Altered Tundra

Tundra's Testing Tales

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It's about time I make one of these, I suppose. Keep posted for various thread formats and other coding experiments.

Time Stops For Fire(Altered Tundra and Hero)

It was a new experience for Savayna to get the cold shoulder. She was usually the one to apply it, though Grant did seem uncharacteristically silent. There wasn’t even so much as an acknowledgement of her question. Instead, when Reia came into room, he chose to speak to her instead. She would let him talk to her, though she was a little hurt that he wouldn’t even give her a simple answer. Hell, he didn’t have to speak. A simple-fucking nod would’ve sufficed, but apparently he woke up extra grumpy this morning.

Before she would make the decision to take the high road, she quietly stomped on Grant’s foot so hard she might’ve heard something crack and stood up. She nodded to everyone butb Grant. She shot him a glare before taking her plate and bringing it to one of the kitchen staff waiting at the other end of the Grand Hall that led to the kitchen. There was a cart where it had other dirty dishes. She placed it on it and left, heading back to her room.

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“I’ve been wondering the same thing, actually,” Jaakuna admitted, his eyes on Emiri.

It was definitely strange that she would act this way from a fever and one that seemed to arrive out of nowhere. He couldn’t hide his curious mind when he thought intensely about her condition and what might’ve caused it. The obvious choice was possibly an allergic reaction to something in the garden. There was also the possibility of something biting her. Who knows what crawled in that garden? Beautiful as it may be, it was foreign in every possible way, so to Jaakuna, it most certainly seemed plausible that something wicked resided in that garden. Foreign soil meant foreign danger. Though, that thought soon went away as JAakuna would remember that it was the Royal Garden. Obviously it wasn’t going to be dangerous, not if the official gardener had anything to say about it.

So he was back to square one regarding that thought, however, Jaakuna would hear Nadeline come in acting as if she was a nurse. WEll, not all false for she was a skilled healer. More so now that she had Ultima’s Seal unlocked. As Jaakuna watched her act rather...expressively towards Nadeline and then to him, he only smiled as to not alert her to his true thoughts. He did, however, notice her difficulty to bring about any sort of healing spell. He saw her try a few more times and nothing happened.

“You alright over there, Nadeline?” As he spoke, Jaakuna heard something. It sounded like a scream. Not just any scream, but that of someone he definitely knew. “What was that!?”

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After storming off, Savayna hadn’t known where she ended up. She just started to walk, going wherever seemed quietest. She must’ve passed the same wall at least three times because she recognized a portrait of Wesley with his entire family. He was younger, though not by much. Only about five years so. He didn’t seem as poised as he was now and Cassandra didn’t seem as bitchy as she was now. Though, the portrait showed Sylvester to be an interesting person. He appeared to be very much like how Wesley looked, if not a little more...troubled. It was hard to grasp, but in just that one portrait--a portrait that was meant to show the picture perfect family--she saw that Sylvester had something on his mind. She didn’t know what, but it picked at her brain to find out more. But was it her place to do so? Where would she even begin?

Continuing down this thought pattern, Savayna found herself at the balcony, not even realizing that she yet again turned a corner.

“]Well at least it’s quiet here.” She let out a sigh, leaning against the balcony itself and looking at her view. From where she was in the castle, she saw the Giza Plains. Unluckily for her, it seemed it was Rainy Season. Though it provided a nice contrast for the deserts that surrounded it, she did find it stuck out like sore thumb. While everything was beige and hot, the Giza Plains were green and lush--like the fields in Archadia. Not to mention there was a refreshing breeze coming from the south. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make her feel at home.

And yet, the breeze only reminded her of Grant and how he was abnormally cold towards her. She didn’t understand why. Had she done something to upset him? Maybe Cassandra’s bitchiness was contagious and he was embodying that through his usual moody mannerisms. Or maybe her was back to being the Grant she knew before she fell for him. She honestly didn’t know and running them past Mateus wasn’t helping her either. He shrugged at every single one of them, offering no help whatsoever.

