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phoenixkael · 4 years

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Analysis of Kael’thas Voice Lines in Shadowlands

Alpha spoilers below the cut. Read at your own discretion.

youtube

Alongside Blizzard’s live stream regarding developer updates in Shadowlands, we’ve gotten our usual Wednesday datamining of Shadowlands alpha. Today also marks the very last alpha build, as Blizzard confirms Beta to hit next week. What better way than to end it on a high note. Largely silent aside from boss information in Castle Nathria, Kael’thas now has some voice lines.

And boy, have I over-analyzed this like a kid eating cake.

When I first heard the Accuser’s lines from a few builds back, I already expected Kael’thas to be arrogant, but I never could tell at what level of arrogance or what his personality would be like exactly. Oh god, anything but hots portrayal.

Here we have Kael’thas in Revendreth, distressed and emotionally charged. At first glance, he doesn’t seem remorseful per se, but the fact that the Arbiter placed him in Revendreth instead of the Maw says that his soul is capable of atonement and remorse. At this point in the story, it doesn’t seem like Kael’thas has done a lot of soul searching. He’s coming off of the pride he had before he died, yet he knows he’s in Revendreth and knows he has work to do on himself. He thinks that what he did was right and for his people, but the way he did it was not ideal. It hurt a lot of people, and I don’t think he realizes that yet. He’s feeling very defensive, as evident in one of his lines: “Do not presume to judge me” means to not take someone at face value. You do not know the inner turmoil of another person. This line signifies Kael’thas being defensive. In fact, it makes sense that he comes into the Shadowlands defensive and insecure.

Analysis of Select Lines

Without context, it’s hard to know of what or to whom he is speaking these lines, so I’m generalizing, really. The very first lines in the video above state, “What torment is this? I serve the Lich King? No! That cannot be! Trouble me no longer!” Kael’thas greatly fears that he now serves the Lich King, who in the past is associated with Arthas and the Scourge. Knowing his past trauma there, serving the Lich King in general would put him under extreme pressure. This could quite well be one of many techniques that the Venthyr use to torture him.

In life, Kael’thas had a recurring theme of being a follower instead of the leader he was literally born to be. In fact, he ran from it for the longest time. He served as a member on the Council of Six in Dalaran and while this is a very noble position, it made his people feel distrustful of and alienated from him--and vice versa. Kael’thas had always wanted to forge connections with other people and gain insight into new ideas and places. He was so unlike most of his people, who were isolationist and content enough to marvel in their fair city of Silvermoon. Even his father, King Anasterian, was concerned for his loyalties. Kael’thas would then go on to serve under Garithos during the Scourge invasion, then to Illidan Stormrage in Outland, and finally to Kil’jaeden until his death. His line about Kil’jaeden in partciular is very interesting and very telling about where Kael is in his progress in Shadowlands: “I thought my deal with Kil’jaeden would save the Sin’dorei. But it just got worse all the time!” He expresses anger at having allowed the demon lord to manipulate him so easily, but he won’t express anything but anger and distress.

Now he COULD have admitted defeat and packed everyone up to go home, but then what did he go to Outland for? What would he have come home to empty-handed? He wanted this darker path, which he hesitated to take at first, to mean “something”. He promised to find the cure or salvation for his people (on top of his personal vendetta with Arthas) and he was afraid that he would break had he come home. He did not admit defeat, did not surrender. As brave as he was, his pride spelled his downfall.

Indeed, Kael’thas has always been one to put on a strong front, to appear strong and powerful in the eyes of not only his people but others as well. He is a very insecure man and, thus, uses his pride to mask these insecurities about himself. He does not like to appear weak. In one of the lines, he wants people to address him by his title, the Sun King, a contradictory request as to the one he used to make when he did not want the title out of respect for his father. Also, he always preferred that Jaina not use his titles, but just Kael. This goes to show that Kael hides his insecurity behind his title in the face of certain people for whom he wants to show he is strong. He already believed he won’t be half the king his father was, but he tried his hardest anyway. Notice in a few of the lines that he doesn’t mention MY people or MY brethren, but instead the Sin’dorei. Perhaps he recognizes that the blood elves are their own people and have continued to live without him. We know their story of restoration, and now we head into Kael’thas’s potential restoration where he owes it to them--and ultimately, himself. Maybe just maybe it also spells how much he is worth compared to them. He would give anything to save them, even sell his soul to the very devil himself.

Kael’thas has two quotes that really stood out to me. They’re very intellectual, just as you would expect from someone as intelligent as him, and when you analyze it, speaks of Kael himself but also just people in general.

“I can learn to be humble, but never meek.” He is willing to atone and wants to deep down, but it’s the confrontation of these sins that he doesn’t like. In the raid fight, he clearly has a lot of pent-up shame as referenced by the ability, “Reflection of Guilt.” Kael also makes an excellent point (or analogy?) to not mistake humbleness for weakness. You can be kind and mellow to people, but often people will mistake it for being weak and obedient.

The next line--and I LOVE how he says it--is, “My power is mine to wield.” It’s about owning your own power, about being your own person, and knowing your own self-worth. Don’t let anyone trample over you or make your their slave. Kael’thas experienced this first-hand with Garithos and Kil’jaeden. His people loved him, hence his betrayal (as evidenced by Lor’thenar’s recent short story) still cuts them several years later. They worried for him, but all he could think about as the fel surged through him was how much of a failure he was. Hell, even Jaina in the Arthas book mentioned how “good” of a man he was, having recognized the beauty of him, which fell to his darker traits. For all that confidence in his magical abilities and charm, Kael’thas tragically never knew how valuable he was as a leader, how worthy he was.

And now we are in Shadowlands where we get to see him with his own role. Blizzard willing, this sounds to be a long personal journey for him. For himself.

#shadowlands spoilers #kael'thas #kael'thas sunstrider #psychoanalysis #Oh hey my first analysis post out of countless ones in my head #And right at the end of alpha too #Sorry if everything seems all over the place #1am in the morn #musings

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anistarrose · 4 years

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The Liching Hour (TAZ Balance AU)

AO3: archiveofourown.org/works/22963831

Summary: Taako is a lich, but he doesn’t die alongside Barry when his memories start to fade. In fact, he doesn’t die for another whole decade… until he arrives in Refuge, and first hears the clock strike noon.

Characters: Taako, Lup, Barry Bluejeans, Kravitz, Magnus Burnsides, Merle Highchurch

Relationships: Lup & Taako, Kravitz/Taako, Barry Bluejeans/Lup

Additional tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Major Character Undeath, Angst with a Happy Ending, relationships listed in order of focus

“Taako is a lich too” is definitely an AU that’s been done before, but I couldn’t resist giving it my own unique twist! I actually started writing this fic exactly eleven months ago, when I was still fairly new to TAZ, but I forgot all about it until a few weeks ago when I came back to dust it off and finish the last few scenes.

(if you want an accompanying soundtrack for this fic, then I strongly recommend Lifetime Achievement Award by Lemon Demon! the song has big lich energy)

***

The set of planar systems traversed by our IPRE was indescribably vast, but far from the only one of its kind. Over eons, countless other universes are forged and then left to their own devices by elusory, non-interventionist creators — and in more than one of those universes, a ship called the Starblaster takes flight, propelled between planar systems by the strength of the bonds between its crew. In more than one of those universes, members of the IPRE put enough faith in those bonds to undertake a great risk — fusing their life forces with their magic and becoming liches, constructing a failsafe to protect their family from the Hunger that pursues them.

In one of those universes, Taako joins Lup and Barry in taking that risk. The ceremony goes as smoothly as the transformation into a lich can go, and the three of are all able to hold themselves together, thanks to their love for each other and their crewmates...

But when Lucretia feeds her records of their journey to the Voidfish, when Lup is already trapped in the Umbra Staff and Barry cleverly cheats amnesia by falling to his death off the deck of the Starblaster, Taako stays in his living form. Being undead isn’t the first thing he forgets — no, it’s Lup that he loses first, for Taako’s bonds with his twin are more carefully documented in Lucretia’s journals than anything else he’s done or cared about over the century — but the second that awareness of lichdom vanishes from his mind, the second he forgets the safety net he has in place in case of death, a self-preservation instinct kicks in again after nearly two decades of lying dormant. No need to go charging into uncharted and potentially deadly territory — Taako’s good out here.

For over a decade, he avoids death, and he never remembers what happens to him when he dies. Sometimes animals will shy away from him for no apparent reason, and maybe that faint burning sensation that fills his chest whenever Merle channels Pan to cast a healing spell on him is a little weird — but there’s no dogs on the moon and Merle hardly ever casts healing spells in the first place, so Taako just... tries to forget about it when he can, and convince himself it’s normal when he can’t.

He has a vague suspicion that he hasn’t been like this forever, but he can’t remember a clear date of onset for these symptoms, so he just brushes them off and keeps them to himself. It’s no one’s else’s business, anyways.

Or so he thinks, until he meets the Grim Reaper one fateful Candlenights.

***

There are two presents left under the shrub, both in similar silver-wrapped boxes — but one is addressed to all three Reclaimers, and the other is specifically labeled for Taako. Neither indicates the name of the sender.

Magnus and Merle don’t even attempt to hide the jealousy in their stares as they watch Taako pick up his gift, but something compels them to all stay silent and open the boxes as subtly as possibly while the Director makes conversation with Johann on the other side of the room. There’s nothing inherently suspicious about them other than the lack of a “from” name, though the handwriting on the tags is extremely familiar, but Taako still positions his arm to shield the box from the view of the others before he opens it and sees the contents…

The interior is plush purple velvet, cushioning two items: a coin and a note. The coin is golden and about as big as the circle made by Taako’s index finger and thumb when curled to meet at the tip, and it’s engraved with runes he doesn’t recognize — but he can read the accompanying note, though he has no idea what to make of what it says.

Keep this to yourself. If you ever encounter a situation in which you need it, you’ll know what to do with it when the time comes.

A quick use of Detect Magic reveals that the box and note are completely mundane, but the coin is enchanted. Nothing feels inherently volatile or dangerous about the complex divination spell it’s imbued with, but it still gives Taako a sinking feeling, like it’s something he should be forbidden from possessing.

So he casually slips the coin into his pocket and pops the note into his mouth, chewing and swallowing as he peers over Merle’s shoulder to examine the other gift — an identical box, this one holding three circular blue patches with twelve smaller circles embroidered around the circumference and an unreadable acronym word lying in the center. There’s another accompanying note here too, this one simply reading: “For your eyes only.”

Then, three different noises happen in very quick succession: Magnus turns to Taako and whispers “What was in yours?” and a second later, the Director echoes “What is that? What did you guys get?”

But before any of the boys can blurt out some lie despite not knowing why they feel so compelled to hide the gifts, the Director’s necklace unexpectedly interrupts the conversation, glowing faintly as a staticy, panicked voice yells “Lucretia!” The Director instantly whirls away from the boys, angrily whispering into her pendant which replies with words that are hard to make out from a distance.

Almost on reflex, Taako slips one of the patches into the same pocket as the coin and disposes of the second note with the same method he’d used for the first, cleansing his palate with an elderflower macaron immediately afterwards. He doesn’t think about the patches or the coin for a long time after that — but then again, he ends up getting distracted by a lot over the course of the next few hours. With the impeding crystal apocalypse, and the floating lab, and the death crimes and all.

***

“Well, that’s weird,” Noelle says. Her satellite dish is blinking green as it rotates, scanning the perimeter of the Cosmoscope two, three, four times. “At first, I thought it musta just been interference, but… one of you guys isn’t a lich, are you?”

“A what?” Magnus asks.

“A lich. The signal was real faint at first, but it just got stronger, and now it’s fluctuating a whole lot…”

“Nope, not me!” Magnus declares, with surprising confidence considering that he doesn’t appear to have any understanding of what being a lich means.

“Well, not that I’m aware of,” Taako answers slowly. “But I think even ya boy here would know if he was a lich. Right?”

“I’m friends with a few liches!” Merle adds. “They’re fun at parties.”

Noelle sighs at Merle’s comment, and then continues: “Yeah, Taako, I guess you’d hafta know if you were one. Guess my scanner’s just on the fritz.”

***

“Now Taako, Taako, Taako,” Kravitz mutters from within the sapphire mirror, and the pure exasperation on his face is almost adorable. “Care to take a guess what your bounty is for? I would really hope that you, at least, would know.”

Taako has a feeling he’s been saved for last because his crimes are the worst, but he’s got no clue why — there’s no way he’s died more than fifty-seven times, right?

“I dunno, is it about that tentacle thing? 'Cause don’t worry, my dude, this is a safe and non-judgmental environment where you don’t need to be afraid of being yourself —”

Kravitz's eyebrows raise and he looks aghast for a moment, but recovers quickly. “Taako, you've died twelve times — but alone, that makes you practically a law abiding citizen, compared to the company you keep! I never thought I’d see the day that I’d thought Magnus, with his 19 deaths, would be the least of the evils present, but — but —”

He sputters. “But you three all seem determined to make your crimes as unprecedented as possible —”

“Unprecedented, that’s me!” Taako laughs, and tries to ignore the half static-drowned screams of all his instincts, telling him to run as far away from Kravitz or any portal to the Astral Plane as he can get. “But uh, what is the deal with my bounty if —”

“Playing dumb about dying is one thing,” Kravitz growls, “but you’re really playing dumb about being a lich?”

“But I am dumb,” Taako blurts out, before the accusation really sinks in. “I’m just a humble idiot wizard!”

Kravitz bursts into bitter laughter. “An idiot necromancer, more like. Do you really —”

“There’s no way,” Magnus cuts in. “If Taako was a lich, we would have to know!”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that you would, given how long the three of you have been cheating death together!” Kravitz replies.

“Okay, first of all — how do you know we’ve actually been cheating death for that long?” interrupts Merle. “We could’ve just died all those times in the span of, I don’t know, a month or two! We’re really incompetent.”

Magnus and Taako nod in enthusiastic agreement as Kravitz sighs.

“And second of all?”

“Uh... I forgot what I was going to say second.”

“Of course you did! What won’t you three conveniently forget — GAH!”

A giant skeletal hand reaches out of the Eternal Stockade and grabs Kravitz by the robe, dragging him inside the Eternal Stockade. It slams the door of the prison with a force that Taako winces at, all the way on the other side of the sapphire mirror.

“Did we solve the lich puzzle?” Merle asks. “Are we free to go?”

“Gonna be honest — just personally, I’m not too worried about the lich puzzle!” Taako shouts back, as a high-pitched hum emanates from the crystals around them and the room begins to shake. “Mostly just thinking about how much I don’t want to remember what dying feels like!”

“You know, that’s fair,” Merle agrees as he watches a complete skeleton materialize behind the hand, wading through the Astral Sea and towards the mirror. “That’s pretty fair.”

***

“Look, you saved my bacon back there,” Kravitz tells them after Legion is defeated. “Not just my career, but the world too. Things would have gotten very, very nasty, in a way that I wouldn’t have exactly wanted to put on my résumé…”

He sighs. “And Merle, Magnus… I would be willing to let you off with a warning, because you’ve technically never escaped the Astral Plane, and that leaves a convenient little loophole in the law for you two to slip through. Even Lucas — he’s learned his lesson with necromancy, it looks like. But Maureen, Noelle, and especially you, Taako — you’re all going to have to come with me. I can’t make exceptions for those of you who have succeeded in a jailbreak — nor can I do so for a lich.”

This time, he doesn’t spit the word lich with any of the disgust or outrage that were in his voice before, but rather speaks slowly and solemnly — and if Taako didn’t know better, he might think Kravitz actually felt bad about having to lock him up.

“Look, Ghost Rider.” Taako’s heart is racing just a little bit faster than he’s comfortable with, and the worst part is he doesn’t know why. It’s tempting to blame it on the slight crush may or may not be developing, but his crushes — although few and far-between — definitely never send his pulse up this fast this early in the relationship.

“You seem like an okay fellow who’s just trying to do your job, so I’ll be honest with you — I can’t remember ever touching necromancy with a ten-foot pole. Look, I used to make my living as a chef, and when you’re cooking the last thing you want is your meal coming back to life in front of you. I’ve got no motive!”

“Does your book with the bounties say anything else about the charges against him?” Magnus asks. “The charges against any of us, actually?”

“Not a single thing, I’m afraid. The bar’s not very high, but you are some of the… less unsavory bounties I’ve hunted, which is why I genuinely hate to say this, but —”

“Oh, so it’s savory you like? Let me take you out for an evening at Taako’s Bar and Café, and I’ll cook you up as many savory dishes as you like —”

“The — the bar,” Kravitz stammers, slipping out of his Cockney accent, “is so not high —”

“He just wants to help you broaden your horizons!” Merle chimes in. “You must not get out of the — the, uh, whatever your plane is called very often, do you?”

Kravitz sighs. “It’s the Astral Plane, and — and look, we just… we need to get going, alright? Taako, I… I could give you the benefit of the doubt, I suppose, and let you stay here until you die and return to your lich form, but I still need those two souls in the robots to come with me —”

“Wait!” Magnus interrupts. “Gambling with death is a trope for a reason, right? Can we play cards for their souls?”

Kravitz shrugs. “You know what? Sure! This day can’t get any wilder!”

