Summer Update - 022

[balder]

New one is up. No illustrations on these for a while, but they should be posting more frequently.

[TheMutant]

Wow, Charlie's sharp- or maybe Parson's request that the casters try to 'uncroak the volcano' wasn't as outlandish or far-fetched as it looked at the time. Wonder why Parson confirmed his suspicions.

Also, I wonder how Parson feels about the potentiality of working for Charlie at this point. He's seemed rather disillusioned; but would he relish the possibility of having to make war for an Overlord that he can't manipulate or outwit?

[BRC]

...that Charlie certainly is a sneaky one.

Come to think of it, Charlie has all the traits Stanley lacks. While Stanley is very in-you're-face about his arkentool, Charlie merely hires out his services. While Stanely is skilled at nothing but hands-on command, Charlie is a master of politics and the backroom deal.

[kagato23]

I'm not so sure he'd worry about that. While there might be a certain resentment as a gamemaster to chafe under any higher command, as a potential ruler Charlie appears he would be far more respectful of Parson's strategic ability, and give him a much freer reign of control. Subsequently, he'd have less issues working under a leader who would actually appreciate his suggestions and orders, rather then have to hide or manipulate what he does.

Of course, the new issues would result more in restraints from other issues, namely deliberate lack of full effectiveness("we could do that, but they didn't pay for xxx, only xxx services!" ) rather then disregard.

[badninja]

OK, I knew Charlie was smart, but he guessed what really happened at GK with out much trouble. I know this is not good, but he is going to make a killing off the side that purchases that information. I think Parson is not fully bound by loyalty, here he is talking to a know enemy and could they start planning on something big, like what Wanda pulled on FAQ? Only time will tell and with Parson and Charlie working together this is going to get bad for every one fast.

[Jindra34]

I hope charlie and parson never end up on the same side. that level of concetrated IQ and deviousness would send the rest of erfworld spiralling out of control. Course nothing else would likely be as fun.

[hanglekuk]

where was the "GG" from Charlie before? He just had a major loss of power (archons, quite a few of them) and nothing has changed between them (Parson and Charlie)? It is bears some resemblance to chat after a nice RTS game (like starcraft, warcraft, whatever). Charlie had a major set back on power

Nice "crying wolf" touch - nobody believes Charlie when he is not charging

[Catbus]

Man, if I were in Parson's shoes, I would totally be asking Charlie the existential questions. Because of all the characters Parson has encountered in Erfworld, Charlie is the only one who acts not like a participant but like a player.

[DevilDan]

Charlie is certainly a fascinating enigma, though his main motivation seems consistent.

Charlie knew that Parson had a thinkamancer, a dirtamancer, and a croakamancer. And he knew that whatever happened on Erf required levels of power possibly reserved for only trimancer links.

[BarGamer]

Charlie is certainly a fascinating enigma, though his main motivation seems consistent.

Charlie knew that Parson had a thinkamancer, a dirtamancer, and a croakamancer. And he knew that whatever happened on Erf required levels of power possibly reserved for only trimancer links.

I think there's a mole (Moll) in the Magic Kingdom. It's the easiest and simplest way for Charlie to know this, since he sure didn't know what was happening WHILE the volcano was going off. But given time and info, he could guess... But Charlie's not a guesser, especially not when Parson would then know that he's guessing. He thrives on knowing more than everyone else. Therefore, the mole.

[DevilDan]

I think there's a mole (Moll) in the Magic Kingdom. It's the easiest and simplest way for Charlie to know this, since he sure didn't know what was happening WHILE the volcano was going off. But given time and info, he could guess... But Charlie's not a guesser, especially not when Parson would then know that he's guessing. He thrives on knowing more than everyone else. Therefore, the mole.

That idea was discussed before, I believe.

[BarGamer]

That idea was discussed before, I believe.

Then here's another "vote" supporting that idea. Or, you could take it as me inadvertently resurrecting that discussion again. What do you think?

Is Parson being "too nice" in even talking to Charlie right now? Does Charlie feel nothing for all those croaked and now Decrypted Archons?

[Rosa Vernal]

Charlie's simply genre savvy. I wonder if his coming to Erfworld resulted from trials of the Perfect Warlord spell?

[WarFAN]

Is Parson being "too nice" in even talking to Charlie right now? Does Charlie feel nothing for all those croaked and now Decrypted Archons?

