[Act 3 Notes]

Thanks for sticking around as Azazel continues his wild ride through the world of Shards of Arkus! This act is the longest one yet by far, something I didn't realize until it was near the end. At 39 chapters it's only one chapter longer than Act 2, more or less the length I planned. However, I realized around Zigrag's lair that the 2,000 word count that I had remembered as my old chapter minimum was closer to the maximum for especially long chapters, so instead of chapters being 1,000-2,000 words with an average around 1,300 they're now more like 2,000-3,500 words with an average around 2,200. This started when I started writing again partway through act 2, but given that around 2/3 of the act was already written the total word count act 3 is probably more than the two previous acts combined!

Act 3 was in many ways about playing catch-up and tying up loose ends. We got to a few characters (Celestina, Tlaxxana, and Zalreanne) who had been around since Act 2 but hadn't had the chance for their initial concepts to play out. We met some side characters (Annie, Cindy, Lucia, Becca, Sandy) for some fun and variety, but who most likely won't play a major role in the story. David's group has more or less fallen apart although they aren't ruled out just yet, and the relationship between the MC and Amara/Grungil has further solidified as one of friendly competition. Even the big bad of the act was set up back in Act 2. I'm curious how many people picked up on the fact that he was a lich right away: it was never really supposed to be a secret and there were tons of clues the whole time, but there was a reference way back in 'A Bony Welcome' at the end of Act 2 that very clearly screamed "this is a lich and nothing else" to anyone who recognized it.

Just like the end of Act 2 set up some of the major players and events in Act 3, I want to start Act 4 by resolving the (not so secret) mystery of who's trapped in the lich's old phylactery, and then spend the act dealing with two major things: how do the other monsters in the area feel about the fact that the MC is now important enough that they need to start caring about his existence, and what's going on with the whole adventurer soul summoning thing? I've had a lot of time to think about the world of Arkus and do some mental worldbuilding, and now's the chance to start using that explicitly rather than just implying it. Besides that, Act 3 ended with Azazel only slightly more powerful than he was at the start, mostly busy responding to events he had little control over. Act 4 will give him the chance to take back the initiative and power up some more to make up for lost time.

As usual, thanks for reading, and thank you for all of your comments and suggestions! They don't just give me motivation, but also some cool ideas to think about as the up-and-coming villain makes a name for himself in Arkus!