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

and another question comes to mind -- since the God's Name can only be known after their death, would the Adversary (if he'd prevailed in the battle and destroyed the party) have died shortly afterwards anyway? Or would he have lived a natural mortal's lifespan?

And for that matter... who writes the Names on the tombs of the Gods? Where does their magic come from? This is seriously meta-territory, of course, but I'd love to hear any insight from Sagiro or the players.

Everett said:

and another question comes to mind -- since the God's Name can only be known can only be known after their death, would the Adversary (if he'd prevailed in the battle and destroyed the party) have died shortly afterwards anyway? Or would he have lived a natural mortal's lifespan?

And for that matter... who writes the Names on the tombs of the Gods? Where does their magic come from? This is seriously meta-territory, of course, but I'd love to hear any insight from Sagiro or the players.

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If the Adversary had won the final battle, I think he probably would have figured out a way to regain his lost immortality from Dranko's spirit. But that's just a guess. As for where the magic of Naslund comes from, I'd say the source is some power older and greater than that of the Adversary or any of the Kivian/Darvin pantheon.

Sagiro, is this the best place to keep up with your development of the novels and when & where they'll be available? Or is there a separate thread for that topic?

SolitonMan said:

Sagiro, is this the best place to keep up with your development of the novels and when & where they'll be available? Or is there a separate thread for that topic?

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That's a great question! I think for now, yes, this is probably the best place for me to post (and you to read) about how the book is going. Speaking of which:

I'm currently on something like my 5th or 6th revision, though the scope of my changes is shrinking with each pass. I've resigned myself to some structural necessities that have raised some (but not universal) concerns from my Beta readers, and am generally happy with its pacing, characters and story. It's quite different than the campaign in all sorts of ways -- new and changed characterizations, ordering of plot events, and a thousand little details. It's still unmistakably a retelling of the story of Abernathy's Company, though.

My current inclination is to self-publish, via Kindle Direct for e-books and CreateSpace for physical print-on-demand. I have a lot of self-educating to do on that score, but after a great deal of research into both self-publishing and traditional try-to-find-an-agent publishing, it seems like the best way to go.

For now, I'm waiting on a few more Beta readers to send me their comments, while I tinker and fix stuff I know I want to change/add/remove. I also have an outline for the second book, and have started the earliest chapters of it. I'll post more to this thread as progress warrants.

Thanks!

Hi there!

I'm here soliciting suggestions for the name of the series of books I'm writing. I'm think I'm good for the names of the individual books, but I need something good for the whole thing. That way, I can say that (for instance) The Ventifact Colossus is Book One of "The Prophecies of Spira." That's my front-runner at the moment, since the major plot points of the overall story are largely driven by prophecies and their interpretations. (Oh, and I'm changing "Abernia" to "Spira" as the name of the world. I like it better.)

I like "Prophecies of Spira," but I'm wondering if there's not something better out there, lurking in the minds of my creative readers.

Assume that the general over-plot of the series is the same as that of my Story Hour, even though lots of the details will be different.

Thanks!

Sagiro, from my heart, thank you. You and your players have changed the way I think about and approach gaming and fiction.

Sagiro said:

Glad you enjoyed the story! Here's the stat block you asked for. Keep in mind that I didn't always play optimally; I figured I could handwave sub-par decision-making on the Adversary's part as a side-effect of his confusion at having been made mortal.


The Adversary, Named
Hit Dice: 50d8+750 (1042 hp)
Initiative: +19 (Dex)
Speed: 100’ or Fly 200’ (perfect) or Blink
Armor Class: 44 (+15 dex, -2 size, +10 deflection, +11 profane)
Attack: Black Sword of the Adversary, +40/+35/+30/+25 melee
Damage: 4d10+30
Space/Reach: 15'/15’
Grapple: +60
Special Attacks: Spell-like Abilities (see below)

Saves: Fort +35, Ref +35, Will+35

Abilities: Str 50, Dex 40, Con 40, Int 40, Wis 40, Cha 40

Abomination Traits: SR 28, DR 25/+6, Electricity Resist 20, Immune to: Cold, Petrification, Polymorph, Energy Drain, Ability Drain, Poison. Shakes off enemy spells with a duration on its next turn.

God’s Reality: 1/round, as a free action, the Adversary may change the state of the combat in some significant way, typically by undoing a negative effect on himself or an ally.

Always Active: True Seeing, Blindsight, and 1000’ telepathy

Spell-like Abilities, quickened 1/round: At Will: superb dispelling, chain fireblood (20d6,10d6) cone of essence (15d6), disintegrate (40d6) (DC 37)
3/day: miracle, maze. Cast as a 27th level caster, DC 31+spell level.

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Wow. Yeah. I actually miss stuff like this. Optimization is just so innate to me now, the raw numbers here just don't feel like a boss for his level. Dialing back the "I win at numbarz!" Is actually one of the lessons I've gleaned.

