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bi-bard · 10 months

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If I Could Leave, I Would've Already Left - Luca Imagine [The Bear]

Title: If I Could Leave, I Would've Already Left

Pairing: Luca X Reader

Based On: Paul Revere

Word Count: 1,413 words

Warning(s): mention of breakdown/mental health issues

Summary: When Luca left for Copenhagen, he didn't mean to leave (Y/n) completely on their own. After years of not talking, he finally finds that nerve to reconnect with them, deciding to invite them out to visit. At first, all seems well, but something is clearly off... Luca just has to get (Y/n) to admit that.

Author's Note: I changed who this story was going to be about so I could give y'all this. Don't say that I don't do anything for you.

NOAH KAHAN - STICK SEASON [WE'LL ALL BE HERE FOREVER] WRITING CHALLENGE MASTERLIST

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I felt a pit in my stomach as I walked to the door of the restaurant.

This wasn't even my place of employment. I had no obligations or expectations here, but I still had raging anxiety sitting in my chest.

Maybe it was the association I had with early rising and restaurant doors. Maybe it was the memories of yelling and pressure and intensity. Maybe it wasn't related to any of that. Maybe it was all just fear over seeing someone that I hadn't seen in a while that meant the world to me.

I shook my head, trying to calm myself down. It wasn't successful.

Once I accepted that I couldn't just dismiss my anxiety, I picked up my hand and knocked on the door.

I stepped backward, taking a few more deep breaths.

The front door opened suddenly. I felt a need to collapse to the ground when I saw Luca in the doorway. I fought that need.

"Hey," I said awkwardly, messing around with the strap of my duffel bag.

"You made it," he replied happily, stepping forward to hug me tightly. I closed my eyes as I hugged him back. "I told you to call me when you were on your way. I would have made plans to get you settled."

"I know, I know," I muttered as I stepped back.

"I'll call someone in, so I can get you set up in the guest room-"

"No, no," I shook my head. "I came here to see where you're working. That was your offer."

He chuckled. "Well, come on in then."

I followed him into the restaurant. I looked around at the sparkling location. Shining counters, organized inventory, the blue sign just under the clock that read 'Every Second Counts'.

"What do you think," he asked.

"It's beautiful," I mumbled, still looking around the entire building.

"Oh, believe me, this is nothing," he waved it off. I looked back at him. "Well, nothing when compared to the quality of the food."

I chuckled. "Impress me."

"I always do."

He tapped a part of the steel tabletop so I could stand across from him. He continued working while I put my bag down next to me.

It felt weird to watch someone else cook. I had grown so accustomed to running around the kitchen and getting as much work done as physically possible. But now, I was standing there, twiddling my thumbs. It just felt... wrong.

"Do you... Do you need help with anything," I asked.

"No, no," he shook his head. "I am making something for you. You are on a trip."

I held my hands up. "Alright, alright."

The silence after that was nice.

It was the first time since getting on the flight that I didn't find myself fixated on the work that I was missing. I was finally letting myself breathe. I couldn't relax fully. I don't think that I had the ability to. It was still momentary bliss.

"How've you been," Luca said after a while.

"Good, good," I replied, playing it as polite. Like I would speak with my relatives at big family dinners and shit like that.

"You're still working in Chicago?"

"I haven't worked there in a while," I explained. "I moved to New York. Carmen Berzatto apparently mentioned my name a while ago."

"He did?"

I nodded.

"I don't remember him ever being that kind... did he have a change of heart?"

"Honestly, I think it was an accident."

Luca laughed, having to stop what he was doing for a few moments. "That sounds more like him."

I chuckled with him.

"But New York is good?"

"Yeah, yeah. It's the dream, right? The big-time restaurant and the fancy guests."

"I guess so."

His eyes moved to me. I saw them trace me, looking for a sign of... something. I shifted a bit in my spot, grinning at him. I wanted to know what he was looking for. I wanted to know what he was thinking of me.

"How are you doing," he said.

"You asked that already."

"I know but you told me that everything is good yet you're sitting in front of me on a very sudden trip to a different country."

"You invited me out to visit-"

"Yet you didn't tell me when you were on your way."

I froze. He was right.

"What's going on?"

I took a deep breath. "I... I took a leave of absence."

"What," he asked. "Can I ask why?"

"I... I broke," I confessed.

Admitting it felt like some kind of betrayal to myself. I was already dealing with enough guilt from running away from work, but now there was even more guilt because it wasn't just because of my own weakness.

"I was in the kitchen, in the middle of dinner rush, and then everything felt like it froze," I continued. "And I... I couldn't move or talk. I was just... gone. And then, it all hit me at once. I couldn't breathe. Nothing made sense. Everything was going too fast. It just... it wouldn't go back to normal.

"If it had just been that once, then I could have explained it away as nothing. But it just kept happening over and over.

"I could hide it for a while but then, I just kind of snapped. I ran out of the kitchen; I hid in the alley out back and just sobbed. I just remember thinking that I had to get out. So, I decided to take the leave of absence and try to figure out what the fuck was wrong with me."

"I'm sorry," Luca said. "That sounds terrifying."

I just kind of shrugged.

"Are you... Are you seeing a therapist at all?"

"I have an appointment set for when I get home. I just... I needed something- someone familiar."

Luca stepped out from behind the counter so he could drag me into another tight hug. I closed my eyes, hiding my face in his shoulder. That was the most detail I had told anyone about how I had been feeling.

"Can I ask you something," he asked after a little while. I hummed. "Why don't you just leave entirely?"

I scoffed as I stepped back. "And go where?"

"I don't know... here?"

I shook my head.

"I could put in a good word-"

"I can't do that," I stopped him. "I can't just run away."

"Why not?"

"Do you have any idea how hard I have worked for this?" I snapped. "How much of my life has been dedicated to this?"

"That doesn't mean that you have to end up hurting yourself!"

