Dark Jack said
There, I posted what will hopefully be the start of an encounter with Ixion and, if he feels motivated to appear, Morgan

I'll get right on that. :3

**Edit**
Alrighty, post is up! I assumed some things, so if I need to change anything, let me know!

Hey guys, I'm still alive yo. I've been neglectful as I often am; sorry! For my next post, I'm gonna shoot for getting it up before the weekend. If we're in luck, I might just be able to nail it.

Sounds good, Ashgan.

And Shien, about the collab... I've been trying to work out my next post on the Jaelnec/Olan-side of things but somehow haven't been able to wrap my head around what exactly is going to be the outcome of Aemoten's encounter with the yth. What kind of attack-pattern is he actually using against it? (Stabbing, swinging horizontally/vertically/diagonally from which direction to which, and in which sequence are these moves deployed?)

EDIT: A quick bit of raging here for no other reason than the fact that I just realized that avatars have been enabled, and I can't find my old one... Tried making a new one and it's too big.
Annoying.

EDIT 2: That'll work for now.

Ehh... How to most precisely describe what he is doing? He is definitely swinging the sword, and not stabbing; I pictured the yth being in front of and to the left of him,and the first strike being with the blade vertical-diagonal (base more to Aemoten's right than tip) by the time it would reach the Yth from the front - possibly slightly adjusted if the yth is actively trying to dodge, which it shouldn't be able to successfully do unless it got both of its stuck hands free during the half-second between pacifying Olan's halberd and Aemoten stepping forth. The next moves would admittedly depend a bit more on how alive the yth is after the first strike...

And yep, avatars were enabled at some point last night ... although when I noticed it then it only allowed you to upload one, and didn't actually bother to display it on the forums. I couldn't find my old avatar, either - so here is a new badly-drawn digital 10-minute sketch of a firebird! Drawing with only a mouse available is entertaining, and that tool I used for the fire blurs a bit too much for the fire to look like fire ... I could probably either fix it or draw a proper one which is not just meant to replace the rule of unicorns with something familiar to other people, but seeing how I never got to swapping out the one I had been using just because people commented on my lack of an avatar in a chatbox and so I quickly came up with one during a five-minute silence... Attila went facedesk and said it was quite not what he meant when he said that I should get myself one.
(For some reason that eye-picture as always made me inclined to stop and stare back at it for a second. Not precisely sure why.)

(Pity you don't wish to reveal what you have been writing ... would have been interesting to compare to your usual writing, at the very least (I could distinguish at least your WoTM entries with ease ... writers' "handwriting" is a thing). And no, I admittedly do not know what the point of pseudonyms is aside of lessening the chance of random people you don't know deciding to track you down. (People being too ashamed of what they write to let it be associated with them?) ...Granted, one of the reasons I originally took the alias of Shienvien *was* to disassociate the expectations strangers - strangers being the key-word here - who were familiar with my usual writings from myself, but... But in the end, people very quickly got to expecting things from Shienvien, too. [Given how you have been in a few roleplays where I have very decidedly and intentionally been writing in a strange or nigh-unreadable manner - Arechiarnaw especially might or might not come across as a familiar name - I cannot quite claim you have been left untouched by my own various experimentations. And in all honesty, I stopped caring that people know that I occasionally write odd things a very long time ago.])

---

*pokes at Merc* Post?

The thing is that particular yth Aemoten attacked is an unusual one in that its behavior is different from that of most of its kind... and it's definitely not a creature that would accept death easily. So the first attack is mostly vertical... Now, I don't recall whether Aemoten actually pushed the guards and Olan aside to get close to the yth (he probably did) since otherwise the yth would still be able to slide backwards far enough to entirely avoid the attack... But even presuming that Aemoten is too close for that to be possible the yth would still relinquish its grip on Olan's halberd, draw its two free left arms in close to its body and throw itself as far to the right as it could, mostly saving its torso but sacrificing the stuck middle left arm.

