Zepher

Boomingham bows to Peri. "It was my fault putting you in peril, I could not leave you in harms way. Eric lent quite a hand as well." He turns to the other two heroes. "That's oh for two, chaps!" He waggles his finger at Heckz. "And that's no way to ask a lady or a lord for help." Boomingham heals Peri and Sarge before attempting to extract venom for the Basilisk's fangs, seemingly having forgotten that this was not one of the creatures whos venom the Snake Priest had requested. He waits patiently under a fang with an empty bottle of mead, hoping something might drip out.

I have no problem with the judging. I'd prefer to keep judges opinions in the mix. I respect all three as builders. I'd hate to just go down a checklist so I know how to score points! I think my most recent build is better than my other two, but all three have scored a three. Which means I have to just work even harder to score a four!

Jiri Snyder checks his account and is shocked to find that it has no credits left in it. Instead, there is a note: "Taken for the betterment of Kawashita First Branch. Thank you for your membership." Jiri Snyder transfers 96 credits to Koro.

Haha, I will certainly be involving the possibility of a cease fire in my build too this week… but maybe that warns you guys where my build will take place. (How did all we Kawashita folks end up in the MANTIS training camp?? Is that even allowed? Do you guys have a security breach?)

Quest 127 I'll say it again. Phew. Tough quest for me over-all, not because of any one thing but lots of small things, many of which I knew about going in. So thanks for sticking with me. I was doing a semester abroad, and knew there'd simply be some times when life experience and course work took over my time, and they did indeed, and I knew too that I'd always feel guilty and stressed because I knew you guys deserved an update. So yes, this quest ran about a week or two (or maybe even three) extra, I would say, and I think it felt it too - but I also wanted to host it, and am over-all glad I did. Sometimes when I say a quest was tough it means I had a bad time, but 127 was over-all a lot of fun for me. It had ups and downs like any quest, but it was good over-all. So, on to the quest - I'll just sort of do story and mechanics as we roll through. The opening was good for me, I felt, and I was happy with nearly all of it. The introduction of Oko and Yu Shu felt strong and characters clearly felt strongly towards them one way or another. I'm sorry that Kiray got so taken in with Oko, but I think it was a great character beat, and I hope we see that in the future. Monk and Grimwald bonded well over Avery the Abomination as well, and I was sad to see that point dropped as a form of conflict/friendship for them. Its always nice to see Nerwen and Pretzel as well, as they're both old and set in their ways (even if Nerwen's "way" involves lots of changing, which I also really like) which is a strong character trait for both of them and brings out both good and bad. They have a real sense of history too. Grimwald, I wish you had leaned more into knowing the Order Imperial. Early on it became clear that Nerwen was going to have a lot of connections in this quest, but if you'd worked up your opinion of the Order Imperial from day one (if I recall, your last encounter with them showed them at their worse and Pala's showed them at their best - THAT right there would be a cool dynamic) I think we could have seen more from Grimwald. And that gets us down to the docks, basically. We meet AVery - already talked about how I liked Pretzel and Grimwald on her, and as I said before this is when I realized Nerwen would have a lot of old faces in this quest. There was no confrontation between the Undead and her, which I think fit both the characters well. Pala - a little note while on the boat - you were involved with all the conversations! I know this can be fun, but it made it hard for me to place Pretzel specially, and made it so that Pretzel knew all the NPCs, whereas I always think it's more interesting if each PC finds one or two NPCs they know well, makes for more of a tangled web of devotions and understandings. But, everyone can play the game their way, just my opinion! I like that Oko and Grimwald became friends as well. I wasn't even trying that hard, and all the PCs seemed to like him. The sea battle - needed for two reasons. 