Harehunter

Now I have heard of putting your money where your mouth is but this is getting downright amusing.

@Jewels, I suppose that is why I left that book to languish so long, as I delve into other prose. Currently reading Paolini. As to my list of favorite authors: 1: Robert Heinlein 2: Christopher Stasheff 3: Terry Brooks 4: Piers Anthony 5: Robert Aspirin

Amazing. Totally amazing. The way that food induces itself into so many threads. And then the aqua vitae begins to flow. Now I'm hungry again.

Not lately, but I do have one on my bookshelf crying out to me every time I pass. It wants to be read so that it can join the other 36 books in the series. Piers Anthony is one of my five most favorite authors.

Are you on Windows or Mac? When I was working on the walkthrough for the Adventurers Club, I wrote a scenario editor that uses list boxes to show the description of things instead of just numbers. I also have a Stuff Done text file that is used to keep track of what a flag is for, and displays that comment on the Special Node screen. I found this feature to be particularly handy while trying to figure out what a string of specials was supposed to be doing. It is available for download on my website. It is written in Visual Basic, though, so it only works on Windows. The link is in my signature.

There must be something wrong wit my eyes, for I keep seeing wit.

As Harehunter lay on his back counting birdies, he awoke to find that he had slipped into a dream state

I don't know what to say, but saying nothing is so OOC. I don't know whether to be surprised that I made it to the top 20 or that I'm not in the bottom of the list.

One day as Harehunter was wandering his way to the carrot patch, he noticed a trail leading into the forest that he had not seen before. Curious, he made a slight detour to see where it led. A fair piece down this trail, he encountered a woman standing behind a bush at the side of the trail. "Good day to you, madam," greeted the Harehunter. "Good day my rear end, s**t for brains." replied the woman. As Harehunter approched, he came close enough to see that the woman had the body of a rather ugly bird. He immediately recognized that this woman was a Harpy. "What are you doing here on this secluded trail?" asked Harehunter. "I am taking time off for the holidays, d****ss." replied the harpy. "Oh, Well harpy holidays to you." replied the rabbit. With an indignant squawk, the harpy took wing and flew straight at Harehunter, talons extended. Harehunter bolted back up the trail, and as he beat a hasty retreat he started singing a tune he had heard many years ago on the Roy Rogers Show, "Harpy trails, to you until we meet again..."

There is a One Shot special node type Give Special Item is used to give the item and to take the item depending on the value of Extra 1b (0=give, 1=take away). You'll have t o force the PC party to trigger a special node that chains through 0 through as many items as you want ( range is 0 to 49)

Harehunter looks around surveying the scene. It looks like a peaceful, quiet scene straight out of a Norman Rockwell's painting. Maybe it's too quiet. There's Dikiyoba playing some hand game with Dikiyoba's new pet velociraptor, another Velociraptrix is on the bus conversing with Excalibur, and Upon Mars is having a deep discussion with some gremlins. The berries that Sylae brought are gone, and having yet to have his salad, Harehunter steps off the bus to go foraging for something suitable. Suddenly Harehunter finds himself arse over teakettle, as his feet fly out from under him. "What the fluffy turtles have I stepped in?" He puts his paw into a particularly slick spot and pulls it back quickly. "Holy boogers, Dr. Venkman, we've been slimed!" Then he notices the giant slug looking intently at him. Harehunter is about to pull his bow, when he spies the guitar slung over the back of the slug. "Rev? Is that you?" The slug nods its head, then looks pointedly at the slime trail it has left. It's hard to see and there are gaps where the slime is a little thin. "Are you saying not to eat the berries?" The slug nods again. "I guess it is just as well that I didn't get the chance to eat them. Besides, I can't handle berries very well, anyway." Harehunter, having recently had a need for Big Mans services, calls out for the healer. "Medic! Medic!" But in three half moments, before Big Man can arrive, Harehunter hears the sound of over half a dozen beings crashing through the forest. No one else seems to be aware of the impending ruckus. Harehunter jumps aboard the bus, carefully avoiding the slime trail. "To arms! To arms! The raptors are coming! The raptors are coming!" (OOC: You don't know how hard is was not to pun here!) Then as Harehunter jumps off the bus to face the coming onslaught, he suddenly finds himself on his back again, counting the little birdies that are circling his head.

