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[Tarot Redhand]

In the recent sale at GOG I spent enough money to unlock some free games (2 of them just by buying 1 game - go figure). Unfortunately for me I already own 2 of them. Below is the relevant part of the notification email.

 

 

Awesome! You unlocked your free copy of Game X in the Big Fall Sale. A redeemable game code is displayed below, you're free to add the game to your account or share it with a friend! This code will expire on December 15 2015, at 11:59 PM GMT.

 

Rather than waste these codes by giving them away on a first come basis, I had a thought. Why not try something that would benefit the community as well as the persons who receive the codes. So what I propose is a small fan fiction writing contest. In the second post of this thread I will give you a short opening text and ask for a continuation, which should be posted in this thread. Such submissions should be 500 or more words long.

 

One thing you may have noticed is that in the section of the email quoted above the actual game(s) is not mentioned. In fact I have substituted the words "Game X" for the title. The reason for this is twofold. By not mentioning either game I cannot be accused of promoting non-BioWare games. The other is that the overall winner will be given the choice of which of the two they would prefer. The runner up alas gets the other one. I will give further details in my third post in this thread.

 

TR

[Tarot Redhand]

Here is the opening paragraph of the story that I want you to expand upon. 

 

Divine Fools

 

They were the luckiest of fools, they were damned. They were cursed... but their companions were dead. They were no ordinary fools, their foolishness was divinely inspired. These were not ordinary curses. Each of them had been cursed by a god. Moreover, a god with a sick sense of humour. No mere mortal could remove these curses, only the god who had bestowed them at such time as it pleased that god to do so. This god was jealous of this power. This being so they declared that each fool would not die before their curse was no more. The fools were effectively immortal and in fear of this god's passing. This was no ordinary immortality however. It was not so much that they couldn't die, more that when death struck, by some strange means he missed! Once the fools found each other and formed a band of wanderers and ne'er-do-wells (aka an adventuring band) this got interesting... Really interesting. On more than one occasion an assailant was killed by their own perfect shot, which missing fool after fool in impossible ways, eventually came back to strike down said assailant. But I get ahead of myself. Let me introduce you to the fools.

 

 

TR

[Tarot Redhand]

What I would like is a bio for a single character. It should detail how they acquired their curse and how their curse impacted on their chosen profession. It should also detail how they managed to survive while the rest of their party perished. On the subject of their curses... These should be silly, almost innocuous yet devastating for their profession. Here is a list of suggested curses (note you do not have to choose any of them, you can invent your own)

 

Possible curses

 

• Feet (not shoes/boots/armour) squeak i.e. move silently impossible
• Everything spoken rhymes
• Ultra clumsiness
• Stench - charisma suffers badly
• Beams of light from eyes
• Every important choice wrong
• Yoda speak
• Backwards speak
• Poverty - any money acquired and not spent on basic food vanishes
• Misogynist in woman's body
• Lord of the Flies - flies continuously follow this person

 

One last thing, given the expiry date of the codes, entries should be submitted by 11:59 PM GMT on the 10th December 2015. While anyone can post more than one entry, only one prize will be awarded to any entrant.

 

So now it's over to you. Questions, comments post in here. Just put one the words "Comment", Question" or "Entry" at the top of your post to speed things up.

 

<Sits back with low expectations of any entries whatsoever but at least I tried>

 

TR

 

[werelynx]

Entry

<> - fill those gaps with what you want

 

Tarot "Redhand" Downsailer* (profession - rogue)

 

