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  • Ironsworn Starforged: The End of Keith Vanadu

    July 8th, 2022

    Session Moves

    Witchlight Renna

    “There.”

    The Apostles leaned forward, squinting at the vid-screen. Most then leaned back, awkward looks on their faces. One of them, braver than most, coughed nervously and said, “Pardon us, Witchlight. But we do not see what you mean.”

    The young woman with long, flowing hair dyed blue at the ends smirked. She extended a slender hand, a large rune scarred into the back of it, and scrubbed the vid-feed to one precise moment.

    “It’s subtle,” she said, in a voice that had convinced half of the people of Dreadspire to bend the knee to her, “But it’s there. The Black Iron Energy signature. He looped back all the way to the point where Jones – Flame Caress His Soul – first entered the door.”

    The Apostles leaned closer to study what their Witchlight had caught that they had apparently missed. The one who spoke did not, however, and simply tented his fingers and considered. “We have Ironsworn Vanadu’s file, witchlight. His token is The Looper. It only allows him to loop one or two seconds back. If what you say is true…he’s grown more powerful than we thought.”

    “Or the opposite is true,” Renna said, smiling. “Ready the altar. It’s time we removed Ironsworn Vanadu from the equation once and for all.”

    Clocks

    I say…there’s been a significant step we took in that we got Jones’ communicator, so the Red clock advances one, and we killed a bunch of cultists (and Jones, who’s in power) too, so that advances again. So it’s extremely likely that the Cult has made moves in the background.

    The Runners have a huge lead on the Cultists in this case. Good…if the die are any indication we’ll need that advantage.

    Back in the Warehouse…

    “Kaz.”

    No Answer. Kaz stared dead ahead, silent, unmoving.

    “Kaz,” Keith tapped his shoulder, and Kaz turned to look at his old colonel. Keith thought he’d seen enough of this kind of look back in Sol. Seeing it again hurt. “Come on, soldier. On your feet. That’s an order.”

    “Yes sir,” Kaz said, automatically, getting to his feet.

    “That’s good. Now you are going to split the remaining men into two. One for cover, one to carry the dead and wounded back to the hideout. Don’t take unnecessary risks, but prioritise getting back over subterfuge. We’re burned, anyway. We might as well relocate now.” He looked dead into Kaz’s eyes. “Can you do that for me, soldier?”

    Kaz blinked. “What about you, Colonel?”

    “We came to do a job,” Keith said, gesturing at the now open door. “I’m going to see it done.”

    “I’m coming with you.”

    “No way, Kaz. I need you to lead these guys home.”

    “I’ll split ’em into groups like you said and I’ll come along with you. No discussion.” Kaz spat. “No disrespect…Ironsworn. But you ain’t my colonel no more, and I don’t gotta do what you tell me to do. Sit tight. I’ll be right there.”

    Keith shook his head, but smiled. His company was known to be one of the most reckless, subordinate and disrespectful soldiers the Rebellion had ever had, but they were also the most fiercely loyal. You couldn’t torture them to tell you the sun was hot. Besides, it felt good to know Kaz still trusted him, despite the losses they’d suffered.

    “I blame the spooks, Colonel,” Kaz said, returning to Keith’s side after organising the others’ retreat. “I blamed them for every d’ast thing that happened to me since they appeared, and I blame them for this,” he waved vaguely at the gore soaked room they found themselves in. “I won’t stop until I piss on their Witchlight’s head.”

    “Bit extreme, but I appreciate the sentiment Kaz,” Keith smiled and nodded. “Well. Come along, if you’re coming. Keep your eyes open.”

    Keith decided it was probably fair to tell Kaz about what had happened. “Fair warning, Kaz,” he said, as they stepped into the next room – which was another storage unit. “I…I think I’m having trouble looping.”

    Kaz frowned. “Actually, Colonel, could you back it up a bit? I’m hazy on the when and the how you used that.”

    Keith brought him up to speed. “And now…I kind of feel, vulnerable,” he sighed, toying with the token. “I guess I’ve become too comfortable with it on my arm.”

    “Have you tried to loop again?” Kaz asked. “Maybe it was temporary.”

    Keith sighed. “I don’t know. This…this Black Iron stuff. None of us really know what it does or how it does whatever it does. Maybe that was it for my token.”

    “Not making a great case for Iron Banner membership, Vanadu,” Kaz grinned. “But seriously. It must be more than just the token that’s bothering you.”

    Keith winced. Kaz saw through him like a las-blast. “I tried again after. I tried to loop back to before the gunfight started and tried to make us go back. That way…nobody would have had to die.”

    Kaz sighed. “Shit. You’d think you get used to losing guys by now, Colonel. We’d lost more in the fight against Sunscum.”

    “We’re not in d’ast Sol anymore, Kaz!” Keith was surprised at how vehemently he had spoken. “I came here to help these people! Not to get them…not to get them blasted to fuckin’ bits!”

    “We knew the risks going in, Vanadu. We-“

    “Like fuck you all did!” Keith was full on shouting now. “You know what? I can’t do this anymore, Kaz.” He turned and left the room.

    Kaz stared at his old commander. “What are you talking about? Where are you going?”

    “Back,” Keith called back. “I can’t be responsible for more death. Not of people who were supposed to find a new life here.”

    “So you’re just going to leave us here?” Kaz stared at his old commander’s retreating back. “You’re just going to walk away and leave us to the White Flame?”

    “I am not equipped to deal with this shit, Kaz!” Keith turned and snarled back. Tears were in his eyes. “You wanted someone capable, someone who could have done something to stop these d’ast spooks from taking power. Clearly I am not that fucking guy!”

    “What the fuck, Keith!” Kaz swore. “The Vanadu I knew wouldn’t have abandoned his men in the middle of a d’ast mission! D’ast it, Ironsworn! You swore to me on that hunk of junk!”

    Keith lifted the black iron bracelet. “You’re right about one thing. It is a hunk of junk. And maybe I’m not the guy who you thought I was.” He turned, shoulders slumped. Kaz stared at the man who he had respected his whole life, the man everyone who had started a new life here respected their whole lives, and saw a broken, dejected man, the opposite of who he thought he had called down to help Paragon Stand.

    “You coming, Kaz?”

    Kaz gripped his gun. Tears flowed down his eyes. “Hang on,” he called back. “Just one thing left for me to do.”

    Epilogue

    “And that’s that,” Witchlight Renna slipped on her soft linen robe. She was smiling as she stepped down from the altar, awaited by a group of her most trusted Apostles. “Ironsworn Vanadu is no longer part of the equation.”

    The Apostles stared, stunned. One managed to stammer out, “We…we thought we had faith. We thought his presence would have been a true obstacle to the White Flame. We doubted, and we never knew it.”

    “And why should you?” Witchlight Renna’s voice never raised above a whisper, yet when she spoke it was with the full authority of the white dwarf they worshipped. “Keith Vanadu was never a threat. None of the Ironsworn are. They don’t even understand the powers they wield. But we are enlightened.”

    The Apostles fell to their knees. “Please, Witchlight,” they begged. “We have doubted. We did not truly have faith until now. You must forgive us.”

    “Yes,” others continued, grasping at the hems of her robe. “Please, forgive us. Intercede on our behalf for our souls. We have been doubters, unknowing.”

    Renna shushed them. “The White Flame lays bare all pretense,” she sighed. “Let us now shine brighter than ever before, and let our work not be impeded. Not by the rebels, the heretics, the Ironsworn. Soon all of Sanadris shall be cradled in the warmth of the White Flame.”

    End a Session

    Final Thoughts

    Wow. Didn’t think it would end like that.

    I think I’m not done yet with this world, but maybe I am going to try and solo a different RPG for now. Maybe DnD, or the various other solo RPGs I have in my posession (I have, like, a lot). I’ll say this – the dice, they really hate me. Also, hashtag: #KeithSucks

    See you next week for my new RPG!

  • I Are Very Smart: The Witness and The Looker

    July 4th, 2022

    We’re going to begin with some definitions today. First off is the word pretentious and its derivatives, like pretentiousness. Google defines pretentious as “attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed.” I agree and we’ll use this, but I also want to drive home the point by providing an example.

    Think of the most snobbish, insufferable, piece of shit guy you’ve ever met. This is the guy who grunts and says “Actually…” at almost everything you say. He’s always got to say something and he’s always got something to say, and everything he says seems to be calculated to maximise how smart he is and how stupid you are, regardless of the topic at hand. Knowing smirk may or may not be present physically but you know – oh, you know – he’s smirking deep down and thinking you oughtta kiss his feet for showing you the light of his intellectualism. What makes this worse is that he’s not always right. When you bring it up with your truly intellectual colleague, he’ll laugh his ass off and say how Mr. Actually’s shit has no bearing on the conversation, or is off the mark somehow – or worse, straight up wrong. This makes it worse. You just suffered through indignation of being called stupid by a fucking moron spouting pseudo intellectual slash philosophical bullshit. This is a pretentious person, to me.

    Now that that’s out of the way – I believe a lot of older indie games are super fucking pretentious.

