The Pub Discussion Board

And the David/Giendia sex scene would be wild! 



Eric Storm

(Yes, I'm still awake.  God I hate insomnia.)

Well that isn't good. It is going to be interesting seeing how David and Joe go about the rest of investigation. It also looks like the Lycans are becoming trouble. I look forward to reading the next chapter

(posted from Chapter 4: September)

Please don't refer to them as Lycans.  While the ones mentioned here are werewolves, please keep in mind that Dugerra is home to many different kinds of were-creatures, such as werecats and wereoxen.  Werewolves are just the ones usually in charge.

Eric Storm

Call them not keep.

Eric Storm wrote:

Okay, so how about a little sympathy for the guy who stayed up until 4:30 EDITING the chapter, so that you could read it?

You know, "The first of the month" doesn't necessarily mean 12:01 AM.  How about I start posting at 11:59 PM on the first of each month, hmm?

And yes, I remembered it was April 1st.  But I haven't missed a posting day in like 3 or more years.  I don't intend to start again now.

Regards,
Eric Storm

We do appreciate it! And any time on the first of the month counts. Thank you!

I'm liking the transition from school life. This wasn't addressed in the chapter and I'm looking for clarification...

Couldn't David have used his Dalmajak Cynosure in the search? I would imagine that would have helped locate sooner.

Last edited by Jennatalia (2016-04-02 13:04:49)

Building on the Cynosure question, with the fact that familiars are effectively manifestations of magic themselves, and effectively sentient, could he have had Jailla carry the cynosure and fly low?  With Jailla's ability to cover more area in a smaller time frame, combined with the fact that Jailla could then fly a much more efficient search pattern with a 1 mile diameter, it would have made the earth much faster.  Admittedly, less drama for the overall story, but faster in-story.

Plus, you have intimated that the connection between familiars and their wizards strengthens and perhaps remote viewing is possible so it would have given you a great spot to develop that if it were ever in your plans.

Eric:
1. Agreed, so it had better be David flying low in his glider, or on Cupcake.
2. Again, it could be David doing the low level flying. Flying is useful in searches, that´s why helicopters are frequently used when available in search of missing persons.   And flying in Dugerra is much more trivial and cheap (helicopter and plane flying hours ARE expensive) than mounting a pegasus, using a flying carriage, a glider (the one owned by David), or even some enchanted broom (although we haven´t read about the existence of those in Dugerra, so they may not exist in that world, or simply be impractical (gliders do exist, don´t they?)).

It´s not criticism. I´m actually liking these new chapters a lot. Just an expansion on previously mentioned ideas.

(posted from the Item Information Page)

Exactly.  I even made mention of bringing in the Peg Riders, but it was too dark for them to be of use.

Further, David was the "commander" of the search.  It was his job to coordinate, not to go off looking for people.  (Until he had no choice, since he was pretty much the only one Bispy would willingly work for...)

Eric Storm

I agree with Augur, it IS your story and I am definitely NOT trying to poke holes just asking questions.

Like I said, it could be used as a plot device for the familiar bond.  If the wizards can sense around their familiar, not just through it's senses, then it would be possible for him to observe it.  As for the Cynosure being asked regularly out loud, I assume it doesn't understand just English.  So since the others have known that Jailla is talking just couldn't understand him, it is POSSIBLE based solely on the information we have, that the Cynosure could know what Jailla is saying.  Jailla carrying the Cynosure?  A little twine could do the job easily and if David doesn't have any, with his Conjuring ability, I am sure he can procure some easily.  All of this would fall under his coordinating the search since he could stay behind and direct while watching the Cynosure.

Now, all of this is completely my thought process and I probably should have sent it to Eric in an email instead.  For that, Eric, I apologize.

Actually, fenixreign, I clearly pointed out in Year 5 that, in order for Jailla to "speak" to anyone, he has to make a magical connection with them.  I also made clear that this is easiest done with someone he has an affinity for, that it is very difficult for him to do with strangers, and virtually impossible to do with someone he dislikes.

How easy, then, do you think it would be to communicate with an inanimate object?