***

Boyland’s rites of remembrance aren’t until tomorrow, but Taako is down in the Voidfish’s chambers ahead of time, Umbra Staff clutched tight as he stares at the twinkling galaxy pattern within the jellyfish’s bell.

“Uh… do you need something?” Johann asks after Taako’s stands there silently for about a minute.

Taako twirls his umbrella and shifts it from hand to hand, half expecting it to fire on its own again like it had when talking to Angus, but it stays dormant.

“Can your jellyfish pal, like… I dunno, choose what it innoculates you for?”

“Uh… no? At least, I think we woulda noticed if it could… why are you asking?”

“I was bored.” Taako turns to leave, but before he can get back in the elevator, he hears the Voidfish sing a short tune — not quite as loud as when Magnus had touched its tank, but definitely the same three notes.

***

Taako dies a few times in Refuge before he notices anything weird about it — well, not that dying and being revived continuously isn’t weird albeit familiar, but at first he’s just immediately whisked off to the white space alongside Merle and Magnus. No special treatment for him — until the first time that they die before the hour ends, and everything starts unraveling.

Magnus leans away from locker as he opens it, but it proves to be a futile precaution as the sound of an explosion blows out their eardrums and shockwaves tear through the room, sending the floor beneath their feet blasting towards the ceiling at the same time that massive boulders rain down from above, crushing the cave’s occupants before there’s even a chance process what happened.

As the dust settles and the roar of the explosives and falling rocks dies out, Taako blinks — except it feels strange, like it’s not his physical eyelids moving as much as it is his vision shifting into another spectrum, as if someone had just cast True Seeing on him.

Huh, he thinks. Thought that would’ve killed me.

And then: Of course it killed me. I’m a lich.

(Well, there goes any chance I had with Kravitz —)

I’m a lich like the Red Robe — no, like Barry. And like —

Like Lup.

How could I forget Lup?!

The sensation of incorporeality hits him on a delay and doesn’t stop hitting him, harder and harder until he feels like he’s about to disintegrate. His red-tinged skeletal hand drifts through the air, catching the silver threads that hang lazily like cobwebs in the space all around him as his spectral fingers curl into a fist. He clutches those bonds with every ounce of strength he has but they’re unraveling now, just like his robe, like his magically deformed essence…

He’s ready to disintegrate, to unravel, to crumble into ash just like Lup’s skeleton in Wave Echo Cave, because of course it was her, it was all that was left of her —

I found her but she was gone — everything was gone, except for her robe and —

“Taako?”

Lying just a few feet away from the hem of his robe is Lup’s Umbra Staff, pulverized into a dozen smoldering fragments — and above it floats another red-cloaked figure, eyes blazing red like miniature versions of the explosion that freed her.

“Taako, I’m here!” she assures him, and her echoing voice is a chorus of too many simultaneous emotions to count — it’s worried, and desperate, but joyous and relieved and comforting all at once. “Don’t break down on me now, Taako! It’s okay!”

Something solidifies in Taako, a grounding sensation so powerful he feels almost corporeal again, but words are failing him, motion is failing him. He stays frozen as the bonds he’d clung to wind back into place, stretching from his arms to Lup’s and pulling them together into the closest thing to a hug that liches can achieve, and he feels warm.

“You idiot,” he finally chokes out. “You didn’t think that absorbing magic shit would make a bad combo with being a fucking lich?”

Lup is literally beaming with happiness, emitting beams of light that would blind someone with physical eyes. “You didn’t exactly realize either, you dingus!”

They stay in the embrace for a few more minutes — and Taako may or may not let out an ugly, messy sob or two, complete with tears and snot made of pure magical energy that crackles like lightning when it strikes the rubble below — before he finally feels stable, and Lup quietly asks:

“How much time do we have? Forty minutes? Thirty-five?”

“What?” Her words don’t sink in immediately, but the second they do, Taako immediately feels like the victim of a sick joke. “Oh, shit. The Umbra Staff’s gonna get fixed next loop, and — and I’m not gonna remember you’re in there —”

“It’ll be okay,” Lup assures him. Taako can tell from the tone of her voice that she’s just as frustrated as he is with the irony of the paradox, except trying to redirect that anger into stubborn optimism. It’s a lifesaving skill for liches of their particular breed, that ability to channel destabilizing negative emotions into sustaining positive ones — a skill Taako hasn’t had much practice with, lately.

“There’s got to be some way to cheat the loops — you know, a loophole.” Lup laughs — a rasping, echoing noise that would probably be terrifying to anyone who didn’t know her, but is a massive relief for Taako to hear. “It’s practically in the name. We’ll figure something out — we always do. Let’s just think — and besides, I’m sure Magnus will get you blown up at least another two or three times, so we’ve technically got even more than forty minutes.”

“Right, right, okay. Physical objects are a no-go, Magnus figured that out after his bank robbing stunt —”

“Yeah, I think I caught that. So we’ll have to try something magical —”

“Wait.” A thousand different realizations are slowly coalescing together all at once in Taako’s mind, and he struggles to find words to articulate any of them. “How much could you, like — how much could you see from in there? You helped me out fighting the vine monster, right, and — and ruined Ango’s cookies, so… you musta been pretty aware to do all that —”

Lup looks down at the remains of the Umbra Staff, now reduced to mostly ash.

“I could see and do plenty, if I put enough effort into it,” she explains, “but it wore me out quickly, especially casting spells. After I spelled my name, I was just… clinging to consciousness for the next few weeks. That stunt might not have been the best idea, since I’d figured out by then that you couldn’t remember, but… I had to try.”

“Did you see Barry, in… let’s see, Goldcliff and the Cosmoscope? He, uh… wasn’t doing so great that second time…”

“He’ll be able to hold it together,” Lup declares confidently. “He’s stubborn like that.”

“Do you think he realized… your situation? He was pretty stable until he saw you —”

“He would have done something about it by now if he’d known, though…”

“Yeah, of course, you’re right. But he definitely seemed like he had some kinda plan — wait, I think I got it! Where’s my body?”

“Wait, got what?”

Taako levitates a few boulders out of place, and summons two Mage Hands to rifle through the pockets of his corporeal form. “Our way out of this time paradox shit, courtesy of Barold himself! As long as it didn’t get crushed — ah, here we go!”

One of the Mage Hands procures a familiar golden coin, imbued with a divination spell of Barry’s own engineering that Taako finally recognizes. “Well, I guess I don’t know for sure that Barry sent it to me, but it’s his spell and came alongside some IPRE patches, so I’m gonna say it sure wasn’t from Lucretia.”

“Is that — is that the spell he made when Magnus was worrying about the Temporal Chalice overwriting things without us knowing?”

“Yeah, storing info across timelines is its whole gimmick! He knew we were going to go after the Chalice eventually, and musta realized that I would forget anything I did as a lich if a time loop like this revived me —”

“Gods, I love him!” Lup shouts, laughing and lighting up with joy all over again. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s send Amnesiac Taako a message!”

***

Taako faceplants in the dirt alongside Merle and Magnus, alive again and holding an unbroken Umbra Staff. As always, Roswell stands guard outside the gate, and Taako and Magnus immediately start running through their explanation.

“Great job, Maggie!” Merle mutters under his breath. “Now we’ve gotta go through this whole shebang again.”

“We’ll be able to make a great speedrun video on Fantasy Youtube by the end of it, though!” Taako whispers back, and Roswell tilts their bird head in confusion.

“What? What’s a speedrun?”

Taako opens his mouth to reply, but a slightly muffled yet incredibly familiar voice from within the pocket of his skirt beats him to it.

Yo, Taako! T to the double A-K-O! I’m you from half an hour ago now, so listen up!

“What the fuck?” he blurts out, digging out the coin. “That’s — that’s not me! I never said —”

I know you don’t remember recording this, but there’s something you’ve really gotta do, the coin goes on, still in Taako’s voice, and he drops it to the ground and stares at it in horror. It’ll make sense later — well, maybe a long time later. Eventually, I hope!

“I don’t trust you!” Taako shouts, not sure if he’s expecting the coin to respond or not. “I don’t know who’s behind this, but I know a trick when I hear —”

You need to break the Umbra Staff, Taako, a second speaker explains, and Taako goes stiff at the sound of her voice. And you need to break it again in every new cycle — or every loop, I should say, until you get out of here. Please, Taako, trust us. We’ll explain as soon as we can, I promise.

Magnus kneels on the ground and pokes the coin gingerly, as if expecting it to explode. “Taako, where did you get this? Do you know what triggered it to —”

Taako snaps the Umbra Staff with his bare hands, and a column of fire erupts around him.

As his vision turns into an orange blur, he can just barely hear Merle yelp in shock and Magnus shout in concern over the roar of the flames, but he doesn’t feel afraid — which is itself a deeply unsettling feeling, because he should really be terrified out of his mind — but he just can’t fear this fire no matter how hard he tries. The warmth of the flames that weave so deftly around him is not harsh, but rather, comforting — almost fiercely comforting, in a way Taako wasn’t prepared to be comforted, a way that makes his heart seize up just like the woman’s voice that he couldn’t help but trust.

The blaze consolidates into a spectral figure in red who floats in front of him and nods, face obscured by the cowl of her robe but a smile manifesting clearly in her voice nevertheless.

“Thank you so much, Taako. I knew you’d come through.”

Then Magnus swings Railsplitter through her — harmlessly, of course — and she turns to face him.

“What do you want from this town, Red Robe?” Magnus yells. “Why did you bring Jack and June here?”

“Magnus, calm down! Really, I should be asking you about Jack and —”

She pauses, noticing Magnus’s disoriented expression. “Shit, was that static? You know, that’s probably for the best. Let’s start over: Magnus, Merle, Taako, earth elemental who’s name I missed —”

“I’m Roswell. Could you please identify yourself?”

“Magnus, Merle, Taako, Roswell — but mostly you Tres Horny Bois, or whatever you call yourselves these days — first things first, I’m not the Red Robe you met before. Second and on a related note, yes, I’ve been in Taako’s umbrella this whole time. Yes, it sucked. And third…”

She sighs. “You’re just going to have to take my word on this one, but I literally can’t explain who I am or why I’m on your side. It might seriously damage your minds, but I should be able to tell you my name, which is Lup.”

“Lup, why do I trust you?” The name feels strange in Taako’s mouth — familiar, except it shouldn’t be, except it is, except it couldn’t be, except…

The contradiction just spirals on forever, boring a hole in his mind that aches like hell and makes his stomach churn.

“Taako — oh, Taako, you’re not thinking about it too hard, are you? You can’t think about it too hard — you see why I can’t try and explain anything else. I would if I could…”

Slowly, with help from Lup’s Mage Hand, Taako stands up. He can’t even remember when he fell to his knees, but… he tries not to think too hard about it. Just take things one step at a time.

“Lup can help get us out of here,” he tells Magnus and Merle. “I don’t know why, but I’d trust her with my life even outside of a time loop, so… we’re doing what she says now.”

Magnus shrugged. “You know, I guess we could do a lot worse than putting a competent woman in charge, even if she’s undead. Lup, whatever your plan is, I’m down for it.”

***

By the time the purple worm dives back down beneath the earth with her children, Taako’s just about ready to collapse. Physically, he’s uninjured — he had a lich and an earth elemental watching his back, after all — but mentally, he’s a wreck. The persistent roar of static in the back of his mind has taken its toll, especially since the loop where he died before anyone else, and woke up to find Magnus and Merle giving him the two most confused and concerned looks he’d ever seen on their faces.

So when Avi freezes, glowing red, and everyone’s Stones of Farspeech go dark, Taako barely has the energy to wonder why until another robed figure materializes, holding a finger to his lips —

“DID YOU RETRIEVE THE…”

Every fold of fabric freezes in place, as lightning washes over the Red Robe’s form.

“LUP?!”

“Hey, babe,” Lup whispers, unfazed by the lightning bolts as she floats forward to wrap her arms around the other lich. “Thanks for the coin.”

“But — but how?” the Red Robe stammers. “How are you finally —”

Several curls of hair, made up of ghostly orange fire, escape from under Lup’s hood as she explains, and the Red Robe gently twirls a coil of flames around one of his skeletal fingers. “How are you really here?”

“You’re not gonna believe this,” Lup explains, “but it turns out that magic-absorbing staffs and beings made of pure magic aren’t actually the best combo.”

“Oh my god, we’re idiots,” the Red Robe gasps. “We’re magical undead idiots.”

“Love you too, Barry,” Lup murmurs.“God, I missed you so fucking much.”

“Wait, like Barry Bluejeans?” Magnus asks, at exactly the same time that Taako mutters: “Ugh, get a room.”

Barry whispers something to Lup that Taako doesn’t catch, and then both liches turn around.

“So, slight change of plans,” Lup announces. “It looks like the bubble isn’t quite down yet, but once we get that taken care of… anyone else up for a moonbase infiltration?”

“I’ve got one condition,” Taako immediately announces.

“What’s up?”

“If we run into the Grim Reaper, neither of you crimson lovebirds know me.”

#taz #taz balance #taako taaco #lup taaco #kravitz taz #taakitz #barry bluejeans #blupjeans #magnus burnsides #merle highchurch #taz balance spoilers #rosalia writes fic

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the-house-of-the-nine · 5 years

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In Depths Below: Epilogue, Part 7

Simultaneously… & Three Days after The Masquerade Massacre…

“…Well we cannot certainly sit here any longer wondering whether or not we have some secret we’re missing.” Verzatea stammered out as she slowly sat down in her council chair and peered around the room.

The council chamber was filled to the brim with people in this moment. Marseille and Kross were positioned near the head of the table, the vacant seat of the Inquisitor between them. They were on either side of it, mostly because it was where Kross always stood; and now the pale old elf had taken his place behind the Matron.

Siida, who kept the company of both Zoei and Marseille with her nearly at all times was right beside the chair of her brother. The huntress on her other side. Marseille had his hands planted firmly on the back of her chair at the arch and his eyes would peer around the room looking at the council.

Around the room from there it would be Sennaris; she was often times unavailable due to her being gone for so long in the Honeywell estate. But ‘Sara’ was dead now, and she no longer needed to suffer that life; she could again reclaim her place here.

Following around the horseshoe shaped table would be the various faces of the Order. Silas and Aconite who were two of Asphodels former tranquil subjects had remained behind when she abdicated her Speaker position. She allowed them to stay, mostly because they were fond of Kross and Abbigael. Who to mention was also present beside them; the blonde elven female eagerly concerned for her masters fate.

Brox sat not too far from them, his feet on the table as usual; puffing away on his ceramic pipe that was jammed full of hallucinogenic herb no doubt. He would billow out puffs of smoke as he watched on.

On the opposite direction, directly next to Lazarius’ throne was Pyravari. She would always sit at her brothers right.

“The mongrel dog is dead. Anything we could have learned from him came when the spell he’d cast on Siida was turned on himself. He knew nothing. I for one am glad she ended his miserable life. The man was a fucking nuisance.”

“Nuisance or not, Pyravari… we’re still without an answer.” Siida added as she listened to the hate filled speech of her sister.

“He didn’t have anything more to add, and that makes him useless to us. Had you held back, he would still be breathing. One less life form wasting valuable oxygen for the rest of you.” she snapped back instantly.

“This is not why we are here; nor is it why we are gathered. Of course we all agree that Dawnseeker out of the way ends an inevitable threat to all of us but..”

Sennaris quickly interjected. Her reasoning sound and her voice tranquil and calm as she continued.

“We are here to determine our next course of action… to find a way to locate my Ma…Lazarius.”

“The Compeller is correct. The point we must remain on is what to do next.” Marseille added in.

“It may be plaus-thable, though highly unlikely that I could perhap-ths manufacture a device from the blood within the Pit. There is a s-thixty s-theven perc-thent chanc-the that I could probably locate him without des-thtroying the Bas-thtille and all of us-th in the process… “

At that point everyone had looked across the table at Whistletorque.

“What?” he said bewildered. “Thos-the are great odds-th!”

“Whether or not it can be done is mute. Currently we are without several key components to our arsenal. Koltun has opted to begin taking care of the Alliance problems down within Silithus. And both Lokiren and Baron Krazzlowe are preoccupied ensuring what little Azerite remains, stays in tact.”

Kross had begun talking as everyone else continued to circle the facts.

“Sending all of us out to scan the planet in order to locate on person is an impossible feat…”

“Not imposs-thible.”

“..and impossible feat. I think we need to consider what we do know and that is wherever the Inquisitor is currently, we know he is alive… we know he is not in the clutches of the Magistrate…and he is no doubt trying to find a way back to us.” the Steward finished.

“And what if…what if he is somewhere worse?” Siida suggested.

“We just don’t know and can’t think about that Siida.” concluded Kross.

“What if he is with the Alliance? or worse, the Horde? Thinking he is some Ren’dorei spy?” she went on, her worrying growing deeper as her thoughts ran.

Marseille would lower his hands and place them on her shoulders to calm her.

“I have prepared already to send an entire fleet out to begin looking, and Koltun has agreed that whatever Illidari have remained here under my command are to go through me. We can have two hundred soliders and infiltrators tracking Lazarius down, with boots on the ground …tonight.” Pyravari demanded slamming her Saronite gauntlet against the wood grain of the table.

“We cannot just go looking randomly across the world for him.” Sennaris jumped back in.

“I will ascend to the surface right now and walk the tundras until my legs tear off looking for him if I need to!” the Harbinger shouted back.

