to back, for reasons that should be obvious.

Also, the fastest way to get more information on this clusterfuck is to actually participate in this sort of massive clusterfuck.
 
thelordofmango said:
[X] The Knight, Don Hidalgo.
-[X] Be prepared to use the Wildcard if he stabs us in the back.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This is a good idea and something I will keep in the back pocket should it come to a betrayal as a vote then but you can consider it implicit and do not need to make a subvote now.

But absolutely when I give you an item like this its use is not artificially restricted to a setpiece choice.
 
Also, just in case people think we could have solved this problem by throwing more forces at it...

Yeah, no. Reserves die by the dozen against Elements. It's the difference between facing an ad hoc milita of converted freighters and a Carrier Battle Group. The best more Reserves could do against that kind of firepower is buy a small amount of time.
 
Drone swarms/reserves are best used in conjunction with a defensive advantage and in large numbers to soak up damage. You can consider them as much investment into extra hitpoints as they are actual firepower.
 
General thoughts about DH's changed orders:
It appears that his boss either wants to keep Arachne alive, or does not have the resources available to have her dealt with.
The second option does not appear consistent with his permission to defend Arachne against the Catalogue. However, this may simply be because the boss does not want Arachne to be sold to a rival.
If the boss does want Arachne kept alive, there are two obvious possible reasons.
First, an extra polity in the area causes upheaval that can be exploited.
Second, the boss may have deducted the existence of Ishtar by viewing DH's logs.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top