Comics by Shaenon II

This will be the OOC thread for the third sidestory, when it actually happens. Watch this space, there may be things here soon...

This game will formally start within the next few days: I have an idea for a somewhat open-ended plot and I'm just fleshing things out from here. Feel free to come up with any background information or other plots you want with this... it is, after all, everyone's story, not just mine.

As earlier requested, I will be opening this game up for anyone involved in any of the Mad Sci Wars games to participate in, if they like. Look for the main game thread to begin sometime today, tomorrow, or on Tuesday.

Until then, here's a character concept for David's re-imagining in this game. Feel free to put up your own if you'd like:

The Honourable Sir David, Paladin of the realm (Well, a realm anyway)

A knight of the Mostly-Lost kingdom of Ashi, (A marvelous artifact-reliant kingdom once powered by a mystical ancient energy source hidden in the capitol city; the entire kingdom and all it's people just sort of vanished quietly one day when the Engineer-King Roderick Vanderhoff decided to tweak the energy source "a little bit, just so I can see if I can get the energy output up by 10 percent." Sir David was one of about 350 citizens of the city to have been in foreign realms when his homeland vanished, and as the second son of one of the Barons of the land, David has a lot of responsibilities but was not gifted with much common sense. Fortunately, he's not the person in charge: his older brother, the acting Baron Richard is responsible for shepherding their remaining people and trying to rebuild and reclaim what they can. David has mostly been used as a diplomatic envoy to other nations, something he's done decently at despite being fairly dense and mostly oblivious to subtlety. A cheerful and courageous lad, David recently became a Paladin so that he could do more to aid his people; as such he should theoretically be able to use some manner of divine power as a gift from one of the undefined gods of this world, but he is either unwilling, unaware, or incapable of using that power at present.

This has begun.

Post character introductions for your initial character(s), please!

Wheee!
I would have posted a concept here, but i ended up forgetting...

Claire: I'm not going by that!

It's a fictional setting. It's not really you.

Claire: I don't care! What's wrong with Claire, anyway? I refuse to ...I need a time machine. *vanishes* *reappears*

Wait... what did you do?

Claire: You'll see.

EDIT-

Claire: Hah.

Hey! It's supposed to be Clarity. Claire doesn't fit in this setting nearly as well, and Clarity sounds cool. Besides, how are we supposed to tell the difference between you two?

Claire^: With a karat while in the comments. Come on, even I can figure that one out.

Why not an apostrophe?

Claire: We might need Claire' for someone else. Can't you at least *try* to keep up?

...Claire and Claire^

Claire^: Exactly. Thank you.

What *else* did you do?

Claire: That was it. I just didn't want anyone like me going by Clarity.

That seems restrained for you.

Claire^: Well, I want to be able to play without too many complications. Now I just have a reason for why my name's weird for this setting.

Fine. But no more time travel! *takes Claire's time machine* And no more interfering.

Claire^: I'm not letting her interfere anymore. I want to have my own adventure.

Claire: *sticks her tongue out at Claire^ and the writer* Fine.

In case you're wondering, here's what is known about Jane:

She's basically a wandering shadowy-stuff-person, living by her wits. She has some magical and alchemical abilities, especially regarding poisons, disguises, and similar. If you need something stolen, or some piece of information discovered, or manipulation of politics or people... or other 'services', Jane'll hear about it, find you, and then perhaps make an offer...


Extremely good at many forms of combat, somewhat less good at magic and such (preferring the practical stuff over any sort of theory), and nearly unmatched at her chosen trade, shadows and intrigue.

Her real name is unknown.

Heh. Heh. Heh....

There is a lot of magic users and rogues.

Still thinking about my character.

Here's another character concept, since we're not going to be seeing much of him for a while...

Lord Zobev: Archlich

Formerly a powerful necromancer (Translation: life/death manipluation-ish guy) in life, he has not grown any less powerful after his own unfortunate demise. About 40 days after he died his corpse rose anew into the intelligent skeletal mockery of a human life, a process which involved a substantial amount of complaining, grumbling, and digging his way out of his own deeply buried grave. Unlike your stereotypical lich, he only mildly dislikes the living. Quite evil, but these days seems to have gone a bit... nutty. Has a tendency to talk to skulls as if they were people and people as if they were skulls. Seems to bear a grudge against Jane for some yet-to-be-explained reason. Formerly a lesser nobleman in a large kingdom in his former life.

