WriterKitty

I suppose it wouldn't necessarily have to be a tube, but these things would work by attacking the first thing they "saw"- meaning if you didn't keep them isolated from one another, they'd just destroy each other. I was picturing the tube as serving the same purpose as a hawk's hood: something to keep the shot from attacking prematurely. Keep in mind, these things don't just fly straight forward at high velocity like a conventional bullet, they actively attack the first thing in front of them. I think a design on the order of a conventional revolver would actually work fairly well. Also, magic guns. Kinda liking the aesthetic. The bullets are each bound to a single bird, which dies in the process. Yeah, there's going to be a cottage industry of raising animals for the sacrificial slaughter in this setting. Also figuring that the magi-guns (I promise to come up with a better name for them) will be relatively rare. Just one more way of dispatching opponents in a setting with oodles of them. If nothing else, they have the disadvantage of non-intelligent ammo: if you point your hawk-shot at the enemy, and one of your allies moves in front of them at the wrong moment, your buddy will indeed get savaged by a magic bullet. Liking the idea of the non-magic trap. I've decided to incorporate some purely mundane defenses -- a plain old, people- guarded security checkpoint, for one -- but I should think about some simple defenses, too. After all, just because you have golems and monsters to guard your stuff, that's no reason not to also lay a few bear traps. (Oh, and your idea for a trap would be interesting, but one of the things in a binding gets destroyed in the process. Which could just mean that you have a trap where the floor gets super hot and the torches explode...)

I think you'd be more likely to wind up with a Pinocchio-esque wooden person than you would be to wind up with somebody trapped in a block of wood. And a bank, however discreet, would have plenty of lethal ways to dispatch intruders without resorting to something that risky -- for them. Then again, the idea of a malevolent binding trap in some rich, paranoid guy's house? The mystical equivalent of a shotgun trap? I could see that happening. Binding someone to stone to slow them down, perhaps. It would take a master enchanter with way too much time on their hands to pull off, but not impossible, I'd say.

Well, if you like the idea of chemical models, might I suggest testosterone and melatonin? As far as "rioting" goes, you can't beat testosterone, and as commonly represented, it has all sorts of nice spiky bits. Melatonin sort of looks curved, which makes for good contrast, and there's not much more soothing than a chemical that helps regulate sleep.

Well, with Zinc, you could play fairly literally with the "rioter" concept and have a city that's partly destroyed / smoking in the background (perhaps a variant of the cityscape from Tin?). If you hadn't already used a heartbeat motif in Pewter, I'd suggest that (something to imply agitation / emotional manipulation). Maybe a stylized heart? If you want to get ultra nerdy, you could take a look at the molecular models for mood-altering hormones like seratonin or testosterone and work that into the design (since the shape of molecules can be abstracted as just lines and circles, it kind of works with the designs you already have. My knee-jerk response for Brass is a cup of tea, but that doesn't exactly fit with the rest of your designs. Maybe play up the mist, or add something resembling a blindfold? Basically, playing with the idea of emotions being muffled or numbed. You could do a kind of contrast between Zinc and Copper by having Zinc's design resemble an explosion (lots of lines reaching outward, that sort of thing) and Copper having more curves, maybe even having it look like something that's been wrapped up or bound. Those are tricky ones, though. Hope some of that helps!

Okay, I just did my own quick search, and I'm afraid there aren't that many descriptions of Sadeas' s Shardplate (that I could find). It's painted a deep red, and apparently ornamented / fashionable, but other than a brief mention of a helmet with a crown-like sunburst motif, I didn't see anything that would set his plate apart from others. Honestly? Your best bet might be to find an existing picture of Shardplate that you like and just plan on making it in deep reds. You can add his glyph to it somewhere to customize it a little, but I think most people will recognize it from the color more than anything else. If you had something in specific you needed drawn out, I might be able to throw something together, but I think your best option is to pick a random Shardplate picture that you like the style of / that looks doable, and work from there. Best of luck!

Adamir: OooOOOoooh.... I'd known that there would be people who sort of... ignored the restrictions on binding sentients, but your idea makes all kinds of sense. In fact, my main character is going to be using just such an item... but I hadn't thought about having a whole underground trade in that sort of thing. Still, it makes sense. Sort of the magical equivalent of a fake identities and illegal weapons trade rolled into one. The Ven and the Titan would have to be enchanting the item at the same time, some how, and it would probably be crazy difficult to pull off, but hey -- that would just drive the price up for the people manufacturing these things.

Actually, you got things a bit backwards: the thieves aren't going in through the bank, the bank is their exit route. The main team is breaking into the vaults by hijacking the portal in, bypassing the various safeguards, and then dumping all the loot into their vault -- at which point, their accomplice on the outside will simply empty out "their" vault before anyone can realize the heist has occurred. Or that's the plan, anyway. Side note, I am definitely going with the anti-magic field (in effect); you're right about it being a good limit on what magic can do for them (given the high magic setting). I also love the idea of the two-team thieving crew... unfortunately my cast isn't quite that big. That said, if I'm ever planning a heist for real, I, uh, might drop you a line. In fact, having looked at your plan, it kind of seems like my thieves are doing things the hard way... Then again, I'm not sure they could get away with "examining their vault" for long enough to pull this off without arousing suspicion. Although, this does bring up something I've got to say: I, um, think I might be done. Not with the book planning as a whole, but going over things with you guys has helped me come up with a pretty fearsome set of obstacles. I even have ways for my thieves to get past most of them. (Still working on how they bust into the vaults themselves...) I'd say my bank is now pretty darn well defended. I want to thank everybody who posted; you got me past a serious writing wall. And I definitely have more I want to hash out with you all -- my magic system still feels sort of shaky, for one. I guess I'll put it to you: should I keep asking questions / advice in this thread, or start up a new topic? Or are you all sick of this setting already? Also, when I finally get this monster written, would people be interested in reading it? It's a long way off, but I was thinking of putting the book up a few chapters at a time, see what people think. Anyway, thanks again!

