The Wandering Inn

[halfeye]

I''m conflicted about this, it's a mess and I can't believe it's ever going to be resolved, but it's not yet severely internally inconsistent, the parts of the story that are told are well told, and it may well be the longest story told in the English language so far.

I'm following it, but if you are thinking of starting it, it is very long already, and it ought to take as long again to wrap up all the plot points that already exist, but there are almost certainly going to be new plot points.

https://wanderinginn.com/

[Rynjin]

I really don't see what's a mess about it, unless you're one of those people who's been whining in the comments on every chapter about there not being enough Erin these days.

[halfeye]

I really don't see what's a mess about it, unless you're one of those people who's been whining in the comments on every chapter about there not being enough Erin these days.

I am not one of them, though I do agree with them.

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Having the main protagonist "dead but coming back, maybe real soon now" is an ongoing rolling cliffhanger and a strange literary device.

What I mean by a mess is that it's a tree that keeps growing branches, and the branches keep branching into other branches. When a story ends, all the branches need to merge back together, there are so many here that merging them all in satisfying ways will take a lot of time. Maybe there will have to be a dozen sequels all from different points of view.

[Gnoman]

My issue with book 8 is that it feels oddly stasisy.

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Everything's revolving around bringing Erin back, and seems like every other chapter has somebody spend a fair bit of time moping about Erin. I can understand why the setup leads to that, but it locks the narrative in a way that simply killing her off (even if she could potentially be Resurrected later) wouldn't have done.

[Rynjin]

Except it's driven a lot of character progression, which is what the series is about. TWI has never been a "plot" series, it's a character arc series.

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Ksmvr's development, as an example, probably would have never happened without Erin's "death".

[Gnoman]

It still feels too much wrapped around her.

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Compare what Rabbiteater's been doing - even though he knows about it, he's getting his growth without her.

[Sapphire Guard]

Didn't get any further since last time this came up, still a couple of chapters into book 2. Was a lot to like and a lot to dislike.

[Rynjin]

Didn't get any further since last time this came up, still a couple of chapters into book 2. Was a lot to like and a lot to dislike.

The general consensus on when the story gets "great" is during the Esthelm stuff (officially now named "Flowers of Esthelm" for the audiobooks).

[Eurus]

I've been current and keeping up with it for a while now, I think that it's mostly enjoyable? My general warning is that, because it jumps around to so many different characters and perspectives and plots, there are likely going to be some that you just don't like who seem to get way too much screen time. And there are likely going to be some arcs that you really do like that get de-focused for a few dozen chapters at a time. The focus drifts back and forth a lot, is what I'm saying.

If you can go with the flow, I think it's generally enjoyable.

[J-H]

I enjoy it, and the characters are strong enough that I have a pretty good sense of who and where everyone is, even when we cut away from a viewpoint character for like 6 months or a year (looking at you Joker... no, don't look back at me, I'm not here, there is no audience, WHY ARE YOU SMILING LIKE THAT).

It definitely has the Wheel of Time problem of "Oh, and I'm adding this, and that, and this" and as a result, time passes more slowly and the plot becomes more and more unfocused. There are a lot of high-powered plot threads out there.

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the go_s are alive
Resurrection, and also the afterlife being eaten.
King of Destruction, continental war, saving Tiqr, etc., yada yada
Death of Magic/Death of Chains/Demons of Rhir whatever. They're probably the highest-powered enemies on the planet and they are a sideshow.
Gnoll magic-stealing, resolving Mrsha's status, open war with the gnolls.
Wyrm courting...or whatever it was that Ryoka was used as a messenger for. Oh, and there's also a war on that continent.
Fraerlings under attack.
Something something Circle of Thorns blood magic something something.
Teriarch has forgotten himself.
Goblins and not-Goblin Goblins and Kings and Treasure.
Az'Kerash the necromancer is still out there building an army.

I'd like to see a few of these resolved sometime soon-ish.

On the other hand, isn't that how soap operas work? There's a big cast of characters, time passes slowly, and there are always new twists and complexities to keep them running for decades of character arcs?

I just hope the story doesn't build and build until the writer is overloaded and quits. It's a lot of fun and has generated more than a few D&D ideas that I've used in my games, including Eater Goats. My players ran from those without even getting close.

