Come on. Thats pretty weak, an engineered virus, made specifically to transform living things into metallic things, is able to mutate and do the complete opposite....right off the bat? How exactly would it make him crazy?
A virus (even an engineered one) is basically a living thing. It looks for receptors in cells to cling to and then invades those cells and alters what they were supposed to do to do what the virus wants instead (usually some form of replicating itself to survive long enough to infect something else).
So, if the a flesh to metal virus finds a host that has no flesh it will either die or mutate to a form that can effect the metallic cells. It's a stretch, but it had hundreds of years to find some way to affect Memnarch and viruses can actually mutate very quickly. As for driving him crazy, what if the cells it attacked first were in his neural network? these are the most likely to be the most complex and organic-type cells in the body, so a likely candidate for initial infection given that he's made of metal. Who knows what happens after that.
To go in a completley different direction....
Is Mirroden/Argentum a natural plane or one Karn created? I don't remember if it was revealed.
I believe Karn created the fabric of the world itself, but the blinkmoths were either already there (in a relatively unformed plane) or he imported them from somewhere else. They were the only organic creatures on the world before Memnarch began bringing lifeforms in from other planes. My guess is that Karn (knowing that manufactured planes have a limited lifespan, transformed an existing (and nearly desolate) plane for his home, taking great care not to upset the balance of the blinkmoth's existence.
I'll ditto what Cory said. If there is a novel for Coldsnap, I am not writing it. And it should be in process by now to be out next year (don't remember the date for Cold Snap).
My guess is that there will be a novel, but that's just a guess.
The original idea was that Jeska brought the oil with her (on her shoe perhaps) from Phyrexia when she first visited Argentum (later renamed to Mirrodin). It was a virus created as a last ditch weapon to turn Dominaria into a plane of mechanical beasts (a la Phyrexia). It was not finished and so didn't get deployed before the end of the war.
Once on Argentum, the virus did two things. It infected Memnarch, driving him a little crazy. Plus, since memnarch was already an artificial, living being, it mutated and began turning him to flesh instead of the other way around.
The second thing the virus did was to infect the plane. It either created the mycosinth or altered the genetics of an existing plant to make it produce the spores. These spores spread the virus across the plane, infecting everyone.
Now, this was the original concept. Since most of that didn't make it into the books as canon, the ideas might get altered in the future if they ever revisit Mirrodin and want to bring back the mycosinth, spores, and metallic plague.
Will
Oh, and if you think this is the first time MR has made it into a Magic novel, you're not reading carefully enough.
Your bother in law is named Slobad? I can get Jeska as a real name (I actualy know someone named Jeska), but Slobad? Does it mean anything in an ancient language or something?
Oh, and have a happy holiday!
Jeska was actually a character name played in a D&D game by my wife.
Slobad is not my brother-in-law's actual name, obviously. But if you check the Acknowledgements in the front of the book, you'll find his real name.
Are there any future M:TG projects in the works for you?
At the moment, no. I have bee bugging them for years, but to no avail. I just finished my second novel for Black Library. The first is called Blood Royal. The second will be out next May and is called Cardinal Crimson. Both are set in Games Workshop's Necromunda universe. I am currently writing a novel for Mongoose Publishing. It is for a much larger franchise, but I can't say more until I get the contract.
Quote from Maxrpg »
Have you ever wanted to "create" a Planeswalker? Perhaps such a free license on Magic that you could do it?
I have actually created two (sort of, and almost). Jeska was a character I added to the storyline for Judgment. Scott Mcgough introduced her in Torment to give the readers a chance to get to know her before she appeared in Judgment, but she was my character (and named for my wife, in a way). I didn't know she would ascend at the time, though.
I also created Slobad (and named him for my brother-in-law). He didn't actually ascend, but I guess he still counts. Again, I didn't know he would have the spark when I created him. The good people at Wizards make these big decisions. But we authors do like to get our hands in there and create characters. I have, at last count, come up with three characters that have been made into cards (Balthor was also my creation).