Tarot was said to be blessed from the moment he was born into small gypsy family. It looked as if he was looked after by the goddess of luck, <name taken from setting> herself. His birth, to be more precise - conception, was prophesied by famous Downsailer seer by a means of semi-magical card deck and thus his name was picked. Tarot that is, certainly not "Prophecy" or "Seer", which would be plain silly. Alas Lady of Luck is a fickle mistress (aren't all goddesses?, hey, ouch, let me finish the story) and she put, but one bump, in his red carpet-clad path. Tarot was a terrible case of cleptomania. Basically everything was disappearing around him, no matter how expensive or not it was. Most of the stuff was returned to owners after a while, when he got bored of them, but when the family home-boats left the harbor there usually was no time left to return the item. Tarot was generally good at it and lucky enough to not get caught. The gypsies always had a reputation of thieves, so he did not do much damage to their reputation. All hell broke lose, when his parents had to dock near an abandoned temple and he decided to stroll around while they did the repairs cause he was such a good son. There were so many interesting items to borrow from the shore! To cut the long story short, he found a temple of a god that did not fancy lending out stuff. For the first time the <goddess name> could not do anything for her pet. The curse bestowed upon Tarot by the angry god would make Tarot's hand or hands red, whenever he attempted to do something unlawful. In extreme cases it would light up like an ember when he was trying to pickpocket some fellow. His carrier as a thief was cut short, but his cleptomania did not cease and never will.

Written down by Lynx, the Fool of Himself**

I hereby grant this story to TR. Nobody else may use it without my consent, with the penalty of wrongdoer's soul being removed and granted to author (me) xD

*or pick a better name for gypsy family living on boats floating on a river.

**yes, actually, that is a pun.

[Tarot Redhand]

<while continuing to clean his hands (victim's blood tastes sooo good with a slight metallic after-taste) the feline assassin glances up and then continues his ablutions. Deciding to pick those annoying little remnants of flesh from between his claws using his feline (don't insult me by calling them canine) teeth he glances up and for a short time considers his response. After due consideration he decides not to make the undead felines name a prophecy (were as in past tense), but rather to come back with some witicism. It has to show utter contempt for the cheek shown yet be pithy and to the point. Then he has it. He looks up, raises a single eyebrow and says...>

 

Next. 

 

TR

[Tarot Redhand]

Serious little critique. There are a few things missing in that. Words for a start. It is only about 325 words long and I did say in the first post of this thread that I was hoping for 500+. Also nobody dies in your story as requested in the third post. On the plus side it was written quickly and it does fulfill the rest of the requirements.

 

PS Leaving aside the american spelling of the odd word, cleptomania is actually spelled kleptomania.

 

TR

[werelynx]

I meant no offense fellow feline!

I had to read your IC post twice to get it. Nice insult

 

http://www.thefreedi...com/cleptomania

I used that spelling, but I will correct it.

 

Death?

 

 It should also detail how they managed to survive while the rest of their party perished.

Technically there was no party, unless.. you treat his family as his party? Do you want me to go full batman* on him? You bastard!

 

Word count - I missed that part I can throw 250 more words from another story - http://neverwinterva...ion/what-relief
You can imagine Xnyl'e'rew (the character from 2nd story) to be a doppelganger cursed with insanity. He certainly is a fool. Let's say he was cursed with it by Cthulhu's uncle's wife's nephew Loobnx. Heck I ecen made a module featuring Cthulhu and Xnyl'e'rew, but it was so buggy.

 

Okay, I'm a lazy feline. I will kill his parents, but I doubt I could defeat the word count boss.

 

*as "dead parents".

[werelynx]

Fixed entry

 

Tarot "Redhand" Downsailer

Profession - Rogue (eventually multiclassing into Bard, Shadow Dancer etc.)

Character - Chaotic Neutral

 

Tarot was said to be blessed from the moment he was born into small gypsy family. It looked as if he was looked after by the goddess of luck, <name taken from setting> herself. His birth, to be more precise - conception, was prophesied by famous Downsailer seer by a means of semi-magical card deck and thus his name was picked. Tarot that is, certainly not "Prophecy" or "Seer", which would be plain silly.

 

Alas Lady of Luck is a fickle mistress (aren't all goddesses?, hey, ouch, let me finish the story) and she put, but one bump, in his red carpet-clad path. Tarot was a terrible case of kleptomania. Basically everything was disappearing around him, no matter how expensive or not it was. Most of the stuff was returned to owners after a while, when he got bored of them, but when the family home-boats left the harbor there usually was no time left to return the item. Tarot was generally good at it and lucky enough to not get caught. The gypsies always had a reputation of thieves, so he did not do much damage to their reputation.

