Hello again!
For those that worry about legal outcomes, I’ll just briefly say that :
- Judgement reserved, as was expected.
- I was able to demonstrate that the other party was pretty clearly a liar (who had told further lies when the first set were found out)
- I was able to secure an order that the other party pay the costs of our client on an indemnity basis, which is pretty rare.
So, yay me, but also ‘to be continued’.
And as for Lone Wolf :
TT, his crew and I were attempting to scurry across a semi-repaired bridge. As we attempted to repair same, a bunch of ‘agtah’, being a ‘ghastly fusion’ of animals and humans.
Lone Wolf’s description of ‘ghastly’ appears to be based purely upon whether the creature is physically attractive or not. Serocca clearly fitted the bill of a fusion of ‘animal and human’, but Lone Wolf demonstrated no repulsion at all, and indeed exchanged a flirtatious kiss (!) with her.
Not cool, Lone Wolf, not cool.
Back to the adventure.
TT, with a number of the guards, is rushing back to the (comparatively) unguarded chariots, which are vulnerable to the charge of these creatures.
I can either stay with the repairers (of the bridge), charge back to aid in the defense of the chariot drivers, or ignore the whole situation, dashing across the (partially-repaired) bridge by foot.
Dashing across solo seems like a short-term solution, while I profess to have no particular skill in repairing bridges. Like many soulless mercenaries, my main skill is killing, and I follow this path.
What was that, Megadeth?
Aside : If you want one of the top five rock songs that have a chorus in a non-English language, you can’t really go past A Tout Le Monde :
Back to Lone Wolf – as I dash back, I actually (!) get to have a fight!
One creature dives towards me, with its fangs doubtless pointed AT. MY. FACE.
It is immune to Mindblast, and I elect not to use Psi-Surge.
Lone Wolf – CS : 36, E : 34
Striped Agtah – CS : 24, E : 35
To cut a long story short, I defeat the creature in three Rounds, but at the loss of 4 Endurance.
Before I can even wipe my brow in melodramatic relief, a quasi-hound creature grabs me by the arm (causing a compulsory Endurance loss of 3) and I have to fight again!
I can’t use a Shield or Mindblast in this combat.
Lone Wolf – CS : 34, E : 27
Agtah-Hound – CS : 20, E : 25
I manage to take the Hound out of the picture in 2 combat rounds, and without losing any further Endurance.
As I win, TT does the standard melodramatic declaration that I must move on, because he and his brethren will fight (and die), gaining me time.
I dash across the bridge, looking back to see that TT and his bros are all dead, while the Agtah (literally) dance on their graves.
Because if anyone knows about tragedy, it is obviously a rich and (arguably) beautiful pop star.
Shaken by the loss of my comrades (although I don’t know why, since that is exactly what happens to pretty much all my comrades) I sneak through the hills and forests, always keeping the road in sight, given the difficulties with my sense of direction in this twilight world.
I travel without incident until I see three warriors watering their mounts at a convenient stream. My Discipline of Divination confirms that they are scouts from Lorkon Ironheart, sent to find me and escort me to the friendly army.
I step out from the trees and wave a friendly greeting, whereupon one of them, LIKE AN IDIOT, shoots an arrow at me from a miniature crossbow mounted on his arm.
You said it, Mr President.
I need to make an R10 check, although my Discipline of Huntmastery, combined with my 8 Magnakai Disciplines, means I can add 5 to my total.
My R10 check of 3 means that, with the +5 modifier, I juuust scrape into the best possible result.
Evading (just) the crossbow bolt, I duck into hiding, communicate telepathically (using Divination) with one of the soldiers, and gradually come out of my concealment.
They take my Obsidian Seal (as proof of my identity) and take me with them (on horseback) to an encampment of earth and logs, before escorting me to the log cabin of the army’s commander.
I enter the cabin, resist Lorkon Ironheart’s psychic probe and, more importantly, share a drink as we start to discuss tactics.
Project Aon link – Lorkon Ironheart
And as our discussion begins, I draw a discreet veil over the topic of conversation.
Scheduling note : Tomorrow I’ll be catching up with work, and Friday I’m actually going out for fun (!) so the next update may not be for around 72 hours.
Here’s something to keep (around half) of my readers going until then :
Confirming details of the JUNE FUNDRAISER :
As many of you may (or may not) have noticed, this humble blog has a ‘buy now’ button on the lower right-hand side. This is for those who wish to make a financial acknowledgement of the work that goes into preparing 15,000+ words of gamebook goodness every month.
Any funds received will be used for the simple purpose of buying books, and particularly gamebooks.
There is the capacity to make both one-off and recurring donations, and, to make things a little more interesting, for this month of June I’m going to proclaim the following rewards :
Make any donation – Get namechecked in the blog, with thanks.
$5.00 (Aus) or more – Get namechecked and have me plug, on this blog, a web-page (including your own) of your choice (On the basis that same is not obscene or NSFW)
$20.00 (Aus) or more – Get namechecked, get the web-page plug, and have the responsibility for making a choice at some point during the playthrough of the current book.
$50.00 (Aus) or more – Get namechecked, get the web-page plug, have a choice in the book, and pick one of the Grand Master Disciplines at the start of Book 13 (if I get that far).
The above message will be placed at the bottom of each post for this delightfully freezing (in Melbourne) month of June…
Base Stats : CS : 22, E : 28, GC 10
Current Stats : CS : 38/38, E : 34/34
Weapons : Sword, Dagger
Weapon-Like Special Items : Silver Bow of Duadon (+3), Sommerswerd (+8 CS)
Backpack : Vial of Gold Dust, Rope, Lantern, Potion of Alether (+2 CS), Potion of Laumspur (2), Meal
Special Items : 1. Sommerswerd (+8 CS) 2. Platinum Amulet, 3. Obsidian Seal 4. Shield (+2 CS), 5. Padded Waistcoat (+2 E), 6. Chainmail Waistcoat (+4 E) 7. Blue Stone Triangle Pendant, 8. Psychic Ring 9. Quiver (5 arrows), 10. Fireseeds (6), 11. Map of Daziarn 12. Silver Bow of Duadon.
