11 Comments
Jun 14, 2022·edited Jun 14, 2022Liked by SGH

My initial instinct was to vote for present and future - knowledge of his plans is obviously of great practical value, and knowing his goal will help inspire or gather the will to stop him. But then I thought again - what would *Vahid* do? As a historian, I don't think he would be able to resist the lure of a perfect view of the past; he might even be confident that, as a historian, he could infer both the hdour's goals and plans from understanding his origins. And as a Seeker he might not be able to resist looking into the future... and if he gets both the past and the future, his confidence that he could divine the hdour's plans from that information alone might be very high indeed. The hdour's present plans are the least important to discern from such a unique source of knowledge. This might also set up an amusing conflict with Padrig, who would obviously think that finding out the hdour's plan is a total no-brainer.

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That's so interesting, I voted before reading the comments, and these were my thoughts exactly

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What a fantastic episode!

Past and future for me.

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I like that pick -- I think "present" has the most immediately useful information but it's stuff that Padrig and Anwen could learn via mundane methods, whereas the hdour's hidden past and future are more obscure.

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Jun 15, 2022Liked by SGH

I’m agreed with everyone else. I’ll add that, if it comes down to just 1 (not a strong hit), I’d put past before future. They can scope out the present now, and they’ll live the future, but digging up the past of the hdour would be really challenging. Plus there’s Vahid as historian, as Ananda points out.

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Omg this opening dialogue is GREAT.

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Jun 15, 2022·edited Jun 15, 2022Liked by SGH

I had to go looking for images of a deva to match, since it’s not a word I had any images in my head for. I got better results once I stuck in god sculpture alongside to filter out all the people with that as a name. https://www.lotussculpture.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/1-Bronze-Ganesh-Dancing-With-6-Arms.jpg felt kind of in the right neighborhood based on the description to me.

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Jun 15, 2022·edited Jun 15, 2022Author

That's exactly right -- devas are the broad term for divine beings in Vedic faiths. They are often depicted as many-armed to symbolize their immense strength and their ability to act in many different ways, which seems perfect for a storm -- one hand might bring the wind, another creates rain, a third has a instrument that brings forth thunder, etc. etc. And the lion head felt right for a storm -- proud, awe-inspiring, dangerous.

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:-) so evocative! I like the underlying romantic tension, but I can’t help feeling her bodyguard is going to want to have words on their return!

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I would think so, too! If you were running it at the table, would you fire that consequence off immediately, or save it and bring it forward if our threat countdown clock filled? I could go either way -- it's a natural cause and effect, but it might feel frustrating to the players if they get hit twice by Hillfolk taboos/suspicions in rapid succession.

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I like the idea of the countdown clock - you can then argue away that the guardian was talked down on her return...

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