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apocalypticavolition · 1 year

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Let's (re)Read the Hobbit! Chapter 5

Well, I suppose it’s time to get into the chapter that received the most attention from Tolkien. As The Hobbit was originally written with the intent of being a fairy tale for his kids, and only got turned into a significant aspect of the Legendarium as he began writing the sequel, quite a few aspects of the One Ring needed to be changed. Thus, there are two versions of this chapter, and as I’ve never read the original before I did so and will point out the differences as we go.

When Bilbo opened his eyes, he wondered if he had; for it was just as dark as with them shut. No one was anywhere near him. Just imagine his fright! I don't have to too much. I've been spelunking and when you can't see shit it's awful. Kinda surprised my mom still likes this book so much considering that when she was a girl in Iceland she fell down a hole spelunking. He guessed as well as he could, and crawled along for a good way, till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it. He put the ring in his pocket almost without thinking; certainly it did not seem of any particular use at the moment. You might think Bilbo’s coming into his own as a burglar here, but this is dark magic. Very corrupting influence already that ring. Most rings would at least have you think about how they came to be there. He thought of himself frying bacon and eggs in his own kitchen at home—for he could feel inside that it was high time for some meal or other; but that only made him miserabler. First time in awhile we aren't told it wouldn't be the last time Bilbo thinks of home so I guess this is the last? “So it is an elvish blade, too,” he thought; “and goblins are not very near, and yet not far enough.” It's a shame he didn't think to show it off to Elrond in Rivendell. It would have been cool to hear him tell its story, if it had one. Some of these caves, too, go back in their beginnings to ages before the goblins, who only widened them and joined them up with passages, and the original owners are still there in odd corners, slinking and nosing about. Honestly this whole sequence is a beautiful bit of environmental description that makes this cave feel truly unsettling and unpleasant in ways that thankfully real life caves avoid. I’d quote it all but I think illegally downloading 1600+ ebooks in a week is as much copyright infringement as I should risk right now. Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. I don’t know where he came from, nor who or what he was. So that's a lie. Gollum got into his boat and shot off from the island, while Bilbo was sitting on the brink altogether flummoxed and at the end of his way and his wits. Bruh. You saw all those other passages. I get that going forward feels good, but you're in a cave. No reason not to think that the path to safety might not end up curving around.

And when he said gollum he made a horrible swallowing noise in his throat. That is how he got his name, though he always called himself ‘my precious’. I feel like there's a great joke here about how people who don't respect His Precious's chosen name and use the derogatory one are bad allies or something, but I can't quite get it in a way that doesn't feel low key shitty when I just want to be silly so consider this your chance to come up with an appropriate one for me! Winner of this contest will receive laughter! (Also, who gave Gollum his name? The goblins don't survive encounters with him. Did Bilbo do it because of this encounter? Dick move, Bilbo.)

“A sword, a blade which came out of Gondolin!” “Sssss” said Gollum, and became quite polite. Kinda cool that Gollum knew what Gondolin was. Hobbits a few hundred years back must have had better stories. Maybe because Gollum's family wasn't in the Shire but east of the Misty Mountains. Riddles were all he could think of. Asking them, and sometimes guessing them, had been the only game he had ever played with other funny creatures sitting in their holes in the long, long ago, before he lost all his friends and was driven away, alone, and crept down, down, into the dark under the mountains. They're called hobbits buddy. “Does it guess easy? It must have a competition with us, my preciouss! If precious asks, and it doesn’t answer, we eats it, my preciousss. If it asks us, and we doesn’t answer, then we does what it wants, eh? We shows it the way out, yes!” In the OG version of the text, Gollum offers to give Bilbo a present, which explains why Bilbo is very blithe about the offer going forward because it's nowhere near as nice a promise as taking him to safety. Doesn’t explain why he’s so chill about being eaten but let’s say “shock”. That was all he could think of to ask—the idea of eating was rather on his mind. It was rather an old one, too, and Gollum knew the answer as well as you do. Sadly I'm not much of a riddle guy, Tolkien. Gollum would be eating the shit out of me if I were in Bilbo's place and I know how the story goes! But just as Bilbo was beginning to hope that the wretch would not be able to answer, Gollum brought up memories of ages and ages and ages before, when he lived with his grandmother in a hole in a bank by a river... In the OG version Bilbo starts wondering about the present at this point. I am definitely going with “shock” to explain why he’s not so focused on the being eaten thing.

“Well,” said Bilbo after giving him a long chance, “what about your guess?” In the OG, he asks about the present at this point. I am rapidly moving toward “affluenza” being Bilbo is being such a spoiled little rich kid. [Gollum] also in his turn thought this was a dreadfully easy one, because he was always thinking of the answer. There's a good lesson here about how different environments train people for very different things and provide drastically different expectations of normal. Should you ever find yoursely in a riddle-game with a cave beast, keep this in mind.

I wish I had more to say about the riddles themselves except that they’re all pretty well-written. I wonder if Tolkien made up any himself or if he got them all from somewhere. Bilbo was saved by pure luck. Twice he was saved by luck at this point. Twice he’s getting answers by pure luck, which is a bit disappointing even though of course as a Wooster-esque figure we can't expect Bilbo to know much of anything. Or maybe even in the “final” text he’s still lying through his teeth so elves and dwarves will think he’s a punk at riddle games and then he can smoke their asses and get 1/14th of their estates. “What have I got in my pocket?” And of course, if getting answers by pure luck is unfair, getting the questions this way seems even worse, especially when it's such poor form! I'm rooting for His Precious now. [Gollum] tried to think what other people kept in their pockets.“Knife!” he said at last. Let's be real here Smeagol, knives are totally something you kept in your pocket, you creepy murderer you. But he felt he could not trust this slimy thing to keep any promise at a pinch. Any excuse would do for him to slide out of it. And after all that last question had not been a genuine riddle according to the ancient laws. In the OG version (yes we're back to the differences now and no I'm not going to stop giving it the stupidest title possible), the text says that Bilbo need not have worried because Gollum was on the up-and-up. No wonder Gandalf didn’t fall for it for more than the two seconds it took him to remember that “Hobbits cannot write down lies,” was only a hobbit fact he told dwarves. “Well?” [Bilbo] said. “What about your promise? I want to go. You must show me the way.” In the OG version, Bilbo asks about the present which he feels he "won fairly", which is so incredibly bullshit that maybe it disoriented Gandalf and made him unable to focus on anything else in the text. That's some Zapp Brannigan tier delusions there BB. But who knows how Gollum came by that present, ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said. I can. Gollum recovered the ring about five centuries earlier. Thank goodness Bilbo only kept it to 111. It would have been horrible if he'd just skulked about Bag-End for centuries, eating fish and throwing spoons at the Sackville-Bagginses at night. Gollum was cursing and wailing away in the gloom, not very far off by the sound of it. He was on his island, scrabbling here and there, searching and seeking in vain. Literally everything between my last OG note and this one is entirely new and a bit of an expansion. In Bilbo's text, Gollum simply sails acros the lake to get the present as promised and can't find it.

The new version’s still amazingly atmospheric too. Tolkien was great with all of his landscapes, but he does caves so well that I kinda have to wonder when he went spelunking and what horrible monsters he must have found down there to write about Gollum’s hunting. “Losst it is, my precious, lost, lost! Curse us and crush us, my precious is lost!” Gollum is originally upset because not only does he not have the present to honor the game but he doesn't have it for himself either. “What has it got in its pocketses? Tell us that. It must tell first.” Instead of all this misery and cajoling culminating in Gollum demanding the answer to the riddle, Gollum just comes back, tail between his legs, really upset about not being able to honor his deal. He also tells Bilbo about the ring, that he got it as a birthday present and that it makes you invisible. But now the light in Gollum’s eyes had become a green fire, and it was coming swiftly nearer. Frankly this is only an improvement over the original, as it was quite unbelievable that Bilbo could threaten a so much as a paralyzed child with a sword, let alone successfully intimidate a semi-monster. Dude needs to spend more time in danger. He put his left hand in his pocket. The ring felt very cold as it quietly slipped on to his groping forefinger. This is not a convenient deus ex machina because of course he's corrupted to hell and back by the ring, which claimed the soul of a dandy like him in about fifteen seconds. No clue how Frodo pulled it off. Terrified he tried to run faster, but suddenly he struck his toes on a snag in the floor, and fell flat with his little sword under him. Normally I'd say it was a miracle he didn't stab himself, but as we're talking about Bilbo I think it's fair to say that not being able to stab anything under any conditions is entirely in character for him. Suddenly Gollum sat down and began to weep, a whistling and gurgling sound horrible to listen to. Frankly I just feel a bit bad for the guy. Like yeah he's a creepy cave cannibal but he's been a plaything of the ring for five centuries so it's hard to hold much of any of it against him – even the initial murder is a part of that. Poor Gollum. “Then let’s stop talking, precious, and make haste. If the Baggins has gone that way, we must go quick and see. Go! Not far now. Make haste!” Please do stop talking. This little monologue stretches on a bit long, it feels much more reflective of LotR's epic style than it does the Hobbit's plain fairy tale, and really could have been trimmed a little bit. Still there it was: Gollum with his bright eyes had passed him by, only a yard to one side. In the Bilbo variant, boy just gets escorted up and away. He puts on the ring briefly to try it out but takes it back off to be visible around Gollum for obvious reasons. “Seven right, yes. Six left, yes!” Intriguingly to pedants, originally it was six right, four left – one wonders why Bilbo lied about that little detail in universe or how Frodo could correct him. Also, obviously Gollum just takes him up quickly instead of crying at any point. There was Gollum sitting humped up right in the opening, and his eyes gleamed cold in his head, as he swayed it from side to side between his knees. You could try stabbing him, Bilbo. He can't see you. Good thing Bilbo didn't of course. Not because of the sequel. Just because, as I observed earlier, dude can't even manage to stab himself.

No, not a fair fight. He was invisible now. Gollum had no sword. Gollum had not actually threatened to kill him, or tried to yet. I pity Gollum too Bilbo, but he DID threaten to kill you way back at the beginning of this whole exchange. Did you just mishear him? Is that why you’re so chill about all this? Straight over Gollum’s head he jumped, seven feet forward and three in the air; indeed, had he known it, he only just missed cracking his skull on the low arch of the passage. Literally the only reason he could do this is that the DM- I mean, Eru Iluvatar- didn't want him to kill Gollum yet. If it were not for the literal grace of God Bilbo wouldn't have leapt half so high and still would have managed to bash his skull in somehow.

