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dailyadventureprompts · 8 months

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Adventure: Through the Vine

Surrounded by some of the most coveted vineyards on the continent, your party sits in the shaded garden and listens to the old alchemist explaining why she needs your help getting drunk enough to see the face of god.

Every adventurer knows the name Ultani, at least those with coin and taste enough to order bottles of wine when they and their friends hit up a tavern after a delve. What an irony then for one of the Ultani family to ask for THEM at her table, and with a business proposition of all things.

Bent with age but bright of eye, Ivilia Ultani needs their help tracking down the location of an abandoned druid sanctum in the far wilderness and retrieving fruit sacred to the god of vintners and healers left over from a disastrous ritual. Her reasons? Apparently after decades perusing the alchemical mysteries Ivilia got her hands on a bottle blessed by the wine-god himself, and spent four days in a state of drunken revelation pencilling out her magnum opus. The bottle and her inspiration dry just before she finished, so rather than waiting years trying to trial and error the last piece or searching for another bottle she's decided to make some of her own.

Along the way the party will contend with family drama, the cutthroat politics of the wine trade, and the long echoing consequences of stealing from merciful gods. For their troubles they'll not only earn the thanks of a talented alchemist, but also potentially a new home should they hold true to their task.

Setup: Though she is the oldest of her of her merchant clan Ivilia is not the head of the Ultani winery. Her younger brother Valtar had the talent for cultivation and business while she veered towards eccentric scholarship, now Valtar's adult grandchildren run the business and the numerous sprawling vineyards associated with it while she lives in learned obscurity on the original family homestead.

While she occasionally helps out whit a new formulation of fertilizer or pest repellent, Ivilia is rather distant from the rest of the Ultani family who view her as a bit of a kook, who all to often uses her inherited share of the enterprise to buy obscure texts or finance futile experiments.

Challenges & Complications:

Actually finding the sanctum is going to be half the problem. Druidic orders are notoriously protective about the location of their secret clubhouses, and this order was scattered to the wind more than a century ago. Ivilia has tracked down the vague location where she thinks the sanctum might be, but unless the party wants to spend days combing the dangerous wilderness they're going to need to track down a more reliable source. Parsing through local rumours and records gives them three leads, an elf who still provides council to the local Count (goodluck getting an appointment), a vaguely helpful ditty that was recounted to a local bard (since dramatized in endless retelling), and an elder of the order who flew back to his home village in the shape of a falcon. Investigating the latter finds that the elder was apparently so scarred by what he'd seen at the sanctum that he transformed himself into a tree and has spent the intervening decades letting his mind and memory lignify.

The Sanctum itself and the landscape that surrounds it has been scarred by an act of divine wrath that still lingers in the form of dangerous fey and choking vines. Roots have undermined the walls and foundations, making chambers all to easy to collapse. In the centre of this ruin lays the undead corpse of Elmgrace , a once famed elven healer who sought the boon of the god Litirenn only to try and use that gift to reign the god towards his own purposes. Resentful at this deception Litirenn unleashed havoc on the sanctum, cursing Elmgrace never to die, never to rot, and never to rejoin the cycle of nature. Forever vinebound to the same altar he intended for the deity, Elmgrace's few last fanatical followers still tend to his broken body, attempting to brew up more potent poisons that will finally "free" their teacher from his torment.

Unfortunately, the fruit the party needs to pluck grows only from the plants impaling Elmgrace's body, which his followers are very protective of. Even after the party races through the wilderness and back to civilization with their prize they'll need to look over their shoulder for toxin obsessed cultists stalking their trail.

Further Adventures:

Milo Ultani has something to prove, the oldest of four siblings and a gaggle of cousins poised to inherit the winery he was raised to value hard work and loyalty to the family above all else. All his life it has irked him that his great aunt was allowed to dwell in their ancestral home, some of the nicest land his family owns, leaching off their enterprise like a withered limb. What finally drives him to act is Ivilia offhandedly mentioning that she intends to sign over her house and land to the party as a reward for helping her drink her way to enlightenment again. Resentment turns to rage in the young man's mind as a plan begins to form; A vine must be pruned in order to be fruitful after all.

When the party return with the godly fruit they're going to find Ivilia gone, her home broken into during the night her bed a mess of red that at first seems to be blood, but is infact wine. Surrounded by experts it doesn't take long for the vino in question to be identified as belonging to Jadash Hill, one of the Ultani's oldest rivals who are known for their unscrupulous business practices. It's at this point that Milo comes forward, reporting that some of their carters had gotten into brawls with those from Jadash Hill at a local tollhouse, sending the bastards packing and ignoring their threats of reprisal as idle boasting. This did indeed happen, but only because Milo is in charge of part of the family's delivery operation and instigated the fight himself.

The clock is ticking, the party has a bushel of miracle fruit that's going to rot and the alchemist they were supposed to deliver it to is nowhere to be seen. They can either find Ivilia quick, figure out a method of preserving the fruit, or read through her notes and attempt to concoct the divine wine themselves.

However badly he thinks of her, Milo would never kill his great aunt, having instead had his loyal carters drag her off to a small cottage on the edge of a property the family was keeping fallow for the year. In his reckoning the old woman won't live much longer, and while the emerging feud with Jadash hill keeps the family busy he can figure out a better place to keep his great aunt locked up. He wasn't delicate in his planning but he moves fast and the influence he has with the workforce as the presumptive heir cannot be overstated.

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#dnd #dungeons and dragons #d&d #ttprg #pathfinder #adventure #dungeon #player home #Alchemy #mid level #low level #Litirenn #field #Forest #druid #patron merchant #dungeon forest #dungeon jungle

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gothcowgrimm · 9 months

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What we know about the Ogham alphabet is wrong.

well, some of it.

We know that a lot of what the Druids practiced is shrouded in mystery because they didn’t use written word. We know they’ve been around since at least the first century BC, but a lot of what we know now is thanks to outsiders, especially the Romans.

That being said, there are modern scholars who have done their due diligence in interpreting Ogham, and there are many theories on what the letters refer to. Of course, the overarching agreement is that each letter refers to a tree, but I think it is important to recognize that that is technically wrong.

According to scholars like McManus, only 8 of the letters actually refer specifically to trees.

While this is true, it is also important to realize that the kennings often allude to trees or possibly allude to them.

A different scholar, MacCoitir, has re-interpreted the old-irish kennings, specifically in reference to trees.

It would certainly be nice to say there is one definitive and correct way to interpret the kennings and what their correspondences are, but the cryptic nature of the Bríatharogam lists leave things somewhat open to interpretation. Unfortunately, the most common Ogham list is based on evaluations of translations of medieval Irish into modern English. This standard list has not been challenged for a long time, but that changed in 2003 with the publication of Niall MacCoitir’s work.

What MacCoitir has done is return to the early legal tracts such as Bretha Comaithchesa, cross-referencing it with the oldest extant versions of the Bríatharogaim Maic ind Óc, Bríatharogaim Con Culainn and Bríatharogaim Morainn mic Moín. He also points out that much of the terminology surrounding Ogham refers specifically to the parts of trees/bushes, which is further indication that the alphabet is almost definitely a tree alphabet.

The letters themselves are referred to as feda or fid in the singular, which means respectively ‘wood’ and ‘tree’. The consonants are also called táebomnai, which translates into ‘The side of a tree-trunk’. The druim (edge/ridge) on which the letters are written was originally vertical, like a tree trunk, with the horizontal druim coming into favour with the use of paper or vellum. The spines or lines that comprise the individual letters (on the druim) are referred to as flesc, which translates as twig. So from the above terminology it is quite clear that the alphabet has a connection with trees and bushes.

Even with this knowledge, the most common Ogham lists include plants - vine, ivy, heather, fern, reed, and honeysuckle. Reed and fern do not have either a trunk or twigs, so we can immediately dismiss them. Heather does not have a trunk, and whether you could define its low, fine growth as twigs remains something to be debated. The remaining plants are not trees. They are parasitic in as much as they need a host to climb up – either a wall or a tree in most cases.

On the basis that the plants mentioned above are not trees and do not possess the qualities associated with the Ogham terminology one is left with the task of looking for viable alternative interpretations, based on the source material – which is exactly what MacCoitir has done.