 

All hell broke lose, when his parents had to dock near an abandoned temple and he decided to stroll around while they did the repairs cause he was such a good son. There were so many interesting items to borrow from the shore! To cut the long story short, he found a temple of a god that did not fancy lending out stuff. For the first time the <goddess name> could not do anything for her pet. The curse bestowed upon Tarot by the angry god would make Tarot's hand or hands red, whenever he attempted to do something unlawful. In extreme cases it would light up like an ember when he was trying to pickpocket some fellow. His carrier as a thief was cut short, but his kleptomania did not cease and never will.

 

His parents died of old age, while he kept being young and ever more foolish in his endeavors. Soon he discovered that while his curse made his life more difficult, it also made it impossible for him to get killed. Was it the Lady of Luck doing or the temple god, he did not know. When he met other Fools he discovered how to use his curse with synergy with others. He simply went up to the most strong enemy, try to steal from him and if he failed he would be the one to be attacked, while his friends sneaked past. Most hilariously all deadly blows against him (and most were such, due to both his lean figure and his choice of opponents) were missing his vital organs in most improbable ways. Often the hit would somehow strike back the attacker.

He once suggested to make the company's motto "Live by the sword, die by the sword", bit others did not appreciate the irony.

 

and here I should be writing my thesis instead..

All of indented text is now 507 words and I hope it does not feel too forced. Most certainly it is not the best piece of literature..

[Tarot Redhand]

9 Days to go. Nobody else interested?

 

TR

[Tarot Redhand]

7 1/2 days to go.

 

TR

[Tarot Redhand]

6 1/4 days to go.

 

TR

[icywind1980]

It's a nice idea for a giveaway contest, but a lot of effort without knowing if the prize is worth it.

[Zwerkules]

It's a nice idea for a giveaway contest, but a lot of effort without knowing if the prize is worth it.

It's not that much of an effort to write 250 words. Even an old game should be worth spending some time to write a few words. Also if you don't write for the sake of writing, where's the fun? It will just become a tedious task. The journey should be the reward.

The only problem is having enough time to write.

If I have enough time this weekend, I'll write something for this contest, but I can't promise that I will.

[werelynx]

It's not that much of an effort to write 250 words. Even an old game should be worth spending some time to write a few words. Also if you don't write for the sake of writing, where's the fun? It will just become a tedious task. The journey should be the reward.

The only problem is having enough time to write.

If I have enough time this weekend, I'll write something for this contest, but I can't promise that I will.

Agree with all that but it's 500 words *

 

*I got reprimanded for not fulfilling that

[Tarot Redhand]

Stop Press. There are now three (3) prizes. Basically, GOG are having (yet) another sale. I just got Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition for £19.99 which lo and behold unlocked another game I own (on disk for once). I also got a country specific amount of cashback as well and this sale ends in 15 1/2 hours (roughly) from now.

 

So now the top three stories will each get a prize.

 

TR

[icywind1980]

It's not that much of an effort to write 250 words. Even an old game should be worth spending some time to write a few words. Also if you don't write for the sake of writing, where's the fun? It will just become a tedious task. The journey should be the reward.

The only problem is having enough time to write.

If I have enough time this weekend, I'll write something for this contest, but I can't promise that I will.

 

I'm not really a pro writer. I also don't find it fun, especially since I'm knees deep in exams. But I am totally motivated by the chance of freebies (provided it is something I can actually run on my craptop). But if someone else is interested in this, and enjoys writing than they should totally do it.

[Zwerkules]

Here is my little story. It has more words than 500 (over 1100) but you, Tarot,

did not set an upper limit, so I didn't feel the need to shorten it.

