#pc: medicine hat

[battle-of-alberta]

Who had the happiest childhood ?

well over a year later i finally tackle this question! it was at the bottom of the box because one of my weaknesses is drawing children, and another one is the necessary historical research to draw their childhoods :' ) but i really wanted to start imagining them because it's very important to the overall story i'm trying to tell here.

here's the main gang, who were children at one end of the 19th century or another. I don't really know how to answer the question (they all lived through some very rough times, even if they didn't know as much) but I can give a little bit of an explanation for the times they grew up in...

[but most importantly, who do you think was the cutest?]

Ed and Jas were kids in the early decades of the 19th century (the regency era). They didn't really have a sense of the outside world much at all (Ed in particular had a very inflated sense of self importance he has since lost) and moved around a lot to follow the fur bearing animals (typically beavers). I feel like they were often getting into scrapes like this!

Cal and Lil grew up in the 1870s when the Northwest Mounted Police were establishing the Canada-US border. Calvin doesn't realize that his childhood enemy Fort Whoop Up and Lilith are the same person, so he tends to think of Lilith as younger than him. Lilith knows better, of course, but I guess she wanted a fresh start. In some ways, they were both only a bit spoiled as kids, though Lilith was less sheltered.

Jo and Mac didn't really interact much as they were isolated for most of their childhoods and didn't really hit their first growth spurts until the 20th century. It's hard to imagine their childhoods (or that Mac was ever a child haha) but they must have been quite lonely, so I figure they had to have pretty big imaginations to cope during the times Ed wasn't around.

Nor, Red and Maddie grew up in the railroad era of the 1880s-90s, although Nor and Maddie were the railroad resort and energy princesses respectively. Red depended far more on carriages and later vehicles passing through on their way between Ed and Cal's places. [also, do not attempt to cuddle bear cubs or feed them chocolate biscuits!!]

#Anonymous #projectcanada cities #historical hetalia #hetalia oc #pc: edmonton #pc: calgary #pc: jasper #pc: lethbridge #pc: grande prairie #pc: fort mcmurray #pc: banff #pc: red deer #pc: medicine hat #hapo art #clip studio paint #digital art #boab ask #edward murphy #jasper swift #calvin mccall #lilith sheran #josephine cardinal #reginald buffalo #eleanor crandell #elaine hartley #madeline hargrave

[surfingthesealand]

A little something for @acetechne's birthday, starring the Texas boys and the @battle-of-alberta cities! Howdy from down south! 🤠⭐️ 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🎂

#my art #surfingthesealand draws #the lonestar boys #lonestar boys #lonestar #the lonestar boys big five #the lonestar boys: the big five #texas #texas boys #project canada #pc cities #the texas boys #pc: calgary #pc: edmonton #pc: lethbridge #pc: medicine hat #pc: red deer #alberta #battle of alberta #boab #boab cities #crossover #oc crossover #flags #calgary #edmonton #lethbridge #medicine hat #red deer

[kaijusrpgbrainstorm]

New Year, New Character 2: day 21

Our last day in the post apocalyptic wastelands of the United States, and a quick note. Super mutants are a PC option in Fallout: the Roleplaying Game. Mechanically, in addition to some immunities, they get bonuses to Strength and Endurance, increased limits on how high you can raise those stats, and reduced maximums for Intelligence and Charisma. Which, honestly, feels a bit to close to some of the bullshit regarding species stats in other games. Especially since super mutants are basically Orcs in post apocalyptic drag. Also, it means you can't play a smart super mutant like Fawkes from Fallout 3. Not that this stopped me from trying. Day 21: Breaker, super mutant trader and repair man, Fallout: the Roleplaying Game Breaker doesn't remember anything before coming out of a tank full of goo, but ever since then he has known he is not like others of his kind. They all value “strength” and aggression and violence and Breaker... Breaker knows there is more to life than those things. Being the runt did not help things. Beaten for being weak, for thinking things like “plans” and goals beyond killing the humans might be useful, eventually he just left before they gave him a ticking bomb and made him run into a fight with it. Things turned around a bit after that, because it turned out he had at least one advantage: with nothing to fear from radiation or sickness, he could just wander around scavenging what he needed. And then it turned out the “puny” humans would buy his spare scraps. It took a while, but he started getting the hang of bartering and trade, of talking his way out of being shot. Word of the talky mutant got around. Then those damn raiders decided to make an example of him, like the other super mutants would care. And they had enough guns and chems to make breaking out a chore. And then this “Jennifer” showed up, tiny and barely equipped, with a small army in tow. And suddenly Breaker was free. He understands the concepts of debt enough to know he owes a favour to this group, and he will pay that favour back.

Origin: Supermutant

Level: 1

Luck Points: 8

Strength: 7

Perception: 5

Endurance: 7

Charisma: 6

Intelligence: 6

Agility: 5

Luck: 8

Athletics (Str): 3

Barter (Cha): 3(T)

Big Guns (End):

Energy Weapons (Per):

Explosives (Per):

Lockpick (Per):

Medicine (Int):

Melee Weapons (Str):

Pilot (Per):

Repair (Int): 3(T)

Science (Int):

Small Guns (Agi):

Sneak (Agi): 2

Speech (Cha): 3(T)

Survival (End): 2

Throwing (Agi): Unarmed (Str): 3

Perks: Jury Rigging

Traits: Forced Evolution

Carry Weight: 220lbs

Damage Resistance: Physical 0 Energy 0 Radiation 0* Poison 0*

Defense: 1

Initiative: 10

HP: 15

Melee Damage: +1d

*As a supermutant, Breaker is immune to radiation and poison

Equipment: Skirmisher

Raider armour torso (Resist Phys. 1, Energy 1, torso)

Raider armour right leg (Resist Phys. 1, Energy 1, right leg)

Heavy bolt-action rifle, and 8+4d rounds of .308 ammunition

A board

Trinket: loaded casino dice

5 caps

Tagged Skill equipment:

2d10 additional caps

Multi-tool

Formal hat and clothing

#new year new character #character creation challenge #character creation #fallout #fallout: the roleplaying game #fallout the roleplaying game #modiphius #rpg #rpgs #roleplaying game #roleplaying games #role playing game #role playing games

[castle-dominion]

Teehee c2x19

I love her & her little science experiment. I learned all about spatter patterns when I first got into Sherlock.  Aw, that’s what growing up is like. Or you can say “I need to come in late to help my daughter” “I’ll be Fine without you!” *smashes tomato*

You should have gotten norman jessop to open the lock : (

I like how esposito is physically on beckett’s side but then moves to castle’s. Physicality representing the conversation.

I PAUSED THE VIDEO TO WRITE THAT LAST PARAGRAPH BUT OMG I WAS NOT EXPECTING TO HEAR THAT AS SOON AS I PLAYED IT AGAIN: RC: Eat, pray, love. *talks about his deductions & conjectures,* Someone who wouldn’t be satisfied with just a casual relationship. KB: & who’s to say that’s not his? RC & JE: *give her a look* KR walks in. Voice cracking slightly: Oh I love that book JE & RC: *look at each other* JE: *holds up his hand to say “forget it” to castle*

RC: They Have Dinosaurs There That’s pretty much the best part about living where I live. We have a GREAT dinosaur museum just a couple hours away with a decent camping spot & badlands & hoodoos (not the religion) & coal & fossils & it’s just so cool. 

Castle that is not your hat!? Why are you touching things that shouldn’t be touched & yanking on things that shouldn’t be yanked? (also the captions should totally have said that there were birds cawing & thunder crashing.) GIRL WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GLASS SHATTERING???

Of course it’s a curse. Ok bestie.  I mean speaking from an indigenous perspective, we knew things that were scientific but hadn’t been explained yet. Sage is one of our sacred medicines & science has proven it to be antimicrobial. You will be cursed with illness after opening the tomb because who knows what kinds of bacteria & microbes & pathogens & moulds are in there that could get you sick? I am Not excited for this episode. Probably going to be good old racism, at the very least some non-explicit racism. 

Ancient is such a debated word. https://www.tiktok.com/@diamond_dog74?lang=en has a video on how the word “ancient” is used. It’s like that saying, brits think 100 miles is a long way & americans think 100 years is a long time. https://www.tiktok.com/@diamond_dog74/video/7221754726608538926?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7229405114166281733 is the video I was actually thinking of. I think. See this is why it takes me three hours to watch a 45 minute episode

Holy crap I’m only at the second intro.

The boys definitely discussed it. They said “let’s pretend we’re getting dead ends because of castle’s curse it’ll be hilarious” The movement is so good. Ryan pointing as Esposito talks.

I love a good familial superstition.  JE: Yeah, my abuela always said, “La mala suerte viene de tres en tres” (I have castle paused right now & from my background in french I’d say it means “the harm follows comes of three in three” aka “curses come in triplets”) (Wait he translated: bad luck always comes in threes. Mala suerte probs is bad luck then. Suerte does not mean “follow” as I thought.)

I said, we’re not celebrities, We spark & fade, they die by threes.

Not excited. Please no heavy racism, even if you must have eurocentrism. (Which you already have had.)

Why are the vikings romanticized & their human sacrifice ignored but the native americans demonized & it’s the only thing people talk about? 

Ryan: Can I drive? Esposito: No <3

*throws up a bit in my mouth*

Cacaw Te is so right. The deal was with a government not with the people who actually belong to the land & culture & tomb.

JE: We hit the jackpot with the girlfriend photos. KB: ...He was sleeping with a mummy? JE, nodding: Yeah *stops* --What?

Karma is not within your current lifetime. 

They just got bomb disposal to.. make a flash bang in the coffee machine? RC: I’m not cleaning this up! RC a second later: ... I’d better clean this up

Stonehenge was just some people doing a ton of unnecessary work & deja vu is your brain short circuiting for a second. Isn’t it?

Macbeth is only bad if you say the name in a theater.  Hey we do the same thing at school! In my line cooking class we have a loop; a wall separates the prep area from the line. If someone says “it seems like a slow day” then you need to walk a lap around the line to break the jinx.

They’re so cute. KR: He pulled the surveillance video, revealing this shining example of thuggery. KB: Any idea who he is? KR: *takes a deep breath & big smile* *turns to esposito* KR: Do you want to? JE: No bro, you caught it KR: You sure? JE: Yeah it’s yours, go ahead KB & me: You know, whenever you guys are done being cute.

KB: Come on Castle, let’s go RC, probably because of what happened during the bdsm episode: Can I drive? KB: Are you kidding? You’re cursed!

I FORGOT ABOUT THIS PART! WITH THE DOG!  I can’t believe they are still pranking him! Wait nvm it was just a normal dog. It looked like a police dog tho. This is why I keep a safetypin on my at all times if I can help it. Always able to sort-of-kind-of fix your pants after being attacked by a dog.