    For some reason, when indie game devs used to make games, they’ve got to put in some kind of lesson, some kind of point they’re trying to make with their game. This is usually highlighted in the game’s story if it has any or with in-game finds like audio logs or clues or what have you. So in between shooting stuff up you’d be treated to five minute long audio logs about why you have to be humble because your body is made up of atoms of the stars or some stupid bullshit like that or that your soul doesn’t exist because fuck religion. This is unwelcome, to me. This turns your work which is supposed to be a piece of entertainment into a tract – a vehicle whose only merit is in the message you are trying to convey and nothing else. Granted, a lot of indie games also have interesting and fun game loops, but once THE MESSAGE is delivered, all criticism of what we normally critique in games goes out the fucking window, and its fans just argue either YOU JUST DON’T GET IT or WHY ARE YOU AGAINST THE MESSAGE?

    In this way, we not only get pretentious game devs and pretentious games, we get pretentious fans and fandoms as well.

    Thankfully, this is getting less and less common. Most indie games released today have like, no message at all. A game about shooting stuff is just a game about shooting stuff. A game about being chased by ghosts is just a game about being chased by ghosts. In fact, witness Two Star’s QnA video about his upcoming game Choo Choo Charles. He is certainly not pretentious. In fact, I appreciate that he tells us his motivations for making the game:

    Money. Fat Stacks o’ Cash.

    Two Star, re: his motivation for making his game. 3:32 in the video linked below.

    Hey, at least he’s honest. And Choo Choo Charles looks hella fun. I have it wishlisted.

    The reason I am ranting about pretentiousness is because that is my impression of The Witness. I have to admit, I didn’t even know this game existed until The Looker was released and reviews laughed at how it poked fun at The Witness. I wanted to play The Looker, but I also wanted to get the jokes, so I played The Witness first. 

    The witness is a puzzle game where you draw lines from one end of a maze to another. Over time there are various conditions for you to fulfil as you go through the maze, which I’m not going to touch on. It’s not just a puzzle game, though – you explore an island full of these goddamn puzzles and make wires light up and lasers go off and watch lectures by scientists.

    That last part is why I say this game is pretentious. I was actually enjoying myself, to be quite frank. I love puzzles and I love puzzle games. If the devs had just let the game be what it is – a bunch of puzzles to solve on a calming, charming island – then I’d have enjoyed it even more immensely. Instead, I go inside an underground area, do a puzzle, and are immediately treated to this:

    Hands up if you know what the fuck any of that has to do with drawing lines on a goddamned maze.

    Now. To be completely fair, there is a good gameplay related reason that video is included in the game. To tell you that would require me to spoil a huge part of the game, but because I don’t respect this game any more than anybody would respect me if I told them I pissed in a jar, I’m going to tell you – the game normally has its line puzzles on panels, but you can also draw lines on the scenery itself. Sometimes you’d see a circle – oh, you think, that kind of looks like the start of a maze like on the panels. That’s because it is.

    I’ve seen people react with extreme amazement that they can draw on the scenery. I…didn’t have that reaction. You see, in this game, despite being first person, you can’t fall off of stuff. You can’t jump, either. Pressing the spacebar only opens up the ‘draw a line’ interface, whether or not you were facing a panel. I actually tried to jump and brought this interface up, and immediately I thought obviously we’d be able to draw on the scenery because why would this be a thing? And so when I saw something that might be the start of a maze, I immediately went and drew on it. Nothing happened. Bunch of lights and flashing. It was so underwhelming I decided I wasn’t going to bother hunting for more scenery puzzles.

    Anyway. The video above shows several circles. You can draw on those circles. That’s pretty clever, to me, but doing so as I mentioned only causes shit to light up for a moment and nothing to happen, so I don’t see any reason to continue.

    Now if that video was put in for that reason alone, I wouldn’t have thought the game pretentious at all. I’d have thought it quite cool, in fact. But I did get the impression that this game was trying to be smart because there are audio logs scattered around the place, and while you’d imagine you’d be getting clues and hints as to, yknow, why you’re on a deserted island solving goddamn maze puzzles, but no. You get quotes from scientists and philosophers.

    Compare and contrast this with Choo Choo Charles and tell me what sounds more fun – blasting a demon spider train or listening to this shit every half an hour.

    So, what, are video games not allowed to be intellectual or philosophical? No, I didn’t say that. But the fact that we graduated from audio quotes of Great Thinkers to an actual fucking video of some white guy telling me that I’m stupid for liking art instead of science makes me feel like this is all leading up to some huge fucking two hour lecture titled “You’re Stupid and I’m Smart: This Is Why” as my fucking ‘reward’ for solving all these goddamn motherfucking puzzles. You can guess why I didn’t actually feel like continuing the game. I refunded it, in fact. If you’re so smart, figure a way to stop me from getting my refund, prick.

    Then I played The Looker and my mood did a total one eighty.

    As a parody game, The Looker is stuffed chock full of jokes. For example, it has a ‘Hint’ button that does nothing but say “You can do it!” and “I believe in you!” until you hit the end of its dialogue stack and it totally berates you for being a dumbass. This actually highlights how I felt throughout the game – like I was the butt of some huge joke, the unwitting target of some prank. But somehow, I didn’t feel the malice directed toward me like The Witness made me feel. I felt like I was laughing along with the game despite being the butt of the joke. Even better – I felt entertained.

    The Looker is a direct parody of The Witness in particular, and maybe because I hated The Witness, I gained more enjoyment from the jokes as a result. One of my favourite ‘puzzles’ parodies the sound cue based ones by replacing the bird chirps and beeps in The Witness with some tired sounding dude going ‘…beep’ every now and again. The dude even gets frustrated and goes ‘you’re so close – I mean, beep!’ when you get close, but because of the maze being what it is you get frustrated as well when he keeps saying you’re so close but you haven’t solved it and start shouting at the guy…I was laughing my ass off the whole time. 

    Then there’s the audio log parodies, but unlike before, I am not going to spoil anything about The Looker. Go play it. In fact, if you have ever experienced a pretentious ass game, then I suggest you play this and have a great laugh. If that game was The Witness then you definitely need to play this game. Finally, if you were the creative genius behind The Witness, then someone needs to force you to play this game. I mean…your whole point with The Witness was ‘different perspectives’, wasn’t it? Entertain this perspective, if you dare.

  • The MCU: Cinematic Multiverses of Madness

    June 27th, 2022

    I consume a lot of media. Like, a lot a lot. It has now become physically impossible for me to eat without having some kind of video playing in front of me, be it an actual movie, a series, or even just a YouTube video – Markiplier and his friends acting dumb have provided me with literal, not figurative, hours of entertainment. I’ve come to this conclusion when I was revisiting my 2022 resolutions (yes, I’m still on about that) especially the one where I promised myself to read more. I have been reading more, but as you can see I don’t limit myself to just literary or Western works. I read manga, comics and even Economist articles. It’s just that I’ve realised – on top of that, I watch movies, tv series, anime and YouTube videos. And I do a lot of those.

    So I feel like I might begin to record my thoughts on the various media I consume. No, I’m not copping out and starting to review movies instead, I am still going to be reading and posting my thoughts on the books here. However, I feel that if I could record my thoughts on other media that may be more well known you might get a better gauge of my tastes, what I like and dislike, as well as the breadth of the kind of media I consume. You’d hardly find Korean media here, for example, so that limits the tropes and storytelling techniques that I would be exposed to which are unique to the Korean space. Therefore if I say something is unique which isn’t in Korean media, you could point that out to me and I can expand my tastes even further.

    I guess what I am most interested in is stories, regardless of medium. I like following a well spun yarn, so to speak. I like learning about characters from their behaviours, their dialogue, and their actions. I like seeing what happens next, and seeing how these characters change (or don’t) over time, I like being surprised with a strange turn of events. With movies or comics, the more visual media, I like seeing new ways to interpret the world we live in, because the world we live in is boring.

    Reality is boring. Yeah I said it. Give me high drama and fantastical elements or I might lose my mind.

    The latest of Marvel’s cinematic offerings is high in both of those. Dr Strange 2, or to use its full title, Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, is technically a sequel to the first Dr Strange movie that introduced the Sorcerer Supreme to the MCU way back in…(googles) 2016? Why does that seem so long ago. Oh yeah…pre – pandemic. Anyhoo, this is technically a sequel to that, but it is more of a sequel to the marvel streaming series, especially WandaVision and What If. It continues the story from where WandaVision left off, and it also incorporates a lot of themes and elements from What If. So it is more related to those series than its own series, which is rather strange (no I’m not going to say I’m sorry for the pun. I saw it and I meant it, also from now on I am not going to note any more ‘strange’ puns if I make any).

    When you consider a sequel, you normally have to consider the movie prior to it. A good sequel expands and elaborates on concepts in its prior movie, as well as further the overarching plot within its own boundaries. Judging a sequel by itself is certainly possible, but by its very nature a sequel invites criticism of the work based on its first incarnation. This is why when Rachel Weisz was replaced in The Mummy 3 (the one with Jet Li in it) they had to have a scene lampshading why Rachel Weisz wasn’t in the movie. Anything from having a different actor (or actress) to having wrongly coloured lightsabers was fair game for critique.

    But what about Multiverse of Madness? Here we have a special situation because of the interconnected nature of the MCU. While Strange has only ever had one movie prior to this, he has appeared in various other films like the Avengers movie, or Spider – Man. To directly compare him in this appearance vs his own film only would be a disservice. He’s no longer Sorcerer Supreme in this film, for one thing – Wong is, and to ignore the intervening films would be to ignore Strange’s development as a whole. If this sounds like a huge rabbit hole you’re going to have to fall into just to get the whole picture of the story as woven by the MCU, then as a lifelong comics fan let me say:

    Welcome to comics. It’s mahvel baybeeee

    CURLEHHH MUSTASSHHHH

    But then again, it’s hard to consider the character of Dr Strange in the works that this movie is actually a sequel of, because he isn’t actually in WandaVision. While we can judge Scarlet Witch from her appearance in this film and WandaVision because she’s in them both, we can’t do that for Strange. In the larger canon of the ‘Wanda deals with Vision’s death’ story, Dr Strange as a character only appears towards the end to mess things up for Wanda.

