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internationalhouseofblupjeans · 6 years

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An Eighth Bird, Born Out of the Storm - Chapter 18

Based loosely on the Luume'irma headcanon from @interstellarvagabond

Eighth Bird AU.

Angus celebrates a birthday and makes a new connection. Kravitz searches. Lucretia regrets.

Thank you to Calcu from the writer’s chat for Beta'ing!!

Also on AO3 (link in the source)

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 below Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22

The placement of the runes are most important. We have determined that by adding onto the previously etched in runes, my body will not be hurt during this process. If all goes well, then when the reset occurs, our child will still reset with us and be able to develop, unharmed on a safer cycle.

We are not sure if the ritual will affect their soul, but as far as we have been able to determine, it will only affect Barry and myself.

I have made sure that Barry’s runes have extra safeguards as well. Being human, he will need more protection than I will. Human souls are not made of the same pure magic that elven ones are.

It will be interesting to be able to see it.

Ļ̵͚̱̬͔͍͉̮̲̮̖̰̾̎ͧ͊ͯͮ̑́ͤͥ̐̋͜͝ư̛̜̭̖̥͉͔͈͋͛̂̉̏̃̈́̔̽̿ͫ͆̈́̍ͅp̵̸̢͍̲͉͓̺̯̭̳̤̺̼̰͔̈́ͤ̆̿̽̓̄ͣ͝ͅ,ͮ̾́͋̎̔̾ͮ͑҉̰̠̥͍͕̻̖̼̤̘̦̖ ̸̧̫̝͓̠͓̹͎̐̓̆ͬ͗̔̅ͩ̇̒ͬ̂͆͛͒̉͑͢ͅS̷̡̟̖̞͎͔͕͓͓̺͖̣̤͚̘͓̟̜͆̍ͮ͐̈ͥ͑͆͑̓͂ͤ̈́͂̍̎̎͟t̶ͤ͆̂͑͌̆̉ͪ̃̔̋̑̅͆͌ͨ҉̷̩̦͖͔̼̖͠uͫ͗̂͛͌ͮ̅̆͛ͭ̐͢͏̞̥̥̱͓̯̦͍d̝̱̲̦̠̻͈̞͈͎͈̫̪̭̆ͦͦ͗̑ͤ́͞ǐ̟̟̟̬̣͑̈̓̐̓͊̄ͯ̿͌̚͘͘͢͞e̿̈̓͌̀̐̆̀ͮͣ̎̈́̾̀̚̕͘͏͔̰͈͕̣̬s̮̩͕̫̝ͯ̅̀͆ͭ̉͋̈́̎͂ͦͥ̂͢ ̷̳̰̝̘̲̤̣̱͙̠̰̖͕̯̺̪̜͍̘̿̎ͣ͗ͮ̋͠ǫ̸̛͓̭̙͙͓̲̱̬̺̯͚͍͍͎̩ͯ̂͋ͥ͆ͥ͊̽͒ͩ̒͆ͨ̄nͯ̌ͨ̓̉ͯ̕҉͏̣̠̗̬̼̺̰͚̖͕͍̘̙ ̸̼̟͈͖̻͇͍͈͎͕̣̮̳̳̯̳̠͋ͧ͆ͭ͗ͭ͑̇͢B̷ͩ̔̓ͪ̉͑̐ͥ͒͏͖̼͎̦̖̖̖̗͞e̛̳̘͙̱̝̤̽̃̃̄̇̓ͩ͊ͫ̆͊̈ͣ̌ͫ͝ͅc̵̴̨̨͇͕͓̖͚̼͕͕̼͈̩̺͎̠̻ͬͩ̂̎͋̈́̈́ͅô̵̸̂̓̎͋̽ͦ̓ͩ̇͑̒ͮ̋ͮ̚͝͏͏̤̯̲̝͇ṃ̻̼͇͎̬̱͍̺̘̦̲͍̪̠ͦ͌̓ͯ̏̑̽͆ͭ͜͝ͅi̴̹͉̟̞̠̥̞̱̥̗͍ͤͭ̐̿ͦ̊̅̌ͩͪ̉̋ͥ̊͂̿ͦͭ͞ṅ̩̥͚͕̥̐̓̏͠g͐̍ͦ̄͑ͬ͒҉͍̦͉̠̩̜͚̮̥͍̘͔͕̝̹̱̕͘͢ ̝͓͖͈̗̞̹̖̘̻͙̰͉̣̳̞̏ͪͨ͌͑̈̉͌ͫ̚͡͞a̧̢͕̤͇̬͓͚̠̱͙͈̺̻͓̖ͣ͂͋ͧͅ ̸̨̛͕̤̻̱̤͚̭͚̠͉̤ͬ͌͐ͤ̅ͤ͘̕Ļ̶̡̫̜̠̥̙͉͍̖͙̏͑̿̽̽̆ͪ̒ͨͥ͡i̡̨̤̜̠̓ͣ͒ͨ̇ͮͨ̔̍̍̑̊̆̿ͩ͐̇̾ͅç̵̢͈̻͈̝̬̙̼͕͉͉̟̞ͪͫͭͥ̇͒̆h̵̵̥̮̰͖̓ͨ̆̏͐̓

Lucretia wasn’t sure whose idea the party was, but she stared at the invitation with a sinking feeling in her stomach.

She was Madam Director and needed to keep the ruse going, but a part of her wanted to have this moment. To relax and enjoy an evening with her friends, even if they didn’t see her as such right now.

So, she arrived at Magnus, Merle, and Taako’s dorm with a present in hand and a weak smile on her face.

“Welcome!” Magnus grinned, opening the door. “Ango doesn’t know and just thinks he’s coming over for a magic lesson, so this will be great!”

Lucretia nodded.

This week was hard for her anyway, so it was hard to focus.

In a couple of days, it would be the anniversary of when she had lost her friends.

When she knew she had lost Lup.

When she knew Lup and Barry lost their …

“Hey! You need to get behind the couch!” Merle grumbled. “Haven’t you ever done a surprise party before?”

Lucretia smiled.

“Sorry, Merle, I suppose I’m a little out of practice.”

She ducked behind the couch and waited.

Taako was the first one to walk through the door, about fifteen minutes later.

“So, the trick with mage hand is to visualize something not so … horrifying,” Taako explained as he opened the door, Angus eagerly taking notes next to him. “Seriously, kiddo, we need to figure out why-”

Taako flicked on the light to the dorm and the gathered members of the Bureau of Balance leapt up and cheered for Angus.

“SURPRISE! Happy birthday!”

Angus froze. He didn’t know what to do. No one had ever done anything like this before and he had no frame of reference for why everyone that he had considered friends and family were surprising him like this. He adjusted his glasses, trying to keep his composure and cleared his throat.

“Um … Sirs?” He asked.

“We found out it was your birthday this week, kiddo,” Magnus explained, leaping over the couch and picking up Angus. “So, we decided to throw a party for you!”

“Oh …” Angus started, a little crestfallen. He hadn’t ever had one that started this way, but he knew that it would soon devolve into sitting around awkwardly while the adults talked. “Well, thank you. I guess we um … Are we going to eat and then you guys can all talk?”

“Nonsense!” Magnus grinned. “Johann is going to play us some music and then we can do party games and stuff if you like!”

“Party games?” Angus asked. “I don’t … I don’t understand.”

He’d heard about them, sure, from the elven boys who had become the bane of his existence. He had almost been invited to one of their parties, but then the invitation was taken away, the boys only having done so in order to mock him. He didn’t know the first thing about birthday parties like this.

“Don’t worry, Bubelah,” Taako grinned. “I didn’t do birthday parties until I was much older so this will be a first for me too.”

Angus was even more confused. He’d always thought that elves had parties for every birthday. And Taako was a Sun Elf - a High Elf! He should for sure have been rich enough to have huge parties when he was a kid.

“Wait,” Angus started. “You didn’t have …”

The sound of Johann’s violin interrupted the little half-elf and soon the festivities began. He watched as the rules for Pin the tail on the Gerblin was explained and eventually watched an argument erupt between Taako and Leon over Taako’s use of mage hand to cheat at the game. A round of musical chairs was next, and Angus tried to not feel sick at the attention and chaos that was surrounding him.

He hadn’t ever had people pay this much attention to him. All he’d really wanted to do was go down and maybe see Jeff Angel wrestle at Chaos Stadium this week. He didn’t even really want people to try and celebrate for him because his parties had always been so boring before.

This one, however, was overwhelming.

His guests were sitting around, enjoying cake when Angus felt someone sit down next to him. He looked up to see Merle looking at him with an odd softness to him.

“Kid, you’ve hardly touched your cake. What’s wrong?”

“Oh … Uh … well, This is kinda new for me,” He started. “I’ve never actually done a birthday party before. Like, I honestly didn’t even know anyone knew it was coming up and I don’t usually get so much … attention,” he panted. “I usually am sitting in a corner by now just reading a book while my grandpa …”

He trailed off. He hadn’t thought about his grandfather since leaving Neverwinter. He had just thrown himself into cases and into work for the Bureau but now he realized that he had lost the only member of his family that he truly had.

He sniffled and wiped his eyes.

“Sorry, I just … I guess I got overwhelmed,” Angus whispered. “I really appreciate this, I do … I just … I’ve never had people do this much for me before.”

Merle smiled, sadly. There was something about Angus, in this moment, that felt familiar. Perhaps it was just because of what he had helped his own daughter through. Perhaps it was something else, something he couldn’t verbalize, as much as he wanted to.

“Kiddo, believe me I … I understand what you’re going through, I really do. I guess we should have asked you first, huh?”

“No, sir, it’s ok! Really! I just … I’m not used to this.”

He didn’t realize it until just now but he actually was calm. Angus looked down at his untouched plate of cake. He guessed Merle had done something cleric-y to him. Maybe calm emotions?

For all that Taako and Magnus complained, Merle was a pretty good cleric, all things considered.

“Th-thanks, sir,” Angus smiled. “This actually helped a lot.”

Merle grinned and ruffled Angus’ hair. There was something else about this kid. Something familiar, but he couldn’t focus on the thought for too long or else his brain would dissolve into static.

“No problem, half-pint,” Merle sighed. He rose to his feet and then paused, turning back to look at him before he could join Taako as he tried to hustle Killian’s shoes away from her at a game of pool. “Oh, and we’re going to a wrestling show on your birthday so I …” Merle gritted his teeth as if it hurt him to be kind to this child. “I guess you can come with.”

Angus’ eyes lit up.

“Really, sir?”

“Yeah … There’s some sort of murder or something that happened and -”

Merle froze as he felt Angus’ arms wrap around him tightly.

“Oh thank you sir! Thank you so much! This is the best birthday present ever! A new mystery!”

“Oh shit …” Merle groaned.

Lup had listened in, trying to project herself out just enough to see what was happening.

A party. They were throwing a party for this little boy.

She was glad that he had been working with the Bureau of Balance now. She had worried about him after he had been on the train. Had worried that this child was traveling alone.

Now, however, she knew he had someone to look after him.

It was strange. She felt oddly protective around this child, and even started to feel pangs of sadness as she watched him becoming more and more anxious during the party.

It was wishful thinking. That’s what it had to be. The anxiousness reminded her so much of Barry. Reminded her so much of how he had been before the launch. In the earlier cycles.

Before Legato.

But this wasn’t their child. She had already confirmed that. Yes, his name was Angus, but it wasn’t Angus Bluejeans. No one had come to grab him. She hadn’t seen or felt Lucretia at all during her wait in Wave Echo Cave.

Her son had to have died. Somehow. Perhaps wild animals had come into the cave and taken him. Perhaps it was gerblins.

Perhaps it was her own foolishness at trying to solve her problems by herself.

It was getting too difficult to keep herself projected, so she retreated into the darkness.

She could feel her energy being sapped. Every day it was a struggle to just stay conscious. To stay herself.

As she tried to meditate, she began to realize that time was running out.

She wasn’t sure if she would make it to them eventually leaving this world.

She wasn’t sure if there would be anything left to reset.

Taako couldn't find anything in any books regarding the extreme discomfort he felt.

He found himself pacing the communal living room, trying to deal with thoughts and feelings that deeply disturbed him.

He couldn't ask Merle. He was too ashamed.

Even worse was the horrible feeling he had during this week when he would see Magnus. They barely knew each other (in Taako terms) and yet he wanted to curl up in his arms and let the warmth take him over.

He couldn't understand it. He couldn't push the thoughts from his mind.

So he meditated for the first time in ages. As he sat, he heard the door open, Magnus’ booming voice echoing in.

“Hey, Taako, do you need anything? I’m just heading down to the cafeteria for …”

Magnus stopped.

“T-Taako? Are you ok? What’s wrong?”

Taako pinched the bridge of his nose.

So much for meditating.

“Dude … just go. I kinda need to focus. I’m don’t want to have the thoughts I’m having and there’s like … nothing here that can help me so I’m just gonna hang tight in here and wait for it to blow over. I don’t know if I was hit by a spell or what but … This sucks and everything is too … Everything!”

Magnus walked in, quietly. Something was tugging on his heart as he watched Taako clench his eyes and breathe.

“What thoughts?”

“Like … dude, we know each other and are friends and all but I really don’t want to share this.”

“Come on. Taako, it’s ok. We’re a team.”

“Magnus … I’m serious. I don’t want this and it’s frustrating and aggravating and it hurts!”

“It hurts?” Magnus said, freezing in place. “Should I get Merle?”

“God no. He’ll tease me relentlessly and I can’t do that right now!” Taako gritted out. “I just need to wait this out.”

“Ok … Are you sure you can’t tell me?”

“I … So you know I like guys, right?”

“Well, yeah. I saw you flirting with death back in Lucas’ lab-”

“Well … I also don’t want … I don’t like being … touched. And right now, that’s all I want and it’s scaring me, Mags. It’s scaring me and I don’t like it! And … I keep thinking about you and that reaper and I don’t … Mags, please go. I’ll … I’ll be better soon. I promise.”

Taako didn’t know for sure, but he knew that this had to end eventually.

Right?

Magnus sighed and closed the door softly, waiting outside. He wondered if he should go over Taako’s head and talk to Merle, but Taako was right. Merle was the worst person he could talk to about this.

So he went to the Director.

He knocked softly on her office door and peeked his head in.

“Hey … Lu-Madam Director?” He started, remembering that she had been so disturbed when they had used her name.

“What is it,” she started, looking up from her journals to see Magnus’ concerned expression. “Magnus? What’s wrong?”

“It … It’s Taako. He’s not doing well and I didn’t want to talk to Merle about it because … well, Taako didn’t want me to.”

Lucretia froze.

She had redacted too much. She had realized that, in erasing so many things from their home world, she had neglected to make sure she could come up with ways to fill in things that occurred.

Things like the Luume'irma.

Which Magnus usually comforted Taako through.

Once again, she was struck by the weight of her actions. She was reminded just how much she took.

Taako had once trusted Magnus but after a decade apart, they may as well have been strangers.

And Magnus didn’t know …

“Oh … Um … Well, there are … ancient texts that existed in my studies of … A period of time where every ten years, Sun Elves would go through … these feelings,” she said, carefully choosing her words. “It only lasted a week but a lot of Sun Elves didn’t like it so they augmented their bodies … I think Taako may have been immune to it.”

“Oh …” Magnus started. “So … what should I do? I don’t like seeing my friend so upset. Should I go … help him?”

“No!” Lucretia started before remembering herself. “No … Just … Let him be. He’ll be alright in a week. I promise.”

Magnus nodded and returned to the dorm. As he sat in front of Taako’s door, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of deja vu.

But when he tried to make sense of it, his mind dissolved into static.

Angus was so excited for his magic lessons. He loved learning from Taako, having this moment to be close to his idol. He’d had to wait a week (apparently, his tutor had been sick), but he was alright with that.

Taako was someone who might be able to answer all of his questions, eventually.

He also had another reason to take lessons from Taako. He was going to ask him on this particular lesson. Sure he couldn’t do it himself, he wasn’t high enough level …

But Taako could …

“Hey, Mr. Taako, sir?” Angus asked as Taako prepared to teach him a cantrip. “You … specialize in transmutation magic, right?”

“Sure thing, my dude,” Taako started. “What’s up?”

“I … I was wondering if you could do something for … For me … If you could change something, that is ...”

Taako looked at Angus. Something about those words. There was something in his mind that dissolved into static when he tried to place the memory.

Just like in the dreams he had.

“What’s wrong, Ango?”

Angus pulled off his cap and untaped his ears.

Taako felt his heart break.

Angus trusted him enough to show him. To show him that he was not human. That he was a half elf.

And that he was ashamed of what he was.

“I … I don’t want these anymore,” Angus whispered. “I want to be one or the other so if you could just change my ears …”

“Angus …” Taako started, kneeling down to him. “My dude, I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to be a half-elf. You’re like … the best of both worlds!”

“Not according to the other elves,” Angus sighed. “You’re like, the first elf who isn’t a jerk about it.”

Taako felt like that was wrong. He never remembered elves being so cruel about half-elves. About humans.

Hell, that was why-

Static.

He shook his head to clear it and then looked back at Angus.

“Look my dude, I can teach you disguise self so you can pull pranks, but I’m not going to make you give up what makes you you. And if you need to, you can talk with Johann. He’s a half elf and look at him now! Making music for a Voidfish! Everyone loves him too! We don’t care that he’s not one or the other. He’s Johann and that’s what makes him awesome. And your our Ango McDango.”

Angus sniffled.

“Thanks sir.”

Taako smiled and leaned in to whisper into Angus’ ear.

“And if you ever tell anyone that I had this moment with you and that I care about you …”

“You’ll end me.”

“In seconds.”

Angus chuckled and hugged Taako.

Lup wanted to try and project herself out again. She could sense it.

They were running out of time.

She had to tell them somehow.

Her chance came when Taako was about to cast a spell. She didn’t realize until it was too late that it was supposed to be a transmutation spell. She pulled back as much as she could, but it was too late.

The sweet little boy’s macaroons were destroyed.

She would make it up to him eventually.

But she needed to use this moment. She needed to send a message.

L … U … P …

It took all of her energy, but she did it. She sent a message, hoping that Taako would see it. Would understand it.

She looked over at Angus, at the sweet little boy and nearly gasped.

His ears.

They were pointed.

“I have a new mystery to solve!” She heard him chirp.

Huh … She thought as darkness reclaimed her.

Johann sat, tuning his violin. He had another composition for the Voidfish. Something that he had been working on for weeks now. He played, softly at first, taken in by the music. The Voidfish floated nearby, seemingly watching is every move.

“Um ...Mr. Johann, sir?” he heard a small voice ask at the doorway.

He looked over to see Angus standing there, his cap off and in his hand. The pointed tips of the boy’s dark ears were bright red.

“What’s up, little dude?” the bard asked.

“I … I was talking with Taako a while back and he said maybe I could talk to you?” He started. “I’m a half elf, like you, and … I was ashamed of it and asked Taako to change me but … But you’re a half elf too and you’re like, such a cool bard and I was wondering … Can I learn some of what you know?”

Johann smiled, sadly.

He’d never had a student before. Most of what he did was self taught anyway. He didn’t know how to teach, but the look on the boy’s face moved him.

“Heh, sure thing, kiddo,” he laughed. “So, was there any sort of instrument you were thinking of?”

“Well … when I heard your violin, it reminded me of a song and I want to know how to play it. And since you’re a bard and good at violin …”

“Say no more my little dude! Here, can you hum it for me? I can figure out the notes.”

“Oh! Yeah! Um …”

Angus began to hum as Johann transposed, playing along.

“Ah, so it’s in E major … so .. F# … A F# E D C# D G G G A...”

As he played, he heard a wail come up from the tank. He looked over at the Voidfish who twirled and called out, echoing the notes that Johann played. It was almost like the last time the Voidfish had sang, except this time, they seemed happier, as if they knew this song.

He continued to play as Angus hummed the song and the Voidfish lit up.

He’d never had this happen before, where the Voidfish not only knew something he was playing but also didn’t wipe it from existence after he had created it.

Johann looked down at Angus who had some tears pricking his eyes. He smiled sadly and stopped playing, ruffling the child’s hair.

“We can go get you a violin and then start doing lessons, little man,” he began.

“I’d like that very much, sir.”

Johann led Angus out of the room, neither one noticing the Voidfish pressing one tendril up on the glass as they left.

Angus sat by his Stone of Farspeech. He had been relieved when Avi told him that they had safely landed and that they were on their way through the bubble. Now he could focus on his mystery du jour.

The Red Robes. There was something Lucretia wasn’t telling them about the Red Robes.

He had been plagued with nightmares again, ever since the magic lesson that started this new mystery. His vision was always blurry in the most common one he had, but he always saw the same image. Something that his brain couldn’t make sense of.

He found himself, absentmindedly drawing as he waited to hear any news at all from the reclaimers.

Lucretia came up behind him with a plate of cookies.

“Angus, we probably won’t be able to hear anything until they get out of there,” Lucretia started.

“I know, Ma’am, but … If they need me, then I need to be listening,” he explained. “I’ve learned a lot since they grabbed the Philosopher’s Stone and so I know I can actually help now!”

Lucretia ruffled Angus’ hair and looked down at his paper.

“Drawing something?”

“Yeah, I guess. I was just doodling. I’ve been having a lot of nightmares lately,” he sighed. “Leon said that drawing them out might help me so I’ve just sort of been … doing this.”

Lucretia looked down and then bit back a gasp.

“Oh … Wow …”

Angus looked down at the drawing.

“Oh … yeah … I keep having the same nightmare. It’s blurry but … Yeah …”

He looked up to realize that Lucretia was standing in the doorway, her shoulders slumped and her hand covering her mouth.

He looked back down at the drawing. He supposed it had been just him trying to make sense of the latest nightmare, but this was the most detailed it had ever been.

The Red Robe from his nightmares was in the center of his blurred vision. The one who looked down at him with blackened skin, closed eyes …

And a sad smile.

Taako watched time pass by as he was shown his own past.

Static. That static was there again, right next to him, after a long period of static that had no explanation.

It hurt too much for him to try to make sense of it, so he shut his mind off to it. Like he always did.

Then the Chalice showed him Glamour Springs.

Taako wanted to turn away. He didn’t want to see this. He didn’t need this.

But then he saw.

Sazed.

That bastard was going to poison him.

Instead, forty people died.

He watched everyone coming up for samples. Then he saw a face.

A face that didn’t make any sense being there. A face that shouldn’t have been there.

Barry?

It didn’t make sense. He couldn’t have been in Glamour Springs and also been in Phandalin. Everyone who had eaten that food had died.

Everyone.

How was this possible?

He couldn’t accept the offer. It wasn’t his fault and he had to know now.

Something was being hidden from him.

When they watched Phandalin burn again, Barry being pummeled to the ground, Taako stared intently.

There had to be something that he was missing. He wanted to tell the others but, he couldn’t. Not when he didn’t even know what was missing.

Lucretia sat in her study.

That drawing. That couldn’t have been …

She buried her head in her hands. This had gone too far. It had gone too far but she couldn’t stop now.

She looked over at Junior's tank. If she gave out his ichor, would this put an end to everything? Would they ever forgive her?

Would this world, and every world, be lost?

