The Splintercast Reads Edgedancer, Episode 1

Yay, new Splintercast!

The Nightwatcher doesn't actually have to give you what you ask for as a boon. You ask her for something, and then she gives you what she wants to give you (which might be what you asked for, possibly tangentially) and then a curse to go along with it.

That is the WORST deal! Man, going to the Nightwatcher's a crapshoot.

Which is why most people who go end up regretting it.

Seeing this on the front page came as a welcome surprise. Welcome back!  

Enjoyed the episode; at least, when you weren't saying Nale as "Nall-ee".  

Thanks for another splintercast! I can't wait for the rest.

(I say Nale the same way you do. Don't let those "nail" weirdos give you grief over it.)

On 1/5/2017 at 10:55 AM, FeatherWriter said:

That is the WORST deal! Man, going to the Nightwatcher's a crapshoot.

In fairness to the Nightwatcher, what she gives you does have at least some connection to what you asked for. However, there's always a curse attached  (which is explicitly independent of the boon), and if you stump her then all bets are off.  (Note that in Lift's debut interlude Wyndle was completely perplexed as to what on Roshar Lift could possibly have asked for, to get Lift's special brand of Edgedancer-ness)

Also, the Purelakers' evil god was Vun Makak.

Hey, Feather. I was wondering, when you edit the episodes, do you actually go in and cut out the silent parts manually? Because Audacity has a Remove Silence feature, and it's free.

12 hours ago, HarryLime said:

Hey, Feather. I was wondering, when you edit the episodes, do you actually go in and cut out the silent parts manually? Because Audacity has a Remove Silence feature, and it's free.

I'm sure she can say more detail but she does use that feature, but then has to cut out more silence because sometimes Remove Silence doesn't take out sniffles and such.

On 06/01/2017 at 0:11 PM, Landis963 said:

In fairness to the Nightwatcher, what she gives you does have at least some connection to what you asked for. However, there's always a curse attached  (which is explicitly independent of the boon), and if you stump her then all bets are off.  (Note that in Lift's debut interlude Wyndle was completely perplexed as to what on Roshar Lift could possibly have asked for, to get Lift's special brand of Edgedancer-ness)

I particularly like this WoB from almost a year ago, indicating both that the Nightwatcher can be stumped, and that maybe Lift's abilities are more about the rules of the Old Magic and Lift's actual request. I suspect that the more your request is selfish, the more the Nightwatcher twists it, and that Lift's request was both unselfish and completely baffling - hence she was given a Boon that was so uniquely Awesome it led to her being chosen for bonding.

Quote

BRANDON SANDERSON

So Lift is a really weird one. She visited the Old Magic and asked something very strange, and the Old Magic didn’t know how to treat that, and so answered with something equally strange. So you will actually see what happened with Lift and things like that, but suffice it to say some really weird things are going on.

On 6.1.2017 at 2:01 AM, ccstat said:

Thanks for another splintercast! I can't wait for the rest.

(I say Nale the same way you do. Don't let those "nail" weirdos give you grief over it.)

Can't wait for the rest, too!

I also read Nale as "Na-le", heard Brandon pronounce it as "nail", but still keep reading him as "Na-le". Brandon somewhere said, that pronounciation is the reader's freedom and so there is no point in arguing about that. We all get what you mean, even when the pronounciation differs from our own.

So, looking forward to the next episode.

On 1/8/2017 at 11:25 AM, HarryLime said:

Hey, Feather. I was wondering, when you edit the episodes, do you actually go in and cut out the silent parts manually? Because Audacity has a Remove Silence feature, and it's free.

On 1/9/2017 at 0:19 AM, Chaos said:

I'm sure she can say more detail but she does use that feature, but then has to cut out more silence because sometimes Remove Silence doesn't take out sniffles and such.

I actually used Audacity for the original Splintercast runs, though now, thanks to my job, I actually have access to Adobe Audition CC, which is very very nice. I have some automated processes set up to remove background noise and then trim silence, but like Chaos said, there's a lot that that doesn't catch. Chair squeaks, page turning, moments that I breathed into the microphone.

Actually for this one, because my cat Dalish was crying constantly in the background, the process would cut out everything but her meowing, and the "silent" part would end up just being like seventeen meows back to back in a row. 

...So yeah, I edited that out. Ha. That's the kind of stuff that gets trimmed by hand. There's plenty of Dalish crying over even the parts where I was talking, so you guys don't need her in the silence too.

6 hours ago, FeatherWriter said:

Actually for this one, because my cat Dalish was crying constantly in the background, the process would cut out everything but her meowing, and the "silent" part would end up just being like seventeen meows back to back in a row. 

...So yeah, I edited that out. Ha. That's the kind of stuff that gets trimmed by hand. There's plenty of Dalish crying over even the parts where I was talking, so you guys don't need her in the silence too.

 

...Dalish is basically the mascot of the Splintercast, isn't she?  

@Landis963Dalish is pretty much the mascot of my life.

On 11.01.2017 at 4:47 PM, FeatherWriter (Alyx) said:

the "silent" part would end up just being like seventeen meows back to back in a row.

now that's something I want to hear.

I'm really glad you're doing this, and I'll be listening for more.

BTW, I've found that that chapter really gets better on re-read.  If there's one thing that Lift's good at, it's lying to herself, and so you really need to get a handle on what she's actually up to before it all makes sense.

For example, her behavior at the beginning is very confusing.  When I first read this bit in Brandon's newsletter, I was all "Whu?"  But I did catch something, even on my first read-through:  when she let all of the grain fall into the immigrant quarter of the city, after discovering it had been stolen?  She was keep her oath, remembering those who had been forgotten.  The immigrants needed food, and she, in her absolutely bizarre way, got it for them.

Wyndle may complain a lot, but their bond is just getting stronger.

Glad this is back. So many distractions for it to make it to 4 eps with how "short" this is. XD

I hope you didn't have to delay your reading by too long while waiting on a laptop to record with.

@FeatherWriter (Alyx), It's been a while.   You OK?

EDIT: Does anyone know how to do the thing where you say someone's name in a post and it pings them?

EDIT EDIT: Thank you, Slowswift.

@Landis963 Just type a "@" symbol before of their username.  

2 hours ago, Slowswift said:

@Landis963 Just type a "@" symbol before of their username.  

It's not working, though.

Just type @ and then the rest of the name. A list should pop up with suggested users. Click the one you want.

So, type, "@FeatherWriter" normally (w/o the quotation marks), and it should work.  

2 minutes ago, Slowswift said:

Just type @ and then the rest of the name. A list should pop up with suggested users. Click the one you want.

So, type, "@FeatherWriter" normally (w/o the quotation marks), and it should work.  

Got it!  I was trying to add the @ symbol in after the fact.

@Landis963 Ah. Glad you got it to work!  

Oops. I've been busy (I'm the one who actually posts these). Next episode will probably be tomorrow.

Oh noooo if Chaos actually posts Episode 2 then I have to get off my butt and get Episode 3 edited... I've been enjoying my editing vacation over here...

I think you are safe. He said on monday it would be posted tomorrow and now its thursday with nary an update. Based on that math you still have a good month or 2 before he will need the next one