Book 2 – Text Updates 026

[Dr Pepper]

Also, it is now confirmed that garrison units can be promoted to something that has move.

[GlueDuck]

Also, it is now confirmed that garrison units can be promoted to something that has move.

We already know that since the summer update where the queen of Unaroyal promoted most (or all) of her garrison units so that they could leave the city (link)

[Geordy]

"... he minced a pile of radishes."

Obvious symbolism is obvious!

Waaaah, please dont let this be meaningful foreshadowing! More like an expression of what GK wishes for. Tram and Jetstone have to live, Trams the best, Tram for president, err... king.

[Remonis]

For all those people that are complaining that this update is a tease of past information. I come out of lurking to reply with, past information.

http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F147.jpg

We already know what happened because Wanda told Parson at the end of Book 1 what happened. She contacted Stanley thinking he was a fool, and convinced him to attack Faq. He turned out to be much more competent that she bargained for, so she switched to his side.

As to why he would keep Faq secret, well obviously he was saving it for his bolt hole. If everything went belly up at Gobwin Knob he needed a safe place to fall back to, that none of his enemies could possibly know about. Someone else already mentioned not telling his own for fear they would be captured and turned.

Sometimes there isn't a big conspiracy. Corollary, sometimes it's all a big conspiracy.

Remonis

[mastigo]

Or thinkamancy/fateamancy was involved to force him to keep his gob shut

[The Black Hand]

By the way, did anyone else notice how Zhopa looks kind'a like Mr. T?

(Also, his name's kind of appropriate for a Kitchen Twoll - Zhopa sounds kind'a like zuppe, which means "soup".)

[Chevalier]

I love Mr. Z!

I like cdrcjsn's idea that twoll fabrication is the topic here...I'm hoping that nothing has been built _yet_, but that Parson will use his meta-knowledge to inspire Zhopa and the other twolls to conduct an A-Team construction montage. I can just see Parson dressed as Hannibal: "I love it when a plan comes together."

P.S. also Jack would be Murdock, of course. Not sure about Face.

[The Black Hand]

I love Mr. Z!

I like cdrcjsn's idea that twoll fabrication is the topic here...I'm hoping that nothing has been built _yet_, but that Parson will use his meta-knowledge to inspire Zhopa and the other twolls to conduct an A-Team construction montage. I can just see Parson dressed as Hannibal: "I love it when a plan comes together."

P.S. also Jack would be Murdock, of course. Not sure about Face.

Parson would need to have Zhopa make him a cigar, though. He just wouldn't be Hannibal without one!

[badninja]

Oh boy now I got a feeling that Charlie was responsible for GK sacking FAQ. I know that other people have come up with this but now it seems inevitably that this is why Charlie is not happy about GK winning. He could care less about his achrons but Parson could find out the truth if he talked to the right people, namely the Tool and Wanda. If Jillian where to find out, well we all know what is going to happen. I feel that Charlie is going down and his house of lies are going to bite him soon.

[Algrokoz]

What happened to Zhopa? Why does he have two eyes?

[Swodaems]

I think the thinkagram was from Wanda via Charlie. I also think we're gonna find out something very peculiar happened on the way back from FAQ.
We have several pieces of evidence that suggest Charlie's involvement in the destruction of FAQ.
1. He knew faq existed. While the knowledge of how he knew about the rebuilding of Faq is still up in the air, I am going to assume he knew because he was watching for something like this. An undeveloped capital site in the middle of an active region is something you might want to watch. A veiled archon could have seen Faq rebuilt and reported in. Charlie was very unwilling to tell Jillian about how he knew about her kingdom because it would raise troublesome questions.
2. We never seen Wanda do her own thinkagrams. We seen her use a thinkamancy scroll on Jillian, but no actual thinkagrams.
3. Charlie is the Telcom giant of Erfworld and any commander in the world can contact him by thinking hard enough.
I suspect Wanda's conspiracy against Faq was done via Charlie. By listening in, he would know of Faq's existance and also when and where Stanley and the hammer would be at a certain time. This opens up a couple other interesting possibilities.
4. When Wanda told Parson about her betrayal of Faq she described Stanley as a warlord. He must have became a overlord sometime afterwards. We don't have any knowledge of time it took after Faq's detruction to become one.
5. Because of the hammer, Stanley was Salin IV's best warlord and crucial to his fighting force.
Saline probably knew Stanley was planning to attack an enemy capital. While Stanley's attacking the relatively undefended city was too good an opportunity to pass up, having a second capital and a powerful crucial warlord, poses its own problem. Stanley might decide to split off and form his own side. I suspect Saline IV's appointment of Stanley as heir may have been a way to ensure that Stanley remained devoted to the side of Gobwin Knob by ensuring he had a good career path there. This means the appointment happens shortly before Stanley attacks FAQ.
6. Faq lies between Transilvato and Gobwin Knob. Within a couple turns dragonflight.
7. Sizemore described Saline IV's fall as "Stanley took me and a number of other casters out on a special mission...When we returned the City had fallen to a sneak attack...The gobwins...broke their alliance and hit the city. Very odd." Stanley was able to regain the capital on the next turn.
8. Charlie has shown the ability to make natural sides turn.
I suspect that the special mission Sizemore described was the taking of FAQ. Charlie knew where the hammer would either be in a weakened capital city if Stanley lost the fight or in the field if he won. (or possibly in a weakened capital if he won.) He had the Gobwins croak Saline in the hopes Stanley would disband and he could swoop in and pick up the hammer with little or no opposition. He was not expecting Stanley to be named heir however, so the plan went to crap. The biggest question is how much Wanda knew of Charlie's plan. Was she expecting Stanley to lose the fight for Faq because he was incompetent or because she was expecting him to disband leaving the hammer in easy reach for her? Extending that logic: How much did King Banhammer know? Did he send Jillian away as not to risk his daughter in a fight against an attuned tool?