Gotta say, numbers be damned. This right here is an example of what 4e did so well. It cut to the heart of what makes a monster tick. The Adversary played exquisitely, something reflected in his stat block but difficult to capture. So elegant.

Everett said:

I still wonder what his Name was. Sagiro, did you give any thought to whether his Name could be translated into something comprehensible to mortals?

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I think having a name would dilute him, really. He's Archetypal. He didn't have a name, he had the potential to be named and this reduced. That's part of the appeal. Logic be damned, causation can go rosy on a spit, once this game stepped into the realm of the divine, things became mythical and played by mythic laws.

Everett said:

and another question comes to mind -- since the God's Name can only be known after their death, would the Adversary (if he'd prevailed in the battle and destroyed the party) have died shortly afterwards anyway? Or would he have lived a natural mortal's lifespan?

And for that matter... who writes the Names on the tombs of the Gods? Where does their magic come from? This is seriously meta-territory, of course, but I'd love to hear any insight from Sagiro or the players.

Click to expand...

Emergent property and mythic structure? Not one of the players or Sagiro, but the gods sort of created reality around them rather than literally built it brick and mortar. When the god of death fled, people stopped dying – not because there wasn't a bureaucrat doing the paperwork to usher folks into death? But because death, the concept, had absented itself.

The gods existed. The gods were immortal but still followed the archetypes. Their eternal cycle included an end, and so a place must exist for them to go. Naslund was as much a property of the gods existing as mortals dying was a property of death existing.

That made so much more sense before I tried squeezing it into words. >_<

RangerWickett said:

I Took My Licks: An Adventurer's Biography, by Dranko Coaltongue

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Oh, wow. Thank you for that. Thanks so much XD

Sagiro said:

I'm here soliciting suggestions for the name of the series of books I'm writing. I'm think I'm good for the names of the individual books, but I need something good for the whole thing. That way, I can say that (for instance) The Ventifact Colossus is Book One of "The Prophecies of Spira." That's my front-runner at the moment, since the major plot points of the overall story are largely driven by prophecies and their interpretations. (Oh, and I'm changing "Abernia" to "Spira" as the name of the world. I like it better.)

I like "Prophecies of Spira," but I'm wondering if there's not something better out there, lurking in the minds of my creative readers.

Assume that the general over-plot of the series is the same as that of my Story Hour, even though lots of the details will be different.

Click to expand...

Using the name of the world is a bit literal, no? Think of the title A Song of Ice and Fire: though that actually is a paraphrase of the prophecy that refers to Daenerys, the title remains mysterious throughout the series, since that singular prophecy is only one motif in a manifold story.

Maybe play on "Spira" without actually using it -- right now I'm tasting images like "The Company's Spiral", "Spirals of Abernathy's Children" ("Abernathy's Children" in toto would not be a bad name for the series.)

And just sayin' -- I'm sure I could come up with something excellent for you if I read the books in beta.

Siuis said:

Gotta say, numbers be damned. This right here is an example of what 4e did so well. It cut to the heart of what makes a monster tick. The Adversary played exquisitely, something reflected in his stat block but difficult to capture. So elegant.

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Sagiro never went to 4e in this campaign, I believe. He finished the whole thing in 3.5. I recall Kid Cthulu saying that in 4e she wouldn't have played Ernie at all.

Siuis said:

I think having a name would dilute him, really. He's Archetypal. He didn't have a name, he had the potential to be named and this reduced. That's part of the appeal. Logic be damned, causation can go rosy on a spit, once this game stepped into the realm of the divine, things became mythical and played by mythic laws.

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I don't check in on Enworld much any more, so I just now saw this.

I know what you mean... but no, sorry, he did have a name. Dranko shouted a word: it wasn't nothing, it was something. We can certainly say that it's not a name that mortals are meant to be able to cognate, any more than you can cognate what it would be "like" if our entire universe did not exist (if there was nothing rather than something), but it's a name of some kind nonetheless. After he's dead, it goes in the hall of the tombs in Naslund with all the other True Names of the Gods (which you'll recall, the Company wasn't able to read any of by any means), even if the Adversary does not spiritually reside there, Belshikun having severed his soul.

Siuis said:

Emergent property and mythic structure? Not one of the players or Sagiro, but the gods sort of created reality around them rather than literally built it brick and mortar. When the god of death fled, people stopped dying – not because there wasn't a bureaucrat doing the paperwork to usher folks into death? But because death, the concept, had absented itself.

The gods existed. The gods were immortal but still followed the archetypes. Their eternal cycle included an end, and so a place must exist for them to go. Naslund was as much a property of the gods existing as mortals dying was a property of death existing.

That made so much more sense before I tried squeezing it into words. >_<

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No, I follow you. The Names do not appear on the tombs so much as due to some individual inscribing them there, as due to causal laws of nature. Grant Morrison (in his book Supergods) described the concept of emergence this way: the universe is the way it is because it grew that way. Simple enough. I can go with that.

"Alander's Chosen, Abernathy's Children." Nice scansion, nice alliteration. As it would become known to generations of readers in shorthand, the ACAC series.