She wanted to grab Angus. She wanted to bring him in here and let him learn everything. Seeing that picture … that was Lup. That had to be her which meant …

She choked back a sob.

He had survived. He had survived and she had erased him from his family

And where was Lup now? She was a lich. She should have been with him. And Barry … did he know now?

Her heart was heavy with regret. She had separated Barry from his son. He would never forgive her.

And Lup. If she had just waited. If she had gone to find the cave. To find Lup … would she still be around?

She thought back to something Taako had said. About the Raven Queen’s emissary. Her blood ran cold.

What if she got reaped?

It had never happened on any of the cycles. She had no frame of reference for what could have happened to Lup.

If her soul even existed anymore.

The tears flowed freely as Lucretia buried her head in her hands.

She had fucked up.

And there was no turning back now

Barry watched them come out of the bubble and breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that they wouldn’t have taken the Chalice. There was no way.

But there was still that fear ...

He made himself known to them, confirmed that they had indeed resisted the thrall, and then locked eyes with Taako.

Something in Taako’s eyes …

“I’m really proud of you,” he began, much to the others’ confusion.

Then Magnus called him one of “the bad guys”. If he had blood, it would have run cold in his veins.

“Who told you that?” Barry asked.

But he knew. Even before they said anything, he knew.

Why had Lucretia done this? This wasn’t like her. This wasn’t like her at all.

“I need to know … Do you trust me?” He asked.

“Hell no!”

It was too much.

He had lost his friends. His family.

Taako didn’t remember him. Didn’t remember Lup. Didn’t remember any of it.

He grasped at himself, trying to think of his Best Day. Of his anchor.

“Lup … They don’t trust me … I can’t do it anymore, Lup … I’m sorry ….”

He could hear her voice. He could feel her.

He had to keep himself together.

Taako watched as the Red Robed lich tried to gain composure. He heard him mutter to himself and the one word that had been repeating in his mind escaped the lich’s lips.

“Lup …”

The lich knew what this word meant. This Red Robe somehow knew …

But Taako couldn’t make sense of it.

And it hurt.

Barry rose up from the ground, his composure regained.

He gave them a final warning and vanished. He needed to get back to his hidden lab. He had been out for too long.

The Reaper would be coming.

Angus eagerly welcomed back the Reclaimers, hoping that he could spend some time with Taako. He wanted a magic lesson, of course, but there was another motive.

He needed to study that umbrella.

Every time he was near it, there was a painful sense of familiarity.

Every night after he did, he had the nightmare about the Red Robe.

On one such night, Angus awoke with a start. The image of the Red Robe filled his mind while a woman’s voice weakly sang that lullaby to him. Angus couldn't get the song out of his mind so he climbed out of bed and grabbed his tiny practice violin.

He had memorized the notes, the music flowing naturally as he played. He closed his eyes, trying to imagine his mother.

Davenport had been wandering the dorms. He’d been trying to clear the constant static that had been filling his mind more and more as he got closer to Merle, Magnus, and Taako. He couldn't piece words or thoughts together, the ideas he tried to form becoming a jumble the more he tried to make sense of them.

He heard music coming down the hallway and it struck something inside of him. He followed the sound to Angus’ dorm and stood outside. The music felt so familiar but he couldn't place why. He sat down outside the door and listened, his ears flicking curiously as Angus played.

Angus knew he was being watched, but he couldn't stop. Not now. Not when he needed to try and make sense of the nightmare.

He opened his eyes for a moment and looked at Davenport. He wasn't sure if the music had spurred his mind or not but Angus had started noticing things about Lucretia’s ward. Things that didn't make sense.

He had seen plenty of gnomes growing up and had even been taking cases for Leon. It was why Angus chastised himself for not noticing that Davenport did not look like other gnomes.

Most gnomes had hair colors that ranged from white to grey, in the boy’s experience. Davenport had bright red hair and a neatly trimmed mustache. He was also much smaller than any other gnomes he had seen …

And no other gnomes had expressive, pointed ears.

Angus closed his eyes again and continued to play. He needed to finish the song. He needed to try and keep the static away.

When he finished, he gently set down his violin. He looked back to see Davenport rising to his feet, as if coming out of a trance. He shook his head and then stumbled over his words for a moment before making eye contact with Angus.

“D… Davenport.”

As the gnome walked away, Angus couldn't help but wonder if, for the first time, he actually understood what the gnome had said.

Thank you.

Taako stared at the umbra staff.

Kravitz had said he sensed a lich, but … The Red Robe wasn’t up here. And Taako wasn’t a lich.

The Umbra Staff going off on its own had nearly ruined the date, but he couldn’t blame it. He supposed his own magical weapon was picky about anyone coming near its owner.

Except that it had reacted when Kravitz had mentioned liches.

He thought back to seeing the Red Robe in Lucas’ lab.

He had noticed the staff.

Had mentioned … someone.

But his mind wouldn’t let him think any further. It hurt too much.

He went back to their dorm and set the staff down on the couch.

He needed to make a trip to Fantasy Costco. Magnus would be waiting for him.

Angus was perceptive. It was what made him such a good detective.

It was why he followed Merle to Neverwinter.

He’d never pictured Merle as a father, but suddenly, everything started to make sense about the dwarven cleric.

He listened, intently, as Merle told him everything. Told him things he was pretty sure neither Taako nor Magnus knew.

It was oddly comforting. He was privy to something no one else was.

Even if Merle hadn’t threatened him, he would never have said anything to anyone.

It was why, when the cart narrowly missed hitting Merle’s children, Angus sprang into action.

He almost missed the flash of red off to the side.

He almost missed the Red Robed Lich that held his arm outstretched, red lightning cracking off of his cloak.

He almost missed when he looked to Merle and nodded.

He did miss, however, the wave of sadness that emanated from the lich who looked after his son.

The lich who was running out of time.

Taako sat, watching as Angus practiced Disguise Self to look like him. He still looked like a tiny, child-like version of Taako, but he was getting better at it.

Looking at Angus continued to send pangs of emotion through Taako’s heart. Emotions that he couldn’t place and that were almost frightening to think about.

He cared about this child. Almost as if he was his own.

But he wasn’t of course. And whoever had been this child’s father had been human.

Had been that dead bastard, Barry Bluejeans.

Taako shook his head.

He didn’t know why thinking of Barry hurt so much, but he decided that it had to do with this child. That it was guilt at not saving this child’s father. At leaving him to grow up without him.

Except Barry had been at Glamour Springs. Had taken some of the food.

Maybe Barry had survived? Maybe he had known and had come to Phandalin so that he could covertly tell Taako?

No … That didn’t seem like Barry’s style. Neither did trying to bust Taako.

It didn’t make sense.

Taako wished, for a moment, that Barry was here, watching his son. Maybe he would have trained Angus to be a fighter? No, Angus wasn’t built for that.

And come to think of it, he had never actually seen Barry fight …

“Sir? Are you alright?”

Taako shook himself out of his thoughts and looked down at Angus who had changed his appearance back to normal.

“Sorry, boychik,” Taako smiled sadly. “I was just in thought …”

“Oh …”

They sat in silence for a moment before Angus scooted up next to him.

“Hey, Taako … Um … I know you kind of personalized those macaroons for everyone but … I was wondering … What was that flavor in mine? It was really good but it was like … familiar?”

“Heh,” Taako chuckled. “That’s odd … I actually had a hard time finding the ingredients for yours. I don’t know why, but I wanted to make them like my aunt used to make them … They were our favorite …”

“You and your Aunt’s?”

Taako paused.

Our …

“Yeah … Must’ve been my aunt’s favorite too if she made it all the time for us …”

Angus nodded and looked down in thought. Taako found his own thoughts wandering too.

It didn’t make sense. He didn’t remember his aunt particularly liking macaroons, much less the lavender flavored ones he loved but it was the only thing that made sense.

Maybe she had but she had given him so many because she knew he liked them?

He felt a little guilty now. If he had known …

“Sir … I’ve been wondering a lot … Do you know any other Sun Elves?”

Taako smiled, sadly.

“No. I haven’t seen any others really since I was a kid. I didn’t even really grow up with elves after my aunt died. It’s probably why I’ve never really gotten on with other high elves,” he laughed, bitterly. “You’re the first one I’ve actually spent a lot of time around in almost a century.”

Angus giggled.

“I’m only half-elf, sir.”

“Doesn’t matter!” Taako laughed. “Why do you ask?”

“Well … I mean, I was wondering if you might have maybe known … Well, if you had ever seen either of my parents?”

Taako’s heart nearly ripped in half.

“I … I never met them,” Angus started. “Not really … I mean, maybe I saw my dad once but … I only knew my grandfather and … I know that my mom loved me. That she died saving me but … My dad …”

Taako wanted to grab Angus close and tell him. Tell him that he had seen his father.

But then what? Barry hadn’t ever even mentioned a kid.

Would he lie to this kid? Tell him that his father’s last words had been something about the son he was going to return to? Taako lied easily (he thought), but to Angus?

No, he couldn’t lie to him.

And he couldn’t tell him.

He sighed and looked down at the Umbra Staff in his lap, feeling a warmth radiating from it.

“Sorry, kiddo … I … I didn’t meet anyone who could have been your parents in my travels but …” He bit his lip. “If they could see you now, I bet they would be awfully proud. I bet they loved you a whole lot ...”

Angus looked at Taako. He had only sometimes been privy to moments of honesty from the elf and had learned to play them off as nothing. He knew that Taako didn’t like the attention. Didn’t like it when someone pointed out when he actually cared

So he smiled quietly to himself and then snuck a glance at the Umbra Staff.

He could feel the energy now and realized it.

He needed to roll an investigation check on that staff.

~ Kravitz looked over his clues again. The Umbra Staff that Taako had carried - the staff that had almost blasted him - had rekindled the mystery that he had almost put to rest.

He had been a bit distracted lately and it wasn’t the top priority anymore.

But that staff. It had been with the Sun Elf’s corpse. It had been in the cave.

He couldn’t just take it from Taako and it hadn’t had as strong of a presence, even after it had almost blasted him like before.

And when he had returned to the scene of the crime, the body was gone. All that remained was dust.

He had another option, but it had been such a tedious idea that he had been avoiding doing it.

But the more he thought about it, the more he realized it was his only plan.

He headed into the Sea of Souls to try and find the Elf’s soul.

It wasn’t a common thing to need to do, but he had been an emissary for long enough that he knew how to sift through the souls that were being cleansed. Since she had died ten years before, he should be able to find her relatively close to the top.

He searched for Sun Elves, knowing that there weren’t as many of them in the Sea of Souls to begin with. They lived long lives and they were nowhere near as numerous as their other elven counterparts - especially after the Old Wars that had nearly decimated them.

The more he thought about the Old Wars, the more he mused about this half-elf child. Sun Elves in particular were not known to harbor fond feelings toward humans and yet here was this child that was the product of such a union. And a child who obviously had been loved enough for the mother to care to leave a note for whoever found her and the child.

He came across a few Sun Elf souls, but none felt right. None of them seemed to even know what he was talking about. He knew they hadn’t been in the sea long enough to have forgotten their past life, but this was ridiculous.

If his mother was here, then she would have been speeding to him to hear about her son. To know if he was safe.

He searched for what felt like days as he combed through the souls. He had to find her. He needed to know if she had any leads on the lich.

He was about to give up, realizing that the only other option was asking the countless human souls, when he felt something that was … wrong.

He looked down into the depths to see the lights start to blink out. He had never seen anything like this before. When a soul was ready to be reborn, it would leave as it had come in.

Instead they were just being swallowed up into darkness.

No. Not quite darkness.

There were shimmering bands of color throughout the darkness that was slowly approaching him.

He didn’t know what this was, but he knew he had only one option.

He began to frantically swim up.

Carey had taught him how to be sneaky. She hadn’t asked why, probably assuming that it was for detective work.

In a way, it was.

Angus sneaked into Taako’s room while they were training. For some reason, Taako had left the Umbra Staff in the room.

It was too easy.

Angus rifled around, looking for any other clues, when he found a headband.

He picked it up and curiously put it on.

“Taako? Taako, get back here! I swear to God if you die during training …”

“H-hello?” Angus asked. “Who said that? I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to break in! I mean I did but -”

“Wait … Ango? The kid that my b̵̸̧͘r̶̕͘͝͡o̶̢͞͝͡t̛͘͜h̡͜͞e͘҉̵͠͞r̵'̴̸͝s̴̶̡̧̨ been training? Sweet!”

“Sorry ma’am … I … I don’t see you and you’re speaking static.”

“Aw beans,” the voice sighed. “You can’t understand it … Um … So … It’s me … In the Umbra Staff …”

Angus gasped.

“You can talk?”

“Heh, yeah … It took a lot but I can,” she chuckled. “Is Taako ok?”

“Yeah! He’s in training. Don’t know why he didn’t take you but … You know.”

“Yeah,” she chuckled. “So, my name’s L͟҉u̸̸̧̨p̨͘͢͟ and I have been in here for quite some time.”

“Sorry, you were speaking static again …”

“Oh … Ok …” she sighed. “Well … I was hoping that I could get Taako to … It’s ok. I guess we can try this again in a year … It’s not like my son is still alive … I shouldn’t have gone out alone …”

“A son?”

“Yeah … I … I had a son,” she started. “I was alone when I had him and I’m pretty sure he’s … He’s gone …”

“Wow, Miss Umbra Staff … Can I call you that?”

“Sure kid.”

“I just … didn’t know Umbra staffs could have kids!”

“Well, I wasn’t always one … But … Yeah … Gods, you look so familiar,” she pondered. “If I didn’t know better, I would have thought … sorry, I just miss my family.”

“I’m so sorry. I … I never met my mom.”

“Oh …”

“It’s ok! She died, saving me from a murderer! Once I’m done helping the Bureau of Balance, I’m going to go back to trying to solve her murder! Someone said a lich did it!”

Angus felt something in the umbrella. Something sad. The feeling quickly went away.

“Oh geez. Are you sure you’re old enough to be doing that?”

“Yeah! I solved a murder bef- Well, I guess you were there, huh?”

“Heh. Yeah.”

The umbrella felt heavy in Angus’ hands.

“Hey kiddo. No offense, but … It’s getting difficult to project myself out anymore …”

“Oh! Yeah, you must be getting tired …” Angus replied sadly. “Do ...Do you want me to sing you a lullaby? I've always known it so I think my mom sang it to me!”

“Sure kiddo.”

Angus sang softly, the elvish words to a long forgotten lullaby drifting through Lup’s mind. It was strange. She knew this lullaby by heart, but it was impossible for her to understand how he would know it. Her mother sang it to her when she was a baby and she remembered singing it while her son was still in the womb.

Her thoughts became fragmented as she started to drift out of consciousness. She could have sworn she heard her and Barry’s composition being worked into the lullaby.

But it was impossible.

Just wishful thinking.

#blupjeans #barry bluejeans #lup #angus mcdonald #angus bluejeans #taakitz #taagnus #Lucretia #taako #magnus burnsides #taz merle #davenport #johann #fisher

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overfedvenison · 6 years

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Neverwinter Nights 2 Journal....

Alright, I went through the Coven of Hags. I wasn't expecting much - it was basically a string of nonlinear challenges to get to the front of the line, and I had to fight the last group as the group of undead refused to budge or speak to me. No matter, I turned their Vampires into Chickens and killed the rest.

But upon gaining council, the hags trapped me in a dungeon - The Skein. Around here I'm feeling the Fighter's lack of Diplomacy, and so am improving my Intimidate skill as I level.

The atmosphere here is thick. It's dark, dank, and dripping with water. A mad hag is somewhere beyond, cackling and screaming as you explore. I really like the concept, and it's unnerving at first... But the hag just talks too much, and after a while it gets sort of annoying rather than scary. A shame, but an excellent first impression.

The Skein is kind of rough at places... My wizard Safiya is hanging back near the start, buffing me with a Persist Haste while I venture fourth. By using Stealth, Tracking, and Search I wander through the area alone, without much issue aside from a group of hags who's magic eventually wore me down enough that I had to use my Telthor Leg Bone to become Ethereal and retreat until I regenerated... For some reason I didn't want to stay locked-on to attack them, either. Still, being worn down once and retreating to use a Ring of Regeneration gives me about twice as much HP as I actually have, and I have 480 HP, so... Not too much three hags can do against that while I attack them with my Reaper's Despair sickle, haha. At another point, I brought out a bow and started sniping an elemental that couldn't reach me.

I also encountered a group of NPCs surviving in this desolate dungeon and actually got a (Search) dialogue check to call out someone's bluff, which was neat. I found they were listening to "The Sleeper," a drow trapped in an eternal slumber who periodically babbles exposition.

I made my way through the Skein, and made my way to the Hag. Her boss fight was interesting; at one point she took over Safiya and I had to defeat her, but being a wizard the melee fight was one-sided. I wonder what would have happened if I was alone? In any case, it seems the hag was placed here for a relationship with a human that she loved, which birthed Gann. In this playthrough I never met him, so.... Whelp. Interesting information, nonetheless. I elected to kill her before the madness returns - Neutral, remember.

Killing her gave me the ability to travel into dreams. Weird, but sure. I travelled into The Sleeper's nightmare, and she begged me to kill her as the hags trapped her in eternal slumber due to dream traveling. Since I am neutral, I decided to to kill her, as well - I might have freed her if I wanted to slaughter the coven of hags above, but she's right in her assessment that the knowledge they have is too valuable.

From there, I went upstairs, fought some hagspawn, and entered into the dream of the coven...

(...)

The coven first sent me on a stageplay at a dreamscape of the theater my and Safiya are staying at, where we reenacted Akechi's defeat at the hands of the god of death. My character was told to improvise, but I didn't know my lines... Akechi didn't flee nor fight, though, and given the god of death is DEAD and replaced by a new death god I suspect Akechi's involvement.

The crowd turned hostile, and so I had to reenact Akechi's punishment and fight off various monsters. Afterwards, the actors playing Akechi's allies told me they would wait for his return and go through the gate when needed.

After that, a portal opened. I followed it to see the slumbering people maintaining the Slumbering Coven, who you could see in the real world before I entered this dreamscape. I entered the human's mind, and he wanted to gamble over a game of "Hells," essentially Mastermind. I beat him three times in a row by keeping track of everything in a note document and analyzing everything.

...After that, I exited to find the other two people gone and a new portal opened. I followed that one as well.

Beyond that was the Red Mage Araman that usurped Safiya's college, standing at the Betrayer's Gate I had found and cleared earlier. Safiya, or someone that looks like her, soon joins him... As expected, Araman is the brother of the child I met in the vision I had earlier (It was hinted at there,) who turns out to be Akechi the Betrayer (Which was at best a theory at the time.) Also as expected, we need to find the Silver Sword of Gith in order to open the gate beyond to the Fugue Plane and the Wall of the Faithless. I found that, being quite thorough, most of the preliminary questions I could inquire about were things I knew already... But now, everything is coming together. We have confirmation that all this is connected: The Spirit Eater Curse, the Sword of Gith, Akechi and the Crusade against the Wall of the Faithless.

Akechi explains that he previously betrayed his god to help his brother. Dream-Safiya knew the betrayer, and he wanted her safety. Akechi "suffered for her love" in her words. We know from earlier that Akechi had turned his back on his faith because his wife, who worshipped no god, died in a magic accident bricked into the Wall of the Faithless. If the woman who looks like Safiya in this dream is indeed that women, that means she may have been successfully removed from the Wall by Akechi during the last crusade?

I have a small argument with Araman here - He says he cannot betray his god again, I tell him that the betrayer would not want them to fight. Araman says that suffering cannot be avoided, and the universe cannot be torn asunder for the sake of one soul. I say "You're hiding behind philosophy and abstraction. However you justify yourself, you've betrayed your brother's trust." He declared that some choices are simply wrong, with love only making it harder to oppose, and that Akechi's quest is selfish and that he did not consider the conesquences. He says that the woman who looks like Safiya, too, "sows suffering in loves name and would have the heavens fall if love was served by this."

Then he attacks. I made short work of him, and the woman who looks like Safiya fades away after thanking me.

Uhh, you can choose to say his hand was forced, and he is not to blame, or that the gods should be obeyed, or that love is most important... But I'm neutral in the most "Gods and demons, get the hell off my planet" sense, and not schmaltzy enough to support love for loves sake. The Wall of the Faithless is planar dieties imposing their will on mortals, which is inherently unjust to my neutral views.

After that, I exited and took care of the two other people maintaining the Hag Coven's barriers... An Illithid who I had to help escape a maze, and a wizard trapped in a contract with a demon. I got 2500xp each, and a dream dagger I used to kill a pit fiend later.

And then, more plot: The portal brings me to the Wall of the Faithless where we meet Bishop again - An athiest, he is fused into the wall. Apparently he died after escaping the final battle, when the ceiling caved in on him (Since that data is not kept in the expansion, you basically just select what happened in a dialogue choice.) Despite being encased, sentient and awake, inside a wall, he's as sarcastic as ever and in a pitiable state.

He tells me that the wall of souls waits for me to lead the crusade, but he believes it to be a pointless endeavor and waits to be devoured to nothing. Then he drops a bomb on us: When taken over for just a moment by some outside force, he sees us inside the wall.

After fighting a pit fiend, I took a mask fragment from his body.

(...)

So, what does this all mean? I have theories...

- First: If I'm following correctly... the Sword of Gith should be at the college of Red Wizards, taken from us in the theater we explored earlier. The owner of the theater we were staying at, and her Red Wizard contact, had sent gargoyles to get us before the start of the game, extracted the silver shard in our chest, and placed us in Okko's Burrow to intentionally receive the curse. Maybe.

- I... Think this may have been a gambit to force us to continue the Betrayer's Crusade, as we reforged the Sword of Gith, and the point of removing the shard from my character's chest and giving her the curse was to complete the blade so I can lead the crusade once more. Araman led a coup in response, to stop our crusade at any cost. Hence, the Red Wizards, now mostly led by him, are our enemies and we will have to fight many to get the Sword of Gith

- The connection between Safiya, Araman, and Akechi explains why she was sent to find us in the Burrow, and how she got inside, at the start of the game Safiya was sent to get me and bring me to her Mother (Edit: Aunt) at the theater, who would have explained the situation, maybe, and brought me to the completed Sword of Gith? But that was interrupted by Araman's flunkies which resulted in the people we had to see dying.

- What's more, the spirit eater curse... Either that was the punishment Akechi endured for his treason, and so he bound himself inside the den and kept his spirit from leaving, or the Spirit Eater Curse is not a curse at all, but something Akechi made intentionally to fight the gods. Or, a third option, it may be the result of a soul being ripped from your body, hence why I am in the Wall of the Faithless. I think the way to cure myself of this affliction is probably to get my soul back from the wall, in any case.

- I don't know yet if Safiya is the same person who was plucked from the wall, perhaps extending her life via her specialized Transmutation magic, or if she is being earnest in not knowing about current happenings or why she was sent to find me. She doesn’t seem like it, at the very least.

EDIT: I played another like, five minutes and cleared the area and got some confusion cleared up. Wah

Anyways...

I left the Wall of the Faithless and spoke to the Coven of Hags, now physical and willing to speak.

The white and red twins were Lienna and Nefris. Nefris is the mother if Safiya and former head of the Red Wizard college, and they were twins...

Uhh...Did we not know that already? I guess I just assumed.

