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maniculum · 29 days

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Bestiaryposting Results: Dikebael

This animal's name is, admittedly, a bit of a "Tirion upon Túna (upon Rye)" situation in that I did not process that there was anything unusual about the name until, shortly after the entry went up, it got a "heh. Dick-ball" reply. (And they weren't alone; at least one of the art posts that's gone up has acknowledged the unfortunate name.) It probably doesn't help that this entry references the animal's testicles.

I can't even go, "well, it's not pronounced like that," because by the orthographical rules of the conlang I used to generate these names, it would be pronounced /dɪ·kɛ·bæ·ɛl/, so the start still pretty much sounds like "dick". I'd say I'll be more careful about that in future, but I scheduled all of these ahead of time and I'm not sure it's worth digging through the queue, so we'll just have to see.

Anyway, for anyone who's not sure what this whole "bestiaryposting" thing is, you can find an explanation and previous posts here: https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting. The entry that people are working from this time is here:

(Also, I just want to remind anyone reading that you're free to join in -- this is not a closed thing, just check out the "maniculum bestiaryposting" tag and sort by latest to see what the current beast is. Felt I should say that since we've had the same group of people for a while and I don't want anyone seeing the same set of usernames each time and thinking this is an exclusive club.)

Anyway, art below the cut in roughly chronological order.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here), acknowledging the lack of physical description in the entry, has opted to just have fun with it and put together this strange chimerical creature. I think the flat little horns on top of its snout are really interesting -- the linked post describes them as functioning like a stone circle to make sure it has the right date for its annual announcements. I have no idea if that would work at all, but it seems like it fits the general logic of the bestiary, and I like it.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has an interesting explanation in the linked post about how they decided to combine features of various desert-dwelling animals with the basic body plan of a peccary (which is apparently the same animal I know as a "javelina" -- I learn a lot looking stuff up while I write these posts). They then acknowledge that, without the context of all the things they're working in here, it kind of just looks like they've drawn a very large warthog. It's a very good hog, though. Something neat that you might miss if you're just looking at the drawing without the context of the post, for instance, is that it has the same fat-storing tail as a fat-tailed sheep. For more little bonuses like that, check out the linked post.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has given us a whole herd of critters here. They've also hooked onto the "desert" thing due to the lack of physical description, collected traits from real-world animals that make them successful in a desert biome, and combined them into a new creature. They make me think of jackals, which aren't mentioned in the linked post, and also make me think of donkeys, which (kind of) are. Let's all take a moment to note the baby hiding behind a pile of rocks to the right, watching a smaller animal of some sort. I think it's cute.

CheapSweets also wonders about the significance of March 25th, and I have to say so do I. It's not explained in the text. The symbolism bit does say they call the same number of times during the day and night to represent the devil wanting to make day and night the same, which... what?

@pomrania (link to post here) clarifies that this is a grayscale rendering and that the animal would actually be a sort of dusty tan in a color version. They also went the direction of "this animal lives in the desert, so let's focus on desert adaptations." So we've got the split hooves and nostrils that can close to keep out sand. I particularly like the overhanging lip; it adds a certain charm, I think.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has decided that this is an excellent excuse to draw an elephant, since we're short on specific description beyond them living in Africa and being able to make loud noises. As a bonus, this means that the young Dikebael can be conveniently hidden behind the mother's large ears. The other aspects of this illustration relate to Coolest-Capybara having a pretty solid theory as to "why March 25th" -- apparently that's the Feast of the Annunciation, which of course the medieval author would have known. So here we have the Archelephant Gabriel trumpeting at Mary. (Actually it seems like the baby is doing the trumpeting, and it looks adorable doing it.) The linked post describes the medieval artworks that are being referenced in the illustration, so I recommend checking that out.

Anyway, time to check the Aberdeen Bestiary...

... well, we can't, actually. The Aberdeen Bestiary is missing a few folios, and this is on one of those. I got the text from MS Bodley 764, since I have a print translation of that one and it's fairly similar. For the illumination, we're going to go to the digitized Ashmole Bestiary, which is even more similar but I don't have a translation of it.

So this is the onager or wild ass.

Interestingly, it looks pretty much identical to the image of the tame ass on the same page, but to be fair, I don't think I'd be able to distinguish between an onager and a donkey with any reliability. Makes one wonder why they have separate illustrations, though.

And yeah, I have no additional explanation for why... any of the stuff in the entry.

#maniculum bestiaryposting #dikebael

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silverhart-makes-art · 2 months

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I have been patiently waiting for any excuse to do an ungulate-animal for Bestiary Posting and when the description for the Haesorog this week mentioned horns I got excited. Ungulates are by far my favorite critters to draw, and they're well known for their ornamental head gear.

Here I'm depicting a defensive mother haesorog lifting her dorsal crest and lowering her head in response to a perceived threat, which her young seems more curious than fearful of.

Originally I was leaning towards an antelope-like animal - particularly a pronghorn, but the 'ibis footprints' made me pause. Ibises have four toes I believe, but I could see their footprints only showing three toes, which means we've got an odd-toed ungulate on our hand. Rhinoceros have three toes, and as a bonus they come with horns! As the haesorog is thick furred, I went with a Sumatran rhino for my jumping off point.

That said, I still wanted an antelope feel, so I made my haesorog more gracile; slimming and shrinking the face and head to be more 'stag-like'; giving it longer, more slender legs; a longer neck; etc. Overall I just wanted a more antelope-like build for my rhino-creature, specifically thinking of large antelope like the Giant Eland (who's dewlap I included but it got a bit lost in the pose).

For it's horns I did consider something closer to a pronghorn, but decided that a nasal horn was just more fun. In order to fit the 'branching horns' description, I went with something like the prehistoric brontotherium horn. I also added some horny eyebrow ridges - just for fun.

For coloration, it's described as being colored like a bear with a thick coat, so I chose a nice ruddy brown fading to grey, with darker legs as you often see in brown bears. It's grey-brown fur is perfect for blending into the rock and scrub of it's home. As it's also said to change appearance when afraid, I decided to give it a dorsal crest that you see in some antelope. The pose is also inspired by nyala, the males of whom put their heads down while they raise their crest to display to other males.

#maniculum bestiaryposting #haesorog

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cryptids-of-spielzeit · 1 month

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Spielzeit Bestiary #7: The Spielzeit Fae

Tales of fairies have been passed down from generation, with various descriptions of what they actually are. Some stories depict them as small, flying humans with the ability to grant wishes, others say they are beings not to be messed with, to never tell your name to, lest they steal it.

But in the case of the town of Spielzeit, their fairies are somewhat mischievious. The Spielzeit Fae, sometimes referred to as "The Smiling Fairies" or "The Giggling Sprites" by locals, are a group of creatures that supposedly roam the woods near Spielzeit, particularly near common picnicing areas or fields.

The actual appearance of these creatures varies greatly from one another. According to locals, there are 8 variants, each with their own personalities. The few common traits in all 8 are their huge, believed to be never changing, smiles and their childlike laughter.

[DISCLAIMER: THESE DESCRIPTIONS ARE BASED ON PUBLIC SUPERSTITION AND RUMORS, THEY MAY OR MAY NOT BE TRUE]

1. Welpe: The Welpe Fae are described as being small, orange Cocker Spaniels, surprisingly similar to the appearance of another piece of Spielzeit folklore, the Sun Dog. Welpe Fae are commonly seen playing with the other fae, and in some cases coordinate pranks and heists for the other fae.

