4th arkentool speculation

[Kreistor]

Loyalty in the face of death is hardly unique to gobwins. The elves sent wave after suicidal wave at the dwagons before Ansom finally put some Leadership bonus on the situation.

This is a world where saying, "No," means that you may just disappear from existence. It doesn't take a hammer ot the head to get people into line, for good or ill.

[Erk]

I believe the reference was to the gobwins betraying Saline and then falling back in line behind Stanley, not the gobwins fighting to the death during the battle for Gobwin Knob.

[Unclever title]

I believe the reference was to the gobwins betraying Saline and then falling back in line behind Stanley, not the gobwins fighting to the death during the battle for Gobwin Knob.

Yep.

[Maldeus]

Indeed, Kreistor, the fact that the Gobwins were not wiped out after their betrayal of King Saline, but instead defected back to Stanley's Side, is only further evidence that the hammer had some sort of effect on them. Of course, it's possible that the Gobwins were, in fact, wiped out, and that Stanley just popped more, but the Gobwins are natural allies, not Plaid Units. Can Stanley do that?

[OneHugeTuck]

Parson Gotti - mafia- ArkenIcepick

Grand Abbie - hippie - ArkenPipe, ArkenBong

Vinny - vampire - ArkenCoffin, ArkenStake, ArkenStraw


On the ArkenPliers topic, in contrast to the hammer, they are needlenose pliers. Which is more of a tool for smaller, finer tasks and adjustments. It makes sense that kind of tool could twist together the little wires and result in Decrypted, as opposed to the hammer, which is more of an, obviously, blunt instrument.

[DevilDan]

Indeed, Kreistor, the fact that the Gobwins were not wiped out after their betrayal of King Saline, but instead defected back to Stanley's Side, is only further evidence that the hammer had some sort of effect on them. Of course, it's possible that the Gobwins were, in fact, wiped out, and that Stanley just popped more, but the Gobwins are natural allies, not Plaid Units. Can Stanley do that?

"Only further evidence." I wonder what it would be like to have that sort of certainty in everything one does.

[Mathamancer]

The Arkendice, the ultimate artifact of Luckamancy!

[OneHugeTuck]

ArkenSpoon - decreaseses/eliminates unit upkeep

ArkenFork - Increases leveling of units, or prevents enemy units from leveling up (Something along the lines of 'Stick a fork in it, it's done')

ArkenTrowel - Increases level or defensive rating of city(ies).

[Beholden]

I'm sorry but look closely... the fourth arkentool has been under everyone nose! Sizemore is already carrying a shovel and a lot of his powers channel through that. However he has got a lot of interest in other sides of erfworld 'magic' but cannot do them. Who is to say the shovel he holds is not the arkentool? And i know the CGI effect usually applies to the tool... Wild theories abound..

[Lothmar]

I'm sorry but look closely... the fourth arkentool has been under everyone nose! Sizemore is already carrying a shovel and a lot of his powers channel through that. However he has got a lot of interest in other sides of erfworld 'magic' but cannot do them. Who is to say the shovel he holds is not the arkentool? And i know the CGI effect usually applies to the tool... Wild theories abound..

Well there's also the fact that someone would have noticed an 'artifact' bonus in his stats by now... Even when you're not attuned, carrying artifacts or magic items gives bonuses.

[braxis07]

I'm surprised nobody has suggested the Arken-Driver(screwdriver) Mostly because when using it against your opponents, they'd be screwed.

[moose o death]

for that pun alone.

[Ichthus]

Also, Sizemore with the ArkenShovel is considered the most likely fourth Arkentool. Evidently one of the earliest patents for a shovel went to someone named Sizemore.

Uhm, I for one, don't think that Sizemore will ever attune to an Arkentool. He's a good guy and everything, but I don't see that as his path.

One side holding all or most of the Arkentools isn't very good for a story. There has to be some conflict. There has to be somebody who has the power to battle against you. What we're likely to run into is something like the unknown Dollamancer in Transylvito or the Predictamancer of Faq picking up one. There must be some checks and balances against your heroes to keep them from obtaining ultimate power.

I see someone else like Charlie popping up to pose a threat.