Savayna let out a sigh once more. She decided to just head back. Though, as she turned, she felt an intense pain through her temples, gripping it tightly. It caused her to go to her knee due to the intensity of it. And in that moment, she saw...flashes--flashes of her raging on about something. She heard someone’s voice call out to her and then she saw something chilly and blue as ice rage towards something of a darker shade of blue, though not as cold. She saw a burst of ice consume scattered petals of some blue flowers.

As it went black and Savayna blinked, in her periphery, cold winds whispered and the sound of shattering ice ringed in her ear as she closed her hands. The wind soon faded but the shattering sound still remained, ever-present and causing her to fall to both knees, gripping both sides of her head with both hands. The next thing was so earth-shattering that everyone would hear it: a roaring in ear-deafening octaves, a shriek being heard through the shallow halls and reaching those in the Grand Hall.

The Elder Scrolls: Swords & Septims

@Altered Tundra – Kalthar, as Hank put it, feels somewhat disjointed, and this begins in his appearance. It sometimes repeats info and sometimes contradicts himself (an example, as petty as it might be, is his eye color – to my knowledge cerulean blue is much lighter than sapphire blue).

His personality similarly repeats itself and in some places I feel does not make much sense, especially when compared with his biography (his father is described as an honorable man – yet a heavily and violently abusive father and husband). Perhaps it is because we have different conceptions of honor but to me it feels self-contradictory.

The biography suffers from this flaw as well in my opinion. I like the somewhat saga-like manner in which his father and mother met, yet the fact that Kalthar’s mother was a hardened warrior who had defeated his father makes the fact that the man often abused him during marriage baseless. One would expect some sort of reaction from a woman; surely a pact has not devolved her to a shrinking violet. And the biggest flaw is, unless I’ve misread things, that one of timeline. The RP takes place in 4E 202, as the OOC post says, one year after the appearance of the Dragonborn. Yet somehow Kalthar leaves the Companions with the Dragonborn’s appearance and wanders Skyrim for ten years over the course of one year. Kalthar would require extensive reworking to have my approval and with the character limit, he loses my vote.

Peic

I am thankful for both yours and @Hank's criticisms. Trust me when I say they do not fall on deaf ears. When the second round of recruiting comes around, I will present a much better and cohesive sheet for you two. It is, as they say, if at first you do not succeed, try and try again.

The Elder Scrolls: Swords & Septims

7. Kalthar Tarrowhand, @Altered Tundra
I appreciate the amount of effort that went into this character sheet. You were quite descriptive, covered all the important events of Kalthar's life (which is a little excessive in its grimness and tragedy, perhaps), chose a sensible skillset, remained modest with the equipment and many of the elements that make Lord Vensor an interesting character are also a part of Kalthar's personality and history... but it still felt off. Your writing style comes across as a little disjointed. The personality section (for example) restates some facts about his character at least twice, like how he's blunt and speaks his mind, and it isn't apparent why he's a bit of a cunt precisely. His father is described as both honorable and a child-beating asshole in the same sheet and I'm not sure if Kalthar looked up to his father or despised him. The latter seems to be the case with Kalthar leaving him to die and fleeing, which I thought was a great twist, but it doesn't have a believable impact on his character as outlined in the sheet. You describe his motivations as 'vague', which I agree with, but that's not a good thing. As a player and a GM I should be able to divine what is that Kalthar wants out of life, but I don't feel like it's apparent now. When it came down to Vensor and Tarrowhand in the category "prickly guy with heavy armor" we leaned towards the former. He has many of the same characteristics as Kalthar but the execution and the motivation for the flaws are just a bit better. If you straighten these issues out and create a bigger correlation between his history and his personality, Kalthar has the potential to be a very interesting and polarizing character.
PS. Why would General Tullius recognize a lowly soldier?

