Flipz

Kadabra and I did discuss Arthur getting the scroll before Aras died, though we never actually set a price. Sandy already set forth his position in the post I quoted, and he said nothing to the contrary when Kadabra laid out what he said. I've nullified the mask and the robe to make you happy, but I'm not giving up the scroll unless Ad-hoh gives up the gems he got. And please, don't be a jerk about pointing these things out, would you? The second paragraph you posted would have made your point WITHOUT yelling at me.

Hey, I have debts to pay, Arasmyth knew that. But really, the mask's not THAT useful to Arthur, nor is the robe; I mostly took those items for roleplaying. The Scroll was the only item that I really "needed"; if the others need to be returned, so be it.

Arthur was stunned by the news of Arasmyth's end. The Elven mage had been one of the first to take notice of him when he had first come to the Hall, and had been a worthy companion and ally on his first Quest to Bric'bay. It seemed so long ago now, so unthinkable that he was now gone. Arthur knelt by Arasmyth's cold body. "Arasmyth," he whispered, his voice soft and unburdened, as it had once been, "I remember all you did for me when I first arrived. I have not forgotten that you were the one who allowed me to purchase this." Arthur pulled out his Healing Staff, and laid it gently against Arasmyth's body. For a moment, Arthur hoped, irrationally, against all odds, that the staff had somehow worked, that the elf had returned to the land of the living, but as the seconds passed Arthur knew it was just wishful thinking. He laid down 50 gold, a measley sum, but a symbolic gesture. "10 for the Gold I came here with, that you so wisely advised me on how to spend, and 2 for the Gold you gave me to complete my deal. May it bring peace to you in whatever afterlife you have reached." As Arthur finished speaking, he saw a pair of items roll out of the aeromancer's pack. Investigating, Arthur saw they were a Trickster's Mask of the Gender Swap (Accessory, Changes user's appearance into the opposite gender) and a Scroll of Armor Sundering (Reduces target’s SP by 5 and has a 50/50 chance of success). Arthur felt a wind blow past him in the enclosed space, and somehow knew that his friend's spirit was still there, that he wanted him to have them. Arthur accepted the items and stood to leave, but felt the breeze grow stronger, pushing him insistently back into the chamber. The Sorcerer's eyes fell upon the aeromancer's robe, the one he had earned at Bric'bay. Nodding understandingly--Arasmyth had given Arthur his own first robe, just before his Quest to Dastan--Arthur gingerly unhooked the mage's Robe of the Elven Warlock, leaving another 3 Gold in its place. "It's all I can afford," he explains, "I've still my debts to pay." The breeze blew once more, before fading completely. More at peace with both himself and his fallen comrade, Arthur exited the chamber and returned to the main Hall.

You mean Weapon Power times 3 plus their level, right? (This is from Massive Strike.) I'd still say the Jeggernaut should be able to choose which Hero is protected by the SP; that way, it's a level of strategy that can be handled on the player side rather than the QM side.

A pink envelope suddenly poofs into existence next to Arthur. He looks over it, curious in spite of himself, and gingerly opens it. Realizing the sender of the letter, Arthur shredded the letter before palming his Topaz and blasting the scraps to ashes. He sits back down at his table, wondering how long it would be before Caroline came back to bother him again.

As seen in Quest 38's flashbacks, Caroline was Arthur's childhood friend and, eventually, love. However, when she turned to Chaos, something strictly forbidden by the laws of the Zut'tau'ri, Arthur confronted her and chose to turn her in to the Elders. Caroline reached the Elders first, and got Arthur banished instead. Unbeknownst to Arthur--until now, that is--Caroline was sleeping with Vaygas pretty much the whole time. (As implied in the cutscene right after the Angel fight, the one that no one saw in-character.) Vaygas is Roni's father, but for unknown reasons Caroline broke it off with Vaygas and began her journey to Eubric. Vaygas came to Eubric and secretly encouraged Arthur to follow the Chaotic path, hoping that he would destroy himself, convincing Caroline to give up Chaos and return to him. Arthur had already figured that Roni was Vaygas' son, since Roni called Vaygas 'Daddy' and ran to him, but he realized that Roni's conception would have been before he left based on Punii's age assessment--and thus, that Caroline had been cheating on him.

Thanks, I went back and forth on gender for a bit, I missed those when I finally decided her gender.

(Seeing as this has more to do with the board itself than with Heroica the game...) What changes to the Heroica sub-forum can we expect with the new forum upgrade? Will the Hall, Rules and Discussion, and other ongoing topics continue seamlessly over the upgrade, or will we have to start from scratch? Would it be prudent for us to backup all of the content in Heroica to our own computers, in case the update deletes the old content or renders it unuseable?

