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queenwendy · 6 months ago

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I’m running the 5e version of Forge of Fury for my family’s D&D campaign, and they’re about to descend into the Glitterhame level, which had underground rivers. This has reminded me that the hydrology in the Forge of Fury is extremely confusing!

The adventure takes place in a series of caverns and a linked dwarven fortress under a mountain called the Stone Tooth. We know that level one (the mountain door) is about 800 feet above sea level. We also know that on the opposite side of the mountain is a lake called the “Dark Mere”, which sits around 150 feet above sea level. From level 1, one can plummet 200 feet (down to 600 ft elevation) into an unknown underground river.

From level 1 you descend to level 2, the Glitterhame. Based on the fissures and the orc tunnel, we can say that the top parts of the Glitterhame are at around 600 foot elevation—so maybe the river that runs through this part is the same one that you can fall into from area 1? The lower section is 15-20 feet lower, but there’s no water there. It does lead to The Foundry, but first the water on the upper portion ultimately flows east to 60 foot drop, where the waterfall deposits in the sinkhole (around 540 feet elevation, then).

In the sinkhole, the water flows west and the waterfall is but one tributary. We don’t know what’s upstream the other one, but we do know the water continues to flow five miles west until it reaches the surface on a hillside.

All of that lines up. Where it gets weird is the foundry; from the lower part of the glitterhame (580’) a “steep staircase” leads down to the foundry for 30 feet (laterally). If steep means 45 degrees then we’re 30 feet deeper (550’), then there’s 25 feet more of stairs leading to the rest of the foundry, which I assume means we’re at 525 ish feet elevation. Here we find ANOTHER UNDERGROUND RIVER, this one flowing east, so this isn’t the earlier river in the sinkhole (it would be too low anyways) until it reaches a different waterfall, this one 120 feet tall. It puts you in the Black Lake, (around 405 feet elevation, then) where the waterfall joins yet another underwater river, flowing WEST! Upriver (i.e. to the east). We are not told where this river lets out. It’s source is a lake, the Black Lake, and the western side of that lake has an adjoining pool with an underwater passage. That passage leads 700 feet west to… the Dark Mere…

We are told that one hundred feet from the western lake shore and 40 feet down (so either in a crevasse or the western lake shore is a fucking ledge) is the entrance to that 700 foot long passage. Recall that the Dark Mere’s surface is around 150’, so this passage runs from a 405’ lake to the 110’ bottom of a different lake. That means that the Black Lake feeds into the Dark Mere.

But the river from the foundry feeds into a WESTERN FLOWING RIVER, which is also fed by the Black Lake to the EAST! The black lake cannot have two outlets! It would immediately drain into the Dark Mere!

The easy fix, of course, is that the river on the black lake level flows east, and whatever that western branch is is a tributary. That would make it all sort of make sense; of course, where the two different underground rivers are being fed from is a different question. The Stone Tooth doesn’t have a glacier atop it, and I doubt there’s a fucking aquifer 1,000 feet up in the sky.

What’s weirder is that we know the Sinkhole flooded at some point due to “unseasonably high rainfall”, which means the first underground river must have access to the surface. That could be through the orc tunnel, but it seems to me any rainfall that entered that tunnel would flood the lower parts of the Glitterhame before it reaches the underwater river—and that would be a TON of rainwater to cause the flooding we see; the troglodyte caverns would also partially flood!

Alternatively, the rivers’ headwaters were fed by the rainwater. To me that’s a little more believable than the orc tunnel, but means that an underground river that finds the surface five miles away must have surface level headwaters. The stone tooth is fairly conical and isn’t a volcano so there’s no caldera. Is the entire underground river system fed by rainwater through crevasses? Is there a spring from a deeper aquifer that reaches these caves? It’s really a confusing system.

#the forge of fury #khundrukar #the glitterhame #tales from the yawning portal #dungeons and dragons #d&d 5e #d&d #DM prep #dm problems #wendy's posts

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s10127470 · 1 year ago

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My Wolverine and the X-Men Rewrite (Part 2)

Hey guys! I'm back again with Part 2 of my "Wolverine and the X-Men" rewrite, which in that first part, I actually renamed the show "X-Men Destiny" for obvious reasons.

I don't really have of an intro, so we're just gonna get right into it.

Overflow (January 30th, 2009):

This episode is largely the same, but would have a few changes.

-Angel would be in this episode and join the X-Men on their rescue mission to save Storm from The Shadow King. As you probably guessed here, and if you read the first part, I wanted to actually flesh out the romance between these two a lot more. I thought it was pretty interesting in the original series, but could've been a lot better since we only saw it in the episode where Angel gets turned into Archangel.

