#Dungeon Master Tutorial

[elgremiomaestro]

Tutorial para aprender a jugar D&D (Dungeons & Dragons)

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) es un emocionante juego de rol donde los jugadores crean personajes y los llevan a aventuras narrativas guiadas por un Dungeon Máster (DM). Aquí tienes un tutorial básico para empezar: ____________________________________________________

1. ¿Qué es D&D?

D&D es un juego de rol de mesa en el que un grupo de jugadores asume el papel de héroes en un mundo de fantasía. Un jugador asume el rol de Dungeon Máster (DM), quien actúa como narrador y árbitro de las reglas.

______________________________________________________________

2. Lo que necesitas para jugar

Jugadores: Idealmente 3-5 jugadores más un DM.

Manual del Jugador: Contiene las reglas básicas para crear personajes y jugar.

Hojas de Personaje: Para registrar las estadísticas y detalles de tu personaje.

Dados de rol: Un set de dados poliédricos (d20, d12, d10, d8, d6, d4).

Lápiz y papel: Para tomar notas y realizar cálculos rápidos.

Tablero y miniaturas (opcional): Para visualizar combates y mapas.

[theauthorandtheartist]

I had a dream the other night that i can't stop thinking about, where a new LOZ game was released in a similar vein to TOTK, except instead of collecting sages like in that game, there was a series of dungeons/temples that were directly tied to other LOZ games, and at the end, you gained the ability to summon the avatar/ghost of the hero from said game -like the TOTK sages- to help on your quest (and get a fun power up). All of the links would have stilted dialogue with you at first, but as the game goes on they get more friendly and at the end of the game theres a cutscene where they all "move on" and it's super emotional cuz by this point they're all brothers (player-link actually emotes during this cutscene, the only time he does so, for an extra punch in the gut). I don't remember all of the details, but what I do remember was:

A Palace of the Four Sword dungeon where you gained the Link(s) from FSA. FSA Link was the simplest in terms of abilities, the avatar would split into 4 and distract enemies/fight alongside you. Pretty sure this was the first one/tutorial temple. Later on this link gives you a sidequest after which you gain the Four Sword as a weapon (its the second strongest in the game behind the master sword).

A Tower of Winds dungeon where you got Minish Cap Link to tag along. He allows you to shrink for short periods of time to get through locked doors/escape danger. Don't remember much about this dungeon except that there's a timer to get through it before yiu have to start over.

Forest temple/great deku tree/kokiri forest type place where Oot/MM link joins up with you. He allows you to rewind time for a little bit (basically the recall ability but on everything including you). Later on He gives a sidequest that results in obtaining the Fierce Deity Mask (best armor in the game).

Arbiter grounds dungeon where you get TP link. He's basically a glorified horse; you ride him around.

Tower of the Gods dungeon where you get WW/PH Link to tag along. He's like Revali's Gale and Tulin's gust in one.

The dungeon to get the Master Sword is like the Skyview Temple, and to be allowed to draw it you must beat SS Link as the final boss of the temple, After which he joins you on your quest. He allows you to do skyward strikes with any one handed weapon.

A secret, optional dungeon that you only unlock by falling asleep on this random island. It's kohohlit. The only avatars/ghosts that you can access here are OoT/MM Link and WW/PH Link (because PH was a dream and MM was an alternate reality). By the end, You get Alttp/albw/LA link who can put enemies to sleep for a time. Later he gives you a sidequest to get ravio's bracelet, which opens up a few easter eggs and secret loot.

Other links/games were included as easter eggs but they don't stick around. BOTW/TOTK Link is a recurring ghostly NPC who you can find in all the weirdest places, offering seemingly nonsensical trades that change every time you see him (10 frogs for 13 bombs, a ruby for an apple pie, 35 monster parts for a single ancient arrow, etc). There's a few places around hyrule where you see two-bit LOZ1/LOZ2 Link just vibing. ST Link takes the place of Purah or Robbie as the eccentric scientist/engineer who will upgrade your stuff if you bring him materials, and he can also upgrade your ghost-Link-friend's abilities as well since he's -y'know- Hero of Spirits.

There's murals in the castle from Cadence of Hyrule, and there's "ancient history books" about HW and AoC. Throughout Hyrule you'll meet various NPCs claiming to be from different countries here to see "the birthplace of the hero of Holodrum/Labrynnia/Calatia."

Various Zelda's would show up too. You get a sidequest where you have to sneak aboard a ghost pirate ship. It's Tetra's. There's a mysterious sheikah warrior who repeatedly accosts you on your travels to loredump and test if you're ready to fight the big bad. She only ever brings you down to half heart, at which point she makes a disappponted comment and leaves. you aren't able to beat her until near endgame, at which point she reveals herself as sheik, has a brief conversation with Oot/MM Link, gives you some cryptic foreshadowing advice and a few fairies, and dips. BOTW/TOTK zelda is similar to her link since she can be found all over the place, but she deals exclusively in ancient materials and dragon parts. TP Zelda gives lore/exposition when you finally make it to the castle, right before the big bad fight.

Big bad is an amalgamation of all ganons/ganondorfs/big bads across the timelines. He telegraphs attacks via shifting forms to look like various bad guys (forms tentacles like bellum and Majora (at the same time) before slam attack, gets blue pig face before charge attack, long purple vaati hair and bat wings before AOE gust attack, scales up his arm and X on face before big AOE lightning blast, and big fuck-all sword and gerudo features before slashing. 2nd phase has it split into like 5 separate beings to fight you and all your friends at once (each one has different features: one is similar to bellum/majora, one is more beast-ganon, one more demise, one Vaati-esque one, and one Ganondorf-like one). The music is harsh and disjointed, cobbled together from many other games, and the noises that the beast makes are screeching and painful.

By the end of the game, there's a big deal made by SS link that you are the final Link in the cycle, that it's over, that you finished what he couldn't. There's a sense of hope, but also of sorrow, since all your new friends are leaving now. They're ghosts, they're dead, they've done their duty and it's time for them to rest. Before they go, though, each one gives you one last gift (the ability they've been helping you with this whole time) and one last sidequest (one for each of them) for you to accomplish: find their treasures, keep them safe.

Post game is you running around without the ghosts (FSA Link's ability duplicates you now, giving you 3 buddies to fight with, but they can't give dialogue and they last like 30 seconds so it's not the samel), doing mini-dungeons and fetch-quests in order to obtain major key items (all old and unusable anymore) from the Links' adventures, (the Beetle, goddess harp, spinner, shards of the fused shadow, deku/goron/Zora masks, gnat hat, various kinstones, pictobox, deku leaf, LA instruments, Ocarina of Time, wind waker, etc) and some from games not mentioned previously or not from your gaggle of links, (Harp of ages, rod of seasons, silver arrows, a doppel, ST panpipes, a revival doll, Cadence of Hyrule Lute, HW blue Scarf, old and broken Terrako, champion's tunic, BOTW champion's picture, trirod, etc). In post-game, there are new NPCs to replace the links/zeldas that used to fill those niches, but it's not the same. They're gone. It's a bittersweet feeling.

After you finish all the post game and get all the treasures (basically 100%ing the game), you get an achievement called "archive of the ages" and a special cutscene where Player Link sets the Master sword down on the side of his bed, looks out the window of his house at the brilliantly setting sun, smiles, and falls asleep. You may no longer play on that save file anymore. The adventure is over.

Basically I dreamt up a game that was a love letter to the entire series, and I'm sad it was just a dream. Logically i know this will never happen because that would mean tying up LOZ and it's too much of a cash cow for Nintendo to ever stop making, but it was a wonderful dream to have for a little while.

[nightingale2004]

Gravity falls Hcs: Throughout the years, pt. 1

The town of gravity falls continues to remain normal, but still has its weird strange flair

More and more tourists come and go from Gravity Falls Oregon, especially after Weirdmageddon

Tyler is still mayor and going on strong

Dipper and Mabel still visit Gravity Falls every summer, and they remain close with their friends from Gravity Falls

Mabel, Grenda, and Candy's friendship still remain strong as they all grow up (since they got phones and computers, they text and videochat 24/7)

Dipper and Mabel have their troubles in school, especially after what they've been through, but no matter what, the pines twins stick together through thick and thin

Dipper is still not so popular, but he found his people, and he managed to create a "Dungeons, dungeons and more dungeons" club in school

Mabel is still to this day an arts and crafts master and also a master of knitting and clothing designs.

When Mabel was granted access to the world of the internet. She made her own business website showing the clothes she made, along with making video tutorials on knitting, art, and making wax figures

On one of twins' birthdays, great uncle Ford and Mabel gave Dipper three journals so he could find his own discoveries and adventures and write them in the journals (Dipper loved the gift and takes great care of them.)

Mabel still never misses a scrapbook-ortunity

Wendy and her gang of friends are still hanging out and still close (they've slowly started to treat Thompson nicer)

Robbie and Tambry are still together and are getting married (Wendy is Robbie's best woman and Tambry's bridesmaid)

When Soos got married, everyone was there, and it was all very emotional. Especially for Soos who cried at his own wedding more than anyone

When the pines twins come to gravity falls over the summer or the holidays, the townspeople all know their name, give them endless hugs and high fives, and it's pretty much the happiest moment for the townspeople

Old man Mckgucket still invents, but this time, it's for the benefit of town.

As time went by, Fiddleford started fixing his mind little by little with his son's help. He is also slowly rebuilding his relationship with his son and Stanford

When Mabel and Dipper's parents met with the Stan brothers, they demanded an explanation. Stanley and Stanford came up with a very believable lie involving Stanley owing a bunch of debt to dangerous men, and then he faked his death to get them off his back with Stanfords help.

Bill Cipher's statue is still in the woods of Gravity Falls, and everyone makes sure that people, including tourists, go nowhere near the statue out of fear

Stanley slowly starts remembering everything, but he asks his family and Stanford for clarification on memories that are a bit of a blur

Every time the Pines twins come to gravity falls, it's always a new adventure, and Candy, Grenda, Wendy, and even Pacifica started joining them on their adventures

Soos named Stanley the grandfather and the pines twins as the godparents. Melody wanted to protest, but she could never say no to Soos

Wendy found a girlfriend and still helps out at the shack, but now she is working as either a lumberjack or working on construction

Since money was tight for the Northwest family, Pacifica took a job at the diner thanks to lazy Susan, and now she earns her own money to help out, and she FaceTimes Mabel and the girls a lot

Pacifica gives Mabel fashion and design tips

Sev'ral Timez still lives in the woods and somehow managed to mate and multiply with nature. Now there are mutant hybrid Sev'ral Timez children running around Gravity Falls

Ivan or Toot-Toot McBumbersnazzle is traveling around the world to find his song that is in his heart, and so far, he has released a few Banjo songs but not many

While living in California was nice, Waddles, after some time, was no longer aloud to live with the Pines twins family, which broke Mabel's heart but Soos luckily volunteered to take in Waddles after he convinced Melody to be on board which Mabel immediately was happy about

Sheriff Daryl Blubs and Deputy Durland are married and have adopted a boy together

After the weirdmaggedon, everyone has their trauma, and everyone deals with it in their own way, but the town who went through it all go through the healing together or with those that they trust

[wellen-katze]

Part 2 Masterpost for all my BG3 fanart

Part 1 here (If you can't find specific works, I probably deleted them.)

Comics:(last update 26/11/24)

Charmed - bg3 comic Astarion, MonkDurgeTav

I love pumpkin - bg3 comic + Doodles (spoiler!) D&D Baldur's Gate | What We Do in The Shadow-Cursed Lands

Tieflings Family - bg3 comic Rolan, Cal, Lia

Vampire Portrait - bg3 comic, Astarion,Cazador

Wyll Ravengard Cyberpunk2077 AU

companions at the healer

Curse of the Sired - bg3 comic S. Astarion, Sebastian

To share the sun - bg3 comic Spawn Astarion, DurgeMonkTav

A Druid's Sorrow - bg3 Halsin comic

Astarion, the Decadent Descendant - bg3 Spawn Astarion comic

Loviatar's blessing -bg3 Abdirak comic

Bestes Boy in all Faerûn - bg3 comic

Vampiric doll -bg3 comic Vellioth, Donnela Szarr

Ways to go - bg3 comic Astarion, MonkDurgeTav

Books of solitude - bg3 comic Astarion, Gale part 1 , part2 , part 3

Beware Scratch the dog! (+Astarion)

Forgotten child - bg3 Shadowheart comic

Family marks - bg3 comic, Cazador, Vellioth, Astarion

Vampire lullaby - bg3 comic, S.Astarion

One with the weave - bg3 comic Gale (Astarion)

Steps - bg3 comic darkUrgeTav, Haarlep Astarion

Dreams in red - bg3 DarkUrge, A.Astarion

Granite And Shadows -bg3 comic Shadowheart, Lae'zel

Secret phantasies - bg3 comic, Astarion, DurgeTav [!TW durge necrophilia stuff!]

