>>79379
"Obscure shit," would be closer. Stuff that is uncommon knowledge, rarely understood, and most people aren't interested in it. "Weird shit," is a supercategory that, "Obscure shit," fits into.

P.S. what are the other kinds of godhood besides divine?

>>79409
They are all divine. The gods are split up in other ways, but we'll get into that later on.

Does anybody struggle to know who's talking where? I could set up icons to separate speech, although I did not think I needed them, as everybody speaks fairly differently. But on second thought, it can't hurt to ask.

Seems pretty obvious to me.

Hrrrm. Soooo this might go to places you don't wanna go but how might things have gone if we decided to go with Victor instead of Vicki?

>>82260
At what point? The very beginning, when he was finding a place to crash at while she went to find Firebeard? I'm not entirely sure. I don't believe I had any plans at the time, beyond that Victor would have had more of a choice on where to bunker down, and leylines would have been introduced sooner. Other then that... I don't remember if I had planned out the firebeard expedition before they split off, or until after we were already focused on Vicki. If I didn't think it up yet, then it's possible that while my focus was on Victor, Vicki on autopilot could have ended up doing something completely different. Maybe she went to another rival magic school to steal away their pupils instead, so the side plot becomes less "bunker down and gather your allies for the coming storm" and more "magic wars with the other schools of magic", which are so far being pretty much ignored. That's not something I was thinking at the time, just an idle thought I have now, but the point is I'm mostly only making decisions at the moment they become important. So who knows?

Anyone else up to theorizing what Victoria's aspects will be?

Still pretty sure "new beginnings"/rebirth is one of them. Perhaps also Fate or Victory.

I think, and this will be something AAE might not like, but the fact that Vicki HAS no real aspect planned makes her a 'wildcard' that could take any aspect she wants, and might gain powers of that nature.

My personal theory is luck and upsetting of odds. Got some PRETTY ASTRONOMICAL ODDS HERE, and so far I'm having a feeling that mr. magic worm-boy being so far away from home is gonna wind up netting us something sweet down the road.

>(wait, should this be possible? I thought, to let us talk to more people, someone had to attune them to us first by casting the spell out of the book)

Victor is already used to projecting his thoughts directly into other people. It's how he talks with people. He uses the same principal he uses to speak into someone else's head, to send you over into someone else's head instead. The trick is it only works if he's close by, so it's not a long term solution, you'd still need to have the ritual done to talk to him if they split off.

Magic isn't set in stone, it's full of weird little tricks and work-arounds. Ava pulled off a similar stunt, pulling you all away without letting Vicki do the ritual first, by her own means. It's entirely possible to cheat the system and try something new, even if it's against the rules.

>>82528
Interesting. I hope we get into that sort of rulebending ourselves in the future of the quest.

>>82528
I also meant to answer it in the update but it was already running long, so;

>Hey, where did Seshe get all the wire to set up those traps?
She tore up her blanket and used the thread. Elven stuff is stitched tight, and it was a big thick blanket, so when unravelled there was a lot to go around.

>>82532
Dayum, elven thread is pretty hardcore then.

>>82528
We keep missing out on magic lectures and we might not get to do so. Though I suppose that comes with a trade-off of not getting to help the action-y things out, sooo I guess we'll just have to pester the crap outta a mage if we ever end up needing to pull magic craziness.

Sorry about the no updates for the last week, I've been pretty sick. I tried to keep to a "at least one update every 2 days" schedule, I even pumped out the last one despite feeling pretty goddamn awful at the time, but by the next time the deadline rolled around I could barely focus on chewing gum and walking at the same time so whatever. I'm feeling better now so the next update should be up in a day or two, depending on whether my brother visits or not.

One thing I wanted to ask anybody who's actually reading this. Does the quest move too quickly? I jump from plot to plot quite a bit. Is it disorienting or does it feel unfocused? Is there anywhere I should focus more?

It feels like we're getting pushed into doing things by crisis rather than long term goals, but it's still early in the quest maybe?

