Gryphon

A shadow slips up to the signup sheet and scribbles a name with a Gryphon Feather Quill: Gryphon. Watchers notice two pale blue gleaming points of light which then vanish as if they'd never been... as the shadow disapates into nothingness taking the quill with it.

This is the craziest kind of pure speculation brought on by nothing more than what's just been posted here, but wouldn't it be amusing if the whole final Harry Potter / Voldemort showdown came down to that same bit of magic? I can see it now: Harry spends his next year hunting down and destroying Voldemort's horcrux's with the ever faithful help of Ron and Herimone, evading Voldemort and his death eaters by the narrowest of margins at every turn, who in turn chases them relentlessly leaving bodies in his wake. Harry and co. destroy the last of the horcrux when Voldemort catches up with them. Horrified, or at least very angry that someone has figured out the whole horcrux thing Voldemort moves to kill Harry, Ron and Herimone before they find and destroy the rest of his horcrux's (without knowing that they already have). Climactic battle scene with Harry and co defying the dark lord who strikes them down one at a time. As Voldemort does this one of Harry's ever faithful friends, knowing that he's their 'last hope' and with all the love their tight-knit friendship has produced weaves the same spell that protected Harry the first time. Voldemort sneers at the 'pathetic attempt' to stop him and hits Harry with his oh so faithful Avada Kedavra only to have it bounce... again. Only this time there are no horcrux to save him and he dies the true death. Harry comes to later with a splitting headache, all his friends dead around him (or at least some of them), hailed as a hero to the entire wizarding community and in his grief at the loss of those nearest and dearest to him goes to hide in the amazon rainforests to raise dragons until Ginny tracks him down (once she's left school) to drag him back to London, marry him and prove that it's safe to love again... the end. ~~~ Nah, like anyone would believe that. Guess we'll just have to wait for the next book. Hurry up please J.K Rowling. Go back to the 1 year gap between books and end the suspense for us we beg of you!

I got it... I read a chapter the first day... no, make that two chapters... I sat down to read a bit more on Sunday night... I put down the book when I completed reading it at 1:20am Monday morning... ... I have got to know what happens in the next one! How long do we have to wait again? That book was so cool, and OMG, Valdar - wasn't it though? I mean that ending? Who'd have thunk it? Crazy. Cool. Yeah. Me obscure? Nah. I just didn't get much sleep last night for some reason.

This is all looking really good. Just a couple of notes here: First, if I don't mind you plotting with others to secure the regency for yourself or a cabal of your allies as long as you CC me in all in game PM discussions - I'm not going to insist on peering over your proverbial shoulders while you're doing character setup and approaching people to see if they want to become your allies, I just need to know the final result of those discussions. Secondly, I've not set a time limit on the signup, partly because work is still quite busy for me, partly because I want a relaxed time table so as not to interfere with the Summer Carnival. Once I feel that everyone has had a chance to sign up and maybe lay down some basic alliances I'll open up the game thread and let the power struggle begin.

Patriotism... to me it's pretty much something that happens to other people.

Typically the naming convention is of the house of Merlin of the house of Sawall Corwin of Amber Primarily you'd just be referred to by a single name. That name can be anything. Because of the ability to walk through shadow (alternate realities are called shadows, each being it's own world) names from anywhere can be used. Some names from the books are: Merlin, Corwin, Brand, Fiona, Bleys, Deirdre, Jurt, Despil, Rinaldo (Luke), Caine, Dalt, Jasra, Dara, Mandor... Not all of these are Chaosites, or even in the line to the throne, but as you can see, pretty much any name goes if you want it. If you've any doubts over a choice just PM me Edit: Here's a link that gives a brief timeline of the series: Amber Timeline Please note that if you've not read the books yet, this timeline does contain spoilers that will remove some of the suprises for you should you decide to read the books later.