Apparently, they wanted to end me of my affliction. They show me what happaned... The two approached the coven and wanted to know how to cure the affliction, which they were told was indeed an affliction doled out by the former god of death. So I must find the God of Death's corpse, go into his dreams, and find a cure for the affliction that way (Which I have a STRONG INCLINATION is going to be "Get your soul/Akechi's Soul back from the wall of the faithless)

Alright, that reveal... Debunks a few theories I had, but strengthens a few others. Also I think I'm confusing a few of the characters, wuh. It was the white mage who died, not Safiya's mother? Right then...

I spoke to Safiya afterwards who cleared up a bit. - Araman hasn't succeeded on a coup against Safiya's mother, and Safiya's mother was the person in the dream. That means the Red Wizards aren't our enemies... Quite yet - Safiya is safe, then, and just an agent of her mother. - Akechi's allies for the fight are a demilich, a dragon, and a celestial. They were referenced elsewhere. - Since the twins were trying to cure me, they aren't part of a conspiracy.... However, It doesn't seem to make sense that I got the curse for entering Okko's lair in that case. If the Gargoyles took me from the crumbling area in Meredelain to the Theater, and then to Okko's Lair, I would have had to have the Sprit Eater curse before I was in there? No? Unless I was placed there and THEN moved. Mmm.... I think I'm missing something. This will clear itself out in time.

Oh! And Safiya asks to train me now that we're close. First she sharpens my mind and gives me a free +1 INT and a +2 on spell save DCs. Now my Intelligence is 16. ...A shame I don't get skill points for it. I also leveled up, and have 570 HP

#neverwinter nights 2

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sirpoley · 6 years

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On Towns in RPGs, Part 6: Wait, Wasn't This About Maps?

In the first article in this series, I embarked on an ill-defined quest to figure out what, if anything, a town map is actually for in tabletop play.

In the second, I took a look at the common metaphor comparing towns to dungeons—unfavourably.

In the third, I proposed an alternate metaphor: that cities are more like forests than dungeons.

In the fourth, I looked at how forests are used in D&D to see what we could use when thinking about cities.

In the fifth, I got into to the nuts and bolts of designing cities for use in D&D.

Now, we're going to break out the Gimp (or, for you fancy folks, Photoshop) and make some maps.

Splitting the Map in Two

Back in the first article, I compared these two images of medieval Nuremberg:

In that article, I argued that we can make things easier for ourselves as DMs, and be more effective besides, by splitting a D&D map into two separate illustrations: one to set the tone, and one for crunch, much like the tourist map on the right. It's ugly as sin, but if you're a tourist in old Nuremberg, it tells you exactly what you need and no more. Functionally, this particular map wouldn't be very useful in D&D (again, it emphasizes actual streets, which we don't care about, because towns are not dungeons) but, because towns are forests, we can look to existing high-functioning D&D map design—that is to say, regional maps—as inspiration.

Cutting Out the Illustration

By adding an illustration, which, unless you're publishing this city, you can just steal from the internet, you're taking a lot of the load off of your map. The map no longer has to be particularly pretty, it doesn’t have to show individual buildings or roads, and it doesn't have to fit any particular theme. All it has to do is be easy to read, functional, and packed with information. Think about it a little like a character sheet for your city.

What's Left for the Map?

Most D&D town maps try to give a literal depiction of the exact layout of the streets (which isn't useful) and also serve as an evocative piece of art (which is, but can be done better and more easily in other means), but doesn't provide much in the way of useful gameplay information. So… what is useful gameplay information?

Travel Time

Consider the map of the area around Neverwinter Woods that I used earlier. Somewhere in pretty much every RPG rulebook is a table showing daily travel speeds through various different terrain types. In D&D 3.5, for example, an unencumbered human can cover 18 miles overland on flat ground, or 12 miles per day through forests. These values can be increased by major highways. Knowing this information, it becomes trivial for the DM to quickly count up hexes (which are 5 miles each), look up a few numbers on a table, and do a quick calculation to tell the party how many days it takes to get from, say, Neverwinter to Leilon (13 hexes→65 miles→24 miles per day on a highway→2.7 days travel time, rounded to 3). This is important information narratively, but also for game mechanics, as it determines how much food the party must carry (which plays into the encumbrance and wealth rules), and how many random encounters they risk, well, encountering.

Now try to do the same calculation with this map:

An unencumbered human can walk 300 ft per minute, or hustle 600 ft in the same time, though jogging through the city armed to the teeth (as most PCs are) might attract attention. Try to figure out how long it takes to get from, say, #14 to #18 on the map without giving up. There's no grid of any kind, so you'll have to actually measure the distance. You can't travel in a straight line because of the intervening buildings except along the major highways, so you can either measure it in chunks, or, I guess, use a piece of string or something. Then take your measurement, compare it to the scale and divide it by 300 or 600 to find out how many feet it took to do such a thing, and then…

…realize that this number is actually pretty useless. Even if you go through the above steps (which I can't even bring myself to do for this example, and would absolutely not do during play), it's not a helpful measurement. It doesn't take into account crowds, traffic, getting lost, being accosted by strangers, looking for a street sign that's hidden behind a bush, and all of the things that actually determine how long it takes to get around in a city. So, like every other GM in history, you'll never look twice at the "movement per minute" table, never look at the scale, never look at the map, and just say, "eh, it takes ten minutes."

If that works for you, that's fine; you've read a series of walls of text and won't get much out of it. But if you're like me, you'll always have a nagging feeling that you're giving up.

The map of the region around Neverwinter was created with the express purpose of being used in D&D. It is highly specialized for exactly this purpose. The map of Sutulak here was designed, apparently, to help with the morning commute of Sutulakers. So let's turn the city of Sutulak into the forest of Neverwinter.

We need to figure out the town equivalent of forests, mountains, fields, and highways. Highways are literally highways—broad, relatively straight avenues that cut through cities and connect key destinations (such as a market and a gatehouse). As for plains, forests, and mountains? They map pretty clearly to me as low, medium, and high-density construction. Higher density leads to more confusing, twisty, and narrow roads, as well as denser crowds, making it slower to move through these areas (both because you risk taking the wrong turn, and you'll be delayed by traffic). Low-density is the opposite: the more spread-out the buildings are, the more space there is to move between them, the less people there are doing so in the first place, and the easier it is to see where you're going and take the right streets. If your town has large-scale natural elements, such as forests and hills, they should also be included on the map. Sutulak here is criss-crossed with bizarre inner city walls with limited chokepoint entrances, which should also be included on the map.

Districts

In the fifth article in this series, I argued that D&D towns should be thought of as a small number of named, memorable districts (plus a couple of less-memorable Hufflepuff districts). Each district can have its own distinct flavour, racial makeup, police force, and random encounter table (if you use those), and a memorable name.

Points of Interest

Critical buildings and places should be marked with numbers that correspond to a key somewhere. For the more artistically inclined, you could also pick out these buildings in other ways, such as the Nuremberg tourist map's large silhouettes of major attractions.

Putting it Together

You've stuck with me this far, let's power through to the end. Let's take this useless map of Sutulak and turn it into a cutting-edge game aid, step by step.

1. Give it a grid. You can use a square grid (like a pleb) or a modern, high-tech hex grid. Either is absolutely fine. I just overlaid a hex pattern as a new layer over the original one.

Counting distance is massively easier now. No string or ruler needed; just count the hexes.

2. Highways and Barriers

The various walls and highways criss-crossing the city are important both narratively and mechanically, so let's highlight them, too. Try to keep the number of these small so as to be significant and memorable, don't just connect everything to everything else with a highway, because then we're back at the level of worrying about individual roads.

Red lines are highways and allow faster movement; grey lines are walls and prevent movement barring some kind of skill check, spell, etc. Crossing them may also be illegal.

3. Embrace Abstraction

This map still has a bunch of minor streets and buildings confusing the issue. Here's where we're going to embrace full abstraction by removing them outright. Stop seeing the trees, start seeing the forest; there are no buildings or roads, there is only districts and density. Let's get this out of the way first of all: this won't be pretty. With a proper illustration, though, it doesn't need to be.

What I'm going to do is use different fill textures to denote different types of hexes representing district and density. District allocation is more of an art than a science; theoretically I could use every walled-in subdivision as its own district, however, this crazy criss-crossed town has too many of those to be memorable. Instead, I'll combine a few walled-in sections into districts, and in doing so, declare that they have economic, cultural, and ethnic ties to each other. A real artist could do pretty textures in these areas (like the forest texture in the Neverwinter map), but as this is a test case, and I am not a real artist, I don't want to get too bogged down in aesthetics and I'll use simple pattern fills.

Here's the district map. Different angled lines represent different neighbourhoods. There are five, which I've creatively titled North, East, South, West, and Central. Each district (except central) has at least one gate to the outside world and one highway. I've also moved the walls above the grid layer (making them more visible) and removed the grid outside the city as it was noisy and unnecessary.

Now we can inject building density into the equation. Building density implies population density, which tells us how narrow, twisty, and crowded the streets are, which finally solves our 'movement rate' question.

Here we have it: five districts, clearly delineated from each other through textures, and density represented by weight of the lines. Central district there is packed, as befitting a city center, so the entire district is at maximum weight. Because moving through cities has little to do with your physical movement capabilities and more to do with traffic and navigation skill (a Ferrari wouldn't get you through traffic any faster than a Honda), we can largely ignore a character's movement stat and base movement just off of hex density. Maybe we can come back to this, but for the time being, let's say you can move through low density hexes (with little traffic and lots of clear sightlines making for easy navigation) and highways at a rate of 3 hexes per minute, medium density hexes at a rate of 2 per minute, and high-density hexes at a rate of 1 per minute. Highways boost speed not only because they are broad and straight, but also because it is much harder to take a wrong turn on them and have to double back.

If you wanted a coarser grid, you could make each hex 300ft, and say that it took you 1 minute to move through a light density hex, 2 minutes to move through a medium density hex, and 3 minutes to move through a high density hex.

Future Improvements

I also added points of interest numbers in this step. If I were to do it again, I'd make them more distinct, such as using the original map's white circles, or perhaps with stylized building silhouettes, like the Nuremberg tourist map.

Districts can also be denoted using colours, with darkness and lightness indicating density, perhaps given borders like nations on a world map to distinguish them a little more from each other. Gates between walled prefectures are also important enough that maybe we could borrow a little from dungeon maps and give them a bright, visible "door" symbol. Also, the medium and heavy weighted areas are a bit too similar looking for my taste, so improvements could be made there, as well.

Still, I think this is the right direction. I'm going to let this idea percolate for a while, and maybe try it out in a game or two of my own, before tinkering with it too much.

#D&D #D&D5 #OnTownsinRPGs

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lightspires · 6 years

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— the story so far… (24-26/8/18)

At the ball inside the castle, the Ruler of Neverwinter danced with Rurik and didn’t seem sick at the time. As Elion just wants to get home, they decide to leave the party early but as they head out, they see Iarno Albrek trying to slip away unnoticed. They follow him into the city and catch up to him, kick his ass some and eventually he admits that yes, Artem Naeris was at the party and after this night, the ruler will be under his control. He promises Bree he never ordered her death but she won’t have it and with the others help, she kills him in the street. Bree stabbing him in the balls and Elion saying “you’re ugly” literally taunting him to death. After this, they manage to convince the guards they just found Iarno like this and they were lucky Sandor was the guard to convince.

After a night of stressful dreams, the friends receive a letter from Bran’s sister Caitriona where she asks them to join her on her journey to her hometown Dunbar. They decide to do this and make sure to head to Herman Rockford’s mansion where they find the missing Asir Kirksdottir and a whole bunch of evidence as to him having solid slaves way before working for the Black Spider. All this is of course handed over to Safiya and she promises to do something about this. They also manage to find the missing boyfriend Frerin, which results in an engagement and a very happy soldier. After paying a visit to the Burna Eifrahim’s family they realize her older sister had also vanished a couple of years earlier and that both sisters were born on the same day, sometime during the summer months.

Leaving Neverwinter with Caitriona, Eoghan, Aynswyth and Rosemary they head toward Dunbar, about a week from the city. On the way, Eoghan tells the three friends what he hasn’t wanted to tell Caitriona. He says in his desperate attempt to avenge Bran, he discovered more prisoners being brought to Wave echo cave. He freed them, two dwarven twins and a halfling woman. They didn’t have much in common other than a shared birthdate (unclear when) and two of them had also entered into bed with Caitriona’s cousin Gawain of Dunbar, who’s to be instated as heir of Dunbar. Suspicious.

It turns out Bree has many scarves and she kindly lends one to Aynswyth as they pass through Neverwinter. In fact, she has so many scarves it is a wonder no one has noticed before. During their travels, Rurik also noticed that she’s kind of jealous now that Elion seems so close to the gang he got to know in the prison of Wave Echo Cave. She is worried he’ll leave them.

After a rough battle with a rare banshee, they make it to the lairdship of Dunbar, a place much smaller than Neverwinter. They’re brought into the castle the servants entrance and get cleaned up in the guest wing, Bree resting with Raybard on her back, lending a scarf to Rurik to cover up the bloodstains on her clothes and they all braid each other’s hair. But the niceness of being cleaned and the amusement of Rurik realizing Caitriona and Aynswyth are romantically involved, soon goes away when they enter the party and Caitriona’s relationship with her parents gets apparent. Caitriona’s parents seem to have made it close to impossible for their children to cope with the death of their older brother Arcanbald and when Caitriona tries to talk about Bran’s death she is eventually silenced with a slap in the face. Bree overheard her conversation with the Laird and ends up slapping him in the face with her mage hand in anger. Elion and Rurik speak to Gawain of Dunbar, who is drunk and admits he’s slept with people to learn personal things about them, information he then has shared with the Laird who seems to have had a type: dwarves and halflings. This is interesting, seeing as Rosemary earlier said they’d realized humans have started returning (dead or abused) whereas dwarves and halflings have started disappearing more frequently.

A very drunk Caitriona runs off after hearing the announcement her parents had in store for the evening: they have a new son: Desmond of Dunbar. The friends try to sneak around the keep to find information, but get discovered by the kind mrs Fisher who shows them the library but then urges them to head back to their rooms. Well there, they hear about Bran and Caitriona’s childhood and eventually are shown the Hall of portraits, where they see paintings of the Dunbar children, Arcanbald, Brandoc and Caitriona. Here, they suddenly learn that Bran and Caitriona shared the same birthday, the midsummer solstice. This would have been fine, had it not also been the same birthday of Rurik, Bree and Elion as well. very confused, they quickly decide that because something seems up with that specific birthday, they should change theirs. The surprises don’t end there, however, because as Bree and Rurik are asking about their dead friend Bran, Elion suddenly realizes something.

Bran isn’t dead. He’s never seen the man alive before but now that he sees his painting he realizes that’s not true. Only a little more than week ago, when they were all at the ball in Neverwinter, an undead man danced with him. That was Bran. Reeling with this discovery, the friends quickly decide not to tell Caitriona about this yet and they all go to sleep without a word about it to the already very upset Caitriona.

In the dead of night, Elion is awoken and convinced by Caitriona to come with her and kidnapp her baby brother, as she argues she cannot let the child stay in this family or it will mess him up. Elion agrees but wakes Bree and Rurik to be sure they know what’s going on. As Elion makes his way toward the nursery, Bree and Rurik tell a confused Aynswyth about what’s happening and after mild confusion, they realize Caitriona might intend to kill the baby. They all leave the castle without detection and by the time Elion and Caitriona make it to the forest, the others catch up. It is a tearful Caitriona that argues why she should kill the child, that her family will ruin him and eventually Elion and Rurik manage to convince her not to kill him, Rurik saying she once took in a child who wasn’t hers by blood and she loved him more than she ever thought possible. Someone else can take this child and do that for him.

In the dark of dawn, they all hurry away from the lairdship, leaving Raybard the fox behind in the forest. During their travels back toward Phandalin, they almost get caught by a group of soldiers but Bree manages to convince them the baby is hers. Elion takes Caitriona and the baby on a bonding excursion through Neverwinter, where they buy a horse and a cart with supplies and rejoin the others outside the city walls. Elion of course bought pastries for everyone. The baby is a sweet little boy who learns to walk as they finally reach Phandalin, after more than two weeks on the road. In Phandalin, Sildar Hallwinter is happy to see them all and takes them in without hesitation. but he’s worried about the baby and sets up guards around Phandalin in case someone comes to look for him. He can’t stay there.

After a couple of days of delivering messages to the people saved from Wave Echo Cave and seeing family, having dinners and enjoying some well earned rest. the Tresendar opens back up and the three friends decide to enter into it, to see what OST-ia has to say this time. She seems more like a person now than last time and offers them all some well earned compensation for the work they’ve done for her. By way of connections, she offers Rurik a chance to discover a new god; Lathander, god of dawn. Elion learns that it is time now for him to become what he was born to be, whatever that means and he’s made into a Paladin of light. Bree and OST-ia also make a pact, where OST-ia becomes a new source of power for Bree. Bree is made into a warlock, with OST-ia as her familiar, ready to set out on the road with them, should they want her to.

Before Bree had her conversation with OST-ia, however, she saw Bran. Not a memory of him but a version of him where his skin was slightly blue in color and his hair was wiping in a slow motion wind, where one of his dark eyes was cloudy as if damaged and dark veins reached up that side of his face. When asking OST-ia about this, she said she had nothing to do with this image and that Bran must have managed to do that herself. She promised she would look into how that could have happened.

But what is now to happen with the Laird’s cub Desmond? And why does the elven Lightspire symbol that Elion has on his chest also glow on the walls of OST-ia’s memory core? Will OST-ia discover how Bran could communicate with Bree and what is the significance of people born on the midsummer solstice?

#the story so far

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scenitroute · 6 years

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Ten Days From Raven’s Roost

Ok. Here it is. My first TAZ fanfiction. I don’t even have many followers into TAZ I’m sure. Thanks to @zrllosyn for pushing me through this one and encouraging much worse to come. and thanks to @amysantiagone from the TAZ fic writer’s discord for beta-reading the completed draft. You guys rock!

Title: Ten Days From Raven’s Roost

Warnings: Happy Mango, Sad Mango, Angry Mango

Summary: Magnus Burnsides travels 10 days to Neverwinter from his home in Raven’s Roost to enter his hand made rocking chair into a carpentry arts contest, where he is expected to win the award that will officially recognize him as a master carpenter. Two days into his journey, his home is attacked by the very villain he defeated not long before. 76 people were killed, including his new wife, Julia, and her father-his mentor, Steven.

“Do you remember the last thing you said?”

“I said…’I love you Jules’.”

It was the last of the warmer months and Neverwinter was crowded. The townspeople lined the streets with booths to pander their best merchandise, and tourists from towns away came to explore. While the days were still long, skilled craftsmen traveled from all over to compete for gold and title, to be recognized for their craft. The competitions pulled in many business owners and wealthy collectors looking to commission the most talented workers.

The excitement could be felt throughout the busy city, and it infected Magnus as he strolled through the marketplace, a particular bounce in his step of pride despite the burden on his back. It was still early in the day, and Magnus was beaming with energy and grinning as he scanned the rows of shops. He didn’t stop at any of them, and only slowed to wave a quick goodbye to a fellow competitor he’d met during his time here. The road led out of Neverwinter into a much smaller town on the outskirts, but Magnus was going further than that. On his back was strapped his now prize-winning chair, along with his normal pack of rations. A ten day journey lay ahead of him, and he was eager to get home and share the news of his victory with his new wife, who was waiting there for him.

Jules would say she wasn’t surprised, but kiss him excitedly all the same. Mr. Waxmen would clap him on the back with a bark of laughter. Magnus….Magnus would just be happy to be home again.

Magnus had never considered that a quiet life in a small village would suit him. For as long as he had known, he had always been on the go. Even as he exited Neverwinter he had the urge to go back and explore what he hadn’t yet seen there. Yet when he thought of home, of Julia, his heart felt settled, and longed to return.

His pace quickened a little as he pictured her smiling face. Ten more days until he reached Raven’s Roost, and held Jules in his arms again. That was better than any adventure or prize, he thought.

Two nights in a row Magnus didn’t bother looking for an inn to sleep in. He set up a small camp for himself and laid on a mat he’d brought along. There were a few clouds, but the moon shone bright and lit up their wispy edges from behind. Magnus stared at the stars that were visible, awed by them. He had a certain fondness for clear starry nights that he couldn’t quite explain. Julia never did question it, content with watching the night sky with him. They would talk about the expanse of stars, and she would go on about constellations and beauty when Magnus fell silent, staring in wonder at the thousands of white lights.

Magnus awoke early the third morning and set off again. Throughout the day the clouds grew denser, and darker, and much earlier than the night before, the sky grew dark.

The closest village was miles behind him when the rain started to fall, but only moments after the first droplet hit Magnus, he saw a small cottage ahead. A wooden awning stuck out over the front door, off center, but still providing cover for the doorway with some extra space to stay comfortably out of the sun, or, as Magnus thought now, the rain.

It took several moments after knocking for the door to open, and Magnus was greeted by a half elven man wearing stained brown pants and a light knitted shirt.

“Oh!” he said. “Hello!”

“Hail and well met!” Magnus smiled a little sheepishly and waved. “I um.. I’m travelling a long way and I wondered if I could impose on you for a short time. If it’s fine with you, I’ll just stay out here under this cover until the rain passes, and be on my way again.”

The man stepped forward a bit and looked at the sky and the rain now pouring down heavily.

“This storm will surely last through the night,” he hummed, scratching his ear as Magnus’s face fell. Then, a little forlornly he added, “Probably floor th garden in too…”

The man stepped back to the doorway, motioning to Magnus. “Come on in stranger,” he invited. “We won’t have you sit on the stair the whole evening and we’ve just finished making some stew. You’re a big fella but I’m sure there’s enough for yo-”

A muffled crash interrupted him that made both men jump, followed by a voice calling from further inside the house.

“Mattias! Matti it’s fallen again!”

The man grimaced but led Magnus inside.

“You can leave your pack in the corner there,” he said, quickly pointing it out and heading into the adjacent room.

Magnus set the chair down first, adjusting the canvas covering it as he did, then laid his bag and rolled up mat on its seat before turning to follow his host.

Just inside the other room was a small round table, worn with scratches on its surface. A pile of trinkets lay scattered across it and a stack of books toppled as it was pushed by a second, held by a dark skinned human woman. She snatched one book before it fell off the table and moved to adjust the stack before looking up and seeing Magnus for the first time.

“Hello!” she said, smiling through clear exasperation. “Please excuse the mess, this shelf just doesn’t want to stay together anymore.”

“I’m sorry love,” Mattias straightened up next to her, having picked up a couple boards that had come apart. It was a small bookshelf that seemed to be poorly attached at the corners, causing it to come apart. “I’ll see if I can find a new one in town.”

Magnus didn’t miss a beat. “I can fix that for you!”

The couple laughed. “Don’t you worry about it,” the woman said. “Please dear sit. What’s your name?”

“Magnus Burnsides.”

“Welcome Magnus,” the woman smiled. The pair finished picking up the fallen items and did’t complain when Magnus helped to carry them into the other room so they could all sit at the table to eat.

