lichbarry

[lichbarry]

Caleb debating leaving was such a good character choice. Because it makes sense! He's just heard that the people they're going after slaughtered a good chunk of a village while kidnapping other members, and as he tells himself he has broader goals that he desperately wants to achieve, which he can't if he's killed in the process of this. As much as he might hate himself and what he's done, he doesn't want to die, if only because then his dream of changing what happened and bringing his parents back dies with him.

But in spite of himself he cares about these people. He was one of the first to suggest they had to go after Fjord, Yasha, and Jester and get them back. Even as he's telling himself none of the remaining members of the Nein can help him achieve his goals and they're all liabilities (Nott, Molly) at best and active threats (Beau) at worst, he still can't bring himself to do anything but sit there until the rest of the group wakes up. Because as prickly as he's been as and much as he's tried to hold the group at arm's length, he's become attached to them and can't make the leap of going off on his own again.

[lichbarry]

Submitted by Anon

[lichbarry]

I'm early to this episode but, one of my favourite things about The Mighty Nein as a campaign is how... poignant and relevant it all feels? Like, we get about 10 episodes in before they're involved in a plot to usurp a corrupt politician (joined by fellow working class NPCs, not hired by a guild or someone powerful), 12 episodes before they witness a supposed terrorist attack (importantly from the ground as civilians, not as heroes), and 13 before they realise first-hand that not choosing sides is choosing to let the empire win (when they leave the Kryn soldier in the sewer to escape for himself, then watch his body be paraded through the streets later)

This is what I mean when I say The Mighty Nein had consequences. This campaign was near perfect for giving them a great amount of agency and impact on the world around them, while also acting as its own force that will continue to plough forward without them if they don't make a choice

I get that Vox Machina and Bell's Hells involved a lot of tyrants and politics, but to me they feel much more fantastical and easier to distance from reality--which is fine, they're different campaigns with different moods. But The Mighty Nein has always felt more down in the weeds of it all for me, which is part of what makes it so great to me

[lichbarry]

Mourner's Solace Inn

An oasis of comfort in the heart of Necrom

Starters

Magma Salmon Hot Pâté

Oven-baked Telvanni Peninsula salmon pâté, served with smoked hackle-lo crisps

Scrib Bacon and Scuttle Dip

Made with locally-raised kwama scribs, served with saltrice flatbread

Hackle-lo Salad

With fire blossom and gold kanet petals, scrib jerky, and comberry balsamic dressing

Grazing Platter

Scrib jerky, guar sausage, nix-ox meatballs, scuttle dip three ways, ash yam hummus, pickled comberries, wickwheat flatbread, saltrice grissini, hackle-lo crisps

Mains

Deadrock Lobster

Tender Telvanni Peninsula Deadrock Lobster tail and claws bathed in spiced scuttle grease, served with ash yam matchstick fries

Seared Lion's Mane Steak

Slab of locally-grown giant lion's mane mushroom, seasoned to perfection and grilled. Served with grilled vegetables and your choice of brown gravy, blue-mold scuttle, or peppercorn and comberry sauce

Telvanni Five-Mushroom Soup

A Peninsula classic! Oyster, enoki, chanterelle, shiitake, and lion's mane mushrooms in a gently spiced guar milk soup. Served with wickwheat flatbread

Three-Scuttle Bread Boat

Three types of scuttle encased in soft saltrice bread, topped with a cliff racer or kwama egg (limited availability, please check with your waitstaff)

Dessert

Comberry Brandy Soufflé

Kwama egg soufflé doused in comberry brandy and flambéed at your table. Please allow 30 minutes!

Fetcherfly Honey Cake

A big slice of rich and spicy fetcherfly honey cake, topped with whipped honey scuttle butter

Seasonal Petit Fours

A selection of freshly-baked Dunmeri treats of the day

Ash yam crème brûlée

Our rich and creamy signature crème brûlée, made with organic ash yams, kwama egg, and guar cream

[lichbarry]

In the D&D campaign I'm running with my wife's siblings, one of them learned about how trolls regenerate within minutes of any damage not caused by fire or acid, and then asked why people don't just like. Cage them and eat them, forever. Why there aren't troll meat dungeons in the king's castle as a safeguard against sieges or famines.

And you know, I thought it was a fair question, so I said that if you eat enough troll meat, you start getting troll-y. And then I went further and just treated it like troll flesh is a general contaminant - if you eat enough troll, you'll turn into a troll, but if you bury enough dead troll flesh in a forest, the trees will start growing in strange ways, and will scream and heal and bleed when you hit them with axes.

I liked this idea. So as we played further, I just played around with the idea of Troll Origins, and I came up with something sort of like the Odyssey, but instead stealing Helios's cattle, it was Hathor's, and the horrible, awful, unending immortality was her curse of the army that pillaged her lands. A god of healing does not condemn you to die, she condemns you to live.