“If goblins are so near that he smelt them,” he thought, “then they’ll have heard his shrieking and cursing. Careful now, or this way will lead you to worse things.” In the lying version of the text, Gollum just refuses to go further and goes back to the lake. Bilbo listens to make sure of that before going on, but nothing comes of it. The passage was low and roughly made. It was not too difficult for the hobbit, except when, in spite of all care, he stubbed his poor toes again, several times, on nasty jagged stones in the floor. “A bit low for goblins, at least for the big ones,” thought Bilbo, not knowing that even the big ones, the orcs of the mountains, go along at a great speed stooping low with their hands almost on the ground. Half of this paragraph, in interspersed chunks, is different in the new version, but not in any significant way. The word "orc" not being used is the closest big change I see. They saw him sooner than he saw them. Yes, they saw him. Whether it was an accident, or a last trick of the ring before it took a new master, it was not on his finger. Fucking asshole ring. I think it just likes doing this. Probably jumped off of Sauron right before Isildur struck him down for the lols. A pang of fear and loss, like an echo of Gollum’s misery, smote Bilbo, and forgetting even to draw his sword he struck his hands into his pockets. I don’t wanna hear anyone say that my claims of Bilbo already being thoroughly claimed by the ring are just my usual hyperbolic, reductionist nonsense for comedic purposes. He’s had it for like an hour and he’s already echoing Gollum.

They yelled twice as loud as before, but not so delightedly.

By the by, these paragraphs are also a little different, mostly tightened up and written more strongly, so that's nice. At this point, the two texts converge again. It was still ajar, but a goblin had pushed it nearly to. Bilbo struggled but he could not move it. He tried to squeeze through the crack. He squeezed and squeezed, and he stuck! Imagine how awful it would have been if the goblins had tried shutting the door then. Also: thank goodness he’s been on such a restricted diet lately or he wouldn’t have even gotten this far! He was through, with a torn coat and waistcoat, leaping down the steps like a goat, while bewildered goblins were still picking up his nice brass buttons on the doorstep. “That creepy fish creature in the lake must have found a new toy!”

Bilbo had escaped. And so we end another chapter. Bilbo is alone in the wilderness! How will he fare with his slow wits, physical failings, and near-complete ignorance of the outdoors now that his entire party is-

*checks the next page*

Four paragraphs away?

Not much of a cliffhanger I guess, sorry.

#the hobbit #j r r tolkien #bilbo baggins #gollum #smeagol #let's read

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opheliathedreamer-blog · 5 years

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Goblin x Reader

Summary: Valentine’s Day for goblins is understandably different than the human equivalent. Of course he still gave you chocolates and roses just to see you smile, but on the first new moon of spring, he invited you to join a celebration that was far more adrenaline-fueled.

At dusk, when your eyes fluttered open at the sound of your alarm, you rolled over with a groan and instinctively reached over to the other side of your bed. Your brow furrowed with confusion when you found it vacant. Blinking away whatever remained of the sandman’s dust from your eyes, you glanced more clearly at the room. Darik, your boyfriend of two years, was nowhere to be found. You stifled a yawn and set your feet on the floor. While running a hand through your knotted hair, you paused upon seeing two items on a nearby table that weren’t in your room the previous evening. One was a bouquet of red roses. The other was a heart-shaped container, presumably filled with chocolate.

You wondered when he had snuck out of the cabin to buy those for you. Goblins were nocturnal by nature, and you both had gone to bed half an hour before dawn. The thought of him bundling up and braving daylight for you made your heart flutter.

Although you smelled breakfast cooking and heard the sizzling of bacon, you decided to sneak a few. Dark chocolate bordeaux. Your favorite.

Humming with pleasure, you righted yourself and shuffled over to the closet. When you slid open the oak door, however, you pinched the bridge of your nose. All of your clothes were gone save for that crop top and pair of tight leather pants that made Darik go wild on your third date. You groaned. This was parr for the course when it came to dating goblins, but that didn’t mean you still weren’t annoyed.

“Darik!”

You heard his barely restrained cackles and could all but see his silver eyes twinkle with mischief. You rolled your eyes, shut the door, and entered the kitchen in your pajamas out of spite.

“Good morning, love!” he called from his spot at the stove. He used a spatula to place some cooked bacon on your plate, his already piled with raw meat from your fridge. “I missed that voice of yours. It has conquered my heart like the roaring river.”

“Don’t sweet talk me.” You crossed your arms over your chest. “What did you do with all my clothes?”

He glanced at you out of the corner of his eye, shoulders shaking. A clawed hand did little to quell his snickers. Your own lips twitched at his contagious laughter until you bit the inside of your cheek. You were supposed to be mad, damn it. Prank calling you during work and rigging your fridge to play the Jeopardy theme whenever you opened it was different than taking all of your clothes.

“Darik.” Your eyes narrowed. “I’m serious.”

He placed your breakfast in front of you. “Aw, don’t look so cross. Life’s no fun at all if the unexpected stays well away.” His sharp teeth winked at you in the room’s dim lighting. “You’ll get them back once you wear that outfit I’ve picked out.”

“Or I could wear this and go stay at Nicki’s for the night,” you said nonchalantly, sliding into a bar stool. “I could make you wait for your present until tomorrow evening.”

With a half-hearted growl, he grabbed his own plate and pulled himself into the seat next to you. “You’re stone cold, you are.”

You snorted, a smile finally forming. “You’re lucky I love you.” You leaned forward and placed a kiss on his hollow cheek. “I’ll wear the damned thing. Just put my clothes back by tomorrow.”

“Whatever you say.”

“And thank you for the roses… and the chocolates. It was very sweet of you, no pun intended.”

His lips twitched upward. His long fingers caressed your temple and ran through your hair. “It ain’t the goblin way, but it’s worth it to see you smile.” He glanced downward, food still largely untouched. “Speaking of which, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

Your eyes flitted over to him, giving him their full attention. He looked just as serious as he did when you gave him a key to your cabin. He was silent, contemplative. You could see his mind sorting out possible statements, wanting to choose the best possible words. His prominent brow was furrowed, already thin lips stretched to nonexistence. All that and his pointed nose brought to mind silhouettes in the books your grandparents used to read to you. But in all those stories the goblins merely wreaked havoc and were defeated by a wise woman or brave knight. Those stories never told how deeply one could love.

“My people have our own celebration similar to this one. It happens on the first new moon of each spring. My tribe’s elders will be there and mated pairs, too. One half runs into the forest and hides, and the other half has to find them.”

It sounded like a large-scale game of hide-and-seek, but you didn’t want to trivialize the celebration by comparing it to a human children’s game, so you remained silent.

“The first couple that makes it back to the elders wins something—jewelry, tools, furs, gold or silver. It changes every year. But what’s really important is what it means to the tribe and the mated pair involved. It’s a way of showing that they intend to stay together, before and after the bonding ceremony. It shows that no matter what separates them, distance or otherwise, they’ll always find a way to come back together again.” He scratched his neck. “At least, that’s how Mum explained it to me.”

It’s a way of showing that they intend to stay together. For goblin kind then, this ceremony was significant. You wondered if his parents were going to be there. You’d met them a few times before. His father seemed friendly enough and praised your skill as a healer (you were a nurse), but his mother seemed to have her reservations. You were the first relationship he’d had in decades. She could tell you meant a lot to him and murmured to you as you left the burrow not to hurt him.

A commitment like this was a big step, but one that you were excited to take. Then, perhaps after this, you could decide how to present yourself to the elders officially.

“I understand if you wouldn’t want to go. It’s April 5th, and I know the hospital can be pretty busy during spring so…” He trailed off, digits fingering his silver necklace.

“Darik, if this is important to you, then it’s important to me. I’d love to go.” You reached down for his limp hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze. “I’ll inform the hospital that that’ll just have to be a vacation day for me. No if’s, and’s, or but’s.”

You saw the way he stared after you in your periphery, features softening in a wide, heartfelt smile, a hand resting against his cheek like a schoolboy with a crush. It warmed your insides and made you forget all about your rude awakening.

The closer April drew, the more you and Darik buzzed with anticipation. It would be the first time you had ever participated in a purely goblin tradition and, although you were human, Darik was consistent in reminding you that he wouldn’t go easy on you.

“We ain’t cheaters, are we, love?” He teased. “Besides, it’ll be a riot to see you stumble through the dark and try to find me.”

“Can’t I be the one who hides?” you had asked.

He tapped the side of his nose. “I could smell your vanilla shampoo a mile off. It simply wouldn’t be fair.”

And so you found yourself stumbling through the woods at night. The elders, after some thought, had given you a flashlight so you wouldn’t accidentally sustain an injury, but its beam was far too small and dim to be of much help except when it came to avoiding roots on the path. Muffled laughter, crackling leaves, claws scraping against wood, and exclamations of the names of other goblins who had joined the celebration echoed around you. You walked as quickly as you dared, checking berry bushes and hollow trees for Darik’s familiar features. Hours passed and you only succeeded in uncovering a female goblin hidden in a fallen log. She chortled upon seeing you.

“Good luck finding Darik. I can’t even smell the bugger.”

Encouraging, you knew.

But still, you refused to give up.

Keeping the general direction of the rendezvous point in mind, you abandoned your westward route, having found no other signs of goblins there, and veered north. The wind whispered around you, and the ancient silence of the forest was only broken by the calls of owls and bats and the occasional whoop of triumph from goblins who had found their partner.

More hours passed. The scent of pine, oak, and evergreen would have been invigorating if your feet did not ache from running and hiking up and down unpaved terrain. Your flashlight grew even more dim, something you hadn’t thought possible. You were hardly afraid of the dark, but the thought of being stranded with no light source wasn’t a good option. You supposed you could wait until dawn to move about if it came to that, but what if you didn’t find Darik and return before then? Would the elders judge you more harshly?

You shook your head, momentarily banishing such a thought, and continued onward. After you trudged another quarter of a mile, you froze at the sound of a branch breaking on a tall pine nearby. You watched as the branch plummeted to the leaf-covered forest floor and pointed your flashlight upward. It flickered and the light died.

“Oh, no you don’t!” you hissed and gave it a few whacks with the heel of your hand. It sputtered to life, but you weren’t sure how long it was going to last.

You tried glancing into the heavily boughed tree again but saw nothing. The light was too weak to make out a distinct silhouette, but intuition warned you not to pass this one by.

“Darik?” you called, but expected no answer. Goblins weren’t allowed to speak or move unless they were officially found.

You worried the inside of your cheek and glanced around, eyes squinting in an attempt to see through the shadows. If you did what your gut was urging you to do, you could be wasting more time. No matter how high you climbed, there wasn’t enough moon or starlight to see into the surrounding trees. However, if you were right…

Sighing, you decided to take the chance. You held the flashlight in between your teeth as your fingers searched for purchase in the dark. After a few moments, you found deep enough grooves that you thought would support your body weight. You pulled yourself up and your right leg came to rest against a low-hanging branch. A few moments later and your left leg did the same.

You continued on in this way until your light permanently died, and you counted your blessings that your brother had urged you to regularly climb trees with him as a child. You spit the now useless device out and heard the snap of dry leaves announce its landing.

