Katzaniel

I haven't checked out the word association thread, but this is really neat. An interesting story, to spawn from just a list of words. And you better have some plan for that blank comic book, because I want to find out the answer eventually! As for "Snoopy"... perhaps he could compare his comic to newspaper comics like Snoopy and Calvin & Hobbes... or accuse someone of being snoopy... or incorrectly mention "snoopy doggy dog"

....You see why I don't like silent accusations? They totally separate IC and OOC thinking. "Looked at him funny", indeed. And Vahk... you're supposed to put that in the IC thread as an OOC. You can put it here, too, but it's easiest for everyone if all accusations are in the same place. Thanks.

Rootmaker tried to formulate an answer, to address the way that Mattias had acted suspiciously, and protest that he, too, wanted them to succeed. But he couldn't think of a way to explain this properly. By the time he had his answer, he looked up to find Mattias with Yeager and Megwyn. He strode over to the group and spoke. "I apologize, Mattias, but I am hardly the first to suspect that it is one of our group to be the reason for these deaths. I want us to succeed as much as anyone, I am here without the bidding of the entmoot, simply because I recognize the need to destroy this ring, and even the urgency of it, a concept I am slowly beginning to understand. The world is changing, Mattias, evil is growing, and even I can see that we need to stamp out that evil before good can thrive. We need to find the traitor in our midst, or we will never succeed." "But what did I do?" protested Mattias when Rootmaker lasped into silence. "You? Of course it's just speculation, but I said that when I remembered how I'd seen you looking oddly at Raus, early in the journey. And then he wound up dead."

BTW, when I say Rootmaker's words are echoing, I don't mean that he's speaking at, say, the level of a human shout, or even regular speech. Definitely well above a whisper though. I'm not much of one for silent accusations, so I'm hoping this can get more talking going, to Rootmaker himself if nothing else. Also, Tanny, there might be less confusion about Rootmaker if you editted the "wife" out of your scorecard. At the same time, I'm going to edit my original description of [him] to indicate the change.

"So many deaths," mourned Rootmaker in a rumbling tone. His words softly echoed down the hallways of Moria, small forewarning for the echoing that would go on all day in the thoughts of the others in the party. "We knew there would be casualties," he said, "but so many deaths, so soon." "Rootmaker, please, can't you speak a little quieter?" chided Falmar. "There is still much danger in these halls. We don't want to add more deaths to those that have already occurred." "Oh, sorry," he replied, though his voice was not made for whispering. He fell silent, wondering to himself whether the party could even make it to their destination with so few to protect the ringbearer, and wondering also what would happen if the ringbearer were to be left behind like Raus or Stoomp, or indeed any of the lost had been. He fell into himself as they walked, and though his ponderings took hours compared to the quick conclusions that other races were capable of making, he then wondered about the accusations that had been flying around the past couple of days. Who had been the first to accuse whom, and for what apparent reasons? "Mattias looks suspicious," he murmured, and though he tried to speak quietly, only to those near him, it too echoed in whispers down the hallway. OOC: Vote for Gryphon / Mattias

Let's see, we've got Mynx and Patrick as pirates, and Sweet, Gyrfalcon and Gryphon as ninjas. If you're willing to be either, Gwai, then I suppose we might take advantage of that, but you're certainly "allowed" to be a ninja, and besides, let's wait a few days and see. I'm hoping that Tam will sign on, and if he does I'm expecting it'll be as a pirate. There might be others, too. (Besides, we all know that ninjas move faster... of course the first few sign-ups favour ninjas! )

It does occur to me that a sample wouldn't go amiss. (Someone always asks me for one eventually... this time I'll pre-empt that by actually thinking of it on my own!) Both sent to me via PM: Pirate: I duck down, and a little to my right, and aim a devastating blow with my cutlass at my enemy's knees! Ninja: I'll jump into the air and use both hands to strike downward into the pirate's head, splitting him in two.. My result, sent to the pirate via PM: Since the ninja's knees aren't there at all, and the pirate's head is considerably lower than expected, neither hits right on. But the ninja's strike *does* continue downward for a glancing blow at the pirate, and since it's hitting his head it's going to hurt more. Ninja: No change in status Pirate: Loss of 10 hitpoints The final result, posted in the thread: One-eyed Bob is getting tired of this fight. He's bleeding from one shoulder and barely using his left knee. He readies himself for a devastating blow, ducking and lunging forward, only to discover that Sun Tzao has jumped into the air. Bob isn't ready for the two-handed strike that descends and slices off his left ear, and he curses while preparing his next attack. Note that the fact there was a hit and the actual HP damage would both have been rolled, with the chance of the hit dependent on the respective positions of the ninja and the pirate, and the aimed strike, and the chance of damage dependent on the fact that it was head that was hit. But, I'm hoping that you won't have to worry much about the actual system, and that I can just figure out based on your text description how it would pan out.