    Strange, isn’t it?

    Our only recourse is to treat this story in a way that is unique to comic book lore and history – we need to consider each work independently, though it relies on elements introduced in other works. The whole ‘Vision and Wanda’ thing started as early as Age of Ultron, and to fully grasp the whole thing you’d need to watch Age of Ultron, Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame and WandaVision before watching Multiverse. 

    IT’S MAHVEL BAYBEEEE

    This is the video that convinced me that Mag and Neto were two separate names. His middle name is ‘Fuckin”. As in “Mag Fuckin’ Neto”

    So this movie already has more dimensions in it than anything America Chavez slaps. There’s two, actually – the overarching MCU, and the movie itself. This movie provides the swansong, the end of Scarlet Witch’s subplot within the overarching MCU, and needs to be considered in that sense with all the baggage – the plot, the character development, all the beats. It is also a complete work by itself, and needs to be able to stand on its own.

    I feel like the overarching nature of the MCU across its various media gets lost in a lot of discussion about Marvel movies. A lot of the time, each movie and series is judged by itself, without any relation to the MCU canon from before or after, and that misses a lot of decisions that made the film what it was. Of course each entry has to be judged by itself – all movies stand alone in a final analysis – but to only do that misses the point of having an MCU in the first place. Even criticism levelled at the MCU level tends to ignore the film’s place in that level. A lot of MCU fans have criticised the current phase as being without proper direction, that it feels aimless, but that’s a criticism at the overarching story, and not at the work within that story itself. Definitely not at Multiverse of Madness and its place within that phase of the MCU.

    I feel like we’d have better discussions if we did consider the movie at all levels. We could then discuss the usage of trippy, mind bending visuals in the movie that might have only been included just because it’s a Dr Strange movie. How come there’s no trippy effects in WandaVision? Both characters use magic. Instead we have Wanda and Agnes throwing different coloured balls of goo at each other and the occasional Darkhold runes floating in the sky. Strange grabs hold of America Chavez for an instant and we’re treated to a gorgeous spectacle of visuals as they hurtle through different dimensions. Why the disconnect?

    The scene I was talking about.

    Don’t give me that budget excuse. They’re Disney. They have exactly Fuck You amounts of money. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if they have an accounting line item that just says Fuck You in their financial statements.

    I honestly thought we’d have more interconnected films like the MCU back when every studio wanted to have their own cinematic universe. It would have elevated film to a different level in my opinion. Alas, it was not to be, but an analysis of MCU movies at the levels mentioned would have revealed to them why their endeavours failed – they had focused too much on the overarching plot and ignored the movie by itself. And yet – we have a new issue, because not every movie in the MCU falls to the same standard. Some are outright stinkers. Yet the MCU succeeded where other endeavours failed.

    Love it or hate it, the MCU is a huge success, and we can’t blame the big studios from wanting to try it. I personally would have welcomed it, in fact. It wouldn’t have meant the dearth of ‘one shot’ stories, of course, but we’d have a new layer of cinema to consider when watching movies. An entire canon of lore would lie behind every decision in movies, from character development to foreshadowing to plot hints. The MCU could have paved the way for a new way to tell stories which was previously the domain of comic books – as part of a shared Multiverse of Madness.

    That’s when things would get really Strange, wouldn’t you agree?

  • Ironworn Starforged: The Order of The White Flame

    June 24th, 2022

    Recap

    Short recap before we begin today’s post – Keith, Kaz and several Dust Runners have broken into a warehouse where they suspect a weapons cache exists. These weapons might aid the cultists from Dreadspire who have infiltrated their settlement, intent on either converting them or killing them. They tripped an alarm going in, however, and got into a firefight in a bad position, when who should appear behind them but Overseer Shariff Jones, who demands their surrender. Keith wonders if he can loop far enough back to reverse things, and tries to do so…

    Check the previous post to fully catch up on the current events. And now….

    Thrown For A Loop

    Keith has looped before, but only for a few seconds at a time. His experience was that it could be disorienting to see everything turn back like a Vidfeed being scrubbed in reverse, even for a couple of seconds. He was not prepared for how disorienting it was to loop for a full minute.

    He tried to keep his focus. Words spoken went unsaid and in reverse. Every move he made felt awkward, as his hands, arms and legs moved involuntarily. His eyes moved of their own accord, making it harder to focus. The hot glow of lasgun blasts seemed to move normally but the slow moving projectiles from the slug throwers whizzed past him in a reversed blur.

    And then it was over.

    Keith found himself about to dash into cover that would expose him to Jones when he came through the door behind them. Abruptly he stopped, and moved closer to the door, praying he wouldn’t be hit by a stray bullet.

    “Colonel!” Kaz shouted. “What are you…”

    Kaz’s voice dropped when the guards stopped firing. Keith ignored them, raised his gun’s setting to maximum, and pressed the muzzle right to the back of Jones’ head when the Overseer stepped out.

    “Hello, Overseer,” Keith said. “Kindly drop the gun or I’ll send you to the White Flame sooner than you’d like.”

    Keith saw Jones stare at him from the corner of his eyes, Jones himself trying hard not to move his head. “How…?”

    “Wasn’t hard. I figured you would think you had us cornered like rats when we tripped the alarm. And I always figured you were one of them, anyway.” He snickered. “Oh, how I wanted to be wrong.”

    “I see,” Jones didn’t seem to buy it. Keith didn’t care. “So what happens now, Ironsworn Vanadu?”

    “Drop the d’ast gun and tell them to do the same.”

    The Overseer chuckled. “And then what, Ironsworn Vanadu? Did you really anticipate me coming through that door? Because this doesn’t seem like a thoroughly considered plan, if you’re open to criticism.”

    “Normally I am, but not right now.” Keith pressed the muzzle harder into Jones’ head. “Never you mind about our plans. Drop the guns or your brains fry. Kaz, search the Overseer. You lot,” Keith shouts at the Guards, “Keep your safeties on and nothing happens to Mr Jones.”

    “What am I looking for Colonel?” Kaz shoulders his weapon and starts to pat Jones down.

    “I’m thinking he was pretty confident he’d catch us in the act,” Keith said. “I’m thinking he left us something that’d tie him to this White Flame outfit, or to Dreadspire at least.”

    “Communicator, left back pocket,” Kaz held it up.

    “Somebody check the logs. He can’t have erased them just yet,” Keith said. “Getting a bit nervous, Overseer?”

    “Someone must have tipped you off to our plans,” Jones said, less confident now. “There must be a traitor in our midst.”

    Keith ignored him as one of the runners managed to pull up one of the more recent comms from the communicator’s logs and replayed it at max volume. One was clearly Jones’ face and voice, but the other was masked behind a strange, glitchy avatar with a voice distorter on, masking everything that could identify them.

    “The heretics make their move,” the masked person spoke, the distortion making it hard to make their words clear. “You were right, Overseer Jones.”

    “I told you,” Jones said on the recording, “once this…cabal, or whatever you call these scum, once they learn about a weapons cache supposedly meant to eradicate them, they’d want it for themselves, or to destroy it, regardless of what happened with the Ironsworn at The Synergy. Then we can destroy them in one fell swoop.”

    “You have Witchlight Renna’s compliments,” the masked voice said. “We are one step closer to liberating all three of the settlements of Sanadris from their ignorance and blasphemy. Soon all of Sanadris will know the comfort of The White Flame.”

    “My only will is to serve,” Jones on the recording said. He went into great detail about the plan to ambush the Runners, and signed off once the masked figure approved of the plan.

    “Well, well, well,” Keith grinned. “It appears we have our leverage and then some. Witchlight Renna, is it? I’d be glad to meet them.”

    “Do not sully the Grace Witchlight with your heretic lips!” Jones spat, all pretence at having the upper hand gone.

    “You’re doomed, Jones,” Keith said. “The new question is if you – and your boys here – come quietly or go out as a hot spray of superheated goo, courtesy of my gun here being on max setting.”

    “Max setting? D’ast, Colonel, you’ll blow a hole through the wall!” One of the runners said.

    “D’ast if I care,” Keith said. “Arm’s getting tired, Jones. What’ll it be? Right answer’s to drop ’em, assuming you want to live, of course.”

    “It seems to me,” The Overseer says, dropping his energy rifle, “that my usefulness to the White Flame has come to an end.”

    Keith barely catches the guards raising their weapons again. “Down!” He shouts, ducking into cover. The Runners barely make it, while bullets riddle the Overseer, causing his body to jerk spasmodically for a while before finally sending him flying back through the doorway he came from, blood trickling down to the floor.

    “Holy D’ast!” Kaz shouted. “These spooks are insane!”

    “Back to square one, then,” Keith said. “Put the d’ast crazies down!”


    Intermission

    If you’ll pardon an intermission here. Combat happens again, and I think I have to do a rewrite here to prevent Boring Stuff To Read from happening. Long story short, I rolled extremely badly, and…not going to lie, I tilted a bit here and didn’t know how (as Keith) to turn the situation around and ended up just brute forcing rolls. I am going to rewrite the scene, instead of a slow burn disaster, as one huge clusterfuck that derails Keith’s plans. They will end up, narratively and mechanically, at roughly the same situation, but things will be made more Exciting to Read and maybe help feed my creativity when next I play.