Grumbling, you reached forward for another handhold and felt your foot slip. You yelped and clung to the trunk. Your fingers ached and your right leg fought to right itself on a nearby branch. Several tries later and it still met nothing but empty air. The muscles in your upper arms bulged as you tried to pull yourself up in the hopes of finding another suitable branch.

You breathed a sigh of relief when your fingertips brushed against one overhead. You tentatively placed one hand on it and then another. Your legs blindly searched for another foothold, and you readjusted your grip, brushing against something smoother and cooler than the branches and bark.

A beat passed before that something grasped your wrists and lifted you up onto the branch. Once you settled, you registered silver eyes and smelled earth, leather, and hot metal.

“Darik?” you whispered.

His arms tightly wound around you. “You found me,” he breathed.

You smiled at the purr that vibrated in his chest as well as your own triumph, but forced your voice to remain neutral. “You’re terrible, you know that? You made me climb a very tall tree in the dark with no flashlight.”

He nuzzled the crook of your neck, lips stilling over your pulse. “Admittedly not my best idea… I thought the flashlight they gave you was of better quality. But, by the time the horns sounded, I couldn’t move. I’m sorry.”

“Well, this certainly isn’t a human celebration…” You released an airy chuckle. “But it’s more exciting than any Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had.”

A brief silence passed between the two of you.

“Do you know how I found you?”

“The broken branch?”

You scoffed. “Besides that.”

“How?” he hummed.

“This tree felt right. It felt like you were here.”

His hands entangled themselves in your hair. You could feel his smile against your skin. “That is what this is all about. Goblins may see in the dark and have a keen sense of smell, but it’s our hearts that guide us to each other.”

You reached out a hand and rested it against his chest, feeling his heart thrum against your fingertips. “So I passed the trial?”

“Was there ever any doubt?”

“And if this means that we intend to stay together, then we can start planning for that bonding ceremony?”

“One ‘trial’ at a time,” he chortled.

And although your legs and arms throbbed, your hair full of twigs and leaves, your sweater torn from wayward brambles, the respectful nod the elders sent your way and the small, hopeful smile of his mother were well worth it.

#exophilia #monster boyfriend #goblin x reader #male monster #gender neutral reader #I hope you all enjoyed my first substantial goblin story!#I originally wanted to write a deep cave goblin #but Darik emerged of his own volition and here we are

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elvish-sky · 3 years

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The Temptation of Regality: Home

A.N: Holy crap. This is the last chapter. Thank you all so much for joining me on this little journey! And don’t worry, there’s a decent chance I’ll write an epilogue with them all in Erebor. It was originally supposed to be a whole lot angstier but I felt with how I’d built the character relationships it just didn’t work as well, so there’s just a short bit of angst. Again, thank you guys so much for staying with me. love y’all very much <3. Enjoy!!

Word Count: 1,092

Pairing: Thorin x Reader

Warnings: Fluff, the smallest bit of angst

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

**** Home

The next morning, you blinked open eyes heavy with sleep. Your head was resting on something firm, and you could hear someone else’s breathing. You rolled to the side, noticing that you were fully on a bed even though you couldn’t remember falling asleep the night before. You sat up and glanced to your other side.

“Thorin?!”

The dwarf lying next to you shot up at your yell.

“Y/N? What are you doing- Why are we in the same bed?!” His look of alarm was rather amusing, but you were too busy thinking back over the previous night to remember it.

“We didn’t do anything. You got drunk and I brought you up and put you to bed, and I must have fallen asleep next to you.”

“I got drunk?” He looked worried.

“You didn’t do anything embarrassing. You just thought everyone was trying to murder you and hid under a table for a few hours.”

He still looked embarrassed.

“Seriously, Thorin, that wasn’t the worst thing anyone did last night.” You proceeded to recount Bilbo’s entire handkerchief-related rant, leaving both you and the king crying from laughter.

Fili and Kili burst into the room to see you and their uncle falling on top of each other in laughter. Frozen in the doorway at the sight, Fili finally spoke.

“I see things went a little further than expected last night,” he observed with an eyebrow raised.

You quickly leaped off the bed. “I fell asleep here last night, that’s all. Anyways, where were you two all night?”

“We slept in Bilbo’s room.”

Kili nodded. “We wanted to give you two some privacy.”

Thorin threw a pillow at him, and while he scolded his nephews you washed up, emerging several minutes later in your freshly laundered clothes.

“I’m going to go see if Oin will take a look at my leg before we leave.” Seeing the concerned reactions of the three dwarves, you hurried to clarify.

“It’s not hurting very much, I just want him to make sure it looks good.”

Three heads nodded in understanding, and you left with a wave.

Weeks later, the fact that your leg was healed was just about the only good thing. After narrowly escaping the goblins, and even more narrowly escaping the orcs, everyone was just about exhausted. Now, on the Carrock breathing in a sigh of relief, you reflected on the last few weeks.

After the night at the inn, Thorin had been colder towards you. You didn’t know why, but it hurt. On the mountain, he had saved Bilbo, and you had watched inside the cave as he checked on every member of the company. Except you.

He had protected you in goblin-town, but then they all had. It was just his duty to do so. And while the wargs were attacking he hadn’t even spared you a glance, but that you couldn’t exactly blame him for. Still, you had saved several of the company members by boosting them into trees, you would have thought he might have acknowledged you for that.

And now, watching him hug Bilbo on the Carrock you were jealous. Yes, the hobbit had done amazing things, had saved Thorin, but you wanted Thorin to be hugging you like that. Not to barely acknowledge your presence.

To tell the truth, deep down you wanted him to love you the same way you did him. But if how he had treated you these past weeks was any indication, that would never happen. But you were mad, and the anger clouded your judgment, so you waited until he had finished congratulating the hobbit and stepped forward.

“Y/N-” You cut Dwalin off when he tried to talk as you strode up to the leader.

“Thorin Oakenshield, of all the stupid, reckless, idiotic things to do that was the stupidest, most reckless, most idiotic thing ever.”

Everyone looked dumbstruck.

The king looked shocked that anyone was speaking to him that way, and fired back with anger brimming in his eyes. “Y/N, why do you care?”

“You almost died, Thorin! And I love you and the fact that you’ve been so distant lately is tearing me apart, and yet I cannot do anything about it, cannot leave because I care. I was tempted, and I succumbed, and here we are. But I’m just done. If you don’t care then so be it. I can’t go on like this.”

You strode over to a small rock and sat, head in your hands as you cried. A shuffling sound came close, like footsteps, and you lifted your head to see Thorin standing in front of you. He looked nervous.

“Y/N, I-”

He started speaking and then stopped. It looked as if he was mulling something over in his brain, and you watched as something sparked in his eyes.

He leaned forward, cupping your chin in his hand as he tilted your head up to look him in the eyes.

“If you don’t want me to do this, tell me.”

You stayed silent, gazing up at him, kissing you gently for all of two seconds before suddenly deepening the kiss.

It felt like fireworks.

You tangled your hands through his hair, trying to pull him closer even though there was barely an inch of space between you.

Wolf whistles sounded out around you and you broke apart, flushed, to see the entire company beaming at the two of you from behind Thorin’s back. Except for his nephews, who had their hands over their eyes and were fake gagging.

But you only had eyes for one person.

“You love me?” You asked him, hoping beyond hope for the answer he gave.

“Yes. And I’m sorry I’ve been distant. I didn’t want to give you false hope. We’re on a quest, we could die at any moment, but I see now that it’s more important for us to take what time we have.”

You smiled at him. “I love you, Thorin.”

“I love you too, Y/N.”

You stood, and he entwined his fingers with yours as you walked back to the group. You noticed him catch sight of something in the distance, and you walked to the edge of the rock together.

“Erebor.”

You sucked in a breath as you realized what you were looking at.

“The Lonely Mountain. The last of the great dwarven kingdoms of Middle-Earth,” Gandalf said.

“Our home.” Thorin glanced up at you, squeezing your hand in encouragement.

Looking out into the distance, gazing at your future, you smiled.

“Our home.”

Everything tag 💞: @entishramblings @anjhope1 @boyruins @itgetsatadhazy

Series tag 💕: @bitter-sweet-farmgirl @moony-artnstuff @whiskeywinter89 @beakami @sassyscribbler @yes-captainstark

Thorin tag 💖: @lathalea

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eternalstrigoii · 4 years

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Tagged by @deathonyourtongue

🍎- Your favourite flavour of pie? I have a tie between pumpkin and rhubarb. (Rhubarb is really my favorite, but I do love pumpkin. Next year, I’d like to get a deep-dish pumpkin pie for my birthday.)

🌷- Favourite flower? Blue dendrobium orchids, aka “ocean breeze” orchids. I plan on getting a tattoo of a stem of them along my forearm eventually. (I called them Wonderland Orchids the first time I saw them. They’re a true fairytale flower.)

🦊- Are you mischevious? I mean....I’m currently working on three Big Feels fics, so. Yeah. I’m gonna need to write you guys a lot of lemon marshmallow fluff to make up for this.

🐻- Ideal bedroom layout? If I could have more space, I think I’d explode. I’m so used to being cramped that if I took furniture out, I think I’d burst.

🌻- Favourite season? See, if you said this during any other year, I’d go “fall, hands down. Always autumn. All the time.” And that’s true! But spring is also nice, and summer is shaping up not to be too bad either. (I LIKE being alive in the universe. I LIKE going outside to wade in the warm, stagnant flood water and get swarmed by shiny, blue dragonflies, and get gently bothered by the big, fuzzy bees because I have purple hair. I’m glad we got a Pandemic Summer, and I’m glad the Fey Thing kept me out in nature where I belong.)

🍋- Lemonade or gingerale? Monster iced tea + lemonade. I’ve subsided on it for years.

🍐- Favourite fruit? Kiwi. I’ve eaten an entire carton of them in one go before. They’re sour when they’re over-ripe, but they’re always so good.

🌿- Favourite smell? I’m a basic bitch over sandalwood, patchouli, and traditional, smoky incense, but my favorite Bath and Body Works candle is something like cinnamon pancakes. It is....hands down the most appealing thing I’ve ever smelled. I refuse to burn it because I love it too much.

🌧- Ideal rainy day inside? Outside. These days, I rarely fail to possess the goblin urge to run outside and stand in the rain when it starts pouring. You’d think I was holed up in the nest of origin for a couple centuries, the way I act. (I blame caving into social pressure when I was young.)

🍬- Sweet or savory? Savory. I shouldn’t have sweets. (Short version is that I gave myself an ulcer between my anxiety and my terrible diet choices when I was in my first year of college and it’s never fully healed. Mostly because I thrive on regrettable amounts of caffeine.)

🔮- Any paranormal experiences? I actually have an EVP from when I went paranormal investigating in the Congress Plaza Hotel in 2014. You can’t hear my footsteps, but the recording has distinct heavy footsteps and the sound of a shutting door.

