Book 2 – Page 61

[BLANDCorporatio]

Wow. Here I am away for a day or so and a thread just explodes. And a mighty fine thread it is, funny jokes, conspiracy theories, the works!

And yeah, Charlie is likely out and about on this one. Tinfoil hats to the ready, major thinkamancy is about to go down.

[gazes_also]

so... interesting possibilities for the unknown caster....

1. He's an Unaroyal refugee, or someone else with a grudge against Gobwin Knob. He was waiting for SOMEONE to come out of Gobwin Knob's portal, so he could attack them.... and he just got lucky with parson.

2. He's a mercenary hired by charlie, who either intercepted Maggie's signal, or else is just clever enough to cover his bases. Maybe Charlie just expected sizemore to move to Spacerock AFTER the city fell, and was trying for a free ambush.

3. He's actually one of the thinkamancers protecting Parson, or who wants to get a hand-carried message to Parson about the Charlie threat. That explains why he hasn't attacked parson yet: he's just trying to keep up with him.

personally, I favor option number three: it seems to carry the most potential for plot development when parson finally finds out exactly how powerful Charlie is.

1. Sizemore came through first, so he should have attacked him.

3. Keep up with him? This is the fat guy in a suit of armour doing a 50 yard dash... he'd be hard pushed not to fall over him.

So I'm still going with door number 2

[drachefly]

You know, the MK could take the position that if the portal is under your control, you can go through. After all, I really doubt they'd complain about Wanda and Jack evacuating that way, would they? Would they complain if they stuck their heads through and then went back?

This could have come up before - any time the portal was taken before the whole city fell is a possible case (roughly 2/3 of capital fights?), but the need to move casters into the city would not be so common.

The only remaining issue is Parson's ability to enter the MK in the first place.

[Jay]

That's definitely Jeftichew... just look at a photo of the real person the caster is based on. The face is basically the same, and the uniform is virtually identical to what he wore in the show.

So he's working for a Royal Side somewhere, possibly controlled indirectly by Charlie (as Vanna was). Can't be a good thing for Parson or Wanda.

Hurry up with the next update!!

[Trotsky]

If I remember correctly, it has been suggested (and argued reasonably convincingly) that the forums are the magic kingdom, or visa versa. Assuming this to be true, than our mystery caster there is simply an adoring fan who wants Parson to sign his Book 1 scroll.

[abb3w]

possibly giving Charlie a brief but major headache (until he upgrades his murderous defenses to include defending his capital's portal).

I'd be very surprised if Charlie hasn't long since walled off his portal room with a mechanism that only allows casters through when they're invited. He's one of the few characters who gives the impression that he would have thought of that already; conventions or no conventions, it's a short route into Charlescomm, and that's just not acceptable.

Even if he hasn't, setting up such defenses can probably be done as a city upgrade - mere moneymancy and possible off-turn. So even if Charlie hadn't thought of it before, tapping some contingency funds from his treasury to do so was probably the FIRST thing he did on overhearing that Parson was planning on a military expedition via portal.

Heh... what if the Carniemancer does a shell game switch on the portals, so instead of Parson running through to Spacerock, he goes through to the Charlescomm capital? "Hello, Parson. Glad I could get you to stop by."

I doubt that Jeftichew will enter Jetstone, unless he first establishes a friendship with Parson (which I find unlikely).

If he does, Wanda will probably take the opportunity to try her decrypted caster experiment.

[WaterMonkey314]

I doubt that Mystery-Caster-who-may-or-may-not-be-Jeftichew is chasing Parson for a friendly reason.

Just imagine - if you were chasing after a friend who had forgotten something important, would you 1) NOT yell "Hey!" or anything like that and 2) look like Mystery-Caster does?

[Lamech]

So lets assume that he is targeting Parson.
1) If he attacks before Parson makes it to Jetstone Parson can just claim that he wanted to be there after the city fell to examine it, de-brief the king and co. and what not. So then Parson could make a convincing argument he wasn't going to break the rules. And I bet the thinkamancers could "read" his mind and confirm it too. But it still means that battle has been brought to the MK, and the casters that leap to his defense right away will almost certainly be unvieled as GK supporters. Oh, and if Chewie attacks he is almost certainly getting turned into a corpse. There is the uber-hippie mancer*, Sizemore, about two seconds away, Parson if he survives, and the thinkamancers.
2) If he attacks AFTER Parson goes into Jetstone Chewie will probably get obliterated the second he steps through the portal, and even if he gets a spell off... Jack. Of course in the MK they will want Parson's head. That is a big time conflict. I could easily see the GK supporters being attacked (casters for decryption galore), or exiled (GK still gets a lot of casters.
3) If he hands Parson his resume Jetstone's hopeless situation just got worse. I suppose its up to TV, I mean they only have one thinkamancer to place suggestions on Don...

