Since I’d first come up with the idea of having a “Gray Mouser” to Nonna‘s “Fafhrd”, and had decided her pairing character was to be a magic-user of some sort, I’ve had the scene where the two first meet absolutely embedded in my mind.
In some ways, it was quite funny. I had almost the entire scene in my head, including not just Helene’s reaction to “What the hell just happened???”, but also what would need to occur immediately after that. What I didn’t have a single solitary clue about, though, was why Helene’s reaction to that particular occurrence was what it was.
[Note: No, you don’t get spoilers about this. You’ll just have to read the story.}
Yeah, I know that’s weird. I knew it as soon as I had the idea and realized I had absolutely nowhere to go from there. Honestly, I’ve spent lots and lots of spare brain-time trying to puzzle it out.
Finally, two days ago, something just … “clicked” for me and I figured it out. This was also when I knew I needed to pursue creating a map of the city they’ll have their adventures in (now and, hopefully forever after, known as “Kethyras“).
Having just finished the other “introduction story” (Helene), last night, my mind went into overdrive and I charted out this next story. In what I hope will be viewed as a sign of respect, the tentative title for this story is “Untimely Encounter in Kethyras”. [Yes, this is, indeed, a hat-tip to “Ill-Met in Lankhmar“, by Fritz Leiber.]
This afternoon, as the first step / scene in this new story, I managed to crank out just under 1200 words describing the city and briefly touching upon Helene’s presence and existence in it. I haven’t re-read it yet, but … it all felt good. Stay tuned for more!