🦑- What one thing do you really want as a plushie? You don’t get to hear me say the dark fey. I’ve outgrown that. But if they did come out with collector figures like they did for Charley The Asset in TSOW, I’d lose my shit.

🗻- Ideal travel location? For a very long time, it was Romania. I’ve always wanted to do the Dracula tours. Y’know, Trad Goth Things. But I’m getting more and more sold on needing to take a Big Nature Road Trip first. All the national parks, all the biomes, beaches, deserts, mountains. (Romania has 40% of Europe’s wild wolves, did you know? I think I’d have to ignore the tour to go watch some bears snuffle around in a meadow.)

tagging: @raointean (if you desire to do it, dear), @blackolivejuice, @billywig-on-baker-street, @biganddrunkunicorn, @fight4ourown

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electronicdelusionstarlight · 4 years

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Alright, I’ve gotten back into writing Spider-Man.

I’m scrapping the Wonder Woman x Spider-Man open relationship with Mary Jane X Felicia Open relationship that ultimately culminates into a 4 people polycule where Peter gets pegged, and go for something a bit more simple. So, I’m sorry for the, like, 20 kudos I received on Ao3 over that, and 31 favorites on HF, but that’s abandoned at the moment.

So, new idea...

Amazing Spinnerete, an AU where MJ gets bitten by the spider instead.

(Spider-Woman and Jackpot were already taken and Spider-Girl didn’t sound right to her, as if it was too early for that).

1) Peter, who doesn’t get any powers ever for the entirety of my story (unlike I was planning to do for Mary Jane in the previous one as I piled power after power on her among star sapphire rings, spirits of vengeance, symbiontes, Gamma Radiations and Thor’s hammer), turns into a Sidekick/IT Guy role to her.

2) He’s there to fulfill a purely supporting role to MJ Heroics, craft the webs, be a support to her, all that shebang you’d expect, while getting worried sick over her going out in New York and risking her life daily among villains and criminals and whatnot. He’s the “Nerd behind the computer,” a concept that got admittedly popularized by Oracle, as well as her “field medic” when she gets back home and needs stitching on both the costume and her scars.

3) Also uncle Ben is alive and on a ongoing trip with Aunt Anna and Aunt May around the world. They solve crimes, off screen, like 3 Jessica Fletchers, so Peter isn’t as fucked up emotionally as in canon.

4) I’m gona take from the MC2 and say that, unlike Peter, MJ is actually trying to profit off her image from the start. This might cause some conflicts with Peter over him not wanting them to lucrate on some of their crime fighting (Such as not wanting to patent the web fluid in fear of criminals getting a hold of it), and mixes up with their already canon conflict over her being the main breadwinner in the couple AND the possibility of her doing progressively more risque work.

5) Specifically, I’m gona say it: Spinnerete and Mary Jane have two separate OnlyFans. It’s a modernized story and they are in their mid twenties and need a stable source of income and what better than a horde of people out there paying the same woman TWICE for pics of her buying wonderbread? “Pictures of Spinneret” therefore become a way different phrase, and there is a debate in universe over a superheroine essentially being a sex worker, and all that that entails. I don’t know how well I’m going to explore it tho so this might get dropped after a while and just make her a ASMRtist or a Twitch Streamer, basically the same thing at this point.

6) Since this is a AU I can do like Spider-Gwen did and not just fuck up one piece of the main universe but make every aspect of the universe different, so, bullet list of things I’ve been coming up with that are different from main continuity:

6A) The Hero to Heroine ratio (as well as Villain to Villainess) is 1 hero every 10 heroines. Major (Male, Homo Sapiens) heroes in the setting are: Johnny Storm (Johnny Storm), Thor (Thor Odinson), Power Man (Luke Cage), Iron Man (Rhodey Rhodes), Original Captain America (Steve Rogers).

6B) The mutant community is a massive polycule of free love and shit. The biggest mutant community in the world is stationed in the Free Republic of Genosha, currently part of a worldwide international federation of small nations around the globe born to contrast Soviet and American influences during the cold war called IFMP (International Federation of Micro-Powers). Latveria and Wakanda are part of it, and are the leaders of the two major factions among the delegates in the form of the isolationists (Wakanda) and the Expansionists (Latveria). The second biggest mutant community in the world is in San Diego. most male superheroes and some of their villains happen to be mutants.

6C) Susan Storm lead a year long deep space expedition team financed by the united states government, and managed to contact several alien races in her travels, returning to earth with diplomatic ties and Power Cosmic given to her by Infinity herself as a sign of good will after she and the united armies of space finally managed to slay and destroy “The eldritch abomination at the edge of reality that makes people racist by existing,” as it was called. This starts a age of cooperation between the various alien races and empires out there in the cosmos and Earth, their embassies being built in most of the major nations of the world, trade and science deals cropping up as a result.

6D) Susan Storm later formed the (apolitical, above nations and planets) superhero team the Fantastic Five, which changed members over the years based on relationship with other alien planets and tensions between the members of the team. Current line up consists in Susan Storm (Susan Storm, former Ms. Fantastic), super partes leader due to the Power Cosmic, alongside Lyja the Lazerfist (Second Ms. Fantastic and Former Skrull chaos agent on earth during the Skrull-Kree Cold War), Crystalia Amaquelin (Crystal, Inhuman Ambassador), She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters, earth representative and legal expert), Thundra (Thundra, Femizonian Ambassador). The Kree empire was disbanded after the end of the Kree-Skrull cold war.

6E) Johnny Storm never became the second human torch but ends up becoming Evil Jesus. During his trip to the stars with his sister he accidentally ends up in the Negative Zone, the void between dimensions, and befriends the locals, becoming a jesus like figure and ending up ruling the place. It’s not as banged up as it sounds but with prolonged commuting with the Negative Zone he has achieved a state of resonance with Oblivion, one of the other 4 great entities of the universe, and has become his champion. (in direct contrast with his sister’s coming from Infinity). He still uses his powers for good, if in a chaotic good way compared to his sister lawful good one.

6F) Peggy Carter was subjected to the Super Soldier program during WWII, thus becoming Agent England, de facto leader of the Invaders (Mostly same team, Sub-Mariner, First Human Torch, etc.), and guiding the assault against nazi germany and hydra. She and her sidekick end up frozen on the same plane

6G) Steve Rogers was still picked under her wing, if not able to receive super soldier treatment, and still became the (original) Captain America, a purely propagandist figure of a scrawny, physically weak son of immigrants Brooklyn dude, the complete opposite of the German Ubermech ideal for the white man, but with enough anger and outrage over an unjust world to pick fights with people 5 times his size, shown in many a propaganda video punching Hitler square in the jaw and knocking him out cold. They both ended up on that plane crashing in the arctic and were defrosted several years later.

6H) With the disappearance of Agent England, the Invaders disbanding, and the cold war underway, with no superhero team really cropping up, Doctor Deidre Wentworth managed to develop a modified version of the Super Soldier Serum, testing it on herself, and becoming the Superior Captain America. She forms the (US Exclusive, extremely political) “Americommandos” superteam, with selected superheroines and “reformed” supervillaines of the time. The team was responsible for many controversial superhero activities during the cold war, in and out of the united states, and is still going to this day, even if some members have retires or have outright died. Not Superior Cap tho, no, her aging has been slowed down due to the serum, so here she is still guiding black ops teams to capture and imprison some worker rights activists that happen to be mutants.

6I) The Sorcerer Supreme of this dimension happens to be Doctor Doom, Ruler of Latveria.

6L) Norman Osborn never became the Green Goblin. He was still a scummy CEO and millionaire, and still had a affair with one of his son’s best friends. Gwen was dating Peter at the time and ended up getting pregnant with Norman, he finds out, pressures her to get an abortion, almost terrorizes her, she doesn’t cave, Peter is understandably confused and shocked but still wants to support her (as does Mary Jane), but on the day of Gwen’s son’s and daughter’s birth Norman pulls the same shit he pulled in canon with Mary Jane and Mayday, hires an assassin to force a miscarriage, Gwen finds out a couple months later, stages her death, and becomes the Ghost-Goblin, ending up throwing Norman off the New York bridge and killing him in the process for good. His estate and company was inherited by his son, Henry, who devolved most of it to charity, destroying the Osborn business empire.

7) That’s the gist of it really, gona elaborate on more tomorrow.

EDIT: 8) Nightcrawler is the Pope.

#spider-man #mary jane watson #spinnerete #eh #long post

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thefencedm · 4 years

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A description of how my last DM session went - The Horror of Chaus Harbor

This is a one-shot I made, that actually fits in between two bigger adventures. The goal was to move the adventurers from one place to the next, and introduce a newer members while not lasting too long, as another adventurer was missing for this session. Furthermore, I’ve streamlined a lot of the interactions and actions, so as to not give it too much of a play-by-play feel, and make it more narrative.

Finally, note that I’m used entirely home-brewed world, deities, factions, etc. While some names might be similar, they may not be what you are used to in more standard DnD games. For example, the god of darkness and chaos is called Asmodée, the french name of Asmodeus. However, I only retained the name from the original Asmodeus, as in my world he is most often represented as a dragon, and is one of the two main deities of my world, along with Alateo, the god of light and order. However, many other lesser deities exist.

1 - Three captains, two ships and one mayor

The team of adventurers, composed of the half-elf ranger Tara, the human paladin Itus and the newly arrived half-orc sorcerer Aftab (all level 3) are tasked with delivering a magical mirror they managed to grab in their previous adventures.

Their goal is to reach the magical capital of the world, the city of Skjolleq. Sadly, it would be impossible for them to take the road there, as conflict between neighboring countries has made borders very dangerous. As such, they decide to go to the nearest harbor, Chaus, and there take a boat to Skjolleq.

Chaus is a small village and harbor on the northern coast of the “Untameable lands”. As a State-less harbor, it is often the center of traffic and commerce that would be considered illegal in many other places, such as drugs, animals or organs. Chaus was once famous for its lighthouse, but it has been in disrepair for decades. However, Chaus is also very close to the Lignon Papacy, a militaristic and expansionist State fueled by religious ideology.

Arriving at Chaus after a small skirmish with goblins, the adventurers decided to head straight for the Tavern at the entrance of the small village. The tavern was called “Vous, ivres ?” a french play on words on “You, drunk ?” and the french word for Wyvern, Vouivre. However, the adventurers were quite disappointed to find that only one type of beer was available.

Having bartered hard with the innkeeper for a place to stay for the night and a meal, the group decided to head out and explore the village before nightfall.

Arriving on the harbor, they saw a grouping of individuals, shouting at someone standing on a wooden box.

As they approached, asking a few questions to some people gathered there, they understood that the man talking is the village’s mayor, Camille Felonpieds. He announced that no ship were to leave or enter the harbor until “the situation” was resolved.

What situation ? A docked ship was attacked in the morning, and it sunk where it was docked. Further exploration showed that a large hole was made in its hull, and all of its cargo was stolen.

