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grigori77 · 6 months

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The Mighty Nein: Echoes of the Solstice (Live Show from Mo-fucking WEMBLEY!)

Ah, a hype man ... okay then ...

My ... he's quite salty really, isn't he?

"All the bar staff are like: What team is this? I don't know, but none of them make eye-contact."

He's got a point, we are better at swearing ...

"In this country, the sentence: I twatted the twat in the twat ... makes perfect grammatical sense!"

Ah yes, the first ĺive show since the Pandemic ...

Oh, here we go ...

Fuck me, look at that FUCKING CROWD ... O.O

Ye gods, Ashley what the fuck are you doing to us AGAIN?!!! Bloody hell ... then Liam ... and Taliesin? Look at that SWAG!!! MARISHA!!! Incredible ... Laura! Wow ... that's like ... AND Travis ... basically Jester and Fjord in the flesh ... just a shame Laura's not blue ...

And then we we have SAM FUCKING RIEGEL ... never misses an opportunity, does he?

Matt's going nuts and I don't blame him ...

Ah yes ... what fresh hell is Riegel gonna unleash upon us THIS TIME? The audience are ahead of us already ... oh gods ... no, you really AREN'T Freddie Mercury, mate ...

Bloody hell ... that actually WORKED ... I'm extremely surprised ...

Ashley has an announcement? Blimey ... no wonder she's a little nervous ... oh, but she's getting into it already ... Nice ... and yeah, Crit Role Red Nose Day, always fun ...

Cosplayer nod! Nice! Liam: "Oh man, so many Sprinkles!"

Yay! Animated intro WITH AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION!!!

Liam: "I've had this dream!" Matt: "Thank you all so much for the trauma!"

Recap! Nice!

Oh, so they WERE just Shunted, then? Okay, so what happened then?

So we're about to find out ... where are they? Shush, sound effects problems! Blightshore? Intriguing ...

Ah, so he CAN talk ... Caleb: "It's been a while." No shit, mate!

Oh, so the magical disruption has knackered the collar too ... batter that thing off, Beau! "You know, your wife has shaved me with a greatsword, this should not be too challenging for you." Oh, NOW he's rethinking this plan? Minor Alchemy?

Sam: "No, I want her to punch you!" Liam (as Caleb): "I'm sitting right next to her, it's going to happen!"

Oh crap ... Matt, what are you saying? What the fuck is THAT shit supposed to mean?

Ah, Imogen ... Beau: "She was kind of cute." Caleb: "Don't cross the streams!"

SNAP!!! Thankfully collar not neck, at least ...

Yes! Get her to Yasha! Go! With Caduceus? Awesome ...

Hey! The Blooming Grove! They made it ... oh, this is PRETTY!!! Calliope! Awwwwww ...

BABYYYYYYYYY!!! :3 Ashley: "I touch her everywhere, make sure she's fine! Well ... maybe not EVERYWHERE ..." Caleb: "I've seen them like this when they've been apart for a few hours."

CADUCEUS!!! Yeah, boy!

Ooh! Munchies!

New armour? Sweet ... the "Oh no, I have to leave in a hurry kit"? Intriguing ...

Dream Beau can be an asshole, apparently ... Beau: "But if you felt like exploring, maybe ..." Yasha: "Oh, I didn't know that was on the table!"

Oh yeah, Veth has, like, PRIORITIES now ...

Beau's accidental kleptomania ... XD

A splinter from the Nein Heroes? Intriguing ... and they're on the ship! Yay ... docked? Oh, hey, Nicodranas! Sweet!

Good lord, what are they doing? Matt: "How did we start this so horny?"

REUNION!!! Yay!

Jester's been getting headaches from her Sending ... yeah, that's right, makes sense ...

Perception check? Oh, first roll ... Travis: "Nine!" The crowd cheers! Of course they do ...

ALL of the Assembly ... yeah ... Trent Ikithon, of course, I thought so ...

Yeah, get Veth! Yay ...

Weird dead seabeast? What is that shit?

Matt: "Interrupt MY story, why don't you?"

A Message to the Ruby ... and she has to roll a D100? Nuts ... 48? 14 points of Psychic damage? Oof ...

Yes, she COULD heal herself, but it's par for thd course, really ...

Blud! Hi!

Spooked seabeasts ... hmmm ...

The Brenatto residence ... here we go ...

VETH!!! Yay!

Veth: "The world has been turned upside down!" Beau: "What's wrong?" Veth: "I HAVE A FUCKING TEENAGER!!!"

Luc wants to be an adventurer? Of course he does ... yeah ... how old IS he? Veth: "Whatever feels right!"

Veth: "To be fair, I was drunk for most of his childhood." XD

So what's the plan?

Oh, Scrying? Yeah, try it!

I love how Jester's being do sweet about Ludinus, it's hilarious ... oh, NOW she gets it? Jester: "He's a douche, I hate him!" Yeah ...

Here we go then, go Jester ... Travis: "That's right, use the 5th Level, nothing can possibly go wrong ..."

Jester has a DICK COLLECTION now? LOL

Reminding Jester who Trent is ...

Oh hey, here's Artigan! Nice! Oh ... how rude!

Caduceus: "We're not big problem people." Jester: "Are you saying we're NOT going to push the Moon back into the sky?"

Oh wait ... is Veth NOT coming?

Jester: "Um ... the Lavish Chateau is NOT a whorehouse." Veth: "A speakeasy with benefits?"

Luc? Hi! Wow ... he's an EMO TEEN now? Interesting ...

Veth making fun of Fjord being the weakest of the Nein ...

UNCLE Caleb ... :3

Jester! DO NOT give Luc a tattoo!

Wow ... Veth REALLY IS bowing out ... that's so sad ...

Veth makes Jester take another 8 points of Psychic damage ... XD

Wow ... AWKWARD goodbye ...

To the Cobalt Soul in Rexxentrum? Okay ...

Everybody runs into the circle ... wait ... WHST THE FUCK?!!!

Luc? Seriously? Wow ... he even has a Character Sheet! He's do cute ... :3

Here we are, then ... and they've just realised they're not alone ...

Sam's doing an emo teen voice now ... I love it ... this is gonna be SO MUCH FUN ...

Are we EVER gonna learn howold he is?

Yasha: "Hit me!" Seriously?

Oh, so we're doing this ... and she CATCHES his punch ... of course she does. Adorable ...

And now he's in a huff ...

And now he's gonna try and hex Beau instead ... this really is getting funny now ... Beau: "I'll cover my eyes to make it more fair." XD

Ah ... Caleb gives him THE TALKING TO ...

Wow ... he's really good at THIS ... oh, totally working the heartstrings, definitely ...

Oh wow ... they're coming around ... oh, so they're giving CAD the deciding vote? This'll be interesting ... and he makes a good point.

Ground rules from Caleb ... as it should be ...

Caduceus casts Death Ward on Luc just to be safe ... Nice one, mate.

Ovedo? Okay ... apparently things are chaotic ... oh, this doesn't sound good ...

Matt once again using the feedback constructively ...

Ah, teenage bravado ...

Volither ... hmm, nice hair.

Aggy? Who's that?

Dark tunnel? Okay ... no, DEFINITELY not Luc in the lead ... an extra luck roll for him? Nice one, Caleb!

Oh shit ... the magic seals are DEAD. Not a good sign ...

Crap ... what the hell is THIS shit? Oh, that's fucking CREEPY ... scary monster monologue ...

Beau just closes the door on whatever the fuck THAT was ...

Oh, it's still going? He does love to go on and on ...

Hello who's this?

Wait ... a guest? Oh shit! It's Daniel! You sneaky bastard ...

A dwarf? Intriguing ... a blue kilt? Even more so ... and WINE? Hmmmm ... a bit tipsy, apparently ...

Whoa ... he bested Beau? Wow ... and then he offers her a DRINK ... of course she accepts. XD

Aggy: "Is that a little boy?" Luc: "I don't trust this guy, he looks over 30."

Luc: "Hey! Don't insult me and then explain it to me!"

Yes, Matthew, what HAS HE found?

"Unattended baggage" ... SNORT ...

See Invisibility ... oh, hello, Star Razor ...

Eldritch Blast! Yay!

Aggy HEADBUTTS the wall Fjord just attacked ... wow, and he just NUTTED a dozen open. Cute ...

Constitution check? 9? Oh, and what does THIS mean? Oh dear ...

He thinks Caduceus is a horse ... I love that ...

Daniel: "I look like a very small, short John Wick, by the way." XD

Aggy just walks RIGHT IN ... and now there's more illusory nonsense ... wait ... the Shadowhand? Ooooh ...

Ah, so ... going down, then? Hmmm ...

Oh dear, this doesn't look too good ... what now, then?

Wow .. clearly Aggy is NOT particularly bright ...

Whoops? Holy shit ... Nice dodge! He's now tumbling down the stairs and FLASHING EVERYBODY ... oh dear, what now? Another dexterity roll? NAT20!!! Nice ... he is UNSCATHED ...

Daniel: "I am just sucking the Dice Gods' dick!"

He is almost ACCIDENTALLY good at this ... oh, here we go ... CRITICAL FAIL!!! Finally ...

Oh dear, what has he gotten into now? 76 points of Force Damage? Holy fuck ... is Aggy DEAD ALREADY?!!! Fuck ... a DISINTEGRATION TRAP?!!! Shit ... so that's it? Aggy is DUST ...

Farewell, Daniel ...

Oh yes, that's right, technically he IS an Admiral ... Admiral Tusktooth. Nice ...

DO NOT let Luc check for traps ... oh yeah! Mage Hand ... and Jester Guides him too ... :3

Wow ... that's a lot of traps ...

Another magic mouth ... for the gods' sake ... he's so full of himself ...

Another door? Okay ... check for traps again ... and ANOTHER mouth ... even MATT is now acknowledging that Trent is full of himself ...

Oh you ARSEHOLE ... not cool to taunt Caleb like that ...

Ah yes, the Tower? Sweet ... yes, rest.

The Aeorian Security Cannon ... and a FLUFFERNUTTER?!!! Holy fuck ...

True Seeing ... oh dear ... now Caduceus has Beau tripping balls again ... fuck, a Nat20 for a full 27 perception ... sweet fuck ...

Athtiri Menthal ... huh?

Beau has a +16 to her Arcana? Fucking hell ...

Ashley once again Stop It-ing Sam when he sneezes. VERY LOUDLY this time, too ...

They're fighting Trent AND a thing, or Trent AS a thing ... lovely ...

Okay, so rest and regrouping, then ... back to Caleb's tower, then head out in the morning ...

Mahogany? Hmmm ... certain dirty minds, I swear ...

Okay, then ... and time for a break! Well then ...

Aaaaaah ... Welcome To Wildemount returns ... always fun ...

And we're back ... Heroes' Feast! Nice ...

Caleb has a personal talk with Luc, and gives him his Luck stone? Wow ... oh fuck, WISH?!!! Seriously? 5th Level Simulacrum ... so he's now CLONED himself ...

Yasha: "Whoa! There's no riding going on! Except on me ..."

"Beth"? Hmmmm ... typical teenage boy, clearly ...

Beau and Yasha and AT IT ... of course they do. And Fjord and Jester. Liam: "No-one more competitive than Laura Bailey."

Good night's rest ...

Beau finds TWO Calebs TWICE as insufferable ...

Luc chugs the weird Potion ... oh boy, what's this shit gonna do? Oh crap ...

Whoa ... wait, what ... oh no ... extra confidence? Oh that's not good ... crap ... Luc is DEFINITELY gonna be even more reckless now ...

Death Wards on both Luc AND Fjord, then ...

Crown of Stars? Crazy ...

Caleb 2 is now a sabertooth cat ... of course ...

And so now Caleb has come home ... group stealth check! Blessing of the Trickster to Yasha? And she doesn't even need it ... but Beau TANKS it ... at least everybody else rolls spectacular ...

Now what?

Ring of Telepathy ... and Trent is still insufferable ... and fucking NASTY with it too ...

This is just gonna be a fucking RECKONING ...

No ... Caleb, DO NOT say your fucking goodbyes right now ...

Assault of memories ... ouch ... this is just CRUEL ...

Two undead presences? Oh you fucking evil bastard ...

Jester goes in with Caleb ... Beau and Yasha go round back ...

"Uncle Deuce" ... Caduceus: "Oh, I'd forgotten about that ..."

The bastard REALLY HAS brought Caleb's parents back ... that's fucking monstrous ...

Insight check ... oh yeah, they're not right, definitely ...

Jester just goes STRAIGHT to Turn Undead ... and they BOTH fail? Fuck ... that's effective, at least ...

I'm sorry ... the house just EXPLODES?!!! Fuck ...

34 points of Fire damage? Oh wait ... no, Fjord has some protection! Nice ... just 17, then. Same for Jester, too ...

Well, they're definitely NOT his parents anymore ...

BATTLEMAP!!! YAY!!! Cue Sam's plug for Wizzkids ...

And ROLL FOR INITIATIVE!!!

Jester Invokes Duplicity! :3 Awwwww ... tiny voice Laura doing the Jester voice is adorable as she directs Matt ...

She attacks Trent with her Spiritual Weapon and HITS!!! Nice ... but it just MISSES him? WHAT?!!! Meanwhile while the duplicates scatter, she bolts out the door ...

Yasha Rages and bamfs out her wings for Radiant Soul! Nice ... charging in to get ready for attack next turn ...

Beau POWERWALKS inside ... and attacks Trent from behind ... but the punch does NOTHING?!!! Seriously, what the hell?

She attacks the dad ghoul instead ... POP POP!!! But it resists the Stun ... Flurry of BLOWS, then ... and Patient Defense.

A METEOR SWARM?!!! Seriously?

