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dailyadventureprompts · 1 year

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any ideas for a druid villain who isn't a pro-environmentalism "extremist" who opposes the #just'n'kind authorities and such? i'd like to do one but honestly most suggestions are just to make a fantasy anti-civ unabomber and idk im not too crazy about the concept

Villain: The Eelmonger

While the scholars debate whether it is nature, society, or fate that makes a person cruel, remember my student that none of these things are kind or fair to most whom they govern. -From the diaries of Tarraji, country tutor

Hooks:

Every year a great festival is held across the kingdom to honour the queen's birthday, a tradition started by the previous rulers to celebrate the long-sought birth of their first heir, but maintained by the current sovereign as a means of sharing a little of her prosperity with her subjects, the crown footing most of the bill for the event. This year, just as people (and the party) are crowding into the rivermarket to enjoy the festivities, a horde of grotesque aquatic monsters surge from the water to rampage through the town.

Two days later when the last of the beasts is either slain or driven off, word arrives that similar attacks have occurred all up and down the central waterway, paralyzing the realm's economy and making travel tremendously dangerous. The party could go hunting the worst of the rivermonsters, or they could sign up to protect a daredevil merchant's cargo and make a small fortune crisis trading.

Along with all this chaos an old threat reemerges, pirates with a long hatred of the realm trawling for plunder in the wake of the rampage. Apparently exempt from the wrath of the seabeasts that still lurk in the rivers and canals, they fly a new flag bearing images of sharp-toothed eels, and sing songs in praise of an unseen master.

Dressed like a peasant and exalted by outlaws, the enigmatic figure known only as the Eelmonger has emerged seemingly from nowhere to overthrow the realm and topple the queen from her throne. Who is she? Why her unprecedented attack? How is she able to turn the great predators of the deep into warbeasts bent to her aims? Among all the uncertainly all that can be known is that she has seemingly declared war against the realm, and will not stop till the queen and any who support her have been reduced to meals for the ocean's scavengers.

Background: Sha's parents thought it was very lucky for their daughter to be born under the same stars as the crown princess, as in the old traditions of the kingdom such "celestial siblings" were thought to share their fortunes, and as poor fisherfolk eking out a meagre living from the sea that fortune was dearly needed. As Sha Grew however it became apparent that the stars played a cruel game of favourites, and whatever luck the oneday queen was given was taken in equal portion from Sha's own: The day the princess was thrown from her horse and rose mirraculously unharmed was the day Sha tumbled over the side of her family's boat in a calm sea and somehow broke three bones, the announcement of the king's recovery from the brittle sickness reaching Sha's village the same day they put her long-ailing father in the ground.

These transgressions were manifold, too obvious and cruel to be mere happenstance, and over the years and the grand festival-birthdays Sha's resentment at her distant royal sister and the injustice of fate filed her sharp and cold as a gutting knife. Things paradoxically got a little better during the pirate wars, when those foreign fleets took the town she lived in as their fortress, burning and pillaging many other settlements along the coast and great river. Sha, now a woman grown, felt her fortunes had reversed, as the pirates were all to happy to pay for her catch with handfulls of stolen coin, and her expertise with local cuisine saw her elevated to the position of landbound galleycook, feeding whole crews of cutthroats in between their inland raids.

It was not to last however, after a few brutal years on the defensive, the princess and her allies rallied and launched an offensive that shattered the invader's fleet and ousted them from the lands they'd set to conquer, culminating in a battle that saw Sha's town (and the life she'd built there) burnt to the ground. It was in the midst of that fighting, trapped beneath burning rubble that Sha saw her celestial sister for the first time, glorious and beautiful and totally ignorant of her existence, scaling the ruins of Sha's happiness on her way to future glory. Sha was pinned there for days, forgotten among the rest of the corpses; it wasn't until a great storm broke and washed the wreckage of the battle out into the sea that she was freed, her druidic powers awakening as she drowned and calling out to those creatures of the brine to aid her. Whatever warpath and hope she had for making a good life in spite of her sister she left below the surface, because as soon as she made landfall she started plotting her path back to the queen.

Goals & Schemes:

Ruination: As strong as her monsters are individually or as a horde, The eelmonger knows her beasts can't challenge the might or logistics of an entire kingdom. However, Sha grew up on the kingdom's waterways and knows that just like small tributaries fed the great trade river, the lives of farmers and merchants feed into the strength of the crown. If she has any hope of evening the playing field Sha must break the system that feeds the realm's warchest even if it means breaking the realm itself in the process. Monstrous chaos and resurgent pirates are just the first step: Targeting the merchants will cause supply shortages and beggar the realm, after that she'll move on to sowing famine in the farmlands. When there isn't enough to go round people will break down into factions, causing the army the well trained army the queen has inhereted to crumble before it ever reaches the field.

Fixing the broken scales: Simply killing the queen won't be enough. Sha reasoned out long ago that if she ever did direct harm to celestial sister whatever fate bullshit that connects them would likely redirect the outcome onto her somehow and that just wouldn't do. Instead she has to settle for making the soverign suffer by proxy, all the while searching for some means of attacking the connection itself. Those pirates directly privy to her plan are out hunting for priests and fortunetellers during their raids, anyone they could kidnap and bring back to the eelmonger to help correct this balance.

Saint of the Brine: Though she has no love for gods, Sha's vengeful ascent is watched over by a coldhearted deity of the fathomless seas, who has umbrage with this particular kingdom ever since the queen's ancestors laid claim to its bays and coastlines by slaying a titanic beast she favoured. The eelmonger is her unwitting instrument of wrath, and whether the gods involvement began during Sha's almost drowning or all the way back were praying for a safe birth is impossible to say. Though the eelmonger has unseen aid throughout her campaign against the crown, if the party is able to make their enemy aware that some god may be the source of her misfortune they may be able to divert Sha's wrath from the queen and the realm's inhabitants.

Art

#villain #seaside #Lysthzaho #pirates #mid level #high level #warfare #wuxia #festival #river #seamonster

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blackestnight · 7 months

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ttrpg directory 2023

it's that time of year again! the annual local gaming convention means my annual ttrpg roster (below the cut for convenience).

THE BLORBOS:

pathfinder

electra godstongue (half-elf aasimar oracle of flames): still alive and kickin', somehow! at present the circus is taking a break while the party adventures through the darklands, and electra has been having a lovely time schmoozing her way through a city of undead drow. (we did get invited to perform as guests in the local circus, and she successfully defended her title as the best fire-eater in the inner seas.) at present she's stuck in a fucked-up wizard tower and the party is trying to steal back a magical orb...that the wizard stole...after a god failed to steal it.

and, you all will be happy to know, her 'most damage in a single turn of combat' record remains unbroken at 959 damage with a seventh-level sunburst.

álmos szarka (half-elf thaumaturge, organized play): the most trustworthy* wizard* you know, selling authentic* magical talismans* at reasonable prices*

*absolutely none of this is true

they are a master bullshitmonger, though. álmos is so good at spinning tales that they're the party Lore Guy, despite having an intelligence bonus of 0, because they can convince anyone that they know what they're talking about (and sometimes they actually do). they once famously distracted a night hag for an entire round of combat by pulling a random piece of garbage costume jewelry out of their pocket and convincing the hag it was a magical key to a legendary vault full of the pathfinder society's greatest treasures. they're also stealthy and tricky enough that they frequently out-rogue the rogue.

ivorna fen (half-elf twisting tree magus, organized play): a new character, formerly a student at Wizard School until she got kicked out for beating people up with her fancy wizard staff. she's since taken on her own independent studies combining martial and magical disciplines, and her custom-made staff is her pride and joy: it's made of interlocking wood pieces that expand and contract magically, and her spell book is actually a long strip of engraved leather that she wraps around it in an intricate criss-crossing pattern and functions as a scytale, forming different spells depending on how she's arranged the segments of her staff. she spends most of her time cleaning up pathfinder society messes, especially (ironically) in the daceline academy for pathfinder agents' children.

nitamani ruby-eyes (elf oread swashbuckler battledancer): also a new character for an ongoing campaign set in alkenstar, the clockwork city in the mana wastes. a former saloon dancer turned unintentional outlaw after getting on the wrong side of the corrupt shieldmarshals, she takes her throwing knives and her distracting hip shimmies into battle in the name of the duchess of alkenstar in an effort to restore rightful power to a less-bad option than the guys in charge now. she's also one of the two party faces—the other being the cleric, a devotee of the goddess of lust. she and the cleric keep running scams where they pretend to be married and play the most obnoxious rich patrons in any given establishment who want to speak to the manager. no one can tell if they're actually flirting while they do this. that "no one" includes me.

she's also a local legend at the longhorn lounge, where she not only won the annual bull-riding contest, but did so while standing upright on top of the bull.

zafsah the harrower (fetchling ranger, organized play): making her debut this weekend, she comes equipped for any adventure with glowing eyes, a fuck-off scythe, and a pet terror bird named hades. she used to be a rancher in the shadow-flooded kingdom of nidal before escaping inland and making her way to absalom to join the pathfinders and explore the world outside the dark domain she'd lived her whole life in. mostly she's been taking jobs on the night watch near the gravelands, looking for undead incursions, which doesn't help with the whole...aura she's got going.

boney angles (skeleton gunslinger pistolero): they're a skeleton. they dual-wield pistols. they wear a leather harness and garters and strike a lot of cheesecake poses. that's really it tbh

starfinder

starmistress britta makee (human solarian): still here, still has her fancy space knife. she also has a planet, technically. not the one she's already the crown princess of. a different planet. she got it as a gift for helping a space emperor dethrone his fucked-up sister. she gave the planet away though and now she's a civilian representative on a governing council for a new democratic space republic that's caught between four warring space empires and some genocidal sentient space robots, because of course she is. also she might be trapped in hell, or in an extradimensional bottomless ocean, or something. but it's fine! the party has a plan: let britta turn into motes of light (she can just...do that), stick her in a jar, and chuck her into the enemy stronghold through the vents. say hello to my little friend.

