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12pt-times-new-roman · 4 months

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c3e81

As a reminder, because I sort of missed it in my last post: Fearne absorbing and re-activating the shard also awakened Ashton's shard, and they were both transformed.

"What if every so often an ancient stone titan surfaces on Ashton's face and he goes, 'oh, the ancient times!'" boy that is RICH coming from Laudna--

On the bright side, now that the shard has been absorbed, Delilah's want for it has subsided.

Chetney talks about his family. He doesn't blame them for leaving, not at all — they were fleeing a red dragon — but he's considering making a deal with Nana Morri for his youth.

Outside, Ashton and Fearne are figuring out their new powers. While in their transformed state, Ashton can glide through unworked/loose earth or stone freely, and it sounds like their speed is increased. They can use this to run up sheer cliff-faces, and by submerging themself only halfway in the stone they can carry people up with them like an elevator. Their pain is gone in this state, and when it returns, it feels welcome.

For Fearne, while in her transformed state she's immune to fire damage, a creature that hits her takes 1d8 fire damage, and her fire spells are more powerful now. She also floats about a foot off the ground, so her movement ignores difficult terrain, and when she touches the ground she leaves little black scorch marks. Even in her un-transformed state, she has a slight smoke drifting from her hair, and a little flame in her pupils.

Both Ashton and Fearne have abilities that they can unleash that will exhaust them significantly. It's unclear how long their transformed states last for and how many times they can use them per day.

Meanwhile, Chetney goes to Nana Morri to ask about a "wish."

Monsters, frost worms, opening bottles, wind, fire — whatever. I will always be impressed by the quality and variety of Matt's hinge creak sound effects.

Morri reveals that she doesn't grant wishes, she makes deals — there has to be collateral, and if people don't hold up their end of the deal, they become like the topiaries in the garden.

Chetney very, very carefully proposes a deal: he gets imbued with some of Morri's power, in exchange for the ability for her to exert more of her power over the mortal realm. (Chetney's shadow touched feat suddenly makes a lot of sense — a suspicious amount of sense, actually.) Morri changes the scenery to a dark, empty space with a single table.

"What is it that you want specifically? Tell me your dreams." "Well, I would love to never die, but that seems a little much. So — I was wondering... do people ask to return to their youth?" Both are things she's granted before, but she cuts to the root: Chetney came in here with a singular desire, greater than either of those requests. "I want to be the most famous toymaker the world has ever known." "Now that just requires a little bend of fate, doesn't it?" Morri pulls a golden thread from Chetney's chest, it stretches from dark to dark, and as she pulls on it a cold sensation courses through Chetney. "And what will you give me?" "What would you want?" "Bring me a piece of what you hunt. Bring me a piece of the God-Eater." "Let me do some simple arithmetic here — it's a deal." As it is stricken, she runs her hand over the lantern, alights her palm with white fire and clasps Chetney's hand with it — the cold touches his palm and that golden thread seems to twist and tangle a bit, then she withdraws. "Very well. Make me proud, and you'll be notorious."

(god this is going to backfire so badly — like, if Predathos is anything like the Lovecraftian horrors it's very clearly modeled after, a piece is all it needs. am I the only one thinking of a color out of space here?)

They start their long rest and have the campaign's first heroes' feast! FCG feeds the Bells Hells plus Allura, Pate, and Mister. Their HP max goes up by 13, they are immune to being poisoned and frightened, and they make all wisdom saves with advantage for the next 24 hours.

For the first time in many, many days, they set up their dream ritual. FCG brings everyone except Chetney and Fearne into Imogen's dream.

Imogen's intent with this dream is to enter the beam and travel to Ruidus, to see what happens when she does. She glides past clouds beneath the starry sky and eventually finds herself in a corkscrew, drifting — all five of them are already gliding along the Bloody Bridge, hurtling upward toward the Moon of Ill Omen. Sparks pulse through it and almost catches them up in it — they're shunted, dragged through, like a rollercoaster. Before long, they untether from the beam and start free-falling toward the dusty surface of Ruidus. There are mountain ranges, chasms, and slivers of silver carving through the landscape — before they arrive at the core of the Ruidian storms. In this lost space, there is no sense of up or down, just the storm, the wind — they're lost.

Imogen opens her mind, and for a brief moment she feels like she's tapping into a greater consciousness, minds like background radiation that flicker beyond reach; the storm clears like she's in the eye and she sees Exandria above. The ground itself is vibrating like there's a stampede, it's warm, the stones seem to shift. And she lets go.

The only thing that's kept her dangling above an abyss, Imogen allows it to snap. She tumbles into the ground and the black warmth envelops you; to the rest of them, the dark is rough, jagged, scary. They see and feel nothing except for dread, and an alien presence that washes over and through them — but Imogen feels comfort, sensations of running into Liliana's arms, Laudna's arms, memories of hugging her horses, a sense of belonging. They pass through rock, flashes of color — cavern networks that snake like a labyrinth beneath the crust of the moon. Glimpses of teal crystal and subterranean rivers, water, oceans — alien, red life that swim through it whose green eyes track them. But darkness, still. A distant voice calls — "wait, Imogen, no—" and it's gone.

Their descent stops. The rest of them drift into suffocating darkness, Imogen is gone — the shared dream spell ends.

Imogen senses a presence unlike anything she's ever experienced. It's so immense that her entire being vibrates with power, she worries as it suffuses her that she might be pulled apart — that white flash she saw, these moments where the world rent itself around her, that power pulls to rend her but she belongs here. She is home. This is the womb, and she wishes nothing more than to return to this place with her entire core — but she wakes, then. Moments later.

This is an excellent setup for this, especially because it's giving Laudna and Imogen conflicting information and motives. Laudna, FCG, Orym, and Ashton all know that this darkness is rough and lifeless and it will shred them, suffocate them — but Imogen is being supernaturally coerced into selfishness. This feels like a big red flashing sign that says "some powers are not worth embracing, sometimes giving in to power will change you irreparably and you will not like what you see in the mirror anymore" and yet they're still pushing her to embrace it against her better judgment.

I am once again begging someone to acknowledge that FCG does not, in fact, need to sleep and can keep constant watch with no detriment to themself

Their long rest passes without issue, but in the middle of the night, when he's sure no-one is watching, Orym knocks on Nana Morri's door.

"The way I understand it, from what Fearne tells me, you can help people. You make deals. Well, um... my friends are all pretty amazing, the things they can do, I can't even fit it all in my head, and I'm really good with a sword but I'm a little nervous I'm not ready for what we're about to do tomorrow. [None of you are ready.] The point is, I feel the least ready in our group, and I wanna see this through, I wanna get it done, and I wanna get them back. I wanna get Fearne back, and all of them. So... if you can somehow make me better at protecting them, or stronger, more capable at what I do, I might agree to a lot."

Morri's eyes look past Orym, beyond, and when Orym looks back he's in the same dark space, with the same white lantern on the same table. "Your passion is to protect your friends, yes?" "My friends, your granddaughter — I don't know if there's a friends and family discount, but...?" "And what do you have to offer, little Ashari?" "Well, if I see them all through and we get it done, I'll serve you." "You smell of the touch of divinity. That makes you enticing. Well, now that Fearne's all grown up and might be finding her own way, it does get a bit lonely here in the manor. Maybe it'd be nice to have a caretaker." "These have to be worded just right, Imogen said — that's if we see it through. Every one of Bells Hells makes it back and we see it through. That's an easy trade. Back alive, happy, safe, and healthy." "Well, you have to leave happy to return happy, and health is in varying states at least. Return at least as you are." "Return alive." "Very well."

Morri grants Orym the ability to call upon her when he's in need (and probably some other abilities, too) in exchange for his service to her, provided that every one of the Bells Hells returns from Ruidus alive.

They get a long rest, but Imogen falls asleep missing that sensation she experienced at the core of the moon.

I have 3 primary thoughts about Orym's deal. First is that there is a Laudna-sized hole in Orym's insistence that everyone returns alive — in fact, he specifies that against Morri's stipulation of "returns as they are," so it sounds like Orym was working in a loophole. Second, this has the potential to be a big act 3 setup centering around breaking or finding a loophole int hat deal. And third, FEY PALADIN ORYM !!!! (he doesn't have the stats to multiclass into warlock but ancients or devotion paladin?? yeah.)

In the morning, they have a meal, then head back to Exandria. It's hardly been an hour since they left. They arrive in the familiar Hellcatch Valley, where there is a strong reddish hue to the entirety of the landscape. Ruidus hangs above them, larger than they've ever seen, silent and consuming the air above them. They're miles away from the Tishtan excavation site, and as they walk towards the west encampment (where Allura's allies are), then can see numerous legions, signs of battle, skyship wreckage — there has been warfare here, skirmishes, sides testing boundaries but nothing all-in. There's an air of held breath.

As they enter, Allura is met by three authority figures: Myth-Taker Qi Mandozi, an older orcish man, of Ashanedoor; Guardian Tofur Bratoris, a silver Dragonborn woman in full plate armor, wearing the symbol of the Council of Tal'dorei; and Dawnmarshal Earthbreaker Groon, the most muscular grandpa they've ever seen, leader of Kord's temple in Vasselheim.

All of them carry a presence, but Groon has a force that carries a massive weight; he is an individual who walks with the strength of the gods. "Underestimation is a powerful thing."

Into the war-tent!

Ohohoho, Earthbreaker Groon has some kind of Ruidus-born radar — Fearne catches him staring at her and Imogen like a parent looks at a child who's done something wrong.

Also inside the war-tent are Percy and Keyleth! They explain that the reason the Bells Hells are so important in this endeavor is because they are not being watched, they are not being paid attention to — "because so few, for now, know of you."

The Ruby Vanguard is trying to divide the world. Doomsday cults are rising in response to recent events, and the Vanguard is taking advantage of them to raise support for their cause; in doing so, they are waging ideological war on the home-front in addition to waging a militaristic war around the Malleus Key.

Percy unveils one of their distraction attempts: "butcher wagons," cloaked with illusions to look like a massive assault but instead stocked with buckets of blood; the Vanguard's forces will be drawn away and the wagons will be detonated, creating the illusion of an actual battle to keep them occupied for up to 30 minutes. That's how long the Bells Hells will have to get to the key. Luckily for them, the Vanguard's most intelligent members are already on the moon.

The Bells Hells will enter from the opposite side and slip in unnoticed during the battle. Because of their sabotage of the key earlier, the dispelling field is not present, but there are a significant number of Reilorans on the ground who can sense their minds — the scrolls will help with that.

"If you are discovered, ensure there are no witnesses. Whatever that means to you — whether silencing them or taking them with you — this is war. This is about all of us. All of us." Groon speaks with the voice of Kord on that last line.

Allura advocates for redemption and rehabilitation of the members of the Vanguard, if possible, when Laudna questions what the threshold is. But again — this is war. Keyleth, without eye contact, pipes in. "Save who you can, but do what is right."

Their mission while on Ruidus is to learn what they can. Who the Reilora are and what they want, whether they have a leader who can be parlayed with, what Ludinus' intentions are and how long he needs to achieve them — anything they can get, until they feel it is too dangerous to continue.

Fearne approaches Groon and asks about the look he gave them. "These eyes do not look anywhere; I sensed you. You are Ruidus-born, both of you." The entire tent knows, now. Keyleth advocates for them in good faith, not knowing what Imogen just did the night before.

They had tried to work with Ruidus-born before, and at a certain point, they just forgot what they were doing and joined their new friends. "Well, that's not gonna happen with us." FCG, you fucking wish, buddy—

Allura advocates for them too, and Groon looks back at them. "I trust they are capable, for they know that if they turn, the storm will find them. But you are of the storm, are you not?" "I am the storm, baby." "It seems your friends have more faith in you than you have in yourself. Be prepared to rely on them, when the time comes."

"You are the tip of the spear, and we are everything to follow. We just need you to guide us." Keyleth turns to Percy. "Why does it always take a bunch of assholes to get anything done?" (Ashton, reading Percy like a book: "He likes us!")