And that is just OUCH all round ... crap ... thank fuck for saves for most ... Caduceus takes THE FULL DAMAGE ... and so does Luc? Crap ... but he has Evasion? Oh, so just half, then ...

Fjord casts Hexblade's Curse on Trent, then throws FOUR Eldritch Blasts ... a miss on Trent, first misses on the dead dad, but the other 2 HIT!!! Boof-boof!

The undead back off but Beau gets an Attack of Opportunity ... daddy is FUCKED UP ...

Mind of Mercury? Nice, Beau! And she gets the first HDYWTDT! On the dad ... oh dear ... well, it's a mercy, really ...

Rapid Cast of Chain Lightning from Trent ... oh no, Caleb just Counterspells ... but he can't actually see him, so it misses? Ow ...

Shit ... Caleb is DOWN ...

Caleb 2 turns into a T-Rex! Okay then!

Death Save 1 fails? Oof ...

Luc casts See Invisibility ... Trent is ACTUALLY hiding behind the tree ... Laura: "Like a little bitch!"

Caduceus casts Mass Heal ... 100 each? Holy fuck ... that is all round a SWEET FUCKING SAVE!!!

Jester runs to find Trent ... Fortune's Favour? Nice ... something that doesn't need line of sight? So she just casts Anti-Magic Field his magic! Nice ... that's it, he's now REVEALED!!!

Yasha charges in best she can ... but she can't attack now ... crap ... so she just casts Zealous Presence and YELLS in his face while flowering everybody else ...

Beau charges in too and just SWINGS for him with her staff ... and TANKS the attack roll! Okay ... second strike ... Fortune's Favour! Oof ... Flurry of Blows! FINALLY hits ... 14 damage plus Stunning Strike ... but he shrugs it off ... then 17 and another Stunning Strike ... but he uses Legendary Resistance even though he Crit Fails ... Extract Aspects ... he's resistant to ALL magic? Interesting ...

Fuck, is he running? What is this thing? An artifact ... oh shit, is he changing? What's he doing?

Sam: "Guys, we're fighting Trent Ikithon in Wembley Stadium!"

Everybody's blasted back ...

An orb of black shadow is just growing ... and now he's just a great horrible black shadow creature ...

Whoa ... a SECOND Battlemap? Fuck ...

It's the whole town ... Trent is a FUCKING KAIJU!!! He's suckimg the life out of people and stuff ...

Hexblade's Curse! Go, Fjord!

Caleb stays prone, jnstead turns into Gelidon the Nightmare in Ivory? Whoa ... and Matt has the miniature ready! Wow ...

Caleb 2 charges in with Luc still on his Dino back ... but they keep a safe enough distance ...

Luc casts Enlarge on the T-Rex! Fuck ... Matt doesn't have a larger model for THAT ... Godzilla is now loose in the streets!

It attacks Fjord with a tendril ... Liam: "Keep your hentai out of this!"

Caduceus runs to Yasha ... Holy Weapon to her, so she has boosts to all her weaponry! Nice ...

Jester casts Gate to pull Artigan through in front of the creature. SHIT!!! And he is suitably SHOCKED by what she's got him into!

Arty casts Chain Lightning on it ... 38 points of lightning damage! Nice ...

Yasha charges in and attacks! Lots of damage maths, apparently ... 101 points of damage in ONE FUCKING HIT!!! The crowd goes wild! She attacks again! Another hit! 59 points this time! Bloody hell ...

Beau rushes in znd attacks ... Nat20! Yeah! And another hit! 19 damage, then 16! Flurry of Blows ... 20 misses? Oof ... Debilitating Damage? Oh, okay ... and now it's vulnerable to Ice Damage? Nice, Beau!

Oh fuck ... EVERYBODY takes 31 points of Necrotic damage? Ouch ... now it concentrates on Yasha ... Ire of Oblivion? Oof ... a Nat20 save? So she only takes 70 damage? Oh great ...

There's a weak spot? Okay then ...

Even Sentinel with a Nat20 doesn't stop it? Crap ...

Fjord takes 2 swipes with the Star Razor ... both hit! 42 points of damage, snd a Divine Smite for an extra 16! Nice ...

It responds with a Void Claw ... Fjord just hits the brakes and it just MISSES him ... phew!

Caleb just brings his whole dragon mass down on it and vomits ice into its face! 77 points of Ice Damage! Nice ... and he has a Frightening Presence? Okay then ...

Caleb 2-zilla bites the thing's arse ... no joy! Claw strike! Hits! 21 points, then 14!

Luc looks for the egg ... he casts Brenatto's Voltaic Bolt, then shoots the gun into the egg! 26 points of damage to the artifact! Okay ... that looks to be the sweet spot!

Caduceus prays to the Wildmother, makes the creature's ichor turn into ice ... now he can see through it to find out how it works ... he pulls out Yasha's Holy Weapon and inflicts 26 points of Radiant damage on the creature! Cool ...

Jester teams up with Arty to hold her spell with him ... Guiding Bolt with his Enhancement ... balls ... shit roll spoils the shot ... crap ...

Yasha flies up and goes RIGHT for the egg ... and misses! Agh! Reckless! Go again! Another miss! FUCK!!! Oh Fortune's Favour! Okay ... balls! That was ALMOST awesome ...

Beau RUNS UP the creature! Holy shit ... she tries go reach into the chest snd tear the egg free ... strength check! Marisha: "WITNESS ME!!! NATURAL 20!!!" The crowd EXPLODES!!!

Matt: "Beauregard Lionett, how do you want do this?" AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

She tears the egg free, which pulls Trent into it, throws it into Caleb's mouth, and he BITES IT TO FUCK!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Caleb has his vengeance at long last ... the survivors of the town applaud (as does the crowd). Nice ...

Jester congratulates Arty for saving the day ... oh flattery ... he gushes in response ... then she drags him into helping with the clean-up ...

The Calebs return to normal, Caleb sends what's left of the egg into some kind of nether realm. Then they big Luc up a bit, while still zlso grounding him.

Fuck ... Fjord just PROPOSED TO JESTER!!! AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! Matt: "You motherfucker!" Jester OF COURSE accepts ...

Caleb's cats prepare a feast for all, and there is celebration, but only a small victory against the larger backdrop of CHAOS from the Apogee Solstice ...

And that's it! Everybody takes a bow!

Well, this was a whole hell of a lot more epic than usual ... but altogether just the AWESOME reunion we wanted. I just hope it won't be the LAST time ...

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crystalelemental · 10 months

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Unit Teambuilding - Summer Liza

If I had a nickel for every time Celesteela was given to the first alt of a favorite gym leader, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

General Overview Flying is a cursed type in Masters. I like Flying well enough, but generally speaking, this type is run by lunatics. So many Flying type damage dealers come packing an awkward gimmick, like Lysandre’s healing or P!Elesa’s Fly and Metronome, or are just weirdly limited in favor of unusual utility, like how Anni Steven sucks at damage in exchange for being Gaugemaster Supreme. It’s so bad that in a lot of ways, one of the prevailing “I am just here to deal nuke damage” options was Kahili, who is a Striker with a tank set that burns. Flying is maddening in this way, and it’s so bad that the best Flying-type DPS in the game for the last two and a half years...was Leon. A Fire type with Flying coverage outperformed everyone in the type.

Until today. Liza comes in swinging as a standard Flying Striker, with Flying Shift Giga Impact. Her setup is two turns, one to use Iron Defense, then her trainer move to give attack buffs equal to her current defense buffs, capped crit, and +1 accuracy. Her main benefit is Free Moves Next after - and this part is critical - “using a status move.” Specifically, it does not need to “succeed.” So you can throw out Iron Defense at any time to get a free move in. Her grid doubles down on a lot of her best offensive traits, including four sync damage tiles, Towering Force, Tough Cookie, and the absolute insanity that is +3 physical moves up next on Protect, and a node that, I can’t believe I’m reading this right, gives +2 physical moves up next with every single status move used. Again, used, not succeeds. So that free moves trick to save on gauges? You might think that sharply cuts your damage, but given the 80% boost to the next shot, you’re effectively at 90% damage per turn, which is still well above most other damage dealers in the type.

The oddity is, a lot of people identified her as the weakest option of this month. Which is perhaps fair given what she’s up against, but still. Isn’t this the same playerbase shitting on every support and praising every mindless DPS unit? I will admit, Liza is ripe for being outclassed. When all you really have is damage numbers, it’s easier to be outdone than it is for something like SS Ethan’s spread damage or Lysandre’s healing. But is Lance bad because SS Serena is slightly stronger? Hyper Beam/Giga Impact damage is literally always in style, and unlike NY!Lisia, Summer Liza actually works wonderfully with her Zone setter, and has an ideal F2P partner that nearly everyone invests in. Liza’s in a great position with very, very little drawback at present, so it’s surprising to see her be so overlooked.

EX and Move Level? As her damage is single-target, Liza would appreciate the EX. It’s a cleaner KO for CS. But also, her damage output is going to be good enough on-type that there’s not much concern over it. Move level is a bit tougher. Like most Hyper Beam/Giga Impact units, on-type shouldn’t be too bad even 1/5. 3/5 is embellishment, getting full investment into sync, and much higher power on move damage.

Team 1: Summer Liza, Skyla, Colress/Tech Farfetch’d So okay, let’s recap quick. Liza is a strong physical attacker whose setup requires defense buffs to boost her attack, and whose main notable flaw is speed control. If only there were an F2P pair that literally everyone invests in that could solve for that, and had matched theme skills. OH WAIT. Yeah, Skyla absolutely RULES with Summer Liza. This is like the ideal partnership with F2P, it’s so good. Tech Farfetch’d offers the Leer support and potential flinch while giving more theme skills, while Colress is just way more effective at Screeching. He’s so good at it guys.

Team 2: Summer Liza, Anni Skyla, Drake/Blue Okay hear me out. Anni Skyla actually works very well with Liza, thanks to her speed boosts and recovery. This gives Liza pretty much all the conditions she needs. Moreover, Skyla is a halfway decent tank, and can be used in place of a support if you want to pursue a dual-strike comp. If going for a support, I’m opting for Drake for some other theme skills and bulk for her trainer move, as well as general survival. If dual strike, I’m putting in Blue, who needs first sync, and got a lot better at it this month after expansion, while also packing respectable self-setup that includes even more speed buffs. Fun fact: Liza’s pure DPS build actually does wreck shop with up to +5 stacks of moves up next, so like...she’ll get it done even if she does drop sync.

Team 3: Summer Liza, Anni Steven, H!Caitlin What’s that you say?! A physically offensive sync pair that can cap its own crit rate but maybe needs speed and attack? Sounds like someone’s in for a Caitlin-ing! Yes, Halloween Caitlin continues to be perfect, no one is surprised. What may be surprising is that I’m actually talking about Anni Steven. Anni Steven gets shit on a lot, but one thing he’s legitimately fantastic for is gauge control. The man has a lot of speed factored in, double MGRs, and serves as the opposite end of the dual-strike spectrum from Blue, in that he’s all DPS no sync, freeing Liza to take her sync grid for a quick CS clear. Because Liza can pivot as needed to a status move for free moves and moves up next, the team keeps momentum for sync very well, without sacrificing much on DPS. +80% damage offsets a lot of the damage lost from missing a turn of Giga Impacting. And if that turn is Protect with +3 moves up? Well congrats on dealing 50% more damage per turn.

Team 4: Summer Liza, Summer Tate, Roxanne “But Summer Liza and Summer Tate have no cohesion!” Not with that attitude. Someone on Reddit asked which of the two was better, and got the usual coward response of “They’re entirely different pairs, you can’t compare on bluh blah blurgh.” Boundless cowardice. Have them fight in the same team, off-type, and see who contributes more. Roxanne enables both: X Def All allows Liza to max setup in two turns, while her trainer move caps off Tate. Thanks to her bulk and speed buffs, everyone’s pretty sturdy and able to throw around their DPS just fine. This will allows us to once and for all determine the weakest child.

Final Thoughts I actually very much love this alt. Liza is kind of a low-key favorite. I think her Center conversations are adorable, I loved the old story event she got with Guzma, she was a fun general pool to use in the early days of the game that sadly didn’t get the top tier grid she deserved, and having my second favorite Ultra Beast feels like a personal apology for the grid thing. The fact that she’s both really strong, and physically offensive for some reason, is hilarious. And like Tate, it’s just nice that a seasonal event focused on lower favorites. Like, I wanted a Liza alt, I just never really thought to ask about it because it seemed impossible. But here we are, and yeah, it’s not Roxanne, but it gives me hope for Roxanne. I like when this happens. I want to see more of it.

#unit teambuilding #summer liza

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companionwolf · 6 months

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today's delta green recap:

- if we have to kick this door down, I'm gonna scream (amused because my mental image of the agents outside the door rn is one that really shouts 'DOORKICKING IMMINENT' to me)

- the door was unlocked. I'm going 👀?

- BADLY INJURED WOMAN ON THE FLOOR; thank dog for Jean (they're the PC with the most First Aid skill iirc)

- this woman needs a hospital but if we call the cops that's gonna fuck everything up; Jay is ready to take her there though

- JACOB DONT JINX THIS WOMANS SURVIVAL. Also, Joy are you good back there further in the apartment-- scream twice if you need help I guess

- we are searching the apartment! no cop call because we don't want another Incident (:

- (a police station got like. Partially exploded last time SO yeah. * Jacob voice * that was the other guys! * Jay voice * that is entirely irrelevant)

- first roll of the night for alertness; Jacob pay fucking attention (he rolled a 90 -_-)-- he's probably distracted by the prospect of a giant aquarium tbqh

- thud niss from upstairs, let's roll to see if my two go after it?... Jay rolled under my difficulty point and Jacob even lower. Brave (Jay) and stupid (Jacob) are alive and well. In this moment. Maybe that's about to change.