-We would actually get to the see more of the relationships between each of the X-Men. And most importantly, how they felt about the loss of Jean. Like, we all know that seeing Xavier in a coma hit them hard, but apart from Cyclops, we're never given anything to show how they feel about Jean being gone. But here, we would. I think we would get a flashback scene that would go back to a funeral that was held for Xavier and Jean right after the explosion and right before the team disbanded. During this funeral, just about all of the X-Men would be visibly saddened, showing that they were devastated by the loss of their follow teammate and their longtime mentor. Beast, Angel, Nightcrawler and Shadowcat would all be shedding tears. Wolverine and Forge wouldn't be showing tears, but would still be saddened by all this. And Storm, Iceman, Colossus and especially Cyclops would actually having full-on breakdowns. Back in the present, right as they take off for the mission, it would be Beast and Iceman trying to let Cyclops know instead of Shadowcat, while Forge would be the one asking them why are they even bothering with him. I think this scene would really speak volumes since remember, they've known Cyclops the longest out of everyone here. They know how hard it was for him to lose Jean, since remember, they all made up the original X-Men team.

-And finally, we have the characterization of Storm. While this episode was a great reintroduce for her. This was where she admittedly peaked. Another of the biggest flaws of the original show was how sidelined she was. Like for God's sake, she hardly talked! Here, Storm would be the Storm we all know in love. Confident, regal, and an actually great leader. This would really help Cyclops' character since she would reassure him that he does still have what it takes to be a leader.

Brothers All (February 6th, 2009):

This episode is a wholly originally one to this version of the series.

This would be Colossus's reintroduction episode.

As I mentioned in the first part, he moved back to his family's farm in Russia.

And essentially, Colossus has returned back to how his life was before he joined the X-Men.

One thing I want to show is his town being very appreciative of his powers, since he's been using them to help out around the community.

One thing I really liked about the original show is that they showed something you rarely see in most X-Men media.

The existence of humans who don't absolutely fucking hate mutants.

I figured Colossus' town would be a part of that group.

We also find out that he's been helping his younger sister Illyana hone her mutant powers, which manifested about a month ago.

Speaking of Illyana, she would look how she was planned to for the intended season 2.

(Sorry for the blurry image, this was the best I could find)

She would be about 16 years old and stand at 5'3.

She would be voiced by her recurring VA Tara Strong, as she was planned to for Season 2.

However, Colossus' peaceful life would be interrupted by a visit from The Brotherhood.

Essentially, a plotline I thought of for this version of the series would be having the X-Men recruiting young up-and-coming mutants and keeping them out of the hands of The Brotherhood, who, let's be real, wouldn't exactly have the most well-meaning plans for them.

But back to the plot of this episode, The Brotherhood are here for Illyana and they aren't taking no for an answer.

And just to make sure, they brought some back up.

And that back up is none other than Mikhail Rasputin!

For those who don't know, Mikhail is Colossus' and Illyana's older brother, making his debut in Uncanny X-Men #285 on December 3rd, 1991.

As for this appearances, he looks largely the same as he does in the comics.

Which is this...

As for his voice, he would voiced by Chris Cox.

As for his backstory, it's largely the same as in the comics, but with some notable differences.

Mikhail was once a member of the actual real-life state corporation Roscosmos.

But during a mission, which Mikhail was the pilot of, the shuttle got caught in a mysterious rift.

And when Mikhail woke up, he found himself back on Earth, with the shuttle being destroyed and just about everyone else dead (including his fiance).

As you would expect, this incident made international headlines.

Overcome with a tremendous amount of survivor's guilt, Mikhail left home (having done so not long before Colossus' powers emerged) and hadn't been seen since.

During his time as a lonesome nomad, Mikhail's powers would manifest.

Yep, Mikhail is a mutant like his younger siblings.

He has the ability to manipulate matter and energy on a subatomic level, allowing him to travel between different dimensions in the blink of an eye.

During his travels, Mikhail would often come across headlines about his little brother and his adventures with the X-Men.

And this would be where things take a turn for the worst.

Whenever he came across these headlines, Mikhail would often hear people bringing up how he's his brother and mentioning how embarrassing it must be to be related a failure like him.

As you would expect, this didn't have the best effect on Mikhail.

Which when combined with his survivor's guilt, pretty much drove Mikhail to insanity.

Sometime later, Mikhail would meet Magneto, who offered him a place in Genosha, along with some rehabilitation.

And while Mikhail did get a little better (keyword: a little), he continually carried on an immense hatred for his younger brother.

And when he heard that The Brotherhood were going to his hometown and hearing that Colossus moved back there, Mikhail was immediately onboard, jumping at the chance for revenge.

