things in progress

Fantasy
Flipside Stories
Matt and Pallas
Isolde
Fancadarin lu Ridahm
IDEA
Birth of a World
Grendels (Not the final title, but the dream that inspired the story)
Alana's World
Territh's War
The old man and his Goddess

Science Fiction
Earth's Empires Series
Before the Prophet's War
A Perfect Day (Catapult Story)
Gem on Tam Hall
Emerald Prior
Rebuilding
Samuel Prior 1 (Utah)
Starstruck Wanderer
Samuel Prior 4 (Coreallis 3)
In the Room (Suicide and Memory Story)
Don't do Biotech Firms
Colonial Era
The Death of Samuel Prior
Xerses Devistator
Cognative Dissonance (An AI's Struggle)
Ranger
In the Early Days
United Worlds of Humanity Era
Early Days of the Terran Empire

Horde War and the Fall of Man
The Wind Blows Across the Plain
Meka
Confederated Peoples Era
Second Horde War
Galactic Era
IntroAgain
Sister Beatrice series
Other
Zepplin over future NYC
Bremen Assassin
Exile (A "criminal" who is forgiven by everyone but himself)
Eternal Love/Eternal Conflict. Might go to the Imperial Era of the Empires of Man

Also Annie, you were right. The beginning does owe too much to Neverwhere, but I can't fins another place to start it.

Oi vey. I've got a couple of sets of stories that I want to write. Today I'm going to bitch about the ones in the future history that I'm trying to work out.

So for a future history, I didn't want to start too close to now. My first story is about 200 years from now, about 50 years after the serious approach to going to space begins. (And if I live long enough to have to eat crow over that, so be it. You won't hear too many complaints from me.)

First story is actually a concepts I found interesting piece that I happened to set in the "early" part of the history. Other than some editing that I'll get to any day now, it is done. It is also at least a century earlier than the next story. After the catapult story, I don't have much I want to write about for the next couple hundred years. I've got lots of setting and not a lot of interesting, though I do have a couple of ideas that aren't too strongly bound to a particular time that I might slide in to illustrate some of the events that I mention in later stories. The next set in stoneish (my timeline shifts but relitive orders of events mostly stick) story is one of the sets.
For the science fiction I have written so far, I mostly see a particular scene and then go back for the story. The Prior Family started as exactly that. In fact, the first Prior story I ever typed even the first word of is the Fourth or possibly fifth Samuel Prior story and it started with the image of a a wounded man eating dinner in microgravity and a later chase scene with him running from thugs through the environmental systems of the station. Which leads to story three (which I've yet to write a word of) where he mistakes a government doctor for a corporate assassin, detains her, threatens her, and eventually (either lets her go or gets picked up by the good guys) and she gets drafted into the section he works for. Therin to make his life quite difficult what with her ability to scrub him from a mission for mental instability. This all grew out of a throw away line that may not even be in the current draft of the first story to be consigned to the hdd.) Of course, that lead to the very first Samuel Prior story (which opens with a dream that shows that he really is getting better from a fairly broken past) where he has to deal with members of a Theocracy down dirtside. I need to talk to more LDSers for that one. The dream sequence was hard to write because it was about mostly bad people doing mostly bad things to eachother and to innocents. Sam struggles with being something better than Bad People for most of the rest of his life.) I've got four or five more stories after the one I first started writing, mostly about his later life, his wife and kids and his eventual (and tragically early for the era) death.

There are other Prior family stories in the pipelines, and even part of the Fall of Man series will involve the Priors trying to hold the center. (The hero of the Fall of Man Cycle won't be that particular power group, though worlds with signifigant Prior presences will come out of the silent years with a much smaller chance of being corpse worlds.)

Then there's the Illustrated series. Right after the collapse of the United Worlds and the Rise of the first Empire, there is a story that I originally wanted to do as an illusttrated thing, but my drawing won't get to that point in this lifetime. The first one is set 5 years after the First Emperor of Humanity took the collapsing forces of the United Worlds Council and forged the Terran Empire. It deals with a Prior drummed out of the service for refusing to follow orders (and only not executed because of who her family is) and her life as the captain of Arabella's Needle, a fast trade/scout ship owned by her Grandmother Arabella. This story ends with the first thrust in the last Sarthaki War in a mostly abandoned system nearly 400 LY from the nearest inhabited world. (Though the worlds under Aldoni guidence number above 10,000, most of the galaxy is essentially uninhabited.)
The second story (and source of a lot of groaning about how I haven't even really started the story that is essential for this one to work) is set between 20 and 400 years later and follows one of my absolute favorite characters (who makes me wish I could draw half as well as I need to make this one work.)