Z-N0N (android exocortex mechanic): they're back and cringier than ever! your least favorite space twitch streamer is still wearing their backwards baseball cap, still saying "lit" like it's cool, and still the only person in the party who speaks any given language, but they have the social acumen of a twelve-year-old whose conversational skillset was developed on space xbox live chats.

#cyan's ttrpg adventures

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globalgeography · 7 months

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Guinea Bissau

Note on the flag: The orange and green are opposite of the Irish flag, although the two are frequently confused.

Government type: Republic (with Prime Minister and President)

President: Umaro Sissoco Embalo

Prime Minister: Geraldo Martins

Population: 1.6 million

Languages: Many languages are spoken in this nation. Most widely spoken is Guinea-Bissau Creole (Crioulo), which is mainly derived from Portuguese. Other languages spoken include: English, French, several dialects of Arabic, as well as other languages from the Bak branch spoken in several Western African countries such as Senegal and Gambia (Jola Fonyi, Mandinka, Noon)

Religion: 46% Islam, 30% traditional faiths, 18% Christianity, 4% None. All of the imported religions practiced in Guinea-Bissau are heavily syncretized with traditional practices, creating unique religious practices specific to the nation.

Ethnic groups: There is a large variety of ethnic groups as well. Balante and Fulani (and their respective subgroups) make up just under half the population. Malinke make up 14% and Mandyako are 12%

Industries: Guinea-Bissau is highly agrarian, with over half the nation living in rural areas. The majority of the rural inhabitants practice self-sufficient agriculture, with a small amount of farming dedicated to exports. National debt (particularly colonial inheritance) has severely damaged the GDP, and it is considered one of the poorest nations in the world (Encyclopedia Britannica). "The export of commercial items such as cashews, palm products, rice, peanuts, timber, and cotton has long played an important role in the country’s economy" (Encyclopedia Britannica).

Capital City: Bissau

Currency: West African CFA franc (XOF)

Land and Environment: Guinea-Bissau is mainly at sea level, with lots of tidal flow affecting the coastline and even farther inland. The archipelagos off the coast are also considered within the political border of the nation. There are a number of plateaus surrounded by drowned valleys called rias. These are drained by a number of large rivers leading west out to sea. While the tides have positive effects on farming in some respects (e.g., flooding the rice paddies), it also creates devastating erosion of unused arable land, which were often left un-worked because of colonial violence (Encyclopedia Britannica).

Brief History: As with much of West Africa, there are many gaps in the record about the first inhabitants of these lands, but the tribes that once lived there are thought to have merged with the Mande ethnic groups as the Mali empire expanded throughout the region in the 13th century. The Mali empire maintained control in the region by establishing a local kingdom, Kaabu, which oppressed the original inhabitants. The nomadic Fulani arrived a century later. The Portuguese arrived in the 15th century and immediately established the lands that would become Guinea as a hub for enslavement, kidnappings, and slave trade. Tens of thousands of Guineans were taken, both of Fulani descent as well as the Kaabu aristocracy. The capital city of Bissau was established specifically to be a slave port, and after the slave trade was outlawed in the 1830s, the city was nearly abandoned (BlackPast). At this point, the nation was known as Portuguese Guinea, but after a successful war of independence in 1974 they renamed themselves Guinea-Bissau. The Guinean combatants in the bid for independence subsequently carried out a coup, which led to many years of suppression and culminated in a civil war in the 1990s. In the modern day, despite continued political unrest and an economy that more and more relies on international drug trade and illegal slave trade with Senegal, Guinea-Bissau has also contributed greatly to West African music, mainly polyrhythmic gumbe, which first rose to prominence abroad in the 1980s.

#global geography

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dongfangxunfeng · 3 years

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what do you think of the whole actor in shrine situation? is this why you're moving away from s/h//l?

lol

A medieval fisherman is said to have hauled up a three-foot-long cod, which was common enough at the time. And the fact that the cod could talk was not especially surprising. But what was astonishing was that it spoke an unknown language. It spoke Basque.

This Basque folktale shows not only the Basque attachment to their orphan language, indecipherable to the rest of the world, but also their tie to the Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua, a fish that has never been found in Basque or even Spanish waters.

The Basques are enigmatic. They have lived in what is now the northwest corner of Spain and a nick of the French southwest for longer than history records, and not only is the origin of their language unknown, but the origin of the people themselves remains a mystery also. According to one theory, these rosy-cheeked, dark-haired, long-nosed people were the original Iberians, driven by invaders to this mountainous corner between the Pyrenees, the Cantabrian Sierra, and the Bay of Biscay. Or they may be indigenous to this area.

They graze sheep on impossibly steep, green slopes of mountains that are thrilling in their rare, rugged beauty. They sing their own songs and write their own literature in their own language, Euskera. Possibly Europe’s oldest living language, Euskera is one of only four European languages—along with Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian—not in the Indo-European family. They also have their own sports, most notably jai alai, and even their own hat, the Basque beret, which is bigger than any other beret.

Though their lands currently reside in three provinces of France and four of Spain, Basques have always insisted that they have a country, and they call it Euskadi. All the powerful peoples around them—the Celts and Romans, the royal houses of Aquitaine, Navarra, Aragon, and Castile; later Spanish and French monarchies, dictatorships, and republics—have tried to subdue and assimilate them, and all have failed. In the 1960s, at a time when their ancient language was only whispered, having been outlawed by the dictator Francisco Franco, they secretly modernized it to broaden its usage, and today, with only 800,000 Basque speakers in the world, almost 1,000 titles a year are published in Euskera, nearly a third by Basque writers and the rest translations.

“Nire aitaren etxea / defendituko dut. / Otsoen kontra” (I will defend / the house of my father. / Against the wolves) are the opening lines of a famous poem in modern Euskera by Gabriel Aresti, one of the fathers of the modernized tongue. Basques have been able to maintain this stubborn independence, despite repression and wars, because they have managed to preserve a strong economy throughout the centuries. Not only are Basques shepherds, but they are also a seafaring people, noted for their successes in commerce. During the Middle Ages, when Europeans ate great quantities of whale meat, the Basques traveled to distant unknown waters and brought back whale. They were able to travel such distances because they had found huge schools of cod and salted their catch, giving them a nutritious food supply that would not spoil on long voyages.

Basques were not the first to cure cod. Centuries earlier, the Vikings had traveled from Norway to Iceland to Greenland to Canada, and it is not a coincidence that this is the exact range of the Atlantic cod. In the tenth century, Thorwald and his wayward son, Erik the Red, having been thrown out of Norway for murder, traveled to Iceland, where they killed more people and were again expelled. About the year 985, they put to sea from the black lava shore of Iceland with a small crew on a little open ship. Even in midsummer, when the days are almost without nightfall, the sea there is gray and kicks up whitecaps. But with sails and oars, the small band made it to a land of glaciers and rocks, where the water was treacherous with icebergs that glowed robin’s-egg blue. In the spring and summer, chunks broke off the glaciers, crashed into the sea with a sound like thunder that echoed in the fjords, and sent out huge waves. Eirik, hoping to colonize this land, tried to enhance its appeal by naming it Greenland.

Almost 1,000 years later, New England whalers would sing: “Oh, Greenland is a barren place / a place that bears no green / Where there’s ice and snow / and the whale fishes blow / But daylight’s seldom seen.”

Eirik colonized this inhospitable land and then tried to push on to new discoveries. But he injured his foot and had to be left behind. His son, Leifur, later known as Leif Eiriksson, sailed on to a place he called Stoneland, which was probably the rocky, barren Labrador coast. “I saw not one cartload of earth, though I landed many places,” Jacques Cartier would write of this coast six centuries later. From there, Leif’s men turned south to “Woodland” and then “Vineland.” The identity of these places is not certain. Woodland could have been Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, or Maine, all three of which are wooded. But in Vineland they found wild grapes, which no one else has discovered in any of these places.

The remains of a Viking camp have been found in Newfoundland. It is perhaps in that gentler land that the Vikings were greeted by inhabitants they found so violent and hostile that they deemed settlement impossible, a striking assessment to come from a people who had been regularly banished for the habit of murdering people. More than 500 years later the Beothuk tribe of Newfoundland would prevent John Cabot from exploring beyond crossbow range of his ship. The Beothuk apparently did not misjudge Europeans, since soon after Cabot, they were enslaved by the Portuguese, driven inland, hunted by the French and English, and exterminated in a matter of decades.

How did the Vikings survive in greenless Greenland and earthless Stoneland? How did they have enough provisions to push on to Woodland and Vineland, where they dared not go inland to gather food, and yet they still had enough food to get back? What did these Norsemen eat on the five expeditions to America between 985 and 1011 that have been recorded in the Icelandic sagas? They were able to travel to all these distant, barren shores because they had learned to preserve codfish by hanging it in the frosty winter air until it lost four-fifths of its weight and became a durable woodlike plank. They could break off pieces and chew them, eating it like hardtack. Even earlier than Eirik’s day, in the ninth century, Norsemen had already established plants for processing dried cod in Iceland and Norway and were trading the surplus in northern Europe.

The Basques, unlike the Vikings, had salt, and because fish that was salted before drying lasted longer, the Basques could travel even farther than the Vikings. They had another advantage: The more durable a product, the easier it is to trade. By the year 1000, the Basques had greatly expanded the cod markets to a truly international trade that reached far from the cod’s northern habitat.

