Book 2 – Page 42

[Krennson]

The upside of all this is that Parson will finally level when/if he wins this battle. Should be a big jump too, considering it's a massive battle and his level is currently very low. He'll jump from 2 to ~7, or whatever 'medium level' is in erfworld. Sizemore only got 2 in TBFGK, but I'm assuming he was already level 5-8. There might be auxiliary benefits beyond numerical increases.

I'm also curious if there's every going to be more exposition on the 'summon perfect warlord' spell. This isn't exactly something you'd cook up in your basement. Several experienced casters probably collaborated to create it, and since it was sold publicly, there wasn't anything abominable about it's existence. Why has no one else used such a thing? Was it really just a 'summon above-average warlord' spell, and Stanley got lucky by using the right description?

I thought that units, even warlords, only leveled when they PERSONALLY slew something? are we certain that there's precedent for second-hand leveling like that?

[CaptC]

If Parson is going THROUGH the Magic Kingdom, why is he bothering to recall Sizemore? Just meet Sizemore in the Magic Kingdom.

Methinks there may be something else going on. It may be as simple as he needs Sizemore to do something in Gobwin Knob before they go through the Magic Kingdom. It may be that they aren't going to the Magic Kingdom at all. Is there any hint that the portals can go somewhere other than the Magic Kingdom?

[Danetrix]

The upside of all this is that Parson will finally level when/if he wins this battle. Should be a big jump too, considering it's a massive battle and his level is currently very low. He'll jump from 2 to ~7, or whatever 'medium level' is in erfworld. Sizemore only got 2 in TBFGK, but I'm assuming he was already level 5-8. There might be auxiliary benefits beyond numerical increases.

I'm also curious if there's every going to be more exposition on the 'summon perfect warlord' spell. This isn't exactly something you'd cook up in your basement. Several experienced casters probably collaborated to create it, and since it was sold publicly, there wasn't anything abominable about it's existence. Why has no one else used such a thing? Was it really just a 'summon above-average warlord' spell, and Stanley got lucky by using the right description?

I thought that units, even warlords, only leveled when they PERSONALLY slew something? are we certain that there's precedent for second-hand leveling like that?

We haven't really had a lot of examples of how exactly levelling works yet, so it is largely speculative.

In regards to the 'summon perfect warlord' spell, remember the spell cost 500,000 shmuckers or 350,000 if you cast it like GK did without the support plan and they only did it because they were desperate. I doubt every kindgom makes a decision to spend that kind of money easily when it could instead equate to a lot of other things, like units, upkeep, etc.

[kasimac]

I was wondering, while Parson is in the strategy room, standing next to the map, he doesn't have the hacked eyebook in his hand.

When Charlie is showing Prince Tramennis Parson through thinkamancy, it seems like Parson is seriously considering the use of that book again.

He has it with him again in page 42.

That is the same book that Charlie hacked, correct?

[gazes_also]

Not buying the whole shortcut through MK, unless Parson knows for sure that Janice and the Predicamancer are really running the whole show on Erfworld.

Two possibilities for alternative means of getting there:

1. Avatar/Matrix - Sizemore creates a Parson-golem in the battlespace and Maggie transfers Parson's consciousness to it. Not likely since he wants to put on actual armour in GK.

2. In the parley he can trick JS into causing him to physically appear at the parley site or open up some channel of communication through which he can pass. He said Maggie knows how it can be done - a thinkagram strong enough in a parley link up strong enough to send not just an image, but an actual physical form? That effort could be fatal for Maggie, and if he does get there, Parson wouldn't emerge unscathed. I think this one has possibilities as he talked about exploiting the parley, and it would be JS doing the heavy lifting getting him there.

Either way, this is all set up for at least 2-3 reverses before the battle is done.

[Thomas60]

@Krennson; I'm tempted to say yes for 2nd hand leveling for Warlords, gaining experience from the units success under their command.
http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F055.jpg

Additional bonus's for based on size of battles won, seems a reasonable guess.