From here, I will give a simple list of what should be replaced, and what the replacement is. If you would like to read why, you can find the post below

• Nin/Nuin - re-translated to ‘staple enjoyment or supply of the otherworld’, ‘boast of women’ and ‘boast of beauty’. The widely accepted tree for this is Ash, but MacCoitir replaces it with Cherry.

• Muin - re-translated to ‘Strongest in action’, ‘Most noble goodliness’, ‘Proverb of slaughter/rottenness’ and ‘Path of the voice’. Can also mean ‘neck’, ‘love’, ‘trick’ or possibly ‘thicket’. The widely accepted plant for this is Vine, but MacCoitir replaces it with Buckthorn.

• Gort - re-translates to ‘Sweetest grass’, Greenest pasture’, ‘Suitable place for cows’ and ‘Satisfaction of all’. The widely accepted plant for this is Ivy, but MacCoitir suggests Gorse.

• Onn - re-translates to ‘Wounder/helper of horses’, ‘Smoothest of Craftmanship.’ and ‘Sustenance of warriors’. The widely accepted plant for this is Ivy, but MacCoitir suggests Ash.

• Úr - re-translates to ‘In cold dwellings’, ‘Most devoted sharing’, ‘Propagation/dripping of plants’ and ‘Shroud of a lifeless one’. The widely accepted plant for this is heather, but MacCoitir suggests Elm.

Of the five supplementary letters, used for rendering Greek and Latin words, MacCoitir disagrees on two of the commonly accepted list.

• Uilen - retranslates to ‘elbow/angle’ and ‘most fragrant tree’. The widely accepted plant for this is honeysuckle, but MacCoitir suggest Juniper.

• Emancholl - re-translates to ‘twin of hazel’. The widely accepted tree for this is Beech, but MacCoitir suggests Hazel.

This list by no means is meant to replace the current meanings, but is meant to encourage a re-evaluation of the most commonly accepted Ogham list(s).

#druidry #druidism #ogham #ogham alphabet #celtic #celticism #witchcraft #witchblr

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pigeon-princess · 9 months

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If you've ever wanted to know about our Curse of Strahd campaign this is a summary of everything so far. We have been playing for over a year so it's a very long read!

We are about halfway through the campaign so there are still a few major plot points and important NPCs that we have not encountered yet so please no spoilers in any tags, questions or responses!

Our campaign has a few added homebrew elements, extended lore from the novels and some NPCs that have been added/changed by our DM so some things will vary from the source book!

Disclaimers: Spoilers below the cut for major Curse of Strahd plot points in Vallaki, Argynvostholt, Dinner at Ravenloft, Wizard of Wines and more.

Our party members:

Benoit - Tiefling Druid (Circle of Stars)

Silas Shaw - Human Wizard (Order of Scribes)

Lucius “Thornhill”- Aasimar Paladin (Oath of devotion) (+ his golden retriever summoned familiar called Dog)

Benoit was looking for a way into Barovia Valley to search for his missing mentor who was looking into the situation happening with the Dusk Elves.

Lucius, a paladin with a sordid past, was following a mysterious letter from a “Kolyan Indirovich” who apparently needed help to save the love of his life.

Silas was desperately trying to get out of the city after escaping his abusive mother who kept him sick and locked in their dilapidated home, while also hoping to get any information about his absent wizard father.

ENTERING BAROVIA

The party started their journey at the Elfsong Tavern in Balder’s Gate.

The unlikely group of three made their way into Barovia Valley, following the road until they were quickly lost in the mists.

While camping on the first night, Silas had a very vivid dream of being trapped back in his house. He had lost the ability to walk again and had to crawl through a pool of blood to rescue his father’s spellbook that had been cast into the fire.

On the road, the party discovered the body of a dead man. His pockets contained another version of Kolyan’s letter (seemingly the real one) detailing a vampire attack on his daughter Ireena Kolyana.

The group arrived in Barovia Village where they met Ismark at the Blood of the Vine Tavern. Discovering that his father Kolyan (The Burgomaster of Barovia Village) had recently died, drunk and distressed, Ismark further explained the attacks from Strahd von Zarovich (A vampire and the dark lord of Barovia Valley) on his sister Ireena.

The party agreed to help Ismark bury his father and assist in finding a safer place for Ireena to stay.

While staying in the Burgomaster’s house. Luci experienced a dream in a beautiful church, where a faceless man stood in the flames of a burning pyre. The figure invited Luci to come and sit with him.

The group assisted Ireena and Ismark in getting their father’s coffin to the local church and there they met Father Donovich. After hearing screaming from the floor beneath, Ismark attempted to force his way into the cellar and Donovich started to grapple him. Silas cast levitate on Father Donovich, sending him high into the rafters of the church. The group discovered Doru in the basement, Donovich’s son who had been turned into a vampire spawn.

With the horrible condition Doru was in the party decided that a mercy killing was the only solution. The party locked a crying Donovich in a spare room and sent Ismark and Ireena outside. Silas firmly stayed upstairs while Luci and Benoit went down to put Doru out of his misery.

Doru fought back, making an escape for the stairs and scaring the absolute shit out of Silas who then cast fireball for the first time. This completely annihilated Doru. His burning corpse tumbled down the stairs and landed right at Lucius’s feet, a vivid memory of the burning man from his dream resurfacing.

In a solemn mood, the party burned what remained of Kolyan and Doru in the graveyard.

A supernatural mist surrounded the party and large wolves began to attack. Combat commenced and after the fight, the party got their first glance of Strahd. He appeared on horseback from a distance before turning and leaving.

OLD BONEGRINDER

The group decided to head towards Vallaki, in hopes that the Church of St Andral would be consecrated ground where Ireena would be safe from Strahd.

The party encountered a woman selling “Dream Pies” to soulless people. They saw a couple give their child to the woman in exchange for pies and the little girl was thrown into a sack.

Lucius insisted that the party needed to intervene and much to Silas’s annoyance, they followed the woman towards the mill known as Old Bonegrinder.

Just outside of Old Bonegrinder, the party discovered their first megalith and saw that the shrine was desecrated with teeth. A very large raven flew over and was clearly trying to communicate something about the teeth to the party.

The group stormed into Old Bonegrinder and began combat with two hags, the third one apparently still out.

During combat the party realised that one of the Hags had turned herself into Ismark, shoving the real Ismark into the oven.

After dragging Ismark out of the oven and saving him by mere seconds, the party managed to make it out alive as the entire Bonegrinder burnt to the ground. Luckily saving the little girl in the process.

Running over from the megalith, the raven turned into a person and the party met Falkon Targolov for the first time. A wereraven and relative of the Martikov family. He said he was planning to take down the hags himself and that he worked for a group called the Keepers of the Feather.

VALLAKI

The group agreed to meet with Falkon later at the Bluewater Inn and before long, finally arrived in Vallaki.

They made a very quick beeline to the Church of St Andral, but were surprised by the four fresh gravestones out front that listed everyone's names, excluding Ireena.

As soon as Luci’s familiar was able to cross the threshold of the church, being a demonic creature, Luci could immediately sense that the church was not consecrated.

Lucius spoke with Father Lucien Petrovich, inquiring about the graves and asking if he could take in the little girl with the other orphans at the church.

Father Lucien explained that the graves were recently commissioned and he would look into the records. Sensing that Luci was a man of god, he admitted that the bones of St Andral that usually kept the church consecrated had been stolen.

Silas attempted to have a conversation with a boy called Milivoj who was digging the graves and completely embarrassed himself.

While heading to the inn, the group walked past the Burgomaster's mansion and saw a bright pink flash of energy from the attic. Silas recognised the flash as a spell going off and was immediately intrigued.

Outside the inn the party saw a colourful caravan with "Rictavio's Carnival of Wonders" painted on the side. Silas attempted to look inside but bailed when he heard a growl from behind the bars.

The party met the owners of the Bluewater Inn, Urwin and Danika Martikov and their sons - all wereravens like Falkon.

Falkon arrived soon after looking battered, carrying an ancient looking book. He had apparently defeated the last hag by himself.

Falkon took them up to his room in the cramped attic called the Raven Loft. Silas asked hesitantly, “Do you… pay to live here?” And Falkon said “No.” To which Silas replied, “Good.”

Benoit helped translate the parts of the book that were in druidic. They learnt about the history of the valley, including the Delmorians and the Fanes.

Falkon asked the party for assistance with the druids who had taken over the Wizard of Wines.

