Flipz

Arthur shakes his head. "Haven't stopped by the Quest board in a while. Don't plan to, either, unless the Shadeaux pop their heads in to ask for some help." He sighs. "I'd hoped there'd be more good tidings. My Quest...didn't go so well. I mean, we finished the job, but it was a messy, complicated business--not to mention dealing with the most obnoxious dwarf to walk the face of Olegaia the whole time. Then, to add insult to injury, I come home to find out I was fired--not surprising, given how much the Heroica magicks warped time for us this go around, but still..." He shrugged. "I've heard enough grumbling in the Watch about Heroes being nothing but a bunch of freeloaders at a glorified pub. I figure I might as well put some truth to those rumors, at least until I'm back on my feet."

"Dyric, brother! Join us." "De'kra wanted to tell me the story of his people, so that it will not be forgotten. I figured it would be best for such a story to be told in a place of memories. You just missed Benji Carvenhall--he'd heard some rumors about me, so I thought I'd follow De'kra's lead and show him my past. I guess he lost interest before the psychic link could properly take hold--he headed down the hill just a few moments before you showed up." "How have you been? I could use some good news."

Actually, Hoke, I'd wait until after Grogmas to do any major imbuing. Buying the gems and scrolls, sure, but see what people make for you for Grogmas--it could dramatically alter how you set up your build. One of Hoke's biggest problems (mechanically-speaking) is that you don't have a specific Artifact that you're constructing your build around, which makes it difficult to know what you want to put your immunities on. Other Heroes don't have that problem (i.e. Boomingham with his Tome of Affluence, Guts with his Dancing Shoes, Nagure and Sarge with their Grogmas artifacts, etc.)--they just slap everything into that Artifact and are ready to go. I'm in the same boat, really. I have a lot of nice Artifacts and weapons lined up for Skirmisher/Dragoon, but I also plan to go back to Archmage once I qualify. That means I have to decide whether to put all my immunities in my Overkill Gloves (which I can wear as any class, but might end up lending to other party members if it'll result in better Overkill income), or if I want to try and find another "suitable for all classes" Artifact to imbue them into (maybe my Scarf of Misfortune?), or if I want to just bite the bullet and have to remake my immunity gear when I switch again. ...actually, what DO you guys think of my build? I want to add immunities to Confusion and Blindness, but where should they go? And what should be my fourth Artifact once I hit 30?

I don't blame Doc--like I said, I should have made that clear at the time. I blame us, the party, for being so slow in getting our actions to him. Yes, Doc had a turnaround time of a full day or two, but we the party took just as long to decide what to do as well. Part of that's time zones, but I still feel we could easily have knocked a month off the Quest by being more active ourselves.

To be fair, Sandy was also a month off in his estimate of when it would be up. (Though I'm one to talk, my Quest was supposed to be up in May, and it's only just now ready...)

Sandy had mentioned a few times about hosting Byblos/Marketplace in late October. At that time I (and others, I'm sure) were under the impression that they'd be one in the same, but still.