Their names were Jaznah and Mattias, a young couple who had just inherited this little cottage from Jaznah’s parents. She was pregnant, and they had plans to build another room onto the home to make space for their growing family. However they were struggling to keep together what was already there.

“It’s a perfect home for us,” Mattias said as he finished his meal. “There’s plenty to fix up, but we’ll manage. It’s just old.”

“Matti is always so positive about things,” Jaznah stood from the table and collected their bowls. “But we’ll have enough money to hire someone if we can’t finish the extra room in time.”

Mattias rolled his eyes with a smile and moved to help her as Magnus chuckled.

He stood from the table as well and went around to look over the broken shelf. It looked like a simple fix in refastening the corners so they wouldn’t tilt when weight was placed on them. He insisted on mending it as repayment for the meal and shelter, and they relented.

Magnus settled on the floor with some tools he’d retrieved from his pack and set to work eagerly. Jaznah took a notebook from the stack of books and sat back at the table with a contented sigh. Mattias finished cleaning up from their dinner before taking to watch Magnus work.

“This must be your trade,” he commented, and Magnus nodded.

“I’m actually returning home from the Continental Craftsman Showcase,” he muttered as he sanded the roughened edges of the wooden sheets. “Back home I work in a pretty well renowned shop.”

“So you’re a pretty big deal!” Mattias laughed. “Something like this old shelf is hardly worth your time.”

Magnus waved a hand. “This is the least I could do for the kindness you’ve shown me. After this I’ll be on my way as well so-”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Mattias interrupted. “Don’t you hear that storm? That won’t be over anytime soon.”

“I couldn’t, it’s too much trouble…”

“It’s no trouble at all,” said Jaznah with finality, looking up from her notebook which she had begun writing in. “It’s night anyway, and there’s no inn for miles.”

Smiling appreciatively, Magnus bowed his head and thanked them both. He carefully set new nails into the connecting corners of the shelf, then tested the other corners to make sure they didn’t also need repair. As he went he described the work to Mattias, who began asking for advice on the building project ahead of them. The shelf was finished quickly, and the pair moved to the more open sitting area. There was a single bench in the room, padded with sheepskin and placed in front of a simple hearth where a fire was already going. As they went Magnus looked back at Jaznah, who stayed at the table, bent over her notebook, focused on writing. He found himself staring with a sense of comforting familiarity.

“She likes to write stories,” Mattias explained. “They’re really something too, I’ll never need to try and come up with something to entertain our children.”

“She’s so focused,” Magnus said, almost to himself. He pictured Julia pouring over the stack of orders they’d received, tongue between her teeth as she sorted through the work.

He was pulled from his brief daydream by Mattias’s voice, quiet and full of emotion that Magnus easily recognized.

“She just enters her own world when she writes. It’s truly amazing.”

A warm expression of deep admiration fell over Mattias’s features as he gazed at Jaznah, and Magnus felt exciting welling up in him again to get home.

They relaxed on the bench and talked for a while, until Jaznah joined them and Magnus pulled out the prize-winning rocking chair to show them.

“Oh my god!” she exclaimed. “How did you get it to smell so good? Lavender is my favorite!”

Magnus laughed, and invited her to sit in it.

“It’s a beautiful work of art,” Mattias said. “I’d say it’s worth the journey to Raven’s Roost for new furniture if you’re making it! Expect to see me sometime!”

“I’ll be looking forward to it!”

Late into the night they talked and laughed, before finally turning in. They left Magnus to recline on the bench, giving him some blankets and extra padding for the night.

By the next morning, the rain had stopped. Magnus, despite his eagerness to get home, happily stayed for breakfast before saying goodbye to Jaznah as Mattias walked him outside. He readied his pack again, making sure his tools were secured inside, and stopped before slinging the rocking chair onto his back.

“Hey Mattias,” he called. The man stopped with his hand on the door and looked back at Magnus.

“What’s up?”

Magnus lifted the chair up and carried it up to the house. “I want you guys to have this.”

“What? N-No Magnus, take this back home to your wife,” Mattias tried to push it back into Magnus’s arms as he set it down, but Magnus gently stopped him.

Smiling, he said, “Trust me, we have no shortage of decent chairs in the Hammer and Tongs. I think this will be better suited for you and Jaznah.”

Defeated, Mattias eyed the chair, and then looked up at Magnus. “You really want to leave this with us?”

“Consider it a gift for the baby,” Magnus suggested, shrugging.

Mattias took his hand in a firm shake, grinning widely. “Thank you so much friend! Jazzy will love this!”

“It’ll be a good place to read her stories to the kids,” Magnus said, and Mattias agreed.

“Please stop by again if you’re ever nearby!” he said as Magnus walked away again. “Bring Julia too!”

“I will!” Magnus waved, and he set off again, homeward.

On the seventh day Magnus made a new friend. A stray dog followed him for some time, trotting along beside him. Delighted, Magnus stopped to play with the hound, and when he stopped to rest around midday, the dog lounged on the ground next to him. That night Magnus found a small village, but the dog would not follow him closer to it. With a sad sigh, Magnus gave the stray some of his rations and scratched its ears before entering the village to find an inn.

The place was small and inexplicably crowded, but he breathed a sigh of relief when the owner said there was a single room available. He didn’t linger in the common area, instead Magnus tucked himself away in his room and drifted off. Only a few more days until he was home.

The innkeeper invited him to sit for a meal in the common area before leaving. Magnus was eager to be on his way, but sat at the bar anyway. The room wasn’t nearly as crowded as the night before. At one of the two occupied tables sat 3 men who spoke loudly, but it was friendly and Magnus ignored them.

He chewed on some spiced bread and absently squished the bit of cheese on his plate as he planned for the day. If he kept up his pace he could easily make it home before the next day was out. Bouncing a little in his chair, he dug in his pockets for a few coins to leave.

“Did you see those folks last night?” a voice asked from the table behind him. “Heard they were on the run.”

“What, are they outlaws?”

The third man chimed in. “No, they said they was attacked. Y’know that city on the columns? Raven’s Roost.”

The coins in Magnus’s fingers fell, bouncing on the floor.

“Everything alright sir?” the innkeeper asked, watching the coins roll across the floor. Magnus didn’t answer him.

“Raven’s Roost?” he called to the three men, who turned to look at him. “Is that what you said?”

One of the men glanced at his companions then back up at Magnus. “Yes,” he said. “A few travelers came from there talking about how their city was attacked.”

Magnus blanched and his mouth dried up. “Attacked?” he croaked, and stumbled forward to their table. “Do you know anything else? Any details?”

“Not much,” the man said apologetically. “The group seemed keen on passing through quickly. Sounded like they weren’t the only ones.”

“Who….who attacked?”

“Some tyrant, didn’t catch the name. Gotta be well off though since he managed explosives.”

“You from Raven’s Roost?” the third man asked taking a drink. “Lucky soul you weren’t around. Seems like one of the columns fell, right out from under them people’s feet.”

“Poor souls…” the first man lamented, swirling his glass on its edges on the table.

Magnus didn’t ask for any more, rushing out of the inn and forgetting his pack. Raven’s Roost was still three days journey away, but he didn’t think about that, focusing only on getting back as fast as he could.

He didn’t stop once, he couldn’t. Terrible possibilities burst through his mind like jolts of lightning. Steven taught him everything Magnus knew. He was resourceful and wise and would have made it out of the Craftsman Corridor with Julia, who was brilliant on her own. He only had to find them. Even as he assured himself, terror gripped at his heart every moment, and drove him to travel through the nights, until he finally arrived at the first column of the city, his home, a full day early.

It was abandoned. A ghost town. Every building and home was an empty shell, but he passed them all by, heading straight for the place he knew most of all.

And it was gone. The woodshed, The Hammer and Tongs, the broad desk where Julia stacked their orders and watched Magnus work. Their home…

It was all gone, fallen entirely with all the other shops in Craftsmen Corner. The bridge that had been that column’s connection with the others hung from the residential column in ruins. A sign was hammered into the ground in front of the bridgeposts. A hurried homage to the lost lives, and under it, a list.

A choked sob echoed through the empty air.

Magnus lowered himself to his knees. He felt like he could melt down, and simply slip over the edge. Instead he just stared over it, down into the fog below. Everything he had, all he’d loved and worked for, was below that fog, dashed against the rocks. There were no ruins for him to search. No bodies to mourn over. His fingers dug into the dirt and rocks, clenching as he leaned forward, head hanging over the precipice.

The Mad Governor Kalen only attacked the one column of Raven’s Roost. The shops and of the brave men and women who turned against him. A ragtag team of craftspeople who took back their homes and livelihood. No rescue attempts could even be made for the 76 souls that were in Craftsmen Corridor. Every family left, once accounted for, packed their bags and left the forsaken city, fearful of any further attack. Raven’s Roost was a ghost town, with no one to hear or answer the anguished cries of a man who had lost everything.

Some weeks later, Magnus sat alone in a small tavern. He had no pack, but held a drink in front of him, nearly empty. His calloused fingers rubbed against the grain of the wooden table. Tiny splinters brushed away as he went, and he thought of sanding it, and the smell of sawdust.

The door to the tavern opened, letting in a sliver of outside light, before closing again. Magnus’s mind emptied again, saved from the flash of a too recent memory. He downed the last gulp of his drink and wiped his face with the palm of his hand, eyelids drooping.

“Burnsides?” His eyes shot open.

The voice came from over him. Magnus leaned back in his seat, shaking his head a little to wake up. A familiar half-orc man stood there, holding his own drink and watching him with cautious smile.

Magnus grunted. “Stanek.” He peered back down into his glass, half-hoping Stanek would leave. Instead he heard the chair opposite him scrape against the floor, and the man sat with him. Stanek let out a slow sigh.

“We wondered what happened to you,” he said. “Gunnar said he tried to find you on the road from Neverwinter, but never passed you.”

“I went off the road for a while,” Magnus glared at a spot on the table. “Didn’t want to bother with inns.”

“I’m not surprised.”

Silence fell between them, and Stanek drank half his cup in it. Magnus didn’t move.

“No one knew what happened,” he muttered finally, clenching his fists. “It was days before we knew it was Kalen. By then he was long gone.”

Stanek’s hands relaxed again, but his voice cracked as he continued. “76 people were in Craftsmen Corridor that morning. Shopkeepers mostly, a handful of families….76 souls taken.”

Magnus moved, slowly turning his glare at Stanek, his teeth grinding together.

“76 lives ended,” he growled out. “He killed Julia-everyone, because of us.”

“We didn’t do this Magnus.”

“No,” Magnus agreed, brows furrowing. “Kalen caused all of this.”

He laid his palms flat on the table and sat up just slightly so he could lean forward, still staring straight at Stanek.

“I’m going to kill him,” he said. “I’m going to hunt him down and end Kalen.”

Stanek sat back slowly, eyes widening. “Shit Magnus,” he glanced around, then pulled himself back to look at his friend. “No one knows where he’s gone.”

“I will find him Stanek.”

“And if you do?” Stanek opened his palms to the air. “He’s still got plenty of followers, too many people are protecting him. Magnus you led an army but that army…all those people are gone now. You won’t be able to reach him Magnus, it’s a suicide mission!”

As he spoke Magnus hunched his shoulders more and more, and his hands curled on the table into tight fists. At Stanek’s last word Magnus slammed both fists down with a loud grunt. “I DON’T CARE!”

Stanek reeled back, gaping at him. The room went quiet as the handful of other patrons eyed the pair warily. The bartender barked an order to calm down from behind his counter. Magnus acknowledged him with a fierce look, but sat back in his seat, keeping his balled up hands in the small spaces he’d indented into the wood.

He spoke again, a low growl that only Stanek could hear as Magnus lowered his head again to stare in his lap.

“He took everything from me. I don’t care anymore. I have nothing, and I don’t give a shit.”

As Magnus’s composure shifted, loosening, Stanek’s own eyes started to water. “I’m going to find him, alone,” Magnus said. “And I’m going to kill him. It’s all I have.”

“You earned your happy ending Magnus. If you use me, you can have it all back.”

“Julia wouldn’t want this.”

#taz #taz: balance #magnus burnsides #taz fanfiction #my writing #angst #the adventure zone

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everyonesomething · 6 years

Text

Session 21

Edith Runekill stands up.

Malkas stuffs a few more fries into his mouth, then follows Edith.

Pepper finishes off her milkshake and roots around what Mal left of his fries.

Capridi waits until she finishes her last burger before she gets up to help. She follows the rest outside.

Grim is with Cap on this one, she finishes her food before she goes anywhere

Edith Runekill is still holding her pop when she arrives outside.

Sydney Gaydos is already Gone With the Wind you guys and HELPING. She quickly makes her way to the people in need with the car. "Hello! Never fear! The Great Detective Gayods is here to help!"

Pepper follows out, eventually.

In this session, we take care of a one-eyed monster and end up with a baby.

The set-up: Later in the day after Big Hex and Mal's magic lessons.

The Game: We've escaped the no man's land of county fairs and truck stops and are on the way to the next populated town. The first sign of civilization is poorly painted, in the middle of the highway, reads “RODE CLOZED”, and directs us to a detour path off the main road. Being the adventuring group we are, we decide to ignore the sign completely and keep on the main road. We're rewarded with a small town, a diner, and a pile of burgers for lunch.

While the group eats, Mal makes friendly chat with Cap and asks if she's ever been to Thay—our ultimate destination. She dodges his question and the conversation is cut short when everyone notices a beat-up car being pushed into the parking lot by a bloodied and haggard looking couple. Syd rushes out to help, followed shortly by Mal and Edith with Cap, Pepper, and Grim eventually making their way out.

The couple tells us they followed a sign on the road to a detour where a pair of giants were waiting and asked for a toll. They tried to pay money, but the giants smashed their car and took their baby. Good thing we're here!

Grim nods and looks at Sydney

Helia (GM): "They didn't want money, we... we tried to pay them."

"They smashed the car and took our daughter."

Sydney Gaydos returns a look at Grim, then the couple and then looks Serious. "We'll get your baby back."

Edith Runekill leans in close. "That's awful, and we're not gonna let 'em get away with it."

Edith Runekill: "We'll do whatever we can to bring your little girl back, safe and sound."

Helia (GM): "Wh-what? Why?"

Sydney Gaydos: "Because that's what we do of course! We're heroes!"

Capridi just goes along with it for once.

Grim: "Cause nobody gives a kid a choice."

Capridi nods

Helia (GM): "We... uh, okay... Thank you." The woman bursts into tears again.

With a bit more questioning, we figure out that the giants are a pair of cyclops and the less said about why they want a baby, the better. We waste no time driving out to the detour and come up with a plan: lure the cyclops out and try to get the drop on them.

Malkas looks around, "I'm... gonna hide, see if I can get the drop on them?"

Capridi: "Are you suggesting we bait them?"

Capridi looks around "Who's the shortest?"

Pepper eyes between Grim and Edith. "With or without the hat?"

Edith Runekill eyes the rest of the party, warily.

Grim looks at Capridi

Grim: "One've us looks like livestock."

Capridi glares back at Grim, though she has a point

Malkas makes a gesture with his hand and he vanishes from sight.

Malkas: The leaves rustle as he apparently jumps into the bushes.

Sydney Gaydos: "One-eye beings do have trouble seeing... most things. Capridi could be mistaken for livestock under the right sort of circumstances."

Grim and Mal go hide while Pepper, Syd, Edith, and Cap try to sell the illusion of a giant sheep to a pair of giant sheep-eaters. They buy the ruse, except they want a sheep and a half as payment to pass and won't be haggled down. One kindly agrees to take the sheep we do have and they'll wait for the other to be delivered, but we decide to just cut to the chase.

Helia (GM): One of the cyclops puts his club down and bends down to pick up Capridi.

Capridi takes her sickle out of her bag but keeps it behind her back. She is trusting this plan less than before it had even started.

Helia (GM): "Lets see sheepy."

Grim: "Look with your eye, not your hands."

And Grim shoots it in the eye. Mal gets the drop on one of them, but Grim accidentally shoots him, too. He was still invisible, oops. Then double oops when the cyclops he's riding pastes him with its club kinda-sorta killing him a bit. Syd hookshots onto the cyclops that can still see and gets in a few whacks while Cap heals Mal. After getting roughed up by a cyclops's club, Edith spies a bag tied to one of their waistbands with the baby inside. Mal runs off to recover her while the others take shots at the pair of cyclops to keep them distracted.

Mal's successful and passes the baby off to Cap while one of the cyclops passes Syd off to Grim. By throwing her. Grim, enraged, moves to rush the cyclops but is stopped short by Edith hitting it with a massive fireball.

And that's one down! The group gangs up on the remaining cyclops and with a few coordinated attacks—including another giant fireball from Edith—it dies. We win!

Edith helps Cap console the baby while Syd helps Pepper console Grim.

Sydney Gaydos nudges Pepper on the back a bit. "Perhaps a certain elven friend named Pepper? Gaydos would offer but she is unsure of what the problem is, but you seem to know."

Malkas: "How's uh... it doing?"

Edith Runekill: "She's calmed down. Poor little thing..."

Malkas cocks his head at the baby. Most of the babies he's met have had tails and horns. This one seems somehow ... incomplete.

Pepper to Syd. "Yeah. Maybe." She scoots a little closer to Grim.

Pepper: "Hhhhhhhhhhhhey." It sounds like she's sprung a leak.

Grim: "Leave me be, Pepper." Her voice is a little lower than usual. Warning.

Pepper claps her hands together. "Roger-dodger."

Pepper spins on her heel back to Syd.

Well. The baby's doing fine. We deliver her back to her grateful parents and decide the best thing to do is put as much distance between this place and us as possible.

Malkas reaches into his bag and pulls out a flask. He hands it over his back to Grim.

Grim glances at the flask and then accepts it without a word

Grim takes a swig and hands it back

Edith Runekill wanders over to Capridi

Malkas takes it.

Edith Runekill: "Hey, Capridi..."

"Nice work back there."

Edith Runekill: "You saved the baby, you saved Mal..."

"So. Well."

"Thanks."

Capridi shakes he head and shrugs "I'm earning my keep. But yeah... Stealing babies is some bullshit I can't tolerate."

Edith Runekill nods, emphatically.

Malkas pulls out of the parking lot and on to the road. "We got maybe sixteen hours to Proskur."

Edith apologizes to Grim for all the fire during the fight, Grim tells her not to worry about it. Grim also apologizes to Mal for the friendly fire, but he waves her off. They all wax philosophical—night driving and close brushes with death have that effect on people.

Grim: "....you were right, Runekill."

"We did good today."

Edith Runekill: "Thanks."

Edith Runekill exhales her cigarette smoke slowly. She did good today. They all did.

Grim removes her hat and sets it in her lap, opening her eyes again to stare at the sky

Grim: "Ilmater says we suffer to keep others from suffering. Once in a while, it's a call you get to make."

Edith Runekill nods.

Grim: "There's patterns that repeat, like frost spreading out over glass. But when you seen it once, you know how it's gonna go further on down the road."

"Once in a while you're in a time and a place to intervene."

"And that ain't ever somethin' I'll take for granted."

Edith Runekill: "Yeah..."

"If we'd eaten lunch a little earlier, or stopped somewhere, we never would've even known those folks were in trouble..."

"The fact that circumstances all aligned to bring us together at that moment, at just the right time to save a kid... it feels like a gift? Or..."

Pepper: "Luck?" she offers, digging into an orange she pulled out of some pocket.

Edith Runekill: "I don't know. It just feels... Important."

Grim: "I'll say it is important, to the kid that gets to grow up."

Edith Runekill: "Enid."

"Gonna be thinking about her for a long time after this, I think."

Grim: "There's worse things than being remembered."

Grim lights a fresh cigarette and closes her eyes again

Pepper: "And her folks," she says, idly trying to pass Grim half the orange.

Grim either doesn't notice or straight up ignores it

Pepper: "Having to think the worst about their kid like that. It'll stick with them, too," she says, taking the orange for herself.

Malkas: "Almost was the worst."

Pepper: "Mm," she agrees, settling into her seat with a serious look.

Edith Runekill: "But... but it wasn't."

"And at least we can say that much."

Edith, Mal, and Pepper talk about their parents and compare upbringings.

Malkas: "My mom told me, before I left for Neverwinter, is that chances to help would fall into my lap and to just take them when I found them."

Pepper: "Yeah? That's nice. Maybe she could give my mom a few pointers for encouraging words," she grins, tossing the orange peel.

Edith Runekill: "Before I moved to Neverwinter, my ma said I was definitely going to get mugged and murdered because cities aren't safe."

Edith Runekill shrugs.

Malkas: "I'd pay good money to get your ma, mine and Pepper's into a room."

"Together."

Edith Runekill: "Oh, Auril."

Pepper: "Bah, you don't even know my mom."

Edith Runekill: "Ocila and Ma would probably get in a fistfight."

Malkas: "You know my mom would knock yours the hell out."

"Pep, I'm just making an educated guess."

Pepper: "Oo, go on," she says, sitting up and grinning right at Mal.

Edith Runekill hides under her hat.

Malkas: "I feel like she's a bit distant. Loved you but also wanted you to play outside and not get dirt on the rug."

"Or only play inside."

"And not get dirt anywhere."

"That about right?"

Pepper snorts loud.

Malkas: "I'm just guessing. I'm no great judge of character."

"I think your mom is probably pretty fancy at the very least."

Pepper: "No, no, you got it exactly right. If you wanted to describe most of her relationship with my dad. Except the distant part."

"But fancy, yes," she says, eating a candy.

Malkas: "My mom's idea of fancy is buying a suit for Lemuel only when we were kids because then it would only be a little too big for me and a little too small for Ferg."

"We could never wear it at the same time, if we all had a special occasion, we'd need to do quick changes in the bathroom as we needed to appear."

Pepper: "That's rough."

Malkas: "Eh."

Pepper: "But, nah, my mom," she thinks. "She was just always around. Dad had work to do a lot so it was just us. It's not like I have any siblings, unsurprisingly."

Edith Runekill has been notably silent here.

Pepper: "So we did a lot together. She even did my tutoring for awhile."

Pepper: "She'd like you guys, I think," she says, examining her fingernails.

Malkas: "Everyone likes me."

Edith Runekill: "It's true."

Bless these nerds.

#previously on #summary #neverwinter 1933

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writingsofawanderingwonderer · 7 years

Text

Game Postmortem: The Heart of Tales

Hello, and welcome to the Behind the Scenes article for my game, The Heart of Tales.

Quick intro here. This will contain spoilers for the game.

I've sorted this article into different parts: WRITING, ART, MUSIC, and the POST MORTEM. Each of those parts has different sections, and so on. You can skip ahead to the sections you want to read about.

Also, I'll refer to the player character by her default name, Hiro.

I tried to keep everything short, but it ended up being this long.

Now with that out of the way, let's begin.

=====WRITING=====

Inspiration: From Baldur's Gate to Tolkien

The Heart of Tales is inspired by various RPG games with medieval fantasy settings. Worlds where swords can talk, and you can take mysterious items to a shopkeeper to identify them. I decided to make The Heart of Tales follow similar "rules" to RPGs than to, say, medieval Fantasy television series. Because of that, The Heart of Tales is more eclectic in its nature (pulling from Greek Mythology, Arabic folklore, etc.--like many Dungeons & Dragon games) than historic or purely medieval European.