"You don't get it!" I stepped even farther away. "I don't just do this for me. New York is the best place for me to make everyone happy. It's for my family whether it be supporting them or giving my mom a chance to see her dream that she didn't get to pursue or for my dad to get the chance to be proud of me. All of this goes so far beyond me! It's not that I don't want to leave! I can't!"

Luca didn't reply.

"I... I look at my parents and all I can think of is how disappointed they'd be if I didn't keep going, keep pushing myself."

"I'm... I'm sorry."

I looked away before stubbornly wiping away any tears that found their way to my eyes. "I'll... I'll leave it all one day. I'll leave all of it behind and find something that doesn't terrify me as much, but I just... I can't yet. I can't."

"I shouldn't have pushed so hard," he replied. "I... I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," I mumbled, running my hands over my face. "Can we just... Can we focus on literally anything else?"

He nodded, going to step around the counter again. "I've thought about you a lot over the last few years."

"Really," I asked.

"Yeah. I... I always felt... wrong for leaving the way that I did. I felt like I had abandoned you."

"If it helps, I never thought that. I just hoped that you were happy."

He offered a grin in response.

He started working again.

As silence surrounded us, the air seemed to shift. The weight wasn't gone. I don't think it ever would be. But it was lighter. As if I wasn't holding it on my own anymore.

And maybe that extra pair of hands was all I needed for now.

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Navigation Guide

What I Write For

Some Original Characters

#imagine #x reader #fanfiction #the bear imagine #the bear fanfiction #the bear x reader #luca the bear imagine #luca the bear fanfiction #luca the bear x reader #luca imagine #luca fanfiction #luca x reader #will poulter x reader #will poulter imagine #will poulter fanfiction

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jockoppressor · 1 year

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I’m missing work due to COVID!

I’m employed part time, which means I don’t have paid sick leave. Because of this, I’m going to miss about $140 from my next paycheck. Any help with this means a lot.

For those to whom identity plays a role in donating, I am 1) gay 2) mentally ill & neurodivergent and 3) chronically ill.

I’m also offering services.

Editing/Proofreading: 15¢/word, minimum 100 words. English language only. Editing services limited to liberal arts and creative writing. Qualification: BA in English. DM for details.

Tarot readings: $5 for a 3-card spread, $11 for a 5-card spread, $25 for a 10-card spread. Qualification: Got my first tarot deck over a decade ago. DM for details.

Experienced tabletop RPG guidance with worldbuilding and character creation. $17.50/hour, available through Discord or Telegram as either a voice call or text service. Qualification: Five years as a player; my largest world building document is 28k words long. DM for details.

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V-mo: @almchase89

💵 App: $almchase89

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weavercobra · 9 months

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Hello everyone, ArachCobra here. I've recently been convinced that I should start putting more of my original writing online. I've also written fanfiction and you should be easily able to find that if interested, as I go by the same name on fanfiction.net

So I figured before anything else, I'd do a short introduction to the tabletop setting I currently preside over. A lot of the stories I've written take place in them and go by the assumption that the reader is at least somewhat familiar with the setting, since it was originally meant for my players. Since an outsider would lack that knowledge, decorum dictates that I clarify.

And besides, I love rambling about my settings.

Pathfinder

Based on the setting of the same name, though also diverging heavily in many ways. Characters or species have been tweaked or changed depending on our personal tastes and preferences.

One of the most major changes is the general tech level of the setting. When me and my players got interested in using the setting, we've just come of a streak of medieval fantasy settings.

How long a streak? A fifteen year one, give or take, in between playing Fighting Fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons and 13th Age. So everyone was a bit done with that. So for funsies, the tech level was in general raised to 20th century.

Another major change is all the stuff we've added. We've been stealing with arms and legs from everything we like and you can assume anything statted by @thecreaturecodex is canon and exists somewhere in the world.

In any case, the story focus is on the adventurer's guild called the Mystical Peacekeeping Society(My players decision), a band of eclectic do-gooders who over the year has become synonymous with chaos and upheaval. Most rulers start tugging their collars when they show up, since it doesn't seem to matter how benign or peaceful their purpose is, things will start exploding soon.

Spheres

Created in the wake of a necessary break from Pathfinder. It was heavily inspired by Pathfinder, being a sort of kitchen sink setting where you could run across a number of adventures. The titular spheres are the different worlds, separated by the arcane Mist, which must be navigated to get from sphere to sphere. Technology is generally at late 19th century level.

One of the goals with spheres was to solve a problem I discovered in Pathfinder, that being that things were mapped out. That may seem peculiar, but what I found was that when my players characters involved conjuring up new nations or kingdoms, even small ones, it was very difficult to slot them in anywhere. And the Stolen Lands could only hold so much. So while individual regions in the spheres setting would be mapped, no sphere would ever have a complete map. That way, if my players invented a new nation or something similar, it would be easy to say they were just over those mountains all along.

Shattered Age

This came about from a simple question, how would an open world tabletop look? This setting was designed to maximise the players freedom in what they could do and where they could go.

The settings backstory is that a great, calamitous war happened between the powers of the worlds, one so great and costly that just about everyone agreed that it should never be repeated.

Then two more happened.

This was known as the Age of War, it lasted about four-hundred years and exhausted civilization to the point that all the old kingdoms, coalitions and empires collapsed in on themselves. Civilization is now a number of points of light spread across the world, now slowly piecing things together. I was very much inspired by the idea of a Ghibli apocalypse, a dread event for sure, but one that life can move on from.

Technology is all over the place, as while the previous era was pretty advanced, the collapse meant that many places only has the capacity to sustain things at a medieval or older level. Others have scavenged and restored enough that they can be more advanced, though not producing as much as a modern industrialized society.

Anyway, I gave my players a number of options for where they could start and then basically just let them do what they wanted. Running Shattered Age has been quite educational for me as a gamemaster and has tough me some valuable lessons about how to help players invest in a setting.

Then we have the settings that I'm working on, but haven't run yet.

