The announced plan is to do a series of little vignettes like this twice a week or so over the summer, and start Book 2 (working title “Erfworld: Love is a Battlefield”) in the fall.
Ridiculously Fast Construction in action.
Got to set up the table before you can play the game.
Somehow, I find the new iconography more ominous than the old Fantasy Evil Overlord look…
Truth that. Is there anyone even left to challenge the Tool now? I’m thinking the old goals were to collect the Arkentools and destroy the Coalition. The Coalition is gone, but there are still individual factions like Charlie and the vampires. It’s kinda funny that Charlie seems to be one of the most disliked characters, but of all the various factions, his goals are the clearest (make money). Of course, that’s the goal we know of.
On a more philosophical bent, what if Stanley succeeded in collecting the Arkentools? What if he succeeded in conquering the world? What sort of overlord would he make? Could he be happy without people to conquer?
Hmmm… the Tool is trying to become less tool-ish.
Also seems like Wanda might’ve been trying to avoid Stanley… maybe he doesn’t know about the Arkenpliers, yet?
Remind me - which troops are wearing pink?
Somebody on the site forum suggested that Stanley got the impression that the decrypted units were wearing something pink because he was implicitly assuming that the army he was seeing were normal (i.e. green-tinged) uncroaked. That would fit with him perhaps not knowing about the Arkenpliers being attuned to Wanda (if you were in Maggie’s shoes, would you tell him?)
New update is up.
Interesting to hear Stanley sound a bit elitistm seeing as he came up from the bottom himself.
The impession I get is that he’s scared and confused and trying very hard not to show it.
Innnnteresting. Stanley is worried, and likely to be nonplussed at Ansom’s new attitudes, again.
I see his worry isn’t adversely affecting his capacity for being a dick, though.
Nice. Parson looks really weird, with his face all white against his somewhat sepia-toned neck.
Anyway, I was doing some ruminating about Erfworld last night, and I came up with some questions:
Questions about Erfwrld (post-TBfGK):
In the hands of a non-attuned wielder, the arkenpliers had the property of turning most uncroaked units to dust upon contact. What will be the effect on the uncroaked when wielded by Wanda Firebaugh (assuming that the unit had been uncroaked by another Croakamancer – obviously no more of Wanda’s uncroaked units are still standing)?
Can a decrypted unit be killed (croaked)? Assuming the answer is “yes,” can a croaked decrypted unit be uncroaked? Can a croaked decrypted unit be decrypted again? Can an uncroaked unit be decrypted with the Arkenpliers (without needing to be re-croaked)? Assuming the uncroaked unit was a hostile, would decryption realign it to Wanda? Assuming the uncroaked had been [under to the command of an] ally, would decryption change its allegiance to Wanda?
Is Wanda spending any time on researching the answers to these questions?
Do uncroaked units have stats that are visible to the inhabitants of Erfworld?
What’s the back-story behind Charlie and his attunement to the Arkendish?
Who is the most likely candidate for attunement to any other Arkentool that may show up: Sizemore, Jillian Zamussels, Vinnie Doombats, or Jack Snipe? Or Parson? Would Parson even want an Arkentool, or would he consider attunement to one to be a compromise of his autonomy?
Vinnie Doombats’s friendship for Ansom seems to have gone beyond the loyalty of a lieutenant for his commanding general. Further, the affinity seems to have been mutual. Will Decrypted Ansom and Vinnie be able (or inclined) to rekindle their friendship?
What about Jillian? Will she be in love with Ansom-as-Wanda’s-creature? Will Ansom still love her?
A thought: Is that communicating top hat an Arkentool?
Stanley is convinced that his destiny is to unite Erfworld under a coalition of attuned wielders of all of the Arkentools. What’s his vision for getting Charlie and the Arkendish to Gobwin Knob?
Harry Potter Question: Why can’t a Parselmouth talk to other reptiles than just snakes, particularly dragons? It sure would have made the first task of the Triwizard Tournament look a lot like the ending of the movie Babe.
Stanley to Warlord Ansom: Tell me about Hamster. Is Stanley worried that Parson’s strategic gifts might make him too dangerous a quantity to control on a long-term basis?
Harry Potter Question: Did Tom Riddle ever, as a child, interact with the doomed critters in an eel stall? Would this have led to his disinclination to have any regard for his fellow humans?
If word gets around Erfworld about Wanda attuning to the Arkenpliers, will this lead to multiple factions questing for additional Arkentools, complicating Stanley’s ambition of gathering them all to himself?
Stanley appears to have been less than pleased with the fact that he’s not going to be given a shot at attuning the Arkenpliers to himself. Is the knowledge that he’s not going to be attuned to all of he Arkentools (or likely even more than one) going to modify his desire to have them all within his sphere of influence?
Dunno. I assume she wouldn’t even have to touch it to do something, like she didn’t have to touch the croaked to decrypt. She might even be able to take control over other uncroaked units. Although, I notice that we don’t have any indication that anyone else can uncroak. Even in the caster’s place, there wasn’t anyone dressed in traditional necromancy get up.
Dunno. Depends on what happens when the units is killed. She doesn’t seem to be decrypting any piles of dust.
We have no indication that she is. Or that she did any research to do what she’s doing with the pliers now. From what we’ve seen, she just picked em up and went to town.
I thought only warlords & that type could see stats. But since they’re units, they have to have stats. Even Parson has stats.
We don’t know.
Well, since Stanley’s side now has 2 attuned Arkentools, and the only other one we know about is mysterious Charlie’s, I would guess someone who opposes Stanley would be the best choice. Otherwise there’s nothing to challenge him.
Doubtful. Ansom seems different now.
If she thinks it’s still him, I don’t see why not. When she learns he decrypted and not alive, who knows.
Dunno. Ansom seems different now.
No, it was referred to a magical item at one point.
I doubt Stanley’s vision gets very far. He doesn’t strike me as much of a long term strategist.
I would be surprised if people aren’t questing for it now. Though it’s quite probably that the world learning that Stanley now has 2 attuned Arkentools will probably cause quite a few things to happen.
Stanley seems a bit deflated after his failed attempt at escape, and seeing that his side did just fine without him & his dwagons. It looks like he might be revising his view of things.
Now we just need to find out what ‘fireworks’ means in this case.
Poor Tool; almost feel sorry for him, he’s in so far over his head. So to speak.
Man, wtf is Charlie smoking?
I don’t think those are Charlie’s Archons any more.
Hmm. I don’t know. That’s an awful lot of archons. Wanda’s reaction is wrong, the reaction of the dwagons, etc. I think it’s just Charlie being weird.
There was an awful lot of death when the volcano went up. I’m prepared to believe all the Archons got aced.
You mean “Then he saw Wanda just standing there, watching him serenely”? That seems consistent with the Archons being under her control. She knows what’s going on, even if Stanley’s confused.
You’ve never heard of horses bucking at sudden bright displays, or pets getting scared of lightning?