#sending spell

[mariusrenathyrs-crashout]

its always morally correct to pander for asks, never feel guilty for that

im not like Locked In to eom but i am incredibly fascinated by the dynamic between marius and jericho if youre up to talk about it :0

Beautiful question, music to my ears in fact. These two boys and their dynamic has me going crazy, it's truly sick and twisted work Mikey and Andy have put into this for the express purpose of making me insane. [Contains spoilers for EoM up to 32] Warning, this is long, like long.

So. The general gist of the characters in question is thus: Jericho is a lonely ol' farmboy scarecrow bard, he's animated through the power of hag magic and his body contains/ed an entity/ies of secrets and manipulations. He's a sweet lad seeking friends, and it is unfortunate for him his newfound lease at life often leaves him somewhat the butt of many jokes as he struggles to adapt and thrive in this weird and frightening world. Marius on the other hand is a former noble knight of a kingdom worshipping Lathander, the god of dawn and light. He served as his best friend and king's right hand man before being sent on a quest in search of a holy grail to help save his kingdom from ruin. He's got many of the classic knight tropes, regal, haughty, protector, etc. But he also struggles immensely with a corrupting power that has haunted him since he was tricked and turned into a dhampir - his change from noble knight to beast of the night a slow and steady progress. Themes relating to these two I enjoy "Parallels" : the envier and envied, paladin and bard, strong versus meek, kindness versus wrath, one who is building himself up and one who is losing himself, monster presenting as man and man presenting as monster, elongated lifespan versus man recently created, light versus dark, etc etc.

So, Nikkie begins the story of EoM by having these two polar opposites, these odd fellows shoved into a confined space and left to socialize for a decent chunk of time with no third party buffer - it was delightful. Starting off, Jericho is so startled by the appearance of this golden knight in the same room as him he automatically assumes he shouldn't be in that room at all, something Marius refutes and asks Jericho to instead join him for a meal. One of my all time favorite lines of dialogue between them is Jericho being downtrodden by his position in life right now, saying Virgil tells him he's no better than a broom. Marius, seeing this looks around and then says "Well, we were taken to the Living cart," to try and cheer him up a bit and reassure him. It's delightful. Jericho also has something akin to hero worship for Marius, initially awe struck by him being a gen-u-ine knight and even offering to be his minstrel and singing the tales of "brave Sir Marius." Marius, despite being a little off put by the overt sincerity and awkward nature of this sentient scarecrow tells him he promises him genuine aid, that if Jericho ever needs him he will be there and do everything in his power to help him. That they're friends. Jericho's very first friendship is thusly made. The two share a fine dining meal with another piece of my favorite dialogue between them

"Jericho: Garsh! You know, usually there’s always folk - whenever I try to eat a nice meal with ol’ pal Virgil. He really likes turkey. I don’t think he’s a carrion bird. He likes the cooked stuff, I don’t understand what’s up with him. He says it’s very delicious. And everyone when I go to a tavern for a meal they always scream and run away n’ tell me to get out n’ I think it’s because I got scuffs on my shoes. Marius: [Chuckles] Yes, I’m sure it’s the shoes.  Andy: And I give you another smile.  Jericho: You see - Virgil, I’m tellin’ you, it is the shoes. Well, let's share a meal between friends, Marius.  Marius: I would love that. Thank you." It's just so silly and goofy and shows how funny they can be around one another. And then later Lethica is added to the trio and they're the first trio within the party to be formed, and when Marius gets a little flustered, Jericho even acts as his wingman in front of Lethica and is like "oh tell her this super cool story about yourself" and Marius is like "I tell Lethica about this super cool story I am hearing about for the first time." This all happens within like 12 minutes. OUGH SICK AND TWISTED ALREADY. Anyhow. We see a lot of Jericho and Marius forming a brotherly like bond throughout the series. During many instances Jericho sings of "brave Sir Marius," to try and help Marius during battle and shields him from blood when he realizes his vampiric affliction is beginning to rattle Marius. Marius held Jericho in the Crooked House, telling him how proud he was of him, often going to reassure Jericho and come to his verbal aid against Virgil's pestering. The two don't start having notably major conflicts until Cyril, and even then, it's more tense and frustrating than anything.

