Honor Among Thieves Prologue

This just in!

KUWAHAWI CITY, Kuw - Tragedy struck at the Kuwahawi National History Museum last night as a daring criminal group identifying itself as The Zeldoten Gang!!! launched a daring robbery against the beloved institution. Witnesses say that robbery began when a large armored vehicle fired an explosive projectile at the northern wall of the museum and drove into the building. Onlookers who attempted to see the crime in progress were attacked as twenty-eight to thirty-two masked gunmen opened fire, mostly in the air, to deter witnesses.

Police and fire crews responded immediately as the building began to be consumed by fires causing by the explosive entry into the museum, but the fire response was delayed until police could apprehend the armed thieves. The thieves were armed with more explosive devices however, throwing hand grenades at police vehicles, prompting a stand-off while nearby national guard units could be mobilized.

Before any arrests could be attempted though, two figures believed to the the gang's ringleaders, Zeldoten and Nibbles Renstim, were seen carrying valuable artwork to their vehicle. Upon loading their stolen goods into their vehicle, the gang members reboarded the truck and blasted their way through another way. Museum curators estimate the total cost of damages to the museum and its collection to be well into the tens of millions of krowns.

Arrest warrants have been issued for known members of The Zeldoten Gang!!! If you have information, please dial the authorities at...

~

Ibuki's Tour Bus

Zeldoten looked at the newspaper and then looked at Nibbles. Nibbles was enjoying toast with jam. Yum yum! She looked at the newspaper again, squinting to hide some hidden meaning to the article.

"We weren't in Kuwahawi City last night..."

Your Typical Day as a Planeswarden

Planeswarden Luxendarc Chapter, February 2017...

It was a quiet afternoon in Ringabel's office as he read the latest intelligence briefing. A few more potential threats in neighboring sectors neutralized, his own followers reporting in on investigations, and the latest council meeting minutes. Another discussion devoted to the Earth chapter? Duer was probably tearing his gravel out.

He'd send some encouragement later, maybe quietly ask Magus if there was more to the story. In any case, business could wait until after coffee. Dia, the lovely lass, had sent him some delightful new blends from this new hangout of the Earth Chapter, Kuwahawi. It smelled bold, yet relaxed. The beans had a nice color and had ground nicely. He got out his favorite mug and-

"Commander Ringabel, sir! Urgent!"

Blast. One of his newest recruits had just barged in, distress evident on his face.

"Settle down, Fenton," Ringabel said his usual cool. "Report."

"Yes, sir." The rookie took a moment to compose himself. "Interdimensional rift detected within the base. We've sealed the area, but..."

Ringabel nodded. "But what?"

Fenton gulped. "They're in your quarters, sir. We can't get in without your code."

Ah. Very interesting. Some enemy of the Planeswarden had found this base but went for his quarters instead of his office? The tactics we're as intriguing as they were bad. Very curious.

"And what is our invader doing?"

"As far as we can tell, they're... they're taking a shower."

Ringabel quirked an eyebrow as he activated his Dark Knight asterisk.

~

Sword in hand, Ringabel entered his quarters. The other Planeswarden flanked the entrance, armed but not moving without orders or a threat. He looked about: desk organized, clothing folded, not a thing out of place. Clearly the intruder had...

...cleaned his room?

He glanced at the only odity in the room: a pile of green armor. It looked familiar, somewhat. His ear perked at the sound of running water. Fenton had been correct; his intruder was using his shower. Or were they maliciously cleaning the tub? The fiend.

Still, Intruders were Intruders, so he kept his sword in hand as he knocked on the bathroom door.

"Just a minute!"

And so Ringabel waited patiently. Should he ready a Thundaga or was that too harsh before knowing who was there? Blizzara to freeze them in their tracks? He opted to go with Stop in case they weren't malicious. The door swung open...

"Ringabel!"

"Labrys?"

He certainly hadn't been expecting his robotic sweetheart to be here, let alone showering. With a towel wrapped around her hair and her torso, she leaned forward into a hug. Ringabel wanted to return it, but first he had a question.