>>83014
I was intending to make the first steps a little chaotic, but I definitely went overboard with it. I'm feeling it too, I'm not taking proper advantage of the quest structure. I have one more 'crisis' that is fairly important to the story, and then I am going to wrap that up and the one they're in now and work on stabilizing everything a little somehow, because I feel like right now I'm just telling you all what to do and that's not cool.

Also my computer decided to fuck up and I am spending today and possibly tomorrow fixing it, so more delays, hurrah. I'll get an update out as soon as I possibly can.

So, you know how firebeard is all messed-up over his face? I wonder if the blood magic could be used to fix it for him. The problem in that, of course, is that it would be a bit hard to pose that in a way he'd accept, and I also fear he might just flip out because NO DA EVIL BLOOD MAGICKS ARE BAD type stuff.
Still, it's something to keep in mind I suppose

I'm personally slightly leaning towards that being a 'sleeping dog' of an issue. Or rather...This guy's probably a competent enough mage with enough connections he probably had people to ask 'hey can I get this face fixed?' and by his current state, they failed, or it didn't go well.

I've been taking a very short break from the quest, and while I have been, I realized that I'm probably not communicating the world they live in very well, or my intentions for it. I've been trying to keep everything strictly within the quest itself, with little to no outside backstory or infodumping, but it is really pretty awkward to make them expand on things on a whim. And even then, it still leaves big gaps where they just don't even think something's worth mentioning because it's so common or simple to them.

So I wrote up a little bit on the world they live in for shits and giggles. Nothing in here is a spoiler- it's all common knowledge, almost any character would be happy to tell you if you ask.

As goblins came before orks, humans came before elves and dwarves. The eldest of the races of man, Humans have a long and varied history. Their origins as a civilized race trace back as far as the Hurabi Valley (in what is currently G'norah of the Orks) approximately twenty thousand years ago. However, what is generally considered to be the "first age" of the modern race of human began a mere two thousand, five hundred years ago, in the golden cradle of Old Syra.

The Classical Era, as this first age is commonly known as, is most popularly remembered for the intricate statues of marble and primitive brass automatons, as this was also the era when the dwarven race split from humanity and began to ply their trade in self-imposed isolation. The Classical Era was also the first to birth the tradition of godhood. As humankind settled into a life of agricultural surplus, there became time for a certain few to achieve complete mastery of their craft- mastery so total and complete, that they came to take dominion over nature itself. At the beginning, there were eight gods- six from humanity, one from the elven nation, and one from the newly formed dwarven lands. Today, only one survives- the Queen of Dreams, who lives in the great elven City of Dreams.

True warfare was still unknown to the world at that time. Although one of the gods of the time took domain over fighting and competition, he was a relatively weak god by any modern standard. There were few skirmishes that even the scholars of the era felt worth preserving in the old texts- the worst battle of that era had a mere one thousand and twelve causalities. For the most part, humans saw dwarves and elves as estranged siblings moreso then real rivals. As one took their home in the plains, another in the forests, and the last underground, none felt particularly threatened by another. The worst of their disputes were mere bickering by modern standards. Goblins did pose some trouble to the early era humans, but mostly they preferred to stay to their own forests and guard themselves, with only occasional raids into the human lands.

It isn't accurate to say that one era ever simply "ends" to let another begin- there are hundreds of events between any two points in time which serve to mend and weave eras together. Still, for the purpose of this simplified text, we will jump forward one and one quarter thousand years, into what's known as the Middle or Warfare Era. This age is characterized most of all by the rapid, unrestrained and unsupportable growth of the human population, as well as the rise of the elves, and the birth of orks.

As humans expanded, the problem of their prodigious birth rate became apparent. A human could give birth to as many as three or even four children in less then a year- an unheard-of rate of reproduction among the races. Families of ten or more were quite common. On the other hand, dwarves and elves had their birth rates stunted severely by adaptions to their underground homes and magical influence, respectively. While goblins had a great many children, the mortality rate was so high as to still constantly leave them short-handed. Humans had the great blessing of being able to father such a great number of children- but as they learned, the blessing quickly became a curse. Their population simply expanded far out of control. Their great cities crumbled under their own sheer weight, most of all when food production was simply not enough to sustain their numbers.