In the Mediterranean world, where there were not only salt deposits but a strong enough sun to dry sea salt, salting to preserve food was not a new idea. In preclassical times, Egyptians and Romans had salted fish and developed a thriving trade. Salted meats were popular, and Roman Gaul had been famous for salted and smoked hams. Before they turned to cod, the Basques had sometimes salted whale meat; salt whale was found to be good with peas, and the most prized part of the whale, the tongue, was also often salted.

Until the twentieth-century refrigerator, spoiled food had been a chronic curse and severely limited trade in many products, especially fish. When the Basque whalers applied to cod the salting techniques they were using on whale, they discovered a particularly good marriage because the cod is virtually without fat, and so if salted and dried well, would rarely spoil. It would outlast whale, which is red meat, and it would outlast herring, a fatty fish that became a popular salted item of the northern countries in the Middle Ages.

Even dried salted cod will turn if kept long enough in hot humid weather. But for the Middle Ages it was remarkably long-lasting—a miracle comparable to the discovery of the fast-freezing process in the twentieth century, which also debuted with cod. Not only did cod last longer than other salted fish, but it tasted better too. Once dried or salted—or both—and then properly restored through soaking, this fish presents a flaky flesh that to many tastes, even in the modern age of refrigeration, is far superior to the bland white meat of fresh cod. For the poor who could rarely afford fresh fish, it was cheap, high-quality nutrition.

In 1606, Gudbrandur Thorláksson, an Icelandic bishop, made this line drawing of the North Atlantic in which Greenland is represented in the shape of a dragon with a fierce, toothy mouth. Modern maps show that this is not at all the shape of Greenland, but it is exactly what it looks like from the southern fjords, which cut jagged gashes miles deep into the high mountains. (Royal Library, Copenhagen)

Catholicism gave the Basques their great opportunity. The medieval church imposed fast days on which sexual intercourse and the eating of flesh were forbidden, but eating “cold” foods was permitted. Because fish came from water, it was deemed cold, as were waterfowl and whale, but meat was considered hot food. The Basques were already selling whale meat to Catholics on “lean days,” which, since Friday was the day of Christ’s crucifixion, included all Fridays, the forty days of Lent, and various other days of note on the religious calendar. In total, meat was forbidden for almost half the days of the year, and those lean days eventually became salt cod days. Cod became almost a religious icon—a mythological crusader for Christian observance.

The Basques were getting richer every Friday. But where was all this cod coming from? The Basques, who had never even said where they came from, kept their secret. By the fifteenth century, this was no longer easy to do, because cod had become widely recognized as a highly profitable commodity and commercial interests around Europe were looking for new cod grounds. There were cod off of Iceland and in the North Sea, but the Scandinavians, who had been fishing cod in those waters for thousands of years, had not seen the Basques. The British, who had been fishing for cod well offshore since Roman times, did not run across Basque fishermen even in the fourteenth century, when British fishermen began venturing up to Icelandic waters. The Bretons, who tried to follow the Basques, began talking of a land across the sea.

Bench ends from St. Nicolas’ Chapel in a town by the North Sea, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England, carved circa 1415, depict the cod fishery. (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

In the 1480s, a conflict was brewing between Bristol merchants and the Hanseatic League. The league had been formed in thirteenth-century Lübeck to regulate trade and stand up for the interests of the merchant class in northern German towns. Hanse means “fellowship” in Middle High German. This fellowship organized town by town and spread throughout northern Europe, including London. By controlling the mouths of all the major rivers that ran north from central Europe, from the Rhine to the Vistula, the league was able to control much of European trade and especially Baltic trade. By the fourteenth century, it had chapters as far north as Iceland, as far east as Riga, south to the Ukraine, and west to Venice.

For many years, the league was seen as a positive force in northern Europe. It stood up against the abuses of monarchs, stopped piracy, dredged channels, and built lighthouses. In England, league members were called Easterlings because they came from the east, and their good reputation is reflected in the word sterling, which comes from Easterling and means “of assured value.”

But the league grew increasingly abusive of its power and ruthless in defense of trade monopolies. In 1381, mobs rose up in England and hunted down Hanseatics, killing anyone who could not say bread and cheese with an English accent.

The Hanseatics monopolized the Baltic herring trade and in the fifteenth century attempted to do the same with dried cod. By then, dried cod had become an important product in Bristol. Bristol’s well-protected but difficult-to-navigate harbor had greatly expanded as a trade center because of its location between Iceland and the Mediterranean. It had become a leading port for dried cod from Iceland and wine, especially sherry, from Spain. But in 1475, the Hanseatic League cut off Bristol merchants from buying Icelandic cod.

Thomas Croft, a wealthy Bristol customs official, trying to find a new source of cod, went into partnership with John Jay, a Bristol merchant who had what was at the time a Bristol obsession: He believed that somewhere in the Atlantic was an island called Hy-Brasil. In 1480, Jay sent his first ship in search of this island, which he hoped would offer a new fishing base for cod. In 1481, Jay and Croft outfitted two more ships, the Trinity and the George. No record exists of the result of this enterprise. Croft and Jay were as silent as the Basques. They made no announcement of the discovery of Hy-Brasil, and history has written off the voyage as a failure. But they did find enough cod so that in 1490, when the Hanseatic League offered to negotiate to reopen the Iceland trade, Croft and Jay simply weren’t interested anymore.

Where was their cod coming from? It arrived in Bristol dried, and drying cannot be done on a ship deck. Since their ships sailed out of the Bristol Channel and traveled far west of Ireland and there was no land for drying fish west of Ireland—Jay had still not found Hy-Brasil—it was suppposed that Croft and Jay were buying the fish somewhere. Since it was illegal for a customs official to engage in foreign trade, Croft was prosecuted. Claiming that he had gotten the cod far out in the Atlantic, he was acquitted without any secrets being revealed.

To the glee of the British press, a letter has recently been discovered. The letter had been sent to Christopher Columbus, a decade after the Croft affair in Bristol, while Columbus was taking bows for his discovery of America. The letter, from Bristol merchants, alleged that he knew perfectly well that they had been to America already. It is not known if Columbus ever replied. He didn’t need to. Fishermen were keeping their secrets, while explorers were telling the world. Columbus had claimed the entire new world for Spain.

Then, in 1497, five years after Columbus first stumbled across the Caribbean while searching for a westward route to the spice-producing lands of Asia, Giovanni Caboto sailed from Bristol, not in search of the Bristol secret but in the hopes of finding the route to Asia that Columbus had missed. Caboto was a Genovese who is remembered by the English name John Cabot, because he undertook this voyage for Henry VII of England. The English, being in the North, were far from the spice route and so paid exceptionally high prices for spices. Cabot reasoned correctly that the British Crown and the Bristol merchants would be willing to finance a search for a northern spice route. In June, after only thirty-five days at sea, Cabot found land, though it wasn’t Asia. It was a vast, rocky coastline that was ideal for salting and drying fish, by a sea that was teeming with cod. Cabot reported on the cod as evidence of the wealth of this new land,

New Found Land, which he claimed for England. Thirty-seven years later, Jacques Cartier arrived, was credited with “discovering” the mouth of the St. Lawrence, planted a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula, and claimed it all for France. He also noted the presence of 1,000 Basque fishing vessels. But the Basques, wanting to keep a good secret, had never claimed it for anyone.

#citing my sources cod by mark kurlansky xoxo #asks #anon #long post

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writefightandflightclub · 3 years

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Stilling

Author’s note: I’m not really tagging / labelling this as it’s not really even a fanfic. I did think of Santi though when writing as I think he is the kind of man to make you feel warm and safe, just as you are. I’ve been feeling blocked with my writing so I thought I’d play around without pressure and see what came out of me if I wasn’t being too self-conscious / critical, or even thinking, and here it is. It’s pretty abstract but maybe someone will like it. IDEK OK? Don’t judge me :P

*******

“I love you,” he breathes, and his words are like a kind hand stirring warm bathwater, readying it for you to climb into yourself, balmy and temperate and comfortable with who you find there.

“I want you,” he breathes, planting a kiss on to the outlaws of your body, the regions you have banished from your attention and refused to welcome, his touch sinking into you like the soothing, surrounding waters which heat your cold, winter-ravaged flesh.

“I need you,” he breathes, stripping the ice from you as you dip your toe in the water of your own tub, unkindnesses becoming steam and journeying away from you as you submerge. His fingertips are still on your skin, traversing paths over your flesh so that you may not lose your way.

Beneath this country of water, the other voices are quietened, their blows refracted and softened. Here, there is only his siren song leading you to bathe in your own depths. How deep they go, you think. They could move the earth.

Other paths have led you astray; those well-trodden paths inland and away from your inner sea.

Instead, now, there is a ripple and a stilling, as he stirs and settles you in one stroke, one word, one kiss. He joins you in a place called home, the walls made firm with love applied by hand, and the bath always ready.

You immerse your body in the warmth of yourself, sinking into those comely waters as he sinks and merges into you. His presence does not alter you or ask you to be changed, rather, it bathes you in the ways you are enough already.

You do not need him, but you want him, and you love him because he will only ever lead you back to yourself; never astray.

“I love you,” you breathe.

His love came first, and even though you had banished yourself you were every bit deserving of his adoration. Still, now that you are here, at your own door, you are so glad to arrive back to yourself.

You waited for so long in the depths, under the surface, waiting to be seen while you were hidden, didn’t you, love?

Still, stilling. You cannot be led away from your home again.

Never should you close the door and banish yourself from your own home. Come in. Come in. The water is warm.

Always. Always.

There is a ripple and a stilling.

You stir and you settle.

You breathe.

#inspired by #santiago pope garcia #so ok I guess I'll tag it but it's not really a fanfic be warned #santiago pope garcia x reader #writeblr #writing #prose poem #idk what this is even?#self love

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der-karibisch-heyder · 2 years

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I hope this is the right blog, sorry if it's not. How did Gao Linyi defy the Master?

it is! Anyway-

At the time, it wasn't anything she realized she was doing, but all it really happened to be was a matter of survival.