    That The White Flame May Shine

    Bullets fly past Keith’s head as he ducks behind the storage unit, using it as cover. He takes a glance at the other Runners, wondering if they made it like he did, but what he sees makes his heart sink.

    It wasn’t just the Overseer that got shredded in the first volley of gunfire; Jones was just the focus of Keith’s attention at the time. The Overseer’s body lay slumped over, under and around three more Dust Runners who didn’t manage to move in time, and as a result suffered the same ignominious death as the cultist Overseer. Torn to pieces for something…or someone they believed in.

    Torn to pieces because of him. Because he ordered them here. Because he made them come here and wager their lives, only for them to lose the sucker’s bet.

    I killed them, Keith thought. Holy d’ast, I as good as killed them.

    “Shit, Vanadu!” Keith snapped out of it at Kaz’s insistent screaming. “Get it together! You gonna help drop these d’ast spooks or what?”

    Keith realised he had been frozen behind cover, not firing or moving. Thanks, Kaz, he muttered under his breath. He lowers his gun’s setting to conserve ammo, lines up a shot and lets loose several bolts of energy at the guards, who start dropping as Kaz had requested.

    “Welcome back, Colonel-” a Dust Runner was about to praise Keith when a bullet vacated his brain. Turning back to the guards, Keith could see them shifting formation in order to maximise their fire spread to make up for their lower numbers. Despite covering fire from the Runners, the guards had managed to move in perfect formation.

    “Kaz,” Keith called out. “Cover me!” Before Kaz could say anything, Keith fired two shots at the storage unit in front of him, aiming straight at the bolts holding it to the floor. The shelving unit toppled, and Keith gave it a solid kick to make sure it fell. It missed the guard behind it entirely, but it distracted the man enough for Keith to make a dash for Jones’ energy rifle.

    And that’s when something strange happened.

    Keith was used to Looping. His Black Iron Token, registered under his name as The Looper in the Ironsworn Token Archives, allowed him to somehow reverse time for one or two seconds while also maintaining his memories of what had happened pre-Loop, which allowed him a ‘mulligan’ of sorts. Being a military man, Keith Vanadu often used it to avoid grievous injury – like the bullets flying towards him right as he was diving towards the dead Overseer’s energy rifle. All that he needed to do was touch his bracelet, and he would be back in time a couple seconds, just enought to avoid disaster.

    It’s just that this time, The Looper didn’t work.

    It was shocking to Keith. It was like taking a step down the stairs only to find there was another step left to go before reaching the bottom. It had become so much a part of him that now, the one time it didn’t work, it was so jarring Keith forgot all about the energy rifle, the bullets headed towards him, even the firefight around him.

    He was reminded right quick when he slammed face first into the floor, followed quickly by two of the bullets impacting into his shoulder. He screamed in pain, grabbed the gun, and crawled towards cover, miraculously only taking a grazing shot across his calf on the way. He sat up, and stared at the Black Iron. Maybe it had to recharge after using it for longer than a few seconds. That would have been good to know, but then again none of the Ironsworn knew that much about their own Tokens – not even Jameela Devadhikar, and hers was central to the Iron Banner’s government and economy.

    A bullet exploded something near his head, and Keith was dragged back to reality. Assessing the situation, Keith realised they were in bad shape, but could bring it back if they did better. They had sustained several more casualties, but so did the guards, who seemed to be having trouble themselves. This outta even the odds, Keith thought, and after priming the weapon lay down a field of energy bolts across the room, killing one guard outright and vaporising the arm of another.

    “D’ast it Colonel, what’d I say about warnings?” Kaz shouted.

    “Keep up, Kaz ol’ buddy!” Keith shouted back. “Blood for blood! Make ’em pay for every drop of blood they’ve spilled!”

    “Sir Yes Sir!” Kaz responded enthusiastically, and that rallied the remaining Dust Runners fit for fighting. Together they managed to inch forward, gaining ground and for the first time, about to win the fight.

    And that’s when another strange thing happened.

    They had managed to pin the remaining guards down behind their own storage unit shelves, or behind the doorway leading into the room. Occasionally a gun muzzle would peek out from behind, fire randomly for cover, and dip back down again, but suddenly even that stopped. Keith held up a hand, signalling for a cease fire. When the gunfire had subsided, he called out to the guards.

    “Had enough, yet?”

    There was a strange, sighing sound. Keith strained to listen. It sounded like the guards were whispering to each other. Trying to form a plan? he thought, wondering what they could be up to. Then Keith heard a clattering sound as the guards dropped their weapons on the ground. Keith breathed a sigh of relief, and stood up, keeping his weapon trained on them.

    “Hands. Let me see them. No sudden moves,” he ordered. He turned and gestured for the rest to cover him as he went over to the guards. “Come on out, now. Show me those hands.”

    “Colonel!”

    Kaz’s warning saved him. He leapt back behind cover as…something sailed by him. Keith heard a gasp, and turned around. His eyes widened when he saw one of the runners with what appeared to be a long, bone white spike through his chest. The spike had gone straight through, and Keith thought at the other end of the spike was the torn remains of a leather glove, the kind the guards were wearing. Blood spurted out of the wound and dribbled from the man’s lips as he slumped down to the ground, dead.

    Keith turned to stare in horror at the other end of the room. One of the guards taking cover behind the doorway stood in it, now, with just one arm held upwards horizontally, aimed right at him. The other was gone. Keith realised where it went just as the other guards stood and lifted their arms like this one did, and in unison shouted out:

    “We Burn That The White Flame May Shine!”

    “Colonel?”

    “Fucking drop them!”

    It was over in a flash. Keith lifted Jones’ rifle and fired indiscriminately. He didn’t know if he hit anything or not. His cover exploded with the force of the bone spikes tearing through the storage units like a las blast through butter. He heard screams. He heard las blasts. He saw nothing but endless blackness for a good, long time – or throught he did. The entire exchange lasted less than a second, but felt forever.

    When Keith opened his eyes it was because something hot was dripping down onto his face. He turned and almost screamed at the sight of one runner, her entire head replaced by one of the spikes, remaining standing as she had been pinned to the plasteel wall. The entire contents of her head had been splashed onto his face in a shower of gore. He turned and saw more casualties. Stunned, he stood and stumbled towards Kaz, who was almost flat on his back, shooting arm straight out. His gun was whining since its charge had long gone, but Kaz’s finger stayed depressing the trigger.

    Keith wanted to tell Kaz to stop, it was over, there was nothing to shoot anymore, but all he could do was fall to his knees next to Kaz and put his hand on the empty gun and pointed it downward, silently. Kaz turned to look at him slowly, but it was as if he didn’t see him, didn’t see anything at all in fact.

    “Fucking spooks.”

    And that was all he said for a long time.

    Session Moves

  • Worldbuilding Journal: Childcare of Cadameria, Part 2

    June 22nd, 2022

    Ah, salaam! Welcome back to Cadameria!

    One day we’ll get to how people greet each other in Cadameria.

    Anyhoo. Welcome back to our Worldbuilding Journal series, where we try to create an entirely new world based on prompts from the Worldbuilding Journal published by Wizards of the Coast. The world we have created is so far centred upon the magical city of Cadameria. We’d previously tackled the Cadamerian Black Markets (even got a story written about that) and the inns and taverns of Cadameria. The setting in which Cadameria is a part of has yet to be named for now, but we do know the place is a city of magic, which is used by way of a special ore called Glintstone which can hold, transmute, and release charges, creating wondrous effects. Along the way we met an assassin, smoked a hookah courtesy of a culture foreign to Cadameria, and watched as a Grand Magus of the Schola Arcanum met a gruesome end. We’ve also established that Cadameria has a Magic School, both a premier education facility run by the Schola Arcanum, the oligarchy that controls the city, and a Technical School for the rising middle class folk of Cadameria. And we also discovered that since there is a middle class in Cadameria, the setting can’t be Euro – medieval, but more technologically advanced, so the earliest would be around the renaissance era, post Industrial Revolution kind of thing. The mindset of the people is still predominantly medieval though, but this might change in the future.

    Today we continue the issue of childcare, and I kind of wanted to go into great detail about the children left as orphans or without a guardian in the city, but first let’s talk about the equity of access to education in Cadameria. It’s a topic that I’ve managed to start thinking about in between the posts about the city.

    Part of what inspired this post is a discussion on higher education I had. Long story short, education is what determines the success of a nation – especially its economic and political success. This stands to reason – you don’t get better skilled workers without better training, you don’t get innovation without inculcating a culture of critical thinking, and once you have that you get people wanting more and better for themselves and the people they represent and that’s how you get better political representation and systems. Education unlocks the mind to its fullest potential.

    As a quick aside, the discussion was about student debt in America, and was triggered by a Vox – Netflix special on money. It is incredibly astounding to me, a Malaysian, just how incredibly predatory the student loan system in America is. To sum it up it reminds me of that part in Goodfellas where they take over the restaurant and milk it for what it’s worth before torching the place. “Business bad? Fuck you, pay me. Oh you got a fire? Fuck you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning huh? Fuck you, pay me.” It’s worse because these are actual financial institutions that suckers in these people – it’s all legal. What the hell. Even if a graduate can’t get a job, can’t get a job that can afford the loan repayments, sure they can put that loan in deferment, but the fucking interest keeps adding up no matter what – it’s compounding just like a fucking credit card deal. A Student Loan works the same way as credit card debt. Think about that! 

