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Irwin's Journey 359: Squish

🕑 Added 2024-12-15 19:33:09 +0000 UTC

Comments

Antony Claughton

Obviously they couldn't have done it on arrival, they were dodging then fighting Lasther!

Nicholas Del Rossi

I agree with telling them, just not on arrival, first get the lay of the land, these reasons are less don’t tell anyone at all and more don’t tell everyone immediately, I miss remembered your comment while writing mine and wrote it as if you were saying they should’ve already searched out and told anyone in power they could, despite having only just arrived recently, and with other pressing demands.

Antony Claughton

To be honest, I consider all of those pretty weak as reasons not to tell them. You don't lose anything under any of those scenarios telling them, it just may be pointless. And even corrupt officials don't usually like becoming conquered and enslaved. For example, the Deadpact mercenaries reaction if they found out what Greldo was saying is true is likely to stop them working for the Guider. Many justify corruption as "we're all doing it" and "it doesn't really hurt" and "I need it to get ahead". Finding out what is coming, and what the Guidar plan for you, may shift you to doing the right thing even if you're corrupt. Trying to strengthen the branch so they can hold out longer against the Guider is CRITICAL, and this is the strongest city on the branch.

Nicholas Del Rossi

That fits with what I remember, but there are flaws with telling people in power. A, they could be corrupt, and incompetent/looking to make a profit. B, they could be corrupt again but this time working for the guider, directly or indirectly. C, they could believe Irwin and co have an opposing agenda, or that they are laying and start a conflict out of panic and a pressure for self defense, truth telling cards indicate there might be lie telling cards, and one also needs a teller that they can trust implicitly, if the truth teller is under suspicion of working with the suspected liars it all falls apart. D, there is also the possibility that this is a multi prong attack and this area is not considered worth much investment on behalf of the guider, and making a stir, draws their focus. this last one is pretty weak though without more context, we might’ve gotten that context, but I can’t remember.

Antony Claughton

Agreed. And this one has been building up for a LONG time. It needs an epic ending to this confrontation.

Antony Claughton

I do feel that at some stage Irwin & Greldo need to explain what the Guildar are doing to authorities so they can start preparing. Surely there are people with truth telling cards (similar to what Sigora had) so that it can be confirmed. Having the branch prepared for attack and able to put up a fight is critical for Irwin, Greldo and the rest of their people as they need time to strengthen more than anything else. Anything that slows the Guildar down is critical (or even better, allows them to be pushed back). If I understand correctly the Guildar plan of attack is: - send some enslaved races to scout/prepare. Send some Guildar to support this, learn information and prepare for the attack. This is Lasther, plus some of the other enslaved peoples we've seen hanging around. - use local forces to strip out the smiths and remove that asset. Lasther organised this utilising the Deadpact mercenaries. - create a new branch which connects the/a branch they control with a branch they plan to conquer. This process is what creates the storms, which has the side benefit of locking everyone down in the target area and weakening them. - use local forces to attack smaller settlements during the storm. This whittles down the opposition doubly. In the case of this branch, this was the Deadpact mercenaries. Presumably then - attack via the newly opened connecting branch when the storm dies down. The opposition is hurt, tired, and disconnected. While they may come together and actually share cards/plans to defend, because the smiths are (usually) removed already the ability to match the Guildar and their enslaved armies is much reduced. - Guildar then enslave or kill whoever they want as they conquer. - They then send out scouts to find a new target area. The first four steps above are based on my memory/reading of the series and all information I believe Irwin & Greldo have. They could distribute this information and be confirmed as telling the truth. The last 3 points are reasonable theories on how things normally progress.

Antony Claughton

It was a bit odd though, since there had been an agreement between all of these entities to jump on any of the group who attacked another. Lasther broke that agreement when he attacked the Viridians, yet the others didn't attack him. I think Lasther mentioned/thought at one stage how he'd organised for them to sit out. So will be interesting to see why they sit out.