I agree that the fight is certainly not as such a fight would probably go, since ninja's style of fighting would involve the pirate being dead before he knew there was a fight. But I'm going to try to make this as even as possible by doling out slight shifts in abilities that align to the pirate/ninja types... you know, give out this ability, balance it with that, et cetera... and hopefully it will be balanced and fun, if not quite true to life.

See the following post for the current environment of the carnival. Stories There once was... - Tell a story based on a picture. Use this, don't use that! - write stories about a theme, not using certain words Guess Who - Write an anonymous story and then help us guess which story was written by which person In a country far, far away - Continue a story Black Box - Writing a description of an item felt without sight and guessing at the answers to those descriptions Poems Elimination poetry - Post and vote... and try to survive Lewd Lines - Scarlett-Pen worthy poetry Last to First - poetry where the last line of the previous poem becomes the first line of the new poem Broken Dreams - Reconstruct a 'broken' poem Building - Fill in the gaps to create a poem Elephants in the fridge - Write haikus about an elephant in the fridge! RP Pirate versus Ninja - RPd fight The Prairie Sheep Hurtle - Sheep pillow fight Ge-olographic Carnival Setting Circuit - change the carnival's setting for a limited amount of time Bachelorette Auction - sign up ladies! Smoke Cloud Sky Lift Flying Lessons - Learn how to fly from CheerMynx! Carnival Contest Judging Contest Other Most Common Words Scavenger Hunt Item Auction Edited by Gwai to add a booth22/05 Edited by Patrick 26/05 Katz 27/05 Patrick again 28/05 Mynx 01/06 Gyrfalcon 02/06 Mynx 03/06 Mynx 06/06 Gyrfalcon 07/06 Gyrfalcon 08/06 Gyrfalcon 26/06 Wyvern 7/15/06 Wyvern

I'm calling this a carnival thread even though I had the idea a long time ago, and it really has nothing to do with the carnival, per se... But hey, that's what the carnivals are all about, really. You just decide to go ahead with ideas that you've been on the edge of running, and then everyone gets geld for it, and it's all fun. So, since this one's probably going to be a lot of work for each of you, I'll say 30 geld for participating. Maybe 40, depending on how long these go. Nothing extra for winning. The idea here is that we get to actually test the Pirate versus Ninja fight. Pick your side, and I'll pair y'all up. I'm hoping against hope that there will be the same number of people wanting to play each type, but if not... if not... well, maybe y'all can help me figure out what to do then. Perhaps a ninja versus ninja, or maybe a two-pirates against a super-tough ninja, or some such. I'm going to assume a face to face fight, here, and no running away. You start facing each other. The ninja is faster, the pirate is tougher. You get cerain bonusses, like a ninja can disappear a few rounds, and the pirate can take a swig of rum and hit for more damage for a few rounds. I haven't worked this out completely yet, but I'm sure Tamaranis will help me. Each round, you both PM me what you want to do, and I translate it into a system I've set up (which I'm sure will need kinks worked out). Only the first few seconds will matter anyway, but basically there's different chances of things happening based on how you try to move and where your opponent is. There is no "dodge" since you don't know where your opponent is attacking you, and it will work best if you either attack or shield as well as move. Movement will be translated into basically rolling (which increases hit chance), ducking (if you're hit, you get hurt less because it'll be on the legs, but you can't attack effectively), moving left or right, standing, or jumping. A jump for a pirate lasts a single round before you have to land (standing or ducking) but a ninja can stay in the air for two turns (this might be a single-use ability, I haven't decided yet). I suppose you could retreat a bit, too. Anyway, you shouldn't need to understand the system too much, especially since I'm only relying on it when common sense fails, but you each PM me what you intend to try to do for the next turn, and then I decide based on both of your movements/attacks what actually happens, and then I foist the actual writing onto one of you. You'll take turns receiving from me both descriptions and the result, and then writing it up in a paragraph or two. Um.. now I'm sure I've made a bungle of describing that, since there's bits that I'm not sure about myself just yet, and it's kind of complicated. But I'm going to start sign up, and hopefully I've described it well enough that you'll at least know what sort of questions to ask. EDIT: For your convenient reference: Character Title Effect Comments Uses Ninja Appear behind Takes one turn to use, but protects you for both that turn and the next You disappear and reappear immediately behind your opponent. S/he takes a moment to react. Once Pirate Parrot storm Takes one turn to use, but protects you for both that turn and the next Your parrot distracts your opponent - s/he may die for it, though. Once Ninja Turn invisible Your opponent cannot cause you damage for the next three turns. You disappear into thin air. Once Pirate Take swig Your opponent cannot cause you damage for the next three turns. You take a large gulp of alcohol, which enables you to ignore the wounds you incur. Once Ninja Shurikens of DOOOM Does double damage for the current attack - not guaranteed to hit Throw a storm of shurikens along with your regular attack Thrice Pirate Hook attack Does double damage for the current attack - not guaranteed to hit Use your hook to great advantage during a regular attack. Thrice Ninja Attack sequence Takes two turns to prepare - your opponent will therefore have warning - and a turn to recover, but does 5 times the damage. You move around in a fancy fashion and shout words in another language, and then call lightning from the sky... or some such. Then you make your bow. Once Pirate Shoot Takes two turns to prepare - your opponent will therefore have warning - and a turn to recover, but does 5 times the damage. You set up your great big honking gun and take a shot at your opponent, then suffer the kickback. Once