That's drawn in ten minutes with only the mouse? Impressive... although I've stared at it for a few minutes now, and I can't seem to spot the bird in the fire. Or maybe... Ah, I now I see it. It's just bigger than I thought it would be. Anyway, it serves the purpose of making it easier to identify you at a glance just fine.
Interesting, albeit perhaps somewhat obvious, fact about my new avatar: that's a picture of my actual left eye. I haven't edited it at all aside from messing around with the contrast and saturation and turning it into a negative (though not in that order). The little black dots are a little annoying, but I decided to leave them alone simply for the sake of being able to truthfully state that it's unedited aside from that.

Aemoten pushed past Olan and the guards, yes, by drawing against the wall and then stepping in front of them. And well, the attack is vertical-diagonal ... which should make it much harder for the yth to draw enough to the right, seeing how the sword's tip would have been slightly right of it to begin with (and it would be effectively incapable of drawing farther to the right than its arm's length allows). Basically imagine the sword being at some 25-degree angle at the lowest point from being completely vertical, and since the yth is left of Aemoten, not right in front of him, the sword would end up nearing the yth not directly, but from the left side and aimed across the centre. (Oeh... Trying to describe where not-one-dimensional things are in three-dimensional space as they move in time.) Does it change anything?

Edit: How great is an yth's armspan compared to its body, exactly? It isn't greater than their body length, or is it? It might be that I have been imagining them having somewhat relatively shorter armspans than they do have - at most 3 feet with this not-yet-full-size yth, not that much and barely the length of, for instance Aemoten's sword's blade and under the length of it's tip's trajectory - and therefore pictured it more locked in place in comparison to other things going on amongst other things...

Shienvien said *pokes at Merc* Post?

I'll work on a post once the weekend starts as I'll have more free time (tomorrow after my project labs at the earliest).

M3

Shienvien said How great is an yth's armspan compared to its body, exactly? It isn't greater than their body length, or is it? It might be that I have been imagining them having somewhat relatively shorter armspans than they do have - at most 3 feet with this not-yet-full-size yth, not that much and barely the length of, for instance Aemoten's sword's blade and under the length of it's tip's trajectory - and therefore pictured it more locked in place in comparison to other things going on amongst other things...

Okay, here we go... The length of the arm of a fully grown yth is approximately three feet, as you presume, and would be less than that - probably closer to two and a half feet - with these adolescent specimens. Combined with the width of an yth's body - ten inches when fully grown, more like eight inches with adolescents - this brings the armspan of such an adolescent yth up to seventy-four inches, or 187.96 cm. Comparatively a representative measure of shoulder-width for an adult male human could be around 22.83 inches, or 58 cm. The yth is anchored in the center of the two outermost guardsmen's chests, meaning that only half the width of either guardsman is actually a factor. Presuming that the three guards lie shoulder-to-shoulder beside each other (the rightmost guard actually has his shoulder underneath the middle guard's shoulder - not a detail I mentioned, but one that existed in my head) this would result in a distance between the two anchored hands that was 58 cm (the middle guard) plus two times 29 cm (the two outmost guards) resulting in a distance of 116 cm or 45.67 inches. By my calculations that means the yth will have the freedom to move itself 22.84 inches or 71.96 cm between having the arm of either side stretched out all the way. Even presuming that the yth was positioned at the middle of its field of mobility at the time - which it sort of was - this would still allow it to move 11.42 inches to either side, which is three inches more than the width of its "torso"...
It would really depend on exactly how Aemoten aimed his strike, but by my estimations the yth should get away with losing the middle-left arm, sustaining severe wounds to the other two left arms, likely mostly in the shoulder-region, and some superficial injuries to its main body, but nothing fatal.

I didn't assume an yth's arm would be three feet long - I assumed its armspan, the entire distance from the claw-tips of a right hand to the claw-tips of a left hand while the measured pair of arms is spread as wide as it can go, to be three feet... So yeah, I was picturing a much more short-armed - and by extension, only half as mobile - yth.
- An adult yth would have an armspan of ~208 cm, whilst only having the body length of ~152 cm? Interesting proportions for a non-flying creature of this size, and ones that would probably make moving around and balancing somewhat harder. Their arms are positioned attached quite close to one another on the body, right? ...And now I feel somewhat tempted to try sketching an yth, if you don't mind?

