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Saw this thread and thought it would be ok to post the notes I have all at once like above. If you still want them in seperate threads let me know. I have checked to make sure none of mine are duplicates to other peoples notes, but may have missed some.
(87.2B) “We need to all the expertise we can get…” Take out the ‘to’
(83.8) “He is a threat to use. The anilords were a threat to us…” Threat to us?
(86.6) “It was definitely was embarrassing for the poor incubus…” Remove one of the ‘was’, it seems to work either way.
(92.24) “Every moment I sit here listening to these demons was pure torture” Talarius thought to himself”
Correction to ‘is pure torture’?(94A.4)
“Really hot fire can in theory damage liches them but their intense coldness acts like very good armor…” Either ‘damage them’ or ‘damage liches’ and remove the them.“Peter ignored the lightning laughed, as did Penelope…” and laughed.
(97.0) “Our problem has been that just having experienced priest, pretending…” change to ‘an experienced priest’?
(97.1) “Well it will not be problem for a D’Orc hunting party…” be a problem.
(97.2) “He certainly did not want to go as far as he had with rod of Tommus.” with the rod of Tommus.
(98.5) “An archdemon has free reign over multiple planes and thousands of year…” change to years.
(98.7) “It appeared that numerous branches had started show signs of overzealousness in the pursuit of justice and righteousness.” Either ‘had started to show’ or ‘had started showing’.
(99.0) “Randolf shook his at the very odd title.” Shook his head?
(99.3) “… upon which Exador, Ramses the Damned, and woman with an unknown woman were all having…” to ‘and an unknown woman…’?
(100.3) “Not all of allies have been completely reliable.” Our allies?
(102.3) “I have to get back to open gate for the next hunting party…” Open a gate.
(105.0) “so” Tom ” We want to…” Tom said?
(110.2) “Interesting” Antefalken mused. “There is all way before my time…” ‘This ia all…’
(110.3) “She is in the bottle? So Tamarin is a girl. Why did you keep calling her an it?”
Tizzy had been calling the Djinn ‘hir’ previously, not it, he called the golem an it, but then switched to hir when speaking of the Djinn. Im guessing hir is a between form or ‘her’ and ‘him’, but sounded out sounds like her. So would Tom really be surprised at the Djinn being a girl? Maybe replace the hir with it, so the Djinn isnt referenced to a gender until the link is formed.
(110.4) “He hoped that they were just rusty with their instruments and were not actually try to get such an extreme hard-core industrial sound.” trying
(114.9)
Entropy doesn’t seem to be the right word, as I understand it entropy is actually the cooling and lessening of energy in the universe over time, and is also called the ‘heat death’ of the universe. Tom weakennig them by draining energy (fire), and all the other wording, implies a stirring up and agitation of energy, not its dying off.So I am debating the tech questions a lot with beta 4.
I’ve been talked into doing the battle with the KofC and am debating how much “big tech” can be brought online fast. You will see Ruiden/Talarius together, but that will only be the beginning of the “reuniting fun”
From first detection on radar we know from the no longer there non-battle battle, that they have a few hours before the invaders get on Doom’s magic grid.
With both Volund and Phaestus working with the tech D’Orcs they might be able to finish getting some heavy artillery online at some point. But what heavy artillery is it? Warp canons? (A.K.A. Gravity Guns), Photon Torpedoes? Blaster canons? Plasma canons?
Or maybe they can’t. There are some other options as well. Tom only barely tapped the power of Doom in the non-battle battle. For one thing, if you have lava eruptions on the battle field from secondary lava geysers, plus rain and mud and steam and lots of “blood/guts/animus spilling” during battle along with high emotions, you should be able to generate lots of mana (which is why battlefields in all worlds tend to be places of great magical power) This should give Tom a mana boost; Doom might even get to full production mode for the duration of the battle.
Plus, because this will be a rare opportunity to battle KofC; Talarius will want to be out there as will Phaestus’ wife Sekhmet. (He’s going to have to tell her about this opportunity, or else just not go home.
Correct on all fronts. I am now going back and forth on the Tech.
The problem is numbers. Tom against a single big opponent is good; particularly on the home ground of Doom.
