SW10/HCC: Summer of Discontent #4: The Myth
Andrew Perron
pwerdna at gmail.com
Mon Sep 26 13:13:26 PDT 2011
On Sep 18, 8:20 pm, Scott Eiler <sei... at eilertech.com> wrote:
> "We know Americans will gain it sometime this year. We *believe* they
> gained it six days ago."
>
> "Why did it not come *here* the way I summoned?"
>
> "It was destined for the city of New York in December. You were mighty
> to even divert it to June. But the place is still New York."
...did I miss a bit of exposition here?
> Swordhand said, "What you *mean*, dead?" His energy blades extended
> from his hands.
>
> "American swordsman. You challenge me in my throne room. Your life is
> forfeit." The Dragon King drew his own swords.
>
> In less than a minute it was over. Rad Man and Rolling Thunder used
> their own energy powers against their enemy, but they'd been weakened by
> a month of captivity. Swordhand was dead.
Maaaaaan! What a rip.
> "*This* says I will!" Before he could speak, the Asian visitor held her
> amulet up. "The *true* Dragon King of Vietnam sliced your Demon Dogfish
> ancestor into three pieces, and cast its *corpse* into the sea! *You*
> are descended from whatever fertilized its floating eggs!"
Interesting.
> Rad Man spoke aside to Rolling Thunder, "What's an amulet got to do with
> anything?"
>
> "Some magic treasure hunt crap, the way things work..."
Heh heh heh.
> The engineers of The Trillions were working in the control room. They
> looked curiously at the intruders for two seconds, then went back to
> work. The U.S. party quietly found one unoccupied computer station.
> The Marine with the computer plugged a cable in. Five minutes later, he
> quietly said, "Got it!"
...you know, this whole time, I've been vague on what they're actually
trying to *do*.
> One Marine broke in. "My dad told me, Vietnamese had amulets for lots
> of stuff. Lots of them were in the name of their real king. Lac Long
> Quan. The Commies must have taken away lots of the old amulets. This
> fake king must have tracked down all the other ones he could find.
> Except this old one. It just made the difference."
Interesting. Makes sense, though I'd have figured a dollop of actual
magic in there.
> I *do* have disposable characters: two hundred or so from the archives.
> And I can always make more. But they will not sell their lives
> cheaply. I hope I made the disposition of Swordhand and the nameless
> Marine both mean something.
Neither death was cheap, definitely. However, I think they both
needed more buildup; in particular, I would've liked to see some setup
for the whole "weakened in captivity" thing.
> I often get concepts which demand to be included in stories. The
> artifact from 1911 is one such. Its story is not even started. Look
> for it in December.
Aha. I think I see?
Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, doot doot doot doo
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