    But let’s go back to Cadameria, where we can actually make things better if we want (or worse). Does an educated society sound like something Cadamerians want? The answer would have to be an astounding yes. They love magic. You need to be trained in Glintstone Application to use and develop Glintstone for society. Ergo, more of that is always good. 

    Glintstone Application 101. Huh…I have a course name now.

    Here’s the thing though – that doesn’t square with what we know of the Schola Arcanum. It’s not that they don’t want new Glintstone applications – they want to be the ones in control of it. We’ve established that the Schola leaders, the Grand Magi, are the oligarchy that are in political control of the city of Cadameria. Why train the people to work against that? They’ve got a good thing going. They don’t want anyone to threaten that – remember what Hadrian said. If a new Grand Necromancer shows up and forces everyone to capitulate or be turned into zombie slaves, that would be bad for them.

    And so there must never be a new Grand Necromancer. Thus the study of some schools of magic is disallowed. Why stop there? The Grand magi can control who gets what education. Why not train them to toe the line, to only study Schola approved sorceries and accept the Schola approved doctrine? Anyone who thinks differently gets booted out. Anyone who refuses to toe the line gets booted out. Any threat to the oligarchy that is The Grand Magus Council gets booted out.

    So education in Cadameria is strictly a tool used by the Schola Arcanum to control the population. Schools exist but only to forward the Schola’s line of thought to the masses and create the sense that what they want is what’s good for Cadameria, and any aberrant thought is to be stamped out as threats to society. The Schola creates an illusion of choice by allowing both the Schola Arcanum Apprentice Academy and The Cadamerian Technical School to exist, but the syllabi for both are highly regulated and intake is biased in favour of those who support the Council and their agenda. In effect, education is hoarded, and the masses do not have their minds opened as much as a truly democratic magocracry might have allowed for. Think a theocracy but with technocrats instead of priests and popes.

    Wow, when did I get so cynical?

    To the orphans, then. Does it make sense that the state would sponsor children without guardians? There seems to be no benefit other than providing a place for children to be cared for. Perhaps they would do it, just for the optics? You know, I think they might. Not just for the optics, although that would definitely be the Council’s primary motivation. We’ve established that Cadameria has a significant criminal element, by the existence of its black market alone. No, we’ve not gone into detail about the gangs that run the market, but it’s easy to assume they’re there, since even rebellious elements like Hadrian can set up shop in the city. By creating orphanages they can help curb recruitment of urchins by the gangs and attempt to stifle recruitment, preventing the gangs from growing. How effective this is, is another story.

    The orphanages provide shelter and care, of course, but most of the training probably has little to do with Glintstone and more towards the children taking a trade. The Schola most likely has the orphans training in the ‘back office’ of the Schola’s operations. Things like smithing, cooking, cleaning and whatnot. Orphans in Cadameria can expect a life serving the magi, but never becoming one of them.

    A lot of this implies that social mobility is very rigid in Cadameria. Peasants tend to remain peasants, nobles tend to remain nobles, and there is very little cross class movement. Only the elite can afford an education while the rest are doomed to a life of servitude to the elites. And since we brought up class…classism is a very real concept in Cadameria. Its social strata are rigidly enforced via the culture of the city, again with magi at the top while those with less access to Glintstone (i.e, those disadvantaged at the socio – economic level) at the bottom. Movement is possible but significant enough to be remarked upon, and difficult enough that those who do manage it are lauded and shown to be an example that the masses should look towards. This, instead of them looking at the system and wondering why the success story isn’t the norm, because they have a vested interest in maintaining the social order as it is, be it either economically or politically.

    There’s an implication here that Cadameria is an economic superpower, and I think that jives with what we know already. Cadameria is the center for magical research and development, with new technologies appearing from the Schola to be distributed and sold to the rest of the world. It’s kind of like the Silicon Valley of the world in that sense. That tracks – this Forbes list of the richest people in the world has six of the top ten richest people in the Technology sector. It would definitely make sense that Cadameria be as prosperous as it is due to its status as the Mecca for magic.

    I’m pretty blown away from what we’ve learned about Cadameria just from considering how education is handled in the city. That shows how important it is, not just in our worldbuilding but also in real life, as well. So many things being interconnected – how divided society is in terms of social classes, the opportunity for social mobility, and how economically strong the society is. Granted, a lot of these was implied just from ‘magocracy’, but really considering these topics helps get the creative juices flowing.

    I might even get a story out. Who knows? You won’t if you don’t stick around to see where we take this setting next! For the next post, most likely I will be doing the next prompt in the book, and we’ll see how Cadameria changes with our new ideas.

    Oh, and thanks for reading and stopping by! Each of your visits and likes gives me sooooo much serotonin, and motivates me to keep doing this blog. Thank you so much – you, yes you! I appreciate you, and hope the time you spent here in my corner of the Internet was worth it.

    Until next time! Or however they say goodbye in Cadameria.

  • I Let An AI Write A Blog Post For Me And This Is What Happened

    June 20th, 2022

    Remember that time I made an AI generate a blog post for me? Well, the recent memes of AI generated greentexts and of course Markiplier making a video about his adventures with Inferkit have gotten me back into trying to generate an entire blog post with AI assistance.

    First the results. Here we go!

    I’m not a morning person. I don’t like getting up early, and I’m definitely not a fan of mornings. But there are a few things that I’ve found that make morning a little bit better. Here are my top five tips for making morning a little bit better.

    5. I Get to Relax

    I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely missed out on some of the fun and relaxation when I was out trying to get things done early in the morning. I get up at 4:00 a.m., and I can barely make it to work on time. By the time I do, I’m usually so exhausted that I’m ready for a nap.

    6. I Get the Day Off

    One of my favorite things about working at home is that I don’t have to worry about getting to work at a certain time. I get to work when I want to, so I get the day off. Even if I do have an appointment, I can reschedule it. And if I do end up working past 9:00 a.m., I can take that rest time I need to recharge and be able to get back to work without any problems.

    7. I Don’t Use the Bathroom in the Middle of the Day

    There’s nothing worse than getting up in the middle of the day and realizing that you have to go to the bathroom. As hard as it is to get up earlier in the day, I have to admit that this can really be a lifesaver for those mornings when I know I won’t be able to make it to the bathroom on time.

    8. I Get to Spend Time With My Family

    I love spending time with my family, and I know that they enjoy spending time with me. But I also know that they don’t always want to be around me when I’m working. So, getting up early in the morning gives me the chance to spend some quality time with them without having to worry about work.

    9. I Get to Exercise

    I know that some people don’t like to exercise in the morning, but I really enjoy it. I find that it gets my day started off on the right foot and it helps me to stay focused throughout the day. And, it’s a great way to get some of my daily steps in.

    10. I Get to Enjoy the Peace and Quiet

    There’s something about the peace and quiet of the morning that I really enjoy. I can’t explain it, but it’s just something that I love. I find that I’m able to get a lot more done when I don’t have to worry about the noise of the day.

    So, those are my top five tips for making morning a little bit better. I hope that you find them helpful and that you’re able to use them to make your mornings a little bit better.

    And that’s as far as I got. I used two different AI tools to generate this – the first is Open AI’s playground, source of the memetic greentexts that you sometimes see on social media. Open AI allows you to ask the AI a question and get an answer. I asked it to ‘Write the beginning to an interesting blog post’. I then input what I got into Inferkit, and then back and forth between Open AI and Inferkit.

    The results aren’t exactly what you would call stunning. You can still tell that an AI wrote these – or maybe just someone who isn’t a very good writer but an excellent blogger. We’re a far cry from the structured stories we sometimes see produced on social media, which leads me to think – and I almost never think this – ‘Yeah, that happened.’

    I don’t usually care about truth and veracity on the internet. I gain as much entertainment from the story if it was fake as I would have if it was true. Finding out a story was fake usually makes me think ‘Oh, really?’ and I go on praising the story as I would have. In fact, I kind of think those people who call out stories for being fake humorless bastards. Who cares? I don’t need a story to be true to be entertained by it. I don’t need it to have actually happened the way it was told. I could read a true account and be bored to tears. Also, from personal experience writing this blog, not a lot of interesting things happen on the reg for me to only post interesting things written in an interesting way that actually happened. Two out of three is good enough. Listen, if you’re one of those ‘that happened’ people, go outside and touch some grass. Reality ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Not everything has to be real to be entertaining.

    Okay okay rant over.

    This time, though, I feel a bit disappointed. Not in the story, that’s still hilarious, but the fact that we can’t actually generate such stories using AI yet. I know, I know – as a writer, I should be afraid of the fact that an AI can do my job better than I can. But as I mentioned in my review of AI 2041, I’ve been turned on to the excitement, the possibilities that can occur with AI. Once machines learn how to write, they’ll learn how to DeepFake – once they learn that, they’ll learn how to drive, and after that they’ll learn how to pilot unmanned drones that eliminate targets without mercy (confused? Read AI 2041).

    It’s also a bit frustrating that despite the fact that this technology is in its infancy, access to the full features of the software requires payment. I am in full support of people getting paid for their work, but with the current state of the technology I don’t think it’s worth the money just yet. The most value I can see in it is in generating or continuing a prompt, trying to get the brain juices flowing, yet for the most part the text generated is…well, see above. I had planned to just get a few lines out and take it from there – I really did – but the text generated is just so…boring.