And here we go with Laudna enabling Imogen in literally anything even when it means giving up everything. "What if it is your calling? I don't want to stand between you and what you really want—" I am going to s c r e a m

But Laudna goes and asks Keyleth about what was distracting her before: it's Vax, trapped in that orb. "We need to set him free." She also confirms that the bridge is the only connection Exandria has to Ruidus; the moon is completely shielded against divination, teleportation, and everything else. The bridge needs to stay, Vax needs to keep screaming, until their business is done.

Before they leave, FCG casts telepathic bond — y'know, that one spell that allowed the Ring of Brass to hear each others' last thoughts as the ground came up to meet them and that eventually enabled the escape of a flighted scion who carried their memories into the after-times?

Earthbreaker Groon puts a hand on Imogen's shoulder, and she sees a flash of Kord in a roiling storm, and she hears his voice, growling. "You have my eye. There is greatness in you. Do not let us down." "I won't."

something something about how Ruidus being tethered to Exandria may have opened it up to the influence of Exandria's pantheon and the one who would have the greatest influence over the surface and of Imogen's dreams would, of course, be the Storm Lord

But as the preparations end, the two fronts roll out.

Allura, Qi, and Percy accompany the wagons, while Keyleth brings the Bells Hells in close. She casts gaseous form on them all, and they begin their trek toward the Malleus Key.

From above, they can see the illusions overtake the butcher wagons: a charging wave of gargantuan armored beasts, thirty feet high and four arms each, like massive gorillas; rhinos, armored; an entire frontal assault, flanked by massive elementals with flaming rock-wings, the married imaginations of two high arcanists working in tandem.

Their bodies reform at the edge of the crater and Keyleth turns to them. "You have a few minutes to gather your thoughts; then, be on your way." The clouds above her grow thick and dark, flashes of lightning break, and the entire vicinity is as if a thunderous hurricane has touched down in the center of Marquet. Lightning strikes clear a path for them as they don Ruby Vanguard robes, but they can already see the entire perimeter guard doubling as the attention is drawn to the surface, then to the wagons.

Gaseous form lasts for 8 hours, so it could be of use to them down the road — not just now, though, because of how long it takes to transform into and out of the form.

They begin to approach, and horns sound from inside the site — the first group stealth roll of the encounter rounds to about 28-30, so I think they're in the clear for now as dozens of crawlers and Reiloran warriors collide with the illusion. Spells are being flung from inside the illusion, Percy's contraptions fire cannons and explode payloads, the illusion shapes and reacts — it's a magnificent display of arcane prowess as they crest the edge of the Tishtan site.

#critical role #note watches c3 #critical role campaign 3 #critical role spoilers #critical role c3 #critical role liveblog #long post

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unicyclehippo · 2 years

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hey ollie!! I’ve been seeing a few… mixed reviews for this last episode, and as someone that liked it, I wanted your opinion. I’ve been hearing a lot of people call this fight ‘clumsy’ and ‘railroading’ and ‘boring’, considering the only trigger to end the fight was one specific PC doing one specific thing, and making it feel like ‘imogen is the only PC that matters, regardless of her prior reluctance in giving into her powers’ (real take I saw here on tunglr dot com). I for one was expecting a TPK followed by a group-vision, so the fact that only two are dead so far is actually doing better than anticipated. thoughts? comments? concerns?

i have happily missed all of those kinds of comments & when i stumbled on one rather harsh criticism that drifted into my world i blocked that person. i don’t rly talk about stuff like this? im more of a “lurk in the shadows & throw my writing out” person. but i have seen some ice cold takes so yeah fuck it, i’ll talk abt my impression of the episode

i really really liked it

matt has a stupidly difficult job balancing encounters for SEVEN PLAYERS. i have three players at my table & i still struggle to give them a real challenge sometimes. in my opinion, he did both the set up & the encounter brilliantly.

first of all, he set up the mythology of otohan thull in the last eight episodes or so—everything the paragons call said about her in passing, the vibes of imogen’s dreams, the fact that she was somehow in the feywild, the fact that she’s working with daleth (who WE the audience know to be Very Powerful), what ashton told the party about her being a famed warrior—& made it concrete. there is a reason she’s a famed warrior, there’s a reason she’s the head of the paragons call, there’s a reason she lunged at imogen & imogen thought she died. otohan thull is a boss level character who has the ability to kill all of them. she is Supposed to be powerful, she was set up to be powerful not just to challenge the players but also narratively. it wouldn’t make sense in the context of the world & the aggressive, martial basuras if this person wasn’t stupidly scary & stupidly proficient at murder, yknow?

secondly, the encounter. a nail biter. this one made me think of - i know people have alluded to the stress of the first vecna fight but i was thinking about raishan because that one nearly made me break my teeth clenching my jaw as hard as i did. it’s a good episode to link to (because it fucks severely & keyleth is incredible) because it’s a one-against-everyone PLUS allies & it’s one of those episodes where everyone seems to drop & get back up & by the end two revivifies were used (one failed) & they had to res ritual someone after (for those of you who don’t know, when someone has been dead for longer than a minute, they have to use the resurrection spell instead of revivify & it’s a whole extended ritual & it’s amazing RP always).

if they had fought thull tomorrow, they could have won. today was already knocked by the FCG fight, imogen used a spell to try activate the feywild shard, laudna used hunger of the shadow, fearne used heat metal & she & FCG used some healing spells too. they’d already tapped into some of their spells & abilities & then again in the chaos of the attack on the call.

if they had doubled down & fought thull & had better initiatives (though the STORY it tells of thull going first, the assassin being quicker, the person who has fought wars being scrappier & quicker on the draw) they could maybe have won. matt was saying at the end that she looked “ragged-ish” & i agree with him when he points out they spent those first vital actions running away. they didn’t know when they started that she had legendary actions/reactions. they didn’t know that she could cross this battlefield in a bonus action if she wanted to.

when you think of an encounter, it’s never just about the stats—it’s about the story. especially when it comes to matt’s world, especially when it comes to these players who balance class skills with character choices. otohan thull came out alone to fight them—she’s arrogant, but not undeservedly so, as we find out. brennan lee mulligan said the scariest encounters are the ones in which you give your bad guys a goal to complete. in this encounter, the goal was imogen—to break her, change her, recruit her? dunno—&, like everything else about otohan thull, that had been Hinted at but couldn’t be confirmed until the fight.

im gonna join this with the third point

third, concerning the idea of a dream or vision: when each encounter is a fragment of story, what does it mean that the battlefield was otherwise empty? is it just otohan’s arrogance? or does it mean something that matt didn’t describe people scurrying out of the periphery of the fight, or anyone in the building imogen tried to escape from. does the sandstorm mean anything? it didn’t have a mechanical effect in this fight when it did in the previous encounter. was that just because it died down a little or does it hint toward it being a dream/vision as people have said?

personally, i think it was real & in the immediate aftermath i did say to a friend that a dream/vision would undercut the story for me. i don’t think that anymore. dreams have been such a point of visceral terror for imogen continuously through the campaign so far that i think it would be horrifying to realise that it was a dream, to have matt play around with the limits of a dream—which is SUCH a powerful thing in the fantasy genre to use dreams as exploration or invitation or corruption, to be in dreams that are on the cusp of prophecy, dreams that are a little too real—so if that’s what they end up doing i’m totally onboard. that being said, i don’t think it is. they’ve always been direct with deaths & that sort of thing & i think that it’s a very real moment that is supposed to emphasise how they are in over their heads. orym made a very nice speech about how they’re the only ones who know the threads of what is being done & that they have to stop it—and now this. eight hours later. they’re a little group (in world, at least) of squishy scrappy adventurers & they’re getting their narrative comeuppance for hubris, & a distinct lack of caution. hardly any health potions? a healer on the fritz? very little reconnaissance? no real allies? their attention divided between personal & everything else? i think it’s real, i think it’s very deadly, & i think like molly’s death it’s going to make for a more sombre & driven party. otohan’s goal for this encounter was imogen. narratively, the goal of this encounter (i suspect we will find in the coming months) was to be a hydraulic press & squash them into one party with one goal

fourth, main character imogen. this is bullshit straight up. i could leave it there but i’ll keep going bc i love women & i’ll take any chance to defend their right to take up space & tell their stories. laura makes the most awesome characters & frankly didn’t get Huge amounts of time dedicated solely to her story line in c1 & c2. it’s cool, it’s fine, she tells amazing stories in the time she gets & is a vital part of the story they’re all writing together, but as soon as we found out that purple-eyed, anime-haired, horse girl, night-terror, lightning-handed imogen was a thing i fell to my knees & wept in gratitude with the knowledge that laura was gonna get narratively whammied & whammied Hard by matthew mercer & his plot stick this campaign, as she well deserves.

do people complain about the briarwood arc? something that revolves entirely around percy’s backstory? or is it so beloved that they made a whole animated series about it? on a smaller scale—because of nott, the mighty nein left the empire & trekked into xhorhas; because of fjord, the mighty nein went & became pirates & explored sunken ruins, or went to uthodurn & nearly fought a dragon to make him a cool sword.

characters get their time to shine. it can’t always be about everyone all the time—matt gives a player a gift & the whole table comes together to react to that gift, following the player it was intended for. that’s the fun of storytelling together, that’s the fun of building characters & handing it over to your DM, the expectation that for a session, a couple of sessions, a small arc, you are the main character. your story matters. that’s what this is for imogen/laura—it’s at once a story beat for everyone, one of those pivotal moments where they realise they’re outmatched, but it’s also a turning point for imogen where we don’t know where she goes next. im sure that it also functions as a way for matt to introduce whatever lore he has about ruidis born up his sleeve for us.

hope this answered all your questions, i enjoyed ranting about it! i have just woken up so forgive me for any glaring errors

#cr spoilers #critical role spoilers #I’ll add a readmore when i get to my comp but hopefully the intro is long enough that it gets hit w the long post ray

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dadrielle · 1 year

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I’m not worried about Imogen.

It’s probably no surprise that I think that expecting Imogen to go evil at this point, or even to consider it, is a misread of her character. I think there’s something very much missing from conversations that try to parse where she’s at, what her questioning of the worth of the gods means, through a lens of a fight the Vanguard/join the Vanguard binary. It’s actually incredibly strange to me not to see this mentioned more since it is like, one of the cornerstones of Imogen’s arc.

Because the one thing Imogen’s mother has always told her is to run.

That’s been a through line of Imogen’s whole journey through her powers; she started getting answers when she stopped running from the storm, stopped listening to her mother. But before that? She ran in every dream. And as a highly anxious character, she’s also prone to getting too caught up in spiraling what-ifs to the point of not being decisive. So if we want to keep it simple, the question, I think, isn’t Oppose/Join; it’s Fight/Flight/Freeze. I think that’s the real temptation here for Imogen - not to JOIN the Verity, but to do as her mother has always told her, and run from this. From the responsibility of making the choice, from the pain of opposing her mother, from the fear of fighting Otohan again. If losing the gods isn’t THAT bad, then maybe she could live with inaction. We all know that the idea of the Hells as a party of NPCs is one the cast likes, and while Imogen is definitely less that in terms of story beats, a key thing is that she wants to be one. The freedom her mother showed her as a temptation was the freedom from her powers, yeah, but even more from being someone who is fate touched. It’s the freedom not to have to choose (which of course isn’t a freedom at all).

That’s part of why Imogen’s talk with Laudna is so damn important. Laudna, beyond recognizing how Imogen thinks and needs to talk things out - which, don’t get me wrong, that is SO SO IMPORTANT as well, and I could wax poetic on it for days - recognizes where Imogen’s struggle really lies. Laudna hammers on choice, not just because she wants Imogen to know that she supports her and trusts her, but because she knows that the real temptation here for Imogen is to run, to abdicate the choice. That’s the real power she’d give up, that’s why she says “don’t let them get in your head and make you think otherwise” specifically about choice, rather than anything about the character of the Vanguard’s mission. Laudna reminds her you always have a choice, and that that is a gift, that is real freedom.

I understand why people want to talk about Evil Imogen. It’s super dramatic. And I think we might have gotten it if dealing with Delilah was the only way to get Laudna back. But I also think that time’s past, and stuffing her reactions to her mother being a true believer in the cult into that mold requires either ignoring a lot of what Imogen has said or done throughout canon, or operating with an assumption that she is always lying about everything. And look, I think it’s important to note that every time the Vanguard has come up in any capacity, Imogen has reiterated her opposition to Ludinus et al and their methods. She’s done that immediately every time, it just gets forgotten because it isn’t an impressive speech on their morality like, say, Ashton’s. It’s easy to remember those speeches and think they must have been dunks on her, that she was arguing with them, but that’s simply not what happened.