At Cyril, several major events happen. A very pretty powerful woman tries to seduce and coerce Marius into having sex with her, something he is firmly against despite his party - excluding Yorgrim - encourage him to do so. It's frustrating for him because he doesn't want his friends, particularly the lads to tell him he should go for it because she's hot, it makes him feel this kind of backed into a corner frustration. He divulges to the party he had once been a human knight who had succumbed to temptation and as consequence got cursed with vampirism. Later, a thing occurs causing the group's inner most personal sins to start shining through - which of the 7 deadly sins each member represents. And Jericho represents Envy. He's envious of many people - but notably he's envious of Marius. Handsome Sir Marius who always gets looked at with attraction by women and in awe by men, who is so handsome and capable and is winning Lethica's attention. It's so distressing to him who struggles so hard, who is seen as a sack of garbage, who is looked at with pity; at points during this arc Mikey tells Nikkie "Jericho imagines Marius flayed alive." Like it's really rough. The group also sees one another's backstories in visions and Marius gets to see Jericho's - something Jericho holds so much shame for. Marius comforts him and at the end tells him he is still his friend and brother no matter what. Jericho also sees Marius' and apologizes for Marius ever being hurt the way he had been, that it's not his fault he was tricked.

There's a lot also going on between the two by proxy of Virgil's machinations. At first Marius hated Virgil because Virgil always was putting down Jericho, was seemingly manipulating his friend's kindness and was an invasive and malignant presence. During this time when Jericho had lost consciousness and Virgil had taken control of his body, Marius was the one to hold him to his chest and talk to Jericho, trying to call him from the inner recesses of his mind and to come back to them. He cares deeply for Jericho and his distrust of Virgil lies within his relationship to Jericho; but after Metamorphosis Marius seems almost elated to interact with Virgil. Marius who is succumbing to his inner darkness and has embraced what has turned him into dhampir and let him transform him into vampire thinks "maybe Virgil isn't so bad after all," and he wants to talk to him and pick his brain. Virgil, on the otherhand thinks Marius is a foolish boy who is in over his head. Jericho also expresses his uncertainty and displeasure at Marius allowing this dark force to take him and to fall from Lathander, but he trusts Marius' judgement.

BUT, heavy stuff aside. They also have really fun brotherly moments of whimsy and joy. During their down time at the estate and everyone's doing these cotillion games, Marius can't help but have a little fun as Jericho and Briggsy act incredibly goofy and silly. He encourages them both when they're downtrodden about not being "fancy enough," he congratulates them when they succeed and encourages them when they struggle. They have a fun time dancing and dining and Marius has gotten to enjoy Jericho's "warbling tune" many times throughout the campaign. Even if a song isn't his best, Marius would kill a man who would ever pick on Jericho. I could go ON ABOUT THESE TWO.

TLDR; Marius and Jericho are opposites in many ways, but this has led them to both care very deeply about one another and act as a sort of grounding presence to one another in areas and ways they both need. They humanize one another, they're brothers, they're the first friends either of them have made in many years or at all. They are on different paths right now, one supposedly healing and one succumbing to despair. The two have argued and not seen eye to eye in many ways, but they love one another so dearly, they really do.

[wherethemagichappens]

I need Essek to receive and reapond to Caleb's or Jester's Sendings on screen!!

[the-southern-cereal-king]

Larian studios missed out on the inherent hilarity of the sending spell. One in five sending spells is ever used properly, the other four times is stumbling all over yourself trying to count to 25 words and thinking of what to say

[critterfloozy]

META: Inconvenient Sendings

Thinking about the Logistics of Sendings

This was written for @critter-genfic-events's Gen Week Day 1: Inconvenient Sendings. See the rest of the days here.

You send a short message of twenty-five words or less to a creature with which you are familiar. The creature hears the message in its mind, recognizes you as the sender if it knows you, and can answer in a like manner immediately. The spell enables creatures with Intelligence scores of at least 1 to understand the meaning of your message. You can send the message across any distance and even to other planes of existence, but if the target is on a different plane than you, there is a 5 percent chance that the message doesn't arrive.

Seems simple enough, right?

So there’s a lot that we can talk about with this - What is a word? Are there code languages set up to impart large amounts of information? Do wizards try to gamify this by learning a language that allows for compound words? But if there’s anything that Critical Role’s second campaign makes really obvious, its that there really isn’t a simple way to stop sendings.

Outside of a house ruling, of course. Nothing to stop anyone from creating a device or ruling that Sending is actually a divination spell. But in general, most anti-detection spells and devices specify that Sending is divination, and not evocation. There’s no saving throw to resist, because the writers didn’t consider that anyone would want to waste a Sending on an unwilling participant. Which really, they all had access to twitter at the time, they should have been able to figure out the damage.