Some notable inspirations include the games Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Undertale. I was also inspired by Tolkien's novels and the German folklore surrounding the jester/trickster character, Till Eulenspiegel.

Icewind Dale

In Icewind Dale, there's a scene near the climax of the game where the main villain gives a big speech of how powerful they are. Like in The Heart of Tales, the player character in Icewind Dale has the option to reply to the whole speech with, "Woah."

Undertale

Undertale inspired the idea to let the player choose whether or not Hiro goes back to adventuring or stays retired by the end of the story. To me, it was important that the player was happy with Hiro's choice, so I didn't want to make the choice for the player.

Princess Maker 2

The line in the game where Hiro is rumoured to have been "born from the sky" is a reference to Princess Maker 2,

12 Kingdoms

The idea of a world or continent being divided by 12 kingdoms is a common trope in fantasy stories. In The Heart of Tales, I pictured that the continent is made up of 12 kingdoms, and the closer you are to the 1st kingdom, the more rich and upper-class the inhabitants are. The 12th kingdom would be the poorest.

Jester Till

I like bards. Bards are one of, if not my favourite, class in Dungeons & Dragons games. Neverwinter Nights used them to a good effect (meaning they have a balanced character build), but many other games overlook and/or don't include the bard class.

Till Eulenspiegel is a character who brings bards and jesters into the forefront of storytelling, by making the main character a jester.

Route Designs

I learned from Three Guys That Paint that having three love interests complicates things compared to two love interests. If you give the player three "A or B" choices, then the possible results can be three points to A or B, or two points to A or B. But adding a third love interest creates a programming problem: What if the player gives one point to each possible love interest? Then the game doesn't know what to do! And adding a fourth choice would add further problems.

That's the problem I had when I added Sareth's route.

I fixed this by making Sareth's route unlockable. The player had to pick New Game+ and that transports them to the "gift" choice, skipping the first choice. So instead of three choices, the player gets two. To add difficulty for the player, if they give one point to Sareth's route and one to Mithamoore or Cole, they fall into Mithamoore of Cole's route instead of Sareth's.

Making Sareth's route unlockable also implies that Aemza gets stronger and stronger with each playthrough, which is why he gains the ability to possess Hiro in Sareth's route.

Writing Process

The writing process was very similar to how I wrote Three Guys That Paint and Must Love Jaws. I started with a plot summary of the whole story. I separated the plot summary into scenes, and then I expanded each scene's summary into dialogue and narration. There were about 20 scenes total, and I wrote each scene in chronological order.

Then I took it all into Ren'Py and added coding like sprite movements and sound effects.

Theme: The Art of Violence?

Even though I've never been able to play any of his games (due to platform issues), I admire that Yoko Taro as a creator who makes video games that use the medium to help tell the story, such as giving plot explanations for the player character's ability to save and reload. The game mechanics have an in-universe explanation and the characters have an awareness of it.

In a video interview, he says the following (though note that this is an English translation), "[While working on the original Drakengard,] I thought about the meaning of "killing." I was looking at a lot of games back then, and I saw messages like "You've defeated 100 enemies!" or "Eradicated 100 enemy soldiers!" in an almost gloating manner. But when I thought about it in an extremely calm state of mind, it hit me that gloating about killing a hundred people is strange. I mean, you're a serial killer if you killed a hundred people. It just struck me as insane. [...] You don't have to be insane to kill someone, you just have to think you're right."

Anemza: Writing "True Villains"

I've also been noticing this change in storytelling, particularly in Western animation: More and more stories are having villains who are either:

a) Misunderstood and not really villains underneath, requiring the hero to "defeat" them through non-violent means. The hero instead has to show empathy and defuse tension when they face the antagonist (examples: Moana, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Steven Universe),

Or b) The villain turns out to be a character who was originally displayed as "nice" or "meek" and was thus overlooked by the hero (recent examples include Zootopia, Frozen, Wonder Woman).

At first, I was really frustrated with this; I missed "true villains" from the Renaissance Era of Disney and I didn't know what to make of this new trend with antagonists. I missed villains who had a lot of build-up and screen time. I missed villains like Megabyte (Reboot) that had a grand sense of presence. But then I realized why this change was occurring: It's important to teach people, especially young children, the importance of not just being brave and standing up for yourself. It's also important to teach them the importance of knowing that you can defuse confrontations in pacifist manner.

So even though I gave the game a "true villain" I also gave the message that for every act of violence, there's a consequence.

He's defeated because he couldn't have been changed: A person has to want to change in order to change.

Body Count: Is Hiro a One-Woman Army?

Hiro tells Cole that she's killed at least 447 beings before she "lost count."

To put this into perspective: The average kill count for the RPG D&D game Baldur's Gate is said to be around 1,500 for its full campaign. In that game, you are usually playing as a party of six characters.

Theme: Faith

I was very concerned about getting the romance routes in this game right because I think the romantic elements in my earlier game Three Guys That Paint were one of its weakest points.

So I realized that I had to focus on a specific aspect of relationships. For this game, I focused on the idea of faith in your partner.

Relationships are about sacrifice. It's about changing the idea of "me" into "we." It isn't just about liking what your lover is like. It's also about liking what you're like when you're with that person. Some partners bring out a certain strength in their partner.

The Meaning of 0451

0451 is a "Easter Egg" number used in a variety of games. Originally created as a reference to Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the number is generally used to state that the developers of the game in question (usually an immersive sim like Bioshock, System Shock, and Thief) has themes of an ideology going wrong. For more information on this number's history and significance, I recommend checking out Errant's Signal's video essay on the topic.

One of the themes in The Heart of Tales is the idea that the main character is suffering from being put on a pedestal--and an ideology--that she no longer believes in. She is 0451. That's why during the climax of the game in Sareth's route, she says, "I am nothing. I am the fourth. The fifth. And lastly, I'm the first..." (Which translates to: "Nothing/Fourth/Fifth/First" = 0451). I mean, a lot of games in general are about a fantasy world going wrong, but I still thought it was an intriguing reference. An ideology crumbling.

Rejecting "Kindness Coins"

"Kindness coins" is a term used in visual novel development that refers to the "points system" often used in romance VNs. The player makes choices to unlock a romanceable character. The more choices they make to please the love interest they're pursuing, the more likely they'll unlock that route.

The term is not thought of highly and is generally used in a negative context: The implication is that, so long as the player acts nicely to the love interest and says what the love interest wants to hear (rather than being honest or properly roleplaying as the player character), the player will "earn" a romance with the love interest.

Which is a rather odd design mechanic, since in real life, being nice to someone to get something from them is not true kindness. And romantic partners in real life are often opposites who don't agree on some things.

In The Heart of Tales, Anemza tries to call out Hiro on her choices, saying that a few simple choices lead to the various routes she walked down. And if Hiro fights a possessed Cole or Mithamoore, they also accuse her of manipulating them. The game raises the idea of "kindness coins are bad"... only to reject it. Because Hiro ultimately defeats Anemza and wins the heart of her love interest, with little to no consequences.

This is because I find the idea that "using kindness coins makes the player a manipulator" is untrue, and that punishing a player for playing a romance game is rather... a bit much.*

It's because I find it similar to the idea that violent video games leads to violent people (which I think is utter tommyrot). People who kill in video games are not killers. They are actors reenacting a play. They are roleplaying. You may as well punish an actor for playing a villain.

The player in The Heart of Tales may be making choices to get a certain outcome (or they may not), but at the end of the day, they are still playing Hiro. And Hiro is the one who falls in love.

* (Footnote: There's only a few games I've seen that have managed to pull off this idea of punishing the player for their well-intentioned choices. And it's usually for playing the game a certain way, rather than playing the game at all.)

Hiro: The Difference Between a Grump and a Jerk

I tried to make sure that players liked Hiro, despite her wanting to turn away Mithamoore and Cole, as well as deceiving to them to try and get rid of them.

To me, there's a huge difference between being a grump and being a jerk. Hiro is written as the former, which I think makes her empathetic to players.

I don't like writing jerk-type characters, so that helped.

Mithamoore: Making a Likeable "Bad Boy"

A great irony with The Heart of Tales is that my last completed game, [redacted] Life, pokes fun at character archetypes found in otome games, including the "bad boy" archetype. Yet in The Heart of Tales, the tropes are played straight, rather than deconstructed.

I wanted to make Mithamoore intense yet likeable. It was a challenging balance to make (after all, he does begin the game wanting to kill Hiro). I think what helped was showing his vulnerability. He's unused to being human, and unused to reacting to feelings of romantic love.

I also had each love interest introduced one by one. I wanted Mithamoore to be introduced before Cole because Mithamoore is more aggressive and therefore would probably be harder to like. That was my theory at the time, but I've discovered that Mithamoore ended up being one of the more-popular routes.

Cole: Putting Heroes on a Pedestal and Hero Worship

Cole's character was influenced by the character Leo from Scrapped Princess, one of the first anime series I ever watched. Leo is a knight errant who struggles with the meaning of chivalry, as he gets torn between his duty as a knight and wanting to protect the main character, who is a princess wanted dead by the kingdom to prevent a dark prophesy from fulfilling.

When I was writing Cole, I wanted his character arc to be about overcoming his hero worship of Hiro. He's placed her on this pedestal that she can't possibly measure up to, and he has to learn to accept that and love her for who she really is.

Cole as a Fighter

Cole constantly quoting from the Knight Errant's Mantra was inspired by the character Double H from Beyond Good & Evil, who often quoted a fictional manual called Carlson and Peters.

His maneuver and defence names, Durer's Defence and Wallerstein's Codex, are references to famed engraver Albrecht Dürer (of the German Renaissance, who made many illustrations on sword fighting techniques) and the Codex Wallerstein (a compilation of three 15th-century combat manual manuscripts). Some illustrations from both can be seen here.

Cole as a Cook

I liked how I made Cole a good cook and made Hiro bad at cooking. In terms of gender roles, the stereotype is usually the opposite. Clinging to stereotypes just doesn't feel as believable to me.

"He Didn't Actually Blush"

I made sure that the characters never blush at any point in the story. Falling back to blushing as a way of showing romance is a big pet peeve among writers. I'm okay with others using it in moderation, but I decided to not use it myself.

Sareth: The Final Piece

Originally, Sareth wasn't a love interest. But after I started posting work in progress information on Twitter and Lemmasoft, several people lamented that they wouldn't be able to date the talking sword.

And the more I wrote the story, the more I thought about Sareth becoming a love interest. And the more it made sense. I slowly went from, "I'd be crazy to write this," to, "I'd be crazy not to write this."

So basically, I blame all of you for Sareth's route. ;)

Inspiration Behind Sareth

The biggest inspiration behind Sareth is Enseric the Longsword from Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark. Neverwinter Nights was the first RPG I ever played, and it's one of the reasons why I love RPG games.

Enserric was a weapon you obtained during an early section of the game (a dungeon created by a mad wizard). Enserric is a talking sword, is one of the most powerful weapons in the game, and had an entire, elaborate backstory (he was originally a mage who got his soul trapped within the sword and left for dead by his fleeing companions). I've also heard rumors that a side-quest was cut from the final game, which involved finding a body for Enserric before his consciousness completely disappeared within the sword.

Like Sareth, Enseric could taste the blood of the enemies he fought, and had a very inflated opinion of himself.

Anemza's Plans

Anemza explaining his plans on what he was going to do to Hiro (before he decided on his final plan) were actually some of the ideas I had before deciding on the idea I went with.

The Shopkeeper is Based on a Real Person

The ambiguously-gendered, mysterious shopkeeper is loosely based off of Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan scholar who widely travelled the medieval world, including Africa, the Middle East, India, Central and Southeast Asia, and China. He has been described by author John Green as "probably the most well-travelled person before the invention of the steam engine." During the twilight of his life, he wrote an account of his journey, referred to as The Travels, which provides a picture of medieval civilization that is still widely consulted today.

[images: Ibn Battuta and the shopkeeper sprite]

What's in a Name?

I actually came up with Cole and Mithamoore's names pretty late. While I was writing the game, I labelled them as Knight and Dragon.

Hiro's Name

Hiro as in hero, get it? Ha... heh... (sheepishly grins)

The following events happen if you try to name the player character these names:

Choosing nothing, or choosing Hiro/Hero:

"Her name was Hiro. And that should have been the very first clue. [name]."

Naming her Mithamoore: "Her name was Mithril. Named after the beautiful metal used for the armour of heroes."

Mason: "Her name was Morgan. Named after the beautiful gemstone from the darkest caves."

Cole/Caldwell: "Her name was Nicole. The name that stood for 'victorious people.'"

Sareth/Sword/Claymore: "Her name was Sara. It meant 'princess.'"

Anemza: (The music suddenly stops.) Anemza's dialogue goes: "I AM THE DEMON THAT COMES WHEN YOU CALL MY NAME." (The game proceeds to automatically quit.)

Shopkeeper: "Her name was Shoppy. A name that evoked merchants and traders."

Jester/Till/Bard: "Her name was Tilli. Named after the famous jester, Till."

Adventurer: "Her name was Farryn. It meant 'adventurous child.'"

Villager: "Her name was Mariko. It meant 'true village child.'"

Poop/Sh*t: "Her name was Showell. It meant 'to shovel.'"

Anti-swearing feature. If you type in some swear words: "Her name was Liliha. It meant 'to angrily disregard.'"

Dave/Davette/Ogu Pigu/OguPigu: "Her name was Davette."

Mithamoore's Name

I looked at Skyrim dragon names to help come up with a dragon name. I wanted something long yet easy for me to remember. ^^;

The idea of giving him the title of Mithamoore the Earthburner was inspired by The Hobbit's Smaug and his various titles.

Cole's Name

Cole's name was probably from Cole Phelps from the game LA Noire, where Phelps is a very straight-laced, follow the rules-type young detective. I wanted to invoke that feeling.

Anemza's Name

Anemza's name I basically came up with by doing the following:

Start with the name Jasmine.

Remove the first letter: Asmine.

Reverse the remaining letters: Enimsa.

Change some of the letters to other letters that sound phonically similar: E into A, I to E, S to Z: Anemza.

What really settled it was when I realized that Anemza sounds like the word "anemic," which can mean "lacking blood or warmth."

So yeah, Anemza is basically the name Jasmine put through a blender.

=====ART======

Inspiration

The Heart of Tales' overall art style was inspired by games like Princess Maker 2 (detailed illustrations with a pixelated texture), Undertale (giving each background a limited colour palette, and associating home with the colour yellow), and older games like Psychic Detective and Phantasmagoria (using smaller CGs in framed boxes).

Art Process

Preproduction

Before I start production work on any game, I create a folder and fill it with images I've found that give me ideas on what the game should look like. I've only learned recently that this called a "swipe folder."

Then I start drawing sketches on paper, and use those as concept art for the final sprites, backgrounds, CGs, and user interface.

[Image: My paper notes]

Index Painting

I used Dan Fessler's wonderful tutorial on creating pixel art through HD index painting.

Basically, the steps are like so:

1) Paint the artwork in Photoshop like you normally do, but using no colour. Only use shades of grey.

2) Apply a Dither layer on top using the Paint Bucket Tool.

3) Add a Black and white Adjustment layer on top of that.

4) Add a Posterize adjustment layer on top of that.

5) Add a Gradient Map adjustment layer on top of that. Edit it to get the colours you want.

I basically reverse-engineered Dan Fessler's Photoshop file that he provides in the tutorial.

Hiro's Design

I wanted her outfit to imply a bunch of different possible backstories, so I gave her puffy sleeves (bard), a tunic with light-coloured trimming (noblewoman), a tunic (adventurer), and a symbol that resembles the game's mouse (implying that she has her own personal symbol).

Mithamoore's Design

I'm not sure where I got the idea for his outfit. I wanted the outfit Hiro gives him to make him look like he values art, culture, and good craftsmanship.

I think I based his hair on Benedict Cumberbatch playing Sherlock Holmes. Which is ironic, because Cumberbatch also played a dragon in The Hobbit.

Cole's Design

Cole's armour design is loosely based off of Leopold Scorpus from Scrapped Princess.

I made Cole the tallest character and gave him armour that looks a lot bigger than himself. I like the "Popeye-arms" effect it gives him.

Anemza's Design

I wanted Anemza's design to look like a creature from another dimension. I looked up animal and monster designs medieval tapestries and manuscript. There are some really bizarre, amusing, and creative designs, so I gave Anemza the body parts of various animals. I made a conscious decision to make Anemza the only animated character, to make him feel more otherworldly.

I was influenced by Terry Gilliam's Monty Python cut-out animation, as well as the designs of the witches in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and "Omega Flowey" from Undertale.

[images from Monty Python's Flying Circus, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and Undertale]

I specifically avoided using rigging and tweening when I animated Anemza, to give him a more stop-motion quality. I animated the body parts frame by frame in Photoshop CS6.

I also programmed Anemza's sprite to "glitch" at randomized intervals, and in different ways.

[Image: Just a few of Anemza’s “glitching” animation frames]

=====MUSIC=====

The OST music was created by the wonderful Noyemi K.

I asked Noyemi to create seven leitmotifs:

1) A romantic theme.

2) A sad theme.

3) A scary theme.

4) Mithamoore's theme.

5) Cole's theme.

6) Anemza's theme.

7) Anemza's hopeful theme.

I gave a description of each of the characters, and I specifically asked for Anemza's "hopeful" theme to be a remix of Anemza's "scary" theme. Noyemi creating a "glitching," stuttering sound effect for Anemza's theme to give the idea the Anemz's mere presence is breaking the game.

=====POST MORTEM=====

What Went Right

The Characters

I'm glad that players were okay with the idea of dating a dragon and a sword. I'm glad people embraced that.

Portraying love

Ever since Three Guys That Paint, I've been skeptic and unsure about whether or not I could write love stories. The romances were the weakest part of Three Guys That Paint in my opinion, so I wondered if I needed to try again, or if writing romance just wasn't going to be one of my strengths. I'm glad that people liked the romances in The Heart of Tales. I think a lot of it comes from the love interests feeling more fleshed out to me here than Arthur and Terri from Three Guys That Paint.

Original Music

Working with Noyemi K was an absolute pleasure. Players commented on how much they liked the original sound track. I plan on working with Noyemi on a future project.

Persistent Data

"Persistent data" is a term I discovered while making [redacted] Life. Persistent data allows a Ren'Py game to remember previous choices a player has made, and keeps that information, even if the player reloads or deletes their previous progress.

Although I didn't use persistent data nearly as much as I did with [redacted] Life, I did use it for some of Anemza's dialogue (he notes that he knows about players' previous playthroughs). Many players commented on how they were impressed by that detail.

What Could Have Been Better

Getting Ideas Last-Minute

The pro to it was that there was less research notes I wrote that I needed to read through.

The con was that I usually like to come up with an idea and mull over it for about a year or more. After that amount of time, I have a better idea of where I want the project to go.

Here, I had to make quick decisions like adding Sareth's romance route and realising the theme of the central game was faith in others. Feeling my way through the story as I was writing was slower.

Coincidence

The Heart of Tales relies on a lot of coincidence (Mithamoore and Cole meeting Hiro on the same night, Hiro's companions finding the goblins, etc.). Avoiding coincidence is something that I'll have to try to avoid in my future games.

What I Learned

Ren'Py's New GUI

This is the first game I've made using Ren'Py's updated user interface design (I've tinkered with it on Eight Sweets, but at the time of publishing this, I haven't finished making that visual novel). It took a while getting used to it (and a lot of question-asking on the Lemmasoft forums!), but I've ended up really liking it. I feel much more confident using it.

The Three Act Structure is Good for Revisions -- Not First Drafts

An age-old question among writers is, "Is using the three act structure useful?" I think I learned during this project that you can't shoehorn the three act structure into your story. You just plot out the thing, and then you look at it and see if it feels complete. Our subconscious is so used to the three acts that your story will have them anyway.

But if you write the first draft of the plot outline and find that the story feel incomplete, you can go back and use the three act structure to find out what the problem is.

Basically, I had to do that for The Heart of Tales because of how fast I came up with the story for the game jam.

Le Morte d'Author/The Death of the Author

I think it's this game that taught me that there's a point at which I have to stop explaining things to the audience through social media. Either a player "got" what I was trying to say, or they did not, and I failed to explain or show things in a clear enough way. Or the player interpreted something in a way I didn't even think of, and I shouldn't take that away from them because they're using their own experience and viewpoints to interpret the game.

I see this as a fun challenge, because I know that the audience is smart. As Pixar's Andrew Stanton said, "Don't give [the audience] four; give them two plus two." I'll still answer questions if they're directed at me, but I also feel more comfortable to say, "It's up to your interpretation."

I also feel more comfortable letting the viewer "do the work" when it comes to interpreting a thing that can be interpreted many different ways. For example, I never give a clear answer to the hero's origin story. Was she a princess? A farm girl? A bard? Did she come from the sky? Every player will have a different answer to that question.

I think Davey Warden's 2015 game, The Beginner's Guide, made me think about this more. The idea that the player's interpretation often says more about themselves then it does about the creator or even the work itself.

Audience interpretation is a form of interaction.

We Don't Create Our Work in a Bubble

I've been thinking a lot about how my work affects people, and how work I see affects me. I learned that what I create is not made in a bubble. My own experiences and viewpoints affect the work. To paraphrase an old saying, every painting is a self-portrait. I feel like I have a kind of responsibility to make sure that my art helps people rather than hurts.

The Heart of Tales involves themes of the consequences of violence, yet the climax involves fighting a demon to save the day. I guess trying to defuse situations through talking only works if the other is willing to listen too? Like Cole and Mithamoore? Anemza is the personification of evil, after all.

It's also made me think about how time-sensitive my current and future work's becoming. If I made The Heart of Tales a year earlier, it would have been written a lot differently than how it's ended up now. And not just because I learn and gain developer's experience over time.

I know a lot of artists who have said that they are struggling with finding value in their art, or have completely come to the conclusion that creating art to change people for the better is a futile effort, but I don't buy that. I don't buy that because artwork that I've seen, made by other people, has changed me. And improved me. Stories have made me think about judging others by their appearance. About what it means to be Good, with a capital G. About what it means to try and follow your dreams. And stories have been doing that ever since I was a child.

Surely I'm not the only one who's been affected by art in that way...

#video games #history #animation #literature #films #series

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sindumplingwrites · 7 years

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Klarg x Taako || Charmed to Make Your Acquaintance

[Wordcount: 1,770] [Oneshot Type: Mainly fluff] [Summary: Klarg falls in love with the concept of Taako. Taako gets roofied.] [Unedited]

Klarg knew he had a few violent tendencies-- well, a lot of them, actually. He was a bugbear, so of course it was to be expected. Even the inhibitor created specifically to lessen his negative emotions and destructive impulses ended up failing him. It was as if he was destined to be the raging monster that his race had been stereotyped as for so long.

Or so he thought.

When a particularly rowdy trio made their way into his homestead, he figured their intentions weren't pure in nature. One of them even went so far as to throw his precious dog and best friend, Percival, into a fire. This alone was enough for Klarg to be more than willing to end their pathetic lives.

But then he met the eyes of the elf among the intruders. Just catching his gaze had an effect on Klarg that he could scarcely recognize, and the bugbear's anger washed away as quickly as it had appeared.