The first time she showed any kind of sympathy for the Ruby Vanguard’s anti-god sentiment, it was simply because she felt bad about the idea of murdering Tuldus, because he had been abused in the name of piety. And so she….turned him over to the Verity to be further interrogated instead - not exactly a pro-vanguard action. When she spoke with Ludinus not long after they had discussed her potentially acting as a mole, she was demonstrably lying her ass off - saying her mother had been asking her to join them - so to take any comment from her about possibly joining them or being sympathetic as proof of a potential defection ignores the context. And when Ludinus left, she almost immediately said “we have to stop him, I have to find my mother.” Up until the point her mother pushes a vision with feeling into her brain, she was working on the assumption that her mother was caught up in something she felt trapped by, something she didn’t believe in - and she just wanted to get her out. And that vision pushed into her brain - immediately after she blurt out “what if it’s not that bad, what if we’re just fighting change-” Orym snaps her out of it, and she apologizes, says it was just overwhelming, that she wanted to see this through. She says Predathos is selfish, it just wants to eat. Nothing, nothing she says absolves the Vanguard of any crime, or indicates support for them.

You don’t have to care about the gods to oppose the Vanguard. Most of the other Hells don’t care much about the gods, either. I think Imogen’s word choice is interesting too, and feeds into my point. What if they’re just fighting change? She swears she wants to see this through. She asks Laudna if they want to do this. Those phrases to me imply that she’s wondering if they should just bow out of the fight, not swap sides. Those are phrases about whether or not to abort an action in motion, not to do an about face.

And I think it makes sense for Orym and Fearne to be misreading this struggle, too, because they are both people of action. Fearne’s action is more impulse,yeah, but it’s still action. And Orym is the man of duty, who doesn’t think of himself as a big player but can’t even really conceive of not answering the call to make heroic choices. He’s been steadfast in working towards a goal, and taking down these people who took his family from him is that goal. I don’t think in this moment he can quite conceptualize that running might be an option for any of them.

Imogen’s talk with Orym wasn’t about the gods. It was about what Orym fights for, and whether it’s still worth it. Imogen’s talk with Laudna wasn’t about the goodness or usefulness of the gods, it was about choice, and wanting a future. That’s significant. Imogen needed to crystalize why she should fight rather than run, to solidify her convictions so she won’t freeze.

I also think there are actually 3 key things that happened for Imogen in episode 49 that will keep her from running or freezing. Her talks with Orym and Laudna, obviously, but also? The fact that Keyleth is coming. Because up until Keyleth told them she was coming with the calvary? The choice wasn’t just between loosing Predathos, or ignoring it, or stopping it - it was also a choice between martyrdom and possible survival. Until that point, it had the makings of a suicide mission. 7 slapdicks and an untrustworthy Fey against an army, with a big clock hanging over their heads? When the cause is protecting gods you don’t much care about, and you don’t know for sure it will even result in anything that will hurt the people you care about? That will muck up the calculus real quick if you’re not keen to die. But now “It feels hopeful.” They don’t have to be martyrs, just part of the fight. Removing almost certain death takes some of the weight off the decision.

So I don’t think, personally, that there is any chance now of Imogen running, unless hope seems lost and that’s all they can do. I don't think there was ever a real chance of her turning. She might still freeze, when confronted with her mother as an enemy, but I think that’s lessened exponentially as well, thanks to Laudna. Hell, I’m not even real worried about Imogen getting charmed into fighting the other Hells because her psychic defenses gives her advantage on those kinds of wisdom saves. I’m not worried about Imogen. Go get ‘em girl. They don’t control you. You are the storm.

#critical role #cr meta #imogen temult #cr3 #keep joking that I need to write like #a United Theory of Imogen Temult with timestamps and footnotes #(I'm not really joking lmao help me)#but I wanted to write out my feelings for cr3e49 before we hit 50 #so as much as it feels like there’s no way I can say everything I want to right now #I am gonna just have to push through

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eponymous-rose · 2 years

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4-Sided Dive Highlights - Critical Role C3E22-E24 (June 7, 2022)

Tonight’s guests: Matt, Liam, Travis, and Taliesin! Dani immediately declares an end to the faux-conversation we start on, which is probably for the best. Matt is tonight’s Tavern Keeper! Matt, dying slowly on the inside during the opening: “I have bones in me, I guess.”

What the Fuck is Up With That? Matt: “We got topics, motherfuckers.” Travis thought they were just going to see a repeat of the paper layout for the skyship from campaign 1 and was blown away by the new piece. Matt had it commissioned a while ago in the expectation that they’d wind up doing skyships at some point relatively early in this campaign. There’s a long digression about Teddy Ruxpin. Liam: “I have no idea why, Orym is in love with airship.” There’s another digression about Top Gun, and Liam points out that Travis’s shirt looks like it has a little propeller beanie made of jets. Taliesin: (sing-song) “Someone’s going to the danger zone!” Taliesin points out that since he ruined the last attempt they did at ship-to-ship combat, he’s been craving it on the airship. Travis: “You can totally DM that, right?” Matt: “Just make enemies with people who have skyships now.”

Matt asks about the cast’s lasting impressions of Jrusar. Taliesin teases that they didn’t get to see a lot of the cool stuff while they were there. Everyone wants to know more about the tunnels under the city, to the point where leaving that behind feels like the Happy Fun Ball. (Matt mentions they only saw about 20% of the HFB.) “It reminds Orym of home in that you’ve got all these amazing structures, but there’s so much nature woven in and around it.” There’s a digression about salmon fishing in Alaska. Yes, truly. First impressions of Dusk? Taliesin: “She’s not broken enough to be a local.” Lots and lots of questions, early days yet!

Favorite form of fictional travel? Skyship is popular. Travis: “I love a good teleport and apparating/disapparating.” Taliesin: “I’m a Nemo kid, I love a submarine. Deep underwater freaks me out.” Liam: Blaine the Monorail in the Dark Tower series and the landstriders from The Dark Crystal. Matt: “Fanboats. I grew up in Florida, I know they’re real but they shouldn’t be.”

Tower of Inquiry! Liam pulls a (still-sticky) block. “It’s a good thing this is glued together.” We’re talking modern AUs - which occupation would the characters have in the modern world? “Orym would either be in the New York Ballet in Swan Lake, or he might be a coach for track-and-field. Or an athlete himself in the Olympics. I think I’d go ballet.” “I think Chetney would be a woodworker... or a dentist. Would really enjoy it, really.” What about Ashton? “That’s pretty easy. He would work in an ice cream parlor. Hate it and have no customer service whatsoever. That’s the best shit job for a punker I can think of.” “Eshteross would be a mysterious venture capitalist.” How about the Shade Mother? “She’d be in season four of Stranger Things. Character actor.”

Tower of Inquiry, round two! Travis pulls a block! The whole thing nearly comes down. What would the characters’ Twitter bios look like? Dead silence contemplating that for a few seconds. Travis: “It would be CPock Industries. he/him, no instant gratification, 18+.” Matt: “Little link to your Etsy page.” Taliesin: “Anime character, nothing but obnoxious political retweets. Might actually say that in the bio.” Taliesin, to Liam: “I’d have a Soundcloud, you’d have a Tumblr.” Liam: “It would say pie is better than cake. Might have a link to a YouTube channel of different workouts, probably.” Taliesin: “Halfling your way to health.” There’s some discussion of Robbie Daymond’s hiking. Travis: “This is for you, Robbie. Stop summiting stuff.” How about the ship captain? “All pronouns, all caps. Free spirit. Seeing the world. Will do it all. Again. Link to my OF, but it’s mostly just them making food.”

Tower of Inquiry, round three! Taliesin knocks a block straight onto the floor, but the tower remains intact. “If your character was a candle, what scent would they be?” Travis: “The scent of rusted pennies. The scent of pine, birch, oak, ...” We have a digression about Nag Champa incense. Liam: “How would you mix sweat and cherry blossoms?” Eshteross? “I will say a ginger spice. Beyond that, I would say a musky cedar.”

Deep Dive time!

Liam gets asked about seeing Clasp connections in Marquet. He’s blown away by how much has propagated from the first campaign and the home game. Travis remembers very little about the Spireling structure. Matt: “Each major city that has Clasp involvement, the Spirelings are essentially the collection of leaders that organize that sect of the Clasp wherever they are. Shenn has been one of the power players in Emon.” Matt mentions that he always dreamed of running a game that would let him connect threads between campaigns.

Liam: “Everybody in this building is really randy about Calamity right now.” Matt: “I’ve wanted something to happen in that era for a long time, and it wasn’t until we were talking with Brennan, we were talking about different things, mentioned the Age of Arcanum, and he just went like, we’ll talk about that one.”

Taliesin is asked about the return to Bassuras and the prospect of finding the Nobodies. “I don’t think they’re there, first of all. Not really a person who likes to look back or ever deal with things that were in the past.” Taliesin just assumes the Nobodies scattered to the four winds. “It is like going to your hometown with your friends, really. This town is shit. This bar is great. I like writing characters who don’t want to deal with their shit.”

Matt is asked about collaborating on the Hellcatch Valley. “The wonderful Bashir Gaus has been helping write with this. I’ve outlined the continent’s main regions, and certain ones are primarily my creations, and then go through consulting and things like that.” But other regions, he offered to the collaborators for whatever caught their interest. “What inspires you? Go.”

Travis is asked about his Calamity character, Cerrit “Pinch” Agrupnin. “I felt like I had to rep a little bit of just that straight melee class.” As soon as he started getting how detailed things were going to be, he wanted to be the one trying to connect the dots that others were missing. I based him off of John Cusack in ‘Con Air’.” Travis thought it was a great excuse to try an eisfuura and an inquisitor rogue. “Holy shit, the stuff you get as a rogue is crazy!”

Liam is asked about bonding with Chetney. “I mean, I think he was rightly super skeptical of Chetney but oddly finds himself really getting along with him. Chetney kind of fills a casual grandpa slot for him, and that’s fun to be around. We gotta work through some things, you might have some anger issues, but Pop-pop’s got a good heart in there.”

Taliesin is asked about inspiration behind Ashton. He hadn’t done punk yet. “What the fuck does punk look like in a fantasy realm? I watched a bunch of Henry Rollins talking about his life.” He also watched documentaries about the punk scene in the 80s and 90s in LA: “The Decline of Western Civilization III”. For Fundamental Chaos, that was just wanting to create something difficult and complicated.

Matt is asked about the fey influence in this campaign. It wasn’t something he wanted to pull into the campaign initially, but between Fearne and some of the other players having a fey-touched influence, he realized there wasn’t all that much of it they’d explored in earlier campaigns.

Travis is asked about the toy-making process. “Now there have been multiple nights where I’ll just search ‘wooden’ and a bunch of different words.” What would Chetney make for the illustrious DM? An orrery.

The Tower of Inquiry Continues! Travis is chosen again. It’s Very Dramatic. If gold didn’t matter, what would the characters’ first purchases be? Liam: “Buy the group a skyship outright.” “Cheney would make a hostile takeover bid for all the toystores in half the continents so there’s still some left to be conquered.” “Ash would just buy that whole chunk of property that they’ve been living in in the Spires.”

Post-Break Shenanigans! Exploding Kittens! If you get knocked out, you can ask other people questions from their tankards. Liam is eliminated extremely early, so it’s his turn to ask questions. How does Ash feel about being debt-free? Is the other shoe going to drop? “Oh, it’s going to drop any minute. Good things don’t happen to people.” How about Chetney’s revenge? Is this new for him? “Chetney is experienced with death. He definitely has a moral system, a way of judging people. The slate has been wiped clean for now.” The inspiration for Eshteross? “I wanted to introduce a unique possible patron to the group that-- I didn’t mean to create a ‘Batman Beyond’ Bruce Wayne figure, but when people started pointing it out...” Travis is eliminated! He asks Liam about going to Bassuras on a bit of a side-jaunt from his plot right now. “He’s much more powerful and in a better place with this group, these are his friends now, and it’s gotta be a give and take.” Matt is victorious! Last question for Travis: what was it like to lose control of the wolf during the heist? “I had forgotten about it up until that point. I like it because then you have to RP out of it or around it.”