And now we come to the one that I am really bitching about. This one is another one on the Fall of Man board, though it will focus (sort of) on the Fall of the Aldoni and the actions of a fairly illegal entity. It is set not too many years after the end of 2.

I've also got a short story (that one reader has told me has a completely unrealistic protagonist, but she is a Prior from the height of the family's power. It is kind of icky that that doesn't stand alone though) in the series of stories that will include the Emperor's announcement of the Fall of Man (and Alien) already mostly done. It doesn't have a happy ending.

*blink* That is... bleak.

12:30ish 11/23/2006. Guess that makes me 27. I was so supposed to be unleashing my first global pandemic genome modifying virus by now. When the arch-bishop warned me against hubris when I said I wanted to be a genetic engineer, he had no idea. (I was the strong arguement for the badly flawed "precautionary principle" that is touted by the luddite branch of the environmentally conscious.)

The kids these days with their word processor based programming utilities. Bah.
In my day we entered our programs at the command line and if we screwed up, there was no scrolling back and modifying the part the didn't work. By God we reentered the line number and retyped the code. And we liked it. Damned kids. Get off my damned lawn.
And take your GUI with you.

So in the game last night I got to playtest a new rule. I'm not sure how well it will work out, but we'll see. I'm running an Eberron campaign, which means that the players have action points. Last night, during a moderately tough fight, one of the PCs was dropped by a fairly massive critical (and this wasn't the hard fight of the night) and unfortunately, everyone had seen both of the dice rolls and they knew the extra damage this opponent had been doing, and they knew it was a critical (the base attack plus strength bonus would have killed the character, the crit shoved him below -10.) Well, I hadn't intended any party members to be all the way dead at this point, so I instated an off the cuff rule. Assuming your character has at least five action points, I am letting the players take half experience for the encounter and burn five action points to bring their character from -10 or below to -9 and stable. This only applies to death through damage (no using this to counter a disintigration spell) and there will be cases where it doesn't apply, though not too many. If they do something that leads to an unescapble death situation, like jumping into a volcano unprotected, they don't get to burn action points to survive... or they do, but then they continue taking damage and die anyway. (And I do have intelligent opponents who have nothing to do in a combat round do things like finish off fallen foes.)

http://www.amazon.com/Dora-Aquapet-Explorer-Wild-Planet/dp/B000IM15QI/sr=8-1/qid=1163704307/ref=sr_1_1/104-1413059-2779909?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games

Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien*
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert*
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein*
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin *
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson *
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick* (Quite different from the movie)
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury*
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett *
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling *
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny*
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven *
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien *
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson *
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein *
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock *
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer

So, I just did something that I haven't done in quite a while. I finished a game. I just beat Return to castle Wolfenstein, which has been sitting on my hdd for considerably better than a year. Yeah, when I was in college, I was finishing lots of games, but since graduation (and not having a real job) I've sort of spazzed on my game playing. I've still got a copy of NWN sitting unbeaten on my hard drive, Baldur's Gate 2 with expansion (though All I have to do is finish the ToB stuff then kill Irenicus, and I'll be done), Deus Ex (also sitting near the end), Temple of Elemental Evil (in the Temple, need a better graphics card), Fallout 2 (at the beginning), Planescape Torment (At the very beginning), Arcanum (right in the middle. I need to level a little more before fighting these golem things), Thief 2 (midpoint or better), American McGee's Alice (late in the game), Warcraft 2 BNet edition (near the end), System Shock 2 (within spitting distance of the last boss), At least 5 of the old SSI gold or silver box games (Secret of the Silver Blades, the Savage Frontieer series, and the Dragonlance Games), Nethack (nowhere near completion ever), Dungeons of the Necromancer's Domain (I've yet to finish a single dungeon), Battle Tech: Crescent Hawk's Revenge, Some Sam and Max game, Several Sega, GB, NES, and SNES games, Most of the Infocom games on the HDD, Commander Keen 1,2,4, and Dreams, n, and others. On DC, I've yet to beat Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2, Shenmue, D2 (not in the same ballpark of as brilliant or even playable as D was, Time Stalkers (Haven't even put it in the machine), and for the PS, I've got Omega Boost, Final Fantasy 5 and 6, Rhapsody, Warhammer Shadow of the Horned Rat, Dead or Alive,Tenchu Stralth Assassins, Wing Commander 3, Parasite Eve (at the last friggin boss too), Tomb Raider 2, Syphon Filter, Legend of Legaia (probably not happening, lost the memory card and it just wasn't very fun to start with), Fear Effect (control scheme sucks ass, probably won't finish it), Alone in the Dark: Jack's Revenge, and Lunar 2 (a very good classic style console RPG. Like pulling teeth. I beat the main game, but there is an optional epilogue that I was playing when I lost that memory card. It wasn't fun enough the first time to suffer through close item management and repetative combats again) that all remain unbeaten.

