Zeugma's page

I'm reading "Neuromancer" by William Gibson. It feels a bit dated, but I really like Gibson's style.

Now, where I'm really f!+*ed is when the drugs are too strong. For example, I just had my dose of methylphenidate raised from 18mg to 27mg. For a normal person, this would be a negligible increase, but for me, it's the difference between being able to focus slightly better and being awake for days on end, hallucinating, and vomiting uncontrollably. At this point, the only thing I can do is ride out the withdrawal symptoms and wait until my next doctor's appointment, because under the new regulations, I can't re-fill the prescription until the original period of time in which the prescription would have been taken has passed.

Given that this is free internet advice from a stranger with no background in medicine: Why not just get a pill cutter and cut the dose to something manageable? Not ideal, but better than being sick every time you take your meds.

Something else that sux: having your laptop (with all your essay notes, and the essay due next day, and not backed up) stolen at the bus stop.

Yeah, I'm NOT lovin' the god of thieves right now. May Abadar smite him in holy wrath!

palmeye I didn't even think about PathfinderWiki. Thanks for the head jolt! :)

On talking to Timitus about getting it into Wayfinder, I just thought for certain that something this large would be out of the question to turn in, especially since it probably breaks the rules on canon*. And this might be irrational, but thinking about going that way makes me feel a little guilty, like I'd be asking Wayfinder to be my vanity press publisher.

*specifically** spoiler omitted **

Again, thanks.

If you are worried about it being too big for Wayfinder, why not break your ideas into a series of smaller articles, that could be published over a spaced-out period? I looked at your spoilers, and it looks like you could get 5 or 6 separate articles out of your ideas. As for non-canon, I'm not sure of the Wayfinder policy, but things like alternative stats doesn't sound horribly "non-canon" & violate-y; it's the kind of stuff the old Dragon magazine used to do all the time.

Happy Erik Mona day, from California!

Zeugma wrote:

I want to buy this book just because there is a CHIMERA on the cover!

I'm pretty sure that's a mock-up cover; I think that chimera art is from an interior piece in Kingmaker #4: Blood for Blood.

That said, I can personally guarantee that the chimera section is gonna be AWESOME!!! :)

So what you're saying is that the real cover is going to have two chimerae fighting Amiri? Yay!

I want to buy this book just because there is a CHIMERA on the cover!

James Jacobs wrote:

I very much doubt [cannons will] be available for PCs to use on other ships. Especially since we'll be focusing more on boarding action type ship to ship battles.

I would hate if this proves to be a missed opportunity to add gunpowder into the game with both barrels, as it were.

Never underestimate the creativity of PCs! They can McGuyver or steal almost anything if they put their minds to it. I once had a PC make "moonshine" liquor using an old suit of armor and some rotted bannanas.

I lean toward Zuxius's (and Montalve's later) response to the question of profanity. I am not opposed to it, but I much prefer if an author can use it creatively, instead of using time-worn or contemporary swear words. For example, someone using words that are profane towards a specific Golarion deity would be entertaining and contextual:
"Wine to water!" could be an "oath" in Cayden Cailean's church, or "What a blunted sting!" could be an insult in Calistria's temple.
(Maybe those are not the best examples, but you get the idea: context is important and finding creative ways to work around profanity can often yield better results than using swear words that we hear every day).

For once I started something in advance and actually got through a few drafts before submitting :-D

I just have to say, 1500 words is rough! I don't think I've ever written anything that short, and regardless of whether or not I advance to the next round, I count the completion of my story under the word count maximum as a personal victory.

I am so pleased! Microfiction is the "next big thing" among my MFA-type friends. It is well suited to internet publishing and time-pressed readers' tastes. It's a challenging form of fiction, so kudos to you. Also, kudos for your drafting! Editing can be one of the most satisfying parts of writing.

The Eldritch Mr. Shiny wrote:

Sanakht Inaros wrote:

The Virginia Workers Comp Commission. It's been 8 months and they STILL can't figure out how to spell my name. Letters, calls, emails, and they INSIST I don't know how to spell my last name. I didn't realize there were that many ways to misspell my name.