Just a clarification I thought I might add due to the nature of the game: The character descriptions you post here should reflect the public persona of your character - basically whatever is known about your character by the masses - be that information true and correct or a fabrication carefully set up with intent to be sneaky. If you want to flesh out the sneaky side of your character - skeletons in the closet and what your real agenda is, that should come to me via PM. Also if you feel like just posting to register your interest and the filling in the character later on, feel free to do so. I'm not starting the game quickly because I'd really like to get a bit of character development (or at least some serious scheming) going before the game gets underway officially.

Edit alert!: Please note that the rules of this game have changed since this topic was first created. The setting remains the same, but the new rules can be found here. --- Merlin, King of Chaos stood on a rocky outcropping surveying his kingdom under a sky of shifting colour without a sun. Despite having come reluctantly to the throne so many centuries ago, he felt that he had thus far acquitted himself adequately, perhaps even well. It was only natural then, when things were going so smoothly that the forces of the universe should once again align to make life difficult. It appears that a king's duty is never done. Turning from his revery Merlin strode forth with purpose, his mission and business his own... ~~~ Welcome one and all, scions of the noble houses of Chaos! As members of your various noble houses you are all in line for the throne of Chaos, and with our Liege being absent we must prepair for one of you to take on the position of regent to the throne until his return. I know you all have the affairs of your own houses to take care of, however the saftey of the realm is paramount, so I urge you to put aside your ancient enmities and consider who among you would be a good strong caretaker for the throne until such time as King Merlin returns. ~~~ OOC: Welcome to the WereWolf XXIII signup and OOC thread. In this game you are going to be treated to some time the royal court of Chaos. As you sign up, take the time to create a character that would feel at home in a scheming high court environment populated by wizards, weapons masters, merchant princes and a myriad of other politically powerful beings. All of you are somewhere in the line of succession to the throne and by extension heir's to or successors of your own family's estates and titles. Feel free to play any type of character that you can fit into such an environment, after all the name of the game is survival. Whether you do it by blade, magic, moneys or simply by poisoning all the opposition is up to you (and your clan who will support you naturally). ~~~ The World: If you're not familiar with the Courts of Chaos and the books of Zelazny it doesn't matter - you can treat this as nothing more than a WW game set in a court somewhere. The main difference is that in the Courts of Chaos everyone can shapeshift (this is a natural ability), the two preferred forms being human or demonic. Other forms can be achieved but doing so takes a lot of practice and patience, and those familiar with your character would likely still be able to recognise you. If you are familiar with the books and you want to know about using anything peculiar to Zelazny's world, just PM me and check that it's ok. ~~~ The Game: Most of your characters, will be happy to continue the status quo and have a regent hold the throne until the eventual return of the King. The wolf (wolves) however see this as an excellent opportunity to seize the throne! Of course once they have power all they need to do to keep it is make sure that Merlin never makes it back to take his throne... but that's for them to worry about after this game is played out. The seer has access to (either personally or through their clan) a powerful scrying object which they can use to spy on one person a night bypassing all attempts to obscure the truth. The baner and his clan have resources, hidden or otherwise, that allow them to give flawless protection to whomever they choose. I'm adopting the day phase = 48 hours, night phase 24 hours layout, subject to the occational time extension because my work in RL is erratic at the moment. ~~~ The Twist: Lastly, because this is a high court after all, plotting and backstabbing is a standard fixture. The fight for who becomes regent and commands the power that entails should be as vigourous as the fight of the wolves to become King. PM alliances are allowed as long as a copy of all PM's come to me. However, it's not just villagers vs wolves, it's also to see who gets the regency! Ideally I'd love to see the potential for political intrigue come to the fore with each participant working to push their case as best option for regent and working to discredit each other. Alliances can be created or destroyed as you see fit. I'm not sure how well it'll work, but my concept is that should the villagers win, s/he who has the most supporters in a vote will take the regency. If the wolves take it and more than one wolf survives they either work together to ensure that they keep their hard won kingdom or they get to fight it out between them. ~~~ So, before I manage to complicate things further... (hope I've not scared anyone off!) let the signups begin.