Later that night, the party met Karl and Nikolai Wachter and played a game of cards with them, learning more about the political situation in Vallaki, the Burgomaster’s family and the constant festivals.

That night Benoit had a dream of the Gulthias tree burning and spoke with a ghostly dusk elf woman called Petrina.

The following morning the party met the owner of the caravan, Rictavio. He told them he had a monkey but gave it to Blinksy the toymaker.

BURGOMASTER'S ATTIC

On the way back to the church of St Andral, Silas begged the party to peek in the attic at the Burgomaster’s mansion. Through various means of levitating and flying the party broke into the top floor.

The door on the far end had a ward that electrocuted Luci when he went to knock.

Inside the party found a workshop belonging to the baronet, Viktor Vallakovich. After snooping around and admiring the skeleton cats, the party discovered a faulty teleportation circle. It was only when Luci tried to destroy the circle with a dagger that Viktor revealed himself from his invisibility spell and attempted to stop him.

He immediately said he would have us all arrested for breaking in since he was the Burgomaster’s son. The party had a long and tense conversation with him, discussing his experiments to find a way out of Barovia. He talked about exploding a few of his maids in the process and the treatment of his once promised fiancee, Stella Wachter, who he modified her memory into believing she was a cat. He mentioned important books and information at Wachterhaus (The Wachter family’s home) that he believed would be useful.

Silas was ecstatic about meeting another wizard for the first time; the party was less enthusiastic.

At the church, Luci and Benoit found a fish hook near where the bones had been stolen from. The party learnt that Milivoj was the one who took the bones and that would usually help a fisherman called Bluuto out on Lake Zarovich.

LAKE ZAROVICH

Travelling to the Lake, the party stopped by the Vistani camp There they found out about the missing 7 year old oracle, Arabelle.

The party spoke briefly with Kassimir the dusk elf, Benoit mentioning the dreams with Petrina and learnt that she was once Kassimir’s sister and engaged to Strahd. He asked for assistance with ancient knowledge at the Amber Temple.

At the lake the party managed to stop Bluuto attempting to sacrifice Arabelle to the lake by throwing her overboard in a sack.

Silas levitated him and in his dying breaths he said “The feast…two days” before biting his tongue and dying. Great.

After bringing Arabelle home safely, she gave the part Tarokka readings which mentioned a tome of ancient knowledge, a sword of sunlight and an artefact of protection.

FESTIVAL OF THE BLAZING SUN

The party returned to Vallaki before the festival of the blazing sun.

That night Silas received a dream where he spoke directly to Strahd - Strahd gave Silas the ability to finally open his fathers spellbook. Scared of the party’s reaction, Silas decided not to tell anyone about it.

Shortly after the dream, Silas snuck out at 3am to go over to the Burgomasters mansion. He levitated up to Viktor’s bedroom and asked if he would be interested in sharing spells. It was only when Silas mentioned his father's spell book that Viktor took an interest.

The next day was the festival of the blazing sun. The party attended the bizarre display hosted by Vargus the Burgomaster and a very sad band.

From the crowd Silas tried to get Viktor’s attention on the podium. Viktor did a spinning motion with his finger telling Silas to spin in a circle, which he did immediately to Viktor's amusement. Luci hurriedly told Silas to cut it out.

It started to rain as the guards failed to light the wicker sun, and when one guard started to laugh, Vargus ordered him to be killed.

Before the party could intervene they quickly discovered that the Wachter brothers had released a sabertooth tiger into the streets, one that was apparently in Rictavio’s caravan.

After a lot of running around, rescuing an injured Nikolai and herding the creature out of town, they managed to get the tiger back into the caravan.

Rictavio told them he would be leaving, before giving a very stern talking to Silas where his poor deception revealed he had spoken with Strahd. Rictavio promptly removed a tracking spell that Strahd had put on Silas’s spellbook.

WACHTERHAUS + LORD VASILI

Taking advantage of the fact that Nikolai had gotten hurt, the party went over to Wachterhaus to check on him while also snooping around. Silas got his arm stuck in the fence while trying to get inside.

Karl informed them that his mother currently had a guest staying over called Lord Vasili von Holz.

After meeting Vasili who was surprised to find the entire party snooping around the small library, he invited them all to have dinner with him.

The party had a pleasant evening with Lady Wachter and Vasili, hearing all about Lady Wachter’s dissatisfaction with the current leader of Vallaki.

The next day the party discovered that Silas's spellbook could directly copy the contents of other books within a 8-10 ft radius. This included important documents from Wachterhaus and all of Luci’s personal diary which Silas had been reading secretly every night.

Reading his father's book, Silas also found out that his father was Otto (Inventor of Otto's Irresistible Dance), a famous wizard and bard who was close friends of Mordenkainen. Silas was utterly humiliated that his father was a Bard Wizard but was more gutted to realise that Otto had died 2 years prior at the hands of Vecna.

THE FEAST

With no new leads on the missing bones, the party went on a search through Vallaki. Silas decided to attach his spellbook to Falkon in raven form so he could fly around and look for any clues with a detect magic spell.

Finding a strong source of magic, the party very aggressively barged into the coffin maker's shop at the edge of town. Once again terrorising and killing an elderly man as he ran through Benoit's Spike Groth spell.

Not only did the party manage to find the bones, but also an entire shop filled with vampire spawn.

An intense combat ensued where the party was completely swarmed. Silas managed to dimension door out with Ismark while Luci jumped from the second floor skewering a vampire spawn and crushing it with the weight of his armour.

The city fell into complete chaos with buildings on fire and citizens being killed by vampires left and right. This was “The Feast” that Bluuto had mentioned.

The party ran into Vasili who was protecting a group of children from two vampire spawn. With his help the party managed to get to the Church of St Andral just in time to meet Anastrasya, a full blooded vampire and one of Strahd’s wives.

She killed Father Lucien in front of the party and then turned her attention to Vasili where she called him “Dear” and exposed him as Strahd Von Zarovich in disguise. (We all screamed at the table)

To protect the party, Luci handed over the bones to Strahd and in return he promised to clean up Anastrasya’s mess.

Due to a poor perception check from Luci and many bad rolls in the future, Luci continues to see Strahd in his handsome Vasili form throughout the campaign.

The party facing the aftermath of The Feast

LEAVING VALLAKI

Safely back at the Bluewater Inn, Luci had a dream where he spoke with Strahd in the church of St Andral. Strahd handed the ownership of the church over to Luci and asked him to fix it up.

Silas insisted that the party should allow Viktor to travel with them, saying "I need to bring him along to teach me more spells." And Ismark replied snarkily "Oh yeah? He's going to teach you spells? How is he going to teach you? Is he going to teach you orally? with tongue?!" And Silas flew into a complete fit of rage and embarrassment.

The party investigated Wachterhaus again, finding the long dead body of Lady Wachter's husband hidden in their bedroom but also finding the Tome of Strahd in a box of bones.

The party told Karl and Nikolai about the body and encouraged them to get out of town and head to Kresk.

In the chaos that followed, the party made plans to leave town as soon as possible, with their sights set on Argynvostholt where Luci’s tarokka reading spoke of a sword of sunlight.

With a revolt happening against the Burgomaster, Silas told Viktor to meet them at the Bluewater Inn. He waited for Viktor like a nervous war wife while Luci and Ismark went to look at Luci’s new church. On the way there they saw Lady Wachter leading a mob against the Burgomaster and his wife and allowed them to carry on. While the Burgomaster’s Mansion was set on fire, Luci and Ismark continued to clean up the church and had a heart to heart conversation.

Falkon dragged Viktor into the inn by the scruff of his collar and with no home left to return to, Silas invited Viktor to travel with them. He very quickly agreed to tag along. The party were mostly outraged but Luci firmly said "Make your choices, Silas."

That night Strahd talked with Luci again in his dreams, this time by a lake from Luci’s hometown. The following morning Luci woke up with an invitation for the entire party to a dinner at Castle Ravenloft scheduled in the next few days. Ireena adamantly insisted that she wanted to go to give Strahd a piece of her mind.

Silas was becoming increasingly jealous that Strahd was now only contacting Luci.

The party found a scroll of resurrection that was left by Rictavio. The scroll was given to Ireena to hold onto.

THE ROAD TO ARGYNVOSTHOLT

With a huge travelling party consisting of Falkon, Viktor, Ismark, Ireena, Luci, Benoit and Silas, the group grabbed new winter clothes, got their weapons silvered and bought horses from the Vistani for their trip up the mountain.

