Steven Savile

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kuli€ap (I have no dollar sign heheh) - thank you SO MUCH for that post, you just made my day. If you're going to go out as a Pathfinder writer, this kind of post on your last piece makes all of the difference. I'm proud of the stuff I've done for the game, and love the response here. So thank you. Genuinely.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Hey folks, thanks for reading along. Sorry you didn't enjoy it, Berselius, sorry it didn't work for you. Obviously you make lots choices when doing a four part novella that are different to how you'd run a novel, but the entire aim was an opposite of Isra from Blood and Money, a genuinely selfless act of sacrifice worthy of a hero. We knocked around half a dozen scenarios finally happy with the idea of mirroring the chess game of part one in the finale of part four. Whited Sephulcher, glad it worked for you. I had fun with it, but obviously would love more room to play and really cut loose with all of the aspects of the game within the storyline,


Zhangar wrote:

I was going to link the PRD entry, but based on the author's response, I'll just say this instead:

The shadow men are not daemons, but they are very, very closely allied. Look in Bestiary 2 for a picture.

Cheers Zhangar, it's more fun if stuff isn't given away too soon. Come Wednesday all will be revealed. Parts III and IV are my favourite segments of the story, so I'm hoping people will feel the same way.


Berselius wrote:


Also, if I may ask, what type of Daemons are we talking about here (aka the shadow men)? Can you give us a specific Daemon entry's name from one of the Bestiary's or are they in fact not Daemons at all but something else (aka Kytons, some sort of undead, etc etc).

I *could* but that'd spoil the next instalment... and then Mr Sutter and others would probably kill me. Or at least beat me with a big pointy stick.


I'm glad you're having fun with it, Trinite.

Berselius, there's a long way to go yet. Plenty of room for justice. ;)

Actually, in all seriousness, QS came about because of a conversation in the Blood & Money comments where someone observed how just for once they'd love to see a genuinely selfless, good, hero. Isra, obviously wasn't one of that particular breed, so with Caron I wanted a much more honourable kind of character as well as a kick-ass female lead.


Oh indeed. It's like the old classic 'Stay on the road. Don't leave the road. Never leave the road...' some things you just don't do... like go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

Hope people enjoy QS, it's very different to my first Pathfinder outing, Blood and Money, with a less than heroic lead.


Itchy wrote:
Steven Savile wrote:
Egads... could *never* kill the innocent kid... that's into realms of darkness even I won't plumb, Itchy.

Glad to hear it! You may have some dark stories, but you have taste!!

** spoiler omitted **

-Aaron

The worst part of that is that's NOT in the King story... I have no idea why Frank Darabont chose to end it that way, but it made me really angry as a viewer because it absolutely destroyed the dramatic sacrifice


Darkstrom wrote:

Steven,

This is definitely one of the best tales I've seen posted here. It flowed very well and I enjoyed the unexpected end. Thanks!

Thank you for the very kind words, Darkstrom. They're very much appreciated.

As an aside, I'm doing the webchat tomorrow with some of the other guys, hope to see a lot of you there.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Itchy wrote:
Excellent story! Very dark though, as is discussed above. I'm glad that the boy survived, though.

Egads... could *never* kill the innocent kid... that's into realms of darkness even I won't plumb, Itchy.

It's much more interesting to torture them in other ways ;) (I kiiiiiiiid I kiiiiiiid)


Kevin's on the money - I certainly *thought* about resurrection - and may *still* think about it, bodies go missing ahem, but in truth the situation between Munir and Isra is pretty fragile. I know *exactly* where it's going from here though, so hopefully the response will be strong enough to see the return of the nightwalker...

And again, I'd just like to thank James and Florian for making it all look so lovely... It really was a lot of fun to play in Katapesh...


Goatnoodles, thanks for the kind words... glad you had fun... now how much money do you want to leave that copy of Vampire Wars on the shelf? ;) I kid, I kid... but given that it had to span 1,000 years of 'adventure' in 750 pages it was never going to be quite what I wanted it to be. Funnily, I am most proud of the second in the series, whereas everyone else either likes the first or the third...

Berselius, you never know what might come next, that's the joy of such a vast world and so many diverse writers offering stories. I go dark, someone else might well go for a more 'gentle touch'. There's room for everything.