more about grad school

My biggest worry is that I'll probably be faking it more than I ever did before. And I faked it a lot back in my undergrad and my grad work.

See, I am reasonably smart, but I'm also not the most dilligant student (something that annoyed both my teachers and some of my more effort-centered friends. One of my teachers wanted me to have it so that I couldn't just get by in college the way I did in Highschool. Hah. I did a little more work in college, though when compared with the seven hours a day, 5 days a week schedule from highschool, I probably put in fewer hours. The reason I got better grades in college than in highschool was mostly that I recieved less of the pointless busy work that the above mentioned teacher (and many others) routinely assigned for grades. I'm very good at synthesyzing things and working out stuff from first principles, but I am not as good at brute force memorization. I never bothered with all of the latin and greek roots stuff for working out the meanings of words. Instead I based it off of the words I knew in English (and since english words seldom are identical to the words that their roots come from, I am glad that I went that route. my sister is overly attached to the roots of those words. If she isn't careful, she'll become one of those people who get pissed when you use decimate as an english word instead of as the dictionary latin definition of the word. I'd bet that the latin speaking world back when latin was a useful language used their words with much less rigidity than the latinate pedants of today.)

So, it looks like I'll be going to Bloomington on the 16th to talk to the SPEA about possibly going there for grad school. I'm not 100 percent sure I am up to the whole school thing again, though I suppose it is better than the job offerings around here, and a lot more fun. I did okay in school, 3.7 for both undergrad and the year of graduate work I've already done, and as long as I get close contact with my advisor, it won't be too bad. (I really needed to go up a week earlier at Oregon. I never really did meet with my advisor there. My fault. At least I had a class that he taught.)
Ugh, anyone want to bet on how many or few of my credits will transfer as anything except generic credits? Especially since OSU was on the quarter system and IU is on the Semester. I won't miss the quarters. For all of my classes it turned out that either we did a semester's worth of work in 2/3ds of a semester or we did half a semester's worth of work in 2/3ds of a semester.

97. Aerie Mercedes Lackey. So yeah, Lackey is my guilty pleasure. I’ve been reading the “The Dragon Jousters” series as they come out. I think there has been a backlash recently against the likes of Robert Joran, George Martin, Kevin Anderson, and David Webber. (And personally, only Webber and Martin of those four could actually pull off both “long” and “good” at the same time, and you are free to argue about Webber.) This book felt like it had been edited down by 80,000 words, and not the 80,000 words that every King or Hubbard (well okay, Hubbard’s novels need to lose more than that. All of the words would have been a good starting point) novel needs to be edited down, but the 80,000 words that were dropped from Stranger. The ones that added depth to the story. (Stranger worked in the short form, but it was, I thought, a better book in the unabridged version. Especially the scene where Jubal lost an argument. People accuse Heinlein, somewhat rightly, of having one older always right Heinlein-stand in in his storys (and several other Heinlein stand ins in most of his stories. Number of the Beast 4 in the first section and most of the Heinlein stand in characters from his other books in the last sections. I loved the tip of the hat to the Dorsai irregulars at the end. Apparently they actually helped him out a lot at one con where he kept getting lost.) Oh yeah, this is about Lackey...
...
Well, it felt for a bit that there was going to be one of those idiot love triangle plots where a and b have a stupid misunderstanding and c courts b innocently, and everything is out of whack because a and b are obviously destined to be together. Actually you can drop c out and it is still a dumb plot. *cough Bujold cough cough*1 But then it didn’t happen. C did have one of those blinding realizations and a and b made up and never really noticed c’s interest and that was annoying. If you start the gambit, don’t just make it go away without at least having some interaction leading to it.
Oh yeah, about my comment at the start. Yeah, this book was over edited, but it also really needed to be 2 books. The lead up should have been one book and the other bits should have been the second.
Ooh, I just thought about a way to make the fizzled romantic hijinks plot more interesting. A and b carry on, only apparently distanced because of outside responsibilities but getting along quite well when c can’t see them. C keeps following a, and falling in love, completely unnoticed by a, and only realizes that a didn’t return the feelings when a and b get married or some such At least there wouldn’t have been the magical revelation scene. I still would have been annoyed by c, but less so as she was resolved in a more logical conclusion type manner. Longest entry yet. Much of which was, sadly only peripherally about things that were peripherally about the book.