Panepithumia

The NSFW setting. Started as a running joke whenever someone in the other settings got frisky or thirsty, but over the years my players have gotten both more liberal and more open(The fact that I'm sleeping with three of them probably also helped), so the idea of an actual setting like this began seeming more plausible. And when I finally asked if I should give it a shot, I was told to go ahead.

So the basic idea is to take your typical fantasy medieval setting and just flip the amount of times encounters ends in fighting versus fucking. The different regions of the world appeal to different kinks and interests, with the players being an adventure's guild owning an airship, allowing them to travel around and get themselves involved wherever they want.

Varangian Project

The Varangian Project started out as my own take on urban fantasy, with a focus on solving crimes. However, the project eventually grew far beyond its original scope. A key part of this was the decision to not only include as much mythology as possible, but also canonize as many sources of urban fantasy as possible. Of course, that meant some pruning and adjustments were necessary to make everything work together, but the end result was a strange, bizarre and fascinating world.

It has now become the alternative earth urban fantasy setting, with opportunities to play games set in wildly different periods of times with vastly different themes.

Wild Lands

What if tabletop was also a civilization game? Inspired by various games and tabletop campaigns like Pathfinder: Kingmaker. This campaign not only sees the players doing the usual adventuring stuff but also being responsible for a burgeoning civilization, its management and military.

Gameplay thus exists on two layers, one which is personal and will focus on roleplay, dungeon crawling and battles between small groups, and the other, which focuses on resource management, research and military movements. We refer to those layers as the Strategic and Tactical Layers.

The setting is all over the place, to be frank. You can see knights battling mechs battling zombies battling WW1 tanks. This is because the titular Wild Lands, an endless expanse of land, can have anything and operates by this simple rule.

Everything is true, even if it is contradictory.

I'll update this list as new settings, and there will be more, get added in the future.

#story #tabletop #pathfinder #spheres #shattered age

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waitingforwinterwinds · 1 year

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ASOS; Steel and Snow: 27 DAENERYS III (pages 367-381)

Dany makes a deal with the slave masters of Astapor before deciding they do not spark joy.

Dany sipped tart persimmon wine from a tall silver flute. ... Dany let them argue, sipping the tart persimmon wine and trying to keep her face blank and ignorant.

GRRM needs y'all to know that Dany is sipping the tart persimmon wine. Sorry, I don't know why that's something that jumped out at me, just the specific word repetition I think.

Dany knew what she must do now, though the taste of it was so bitter even the persimmon wine could not cleanse the taste of it from her month. She had considered long and hard and found no other way. It is my only choice. "Give me all," she said, "and you may have a dragon."

Ha! typo, I think GRRM meant "mouth" not "month." But ohhh, persimmon wine coming into play as a gauge, so that's why he needed us to know it was tart.

"The Unsullied will learn your savage tongue quick enough," added Kraznys mo Nakolz, when all the arrangements had been made, "but until such tie you will need a slave to speak to them. Take this one as our gift to you, a token of a bargain well struck." "I shall," said Dany.

Hold up. *toddles off to check the show version of this scene*

Oh. That's interesting.

In the book, Dany's been keeping in mind that she wants all the Unsullied, her internal dialogue even flat out tells us she's prepared to give anything for them from the get go, this is a big important meeting and Dany has all the show ready to go, she's got the fancy titty-out dress, the entourage, she has a plan, no hold bar she's going for it even if she really doesn't want to, she won't be dissuaded, can't risk anyone talking her out of this, possibly because she does still want someone to.

Show Dany... it's a small meeting, feels like a backroom deal rather than something important, and it's not only Barristan but Jorah who tries to talk her out of the dragon plan, more than that Dany is distracted by young slaves who watch from on high and has a moment of seeming connection with one of them before Dany demands Missandei as a token of a deal well struck.

Book Dany already knows what outcome she's after, Missandei is a gift to her, show Dany is being framed as someone who's stubborn but mildly flailing in the moment to find a solution, she's also being presented as having empathy for the slaves around her and I feel like they were trying to frame Dany taking Missandei as attempting to save her.

It's so weird how D&D (the asshats, not the fun tabletop game that just inspired a really fun movie) treat Dany. She has her In Charge moments in the book, and the way D&D try to Girl Boss her, you'd think they would embrace them as they happen, but they don't. They play them down and make up other moments for her which bring a completely different vibe.

"Missandei is no longer a slave. I free you, from this instant. (...) But you may leave my service whenever you choose, if you have a father or mother you would sooner return to." "This one will stay," the girl said. "This one... I... there is no place for me to go. This... I will serve you, gladly."

That does seem to be a common theme in the slaves Dany frees.

"Valar morghulis," said Missandei, in High Valyrian. "All men must die," Dany agreed, "but not for a long while, we may pray."

"But we are not men."

You're also not Éowyn. (Who by the way got her own girlboss upgrade in the Lord of the Rings films, because 'no man can kill a ringwraith' falls into the same prophetic word play as 'no man of woman born' and it helps cover a plot hole, which is that Merry was supposed to have a barrow-blade which was made specifically for fighting dark magical shit.)

Anyway, this falls into that same weird thing D&D do, cause book Dany is again acknowledging that she has limits in a fashion, and saying (metaphorically) that she won't let that stop her until it stops her, and D&D gave it up for cheap girlboss. (Don't get me wrong, the line slaps hard, but in comparison, it just furthers that pileup of weird changes between book Dany and show Dany.)

"- What is it? Why do you care?" "This one does not... I... Your Grace..." "Tell me." The girl lowered her eyes. "Three of them were my brothers once, Your grace."

Oh holy shit. Is that going to be a subplot? could you imagine that subplot??? ... oh no, I've made myself sad. (Also, "fun" fact, show Missandei says "no family living" in the show, these boys are never mentioned.)

"I was alone for a long time, Jorah. All alone but for my brother. I was such a small scared thing. Viserys should have protected me, but instead he hurt me and scared me worse. He shouldn't have done that. He wasn't just my brother, her was my king. Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves?" "Some kings make themselves. Robert did." "He was no true king," Dany said scornfully. "He did no justice. Justice... that's what kings are for."