@Hank

I just wanted to say that I appreciate you giving me some solid advice. There were a few things that I wasn't made aware of before you pointed them out, so I know, going forward, it'll help me present a better sheet.

Also, in hindsight, I guess I could have made a general who was less up the ranks. I didn't think much of it at the time, so maybe that's why it didn't appear as "odd" to me before.

The Elder Scrolls: Swords & Septims

@Applo I can't be the only one bothered by the buff wrestlers acting as if it's the motherfucking Royal Rumble and they got a shot at the title at WrestleMania.

The Elder Scrolls: Swords & Septims

Crooked Young - An Altered Lies Production

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“I'm more than just 'good'--I'm perfection!"” Alexandros corrected her.

Most men might revel in hearing someone as glamorous as Audrey Huntsberg compliment them in their sexual prowess, but Alexandros wasn’t most men. When Audrey had told him he was good, he was actually disappointed. He knew he was better than just ‘good’--fantastic, definitely--but not just good. To him, that hurt more than it helped. It was apparent that he didn’t like what she said, so he simply sighed to express that.

She wanted to keep his ego from getting any larger than what it was already was, but when your ego reached the highest point it already could go, there was no increasing it any further. Then again, Alexandros always did like to defy all expectations. When it came to people thinking he couldn’t get any more arrogant always were proven wrong. They never could estimate how wrong they were about him--especially when it came to bragging about his sexual prowess.

“Allow me to show you,” Alexandros cooly stated, raising the sheets above them. As they say, the rest is history.

Time Stops For Fire(Altered Tundra and Hero)

Jaakuna was more convinced something was up with Emiri than he was before. Perhaps it was a cold or something similar to it, but what he did know was that she wouldn’t leave the bed that he just put her in. Everything that came out of her mouth has been all over the place, not to mention she interrupted her own self not once but twice. She was clearly delusional and Jaakuna had to make sure she would be okay. Though he did find it odd that in less than half of a day, she went from her normal self to...whatever she was right now.

He brought a chair next to the bed and sat in it, eyes on Emiri. As he kept them on her, he saw the reality of her condition. Or whatever you wanted to call it. Her pupils looked a bit wider than usual and as he felt her head, it abnormally hot. It felt so warm that Jaakuna’s cold hand would become positively warm after the fact.

He sighed, leaning back. Jaakuna would go to the bathroom and run a washcloth under some water as he would then come back in less than twenty seconds and fold it into a rectangle and place it on Emiri’s forehead. “Keep it on there; it’ll help you.” He told her, sitting back down and gazing upon her form.

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During that whole debacle with Emiri acting strangely, the rest of the diners in the Grand Hall were still trying to enjoy their breakfast. Cassandra, at least, seemed unfazed by it, though Savayna couldn’t help but wonder what was up with Emiri. If that was a cold, then Rozarrians sure go through some shit when they’re ill. That caused her to look at Grant, who seemed abnormally pouty this morning. Come to think of it, he was like that most of yesterday too. She didn’t quite understand. Ever since after Zodiark, he had hardly looked at her, not to mention he barely said anything to her last night.

Usually, when Savayna looked at Grant, she would get some kind of reaction from him. As it would appear, however, this was not that case. No comment whatsoever, it was as though he was purposely ignoring her. Now that she thought about it, the last time that they spoke was before all of that shit happened in Archadia--some of which is still fuzzy. She shrugged at that since it didn’t seem to be too important. The only thing she wanted to know was why he practically ignored her.

“You okay? I hope whatever Emiri has isn’t contagious.”

The Elder Scrolls: Swords & Septims

<Snipped quote by Altered Tundra>

Vegeta has died 3 times, just like Yamcha ;)

@POOHEAD189

Yes, but none of those times that Vegeta died was fighting an alien plant monster nor an android with a choking fetish. :]

The Elder Scrolls: Swords & Septims

ALSO, Yamcha > Vegeta, fite me.

@POOHEAD189

I would, but Yamcha already died, so the point is moot.