1) Needed a battle at some point in the early quest. 2) If we never saw Oko fight at your side, he'd never have been considered a friendly NPC. His betrayal would mean nothing. I feel it worked well on both these counts. It also helped me learn about balancing this party. Then we meet the Golden Crusade. It also had the intended effect. Instant mistrust, and a sort of divide in the camp, especially with Nerwen recognizing Gocklo - these are the sort of things you can't plan, but great role play allow for them. Great to have the "hang over" of previous quests that way. I've been struggling a long time in my stories to reveal who the Golden Crusade are… they've been around for five or six quests at this point! And then finally I thought about it and realized that… well, Deborah would just tell the heroes. That simple! It was a great moment of me looking at my characters and seeing that I was making it complicated, and not them. (I also liked Pretzel mistaking Gocklo for Watsup. Nice subtle racism ). The night was spent trying to suss out different alliances, and supplies were given to Oko, which I just had to laugh at. Inside, we get marched around. We meet Samuel, he and Nerwen and Yu Shu all have their moments. Pretzel fails to recognize Abel at a good rate. I was hoping they'd have a better chance to interact. Ah well. Then the break out battle, which I was happy with over all. Took a while, but not absurdly long, and titled in the favor of the heroes as soon as they started to recover their things. The party splits, and like i said in our PM, I would have been happy to see any combination. Love seeing Pretzel trying to manipulate Gocklo and Marcellus into killing each other. Real fun fuel for all three characters. And then to the Bella battle. Ugh. What a toughy. That was on me. Should have made it shorter and sweeter. You did use a bit of a wimpy strategy with the bones, BUT it was a totally valid one and a tough battle to boot. I again feel it's on me, and my apologies. I should have thrown the "perma-burning" and "perma-bleeding" in earlier in the quest, and then each battle could be shorter but it could still feel like a race. Totally my fault. If you know the source material Yu Shu's name is taken from, you probably could have guessed someone would be poisoned by a coward. Originally, Oko was supposed to poison her with his blade, but the more I wrote him the more I realized he would NEVER do that. So I made Bella do it instead. Difference in cultures. I don't think Oko would ever disrespect his sister or himself that way, whereas Bella probably just saw it as a tactical choice. I think it was straight up awesome that Pretzel took all the poison. I don't really know if it was the best strategical choice (though I also don't know if it was a bad one, I genuinely can't tell what would have been smarter) but I still think it was a superb character moment - brought on not by heroism but by pragmatism, which is so incredibly Pretzel. I like too that one could mistake the two, but Pretzel even clarified. Love that Kiray is allergic to cat fur. :thumbup: The Ser Abel encounter was totally unplanned out - he could have died, come with you, fought and then come with you, been taken prisoner (that was my original plan with him) etc. It really all depended on how you acted. I like to honor diplomacy… and did, later in the battle, but many of the things you said to him right beforehand were not the right things to say, diplomacy or not. Regardless, you figured it out eventually, and probably looking back saved Yu Shu's life with that bit of peace - she was running pretty low on that final battle, if the Abel battle had dragged on, who knows how it would have gone. I also have to absolutely commend Pala for being brave enough to stand down. It felt like a real moment and a real gamble both in and out of character - he didn't REALLY know what was going to happen. And… that's all the time I have this morning, embarrassingly. I will complete my notes on the side quest and then the finale bit of the quest later this evening, hopefully. Maybe it will be more readable in two chunks anyway.