He felt warmer whenever the elf spoke. He'd go as far as to say he felt safer, even as it was being explained to him that a subordinate had been plotting to assassinate him and had decided to hire the elf and his two friends to carry out the plan.

When the elf introduced himself as "Taako," a feeling of infatuation filled Klarg to his brink. It was then that the bugbear finally interpreted the emotion that he was suffering from as love.

Ever since that day, Klarg had found himself having mixed feelings towards Taako that tended to change wildly and without warning. One moment he'd want to wrap his arms around Taako's thin frame; the next he'd want to wrap his hands around Taako's thin neck.

Now, as he caught sight of Taako wandering the streets of Neverwinter and enjoying the scents of the nearby bakeries, Klarg wanted to whisk the elf off of his feet and run away with him. The unabashed rage Klarg had begun to feel during the long stretch of time where he hadn't be able to catch a single glimpse of Taako was forgotten in the rush of tranquility that washed over the now lightheaded bugbear.

"Taako, my friend!" Klarg boomed, arms outstretched as he bounded over to the elf.

Taako swung around, startled by the familiar voice and the unexpectedness of hearing it in Neverwinter of all places. The wizard had spoken with gods and the actual grim reaper with little to no problems in the past, but only Klarg could ever manage to evoke an anxious response out of him. "Klarg? I see you're in one of your better moods," he uptalked, mentally revisiting the times when Klarg had been less than happy to see him.

"I admit that sometimes I can get a bit out of hand." Klarg grinned down at Taako, drinking in the sight of him. "I'd never actually hurt you, though." He kept his arms open, gesturing for Taako to grace him with an embrace.

Taako relaxed his shoulders and went with a simple high-five instead, much to Klarg's disappointment, glancing around hurriedly as he wondered how long it would be until the bugbear's capricious personality would show itself. "Listen, my guy, I'm glad to see that you're disinterested in pummeling me into the ground right now, but I gotta admit that you can be a bit hot-and-cold."

"Yes," Klarg conceded sheepishly, "I do have a habit of letting my emotions get the best of me. Right now, though, I have an insatiable urge to take you out for tea. I've been adding a few potions to my tea to lessen my more abrasive traits, so there's no need to feel hesitant."

Taako, slightly grateful that Klarg's urge wasn't to murder him on sight, but rueful that Klarg wore his romantic affections on his sleeve, nodded. "I would absolutely love for you to take me out for tea, but I don't think my boyfriend would like that." Taako was lying through his teeth, but he figured it may be enough to turn Klarg away.

Klarg, despite feeling a pang of hurt, simply laughed. He shouldn't be surprised that somebody as downright charming and gorgeous as Taako would be taken. "There's nothing wrong with two friends going out for tea, now is there? You always read too far into things!"

Taako pressed his lips into a thin line, not wanting to awaken Klarg's aggressive side through means of rejection. "Well, a free meal is a free meal. I'll follow your lead, buggaboo," he drawled.

A childlike glee filled Klarg and he grabbed Taako by the arm, his hand being more than large enough to wrap around the wizard's thin bicep. As he led Taako through the streets towards his favorite cafe, the bugbear began to ramble about the mundane features of his life, overjoyed that Taako was willing to lend him an ear. People rushed to get out of Klarg's way as he paraded down the road, his size being more than enough to intimidate them even as he was talking about how important fitting teatime into his schedule was.

Taako raised a curious eyebrow once they entered the warmth of the shop, but said nothing as Klarg sauntered up to the store's counter. Klarg, for the sake of nostalgia, ordered two cups of oolong tea-- one small and the other large --and passed the barista a small vile of red liquid, asking that the barista pour it into the bigger of the two.

When Klarg returned, Taako took the initiative to seat the bugbear and himself at the table nearest to the exit. You could never be too careful around Klarg, after all.

It only took a few moments of Klarg flattering Taako with empty compliments for the tea to be readied and placed in front of the two.

To spare himself the bother of contributing to the conversation, Taako took a long gulp of his tea. Immediately after swallowing, he made a face. Even without his refined sense of taste, he'd know there was something off. After getting a look from Klarg, he offered an explanation. "This tea is hella sweet. I think I'm getting diabetes just by holding it."

To test the accuracy of Taako's statement, Klarg took a sip of his own tea. Setting it down, he cocked his head. "It tastes fine to me." As he finished his sentence, it dawned on him that his tea should be sweet, not Taako's. "Oh god, they must've mixed up our orders! This is bad! I'm so sorry, I didn't-"

"Hey now, there's no need to get worked up," Taako interupted, feeling as though Klarg's emotions were starting to tilt to the negative side of things. "It's not your fault."

"No! Your tea has my potion in it! It's a potion of charming, Taako! To further the calming affects of the spell you cast on me when we first met!"

Taako leaned back in his seat, unbothered. "Klarg? Do you know who I am?"

Klarg furrowed his brow, perplexed by Taako's sudden question and how out of place it was regarding the current situation. "Of course, I do. You're Taako."

The elf held up a finger to silence Klarg. "Taako from T.V., to be exact. It'll take more than some love juice to win over my affections, pal. I'm not an easy f*ck, if you know what I mean."

Klarg recomposed himself, not sure that Taako was quite grasping what was going on. "Taako, the potency of that potion was custom-made for me. I'm a bugbear, ergo the potion is especially strong. You're what? One-hundred-fifty pounds? I'm three-hundred-sixty and I made sure that the potion would be strong even to me."

Taako was beginning to see what Klarg meant. As the bugbear explained the gravity of the situation, Taako was beginning to find his gruff, burly voice to be more and more alluring. "Is that right?" Taako fanned himself with his hand, his pride wanting to hide the blush that was rising to his usually pale cheeks. "I'm surprised it takes so much for you to feel such attraction towards me. Usually, those around me fall head-over-heels the moment I walk in the room."

The sight of Taako being affected by Klarg's presence stirred a sense of pride and bliss within the bugbear, even if the wizard's reaction was prompted by magical means. "Well," Klarg started, "I don't think I necessarily need it to feel so strongly towards you, but I do find myself wanting to further add to the emotion."

Taako fidgeted in his seat, suddenly more nervous in regards to Klarg's impression of him than Klarg suddenly slipping into an angry fit. "Yeah, I get that a lot," he managed to say. "I'm.. you know..."

"Taako from T.V.?" Boy, Klarg was loving this situation more than he should.

Taako took a deep breath and nodded. "Exactly. I was thinking..." Taako trailed off, bewildered as to how his usual quick-witted responses had been reduced to fragments of what he was trying to describe.

Klarg nodded, willing Taako to continue.

Taako knew what he wanted, and he knew he could get it if he wanted to. The only problem was that his nerves were out of whack and he couldn't express his whims with the eloquence he was normally able to attain. He was almost convinced that it wasn't a love potion that he'd consumed, and that it was actually just cheap drugs. "I know I sort of brushed off your offer earlier-- the one about the hug --but if you're still up for it, I'd be willing to reconsider."

Klarg was out of his seat the moment Taako finished his sentence, arms open and eager. Taako stumbled into his feet, feeling like he was still a young Taquito with barely any knowledge of seduction, and pressed himself against Klarg's vast chest. Klarg's arms encircled Taako's smaller frame with no trouble at all, and a contented sigh escaped him.

Klarg had waited so long for this moment.

Taako, fully intending to get a kiss out of the bugbear holding him, tilted his chin up determinedly, only for Klarg's arms to stiffen around him. Klarg looked down, his posture rigid, and released Taako.

It didn't take Taako long to realize what was happening.

"As much as I'd like for this to continue," he muttered, his voice strained, "I didn't quite get the use out of my potion that I needed to. I think I'm about to slip into one of my moods, dear."

"Nope," Taako called out, backing away from the bugbear and inching towards the door, "this is oddly turning me on, but I don't think I'm willing to die just to get some from a bugbear." He wasn't sure if his disappointment or his nervousness was stronger at the moment.

But Klarg, shaking with anger, was no longer listening.

#taz #the adventure zone #taako #klarg #the zone cast #fanfic

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angst-for-the-angst-god · 5 years

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OCtober Day 12: Obsession

According to some of his friends, Khamri is obsessed with challenges. If it’s dangerous, this side of impossible or just too damn dangerous for any other lockcracker of sound mind to attempt, Khamri takes the job: That seems to be what most of his friends in Neverwinter’s guild seem to agree on. It’s usually remarked on with either a sneer, a shake of the head or an eyroll and Khamri can’t quite find it in himself to blame them. He did, after all, cultivate that reputation on purpose. Much easier to find excuses for not taking other jobs that way: He’d break into the appartment of the recalcitrant shopkeep and leave a warning, but it’ll be boring. He’d lift the owed fees from the safe box of that one inn, but that’s not a job for someone as adept with a lockpick as he - leave it to one of the newcomers, hey?

Useful things, obsessions. You never know how you can twist one into a weapon to defend yourself with until you’ve done it the first time.

According to some of his friends, Khamri is obsessed with joking. He shouldn’t be surprised: He cultivated that one, too. There aren’t many situations that can’t be disarmed, turned around or twisted to suit his own purpose with a well-placed joke, after all. Making a crass joke at the right juncture of a conversation is such a useful tool: It immediately draws all attention to that joke and if the other conversationalists aren’t well-versed in their craft, they can be made to forget all earlier topics with just a bit of insistent quipping. There are a great many jokes. Some are for making himself seem smaller, more unthreatening. Some are for doing exactly the opposite. Some are for disarming his opponent, some for goading them on.

Khamri, so the consensus seems to go, can’t for the life of him not make risque comments, puns and jokes during every fitting and unfitting situation. If someone were to pay attention, they might have noticed that he stops very abruptly in the presence of rulers and powerful nobles - unless he is sure the scales are balanced enough that he can ignore propriety at least that far. Alas. He’s obsessed and everyone knows it - and if everyone knows it, it must be true.

Useful things, perceptions - and so easily controlled. Not in everybody, that much is true, but still. He oughtn’t gloat: He was trained at court. How many other pickpockets and thieves are? How many sorcerers and tieflings are? (Yorbroth though, Yorbroth is canny enough to have picked up some of the details. Experience makes up for a lack of training every time.)

It’s a little bit unsettling, how well these things work. Khamri is well aware that if there is one thing he is actually, truly obsessed with, it is control - and then, once he has it, it starts to annoy him that it worked and people aren’t a little bit more careful, more attentive. For the most part, what he is doing isn’t even particularly subtle! Yet, somehow, it works time and time again - and not in the way that it works with those that have caught on to the fact that he steers conversations and people alike, in quick glances and messages exchanged in the tilt of a head or the narrowing of eyes, no, it works by people laughing and following along when he jokes and brags and flirts.

He’s obsessed with his reputation. He’s obsessed with his skill. He’s obsessed with himself.

Sure. Khamri isn’t above admitting that those whispers have a grain of truth in them. (All things do.) He is cocky and sarcastic and has too smart a mouth for the position he is in. He will not deny that. (He would also have to smart a mouth for the position the ought to be in. Then again, would his mouth have become this smart had he not spent the last two decades of his life drifting him place to place and living wherever space was made open to him? Questions, questions.)

Any Aleian could tell you that a person isn’t just a person by the virtue of being themselves. No one is only themself. People are a collection of stories - stories about themself, yes, but also stories about the places they have been, the people they have loved and hated and lived besides, the stories they have heard and the things they have done and that have been done to them. Knowing that makes it easy to pick the things he shows to the world.

Besides, anyone who’s been away from home for as long as he has could attest that you’ll get a little bit obsessed with the memories of it eventually.

#khamri

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boobtubedude · 7 years

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The Tournament Of The Archomentals: Part 1

As background, which I may spell out later: I started DM’ing a game of Dungeons and Dragons last summer. It was my first time ever playing the game, AND I was running it. I got a few friends who were interested and we all kind of learned as we went.

We started playing the pre-made intro adventure “Lost Mine Of Phandelver” in June, and segued into the “Curse of Strahd” about two months after that. I led a five-month campaign in which the vampiric Big Bad ended up sneezing to death, because Dungeons and Dragons is a weird game sometimes. This is the third arc, which narratively connects the adventures of four players and everyone they’ve met along the way. It’s my first attempt at a fully original campaign, although it borrows themes and plot points from some familiar pop culture pieces, as well as using some canonical D&D lore.

At this stage, everyone is a Level 10 character. These are the notes I normally type out to the players, as they literally cannot remember things between biweekly sessions, but thought it might be fun to start posting them for all to read. We had two new players decided to join the game this time around, which is why a tournament celebrating eight gods has six participants. I bet you’d ask because the players asked and were kinda asses about it.

The story picked up right at the end of the last session, with the gnome Garrick hurrying over to your campsite. He noted that he was excited but a little annoyed you guys waited so long to come back. Turns out what felt like a few weeks for you was 10 years in Neverwinter. During that time, your efforts at Wave Echo Cave have essentially turned Neverwinter into a rich, bustling ecosystem. And since then, you have become folk heroes that helped turn this place from Brookyln in the 1980s to Brooklyn now. (Lots of skinny jeans in Neverwinter now.)

Garrick had been holding your place in The Tournament of the Archomentals, which celebrates the 1,000-year anniversary of the defeat of the god Asmodeus. Asmodeus arose thanks to the assassination of Mystra, a goddess in charge of maintaining The Weave. The Weave is like the Force, only for magic, and killing her set off a chain reaction in which reality itself was warped and changed. Asmodeus was a decently powerful wizard before Mystra’s death, but The Spellplague (also known as the “Blue Breath Of Change”) then ensued after Mystra’s assassination turned him into a god-like figure. He turned the lands into hell itself with his empowered Ruby Rod, and was only defeated when the 8 archomentals (beings of supreme power in the earth, air, water, and fire planes of the multiverse) combined for the first time ever to defeat him.

The tournament involves four contests, after each week one of the five remaining teams is eliminated. Each contest celebrates of plane of elemental existence. Garrick’s an organizer, but not an architect, of the arenas in which these contests take place. He’s sort of a coach, but more of a fanboy at heart. (He may or may not have playing cards of the four heroes of Wave Echo Cave.) However, it won’t just be you in the contest: Since the challenges are designed for parties of six, Garrick has two more people that he’s gotten to fight along side you in order to balance out your team’s strengths and weaknesses. In no way did anyone think this was all major foreshadowing for the return of Asmodeus at the end of the tournament, which pleased the DM as he did not have to massively rewrite the narrative he had been planning for a month and a half.

As he takes you into the cathedral in which the tournament’s festivities are arranged, you see Mystra’s symbol above the cathedral door: it’s a red mist rising to the heavens, with seven stars surrounding it. The seven stars represent the seven schools of magic in this universe.

Inside, you see that Gundren Rockseeker (who gathered you all together on your adventure to find the Lost Mine of Phandelver) is one of the architects, along with three others:

Artin Battlehammer (Dwarf): A stout, keenly intelligent creature with an eye towards designing strongholds than looting them with treaure

Theren Amastacia (Elf): Think Cate Blanchett in LOTR, but somehow hotter

Kallista Orianna (Tiefling): about 6’, purple skin, horns that extend out from her eyebrows about 15’’ in a 45 degree angle. A large tail slinks back and forth behind her. She seems to regard you with distrust, whereas the others barely acknowledge your existence

From there, after exchanging pleasantries with Gundren, you met your two other teammates: a half-orc Fighter named Kieran Lonesword and a human Bard named Danfielding. You also meet a halfing named Vivienne, a gruff fashion designer/wizard who allows you all to create your own hero within the world of the Tournament. (In real-world parlance: This is a chance to re-spec your character.) Arzgarth Riffrocker the Paladin stayed the same. Peter Dinklage the Cleric switched his Domain to “Tempest” in order to indulge his inner Thor. Chad The Conqueror switched from Paladin to Warlock, which was badass on all levels. Demora the Rogue did not participate in this, as in real life she was very sick, so everyone established the canonical fiction that she had consumed room-temperature shrimp as her first meal in Neverwinter and was horrifically nauseous. This was not badaass on any level.

Vivienne also gave everyone a pin to help brand this team: a silver pin with the face of the monkey the group adopted in Barovia, Piccolo. Chad was greatly delighted by this development, as he loved Piccolo more than anything in the world. Garrick led you all the antechamber, a long hallway with paintings of the Archomentals on each side. He explained that this first exhibition honored the Earth Archomentals, Ogrémoch (generally eeevvvviiiiil) and Sunnis (generally pleeeeesssaaant). He told you that the fight was based on “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” and to avoid the dome protecting you from the audience that would be watching. Also, he noted that there was audience participation: Above the arena would be a wheel that would spin after everyone had completed a round of combat, in which something fun or terrible might happen.

You walk up to the final painting of the antechamber, and it’s of none other than Asmodeus himself. He’s painted as a twenty-foot figure crushing the hordes of fighters that had assembled to defeat him. In his hands is the Ruby Rod to which Garrick alluded earlier. This painting lifted up to reveal a circular platform inside, and a bright light illuminating it from above. Peter Dinklage kissed the three middle fingers of his left hand and held them up, because he’s a dick.

You all get on the platform, and ride it up. You see you’re in a dome that’s about 30 yards in diameter. On the periphery, two smaller but similar looking trees reside. In the center of it is a huge, beautiful tree. Facing it at forty-five degrees on each side are two stone statues, reminiscent of the Terracotta Army. It’s a beautiful, lush landscape, and your eyes go from that to realizing you’re surrounded on all sides by spectators. You can hear them, but the sounds are muffled due to the invisible dome. Due north in the crowd is a smallish section for the Tournament Architects, and the Wheel stands above them. The options on the wheel read:

Hale and Hearty

SkullCracker

Flight of Fancy

Ring Around The Posey

Amor-All

Broken Mirror

Well of Haste

Electric Slide

The fight begins when the fighters try to use magic to assess the area, which wakes up both the central tree and the stone golems. The tree does a lot of damage when it hurls a boulder at the entire party, forcing Danfielding to heal everyone up quickly. Just when it looks like the initial flurry was over, a dozen ropes descended from the top of the dome, and twelve men looking like Santa’s Elves gone to seed landed with a thud on the ground, wielding large sickles. “We’re the Scissors Gang, here to kick your ass!” the leader declared. Much head shaking was done by all at the DM’s voice for these creatures, but they said nothing, for lo, the DM had bought the pizza that night. Rock (golems), Paper (tree), and Scissors (Bastard Keebler Elves) had finally all assembled.

Combat continued for a few rounds. After the first, the audience wheel landed on Ring Around The Posey, which had the effect of switching all the elements to which these creatures were either vulnerable or immune. That wasn’t too obvious to the heroes, who mostly marveled at the fact that Kieran could seemingly roll nothing but twenties on her first night. The initial batch of Scissors Elves were eliminated fairly handily, as Peter and Danfielding teamed up to essentially roll the elves into the electrified dome like bowling pins, but the group couldn’t make their way to the tree (which had raised up the other two to help attack) nor make much headway with the golems.

Round two started with Flight Of Fancy, which made the entire arena zero-gravity. A new group of Scissor gangmembers floated down like a group of skydivers, which the DM erroneously called “plane jumpers,” because the DM had had a fucking week, so back off. Once again, Peter and Danfield feasted on these creatures, singeing them all with fire. Arzgarth teleported on top of a golem, and struck him down towards the earth. Kieran then curbstomped this sucker to death, and wove the newly-formed floating pebbles into a cape, because apparently half-Orcs have proficiency in Etsy. The DM granted Kieran a point of inspiration, because holy crap, you guys. The audience, on the other hand, threw up in their mouth a little at the violent (albeit creative) display before them.

Meanwhile, Chad decided to use his Warlock abilities to take over the mind of the tree, which it then ordered to hit itself with the boulder over and over again. Not only did the central tree take damage because of this, but so did the other trees. Everyone enjoyed telling the tree to stop hitting itself.

With the combatants earthbound for the next round, the wheel landed on Electric Slide, at which point lighting emerged from the Piccolo pins and singed every player. No one enjoyed that, not even Chad.

Finally, Chad realized he had a Warlock spell that could essentially incinerate plant life, which probably would have helped them out in the first round of combat. Game, set, match, ex-masochistic sentient tree. Garrick ran into the arena, pleased by the results. He noted that they came in second overall in terms of quickest victory, as another team had used that plant spell off the bat, which made things much easier.

Just then, the sky went dark, the wheel started spinning of its own accord, and glowed red from its central point. Just as soon as it started, everything went back to normal. The architects retreated hastily, and a nervous Garrick told the group to rest up for the next event in two weeks’ time.

#Dungeons and Dragons

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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Deadfire Ultimate Edition Review — Rough Seas in a Tropical Paradise

January 28, 2020 12:00 PM EST

The console port of Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire has the same great story, characters, and gameplay of the PC version but is marred by technical problems and load times.

Obsidian is finally making its isometric return to consoles with Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Ultimate Edition.

Deadfire, originally released on PC in May of 2018, sees you back in the role of the Watcher, your character from the first game. A few years have passed and you rejoin your character in the aftermath of the destruction of their home with their life hanging on by a thread. Eothas, the God of Rebirth, has inhabited a giant stone statue that was below the Watcher’s castle of Caed Nua. His awakening lays waste to all around him, and in the process steals souls from anyone near, including half of your own. So great a threat Eothas poses that the god Berath, the Pallid Knight of the pantheon of gods, has returned the remaining part of your soul to your body in exchange for doing her a little favor. A simple task really: you just have to stop the giant god rampaging the world.

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“Customizing your ship’s appearance, upgrading its equipment, and leveling up the crew became a favorite past time of mine in the Deadfire Archipelago.”

You will be taking to the high seas on board your very own ship, chasing Eothas around the Deadfire Archipelago. Along the way you’ll parlay with various factions, negotiate with traders, do battle with pirates, and recruit adventurers as you go. This new ship-based exploration is one of the defining features that set Pillars of Eternity 2 apart from its predecessor.

The Defiant, and subsequent ships you can purchase, add a new perspective and sense of scale to the world. You have direct control of your vessel as it sails through the waves. When you encounter other ships, you have a number of options open to you. You can board them and assault them with your crew, or you can keep the battle at a distance firing your cannons back-and-forth while keeping yourself in a tactically superior position. These additions make you have to think about how you are going to spend your gold on upgrading your party or your boat. Customizing your ship’s appearance, upgrading its equipment, and leveling up the crew became a favorite past time of mine in the Deadfire Archipelago. By the end of your adventure, your ship will be just as much a part of your team as any of the warm bodies you take ashore.

Deadfire Ultimate brings to consoles all the previously released DLC, including new story content and new modes. This includes the three story expansions, the super bosses, and much more. You also have access to the added combat mode which changes combat into a more tactical, turn-based affair. When all is tallied, you have yourself a pretty full package here.

My time sailing around the Deadfire Archipelago as Captain Jack VanderSmack was filled with adventure, friends, and fraught with danger and load screens. Prior to this review, I hadn’t yet played this tale in Eora. I’ve played and thoroughly enjoyed the first title. It was the first game in a long time that had scratched that same Dungeons & Dragons itch that other legendary titles had. I was excited to jump back in and see where this new story would take me. This time around, however, turned out to be much more of a mixed bag.

The ability to bring over your character from the first Pillars is missing from this console release, unfortunately. In its place, when you create your character you will be given the opportunity to select the results of important plot points from the first game. It’s not ideal, but it still worked well enough for me to create my own character.