Quote from Maxrpg »
On another related note, if one of us had enough money to pay you to write a novel, would you take the commission?
Only if you had the money to get it published as well. 8^)
Quote from Maxrpg »
When you are finished with a storyline, if there are loose bits to be tied up, do you consider writing a little narrative that explains things?
Again, only if I'm getting paid and it will see print. Writing is an art, but it's also a business. I've got kids to feed and Cory has cats. We can't afford to write for fun anymore.
Quote from Maxrpg »
Also, have you considered duo writing? Like, writing with another writer half of a book, and half of another book?
I've actually done this twice and it worked well both times. My wife and I co-wrote my first short story (The Lady of the Mountain). the story was told in two time-frames and she wrote one time and I wrote the other. It worked very well and we built on what each other did.
My latest published novel, Blood Royal was also sort of a collaboration. I was asked to write the book from the outline provided by the other author. Again, it was a good experience. The plot he had laid out was a lot of fun. I did all the writing in that one, however.
Quote from Maxrpg »
Next topic: Have you ever been approached to write a column for MTG.com?
I have written columns in the past and I would do it again if asked. However, it seems that I and wizards have both moved on. We never talk anymore. 8^)
Will
One last thing. I am going on holiday for the next week. I may have internet access from time to time, but I won't be able to answer questions with as much regularity as this past day. See you all in a week.
Sorry if asked- mabye create a separate thread with all of the relevent questions asked.
Was it a mistake to not elaborate on that oil from the beginning of Moons, the one that corrupts Memnarch?
Do you know what Jeska is doing?
Where did Karn bring all of the beings from Mirroden?
Is Slobad a moron?
Is Wizards trying to get a least planeswalker from every color?
How might future storylines be expected to tie in to Mirroden cycle, or can you confirm that future storylines will probably connect to it?
I don't think it was a mistake to leave the oil a mystery at the beginning. That was my idea. For it to be a mystery to be solved during the story. I do wish it had been explored more during the rest of the story, but as Magic is a shared world, it wasn't my decision.
Jeska is out learning what it is to be a Planeswalker. I certainly hope she's having fun and not killing too many people.
My thought was that at the end of the Mirrodin cycle, all the beings got to go home. And that's the easy answer to how to link Mirrodin into future storylines. All those infected people returning home will make for some interesting stories.
Slobad is a goblin. Sorry. I always saw Slobad as sort of an idiot savant. He was amazing when it came to machines, but in other aspects of his life, yeah, he could be pretty stupid. He always spoke faster than he thought, too, which made him a lot of fun to write.
For questions such as "Is Wizards trying to do something?" you have to ask Wizards. We only get told what we need to know when writing.
Here's an interesting question for the both of you, or any other MTG authors that might wander by, though I'd understand if you want to skirt it a bit -- what things about the Magic line have annoyed you, or would you change if you could? Also, how well-versed in previous M:tG canon are you expected to be to write for the line?
(Incidentally, I applied for the Open Call last year, and was apparently being considered very late in the process. Hopefully, they'll do another one of these one of these days -- I rather like a lot of the stuff I came up with for Dominaria).
Since you ask, the Open Call was probably the most irritating thing in recent memory for me. Remember, this is a line with only three novels per year, and there are already more than three authors working on the line. I'm all for finding new authors, but hey, I have a family of four (five actually) to feed, and being told I had to answer an open call to get work after penning two novels for Wizards was a bit annoying.
But as is often the way of these things, when that door closed, two more opened. I have now written two novels for Black Library (Games Workshops fiction publishing arm) and am starting on a new project so exciting that I can't tell you about it until I actually get the contract signed. But it's big. Really big. not Star Wars big, but at least in the same ballpark (albeit out in the left field bleachers).
Will
Oh, and as for continuity, it's good to know some of it, but in this day and age of single cycle stories, it's not so critical as it used to be. I am a firm believer in having some sort of thread tie the stories together, though, so it does help to have a sense of the whole history.