For many years, humans lived as small, almost tribal creatures once again. Trapped in minuscule, insignificant fiefdoms ruled by small castles and petty noblemen, humans fought heavily amongst themselves and stagnated while the elves revelled in their own glory era. Not only did the humans begin to truly war against each other, as alliances were formed and great armies were sent to clash over the most trivial of issues, their expansion began stepping on the toes of dwarves, elves, goblins and even the newly formed orks as well. Many millions of humans died; at the hands of each other, at the magical bows and staves of the elves, at the hammers of the dwarves, at the traps of the goblins and the fists of their ork brothers. It is hardly a surprise that the god of war changed so often in that turmulous era- Julien the Deathbringer, god of destruction and hate, lasted only three weeks before being usurped by King Morhan, god of death and pestilence (who himself was usurped a mere six months later).

By the time one thousand more years had passed, the warfare was long behind. The miraculous inventions of the dwarves, most of all steam power and clockwork automaton, gave humanity the tools it needed (such as industrialized farming and automated production) to prosper and grow. The Renewal era was marked by a fascination and obsession with libraries and universities, as humankind followed the lead of the crafty, intelligent dwarves. Not a great lot occured to humans in this peaceful and prosperous era, although this was the time when Heron the Knowledgable was born, another god who survives to this day.

Although Dwarves began the technological revolution, they were very decisively not the ones to end it. By the passing of one hundred and fifty years, the analytical and logic-based mind of the goblins proved to be a far greater boon in the Modern Era, and the lack of physical strength a much less important loss. Started along their path by the technological marvels they scrounged and stole from the dwarves, within a span of one and a half decades they rose from scavenging bottom-feeders to equal citizens- by a decade more, they were miniature gods. Although their rise was a great detriment to the dwarves, the humans benefited more then ever before from the advances. The goblins guarded their secrets most jealously, yet a few key pieces of research slipped through the cracks, and on the backs of such tiny scraps of information humanity blossomed and grew at enormous rates. Hydroponic farming and genetically modified crops allowed humans to grow into massive mega-cities, which steadily grew into the one monumental megacity they know today.

Today, humans are once again a civilization on the rise. Although they lack the finesse and grace of the elves, the craft and resolve of the dwarves, and the ingenuity of the goblins, by their sheer manpower they are more then able to dominate any course of action they wish to take. While the goblins still maintain an iron hold as the leaders of this era, there is no doubt who will soon win the throne back from underneath them, to lead the next era.

-Excerpt from Fundamental Human History, Grades 8-12; ScholarPress.

Anyway I'm getting back to drawing and I'll have another update out in a day or two. If you'd like, I can pop out more of these, they're simple and fun to do. I could expand on pretty much any topic as long as it's not too spoiler-y but if you'd like some suggestions, I could write out a blurb on elves, dwarves, goblins, orks, magic, technology, or the gods, just off the top of my head.

Hrrrm...I'm personally curious about the orks- Somehow they ended up the ones that we know the least about.

>>83607
heh, why do I see a war in coming in the future?

>>83734
between who?
The dwarves are underpowered
The humans are lazy by population domination
the elves are elvish
the orks are orkish
the goblins are self centered and are destined to become backyarders:
http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/45fda89842234


Who do you see going to war?
Do you mean civil war, war between powers, insurrectionist war?

I hate to put out another black update, but I wanted to put out something quick before I get the proper one done. This shit is taking way too long to draw, considering the (lack of) quality I'm getting out of it.

Oh well.

I'll have a proper update out by tomorrow. As for the ork blurb, I'm working on it, but I'm trying to do something a little different for each and it's taking me longer then I thought.

okay, where did these names come from?

>>84142
Icon names. You can just hover your mouse over them to get what the icon's filename is, and the filenames happen to include character names.

Sorry about the delay, I was out on vacation. Back now, and I should have something out within a day or two.

I've been thinking, and there are a few things in the quest that I seriously don't like. Although I'm trying to steer away from crisis-based storytelling, I may put down a few more in the near future in the name of making things more calm and focused long-term. Or I may come up with a better way to do it, we'll see what happens.

Anyway, I finished another little blurb, although this one is not so little.