Where the hell was this in the show? The trauma, the trauma recovery, the self determination, the idealization? The depth and complexity of character? Buffed off for cheap girlbossing.

and it was cheap.

D&D suck at their job = 🥛

... urgh, Jorah's being gross again.

That night she dreamt she was Rhaegar, riding to the Trident. But she was mounted on a dragon, not a horse. When she saw the Usurper's rebel host across the river they were armored all in ice, but she bathed them in dragonfire and they melted away like dew and turned the Trident into a torrent.

armoured in ice you say?

vision or emotional/mental buffering = 🥛

I'm just saying, this could be her processing her progress, limited though it is in the moment, manifesting as an idea of her doing what her much lauded oldest brother couldn't, but the fact they're armoured in ice like an Other makes me wonder.

... omg Quiathe used speakerphone, it was very alarming! did she dreamwalk or astral project or is she just a ghost now?

ngl, "to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow." does say "head to Asshai-by-the-shadow" even more when I remember it's where R'hllor's cult lives. You know, Melisandre's boss, the Lord of Light?

If I look back I am lost, Dany told herself the next morning as she entered Astapor through the harbor gates.

iilbial = 🥛

and Dany's dressed to the nines in her warrior regalia, we're being reminded of how the Undying and the Qartheen fucked around and found out in preparation for what's about to go down.

... I feel like it says a lot about Astaporian society that their Plaza of Pride isn't big enough to host the entire Unsullied, by their Plaza of Punishment is.

Dany handed the slaver the end of Drogon's chain. In return he presented her with the whip. The handle was black dragonbone, elaborately carved and inlaid with gold.

dragonbone =🥛

... why twelve? does that include twelve, or nah? why not thirteen? is there some ceremony of manhood at thirteen? ... I hope the Unsullied are better at telling people's ages than I am.

Also just to clarify: does every freeborn man in Astapor own slaves? cause I remember, at the start of this chapter Dany made specific mention that tokar were garments freeborn folk wore but the way she's laying orders here "every man who wears a tokar or holds a whip" makes it sound like tokars are a symbol of slave owners, so does every freeborn man own slaves, or are the few non-slave owners an acceptable sacrifice as far as Dany's concerned.

(also, do women not wear tokar or are lady slave owners exempt?)

#a storm of swords #steel and snow #a song of ice and fire #daenerys targeryan #a chapter a day reading #asos #asoiaf

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dndeed · 2 years

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Crit Role Miniature Rollout: C3E30 Reunion & Revelation

With Andrew Harshman

An archive and analysis of the minis used on CR.

It’s a regular badlands rumble! Exciting times. We are getting some really unique encounters in this stretch of the campaign. It’s fun to see player characters take the piss out of villains. But sometimes it goes too far and takes the seriousness out of an encounter. Not the case here. The tone of this scene was just right for me.

Well that’s one way to open up negotiations, it’s time for Crit Role Miniature Rollout Campaign 3 Episode 30!

The List

Mats by Mars: Parched Earth Tabletop Wargaming Play Mat

Chest and Trove 5E Condition Rings

Monster Fight Club Barren Hills

Monster Fight Club Tree

Monster Fight Club Fallen Tree Trunk

Wizkids Minis: Deep Cuts Wave 4- 2-Wheel Cart

Campaign 3 Party Minis Wizkids Sculpts

Large Crawler sculpted by Wild Mesh

Night Below #27 Assassin

Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica - Companion Starter Set 1 Human Rogue

Maze of Death #07 Pitborn Fighter

Storm King’s Thunder #015 Bandit

Critical Role Miniatures Satyr

Monster Menagerie 3 #06 Goblin

D&D Premium Painted Figure: W4 Human Druid Male

D&D Premium Painted Figure: W5 Halfling Fighter Female

Critical Role Miniatures Rivermaw Stormborn

Waterdeep Dungeon of the Mad Mage #15 Thug Leader

Unknown tree with snake or vine

Assorted scatter terrain

The Nonplayer Characters

Hondir Monster Menagerie 3 #06 Goblin Mini images sourced from minisgallery.com

Lovin’ the outfit on this here goblin. And a little translucent plastic torch fire effect is always welcome in my mini gerblin collection. Great pick for this NPC. Not to victim blame, but maybe if he hadn’t been waving around that road flare looking torch he wouldn’t have been such an obvious gun target.

The Villains

Crawler Gang Fighter D&D Premium Painted Figure: W5 Halfling Fighter Female

So on the one hand, it’s cool to see a high strength halfling miniature, especially one wielding such a haphazard and gritty weapon. But on the other hand, this miniature is pretty lousy. Arguably one of the worst looking Premium Painted models from a casting quality and paint precision perspective. Take a look at the original digital sculpt:

CG render image sourced from nobleknight.com

The finalized miniature looks more like a dwarf than a halfling imo. I thought the neck armor was a beard initially. This sculpt really needed far higher resolution cast fidelity.

Maricris Critical Role Miniatures Rivermaw Stormborn

Ah yes, Riverjaw Strongborn, classic Critical Role character. No wait, that’s not this fella’s name, apparently a Stormborn is a goliath clan designation of some sort. Neato. As someone who has not watched all of Campaign 1, I was not familiar.

So this is an impressive looking goliath model and all, but what does it really add to the prepainted goliath mini-scape? Not much. It looks basically like every other goliath prepaint out there. Furthermore, the pose is not super exciting. But dang does it look epic atop that massive crawler!

Large Crawler Sculpted by Wild Mesh and painted by Iron Tusk Painting Crawler image sourced from Iron Tusk Painting’s Twitter

-though I suppose most miniatures would look epic atop an epic vehicle such as this! Righteous stuff. Digitally sculpted by Wild Mesh, a team of 3D artists responsible for many of the Campaign 3 party and Critical Role miniature sculpts.