[the_tick_rules]

It might have been Charlie, he's mysterious.

[Swodaems]

What happened to Zhopa? Why does he have two eyes?

He always had two eyes.
http://www.erfworld.com/summer-update-2 ... Basket.png
I'm more concerned about what's happened to his chest hair. It used to be in the shape of Stanley emblem. Now it just looks like a scraggy mess. Also, Zhopa seems to be thinking more than he did before.
Also, we just found out that units can feel their bonuses, Zhopa knew the chief had been lost and replaced before Stanley said anything.

[ftl]

What happened to Zhopa? Why does he have two eyes?

Zhopa's always had two eyes, twolls can have one or two. It was Bogroll that only had one.

[ftl]

For all those people that are complaining that this update is a tease of past information. I come out of lurking to reply with, past information.

http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F147.jpg

We already know what happened because Wanda told Parson at the end of Book 1 what happened. She contacted Stanley thinking he was a fool, and convinced him to attack Faq. He turned out to be much more competent that she bargained for, so she switched to his side.

As to why he would keep Faq secret, well obviously he was saving it for his bolt hole. If everything went belly up at Gobwin Knob he needed a safe place to fall back to, that none of his enemies could possibly know about. Someone else already mentioned not telling his own for fear they would be captured and turned.

Sometimes there isn't a big conspiracy. Corollary, sometimes it's all a big conspiracy.

Remonis

Yes, we got that outline in book 1. We don't know the details, though. Wanda may be fudging the truth. Charlie may have been involved somehow - either in influencing Wanda or Stanley or both. There's still a lot of very odd moments about that whole thing - why send all the casters as well? Why would Stanley respond to a call from an unknown caster for a side he doesn't know existed? Why the gobwin uprising? Why did Wanda choose THIS route for trying to get the hammer rather than one that was less likely to leave their side dead?

I suspect there's a lot more backstory to FAQ than we know from that one update.

[effataigus]

Perhaps my reading comprehension is lacking, but I'm thinking that this update gives us the least new insights per word of any since the fireworks display.

Info:

Stanley is has a big ego... check.
Stanley was intentionally keeping Faq a secret... ok, probably could have guessed this.
Twolls need stuff to make things out of... alright, some tactical ramifications there.
The message about Faq came to Stanley via thinkagram... cool!... but how else would it have come?
A twoll in the larder could feel his bonus change and knew when the turn was over... I think we knew that already.
Stanley will stay out of the battle room for ~5 minutes + sandwich fabrication time... good, he won't come in during Parson's call.

The writing is good as always, but I found this update annoying when there are so many more places and moments occurring right around this time that would be far more educational and could possibly even advance the plot... and that last sentence really rubs this in.

[Welf von Ehrwald]

I wonder if talking about the good old times of sacking defenceless neighbour cities will remind Stanley of how much fun it would be to do that again. The sooner or later wil attack TV anyway, so a couple of additional cities as bridgehead won't be bad. Although there is always the unpleasant chance of an arrow in the head.

[HandofShadows]

Now it just looks like a scraggy mess. Also, Zhopa seems to be thinking more than he did before.

I wonder if it's because he has been alive longer? As a child you don't really think much, but as an adult do, er can if you really want to. Well, some of us can think a lot.

[DevilDan]

Now it just looks like a scraggy mess. Also, Zhopa seems to be thinking more than he did before.

I wonder if it's because he has been alive longer? As a child you don't really think much, but as an adult do, er can if you really want to. Well, some of us can think a lot.

Units who've spent time with Parson--well, save maybe Stanley--seem to catch the thinking bug, at least to some degree.

[Intruder]

Plus, appearances aren't everything. Parson's impression of Zhopa had some serious Bogroll related baggage, after all.