((All of the life of Travelmason was quite popular among the dwarves in the mid eighteenth century- but this story was most popular of all. There are records of it being produced by dozens of automaton theatres, an honor few other stories have managed. It is easy to see why- even today, little is known about the stoic orks, and in that time they were more exotic still. Obviously, there are many, many variations to the story- some minor, some quite substansive. It is without controversy that Travelmason did indeed exist- there are many records of his life in the thirteenth century. However, which version of events is most accurate- or even if this particular story happened at all- is a matter of some debate. I am not claiming that I have written the most definitive, or correct, or even the most common version. I have simply copied the version which was told to me by my old friend and mentor. He gave the best rendition of the story I have heard, in my own personal opinion.

-Bookmason))

Travelmason was an extraordinary dwarf for many reasons. He stood almost five foot tall- taller even then some humans. He was strong enough to lift two metalwork hammers at once, where most, of course, struggle to hold one. And he was clever enough to read the ancient runes before he even reached manhood- let alone his midlife, when those who would understand, only just begin to. But most extraordinary of all was his deep and unquenchable wanderlust- for Travelmason was never really content to stay where he was meant to. As a very young boy, he had crawled from home enough to map out the entire fortress in the soft dirt of the eating room floor. As a pre-man, he had daringly set out by foot on the long trek through the winding and labyrinthian undertunnels, returning home many months later with tokens and gifts from each of the neighbouring dwarven cities.

But Travelmason was never content to stay among his people, to wander the same tunnels and caves dwarvenkind is so used to. While most are quite comfortable staying in their stone homes, Travelmason dreamed instead of the vast, changing, endless world above. He knew that humankind were a violent and angry people, he knew that the elves were haughty and withdrawn, and he knew that both were unkind enough to each other, let alone a dwarven outsider. He did not care, and as soon as he reached manhood and was allowed to set his own path, he made his way to the lands above. He did not ever look back, and he did not set foot below again until shortly before his death.

Of course, the stories of his life had only begun. Travelmason had many- he participated in a dozen wars across a dozen small kingdoms. There he learned how best to fight, and what it means to be a warrior. He lived among the tree and glass cities of the elves for many years. There he learned magic and art, and what it means to be a nobleman. Even the goblins had their lessons to teach, as he often found himself treading through their lands as he wandered from place to place. Although quite often he barely managed to survive these encounters; indeed, he once had to give up an entire leg before he was able to escape; There he learned quick-wittedness, and what it means to be alive.

At forty, he had already lived a rich and filling life- he made many, many friends and lovers among both races of man, and at that time he travelled with his two beautiful mistresses; Marian, a human bookkeeper and minor noble who had grown bored of her sheltered life, and Elysi, an elven apothecary who's wanderlust and desire to see the world outside her gleaming tower almost matched his own. Yet despite living through enough adventure to satisfy a dozen men, fate was not finished with him yet. And so he found himself wandering through the forests, unwittingly encroaching upon enemy lands. However, he would soon find himself to be face to face with not the scheming little goblins, but something altogether different and new.

While he slept that night, the brutish and barbaric orcs descended upon his camp in a sea of green and grey, and took his two women before he could awaken. Fortunately, they were large and clumsy creatures, and their heavy feet pounded upon the ground hard enough to wake Travelmason. As he saw what was becoming of his camp, and of his two beautiful ladies, he took his hammers in hand and lunged at the orks in a violent fury. But to his great surprise, they did not relent- in fact, they overpowered the dwarf with alarming ease, quickly hog-tying the man who had asserted his superior strength over hundreds of men and elves.

The old, wizened dwarf had seen many things in his life- the small but plentiful fiefdoms of the human lands that stretched across the plains as far as the eye could see, the great tree cities and glass towers of the elves that pressed ever taller into the infinite sky above. He knew intimately the vast, sprawling caves and rock caverns and stone cities of his own dwarven homeland, and he had even been witness to the small, shambling, disgusting villages of the goblins. But this, this was something entirely new to him. The orks had fused themselves a bizarre amalgamation of all- incorporating elements of each, and bastardizing them entirely. They had many huts and shacks, much like the hundreds upon hundreds of small human dwellings, but where the humans took some pride in their homes, as small as they were- the orks almost seemed to try and make each as ramshackle and unlike their neighbours as possible. Many were placed up in trees, as the elves fashioned their own homes, but without any of the magnificence and splendour and craftsmanship, the attention to detail and superior glasswork of the elven pathways- only flimsy bridges of wood and rope carved in bizarre patterns that loosely, lazily connected each to each.