DeadpoolxAstarion comic

Sweet night - R-18 Shadowheart Fancomic

Lost passions - bg3 comic ascended Astarion / spawn Astarion, darkUrgeTav

Just a nightmare - bg3 comic, Astarion

Honestly - bg3 Astarion, DurgeMonkTav

The Chosen of Bane - bg3 Gortash comic

Who would trust a vampire - bg3 comic, Astarion, Gale

Bg3 companions as Dungeon Masters

Promises - bg3 comic Astarion, Sebastian

Astarion as Snow-White comic

Circle of degradation - bg3 comic astarion, cazador

Other:(last update 26/11/24)

weak vampires death

Astarion arts

Astarion doodle faces

gortash tutorial

Astarion doodle

durge/astarion before patch7

Astarion and child on playground doodles

swimming lessons - Karlach, Shadowheart, Astarion Fanart

Gold, Blood and Darkness - Astarion Szarr family Fanart

[i-love-zelda-16]

just beat spirit tracks. and oh my goddess, i love this game.

listen to this song while you read this.

my honest thoughts. will be writing Spirit meets the chain. it is obligatory.

holy hylia this game is absolutely incredible. i played this game at one of the most difficult periods of my real life and it brought so much joy to me. who knew that a “silly” little zelda train simulator game could’ve made me so happy.

each area of the world was developed and none of it felt empty whatsoever. i literally never used fast travel/portals because 1. the overworld theme is such a bop, 2. i just love traversing the overworld because it is fun. there are always places to stop, bunnies to catch, and things to do along the way!!

speaking of the overworld theme, the music is my favorite music in the entire series, maybeee tied with skyward sword. nintendo, i am begging you, give my train simulator a full remake with an orchestral soundtrack, this game is incredible and it deserves it.

okay spoilers ahead!! read at your own risk!!

some part of me broke and will forever stay broken when Zelda mentioned Tetra. that’s really when the tears started (although they started much earlier too) and never stopped.

the character development of all the characters is absolutely incredible. Link isn’t just a silent Hero, he’s an engineer and full of funny actions and facial expressions. as much as i like botw Link, these kinds of Links will always have the #1 spot in my heart. Zelda is silly and fun and by no means useless or a damsel in distress whatsoever. in the final battle, she is the one stunning Malladus (with Link’s help). Link would be 100% dead without her. NOT TO MENTION BYRNE, HOLY HYLIA. what the character development; this man is incredible. so is his theme. he literally saved Zelda’s life. he may have saved Hyrule. Anjean, my beloved. Linebeck III, my sweet little bratty guy.

and can we talk about zelink?? they are the cutest. i like them 1000x better in this game than any other i’ve played (i’ve played about 16 games). absolutely adorable relationship, nintendo really got to flesh them out since Zelda is literally link’s companion for the entire game.

the mechanics are also incredible. train maneuvering is easy, but not too easy that i can just sit back and relax while i listen to the bop of an overworld theme, i still have to pay attention. blowing the whistle is so fun. train design and even lore is so peak. during that first segment where you have to sneak Zelda out of the castle, i didn’t even realize until after that it was a tutorial for the Tower of Spirits. think about it. patrolling guards (phantoms), winding corridors, distracting guards, drawing a path for Zelda to follow on the floor, the guards can see Link but not Zelda (reversed in Tower of Spirits, they can see phantom Zelda, but not Link). what an incredible tutorial, didn’t even realize it was one in the first place.

Tower of Spirits was probably the only part of the entire game that i have to criticize, amazing idea, and it was executed fine, but it could’ve been so much better. first of all, each segment was like a dungeon within itself, and i think they could’ve made each one a lot smaller. i was in Tower of Spirits 4 for like 4 hours 😭. probably something similar with Tower of Spirits 6, although i played that over the course of multiple days so it wasn’t as bad. the staircase leading up to each level was absolutely genius, made so much sense lore-wise and it was also just fire as hell.

the connections to Wind Waker absolutely broke me in the best way. Zelda mentioning Tetra as i said before, the stained glass window of Tetra in the castle, Hyrule encyclopedia states that the guards in the castle wear green after Link from Wind Waker, the ancient gold coins having the Triforce on them; the Triforce and Master Sword are irrelevant in this story because they were lost at sea at the end of Wind Waker. this game is not in Hyrule but New Hyrule, a landmass which Wind and Tetra found after the events of Wind Waker and more specifically Phantom Hourglass (which i haven’t played, let me know in the comments if i should!!). so because of these differences, you would think it would be very disconnected from the rest of the timeline. yet somehow, it feels so unbelievably connected in such wonderful ways that make my Zelda lore brain go absolutely insane. i want to scream of joy when i think of what the devs gave us with this game. these connections are exactly what i wanted and what i try to make with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, but the devs just refuse to give them to us and it’s annoying as hell. the royal crest of their kingdom does not have the Triforce, but has the symbol of the Spirits of Good because that makes so much sense. everything makes sense in this game and i love it.

the boss fights are fire, especially the final ones. the final sacred duet is so epic and beautiful, seeing everything you’ve worked for, all the Lokomos, it’s unbelievable.

and finally, the post-credit scene. this scene will change based upon what answer you choose to Zelda’s question before you head off for the final fights. she’ll ask, “what do you want to be when all this is over?” or something like that. Link has 3 options: engineer, warrior, or “dunno”. each one of these options will change the final cutscene that plays after the credits. personally, i chose “dunno” because, 1. realistically, how is Link supposed to know what he wants to be yet? he is just a kid, and although he has studied to become an engineer, he has learned of his (debatable? sure, Wind made his own destiny… hmmm…) destiny intertwined with Zelda’s, so he’s a warrior too. which leads me to my second point, 2. he’s an engineer and a warrior. (ARGHH I KEEP TYPING WARRIORS, IT’S ENGRAINED IN MY MUSCLES XD). he doesn’t have to decide, he can be both. but… that’s not an option soooo “dunno” it is.

this game is beautiful beyond words. i’m debating to say whether this game is my favorite or not, but for now, let’s just say it’s tied with Skyward Sword for my favorite. i cannot understand why someone couldn’t see the joy and hilariousness of this game, not mention the absolutely way-too-epic-than-they-have-to-be-but-the-devs-gave-us-this-amazingness-so-i’m-not-gonna-refute cutscenes. like, seriously, the camera angles, facial expressions, everything, it seems like something out of a movie rather than a DS kids train simulator game. this game is one a kind, so freaking special to me, and i will never forget it ever.

may you rest in peace Anjean, Byrne, and the rest of the Lokomos. can’t say the same about you Cole and Malladus.

Spirit will be meeting the Chain soon. stay tuned folks <3

[phoenixremix69]

Idea making a Ganondorf centric Zelda game

Ok, to start of with, this is way farther in the timeline, like, after TOTK, after everything. The cycle has repeated itself so many times that it's become rote. You can literally pick any history book off the shelf and see what's going to happen. And the current Queen Zelda doesn't like this at all.She likes her Hyrule nice and stable with her at the top and everyone else firmly below her. After all, isn't it natural? Even if it wasn't specifically her per se, she and her loyal knight have saved this country a million times. In fact, she thinks, why not save them all some time and make all the other tribes in Hyrule her vassal states? make an easier time for if General Link has to go save them. But why make him save her at all? just to make sure, she orders the chief of the Gerudo to slaughter any voe born to their tribe

The game opens with 15 year old Ganon and your mom Tween-Ravah(See what i did there?) in a shack in the middle of the desert, miles away from Gerudo town. Her tribespeople might be willing to bend the knee to that tyrannical brat but NOT HER. She's sick in bed and your tutorial is going around the desert with her old scimitar collecting herbs and food for her. But when you get back, there's a bunch of Gerudo guards around the burning wreck of your home. Here's where the game really starts

The general plotline stays the same, go to each tribe, do some shit, slay something, go to big bad's castle and kill them. Except things are different in this Hyrule. Here, you have no friends, the monsters have no master to unify them so they just go wherever, and all the tribes are gunning for your head. Or at least, most of them are. Instead of just saving them from a big monster, you have to convince and help the tribe stage a coup. Maybe because this Zelda is paranoid, she's making all the Goron craft only weapons and only for her royal guard. So you have to find the Gorons who either don't want to forge and want to heal instead, or just want to make jewelry, and work together to take out the forges or drive out the royal guards. shit like that. Instead of a monster, you have to fight the leaders of the tribes. The hardest Boss is Link, who you have a few encounters with at various points in the game and is the final boss for one ending(I'll explain later)

Now, the gameplay of this is a bit different, because unlike Link, who gets nothing but a sword, Ganon has both huge magic and unlimited evil on tap, just waiting for you to tap into your triforce. So let's Undertale this shit. The "pacifist" route has you playing like Link, you just have a sword and you go around collecting artifacts from various dungeons and upgrading your skill. The other route involves a special ability to tap into your tri-force. When you do, you get a huge strength boost and access to magic attacks like fireballs and summoning gloom hands. The downside to this is that if you use it too much it starts corrupting you. After using it too much or too often(there's a meter you can check), you start only being able to use those powers. you lose your ability to use your mom's sword, just magic and your bare hands. Where in the pacifist route you could collect allies to help you liberate the people, now you have to go at it alone. if you wanna commit to being evil, you don't get to have friends. Where you could spare bosses if you liked before, now you only have the option of killing them. the biggest change is in the final battle.

If you go pacifist, Link slowly realizes that being a hero means more than just being Zelda's lapdog. it's just, he's a Link, and she's a Zelda and he's meant to serve her. But seeing you liberate the people, seeing how happy they looked, it's given him a change of heart. Ganon and Link team up to defeat the witch queen Zelda(not her title, i just wanted to de-notate that she's a magic using boss). Once you defeat her, you and Link manage to overpower her will, and with all three pieces of the tri-force, you wish to end the cycle. permanently. No more Links, no more Zeldas, no more ganons.

In the Genocide however, Link sees none of that, all he sees is a ruthless brute destroying her majesty's country, killing her allies, and proving all her fears right. For the sake of all that is good, he must destroy this monster. Once you manage to knock him unconscious, you grab his limp body and Zelda by the neck and make your wish. A new world of chaos. No more empires, no more rules, just strength to determine what is right. The cycle continues, another link in the chain

[erdbeermayo]

(oikage MMORPG players AU) This is more of a longer prompt than a thread/fic, hehe

Oikawa is the very charismatic and inspiring raid leader of a competitive guild called <Seijoh>. He has invested a lot of time and effort into theorycrafting one of the most powerful but hard to master builds for his class.

He feels threatened when a new player, Kageyama Tobio (who names their character with their irl name, honestly?), equally passionate about the same class, joins their guild.

The newbie nearly effortlessly learns Oikawa’s build and dares to ask him for advice. Even their most respected officer, Iwaizumi Hajime, is having a hard time quelling the conflict brewing between the two talented players.

Feeling unwelcome in the guild, Kageyama ends up joining another, much less popular guild called <Karasuno>. The supportive nature of the core team and Kageyama’s skill bring the guild to new heights.

Soon their name begins appearing way too close to the top of the leaderboards for Oikawa’s liking. What he also doesn’t like are Kageyama’s theorycrafting videos and tutorials spreading like wild fire in the community, improving Oikawa’s build! That little thief!

Oikawa braces himself for having to push himself harder, now that Kageyama and his guild are threatening to sabotage <Seijoh>’s plans of being the ones to achieve world first no-death + speedrun of the new dungeon.

He’s afraid he is going to have to watch and study all of Kageyama’s tutorials and raid recordings as preparation. How annoying!

[a-squirrel-wizard]

I love earth aligned spellcasters. Geomancers, earth druids, mole people who have mastered sorcery.

It is such a wholesome and helpful field of magic. A friendly geomancer just helped me do some landscaping around my tower and tutorial dungeon and it looks great!

[trainsgenderfoxgirl2816]

so if you are following me on Bluesky or are in some of the same Discord servers youll know ive been trying to finish the Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom lately, which im most of the way done through the main story, however im one of the few people that didnt play the original Breath of the Wild

first off its PHENOMINAL but we already knew that, so im gonna ramble about what i think so far please note ive only just gotten the Master Sword and gotten to Crisis at Hyrule castle so im gonna talk about it from that point in the story below

oh but first i should the OST is AMAZING the clever use of series classic Leitmotifs is great

the first main section of the game is probably the best the tutorial on the Great Sky Island is one of the best tutorials, i loved everything about that a great start to the game and moving towards Hebra that was great the mystery surronding the Icy Maelstrom above Rito Village and the climb up the rising island chain to the Stormwind Arc and the first dungeon before Colgera are all wonderful great buildup fantastic dungeon and the nostalgia thanks to the Wind Waker refrences are great and Colgera is easily among the best first boss fights in any video game

Eldin and Ancient Gorondia in the Fire Temple werent quite as good but still fantastic reminding me of my favorite parts of Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess i loved the minecart puzzles, and Marbled Gohma was a super fun boss too

oh i need to talk about the Open World stuff a bit cause i didnt play BOTW its great obviously what the Zelda series was always sort of meant to be

in Lanayru things take a turn for the worse however a lot of the stuff in Zora's Domain is kinda meh, and well the Wellspring Islands are fun enough with the Anti Grav puzzles the Water Temple itself sucks ass its no fun and Muktorok is a really annoying boss

back to move positive things, Gerudo Village and the search for the Lightning Temple are super (which they kept they Femboy outfit tho) the Lightning Temple itself is also really cool because you cant cheese it like some of the other Dungeons

now into the Spoilery territory

first off i HATE the gloom hands they are absolute Nightmare fuel the kind of boss i dread however they arent actually that hard if you are well stocked on Puffshrooms, Muddlebuds, Bomb Flowers, and sunny healing items, Phantom Ganon is a bit trickier tho but once you get the attack pattern down its fine, oh also there is a mandatory fight against these guys in Korok Forest in order to get the Master Sword

speaking of the Master Sword the Dragon Tears quest is great you learn what happened with Princess Zelda and the tragic stuff with Hyrules founding and how Zelda takes the broken Master Sword and transforms into a dragon sacrificing herself to restore it

[elgremiomaestro]

Tutorial Extensivo para Jugar Calabozos y Dragones (Dungeons & Dragons, D&D)

Introducción a D&D

Calabozos y Dragones es un juego de rol de mesa donde los jugadores asumen los roles de personajes aventureros en un mundo de fantasía. Un Dungeon Master (DM) guía la historia y controla los aspectos del mundo y los personajes no jugadores (NPCs).

