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5 months ago ::
Feb 04, 2013 - 5:52AM
#1
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Date Joined:
Feb 19, 2006
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Whew, what's that smell in here? Oh, it's just the roasting hydra heads. Seriously though, someone should make a pair of boots out of that hydra skin...
Is anyone else thinking about a 3rd-edition Bane tattoo now?
This forum will cover Chapters 10-12, pages 177-230.
Looking forward to your thoughts!
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5 months ago ::
Feb 04, 2013 - 11:09AM
#2
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Date Joined:
May 21, 2009
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I definitely missed a good crossover point there--someone could have cut the skin off to sell to a bootmaker! I thought of something I hadn't mentioned before. Dahl's little trivia bits! Some of them are just about the game and the setting (how do rituals interact with spells? how come you can read Draconic that's ten thousand years old?) but some I took from the real world, and there were two good ones in the last section: * Cavern botfly nymphs are a mix of Arachnocampa glowworms and the story of why I decided I couldn't be a primatologist. When I was in school, I studied anthropology and I was really interested in primates. To complete a degree, you had to take a course that involved lectures from a variety of anthropologists about what their work was like. Which was a lot of "You know most of you aren't going to do this, right?" One of the lectures was from a professor I really loved, and he talked excitedly about what he did, but also what his grad students were doing. In particular he mentioned one woman who was studying some jungle species (I want to say howler monkeys, but I don't remember) cheerfully wading through ankle deep mud, and going through a lot of socks. Because of the botflies. This sort of botfly larva (or maybe eggs; it doesn't matter to this story) apparently will get caught in your socks, you see. Then burrow into your skin. And live there for a bit. Before hatching out. Of your skin. That was the day I started wondering if I really loved primatology. * The strange lights in the lake are inspired by the sea sparkle. This is a sort of protist that glows.I was reading an article about how blooms of them attract squid, and thought it would be kind of neat if there were a more intentionally symbiotic relationship set up. So the "lake sparkle" glows to attract creatures in the cave to the water, and to signal the hydra, which eats the creatures. The minute remains of its meal are absorbed by the lake sparkle. Gross! *The last is almost a meta-joke. When I first outlined this book, my editor at the time pointed out that if Dahl did the water-breathing ritual, I had to remember that a) everyone would have gills and b) that they could not breath air at the same time. This was how it was depicted in 3.xE novels, and she is excellent at remembering that sort of thing. But I pointed out to her that in 4E the ritual explicitly says that you can breathe normally in addition to breathing water (which is good, because I didn't want to try and kill time in the watercourse). So I slipped the reference to the old spell in to make it clear, but also because of that conversation she and I had.
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5 months ago ::
Feb 04, 2013 - 11:21AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Aug 11, 2012
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<.< Introducing the amazing "The Book" (NOW you may repost your rant Davidgiven :P ) I must say, I love the Idea of The Book. Of course I have a certain fondness for all intelligent items. And the library idea is stellar, I love the thought that there could be so much pre-spell-plague lore just sitting around untouched to be explored, it could be just eye-opening to current-day characters. And I must say, Erin is really my introduction to 4e so all of this Ritual use intrigues me, I hope D&DN has them too (Which the current playtest does), oh and I loved the "gills" reference to the older water-breathing spells, that was brilliant of her. <.< And introducing possible doppleganger? Or some grande illusion spell?...Because that is NOT havi. Oh Havi *face-palm* Sometimes you talk too much, and too loudly, girl! I really love the scenes with Lorcan and the mirror. I like how he checks on his other warlocks, even though they seem to be worthless, compared to Fari. Sairche has moved onto psychological torture with Lorcan, the scene with him and the fari-succubus was well written and just a serious mind-f***. <.< And if I may give a prediction (I swear, if I am right, I havent read past this weeks chapters) I KNOW Pernika and Maspero are Zhentarim. But Is Mira one as well? that is something im not too sure of yet, but if she is, ermahgerd! The conflict between her and Tam is going to be amazing! SO dahl is a paladin of Oghma...or was. This is an interesting twist lore-wise as in older editions Oghma had no paladins. <.< Badass Havilar is Badass. I just loved this scene of her standing up to Pernika SO MUCH! And gods be damned FINALLY! this is the conversation Havi and Brin should have had chapters ago! ...but of course this all leads into the most important thing of all...
*sing-song* Havi kissed Brin then Brin kissed Havi *dancy-dancy* >.>;;;
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5 months ago ::
Feb 05, 2013 - 11:07AM
#4
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Date Joined:
May 21, 2009
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Heheh! Lordsknight I think you might have liked these chapters! Thanks for the kind words. And I must say, Erin is really my introduction to 4e so all of this Ritual use intrigues me, I hope D&DN has them too (Which the current playtest does)
To my knowledge, they're staying. I requested early on that they tell me if they decide to drop them, since they're kind of Dahl's entire deal at the moment. Fortunately, I think they're pretty popular.