- my boys (gender neutral) are. What's brave AND stupid. Stave? I don't know

- party is split again; we are upstairs and there's a spooky pitch black room with the door ajar. totally cool. #normal

- SOMETHING MADE A WET NOISE FROM UNDER THE FUCKING FLOOR?

- Jacob . Jacob look at me. Roll lower. This is a threat <3

- ANYWAY CREATURES BE UPON YOU DUMB BRAVE MOTHERFUCKERS

- ... wait Jacob only succeeded on one roll so far AFAIK and that was the roll I DID to see if he's FOOLHARDY (he is)

- Jacob getting smacked by a Horror incident in 3 .. 2 ... 1

- wait no Jay is dodging; crit success on the first meant THE FUCKING CREATURE HIT THE WALL AND JUST DIED IM LOSING IT . Oh the second manages to latch on though that's. Bad

- JACOB HAS BEEN BIT. CREATURE HAS BEEN YEETED. WOUND HAS BEEN TOUCHED. BLOOD HAS BLED.

- in my heart there's a scene in this combat encounter where while the thing is still attached to Jay, Jacob tries to hit with his flashlight, crit fails, and whacks his fellow agent in the head. this didn't happen ofc but. it amuses me greatly

- Jacob. Look at me again. Don't die. (He's at 8/13 health right now LMAO)

- JAY STOMPS ON A CREATURE AND IT DIES. YOURE DOING AMAZING

- Jacob lost 3 sanity; Jay lost 1. It Begins.

- whole party's back together and we're now all fighting the remaining critter...

- the second Jacob's patched up by Jean he's back raring to fight critters; however. He can't see the damn thing. (Rolled a 90 on his search. I bite him.)

- JAY CANT SEE SHIT EITHER LMAO

- JAY TO THIS CREATURE: YOU SHALL NOT PASS * blocks it from going downstairs *

- both of my agents got to squish a creature, I'm laughing; anyway, combat encounter survived (jacob jumped on the creature w both feet + SQUISH)

- OH SHIT POLICE SIRENS

- and that's where we're ending tonight

#wolf barking #delta green #runs on gay and horror

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jerseygirllll · 2 years

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bittersweet cherries I e.m CHAPTER 2

previous chapter

couple: eddie munson x aurora henderson (oc)

word count: 830

summary: eddies pov*, hellfire meeting, driving the boys and erica home, reminiscing about aurora, asking about her, small convo with dustin

a/n: surprisingly got another chapter out today, little short, but that's okay. the weekend is close so I should be able to write a few more then. i hope yall enjoy it! :)

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The doors busted wide open, revealing Eddie with both hands on the doors. His hair was in its usual disheveled state, but his typical leather jacket was replaced with his work coveralls. “Okay, dungeon children. We have one hour until I have to be back at the shop. Let’s do this.” He smirked as everyone in the room cheered.

He walked over to the dungeon master throne he crafted years ago when Hellfire started. “Lady Applejack, your late arrival is going to cost you.” Eddie teased in a sing-song voice.

“We’ll see about that,” Erica responded curtly.

The whole group began playing and continued until the hour was up. They left everything in the same place since they were coming back the next morning to complete the last leg of Eddie’s campaign.

Erica led the group down the high school hallway with her brother, Dustin, Mike, and Eddie, following shortly behind. Arms slung across each other as they recap the events of the meeting, still arguing over one of Mike's crit hits.

“Kiddos, come on. Pack it into the van. I’m taking all of you home or to Mikes?” Eddie would admit that he loves the boys and cares for them deeply. But never publicly announce it.

“All to our houses,” Lucas answered, sending him a thumbs up as he was the last to pile into the back of Eddies van. Both doors shut with bits of rust coming off the old handles.

________

“See you guys tomorrow!” Mike, Lucas, and Erica all jumped out of the back of the van and waved Eddie and Dustin off. Dustin also climbed up front to sit next to Eddie, taking a bag of trail mix from his backpack to snack on.

It was just becoming dark, so the sky still had bits of orange and pink mixed together. Street lamps turned on as they continued to drive down the road to Dustin’s house. The radio in the car played a crackly version of a random cassette tape Eddie popped in.

Over the past year, Eddie and Dustin had grown closer than anyone could imagine. After knowing each other for years, it seemed they were already as close as you could get. Since after you left, it made them grow closer because they both loved and missed you terribly. Eddie had become sort of a brother for Dustin.

“Hey, uh,” Dustin turned his head to face Eddie, “Kid, you look like a squirrel.”

“Shoure doh!” His response was barely audible.

“Anyways, I was gonna ask you… Have y-you heard anything?” Eddies voice had gone quiet and soft.

Dustin knew you had come home, but after your conversation earlier, he didn’t feel it was his place to tell Eddie you were back. “No. My mom called our aunt the other day but said she was out.”

Dustin felt like shit lying to Eddie. He wanted to make Eddie happy and tell him your back. He could go to your room and see you in person. He could hug you or kiss you. Just seeing you in front of him would make him so happy.

“Oh, okay.” Eddie sighed and brought his hand up to his mouth, chewing on the nail bed of his thumb. A habit he broke off years ago once Corroed Coffin started getting regular spots at the Hideout. It hurt more when he played, and you helped him break the bad habit. Nevertheless, bad habits creep up fast once there’s an opening.

“Here, ya go, kid. See ya tomorrow.” Dustin thanked him, grabbed his backpack, and left the van.

Eddie waited until he got into the house safely, but his hand stopped on the gear shift. He looked through the car's shield to look at your window. The house's siding still has scrapes underneath the window from when he snuck in. Every time he dropped Dustin off after Hellfire, school, or hanging out, he waited and looked at your window.

Hoping.

Wanting.

Praying.

That he would see your shadow through the shades dancing to whatever Pat Benatar or Madonna song you had playing on your record player. Or to see you sitting in your wicker chair reading some book he would never understand.

Nothing was there. No movements, no sounds. You clearly weren’t back, and Eddie had to accept that.

Eddie switched the gear and backed out of the driveway of your house.

He was hopeful that you would return. Come back to Hawkins, work at Family Video again, get back together with him, and spend every day together. Just like you guys had planned to do after graduation. Create a life for the two of you like you promised each other. All Eddie could do was wait for you to come back. He was sure that you would; he never gave up on you. Others think he's reaching a bit for the stars, but you never know.

A cigarette soon met his lips as a tear fell from his cheek.

“S-shit.”

#eddie stranger things #eddie munson st4 #eddie munson #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson series #stranger things 4 #eddie munson imagine #dustin henderson #dustin henderson stranger things #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson fem!reader #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson fic

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fortunesfavours · 2 years

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thank you @spottedenchants for the tag! my wips all have just the stupidest fucking names and honestly i think that just makes it better so feel free to ask

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have wips. I have deemed that this isn’t just for writing either. Sketch titles? Comics? DnD campaigns? If you have an unfinished project, it counts!

i have concepts for a lot of things noted down or planned out so i'm just gonna put the stuff I'm actively working on

steps necklace (REMEMBER)

funky fresh modern with magic times

what the fuck is up with this story

PROJECT YOUR REALITY BABES

also an unnamed sg one from my list of stuff for my series

also working on a few drawings right now, most notably

crit recap redraw 2 electric boogaloo

2. essek cosplay plan/outfit layers

3. wulf,,,,,,

I only know a few people so. and sorry if you've already been tagged! @sweetsilentsteps (that first fic is in fact a gift for you shh) @lucky-numberme @gentlemancrow

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christmas-shenanigans · 4 months

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Session 3: Sat 16 Dec 2023

This week's entry is written by Skabb, as I was unable to attend due to family commitments. With deepest thanks for such a detailed write-up!

"We all cobble together a recap for a hero point each! We’ve all been healed to full HP and Valeros has no lasting eye issues, nor is his ego remotely dented by last week’s shenanigans.

Wise Rokmoxa tells us there is a delicacy in the forest, cornered in a mushroom cave. The Gert Squiggler is big enough to feed the whole village. Halbrecht asks about the mushrooms- they are ‘sacred’ -we suspect that the whole village brews tea and gets shitfaceded!

Skabb recalls knowledge about the squiggler and learns that salt will hurt it. She also knows to keep distance as it has spiked radula that do a lot of damage up close.

We decide to salt our weapons and we collect as much salt as we can off of the gobbo villagers, which isn’t v much at all.

Rokmoxa says she’s keeping our halfling to work off her debt. “Can’t be trusted. No help you”. Skabb runs and hugs Zorya and shouts “byeeeeeee” in her ear.

We go to fight the gert beastie…they weren’t lying…He’s big

Initiative. Squiggler rolls 33 and goes first. Disgorged mucous. Hits weejock - 13 damage and covers everyone in the party, except Skabb who is out of range, with mucous: This means 4 persistent splash damage, -5 to movement speed and it will take 1 action to wash the filth off.

Weejocks turn. He uses 1 action to move behind cover, another to wash off mucus and a third to recall knowledge on the gert squiggler. A 24 means he knows that the creature is resistant to acid damage, has no particular weak spot and can squeeze through 5 ft space, which doesn’t slow it down.

Valeros is up. -4 persistent damage. First he heads to cover. Then washes off all of the slime apart from some which makes his hair look great. Then he leans around the cover and looses his shortbow: 29 hits for 5 piercing damage.

Halfbrick is next. “I’m not even gonna wipe” “He’s going in viscous” He heads to cover. Casts Searing Light, which hits (26) for 17 fire damage The Squiggler lets out the equivalent of a roar. He did not like that.

Mialee, who is hiding in the shadows, is up next. She dutifully takes her persistant damage (splash). Then she salts her arrows for one action. Shoots at it and rolls a 26, which hits, she rolls 3 damage plus sneak damage of 7. It takes 15 meaning salt=1.5 x damage She cleans the slime off of herself.

Skabb goes last. She casts elemental betrayal giving an extra two water damage to any subsequent spell. Then she casts hydraulic push which takes her final two actions. 28 is a hit and does 24 bludgeoning damage, making a total of 26 damage.

Girt boy Tramples weejock and Halfbrick. Both do reflex saving throws. Halfbrick gets a crit and takes no damage Weejock isn’t as lucky, he rolls a 20 and takes 23 bludgeoning damage

Weejock’s turn. He goes into a rage…and then attacks with his salty warhammer. 24 would miss but it is flanked by HB so it takes 22 bludgeoning damage. He hits it again but 20 is a miss, so no more damage.

Valeros swaggers into the fray. He sweeps his hair back with the slime, strides over, uses combat climber to climb up the slug with one hand free and then “gets stabby”. The DM asks for an athletics check -31 - he’s on its head holding on to its eye stalks. He stabs it with his Striking Long Sword, 25 is a hit, for 9 Slashing damage. Majestic.

Halbrecht’s turn He takes his persistent damage -4hp. “I’m going to unleash the warhammer” - 22 misses despite it being flanked. Next he casts Spiritual Weapon, which “just hits”, 9 force damage. The DM explains that its a constant spell so it can be sustained for up to a minute with one action each turn. HB just has to roll damage again next time.

Mialee’s up… She makes a diplomacy check to see if all of her arrows are salted after arguing that they were sticky from slime and she salted the quiver… 20 means all her arrows are definitely salty.

She fires an arrow, 20 misses, she tries again…number 2 attack for 19, which also misses. She rerolls with a hero point but again, 16 misses, she disappears back into the shadows.

Skabb’s turn, She uses one action to give grabby 2. Grabby picks up the salt Skabb is carrying, flies above the gert one and sprinkles… the slug takes 5 damage Then she casts Helpful Wood Spirits to distract the slug by crawling all over it - it fails its saving throw and is off guard (although this doesn’t stack with being flanked and achieves bugger all)

Gert uses its nasty radula on Halbrecht, 28 hits and it does 20 slashing damage, but luckily does not disrupt his continuous spell or his ability to sustain it. Next it turns it radula on Weejock, 39 is a crit and deals 20 bludgeoning damage. Now its attention turns to Skabb. It hurls Disgorged Mucous at her. 26 hits. 15 damage and 4 persistent damage from next turn.

Weejock’s up. He takes -4 from mucus as was squished with its nasty foot. The DM asks for a Diplomacy check -16 - the salt on his warhammer lasts for another hit. Warhammer misses at 16. He re rolls with hero point but also misses at 21. “I should just give up”, but he has another go with his warhammer and this time 26 hits for 15 bludgeoning damage.

Valeros’s turn from atop the beastie… He grabs the eye stalk with one hand, takes his Striking Long Sword to its eye, 25 hits and for 13 slashing chops it off. He slides to the ground, eye in hand. Next he combat climbs again (athletics check of 21) and is back up on its head. He attacks with his longsword again, but 21 misses. He uses a hero point to re roll and hits with a 23. It takes 8 slashing damage.

The slug looks poorly.

Halfbrick: “I’m going to begin by getting spiritual on it” - casts Spritual Weapon for 8 damage. (Valeros: “you are a spiritual weapon”) Then, “I will strike it roughly with a warhammer.” 25 hits. 11 bludgeoning damage. In shock “I hit it,I had the words hero point in my mouth” He tries to hit again but 14 misses. A hero point reroll still misses at 10. “My arms tired now!”

Mialee rolls a 28 and hits with her striking shortbow, delivering 4 damage. Howdedoodis!!! “Whumpf, it hits the deck”

Weejock drags the giant corpse back to the village. The Gobbos are delighted and break into song about squiggler jellies. We watch as the flesh is pulverised by teensie little gobbos with their stamps to create squiggler jelly. This delicacy has a very…unique…texture. Skabb, HB, Valeros and weejock all dig in. Skabb takes some squiggler jelly for Zorya (“sister”), she’s currently washing up filthy gobbo pots and pans, but will join us when we see the cailleach.