Antony Claughton

We don't really see what happened to the second mercenary. He's fighting Greldo, waiting for a chance to strike, then Greldo is attacking Lasther and we never hear of the mercenary again. Which is fine if he did sit it out, but just a bit odd since he had decided to throw in with Lasther.

Antony Claughton

to much bend ==> to much bent. possibly should be 'too' rather than 'to', but I'm not sure.

Nicholas Del Rossi

NYOOOHHH! I just realized there is no chapter today!

Meschmee

I don't think Irwin would have noticed the white beam while in the Black Cloud unless he could of sensed a beam of Soulforce which he might? As I was reading it a small part of me thought it would of been amusing if Irwin had somehow accidentally foiled Scander's surprise attack.

Gustavo Claude

Multiple POV and some references through the battle made yours battle chapters very good. I just miss Irwin's reaction to the white beam.

Gustavo Claude

The other powers in the city. There was reference about them some times. Another Guidar makes no sense now. Lesther was the only one mentioned so far. And a full Guidar could vanish with Irwin and Greldo

Nicholas Del Rossi

Sorry for the text wall. It’s hard to figure out where to put spaces when they’re so little room on my phone. I can’t actually see how big the text wall is until I’ve hit post. I’ve only got five high and around 30 letters wide to work with which means only about 30 words if they’re all small and adding those spaces cut it down to about 20

Nicholas Del Rossi

A few things that might’ve been conveyed better, the size of the shadows it sounds like the longing ability he was using to drain so forced turned into that darkness, but because we focus on the tentacles and it’s described as engulfing irwin I didn’t realize how big it might be until rereading it, and was picturing it as a smaller shadow inside the wider effective energy drain, second the beam attack, where did it go? We see it being used from the outside, but none of the combatants react to it at all. I specifically looked for it to see if. Irwin saw any repercussions in how the guider reacted. While he could not be seen. But did not notice it., lastly, the guider’s plan, I feel like his last ditch move does not make much sense from his perspective, unless you really think about it, if the ability is giving him strength and he’s able to cast the tentacle ability right afterwards, then it all works out, but it took me a little while to realize that might be the case, disability feels like the type to leave you weaker afterwards and maybe unable to fight the rest of the forces in this area if it come, the only line about his soul force reserve is right before Irwin him where he says the guider is weaker, that could have been a very subtle hint that the guider just got hit by the attack and was thus weaker despite draining Irwin, but it came off as the usage of his ability leaving him in state to fight, I’m not sure if the ability fuels itself with the stolen force, fuels the guider, or just saps it out of those within the field, But it feels like a very flawed plan, other than these minor things, though this was a pretty damn amazing fight, I like the multiple perspectives, the strategy employed by Irwin, And the consequences set up for the next few chapters, I’m always concerned when giving criticism like this that it might be misinterpreted as me not liking the chapter when I really love it, and you think these minor things were the only thing I focusedon since criticism can hit some people really hard, regardless of intent, especially if not specified, see you at the next chapter or if I decide to re-read this chapter again and find something else to talk about.

Gaganior

feels like you missing a scene where Lasther gets hit with the beam from irwins perspective

Nicholas Del Rossi

Feel free to put in as many long fight scenes as you want. It’s your story and if you feel it’s a good place for them I don’t think too many people will really mind I could be wrong, but I think most of us like the majority of the stories aspects.

Govir Drauka

I don’t think we know this yet, but are “the others” other Guidar? Or just powerful entities in the city that have a kind of turf war going on?

Caleb Kerei

its cool, you don't over use them. And its nice to have them occasionally.

Robert Reilly

“Squish”😂

Stephen Pearson

Thanks for the chapter! :-)

Sir Arthus

Thanks for the chapter

Carrarn

Sorry to those who don't like these really long fight scenes- usually, I don't do those as I'm not a fan, but it just felt suited here. That said, its just shy of 5k words ;) 4975