Book 2 – Text Updates 038

[drachefly]

when the Red Mage says "It's Sizem..." and Sagan, one of the GMWTA quiets him - as if some invisible spy was watching/listening

That is quite adequately explained by the requirement not to address someone in a three-way link.

[asparagus]

I was reminded of this page, where Maggie still knows Parson very little, but tries very hard to warn him away from Charlie.

Maybe the reason hat Maggie calls Charlie an "it", is because Charlie is a tuna.

[teratorn]

Because dwagons are not a natural side that can accept shmuckers or otherwise be allied, it seems highly unlikely that Charlie could have somehow manipulated the dwagons with a turnamancer.

Or Charlie could have popped the dwagons at his own city and just put a bunch of them along Staney's path. Maybe the hammer tames dwagons even when they belong to other sides. The dish might do the same thing with archons, including decrypted ones.

[Raza]

when the Red Mage says "It's Sizem..." and Sagan, one of the GMWTA quiets him - as if some invisible spy was watching/listening

That is quite adequately explained by the requirement not to address someone in a three-way link.

Insightful, but is it really? They were rather some distance away - enough to be uncertain about his identity in the first place, and the art emphasizes this as well. Also, it's doubtful whether speaking someone's name to a third party counts as addressing them.

My interpretation was also an interest in secrecy.

[Decorus]

I doubt Charlie had anything to do with the number of Dwagons Stanley found on his way to take Faq.
Fate played a very cruel trick on Wanda.

[Lord 0]

Remember that Charlie is somehow influencing only marbits to spawn around Gobwin Knob, and prevent any gobwins from spawning. However he is doing that could probably also be used to influence dragons spawning also.

That being said, I don't think Charlie was responsible for it because neither side was paying him. Unless it was a play to somehow get the hammer for himself.

[atalex]

Maggie refers to Charlie as "it." What does it mean?

That was the odd sentence structure she was using. She was talking about the reason why she was coding messages and such. "it" referred to "the reason", which is perfectly normal. I don't think that it implies anything about Charlie himself. Maggie does call Charlie "him" on other occasions.

Just to clarify: Maggie wasn't saying anything at all. The omniscient, third-person narrator was describing what she was doing and her reasons for doing so. That doesn't really change the grammatical point you were making, but we should be careful in not attributing the narrator's knowledge to the person whose actions are being narrated.

[atalex]

I'm guessing that there is a "Duty to Erf" stat, whose strength is affected by how intimately one experiences the world as a whole.

Heh. Sounds like the Zeroth Law. EDIT: and I'm already ninja'd.

[Iberean]

I think the guy with the facial hair (top right) is Derren Brown - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derren_Brown better picture http://www.tmcentertainment.co.uk/speaker-index.html?speakerid=173

[Dr Pepper]

Bunny became aware of a faint smell. It was a bit like seaweed, a bit like peppermint, and a bit like wet wool. She recognized it immediately, it was not a real smell but a gstring transmission on a sensory channel. It was a signal, no an order from the Great Minds. As always, she responded as expected. She sent a thinkagram to Caesar. She kept it going as long as possible, puting all the bits of news and gossip she could think of, and drawing out as much as she could from him. It could get tedious at times. Sure, she loved the big lug, but he wasn't much of a conversationalist. Still, it was for the cause and she was glad to be part of it, even though she was not privy to all the Great Minds' plans.

Somewhere in the Magic Kingdom, several thinkamancers sat silently, seemingly dozing. In fact they were all listening carefully to subtle vibrations only they were aware of. From time to time, one would look up and recite a number.

Over to the side, two other thinkamancers studied a diagram on a large table. To the unadept a meaningless collection of dots and lines, it was actually very special map of Erfworld.

If one knew when a thinkagram was in progress and one knew the locations of both parties, one could predict how the vibrations would go along the gstrings. And when those vibrations were distorted even in the slightest, that was an indication that a third party was picking up the message. Monitor enough messages and one could get a sense of the direction of the third party. The Bunny-Caesar thinkagrams were just one of many prearranged communications.

Isaac, a thinkamancer with a strong secondary in mathemancy, made some more notations on the chart, then looked to his partner, Percival, who nodded agreement. Their conclusions matched, and the target region had shrunk once more. They had pinned the location of Charlescomm down to within a tenth of the total area of Erfworld. Another 500 observations should do it.

Then, Operation Mind Boop would become active.

[justamessenger]

Then, Operation Mind Boop would become active.

Brilliant!

[Lamech]

So just to rain on Dr. Pepper's parade: Maggie was linked to the Omniscient Table of Omniscience, and Stanley hates Charlie and controlled the Omniscient Table of Omniscience. They probably already know Charlie's location, also an exact layout of his city and defenses. Also posted a map of his city in the MK. I suppose there maybe be anti-lookamancy (meta-story tells me this is probable), but then Charlie is just in the one blacked out area where Charlescomm archons come out more often then they go in. So they know where Charlie is.

