About Time

We finally figured out how to get the timeline to work out. Eileen’s disappearance has caused us all sorts of problems over the past few weeks, but we now have a workable situation in place.

This also means that Bruce can finally begin to write the main script since most of the big issues have been solved!

Change of Plans

Well, we opted to return to the original idea regarding the Littermates. We voted and overturned the plan to scatter them all over Lucida.

Now they all will once again be born in Temple Manor with both parents living at the aforementioned Manor. #11 is still going to be born in Snowplain.

This really won’t affect all that much except for a few changes now required for the script.

The Littermates Birthplaces

We just decided on these last night. They aren’t necessarily final yet, but they will do for the moment:

• Vic Jr.: He is the only child to be born at Temple Manor.
• William: He was born in SubFloor region back when SubFloor City actually existed.
• David: Dave was born in Tontropolis (The city, not the region).
• Alan and Justin were both born in Rainvale (As was Ilapse’s daughter Elysia).
• Henry: Lexington Manor
• Robert was the only other Littermate to be born in the Landring region (Vic Jr. is the other). RSB was born in Landring Manor though.
• Amanda: The eventual Primus was born in Malmagma Manor.
• Eileen Ilapse gave birth to Lucinda at Primata Manor.
• And #11 is originally from Snowplain.

As you can probably guess, Victor’s wife loved to travel, thus the multitude of birthplaces for the children.

The Littermates

We finally got around to naming the other 6 children of Victor Spellbinder. While this doesn’t have too much bearing on the first installment of Specs, I figured it should be posted on this blog as well. The list is in chronological order:

• #1 Victor Spellbinder Jr.- It seemed logical that Victor’s first child would be named after him. Vic Jr. shuns society and basically lives behind an imaginary wall.
  #2 William Spellbinder- William is a short-tempered sailor who resides in SubFloor Region.
  #3 David Spellbinder- David is an easygoing fellow, but his lighthearted attitude can (And has) get him into trouble.
  #6 Henry Spellbinder- As the middle child, was always a peaceful type of guy. He also picked up a fondness for solving problems and puzzles.
  #7 Nathan(iel) Spellbinder- While I just call him Nathan, Bruce prefers to use the extended version of the name. I guess Bruce is probably right, Vic would most likely use the longer name instead of a short one…
  Anyway, Nathan is very narrow-minded (But knowledgeable) and can be very irritating to be around. However, he is useful in battle which is about the only reason the other party members agree to put up with him. And finally,
• #10 Lucinda Spellbinder- Being between #s 9 and 11, she is the often overlooked; and even forgotten Littermate. But she does exist. Originally I picked Lucille as her title, but Bruce came up with the idea of ‘Lucinda’. It sounds a lot like ‘Lucida’, but we agreed it just appeared to fit her better. A kind girl, though somewhat spoiled (Being the ‘baby’ of the Spellbinder family and all).

The missing Littermates are already mentioned some in other posts on “maggie ec lusa!” so I didn’t bother adding them here. They are #4 Alan Ilapse, #5 Justin Ilapse, #8 Amanda Spellbinder, #9 Robert Spellbinder and of course, #11 Scott Starcross.

Introducing the neo-Hippos

The neo-Hippos, as stated in the entry Run for the Hills!, are a collective of extremely fat (some might say ridiculously so) creatures. Their leader at the time Spectacles: Bruce’s Story opens, Beverly, has a strange habit of chasing after Elysia Ilapse, and not even Ilapse’s father is sure why.

The members of the group are, in order of seniority:

maggie: Her name was printed lowercase on her birth certificate and was never changed.  After a while it stuck, and so her name is invariably written without capitalization.  Shortly before Spectacles: Bruce’s Story begins, maggie attempts to break up the Hippos due to a rift with her sister.  Despite appearances and her threatening aura, she doesn’t possess an insatiable appetite.  This is almost certainly a good thing, as if she did… well, let’s just say Robert would be the least of Scott’s concerns!

Beverly: maggie’s Chinese half-sister, Beverly took over leadership of the neo-Hippos after maggie deserted, defying maggie’s wishes that the group be disbanded.  Beverly has always had a habit of terrorizing innocent people, generally threatening to eat anything and everything that crosses her path.  While she rarely delivers on these threats, she tends to be considered a force to be reckoned with nonetheless, as when she does deliver on a unheeded threat, the consequences are often dire.