This was, in fact, our plan from the beginning. It never came out in the books, which was probably a mistake. But we as authors wanted to show Karn just how tough it really was to be a planeswalker. How the simplest thing like wanting to keep an eye on his old home could go horribly wrong and hurt a lot of people. Ultimate power is tough to wield without making mistakes. And when you make mistakes with Planeswalker level power, people get hurt.
Karn needed to learn that lesson the hard way -- Twice. Of course, he never figured on a phyrexian virus infecting his creation.
I'd like to hope that if we get a chance to revisit Karn again in the future, that he will have learned from his mistakes. God knows that Urza never did.
Hey all. Just stuck my head back in here after being away for a while and I see that Cory has made this place his home. Good on him.
I thought I would stick my head out a little on a couple of questions. Not that I know more than Cory does on any of this, but as I'm not actively writing for Wizards at the moment, I feel I have a little more freedom to answer.
First, the oil. I actually created the oil. Well, that's not entirely true. I think it was me and Rob King and my wife at lunch at GenCon. We were spitballing a way to connect the Mirrodin story (back before there was a Mirrodin story) to the end of Scourge. The whole Mirari turned into warden who then goes crazy from some virus in Karn's perfect system came out of that meeting.
I have said this in other threads, but my original concept for the oil was that it was a finaly Phyrexian plague devised by Yawgmoth to be unleashed on Dominaria. The problem was that it never got finished in time. It was, in effect, going to turn Dominarians into phyrexians.
Then, when Phage went through Phyrexia on her little tromp through the Multiverse, she picked up some on her shoes (or it was planted there by some minion). She carried it with her to Karn's plane where it lay dormant until it found it's way into Memnarch and then began infecting the whole planet (through the spores from those plants in the interior).
Anyway, that was my concept. That's not necessarily MtG canon, because, as you know, the answer to that question was never espoused in any of the books. If the continuity department wants to come up with another concept to be used in the future, that's their right. They work for the people who own the world.
Second, on how Memnarch could create a spark machine. Remember, that Memnarch came from Karn -- was a part of Karn made sentient. And Karn had all the knowledge of Urza to draw upon. Plus, as someone said, if that oil was in some way from Yawgmoth, then he may have had access to some or all of Yawgie's memories and knowledge as well. That's pretty dang powerful stuff.
Blinkmoths - these are lightning bug-like creatures that infest the space around Mirrodin. The light comes from a chemical process that involves the serum the Vedalken harvest from their bodies to make themselves so smart. The problem was that the main byproduct of this process was good old-fashioned water. Yes, the blinkmoths were both the stars and the clouds of Mirrodin. So, the drought that Mirrodin was experiencing (discussed in chapter one of MoM) was caused by the Vedalken harvesting the blinkmoths. And yes, I do realize that everyone on Mirrodin was drinking bug pee.
On making money as an author - I will tell you my favorite author joke:
What's the difference between an author and a pepperoni pizza?
The pepperoni pizza can feed a family of four.
That's about all for now. I don't want to hijack Cory's thread. If anyone has specific questions for me, go ahead and start a new thread. But I'll keep reading this one to see if there's anything I can comment on as well.
Hi Will, we are always delighted to see you post here.
I can't understand the behaviour of WotC's book department, judging by your fan and reader base you've created along relative forums online. Maybe the readers' opinion has to be made clear in some way if the situation persists (ala Guay).
I certainly won't stop any fans from making their wishes known to the PTB (powers that be, for those of you who aren't Angel fans) about bringing me back into the MtG fold. I would love a chance to write another novel (or even a trilogy, hint, hint) in this universe that has been so good to me in the past.
Thought I would add my 2 cents here. While I think this idea has some interesting merits, I think you will find it hard to get professional writers to produce stories for you gratis. Not only is this our livelihood, it sets a bad precedent for future publishers to go around giving your stories away.