All right. I can't put it off any longer. Time to do this. Doc, we've known each other for a long time. You were my first QM, and stuck with me through two full-length Quests to see me through to my Advanced Class. By no means do I want to disrespect you, so I'm not going to lie to you. Quest 77 has been probably my most negative experience with Heroica to date, including CAT. I appreciate just how hard it's been for you trying to deal with personal life--we've been in communication regarding the sets you've built for my upcoming Cathedral of Mercutio Quest, and I know how convoluted and frustrating your building process is at the moment. That said, the delays were absolutely brutal, especially as I'm watching so much happen outside our Quest while we seemed to just stand around talking and not moving at all because one or two people hadn't bolded an action. Incidentally, in my poking about wanting to get on other Quests, I wasn't trying to take a dig at you; I was trying to provoke a little more activity from my fellow players, because of said "dead spaces". Because I knew it would take two days for a response to any major action, I knew it was important for the party to get all our actions in as quickly as possible--I know that we'd have gotten through a lot quicker if everyone had been more active, myself included at times. However, on that note, I did specifically ask before we started if we would be back in time for Byblos/the Marketplace Quest. While I recognize our not getting back was due to circumstances outside your control, I must confess that I felt a little betrayed that that expectation wasn't met. I'm also a bit miffed that, in spite of teased Shadeaux rep and helping out a Shadeaux-aligned character, it never materialized--especially with the Quest reward putting me that much closer to 30. Another thing that made the delays even worse was the lack of knowledge of where we were within the Quest. We did not have a very clear goal, which made it seem several times like we were "near the end" and almost to the point of quickly "wrapping things up", when in reality we still had months (plural) to go. Not knowing where we stood made things all the more frustrating, especially when Throlar kept doing things that reversed our progress and made things take even longer. Doc, you had everything here. The sets were gorgeous, as always. You had a ton of interesting character bases (that then did not get expanded upon) and a brilliant free-form concept. You had hex battles, and normal battles, and politics and intrigue...and none of it really flowed. They all felt like a bunch of disjointed elements with only vague allusions tying them together. Brilliant elements, of course, but it lacked the cohesion we've come to expect from a Brickdoctor Quest. And ultimately, that was the worst thing: it didn't feel like it came from you. This Quest really felt like it was a flawed imitation of the Brickdoctor we all know and love--a well-meaning imitation that tried really hard, but didn't understand what makes your Quests great in the first place. Your Quests (4, 17, 31) were awesome not just because they were free-form--they were awesome because everything was very clearly defined. What you could and couldn't do weren't spelled out (though the results were made clear once you tried), but what you should and shouldn't do (along with what you needed to do) were explicit. You don't get a map, but you do get a compass and a heading, and a definite destination. In 77, we got none of the above. Flailing helplessly at first works for short periods of time--this lasted the whole Quest, and the fun wore off quickly. It was too much like real life--no destination in sight, just endless days of directionless muddling. Your characters also seemed off. The shopkeepers, the various NPCs we got early on? Brilliant! The Knights of Patuqun? Great! And from that point on, the personality just slowly seemed to taper off. I'm not sure if we were supposed to pick up the mantle and embody them ourselves (like I did back with Knyghton and WBD did to great effect with Luke), but again, the lack of clarity hurt us--I didn't want to step on your toes (especially knowing how much you already had to deal with), but at the same time that left us with a number of faceless mooks instead of vibrant allied NPCs like we're used to having in your Quests. Additionally, there were other concerns to deal with. Frankly, CAT killed 77--we were all in it, we were all exhausted by it, and yet we kept struggling through in spite of it. I was ready for some serious Hall downtime at the end of that game, and it seems like you could have used some time off as well--we (or at least I) could practically see you and your characters getting more and more tired from that point on. But I feel like I'm being too negative on you--most of it's my own fault. A lot of this is that I was a poor fit for your Quest, and deep down I knew it. Despite trying a lot of things, I never managed to get it right. I was either too active or not active enough, too vocal or too quiet, too stat-based or too-roleplaying-based. I was impatient and frustrating, and I did an absolutely abysmal job of communicating my concerns to you before it was too late. I can't help but feel this Quest would have gone a lot better without me on it, and for that I apologize. Quite frankly, I should not have signed up--it was selfish of me, and I took a spot that most likely could have been better filled by a less ungrateful player. I'm sorry. Right, on to character analysis: Nerwen- I love Nerwen. She's very understated, but always a joy to watch. My only advice: be more proactive! I saw you waiting for everyone's input a lot, and while it's admirable to let everyone get a say, as party leader it's your prerogative to make the executive decisions and keep things moving. More importantly, Nerwen is a LOT more interesting when she decides to pick a choice and start moving than when she waits around for everyone else to make it for her. Many of Nerwen's best moments come from her more impulsive decisions--go further with it. Alexander- Where were you? You're a great player, and certainly a valuable asset in battle, but you seemed even quieter than usual this time around. You're naturally quiet, but I know from 64 and 57 that you're not THIS quiet--though perhaps some of it came from being in a different sub-party than Arthur much of the time. I'd like to see more of Alexander--just a suggestion, of course. Ellaria- What can I say? You, too, were quiet, but I loved that when you spoke, it was always dripping with character and personality. You drove the middle part of the Quest with your interaction with the Knights of Patuqun, and it's probably the thing I'll remember most from it. It's a shame you and Arthur hardly got to interact, but it's probably for the best--I doubt the friendly Druid of Sylvania would approve of a Zootist. Boomingham- I have nothing to say to you. Seriously, though, we've spent the better portion of a year Questing together, and while it's been great, I'm looking forward to a return to the player-QM dynamic with you and me. I don't know how on earth you, Pandora, and Pie put up with each other at this point. Overall--thank you for putting up with me for five months, and I'm sorry I didn't contribute more of worth.