2. Jungtier: Jungtier Fae are described as small, red Bear cubs. Jungtier Fae are said to be incredibly clingy to other fae, and in one case, humans. They seem to show a form of affection through this clinginess.

3. Hase: Hase Fae are described as small, bright green bunnies. Hase Fae have been said to be incredibly energetic, and in some claimed "heist" encounters are the ones said to run off with whatever it is they stole.

4. Huhn: The Huhn Fae are said to be similar to baby chicks in appearance. Huhn Fae, according to locals, usually try to "one up" the other fae in their activities. What this entails is up for debate.

5. Ferkel: Ferkal Fae are said to heavily resemble a common piglet. Ferkel Fae, in most encounters, are usually the first seen, eating whatever they have stolen from the poor sap that crossed them.

6. Kalb: Kalb Fae are described as being small, sky blue elephant calfs. These fae are said to have a great memory. According to local baker Annie Puntz, she gave a Kalb a piece of cake, and the next month, it brought her back a flower.

7. Eins: Eins Fae are commonly described as being very small unicorn-like beings, with white fur and pale blue manes. Eins fae are theorized to be incredibly artistic, as a few locals described witnessing an Eins fairy using the cherries from a cherry tree in the town's Fruit Basket area to paint a rock.

8. Kätzchen: Kätzchen Fae, strangely, are said to highly resemble a tiny version of The Grinning Cat, down to the deep purple fur color and the big grin. Another interesting comparison to note is their tendency to "sleep". Encounters with Kätzchen fae usually start with the witness finding it asleep before waking it up, causing it to run away.

More often than not, groups of fae contain more than one variant, if not all 8. The first documented sighting of the Fae came from the late Dave Fitz, who described having a picnic with his grandchildren, when suddenly a Welpe and a Kätzchen appeared, trying to steal food. Mr. Fitz shooed them away, only realizing later that night that that was a mistake, as he found a huge group of the Fae ransacking his home.

Since then, it has become tradition to leave a piece of food out for the Fae during picnics, even if they never show.

Ranger Angelo Floros was asked about if he believed the Fae were real.

"I, personally, find these rumors to be a load of bologna. Fairies only exist in fairy tales. As for the supposed laughter, there are plenty of children here who love to spook their elders, and this idea of laughing fairies is perfect for them! I have no further comment."

Whether they exist or not, the Spielzeit Fae have become a big part of their folklore, even serving as one of the many creatures celebrated during their Summer Solstice festival, along with the Sun Dog.

All we ask you is...do you believe?

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monstersdownthepath · 6 months

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Monster Spotlight: Shard Slag

CR 8

Neutral Huge Ooze

Bestiary 4, pg. 240

While you might look at a Shard Slag and be forgiven for believing it to be the runoff of a magical forge, these creatures are actually natural parts of the world. They're born inside the thick molten mantles of worlds with heavy metal cores, feeding on the magmatic metals and whatever other creatures are born in the extreme environment. They're rarely ever seen on the surface of a given planet and are often only encountered within the craters of active volcanoes, or in an area where one just erupted... But they're also found quite often in the borderlands between the Planes of Fire and Earth, and anywhere a portal to that molten expanse has been opened, a Slag may emerge to feed on the colder residents of the universe.

Mindlessly destructive, the massive Slags exist--like most Oozes--to roll inexorably towards any creature that they detect with either their 60ft blindsight or 60ft of tremorsense and are completely blind to anything which can avoid detection. Their 15ft space and 15ft reach gives them a threat radius that may as well encompass an entire battlefield within the superheated tunnels they call home... and, in fact, a party may mistakenly believe that a perfectly 15ft-wide tunnel may lead them towards their goal, when in fact it terminates at the hungry lava flow, whose Molten Form allows them to burrow through solid rock at 20ft/round.

This also means a party can be surprised by a Slag suddenly emerging from the floor, believing it to be a sudden spurt of dangerous but still-mundane magma right up until it starts growing enormous blades from its body like hair. These Slag Blades emerge from its body at a startling rate each round, and grant the molten mucks a novel means of attack: a roll of 1d4+2 determines how many times each round it can attack as a Full Attack. It can thus attack anywhere from 3 to 6 times a round depending on how many blades it grows, perhaps the only monster with a variable number of natural attacks! These blades are quickly smelted back down into molten metal at the end of the Slag's turn, only to be immediately replaced to allow it to make AoOs when needed.

Each of its Slag Blades deals 1d8+6 damage and 2d6 Fire damage, which should come as a surprise to no one. Its Molten Form puts off so much heat it actually deals an additional 1d6 Fire damage to any creature within 5ft of it, 2d6 to anything that hits it with an unarmed attack or natural weapon, and 3d6 per round to any creature grappling or being grappled by it. Why you would want to grapple something that's visibly made out of lava is beyond me, but the Slags are noted to enjoy grappling onto any creature that happens to be wearing a large amount of metal, so maybe the Heavy Armor Enjoyer should stay back... as well as the melee fighters, because the heat of a Shard Slag deals 2d6 damage to any weapon that strikes it and whose wielder fails a DC 22 Reflex save. This damage ignores 5 points of the weapon's hardness and isn't halved against metal objects like Fire normally is, because it's just that hot.

So hot, in fact, that taking even a single point of Fire damage from ANY of the Slag's abilities exposes the victim to its Excruciating Burn, forcing a DC 16 Fortitude save to avoid becoming staggered for a round. This ability has no cooldown or 24 hour immunity clause, so the save must be succeeded every time the Slag hits a creature with its Full-Attack and any round they're damaged by its Molten Form. Melee with something made of magma is hard, as you may expect! But, ironically, that's probably your best bet if you actually want to kill one; its DR 5/Magic is relatively simple to bypass by this time in an adventurer's career, and its elemental resistances are very high! It's utterly immune to Fire, Electricity, AND Acid damage!

Of course, it's probably obvious it's Vulnerable to Cold, the second most common elemental damage type. Anyone familiar with how lava works will probably guess it's also Vulnerable to Water, with contact with as little as a bucket of water staggering the Ooze for 1d6 rounds if it fails a DC 20 Fortitude save (which, given its +10 to Fort saves, it has a coin flip of failing), stripping it of its formidable Full-Attack. If the Slag spends a full round immersed in water it actually cools to the point it becomes petrified, allowing a clever party to use its Ooze mindlessness to trick it into rolling right into a water source to avoid having to fight it directly... just make sure the water stays there, because if it boils or drains away, the inner heat of the Shard Slag melts its outer surface and the whole thing starts right back up!

You can read more about it here.

#Monster Spotlight #CR 6 to 10 #Pathfinder #dungeons and dragons

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thelensart · 6 months

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Hello, Aceweek!!

Basically all of my characters could be read as ace in some kind of way, but let’s focus on one of them.

This big, tall pine tree right here is Uxue. She’s a solitary shepherdess who, in her story, fights against a curse laid upon her by her own mother, an overprotective and stubborn sorceress who, with the best intentions, cripples her ability to make a name for herself.

