New One is up.

Interesting.. I was hoping Ansom would clearly be one of the Fallen Princes that were in statue form, watching the King.

I like the idea of the truth being a sort of evil that kings must face alone when the time really calls for it, in the most literal sense like this. It looks like he doesn't believe he'll win, deep down.

Ossomer's decrypting is going to be a real demoralizer for Slately then, huh?

Ouch.

EDIT: Oh wait, Slately already knows Ossomer is decrypted. Is this a "past view" kind of thing, then?

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Very Amazing Adventures (possibly inappropriate)

Interesting update: and it gives the strong impression that Slately is *doomed*. Making him a drunk makes him a lot less likeable, too, somehow...

Aye.

He said, "we COULD win," instead of, "we WILL win" - powerful difference in words. Although it also shows he isn't deluding himself into a certain outcome.

Well, we seem to have confirmation. The heir Jillian is popping is Don's heir to Transylvito, not Faq (Unless there is some loophole in the mechanic that allows someone to be heir to both simultaneously).

Guppy -- No, there are heirs in production in both Faq and Transylvito.

I'm not sure exactly when this is happening. Note that it happens at night. But Wanda is going to attack on the same turn in which she decrypted Ossomer. So unless something has dramatically slowed down the battle, this has to occur on a night after Jillian arrived in Jetstone, but before the battle began.

I would assume its a bit of a rewind to the night before Ossamer met Wanda on the bridge.

Poor Slatley. I guess deep down he already has given up. He already accepted Toolism as the "truth".

And "the Hall of the Mountain King"? Another puzzle piece about the religion of the erfworlders.

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I love uncroaked Dora. I love an anonymous friend even more.

Only one man has understood me, and even he has not!

Also a musical reference, if I remember correctly.

Great update! I literally got chills while reading it.

Makes me sad that Slately is very likely going to die (or get decrypted) in the near future.

I wonder if "the Hall of the Mountain King" is just an interesting metaphor here, or if it's part of Erfworld's religion (and yes, I'm aware that it's a reference to "In the Hall of the Mountain King").

Seeking a little comfort for that sleepless night, truth stalking his halls like Grendel, is surely understandable?

This is one of my favorite text updates. Of course there have been plenty of truly fine ones of late.

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They could not possibly win. Every man knew this with certainty, and lo it was glorious.

I almost felt sorry for King Stately, but his attitude showed that no he is a total ass. He has shown that he has no concept beyond the ideal that royals are meant to rule. I feel that he was looking for any excuse to attack GK and the Tool gave him one good excuse. Jetstone now need to fall to show the Erfworld the error of thinking to much like this. Looking down on Don King for not choosing an heir with out knowing the truth is sad. I feel that old Don King is several turns older then Stately and it shows clearly in his point of view. Jillian should take over after GK finishes here just to spit this arrogant king. At least he does not blindly trust Haggar, I was hoping that he was at least this stupid went down reading the post.

Kill him Wanda decrypt his unworthy ass for being so stuck up. Show the world the wrath of the tools of the titans!

This is a good update and has removed any care on my part to caring for Jetstone, at least GK, TV, Haggar, and FAQ have some dynamic and a good reason to be around.

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I came, I saw, I had fun!

My favorite part about it : It reveals Slately isn't stupid regarding Haggar. He is well aware of the danger.

Either it's a rewind, or Slately is just so drunk and confused he no longer realizes Ossomer lost? Or it is set the evening after Ossomer's fall, but before any of Slately's subordinates have reported the news to him.

In any case, I find it ironic that, as Slately is casting the battle as a fight for the survival of the Royal system against outsiders, he is standing beneath the statues of croaked Royals who likely were killed by other Royals.

Hmm. Slately is rather pathetic, and yet has three impressive sons. Funny that.

The mention of a demon has piqued my interest. Just what is a demon in Erfworld. I would have expected it to be just an extraplanar creature, summoned by a castaer and used in combat, since EVERYTHING on Erf has to do with combat. But it seems that demons are something to be loathed, feared and avoided. Perhaps they represent some force that opposes the Titans? Just how does a demon manifest on Erf? And why? What does one do?

Nice doom-n-gloom there. People's darkest hours are indeed in the quiet darkness.

Odd capitalization make me think this is a reference to something. acronym: TRINO RINO?

On of the things I love best about Erfworld is that it rarely if ever resorts to idiot plots, i.e. plots which depend on one or more characters being stupid for no reason except to advance the plot (see also nearly every episode of Heroes). Again and again, we are shown people who do things that seem stupid only to later find that the character had a perfectly rational basis for the action. Not necessarily a good reason, but a rational one. Here, we learn Slately knew perfectly about Haggar's treachery. He just held out hope that when Haggar saw the GK machine in action, Dickie would grow the hell up. And even if he didn't, Slately still believed that falling to Haggar would be preferable to falling to GK, since the former would at least be a victory for Jetstone's way of life and Slately's own ideals.

Not that I like Slately, of course. He doesn't just believe in Royals Uber Alles, he also believes that some Royals are better than others, and by a shocking coincidence, the Royals who act exactly like him are the best of all. What Slately can't see (and why he is likely doomed) is that this battle will not be won by numbers or force of arms or superior ideology but (like TBoGK) simply by who can best think outside the box and defy convention, something completely beyond rigid, stuck-up old Slately. That's how Parson won in Book 1 and that, I suspect, is how Jillian will pull out at least a short term win here, by being completely unconventional in her approach to ruling.

Prediction: Slately will follow Bea's suicide strategy rather than submit to Decryption.

I'd say one and a half. Ansom intrigues me only because he is our baseline for how decryption changes people, but he was just a Royalist D-bag in Book One and now he's just a Toolist D-Bag instead. Ossomer was impressive only in how impressively he failed at the bridge. OTOH, I am hopeful that we'll get to see King Tremennis before too long.

Unlike the rest of you, this incredible update has catapulted Slately from some irrelevant-and-soon-to-be-decrypted guy to my Top5 list of Erfers, along with Sizemore, Stanley, Ansom and Caesar.