Just off the main road out of Vallaki, Luci, Ismark and Benoit stumbled on a body strung up between two trees, yellow flowers and fungi growing from his chest with druidic writing written across the stones.

When a storm started to get too strong, the group found shelter in an abandoned cabin.

The party took some time to read Strahd’s tome (We are using the interactive tome) learning about his childhood and the battle of Argynvostholt. They learnt about his right hand Rahadin the dusk elf and his best friend Alek Guilym who looked not exactly the same but very similar to Luci. They found information about his brother Sergei, the sun sword that he wielded and Tatyana, a woman identical to Ireena.

Within the tome, Benoit had a very important conversation with a woman called Lysaga who he quickly realised was still alive from hundreds of years ago and was very aware that she was communicating through a book.

Silas asked Viktor if he would form a wizard alliance with him.

On the way up the side of the mountain, the group met a Vistani man called Arrigal, who told them he was looking for a horse thief called Esmerelda - The party learnt that Esmerelda is a vampire hunter and was once a student of Van Richten. (Silas's favourite author and famous monster hunter)

Inside Argynvostholt the group stole a bunch of stuff from Godfrey Guilym’s room and absolutely decimated some revenants in an overkill combat (This incredible combat involved Luci’s insanely strong addon damage, a moonbeam spell revealing Falkon’s true form and a double fireball spell from Silas and Viktor.)

In one of the hallways, the party saw a line of marble busts. For a moment one appeared as Benoit's decapitated head. Benoit called Strahd pathetic for trying to scare him. They realised that Strahd harbours a lot of resentment as he is unable to contact Benoit through dreams like he can with the rest of the party.

Speaking with the revenant of Godfrey (And sheepishly returning his stolen property), he let us know that the revenant of Vladimir Horngaard was the one who had the sun sword.

The party had an absolutely agonising (and incredible) combat against Vladimir. Luci was caught in close quarters and was pinned to the ground, having his head smashed against the ground over and over by Vladimir, leaving him dead.

Once Vladimir was defeated and the sun sword obtained, Ireena used the scroll of resurrection to bring Luci back to life (He now has a fear of fire). Ismark being unable to stop Vladimir in the fight took Luci's death very personally.

The party returned back to Arrigal’s campsite in silence, getting a short sleep in before they were expected to be picked up for their dinner at Castle Ravenloft.

Strahd’s black carriage arrived and the party gave the tome to Falkon for safe-keeping and agreed to meet back up again at the Wizard of Wines.

Although he was not invited, Viktor decided that he was also going to attend the dinner and faced the realisation that he was no longer the Burgomaster's son.

DINNER WITH STRAHD

The exhausted party arrived at the gates of Castle Ravenloft and were met by Rahadin. Just being within his "deathly choir" aura took a bunch of hit points off Silas.

They met Strahd at the grand staircase, Luci still completely covered in his own blood.

Strahd was unimpressed by their attire and with Viktor being an uninvited guest. He informed them he had already selected new clothes for them to wear and that Rahadin would escort them to the guest wing.

When Silas hesitated to follow Rahadin up the stairs, the deathly choir got louder, making Silas collapse on the stairs.

In the guest wing they met Escher, Strahd's newest consort. They had already heard a lot about Escher from Falkon as they were dating before Escher decided to leave and turn into a vampire.

The party in their dinner outfits

After changing into new clothes, Escher refused to take the group downstairs.

When the party arrived in the dining hall by themselves, Strahd had very purposefully arranged the seating plan. Ireena on his left and Luci directly on his right.

Silas’s jealousy of Strahd's attention towards Luci was starting to boil over at this point.

At the table they met the other brides, Ludmilla and Anastrasya again - they were informed that Volenta was currently out.

After directing Ireena to sit, Strahd said “This seat is for Ireena’s brother.” And when Ismark went to sit, Strahd instructed “No, no. not you.” and made him sit one seat over.

As the dinner started, a new person entered the room, a bodyguard working for Strahd called Izek. He was very confused when Strahd told him to dine with us. The party discovered that Izek was Ireena’s real biological brother who she believed had died when they were children.

The very awkward dinner continued.

Benoit started up a charming conversation with Ludmilla. Since she wanted to discuss some more sensitive topics, Ludmilla stood and told Strahd very boldly she would be getting more wine from downstairs with Benoit. Strahd watched in silent fury as they left the room.

After Luci accidentally mentioned that he had died earlier that day, Strahd stood from the table and politely asked if Luci would join him for a walk since he had something to show him.

Luci turned to Silas as he stood and said “I’ll just be a few minutes” and Silas replied with the most sarcastic and acidic “Sure.”

With Benoit and Luci both gone from the table, completely filled with rage and jealousy, Silas grabbed a wine bottle and began to drink heavily.

PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS

Strahd had a very intimate conversation with Luci, taking him to his study and showing him the brand new red and black platemail armour that he had commissioned specifically for him.

Luci bashfully replied saying “Red is not really my colour.” Strahd smiled and said, “Well that’s not true, you looked beautiful in red when you arrived here.” referring to when Luci arrived covered in blood. Strahd casually offered Luci the idea of companionship and the opportunity to do good work in Barovia, and Luci hesitated leaving the answer vague but not turning down the offer down completely.

Benoit downstairs in the wine cellar saw the dead body of Milivoj and a number of others strung up in the basement, blood being drained from their bodies and into wine barrels.

He took note but continued his conversation with Ludmilla, asking her what she would do if Strahd was no longer in the picture and organised to meet up with her in the library after dinner to discuss further.

Drunk Silas started to pick fights with Ismark, asking if everyone was going to let Luci get away with this.

Silas demanded that Izek take him and Viktor to look at Strahd’s Library.

In the library Viktor started to hunt through books while Silas had a really pleasant and sobering conversation with Izek. Learning that he seemed to be a very kind hearted man in a difficult situation. He even asked “What's a wizard?” to Silas’s absolute surprise and horror.

Silas offered to lend some of his books to Izek, asked about his job and if there was a chance he’d be able to travel with them for a short time,with the hope he could speak properly with Ireena.

After Viktor found castle floor plans, Silas attempted a high five but since neither of them had ever done one before, they ended up just touching their palms together for a weird amount of time before both awkwardly shrugging it off.

Benoit, Ludmilla, Luci and Strahd arrived back to realise three people were no longer at the table.

As the library trio were about to leave, Izek opened the door to reveal Strahd standing in the hallway.

Izek immediately took the fall for Silas and lied saying that he offered to take them to the Library. Strahd told Izek and Viktor to leave and Viktor left Silas behind without even a second glance.

Strahd offered Silas the role of his successor and Silas's response was extremely sceptical. Strahd also mentioned that apparently the famous monster hunter Van Richten wants to kill Silas since he has Strahd's Tome. Silas is Van Richten's biggest fan and was extremely concerned and confused about this information.

The party all returned to the table. Luci asked Ismark if he was doing alright, and Ismark looked at Luci baffled saying "Why is it when something bad happens to you, you're always asking me if I'm alright? You're the one who just died."

Silas started an argument that Luci's death was more traumatic for him because he had to watch it happen.

After dinner Strahd decided to give a tour of the castle, leaving Viktor alone at the table with the brides.

As they were leaving the dining room Strahd pulled Benoit aside and threatened him saying “Conspire with my wife again and I’ll have you killed.” Benoit stared him down defiantly said “Ok. Sure.”

During the tour, out of spite Benoit revealed to everyone that he had found Milivoj dead and strung up in the wine cellar. Strahd furiously decided that the tour was over and that Izek would escort the party to their rooms for the night.

AFTER DINNER CHAOS

The post dinner conversations were very tense, the party sharing what Strahd had said to them. While Viktor was away the party raised concerns about his lack of participation in the fight that led to Luci’s death, to which Silas was very defensive.

Benoit went to talk privately with Ludmilla in the Library. He learnt more about the Druids at Yester Hill and the location of his mentor. Benoit very casually asked if she'd let him stay the night with her and having already endeared himself, she gave him a once over and nodded calmly allowing him to follow her to her room. (We all started to cheer for Benoit at the table!)

Luci decided to go and speak with Strahd alone to confront him about the all lies he had told him in his numerous dreams. When Luci showed up to Strahd's bedchambers, Escher was immediately kicked out by Strahd.