[halfeye]

That is a partial list.

I think I could maybe double it. That there are so many plot threads really is the main problem with the story as a story.

[Rynjin]

Well, again, I think thinking of it as a single story is a mistake. It's a living world.

Regardless, things often come together in unexpected but in hindsight logical ways. The recent chapter with Niers proves that much.

[halfeye]

Oi! Peelee!

But seriously folks, I quite liked this one.

[Dragonus45]

Oi! Peelee!

But seriously folks, I quite liked this one.

Oh yea Tuesdays chapter was a riot and then some. A great deal of I told you so's have been spoken about the bit with Ryoka and the Thirsting Knights as well.

[halfeye]

That almost made it to "interesting".

[Dragonus45]

The Christmas chapter?

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Went way past interesting into fascinating cluster****. I got some serious nostalgia for old school chat rooms during this one. But it's all coming together now in the best way. I'm hyped.

[J-H]

Spoiler: spoiler through end of 2021

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I finally binged again and caught up (I tend to follow serials that way). That was certainly something else. Very very entertaining. Welcome to the interwebz!

The appearance of Izrael quoting a particular very recognizable Earth text in the previous chapter was also a surprise. It seems that the system follows the 3e+ "cleric of ideals" or "believe and it happens" mode rather than requiring a ___ to grant spells as we have no indication of any theological cross-world links.

Whatever caused the massive stackwipe of the ___ is going to have to get explained at some point. I suspect global memory modification or memetic warfare given what the mithril coin did to the dwarven blacksmith when he examined it, but it's obviously breaking down in Eldavin/Teriarch.

What is Actelios supposed to be? The description reminded me of a Beholder more than anything else, but from what I recall, an earther was told it's not an "Old One" or something like that. I can't think of anything else big with a bunch of eyestalks.
It seems Old Ones are at the bottom of the sea and the stuff over the edge of the world is something more foreign than what in D&D would be the Far Realms creatures? Maybe more of a Eberron Chaos/madness theme?

[Dragonus45]

Spoiler: spoiler through end of 2021

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I finally binged again and caught up (I tend to follow serials that way). That was certainly something else. Very very entertaining. Welcome to the interwebz!

Spoiler: spoiler through end of 2021

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Congratz, if you have any interest Gravesong, the new book, has the Patron only version up on the patreon now as well!

The appearance of Izrael quoting a particular very recognizable Earth text in the previous chapter was also a surprise. It seems that the system follows the 3e+ "cleric of ideals" or "believe and it happens" mode rather than requiring a ___ to grant spells as we have no indication of any theological cross-world links.

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Yea it seems like similar to how the ___ didn't need direct worship so much as a general increase in people believing they were still alive to function the class system is more then willing to fill in the blanks for a cleric of anything so long as they are actually doing cleric things. Pawn more then anything really shows this off but the follow up on Prophet after so long is great to see. Normally I would be worried about all the ways this could go wrong but given Roshal exists and they don't like Roshal I'll take them. Some old school philosophy for how to deal with cities like that one could be more then welcome to me.

Whatever caused the massive stackwipe of the ___ is going to have to get explained at some point. I suspect global memory modification or memetic warfare given what the mithril coin did to the dwarven blacksmith when he examined it, but it's obviously breaking down in Eldavin/Teriarch.

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Teri has actually sworn by the bearded ones name and also is in the know about what is up with goblins and may have been born so far in the past he may be close to as old as whatever the big event was so it's a real possibility he always knew.

What is Actelios supposed to be? The description reminded me of a Beholder more than anything else, but from what I recall, an earther was told it's not an "Old One" or something like that. I can't think of anything else big with a bunch of eyestalks.
It seems Old Ones are at the bottom of the sea and the stuff over the edge of the world is something more foreign than what in D&D would be the Far Realms creatures? Maybe more of a Eberron Chaos/madness theme?

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It is a Cthulu, now exactly what that means is loose and hard to define but Trey's reaction is clear it is close enough to what we think of when the word is used that he could recognize the skull. Old one is a really specific bit of terminology in the setting that isn't a clear as I figure it should be though. It's was mentioned before that it was a catchall term for a bunch of things potentially but that recent chapter mentions something about "those that survive in the deeps" and I think it was referring to the Those That Should Not Be climbing up out of the Last Tide and the sentence was just structured poorly. Far Realms creatures seems like a good comparison for what is going on in that void though, which is apparently not the void of space since Gnomes and Dragons have traveled there and been fine.