I love how some random cop whistles as she passes castle with his pants ripped open. Wait is she checking him out?

Wait it was a police dog nvm.

(”gypsy” is a slur btw)

Rewatching the scene with montgomery because it’s good. I mean you’re irish, the amount of curses & folklore? & then you, didn’t your abuela tell you not to mess with curses?

RC: Fill me in, spare no detail KR: Well in some cultures, instead of burning-- RC: Fast forward a little bit

Ugh acab & like girl are you sure you won’t damage anything?

KR: We have a k-9 unit coming in to help RC: *looks around frantically*

*Elecator stops* *Things go bad* *Elevator shifts & creaks* RC: What am I supposed to do if the elevator falls, jump in the air? No! Lay on the ground! (in the next scene) Ding *Elevator opens to castle starfishing facedown on the elevator floor*

& then the facial expressions of the cops behind him once he gets out

RC: & if her boyfriends get frisky you can shoot them

I love CT’s science stuff. Super interesting. & I like how he explains but rushes it to keep their attention

I love a good mortitian undertaker mortuary expert coroner whatever you call em.

Ruh roh.

#castle 2x19 #castle 2x19 spoilers #castle 2x19 quote

[64bitgamer]

[fomalhaut48]

DnD gems, vol. 33.

PC1: "We smashed his head against the wall." PC2: "How lovely!"

Orc: "AAAAARGHHHH!" PC: "Always Chaotic Evil, I guess?" DM: "Well, you see, orcs are not really sociable..."

DM: "The second orc attacks, and misses too. I guess I got the best of the Orc village here..."

PC: "So this orc got behind me because I'm so, so, so cute..."

DM: "You made the orc crumble." PC: "Did I kill him?"

PC: "I throw a magic missile, hoping nothing explodes..."

Pretty female PC: "I walk up to the wounded orc, as long as he doesn't spray disgusting blood on me, I try and attack..."

PC1: "PC2, you're hiding behind a woman? You're worse than a coward!"

PC1 to halfling PC2: "Aww, you're so cute, can I pet you?"

PC1: "You don't seem very well-suited to fighting." PC2: "Okay well, so far I only used this hammer to whack some weeds in the garden."

PC1: "What are your skills, PC2?" PC2: "I am very well-versed in fashion, look at this nice hat, am good at speech, can even convince a bald guy to buy a comb! I also have read lots about medicine in my palace!" PC1: "Then what the heck are you doing in Icewind Dale, at the end of the world?!" PC2: "Maybe that ship captain tricked me when I said I wanted to see the world." PC1: "You don't say..."

PC: "It was quick and not painful. We scraped his face on the wall."

Innkeeper (in a small village): "We have a few free rooms." PC: "Do you have silk sheets?"

PC: "I hide behind a screen, put on my beautiful pink silk nightgown with frills, apply my night cream and cucumber slices on the eyes, then go to sleep."

DM: "So you go down to have breakfast, but not all together, you're not the Brady Bunch."

#dnd #Dungeons and Dragons #rpg #rpg humor

[mclain01kelleher]

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#CRACK4WINDOWS.NET

[allbeendonebefore]

Out of your ocs, who is a shower and who is a bath person? Also hot water or cold water?

gut reactions

the cold shower challenge is some weird manly man thing i encountered modding for business school classes and it frightens me. While I think Calvin is also a hot shower person I also think he's stubborn and swears by this weird thing.

#projectcanada cities #aph oc #hetalia oc #hws oc #hetalia ask blog #hws ask blog #pc: edmonton #pc: calgary #pc: red deer #pc: lethbridge #pc: medicine hat #pc: fort mcmurray #pc: grande prairie #pc: banff #edward murphy #calvin mccall #elaine hartley #lilith sheran #madeline hargrave #reginald buffalo #eleanor crandell #hapo doodles #boab ask #autodesk sketchbook #digital art #i just realized this was sent to my main blog #i defaulted to boab because #i guess ancients didnt have hot showers

[acetechne]

speedy doodle of maddie working with some clay

#projectcanada cities #pc: medicine hat #hapo art #hapo doodles #clip studio paint #digital art #madeline hargrave #she wears tiger print a lot because SPORts

[sephiwhore]

Interesting things I’ve found in V’s apartment (not including items that appear after certain missions, like Misty’s dream catcher). It’s a LOT, so under a cut. (Edit: gonna add to this any additional info you guys give me!)

A lot of random spray paint cans. V dabbles in graffiti?

Boxing gloves, probably from Vik.

Lots of sugar skulls, probably from Jackie or Mama Welles.

Incense, definitely from Misty.

Forceps? By the computer?

A fucking PRESERVED SNAKE IN A JAR.

Lots of random vases and jars.

A magazine called “BALLSY” depicting a scantily-clad man, by the bed.

A screwdriver, also by the bed.

TWO pictures of scantily clad ladies by the computer. (Is V canonically bi/pan?? :D) (Edit: they’re a keepsake from Jackie’s garage I’m ;-; Thanks @gcthamqueen!)

A record that kinda looks like it could be a Samurai record, it uses the same color scheme, but it doesn’t look like any of the ones I’ve seen I don’t think.

A basketball! (Edit: possibly the signed basketball you find in Jackie’s garage, but I’m pretty sure I left that on his altar this playthrough so I dunno? Thanks @the--mediocre--gatsby!)

A surf board!

Half a hamburger on the floor. V you’re gonna get roaches.

Two things that look suspiciously like house arrest anklets??

Two pairs of pliers, I think?

A bunch of small glass bottles of...something? Looks like some kind of medicine, and there’s a lot of them.

V seems to be a big fan of a book called “KIBBLE AND SCOP”. There are...several copies.

Just a ton of unopened cardboard boxes. OPEN YOUR PAKIGES, V.

A cabinet with first aid stuff in the gun room.

Some cool gun diagrams in the gun room.

Why does said gun room have soundproofing on the walls, anyway? Is V shooting guns in that teeny room? I don’t think some foam soundproofing is gonna dampen the sound of a gunshot, V.

An email saying rent is past due. Did V ever pay their rent? Did they not pay it cause they assume they’ll be dead soon? Aw fuck ;-;

Decorative soaps, or maybe air fresheners? On what looks like a vent, by the toilet. (Edit: they’re a reference to Demolition Man! Thanks @noctrl22!)

Also a weird metal tray thing by the toilet? (Edit: possibly for Nibbles. A litter box, but V doesn’t know how litter boxes work? Maybe kitty litter is hard to find? Thanks @sybilsht)

The toilet has no water in it. Does it work like an airplane toilet? Probably, I imagine the droughts in California only get worse up til 2077.

The giant illuminated moving arrows pointing to the flush button are just really funny to me.

The sink! Not that interesting, I really like V’s sink.

TWO bath towels. Interesting.

A sticker over the mirror that says “NIPPLE” with what appears to be crudely drawn nipples on either side.

A sticker with a pot leaf, but the top and bottom side leaves form a wizard hat and the text “PURPLE WIZARD” is underneath.

A whole bunch of protein powder containers, which suggests that Female V should be a lot more buff than she is >:(

At least 4 maneki neko figures (those waving cats).

A couple screamsheet magazines, though I can’t make out what’s on the covers (I’m on console, they’re probably readable on PC)

An “I <3 NC” sticker which I think is really cute, V probably really does love NC despite all its shittiness.

SO many ashtrays. Like jesus, V. (This might be dependent on whether you agree to smoke for Johnny after finding Evelyn)

This seems to be random cause they’re not there in my second playthrough, but in my first run there were some anal beads on the floor by the door.

#okay i spent way longer than i planned on this #this took me like half an hour #cyberpunk 2077 #cp2077 #cp 2077 #cyberpunk #v #cyberpunk v #v cyberpunk #johnny silverhand #jackie welles #viktor vector #misty olszewski

[battle-of-alberta]

there's two alberta cities in the strongest town contest (match up 2 with med hat and 4 with edmonton) so why not vote for them (all you need is an email address) :3

both are making awesome efforts towards moving away from automobile-centric infrastructure and affordable housing that you can read more about there

bonus

calgary is still allergic to density

#boab omake #projectcanada cities #pc: calgary #pc: edmonton #pc: medicine hat #hapo doodles #clip studio paint #calvin mccall #edward murphy #madeline hargrave

[eldritchamy]

You can’t just say that and then not tell us what happened in the game on Sunday!

My campaign is so insane and homebrewed that it's hard to even explain what's going on without a HUGE amount of context, and the thing that happened on Sunday was very specific to both the setting and an original character from my PC's backstory which is ALSO subject to a lot of secrecy because of a future plot twist I have with her.

That said, I'll do my best to give some accessible context.

EDIT: this attempt failed horribly good luck with the ENORMOUS wall of text below the cut, much of which covers some Magic The Gathering lore specific to the Ravnica campaign setting.

Essentially our game takes place in Ravnica, the MTG setting that was adapted for D&D 5e. There are two big asterisks to that, because it's not simply canon Ravnica.

The first asterisk is that my DM actually adapted the setting on her own before there was an official 5e sourcebook for Ravnica, and much of it is customized with that in mind. The Guilds in particular are a lot less fucked up and evil.

For anyone not familiar with Ravnica, it's a plane of endless city, and the MAIN city was called Ravnica, but it's so expansive that it's essentially become synonymous with the entire plane. Think an infinite Coruscant from Star Wars, but with better worldbuilding. The CITY of Ravnica was founded over 10,000 years ago when a powerful Sphynx and "Planeswalker" (a MTG concept that basically amounts to powerful spellcasters with the ability to teleport to other planes) united the ten warring factions in a magically binding agreement called the Guildpact, which forces cooperation between the factions and prevents then from destroying each other. Now the ten factions are "Guilds," each serving a necessary function in the city. The Azorius Senate is where the legislation comes from, the Orzhov Syndicate is the banking system (also one of Ravnica's two primary religions and the mafia), the Golgari Swarm is a massive collective of undercity recyclers (which includes recycling living matter) and are responsible for most of Ravnica's food and agriculture production, the Izzet League handles infrastructure and technological advancement, the Simic Combine is the biological sciences including medicine and bioengineering, the Cult of Rakdos is the entertainment industry (very much including adult entertainment), etc. etc. etc.

There was a point in Ravnica's history where the then-leader of House Dimir (the guild responsible for a lot of shipping and messengers, but also secretly a sort of black hat spy network) committed a crime for which he had to be punished, but it was impossible to punish him without exposing the existence of House Dimir to the public (a condition for the original signing of the Guildpact) which created a loophole that BROKE the Guildpact, and there was a period of chaos and war until some long winded magic stuff happened with an artifact known as the "Implicit Maze" which promised power and prosperity but could not be solved without cooperation by all of the guilds. The Implicit maze was solved through the actions of a powerful Planeswalker and mind mage named Jace Beleren, who as a result became the "Living Guildpact," which granted him all of the magical power of the Guildpact and made it so that any law he verbally spoke became magically binding on the plane of Ravnica. This was, to put it mildly, a big fucking deal.