Strahd spoke with Luci, skillfully turning around every lie and positioning himself as lonely and sympathetic, endearing himself to Luci even more. At one point Strahd cast modify memory on Luci in order to make sure Luci believed him, spinning the story that the others were simply just jealous of him. Strahd offered a hand to Luci again, asking him to stay the night. Luci agreed and slept with Strahd.

When Silas found out that Luci had gone to Strahd and wasn’t coming back for the night, he sent Luci the angriest sending spell saying “You’re an idiot, a fucking traitor and a waste of a perfectly good resurrection scroll.” Silas got no reply.

After speaking with Ireena and Ismark about the state of the party, Silas numbly sat with Viktor in a spare bedroom. Silas ripped into Viktor questioning him about leaving Silas alone with Strahd. He reminded Viktor that without Silas, he would be abandoned by the party immediately so if he wanted to stay he needed to think of someone besides himself.

Viktor apologised and after some more conversations he admitted that he had witnessed his parents being stoned to death and that maybe he wasn’t completely alright after Vallaki.

They had a heart to heart, Silas telling him about his own situation with his abusive mother and Viktor telling Silas he was an idiot for believing that Van Richten wanted to kill him.

They spent the remainder of the evening studying together.

THE NEXT MORNING

Benoit and Luci sheepishly returned to the guest wing the following morning, walking into the room where Ismark, Ireena, Silas and Viktor sat waiting for them.

Silas completely flew off the handle at both of them, Benoit also getting berated but not nearly as severely as Luci.

Luci tried to explain the situation, sharing his belief that perhaps Strahd wasn’t as bad as everyone painted him as but was quickly and harshly scorned by Silas. Further pushing what Strahd had said about everyone being against Luci into his mind and dividing the party.

Luci informed everyone that Strahd had granted Izek a short leave for him to travel with us.

Silas discovered that he was unable to contact Falkon through sending spell and was worried something had happened to him and the tome.

To the surprise of everyone except for Silas, Ismark announced that he and Ireena would actually be going back to Barovia Village for a short time for their own safety. They wished the party luck and said that perhaps they would reconvene in Kresk.

With the absence of Ireena and Ismark and the weighty understanding of why they had left, the atmosphere in the carriage ride back was horrendous and more arguments insued.

Luci swore that he would never do anything to put Ireena in danger and before Silas could argue back, Viktor interrupted saying “No. No Silas, he’s right…he’d fuck anyone to protect Ireena!” which made Silas laugh harder than he ever has in his life, while Luci and Benoit sat in heated silence.

Art of Falkon and Izek by our incredible DM - @oneirotect

WIZARD OF WINES

The carriage dropped them off at the outskirts of the Wizard of Wines. The new, strange party were united in their goal of hopefully finding and recovering Falkon and Strahd's Tome.

Luci donned his incredible new armour to the absolute horror of Silas. Luci's old armour was destroyed in the combat with Vladimir so he argued back that its better than no armour at all.

Travelling off the path and following another large raven, the party met the remainder of the Martikov Family who own the winery.

After explaining the situation, Falkon's uncle Elvir guessed that Falkon had decided to do a quick detour and deal with a hag in Berez.

Elvir invited himself along and only a few hours later mentioned that he couldn't fight but that the party could protect him.

The party made their way into the swamp to rescue Falkon.

This is where we last left off in game and if you have made it this far, thank you so much for reading such a long breakdown of our campaign! If you have any questions feel free to ask and again thank you so much for showing interest and support for our game, it means so much to all of us!

#dnd #Curse of Strahd #ravenloft #strahd #Dnd campaign #dnd character #Silas Shaw #Silas #Benoit #Luci #Lucius Thornhill #dungeons and dragons #dnd art #A MEDAL FOR ANYONE WHO READS THE ENTIRE THING ITS 5K I THINK #I tried to keep is brief but so much has happened #I HOPE YOU ENJOY!

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receptorconsuming · 2 years

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Someone asked for my favorite gaming related video essays and i accidentally deleted the ask, so here they are:

Slender: The Arrival | A Deep Dive

The Mystery of the Druids: A Bizarre Adventure Game

Limbo of the Lost: The Greatest Bad Game

Anonymous Agony: An Extra Edgy Adventure Game

The Villain of Edith Finch

What’s the Point of Taking Apart a Body? (Resident Evil: Village)

Why do Horror Games Sound so Beautiful?

Four Short Games About Pain

A Journey through Rule of Rose

A Love Letter to Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

The Most Disgusting Game I Have Ever Played (Suicide of Rachel Foster)

How to Miss the Point of Silent Hill

Haunting Ground: The Hidden Horror Gem

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream: The id of AM

What Makes a Great TF2 Map?

What was Hotline Miami all about, anyway?

That Creepy Feeling - What is it with Source games?

Pewdiepie is a Nazi.

Pathologic is Genius and Here’s Why

The Hidden Gem of the Nintendo Wii: Fragile Dreams

999 - The Pinnacle of Visual Storytelling

PC98 Games Looked Really Cool

What Happened to Trauma Center?

If I think of more, I will add them! Most of these are about horror games and some I haven’t watched in years, so be patient with me if they’re not as good as I remember.

#.txt #not games

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utilitycaster · 10 months

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I'm a bit confused about Laudna saying that she never got anything from the gods. Isn't a resurrection a cleric or paladin spell?

Usually; there are some other classes with access to at least some of the resurrection spells (bards, druids, and high-level transmutation wizards among them) but relevant to your question, yes, Laudna's resurrection was performed by Pike, who is a cleric of Sarenrae, a Prime Deity.

Because this variant of question has come up a lot, here's my thoughts, with the intention of being The Post I Can Point People To. Let's break it down.

Has Laudna, or anyone else who has claimed to not have gotten anything from the gods, gotten anything from the gods: I say yes. As stated here, I think the gods require people through whom to work, and in exchange, grant them the ability to choose how they use their powers, within certain limits. In other words, Pike can choose to bring back Laudna, and to send dick pics to Artagan, and to have wacky fun times in the Magnificent Mansion hot tub, and Sarenrae is down with providing the means for her to do all of that in exchange for worship, but Pike is not supposed to brutally kill people who are fleeing. So, if Pike were just a random person without divinely-granted powers, she would have been unable to resurrect Laudna; therefore, Laudna has benefited from the gods. The source of FCG's powers are murky but I think its safe to say that at least now they are coming from the Changebringer, and they've healed her. But there's also the less material concepts. As some people have very reasonably pointed out, Ashton's abilities, having come from a potion derived from the Luxon beacons, are debatably of a divine source, but Ashton doesn't know this.

Look. In real life, where we have no evidence of the divine, I find "the lord works in mysterious ways" to be a frustrating platitude. However, in a world where there are real gods, they are, sometimes, up to things that mortals are not privy to. That's valid. Mortals are also up to things other mortals are not privy to. And so we don't know where the gods have intervened, where they haven't, and what the overall impact would be. I've found that this argument in-world tends to rely on blaming the gods for every bad thing that happens to you, and none of the good, without evidence for either.

What this means: Laudna has received both tangible, provable things only through abilities granted to people by the gods. We do not know if they have done other things for her as well; it's possible. I should note this latter philosophy is beautifully discussed during the "roleplaying fish and chips" scene in episode 2x84.

Should the survival of either an individual or a group even be contingent on whether it provides us with something: There is a correct answer to this, and it's "No." Next question.

So putting this together: the premise of "the gods never gave me anything" is already flawed in that the answer to the question of "should someone whom I believe has given me nothing be annihilated on that basis?" should be "ABSOLUTELY THE FUCK NOT." However, the gods also have given things to various mortals in general, and Laudna in particular.

Why is she saying it then: literally could not tell you; her argument during that scene doesn't feel to be particularly tied to what other people are saying in response, and includes some outright fallacies (the part about the deaths at the Tishtan site being caused by the gods instead of the work of an explicitly anti-god cult being the most egregious thereof).

#answered #Anonymous #critical role

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moonchild-in-blue · 5 months

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Sleep Token X D&D

An expansion of this post because je suis trés unhinged and I miss playing DnD. I'm not including homebrew content for simplicity sake, guiding myself through this website. Feel free to add or change as you will. I'll leave some links for each class specs in case you wanna read more, or aren't super familiar with it.