The only element they had managed to steal correctly was the shameful openness of the goblins- much like their smaller brothers, they refused to act civilized, eating and drunkenly merrymaking and even fornicating in open-sided huts where all was public and communal, rather then in the privacy of their own homes. Most interesting to the dwarf, though, were their attempts at 'culture'- colour and shape was splashed upon every surface in the form of inks and sculpture, all clashing with the rest and looking very undignified indeed in the face of any cultured, wizened eye. Worst of all were the ghastly masks that hid each and every face, each seemly designed at random for no purpose at all.

Faced with such a people, Travelmason was, for the first time in many long years, unsure of how to react. The goblins were simple to deal with- cowardly and spineless as they were, one could usually bargain or make a deal, or if it came to it, simply pit superior strength against their superior numbers. But these creatures? Their muscles were beyond obscene, their numbers far too overwhelming, and worst of all they scoffed at his attempts to bargain and bribe his cargo, as if it was crass or undignified, somehow below barbarians like themselves. It took several nights for him to understand the way forward- during which time they were all passed around the village, to be gawked at and toyed with by the tribesman as mere oddities. To his great relief, the orks were not interested in his women as women, and for that much he was grateful. The worst, to Travelmason's mind, was the food- deeply aromatic and spicy, the orks had not seemed to grasp the concept of subtlety and simply threw themselves with reckless abandon into their cookery until the result was an obnoxious slew of flavours that offended his refined tongue.

Although he was not forced to endure excessive cruelty or torture, as he had sometimes known from the goblins, he wished to escape, and he wished it badly. And in time, he had an epiphany. Bargaining with the orks would not work- they are entirely separate to the goblins, as shown by their unwillingness to live among each other, let alone their difference in size and stature. Perhaps they were so separate as to be opposites? If the goblins were cowardly and weak, perhaps the orks believed themselves to be brave and strong, the barbarians playing at an honourable warrior's society. Travelmason switched his tact immediately- pleading his case to his captors, he asked how they may be so cruel as to leave a man defenceless. Surely they were willing to meet him on even ground? A fair competition, one dwarf to one ork each, in three separate fields. If he won them all, they would allow him to leave- if he lost even one, he and his mistresses would stay as willing slaves. To his delight, they accepted immediately, and he was soon brought to the tribe elder to discuss plans for a competition.

The first competition was a test of strength. The Orks brought forth a mighty warrior, the best of their kind- their heights varied immensely, and this was easily the biggest of all. More then twice the size of a large human, he dwarfed the dwarf utterly. Still, Travelmason was confident, and with his two mistresses watching with bated breath, the fight began. He soon found that it was a much tougher battle then he ever before experienced: his hammers, which had easily crushed and pulverized the skulls of countless humans and elves and goblins, were swatted aside by the ork effortlessly. Yet though the ork forewent weapons in favour of his own fists, Travelmason soon found that it was nearly impossible to stop the two rock-like slabs of muscle once they began to swing. The old dwarf was still a strong and resilient man, but as he found himself being hit and thrown and mauled again and again, his body quickly began to relent, his mind losing focus and his muscles losing strength. He knew he would be broken soon, if he did not act fast- fortunately, he had found a weakness to the ork's strategy. The big brute was far too enamoured by his version of the concept of honor- he refused to strike when the dwarf was on the ground, or when his back was turned, and refused to strike below the belt or above the neck. These all, however, are vital tools to be utilized by any warrior, and Travelmason used each to his advantage- as he laid on the ground, he would take the chance to swing his hammer down upon his feet. As the ork swung, he would sidestep the beast and pound upon his back, aiming for the back of the head and between the legs as much as possible. Although it was difficult, the giant was eventually brought down. And although the other orks were enraged and demanded Travelmason's bloody death, the giant humbly admitted defeat before the dwarf, allowing him the victory.