Round 2! Taliesin asks if there’s anyone in the party Chetney doesn’t trust. “There’s more than one!” Travis is out first this time! What does Orym think about the Grim Verity? “He’s really happy to have some more learned people with him. Feels over his head, so he’s just glad there are a couple of brains in this group, intelligence scores aside.” Matt is out and asks about what Chetney thinks about the Gorgynei. “Wants to learn from them, because it’s been so long. If it’s real attractive, he might run away.” Liam is victorious this time!

#critical role #critical role spoilers #4 sided dive #4 sided dive spoilers #long text post

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thessalian · 6 months

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Thess vs Cosplayers

The one thing I didn't talk about when I was talking about MCM Comic Con was the cosplayers. I generally enjoy watching the cosplayers for a number of reasons. I mean, obviously it's just generally fun to see how into things people get, but also it's a good way to gauge general trends in terms of characters etc. So I look out for the stuff I know and go from there.

Critical Role was obviously very heavily represented, cosplayers spreading their efforts over all three campaigns. However, I think Vox Machina got the most overall coverage, and there were a lot of instances where you could tell when someone was doing the TLoVM versions and when they were doing the original campaign version. I think Keyleth and Scanlan got the most overall coverage from the Vox Machina campaign, with Vex, Vax, and Percy not far behind. I saw a couple of good Pikes and exactly one Grog. Also one Arkhan, one Delilah, one Sylas (not a pairing) and a Raven Queen. Oh, and two Trinkets, leaving aside the Vexes who were carrying Trinket plushes (or in one case, had a specially made Trinket-shaped wheelchair rest). For the Mighty Nein, Jester was entirely the front-runner, followed not-very-closely by Yasha, Caleb, and Mollymauk. There were more Veths than Notts, if you see what I mean, and one of the Veths was with her partner, who was dressed as Yeza. I saw a couple of Fjords, a couple of Beaus, and one Caduceus. For NPCs, apart from the aforementioned Yeza, there were a few Esseks and an awful lot of Avantikas. Also one Professor Thaddeus. Then there were Bell's Hells, and Laudna was the clear leader on that particular scoreboard, with Imogen a relatively close second. A fair few Ashtons, some with exceptionally good headpieces and even better hammers. A few really nicely done Fearnes. One Orym, one Chetney, and while I didn't see anyone specifically cosplaying FCG, there were a couple of people who made puppet-FCGs. Thinking about it, I even saw a couple of Bertrands. And, while not directly CR cosplay, one Deadpool cosplayer who had a Gilmore's Glorious Goods bathrobe on over their costume for the CR group photos.

Of course, with the popularity of Baldur's Gate 3 and the entire cast being present at MCM Comic Con, there were a lot of Baldur's Gate 3 cosplays. In terms of which characters got the most attention, Astarion won by a country mile. Marion actually expressed a bit of surprise at Astarion's popularity just because she'd been given to understand that he was a bit of a shit, and then I had to explain the concept of a "poor little meow-meow" and that Astarion was basically Zevran Aranai but amplified ... and then I had to explain Zevran and I finally just gave up and stuck with "Sometimes they like the shitheels and also his cosplay is one of the easiest to do". Anyway, there were some really impressive Astarions. Runner-up was Shadowheart, and Karlach was a distant third. I saw a couple of Gales, one Halsin, a really impressive Lae'zel, and I think a Minthara. Also a few people I'm pretty sure were cosplaying their own Tavs, and the most impressive fucking illithid costume I could have imagined. Wyll and Jaheira were not represented anywhere that I saw, which is a shame. I did see an Isobel, though. And I would have loved to see what some of those cosplayers did with Dame Aylin, but not that I saw this year.

Going more into the generalities! On the subject of video games, there were a few Links and Zeldas, a lot of Princess Peaches and a fairly impressive number of Marios and Luigis. (There was a steampunk Mario and Luigi pairing that was really cool.) There was the Classic Horror Quartet - a group consisting of Freddy Kreuger, Ghostface, Jason, and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre person. I was really gratified to see an Aloy. There's this one elderly couple who has been at MCM Comic Con every year I've been there, and they do the most impressive Warhammer 40K cosplay - the "We put their picture in our advertising for the convention" kind of impressive. (And those two have to be in their sixties at minimum so anyone who says this shit is only for kids needs to get a clue.) These were not the only WH40K cosplayers, but the most impressive - though there was someone in White Templar cosplay that did give them a bit of a run for their money. Obviously a lot of One Piece, given the live action series coming out. A few Disney princesses (and one Snow White's Wicked Stepmother circa 1937). A lot of Spider-men, obviously, of varying iterations - a couple of Spider-Punks, a gratifying number of Spider-Gwens, and so many different iterations of Spider-Man from Across the Spider-Verse.

Side note: between that and the penis-bearers who cosplayed Deadpool in body-stocking instead of crafted body armour, I desperately wanted to hold a sign recommending that those people look into the concept of a dance belt. So many dick-prints. A few avoided it by doing like Miles Morales in the earlier parts of Into the Spider-Verse and wearing shorts over their tights, but the rest ... yeah. So many dick-prints.

Star Wars, obviously. A couple of Leias, a few Reys, and SO MANY MANDOS. Mostly Din Djarin, obviously, but the occasional Boba Fett, Bo Katan and Sabine Wren. A few Anakins, like maybe two Obi-Wans, a couple of Heras, one really impressive Kanan, one equally impressive Ahsoka, one Dagobah-training-montage!Luke with a Yoda backpack puppet, and like two Revans. Also a lot of Darths, but not necessarily all the ones most people know about. I mean, sure, a fair few Vaders and a couple of Mauls, but also Darth Malgus and one really impressive Darth Nihilus. There were also several members of Imperial military, including a Moff Gideon complete with Darksaber and an Assistant Director Krennick. There were a couple of more generic Star Wars aliens too - a Duros bounty hunter and a couple of impressive Twi'leks.

The one thing that felt almost conspicuous in its absence? No Dragon Age. No Mass Effect. I mean, we had a couple of Homestuck characters and we didn't get one Morrigan or Zevran or Varric? Maybe all the cosplayers are waiting for DA4. Good luck to them; Bioware seems to be having another of those Development Hell moments.

Anyway, there was way too much great cosplay to list it all, and I probably missed some good ones along the way, but those were the highlights for me - well, the recognisable highlights, since there were a lot of really impressive cosplays but since I'm not huge into most anime I have no idea what they were cosplaying that was so impressive. And no, there are no pictures. I thought about it, but honestly, trying to balance cane and camera felt like a lost cause and they probably would have come out badly anyway.

#mcm expo

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pocketgalaxies · 2 years

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Hey, you’ve might of already answered this and I missed it, apologies for that, but what is your opinion on the whole Yu and Birdie fight? And how Bells Hells reacted to it? I’ve seen some harsh takes,like, harsh ass takes. And I am wondering what yours is. Again, sorry if you have already answered this.

hello! nobody has asked me this so you're all good!

idk what the harsh takes are but i personally thought it was totally in line with the characters as we know them so far, so i have no complaints dkfjskdf like?? idk i think critical role would not be as successful as it is if these people weren't extremely masterful character creators, and as long as things are in-character there's very little for me to complain about

all this to say i feel pretty neutrally positive about it, kind of just "that happened the way it happened!" and looking forward to seeing more extensive fall-out in upcoming eps, honestly not sure if i have much else to say at this point. i don't have any TAKES per se, just really hoping we get some RP-heavy stuff this week to get a better idea of how everyone is Feeling™? but some rambly thoughts about what happened in general:

in general i think the death wish run did a LOT of work to make bells hells trust yu. she repeatedly showed that she was willing to take huge risks to help bells hells succeed, and i think this ultimately played a big part in preventing the party from immediately turning on them once they revealed their true form (especially imogen and orym)

ashley did such a wonderful job walking the line between "you're my mom, i trust you above all else" and "you're a stranger i haven't seen in 90 years." i made a liveblog post about this too but i think it's interesting to see how fearne was p much paralyzed with indecision, but as soon as she got something out of birdie (read: that she is ruidusborn) that explained her behavior as anything other than intentionally hurtful, she was ready to turn on yu, but she needed that answer first.

imogen's prioritization of information-gathering makes a lot of sense considering that she knows better than most how emotions can bias your actions and perceptions, as well as how your feelings may not always be accurate or fair to the situation. imogen explicitly wanted fearne to have a happy reunion with her mother, and she also had some level of persistent suspicion of yu (from jealousy sure but also from the mind shielding), but she used detect thoughts to get all the info she could first, and that ended up defining her course of action

ashton was very very quiet. but mad at yu for sure. not sure what to make of it yet aside from being very very pissed at a traitor

fcg...i'd have to rewatch to rly confirm this but my initial impression was that fcg did a pretty terrible job picking up on the social subtext of everything that was going on DKFJSDF. sam has been v consistent in showing that there is just Something lacking in fcg's social instincts. everything is a little bit too objective, a little bit too black and white

chetney is consistently morally questionable and willing to make deals with the (proverbial) devil. i still feel like i don't understand this man at all so that's all i have to say at this time

i'm getting tired and i think ppl have written much better meta about orym than i have. something something he feels like he failed himself and will and keyleth 6 years ago and he was not willing to let it happen again

i wrote a little about laudna in yesterday's gifset but basically she just made me Sad. the use of bane to de-escalate was really interesting on marisha's part and in general i think laudna is extraordinarily non-confrontational and also was completely panicking. the helpless confused "agh!"s as she presses her hands into her eyes and summons the shadows onto a person that she loves. it made me very sad.

anyway hope this was fun to read i'm not going to proofread it so sorry if it's nonsense but long story short i don't have any particular takes about it at all, let alone harsh ones dkdkfjskdjfs

if you want to read more smarter neutrally positive analyses you can go in my #cr meta tag! there are some posts about yu and birdie in there too since i am too tired to put them here rn lmaooo

#sorry school just started for me so my brain is a little dead #anonymous #ask #answered #critical role #cr3 #nova shh #cr meta #r: bells hells #yu suffiad #birdie calloway

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kalitera-stin-erimia · 1 year

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Short reviews of Lovecraft RPF

One of the subsets of my Lovecraft obsession is finding and exploring fiction about Lovecraft, and I finally wrote up my short impressions of most fiction works about Lovecraft that I read/watched. Some of these definitely need larger reviews, and maybe will get them in the future, but one has to start from somewhere and these writings can at least make a foundation for them.

So, let's start. Some mild spoilers may appear.

Shadows Bend by David Barbour and Richard Raleigh: Lovecraft and Robert Howard travel the West of the USA during the Dust Bowl, persued by monsters. I'm surprised that these two meet so rarely in fiction - I mean, they never did in real life, but it still sounds like an obvious idea. Clark Ashton Smith also makes an appearence. I enjoyed the "road movie" feel of the book, and it seemed like the author tried to weave in some lore from the Bishop collaborations, which is the thing I'd love to see more often; however, the book was too plotless and the characterizations too exaggerated, too reliant on the out of date scholarship.

Gilgamesh at the Outback by Robert Silverberg: Another one about HPL and REH meeting, this time in hell. I skimmed this one, reading only the parts about them. Lovecraft is rather bland here, while REH is just bizarre. He has an over-the-top crush on Gilgamesh. WTF was going on in the Robert Howard scholarship in the eighties???

The Planet of Tastless Pleasure by Harry Harrison: One scene parodies Gilgamesh at the Outback. I enjoyed this one more than the Silverberg's book. I like Harrison's humor, what else to say?

Marblehead by Richard Lupoff: I already wrote a large review of this one. Well-researched and I guess well-characterized, but so dry that I'm afraid it doesn't live to the fullest potential. Everything just ends up feeling strangely muted, which is especially jarring in combination with the sensationalist plot and very pulp culmination.