I got permission to put those old stories up on my site because: a) I wanted to give something back to the fans who have been loyal to me and the Magic storyline all these years, b) it was good promotion for my website, and c) because the books were out of print, which meant neither I nor WotC would lose any money from giving them away at this point. I may do this with more of my older stories as they go out of print. It's nice to have them somewhere where people can still enjoy them.
Also, I'm not sure how receptive WotC will be to the idea of new stories being written outside their control. They might warm to it as it is good publicity for them, and as long as nobody is trying to make a profit from the sale of the stories (i.e., license infringement), they might not have too many problems with it. I don't know. That's a discussion with Peter Archer, Brady Dommermuth, and probably the WotC lawyers.
Unfortunately, I don't think I'm the right author to help you get their attention. For whatever reason, I seem to have become persona non grata in the WotC book department in the last two years. Cory or Scott might be better suited to champion your cause (if they are interested, which is possible because they're both good eggs and love to talk to the fans).
As for me, I've moved on. My first Black Library (Games Workshop) novel, Blood Royal, comes out this month and I'm busy on a follow-up novel, which should come out early next year.
I knew someone was going to call me on the name Jeska here. I had completely forgotten that I had used Jeska in this story when it came time to write Judgment. The name Jeska was made up by my wife, Daneen. It was the name of a D&D character she used to play (Talon and Balthor were both D&D characters I used to play).
When it came time to name Kamahl's sister I had decided to name her after my wife. I had first suggested Heather, which is Daneen's middle name, and an excellent name for a highland barbarian (I had thought). But the continuity folks thought it was too mundane, so I suggested Jeska (naming it after her character), and nobody remembered that I had used it before, so the name stuck, and she got onto a card (as did Balthor, and my brother-in-law Jeff Sloboda -- better known in these parts as Slobad).
Hello everyone. The third installment of my Urza Cycle short story series has been uploaded to my website. This one is called "Phyrexian Autopsy," and it is from The Official Urza's Destiny Game Guide. The story is in PDF format, just like the other two.
The story of this set follows the plotline of Bloodlines by Loren L. Coleman. In "Phyrexian Autopsy," we get to hear bits and pieces of the larger story as Rayne cuts up a Negator that attacked Urza in Benalia.
In addition to the story, I've also posted my schedule for Balticon, which happens this weekend in Baltimore. I will be attending panels, doing a reading from my upcoming Games Workshop novel, Blood Royal, and participating in a book launch for an anthology that will be out next month, called No Longer Dreams. If you're in the Baltimore area, come check out the convention. It's supposed to be one of the biggest SF conventions on the east coast.
On the PDF story, please remember that it is reproduced with permission from Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All text and images are the property of Wizards of the Coast and may not be reproduced without their express written permission outside of my website.
The second Urza Cycle Guide Book story, "Scars of the Legacy," from The Official Urza's Legacy Game Guide, is now up on my website. It is in PDF format, so you will need Adobe Acrobat to read it.
The story of this set follows mostly the tale told in Rob King's Timestreams. the short story follows Jhoira and Karn on a trip to Zhalfir with some Serran refuges. While there, they bring Teferi up to date on the happenings at the Academy. It's a pretty basic framework for telling the major events of the set. But there is a bit of character interaction as well between these three friends.
I hope to post the final story next week before I head off to Balticon for Memorial Day Weekend.
Please note once again, that the PDF downloads for these stories are reproduced, with permission, from Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All text and images are the property of Wizards of the Coast and may not be reproduced without their express written permission outside of my website.
A virus (even an engineered one) is basically a living thing. It looks for receptors in cells to cling to and then invades those cells and alters what they were supposed to do to do what the virus wants instead (usually some form of replicating itself to survive long enough to infect something else).