And introducing possible doppleganger? Or some grande illusion spell?...Because that is NOT havi. [...] Sairche has moved onto psychological torture with Lorcan, the scene with him and the fari-succubus was well written and just a serious mind-f***.
I'm curious how long people were tricked! Did you know right away that something was up with these, or did Lorcan and Havi figure it out first?
SO dahl is a paladin of Oghma...or was. This is an interesting twist lore-wise as in older editions Oghma had no paladins.
This was something I wanted to play with. Fourth edition rules specifically don't rule out any gods from having paladins, which just made me go, "What's a paladin of a really unlikely god look like? What do the rules of being that kind of paladin look like?"
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5 months ago ::
Feb 05, 2013 - 11:41AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Aug 11, 2012
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"I'm curious how long people were tricked! Did you know right away that something was up with these, or did Lorcan and Havi figure it out first?"
With Havi i didnt exactly figure it out...hell it hasnt been answered yet. But Havi just wasnt acting right. Especially her leaving devil-slayer at camp was very unliek her. It just felt wrong.
Not right away with Lorcan, because just before this seen was the hand that grabbed her, and then she dropped the scrolls (I have the book open infront of my as memory-reference) SO when suddenly Farideh was in hell i was all "WHA?!" Lorcan probably got the gist first, but I realised something wasn't RIGHT when Fari began to cry, it was very uncharacteristic of her in a situation like that.
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5 months ago ::
Feb 05, 2013 - 1:53PM
#6
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Heheh! Lordsknight I think you might have liked these chapters! Thanks for the kind words.
Lordknight pretty much said it all.
To my knowledge, they're staying. I requested early on that they tell me if they decide to drop them, since they're kind of Dahl's entire deal at the moment. Fortunately, I think they're pretty popular.
Its disappointingly not the same so far in the playtest.
I'm curious how long people were tricked! Did you know right away that something was up with these, or did Lorcan and Havi figure it out first?
Sadly I didn't get tricked. The moment it was mentioned that Havi didn't have her glaive my disbelieve sense started tingling. As for the succubus I kind of was waited for Farideh to do the warlock/rattlesnakewarning thing she started doing when she gets nerves. Its seemed to happen pretty consistantly when she got stressed lately so it stood out when I didn't see it occur. Then again they are devils and that makes me more paranoid and I may or may not have been convinced it was a succubus from the start...
This was something I wanted to play with. Fourth edition rules specifically don't rule out any gods from having paladins, which just made me go, "What's a paladin of a really unlikely god look like? What do the rules of being that kind of paladin look like?"
I'm really interest in trying to figure out what caused Dahl to fall out of favor. I'm leaning towards Oghma is just being a douche and he hasn't fallen out of favor.
Also... Please say the book in the sundering picture Dahl holds is the same book in the library! It would be the best ritual book ever!
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Imagine a world where the first-time D&D player rolls stats, picks a race, picks a class, picks an alignment, and buys gear to create a character. Imagine if an experienced player, maybe the person helping our theoretical player learn the ropes, could also make a character by rolling ability scores and picking a race, class, feat, skills, class features, spells or powers, and so on. Those two players used different paths to build characters, but the system design allows them to play at the same table. -Mearl |
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5 months ago ::
Feb 05, 2013 - 4:52PM
#7
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This section was an enjoyable section, and to me it felt different. I hate saying that because I feel like I should back it up with some really well thought out analysis....and fizzle...I got nothing. I can't really describe it, but the tone of this section felt darker. Maybe it was the setting. Not much I can think of that would be darker than an ancient abandoned library buried Gods knows how far underground. Especially if the only sentient being in the library is The Book, which I loved because it just feels evil to me. I think I am enjoying Rhand, and possibly The Book, as villains (at this point I feel like the book is a villain) because we just don't know for sure what they are truly capable of. We know it is evil....just not how evil. A lot of times authors make us fear villains by demonstrating how great their power is or how quickly and easily they can kill a person. With Rhand, and possibly The Book, we really haven't seen any demonstration of what they can do but I am afraid of them anyway. Maybe it is just my imagination running away with me, but kudos to Erin if that was her intention. The Book just makes my skin crawl. I am waiting for it to try and suck everyone's soul into it as some kind of nourishment to sustain for another millenia or two. Was it just me or did the book seem to get excited when it found out that there could be more people coming to find the library? Or maybe it's the fact that I feel like there is this impending doom hanging over the group. They are being hunted by the Zhentarim, Shadovar, Sairche, and probably countless others. I also expect that Mira and her clique are going to end up betraying them as soon as Mira finds what she is looking for....or sooner if Havi and Pernika spend too much time together. It reminds me a little of when we read Skein of Shadows and Marcy started to kill off members of the party. This section reminded me of that part of the novel, because it felt like the tone of the book changed. It was that moment when you "Sh*t just got real". I wasn't fooled as much by the faux Havi, but my head did spin a little when Sairche shoved the Fari-succubus into the room. While reading this section I identified an aspect of Erin's writing that I really enjoy. If you go back and just re-read the last couple lines of a section, or a chapter, they are usually very ominous. I know I know...authors are supposed to do that. I just think Erin's stand out more to me than a lot of other authors. I may have to just grab a few books off the shelf and experiment a little.  Two examples from this last section include... "Wait" she said."I was going on about that Book?" He nodded and her brow furrowed. "You're not the first person to say that either." ...leaving the book to ponder what exactly had just happened. The Book - and Pernika, who stood watching from the shadows with a sharp smile and a sharper knife.