“Logic Pyravari…calm your nerves.” Kross took his chance to try and quell the rage building in the twin. “We need direction and focus.”

“Despite her rash approach, I agree and I’ve already informed the Scholary that we have an equal amount of witches and spellcasters scrying and searching from here to Pandaria by daybreak.” added Verzatea; she was in charge of them after all, though she and Pyravari did not always get along, here they did.

“Pandaria…That… would not be a bad idea in fact.” Marseille suggested as he looked toward the Confessor.

Everyone peered in the direction of the pale old elf. What point was he trying to make.

“Explain?” Pyravari demanded; she was always the first to set the bar high, always the first to pick out a possible point when it was made.

“Of course. . .” answered the Shal’dorei with a bowed head. “Kun-Lai…we return there, where this all began. Between Zoei and myself, we’re excellent trackers. We will need air support, some sort of ability to scry for him…it could be done. Track him from the source.”

It was hard to believe but it was honestly the only real plan they had to work from. And much to everyone’s shock, they actually liked the idea. Eyes would turn from the Shade as they sought to gain some sort of council from one another, but nothing. They all seemed to agree. All save for her.

“And how certain are you that you can actually track him if you do actually get there.” replied the lich fired Harbinger as she narrowed her field toward the man.

“There is no guarantee. But my Master is keen. He is also wise. I have been thinking in depth about what it would mean to be him; trapped in a situation like this. Meditated for hours on end; trying to determine a possible way he could have been letting us know all this time.” the old elf halted in his words as he thought on what he’d gained from it.

Siida peered back around her chair toward the Shal’dorei and questioned.

“What…what is it Marseille.” she said softly.

“He expects us to know what he is living through…what he is suffering from…and how he is dying…slowly…” the old elf concluded.

Shocked, everyone seemed to be wondering if he’d hit his head. If it was just a slightly off beat method of thinking.

“Are you fucking mad? Is this a sick joke?” Pyravari stood from the table and pointed toward the man. “You spill out that sort of incoherent kodo fodder like we’re supposed to eat it?”

“Pyravari plea–” Siida pleaded but was cut off short.

“No, not this time sister!” the Saronite banshee hissed. “Explain yourself Shade!”

Marseille was smiling at her easily riled tendencies, but then again; he knew it was expected for saying it. He knew how she cared for her twin; her passion here was actually quiet impressive.

“Logically think about it…” he concluded, pointing toward the open chair.

Again there was silence as the wise elf stood there waiting for someone to understand him.

“The entity bound to him. The way he is. The entropy of his own system fails consistently every day leaving bits of residue behind. There has got to be a trail for us to latch on to. A way to detect his magical bio-signature. Some sort of path leading us around from where he was. . .” Marseille then motioned toward the door; as if directing two points where Lazarius could have been. “To where he ended up…somewhere between…we should be able to find a clue.”

“Westley.” Pyravari snapped as she drew her attention suddenly over toward the little gnomish doctor.

“Harbinger!” he squawked to attention, standing in his chair and looking toward her.

“What is he saying.” she added, thumbing a clawed digit in the direction of Marseille.

“Well…” he began. “Bas-thically…becaus-the Laz-tharius-th is cons-thtantly interacting with the void on the molecular level. That means-th there is-th a way to lock onto that s-thignature and locate what he was-th doing and where he was-th.”

The lich fire blue hues of the cold ice queen would glanced between the two men. Her doubts were solid, but if Whistletorque could follow it, she could trust him. She had taken a liking to this particular gnome, and no others.

“So…possible.”

“Poss-thible but very tricky. Even if we could detect his-th bio s-thignature, I can’t even begin to promis-the that the trail or res-thidue left over would read out; it could be nano digits-th at this point. But, I can forgo the blood devic-the and begin cons-thtructing a means-th to locate the particles of energy Laz-tharius-th is leaving behind… maybe a s-theventy perc-thent chance…maybe.” the gnome concluded as he sat back down.

“If the doctor can formulate only a simple means to do so…It could be done. I will personally see to that. And from there, allow the trackers to track. And the eyes to see. Mouths to speak and ears to listen. We fan out. Find information and collect our data.” Marseille had been right there to pick up the conversation.

“Not randomly…and not without a direction to move from.” the often quiet Confessor added as she was listening carefully.

“Correct. We won’t have to waste valuable time needlessly looking where we should not be.” the pale elf ended.

“I will still send what forces we have available out to begin hunting around the area of that mountain and the lower altitudes while we wait. Since it was where any of us last saw him, we start there. Perhaps they never made it from the mainland. Forced to land somewhere in the Valley…” Pyravari had concluded and made a point..

“Yes, and I can make sure to divide the forces of scryers between your own and whatever Marseille needs.” added Verzatea; and for once they both agreed too. There was no glaring, not need for bickering, just both accepted it and nodded.

“Then we are in agreement… this is is. We start at the beginning and make our push to the end.” came the wise old voice of the steward.

“We organize, and have everything ready by daybreak. Id like whoever is not going to be in the field to aid us, here; we would like to strive to get those odds a bit higher Doctor Whistletorque, and I am certain with a bit more time and ingenuity you could increase those odds to say . . maybe, ninety?” Pyravari added again, noting the doctor would perk up at her encouragement.

Kross was now standing at the front of the table beside where Lazarius’ chair was vacant. His ghostly pale eyes peering from person to person. His own gloved fingers tracing the magnificent serpent crescent along the arch of its top. His thoughts were nearly always free floating, and hardly lingered; but this was their last chance.

There was a hanging silence that befell the group. Each one of them knew secretly that the task at hand was even more far fetched and outlandish than they’d hoped it would have been. They could pretend that it was their best option; but they all had to face the facts that were creeping up on them quickly. Lazarius could very well just be somewhere trapped; able to survive due to his parasite, down a crack in the soil.

It was inevitable though that one day; he would pass. They would be alone. And they would either crumble and fall or they would succeed. Until that day actually came though, it would be up to these people in this room to stand tall and harden their willpower to ensure the rest of the people depending on their wisdom and prowess did not also lose faith and fall.

Each one of them rose. Each one looking from left to right; passing along from person to person. Each one of them understood.

“We don’t stop until this is over…” Pyravari cut through the silence with her cold tone. “We don’t stop…until we find him.”

They all nodded in agreement, and turned to exit the chamber of the Nine. It was a somber walk, though filled with one dissolving shred of hope which still contained their optimism. It was their only beacon. Until the light of the hall broke their sacred meeting, and poured in on them like a rising sun.

They were stunned. Shocked in awe as the figure of a man stepped into frame; behind him a towering slender curvy figure and a creature pair of sorts. The collective group stood together against this set of persons; unsure who would be so bold as to interrupt their meeting.

“How dare you set foot in these hallowed chambers; give me one good reason I should not split you in half where you stand?!” Pyravari snapped; she was at the forefront and her runeblade was drawn on an angle toward the intruder.

“It would make welcoming me home… all the more difficult I suppose…”

A voice which shook the very walls around them and instantly caused the silence to break as the blade hit to floor along with the collective jaws of the order.

“LAZARIUS …”

The End…

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dicedungeons-and-dragons · 5 years

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Waylan’s Sabbatical (4/?)

A chunk of writing following our party NPC (and my Son) as he breaks away from the party. Our campaign uses names of places from various fandoms for fun but they have no real relation to the source material. (We also call the Raven Queen Nara because of some hasty Wiki reading)

TW: Mentions of past torture, general violence, injury.

Part: 1 | 2 | 3 | Here

Waylan wakes up, all the way, with an ache still in his bones. Every part of him is exhausted and he feels disgusting. But he’s in a bed with a threadbare blanket and someone has lit the torch on the wall. He reaches for his side and is met with thick bandages plastered over the wound. He decides to use his metal hand, the one less likely to shake under the weight of his exhaustion, to peel away the bandages. As he does he’s greeted by a foul earthy odor and he’s half scared that the wound will be gangrenous.

He breathes a sigh of relief when he finds that, while yes the wound is in fact green, it’s because of a packing of what he assumes are medicinal herbs laid carefully under the wrappings. The bites look better, clean, and not as swollen as they had been immediately after the initial injury. He reaches inside of himself for his magic, finds his crystal laying on the nightstand beside him along with his other belongings, and casts a few healing spells on himself.

The door creaks open and he glances up. The knight is still in his full armor, helmet and all, and Waylan briefly wonders if he ever takes it off.

“You’re finally awake, and well enough to perform magic?”

“Yes, thank you.” Because he could have been killed. He’d half expected to be killed.

“On my honor I swore to lend you aid if you turned up at my door.”

“I haven’t heard of a lich with honor.” He bites his tongue too late. And well, while he’s already digging his grave, “Or one that couldn’t use the magic they’re imbued with.” Because even undead-- liches used to be mages. And nearly all mages have some kind of rudimentary knowledge of healing spells. But this one had relied on herbs to treat his wounds and a sword when engaged in combat.

He waits for the lich to approach the bed and drive his sword through his chest for his insolence, but the knight just inclines his head again. “My creation is a different one than those you have likely heard of before. Perhaps someday I will tell you about it.”

“My name is Waylan.” He says after a long moment, peeling the rest of the bandages away. There is a row of silvery crescent scars curving along the front and back of his side. But the healing is done. And considering that this creature lended him aid when he could have easily been killed he thinks maybe the lich should be shown some courtesy.

“You can call me the Black Knight.” The Knight moves further into the room and Waylan startles to see the man pull two items from the pouch at his hip and set them on the nightstand. The witch’s glass and the map he’s been modifying of the Dark Forest. “What do you plan on doing with the information you gather as you travel, Waylan?”

He feels stupid. Sure thus far he’s been careful in town and worked to make sure that no one knows the relative ease with which he’s able to travel through the forest. His notes in the hand of the King or his adventurers would be enough to get them to this castle. His knowledge that the grounds are guarded by a lich incapable of magic could be enough for someone clever to reclaim the ruins.

“I have no reason to get involved in whatever feud is happening between you and the kingdom. I’m not from Okren and I’m not a hero. I won’t be sharing what I learn here.”

The Black Knight hums thoughtfully. “You say you’re not a hero, and yet at the first sign of someone in trouble you lend aid for nothing in return.”

“There’s a difference in lending aid to a single person and getting involved with the political affairs of an entire country. Trust me, I am intimately familiar with the later and it’s not a position I’m interested in finding myself in again.” Because it hadn’t worked out well for the Revengers. Because if they hadn’t been so insistent on helping him then they wouldn’t have ended up under Creta or in the council hall. They wouldn’t be tied to the Oshime government. And maybe they could have saved themselves some strife. The Knight stares down at him and in the low light of the room Waylan can see his eyes burning like embers behind his helmet.

“Then you are welcome to stay for as long as you need.” He takes a step back from the bed and Waylan lets himself breathe a little more easily. “I’m afraid I have little to offer you in the form of human hospitality. I stock no food and the well ran dry years ago.”

“I won’t be staying long.” He says easily. “Another night to regain the magic I expended healing the remainder of my wound. Then I’ll have to head back to civilization to restock my supplies.”

“And then you’ll come back to this forest?”

“Yes.”

“Why are you so insistent on explore a place even the gods have shunned?”

“I have a morbid curiosity.” Waylan responds dryly. “Any chance you’ve collected the coins off the corpses strewn all over your front yard?”

“I have no need for their money, but you are welcome to whatever you find.”

“Thank you.”

The Black Knight inclines his head again before turning from the room.

Waylan waits for a few minutes until he’s sure he’s gone before he picks up the witch’s glass.

“Ray, Vani, Lugh--” He doesn’t ask for Gad.

Vani picks up first, looking exhausted. Shit what time is it in Oshime? What time is it here? “Way? What is it? Are you alright?”

“Way, you never call, what’s going on?” Ray’s head pokes up over Vani’s and he thinks he catches Lugh grumbling drunkenly in the background. He doesn’t recognize the room they’re in. Maybe a hotel? Maybe a tavern?

“Just checking in.” He hasn’t been the one to check in since he left.

“We’re fine, exhausted, but fine, what about you?” Vani gives him as much of a once over as she can with only the small mirror to glean any information about his physical state. “You look a little tired yourself.”

“And shirtless,” Lugh adds. “Are you calling us post-coital cause that’s just mean.”

“Fuck off Lugh.” The dread that has been sitting heavy behind his ribs seems to loosen a little at the familiar jab. “It’s been a long few days, but I’m fine. You’ll be happy Ray, I think I’m making friends.”

In traditional Ray fashion she grins and can’t help but talk at length about a few of the friends that the Revengers have made in his absence.

An hour or two later all of them are on the brink of sleep and Ray yawns, sleepily asking, “Are you coming home soon?”

His throat tightens. “I don’t think so.”

“Okay. You should call more often though.” She tucks her head against her arms and Vani angles the mirror so he can see her instead.

“Take as long as you need Waylan.”

“Thanks Vani. Keep those idiots safe.”

“That’s asking a lot.” But she’s smiling. “Keep yourself safe.”

“I’ll do my best.”

*****

He leaves the next morning as he said he would and the Black Knight wishes him safe travels before he heads in the opposite direction even deeper into the brush. The trip to the kingdom will take about a week but Waylan’s getting good at navigating this section of woods. He knows the times when the spiders are most active, what paths the wolves stick to most of the time, how to tell when the far off groan of trees are the thick trunks bending as forest giants make their way though.

When he was younger there was nowhere in Ketterdam he was allowed to explore. The woods were home to bullywugs that were always happy to skewer a traveler and take their goods. And while the guards within the town did their best with the minor incidents that cropped up in the farming village there were no fighters to clear out the forest and make it safe. Waylan could do it now, maybe. If he was clever. If he found where the more dangerous creatures gathered he thinks he could manage it.

Not that he’d ever go back to Ketterdam.

Not the place he watched his mother and his father die. Where he spent years down in his workshop after his father decided his presence was too disruptive in the small town for him to be seen. He met Gadreel there, he acknowledges. And Gad had been the one bit of good in his life that kept him from doing worse than setting fire to an empty barn and field. But he doesn’t have Gad, or his father, or a home anymore. What he has is a mechanical arm, nightmares, and a rage that bubbles hot and oily in the pit of his stomach when he thinks about these things for too long.

So he pushes them away. Lets the thoughts drop to the forest floor and get forgotten with the soft echoes of his footsteps.

#Waylan's Sabbatical #waylan #oc: waylan #the revengers (morons)#my writing #dnd #dnd5e #dungeons and dragons

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dungeonecologist · 5 years

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WILD ARMS 2 - Golgotha Prison

The name is not subtle, but the reference itself is actually oddly superficial. At the end of the dungeon, Ashley is separated briefly from the party and Lilka and Brad are captured and tied to crosses, evoking the characters Dismus and Gestas, the thieves crucified during the same execution as the biblical christ. There is little reference to that actual narrative however, instead seeming to draw from the fact that the name Golgotha is taken to be an epithet to mean literally “A Place of Skulls,” which seems rather appropriate and obvious for an execution field.

Bookending the start and end of this dungeon, we fight the boss monster, Trask. First in a scripted “loss” and then in a solo match with Ashley’s new dark henshin hero form, the “Grotesque Black Knight,” Knightblazer.

“Trask” is yet another transliteration* issue that comes from the juggling between languages. It actually comes from the Tarrasque, another monster most readily identified from its appearance in the original Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, itself originally taken from semi-obscure French myth of Saint Martha of Bethany and the Tarasque of Tarascon.

*(I realize I use this word a lot and it might not be as common use to others. A “translation” lifts meaning between languages; a “transliteration” is to lift written characters between them. Example: “Left” in English translates to 左[the direction] or 残[what remains] but transliterates to レフト. Inversely 左 and 残 both translate back to English as “Left” but transliterate as “hidari” and “zan” respectively; and レフト transliterates back into English as “refuto.”)

Surprisingly, the Wild Arms 2 design (which would also go on to persist as the core design throughout the rest of the Wild Arms series) is based more on the original myth than the D&D representations tend to be: While the end product looks nothing like the depictions of the Tarasque of myth, it retains the spiked turtle shell, the prominent dual horns, poisonous quality, and fins on its head here account for being “half fish.”

Also of note is that the title card identifies it as a “Dragonoid” and it has various metallic and machine-like features. These details are neat because it positions it as being not-quite a dragon, to work around a fact that will pop up much later: That dragons in Filgaia are extinct. And also to play into the fact that Dragons in Wild Arms are semi-mechanical lifeforms.

In any case, our scripted loss to Trask the first time around ends with the team knocked out and imprisoned in what appears to be a disused execution ground and associated holding cells. In our escape we run into monsters fitting the theme, who appear to be natural inhabitants, rather than guards put in place by the Odessa terrorist soldiers who are actually holding us here.