Pages Torn from a Travel Journal by Edward Lee: Ooooof. Lee is not a bad writer, and unlike many others writing about Lovecraft, he clearly knows a lot about him and likes him very much. The other things he likes are (1) rednecks, (2) gore, (3) rape porn. The book is full of all these things and you can make a guess about how well they mix with Lovecraft. In spite of how gleefully campy the book is, the treatment of redneck characters is more sympathetic than I usually see in redneck horror, which is a plus, I guess? On the other hand, Lovecraft getting into an adventure during one of his bus travels seems such an obvious idea for a story, I'm surprised it doesn't get used often.

Trolley 1852 by Edward Lee: I liked this one less than the previous one. It's more creative though, and closer to Lovecraft's kind of horror - which is not surprising, considering that the major part of the book is supposed to be "written" by him as a book within a book (while Pages was rather, ehhh, "historical fiction".)

Pulptime by Peter Cannon: New York period Lovecraft meets aged Sharlock Holmes. Hijinks predictably ensue. A cute calm story which is probably good for removing unpleasant aftertaste of Lee's books (that's how it worked for me, anyway.) What bugged me was that the plot felt too thin for a mystery, and the author seemingly treated the anti-immigrant sentiment of The Horror at Red Hook too uncritically. Lovecraft's characterization was okay, Cannon is better at it than most, but in this book it relied on quoting too much.

The Lovecraft Chronicles by Peter Cannon: Definitely a better book than Pulptime, and the best exploration of the question "What if Lovecraft lived longer?" so far. May get too farcical at places, but I think Cannon finds a good balance between crackfic and seriousness.

The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge: A Very Intellectual postmodernist book which is also a kinda shitposty Lovecraft/Barlow slashfic. Absolutely not worth the hype it had been met with in some mainstream big journals. As far as Lovecraft's characterization goes, I'd say the author tried, however, it's still weirdly superficial and subtly mean-spirited. The treatment of Barlow is even more dissappointing - he was meant to be the center of the book, but the author seems strangely dismissive of his literary and scholarly work and desinterested in his personality. Besides, the majority of the book is not even about them, but about the dull original characters and endless cameos of other historical characters.

Night Gaunts by Brett Rutherford: The play is written by a fan from the zine fandom, and it shows: both in solid characterizations and in bad poetry. I liked this one.

The Lamp of Alhazred by August Derleth: A sentimental story about Lovecraft's legacy. One of the better Lovecraftian works by Derleth, and certainly the one with most feeling.

Balsamo's Mirror by L. Sprague de Camp: Good old "but you probably wouldn't be priviledged in your favorite historical period, gotcha". I've seen better works that poked fun at Lovecraft.

When Death Wakes Me Up to Myself by John Shirley: I was so impressed with this one that I've already reviewed it. What I like the most about it is that it's catches the cosmic wonder aspect of Lovecraft's personality, which was just as important for his life and work as cosmic horror, yet gets written about so less often.

HPL by Gahan Wilson: A story by Gahan Wilson about Lovecraft being a brain in a jar could have been more entertaining.

The Lurker in the Shadows by Nathan Carson: It starts as a very indulgent story about correspondence between the elderly Lovecraft and Stephen King in the 1970s, and then takes an unexpected turn into dark comedy about body switching. Simultaneously one of the least racist portrayals of Lovecraft and one of the most villainous ones, though I'm afraid the author didn't think it through. On the other hand, it's not often that you read about Lovecraft marrying Beyonce.

Lovecraft in Heaven by Grant Morrison: Bad trip.

Night-Gaunts by Joyce Carol Oates: An examination of Lovecraft's life, or, rather, an alternative Lovecraft. Unfortunately, it's one of these tiring takes that talk about how Unhappy, Troubled and Neurotic Lovecraft was, and how Gothic and Gloomy his life was. As far as Oates stories go, this one is far from her best, very slow-going and hard to follow at times. More could have been done with the possibility of Lovecraft's father living longer than he did, though I agree he would probably leave less favorable impression on Lovecraft in such case.

The Premature Death of H.P. Lovecraft, Oldest Man in New England by Thomas Ligotti: Seems to be an another take on body hopping, but subtly so? Very short. Well-written, but I'd expect more from a Ligotti story about Lovecraft.

The Exiles by Ray Bradbury: Lovecraft appears in one version of the story, sitting near the fireplace and eating ice cream. Everyone in this story is benevolently caricatured, so I'm fine with it.

Letters from an Old Gent by W.H. Pugmire: The style reads nothing like Lovecraft (but I think it wasn't really the intention, anyway) yet it still works, somehow. Pugmire's case is similar to Lee's, that is, their fondness for Lovecraft is such that it actually improves the quality of their writing. His emotional intellect also appears to be more developed than in most other Lovecraftian writers.

Lovecraft by Hans Rodionoff and Enrique Breccia: A mix of Lovecraft's biography (in the out of date interpretation) and the usual "but what if what he wrote was real???" I heard there were plans to make a Hollywood adaptation of it, and it certainly felt like one at times. The art was great, but the story was way too visceral and hysterical for either Lovecraft's biography or Lovecraftian horror.

Providence by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows: Well-researched and well-thought out. Moore definitely cleaned out his Lovecraft game after the dissappointing Neonomicon. The comic is more about Lovecraft's characters, Lovecraft himself appears only in one issue, but plays an important role in the entire story (well, duh). His characterization is satisfying both as realism and as metafiction, though the usual Moore bullshit is still present in small amounts. Not a huge fan of art, and Lovecraft gets black hair yet another time (and looks like in his forties at 1919).

The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft by Mac Carter: I don't remember this one well, but I remember that Lovecraft here doesn't have much in common with the real one neither in personality, nor in biography, nor in looks. Some things are done with the "underappreciated artist" part of his life, but without the context of his life, they don't amount to much.

H.P. Lovecraft: He who Wrote in the Darkness by Alex Nikolavitch and Gervasio-Aon-Lee: Well, this one is a straightforward biography of Lovecraft, or, rather, his life from 1925 on. As such, it was alright. I liked the way the artist used colors, and that some people from Lovecraft's life like Loveman got more attention than they usually do.

One Night with Lovecraft (Une nuit avec Lovecraft) by Philippe Marcele and Rodolphe: A fan from the future gets a chance to hang out with Lovecraft in the 1930s. Not bad, but had too much padding at times - do we really need shortened adaptations of some Lovecraft's (and one Poe's!) stories within such kind of comic? The artist was great at drawing urban landscapes, but much worse at drawing people.

R.H.B. by Andreas and Riviere: An old French comic about Barlow, his time with Lovecraft and later life. This one would have been better if the artist knew what Barlow looked like. His real appearence would go well with the artist's style.

Rough Riders: Ride or Die by Adam Glass: Lovecraft briefly joins the main team as someone who can see ghosts. I liked the main characters, who were also historical personalities, but Lovecraft himself was super bland. At least the art was decent (and he didn't look grotesque like he often does in the comics.)

Out of Mind: The Stories of HPL: This one is memorable, but mostly because of the actor's performance. The plot is a mess.

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jrpneblog · 3 months

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Super sub Keane to impress

The much quoted "game of two halves" was never more appropriate than to describe this encounter between North End and Bristol City. A very dull and predictable first half had the crowd close to the edge by half time and you just wonder how toxic things might have become had not the half time changes brought about an upturn in North End`s fortunes. Keane, Riis and Frokjaer were all introduced at half time and North End started to attack much to the amazement of the majority inside Deepdale who have witnessed some turgid stuff over the last few months. The change to a 4-4-2 at half time with Frokjaer in an advanced midfield position did the trick for North End with Will Keane converting twice to give North End the points. It has to be said that the visitors looked a shadow of the side that drew with West Ham last week and perhaps they had more than one eye on this week`s Cup replay at Ashton Gate.

Ryan Lowe made one change to the side that lost at Chelsea last week with Duane Holmes coming in for Will Keane in a 4-1-4-1 starting formation. The Robins were the first to have a meaningful effort but Woodman saved well as North End just struggled early on to get into gear. They eventually got going but it was a lot of the sideways stuff that has turned people away from the Lowe brand in recent months although Osmajic did have a half chance after twenty minutes with the effort going wide. Both keepers made some decent saves towards the end of the half with an effort by Millar just on the stroke of half time being the best but it was saved by O`Leary. North End left the field at half time to some booing among the faithful but I rather think that this was aimed at the manager rather than the performance of the players at the break.

The atmosphere inside the Stadium was one of apathy in some quarters and toxicity in others as Ryan Lowe made, probably, the biggest gamble of his managerial career. Lowe decided to bring off Captain, Alan Browne, Osmajic and Holmes. He replaced them with three attacking players in Keane, Riis and Frokjaer. There is no doubt in my mind that if this had gone the other way there would have been civil war on the Deepdale terraces. However it didn`t, the changes worked very well and Lowe lives to fight another day. North End were at it right from the kick off in the second half and Keane had an effort saved within two minutes. The striker then turned and fired over from six yards when it seemed easier to score. With twenty minutes gone of the second half there was relief all round as Keane latched on to a poor headed back pass and pushed it past the City keeper before firing into an empty net. It was all North End now as the visitors offered little at the other end. With twelve minutes to go Keane sealed the points when he guided home a cross from Riis at the near post and it was job done for North End. We saw the game out with very few concerns and a welcome three points were in the bag after another strange game at Deepdale.

So with nineteen games to go North End sit in the top half once again just two points behind sixth place. However the team in fifth are seven clear of North End so we really need to be getting our skates on and with Leeds away next Sunday lunchtime it is not the easiest fixture to enhance our position. As far as the manager is concerned, nothing has changed for me in spite of this being a good second half performance and a very welcome three points. Lowe must be congratulated on his half time changes, right enough, but how many times has he got it wrong this season and cost us dearly. We have two tough away games up next with Leeds and Millwall so the manager will be tested again but I guess his position looks safe for another two weeks at least, however with Ipswich the next visitors to Deepdale it is not looking like getting easier anytime soon.

PRESTON 2-0 BRISTOL CITY

WOODMAN 7

POTTS 7 STOREY 7 LINDSAY 7 HUGHES 7

WHITEMAN 7

HOLMES 7 McCANN 6 BROWNE 6 MILLAR 7

OSMAJIC 6

Subs:

FROKJAER 7

RIIS 7

KEANE 8

BRADY 7

MOTM: Will Keane

Attendance 14,929

Preston Fans 14,268 (95.57%).

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utilitycaster · 5 months

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As a fellow DM, weren't you at least a little irritated of how Matt handled the shard situation? He once was so open and receptive when it came down to a players choice influencing the campaign, but now he let Tal roll and even after he succeeded he was like "nope, not gonna happen".

Nope!

It was, and I cannot stress this enough, really clear this was a terrible fucking idea. I know a lot of people started to nitpick how Matt said this "might" and "may" shatter Ashton instead of "definitely will", but like...as I said before, as someone with a severe allergy, I don't eat foods that say "may contain peanuts"; the idea that it was a massive risk was abundantly clear, and frankly the fact that in-world Ashton went “well, I’m built different” instead of “hmmm maybe I shouldn’t do Thing That ‘Might’ Make Me Explode” is highly relevant to the discussion. It's no different to me from how DMs (myself included) will often say "are you sure?" to mean "hey pal, this is a really bad idea FYI.” The successful saves mean “this did not kill you permanently.”

I also strongly suspect that Matt and Taliesin discussed this because Taliesin seemed pretty unsurprised by the top of the episode when Ashton’s Con score was reduced. I don’t know for sure - I’m hoping either Matt or Taliesin will be on the next 4SD to talk about it - but that’s the impression I got. If I had to guess I would say it was a choice between “the powers are somewhat nerfed because you already have a shard in you,” or “hey do you want the opportunity to do a much needed dramatic breakdown,” and I know which one I’d take. I could be wrong, but if this was the case, it would be a very thoughtful way to DM this.

Setting aside any DM-ing experience: I’m interested intellectually in what might have happened had Ashton successfully absorbed the shard, but also, I have watched that first half conversation literally every day since it aired except today, because I am on a train and my internet is unreliable and it’s not out as a podcast yet. I’m an episode 2x72 and C1 Feywild arc girl. I would like to see my favorite character have a complete breakdown at some point in the campaign. This is probably my favorite episode of C3 so far. I think this makes for a far, far superior story than the alternative and is not only giving a much needed shock to the Bells Hells character dynamics on the whole, but is also opening up some room for another character to take the shard and, now, for cool things to happen during the Feywild retreat. If Delilah eats the shard? If Fearne learns some deep secrets? If Chetney makes a deal with Morri? That is going to be because Ashton was rejected by the shard, and I’m far more fascinated by those possibilities than “Ashton gets super powerful, learns nothing.”