In the official D&D Sourcebook for the Ravnica setting, Jace is still the active Guildpact.

OUR version takes place further in the timeline, about 5 years after one of the most major events in all of MTG lore from what I understand, called the War of the Spark. WOTS was a HUGE deal and is hard to explain briefly, but what basically happened is a 25,000 year old Elder Dragon named Nicol Bolas, who was ALSO probably the single most powerful Planeswalker ever, spent a long time trying to steal Planeswalker Sparks (sort of a rare magic birthmark on your soul that gives you the POTENTIAL to "ignite" and become a Planeswalker if the right conditions are met) from other Planeswalkers in order to not only recover the power that he had lost when another big event in the lore changed (nerfed) how Planeswalkers work, but ultimately to transcend the limits of Planeswalkers altogether and become a god.

He got very, very close to succeeding.

The War of the Spark refers to the specific event when Nichol Bolas used an Interplanar Beacon to lure Planeswalkers to Ravnica, where they would be unable to escape because of an artifact his agents had activated there, called the Immortal Sun, which basically blocked all planar travel out of the plane except through a specific device on Ravnica called the Planar Bridge, which an agent of his, an extremely cunning and malevolent Planeswalker named Tezzeret, managed to destroy and incorporate into his own mechanically enhanced body. The long and short of it is that Bolas lured and then trapped Planeswalkers on Ravnica, bringing through a massive army of undead (the Dread Horde) including undead gods (the Eternals from a plane called Amonket, which are basically the Egyptian gods), with the intent to use something called the Elder Spell to steal a huge number of Sparks in his final ascension to godhood.

Ravnica got its ass kicked but fought back HARD with a lot of help from all of the very powerful people who now found themselves united against Bolas. Tezzeret used the Planar Bridge to destroy the Guildpact Chamber, stripping the Guildpact's powers from Jace and removing the single best defense Ravnica had. The Izzet Guild leader, a 12,000 year old hyper intelligent dragon and wizard named Niv Mizzet, fought Bolas personally as part of a risky plan to resurrect him as a new Guildpact. Bolas killed him and a planeswalker named Nissa spearheaded a ritual with Ravnica's ley lines to reignite the Guildpact and channel its magic into a resurrected Niv Mizzet, who was then powerful enough to REALLY fight Bolas. Ultimately Bolas was defeated and through a coordinated effort between Jace Beleren and Nichol Bolas' twin brother, Ugin. They created a massive illusion of Bolas being killed and disintegrated, while what actually happened was his memories were erased, his sparks taken from him, and his names stripped from him. Ugin locked himself and his brother in the Meditation Plane until the end of their natural lives, which would be a few thousand years in the future. This was done to prevent Nichol Bolas from bringing himself back from the dead, which he had managed to do after a previous confrontation with Ugin.

ANYWAY. Our campaign is about 5 years after the War of the Spark. Niv Mizzet is the new Living Guildpact, and Jace Beleren is still one of the most powerful planeswalkers known, and the leader of a group of Planeswalkers called the Gatewatch who work together to stop threats to the multiverse that any one of them couldn't do on their own. A handful of other very famous MTG characters are part of this group, including Chandra, Karn, Vraska, Saheeli, etc.

Jace Beleren is also, famously, kind of an asshole and not many people like him on a personal level.

SO ANYWAY.

The darker aspects of canon Ravnica are still there in our version but are largely muted or underground. Rakdos especially. Surface level Rakdos in our version is a lot bigger on consent and safe practices in its kink scene, and the Simic Combine is MOSTLY a legitimate bio sciences and medical services guild with only a LITTLE bit of horribly unethical and non-consensual bioengineering experimentation. And we aren't located in the 10th District as depicted in the official sourcebook, so the locations in it aren't really relevant to us.

THE OTHER asterisk to understanding our campaign is that we have a very open minded approach to how the Multiverse WORKS, and therefore a lot of crossovers with other stuff are possible in our world.

As an example, in our first session we all arrived at the site of our collective employer, a transguild organization called the Emerald Magistrates. We have plane-wide authority and jurisdiction to investigate all kinds of things, and we handle a lot of diplomatic stuff with other planes. Our first mission was to go meet with some of the first visitors from a "Myconid Kingdom," who consisted of something like a dragon turtle dragonborn and a princess. They came to Ravnica to get away from an ex-partner of theirs who was not really grasping the concept of a breakup very well.

Which basically means, our job was to help Bowser and Peach break up with Mario, and to convince him to leave them alone.

Since then an Embassy for the Mushroom Kingdom has sprung up near an Izzet waterworks, and there is a permanent planar portal (in the form of a warp pipe) that leads to the plane of Miyamoto (basically Smashverse). The next day we visited the Mushroom Kingdom and foiled a raid by Shiekah bandits. One of them (who turned out to be Daisy) was carrying a strange motherboard-like device that was meant to be attached to the cell towers Izzet was helping build in the Kingdom to get them a basic cell network. We brought the device back to Ravnica and learned it was the work of a Planeswalker, most likely Tezzeret, in conjunction with another faction from Miyamoto (the Space Pirates).

There was also an outbreak of a "Helix Plague" memetic cognitohazard, which was basically a contagious insanity where people would mindlessly rattle off button inputs and memes from Twitch Plays Pokemon. We had to bring in a Jenny brigade from Johto to help us contain it, but that came with the problem of Pokemon Trainers being turned loose on Ravnica, and it turned out their Pokeball technology worked on the creatures (and people) of our world.

So we investigated THAT, and found a second portal that took us to the basement of a Team Rocket building. We took an elevator up to the top floor and confronted Giovanni, who revealed that he was fully aware the Pokeballs worked on sophants (our catch-all term for sentient life forms, whether humanoid or not).

It turned out that Giovanni had met a man with a metal arm who taught him a lot of things about the Multiverse, and showed him how to enhance his Pokeball technology to capture a much wider range of creatures, some extraordinarily powerful (we walked passed a Pokemon battle where a trainer was using a Beholder the night before). The man also helped him design a planar portal device, powered by a captured Mewtwo, which could take him to other worlds. The man's only request to him was that he have fun.

Giovanni showed us one of the creatures he had captured on another plane. It was a planeswalker named Tamiyo.

We managed to overpower him with a very well coordinated Charm effect, taking his Pokeballs from him, and our artificer disabled the device that was imprisoning Mewtwo. We convinced them (Mewtwo uses they/them) NOT to kill Giovanni because we needed the information he had to help us stop the man he was working with, whom by this point we had 100% confirmed was Tezzeret.

This is an issue because the current Izzet Guild leader, Ral Zarek, was SUPPOSED to have hunted down and killed Tezzeret after the war, as he was now one of the most dangerous people in the multiverse and Bolas was really one of the only people who could get in his way. So Tezzeret even being alive was a problem. Actively working to create chaos across other planes, and being able to capture other Planeswalkers, was a HUGE interplanar emergency nightmare scenario.

Mewtwo was able to identify the creatures in the Pokeballs for us without opening them. TWO Planeswalkers (Tamiyo and Garruk), Darkwing Duck, Pyramid Head, and a Peridot. Mewtwo released the Planeswalkers and Darkwing, but told us the gem-creature should only be released in space for its own comfort, and that the Master ball contained a horrifying creature that it might NEVER be safe to release. Giovanni, now under the effects of a Charm Person spell, confirmed that he is considered a master trainer by the rules of this world, and even he was unable to control this one.

Mewtwo was also able to show us Giovanni's memory of meeting the "man with the metal arm" and we all saw a vision of him meeting with Tezzeret and a floating suit of black metal armor, which he was siphoning some kind of energy from. (We know out of character that this is Dark Samus).

SO ANYWAY our campaign is fucking crazy. That's the CONTEXT part of this answer.

For the character part, some basics.

I am playing a very homebrewed character. I'm using a Tiefling subrace that I homebrewed myself (Bloodline of Erinyes, my character is the daughter of a Deva who became an Erinyes after an encounter with a Succubus, so she's basically half angel half fiend and that averaged out to Tiefling), and an entire 5e class that I homebrewed myself (Witch, specifically a shadow magic subclass I called Nightshade, which plays kind of like a stealthy caster, largely using Warlock-style mechanics but with very different flavor).

My character's backstory is basically that her mother Lailah, a Deva (warrior angel), spared the life of a Succubus who was a refugee of a war between Elysium and the Nine Hells, and ended up sleeping with her. Shortly thereafter she began to wonder if the Gods' ideas about morality were wrong, and she was cast out and became an Erinyes, and fell through the planes to Malbolge (Sixth layer of the Nine Hells). There, she met another Erinyes who used to be a different kind of Deva on Arborea. She was an oracle and a planar guardian, and she abandoned her post after a vision that she would be needed here to help Lailah. She took her to a cave she had set up as a living space, hidden in the mountains of broken adamantine, and they lived together for about 3 years, and raised a little tiefling together until it was safe enough to leave the hells. She was able to send Lailah and her daughter (Ash, my character) to the Prime Material plane, and she came out on the other side in an overgrown, wild forest on the fringes of Ravnica. Lailah raised her daughter there alone, but Ash would sneak out to play with another little tiefling girl from a nearby druid village, named Aria. Long story short one day Lailah disappears, Ash and Aria go to the city to find out what happened to her, they end up staying and making a living there, and eventually get super duper double deluxe gay married. Aria is a retired adventurer who was active up until the end of the War of the Spark, and now works as a foster mom for the animals that Ravnica doesn't know how to care for. She basically runs an animal rehab out of their home in the Selesnya Conclave (a guild whose guiding philosophy is harmony between the city and nature). Ash is a reputable leather worker who sells her goods to merchants around the city.

Ash never gave up looking for her mom and uses the markets to learn about the adventures of other people, especially planar travelers, and about 5 years ago (around the time of the war's end) she met a woman who appreciated her sense of subtlety and diplomacy, and took her on as an information broker for House Dimir, promising her a favorable exchange of information. The woman introduced herself as Ally. She became a trusted friend and mentor.

Fast forward to campaign times, she was the one who convinced Ash to take the job with the Emerald Magistrates, because it would open a LOT more doors in terms of the information she could uncover and the people she would meet.

So.

