Author’s Note: The Knave of Nodderton, Episode 2

On Tuesday September 27, 2022, I posted the second episode of The Knave of Nodderton, “The Memory Box”.

Unlike Wattpad, there’s no real way to get useful stats and demographics out of readers on Vella, but the current readership for the story is modest. Probably six views rather than eight; two of ‘em are me :). That’s one of the reasons why I prefer Wattpad as a publishing platform. The stats are far more generous as an author.

Under Vella’s rules, the first three episodes are free. You don’t start earning tokens until the fourth episode. I also don’t think you show up in the scroll for “Recently Added Stories” until the 4th episode is posted.

This episode is an introduction to Gammond and where he’s been since leaving the Aevalorn Parishes in Piskie Sticks. I re-introduce the everlasting bread basket and butter crock, he makes a little money, and he acquires a magic item: a box that stores a memory and replays a memory.

I used these boxes in a recent D&D 2022 campaign and the old dwarf memory is an actual memory that I wrote out for the campaign. I truncated it in the narrative because it’s not relevant to Gammond’s story, but I wanted to convey to the reader what the box is and does. Otherwise, we’re moving Gammond down the road to a conflict that he’ll work through in the third episode.

And of course it’s a plot device :) … keep reading!

Aside from the box, I wanted to give the reader the impression of Gammond as a wanderer, and that he prefers to be on his own, unlike most halflings in the Parish. He’s an adventurous tyke to begin with, even before he gains his animated amulet Vongur - that’s later on in life - so there’s nobody for him to talk to yet, but that’ll change in the next episode.

Nodderton is a city-state that I reference in A Thyme of Trouble. The way I see it, the Free Cities of Gaelwyn compete for protectorates so they can earn taxes from these smaller hamlets like Aushenshuggle in this story, so I’ve briefly talked about “protectorates” in this work. If you looked at the map, Aushenshuggle is actually closer to the Free City of Mumling, but the way I saw it is that Mumling was separated from the hamlet by the Wych and couldn’t respond adequately to convince Lord Rendoldo of Aushenshuggle to sign-up with them. I also introduce Nodderton’s skills in building things and the Alberding Bridge over the Wych.

More’s coming up! There’s a little more action and adventure in the third episode, I promise :)

R