Erfworld, The Thread.

[Miklus]

New update. The big fight is going to start.

And it looks like Wanda has a trick up her sleeve. I can't wait.

[The Glyphstone]

Looks like this fight....



just got Frosty.

[HandofShadows]

And it looks like Wanda has a trick up her sleeve. I can't wait.

Wanda being tricky and she is mad at someone. It's going to be bloody.

I noticed something bad though. Delphi said she had no objections. NOT that it was safe.

[Landis963]

I noticed something bad though. Delphi said she had no objections. NOT that it was safe.

I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice that.

[The Glyphstone]

It's about as hard to notice as a sledgehammer in the face, considering what we know about Delphi already.

[Teln]

In the vanishingly unlikely chance I ever wind up in Erfworld and in charge of a side, any Predictamancers we pop are going to get sold to sides very very far away.

[Killer Angel]

I noticed something bad though. Delphi said she had no objections.

An hypothesis could be that she saw that Goodminton (and herself) is doomed, and she's now almost apathetic.

Edit: I wouldn't bet my money on it, though.

[HandofShadows]

An hypothesis could be that she saw that Goodminton (and herself) is doomed, and she's now almost apathetic.

Edit: I wouldn't bet my money on it, though.

Neither would I. I bet she is trying to screw over her own side so it follows fate. It will probably happen just as Wanda an co are about to win big.

[HandofShadows]

Waitaminute. Delphie was only a Level 4 before this? Wanda had already boosted herself up to Level 4 in a few weeks.

[Radar]

Waitaminute. Delphie was only a Level 4 before this? Wanda had already boosted herself up to Level 4 in a few weeks.

Well, Wanda was in the field all the time, while Delphie didn't see a battle in quite a while.

[factotum]

Well, Wanda was in the field all the time, while Delphie didn't see a battle in quite a while.

Yet Delphie is capable of pulling off an awesome feat of battle casting despite having little experience or being really rusty?

[Ajadea]

Delphie is a predictamancer. This translates to boosts in both accuracy and defense. The tower got boosted, which I think made the spells Delphie and Clay have been putting on the tower for however many turns more powerful. Delphie is now using both those spells and her own Hobokens and such to blast down Frenemy. She's hitting every time, because she doesn't take shots she won't succeed at, and she's got a lot of good shots because Clay is making the Frenemy defense suck. There are also a whole bunch of archers and stuff.

[Gez]

Yet Delphie is capable of pulling off an awesome feat of battle casting despite having little experience or being really rusty?

Let's say you have a unit that hits all the time but deals 1 point of damage because it's a weak unit. Then you've got a unit that hits, on average, only 75% of the time, but deals 20 points of damage because it's a strong unit.

The former might seem impressive in an "action movie" way as it always unerringly hits, but the later is a lot more useful overall.

This is also known as "why do D&D mages use attack spells other than magic missile".

[blackjack217]

Let's say you have a unit that hits all the time but deals 1 point of damage because it's a weak unit. Then you've got a unit that hits, on average, only 75% of the time, but deals 20 points of damage because it's a strong unit.

The former might seem impressive in an "action movie" way as it always unerringly hits, but the later is a lot more useful overall.

This is also known as "why do D&D mages use attack spells other than magic missile".

Or we use crazy metamagic

[Radar]

Yet Delphie is capable of pulling off an awesome feat of battle casting despite having little experience or being really rusty?

I don't think units in Erfworld can get rusty. If you learn something, you don't forget it. To get to the 4th level Delphie had to fight as we hadn't seen any other way of gaining experiance.

[Coidzor]

Let's say you have a unit that hits all the time but deals 1 point of damage because it's a weak unit. Then you've got a unit that hits, on average, only 75% of the time, but deals 20 points of damage because it's a strong unit.

The former might seem impressive in an "action movie" way as it always unerringly hits, but the later is a lot more useful overall.

This is also known as "why do D&D mages use attack spells other than magic missile".

I'm not quite following, but that seems like an interesting line of thought.