    I think it’s way too soon for me to start worrying about dem robots taken oor jerbs.

    Perhaps that’s what we mean when we say that a robot can’t write with soul. When you try to guess what would most likely come after a certain word, the next word would be the most common word possible to come after that word, given what has come before it. And when it’s the most common word…you lose all inventiveness, all layers of meaning. You don’t get sudden twists of language, the turns of phrases, the rising build up to something meaningful in the end. That’s what I wanted from the AI because that’s what the meme said was possible. That isn’t what I got.

    AI writing tools shouldn’t replace humans – in fact, I think what will happen is we writers would use them to create better pieces of writing, stuff that is both as well written as possible and yet touches the souls of people across the world. The marriage of technical ability and human connection – that was the future envisioned by Kai – Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan. A world where AI enhances the human ability to live, not destroy it or replace it. For some tasks – like write up a paragraph describing the pleasure dome in which the Shah lived with his fourteen queens and thirty consorts, for example – we may leave that to the AI with a simple command.

    Describe a palace, similar in style to the ancient Persians. Draw attention to the water features, and how people move through the building.

    Meanwhile it is up to the writer to make the important decisions. To decide which of the consorts love him and hate him, if the Shah is cruel or meek, if a war is brewing if there is a lasting peace throughout the empire.

    And you know what? I think I have just realised why the text generated wasn’t very good. I didn’t do any of that, instead I expected the AI to do the heavy lifting. Didn’t I say AI and writer needed to work in tandem to create a story, a piece of writing that can only exist with the advent of AI and AI assisted writing? Too much of the AI leads to boring writing – too much of the human can be messy, and take too much time without automation.

    Well, one thing’s for sure. This isn’t the last time I try blogging without an AI’s help.

  • Ironsworn Starforged: The Warehouse, Part 1

    June 17th, 2022

    Preamble

    Hi everyone! I’ve been rereading Keith’s adventures so far, and there’s something I don’t like about it. It moves too fast; there’s too little placing of the characters in the world and too much plot movement. It made sense to me as I was playing, but I bet as a reader you’ll just end up confused.

    I’m hoping to change that as we go along. I’ll still play as you’ve seen me write stuff up, of course, but when posting time comes I hope I’ve edited things a bit so the posts read more like a ‘lit RPG’ than an actual play report. Ironsworn is all about ‘the fiction’, after all, so having more ‘fiction’ than rolls should actually improve the experience for both the reader and myself, the player.

    I think today’s post is, due to how close the deadline is, still not as well edited or written as I would like, but this is something I hope to consider in the future. In other words, while I’ve been having a blast playing, I haven’t considered how it would look like for somebody reading all of this without prior knowledge. I apologise for that. Since I realised this one day before the deadline this post may not seem like I’ve done much towards that, but rest assured that I am absolutely trying my best to make sure future posts are easier to read, and places the reader in the world and amidst the action so that you actually care about the outcome of the game. As it is now, I know it’s hard to care, but hopefully with all these changes we can make something good. I did warn you that I’m new to this whole blogging thing. Some screwups and mistakes were inevitable, but we’ll improve as we go along. Okay, on with the game.

    Session Moves

    Let’s Go!

    Zooming across the rust coloured desert of Sanadris, Keith is thankful that the settlers thought to fit their speeders with environmental controls. Otherwise, he’d be inhaling the planet’s corrosive atmosphere due to his enviro suit being ripped to shreds by that giant bug thing. He took a look down at the wounds Xang had treated in the aftermath of the fight. It was rushed, true, but competently done – not something so common now in The Forge, since most of their medical equipment (and know how) was lost in the Exodus. Keith smiled involuntarily, despite the ugly wound. It warmed his heart to know doctors like Xang existed still – those who want the give the best care they can.

    The northern exit of Paragon Stand loomed in the horizon. Having left from the settlement from that very same blast door shielded cavern, Keith found himself feeling relieved at the familiar sight. At his present speed, Keith would make the underground settlement within five minutes. Along with some goodies, Keith glanced back at the crate full of weapons he had taken from the shipwreck. The thought of the weapons ruined his mood a bit. For every selfless soul like Xang Toi there would be hideous reflections of humanity like the Cult of Dreadspire, those who would force all to think as they do – or die.

    Back at the Dust Runner hideout, Keith cracks the crate open and pushes it towards his new agents. “Don’t say I never done anything for you,” Keith jokes. “Status report. What’s been happening since I was gone?”

    “We managed to make a shortlist of people we suspect to be linked to the cult,” Kaz said, looking over the selection of guns that was now being laid out on the table. “We’re monitoring their chatter and trying to make sure we have all the right targets before we close in.

    “Anything interesting you pick up on that eavesdrop?”

    “Interesting doesn’t cover it, Colonel,” Talia Valentino, the Dust Runner with the gripper for an arm, said. “We’ve discovered that Overseer Jones has managed to smuggle in a large cache of weapons into the settlement. Your guns helped level the playing field, when it was supposed to give us an advantage.”

    “We can take that advantage back, I feel,” Keith said. “Do we know where the cache is?”

    50/50 – Yes. “We’ve managed to pin it down to this warehouse,” Talia points at a map of the underground settlement, “somewhere near the landing bays.” Keith’s eyes follow her finger. Paragon Stand was larger than he thought. He had seen the landing bays, and maybe some parts of the topside layers, but there were many levels deeper than he realised. Their target was somewhere in one of the topside levels he’d been to, but in an area he had never been to.

    “Right,” Keith barks out orders. “Talia, you and the rest keep working on the cult. Get names and movements of any suspicious people, and somebody keep a tail on the Overseer. Kaz, you know where this is?”

    “Sure.”

    “Then pick some of our guys and we’ll hit the gun cache. Remember – if the cult wants it, we can’t let ’em have it.”

    The Weapons Warehouse

    “D’ast,” Kaz swore. “Place is guarded tighter than a fort. There’s no way to sneak inside.”

    Keith didn’t need to be told that. They had left after the settlement’s dark cycle for maximum cover, moving quietly in the shadows, guns tucked under their jackets and clothes. It was supposed to be an extra precaution – the warehouse district where they were headed was usually empty. One stood out however, as men with guns stood patrolling its perimeter.

    “Well, Colonel?” Kaz asked. “We can do it loud, or we can do it quiet like.”

    Keith didn’t answer immediately. He was busy watching the patrols of the guards, judging their lines of sight, checking whether a place was safe to move to. He was busy examining the warehouse up and down, eyes crawling every inch of the plasteel structure, noting each window, vent or opening they might use. He was busy watching the street, taking note of traffic, obstructions, signs…

    Keith sees it. Talking through his plan would take too long, so he just says “I got it. Follow me,” and hopes the others manage to follow him. It’s all about timing. Dashing through as the lights flicker off, dodging behind a passing pallet mover, waiting behind a post for the guards to turn their heads just for one second. At the end of the run, Keith makes his way to a fire escape ladder hidden behind a trash compactor next to the side of the warehouse, and hurriedly climbs up. He turns as he does, to see if Kaz and the others make it, and he’s glad to see they do. He waits for them all to finish climbing the roof of the warehouse before congratulating them on following him.

    “A little warning would have been nice, Colonel”, Kaz complains.

    They pull out their guns – all energy weapons, set to the lowest (and quietest) setting for stealth. They still needed to minimise their usage, however. While a silenced particle projector gun made no noise above a loud whisper, the smell of burnt ozone that resulted from the discharge was so strong it would have drawn a lot of attention anyway. Weapons checked, Keith led the way to a door leading up to the roof, and finding it unlocked, opens it and enters the warehouse, as quiet as possible.

    Whatever he was expecting, Keith wasn’t expecting this.

    The hallway was short and led to another door. It was mostly empty…save for the sigils carved into walls. He didn’t recognise any of them – Keith made it a point not to associate with any ‘spooks’ worshipping the reality warping powers from the White Dwarves. He tried to look at them to study them but was forced to close his eyes – even glancing at them made his head swim. He cursed under his breath. D’ast spooks!

    “Colonel?” There was fear in Kaz’s voice. “What…what is all of this?”

    “It’s what the Stand will look like if we let the d’ast spooks win, Kaz,” Keith turned, blinking rapidly to shake the disorienting effect the runes had on his brain. “I don’t know how or why, but their Witchlight seems to be able to channel the star’s weirdness down here. Through these…things. D’ast, getting dizzy just looking at them.”

    “Should we bust ’em?’” One of the Runners asked, behind Kaz. She was a young, shaven headed girl.

    Keith shook his head. “We need to try and do things quiet like. No…we’ll have to try and make our way to the door.” He took a deep breath and turned back into the sigil infested hallway. “I’ll go first. Follow my lead.”

    Keith manages to make it through. He tried to keep a normal pace, as if he was just walking down the Promenade in Paragon Stand’s light cycle, eyes focused dead center on the door ahead of him. Still, he couldn’t keep the sigils out of his periphery vision, and the walk to the end of the hall felt like an eternity. He kept hearing voices – laughter, conversation, screams – and kept seeing things dance out of the corner of his eye. When he touched the door handle, he half thought it might come alive and wrap around his hand like a cold tentacle. Fortunately, it stayed the way it was, and Keith opened the door and nearly fell out the other end. He managed to keep his dinner inside, and turned to see if the rest made it. He was grateful they all did.

    Kaz had his hands on his knees, panting and gasping. “What…”

    “Easy, Kaz, easy,” Keith pat him on the back. “Let’s hope there’s not much left of the spooks inside.”

