Book 2 – Text Updates 042

[balder]

New One is up.

[Dirili]

Woah. That was more tense then expected.

[mblackadder]

Slately you bastard I feel a tiny bit of sympathy for you.
You piss me off by putting down a goldmine like Ace yet here you are planning a suicide mission because the clue bat finally hit you.

Also...

The King picked up some kind of odd green egg-shaped object with a ring at the top, and looked at it in the light of the room's sole orb. Useless. He placed it back down and pushed it away. Holly Shortcake would not have fabricated such things. She was such a delight.

First off Ace is making grenades not just jet pacts, Slately you idiot, you finally woke up to what you had in your "least" son, open those eyes a little bit more to what assets in your own capital your ignoring!

Also we get a huge hint about Holly who the King had feelings for it's obvious by this update. But were they mutual?

[TheDarkOne]

what a twist!

these going up always make my day, erfworld rules

[BLANDCorporatio]

Whoa.

Loved this update, the texture on Slately is a thing of beauty- and I don't mean the art, though it too is quite good.

Still, surprising update- not the development itself, this "twist" was a long expected. But that it occurred in a text update is what surprises me. Most text updates might be ignored, and someone could still understand the story, because nothing that plot-shattering happened in them. This though is big.

Slately you bastard I feel a tiny bit of sympathy for you.
You piss me off by putting down a goldmine like Ace yet here you are planning a suicide mission because the clue bat finally hit you.

Slately's a complex character, guys. He thought less of Trem, because Slately always thought less of himself. Height seems to be important in Erfworld as well- if not more so, due to that pesky natural Signamancy business. Plagued by doubts about his own character because of his height, Slately didn't see how someone of similar constitution could be better ... until now.

Now, Slately wants to (over)compensate, as is typical. He'll lead the charge, and die gloriously. Hopefully he thought of bringing some decryption-preventer along. One of Ace's items would be ideal. Oh the irony.

[Oglokoog]

I'm extremely sorry if I'm wrong about this, but it seems to me that the "croakamancy maneuver" and "smart" lines are extremely subtle Harley Morenstein references.

[Raza]

Wow.

Nice.

There's a 'would' missing in the fifth paragraph, I think.

[splexis]

nice lightsaber.

[fjolnir]

On the 'tight terms for this loan' line my head immediately jumped to Moe the bartender telling Homer that he's such a credit risk he's going to have to break his legs in advance...
Also the dollamancer they have now seems to be MUCH more valuable to a side like gk which is swimming in heavy aerial units and low cost infantry than the previous one, who made heavies and siege for a side built on light infantry and thats it...

[multilis]

Tight terms for loan...

Only thing of value immediately that Jetstone has to give is casters and remaining cities/farms.

A caster would have to be sent through the portal, around same time Parson is coming through. Would be extra ironic if the caster sent is Ace.

(Other than that is the usual loan shark with collateral type arrangement)

[Simons Mith]

There's a 'would' missing in the fifth paragraph, I think.

Yes, and that usage of 'and/or' is ... a very lazy way of phrasing things. Fine for technical documents, but not fiction. Cut the 'and', I'd suggest.

[GaryThunder]

Slately, you noble and foolish man. You diehard romantic. You've had your epiphany, and you're taking it to your grave. After all of Jetstone's Royalist rhetoric, you finally show us your Royal heart - not the pomp and the posture, the stuffiness and hauteur, but your true Royal qualities, honor and courage and self-sacrifice, and, and taking responsibility. You have such despair for your city, your side, your cause; you have almost lost all hope in the Royal tradition you venerate. Yet you seek to make one last defiant act, to prove to Haggar and Jillian and Don King and all the accursed Toolists and the Hamster Lord and your city and your men and yourself and your son...your only remaining son...

Even as you see Royalty sinking into twilight, you carry forward its torch. The world is rocked and besieged by strange forces that you cannot comprehend or adapt to. Maybe Royalty itself is as old and fossilized as you, maybe the world is changing into a shape that Royalty has no place in. Maybe your last stand will be Royalty's last stand, and your fall its finale. Maybe the Titans truly have forsaken the Royals, for turning from their divine path. It doesn't matter to you now. You will show the world how Royalty departs, and give everyone one last glimpse at a bygone era before the Toolists remake all creation in their image.

Ossomer's last living words (your dead son, your dead son that you talked to ten minutes ago) echo in your ears, his defiance in the face of an unnatural army and the abomination his brother had become. Ossomer always had the strength to make a stand for Royalty. He was so strong, and so proud. Even now, reanimated and subjugated by foul magic, he faithfully attends to his father in his final moments. And Tramennis...

...poor Tramennis. No doubt his last words to you will be pleading and screaming with you to reconsider, to allow him to advance, to stand and die bravely in your stead. He will make a good King - not a King like you were, nor like any King you ever knew, but a good King nonetheless. Perhaps Tramennis is Royalty's only hope in this new world.