"No offense intended - you know as well as anyone how much I appreciate finding a beautiful woman in my quarters - but how do I know you're the real Labrys?"

"Is Duer still folding your socks like I told him too?"

He answered by wrapping his arms around her waist and twirling her about with a kiss. Their embrace lasted both an eternity and a heartbeat as they ended up on his bed in a heap.

"No, seriously, is he? I paid him."

Ringabel blushed and stood. "Never mind that, my dear, we have other things to discuss."

Labrys got up too, realizing she was getting the bet wet. "Like what?"

Ringabel dropped to one knee and kissed her hand. "Like how my lovely lady returned to after months of missing!" He grew a bit more serious. "And why you're missing some fingers."

It was Labrys' turn to blush as she flexed her seven fingers awkwardly. "Alright, go grab a notepad. I'll tell you the entire story while I give myself a tune-up in your workshop."

~

Dracoplot 2017

I'm starting this blogpost off by issuing the following statement: I am keeping the self-deprecation to a minimum. If I seem negative, it's because I think things could have gone better and I'm tailoring my '18 plans to correct the issues I felt I had this year. That being said...

I'm not terribly happy with how the plots in general went even if I liked individual events.

We'll start with Zeldotenplot. My favorite event with Zeldotenplot was the Viking Tomb Raid. When I originally conceived of a plot centered around Zeldoten, I originally wanted something with mystery and adventure and NOT something so serious as what it ended up being.

Not sure how I let THAT happen. Probably enjoyed the idea of exploring DeMonde's background too much.

Probably my biggest mistake was letting the Brawl derail the plot so suddenly and harshly. I'd prepared scenarios for Zeldoten winning and Zeldoten dying, but I didn't think Nibbles would be so absolutely destroyed.

Why did I let the sidekick's death do so much damage? Because it felt so in-character for Zeldoten to despair over the loss of her best friend that she built to be her best friend. The mostly-unexplored background of Zeldoten is full of crabs and loneliness and crime and one of the things I am really happy to have gotten to do this year was explore some of her background.

Zeldoten's parents were actually originally planned for shortly after the Brawl, but...eh...went off the rails.

And, yes, I really would've ended Zeldotenplot then and there if it weren't for my tendency to read a lot of Pathfinder stuff I doubt I'll ever get a chance to use. Ryoko could've gone to have a showdown with Barubary, but otherwise I would've ended it all there.

Although it almost didn't happen and it was mostly improvised, I enjoyed doing the Bank Heist event and getting to shoehorn in more of my Pathfinder characters. Kobber the Tengu sorcerer was, of course, named for the Kobbers and was my original Pathfinder Society character. John Ambrose was a human gunslinger I made for Del's Infinicon game. Sven and Ole are from a campaign I'm currently a part of about Vikings. Several other Pathfinder characters were considered for a different sort of Zeldotenplot that I didn't feel good doing; they would've been cops from Zeldoten's world who went to Kuwahawi to arrest her only to get stonewalled trying to get an extradition agreement signed, culminating in a final battle between Coppers and Kobbers, and - sorry, JRM - nobody would be happy with a fight nobody wanted.

So the final event of Zeldotenplot had a few possible endings I'd planned. Zeldoten wins a second Brawl, gets trapped by Barubary, and DeMonde gets absorbed by Irys rescuing her. Zeldoten loses the Brawl and Barubary contacts DeMonde to let her know he has Diamond Dust she can use to revive her. Irys typically died in every scenario I'd planned. Then Nibbles died, I let the plot get derailed, and needed a scapegoat.

Enter Clownpiece, whose own backstory got hinted at a few times over the season before Barubary came out and said it. I'd been entertaining plans of her being an evil, willing spy for King Ghidorah, who would want to use Hecatia's power as Goddess of Hell for evil. I told this to Chao and he more-or-less said "Hecatia turning against herself and then having Clownpiece betray her would break her." Plus, nobody who hasn't seen Rebirth of Mothra 3 would get why King Ghidorah has an evil fairy. So Clownpiece got to be the Irys power supply with a tragic backstory and plenty of manipulation.