My use of Gryphon goes way way back... I think it was... maybe 1995 give or take a bit, I got my hands on my first modem against my parents objections and I started hooking up to local dial-in bulletin boards. My first choice of nick back then was Dragon and you'd not believe how popular a nickname that was... well maybe you would, but back then in particular on the local BBS's around here every second fantasy and / or kung fu (read Bruce Lee) fan was calling himself Dragon, so my chances of getting that was slim to non-existant... So I started hunting through the names of other mythological beasties that inspired me, and to be honest there were not many that grabbed me until I thought of gryphons. I started using Gryphon everywhere, and it was going quite well until I ran into my first Griffin... who later turned out to be a friend of mine... I still to this day don't know who started using it first, but since it was his bulletin board that I was on and the similarity between our names was causing confusion Skydancer was born. Somewhere around this same time I joined my first AD&D group and my first characters name was Gryphon. The people in that group only knew me from my time on their BBS so I was Gryphon to them in both character and in person, and it just spread from there. Now I answer to 'Gryphon' as readily as I answer to my given name. In fact, usually better since when someone yells out "Gryphon" on the street, chances are I'm the only one they're talking to.

Gryphon approaches the booth with quiet dignity. "I'm afraid that there is no such thing as acceptable swimwear for gryphons, and I look simply terrible with wet feathers, however if you'll have me, I'd like to volunteer to help with judging the contestants."

I used to dabble - and dabble is all I did to be honest. I still like to play a bit now and then, I used to do dynamic web pages using asp or cfm (with a little bit of cgi-bin thrown in for luck)... Then I got a job and suddenly my spare time dried up. It's so sad when that happens. I can feel the knowledge that I had draining away, being smothered by useless day to day trivia. Maybe I should try for a 'comeback tour'.

I'm always interested in books. Sign me up.

A ghostly image of a Gryphon appears by floating through one wall, he appears rushed and somewhat distracted and he's rubbing his head as though he's got a slight headache but he pauses and surveys the applicant with absent bemusement in his eyes "Sorry I can't stay, I'm dreadfully busy at the moment, but it's good to see you applying here..." The distracted expression clears for an instant as the Gryphon's scrutiny of the applicant sharpens "Feel free to wear your own shape, you'll fit right in. Nothing at all wrong with being a panther mate." Gryphon's placeholder shade floats out through another wall, distracted once more

Happy Birthday Gyr... Hope you had an awesome one.

How curious...

Gryphon sneaks into the Cabaret Room intending to quietly set up for Mynx's birthday to suprise her... Only to stop and stare as he sees a number of well wishers gathered around already wishing her a happy birthday. "But... how... what?..." Seeing Epinephrine standing, with a rather smug look on his face Gryphon gets all the answers he needs and an embarrassed look flashes across his face. "You jinxed the time zones? I wish I'd thought of that last night." ~~~ Ah well, happy birthday Mynx... I know I said I'd set up a thread for your birthday. It seems that a number of people beat me here... I guess I'll have to settle for giving you presents and other happy things in RL instead.

I've been doubly slack lately in writing up the completion of Helga's item, but it's now posted in my QQ thread. I'll make an even more serious effort to move on to the next one quickly... It's either Salinye or Gyrfalcon, I'll have to check my master signup list. Thanks for being patient.