Crawler Gang Druid D&D Premium Painted Figure: W4 Human Druid Male

Check out all them stripes! Doesn’t feel very druidy. I kinda thought druids were opposed to angular patterns on principle. Too artificial, too civilized. And that red and white sash? What’s he doin’, runnin’ a barbershop?? Anyway- this mini has a dope billowing cloak and a good paint job. Fine figure.

Crawler Gang Crossbower Waterdeep Dungeon of the Mad Mage #15 Thug Leader

Getting serious anime villain vibes of this dude. Just look at his proportions. And the skull cap he’s wearing looks like bright silver hair! 90s anime goon for sure. Not an amazing model, but it has a certain charm I enjoy. Plus I have a soft spot for crossbowperson miniatures.

Returning Minis

Crawler Gang Dual Wielder Night Below #27 Assassin

Why we haven’t seen the likes of this DDM mini since the Iron Shepherd hideout assault (though it could have possibly been used in a one shot potentially, not 100% sure [I seem to have a vague memory of this mini showing up somewhere, idk]).

Another good billowing cloak. And a good mini to be sure, but that dagger does indeed look like a putty knife or a spoon. I don’t wanna tell an assassin how to do their job, but maybe he should be careful how he’s holdin’ that dagger. The crawler is bound to hit some bumps and you definitely don’t want a knife pointed at your head when the road gets rocky.

Final Thoughts

Sweet combat. Started with a bang and stayed exciting throughout.

See ya next sesh!

#critroleminiaturerollout

#critroleminiaturerollout #criticalroleminiaturerollout #critrole #critical role #criticalrole #crspoilers #wizkids

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sonofdorn-vii · 2 years

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Fatherhood

The barfly had been going on for hours to anyone that would listen. A couple of years back, he said, labouring on a moisture farm for the season out in the Jundland Wastes, he met this boy.Young, maybe 8 or 9. Working every day through the baking Tattooine heat, you start to be invisible to the stuck up farmer and his hick family, unnoticed. But, he added conspiratorially, HE would see things.

Like a young boy, remarkably good with engines and fixing piece of shit droids nobody else wanted. The same boy playing with a BB Blaster behind the house, hitting the rusting cans he was aiming at every single time. No kid is that good, the barfly would declare to nobody in particular. The kid was too young to pilot a T16 Skyhopper, but he did. Take off and landings utterly textbook, even had a little flare like a Veteran pilot showing off. It's odd, he'd continue, though everyone had long since gone back to their drinks.

Wanted posters had been springing up all over Mos Eisely, all a bit vague and non committal as to what they actually wanted. Allusions to people too lucky, too fortunate, too... odd. Talk of a cash reward for any information about unusual behaviour, the Imperials just wanted to keep the peace, or so they claimed. But the barfly was in deep with the Hutts, owed them big. He was gonna talk to the 'perials, he'd slur, get his reward. Nobody cared, nobody was even looking at him anymore, the barfly was well known as a braggart and a liar. He was saying nothing worth listening to, never did.

As he staggered from his stool at the bar, counting his few remaining credits back into the pocket of his worn dustjacket, only one patron in the bar even noticed him leave. This patron was in a booth across the room, half in shadow. The hood of his brown robe up over his head, just the bottom of his face visible in the dim light. Greying hair stubbled his chin, his hidden eyes following the barfly as he tripped up the steps and out the door. Leaving a few credits on the tabletop, the man in the hooded brown robe left the bar silently, just as unnoticed.

The first moon had just risen as the drunk man made his way down the street, stumbling occasionally, still chattering on to himself about the strange boy. Ducking into an alleyway, he began to relieve himself against the wall, not quite able to stand straight.

The man in the brown hood had followed, and silently approached the barfly from behind. Left hand clamped over his mouth, the hooded man stabbed a rusty blade into the barfly's back, aiming for the kidney. Again and again the blade stabbed, the barfly struggled but the calloused hand over his mouth held firm muffling his screams. The barfly stopped struggling quickly, his blood running down his stained trouser legs and soaking into the parched sand of the alley floor. He slumped to the ground, wheezing his last breath, never having seen his attacker, never comprehending what had happened.

The hooded man looked quickly left and right, then sped out of the alley and into the street as fast as he dared, but desperate to escape unnoticed.

The brown robed man was three streets away when he found himself in another alley between two buildings. Breathing hard, he ducked out of sight, the bloody, rusty knife in the deep pocket of his robe. He was shaking badly, his heart hammering in his chest. The barfly knew about Luke. He was going to tell someone who'd listen eventually and they would come for the boy.

Pulling back the hood of his robe, Owen Lars let out a ragged breath, trying to calm himself. They can't take him, he thought, wiping the blood from his hands on his dark robe, they can't take my boy.

#star wars #fanfic #may the fourth be with you #fatherhood

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demoiselledefortune · 2 years

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tagged by @kimievii, thank you <3

fave colour: purple and green

currently reading: Mostly mo dao zu shi and three houses fanfics.

last song: right now Vas and Dead Can Dance

last series: She Hulk and Star Trek Lower Decks

last movie: I don't remember... Strange MOM maybe? Which was very bad.

currently working on: Getting back in preparing tabletop rpg stuff for Exalted. Even though I don't know when we'll find the time to play again (probably october?)

share 10 different favorite characters from ten different pieces of media in no particular order, then tag 10 people 🎥🎬📺

1. Shen Jiu (SVSSS)

2. Tifa (FFVII)

3. Jiang Cheng (MDZS)

4. Shi Qingxuan & Ling Wen (TGCF) I love them equally

5. Fakir (Princess Tutu)

6. Anthy (Revoutionary Girl Utena)

7. Magneto (X-Men)

8. Soren (Tellius)

9. Arvis (Jugdral

10. Shigure (Fruits Basket)

Tagging 10 people is just too much, I never know who to tag ;;; But feel free to do this even if I’m not tagging you! (<- stealing this as well)

Tagging @enbyleighlines, @ultrakatua, @flo-nelja, @krispycreamsicle, @sauvechouris

#meme

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nostalgiachan · 2 years

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Aw ye, time for more OC redraws, this time featuring: Pretty Keyboard Lady Accidental Alcoholic My First D&D Character (aka WHY DID NO ONE ROLL A HEALER OH GOD) and The Angriest Boy

Character lore below the cut!