Ally is a character that I created as part of Ash's backstory, and I am EXTREMELY proud of her as a character. This is my first ever D&D campaign, and I think I did a REALLY good job creating a backstory with a lot of well defined themes and plot hooks for my DM to play with. I absolutely love my PC and I am literally obsessed with her, her story, and the campaign in general. I think about it almost non stop every day. And as much as I love Ash, Ally is probably the character I'm proudest of, because of HOW MUCH opportunity there is for my DM to play with the open spaces I left. She's a perfect character for story threads and plot hooks, and she's GREAT at coming into the story at interesting times to offer some new juicy paths to explore.

Ash met with her when we were first learning about the weird motherboard thing (which turned out to emit a signal that creates mindless rage, overriding a sophant's conscious mind and suppressing memories while activating some kind of blind adrenaline fury), and again when we learned that the prime suspect was Tezzeret. She told Ash about some of the things that happened in the war, including how her boss at the Magistrates was a powerhouse during that time and was personally responsible for saving thousands of lives, and there are rumors that she sparked herself during that time, which Ash didn't know about. Ally also gave her the names of a handful of Planeswalkers who she had direct or indirect knowledge of, and gave Ash a piece of paper that basically set up a meeting with a contact of hers, an archivist for Jace Beleren. Ash took it back to her team and her boss, and they ended up meeting with Jace a few hours later, just like that.

This is all to say that, in addition to having created the character, I had some inkling of how connected she was and how much she knew, and how powerful she herself was.

So last session, we were dealing with the aftermath of Nora (the boss) basically exploding in a psychic scream due to overwhelming stress from something she had done the previous day (she was confirmed at this point to be a Planeswalker, her thing is speed and self-duplication and there's a running bit about her astonishingly lethal consumption of caffeine and energy drinks - she consumes the equivalent of 5 5-hour energy drinks *per hour* in addition to highly corrosive caffeine abominations just to keep up with her body's insane metabolism). She was hurt pretty badly but she's alive.

But the psychic shockwave collapsed part of the building and knocked Ash and Giovanni unconscious instantly (I rolled a 4 on my CON save) and drove almost everyone else in the building to their knees. The other people in the room were 3 members of my party, Mewtwo, Chandra Nalaar, Jace Beleren, Rosalina (who is a Planeswalker in our game), and Karn. Hold that thought.

The moment Ash fell unconscious, her breathing and heartbeat became very erratic. Which has a serious consequence that is very specific to Ash.

She and Aria have a pair of special rings (the same ones they proposed to each other with) that are enchanted to pulse in tune with the other's heartbeat. As long as they are on the same plane of existence, they can always feel each other's heart beating through the rings.

Remember when I said Aria is a retired adventurer who was active until the end of the war? Her party's end-of-campaign arc would have included the final conflict, in which they managed to take down a large portion of the Dread Horde, including at least one of the God Eternals.

Aria, along with her party, has killed a god.

She does not fuck around when her wife is in danger.

So when the artificer picked up Ash's phone, she got enough out of her to figure out where Ash was, then Shapechanged into a dragon and flew there, breaking down the front doors when she got there. So she got to Ash's side, sent a text confirming her location to a contact listed as "For Emergencies," and got to work making sure Ash was okay.

WHICH BRINGS US, FINALLY, TO THE SUBJECT OF THIS ASK.

A winged figure dropped in from the hole in the ceiling and loudly (and angrily) asked what the hell was going on.

The bard immediately got heart eyes, because Ally is a tall, intimidating goth woman, and all of the players are gay as fuck.

Then things got really interesting. Because Jace RECOGNIZED her, and asked her (under a name no one in the party knew about yet, apart from myself out of character) what she was doing there.

Ally jumped clean over his head and ignored him, running to the now barely-conscious Ash's side and checking, alongside Aria, that she was okay. Jace continued to try to talk to her, mentioning a card game she beat him in, when she stood up, turned around, and made the other players fall in love with her instantly.

Standing in a room with SIX of his allies, none of whom recognized her (not counting the still-unconscious Nora), she shouted Jace down and backed him into a corner, fully intimidating him into complete silence, called him a fuckboy, blamed him for not taking good enough care of the people around him, and yelled at him to sit the fuck down.

She did this to the former Guildpact. Unambiguously one of the most powerful people on Ravnica, and one of the most powerful Planeswalkers currently known.

In a room with SIX other incredibly powerful people who are friends or allies of his.

And all of the players including myself lost their shit.

I knew there was a possibility of her entering the scene. I suspected what would happen if she did was she would be overwhelmed by all the power players in the room who demanded to know what reason she had for showing up in the middle of what should be one of the most secret meetings on the plane, and she would be deeply uncomfortable in a room with TWO extremely powerful psychics when she's a person with a lot of very important secrets that she has very good reasons to keep for now.

What I never considered was the possibility of her coming into that room and not only being absolutely FEARLESS, but so overwhelmingly confident that she shouted Jace into silence right in front of the most likely (and powerful) people to back him up if a fight broke out.

After shutting him up, she returned to Aria's side and checked Ash for signs of a concussion, which she confirmed, and then told Aria that she needs to go to a hospital. Between the two of them they decide Aria will be the one to take her, Ally was going to leave either way but she had other things that urgently needed her attention.

Ally stood up again, gave an unexpectedly affectionate hair ruffle to the unconscious Nora while saying she needed better caretakers, and then teleported away.

That's about as well as I can explain it without just posting the session notes for the entire campaign so far. Which would be A LOT, because we've had 16 sessions and I take notes like Marisha Ray. My notes are so detailed that I keep better track of the timeline and where we are relative to previous events than the DM.

So my favorite NPC and the character I'm possibly proudest of had the most badass moment of the entire campaign so far (we're about a year in) and I have been foaming at the mouth ever since.

I can't WAIT to find out what happens next.

[jokertrap-ran]

BAD MEDICINE ~Infectious teachers~ [PC GAME] Kashu Remu (Chemistry) Route Translations (Part 10)

MC’s name is retained as the original MC name Kawana Hina.

* Words within ‘   ‘ are spoken in English – *Spoiler free : Translations under cut!

Prologue / Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10

Choice B: Peek into the school’s courtyard

Hina: Huh? Wait a second...There’s someone collapsed in the School’s Courtyard! K-Kashu-sensei!?

Kashu: ………...

Hina: Sensei! Kashu-sensei!! Are you alright?

Hina: (He looks a little pallid? Did he overdo-it with the experiments and collapsed in exhaustion!?)

Hina: Sensei! Get it together!

Kashu: …...Ugh...

Hina: Kashu-sensei!?

Kashu: …...Zzz.

Kashu: Zzz…...Zzz…...

Kashu: Mmnghh~...I can’t eat...any...more…

Kashu: ...Zzz...

Hina: Wha…? He’s only sleep-talking...That surprised me.

Hina: Actually...why is he even asleep in the School’s Courtyard?

Hina: Sensei! Please wake up!

Kashu: ...Mnngh...

Hina: Sleep in the Infirmary if you must. Actually, isn’t the Chemistry Preparation Room literally your home?

Hina: Go home and sleep properly at least. You’re going to catch a cold sleeping in a place like this.

Kashu: ...Zzz.

Hina: Hmm...He’s not waking up at all. Haa...Guess I don’t have a choice then.

Hina: I just have to keep an eye on him until some other teacher notices him, right? Well, seeing as how lunch break has only just started...

Kashu: Mumble, mumble...Ehehe...fufu...

Hina: (His sleeping face looks really cute...Is it because he has a baby face? He looks really happy...)

Hina: (...I think he really did continue experiment upon experiment tirelessly to make the medicine to revive that person...)

Kashu: ―—You saw.

Hina: !

Kashu: You saw the face I was making just now, right~?

Kashu: Upsie daisy! Mornin~

Kashu: Haha~ You did see it, didn't you? My sle-ping fa-ce♪

Hina: S-Since when were you awake!? Were you just pretending to be asleep!?

Kashu: I just woke up like any normal person. I guess you could say that I woke up because I felt your eyes on me~?

Hina: There’s no way that’s the case! I wasn’t staring at you so hard that it’d wake you up...or so, I think.

Kashu: See~? So you were watching me after all!

Hina: Of course I’d see you since you were asleep in the School Courtyard! ...I was worried.

Kashu: Yup, Yup, I bet you were. I mean, you were really panicked and all that.

Hina: ...Eh? You knew that I was panicking?

Kashu: Yup! Of course I do! Ehehe!

Hina: Then...that means that you were faking it after all.

Kashu: Oops. Did I just let it slip~? I mean the Courtyard’s huge and the weather’s great, so I thought that it’d be nice to bask in the sun!

Kashu: I didn’t have any classes in fourth period so I was just taking a nap~

Kashu: The experiment failed yet again, so I thought that maybe a break like this was what I needed~

Hina: Sensei...

Kashu: It’s pretty great sleeping under the great sun~ Yes, it actually feels really good~

Kashu: And so, I was just about to consider getting up when you came bounding by all frantic...

Kashu: I was a little happy about that so I tried staying put for a moment more♪

Hina: So you aren’t feeling unwell or anything, right?

Kashu: Nope! I’m not feeling bad at all. I’m as peppy as I come, a whooping 100 percent!

Kashu: I’m getting into an increasingly good mood now that I’ve had an afternoon nap~

Kashu: ...So, were you really staring that intently at my face~?

Hina: N-No I wasn’t. Not till that extent.

Kashu: Eh~ Really~? I think you definitely did though~

Hina: Just a little.

Kashu: Just a little? I’m sure you stared much, much more, didn’t you?

Hina: L-Like I said, it was just for a little bit!

Kashu: Hmm~? There’s no helping it, I guess. Guess I’ll just leave it at that♪

Kashu: You’re pretty stubborn, aren’t you~? But, but~ That also makes for an interesting part of you♪

Kashu: I’m sure we’re really compatible with each other~ ...Aw, come on! Don’t make a face like that~ Please~?

Kashu: Oh, right. Come here, come here. Come on closer; over here~

Hina: (Whoa!?)

Kashu: Yup, yup. Just like that. There we go.

Kashu: Ehehe~ Lap pillow! Good niiiight. Wake me up before your lunch break ends, okay~?

Hina: Sensei! W-What do you think you’re doing!?

Kashu: Huh? I mean, you were already planning to watch after me until your lunch break ended, no~?

Kashu: I heard everything you were mumbling about to yourself just now.

Hina: That might be true, but still! Even so, this situation is a little-

Kashu: I’ve always longed for a lap pillow. So I just wanted to experience it.

Kashu: Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. No one ever comes to the School Courtyard during lunch break.

Kashu: See~? You’re the only one who noticed me sleeping out here, right~?

Kashu: This place is in one of the corners, so it won’t normally fall into your line of sight unless you know where to look.

Kashu: That’s why I was glad that you actually noticed me. Get it~?

Hina: That’s...well, a little, yes.