Extra Special Item : Signet Ring
Kai Monastery storage :
- Backpack Items : Sack of Silver (3)
- Special Items : Mao of Tekaro, Diamonds (2), Boat Ticket, Power Key, Copper Key, Ornate Silver Key, Jewelled Mace, Dagger of Vashna, Brass Whistle. Quiver (4 arrows), Pass, Vial of Clear Liquid, Crystal Star Pendant, Receipt, Invitation
Magnakai Rank : Scion-Kai
Magnakai Disciplines : Weaponmastery (+4 CS in Sword, Bow, Mace, Dagger, Spear, Quarterstaff, Broadsword, Warhammer), Pathmanship, Huntmastery, Divination, Invisibility, Nexus, Psi-Screen, Psi-Surge
Lore-Circles : Fire (+1 CS, +2 E), Solaris (+1 CS, +3 E), Spirit (+3 CS, +3 E)
Kai Disciplines : Camouflage, Animal Kinship, Tracking, Hunting, Sixth Sense, Healing, Mind Over Matter, Mindblast (+2CS), Mindshield, Weaponskill (+2 CS in Short Sword)
Current paragraph : 314
LONE WOLF PLAYTHROUGH 
In terms of the number of Lone Wolf’s companions (and steeds) exterminated in a single event, I believe this is the biggest in the Magnakai series. He lost a lot more in the Kai series, but since book 6 it’s mostly been one at a time, unless you count the mercenaries he shared a barge with in book 6 (I don’t, because they just happened to be travelling to the same place rather than following Lone Wolf specifically). Maybe that’s why he was particularly affected by it.
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Do we count the entire Kai Monastery at the start of Book 1? 🙂
You’ve also got around 20 ships from the Durenese armada near the end of Book 2 and a whole ship’s load of sailors etc at the start of Book 5.
Let’s face it – Lone Wolf is as dangerous as Jessica Fletcher or that beach in Baywatch…
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Not to forget the sizable number of Sommlending rangers that get slaughtered in Book 4.
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Actually that depends on how you play it and our author here:
only definitely loses two of his rangers (at the ambush at Eshnar, the rest are described as riding out of town. Of course you can also personally see to it that all ten who accompany you either die hideously or strangely disappear (as in the book forgets they’re still with you) but not Aussiesmurf!
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Should be pointed out that the first people to realize and try to act on Lone Wolf’s aura of doom were half the Senate of Anari and everyone just sneers at them. But the burning ruin of Tahou backs up their viewpoint.
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Of course you can also personally see to it that all ten who accompany you either die hideously or strangely disappear (as in the book forgets they’re still with you)
The Mongoose Books reissue of Chasm ‘fixed’ this bug, so it’s possible for three of the ten rangers to survive. On some paths through the amended text, it’s even possible for those rangers to reappear after they’ve been killed, and get away unscathed.
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@Ed, ok, thanks for the info. I’d always go the Eshnar route anyway but nice you can save some the other way too.
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The Kai at the Monastery weren’t really travelling companions, but I’d count all the others, not to mention Rhygar and his three bodyguards in book 2 and, on some routes at least, Lone Wolf’s guides in book 3.
Of course, all these multiple deaths occurred before Lone Wolf became a Kai Master. He seems much less lethal now, although the death toll may start to rise again soon.
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All the sailors on the barge in Kingdoms were slaughtered during the Pirate Attack. Plus in the same book the university he visited in Varetta was later burned to the ground with just one survivor, no sooner does he arrive in Talestria (Jungle of horrors) and its invaded and largely overrun and don’t forget the burning of Tahou. Ok technically he was travelling THROUGH those places rather than travelling WITH them but it still shows that destruction follows him around like fleas on a mangy dog.
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Thanks for the legal update. In the real world the best we can usually hope for is temporary victory with a “too be continued”. As that’s what you got your sixteen hour day on Tuesday paid off, good luck on catching up on the sleep.
“Lone Wolf’s description of ‘ghastly’ appears to be based purely upon whether the creature is physically attractive or not”
Ghastly, according to Google, is defined as (among other things): “causing great horror or fear”. The Agtah certainly do that as seen in:
“Agtah!’ moans T’uk T’ron, his voice a whisper of fear. ‘Creatures of chaos!’
A shiver runs down your spine when you see them”
Of course I’m speaking as a heterosexual male when I say that so I’m possibly biased.
Serocca DID warn you: “The war against the Chaos-master has made the Meledorians suspicious of all save their own kind, and they are wont to attack anything they fear could be an agent of chaos” hence their overreaction. The map you were shown shows that the Chaosmaster and his forces have overrun much more territory than is left to Meledor but how much this is due to his brilliant Generalship and superior military training for his troops and how much its due to his opponents engaging in incompetent friendly fire is unanswered.
https://giphy.com/gifs/fail-launch-military-a6045QG1e87Re
Enjoy your Friday Funday and thank you for the photo. I actually didn’t recognise Ms Delpy in that one.
Roll on being flies on the cabin wall for your conversation.
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Harking back to your Twitter question on singers who became famous without being that good at singing, she wasn’t the first I’d noticed, but Taylor Swift definitely fits. It’s mostly her cover of “Last Christmas” where you can hear her strain to hit those notes that George Michael seemed to hit effortlessly.
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