View source for User talk:MarianLH/Where Tree Fails Chapter One

== Story Notes ==

*This story is set in the world of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' game, specifically in the World of Greyhawk setting. I'm basing the "rules" of the world on the 3.5 edition of the game, hence some of the retcons, like elves having night vision instead of infravision.
*The dungeon in Chapter One is from an actual published D&D adventure module (props to whoever can identify it first). All of the details are taken from the text, except that I moved the rack next to the skeleton. The wizard who built the place was known for his magical experiments, and dimensional travel via magic is hardly unknown in the D&D multiverse, so it seemed like a convenient way to get Mel into that world. My basic idea is that he built the book as a sort of instant ticket home while dimension-hopping—rather like a hearthstone in WoW—and then lost it on Earth. Mel was transformed in order to "acclimatize" her, because she's not a native of that world; the book chose a native form that made for a reasonably close analogue of what she had imagined.
*The elven language is based on a couple of Dragon Magazine articles: "An Elven Lexicon" (''Dragon'' #279) and "By Any Other Name: Elves" (''Dragon'' #251). But they're pretty limited, so I'm stretching the hell out of them. I've managed to avoid making up too many new words so far, but verb conjugations are another matter. The letter "c" is always hard (k), not soft (s). Unlike English, "e" is never silent—I've stuck accent marks on some of them as a reminder.
*Because I haven't given Mel any magical translator microbes, there's also a bit of Aerdish (AKA the Common tongue) here and there. If you're one of those people that hate "made-up fantasy words", don't worry, Mel will start learning Common in Chapter Two. 
*One more note on languages: ''hannon le'' is Sindarin (Tolkien elvish) for "thank you." From what I've read, the consensus of most Tolkien linguists seems to be that it should actually be ''le hannon'', but Mel is remembering it ftom the Peter Jackson movies, where they got it backward.
*I did some googling on starvation in order to try to depict it realistically, but there's surprisingly little information available. As one of the sites I checked noted, it's somewhat difficult to ethically do studies on the subject. So my portrayal may not be the most accurate. I did my best.
*The violet eyes are not—repeat, NOT—an allusion to a certain gary-stuish drow ranger. This is Greyhawk, not the Forgotten Realms. ^_^  Mel's eye color is a reference to something, though. I hadn't planned on it, originally, but then it occurred to me that I could use it to bring a certain kingdom's political shenanigans into the story.
*I haven't forgotten that D&D elves don't sleep. The Reverie has already been hinted at, here and there, and will be dealt with in more detail in Chapter Two.