The second competition was a test of culture and art. The orks brought forth a dainty woman, the smallest of her kind- had her face not hid behind a mask, Travelmason may have even considered the beast attractive. As it stood, he held no mercy for the ork in his heart- for she was an opponent, just as surely as the giant was before her, and he was determined to defeat her as well. The orks did not provide a canvas, or a set of paints, or hobgoblin-hair brushes or any of the tools one would rightfully need to create art- only a set of messy, deeply coloured, imprecise inks, apparently to be applied with the fingers. Yet they expected him to show them a masterpiece. He was bemused at first, and enraged after as the ork lady began to trace her fingers upon a tree trunk while he still awaited his real supplies- but eventually, he was forced to accept his ridiculous circumstances and attempt his best even still. With a delicate knife provided by his elven companion, he began to solemnly, quietly carve a detailed view of the forest before him into the trunk of a tree, while the ork woman wildly splashed and sprayed her ink with little care for detail or nuance. By the time the sun was setting and the competition was over, the ork had covered the entire grove in sprawling scenes, which she described as the images of history and life, of the birth of new children and the death of elders, of the soul of the forest and the heart of the orks. But none of it compared to the beautiful precision and impeccable line-work, the incredible realism of the dwarf's life portrait. Each tree trunk was carved in precise detail, to the last nook and cranny, each leaf rendered in perfect replication. The orks sent forth a judge, but Travelmason reminded them the most learned and cultured among them was the noble lady Marian, and she immediately and rightfully declared his image the greatest of them all. After a long hesitation, the ork lady who he was set against admitted that his line-work was indeed precise and his attention to detail impeccable, and he emerged victorious once again.

The third competition was a test of survival and craftiness. Though the orks did not have the trap-making skills of their smaller brothers, they enlisted the help of a nearby goblin tribe to set a section of forest dense with traps of every variety- all non-lethal, but many extremely devious all the same, spikes set to jam into calves and ropes to wind around the neck and hold the target nearly asphyxiated, as to reduce their struggling. Once again, Travelmason was set against a new ork- this one tall, but thin and weedy, and again very distinct from his brothers. The challenge was simple- one had simply to get to the other end of the trapped section of forest first. The two were sent in together, and both immediately began to run and dodge and weave through the trees. But though the old dwarf was by now an expert at spotting goblin traps and dodged each with perfect grace, his opponent was equally skilled, and his legs much longer- he found that no matter how hard and how quickly he ran, he could never catch up. At most, if he pushed himself, he could spot the ork through the trees ahead- but the ork would in turn spot him as well and rush onward, and closing the distance would prove impossible. However, he realized soon that he did not need to win, only not to lose- that is the essence of living, of surviving. He took a large rock from the forest floor and ran with it in hand- as he saw the tall ork ahead, he threw the rock with all his might. It hit the unsuspecting ork with tremendous force and his skull cracked before he hit the ground- but to be sure, Travelmason twisted his neck 'round until his masked face was turned up towards the sky. With his opponent taken care of, he was free to make his way to the end and claim his victory- when the orks later found the body, they mournfully attributed it to a trap gone wrong. But the dwarf would not know this, as he was already well on his way, with his two maidens tucked beneath each arm.

Travelmason went on to have many more adventures, and lived to a ripe old age before dying peacefully in his sleep, after once more visiting the underground of his ancestors. He married both mistresses, and took a third wife soon after- a beautiful dwarven maiden named Sugarweave, renowned as a famous cook. Of the ork tribe, nobody knows what became of them or their tribe, but to this day, they continue to ignore the lessons of the warrior, the artist, and the survivor- even now they continue to live almost exactly as they did before, despite the progress of the modern world. Some say you simply can't get through to an ork, and they may be right- but you can get through to a dwarf. Though Travelmason may be long gone, his spirit lives on through all of us. Take these three lessons and put them to heart- grow yourself through them, and you too will live to a ripe old age and live happily. Remember this, and all will find you well.

Huunh...
So basically, not smart, but strong and numerous. The best physically but bound by honor and stupidity...
Compared with what K'orr was like, I suspect it might be more accurate to say that they're either content with their place in things or arrogant/respecting the balance, thinking 'if we wanted we could kick all your collective butts, weaklings!'