At first it would make sense for all of them to be different types of Warlocks or Sorcerers, with Sleep as their common patron. BUT I think that would be an easy cop-out, and I want to make things interesting. This is just my headcanon so yeah, don't mean, don't be weird. Let me know how you'd do it!!

(and if there are any DnD players who happen to come across this post and want to take inspiration on it, you're more than welcome to do so!)

Let's get to it, nerds 🎲2️⃣0️⃣

[cut because this is LONG]

Vessel

Race: Tiefling. A lot of room for inventiveness here, and you can change his appearance as you'd prefer. Maybe that's why he's always cloaked and masked. Maybe he gets even more disfigured every time he connects with Sleep. Class/Sub-Class: Warlock, The Great Old One (mysterious entity whose nature is utterly foreign to the fabric of reality). Obviously Sleep would be his patron. I like to think Vessel had an encounter with Sleep whilst not knowing who or what They were, and eventually became their servant. For the pacts, I had thought of Pact of the Tome, where the Book of Shadows would be his lyrics, but Pact of the Talisman is also great, because of the mask. @a-s-levynn had suggested The Fathomless for his sub-class, which is also AMAZING, especially if you want to lean into the whole tentacle/water horror aesthetic. Alternatively, Sorcerer, Divine Soul is an EXCELENT class for Vessel (actually, now that I'm editing this, I kinda prefer this one lmao). Read this and tell me this isn't exactly what Vessel is: Sometimes the spark of magic that fuels a sorcerer comes from a divine source that glimmers within the soul. Having such a blessed soul is a sign that your innate magic might come from a distant but powerful familial connection to a divine being. Perhaps your ancestor was an angel, transformed into a mortal and sent to fight in a god’s name. Or your birth might align with an ancient prophecy, marking you as a servant of the gods or a chosen vessel of divine magic. Yeah.

Race: Lightfoot Halfling (yes I'm making him a hobbit, what about it?) Fire Genasi is also very apt. Class/Sub-Class: Druid, Circle of Wildfire (these druids bond with a primal spirit that harbors both destructive and creative power, allowing the druids to create controlled flames that burn away one thing but give life to another). This primal spirit, of course, would be Sleep. They are a bit of a mysterious entity. ii was the hardest to come up with. I knew I wanted him to be somehow connected to the land/elements, because I think that would be the best translation for his rhythmic prowess (drums wouldn't make much sense as a Bard). And that photo of him with the painted red fingertips reminds me of fire, so it seemed like a perfect fit. Some other alternatives: Druid, Circle of Dreams or Monk, Way of the Four Elements (monk would be SO good because of his silence, like LoZ Link, and the ability to harness his energy).

iii

Race: Obviously a Dark Elf. Obsidian-black polished skin, pale blond hair, pale blue eyes, slim figure. Need I say more? Earth Genasi could also be a good option, due to his golden vein-like paint. Class/Sub-Class: Ranger, Fey Wanderer (a ranger who represents both the mortal and the fey realms. As you wander the multiverse, your joyful laughter brightens the hearts of the downtrodden, and your martial prowess strikes terror in your foes, for great is the mirth of the fey and dreadful is their fury.) I quite like this because the options of how you acquire the magic are endless, and can be traced to Sleep or even Vessel (maybe he granted them?). iii is our favourite chaotic boy, but he can be so intimidating at times, this one plays off his duality quite well. Plus you get Otherworldly Glamour similar to iv which makes sense. A cool alternative could be Sorcerer, Wild Magic, as it has a similar base to Vessel and it draws magic out of chaos.

Race: I thought about making him a Genasi or Half-Elf, but honestly I love him as a Human. I just love the idea that this human is sooo charming and talented, that even all these supernatural creatures can't help but be enthralled by him. Changeling or even Eladrin could also work. Class/Sub-Class: Bard, College of Glamour (these bards are so eloquent that a speech or song that one of them performs can cause captors to release the bard unharmed and can lull a furious dragon into complacency). I like that iv appears to be super low-key, but is actually insanely seductive (I see you mask pulling) and talented. So out of all of them, he was my obvious choice for a bard.

The Vesselettes

I think they could either be sort of like a greek chorus or muses but for Sleep, that appeared at key moments to help the party, or actual campaign members. Race: Aetherborn Class/Sub-Class: Clerics, Twilight Domain (The twilit transition from light into darkness often brings calm and even joy, as the day's labors end and the hours of rest begin. The darkness can also bring terrors, but the gods of twilight guard against the horrors of the night). It would be awesome to have them as healers and protectors of the party, who serve Sleep directly (if Sleep is evil, they could also be secret spies? To make sure the party does as Sleep intents). Or maybe they are protecting the party from Sleep (they can never sever their connection to them, but they will do everything they can to make sure the vessels won't go too far).

I'm not sure how they would all get together, but my [abridged] story would place them all as servants of this magical deity, called Sleep. Vessel was the first to encounter Them and lives as an actual, living vessel for them. They believe that Sleep, albeit mysterious, is a benevolent creature, who was wrongfully cast away from Their plane/stripped of their powers or divinity.

As the one closest to Sleep, Vessel can sense that something isn't quite right, but he's already so entangled and manipulated by them, that he doesn't even care.

So they fight all these people and creatures, believing they're doing something Good, but then it turns out that Sleep was evil all along? The people they have conquered and killed were actually good, trying to stop them from giving this awful, terrible being their power.

Sleep basically uses them to defeat their enemies and get back to whatever place or power they no longer have access to. Maybe the vessels turn their back on them? Maybe Vessel doesn't want to and they fight with each other? Or maybe they just keep serving Sleep?

Or, you know, Sleep could also be an actual helpful deity, and they are genuinely doing good by fighting in Their name. But maybe in the end Vessel can't let go of Them and drama ensues and everybody cries.

I don't know, this is just an idea. I spent WAY too much time researching for this, but it was fuuun. I love talking DnD.

#I know this is long but i promise it's nice!#don't let my hours go to waste hahaha (cries)#no but seriously #do let me know what you think or if you have any other ideas of how this could go down!#sleep token #sleep token x dnd #dnd #darya is unhinged #sleep token lore

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yoga-onion · 1 year

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Legends and myths about trees

Celtic beliefs in trees (4)

Myths and folklore of the 'Forest People’ – Druids, the Elders, Sage of Storytellers

Discovered by a Roman invasion of Great Britain over 2000 years ago, the Celts had no political centre and no leader to rule the whole land, yet they could recognise certain commonalities in their religious life.

The veneration of the dead combined with the belief in the existence of life after death formed the basis of spiritual life.

The Celts lived in harmony with the natural world, believing that spirits were hidden behind all creation and that there was something to be learned in everything that existed in nature.

Dense forests were common in Britain at the time. Every tree was precious: trees that provided shelter, trees that gave energy, trees that provided food, trees that were the source of medicines. Their daily lives depended on the natural world and trees were deeply respected as they provided all kinds of blessings. The Celts had amassed an immense knowledge of the connection between the natural world and human beings.

Specially trained elders, commonly called druids, both men and women, committed the tribe's history and numerous knowledge to memory and passed it on to the next generation in the form of poetry. As poets in their own right and wizards, they were most respected by the tribespeople. At the time, poetry was considered to be the most highly valued of all creative arts, and at the same time feared. To become a poet, one had to undergo a long and hard discipline, which took at least 12 years to complete and 20 years.

The wisdom that the druids acquired at the end of their long and arduous training was based on symbolism and associations that held the key to unlocking its mysteries. However, due to their oral tradition, the lack of written records and over 2000 years of religious oppression, very little clues to the Druids' view of nature have survived.