From a narrative and gameplay level, the console port of Deadfire held me firmly in its grasp. The mysteries and lore kept me constantly excited to play more. I also chose the turn-based style of combat for my main game. This setting makes encounters much more tactical, giving you time to think and set up attacks and strategies. Fans of the original style, the option to have everyone act concurrently but allowing you to pause time to issue direct commands, is still available. You have to decide which option you want from the start, as you aren’t able to swap back and forth in Deadfire. I started a second character just to test out the original mode, and it was just as I remember it from the previous game. Battles play out much faster, but in larger encounters, it can be difficult to keep track of everyone. In this mode, most players will have to rely on the competency of your team’s AI settings. Luckily though, the AI for all of your characters can be customized and tweaked, similar to Final Fantasy XII’s Gambit System.

“Unfortunately, with Deadfire, changing zones will lead to a static loading screen that will halt your questing for anywhere between 30 seconds to nearly a minute.”

The islands of the Deadfire Archipelago are tropical, littered with sand-buried ruins, caves with hidden areas accessible via underwater tunnels, and grand sun-bleached cities for you to explore. It’s a stark departure from the Dyrwood of the first game. You will be exploring all of this with either the unique characters you come across during the story or hiring pre-made or custom made characters in the various towns. I’ve always loved being able to make my friends in RPGs. The fact that I can now make them and pilot a pirate ship around Eora is even better. When one of my friends does something stupid in our weekly D&D campaign, I can simply assign him to an annoying task on the Defiant as punishment.

On the technical side, Deadfire fares far worse with the loading times being of particular note. The areas you explore in the Pillars titles are composed of various zones that are linked together. This approach isn’t uncommon for games of a similar ilk (Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights), nor is it bad. Unfortunately, with Deadfire, changing zones will lead to a static loading screen that will halt your questing for anywhere between 30 seconds to nearly a minute.

If you are hoping that returning to the location you had just been in would result in shorter load times, I have some bad news for you, friend. These long load times can result in you spending more time on the loading screen then it takes to explore smaller areas. Considering the large cities are composed of numerous shops, taverns, inns, and areas of interest that are only accessible via these transitions, it’s hard to get excited exploring when you know what you can look forward to.

I was also on the receiving end of some other, more game-halting, glitches during my playthrough. Numerous times I encountered a glitch where my radial menu simply wouldn’t respond, making accessing any of the game’s menus impossible. Once, while attempting to level up my characters, the cursor simply stopped responding, preventing me from selecting a skill to learn, locking me out actually leveling up. The only thing that would fix this issue was closing the game entirely and restarting it, which then let me enjoy a 2-minute long static loading screen before getting to play again. And on a few occasions, Pillars of Eternity 2 would simply crash. This happened most often after entering combat shortly after resuming gameplay after taking my PS4 out of sleep mode.

“For as much I may enjoy the gameplay and story, I can’t deny that all the issues I encountered really marred my experience with Deadfire.“

For as much I may enjoy the gameplay and story, I can’t deny that all the issues I encountered really marred my experience with Deadfire. I also saw some other minor graphical glitches earlier on, but luckily, a pre-release patch released that addressed most of these issues. I’m hoping that Obsidian will continue to patch this game, focusing on reducing the loading times, ideally.

Sailing around and discovering new islands to claim as my own never got old. Whenever I came across unsuspecting pirates or merchants on the open seas, it was a thrill. It made for perfect chances for Captain Jack and crew to relieve some individuals of their wares…and lives. I constantly wanted to keep crafting new potions and poisons while scavenging for resources to enchant and enhance my equipment. My own Jack VanderSmack deserves nothing but the finest, after all.

There is a lot to love here in Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire. This release on home consoles may be stumbling out of the gate, but I remain optimistic that the issues mentioned will be fixed in upcoming patches. I’m still definitely looking forward to future playthroughs of my own in Eora.

January 28, 2020 12:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/deadfire-ultimate-edition-review-rough-seas-in-a-tropical-paradise/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=deadfire-ultimate-edition-review-rough-seas-in-a-tropical-paradise

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actutrends · 4 years

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GamesBeat managing editor Jason Wilson’s favorite games of 2019

Each year, it gets harder to nail down my favorite games of the past season. Part of this is because there are just so many studios putting out fantastic games. The rise of live-service games plays a role here, too — each year, the living games I enjoy seem to get better and take up more of my life. I can’t think of a better time to enjoy games, and as my compatriots at GamesBeat have shown, this year has had such an amazing amount of quality — be it on PC (my favorite platform), consoles like the PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch (portable mode is a godsend for role-playing games), or my phone. Here’re my favorite games of 2019. Note: These aren’t the games I consider to be “the best.” The most important factor is how much I enjoy playing them (and, increasingly, how much my kids enjoy watching me play them). The Outer Worlds

The Outer Worlds can be gorgeous.

Obsidian Entertainment is one of my favorite studios. It’s made three of my most-played RPGs of the past 15 years — Neverwinter Nights 2 (and its expansions), and the two Pillars of Eternity games. The Outer Worlds is different than these. You’re running around a system of planets that are at the mercy of a group of greedy, power-hungry corporations. It’s a capitalist dystopia, but it’s a funny one. And it skewers a world in which plutocrats, not people, run things. It also comes with a good character-building system, and its loading screens show off fantastic pieces of art (some of which only shows up based on your decisions). It wears its Fallout influence on its power armor (its makers include some of that landmark RPG’s creators). The Outer Worlds will also leave an important legacy for Obsidian: a fantastic finish to its run as an independent game studio. Pokémon Shield

Dynamax Pokémon loom over the battlefield.

Image Credit: GamesBeat

Years ago, I wrote about how much I hated Pokémon when I tried Red, the then-new release for the Nintendo 3DS. But last year, Let’s Go: Pikachu captured my heart. I credit part of this to my children, who love the TV series and the cards. Yet the game has plenty to recommend it. It’s cheery, and the way so many of its characters are supportive of you and each other is touching in an age where so many people seek to just tear everyone and everything down. It’s also fun to find all these new Pokémon, use the Dynamaxx power to turn them into giant monsters, watch them evolve, and explore the world. My favorite part, though, had little to do with the gameplay. Every time we encountered a new Pokémon, my kids would look it up in their books, helping me find its vulnerabilities and plotting how I should set up my team. Pokémon’s better when we’re playing like this, together. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

There are fouler things than Imperial Stormtroopers in the deep places of the world.

Image Credit: Respawn

Respawn created new worlds and characters in Jedi: Fallen Order. It nailed how I’ve long thought a Jedi should feel in a game. Using your Jedi powers and lightsabers to smash through legions of stormtroopers just feels right. Mixing in metroidvania-like levels gives players plenty of places to explore, and I enjoyed going back to different worlds in key moments of the story (like your second time on Kashyyyk). But most important, it creates a compelling, sympathetic character in the Second Sister, showing that a servant of the Sith can be more than an evil person with a lightsaber. My only quibble: I wish Respawn’s easier modes made it, well, easier to deal with some of the challenging platforming sections, not just nerfing combat. Mistover This is a fantastic spin on Darkest Dungeon and Etrian Odyssey from Krafton, a small team inside the larger Krafton Game Union group. You start in a town, recruit a party, get quests, and outfit your crew. This is where it feels like Etrian Odyssey. But in town, you open up different buildings as you accomplish quests, the first of its many Darkest Dungeon influences. Food and light play a role in the exploration as well. Once you’re in a dungeon, moving around becomes more like a traditional roguelike. For every move you make, the monsters move as well. Combat is strategic as well, as your formations and the abilities you choose matter on the battlefield. It’s a fantastic take on roguelikes, and it’s worth playing. Grindstone

Grindstone is a clever puzzler in which you slay monsters by drawing lines for your buffed-up brawler.

Image Credit: Capy Games

Capy’ Games Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes and Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery are two of my all-time favorite mobile games. So when Grindstone hit Apple Arcade earlier this year, I had to check it out. And when it debuted, I spent about 2 hours playing it. It reminds me of Clash of Heroes in how you line up enemies to slay. It’s a puzzler. You draw a line from your warrior through groups of baddies. It’s simple enough that young children can understand it, but it gets complex enough that it becomes a real challenge to accomplish every map’s goal. It’s fantastic, and I think it’s the best game on Apple Arcade. Magic: The Gathering — Arena

The Brawl decks I’ve settled on during the final day of the event.

Image Credit: GamesBeat

Two years ago, I had no idea I’d love Magic. Now, I play it almost every day thanks to Arena. It’s a fantastic adaptation of the granddaddy of all collectible card games. I’ve learned to play every color, and I’ve even had success beating tuned netdecks with creations of my own. I’ve become a better-than-average draft player as well, and when publisher Wizards of the Coast introduced Brawl, I not only found myself making decks in Arena but with my growing cardboard-card collection as well. Earlier this year, Arena left its open-beta status. The game still has some problems. Most days, you’ll find someone on Reddit complaining about performance issues. Wizards’ monetization tactics are annoying — more than once now, it has introduced an idea (such as the 2-to-1 wild card crafting cost for Historic cards), then changed it after outcry from players. Right now, it’s charging 10,000 in-game gold for a month-long Brawl event, and while you do get one special card as a reward, it’s pretty much charging you to play what I and others consider to be Arena’s best format. That sucks, as Brawl should be a format we can play in a queue, not just in a friendly challenge, at any time. But despite these issues, Arena has proven to be the best way to play Magic when you can’t shuffle cards with your friends. And that’s pretty awesome. Hearthstone

There be dragons!

Image Credit: Blizzard

Year 5 of Blizzard Entertainment’s free-to-play collectible card game might be its best yet. Hearthstone’s development team has been more active this year than ever before, introducing a flurry of prompt card changes to fix problems, better in-game events, its first new mode in years (Battlegrounds, which is pretty dang good), and a willingness to try new things (like the recent Wild event or Arena rotations). It’s even telling better stories with its expansions. Like Magic, Blizzard has stumbled some this year. During its Wild event, it didn’t do anything to address the power of Evolve Shaman, which drove many players (like me) away from Standard and into other modes like Battlegrounds … or spending more time with other games. And its handling of the Hong Kong situation was clumsier than a newborn calf trying to stand up for the first time. But even with those problems, Hearthstone feels more vibrant now than any time since its first expansion. And that’s a good thing for Blizzard and its millions of players worldwide. Dragon Quest Builders 2

Even the quest lines have punny names in Dragon Quest Builders 2.

Image Credit: GamesBeat

I’ve never been able to get into Minecraft. I know it’s fabulous. My kids love it. But I like a little more direction, and I get this from Square Enix’s Dragon Quest Builders series. In the sequel, you’re building your way to defeating a great evil. It’s charming, and as you finish off quests, you open up more building materials and options. It has most of the fun of a Dragon Quest game, but with a sandbox openness. It’s neat, and it’s even more fun when you play with kids. Disco Elysium

Disco Elysium is like no other RPG that came out this year … or in any recent year.

Image Credit: ZA/UM

This might be the trippiest RPG I’ve ever played, and I dig it. You play a detective coming off a bender, trying to solve the mystery of a hanged man left on a tree. It doesn’t have combat, really. You face decisions in conversations you have with the characters around you (and in your head). The system revolves on skill checks in conversations and reactions to the words you and others use, not weapons, warriors, or wizards. It’s fascinating, and it developer ZA/UM delivers something I’ve rarely seen in my decades of gaming: an RPG where choice, not combat, matters the most. A Plague’s Tale: Innocence

A Plague’s Tale: Innocence is a fascinating game.

Image Credit: Asobo Studio

I’ve been fascinated with this game since seeing it at E3 in 2017. It’s from Asobo Studio in France, and it’s about a 15-year-old girl and her younger brother surviving during a horrible plague afflicting France. And rats. Swarms of rats. Millions and millions of rats. The pair must use stealth to escape an inquisition that’s after them … and may be at the center of the plague. It’s a terrific, terrifying story, and it has the bonus of capturing the repulsiveness rats and magnifying it into a game that both fascinates and disgusts. It’s unique. Honorable mentions Code Vein Etrian Odyssey: Nexus Iratus: Lord of the Dead Metro: Exodus MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries Path of Exile Queen’s Wish: The Conqueror Slay the Spire The Surge 2

The post GamesBeat managing editor Jason Wilson’s favorite games of 2019 appeared first on Actu Trends.

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years

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Treasures of the Savage Frontier: Red Menace

Imagine what the Zhentarim could accomplish with Twitter.

Treasures of the Savage Frontier gives us a plot in which an authoritarian regime from far to the east collaborates with local plutocrats and religious fanatics to wage a war of mis-information, thus demoralizing and destabilizing the free people of the west, ultimately effecting changes in leadership. Ah, the wild imaginings of fantasy!

Indeed, the axis of the Zhentarim, the Hosttower of the Arcane in Luskan, and the Kraken Society of the Trackless Sea has done such a thorough job planning this campaign against the Lords’ Alliance that one wonders why the Zhentarim attempted a more conventional invasion in Gateway to the Savage Frontier. (I think those three are the key partners. I’m not sure if the pirates from Luskan are a fourth organization or whether they’re associated with the Hosttower or the Krakens. Also, the Temple of Bane is somehow involved, but they just seem to pop up any time an evil plan is afoot.) Remember, no significant time passed between the party winning Gateway and getting sucked into this new conflict. The schemers were able to launch their Plan B so immediately that the game mostly consists of the party mopping up damage already done.

Vital to the evil plans are a series of documents–for some reason called “lucky papers”–that describe the axis’s plans for each city in the Lords’ Alliance (or, at least, most of them). To fully read the papers, you have to have three gems–blue, red, and green–each color carried by a different faction’s agents. I believe green was the Hosttower, red was the Zhentarim, and blue was the Kraken Society. When you fight a group of people carrying these gems, you always get the color of the first enemy that you kill. After that, everyone else present shatters their gems so that the party won’t get a complete set.

You almost have to admire the enemy forces. One of their number having fallen, they assume they’re all going to die, and they think of duty first.

As Null Null pointed out in a premature comment, but I soon discovered anyway, the party’s prioritization of mages means that you end up killing a lot of green-crystal holding enemies first, which makes it harder to get the other two crystals unless you specifically target them. Once I realized what was happening, I used “Hold Person” spells to paralyze and then kill Zhentil Lords and Kraken agents during first combat rounds.so I could get their gems.

And the color red is associated with our primary enemy–what will they think of next?

I didn’t get all three until nearly the end of this session, but once I had two, I could take a pretty good stab at what the various papers said. I don’t think any of them were fully necessary to “solve” their associated cities, but they all added some fun background to what was going on.

Even missing one gem, you can mostly make out the enemy’s plan: “If we lose Llorkh, we will bring forces to lay siege to Waterdeep . . .”

When I last wrote, I had mostly finished with Loudwater, where I had simply stopped on my way between Llorkh and Secomber. A rematch with the harpies went in my favor, and I cleared out an area of undead (very easy with three characters capable of turning) for some grateful residents in exchange for a Cloak of Protection +2. (I always forget the rules of cloaks and rings of protection if you already have magic armor. Some combination of them do not stack, although I’m not sure how saving throws are affected.) Ultimately, I’m not sure there was anything necessary in the city.

No adventurers before me had clerics of Level 6 or above, apparently.

I moved on to Secomber, which turned out to be less than a half-city (coordinates occupying only 7 x 15). There was one major battle with axis members, difficult because they had multiple mages and were arranged in multiple groups. Initiative is vital in such battles. If the mages are able to get off a few “Lightning Bolts” or “Ice Storms” before I can nullify them, the battle often results in a reload. I find myself using ranged weapons more in Treasures than in previous games, always attempting to strike each mage before he or she can cast.

We visited Amanitas, who told us that ambassadors from Neverwinter and Mirabar were traveling to Waterdeep to discuss the situation, and that we should meet them in Leilon to escort them. He also gave us a magic crown that would allow us to communicate with him without walking all the way back to Secomber. It added a “Crown” option to the party’s encampment menu.

It’s nice to see Amanitas living in such privation while we do all the work.

At this point, I had the choice to head directly for Leilon or to take routes through other cities first. I chose the latter option because I wanted to test how well the game lived up to its open-world nature. I get annoyed with games that pretend to be open-world (allowing you to travel anywhere) but in reality enforce a certain linearity in encounters. In Gateway, for instance, visiting a couple of cities out of order screwed up a plotline with a dwarf NPC. A good game separates the territory from events that occur within the territory, but the Gold Box titles have been wildly inconsistent in how they handle this.

Here, they seem to have done a decent job of anticipating a rogue player. By visiting Daggerford before Leilon, I solved a part of the game earlier than anticipated, but not in a way that had an effect on other encounters. Daggerford is referenced in one of the “lucky papers,” with the author saying that the axis would have to control Daggerford and the Way Inn to besiege Waterdeep from the south. Sure enough, when I arrived, I found Zhentil troops patrolling the streets and most of the key figures of the city locked up.

I sense that the game’s artist is going for a certain theme.

There were about half a dozen fixed battles with Zhents, manticores, fire giants, cyclopes, and margoyles as I slowly cleared the city. Another large final battle with the same composition as Secomber finished clearing the area. I found the Duke of Daggerford huddled in a secret area. After the final battle, in a rare timed encounter, I had to chase down a party of Zhentarim getting ready to leave the city and warn their allies at the Way Inn that I’d be coming.

Complete non-sequitur, but I used to think the lyrics to Albert Hammond’s “It Never Rains in Southern California” were: “It never rains in California / But, girl, don’t they warn ya / Big horse, manticores.”

There seemed to be no way to get into Waterdeep, where some kind of alarm was going off, so we continued up the road to Leilon. The enemy documents said that they planned to kidnap the ambassadors and blame it on the party, this being the sort of world where proven heroes can be undone by a forged scrap of paper. We got attacked by gryphons in a stable near the entrance, and I realized this is also the kind of world where if you get attacked by gryphons the moment you enter a city, you don’t know if that means something has gone wrong in the city, or that’s just the kind of danger the residents of the Forgotten Realms live with.

We walked into a tavern, where a group of Waterdeep guards hailed our arrival as the “Heroes of Ascore!” and invited us to join the party. As a player, I was screaming “no!,” but my guileless party took them up on the offer and soon found themselves unconscious from drugged food. The next morning, they awoke in a bare room with a locked door. (Of course, the evil guards had not chosen to relieve us of our magical weapons or valuable gems or jewelry.) Ghost tricked the guards into opening the door by setting a small fire.

It would have been fun to know what “Sick Trick” and “Laugh Trick” did, but Irene happened to be walking by when I got this choice . . .

As we escaped, we noticed that the guards were probably just wearing Waterdeep uniforms and were not, in fact, Waterdeep soldiers. After several battles with these fake guards and their giant allies, we escaped back into the city and found that the Zhent allies were gone and services were back to normal. Although there were some weird combats with specters an spiders on the west side. I guess every city has its slums to clean up even in absence of evil occupiers.

We checked in with Amanitas (via the crown), who suggested we go back to Waterdeep and investigate rumors that Waterdeep soldiers have been pillaging local farms. When we arrived and demanded to see Lord Piergeiron (leader of the Lords’ Alliance), we were instead taking to a gruff guy named–no kidding–“Fell Hatchet,” who denounced us all as spies and demanded that we be taken to the Anchor of Justice.

The “lucky paper” outlines the Zhentarim plan for Waterdeep.

I would think that my relatively-high-level characters would have something to say about that, but instead, we got an absurd scripted sequence in which the entire party was chained to an anchor and thrown into the harbor–again without being stripped of our equipment and valuables. But within moments, recounted in the longest journal entry that I can remember (one full page and half of a column on another), we were rescued by sea elves and released in a set of caverns below the city.

The game forgets that some of the PCs are female.

The caverns took a while. Because of so many areas taken up by water and other obstacles, the previous 16 x 16 maps had been easy to explore without mapping, but I had to make a crude one here thanks to all the one-way doors, secret doors, magically-locked doors, and spinners. I’m not a huge fan of spinners, which go all the way back to Wizardry, but if you’re going to implement them, it’s best to do it subtly, so the player doesn’t realize he’s going a different direction until he’s mapped on for a while. The Gold Box approach is to have the characters announce immediately that something has gone amiss.

Nice and subtle, Gold Box.

The caverns included encounters with spiders, giant slugs, and carrion crawlers. As we neared the exit, we found some Zhent guards and hellhounds.

Ghost is still a little behind the curve.

We finally made it to the exit. Instead of getting to explore the city of Waterdeep as a whole, however, we were confined to a single dock taking up only about a third of a standard map. It was a weird place. Again, I don’t know if the enemies we encountered had anything to do with the evil in the area, or that’s just the way the docks are in Waterdeep. We had to pay a fee to enter in the first place. One of the taverns was run by a group of women who again morphed into greenhags–what is it with this game and this particular enemy? The only temple was a Temple of Mask, and we had to give money to a beggar to learn its password. The docks were swarming with hill giants and fire giants. And in one of the warehouses, we found ourselves face-to-face with a fire dragon.

Having stumbled upon him with no warning, our first battle resulted in the death of two characters. Upon a reload, I had them cast “Resist Fire” first, which improved our odds considerably, and the dragon went down easier than the average Zhent fighter.

Well, at least he’s not under-powered.

It’s worth noting that the docks also had a cartographer who sold maps to (I presume) future areas, including the Tunnels of Orlumbor, Firedock, the homes of the Luskan high captains, the Farms of Longsaddle, and a generic “treasure map.” I don’t remember anything like this in a previous Gold Box game.

I’ll have to look for this configuration.

I’m not sure we really solved the Waterdeep problem, but Amanitas suggested that we liberate Daggerford and the Way Inn next. Having already taken care of the former, we went to the latter (the southernmost location). It consisted of a half-map for its lower floor and quarter map for its upper one. Predictably, the owner and the employees had been locked up by Zhent forces, and we slowly worked our way around the large building, liberating them. Enemies included otyughs, Zhentil lords, Hosttower mages, margoyles, and Kraken masters. I think we got the last of the gems in one of these fights. Eventually, we cleared everyone and freed the owner, Dauravyn Redbeard, who gave us some Bracers of AC 2.

We target a “Fireball” at some otyughs and margoyles.

Our final expedition took us to the twin cities of Yartar and Triboar, which apparently have a long history of practical jokes against each other, which the Zhent have exploited to make it seem like they’re escalating into something more serious. The “lucky paper” outlines the plan as to kidnap the Waterbaron of Yartar, implicate Triboar, and then circulate rumors that the kidnapping is in fact a “false flag” operation by Yartar as an excuse to conquer Triboar.

I suspect that the encounters play quite differently depending on which city you explore first. I chose Triboar first, and the party found a city getting ready for war. But we soon found the captured Waterbaron, who in turn demanded that we take him immediately to the Lord Protector of Triboar, and between the two of them, they worked out their issues and both cities became relatively sedate places with the usual selection of shops and services.

This same location will sell you things after you solve their problems, which is a nice dynamic use of territory.

My characters are all Level 9 at this point, except for my Level 8 paladin. (And yet Siulajia, Level 9 herself, still loves him.) My clerics only have one level to go, but my paladin, thief, and fighter each have three and my mage and ranger have two. The average experience point total is around 250,000, which means we’ve only gained 40,000 since the game began. The idea of the ranger ever getting to 650,000 or the paladin ever reaching over 1 million (needed for their respective Level 11s) seems impossible.