Bad news for the adventurers: there was no way any ship would be leaving now that the mayor had imposed this ban on travel. And they were not the only ones pissed, as the 2 remaining ship crews had made abundantly clear during the mayor’s announcements, by copiously insulting him.

The adventurers attempted to convince the mayor to let a ship go, but he proved to be unflinching, as he wagered that if this was a case of sabotage, then nobody should be authorized to leave. Of course, the ships would still have to pay for their daily docking fees which was beneficial for the the mayor, at least in the short-run. However, the mayor explained that the adventurers might as well interrogate the ship crews and could ask around if they felt like speeding up this investigation.

In total, 3 captains were stuck in Chaus.

Ramoustaki was a merchant from the commercial city-State of Bylcis.

Oglov was a merchant from the Kyrian Empire, from which our human paladin also originated from.

And finally a heavily armed ship from the neighboring Lignon Papacy was docked, however the name of the captain was unknown to the mayor.

The adventurers first approached Ramoustaki, siting on a dock. A mast was sticking out of the water, and upon closer inspection, a full ship could be seen underwater, resting on the sea floor. Ramoustaki was the captain of the ship that sunk in the morning.

He explained to the adventurers that he was just here on small business. He usually dealt with trading drugs or live exotic animals, and he didn’t seem really afraid to reveal it, as it is not illegal in the Untameable Lands anyway. He remembered that the attack took place early in the morning, just before the sun rose. He had heard a loud crash, making him jump from his cabin bed. Before he and the few crew members on board could do anything, they had to abandon ship, and watched it as it slowly sunk. Divers then discovered that the ship had been fully emptied of its cargo, and that someone or something had made a hole in the lower hull. The wood seems snapped and torn rather than chopped.

Who could’ve done this ? Ramoustaki had no idea. He couldn’t really picture the Kyrian ship pulling off such a stunt. As for the crew from Lignon, Ramoustaki knew nothing of them at all. However, he warned the adventurers that Lignon had a strong religious ideology, centered around the adoration of only one deity, Alateo, the light-god.

The adventurers went on to talk with the crew from the Kyrian vessel. After a brief presentation, the crew, impressed with meeting a Kyrian nobleman in the person of Itus the Paladin, called their captain.

Captain Oglov was overseeing the unloading of his ship. He knew that the likelihood of something like this happening again in the morning was big, and wanted to save as much of his cargo as possible, leaving in the ship only the bear necessities for the sailors that would remain on board for the night.

Friendly and welcoming, Oglov was the typical old sea-dog who had sailed the seas for years and lived through many adventures. They were on their way back to Kyrian, having left Skjolleq, and were originally just stopping in Chaus for a resupply. They had arrived in the morning, after the attack, but the mayor would not grant them the luxury of leaving anyway. As such, the adventurers gathered that it would be improbable for this ship to be responsible for the attack. Oglov mentioned that while sabotage is possible, this kind of damage and attack seemed more consistent with sailor-stories he had heard of ships being attacked by sea creatures... The team’s Ranger, having herself been raised on the coast of her native country, agreed, as she remembered hearing tales of sea monsters sinking ships by making a whole in their hull.

Finally, the adventurers approached the ship from the Lignon Papacy. However, they were met with two heavily armed guards, blocking their way onto the pier. The guards did not yield to their demands of speaking to their captain. Not wanting to stir more trouble, the team decided to turn back.

As the crew listed the information they had gathered so far, they were approached by an older woman. She asked the group for forgiveness, as she had overheard them and would like to share her recollection of events that happened when she was very young.

As a little girl, she remembered that there once was a similar incident, where ships were being crippled and sunk right into the harbor, or sometimes as they were approaching or leaving. It would always happen in the morning. She also remembered that these incidents happened a few days after strange men came into the city. They would mostly hang around the lighthouse. After the incidents stopped, the men vanished, the lighthouse stopped working and was left in disrepair, some believing it was haunted. As such, the lighthouse would have been left abandoned for close to 70 years now.

Intrigued, the adventurers decided to investigate the lighthouse. They arrived to find the door locked. However, the ranger managed to lock-pick the door and the group entered.

In the main room, a bed, a table and a few chairs were the only elements present, as this would have been just a humble home for the lighthouse keeper. On the right, stairs led up the lighthouse. The room was dusty, clearly nothing had moved for decades.

The group went up the lighthouse to see the last rays of light graze the ocean and the coast, setting to the west. They examined the top-most level to discover that only one of the two reflective glass panes, used by the lighthouse to emit light beams, was still intact. Furthermore, a central pole was clearly missing an object that would be the light-emitting source.

Finally, the adventurers saw a skeleton, lying on the ground, and a journal next to him.

Aftab, the sorcerer, picked up the book and started to read.

The book chronicled the arrival of a team of what appeared to be magical investigators. They had looked far and wide for a certain place, and were now set to explore Chaus. It had come to their knowledge that this harbor might have been much older than previously thought. The team led investigations into the caves of the cliffs near Chaus, and uncovered a hidden place, filled with potential magic. The journal then explained that the experiment had failed, and that “it” could not be contained. The author, last surviving member, managed to seal whatever they had freed. As he knew his wounds were too deep, he went up the lighthouse to see one last sunset, and seemingly died writing the journal, praying for nobody to ever venture below the lighthouse, through the trap-door he had concealed and locked under the bed.

The adventurers however, were cautious not to jump into action, as the night had fallen, and they all needed a rest. They organized to set up a watch on top of the lighthouse, while others would go back to rest at the tavern.

On the next day, as the sun’s glow was already reddening the sky before showing itself, a loud commotion could be heard from the harbor, alerting Aftab who had the last watch of the lighthouse. He saw people gathering around the Kyrian ship, as it was apparently sinking. But most importantly, he saw in the water a shadow and a ripple, seemingly swimming away from the ship, and closer to him, until it disappeared under the cliff the lighthouse was built upon.

Rejoining with the rest of the group at the harbor, the team gathered that the journal was probably prophetically right : someone or something had gone below the lighthouse once again, and whatever creature terrorized Chaus 70 years ago was back.

A quick discussion with Oglov confirmed their suspicions, as the old captain was formal that it was something from the water that pierced a hole in his ship’s hull. Sadly, he too was now shipless, but most of his supplies had been safely transported at shore the day before.

2 - The monster below

The team made for the lighthouse once again, and this time discovered the heavily locked hatch under the bed. Thankfully, the lock-picking skills of the Ranger once again proved useful, and the team opened the hatch to reveal a ladder going down into an underground cave.

The cave was damp, the floor covered in sand and stones. To the right, a small opening to the ocean. And upon closer inspection, fresh prints on the sand leading away from the water. These were not human prints, but were rather left by some huge monstrosity.

The group advanced cautiously, and entered a bigger opening in the caves. Multiple tunnels seemed to lead left and right, although they were closed with doors. On the back of the cave, a massive masonry wall seemingly cut the cave, and two huge metal and wood doors were facing the adventurers.

The team was soon met with a humanoid fish-like creature. Although they would not discover its name, it was in fact a Sahuagin, which jumped at them and attacked before they could attempt to discuss with it. However, the creature was soon to retreat, screaming about having to protect “the temple”, and laughing at how “it” would take care of them. Hidding behind and shutting the huge wooden doors at the back of the room, the creature laughed some more as it was now safe from the adventurers, and a mechanism activated.

To the adventurers’ right-hand side, a big door slide up, and from it emerged a huge creature, covered in crab-like scale, and boasting two massive pincers. An other-worldly aberration was now facing them : the Chuul.

The adventurers fought the creature with all their might, swinging at it, landing a few arrows in between its bony exoskeletal plates, and finally burning it and slaying it.

However, the team could not rest and celebrate just yet, as they were yet to find the creature that previously attacked them. Exploring the caves, they eventually found what appeared to be the Chuul’s prison cell, littered with bones of all kinds, both from fish and land animals. On the ceiling, metal bars left a small opening, through which the Chuul’s captors probably fed it.

Through clever use of mage hand and a bit of luck, the adventurers managed to dislodge the bars, and hoist themselves up into a square room, with stones lining the walls.

Finally, after making their way through tunnels, they emerged into what appeared to be a much much larger area. A discussion in an unknown language was being echoed in the large space. The adventurers realized they had emerged on a walkway, overlooking a particular type of temple.

As the looked around, they saw that the temple, in the shape of a T, was locked in the front by the massive wood and metal door they had seen from the other side. The temple was decorated in granite and dark stones. Several frescoes depicted dragons being slain, decapitated or burnt. This was an Anti-Temple, or a temple originally used for the desecration of Asmodée, in hopes of preventing chaos and calamity to spread. These places fell out of use ages ago, but they were often sought after by those who worship dark gods.

Not having much time for archeology, the adventurers realized that three figures were arguing in the middle of the room. Two of the same fish-like humanoid, and another one, taller, and seemingly in charge : a Sahuagin Priestess.

The adventurers took advantage of their position higher up, and managed to kill the creatures without taking too many risks. As the dust settled, they also discovered that the creatures had not only held some rituals in this temple, the altar being covered in blood, but had also stockpiled food and equipment, some boxes of which were clearly marked of the seal of the ships the adventurers saw in the harbor of Chaus. Using their bag of holding, the adventurers took what they could, and then went back to look for an exit.

After some looking around, they stumbled upon a wall that seemed recently placed. Breaking it revealed stairs going up to another wall. Finally, having teared down the second wall, the team emerged in a room with very large barrels and a giant rat. As they slayed this small beast, they heard a voice upstairs and someone coming down. It was the innkeeper !

The innkeeper explained that for the longest time he could not get to his beers, as he was deathly afraid of a giant rat he had seen here. Prior to this, he had been plagued by smaller rats because of an opening in his cellar to a cave systems, and had built 2 walls to stop them from entering.

While suspicious, the team decided they would not press the innkeeper more, and headed out. It was now midday, and the team went straight to the mayor to inform him of the situation, their discoveries under the city and how they had killed the monster.

The mayor was relieved and thankful, even paying the team a small fee, 50g, for their diligent and swift service. He went out and quickly announced that the ships could once again move in and out of the harbor, if they were still floating that is.

3 - No place for heathens

As the team turned around to leave, they however noticed that an older man, dressed in full plate armor and with the crest of Lignon on his breastplate, was talking to the mayor. The mayor’s expression was one of fear as he was being questioned by the Lignon man.

A few minutes passed, and the players went back to ask the mayor what had happened. Seemingly a bit shocked by this out-of-nowhere interrogation, the mayor answered that the captain of the ship from the Lignon Papacy demanded to know every detail of the adventurers story. When the mayor mentioned the Anti-Temple, the Lignon captain stopped him, and turned back to his ship.

A few seconds later, many soldiers, in full armor and weapons, some holding sacred Alateo symbols, exited the ship. Together, they marched towards the lighthouse, as the adventurers watched them pass by.