Kashu: Yup, yup! I’m glad you understand! Good night then! Zzz.

Kashu: Zzz...Zzz...

Hina: ………..

Hina: (I...I really don’t get him at all! Not just one or two little things; it’s him as a whole!)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Hina: What should I do now? 

Choice A: Play catch Choice B: Peek into the school’s courtyard

#bad medicine infectious teachers #bad medicine infectious teachers game #otome #rejet #translations #kashu remu #tojo kairi #shido kaname #yanagi ryota #kuzuha kakeru #nagihara taiki

[tabletoptrinketsbyjj]

Trinkets, 33: Interesting baubles, semi magical objects and items touched by mystery.

A wax stamp that changes insignia depending on the proximity of the nearest royal blooded individual.

A hollowed, curled demon horn. When blown, it sounds like tortured screaming.

A strange note, written on bloody human flesh. Examining the ragged piece of flesh reveals a reeking stench of sweat and tears. A series of crude gouges in the skin pulsate and seep blood. They seem to form a pattern, and the reader can just make out the following: “Beware the Avatar of the Crawling Chaos, the Heart of Darkness knows no mercy.”

A sharp tooth as long as a human hand. Looking at it makes a humanoid creature uneasy in a deeply primal way.

A glowing orb that has a hidden button on it. Pressing it reveals several smaller variously colored orbs inside, which escape the orb and start to orbit it, like planets around a star. Pressing the button again causes the spheres to retreat back into the glowing one.

A sealed glass petri dish holding a small ooze like substance labeled, "Experiment #1".

A perfume vinaigrette shaped like a tiny, long amphora. Made of some silvery metal and worked all over with tarnished curlicue. If shaken, the vinaigrette rattles, as if filled with large grains. Its lid clicks open, allowing, from the grated neck, a mossy odor of chypre. A scent neither in vogue nor disliked, today. The scent does not run out, nor fade.

A long scroll made out of weathered parchment with a broken wax seal. The material is covered in strange diagrams of inhuman anatomy at crazy, disjointed angles.

A piece of parchment torn from a notebook, written on it are a list of names and causes of death.

A lead slate, five inches by four, and quite worn, with five lines of text written across the back in small, punched holes. Each line appears to be the same phrase, simply repeated in five languages. The first, punched out in the symbols and tongue of Ancient Dwarven, which is still legible today, reads "What wrought we here should be forgot."

—Keep reading for 90 more trinkets.

—Note: The previous 10 items are repeated for easier rolling on a d100.

A wax stamp that changes insignia depending on the proximity of the nearest royal blooded individual.

A hollowed, curled demon horn. When blown, it sounds like tortured screaming.

A strange note, written on bloody human flesh. Examining the ragged piece of flesh reveals a reeking stench of sweat and tears. A series of crude gouges in the skin pulsate and seep blood. They seem to form a pattern, and the reader can just make out the following: “Beware the Avatar of the Crawling Chaos, the Heart of Darkness knows no mercy.”

A sharp tooth as long as a human hand. Looking at it makes a humanoid creature uneasy in a deeply primal way.

A glowing orb that has a hidden button on it. Pressing it reveals several smaller variously colored orbs inside, which escape the orb and start to orbit it, like planets around a star. Pressing the button again causes the spheres to retreat back into the glowing one.

A sealed glass petri dish holding a small ooze like substance labeled, "Experiment #1".

A perfume vinaigrette shaped like a tiny, long amphora. Made of some silvery metal and worked all over with tarnished curlicue. If shaken, the vinaigrette rattles, as if filled with large grains. Its lid clicks open, allowing, from the grated neck, a mossy odor of chypre. A scent neither in vogue nor disliked, today. The scent does not run out, nor fade.

A long scroll made out of weathered parchment with a broken wax seal. The material is covered in strange diagrams of inhuman anatomy at crazy, disjointed angles.

A piece of parchment torn from a notebook, written on it are a list of names and causes of death.

A lead slate, five inches by four, and quite worn, with five lines of text written across the back in small, punched holes. Each line appears to be the same phrase, simply repeated in five languages. The first, punched out in the symbols and tongue of Ancient Dwarven, which is still legible today, reads "What wrought we here should be forgot."

An elongated, angular mask designed for masquerade balls. It features a large pair of velveted antlers and a crown of lustrous ivy.

An antique pipe that has a carved parrot wearing a tricorn hat perched on its bowl. The smoke that billows from the chamber is colored a wild mix of reds, blues, and greens.

A small jar of a sweet smelling green paste. When applied to the tender inflamed skin, it soothes and numbs the pain, replacing it with a pleasant tingling sensation for a few hours.

A coffin shaped scrollcase filled to the brim with loose sheets of yellowed paper. They are covered with maddened scrawl and diagrams and calculations and degenerate ranting.

An oil lamp made from a turtle's shell embellished with gold leaf and a copper handle.

A bronze bowl engraved with pagan figures, one side shows a city at war and another shows it at peace. The metal of the bowl is corroded, gone all green and black.

A surgeon’s amputation saw with a bone handle engraved with pictographs of burial rituals.

Kolain Drop: A small tin canister containing a few dozen candies made from amber sugar, spun into a shape resembling the outline of a teardrop (Although a cynic might claim they look like candy nooses) and coated in dark chocolate. Licking a Kolain makes it harder to concentrate on sad memories for a short while, but finishing a whole drop while focusing on a specific memory accentuates the positive emotions of that memory and makes it easier to deal with the associated negative emotions.

A prosthetic eye made of ivory and set with an opal iris. The eye whispers unintelligible breathy words to the bearer in the dark and if worn during sleep, the bearer suffers from terrible, barely remembered Random Nightmares.

A beautifully crafted silver pocket watch that functions but the hands tick backwards.

A ship in a bottle suspended above water that sloshes and froths rhythmically, regardless of whether or not it is moved or shaken. The ship bobs cheerfully in the water and is relaxing to look upon.

A bassoon with the bell joint carved into the shape of a dragon’s head that shoots smoke rings when played.

An iron mask resembling a skull with its mouth sowed shut.

A large tapestry made from an unidentifiable thread. Strange symbols and stranger images fill every space, chaotically strewn about the thread work with no apparent pattern. No centralized theme or focus can be made out, but the likeliness of several important figures and deities can be made out amongst alien creatures and other, unknown people. The tapestry is unfinished on one side, making it obvious that the project is still a work in progress.

A large hourglass which in place of sand, has dozens of tiny teeth of all shapes and kinds flowing between the two bulbs, each one glowing with a faint red light. The flow of the device switches directions at random times for no visible reason, with no bulb ever holding all the teeth.

A wanted poster that resembles one of the PC's but the hairstyle and colour are completely wrong.

A freshly dead messenger raven with a tiny scroll tube tied to its leg. Within is a small parchment with some sort of coded battle report written on it.

A fairly well made wooden mask that has been carved to resemble the facial features of the minor God of Random Domain. A creature actively wearing the mask see's the world through the eye holes with a slightly altered perception as if they are being subtly influenced by the nature of the God.

A simple but finely crafted leather armband embossed with a branch-like pattern.

A one gallon cask of a rare liquor known as Hag's Blood. A strong fruit wine with the hyphae of a fungus growing through it. It has to be fed a bit of sugar every year to keep the fungus alive, or else it just becomes a normal fruit wine. It is drank slowly, and induces hallucinogenic effects in the drinker.

A wide, flat bronze bracelet carved with couples entwining.

A large brass medal of military service. It once bore an intricate casting of a lion's head. But it has been polished smooth over many years.

A small medicine bottle, halfway filled with a herbal remedy.

A small portrait of a group of friends, all but one of them with a date written next to their name.

A blue and gold diviner's scroll covered in text that change every morning at dawn. The writing is usually cryptic message about future events.

An ocarina seemingly crafted from snowflake obsidian that produces some decently low notes and is shaped somewhat like an aquatic animal of some sort.

A silver coin with a siren on heads and a banshee on tails. When the coin is flipped it will make ominous wailing sounds until the outcome is revealed.

A brick taken from a haunted house. The brick grows sharp, jagged teeth at night which retract during the day.

A small goldfish skeleton preserved in a clear glass orb.

An amalgam of dozen small animal skulls, each from a different creature, all compressed and partly melted into a heavy, fist-sized ball of horror.

A bag of glass eye marbles fashioned in various shades of blue, green, brown, and hazel. When a marble is rolled on the ground, it always appears to be looking at the creature who rolled it.

A music box in the shape of a clockwork raven that sits atop a porcelain skull. Winding the mechanism plays an eerie tune, while the raven pecks the empty eye socket to the rhythm of the music

A small leather pouch filled with strong-smelling healing herbs.

A leather wallet stamped with the holy symbol of a God of a Random Domain. It contains a set of certified identification papers denoting that the bearer is an ordained member of a religion who worships said Deity. The section containing the priest's physical description (Height, weight, sex, race, eye, skin and hair colour) is completely blank and could be filled in by anyone with half decent handwriting.

A wooden, toy rocking horse, carved to look like a horse whose skin has been removed, muscles, tendons, and blood vessels are all intricately shown. In some areas, even those layers have been removed in favor of exposing parts of the horses skeleton.

A simple lantern with a hood covering. The hood spins as the base plays a music box tune to reveal pictures of clawed monsters, winged demons, witches and wolves on the wall. Different hoods can be placed on to show different scenes.

A carving of a boar made of quartz and no longer than a person’s thumb.

A clockwork dismembered hand wearing a white glove with an ornate signet ring and dress shirt cuff with gemmed cuff links. It moves around on its fingers when wound up.

A handheld mirror with a cobalt border engraved with strange runes. Instead of your reflection, you see nothing but mist in its surface.

A fire opal carved into a small coin. The obverse sigil is a picture of rainfall. The reverse is an elven phrase that translates to “Let us take what nature will not provide.”

A single small, filthy earring that when worn, allows the bearer to speak the language of the goblins, but only to say: "I don't actually speak Goblin. I only know that sentence, and this one explaining it.” The bearer is not granted the ability to understand the language and doesn’t comprehend what they just said unless they are already fluent.

A wooden relic carved from bronzewood, in the shape of a serpent. It can always adjust to fit snugly around the bearer's forearm. It writhes occasionally, when seen out of the corner of your eye.

A travel case for a Random Musical Instrument. The case is made of hardwood covered in boiled leather sealed in beeswax with rubber seals around the opening. The inside is lined with velvet sheltering the instrument from the harshest jostling the bearer might endure. An adjustable carry strap allows the bearer to wear it in whatever manner is most comfortable for them. Whatever type of instrument the case is deigned to carry, the case contains one such musical device (Or a set of devices) within it.  

A shawl of beautiful rainbow color with lace frilled edges resembling clouds.