[Krennson]

@Krennson; I'm tempted to say yes for 2nd hand leveling for Warlords, gaining experience from the units success under their command.
http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F055.jpg

Additional bonus's for based on size of battles won, seems a reasonable guess.

hmmm... you have a point.

[DyneBlack]

There is the possiblity that Parson plans to use the MK portals to go to the nearest GK held city to Jetstone, rather than straight into the capital itself. Be a bit of an anti-climax though.

Assuming cities other than capital cites have portals. If I remember correctly, one of the text updates states that Sizemore had to fly to other cities via dwagon to help rebuild them. This is evidence he couldn't just portal his way there.

This could be because a destroyed city would not have a portal, because he would need to see what he was repairing(see a city from the air vs from inside a building?), or because going from dragon to dragon would let him get to more cities than his own Move would allow him to get to cities.

The portal seemed perfectly functional after GK got booped by the volcano.

[Atomic]

Yay!! Not only is it a comic update, but it progressed at a pretty quick clip, too!

@Xin - I'm really digging Parson in Panel Nine; he just looks so... Human. Not like the other characters don't look human, but yeah. Human is the word I'd use to describe him. Love it!

I don't see it happening anytime soon, but I'm excited for the possibilities of battle(s) taking place inside Gobwin Knob. The command room and these hallways/stairways are just so fun looking. Something about it just screams "Starwars: A New Hope", with casters/ranged units pinned up against the walls, hiding behind those small pillars...

As for the comic, I hope Parson heads through the portal into the Magic Kingdom, since anything else would be really unlikely. As for the how, I think it's pretty straight forward:

(Note, Tin-Foil hat must be worn until the completion on my post)

Spoiler: show

Maggie goes through the GK portal first using her (missing) Thinkamancy Dust, or something similar, on all the Portal Guards; followed by Sizemore and Parson, making sure no one spots the Warlord carrying a dozen magical items.

The trio is likely to run into Janis and The Predictamancer... Hilarity. will. ensue.

Maggie will probably take one for the team ('Duty' sucks when you're unsure if you'll live or die by taking that final step through) and walk through the Spacerock Portal ahead of the guys, subduing any/all guards and giving Parson the 'A-OK'... Parson and Sizemore will follow.

At the same time, Charlie will catch the Thinkagram and have an 'oh booooop'-moment, before hurrying to call Tramennis; by then, it'll not only give away the fact that Charlie can listen in on Thinkagrams, it'll also give Tramennis a huge reason to distrust Charlie.

I'd imagine Parson will kill Slately, freezing the units in the city even though it wont have any major effect; it'd still allow the units of the side to move between the different portions of the city, yes? If it traps 'em in separate sections, I could see the Dittomancer being cut off from the brunt of the archers and Wanda's group taking all the arrows without too many losses... Jack would have some catchy comment like 'Now it's our turn!', before the entire Gobwin Knob air force drops to the ground.

Regardless of how that goes down, the battle is pretty likely to end with Charlie throwing the 25,000 schmuckers at Tramennis and Erfworld's most fabulous prince hopping on a flier and heading out of there!

[Anias]

One thing just came to mind, as I read back through the last few pages. Well, a few things, really.
1) Things can be dropped (and yellow dwagons can crap) offturn, and cross zones that way
2) Being dismounted/having your mount shot out from under you counts as a "fall" which can kill you, but can let you cross zones (see wanda falling from air to ground when her mount is disintegrated by archons, ansom falling from air to wall on being dismounted)
3) The whole "quick enough to catch us when we fall" thing (I may be misquoting, but it's close enough)

This may have been suggested for some previous update, but how 'bout this?
Wanda has her mount shot out from under her (or really, waits until any dwagon is shot down), then falls, decrypts the fallen dwagon as it hits the ground, and then lands on it. We know that you can jump/fall and land on a mount without injury/damage - Jillian does it on several occasions - so this might allow Wanda (at least) to cross zones, allowing her to start building up a decrypted army on the ground. And if this is disguised by Jack's foolamancy, then Jetstone will still focus on trying to shoot down the dwagon(s) that appear to carry Wanda, assuming that she must be up there (because killing her is their greatest priority).

