Sagiro's Story Hour: Now That It's Over

I only looked at the sales blurb but I must say that your changing Aravis to Aravia was a real turn-off. What was the point of the change? The name just doesn't sound right anyway. It doesn't help that a local bus company is called Arriva.

And Isobel to Ysabel just seems like making change for change's sake.

SolitonMan said:

Sagiro, or anyone who might read this and recall - what was the original source for the Mordenkainen's Cube item carried by Grey Wolf? When reading the story hour I thought I recalled that item from 1e D&D, but I haven't found it in the DMG and I've looked in subsequent editions but haven't found a listing in any of them. Am I misremembering (something happening far too often these days :/) the item? Was it actually an original item created for the campaign?

Trivial question I know, but it's been on my mind lately so I thought I'd ask here. Especially vexing since a Google search of "Mordenkainen's Cube" returns like two results, one of which is a reference to the story hour!

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Sorry not to have noticed this question before now! The Mordenkainen's Cube was an item of my own invention. My recollection is that it functioned like a rod.

Markn said:

Finished the novel Sagiro,

...

The novel is VERY much different from the story hour. At first, my mind was rebelling against the changes, but as the story went on it grew on me more and more. Looking forward to book 2!

Thanks again for the outstanding work!

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I appreciate the votes of confidence, both regarding the story hour and the book. And thanks for the review! I imagine that the book-version is going to be jarring for many Story Hour readers, as I made many changes for many reasons (most notably for pacing). Best for such readers to think of it as a book based on the campaign, rather than one which attempts to map every character, side-quest and plot-event one-to-one.

Quartz said:

I only looked at the sales blurb but I must say that your changing Aravis to Aravia was a real turn-off. What was the point of the change? The name just doesn't sound right anyway. It doesn't help that a local bus company is called Arriva.

And Isobel to Ysabel just seems like making change for change's sake.

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I changed Aravis to a woman because I wanted a more gender-balanced set of protagonists. Nothing more than that. And "Ysabel" was actually the original preferred spelling of the player whose character she was.

I think you will best served reading the book without carrying any specific expectation over from the game. I'd like to think I didn't change anything "for change's sake." I'm leaning on the game heavily for source material, obviously, but where I made any particular decision I tried to start fresh from the question "what will serve the books the best?" If that bothers you, and you'd like to skip the books in order to preserve the game itself as the "real" version of the campaign in your mind, I wouldn't for a second hold it against you. I understand that I'm taking a piece of fiction that readers like you invested in for 15 years, and reinventing it in all sorts of ways. That's inevitably going to lead to some disappointment. C'est la vie!

Oh, and I'm afraid there's little I can do about the names of your local bus companies.

Wow. I saw this thread, thought "wow, this is a blast from the past, I remember really enjoying this but do I want to re-read it all..." ... and now I see you've turned it into a book. Well I think I'll just have to look into that!

Hey Sagiro,

How is novel 2 coming along? Anxiously awaiting it...not the least of which is so I can get an updated map!

Would you mind commenting on a few of the locations in the early parts of the story hour and how they fit into the overall story arc?

1. The location beneath Goghan's shop. There were several different forays by the characters, each going deeper and deeper. What were they?
2. What exactly was driving all the humanoids to attack cities - what was the driving force and what was their purpose?
3. At Verdshane, what was the deal with the control room? I understand they controlled the boxes in Kinnet Gorge, but what was the overall purpose for it, and what was the intent by the bad guys for it?
4. How well known is the Church of Uthol Inga? Since they particularly operated in secret, was the average citizen aware of Uthol Inga? Was it seen as a cult?
5. What island is Kynder Hold on? I seem to have conflicting information on its location.
6. Who was Levec Oldbarrow's employer before accepting work for the party?

Thanks again for your time Sagiro!

Edit: Fixed a spelling mistake.

Sorry for the delay in answering your questions; I only just noticed they were here! Alas that I'm not certain I can answer all of them, as I ran some of the games in question almost 20 years ago!

1. The stuff beneath Gohgan's shop was meant to foreshadow that Tal Hae was built above the ruins of an older city, Pyke Vale, which was part of Naloric's empire centuries earlier. If memory serves, beneath Gohgan's basement were some old crypts, and beneath *those* were the remains of the home of some mid-level nobleman or merchant.

2. The humanoids were stirred up to attack cities by agents of Emperor Naradawk, slipped through the portal to his prison world early in the campaign. One of these was (I think) the red-armored Restimar, posing as a fabled orcish champion. The goal was simple: the Archmagi were keeping Naradawk out by maintaining the planar gate at Verdshane. By agitating massive humanoid attacks, Naradawk (and his agents) hoped to divert the Archmagi's attention away from the planar gate by forcing them to help defend Charagan from humanoid invasion.

3. The boxes hanging in Kinnet Gorge were just some of many "monsters on ice" Emperor Naloric left behind before he was banished. He figured he wouldn't stay banished forever, and wanted some monsters ready to go when he returned to Charagan. (What happened instead was that, soon after he escaped, he was killed by the Spire.) The control room was the way to wake the boxed-up monsters from a complex magical stasis. (N.B. Kinnet Gorge and its monster-boxes was one of my very earliest ideas in the campaign, put there long before I had fully fleshed out a lot of the campaign details.)

4. Not well known at all. They kept themselves secret, having no other churches or other presence. The average citizen probably gave them very little thought, figuring that Uthol Inga simply had no worshippers. Those with theological education -- most notably the Werthans -- believed that Uthol Inga betrayed the other Gods to the Adversary, and that worship of Her would be a terrible heresy.

5. The northern coast of Nahalm, across the Middle Sea from Harkran/Tal Hae to the north. (Note: my plan is for Book 2 to feature full maps of Charagan and Kivia, drawn by an Actual Artist(tm). I may even put them up on my website before Book 2 is released, once they're ready.)

6. I *think* he had been hired by Sagiro Emberleaf, but honestly I don't recall specifically who it was.

Hope that helps!

6. It was Parthol Runecarver, if I'm not mistaken.
Just finished reading your Story Hour(again) and I just wanted to say that even the mere idea of such a massive campaign inspired me greatly(even more the campaign itself!) and I have begun creating my own long-running game(stole some elements, like the archmage gathering the players and the idea of rewriting time) which is starting in 2 days.
Anyway, not to rattle on too much, I just wanted to say thank you for taking the effort to write down this amazing campaign. You're an awesome DM according to everything I've read, and I envy your players. I'm buying the book as soon as I can, and good luck with part 2!

Hello,

I'm currently plodding my way through my hard copy of The Ventifact Colossus (slow reader), and enjoying it as an embellished retelling of the story hour I only partially read years ago. I'm fascinated as to what Mrs. Horn's character class might have been, whether she was a PC or an NPC, and whether or not she shows up again in some form or fashion. I suppose I'm hoping for her fate to be revealed as having significant meaning, rather than bad luck on the part of a low level player character, because I quite liked the character and feel that she disappeared far too soon from the narrative (though, like the rest of the Company, I am mystified as to why she was summoned in the first place). I'm about a third of the way through the volume and I am paying close attention to whether another companion shows up to replace her.

I agree with your friends who told you to own the story as the product of an RPG. Personally, I am reading it for that reason. It's quite an accomplishment, I think, to spend a decade writing a story only to go back and turn it into a fantasy novel.

Warm regards,
ForceUser

I guess Sagiro may not see posts here for a while... looked back through the Story Hour today for the first time in about a year. It's as juicy as ever and the reader-chatter between me and others is really enjoyable to look back on too.

Sagiro, think we'll see book 2 in 2017?