As to flying with an object dangling from one foot:  I think most birds would find this difficult to do, if the object had any amount of weight relative to their own.  It would throw off their center of gravity, which any pilot will tell you will screw with your ability to maneuver, at the very least.  While the cynosure is not a very heavy object, we can safely assume it weighs 3 or 4 oz., as it is made from crystal.  A magpie jay only weighs 8-9 oz.  So, you want him to carry an object nearly half his weight with one foot?

And if you then tie it to BOTH feet... how is he going to land without whacking the cynosure into things???

And you still haven't covered how he would actually observe the thing.  He'd have to stop and look at it every so often to get a direction in which to go.  In other words, he'd have to land... that thing that you've just made incredibly difficult by tying something to both his feet.

Consider adultswim's point:  It took him hours to think about bringing Bispy in.  It would have taken even longer to come up with this outlandish, possibly-dangerous-to-Jailla scheme... and he would have rejected it out of hand.

Augur: You keep mentioning a "glider".  I have never once mentioned a "glider" in the entire series.  Are you perhaps referring to David's GLIDECAR?  If so, I think you have entirely the wrong perception of this vehicle.  Glidecars and glidecarts do not FLY, they HOVER.  I specifically said in book 4 that glidecars cannot fly over obstacles.  They travel a foot or two off the ground.  They could not "fly low" over the forest: they would have to fly THROUGH the forest, a rather dangerous thing to try.

I also mentioned, in this scene, that David considered calling in the Peg Riders, but it was simply too dark for them to see anything, so that idea is also a non-starter.

The only device that could have been used to fly over the forest, really, would have been a SkyRider.  It's the only device that can FLY (go high over the ground), and HOVER (something a Peg cannot do, and something you would HAVE TO DO in order to find anyone in a forest).  But using a SkyRider at treetop level in the dark sounds like a good way to wind up in the infirmary.  Or the cemetery.

The truth of it is that the only way you can conduct a search at night is on foot.  Even modern police departments and forestry departments do not look for lost people with helicopters at night.  It's hard enough for a helicopter to see anything in a forest during the day.  At night, it's pretty much an impossibility, unless you spot a campfire.  David used all the resources he reasonably had available.  Anything else would have been grasping at straws.

Eric Storm

Actually, I said a half mile, which is not equivalent to 500 meters.  (500 meters being approximately 1640', and a half-mile being 2640'...  You're 1000 feet off.)

Okay, so David finds the mile-wide circle that the boy is found within.  Hell, let's say he narrows it down to a quarter-mile across circle.  How is he supposed to tell anyone where that actually is?  In order for him to give a reasonable position, he'd have to know exactly where HE is.  This would mean having a map of the forest with a "you are here" dot on it... something I never mentioned him having.  (He had a map: I didn't say anything about it having a follow-along dot on it.)  Otherwise, you're depending on him locating a landmark to relate his position... and now the people on the ground have to figure out where the landmark is.

By the time all is said and done, this process would probably take longer than just calling in Bispy did.

I'd also like to point out that flying around in the dark is insane.  You can't avoid running into what you can't see.  And keeping altitude constant without a visual reference is extremely difficult.  Most birds do not fly at night.  Almost none of them hunt at night (except owls).  This is simply because they can't see where they're going.  There's a rule of search and rescue:  The rescuer should not become the victim.

Eric Storm

Wasn't actually talking to you in that last post, Fenixreign.  I don't have a problem with people pointing out suggestions for ways things could have been done, but it is in my nature to look for holes in such ideas.  Also, it often helps the discussion if I do point them out, because then you might have a new idea, which you can relate.  Then I find the holes in that, and you come up with a new idea, and...


What you have to understand about this process is that, though I may disagree with your idea for use at the time and place you're talking about, that information goes into my memory for possible inclusion (usually modified) later on.  I could not possibly count the number of ideas I've gotten from readers or reviewers that I have not used directly, but that I have made use of as the basis for something later.

And if nothing else, such discussions help me further define the Dugerra universe for myself and others.  I intend Dugerra to be one of my primary writing universes as I go forward, so even when the Woodward series is over, there should still be other stories in this world, which means I need to keep detailing how this place works.

Eric Storm