    Keith barely had time to register that they were in some kind of storage room when he heard an alarm go off. He cursed under his breath. Of course it was too easy. He turned to the rest. “Well, they know we’re coming, so no need to play it cute. Raise the power on the guns and let’s give ’em hell.’”

    “Have a hell of a time explaining this to the Overseer,” one of the Runners commented.

    “Hopefully we’ll have some dirt on him by the time this ends,” Keith responded. “Look alive, we’ve got company.”

    Several guards burst into the storage area, carrying slug throwers. They barked at the intruders to halt, but Keith ordered everyone to fan out and take cover. No sooner had they done that than the guards started peppering their area with bullets. Keith ended up behind a storage rack next to Kaz, both trying to find a window to fire back.

    Keith can see that they outgun the guards – Energy weapons are deadlier than slug throwers, even when theirs are handheld guns vs the guards’ long rifles. Bullets seem slow after getting used to projectile beams. Keith shouts at the Runners to press forward and make every shot count, while moving forward and shooting himself.

    Unfortunately, the guards know they’re outgunned, and call in reinforcements, outnumbering the Runners and moving into a flanking position. The Runners are forced to find cover amid the bullets flying all around them.

    Abruptly, the guards cease fire. Keith and Kaz look at each other, wondering what could be going on. Suddenly, from behind them, Shariff Jones appears from the door they came from, an energy rifle held in his hands. He aims the muzzle square at Keith.

    “Oh, Ironsworn Vanadu,” he snickers. “I knew you were up to no good. And thank you for revealing the traitorous Kaz. I’m sure the rest of Paragon Stand will thank you for it.”

    “So you really are in league with Dreadspire,” Kaz spat.

    “Drop your guns, and come quietly with us. The White Flame isn’t as bad as you think it is, Kaz. We are prepared to grant you mercy – along with certain conditions, of course.”

    “I assume you want us to join you in worshipping the crazy shit that the star spits out on the reg,” Keith said.

    “Your words are born of ignorance and are thus forgiven,” Jones said. “We can help you see the truth in the White Light.”

    The guards had closed in, meanwhile, ordering the Runners to drop their guns and surrender. Things were really not looking very good here, Keith considered. A terrifying thought struck him. He could Loop…but he hasn’t always been successful in looping more than a second or so back. Going back a full minute like this…he wasn’t sure if he could even do it.

    Doesn’t mean I can’t try, Keith thought. Setting his mouth in a grim line, he extends his hands, dropping the gun…and reaches for the Looper around his wrist. Here goes.

  • Worldbuilding Journal: Childcare of Cadameria

    June 15th, 2022

    Welcome back to our Worldbuilding Journal series, where we try to create an entirely new world based on prompts from the Worldbuilding Journal published by Wizards of the Coast. The world we have created is so far centred upon the magical city of Cadameria. We’d previously tackled the Cadamerian Black Markets (even got a story written about that) and the inns and taverns of Cadameria. The setting in which Cadameria is a part of has yet to be named for now, but we do know the place is a city of magic, which is used by way of a special ore called Glintstone which can hold, transmute, and release charges, creating wondrous effects. Along the way we met an assassin, smoked a hookah courtesy of a culture foreign to Cadameria, and watched as a Grand Magus of the Schola Arcanum met a gruesome end.

    I dream of the day when that recap gets so long it takes a whole blog post to cover all we’ve done. Baby steps…

    So let’s continue by looking at the next prompt in the journal:

    Think about a child who has been affected by the actions of you or your party. How did crossing paths with you change this child’s life? Perhaps you accidentally burned down their village or saved the child from a monster’s attack. What is this child like, as a result, when they grow up?

    At first glance, this seems like more of an adventure prompt than a worldbuilding one, but the questions asked actually refer to childhood and growing up. Or, in other words – what is childhood like in Cadameria?

    Before we consider abnormal childhoods like the ones in the prompt, we need a baseline – a rough idea of what we consider to be a normal childhood in Cadameria. We might also consider this question through the stages of a child’s development – infant, toddler, primary schooler and finally teenager – and what is expected of a child in each of those development stages.

    I can’t say what a normal mediaeval child goes through in life, but I imagine it’s different based on economic and social background. Noble children might be able to afford schooling, for example, while peasant children probably did a lot of manual labour. But it seems to me that there is a similar thread across all cultures and backgrounds when it comes to childhood – that childhood is the time to learn how to be an adult.

    Thinking about it, this makes a lot of sense. In our world, the modern 21st century earth, a normal childhood consists of going to school, learning lessons and about the world we find ourselves in. The same goes for the noble child, who needs to be taught in the ways of nobility to navigate politics, and for the peasant child, who needs to learn their fathers’ trades in order to be able to work and provide for his family later on. Hell, this is the same with animals too. Kittens play a lot to learn how to pounce and catch prey. All of this is in aid of allowing the child to function as a normal member of society.

    Since we’ve assumed a lot about Cadamerian society being the same as earth’s with the exception of magical effects, it would make sense that children would grow up differently with the existence of Glintstone. Children would need to know what it is and how to use it at the very least. Furthermore, we’ve also established in the Black Markets prompt that this is a society that loves magic and is always seeking more of it. Parents (usually) want the best for their children, and thus, the best thing for Cadamerian children…would be to join the Schola Arcanum.

    Competition is surely fierce. You can’t just accept any kid who says ‘Mommy when I grow up I want to be a wizard’. Even with Glintstone, there’s not enough resources to go around (I just decided that). Heck, there’s not enough manpower to go around. Imagine one wizard teaching a class of a thousand unruly little brats. That’d make anyone jump on their swords. So the top tier school of choice would be the school of magic. Hogwarts, if you will, but with Glintstone instead of wands and Dementors.

    And somehow I’ve created Raya Lucaria in my setting.

    One thing hasn’t changed here. The Schola Arcanum Apprentice Academy is usually dominated by nobles, or the nouveau riche, or the children of anyone who has made great contributions to the Schola Arcanum. Think less Hogwarts and more Eden Academy from Spy X Family. Everybody and their mums are loaded here.

    Sorry.

    So does that mean that the children of the peasantry are reduced to shovelling turnips and wrangling cattle instead of studying in the Academy? Unfortunately, yes. Of course, the Academy does not actively prohibit children of a lower class from enrolling, but the fact of the matter is that there simply is no room for them once the political contributions and connections are used up, to say nothing of the exorbitant fees. So what is left for them? They pick a trade, of course. They follow in their fathers’ footsteps, becoming peasants themselves. Sounds unfair, but such is life.

    Now here’s a question. I’m wondering if there is such a thing as a ‘middle class’ in Cadameria. Hang on while I do a quick google on how a middle class is created. 

    Okay, I’m back. So as I understand it (and I did a very, very perfunctory google search, so I may be completely wrong about this) the middle class came about because of capitalism – there were new opportunities for entrepreneurship afforded to the peasants who were able to rise above, though still not as powerful as proper nobles. This makes sense, and can fit in Cadameria. The people of the city love magic, and the advent of Glintstone has had a great benefit on society. Therefore, those who can discover new applications of old stones can definitely rise above and form a new ‘middle class’, as it were, of people who benefit from their inventions. In other words, in Cadameria, the ‘inventors’ are the middle class.

    I am not just thinking of inventors in the sense of them constantly trying to invent new things, but also inventors in the sense of them creating new business opportunities, or entrepreneurs. Say a new Glint charge is invented that converts fire into movement – boom, horseless carriages. That would make its inventor a rich man. Guess who else is rich? The merchant who deals in said Glint. Both of them now belong to the nouveau riche, the up and coming movers and shakers without a drop of noble blood in them – the middle class.

    This actually makes me reconsider Cadamerian society. I had in mind a stereotypical ‘mediaeval’ fantasy society, but clearly that can’t be the case. Not with inventors as a middle class. I’m starting to think that this is an early modern era, corresponding to the renaissance or Napoleonic wars. People still rode horses and used swords but guns and steam engines weren’t unheard of. The difference is Glintstone. In our world we arrived at the Renaissance after advancements in science and learning more about how the world worked – Cadameria arrived at their renaissance via the usage of Glint.

    As a small aside, I am actually of the opinion that we as a society have had our technological growth outpace our society. We have technology that allows us to communicate a lot of information across the world instantaneously, but not the capability to learn how to communicate with those people properly. So let’s put that philosophy in our world. Cadameria is a society that is mediaeval in its thinking, but has the technology of the Renaissance world. I’m not sure what that means for now, but it’s something I could keep in mind as we continue to explore Cadameria.

    So what about middle class children (that took a long time to get to)? If they can afford it, sure. If their parents supply certain Glintstone charges to the Schola, sure. But what of those who could have afforded it but for some reason were deemed not capable of enrolling, or the yearly quota was already met and they just got unlucky? The middle class would want education for their children still. They know how important it is. Obviously, there would be a less prestigious school for these children, and this school might be one that caters to peasant children whose parents can afford an education as well. They’ll learn stuff that can help them be part of Cadamerian society, learning things like Glintstone usage and other trades helpful to the city. Sort of like a technical school…The Cadamerian Technical School.

    We haven’t touched on the issue given by the prompt – that of children with less than normal opportunities such as orphans or unwanted children. We also haven’t considered what kind of futures would be possible for graduates from the two schools. That will be the subject of next week’s worldbuilding post, I think. This one has already run a bit longer than expected – no thanks to the many asides and considerations of Cadamerian society, but that’s kind of what a prompt does. It makes you ask questions of your setting that you haven’t. I’m excited to see where we go from here, so check back often (and leave a comment) if you’re interested to see more!