I always thought of Uxue is canonically autistic, and most of her personality traits, body movements, mood, and way of directing herself regarding the world, is based off my own experience as a very socially retracted autistic trans woman, reason why I gave her such an unusual look, although I never thought of her as a transgender. She’s not very talkative, certainly isn’t social at all, instead preferring to work her days away in the hills with her sheep, from place to place, but always in the familiarity of the wilderness. Her best skill, or “special interest”, one might say, is gunslinging. She’s quite a good shot and revolver-trickster, although the curse laid on her doesn’t quite let her reach her full potential. This in particular is a parallelism, through fantasy magic, to the way many of us in the spectrum feel about our special interests, unavailable to develop them under the crushing weight of a system that demands productivity out of us.

As for her asexuality, the bread and butter of this post, from the moment I began to sketch her first drafts, I wrote her as asexual on a gray area, which correlates with her autism, just like in my very own experience. Her general reclusiveness, the harshness she feels on interaction with another people, does cause her a certain yearning to be loved by someone quite close, and that someone is a shepherdess from a land afar, called Marcela. She visits her from time to time, to spend some lovely days out shepherding together. I never thought of them as girlfriends, nor as close friends, because I never felt like labeling these two would be half interesting. While I never actually made it canonical, both of them can be read as aromantic. My own experience with aromanticism, discovering I was on that spectrum, that romantic love was a world I didn’t quite understand but I was capable of loving someone back very dearly, influenced that ambiguous subtlety between the two quite a lot. Regarding explicit sex, while Marcela certainly isn’t asexual, and in fact, is quite promiscuous, she understands Uxue’s needs due to her good socialization skills, and such needs are to stay away from conventional sex. Uxue, much like me, doesn’t generally like being touched, yet she loves physical contact with someone she trusts a lot, and feels comfortable engaging in soft displays of affection and vulnerability. Much like a lot of us autistic folks around, Uxue has a hard time displaying affection in standard ways, but I intentionally wanted to write her as a woman of many faces. She might be solitary and sometimes uncaring, but she is terminally, tragically sweet, even though one might have to peel off a lot of layers before seeing that side of her. This is something I wrote for her after yours truly met the person who did tear down my own barriers. Here are these two on my sketchbook:

But what’s these strange names and strange clothes Uxue is rocking around? As an end note, if I may, I’ll nerd out about the place she’s from. In this universe, a vague post-apocalyptic fantasy, the factions’ culture, dressing customs, and bestiary, are based off very loose interpretations of Iberian pre-roman folklore and more recent, regional folklores. Uxue belongs to a tribe which is vaguely based off the valley of Roncal, in Navarra. Here are some very loose sketches of her general Basque-inspired vibes.

Her name, in Basque, means “dove”. One must point out that Navarra and the Basque country, while sharing a language, have different cultural customs and identities. Although, in the story, Uxue’s faction, especially regarding the bestiary, is an amalgamation of both. Uxue is a good gunslinger because her tribe has a tradition of solving the problem of menacing creatures, all pulled from Basque-Navarrese folktales, by prioritizing speed and aim. This was an idea that came to me after investigating the area to make the factions. Near Roncal, there’s the royal arms factory of Orbaizeta, one of the most important weapon manufactories of Spain during the late 18th to late 19th centuries. Today, it’s abandoned and overgrown. That and a general knowledge among the Spanish that Basques have a tradition of steelworking, gave me the idea of a post-apocalyptic culture famous for the quality of their guns and the skill of the wielders.

And that's all, folks!

Don't get spooked!~

#acespec OC #ace week 2023 #oc #artists on tumblr #asexual characters #queer #LGBTQIA+#queer artist #art

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thebeautifulbook · 1 year

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A MEDIEVAL BESTIARY (Central or northern England, 1210-1220)

A bestiary is a book of real and imaginary beasts, though its subjects can include plants and even rocks. It combined descriptions of the physical nature and habits of animals and includedthe moral and spiritual significance of these characteristics.

Produced in the first decade of the 13th century, this manuscript contains one of the first bestiaries to feature vivid paintings. They are set on gold grounds and in colorful frames instead of the line-drawn renderings used in earlier works of this type. These lavish illuminations would have made this a costly book to produce so it was likely made for an aristocrat, or royal, owner who could read Latin or had a chaplain who could do so.

source

#beautiful books #incunabula #illustrated books #book binding #book blog #books books books #book cover #medieval #animals #bestiary #illuminated manuscript

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soldateins · 11 months

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"Don't Touch My Lute." - Jaskier x Female Reader

Pairing: Jaskier x female!reader Summary: Y/N has only been traveling with Geralt and Jaskier for a short while, but she and Jaskier have known one another since a few months before that. Being a bard herself, Y/N knows of Jaskier and just how utterly brilliant he is, she had even seen him perform a few times in Novigrad at the Chameleon - Though he had never seen her perform, only rumours. This knowledge causes her to feel anxious and refuse continuously when he asks her to play for them every few nights to truly hear her talent. What happens when one night, Jaskier leaves to wash up in the river, and Y/N decides to pick up his lute and sing but he returns before she finishes playing and hears her?

Notes:

A/N: I never write, I’ve written 2 fics total and I’m not amazing so.. Help is cool but don’t bash me plz, this ain’t my job and I only do it for plain old fun, cool? Hope you enjoy!! Ps I’m in love with both Jaskier and Geralt I need helppppp

“Would you both fancy making our way to an inn once we’ve washed up?”

Jaskier asked Geralt and Y/N as they walked along the dirt path in the direction of the nearest river. Geralt’s brows furrowed slightly as he directed Roach’s reins in the right direction, thinking. Y/N’s walk turned into a skip, a smile now plastered across her lips, “Uhh, yes, please! We’ve not eaten a proper supper in 3 days! I’ll even provide the coin!” Jaskier gasped, pressing his palm against his intricately detailed doublet, “No, no, my Lady Y/N - I shall pay!” He bowed. Geralt rolled his eyes, exhaling through his nose, “Always the hero.” He murmured to himself as he watched the bard catch up to the skipping woman.

They found a clearing where they began to set down all of their belongings. Jaskier and Geralt each sat on their own bedrolls whilst Y/N placed herself on the floor, leaning against a rock. After a while of watching the bard write poems in his notebook, she tilted her head and softly inquired, “Might I play your lute, Jaskier? I’ve not touched one in almost two months, I left mine in Novigrad..” Her eyes glistened in the evening glow and she crossed her legs. Jaskier hummed for a long time, looking into her blue eyes, before settling on, “Yes, as long as you sing to us.” His pink lips dipped into a smirk and he shot a quick look towards Geralt to gauge his reaction. Despite not looking up, his eyes and eyebrows gave away that he was interested. Y/N’s nose wrinkled up, “No, thank you.” Geralt’s left eyebrow rose and he looked up from writing an entry about Forktails into his bestiary, “You sing?” Y/N took a deep breath and shifted from side to side. Jaskier rose from his bedroll, slapped his thighs, bent forward slightly and raised his eyebrows at Y/N, “Yes, she does - However, I have not yet heard her despite being told brilliant things of the Angelic Y/N of Novigrad!”

“You’ve seen me perform before!” Y/N huffed, folding her arms and leaning back against the rock. Jaskier’s face contorted in amusement and his voice came out somewhat petty, “Through a window. I couldn’t hear you.” Y/N grumbled, “Bet you could.” Jaskier picked up his lute and held it out right in front of Y/N’s face, the shiny wood almost tapping the tip of her nose, “Come on, just once!” “No!” Y/N spat, “Why?”, Jaskier put the lute back, the vibration of its strings due to impact causing an ugly chord. “Can you not just go and wash up now, Jaskier?! I’ve no need to give you a reason!” Y/N raised her voice slightly, her heart slowly making its way into her throat. Jaskier pursed his lips, thinking of how to respond, lifted his finger into the air, gritted his teeth, dropped his arm, and turned back to his belongings with an exasperated sigh.