Benji sits down in the present, facing Arthur, on a hill outside of Eubric. He stands up and turns around to another time, in a place completely unfamiliar to him--a large but strangely quiet village, the houses an odd variety of adobe, basalt, and sandstone, all topped with ceramic shingle roofs. The vegetation beneath him had changed as well, the grass twisted but hardy, both strangled and nourished by the ashy soil from which it grew. He seemed to be standing along the edge of a path, a cobbled wall at his back. As he continues to survey his surroundings, he sees a man walking up the path in intricately-woven black garb, with delicate golden lettering gilt upon it. The man wore a large, ostentatious hat with a dark blue feather, and periodically pulled out a large, complex-looking compass-like device and consulted it for long moments before putting it away again. He stops directly in front of Benji, and begins to speak. "Need some help?" Before Benji can respond, a voice comes from behind him--or rather, above him, atop the wall he stood against. Looking up, all he can see is the silhouette of a man's head against the sky. "What, you trust me to guard the whole village for months on end, but not to baby-sit your own son for a weekend?" The man on the wall chuckles, then goes back to working. The man in the hat smiles. "Just found myself home sooner than I thought. Xu's getting more insular--don't think they like us as much as they used to. We may have to focus on Etheria exclusively." The sound of tools against stone stop. "That's not why you're here, is it, Regulus?" 'Regulus' shakes his head. "Couple of the other Elders didn't seem too pleased to see me back so quickly. If I didn't know better, I'd say they're up to something." The man on the wall makes some noises of indecision, but manages to get out: "Regulus, there's something you should know." He pauses, wipes some sweat from his brow. "Your son. His nightmares, they're back." "Again?" Worry creases the man's face, a face already made old before its time. "How bad?" "Worse than ever. Look...you know my thoughts on the...situation. But I think you need to go back to Eubric, and find that Zeigfried woman again." The man in black stands in uncomfortable silence. "That bad, then?" The silhouette atop the wall nods. "And there's something else...I'm getting reports of...things...lurking near the volcano, just out of sight. Now, my men are too young to remember the old times, but if they are what I think they are--" "Don't...don't say it." "Regulus, the Elders dislike you enough as it is. If Arthur's been tainted...those forces have no remedy. You know the laws. You'll have to--" "He's my son, Captain!" "...I know. That's why I'm concerned." The silhouette disappears, the sound of feet climbing down a ladder emanating from the other side of the wall. "Don't forget, Regulus--I have a son, too." The vision fades, and Benji finds himself at the edge of the city, unharmed aside from the odd looks he was gathering from passers-by--he had been standing in place for several minutes from the look of it. Behind him, the hill still stood--and so did Arthur. Arthur Justus Regulus VII. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arthur listened intently to De'kra's story. Much of it was new, and wondrous--and yet, somehow, strangely familiar. "It's strange--you speak of many things I know of, artifacts and technology my ancestors brought back from other worlds, and yet none quite matches the history you speak of." He waits, letting the wind tug at his hat and hair. "Please, continue."