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5 months ago ::
Feb 07, 2013 - 6:02AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Feb 19, 2006
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First, I love the details about the rituals and the 3rd/4th explanation here. Most authors would just pick one or the other, but it's very Tolkien to try and explain why there's a discrepency in what's going on. I agree with Mordrim that there was a shift in tone once they entered the library. Clearly, the book is messing with them and I don't think anything good is ahead once they remove all those runes from the load-bearing columns. Either the place is going to come crashing down or old Tarchamus has been in a magical prison for years (the book?) and he's tricking them into setting him free. They dopplegangers in the library had me fooled a little until they started doing things uncharacteristic of the actual characters. As soon as Sairche threw Fari into the room with Lorcan I thought: "Oh, succubus, watch out!" At least Havi and Brin got that out of their system. I wonder how Fari is going to react to them playing kissy-face all the time. I don't think Mehen (or Constancia for that matter) is going to be happy about this. Speaking of old Mehen, I had a feeling the moment he left for Cormyr he was going to be in trouble. I mean, yes, he's technically brought in his bounty, but he prevented the capture of the real bounty (Brin), and I don't see Brin's family taking kindly to that. I wouldn't be surprised if a contingent from Cormyr shows up at some point and causes trouble (or saves the day). I also liked Dahl being a possible paladin of Oghma - something different. I'm holding off on a Pernika tattoo suggestions until we find out a little more about her. I agree with everyone that she's probably Banite Zhentarim. It would make sense if Maspero/Mira were as well and explain why Mira was fighting against the Cyricist Zhents. On another note, it looks like the forthcoming Zhentarim novel got cancelled. Shame... There's a debate going on about the fate of the Realms novels here.
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5 months ago ::
Feb 07, 2013 - 8:47AM
#9
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Date Joined:
May 21, 2009
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Hey guys, I won't be very good at replying the next two days (or yesterday, which is why I'm saying this today!) because I'm in the middle of....another author summit! Very exciting! Stories flying left and right! [Redacted]! [Redacted]! And more than a little [Redacted]!  And, it turns out, very long days. I will get back to answering any questions on Saturday. But in the meantime, if you haven't seen it yet, here is a scene I cut off of the beginning of Chapter 11. I posted it in conjunction with a giveaway I was running. The blog explains why my editor and I decided to cut it. -e
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5 months ago ::
Feb 09, 2013 - 10:29AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Mar 17, 2010
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This is a fantastic section.
The battle with the Hydra is fantastic--the kind of fight scenes that reminds me why read D&D Novels. One of the main points of the DMG2 is to include Terrain in the combat & that is done so well in this Hydra fight--and the discovery, as if by chance, of the secret submerged entrance. So well done & exactly the kind of thing my players are looking for--I loved it.
Almost as much as I loved BOOK!
Seriously, Book is the most fantastic Realm Character I have ever scene! His motives are completely unknown--but [as Mordrim & Dadocollin observed above] there is something manipulative and truely evil about book. And the fact that our imaginations create the motivations because the text does not line them up for us makes them that much worse. I mean seriously, I have no idea what Book is capable of doing--but nothing Book does will suprise me...or maybe it will & that will make it even better. I am so stoked about Book.
When I first posted spoilers in the previous thread I was very interested in the inspiration for Book. And I am still very intersted in that. Erin, where in the world did you get the idea for a sentient Tome in the Heart of an Ancient Library that manipulates characters without them even being aware of it? So good!
In any event, thanks for the link to the Cut Scene. Really digging this book...
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