: Hell, I see pathos in what happened to Damas, but then
: I'm just a big sap. Seriously, though, the level I've
: created isn't meant to make you get all weepy about
: Myrdred as much as it's supposed to flesh out his
: character a little more, explain some of his
: motivations and make him seem a bit more human. Gosh,
: I really want to spoil it, it's some of the best
: writing I've done in a while... but no. Of course, the
: pathos might work better for you, since you're one of
: Myrdred's personal servants... bet you're regretting
: signing that standard release form now, huh? MWAH HA
: HA HA HA HA...
Why would pathos be associated with me? I landed a position with the big D! It only gets better from here, doesn't it? Doesn't it? Uh-oh...
Just a little snippet of your text? Please please please? C'mon, we're Asylum folk. You can toss us three verbs, two nouns and a punctuation mark and we'll discuss it for the next month.
Oh, and don't make Myrdred *too* human, plz. Motivation is fine, but it's that feeling that, deep down, his mind just doesn't work like ours which makes him so cool. At least, that's why I like him. But then, I worship all the Marathon universe AIs, so I'm obviously not very pro-human.
: My feeling is that the krids were a problem all over. I'm
: pretty sure that at the time at least the Province and
: most likely all of the west was under Muirthemne's
: control as well, and therefore our pointy-hatted
: buddies from Madrigal would be subjects of the empire.
: Why do I think this? Despite the fact that the West is
: obviously an absolute monarchy, the big cities are
: called the Free Cities, which means that the rest of
: the continent was at some point Not Free. The Province
: could be the Province of any given country--it's
: halfway between the superpowers, so to speak--but if
: you have Free Cities you have Not-So-Free Cities,
: which means somebody was in charge. Mind, I'm not in
: the slightest bit sure of this, and I make no mention
: of it in my scenario, but... well, anyway, I can't see
: the Avataras sitting on their hands while skullmounds
: start popping up on every farm west of the Cloudspine.
: Myrdred and buds would have done something about the
: problem--which means they would have eventually bumped
: into Connacht, if only while he was mopping up the
: last of the krids. Very bad joke starts NOW: What did
: Connacht say when he found Myrdred fighting back the
: Myrkridian menace with nothing but a cloudkill?
: "Silly avatara, don't you know tains are for
: krids?"
Whoops. I just noticed that GURPS explicitly says that the Province was controlled by the Cath Bruig until 2331. Guess that vaporizes my position. Silly me.
Nonetheless, I don't think the Cath Bruig (then at its lowest ebb for a thousand years) was exercising *much* control over the West in the time just before Connacht, nor were the Krids very active in west of the Cloudspine. You'll note that the texts about western events back then, with Mazzarin, Myrdred and the Watcher, say nothing about the Myrkridia. I don't think they were that common in the West. (Which would explain why so little information about them survived to the Myth TFL period.) You're right that the Avatara would have had to deal with the Krids, but I don't think they would have done more than try to keep them out of the West, using the Cloudspine as a barrier. The Avatara wouldn't have had the power to drive the Krids back any real distance, and follow them into the center of the continent; no one had this power, until Connacht. That's a Great Hero-class endeavour.
: I think it's supposed to be a composite rather than a
: group portrait. Rabican appears in his armor because
: that's how everyone remembers him, fighting Shiver.
: You're right about the discrepancies in costume,
: though. Hmmm.
But GURPS says he pretty much always wore the armor. Of course, he may have spent almost all his time in battle, but let's focus on the flaws in *your* argument, okay?
: I'm pretty sure Alric's outfit was supposed to be an
: hommage to French Weird Comics Sensation Moebius, who
: was always drawing people in big sausage hats with
: face paint and such. Changing Alric's wardrobe for
: Myth II might have been out of a desire not to look so
: derivative, but I miss the old greyface.
Hey, yeah, you're right! He had a sausage hat, not a pointy hat! Another point against your "Avatara uniform" theory! Man, I'm glad someone's doing my research for me, even if it's the opposition. :-)
: We do know that Rabican had the best combat skills--he
: was probably the Light equivalent of Soulblighter in
: this at least. I've always felt it was kind of fishy
: that you would send your weakest magician to fight the
: enemy's (arguably) strongest magician, unless this was
: some kind of elaborate trap, where she was lured into
: thinking she'd get an easy victory...
I'd say Rabican was about halfway between Soulblighter and Shiver--he magically enhanced his own physical abilities, but he also had some good battle spells. After all, he took out Shiver magically, rather than hand-to-hand.