"Oh?" Arthur's grin grows dark, and smug. "And I about you, I suppose. But seeing as I'm no longer being paid to care about them..." Arthur sees De'kra waiting patiently, and spots Dyric following some distance away. "Walk with me, Carvenhall." He gestures, and the three continue walking to the hill north of the city's edge. Though not visible from the Hall without a telescope, the granite monument stood out from the hillside now that they approached it, a dark blot on a green, grassy knoll. As the group trudges up the hill, De'kra can sense a crushing presence of history pressing down upon him, a magical buzz that made every step feel like it carried many times its weight. Even the magically-untrained Benji could sense something amiss, his animal instincts bombarded by primal fears and a vague sense of sorrow and loss. If Arthur felt such things, he did not show it--still he strode on, more silent and mechanical than even the automatons Benji had traveled with in Xu. At last, Dyric still following some distance behind, the other three Heroes reach the memorial. "Do you know why I brought you here, De'kra? This is a place of memories. Dear friends are buried here...and several could not receive even that much. These are the Wren Hunters, brave champions who fought against Chaos, and won. True heroes, who died...because of me." "You ask me to live your memories, so that your people and your world will not be forgotten. I accept. But this is the place you will have to remember. This is where, when I am destroyed, my remains will come to rest. A tear in the fabric of the universe, and inside, my history, for all to see. There is a price for the things I've done, and I'm not talking about betrayal." Arthur removes the Zoot's Plaything from its inner pocket, the viscous ink adhering to his flesh for long moments before ripping free with an unwilling squelch as he passed it from hand to hand. "Chaos is not a force meant for mortals...and it enforces that warning both literally and emphatically." He looks back to De'kra and Benji, and to Dyric, who had almost made it up the hill by this point. "But I'm not here to dispense warnings. No judgments, no politics, no philosophy, no morals. You're going to let me live those memories, De'kra? Good. They will live forever--and I truly mean forever. In return, I'm giving the three of you the chance to experience mine." Arthur looks to Benji in particular. "I don't know exactly what you've heard about me. Take this chance to see it, and learn for yourself." Pressing a dried pink flower petal into the surface of the Plaything, it ripples, revealing a vortex of color not inside it, but behind it somehow. Images flashed by, too fast for the eye to see. He hold up the Plaything for Benji to touch. "And you, De'kra? Have you readied your memories to share with me?"

"Oh...hey...Benji." Rumors abounded in the Hall that Carvenhall had sided with the Wolfgang, and he himself knew the man had been partly responsible for letting Violetta back on the streets after the latter's first tangle with Heroica. Normally that would have been enough for the Mystic Knight to keep a distrustful eye on the man, waiting for the chance to turn him in...but after the news he'd received today, he wasn't exactly in a charitable mood toward the Watch at the moment. I'll hear him out. Arthur examines the helmet. "Interesting...most interesting. Quite the unusual craftsmanship...where did you say you got this again?" He checks himself--old habits die hard, it seemed. "Sorry--didn't meant to pry. In any case..." Arthur strokes his beard, which had grown out into an unruly mess--he'd have to shave soon. "I have another piece of headwear incoming, a long-standing deal from an enterprising Hero. But even so...would 75 Gold be enough for you to part with it?" Arthur fishes out the requisite currency from his pouch and hands it out to the Beast Warrior. Buying suspicious loot from a known criminal--guess I'm back to my old ways. I should never have changed.

We got teleported outside Eubric with the dead before we buried them. "The heroes stand out on the edges of Eubric. The sun is high in the sky, the air is sweet, time has passed." We made graves for them (even the ones whose bodies we didn't have) after Zepher posted that.

You know where we're going--well, or at least Dyric does. He's taking De'kra to visit Hans and Triad's graves. Benji and Xander can meet us at the edge of the city if they want to complete our transactions. Jess too, when she's ready and it fits into her conversation with Haldor.

OOC: The scarf was lent to Saeavel or Eleryian, I believe. The Healing Staff...I mentioned at the start of the Quest that I owned two, but I can't seem to find who I lent the spare to. It looks like it was just forgotten and never came up again.

Not even noticing the other Heroes in the Marketplace, Arthur purchases a Scroll of Blindness and a Scroll of Confusion, before heading out to his meeting with De'kra. (918-100=818 Gold)

"I--yes, I think I am, Brother. Come, let's go to the hills on the outskirts of town--I have a brief stop to make, and then I'll meet you there." Gathering his gear, Arthur leaves the Hall, in the direction of the Marketplace.

"Poor," the Mystic Knight replies, reaching into a pocket. "Save a town..." He throws down a slightly wrinkled envelope with official-looking lettering on it. A hastily-scribbled 'I'm sorry' was scrawled across the flap. "...get fired. I hate these stupid time warps. Makes me wonder why I came back to Heroica in the first place..." He looks out the window wistfully and sighs. "Not that it matters. Life goes on. What about you? Save any more dragons while I was away?"