The Ranger convinced the rest of the team that they had to go and see what they were doing. They could go back to the tavern and take a quick look.

Tracing back their steps, the adventurers found themselves back in the caves, and a few seconds ago on the upper walkways of the Anti-Temple. There, the soldiers from Lignon were gathered. Some were rolling down barrels and piling them up against the pillars of the Temple. Others were disseminating a black powder. Finally, the Lignon Captain, with a ceremonial hat on his head, was chanting and spraying the walls with what seemed to be blessed water.

The adventurers realized what was happening : the Lignon soldiers were going to blow up this temple. Not only were they too numerous for them to do anything, but the village was just above and nobody alerted them to what was going to happened.

The team rushed out of the caves and began alerting the small village to clear out of their houses, and rush to the other side of the harbor.

A few moments later, the ground shook as a massive explosion was heard. A cloud of smoke and dirt and ash obscured the village, and many houses appeared to just fall into the ground. As the dust settled, it became evident that the Lignon soldiers had just destroyed the temple, taking out a third of the village of Chaus with it.

Deciding to confront the Lignon captain, the team rushed back to the harbor. However, they could only see as the ship was picking up its anchor, and sailed away. Nobody in the harbor thought of stopping them, as they were all too busy with helping those who did not escape their houses in time.

A few hours later, the adventurers found a ship that was heading to Skjolleq. With mixed feelings, both of pride of having slain a sea-monster and of sadness at having been powerless to stop the Lignon soldiers from destroying a part of Chaus, they were now on their way to Skjolleq.

#long post #dnd #d&d #story

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hypothetical-warped-spaceti-blog · 6 years

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I’ll Keep You Safe

- I'll Keep You Safe - AO3 LINK:

Flynn pulled the edge of his blanket down, propping a pillow against the headboard before he sat against it; a pen gripped between his teeth, his hand holding his tablet with a bulky and worn journal stacked atop it.

Lucy has been writing in them to recount the history of before their traveling – since she could no longer travel she wanted (needed) the journals. Even if her memories couldn't recall what she wrote, it was soothing to her to know she preserved the original timeline, in some way, even if it was only herself that appreciated it.

He opens the wikipedia page of Ulysses S. Grant, occasionally lifting the journal and cross referencing the bullet point things that she wrote before handing it off to him. Finding that there were only minor changes in Ulysses' life.

(The time team were very quick and efficient this mission, there weren't any hiccups for once.)

Satisfied and more than a little relieved that the timeline didn't change too drastically; Flynn sets his things down on the bedside table before pulling the string on the lamp. There's a creak down the hallway as a door opens – he smirks before he grabs the pillow at his back and begins to clear space in the middle of the bed. His ears hone into the tiny footsteps as they raced down toward his room.

The doorknob twists very slowly as she cracked it open; standing in the sliver of light that broke in through the gap. Looking up at him sheepishly. Her hands twisting and folding the hem of her sleeping shirt in front of her. Chestnut hair a tangled mess of delicate waves.

“Come on,” Flynn said quietly, smiling warmly at her as he gave a pat to her spot. The words were barely out of him before she's rushing up the foot of the bed; extra cautious not to disturb her sleeping mother.

He lets out a grunt of pain when she accidentally knees him in the groin. Tiny arms winding their way around his chest; nudging her face into the crook between his shoulder and neck. An exhale of relief escaping her once she was snuggled in and situated half on him and half on the bed.

Flynn takes a moment to adjust his hold on her; the faint scent of strawberry shampoo still lingered in the hair that tickled his nose. His palm moved up and down the span of her back, rubbing in soothing circles.

“You're okay.” he cooed, angling his head to kiss the side of hers.

They stay frozen like this for several minutes. When her body started trembling ever so slightly; it took a while for him to realize she was silently crying. But when he does, Flynn pulls away from her tight hold as a growing wetness puddled on his skin. “Hey,” He said while craning his neck uneasily trying to catch a glimpse of her face. “What do I always tell you before bed each night?”

The back of his finger skims down her cheek when she lifts away from his neck, erasing the tracks of her fallen tears. She sniffles a few times; unwrapping her arms and then placing a palm flat at the center of his chest, pushing upward until she was just slightly above his eyesight, holding his soft gaze.

“That you'll never let anything happen to me.” Alice's quivering voice causes his heart to cave in upon itself. Her head drooping down, long hair moving forward to conceal her face- but Flynn saw the deep frown that settled its way onto her and it broke his heart all the more.

Flynn hooks a finger under her chin, drawing her head back up, “Nothing will ever happen to you.” he vowed sternly.

In moments like this, when Alice was terrified of the monsters that creeped in the night. He's transported back to his very last night with his other daughter, and he could almost feel the hard plastic of the water gun in his hands; his tongue itching with empty promises of protection not unlike the ones he gives her. “I promise.” he rasps, knowing full well that while goblins weren't a threat to his kids, Rittenhouse was still very actively trying to hurt them. And he'd be damned if he let them steal one more child from him.

She pouts while nodding her head. “Can I stay daddy?”

This utter clone of her mother (with a few personality traits inherited from him that he just knew were going to cause him trouble later in life. It was already causing him trouble now...). Knew full well that he'd never say no to her. She was hardly even approaching six and was already too smart for her own good.

He could just envision her curled under her blanket fighting off sleep. Tossing and turning in the dark as she waited out her mother. Alice had so much patience, and she knew that Lucy was less likely to cave into her.

“Of course you can.”

“Good,” Alice slips away from him entirely, taking her spot in the center of the bed, highly pleased with herself. “I know you checked under the bed, and all the closets, but Niko said monsters are smart, but goblins are way smarter... and they're not afraid of parents, they eat parents.” She rambles. Letting out an overly dramatic shudder that shakes the bed before twisting onto her side, looking up at him with big brown doe-eyes.

The Labyrinth was Nikola's favorite movie at Alice's age; but perhaps the goblins were a little much for her sprightly imagination. Something told him he should have asked Jiya not to let her watch it on the night she babysat, but the kids and Jiya were just so excited. And Lucy didn't seem all that opposed to it either, so he quieted his thoughts.

Flynn struggles to withhold a laugh as he lays on his side, sliding off his pillow so he was a little more level with her.

“It's not funny.” Alice says a little too loudly.

He brings a finger up to his lips with a muted chuckle.

“Sorry,” She mumbles dejectedly. “But, it's not funny. Stop smiling...” she warns, narrowing her eyes at him and sticking her pointer finger atop his lips, bringing up her thumb, trying to pinch them closed.

Flynn helps her by pressing them together, ridding the smirk from his face. “I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you, it's your brother that I find amusing.” he whispered, reaching out to brush the sticky hair off her face and neck.

“Nik's not funny either.”

“You know, we can scare them away so they never come back. I bet aunt Jiya and uncle Rufus have something-” Flynn suggests after a beat of silence.

“Impossible.” Alice scoffs, cutting him off.

When Alice was determined to win an argument she resembled him. He often wondered how his own mother felt when he'd shoot this very same look at her. All scrunched eyebrows and hardened glares, the sheer determination of not being wrong.

How did she keep a straight face? How did she find the strength to say no?

There were so many details he has unwillingly lost about Iris over the years. The sound of her giggles when he'd come home and surprise her. He couldn't remember the made up songs they used to sing during bath time. However, he did know that he never had this problem with her. Her moments of stubbornness were rare and fleeting, and she wasn't at all this argumentative. She had Lorena's gentle temperament. Not an ounce of him in her besides the color of her eyes and his love of horses.

Iris was delicate, a definition of innocence. A very stark contrast to his children now. With Iris, it was sunshine and castles in the sand on weekends. Sneaking ice cream and cartoons before dinner when Lorena was working late-

The tiny things a person never really takes for granted, and hardly recognizes the normalcy of, until everything changes.

His children were never given the opportunity to have the childhood she had. And Iris was never exposed to the life they lived now. She didn't know how to throw a proper punch or kick someone. Never had to memorize an escape protocol – didn't grow up seeing her family carry guns or come home in different period clothing covered in blood. It was deeply unfortunate that the cost of their innocence was knowing just how dangerous their life actually was.

Lucy and Flynn tried desperately to separate the kids from the worse of it, though their children were far too intelligent, and by the time they could understand lying, they understood mom and dad didn't have regular jobs; and the weren't playing pretend. Understood that there was a more complicated reason they weren't in schools or outside playing like kids on television.

Nikola was almost nine the first time Flynn took him out of the safe house to talk to him about gun safety. He's ten now, with the ability to assemble and disassemble a gun, he could shoot and aim with impressive accuracy. Flynn wished that his ten year old son didn't know how to, that instead of an actual weapon skill – Niko should have had foam bullets and wooden stick horses, like other boys had at his age.

They certainly weren't raising tiny desensitized time bandit soldiers. His children remained sanguine and moral. However, if Nikola had to protect his sister, if his parents weren't around; as awful and terrifying a situation like that may be; it was necessary that he could.

Everything wasn't all grim though; at times there were even moments when everyone, including the time team, forgot they were still fighting in a war.

When there were lulls in their battles they had plenty of time to believe the delusion of a regular family. Jiya and Rufus had vintage movie and game nights. Wyatt and Jessica would host campouts indoors once a month; and all of their children would gather under sheets asking to hear stories from their past travels.

Jiya and Rufus' twin sons loved hearing about the time their mom saved the team from only a Star Wars reference. Whereas Nikola and Wyatt's son preferred the tales of all the historical figures uncle Flynn has punched (Thomas Edison always got a laugh) – Alice who was not a fan of the scary stuff or the violence only wanted the stories about the medieval castles, princesses, and knights. Those were also Flynn's favorite.

Days like that, when it was quiet and simple. It was so easy to lose track of time and place.

The fact that they had these stolen moments of a semi-normal life was a gift.

Flynn only hoped that one day – this will all be some far off memory, that perhaps all their future grandchildren could have the lives their kids deserved and were denied of.

Alice says something while touching his forearm and it's enough to stray him away from his thoughts. Not enough to comprehend what was said, but he was thankful for it nonetheless. Flynn quickly diverts the conversation, hoping that she doesn't notice that he wasn't paying attention.

“Tell me something, how come they don't want to take Niko?” Flynn questions, observing her eyelids growing heavier the longer his fingers dusted over her upper arm; tracing random patterns over her skin. Something she found soothing ever since she was a toddler.

“I- I don't know.” Alice offers meagerly, snuggling deeper into the pillow, shifting a little closer to him. “Do you think they'll want the new baby? When he comes... do you think they'll take him like they took Toby?”

“It's only a movie sweetheart.”

Her eyes open dreamily to his. “You travel through time, you're telling me the monsters in movies are pretend?”

Dear God...

“Fair point.” He waits until her eyes resealed before he smiles, his pride becoming overwhelming.

“I love you.” Alice ushers out through a yawn. Lifting her arm blindly and taking his hand, wrapping her little fingers around his. Three words and the smallest of hands had the ability to fill his eyes with tears instantaneously.