Can someone refresh my memory as to which quest had the DAMN party? I can't remember who was on it. Also, apologies, 127. I have a lot of thoughts to share, and have been really busy lately (and had my attention stolen slightly by AG ) but I will get that Quest feedback up shortly!

This is a long game. After one corp claims Guinevere, I'm sure both will go see what that dastardly Octan has been up to and won't be happy with what they see. I wonder if they'll be able to protect their precious genital-based map from two corps. And yeah, I'm in the same boat, just have fun! Strategy is there, but if winning doesn't matter to you, don't have to follow it! My first two builds were on an useless planet, now I'm helping the cause, but who knows where my story will take me next. Those Bribe Bags did really screw us over, but that will be part of the Kawashita history. When we over-come them, we will be even better respected! EDIT: Also, just a note, while Kawashita may look like the biggest Corp, we have 12 builders who have yet to build at all, versus MANTIS' 3 and Octan's 1).

"Yo, Mide, you're money," grins Bobby as he lays down on a small patch of grass, thoroughly exhausted from his chopping.

Hilarious song, fantastic take and representation of the landscape! I love the bubble cockpit for this ship, it fits well and looks good in the environment! Love the drill as well. This ship looks like it fits its function perfectly and effectively, while still being stylistic and inventive!

Boomingham's brain fumbles for the magical mumbo gumbo that allows him to heal himself. He pants heavily, and after concentrating with all his might he feels his wounds seal and his energy return. "Weird as Hel I can do that," he grumbles to himself. "Magic. Pah." He picks Scupperer up out of the sand and walks forward. "Your arm getting tired yet?" chuckles Boomingham. "Like I said, we tell the boy this was a cake walk. For the both of us." Boomingham rushes ahead and strikes at the Basilisk.

But they belong to him. Someone can't hold someone else's items at ransom.

Bobby picks up the axe and starts to chop wood, since neither his whip nor his flute nor his daggers could really cut blocks of wood all that easy.

Awesome mushroom clusters (love the use of hair!) and the similar rock formations as others have said make for a real feel in the build! The throned trees are cool too, will have to give that a shot some time.

Lawrence winces and laugh meekly at himself. "I feel like shit too. But don't let the boy know when he wakes up. If he asks, this was a cake walk for the both of us." Boomingham heals himself from the back row.

This is out of this world superb. The flowers as snow is indeed a technique I've never seen before, but its just… perfect. No other word for it. Makes the whole piece feel so dynamic, so peaceful and dangerous in the same way that snow in classic Japanese movies do. Those few drops of red too are just killer, and couldn't have been done the same without the snow looking so organic. The base is a very nice touch too - really, everything is just so spot on in this build. Well thought out, and fantastic execution. :thumbup:

Yeah, absolutely superb as usual! I really love the ship and the plants, as everyone have said, are fantastic (I love the use of that gear as the underbelly of the mushroom cap, and I recognize that tree from another build! cool detail). Have to agree, I'm a little disappointed that no one died in this outing, but maybe that's just because I hate glorious mother mantis so much.

The alien is adorable, and well matched the rather adorable probe and it's rather adorable crash site. I love the small burst of smoke rising from it.

An absurdly cool ship. I love literally everything about it - its shaping, it's coloring, those slopes that sort of just die off… It looks so sci-fi in such an inventive way. I literally cannot heap enough praise on it. Fantastic!

Thanks so much! It was inspired by my teammates' lovely builds! EpsilonEta and Beltar get all the credit on that front. Thanks so much! I've seen a lot of lovely Kawashita builds with cool curves, and I wanted to work with that. Haha, thank you! I wanted to do it with hair at first, but I didn't have enough. I think the hats are pretty funny though!

The trees look nice and wild, and I love the waves crashing agains the beach! I like how tall the trees are, really seems exotic (but most likely because I don't live around plasm or their ilk).

Beautiful, hilarious build, but I think the robots are what really sell it. They're hilarious looking, and extremely well articulated - great personality to them. The one in the bottom right, instruction the "drilling" variety robot where to drill, is my absolute favorite, the way he's looking at the robot and pointing to the spot as if the other robot just isn't getting it. The rock work and coloring is nice too - I must commend you for making each planet feel different so far, which I think is a real asset to this game and to the creativity of each of your builds - changing your color palette seems to force you to try something new, and it's looked great so far!

Love the aliens - so adorable and silly looking, and you can imagine just how they "scamper". The buggy is really nice too - though perhaps the center of it could have used something different than those vent pieces? I love the moss and the light blue adds a ton - all your pastel colors do! I'm very jealous of them, they look alien as hell and I've got to track them down. The cockpit of the buggy looks just as heavy duty as your previous piece, which I love, and the suspension system for the wheels. The customizability is awesome as well.

Nice build! Mysterious aliens - wonder what might end up happening with them! I like the use of rum bottles for the lights, they look really good! The walker is a bit of a weird build for me, don't know why, maybe at the point where the legs connect to the body. Or maybe the legs in general… they feel too wide and too thin to me. Or maybe just not well-defined enough. I like your edited pictures most of the time, but wish there were some pictures of the walker un-edited, as it's a little tough to make out. I do love the rock work on the exterior ground too, however, looks real cracked and crater-like.

Love the magnets (ton of fun!) and the overall sort of heavy duty bulky shaping. The curves on it are fantastic! I think it is a little weird that its "cargo" lands before it can, but that's just a minor gripe. Wonderful work, and again, the shaping and sort of "shell-like" feel of the body is spot on.

Like I said in the discussion, absolutely lovely trees! Great inspiration! And down with the Dust Demons!! They seem to have nearly as many planets as the corporations.