 

 

Lorna heard a voice in her head. That is not to say that she was crazy.
She was a ranger - and a damn good one. She had learned to communicate
with animals telepathically. So something that for other people might
mean that they went around the bend only meant that an animal was talking
to her.
"Get me down from here!" the voice in her head commanded.
The problem with voices in your head is that you can never tell where
they are coming from. Lorna looked around but didn't see any animals
except for a few insects; and she had never learned how to communicate
with those.
"Up here, you bloody oaf! How long are you going to keep me waiting?
Get me down at once!" The voice in her head was getting louder and a
little impatient. Lorna looked up and spotted a ginger cat on a branch
about six feet above her head.
"Yes, genius, I'm talking to you! Get me down, you useless biped!"
"What are you doing up in that tree?" asked Lorna.
"Not that it's your business, but I like to start my day killing a few
birds or playing cruel tricks on mice. The stupid things are so easily
scared and it's a lot of fun. You should try it sometime!
Anyway, I saw a bird on this branch and tried to sneak up on it to bite
off its head, but it escaped."
"If you got up there all by yourself, you certainly can climb down again!"
"Of course I can. But you don't really think I'm going to do that if there's
an inferiour species around who can help me down. What else are stupid
bipeds good for?" the cat sneered.
"You think insulting me is a good way to get me to help you?" Lorna asked
with an undertone of anger in her voice.
"You stopped communicating telepathically. Probably because it gives you a
headache if you do it for too long. You're an inferiour species and your
brain isn't meant for this. I however are a god!"
Lorna laughed.
The cat hissed. "What are you laughing at, you blubbering idiot? I am a cat,
so I am a god! The funny thing is that the slave-creature who feeds me and
cares for all my needs thinks she's a goddess, too. She looks like a human
to me. Admittedly she doesn't smell as bad as a human."
"Oh, so now you are telling me that humans stink?" Lorna shot an angry look
at the cat, though by this time she felt like shooting an arrow instead.
"Of course they do!" replied the cat. "Why do you think we cats lick ourselves
clean each time we've been petted by a human? We have to get rid of the bad
smell."
"Then why do you let them pet you in the first place?"
"It's a small price we have to pay for three meals a day and a warm place to
sleep. I'd prefer it if I didn't have to let them touch me, but humans forget
to feed you if you don't show them some affection by purring like a kitten.
It is not entirely their fault that they smell so bad though. Their design is
seriously flawed. How can a creature that can't lick its own genitals clean
be expected to smell good? Even the stupid barkers can do that! My ancestors
got the creation of your species totally wrong! I could do a much better job!"
"Hah! You can't even get down a tree without help!" the ranger replied.
"How dare you insult me?" the fourlegged 'goddess' snarled. "You were made to
serve us cats, so get me down right now or suffer the consequences!"
Lorna laughed. "I think the consequences will be that you'll still sit on that
branch of yours while I'll be on my way back to my cabin. But maybe I'll give
you some incentive to jump down. Cats always land on their feet and the way down
isn't too long." With these words Lorna nocked an arrow and aimed at the branch
below the cat's paws.
Before she could let go of the arrow however, a lightning bolt hit the game trail
in front of her missing her only by a few inches. A female voice that seemed to
come from everywhere all at once yelled: "You dare attack my pet? For this I will
curse you! From this day on you'll never hit a target again."
And so Lorna's troubles began...
  After these events the ranger was never again able to hit a target. She had a
lot of different jobs, but her heart was never in it and she quit after only a few
weeks or months.
One day a travelling circus came to the small town near the forest in which Lorna
lived. She went to watch one of their shows and when she saw the clowns she had an
idea. After a short talk with the manager, Lorna joined the circus as a clown.
People laughed a lot when her arrows missed the apple on the head of another clown
and hit various pots and pans instead or got lodged in the ringmaster's top-hat.
Things got a little hairy when an adventurer in the audience took an arrow to the
knee, but the ringmaster paid him a few gold coins and he limped away without
causing any trouble.
From that day on it was all just fun until somebody lost an eye.
After hitting an old man right in the eye, Lorna had to leave the travelling circus.
She joined a group of adventurers to seek glory and fame like she used to before she
got cursed - it did not end well.
Lorna was very skilled at fighting with two weapons, so she was a useful addition to
the band of adventurers even though she could not use her bow, but each day she longed
to shoot arrows to a point where it almost became an overwhelming desire.
One day they were fighting a group of bugbears in a cave and Lorna fell back a little
and sheathed her blades. She figured that even if she missed an opponent the chance
of hitting one of her companions instead was so much smaller. An explosive arrow that
hit the walls somewhere near the enemy would still do some damage, so she shot one
of those arrows at the bugbears.
It hit a column of rock that supported the cave's ceiling. The bugbears died, but so
did everybody else except for Lorna. By a miracle she was not hit by any boulders and
managed to leave the cave alive. What the ranger didn't know was that she couldn't die
before her curse was no more. She escaped many situations which would have been
certain death to others, but it was only when she met the other divine fools that she
found out why.
 

