Troglodon
Y'ttar Scaletail
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I was holding off on this till @Y'ttar Scaletail finished his reviews, but I grew tired of waiting....
Sorry, been a real struggle to find the time and motivation.
Story Five: This is why you put an auto-shut off function on your killbots. That was still kinda hilarious how the order to kill the Slann was transmitted though.
I have to hand it to the author; they really pulled off a great duo act with T’lozii and Atamai. The straight and exasperated lizardman to the mad genius skink, it is readily clear that the two have had all too many hijinks that have likely risen T’lozii’s blood pressure way too high.
That the robot instead met a group of hapless Eshinites before getting the chance to kill the Slann was a stroke of unbelievable luck. Sure it would have been fairly funny to have the Slann get some kind of vision of him being the frog in the juicer this time and detonating a chunk of the temple, but it fitted more of the narrative for it to be a lucky escape for our duo. Unless of course this was all planned by the fates e.t.c. (maybe the next story is feeding into this one...) In any case a very enjoyable read!
R4-T2Y (Robotic Space Knight/User of a faulty Vocal Unit) : +++ FRIEND Y’TTAR! THIS DOTH APPEAR TO BE A WORTHY FOE CAST IN IRON! I THANK THEE FOR THIS GLIMPSE AND TO CONSIDER MINE STYLE OF COMBAT IN CONTRAST! +++
Story Six: Well that was depressing.
So pacing felt just perfect for this piece, there wasn’t really any action and yet the author kept me easily engaged. The concept of a predicted future set in stone is an old one but I think the author pulled it off very nicely.
In a universe where there’s a literal Chaos God that’s all about changing the webs of fate and future, it was a little funny to me that these priests had accepted their inability to alter the path of the future from their prophecies. Though I guess it comes down to how infallible and precise the actual astromancy was, given it was to the second with some of Forst’s predictions, maybe there was really too little room for a prophecy to occur but not as originally thought (i.e. a Skaven is prophesized to destroy Tlaxtlan, he destroys a marker stone with the city’s name on it e.t.c.)
But yeah, it was a very fun and dark take on the cost of knowledge.
Cymbry Hazzian (Astropath Ascendant/Pianist) : “Aww, you got me the sad one. Ok, I have used the God-Emperor of Mankind’s Tarot a few times and have once or twice seen echoes of the future (despite my lack of physical eyes. *laughs*) I am no specialist (minds are more my thing) but the skein of actions within time is interesting. I have heard many stories of those that try to prevent a future from occurring only to cause it through their actions. Is it possible to change what will be? ...Maybe...though if you do succeed was it from yourself or the whims of something else? Yeah, erm I’m going to stick to minds.”
Story Seven: That was a very brave decision to write from a serious POV of the mysterious and arguably unknowable Old Ones. Kudos where kudos is due.
I fear dear Y’ttar is not so familiar with your scale-thing lore to have fully gotten what occurred in this piece. I assumed it was covering Kroak’s sacrifice, mummification, and Uxmac is able to interfere and have a vessel to effectively act through? Correct me if I am wrong and thirteen apologies if so.
All in all it was a very interesting subject for a piece and I think the author pulled off quite the tale despite the challenge. Perhaps as Scalenex said, the Old Ones could have had more of their characters portrayed, maybe give a visual or audible effect similar to the animals some of them have been linked to or something to that effect?
Sliv Saltbeak (Avian former pirate/Doctor/Priest) : “Hoy. Thar Gods move in way we mortals can nay comprehend, ta thar point where ye wonder if ye ever had any choice at all. Perhaps it be for thar greater good (Craa: “The greater good”) but what about us?”
Story Eight: Oh hey, an Age of Sigmar piece...wait...was this the only AoS in this whole compy?! Huh.
Ahem. So Skaven mech suits vs one of Sigmar’s goldenbois and some kind of assassin lizard...it was kinda hilarious that the Skaven was the most mortal and least expendable of them! The Engineers parts I think were easily the best, even though he only has one line of audible dialogue. I feel the author could have made more of his name, for example when he bit his tail you could have mentioned him hissing in agony as his screw for a fang bit too deeply.
The ending was curious and I wish the author had established more of it earlier. The Saurus appears to view himself as an instrument of death, all that matters is the mission, no ifs no buts. The Stormcast meanwhile (and I wonder if the author named her from Morr or the Morrigan or any other death/war figure) seems to be willing to use the technology for the betterment of mankind despite how this probably would be a terrible idea. A kinda idealistic hope vs cold pragmatism. And yet there was a moment something seemed to slip in the Saurus...I wish there was more on it.
Warlock Engineer Tkull (Corrosive paint sales-rat/inventor of a drill for seeds/exile from Skryre for inventing a drill for seeds) : “By thar Horned Rat...where do I even begin-start?! Ye scent-see...this wee wannabe engie was an idiot-meat of thar first degree. Isnae rocket science (and I do like-like a good doomrocket, ye ken) tae put in safeguards tae yer doom-doom machine of doomed doom-doom so that thar scaley gits nae ruin-wreck it with ease! If ye’ve got that many-many blind spots...reroute some of thar power fer an electrical charge-thing on yer hull. Not only does it stop-slay thar gits from pull-pulling out wires, it also relieves ye engine-thing from accumulatin’ too much power. Ye noo...that screwy-fang had it coming.”
) so yes, for sure after.