Neverteless, moving on... I don't see how Aemoten could have done much better with all the obstacles around, beginning from not hitting any of the guards to the wall on his right and the other people behind him to Olan's halberd, held by the yth, being somewhere in the way. (How did the rightmost guard end up partially under the middle guard when the middle guard fell first? Wouldn't it be the other way around?)
...So we have an yth which is still stuck by one of its right arms, with maybe three quarters of an inch deep and four inches long cut on somewhere on its hind body from Aemoten's first swing at it while it was in air, with shallow cuts on the underside of its upper right arm and top of its middle right arm from Olan's halberd with its middle left arm missing, its two other left arms with flesh sliced off on the outer side near the shoulders, and a shallower long gash somewhere further down the side of its body?
Nothing immediately fatal, yes... Although I've got a feeling that the yth would be losing very large amounts of blood with all those injuries, the missing arm especially - with a relatively large creature such as the yth, a proportionally long limb like that usually has quite significant blood-pressure behind it, amongst other things. (Not to mention blood-vessels of smaller diameter are easier for the body to seal even with the same blood pressure. Earthen creatures who can easily survive losing limbs are small mostly for the aforementioned reasons.)

Is it safe to assume the yth would retreat farther from Aemoten and try to remain facing him rather than try to attack immediately? (Meaning it would move over the guard to its right that it is still stuck to and retreat onto the floor, with the people who were in front of it (remaining halberdiers, Olan) being farther to the right in front of it, Jaelnec being somewhere to the left next to it, the stairs being to the left in front of it, Aemoten being in front of it, some tables and chairs being behind it?
In that case, Aemoten would draw his sword to a low defensive position (so he can block if the creature decides to throw itself at him) and close in again, delivering a much less restricted, essentially a low-horizontal half-circle swing (base of blade higher than tip).

Shienvien said I didn't assume an yth's arm would be three feet long - I assumed its armspan, the entire distance from the claw-tips of a right hand to the claw-tips of a left hand while the measured pair of arms is spread as wide as it can go, to be three feet... So yeah, I was picturing a much more short-armed - and by extension, only half as mobile - yth.
- An adult yth would have an armspan of ~208 cm, whilst only having the body length of ~152 cm? Interesting proportions for a non-flying creature of this size, and ones that would probably make moving around and balancing somewhat harder. Their arms are positioned attached quite close to one another on the body, right? ...And now I feel somewhat tempted to try sketching an yth, if you don't mind?

Ah, that explains it. That's good, then. And yths do have very long arms compared to the length of their body, which is why they tend to use their arms to skitter like lizards or insects when there is room for it, and slither like snakes in confined spaces. This also makes their front-body much heavier than their hind-body, obviously, so when standing up they would usually support themselves with their bottom pair of arms simply to keep them from falling over. It's worth noting that they originally came from a significantly different environment than Rodoria, and are cave-dwellers in the wilderness...
I don't mind if you want to sketch an yth, really. In fact it would be interesting to see how you'd depict one.

Shienvien said Neverteless, moving on... I don't see how Aemoten could have done much better with all the obstacles around, beginning from not hitting any of the guards to the wall on his right and the other people behind him to Olan's halberd, held by the yth, being somewhere in the way. (How did the rightmost guard end up partially under the middle guard when the middle guard fell first? Wouldn't it be the other way around?)
...So we have an yth which is still stuck by one of its right arms, with maybe three quarters of an inch deep and four inches long cut on somewhere on its hind body from Aemoten's first swing at it while it was in air, with shallow cuts on the underside of its upper right arm and top of its middle right arm from Olan's halberd with its middle left arm missing, its two other left arms with flesh sliced off on the outer side near the shoulders, and a shallower long gash somewhere further down the side of its body?
Nothing immediately fatal, yes... Although I've got a feeling that the yth would be losing very large amounts of blood with all those injuries, the missing arm especially - with a relatively large creature such as the yth, a proportionally long limb like that usually has quite significant blood-pressure behind it, amongst other things. (Not to mention blood-vessels of smaller diameter are easier for the body to seal even with the same blood pressure. Earthen creatures who can easily survive losing limbs are small mostly for the aforementioned reasons.)