A black coin with two grim sides. One side bears the staring visage of a spiral-horned woman with mean eyes. Its opposing face displays an eyeless skull. A tarry blackbird, ragged, follows the carrier of said coin at cautious distance, watching with fish’s eyes.

A branding iron the length of a human hand, whose business end is forged in the shape of the phrase: “Random Motto”. The brand could be used to stamp leather or flesh and might have been used by an individual or organization to mark its goods, armor or members.

A brooch composed of three overlapping green-enameled nickel silver leaves secured together by rusted hinges. The enamel is cracked and dusty. If worn, the leaves click together; a sound reminiscent of clinking spurs on riding boots.

A chunk of amber included by a blackened, fossilized thing curled up upon itself. It is big-headed and roughly humanoid, like a minute fetus, but has distinct ridges or spurs running down its curved spine.

A clay whistle, shaped like a toothless, leering skull. With some practice, a user may develop a queer embouchure and play the thing, which requires a forceful blow into the cranium. It produces no music; only a high and rattling cry of human terror. A blood-curdling scream.

A die with six sides. An inch square, and cut from decayed walrus ivory. The carved faces, their lines filled with dirt, are thus: A long-fingered hand, a thin eye, an acorn, a seven-pointed star, a spiny fish, and a rose in full bloom. When rolled, the fish consistently lands facing up.

A dried serpent, coiled in a foggy crystal tube sealed with wax. A husk of a creature, like onion skins wrapped around brittle fishbones. A leak of ash and smothered cinders spills from a split in its long, desiccated gut.

A glass jar, blue, sagging with the slow melt of ages. Within are three seeds, somehow not yet turned to dust. They are like those of a pumpkin, or squash, but are reddish and much pointier.

A green, glass apple barely skinned with flaking gold leaf. Within, there are visible countless rivers of incredibly tiny veins, fibers, and seeds, as if a real apple were refashioned precisely as glass. Said seeds are glimmering red, perhaps rubies. The apple is profoundly strong and cannot easily break.

A handheld fan with lightweight steel leaves. When fully opened on its creaking rivet, it forms three quarters of a circle. The leaves are spotted with delicate openwork in flowering geometric patterns, some of which have been eaten through by rust.

A bright red, strip of cloth, stitched with images of a cheering crowd throwing garlands toward a chariot. It fits across the bearer's shoulder and then diagonally down their chest to reach their opposite hip.

A strangely shaped piece of whittled driftwood with dozens of holes in it. When the correct hole is blown into, it mimics the sound of the ocean.

A large locket, its case and door crafted from faceted, cracked, yellowed glass cut like a rectangular gem. Its interior frame holds not a painting, nor an etching, but a fuzzy, silver mirror. The mirror, when polished, has a hidden effect: If one looks into it, centers their face in the frame, and focuses upon the background, they may discern a tall, unmoving woman there, towering behind them. She is ghostly, as if cut into the silver, and looks on with deep, piercing eyes. A pair of long, spiraling horns extend from her gaunt and mirthless head.

A miniature, silver-plated skull inlaid with black fretwork. The skullcap lifts of on a tiny hinge, revealing holes for three vials, grouped in a triangle, within. Only two vials are there. They are octagonal, ruby red barrels capped with silver.

A bolt of coarse, beige, jute cloth wrapped in a protective oilskin case.

A monocle-like disc upon a fragment of silver chain. Unfit for wear as a monocle, as the thick, yellowed lens is scratched and scuffed with countless minutia and little pitted points. The points seem to coalesce as a man-shaped form. If set before a bright light, the lens projects a diagram: A flayed man, splayed in anatomical position, with labels in an odd language indicating his spilled organs and opened bodily structures.

An old harmonica engraved with a compass card and a variety of fish. When played on land it summons a fresh breeze smelling of salt and seaweed, putting everyone within earshot in a melancholic mood and longing for the sea.

An iron hook, barbed, like those meant for fishing, but quite too large. Two links of rusted, cast iron chain trail from it, followed by a flat, similarly cast tag of iron. It shows, under ample rust, the simple etching of a bony man hung by a hook sunk through his collarbone. Three runes, like circles cut with spurs, are stamped below. The tag has another hole opposite the attachment of its links, suggesting more where attached thereafter.

An ivory comb, the kind meant to lay flat and stay a plate of hair. Blackened, either with age or with purposeful tarnish, and carved on its handle with images of plagued skeletons, obviously undead, spilling over each other in a chilling accurate depiction of frozen, unnaturally insectile movement.

A petrified egg, slightly orange, with one side cut away. A hideous embryo, also fossilized, is curled there. It is a long-backed, anencephalic neonate with long, rodent-like incisors that join to form a sort of beak. It clutches, in three-fingered hands, its own tail. The thing is shot through with long maggots turned by time into red stone.

A silver brooch shaped like an imperious face framed by stylized, curling locks. It has small, yellow garnets for eyes. The eyes seem to be backed by mirrors, for they flash with an unusual brightness while in light. The brooch is magnetic, on its iron back, and connects powerfully to metal objects.

A silver tube, long, worked with branchwork, and thin, filled with yellow powder. Said powder smells of hickory and some astringent tang. It fills the tube, which is closed with a screw cap, to the brim.

A small, ivory figure nailed to a Y-shaped crucifix, also ivory. The figure is carved in excellent detail. Though emaciated and wracked in stiff-limbed agony, a wide and tooth grin is present on the figure's hollow-eyed face.

A small knife, unfit for fighting, with small notches and teeth, like those of a key, cut into its edge. Plainly made from dark, patinated iron. Shiny and sharpened at the hard, toothy edge.

A square bell, rather small, and unusually heavy. Smooth, unrusted, with a short tongue that wags with only great force. It sheds no sound; only heavy vibrations that shake the hand, vibrate one's teeth in their sockets, and touch ringing tones of nearby metal objects.

A squarish iron key, large, with three blocky teeth. One of the teeth rotates, with some difficulty, grinding with rust. The wide, handle portion of the key is also rusted, but depicts, in bas relief, a square door with a howling, heavy-browed face above the keyhole.

A strange pin, like a clothier might use for sewing, but larger, and with a slightly serrated shaft and a red glass bead for a head. Larger than is useful by a factor of two. If stuck in red-blooded flesh, into which it sinks readily, the red bead glows, faintly, flickering like a faint flame in a bloody shade.

A slide whistle made of bone, carved in the shape of an emaciated skeletal figure, mouth agape at the end. When played, it emits an eerie ghostly sounds that can be varied in pitch with the slide.

A thick crystal sphere, large as a grapefruit. Delicate fronds of green flora lie within, all sprouted in a choked abundance from a mess of roots and humus. Yellow dust, perhaps pollen, swirls about the stems amidst motes of white gas. The sphere does not open, and the plants within are like none seen on the earth.

Two glass eyeballs in a tarnished silver box with gold hinges. The orbs lie on dusty, red velvet divots. They are green glass and irregularly shaped in the back. Oddly convoluted inside, like jelly and fish eggs. Gold leaf irises lie under the hard, crystal lenses.

A heady, sweet smelling noose made of still-living flowers and freshly cut vines.

A massive cloth and leather banner emblazoned with the unified crests of ten different fey courts.

A white marble mortar, quite small, chained to its pestle with a thin iron leash. Stained on the interior with blotchy brown. Carved on the outside with simple images of tiny, impish individuals grinding teeth in mortars just large enough to accommodate a molar.

A whale tooth decanter scrimshawed with the image of a gargoyle within a star.

A darkwood and brass door knocker with the image of a rock gnome, and a tower within a teardrop shape. It is of ancient workmanship.

A matching pair of brass bangles, each decorated with the symbol of a sheaf of grain and an oak leaf.

A highly polished shell horn made of walrus tusk.

A beautifully-written madrigal, the first line reading "Your blazing mass negates any prudence." in Dwarvish.

A large tin canister whose lid is stamped with the image of barn, whose interior reveals a farmer milking a cow. The container is filled with dozens of well-preserved strips of beef jerky.

A white handkerchief, slightly yellowed, bordered in black thread. The soft, silky weave sloughs away all soaked or stuck-on mess once fully dried, no matter how dirty. Impossible to tear, by hand, but frayed around the edges. Bears a monogram in one corner; a rune reminiscent of a G, but with more curls.

A short scroll wrapped around a pair of dowels, bearing runic script and celestial patterns painted in rich, bold inks.

A small harp with a body made out of an opaque golden glass that seem to glow as the instrument is played.

A dark black cowl made from a fine matte cloth. The edge of the cowl is lined with a dull silver trim inscribed with shimmering symbols of Thieves Cant.

An ancient set of pipes made from the hollowed out finger bones of a dead bard, whose soul is still bound to them. When music is played from the instrument, listeners can faintly make out a gentle vocal accompaniment that perfectly fits whatever is being played.

A porcelain mask featuring a laughing face and a wide open mouth, and has all manner of colours and inlays on it. Inside the open mouth is just a black void that reflects no light, not even a glossy sheen.

An elven hunting cap that’s especially elongated, visually mirroring an elf’s elongated, pointed ears. It’s black, and the brim is pinned on one side with a tourmaline brooch, holding an iridescent peryton feather.

#d&d #dnd #d&d 3.5 #d&d 4e #d&d 5e #d&d homebrew #d&d 5e homebrew #loot #custom loot #loot generator #random loot table #pathfinder #trinkets #roleplaying #rpg #dungeons and dragons #dungeon master #dm #d&d ideas #treasure #treasure table #d&d resources #tabletop homebrew

[techniktagebuch]

1985

Calling Peter Norton

2020: We’re going back into time …

Mit Corona zeigt sich, dass das Internet aus unserem Leben eigentlich nicht mehr wegzudenken ist. Was früher kommunikative SciFi war, ist heute Alltag und Standard, über den niemand mehr nachdenkt. Bestes Beispiel dafür ist mein alter Physiklehrer: «wenn Ihr glaubt, dass Ihr als Erwachsene immer und überall einen Taschenrechner dabei habt, seid Ihr auf dem Holzweg». 😉

Die Geschichte spielt zu einer Zeit, die deutlich näher an den Ursprüngen des Internets und des Beginns von Unix1 liegt als an heute. Viel lustiger ist, dass die Geschichte gar nicht mehr heute spielen könnte, denn Kommunikation ist zu schnell und zu billig geworden.

1985 war der Ost-West Konflikt wichtiger als Android oder iOS, Berichte über Computer (wie der SPIEGEL-Titel von Ende 1984) wurden ignoriert, in Tschernobyl lief problemlos2 ein KKW-Komplex. Die größte Gefahr für Europa im Sommer ‘85 waren die Hits von Modern Talking. Heute gibt es Bandbreiten im dreistelligen MBit-Bereich, im Smartphone ist genug CPU-Power, um Tausende Mondfähren gleichzeitig zu steuern und die Börse ist High Frequency Trading, bei dem um Mikrosekunden an Latenz gerungen wird.