Ick. Not a fan of the "mini-avatars" included in the "last post by" field--any chance that could be disabled? Other than that, though, I suppose a lot depends on the specifics of the skinning--and the EB team has plenty of expertise in that field. We're in good hands, even if I end up suffering from severe Heroica withdrawl in the meantime! I have to ask though, will this upgrade affect being able to view old topics/links? I know that when BZPower made the switch to their current setup (which looks a lot like the new Invision board we'll be switching to), there was an issue that no one can look at the archived forum posts without being logged out. Will we have to deal with that as well, or will our topics transfer through just fine with the upgrade? EDIT: Also, will our PMs be transferred over? I have a fair amount of info and plans saved in PMs at the moment, and I would hate to lose all of that.

OOC: Thanks to everyone involved in this, for both your input and your patience! Meanwhile, the doors to the Hall open once more--and this time, it is the face they wanted to see. "Alexis, was that--? Oh..." Caroline's face lights up. "Artie!" She pushes past Alexis and sweeps Arthur up in an overly affectionate embrace. "I've missed you! What happened to your voice? You sound so...old." "Whoa, who is this woman Arthur?" Alexis feels a little jealous that this woman claims to know so Arthur well enough to give him a nickname. Arthur pushes free from Caroline's arms. "Hello, Caroline. I've been thinking about you a lot lately." "You have??" "Yes, my party and I found some Flowers of Sybl in Ennon. They saw everything." The woman's eyes betray her terror. "Everything...?" "My memories were laid bare. And you know, that's a good thing, it gave me a chance to think about what happened." Arthur smiles thinly. "It is good to see a face from home, despite...everything. Where's Vaygas?" Screw it, it's not like it can get worse. The heavily bearded man steps out of the shadows before Caroline can speak. "I'm right here, Arthur." He walks toward the group, the stains upon his shirt becoming clear in the light. "Have been for a while." He looks around for a moment. "Where's Roni?" "Roni?" "My little girl." "Whoa, hang on. You have a daughter?" Alexis says, hardly daring to believe her ears. "Your...?" Arthur relaxes visibly. "Well, it's good to know you've moved on." "Why? Have you...?" "Caroline? Finding your daughter...?" "Oh. Right! Roni? Sweetheart?" ---------- A young child crawls under a table with Punii while her mother is busy talking to the Heroes. "............hewwo," she mumbles shyly. "Wow, human hatchlings are *wheeze* big! What's *cough* your name?" "Ro-ni", the child burbles, grinning at her accomplishment. "I'm Punii - nice to *wheeze* meet you! Got any other larvae with you, little *cough* guy? This table may get cramped... " Roni shakes her head vigorously. "Y...you?" she asks, struggling with the word. "I... did." Punii remembers the fight between his family and the heroes, and squirms uncomfortaly. He banishes the ugly memory and changes the subject. "Where are your *wheezewheeze* parents?" Roni points to Caroline, who by this point is looking around worriedly for her. "Well, let's get you *wheeze* back to her." -------- Just as Caroline starts to get worried, the tiny Progg larva escorts Roni back to the others. "She's very well-behaved for *wheeze* two and a half, if humans are *cough wheeze* anything like Proggs." Roni's eyes light up when she sees Vaygas. "Daddy!" she gurgles happily, running unsteadily into the man's arms. Arthur smiles for a fraction of a second, but suddenly his eyes grow cold and steely as he does the math. "Alexis, take Roni outside for a moment, would you?" Alexandre, who had to this point been listening in silence, steps forward and places his hand on Arthur's shoulder, but the Sorcerer shakes it off. "Arthur? Are you sure that's a good--?" "Now, please. This is important." "If this woman is your," she pauses, "well, what ever she is, don't you need to be with her? I'll take her outside for you two to get a moment of peace." Alexis turns and smiles at the girl. "Come on now, your parents need some time together." ---- "Eeeeeeeeeek! Halp!" The moment the door closed behind Roni and Alexis, the relative quiet of the Hall was shattered by the cound of a slap, followed by the clatter of wood and steel, and the other Heroes whirled to see Caroline on the floor, while Vaygas and Arthur crossed weapons, sending drinks and tables flying. The Heroes who learned of Arthur's past in Ennon would recognize the bearded man's staff, its hooked tip crackling with chaotic energy; those same Heroes would also note with dismay that Arthur now attacked with the dark blade once held by the madman Roderick. Caroline, for her part, quickly clambered to her feet, a dark orb appearing in her hand and quickly solidifying into a wicked-looking dagger. Arthur stands, panting, when he sees two foes arrayed against him. "So, you both finally reveal who you are. Who we are." "He found out shortly after...you know. Around the time we realized I was pregnant." "I'm doing this for her. Once she sees how dangerous it is, how you've destroyed yourself--" "ENOUGH!" Punii hid further beneath Schezerade's bar, and even Caroline cowered at his anger. "This blade was once used by a misguided Hero to betray and destroy his friends. Perhaps it's time I cleansed that blade by bathing it with the blood of another traitor?" As Arthur stepped menacingly towards Vaygas, Alexandre unsheaths his own blade and crosses it with his friend's. "No, Arthur. This is not the time. Not here, not now, not ever. The blade is not what should be cleansed. Remember who you are. Be a Hero." Arthur's breathing grows slower and calmer, and eventually the tip of his blade drops down and clanks loudly on the stone floor. He nods gratefully to Alexandre, then, with one last hate-filled glance at his former friends, he storms out of the Hall. The threat abated, Vaygas collapses and conceales the Staff once more, and is unprepared when Caroline rams a fist into his gut. He doubles over in pain. "I'm not giving this up, Vaygas. Arthur at least had the sense to realize that, even if it did mean I had to have him banished. You never had the kind of guts to do what he did." Stowing her own weapons, Caroline exits the Hall to reclaim her daughter, leaving Vaygas to his thoughts. Eventually, he shuffles slowly back to the shadows from whence he came. ------- Hours later, a blue-cloaked figure with a pointy hat sneaks back into the Hall. Arthur looks somewhat recovered, but his eyes are filled with a deep sadness that cannot be remedied by one of Schezerade's concoctions. He sits down at a table, deep in thought. What more must I suffer? he wonders. "Is it even worth the pain?" he murmurs aloud.

