REMEMBER: Questions go here, reviews do not. Reviews go on the reviews page for the story. That's why it's called the reviews page. It wouldn't be called the reviews page if it was meant for clowns and fish, now would it? Of course not! That would be silly.

(*Spoilers! Make sure you're up to date!*)

Please be advised that this entire thread will contain author's notes and most likely spoilers for the posted chapters of my story, 'From Day to Night'. Don't read these posts unless you are up to date on the story so far.

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Woo, four months since the last update. I had some difficulty writing this chapter, but the main reason it's late is because I'm a very lazy person. It turned out much longer than I originally intended. Yep, that's all I have to say at the moment.

***

I'm a bit confused why Dace was allowed to join the team. Don't get me wrong, I like his character a lot, but I can't see Selena working with him in any context, whether Cerdan said to or not. Especially considering Cyreal's presence, maybe you could clear some of that up. Also, why would Dace care to be with them?

Thanks for bringing that up, I actually wasn't sure if I had made their reasons clear enough. I'll expand on Selena and Dace's motives in the next chapter when I find the time to write it... I have a few scenes in mind that should fit this purpose nicely.

Here's a trivia note: Many of the important names, places, and events in this story were mentioned in throwaway lines back in 'Upon this Fateful Day'. Some things include guild lieutenant Tomar, Caden the Bloodletter and the Battle of Caden's Hill, Lancam's Isle prison, and several other things that have yet to make an appearance in the current story. Hooray for continuity!

Caden the Bloodletter is a critical character to the plot, and you'll learn a lot more about him after the halfway point of the story.

I've only written two stories; this is Norris' first appearance. So far, only four of the characters that appear in 'From Day to Night' are carryovers that were created in my previous story, 'Upon this Fateful Day': Selena, Cerdan, Dace, and Bryn.

Two months since the last update?! Where did all my free time go?

Since this current chapter focuses on Cerdan and the guild, I'm going to talk about the Shadow Thieves.

Something to note is that the Shadow Thief guild (as described in the actual FR campaign materials) is actually much more widespread and much more dangerous than I seem to portray them in these stories. It's organizational structure is also a bit more complex.

For one thing, there are multiple guildhouses throughout most cities along the Sword Coast (Waterdeep is a notable exception). Also, the 'guildmaster' is only the head of one local branch of the guild, so there could be multiple guildmasters operating in a city at any time. Furthermore, the guildmasters are more like middle-management in the Shadow Thief hierarchy. They answer to the Shades, the 'vice-presidents' of the guild, and they in turn answer to the big guy at the top known as the Shadowmaster.

The 'guildmaster & three lieutenants' system that appears in my stories is actually more like the Pasha guilds way down south in Calimport.

When I created Cerdan (in Upon this Fateful Day), my intention was to make him the smarmy, wise-cracking sidekick to the protagonist, Derrick. My ability to write humour isn't too hot, though, so now I'm trying to pass him off as a smarmy, arrogant character instead. Still, there's a bit of mystery when it comes to who he is deep down, so you can expect to learn a little bit about his back-story as the story progresses.

Well, darn. A year has gone by, and I'm still not quite half way through the story due to my own laziness.

Back when I was making the initial outline for this story, I had a whole list of secondary characters that each had a sort of twist or special characteristic that would come into play at some point. There was originally going to be a mage who had the ability to see and hear the dead, only it would later be revealed that HE was dead, and that none of the other characters had ever responded to him. There was also a pair of characters who were a little like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They would have been portrayed as separate characters at first, but later on the 'Hyde' character would turn out to be a hallucination, and it was really the 'Jekyll' character who was doing all bad things that he thought the 'Hyde' character was responsible for.

I ended up trashing a whole bunch of these guys since they were all just walking gimmicks, many of whom only had a single point where their 'features' would actually affect the major plot of the story. The only two characters I ended up keeping were Shen (a foreigner who doesn't speak or understand Common) and someone else who hasn't been introduced yet.

A little while ago (when I was writing the 12:00pm chapter, I think) I decided that it would be neat to change things up and do a one-hour chapter entirely from a single character's perspective. Shen was the obvious choice because of the isolation from his inability to communicate verbally. Also, he hadn't done much in the story at that point.

I wonder if anyone actually reads these long-winded comments. Peace out.

I remember you introduced an Astral Deva character... where did you leave it?

Finally reached the halfway point of the story. Thanks to all for reading.

This story is structured into three main acts. The first act was actually the entire first half of the story, and largely focused on Norris the ranger. That section introduced the main characters and plot elements, and is centred around answering the question of WHO the conspirators are.

The current act goes for about five or six chapters and focuses on a different character, for obvious reasons. As you can tell from this chapter, it focuses mostly on Selena, and tackles the questions of WHAT the conspirators' plans are, and HOW they will be carried out.

I'm probably not giving too much away when I say that Cerdan will be the focus of the last leg of the story, and the predominant question will be WHY the conspirators are doing their business on this day.