If it exists, it can be misspelled. For example, my father's name is Chris, and he frequently gets bills addressed to "Christ."

Bet he's not getting threatened to be taken to court though. Their misspelling my name is screwing up my paperwork. If they rule against me, according to the letters I've gotten, I will have to repay the worker's comp (almost $5k), reimburse the insurance company for the hospital bills (three skin grafts, three weeks in the hospital, and an ambulance ride). I've seen a couple of the bills and, yeah, it ain't pretty.

@Inaros: :( I hope everything gets resolved in your favor.

Something that comes to me. Why do you NEED cannons when you can have a shipboard Wizard or Sorcerer casting Fireball or Gust of Wind, etc.

One use of Acid Arrows on the enemy sails can ruin their day.

Arguments in favor of cannons:

-Unlike wizards and sorcerers, cannons can't be killed, turned to stone, or have their attacks counterspelled.
-Cannons can be destroyed with "Break Object" type spells and by dealing enough damage to them, but that takes the focus of an attack off the wizard preparing "Fireball" right next to the cannon. (i.e. they're a distraction)
-If the wizard or sorcerer dies, the minion can still use the cannon (at great personal risk), but not the magic scroll the wizard dropped in his death throes.

My gaming group is about to fall apart because the host is going through a mid-life crisis and divorcing his wife. He's a real good friend, but he's being a bit of a diva, and a lot of it has to do with new online relationships he's forged. I'm sure I'll be able to find/forge a new group, but since I like this one, and I've sunk a lot of time GMing the group over the past few years, I think this is sucky.

I don't know your group dynamics, but would it be possible to have someone else host? That might take the "pressure" off your current host and the group won't need to break up.

The Virginia Workers Comp Commission. It's been 8 months and they STILL can't figure out how to spell my name. Letters, calls, emails, and they INSIST I don't know how to spell my last name. I didn't realize there were that many ways to misspell my name.

Well, to be fair, Sanakht Inaros isn't one of the Top 10 Baby Names in Virginia.

I'm a programming noob. I'm making one of my first projects in Visual Basic for a class I'm taking. I just spent 3 hours looking for a Property for one of my Objects, not finding it, looking on MSDN to try to find out why I couldn't find it (o the horror!) and finally, finally finding it in my Property window, where it was all along. Somehow I was just not seeing it (and my Search function on Windows hadn't found it at all!)

*headesk*

<doubleTake>Succubus!</doubleTake>

Our contest was visited by an Ask A Scuccubus! We're moving up in the world!

"The footprint is not to exceed 10 feet by 10 feet."

I LOVE that part!

aaarg! writer's block :(

I find that flipping through a Monster Manual or Bestiary is a good way to generate ideas. Just pick a monster and imagine encountering it - Who would be likely to confront this monster? Why? (Right there you have 2 characters, and a conflict: man vs. beast) The story doesn't even need to be a direct conflict - it could be about what happens before or after the conflict takes place, too.

@Dorgar: I understand your feelings of disappointment about not being in the anthology. Having worked on several publishing projects, I want you to know that it is no slight (intentionally or otherwise) to not get a place in the published book. Lots of worthy stories did not get in, for a variety of reasons. It helps, as an author, to develop a thick skin.
I can't speak to the website's choices about how to file the past contest stories, but I can say advocating for yourself and your work is one the best things you can do, which is why a)I'm glad you've expressed your feelings here, and b)I encourage you to keep in touch with the website and join the community and express your thoughts there, too (in a respectful way, of course).

In terms of structure, there needs to be a mechanism and/or plot point that is really keyed to ships and sailing or ship-ship combat as an objective (whether in the over-arcing AP or in an adventure). Too many "pirate" adventures are landlubbery. Even the Monkey Island games and Pirates of the Caribbean movies tend to have the McGuffins land-based (except when the objective is getting/stealing a ship).
This makes sense in that most "stuff" can be found easily on land, but Paizo needs to break away from that somehow - making a McGuffin or two that is distinctly tied to ships/sailing/sea (or an undersea component, as some have suggested). That's what I think could distinguish the AP the most, and be really cool to play.