You are correct once again; an ordinary yth would never even have considered sacrificing an arm like that, so it's definitely not typical behavior for their kind, but this one would, despite the fact that it would almost certainly result in its death from blood-loss in a rather short amount of time. Basically this particular yth is willing to do so due to its ability to distinguish between "will die" and "might die". Having sustained a blow to its main body would have killed it with certainty, whereas sacrificing its arm is very likely to kill it, but not beyond doubt. It's a strange one... I'm quite surprised at it myself. Heh.

Shienvien said Is it safe to assume the yth would retreat farther from Aemoten and try to remain facing him rather than try to attack immediately? (Meaning it would move over the guard to its right that it is still stuck to and retreat onto the floor, with the people who were in front of it (remaining halberdiers, Olan) being farther to the right in front of it, Jaelnec being somewhere to the left next to it, the stairs being to the left in front of it, Aemoten being in front of it, some tables and chairs being behind it?
In that case, Aemoten would draw his sword to a low defensive position (so he can block if the creature decides to throw itself at him) and close in again, delivering a much less restricted, essentially a low-horizontal half-circle swing (base of blade higher than tip).

Hmm, not entirely correct. The yth would indeed try to retreat from Aemoten (his sword is dangerous, after all, and has a dreadfully wide range of deadliness), but rather than move over the guard and try to flee up onto the floor it would remain on the stairs, lying next to the guard it is stuck to so close that they are touching, and try to use its arms and tail to lift the guard's torso, using the man as a shield, and then cause him to tumble back down the stairs with the yth still attached to it. ("Will die" and "might die".)

Rather than walking with their body lifted off the ground like insects and for the most part lizards do, yths' proportions make me think of them using their arms to simply pull their body forward over the ground. Throw arms of one side forward, claws pressing into surface, pull body forward across the ground with those arms, throw arms of the other side forward, pull the body forwards, repeat. They could move quite quickly like that, too, I imagine.

It would rather risk facing ... whatever's down there than hope to get loose before Aemoten can hit it again (I figure the room would otherwise look like a decent lot of hiding places with all the beds and tables and relative darkness)? Okay, so it draws to the right and then immediately starts backing towards the stairs and dragging the guard with it... In which case, Aemoten would still continue closing in, but instead of swinging at it, would actually try to stab/ram into it over the guard's shoulder (sharp edge of sword turned upwards, blunt towards the shoulder of the guard), try to cut off the second stuck arm off too if it seems the guard might fall down the stairs along with it (it should be easy enough to reach the arm seeing where it is anchored, and get the blade under it ... the weight of the guard/yth would actually help to sever it, while the yth would have harder time reaching up because it would be essentially hanging by that point).

Hmm... Might refine my post a bit after the detailing is done.

They don't lift themselves off the ground with their arms when they "skitter" - at most they would elevate their frontmost body a little, but they would generally only do so if the surface they were on was somehow unpleasant to touch - but their claws are utilized when they move, as suggested. But yeah, you get the idea...

Aemoten would target its other anchored arm? Poor creature... at that point it would probably lose its grip on the guard, who would just fall back onto the floor, whereas the effort the yth put into trying to pull the guard down would propel it backwards and down the stairs. By then it would be extremely weak and incapable of catching itself, so it would let its body go limp as it fell, bleeding profusely all the way down but remaining silent (yths rarely make noise normally)... and that would really be all. It'd be too weak to move much after that, let alone try to escape or fight, so it's pretty much out of the picture.

Poor creature indeed... We find one yth who, for whatever reason, is far more intelligent than its brethren, and then we simply brutally kill it off... Granted, said yth had just severely injured three men, two of them most likely fatally, but regardless.

I'll touch up Aemoten's last collab-post a bit (edit: done) and then write something up for Koraakan (edit2: and done - somewhat haphazard post, so let me know if any edits are necessary).