1985

Damals war Kommunikation langsam und teuer. Beim Telefonieren gab es Ortsgespräche und Ferngespräche. Seit Januar 1984 waren Gesprächs innerhalb des Ortsnetzes für eine «Gebührentakteinheit» auch nicht mehr unbegrenzt lange möglich. Du hattest 8 Minuten, dann kostete es wieder. Hatte man kein Telefon zuhause (oder wollte in Ruhe quatschen), musste die nächste Telefonzelle („Fernmeldehäuschen“ war tatsächlich der offizielle Name) angesteuert werden. Der Weg war meist nicht weit, denn die Dinger standen an jeder Ecke. 1984 gab es in Deutschland über 130.000 Telefonzellen.

Für ein Ortsgespräch musste man Mitte der 80er 30 Pfennig einwerfen. Das war die BRD-Version von «forty3 cents more for the next three minutes» Kennt noch jemand «Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show»?4 😎 Für ein längeres Ferngespräch hattest Du besser eine Handvoll Markstücke dabei und Auslandsgespräche in Telefonzellen waren aufgrund der benötigen Geldstücke «heavy metal» und erforderten eine gute Motorik. Das Geld war schneller weg als im Spielautomaten.

Mobil-Kommunikation war archaisch. Zu dieser Zeit hatte das «B/B2»-Netz (das C-Netz kam erst 1985) seine größte Verbreitung. «Mobiltelefonie» hieß damals ein Autotelefon mit zweistelligem Kilogewicht5, 270DM Grundgebühr und man musste ungefähr wissen, wo der Angerufene war. Datenkommunikation war «böse». Irgendwas «nicht-Offizielles» war sowieso verboten, der «Gilb» war damals gnadenlos. High Speed waren 1200 bits/s (Bits!, nicht Bytes) und für das Geld für so ein Modem konnte man auch problemlos ein paar Wochen Urlaub machen6.

Als wir (ich und zwei Freunde) 1985 für die VHS Dingolfing die ersten Computerkurse anboten, gab es keine «Computerräume». Wir drei und ein halbes Dutzend nagelneue Olivetti M24 in verschiedenen Konfigurationen bezogen Quartier im 1. Stock eines plüschigen Cafes neben dem Stadtplatz in einem ungenutzten Saal.

Fand kein Kurs statt (es gab nur Abendkurse), gehörte der Rechnerpark uns drei. Wir lernten, probierten, spielten und erweiterten unsere am Schul-Commodore erworbenen BASIC-Kenntnisse. Neben Donkey Kong, Lode Runner & Co. lernten wir auch andere Sprachen und Produkte wie dBASE, WordStar, Assembler oder Turbo Pascal kennen. Wir verbrachten Nächte vor den Rechnern, verblüfften den lokalen Olivetti «Büromaschinenelektroniker» damit, dass wir Grafiken auf einem 9 Nadel-Drucker druckten, der das eigentlich nicht konnte und entdeckten geheimnisvolle Tools wie Debugger oder einen Sektor-Editor für Disketten.

Die berühmt-berüchtigte Eigenschaft «IBM PC-kompatibel» fand z.B. bei Diskettenlaufwerken ein Ende. Die Disks des IBM PC hatten eine Kapazität von 360 KByte (Kilobyte!) auf 40 Datenspuren, Olivetti rühmte sich beim M24 mit 720 Kilobyte auf 80 Spuren7. Super, doppelt so viel Speicher. Blöd nur, dass alle schönen Tools, mit denen sich beispielsweise gelöschte Daten (teilweise) wieder herstellen ließen, eben aufgrund dieses Unterschieds nicht funktionierten8. Wem 720 KByte jetzt lachhaft vorkommen: der TurboPascal Compiler (V3.0) war etwa 39 KByte groß. Inklusive Debugger und Editor!9

An einem Nachmittag hatten wir uns zu einer Lern/Programmier/Spiel-Session verabredet. Auf dem Weg zum «Computer-Saal» fiel mir auf, dass sich um die Telefonzelle am Stadtplatz eine Menschenmenge versammelt hatte. Zuerst dachte ich an einen Unfall, war aber nicht so. Außerdem waren dort fat nur Menschen, die heute als «mit Migrationshintergund» bezeichnet werden und damals «Gastarbeiter» hießen. Dingolfing war nicht erst seit der Übernahme von Glas durch BMW 1967 ein Zuwanderungsmagnet. Bereits nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg wurden Flüchtlinge angesiedelt. In dieser Hinsicht habe ich etwas mit dem unvergessenen Peter Ustinov gemeinsam, der einmal sagte: «Meine Eltern waren sehr schüchtern, es hat einen Weltkrieg gebraucht, um sie zusammen zu bekommen».

Dennoch war das seltsam. Aber ich ging nach oben und begann am Rechner zu arbeiten. Irgendwann fiel mir auf, dass ich immer noch allein vor dem Rechner saß. Seufzend stand ich auf und ging nach unten, um per Telefonzelle nachzufragen, wo die anderen beiden denn steckten. Die Menschenmenge war mittlerweile weg, lediglich ein Mann wartete noch, während eine Frau drinnen telefonierte. Die kam grinsend aus der Telefonzelle, drückte dem Mann drei Groschen in die Hand und ging. Nach einer gefühlten Ewigkeit war auch der Mann mit seinem Gespräch fertig. Ich rein in die Telefonzelle und den Kumpel angerufen. Dauert noch etwas, aber er kommt gleich, alles easy.

Ich lege auf und die drei Zehnerl klackern aus dem Münzfach. Allerdings endet das Geräusch, das jeder kennt, der mit Telefonzellen aufwuchs, mit einem metallischen «Kling». So klingt es, wenn eine nicht akzeptierte Münze in das Ausgabefach des Münzzählers fällt. Ich öffne die Klappe und da liegen - 30 Pfennig! So ein Glück aber auch.

Moment, ich glaube, ich weiß, warum die Frau vorhin so grinste! Ich werfe die drei Zehnerl wieder ein, rufe meinen Freund nochmal an, «Du, ich muss nur kurz was testen, ich rufe Dich gleich nochmal an!» — «Du wirst schon wissen, was Du da machst», kommt es durch den Hörer zurück. Ich lege auf, «kling». 30 Pfennig in der Ausgabeschale. Wow!

Schlagartig wird mir klar, was da heute Nachmittag passiert ist: der Auslandsgesprächs-Rekord für eine Telefonzelle in Bayern wurde geknackt! Der Münzzähler hat einen Defekt und heute gibt es Telefonie umsonst. Die ganze Welt für 30 Pfennige! Die es dann auch noch zurück gibt.

Nochmal ein Gespräch mit dem anderen Freund, der es plötzlich ziemlich eilig hat, jemanden anzurufen. Fern- und Auslandsgespräche umsonst, wer weiß schon, wie lange dieser paradiesische Zustand anhält…

«Wir können jetzt einfach irgendwo anrufen und was fragen». OK, aber wen? Schließlich kommen wir auf die Idee, eine Softwarefirma anzurufen, die ein damals sehr beliebtes Textverarbeitungsprogramm10 herstellt und einfach «Jeff» zu verlangen. Hauptsächlich deshalb, weil die Telefonnummer der Zentrale prominent auf der Verpackung steht.

«MicroPro International, good morning, how can I help you?», sagt eine weibliche Stimme. «Oh, Hi, Good morning, I would like to talk to Jeff please». Erstens: immerhin habe ich so schnell geschaltet, dass die Zeitdifferenz in ein «Guten Morgen» mündet. Zweitens: glauben wir ernsthaft, dass die nur einen Jeff oder überhaupt jemand haben, der von der Zentrale am Vornamen erkannt wird? «You mean Jeff from the development team?», kommt es zurück.

Den gibt’s wirklich! Mit einer knappen Entschuldigung legen wir auf. Puh, beinahe hätten wir mit Jeff gesprochen! «Aber lustig war das schon», sage ich. «Lass uns das nächste Mal nach »Bob from sales« fragen», sagt mein Freund grinsend. Also rein in die Telefonzelle, die Auslandsauskunft angerufen und die Vorwahlen für Palo Alto, Santa Monica, San Fransisco und die halbe Westküste erfragt. Der Mann am anderen Ende der Leitung war mehr als verwundert, teilte uns aber alle Nummern mit.

Die nächste Stunde verbringen wir damit, die Rezeptionen der kalifornischen Software-Industrie in den Wahnsinn zu treiben. Interessant, wen man alles mit einem «we’re calling from Bavaria, Germany and have a technical issue with your product» ans Telefon bekommt. Noch interessanter, welches Bild 1985 offenbar von Bayern in Kalifornien gepflegt wird. «Oh, Bavaria! Where you have the Octoberfest?» ist in mehr als der Hälfte der Anrufe die Antwort.

Irgendwann beenden wir das und überlegen uns, was wir noch Sinnvolles tun könnten. Wir beschließen, erstmal zurück in den «Saal» zu gehen und einen Kaffee zu trinken. Dort fällt unser Blick auf einen ausgedruckten Hexdump. «Wir wollen doch den Diskettensektor-Editor von diesem Peter Norton auf den Olivettis laufen lassen, oder?» — «Ja, und? Geht ja ned, weil wir nicht wissen, wo die Anzahl der Sektoren und Spuren gespeichert wird oder ob das ausreicht» — «Na dann lass’ uns doch Peter Norton anrufen und fragen!«

Peter Norton und seine «Norton Utilities»11 waren Mitte der 80er die Tools für den PC. Dateien retten, Sektoren von Disketten direkt editieren usw. Dazu war Peter Nortons Buch «Programming Guide to the IBM PC»12, das nur als «pink shirt book» bezeichnet wurde, die Referenz für alle PC-Programmierer. «Du kannst doch ned einfach da anrufen und fragen, ob er uns mal kurz sagt, was wir tun müssen!« — «Was soll er machen? Schlimmstenfalls gibt er uns ein Schimpfwort als Antwort und legt auf». Was heute unmöglich erscheint, war damals tatsächlich einfach. Wir haben in Santa Monica angerufen, uns als drei junge computer-begeisterte Trainer vorgestellt und gefragt, ob der Meister ein paar Minuten für uns erübrigen könnte. «Das klappt NIE», hab ich noch gesagt.