MartinB wrote:


I'll save the abuse until later. But, yes, you did play some relatively naff (yet entertaining) thieves. Getting excommunicated from the cult of the god of thieves and shadows was an entertaining highlight I seem to remember... Although I can't remember why!

Ha! I'd *almost* succeeded in forgetting that... yes, a thief so honest he was excommunicated... or erm, summink like that.


Matthew Morris wrote:

Thanks for the commentary Steven,

He reminds me of my character Magian in a 'dark mirror' kind of way.

Oh, and congrats on getting the image avatared (is that a word?)

My pleasure - it's one of the joys of a community like this. I know there's an author chat coming up next week so people will be able to chuck questions in general to a bunch of us, as well. Also, on facebook earlier a friend of mine (one of my old GMs actually) just discovered this story and will probably be around next week to abuse me and give away how naff my thieves always were and just how much trouble I wound up getting in.

The avatar's brilliant, isn't it? Got to love James and David and the crew for making it happen.

And obviously not liking a character like Isra is a perfectly fine and natural position to come at it - I mean, Patrick Bateman in American Psycho is an amoral sociopath, he's not empathic, he's cold and disturbed. He's hard to like. You can admire Ellis' skill in making such a monstrous man almost sympathetic, but not quite, because there's an element of what does that say about me? in there that's not comfortable.

The thing is it's still a relatively short piece, so Isra would need to return, I think, to develop more beyond what he is right now, but we'll talk more about it next week...


Without wanting to put words into Geriant's mouth, I think the issue he has is that as an assassin Isra kills without compunction or care for others, for money. He isn't doing it for a noble cause. He isn't tilting at windmills or chasing dragons down, he is quite literally doing it because he's good at it.

But remember, right at the start he's confessed he's tired of this life. Maybe it's the morality of it weighing on him, maybe it's just that there's no end of people in a town full of venal liars backstabbers and thieves there's no shortage of people who deserve to be visited by the nightwalker... and it'll never end... or the gunslinger idea that as a 'legend' there's going to come a time more and more where he's the guy with the target painted on his back and he's not suicidal...

I wouldn't want to make it political... Part of it could well be my roleplaying history, in that I *always* played the thief/assassin type character because I'm drawn to the darkness in them... but I'm hoping that by the end Geriant's opinion of Isra shifts slightly... he's certainly complicated... and if we get a second outing for him, we'll see much more of that.


Interesting comments guys -

Utterly repellent is pretty harsh on the poor chap, he does have a couple of redeeming qualities, I think. One certainly is his sense of family and protecting his sister in a way that makes sense to him. I actually think he has a pretty strong moral code - it's just a very different moral compass to you or me, you know?

The important thing for me is that there's an arc for Isra... the sad thing would be if he was the same man at the end as he is at the beginning... so with one part left to come, there's hopefully a twist or two to play out...

I like the idea of him being a 'bored' pc...

Anyway, again, it's great to see you guys talk and think about stuff as it goes along.


Itchy wrote:
Certainly enjoying this story! The plan was so airtight, as I was reading I thought this was to be a 2-parter. Obviously not! I hope he doesn't have to kill the boy, maybe Nightwalker 2 in training?

You'll just have to wait and see, but part 3 hits in a couple of days, so it's not too long to wait... the brown stuff is about to hit the fan though :)


Monrail wrote:
Androlphas wrote:
Loving this series thus far!
Seconded! This is great stuff.

I can't begin to thank you guys enough for taking the time to comment, and obviously for enjoying the series. It's always really exciting and a little nerve-wracking coming into an existing world like this and trying to add your own little brand of fantasy to it, but I fell in love with the Pathfinder world when I was reading the background material, and really hope that people can feel that in the stuff. I'm also loving the tease element of one part a week... of course I know what happens next ;)


Androlphas wrote:
Loving this series thus far!

Thanks, glad you're having fun with it.


James Sutter wrote:
Brakkart wrote:
Wow I would love to have a miniature made of that artwork!
Your request has been noted. Between Reaper and Wizkids, I think you might have that opportunity. :)

Ooooooh.


Geraint, what's it the old song says, you ain't seen nothing yet... ahem.


Thanks guys, I had a lot of fun playing with Isra. Hope you enjoy the next twisted installments of his tale... and isn't Florian's art just fantastic? I want to use that as my avatar image but am completely clueless as to how to do it...