Paso 1: Preparación

1. Entender el Juego:

Antes de comenzar, es esencial entender que D&D se juega con la imaginación y decisiones. No hay un "tablero de juego" típico, solo el escenario que el DM describe.

2. Materiales Necesarios:

Libros de Reglas: Los más importantes son el Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, y Monster Manual.

Dados: Un conjunto de dados de D&D incluye: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, y d20.

Ficha de Personaje: Para anotar la información de tu personaje.

Lápiz y Papel: Para anotaciones durante el juego.

3. Elegir el Dungeon Master:

El DM es crucial porque dirigirá la aventura y tomará decisiones clave sobre la historia y los encuentros.

Paso 2: Creación de Personajes

1. Elegir Raza y Clase:

Cada raza (como elfos, enanos, humanos) y clase (como guerrero, mago, pícaro) tiene habilidades únicas.

2. Asignar Atributos:

Distribuye puntos en los seis atributos principales: Fuerza, Destreza, Constitución, Inteligencia, Sabiduría, Carisma. Puedes usar asignación de puntos, lanzamiento de dados, o array estándar para decidir estos valores.

3. Escoger Habilidades y Talentos:

Dependiendo de la clase, seleccionarás habilidades y talentos que permiten realizar acciones específicas o mejorar tus estadísticas.

4. Equipamiento Inicial:

Selecciona armadura, armas y otros objetos útiles para tu aventura, generalmente basados en tu clase.

Paso 3: Reglas Básicas

1. Tiradas de Dados:

La mayoría de las acciones se resuelven con una tirada de d20, añadiendo modificadores relevantes para ver si superas una dificultad establecida (DC).

2. Combate:

El combate es turnos basados. Cada ronda, los jugadores y el DM actúan en orden de iniciativa. Puedes moverte, realizar un ataque, lanzar un hechizo, o usar un objeto.

3. Interacción:

Hablar con NPCs, investigar, y otras interacciones también usan tiradas de dados para determinar el éxito.

Paso 4: Conduciendo la Aventura

1. El Rol del DM:

El DM narra la historia, describe lo que los personajes ven y oyen, maneja los NPCs, y decide los resultados de las acciones de los jugadores.

2. Desarrollo de la Historia:

Los jugadores exploran el mundo, resuelven acertijos, negocian con NPCs, y combaten con criaturas. El DM ajusta la historia basada en las decisiones de los jugadores.

Paso 5: Avanzando en el Juego

1. Experiencia y Niveles:

Los personajes ganan experiencia (XP) derrotando enemigos y superando desafíos. Al ganar suficiente XP, suben de nivel, lo que mejora sus habilidades y estadísticas.

2. Desarrollo del Personaje:

A medida que los personajes avanzan, pueden aprender nuevas habilidades, obtener mejor equipo, y profundizar en su desarrollo personal y relaciones.

Consejos para Jugadores y DMs

Para Jugadores:

Sé Proactivo: Participa activamente y ayuda a llevar la historia adelante.

Colabora: Trabaja con tus compañeros de equipo y el DM para crear una experiencia divertida y emocionante.

Para DMs:

Flexibilidad: Adapta la historia y reacciona a las decisiones de los jugadores.

Preparación: Conoce bien las reglas y prepara la aventura, pero está listo para improvisar.

Conclusión

Dungeons & Dragons es un juego que combina narrativa, estrategia y azar, ofreciendo una experiencia única cada vez que se juega. La clave es la colaboración y la creatividad, permitiendo a todos en la mesa contribuir a la historia épica que se desarrolla.

[skylarksilver]

Enter Tutorial

a/n: Twisted Wonderland and Sword Art Online crossover.

A girl with short brown hair and hazel eyes gazed up at the decrepit ceiling, listening to rain strike the roof overhead. The building itself looked to be in shambles, there was a nasty draft stirring dust and bringing in cold air. The fiery hellcat that had been the kick off of her problems of the last few hours was at least warm as he curled against her side. His flaming blue ears gave off a surprisingly small amount of light.

She closed her eyes and let out a long slow breath, the stress and fear she had been holding back coming out now that she felt she was relatively safe and unobserved. 

Alright, let's take stock of things as far as I remember before waking up here with Grim yelling in my face. I finished my exercises, ate dinner and got ready for bed. Then Yui called. We were on the phone together for a while.

Sword Art Online had been a deeply immerse game that wouldn't have made it past the development hurdles without a Mental Health Monitoring AI to ensure the players were not at risk of harming themselves. Yui's growing a degree of sentience thanks to Kirito and Asuna had made her a friend, and peer in some ways. And even now, as a navigation pixie in Alfheim Online, she was very observant.

And remembered dates impeccably well, as did her in-game ‘parents’.

The date was one that would carry weight for Liana for the rest of her life. She had excused herself from playing in Alfheim Online with her friends and she had tried to be subtle about it. But she hadn't been alone with her sadness for more than twenty minutes before she was invited into a voice call with her Alfheim guild. Klein was complaining how Kirito had persuaded some NPC to give them a hugely cut discount on their last supply run. Agil and Leafa, Kirito's sister, were discussing a weapons upgrade.

"Weren't you all gonna be at the new dungeon opening?"

She had been quite confused at what they were doing. And there was a small lull that Yui piped up to fill, speaking from all thir devices at once.

"I noticed tonal shift in your speech patterns, and upon recognizing the date, I thought that being alone was not going to be good for you."

It seemed you could take a Mental Health AI out of the game, but you couldn't change her base code. Liana had felt a soft gratitude fill her at the sound of her friends voices. Asuna was the one who voiced their resolve.

“We weren't going to go into a dungeon without our Beast Master. It'll still be there later.”

And they hadn't played together, but just talked. Kirito had known Jax personally, from the Beta Test., so he would volunter some stories about the amusing accidents that could occurr when you were trying to learn the proper positioning for Sword Skill activation. Or how Jax had, with an absurdly high Stealth skill, pretended to be an NPC for a full two days by hiding his player icon. And Liana found herself telling more about him in life. How the traits he had manifested in Sword Art Online were reflected in his daily life. How he never needed to hear a song more than once before he had the lyrics memorized, pitch perfect. And they all let her talk. In hindsight, it was a skillful way of leading her into opening up.

And she did. With a confession that brought feelings of both shame and guilt.

“You know how some times, you'll pause while doing something and realize you're waiting for the system to identify how to interact with it? Or when you get a cut or scrap and remember that you can bleed again? Well, sometimes just after I wake up, I'll forget the game is over. And think I'm back in Aincrad. And for a second, I'm excited to be there. Not because I wasn't scared, but because when I was there, so was he.”

She hadn't even gotten to go to the funeral. They had all still been trapped in the game when he had been killed by a trap room. Jax's stealth stats had been among the highest in the game, and his trap detection skills made him excellent for guiding parties through the high XP grinding areas that had automatic, resetting obstacles on the 45th floor. She hadn't been high enough level to go with them, so he had left her on the 19th floor where she could work on bonding with one of her favorite companions, a crimson salamander she was coaxing through the steps to fledge out into a dragon.

All his possessions had been transfered to her upon his death. She had found out when she was notified that she had to sort her inventory beecause she didn't have enough room for all of his items. At the same time, Kirito got a message in which Jax asked him, from one elder brother to another, to look out for his sister and make sure she never got anywhere near the clearing party or the guilds that spearheaded that effort.

And through Kirito, Liana met Asuna, Yui, Agil and Klein. And she had someone to catch her. Then and now on the aniversary of his passing. The talk had been good after she vented some of her grief. Peaceful. Agil described his wife's latest frustrations with pregnancy. Klein put his foot in his mouth on three seperate occasions. Sugu and Ayano got into a minor disagreement about the virtues of a K-pop Group whose name she couldn't recall. Yui was flickering around her phone as they played through some cooperative puzzles while listening to everyone. All conversation was now on comfortably light subjects that helped her house feel less dead and silent. That made the day feel like just any other day.

Then Liana heard the distinct sound of hooves on pavement. The jingle of a harness. And that startled and worried her. She had read that coma patients sometimes had moments where they experienced some sensory hallucinations. A side effect of their brains having to self stimulate enough to function once they woke up.

“Does anyone else hear a horse?”

The call had gone silent when Liana asked this.

“Yuu, tell me five things you can touch.”

Agil's voice was deep and soothing, she could hear the worry in it as the eldest of their strange little group brought out what they affectionately called ‘dad mode'. He was prompting her to begin a grounding exercise to focus through whatever halucinations were coming.

“My sheets. My phone.”

She reached out blindly, trying to ignore the ringing hoofbeats that seemed to be coming ever closer. They had never been this strong before and it was somewhat scary to experience.

“My bedframe. The lamp by my bed. My- it's in my room. How is it in my room?”

She remembered seeing the horse looming over her, the smell of the animal and the creak of leather harness the groaning of wooden wheels. The walls of her room had somehow vanished. The horse was rather beautiful. Pitch black, but with liquid dark eyes that looked rather friendly. She felt paralyzed in her bed, gripping the sheets as tightly as she could.

“Stay with us Yuu, it's not real. Yui. Can you call her mom?”

“Right Papa!”

Their young AI friend had transferred herself entirely to Liana's phone and started the emergency dial up for Liana's mother. The SOS that she was having a hallucination and needed help grounding herself again. The black of the horse seemed to fill all her vision and the last thing she heard was her friends trying to get her to respond to them.

She didn't remember anything else after that.

Just waking up in the box.

I don't care if the damn bird calls it a gate. It's a coffin.

Everything that had transpired after that. Meeting Grim, learning about Night Raven College, seeing the little monster set fire to the hall, endangering the strange, hooded and robed throng of teenagers-

It was all too much.

Liana had given her avatars name reflexively when questioned about her identity. Yuu, a neutral name that had endless potential for puns, and had been a private joke between herself and her brother.

She had always enjoyed exasperating him into wordless frustration. So oftentimes the only word he had been able to get out was: ‘You...!’ He had made the first avatar for her and had given it that name as a little homage to her favorite pastime of driving her big brother up the wall as he did to so many others.

Dire Crowley, the headmage, had not impressed her with his portrayed intelligence. But then again, Kaiyaba had hidden under everyone's nose almost from day one during the death game. No one had realized he was there until Kirito forced him to reveal the fact that he had given his avatar Immortal Object status. His bluster and apparent lack of care or competence aside, she doubted that he was as harmless as he pretended.

I'd almost rather get kicked out of here. But if this is some sort of dream, it's probably better to let it play out normally as long as it's not actively traumatizing me. Lucid dreams get unstable and chaotic if I try to control them. And this is more interesting than repeating the same scene over and over again.

But there was one thing keeping her from writing this whole affair off as a dream. Liana held up her hand slowly making a fist. She couldn't see it in this light, but she could feel the bandages that covered it. She had helped smother the flames on a student when Grim had been lashing out. A boy with unreal red eyes and pale hair had not been fast enough to dodge the flames.

The burns on her palm from that experience were real. That pain was real. The blisters, the redness. The sensory transmitters in Alfheim could recreate the pain up to a certain point. But they didn't make the injury look as real as it had seemed when Crowley helped her put a dressing on her hand. There had been no faint pixelization in the air to indicate she had taken damage. That was 100% genuine.

But if that's the case, and I'm not dreaming...

She gave a short downward flick of her index finger at about chest height. A series of five white icons appeared in the air before her.

How can I access the SAO menu?

She knew it was the Sword Art Online menu. Her life had depended on the data that those five little white dots had held and what she had put into them. She knew the strange cool pressure on her finger of selecting an icon. The faintest resistance that swiping through the menus had they wouldn't respond too readily to unpracticed or uncertain movements.

And just like in SAO, the log out button was gone. So was the chat function, the map, the magic list, and her list of pets. She had her inventory, her skills, and that was about it. She returned to the default menu, mouth pressed in a tight line as she tried to think rationally. 

Fact, I definitely get hurt here like I do IRL. Fact. I definitely see and can interact with the menu. Though considering that I was hearing things earlier, I could still be hallucinating. But apparently the horse could also be real so I'm back at square one.

Her other hand tightened on her phone. She would normally have set it to charge, but she doubted this place was even wired for electricity. Listening to Crowley prattle, aka world exposition she was not in a position to pass up, she concluded that most things Earth used electricity for had been superseded by magic and magic stones.

 This whole scenario feels contrived. Like the tutorial of some sort of isekai game. Only the player doesn't miraculously get magic to help them survive.

Liana frowned at that thought, eyeing the menu dots again. She hadn't popped with unknown powers, but maybe... She tentatively reached out and tapped her attributes icon.

The stats of a Lv 73 Beast Master looked back at her and she gave a sigh of pure relief.

I was LV 65 when we escaped Aincrad. The other levels I got in Alfheim after converting my avatar into Summoner. And I'm 100% OK with getting abilities I at least know how to use instead of something entirely new.

She was very certain that if it were not her only way to communicate with her friends, people who knew what her life had been like while she was functionally a vegetable, Liana would never have picked up another game again. It had taken months for her to even try to get back into the multi-player games her brother first taught her to play on. In the end, she had chosen to not allow her joy in it to be stolen by a game designer with a god complex.

 A Beast Master's needed decent physical attributes, and good charisma to interact positively with animals and monsters, but her highest stat was actually her Perception. She had reasoned that people who were well in tune with animals in the real world were those that noticed their behavior and knew how to respond to him.