#21: Selene Lumiere Coueri/Selene Amour Idea: The elegant goth keyboardist Story: D.A.R.K.

Oh my God with that name though, especially with a character whose hometown's in West Virginia. Yet another member with a HIM reference name, this one to bassist Mikko Paananen aka Mige Amour.

Selene is the keyboardist of the band, and as elegant and composed as they come. Both she and the band refer to her as the designated hot chick, though I was careful to point out she's an intellectual and spends most of her non-music time reading. She also only apparently needs glasses when she's performing.

#22: Mige Enkeli Idea: Hard-partying, laid-back drummer Story: D.A.R.K.

Oh, hey, one of the people I named after Finnish men is actually a Finnish man. I don't know if he's the most flattering portrayal of a Finnish man, but I knew fuck-all about Finland at the time. Like Selene, Mige's name comes from, well, Mige the bassist; meanwhile his last name's the Finnish word for angel.

Mige had attended a private school in West Virginia for a few years (which was based on the college prep school I'd attended which was a horrible, shitty place, but it attracted some international students so it gave me an excuse to have a Finnish dude in WV...because I guess I didn't think of exchange programs) and had kept in touch with the friends he'd made there after he returned to Finland. One of them mentioned that his younger sister, Selene, was putting together a band, and Mige was compelled to return to the States and join as their drummer. And it worked out pretty well for him.

Except for the fact that apparently I wrote the man as a chainsmoker and a constant drinker. He's still a nice, chill sort of guy, but Adult Nost is like, "Oh no, I think I wanted 'guy with some vices' but I overshot the mark into 'alcoholic' instead."

I do have one intentional alcoholic, but we'll get to him later probably

#23: Sydan (II) Idea: WHY DID NO ONE ROLL A HEALER? Story: Gamers' Club D&D 3.5e game

Ah, my first tabletop character. For the last two-and-a-half years of high school, I was in the Gamers' Club, a tabletop/TCG/LARP club. We started a D&D 3.5e game and I specifically rolled a character based on what we needed in the party - for some godforsaken reason, nobody rolled a healer, so I made an elven Cleric of Pelor the sun god. That game fuckin' ballooned to, like, 10 characters and our club pres made the terrible decision to split the party about a year in, which took forever to resolve, and some weeks we wouldn't even play because people wanted to play Magic: The Gathering instead, and then one of the players started a villain campaign for the freshmen, so yeah, that shit never concluded before most of us graduated. We tried to set up play-by-post over AIM in the days before Roll20, but we got through one game before it fell apart.

But to tell the story in as much of a nutshell as I can: Sydan was a 106-year old elf who had been adopted by a cleric in a small village, wherein lived Lewar the halfling rogue, Twinkles McGee the half-elf druid, Fred the half-orc barbarian, Monk the Monk (human, I think), and Chaos the human mage. One day, the village was obliterated by a lich and his undead army; our intrepid heroes managed to get some villagers to the undercroft of the church, but everyone else was killed and zombified, including Sydan's adopted father. So, when the coast was clear, the squad led the survivors to the nearest town, Sydan wrangled some shelter and employment for the villagers because she was the only one capable of speaking, I guess (more specifically, I was one of the four players who actually roleplayed), and they set out to figure out just how the hell to take the lich down.

This is about the clearest part of the story I remember beyond brief moments like a dwarven bard managing to castrate a hydra with a spear; Sydan giving the later half-elf ranger a phobia of celestial summons because he failed a perception check as they were falling out of the sky and she summoned a celestial griffin to save them both; asking if Sydan could use Monk's ability to turn his skin to diamonds as a catalyst for resurrection spells (No); and our DM having to deus ex me a bunch of diamonds because a squad of party members managed to get themselves killed almost to a man during a fight.

As for Sydan herself, I'd intended for her main goal to be putting her undead father to rest and avenging the village, but as I said, we never managed to get there. I played her as a nice, polite, helpful young woman who was a dutiful cleric, but had her little quirks like being obsessed with rapiers and having an occasional spiteful streak. But BOY OH BOY, it's hard to roleplay with that many goddamn people at once, only four of whom tended to pay attention.

#24: Enosin "Sin" Alexander Idea: Former loyal soldier of the dictatorship turned rebel, secretly a living weapon, SECRETLY secretly a DOOMSDAY weapon Story: Year Zero (based on the Nine Inch Nails album of the same name)

Ah, yes, my first attempt at mature storytelling. Good gravy. Like "Experimentals", this story actually has seven chapters posted on my dA. If you really want to read it, go for it. Most of it is cliché and dull, but boy oh boy does Act VI get uncomfortably misogynistic. Full disclosure.

The story flips POVs in a few chapters, but our main character is Enosin "Sin" Alexander, a captain of Lord Gerardis (aka G) of the dystopian city of Lacryma and colleague of captains Hime and Luris. While overall, he's loyal, he questions his lord's plans for the impoverished Outer City, wondering why he won't share the wealth of the affluent, yet tightly controlled, Inner City. But that becomes the least of his concerns when G is informed of a strange find at a planned city expansion site; a mysterious glowing tree with a human figure embedded in it. As soon as G retrieves the tree man, he tells Sin to wait in his quarters in the White Tower, the seat of the government, until he calls for him.

A week passes, and Sin doesn't hear from G, so he takes matters into his own hands and goes to G's lodgings; there, he finds that not only has the room been trashed, but there's some documents he hasn't seen before lying around detailing both the tree man, now named Absolution, who apparently has the power to create life from nothing, and a project to build a weapon in the shape of a man that G had started 27 years ago. Said weapon was then raised as a normal human and had joined the Lacryma Army: it was Sin.