“I love you more.” Flynn said back, leaning forward so he could lay a kiss to the center of her forehead. “Get some sleep, there won't be any midnight snacks for the goblins tonight. Dad's on guard.”

“You're really not funny.” One eye cracks open, a hint of a grin toying at her lips.

Flynn holds her hand even after she drifted off to sleep. The fear that tensed her muscles had long since subsided. Her lips parted as lowly emitted snores started to escape her. He was too wrapped up in Alice to notice that Lucy woke up. Surprised to see her move and then her voice breaking through the quiet. “You're in so much trouble.” Lucy teased in an almost sing-song way, the baby bump making the turn over to face them awkward, when her eyes drop to their still joined hands she laughs. “So. Much. Trouble.”

“What are you going to do whenever she starts dating?”

“You think I am going to let her date?” Flynn sighs.

“Oh god, what will you do when her heart is broken?” Lucy ponders and Flynn isn't completely sure if he was truly meant to indulge her with an answer, or if she was just lost in the thought and speaking aloud.

“I'll kill them.” He jokes.

Lucy shakes her head, rubbing a hand over her belly. “I know I wanted another girl, but perhaps another son was a blessing- because if you had to juggle one more daughter I think you'd go even more grey than you already are.”

She reaches forward and grips his shoulder, giving it a squeeze before dropping her hand and petting down Alice's hair. “You have to talk with Niko, he only listens to you. I know that it's hard Garcia, but she needs to be comfortable in her own room. You're both making this transition very difficult.”

“It's physically impossible for me to say no to her.” Flynn shifts from looking at Lucy back down to Alice, her chest rising and falling evenly. “When she looks at me with those eyes, and that quivering voice- Lucy it cuts through me.”

Lucy grips the center of the blanket and pulls it to fit over their daughter. “If you make this a habit, she'll only become more dependent on your presence when she sleeps.” She chides gently.

“What's so wrong with her being dependent on me?” Flynn whispered under his breath dispiritedly.

“Do you really want a six year old in our bed each night?”

She was growing at an alarming rate. Only slightly older than the age he lost Iris. It's not like he doesn't notice how overbearing his protection extended – he knows, he's over protective of both his children. Flynn just couldn't control it. There was still an ever-present fear that something could and will go wrong, that he would wake up one day and find himself drowning in their blood.

Or worse – that they never existed at all. That this corner of happiness Lucy and Flynn carved out for themselves could just vanish (that it was something completely out of their own control).

Every time he enters the Lifeboat there's an ache in his chest. A fearfulness that when they return all he'll have are the stories Lucy wrote about them in her journals – and memories that will fail him in time.

Lucy cups his cheek and breaks him out of his personal disarray, her face was soft with understanding, the pad of her thumb sweeping over his cheekbone. He leans into her palm, kissing her wrist. In the amber light still falling inside from the ajar door he can just make out the wetness that glistens in her eyes.

“I'll have a talk with Niko in the morning.” Flynn speaks, her fingers slipping into his hair and threading through. He sighs contently when she scratches lightly at the base of his neck. “And I will talk with Jiya, we can build her some kind of monster be gone – something that will give her that feeling of safety.”

“Garcia-” His name falls from her lips almost inaudibly. Those pesky tears she withheld now spilling over. She starts to lean over the child between them, her stomach nudging Alice in the back.

Flynn moves to meet her in the middle, furrowing his brows – mouth opening to speak but Lucy shushes him. She licks over her bottom lip before pulling him toward her. Their mouths meet languidly. In the way their morning kisses usually were.

Even after all the kisses they've shared throughout the years, Lucy still left him breathless and shaken. When she pulls away their foreheads rest against each other.

She swallows around the lump that forms in her throat, “You're her safety. I never want you to replace that... we'll figure something out. Maybe she can move back in with Nik, for a little bit.”

Flynn hums. “He might actually enjoy that. I think he secretly hates sleeping alone in this place too.”

“This place, just like the others, is only temporary, in a few months we'll be out of here.”

She kisses him chastely, “Give me your hand.” He obliges, closing his eyes as she positioned it over the growing swell of her stomach. Feeling the powerful kicks below the surface. “We have a trouble maker in here. He never wants to sleep and I don't know if I told you, but he's now using morse code in his kicks. Mmm- are you reading, waffles?”

Flynn laughs, “Midnight waffles... sounds good to me.”

A solid kick lands right at the center of Flynn’s palm. “I think he's trying to say that we're happy you're home.”

“You might not be once you read over what we did to Ulysses.” Flynn teased.

“Garcia what happened-”

“-I'm only kidding, everything is fine.”

“Ally's right. You're not funny...” She smirked. “Let’s go wise guy. You promised us waffles and he’s getting impatient.”

#garcy #garcy ff #flynn x lucy #future baby / kid fic

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secretadventuresociety · 3 years

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Episode 31 Recap

Get hype, SASholes! I’m Bren, resident SAStorian and manic goblin dream girl. Welcome to Episode 31: A Long Day’s End.

A Challenger Approaches!

With Mother (hopefully) vanquished and Kerti’s whereabouts unknown, our heroes hear fleeting whispers of ‘they’re coming, she’s coming’ whistling in the icy wind flowing through the cave. Sharing a Let’s-Put-A-Pin-In-That glance, the trio check in with each other because-- lest we forget-- they have just survived a run-in with an evil being who was masquerading as Kü’s mom. Sorry, did I say run-in? I meant battle for their lives. Anywho! They all seem to be physically unscathed, though that emotional trauma will last forever. IYKYK. Kü, of course, is the most affected, though his worries go straight to Kess, who Mother had just tried to strangle and not in the sexy way. Pearce attempts to make light of the situation by telling Kü it couldn’t have been too bad because Kess didn’t black out and see her friend, Ashe.

Which, speaking OF ash, the group starts smelling smoke. All of their combined hackles raise-- each probably thinking of a different entity. They really do be running into a lot of fire-related individuals, so this makes sense. When they actually SEE physical evidence of smoke trailing from further in the tunnel, they realize they might not be alone in this cave. Pearce elects Kü to lead them to the source, stating that he has darkvision and that will be to their tactical advantage. I mean, true, but this is also the helmetless kobold who just lost his ‘mother’ for the second time. I’m begging SOMEONE to give him a break. God, Lathander, DM, anyone?? As they go deeper, however, thin sheets of ice on the ceiling seem to be letting blue-tinted morning sunlight in. This literally lightens the mood until they come to a ledge-- one set up with a VERY recent campsite.

The party can tell right away that this is where the smoke has originated from, and looking closer, they spot a figure. A DANCING figure. What appears to be a four foot tall, staff wielding, gymnast built, olive skinned, winged individual is currently stirring an alluring pot of food while having the best time of his life. Understandably afraid, Kü attempts to summon his Blight Bow-- and nothing happens. Instead, he and Pearce decide to ambush the stranger, one going to the left of him and the other going right. Kü is spotted, and in defense, he grabs a broken liquor bottle (that he has been holding onto since the BEGINNING of this campaign, y’all), and chucks it at the head of his presumed assailant. In this instant, everyone braces for a fight, INCLUDING our guest star, Pongu, played by the fantastic Sonny-- who fans may recognize from the Hollaback Charity&D stream!

The Three Mardostateers

Kess instinctively heals herself as she notices her companions go into a fighting stance; having stayed away from the ledge. She was sure the humanoid meant no harm, but it’s hard to preach benefit of the doubt with a hotheaded gunslinger and a manipulated kobold. Instead of retaliating, Pongu tries to diffuse the situation. He laughs off the projectile Kü hurled and tells the group that they didn’t have to throw things if they wanted food; he has plenty to share. It’s then that the exhausted and hungry group smells the bounty for the first time. It is heavy with spices and looks like some sort of chunky soup. As we all know, food is the way to the heart, and apparently to the trust bone, too. Kess joins our apprehensive duo and the trauma of the past two days comes tumbling out of them.

Pongu listens intently, and when they’re done, calls over a beautiful, starry owl (named Nalani) over to him. Kü startles, having instant predator flashbacks. With a smile, the fairy tells his companion that this group needs some extra love, to which the creature replies (only to Pongu himself) that they both have a lot to give. Pongu notices Kü’s changed attitude and requests that the owl take some time away from camp to reform himself into something less intimidating, like a cat. The kobold relaxes as the animal leaves, and Kess changes the subject. She begins to question Pongu about his presence in the cave-- and mentions that she thought it belonged to someone she knew. Pongu assures her that he is just passing through, and had chosen the cave to take respite in.

The fairy goes on to explain that he is from the Feywild, and that he has been searching all over-- sailing the seas-- and winding up on the material plane for the ingredients for a perfect fey wedding cake. He used to be an adventurer long ago-- now at an estimated 300+ years of age-- but now is a professional chef and ‘fixer of things’. This draws Kü’s interest, and he wonders aloud if Pongu might be able to repair his mother’s skulll-- but quickly has this hope dashed when Pongu asks if the kobold has all of the pieces. Pearce, feeling Kü’s disappointment, offers to go back and see if there’s anything left, but is denied. Having gotten Pongu’s life story, the group feels the need to share as well. They first attempt to lie (except for Kess) and say their names are Uk and Ferdinand [I will let you guys which one is which] and that they are all three from Mardosta. The truth quickly comes out, however, and Pongu takes it in stride, excitedly asking if Kess (the true Mardostan native) can get him rare spices from the area.

A Lesson in Bonding

Taking a moment for herself, Kess separates from the group and goes to the neighboring hot spring. She discards some of her clothing and jumps in-- drifting to the bottom. Once she reaches the soil there, the druid draws on her inner power and grows a flower. It is still black with a white iris, but the floret adapts to its watery surroundings-- taking on an aquatic formation. Kess takes no time to marvel at it, instead using the rest of her depleting energy to focus on the plant and attempts to contact Ashe. After a bit, she realizes there isn’t going to be a response. So, the changeling flips off the bloom and pushes herself to the surface, dressing once more and cursing under her breath.

In Kess’ absence, Pearce and Kü warn Pongu about Skugamor and give him a head’s up about Kerti (who we really haven’t gotten to know yet). The gunslinger sighs and half-heartedly complains that everyone has voices in their heads except for him. The fairy listens gratefully while taking out a Santa-Claus-worthy bag of toys to keep his hands busy. He explains that he likes to fix up old toys and give them new homes-- and Kü asks if he has a paddleball related plaything. Pongu brightly hands him a Bilboque (I really didn’t want to write cup-and-ball. But you guys made me anyway. Good job) and takes to it instantly.