So, if the a flesh to metal virus finds a host that has no flesh it will either die or mutate to a form that can effect the metallic cells. It's a stretch, but it had hundreds of years to find some way to affect Memnarch and viruses can actually mutate very quickly. As for driving him crazy, what if the cells it attacked first were in his neural network? these are the most likely to be the most complex and organic-type cells in the body, so a likely candidate for initial infection given that he's made of metal. Who knows what happens after that.
I believe Karn created the fabric of the world itself, but the blinkmoths were either already there (in a relatively unformed plane) or he imported them from somewhere else. They were the only organic creatures on the world before Memnarch began bringing lifeforms in from other planes. My guess is that Karn (knowing that manufactured planes have a limited lifespan, transformed an existing (and nearly desolate) plane for his home, taking great care not to upset the balance of the blinkmoth's existence.
Will
My guess is that there will be a novel, but that's just a guess.
As for MR in the novels, I plead the fifth.
Will
The original idea was that Jeska brought the oil with her (on her shoe perhaps) from Phyrexia when she first visited Argentum (later renamed to Mirrodin). It was a virus created as a last ditch weapon to turn Dominaria into a plane of mechanical beasts (a la Phyrexia). It was not finished and so didn't get deployed before the end of the war.
Once on Argentum, the virus did two things. It infected Memnarch, driving him a little crazy. Plus, since memnarch was already an artificial, living being, it mutated and began turning him to flesh instead of the other way around.
The second thing the virus did was to infect the plane. It either created the mycosinth or altered the genetics of an existing plant to make it produce the spores. These spores spread the virus across the plane, infecting everyone.
Now, this was the original concept. Since most of that didn't make it into the books as canon, the ideas might get altered in the future if they ever revisit Mirrodin and want to bring back the mycosinth, spores, and metallic plague.
Will
Oh, and if you think this is the first time MR has made it into a Magic novel, you're not reading carefully enough.
Jeska was actually a character name played in a D&D game by my wife.
Slobad is not my brother-in-law's actual name, obviously. But if you check the Acknowledgements in the front of the book, you'll find his real name.
Will
At the moment, no. I have bee bugging them for years, but to no avail. I just finished my second novel for Black Library. The first is called Blood Royal. The second will be out next May and is called Cardinal Crimson. Both are set in Games Workshop's Necromunda universe. I am currently writing a novel for Mongoose Publishing. It is for a much larger franchise, but I can't say more until I get the contract.
I have actually created two (sort of, and almost). Jeska was a character I added to the storyline for Judgment. Scott Mcgough introduced her in Torment to give the readers a chance to get to know her before she appeared in Judgment, but she was my character (and named for my wife, in a way). I didn't know she would ascend at the time, though.
I also created Slobad (and named him for my brother-in-law). He didn't actually ascend, but I guess he still counts. Again, I didn't know he would have the spark when I created him. The good people at Wizards make these big decisions. But we authors do like to get our hands in there and create characters. I have, at last count, come up with three characters that have been made into cards (Balthor was also my creation).
Only if you had the money to get it published as well. 8^)
Again, only if I'm getting paid and it will see print. Writing is an art, but it's also a business. I've got kids to feed and Cory has cats. We can't afford to write for fun anymore.
I've actually done this twice and it worked well both times. My wife and I co-wrote my first short story (The Lady of the Mountain). the story was told in two time-frames and she wrote one time and I wrote the other. It worked very well and we built on what each other did.
My latest published novel, Blood Royal was also sort of a collaboration. I was asked to write the book from the outline provided by the other author. Again, it was a good experience. The plot he had laid out was a lot of fun. I did all the writing in that one, however.
I have written columns in the past and I would do it again if asked. However, it seems that I and wizards have both moved on. We never talk anymore. 8^)
Will
One last thing. I am going on holiday for the next week. I may have internet access from time to time, but I won't be able to answer questions with as much regularity as this past day. See you all in a week.
I don't think it was a mistake to leave the oil a mystery at the beginning. That was my idea. For it to be a mystery to be solved during the story. I do wish it had been explored more during the rest of the story, but as Magic is a shared world, it wasn't my decision.