To that point: I know as always that it’s hard to convey tone via the written word on anon, but this feels frustrated toward the campaign in general, and while I do have my thoughts about the railroading earlier on, there’s actually only a few points where I really feel Bells Hells were outright shut down and honestly they were relatively minor (I do not personally mind the solstice episode cut scenes; that feels right for an event of that magnitude). I think it’s valid to feel that way, but I guess the best way to put it is that if you’re frustrated on the whole this feels like an odd place to vent it, and if you’re mad because Ashton is also your favorite character, I am interested in my favorite characters in part because of their development and their dynamics with others in the party. I am not here to watch the Ashton Is Super Cool And Everything Works Out Well For Them show; I’m here to watch the Ashton Goes Through It show.

#answered #Anonymous #cr tag

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440mxs-wife · 11 months

Text

Treasure Quest, Chapter 2: First Impressions

Pairing: Captain Dean x Rhaya Payton (OFC, eventual) Other Characters: Sam Winchester, Bobby Singer, Balthazar, Gabriel, Chuck Shurley, Lucifer. Governor Darius Payton, Ashton Kane, Damon Sharpe (OMC’s). Carissa, Darcy (OFC’s)

Word Count: 4296

Warnings: Arranged marriage, overbearing stepmother, scheming fiancé, Captain Dean is a bit of a jerk to Rhaya, ruthless pirates, search for buried treasure.

Series Summary: Rhaya Payton is the daughter of the governor of Ochana. She grew up listening to her father tell her stories of pirates and treasure maps. At a gala one night, her stepmother, Carissa, announces Rhaya’s engagement to Ashton Kane, a wealthy nobleman. Only problem is, no one checked with Rhaya first. After overhearing plans made by her fiancé, Rhaya decides to go on the run and stows away on Captain Dean’s ship. What will happen when he finds her?

This Chapter: Everyone in the governor’s mansion is waking up and learning that Rhaya is gone. Meanwhile, Captain Dean questions her to find out why she stowed away on his ship. Back home, Ashton is contacting his network of associates outside of Ochana, offering a hefty reward for finding his darling fiancée--and the map. But who will he find to take the contract, and what will they do when they find Rhaya?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

From Part 1:

"Wait a minute, where are you taking her?" Bobby called as they walked past him.

"Captain's orders, he wants to talk with her in his quarters," Gabriel answered over his shoulder.

"Bobby, what's going on? Do you know her?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I think I do, and if she is who I think she is, things just got a whole lot more complicated around here," Bobby grumbled.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Well, who is she then?" Sam inquired. He followed Bobby into the captain's quarters to see Rhaya sitting in a chair, her chin tilted defiantly up at Dean and fire in her eyes.

"I was just about to ask that," Captain Dean remarked, arms crossed over his chest. "And I want to know what she is doing on my boat."

Rhaya's eyes moved from one man to the next, as if trying to gauge who can help her the most at getting out of trouble. She finally settled her gaze on Bobby, who was standing on the captain's right side. He had kind eyes and reminded Rhaya a bit of her father. "My name is Rhaya Payton, daughter of Governor Darius Payton," she replied.

Bobby's head tilted back, and he closed his eyes. "Dammit. I was afraid of that," he whispered.

"That's one question answered, now what are you doing on my ship?" Dean demanded.

"I'm sure you all know that my engagement to Ashton Kane was announced last night," Rhaya began, and the three men nodded in response. "Well, my stepmother, Carissa, forgot to check with me first, because there's no way in hell I'm going to marry him. He's a colossal jackass, among other things. Besides, I have it on excellent authority that he plans on the whole, 'till death do us part' thing happening sooner rather than later," she explained.

Captain Dean scoffed at her last statement. "I think someone has an overactive imagination or has been listening to a little too much of the servants' gossip," he retorted.

"Dean, come on," Sam pleaded then turned to Rhaya. "What makes you say that he is planning to do something to you?" he asked.

Rhaya sat in the chair, arms crossed over her chest and glaring at the captain. She began to think that maybe these men could help her, hence it might be in her best interest to reveal her source. But after the way Captain Dean spoke to her, as if she was an overindulged, entitled little rich girl, she decided not to say another word. At least not until he apologized to her.

"My brother asked you a question," Captain Dean persisted. If she was genuinely in trouble, Dean wanted to find a way to help her out. But he had to maintain his authority over the crew, thus he couldn't just brush aside the fact that she stowed away on his ship. That is, unless she had a really, really good reason.

"Yes, I know he did. And I'm not answering that until I get an apology for your remark, Captain," Rhaya answered simply.

Dean's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he let out a bark of laughter. "Wait, you think I should apologize? To you?? You're the spoiled, little girl who ran away from home with some cockamamie story about your fiancé wanting to do you harm. And, to make matters worse, you were caught stowing away on my ship! What exactly do I have to apologize for??" he demanded with his arms stretched out to his sides.

Rhaya jumped to her feet and found herself nearly nose-to-nose with the captain. "Because I am NOT some spoiled, little girl with an overactive imagination or listens to too much gossip. I ran away because my life is in danger," she repeated.

Dean scoffed at her persistent paranoia, which only fueled Rhaya's determination to get him to believe her. "I overheard my darling fiancé tell his second-in-command that he planned to steal something valuable from my father, a treasure map. Ashton said that once he had the treasure, he would arrange for an 'accident at sea' to get rid of me. One less obstacle in his way, I guess," Rhaya remarked.

"What about when he got back? Wouldn't your father still be in charge of Ochana?" Sam asked.

Rhaya nodded, pleased that at least one Winchester was keeping up and appeared to believe her. "After that, Ashton would force my father to resign as governor, only to have himself appointed to the role. So, you see, Captain--gentlemen--I had no choice but to leave my home and my father, if only to save my own damned life. Now, have I sufficiently answered your brother's question?" Rhaya finished.

Dean rolled his eyes and signaled for Sam and Bobby to join him in a corner of the room, near his desk. Rhaya could see the captain's head moving back and forth, as if to consider what each man had to say. Suddenly, one of them must have said something he didn't care for, because Rhaya could see the color of his face and his breathing had changed. The red in his face continued to get deeper, while his chest was heaving up and down, trying to contain his anger. Finally, Dean threw his hands in the air and marched over to where Rhaya was still standing.

"Here's the deal. I'm not saying I don't believe everything you've said. However, I also don't think we've been given the whole story yet. If your fiancé is out to get you, we can protect you, but every member of this crew has a job to do. Nowhere in anyone's job description does it say they are to wait on you hand and foot. You want something? Take care of it yourself," Dean retorted as he moved towards the door.

"I can take care of myself, Captain. I am not some helpless 'damsel in distress'. My father saw to it that I was educated in the ways of the blade, be it sword or dagger. The captain of his guard, whom I've known since I was a child, taught me hand-to-hand combat techniques. Believe me, I will not be a detriment to your crew," Rhaya shot back.

Captain Dean stopped in his tracks, turned and faced Rhaya, then broke out into laughter. "Your father gave you access to sword training and hand-to-hand combat lessons? I'll believe that when I see it," Dean challenged between bouts of laughter, then resumed his path out of his quarters.

Rhaya plucked the dagger from her side holster and whipped it in Dean's direction. It sailed through the air, snatching the hat clean off of his head. The hat stuck to the doorway as if on a hook, the blade of Rhaya's dagger embedded in the heavy oak doorframe.

Dean slowly turned around, in case more blades were headed in his direction. Rhaya stood with her arms crossed over her chest, one eyebrow raised in challenge to the captain. He looked over to the side and saw Sam and Bobby staring at the floor, neither daring to make eye contact. Sam's shoulders were quivering as if in laughter, while Bobby was shaking his head.

"Um, Dean? Don't forget your hat," Sam sputtered before dissolving into laughter.

"Shut up, Sam!" Dean growled then slammed the door on his way out.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The nerve of that woman! Dean's mind screamed at him. How dare she throw a dagger at me and ruin a perfectly good hat in the process! he inwardly ranted. A part of him, albeit a small one, tried to remind Dean that he sort of pushed the issue by insinuating that Rhaya was some helpless female. The larger part of him told the smaller part to back off, that as captain, he has many lives counting on him. He doesn't have time to babysit a woman, nor does he need one getting in the way on deck.

Dean stood at the rail and stared out over the open water, wondering what his next steps should be concerning Rhaya. That gave the smaller part of him a chance to spark the memory of Rhaya's flashing eyes as she challenged him. To recall her now-loosely braided strawberry gold hair, with pieces falling out and perfectly framing her face.

The smaller part of his conscience grew larger as it pointed out her pretty pink lips. Dean smiled as he could almost see the words that flew from them while she defended herself against his assumptions about her skills. He wondered if they feel as soft as they--no, no, he couldn't think along those lines, not with so much at stake.

If even half of what Rhaya said about her fiancé was true, then Dean resolved to do whatever was necessary to protect her. He was well-acquainted with guys like Ashton Kane with money and power. The ones who think they can do anything they want, treat people however they want, with no consequences. It was only a matter of time before someone would come looking for Rhaya. Ashton would no doubt have an armada and scores of men to back him up, for which Dean and his crew needed to be ready.

Dean recalled that Rhaya had mentioned a treasure map, one that Ashton was itching to get his hands on so he could seize the governorship. He suspected Rhaya had stolen it before Ashton could do so, and Dean hoped that she'd brought it with her. Of course, Dean couldn't come out and ask her about it, not with the way he handled the discussion in his quarters. She had no reason to trust him, at least not yet, so he would have to work to earn her trust.

Before leaving the rail, he shook his head and chuckled to himself at the way Rhaya chose to prove her weapons skills. At least she'd shown that she can protect herself and defend others if necessary. Maybe it won't be so bad after all, having a woman aboard ship, he thought.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Darcy knocked on Rhaya's door to let her know it was time to start the day. "My lady? It's time to rise and come down for breakfast," she called through the door. Not hearing a sound, she decided to walk in, already accustomed to seeing whatever state of undress Rhaya was in. Darcy was sent upstairs by Lady Carissa to fetch Rhaya, and there would be consequences if Rhaya failed to join the family for breakfast.

Slowly approaching the bed, Darcy noticed that Rhaya was sleeping on her side, but facing away from the door. This was unusual, because Rhaya told Darcy once that she preferred to face the door so she could see whoever was entering her room. "Rhaya, darling, it's time to get up and get dressed. Your stepmother says you have a busy day ahead of you," Darcy announced.

Darcy sat down in the empty space at the edge of the bed. She reached over to give Rhaya a shake, but her hand sunk into softness instead of a solid body. Darcy gasped in surprise then pulled back on the blanket to reveal a wall of pillows arranged to look like Rhaya was sleeping. She jumped up from her place on the bed and began to pace the room. "Oh, this is bad. This is bad, this is very, very bad," Darcy mumbled.

Suddenly, Darcy hears Carissa shouting at the guards in the hallway. "I don't care if Rhaya's not dressed, we have a mountain of work ahead of us in planning this wedding!" Carissa barked shrilly. She burst through the solid oak door so forcefully that it banged against the adjacent wall. "Where is she? Why isn't she out of bed and dressed?" Carissa demanded.

"She's not here, my lady. I only came in here a few moments ago to find that this--" Darcy gestured to the wall of pillows--"wasn't her," she explained.

"WHAT?!?" Carissa shrieked. "When did this happen? Did she get out of the mansion?? If so, she must have had help; did you help her?? Where is she??" Her questions were fired off in rapid succession, without giving Darcy a chance to answer.

"I don't know when it happened, my lady. Last night was the last time I saw her; however, I did not help her, if indeed she left the estate. As far as if or how she got out, I know that this mansion was built with a few secret passageways. Rhaya must have found one that led beyond these walls and used it last night," Darcy surmised.