10 geld for each round you survive. (Which means 10 just for participating). May 15th-22nd: Post a poem. In whatever style you wish. May 22nd-24th: PM me your vote of whom to eliminate. This person could be the person that you think wrote the worst poem... or it could be the person that poses a threat to you because you think they wrote the best poem. Or somewhere in between. Based on the number of votes and on the number of participants, some number of contestants will be told to go on. May 24th-31st: Second round contestants post a second poem. May 31st-June 2nd: Second round contestants vote again. Hopefully by this point we can be down to 3-5 people. June 2nd-9th: 3rd round poems June 9th-11th: 3rd round voting June 11th: Winner or winners announced If too many people play, or too few people vote, or there are too many ties or something, I may add a round. Now, I have no idea how this will run. Most likely the best poet will not win. I think it may be fun, but just a warning: enter at your own risk, and don't be insulted if you're voted out early.

The day started like any other for Inbi. She woke up when the sun's rays managed to navigate their way into the cave in which she was sleeping. Then she went into the forest, caught and prepared some breakfast, and ate in silence. It was only when she made her daily trip into the Pen Keep that she realized how different today was going to be. For there, already setting up their caravans, was Dain and the other carnies. "Dain! Wow, it's so good to see you! How are you? And... er... where have you been?" "Wow, Inbi, it's been quite a year. We've been so busy! We love the Pen as much as ever, but we're having such success everywhere we go, that we haven't been able to make it as fast as usual. We haven't reached a consensus yet, but there's a possibility that we're going to change our route schedule permanently, and only go to each place about once a year." "That's great news for you guys, I guess..." murmured Inbi, unsure what else to say. "Well, anyway, we're glad to be here again. Much changes around here?" "A few. Look, we haven't had much time to prepare... mind if we get started, announcing things and setting up our own booths and whatnot? We'll have more time to chat once everything's set up." "Sure, sure. Go ahead. And then I can introduce you to some of the new carnies we've picked up during our travels." Once the guildleaders had consulted, they realized that to make this carnival successful, they should encourage members to run their own booths, even more so than in the past. They erected the following sign: OOC: If you do start a booth, please PM us with the link so that we can add it to our list of events. OOC2: Sorry, I promised to do this at least a week ago, and I have to leave... so no time to correct Dain's speech to the way he actually talks. Also, expect a booth or two of my own and the beginnings of a list of links as soon as I can get back online. OOC3: Oh, and we're revolving this roughly around a theme of places/travelling. Booths don't have to have any relation to the theme, but if they do, cool. You will, however, notice changes in the "item" auction to reflect this, and possibly other things too.

I have IPB 2.1 Default selected, but I guess it's not the skin after all because I can see it now. I'm on the same computer (I love having a laptop) but a different internet connection... I'm not sure what that means the problem is, but as long as it's just me (and just sometimes) I won't worry. I just thought when I didn't see it that perhaps the skin itself had something wrong.

Didn't expect that? Didn't I post saying that I would? Beside, you can't have an Ent in the party and expect him to cower away from a threat like that. I had enough trouble explaining why he didn't attack immediately

... Am the only one currently missing the sword image from the blue skin? (That big one that used to be at the top of every page)

Rootmaker was having trouble keeping up. The humans - and the rest, too - had a tendency to rush things. He'd been taken by surprise when, the very day after the council had taken place, the company was already setting out. That's all right, for he had nothing to pack. But the way that they rushed forward each day (walking painfully slow in comparison to his own long gait, but not taking a moment to rest, either) and spoke so quickly, and grew angry over little things... it was all difficult for Rootmaker to take in. When the Wargs attacked, he watched for a moment, trying to gauge what they were going to do. He wasn't used to having to attack first, for very little could hurt him. It took a while for him to notice the struggles going on beneath him - Mattias and Seothen and the rest fighting for their very lives - but when Filk climbed into his branches for the second time since he'd left the ent forest, Rootmaker finally moved. A step, a hit, another step, another dead Warg. He wasn't the only one dispatching the wolves with ease, so it didn't take long before they were all gone. Rootmaker sighed. "Now, let's get back to that break..." he said slowly.