Nobody 2014/08/08(Fri)17:37 No. 84564 ID: 753e50
File 140754462316.png - (32.06KB , 900x1000 , New Style.png )

I started this quest for three reasons:

A) To tell a story.

B) To practice some art. I haven't drawn since I was in middle school.

C) To prove to myself that I can actually fucking start AND finish a project, instead of waffling around and accomplishing nothing.


I feel like I've made some grave errors with this thing. First off, the story, so far, is not open enough. There's no room for growth and way too much shit is going on and it just doesn't feel very fun. Two, the art is pretty terrible. When I began it was sort of acceptable to my own mind because I had literally just started drawing, but as it stands now it's pretty fucking pathetic. Three, I didn't communicate what's happening, what I'm thinking, how the story's going, how shit works etc. very well at all, which makes the whole thing one big confusing blob.


For the last little while I've been thinking hard on how to fix it. I'm a little better at drawing so I redrew a new style that isn't absolute ass to look at. I'm thinking of how to fix everything in the story up so they and you can actually do the shit that they and you want to do instead of waffling around doing nothing. And I'm trying to communicate better, using icons to show who's speaking more clearly and putting down backstory bits and shit like that.

But I'm wondering if all of that is even worthwhile at this point. I think I lost a lot of readers- I know I probably wouldn't want to follow my own quest as it stands. Is it worth it to try and salvage it? As I said, one of my goals is to see this through to the end, but if nobody's reading it, what's the point? If I fix everything up, will it be too little too late?


So my question is, is it worth it to try and salvage this thing? Or should I just dump it and start with something new?

Hrrrrm...
Art's not an issue for me personally but as far as readers...I feel like the primary issue is lacking places TO suggest? Like...
If I had to describe it, it's like asking us to give fencing tips to a fencer...Except in this case fencing is magic and thus varies and there's nooot quite enough we know about how it works, sorta? I think that's probably the biggest issue- nine times out of ten we're suggesting but we're too much in the dark. Writing's not bad but the main issue from this suggester's point of view is difficulty in saying anything that's not a 'captain obvious' comment, which then comes down to a 'who posts first' from our end.

You better keep going.

I think that the style you have been using works well for a quest. I would rather have more updates with a simple but clean style than a more complex picture only once in awhile.

With enough practice you can make even simple art convey a lot of emotion and a huge amount of details.

As for the story I would suggest more stuff happening because of something the questers did and less stuff just happening out of the blue. So far most of the major plot twists have just happened with no input from us. If we are constantly reacting to stuff that's thrown at us we can never move the story anywhere.

In a great quest you want the players to feel there input has a real affect on the world. If we miss something important or just suggest something stupid there should be consequences. And on the flip side if we figure out a brilliant solution to a puzzle you want to reward us.

Questing is like DMing for a huge group of players. Some great role players and the odd idiotic troll. Oddly enough both have there place at the table. The great role players keep the game on track and the characters alive. And the idiots create the occasional hilarious scenes that no one would have thought of. And can also make the characters seem more human. Because no one is perfect and the occasional mistake makes for a better story.

Anyways I like your quests and hope you keep going. Unfinished stories make me sad.

yea, we have no idea what we CAN do so we don't know what we SHOULD do. we have to ether say something we know or guess and look stupid.

one writing problem i DO have is wtf is up with victor and Co getting captured repeatedly? the first time was from an explosion, fine, whatever, but the second time was from a magic attack, which does not sound like it should have worked. like trying to fight a water elemental with a fire hose.

>>84564
Personally, I think either works. You sort of had a weaver vibe going with the current art style, but with it being it's own thing enough to be differentiable from his stuff and be its own THING.
Though again, as I kinda got INTO all this through his work, I might be biased.
As for story, it all feels sort of like a web of messes that at any point is going to collapse on us hilariously hard.
Which might be something to play with, actually! It's lending an air of urgency to everything, because so far we have:
-our most powerful ally, kidnapped and stowed away in a sack somewhere
-a bona-fide god wanting to kill us
-another god, a kinda-crazy one at that, trying to help us but doing so in a way that could very easily cause us to just randomly explode trying something new
-a crazy fire-blasting dwarf covered in gnarled flesh who is, to put it quite bluntly, HORRIBLY mentally unstable
-and to wrap it all up, the person we are guiding is kind of an idiot.