We are all healed by the tribe. Full HP. But we do not rest so don,t refill our spell slots.

Wise Rokmoxa tells us that Guardians were made by cailleach to keep her safe. They are magical and will reappear after we destroy them. She warns us that they are very beautiful and we may struggle to hurt them for this reason, so we should steel ourselves. She insists that we take hideous Lilly, klip klop and latlu.

Rokmoxa grabs skabb by the ear and informs her that she can seee through yaklee …”I will see if you do well. Go wild daughter….”

The DM confirms that for killing the squiggler each of us will be given a cold iron weapon…they should be ready when we return from the cailleach’s lair…⁃ Weejock and Halbrecht will each get a warhammer ⁃ There will be a sword for Valeros ⁃ Arrows for Mialee and Zorya ⁃ Skabb is going to get a cold iron grill for biting (bite attack). She is beyond excited about this.

We head off to find the cailleach’s cave and to fight the Guardians that stand between us and her…

All roll stealth. Joes kindly lets us do our own. Weejock gets a crit. Others all roll fairly well…we think!?

Skabb crit fails so runs up a tree and readies a level 3 fireball. She gets a hero point for ballsiness.

Mialee readies an attack with her bow.

There are gobbo offerings at the entrance to the cave. Weejock rolls a perception check to see what he makes of the offerings.. he crit fails…he can’t make head nor tails of them.

Valeros swaggers up, whistling a shanty. Before he reaches the mouth of the cave, the snow starts to shake and move. Two, 10-15 ft tall Icey guardians (Golems) appear.

They’re flat footed as emerging… Mialee looses readied attack - Shortbow hits one on left, for 14 damage of which it takes only 9. Skabb casts her readied fireball at the guardian on the right. It deals 20 damage. The guardian rolls its saving throw and takes half damage. The DM asks skabb to roll a further 4d6, for 18 fire damage = 28 fire damage total taken

We all roll initiative

Mialee rolls a 25 with her shortbow. It hits and does 9+3 sneak damage Attack 2, 27 hits, 6+2 damage. Finally she hides. The guardian takes half damage (10 less damage due to resistances).

It’s the ice guardian’s turn. It uses Breath Weapon on Valeros who fails a reflex save and takes 24 cold damage

Valeros is up next. “Let’s see this one physically resist this piece of man-meat”…19 misses…”He resisted” “When in doubt I’d like to climb on its back. Can I mount him?!” (“Valeros has problems with rejection. No means no”) Athletics check of 28 means he’s up.He takes 7 persistent cold damage for as long as he is atop the guardian.

Skabb’s go… She aims for the one Valeros isn’t riding and casts Elemental betrayal, which gives +2 to fire damage. Then she casts fireball again, which does 24 damage, it rolls 29 on its reflex save so takes half damage plus 4d6 (16) takes 30 damage total.

Halbrecht’s next… He uses 1 action to cast guidance on Weejock. Next he makes an arcana check and has a good think about what these things are. Is distracted by a snow pigeon and has no bloody idea what these things are!!

The 2nd guardian tries to bash the Valeros off of its friends back… Valeros “ you have to ask my permission before you bash me off” Valeros takes 17 bludgeoning and 3 cold damage and is knocked off.

The guardian has another go at Valeros, but misses. Phew

Weejock… Wanted to demoralise the guardian, but it Is a little too far. So he runs up to furthest one. Glances at his mate to demoralise. Then hits him with his hammer. The DM asks for an Intimidation check against the guardians will dc. 17 beats 11. Weejock calls him “icicle prick”…It is frightened 1! Weejock hits its mate with a hammer; 32 hits for 16 bludgeoning damage. It takes all 16. (Weejock notes that he has wounded rage- as soon as one of them hits him he will rage)

Mialee’s up… She points out that we should all attack the same one. We decide the frighted one is the weakest right now. She lights arrows off of her torch. 27 to hit with short bow, 12 piercing damage, 4d6 =10, 11 sneak damage. It takes 23 total

Guardian hits Valeros: 29 hits for 18 damage …And again but misses at 20 …aaand once more misses at 19

Valeros… …Is gonna try magic! He lights his torch.p for 1 action. Then he busts out his lynx Africa and flame throwers the guardian. Obviously this gets a hero point and Valeros rolls 4d6 to deal 12 fire damage. For his third action he disengages and runs away behind a rock.

Skabb is up next. She uses 1 action to light her torch. For her 2nd action, she gives Grabby Cat two actions 1. picks up the torch 2 travels towards golem Skabb gives grabby two more actions. 1. Moves up to golem. 2. Drops torch in it eye (all whilst Mialee hums flights of the Valkyrie). 4d6 does 13 fire damage.

Halfbrick Moves for 1 action. Heals Valeros for 13 hps (he was at 9/78 hp) For his last action, HB raises his shield.

The guardian/Golem fella’s up next and uses Breath Weapon. Grabby fails her save but rerolls with a Skabb hero point, gets 26 and takes half damage (13) Weejock critically fails and takes 52 damage (!!) and is in a rage (understandably!

The guardian hits (26) Weejock with its fists and he takes 18 bludgeoning and 4 cold damage. It’s lucky he is weejock the ever living!

Weejocks turn now… He wants to trip a guardian with titan wrestler. The DM asks for an Athletics check against targets dc of 23. Weejock rolls 26. It is prone. Flat footed. Can only crawl or stand. Weejock does the same to its mate, 31 knocks it on its arse. -2 to dc as prone. He then smashes the second one with warhammer (25 hits) for 8 damage and he’s raging so it does 6 additional bludgeoning damage….HOWDEEDODIS…it shatters into tiny pieces.

As it dies it triggers icy demise and explodes shooting ice all over the place. Weejock gets a saving throw, 15 means he takes 11 more damage.

Mialee’s up… She looses her shortbow; 22 hits. It is flat footed so she gets sneak attack plus fire 4d6 damage, so it takes total 21 damage.

Second attack hits (25) and does a total of 33 damage which was exactly his number of remaining hit points…and its dead…this one explodes too - icy demise, but this time Weejock critically succeeds at his saving throw (29) so takes no damage. All the others hear an audible crack of his neck.

Valeros tries to give Weejock a neck rub. He is met with a bite. He is still raging. Valeros finds this charming and hilarious.

Wiseling latlu hands Weejock part of broken finger from remnants. “This is lucky. It will never melt”. Can use to chill things. It’s like a perpetually frozen ice cube.

Halbrecht heals everyone for 18 hit points. Yum.

Latlu takes a rabbit out of her provisions. She opens it up and put as an offering at the mouth of the cave and says “you can all go in…”

As we are about to go in we realise that Zorya has been watching us fight and not helping. She saunters over and joins us to pile into the cave to go and meet the calliaech…

Next session is on Fri 22nd and the uk dwelling folk will be IRL because Christmas!"

#christmas special #dnd #pathfinder #written by Skabb

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terrariumfiction · 2 years

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Crit post

Hi everyone! This is a short post recapping where I'm at prior to the crit on thursday.

The symposium was a big moment in this work for me, where I felt I was able to connect my writing with my visual practice. Since then, I've been working on some ways of presenting the drawings, and thinking of how to continue with the writing.

In old manuscripts, the drawings and decorations are called 'illuminations'. I like this as a descriptor because it does not claim that the drawings will illustrate the text. To illuminate something is like shining a light on it, it becomes clearer in some sense, but maybe there is also a shadow cast. I like that illumination can simultaneously expand on the text, and also reveal the text's absences. I've started thinking of the drawings as 'illumination aids', in the same way there are things like teaching aids... models of atoms or whatever. They are objects that illuminate aspects of the text, but do not illustrate. Some of the drawings refer directly to the text, but they misrepresent certain details. Others refer to the text only through related imagery.

I've been giving each drawing its own new life as an object.

I think these bodies suit the drawings well, and I'm excited for you to see them irl. I'm also working on a frame for the vellum cow drawing, intended to look like a miniature torture rack. This one contrasts with the others a lot - the drawing is done with hand, not computer, and the frame is ambiguous in scale. I haven't got pics yet but you'll see it on thursday if it's finished.

Regarding the install, I've been imagining each object on its own school desk, each with a little school chair. I think it would be cool for them to be reduced in stature away from being sculptural objects - a plinth would not be right (I'm sure they'll be on plinths for the crit). Putting them on individual desks makes their presence seem more like they're projects kids have brought into school, or they're things handed out by the teacher. I like that each will be both isolated and organised in this way. It'll also be cool for viewers to sit with the objects so they can properly inspect the drawings, given they're all quite small. Not sure if I'll be able to get desks to do this but we'll see.

The writing has been developing slowly alongside, and more than ever it is informing the direction of the drawings. I've been working on a drawing based on the first chapter. I wrote a bit about this drawing in a previous post.

I don't want to perform the same section again for this exhibition as I did for the symposium, so I've been working on a scene that I feel would accompany the assembled objects well. I've written a bit more about this in a previous post too.

The scene starts on page 36 - Chapter unplaced

It's not currently finished, and I'm not sure about how I want to present it. The scene so far takes about 25 minutes to read, so I won't read the whole thing in the crit, but I will read an extract. I wrote in a previous post about how I was thinking of performing it on video, but I'm not sure about this anymore. I'd definitely like some feedback/discussion about what could work for this.. whether it's worth pushing to get the scene done and incorporated into the exhibition.. or if the drawing/objects work on their own.

Thanks!

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road-rhythm · 2 years

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Hard Mouth ch. 18 mechanics

This is probably of interest to exactly 1 person, viz., me. But list-making and tabulation make brain go brr, so it’s happening anyway.

Mechanics notes for chapter 18:

A lot of people have asked if I rolled dice for this. I mostly didn’t. I could have, because I did mock up crude maps and stat blocks for all the Volstrucker; but actually playing through it would have been a procrastination time-suck. My rule for myself for fanfic these days is that I’m not allowed to edit before posting—because that’s a short road to total paralysis for me—but I am allowed to plan. Sometimes planning turns into a trap filled with all the quicksand anxiety I’m trying to sidestep by not editing, and I could spend eternity blocking and outlining if I let myself.

So instead, I looked at max/average/min damage for each of the spells I used and just kind of went with outcomes that felt balanced to me. Here's a recap of the spells and abilities used in this chapter.

1. The cheating homebrew:

Caleb’s Fun-Size Gravity Sinkhole One of the things that drives me nuts about translating dnd mechanics into prose is damage. In-game, spells do a certain amount of damage against characters who have a certain number of HP, and that’s it. IRL, different areas of the body are not all equally vital. With melee attacks, DMs can handle that by translating a damage number into a description of where the blow landed, but AoE spells can get weird. Basically, I couldn’t stop thinking about what should/would happen if you centered “a sphere of crushing force” oomphy enough to drag people around at a point inside someone’s heart or spinal cord or brain. So I homebrewed Gravity Sinkhole into a version that offers higher max damage, but requires a ranged spell attack. Further, all targets are treated as having half cover if more than 10′ distant, increasing to three quarters for more than 30′, maximum range 60′. My mechanical translation of Caleb’s first casting is that he was standing ten feet from the target, critted on the attack, and rolled pretty good damage against a target with lousy HP. Glancing hit (low damage roll) against second target (changeling). Advantage on attack roll against third target (because she was paralyzed and incapacitated), hit but did not crit, rolled middle-of-the-road damage but she was already pretty far down.

Volstrucker Glyph Chant tweaks Souping up antagonists doesn’t have the same narrative risks as doing the same for protagonists, so although Matt confirmed that the Glyph Chant ability conferred by the tattoos is reskinned Bladesinging, I went ahead and beefed that up even more. These changes wouldn’t fly in a real game, but in fic I do what I want. 🤷 - Bladesinging extra attack: “Starting at 6th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. Moreover, you can cast one of your cantrips in place of one of those attacks.” Glyph Chant extra attack: “you can cast any spell with a casting time of 1 action in place of one of those attacks.” - Bladesinging itself is a wizarding subclass. But the whole point of the tattoos and the crystals and the experimentation on the Volstrucker is that Trent Ikithon is taking shortcuts to make people into the tools he wants. So I let each of these bitches have a subclass in addition to Bladesinging. It seems to tally with Caleb identifying as a former evocation specialist.

2. Pregame in the elven home:

Surprise round to the Volstrucker: - V1 (half-elf woman, enchantment wizard): bonus action Glyph Chant; drop invisibility; action to activate Daylight on driftglobe & actively look for sunlight sensitivity in members of M9 present - V2 (human man, conjuration wizard, holding his action for V1′s action): BA Glyph Chant, drop invisibility, cast Web - Yasha: gets a BA to rage/action to break free of the web on this round, thanks to Feral Instinct

Round 1: - Beau: monk attack + Flurry of Blows on V1, attempted Stunning Strike (target saves) - V2: Disintegrate at Caduceus (miss); critical hit in a melee attack on Beau for ~50 damage; movement down stairs toward Cad/Caleb - V1: Power Word: Pain on Beau + Mind Sliver on Yasha; no real movement. Bonus action kick Beau down the stairs, I guess. - Caleb: burn Fortune’s Favor mote to pass dex check against web; Slow (success on 1 of 2 targets); move away from webbing - Cad: Dispel on Beau, half movement within web’s difficult terrain

Round 2: - Beau: stand up, quarterstaff attack on V1 - V2: Cone of Cold on Caleb and Cad for middling damage (passed d20 roll imposed by Slow for his spell to complete in this round rather than next) - V1: successful Dominate Person on Beau (LOL, she’s a monk) + melee attack on Yasha (LOL, she’s raging and resistant to piercing damage) - Yasha: 1 melee attack miss when V1 casts Shield as a reaction + 1 hefty melee hit - Caleb: free action to warn Caduceus against over-investing in this fight; Fire Bolt against V2 - Cad: BA Healing Word on Beau, finish getting the fuck out of that web

Round 3: - Beau: Stillness of Mind, aka “enchanter, you thought?”; movement to flank V2 - V2: melee attack on Caleb, who chooses not to Shield, because… - V1: attempts to cast Sending, but is Counterspelled by Caleb - Yasha: Brutal Critical on V1, movement to flank V2 - Caleb: unarmed strike on V2 for one (1) point of damage - Cad: doesn’t even bother

Round 4: just a dump truck of melee attacks on V2, who fires off one last Cone of Cold in retribution, rolling excellent damage and taking a big bite out of Yasha’s HP as she fails the save.