Carissa's eyes narrowed as she focused on Darcy. "So. You were the last person to see her last night. You reported to me that she was not feeling well and that she was turning in early. For that reason, you said she was not to be disturbed. Now Rhaya's gone, and you expect me to believe you had nothing to do with it?" Carissa inquired, the volume of her voice increasing with each passing moment.

But Darcy refused to be intimidated by the blustering woman, standing defiantly before Carissa. "Exactly, my lady. I had no prior knowledge of Rhaya's plan to sneak out of the mansion. I sensed that she was not quite herself, but Rhaya running away was the last thing I thought would happen," she replied.

"Well, Rhaya needs to be found and brought back here. Mark my words, this wedding will go forward," she vowed.

It was becoming clear to Darcy that Carissa didn't care whether or not Rhaya wanted to get married, let alone to someone like Ashton Kane. She wasn't sure about the governor's opinion on Rhaya's marriage, but Darcy was aware that Carissa was accustomed to getting her way. "If you'll excuse me, my lady, I must speak with the governor. I should be the one to let him know that his daughter is missing," she remarked.

Carissa dismissed Darcy with an annoyed wave of her hand, her mind in a frenzy. She was trying to figure out her next move, including when to inform Ashton about the disappearance of his fiancée. He would no doubt be furious with Carissa for letting this happen. At that point, she would remind Ashton just how important it will be to get a handle on Rhaya's independent streak and remove it.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rhaya followed Sam down the corridor to an isolated part of the ship where her quarters would be, while Bobby walked behind Rhaya. Along the way, Bobby sent a scathing glare towards any of the crew members who even looked as if they were about to make an inappropriate remark. The last thing anyone wanted was for Rhaya to be made to feel any more uncomfortable around an all-male crew.

"All right, here we are, Miss Payton, home sweet home," Sam announced. He had been carrying her bag on his shoulders as if it weighed nothing, whereas to Rhaya, it held her whole life. "You have your bed, a small sink and toilet set-up, shower is down the hall. Not many of the crew venture down into this area, so you should have the place to yourself. You still may want to, you know, cover up just in case," Sam added nervously.

Rhaya giggled at Sam's remark, then sobered. "Thank you, I'll remember that. And please, call me Rhaya," she replied. After a beat, "Captain Dean doesn't think too much of me, does he?" she ventured softly.

Bobby placed a warm hand on her shoulder. "Give 'im a chance, kid. He's a good man, as are most of the crew serving on board The Black Diamond. Later on, we'll take you up on deck and introduce you to everyone," he stated. "For now, just get settled in, unpack some stuff if you want, take a nap, do whatever. I'll be back to get you in a couple of hours or so," he promised.

Rhaya nodded and watched as the two men departed her quarters. "Bobby? Sam?" she called and both men turned to face her. "Thank you. I don't know what you usually do with people caught stowing away on your ship, but I appreciate you taking a chance on me." They nodded in response then continued on their way, with Bobby closing the door behind him.

As soon as the door was closed, Rhaya flopped backwards onto her cot and stared at the ceiling. No matter how glad she was to be away from Ashton and Carissa, all she could think of was those she'd left behind to deal with the aftermath. Rhaya only hoped that none of Carissa's and Ashton's displays of anger would escalate. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if her leaving resulted in any harm to be suffered by those she loved most, namely her father and Darcy.

So far, she had been introduced to only a couple of crew members, outside of the Captain, First Mate, and Bobby. The two men who had found her hiding in the lifeboat, Balthazar and Gabriel, were also the ones who had led her to Captain Dean's quarters. And they couldn't be more different from one another.

Balthazar was fairly aloof, there to do a job and not mess around. Rhaya could tell that Gabriel was going to be a handful, though, in that he was handsome, and he knew it. That could turn into a problem for Rhaya because Ashton was like that, to such a degree that he was impossible to be around. At least Gabriel appeared to know his limits with the people around him, although she was sure he had a solid reputation as a shameless flirt.

Captain Dean was a bit more complicated. He gave Rhaya the initial impression that he's a stern but fair captain. However, she was angry at the way he assumed she was nothing more than a helpless female, incapable of taking care of herself. Well, Rhaya thought, I'll just have to prove that I can make a valuable contribution, or at least know enough to stay out of the way. At that last thought, her eyes slowly drifted closed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Darcy left Rhaya's room and walked down the stairs towards the governor's study. She was not looking forward to delivering the news to Governor Payton of Rhaya's disappearance. Especially since she couldn't pinpoint the exact time that Rhaya would have sneaked away from the mansion. No way to know how long Rhaya had been gone to know how far of a head start she'd managed to gain in her travels. Darcy shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts and focus on what she came here to do. She had to inform the governor that his daughter was missing.

"Come in," Governor Payton called when Darcy knocked on his door.

Darcy cracked open the door and was dismayed to see Ashton Kane and Damon Sharpe were also in attendance. This just got ten times harder, Darcy thought. She cleared her throat before speaking. "I'm so sorry to bother you Governor Payton, gentlemen, but there's something you need to know. When I went to get Rhaya ready for the day, she was.... not in her room. In fact, she's nowhere to be found," Darcy finished, glancing from man to man, trying to gauge their reaction.

Ashton was the first to speak. "How do you know she's 'nowhere to be found', did you check every room in the mansion?" he retorted.

"No, Lord Ashton, I have not, but--" Darcy started but Damon cut her off.

"Then how do you know she's not playing some sort of game with you? Really, Governor, we have many more important things--" Damon remarked but this time he was interrupted.

"Excuse me. Darcy has been a trusted member of my staff and friend to Rhaya for most of her life. If she says Rhaya isn't here, then this is a serious matter, and we need to find out where Rhaya is and why she left," Governor Payton explained. Narrowing his gaze to Ashton and Damon, "Nothing is more important to me than my daughter. You'd both do well to remember that, gentlemen," he warned.

Ashton gave a slight bow in acknowledgement. "Our apologies, Governor Payton. If it would help, I know of a man who's a specialist in this sort of situation. He may be able to assist us in finding Rhaya and bringing her home," Ashton offered.

"The sooner she is found, the better I'll be able to sleep at night," the governor replied. "Please, contact your specialist. In the meantime, Darcy, would you please accompany me to the kitchen? I'm guessing you haven't had your breakfast yet, so let's go take care of that," Darius suggested.

Darcy nodded and when the governor rose from the seat at his desk, she gently took his elbow and guided him towards the door. Once the door closed, Ashton let out a growl of frustration at Rhaya's disappearance. As beautiful as he thought she was, her ability to get into and cause trouble was almost equal to that beauty. He knew she was unhappy about the engagement; therefore, he should've suspected she would go to extremes to ensure it didn't happen.

"Contact Lucifer Morningstar," Ashton ordered. "He's an old friend of mine, knew him by the name, 'Nick', but Lucifer is the name he's professionally known by," he explained.

"And you think he can find Rhaya?" Damon asked. He was standing behind the governor's desk, examining a picture of the governor and his daughter.

"Lucifer has contacts in nearly every major port from here to the ends of the earth. If Rhaya stowed away on some ship that recently left from here, he can find her. Whatever ship she's on, they’ll have to stop somewhere and resupply themselves at some point. And when they do, Lucifer's eyes and ears will report back to him, then he will return Rhaya to me," Ashton muttered.

Ashton dug into his pocket and pulled out a gold coin, then flipped it to Damon, watching as it sailed out of the man's hand. Damon bent down to pick it up, and when he looked up, he saw the key attached to the underside of the desk drawer. Damon detached the key and rose to his feet, holding the key out to Ashton for inspection.

"Where did you find this?" Ashton whispered. Damon told him, and Ashton hurried over to the desk. He began to examine the locks on each of the drawers, to see which one might fit the key in his hand. He inserted the key to the lock on the top left drawer, only to find it wouldn't turn, so he moved to the next drawer below it. To his surprise, the key turned, and the drawer opened.

Ashton carefully rifled through the paperwork, then noticed a cardboard tube hidden under one of the stacks of papers. He lifted it out of the drawer and opened it only to find that it was empty. Ashton was furious, because it meant that someone had gotten to the map before him and taken it from its hiding place. His only suspect was Rhaya, which made him even more determined to find her and relieve her of the map. "Contact Lucifer. Tell him I will pay 50,000 gold coins for the return of my wayward fiancée," he growled. "Dead or alive."

Damon's eyes grew wide at the mention of such a large sum of money and at Ashton's last instruction. "Yes, sir," he whispered. "I will tell him."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lucifer was standing on the docks watching the last of the cargo being loaded onto his ship, The Red Dragon. His crew, known as "The Savage Demons", were making sure everything was secure on and below deck. They were known as the most ruthless band of pirates roaming the seas, and not above using questionable means to achieve their goals.

First Mate Chuck Shurley walked up to his captain to deliver a message. He had been contacted by his old friend, Damon Sharpe, on behalf of his employer, Lord Ashton Kane. "'Scuse me, Captain, but I have a message for you. A job opportunity, if you will, Sir," he mentioned.

"Oh, really?" Lucifer murmured, without looking up from his paperwork. "And what exactly is this 'job opportunity'?" he asked.

Chuck relayed what Damon had told him about Rhaya's disappearance, and how Lord Ashton is anxious to see her returned to him, dead or alive. "She's his fiancée," Chuck added.

"An arrangement that no doubt favors Lord Ashton much more than Lady Rhaya," Lucifer drawled. "What's the catch? There has to be one, because no one asks for my help just to track down someone's fiancée without some ulterior motive."

Chuck nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, Damon did say that she stole something of value from her father's desk. Lord Ashton wasn't specific in any description of the item, though," he replied. "He's willing to pay 50,000 gold coins for the return of his fiancée and the item."

At the mention of the reward, Lucifer's interest was piqued. "Interesting," he murmured. He knew of Lord Ashton's greed, and his obsession to find The Shadow Pirate's treasure. Could it be that the Lady Rhaya found the map and took it? Is it possible that she means to find the treasure and keep it for herself? he wondered. Oh, that will not do at all, Lucifer thought.

After a few moments' consideration, "Very well, send word to Damon and Lord Ashton that we accept this assignment. Should Lady Rhaya have the item in her possession, we'll take it off of her hands and turn her over to Lord Ashton. We'll tell him Lady Rhaya lost or destroyed it, then we leave port 50,000 coins richer," he finished.

"I'll leave word here to be sent back to Damon, then we can be off," Chuck affirmed.

Lucifer nodded, and Chuck returned to the port office to send his message. A possible treasure hunt, with a fiancée retrieval on the side, he grinned to himself. Just the sort of thing to get the blood moving. It's a pirate's life for me, he thought with a smirk.

Part 3 here!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tags:

@janicho88 @yourelivingwrong @akshi8278 @magssteenkamp @lyarr24 @hobby27 @deanwanddamons @jessica-noel94 @jensengirl83 @wayward-dreamer @idreamofplaid @like-a-bag-of-potatoes @winchesterprincessbride @ejlovespie @deandreamernp @emoryhemsworth @never--doubt @winchest09 @watermelonlipstick @makeadealwithdean @krazykelly @imherefordeanandbones @rooweighton @colereads @soaringeag1e @sams-sass @phoenixisred

#pirate!dean x ofc #pirate!dean au #treasure quest

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foreveralwaysanauthor · 8 months

Text

Jade's Basic Info

Name: Jade Elizabeth Ashton

Faceclaims for Jade were pretty easy to come by. For the 60s, Barbara Bouchet (Casino Royale). For the 80s, Heather Locklear (Firestarter). For the 90s, Julia Stiles (10 Things I Hate About You). And for now, we have a singer named Kailee Morgue.