In spite of his nautical inclinations, the Master is not bound by the sea in any way, and has numerous inland legends as well. Whatever he may actually be, it is known he sustains his existence with the life essence of other things. Lin just had the misfortune of her village being the target of the Master for such reasons. As a young lady, her village was destroyed by what she thought was an evil spirit. She escaped as the only survivor, largely by chance in the chaos of the moment. This was the first defiance.

Years later, after a failed marriage and attempt to integrate into domestic Chinese society and thus turning to banditry, Lin found her hideout of outlaws discovered by mercenaries who were hired to root them out. These strong willed individuals and the violence they started once more drew the attention of the Master, who appeared amidst the conflict in search of more power for himself and possibly some extra thralls if possible. Lin recognized him as the Evil Spirit who destroyed her village, and fled the battle to escape him, knowing that mortal strength and swords could not harm him. This was the second defiance, and is what got the Master to notice Lin, as twice now she had, largely by dumb luck and good fortune, escaped his desires. Yes, something as petty as just "not dropping dead" when he feels you should have is enough for the Master to consider "defiance".

The third defiance was when she fled China entirely. After escaping the wilderness and fleeing into heartland China, Lin eventually married Robert Heyder, whom had been traveling with her for some time at this point. Though they had a few happy years together in the city of Changsha, Lin became increasingly paranoid that the Evil Spirit would come for her again, and endanger not only herself but her husband and daughter as well. She was not wrong, either - having gotten his attention, the Master was now seeking after her and observing her from afar with amused interest. So she, Robert and Helen took a ship to the New World, hoping that would be the end of things, and it was for a long while, for the Master had more important matters in his corner of the world than to pursue a defiant steppe woman for kicks and giggles - but the fact she escaped him at all has left a grudge he would love all too much to act upon should the situation arise again.

#OOC #Biography: Linyi #canon #askbox

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bridgingdimensions · 3 years

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An Assembled History of the United States

The following contains a timeline of the history of the United States within my dimension. Information sourced from Gravity Falls Library, very roughly summarized.

1400s and prior - Various tribes and cultures lived on this land, but unfortunately written histories of these times are difficult to find. The earliest information found within the library was spare mentions of local history of the Klamath Tribes.

1492 - Christopher Columbus sailed with three ships, one of which crashed in the shores of America and sank with the only 1 documented injury to himself and no fatalities.

1493 - Columbus sailed again to the American colonies with several ships and a large crew, again the ship Columbus was on sank with him on it and this time reportedly took several hours for him to reach the shore.

1494 - The Treaty of Tordesillas attempted to ratify and establish ownership of the lands for Spain and Portugal. It was not successful.

1496 - John Cabot sails to explore the western hemisphere under authority of King Henry VII of England. signs an agreement for the western hemisphere to be explored under England and makes a second voyage the following year.

1498 - Columbus goes on his third voyage, a select crew willing to stay on the specific ship Columbus was on at the time. During lunch, the crew accidentally stranded him on one of the islands, remembering to turn back after five days.

Cabot embarked on another voyage and mysteriously never returned.

1502 - Columbus on his fourth voyage sails to Central America where his boat gradually disintegrated and he kicked his crew off, he was last sighted on a wooden raft that was overtaken by a wave.

1507 - A world map is made by Martin Waldseemuller, but is never seen, reportedly lost due to ‘his dog eating it.’

1508 - First European colony settlement on United States territory was founded at Caparra, Puerto Rico by Ponce de Leon.

1511 - Catholic Church, Pope Julius II, establishes three dioceses with one in Puerto Rico and two in Hispaniola.

1512 - Ferdinand II of Aragon announces Burgos’ Laws to end exploitation of indigenous people in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico some time after the decimation of smallpox epidemics brought to the people of Hispaniola by Europeans.

1513 - Ponce De Leon looks for the Fountain of Youth. He then lies about finding it, quickly diverting attention by claiming land for Spain.

1524 - Giovanni da Verrazzano enters New York harbor during a French expedition, considered the first European exploration of the Atlantic seaboard in centuries.

1526 - Disagreement over Treaty of Tordesillas defused by marriage, more to follow.

1527 - The Narvaez expedition colonizes Spanish Florida under Panfilo De Narvaez.

1529 - The Treaty of Zaragosa makes a try at clarifying the Treaty of Tordesillas.

1539 - Hernando de Soto travels to Florida where they explore further inland.

Melchior Diaz searches for Lost Cities of Gold. He is unsuccessful and the job is shortly after given to Fernando Vasquez de Coronado, who is also unsuccessful and gets into the Tiguex War as well as burns down a city while continuing further on.

1542 - De Soto reaches his final destination, death.

1550 - The beginning of the forty year Chichimeca War between the Chichimecas Confederation and New Spain.

1551 - The Valladolid debate, discussing treatment and status of Indians in the New World.

1559 - Don Tristan de Lunda y Arellano established Spanish colony, Santa Maria de Ochuse.

Elizabeth I becomes Queen of England.

1562 - Charlesfort is established by Jean Ribault, but is later abandoned.

1564 - Rene de Laudonniere establishes French colony for the Hugeanots at Fort Caroline and befriends the Timucua.

1565 - Pedro Menendez de Aviles founds St. Augustine, the first permanent settlement of the US. Twelve days later his spanish soldiers attack the French colony at Fort Caroline and destroy the fort.

1570 - Abraham Ortelius publishes the first modern world atlas. Descendent of Waldseemuller claims the work was copied off of his ancestor’s lost map and attempts a rebranding scheme of the atlas under his name with minor changes which fails.

1579 - Francis Drake claims lands in California for Great Britain, names it New Albion. Completes circumnavigation of the globe.

1585 - Sir Walter Raleigh organizes expedition to settle Roanoke Island colony. The colony fails.

1587 - Raleigh attempts to colonize Roanoke Island again with governor John White. John White leaves and returns to an empty colony with the words ‘CROATOAN’ and ‘CRO’ left behind, carved. Raleigh doesn’t attempt the colony a third time.

1607 - Jamestown, the first English settlement in the United States is established by over 100 settlers.

1608 - Samuel de Champlain establishes first permanent colony of New France in Quebec City.

1614 - New France colony of Port Royal is destroyed by Samuel Argall and then abandoned.

1618 - Smallpox epidemic wipes out vast majority of Native Americans in Massachusetts Bay.

1619 - The House of Burgesses is elected in Jamestown.

Virginia Company of London establishes new colony at Berkeley Hundred, Virginia.

1620 - The Puritans establish settlement in Plymouth and form the Aprilflower Compact to establish government and laws.

1629 - King Charles I grants royal charter for the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1630-1670 - Many colonies are founded and settled along with wars between colonists and native tribes. (The number of colonies and wars around this time period are their own lengthy history.)

1670 - Hudson’s Bay Company founded to combat New France in the Canadian fur trade.

1676 - Bacon’s Rebellion that resulted in the burning of Jamestown.

1677 - Treaty of Middle Plantation signed.

North Carolina colonists engage in Culpeper’s Rebellion.

1682 - France claims the lower Mississippi River valley.

1688 - King William’s War begins, lasts for 9 years.

1690 - First paper money issued in North America by the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The first newspaper issue in the United States was published in Boston, and was then suppressed.

1692-1693 - The Salem witch hunts resulting in the death of nineteen and over a hundred arrests.

1695 - Captain William Kidd is sent on a mission to combat piracy, and goes on to become pirate of the high seas. (If you can’t beat them, join them, I suppose.)

1699 - Jamestown is abandoned.

1701 - New France signs the Great Peace of Montreal with 39 First Nations.

1702 - Royal Colony of New Jersey established by Queen Anne.

1704 - First newspaper that wasn’t immediately taken down publishes its first edition in Boston, started by John Campbell.

1711 - The Tuscarora War begins.

1716 - First theater in the colonies opens in Williamsburg, Virginia.

1763 - French and Indian War ends with peace treaty, the English getting Canada and the American midwest.

1764 - The Sugar Act, a duty is placed on various commodities in the British colonies. Less than a year later the Stamp Act is passed as well.

1765 - The Stamp Act is passed and later nine of the colonies had a Stamp Act Congress and adopted a Declaration of Rights against taxation without representation.

1766 - The Stamp Act is repealed.

1767 - However, then the Townshend Acts are put in place.

1770 - The Boston Massacre, British troops fired into a Boston mob.

The Townshend Acts were repealed on everything except tea. This would notably not turn out well.

1773 - The Boston Tea Party, caused by England allowing a single company to control the tea trade and the actual event being 342 chests of tea being pushed overboard into the harbor.

1774 - British Parliament closes the port of Boston.

The Intolerable Acts are established, the First Continental Congress is held to protest this.

1775 - British government declares Massachusetts in rebellion.

American Revolution is started after 8 minutemen are killed while resisting British were coming to destroy their arms (the guns).

George Washington is appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

1776 - Thomse Paine publishes ‘Common Sense & Sensibility.’

The Declaration of Independence is penned and approved.

Washington wins in the first Battle of Trenton.

1777 - The Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union.

France signs treaties of alliance and commerce, getting involved in the revolutionary war.

Washington loses at Brandywine and others, marches with Continental Army into Valley Forge.

1778 - South Carolina is the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.

France signs the treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United States.

1779 - Benedict Arnold, American general, turns traitor and aids the British in acquiring control of the Hudson River. This was soon after Washington first accompanied Arnold on a drive where Washington made the comment to him while Arnold was driving the horse carriage ‘Okay, you’re safe to go,’ as the pedestrians Arnold had been waiting on had finished crossing the street.

