Who Watches the Watcher?

[SIZE=3][I][COLOR=#c0c0c0]A Journal Entry by FireLotus[/COLOR][/I][/SIZE]​

I finally mustered my nerves and stepped through the Lunar Rift and found myself in a majestic city known as Ardoris. I was immediately taken with its urban sprawl, charming architecture, and bustling markets. Here I saw great potential for a new home… a new Tavern; one that would easily rival the two existing establishments. Truth be told, I could probably buy out the Tavern of the South Wind with the gold I have squirreled away. That place looks like it has seen better days, and though I’d have to scrub it down (and be sure to evict “Blowhard von Strife” from his bar stool, permanently) it had potential… not to mention location, location, location.

But it didn’t take long for me to abandon that plan. As it would seem, the entire city has a bit of an insect problem. One that not even an expert exterminator could fix. Large, invasive, mechanized insects called Watchers.

Now, I’ve survived, even thrived here for close to a year now, and I credit that to a fair amount of carefully constructed deceptions and my staying off the radar. Nothing malicious of course, just a friendly ruse to help me assimilate more easily into my new life when I first arrived in this new land. Yes, I inherited my Tavern from a dying man who mistakenly, maybe even wishfully, believed that I was his estranged daughter. Apparently, I’m the spitting image of her... go figure! But I was the one who cared for him on his deathbed, and from what I could tell, I brought him more pride and joy then she ever did.

So I played my part in this grand facade, and worked hard to honor his memory by turning Fire Lotus Tavern into a thriving, vibrant success. He was more proud of me than my own father had ever been, and he was undeniably a more honorable man than my own Dad; someone I grew to care for deeply. I still miss him. But here I am, babbling on about things long past. The point is that, all in all my new life, my new identity, worked out great for everyone.

But then I get here and all of a sudden, there are these flying, crawling, insectoid eyeballs everywhere. Watching me. Watching everyone. Reporting to some mysterious “Oracle” who is supposed to know everything about everyone and everything. Half the people who live in Ardoris are creeped out by the things, I can tell by the way they whisper around them, and why wouldn’t they be. Something reporting their every move to some unseen entity. I’ve seen enough sci-fi to to know that can’t be a good thing. Especially for someone like me. Someone who values... no, depends on her privacy.

So, I quietly took my leave. I was kinda feeling homesick anyway. But I was left wondering, who exactly is this Oracle, and what kind of nefarious intentions would require the presence of the Watchers anyway. I’ll have to see if any of my contacts can provide me with more information about the Oracle and her legion of eyes. After all, if I won’t be investing in another Tavern, I have a bit of gold to spread around. At least until I find a location that’s not crawling with “bugs”.

 

This is great, and love how you assimilated!! Big kudos!

 

Excellent work! Really enjoyed reading this one and looking forward to more.

 

Thread necromancy, thread necromancy everywhere.
We now have several references to the fact that Lady FireLotus tries to keep her identity secret. this brings up a question in my mind (which I am then going to attach another question to the end of.) This relates to in game books, I was wondering if books that are in game, at least, official books, are supposed to be in-character knowledge, such as, if I read a book in game, is it reasonable to role-play that my character then has that knowledge? If so, the Through the Lunar Rift series of journals being in game seems counter-productive to Lady FireLotus' keeping a secret identity, as publishing such books literally puts her secrets on display, for all to view. Side note: as far as I can tell, only some of the Through the Lunar Rift series seem to be in game, or at least I have only found some of them, all of which were if I remember correctly, on the same bookseller. It seems odd that a vendor would sell six of a nine part series. (Maybe they were not all written by the time those six were put in the game?) Also, the labeling on them seems odd, they seem to be labeled in the order in which they were written, as by a fantasy author (As the ideas occurred to the author.) rather than the order they happened, as would be the case with a journal. granted this is because they probably WERE written as by a fantasy author, in the order the story ideas occurred to Gina (Lady FireLotus). But in game thy are labeled as journal entries, so it strikes me as odd.

Again on the subject of in game books, in the game the first three portions of Blade of the Avatar are available, The Prologue, Chapter One and Chapter Two, maybe this isn't a question I should be directing at Lady FireLotus, but since it relates to the question I have already asked, I am going to anyway. Blade of the Avatar, the information within, seems very much knowledge that is probably completely unknown to the people of New Britannia, it seems to me unreasonable that historians should know the conversations that for example, took place between Captain Aren Bennis and Syenna, as they made their way down the streets of Midras. Being that these are from the novel written by Tracy Hickman and Richard Garriott, they are canon lore. It seems unlikely that any character should, in-character, know the specifics of these stories. And yet, I have a desire to believe that, if my character read a book in game, I can incorporate that information into my chracter's repertoire of knowledge. These concerns may seem odd, they may not, they are yet however, concerns I have.

/endthreadnecromancy.......fornow.