Jeska is out learning what it is to be a Planeswalker. I certainly hope she's having fun and not killing too many people.
My thought was that at the end of the Mirrodin cycle, all the beings got to go home. And that's the easy answer to how to link Mirrodin into future storylines. All those infected people returning home will make for some interesting stories.
Slobad is a goblin. Sorry. I always saw Slobad as sort of an idiot savant. He was amazing when it came to machines, but in other aspects of his life, yeah, he could be pretty stupid. He always spoke faster than he thought, too, which made him a lot of fun to write.
For questions such as "Is Wizards trying to do something?" you have to ask Wizards. We only get told what we need to know when writing.
Will
Since you ask, the Open Call was probably the most irritating thing in recent memory for me. Remember, this is a line with only three novels per year, and there are already more than three authors working on the line. I'm all for finding new authors, but hey, I have a family of four (five actually) to feed, and being told I had to answer an open call to get work after penning two novels for Wizards was a bit annoying.
But as is often the way of these things, when that door closed, two more opened. I have now written two novels for Black Library (Games Workshops fiction publishing arm) and am starting on a new project so exciting that I can't tell you about it until I actually get the contract signed. But it's big. Really big. not Star Wars big, but at least in the same ballpark (albeit out in the left field bleachers).
Will
Oh, and as for continuity, it's good to know some of it, but in this day and age of single cycle stories, it's not so critical as it used to be. I am a firm believer in having some sort of thread tie the stories together, though, so it does help to have a sense of the whole history.
Um...
You don't eat them when you get really hungry do you?
Oh, I see. You don't have to feed a family of four.
Will (which is fine. Mr. McDermott is still my dad you young whipper snappers, you.)
Karn needed to learn that lesson the hard way -- Twice. Of course, he never figured on a phyrexian virus infecting his creation.
I'd like to hope that if we get a chance to revisit Karn again in the future, that he will have learned from his mistakes. God knows that Urza never did.
Will
I thought I would stick my head out a little on a couple of questions. Not that I know more than Cory does on any of this, but as I'm not actively writing for Wizards at the moment, I feel I have a little more freedom to answer.
First, the oil. I actually created the oil. Well, that's not entirely true. I think it was me and Rob King and my wife at lunch at GenCon. We were spitballing a way to connect the Mirrodin story (back before there was a Mirrodin story) to the end of Scourge. The whole Mirari turned into warden who then goes crazy from some virus in Karn's perfect system came out of that meeting.
I have said this in other threads, but my original concept for the oil was that it was a finaly Phyrexian plague devised by Yawgmoth to be unleashed on Dominaria. The problem was that it never got finished in time. It was, in effect, going to turn Dominarians into phyrexians.
Then, when Phage went through Phyrexia on her little tromp through the Multiverse, she picked up some on her shoes (or it was planted there by some minion). She carried it with her to Karn's plane where it lay dormant until it found it's way into Memnarch and then began infecting the whole planet (through the spores from those plants in the interior).
Anyway, that was my concept. That's not necessarily MtG canon, because, as you know, the answer to that question was never espoused in any of the books. If the continuity department wants to come up with another concept to be used in the future, that's their right. They work for the people who own the world.
Second, on how Memnarch could create a spark machine. Remember, that Memnarch came from Karn -- was a part of Karn made sentient. And Karn had all the knowledge of Urza to draw upon. Plus, as someone said, if that oil was in some way from Yawgmoth, then he may have had access to some or all of Yawgie's memories and knowledge as well. That's pretty dang powerful stuff.
Blinkmoths - these are lightning bug-like creatures that infest the space around Mirrodin. The light comes from a chemical process that involves the serum the Vedalken harvest from their bodies to make themselves so smart. The problem was that the main byproduct of this process was good old-fashioned water. Yes, the blinkmoths were both the stars and the clouds of Mirrodin. So, the drought that Mirrodin was experiencing (discussed in chapter one of MoM) was caused by the Vedalken harvesting the blinkmoths. And yes, I do realize that everyone on Mirrodin was drinking bug pee.