A gift... for Helga Hurtle Bemused Gryphon heads out into the courtyard in his search for Helga to give her magic item to her. It seemed that no-one was exactly sure where Hegla had gone, so Gryphon resigned himself to searching the entire grounds of the Pen for her. One helpful soul had mentioned that he'd seen Helga on her way to the Gardens, though that had been several days ago. In hopes of finding a starting point for his search Gryphon decided to seach the gardens first. With a mighty leap and a sweep of his wings Gryphon headed skyward before circling and gliding off towards the gardens, keeping a sharp eye on the ground beneath him searching for any indication of Helga's passing. A movement near the entrance to the gardens catches Gryphon's eye and swooping lower he sees Helga moving inexorably towards the nearest flowerbeds. Flairing his wings Gryphon lands a short way up the path from Helga and casually walks up to where she is eyeing him with an unreadable expression on her face. "Helga! I'm glad I found you, I've got your gift done... I'm sorry it took so long to finish it, I've been a bit busy and distracted of late." An almost puzzled expression crosses Helga's face. "So long? What do you mean? It's hardly been any time at all." The two stare at each other for a few seconds, each trying to puzzle out time as measured by the other. Moments later Gryphon shrugs, and moves on with the conversation. "Ah, right... Well anyway, I've made this for you." Gryphon hands Helga the pouch and while she examines it he explains it's use: "I noticed that you seem to get a certain burst of energy from flowers, when you eat them I mean. This pouch is for storing a supply of flowers for you to take with you - for when you run out I mean. The spells woven into it will keep anything you put inside preserved perfectly until you take it out again." Gryphon watches as Helga opens the pouch and the magical crackle of pseudo-frost fills the air briefly and Helga looks up at Gryphon. "What an amazing idea! I've never carried extra supplies because the sap needs to be fresh. I shall try it out immediately. Thank you so much." Helga resumes her interrupted journey to the nearby flowerbed and Gryphon smiles at her pleasure as she passes with the new pouch slung over her shell. "My pleasure, now if you'll excuse me, I have other things to craft for other people and I'd best get to it. I dare say some are wondering if I've forgotten." With another leap, Gryphon takes to the sky and as he looks back he sees Helga moving into the flowerbed with purpose in her stride. ~~~

As Patham is walking away from Cryptomancer a small glowing ball appears in front of him and dances away down one of the paths towards the gardens. Being not entirely sure what to expect, nor knowing exactly where Gryphon is to be found Patham watches the dancing light with bemusement as it bounces back and forth until it's strange beckoning motion suddenly makes sence to him and he starts to follow it. A short walk later Patham finds Gryphon sitting at ease on a small ornamental bridge over a stream, lit only by a nearby torch. With a smile and a nod to his visitor, Gryphon indicates that Patham should join him sitting on the bridge. Once he sees that Patham is seated comfortably Gryphon begins to speak quietly. "Greetings Patham, my... activity... for you tonight is one that may aid you in self discovery. I understand you've had basic tuition in meditation from Dana and you've felt the touch of magic when you met Venefyxatu?" Patham nods but remains quiet, uncertain of where this is leading. "I have something that may involve a bit of self discovery for you in mind. Please, relax as though you were going to meditate some more and concentrate on how it felt to have the magic move around you, and listen to the sound of my voice." Gryphon watches Patham carefully as he assumes a position of comfort and the relaxation seems to spread across his features before continuing... "There are many more forms of magic than those practiced by my friend Venefyxatu as you may learn as you spend time with us here at the Pen Keep. A number of those you will encounter, myself included are what we will call elemental mages. As you sit try to sence the magic flowing around you. It may take a while to do, but for this I cannot help you. If you can sence anything that reminds you of the feel of Venefyxatu's magic I want you to concentrate on it." "Once you have the feel of the magic firmly in your mind, focus your sences on it and follow it to it's source. This place is rich with magic, surrounding us are water, earth and air, with fire not far away whenever the torch is lit. Should you be able to touch the elemental magic at all, once you've followed it to it's source you'll know what type or types of element you've an affinity for. Once you know that, come and see me and we can arrange some training for you in using the power you have found." Gryphon allows Patham to sit a while longer in silence before continuing softly. "This sensing the flows for yourself is sometimes difficult and can take some time to master. You are expected to meet Salinye soon, and I would not keep her waiting. This place will always be open to you for your meditations. I only caution you to have care when you're doing this exercise unless in the company of an elemental mage. Until you are trained there is a possibility that a powerful source of magic might overwhelm you, if you have any questions or doubts, I will be availble to ask." Finished speaking Gryphon creates another small globe of light and sets it floating off slowly. "Follow the light, it shall lead you to your next activity, and Patham... I hope you greatly enjoy your birthday."