On an unrelated note, I want to mention that the 'revelations' at the end of this chapter and the previous one were not pulled out of my ** at the last minute. I had all the major events of the story planned out long before I even wrote the first word, since I'm the sort of person who prefers to meticulously keep everything set up in the blueprints beforehand.

On the other hand, there have been a few times where, on a whim, I'll throw a monkey wrench into the story and just see where it goes from there. The golden insects, Villet, and Charell are a few examples. Okay, enough pretentious babbling for now.

First off, let me address something: Sabaal, what did I already say about putting spoilers in the reviews page? Blargh! :(

Now, regarding Norris' fate; I really don't think I should have to explain anything beyond what was already said in the story. But if you REALLY want an author's comment, fine. Norris' part of the story was essentially over. He pretty much finished what he set out to do earlier; face off against Cordas and stop living in the past.

He died because they're on a dangerous quest. You can't expect that everyone is going to make it through unscathed. Consider how many villains have been killed so far... you can't just assume that the characters are safe from being offed at some point solely for being protagonists.

This chapter doesn't really have a specific topic that needs discussion, so instead I'll talk about a broader topic. I'm not sure if this is really coming through in my characters, but I've been trying to give them each a specific talent or strength that they bring to the quest table in the story.

In 'Fateful Day', I originally envisioned Cerdan as a jack of all trades who could do everything - I think I included one line that said he had a ton of combat experience. Now technically, that fact is true based on who he was and what he supposedly did several decades ago, but I've since tried to write him closer to a traditional thief (good at stealth and picking locks, but crumples in a fight). A leader in war doesn't have to be able to kill a thousand men by himself, that's what the army is for. I'll elaborate a bit more on his part during the war as the story unfolds.

Dace is there to hurt and kill people. That's pretty much his first choice in most situations. On the other hand, he's not a tank or an expert warrior (unlike Shen, for example). In fact, if you go back and read all the fights that he's been involved in, you'll notice that he almost never wins through pure combat skill; he always 'cheats' with some underhanded tactic or uses his surroundings to beat an opponent. Someone once mentioned that Dace came off as an arrogant character. That's true, but it could also be said that he's just very, very aware of how far he can push his abilities. When I finish 'From Day to Night', I'm probably going to write a shorter story about Dace to detail his origins and what makes him tick.

Then there's Selena... personally, I find that she's the most difficult person to write, and I get the feeling that she's rather wooden as a character. Tell me what you think. Anyway, she's essentially the exact opposite to Dace; unbridled violence is against her nature as a healer, and her way is to follow an organized sequence of steps to get through problems.

Ok, so those are the three main characters at this point. You can expect a fourth to show up in the next chapter, as things start to get complicated on board the Ever Dauntless...

Also, let me reiterate that I have every intention of finishing this story. I'm not the sort of person who leaves things unfinished forever (even if it IS slow-going).

(Here there be spoilers! Make sure you're up to date! Why aren't you up to date?!)

Another bit of continuity: the Sword Coast's naval alliance between Waterdeep, Amn, Tethyr, and Baldur's Gate is something that was established by Chancellor Thinder and approved by the three ambassadors at the end of 'Upon this Fateful Day'. The Ever Dauntless is the first ship to sail under the unified banner, but with the way things are going thus far, who knows if the alliance will survive?

And now, an updated cast of characters:

Insurgents

Lord Pryus, Conspirator

Duke Ryloch, Conspirator

Cyrael, Conspirator

Sintag, Henchman

Opposition

Selena Shademoor, Priestess of Tyr

Cerdan Engeven, Guildmaster

Dace, Mercenary

Church of Tyr

Galin Saudere, High Prelate

Charell, Cleric

Villet, Acolyte

Aboard the Ever Dauntless

Callen Masque, Captain

Tarin Pitt, First Mate

Nell Morgan, Passenger

Gorven, Passenger

Gartok, Orc Prisoner

I'm still alive. My goal is to finish writing this story before the end of June 2007 (the two year mark, yikes!), so I'll need to either start writing much faster, or suffer the utter shame and indignity of failure.

Questions, questions? Answers, answers?

Six chapters remaining in the final stretch. Weeeee.

Next hour: All paths collide! An alliance shatters! A plan ends in ruin! And one enemy gets exactly what she desires.

Chapter: "Faith in Monsters" (12:00 AM)

Inconceivable! A year and a half without an update?

What a hack!

I uploaded the epilogue today, finally finishing the story.

In case anyone is wondering, the bit at the very end of the story (Talana) is not going to lead in to a future story. For a while I wasn't even sure if I was going to include that section, but I ended up leaving it there just in case anyone wanted a hint as to what happened to Cerdan & Selena long after the end of From Day to Night.

There are quite a few dangling threads left, but none of them are critical to (or detract from) the conclusion of From Day to Night. They will probably be picked up in one of the stand-alone stories I intend to write next.

Thanks for reading.

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