Y/N pulled an apple from her knapsack, taking a big bite. Jaskier began unpacking his linen towel along with a wooden hairbrush and some other things, “Right, I’m having a wash in the river, no touching my lute, Y/N. Not unless you want to initiate an impromptu performance?” His icy blue eyes narrowed and he flashed a toothy smile, targeting Y/N’s and her chewing slowed. She sighed and spoke with a full mouth, spitting slightly at Jaskier, “No, bard.” Jaskier’s eyes widened in disgust, “That makes one of us. Someone’s touchy tonight..” He spoke in a hushed tone as he walked off towards the river. Geralt smirked but kept quiet, enjoying the dynamic between the two.

Geralt sat silently with his right leg bent at the knee and his arm resting on it, sketching. Y/N shook her head, groaned, got up and made her way over to Geralt, sitting down next to him to watch him fill his bestiary in peace as they did most nights, “What is that thing? Ff-fog-let? Wh- what’s one of those?” She leaned over his left side to get a better look at his sketch, brushing shoulders. Usually, Geralt would slowly lean away, but he liked Y/N. Maybe even had a soft spot for her. They’d gotten as close as a lady bard and witcher could have after only knowing one another for eight months - and Jaskier wasn’t much of a fan of that at the moment. “Why don’t you want to sing if you’re known for performing so well?” He frowned, tilting his head to look her in the eye, “Because Geralt, have you heard Jaskier sing? I don’t want to sing to him. He’s too good, I’m just okay.” She spoke with a slight angry heat, perhaps towards herself, blinking a few times, and diverting her eyes away from Geralt’s piercing ones by looking elsewhere on his face, taking in his strong features, especially when he is pulling a face such as that, “Yet you always jest about your brilliant skill?” “Yes but.. That’s just for fun, I’d die if Jaskier heard me. He’d..” She paused, debating whether to continue, flickering her gaze up to Geralt’s, “He’d?” Geralt asked, raising his brows, “He’d.. He’d hate it, he’d go off me. I’d rather let him hear the reviews and not dare let him hear it himself. He’s legendary, I can’t compare myself to him! He’d laugh and I’d be broken. Or he’d lie and say I was good to please me. Especially now.” Geralt hummed, leaning back a bit. Something had begun that nobody could stop. Y/N had fallen for Jaskier. Geralt decided that the best option for this moment was to leave. He arose, unpacking his towel, gave Y/N an unsure but calm expression, and left for the river.

Y/N was left ruminating in her own self-loathing and confusion. She got up, set her bedroll onto the floor and lay down, away from Jaskier’s, nearest to Roach as she enjoyed her company. “Oh, fuck it.” She quickly got up, snatched Jaskier’s lute from his belongings, positioning herself on her bedroll, cross-legged, facing out into the forest. She started to play, first quietly, and once she knew she wasn’t heard, a bit louder. A few minutes later, as Jaskier and Geralt made their way back from the river, they started to hear music, “What- What is that? Geralt?” Jaskier spun around a few times as he tried to discern where it was coming from. Geralt’s lower eyelids rose in amusement. Jaskier took in an overly dramatic breath, “She. Took. My LUTE!” He spat possessively and began to take off before Geralt lunged forward, wrapping his big hand around Jaskier’s left arm and yanking him backward, earning a squeak from the bard, “Jaskier.” He growled, “What? It’s mine! She wouldn’t play anyw-!”

“Listen.”

They became quiet, inching closer to the sound until they could finally hear clearly. After a few moments, Jaskier’s mouth opened in awe. They made their way closer to the clearing to listen. Geralt watched Jaskier, he was leaning his head and hand against a tree, patiently listening, with the most genuine loving expression he had seen on the bard yet.

“She’s ethereal, isn’t she? I knew she was good.” Jaskier’s mouth was hardly moving as he whispered, trying to make as little sound as possible so that he could listen, “Why would she keep such beauty from me?” “She’s scared.” Geralt said under his breath, “She’s.. She’s what? She’s scared?” Jaskier’s brows furrowed in confusion, “She doesn’t want to perform in front of you because she doesn’t believe that she’s good enough. She said you’d laugh.” Geralt shrugged and shook his head, “I can’t believe it.” Jaskier’s eyes were staring at the forest floor, melancholic but still heavy with emotion. Y/N smiled, gently setting the lute down, “Is that where he left it, Roach? I think that’s where he left it. I hope so. I don’t want to be singing to him any time soon.”

Jaskier crept his way out from within the trees, “You just did.” He gave a friendly smile and a pathetically nervous wave of his hand. Y/N sucked in a big breath, “Jaskier..?” Her eyes were wide and piercing as if she were a child being caught carving into the house walls by her parent, “I listened, Lady Y/N. You have a beautiful voice.” Jaskier swallowed anxiously, approaching as if she were a wild rabbit about to flee, which she was, “No. You don’t mean that.” Y/N got up, retrieving her towel from her bag, clutching it to her chest, trying to steady her breath, “I’m sorry for using your lute, Jask. I- I just wanted to play, I’ve missed it.” Geralt made his way out from within the trees, “Calm down, Y/N.” His voice was soft yet stern, “I can’t, Geralt. Sorry, Jaskier..” “Please, don’t apologise, that was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard!” Jaskier’s voice got louder the further away Y/N got as she panicked and ran to the river, Jaskier’s eyes followed her then made their way to Geralt, brows furrowing heavily, “Are you going to tell me what just bloody happened? I was being nice! To a bard! And I meant it!” He raised his shoulders and eyebrows in sync. Geralt's eyelids lowered, his face muscles relaxing, “Surprising.” Geralt sat back down on his bedroll, folding his arms and looking at the stars. However, when he glanced over, Jaskier was looking at him expectantly, “What?” Geralt asked lazily, “What do you mean ‘what’? Tell me what’s wrong with Y/N?”

“Fine.”

Y/N exhaled heavily as she entered the water to bathe. The cool water helping her anxious feelings towards Jaskier, “Gods, I shouldn’t have touched his lute at all. Fuck. What if his feelings change?” She sat, speaking to the trees, a light breeze falling over her frame along with the moonlight, and the hairs on her skin pricking upwards. After what seemed like an hour, she plucked up the courage to get dry and dressed and return to their miniature camp. Entering the clearing with a big breath, the first thing she laid her now tired eyes upon was Geralt meditating. She smiled, wishing she had the mental power to sit in silence for that long. Looking to the right she saw Jaskier.. Fast asleep. Snoring. Incredibly loudly. Her chest felt heavy and loving as she stood watching him sleep. Turning towards her own bedroll, suddenly feeling tired, she took in a soft gasp. Jaskier’s lute was resting on her pillow with a handwritten note with many words scribbled onto it but the ones most notable were “I did mean it. You can play my lute anytime, beautiful lady Y/N.” Y/N sighed, smiled widely and that night, slept with Jaskier’s lute by her side.

#fanfic #fanfiction #fanfics #writing #jaskier #jaskier x reader #jaskier x female reader #the witcher netflix #the witcher #geralt of rivia #witcher #julian alfred pankratz #soldateins #my writing

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anamelessfool · 9 months

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I am enjoying inventing random OC Papas throughout time. This one I was like, dang I got to do more with him....maybe later though!

