Epilogue - 005

It makes sense if you assume (as Stanley no doubt did) that the fortunes of war would turn and Plaid forces would get a chance to re-take some of those cities. They'd probably need heavy siege units for that, and they have no way of getting any new ones until they had a city with a gate capable of accomodating them. So, from Stanley's viewpoint, he was sending expendable units to protect irreplaceable ones.

Of course, the wisdom of making that assumption is a diffent issue....

Making your grandfather a zombie is definitely not the same thing as bringing him back to life.

Similarly, uncroaked are not the living. Decrypted are repopped on your side, loyal to you.

“He could see Hamster, Maggie, and the...tunneler, the one who did toilet duty, Sideways or whatever his name was, on the new parapet of the new tower.” (Update 3—sorry, can't link as the links appear to be volatile. I've put in a request about this.)

parapet: A low, protective wall along the edge of a roof, bridge, or balcony. It's hard to be sure, but from the view of the tower in update 1, the only place where there could possibly be a parapet would be at the base of the roof, above the office level. It's not clear from the drawing that there's room for such a thing, but I've climbed enough towers like this to know that such appearances can be deceiving.

Anyway, either Parson left the office after update 2, or Mr. Balder is playing fast and loose with words.


It depends on exactly what is meant by ‘siege’. Historically, siege engines could be offensive or defensive. Offensive siege engines included towers, rams, and artillery, among others. Defensive siege engines were mostly artillery—various kinds of trebuchet, scorpions, etc.

We saw in update 3 that the new GK has, at the very least, a pair of trebuchets (defensive artillery) mounted atop its barbican. Such use is historical, despite a widespread but incorrect belief that such would have been impossible—there are many fortifications around the world with artillery emplacements atop towers, and historical documents showing such things. (One of Leonardo da Vinci's drawings is of a defensive trebuchet.)

So, would those things count as siege? Historically, they would have.

Lol. I'm going to vote with the idea that Stanley is seriously considering replacing Parson. My second favorite is the Tool being afraid that Parson will stage a coup at some point. The authors could not have made it more plain (again) if they had it tattooed to his forehead: Stanley is most concerned by looks, appearance, and reputation. By comparison, the note that Wanda can raise the croaked as loyal, intelligent servants as often as she has opportunity, passes by as a small second to the fact that Ansom. Is now his warlord.*sarcasm*

Hence, Ansom has the superhero chin! Put him in charge!

The idea that the tool is afraid of Parson is, imo, something of a lesser thing. While Stanley might have a bit more respect now for his underlings, he still considers them his rightful underlings. Note how he thinks of Jack and Vurp: 'those two knew better than to say anything while he was thinking'. Then again, he does appear to be attempting to show off for his subordinates, doing 'dramatic dives' with the dwagon, thinking of surprising Parson with a landing on the parapet, acting like he is in charge (see conv with Wanda). It does seem strange, seeing as he clearly believed in the past that he could disband any of them at any time. Also, he doesn't trust his new units, even when he can see their stats. So, maybe he does fear Parson. It does strike me as odd though, that he would ask Ansom. Ansom could only have been around Parson for about a turn before Stanley showed up. So, unless Stanley just wants info on Parsons tactical and strategic ability, can't see how Ansom would be much help here. Unless he is going to have Ansom attack Parson when Parson has his back turned. Just seems like the sort of contingency orders he'd give someone.

Apologies if someone mentioned this and I missed it...

Would Stanley be dumb enough to intentionally croak Parson, and then get Wanda to decrypt him? We already know (page 39) that his upkeep costs are over 1,000 Schmuckers per turn. Decrypted troops (p. 145) have no upkeep cost. Maybe Stanley thinks he can get Parson's skills for no upkeep cost?

Of course, since Parson isn't *from* Erfworld, all bets are off...

We discussed that as soon as we learned decrypted had no upkeep. The problem is that decrypting alters your mind. Ansom is a huge asset simply from his bonus. Parson without his fully functional mind is just a lower level warlord.

Stanley won't have Wanda decrypt Parson. Or should I say, Stanley won't let Wanda decrypt Parson.

For all he knows that would make Parson Wanda's unit, and that would be very bad for Stanley. I suspect he knows as little about Wanda's true motivations as anybody else, and now that she has an Arkentool...

On a side-note, maybe Jack joined Stanley for an Arkentool as well? I really hope it isn't some prophecy about how Jillian will die if Jack doesn't join Stanley, or somesuch. Far more interesting to think Jackie boy's in it for an Arkentool (for whatever reason he wants one).

-V

On a semi-tangent, I'd like to speculate on just how powerful the GK team is, now, with the addition of Jack. He's already a master-class foolamancer, but more importantly he is intelligent and creative with his misdirections. Imagine the mayhem Parson could cause by mixing Jack's illusions with other units' powers. Some examples:

Jack and Maggie could really mess up a commanding warlord by having Jack produce an illusion while Maggie amplified the desired mental effect with a suggestion spell. Jack could can make parts of the GK army look weaker or stronger than they are. Unit types could be visually switched. Jack could veil Wanda, specifically, so she could be near the front line decrypting everything that falls, as they fall, although the disorientation period might be a built-in limiter to that.

Based on what we've seen and heard from a fully cognitive Jack so far, he seems a lot wiser than most other Erfworld characters. My guess is that he recognizes that power corrupts and does not actively seek it out. Even his native school of magic - foolamancy - seems more designed to avoid battle/confrontation than anything else, particularly as he seems to have traditionally used his abilities to that end (first by veiling the cities of Faq to avoid detection, and last going off by veiling Stanley and his stack to avoid detection on their route back to GK).

Why would Tool think Parson is going to try some coup or something? The summon spell forces Parson's loyalty and obedience, even going so far as to requiring him to play out all options before giving up.