Get your girlfriend to submit a story too, Todd! That way you'll have twice as many chances of winning the prize. ;)
The stories are starting to pour in now, and I'm so pleased that I get to read all of them!

I would love to see the party becalmed in the Eye of Abendego or at least a daring ship combat in the giant hurricane.

Please avoid the merman attack attempting to sink the ship, it's been done.

Ditto! The Eye of Abendego HAS to be in this one, with some neat combat modifiers and skill checks!

I'm not averse to mermaids, per se. Just the kind I saw in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides." There are plenty of other monsters to use as aquatic foes that have not had so much exposure lately. What about some old-fashioned killer sharks? We need those for walkin' the plank!

I saw a billboard for Conan in my hometown (LA). It looked like it could be the cover of one of the novels, maybe one by Boris Vallejo or some artist like him. It made me want to see the movie, and I previously wasn't that interested in it...I guess having Arnold as my governor kinda turned me off to the whole "Conan" thing. :P

I forgot to mention two other favorites of mine:
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
and
The Last King of Scotland (although that is more about dictatorship and internal strife than an international war)

Your harvestman template and monster are very cool. I think I'd like to try out one of them in combat and see how the "healing" works in practice. You wrote that positive energy heals them, but how can it heal them if they are specifically only healed by taking the flesh of the dead?

A "conventional" adventure path I'd like to see would be one where the Big Bad Guy is actually a fire-breathing dragon. Even more than saving the princess, killing the dragon is the founding myth of the hobby. I've killed too few dragons in the dozen years I've been playing this game.

I request more dragons. It wouldn't be too conventional to have an AP focused mainly on dragons, would it? One dragon + princess = yawn. But one dragon + another dragon = fire-breathing realpolitik.

Thanks James, Demiurge and Jeff for your replies. I will have to seek out the Serpent Skull AP with the popobala in it. I'll be intrigued to see its stat block and descriptive text, given what I've seen written about it in the Wikipedia article.

I can't believe I spaced on Zulu and Stalag 17!!! Great call on those two.

+1

I just got Heart of the Jungle and I LOVE it! I've also been reading a book of African mythology and came across a story that inspired me to read about Mozambique.
Reading about Mozambique led me to the shetani. They are "evil spirits" with the same root word as shaitan and satan (or Satan for you KJV folks).
So why no shetani in Golarion? They are on a par with the div, in my opinion. I think these creatures (as depicted in the photos and paintings in my limited reading) would make an AWESOME class of demons, especially for Bekyar summoners!

Also, I think the sabosan bat-people in Golarion could be related to the popobawa shetani, although sabosan aren't alleged to be themselves demons, only Vyriavaxus's children. I don't know the exact inspiration for sabosan from the real world. Does Tim Hitchcock talk about it anywhere?

Anyway, thanks Paizo for opening up the (real)world to me by inspiring me to read more about a part of it I knew nothing about! Has anyone else been inspired by Heart of the Jungle this way?

Akiton and Castrovel both deserve their own campaign setting books (or World Guides!) Doesn't Castrovel have psionics? I think Vudra fans would also buy the Castrovel books if they end up having psionics in them.

[casts thread necromancy]
I looked here and on the Wiki and I couldn't find out why Khemet III is the Ruby Prince, and not the Ruby Pharaoh. Why is this? Does he have an older brother? Is he too young to be crowned? Is his dad still alive/undead?
...weird it's taken me this long to wonder about this.

@Talisein: I've wanted to see "O What A Lovely War" for the longest time, but have not been able to find any DVD of it in the USA. Maybe I haven't been looking in the right places?

