User blog comment:Pippa's Ghost/Ideas for Agents -- Agent Hild/@comment-900674-20140504174417/@comment-24683662-20140505144549

Wow! Thanks for the encouragement and all the suggestions.

The "badfic author" who dreamed up the story would be me. She's from an unwritten story idea that's been dancing around my head for approximately ten years now. (And I'd like to hope that it wouldn't be a badfic, but at least a more-or-less-mostly-adequatefic!)

Moving on, the "muddy river" in question wasn't the Greyflood itself, but a small tributary, little more than a glorified stream, flowing into it (or at least the Hoarwell) from the Swanfleet marshes. You're right, I'll probably rewrite that paragraph when I apply for permission, and change it to be less muddy or maybe even a pool.

As for the ale, I was thinking of something like the seventeeth-century "small beer", with just enough alcohol to kill the germs, as opposed to the premium extra-strong beers that are popular nowadays. And, yes she is still drinking that because she's not used to our modern non-alcoholic drinks yet. (Of course, she does go for the premium extra-strong beer when she is drinking purely for the sake of getting drunk.)

That's a good point about the grain, but as scrumpy tends to be much stronger, I don't want to switch to that. (Not a good idea to send her on missions completely rat-arsed.) Can I just assume there was a complex trading network of other permanent and semi-nomadic Dunlending communities through which stuff like grain or beer could be acquired, and leave it at that? (Hild was a very junior member of her group and doesn't know all the details - at least that's her excuse for not telling me these things!)

Thanks also for the stuff about the languages, and the link to the page. That's impressive work. I'm sure I'll find something useful in there. Maybe Hild will have the epithet

I've not read PoME yet, though I do have it. I'm trying to work my way through HoME in order, and I'm only on The Lost Road, so I've still got a long way to go.

Thanks once again.