New York City's Board of health is considering allowing people to change their official sex even without surgery. might only work this week

So, as of 10 till midnight here in Indiana, it looks like we'll have a Speaker Pelosi. If we get the House, the Senate can sit and rotate. Sure, we'll never convict, but the stuff that is only marginally in the open at the moment, well subpoena power worked wonders for the blackhats and all he did was get a blowjob.
Oh and in the "couldn't have happened to a slimyer blasckhat" category, looks like Frothy Mix isn't in office any more. Well, I guess Hatch could have gotten kicked out, but the odds of that in Utah? Yeah, not this century.

lank Label Comics' Dave Kellett needs your help. He's moving his daily strip, Sheldon, to www.sheldoncomics.com tomorrow.

He is leaving United Media to go completely independent... which means he needs help spreading the word to as many people as possible. The majority of Sheldon readers currently get the strip via “comics.com/comics/sheldon”, or via United Media’s e-mail delivery. When the strip moves, these readers won’t have any way to know where the strip went. (Dave tried putting a notice in the strip…it got edited out, and United Media won't send a "Sheldon is moving" message either.)

(If anybody from United Media is reading this... it may be too late to save the syndication business model, but it's not too late for you to go out of business with a clean conscience.)

Here's how you can help not just Dave, but also the thousands of Sheldon fans that United Media is trying to put the screws to. Right now, while you're thinking about it, take two minutes and post this infomation on your Web site, in a forum you visit, or on your personal blog:

Dave Kellett's Sheldon is moving to http://www.sheldoncomics.com .

Why are you still reading? Go Do That Right Now. When you come back you can read about the cool new site features like:
- Free access to 5+ years of Sheldon strip archives
- Larger-sized Sunday and daily comics
- Faster loading times
- Free daily delivery of Sheldon by e-mail
- Free RSS feed
- Free “Send This Strip to a Friend” feature
- “Jump to a Random Strip” feature
- No pop-up/pop-under ads
- Daily blog
- Direct links to the forum, store, and more
- … basically, everything the strip didn’t have at comics.com

So, I spent much of last week making six Imperial Guard Sentinel models out of sheet plastic. My fingers still hurt a couple of days after I have finished cutting that damned plastic. In other news, I have the sequel to a story I haven't written infesting my head. I really wish it would wait its turn. (I think it is getting impatient seeing how I haven't actually made any progress on the parent story in, well a very long time. But it is just going to have to realize that the events of the first story are essential to proper setting development and that going out of order is how you get idiocy like "A Stainless Steel Rat is Born" from authors much more skilled than I.

I'm one box of Sisters of Battle away from being able to field a 500 point Warhammer 40K army. My ToC has changed a bit.

500 Point Army
(120) Felicity Argent Sororitas Heroine (Canoness)
Canoness 45, Inferno Pistol (15), Bionics (10), Cloak of St. Aspira (20), Litanies of Faith (25), Purity Seals (5)

(190) Argent’s First Flamers
Krak Grenades (20)
7 Battle Sisters (77)
2 Battle Sister with flamer (34)
Veteran Sister Superior (71), (24), Mastercrafted Bolt Pistol (15), Power Chainsword (10), Purity Seals (5)

(190) Holy Noise
Krak Grenades (20)
7 Battle Sisters (77)
2 Battle Sister with Storm Bolter (32)
Veteran Sister Superior (71), (24), Mastercrafted Bolt Pistol (15), Power Chainsword (10), Auspex (2), Purity Seals (5)

Yes, I could field a larger force of Sisters for the same points if I stripped the vets down to minimal gear, but I am fond of quality over quantity. That trade off will plague my army building throughout the series.
Here's my 3000 point List

3000 Point Army
1910 Point Sisters Army
(152) Felicity Argent Sororitas Heroine (Canoness)
Canoness 45, Mastercrafted Inferno Pistol (30), Mastercrafted Power Sword (25(10)), Bionics (10), Cloak of St. Aspira (20), Purity Seals (5), Litanies of Faith (25), Melta Bombs (5), Krak Grenades (2)