Nach einem «I’ll check if he is available, hold on a second» hören wir auf einmal eine männliche Stimme. «This is Peter Norton, I hear you guys are calling from Bavaria because you have a question? I got five minutes for you.« Wir schildern in einem «shaky English» (die geben einem das Abi, aber anständig telefonieren auf Englisch brachte einem damals niemand bei) unsere Frage ob wir vielleicht einen Hinweis bekommen könnten, wie wir sein Tool dazu bewegen, mit 80 Spur-Laufwerken zu arbeiten. Er erzählt uns, dass auch Toshiba einen PC mit 80 Spuren und 720 KByte Diskettenkapazität hat und die neue Version seiner Utilities das kann. Er erzählt uns aber auch gerne, was wir patchen13 müssen, wenn wir denken, dass wir das hinbekommen. Er findet es gut, dass wir Assembler lernen.

Es werden dann doch 10 bis 15 Minuten. Ich habe keine Ahnung mehr, ob unsere Bewunderung für ihn ankam oder ob wir gepflegtes «Denglisch» gesprochen haben, aber wir bekommen alle Informationen und verabschieden uns wortreich. Wir sollen weiter lernen, Software wird groß, sagt er. Drei Leute in einem «Fernmeldehäuschen FeH 78 in RAL 100514», die gleichzeitig telefonieren und hektisch Notizen machen. Wir müssen ein Bild für Götter abgegeben haben. Da aber unser niederbayerisches Städtchen um diese Uhrzeit den Betrieb längst eingestellt hatte (lediglich das eine oder andere Auto kam vorbei, schließlich muss man als BMW-Stadt den Ruf wahren), fielen wir nicht weiter auf.

Eine halbe Stunde später sitzen wir bei Kaffee vor dem Rechner und basteln. Was soll ich sagen, es hat geklappt. Wir waren wahrscheinlich die ersten in der Gegend, die mit dem Sektor-Editor 80 Spur-Laufwerke bearbeiten konnten! Und wer nett fragt, bekommt meist eine Antwort.

So verlief unser einziges Gespräch mit Peter Norton. Es war der beste «Hotline-Call» den wir je gemacht haben.

😉

1 Siehe zum Beispiel de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschichte_von_Unix

2 Manchmal willst Du gar nicht alles wissen … de.nucleopedia.org/wiki/Kernschmelze#cite_note-ChAES-1_21-04-1983-65

3 Danke an @maria_hofbauer für die Korrektur. Man sollte Songs doch öfter als einmal pro Dekade anhören. ;-)

4 Wer es gerne hören möchte: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LXpnNKNxJI

5 Die Dinger sahen damals so aus: http://www.oebl.de/B-Netz/Geraete/becker/AT76S/AT76S.html

6 Akustikkoppler waren die einzige Möglichkeit für «mobilen» Datentransfer: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akustikkoppler

7 Das Format mit 720KByte hielt sich nicht lange: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_Density — bald wurde es vom «high density» Format mit 1.2 Mbyte abgelöst. Damit war für die 5.25″ Disketten das Ende der Fahnenstange erreicht.

8 Wer mehr dazu wissen möchte, wird beispielsweise hier fündig: philipstorr.id.au/pcbook/book4/floppyd.htm

9 Turbo Pascal v3.02 gibt es «antique software» frei zum Download: edn.embarcadero.com/article/20792

10 Eine interessante Zusammenfassung von Aufstieg und Fall von WordStar findet sich bei www.dvorak.org/blog/whatever-happened-to-wordstar-2/

11 An manchen Stellen im Web findet man die noch bei der «antiken» Software, z.B. https://winworldpc.com/product/norton-utilities/20x

12 Buchdetails z.B. hier: openlibrary.org/books/OL3028393M/The_Peter_Norton_Programmer%27s_guide_to_the_IBM_PC

13 Ein «patch» (von «to patch», flicken oder ausbessern) ist ein Set von Änderungen an einem Computerprogramm, um es zu aktualisieren, zu reparieren oder zu verbessern. Patches sind im Gegensatz zu neuen Versionen oft nur punktelle Änderungen am Binärcode.

14 Dass dies der Farbton «Honiggelb» war, sagt zumindest diese Seite hier: telefonzelle.de.tl/Historie-Telefonh.ae.uschen.htm

(Armin Hanisch, zuerst veröffentlicht unter https://www.arminhanisch.de/2020/07/calling-peter-norton/, wobei es sich wiederum um die mit Links versehene und korrigierte Textfassung eines Twitter-Threads handelt)

#Armin Hanisch #Telefon #Münztelefon #Norton Utilities #Diskette #Ferngespräch #Bargeld #Telefonzelle #best of #Modem #Hexdump #Assembler #Patch #Olivetti M24

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Wrecking the system.

Ah, the Kisaragi Foundation...Been a while since I’ve seen their ugly symbol...

*Mikado flies towards the Kisaragi Foundation main building, ready to blow it up.

Kabuya’s probably inside...Welp, less talking, more destroying...

Yukari: Mikado, wait!

Jeez! Don’t scare me like that Koime! If you were in my intercoms, you should’ve said something!

Yukari: My bad, but that’s not important! Look down!

Huh?

*Mikado does so.

Don’t let him past!

Roger!

*sigh* So they’re putting up a front...Very well...

Guess I’ll crush their hopes while I wreck their asses...

Yukari: Wait...something’s going on here...

What?

Yukari: I have a readout of your body right now...You mainframe is being sabotaged...!

Huh? You mean I’m being hacked?

Yukari: Not to worry...I’ll get him to take care of it...

Thanks...

Will this work?

It better...

Don’t pressure me...It’s hard enough to do even with us both...

I’m the one who made this mess...I’m the one who needs to fix it...

So, remind me again what’s going on?

We’re making a pathway into Keebo’s central mainframe, so Sora can go in and kick Mikado’s ass.

Sora? You wanna get revenge on him?

Like you could never imagine...

Then now’s your chance.

Thanks. I won’t fail you.

Wait...

Huh?

What’s going on?

*Every turns towards the monitors Taichi and Chihiro are working on. The words [SYSTEM BREACH] pop up in block capitals...

We’ve got a problem...

What’s that about?

Someone’s put a rat inside the entrance system, via remote access...!

We’re being hacked?

That’s not possible! This system has the best security possible!

Well, clearly, whoever’s doing this is a skilled hacker...!

Do you think it’s Shirogane? Or Koime? Or Mikado himself?

The firewall is preventing Mikado and any signals he can send out from leaving Keebo’s body, aside from Radio signals to talk to his allies. He couldn’t be the one behind this...

He must be calling support from his allies...!

*Rei’s radio begins to crackle, and she picks it up.

This is Mekaru. Status?

Tsurugi: It’s all going to shit! Hurry up! What’s taking so long!?

Our system is being hacked by Zetsubou! We’re working on it!

Chihiro! You have to do something!

I know! I know! I just...

Wait! I got an idea!

What?

Let me guess...Intrusion Inspection?

Exactly! Let’s find where that rat is!

That’s my boy!

[Meanwhile, not too far away, in an enclosed, unspecified area, Yukari and another mysterious character are busy hacking in, until their monitor starts creating an alarm]

Uh oh...They’re tracking our IP address...!

*She turns to the other person.

Can you stop them?

No...But I CAN slow them down...Starting Counterstrike...Now!

The signal is coming from somewhere inside the city...It...

Ah!

What the hell!?

*Everyone turns back to the tracking program, and is alarmed to see countless viral video’s of cats pop up on the screen.

Seriously!? It’s 20XX! Viral Cat videos are way out of fashion now!

Who would even do this?

I have no idea...But whoever it is, they’re good...

But I am better...!

*Effortlessly, Taichi, starts typing random codes into the PC, and one by one, the videos disappear.

Sheesh. You’re really good at this.

This doesn’t seem like something any bad guy would do as a distraction...Who’s behind this?

Is Zetsubou even involved?

It seems a little too convenient. There’s no way this isn’t their doing!

Tracking resumed! We’ll have their location in a few moments!

That barely slowed them down...Sorry, but they’re gonna catch us...Should we abort?

...

No...Keep at it. There’s only one more of those boxey things left to get...

“Boxey things?”

You know what I mean...!

They’re gonna get our location and then we’re fucked! Hurry up!

...Tell me something...

What?

The Kisaragi Foundation have a good system of computers, right?

Yes, I’d imagine so...

...Alright...In that case...

*The mysterious hacker aborts his upload.

What’re you-!? I told you not to abort!

Calm down...Let’s give them a taste of their own medicine...

What!?

What happened?

We were just about to get them, then they stopped the upload! We can’t track them.

Well, is that a good thing? Or...

[ERROR]

Now what?

...

...

Guys, speak to us...

Now they’re...they’re tracking us?

What? B-But they know where we are...

...No...

What?

They’re trying to figure out where we are in the foundation...They’re leading Mikado right to us!

The track is too fast! I can’t stop it!

*CRASH!*

GET DOWN!

*Rei knocks several people over, as the wall explodes.

Ah...there you are...

...

*Yoruko, unbeknownst to Mikado, signals to Sora, Chihiro and Taichi.

...

...

...

*The three of them immediately recognize what she’s getting them to do, and after taking cover behind some debris, furiously begin tapping away at a laptop.

You know, it’s nice to have a physical body...I see you also had a bit of a run in with my friends...

So...those guys really do work for Zetsubou?

Come on, we’re like a troupe of criminals. Every troupe of criminals has a great hacker that you need to break into a system.

Fortunately, we have the best of the best...

Let me guess...he’s some kind of Ultimate?

Kyou Matsuoka maybe?

I wish...Unfortunately, he’s a White Hat Ethical Hacker.

We have what we have, and we want what we’ve got...

So...who’s the guy?

...Now I know what you’re doing...Perhaps, are you distracting me?

Maybe I am...But how could you know what we’re planning?

It doesn’t matter to me either way...Now...Yoruko...

*He aims the blaster at Yoruko.

Rest easy and die...

...

...

Ngh...

Huh?

What’s going on?

I-I G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-

...?

G-G-G-G-G E T...

GET OUT OF MY HEEEAAAAAAAAAAADDDD!!!

HUH!?

RAAAAAAAAGGGHH! AG-AG-AG-AG-AG-AG-AG-AG-AG-!!

*ZRCK!*

Tch...That was close...I almost-

Wha...

*SHUT DOWN NOISE...*

...?

...

...She’s in...

Phew...Thank god for that...

*Yoruko takes a step towards the robot.

We’re counting on you Sora...

#danganronpa survivor #danganronpa #danganronpa another 2 #sdra2 #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #danganronpa 1 #dr1 #danganronpa ultra despair girls #drae #mikado sannoji #tsurugi kinjo #teruya otori #keebo #k1-b0 #yoruko kabuya #rei mekaru #chihiro fujisaki #taichi fujisaki #mikako kurokawa #minako tomori #sora #danganronpa blowback #drb #yukari koime #the amnesiac and the alter ego arc