No, but with Oracle buying Peoplesoft, Sun, and Primavera, we have solved many of our inter-operability problems. We now have a single source for our problems.

That blue dot has split a hare, (and unsplit him). I like your explanation, Actaeon, that it is generated from or feeds on the energy of the RP's. Another similar creature was the energy entity from the Star Trek episode "Day of the Dove". It does not have to be a central plot item, but it can be used to explain strange and unpredictable circumstances. Also, how do the gremlins under the bonnet play into the behaviour of the bus? I think SoT's effort to bring back the V.raptors needs to be fleshed out. Dikiyoba has a pet that could result in more conflict with them, and Jewel has become one. There is great potential for an active plot line here.

Mauve. It has more ram. http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1995-11-17/

Thanks SoT, I like your explanation better. Sylae, I liked a lot of your subplots, and I had them written down in my long summary. And, yes, pony. Jewels, I think of the blue spot and the TARDIS as the same thing. It started out as a spot but it is not restricted to that form. Regardless, the functions are all the same. For those who are not familiar with the Maxwell's Demon from The Wizard in Rhyme, it is a magical being that has its origin in the science of physics. It's magic is based upon the idea that it is able to manipulate matter and energy on the level of quantum physics. Include the Einsteinian physics of relativity, and you have the ability to alter space/time itself. Maxwell's Demon is a self-determinant being, which you can control, but only to the extent that you can encourage it to do what you want. It is also rather ornery in that it will do what you asked it to do, but often with side effects that you didn't want. One point I forgot to mention is that Jewels, who was a ghost for a while is now in the possession of a Velocoraptrix (the Queen Vee maybe? You decide.)

I concur, I spent last evening going through the entire story and wrote up a summary of events, trying to piece together what happened, and where are we now? Now I've left the silly thing at work. I will attempt to assess where we are now, as I understand it. (I could very well be wrong on some points, but that is why I am asking for clarification.) The Spiderbus has been infected by a blue spot, now a blue TARDIS, that has the ability to transport the bus through not only space but also time. It is a self-determinant thing that seems to have a mind of its own. In addition to space/time travel, this blue contraption can cause other anomalies such as transforming characters into ghost, Eye Beasts, etc., splitting hares ( and unsplittiing them) and can also serve as a universal translator. There is also a rather rowdy colony of inebriated gremlins in the motor compartment. Gremlins are well known as little saboteurs of mechanical things, and could also be blamed for some of the crashes and stalls the bus has had. As the story began, the bus had just crashed, but gently, outside a castle, supposedly to be the new home for the Spiderwebbers. Then SoT, as an Eye Beast (now known as Trinit Eye) caused the thing to collapses. When Dikiyoba took the bus on a trip to get some food, Sot, Trinity, Jewels (and one half hare) were left behind. But the bus didn't get very far, coming to a halt in some sort of Jurassic Park (time line is uncertain, is this the Jurassic Period itself or some future time when genetics has advanced enough to create Jurassic Park?) Sylae, as a flying horse, has found a nearby food source (Harehunter is still waiting for his 24 carrot salad). It turns out that this place has had a dampening effect on sound, but the berries i Sylae has brought can fix that. (Harehunter doesn't need those, having better than average hearing due to his long ears.) Dikiyoba has brought on an encounter with a couple of packs of Velociraptors by kidnapping one of their young. An attempt at negotiations has broken down due an inappropriate display of arms. The Reverend has lured away one pack of raptors, and the other SWer's have driven off the other pack, and are reassembling on the bus. Dikiyoba is now training D's new pet. Trinit Eye, being a magical creature almost the level of a demon, has warped space/time to bring the ruined castle into proximity of the bus. This has allowed him to join the encounter with the raptors, which he continued to pursue into an ambush (his own). He is now rocking and rolling back to the bus, with the raptors in close pursuit. Big Man has caused the two Harehunter's to merge by shoving him/them into the blue box (TARDIS). After all, that is what caused the split, it can also repair it. The current cast of characters that I have include: Students of Trinity, Randomizer, Sylae, Dikiyoba, Jewels, Cpt. Charles, Mmxpert, The Reverend, Actaeon, Excalibur, Triumph, ADoS, Nikki, Upon Mars, and Harehunter. If I have missed anyone, please chime in. This is where I understand things to be right now. Please correct me or elaborate on things I have omitted.