[edit: wording]

[moose o death]

i think ultimately all attuned users will form one side in which parson will then "break erfworld" using a huge link up. the disparate parts of each attuned user will allow them to retune erfworld in such a way that ends the wars.

but that will never happen unless rob and jamie want to end the story on their terms and not when all the readers start leaving for a story going someplace.

to that end i don't see any attuned erfworlders losing a life. however initially i do so them all coming from very different circumstances and for different reasons they come into contact with our protagonist.

i also seriously doubt the story stops at 4 tools, even the wording implies there is far more that just haven't been found yet. i wonder when parson will ask who has the 4th and if it's attuned. i would've asked the second i found out it existed.

[DevilDan]

i also seriously doubt the story stops at 4 tools, even the wording implies there is far more that just haven't been found yet. i wonder when parson will ask who has the 4th and if it's attuned. i would've asked the second i found out it existed.

Parson probably knows as much as there is to know about it. He's just never mentioned the tools in a klog and thus we haven't had the benefit of expository notes.

[Ichthus]

random speculation...

ArkenMarker - Signamancy
ArkenNeedle - Dollamancy
ArkenMarble - Predictamancy
ArkenPencil - Changeamancy

[Beholden]

Just had a quick thought along the arkentools. Recently been reading Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series. I can see a few parellels to it in regards to "tools" left behind by the creator of the world. In the series the "tools" are left behind in the care of a trustee until an heir claims them and they "attune" and change shape to that persons style.

Now using this and the idea "one ring to rule them" vis-a-vis LotR, could Parson possibly be destined to attune to a master or tool that boosts all magics? I'd like to think of him with an attuned swiss army knife or Multitool leatherman good for all occasions and magics. This is partly due to the magics of erfworld he seems to be dabbling in which to him seems normal (to him saying good luck = to them luckamancy, Doing stuff out of turn= turnamancy, Calculating stuff= Mathamancy). A multitool would allow him to do so much more multiclassing.

[Lord Kasavin]

Just had a quick thought along the arkentools. Recently been reading Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series. I can see a few parellels to it in regards to "tools" left behind by the creator of the world. In the series the "tools" are left behind in the care of a trustee until an heir claims them and they "attune" and change shape to that persons style.

Now using this and the idea "one ring to rule them" vis-a-vis LotR, could Parson possibly be destined to attune to a master or tool that boosts all magics? I'd like to think of him with an attuned swiss army knife or Multitool leatherman good for all occasions and magics. This is partly due to the magics of erfworld he seems to be dabbling in which to him seems normal (to him saying good luck = to them luckamancy, Doing stuff out of turn= turnamancy, Calculating stuff= Mathamancy). A multitool would allow him to do so much more multiclassing.

I don't like this, simply because it doesn't suit Parson and would in effect be boring. Parson is "inferior" by most of the traditional Erfworld metrics: lousy stats, no respect for Titans, royalty, leaders, etc. Yet, he wins by being smarter, less emotional, more willing to break convention, etc. To give him some uber tool takes away from that. I mean, who that saw him ride banana to the pavement and be thrown in the dirt could "fear" Parson? Turn him into some uber power keeper and it takes away what makes him interesting.

My own theory for the fourth tool is the Arken-Magic8ball. Or, just the Arken-shpere or something like that. Obviously, it would do predictamancy. This would let the inevitable new coalition that will form have more than a fighting chance against Stanley and Wanda. Indeed, they may use predictamancy to take out Wanda early (presumably captured, not croaked and his character still has plenty of development left) and thus Parson must save the side once again. Note, this does not preclude the chance that Sizemore gets an Arkentool (though I think his character needs to grow some first). The authors left that open when they said four "known" arkentools.

[DevilDan]

We're straying somewhat from the thread topic, perhaps. I don't see Parson as winning through the traditional channels, such as an established uber-tool. He is going to circumvent and subvert and break the system.

[askafroa]

Well as for my position, based on evidence thus far... We have four known arkentools, three of which we know the whereabouts of and two of which we know are linked to a magic specialty. Now if we look at the specialties in question, they are both from a class of magic with a motion element (eyemancy and naughtymancy for the dish and pliers respectively) and both the main disciplines are on the fate (thinkamancy and croakamancy.)

Now there are only four disciplines of magic that would follow this common trend and one of them, carnymancy, has been a popular pick for the arkenhammer. That leaves us with dollamancy, AND with the suggestion based on Jillian's description of transylvito that they are a side that makes heavy use of a dollamancer (and other talk of dollamancy regarding raiment.) We also have the buildup of transylvito and a restored Faq as the major opposition to Gobwin Knob in the upcoming arc, it would at the very least be narratively convenient to have the currently unnamed known arkentool be something like the arkenneedle and fall into the hands of transylvito.