Argent’s Own (350)
Krak Grenades (20)
Celestine Veteran Superior (43) (23), Mastercrafted Bolter (15), Purity Seals (5)
Celestine With Multi Melta (28)
Celestine With Storm Bolter (18)
4 Celestines (52)
Celestine Imigifer (33)
Celestine Banner Bearer Ordo Militant Sacred Standard (63)
Rhino (93): (50), Extra Armour (5), Holy Icon (10), Hunter-killer Missile (15), Pintle-Mounted Storm Bolter (10), Smoke Launchers (3)

(300) Argent’s First Flamers
16 Battle Sisters (77)
Imigifer (31)
2 Battle Sister with flamer (34)
Veteran Sister Superior (71), (24), Mastercrafted Bolt Pistol (15), Power Chainsword (10), Purity Seals (5)

(338) Holy Noise
Krak Grenades (40)
17 Battle Sisters (77)
Imigifer (31)
2 Battle Sister with Storm Bolter (32)
Veteran Sister Superior (71), (24), Mastercrafted Bolt Pistol (15), Power Chainsword (10), Purity Seals (5)

Retributor Squad (375)
Krak Grenades (12)
4 Multi Melta Retributers (144)
Veteran Superior Retributot (70) (25), Mastercrafted Eviscerator (40), Purity Seals (5)
Retributor Imafiger (31)
Immolator(118) (65), Extra Armour (5), Holy Icon (10), Hunter-Killer Missile (15), Laud Hailer (10), Smoke Launchers (3), Holy Promethium (10)

Exorcist (185) (135), Extra Armour (5), Hunter-Killer Missile (15), Laud Hailer (10), Pintle-mounted storm bolter (10), Holy Icon (10)

Living Saint (210)

1090 Point IG Auxiliaries
First Candian Fire Support Platoon (413)
100th Command Squad (225)
Junior Officer (75): (40), Honorifica Imperialis (25), Bionics (5), Laspistol, Power Sword (5)
Lascannon Team (25)
Veteran Medic (11)
Vox Caster Guard (5)
Chimera Transport (150) (70), Multi-laser (10), Heavy Flamer (5), Extra Armour (5), Hunter-Killer Missile (10), Pintle Mounted Stubber (12), Smoke Launcher (3), Track Guards (10), Rough Terrain Modification (5), Improved Coms (20)

101st Fire Team (98)
Team (60)
Grenade Launcher (8)
Lascannon (25)
Vox Caster (5)

102nd Fire Team (90)
Team (60)
Lascannon (25)
Vox Caster (5)

Second Candian Fire Support Platoon (289)
200th Command Squad (91)
Junior Officer (50): (40), Bionics (5), Laspistol, Power Sword (5)
Lascannon Team (25)
Veteran Medic (11)
Vox Caster Guard (5)

201st Fire Team (100)
Team (60)
Meltagun (10)
Lascannon (25)
Vox Caster (5)

202nd Fire Team (90)
Team (60)
Lascannon (25)
Vox Caster (5)

Imperial Sentinel X 2 (176)
Armegeddon Pattern Sentinel (88): (55), Covered Cockpit (15), Extra Armour (5), Hunter Killer Missile (10), Smoke Launchers (3)

Vengence Leman Russ Battle Tank (220)
Leman Russ Tank (220): (140), Lascannon (15), Pair of Heavy Flamers(10), Extra Armour (5), Hunter-Killer Missile (10), Pintle Heavy Stubber (12), Rough Terrain Modification (5), Smoke Launchers (3), Track Guards (10)


Ugh, I don't even have the Inquisitor and the Assassin that I wanted. Also, you'll notice that it has 2 Sentinels and I've made six. On the other hand, those 90 point Lascannon fire teams are nice long range support for the Sisters' medium and short range excellence. For the living saint, I'm going to skip the Saint Celestine model (I'll still use her stats though) and grab a 72mm scale Inquisition model. More expensive, but very pretty. Or possibly one of the Reaper Minis models. Apparently to fill out the units I had initially wanted for the Sisters Army, I'd have to field a much larger force than I'd thought. (And to use the Land Raider that I want, I'll have to pull celestine since the only sororitas unit that can use one is the Inquisitor Lord and he is an HQ unit too. Notice the IG Chimara. Much nastier than the Sororitas version (it has six internally controlled lasguns for the guard. That means fully loaded, it gets 11 or 12 shots a round. Of course I have it loaded at 5 units not six...)