Bestiary (AO3 Link)

So if you meet me have some courtesy, have some sympathy, and some taste... Use all your well-learned politness or I'll lay your soul to waste...

The adventures of the Nameless Ghouls throughout time. Each Chapter is a different Nameless Ghoul, some canon, some OC. Romantic, weird, smutty, sad, actiony, whatever tone I want. It was fun researching this one. Dancehalls sound interesting. This poster is a riff off of a Little Richard Tour Poster. The two songs at the bottom are real and in period.

2: 1945 [Dewdrop Ghoul]

Tags: Mystery, Adventure, Horror, Alternate History, Weird Astral Shenanigans

Dewdrop narrowed his eyes, kicked a rock. If he could spit on the ground, he would. This is what they get. He pouted, making sure everyone around him knew his displeasure, but inexplicably felt drawn look at the mountains in the distance, just like the rest of them.

Musical Inspiration, More Fun Facts about my Poster and Taglist below the Cut!

youtube

Cab Calloway would be the perfect historical Papa. And 99% of running a big band is pure charisma.

Papa Camino's Papal Visage was inspired by the 1946 film "The Crimson Ghost" which is the direct inspiration for the Misfits Skull Logo.

Also this fic is what happens when you listen to an 8 hour podcast. WATCH OUT.

Thanks @kabukiaku for all the digital art help

Tag List: @historian-crown @monkberryghouldelight @in-cardi-c-we-thrust @riptide-kid @thew0man Let me know if you want to be on my tag list

#ghost fandom #ao3 author #ghost band fic #ghost scenes from the void #ao3 fanfic #nameless ghoul oc #namesless ghouls #dewdrop ghoul #ao3 link #fanfic #Youtube

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delimeful · 1 year

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helpless (6)

warnings: arguing, anger, mild misunderstandings

The journey was over.

His impromptu employers had reached their goal, a new stretch of forest that was close enough to a town that the humans could make the trip within a day to trade and barter, but far enough that they weren’t likely to have a repeat of what Patton referred to as the “Beary Bad Beartraps” situation.

His work here was done, his job complete, and his payment fulfilled.

And yet, Roman found himself idling around their new campsite long after Logan had pressed a sack heavy with coin into his hands.

“I mean,” he blustered upon receiving the third curious glance from Virgil, who was carefully stringing their more perishable goods up in a tree, “is my job truly done if I haven’t ascertained the danger of the destination? It would be disastrous if something happened before you even properly settled in!”

“Oh, that’s alright, I think your job is done!” Patton chimed in, clearing all the twigs and rocks from the ground where they would soon lay their bedrolls. “You should go now, so you don’t have to travel in the dark!”

Roman’s posture wilted slightly. “I mean, you all clearly have so much to do, I could at least help—,”

“Excellent,” said Logan, who clearly wanted to be sketching Virgil’s web patterns instead, “you can come take over in assembling the raincatcher, then.”

Brightening up immediately, Roman practically bounded over, too glad at an excuse to stay to bother complaining about the manual labor. Logan vanished and reappeared at Virgil’s side with his notebook in short order.

(Across the clearing, Patton’s shoulders went tight and bunched up for a moment before forcibly smoothing out.)

That set the tone for the rest of the week, each morning beginning with Roman stalling his departure for some vaguely-stated reason or another, and Logan easily assigning a portion of the day’s tasks to him. He was a surprisingly deft hand at delegation, Roman noted, for a scholar.

He was also under the false impression that Roman himself had a similar nature, for some strange reason.

Sure, Roman had taken to occasionally following Virgil around in a manner very similar to Logan, and yeah, he maybe spent some of that time pestering the drider for details on whichever monster from his travels jumped to mind, but that didn’t mean he was a nerd.

“It’s certainly refreshing to meet a fellow enthusiast,” Logan said in passing at dinner one evening.

“What?” Roman blurted, startled. “I— I mean, enthusiastic about… defeating them, maybe.”

Between them, Patton stoked the fire perhaps more intensely than strictly required.

Logan leveled an unimpressed look over the lenses of his glasses, rotating one of the skewers over the flames. “I see. The artwork you created based on Virgil’s description of basilisks was purely for destructive purposes, then?”

“You saw that?!” Roman squawked, his face growing hot.

“They were remarkably pictured, for someone who's never seen them. You would make a far superior bestiary illustrator than most I’ve witnessed,” Logan replied, unperturbed.

Roman ran a hand through his hair, and tried to change the subject. “You’ve got to be fair to them, most humans don’t go looking for basilisks, what with the unfortunate side effects.”

There was a concerning silence from Logan, who now seemed more intent on observing his in-progress kabob than ever.

“Logan,” Virgil said, his relaxed lounge turning into the weary tension he always got when one of the others said or did something unwise. “Tell me you didn’t try to track down a species that can kill you with a glance for the express purpose of looking at it?”

Logan cleared his throat. “I prefer not to tell falsehoods to my companions,” he managed, the faintest traces of embarrassment visible.

“Logan,” Virgil repeated, with a sort of agonized exhaustion.

“Oh, come on, Living Bitemare,” Roman interjected, trying to steer the conversation to lighter waters, “he clearly made it out alright, didn’t he?”

The drider dragged his hands over his face, muttering something about that not being the point, but he did seem somewhat appeased by the fact that Logan was right in front of him, safe and sound.

“Don’t call him that,” a voice interjected.

Roman looked up at Patton with surprise.

“Beg your pardon?” he asked, bewildered.

“Stop calling Virgil names,” Patton said, louder this time. He was still sitting, but his hands were clenched at his sides.

He sounded truly upset, and Roman realized that he’d never heard such a tone from the man before.

“Names?” he echoed dumbly for a moment. “Oh— The nicknames! I’m not— I only mean them as a manner of affectionate teasing! They’re not actually mean-spirited.”

There was a beat of silence in which Patton’s expression only darkened, and then—

“They’re not?” Virgil asked quietly, his voice barely more than a low whisper.

Roman wasn’t sure what his face did, but the expression must have been fairly visible, because Virgil’s shoulders lowered slightly.

“Of course not!” he finally managed to find his words, barely resisting the urge to jump to his feet. “They’re simply witticisms, wordplay, whatever I can think of in the moment. It’s a habit of mine, I promise you they aren’t maliciously meant.”

Virgil relaxed further, and after a moment, a small smile appeared on his face.

Roman grinned back, relieved and entirely unbothered by the fangs he could see poking out at the edges of the expression.

“I’m going to sleep,” Patton said, his expression carefully neutral. He rose and walked over to the bedrolls without another word.

There was a long pause, the three left behind exchanging worried glances before the conversation started back up again, more subdued than before.

“Regardless, I was wearing goggles with mirrored lenses, so the risk of looking directly into a basilisk’s gaze was relatively low.”

“And were these goggles tested before you used them in a situation where you would absolutely die if they didn’t work?”

“Well. That is to say…,”

Roman let the conversation roll over him, still staring after Patton.

Something was wrong, and he suspected it started with his own person.

—

The next morning, a quick word to Logan got Roman assigned to help Patton with the laundry, though it earned him a raised eyebrow of skepticism.

“Don’t worry about it,” Roman told him confidently, despite the fact that he had no real idea if this would help. “I’m certain I can get to the bottom of whatever is perturbing our dear Patton!”