Recquiescat in pace, Slately King of Jetstone. May the Titans smile on you and recognize your worth from your final moments. A noble soul like yours may yet know love again.

[Krennson]

Slately, you idiot!

make heroic last stands on your own time! dieing here might be glorious, but it won't help jetstone. Trammenis is probably higher level than you, and Jetstone will need every bonus they can get in this fight. Also, we aren't absolutely certain that decrpyting a sitting king won't turn his entire nation over to wanda. Trammenis will PROBABLY inherit when you die, making your decrypted corpse merely "the slately formerly known as King", but we aren't certain of that, and this is not a good testing method!

[Beeskee]

Slately suddenly grows a pair, some strategic sense, and turns awesome, all in one go.

I imagine the "tight terms" are just what Transylvito needs to survive, probably things like the loan has to be repaid even if Slately croaks, etc. Tho the idea of them loaning or giving a spellcaster might be part of it.

[zilfallon]

The King picked up some kind of odd green egg-shaped object with a ring at the top, and looked at it in the light of the room's sole orb. Useless. He placed it back down and pushed it away. Holly Shortcake would not have fabricated such things. She was such a delight.

Did Ace...make grenades? Ace is becoming awesome and awesome with each update. And he made a lightsaber too...

And I think that each update which tells us how Ace isn't liked, is foreshadowing of Ace becoming a GK unit and Parson using all his potential.

And for people who think this war might end bad for GK, i think that is possible now. GK ends up losing in some way, but they somehow get Ace and continue the war.
Also, i think Ace's loyalty might be low, considering how almost everyone treats him like crap, other than Ossomer, who's a GK unit now. If Parson is diplomatic enough, maybe they get him without him being Wanda's slave.

@GaryThunder: well written

[Paladinian]

Also, i think Ace's loyalty might be low, considering how almost everyone treats him like crap, other than Ossomer, who's a GK unit now. If Parson is diplomatic enough, maybe they get him without him being Wanda's slave.

Oh, I hope so... though considering how we all know just how crazy awesome Ace would be if on Parson's side, I suspect we won't see that, as the only way Tramenis might possibly provide proper opposition is with the wild-card possibilities that action figure accessories bring to the table.

Anywho, borrowing the promotion funds from the Don is understandable, though I suspect such is just the latest in Slately's long string of short-sighted errors... Don's already teetering politically due to economic concerns, which this might just serve to be the final straw. The currency could be instead acquired from Charlie from Archon bounties, though the tower / archery expenditures to achieve that are understood to be steep.

Things are not looking good for yonder royal sides at the moment, that is for sure...

[skarl]

nice update!

I think that jetstone won't fall. I think that tramenis will get the throne, and becomes the hardest threat to parson. it seems likely that ace will turn though.

I really like the progress the character of slately is making right now, he get's more... human to me. but I don't think it will help him to survive.

[gameboy1234]

Dun dun DUUUUUNNNNN!

[Sygerrik]

If this is the way Royalty acts, I'm glad they're going obsolete. "Nobility, honor, decorum;" none of that mattered when he was on top of the world, squishing all the little people. But now that Slately sees the writing on the wall he's trying to get in good with the Titans. Notice he still doesn't care for non-Royals-- discarding Ace, threatening disbandment for interruptions. He's just a sad little man trying desperately to hold onto his power. He'd rather die than be reduced to fleeing from a commoner. Slately is a fool and always has been-- and just like Earth history, "royalty" and "nobility" are just code words for subjugation of the weak by the strong and a system of divine right that exists only to perpetuate itself and wallow in its own corruption.

Erfworld deserves something better than the Royals and their constant pettiness and warfare. There hasn't been a single Royal character yet who I've felt would actually make a decent leader. Parson is the only person offering real change to Erfworld.

Slately raised his sons to be swaggering blowhards like himself. Ansom and Ossomer were so puffed up on their own importance that they mirrored their fat little father, and Tramennis has only shown an aptitude for recognizing and fleeing from enemies in a superior position.

Slately's suicide mission won't accomplish anything. It will make his side worse off, drain Don King's treasury, croak good men who could serve well in the next capital, add to Wanda's army... and nothing else. It's just to make him feel better. It's stupid and selfish and those two words sum up all Royals.

[abb3w]

A worrisome thought wanders through my mind; a quick Google of the site doesn't turn up any sign of someone else making the connection.

Tramennis is (from remarks here and elsewhere) a bit bent; and his raiment is segmentata armor and sandals.

The passing resemblance to a major Boring-World military commander may imply that Parson could be facing a formidable opponent.

Gaius Iulius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico is still studied by contemporary military strategists.