I've thoroughly enjoyed doing things with Zeldoten this year though and look forward to doing things with her in the off-season and next year.

On to the Parseeplot. I'd hinted at the end of Season 6 that Parsee was retiring, but I'd always intended to bring her to Kuwahawi somehow. Parseeplot was originally planned to be a lot bigger, but I frankly just never got around to doing enough build up for it. There was the Las Vegas fight that brought her over and the finale, but I'd originally planned to use the Deadly Six a lot more, as shown by my entering one of their members in my yearly "Newbie open challenge" that year. They'll get their chance to do stuff next year, probably.

While Parseeplot may have been shorter than I'd intended, I enjoyed doing both of the events. There were fun people still in Las Vegas who might not have cameoed otherwise.

Even though they all showed up in Kuwahawi for at least a short while.

And the second event of Parseeplot got to feature one of my favorite things: callbacks to previously unexplained stuff. Like Hyde the Hydra being that weird cloaked guy from Season 3, Suzie the Cool Spy got to be the girl Parsee hit with doors and stuff all the time in Season 5. I also got to do more Kamen Rider stuff, which is always a plus.

Another thing I really enjoyed was Parsee getting to do exciting adventure capitalist stuff, like taking over Azure Sea (thank you, Chao) and getting to field her own army against invading armies (thank you, Cornwind) and doing the other sorts of things you might expect a huge businesslady to do. Turning Azure Sea into Par Sea allows me to keep carrying on the legacy I started with Dra Co back in Season 1 with fresh faces and objectives. Anna, Commander Fox, and some other Par Sea employees will carry on the tradition of heavily-armed businesses supporting silly Kobber ventures.

I'll be honest: Parsee was going to retire for real this time, wiling away her time in Las Vegas. She was out of stories for the time being and needed a rest; she'd cameo around the Brawl or if the need arose. Then Harpy said Cian would be semi-active in Gonzyplot and I said to myself "This girl just spend four or five months living alone again. She wouldn't pass on a chance for a beach vacation with her family after not seeing them for so long." She may not show up in the bar every day to sass the newbies or tease the old folks, but she'll be there in the background and for as much of Gonzyplot as I can manage.

Finally, I'm happy to retire Yamame. She was a fun character and I enjoyed RPing her going on adventures and developing her from being a thug to being a professional baker and an unofficial Sugar Mage. She got what she wanted out of Kobbering: action, adventure, delicious bugs, and Gloria. She was fun to have around though and anywhere Gloria goes her spider won't be far behind.

Oh, and I'm sorry Rapping Scottie Dog didn't do much of anything. NOBODY RAPPED THOUGH.

October 2017 Ticker Quote Archive

When your sword doesn't fit in Starbucks @Clashmarsello

"They can not not not not not not not not not know the truth."

"Can't pummel Monoxide without speeps."

"What happened to bad guys like Halley who at least TRIED to look cute?"

“Yo, Earth to Miu, I wouldn’t be so sure they’d wanna let you get all up in their junk,”

"Can we please name it something else?" "NO!"

Make a spicy, spicy, spicy meal. One that will make her regret being born.

Talk about a slow start.

Mega Awesome, Great Inspector Chubby Kitsune

"Or we could fuckin' punch him"

“Fuck it, I’m takin’ a nap.”

u jerk

"U don't scare me, Slaystation and Sintendo."

"There's no time to explain. I broke in because I have to"

The Radical Goat actually did something this time

In this case, that's... Nitori throwing a cucumber down the trapdoor to see what happens.

well, let's not mince words - it is her face.

"my peepizzizz"

"Be careful, it's an important hand!"

Boom.

another fucking Bob Bifford clone

"YOU'RE DEAD?! Oh no!"

"puppy puppy puppy puppy puppyyyyy"

GO PACKERS

"RAAAAAAAAAAGH" cried a sledgehammer

no rules in this battle… save for the ones enforced by the referee

UNH UNH TEAM SKULL

"it's all dumb CGI and puppets now."

"S0rry. Did- were you painting me?"

chocolate candy artillery strike

“FIREPROOF ROOOOOOOOOOBE!”