General Table Talk

If necessary, yes.

It al sounds good to me. However, until just now, I was unaware that Fleur took anyone with her, nor did I realize Epona was assigned as her shield grog. AFAIK, Epona was a private employee of Vibria. I suppose Fleur has the option to hire her. I just figured she was waiting around for her boss to return.
However, she has no status in the Andorran Guard as of yet. If Roberto's defense plan (from 1236) is approved, the offer to become a warrent officer is on the tabe. But if so, that is a responsability much more important than mere shield grog.
Just putting it out there...

Just to add, it should be a short trip. Portal to Harco, then portal to Durenmar. Wadanzee has no portal.
However, Carmen can teleport or fly straight to Wadanzee. She will travel via flying carpet if anyone wants to go with. She plans on heading out directly there as soon as Fleur departs in an attempt to head her off and warn Vulcanus. Though the part about warning him, she keeps that to herself for now.

Fleur took in both Epona (as her shield grog) and Lucia (as her maid) when Vibria left.

Can she serve as Huntmistress and Archer, and detach as a shield grog as required? I don't think Fleur leaves the covenant that often (once this cycle...twice if you count "sell apprentice" on the planner for Summer of 1241).

I am not disputing it. Just saying I was unaware of any official status. In that light, certain other things make sense.
As for shield grogs...
Anyone can personally hire anyone they want. If one desires a shield grog from the Andorran Guard, inform the officer in charge of that and he will assign someone. If you desire someone specific, that can be accomodated.
Having said that, Epona is not part of the guard. If allowed, Roberto would make her a warrent officer, and as an officer the duties of the enlisted are below her status and her skills are too valueable (supposedly) for menial tasks such as being a body guard.
However (I use that word a lot), Epona can do what she wants with her free time. And a Warrent Officer, as a specialist, can take up or set aside their warrent as they please I suppose.
Roberto would not want to recruit her in another capacity. She is not soldier material. Roberto's qualms about female infantry aside, she wouldn't fit into a trained combat team.
So it is either Free Agent or Hunt Master. She cannot have both.
And mind you, I was just trying to find an official capacity out of what I thought was a loose character. Roberto's plan does not involve recruting new people. It mainly involves working with the material on hand already. If he had his way (which he can't), even our scribes would have military rank and martial training.

In my opinion, Harry Potter is better than LotR. I has more character depth and originality. But it is just so campy it makes me wince. That whole flying broom polo game thing....uggggh!!
The Goblet of Fire was a cool movie though. That is the only one I saw all the way through. Other before it in snippets. Never read the books.
As for LotR, I tries reading the first a few times but I can never make it past the thousands of pages of wandering through green hills. I fall asleep within a page. The barrow wight was cool, but Tom Bombadillo is stupid and I just gave up. The movies were okay, over long and also campy, but okay.
Maybe it is the British novel style. Hate Tess of the Dubervils ten times as much. Instant sleep. Moorcock is okay for short stories, and only about Elric. His other work is crap. I heard Hawkmoon was good, never tried it yet.
Maybe I am just hooked on the American literary style. Robert Howard, Stan Lee, Robert Hienlien, Neil Strauss, Ernest Hemmingway. Stuff like that.

I'm ashamedly a reader of all the writers you've mentioned and far more schlock and artistry than that too- Reading is escapism. I'm slowly reading Cormac McCarthy at present and enjoying Larry Niven

The only reasons LOTR doesn't seem original is because it has been copied so often. It was the original.

Mark, you really need to read The Dresden Files. And, bonus points you get to see the main character tromping around and destroying stuff in your home town.

The Spider agrees with him. This is in part how they did it in insidiae.

Totally!!!

Very much seconded.
Dresden Files aren't my favorite series, but they're cool, easy fun, and better on that aspect than some of my favorites. I enjoyed them thoroughly.
Also, it's one of the few series in which there's some aging, which is cool.

I have heard positive things about Dresden. I will check it out.
And I strongly dispute the idea that LotR was the original. The works of Robert E Howard (Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane, Red Sonja) predate Tolkien by 15 to 20 years. Edger Rice. There are tidbits of earlier fantasy, but Howard pretty much invented the "sword & sorcery" genre and popularized it long before Tolkien. And all Tolkien did is take the script from WWII and change the names.

And that Blue Man group...
Total rip-off of the Smurfs!

Oh, I also enjoy all of the Vlad Taltos novels from Steven Brust. There's another series of books done in the same world, but told in a different style of voice that I can't actually tolerate, and one of the Brust novels (Tiassa) uses that fictional narrator in part of the book, so I have to flag that one.

Epona would be honored and delighted to become Huntmistress and Archer (her two strong suits), as long as she doesn't have to do any actual teaching herself. She's a rubbish teacher – just ask Lucia (who she's been taking hunting and camping the last couple of years when they have time).

And her being a Warrant Officer would explain why she's not in the War in the Roses thread. I was going to explain it as "recovering from a training injury", but I like this explanation better.

:slight_smile:

That, too, although I prefer the first ones.
It was a nice change to have a world in which "magic as technology" was implemented, and a welcome change from all the "still purely medieval after 50 centuries" worlds*

  • Actually, this could fly in Ars, given Mythic Europe's physics, but far from the rule, such an explanation is the exception.

Just a heads up. My computer is kaput and I am posting from phone only for the next several days. I should hopefully have it sorted out soon.

You need a new computer bad.

Sorry to hear that the current one has crapped out again.

:frowning: :frowning:
That's not cool. Good luck, marko!

So, I made up a page on the wiki here to try and track the Mercere Portal network. I looked through past posts and some of the source material and have made my best guess as to which covenants have portals and that the connections are. Anyone with better knowledge should take a look and correct any mistakes.

I know we'll never get a comprehensive list. But even a partial list should be helpful.