However, lots of knights could be a problem for him and the D’Orcs (who are technically evenly matched with what we think is coming for demons)
But it will be a combination of many things to start bringing up the full power of Doom. Actually, he could and might funnel mana to others, but he might also do other tricks. The problem he has is that he needs experience with Doom and what he can do. He hadn’t had enough time yet; and there is the challenge for Tom. Can he learn fast enough before getting his butt kicked?
On the Vaselle front; you are correct in your feelings and on Tom’s. See my recent discussion on one of these two “late beta” threads about Vaselle. Tom sort of freaked out about being on the “master end” he wasn’t sure about it, and then when Vaselle came in so strong and needy, it really freaked him out and he pulled back.
It was not where I intended, but it felt more like “Tom.” Vaselle is older by about a decade, and has some codependency issues and is a bit needy. It really felt like too much for Tom to handle immediately and upfront. He was just getting a grip on his own situation and problems and to have someone thrust their own problems/issues at him so strongly? It was too much. So he pulled back and then went off and curled up. The Orc shamans he can tell himself are less intimate connections. Of course, this is somewhat of a lie, because they are actually priests, which is potentially far more of the “crazy” he couldn’t handle with Vaselle.
So he will have to revisit Vaselle and then the shamans and followers and let the plot continue once he is more comfortable in his own skin.
Yes, this is exactly why I am thinking tech may not be needed.
We start with the fact that the battle (in the rain, steam, lava geysers if Tom pops them open, mud, heat) will generate a lot of raw mana, but also, once they are on the network, the mana collection system could be ramped up to keep people from recharging and maybe ramped up to drain extra mana.
It probably can’t drain mana from people because that’s bound, but could it act as a spell damper? Sucking the mana out of spells and sort of deflating fireballs and causing lightning bolts to fizzle?
Possibly. As you point out, it’s a question of learning to do it.
The Djinn is a good theory; the problem is that while Djinn’s share information it isn’t automatic, they have to meet up and share individually but they can pass stuff on from djinn to djinn and it works better than books for collective memory of a culture. The problem is that as Crispin alludes to, as do the Grand Calyphs. Djinn are not immortal. They live longer than humans, longer than dwarves, but not as long as elves. They pretty much top out at about 1000 max. So there is no one currently alive in Djinnistan who had been at Mount Doom. However, there should be Djinn who presumably have old shared memories that have been passed down.
On the other hand, however, the system was built by Phaestus and Volund. And they do know what it can do and they are both there.
Your conclusion about Orcucide is also one I reached as well. On the fully functional DoomNet, with Orcus present wielding the Wand of Orcus, he would basically be invincible and basically have godlike power.
He was taken down when he was off the DoomNet, most of the D’Orcs were off DoomNet and even then, Lillith had to gum up the works at Mount Doom so that Orcus could be defeated (probably with some Knights of Chaos).
That was the only way she was able to bring him down. Doom is 50+ thousands years old; and the Courts have known about it for about 25 thousand years or so. But Orcus and Lillith were adversaries long before that. So it took her a long time to figure out/get the opportunity to take him out.
[quote]If they are bought, will they be keep bought? Otherwise as agents of change and chaos, I see them as natural allies for Tom.
Lillith is representing the old and crusty establishment here.[/quote]Please use the “spoiler” tag when giving away future story resolutions! [-x
Yes, you are very much correct. =d> That is why I am not so sure this is a perfect solution of a “big battle”. We know there are at least 13 KofC; I don’t think Tom can defeat them at this point, even with Sammael’s help (which is not clear he would get) I really need to go back to my notes on them, but as a rule, they make the Storm Liches fought by the Nimbus look like D&D Kobolds (tiny XP/EP packets that you suck up like sugar) in terms of immunity to about everything. (which is why they work on a lot of planes)
So there would be big battle with the demons, but the KofC are going to need special handling and a really giant rabbit pulled out of Tom’s hat.
So anyway, over the night I tossed and turned on how to do the big battle more succinctly. It’s going to be more of a thinking/plotting exercise than a writing one.
Be aware though, if we go this route I am going to have to use up the Ruiden and Talarius cliffhanger for sure; and start to deal with Hilda vs Jenn and Gastrope and the Orcs; sort of spoiling that one.
I think I would; however, move the Tizzy and Arg-nargoloth meeting until after the battle to preserve that one.
BTW I assume we all see how well the KofC would get along with the Oorstemothians, yes?
The Inferno could have its work cut out for it.
Bwah hah hah hah
Hi,
Now that the manuscript is with the editor I can’t make changes or check minor errors until it comes back from her.