I think he doesn´t know yet about Wanda´s attunement to the arkenpliers. There is not any reason to suppose this attunement, neither the existence of the decrypted units.

[MarbitChow]

Is Parson being "too nice" in even talking to Charlie right now? Does Charlie feel nothing for all those croaked and now Decrypted Archons?

Personally, I think Charlie's a sociopath. He's very friendly, very manipulative, totally selfish, and shows no empathy whatsoever, as far as I can tell.

[joosy]

So.... Parson is trying to get some intel from Charlie on who knows what about which and with whom but Charlie is more wary and devious.. and with good reason - he lost around 30 archons in that Mixer on the Mountain. He doesn't seem upset about that but its in his best interest NOT to be.

Apparently mindbooping is one of Charlie's specialties. The old ' I'm selling the information at such an exorbitant rate that no one's paid yet or am I just giving it away?' ploy .. classic!

Charlie is most likely extremely angry and extremely curious about what happened at GK. But he knows the second he lets on that is information he overtly wants, Parson has him over a barrel. He's willing to bide his time and get the information out by trick or by proxy. He is probably counting on the (is it nine now?) battle calculations that Parson owes him as last minute bargaining chips.

Parson isn't colluding with Charlie, he's in a different battle altogether. A battle for getting information without giving up any of your own. I believe Charile will attempt to appeal to Parson's pride but that will fail as Parson is not that 'proud' of his accomplishments. Then he will try to console him and ease his guilt.. but all the while trying to wheedle out details.

I agree with the speculation that Charlie has intel already on the tri-mancer link. He's using that information as bait for more, but Parson isn't biting. I also agree that Charlie does not know about the Arkenpliers attuning and the decrypted units. I think Parson can allude to them being buried under the rubble (which they were) for now and avoid any outright lies. (It's in Parson's interest to be honest with Charlie- the moment he starts deliberately lying and is caught, then any types of parleys like this are pointless as nothing that he says can be trusted - much like the fake surrender.)

[HandofShadows]

Two master stratagists going and trying to mind frack each other. I do think that Charlie is at a bit of a disarvantage though. Parson is used to the concept (he did it with his players all the time from what I can tell and they worked hard ot do it back as good players do), while Charlie is used to doing it other people not being on the reciveing end nearly as much. But he does have home court advantage so it may balance out.

[Spot]

Personally, I think Charlie's a sociopath. He's very friendly, very manipulative, totally selfish, and shows no empathy whatsoever, as far as I can tell.

I agree. Charlie is, in my opinion, the most dangerous person in Erfworld. Certainly the most dangerous to Parson, as Charlie's charm might cause Parson to lower his guard... which would lead to a croaked Parson about ten seconds later.

[gameboy1234]

Personally, I think Charlie's a sociopath. He's very friendly, very manipulative, totally selfish, and shows no empathy whatsoever, as far as I can tell.

No, I don't think Charlie is any more of a sociopath than any other ruler, or unit, in Erfworld. Charlie is just a bit better at being practical and calculating the odds than most other rulers. Charlie doesn't let his emotions or his ideology cloud his judgment. He doesn't have any pre-conceived ideas about royals or titanic mandates to muck things up. The fact that he knew, and seemed to care about, Jaclyn when she was croaked points to a rather normal emotional state. More normal than many current rulers, in fact.

Also note that Don King a couple of updates ago more-or-less confirmed that Charlie is not royal. Interesting that out of three known Arkentools, all three are attuned to non-royals.

My take on how Charlie knows about the link which uncroaked the GK volcano: In games terms, the Arkendish gives Charlie "natural thinkmancy" rolls to get intelligence on other factions. Charlie just made his roll, and knows what the trap was. In story terms, it's probably more subtle. Charlie thinks about it, uses the Arkendish, and then can "figure out" what other factions are doing. It's probably a thing that is only available on a subsequent turn, so Charlie can't know what factions are doing as they do it (that would be too powerful), but can know after it's done. Hence, turn 2 after GK.

Hmm, anyone else notice that we're measuring time based on GK, like years since Christ?

[Simons Mith]

I wonder what class Charles was before he attuned to the Arkendish? Stanley started out as a piker, Wanda was a Croakamancer. I suspect Charles might be a -mancer of some kind too. Moneymancer would be in keeping, but if he's a Thinkamancer that would be REAALLY scary...