The words didn’t seem to reassure Logan as much as he would have liked, but he agreed to the change in duties regardless.

The way Patton’s smile tightened into something almost painful-looking when Roman approached to carry one of the clothes baskets wasn’t promising, but it did prove that Roman was on the right track.

His small talk went almost entirely unreplied to all the way down the hill, and so Roman eventually let them sink into an awkward silence, trying to think of a way to broach the topic of Patton’s mood without offending.

In the end, Patton himself initiated it.

“Are you going to be leaving soon?” he asked with a pale imitation of his usual cheer. “I’m sure that an adventurer such as yourself must have much more exciting things to pursue than laundry.”

Yikes. Roman hadn’t heard the word adventurer spat with such distaste since he’d left home.

“I’m not certain,” he replied honestly. “I— I suppose I could come up with any number of excuses, but truly, I enjoy spending time here.”

“Do you?” Patton’s hands clenched tighter around the bundle of clothes he was swirling in the soapy water of the washbucket.

Roman glanced between the work and Patton’s face apprehensively, a bad feeling beginning to blossom in his gut. He wrung a pair of socks out halfheartedly before continuing.

“Yes, I do. I know I didn’t make the best first impression—,” Patton yanked a pair of overalls from the bucket, the water splattering them both, “—but I’m very fond of spending time here, with you all. I’ll likely feel the stirring of adventure again eventually, but until then, I want… well, I would like to stay here.”

“So, you’ll only leave to go hunt down and destroy monsters,” Patton said, a surprisingly brusque response to his heartfelt request. He was still washing the same pair of overalls. “I’m sure Logan will appreciate the extra pair of hands around here.”

Roman was beginning to sense a theme, here.

“I mean, yes, but…,” He turned to face Patton directly, a frown settling onto his face despite himself. “Look, to be fair to me, most of the monsters I run into want to kill me very much, all the time.”

“Maybe that’s because you tromp into their houses and try to attack them?” Patton bit out, scrubbing a pair of overalls with enough force that Roman was kind of worried about the buttons.

“Not true! Bounties are for when monsters are stealing all the goats or abducting travelers or, in one very weird case, sneaking into houses and tying like seven people’s hair together.” Short hair had become a necessity in that particular town. “That’s the definition of them leaving their houses to go do crimes!”

“Virgil didn’t do any of that!” Any trace of grime on those overalls had been well and truly obliterated by now. “He doesn’t hurt people.”

Roman persisted despite feeling like maybe he was going to be the next victim of that wooden washboard. “I know that now! I’m not going to attack Virgil again, I believe you guys! He’s a nice spiderguy, I’m convinced! We hang out! Why are you so hung up on this?”

Patton kept his head down for a long moment, dunking the spotless overalls underwater to get rid of leftover suds for a moment before wadding the garment up in his hands with sharp, furious motions.

Then, he snapped his head up and threw the ball of sodden cloth directly at him, the makeshift missile impacting against the front of his shirt with a wet splat.

It barely stung, but Roman jerked back in pure startlement so hard he nearly fell over. “Hey!”

“He’s my best friend, and you hurt him.” Patton was glaring now, his eyes shiny and red-rimmed. “He didn’t do anything wrong, and you made him feel like a monster, and you never even apologized!”

“I—,” Roman started automatically, and then abruptly shut his mouth. He’d— Things were fine between him and Virgil! They’d come to an understanding, they’d built trust! Sure, he’d been a jerk at first, but…

A flicker of memory; his hand on the hilt of his sword, his thumb tapping the guard the way he always did when nervous. Looking up to meet Virgil’s eyes and finding a face full of bitter resignation. Full of hurt?

Monsters didn’t usually care about what Roman thought of them.

But Virgil had proven to be the exception to the rule enough times, hadn’t he?

“— what everyone always does, you’re just like them, you only see what you want to see, it’s not right,” Patton was still going, though at some point he’d brought his clenched fists up to his eyes to try and rub the building tears away.

Roman stepped forward, reaching out to grab his hands and pull them down, meeting his eyes with all the sincerity he could muster.

“I understand,” he said solemnly. ��I didn’t think of it like that. I’m sorry.”

Patton sniffed, trying to draw his eyebrows into a firmer frown with little success. “I’m not the one—,”

“I’m going to apologize to Virgil, don’t worry,” Roman told him. “But it seems like my behavior hurt you, too.”

Going by the way Patton’s face crumpled, he’d hit the nail right on the head. He pulled the shorter man into a hug, ignoring the dampness of the face against his shoulder.

The shirt was basically one big wet spot at this point, anyhow.

“I forgive you,” Patton said a few minutes later, his voice still slightly clogged up. The arms around him tightened a little bit. “‘M sorry for being mean to you instead of talking about it.”

“We got there eventually!” Roman announced in his grandest voice, making Patton chuckle. “… Do you think I should apologize to Logan?”

Patton snorted. “I think Logan already got his own version of penance from you. He’s been giving you all of his chores since day one.”

“Wait, what?”

#sanders sides fic #ts roman #ts patton #ts logan #ts virgil #my writing #writing #fantasy au #spider mention tw #helpless #putting the guys in the conflict resolution machine #aghh. my head hurts

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pokemonbiologyirlthetabletop · 4 months

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The Legendary Giants

Overview: The Legendary Giants, or Legendary Titans, are a quintet of creations by Regigigas. They are each imbued with pure elemental energy of their respective typing, and given life by Regigigas’s creation magic. Forged from rocks, ice, magma, pure electricity, and crystallized dragon energy, Regigigas created many Giants in its image. Its hard to say why it felt such need, but it did, and it made many of them. These Pokémon are today known as Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Regieleki, and Regidrago. They do not feed for they do not have mouths, and they cannot reproduce except with Mews (which doesn’t quite count since Mews can mate with anything that’s alive).

All five of the Legendary Giants are catchable, and thus featured in the bestiary even though Regigigas is not.

Regirock (#377)

Regi gaia

Regirock is one of the Legendary Giants, a quintet of different species of demigod Pokémon created by Regigigas. They are made of purely of rocks and stones, and they are embued with pure Rock-type elemental energy. No one knows how Regigigas made any of the Legendary Giants.

Regirocks are about 5’07 feet tall (1.7 M) and weigh around 507.1 pounds (230 kg)—which amounts to the height of a normal person but about 2-3 times as heavy.

Divinity: Demigod, created by Regigigas

Habitat: Regirocks are most likely to be found in mountains, canyons, deserts, or even ancient ruins. They prefer to be around places with lots of rocks.

Life Cycles: Regirocks are ancient Pokémon with no discernable life cycle or known life span. In these ancient times, all Regirocks were created by Regigigas in its image, forged from rocks from the very continents it towed into place. When a Regirock experiences chipping, it simply attaches a new rock to itself to cover up the chipping, and this heals it.

Relationship with Humans: Regirocks have been around since before humans descended from the trees of Africa and evolved to walk upright. They are mysterious beings of the mountains and canyons and deserts, who protect their homes with ferver and passion, but otherwise seem to exist quietly in their territories. They are the subject of many folktales, of heroes who have to contend with a Regirock who has sworn to protect sacred land or a castle, or perhaps the Regirock who belongs to a family that it protects with all its love. But for all their mystery and enigma, Regirocks have also been feared by humanity, and many have been locked away in Sealed Chambers by ancient peoples.