And while he wasn't the best magician, but that doesn't at all mean that he wouldn't perform well against a good magician; I stand by my belief that the Myth1 Soulblighter could mop the floor with the Myth1 Shiver. Damas had just as much magic pumping through him as Shiver; it was just used unconsciously, to enhance his combat skillz, rather than consciously, to power assorted spells. Enormous mountain-busting spells won't do you any good if your opponent's just too damn tough to succumb to them. Similarly, Rabican might not know as many spells as Shiver, but if he was skilled enough to pour a crapload of power into boosting his damage resistance and generating that enormous lightning bolt, he'd still be a worthy opponent. And he was, apparently; according to GURPS he was consistenly the best the Avatara had on the battlefield.
: Alric, even after he's had a chance to change his clothes
: (and you'd think he'd want to after spending all that
: time in the desert without a shower) sticks to his
: pointy hat. It may be that he needed some freedom of
: movement to work his various spells--all that
: gesturing and lifting eblis stones would get pretty
: tiring in full plate, I suppose. The magic armor he
: was after would have been an exception, since it
: provided the wearer added stamina.
: Oh, who am I kidding? I've gone way out on a limb here
: with this point about pointy hats. Obviously you don't
: need one to be an avatara. Heck, I'm about ready to
: concede right now. Once again you've bludgeoned me
: into a corner, SD, you sneaky bastard.
Dangit, don't give up so quick! You take all the fun out of victory! The faster you concede, the faster we start talking about something else, wherein I'll probably turn out to be wrong, and how much fun is that?
: Now you're psychic as well.
No, I just read Serena Sabak's column in the Weekly World News on a regular basis.
: But hey, Myrdred and Soulblighter don't seem to have any
: distinct animosity in the Great War (I'm sure you'll
: correct me if I'm missing something, but it seemed
: like the big conflict was Deceiver vs. Watcher, and SB
: just took advantage of their squabbling to move his
: own troops into position). It seems to come from the
: D's supporting Alric. This I can understand; they were
: allies under Connacht (whether or not they fought
: together), they were allies under Balor, but when SB
: makes his own play the D switches teams. That would
: bug me a little, too.
True, but SB seems a little scornful of the D on personal grounds, and the D for his part obviously dislikes SB too much to ally with him instead of Alric, even when they'd almost certainly have accomplished a Dark victory. It just seems to me like there's more bad feeling between them than you'd expect between two devoted followers of a great deceased leader. Though God knows we've seen it enough in our history.
: You're right, there should be some mention of the D
: serving Connacht. The fact that there isn't bothers
: me. The fact that there's no mention at all of what he
: did during the Wolf Age makes me think I can do as I
: please. For Asylum purposes I concede there is no
: proof of a link between Myrdred and Connacht, though I
: wish there was. I do think he would have fought the
: krids, however, and probably the Trow as well.
: Stipulated (as they keep saying in the Black Company
: books).
: You have, as usual, a very good point. I still feel kind
: of iffy about invoking characters who don't exist in
: the game, however.
: Okay, logic and common sense agree with you here so I'll
: jump on the bandwagon. Just one quick point: I feel
: that "Avatara", regardless of what GURPS
: does or doesn't say, does not specifically mean
: "powerful magic guy who lives in Madrigal".
: My personal feeling is that it merely means someone
: who took the time to track down a runestone and now
: has control of a Dream. It would make sense that
: Muirthemne would have access to all the weapons
: Madrigal would possess and so I think there were
: probably Cath Bruig Avatara as well. I'm basing this
: on how the various flavor texts "feel" and
: "read" rather than direct evidence, but my
: intuition is that the Avatara were a force to be
: reckoned with long before Madrigal even had a post
: office or a traffic light. The fact that the Nine
: operate out of Madrigal means little, since it's the
: only city they COULD operate out of by the end of the
: Great War--even Covenant was ruined and occupied.
I agree with you on the meaning of "Avatara." I think GURPS is a little silly when it first explains that every major archmage seeks to become Wyrd's Avatar, and then says that the Avatara are only a few of these Archmages. IMO Bungie intended Avatara to mean any sorcerer powerful enough to become a potential Avatar. Nonetheless I'll stick with the GURPS definition for convenience, since so much text comes out of it.