[Image below: Celtic goddess of healing and herbs Airmid]

木にまつわる伝説・神話

ケルト人の樹木の信仰 (4)

「森の民」の神話と伝承〜ドルイド・長老、語り部の聖者

2000年以上前にグレートブリテン島に侵入したローマ人によって発見されたケルト人は、政治的中心地がなく、全土を支配する指導者も存在しなかったが、信仰生活にはある種の共通性を認めることができた。

祖先崇拝と死後の世界の生が存在するという確信が結びついて、精神生活の基盤をなしていた。

ケルト人は自然の世界と調和して暮らし、すべての創造物の背後には霊が隠れていると信じ、自然界に存在するすべてには学ぶべきなにかがあると信じていた。当時の英国では鬱蒼とした森が広がっていた。避難場所を提供する木、エネルギーを与える木、食べ物を供する木、薬の元になる木、どの木も大切な存在であった。彼らの日々の暮らしは自然界に依存しており、樹木はありとあらゆる恵みを与えてくれるので深く尊敬されていた。ケルト人は自然界と人間の関係について計り知れない知識を蓄えていた。

特別な修行を積んだ長老たちは、一般的にドルイドと呼ばれ、男性も女性も、部族の歴史と数々の知識を記憶にとどめ、それを詩のかたちにして、次の世代に伝承していた。詩人であり、魔術師である彼らは、部族の人々から最も尊敬されていた。詩人になるには長い年月をかけて困難な修行を積まなければならず、最低でも12年かかり、20年を要した。

ドルイドが長く困難な修行の果てに身につけた知恵は象徴と連想にその謎を解き明かす鍵があった。しかし、口承で伝えられていたため、文字で残された記録をもたず、2000年以上にわたって宗教的迫害を受けてきたせいもあり、ドルイドの自然観をうかがう手がかりはほとんど残されていない。

#trees #legend #mythology #celts #celtic belief #spiritual life #forest people #tree legend #tree myth #ancestor veneration #druid #great britain #poetry #poem #poet #wisdom #philosophy #nature #art

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spacemonkeysalsa · 1 month

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God of Ambivalence

A tiefling Artificer trying to carve a new path for himself splits a large stone on a beach to discover something truly shocking: a wizard missing a hand and in need of a lot of help, and magical items. Lucky for the wizard, Elion happens to be a fount of magical items.

Pairing - OC/Gale & Shadowheart/Lae'zel but there will be more as it goes on.

Read Chapter One on Ao3

or read Chapter Two, below

In this chapter... Roll for initiative. Gale rolled 3 (-2 for dying). Elion rolled 12. Cambion rolled 19 +13 modifier. Cambion rolls to attack.

He’d thought that getting the man onto the cart would be the easy part, but actually, getting close to him at all proved difficult and dangerous. Arabella had the right idea.

The necrotic aura coming off of him was challenging in and of itself, though it dissipated somewhat after mere moments in the open air. He wondered where it was coming from. The man’s body itself could be a conduit—there was something very logical about a dead body giving off a necrotic mist, but this man wasn’t dead. He was just in a very bad way. The film around him seemed at once to be protecting him and threatening anyone and anything that got close; it seemed like that this was the source of all the swirling miasma of death and power.

Whoever this guy was, he had to be important, or powerful, or both, but if that was the case, how had it gotten this bad for him? It drove Elion wild that he couldn't discern much from his condition. He was so used to being able to break anything apart into its properties, by looking at it. Rock, machines, even people gave away what was wrong with them, just by how they stood and spoke and moved. Like the mysterious Arabella. Startling and odd as she was, he thought he had an accurate read of her, as some kind of powerful druid, fey touched in some way, and intuitive about the world around her. Rare. Unique. But, simple enough to see. He hadn’t even needed to interview her, he could just observe her and know her.

But, this man baffled him.

There would be a story here, and probably one he’d only know if the man survived long enough to tell Elion all about it himself.

He’d only survive if Elion saved him. But, getting close to him, he felt something reaching out like a drain. The mess around him was like tentacles. They touched him, not in a tactile way, but still, he felt it clinging like smoke, begging to be breathed in, begging to choke him. If he stayed too close, for longer than a few seconds, he immediately started to get sick.

He hadn’t put his gloves on when he was working. Faydor didn’t believe in them. He’d discouraged his apprentice from wearing gloves, saying that he needed to experience every rough sensation from the stone itself. Whatever was wrong with the man, he appeared to be deteriorating. Elion shoved his little used leather gloves on and held his breath as he grabbed the man under his arms and lifted him up against his chest. He was lighter than he looked, and his flesh was hot. Burning, in fact. If Elion hadn’t been a tiefling, he might’ve found it quite uncomfortable, he thought, for a moment, before he had to acknowledge that it was very uncomfortable. It wasn’t the heat of fire, the kind he had a natural tolerance for, it was an acidic, irritating kind of discomfort. He heard the man grunt, which spurred him on, as he carried him over the cart and placed him inside.

Would the cleric know what to do with him? Elion thought he’d seen everything, but nothing about the man’s state stirred any memory of magical or injurious malady. The places on his bare skin where he’d touched him itched and tingled. He had to take a few steps away from the cart and the dying man inside of it to take deep abiding breaths and steady himself. At this rate, the cleric would need to look at Elion as well.

He used a bit of rope from the cart to create a lead, so he didn’t have to stay quite so close to the man as he pulled him along. Aside from the necessity for a lead, there wasn’t much difference between hauling the empty cart, and hauling the man’s body inside of it. He was a nuisance, but he wasn’t heavy. Elion could get them there in as much time as it had taken him to get from the temple to almost the beach that morning. Would that be fast enough?

His cargo was in bad shape, and the aura he gave off was dangerous. With so many people around, he couldn’t pass through town, the way he had come, he’d have to take the brambled path that wrapped around, near the fetid swamp. It would be rough and rocky and not at all suited for the cart, but it might actually make the journey faster, as long as he didn’t run into any serious obstacles.

Twice, he thought the man had died outright, as he stilled completely, including his breath. The first time, he gasped in pain, but remained unconscious and unaware of his surroundings, little more than a graying corpse keeping itself alive in wheezing inhales. The second time his revival was more alarming. He seemed to wake, his eyes opened, bloodshot and darkened, but aware. “P-please,” his voice was weak, and Elion’s first instinct was to ignore him and keep going. They were almost through the roughest part of the trail. The temple was within sight. A ravine plunged on one side of the trail, filled with the river that flowed all the way to Baulder’s Gate. They neared the bridge they would need to use to cross over, and their way clear.

“Hold it together, as you’ve done so far!” Elion called back to him from the other side of the lead. “We’re close.” Close to what? Even he wasn’t sure but he repeated it, “we’re close.”

“Magic!” The man spoke with a little force, too much, it seemed, he fell back, nearly seemed to faint.

That he was under some kind of curse was one possibility. Elion wasn’t sure what he was meant to do with that information. He resolved to simply pick up the pace, but at the same instance that the sky darkened overheard from a cloud wandering in front of the blazing sun, a flash of deep purple from the man flared in the corner of Elion’s eye and his mysterious cargo cried out again. “Can’t, let it…” the man was weeping now, from pain surely, but there was such desperation in his voice.

The temple was close, but not close enough. Something tugged at Elion; he looked back at the man he was dragging, the unmistakable sinking feeling in the pit of him starting to pull.

He was going to die before they got there.

Elion needed to do something for him, right now.

He coiled the lead around one arm and carefully skirted past the cliff’s edge that led straight down into the ravine. He approached the cart, eyes burning from the proximity.

His own discomfort faded as he got another close look at the man. Awake now, but barely, he was so obviously in agony that Elion couldn’t think of anything else. He was dying, and as their eyes met, he knew the man knew it, but the panic in his face was so raw. He clutched at his chest. His robes were torn open, and strange black and purple bruising blazed with violet light, even as he watched, Elion had the distinct impression the man was making some effort to tame the light, the pain, and the fear. “I don’t know enough,” Elion confessed, helpless, “I’m not that kind of spellcaster.” He could give him a quick death, but no, that wasn’t what the man wanted, and it wasn’t what he was wordlessly begging for.

A crunch on the trail behind them drew Elion’s head around. A great shadow of a wingspan, precluded the sight of a horned, winged presence, holding a shimmering glaive.

With a curse under his breath, Elion remembered Arabella’s strange introduction, too late. She’d mistaken him for a cambion. He’d mistaken that for eccentricity. But, no. It seemed she had some reason to believe there was a cambion in the area.

The cambion twirled his glaive, and in spite of everything Elion couldn’t help but appreciate that it was a gorgeous weapon, obviously infused with magic. A spark of lavender brushed off of it as the cambion poised the weapon towards him, and closed the distance between them at a glide so smooth that Elion almost didn’t appreciate the speed of it—the aggression.

He might have simply watched the blade pass right into his chest, for shock. But at the last moment, his slow reflexes managed to move him the few inches he needed to avoid instant death. One arm raised, the lead still wrapped around his wrist, and the weapon strained against the rope, slowing his attacker down. Another instinct sent Elion’s fist flying into the cambion’s face.