I like options 1 and 2 for the large levels of chaos.

*Yes he might survive the big bolt of flower power but be disabled. Wanda will call for his death if he attacked Parson; it will probably lead to more chaos, and a dead Chewie.

[allaces14400]

Of course, that'll still throw Gobwin Knob's battle plans for a loop.

I wonder if Sizemore will have the good sense to collapse the tunnel behind Parson. Or if the mystery caster will get a shot off first.

I wonder how Rob has the willpower to stick to his predetermined plot layout instead of weaving in one of the dozen awesome ideas that pop up in every reaction thread.

[sacrificial_citizen]

I haven't read every posting lately, but I haven't seen this mentioned. There's been a lot of speculation about who "Chewie" may be working for, and how he got the heads-up, but everyone seems to have overlooked an obvious possibility.

Marie knew Parson was coming.

[joosy]

If Sizemore croaks defending Parson from the caster whom I believe to be Jeftichew I will be .. well... verily upset.

[wrecan]

Marie knew Parson was coming.

In that case, Jeftichew is there to help Parson (unless Marie has been faking her giddy glee as to the devastation Parson has been wreaking).

[Urf]

I foresee a Decrypted caster in orange. Another question answered, another plan foiled.

[Carne]

Plotwise, I don't see why the GMtTA would be on-scene unless there was some good reason. Narratively, it's a bit pointless/weak to set up two text updates explaining the Minds, their communication with Maggie, the need for encryption etc., then inject a scene into the comic to have them show up in Portal Park... only to have them stand around uselessly twiddling thumbs while Parson makes it to Jetstone without a hitch.

So Mystery Caster would be there to apparently do *something* to Parson.


I also think we'll find out that there's a mole in the GMtTA who is secretly working for Charlie and feeding him either the decryption codes for the g-strings, or just plain passing the messages along.

[Housellama]

Plotwise, I don't see why the GMtTA would be on-scene unless there was some good reason. Narratively, it's a bit pointless/weak to set up two text updates explaining the Minds, their communication with Maggie, the need for encryption etc., then inject a scene into the comic to have them show up in Portal Park... only to have them stand around uselessly twiddling thumbs while Parson makes it to Jetstone without a hitch.

So Mystery Caster would be there to apparently do *something* to Parson.


I also think we'll find out that there's a mole in the GMtTA who is secretly working for Charlie and feeding him either the decryption codes for the g-strings, or just plain passing the messages along.

/agree on the first point. The GMtTA are there to do something.

I couldn't agree less on the second point. A mole in a group containing multiple Master level Thinkamancers? Really? At this point, I'd be disappointed if Charlie KNEW about them. They aren't amateurs. These guys are the best at what they do. And despite the Arkendish, Charlie ISN'T a Thinkamancer. He's an amateur. If they are any good at all at what they do, they have managed to hide from Charlie. Charlie can't infiltrate what he doesn't know exists.

[BLANDCorporatio]

I couldn't agree less on the second point. A mole in a group containing multiple Master level Thinkamancers? Really? At this point, I'd be disappointed if Charlie KNEW about them. They aren't amateurs.

So? Treason exists at the highest level on Earth, and on Erfworld, the mechanism that makes it difficult (Duty/Loyalty) hardly applies to the GMtTA. I for one wouldn't dismiss the possibility. But to keep in tune with Erfworld's other workings, I expect Charlie's agent to have a huge hairy black wart on their face. And/or have fur and a pair of strong digging paws.

[Housellama]

I couldn't agree less on the second point. A mole in a group containing multiple Master level Thinkamancers? Really? At this point, I'd be disappointed if Charlie KNEW about them. They aren't amateurs.

So? Treason exists at the highest level on Earth, and on Erfworld, the mechanism that makes it difficult (Duty/Loyalty) hardly applies to the GMtTA. I for one wouldn't dismiss the possibility. But to keep in tune with Erfworld's other workings, I expect Charlie's agent to have a huge hairy black wart on their face. And/or have fur and a pair of strong digging paws.

Hiding it might be a problem, in a group full of mind readers.

I'm just sayin...

[BLANDCorporatio]

Or it may be the perfect place, since supposedly a Thinkamancer would best disguise their duplicity. Really, any such arguments can go both ways and carry no weight. We'll have to see.

[quindraco]

Do you think it's deliberate or a mistake that Parson's breastplate's hamstard logo is missing on page 61 but present on page 60?

If it's deliberate, that could be a side effect of the blue scroll we see there - maybe he already cast his spell. Could e.g. be a debuff that turns off all enchantments on equipment, so Parson could be in a rough surprise when he arrives.

[wrecan]

Do you think it's deliberate or a mistake that Parson's breastplate's hamstard logo is missing on page 61 but present on page 60?

Whatever it is, that's a very intriguing observation.