Steingeweser (87876)

Discussion about The Never Ending Quest.

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JH
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Post by JH »

Thanks.

So the light source would be "inside" the kettle, and the reflected light would emerge as a beam through the hole where, in a real kettle, one would pour in the water to fill it?
JH
Anableps
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Post by Anableps »

Yes, that would be the case. In the case of creating a directed beam, Gloria would need some way of getting the powder at the focus. The way I would do it is mount a tripod inside the "kettle". There would have to be something in the kettle that would hold the base of the tripod's legs in place. The apex of the tripod would be at the focus. At the apex I would place a glass bulb with the magic powder. The powder would then glow, and the mirror would create a beam coming from the mouth of the "kettle". There are other ways of doing this, too.

I also had another thought. Gloria is about a day's travel behind Astra now - and she might be able to make better time with fewer people in her group. She could attempt to signal to Astra in some way using the mirror if the day is clear and she gets closer.
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89312 - thoughts

Post by Anableps »

Balischo serves as a sort of point-of-view character. He is not dumb, but some of Gloria's items are going to be oddly described by him, as they are not part of a hunter's life. Here is what I was basing some of the items in this episode on.

One possible explanation behind the "heptillion" is that it is constructed like a kaleidoscope. I am thinking at this point, Gloria is thinking that the "heptillion" is similar to something that she has seen, but she cannot quite bring it to mind, and if she thinks about it, the object might come to her.

Somewhere there is a reflective device that contains objects that uses hypnosis to lull the traveller into a trance. It does not have to be a mirror, though. A reflecting flower, or manipulation of the optical properties of air, would make for an interesting story. Gloria quite possibly knows the principles behind the kaleidoscope, and it probably would not be difficult for her to construct a simple one. A seven-pointed star should be asymmetrical in some way, as the standard kaleidoscope image has n-fold symmetry about its axis, where n is some even number.

Another thought that I had was that the unnamed wizard in episode 8 is a loose end. As the story tracks through episode 15 and not 16, this wizard does not have to be Belboz. It would make sense to me if he knew something about the science or magic of manipulating light. That fact would explain some of the strange lighting effects in the cave in some of the early episodes.
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89564

Post by Anableps »

I added an episode to the steingeweser thread. One difficulty that I had with this episode is that there is information that the reader knows about that cannot be known in Themyscria at this point. I read some of the earlier episodes and Astra did not convey a vision as to how the dragon came to an end - and even if she had, it is unlikely at this point that Vedagaisic would have the insight to connect it to Simon unless he the information that Simon had a couple of magic spells.

I did want an explanation as to how Simon got the knowledge of how to create a steingeweser, and the knowledge of how to make a spark to create a fireball, which he passed on to Anselm. I did not put it in the story, but Penny probably told Simon, "I should not be telling you this, but if you run into a tight spot with the dragon I know a couple of tricks that may help you out."

I do not think that Penny would tell Vedagaisic that she broke a rule and gave Simon some magical aid as that would get her into trouble with the masters of the college, and so I put the information in the narration.
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Post by JH »

Welcome back!

Astra would not have been conscious at the point that the Dragon died, if I remember correctly, as her own transformation occurred before his demise and it was at night. I suspect that she would only be capable of conveying in a vision something that she herself had seen, whereas for how the Dragon had died she would only know what Fred (and possibly the others) had told her. In 88754 she just shows the dragon dead. As she needed to simplify things to compress her story into a reasonably small number of "snapshots", Simon probably wouldn't have featured at all.

I'm justing reading the episode now. I like it. "Astra had not conveyed a vision [see 89564]" That's the wrong episode number. 89564 is the number of the new episode! "about the end of the dragon [see 87577]" And that number is wrong too, as that episode does not seem to exist.

