Ambrosia Software Web Board: The Missing Sorceress (TS discussion topic) - Ambrosia Software Web Board

In general, the stories have been independent. If you look at the archives page, there's been a bit of a push for more interconnectivity between some stories (it creates more of a persistent background and helps address some continuity problems). That doesn't mean you can't have some completely different idea, its just asking that events that transpire in stories remain (ie, if you kill someone in a story and go off to some other story arc later, that person is still dead).

Thanks Av, good to know.

***Read the post before you read this***

New Post

Edits may abound here, which is not a problem, I'll edit anything anyone has a problem with. Among these things are:

- I described Tavara, using my earlier Lich descriptions I built upon that to make something more imposing and seemingly more evil. If no one likes it I can change it or remove it.

- I'm not very familiar with how the magic should look, but I imagined Tavara's would be an upgraded version of it, and someone did actually request my take on a lightning spell before, so here it is.

- Rythan hurt Kitran, hurt him a very little bit, but that's what happened. I debated doing something more epic between the two before letting Rythan get in the small cut and get around Kitran, but I imagine it would take a lot for Kitran to fight Tavara at that level one to one and a three way battle didn't seem feasible (aside from the fact that Rythan couldn't fight them both at once for more than a handful of seconds anyway).

- Amulet grabbed, that one's pretty self explanatory.

And that's about it I believe.

In future posts I hope to bring more of the other characters into the fold, since I know I haven't touched on everyone and I think everyone should play an important role.

Quick Answer: Yes.

At times they do follow a story line, and at times they diverge into different story-lines, or independent stories.

For instance, Yesterday's Dawn was stand-alone, but Echoes from the Past, Shadow Games, and I think Witch Hunt were all part of the same story-line.

Jehezekel, on Mar 1 2007, 06:41 PM, said:

Actually, I think Yesterday's Dawn is counted as the second TS in the current arc: Ruffian Encampment, Yesterday's Dawn, Missing Sorceress.

Quote

Yes, two actually, one of which I fully intend to do a variation on at least sometime and has been a vague idea for some time. The other involves the alternate-Cythera invasion that was briefly discussed before the latest TS.


By the way, I'm going to post today, but I will wait to finish the TS until tomorrow (unless anyone wishes to go longer). I might post once tomorrow before making my final post, depending on the number of posters tomorrow.

This post has been edited by Selax: 02 March 2007 - 12:10 AM

Yes, it's part of the current TS arc, but it isn't connected to the other TSs, it's just in the same timeline.

On that note:

I have a great idea for a TS (or Chron) that I am now dying to share. It springs from the recent rash of unexplained killings all around Cademia (committed by the assassins we know as the Nexus Lord and Seralcard).

Intro

When a new chain of killings hits close to the Tavern once more it will be up to our heroes, led by a pair of clever investigators, to unravel the mystery and bring these murders to an end. But when they dig deep enough they will see that the dark web is far more complex than they first thought and it will take all of their skills to emerge victorious... and alive.

This post has been edited by Ragnar0k: 02 March 2007 - 11:26 AM

I'm up for whatever, as long as the title is "Tomorrow's Twilight" and its dark and gloomy.

(which means the alternate universe invasion should probably hold off for another story, since its really sounds like a completely different arc)

Avatara, on Mar 2 2007, 01:45 PM, said:

I think I could manage that, although I'd probably need to PM you the details to get your input on them (I'm worried it might not be creative enough).


Note: Wizard plans to post later; immediately after he does, I will post and finish the TS (since no one seems to object to that).

This post has been edited by Selax: 02 March 2007 - 04:59 PM

"Tommow's Twilight" should be in the same arc as YD. Then we could do another called "At Noon Today"!

yes! and then I suppose the arc would have to end.

We could do something with 'Midnight on Monday' perhaps?

Brilliantly logical as always! *applause*

Phew! I finally got that post up. I know it's been a full week, but I've been busy.

So ends the Team Story The Missing Sorceress.

I hope that everyone is okay with this resolution. If not, please inform me, and we can attempt to come to some sort of better closing to this. It is not intended to have the group fail but to setup possibilities for future TSs.

To be honest, I'm kind of sad to see Rapierian complete his transition into an open villain because it deprives me of a fun character and fun abilities to use in TSs (if anyone has any suggestions on this aspect, I'd be pleased to hear them), but it would be troublesome if it didn't happen. Rapierian has been intended to act as the villain he now is since before Ruffian Encampent, since he's always been evil he must remain so in some capacity or it would be inconsistent (at least to me). In theory, he could remain in the group as a double agent, but this would be difficult to do, due partially to the fact that one would expect the others to quickly find this out. Hence, I decided to at take the plunge, at least for now, and make him the Death King's chief agent in Cythera.

I think that I've had the vague idea of using the undead army again for a little while as well. I'm not certain if the army mentioned in this last post is the same as that attacked Cademia, but the Amulet is, I think, intended to give control over both in any case. Of course, the fact that Rapierian has the Amulet does not necessarily mean that the undead army has to play a major role soon; we could always say that the artifact is damaged or depleted for the time being. For Rapierian himself, all it does is augment him to be able to threaten the group. That is, although it gives control over the army, it does not enhance it's wearer's actual power to an absurd extent, only enough to be a credible threat if he is caught without the army around him.

