“Wait, do you have no money for arts and crafts, or do you have that MASSIVE PIECE OF ART we saw earlier that Bandit tried to steal a gem or two from? Ha ha, get your story straight! OWNED!”

Gondolessa was one of our characters conceived “on the fly” (har har) and both his name and original role in the story (logistical operator and unofficial acolyte for someone who’d describe himself as a “war [leader]”) were borrowed from a real-life political figure. We changed his gender at some point in his development, which would have certain implications down the road. But more than that, I immediately started writing him as a very different personality than his inspiration, thoughtful, cranky and a bit slick, someone who actually cared about changing Syr’Nj’s mind even as he led her and her party to imminent death. And it’s the fact that he was prepared to engage in intellectual debate with her that earned her respect and made her slow enough to fall into this trap.