Garrick's page

This is another submission where the mental image -- an army of headless undead led by a corrupted ex gladiator with her armor rusting into her body -- stuck with me. I love this contest mostly for the ideas that it breeds.

This may go a little far afield from the Superstar discussion, but as a campaign element I really like this submission. I'll admit I never thought of a wraith as the primary, intelligent foe for the party. In particular, the mental image of a mixed party of wraiths and human soldiers is striking to me and I think at least one city of my campaign world is going to gain a "wraith protector". Good job.

One of my favorite fantasy series of all time -- Glen Cook's Annals of the Black Company -- had a good, implicit logic for nicknames and hidden names. If you were a wizard and someone who gained knowledge of your real name could use that information to strip you of your power. The novels were filled with short, descriptive nicknames; One-Eye, Goblin, Raven, Captain.

That isn't true. The truth is that since the west coast has mountain lions they have to fight them off with ninja-sticks on the way to work (or to get groceries, or hang out at the mall, or whatever). The whole "three hours behind" thing is just a cover-up of the ravenous mountain lion plauge and to a lesser extent, bobcats.

That's why its a full three hours on the west coast, but it drops to two hours and then one hour the further east you go. Fewer mountain lions and bobcats.

I have been to the west and I doubt your hypothesis. The overwhelming number of coffee shops (there are roughly 17 quintillion coffee shops in Seattle alone) should easily balance out the mountain lion infestation. A commuter hopped up on a quadruple Venti mocha can easily outrun a mountain lion in a straight sprint*. Though most mountain lions -- being able to smell the stale caffeine stench -- know to look elsewhere for easier prey.

In fact, based on the the caffeine consumption it was probably today yesterday over there.

* Interesting note: the smartest mountain lions have been known to hang out at the entrance to public restrooms to catch their prey when they are at their weakest and slowest.

I really enjoyed this entry. The best part for me was the idea of "shunting aside" the land in which this nation appears. You'd have to impose some rules; no appearing indoor, underground, or underneath a physical roof of any kind for example.

But, imagine the fun! The nation appears in a castle court yard and suddenly it's a 200 mile trip from the castle gates to the door of the keep; 314 miles if you want to circumnavigate this interloper (pi * 100 miles). How does it work? What does it look like? I don't know but let's assume that it is "real"; suddenly the walls of the courtyard are 628 miles in circumference.

It inspired a kind of "Great Train Robbery" scenario for me. A group of thieves wants to loot the impregnable treasury of the empire. A small group makes their way into the Tara Akalei. Their plan: infiltrate the castle where the map is located and hijack the nation.

At the same time, a group of their compatriots has broken a tunnel through the rim wall. Once the nation is hijacked, the first group places the nation in the courtyard of the Imperial Treasury. The second group rushes through the tunnel to overcome the defenders of the treasury while the main garrison is suddenly 200 miles away. With the defenders defeated they set up a bucket brigade and empty the treasury.

Adventures: foil the plan, defend the map, defend the treasury, recover the loot (after the fact and after the city has been moved somewhere else), or, perhaps, the PCs have been recruited to be the thieves and implement this cunning plan.

Anyway, I don't know how this fits in the vision of the original author but it really inspired me. Cheers!