If you know what you're doing and are familiar with the enchantment in question, it's possible to bind something without major preparation. But it's a highly specialized skill set -- enchantment breakers would be about as common and have as easy a time of it as our-world computer hackers (so naturally, the team has one. ) As far as making something resist re-enchanting, I'm figuring that there are materials that are more and less receptive to binding -- so if you successfully enchant something that is difficult to enchant in the first place, anyone trying to re-enchant that thing is going to have at least as hard a time of it. Now that you're bringing it up, though, I'm going to have to make it such that there's some kind of in-built resistance in enchanted items that makes it harder to re-enchant. Now I'm figuring there's going to be some kind of air-generating or purifying effect going on in the vaults that relies on a very delicate piece of binding -- the sort of thing that would get dispelled by any other magic use in the area. It could work as an in-effect anti-magic field: try to bind anything, or dispel any other enchantments, and suddenly your air supply just died. Things are starting to come together...

Awesome questions! Already loving this forum... I'll try to go through everything I have hammered down about my magic; part of this is going to be thinking as I type, so bear with me. Once again putting this behind spoiler tags, because loooong. YoungBard: Great distinction between action / ingenuity! Now that I'm thinking about it, my book should definitely trend toward the impossible conundrum / problem solving end of the spectrum. (As far as what it resembles, I've been thinking of the book as "Ocean's Eleven meets fairy tales meets Scott Lynch," but I'm thinking there's going to be some elements of Maguyver, especially toward the end.) Also, I now have to find a way to incorporate magic Play-Doh... As far as binding goes, one of the items being bound gets destroyed in the process, leaving behind the enchanted item. As far as what properties transfer over, that's something that gets directed by the enchanter (and is why not everyone can actual work magic -- takes a lot of focus and training to get the effects you were hoping for). Whew! That took longer than I expected. Hopefully that answers most of the questions, though; if not, feel free to ask away! I'm at work for most of the day, but I'll be back to check on this tonight. And thanks to everyone who's been posting! Whether it's ideas or questions, this has all been really helpful.

Thinking that water would bring too many of its own problems -- after all, then you have to safeguard any valuables from getting wet. Probably a lot easier in this setting than in the real world, but still probably more effort than the bank would go to. Still, I very much like the idea of making the environment somehow toxic to the thieves. Or perhaps there are multiple sections to get through before reaching the main vaults, and some of them are submerged? That has definite possibilities... This is fun. It's getting me to think about the problem in different ways, which is what I was hoping for. Thanks!

Why, thank you! *munches net cookie* My plan is to eventually post chunks of the book on here for general perusal. Talanic did that for his NaNoWriMo book and got a great response. So, keep an eye out! And a more general thanks for all the welcomes!

Ah! That makes much more sense - I'd been thinking that that would be murder on the glue gun. Your way makes more sense.

Now that is a neat effect. Did you just put the crayon straight into the glue gun and use it like a regular glue stick?

Good ideas all around! I will say to Sir Jerric that, given that there's a (living) beastie also patrolling the vaults, there will need to be some form of air supply... but that doesn't mean it can't be somehow toxic/ hard for non-beasties to breathe in. Adds a level of complication. Also liking the idea of having the vaults be connected to the golems themselves... possibly not needing golem strength (golems aren't the only super-strong beings in this setting), but perhaps some sort of an in-built key? Feel free to ask for specifics about the setting / magic system. Some of it's pretty nebulous right now (and some of it will doubtless get changed to accommodate nifty ideas), but just having to explain it will be helpful in straightening out my own thoughts. Thanks, everyone! Keep it coming! Oh, and I added some more setting info in the original post. Not sure if it will be helpful, but as I said, feel free to ask about magic, etc. If I don't have an answer yet, I can make one up.

I'd say remember that 1) without conflict you have no story, and 2) your character should be a different person at the end of the story than they were at the start. If you have an idea for a great character, start there: think about how that character could change into a totally different person. What would it take for them to, say, radically change the kind of life they're living? Or the way they look at the world. What would have to happen to massively change some aspect of their personality? Build a story around that. Or, if you have a character you really love, try to picture them without some of the qualities you like about them (so if your character is a brave and dashing swordsman, try to picture that same character as an utter coward.) What would it take to turn them into that character you came up with in the first place? Going through a war? Losing (or gaining) someone they love? Having the worst week ever and turning to a life of crime? Going to echo The Only Joe and the idea of putting your character(s) against the thing/events they'd be least capable of handling. Take your dashing swordsman, put him in a world where swords are completely illegal (because of reasons), but he still has to save the girl... and then figure out what would need to happen in order learn unarmed combat... or what he'd need to go through to enter the illegal sword-fighting underground. There's a story. I'd say definitely give Writing Excuses a listen, too, if you haven't. There aren't a lot of writing topics they don't cover, and I find it helps sometimes just to sit for fifteen minutes and think about writing. It jars things loose, sometimes. Good luck!