Shattered Honor – Part Ninety-Six
Chapter: Season Ten
For a little bit of backstory/context: Deyla Hearthborn was Charlie’s character when the group started this campaign. Deyla is the wife of Annabelle, and as a result of Dwayla’s manipulations in a previous adventure, the group broke into the Vault of Deknar below the city of Xag. During the heist, things went sideways and Deyla ended up with the Hand of Fire (a powerful artifact of Deknar’s faith) and when it was all said and done, Deyla was recalled to Deknar and the Chain at the world’s core. Annabelle is… angry.
One Night in Xag – Begins the arc.
The Vault of Deknar – The second half of the arc.
squeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
OOOOOOHHH DAMN!
This I’d say be the question of the whole campaign
Daaaaaaaaamn, son …
“…here to us.”
OOOhh! chuckle.
Well, one thing is for sure; this is ending badly for at least one person.
it’s been so long ago, and for new readers (not me), can we get some context here?
Good point. I added some to the blog post.
“ANNNND that’s our game, see you all next session”
I love how Calvis keeps stumbling over the word ‘wish’, changing it to ‘word’ at the last minute…either using the ‘W’ word automatically makes your next statement a wish, or there’s a kind of compulsion that kicks in as soon as you’re close to saying it.
I thought that at first too, but I’m pretty sure he’s just saying “double-u word” to directly avoid saying wish. You know, like saying “eff word”.
That’s how I interpreted it as well.
Yeah I thought he was staggering too but it’s supposed to be the ‘W’-word, proper noun. I’m nearly certain. Hard to communicate that through text haha.
I don’t think he’s afraid of -automatically- making the statement a wish. I think he’s afraid of the efreeti choosing to translate it to that of its’ own volition to either be malicious or to gain advantage itself.
So, there’s a trick to wishes. Y’see, when you’re -talking- them out, they can be wilfully misinterpretted if they so choose. You might say monkeys’ paw, but you’re wrong. Monkeys’ paw is -maliciously- interpreted, but not misinterpreted. You got what you wanted, in a bad way. However, you might notice the commas in my statement, if you do, you’d realize that those are breaks in the sentences. A willfully malicious djinn or spirit could choose to interpret those as periods which would turn my sentences into jibberish. “I wish for you to aid us, in taking down this creature” could result in the ifrit reading it as “I wish for you to aid us”, in which case it could then choose to aid by saying “Oh, well your fashion sense is shit, you need some fancier pants and your shirt could use some tuning up and you’ve got an -awful- sense of taste in hats” and it has now fulfilled the rules of your wish by giving you -aid- in your choice of fashion sense…and then ticking off a wish box. This can go in any of a number of ways, all depending on how gibberish it is.
“Could and would”, Calvis! Auxiliary verbs are the tricksters tool of semantic subversion.
—
Imagine the hilarity in a situation as this when the genie or the efreet answers “You know, I can do whatever I want except murder you without provocation. I’m just playing along for now.” Try it on your players, yes?
See, I would agree, but a “Wish” like this removes that a bit. If he can, technically he has to if the Wish is used. Granted, Calvis is giving him one *hell* of a deal, one way or the other.
“Would” is obviated if a Wish is used to enforce it, per the author’s comments when the Sultan moved to attack the Aspect of Acererak. The Sultan would have no choice but to carry out the wish to the best of his ability, much as Calvis had no choice but to undertake the heist on the Vault of Deknar.
Playin’ for all the marbles! He is a favored coin, after all!
Just say what you really want, Calvis, wish to be best friends.
Every other sentient creature now hunt Calvis. The Sultan has agreed to stay out of this matter and me vaguely friendly to Calvis. The Sultan is now Calvis’ best and only friend. Wish corrupted.
And that’s why I usually passed on being creative on any wishes in D&D.
When you wish upon a Sultan
Your dreeeeeeeams
(Might)
Coooooome
Truuuuuuue…
That is some amazing word usage there. “Safe” as opposed to surrounded by pissed-off elementals; “sound” as opposed to physically or mentally wrecked by the removal of the Hand. Seems like simple boilerplate, but these two words cover a whole realm of “don’t screw us over.”
Brian, don’t you dare fuck with my emotions like this