Granted, it’s not quite as bad as allowing everyone to slide into your twitter DMs by default. The earliest you get sending is fifth level. I think that we’re a little used to the idea that it’s something that can be cast ridiculously often by everybody - because as a D&D campaign, Critical Role is focused on adventurers and heroes - but it’s the same level as Revivify. Level five is when you are finally not considered local heroes - it’s a ‘Captain of the Guard’ level. So it’s not super common - but there’s still plenty of people that might have it. And if you’re famous enough, you might want to have some familiarity with you - even if it’s just a quick five minute meeting.

But also, there’s the question of what familiarity means. Does it mean anyone who has heard of and has a seen a depiction of the person? Matt Mercer allows for this, but if we followed this to their logical end, any ruler wouldn’t be able to sleep. But if the depiction is necessary - there might be an easy way around that - simply have a court appearance/depiction that’s very different from their normal appearance. Would that work?

What if someone is impersonating someone else, and gives that person’s name? If someone tries to message the impersonator (having only met the impersonator) would the message go to the impersonator, the real person, or neither?

And then there’s the question of consecution - if you’re familiar with someone’s past life, can you message the current one? What if it’s before anamnesis? I personally dislike this one for logistics reasons - it makes the finding of consecuted souls too easily, and there’s still the question about depictions.

Also, what if they’re taking a nap, or you get the timezone wrong and they’re in deep sleep? Does the recipient wake up, or do they just hear it in the dream? I certainly can sleep through people trying to talk to me, and even if I respond, I might not remember it. And if they do respond, is it in the dream: sleep-talking? Or is it just snores? If someone doesn’t wake up, are they aware that they got a sending, or might they just think they dreamed a sending? Would they remember it?

The Sending isn’t auditory, after all - so the recipient isn’t going to miss the conversation just because they’re paying attention to something else (which is good, most of the time, otherwise a lot of sendings would be missed). But that also implies that the recipient is forced, whether or not they want to, to concentrate on the message, no matter what else they might be doing at the time. So - can you use Sending to break concentration? In my mind, you 100% can, at least with a roll. Especially considering the amount of other psychological work that can be used to help break it - from a catchy song to screams. Typically one would want to use a spell that does damage for the same reason, but if you’re five hundred feet away and want to stop someone nonlethally, maybe that’s a shot. Especially since, unlike many out-of-combat utility spells, the casting time is only one action.

There’s also no way of knowing who a sending is from if they don’t know the person and the person doesn’t announce themselves. Which might make for an interesting adventure hook on its own: someone has been threatening the Town Special Person through sendings, maybe even blackmailing them. It’s up to the adventuring party to try and find the person and stop them - possibly by recognizing their voice secondhand.

This is also assuming that some aspect of the voice gets transmitted - though the spell doesn’t require the recipient to speak the same language as the sender. Does that mean the recipient receives comprehension of the sender’s language, does the recipient hear the message in their language, or do they simply know what the message is and who sent it - and any sort of auditory information is made up by their brain?

There’s no real right answers to this, only rulings for whatever fanfic or campaign you’re playing in.

[bath-creek-lake]

"Creek on Higher Education"

"Lake on Sending"

"Lake on Traveling Through Hell"

[hopiufame]

Me when i dissociate

[imclou]

there's no way he said that so confidently

|| Bonus ||

[sp0o0kylights]

Give me accidental rule lawyer Steve Harrington.

Eddie thought Dustin was pedantic but no no, turns out Dustin is nothing compared to Steve "let me see that" Harrington.

Only Steve combines it with his natural charisma and the skills gifted to him via all tje forced boring networking parties his parents dragged him to so anytime the Party wants to justify pulling a downright stupid move in D&D, they call in Steve.

[jewishbarbies]

love that jews can openly worry about their safety because a known antisemite was elected to lead a city with a large jewish population and a leftist’s first thoughts are 1.) “so you hate Muslims?” and 2.) “so you wanted a rapist to win?” and if you don’t see what’s wrong with that, there’s something deeply wrong with you.

[once-more-with-anxiety]

it has been nearly 20 years and I Don't Dance is still THE most sexually tense homoerotic scene in the history of cinema.

just...

yeah. homos.

[mariusrenathyrs-crashout]

A few posts ago you mentioned how you’ve been thinking about Grimmorbek a lot. May I ask about your opinion and personal interpretation of Grimmorbek?

GOD. This is so much fucking longer than I planned for but I love yapping about ship dynamics. Also sorry for the late reply Anon, I hope you see this eventually lol.

My personal opinions: I love them. As a big fan of Frostbek and someone who has seen quite a deal of Grimmorning floating on my dash, to me it's a pretty fascinating trio as they have such good chemistry and work well as duos.