G was intending to use Sin as a weapon to obliterate other cities, people and all, then have Absolution rebuild those cities however G saw fit, thereby conquering the world. Well, Sin didn't take kindly to this. He took to this so unkindly, in fact, that he made straight for the White Tower labs with the intent of killing Absolution and G, hacking up every guard that stopped him along the way (because why wouldn't he use a sword instead of a gun?).

While he managed to stab Absolution in the chest, G found him before he could finish the job and proceeded to beat the absolute Christ out of him before leaving him for dead on the lab floor and sweeping Absolution away to who-knows where.

Meanwhile, two young Outer City rebels who had broken into the White Tower to steal intel and parts for a superweapon of their own, Alucard and Rez, found the dying Sin and brought him back to their hideout. They believed that if he could be persuaded to join them, he'd be a great asset to their cause of overthrowing G; of course, their leader, Taris, made sure to inform him that if he didn't accept, they'd kill him. Sin, convalescing in their base and boiling with rage, accepted...and as soon as he was left alone, he started to have a freakout because he could now hear the voice of the weapon speaking to him and it wouldn't shut up until he carved a capital G into his hand.

Chronologically, Act VI was the last completed work to happen, wherein his former compatriot Luris happened to have found him at the base (which was a problem because if she knew, then G almost certainly knew). Sin had never liked Luris because her specialty was seduction and assassination, and because she'd apparently started to even murderfuck Inner City citizens just to keep her skills sharp. Luris tried to convince him that she'd abandoned G, and that she'd always been in love with Sin, but he knew better. He played along until the clothes started coming off, got her on his bed, and then whipped out the knife he apparently kept under his pillow and stabbed her to death.

Our hero, ladies and gentlemen.

I know Teen Nost was going for "The weapon was making him slowly lose his mind and become this angry, monstrous thing," but much like accidentally making Mige an alcoholic, I accidentally made Sin a misogynist.

As for what was supposed to be the rest of the story, since Sin now knew G was definitely coming for the rebels, they'd need to get their superweapon up and mobile immediately. The rebels would fight their way to the Inner City, and return to the White Tower, where G and Absolution were waiting. Absolution would pull a little coup of his own against G, because Absolution had no interest in G's world domination plan. Instead, he was much more interested in Sin's inner weapon, the Great Destroyer. He wanted to activate Sin to kill absolutely everything so he could create a world for just the two of them.

They have a fight, Enosin wins, Enosin Man~

More specifically, the Great Destroyer would be activated, but Sin would manage to contain the damage to the Inner City, he'd fight and destroy Absolution, and then he'd probably fuck off to wander the Earth while the survivors picked up the pieces.

This is one of those stories that I come back to from time to time just because I feel like there is still a worthy outline here, and Adult Nost might have the chops to make something a little more interesting with it.

#my art #100 oc challenge #oc redraw #original characters #pencil art #traditional art

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catgirlforeskin · 2 months

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(TTRPG anon AGAIN)

Actually I may have something even better for you!

Streets of Marienburg is a hack of World of Dungeons for the setting of Warhammer Fantasy. Warhammer is not that different from typical D&D world and Streets of Marienburg are even more generic, so I think that it's pretty fine to use it for any fantasy. The only Warhammeresque nuance is that instead of character classes you have careers.

But there is an additional level of hacking that gave us Streets of Mos Eisley, which is, as you guess, a hack for Star Wars. I never played it, I just remembered about it and thought that you may be interested

Sounds neat. Not real into Warhammer (or DnD) but I’ll check it out, been looking for pbta fantasy that’s not Dungeon World. I’ve been thinking of getting back into tabletop development so I wanna read more systems

#asks

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iviarellereads · 3 months

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The Eye of the World, Chapter 28 - Footprints in Air

(THIS PROJECT IS SPOILER FREE! No spoilers past the chapter you click on. Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Wheel of Time, read this one!)

(Staff icon) In which we play catch-up to the timeline.

Nynaeve sees the White Bridge in the distance, and grumbles that Moiraine and Lan don't even seem to notice, and resolves not to let them see her "gaping like a country bumpkin." Moiraine won't answer any of Nynaeve's questions, just encourages Nynaeve to stay at Tar Valon for training, to conquer her temper and learn to control the Power at will. Nynaeve thinks to herself that she's only going along with this to be sure Egwene doesn't get hurt.

If only there was some way to get rid of the woman. Lan would be better by himself—a Warder should be able to handle what was needed, she told herself hastily, feeling a sudden flush; no other reason—but one meant the other. And yet, Lan made her even more furious than Moiraine. She could not understand how he managed to get under her skin so easily.(1) He rarely said anything—sometimes not a dozen words in a day—and he never took part in any of the . . . discussions with Moiraine. He was often apart from the two women, scouting the land, but even when he was there he kept a little to one side, watching them as if watching a duel. Nynaeve wished he would stop. If it was a duel, she had not managed to score once, and Moiraine did not even seem to realize she was in a fight. Nynaeve could have done without his cool blue eyes, without even a silent audience.

Over the days' journey, Nynaeve feels unsettled somehow, and notes that Moiraine and Lan both seem to feel it too. Eventually Moiraine tells her it's the Dark One's gaze, not on them specifically, but on the world. He's gaining power. Nynaeve wishes she hadn't said anything at all.

Until that point, Lan had scouted and chosen their paths, but now Moiraine takes the lead, as surely as if she could see footprints in the air, or smell a memory. Soon they arrive at Whitebridge, where it seems there's been some fire and destruction, at least half a dozen buildings appear to have burned down. The people all seem to lie about what happened, either only knowing rumour or intentionally ignoring the truth in front of them.

They hear tales of trouble coming in on a boat, and leaving on it again shortly after. Moiraine leads them to an inn, and says they were there a day ago, maybe two, and very afraid, but she doesn't know where they left. Lan says there was a Myrddraal there, too. Moiraine says she'll have to help the one she knows has his coin still, and Nynaeve asks what about Egwene?

