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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerakSpielman" data-source="post: 848872" data-attributes="member: 7464">Er, thanks I guess... I'm not sure if we're doing expositions (an IronDM tradition), but I'll do mine anyway.Exposition for "The Trials of Princess Olloril"hey, it was the only thing I could think of for a spade! And part of the fun of IronDM is coming up with interesting interpretations of the ingredients (though it was clearly my poorest usage). In one competition, the ingredient was "a simple lock." One person made it a canal lock to raise and lower water between two bodies of water, and the other made it a simple lock... of hair. I was trying to think of something for the advanced wolves (advance has a good, long entry in my dictionary) but settled on "more intelligent." This was my third worst ingredient useage. I had worked out the basic story but there was no room in it for wolves... the only thing I could come up with was having the princess befriend a wolf puppy, so I stuck it in right in the middle of everything else. It didn't quite seem to fit, but it was kind of cute and touching, and I hoped that would outweigh the slapped-in aspect of it.The Dwarven Waraxe Tunneler comes from my campaign, and once I got it into my head it wouldn't leave. It is indeed currently in the nasty hands of the Derro. It creates a permenant magical tunnel 20' wide and 500' long in any natural (unworked) rock, stone, or earth. This is mind-bogglingly useful for underground races, who could spend years digging such a tunnel through solid stone. It also ages the user 40 years (it's assuming you're a dwarf and can take it. Humans might be a bit more upset to find this out), using the life-drain to power its magic. It was probably one of my more solid ingredients.The boots... well... I just threw them in. I had already written the rest of the story, and looked back at the list to see what ingredients I was missing. Boots of Winter could be an interesting item, but serve little purpose in my adventure. If I were ever to run this scenario, they would probably be replaced with some sort of magic compass that pointed the way to Tunneler, or a note with clues, or something. It is my second-worst ingredient useage. (I was trying for some time to come up with a way to use the "gotten rid of/fired" useage of boot - as in, "My boss boots the lazy employees" but couldn't find a way to get it in.)Leomund's Trap: I had to look this up - I had completely forgotten what it was. The useage of it as the "safe" chest in a room full of "unsafe" chests just came to me. It seemed like a good, classic fairy-tale challange. As a matter of fact, it was this concept that got me started on the concept of a series of tests or trials to begin with. (Even if I don't use the rest of my scenario, I might use this element at some point) Then it was a simple matter to come up with the "Princess seeking suitors" classic plotline. I made her a dwarf just because of the Dwarven Waraxe, though it turned out not to matter much what her race was. Solitude: Ummm... she's alone for a few centuries... that's solitude right? Ok, so she's in stasis and doesn't notice... but... all right, not so hot of an ingredient useage.Other areas where I had troubles:OK, so I made a story. How to get the characters involved? Well, instead of the handsome Prince coming to rescue her next week, like in the fairy tales, why not have her sitting around for a few centuries, forgotten, and have the characters involved in figuring out the trials? Either that, or the adventure had to be a solo adventure featuring a Dwarven Prince navigating the trials (probably the best way to end the story, but not much of an adventure).How did she set up this elaborate system? Enter (and quickly exit) a "powerful wizard" to help her. I coulda tied him in better, but I didn't.Where are Olloril's parents through all of this?All in all I thought my story (for it was indeed more story than adventure. I'm a creative writing major dammit... It's hard to forsake my roots) was somewhat weak, and I was surprised I won. But these were hard ingredients, and it looks like my opponents had a bit more trouble than I did, and that's all I needed to grab the win.I hope I make a better adventure next round.</blockquote>

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