Big changes like replacing entire sections can be sent to her if she hasn’t reached that section yet; and that’s what I am doing for the ending/last chapters.
Smaller changes/mistakes should be put in this forum so that when I get the manuscript back, I can check to see if she caught the errors here and correct them.
T-A-G
Hi,
I expect Beta 4 to appear next week.
I have started writing it but there is a lot of setup and planning for me to do to keep it tight, yet satisfying.
I will have some cleanup of Beta 3’s revamped chapters and then continue on with the KofC Battle.
I’ve decided to just not discuss the happenings with Hilda/Jenn, Gastrope’ and the rest until Book 3.
So the last chapter(s) will focus on the crew at Mount Doom only. There will probably be some beta 3 chapter revisions for more Lillith/Sentir/Aodh discussion. It will also open the next chapter in the Ruiden saga and hopefully explain more of where his journey/quest comes into play. As I’ve said, there is more to him than just questioning people about Talarius and Tom.
One nice thing is that this section will start formally tying out where the Nyjyr Ennnead fit in terms of taking sides (of course, it was clear they were not going to side with Tiernon but…)
T-A-G
No prob.
Beta 3 and 4 really only change the last 4 or so chapters. I think there is an insertion in 106 and then 109.x to the end.
Check the notes. At the moment Beta 4 takes off from the almost end of beta 3. I move the Tizzy scene to very end again, but insert the KofC Battle discussed in B3. B3 removes the B2 non-battle, so all the whiny demons from Doom’s Redoubt, add in the USSR anthem and then “crap we are under big/huge attack” B4 is the big huge attack.
Beta 4 is now released….
I am very happy with it. Happier than previous editions, certainly. I hope you guys will be too. You get your battle! I had fun with it.
So…at this point, I recommend considering this a “redo” of beta 3.
Meaning:
Assuming you’ve read Beta 2; follow the instructions for Beta 3! [color=red][b][or just read below][/b][/color]
If you’ve read Beta 3, read the instructions for Beta 3! [color=red][b][or just read below][/b][/color]
Meaning 106.65 is new from Beta 2; but was in Beta 3. You do not however need it for Beta 4; but it will come up in Book 3.
If you’ve read Beta 2; Captain Asmeth and friends are now gone from Book 2. No need to reread something that is not there anymore. They are just gone. Swallowed by a CoD! {Not true—don’t panic fans of Asmeth!} Just relocated to book 3.
Start at Chapter 109 and read until the end (or the part where it says DoA will continue in….)
The book is now longer. There are 115 chapters now. With the Asmeth stuff gone, it got shorter, but is now still longer than it was with Asmeth by about 10,000 words.
You can get it from the same link as [url=http://www.astlan.net/TheBooks/TheHeavenlyHostBeta.aspx]before.[/url]
The 2nd edition of the first book…some of these posts in this thread are a bit old…
No “current” plans for a second edition of the 2nd book. Particularly because I have the technical editor working on the first edition this time rather than after publication.
So…first edition, second volume is now at the editor. She is booking 8 weeks, last time she came in early, we shall see. Fortunately, she works mostly sequentially so if beta demons have updates towards the end, we should be safe. Probably should have had this discussion sooner and got her working sooner….Nargh.
The second book is going to the editor today the great beta session took a bit a little bit longer than planned (because I’d never done one before).
Until she has a good first look at it she won’t have a hard estimate of the time and even then there are some variability.I will announce the book/start pre-orders once I get it back and thus have a good idea on the release date.
Right now it looks the second half of September.
Super!
It was just the timing delay. I hurried the process, you should be able to see the extra forums now.
Go to the Heavenly Host |Latest Version forum and the main topic has a link to the latest version which is Beta 3!
T-A-G
Aaron Sorkin knows the language quite well.
I am not sure I remember “brackets” and “braces” as a punctuation symbol though. I am going to have to their usage up. I only know them from math and programming.
Yes it is very reminiscent of that.
I no longer remember for sure, but there is a good bet I chose the name Eton for that continent based on the school’s name. At the time I would have come up with it, my friends I were watching lots of Monty Python and similar British shows of the time period.
The Etonians as a pantheon came a bit later based on the continent and it was all tied out, I remember wanting something aristocratic sounding for this group but again so long long long ago that I don’t remember for sure.