When Mmxpert introduced the blue spot, I assumed that it could cause shifts in the space/time continuum, as well as other things. That it has changed from a spot to TARDIS makes no difference to that end. It just changes the character from an intelligent being, which no one had control of, to an inanimate contraption, that has a few quirks in its controller circuits. That can work as well for Jewels idea of a universal translator. While I might enjoy reading binary ASCII, I can see that it does not appeal to everyone.

BMA, I'm not only OK with it, it gave me something more to work with. Healing the antler gave me the idea that you could fix my other little problem.

Student Of Trinity, I guess I forgot to mention that I speak ASCII as a 2nd language. My 1st language was EBCDIC, but even IBMers don't speak that lingo anymore. ADoS, I'm not as up on the Dr. Who canon as others here, Seeing that it had an effect on space/time, I saw the blue spot as a manifestation of a physics anomaly known as Maxwell's Demon. I was surprised that Randomizer had the same reference (Christopher Stasheff's Wizard In Rhyme series) to what this little beastie is capable of; affecting space/time and splitting atoms ( or whole hares ). When Actaeon chided me privately (politely) about my error in being in two places at once, it was suggested that Maxwell's Demon was certainly capable of that phenomenon. When SoT showed up at the bus with the ruins in the background (at least that is what I understood), I thought it necessary to heed Jewels objection to my omnipresence. I took advantage of the (now square) blue spot to try to remedy my initial error and merge my two persona. After all, one of me is more than enough, wouldn't you agree?

With the raptors in full route, Harehunter returns to bus. That encounter got more than a little bit uncomfortable, especially when that one velociraptor chomped one of his antlers off. Harehunter: Thanks Big Man. Losing that antler was throwing my balance off, and made shooting my bow harder to control. Big Man: Think nothing of it. As Harehunter gets near the bus hears the strains of a familiar tune; "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". Looking up, he sees himself standing on top of the bus, fiddling as though March was in the air. Harehunter: I've had days where I've met myself coming and going, but this is too much. How in the world did there get to be two of me? Actaeon: It was that blue spot. When it bent space-time to bring us here, you got split in two, leaving one of you at the forum, while the other one got on the bus. Harehunter: Well that explains why I was in two places at once. It also explains why I have this splitting headache. But what brought that blue spot into the bus. Randomizer looks up from trying to find his book. Randomizer: You summoned it, you nimrod! All that stupid rhyming brought it here from Merovence. Harehunter: Now I know why Actaeon was so annoyed with me. Magic is nothing to be toyed with. But how do I fix this situation. I'm sure most of you will agree that one of me is more than enough and two is intolerable. With a big shove, Big Man pushes Harehunter into the blue box. His other self is pulled in as well. With a hare unsplitting scream, the two rabbits become one. Harehunter: Thanks again Big Man. Big Man: It was what was best for everyone.

I tried to get more Delta E, but my Delta S kept eating my Delta H.

I counted a couple of six packs (velociraptors hunt in packs), but I'm not sure if we are facing one or two packs now.

Now that the Reverend has lured the velociraptors away from the bus, one on the Harehunters steps off and wanders back toward the ruins. As he approaches, he hears a binary bit stream emanate from the eye beast. (Thank goodness he was only transmitting at 30 baud.) Trinit Eye: 'Jimmy's fallen down the well!" Jewels: "What's that, iBeast? Jimmy's fallen down the well?" Trinit Eye: "No, that's not right. Dikiyoba is being chased by raptors!!" Following Trinit Eye's lead, Harehunter joins the Eye beasts lead and joins the hunt. As he draws his bow, he is pleased to find that it is his old trusty yew bow, and his quiver is full of iron tipped arrows. (Whew, that's a good break.)

Maestro, when I tell chemistry puns, I always get a reaction. Usually that reaction resembles dropping a gram of metallic sodium into a jar of water. (Paint visual image of this in your mind.) Most of my physics puns tend to be of the electric variety. You'd be shocked by static I get from those. I've tried to come up with good puns in nuclear physics, but it seems I'm always fission for a pun-ch line. (That was weak,) If you are inclined to pun planely, don't get yourself wrapped around a cylinder. You'll be screwed up.

I thought I had seen that plot line before. But now that Cpt C and Excalibur have gone about waving weapons and now we're all back on the bus, I think we are yet again ready for an unexpected plot twist.