If anyone hasn't guessed, it was Rapierian who told Kitran how to navigate through the tunnels under the Stronghold.

I stated some time ago, before RE was first started, that I had conceived of the new more Cythera-related TS-arc as hopefully being integrated into the previous run of TSs (although hopefully keeping the others more Cythera-related at the same time) in a future TS. I can hope (or at least dream ) that that will be next TS.

Hmm, I hope I didn't forget anything; I might edit this later.

There's one thing I'd like Wizard to edit into his post before the topic gets locked, although it's not critical. The Truelight gem has no power of its own, but rather acts as a lens - it can't function without an external lightsource. If some mention could be made of the Scribe going to great effort to keep the beam from his staff focused on it at the key points, that would be great.

Okay, clean up the OoC remarks, etc, etc, you guys know the drill.

All mine are clean, if I didn't miss one.

Well this is as good a place as any to announce that I'll be without internet service for about... well for some extended and undefined period of time

About the end of the TS, overall it's cool, but one point that bothers me is how Tavara teleported the adventurers away, half way across Cythera. If he could do that why didn't he do it at the beginning, or teleport them just inches above some lava, and why didn't he do that to Kitran?

It's not a massive issue, it's just a minor plot hole, the kind that finds its way into my brain and starts jumping up and down screaming "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!"

As a suggestion I might say that the room was collapsing and the adventurers were forced to run out or die beneath the rubble, and a chain of destruction sent them running into the maze where another tele-trap sent them all pretty far from the stronghold itself, but close enough to see smoke rising in the distance and leaving them wondering if Raperian, Tavara, and Kitran survived.

I'm done.

I must admit, Ragnar0k's suggestion would sit much better, with me. An opportunity to return to Akheron's with Katherine might also have rounded off the story nicely. The focus of the story was the missing apprentice, and returning her to her teacher would have closed the circle. It might have been better to finish that post with everyone outside the stronghold (by whatever means), then allowing eveyone to post whatever 'finishing up' elements they wanted to include for their character(s).

Overall, though, I'm fairly happy with the way this story went. It certainly veered in directions I never would have anticipated, which makes it all the more enjoyable. I managed to throw in a couple of good dilemmas for people to solve, but nobody really rose to the occasion - does anybody else like being posed a challenging situation to resolve, or am I alone in that? If so, I'll try and adjust my style accordingly in future.

There are probably a number of reasons why it slowed down in the middle, not least of which is simply that everyone just got too busy. I have a suspicion that the introduction of the 'artifact' might have stifled things a bit, though. It introduced a specific forward-looking objective into a story that, until then, had been essentially a freewheeling juggernaught. Next time, I think we should seriously consider reintroducing the 'no planning' rule we tried a few times in the past, to try and keep things spontaneous (which was what I was trying for with the wide-open premise of this story).

A couple more things - I'm not sure the 'narrative' style worked all that well for the Scribe's telling of the first part of the story 'The Beast Within'. Also, I'm uncertain how well the 'blip-chron' idea is working out, although if I'd actually gotten around to writing the second part and posting it in the appropriate spot, it might have been clearer. Opinions, anyone? Is either format worth continuing?

This post has been edited by cache22: 04 March 2007 - 05:10 AM

My comments are excised, with the exception of the one at the beginning containing the links to the background reference material, which I think should remain.

This post has been edited by cache22: 04 March 2007 - 05:12 AM

I don't know about anyone else, but I like posing (and indeed, having others pose) difficult situations to solve.
I think the narrative style for "The Beast Within" worked fine.

I do enjoy challenges Cache, I just became a bit too busy to tackle your last two

I'll agree with you that the artifact slowed things down a few notches by knocking away a great deal of possibilities, so a "No Planning" rule for certain TSs should be very nice indeed.

As far as your narrative goes, it is a problem I often face. The narrative itself was good, it told your story appropriately and therefore served its purpose. However you "know" that you could have done it better, perhaps by having Scribe begin the story and then cutting into a flashback of those events. And yes, something like that would probably have been very nice and very enjoyable to read, but by comparison to the narrative it would have taken forever to write.

In a TS I imagine you don't have quite enough time to write out a big story like that. In my case I sometimes just don't want to take all the extra time I would need for it, *shrug*.

Both ideas are good one. If you have the time and the patience and you wish to switch from a narrative style to a "flashback" style for those sections that would be great. Whatever you choose to do though, you should definitely continue doing these "blip-chrons" as I'm sure I'm not the only one looking forward to the next part of "The Beast Within".

I know I am.

Just to clarify, the blip-chron was the segment dealing with the Ronin in the land called Aria. Throwing in 'The Beast Within' as a tale told by the Scribe was a spur of the moment thing, a quickish way to tell a story that I've had rattling around in my head for ages.