Any possible scandalous and mysteeeerious connection between himself and Sir David is obviously just blasphemous rumor and not to be trusted/thought about too heavily.

Oh yes, before I forget. Would someone shanghai Atrius into their party. Preferably a Lord or Lady he'd be obligated to obey. He's not going to come along on an adventure willingly - sheep to herd you know.

Ooh! I will if no one else wants to.

I'm, having fun with the different Andrew. I might bring in Xerox, too, depending on how overwhelmed I am with the main game.

Okay, Lady Viktor-
I have to admit, I'm thinking stuff like three musketeers, scarlet pimpernel, and so forth-I have an old translation of Cyrano I reread periodically, the Brian Hooker translation is the best, bar none....Anyway. A swordswoman, quite good with her blade. Thus the fighter. And the rogue? I'm still working that out. Perhaps a Raffles-type thief? Stealing M'lord's engraved pocket watch back from the blackmailer who would ruin him, stealing from the wealthy and obnoxious upon occasion, for fun and profit...or perhaps she's versed in intreige. Going on secret missions for the crown, delivering/retrieving a treaty, excelling in hiding in shadows, picking locks, climbing the ivy up the castle wall to deliver a message to the imprisioned Prince(and stealing a kiss while she's at it)....yeah, I like that.
Make of it what you will. I'll flesh her character out better when we interact some more, and start doing stuff. And Sir Andrew, go ahead and shanghai the shephard-have fun!

And because I can't resist anymore-
"The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon,
The vessel with the pestle holds the brew that is true!"
Anybody get that reference?

How do you feel about stampeding sheep? You don't get any experience points for what gets trampled, according to a certain list. But there's no better way to throw someone off the trail than riding on the back of a panicking herdbeast.

Atrius: I'd never risk the life of my herd. Every single one of them is important to me and they'd probably get hurt.


Okay, I just need someone to drag him along after the inevitable fight.

I'm still trying to get a feel for this Claire, but I think this is about right. I might shift her personality a bit over the course of the story, but I'll hopefully have justification if I do so.

Claire^- a mercenary who's gotten thrown out of more cities than most people have heard of, almost always for excessive fighting. Usually due to boredom. Hopefully she'll have more luck in Janfort. That's the fighter part, anyway. The rouge part may or may not ever come up, but it fits with a lot of her skills, so I decided to go for it. But she doesn't *have* to destroy the jails to get out of them. She just prefers to.

There are a couple of random mysteeeerious things about her, but none of them will really be that important. I hope. Some of the things in my head do tend to spiral out of control, somehow, but I'm trying to keep them under control.

And Chicgeek? I got the reference. I love that movie.

*snaps fingers*

And now I'm picturing a dungeon crawl, complete with a flock of sheep....I wonder where they are on the wandering monster table? Maybe Sir Andrew could combine the entire flock into one mad creation, a la monty python? Dinsdale!

oh nice. To tell you the truth, I am not quite sure what kind of world this is.

What kind of world this is?

Essentially a stereotypical middle-ageish European fantasy world. Something probably based off of Lord of the Rings, but not nearly as original or well-written.

Most likely the author cribbed off of various stories such as "The Dragon Lance Saga", "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn", "A Game of Thrones", and the entire Forgotten Realms setting.

Does that help?

New character alerty! Rand Jameson... like he said, he finds people. He also has a few things that he talks about less often:

1. He's extremely skilled at combat, especially with that sword he carries around. He's a bit faster (and stronger) than most people... the origin of this remains a mystery. (Mainly because I haven't written a backstory for him yet.)

2. Something about Rand, or carried by Rand, or of Rand blocks all magic within a certain radius of him. Any spells thrown at him will be absorbed. Any highly complex technology may do the same. It's almost certain that this is some sort of field projected by his sword.

3. The sword Rand wears is somewhat unusual. At some time in the past, it's been made to cast some sort of antimagic field, obviously for protection of the wearer. However, there the oddities end. All other examination reveals that, besides the dampening field, the sword is nothing more than a large, sharp, pointed hunk of metal.

It should be noted, though, that when it was last examined, the mage who did so reported, "For a second after I picked it up, it felt strange in my hands... however, I have not felt so since, and I can find no reason to think it was anything more than a feeling."

More details as I create them.

Oooo... I like Rand! And he'll definately be good for what's coming next...