Ugh, I'm very sorry about my recent inactivity, guys, but some serious shit has hit the fan in real life here, and it's really hard to find the time and energy to put together a post. I'll still post, though, don't worry, but it might take somewhat longer than usual... this time, for instance, I've only posted as the woman despite me also wanting to post as Gerald, because I finished one but not the other. I'll post as Gerald when I can, and then I'll get to work on a post as Jaelnec, then as Rilon... but I can't really estimate when they'll be done. So yeah... sorry.

EDIT: Okay, I have to face that I won't get to finish the post as Gerald today, so that will have to wait until tomorrow... In the meantime I think I'll share a little something that I started working on just after the old RPGuild went down; a compilation in progress of spells of the Planes. I call it the Book of Spells.

Arcane spells:
Acidic Lunge: Thoph menrirl kohrx vanedth maaez grumert, cowath thoujm vanedth dregoth, harteor setogar jhoon. "Extract air [and] change [it to] liquid water [and] earth, [with the] power [of] destruction [of] liquid fire, [and] release [it] projected [from] myself." Forms a glob of extremely potent acid in front of the caster, which hurls itself in whatever direction the caster desires to rapidly corrode anything it touches. Alternate versions: Air-affinity (Corrosive Fog): When striking a target the glob will, instead of splattering, disperse into green fog that spreads over a progressively growing area, continuously corroding anything within it with exponentially decreasing efficiency until it disperses altogether. Water-affinity (Acid Fist): The glob of acid is launched with far greater force and velocity than usual, and is capable of knocking a grown man off his feet in addition to its corrosive properties. Earth-affinity (Greater Acidic Lunge): Improves upon the normal version by greatly increasing the corrosive properties of the spell. Fire-affinity (Burning Glob): In addition to its usual properties, the acid made by the spell also manifests as heated almost to the point of vaporizing, and will both corrode and burn anything it hits for increased destructive properties.
Bonds of the Land: Thoph smaiwe gohn grumert sonedth, tuagar eren meethal caihl menrirl, lemesatheli dweneth lemesatheli, dweneth sonedth meethal xarthliir caihl menrirl, kohrx harteor dweneth, lemesatheli brega, jhoon cowath. "Summon [the] hardness of stone, small [and] flat spheres [with] holes [of] air, copy [and] lock [these together and] copy [again], lock [together] strongly [with a] cylinder penetrated [by] air, alternately open [or] locked, copy all, [put it in] my power." High-difficulty spell that forms shackles of the minerals of the soil, with the bindings, once closed, being unlocked by the caster's will alone. Alternate versions: Earth- or stone-affinity (No name): creates bulkier, even stronger shackles. Air-affinity (No name): Shackles are lighter and frailer, but can be remotely moved by the caster's will.
Boom: Dweneth baadas meethal menrirl, harteor jhoon cowath thagir. "Hold sound [in a] sphere [of] wind, unleash [it by] my [will as a] powerful explosion." Causes a deafening burst of sound to emit from the caster. Alternate versions: Sound-affinity (Dread Pandemonium): Causes a sound even louder than the normal version, capable of bursting most eardrums and causing unconsciousness within several feet of the caster. Air-affinity (Cry of Dismissal): Adds a shockwave to the burst of sound, knocking down those near the caster in addition to deafening and dazing them.
Electric Surge: Thagir dhnirhilk atonakuv, setogar jhoon. "Spread out/cause explosion [of] chaotic lightning, projected [from] myself." A low-difficulty spell that causes the caster's body to briefly wrap in electricity, which then immediately leaps outward in all directions and electrocutes anything and anyone within range. Alternate versions: Lightning-affinity (No name): Results in a significantly more deadly Electrical Surge, with a much larger area of effect. Chaos-affinity (Lightning Vortex): The spell manifests not as lightning spreading out from the caster, but as a number of arcing bolts of lightning that are projected continuously for several seconds, whipping from side to side and up and down, electrocuting whatever they touch. Has longer range and higher destructive power than the original, but is less reliable as not all targets might be near the randomly appearing arcs of lightning.