1780 - The British siege Charlseton, South Carolina.

Loyalist troops of Britain lose the Battle of Kings Mountain.

1782 - The Bank of North America, the Bank of New York, and the First Bank of the United States are the first to obtain shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

British troops start to leave the United States.

British Parliament recognizes U.S. independence and signs the Treaty of Paris.

1783 - Congress ratifies the early peace treaty, ending the Revolutionary War.

Massachusetts Supreme Court outlaws slavery.

The Continental Army is disbanded.

1785 - The Continental Navy is disbanded.

1787 - Shay’s Rebellion happens in Massachusetts, but fails. Daniel Shays upon being captured claims evil twin, Schmaniel Shays, was the true mastermind.

The Constitutional Convention adopts the Constitution.

1789 - Washington is elected as the first President of the United States. Frederick A. Muhlenberg becomes the first Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Supreme Court is created.

1790 - First patent of the United States is given to Samuel Hopkins for potash.

1791 - The Bill of Rights takes effect, all twelve amendments pass.

1792 - The United States Post Office Department is established.

Washington is reelected president of the United States with John Adams as his Vice President.

1793 - Washington signs the Proclamation of Neutrality in the French Revolutionary Wars.

1794 - Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin.

The Whiskey Rebellion is suppressed by militia.

Jay’s Treaty is signed.

1795 - The Treaty of Madrid is signed.

1796 - Tennessee joins the Union.

The United States State Department issues the first passport.

Washington gives his final address.

1797 - John Adams becomes President.

The Treaty of Tripoli is signed.

1798 - Congress voids all treaties with France.

The Alien and Sedition Acts go into law.

1800 - The United States Library of Congress is founded.

Slavery ended in the Northwest Territory from the Ordinance of 1787.

1801 - Thomas Jefferson becomes President.

1803 - The Louisiana Purchase is made.

1804 - The Sacagawea Expedition.

Thomas Jefferson is reelected.

1807 - Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in an attempt to annex parts of the United States into an independent republic. He represents himself as his own lawyer and is acquitted after the confusion in court of speaking about himself in the third person.

1808 - The Illinois Territory is created.

1809 - James Madison becomes president.

1811 - The battle of Tippecanoe is won by William Henry Harrison.

1812 - President Madison asks Congress to declare war on the UK.

Madison is reelected.

1813 - The Battle of York.

1814 - The White House is burned by the British during the War of 1812.

The Battle of Lake Champlain is won by the United States.

Peace treaty is signed, ending the War of 1812.

1817 - James Monroe becomes President.

The Rush-Bagot treaty is signed.

1819 - The Panic of 1819 leads to foreclosures, bank failures, and unemployment.

The Shortmadge Amendment is passed.

1820 - the Missouri Compromise bill passes Congress.

Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson eats a tomato in public to prove it is not poisonous, and then nearly dies due to his undiagnosed tomato allergy.

Tomatoes outlawed in New Jersey for twenty seven years.

Monroe is reelected.

1823 - President Monroe declares the Monroe Doctrine.

1825 - John Quincy Adams becomes President.

Erie Canal is opened to usage.

1826 - Samuel Morey patents the “Gas or Vapor Engine.”

1827 - Slavery is legally abolished in New York.

1829 - Andrew Jackson becomes President.

William Austin Burt patents the typographer.

1830 - Congress approves the Indian Removal Act.

1831 - The first bank robbery in the United States.

1832 - The Black Hawk War.

The Trail of Tears begins.

1833 - The Force Bill is signed into law.

Jackson is reelected.

1836 - The Battle of the Alamo.

The Specie Act is issued.

1837 - Martin Van Buren becomes President.

The Panic of 1837 begins.

1840 - Antarctica is claimed for the United States.

1841 - William Henry Harrison becomes President, shortly after dies and is succeeded by John Tyler.

1843 - The Kingdom of Hawaii is recognized by European nations as an independent nation.

1844 - Samuel B. Morse sends the first telegraph message. His first words were, “Does this work?”

The United States signs the Treaty of Wanghia.

1845 - James K. Polk becomes President.

1846 - The Mexican-American War begins with a conflict north of the Rio Grande River.

California declares independence from Mexico.

1848 - Gold is discovered in California by James W. Marshall who immediately claims he had misspoken and he had instead found coal.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends Mexican-American War.

1850 - The Compromise of 1850 is introduced to Congress.

Millard Filmore becomes President after Zachary Taylor’s death.

1854 - The Kansas-Nebraska act becomes law.

1857 - James Buchanan becomes President.

The Dred Scott decision.

The first elevator is installed in New York City and gets stuck two days later.

1861 - The Confederated States of America is established.

Abraham Lincoln becomes President.

Fort Sumter is attacked by Confederate forces and starts the U.S. Civil War.

The first Battle of Bull Run.

1862 - The Battle of Shiloh.

The Homestead Act is approved.

Preliminary Emancipation Proclaim is issued.

The Battle of Fredericksburg begins.

1863 - The Battle of Gettysburg is won by the Union.

1865 - General Robert E. Lee signs the Confederate forces’ surrender at Appomattox Court House.

President Lincoln is assassinated at Ford’s theatre.

Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery takes effect.

1866 - The Civil Rights Act of 1866 passes Congress.

The Metric Act of 1866 passes Congress.

1867 - the Treaty of Cession of Russian America to the United States is signed, Alaska becomes part of the United States.

1868 - The Battle of Washita River ends.

1869 - Ulysses S. Grant becomes President.

The First Transcontinental Railroad is finished.

1870 - The Fifteenth Amendment is ratified.

The Confederacy is officially dissolved.

1871 - The Great Fire of Chicago.

1872 - Roche Jaune National Park is the world’s first national park established.

Susan B. Anthony illegally casts ballot to publicize women’s right to vote.

1875 - The Civil Rights Act is passed by Congress.

Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.

1877 - The Nez Perce War begins.

1880 - Construction of the Panama Canal begins.

1881 - James Garfield becomes President. He later dies and is succeeded by Chester Arthur.

1883 - The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act is passed by Congress.

The Brooklyn Bridge opens.

1885 - Grover Cleveland becomes President.

The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York.

1886 - The Haymarket riot in Chicago.

The Interstate Commerce Act is passed by Congress.

1890 - The Battle of Wounded Knee.

1891 - Lucien and Paul Nunn transmit alternating current for the first time.

1892 - Cleveland returns to presidency.

1893 - New York Stock Exchange collapses resulting in the panic of 1893.

1895 - Plessy v. Ferguson decision by Supreme Court establishes approval of racial segregation.

1897 - The first United States underground public transportation opens in Boston.

1899 - The Open Door Policy with China is declared.

1900 - The Gold Standard Act is ratified.

Carrie Nation continues Temperance Movement to abolish liquor and riding horses, prompted by a dream of a horse rebellion.

1901 - The Platt amendment is passed by Congress.

William H. McKinley becomes President.

President McKinley is shot at the Pan-American Exposition and Theodore Roosevelt succeeds upon his death.

1903 - Wilvur and Orville Wright succeed in their first flight via airplane.

1905 - President Roosevelt is elected for second term of Presidency.

1906 - The Pure food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act passes.

1911 - The first transcontinental airline flight begins in New York.

Henry Ford patents the Automotive Transmission.

1913 - The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments are ratified.

Woodrow Wilson becomes President.

1915 - The United States Coast Guard is established.

1916 - Wilson is reelected.

The United States Congress declares War on Germany, joining World War I.

1918 - President Wilson attends the Paris Peace Conference.

1919 - World War I ends with the Treaty of Versailles signed.

1920 - The Nineteenth Amendment is added to the constitution.

1923 - President Harding dies and is succeeded by Calvin Coolidge.

1925 - Charles Francis Jenkins presents radiovision.

The Scopes Trial.

1928 - Herbert Hoover elected President.

The Great Depression begins.

1930 - The London naval Reduction Treaty is signed.

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act is signed.

1933 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes President.

The New Deal program is passed by Congress.

The Twenty-First Amendment is passed.

1935 - The Social Security Act and the Historic Sites Act are signed into law.

1937 - The Hindenburg erupts in flames.

The Golden Gate Bridge opens.

1938 - The Naval Expansion Act passes.

The National Minimum Wage is signed.

The War of the Worlds, the radio drama, causes immense worry to say the least.

1939 - United States declares neutrality in World War II.

1941 - The Lend-Lease Act is approved.

United States occupies Iceland.

The Atlantic Charter is issued.

Pearl Harbor is attacked resulting in the United States entering World War II.

1942 - The Battle of the Midway.

Arthur Compton and Enrico Fermi oversee the first nuclear chain reaction in the Manhattan Project.

1944 - The Normandy Invasion.

1945 - President Roosevelt dies, Harry S. Truman succeeds upon his death.

Germany surrenders.

President Truman authorizes the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

World War II ends.

1948 - President Truman signs Executive Order 9981.

1949 - NATO is formed.

United States withdraws troops from Korea.

1950 - The Korean War begins, shortly after President Truman orders Air Force and Navy to the country.

1951 - The AZUS Treaty is signed by the United States, Australia, and Zealand.

1953 - Dwight Eisenhower becomes President.

1954 - Brown v the Board of Education.

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization is formed.

1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat and prompts boycott that would lead to declaring bus segregation laws unconstitutional.

1957 - United States attempts to launch satellite, Vanguard, into space. Vanguard exploded on the launchpad.

1958 - The first U.S. space satellite, Explorer I, is launched. Due to an instrument on board that detected cosmic rays, they theorize what would come to be known as the Van Allen Belts which was confirmed by Explorer II.

1959 - Alaska and Hawaii become part of the United States.

1960 - The First weather satellite, Tiros I, is launched by the United States. It was one of NASA’s first attempts to use satellites to study Earth and aid international communications.