I don't think units in Erfworld can get rusty. If you learn something, you don't forget it. To get to the 4th level Delphie had to fight as we hadn't seen any other way of gaining experiance.

Well, their signomancy gets all fat and old and short and disgusting if Spacely or whatever his name of Jetstone was any indication. And Delphie's signomancy of decay and age.

[NEO|Phyte]

I don't think units in Erfworld can get rusty. If you learn something, you don't forget it. To get to the 4th level Delphie had to fight as we hadn't seen any other way of gaining experiance.

We have seen other ways of gaining experience.

Artemis leveled from 6 to 7 purely from training.
Admittedly it took 640 turns, but it is still possible. Plus with casters it is possible that casting in and of itself is capable of providing some level of experience.

[Landis963]

Well, their signomancy gets all fat and old and short and disgusting if Spacely or whatever his name of Jetstone was any indication. And Delphie's signomancy of decay and age.

King Slately of Jetstone. And yes, his Signamancy did tend toward the old/decrepit, didn't it? At least until Cubbins gave him the war paint. Good times, good times.

[ChowGuy]

Plus with casters it is possible that casting in and of itself is capable of providing some level of experience.

Indeed. In Wanda's case, that's already confirmed in canon:

Between the combat and all of the uncroaking she'd done, Wanda had leveled up to 4 on the journey home.

[Douglas]

Looks like Jack and Marie have made their first appearance. I like how Marie stated her Prediction but didn't try pressuring Wanda with it at all.

Also, "Diversion Beast"?

[Landis963]

Oh Jack. If I didn't know you from your "wild black hair" and your teasing expression this would have been a dead giveaway:

"Why so serious?"

It's like they're not even trying to hide that Jack's Signamancy is that of the Joker.

[HandofShadows]

It's like they're not even trying to hide that Jack's Signamancy is that of the Joker.

Why should they? I mean look at his clothing this last chapter.

And again Wanda is getting shafted. I mean refusing to talk to her?

[Killer Angel]

Poor Clay... I pity you.

[PhantomFox]

Yeah, that can't end well...

[Landis963]

You should have trusted me.

Why in the blasted infernal h**ls should Wanda have trusted you, Delphie? You treated her like a game piece, refused to answer her questioning of the treatment, attempted to barter her off to another side (!), made many, many, many questionable choices in pursuit of this goal, among them telling an enemy that a) Goodminton had popped an heir (!!) b) that said heir was a Croakamancer (!!!) c) who was very important to Fate. WTF did you expect?

[factotum]

The problem there is that Delphie is an experienced Predictamancer, and was the Chief Caster, and Wanda was a newly-popped unit with no experience. No doubt Delphie thought Wanda would meekly follow what she said with no problems...

[Douglas]

The problem there is that Delphie is an experienced Predictamancer, and was the Chief Caster, and Wanda was a newly-popped unit with no experience. No doubt Delphie thought Wanda would meekly follow what she said with no problems...

True, but she's also A) an heir and B) important to Fate. I imagine both of those traits tend to produce rather strong-minded independent individuals, and the combination of the two in one person would be especially potent.

Delphie's big problem here, I think, is a lack of experience with social situations where she can't solve everything by just invoking her authority. Even her ruler was used to just accepting her proclamations about magic without question. She's never had to think about anyone else's likely reactions before, so the idea of Wanda's perspective and opinions mattering just never occurred to her to even consider until her whole "great plan" was already ruined past any possibility of repair.

[Killer Angel]

New update.
Must be said that Wanda's father will meet his Fate with style...

[Landis963]

"Fighting the future conqueror of Erfworld is everyone's business."

The ironies of this arc never cease, do they?

[Seerow]

I'm kind of irritated that once again the updates are fading out. We started this phase of novel writing at 3 updates a week. We're now 4 months later down to 1 update per 7-10 days (the average we've gotten for the last month or two). Rob seems to me to be one of those guys who always has some excuse for failing to follow through. I'm particularly disgusted that at the start of this he blamed it on Xin when her mother died, because it's become clear since that even with her removed from the equation he can't keep a schedule. And complaining about this on the actual erfworld forums just ends with the thread being deleted.