Emberstorm: Lemesatheli lemesatheli tuagar dregoth, raithla faihgn menrirl gnaihf jhoon. "Copy [and] copy [over] shrunken flame, not moved [by] wind [and] instead [by] me." Summons a multitude of tiny specks of fire from the center of the caster's palms, which will move as directed by the caster's will independently of ambient wind. Each bit of flame has limited destructive potential and are relatively harmless, although they have been known to ignite flammable materials they come into direct contact with. Alternate versions: Fire-affinity (Firestorm): Causes the flames created by the spell to radiate significantly more heat than the original version, allowing ignition of materials to occur faster and lending the spell greater destructive power. Air-affinity (No name): Causes the air within the Emberstorm to move with the magic, making the movement of the flames also create gusts of wind dependent on its movement speed.
Fireball: Purthev cowath thagir meethal dregoth. "Summon [a] powerful explosive ball [of] fire." Very popular low-difficulty energy-expensive spell that summons a single large orb of self-contained flame, which is launched in a given direction at the caster's command. Upon impact with any physical obstruction it will detonate into an explosion of considerable force and heat. Alternate versions: Fire-affinity (Greater Fireball): The fireball burns even more intensely than usual, and upon exploding will unleash a scorching inferno to burn adjacent targets even more than the original version would have.
Flaming Volley: Purthev tuagar meethal dregoth harteor dregoth thagir, lemesatheli raithla lemesatheli, cowath gohn shnail jhoon. "Summon small balls [of] fire [that] unleash fiery explosions, copy [in] another place [and] copy [more], [its] power belongs [to its] master [who is] me." Creates a number of small fireballs in front of the caster, which will hold stationary in relation to the caster until commanded to move, at which time they will shoot forward and upwards to rain down on the area of effect, causing fiery explosions where they hit. Alternate versions: Fire-affinity (Greater Flaming Volley): The fireballs created by the spell burn more hotly and brightly, and upon impact create much more devastating explosions capable of charring flesh in an instant.
Gravitational Defiance: Dweneth jhoon raithla peigein grumert, tuagar jhoon sonedth brega menrirl. "Seal my movement towards [the] ground, diminish my solidity [and make me] one with [the] wind." Causes the gravitational acceleration of the caster to decrease greatly and usually sets their terminal velocity to a non-lethal speed to allow long falls to be endured without sustaining injury or death.
Spark Javelin: Setogar atonakuv jhoon, dweneth cowath tywrui thoulg, raithla gohn peignein. "Project lightning [from] myself, constraining [its] power [in a] elongated [and] sharp [shape], moving [to] its destination." Creates an electrical charge in the caster's hand, to be launched in any desired direction. Upon launch it will assume the appearance of a short spear made of lightning, which will travel unwaveringly forward, potentially passing through and electrocuting numerous targets before its energy is depleted. Alternate versions: Lightning-affinity (Lightning Spear): Creates a bigger, even more powerful electrical projectile that can char flesh at contact and travel further than the original spell.
Spectral Projection: Thoph setogar gohn jhoon, caihl brijhal caihl gothor, peigein brega. "Summon [the] projection owned [by] me, [which] pierces light [and] pierces shadow, [and let that] place [and this] become one." Projects the caster's senses to another location, allowing one to see and hear what occurs elsewhere without being physically present. Alternate versions: Shadow-affinity (Shadow Image): Instead of creating an invisible projection of the caster's senses, this spell forms a ghostly black silhouette of the caster at the location and allows it to not only sense through this, but also speak through and invoke magic through it. Light-affinity (Blinding Visage): Like Shadow Image, this causes the appearance of a visible form at the destination of the spell, only now the spell will manifest as a brightly glowing phantom, through which the caster can sense and speak, but not invoke magic.

Black spells:
Shared Fate: Biehl bethaath qyth gaath veehn voohl. "Bind [together] lives [and] fates, [let] death [call for] powerful retribution." Magically joins the fates of the caster and the target, ensuring that if either of them dies while the spell is in effect, so will the other.