No one mentioned Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory.
I also like Jean Renoir's La Grand Illusion. (Erich von Stroheim as a "Red Baron"-type ace!)
(I'm more into WWI than WWII, if you couldn't tell).

Are there pathfinder rules faqs around here somewhere?

You can also type a term or word into the Search box on the left-hand side of the website, and choose PRD (Product Reference Document) from the drop-down menu to search for answers.

Wow, Jeff. Crete? I'm green with envy! Great links! I had never heard of Kay Neilsen before but apparently he did a lot of work in Los Angeles, where I live. I might be able to find some of those original murals he did if I look around for them.

Who is the smurf kicking hellnight booty on the cover? His moves are pretty hawt.

The katapesh group of "monstrous slavers" in the forthcoming Rival Guide. They were mentioned in passing in the Paizo blog a little while back in an in-character teaser for the book. Otherwise, have to wait for that one to hit the street to know more. :)

Thanks, Todd! I'll check it out!

If it helps, something I worked on in the past year was written with both of those sources in mind for background material. :)

Is this something that has already been published? If so, links, please! (I can't keep up with all the awesome products Paizo keeps publishing!)

Market # 13: The Menagerie.
Cindra’s Exotic Pets is located in the Lower City, so I think the Menagerie should be located there as well. I like that there are nice thick walls in that section of the city, should any beasts escape. The Zephyr Guard is located at nearby Council Hall to help contain any chaos that breaks out.

Market # 12: The Roof Market.
The logical place for this is on the roofs of the shops and stalls near the Great Plaza (where Pett says it is). However, I like the idea of the Roof Market being moveable, like the Nightstalls, and setting up on various rooftops in the city as rents rise and fall and properties are bought and sold. It makes the market more dynamic and adaptable.

Market # 11: The Souk of the Magnificent and Inscrutable.
I think the Dock District is a good place for this souk, since a warship is for sale here, and most of the other things for sale would be costly and difficult to transport up the Obsidian Wall to the other districts. If the souk is placed to the northern edge of the district it’s less likely to be seen as a nuisance, and its giant statues and other large wares might not seem so huge when they are placed next to the Dockside Giant.

Market # 10: The Mechanical Market.
I at first thought putting the Mech Market near the Gilded Shell (an armorer’s shop in Dawn Gate) made the most sense, since both armorers and clockwork-makers need to be near smithies. But to put all those tinkers so close to the walls of the Pactmasters compound seemed odd. Wouldn’t the rich people complain about the noise? However, the Pactmasters are themselves odd, and might not mind the noise or strange inventions. They might even commission some strange inventions for themselves.

Market # 9: The Peculiar Emporium.
There are two choices: The Peculiar Emporium could surround the College of Dimensional Studies in the Inner City, near Oasis Bridge. This location is a good choice for the Emporium because it is close to the college’s wizards and scribes, and less experienced students could sell scrolls and potions at discount. The Emporium’s confusing maze of buildings and stalls mirror the confusing terrain inside the college. An alternate (and perhaps better) location for the Emporium is surrounding the Temple of Nethys near the Obsidian Wall. This location is closer to the Lower City’s description as “the world’s largest bazaar,” where the Emporium’s bridges and tunnels would fit in (and maybe even extend into the cliff-face).

Market # 8: The Cattle Market.
The Inner City hosts the Grand Coliseum, and Pett mentions the Cattle Market (where slaves are sold) as providing slaves for the coliseum. I thought the Cattle Market would therefore be close to the coliseum in the Inner City. However, the Slave Block is located in the lower city near the Dockside district. To resolve this discrepancy, I thought it would be neat if the Cattle Market would surround the Slave Block (with the Block referring to the place of sale itself, and not the holding pens), and then when slaves were sold to the Grand Coliseum, they would be paraded up the Night Ramp of the Obsidian Wall to the street that leads to the Coliseum in the southern part of the Inner City. That way, people could see the slaves and bet on them as they ascend the ramp and go through the streets – and Night Ramp is just the right sort of place where that kind of gambling would go on. It would also be the most likely place for slaves to make a daring escape for freedom.