And then I got this fun idea for maybe the king that led the army is still kind of alive in the troll taint. Like a sort of literal fisher king. The kingdom is sick because he is, literally, the kingdom. The trees that bleed, bleed his blood and their screams are his screams. He is both the faintly green bear running down the mountain and the faintly green deer and there is no way past this without suffering. He is the entire ecosystem, and he eats nothing but himself and he dreams nothing but death and yet still, on and on and on and on, he lives.

Anyway they're traveling next session so I'm throwing this shit at them. I already have some gross ideas for like. Describing everything like it's a body (flowers red as blood, white as bone, pink as meat, grass fine as hair) then finally throwing horrible living things at them. Trees that grow eyeballs that turn and stare at them, or flowers with teeth instead of petals and trolls that speak in long dead tongues about how they wish they'd never tried to rob a god.

Anyway I'm passing this on because this is my new troll lore and I want it to become canonized in the way that all D&D lore becomes canonized: By having eople read it and go "oh, neat" then start doing that too.

[lichbarry]

Hey Aabria!

I’m interested in running a game using the same mechanics as you did in MisMag2 and I know it’s just an expanded Kids on Brooms system but I was wondering if you had any set mechanics or rules for the system that couldn’t be reversed engineered from watching the season again. Thank you in advance and I hope you’re having an amazing day!

I've been in this stupid gutter for like 60 years, and I still NEVER see my inbox. Thank you for the reminder that I should polish up those mechanics to share! My quick and dirty answer without looking at ANY of my technical docs for fear of falling in a little hyperfix hole is: - base 6 stats [brains/brawn/fight/flight/grit/charm] reskinned with M-words (along with Adversity Tokens: they're Motes of Magic now, baby, and you WILL regret this bit almost immediately) - mechanic from MM1 lost: Common-Fucking-Sense die. - 7th stat added: Mark. This one's fills the gap for Perception/Insight and can only be rolled as a snap decision because it's about what you notice, not what you focus on. (If I let them take half of their die during the season, it's because I'm a goddamn softie that doesn't actually say "no" to them enough) - Magic Track: starts as a d4 and ramps. At a d20, create a magic item with a consistent magical effect. Item can be destroyed for 10 Motes of Magic. Then reset track at d4. - Motive Track: 7 point (-3 to +3) scale to chart play against player-derived ideal; this was a quick & dirty solve for the lack of leveling in KoB, especially as it intersected with the changes of the PCs 3 years after the events of S1. I may be remembering this incorrectly, so I reserve the right for this to be different later, but at a -3, one stat's die type increases (while another decreases). At a +3, one die type increases without lowering another. Work with your player to make the change consistent with the PC's relationship to their Motive. At this point, the Motive can be changed and the track is reset. - DCs begin HIGH in this system, because play will quickly make the party hyper-competent via Motes and Magic Item creation. Any specific questions?

[lichbarry]

honestly the most intense combat of any dimension 20 season so far

[lichbarry]

[ID: A digital drawing of Veth Brenatto from Critical Role. She is visible from the neck up, facing three quarters to the left and looking off to the right with a smile. She's wearing a wide brimmed hat and a green neckerchief decorated with buttons. End description.]

A warm up doodle of Veth 💛

[lichbarry]

*holds your hand* OUR doomed narrative now

[lichbarry]

I mean, what else is there to say? Dimension 20 - On A Bus was one of the greatest first episodes of D20 to date. Incredible players, stellar setting, and AMAZING DM-ing by Katie! For a first time running a game, she absolutely NAILED it. I had my doubts, but if there's anyone who can fill Brennan's American Girl Shoes, it's her. @dropoutdottv @dimension20official @gamechangershow, if you need someone to do character art for the new season, I'm your man!

(And to everyone else, I do actual D&D commissions if you're interested)

[lichbarry]

"stardust how bad could it have possibly been"

(twitter xpost)

[lichbarry]

A mech discord server with a vent channel where all the messages are just ‘FWSSHHHHHH -heat level reduced’

[lichbarry]

fanfic writers will go "anyone gonna explore the kinda fucked up or emotionally impactful implications of this minor canon detail?" and then not wait for an answer.

[lichbarry]

I've got a stupid outer wilds confession to make...

when I started playing the game, I was convinced Slate was a woman because their name in spanish is Launa (which sounds like a woman's name I GUESS + we don't have gender neutral pronouns) and FOR SOME REASON I thought they were the hatchling's mother...? so every time I woke up from a loop I'd say "hi mama!!!" when I saw them.. then I finished the game and found out these fishes are genderless and Slate was ABSOLUTELY NOT MY MAMA... 😔

yes, I saw this and thought "YEP, THAT'S MOTHER"

now that I know The Truth I feel so silly for thinking all of that but I can't help but wonder... did any of you think slate was a woman.. AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO THOUGHT SLATE WAS A WOMAN??????

[lichbarry]

the drawfee Bobby hill face

that is all

day 36 i. i'm scared.

-💫

[lichbarry]

you know how little kids like to interview people?

[lichbarry]

chat is it okay to be in love with a fictional woman