“That ain't how games work, sis. But...suppose this isn't exactly qualified to be called a game anymore.”

Jax's smiles had been much more rare after the Death Game began. It had taken concerted effort to draw them out of him where they had always come readily before.

High perception, meant a proportionately fast reaction time. Coupled with a high dexterity, it meant Liana had been able to keep up with much higher leveled players, while avoiding their notice most of the time. Jax had still kept her out of harms' way as much as possible while he worked to clear the game.

I can't focus on that right now.

She pulled herself out of her introspection, tapping into her inventory. It still had the items she had last placed in it while in Alfheim, though the text was blurred over some items. And there were other items that were defeinitely from SAO that she did not recall having in there.

It's some weird mashup of the SAO and Alfheim menu? I've got my old class, but the stats, level and skills of my new one.

Liana selected a basic set of clothes, casual wear she had made in SAO for the dirty daily work of tending to her pets and companions. It rested in her hand as she pulled it out of her Inventory, reaching over to the rickety chair, the only other secure piece of furniture in this bedroom, and placed it down carefully.

If you're still there tomorrow, then I can trust that the Menu is real and...and this is some new kind of game. Or my life is now a Gamer story. 

Grim muttered, rolling around by her side to curl into a tighter ball, paws tucked in to conceal his belly. Liana held her phone close to her chest, and accessed her menu to set a timer on how long she wanted to sleep. She wasn't sure what time it was right now. But as pretentious and dramatic a ceremony such as what she had seen, she would be astounded if the sorting was not held at midnight. And the average teenager needed 8-10 hours of sleep, so the following day of classes would hopefully be adjusted as a result.

She set a timer in her menu to wake her in 6 hours. She'd get her optimal amount of sleep once she knew if this world she had found herself in was safe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The soft chime of her timer made Liana's eyes snap open. Grim groaned, flattening his ears to his head with his forepaws.

“Fglnha....Turn it off...” 

He can hear it too.

She quickly silenced the alarm and closed her menu with a flick of her hand, watching as he went back to snoozing. The sky outside was lightening but still far from proper daylight. She went into her settings and turned on Secrecy. With a high enough Stealth modifier, you could conceal your PC icon, and also your menu alerts from other players. This could be countered with a sufficiently high perception. But something told her that as long as she was discreet and careful, she would be able to hide the menu from most everyone.

Assuming this is a game where the NPC's can see the menu. Or not a game...

Her bandaged hand tightened, the faint throb of pain reminding her that this was not the sort of setting she was used to.

I'd better treat this as it's own death game until I figure out some rules. If this is a tutorial like I think it is, then I should get some more clues. Regardless, I'm playing it safe until I can figure out what to do next.

Liana carefully slipped out of bed to investigate the dorm. The clothes she had laid out the night before, pulled from her inventory, were still on the old chair. Further proof that she was either having a very consistent dream or she had somehow been transported to a new reality. She stuck close to the walls, judging that the floorboards were less creaky there than they were at the center of the floor.

The bathroom she had found the night before was in even worse shape in good light. But she still took advantage of the functional lock to change out of the ornate black and violet robe she had found herself in yesterday. The ceremonial attire that Grim had been so desperate to get his paws on.

Curious, Liana eyed it up and down and activated her little used Appraise skill.

Tight, even stitching. It fit me as though it were tailored. Very fine material, though not one I am familiar with. Possibly actual gold thread. Every student was wearing this last night, so I'm assuming I was a part of a large ritual that this was a component of. And it has hardly wrinkled even though I slept in it. Magical? No way for me to tell.

Storing it in her Inventory would be the easiest thing. She certainly didn't trust the closet or wardrobe. But this was also something she was known to have so if it wasn't easily visible, it could be a bit odd.

I'll have to get used to being called Yuu again.

Her Alfheim friends used her name and her screen name interchangeably. It wouldn't be that big of a stretch to go back to it. Just a different mindset that she had compartmentalized for her own well being.

Yuu didn't see people the same way as Liana did. Liana had never dealt with a genuine threat in her life. She grieved her brother, missed him and clung to her friends across the world to stay sane.

Yuu saw people as potential threats. And though she had accepted Jax's death, she was still angry over his loss. Yuu held onto her comrades like her life depended on it because it did.

There was an ominous sounding chuckle rising from the floor and Yuu looked down sharply to see the top of a hat poking through the floor.

“You're an early riser, prefe-”

One of the ghosts from last night froze upon seeing her, milky eyes going wide with shock. She carefully folded the robe as best she could, resolving to find someplace sheltered with hopefully less dust to keep it in.

“Good morning to you too. I don't think I caught your name last night.’

The ghost remained motionless, gawking at her. She crouched and poked at his face curiously. It felt like waving her hand through mist, only it wasn't wet but some other unique feeling. He flinched and popped wholly into the room, his form losing its distinction in shock.

“You're a girl!”

“Yeah. Guess it wasn't that obvious in the robe, huh?”

The ghost seemed genuinely distressed, wringing his hands and turning this way and that.

“Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. This is going to make some waves.”

Exposition?

“How so?”

Yuu rose to talk with him more readily, keeping her tone level and non accusatory. He seemed to be winding himself up well enough without her help.

“Night Raven College is a boy's school. And you've been presented to the Mirror as a student and accepted as one!”

“But I wasn't sorted in a dormitory.”

He waved his hands impatiently.

“That doesn't matter! Not every teenager that stands before the mirror has a clearly defined soul. Sometimes it takes a bit more time for them to figure out the direction of their ambition, and sometimes it even changes as they are here. The part that makes you a student of Night Raven College is the gate, the robe and the mirror, not the dormitory placement!”

It was part of a ritual. I knew it.

“What does being a student mean as opposed to being a guest?”

“Lots of things. Way too many for just this puff of ectoplasm to remember. Oh, this is going to be so stressful but so very interesting!”

[deadlyhuggles6]

Title: Two Months

Words: 11.5K

Rating: T for light swearing

Fandom: Hermitcraft

Pairings: no romantic pairings

Warnings: Minor (okay kinda major, but etho doesn't focus on it much) non consensual body modification in that Etho's body is changing and he Did Not Consent. kidnapping. injury mention, but he's okay. minor body horror specifically around the eyes

Summary:  Etho's the champion of Decked Out. Now that Decked Out 2 is open, he's here to conquer that as well. But Decked Out 2, unbeknown to Etho and its Dungeon Master, has other plans for Etho, and it's not going to let him go now that he's within its walls once more. While racing against the clock to find and save Etho, Tango finds himself falling apart. Can his friends keep him together while saving Etho?

Ao3 link: Two Months - DeadlyHuggles - Hermitcraft SMP [Archive of Our Own]

“And that was the last time we ever saw Etho,” Joe joked.

Tango laughed so hard, and Etho could just barely hear it over the echoing sound of Decked Out 2, “Yeah, see you in December Etho!”

Etho rolled his eyes. “Yeah, it’s gonna take me two months to-” the heavy nether brick doors closed behind him, cutting him off from his friends until he died or completed the course. Tango had a way to contact them of course, just in case something goes wrong, but otherwise he was all on his own.

Etho took a deep breath and began to run through the icy first level of the dungeon.

The ice was slick under his feet, but he’d prepared for this, and his thick-soled boots handled it pretty easily. He slid quickly over the ice, keeping an eye on the compass in his hand, but doing his best to just look around.

Tango had obviously put a lot of work into this place, the feel was entirely different than that of the original. And he’d know, with how much time he spent down there.

He winced a bit as a lot of sounds all went off right in a row. He recognized a few of them from the tutorials Tango had recorded, but were they supposed to go off like that?

He hit a button on the side of his compass, pinging Tango. Tango was keeping an ear and eye out for weird stuff, he’d know what that was. Still, Etho kept moving quickly, he wanted out of here with his victory as soon as he could.

“Hey Etho, is something wrong already?”

“Just a bunch of noises all at once. Sounded like multiple sound effects. Wanted to make sure nothing was broken.”

“Hmm.” Etho could hear Tango shuffling, probably looking through his schematics, “I think you're good, just some bad luck. A lot of hazards all triggering at once.” his voice turned teasing, “I think it recognizes you, power adjusting for the champion.”

Maybe it was just Etho, but the heartbeat seemed to get just a bit more intense, louder and faster as it pounded along with his heart. Etho did his best to school his reactions but found himself wondering if Tango had maybe poured a bit too much of himself into this place. If it really recognized him… he shook off those thoughts and kept running. This would be fine, living building or not.

He laughed nervously, “of course, of course. I think it’s sending me right into a ravager.”

Tango laughed, then the connection with Tango shut down, and Etho was left all on his own again. He sighed and kept running. He just needed to be fast. He ran around the ravager, and kept exploring, noting the number of closed doorways all around him. Those must have been the hazards that went off, slowly cutting off his options.

Pretty soon he found the artifact spot and offered it his compass. The artifact popped up from the floor, and Etho scooped it up and started to run back to the entrance. He was pretty sure he remembered where the exit was, but there were a few ravagers between it and him.

The heartbeat picked up again, and Etho knew he was running out of time. It thundered in his ears so loudly he didn’t hear the stomping feet of a ravager ahead of him. Luckily, it was down a straight path and he saw it running at him.

Etho looked around quickly for a pillar to loop around. He found one, baited the ravager, and looped around, continuing his run for the exit. He swore he could hear demonic giggles from deeper in the icy tunnel, and looking behind him, he could see two small blue and red vex chasing after him. He hissed, and pushed himself as fast as he could go. He was running out of stamina though; he wouldn’t be able to keep this up for much longer.

The vex chased him through the winding tunnels, and finally he saw something familiar. He pushed himself through one side of a y split only to slam face first into a block of ice with the vex hot on his trail. This must have been one of the hazards that closed, he’d have to find a new path back to the exit.

Etho pushed himself off the ice and past the vex following. One took a swipe at him, but he dodged it in the nick of time, so close he could feel the icy magic. He ran down the hallway, catching sight of the door, but the short way was blocked off with a fence, and it’d take too long to climb over with two vex on his tail.

He pushed himself faster, jumping around the central pillar as quickly as he could. He almost laughed when he ran through the Decked Out door, a deep relief going through him. He dropped down into the next area and collapsed. He could almost still feel his heart thudding in time with the tunnels, fast and angry. That was. Something. He almost didn’t want to try again. He could be happy with his old champion title, right? He didn’t need a new one.

He radioed Tango, still breathing heavily, “Got through. Take that dungeon master.”

Tango’s laugh was delighted, “Amazing! Shouldn't have expected any less from you Etho! Go ahead and relinquish your artifact and head through the shop, we’ll meet you on the surface when you're done!”

Etho went through the shop before letting the ravager in the hole kill him and return to his spawn in the main area. The others were sitting around his spawn and cheered when he sat up in the bed.

“The champion has returned everyone!” Tango cheered, and the others began to cheer as well.

Etho laughed and tried to ignore the deep ache his chest left from the absence of Decked Out’s heartbeat, “I’m back.”

Etho chilled in his nook for a while, trying to get himself to calm down from the experience. In that time Scar managed to also get a win, and a few more of the Hermits did some runs, with no further successes. Finally, he was feeling bad enough that he just slipped out the front door.

It felt like he was leaving part of himself behind, stuck in the depths.

A few hours later he came back, drawn back like a moth to the flame. He’s probably just being dramatic anyway; Tango wouldn’t let anything happen to him in decked out.

He didn’t see anyone in the normal area, so someone must be doing a run right now. He walked over to the bubble elevator to the waiting room that was under construction when he left. It now looked significantly cozier, all wool and soft moss. You can tell Bdubs had his hands in it.

“Etho! You’re back!” speak of the devil and he will arrive.

Etho’s eyes crinkled slightly as he smiled at Bdubs, glancing around the rest of the room. Looks like everyone else was still around.

Including Tango, who got up to greet Etho, “We didn’t think you’d be back! I thought we’d scared off the champion with that level of bad luck!”

“Aw snap, you guys were thinking of me?” Etho fanned himself teasingly, “yeah, I just needed a break. Now I'm back to make another run.”

Bdubs rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah mhm you're hilarious.”

Tango just laughed, “Now now, you're both pretty. Scar’s running right now Etho, but he should probably-”

All of their communicators went off at once, and by the look on Tango’s face, it was a death message from Scar.

“Looks like the building knows you're here. It’ll be ready for a run pretty soon. I’m sure the others would be happy to let you have the next attempt, that’s Scar’s third attempt.”

Etho nodded and settled in to wait for the castle to be ready for them. He could almost feel this castle pulsing around him. It set him on edge, but he was committed to this now. Decked Out could get as mad at him as it wanted, he became the champion once and he could do it again.

Finally, the dungeon announced that it was once again ready for runs, and Etho dropped down to the entrance, Tango dropping down right behind him.

“All ready?”

Etho nodded, stepped into the entrance, set his spawn, and began his second attempt.

He walked through the dungeon slowly, painfully aware of how fast his stamina drained last time. The compass took him along a familiar path through the left side of the dungeon, but strangely free of ravagers. Maybe people had made the ravagers wander off into more obscure areas of the ice tunnels? He picked a few berries from a nearby sweet berry bush as he walked, tucking them into his inventory for later. As he got further into the dungeon than he had last time, he kept his eye out for treasure, and for any ravagers that might be lurking around corners.

His diligence was rewarded as he walked up a set of stairs, only to run face first into a ravager. He fell backwards, not quite managing to keep his balance as he tried to turn back down the stairs. He fell in a heap at the bottom, but quickly pushed himself up and behind the nearest pillar.