And if for some reason they don't have Charlies location from the table: Decrypted Archons.

[nth]

...Something that allows the group of casters on MK to protect Parsons...

Holy BOOP! There's more than one, now?

[drachefly]

Insightful, but is it really?

No, not really. I was just paying attention and applying parsimony.

They were rather some distance away - enough to be uncertain about his identity in the first place, and the art emphasizes this as well. Also, it's doubtful whether speaking someone's name to a third party counts as addressing them.

So you think it vaguely plausible that someone - Charlie, say - capable of listening in on the MK could possibly NOT deduce that Sizemore was there and that he came through as a tri-link with Maggie and Wanda? You think failure to say his name would provide any meaningful degree of concealment?

I have a bag here, and the cat is in low Erf orbit.

[Lor]

Just another random thought about Duty: Does it require someone to follow the best interests of their side, or does it require someone not to undermine the best interests of their side?

either way, MK is the biggest concentration of free will in Erfworld, since all the casters who live there are associated with dead sides, and you cannot enhance nor undermine the interests of a dead side.

For every spellcaster in MK, one of the following is true:

• He/she has some lingering loyalty to an allied side. Given enough time, that side will fall
• He/she has some lingering hate of some ancestral enemy of their side. Again, those sides will fall
• He/she has some lingering oaths upon them (like Vanna)
• He/she is completely free

If anyone would be full of conspiracies against the 'normal' realms of Erfworld, MK would be.

[Foolamancer]

Just another random thought about Duty: Does it require someone to follow the best interests of their side, or does it require someone not to undermine the best interests of their side?

The former.

WANDA: He cannot.
PARSON: ...Whaddya mean?
WANDA: Duty. You do not... believe the f-hight is lost.
PARSON: No... I've done the numbers. I think I can officially call this fight hopeless.
MAGGIE: Lord... She means if you have some tactic or gambit in mind which may yet work, the summon spell might require you to at least attempt it.

So Duty applies to Parson through the Summon Perfect Warlord spell, and thus he's forced into taking any action which might save Gobwin Knob during the battle. He can't refrain from taking that action, even though doing so doesn't directly undermine Gobwin Knob.

[Lor]

Thank you.

Still interesting, since once an Overlord is dead, who is to say you aren't following their wishes (Minus the 'make me this oath' scenario of Vanna)

[Sir Nefarious]

I read through the entire thread from the start, and around the 8th page I realized that the G in G-String might stand for something... specifically one word. The following is tinhattery.

That word is Game. Each characters Game-String would carry ALL information about that character, and contain their abilities. Their statistics, both known statistics like duty and HP, and unknown statistics, possibly things like mental capability magical attunement and more. Each unit's string would be as unique as the unit itself, and make a different sound when plucked.

The information, in String form could potentially outlive the unit that possesses it by a short amount of time, namely the length of time it takes their body to completely cease to be. At which point their is no chance of recovering the unit which causes the 'Game' to flush the data. So in Erfworld a Thinkamancer might know more about you than you know about yourself.

I've been reading the comic for a while now under the assumption that it's a computer game, and this update made me come to the conclusion that Thinkamancer units have access to a bit of the "game code."

This is my first post so be gentle if you're gonna tear it apart.

[Lor]

I read through the entire thread from the start, and around the 8th page I realized that the G in G-String might stand for something... specifically one word. The following is probably tinhattery.

That word is Game. Each characters Game-String could possibly carry ALL information about that character. Their statistics, both known statistics like duty and HP, and unknown statistics, possibly things like mental capability magical attunement and more. If that's true then Thinkmancers, probably because they are significantly more mentally focused and intelligent than even the other casters, could potentially be the most useful unit type in Erfworld should a Chief Warlord like Parson ever find out about the Game(?)-String.

This is my first post so be gentle if you're gonna tear it apart.

Perhaps. Seems to be more affiliated with Signamancy than Thinkamancy, though the text seems a bit vague on that. After all, it mentions natural Predictamancy as a sense of intuiton. Why not an unconscious sense of what your own Loyalty score is/was? It seems to be a bit game-breaking and too close to Signamancy, as I said.

On the other hand, it has been established that Erfworld as a game is already hopelessly broken (I tread carefully, lest I wake that discussion from its slumber).

In short, yes, i can see it, but I can see how it might not be. Thanks for the puzzle.

Of course, the easy way out of the puzzle would be to say that the 'G' already stands for 'Grandiocosmic', but what fun is that?

[Sir Nefarious]

I have one thing to say... D'OH!

While reading the thread I'd forgotten what the actual update said