You're telling me! I get the feeling that this isn't the end of this storyline... EDIT: Well, that was fun! Thanks again to Capt.JohnPaul, Masked, and Endgame for helping me work on this one. Arthur's back now, so if you have business dealings with me, I'm available to discuss them. Vaygas and Caroline aren't gone for good, but this'll be the last we see of them for quite some time.

In my THEA 324i class, we ended up discussing chaos theory (i.e. every action causes ripples that affect everything else) and whether or not we are culpable for the state of the world. I used the big philosophy discussion to say, "no, all actions are Gray; even if chaos theory is true we have no way of predicting how our actions will ripple out, so we're only responsible for what we can predict". I'm probably going to stage scenes from Q38 for acting class later in the semester, too. Especially Tensi's immortal line: "Shut your flappy faces and fight!"

You know your life is getting trippy when you end up using a conversation from a Quest as a legitimate discussion board illustration in a college course. That's right, I'm getting college credit for going on Quest 38. Crazy.

Random question because there haven't been enough posts in Heroica today: If you could choose exactly one item, weapon, shield, consumable, or class ability to have in the real world, what would it be and why? (If something requires Ether to use, pretend that you can have Ether in the real world as well. )

Yeah, though if you want Arthur can roleplay the awkwardness of the situation (as well as witness Docken's reaction to Arthur's foolishly having given money to Boomingham)...

Yeah, force Boomers to give up all his money and then sic Gurnam on him. Seriously, though, it's nice to finally be mostly out of debt (you know, once I finish up my overthinking roleplaying and actually get back to the Hall).

To use to torment Arthur, right?

My thoughts exactly. Ambassadors, please take note!

I know you do for artifacts, but I'm not sure for shields. Hmm...

Caroline raises an eyebrow. "Oh, really? And, uh..." Caroline looks the Evoker up and down. "What sort of 'Quest' would that be?" One that you'd approve of far too much for my liking, Vaygas thinks to himself from his hiding place across the Hall.

Well, there goes four hours of digging through CMFs at the LEGO store. I really like that look, though, it really suits you. I also like that you do have different outfits for Alexis beyond just class changes, it keeps things interesting.

"I'm proud to present this wonderful display of deep but simple emotion. The emotions are expressed quite subtly--'underplayed' might be a good term to use--and yet they simply but effectively convey the depth of what is going on for these two characters. (Those unfamiliar with the reason Cinna and Thothwick are so reluctant to bring another child with them might wish to read through Quest #14: The Family Recipe.) It's also an example of keeping track of your experiences and letting them affect your present actions. Well done, both of you!"

Hmm...let's PM chat. >_< There go my plans for the Utilitarian Ethicist EC. And Zeph, there really is no excuse, you MUST Bricklink an original Barriss Offee now. I've been pestering you to use the torso for Wren for months now, and now that you want the Norns and the Acerpusculum together, you have no excuse anymore not to do it.

Of course, right after I get the head you HAD been using for Tensi. Looks great, though both Eomer and the torso will be tough to get. Oh, well, more parts for the "to buy" list! Also, seriously, no one wants to talk to my NPC characters?

Called it on Nuitan, but I didn't think Lyren would reciprocate. Kudos!