🚀 go-pugleaf

On 7 Nov 2006 06:14:18 -0800, Christopher B. Wright wrote:

> NaNoWriMo is fun and I'll never say a word against it, but there are
> problems when you're writing off the cuff and your story starts to get
> complicated.
>
> In chapter 3 my protagonist is attacked out of the blue and very nearly
> killed, and in chapter 4 he enounters some of the comrades-in-arms of
> the young lady who attacked him... in chapter 5 he decides it might be
> a good idea to figure out why, so he decides to cast a spell to scry
> them.  There are a few issues in chapter 5 that upon reflection are
> poorly thought out, but they can be fixed. No big deal.  Chapter 6
> relates what he actually sees, wherein he learns why he was attacked
> (sort of a magically-induced case of mistaken identity).
>
> Thing is, after I'd written it, gone to bed, and thought about it the
> next morning, I just had to start laughing, because it seems silly to
> expect a bunch of people sitting around to wait until you've travelled
> back to your turf, had a few drinks, and then started a complicated
> scrying spell before going over the events of the day!

Maybe they shouldn't be sitting around all this time? Maybe they should be
having other problems that will keep them distracted from this subject till
you're ready to spy on it? Not necessarily plot-related problems: what
about bad weather or trouble with their horses or something?



> It's like they
> were waiting for the neon EXPOSITION sign to begin flashing, or
> something.

:-))

> I'm definately going to have to do something about that.
>
> One of the things I'm toying with is having the scrying spell work, but
> have all the people involved be sound asleep, because it's about two or
> three in the morning... then have our hero, anxious to show off in
> front of an audience (he's doing this at his local pub) make the spell
> even more complicated and impressive by altering it so he peers into
> the past, so he can see what they were saying to each other just after
> he left them earlier in the day.
>
> That would work, but I'm not sure what that would do to the rest of the
> book -- having a guy able to look into the past to spy on people
> whenever he wants (I mean, if he's doing it at a bar, then "whenever he
> wants" seems a fair assessment) seems awfully convenient.

That does seem likely to unbalance your campaign. :-)


R.L.
--
Hardware problems continue.  Reinstalling everything.

R.L. wrote:

> >
> > Thing is, after I'd written it, gone to bed, and thought about it the
> > next morning, I just had to start laughing, because it seems silly to
> > expect a bunch of people sitting around to wait until you've travelled
> > back to your turf, had a few drinks, and then started a complicated
> > scrying spell before going over the events of the day!
>
> Maybe they shouldn't be sitting around all this time? Maybe they should be
> having other problems that will keep them distracted from this subject till
> you're ready to spy on it? Not necessarily plot-related problems: what
> about bad weather or trouble with their horses or something?

Well, all that's possible -- in the original version they *had* been
doing other things, but the timing was just too CONVENIENT...

"Say, Randolph, I know we've been baking crullers, but don't you
suddenly feel overcome with the urge to talk about that big secret
right now?"

"Why, now that you mention it, I do.  Here, let me put away this
batter..."

:)

<snip>

> > One of the things I'm toying with is having the scrying spell work, but
> > have all the people involved be sound asleep, because it's about two or
> > three in the morning... then have our hero, anxious to show off in
> > front of an audience (he's doing this at his local pub) make the spell
> > even more complicated and impressive by altering it so he peers into
> > the past, so he can see what they were saying to each other just after
> > he left them earlier in the day.
> >
> > That would work, but I'm not sure what that would do to the rest of the
> > book -- having a guy able to look into the past to spy on people
> > whenever he wants (I mean, if he's doing it at a bar, then "whenever he
> > wants" seems a fair assessment) seems awfully convenient.
>
> That does seem likely to unbalance your campaign. :-)
>

I found a way around it, though.  I love it when I dig myself out of a
hole... :)

Christopher B. Wright (ubersoft -at- gmail -dot- com)

On 7 Nov 2006 06:14:18 -0800, Christopher B. Wright wrote:

> Thing is, after I'd written it, gone to bed, and thought about it the
> next morning, I just had to start laughing, because it seems silly to
> expect a bunch of people sitting around to wait until you've travelled
> back to your turf, had a few drinks, and then started a complicated
> scrying spell before going over the events of the day!

You could use some subtle mind-control, through the scrying link, to
make them start talking about it.  If your protag is a really skillful
mage, this will be a useful establishing scene.  If he isn't, maybe
he follows them around getting increasingly annoyed by their useless
chatter until finally they say something helpful.