First up is the Wight, a classic undead warrior monster generally taken from D&D, but with a little more behind it than you might expect. The term Wight in English lore actually traces back quite far as an archaic term with little to no real association with monsters. The real intersection with name and subject comes from an early English translation of the Nordic Grettis Saga; In it the zombie-like creatures now better known as Draugr were referred to as apturgangr (lit.”againwalker”) but were translated as Barrow-wight. (lit.”[burial-]mound person”)

This may seem an odd choice, but the translation came at the hands of the eminent bookman William Morris. I say “bookman” because he was not just a prolific author of prose and poetry, but a pioneer of the revival of the British textile and printing industry. He and his wife, Jane Burden, did extensive arts, craft and design work in book and print design, book binding, and wall paper all stemming from the intricate design of modular and tiled printing blocks and stamps. Oh and he translated various works of epic poetry and myth into English, including old Roman epics, French knightly romances, and of course Norse sagas. (all of which he wrote and published what was basically fanfiction of, btw)

His seemingly erroneous “translation” of the Barrow-wight came as an attempt to reflect a comparable agedness to the name: Rather than translating from old Norse into modern English, he chose what he thought a suitable old English equivalent; “Barrow” referring to pre-christian Anglo-Saxon burial mounds, and “Wight” meaning “thing” or “creature” but often used disparagingly to refer to a person. The nuance there is actually quite clever, as the old Wight referred pretty exclusively to those living, even if it didn’t specify by definition, and that uncertainty or contradictory kind of implication uniquely fits a description of the undead.

This term would be picked up by J.R.R. Tolkein for use in Middle-Earth, retaining their lore and function from Norse legend to describe undead warriors. And from there you can follow the usual chain of influence to D&D, where the shortened term Wight really solidified itself as synonymous with the undead, and eventually down to Game of Thrones, where George R.R. Martin cleverly brings the whole thing back around to old risen bodies of northern warriors, not unlike the Draugr of Norse myth.

Anyway in Wild Arms 2 we get some sorta death yeti ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Next up is the Ghoul, which I think we all know is a pretty generic term in modern parlance, but it’s specific origins date back to pre-Islamic Arabia. It entered into English via translations of the original French translation of 1001 Arabian Nights, where it appears in one story as a monster lurking about the cemetery devouring corpses.

The Ghoul identity as a corpse eater quickly broadened into flesh eaters, and the association with lurking about graves in turn marked them as undead themselves until eventually the term became loosely applied to any variety of undead, including the thrall of vampires, supplanting the flesh of the dead with blood of the living and achieving a truly far removed meaning. Even in modern Arabic the term now broadly applies to any number of fantasy monsters.

And so long as we’re dabbling in pop culture transplants; the Arabaian word Ghul is in fact the same used in the name of the Batman villain, R’as al-Ghul, whose name/title has always been erroneously translated as “Head of The Demon.“

I have no idea why it’s a chicken with a mohawk but i love it

And finally the Bone Drake. I don’t know that this one actually has any real specific lineage...

“Drake” is generally a synonym for dragon, although there is some case of fantasy semantics where different settings will try to define distinct body types of dragons each with their own name, in which case Drakes are often either dragons which simply don’t exceed a certain size (generally no bigger than a non-magical animal such as a dog or a horse) or a wingless variation of whatever the setting’s prototypical dragon might be. I don’t know for certain, but I think this distinction in modern fantasy started with Tolkien’s wingless fire breathing dragon, Glaurung, and its offspring who were referred to as fire-drakes.

In any case, the specific term “Bone Drake” Doesn’t seem to appear with any visibility prior to Wild Arms 2, which leads me to believe it was just their name for a generic bone dragon-like creature. It does make for an interesting companion, aesthetically, to Trask being here, although there don’t seem to be any implications that Trask lives in this dungeon at all. Other than just being an obvious combination of cool fantasy things, it may also be pulled from Dungeon & Dragons’ Dracolich/Night Dragon; an undead (often skeletal) dragon raised from the dead, often by their own necromantic spells, hence the term “Lich.” For whatever reason they are oddly reminiscent of shield crested dinosaurs like the Triceratops or Styracosaurus.

The attack Rhodon Breath doesn’t tell me anything either. I think it’s just meant as “Rose Breath,” translating the “Rhodon” bit pretty literally, and references the smell of roses being present as a funeral, or else the palor of the faded pink color also called “Rose Breath.” There is some apocryphal reference to a Rhodon but of no significance that I can tell.

Clearly the theme here is death and the undead, and with some small stretch on part of the Wight, we could even say skulls all befitting Golgotha’s “Place of Skulls” epithet. It’s a really neat way to build this dungeon, albeit a little on the nose. But I really like the idea that the dungeon appears to be abandoned and now haunted by all these reanimated corpses and bones before the villains arrive to use it for their plans. Oddly there isn’t much of a martyrdom theme here, although we’ll get plenty of that a little later once we recruit our second magic user, summoner, christ figure, and perfect beautiful boy, Tim Rhymless to the team...

Anyway we get out, we fight Trask for real. Ashley turns into a saturday morning superhero. Trask gets solo’d. And we all just kinda move along without asking too many questions... Although the game dialogue describes this new form as a “grotesque black knight” the sprite work, 3D model, and even original character art don’t really convey much in the way of “grotesque” but in the context of the tokusatsu, henshin hero elements it’s not too hard to imagine that the design was meant to evoke a similar aesthetic to gruesome suit heroes like Guyver, Kamen Rider Shin, and Devilman. I do love the gill/tendon-like organic vent structure in the pauldrons that stay. And although it’s not visible in any of these images, but the D-Arts model has an exposed segment of vertebrae between the shoulders; that along with the teeth(?)/ribs on the open chest panels really helps bring out more of the “grotesque” quality of the design.

#Wild arms 2 #jrpg #psx #ghoul #wight #dungeons and dragons

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noblecrumpet-dorkvision · 7 years

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Sorcerer Week: Origin Stories

image credit: KILART

Sorcerers are usually born with their powers or are tied to a font of magical force. This is what makes a sorcerer unique from any other spellcaster. When I was first writing content for this class week, I struggled. This was until I discovered just how open-ended it was. As long as it isn't a patron or a spell you can write down in a book, it counts! Even when you look at the existing sorcerous origins in the PHB and UA content, you can see how varied a sorcerer's power source can be. A sorcerer's power can originate:

From their ancestry: like the draconic bloodline sorcerer. The favored soul has an angelic ancestor. Even the Sea, Storm, and Stone Sorcery origins tie a character's heritage to sea, air, or earth creatures.

From a connection to a certain plane: like the Shadow Sorcerer, who is connected to the Shadowfell, which imbues their soul with power. The Wild Magic Sorcerer is tied to the plane of Limbo, which fuels their chaotic powers.

From a connection to a specific magical power: The Phoenix Sorcerer draws power "from the immortal flame that fuels the phoenix." It doesn't necessarily mean their ancestor was a phoenix, or that they are connected to the plane of fire, but rather a legendary flaming node of magic.

From proximity or exposure to magical power: simply witnessing a dragon or phoenix seems to touch people with magic, as does simply being exposed to the Shadowfell.

If we want to boil this down to a single source of magical power that includes all of these, I would have to say that a sorcerer’s power comes from their soul. A soul that has been touched, blessed, tainted, or born with some form of inherent magic. So let’s discover what other ways your sorcerer’s soul can be altered! The lists below are mostly for flavor, but I encourage everyone to make subclasses or prestige classes for these because I only have so much time! But don’t worry, I definitely have some planned for the rest of Sorcerer Week!

Unique Magical Ancestors

Remember that ancestry in terms of sorcerers doesn’t necessarily refer to biological descendants, it can also be a blessing, curse, or some side effect of proximity or exposure to the creature throughout your family history. And this list could really be any monster that is magical or powerful so don’t feel like this list limits your imagination!

Aberrations: Anything from the Far Realms is powerful enough to taint someone's soul with mysterious power. Illithids, Beholders, Aboleths, or Neogi would all make interesting ancestors. Take mind-affecting spells like Confusion or Dominate Person or spells that taint flesh with necrotic damage. A Wild Magic or Storm Sorcerer would do well here. A Sea Sorcerer would be even better if the ancestor is an Aboleth.

Celestials: Angels, Guardinals, or Eladrin would make perfect ancestors for a Favored Soul.

Couatl: Couatls are powerful creatures from the astral plane and historically opposed to the forces of evil. A favored soul or storm sorcerer might be good reskinned as a Couatl ancestor being a lawful good air creature. Couatls have the spell Dream so this might be a good add to a sorcerer's spell list. Possibly adding Prismatic Spray/Wall to their spell list would also be thematic for their rainbow of feathers.

Empyrean: A powerful ancient titan could be a reskinned Earth Sorcerer.

Fiends: I find it very strange that this doesn’t exist already. To be fair, there is an entire race based on having a fiendish ancestor (looking at you, tieflings) but it can be stronger than that. A fire/acid/poison Draconic bloodline would work well as a reskin. A Phoenix Sorcerer could also work, but the rebirth effects don't particularly scream "fiend." I would substitute those abilities with a more fiend-flavored spell once per short rest if making your own subclass. Remember that there are many different kinds of fiends to be your ancestors like yugoloths and rakshasas.

Genies: With genies of various elements, it is easy to reskin the Draconic bloodline sorcerer to have an efreet or djinni ancestor instead.

Giants: The same with genies, there are several elemental giants to choose from and you can reskin the Draconic bloodline to suit you.

Hags: Your magic is vile and duplicitous. You should pick spells that debuff creatures like Ray of Sickness or Blindness/Deafness. If you make a prestige class you should add things like Ray of Enfeeblement and Bestow Curse to their spell list.

Kraken: A storm sorcerer with plenty of water or lightning spells will definitely scream kraken. As will Evard’s Black Tentacles, which you should convince your DM to add to your spell list.

Undead: A vampire or other powerful undead may have touched or tainted your soul when you were young. Reskin the Shadow Sorcerer and take lots of spells that deal necrotic damage.

Slaad: Since Slaad come from the plane of Limbo, Wild Magic is usually the best candidate. No reskin even needed.

Sphinx: A sphinx is a powerful magic creature. A Favored Soul might work as a reskin, but I would recommend making a new unique subclass with a focus on utility divination spells not normally available to the sorcerer to reflect the inscrutable soul touched by a sphinx. (I will be doing a sphinx patron for Warlock Week so hang tight if you want more ideas)

Planar Ties

Drawing from content both modern and archaic we can find a whole mess of planar sources of sorcery. You can tie your sorcerous origin to an entire plane, or a specific location on that plane, or to a powerful concept tied to that plane.

Inner Planes:

Energy Planes: We already have a Shadow Sorcerer that would work for the plane of Negative Energy, and the Favored Soul works for the plane of Positive Energy.

Elemental: The Draconic Bloodline or Phoenix Sorcerer can work for the fire plane, the Sea Sorcerer can work for the water plane, the Storm Sorcerer for the air plane, and the Earth Sorcerer for the earth plane. Easy.

Paraelemental: Most people forget about the intermediary planes between the elemental planes. Choose spells for your spell list that reflect the combined elements.

Ice: Between the planes of air and water

Ooze: Between the planes of water and earth

Magma: Between the planes of earth and fire

Smoke: Between the planes of fire and air

Quasielemental: Even more often forgotten are the plane that lie between the energy planes and each elemental plane. I would suggest being a Shadow Sorcerer or Favored Soul and then taking elemental themed spells.

Lightning: Between the planes of air and positive energy

Vacuum: Between the planes of air and negative energy

Steam: Between the planes of water and positive energy

Salt: Between the planes of water and negative energy

Crystal: Between the planes of earth and positive energy

Dust: Between the planes of earth and negative energy

Radiance: Between the planes of fire and positive energy

Ash: Between the planes of fire and negative energy

Transitive Planes: These are planes coexistent or coterminous the Material Plane as well as most other planes.

Astral Plane: Taking lots of mind-affecting spells or movement spells would simulate this psychic plane between worlds. Plane Shift is a must.

Ethereal Plane: Necrotic spells and spells like Blink and Etherealness that let you enter the ethereal plane would work here.

Shadowfell: We have a shadowfell sorcerer already from Unearthed Arcana.

Feywild: illusion and mind-affecting magic is your best bet if your origin is this plane of seasons, nature, and strong emotions.

Mirror Plane: A lesser-known plane between mirrors. This one might honestly be best to create a subclass for with abilities for travelling between mirrors or communication through mirrors or reflecting spells. Maybe a cost reduction on the Twinned Spell metamagic option.

Time Plane: Another lesser-known plane of temporal energy. Taking spells like Haste or Slow or Banishment might simulate speeding up time, slowing down time, or hurling someone forward in time.

Outer Planes: A sorcerer's alignment is likely to tend towards the alignment of an outer plane they are tied to. Remember that your soul could be linked to the plane itself or perhaps a landmark of that plane or one of its layers.

Acheron: Lawful-Evil (law-leaning). Your source of power could be tied to the mysterious iron prisms that compose the plane, to the fervor of the battles waged here, the black ice that begins the River Styx, or to the ideology of enforced order and conformity. Your magic is tyrannical.

Baator: Lawful-Evil. A sorcerer could gain power from one of the nine hells or any of the famous locations located there like the Iron Tower of Dis, the Pillar of Skulls on Avernus, or Grenpoli the city of diplomacy on Maladomini. Your magic is malicious and conniving.

Gehenna: Lawful-Evil (evil-leaning). Your magic could be tied to the volcanoes of the plane, or to the crawling city of the general of the yugoloths, the acidic snow of Mungoth, or the lich-lord Melif's obsidian city of Hopelorn. Your magic is merciless and fiery.

Hades: Neutral-Evil. You could easily have a sorcerer tied to the entrapping gloom of the plane, or to the gate to the underworld, or to Oinos, the layer where the brunt of the Blood War is waged. Your magic is dark and terrifying.

Carceri: Chaotic-Evil (evil-leaning). Your sorcerous origin could come from the acidic jungle air of Cathrys, the black citadel of Necromanteion (Nerull's ice fortress), or the treachery that permeates the plane. Your magic is deceptive and often tricks or captures your foes.

Abyss: Chaotic-Evil. The infinitely layered plane of demons. There is so much to choose from in terms of layers and notable locations (being infinite and all). You could as easily be connected to Baphomet's Great Maze or the undead hunger of Doresain. You magic is cruel and wantonly destructive.

Pandemonium: Chaotic-Evil (chaos-leaning). Your sorcerous origin might be in the winds whipping through the cavern of Harmonica, or to the whipping snowstorms of Winter's Hall. Either way your magic is loud and maddening.

Limbo: Chaotic-Neutral. Home of the Slaad. The Wild Magic Sorcerer is already based on this realm, but I could see a unique sorcerer tied to something like the Spawning Stone or to a Gith city.

Ysgard: Chaotic-Good (chaos-leaning). A sorcerer could be tied to the fires beneath the earthbergs of this plane, to the battles waged on the Plain of Ida, to the World Ash that stretches to Niflheim, or to the magic energy that revives fallen warriors. Your magic is fierce.

Arborea: Chaotic-Good. Your power source could be tied to Mount Olympus, or the fountain of beauty known as Evergold, or the ideology of enjoying life, luxury, and nature. Your magic is passionate and beautiful.

Beastlands: Chaotic-Good (good-leaning). Your sorcerous power could arise from Ehlonna's Grove of the Unicorns, or the eternal twilight of Brux, or the ideology of the natural cycle of life. Your magic is sublime and unbound.

Elysium: Neutral-Good. Your might get your magic from the prismatic color and light, from Pelor's golden Fortress of the Sun, or from the entrapping joy and peacefulness of the plane. You magic is bright and fantastic.

Bytopia: Lawful-Good (good-leaning). A sorcerer could gain power from the gold that seems to be everywhere on this plane, or from the untamed wilds of Shurrock, or from the pastoral settlements of Dothion. Your magic is fulfilling and industrious.

Celestia: Lawful-Good. Your sorcerous origin can be connected to one of the seven heavens, to Bahamut's treasure palace, or to the holy light filling the realm. Your magic is merciful and just.

Arcadia: Lawful-Good (law-leaning). A sorcerer could be tied to the conical Mount Clangeddin, the ideology of the common good, or even the Orb of Day and Night that regulates time on the plane. Your magic is harmonious and perfect.

Mechanus: Lawful-Neutral. Your sorcery could stem from the perfect city of Regulus (the home of the modrons), the lawful and literal ideology of the Inevitables, or the spreading hives of the formians. Perhaps your soul is a part of the great machine, an arcane cog that plays its own part in the clockwork nirvana. Your magic is controlled and precise.

Other Sorcerous Origins

Ancient Symbol: Perhaps you have been marked with an ancient magical symbol and the secret of your power stems from that. As you level up you unlock more secrets of the infinitely complex symbol. Your magic takes the form of your symbol.

Animal Spirit: Your magic could be tied to a spirit animal or a deity of a particular animal. Your magic reflects the nature of that animal.

Cosmic: Your power is tied to the stars, planets, and the cosmos. You are usually focused on greater or universal ideas than the petty workings of men. Your magic is sublime, like miniature galaxies and perhaps tied inherently to the timing of cosmic events.

Emotions: Your sorcerous power could be directly tied to your emotions. Control (or lack thereof) could fuel your magic and what type of magic it is.

Historical Sites: Similar to magical landmarks but based on a person or event from history. An ancient battlefield, a site of a tragic disaster, or a monument to a blessed miracle might be your sorcerous origin; its power merely a rush of emotion for a tourist, but a font of power for you.

Hive Mind: Your soul is touched (or formed) by the collective intelligence of a hive mind. This grants you your abilities by sharing your arcane knowledge with your linked minds, as if knowing things you don’t even realize.