Transit 1A was launched and failed to reach orbit. Transit 1B succeeded though and carried an infrared scanner and was the first navigation satellite.

1961 - John F. Kennedy becomes President.

The Bay of Pigs invasion of cuba.

Commander Alan Shepard Jr completes the first United States manned sub-orbital space flight inside a Mercury capsule.

Project Gemini begins.

1962 - Lt. Colonel John Glenn, the first United States astronaut in orbit aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury Capsule. He circled the earth three times and didn’t puke once.

The Cuban Missile Crisis begins.

1963 - The Civil Rights march on the United States’ capitol led by Dr. Martin Luther King.

Kennedy is assassinated, Lyndon B. Johnson succeeds upon his death.

1964 - Roachmania hits the United States from the band the Roaches, the name alluding to drug usage.

Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed.

Flight of Gemini I.

1965 - Voting Rights Act of 1965 is signed.

The Watts race riots.

1967 - The Outer Space Treaty is signed.

Apollo I ends in tragedy.

1968 - Martin Luther King is assassinated by James Earl Ray.

1969 - Project Apollo completes mission with Neil Armstrong on the moon.

1972 - Watergate crisis begins.

1973 - Roe v. Wade.

1974 - President Nixon resigns, avoiding impeachment, replaced by Gerald R. Ford.

1976 - Viking I lands on Mars, shortly after followed by Viking II. We get color photos of Mars for the first time.

1980 - Mt. St. Helens volcano erupts.

1981 - The first interdimensional communications completed by Stanford Pines via technology using Fiddleford H. McGucket’s invention of the personal computer.

#;united states #;history

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rivvyelf · 10 months

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Looking Back at the Beginning of my Fanfic

Having written 27 chapters so far, I've started to look back at the early chapters. Prelude is fine. The main issue that I now have, which was sparked by one of my beta readers, is Chapter 2. I really want to insert a new chapter before Chapter 2. The Jump in tone from the Prelude to Chapter 2 is too... big.

I'll insert a new chapter and edit Chapter 2 accordingly. Maybe after I get done with Chapter 28.

#Outlaws of the Inland Sea #fanfiction #revisions #reflections

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dailyadventureprompts · 4 years

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Villain: Ardos, Pillager of the Lost Shore

The pirate walked down the seamless marble stair and held his prize to the light. Just like the city itself, the bauble was beautiful and delicate wirework, the product of generations of craftsmanship that bent and smudged at the touch of his ash covered hands. “Wait until the folks back home get a load of this” he thought, too enraptured by the glimmering of treasure to smell the scent of burning temple on the wind.

Setup: A hapless smuggler all his life, Ardos lucked into becoming pirate of the century after guiding his ship through an ocean spanning storm and discovering an unknown continent full of riches to plunder. After filling his hold with riches stolen from a foreign land, he sailed home, recruited a small fleet of other seadogs to help him in his theft, and sailed back to the forgotten shore to plunder again.

Heady off his successive contests, rich with holy artifacts wrested from foreign temples, and at the head of what might be the most well provisioned pirate fleet in history, Ardos is looking to settle some old scores against the maritime nations that harried him during his humble beginnings.

Adventure hooks:

A vessel of Ardos’s fleet wrecks on a beach nearby the player’s home, scattering odd treasures and marooned pirates across the shore. Apparently the pirates are driven into factions: The Captain is dead, the navigator and many others have become obsessed with the worship of an arcane idol, the quartermaster and her men are scavenging what they can to get a boat back in the water, and the rest of the crew is happy to maraud on dry land for a bit and wouldn't mind pillaging the player’s village on the way.

Just as peacetalks are underway between the home nation and its cheif seagoing rival, Ardos’s fleet rolls in with an offer to side with the highest bidder. The goverments of both sides are slow to overcome their grudges and oust this interloper, while agitators within both nations begin to court the pirate’s favor. Should the offer sit on the table too long, Ardos will send out saboteurs and agitators of his own, hoping to push both factions to the brink of war once again in order to encourage them to deal.

After making an enemy of the Pirate lord, the players will be approached by a towering figure who speaks little common but shares their emnity against Ardos. If they trust him, this goliath (Starcounter is his name) will lead them and their ship across the ocean to the lands the marauder plundered to fuel his assertion.

Background: Before he became a pirate captain, Ardos earned the name “ The Eel” for his ability to slip through imperial blockades with smuggled cargo, or to disappear from his pursuers to find some unseen hole to hide in. While not the most courageous or charming of outlaws, he was one of the most clever, clever enough to choose the right time to lead a mutiny against his lackwit former captain and guide his vessel through a storm that blew them clear off the maps.

By pure luck, or perhaps by the whim of whatever capricious gods ruled that section of the sea, Ardos the eel had not only saved his crew but guided them to a landmass undiscovered by the explorers and sailors of his nation. This “lost shore” was the retreat of an ancient conclave of goliath who had pursued philosophy with such furor that they had retreated from the world at large in order to build a “perfect” social order in isolation.

This experimental society was pacifistic in nature, predicated on the idea that no other society had the technology to reach them, and was so dedicated to harmonious living that it culled fears of outside incursion from its populace. This allowed the people free to refine their arts in veneration of their sainted ancestors, but left them open to attack by an interloper such as Ardos. Holding unflinchingly to their beliefs, the goliath were helpless to stop the pirate from looting and burning their temples. Forced inland by years of raids, a faction of “heretics” is now developing that seeks to defy tradition and destroy the pirate should he return to their shores once again.

Goals:

Look out for #1: having lived a hardscrabble upbringing in squalid conditions taught Ardos to be cruel and uncaring from a very young age, breaking the part inside of him that could feel all but the shallowest kindness towards another person. He was mostly harmless when his job consisted of sailing, stealing, and cheating port authorities out of sacks of spices, but put in charge of a fleet of kilers and with a defenseless population at his mercy? Ardos the Eel grew into the seamonster he was always meant to be.

Become king: who doesn’t want to rule their own nation? While he never dreamed of much authority before the storm and the mutiny, several years of raiding the immaculate temples of the goliath has the pirate lord thinking of a palace of his own, of marble piers erected across the forgotten shore and a nation of pirates all beholden to him for showing them this paradice on earth. All the grandstanding and raiding he’s doing back in his old stomping grounds is to attract enough ships to his banner to go off and form his own nation and defend it from anyone who might discover it in the future.

Heed the call: Something’s been whispering to Ardos lately, some artifact among the innumerable idols and treasures that now line his cabin and quarters. it speaks in a voice of the forgotten shore, something older than the goliath that they buried beneith all their monuments and delicate wirework, something that he began to form a bond with when he first burned one of their temples. He hasn’t noticed it yet, but plenty of his flunkies have, either distancing themselves from the strange subconscious murmur that underscores their thoughts whenever they’re around the Eel, or falling into lockstep behind their new leader and pushing him on to greater and greater things.

#pirates #Cultists #bandits #seaside #sailing #low level #mid level #high level #villian #Village #town #goliath #temple #Cursed item #politics #diplomacy #warfare #Assassin #spy #sword and sandal

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hubertspala · 4 years

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INKTOBER'19 | #27 - Coat | Jyg and Hyg

As the various communities that litter the peculiar surfaces of Posterra flourished and thrived, so did the trade grew, once again establishing surprisingly lively routes inland and by the sea to exchange goods and ensure a flow of currencies. However the job of a travelling merchant is perilous as plenty of dangers still awaits at every corner of the hostile planet... And as every action cause and equal reaction, the influx of traders gave a new breath of life to piracy and robberies on the roads. It was no surprise then that various petty merchants decided to stick to a single township or a small, closely connected network of villages, to limit the dangers and remain in relative safety. Those are the Peddlers, the dealers of small good in minuscule quantities. Some make their own goods to sell, some buy and trade between personas, various good of any kind. And some still peddle in things out of this world, like fragments of lunacy tore from the Dreadfog or the shadowflesh of the crazed mutants for wicked experiments and unsavoury rituals. And as those merchants keep in their trade of dangerous goods, they influence them, change them, as all stuff of the arcane or the lunatic does, turning them into ungainly, uncanny things that can still carry over their profession. In fact outlaws, mad scientists and crazed wizards prefer their merchants that way - a living proof that they are well used to the job and know plenty about barter of forbidden goods.

#Inktober #inktober2019 #ink #inks #markers #coat #day27 #spot color #yellow #peddler #merchant #mutant #creature #character #character design #daily art #challenge #october #2019 #posterra

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theblackbookofarkera · 4 years

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Battle of Saltblood Bay, the

Battle of Saltblood Bay, The

Six centuries ago Jun-shey the king of all krakens rose from the sea to ravish bountiful Saltblood Bay in the kingdom of Ungju. After the king’s greatest sorcerers failed to banish the monster the infamous Chained Corsairs in their turtle ships were dispatched to drive the creature back into the sea. The attack was not expected to succeed and was a mere stall tactic for the local nobility to escape inland.

An outlaw shaman amongst the Chained Corsairs devised a plan to bind the beast and send him back into the depths by ensnaring the kraken in chains infused with primal magick. Thousands died and hundreds of ships lost but the Chained Corsairs were victorious sending Jun-shey to the bottom of the sea bound in blessed chains. Every year on the anniversary of the battle the Red Jainya sorcerers sail to the center of the bay to perform powerful rites meant to ensure Jun-shey never rises again. As for the sacrifice of the Chained Corsairs, they did what was expected of them...sometimes an honorable end is its own reward.

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aj-the-satyr · 5 years

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Shipwrecked

(Well another @thenightofthelivingwriters quote, thank you once again for these, and another one of my D&D Characters. Today’s prompt: Dry.)