Mary Kuhner mkkuhner@eskimo.com

Mary K. Kuhner wrote:
> On 7 Nov 2006 06:14:18 -0800, Christopher B. Wright wrote:
>
> > Thing is, after I'd written it, gone to bed, and thought about it the
> > next morning, I just had to start laughing, because it seems silly to
> > expect a bunch of people sitting around to wait until you've travelled
> > back to your turf, had a few drinks, and then started a complicated
> > scrying spell before going over the events of the day!
>
> You could use some subtle mind-control, through the scrying link, to
> make them start talking about it.  If your protag is a really skillful
> mage, this will be a useful establishing scene.  If he isn't, maybe
> he follows them around getting increasingly annoyed by their useless
> chatter until finally they say something helpful.
>
> Mary Kuhner mkkuhner@eskimo.com

I did something similar, but less overt: I changed the end of the
previous chapter so that the people he was scrying were all asleep, and
then he cast a dream spell to have one of the people remember the
specific conversation he was looking for as a dream.

That let me keep a lot of text I'd already written, which was a good
thing.

Christopher B. Wright (ubersoft -at- gmail -dot- com)

Nick Argall wrote:
> "Christopher B. Wright" <ubersoft@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1163085090.059722.278950@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...

> > I did something similar, but less overt: I changed the end of the
> > previous chapter so that the people he was scrying were all asleep, and
> > then he cast a dream spell to have one of the people remember the
> > specific conversation he was looking for as a dream.
>
> I wonder if dream-recall is completely accurate or not *evil laugh*

For the purpose of getting me out of this jam, it is as accurate as is
needed to make the scene work. :)

Christopher B. Wright (ubersoft-at-gmail-dot-com)

On 12 Nov 2006 07:07:40 -0800, Christopher B. Wright wrote:

> Nick Argall wrote:
>> "Christopher B. Wright" <ubersoft@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:1163085090.059722.278950@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
>
>>> I did something similar, but less overt: I changed the end of the
>>> previous chapter so that the people he was scrying were all asleep, and
>>> then he cast a dream spell to have one of the people remember the
>>> specific conversation he was looking for as a dream.
>>
>> I wonder if dream-recall is completely accurate or not *evil laugh*
>
> For the purpose of getting me out of this jam, it is as accurate as is
> needed to make the scene work. :)


Oh, dear. Character Class: Psychoanalyst. Induces dreams (plusses if the
target is lying on a whatchamacallit couch) and decodes their real
meaning....



R.L.
--
Hardware problems continue.  Reinstalling everything.

"Christopher B. Wright" <ubersoft@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1163085090.059722.278950@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
>
> Mary K. Kuhner wrote:
>> On 7 Nov 2006 06:14:18 -0800, Christopher B. Wright wrote:
>>
>> > Thing is, after I'd written it, gone to bed, and thought about it the
>> > next morning, I just had to start laughing, because it seems silly to
>> > expect a bunch of people sitting around to wait until you've travelled
>> > back to your turf, had a few drinks, and then started a complicated
>> > scrying spell before going over the events of the day!
>>
>> You could use some subtle mind-control, through the scrying link, to
>> make them start talking about it.  If your protag is a really skillful
>> mage, this will be a useful establishing scene.  If he isn't, maybe
>> he follows them around getting increasingly annoyed by their useless
>> chatter until finally they say something helpful.
>>
>> Mary Kuhner mkkuhner@eskimo.com
>
> I did something similar, but less overt: I changed the end of the
> previous chapter so that the people he was scrying were all asleep, and
> then he cast a dream spell to have one of the people remember the
> specific conversation he was looking for as a dream.

I wonder if dream-recall is completely accurate or not *evil laugh*

"Christopher B. Wright" <ubersoft@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1163344060.583543.185340@f16g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>
> Nick Argall wrote:
>> "Christopher B. Wright" <ubersoft@gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:1163085090.059722.278950@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
>
>> > I did something similar, but less overt: I changed the end of the
>> > previous chapter so that the people he was scrying were all asleep, and
>> > then he cast a dream spell to have one of the people remember the
>> > specific conversation he was looking for as a dream.
>>
>> I wonder if dream-recall is completely accurate or not *evil laugh*
>
> For the purpose of getting me out of this jam, it is as accurate as is
> needed to make the scene work. :)

Of course!  I'm just pondering what _just the right error_ would do to
complicate things :)