Leylines of the Weave: You could draw power by locating leylines in the Weave of magic and being able to draw power from it directly. Your magic involves a waving of hands to literally tug upon the Weave and bend it to your will.

Magical Landmarks: There might be a source of magic in the setting you're in that is a natural landmark. There could be a magical waterfall, an endless chasm, a volcano, a river of blood, a vein of magically-charged gemstone, a mysterious floating orb, a glowing meteorite, an ominous crater, etc. Your magic should reflect the elemental power of such a landmark.

Psionics: Perhaps your power originates purely from your mind's eye and your mental talent for psionics.

Spirits of Ancestors: You could have power passed down and honed by your many natural ancestors, rather than a monstrous magical ancestor like a dragon. Your metamagic is fueled by sometimes visual echoes of your past lives.

Void: Your power is connected to nothingness and the void. You are perhaps nihilistic in nature. Your magic is dark, entropic, and all-consuming.

#Sorcerer Week #Sorcerer #Soul #Planes #D&D 5e #Dungeons and Dragons #D&D #DnD #DnD 5e #Outer Planes #Inner Planes #Elements #Elemental #Sorcerous Origins #magic

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clonerightsagenda · 6 years

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Good morning everyone, it is time for a very cursed post. This was a lot funnier in the middle of the night when we were hysterical on Gill's floor. I am now bathed in the harsh light of day and regret, but I promised I would write this up.

This post will make zero sense without the context of reading this other post and the tags. All of the tags. Did you do that, and come back? I'm not sure why. But here we are. And after posting that, we hung out on our floor for like an hour in the middle of the night and hashed out an actual plot for this trainwreck. Because it was better than going to sleep, I guess. I have no excuses that can truly justify this.

So. A semi-functional explanation for all of this. The Light lands on a new prime material plane and due to a weird type of magic the inhabitants have going on, it gets sucked in the land and spread out throughout the plane. Neither the Hunger nor the IPRE can get their hands on it, which means they can't kick off a new cycle. They're just stuck. So eventually they parley with John and make a deal - they will work together to use the transmutation magic of this universe to suck the light back together again and then return to their typical pattern of vying for it and moving between planes. It's better than staying here forever. Cooperating means they can both keep an eye on each other, rather than worrying that one of them is going to make a move behind the other's back. But this plan is going to take a while to carry out, so John does... Something, to keep the humans alive for the long haul and to help them and himself blend in. Look, we were kind of working backward and had to come up with an explanation for why they're all filling the homunculis' positions, and that ended up being 'John uses evil opal ductape to stick ensouled artifacts on people' because again, it was the middle of the night, and we were hysterical.

Things work out for a while. But Lup has always been the super moral one, and she's not thrilled with how things are going. "Look, I love Luce with all my heart," she says, " but I think her problem is that she always thinks her morally dubious plans are to pop off a lot faster than they do. And the longer you wait, the more they get dubious. 'Yknow what I mean?" Taako and Barry are not sure they do, but naturally they follow along when she blows off Central to go start a bar, although they keep sort of in touch with Lucretia and Davenport, who have infiltrated this plane's government. Mrs. Bradley rolled a critical miss on her perception check. Magnus is uncomfortably caught in the middle. Merle has been digging a hole for the last 50 years. "You're a dwarf, right?" John asks. "You dig." "I was a BEACH dwarf," Merle protests. He has been hitting on tree roots to pass the time.

While they're hanging out in their bar, Barry hear about some cool new way to preserve souls without bodies, and Lup is like, "Sure babe I'll go borrow that kid for you and you can check him out". "Sounds GREAT" says Taako, who has gotten kind of bored even if he gets to wear a cute crop top and he has unlimited polymorph spell slots. It's not morally dubious if you're just borrowing him, right? So Barry's going over Al's armor with a magnifying glass and saying "Hey, I'm just curious about how this works, but if you want your real body back, if you can get me a DNA sample, I could probably grow you one a few months" when John finds out two of his sacrifices are being meddled with and sends Davenport to straighten them out. (He is Fuhrer President Captain Davenport now. 'That's a lot of titles,' observes someone. 'No,' Magnus says, completely convinced. 'Captain is his first name.' 'That can't be right, Magnus,' Lucretia says. 'Are you SURE,' Magnus says. Lucretia is silent. She isn't sure. It has been like 60 years. It's too embarrassing to ask now.) I'm not sure how things go down - maybe whenever John did to them has some unfortunate corrupting side effects - but Lup ends up dead, with her soul in her umbrella, which ends up back with John.

Shit happens. God knows I'm not sure what's going on here. Barry ends up getting his ass burned to hell in the lab (he probably just wanted to see what sort of weird science is happening) and here's where we go even more off the rails, because according to Gill (who knows a lot about this fandom having been in it for a decade or something) apparently Lust!Roy was/is a big thing? And the concept of him running around with haunted jeans duct-taped to his ass was Compelling. I must specify here that John did not force him into wearing the jeans on his legs, as one might expect. He duct-taped them to his ass. Possibly over the coat.

Fast forward. Magnus vores Taako and some civilians accidentally. Taako's pissed but also has to fight vague adoption urges when presented with a Small Magic Boy. He's uninterested in the other one until they get spat out and John's like, "We should probably get Lup back", leading to the aforementioned 'taping an umbrella to someone'. Lup's not wild about being a 15 year old dude. She's also not wild about not being able to flirt with her husband, considering he's currently a 30 year old ranking officer and that would be weird. Ling is not wild about the entity possessing him trying to wheedle him into letting her brother transmute his body into something she's more comfortable with. "We could change you BACK later" she says.

This leads us to the great switcheroo. It was probably inspired by some of Gill's Undying Middle School Ships but who am I to deny her some small satisfaction. Anyway, Lup gets wind of some sharp shooter lady upstairs and is like, "Hey, hey, can I have THAT one". Barry thinks this is a great idea. Roy does not think this is a great idea. First of all, he does not want to explain to his subordinates that he’s holding hands with his Lieutenant because they are possessed by married liches. Second, if Riza gets fire powers then he's entirely irrelevant. "I can do necromancy," Barry says helpfully. "Raising the dead is impossible and forbidden by god," he is told. "Not the way I do it," he says. (Besides, once the Hunger shows up, the celestial plane is blocked off. The Truth just has a sign saying god can't hear you in their living room.) This is. Tempting. Everyone shutting up about how tragic Maes Hughes’ death was is but one Raise Person spell away. But Ling's not giving up his free superpowers for *nothing* so they're like... look, we've got a dog here. Throw the dog at Magnus to distract him, then rip his sideburns off. (We decided the sideburns were his soul vessel because that was the worst possible option.) You'll do great. You'll be best friends. ("Do you have to put the sideburns on your FACE" I asked. This led to a period of silent contemplation.) Magnus!Ling feels a terrible compulsion to rip Ed and Lan Fan's automail arms off.

I feel like I missed something, but this is all I remember. Oh, Barry feels bad that they're leaving a trail of infertility in their wake so he gives various people little Necromancy-inspired Make Your Own Baby Kits and is like 'Add a little blood, put it in the oven for 5 minutes, let it rise, it'll be fine.' He's got the theory down for whenever he and Lup decide they can settle down and parent. The Curtises seem appreciative.

Also the nationwide transmutation circle sucks the Light back together and John goes Full Hunger until an angry fifteen year old punches a hole through him. Taako is So Proud.

Merle missed like everything.

#hey gill i wrote it up I'm Ashamed #holy crossover batman #the amestris cycle

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twisted-fate-guide · 3 years

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How to Play Twisted Fate Like an LEC Pro

We’re discussing the recent rise in pro play priority just for Twisted Fate, and how the Season 11 changes have disturbed The Card Master. Twisted Fate has seen a huge rise in popularity in professional play since the start of the newest months. Boasting a 96 percent presence in the pick and even ban phase, with an incredible 90 percent win fee, the Card Master is definitely in a strong position in the current fine. Let's take a look at how our midlaners in the LEC were utilising Twisted Fate as the ace up their sleeve. Abilities Loaded Dice is Twisted Fate’s passive. Anytime Twisted Fate scores a killing blow on an opposing, he gains an additional few gold. This passive seems to be quite simple on the surface, but it’s one of the strongest passive outcomes in the game. Having access to additional gold that no one else can usually get their hands on allows Twisted Fate to gain item pros over his opponent, which in turn can allow him to take across the game before his opponents have a chance to stop the pup. This passive is especially strong in professional play, everywhere we would typically see more strategic play with less arguing and more farming. Twisted Fate’s Q, Wild Cards, tosses out three cards in three separate straight facial lines in front of him. The cards pass through all units hurt, dealing damage to each. This is both a strong wave clarifying tool and poke tool in one. The range of this power is also reasonably high, meaning that Twisted Fate can town and poke from a safe distance when needed.

For his / her W, Twisted Fate activates Pick a Card, cycling as a result of three different cards. Each card has its own unique consequences and damage. The blue card deals a large amount of deterioration and restores mana to Twisted Fate. The inflammed card deals damage in an area of effect around the basic target, slowing all enemies hit. The gold chip deals the least amount of damage of all the cards, but it stuns the target in place. Each of these cards have their advantages and disadvantages and are virtually all useful depending on the situation. Stacked Deck grants Twisted Fate bonus attack speed. After a couple of attacks, Twisted Destiny gains a buff that increases the damage of his particular next basic attack. This works well in tandem with Decide on a Card, because when you're auto-attacking with an empowered card, often the bonus damage from Stacked Deck will apply, bringing in a touch more burst damage. Destiny reveals the position associated with enemies on the map for a few seconds. Twisted Fate may recast it to – after a short channel ~ blink to the targeted location. The blink distance regarding Destiny is massive, giving Twisted Fate the ability to travel the map faster than any other champion in the game. Ones a large portion of his strength comes from. Max Order Undomesticated Cards is the most optimal ability to max out first. It's damage increase aids Twisted Fate in being able to clean minion waves in one combo once it's maxed, and then the additional long range damage potential on such a short cooldown is always a strong tool to have. Pick a Card is prioritised next. This is due to the cooldown being lowered later in the game wheresoever fights are more likely to happen, especially ones that can allow Twisted Fate to make use of Pick a Card multiple times throughout. The additional side effects that each card possesses also increase with skill rank, defining it as quite important to have maxed out during the mid adventure. The additional damage is nothing to scoff at either. At last, Stacked Deck is left to the end. The extra attack speed, while useful, isn’t quite as formidable as the other options once maxed out. The bonus problems from its buff also doesn’t increase by a bunch. The other options within Twisted Fate’s kit simply outbalance the advantages you’d get from maxing Stacked Deck earlier. Take on points in Destiny at levels 6, 11, together with 16 in order to increase the enemy reveal duration and lesser the cooldown.

Runes Each of our pro players who have experienced Twisted Fate Guide on the LEC stage this Spring Months have taken the Unsealed Spellbook rune along, with all however , one player using the Sorcery tree as their secondary. It's actual safe to say that Unsealed Spellbook is the way to go for doing it champion. Unsealed Spellbook allows the user a one-time usage summoner spell. The new summoner spell replaces one of most of their current summoner spells, and will remain available until put to use or replaced. Unsealed Spellbook has some unique rules in this particular a specific summoner spell cannot be chosen again until two other unique spells have been taken. Our pros can occasionally use Unsealed Spellbook to aid them in their current and also upcoming situation. About to fight over the final dragon for that Soul buff? Thanks to Unsealed Spellbook, Twisted Fate normally takes Smite in order to aid his jungler in securing the exact dragon for the team. There are countless situations where a special summoner spell could flip the game on its go, and that's where Unsealed Spellbook shines the brightest. A large number of players follow up with Magical Footwear for a free pair of " booties " or Perfect Timing for a free Stopwatch, Minion Demateralizer to give them increased damage to minion –, aiding these individuals in being able to clear out minion waves faster – and Cosmic Insight for an additional summoner spell and garment haste. As mentioned before, Sorcery is often taken as the legitimate. Most players have gone with Nimbus Cloak for the advantage movement speed it grants, and Transcendence for the flexibility haste it grants. These runes help to shore superb few weak points that Twisted Fate has and solution him in doing what he does best. Item Assemble Rogue’s midlaner Emil "Larssen" Larsson had a great general performance as Twisted Fate against Fnatic during Week 1 of the 2021 Spring Season. We’re going to use his assemble from this game as an example of a standard, strong build. Larssen starts out by purchasing a Corrupting Potion and grabs a good Hextech Alternator as the first component for his Mythic item. After some incredible farming, he gets good enough gold for his Hextech Rocketbelt at the ten day mark. Afterwards, Larssen begins going towards his Swift Firecannon, grabbing Ionian Boots of Lucidity in between. Larssen snowballs his lead from this point, grabbing a Lich Bane and Stopwatch to round out his build well before ending the game. Had the game gone on for more, Larssen would’ve likely picked up a Zhonya’s Hourglass the way it has great synergy with Twisted Fate, allowing them to dive into the backline with Destiny and have a couple of seconds to allow his team to catch up. If he had located a Dark Seal earlier, he might’ve considered snatching a Mejai’s Soulstealer like we’ve seen a handful of several other Twisted Fate players do. It’s also possible the fact that Void Staff, Rabadon’s Deathcap, or Banshee’s Veil was viable options for the final spot in this build. Laning Point Twisted Fate isn’t the strongest laner, and even a lot less so once his opponent reaches level six. You will mainly see Twisted Fate players farming up as well as taking a few extended trades against his opponent. Turned Fate likes to force an even lane, since he improvements a gold advantage thanks to Loaded Dice. Farming " up " and looking for opportunities to help out elsewhere on the map through Destiny is the way to go early on as Twisted Fate. Squad Fights Twisted Fate’s main job in a team beat will generally be using his gold card to pick up opponents out of place, allowing his team the opportunity to leap and pick them off. The incredible distance and also range that Twisted Fate can reach his enemies from thanks to Hextech Rocketbelt and Rapid Firecannon is going to catch many players off guard, and will often end up in an advantageous fight for your team. Twisted Fate can use Destiny to get behind the backline, pincering these folks and forcing them into a bad fight by cutting off their escape route. This is made even stronger at the time Zhonya’s Hourglass is complete, as the opponents will be can’t finish Twisted Fate off before his team will react.

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feywildatheart · 6 years

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Cylla,

I’m not dead, I’ll say that up front, and Elyn and Pika aren’t either, though it was far closer than I’d have liked and probably only down to a bit of luck and a very brave cleric.

We had a very good plan, and it all went terribly wrong right at the start. We wanted to get the lay of the land and see if the dragon had taken any prisoners before we just went stumbling into a strange and dangerous situation, and so we sent Squirt in with Pika while Elyn and I hung back and I watched through Squirt’s eyes, with the intent that they’d sneak in, see what there was to be seen, and maybe try to negotiate with the dragon if he seemed the negotiable sort, or at the very least let Pika punch him while Elyn and I came in behind and unnoticed and took him by surprise.

Of course, they’d scarcely taken two steps into the dragon’s lair when he saw them, and so we didn’t have a chance to see if there were hostages to be worried about, and we didn’t have a chance to position ourselves well, so when Pika broached the idea of negotiating and the dragon took it ill (through no fault of Pika’s, the dragon was just a little shit who felt that he and his fellow dragons should be the ones in charge, of everything everywhere near as I could tell, and really, there’s no negotiating with that) and breathed acid at us, there we were, all stuck in the tunnel’s bottleneck like we’d been very clear to discuss the night before how we shouldn’t do, because we should be smart and learn from the mistakes we made with the demi-lich that nearly killed all of us on Honione.

At least the demi-lich couldn’t fly. Poor Squirt was as valiant as anyone could have asked of him, but what’s a dog to do when his quarry is flying fifty feet overhead? He even tried once to jump and then blink, to get himself high enough to blink up to the dragon’s height and bite him, which was as brave and inspired an idea as I’ve ever seen from anyone, though his timing was off and he ended up falling and ricocheting off the wall of the cave and tumbling in a heap back down onto the floor.

Once we had the time and opportunity to move around, we did a better job of spreading ourselves out, and the dragon never managed to rain acid down on us again, which was a blessing, for I don’t know that I’d be writing to you right now if it had. But even so, Elyn and Pika both went unconscious, and once again I was left alone with my heart pounding, desperately trying to think how to save my friends, with only Squirt there at my side and a massive, furious, spiteful dragon there hovering overhead and filling the cave with the deafening rush of each wing-beat.

We’d decided to have Elyn keep the healing wand, so she could hang back at a distance and use it while I focused on burying as many arrows as I could in that dragon’s hide. It was a fine plan, until Pika was unconscious at the beast’s feet on one side of the cave and Elyn was sprawled and unconscious at the other side of it, and I was between them both and with no wand to help either of them with. That’s when we finally saw a bit of luck, though, and a cleric came scrambling out of— well, it looked like out of nowhere at the time, though we learned afterwards that it was a massive, illusioned pit in which the hostages we’d been looking for had been kept. Apparently they’d heard us fighting, no doubt heard us falling, and banded together to get a cleric up and out, to help keep us on our feet that we might succeed, and defeat the dragon, and free them.

It’s…humbling, and then some, honestly, to be the one looked to for rescue, to be the one given aid and assistance, instead of the one giving it, just trying to help where I can. It’s strange and a little uncomfortable, but I suppose that’s what happens when you go around throwing yourself into fights with giant snakes and spiders and demi-liches and dragons just because people need help and it’s better than turning your back and letting them suffer alone. You either get killed, or you get strong.