Borvath struggled ashore, the waves threatening to knock him down and drag him back out to sea. He finally made it to a more firm footing and turned back to see what what left of his ship and crew. The normally jovial Minotaur bore a more serious expression as he spied bodies and flotsam washing up all around him.

“Bit off more than ye could chew you stupid cow.” He chastised himself. “Least the navy thinks I’m sunk for now.” He scanned the horizon making sure no sails lurked there waiting to launch search parties. A sigh and a soft grunt later he began the trek inland, the weather shifting to a light rain as darkness started its approach.

Borvath tried to keep his spirits up but he’d lost even those, for his brewer’s kit and waterskins full of his homebrewed wine were now property of the sea. The rain decided to turn from a drizzle to almost a monsoon, the path he’d found quickly turning to a muddy mire. A smile crossed his face as he shook his head. “Nice weather for a walk.” He said aloud. Lightning was his only reply.

Miles passed and even he was starting to get tired of mud and rain. He’d found what looked like a main road of sorts and chosen a direction at random, trusting his seemingly unending luck to guide him to a place he could rest out of the rain. A rumbling caught his attention, no not a rumbling,not quite. A carriage. He chuckled at the mere thought of fitting his muddy bulk into such a transport and continued walking along. In short order the carriage was upon him and then past and around a bend. Their direction at least gave him hope that he was headed towards a settlement, for in his efforts to evade capture he had ordered his vessel past known routes. Sadly his pursuer, Admiral Gensen, wasn’t one to give up so easily. Still this was a least a light in the dark. A good sign. Something caught his eye as he too rounded the bend in the road. It was the carriage. It had stopped. There was talking..... no there were orders. A robbery. With no money and no town in sight it seemed that someone had given him a chance to help out people in need and perhaps earn himself a warm bed for a night or two. His Bellow was lost in a peal of thunder, his charging shape lost amid the heavy rain and general darkness.

The person inside the carriage was shocked to see her assailant jerk violently sideways with a shout. She mustered up the courage to attempt to peek outside but blinding rain and noises were her only reward. Many noises in fact including a shout of surprise from Gerald, the coachman and driver. She sat back waiting to see what terrifying fate would befall her. Then a rather wet cow stuck its head in the carriage and smiled.

“Dealt with them for you.”

Words failed her so she just nodded.

“Take care now.” The head disappeared.

“Wait!” She cried out.

Borvath smiled to himself. Never ask, those you rescue will name their own reward. “Yes?” he answered.

“I..... we can’t possibly leave you in this weather.”

The cow head returned. “I am a Minotaur my lady. My bulk would be a hard fit in your transport. Plus I am covered in mud.”

Minotaur. She slotted that word away for later. “Please. I insist. I am Lady Tirradington of Bothinia and my husband will want to reward you for saving his wife from bandits this foul night. The Carriage will be fine won’t it Gerald.”

A faint “Yes yer ladyship” was heard from the front.

Borvath shrugged and hauled himself into the carriage. “Many thanks. It turned out to not be a pleasant day for a walk after all.”

Lady Tirradington made room and gave her new, strange passenger a grateful smile. “Indeed not. I assume you hail from foreign lands. I have not seen your like before.”

“I’m from the North. Got here by boat, sadly it sunk.”

“Oh gosh, how terrible!”

“I live an adventurer’s life. I will survive. The only reward I will seek other than a warm bed and a change of clothes is a drink, or several.”

“I would have thought you would have had enough of water this day.”

“It is not water I speak of my Lady. Something stronger is what I had in mind.”

“Oh....” she paused, “I’m afraid my husband has banned all alcohol from the lands of Bothinia.”

“What?!” Borvath was confused. He didn’t get the joke.

“Oh yes. Many attempts have been made to poison him and he believes that strong drink will hide further attempts, so he outlawed it.”

“Oh..... perhaps after a good rest I will travel onward.”

“Well good luck to you sir Minotaur for we are the only thing for about a hundred miles.”

Cramped as he was Borvath attempted to shrink even more. This was some God’s cruel idea of a joke. Shipwrecked hundreds of miles from the nearest tavern.

(Heh... I enjoyed that. Very wet snippet for the prompt being dry huh? Meet Borvath the Minotaur. He likes his booze. Feel sorry for the guy. Anyway thanks again to the wonderful people behind this writing event. Until the next prompt!)

#TNLW #the night of the living writers #d&d character #Borvath the Red #Poor boi #My Writing #Writetober #Have fun with your writing

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assemblyoftheway · 5 years

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SOUTH AMERICA ISRAELITES

AFRO-GUYANA

Afro-Guyanese people are inhabitants of Guyana who are of Sub-Saharan African descent, generally descended from slaves brought to the Guianas to work on sugar plantations. In 1621 the Dutch West India Company acquired a charter to colonize and monopolize trade in the Americas and in Africa where they established a chain of slave trading and collection forts along the western African coast to supply slave labor for the Americas. The first of many hundreds of shiploads of enslaved Africans began arriving in Guyana in 1640 to work on the Dutch slave labor plantations. Slave labor was used to build the remarkable system of large drainage canals, dikes and sluices that form a protective barrier between the Atlantic Ocean and the low-lying coastline where most of the population still lives. One of the largest segments of Guyana's population are the descendants of those freed slaves who stayed in the colony after 1833. They make up about three-tenths of the population. Guyana is the only English-speaking country of South America, it was also never a Spanish or Portuguese colony, but instead Dutch and then British. Emancipation Day in Guyana comes every August 1st and commemorates the abolition of slavery in Guyana in 1834. Guyana shares Emancipation Day with other Caribbean nations that were formerly British colonies. There is currently a Hebrew culture center in Guyana called ‘The Prophetic Priesthood at Jerusalem,’ that keeps the laws of The Highest. Also, the territory now known as Guyana was first inhabited by indigenous groups such as the Carib (Galibi or Kalinago), Arawak (Taino), Warrau, Wayana and Akawai. Before the captive’s slaves were brought to Guyana.

AFRO-BRAZILIAN

From the late 1500s to the 1860s, Brazil was consistently the largest destination for African slaves in the Americas. In that period, approximately 4 million enslaved Africans were imported to Brazil. Thousands of African slaves were brought to work in the gold mines. They were landed in Rio de Janeiro and sent to other regions. By the late 18th century, Rio de Janeiro was an "African city": most of its inhabitants were slaves. No other place in the world had as many slaves since the end of the Roman Empire. In 1808 the Portuguese Royal Family, fleeing from Napoleon, took charge in Rio de Janeiro. Some 15,000 Portuguese nobles moved to Brazil. The region changed a lot, becoming more European. The coast, in the past the place where millions of African slaves arrived (mostly from modern-day Angola, Ghana, Nigeria and Benin) to work in sugar-cane plantations, is where nowadays there is a predominance of Mulattoes, those of African and European ancestry. However, Salvador, Bahia is considered the largest African city outside of Africa, with over 80% of its inhabitants being African-Brazilians. It has been estimated by Darcy Ribeiro, a Brazilian anthropologist, author and politician that,12 million Africans were captured to be brought to Brazil, even though the majority of them died before becoming slaves in the country, only 45% of the Africans captured in Africa, to become slaves in Brazil, survived. Brazilian slavery included a diverse range of labor roles. For example, gold mining in Brazil began to grow around 1690 in interior regions of Brazil, such as modern-day region of Minas Gerais. Slaves in Brazil also worked on sugar plantations, such as those found in the first capital of Brazil—Salvador, Bahia. Other products of slave labor in Brazil during that era in Brazilian history included tobacco, textiles, and cachaça, which were often vital items traded in exchange for slaves on the African continent.

AFRO-URUGUAYANS

The majority of 190,000 Afro-Uruguayans are in Montevideo. The port of Buenos Aires served as the exclusive entry point for enslaved Africans in the Río de la Plata region. Slaves entering the port of Buenos Aires were then regularly shipped inland to Córdoba and the northwestern provinces of Salta and Tucumán in Argentina, across the Andes Mountains to Chile (see Afro-Chileans) and to the mines of Potosí in Alto Perú. Most African slaves worked as domestic servants or day laborers. Slavery was abolished gradually between 1842 and 1852. Economically they remain among the poorest sectors of Uruguayan society: most are non-qualified workers employed in the construction industry, domestic service, or cleaning and porter services. There is high unemployment among young Afro-Uruguayans. English is spoken in this country, but mostly for business, and then 99% of the population of Uruguay speaks Spanish.

AFRO-PERUVIANS

The first slaves arrived with the conquistadors (Spaniards) in 1521. In 1529 and 1537, Francisco Pizarro was granted permits to import 363 slaves to colonial Peru. The "New laws" of 1548 and the influence of the denunciation of the abuses against Native Americans by Friar Bartolomé de las Casas, slaves gradually replaced natives at the Encomienda’s. Over the course of the slave trade, approximately 95,000 slaves were brought into Peru, with the last group arriving in 1850.

Slave owners in Peru developed preferences to have slaves from specific areas of Africa (believed to have certain characteristics); they wanted to have slaves of one area who could communicate with each other. They believed slaves from Guinea, from the Senegal River down to the Slave Coast, were easier to manage and had marketable skills. They already knew how to plant and cultivate rice, train horses, and herd cattle on horseback. The slave owners also preferred slaves from the area stretching from Nigeria to eastern Ghana. The slave owners' third choice was for slaves from Congo, Mantenga, Cambado, Misanga, Mozambique, Madagascar, Terranova (who were probably bought in Porto-Novo, Benin), Mina and Angola. Two types of black slaves were forced to travel to Peru. Those born in Africa were commonly referred to as negros bozales ("untamed blacks"), which was also used in a derogatory sense. These slaves were shipped from west or southwest Africa or transported from the Spanish Indies or other Spanish colonies. Afro-Peruvians previously acculturated to Spanish culture and the ones who spoke Spanish were called negros ladinos (Latinized Negros) “Ladino” was a racist term used in the Iberia Peninsula. The Iberian Peninsula is Portugal and Spain, sound familiar? Well, if it does that’s because that is where black Jews (Yahudim) were expelled from and taking to the west coast of Africa only to be brought to the Americas and the Islands of the sea. Which would mean the slaves that were taking to Peru are descendants of these slaves, which would mean, they are the TRUE Jew/Yahudim.

