Edgwyn

494. Identification with the Romantic Irony -- Snow White -- for example

Romantic Irony is when a narrator indicates a story is true and the later on admits it is made up

Much of the 1980s Star Trek novels (almost all of which are sitting on a shelf in my basement) were really bad and suffered from a lack of oversight and general direction. Having Spock do something out of character was extremely popular, but not the only example.

The 1990s relaunch of the Star Wars novels had much stronger central direction from Lucas Film, but still had some poor moments. The problem with comic books is that they feel a need to completely re-invent themselves every so often (kind of like soap operas) and so Captain America being part of Hydra or Batman being the Dark Knight (which is/was critically acclaimed) is done to get new/more readers. The transitions in the DC lineup in the 1980s ended my spending on comics.

470. Could the heavens truly have sided with the apes? -- "Unnatural Selection?"

Quotes from the game Chrono Trigger

I believe that there are several of us who have connections to California but do not currently live there. That said, CA is only slightly under represented in the poll right now. 1/8 of the US population, so it should have two votes not one. My first address started with a 1.

471. That these bodies high on a stage be placed --Danish Restoration's the thing

Act V, Scene 2 from Hamlet is the course of the first part, which is the final scene of the play and includes the deaths of almost all of the characters, including Hamlet the King of Denmark who has just restored the throne of Denmark. The second half also includes a version of "the play is the thing" which is a quote from the Act 2, Scene 2 of the same play.

I started Balrum and there are some things that I like about, but many things that frustrated me. I would consider it a work in progress.

474. Overcoming Slyness -- Grace Jones is compelled to retry until she gets what she wants

Grace Jones dated Dolph Lungren who battled Sylvester Stalone (Sly) in Rocky IV

she was also roomates with Jerry Hall -- who was later in a long term relationship with Mick Jagger who was co-writer and performer on You can't always get what you want

He is in the North East portion of his fortress at the very North end of a room that you need to take multiple teleports to get to.

Thank you.

I have added a note to the Places page. The number in the quest column is intended to indicate that those locations give quests and the others do not.

I have fixed the info page, the reference to a dungeons page was an artifact. When I started, I had cities and dungeons separate, then later on I combined them into one.

I should probably add a note below the logo explaining that you need to click it to return, but since I need to do that on 150 different pages, I will tackle that later.

I have created a beta set of Maps for A:CS. The maps should be sufficiently complete, but I do not have (nor did I try to have) every item that somebody might be interested in listed. The maps are located at http://avernumthemaps.byethost7.com and I welcome feedback.

You can get a quest from Prossis-Bok in Olgai which I believe is called "The Vahnatai Castle". You complete that quest by getting the Vahnatai letters from the Southwest portion of the Vahnatai Fortress and bringing them back to the Council in Olgai. I believe that you have to go through a dialog tree with Prossis-Bok to get the quest.

For some reason the line "We are from Avadon and we are here to help you" doesn't seem to make people happy and trusting.

414. Ungraspable Offensive Nature--Divine magic at the heart of an underground storm

Divine and magic are both rather ungraspable and a storm is a form of nature being offensive. The storm being underground would also be offensive to nature since storms occur above ground

421. Deus Ex Maskina--Sudden appearance of a Sailor's Savior

Deus Ex Machina is the sudden appearance of something to save a hopeless situation.

446. Phonological Awareness Campaign -- Segmenting words into excessive administrative overhead

Phonological Awareness involves breaking up words into individual sounds or segments. Any campaign involves excessive administrative overhead. There have been various campaigns in education to push phonological awareness

YES +2 -- the other reference here is to Sonia Sotomayor, who, as a justice, writes opinions when she disagrees with her colleagues (who usually have seniority over her, since only Kagan was appointed after her). This name was prompted specifically by her dissent in _Utah_ (which I'm guessing Edgwyn and I have very different opinions about).

You are correct, I do not particularly like her dissent, but you might be surprised to know that I dissent from the court majority's position in this case also.

447. Read Sonia -- Course of action when my barbarian hero does not agree with her elders

Red Sonja was a barbarian hero and Reading is a course of action

There is a Tolstoy science fiction book that in English is titled Aelita, or the Decline of Mars. There are english translations of it, though obviously it was written in Russian. I realize I am sending you in a circle, but . . .

Many years ago, I was in a summer program at a college that had a copy of a collection of Russian Science Fiction that had been translated via computer into English. This was long enough ago that the translation algorithms were really poor and so I ended up not reading it.

3. Evil Panamaya -- Sauron with a hat

Sauron represented evil in the Lord of the Rings series (though I believe he was the evil understudy in the broader mythology of the series) and a Panama hat is a form of head wear.

22. Merlin Manson -- Round Table made of metal

Marilyn Manson is an industrial/alternative metal performer, and Merlin was a key advisor and court wizard to King Arthur and the Round Table

1. Trois-Guilbert -- Maybe a sexual reference to Scot's Britain after the third crusade

Sir Walter Scot is the author of Ivanhoe which takes place in Britain after the third crusade. Trois can be translated into three-way and in some sets of slang refers to sex involving three individuals and Brian Bois Guilbert was a Knight Templer in Ivanhoe and one of the main antagonists.

9. Egyptian Goddess Expansionism -- Cause of Recent Humanitarian Crisis

ISIS was an Egyptian Goddess and is the most common abbreviation in the US media for the organization also known as ISIL or Daesh which has of course caused a recent humanitarian crisis by creating horrible conditions in parts of Iraq and Syria causing people to choose to flee to more stable countries.

It does. It left my curious as to what happened next, but it wrapped up the loose ends that needed to be wrapped up and provided a satisfying conclusion.

I enjoyed the Wheel of Time series as well, but it did seem to drag out to me. It was a very well crafted world but just so long.

I am not a min/maxer, so this is not a very objective post, but:

1. Dual wield is very effective

2. Warrior/Priest is fine, Level 8 in priest would get you all of the critical spells as far as I am concerned. In my opinion, there are enough good swords that this can be another dual wielder, but my second character has a pole arm.

3. Yes

4. I never used my pure priest to melee, because I would rather put the points in the various cave/arcane/tool use requirements

If you really like potion ingredients, then having cave lore 6 before you enter Dark Waters (Chapter 2) will get you a few more potion ingredients. I believe you can get almost everything out of Chapter 2 with tool use 5, with tool use 6 giving you the last remaining item

398. Long Cons and Massive Clocks -- Make PDNs great again

I try to limit politics on here, but . . .

Trump is a salesman and like many salesmen, Cons may creep up, he has a lease for a massive clock (the old post office and clock tower in DC) and his campaign slogan is make America great again

that leaves

378. Characters not permitted -- A reference to long departed cartoonists

All I have on this one is cartoon characters

397 Rake Low Urn -- Amille Aglia looks for easy money in an RPG

BReak, BLow, BUrn was a 2005 publication by CAmille PAglia, and in RPGs you tend to earn money by breaking, striking blow or burning your opponent.