A post will be up sometime tonight to start moving the plot forward. As with any story that begins in a tavern, a mysterious cloaked figure is going to show up to change all the character's lives forever. *Checks his watch* But he's late, and we can't start writing the post without him.

Actually, I just have something else I want to get done first.

For people who are just now getting to notice this side-story, feel free to introduce characters at any time, even if it begins without you. You never know WHO you'll meet on adventures like this...

ok that does help. thanks.

Oh, bother! Then I guess it'll have to wait until I come across some species of moose, like a dire jackalope.

By the way, I'm apparently being chased by some sort of wolf monster. I give it 50/50 chance of being "Shastarra, Sarcastic Female NPC's level 12 Elven Druid" in beast form and/or her animal companion. Still, I gotta ask, did you want your werewolf form at some point this game?



You'll occasionally encounter a flock of sheep penned up in the "larder" area next to the goblin/orc kitchens. But it has just as good as chance of being captive humans as any "other white meat." If you set off the alarms at the wrong times, the DM lets you see the smarter enemies sneaking away with their prisoners just before the wall of wool hits.

Only 1d4 rams stick around to fight, but that doesn't make the fact that you're battling barn animals any easier.

Actually, I can guarantee that Sarcastic isn't going to appear in this side-story at all.

Sarcastic: Wait, what?

Hey, I'm sorry.

Sarcastic: I'm not going to get to appear in something that's happening in my favorite genre ever? Ripped off!

Look, it's to keep things simple. Besides, I'm going to have to come up with a ton of characters for this, and I just don't have a place for you.

Sarcastic: Come on! Can't I even be Sir David's squire or something?

No. Sorry. But if it's any consolation, you can be the tutorial help character.

Sarcastic: Aww... *Sighs*

Well, that's the way the coin tosses.

If its any consolation, if you/your character had actually shown up as planned, as a dire she-wolf that nibbles on Thad, I was probably going to hit you in the face with that shoe I dug up.

"Gentlemen, grab your Crazy Staws, its time to ride the PINK ELEPHANTS! YEEHAW!"

EDIT: Sorry, I could NOT resist...

Sarcastic: Today, on Sarcastic's tutorial! Whoo... how did I get shoehorned into doing this? We're going to talk about the first monster the group has encountered.

Sarcastic: This funny fiend is known as a Lesser Alcohol Elemental. Throughout history, there have been several uncredible sources, mostly wizards who had happened to get dangerously drunk, who claimed there were not four, but five elements: Fire, Air, Water, Earth, and Alcohol. The last of these types was widely disputed, and no reliable evidence had ever been discovered for their existence. Mostly because the only scholars and magicians who ever attempted to prove of the existence of the alcohol elementals were usually so heavily inebriated that they were hardly capable of seeing straight before they began.

Sarcastic: Anyways, Alcohol Elementals of any type are funny fiends who rely on slamming into their foes during combat, battering and bruising them to death, or covering their faces and drowning them to death. Beware, for physical contact with an alcohol elemental will cause the character to get a bit more drunk. While the lesser types of these elementals aren't very dangerous, they are surprisingly hard to kill, because they lack any discernible organs and because their bodies are capable of shapeshifting. They are vulnerable to fire, although it is not their diametrically opposite element and therefore not their greatest weakness. This implies of the existence of a heretofore undiscovered 6th elemental opposed to Alcohol. Be careful!

So I am guessing it is a bad idea to try to defeat them by drinking them up?

Hey, how you beat them is your own business. I'm just setting up the situation.

Although on the subject of drinking booze, I WILL say that it's kinda unfortunate that there isn't a dwarf among you all...

Andrew: Xerox, aren't you...?

Xerox: A little. But unfortunately neither am I in the story yet, nor did I inherit my *mother's* tolerance. As I have said, I suspect my birth father of having the alcohol tolerance of a kitten.

Andrew: Oh, well. At any rate it's a moot point considering...

Hey, I just realized-- we're fighting alcohol spirits! Cool!

While we're dealing with fantasy, and since this IS a forum about Mad Science, I thought I'd take a few moments to talk about something I just recently discovered: A webcomic entitled Wiglaf and Mordred, about a family of supervillians named after various characters from old British legends and myth.

Go check it out. It's pretty fun.

Michael: Indeed. Although I may have to borrow a few notes from Mordred's book...