In 1835, President Felipe Santiago Salaverry signed a decree again legalizing the deportation of slaves through the other Latin American countries. Thus, two years after his death, will be removed from the constitution the principle of "emancipating soil" according to which a slave entering Peru is, de facto, made free. In 1854, General José de San Martín outlaws slave trade in Peru. In 1856, President Ramón Castilla y Marquezado declared slavery abolished. Afro-Peruvian music has its roots in the communities of black slaves brought to work in the mines along the Peruvian coast. Today, Afro-Peruvians (also known as Afro descent Peruvians) reside mainly on the central and south coast, with the majority of the population in the provinces of Lima, Callao, Nazca, Chincha, Ica and Cañete. Many Afro-Peruvians live on the northern coast in Lambayeque and Piura. The greatest concentration of Afro-Peruvians and mestizos of Afro descent is in the Callao, an area that has historically received many of the Afro-Peruvians from the north and southern coast.

AFRO-ECUADORIAN

Slave ships first arrived in Ecuadorian ports in 1526, and slaves worked on plantations and in gold mines. Afro-Ecuadorians make up most of the balance of the percentage and include mulattos (mixed European and sub-Saharan African) and zambos (mixed indigenous and sub-Saharan African). Afro-Ecuadorians are an ethnic group in Ecuador who are descendants of black African slaves brought by the Spanish during their conquest of Ecuador from the Incas. They make up from 3% to 5% of Ecuador's population. The Afro-Ecuadorian culture is found primarily in the country's northwest coastal region. Africans form a majority (70%) in the province of Esmeraldas and also have an important concentration in the Valle del Chota in the Imbabura Province. They can be also found in important numbers in Quito and Guayaquil. Today, Afro-Ecuadorians have the highest unemployment level and are among the poorest of Ecuadorian social groups. Also, there is evidence that this group still faces regional inequalities and racial discrimination, particularly in urban areas.

AFRO-CHILEANS Afro-Chileans are descended from the Sub-Saharan part of Africa, who were brought to the New World by religious orders and Spaniards. Slavery bloomed from 1580 to 1660, the import of slaves into Chile was a response to a long-term population decline among indigenous peoples. Black slaves were often used as housekeepers, agriculture, gold mining, and construction projects. Mortality was high, due to harsh working environment. and other posts of confidence. It is believed some of them might have come from Peru from the Antilles or towns in Africa, specifically from the Bantu regions some also were considered as descendants of Enslaved Africans brought from Africa to Present day Peru, Cuba, Brazil, then later brought to Chile. Afro-Chileans are mainly located in Arica y Parinacota in northern Chile. They are not recognized by Chilean government as an ethnic group.

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hdvrpg · 6 years

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(Because these questions kind of assume a classic-old-school-run-of-play I tried to throw in an adventure hook into each of these because my games don't tend to follow that road).

The world was called Haftorang, First Warrior of the North Palace, and a multitude of other names. These survive only on the most ancient of maps.

In the most general of terms, it is hot, atmospherically soupy, and poor in metals. Most of it is given over to oily seas. The sun is distant and smouldering ulfire.

The game begins in an expanse known as Beyond-the-Goblin-Ear-Strait. It is a fatal gash of unbridled wilderness stretching north-south across the world across which sprawl thin skeins of mortal settlement. Our eclectic players are emigres, defectors, exiles, and vagrants from across the Strait. The bitter owner of the sewn Skrom-skin craft which ferried you here died in a storm or mutiny and now the boat is (a piece of shit, but) collectively owned by you.

What is the deal with my cleric's religion?

The gods, originally only nominally worshipped, have returned to the surface of the earth. None have so many temples beyond the Strait as Gurazzar, He-of-the-Ninety-Nine-Mirrors, The Naked God, ruler of the night sky, wind, storms, obsidian, smoke, discord, tigers, and father of sorcery. His sorcerer-priests desire divisive battle and every grey morality to be considered. every ninth new moon the Overlord must walk the streets naked, painted peacock-blue and bearing weapons like a sorcerer-priest slaying anybody he finds.

Where can we go to buy standard equipment?

The port gets all the finished goods– tools, guns, weapons and armour that aren’t made of skins, bone, or obsidian studded witch-wood. Although such things have been disappearing recently and being replaced with versions made of gold, carved from crystal, or tooled in elaborately pelagic ceremonial designs. Merchants say it is Ikma in her fish-aspect come to protect her seafarers in their poverty and destitution.

Where can we go to get plate-mail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended?

They won’t want it. Dwarves despise metal, elves will shrink/grow/warp out of it the moment they get in, and just about everything else will eat it or you first.

Who is the mightiest wizard in the land?

The high sorcerer-priest of the Naked God, Terrible Kandza, wields magic of the ninth order. Few challenge this power, for magic even of the first order is forbidden to common wretches; except for perhaps the witch hunting librarians of Hexelheim, said to maintain in their library tomes which reveal the weaknesses of the gods themselves.

Who is the greatest warrior in the land?

The Overlord. It is said half his blood is the mind-altering sap known only as The Holy Mountain due to the amount the queen mother partook during her twelve-year pregnancy. For this he feels no pain, can see his enemies through walls, and can chop a horse in half with a club.

Who is the richest person in the land?

The council of Guilds, the ninety-nine blessed merchants of the region advising the Overlord and his priests, holds collective decree as owners of all the wealth Beyond the Strait.

Where can we go to get some magical healing?

Temples: Priests of Ikma can only touch wounds of life-threatening importance; Priests of the Rat god will tell you to embrace the wound as a blessing; ascetics of the Tiger-path will offer to eat your seven souls for protection from earthly wounds.

Where can we go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, undeath?

The first two: your own house. Your door will be nailed shut for thirty days and painted by a priest with the sign of Ikma in the black-green blood of the fleshtree, the god of necessity. Level drain you can suck up because if you’ve been touched by a ghost in the Land you must wear a mask of that spirit for the rest of your life. The last five (save alignment change) are best asked for at the goodwill of a local temple; if your alignment changes, accept the omen and embrace your new cause (Priesthoods often put the zeal of a convert to direct action).

Is there a magic guild my MU belongs to or that I can join in order to get more spells?

The librarians of Hexelheim, far south, accept the worthy; amongst other things you must renounce all religion, bring six witch-heads as tithe, and accept a gruelling apprenticeship which mostly involves fetch-quests, spell transcription, and gruesome public assassination of temple officials.

Where can I find an alchemist, sage or other expert NPC?

Alchemists are mostly devoted to explosives; in a well-avoided tenement or perhaps in the interrogative possession of the Librarians of Hexelheim. Temple priests function as much else; prophets, trip-guides, and healers. Oga the blind will fence anything in the Temple Markets for a cut and it is said Thirteen-Fingered Kalbo maintains his criminal court from within the city somewhere.

Where can I hire mercenaries?

Every temple has dedicated warriors who can be bribed for some gold or hired from their posts for more: or if you’re down and out consider a short monthlong stint in their ranks and they’ll pay you a favour back.

Is there any place on the map where swords are illegal, magic is outlawed or any other notable hassles from Johnny Law?

Yes. Everywhere (for magic) if you’re not noble or a priest; if you can get a sword made of metal the summary punishment for peasants is to be killed with your own sword.

Which way to the nearest tavern?

Alcohol is abhorred and anti-religious. Try imbibing the Holy Mountain at any of the regular temple trance-sessions.

What monsters are terrorising the countryside sufficiently that if I kill them I will become famous?

The Gods. Potentially seperate, considering it’s bold to assume it might help against gods: ask why any of the road patrols bother lugging around cannons everywhere they go

Are there any wars brewing I could go fight?

Wait till sunset; pick between any of the temples, guilds, and the various politically motivated violent groups that fill the darker streets and undercity at night with their state-sanctioned petty warfare.

How about gladiatorial arenas complete with hard-won glory and fabulous cash prizes?

There are street-leagues of Seven-Tongues-of-Fire players, a game where the main rule is to fight your opponent using a weapon that is “some form of live, poisonous, deadly, and previously enraged animal chained to the wrist of the wielder”. Also, try arranging a dawn duel with any of the merchant nobles; the prize is whatever’s on their corpse if you win and a fat bounty on your head.

Are there any secret societies with sinister agendas I could join and/or fight?

People keep disappearing for months on end and then reappearing at comfortable jobs amongst the king’s bureaucrats. Ask them.

What is there to eat around here?

The vicious, dark Skrom-beast is a trophy kill and life-giving staple here; one mature kill feeds a family for a season and the carcass is sold to shipwrights to be sewn into ships. Tax is recorded in Skrom-heads and is common unit of measurement (think fuckton). I. E. they are worth a lot.

Any legendary lost treasures I could be looking for?

The Yellow Hulks– solitary yellow ships with silent crews that arrive twice yearly carrying cargo of the finest textiles, slave-bands seeking life contracts, weapons made of real steel, and then leaving with equal weight in gold– have not arrived all year despite many sea-merchants having said to have passed them in the busy ocean routes or canals through the coastal swamps.

Where is the nearest dragon or other monster with Type H treasure?

Rivers of blood have been flowing from the semi-permanent villages in the inland wastes that spring up around the ancient temples there.

#DIYDND #dnd #jrients #campaign

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