Honestly, it works in a sort of "oh god, how the fuck are we gonna pull this off?" sort of way, for me.
I'm pretty hype to see if we even CAN pull some stuff out of this, so far it's just a constant barrage of "oh god what" and I love that.

>>84564
Keep going, man! Increasing the visual quality is a good way to practice your art skills as well, but don't like, do it so much it takes forever to push out updates.

Also I like the world and the characters. If we can get past the shit that's going down right now things will open up, right? Get AAE off our back and we can get the magic school going a bit and/or start talking to the other gods. Or maybe we can talk to the other gods to get AAE off our back...

You have plenty of readers, but few areas that are suggestable, for reasons discussed by others in the various posts above.

For your art style, you should push yourself into streamlining more details into the characters, to make sure you are confident in drawing them while still presenting a minimalistic cast.

Minimalism, such as you now have, is far better than partial details. The blanks fill themselves, less is more with drawing characters.

The opposite is true for backgrounds; you can never have too much detail in the immediate background, and blank is assumed to be blank.

Perhaps alter how you render the backgrounds and side characters rather than the main cast?

>>84564
As others have pointed out, you don't lack readers, but very few of your readers suggest things. Personally, I prefer the new art style and I like that you want to improve. For the story: I have no idea where this is going or what would be a good course to suggest other than the obvious "search for missing friends". Given that there are always several people already giving suggestion for that I don't feel like simply seconding those posts and don't post at all. There isn't really anything to discuss or any different plans going on.

As everyone else has said (but still, just to make my presence known), I'm still reading the quest, but oftentimes there are no clear suggestions to make, so I end up not suggesting. FYI, I don't feel confused, just lacking in information.
Art: if you want to push your limits a bit, feel free, but know that the art you have now fulfills its purpose just fine.
But yeah, keep going.

Thank you everybody for the support and feedback. I really do appreciate it. Sorry for the late reply, I've been busy all weekend with new apartment troubles. Haven't moved out yet, just getting everything all secured and ready, but, yeah.

The general consensus is that better art is good and all, but not worth the added time. I can understand that. I'm thinking of a few ways to streamline it already, but I will work at it and practice and make sure that I can do it without wasting too much time before unrolling it for real. I still do want to change it, but if speed is a bigger concern then I'll make sure I can maintain that as best I can before I go ahead. I'll also work on increasing background detail a little more, since that is important and was next on my list anyway.

I also have a simple idea on how to retcon a few things realistically and set everyone on an open path, but that'll need to wait until everybody's back at home again, which should be soon.

>one writing problem i DO have is wtf is up with victor and Co getting captured repeatedly?
I was trying to start up an arching plot thread, but I tried to shove in too many threads too close together which was dumb of me. We'll come back to it later.

>like trying to fight a water elemental with a fire hose.
I'll explain that in the story, once everyone's back home.

One more thing- I'm writing up one little blurb on theory of magic. I didn't plan magic out very well- I thought of it more as a plot point so I made it chaotic and unscientific, not realizing that it'd be your tool to interact with the world and that you'd need to understand it. There is a bit of reason to the madness though, enough that I think it's still workable, so I'll expound on that shortly.

Sorry this update took so long. I made three updates, each one of them strained, because I really don't want to spend another fifty updates on this shit. The whole miniplot was a very bad idea and should have been left for later, and I just want to wash my hands of it, move on, and come back at a better time. So fuck it, I decided to just skip forward to the end, at least for now.

I'm going to take an intermission after the next update or two. It'll probably last a month or so. I have some plans for when we come back to it and I need time to work them out and prepare, but we'll get there when we get there.

I hope that everyone hasn't lost interest with the constant delays and such. I apologize for that. When I know what I am doing, I am having fun, and so I'm motivated to work more quickly. I'm hoping that after the break I'll get a more solid grasp on the story and will be faster to work again.