I’m not going to go round by round for the rest of it, but that’s the general idea: trying to balance the chaos and “everything’s happening at once” factor of an IRL fight with what is and isn’t possible in 5e Dungeons & Dragons in order to get a sense of fair play.

3. Party at the Tumblecarves’

Guest list: Owelia, halfling divination wizard, Telepathic Ghostie, white-blonde human woman, abjuration wizard Ken, blond human scourge aasimar man, war magic wizard, Fighting Initiate Sideshow Bob, quite young human man, necromancy wizard Mudtop, darkhaired human woman, illusion wizard Wide Eyes, creepy-ass human changeling girl, evocation wizard, Stealthy Sir Not Appearing for Long, half-dwarf man, transmutation wizard who goes down before Caleb has a chance to pay much attention to him

As Team Peeping Pervs swoops toward the house, the balcony guard left alone by her temporary Volstrucker counterpart panics and tries to flee through the balcony door, triggering a Glyph of Warding set to release a high-level Blight spell. (The Volstrucker had the luxury of putting some quite high-level spells in the bank, as it were, the day before in the form of glyphs and such.)

Owelia drops invisibility to attempt a Chain Lightning attack on Team Peeping Pervs; Caleb counterspells, placing an early strain on their relationship

A Glyph of Warding keyed to go off in the presence of drow hits Essek with Magic Missile at level 7

The instant Beau calls that the Volstrucker are gunning for Essek, Jester throws up Blade Barrier

Which is short-lived, as Mudtop uses a high-level version of a Dispelling Stone to end a few Scourgers’ invisibility spells* (which were about to drop for attack anyway), but also nulify Jester’s 6th-level spell, strip M9 of their disguises, strip Caleb of his Mirror Images, swat down Caduceus’s Hidden Step** before it could do him a lick of good, and make certain M9 had not brought any other allies with them.

Caduceus is getting stabbed a lot. He doesn’t like it. He twists around and gives Wide Eyes a 5th-level Vampiric Touch, which is a domain spell for him.

Sideshow Bob attempts to panic Caleb using Eyebite—but Caleb has advantage on wisdom saving throws against being magically frightened by anyone other than Trent. He deserves it.

Caleb crits on his Fun-Size Gravity Sinkhole on Sideshow Bob. Sideshow Bob has reasons to be a cocky little shit, but he does not have a hell of a lot of HP.

Caleb turns west, toward the center of the room. Owelia, no longer in his line of sight for counterspell, gets to finish casting Chain Lightning this time. It would knock Caleb unconscious, but Caduceus’s Death Ward kicks in and Jester manages to get a Mass Cure Wounds off; some targets, Caleb and Beau among them, benefit from Caduceus’s Beacon of Hope for max healing.

Caduceus drops Beacon of Hope to go straight to Holy Aura. He should not have been able to do this, because Holy Aura calls for a gold-cost material component, and M9 haven’t been able to go shopping since they first got 8th-level spells in Aeor; but I didn’t notice that until just now, so pretend that when he locked up the temple doors to come with the Mighty Nein all the way back in 2x28, he brought a precious temple reliquary worth 1,000 gp with him for safekeeping. I was a little torn on whether to let Cad have this one, balance-wise, so this is the one place where I rolled dice: unseen by Caleb, who was still scraping himself off the floor at 1HP, Ghostie attempted to Counterspell Caduceus’s 8th-level casting. She fucking failed. Suck it, Ghostie.

M9 and some of the Volstrucker play hackey-sack with Lord Tumblecarve’s hand. (ETA: In the midst of all this, Owelia removes Beau for a round with Temporal Shunt.) Veth’s sharpshooting takes it out of play for a while, allowing everybody to get back to the important business of slaughtering each other.

Caleb notes Essek bleeding from what happens to be Mudtop’s Synaptic Static. Essek attempts Tether Essence on her and Owelia. Glyph Chant gives both targets a hefty bonus on the CON save, but because they’re within 30′ of each other, they have disadvantage on the roll. There’s a brief counterspell battle over that between Caleb and Owelia, which Essek bends in Caleb’s favor by using Chronal Shift to force a reroll on Owelia. These wizards just really are not clicking on a personal level.

Caleb sets aside his plan to bring out Cat’s Ire, because while that really lets him do a lot of extra damage with his bonus actions, it’s concentration, so if he goes unconscious again, that 5th-level slot could wind up wasted or severely under-utilized. He tries out the 8th-level spell that, in this AU, he took at level 15 instead of Mind Blank: Feeblemind. Owelia, whose INT score is as high as his is, makes the save, wasting that 8th-level spell slot. She is not happy.

Before she can deliver a complaint to Caleb in person, Beau intercepts her with the Cloak of Billowing. Purely because I was disappointed that M9 never got to use it. In other circumstances, I would probably restrain myself, but this is my fucking fanfic, so I didn’t.

“Employ human shield” is not an available action in the 5e PHB, but too bad. Bye, Otto.

Wide Eyes gets behind Essek by casting Far Step as a bonus action, and then attempts to teleport away with him in some fashion. Here is where I fudged: pretty much every teleport spell in the books requires a willing passenger. But as Matt often says that NPCs don’t have to obey the same rules as PCs, and being able to do an arcane kidnapping seems like a highly relevant and desirable skill for magical assassins, I figure that Volstrucker may have limited abilities to teleport with an unwilling passenger.

But it doesn’t matter, because although Caleb and Essek have used up their reactions, Fjord has not. He counterspells her.

Caleb manages a glancing/low-damage hit with Fun-Size Gravity Sinkhole (FSGS) on the changeling. It gets her attention enough that she doesn’t disembowel Essek outright on her first attempt to do so.

Before Caleb can try to parse out whether Essek’s reaction to his maneuver was horror or horniness, Owelia hits him with Finger of Death. Because his attention is split between Owelia and Essek, Caleb doesn’t fully appreciate how gnarly the spell coming at him is before it hits; but Jester, as a cleric who uses necromantic attacks more often than anybody else in the party, knows instinctively that it’s bad news. She drops an 8th-level Heal on Caleb, forestalling jokes about her clericking for the rest of ever.

Veth gets in a nasty sneak attack on Owelia someplace the sun don’t shine, but Brenatto’s Voltaic Bolt do.

Essek Misty Steps away from the changeling to hit Mudtop with Momentary Stasis, giving Caleb advantage on his FSGS attack. Owelia goes down with her due to Tether Essence.

Nobody has as many resources left for counterspells, and Caduceus has saved some juice. Ghostie has taken barely any damage up to now, but he hits her with Harm.

Before that, she’d knocked out Beau; Caleb didn’t see that, but saw only the aftermath of Yasha bringing Beau back up with Healing Hands. A handy trick, but the necessity of it cost both Sentinel Babes some action economy.

Numerically, though, there are 8 of the M9 still standing against only 3 Volstrucker. Ghostie looks at the field, casts Immolation on Caduceus, and heads for the fireplace.

Caleb is very close to tapped, but he would burn his last 4th-level slot on Dispel on Caduceus if he had a chance. However, in a 6-second round of combat, a lot of things happen on top of each other and in this case…

…the changeling sees an opportunity to tie up Yasha for a crucial moment, probably dispatch Essek and Caleb, and go all-in on the cleric who’s actually done the most healing in this fight. She can do that by combining an evocation subclass ability with the 5th-level spell Steel Wind Strike.

The description for Steel Wind Strike reads, I shit you not, as follows: You flourish the [melee] weapon used in the casting and then vanish to strike like the wind. Choose up to five creatures you can see within range [30′]. Make a melee spell attack against each target. On a hit, a target takes 6d10 force damage. You can then teleport to an unoccupied space you can see within 5 feet of one of the targets you hit or missed.

This would be nasty on its own, but she combines it with her 14th-level evocation subclass ability to Overchannel: Starting at 14th level, you can increase the power of your simpler spells. When you cast a wizard spell of 5th level or lower that deals damage and isn't a cantrip, you can deal maximum damage with that spell. So she hits Yasha, Caleb, and Essek for 60 force damage each, and then devotes two max damage attacks to Jester, one of which is an auto-crit, to slay her outright. In fact, with the “offensive spell counts as attack action” rule I gave the Volstrucker for their Glyph Chant, she could have taken one more auto-crit melee attack on Jester just to be sure, but I didn’t feel like bogging down the flow with that when the one attack was devastating enough, really, so I just left that out.

14th-level evocation wizards get one use of Overchannel for free; there’s a sharp penalty for it thereafter (2d12 necrotic damage per level of spell cast). This may have been her first use, and she thought it could still win them the fight; or it may have been her second use, and it was a suicide attack to buy Ken and Ghostie time. Caleb doesn’t have enough information to determine.

Veth ends her.

While Fjord is in shock, Ken swipes the very obviously magical Star Razor from him and uses it to reach Tumblecarve’s Ring of Mind Shielding high up on the wall, destroying it. Yasha retaliates by impaling him; he reveals himself as a scourge aasimar by making his last act to unleash Radiant Consumption on himself and her.

Fortunately, Caduceus has Dispelled Immolation on himself (let’s hear it for that 1/day firbolg freebie) and is able to promptly Revivify Jester with M9′s last remaining diamond. Less than delighted with having just been nearly burned to death, he hits Ghostie with a simple Hold Person just as she makes it to the fireplace over the difficult terrain of a lot of dead bodies. She chooses to use her reaction to throw a letter into the flames rather than counter Cad’s spell. Caleb observes that the letter “goes up with an unnatural flash.”

Caleb has only three spell slots left: a 4th, a 6th, and his 7th, which last he needs in order to be able to teleport. Much like Essek did once before in the Dungeon of Penance, he ends the last Scourger before him with a 4th-level spell and a personal specialty, his very own Web of Fire.

He succeeds on his wisdom saving throw against being stunned after killing a humanoid with fire, and combat is over.

In Sum

M9′s advantages: a slight edge in numbers in the final confrontation (8 v 7); Caleb suspects a cumulative edge in level, though he cannot quite be sure; two clerics (plus backup healing with Yasha and Fjord); shared experience

Volstrucker advantages: an edge in numbers overall (nine that Caleb knows of currently); complete knowledge of the terrain, cooperation from Tumblecarve, and the luxury of time to prepare with various glyphs and wards; vastly more Counterspells available, which suppressed some of the clerics’ healing early on; ridonk action economy granted by the Glyph Chant (as I’ve interpreted it)

The upshot: a nasty fucking fight, but M9′s healing, versatility, and—crucially—camaraderie and experience with each other carried the day. Volstrucker are well trained, but they’re not great team players. M9? They know each other’s strengths and limitations intimately, and working seamlessly together is what they do best. The greatest cockroach party of them all: long may they reign.

—————————————————————— *Caleb thinks 5 were cloaked with Invisibility, but he’s wrong: three of them were just hidden, and the changeling (whom he didn’t even know about yet) also needed no magic to get the drop on Caduceus.

**Unnoticed by Caleb because of their relative positions (Caduceus was behind him in the doorway, and everybody was facing forward into the room)

#fic: Hard Mouth #Critical Role #DND #5e #d&d 5e #fic notes #Caleb Widogast #Essek Thelyss #the Mighty Nein #the Volstrucker

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mieletthe · 3 years

Text

"Are you busy right now?"

Somehow, somehow, against all of Caleb's expectations, he had managed to persuade their Kryn liaison to divulge exclusive dunamantic spells. He could feel Essek's eyes on him as he began his careful transcription, barely daring to run a finger along the glyphs on the page.

After half an hour of hovering—literally—at Caleb's shoulder, Essek moved to supervise from the sofa across the room instead. Caleb could hear the occasional flick of pages being turned between the steady scrapes of quill against paper. He willed himself to copy quickly; surely the Shadowhand had better, more important, things to do than this.

Partway through transcribing the second spell, Caleb's focus drifted. By the look of the many well‑thumbed pages that followed, these only scratched the surface of what dunamancy was held in Essek's spellbook. Was the arcane knowledge he truly sought hidden within? He paused, quill hovering above the page, and glanced up.

Essek's eyes met his immediately. Caleb was surprised to see that the typically formal drow had reclined sideways across the sofa, one hand propping up his face, the other delicately holding a book. The mantle that normally obscured his figure now hung to suggest the slight lines of his body, draping across his thigh and cascading to the floor. Despite lounging so casually, Essek maintained a certain dignified poise. It was in the angle of his cheekbones as he tilted his head just so, the high carriage of his neck, the elegant bend of his slender wrists, the careful arrangement of his fingers, the way his earrings caught the light. An enigmatic smile curled on his lips as he held Caleb's prolonged gaze.

Caleb flushed and turned back to his work. He could sense that smile grow.

This could be dangerous.

#critical role #critical role fanfic #caleb widogast #essek thelyss #shadowgast #crit recap animated #thank you to everyone who redrew that screencap for inspiring me #the last time i wrote fic was in the lj days #but this is what essek does to me #mieletthe writes

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maplecourtesy · 4 years

Text

TAZ:G NOTES, EPISODE 27

oh we’re starting with a full recap of the history huh;;

HHHHHHH ARGO, all i can think about is argo…. ever since last week my brain has been like many thoughts head argo keene

argo…… already…… oh god the music. argo gripping fitzroy’s shoulder;;;;; i love how that’s the thundermen’s love language.