I expect my workmates (all of whom saw it last night) will come in here an an hour or so and begin to rubbish this movie and tell me how much they all hated it... Sometimes being the only person around who actually really really likes these movies can get a little bit sad. Oh well...maybe they'll have liked this one.

I've not actually looked, but at a guess I'd say 'cyborg' would be fairly close to the mark.

Or instead - do go and see it - because the good things about this movie deserve to be seen on the big screen and if you wait to see it on DVD you'll miss the whole point. Who knows, it might turn out that like me you actually like this movie - and if you don't... well you can just add yourself to the list of people who think that my taste in movies is rotten to the core. What I'm getting from this thread is affirmation of a long standing theory of mine. For every person who loves a movie there'll be another who hates it and vice versa. You see... I loved Episode 3, where I thought that Hitch Hikers Guide blah blah was mediocre at best

As promised, though a little later than I said, I'm underway again. I've now added the creation of an item for Helga Hurtle. I've updated the full list above and will be posting the giving of the item soonish.

In the workshop... for Helga Hurtle Gryphon sits looking out his window, surveying the sky. As he watches a fluffy white cloud drifts across a pale blue sky. Silently he nods to himself and moments later, the winged mage is heading for the courtyard where he takes to the sky with a mighty leap. With powerful wingstrokes Gryphon climbs quickly towards the heavens, feeling the air slowly chill around him as he drives himself higher still until the air is thin and the icy fingers of the wind begin to feel like tentacles of ice caressing his feathers. A whisper of wind slips past, ruffling his feathers causing a thin layer of frost to form and Gryphon begins to focus his will to draw upon the magical energy that surrounds and penetrates him. Directing the magic by force of will reinforced by a few careful words of power the winged mage sees his talons begin to glow with an icy blue white ghost light in the frozen air. With the flick of a wingtip and the tilt of a wing, Gryphon sideslips through the sky before lashing out with both hands. With a cry of triumph his talons latch onto a frigid strand of the icy wind that curls around him. Seizing the thread of wind firmly, Gryphon folds his wings and plummets towards the ground far below with the tattered remnants of the frozen air still gripped firmly in his glowing talons. As he falls, Gryphon reshapes the magic causing it to enfold the frosty air, containing it and confining it in chains of magic. The frost continues to form on his feathers from his proximity to the ball of frozen air and Gryphon falls rapidly toward the earth. With a snap he opens and flares his wings, with a powerful downstroke to arrest his fall, moments later the winged mage lands lightly on the ground in the courtyard, still clutching his prize then hurries off to his workshop. Working quickly, Gryphon takes a length of raw silk and begins to weave the essence of cold into the fabric, pinning the magic containing the frozen breeze carefully into the weave of the silk, careful to make sure the threads of magic are not left lose to risk the unravelling of the spell. Slowly a layer of ice seems to form over the silk which crackles everytime it is touched. Finally taking up a needle of magic Gryphon works the silk into the shape of a rough pouch noting with amusement the way the pseudo-ice crackles over the surface and the faint blue colour that seems to eminate from inside the newly formed pouch where darkness alone should reside. Satisfied with his work, and aware that he should have completed it considerably sooner, Gryphon takes the pouch and sets off to try and locate Helga Hurtle. ~~~

Having seen it... I want more... much much more. I've long been the first to admit an addiction to Star Wars, I've even defended it when it was less than well received in the wake of Episode 1... Bah! I didn't know the meaning of the word addiction, until now. Obviously given by bias in favour of Star Wars my love of this episode probably wont carry much weight, but my only regret is that having transformed (what I now realise was) my mild craving into a full blown addiction... there's no more! There exists the possibility that I'm going to go mad over this.