I am going to keep trying very hard not to get killed, cylla. So I suppose I’ll just have to get accustomed to being strong.

With the help of Mering, the cleric, keeping Pika and Elyn on their feet, we were able to wear the dragon down, and Elyn struck the killing blow with a deafening spell that sent it crashing down to the floor of the cave. I took the opportunity to harvest a few scales and claws from it, because honestly fuck that dragon, and we were able to get everyone out of the pit — there were a few hundred people down there, which was honestly more than I had braced myself for, but still disheartening, considering the populations of Arkard and Rihash. And then we found its treasure hoard, and we and Mering and the survivors are spend a little while going through and it and taking whatever seemed useful. We found some gems, and some very pretty clothes — there’s an ocean-themed belt that isn’t magical at all, Elyn says, but would go very nicely with my boots from Aluarashi, that I’ve got my eye on if no one else wants it, or if we don’t decide to sell it — and a cursed set of armor, apparently, which I’m glad we learned before anyone decided to put it on. And there were some cards that Elyn says can create illusions, and, to my excitement — and then chagrin, because I got equally excited about the bag we found on the hag, and then it turned out to be horrifying — a lovely stitched bag that immediately made me think of the one we use to pack our things in, whenever we move, and so I quickly sat down and turned the thing inside out, and a veritable avalanche of coins and knick-knacks and weapons and old receipts came tumbling out of it, and I will admit I gave a little squeal of surprise and delight. So now we have a bag of holding, and it’s a good thing, too, because my pack has been getting rather stuffed lately, and ridiculously messy, besides. I haven’t yet had the opportunity to sort things out and load it up, but as soon as we have a spare minute back in the city, I intend to do so.

We were able to make our way back to retrieve the survivors from Rihash and Arkard, and with a brief sojourn into the city to help one of the injured suvivors from the dragon’s pit retrieve something from her ruined home, we all made it out of the tunnels and up into the sun and the sand without incident, at which point Pika realized that we are likely to attract a great deal of attention for this work, and that’s going to make running under the radar difficult, and so we said our good-byes and Pika gave out aliases (I am now Sandhill, apparently. I’m not sure how to feel about that), and we set out in the skimmer back to the city on our own, which is where I am writing you from now.

There’s more to say, and no doubt even more so once we get back and speak with Tace, but for now I’m getting a little motion sick, trying to write this all out on a moving skimmer, and Elyn looks like she could probably use a break from the controls. And I’m sure there’s been quite enough time between my last message sending and me composing this one for you and darna to work yourselves up into a state of worry, so I’ll end this hear, and send you, so you can both stop worrying about me. Or at least, I suppose, worry a little less.

I love you, and darna. Give each other hugs and kisses for me.

Love,

Maliah

#in character

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gm-juce · 5 years

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Reviewing Ancestral Weapons A DMs Guild Product For Dungeons and Dragons 5e

I have had this PDF on my computer for a little bit now. Been meaning to dig into it and see if it is as good as I anticipated. Now someone was very critical of the product shortly after I got this. It sort of made me worried to download and review it but after doing so I wish I had never seen that persons thoughts. This product has some fun things in it. While I do have some criticisms I think the good outweighs the negative. In this I will review each section in order and then give my final thoughts at the end.

For the FREE Ancestral Weapon I created using this PDF CLICK HERE.

The intro, overview and spirit points summary:

The intro managed to get me even more excited for this product. I was already thinking of ideas on what an ancestral weapon could function like in a game of Dungeons and Dragons. The overview mentions there are over 130 different upgrades and that weapons will level up and stay relevant. It is said that using this your players won’t want to pick up other magic weapons to replace their Ancestral Weapons but this might not be true. We will explore this a little more later on. The spirit points breakdown sounds good up front and in theory. I have some ideas on how it can be improved upon in comparison of Ancestral Weapons to Magic Item Creation inside this product.

Chapter 1 Ancestral Weapons:

Some things came up right away that were interesting to me. The weapons will only work in a family blood line. It said the weapons are magical but nobody else will gain the benefits from the magic. It will act as a mundane item in the hands of anyone else. What if the players fight someone who has an ancestral weapon though? If they cast detect magic after the fight will it be magical? If they can’t use the magic within I could see this driving some of my players crazy as they try to harness the magic of the weapon. Speaking of which I now have an amazing idea to really grind my players gears in the future.

It mentions the intended use of spirit points. On average a player should get 1 spirit point per level but they should be awarded by the dungeon master after accomplishing things like defeating a big bad guy while rescuing a town.

Full power is achieved when the weapon gets a certain amount of spirit points and then it is awarded bonus spirit points. These spirit points can be used to purchase new upgrades. You can choose to overwrite an upgrade with the next level up of that upgrade or go with a completely new one. With the dungeon masters approval you can refocus your upgrades but this sounds really rare. It is encouraged to be done through a quest or by performing a roleplaying moment with your ancestors. This idea sounded pretty cool to me actually. I could see a lot of cool roleplaying moments with these types of weapons. I think this is my favorite part about this whole product is all of the ideas that came up for me when I was reading it.

When the weapon earns spirit points it glows and lets the wielder know. I personally think it would be cool to have it happen in their dreams. The weapon could summon the ancesters to the player characters dream and tell them that it is becoming one with the character. I also could see myself holding off and awarded 5 at a time when they reach each tier. Due to having some different ideas I almost wish that they gave us a few different options for how the player could learn of the weapon earning its spirit weapons.

Chapter 2 Upgrades:

This chapter I have a few criticisms of. I thought this chapter actually should have been later. I would have liked to see other chapters before this one. I also didn’t like the organization of this one. It is organized by tiers and then alphabetical order. There are 4 tiers where tier 1 is all common and uncommon upgrades, tier 2 is rare, tier 3 is very rare, and tier 4 is legendary. This is in relation to Dungeons and Dragons magic items. Now some upgrades have a level associated with them. An upgrade like Spell Storing says Level 1 next to it in tier 1. It also have the level 2 version in tier 1. In tier 2 the 3rd level version is in it. These are the upgrades that you can overwrite.

I would have organized this chapter only in alphabetical order personally and then had the level 1, 2, and 3 underneath the upgrades title in the pre-requisite area. The summary of the tiers and upgrades associated was all that I felt was necessary. Doing this and inserting in the pre-requisites section of the abilities what tier they are would have saved a lot of space and made the book read better. I also felt some things were pretty weak compared to others. It seems like the spirit point cost does a decent job of reflecting the balance difference though. I would need to playtest it a bit to see how far off the balance is.

Some upgrades weren’t too clear to me. or example proficient states as level 1 you gain a proficiency skill of your choice. level 2 says you gain 2 proficiency skills of your choice. This goes up each time. Am I to assume I have 3 total if I am level 2 proficient or just a total of 2? To me it wasn’t the most clear. If you level it up to 4 you either have 4 total or 10 total skill proficiencies just from this alone. I am assuming it means you will have 4 though.

To end this chapter on a positive note I do want to say the art is pretty cool throughout. It tells you the name of the weapon and the upgrades associated with them. I really liked that. In fact the art throughout this whole PDF is pretty good.

Chapter 3 Ancestral Traits & Personality

This section provides good roleplay inspiration. A lot of the personality of the weapon comes out here. As I like to refer to it these are where all of the cool things come from. The stuff that really makes your weapon anything but a mechanic like a +1 sword. There are some mechanics in here but to me the best part is all of the character it brings to the weapon. I really like some of the descriptors here about the personalities.

The traits table has a d20 worth of options. These traits are mostly positive things. One for instance called Learn From Failure will allow you to always have advantage on any attack rolls that follow a critical fail. I did question the limits of Bolstering Growth though. Some of these traits say they can be done once per short rest, and others say per long rest, and some don’t have limits at all. Bolstering Growth allows you to grow 1 foot in height for an hour and you have advantage on intimidation checks. They don’t say how often you can use this though. I feel like it is probably 1 time per long rest but it doesn’t say.

The Ancestral Personalities only lists a d10 worth and I really think they miss the mark here. I would like to see at least a d20 worth of them. I also could see myself strapping more than 1 on a weapon too. This could cause some inner conflict among the weapons personalities too. These personalities are the source of some negative things applied to the weapons too. For example Greedy “The weapon will fill you with a lusting desire when an opportunity to increase your wealth presents itself.” These add to the fun of the weapons for sure but are also why these weapons are not as good as the Non-Ancestral Weapons.

Chapter 4 Creating Non-Ancestral Weapons

This section is pretty good. It even associates the cost of buying these types of magical weapons. I do think these are always going to be better than Ancestral Weapons because they don’t have any of the downsides that some of the personalities strapped to the Ancestral Weapons do. They use Spirit Points to purchase upgrades in the exact same way an Ancestral Weapon does. I think if they had a maximum amount that is the full power of the Ancestral Weapons without the bonus Spirit Points it would not over shadow the Ancestral Weapons like I feel it does now. The other option is to give the Ancestral Weapons a slight boost.

The examples of crafted items are pretty cool in this section. I really like them and could see myself using them as loot in a future game possibly.

Chapter 5 Weapon History:

This chapter presents more great roleplaying opportunities. You can really get into the lore here. It has a table with number of generations who have held this weapon. Based on the number of generations you can also generate the number of feats of legend associated with the weapon too. On the types of feats per legend table there are things like it was used to destroy a lich or slay a ruler. Some good things on this short d20 table. You can also go into the physical properties such as who crafted it an elf? A dwarf? What type of wood and what type of metal were used? What is the identifying feature of it?

I could see myself using this section even for non-magical weapons in the future. This section has good tables even if they are really small.

Chapter 6 Example Ancestral Weapons

The examples here are pretty good and I like the stories associated with them. At first glance I thought there were some big gaps in balance between them. Then as I looked again it was actually fairly balanced from a glance. This section inspired me to make my own Ancestral Weapon. DOWNLOAD MY ANCESTRAL WEAPON HERE

Appendix A Crafting Table

There is a table that associates spirit points with cost, time, rarity, upgrades available, and if attunement is needed or not. This is helpful if people have dungeon masters open to letting a player craft magical weapons and items. I personally am open to this if my players want to get into this. Now I will require some quests for materials and things like that though.

Overall Opinions

They went with the D&D5e style of book layout and I think it helps the product. It looks really good. I enjoyed the art in the whole PDF. Besides maybe moving a couple things around and a couple small corrections for spelling or adding a limitation here and there I think this is a fantastic product. I will certainly use it in my games. At 27 pages I think they could have made it a little bit longer and added things other than weapons. If they added a section about armor and another section about other wearable items like rings, and cloaks this could have been around 35-40 pages. At just $4.95 it is a great buy. One thing I think most people worry about is if these types of products are too powerful and I would not say this creates any problems in that regard. Lastly I really wish there was an option to purchase a physical copy of this product.

If you feel inspired just reading some of these things above then you should not hesitate and pick the product up. You can pick it up on the DMs Guild by CLICKING HERE. It is extremely easy to implement into your own games and I think can add to the fun of you and your group enormously.

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#DMs Guild Ancestral Weapons Review #Ancestral Weapons Review #DND5e Ancestral Weapons Review #Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Party Product Review

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surveys-at-your-service · 7 years

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Survey #97

gaming survey.

let's start with the classic: what's your favorite game? why? "silent hill 2." it is so fucking well-thought out and went places no one ever thought a game would go. it was psychological as fuck and absolutely terrifying in that sense. it had such an intricate storyline and was positively heart-wrenching. the characters were very unique, and oh boy, don't even think of forgetting the soundtrack. it was so, so immersive. the monsters were incredibly symbolic, and it really, really got you to question your own conscience. i could literally go on about how wonderful this game is for hours on end. least favorite game? probably "eleusis," whose name i don't care if i spelled wrong. i know it's an indie game, but holy fuck, it's horrible. the puzzles make legitimately no sense and literally requires a walkthrough. what's your favorite gaming genre? psychological horror, easily. least favorite gaming genre? probably first-person shooters. what's your favorite childhood game? "spyro the dragon: year of the dragon." i loved the entire series, but that was my favorite. when did you start gaming, anyway? literally as soon as i could hold a controller and had the coordination to understand the buttons. scariest game ever? "scp containment breach." i couldn't play it because the first scp scared me so much lol. however, i've watched my favorite youtuber play it many times. despite it being in the indie scene, it's an incredible game and should really, really cost money. hmmmm... actually, "parasite eve" may overthrow it. not in terms of jumpscares, but in terms of, "what if that really happened?" scientifically, maybe it's possible. it explains why so very well. it's the only game that ever resulted in me having to take an anxiety pill. oh yeah, fun fact, we actually had a demo of the game on a demo disc, and mom hated the preview of it so much that she refused to let my sisters and i play it lol. favorite comedic game? oh that's easy, "five nights at fuckboy's 3." it is sooo fucking funny. i love all of them, but the third's the funniest. favorite action game? "resident evil 4." it was one of my first action horror experiences. saddest game in the history of ever? "silent hill 2," again. i fucking cried so hard and my week was ruined lol. that game legitimately changed me and made me ponder my decisions much more. favorite game based off a tv show or movie? probably the first season of "the walking dead." the characters were very unique (kenny is the Love of my Life), and the plot was phenomenal. i wasn't much of a fan of the gameplay (or lack thereof), but i was there for the story. the ending had me sobbing. i've never actually watched the tv show, but man i love that game. season three hasn't been that good imo, but i enjoyed the second one, too. game with the most interesting concept? the entire "silent hill," obviously. the idea that our biggest regrets and demons exist in multiple layers of reality is cool as fuck. "soma" is a close second. the philosophical debate of "if you move a human's conscience to a machine, is it still human?" is incredible. game with the most fucked-up storyline? "silent hill 2" or "silent hill 3." sh2 was more psychological in how screwed-up it was, but sh3 was very brazen abut it. it also has the only scene ever in a video game that made me gag. like i had to walk away from the controller because i literally almost puked. favorite gaming otp? that's p hard. actually, wait, i like tyrande and illidan from "world of warcraft" a lot. their story was sad as fuck. jaina and arthas from the same game, too. favorite video game protagonist? i have two: heather mason from sh2 and leon kennedy from the "resident evil" series. both are just total badases. heather mason reminds me a lot of myself, and leon is just super fucking cool and gives zero shits. favorite video game antagonist? does pyramid head from the sh series count? i mean in ways he's not really an antagonist, so. if he's not included, maybe claudia wolf from "silent hill 3" (LOOK I KNOW I'M TALKING ABOUT IT A LOT BUT THE SERIES IS MY BABY OKAY). she is a prime example of how religion can absolutely destroy a person, and i think it's really cool that she truly thinks she's doing what's good for the world. i also really like walter sullivan from "silent hill 4" because he is just sooo incredibly fucked up with a really tragic story. arthas menethil from "world of warcraft: wrath of the lich king" is also amazing and i pitied him so much. favorite video game monster? pyramid head, bar none. he is so mysterious and terrifying in his concept. sequel that disappointed you most? hmmm. i'm not sure. i mean, if i absolutely had to pick, maybe "silent hill: origins?" i mean don't get me wrong, i enjoyed the game, but it's my least favorite in the series. most under-rated game? "AMNESIA: A MACHINE FOR PIGS." oh my GOD. i do NOT understand why people thought it was disappointing to the title. that is one of the most fucked-up, greatest games i've ever played (it's my second favorite game) i've ever had the pleasure of playing. it is way, way better than the first game. it's another game that had me depressed for days and questioning my life. most over-rated game? probably "call of duty" and the like. i just don't see the appeal. favorite quote from a game? "i have stood knee-deep in mud and bone and filled my lungs with mustard gas. i have seen two brothers fall. i have lain with holy wars and copulated with the autumnal fallout. i have dug trenches for the refugees; i have murdered dissidents where the ground never thaws and starved the masses into faith. a child's shadow burnt into the brickwork. a house of skulls in the jungle. the innocent, the innocent, mandus, trod and bled and gassed and starved and beaten and murdered and enslaved. this is your coming century! they will eat them, mandus, they will make pigs of you all and they will bury their snouts into your ribs and they will eat your hearts!" - "amnesia: a machine for pigs." i get literally covered in goosebumps every single time i hear it. it's about how absolutely horrid the world is today from the perspective of the past. i also really enjoy "the only me is me... are you sure the only you is you?" from "silent hill: p.t." game you want made into a movie? "SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS" OH MY GOD. CAN YOU FUCKING IMAGINE. game you currently most want to play? "the last guardian." the story and trico are so fucking cute. what do you think of revamping classic games to "improve" them? eh, i've never been too into it. don't get me wrong, it works sometimes, but imo, it takes away the charm of the game sometimes. ex., with "crash bandicoot" being remade. i loved that game as a kid, but i think its graphics just added to the charm. favorite movie based off a game? the first "silent hill." did you ever get those old demo discs as a kid? did they ever influence you to buy a game? yes. i think we had three. i was first exposed to "shadow of the colossus" by a demo disc. i was totally into it and only played it a thousand times before buying it. were you ever or are you into the "final fantasy" craze? not really. i used to play "final fantasy viii" on a demo disc; my sisters, brother, and i loved it. my bro was the only one who could beat the final boss (the spider thing) of the demo; he and ashley used to play it a lot. i really liked it, and when i was young, wanted to buy it. we all used to think squall was sexy as fuck lol. the summons were super-duper cool too, especially rinoa's (i used to make her do her water dragon limit break constantly ha ha). i did, however, have "final fantasty vii," and i got all the way to the second disc, but i eventually just fell out of playing it. i think it was too long for me personally, although i really did enjoy the story. i'm sure you've heard of the "five nights at freddy's" one, too. were you into it? i've never played it myself and i personally wouldn't, but i've watched youtubers play it and i enjoy it. the story and characters are cool (especially springtrap), and the story is quite frightening. hardest game you've ever beaten? i am not even remotely kidding, "the legend of spyro: the eternal night." it took me over a fucking year to beat that game and i rage-quit a lot. hardest boss monster? jesus fucking christ. there are three that top the list. the ultimate being from "parasite eve" is probably number one, though. he was hard as FUCK and took me like a whole goddamn day to beat. his multiple phases were annoying, and the fact he could trap you at the VERY END if you picked the wrong door was a cardinal fucking sin. basaran from "shadow of the colossus" was also horrific. even malus wasn't that bad. getting onto his back was a goddamn nightmare, especially when he got back up and if you misjudged your jump, you'd go flying. ripto of "spyro the dragon: ripto's rage!" was also a childhood nightmare. his phases were also annoying and he was just overall difficult. i felt like a fucking god when i finally did beat him lol. memory of alessa of sh3 was also hard for me, although she herself isn't that much of a difficult boss. it was just that i had no ammo so had to melee her the whole time. i got so fucking angry. how did you feel about "silent hill: p.t." being cancelled? it was probably one of the most anticipated games of 2014. want my honest opinion? i'm glad it was cancelled. that series is my fucking child and i would be legitimately furious if they fucked it up. i had many issues with it. one, the fact that norman reedus was made a model of the main character. it just pissed me off that they designed him to look pretty much exactly like daryl dixon. i don't want people to think "oh hey a guy from twd went to silent hill." i also had a problem with them changing the name to "silent hills;" i really don't know why since it's such a minor thing, but it irked me regardless. it also really, really bugged me that kojima openly said he's a bit of a wuss with horror games. dude, you can't be like that when you're working with what is well-known to be one of the scariest series of all time. i had full faith that del toro would be great for the series, but not kojima. it also pissed me off that it was said that aliens might be involved in the game. just... no. that's not what silent hill is. i get that it's a joke in the series, but to make it canon? if they actually went through with that and made it so extraterrestrials were involved, i literally would've broken something. ultimately, i'm glad it didn't work. favorite running joke or something of the like in a series? the "i'm totally gonna stick my hand in this filthy toilet for a wallet" joke that the "silent hill" series has, rooting from when james sunderland did so in sh2. i love the references. favorite side-kick? uhhh. cynder from "the legend of spyro: dawn of the dragon." she not only looks super fucking cool, but she has an interesting story and is just overall really rad. saddest video game death? well that's hard. prepare for spoilers. the one that hit me the hardest personally was probably vol'jin from wow. he was my favorite character out of like the billion wow has, so him dying sucked. not to even mention his death was super anti-climactic to where it pissed off the whole damn fanbase, despite being one of the most important characters. lee from twd was also absolutely horrible. ha, what a coincidence... they have the same voice actor. #stopkillingdavidfennoy favorite plot twist? spoiler warning once again. my favorite and to me the most shocking was the fact james was responsible for mary's death in "silent hill 2." it rocked my fucking world. best soundtrack? "shadow of the colossus." ko otani is a musical genius. sh2 is a very close second. what's the first gaming console you ever had? the original playstation. favorite setting in a game? that's super hard considering so many games are absolutely gorgeous. but i suppose lakeside amusement park from "silent hill 3." i love the blood & rust, macabre feel to it.