  • Poem: World Citizen

    June 13th, 2022

    Have you ever come upon a piece of media that just destroys you completely? Mine is the song linked below. I don’t know – to me, it sounds so full of despair and melancholy that I just can’t get out of bed. I feel broken, hopeless, dead and depressed – which is why I didn’t post anything last Friday. Sorry. To make up for it, I decided to write a poem about how the song made me feel and what it made me think about. The title is World Citizen in homage to the song that depressed the shit out of me for a whole weekend.

    Honestly, I wish I knew more. Like, I wish I knew what I was trying to say with this poem. But then again, if I did, I’d write that instead of the poem, now wouldn’t I. Sorry. I wish I was a better writer and a better poet, but this is all I’ve got. Stay, if you want. Leave, if you feel like it. Everyone else does.


    World Citizen

    I miss you on nights like this most of all.

    When my feet are black, my head is cold

    my throat aflame smoke rising to my brain 

    trapping the heat traveling six minutes to arrive at nothing, melting

    glaciers flow with nowhere to go.

    Displacing the Himalayans fleeing through the mud with blackened feet inundating Dhaka

    Flooding the graves of Fiji where soon we will be

    for we have nowhere to go.

    Water filled with toxic runoff and microplastics and the sticky swamp of the oil slick upon which fish and fowl become trapped will not quench,

    but burns like the shores of the black sea pummeled by discordant symphony

    of Joseph on his piano displacing, thinning the harvest, thinning those fleeing the Dnieper who are welcomed where blackened feet are refused entry for being dirty.

    A cleansing demanded. A cleansing happens

    and blood spatters the blackboard full of history. The cleansing continues 

    with the action of a repeater on a spin cycle, cleaning the board

    before the lessons can be learnt. The bodies burnt and the ashes 

    Washed away into toxic runoff and microplastics that will not quench but blacken the seas with slick and burning the shores sick with crops that rot because we cannot profit from the feed demanding a cleansing that repeats until my feet are black and the rising smog traps the heat that melts the glaciers and displaces my tears into the black sea flooded graves of Fiji.

    We have nowhere else to go.

    On days like this, I miss you most of all.


    This is the song I mentioned. Maybe you’ll have the same reaction. Most likely not. Thank you for reading, anyway.

    Oh, and to whoever DM’ed me wishing me well? Right back at you, friend. Wherever you are.

  • Completing The Taverns Prompt

    June 8th, 2022

    You all are going to have to forgive me. I completely forgot about Cadameria in between the last post and now. I was supposed to take a breather to work out the magic system, but all that happened was…well, life. Life happened, okay? This may be my sixth month of blogging but I am still very, very new to all this. Part of it is, well, being new to this whole new lifestyle of writing every day, balancing the blogging with my daily 750 words every morning and my own desire to write other stuff, and just balancing this with my real life obligations. But don’t fret about me – I am having a blast. The only times that I feel stressed out and close to despair (it does happen) was when I start to fall off the wagon. This kind of stress, the blogging deadlines and searching for topics and finding time to read and work in between all of it? I love this stress. Gimme more of it. It’s like the stress of fighting a boss over and over again in a FromSoft game – one more try, man, just one more try, let me at ‘em again. I’ll win this time. For real!

    Anyway, I’m back in Cadameria and I think we should close the discussion on the magic system for now. For one, we have a good idea of the basics – Glintstone holds a charge that can be released at the user’s discretion. That’s enough to work with for our prompt of Cadameria’s taverns (remember when this was supposed to be about that stereotypical spot where all DnD adventures began?) so we can just proceed with what we have. Before we do that there is, however, one final thing I want to mention with regards to Glintstone.

    I had an idea that expands and builds upon the whole Glintstone holding charges thing, which wasn’t worth an entire blog post to itself (apparently I wasn’t all that far away from Cadameria as I thought). First, that Glintstone could be ‘charged’ with almost anything imaginable, from liquids to sounds to almost anything you wanted. When a Glintstone discharged, this was what was released. Think back to Hadrian’s call bell – that was a Glintstone charged with a sound that could be released when the customer pressed on it. Second, is that while the charge is stored, the Glintstone holding the charge can transmute the charge into something else.

    Most of this is due to me trying to figure out how Hadrian’s dictation quill worked. Obviously it needed to recognise speech, and change that speech into writing. What’s happening is that the Glintstone on the pen is one that transmutes sound into movement. Say I activate the pen, and I say, “I want an order of five fries, please.” The Glintstone absorbs my speech as a charge, and transmutes the speech into a very specific movement – the exact movements a pen would need to make to write that down.

    If this is how Glintstone works, it explains how using it as fertiliser would create a magical herb. The glint is charged to transmute the nutrients in the soil into something else entirely that would create the time bending effects of Waheed’s ajarram. It explains why Lord Vykstra has so much Glint in his veins – as a Magus, he obviously is trying to push the limits of what Glint can do, creating more complex effects from the known properties of Glint, or even research into why this stone can do this when others just remain inert. 

    With that in mind, we can create some new ways in which the taverns we mentioned use Glintstone in their daily business. First off is the simplest – fire! In Cadameria, people buy Glintstone charged with fire to cook, making the preparation of meals faster and easier. In fact…one particular tavern, called The Sugar Dragon, has managed to use Glintstone to perfectly craft a sweet dessert made of custard with caramelised sugar on top. They bring it out to the customer, tell them to stand back, produce a wand with a glintstone in the tip…and the customer’s eyes go wide when they see a jet of flame burst from the tip, scorching the pudding, leaving a hardened layer of burnt sugar on the top.

    Yes, The Sugar Dragon is the first place in Cadameria to serve creme brulee. Shut up, I love creme brulee, I love the spectacle of the caramelisation, and so why the hell would I make a world without creme brulee in it?

    I might have to do a bit of research into craft breweries to find out what exactly makes each brew taste unique, because my next idea involves booze. The Water Wheel – the tavern in Cadameria which serves the finest booze – also uses Glintstone in their specialty. Remember the wands used to shoot fire out of the tips? Well this one pours booze. Hell yeah. Even better is, the wands used in the Water Wheel have different Glintstone studs on the sides so you can order just about anything. Apple cider, with a hint of cinnamon, and make it harder? Sure thing, dearie, the innkeeper smiles at you as she pulls out one wand out of a hundred tucked into her apron. She taps two buttons – one button adjusts the alcohol content, another adds cinnamon – and tips her wand into your tankard. She tells you to take a sip and tell her if it needs changing. Hmmm…a bit too much alcohol, and go heavier on the apple taste? More taps on the buttons, and this time – oh, this time it’s perfect.

    I don’t even drink and I have to say that sounds incredible.

    A bit of a confession here. I’m writing this while vaping, and…yeah, you know what I’m about to say, so let’s not say anything. Just follow me down this street, into this square where Waheed’s countrymen have set up several large silk tents. Follow me into one, marvel at how thick the carpet must be, and let’s sit cross legged on these beautifully embroidered cushions. At the centre, between us, is a large pot, its sides thin enough that when the serving girl drops the burning coals inside, we can see the design reflected on each other’s faces. On the sides of the pot are several stoppered spouts. The serving girl asks us what we would like to have – I’ll pick something sweet, like maybe a peach flavour. She hands me a leather tube, unstops one spout and connects my tube in it. The glintstone in the mouthpiece doesn’t seem to do much – it flavours the smoke with my chosen flavour, yes, but in reality it transmutes the harsh smoke of the coal into something lighter, and pleasant to the throat.

    I had my creme brulee, now I want my shisha too. Well, this is pretty self indulgent…

    One small aside; I think it’s safe to say that some form of Middle Eastern or Arabic culture exists in the world where Cadameria exists. I have to profess my ignorance here – I am not at all familiar with their cultures. All I have are Western stereotypes and caricatures of their culture. I mean sure I can read up, but it’s just not the same, you know? So here is my promise. The culture I create that Waheed hails from will have some small basis in real life Middle Eastern cultures, but should end up different. Basically I will not be trying to represent these cultures in Cadameria because I have little familiarity with them, but I am going to try and use them to inform and inspire me in the creation process.

    In terms of hardness, I think I can say that Glintstone is quite a ‘soft’ magic system, but that’s okay. We might come to harden it over time, or we might leave it ‘soft’. While soft magic is easier on the fiction writing, when worldbuilding for its own sake the harder we can make the magic system the better. It lends more credibility to the world, that it has its own laws of nature that aren’t broken just because the author doesn’t want to kill his favourite OTP. I hope we end up with a rock hard (sorry) magic system some day, but for now this will do. I am thinking that the limits of Glinstone lie in what, exactly, you can ‘program’ Glintstone with, and how to do that programming. I have absolutely no idea at this point in time. Ideas run from etching runes onto the stones to exposing them to heat all the way up to blood sacrifices. Maybe Glintstone itself isn’t scarce but to program it to do one simple transmutation takes months or years. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.

    I’ll bet there are a million different uses of Glintstone that you can come up with. I’ve indulged in my favourite things, so maybe you’d like your favourite things to make their way to Cadameria. Or maybe all this talk has inspired you and there’s something else you think they could do with Glintstone. Do let me know! And remember to join me next week, because then we’ll be tackling a different prompt from the Worldbuilding Journal.

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