[most of the content under the cut, because spoilers!!]

OH L O R D I DID NOT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THIS…oh jesus christ JESUS FUCK GOD WHAT THE HELL IM IN SO MUCH PAIN. THE ONE THING I DID NOT WANT. THE O N E THING. WAS HEARING ABOUT ARGO KILLING FITZ AND THE FIRBOLG. I KNOW THIS ISN’T REAL BUT IT VERY WELL COULD BE IF THINGS GO WRONG OH THIS IS AWFUL. IM IN A FITZROY KINSHIFT AND I FELT PAIN BETWEEN RIBS WHEN TRAVIS SAID THAT…. IM ALREADY EMOTIONAL SOMEONE HOLD ME. “you consider what you have done, and you smile.” NOTHING HAS HURT ME AS MUCH AS ARGONAUT KEENE.

i’m like . shaking. that singular dream sequence has convinced me that argo is genuinely one of my Highest comfort characters. i feel nothing but pain.

unfair that this cute music is playing while argo is waking up from the. WORST possible nightmare.

“does fitzroy have his own bedroom?” “he does” “*evil bastard chuckle noises from griffin*” GOD I LOVE HIM

notes in the adventure zone are never good. why are they never good i almost don’t wanna hear this even if its just a good lil fitzroy note. BE BACK SOON. if travis had made it say just “blah blah blah. back soon.” i think i genuinely would’ve fucking lost it. sorry for having taz balance brainrot i dont do it on purpose <3

NOOOO GOD I HATE THIS SO MUCH. GET OUT OF ARGO’S HEAD ARGO DON’T LISTEN TO HIM BUDDY THEY LOVE YOU SO MUCH THEY THINK YOURE THE ABSOLUTE BEST OH MAN IM SAD. i knew gray’d be capitalizing on argo’s fears and doubts n insecurities but i didn’t realize it’d hit this hard…. man argo cmere lemme give u a good good hug.

NOT @ THEM BEING MEAN TO CLINT TOO SDBFJDKSJ;;;;; STOP BULLYING CLINT AND ARGO!!!!!! >:T JAHSBJSDF TRAVIS MAKING THEM APOLOGIZE;;;

right before justin said his little podcast law thing i was literally Just about to click the 1.5x button and i felt very called out

FAST FIRBOLG FAST FIRBOLG. ITS VERY FUNNY THAT HIS UHHHHHH’S STILL REMAIN THE SAME THOUGH. hey does travis know what Talking Faster means.

“i have been giving this much thought” “HELL YES"

"the worry-"

"aw no"

WHEJDJDBSJSHBS

OH THE MUSIC!!!!! FESTO TIME THIS IS FESTO TIME!!!!! I MISSED FESTO SO MUCHHHHH GOD FESTOS THEME MUSIC SLAPS SO HARD

as always fitzroy is already being The Best. hes so good. man festo better be impressed by this.

“DID YOU SEE?????” EVERY DAY I LOVE FITZROY MORE..

you heard the man travis!!! we need a festo and fitzroy rave scene and we need it NOW

OH THANK GOD ITS FESTOS PROPER VOICE AGAIN I WASNT FEELING THE VIBES

I MISSED SNIPPERS SO MUCH TOOOOO I LOVE SNIPPERS TO THE MOON AND BACK…. snippers the phantasmal crab well spring of all magic ever

I LIKE GORDY SO MUCH!!!!! GORDY GOES TO RAVES!!! :DDD

hey festo do u wanna spill the hot drippin wet goss

YOU DO HAVE A HABIT OF PISSING PEOPLE OFF WJDNSNFJSKDFJKN THIS WHOLE EXCHANGE….

FESTO MAKE JOKE SDHJFBHSHDJFJHB

rip fitzroy <3

CLINT THE POWERFUL WIZARD…. GOD CLINTS CANONICAL IN EVERY UNIVERSE…. THE. SDHFJJBSDFHJSDHJFB THE CLINTORIS. LET ME OUT OF HERE I WANNA GO. I HATE IT SO MUCH. I HATE IT I HATE IT.

hehe pretty music!! i will never shut up about how beautiful griffin’s composition is especially in these recent episodes;;

I REALLY ONLY LISTEN TO THE AD READS FOR BABY DOT NOW I LOVE HER SO MUCH;;;;;; <333 THAT’S A GOOD HALLOWEEN GROWL;;;;; HEY BABY DOT;;;;;;;; oh i love dot so much im ;3;

glad we had that chat about using the potty!!! thanks guys very cool!!

now why would fitzroy bring that up.

WHERE IS ALL THE ART OF THUNDERMAN LLC IN BOOTY SHORTS CLIMBING GEAR!!!! I NEED THAT!!! GET ON IT ARTISTS!!!! /LH

WHJBDHHJSDHJFHBJ NOOO GOD;;; i saw a post that said it sounds like argo seems like hes feeling some rejection sensitivity dysphoria and Yeah;;; little sidetrack but i really do feel like all the thundermen are neurodivergent in some way. i project my adhd very heavily onto fitzroy and i think that argo and the firbolg could both be somewhere on the spectrum!! argo could also be ocd and thats a very comforting headcanon too;;;

GOD SARCASM…..

oh its hieronymous;;; sad music time i don’t like this;; i care so much about hiero i hope he’s doin alright;; “i’m just tired.” yeah me too hiero…

GOD EVERYTIME FIRBOLG MAKES A JOKE I LOSE MY MIND…. canon that firbolg does a little celebratory dance after each banger joke

“we can’t take that risk” “well MAYBE THEY SHOULDVE BEEN STRONG ENOUGH”

yall think fitzroy could get that influencer cape on and charm his way into the heroic oversight guild. but yeah hiero and althea!!!!

OH NO ARGO. O H. N O. AR G O.. OH JESUS ARGO OH GOD FUCK ARGO……OH NOOOO OH NO OH GOD FUCK ARGO DONT DO SHIT I SWEAR TO FUCKING G O D. ARGO PLEASE IM SO SCARED I CANT HAVE FITZROY GET STABBED… argo sounds so … defeated oh im so sad;;;; i have so many argo feelings…

maplekeeners how are we feelin…

HOW DOES ARGO KEEP FUCKIN ROLLING CRIT FAILS… oh no;;; fitzroy fuck him up. do it. fuck him up. FUCK Y E S. HOLY SHIT FUCK HIM UP FITZROY.

if gray don’t get the FUCK out of my boy argo

thank god argo knows now because idk if i could’ve dealt with him feelin that shitty self deprecation and thinkin it was still him even after that;;

thunderman llc love each other so much god i'm so sad...

oh i cant wait to see the art people come up with for the godscar chasm scene this sounds beautiful...

OPALESCENT SKIN??? CHAOS????? not? chaos??

"i have been called many names, some of them unkind. i think the one i most identify with is order."

HOLY SHIT I JUST GOT C H I L L S WHAT THE FUCK THAT WAS SO INCREDIBLY COOL OH IM IN AWE. THAT WAS SUCH A COOL ENDING OH MG GOD.

this commentary got Long but for good reason god this was such a good episode i believe in taz g episode 27 supremacy.... holy moly folks.

#taz #taz graduation spoilers #taz grad #taz g #taz graduation #taz grad spoilers #the adventure zone #the adventure zone graduation #taz episode 27 #sir fitzroy maplecourt #fitzroy maplecourt #argonaut keene #argo keene #the firbolg #master firbolg #taz notes by krys #krys talks

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getallemeralds · 3 years

Text

Explorers of Arvus: uhhhh / 3.23.21

today's notes are different from usual bc. well. you'll see

LAST TIME ON EXPLORERS OF ARVUS i broke my sleep schedule and am barely existing so this is fine. we went back to camp vengeance an uhhhhhhhhhhhh we are now going to fuck off into the forest to die or prove a very important point

oh god we forgot to level up

[mgd voice] BOOSTING NYX TO MAXIMUM LEVEL

im so fuckin tired. what on earth am i doing. how do i level again

k is not here this time but instead we've got mae+nii bonking their heads together to simulate 2 braincells and so far it is not working. i might just have to like fuckin, drop out n zzz partway thru or somethin. would be fun to see how chaotic michael makes charlie in my absensce

oh wait i can do d&dbeyond i think. how do i work this again. will i ever remember i have shield

what level am i. level 6? pog. oh shit i think i have a new thing

. new spell

. 3 total 3rd level spell slots

. bend luck! i can now screw people over on purpose (and will probably use my sorcery points FINALLY)

michael is leveling charlie up bc my brain is apple sos

ASDXFKLJFH I FEEL CALLED OUT zec rb'd my most recent art of MaX with "all i know about xem is that leo likes xem a lot that's the extent of my knowledge" THANK U FOR SUPPORTIN ME ANYWAY

there will be less blaseball distractions than last time bc blaseball is now on siesta. however i will still have MaX brainrot in the background bc i was drawing xem

wyatt mason my beloved

OKAY I GOTTA MUTE THE TACO STAND FOR THE ENTIRETY OF D&D i cannot and will not get distracted. we can do this. we

nintendo wii

we havent even started yet and im already incoherent

ok i have made a decision and that decision is that i do not have the brainpower to play. however i do have the brianpower to take notes hopefully! so ill just like. vibe. this will be a first

oh man im gonan pick up Blink. charlie is gonna be a fucking menace to herself and others

oh my god its not concentration so charlie may continue teleporting while unconscious. thorne is going to hate this

[charlie gets her soul eaten by a ring] [charlie singing dragonston din tei at halvkWAIT JORB HAS A PRIZE

jorb got a thing! an evil genius thing! figure man. fugrine. figuring. help

GREEN HAS DIAGNOSED ME AS TIGREX MONSTERHUNTER i love this

my notes are a disaster. this is so sucks

serotonin is stored in the wiggly zoomy jorb camera

jorb: his pinky is the size of the rest of his fingers

leo: he has a disease

jorb: he has a disease.

jorb: that disease is male pattern baldness

leo: [reduced to tearful giggling for mysterious reasons]

LAST TIME, ON EXPLORERS OF ARVUS: we've returned to camp vengeance! taure is still unconscious, which is not very great. camp vengeance is doin better tho!

michael, as part of the recap: ingrid is getting railed by her new girlfriend,

first dice roll of the day is michael rolled a 1. good start

OH THORNE IS AN ARTIFICER NOW thorne took a level in artificer!

"...it's like figuring out the right mathematical equation to summon a gun."

group is gonna go check out the statue that we passed by now that we're not WHAT DO YOU MEAN PONK AND GEORGE CANONICALLY HAVE IBS thats it im not looking at 772 anymore

im doing a bad job of paying attention but at least im Present

SIERON LEARNED FLY AND USED IT ON CHARLIE

michael: what do you want to do with your new flying powers?

leo: how many problems can i cause in 10 minutes

guard 1: ...why is the halfling flying?

guard 2: [rolls a 3 on intelligence] i think they can just do that

groundhogs, the real scourge of the campaign

silje and sieron are gonna hunt a big elk. they got distracted and sieron is putting grass on silje's head. i think

WAIT WE'RE ON WATCH NOW FUCK

we have discovered kali's tragic backstory whoops

update i am. too sleepy for this. good nigh everyone

[ and then leo went and somewhat took a nap! solar, normally playing thorne, started playing charlie in my stead. @jorbs-palace, local hero, started taking shitpost notes in my stead. ]

jorb's ghostwritten notes for leo:

help solar is immediately doing a cursed voice for charlie. charlie can do so many crimes

congratulations, charlie is now temporarily immortal!

dwarves can hit things with their beard

kali wants to know if she's legally allowed to bail

she'd feel really bad if she had to loot our corpses for payment if we died.

we have entered the Tree Zone

one of the corpses is now a flamingo (has one leg)

silje has decided to stab the ground. take that, dirt

kali was large size for a second there but then she remembered to not be a giant

"you accidentally deleted my cat?!"

silje has learned naruto cloning jutsu

be gone, thot

oh boy, making an int check to look at a statue! 11! silje is dumb apparently.

hmm. the statue has divination magic. it's also affecting silje.

SILJE LEARNED A 6TH LEVEL SPELL? its only single use but still

you solved my statue riddllllleeeee

thorne forgot to have eyes

its a shame mac and cheese doesnt exist in the d&d universe

wizards are just math criminals (the criminal part is setting people on fire)

sieron crit fails a check but it was still a 9 because of having +8

thorne is looking for what's weird!

uh oh music got scary, never a good sign

hmm. those leaves over there weren't dead a moment ago.

UNDEAD TROLL TIME! rolling initiative

"it's ok, im a wizard, it's my duty to be correct." "wow! waow!"

woooah here he comes

IT JUST DID HALF SIERON'S HEALTH AS A PASSIVE END OF TURN EFFECT?

thorne backed up and cast eldri- oh, ray of enfeeblement. character development continues

charlie is going to just blink out of existence for a minute.

big chungus has grabbed silje and sieron. BIG CHUNGUS HAS THROWN SILJE AND SIERON.

sieron is using hit and run tactics! isn't good at his extra attack yet though

silje is activating bid bid blood blood blood

thorne uses beam of skipping your leg day. troll's legs are now skipped.

michael is trying to determine what a 'clavicle' is

"does that mean the star trek kind, or the bdsm kind?"

charlie wants to cast magic missile.

charlie has vanished back into the ethereal plane mid-taunt

silje has decided to not get bitten today

silje may or may not have stats.

oh, right, trolls are weak to fire! and also we forgot to upgrade sieron's firebolt. so it actually hurts now!

silje is full of knives and blades and does 31 damage in one turn!

charlie shouts words of encouragement from the ethereal plane. a nearby ghost vibes with this.