As you would expect, main conflict of this episode would be with Colossus, who doesn't want to fight his brother, who he still dearly loves and wants to help him instead.

Luckily, the X-Men would arrive to help Colossus after they received reports of a series of explosions occuring in his town.

However, a powerful scene I thought of would come near the end of the battle.

Essentially, Illyana would get badly hurt in the middle of scuffle.

And this would send Colossus over the edge!

He would beat the living shit of Mikhail and the rest of The Brotherhood!

Like everyone says: it's always the nice ones to be afraid of.

Luckily, the X-Men are able to stop him before the beating turns into a full-on massacre.

In the end, Colossus decides to return to the X-Men with Illyana, so she can be healed and so they can help her hone her powers.

During the last few minutes of the episode, we would get a few more character moments.

Upon his return to the Mansion, Colossus looks somewhat saddened, as he would reveal that he's somewhat regretful about the ass-whooping he unleashed on The Brotherhood, specifically Rogue. Not only that, but also what he said to her.

Oh yeah, let's talk about that real quick.

This would be the first episode to show how much Rogue regrets joining The Brotherhood.

Essentially, she and Colossus were actually very close friends prior to the explosion.

In fact, he (along with Wolverine) was one of the few people who Rogue opened up to the most.

As would expect, this doesn't go well at all.

And when The Brotherhood retreated, Colossus yelled out to Rogue saying that if he ever saw her again, he WOULD KILL HER.

Which I know sounds incredibly heartless.

But remember, she was associated with the group who just terrorized his town, tried to take his sister against her will, and even threatened the lives of his parents.

If your best friend was part of a group who did all that, you would be fucking pissed too!

This episode would also the first showcase of Gambit's heroic side.

While The Brotherhood are taking pleasure in what they're doing, Gambit isn't.

He even tries to reason with Quicksilver that they could possibly accomplish their goal in a way that doesn't make them look like terrorists.

Near the end of the episode, we would also get a tender scene between Colossus and Iceman.

Yep! These two would have romantic feelings for each other.

As Colossus, in the words of Chang, is...

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We would also get one between Shadowcat and a recovering Illyana, who would also both have romantic feelings towards each other.

X-Calibre (February 13th, 2009):

This episode is pretty much the same.

However, there would be major change, and that would be in the characterization of Nightcrawler.

Nightcrawler was honestly the MVP of the original show, largely because he was the only X-Men who didn't get majorly sidelined for the sake of Wolverine.

However, there would be a few changes in Nightcrawler's character.

He would be little more jovial like how he typically is. Like, it's almost weird to not see Nightcrawler being all that playful.

He would rocking the cutlasses for the entire series. The man should be allowed to show off his swordsmanship!

He would be very explicit in his faith. It's actually weird how up until X-Men '97, it's been over 20 years since Nightcrawler was last shown to be openly religious.

The X-Men vs. The Hulk (February 20th, 2009):

I know most of you would prefer this episode get removed entirely.

But in all honesty....I'm keeping it!

This is one of the best episodes in the entire series.

I think that's because of two reasons.

It's nice to see a Marvel cartoon (even if it's focused on a particularly character or characters), being allowed to actually pull in and explicitly reference that much bigger Marvel universe instead of just pretending that specific portions of it (if not all of it outside their specific circle) don't exist for the umpteenth fucking time.

2. This episode would officially establish The Yostverse, as it follows up on the events of the film: Hulk vs. Wolverine (which funnily enough, was released just four days after Wolverine and the X-Men premiered). Along with that, Nick Fury and Hulk/Bruce Banner have pretty similar designs to how they look in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (which although isn't explicitly said, is implied to take place after WAXTM). Plus, they have the same voice actors in both shows. Alex Désert as Nick Fury, Gabriel Mann as Bruce Banner, and of course, Fred Tatasciore as The Hulk.

But back on topic, this episode is largely the same, except that the whole team is involved instead of just Wolverine.

Plus, I think this episode would really highlight just how tough each of the X-Men are in their own way, since they're literally dealing with the most powerful being on the planet!

Anyway, the best part of the episode would definitely be the ending.

The original was already great.

But this would 10 times so.

You can't tell that me that having Wolverine punch Banner, prompting him to Hulk out, which would result in him sending all of the X-Men flying across the forest, eventually landing on the ground with a mighty thud, leaving a massive crater in the process, and having all of them, while clearly being in a lot of pain, weakly saying in unison, "Have fun, Fury....", wouldn't be the funniest shit ever.

In fact, I need someone to make an art piece of that right now!

Well that’s all I have for now.

Let me know what you guys think about this second part of the rewrite. And if you could, give me some ideas on how the rest of the series should play out!

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