Gail: Gail is a 5,000-pound bird who looks suspiciously like an overweight hawk.  Her average day was spent trying not to get eaten by maggie, so she was extremely grateful when maggie left and followed Beverly willingly, even if she didn’t necessarily agree with Beverly’s penchant for terrorism.  Obviously, Gail can’t fly well, but her weight isn’t entirely at fault for this; a disagreement with maggie three years before the story begins left the 2.5-ton bird minus a wing.  It took her a year and a half to learn how to fly again.

Charles Burke, the Fattest Telephone Guy: Charles lives to eat telephone wires.  He doesn’t say much about himself and so only a select few know anything about him.  The Hippos are the only ones who know his name; everyone else just calls him “the Fattest Telephone Guy.”  Rumors suggest he was an employee for the telephone company in Tontropolis who was fired after his boss discovered he was eating the equipment (and his truck, after all the equipment was gone).  The boss mysteriously vanished, and Burke joined up with the neo-Hippos shortly afterwards.

Weapons

This was posted on the original blog, but I guess it should be posted on this one too.

A rundown of the party members’ weapons:

• Scott: As the protagonist, he is pretty much obliged to wield a sword. As an added bonus, he also was given the ability to use offensive magic attacks.
• Bruce: Bruce’s weapon of choice happens to be a handgun. We aren’t positive where he developed this thing for guns yet.
• Elysia: Justin Ilapse taught his daughter the finer points of shooting archery in an effort to ward off the neo-Hippos. The original purpose didn’t pan out (the Hippos ate the arrows), but she is a deadly accurate shooter.
• Elkovsky: As a musician, Elkovsky has a musical instrument as his weapon. Elkovsky may sound like a classical name, but he actually prefers guitars. He is mainly a statistical guy… Defense, Boosting Attack, etc.
• maggie: This one should be obvious. maggie uses her mouth as her main weapon. But she also has abilities she can master by consuming certain enemies. A drawback to selecting maggie for battle is the fact that she must eat within three turns. If she doesn’t, she takes heavy damage. Basically you must faint at least one enemy every three turns for maggie to devour.
• Lauren: Lauren is currently slated in as the magician for the group. Her specialty is healing magic. There is a major flaw: She isn’t particularly strong, so the main magical member puts the group at a disadvantage against enemies that can use magic. This does, however, prevent players from having an invincible magic master in their party.
• Cerberus: Cerberus will also use his mouth as his weapon (See ‘maggie’), but he only bites the opponent rather than eating them.

Run for the Hills!

maggie’s coming to eat you!

Seriously though, there is a big fat hunger pig named maggie (note the intentional lack of capitalization) in the Spectacles series, and she can be dangerous if crossed, as so many Lucidans find out the hard way.

What makes maggie so dangerous, anyway? Well, mainly the fact that she’s so hungry! Anything that moves, as well as anything that doesn’t, is fair game; indeed, maggie will eat absolutely anything that isn’t nailed down (and even some stuff that is). If asked what her favorite food is, she will likely answer: “Everything!”

maggie is unique among the characters in that she doesn’t get her abilities the same way; instead, to gain a new power, she has to eat an enemy that has that power. For example, by eating the Headless Horse, maggie gains use of the Flamebreath attack. Her abilities are made more powerful in the same way: by eating something with an ability she already has, that ability will gain experience points and eventually level up.

As for how maggie fits into the story, she’s the leader of the neo-Hippos, a small collective of fatties who, for the past eight years, have practically lived to terrorize Elysia Ilapse, the daughter of Justin Ilapse, who created the Spectacles (the Spectacles will be discussed in a future entry). Before our story begins, maggie deserts the Hippos due to a rift with her sister Beverly and eventually decides to help Scott and Bruce out when she meets them in Lexington Manor.

The Bosses of Spectacles: Bruce’s Story

As some of you may know, the original plan was to have the neo-Hippos get eaten and provide new abilities to maggie. However, this has been changed so that the other members are available for use in a potential sequel. Now maggie eats each character’s special food to gain the aforementioned abilities.