On making money as an author - I will tell you my favorite author joke:
What's the difference between an author and a pepperoni pizza?
The pepperoni pizza can feed a family of four.
That's about all for now. I don't want to hijack Cory's thread. If anyone has specific questions for me, go ahead and start a new thread. But I'll keep reading this one to see if there's anything I can comment on as well.
Will
I certainly won't stop any fans from making their wishes known to the PTB (powers that be, for those of you who aren't Angel fans) about bringing me back into the MtG fold. I would love a chance to write another novel (or even a trilogy, hint, hint) in this universe that has been so good to me in the past.
Will
Thought I would add my 2 cents here. While I think this idea has some interesting merits, I think you will find it hard to get professional writers to produce stories for you gratis. Not only is this our livelihood, it sets a bad precedent for future publishers to go around giving your stories away.
I got permission to put those old stories up on my site because: a) I wanted to give something back to the fans who have been loyal to me and the Magic storyline all these years, b) it was good promotion for my website, and c) because the books were out of print, which meant neither I nor WotC would lose any money from giving them away at this point. I may do this with more of my older stories as they go out of print. It's nice to have them somewhere where people can still enjoy them.
Also, I'm not sure how receptive WotC will be to the idea of new stories being written outside their control. They might warm to it as it is good publicity for them, and as long as nobody is trying to make a profit from the sale of the stories (i.e., license infringement), they might not have too many problems with it. I don't know. That's a discussion with Peter Archer, Brady Dommermuth, and probably the WotC lawyers.
Unfortunately, I don't think I'm the right author to help you get their attention. For whatever reason, I seem to have become persona non grata in the WotC book department in the last two years. Cory or Scott might be better suited to champion your cause (if they are interested, which is possible because they're both good eggs and love to talk to the fans).
As for me, I've moved on. My first Black Library (Games Workshop) novel, Blood Royal, comes out this month and I'm busy on a follow-up novel, which should come out early next year.
Good luck.
Will
When it came time to name Kamahl's sister I had decided to name her after my wife. I had first suggested Heather, which is Daneen's middle name, and an excellent name for a highland barbarian (I had thought). But the continuity folks thought it was too mundane, so I suggested Jeska (naming it after her character), and nobody remembered that I had used it before, so the name stuck, and she got onto a card (as did Balthor, and my brother-in-law Jeff Sloboda -- better known in these parts as Slobad).
Will
The story of this set follows the plotline of Bloodlines by Loren L. Coleman. In "Phyrexian Autopsy," we get to hear bits and pieces of the larger story as Rayne cuts up a Negator that attacked Urza in Benalia.
In addition to the story, I've also posted my schedule for Balticon, which happens this weekend in Baltimore. I will be attending panels, doing a reading from my upcoming Games Workshop novel, Blood Royal, and participating in a book launch for an anthology that will be out next month, called No Longer Dreams. If you're in the Baltimore area, come check out the convention. It's supposed to be one of the biggest SF conventions on the east coast.
On the PDF story, please remember that it is reproduced with permission from Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All text and images are the property of Wizards of the Coast and may not be reproduced without their express written permission outside of my website.
I hope you enjoy the story.
Will
www.willmcdermott.com
The story of this set follows mostly the tale told in Rob King's Timestreams. the short story follows Jhoira and Karn on a trip to Zhalfir with some Serran refuges. While there, they bring Teferi up to date on the happenings at the Academy. It's a pretty basic framework for telling the major events of the set. But there is a bit of character interaction as well between these three friends.
I hope to post the final story next week before I head off to Balticon for Memorial Day Weekend.
Please note once again, that the PDF downloads for these stories are reproduced, with permission, from Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All text and images are the property of Wizards of the Coast and may not be reproduced without their express written permission outside of my website.
I hope you enjoy the story.
Will
www.willmcdermott.com