A child.

[SolidusRaccoon]

Well we finally get back into things, looks like the kid may just be working out of fear. Just a gut reaction to everything.

[Axelgear]

Not surprising really. After all, why would an adult wander in there? And an adult would not be so open with their power because, after all, in the Medieval Times, what is not understood is evil or divine, and must be handed over to people with big swords either way.

[Catherine_Puce]

We talk about a powerful child. Once with an abilities to accumulate a amazing quantity of lux. Afterall, he drained miles around. The background can be shallow but we are still in Antilla. The lux background is boosted by instalation like the luxfont made the place content ten times more lux. Beside the trail of destruction imply a lot of raw power. The kid didn't use subtility to save some lux. Yes, it's a scared child but a scared child who easily equal an adult. Beside human instinct when fear put you under adrealine is simply: "fight or flee". Give time to him to recuperate from the lux overuse and you have once again a deadly oponent.

Il faut négocier avec prudence avec des personnes comme ça.

S.P.P.

[BrockthePaine]

Y'know, I like Jasper. He sounds like he's lived a VERY interesting life.

[Jaydub]

Maybe the boy was chased into the swap because of his powers by the other humans.....

[Deckard Canine]

Maybe he doesn't think of how he does it any more than we think of how we balance when walking.

[Roberto the Dane]

When does the boy meet Nessie?

Roberto the Dane

[The JAM]

This should get interesting...

[Kerry Skydancer]

He's a scared kid. If he's been doing things by accident, his townsfolk could be doing anything from trying to beat the devil out of him to actively trying to burn him at the stake. If the Raconnans can make friends with him while he's drained (pity the initial contact was bad) and give him sanctuary, it could work out well.

Or Murphy could stick his hand in and screw it up even worse...

[Trump]

I have actually thought of this before, though I kick myself for never putting it down in words. If this is anything like I imagined, the child might not have slept (or is trying not to sleep) for a few days. Heck, night terrors such as http://npc.comicgenesis.com/d/20030511.html might be a reason for him to be chased off, if a villager witnessed it.

[Shyal_malkes]

as ususal Ralph shows that he is several, several steps ahead of us. though it's probably pretty easy to do that when he already knows where he wants the story to go anyway.

[MikeVanPelt]

Hm... The Frog Mage has never seen a human...

How does he know that this is a human child? Size? Do they have pictures of humans, showing the differences? It makes sense that an educated mage would know this, while the swamp folk didn't.

The kid looks very thin, and may be starving. This wouldn't be surprising if he's been fleeing witch hunters for some time. I think they have a good chance to gain his trust if they don't blow it.

Note, the Frog Mage is reporting stuff that happened however long ag it takes to get from the swamp to Sanctuary City. So I think it's safe to say they didn't muff it badly enough for the kid to do a "Carrie" on the whole village...

[Madmoonie]

The savagry of the attacks on the fauna did not surprise me as such. I mean think about it, you are a young child with an ability you can not even begin to understand, and from the looks of things, most likely shunned and an outcast from human society. Now the kid is in a rather hostile environment, hungry and darn near terrifed with power just begging for an outlet. What do you think would happen? Its the only thing the kid has and he does not understand it, which is a dangerous thing when you give power to someone who had none before and place them in a hostile environment. Poor kid.

[Tom Mazanec]

They had a stained glass window with a human and Racconan IIRC. But the human size was underestimated. Humans are BIG. The Racconan in the last frame looks comparable to the kid in size, especially since he is in the foreground, not the background. Remember how BIG the human scale golem looked way back when. I am pretty sure this is a kid.

[Earl McClaw]

Yes, the boy-mage might be escaping angry villagers or witch hunters (or lots of other people who might want him dead), but consider the other possibilities...

• He's running away from home because he can no longer hide being "different". His parents might have any number of reactions.
• He's escaping a merchant / lord who wanted to use his abilities.
• He's hiding from a lux wielder (any race) who wanted him as an apprentice (for good or ill).

It's this last that worries me the most. Depending on how determined the pursuing "sorcerer" is, the Rac Conans may face a real threat. After all, if a little-trained child can brush aside the Mistwall, what could an experienced sorcerer accomplish?

(Let's hope he's more like Thanatanous the Mage than anyone else.)

(Hmm - "Seven Kings". And we see only three described.)

[Jaydub]

They had a stained glass window with a human and Racconan IIRC. But the human size was underestimated. Humans are BIG. The Racconan in the last frame looks comparable to the kid in size, especially since he is in the foreground, not the background. Remember how BIG the human scale golem looked way back when. I am pretty sure this is a kid.

Here is the link to the stained glass window you mentioned...
http://npc.comicgenesis.com/d/20040207.html

[LoneWolf23k]

Even if the kid isn't malevolent or sociopathic, he's still a lot more dangerous then an adult wizard would be, or even an adult Racconan, for two reasons..

#1, Remember the "Lux in the outside world is 1/10th of that in Antilla" bit? That kid grew up in that diminished Lux zone all his life, and his Lux-using skills are used to very low Lux conditions. In Lux-rich Antilla, he's now got more power then he knows what to do with it.

And this brings us to #2: He's a Kid. In his early teens, from the looks of it. That means he's still a ball of raging, uncontrolled emotions as it is, with a whirlpool of untamed hormones kicking up a storm on top of it. Self-Control is still something he needs to learn. And he's visibly scared spitless.

So, they've got a terrified kid with the equivalent of a loaded bazooka to contend with.

[Wanderwolf]

#1, Remember the "Lux in the outside world is 1/10th of that in Antilla" bit? That kid grew up in that diminished Lux zone all his life, and his Lux-using skills are used to very low Lux conditions. In Lux-rich Antilla, he's now got more power then he knows what to do with it.

This is something actually covered in the GURPS magic system; that, when going from Low Mana or Normal Mana to High Mana, someone who isn't used to the ambient level has "problems"... in much the same way as a man who lights a match in an oxygen tent.

Ouch.

Yours truly,

The wolfish,

Wanderer

[AnlaShokSe]

on the plus side, with that region of the swamp drained of lux, the kid won't be able to recharge, especially if the frog mage can tie up the power first.

[Shyal_malkes]

hello, AnlaShokSe welcome to the forums.

don't mind us, we left our sanity at the door.

though back on topic. the problem with the swamp being drained is the lux that is produced naturally from the surrounding life. unless they drained the area and kept draining it, it would all eventually grow back. er, I think.