[halfeye]

Spoiler: spoiler through end of 2021

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What is Actelios supposed to be? The description reminded me of a Beholder more than anything else, but from what I recall, an earther was told it's not an "Old One" or something like that. I can't think of anything else big with a bunch of eyestalks.

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As I recall it has five eyes, the only thing I remember from Earth with five eyes was something small from the Burgess Shale.

Ah, Wikipedia has it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opabinia

So, it might be one of them, hugely magnified.

[J-H]

That's far too mundane and un-twisted to fit, sorry.

[halfeye]

That's far too mundane and un-twisted to fit, sorry.

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It's from earth and it has five eyes. I'm willing to listen to any other suggestions that fit those qualifications, but I don't know of any. Spiders have eight eyes, horseshoe crabs have nine, scorpions have six, eight, ten or twelve, so there might well be something.

[InvisibleBison]

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It's from earth and it has five eyes. I'm willing to listen to any other suggestions that fit those qualifications, but I don't know of any. Spiders have eight eyes, horseshoe crabs have nine, scorpions have six, eight, ten or twelve, so there might well be something.

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Why is "from Earth" one of the qualifications?

[halfeye]

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Why is "from Earth" one of the qualifications?

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I'm pretty sure Trey recognised it as being from Earth without saying what it was, that was a long time ago though, so I don't plan to reread the whole thing to find it.

[InvisibleBison]

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I'm pretty sure Trey recognised it as being from Earth without saying what it was, that was a long time ago though, so I don't plan to reread the whole thing to find it.

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As I recall, he recognized it as being something from the Cthulhu mythos. But even if I'm misremembering and he thought it looked like some ordinary Earth creature, that doesn't mean it literally was such a creature.

[halfeye]

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I wanted to read about Amerys being freed, not how she might be next time we come back to her, which could be months from now in real life.

[InvisibleBison]

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I wanted to read about Amerys being freed, not how she might be next time we come back to her, which could be months from now in real life.

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I was also looking forward to seeing what happened with her escape, but I found the twist ending to be very satisfying. Also, I think it's quite likely that the next chapter will be a continuation of Trey's adventures.

[Rynjin]

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I wanted to read about Amerys being freed, not how she might be next time we come back to her, which could be months from now in real life.

Next chapter is also marked as "K". As the author's notes mention, this is the side story that was voted on by Patrons, which means it will be taken to its conclusion before moving on.

[Dragonus45]

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I wanted to read about Amerys being freed, not how she might be next time we come back to her, which could be months from now in real life.

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That Arc ends this saturday though? So more a few days then a month.

[halfeye]

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That Arc ends this saturday though? So more a few days then a month.

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I dunno what will happen next, but there seems to be a habit of jumping around from story to story. I am kind of unclear what the schedule is for updates. it seems to be two a week for three weeks then a week or more off, but I haven't noticed if there are particular days of the week on which the bi-weekly pages appear.

There was a time when I thought that the letters denoted a particular character, but 'k' isn't clearly connected to Trey, Troy, Casus, Amerys or Gazi, so I'm not clear that the same letter recurring will mean the same arc continuing and if it doesn't then a month seems optimistic for its next appearance.

[Rynjin]

K is "King of Destruction", and all the characters surrounding him. The letters used to denote a specific character ("K" was ALWAYS Flos' specific perspective), but as the scope of the story grew, they grew to encompass all the characters associated with a specific plotline.

K is now all of Flos' vassals and plots, D (for Doctor) is the entire United Nations Company rather than just Geneva, E (for Emperor) is everything going on in Riverfarm and the surroundings instead of just Laken, etc.

Some of the new ones have gotten muddied (eg. T for Teriarch is ALSO also Trey's perspective much of the time), but the old ones from back when the system started are consistent.

It's why I typically skip a few updates and wait for the backlog to build sometimes. I can't stand Flos and his cronies, so I bank K chapters until I can just binge through to more good content most of the time.