In a darkened corner of the Hall, a Mystic Knight lurks shadily, the habits and demeanor of a Rogue never truly having left him. Though none could see his face, if they could the deep scowl might have been mistaken for that of the Raider Guts, had the latter not already been present in the Hall. A brief flash of an eye appears as Arthur glances at the Quest board--but even as he looks he knows he will not be approaching it anytime soon. He allows himself to scan the Hall, spotting new and old faces, some of which he knew, some of which he recognized, none of which he had any desire to talk to. No, they'll just have bad news for me, too. The keener-eyed might notice a distinctly disheveled appearance, a wind-tattered hat and cloak, and a different shade of crimson livery beneath the man's armor compared to his usual appearance. They'd also see the murderous, hate-filled glare peering out from beneath unruly brown bangs and a ruined wizard's cap and know better than to keep staring. The man returns his attention to an inky black orb between his hands, rolling the odd device back and forth absently as he lets his focus soften. A buzzing in his pocket--not a physical buzz, nor an audible one, but a resonant vibration in the magical field. A diary. Arthur pulls it out and slides it to the end of the table, where the intricate scrollwork pressed into the leather cover began to pulse softly with a silvery shine. He knew which one it was, of course. Only one friend still spoke to him this way, only one who knew him both as Hero and villain and chose to stay with him when he was the latter. De'kra was a smart being--he would see the journal and make his own way over. And if he didn't--well, there was always tomorrow. "Little guy needs better friends than me anyway," the Mystic Knight mutters moodily.

OOC: I should also have back my second Healing Staff and my Scarf of Misfortune.

Well, it depends. Did you read the last quarter of Quest 77 in his voice? Also, to answer Palathadric's earlier question in the QM lounge (because I don't want to double-post), the set I'm working on at the moment contains 11,588 bricks BEFORE I add the people. And it's only one of about 14 sets to do, many of which need to be rendered multiple times due to things like objects being picked up and the like. ...I may be overdoing it.

And Quest 81 round is run! Also, I think I know what I'm getting Em for Grogmas this year. Additionally, all those extra characters and numbers increase loading times and make it more difficult to get the formatting you actually want when it's time to change it (i.e. running battles).

It's both of you, really. Heroes copy-paste into their Statistics topic (instead of quoting, then copy-pasting and then cleaning in the plain-text editor), then QMs copy-paste the already-messy stats from Hero Statistics back into their Quest, and then copy-paste from post to post instead of quoting--and then Heroes copy-paste THAT mess back into Hero Statistics. It leads to gradual degradation, sort of like scanning a picture and then scanning the result, and then scanning THAT result, etc. etc. etc. Eventually, you're going to end up with little more than a muddled mess that ends up breaking the editor because there's thousands of extra characters in there that don't need to be. I think I took out about 3/4 of a page of excess formatting from the battle post, all told--about half of it from Karie's inventory. (Oddly, her stats themselves were mostly fine.) The next-largest source of odd formatting was from Skrall's bows--every time the color changed, it put in two color tags for plain black text and regular font before the proper color tags kicked in, and commas and dashes each got their own individual formatting block (before I cleaned it up, of course.) The moral of the story: quote, don't copy, and clean your stats in between Quests. Now I'm going to go start on 81's battle results. ...though I bet there's a bunch of cleaning to do there, too.

Well, the cobblestone floor alone is in excess of 3,000 pieces, and I have NO clue how many are in the building itself... I'm going to guess at least over 9,000. Also, have I mentioned that I hate the rich text editor? It adds WAY too much needless formatting, basically doubling the amount of time it takes to run Rounds. Incidentally, Kinto, Karie's stats are by FAR the worst of the three party members in terms of formatting problems. I've been working on this for over an hour and JUST NOW finished fixing everything.

Haven't done the renders yet--my specially-constructed rendering rigs have both died in the process of trying to render the smaller sets. I've just finished a third rebuild of the rig, and if it dies this time I'll just beg bbqqq to render them on his monstrosity of a machine.