I'll be off over most of Christmas-tide and the New Year, with nothing but cheap scotch, my laptop, and bitter, bitter memories. And this scar in the shape of a holly-bush.

I will be around, but it will be irregular. If you need me, please +mail and ask to arrange a time. I'll reply as and when the headache stops and the pain comes back.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Basil
Subject: Note to Basil from Taleyn
===================================================================
Dear Father-- Only just back from Kitezh on Crown business, heard rumors of ZOMBIES IN THE STREETS! Nipping out to Smite them. Bringing Cousin Yami along. Back soon!-- Love, Tally
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( Below the cut, Taleyn buttonholes Yami, and the pair go to Black Gulls HQ to tell Niklas their cunning plan! Niklas joins the fun, along with Dirk. )

So I read Last Train out of Warsaw the other day, and part of its character sheet has these two really interesting sections: a WE ALL WONDER section and a AND WE KNOW section.

I'd like to put that forward as a format for the hooks attribute. It puts forward three open questions and a way point to pass through in how you see your current arc playing out.

Here's a couple of examples from the pdf:

For The Fireman:

WE ALL WONDER:
* What secret are you keeping from your family, and how will they discover it?
* Why do you hate the Ukrainians so much?
* What surprising skill does a dumb coal-shoveling ox like you possesses?

AND WE KNOW:
* You will choose your family over everything else, at terrible cost.


For The Countess:

WE ALL WONDER:
* Who are you really? It’s sort of obvious that you aren’t nobility.
* Why do you drink in secret?
* Who among the other player characters will you choose as your protector?
AND WE KNOW:
* You will get drunk at precisely the wrong time.


And, because this LJ is all about me, reproducing Culver's here:


WE ALL WONDER:
* What he wouldn't do for his long-dead wife
* Whether he is a power-mad necromancer or playing a deep game
* If anyone can replace Oberon in his eyes

AND WE KNOW:
* He will die at the hand of a family member.


Liam's eyeballs didn't explode at my codpiece at Bley's wedding, and no one was afraid.

Must try harder.

New Lyonesse

Fiamme pushes off from the wall where she's been leaning, and grins, so her eyes crinkle a bit at the corners. "Worried you'll get soft?" Then the smile fades. "This is about where we were yesterday, I think, when the knight showed up. Too much to hope we'll just run into him again, I suppose."

Fiamme says, "Try the rooftops? See if we can find any sign of the woman that ran away?" She takes off her tabard, rolls it into a bundle, and tucks it through her sword belt.

Frank responds, "If I were a woman running away from a black knight, I wouldn't go back to the same place I was being chased." He moves towards a building and finds a drain pipe. He starts climbing upwards. Despite his size he's quite good at doing this, almost like a cat.

RPG: Frank declares that he has a relevant skill
( Young people today... )

For those of you who might be interested in hearing me speak, I'm giving a free webinar tomorrow, 11 am Eastern. Pre-registration is required.

Cloud Computing: Reshaping the IT Landscape

Edit: There's now an archived replay.

Didn't realize how much singularity was sustaining me.
Didn't realize how much jewel taking out.
Wonder if diet of collapsed shadows = too rarefied?

Gossip ACR: Sun Dec 13 03:18:51 2009 by Benedict (public)
==============================================================================
The salons and halls and chambers of the palace have it from people who have it from other people that the King wonders why Bleys chose to ignore his Royal Heritage to have a wedding to the Duchess of Karm take place off Crown Property. The King firmly supports his brother in his good endeavour and wishes him well in his marriage, and utterly refutes that it is a sign of weakness on Bleys' part to marry the Duchess under such circumstances. Yes, the Palace was available to his brother. Of course.

Gossip ACS: Sun Dec 13 05:44:59 2009 by Bleys (public)
==============================================================================
The better-informed gossips in the palace believe Prince Bleys to have been prudent in his choice of venue for his wedding, for when the wedding was announced, and invitations sent and the logistics arranged, it was Julian who was upon the throne and not Benedict. Given the only-tenuous truce and lack of warmth between His Previous Majesty and His Royal Highness, and the disarrayed state of the court and palace in the absence of Princess Flora, it seemed wise of Bleys to have chosen a venue less subject to mishap, whether deliberate or intentional. And besides, who would have dared plan a wedding in the palace at a time when Flora was absent?

To the image of Bleys, Benedict is looking at an oil painting that hangs in the Dining Room in the Palace. He looks from a painting to an image. "Prince Bleys."
The image of Bleys is in a place with a grimly ugly sky. It is raining fur, lightly. "Brother," he greets. With cold irritation he says, "I would rather again the logistics and bloodshed of moving a starving batallion of iron-turtle knights and their damnable mechanical contrivances through the haunted mountains of Ygyrystan than to attempt to move my wedding from one venue to another." He points at the roiling, varicolored sky. "A shadowstorm is coming. Beware of monsters. That is all." And like an elastic band snapping back abruptly, he withdraws his mind from the contact.

The image of Bleys turns his attention away from the Trump, and vanishes.

You paged Bleys with 'That one where we had to blast our way through rocks with boiling vinegar?'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Bleys
Subject: +sending/PAT-BD: Bird with orange plumage
==============================================================================
The bird carries a very small vinegar vial. Inside is a rolled note: /Was/ available. When nobody asked. Benedict Rex.
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Neatly written note on the Knight Commander's desk:

1) Brief knights re appropriate spontaneous gestures during and after ceremony. Cheers, yes. Rambling anecdotes to be discouraged.

2) Dress uniform -- check alterations.

3) Honour guard required? General inspection.

4) Lute strings.

Scrawled note beside item 1:

5 lashes sufficient?

The image of Julian nods. "I did." Then, apparently with his usual bluntness, he asks, "Do you still love Amber, Brother?"

To the image of Julian, Caine answers promptly, "Like nothing else."

The image of Julian says, "And will you do whatever it takes to make her strong again?"

To the image of Julian, Caine says, "You're about to ask me to do something really stupid, aren't you?"

I discovered Glanworth's has been closed.

Who will I get to make my codpiece for Bleys' wedding?