Please, people, even if it is a random vote, don't say so. It gives out-of-character information that might alter the course of the game. For the same reasons I will not divulge whether I have refrained from posting because it's part of some grand scheme (mwa-haha) or whether I simply haven't had time (egad)... but I will say that I intend to get a post in about 5 or 6 hours from now. PS. I suspect Rootmaker will make quick work of those Wargs once I do...

If it would help, I could also ask questions about the Innocents... Tanny, was Treebeard extra tall then? I can't remember this so well.. in fact I'm regretting choosing an Ent because they'll be way easier to screw up (as I already did in forgetting about the Entwives) but it's too late now. I don't suppose you can reference me to some (relatively) quick reading on them? Perhaps the book and chapter when we first meet Treebeard?

Not sure how y'all are going to respond to a hulking tree entering the hall, so I didn't even try. Rootmaker is going in, though. (And short for a tree... not quite so tall as Treebeard was. Maybe just under 3/4 the height. Which is... help me out here... how tall?) Oh, and Does this mean they can choose to use the ring instead of, or in addition to, the nightly killing?

Rootmaker stared at the elf who stood in front of, and slightly under, him. "I cannot doubt that one of Elrond's elves would speak the truth," he intoned, "and yet this news is grave indeed... so very hard to believe..." "You come at the right time, Entish friend, for tomorrow night Elrond is holding a council to discuss this very problem. Please, stay. We will find some accomodations for you, and perhaps you can still be of use." "The entmoot decreed that I was only to come and speak to the elves, and only that much because of the debt that we owe you. I can stay a little longer, but then I must go back to the entmoot and inform them of this new information." "You needn't worry about that, friend Rootmaker. We'll send a messenger back in your place. Having the help of an Ent, though, is a grand surprise, and worth much more than one messenger in these troubled times." "What, just like that, Larinon? Don't you need to consult with Elrond? With the rest of the elves?" "I know that this is exactly what they would wish." "Well, I don't know what the Ents would wish. I will need to communicate with them." "Rootmaker. You know what your kind is like. If you go back now, it might take years before another Ent is sent to help us. The threat of Sauron is real, and imminent. We need your help now." "I can't make a decision that quickly! I need to think." "Think fast, friend. Go, take tonight to feast, and then attend the meeting tomorrow. But you haven't much longer than that to ponder the situation." Rootmaker nodded. He would feast with the elves tonight, at least. After that... well, it would be the hastiest thing he'd ever done. But Larinon did have a point. If there was going to be Ent help in the coming disaster, then it would have to be him.

Nah, I don't want to start anything that would be hard to explain. And I'm perfectly capable of playing a male (or at least I think I am ). (Well, as Tam says... at least to the same degree that I'm capable of playing a tree.)

Sorry, I'll try really hard to post tonight or tomorrow.. haven't read the game thread yet so I hope this isn't moot (no pun intended) but yeah, I forgot about the Entwives thing. Er.. should I just be male? I can't remember specifically, they had all left or something, right? Maybe we'll just switch that around. Okay, I'll play a regular (male) Ent.

Yes, yes I think I will. "The name's Rootmaker, ma'am, at your service. We'll carry this ring of yours, we will, for we recognize that the whole of the world is at danger here." Rootmaker resembles a short, bulky sort of tree. She was actually sent out only as a messenger to inform the elves that an entmoot was underway and that something bad seemed to be happening. When she arrived here she discovered that the danger was worse than the ents knew, and so she decided she'd be more useful by staying and offering aid. It's the most hasty thing she's ever done, but then again, as she'll often lament, the world is changing. An elf was sent to inform the entmoot of the new information, but Rootmaker knew that if she went herself, she'd be dragged into the discussion and no one would be sent in time. Note that this is now changed in that Rootmaker is now male, in accordance with there not really being any Entwives anymore...

I don't want to seem pococurante, but I just don't see why I should care. (Er, that's not *me* talking. Just some person. I mean, I just realized how that sentence, alone, might look like I'm trying to be witty and insulting or something.)

Hey, is anyone an Ent yet? I haven't thought of a character yet, but I suppose I ought to post here anyway telling y'all what I told Tanny, ie that I'm in.