Regigigas bestowed upon the Legendary Giants a written language that became the basis for Braille. Should a Regirock wish to communicate in a way that humans can possibly hope to understand, it will communicate by writing in Regi-Braille.

Classification: The Legendary Giants are in their own kingdom of life, Regirexiae. This explicitly only includes the species that were created by Regigigas and their descendents. They are entirely incapable of breeding except specifically with Mew—but then again, anything can breed with Mews, that’s their whole thing.

Regice (#378)

Regi glacies

General Information: Regice is one of the Legendary Giants, a quintet of different species of demigod Pokémon created by Regigigas. They are made purely of crystallized ice-type energy—which is different from regular ice. Regice will never melt (though it may be weaker under intense sunlight and in hotter climates). How Regigigas made the Regices, no one knows.

Regices cloak themselves with sub-freezing air of -328 F (-200 C), thus immediately freezing anything near Regice. It can even survive being submerged in lava and other extremely hot temperatures. Regices are 5’11 feet tall (1.8 M) and 385.8 pounds (175 kg), or about the height of a reasonably Tall Fellow.

Divinity: Demigod, created by Regigigas

Habitat: Regices are most readily found in frozen climates such as Antarctica, the upper altitudes of the Himalayas, and glaciers.

Life Cycles: Regices are ancient Pokémon with no discernable life cycle or known life span. All Regices were created by Regigigas in its image, forged from the glaciers and icesheets of the Earth’s poles as Regigigas towed the continents into place. They sleep inside glaciers for upwards of thousands of years.

Relationship with Humans: Regices have been around since before humans descended from the tress of Africa and evolved to walk upright. They are mysterious beings of the glaciers and tundras of the Earth, who are known to sleep for generations in glaciers until roused. While they can be found in above-zero climates just fine, they prefer the cold, and thus it is the people of the Far North and Far South who are most familiar with these icy giants, where they are feared and revered for their mysterious powers. Some see them as dieties of the ice, some as gentle giants, others as guardians of sacred lands, and more. But for all their mystery and enigma, Regices have also been feared by humanity, with ancient societies locking them away inside Sealed Chambers, never to see the light of day again.

Regigigas bestowed upon the Legendary Giants a written language that became the basis for Braille. Should a Regice wish to communicate in a way that humans can possibly hope to understand, it will communicate by writing in Regi-Braille.

Registeel (#379)

Regi adamanteus

General Information: Registeel is one of the Legendary Giants, a quintet of different species of demigod Pokémon created by Regigigas. It is, perhaps, considered to be the first robot Pokémon, for it is a being composed of pure metal—including a core of a substance that is stronger and more flexible than any known metal. Its body cannot be scratched. How Regigigas made the Registeels, no one knows for sure. There’s different hypothesizes about its material. being of extraterrestrial origin, or perhaps it was made in the Earth’s mantle and tempered for thousands of years

Registeel is 6’03 feet tall (1.9 M) and 451.9 pounds (205 kg)

Divinity: Demigod, created by Regigigas

Habitat: Registeels can live anywhere, from mighty mountains to the forests of old, a Registeel may call it home.

Life Cycles: Regardless of the specifics of their origin, Registeels are ancient Pokémon that were created by Regigigas in its image, forged from something that is like metal but harder, sturdier, and far stretchier and more flexible than any metal seen on Earth.

Relationship with Humans: Registeels have been around since before humans descended from the trees of Africa and evolved to walk upright. They are mysterious beings that like to live inside mountains and ancient forests, enigmatic protectors of their homes, and the patience of ones who have seen eternity and will live long enough to see eternity again. Their relationship with humans is iffy, for they can be found in any terrestrial habitat, and are known to be protective of their homes to those who threaten it. In theory, Registeels are quite capable of amicable relationships with humans, for we, too, are part of the great balance of the world, but not all groups of humans are in a Registeel’s home for good reasons. For all their mystery and enigma, Registeels have been feared by humanity, and ancient societies have locked many away inside Sealed Chambers.

Regigigas bestowed upon the Legendary Giants a written language that became the basis for Braille. Should a Registeel wish to communicate in a way that humans can possibly hope to understand, it will communicate by writing in Regi-Braille.

Regieleki (#894)

Regi fulgur

General Information: Regieleki is one of the Legendary Giants, a quintet of different species of demigod Pokémon created by Regigigas. It is composed of pure electric-type energy, both magical and physical, and it feeds by absorbing free electrons in the air. Thus, nearby storms are incapable of generating lightning with Regieleki nearby. It is so powerful that it could theoretically power an entire small country’s energy needs, but good luck trying to hold one captive enough to achieve that. As with all the Regis, how Regigigas made a being of pure plasma is anyone’s guess.

Regieleki is 3’11 feet tall (1.2 M) and 319.7 pounds (145 kg).

Divinity: Demigod, created by Regigigas

Habitat: Regielekis can live anywhere, but prefer places with greater electrical charges.

Life Cycles: Regieleki are rare even amongst the Legendary Giants, an ancient species made by Regigigas in its image.

Relationship with Humans: Regielekis have been around since before humans descended from the trees of Africa and evolved to walk upright, and have been terrorizing humanity ever since. While Regirock, Regice, and Registeel are largely benign, Regielekis are extremely powerful beings of pure electricity who’s “gentle touch” is an electric shock. Whether these Regieleki are truly trying to inflict harm or not, is hard to say, but ancient peoples grew tired of their torments and sealed all of the Regielekis of the world in non-conductive bands, to minimize their power, and locked them away in Sealed Chambers with a greater passion than the other Legendary Giants received.

Regigigas bestowed upon the Legendary Giants a written language that became the basis for Braille. Should a Regieleki wish to communicate in a way that humans can possibly hope to understand, it will communicate by writing in Regi-Braille.

Regidrago (#895)

Regi draco

General Information: Regidrago is one of the Legendary Giants, a quintet of different species of demigod Pokémon created by Regigigas. It is composed of crystallized dragon-type energy, though how Regigigas made it is unknown.

Regidrago is 6’11 feet tall (2.1 M) and 440.9 pounds (200 kg).

Divinity: Demigod, created by Regigigas

Habitat: Regidrago can be found in any habitat, and is known to be an absurdly powerful guardian of its home.

Life Cycles: Regidrago is the rarest of all of the Legendary Giants—in fact, it is said there to be only one, though how true this is, is uncertain. The tale goes that Regidrago was the last of the Legendary Giants to be forged from Regigigas, as it spent the eons collecting crystallized dragon energy and gathering them in order to make Regidrago, but it ran out of crystals and was only able to make the head. Another tale tells of how the arms of Regidrago were originally the head of a mighty ancient dragon Pokémon.

Relationship with Humans: Regidrago is not as old as the other Legendary Giants, but to not mistake this for it being young. It may not have been around to see the first humans descend from the trees, but it was there when we were still being eaten by leopards, and it was there when the earth frozen over and over again in glacial maximums, and humans evolved to thrive as the Earth’s megafauna hunters. It is a fearsome beast with untold dragonic powers—so immense, that ancient humans feared the day that Regigigas would finish its greatest creation, that they locked Regidrago away inside a Sealed Chamber in the hopes that none others would ever have to live in fear of the ultimate dragon.