I've already written the first paragraph of my continuation. Subject to later amendment, it currently reads:

"Oh," Vedagaisic said. "Then I can see why you wish for news of him. I'm afraid that I can't help you, though. Viani - she is our shaman - received most of Astra's visions, and I imagine that she wouldn't have been able to pass on all the details. In any case, Viani only discussed the visions with our leader Radagaisic and three of our elders.[88858] All I know is that the dragon is dead, and that Astra had some companions who are trapped in a valley in the mountains and need rescuing. To do that our tribe has to pass through the Northern Caves, and deal with whatever bad things we might find there. Perhaps your fiancé is one of those trapped in the valley."
JH
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Post by KnightRandom »

Welcome back! I wasn't around for this whole thread, so it looks like I have a bit of catching up to do. :D
"All spelling errors are to be ingored."--Stephen Ratliff
Anableps
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Episode references

Post by Anableps »

86933 might be the best place to start to review Simon's actions at the Battle of the Dragon's Pond. The action spans a number of episodes.

There are multiple episodes with visions, but the one where Astra tried to convey the dragon's demise was episode 88754. This vision was communicated only to Viani. Coincidentally, that is when I last updated the compilation of the story: http://www.carolinachickadee.org/anable ... weser2.htm . I also corrected some spelling errors and papered over a few minor continuity errors.
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91817 - the long delayed continuation

Post by Anableps »

I have found a couple of hours and a little energy, and I hope that I put it to good use. 91817 had been mostly written out some time ago, but I never quite finished it. I then lost my workstation that had the original episode, so I am going by memory as to what I originally wrote.
JH
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Post by JH »

Welcome back! Nice episode. It's good to have this thread revived. I think I shall have to reread the thread in order to refresh my memory before I can write an extension. Unless you already have something in mind for the next episode that you want to write?
Last edited by JH on Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Anableps
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Post by Anableps »

I have nothing definite in mind. I wanted to get the main body of Aqualarians on the road to get the action moving, and I think that I did that. Do you think that it would be worth trying to introduce a plausible delay for Astra's party so that the main party of Aqualarians can catch up with the Dunchovians? It would make keeping track of the action easier.
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Post by JH »

Yes, that might be worth doing. It shouldn't be too hard to think of a possible reason for a delay.
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Post by JH »

Anableps, I've been rereading the story on your site, as it's quicker and easier than reading the original episodes (though I will have to switch to those when I reach the end of your site's current coverage). I've noticed that you've accidentally left out the option taken from episode 86830, without which it's not clear to the reader what is going on. It needs to be inserted just before your "[55]". Addition: Just discovered that the option is there, but in the wrong place, as it's been put before "[56]" rather than "[55]".

Conversely, the option reading "As she followed the river, she discovered a bridge in the distance, with two people fishing off it" seems to appear too early. I think that's my fault, as I wrote my episode off that option but only reached what was described in your option towards the end of my episode. And I've done the same thing with my next episode as well.
Last edited by JH on Sat Feb 11, 2012 7:38 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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JH
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Post by JH »

On rereading the story, I've noticed that a few minor continuity errors have (almost inevitably) crept in. When Astra is in the valley, I described her as wearing breeches and a shirt, and when she and her companions attacked the dragon while he was bathing in the lake I described them as removing their boots before wading into the water. She wouldn't have had a chance to put her boots back on before she was petrified.

But subsequently, when sliding down the ice on her way out of the valley (and afterwards), she is described as wearing a dress and shoes. It's not really that important, especially as she discards her damaged dress soon thereafter (but retains the boots).
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Anableps
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Post by Anableps »

Thanks for the review. I hope to make the appropriate revisions in the web site sometime in the next week.
JH
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Post by JH »

Thanks. I've finished rereading the story and I now have a new episode about 75% written.

I did wonder if I should go back and edit my episode where Astra gives Viani a series of visions to put across her story, as I'm not sure that as I described them they (or indeed any other visions that she transmitted at different times) make clear that she had companions who needed to be rescued. Of course the subsequent story relies on the Dunchovians realising that this is the case.

A couple of thoughts that I had concerning steingewesers. I wonder if perhaps they don't feel emotions? Astra hasn't been described at any point as experiencing any, that I can remember. I also wonder if they can perhaps detect light via their skin in a similar fashion to the way that we can feel heat, though not to the extent of being able to see. The reasoning behind that is that, if Astra closes her eyes to sleep or for any other reason, I'm not sure that enough light would penetrate her eyelids for her ever to wake up again. It would also prevent an enemy being able to disable her by the simple expedient of putting a sack over her head.

One other thought: if Thomas recovers from his injuries then, if Astra should ever want a sexual partner, it's going to have to be him, as the only other steingeweser known.
JH
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