🎉 eldritch blast 🎉

kali remembered she hates the sun

silje is enthuasiatic about charlie saying "get him cat boy!"

charlie contemplating using fireball to nuke the troll and also the entire stonehenge

charlie has decided to use magic missile instead, probably for the best

the troll bit at charlie SO POORLY it broke some of its teeth on the ground

charlie is too small to hit

accidentally rolled advantage on a firebolt, so got to learn it WOULD have done 29 damage with a crit but instead it missed because it was not actually with advantage

silje has just sliced open its entire back and made a spray of frozen blood! radical. big boy is down!

we have burned the body because we are not stupid. well, we ARE stupid, but not stupid in the way of leaving a body full of necrotic magic around

[dr coomer voice] i think it's good that he died!

we're also doing a funeral pyre for the other corpses that were around. just to be sure.

our loot is: the satisfaction of a job well done

thorne is cosplaying as charlie

charlie has located the direction troll came from! she found the 'the way to sweet loot' sign

thorne is apparently better at survival checks than our hired guide? wack

we found a viking house! it has: mead, a shield, gravestones,

found a gold coin in the mead! maybe it was thirsty

oh theres a LOT Of coins in there actually. 60 gold and 120 silver!

have successfully pointed out a hole in the DM's logic :)

there was a raven! it cawed and left. ok bye buddy

and that's where we leave it! heading back to camp vengeance next time.

someone rated this session a 7.2 out of 10, which is very specific

good night mr coconut

#leo chirps #ttrpg #explorers of arvus #jorb #thank u based jorb

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muffinlance · 4 years

Note

what would you say is the most important thing about writing, and are there any tips you'd be willing to share?

In the order I thought of them, which might or might not reflect their significance to me or you:

Write a fuck ton. And do it as close to daily as possible. You get better at this by doing it more, just like every other skill. Writing isn't any more magical than carpentry: show up, do it a lot, and you'll improve.

Writer's block is either you being lazy/scared to write and Ruin Everything or your subconscious telling you there's an Actual Problem with your story. Learn to differentiate the two. Writer's block in the form of "oh I haven't written forever because my ethereal muse won't inspire me" is generally the former; stop being an ass to yourself and sit down. BIC = Butt In Chair = one of the most common acronyms you'll find on writer's forums.

Critique Circle (no fanfic allowed, sorry)

The Absolute Write Water Cooler (no fanfic, and STAY THE HELL AWAY if you're not ready for serious publishing, these people talk real talk and that broke me for a bit as a newb who Wasn't Ready For This Level of Publishing Reality.)

Setting a timer to write was super useful for me when I was still trying to establish good habits. 45 minutes BIC, and no going off on that 30 minute research tangent doesn't count, no internet no research no distractions just WRITE.

I really really suck at the "no distractions, just write". System that works well for me when I need to kiddie lock myself to the chair: use phone for typing. Set it up just out of reach and use a Bluetooth keyboard. At this point I've typed like two novels using this method. Requires a good phone that doesn't crash when your Google doc gets too big though, RIP my last phone.

Google docs are your friend. Autosave and available everywhere.

I'm going to find and murder the person who decided Google docs should use some kind of neural network predictive shit for its spell check instead of comparing to an actual dictionary file. Beware REALLY BIZARRE typos slipping through. Turning on grammar check catches most of these. I will not murder the person who added that.

Backup copies of your stories. Regularly. For Serious Face writing, I typically have the main doc on GDrive, and download a .rft copy to my local hard drive any day I make sizable progress/edits. Title the file with the date (year-month-day, ie 2019-11-08, so that the files sort nicely by name), and a brief recap of what you changed. Ie: 2019-11-08 Story Title Here added ch 3 deleted wererabbits". Then if you are looking for the wererabbits scene because why did you delete that it was AWESOME, you know you just need to load up the doc before. Version control bitches, it's not just for Com Sci. I also backup my backups monthly to two different flash drives, because you can NEVER BE PARANOID ENOUGH.

Pay attention to what you like/dislike in other stories, especially things that grab you and make you want to read through the night (or make you go 'eh, this was fun to read, but not great'). Suss out WHY. Incorporate into your style appropriately.

Critique other people's stories, especially finished ones in your genre and word count. Pre-published works are a treasure trove of almost-there-but-not-quite that really helps you practice #10. Figure out how YOU would fix things, if it were your novel. Figure out three to four ways you could fix it. One suggestion can come off as imposing your opinion on the person you're betaing for, and is a no-no. A bulleted list is helping them brainstorm and they will love you and want to wed into your family. Critiquing helps the other writer a little, and helps you a fuck ton more. Crit. Lots. (As time allows, and generally when you have a work that needs critting back, because crit partners can and will disappear on you.)

Fuck fear, get your writing out there. At the very least you'll learn what not to do next time. This especially applies to the fun that is the querying process. Related note: that short story I just got published in a major mag? I sat on that for like year before I tried sending it anywhere because I had a nebulous fear of Not Being Good Enough. Fuck that shit, shove your terrible writing at people and let THEM decide if there's anything to love in it. Especially in fanfiction, where the stakes are so low, and it's generally not the well-written stories but the most compelling that get attention.

You'll probably never grow out of the "my writing is terrible" thing. I have literally never heard of an author who has. You just learn to deal with it better as you get more and more positive feedback (and the feedback WILL get more positive if you're conscientiously writing lots with the improvement of your craft in mind.) I know on an intellectual level that I'm writing at a pro level 'cause people have literally paid me pro-level monies for it, but I'm still Super Nervous anytime I start a new plot arc because What If This One Sucks.

Corollary: Sometimes you will inexplicably want to take your latest story to the bathtub and drown it even though there's nothing objectively wrong with it. Take a big step back and work on something else for awhile. You are going to do nothing but mangle your story until you are out of that mood.

Having multiple projects helps you to have a different Favorite Child so you can avoid murdering your other children and still be productive.

Find something outside of writing that is good stress relief + healthy, because This Is Stressful. If you're being serious about it, you're probably treating it like a part-time job. Jobs are stressful. Writing is no exception. Walking/jogging pairs well with general Think Time, I've found.

Think Time is real. Think Time is that thing where you aren't actively thinking of the story and then three days later you suddenly have the solution to that plot problem. As long as you're actively engaging with your craft, there is a part of your brain that will be working on things in the background for you. Thank you, semi-automated brain subprocesses!

Don't use Think Time as an excuse not to write, you lazy ass. Put a GERBIL in your outline and come back to it, go write the next scene.

My outlines include addressing myself directly, swearing at myself, and using the word GERBIL as a marker for things that need fixing. These are optional but enjoyable. (And also the reason none of my characters will ever have a GERBIL as a pet, because then I couldn't use it as an easy Ctrl+F keyword.)

My dinner is cold so this list is done.

#writing stuff #ask

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klonoadreams · 4 years

Text

So a text message woke me up early and due to having to make a quick stop at my sister’s place because of a package, I am fully awake (took my meds and ate breakfast), so....

Gonna continue the Black and White Nuzlocke race I have going on with friend Ali.

Here’s the link to my twitch!!!

As a recap, this shit happened near the end, thanks to my battle with N by the Ferris Wheel (what teh FUCK dude)...

Which resulted in me HAVING to take a detour and grind the new replacements.

So let’s see how this team goes up against Elesa, because it’s gym time, and I am ABSOLUTELY terrified of those flying electric rats. once again, THANKS N, FOR GETTING RID OF THE TWO MONS I TRAINED UP FOR THIS VERY GYM.

stupid freaking crits...

Hope to see you there!! Just give me a bit to set up first!!

#klonoa streams #klonoa plays pokemon black nuzlocke #pokemon black and white #pokemon

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orderofthedyingstar · 4 years

Text

RECAP: SESSION 15

The party has just embarked on their (soon-to-be) months long journey on the Long Road, the only real path between the western part of Gosha and So’Joh’s capital city. (CRIT MISS from Rhododendron) the first two weeks’ worth of the journey end up taking an entire month, and Rhododendron (CRIT MISS CON save) ends up giving herself, Jun, and Inigo (CRIT MISS CON save) food poisoning - Rhododendron and Inigo end up getting horribly sick on top of that for the entire first week of travel. Inigo ends up eating weird roadside small-town food for a while afterwords, not trusting even the party’s rations. After she recovers, Rhododendron scavenges some spell components; she also works on ‘Verrix’s’ romance book manuscript for Marlee. She tries to enlist Verrix’s help in coming up with a title for the book, but he just ends up shouting out random baking terms. Rhododendron asks Marlee what she knows about the Crimson Death, and she tells Rhododendron that ‘people were being shitty’ and then healed by Dilong…and mentions Sun Sickness.

Marlee: “Basically, there was like this paladin of Nyvarstra or whatever, and they totally went bazonkers with power, totally fallen, totally rising up against the gods - I dunno, there was like a whole rebellion with it. Even the common folk were with it, he was like super charismatic. Like me. And like, I guess Nyvarstra was like ‘oh, that’s like blasphemy’ so she sent a plague to destroy them all and show people what happens when you mess with her - props, I get it, I have a bad temper too.”

Rhododendron: “And then you said there was another person?”

Marlee: “Ya, another god, one that’s not around anymore, so she’s not relevant.”

Rhododendron: “Laoteng?”

Marlee: “Ya, her and one of her kids. They did, like, some healing with some holy warrior or whatever. I dunno.”

Rhododendron: “So, did Nyvarstra kill the paladin?”

Marlee: “Yeah, probably. The other legend is that ‘his corpse still haunts the world today’. I wouldn’t worry about it. He’s probably dead.”

Rhododendron asks if an angel was involved in these stories at all, which Marlee denies, but she does bring up the incident a few months back when ‘a bunch of angels went crazy and tried to kill the aasimar’.

Marlee: “People got like, mad about it. I was like ‘calm down, man’.”

Rhododendron: “It didn’t affect you?”

Marlee: “Um, no, celestials can’t affect me. Ew. I’m like a paladin, that’s like our thing.”

Rhododendron: “I mean, it didn’t affect me either, so…”

Marlee: “That’s nice.”

Verrix: “Yeah, bet it was nice.”

Rhododendron asks Marlee if she knows that she’s in a party with two aasimar, and she says that she’s known - and that she knows that Inigo is fallen. Rhododendron tells Marlee that the angels were after Inigo, to which the paladin says that it’s a ‘little self-centered’ to assume that it was all because of them. After talking to Marlee, Rhododendron tries to ask Inigo a little bit more about his memories, which he’s still very unclear on. Inigo does state that he vaguely remembers Umbra’s plan to steal the crown of So’Joh, and that he was arrested. Marlee, after eavesdropping for a little bit, offers to try to help Inigo with some magic from her - and a somewhat reluctant Jun. Inigo’s a little apprehensive about the idea, but Rhododendron reassures him again that he doesn’t have to change as a person even after regaining his memories.

The group finally makes it past the border and into So’Joh (after breaking and repairing a cart wheel) after four and a half weeks of travel. Jun gives books the semi-translated book from the last temple, where’s he’s made quite a few notes. Rhododendron asks Verrix if he’s come up with a title for the book yet, but won’t accept his only sugggestion (Fifty Shades of Grain). The two of them debate tell Marlee about the author of the book, but feel like she’ll be a little upset that they’ve hid this secret for a few months now. Rhododendron asks Inigo how he feels about trying to regain his memories again, and he tells her that she still doesn’t think it’s a good idea, since he isn’t too happy about the type of person he used to be before. Inigo also says that he’s worried about being around Umbra again, recalling how Umbra could affect anyone’s minds from regular people to creatures (like giants). Rhododendron still reassures him that he doesn’t have any reason to hurt anyone in the party (although Verrix points out to her that Jun and Inigo didn’t exactly get along as teenagers, to which Rhododendron says that Jun doesn’t even look the same anymore, and that he let Inigo go). Inigo still continues to worry about regaining his memories, especially at the risk of harming the rest of the party, but his memories might be the only real lead they have to Umbra’s whereabouts in Nartai/So’Joh.

Marlee finishes working her way through the pieces of the story Rhododendron has written for her, and says that she has very in-depth feedback to give to Verrix on it (which he is not looking forward too). Rhododendron gets bored after a while and tries to bother Jun, who says he prefers sleeping (nice, dreamless sleep) - so she has Inigo throw his flute at Jun (21 STR check), and lets him know that Inigo has decided to go through with Marlee’s (and his) suggestion of using Lesser Restoration/Remove Curse to try to restore some of his memories. Eventually, Jun does offer to finish translating the rest of the book on Dilong for her (with only 100 pages left).

Rhododendron and Inigo go hunting for food to give the party a break from rations, but Rhododendron is banned from cooking, so Verrix offers to cook the deer they bring back…with fire magic, which triggers residual magic from the chocolate he’d eaten in the Brackenwood temple, summoning a fire elemental. The elemental also completely rends the deer to ashes and begins to attack the party. Rhododendron asks Marlee if she thinks the elemental is similar at all the Umbra (Marlee: “who’s Umbra?”), while Jun remarks that the elemental is saying some pretty vulgar things in Primordial (who taught Jun cuss words in Primordial…). The elemental targets Verrix in combat, doing significant damage to him and setting him on fire while Marlee and Inigo miss horribly. Jun casts Thunderstep to get Verrix away from the fire elemental, but the party still has difficulty doing any significant damage to the creature for a few hits, setting Inigo on fire before Rhododendron and Verrix manage to land solid hits on it, Verrix finishing it off.

After the fight, Verrix asks (a pouting) Marlee if there’s a god of deer, but she dodges giving him a real answer besides saying that there’s a god of the Wilds; she’s bitter that she wasn’t able to hit the elemental. The next day, before trying to begin restoring Inigo’s memories, Rhododendron tries to make sure that he’s really ready to start the process (while Verrix eavesdrops). They also talk about Rhododendron’s dancing career, to which she tells them that there’s only a limited amount of time for her to perform as a professional ballet dancer, since the career is so hard on her body.