Market #7: The Grand Tannery.
I figured the Grand Tannery would need to be located outside the city gates, on the River Scorpius, so I placed it in the Sprawl near Toilers Bridge. It’s the work-shop/crafts area of the city and it’s far enough away that it won’t pollute the water most of the people drink, and close enough to the sea to blow away the smell. Unfortunately, Jerg’s Repair Shop will get a good whiff if the offshore flow turns a bit northward. People who want to sell camel hides to the tannery can cross from the Daystalls without going through the city.

Market #6: The Water Market.
The Water Market would of course be located in the Dock District, probably near Annexa Palanthea’s Fishy Menagerie, although the Water Market would move up and down the whole of the Dock District depending on where and when cargo is being un/loaded.

Market # 5: The Great Camel-Mart.
I at first thought the Great Camel Mart could be somewhat nearby Zulran’s Equines in Dawn Gate, given that people would want similar facilities for their mounts and wouldn’t want such markets spread throughout the city. In the market for a fine camel? A horse? Go to Dawn Gate. However, Alseen’s Camels is located in the Daystalls west of Dawn Gate. That’s the most likely location for the Great Camel Mart. Zulran probably stables his horses in the Daystalls until he can determine if their quality warrants bringing them through Serpent Gate into the city (it’s the long way around, but I doubt he’d ever stable the horses in Dog Town!). If he brings stud horses through Serpent Gate, the rich people around the Golden Oasis can get a good look at them.

Market #4: Streets of Silver and Gold.
This location needs to be secure, since it is the home of the city’s jewelers. I think placing it close by to the Immaculate Repository in Dawn Gate makes the most sense. Dawn Gate is a wealthy area, and with Abadar’s clerics so close, anyone who wants to rob or steal the treasures made in these streets would have a lot of angry clerics to contend with. Jewelers concerned about their most precious wares could store them in the temple vaults for safe keeping.

Market # 3: The Pesh Quarter.
Zandrek’s Pesh Palace stands on the border between the opulent wealth of the Inner City that surrounds the Golden Oasis, and the Pesh Quarter proper (which is still a prosperous area) which lines the streets and alleys east of the River Scorpius and west of the Grand Coliseum. North to south, the Pesh Quarter is “contained” (if such a word can be used in Katapesh) by the streets leading to Two Penny Bridge* on the north and Temple Span on the south. This area is close enough for the Pactmasters to keep a close watch on the pesh trade.

*

Market # 2: Sweat Town.
The area of Twilight Gate bordering the Sprawl is a good place for Sweat Town. It’s within the city walls, so any sweatshop slaves would have a harder time escaping from their masters than they would in the un-enclosed Sprawl. At the same time any prosperous Sweat Town residents or indentured servants who get their freedom could easily set up shop in the Sprawl nearby, contributing to its growth. “Sweat Town” could also be used as a nickname to indicate the Gladiators’ Guildhall nearby.

Market #1: The Great Plaza.
I’ve decided the Great Plaza should go right in front of the Palace Gate leading into the Pactmasters compound in the Inner City. That would really send a signal that the Pactmasters support free trade at all costs, at all hours of the day and night. It’s also the only location with a lot of open space on the map. That space is filled with greenery representing the area around the Golden Oasis on the map of Katapesh, but I doubt there’d be a huge swath of green like that in a city of about 200k people. It’s also close to the Screaming Obelisk – and what city plaza doesn’t have a big clock/sundial marking the time near it? The fact that the aluum can get to it easily also recommends this location.

I was miffed that the information on the city of Katapesh in Dark Markets: A Guide to Katapesh did not synchronize with the article “The Katapesh Marketplace” by Richard Pett in Legacy of Fire: The Jackal’s Price. So what I did is attempt to fit in Pett’s locations in his article into the city as presented in Dark Markets. There are 13 markets in the Pett article. What follows is my suggested locations for them and my reasoning for why they fit in there.