Other than the equipment I mentioned above, everyone has found helms +2 by now. Somewhere, I got a two-handed sword called the Sword of Stalking +4, which I gave to Broadside the paladin. I don’t know what the “stalking” part means. Ghost, my fighter/thief, acquired some Boots of Speed. I generally insist on keeping my thief character in leathers even when the game rules don’t require it, but I’ve been paying for it all game with Ghost knocked out in a lot of combats. In the dragon’s hoard, I found some Redflame Armor +2, and since it doesn’t explicitly tell me what it is, I’ve decided to pretend it’s leather and give it to Ghost. Because he’s one of the few characters without a two-handed weapon, he also has the Squid Shield +2 that I got from Yartar. Again, I don’t know if the “squid” part means anything. Everyone else has magic weapons and armor, at least +2, but nothing unique.

Ghost’s inventory. Do we think the texture background instead of the black screen adds anything?

I’m enjoying combats in this game even more than the typical Gold Box title, partly because my mage capabilities seem so nerfed My plans to dual one of my clerics to a mage were stymied by low intelligence for both characters, so I’m going to have to solve the game with just the one. And while she has the typical complement of useful spells, Treasures doesn’t offer any Rings of Wizardry or other mechanisms for getting bonus spells, so I don’t feel like I have quite the arsenal that I usually do. I haven’t even had a chance to memorize “Haste” yet–and I haven’t seen a single mage scroll that would allow me to memorize (or cast) spells outside of the normal leveling-up process. All of this means that my fighters and clerics take a much greater role in combat, including (as I mentioned before) using ranged weapons to keep enemy mages inert, spreading out to avoid vulnerability to “Fireballs” and “Ice Storms,” maximizing back stabs, making better use of cleric spells, and so forth. It’s rare even in random combats that I can just ALT-Q the battle and write a couple of blog paragraphs while my characters duke it out.

My selection of mage spells is powerful but not apocalyptic.

Miscellaneous notes:

The various establishments in the cities have more florid descriptions in Treasures than I remember in previous Gold Box games.

Past games would have just said “Tavern.”

Most taverns only offer options to “fight” and “leave,” which also happened in Gateway. Had the programmers at Beyond ever been to a tavern?

Ale? Is ale an option?

I haven’t found any magic shops yet, although one of the “adventurers’ shops” (a useless place that sells non-magic boots and belts and such) sold Cloaks of Protection +1.

In between Waterdeep and Leilon, we had a random encounter with a seer named Rabgar. He charged us with “the quest of the three dungeons” and told us to “seek the dwarves throughout the land.” Later, we met some dwarves who told us where to find the first dungeon north of Daggerford. We entered it and followed the dwarves’ hints for the right set of doors to get us out, but all we did then is enter and leave. We didn’t find any treasure or fight any battles. Now the dungeon is gone. We have new instructions to find the second one, but I’m not sure if it’s worth the effort.

The dungeon just confronted us with a set of doors. But “solving” the puzzle just meant exiting the dungeon, which we didn’t have to enter in the first place. What was the point?

Outdoor encounters include the bulette, which as we all now know, is pronounced “bul-AY.” Don’t ask why. It’s a sensitive issue.

In the last entry, I said how much I appreciated the pre-combat encounter text. Its quantity and quality mostly continued into this session, but there were clearly times that the writers ran out of ideas. I guess there are only so many dice games that you can interrupt.

Don’t waste a lot of time on this puzzle. It was two hellhounds and two cyclopes.

The game requires a tedious copy protection exercise every time you start, but at least it no longer draws its answers from journal entries you haven’t read yet. All of the answers are from the pre-journal part of the text.

Treasures of the Savage Frontier features what is arguably the first “romance” in an RPG. I remember some previous games that would let you engage prostitutes (e.g., Empire II, Wasteland) and a couple of games in which you were either had a partner as part of the backstory (Elvira II) or got to marry the princess in the end (The Dragon & Princess, Zeliard, Prophecy of the Shadow). But I can’t remember a previous game in which an optional romance develops between a PC and NPC during the game.

Ah, yes, the old “close your eyes and nod occasionally” trick. Sorry to break it to you, Siulajia, but he was thinking about Batman for most of that conversation.

The romance is entirely passive, however. At various intervals, when camping, the game notes that the lead male character and Siulajia are spending time together–talking, flirting, laughing, and so forth. Eventually, the game had Broadside stand up before the rest of the party and announce that he and Siulajia were in love. While acknowledging this could make some things “awkward,” he expressed hope that the rest of the party would “accept us as a couple just as you accepted us before.”

Not as awkward as trying to remember how to spell and pronounce her name.

Strangely, we now had an option to accept or reject the couple. Just for fun, I tried “reject.” The embarrassed Siulajia leaves the party. Broadside, “shaking with rage,” announces that he will fulfill his vow to complete the mission but that he will never forgive the rest of the party–never!! I reloaded of course and accepted, mostly because I didn’t want to lose a fighter.

Aww.

I guess if the lead character is female, the romance plays out similarly with Jarbarkas. The whole episode is okay, but I rather that the player has an input into such things. I don’t like how often this game hijacks my character’s mouths for its own text. It’s fine when it does it for Siulajia, because she’s not my creation, but I’m supposed to be role-playing the rest of this party.

Amanitas’s opinion about where we should go next.

According to the game map, I have six cities left to visit–Longsaddle, Neverwinter, Port Llast, Luskan, Mirabar, and Fireshear–plus something called the “Ice Peak,” plus the islands of Mintarn, Orlumber, and Ruathym. So despite having covered what seems like a lot of territory in this entry, we still have several to go.

Time so far: 11 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/treasures-of-the-savage-frontier-red-menace/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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thomasroach · 5 years

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Top RPG News Of The Week: June 9th (Baldur’s Gate 3, The Surge 2, Fable IV and More!)

The post Top RPG News Of The Week: June 9th (Baldur’s Gate 3, The Surge 2, Fable IV and More!) appeared first on Fextralife.

Happy weekend from Fextralife! If you’ve been too busy to keep up on the latest in the games we cover or are looking for a refresher we’ve got you covered! Here’s a bite-sized version of the Top RPG news of the week. Taste all the latest news across the Fextralife Wiki Network.

Check out the video above and read on for the text!

Skybound and Beamdog

Earlier this year publisher Skybound Games and developer Beamdog announced they would be bringing classic titles such as Baldur’s Gate, Planescape: Torment and Neverwinter Nights to consoles this year. Now they have announced when these enhanced editions will be released.

Skybound Games and Beamdog have outlined that enhanced editions of D&D RPGs will be getting physical special boxed editions. There will be three packs available, the first will bring The Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition Pack. This will include Baldur’s Gate and the sequel Baldur’s Gate II together in one pack which will include all DLC releases and the Siege of Dragonspear expansion.

The second pack is the Planescape: Torment/Icewind Dale pack, set to include enhanced editions of each game, including DLCs released for both. Both Baldur’s Gate and Planescape/Icewind Dale packs will release on September 24th in North America and on September 27th elsewhere.

The third pack will be the release of Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Pack, set to include all its DLC. There will also be local and online multiplayer available and will release on December 3rd in North America and December 6th elsewhere.

Now you can get your hands on these RPG classics in these packs, bringing them to console for the first time. The three packs will be coming to Playstation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

To read more about this this news find it here in Skybound And Beamdog Will Bring Classic D&D RPGs To Console This Year.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Now’s a great time to delve into Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire as GOG have put it on sale with 60% off.

You can now pick up the Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Obsidian Edition which includes base game, season pass and explorers pack for $29.99. The season pass includes 3 DLCs Beast of Winter, Seeker, Slayer, Survivor and The Forgotten Sanctum. Explorer pack comes with official soundtrack download, in-game pet, in-game item, digital pen & paper starter guide, a digital high-resolution map and digital guidebook.

Players can take on the adventure of a dangerous voyage to discover the unexplored archipelago region of Deadfire aboard their very own ship. With a vast range of character customisation options, a deep single player RPG experience and classic Dungeons & Dragons gameplay.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire recently gained its last patch which brought a host of features including new ship UI, a new God Challenge and brought turn based mode out of a beta.

To check out all the latest changes you can watch our Pillars of Eternity 2 Deadfire: Patch 5.0 video.

To read more about this this news find it here in Pillar’s Of Eternity II: Deadfire On Sale On GOG For $29.99.

The Surge 2

In a mighty post on Twitter, Deck 13 reveal that the next instalment for their sci-fi souls-like The Surge 2 will be getting it’s release this year on September 24th. The title is set on a dying earth, where human life must face strange anomalies that have infected the planet’s surface.

The Surge 2 will take place outside on earth this time rather than the setting of CREO, like in the previous title. Players will get to experience 10 different weapon types, doubling what the first game had. You will also get to try new armor as well as some original ones from The Surge. There are some new features including Implants which will add some new customisation to the game and full character creation.

You can find out more about this upcoming title in our The Surge 2 Preview: Stronger, Faster, Character Creation! which takes an indepth look into the action RPG.

To read more about this this news find it here in The Surge 2 Gets Release Date For September 24th.

Monster Hunter World

Capcom has been giving players a plethora of new sneak peeks of the upcoming additions for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. The latest information they have released is a new story trailer, and livestream details for E3 2019.

Players will be able to pick up from where the main Monster Hunter story ended last, and join forces with the Research Commission once again to explore the undiscovered new land of Hoarfrost Reach, which will be the largest map in the game.

Following an unusual sighting of a flock of Legianas from the Ancient Forest, the team journeys across the waters to a new locale with a frigid climate covered in snow and ice. The group sets up a new base camp called Seliana in Hoarfrost Reach.

In this trailer it showcases the Tigrex, a monster that veterans will know very well. We also get to see The Shrieking Legiana is a new Legiana variant that is covered in icicles and possesses devastating ice attacks.

To catch more of Iceborne you can tune in during E3 on June 11th for the developer showcase at 2PM EDT and watch the Demo with special guests on June 12th at 4PM EDT.

To read more about this this news find it here in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Reveals X E3 Demo Details.

Rumor: Fable IV

Last year a rumor arose about the next instalment of the Fable series. The previous project Fable Legends had been cancelled due to the closure of Lionhead Studios. But sparking a new hope of a possible Fable IV, Playground Games had been reportedly working on an “open-world RPG”.

Now a Reddit user by the name of LagSwag1 has listed the details of the supposed upcoming Fable game after the source video was deleted. This includes “first and third person perspectives”, “a completely open-world” and “no more guns”.

In the thread Resetera users asked the poster of what they saw, which LagSwag1 replied that they had seen a “brief clip of a guy running”, “character customizations” and “little story about a meteor”.

We’ll have to wait and see whether Microsoft will reveal a Fable game at their press conference at E3 next week.

To read more about this this news find it here in Rumour: Fable IV Details Leaked.

Pokemon Sword and Shield

The latest Nintendo Direct featuring Pokemon Sword and Shield went live ahead of Nintendo’s planned press conference at E3 2019. Not only did they share a bunch of new details which included arena battles, new Pokemon of the Galar region, but also a new feature called Max Raid Battles and Dynamax. Probably the biggest news of all was saved until last which was finally unveiling the release date which will be November 15th of this year.

One new feature which was shared was Max Raid battles, involving up to four players who can team up to take down a wild Pokemon. Meaning you can team up with friends online to help tackle special Pokemon that will only appear in this mode.

We also got to learn about the new Dynamax feature, where Pokemon will be extremely large, gaining strength, but this feature can only be used once per battle with three turns of use. This was shown in arena battles where a stadium of fans watch your every move, also apparently Galar likes to broadcast battles live so trainers better not be camera shy.

It also turns out the name Sword and Shield refers to the Legendary Pokemon, Zacian and Zamazenta who each bear a sword or shield feature.

Pokemon Sword and Shield will be release on November 15th with pre-orders now available for $59.99.

To read more about this new find it here Pokemon Sword And Shield Release Date Revealed For November And More Details Announced.

Blasphemous

The 2D hack and slash Blasphemous is getting closer to a release date as the developer The Game Kitchen together with publisher Team 17 share that it will be releasing this year.

The dark action platformer started its Kickstarter campaign in 2017, securing well over its $50,000 goal with a $333,246 total backing. It grabbed the attention of many who were taken by its gothic style and merciless gameplay that takes inspiration from 2D sidescrollers with metroidvania influence.

The latest trailer shows off some of the forsaken land and some of areas players will face. Exploring the nightmarish world of Cvstodia, players will take up the role of The Penitent One, the only living survivor of the massacre of the Silent Sorrow.

Expect “devastating combos and brutal executions”. We also get to see a peek at the customisation when it comes to builds, players can choose from a number of abilities for their desired playstyle.

Blasphemous will release sometime this year 2019.

To read more about this new find it here Blasphemous A 2D Non-Linear Platformer Releases This Year.

Baldur’s Gate 3

Last week Larian Studios had teased a giant number “3” on their website, causing many to believe that they were in fact in the process of working on Baldur’s Gate 3. They now release a new trailer confirming that this is true which was unveiled during the Google Stadia Connect stream.

According to an article by Eurogamer, Baldur’s Gate 3 has been in the works for quite some time now, even before Divinity Original Sin 2 had shipped back in September 2017. However, so far there has been no word of when we can expect Baldur’s Gate 3 to release. Larian have shared that they will be releasing the title on PC and Google Stadia.

A trailer has been released sharing the announcement confirmation which shows the city of Baldur’s Gate and the aftermath of a battle. The main character seen is a member of the Flaming Fists, as he struggles to make his way through the city, he is struck with some sort of affliction taking over his body.

Rapidly his condition worsens, going through a horrific transformation as he turns into something quite lovecraftian, with long tentacles emerging into his final form of a mind flayer.

If you were wondering if this would be another Epic Games exclusive Larian have made it clear in an article with US Gamer that this isn’t the direction they wish to follow as they want the title available “everywhere”.

So far the details are few, but we’re looking forward to hearing more about Baldur’s Gate 3, we’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

To read more about this new find it here Baldur’s Gate 3 Confirmed By Larian.

Google Stadia

A lot of details were shared during the Google Stadia Connect broadcast which outlined the pricing plan as well as the 14 territories it that available upon launch in November. US, UK and Canada will be among the first regions to gain Stadia.

There will be 31 games from 21 publishers for those who purchase a Founder’s Edition, which will be available for $130 which includes a Chromecast Ultra for your TV and a limited edition dark blue Stadia controller. This edition will also come with 3 months of premium service with a monthly fee of $10 then after. There will also be a different free tier version coming later in 2020.

While you may be thinking that Stadia is a subscription service similar to that of what Netflix is to movies, you’d be half right. To begin with Stadia will only have Destiny 2 on their subscription list, in future they will add a back catalog of free games included in the $10 a month fee. They also plan to sell games “like any other digital storefront” according to Google’s director of games Jack Buser. So far there are a number of studios that are supporting the platform.

Among the list of games The Elder Scrolls Online, Baldur’s Gate 3, Final Fantasy XV, Borderlands 3, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and more.

Not all the features that were outlined at Google’s GDC 2019 press conference will be coming at launch, but more details will be on the way.

To read more about this new find it here Google Stadia Launch Revealed For November Along With Games And Pricing.

Well, that’s it for the Week in Wikis. Please join us next week for yet another great week of gaming! Remember to check out our VIP program for some exclusive supporter benefits, and budding writers should take advantage of our Become an Author initiative! Thanks again for being a part of this great community. Keep checking in with us for news, reviews, YouTube streams and vids, and general wiki goodness!

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The post Top RPG News Of The Week: June 9th (Baldur’s Gate 3, The Surge 2, Fable IV and More!) appeared first on Fextralife.

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vorosjournal · 6 years

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The needle

I am Paladin Voros Xathanar II from the Southern Isles of Maztica. I’m a Merfolk, and lately, I’ve been thinking about documenting my trecks. Ever since the whole deal with the prison, to be more accurate.

So, I don’t even know how I got there, or why, for that matter, but there I was, virtually naked without my trusty armor on a prison cell with a gith. I mean, yes, I have commited crimes in the past for the sake of my purposes, but none that would lead me to prison. I might be lying a bit here, but eh, no witness, no crime, right?

The gith was not a really talkative fellow, but after some time, I got a name. Xu. He seemed to be in the same position I was; neither of us knew what we had done, where we were or why and how they had gotten us here.

“You know what you did, you filthy scum” “you know, that thing you thought no one knew you did on Daggerford” “No one is sent to the needle without a reason” “you need to atone for your sins”

That sort of bullshit was everything that came from the mouths of our captors. Heck, I never have been to Daggerford. And atone for my sins? Fuck you!

Things got heated up after three months of this same repetitive shit. I wanted to get out, fuck a wench. Kill an asshole. Drink some beer. All the tension pilled up and I exploded when one of the guards was getting cocky. I don’t even remember his name.

So, there I was, defying an armed and armored asshole, on my rags. He hit me with his hammer and seeing that I was enduring and belittling his smacks, he started smiting me with it. Hah! The pussy wouldn’t even fight in equal terms. He beat me until I dropped, sort of. I gave him a hit or two, barehanded. Man, he was so furious and exhausted his face was as red as a tomato. His subordinate had thrown a dart earlier and I wanted to divert his attention from it and the gith seemed to have caught my drift because he hid the dart on a pile of hay while the asshole was beating me. It was a good start of the day.

After the cretin left, I healed myself a bit, but noticed something else was healing me. Someone else. I paid it no mind as I grabbed the dart and tried to unlock my cell. Of course, I’m not deft of hand so I was having a hard time at it, and then there she was, a dark skinned half-elf gall, the one healing me, told me she could open the door, no problem. Siljith, she told me her name was. I threw her the dart and as she said, she opened her cell. Then ours and another human’s. And so our escape began.

The human’s name is Cuylen. He’s a good fellow. Sort of weird. Shy yet daring. I guess you’ll understand what I mean after I talk my tale up to date.

Anyways.

We stealthed our way around the first block of cells until we found some make do weapons and some protection. Then off to the kitchens we went. There we killed a couple guards, such weaklings, and armed ourselves a bit better, after which, we released the rest of the prisoners on the floor. Some of them, though, refused to leave.

We decided to send Siljith to release the rest of the prisoners so we split. Cuylen, Xu and me would find our things and the exit.

After moving about as silent as we could, we took down some of the guards. Of course, I found the cretin who had hit me earlier that day and smacked his skull inwards, we found the room where they kept our belongings and my precious family sword was there, along with my shield and some bizarre interesting notes about each one of us. It’s funny they so throughout measured everything about us. My paper stated my full name, race, my 6”4’ height, my weight, my build, and the fact I have ‘two fully developed and functional seven and a half inches penises’ as it said (this is not common amongst merfolk, it is very rare, although I’m a descendant of sharks, almost no one else in my family is blessed with such perk.) I don’t remember being checked down there, but it was accurate. Then again, I don’t remember being brought to that prison, so there is that... Sidetracking, I guess someone jerked me off while I was unconscious, for that is my size when I’m hard. I kept the paper.

There were a lot of useful equipment in this tiny compartment, along with a weird wraith that wanted to write some story and a sort of ooze that tried to devour me, but there was also a lot of weapons, as we found out after we killed both creatures.

So we rendezvous with Siljith who had rounded up about 30 people, and sent them to the armory. Too bad a lot of them died from the traps in the place. Honestly I didn’t think they were that dangerous...

We release some more prisoners and found an interesting lady in a solitary confinement. Her name is Lelenia. A pretty thing if there ever was one. Man I hadn’t seen a woman in months, less one that beautiful. I mean Siljith is a woman and she’s indeed fair but I guess pir dire situation of escape hadn’t really gave me the chance to appreciate her beauty, also, she sorta gave me the vibes she was far more concerned with oir escape for now... However, this girl, Lelenia... she was the prettiest I’ve ever seen. Practically naked, all chained up in such a complicated contraption... I really wanted to release her. But it seemed a bit out of our current posibilities. The contraption, as Siljith explained, if released weong, would cause the whole tower to collapse. Plus the hearing of the screaming upstair made us hurry back.

“I’ll wait for you guys” she said as we left. “Not like I have a lot of options.”

The fact that she is trapped with several magic blockers, sort of worries me, but eh, on our side, what does it matter how powerful she is.

So, the screaming. The prison reinforcements came and wiped out the remaining prisoners. We took them down so, no problem, that was that. Last mercenary alive offered to help us in exchange of his life.

As it seemed, a ship was coming, pick up some prisoners. We were going to take that ship.

So, we infiltrated the ship as guards, they offered to treat my wounds as we pretended to have survived the prisoners’ attack but I refused to take off my armor. You see, it’s pretty hard to hide the fact you’re a merfolk if they can see yoir face or body.

After we were alone... well something happened... I mean, it had been three months and I was horny as fuck and... well Cuylen sort of offered me a hand... and I sort of took his ass. I fucked him. I fucked him senseless. My head was so feverish in heat that I did not care Xu and Siljith were watching (Siljith actually seemed to be enjoying it and that sort of turned me on even more. She didn’t join, though) and I mean I liked it. I don’t know how I feel about it but it was an ok experience. Anyways, I don’t know if I would do it again... after I finished I felt a tad... well, weird... I had breeded another guy. The feeling passed soon enough, tho, but it’s still hanging around in my head ever since...

After that, we ate at the ship’s dining hall, and at the first opportunity, we stole the ship, took some noble girl as a hostage and made the capitain ride us home.

Now the girl. She was a pretty thing. And a pervert. Here we uncovered the prison was a slave trader and she had bought a dragonborn and several other humanoids to sexually please her as sex slaves. The dragonborn didn’t mind his future life style. Heck if I didn’t love coming and going as I please, I would have liked to join him!

Now, things had started bad with the girl, see? She was being a brat and I sort of threatened her when we met, but after we got to the seas, I tried to make up for it, and I guess no girl can resist the Xathanor charm.

It was a long trip but all the heat in the girl’s room made it bearable, hell, enjoyable, even. The dragonborn and even Cuylen joined the ‘party’ and well, I had already fucked the guy so, what’s a couple extra dicks in the mixture. Besides the dragonborn’s body was also interesting... his cock could retract and it seemed like he had a pussy that I actually fucked once... maybe twice... it was a bit weird but pleasant, anyways because it was a guy’s body, he had what looked like a pussy but inside it felt hard because of his cock. I think at one point one of my dicks was inside her and the other inside the dragonborn, while his was also inside the girl. Anyways I’m side tracking and I doubt anyone would enjoy reading these... details. It was a very intense trip, however, and I don’t remember some of it because I was so drunk during those nights!

We released the pigeons so that the captain couldn’t send messages and capture us again. We were undermanned, but made do. Sent a fake message that we were going to Neverwinter but landed close to Waterdeep.

The girl was some sort of duchess from Waterdeep but insisted on being refered to as a princess. If only I could recall her name...

We got to port in a small town close to Waterdeep and there we rested. I fucked a local wench, I think. I don’t remember clearly, I drank and ate my full before going to sleep.

Upon the passing of the years I’ve learned human beds are rather a small sweet pleasure after spending some time on a ship.

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