In case there's any problem with definitions and clarity, and all that, my position is: Myrdred belonged to the Madrigal-based group of archmages that championed the Light, and no members of the group lived in the Cath Bruig, and the guy who went with Connacht to see the Trow was an archmage from the Cath Bruig and not a member of the Madrigal group. Whatever else he may have become, a Fallen Lord or whatnot.
GURPS says (I know you don't like GURPS very much; sorry I have to keep quoting it) only that they were "based in Madrigal" in the same sentence as it says that they've been around for centuries before Balor. It would seem to me that the Nine have pretty much been located in Madrigal for as long as the order's existed. Which isn't particularly unbelievable; we know Tyr dates back to the Wind Age, so there's no reason why Madrigal wouldn't too.
: I went through a similar experience in high school and I
: can tell you that things get a lot less weird as time
: goes on. Also, and I never thought I'd say this, try
: not to get too angry with her parents. I don't know
: enough to really preach to you, so I won't, but I know
: in my experience the anger and spite were actually
: just byproducts of the love and concern the parents
: felt for their child--this sort of thing scares the
: snot out of the suicidee's Mom and Dad and since they
: can't solve the problem on their own sometimes the
: fear turns into anger, which gets misplaced. It's a
: situation most people don't and can't understand and
: so they lash out because they feel something horrible
: encroaching on their lives.
Nah, in this case they're just bastards. :-)
Okay, I'm exaggerating, but it's an *extremely* dysfunctional family. No member of it is really happy living with any of the other members. I usually spend my time mildly attempting to defend her parents while she shouts about them. Believe me, I'm not capable of mustering even half the anger she regularly feels toward them.
: That being said I don't know the details. I do know your
: GF will need all the support you can give her in the
: next few months--she'll need to feel like you don't
: hate her or blame her for what she did, that she's not
: crazy, etc.--so I'll keep up the positive vibes. IMHO,
: it's best not to antagonize the parents, since no
: matter how pissed she gets she'll still think of them
: as family and if you drive a wedge in there it'll just
: make things worse. Your anger is perfectly
: understandable, but for her sake I'd reccomend not
: acting on it or displaying it too often. Vent on ghols
: instead--they make better noises when you hit them.
See above. :-)
At present, her fondest wish is to get them both committed. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't find a wedge big enough to widen a gap already the size of the Grand Canyon. I mean, she loves them dearly as parents, but she has a very low opinion of them as people.
She actually wishes I'd get angry more often, not just about this but about things in general. She used to worry that I was too stable and sooner or later I'd blow up and massacre a Burger King or something, but after 3.5 years and 0 massacres she's a little less apprehensive. :-)
: Whatever the situation (and I'll reiterate: I don't have
: all the details), remember you've got friends here.
: What? Did you say something? I'm sorry, my ears seem to
: have fallen off... I'm sure they're around here
: somewhere...
Huh! Some friend *you* are, ears detaching at crucial moments...
: Not unless you know how to invoke the Internal Game
: Epilogue tag. I want a postscript on my scenario but
: it seems that the leveller speech at the end of M2 is
: hard-coded to only come up when you win level 25.
Have you tried numbering your last level as 25? I took a look and it wasn't immediately obvious what the trigger was; maybe the level number, maybe the fact that it runs a postgame cutscene, maybe the fact that it's in a multilevel single-player scenario and has no followup mesh. Try having a look at Chimera and see how they got the credits to run at the end. Or was that a movie?
If all else fails, you can simply put your epilogue in the intro narration of a very minor "end mesh", with the characters chatting for a few minutes as they stagger on home. Or meeting their cheering fellow warriors. Or something.
: And hey, since you asked: do you know why the damn game
: crashes so much? I have five levels, right, and
: there's a journeyman hero who must be a veteran all
: the way through--if he dies in the second level he
: doesn't come back. So the game has to be played all
: the way through without crashing. Yet for some reason,
: every time you hit "next level" after level
: four, the game just gives up and kicks you into the
: finder. You can play level five just fine if you
: choose it as a new game, but otherwise, forget about
: it.
I'll ask the obvious questions--you've linked level 4 to level 5 in Fear, right? As the success mesh? And have you checked the game log text file to see if it has anything to say?
: Oh, and do you know what a monster source is?
No, and if you ever find out, I'd appreciate it if you'd tell me. Also, what the "use markers rather than locations" flag does in the geom. filter action.
: Hehe, and you thought I would want emotional support...
: sucker!
Dave, Dave, I know how hard this scenario design has been on you. Here, lean on my shoulder...there...there...
--SiliconDream