#survey #quiz #questions #asks #answered #gaming #video games

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tophertv · 6 years

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I’ve tagged it, but fair warning - this post is about death in dungeons and dragons.

Fantasy is primarily used for either escapism or a way to study human nature, and I like to use it for the former.

when I run dnd campaigns (pathfinder specifically) I like to let my players basically do.... whatever they want. I know they’re not going to ask me to narrate anything inhumane or terrible, and we all play the game to have a fun time anyway, so it usually works out fine. you wanna ride around on a giant wolf? you got it. Your character has a strange relationship with interdimensional space time? lets make a thing out of it. You wanna invent a new cooking recipe every night? let’s get ignis on the phone.

these things are structured, of course: players more often than not can acquire what they want through feats or level ups or rolling, so we use the built in system to explore the effects and give the players a sense of progression.

but the system has its.... flaws. sometimes these are flaws in design, like a game breaking combo (I’m looking at you, rage cycling) and sometimes these are flaws in theme, like with death.

death in dnd is not permanent - it’s just a temporary setback. and that seems a little incongruous to me. Like, in video games, a death is a loss of time - specifically, how much time you put into getting where you are from where you respawn. but dnd has two competing models for death, not just the one.

1) death is a setback where you have to stop playing until your allies fix you,

2) death is an opportunity to create a new character, and let your old one fade out.

and the designers have limited your ability to overcome death by making death cost something: usually either a material cost like in game loot (diamonds) or a statistical cost like a negative level. and players have to make it a certain distance into the game before they can acquire a resurrection. casting the spell requires the party to have either a higher level, or to find someone of a higher level to cast it, and earning their favor.

now these are fantastic limitations, and I am quite fond of them both, but as the game of dnd progresses further and further, the stakes are supposed to get higher. you’re no longer killing rats in the tavern’s basement for a place to stay the night. You’re now fighting the Lich King Big Bad Evil Guy to save the land from his tyrranical rule.

and this matters! if the players have no investment in the story, then it isn’t so much an epic tale of their power fantasies as it is a new episode of “how I met your mother (which is a good theme, just not the theme I’m going for). If I wanted to play HIMYM, we’d be playing munchkin, not pathfinder. I’m putting more work into this, and I want it to be serious.

but what’s interesting is that as the stakes get higher and higher for players facing more and more powerful foes, recovering from mistakes becomes easier and easier. the players get more HP making it harder to kill them, they get higher stats for better rolls and more chances at success, and they get access to more death defying spells like resurrection!

now, I want my players to feel more powerful the longer they play, but I want them to feel like what they’re doing matters and they have a substantial chance at failure. And I worried that resurrection level spells would dampen that severity, and wondered what whether I should step up the cost of death.

Critical Role DM Matthew Mercer has a similar concern, and he did just that: he changed the rules about death. casting resurrection in his campaign requires the material components to begin a ritual of sorts. but then the player who has died must roll to see if they can come back; and they might fail! the ritual becomes harder and harder each time the character dies, and players may make offerings to the ritual (ranging from a magical trinket to a pledge of love or service) to give the dead character a better chance to come back.

But I wasn’t sure that I wanted death to be that difficult, just more serious. And I was still grappling with this issue last night when we had a total party kill. Well, we didn’t really ave a TPK, but we got close.

the players in my “Rise of the Runelords” pathfinder campaign were tasked with finding the bones of a dead dwarf and returning them to the spirit of his deceased brother, as part of a deal where the ghosts would then lead them to the lair of the BBEG. So they ventured out into a snowstorm to scour the cliffs looking for a corpse, hoping to defeat it’s ghost and return its body.

players who are hoping to play “Rise of The Runelords” at some point should probably skip the next 3 paragraphs to avoid major spoilers.

the complication arose from the death of the dwarf from the hands of a wendigo (not a proper cultural wendigo, mind you, but a deer headed hunger spirit written for gaming purposes. I know the significance of the Wendigo to culture is still hotly debated and misunderstood, but I didn’t write this character into the story to appropriate culture, the adventure path authors wrote it in to make my players face starving in a snowstorm.)

the dwarf’s restless spirit manifested as a powerful ghost with the ability to dominate monsters of the cold subtype, which basically turned this level 15 encounter into a battle on a cliffside against a powerful cannibal ghost and an advanced frost worm. And his is when it gets interesting, because ghosts only take half damage from non-magical attacks, and frost worms.... explode, when they die. in fact, the errata for how this ghost behaves in combat literally included the statement “if the frost wom is getting close to death, the ghost kills it himself with a melee attack to trigger its death throes ability, knowing that he will only take half damage from the piercing effect of the attack, and none of the cold damage.”

Now, we’re a good portion of the way into this fight, and the worm is down to about 25 hp left of 200, and the ghost is down to 15 of 161, when the party gunslinger gets a critical hit on the worm and deals 45 damage to it, killing it almost instantly. I take a look at the death throes ability on the frost worm’s stat block to see what happens, and I am met with 12D6 cold damage and 8D6 piercing damage in a shockwave that hits everything in 100ft. for those of you not familiar with D&D terminology, that means I need to roll 20 dice that have 6 sides (your standard cubic dice) and add up the numbers: 12 of those will be of type cold damage (meaning iceblooded magical creatures might ignore some or all of it) and the other 8 dice will be stabbing damage from the shrapnel of the exploding worm. fortunately, the ghost (who only takes half of the 8d6 piercing damage) takes 15 damage and dies. but that’s not where it ends.

To those of you who skipped the spoilers, welcome back. After rolling out all the dice, we find that the party’s main healer (a witch), the healer’s familiar (a goat), and the ranger’s animal companion (a mountable wolf) are completely dead. the party’s tank, a dragon disciple, is at exactly 0 hp, and will start bleeding to death next turn, and the remaining party members are heavily injured. The rogue is down to 14 hp, the ranger is down to 9, and the gunslinger is the only one who succeeds on the reflex save to avoid the blast, and is left with 45 hp out of her starting 80.

this party isn’t even injured anymore - they’re just mostly dead. but the fight is over for the next 3 rounds, and the players have a moment to recuperate. of course, in a moment or so, the players will face the boss of this area (spoiler: It’s the wendigo who created the ghost that they just beat (also, just to reiterate, cultural appropriation is bad)). it’s about this time that 4 things dawn on me.

1) I’m a murderer

2) this is the perfect opportunity to explore death in pathfinder

3) if I drop the boss on them now, they won’t survive

4) oh my god I’m a murderer

now, the gunslinger multiclassed bard early on to get some healing spells and support abilities, and she casts her cure wounds spell on the party member that’s at 0. The dragon disciple wakes up a moment later, and realizes that the party is mostly dead or injured and trapped on a cliffside in a snowstorm. she uses her daily extraplanar portal ability to pull the party members out of danger, and send them all to their cleric, who is able to cast resurrection.

this cleric is a good friend of the party and owes them some favors, so he casts the spell for no charge. the players are fairly rich in gemstones, so trading out for diamonds is no issue. mechanically speaking, the players will get out of this situation and recover as if nothing was wrong, and I know this.

So I decide to do something a little... mean. I begin to narrate their deaths.

I describe to the ranger that his wolf is unmoving. I tell him how he runs is fingers through her fur and calls her name, but she does not answer.

I describe to the party how their witch friend is still. how her body is contorted from the blast, twisted into an uncomfortable position, and making no effort to right herself. I describe how the goat’s eyes hang open, unblinking, unseeing, staring without focus.

I describe to the witch what she sees when she reaches her afterlife. how she meets her patron, how her patron thanks her for the work she did, how her patron regrets that the journey ended so soon when there was so much left to do, how she welcomes her into an afterlife without her familiar and companion the goat.

and then I describe to the players how they find the cleric - playing with a small child in a moment of peace and education, to juxtapose the moment where the dead and dying meet the young and living. I tell a few jokes to make the players laugh, and then dive right back into the death, the stillness, the wrongness.

and then I describe the casting of the spell and the resurrection and the healing that he cleric provides, and I bring the party back to normal - fully healed, all their HP restored, all their wounds gone.

and in the end, the players recover from their encounter as if nothing was wrong. they managed to beat the monsters they were fighting and will get to fight more monsters in the future. but for a few brief moments, I drove home to the players how very close they had come to failure. how very sudden and silent and still death might be.

and I learned in that moment that death CAN be final, even in pathfinder/ Dungeons and Dragons. that if everyone in the party dies, the party dies. that there i no coming back from a TPK.

the campaign has been really easy up to this point, with a few hard moments in the middle. so this was the first time that the players really had to face the possibility of a hard loss. and I think I managed to create that moment with narration; a tension and a consequence and a feeling of importance - this matters. I don’t think I’ll have to do it again, either. not in this campaign. the players will forever know that even though they have safety nets, even though they have great power, there will always be a chance that they can fail. And that will lend meaning to the struggle towards the end, I hope.

But part of me worries that I’ve overdone it. Part of me worries that by trying to create a setting where story matters, I have sacrificed the escapism that the game lends. We’re close to the end of the campaign, and I look forward to running a new game in a new setting with these players, so I don’t want to drive them away. I hope it all works out.

anyway, death is an important part of dnd, and I wanted to write about it.

#death #dnd #pathfinder #happy ending

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roland-terrasold-blog · 7 years

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Journal 56

We saved Sandpoint. Again. We’re well on our way to clearing Elkin’s name, too. I should feel like celebrating. I don’t. I really don’t. Things have taken a turn for the better, mostly. But I managed to really screw up in the meantime. I hurt Elkin. Badly. After the situation with his room I would have thought I’d learned my lesson about letting Unae’s panic rub off on me, but it would appear that I can’t go a day without hurting Elkin worse while trying to help him. I loathe this situation. It feels like every choice I’ve made recently has been the complete wrong decision.

I guess I should start from the beginning. After I finished writing the previous entry, I left the demiplane to see if I could find Amara. I assumed she would likely scry on me sometime early in the day since she made a point of contacting my friends, so I didn’t doubt if I went looking I’d find her fairly quickly.

Along the way I noted that the murals and statues of our group had been heavily vandalized, especially the depictions of Elkin. At the time, I considered it the first sign of the damage I’d caused by turning my back on Zalbrag.

While I examined one of the vandalized sites, Amara snuck up behind me. She’d probably intended to try to spook me, but honestly I’m so used to her eccentricities I expected something like that. What did take me by surprise was “Stumpy”. That is to say, the lich Linda mentioned. Apparently my old friend had the bright idea to track down an ancient and powerful lich and jam its phylactery into her left hand. With the right kind of magic tinkering she was able to basically bend the lich to her will. I’m none-too-comfortable with the implications of this. It’s basically enslaving another creature, albeit an evil creature that would have done a great deal of harm if left to its own devices. Knowing Amara, this was less for the noble ‘protect people from an evil lich’ aspect and more for the ‘no one’s ever tried this magic before so it’s time to experiment’ aspect. I never know whether to have respect for Amara’s scholarly ambition and boundless curiosity, or fear for what horrors she’ll almost certainly unleash someday testing experimental and morally grey magic.

I haven’t mentioned Amara in my journals before (my apologies when you read this, Amara, my magic studies just aren’t something that’ve come up). She’s a brilliant, if not eccentric, wizard whose brother Alaric is a cleric of Desna. When I first began following Sarenrae’s path, I came upon Amara being attacked by wolves and saved her, then healed her wounds by accident, as I had no idea how magic worked back then. Amara, for her part, had been running late that day and had neglected to prepare magic to defend herself, thinking the roads she’d travelled a dozen times before without incident were perfectly safe. Knowing her it’s entirely possible she stayed up until sunrise experimenting and decided to sleep in rather than prepare her magic. It wouldn’t be the first time. I suspect there wouldn’t have been much left of those wolves by the time I showed up if she had been better prepared.

Regardless, after I healed her, Amara took note that I seemed inexperienced, and offered to teach me what theoretical knowledge she had on divine magic, and what light Alaric could shine on the subject. I tried to turn her down, but she wouldn’t drop the subject. One thing lead to another, and I ended up spending nearly half a year studying both divine and arcane magic with her help. I have Amara to thank for almost every bit of magical knowledge I’ve used on this journey. I knew next to nothing about magic, whether divine or otherwise, before I met her. Even simple healing or channeling positive energy would have been beyond me if it weren’t for her. I don’t know if Amara would agree, but I feel that Sarenrae guided me to her that day.

Eventually she had to get back to her research, and I wanted to get back to traveling and following the Dawnflower’s path, so we parted ways. We’ve exchanged letters a handful of times since then, and apparently she’s been scrying in on occasion.

Anyways, Amara and I caught up a bit. She told me a little about her ventures that lead to her binding a lich to herself (that sentence will never quit being disturbing). She also mentioned that she’s working with the Pathfinders Association now, and that she was going to be joining their expedition into Hell. I was surprised to hear this, generally in the past Amara had always been a bit apathetic towards actually using her skills and knowledge for another other than hording more skills and knowledge. She made it sound like I’d inspired her to do some good with her abilities. Even though that good seems to have included binding a lich to herself (I’m not letting that go), I’m glad to hear she’s putting her skills to good use. Maybe next time we meet she’ll be the one with heroic stories to tell (and unlike me I’m sure she’ll love the spotlight).

Before I parted ways with her, I shared the formulas I’ve been sketching out in the margins of these journal entries and the location of Runeforge. I hope she’ll put my divine-arcane formulas to good use. I can only really decipher them when I’m using my Suzaku holy symbol. I think if anyone can actually crack how to mesh divine and arcane magic without the Suzaku, it’ll be Amara. As for Runeforge, that was on her insistence. I warned her of how potentially dangerous Runeforge is, that time moves differently and that there’s no guaranteed exit, but she was insistent that I give her the location for her studies when she’s back from her current expedition. I’m sure she understands what she’s getting herself into, and surely Runeforge isn’t worse than literally traveling to Hell…yet I can never help but worry.