The cambion barely flinched, solid black eyes and bared fangs fixed.

Then, the man in the cart sat bolt upright and laid hands on the glaive.

The world around them seemed to go very silent. The violet light coming from the dying man enveloped the weapon and its own softer lavender glow. The cambion groaned, almost as though he had some idea of what was happening, though his face looked just as shocked as Elion felt as the glaive seemed to dissolve into the light, flowing straight into the man’s strained body.

Hungry. That’s what Arabella had said about the presence in the stone. It was hungry.

The glaive was gone, and the cambion and Elion both stood stunned with the nearly dead man releasing a lungful of putrid air from his straining lungs. The necrotic aura seemed to have dissipated in that breath, and with it, he spoke. His only remaining hand flopped against the cambion’s well-muscled chest, “Detono,” the dying man grumbled. Could’ve been his last word.

The cambion didn’t even have time to curse before the thunderwave shot him into the ravine.

The dying man fell back into the cart, and into immediate unconsciousness.

Well. It seemed Elion had found a dying wizard.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 gale #bg3 gale #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #God of Ambivalence

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totally-correct-shenanigans · 6 months

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Bentley: I didn't see any inquiry results from the information department in your file. Is that right?

Carmelita: Of course. Thanks to all the damned new security regulations. Which were introduced thanks to you, Bentley.

Carmelita: If you hadn't gone and put in an arrest warrant in the computer for The Contessa after her husband's 'accident,' we wouldn't be in this mess!

Bentley: That was just an innocent joke!

Carmelita, sarcastically: Innocent, yeah!

#submitted by anonymous #source: mystery of the druids #[eternal exasperation]#sly cooper #[soliloqueue]#[totally correct]#incorrect quotes

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marcskywalker · 8 months

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even if it's a lie, let me hear it once

Chapter 1

He catches Merlin staring at him sometimes; when they're riding through the woods for one thing or another, when he's training on the grounds, when he's sitting through a verbal beatdown at dinner.

He catches Merlin linger by his side. Though this, he is not too sure of. He tries to keep count when Merlin's hand warms the small of his back. But his heart flutters and he stumbles over the number as Merlin straightens out the shirt.

Wishful thinking, Arthur. he reminds himself, that's all it is.

He meets Sophia when he least expects it.

Dear God, Sophia.

How he ever lived before her is a mystery. He knows it in his bones that he loves her so deeply and would go to any end for her.

She is his only source of happiness and he would die before he lets any harm come to her.

But when she presses her lips against his, he feels dirty. Repulsive. His skin itches like he was meant to be someone else's.

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He almost dies. And he almost dies. And he is almost sure he is going to die.

The druid boy, he is sure, was worth the risk of punishment for treason.

Death by a dead knight would've been nothing honorable or remarkable.

This would be honorable though, if he were to die fighting for Merlin Ealdor. As long as the history books don't mention his crush, that is.

"Whatever happens out there, I don't want you to think of me differently."

Arthur has to choke down the bubbling laughter. As if. Short of dying, there is nothing Merlin could do that'll change how Arthur's heart skips a beat for him.

But... the thought makes Arthur pause. Why would Merlin be worried about that at a time like this. For the first time in his life, Arthur wants to talk. No propriety or honorifics. He wants to know if Merlin is simply worried about his master's opinion or something else, entirely.

What if he were to die today, and Merlin never knew that he was liked?

"It's alright, Merlin. It's normal to be scared before battle." he says instead.

"That's not what I meant," Merlin's solemn face, as rare a sight that is, sobers him up.

Did he mean....

Could it be....

If this is what Arthur hopes thinks it is, his father would never approve. Oh, but Arthur would. Arthur would approve of it so much.

"What is it," give me a hint, I beg of you, "If you have something to say, Merlin, now is the time."

He tries to put as much love and acceptance on his face in hopes that Merlin would just stop clenching his jaw.

Come on, Merlin. Take a leap. You won't be let down.

Just as Merlin's about to speak-

"Arthur, it's time."

The bloody harpy!

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Arthur gives him space to grieve Will. Though a sorcerer, he was Merlin's best friend.

He peels himself away from Merlin's side; away from the God awful sound of his sobs.

Wishful thinking, Arthur. he reminds himself, that's all it is.

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He almost dies a couple of times again. Such is life.

He tries to put the whole "Merlin situation" behind him. Determined to forget. It's just not meant to be.

He almost courts Gwen, but then Lancelot happens again. And he won't fault her for it since he has half a mind to court Lancelot himself.

Maybe it's something about him; it's just not meant to be.

It's nothing to make much of a fuss. He's glad he has them in his life at all.

He's grateful, even.

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Magic or not; he killed his mother. At least with the former, he had the excuse to be angry at his father. The sorcerer lies though, turns out the burden is his to bear alone.

"Arthur," he stops him before the his bed, "let's get you out of this."

He tugs at the armor straps with more care than usual. Arthur is sure that Merlin is back with the staring. He doesn't count the touches; not anymore and especially not at the moment when he barely feels deserving of being alive let alone loved.

"Whatever you're thinking of," Merlin's voice is soft as he moves Arthur onto the bed, "It's not true.

You're a good son."

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The dragon is looming above them when he realizes this.

The "Merlin situation" is, in fact, not behind him.

It has come forth with a vengeance.

Well, how could it not. It's Merlin and he has, for wildly unknown reason, decided to be loyal to Arthur beyond what he deserves.

Not only is he back to counting the staring and the touching; now he counts Merlin's laughs and his approvals (of all things, really). His day is lighter when Merlin is happy and smiling about. The days when Merlin doesn't retort to his snark is.... frustrating, to say the least.

The dragon bares its teeth when he prays for the first time.

Dear God, don't let any harm come to him. I'll give my life for his.

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There is to be feast in his honor. For the courage and bravery he showed by defeating the dragon.

He doesn't feel courageous walking beside Merlin. He feels like a fool with sweaty palms that wants and doesn't want to have this conversation.

It's long overdue, Arthur he reminds himself as they enter his chambers.

He's defeated a dragon. What's one more act of bravery.

"Merlin, I- We- No, I- I have something to say."

Merlin is suspicious already, looking at Arthur with wide eyes.

"What is it?" It's that rare soft voice. The one that understands this isn't the time for their usual banter.

"We should sit," he drags two chairs, stalling for the last time, "I will say it, and don't interrupt me. I just- I- No, this needs to be said and-"

"Arthur, are you dying?" Merlin's eyes are so wide it's almost comical to him.

"I just said don't interrupt," he shakes his head fondly, trust Merlin to never obey. Merlin's eyes are still wide and overflowing with concern that Arthur can't help but reassure him, "No! I'm not dying.

It's just something I've wanted for a long time, and- I wasn't going to say anything, really. I know this is difficult. And I will accept that you don't feel the same, Merlin, I promise. This doesn't change anything. It's just-" he has no courage, none at all, to face Merlin. So, he studies the shades of his floor as he confesses.

"It's just that I couldn't let either of us die without you knowing that I love you."

There is silence. And then even more of it. He risks a glance at Merlin who looks confused. He sees the moment his words sink in though, since he exploded out of the chair, knocking it over in the process.

"No. You don't."

What.

"I do!"

"Nope." he points a stern finger at Arthur, face lined with anger, "You don't."

"I do! What is wrong with you?" he can't help the crack in his voice. That was a losing game from the start, "I told you, Merlin. I understand you don't feel the same-"

"What is wrong with you?" he's at Arthur's face now, inches away (so different to how Arthur would dream of it), fuming, "Why would you ever love your manservant?!"

Something cracks inside Arthur's chest. This isn't what he wanted. He was supposed to be let down gently, with the promise of cherished friendship.

"Surely, you know you're more than that." it's barely a whisper, he wonders if Merlin heard him.

"Arthur," he's not yelling anymore, but it's just as strong, "You. Don't. Love. Me."

He leaves him there and the tears come out.

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please don't let him love me. please don't let him love me. please don't let him love me. please don't let him love me. please don't-

#arthur pendragon #merlin #bbc merlin #merthur #arthur pov #bisexual arthur pendragon #tw dubious consent #tw self worth issues #omg am I terrible at dialogues #this is more like a writing exercise than anything else #liya writes #unrequited love but not really #even if it's a lie let me hear it once #chapter 1 #next chapter is merlin pov I promise

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