Posts Tagged with Other Worlds

Greetings friends. I hope the day finds you far removed from the troubles of the grand designs of the powerful in your world. Here, I'm camped with various creatures on an exploratory excursion through the realm. It's not really an excursion though. For me, home is never far away.

Neither is Terra, which brings me to the point. I recently ran across some advice on your twitter to go fight dragons. Personally, I prefer to avoid fighting things that could kill me, but admittedly, this is after having slayed hundreds that I am pretty sure needed slaying. All that to say I can't really dismiss the enterprise outrightly. Here was the advice:

Fight dragons even if they're scary and frightening. Fight dragons because they are scary. Know that you do not fight alone. Know that you fight to protect others.

Fight.

One the one hand, I like to avoid mortal danger. On the other hand, I appreciate the spirit, and sometimes you can't really avoid it. So, I made some tips to go along with that advice. If you're going to go fighting dragons, then you better fight to win, and so you better go smart.

1. Train. Bleed now, among friends not foes.

I get the urgency. Why waste time while the beast wreaks havoc in neighboring villages and towns?! Maybe there is no time to train, in which case you will likely die, and if not you will not relieve much suffering. Train. If only when on the way, train. The goal should be to get all you can, not to go without all you can. It will save you and others much grief.

2. Enchanted arms or it might as well be a slingshot.

Sometimes equipment just gets in the way. Fighting a dragon is about such things as cunning and strategy. Without those, you'll end up a roasted gas station burrito in an armor wrapper, one that he eats whole. That said, if you don't know much about enchanted arms, learn or stay home. If you can't do those, God help you.

3. A roc might help.

A full grown roc is a mighty beast, and can be a great help. BUT that's only if you two are well accustomed to each other and have battle experience. Otherwise, it's easy to be just a bigger target and why lead a majestic creature into harm's way only to be used as a one-shot (at best) that dies soon thereafter? (Again unless you have to.) Personally, I've tried many majestic steeds, and I've settled with a gryphon, but that's me. I've not had much luck with magical companions in this area. (See rule 5.)

4. Go heartily and compelled mightily.

Duty is not enough. Nor is glory. Both may get you into the fight, but the vigor they inspire does not burn as bright and strong as- they aren't enough. Find better. That said, I have seen a few mighty and experienced slayers prevail on vain glory alone. They were good, but even they got lucky, and their luck ran out.

5. Don't go alone or with the new guy.

This should not have to be said. But lone-wolfing this is mad crazy dumb. Again, if you have to, fine. If no one else is qualified for the risk, maybe you have to go alone. Sometimes that's better than bringing along deadweight or a foible king. Anyway, it's also just endangering the newb. Dragon-hunts are kind of a suicide mission for most men- for most dwarves and elves too. (Though don't tempt the dwarves).

At this point, I wondered why a terran wouldn't just sit comfortable in their office and push a button to dispense with a dragon. So. Much. EASIER! Then, I realized he was probably speaking metaphorically in the first place. Still good advice though.

P

Terrans, just writing right quick to let you know a couple things that’ve been going on. Here on the website, there have been a few changes. For one, I improved upon my bit on good arguments:

True claims and good logic. Done. If an argument has that, then it's gravy. But it’s not always clear when an argument does, in fact, have the truth-and-logic goods. How do you know if it's got the goods? (more: here)

Also, of course I added a link to Amazon. Shopping from that link helps out around here which is huge because regardless of how wealthy I am in other realms, let's face it, most grocery stores don’t accept our realm's currency (elvin tea), so when I’m here on earth, things can get awkward. (Oh, I have stories.)

More importantly I am about 13 pages away from finishing Libertarian Anarchy by the gentleman scholar Gerard Casey. This is particularly fun because I was asked by a new twitter follower, Joshua Rasmussen (follow him!), if I intended to write a review of the book. Now, I may not be as adept at such things as the Bradley Birzer (who recently reviewed him some Tolkien here), but I’ve given this book a great deal of attention over the year, so yes, I think something is in the works.

Finally, about that flying island… You may recall that I took a Twitter poll asking you guys what I should do about it. The consensus was to investigate carefully, but as I recall, a close second was to blow it up. So, I came prepared for both. But when our small crew arrived, it was totally gone! I have no explanation for this! I did get a few crazy looks my friends when it wasn’t there. But I promise it was real, and I wasn’t the only one to see it before it disappeared or whatever. (I mean there is no trace!) So I suspect or rather I wouldn’t be too surprised if this wasn’t the end of the story. (I mean, maybe it moved? If so, how fast did the thing go?!? and how far? It’s not like we didn’t look around! Anyway.)

There is more to share, but I’ll have to leave it there. For example, Elderbard Night was great. Wise and charming. The guy could’ve been Santa Claus’s cousin or something. I truly feel better (and improved?) for attending. But it’s getting late here. Later terrans.

-Pen
Ti 2, 7382

Greetings all ye awesome readers and statists as well. Here's hoping this letter finds you well. That goes for the readers especially; everyone else, sure but less heartily.

I see the Dutch have been busy showing the Land of the Free how to stand up for liberty. That has to be embarrassing, but thankfully, not as bad as when the Canadians did it.

Here, things continue much the same. The base village is pretty established. I'll have to give you some kind of a tour of it some day. I am really impressed with what we build. However, I am concerned. In short, most realms have dragons. Now, I know. I know. Yours doesn't seem to (anymore at least), but I am uneasy in a new world until I know their haunts and habits. And that's just the wing'ed lizards, we just haven't explored the local area near as much as would be wise. The previous owners (local elves) were helpful, but somethings need verified and others were unclear. We need an expedition, and since we don't have a Thomas Jefferson to finance one by taxes (I know right?), we will have to manage it on our own.

Also, my reading of Casey's book continues, but I want to wait a bit before responding further. Maybe next time I'll touch upon a bigger swath. The tidbitery is fun, but maybe not to some. Casey does say that annoyance doesn't count as aggression, but I'd like to avoid it anyway.

To many brews and funner news,

-Pen
53 Fi 7380