Nicknames: JJ, Jay, Casper (normally by Erica because of her super pale, ghostly-white skin), and Smartass (also by Erica, but their friends sometimes call her that as well)

Age: 18

Date of Birth: October 19

Zodiac: Libra

Birthstone: Pink tourmaline and opal

Nationality: English, German, French, and American

Sexuality: Bisexual

Birthplace: Manhattan, New York

Current Residence: Lakeport, Laconia, NH

Occupation: Cheerleading captain, lead singer in Blissful Chaos, and cashier at Tilly’s in the mall

Talents/Skills: Roller skating, jewelry making, singing, playing cello, and forging signatures

Birth order: Third of five

Siblings: Connor William (21), Amber Olivia (19), Opal Anna (13), and Ruby Jane (10)

Parents: Jackson Harold Ashton and Audrey Madeleine Hastings

Signature:

Height: 5’4”

Race: White

Eye Color: Brown

Hair Color: Naturally blonde, but dyed green

Glasses or contact lenses: Has distance glasses but only wears them when driving (which is rarely ever)

Distinguishing features: Tiny music notes tattoo behind her right ear and a tattoo of a marigold and a cosmo flower on her hip

Mannerisms: She never sits still - whether it’s bouncing her foot or tapping her nails, she has to be moving, she can’t sleep without either an air conditioner or a fan on, if she doesn’t have gel polish on, she will bite her nails as far down as possible, and she often stares off into space as she thinks through things in her head, but says the result out loud, confusing almost everyone around.

Health: She was born with one kidney, but she doesn’t drink a lot of alcohol, so it doesn’t bother her much.

Hobbies: Roller derby, photography, wood carving and burning, snowboarding, and soccer

Greatest flaw (in their opinion): How easily she spirals into overthinkin and stressing about people’s feelings toward her. While she normally pulls off the easygoing, laid-back attitude, she is anything but. After years of being the cast-aside middle child who strove for her parents’ attention and spent her days and nights praying for perfection that never came, it is overwhelmingly easy for her to revert back to how she used to be - an overthinking, overstressed child hoping to impress those around her to gain their affection.

Best quality (in their opinion): Her intellect, both in the normal sense and in the emotional sense. While she was great in school and had near-perfect grades since she started, Jade believes there was more to it. She loved being able to help others who couldn’t understand things in classes without making them feel stupid. Despite being one of the head cheerleaders, she always tried to be aware of who she was around and how to make them feel comfortable around her so they knew they had her as a friend - without statuses or cliques getting in the way.

Biggest fear: Abandonment. While growing up, her family’s main focus was on her siblings and Jade was cast aside. Connor excelled at anything academic, Amber was a gifted musician, Opal was the dancer, Ruby was the artist, and Jade was just Jade. She wasn’t gifted in any one thing and, while she was successful in academics and music, it wasn’t anything her parents didn’t already have, effectively casting her aside. After being left at school more than once and forgotten at home while her family vacationed in Europe, abandonment settled in her bones, leaving her feeling empty. Meeting Erica and her friends, being roped into their band, and finding a place to belong, gave Jade the sense of family that she had missed since she was a child. Now, the fear of that being taken away keeps her up at night.

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Favorite ice cream: Neopolitan

Favorite color: Green

Favorite number: 8, the number of times it took Erica to convince her to audition for the band

Favorite songs: The Night We Met by Lord Huron, Are You Satisfied? by MARINA, Family Line by Conan Gray

A place they want to visit: Reykjavík, Iceland

#character info

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redjennies · 2 years

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I 100% agree that PCs shouldn't be dying like this to further another character's development. I wouldn't like it for any character but I'm already lukewarm bordering on uninterested in Imogen, no flack to Laura, so not my cup of tea.

Credit to Matt where credit is due, he does a lot for these stories and elements that seem rough or odd can turn around, but oh boy. If he can turn this around I'll be impressed because this was so railroaded (derogatory). Otohan was designed to jump around the map and had no trouble reading the Hells' minds so any attempt at negotiating could just become: I'm going to steal the information from your head and continue killing because Imogen still hasn't done what I wanted. Once they entered that encounter, barring miracle rolls, they weren't getting out until they were let out.

Then there's the final wisdom save which felt like an "oh shit if I don't do something the whole party is going to die" decision. Because yes it made sense for the character but it took the decision to not let go out of Laura's hands because killing her friends apparently wasn't motivating Imogen to pick the "right answer" and if she didn't let go the rest of the party would be taken down because Otohan is just Like That apparently.

It was just frustrating.

was kinda holding onto this one because it is honestly summing up everything I feel about the situation once I put my emotions aside.

the one thing I'll extrapolate on is as you touched on, I don't think Matt is a bad DM. I think Matt is normally a very good DM but this was bad DMing and I think these almost rookie-ieh cheap tactics are beneath his ability. this was bad DMing regardless of anything else. there were ways to up the stakes, there are ways to kill player characters, without doing -- *gestures broadly* that. I saw someone describe this combat as "feeling like a cut scene where you're supposed to lose" and I fully agree. this was some Kai Leng from Mass Effect 3 bullshit and that is one of the worst insults I can give a RPG, even more so to a TTRPG. it stops being D&D and starts being just a show when you start doing stuff like this and if people like that, then that's fine for them, but I'm not watching if that's the direction the series is going in. I'm not wasting hours of my life listening to other people argue about what to do next just so combat can become essentially cutscenes. I'm not getting invested in characters who are considered secondary.

like as it dragged on even Laura couldn't stop it and what is the point of roleplay or combat or player choice if we're doing that? I can't get into the whole Poetic Dice Rolls when bad dice rolls are the only way to end it. what should have been a beautiful moment in Imogen and Laudna's relationship, regardless of your read on it, is undercut by Matt making it all feel so forced. Laudna's decisions didn't matter, Chetney's decisions didn't matter, and Imogen's decisions didn't matter. Orym wasn't even given a choice. the only people you can even remotely argue had any agency were Fearne who kept wandering back into the fray and Ashton who successfully ran away. in my book, that's bad DMing no matter how you slice it, and my semi-sincere, semi-passive aggressive apologies for thinking Matt is so much better than that. he made a series of decisions that someone with his experience had to know would piss a bunch of veteran D&D players off and so long as I'm not harassing him over it, it's not really my fault as a viewer for hating it when it's breaking every common sense rule of how to be a DM. it doesn't make him a bad person or the Worst DM Ever, but he really should have thought better than to do something so tacky.

anyway this really is the last of what I have to say about it. I really appreciate everyone thanking me and sending me well wishes in the inbox. 💕 the good has truly outweighed the bad both in the past 24 hours and in the past two years, but this is my stop and I have to get off now.

#but not literally get off because it's my blog and im gonna continue posting nonsense #cr spoilers #asks

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fablesfancies · 1 year

Text

Holiday Card and Bets

Story, the Magicless Prefect of Ramshackle, settles in for a well-earned Holiday Feast with her Dormmates. Together they eat, puzzle over her mystery friend, and partake in the classic pastime of dissecting Someone’s love life.

Warnings :Minor Spoilers for Chapter 4. Mostly fluff and silliness.

“Mystery Dude?” Story frowned as she ran a finger over the mysterious Holiday Card. The quality was undeniable, if an odd choice. The front image showed a gothic style castle with the classic kind of font she’d seen used for Ren Faires and anything branded with knights and Fairytales. The inside was nearly too short and basic for her to make anything of, beyond how pretty the handwriting was. And those two little initials, staring her down.

“I really wish I knew the people from Diasomnia better,” She glanced at the ghosts. “Did any of them live here when the Dorm was still used before?”

“Nah.” Biggs, the round ghost shook his head. “That was long ago. They were thinking of keeping the Freshman unsorted and giving them a year of basics for ease of professors.”

“They were a real high strung lot,” Calloway, the thin one cackled. “I tell you, all I had to do was float past and the whole dorm was running out the doors and leaping out the windows.”

“Wild.” Story snorted. “Are all magicians such big babies?”

“Most young ones,” Ashton, the final ghost, nodded sagely. “I was worried when those Leech boys came. They’re…odd…”

“Guess that makes me odd too,” She sighed. “But that doesn’t solve who in Diasomnia would give me a Holiday Card…”

“Is it really that important?” Grim looked up from the can of tuna he’d been devouring. “It’s just a card.”

Well for Grim it was. Story looked back to the swirling script. Someone had taken the time to get her a card–not even her friends had done that much. Granted, Ace and Deuce ran to her side as soon as she called, but still…There was something intensely sentimental about being thought of. Especially being so far away from home…

“Why do you assume it’s a student from Diasomnia anyway?” Biggs asked, biting into a turkey leg.

“Lilia’s the Vicewarden,” She hummed, grateful for the distraction. “While he’s pretty friendly with most people, I get the impression that most dorms steer clear of interacting with them too much. Even Cater steered clear, and he’s pretty sociable.”

“Trey too,” Grim agreed. “But then those guys that came to confront Leona looked really scary.”

“Did they?”

“You don’t know?” Calloway nudged her. “Your brain must’ve really cracked open after the SpellDrive Tournament.”

“I just didn’t find them scary.” Story laughed. “At least, no more than anyone else around here.”

“Don’t tell me you’re scared of most magicians!” Biggs looked horrified.

“More like it’s the most natural thing in the world to be a bit afraid of someone who has the ability to hurt you.” She leaned back against the couch. “It’s their character that determines how actually afraid of them I am. So far, I’d say the guys I’ve met from that dorm are...a little aloof, but not what I’d call scary. No more than the Leech brothers or Jamil. Probably less.”

“Did either of them have those initials?” Ashton suggested. “Maybe they wanted to thank you for your help! Or maybe one of them likes ya?”

Story scowled at the suggestion. “Nah. Both of them had ‘S’ names. Silver and Seb…something…”

“Drat.” He sighed, swishing his grape juice like wine.

“Maybe it stands for Magical…Dealer?”

“Azul would just sign his name,” Grim grunted.

“And pick a more ostentatious card.” Story agreed. “I’m not sure who it’s from…”

“Looks like a master of Watercolor.” Ashton observed. “I think it’s handmade.”

“Curiouser and curiouser…”

“Master of Divination?” Biggs suggested.

“Minister of Druids.” Calloway added a guess.

“Druids don’t have ministers,” Ashton rolled his eyes. “Maybe it stands for My Dear!”

“Stop trying to add in a new party to the bet!” Biggs complained.

“Bet?” Story glanced at Grim.

“We’re betti’n on who you go out with.” The monster offered, digging into the turkey. “Biggs thinks it’s Deuce.”

“Excuse me?” She stared at her dormmates in disbelief.

“Oh-ho!” Calloway crowed brightly. “So Ace then…”

“I’m telling you,” Grim waved a free paw at the ghosts. “Story’s cream of the Crop! Not just anyone can win the heart of a noble Prefect!”

“Who’d he bet on?” Story glanced to Ashton.

“That Jack Fella.”

“Right!” The monster nodded. “Now that’s the kinda guy who’d make sure his girlfriend and her dormmates were fed, no matter what. He’s principled like that.”

“Meanwhile Crewel’s thinking it’s a boy called Epel.” Ashton continued. “Presuming it’s a yearmate–otherwise he thinks it’ll be Vil.”

“Wait–the Teachers too?!”

“And the Headmage,” Biggs added. “He thinks you’d go for another Prefect, but he won’t say which one.”

“Isn’t that cheating?” Story squinted.

“As long as it’s not any of the ones the other’s bet on.” Calloway cackled. “I think he means the one from Iginhyde.”

“Right, because we’ve clearly met.” She laughed.

“Vargas thinks it’s gonna be Jamil.” Biggs carried on. “And Trien’s set on Trey.”

“I…” Story shook her head. “Doesn’t anyone have anything better to do?”

“Sam thinks you’ve got a thing for Ruggie,” Grim added, ignoring her protests. “I tried to tell him it was a terrible bet, but if he wants to lose, that means more food for me!”

“Oh!” Biggs brightened. “And Lucifer says Leona.”

“Oh come on!” Story threw her hands up. “The cat’s betting too?!”

“And Ashton’s going on about how none of us are right.” Calloway glared. “Picked a candidate yet?!”

“A boy from Diasomnia.” Ashton grinned. “I’ll change my answer with Crowley when he returns.”

“I…” She shook her head helplessly. “Sure. Why not? You guys figure out my love life while I keep this campus from falling apart at the seams.”

“Will do!” Calloway laughed. “Don’t you worry, Story. You’ve got all the time in the world to decide.”

“This is worse than Thanksgiving with my great Aunt Carol.” She groaned. “No betting on future kids.”

“About that…” Biggs began.

“Oh, come on!”

#twisted wonderland #twst wonderland #twst #twst yuu #twst oc #twst grim #twst ghosts #ramshackle dorm #drabble #fluff

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