One scene of the final three has been completed over the weekend. It's a crux encounter, where our heroes have a fatal (near fatal?) encounter with a doomstalker. Yep, those nasty beasties have been drawn out of the IFGS D'oril and given a new life, and a shiny new set of leathery wings. The empire spy, afraid of being connected to the empires no-longer-clandestine activities in the northwest confederacy, summons one of the half-demonic blood-hounds to eliminate the one person who can link him to the raiders, namely Randir of the k'tath.
In the IFGS D'oril, doomstalkers were used in a minigame to harry the pc's into hurrying a quest, they were monsters that would come back time after time to tirelessly pursue their prey, each time stronger than the last, unless (and in the minigame, until) the PC's gained some Elorna-blessed water and learned the ritual of closure to finally stop the doomstalker. They hunted in a pack of three, and by the end of the game, took some major effort on the part of the PC's to finish them off.
In literary D'oril, aka Imperfect Hope, part one, Min summons a single doomstalker by asking a boon of the shadowlord (a different sort of shadowlord than the Lor shadowlord that Ray has tormented us with for so long). They were used at Sha'te, according to IH lore, and though Randir had never faced one before, he knew of it's only weakness, susceptibility to a certain sort of Elornan magic. He and Cerryn manage to finish off the stalker, but... What is the cost.
That will be the wind down scene I'm working on next. Cerryn had learned from Randir of the connection between Min, the raiders who struck at Mud Bay (names of towns will probably change), and with the doomstalker's arrival, she makes the final connection to the Empire of Tallux. She's torn between making sure Randir gets to D'oril for the krath healing he needs to remove the shadow curse, and hunting down the assassin she blames for his death (as yet premature, but it looks probable. You know how those writers like to keep you in suspense). With the arrival of the kel group led by J'lan, who takes Randir's near-dead body back to D'oril, she makes her decision, and her goodbyes, not realizing that the shadow curse resides within her own soul.
The final scene will set the stage for book 2, with admiral Tash setting the scene for the empire's next move, Randir's fate hanging in the balance, and Cerryn beginning her journey back to find the empire spy and, besides obtain her personal revenge, stop the Empire of Tallux from whatever their plan may be. This scene is, for now, the least well concepted scene right now, it's still rather formative. I'm planning on outlining book two after I finish first draft, but before I start in on rewrite, so I'll let first draft of this final scene take it's rough form on the fly. Chances are it will change later, but that's the whole point of rewrite.
I'd begun to doubt my decision to split the story, for one, I was considering my new end concept a bit of a cop out. But recent books I've read actually have followed this format (for example, the Seeker series by... don't help me, I'll think of his name... (dang, I'll figure it out later)) with some very good success. In several of these books either Richard or Katlyn's fates have been left unclear at books end, to be used as lead in during the followup book. As to book length, I suspect I'll have two very reasonable 250 page books by the time I'm done. Wish me luck...
Hope everyone had a great fourth of July, we certainly did.
Clear skies,
Jim
In the IFGS D'oril, doomstalkers were used in a minigame to harry the pc's into hurrying a quest, they were monsters that would come back time after time to tirelessly pursue their prey, each time stronger than the last, unless (and in the minigame, until) the PC's gained some Elorna-blessed water and learned the ritual of closure to finally stop the doomstalker. They hunted in a pack of three, and by the end of the game, took some major effort on the part of the PC's to finish them off.
In literary D'oril, aka Imperfect Hope, part one, Min summons a single doomstalker by asking a boon of the shadowlord (a different sort of shadowlord than the Lor shadowlord that Ray has tormented us with for so long). They were used at Sha'te, according to IH lore, and though Randir had never faced one before, he knew of it's only weakness, susceptibility to a certain sort of Elornan magic. He and Cerryn manage to finish off the stalker, but... What is the cost.
That will be the wind down scene I'm working on next. Cerryn had learned from Randir of the connection between Min, the raiders who struck at Mud Bay (names of towns will probably change), and with the doomstalker's arrival, she makes the final connection to the Empire of Tallux. She's torn between making sure Randir gets to D'oril for the krath healing he needs to remove the shadow curse, and hunting down the assassin she blames for his death (as yet premature, but it looks probable. You know how those writers like to keep you in suspense). With the arrival of the kel group led by J'lan, who takes Randir's near-dead body back to D'oril, she makes her decision, and her goodbyes, not realizing that the shadow curse resides within her own soul.
The final scene will set the stage for book 2, with admiral Tash setting the scene for the empire's next move, Randir's fate hanging in the balance, and Cerryn beginning her journey back to find the empire spy and, besides obtain her personal revenge, stop the Empire of Tallux from whatever their plan may be. This scene is, for now, the least well concepted scene right now, it's still rather formative. I'm planning on outlining book two after I finish first draft, but before I start in on rewrite, so I'll let first draft of this final scene take it's rough form on the fly. Chances are it will change later, but that's the whole point of rewrite.
I'd begun to doubt my decision to split the story, for one, I was considering my new end concept a bit of a cop out. But recent books I've read actually have followed this format (for example, the Seeker series by... don't help me, I'll think of his name... (dang, I'll figure it out later)) with some very good success. In several of these books either Richard or Katlyn's fates have been left unclear at books end, to be used as lead in during the followup book. As to book length, I suspect I'll have two very reasonable 250 page books by the time I'm done. Wish me luck...
Hope everyone had a great fourth of July, we certainly did.
Clear skies,
Jim
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