Add that to a portal-based incursion from Parson and co. (yes, I'm on the side of the portal-based attack theory, since MK/portal has been foreshadowed as a future part of war in Erfworld) and you have a small, but powerful force on the ground, consisting of at least one warlord (who is low-level, but very large, presumably correspondingly strong - he may not think of himself as strong, but with a twoll-sized body he's gotta have more muscle than the average erfworlder, and thus more power behind his swings - not counting his other potential abilities), and three powerful casters who, it should be noted, have already shown themselves capable of destroying a city single-handedly. Plus, of course, any enemy that Wanda decrypts, any of the air force that fall and get decrypted, and the incredible bonuses of a) surprise and b) potentially ambushing Slately. After all, Parson has considered the Ender's Game gambit in the past...

It's a weird combination of theories, but feel free to play with it, ignore it, denigrate it, whatever.

[Anias]

Curses! Atomic came up with a better tinfoil-hat theory while I was writing mine!

[HailGreen28]

I do believe the fecal matter is about to hit the oscillating ventilator. Forget field unit, Parson just gained a level in Badass. (not even bothering with the TV tropes link)

BTW - How is he getting to the main battle? The portal at Spacerock is probably inside the castle, isn't it? How will Parson survive there, even if he sneaks through the Magic Kingdom?

[Nihila]

I do believe the fecal matter is about to hit the oscillating ventilator. Forget field unit, Parson just gained a level in Badass. (not even bothering with the TV tropes link)

BTW - How is he getting to the main battle? The portal at Spacerock is probably inside the castle, isn't it? How will Parson survive there, even if he sneaks through the Magic Kingdom?

Duh. He'll hire some ninja-Foola-Shockamancers. Just like we've been speculating about for Titans know how long.

[sirroman]

Guys, sorry but I don't remember when the eyebooks were hacked, can somebody point that out for me?

[DyneBlack]

Guys, sorry but I don't remember when the eyebooks were hacked, can somebody point that out for me?

As far as I can tell it's all speculation right now. The theory is that with the arkendish, Charlie can hack anything that uses thinkamancy and intercept thinkamancy calls.

[Dr Pepper]

Guys, sorry but I don't remember when the eyebooks were hacked, can somebody point that out for me?

Way back in Book 1 when Charlie's posts began appearing in Parson's book without an invitation.

[Atomic]

Page 100, to be exact!

It's the general consensus, based on the heavy implications we've seen so far, that Charlie can hack Thinkagrams as well.

[SteveMB]

Random speculation:

Parson, even low level, has a tremendously high upkeep cost. We know from the summer updates that it takes quite a bit of smuckers to upgrade garrison units to field units. Parson may have inadvertantly drained GK of funds.

Between the huge amount of gems Sizemore found in the volcano and the fact that most of their forces are decrypted (upkeep = 0) they're probably sitting on huge amounts of Schmuckers they aren't doing anything with.

Also, GK has (re-)conquered quite a few cities, each of which presumably produces income.

[sirroman]

Oh! Thnx! Didn't remember that.

Just awesome of Parson to send false/incomplete orders to field units and fool Charlie AND the royals.

My biggest concern is: GK has to take a heavy blow even if (when? =P) they win this, otherwise they could just steamroll all world... and we need more erfworld right? ;D

So... what could be a pretty darn heavy blow? Maggie? Sizemore? Stanley? Illusion-guy? I bet Wanda will somehow become a third side in this all... (maybe not in this book) So they could be converted and bound by duty.

Or maybe the heavy blow is the MK becoming another side... or shutting off completely (until another book!)...

heck, no idea here.

[CorrTerek]

No real speculation to add here, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a new page up so soon. Here's hoping we see Parson in action before too long!