“Oh boy,” he murmured, feeling himself over for injuries.

His left ankle hurt pretty bad, even despite his boots. He must have fallen on it wrong. He ate the few berries he’d managed to grab, hoping to kickstart the healing, but it didn’t seem to take. He was suddenly very glad that Tango had put a necessary respawn into the process of getting out of the dungeon, because this would not be fun to heal from. But he’d have to deal with it for now.

He hobbled to his feet, already dreading having to kite this ravager out of the way. He wanted to get out of here and off this ankle as soon as possible. He looked around a bit more, trying to see if there was another option for getting around. He didn’t exactly find one, but he did find a better place to bait the ravager from, where he wouldn’t have to run up and down the stairs with a ravager on his tail.

The heartbeat of the dungeon was slow but steady in his ears, and his ankle throbbed with each pulse. In and out, that’s all he needed right now.

Which is of course when the dungeon decided to screw with him. A screeching laugh rang in his ears behind him, a sharp grating contrast to the slow heartbeat all around him. He spun around, not quite believing his eyes. Vex. Already.

He fumbled with his compass for a moment before managing to hit the radio button.

“Tango I've got vex on me already and a bad ankle!”

Tango sucked in a breath, and it whistled between his teeth, “Oh no. Oh that’s bad with extra bad sauce. That’s really not supposed to happen Etho, just try to get out of there.”

Etho grunted as he tried to dodge around them but took a slice from the vex as his ankle caused him to stumble.

“Aw man, I hadn’t thought of that,” he sarcastically said. “I don't even have my artifact yet!”

“Just get out of there, I’ll give you an extra frozen shard to make up for this run, but if the dungeon is malfunctioning…”

Tango didn’t finish his statement, but Etho understood. Minigames didn’t tend to go wrong on Hermitcraft, but when they did it could get bad. He tried to focus on getting out, but the vex had encircled him. He dove to the right, through an open door into another section of the map, but it slammed in his face, leaving him trapped with the vex right behind him. He scrambled further right, following the right wall to try to find some exit. The vex backed off a bit, and he gave them a suspicious glance, watching as they floated just on the edge of his vision to the left.

He jumped over an ice river, boots splashing against the far bank, and he slipped into it a bit. He shook off the water and moved into the next room, which had a bunch of different ravines crisscrossing the room. He looked behind him again and didn’t see the vex anymore. He tried to slow his breathing, but the heartbeat was going too fast, he couldn’t get it any slower.

He took the moment to radio Tango again, “Doors are slamming in my face, and the vex aren’t attacking anymore. Think they might be herding me. Don’t know where. In a room full of ravines now, not quite sure how to get to the exit again.”

“Oh no. Oh that's very bad, very bad. Get out of that area, there’s a few holes there that I haven’t-”

The heartbeat in Etho's chest and all around him suddenly turned into a crescendo, loud and clashing, drowning out Tango’s words, and a ravager Etho hadn’t noticed before rammed into him, knocking him down towards the ravine. His body slammed against the icy walls and Etho knew no more.

~

When Etho came to, he had no idea where he was. In fact, he could hardly even see where he was, just the impression of darkness and faintly glowing turquoise. His hands felt below him, and he felt scraps of wool and the strangely spongy texture of skulk. Where could he possibly be with wool and sculk?

And then Etho heard a sound that made him freeze.

The whine of a warden.

Etho’s head swung wildly but he still couldn’t see anything. It was a high-pitched sound, so they probably hadn’t realized he was here, but it sounded so close. It was only a matter of time before one of them sniffed and realized he was here.

He tried to shift, pulling his feet up under him, but even tensing his muscles sent shooting pain through his ankle and up into his leg. It felt like his entire foot had been dipped in lava, each twitch disturbing it more and more. He couldn’t help the quiet grunt of pain that rumbled through his chest and throat without his permission.

All around him there were several rounds of clicking and Etho realized just how screwed he was. Unless warden farms were involved, there usually weren't more than one or maybe two wardens around if you were truly unlucky. This was four- five- maybe six or seven all around him, all alerted to his presence now.

But this knowledge couldn’t stop the psychological reaction to the pain his ankle was in. It had probably swelled up under the boot, both held in still and compressed by the thick layers of leather and fur. He let out a quiet whimper and could feel hot tears spilling down the sides of his face.

Suddenly, the thing he had been leaning against shifted, pulling out from behind him. Etho tried to scramble away, but his ankle pulsed painfully as he tried to put weight on it, and he couldn’t go anywhere. Nowhere but falling to the ground, helpless to the warden that had shifted to be in front of him. Etho could just barely see from the light of the souls within the warden’s chest, and he found himself wishing for a quick death. Maybe if he was lucky, he could even get this break to heal in the respawn, though he was quickly giving up hope seeing how he didn’t know how long he’d been out. 

But instead of attacking him, the warden just leaned in and turned its head to the side and gently knocked one of its antlers against his head. For a moment, sounds amplified around him, and his heartbeat thudded in time with the nest around him, drowning out everything, including the pain from his ankle. And then they broke contact, and Etho was left by himself again. He unconsciously jerked up, following the touch of the warden’s antler and searching for that relief. The warden clicked at him and glowed just a bit brighter. More wardens shifted around him, and a low glow was visible over the entire area. Perhaps the work of a sculk catalyst.

Etho took the new light level to look over himself. From the slight swelling at the laces of his boot, he could tell his foot was definitely swollen. He dreaded the idea of having to take off his boot, knowing how painful it will likely be. He decided to ignore it for now, eyes slowly drifting up his body. His clothes all look surprisingly intact, if a bit dirty from skulk spores. Which was definitely good, it was always terribly cold in the dark areas wardens liked to inhabit. And he was glad that he’d remembered his full gloves, not just the fingerless ones. Who knows how cold he’d be with his fingers-

Etho’s thoughts stuttered to a stop, as though put on pause. He rubbed his fingers together, feeling how they felt, before bringing them close to his face to see.

That wasn’t fabric.

After a moment of rubbing things with his fingers he could pretty safely say that it wasn’t frostbite either, he still had his full sense of touch and they didn’t hurt, which made him feel marginally better about this whole situation, but he was still freaked out. There was no reason for your skin to spontaneously turn black and slightly rubbery in texture.

He pulled off his fingerless gloves, tucking them gently into the pockets on his vest, and pushed up his sleeves. The darkness traveled almost halfway up to his elbows before fading into his pale skin. He touched up his face as well, and felt patches where his face felt odd, especially where his mask didn’t cover.

Etho took a deep breath and winced hard. Oh yeah, he’d never finished going over his body for injuries. His ribs ached when he took a deep breath, and, remembering how hard the ravager had hit him, he wouldn’t be surprised if he fractured something. He took a purposefully regular sized breath and forced himself to ignore his racing thoughts and focus on his next step. He needed to get out of here, and to do that he needed to call someone to help.

He felt around his pocket, hoping desperately that the compass was somewhere in one of his pockets or nearby. He knew it was unlikely, he’d been holding it when he fell, but he could always hope.

He checked his pockets first, his vest then his pants, and then started to scan the ground. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Okay. Calm breaths, his communicator would probably work just fine, it was just a little louder and brighter and might not be able to get through to anyone.

Etho let out a slow breath and summoned his communicator. It turned on the moment it entered his hand.

Etho hissed as bright light flooded the small burrow. It was practically blinding, and it obviously disturbed the wardens as much as it did him. The one that had been chilling next to him groaned loudly and reared away, and several other loud groans went up around him. Etho found himself quite agreeing, and out of instinct slammed the brightness of his communicator against the ground. A moment later he realized that perhaps his only ticket home should not be slammed against the ground of questionable hardness.

He gently lifted part of the screen and desperately turned down the brightness. Even at the lowest brightness it still felt absolutely blinding, but at least he could look at it now. He curled up around it, trying to block as much light as possible from invading the dark space. Thankfully it didn’t look any more damaged than it normally did, just a few cracks in the screen and a familiar chip in the casing.

He felt a bit of hope as he was able to scroll through his comm, first his personal information and- he shuddered, skipping right over his coordinates. It must be broken, there’s no way he was that far down. He just fell through a ravine in the first level, there’s no way he was nearly at bedrock now. Instead, he went straight for his messages.

He had no new messages.

Etho let out a sharp breath but held out hope and clicked onto Tango’s private messages.

Ethoslab: tango help

He watched the icon next to his message circle and load, and something in his chest cracked a little as it greyed out, and a little error symbol popped up next to it.

Ethoslab: please

Even faster this time, the grey came. Etho switched to his messages with Xisuma, messaging so fast that his previous one didn’t even have time to fail.

Ethoslab: help x please

Ethoslab: it hurts so badlt

Ethoslab: pleasse i want to leave

But there was nothing. Absolutely nothing got through. Etho gave up all hopes of dignity and switched to the main channel.

It was deathly still for even a regular day on Hermitcraft, let alone a day like this. The last visible messages were Grian and Bdubs chattering about the game they'd set up in the waiting room, from only a little after he entered the dungeon. No new messages.

Etho was desperate though.

Ethoslab: someone pelase helo

Ethoslab: theres som any wardfens

Ethoslab: my anlke adn ribs are hutrt

Ethoslab: ym coords are so doeep i cantg et out

But one by one, each message greyed out, failing to send. He was well and truly stuck down here, no help was coming. 

So, he’d have to get himself out of here.

He really wanted to get out of here without a respawn. Respawning on old injuries always went badly, especially when you're as old as him. But the longer he waited, the worse whatever remained would be. So, he braced himself, squeezing his eyes shut and tensing his muscles for the oncoming pain, turned to the warden behind him, and shouted as loudly as he could.

His voice cracked and crumbled, but it was still loud enough that it should’ve aggroed something. But instead of pain, there was just a round of low groans from all around him, wardens answering his shout in turn. The ones closest to him began to click, and Etho found himself calming despite himself as the clicking picked up, but he forced himself to focus. Why didn’t they aggro on him? Why wasn’t he respawning at home by now?

Suddenly, he felt a gentle tap against the back of his skull, and everything amplified again. His pain faded, head clear of that constant ringing, and at the same time completely full of the heartbeat that filled his chest. He didn’t think it was his heartbeat, but what else could it really be? His entire person pulsed in time with it.

The warden tried to pull away, but Etho pushed back against it, trying not to lose the sensation of everything and the relief it brought him. The warden clicked, whining at him in a way Etho somehow understood to be gentle, understanding. It knew what it was doing. And it leaned back in, bringing him back into the heartbeat.

~

Etho had no idea how long he’d been down here. It could've been weeks for all he knew. He’s had a harder and harder time bringing himself out of the heartbeat. And even when he could, there was nothing he could do here.

His ankle was still swollen and incredibly painful, though he’d kept it in his boot since it was the most supportive thing he had and he had no way to easily get it off. He couldn’t walk on it, let alone tunnel his way out of here. And the wardens wouldn’t fight him. Even when he hit one, it just clicked at him once and pushed him down with one massive paw before tapping him with its antler and putting him back under.

They treated him like a kit, like he was- was a baby warden. Etho didn’t even know if those existed, this grotto didn’t have one and he’d never seen one before but they’ve gotta come from somewhere, right?

It was hard to tell day and night here. His comm was getting harder and harder to turn on, even on its darkest brightness and screen color settings it was painful to look at. Etho had been trying to jury-rig it even dimmer before it got too much to handle entirely, but he wasn’t too optimistic about that possibility anymore. Even the sculk catalyst was getting too bright for him these days.

But he was having better and better luck seeing in the darkness of the burrow. And he didn’t like what he was seeing. The darkness in his hands and face was spreading. It went up his arms, all the way to his shoulders, and the dark patches on his face had been spreading. At some point he’d shed his mask, and the patches of Not Skin had popped up much faster, spreading until he wasn’t sure he had much normal skin left, and it was invading his scalp, curling through his hair, and down his neck. He even went to sleep once and woke up with patches on his stomach. He looked like he was rotting from the inside out.

He was terrified of what would happen when the rot fully covered him.

~

Etho let out a shuddering gasp as he came out of the Heartbeat, head ringing with pain strong enough to make his vision grow dark. It had been- Etho couldn’t even guess anymore. Time was meaningless. The surface world felt more and more like a dream with every passing day. Etho didn’t know how he was still alive, how he hadn’t starved to death yet. He thought it might have something to do with the rot, which he saw glowed a soft blue when the other wardens touched him. He always felt better after they did that, like they were giving him the magic his body craved.

The darkness covered his entire chest now and was crawling down his legs at an alarming pace. He didn’t feel that scared of it anymore, it was hard to feel anything but numb anymore. There was no escape.

His leg had stopped hurting quite as much, but he still had a hard time walking, and his ribs hadn’t hurt since the dark rot rolled over them. Instead, his head had started to ache, pulsing on either side of his skull without rest. It was an agony that not even the other wardens could relieve, no matter how much they tried.

And how they tried.

Etho couldn’t help a cry of pain as a particularly strong wave of pain crashed over him. He heard a familiar groan beside him, the warden who most often took care of him, and large paws scooped him up, before antlers pressed back against his skull, and he disappeared from consciousness once again.

~

Etho felt like he was floating. He felt like body was barely his, like just an outside observer. The pain radiating in his head grounded him and sent him running from his body at the same time. It was hard to stay conscious now, and Etho found his eyes drifting shut only minutes after waking up.

There was a lot of movement all around him, the kind that made Etho want to stay awake, to know what was happening. The grotto didn’t move like this often, content to stay curled in the little burrow. Was something happening, were the hermits coming for him?