The game Friday went well. Lost another PC. 2 deaths in seven sessions isn't too bad though. Party's 3rd level, but they have some serious healing resources. 2 permanent healing wands mean that they can keep going where other groups would have to say "this adventure is not cost effective." My Ogre Golem (like a flesh golem but weaker, though hellish damage from that size large greatsword it was wielding) put the fear of the reaper in the group. CRs for traps are, by the way, not as accurate as crs for creatures (and if you run a game you know how bad that makes the trap crs.) I used an Insanity Mist trap with a dc 25 disable and a 15 foot area of effect and it was almost nothing (CR 6 by the book) to a mixed party of 2nd and 3rd level characters. Only one character who was in the area missed the first save, and he made the second. On the other hand, the "CR 2" improved Iron Guardians ended up rather tougher individually than theiy should have been. Not as bad as the second level wererat rogue that might well have taken the members of the party out. His henchmen didn't last 2 rounds of combat. He went quite a bit further. (I had someone lose 6 hp to bleeding during that fight.)

As a fortuitous side effect of the PC deaths, the current inter-party conflicts have all ended. Well, there's a potential one between Derek and Lloyd, and Derek's character is a bit tougher than Lloyd's Ranger... at least if Lloyd doesn't play smart. Especially since the warforged fighter may well side with the priest (bad call. Priest of the void. He'll turn on him eventually) but the Silver Flame Fighter who specializes in Trips and Disarms will probably back the ranger, and Lloyd, having seen the utility of the Priest's wand, has ordered himself one. The priest has been leading the party a lot, but we'll see how that lasts with the other players getting their feet under them more and more. I don't know which way the warlock will go, and the new fighter (yeah, I've got a party of six with 3 fighters and a ranger. Ask about alignments some day. I don't know what all of them are, but there are/were at least 2 chaotic neutrals. A True Neutral, A Neutral Good (I think) who wants to be all demonic, a Lawful Neutral, a Lawful Good, and one I'm not sure of (one Chaotic Neutral died already.) By the way, a warlock does not make up for the lack of a wizard. And yes, summon spider swarm is nice, but not that nice. His ranged touch attack ability should be his focus until it doesn't work. This next adventure promises to be all talky, which in a group with a warlock, 4 fighter types and a priest is not completely optimal. Yes RP chances are great, but the more RP time there is, the more likely the party is to self-destruct, and I'm not quite ready to ensure my prefered sequence of events occurs in the case of major infighting. A little more setup and I can have it strengthen the group if it ever happens. Ooh, I just realized that they are high enough level (but heading the wrong way) for an encounter I've been imagining since the start. Well, not the wrtong way, but they are going to the Eldeen Reaches and I want to use the next couple of adventures there to advance a plot that is unrelated to the encounter I really want to run. Oh well, the forests and fey need their turn too. Heh, 6-7 players. 3rd Level Characters. That means I need a potential 21000 exp in the next session to hit 4th. Sadly, we are leaving the region where poison gas traps are reasonable for a bit. (Yes, yes, 4th level in 8 adventures is a little fast, but I want to get them to 6th to 8th fast. Nice pitched battles at those levels. I'd love to see 8th level in 12-14 adventures, but that would be pushing things a bit.) We'll see what happens. Having 6 players actually makes quick leveling easier. Sure they need half again as many xp to level the party, but they are tactically much more flexible than a party of 4. That ogre getting a critical on KC's character (and comming out near maximum damage on the rolls too) was a fluke sort of. Also, more character interactions means more story hooks shoving themselves at me means more RP rewards.

Spellsword 66% Combativeness, 40% Sneakiness, 73% Intellect, 5% Spirituality

Aggressive, but with the brains to back it up: You are a Spellsword! Score! You have a prestige class. A prestige class can only be taken after you’ve fulfilled certain requirements. This may mean that you're an exceptionally talented person, but it probably doesn't. Spellswords combine arcane might with combat know-how. They're much tougher than mages, like to wear armor, and can cast spells through their weapons. They're very, very, good at doing lots of damage to a single target very quickly, and while not quite as tough as most fighters, are still pretty hard to kill. You're both smart and aggressive, which means that you're probably pretty dangerous when pissed off. You also tend to be somewhat straightforward, which is nice, and don’t have much use for spirituality or mysticism.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on Combativeness You scored higher than 99% on Sneakiness You scored higher than 99% on Intellect You scored higher than 99% on Spirituality

Link: The RPG Class Test written by MFlowers What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta. The Midland Boston North Central The South The Inland North Philadelphia The Northeast What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) Followers