Rhododendron: “It’s okay to be nervous. I would go through performances and that was the worst part, but at the end it was exhilarating, that release of nervousness.”

Inigo: “I don’t know if this will be quite the same.”

Rhododendron: “I think it will! You’ll remember who you are, Inigo. And even if it brings back bad memories, that’s you.”

Inigo: “Yes, that’s the part…I think I’m afraid of.”

Rhododendron: “That’s what I’m saying. You should accept that part of yourself and be the person…that is scared of that person.”

Inigo: “Or I could run away again.”

Rhododendron: “I would find you.”

Inigo: “You did track me pretty soundly and very, very quickly.”

Rhododendron: “I’m not gonna let you run away from this, Inigo, no matter how much you might want to.”

Inigo: “……We have a deal.”

Rhododendron and Inigo (with some very loud flute ‘music’) wake up Inigo and Jun to start the process of trying to restore his memories, with Marlee insisting on wearing her gauntlets around Inigo and his ‘fallenness’. Rhododendron freaks out on Marlee and Jun when Inigo passes out, but neither of them know why it affected him like that. Jun is completely unconcerned, but points out that he was fine after passing out for a week (Rhododendron vehemently disagrees). After a few minutes Inigo wakes up and immediately goes to recover by himself in the cart, while Marlee pesters Verrix about the book he didn’t write and Jun gives Rhododendron the fully annotated book on Dilong - with an additional 200 pages neither of them expected, since he initially thought they were indexes. Rhododendron is absolutely distressed by this absurd amount of reading.

Jun: “We could kidnap a bard for you and have them read you the whole thing.”

Rhododendron: “Why can’t you just do it?!”

Jun: “I don’t like telling stories, it’s boring.”

Rhododendron: “You’re boring!”

Jun, sincerely: “Thank you.”

Rhododendron: “Nine hundred pages, Jun?!”

Jun: “It’s seven hundred if you don’t read - ”

Rhododendron, sobbing: “YOU SAID NINE HUNDRED PAGES!”

After a few hours of working through the book and checking up on Inigo from a distance, Rhododendron finally takes pity on Verrix and rescues him from Marlee’s badgering. They return to the cart, and Jun hands Verrix his spellbook to put over his face. They annoy Rhododendron until she goes over to ask Inigo how he’s doing; he’s a little uncertain of things still. Inigo says he remembers some things about Nartai, the Cobalt Keep, and the skull tattoo (a mark of Umbra’s gang). He remembers a little more about trying to steal the crown, that two magic users stopped them before they even got past the gates. He isn’t able to recount much about the person he’d met with the skull tattoo back in Asaraoi, that the dude mostly spoke in riddles, mentioning a library. He also refuses to show Rhododendron his tattoo, saying that it is both invisible and in a ‘bad spot’, even though she is incredibly nosy and desperately wants to know where it is. He does tell her that his tattoo isn’t always invisible, that it reappears when Umbra’s near. Inigo also remembers his favorite food, which is basically just slightly fancy apple pie (but he claims that you can only get it in Breo Shar, where he remembers a part of childhood). They also speculate whether or not Umbra could be a lich, since they didn’t seem to age at all in Inigo’s memories.

The two of them speculate a little about the future, which Inigo doesn’t have any plans for past Umbra, and Rhododendron is unsure of after rescuing Raz. Rhododendron also brings up the Queen missing, and that Jun was the one who predicted that - and Inigo nearly remembers Jun’s identity at the mention of that until Rhododendron talks over him in an attempt to derail the conversation. As the party heads out on the road again, Raz manages to get a message to Rhododendron via the Sending spell.

Raz: “Uh…h-hey, Rhododendron. It’s, uh, me. Raz. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Uh, that was a bad joke, sorry…I just wanted to let you know…I’m alive?”

She tells Verrix about the message, and how…kind of pointless it was other than letting her know that they’re still alive. Rhododendron is annoyed with how little they gave her (“the bare bones of a conversation, like always”). When Jun finally wakes up (hours later), she tells him about the message she got from Raz, and he grills her for information before guessing that the spell Raz used was Sending, and that eventually he might be able to learn how to do the spell for her, and tells her how to respond to it. Jun expresses displeasure at the thought of someone else in his head, and they group moves on with their travels.

Verrix manages to navigate the party for a while, spotting some signs from the Masks carved into a nearby signpost, and is curious enough to divert the party off of the maid road to follow where they’re leading - the Mirtree House. Verrix takes Inigo with him to take a peak at the manor, before they both decide that it’s pretty creepy and return to get the rest of their party, pulling the cart up in front of the manor and waking everybody up, much to Marlee’s displeasure. Marlee volunteers herself to stay with the cart while the rest of the party investigates the manor.

The party enters the manor after Jun casts Detect Magic (abjuration) and Rhododendron picks the lock (15 DEX). They sneak around the building, finding a few once-nice moth-eaten cloaks and a fancy dining room on the first floor, as well as several servants’ quarters and a kitchen.

Verrix: “Oh, hey, they were probably rich people, so this is totally fine.”

Rhododendron: “You’re just figuring that out?”

Rhododendron, later: “If you have this many servants you can’t be that nice of a person.”

Jun: “No, they never are.”

Rhododendron: “Like, you can acquire wealth without being an asshole.”

They dig further through the manor, with Verrix finding a decent sized safe that he’s unable to open alone, but manages to crack the combination with the help of Rhododendron’s sharp ears. They find some daggers and some deed paperwork to the manor. The paperwork has the surname Mirtree, the names on the paper being Fil’tran and Kirna - obviously elvish. They also manage to find a decent amount of money.

Rhododendron: “Just a fact of life: elves are old, rich assholes.”

Jun, bitterly: “Yeah.”

After examining their loot, the party makes their way to the master bedroom, where the door immediately shuts behind them. Outside of the window, the view of the sun is completely gone, with it being pitch black outside as though it was nighttime again. Jun casts Detect Magic again (burning a spell slot, much to his chagrin) to reveal that the magic around them is, of course, necrotic (as well as evocation and abjuration). On the headboard of the bed is carved: LOCK THE DOOR, BLOW OUT THE LIGHT, THE HUNGRY ONI HAUNTS THE NIGHT. There are more portrait of elves in the bedroom much like the rest of the house, and no stars in the sky outside.

Inigo tries to open the door but is unable to, and he says that he hears something scratching on the other side of the door - something with sharp nails. Rhododendron tries to peer under the door, also hearing the scratching sound as she approaches the door; it immediately stops when she looks under the door, her own gaze met by a bright yellow eye and a sharp grin.

Rhododendron: “Is it childish of me that I’m like, ‘we should all get on the bed’?”

Verrix: “The bed with the ominous carvings on it? The ominous message? …How bad do you think the consequences would be if I broke that window?”

As gas starts to pour out from under the door crack, the party scrambles away from the door, and the smoke solidifies into a humanoid figure with glowing yellow eyes. The oni. Inigo, as always (for some reason) introduces himself to the creature and asks for its name while Verrix and Rhododendron crack nervous jokes at it. The oni shifts its form to look like Rhododendron and begins mimicking her speech - the party engages it in combat (and Verrix does a LOT of damage to it, lots of nat20s this session for Verrix). During the battle, at the end of each round, (the one round it finishes lmao) the oni’s wounds begin to heal on their own - Verrix destroys it seconds later with another impressive blast of fire, but activates his own Wild Magic, which swaps his STR and CHA mods. Verrix ends up getting super buff for the rest of the day, popping open the buttons on his clothes audibly and growing an extra three inches. Verrix runs over and takes a flying kick at the door (nat20) and completely obliterates the door.

The party explores the rest of the manor, finding a few children's’ bedrooms and a guest bedroom, with nothing too interesting in them. Rhododendron digs through the master bedroom again and finds a safe hidden under the bed, finding a few magical items (candies and dentures) and some more money. After scouring the manor a little longer, the party reunites with Marlee back at the cart, who says they were gone for seven hours. Marlee also says that she heard screaming from inside the building, but none of the other members of the party screamed while they were inside. Inigo offers to teach Verrix how to use swords now that he’s strong, but Verrix declines, saying he still doesn’t think that he can take very many hits.

After that detour, the party returns to the Long Road proper, reaching the edge of the forested area about a month’s travel away from the Great Crossroads. Jun tries to use his portent to help Verrix cheat at arm wrestling competitions with Inigo and Rhododendron while he’s still strong, but Inigo still somehow wins his (nat20). …As soon as Verrix goes to sleep his muscles disappear. Verrix spends the next few days sulking in silent shame at losing his muscles, and even though Inigo offers to help him work out (and Rhododendron suggests jogging next to the horses) he still pouts.

They begin reaching the most populated portions of So’Joh the closer they get to Nartai and Rhododendron successfully manages to shave off some of their travel time. They also pick up a familiar (to Rhododendron) hitchhiker in Calliope, who has taken the form of a half-elf. The two of them catch up, with Rhododendron introducing her to the newer party members and filling Cali in on what happened to Raz.

Rhododendron: “Have you ever heard of a man named Umbra?”

Calliope: “Fire genasi? Then, yeah.”

Rhododendron: “What do you know about him?”

Calliope: “Oh, you know, dangerous and deadly. A lot of good stories.”

Rhododendron: “He’s the worst? The WORST?”

Calliope: “…Depends on who you hear it from.”

Rhododendron: “We’re going to go kill him.”

Calliope, smiling: “I hope you make a good story out of it.”

When Rhododendron asks about a story, Cali offers up stories about Lady Ambrette and gates to the Underdark, a fallen paladin and the Crimson Death (a story Marlee had refused to talk about very much), and the Emperor’s spyglass. Rhododendron asks about the Night of Endless Rains and the version of the story with Zelia - and the mortal Arietta (wait, where have we heard that name before…), a famous performer. Arietta’s talent as a performer was so great that it caught the attention of two gods: Yulong and Zelia, who started wars over her affection. Cali also supplies that Yulong’s Fingers (the rivers) were formed where her hands last grasped for Arietta as her life slipped away after Zelia struck her down (with a snake/weapon/arrow). Cali also tells the story of the Emperor’s spyglass, of how the Emperor caught spies before they could act, nobles poisoned with their own tainted drinks, rebellions squashed before they could start.

Rhododendron: “Um, the fallen paladin? That one has something to with Sun Sickness, blah blah blah, Nyvarstra, the Crimson Death, um, what about Dilong?”

Calliope, nervously: “W-what about Dilong?”

Rhododendron: “Perhaps Dilong’s champion?”

Calliope talks about how Dilong’s champion had magical arrows that could kill or cure depending on who they were shot at, and how they also helped serve Dilong’s mother. She gets interested when Rhododendron mentions seeing tapestries of the champion, although Rhododendron refuses to go into detail. Rhododendron asks after the political affairs in Gosha, and Cali tells her that the Queen has been presumed dead and that a council has been appointed in her place for now. (Rhododendron: “That’s a problem for later.”) They’ve also declared the dragon as some sort of powerful illusion, as dragons are still extinct. Rhododendron and Verrix catch Cali up on a somewhat sensitized version of their adventures the past few months. Cali mentions meeting Raz a few times in Dynafell, since she always tries to visit the temples…since she ‘sort of’ works with people that are big followers of Nyvarstra. And with that, she departs, hopping off of the cart and travelling by herself again.

Marlee pouts after Cali leaves, disappointed by her lack of chemistry with Rhododendron and a little jealous of her storytelling ability (and ease of friendship with Rhododendron, even if that’s…not really true…). Rhododendron offers to tell Marlee the story of how she met Raz, and Marlee gets emotional about their meet-cute. She tries to emphasize to Marlee that they weren’t exactly a ‘perfect couple’, but it’s too late, Marlee has her rose-tinted glasses on, even though she knows that they broke up. Marlee promises to try to find someone else for Rhododendron, saying that she might even find her true love here in So’Joh…even though Marlee thinks that she’s still in love with Raz, since she’s kept an old moment from them.

Marlee, in tears: “……You’re still in love with them, oh my gods. That’s why you’re going to rescue them. Verrix, we have to save Raz.”

Verrix: “That’s…what we’re doing.”

Marlee: “Good, I’m glad we’re on the same page. Wow, Verrix is also a romantic at heart - I don’t know if you know this, but Verrix writes romance novels”

Rhododendron finally tells Marlee that Verrix hasn’t been writing the baker/prince book, but it takes a minute to convince her of this. She tells Marlee that they lied because she didn’t think she’d made a very good impression on Marlee, and felt like Verrix had a better chance at swaying her to join them. Marlee forgives her on the condition that she doesn’t spoil the story - and proceeds to subject her to the same criticisms and comments that she’d given to Verrix.

The finally reach the Great Crossroads, where Marlee insists on finding Rhododendron ‘an outfit for romance’. Rhododendron checks in on Jun, who is extremely unhappy to be closer and closer to Nartai (and the Keep). As soon as he can he immediately goes to sleep to ‘see things’. Rhododendron and Inigo bring up the library in Nartai again, and the fact that Inigo remembered that it sort of had something to do with Umbra…

Marlee and Rhododendron get some supplies (including some much needed fresh vegetables) and clean themselves off of all of their road grime. Marlee also buys her warhammer here. Rhododendron searches around for a glass eye unsuccessfully, and gets some cloth to cover up her silver bow. Inigo buys more weapons, Verrix stocks up on spell components, and Jun swaps out a few of his books.

#u can feel marlee kinda starting to warm up to everybody #jun spends 99% of the session Upset about sojoh #and Inigo...jfc...#dndas #dnd another sunrise #dndas recap

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