We parted ways once again, and I returned to the ship. On the way in I spotted Ichibod leaving. I was too distracted thinking about having seen Amara again to ask him where he was going, or to consider it was a bit strange that he might wander the streets by himself. I wish I’d taken a moment to think. A lot of trouble could have been avoided if I’d stopped Ichibod right there. My second mistake of the day.

I took some time to meditate and then to train some. Eventually Unae burst into the basement of the demiplane in a panic. I don’t remember her exact words, this next part was all kind of a blur. But it boiled down to this: the sheriff wanted Elkin brought in because people were accusing him of the vandalism in town, Unae had gone to the temple of Desna to get a gift for Elkin and arrived just in time to see Ichibod get arrested for something he did, Zalbrag cornered Unae and demanded that Elkin be turned over to him, and afterwards Unae ran into Linda and Linda formed a plan she wouldn’t share involving everyone in the group dressing nicely. I tried to calm her down and talk to her about what to do, but in the end it seemed I didn’t have a firm grasp of the situation. My third mistake, because afterwards Unae asked me to talk to Elkin about it and explain the situation. With my poor understanding of what was going on, I apparently did a piss poor job of explaining the situation to him, as I later discovered. He came out of what I said thinking the main issue was Ichibod being imprisoned, while the real main issue was that two people wanted to jail Elkin as well.

Linda eventually returned and had us all dress up (except Elkin who blatantly refused). She told us that she planned to use her political standing as the new queen of Blackwell to try to keep Elkin from being jailed, as he’s technically a member of her military. I pointed out that few people knew that Blackwell even exists, but I had to admit it was a better plan than anything the rest of us had thought of. So we did as Lady Linda commanded and dressed like proper members of her court. Linda and Unae were quite stunning dressed up. They looked like true nobility. If I didn’t know better, I would never guess that the two of them were warriors who could fell creatures ten times their size. Nel and I dressed in our finest clothes as well. I don’t think I’ve ever dressed in such fine clothes. I’ve never had the money or the appropriate situation before. It’s a shame we were dressing up to fight for Elkin and Ichibod’s freedom rather than for a party of something a bit more pleasant. Maybe when they hold the parade I’ll wear them again.

Befitting of the less than pleasant situation, we had to consider that there might be a fight. Although Linda insisted we go unarmed, Nel refused to relinquish his ranseur, which he disguised as a walking staff, and Unae hid her daggers on her person. For my part, I left my blade behind but I had my holy symbol act as a pin, so that I could easily cast spells if necessary.

We finally headed out, and to my surprise we went to the church rather than to meet with Hemlock. Zalbrag cornered us here, along with a number of guards and a tied up Ichibod. He told us to hand over Elkin. Elkin bristled at this. He was under the impression that this was entirely about Ichibod. I could have sworn I told him about the vandalism, and that Zalbrag and Hemlock were looking for him, but it seemed I didn’t make myself clear in our rush. Elkin felt that we’d betrayed him, that we were going to hand him over to Zalbrag because he was inconvenient to us now.

Linda stepped in and put a stop to that, claiming sovereignty as queen of Blackwell and arguing that as a member of her army Elkin couldn’t be detained by Sandpoint or the church, especially without definitive proof that Elkin had committed the crime he was being accused of. Unae and I brought up the point that the physical evidence near the vandalism sites didn’t match Elkin’s abilities. From what Hemlock had told Unae, there were large footprints near each site, but they always vanished not far from the crime scene. Elkin doesn’t have any magic of his own, nor does he own any magical items that allow teleportation. His footprints wouldn’t have simply vanished into thin air. Zalbrag brought out that leather bound book again and claimed that if Elkin was the demon lord depicted, teleportation was an ability easily within his grasp.

I questioned why, if he truly was this terrible evil demon lord like the Cardinal claimed, Sarenrae time and again allowed me to use her power to protect and heal him. Zalbrag told me that this was a test, and I was failing. Considering what happened later…well, just remember that part for later.

Linda returned to her original plan, arguing that regardless of what the Cardinal thought Elkin may or may not be, he was still under the protection of Blackwell and had diplomatic rights. Zalbrag didn’t even hesitate, he told her that a country had to be recognized by at least two other states to be considered a true sovereignty and to be recognized has having diplomatic rights. Otherwise, he said, assuming Blackwell even exists, it was little more than a guild, and the church wouldn’t recognize Linda’s authority. A guild…on the moon.

Linda and Zalbrag argued politics for some time. I admit to getting a bit lost. Magic, religion, medicine, fighting, these things I understand well. Politics, not so much.

Eventually, Mayor Zalag and Lord Grabanath made an appearance. The newly formed city-state of Sandpoint and the long established city-state of Magnamar both recognized Blackwell as a sovereign power, and Lady Linda of Blackwell as a legitimate ruler and ally to their respective states. With that established, Zalbrag lost the right to seize Elkin from us.

However he could still take Ichibod, as he pointed out. He said that he would use his authority to have Ichibod jailed for life on charges of heresy and for attempting to modify church documents. Specifically, Ichibod had tried to sneak into the Cardinal’s office to nullify my excommunication and reinstate an official biship title instead. I found out later that Linda and Amara had helped form the original plan, and I suspect Unae was in on it as well given how she was acting the night before. Ichibod had gotten impatient and acted on his own, but if he hadn’t basically all of my companions would have been in on it.

I…have mixed feelings. I was indignant at the time. I’m still a bit angry about it, if I;m honest. I couldn’t believe the others had been going around behind my back about something that directly affected me, which they admitted to knowing I wouldn’t approve of. If they had succeeded, Zalbrag would have found out eventually and it would have incriminated me rather than any of them. So I was pretty livid with them, especially with Ichibod. On the other hand, they really were just trying to help. I don’t like how they went about it. It was illegal and poorly thought out and could have blown up in our faces (and, in fact, it did). But they really were just trying to help after how Zalbrag had been treating me and Elkin. Their hearts were in the right place. I did, however, very pointedly tell Linda and Ichibod that maybe in the future they should keep this in mind if they want to go behind the back of another member of the group, especially regarding something that directly affects them.

Zalbrag said that he would be willing to let Ichibod go in exchange for Elkin, which obviously we refused. Linda didn’t try to protect Ichibod, however, seeing as he really did break the law. It’s a bit hypocritical if she’d planned on helping to do the same thing later, but I digress.

I brought up that while Ichibod may have attempted to trespass, he did so in a temple of Desna, not Sarenrae. If anyone should have the right to hold charges, it was the priests of Desna, not Zalbrag and his followers. Zalbrag became indignant, citing the fact that he’d donated a great sum to the temple for himself and his followers to stay there, and as such he had every right to Ichibod. At this Father Zantas stepped in, Sarenrae and Desna bless him. He agreed that Zalbrag had donated a large sum to stay in the temple, but that was the extent of it, and he was dropping any charges against Ichibod. Father Zantas explained that regardless of Ichibod’s intentions, the only thing he’d actually done was try to enter a room in the temple, which he claimed he would have gladly let Ichibod into himself if he had just asked.

Without the temple backing the charges, the city guards let Ichibod go. They seemed rather happy to be rid of him, to be honest. I think he was chatting their ears off the entire time. Probably reminiscing about his own time as a city guard.

This could have been the end of it. But of course, Zalbrag had one more card up his sleeve. One of his attendants whispered something to him, and Zalbrag told us that a witness of the events the night before had come forward to testify. The person in question was Habe, the sanitarium worker we’d met many months earlier. Habe was jittery, likely because Linda was staring him down (I’m about half a foot taller than her and often the only person keeping her alive, and I’d probably hesitate if she shot me that glare). He told us that the night before he’d seen Elkin entering a store, hidden under a cloak. Later he heard a commotion outside the sanitarium, and when he looked outside he saw Elkin leaving and later found the statue nearby vandalized.

We tried to find a hole in his testimony, but before we could get far Elkin took things into his own hands. By that I mean he turned himself over, even though he didn’t do it. Zalbrag took Elkin, telling us that he would be tried at the high cathedral to Sarenrae. Just to rub salt on the wounds, he added that no one in our group would be permitted to enter, as we lacked a ranking member of the clergy. Whatever else I may think about him at this point, the Cardinal has proven he can be rather petty when angered.

After Zalbrag took Elkin away, Unae told us that she needed to talk to us in private. She had us return to the ship, where she revealed that she was able to get through to Elkin for a moment with their mental connection. He told her that if he didn’t take the fall then the two tieflings who work for Habe would be the ones blamed for the vandalism.

While we tried to discuss what to do to clear Elkin’s name without accidentally implicating his friends, Meinus arrived at the ship. Linda had sent him to try to catch Habe to see if we could get more information from him, but the man got away. Instead, Meinus had run into the two tieflings, who told us about what the two of them knew about the night before. The two of them had vandalized a single statue in frustration at how the town was treating their fellow tiefling. Elkin was out of the ship and spotted them. He took them back to the sanitarium to keep them from being caught, and the three of them spent the night drinking. They were only the cause of a single case of vandalism, the rest were someone else.

Unae kept talking with Elkin’s new friends while I talked with Linda and ichibod about how we would save Elkin. Ichibod wanted us to try to sneak into the cathedral using disguises and magic. Considering his recent track record with that, I told him absolutely not. I thought that Unae was bad at bluffing. From now on, in my opinion, Ichibod absolutely cannot be trusted with stealth.

Ichibod argued the merits of his plan, which is when he threw Linda under the carriage by telling me that she and Amara had been a part of the original plan to doctor church documents as well. I told them my thoughts about them plotting behind my back, but I couldn’t say everything I wanted before Unae popped into the conversation and let us know that Elkin’s friends had given her something to help Elkin, which she would be keeping in Linda’s bag of holding until further notice.

We went back to planning, but we weren’t getting anywhere fast. I dryly commented that I almost wished that some of Karvoug’s minions would show up, since he was likely getting impatient at how long it was taking for us to get to Xin’Shalast.

At that moment there was a sound of panic outside. Linda demanded to know what I did (hopefully joking) and we rushed outside. There was a fire and some sort of commotion outside the town wall. We ran towards the source of the smoke to see if we could help calm the situation.

Just outside the town walls was a huge pillar of fire and a smashed carriage. To one side was Cardinal Zalbrag, gravely injured and shielding a number of priests and reformed goblins with his own body. Near the smashed carriage was a huge figure: a huge hairy demon which held a hexagonal shield and a sword swathed in black flames. It was the real perpetrator of the destruction in town. And the monster was looming over Elkin, who had his shield raised to defend himself.

The creature faced us. He introduced himself as Malfeshnekor, and told us that he was the demon that Nualia had been trying to summon nearly a year prior. When we’d swayed Nualia into letting go of her wrath and seeking repentance for her actions, we’d inadvertently left this demon half-summoned and trapped in the ruins below Sandpoint. He was left weakened at the time, and he taunted us that we should have found him and killed him back then. As Sandpoint grew, he gainted a larger pool of human sin to feed off of, and was eventually able to regain a large portion of his lost power. Enough, at least, to escape the Ruins of Wrath. Now he wanted revenge on us for thwarting his original return, and to use our deaths as a sacrifice to realize his full power.

The demon summoned two enormous fire elementals and stood back to let them try to take care of us.

Meinus, Elkin, Unae, and Linda focused on the demon and his minions. In the meantime Nel and I worked to heal Cardinal Zalbrag. Even Theo borrowed some of Unae’s magic to help patch the Cardinal’s wounds. As much as I still hated him at the time, he was trying to protect innocent people from being killed and had been hurt in the process. I couldn’t turn a blind eye to his injuries.

After I finished healing Zalbrag, Ichibod cast a spell which affected everyone but Unae and Elkin. Time around us seemed to slow, although Linda surmised that it was likely that we were actually moving much faster than before. I didn’t have much time to think about it at the time, but my guess is it was a variation of the haste spell cast in a way that suited Ichibod’s time magic.

Linda took advantage of her newfound speed to attack the nearest fire elemental, which had set Meinus on fire. Nel was attacked by the other elemental, and both he and Meinus retreated to put out the flames.

In the meantime, Elkin and Unae focused on the demon. Malfeshnekor seemed to realize the danger he was in facing the two of them. He retreated and cast an invisibility spell on himself. I cursed myself for preparing neither true sight nor invisibility purge. I believed we’d be forced to try to find him, which had never worked in our favor with invisible enemies in the past.

Fortunately, I hadn’t taken one thing into account: Cardinal Zalbrag. The Cardinal asked if such magic was all the forces of darkness had to throw at us, and he cast invisibility purge, breaking through Malfeshnekor’s spell without any sign on strain.

I didn’t much want to be shown up by Zalbrag’s spell casting. I faced the elemental which had attacked Nel. Using one of my vials of holy water as a focus, I cast banishment and sent the enormous living flame back to its home plane. At the same time Linda took her usual approach with the other fire elemental and destroyed it with her axe.

This left only Malfeshnekor to deal with. Elkin charged the large demon. Backed into a corner, the demon had one final trick up his sleeve. He cast killing order on Elkin, dominating his mind and turning our friend’s blade against us.

Blessedly, we didn’t have to fight Elkin. I was prepared to try to dispel the magic controlling him, but before I could even begin casting Zalbrag cast his own spell. He activated one of his magical rings, which allowed him to magically lift the remains of the carriage and crush the demon under it like an insect. When we were skeptical that the demon had truly died from the physical wounds, Zalbrag finished the job by casting destruction on it. A pillar of holy light engulfed the demon and when it faded there was nothing left.

I am so glad we didn’t take Unae’s advice and try to kill him. There is absolutely no way we would have survived that encounter. I thought I was a fairly powerful magic user at this point. I now feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what magic, both divine and arcane, can really do.

With the demon gone, Zalbrag cast a mass heal spell on us and on the people he’d been protecting. There was a moment of silence between us. It was clear now who the real culprit was, but we didn’t know if Zalbrag would still try to take Elkin regardless.

Blessedly, Zalbrag had a change of heart. He told us that while he’d said before that Sarenrae had been testing me, in reality he was the one being tested, and he felt he had failed. As he put it, while he’d been paranoid of an evil within Elkin that no one could see, he’d failed to see a real evil lurking within the city. He told us that before we arrived Malfeshnekor had attacked their carriage, and Elkin had jumped in the way of an attack meant for Zalbrag, despite the treatment Elkin had received from the Cardinal over the past three days.

The Cardinal promised to revise the church’s stance on Elkin and to help fund a recreation of the lost art works in Sandpoint, this time reflecting a more accurate depiction of Elkin. He also told me that he would have me officially reinstated as a fully fledged bishop. This took me by surprise, honestly. Just an offer to not excommunicate me would have been more than enough. As much as Zalbrag’s way of going about it had been scummy, he was right that I had little working knowledge of the actual church. It would seem I’ll have to learn, sooner rather than

I’m glad that we came out of this on better terms with the Cardinal than we’d had. Writing the recent events, I still think he was overly petty and spiteful on a few occasions, but much of what he did was out of a belief he was stopping someone evil before they could do harm. I hope that he’s truly learned his lesson from this, and that next time he’ll heed the words of those who know the person he’s accusing rather than assuming that everyone else is naïve and blind. I get the feeling from our parting that he’s truly going to take the lessons he learned today to heart and quit blinding himself in mistrust because of his past, but I suppose only time will tell. Change is hard.

Unfortunately, as I implied at the start of this entry, all was not well. After the Cardinal left us, Linda went to check on Elkin to make sure he was alright after being freed from the demon’s spell. Elkin rejected her concern. He was livid with us for how we’d handled things the last few days, especially for invading his privacy that morning and causing him to believe that we were handing him over to someone who wanted him locked away or dead. Both were directly or indirectly my fault, as you may recall.

Ichibod tried to reason with Elkin in a very Ichibod way, telling him that it was stupid to think that we would ever hand him over, and that we were his friends and only wanted to help, and that we’d been fighting tooth and nail to keep him free and to clear his name. Elkin, in so many words, told Ichibod to shut it. He said he knows, and that if a logical argument was all it would take for him to calm down he wouldn’t need the ring that keeps him from going berserk. He told Ichibod that he was lucky to have never met him without the ring, because the rest of us likely had flashbacks the moment Malfeshnekor took control of Elkin. I…cannot deny that.

Elkin stormed off back to the ship, needing some more time alone. The rest of us were left outside the city walls. Linda was fuming, Unae looked hurt, and Ichibod was likely just confused and concerned. I felt like the lowest creature alive. I still do. Writing this, I can see every place where I made a misstep. Every place where I could have done something to keep from accidentally screwing Elkin over. Every place where I made the exact wrong decision. I hate it. I hate how I always manage to hurt the people I care about the most. I hate how I can’t think of anything to make this up to Elkin, to show him I’m sorry and that I didn’t intentionally hurt him. I betrayed his trust, even if unintentionally. I hurt him, even if I didn’t mean to. I don’t deserve someone like him in my life. My head is fully of white noise, I can’t think straight right now. I need to lay down.

#Journal Entry #pathfinder #Rise of the Runelords

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