After some debating over the past few days, Bruce and I have semi-finalized the lineup of major Boss Battles:

• Lexington Manor: The Headless Horse. The group enter the manor to find maggie in the process of devouring the boss. maggie explains that she has managed to eat its head, but would welcome some assistance in slaying the Horse.
• Malmagma Manor: The group meets up with the leader of the new-look Hippos. Scott and friends have difficulty with Beverly, but with much help from maggie, the Chinese fiend is defeated. maggie receives Beverly’s special food, “Eggrolls,” following the battle.
• Rainvale Manor: A three-headed dragon awaits the group in this city in the sky. But with the conclusion of the fight, the beast is found to be Cerberus under an enchantment. The triple-headed dog joins the party as Elysia’s faithful pet.
• Subfloor Manor: In this underwater manor, a mechanical shark lurks, waiting for unsuspecting Lucidans to venture down for hidden treasures…
• Snowplain Manor: If the group can manage to find their way through the blinding blizzards on the frozen plains, they must face a pair of Yetis.
• Primata Manor: Up in the tops of the trees hang the obvious signs of another neo-Hippo. The Fattest Telephone Guy has his own personal set of phone lines. Beat him and maggie gets a spool of phone cable to munch on.
• Arivoid Manor: The party’s endurance is put to the test in this barren wasteland. If they don’t die a slow death from dehydration, they must face Gail. Why does Gail live in a desert region? Because she would be unable to reside in Rainvale! If she lived in the wet atmosphere of that region, she couldn’t fly. She can hardly pull it off under normal conditions… so she lives in Arivoid. There she can keep in touch with the Fattest Telephone Guy in Primata while getting a break from the oppressive desert.
• Landring Manor: Here the group faces the Rhinocrush Elephant.

And #9 will remain a secret for now.

On the Betrayal of Bruce Arsen

Bruce Arsen doesn’t trust Robert Spellbinder, that much is known. But why is Scott’s best friend so skeptical of Spellbinder? That has been one of the biggest hindrances to the project. Right up there with figuring out a precondition that works.

However, recently both of these problems were solved. I’m not going to say what the precondition is, but I am able to discuss “The Betrayal.” This is the term used when referring to the event that made it clear to Bruce that Robert was up to something. Bruce had always been a bit suspicious of Robert. He seemed to know something about Scott that he was trying to use to further some cause. Exactly what this was, Bruce didn’t know, but he did know that he should keep an eye on Spellbinder at all times.

Now originally, we were going to have it so that Robert somehow betrayed Bruce. But it has since become more of a situation where Robert betrays himself to Bruce.

Currently “The Betrayal” occurs when Robert reaches the breaking point due to his anger at Amanda and his irritation with Bruce. He then starts ranting at Bruce to bug off. During this discourse, Robert lets slip some comments regarding “spectacles” and “number eleven”. Bruce had no clue what was meant at the time, but he realized it had something to do with Scott. After that incident Bruce became much more watchful of Spellbinder’s interaction with Scott…

“…is that it all began with a promise.”

Spectacles‘ plot is built on a rather unconventional concept: A promise made between the antagonist Robert Spellbinder and his sister Amanda. The promise? In the words of Lucidan composer Elkovsky, “Only that she would return.”

As hinted at in the opening sequence of Spectacles: Bruce’s Story, Amanda makes the catalyzing promise under rather urgent circumstances. While what these circumstances exactly are isn’t revealed in the intro, it’s obvious from her tone that something sinister is brewing. Later on, we learn of the existence of the Littermates, the collective name for the eleven children fathered by Victor Spellbinder. According to a prophecy, the ninth Littermate is destined to become the Primus, the most powerful sorcerer either world had ever known.

Now you’re probably saying at this point: “Stop right there, Bruce! The prophecy thing has been done to death; it’s the oldest trick in the book!” And you would, in fact, be correct. However, Spectacles takes the idea in a different direction, subverting the cliché quite nicely.

See, here’s the thing: Amanda undermines the prophecy herself! It turns out that shortly after she went off to find her place in the world, she ended up selling her soul to Hades. Her reason for doing so isn’t revealed until just before the penultimate battle with Robert Spellbinder, but I’m sure you can guess why she did it: To take her brother’s place as the Primus.

Unfortunately this means, as you can probably guess, that Amanda will become a much bigger threat later on than her brother ever was…