Suddenly Etho’s chest was yanked up, legs dangling in the air. He screamed as the sudden movement jostled his ankle and made his head pound.

Big paws adjusted him, pulling up his legs, and he felt himself be carried by a warden. The warden tried to knock their horns together, but Etho pulled away, trying to see what was happening. It was so hard to see with the pounding in his head and chest, but Etho did his best to pay attention. He needed to know if they were coming for him.

There was more movement, and Etho heard digging under the murmur and clicking of the wardens around him. The room suddenly got much smaller and packed with wardens. Etho’s feet and head brushed either side of the stone walls, and Etho suddenly realized what was happening.

They were leaving the area under Decked Out 2.

Etho kicked his feet and shouted loudly, wordless in his desperation to go back. The hermits had to be so close, they must be looking for him! He couldn’t leave before they found him.

He flailed his legs and screamed his head off, throat already feeling torn and painful, and managed to squirm out of the warden’s paws. He dropped to his feet, landing hard on his bad ankle, and tried to run back to the burrow.

It was no use, one of the wardens caught him effortlessly, pressed their antler to his skull, and he knew no more.

~

Etho couldn’t see when he woke up.

He let out a wordless noise. Usually, sound would make someone light up, give him enough light to see by.

But there was nothing.

He made a louder noise and still no light. Instead, answering groans rang up around him.

Suddenly Etho could make out an impression of the mobs all around him. It was fuzzy but he could sense them. There were 7 of them all around him, curled up in this room, which was slightly larger than the burrow they’d been in, with him in the very center. He was slouched against the largest one, the one who watched over him.

The impression started to fade, until Etho let out another questioning noise, and the big warden responded with a short click, before gently knocking its antler down against him, letting him sink in the heartbeat for a moment. It felt so gentle today, but he felt the knock so keenly, even though his skull didn’t-

The warden hadn’t knocked his skull.

The realization came to Etho so suddenly that he pulled himself fully away from the warden, hands flying to his head.

He had antlers.

They weren’t big, barely more than an inch long, but they stuck straight out from his head, already too big to hide under his hair. The world felt so much duller when Etho grabbed them, even the small vibrations Etho hadn’t noticed not being picked up. He let go and found he could get a decent idea of the burrow now that he was actively trying.

Etho wanted to throw up a bit.

He was becoming a warden. There really would be no escape for him.

Tears came to his eyes, shockingly hot against the coldness of his cheeks. He had antlers, and his body was covered in the black rot that was probably just warden’s skin, and now he couldn’t see.

It was too much, Etho broke down sobbing.

One of the wardens took pity on him, gently knocking their antlers together, and Etho knew no more, his spasming heartbeat added to the collective.

~

The antlers weren’t gone when Etho woke up. Etho could feel them, it felt like they’d only grown longer. Grabbing them felt wrong, so he didn’t, letting the vibrations of the grotto around him flow through them freely. It felt weird, not quite sight but something like it. 

Etho wanted to cry, just thinking about the loss of his sight. How would he build again, making those complex interiors he loved so much with messy but congruent block palettes? How would he manage redstone, and its need for big picture perspective, knowing what each line hopper and repeater were meant to do? How would he do anything that made him a hermit?

He hugged his chest tightly, trying to comfort himself, but that only made his feel worse. He could feel the weird texture of his skin through his clothes, could feel how it had trailed over his entire torso. He pushed his shirt up to feel it and couldn’t stop himself from shuddering as he felt a small bit of peach fuzz over warden skin. He might as well be growing fur at this point! He’d already been changed so much; he might as well be made even more unrecognizable!

Etho was edging on hysterics when one of the wardens gave him a questioning click, and he forced himself to take a deep breath. He didn’t want them to put him back under the heartbeat, forcibly held calm by the overwhelming force of their collective heart rate. He knew they were just doing their best, but he couldn’t lose any more time to this.

Etho couldn’t quite click back at them, the noise came from the softer branches of the antlers, which looked a lot like weird foliage, but seemed to be able to move and swing on command. He hadn’t grown any yet. But he could click with his mouth, and he did his best to imitate their sounds. 

The warden clicked back, then turned away, leaving Etho to his own devices. He sighed and focused on his feet. He needed to get to the surface soon. He needed to get out of the burrow and away from the grotto. And to do that he needed to be able to walk and dig.

Etho clutched his hands together, and wondered if his hands would grow big and strong with tough, curved claws like the other wardens had. As much as he hated the idea of his body changing even more… anything to escape at this point.

~

His antlers grew in quickly, quickly becoming long, curling up at the end. The soft moving bits that felt a bit like branches were also coming in, and Etho found it easy to control them, either to collect more vibrations, or to hit them against each other. Soon Etho was able to click to his heart’s content, though his voice wasn’t quite deep enough to groan and roar like the other wardens did, nor did he have the ability to make a sonic blast. His fur was also coming in long and thick, and Etho was starting to find his vest and turtleneck uncomfortable to wear. He refused to give them up though, refused to give up that bit of humanity.

He didn’t have much of a choice though, as his body began to change more and more. His hands grew claws. At first, he thought his nails were just growing out, without the ability to trim that was normal. But then he tried to tear one short and found it too thick and curved to budge. His fingers also became rougher, a redstoner’s calluses fading away for something closer to pads that he had a hard time feeling through.

At least his ankle had been vastly improving, and while he still limped a bit, he was able to move and get around the new burrow.

Now that he was mobile and could conceivably escape, he was getting restless, and he can tell that his restlessness is affecting the rest of the grotto. He was getting better at understanding them, the heartbeat no longer brought him into that state of nothing, it brought him into a state more like a collective understanding, feelings and knowledge and sustenance traveling from one to another with ease. It scared Etho a bit, how easy it was to understand and lose himself in the collective. What if when he got to the surface, he couldn’t understand them anymore? What if one day he got so lost that he couldn’t come out? That when the hermits found him, he was just another warden to them, and they were just a bunch of vibrations to him?

It was scary, but Etho knew, soon he’d be able to go home. He just had to hope that the hermits were still waiting for him when he got home.

~

Etho knew something was going down when the burrow was pierced by a horrible shriek. He could feel the anger of the other wardens, and it almost swept him away in a wave of rage and discomfort. But he forced himself to stay centered. If this was a shrieker like he thought- shriekers only activated for players. A hermit might be up there, might be able to help him. He’d been looking for an opportunity like this to escape, he just had to stay levelheaded.

He let the rage wash over him and waited. A second shriek came a minute later, only riling up the wardens more. C'mon c'mon c'mon, one of you go up, show him the path to the main chamber. Show him how to get home.

A third shrieker. The anger was almost overwhelming, and even Etho could admit that the sound was absolutely grating on his soul. He calmed himself by imagining which hermit was out there. Maybe it was Beef, good dependable Beef who always knew the best way to draw Etho out of his head, ready to take Etho home and tease him gently about getting kidnapped by a minigame. Maybe it was Bdubs, who didn’t even mean to set off the shrieker but couldn’t help being so loud, come to drag him to bed. Sleeping in a player bed sounded like a dream right now. Maybe it was Xisuma, working relentlessly to save his hermits even when there were no leads. Maybe he’d finally figured out where Etho was from the code and was going to teleport him right out of there and take him home. Maybe- maybe it was Tango. Etho felt sadness well up in him for Tango. Tango, who spent so long working on this minigame, who should’ve been enjoying the hermits’ reactions to his amazing creation but was instead searching tirelessly for the hermit he lost in it.

Etho decided he’d be happy no matter who was out there. He just wanted to go home.

The fourth shrieker. One of the wardens roared, and began to dig up in a specific spot, while the others stayed put. Etho slipped out of the grasp of the grotto and followed closely behind. He’s coming home.

~

 “Doors are slamming in my face, and the vex aren’t attacking anymore. Think they might be herding me. Don’t know where. In a room full of ravines now, not quite sure how to get to the exit again.”

Etho didn’t sound as panicked as he described what was happening in the dungeon, but that only scared Tango more. He didn’t realize the danger he was in. Tango scrambled on his comm, trying to contact Xisuma to give Etho a quick port out of there.

“Oh no. Oh that's very bad, very bad. Get out of that area, there’s a few holes there that I haven’t-” 

There was something like a crash and a shout of pain that cut him, and a series of more crashes before the connection cut off. Tango scrambled to check the main chat, but there was no death message.

-Finished covering.

Tango scrambled, calling Xisuma immediately. The ravines were deep, deep enough to kill at any health, but a few of them had holes in the bottom that led deeper into the dungeon, deeper beyond where the dungeon lay into the deep dark areas below. If Etho didn’t die when he fell- he must have landed somewhere worse.

Tango was deeply attached to Decked Out 2. They weren’t the same but Decked Out 2 had a lot of his emotions and love and hate for things. Including his friends.

He should’ve realized that he was going too far when he told it about Etho, the champion. When he complained and teased and loved Etho where the dungeon could hear him and it responded with curiosity. He should’ve realized that its interest was getting too intense for something that wasn’t ever meant to be alive.

As his comm rang, Tango flew down into the belly of the beast, following the path Etho would’ve fallen.

“Give him back!” he shouted into the belly, radiating anger through the dungeon.

The dungeon growled back, and a blast of cold air came through, nearly knocking Tango out of the air.

“He’s not yours, you can’t have him!”

The dungeon only gave him silence now that it had offered its refusal.

“I’m never going to give you another hermit again. You’re never going to see the light of day.” Tango hissed and landed in the belly under the fourth level.

Xisuma finally answered the call, and before he could even respond, Tango was yelling, “You need to teleport Etho!”

Xisuma sputtered on the other side of the line, “Tango, what?”

“Etho can’t get out and I can't reach him, you need to get him out of there!”

There was silence for a moment, and Tango could faintly hear some clicking from Xisuma’s end of the call. Then the clicking paused, and Xisuma made a concerned noise.

“Tango, what happened?” Xisuma’s voice was serious.

“Did you get him out of there?”

“The system is no longer connecting with his comm or code. Tango, what happened?”

Tango broke down and told him everything.

~

Xisuma helped him rally the hermits to search through the lower levels of Decked Out 2, after shutting off all of the redstone. Tango shut down the entire system, loudly declaring to the dungeon that he’d never turn it back on. He was so angry, he could hardly stand to look at the tunnels of the dungeon, to think about the long hours he had put into all of this and how badly it had been twisted.

The hermits tore through the dungeon with a speed he’d never seen from them before. It was clear everyone was mad about Etho’s disappearance. But there was nothing to be found in the tunnel, and Etho’s comm remained frustratingly out of reach. Finally, people had been forced to take a break. There was nothing more they could do except dig up the entirety of the area under and around decked out, and that couldn’t be done quickly in any way that would be safe for Etho.

Xisuma had privately confided to them that he was scared that Etho hadn’t just been disconnected from his network, but from the network responsible for respawning. If they killed Etho while clearing the area, they might not even know.

Which meant that the hermits, who were already close to the point of running on fumes after 3 weeks straight of searching, would have to dig out those chunks by hand. It would take weeks, maybe even months. So instead, they’d focus on searching the caves, and if that didn’t work, they’d dig it all out. But people had to be patient and take breaks in between cavings.

Xisuma was clear, they weren’t abandoning Etho. But he wasn’t going to let anyone else run themselves to death’s door searching. This was the best compromise to that. Bdubs and Tango were the most resistant to the plans. Tango knew Bdubs hadn’t been sleeping much recently. He was so worried, and Tango couldn’t blame him, finding it hard to sleep himself. The idea of having to go home and rest was unthinkable to the both of them.

Etho’s old home was still in Bdubs’s basement. Tango wondered if it felt as empty as Tango’s starter base did.

Impulse had tried to offer his base, so that Tango didn’t have to go back to the starter area most hermits had abandoned at spawn, but the dwarven fortress felt too close to Decked Out, the blackstone and blue too familiar. He’d already dropped his own visage of the dungeon master, falling into the comfort of red and orange flames and the heat of the world outside. He couldn’t go back to the cold underground.

~

Tango couldn’t stay away from the Dungeon for long though. After 13 months he just-

It was hard to step away from everything he’d worked on.

And that’s how Tango found himself back at his own doorstep, feeling like a stranger in his own house.

He slipped through the massive doors and shivered. His leather vest didn’t keep him warm like the dungeon master’s coat and hood did, but he couldn’t put that back on, couldn’t reclaim possession of this awful place.

“You took him.”

It was a question as much as it was a statement, but there was no answer.

“Are you at least happy with yourself? Happy that you’ve traded him for everything else you could’ve had? They all would have loved you.”

Tango thinks that if the building could’ve purred with satisfaction, it would. He sighed. There really was no use arguing with it, but sometimes he thought that just maybe- maybe it would give him back if it realized.

“When we get Etho back I'm going to let Doc tear you to the ground.”

Decked Out didn’t give him much more as Tango slipped back out of the dungeon, but he got the distinct impression that it was laughing, taunting maybe. When. That really was the big question wasn’t it.

~

They found the entrance to the Deep Dark five weeks and two days after Etho went missing. The entrance to the Deep Dark was pretty small, and a lot closer to bedrock than most Deep Dark pockets were. It was also big. It took another two days to get a team together to search it. In the end, it was him, Xisuma, Zed, and Beef that got to storm the deep dark. Bdubs, who hadn’t been sleeping, got put on mandatory break from searching until his eye bags were smaller than his eyes and he could be around people without hissing at them. Xisuma took his place, hoping he could look for traces of Etho in the code. He said if he could just get a solid hint of Etho he could probably reconnect him to the network.