The Aes Sedai studied the tabletop for a moment before raising her eyes to Nynaeve’s, and when she did, Nynaeve started back from a flash of anger that almost seemed to make Moiraine’s eyes glow. Then her back stiffened, her own anger rising, but before she could say a word, the Aes Sedai spoke coldly. “I hope to find Egwene alive and well, too. I do not easily give up young women with that much ability once I have found them.(2) But it will be as the Wheel weaves.” Nynaeve felt a cold ball in the pit of her stomach. Am I one of those young women you won’t give up? We’ll see about that, Aes Sedai. The Light burn you, we’ll see about that! The meal was finished in silence, and it was a silent three who rode through the gates and down the Caemlyn Road. Moiraine’s eyes searched the horizon to the northeast. Behind them, the smoke-stained town of Whitebridge cowered.

=====

(1) Because you're falling in love, you poor young woman. Nynaeve's never had the chance before, and though love seemed common enough in Emond's Field from what we saw, she's lacking in self-awareness of her feelings. Anger is easiest to understand because it's always gotten results back home, so it's what she defaults to. (Side note, it's funny that Lan doesn't really take Mo's side in these arguments, huh? But he DOES try to suggest Nyn go back to the Two Rivers, where she'll be safe. Make you wonder what he's feeling.) (2) Did you catch the second layer here? Back in chapter 13, Moiraine said there were two with high potential. We can now guess that Nynaeve, of course, was the one besides Egg, which means Mo's not like to give up on Nyn anytime soon, either, just as Nyn fears.

#wheel of time #wot #the wheel of time #twot #the eye of the world #eye of the world #eotw #teotw #wot staff icon #nynaeve al'meara #moiraine damodred #lan mandragoran

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alexios · 8 months

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finally got a ref for Miss Sunflower (or Selanar Cyran Cabana if you'e nasty). did you know that she does not like sunflowers? yeah.

#artposting #dungeons and dragons #mo plays tabletop #if you saw me repost no you didn't!

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artanimeawesome · 7 months

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6.2” LCD touch screen

Three play modes: TV, Tabletop, and Handheld

Detachable Joy-Con controllers

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe includes 48 Mushroom Kingdom courses and a roster of 42 characters to race

Up to 4 players can race in local multiplayer, 2-8 players in local wireless, and 2-12 players online

PRE ORDER NOW!

#nintendo #nintendo switch #mario kart #mario kart 8 #switch bundle #switch

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arabellaflynn · 1 year

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Advent Calendar 03: 2 Fire Buttons, 101 Keys

Greetings, and welcome to Advent Calendar 2022! This year we're being self-indulgent and rambling about video games.

As usual, the Advent Calendar is also a pledge drive. Subscribe to my writing Patreon here by December 15th for at least $5/mo and get an e-card for Ratmas; subscribe for $20/mo (and drop me a mailing address) and you'll get a real paper one!

I hope you're all having a happy winter holiday season. Let the nerd rambling commence!

I am about the right age to have toyed with an 8-bit micro, but it's something I never got into. My father was in networking, then avionics design, when I was little, and did a lot of telework before "telework" was a word, so we always had at least one computer in the house bright enough to run CAD software. By the time I cared about how computers worked, we'd already graduated from the VIC-20 that took cartridges and plugged into a TV, to an Intel 8088 with dedicated amber monitor and peripherals. I skipped the whole Atari/Commodore thing and went straight to PC -- never learned much BASIC, but still remember an embarrassing amount about writing batch files in MS-DOS, which will actually be relevant later.

While early console RPGs were taking over our personal living room, a very different kind of RPG was taking shape on microcomputers. The two major differences were storage space and input style. A Nintendo controller (officially a "game pad") is basically a mutated joystick. It has four directions, two fire buttons, and two other dedicated buttons that usually handle system functions like pause or bringing up the menu. A computer has an entire keyboard full of things to bang on when you want to tell the game something. Not all microcomputers had dedicated arrow keys, and the WASD style of movement hadn't taken shape yet, but on the up side, you didn't have to A/B your way through a million menus to access your inventory.

The earliest licensed Dungeons & Dragons game I can find is Akalabeth (1979), which is actually slightly earlier than I expected. Kudos to the Apple ][ programmer that bashed that together. Observant viewers might have caught the name Lord British in the credits and gone, "The Ultima guy?" Yes! And the much more recognizable Ultima (1981) was not far behind.

youtube

Now, if you watch that video, you'll note that it starts with a very long and boring segment of someone pressing some numbers, thinking it over, pressing some more numbers, etc, and only after that does it loop back to the title screen and let you start an actual game. You'll be familiar with this tedious mathematical process if you've ever actually played tabletop D&D. After that you get dropped into what actually looks like an intricately detailed top-down world by the standards of 1981 (compare to the cartoony visuals of the contemporaneous COLECOVision Donkey Kong a couple days ago)... with a cluttered list of command hotkeys down at the bottom of the screen. Vive le clavier. If you want to know more about how Lord British achived these stunning graphics, I recommend this article over at The Digital Antiquarian. And if you'd like to see the much prettier 1986 re-release, take a look at it here.

The other thing of note is how often Ultima asks the player to insert a new disk. The size and storage requirements of a computer game was limited only by the number of diskettes you could convince your publisher to copy and your player to keep on hand. Cartridge games -- which did exist as an option for computers, but were universal for consoles -- were limited to however much ROM was physically in the cart, and if you were willing to let it drive up the price, a chunk of battery-backed save RAM.

For a long time, the Ultima series was to computer RPGs what Final Fantasy was to consoles. The main line ended with the 1999 release of Ultima IX: Ascension, which going by the leaked details of the plot they didn't use, was really meant to be THE END. Electronic Arts, who'd owned the IP since 1992, thought otherwise, and continued trying to capitalize on it until 2014, when its last unimpressive free-to-play effort full of microtransactions shut down.

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#IFTTT #Blogger #Unsolicited Advice

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