Frostbek works in my mind as Frost has been noted to be much kinder to Torbek who has taken notice of this despite Frost's deadpan demeanor or troubles emoting. Torbek fascinates Frost and I think this can be looked at from many angles as Torbek is not only fascinating for the trauma he endures and secrets he holds but also for his oddly forgiving demeanor and caring nature. Blah blah you guys have heard me make many posts about Frostbek.

And Grimmorning obviously has chemistry as the two have been long, long time friends and they are fascinating as a polar opposite duo. Despite their differences they clearly compliment one another well as yapper vs listener or emotive vs internal or physically and verbally affectionate vs quality time and acts of service. The two basically coparent a child together and the running gag of "I've always wondered about you two" in terms of being a couple.

Grimbek (is that what it's called?) I think even has some grounds as both Goblinoids - I think that sharing a language the others don't is both something deeply connecting but also is very intimate when used - and Gricko has on multiple occasions gone out of his way to comfort Torbek aka sing for him when he's having panic attacks. While a little shit head towards Torbek at times, he's also advocated for Torbek and had shown the most moral guilt over being a cause for Torbek ever being hurt.

I think as a trio, the parts just make sense. Two emotive partners to Frost's introspective and introverted, two emotionally stable and grounding partners for Torbek who's more prone to panic and discomfort, and two calming and slow presences to keep Gricko from flying off the handle and take a pause to rest and relax and breathe. I think the addition of a 3rd to the partnership also adds interesting complexities to the dynamic as someone like Gricko can help Frost and Torbek who both sometimes struggle expressing themselves or communicating and he can mediate on their behalfs. Frost is very close to both Gricko and Torbek so having someone to watch out for the pair who left to their own devices may be more prone to rushing into danger or not taking care of themselves or giving themselves a break. And Torbek is fascinating because I think he brings out an odd fondness the pair don't normally display as they have both been shown to care for and tend to him and I think it brings out a nice - domestic isn't the word but I can't rly think of what other word to say - tenderness maybe to them that they don't normally show in the group due to it being as Gricko said "a bunch of middle aged lads who struggle to talk about their emotions to one another."

[canadianno-gravityfalls]

"I fixed it!!"

Oh Astra....

[gettiregretti]

Slow cooking an idea where Jayce stays to try and help Viktor fight the Hexcore within him. He’s never sure if he’ll have Viktor or the Herald that day. Trying to keep secret plans from your god-like lover who can literally enter your mind is a full time horror show

Viktor and Jayce plotting against the Hexcore without it working out what they are doing. Hidden codes, snatched moments. Viktor manages to create a space just for him and starts to hoard energy against the Hexcore. It can use any face to trick him, and frequently tries to wear Jayce’s. They aren’t more powerful, so they just have to be smarter than their own creation. And together they can solve any equation.

[wyvernity]

been thinking about the sinnohtrio lately......plus misc other stuff

also, casual ko-fi drop!! get something in this sketchy style starting at $10 woop woop

[rodentlegalteam]

While I do think using the four sword causes some bad physical/mental side effects, I ultimately think that the biggest drawback ends up being that none of Four’s colours ever do what he wants unless it’s a life or death situation. Four has a lot of work so he decides to spilt to get everything done on time. It does not go well.

Red and Blue both run on emotions so they immediately get distracted by whatever’s more interesting and leave. Red might eventually get back on track (if he remembers) but there’s still a 50/50 chance that he goes “oh but I don’t wanna do that now.. hope the others do it for me! <3”. Blue’s better at remembering but if the conditions for doing The Task are slightly Off it’s going to make him want to rip his own hair out so he just calls it quits. Green and Vio are more likely to actually get stuff done but the second someone asks Green for a favour he’s gone. He’ll end up spending the entire day running around delivering pastries or something cause people keep asking him for things and hes incapable of refusing. Vio will spend thirty minutes coming up with some sort of convoluted loophole to avoid The Task before disappearing into the woods for the next three days. He could’ve completed The Task in those same thirty minutes but he just didn’t feel like doing it in the moment. Four eventually reforms and literally nothing had been done. The real reason he keeps the four sword a secret from the chain is because he’s embarrassed about the fact that all the colours are literally so fucking stupid on their own

[canon-gabriel-quotes]

Transcript:

Greetings. It is I, Gabriel.

I have seen your... Art.

It is most impressive work.

Yet I cannot help but ponder. Why must you depict me in such a way?

Taking it up my bare assed loins?

I would never submit to such poor treatment. Unless?