Regigigas bestowed upon the Legendary Giants a written language that became the basis for Braille. Should Regidrago wish to communicate in a way that humans can possibly hope to understand, it will communicate by writing in Regi-Braille.

~~~~~~~~

Hey guess what, if you like my stuff, this is my website where you can find other Pokémon I've written on and more information about the game that I’m slowly making! Check it out! I write books sometimes too.

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thecreaturecodex · 1 year

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Cobbleswarm

[The cobbleswarm first appeared in the Agents of Edgewatch AP, one of the first adventure paths for PF2e. They got reprinted in Bestiary 3, and were the low level version compared to the sturzstormer as a high level counterpart. The sturzstormer first appeared in PF1e as a genuine elemental, and I think I like that better. Still, I love cobble mites and cobbleswarms; they’re a weird bit of worldbuilding that makes Golarion seem more magical, and can come into play for low level groups.]

Cobbleswarm CR 2 N Aberration What appeared to be a mass of irregular cobblestones begins to move by rolling and shifting. Each of the little masses has a mouth, lined with crystalline teeth.

A cobbleswarm is an accumulation of tiny living rocks called cobble mites. Individually, they are basically harmless—they live inside of caves, eating guano, gravel and insects. In large numbers, they can be dangerous, as they work together to overwhelm prey like a swarm of army ants. Their name comes from their association with cobblestone roads. Cobble mites sleep very soundly following a large meal, and their even size and shape may encourage them to be collected and used to make a road. These cobble mites are usually content to feed on scraps of dropped food and manure, but may be startled into emerging by an explosion (such as fireworks), or get up and find food if they’re in an abandoned neighborhood.

A cobbleswarm senses its surroundings by sound, vibration and even a simple sense of smell, but are totally blind. They tend to freeze to protect themselves from larger vibrations (such as horses or wagons), but move towards smaller ones, especially if hungry or frightened. Creatures overcome by a cobbleswarm find their movement impeded by hundreds of shifting rocks, and those that are not strong enough are pulled to the ground and devoured.

A single cobble mite can be encouraged to live as a pet if well fed—they are considered cute by many, especially those with an affinity for earth and stone. A cobble mite can even be taken as a familiar. Treat a cobble mite familiar as a giant isopod with the aberration type, the earth subtype instead of the aquatic subtype, a burrow speed instead of a swim speed and the senses of a cobbleswarm. A cobble mite familiar grants its owner a +2 bonus on Fortitude saves.

Cobbleswarm CR 2 XP 600 N Tiny aberration (earth, swarm) Init +6; Senses blind, blindsight 40 ft., Perception +5, tremorsense 80 ft. Defense AC 16, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (+2 size, +1 Dex, +3 natural) hp 19 (3d8+6) Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +5 Immune gaze attacks, visual spells and effects Defensive Abilities half damage from slashing and piercing, swarm traits; Weakness vulnerable to area of effects Offense Speed 20 ft., burrow 10 ft. Melee swarm (1d6+1 plus grasping bites and distraction) Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft. Special Attacks distraction (DC 13), shifting stones Statistics Str 12, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 3, Wis 12, Cha 7 Base Atk +2; CMB -; CMD 13 Feats Ability Focus (grasping bites), Improved Initiative Skills Climb +5, Perception +5, Stealth +13 (+21 on stone); Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth in stony environments Languages Terran (cannot speak) Ecology Environment underground or urban Organization solitary or mine (2-5) Treasure none Special Abilities Grasping Bites (Ex) A creature that takes damage from a cobbleswarm must succeed a DC 14 Reflex save or fall prone and take 1d6 points of damage. The save DC is Strength based. Shifting Stones (Ex) A cobbleswarm’s area is treated as difficult terrain.

#cobbleswarm #cobble mite #pathfinder 1e #pathfinder 2e #familiar

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maniculum · 4 months

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Bestiaryposting Results: Fekthrud

Happy Liminalmas, everybody! We've got fewer results than usual this week, which I would speculatively credit to a variety of factors:

Weird liminal space at the end of the year

It's Another Bird

Not a ton of fun details

It's easy to guess what the animal is

Anyhow, if you want to see the context for this, the page where I collect these posts is here: https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting. (Hmm -- looks like I forgot to update the page last time around. Maybe that's part of the issue too.) And the entry that people are working from is here:

So, our results, roughly chronologically:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has given us these very well-rendered pheasant-like creatures. They've given their Fekthrud a head like a Pachycephalosaurus*, which I think is a great way to interpret the whole business about the hard skull; like, that had not occurred to me when reading the entry, but now that I see it, it makes perfect sense. In general these are excellent birds here, and you can see some brief notes on design decisions in the post linked above. I like the justification that a ground bird makes the most sense if they're adapted for falling on rocks and/or running into stuff head-first.

*Proud of myself for spelling "pachycephalosaurus" correctly without looking -- being a former Dinosaur Kid pays weird niche dividends.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) continues to impress with her medieval-style drawings. (And to provide alt-text, thank you.) I really like how colorful and generally very pretty she's made her Fekthrud. I also appreciate the decision to show them attacking someone who is trying to take that "iron rod" advice. Very correct response -- get 'em, birds. If you click the link to her post above, you can see some discussion of design decisions.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has made the excellent decision to pose their Fekthrud like it's giving a speech. (And the generous decision to provide alt text, thank you.) This bird absolutely looks like it's saying "Ave!" -- I can clearly imagine it addressing the Roman Senate. Cheapsweets has also taken inspiration from Pachycephalosaurus, and I love that two of our artists got there independently -- like I said, it's an idea that makes perfect sense once you think of it. The post linked above contains a detailed discussion both of their design decision and of their artistic process, including an image of their tools and materials. Go read it.

@pomrania (link to post here) has decided that, rather than make the actual bone of the Fekthrud's skull thick. it should have a thick cushion of feathers. I don't know much about birds, but I feel like that makes sense: thick and heavy bone might be a weight issue if this thing is supposed to fly, so a feather cushion might be more practical protection. The goofy look with the tongue lolling out is also quite charming. In the post linked above, you can see some brief notes on design and process.

And... that's it for this week. Like I said, not a lot of people did this one. So, the Aberdeen Bestiary version:

Yeah, so, of course this one is the parrot.

The medieval illustrator is actually pretty close, I think. And they've used one of my favorite styles of Generic Medieval Plant, even though it doesn't look like it can support the parrot's weight.

The entry is broadly accurate, except for the bit about the skull and the iron rod. There are parrots in India with the coloration described -- multiple species, actually, as far as I can tell. They do talk, though I can't speak to the tongue anatomy thing.

Moreover, if you were a parrot trainer in India who wanted to impress medieval Europeans with your talking birds -- maybe so you can establish demand for them in a new market -- of course the first thing you'd do is train your parrots to greet people in Latin and Greek. Latin is the obvious catch-all, and Greek is the majority language in Constantinople, which is the trade hub you want to target. So I bet all the parrots from India that medieval Europeans saw really did say "Ave!" and "Kere!" (And we do know that people in the Byzantine Empire had pet parrots, so I guess it worked.)

I've never heard the thing about parrots having a hard skull and beak. I kind of wonder if, at some point, someone saw a parrot being struck by its owner (or the aforementioned hypothetical merchant) and asked if it was really necessary to beat the poor bird like that -- and got a line like "oh, they have really hard skulls, it doesn't hurt them as much as you think"... and then that just stuck.

Anyway, that's it for this week. Hope y'all are enjoying Birds because you're getting another one next week.

#maniculum bestiaryposting #fekthrud

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