The deep dark was creepy. Incredibly so. Despite the lore Tango had created for the dungeon, he never actually went down this far to check for the deep dark. He had enough to do, digging out the entire area to bedrock didn’t seem worthwhile. He was cursing himself for it now as they explored. If he’d just taken the few extra weeks and fully cleared the area-

Zed nudged him, leaning in close like he wanted Tango to lean back into him. Tango shook his head and banished the spiral of thoughts. He needed to focus, they needed to save Etho in the here and now, distractions won’t help.

The group did a quick overview of the Deep Dark first, taking out any shriekers so that they wouldn’t trigger a warden, then they split up into pairs and searched the pocket as best they could for any sign of Etho. Zed tugged Tango along towards the upper areas, powerful goat legs and balance helping to propel him up to those dark corners. Tango soon found himself playing bodyguard, as Zed didn’t quite move slow enough for him to follow, but he didn’t move fast enough for the mobs to not take notice of him. Tango took out his bow and got to work shooting down the mob following Zed.

Both of them froze, and tango had to throw his aim to the side to avoid accidentally hitting Zedaph when there was a shout from the ground.

“WE’VE GOT SOMETHING!!!”

A significantly quieter “Oh goodness me,” echoed the shout, so Tango felt safe in an assumption that the shouting was Beef.

He and Zed made a beeline for the other two and found X with his full admin unit out and Beef with his pickaxe out and already breaking some blocks.

“Where are we digging to?” Zed asked, already pulling his pick from his inventory.

“30 blocks down, a little northeast. Terrain generation says there should be a small cave, about the size of a chunk, but we’re down too deep to get an accurate read on if there’s anything living there. About the only other thing I can say is that Etho was definitely there at some point recently.” Before X was even half done explaining, Tango was done beside Beef, digging through the crumbly mixture of stone and skulk.

Between the three of them they quickly broke into a smaller pocket in the rock, full of sculk and patches of wool. After Beef cleared that there were no mobs, they dropped down into the room.

Xisuma planted himself in the center of the room, panels still up, combing through the code for Etho. The other three combed over the room.

The room looked normal, empty and a bit creepy sure, but that’s just how the deep dark was. Tango didn’t realize there was anything more to it until he heard Zed’s strangled gasp. He turned and froze at the sight.

In Zed’s hands was a plain black face mask, with one of the ear straps completely broken off. It had to be Etho’s, he never went anywhere without it.

The rest of the search went by in a blur after they found Etho’s mask. Xisuma confirmed that it was definitely Etho’s, and he’d been wearing it within the last week. There was nothing else to be found in the room, nothing but traces of code. Etho had been in there just a day or two ago. There was no trace of where he went.

Tango forced himself to stay calm until he got home, not wanting to hurt his friends with his rage. His hair was already flickering, going from simple golden blonde to a glowing orange. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to set something on fire.

Even if he was careful- he’d just prefer his friend not be there to see it.

He was so angry!

They were so close!

If they hadn’t waited Etho would be home!

Tango only barely made it to the hard rock of spawn before the rest of his body followed his hair and burst into flames. He’s glad he didn’t make it all the way home, his house had too much wood for this level of rage.

Tango didn’t know how long he spent in that burning anger. At some point he must have fallen to his knees, because when he became aware of himself once more the first thing he became aware of was rapidly cooling stone under his knees and legs.

The second thing he became aware of were soft murmured words, “-okay, we’re gonna get you inside buddy, here just lean on me, let Impulse take care of you.”

He became aware of several things in short succession after that. Warm arms, wrapping around him in a comforting embrace, slowly lifting him up from the ground. The sensation of his head flames slowly extinguishing, dying back past even his normal levels. And cold, biting rain, beating down on his body, driving the warmth of his anger from the entire anger. In the wake of it, Tango felt nothing.

A wall of warmth hit him, not quite as strong as the actual wall of warmth that was holding him, but it felt hollow. He felt hollow. He remained limp in Impulse’s arms, letting him carry him wherever he wanted. It was so cold…

Some traitorous part of him thought of the way his skin froze in the lower layers of Decked Out 2, how cold Etho must be all alone down there. This could only be a portion of what Etho had suffered through at the hands of his creation.

Large, callused hands held his face and Impulse’s voice called out for him, so reluctantly Tango let his eyes flutter open. And there he was, Impulse, soaked to the bone from the rain but still smiling the moment he saw Tango. 

“There you are. When Zed said you stormed off after the raid and never came back, I didn't think I’d find you sittin’ all alone in the rain, man. You’ll extinguish yourself like that.” Impulse was gentle, even with the implied admonishments.

Tango groaned, not feeling up to speaking after the highs and lows of a rage, and turned his head, rubbing his cheek against Impulse’s palm. His skin caught a bit against the dry and cracking edges of his calluses and the heat that gathered in them was almost burning with the temperature difference from outside, but Tango only pushed against him harder. Impulse chuckled but didn’t pull away.

“Oh Tangs,” If Tango was a just more present maybe he could’ve interpreted Impulse’s tone a little better, but for now he was just focusing on how good the warmth felt, “one of these days you're going to remember that you're not alone before we get to this point.”

Their foreheads met and Tango could feel the imp horns jutting out of Impulse’s head. It was familiar and comforting, exactly what he needed right now.

“We’ll get him back buddy. I promise.”

~

It took another two weeks for them to find another lead on Etho. Xisuma had gotten some good information from the traces of Etho’s code he found below the deep dark, but it took a while to parse which direction he was taken in.

But they finally had something, and Tango refused to hesitate.

This time, with more definitive proof, an entire gaggle of hermits showed up. Bdubs was finally back, Beef was here again, False and Gem had both offered their combat skills in case they ran into a warden, and Impulse had refused to leave Tango alone, so he was coming as well.

And Xisuma was coming so that when they got Etho he could make sure he stayed safe.

The lead led them almost ten chunks beyond Decked Out’s borders, to another Deep Dark biome. But it was bigger this time, with an entire ancient city sprawling through it. This was going to take forever to go through, and Tango found himself wishing that they had brought more hermits along, to get through this faster.

False was the first one to make a plan, sitting in the tunnel entrance before the shriekers made it hard to communicate. She split them off into pairs to remove shriekers, leaving Xisuma on his own to try to find Etho. If a warden got summoned, they’d run back here and focus on bowing the warden down.

Tango didn’t know who set off the first shrieker, but the sound of Impulse cursing under his breath was stuck in his head, only barely audible under the echoing shriek. It played on echo in his head for the next minute, ringing in his ears as they searched, until a sculk tentacle took advantage of his distraction and wrapped around his leg, yanking him down off the path of wool they’d been laying down. He landed hard enough for it to send sound shooting off into the distance. A few seconds later, a shrieker went off further in front of them. Impulse sighed, but didn’t say a word, just pulling him back onto the path. They managed to get rid of that shrieker and one other that was nearby without another issue.

The third shriek came from somewhere to the east of them, closer this time. Had it been this hard to avoid the shriekers the last time he raided the deep dark? Maybe there was a reason Xisuma had tried to keep the number of hermits so low.

The clicking of wardens beneath was loud enough to hear now, foreboding and long. Just one more and the warden would emerge, and this searching would get a whole lot more complicated.

Tango watched his steps carefully. Cmon, they had to do this now, they had to get to Etho before he was taken away again. They couldn’t afford a warden right now, Tango wouldn’t let Etho slip through his fingers again!

But, as had been made extremely clear through this entire ordeal, Tango wasn’t the one in control. The fourth shrieker went off somewhere behind them and the sound of roaring and cracking earth followed it.

“Oh jeez," Impulse’s voice was strained from the stress, but he grabbed Tango’s hand and scrambled backwards, his little imp wings flaring to facilitate the fast turn, “Okay- Okay we need to get back to the others. Come on buddy, we need to hurry.”

Tango dug the heels of his boots in, “We aren’t done with this area, he could still be here.”

Impulse looked ready to growl at him, “Or he could be anywhere else. We told the others we’d come back to help fight the warden.”

“They can handle themselves; they’ll all be together. He’s alone.” This was the loudest either of them had gotten since entering the deep dark, and Tango did his best to keep his voice at a hiss instead of getting louder. The wardens were active now, they didn’t need another warden running around.

And then suddenly Impulse was close, practically on top of Tango, “He’s not alone. We’re looking for him. We’ve always been looking for him. But we need to stick to the plan, Xisuma probably knows where he is at this point, or at least a direction to look.”

Tango glared at Impulse, and was ready to pull back, when suddenly Impulse’s thick arms wrapped around his chest, pinning his arms to his side. Tango let out the start of a shriek, before digging his claws into Impulse’s arms, kicking and fighting to get loose.

Impulse didn’t even flinch, even though Tango could feel that he was taking damage. Instead, he turned, carrying Tango back to the others.

“You act like you're handling this alone.” Impulse muttered, “you aren’t the only one who cares about him, the only one looking for him. We’re a team Tangs, don’t push us away.”

Tango hissed at him, but obediently went limp as they got closer to the main area, not wanting to risk triggering anything else. He kept his eyes trained out into the darkness, the familiar pulsing of the darkness effect kicking in as they got closer to the main area and the warden. He could hear voices up ahead, but the darkness came in to totally blind him for a second, keeping him from actually seeing anything. Impulse’s steady gait kept them safe on the wool path though, not straying even though Tango knew he must have been as blind as Tango was. Voices got closer and the glow of a normal torch came into view, cutting through the darkness. The others.

Tango wiggled in Impulse’s grasp, trying to get down before they got to the others, but impulse didn’t budge. The darkness started filtering away as they approached the others and Tango could see that everyone had already made it before them. No darkness pulsed back in, so they must have made it out of range.

Thankfully Impulse dropped him once they made it to the little hole in the wall, and tango took a moment to glare at him before turning back to the others.

“Alright, who summoned the warden?” Impulse teased and even Tango had to laugh as everyone suddenly pointed a finger at Xisuma, who only glared at them.

“It caught Gem and False’s scent, so it’s a bit further away from us right now, but it’s still really close. You’re lucky, I thought for sure you’d get cut off.” Xisuma said.

“We nearly didn’t,” Impulse said, setting one of his hands on Tango’s shoulder, “the darkness got close enough that I thought we were goners for sure. 20 blocks of leeway is not a comfortable distance from a warden, even if we were only in range for a few seconds.”

The others gave some commiserating sounds of distress. The darkness effect was scary just for the blindness, but the implication of closeness that came with it was almost worse.

Craaack

The sudden sound of stone and sculk splitting to another warden cut off further conversation. They all turned to stare at each other. There couldn’t be another warden, not unless something was out there to summon it and sculk had a hard time activating for anything but players. But all of them were already present. The only player who would be anywhere close…

Bdubs came to the realization first, shooting out of their bolt hole like a bullet out of a gun, and Tango wasn’t far behind him.

“ETHO!” he shouted, not caring about the wardens in the frenzy. This was the closest they'd been to Etho in weeks, he wasn’t giving this up. “ETHO WE’RE HERE, WHERE ARE YOU?”

There was nothing but a distant roar, and Tango immediately turned towards it. The second warden would’ve spawned near Etho, so that would give them a good starting point. Unfortunately, that put them directly in the path of the first path, which had wandered closer to the bolt area in search of them. Darkness began to pulse across his vision, to prove the proximity.

In front of him, Bdubs skittered around the edge of the warden’s range, jumping from one wool block to the next, surprisingly graceful for a man of his diminished stature. Tango decided on a more direct path, he didn’t think he could make those jumps, not with the darkness.

‘Just like avoiding an iron golem,’ Tango thought, ‘just a lot bigger and stronger.’

He jumped around the warden’s waving arms, sliding around a hit, just close enough to feel it brush past his netherite armor. Darkness pulsed across his vision again, but he didn’t let it slow him down. He had to get out of range, and he’d be safe to find Etho. In a straight shot a player could easily outrun just about any mob, even the warden. He just needed to get that straight shot first.

Tango pushed his strides just a bit longer, throwing himself out of range as much as he could while staying on his feet, and kept running once his feet hit wool. Behind him the warden roared at the lost prey.

He kept running, soon getting to the central area where Xisuma had been. His eyes caught on the faint glow of a shrieker just beyond the boundaries of the area. That must have been what got him. Now where was Etho?

Tango wasn’t paying attention to where he was running as he scanned his surroundings for Etho or the warden he summoned. So, he didn’t see when Bdubs came to a dead stop right in front of him. They collided like a car crash and only Bdubs’s strong core kept them from falling to the ground.

“What the h-!” Bdubs’s arm flailed up and he slapped his hand over Tango’s mouth, effectively shutting him up. His other hand came up to point across the main plaza area.

Tango looked directly ahead, and the first thing he saw was a teal glow, tall and dark. His brain immediately caught onto the threat, a warden.

Great! Wonderful! That must be Etho’s warden! Why are they stopping?

It took a moment for his brain to see what else Bdubs had seen. The longer he focused in on the warden, the more things seemed off. For some reason there was green.

Tango blinked. There couldn’t be green. Nothing was green in the deep dark, nothing but players. Definitely not a warden.

Tango pulled away from Bdubs and crept closer to the mysterious warden. It was shorter than most wardens, thinner too. It was the standard deep navy blue of a warden, covered in lighter pulsating spots, but there was a lone shock of white on its head. Its back was turned, and it was sniffing the air, but its antler things were smaller than the other warden’s antlers.

The most damning evidence though, was the source of the green. It was hung over the warden’s torso, almost pierced through by the rough white growths on it’s arms. Like they had grown while the warden was wearing it.

Tango came to a horrible realization.

“Etho?”

The warden’s head turned, and Tango was frozen as their eyes locked. Or. Should’ve locked.