Granted, I've got too little information on what exactly happened or is happening over there to as much as know what to wish for, but I certainly hope things will get better. I am quite certain none us will mind the slower pace for a while (I would be one of the people who'd be a hypocrite if I ever did so), though it's always good to get a heads up just for the sake of not having to wonder what is going on...

On another note, I've got a bit of problem wrapping my mind around how yth heads are supposed to work with the size of their bodies. Their original description says they have seven-inch-long fangs and that their jaws are large enough to easily fit a man's head between them... The latter alone means that their heads would minimally be almost foot long (fifth of body length), and for them to be able to actually bite something with fangs that long, they'd need even bigger heads... And according to the dimensions given they are relatively short and stocky - hard to picture slithering - to begin with.

(For comparison, one of the snakes I occasionally see in my yard is about five feet long and doesn't breach two inches thick at the widest point.)

I quite enjoyed reading those spells, thanks for sharing Jack. Still kind of debating whether or not I'm going to revamp I'on's CS or not. It's just so long....

Regardless, I think I'm going to wipe his spells since I read that. He'll still have them, but they will not be listed until they have been used. I'll probably keep a document labeled "I'onriyi's spellbook" on my computer or something. Could be a fun undertaking :)

Huh? Yth heads? Let me look up their description...
Hmm, I think I know where that went wrong. In regards to the size of an yth's head, what I meant to say when I wrote it was that they were able to fit a man's head through their maw - that is, the head from top down would fit through their mouth and feed straight into their throat without the need to carve it into pieces first - not that a man's entire head could be in their mouth at the same time. The mouth is big enough to fit the (what to call the dimensions of a human head...) width and length (?) of a human head between its jaws, but not its height (???). Meh, you know what I mean. The head will still be big, but not that big. I don't know what I was thinking with the fangs, though... might have confused inches with centimeters or something right at that moment, because seven inches sounds like a lot. It'd be more like three or four inches, I think.
Concerning their stockiness aside from the size of their heads, the point I described as being the thickest, at ten inches, is their "chest" area (where the arms are connected), which is relatively compact, actually... The tail would be significantly thinner (immediately beneath the "torso" it would slim down to six or seven inches, and then continue to slim towards the point from there) and its throat (unexpanded - their proportions expand when swallowing large objects, obviously) would be around eight inches thick.
...I think.

Hmm... Average adult human typically has a skull 16-18 cm wide, with a depth (distance from forehead to the back of head) of 20-22 cm. (6.3''-7'' and 7.9''-8.7'' respectively.) Skin, hair, et cetera would only add to the measurements... In other words, human skulls are pretty big things, and their jaws would have to be capable of opening up pretty wide to accommodate. And swallowing (I actually didn't go that far, I just pictured them taking half a head between their jaws) would be an entire different matter, especially since it has been stressed that they cannot expand their jawbones like snakes do... Neck-wise it would be okay, it's only jawbones that are questionable.
As for the yth width matter (aside of head) - I understood that the ten inches was at their widest. My statement was mostly derived from the fact they appear to be have fairly large heads, followed by three or four inches until the arms, which have been stated to be as thick and strong as average human arms (my own upper arms are maybe three and a half inches thick, so let's go with that for simplicity) begin... Well, there is not too much yth left after the arms. From the back of head to the underside of the last pair of arms would be over a foot. You'd also have to take account of the fact that the long arms make their upper bodies very massive, and accordingly, the hind body must be quite powerful to be of any use while moving or rearing up... (Edit: Okay, I tried to outline something based solely on the dimensions... There is clearly not enough yth left for a proper hind body. Edit2: Also made a basic sketch of one completely disregarding the given dimensions and simply relying on basic descriptive guidelines. Will clean it up and upload it later.)

...I have a vague recollection of wanting to say something more before I went to sleep, but it doesn't come to me at the moment.

Hey guys, just a head's up that I won't be able to post over the weekend as I'm visiting my girlfriend over in the Netherlands for her birthday. I will get a post up as soon as I get back. Have a good weekend all!

M3

Have a good time, M3! :3