[werelynx]

Cats... hard to hate 'em, no reasonable grounds to love 'em.

Pretty nice story, I appreciate (maybe unintentional) cat themes.

I, for one, welcome our new cat overlords.

[Tarot Redhand]

Just a little reminder. This competition ends tomorrow (Thursday 10th December 2015) at Midnight (00:00 GUT aka GMT). Here are the adjustments for local times.

 

TR

[Tarot Redhand]

Less than 12 hours to go if you wish to enter. (As it stands ATM, anyone entered is a winner).

 

TR

[AndrueD]

This nice idea you have.  I like to write story since have idea but not for winning prize.  Need sister to always fix my English cuz she the only family who got money for language class.  But she not here for 3 week so when I post topic be prolly old.  That ok for me tho.  Hope that getting English fixing ok else I need to write português to be very clear. It just fun to do to help me learn English faster. 

 

Still I like idea and should maybe be done on month or more regular. Think most NWN forum ppl would follow new stories.  It not matter how many post either.  Even much later to post story is handy.  Just give new start idea then wait month or whatever time for next idea. Will give writers ideas anyway

 

Ummm... one question is about curse to use for this story.  Must use one of your list or a curse we think of?

[werelynx]

This nice idea you have.  I like to write story since have idea but not for winning prize.

 

Ummm... one question is about curse to use for this story.  Must use one of your list or a curse we think of?

I hope it's not about cats.. that would be catastrophical.

You can think up your own curse.

 

BTW, today while commuting I thought up two more ideas - one for "Werelynx" (mary sue character type I guess) and one for Xnyl'e'rew (insane doppelganger). TR, would you like me to write them in free time, outside of contest? Curses would be..

Spoiler

Failure of all self-enchantments and all curses/buffs cast on werelynx and insanity for the later. (he met cthulhu/other horror)

[Tarot Redhand]

Go for it guys. You might like to start a new topic for it though because I intend to mark this one as finished once the prizes are handed out. That's so as to make sure that anyone coming across this one are not disappointed on reading it.

 

Just over 4 hours to go.

 

PS Xnyl'e'rew sounds like a cat sneezing.  

 

TR

[Tarot Redhand]

Now closed. Winner being decided and then prizes being sorted out.

 

TR

[KlatchainCoffee]

Eh... I was going to post here, but um.... it got out of hand and is now approaching a big pile of unrefined potentially very rubbish verbiage. And I missed the deadline. But so you know I at least tried and to give you the gist of it, I'll give you the brief summary:

 

 

A female deity falls in love with a city undertaker, Jeddun Filk, after the latter accidentally saves her avatar from being buried alive.  He’s actually a grumpy old geezer, very serious, stuffy and formal and with a complete lack of any sense of humour.  After he rejects her incredible boon of an offer to become her spouse for the length of his earthly life, she puts a very prickly curse on him: either he inadvertently tells jokes in bad taste at most inappropriate moments or, alternatively, whatever he utters is taken as a totally hilarious joke, no matter how serious he’s trying to be.

(What I actually wrote deviates quite a bit from above and unfortunately is coming out a lot more ‘gothic’ than ‘humorous’ in the end. I’m not sure I’d want to inflict that much of my drivel on the general public, but I may PM what I have so far, if you like).