Because while he was staring straight at Etho, and he was looking in the direction of his eyes, Etho had no eyes to stare into. Navy and white swirled hair draped long over his face, but Tango could catch glimpses, there was nothing underneath. Only hair and his wide, empty mouth.

“Taaaaannggo?” Etho’s voice was cracked and deeper than Tango remembered, likely from disuse and- everything that happened to him.

Tango stumbled forward, but with the confirmation Bdubs was even faster. He launched himself past Tango, scrambling over the rough terrain to get to Etho. Tango followed a moment later at a slightly more cautious speed.

“ETHO!” Bdubs’s shouting was shrill but warranted as he threw himself into Etho’s arms. Etho stiffened at the sudden noise and touch but relaxed into Bdubs’s arms.

“Beeeeduus.” Etho’s voice collapsed into a crackling drone, but Tango nodded encouragingly.

“Yeah, Bdubs, and Tango, and Xisuma and Beef and others are around here too. We’re going to get you out of here Etho, you’re going to be okay.” Tango said and watched with mild horror as one of Etho’s antlers swung towards him as he talked.

“Beeeefeers?”

Tango nodded, and then hummed in acknowledgment when that got nothing from Etho, “Yeah, yeah Beef’s with us too. So, this is going excellent. They’re being slow, but everyone’s waiting back home for you Etho. Xisuma’s gonna be here soon and he’ll get us all back home.”

“Home.”

It was the most normal sounding word Etho had spoken thus far, and Tango couldn’t help but laugh with relief. “Yeah. Home. Just a little longer Etho.”

~

The two months Etho were gone were the worst, most stressful months of Tango’s life. The two months after he was found were- honestly still pretty stressful, but significantly better.

Xisuma’s fears had been right, Etho had been disconnected from the respawn network, which was Terror of the Fying variety. But after a bit of bug testing and some consultation off world for the coding, he got everything fixed and Etho was now very safe from any more threats.

The wardenification wasn’t so easily fixed. A good scrub and some messing around with the code got rid of most of the staining, though his hair remained pretty stubbornly navy. He wore it long now, without bothering to tie it up. It was striking enough that it made it hard to focus on where Etho’s eyes were supposed to be.

They were just gone. The scar that had crossed over his left eye was still there, but now it continued across the empty expanse of skin over his eye sockets. Etho couldn’t see how unsettling it was, but it was clear someone had let it slip, because he seemed pretty ashamed of it at times.

Xisuma had been contacting people off world for Etho. Both people familiar with warden and hybrid code, and people who specialized in orientation and movement, for blind people. Because that’s what Etho was. Permanently. Etho didn’t seem too bugged by it, mostly just joked about not needing much help with the orientation part, just make a noise and he could orient himself perfectly fine, but Beef had said he was worried about how Etho was getting used to his cane. He was easily overwhelmed by the repeating tap tap tap it made as he used it, and they had yet to find an option that muffled the sound to a good level for him and still let him hear it vibrate against different surfaces.

At least Etho seemed to be liking his Antlers. Apparently, they'd been the last thing to grow in, within the last two weeks of his capture. Tango wanted to feel bad that they couldn’t stop it but honestly all he could feel was relief that the next stage hadn’t started. Etho’s situation wasn’t exactly common, but it wasn’t totally unique either. Tango had done his research when they got Etho back and it, it was bad. Bad with extra badness. After the antlers grow out to a usable length, the chest opens up and the soul emerges, at which point playerhood is unrecoverable. Even a week longer and they would’ve lost Etho forever.

But they did make it on time. And Tango just had to focus on that. They all survived.

Etho was home.

[candy8448]

Rambles Masterlist

#i do a little ramble (theories and such)

Other Ramble Masterlists:

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BotW cutscenes: 3 7

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I finished TotK!!!

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Memory system in botw and totk

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Every zelda ost thoughts

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Zelda dungeon concept

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SCRAPPER THAT LITTLE-

Mermays

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[thepiratefish]

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[chronotsr]

A Small Appendix: What's a Basic DND?

A lot of people get confused about what a "Basic DND" is. Here is a quick explanation. It's a series of deeply compatible games descended directly from the original DND, without being via ADND:

1977: Holmes Basic, "Blue box". Still essentially ODND.

1981: Moldvay Basic, "B/X", "Moldvay-Cook". Note that Moldvay edited Basic, Cook edited Expert. Basic/Expert, B/X. Still essentially ODND, with babysteps away.

1983: Mentzer Basic, "BECMI". BECMI is an abbreviation for the chain of box sets that make up Mentzer's series: Basic, Expert, Companions, Master, Immortals. Mentzer basic is the biggest single step away from ODND, changing a few rules.

1991: Denning Basic, "Black box". Officially, The New Easy-to-Master Dungeons & Dragons Game. Very rarely discussed beyond the tutorial cards that came with it.

1991: DND Rules Cyclopedia: A repackaging of BECMI, without the I, into one volume.

1994: Stewart Basic. The Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game officially. Very rarely discussed.

For all intents and purposes, in 2024 the ones you'll see discussed are Holmes, Moldvay-Cook, and Mentzer. And no, that thing that looked like Mentzer basic they sold for 4e and 5e is not actually basic, those were just regular introductory sets for 4e and 5e respectively.

Oh, and if someone says something is "basic-compatible" or "inspired by b/x" they almost always mean Moldvay basic. The giveaway of DND Basic lineage, to me, is race-as-class mechanics (eg. your class is Elf). No one else really did that because it's a really bizarre way to essentialize race (I mean, don't essentialize race at all). Most modern hacks have some kind of optional rule to remove it because it has been very unpopular, as far as I can tell.

[copper-dragon-in-disguise]

Could you do me a favor and tell me literally every piece of info abt dnd you can? Asking for an aster

@amethyst-aster (just so you see it)

hello!

so. this is long which is why there is a cut. i feel i ought to foreworn you that i read the entire players handbook cover to cover the summer i turned 11 because i was lonely and autistic. i memorized it (mostly. little rusty on some of the magic rules but whatever). /not sarcastic so! this is EXTREMELY LONG.

first up! your basics:

dungeons and dragons is a tabletop roleplaying game first created in 1974 by gary gygax. that's not so important. what is important is this: it is currently in its fifth edition (shorthanded as 5e). that is the one i know the most about and it is personally the one i think is the easiest to play, but thats my own preference. my biology teacher thinks 5e is bloody stupid and he plays the second edition (2e), which i find much harder and more limiting.

There are three core rulebooks, and a number of supplementary books.

The most important of those three (and the only one you need to know, really, unless you're the one running the game) is called The Player's Handbook (PHB). It contains the rules for building a character and playing them.

Because it will run you upwards of $50USD per copy, here is a pdf of it on archive dot org.

The other two is the Monster Manuel (MM) (a book of all the monsters in the game) and the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) (a book of how to run a game, but you don't need it as a player). They are here and here.

There are a number of d&d youtubers who have tutorial videos on this type of thing. my favorite is Ginny Di, but there are literally dozens out there.

BASIC TERMS

A Character sheet is the thing you have all the information about your character recorded on. It comes in several variations, but this is a free form fillable pdf version, and this is a free printable (both from the wizards of the coast (wotc) website, but the second is hosted on archive.org) (wotc are the company that owns the copyright to the game).

A class is the vocation of the character. its what they do with themselves, but its not necessarily a job.

A race is the character's species. this is also called their species, but in offical material you'll see it called their race.

A background is how their past shaped the character.

A backstory is that past.

Ability scores are the abilities of the character, they are determined with dice rolls. There are six of them, and many years ago someone explained them with tomatoes and that's still the easiest way to explain them in my opinion. You figure them out by rolling 4d6 and adding up the three highest numbers, for a total of 6 times.

ID in alt text. [I cannot find the original source, I am sorry, nor the graphic's source]

There are various types of dice, conveniently labeled with this image below:

ID in alt. [Source]

The d20 is the most important; its what you'll use to roll ability checks and saving throws and etc.

If you don't have your own physical dice (they are advalible online, at barnes & nobles, and at your local gaming store, but many people don't have a local gaming store (me)), you can roll them on many websites. My preferred one is this one, but any work. Google has its own built in, too.

MAKING A CHARACTER

So. You have your dice, now what?

Now you make a character sheet! there are many videos online explaining how to do this (there is a lovely one here and here), but i'm going to explain it here how I generally do it.

Step 0- OPTIONAL:

Take your character sheet, and come up with an idea. Who do you want to play? A gay disaster who can shapeshift? a hobbit? a chaotic ginger with too many cats and a habit of making deals with eldritch powers? You can be whatever the hell you want. alternatively, you can look at the options in the PHB first, and go from there.

Step 1- Pick a race/species.

There are well over 30 of these, and I'm not listing them all. But the ones advaliable in the player's handbook are as follows:

Dwarf. Your sterotypical mining, axe wielding, beared fantasy dwarf. ex: Gimli, in Lord of the Rings

ID in alt. [Source]

Elf. Traditionally depicted as tall, graceful, and living in the woods. Generally have pointed ears. ex. Legolas in Lord of the Rings.

ID in alt text. [Source]

Halfling. Literally just renamed hobbits, so they don't get sued. Known for being short and excellent cooks. ex. Frodo, Sam, Merry, & Pippin from Lord of the Rings. (I can't seperate them, it feels wrong)

ID in alt. [Source]

Human. We all know what humans are. Generally viewed as very adaptable species in d&d! also in real life. ex. Bill Nye the Science Guy.

ID in alt. [Source]

Dragonborn. A bipedal species descended from dragons. They're cool as shit. ex. I literally cannot think of one i'm sorry.

ID in alt. [Source]

Gnome. Known for being very tinkery, small, and causing mischief. Also, for some reason, for being in gardens. ex. Pike Trickfoot from Critical Role.

ID in alt text. [Source]

Half-elf. Half elf, half something else! They generally have a lot of angst, but not always. Sometimes people say they combine the best of both worlds (elf and human), and sometimes people say they have it really shitty. ex. Keyleth from critical role.

ID in alt. [Source]

Half-Orc. half orc, half something else! I dunno really how to describe them. ex. Fjord Lavorre from Critical Role

ID in alt. [Source]

Tiefling. A humanoid species with horns and a tail, and often brightly colored skin. Extremely Gender in my opinion.

Step 2- Pick a class.

There are 12 core classes, and one more added in a later book. I'll go over all 13!

ARTIFICER. A magical tinkerer. A bit like leo valdez in pjo? Their core stat is intelligence. In my opinion they're very complicated for a first character ever, but do what you want its your game i do not care.

BARBARIAN. If you want to wear no armor, have an axe (or other weapon), and charge into battle shouting, this is the class for you! its fun and decently simple for first time players, in my opinion. Core stat is Strength (and constitution).

BARD. Someoe who uses the magic of creation to do shit. Also known for seducing anything that moves, but that's optional. Core stat is charisma. Seems simple at first, but they have a lot of spells to manage at later levels, but they're not too hard. The main guy in the d&d movie is one.

CLERIC. They're healers and warriors. Generally have got some sort of divine magic, but don't necessarily have to. Semi-difficult? I haven't ever played one, so I don't know how easy it would be for a first character ever. Main stat is wisdom.

DRUID. Person who turns into animals and respects the enviroment. Basically, the lorax, but less orange and with more turning into animals (druid lovers out there i am sorry for saying y'all are the lorax please don't come after me with pitchforks). they're okay for a first character but they can be a little confusing. Main stats are wisdom (and constitution).

FIGHTER. Someone who fights things. The most basic of the d&d classes, and one of the simplest for first time players, probably, but I haven't ever played one so who knows. Main stats are strength or dexterity.

MONK. Person who punches people a lot. Like Aang from avatar: the last airbender. Main stats are dexterity and wisdom. They seem simple, but one of the mechanics is slightly confusing, but they're still really simple.

PALADIN. Your tradition knight. A guy (gender neutral) in plate armor with a horse and loyalty issues. I love playing paladins so much, they're great. Personally I think they're a little confusing. Main stats are Strength & Charisma.

RANGER. Someone who wanders through the forest and fights things, like strider (but not like aragorn) from lotr. Core stats are wisdom and strength. My first ever character was an elf ranger named Thia Nailo. She was awesome. Rangers can also have pet panthers and shit, and sometimes small dragons (not tiny dragons, though. Like horse sized dragons).

ROGUE. A thief. My second ever character, and the first one who I played for any significant length of time (thia's campaign died out) was a half-elf rogue named Enna Helder-Kromlin. Rogues are a really good class for first time players, I feel like. Core stat is dexterity.

SORCERER. Someone born with magic. Main stat is charisma. They can be a little complicated.

WARLOCK. Someone who made a deal with some sort of higher power (eldritch being, god(s), etc) for magic. they make bad decisions for a living and its awesome. my favorite ever character was an elf warlock named Mara. Her patron lived in a shield and she had a wisdom of 5 but a charisma of 20. Core stat is charisma.

WIZARD. Gandalf. Someone who studied magic and learned it that way. Main stat is intelligence. They can get really complicated, really fast, but they're still a viable option for your first time.

Step 3- Backstory

There are other things to do, but its late and i'm tired. What you need to do from here is figure out what your character's life was like before now. Or, if you dont want to, then get a vibe for their personality or something.

NOW WHAT?

When you have a character, your DM (Dungeon master, the person running the game, the ''narrator'') will give you scenario, and you roleplay your way through it.

Literally anything can happen. It's d&d. the rules are suggestions, not actual rules. Make it what you want it to be!!!!

If you have other questions please contact me I love them even if it takes me forever to answer them sometimes.