Sensing how worn out the adventurers are, Pongu casts Tiny Hut, creating a dome with a starry ceiling and a light scent of flowers swirling through the air. Pearce sees Kess step into the space and he greets her, hugging her to him as she spirals in a panic attack. He tells her that everything is going to be okay, and that he feels that is true because he has not been this comfortable anywhere but Mardosta. The contact soothes the changeling, and she steps back from Pearce and truly looks at him for the first time after their ordeal. Her eyes widen at the state of his hair; and the gunslinger grabs his things to run to the hot spring himself to shower. Pongu stops him, saying that he thinks he could fix the dirty, snow-wet mess, and Pearce relents. The fairy uses Shape Water as a kind of gel to mold the unruly locks-- and when Kess lets Pearce check it in the shine of her canteen, the gunslinger huffs off; happy with his look but pissed that he has nothing to be pissed about.

Look at the Stars

Using his misplaced anger as motivation, Pearce begins to craft more bullets for Iris from the components he purchased at the Night Market. He ends up making fifteen functional bullets, only wasting one defective try at the beginning of the process. The gunslinger thinks of his father and how Pearce used to watch him go through the same activity, and the fire of his rage is stoked by the realization that he actually learned something from the deadbeat. What was it that Smash Mouth said? When the hits start coming they don’t stop coming? Whatever it was, I’m THERE in this DnD stream. Someone make them stop.

As Pearce is artificing the daddy issues away, Kü tries to bring his Blight Bow out one more time. When it still doesn’t happen, the kobold admits to Kess that he has Good News and Bad News. The good news is that he believes Mother to be truly gone, and the bad news is that this means that his powers seem to be gone. Kess reassures him that they’ll figure things out; and Kü distracts himself by catching Pongu up on their exploits so far-- from Evercrest’s dying king to the vampires of New Hexton. The kobold then switches gears and asks the fairy about his parents-- with whom Pongu seems to have a semi-okay relationship. Kü tells him that he’s just trying to feel out where his trauma is-- and that he wants him to be as broken as he is. Big ouch.

Kess takes over at that point, trying to explain LifeWell water to their new friend. A combination of exhaustion and frustration overwhelms her in the middle of it, however, so she excuses herself to sleep it off. She ends up under a constellation of a scorpion, and Pongu suggests to Pearce that he choose one that meant something to him to watch over him as he slept. The gunslinger curls up underneath an arrow (yes, weapons are soothing, just ask my barbarian) and Kü doesn’t even bother looking up-- as soon as his head hits the floor, he drifts off into a deep rest. Pongu watches over them for the four hours they stay unconscious, making them a special (giving them ingame boosts!) bready treat. When they wake up, Kess eats hers and Pearce tosses Kü his-- who catches it deftly in his waiting maw. They take in Pongu now making pancakes for the group, and realize they have some decisions to make.

Case Closed

After throwing out their veritable to-do list, Pearce bangs the butt of his gun against the cave floor, commanding the attention of the other three speakers. He makes an executive decision that they should all go check on the Shadowmore family. They have no idea if they are still safe from Skugamor, and Kess needs to speak with them before they either stay for the Mardosta ball or move on to their next task. The Nobodies look toward Pongu, gauging his interest in joining them for a time. The fairy packs up the leftover food from the night before-- leaving a note that anyone who comes by it is welcome to it-- and agrees to travel with the trio. Kess warns Kü before she shifts back into her owl form, which turns out to be large enough to carry her humanoid companions.

They make a long, cold flight back-- and all seems quiet at the Shadowmore manor. The group makes their way to the fourth floor (you remember, the PARENT wing) and finds it empty. Searching frantically, they finally see them standing in the greenhouse, marvelling over Kess’ new and hydraulic flower. Norse turns around and exclaims her thankfulness for her daughter’s safety, counting the number of still-alive-friends with her, and greets the sunny newcomer. OMG. Did you see what I did there? Sunny cause Pongu is a literal ray of light but also-- Sonny?? His player?! That was COMPLETELY UNINTENTIONAL! WITNESS ME! Fine. I digress. The party catches the elder Shadowmores up to speed just before Brienne, our lovely tabaxi detective, strides into the greenhouse. Pongu introduces himself as Brienne looks over him curiously, and the investigator sighs, grateful that she doesn’t have to question yet another for Xarus’ murder. Hearing of this foul play for the first time, the fairy looks over to his new friends and says, “There’s a lot of death around you three, huh?”

The Nobodies stammer in unison, attempting to laugh off this outburst. Brienne pays it no mind, pushing forward to ask to speak with the group. She tells them that Xarus was found with poison in his system, and had a snapped neck-- probably from strangulation. The tabaxi had spoken with onlookers at the Underfrost as well as the cooking staff at the Shadowmore estate, who both told her that they experienced a similar phenomenon with shadow magic. It’s then that they come clean, handing the detective the page on Skugamor (which Brienne RIGHTFULLY chides Kess for stealing) and Kü recounts his almost-lifelong-ordeal under her influence. With a small, conspiratorial smile-- Brienne concludes that Xarus’ death must have been a suicide. She tells the group that if they did not take care of Skugamor that she would be unable to protect them-- but if the entity was really and truly gone, she was more than happy to close the case. She bids them farewell, and as they all let loose a breath they didn’t know they were holding (hello, YA roots) and Pongu smiles widely at them. He professes that he will be there for this courageous party until they no longer need him.

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TL;DR

Give a BIG SAShole welcome to Pongu and Sonny! You can find him on Twitter: @SonnyPlays and tell him Bren sent ya!

Wait, where’s my starry owlcat!? How do you pspspspsps a fey being?!

Things are looking up for the Nobodies. Be a shame if something happened...

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Don’t Pearce your pants in anticipation, but you can catch the next session over at twitch.tv/lochness on September 22nd at 7:30CST/8:30EST! If you’d like to watch THIS episode, follow the link below:

https://youtu.be/pXQxmi9dGbg

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ciathyzareposts · 4 years

Text

Game 367: Taskmaker (1989)

This is a pretty morbid way to organize your “to do” items.

TaskMaker

United States

Storm Impact (developer); XOR (publisher)

Released 1989 for the Macintosh Remade and re-released as shareware in 1993

Date Started: 15 May 2020

TaskMaker is a slick little game, probably the best I’ve played so far on the Macintosh. It uses the platform’s strengths in graphic detail and sound but offers a fuller RPG experience than most Mac games of the era. While it has that inescapable “cutesy” look of most Mac games, it’s relatively long and hard, and it has enough good, new ideas to break out of the “Ultima clone” status that you might otherwise assign it at first glance.

It’s typical of a Mac game to offer menu options for movement. At least this isn’t the only way to move.

We owe reader LanHawk yet another appreciation pin for tracking this down, in this case writing to the original developer for the files. Because almost everything written about the game is about the 1993 version, being able to cover the original is a nice coup. I’ll have more on the development and the two versions on a subsequent entry; I’ll probably take a run through the 1993 version while I’m covering the game rather than saving it for 1993.

The backstory is relatively short: The land was once at peace, under the direction of a wise king. When the king died, the “governing body split into three confrontational factions.” The main character is an adventurer who remembers the way things used to be. He decides to restore order by becoming Master of the Land, but lacking experience and guidance, he seeks out the TaskMaker, an advisor of the former king.

The TaskMaker introduces himself.

Character creation is a process of selecting a name, then selecting five personal attributes from a list of 20. Your selections calibrate your maximum totals for seven attributes: food, health, spirit, strength, agility, intellect, and stamina. Current totals for these attributes are represented with a bar, and they deplete as you walk around the kingdom and fight. You find various potions and objects to restore lost attributes. Most important are those that restore health, because it depletes fastest in combat, and food, because everything else can be restored with rest.

Creating a character. I imagined this one something of a bard.

The game world is a relatively small 100 x 100, dotted with castles, dungeons, towns, and caves. The TaskMaker lives in a castle to the center-east of the land, and the basic setup is that you go to him, he gives you a quest, you go out into the world to find and complete the quest, and you return to the TaskMaker for a reward and the next quest. Quests take place in towns or dungeons. The game doesn’t make a lot of distinction between dangerous areas and safe ones, as dangerous monsters can appear in towns or castles, including the TaskMaker’s, and NPCs can appear in dungeons.

The game opening has you sailing to the TaskMaker’s shores. Too bad you don’t get to keep the boat.

The equipment system is pretty advanced, offering slots for helmets, armor, cloaks, amulets, belts, gauntlets, bracers, boots, rings on both hands, and an item in each hand–either a weapon and shield, a two-handed weapon, or dual-wielding two weapons (I found the latter to be much better). No matter how much money you make, the shops (which only show you items you can afford) always seem to have a better item available.

Buying items in the shop.

Choosing between two helms.

Monsters are a mix of traditional (goblins, orcs, kobolds) and somewhat original, although most of the original ones are also kind of silly, like happy faces and evil computers. I haven’t met any so far with much in the way of special attacks or defenses. None of them seem capable of magic or attacks at range, for instance. They’re simply differentiated by how many hit points they can whack away in a single combat round.

The “Evil Mac” is a goofy enemy.

Combat is of the early Ultima type, where you hit (F)ight and hit the creature in front of you, although it has a little more complexity with spells and usable items. Combats are quite tough, even well into the game. For the first few hours, I had to repeatedly use what we might call “exit-scumming,” by which I would lead an enemy to the exit of an area, fight as long as possible, retreat to the outer area, rest, and re-enter to continue fighting. This is made possible partly by your one advantage: you can carry a huge amount of equipment–more than 60 items. That’s enough food, potions, or whatever to outlast any enemy. But I occasionally found myself in impossible situations where enemies would appear both outside and inside at the same time.

Battling some goblins on a bridge.

This is where we get into another of the oddities of the game: when you die, you don’t die permanently; you go to Hell. You can escape Hell by fighting your way through demons and solving a maze (if you die in Hell, you just reappear in Hell), but you then have to go find your non-equipped equipment back on the surface. You also lose your gold in the process.

Wandering through Hell’s maze.

This system unfortunately introduces a weird way to cheat. The game tracks the world state independently from the character state. This theoretically allows you to have multiple characters active at once, although I don’t know how this works with the TaskMaker. Thus, if you die and reload instead of escaping from Hell, you’ll still find a pile of equipment where your character last “died.” You could use this to infinitely replicate useful objects like potions or expensive objects that you can sell at the store. I didn’t deliberately cheat this way, but it’s annoying and hard to get out of Hell, and there were times that I reloaded and then picked up some of my old, duplicated items if I happened to come across them. To avoid temptation, I’ve been trying to reload before I die in times when death seems inevitable.

The separation of character from world means that you can also take advantage of commands to reset a particular map or the entire game world, keeping your character as-is. It’s a good option if you want to clear the same dungeon twice, finding double the treasure and experience.

Little piles of stuff mark the location of previous deaths.

The controls are quite good, offering keyboard backups to all of the menu commands. Spells are cast with SHIFT and the first letter of the spell. There’s an “Invoke” spell that lets you type in your own spells that you might find during the game, but it apparently also a way for the developer to introduce cheat codes and interface changes. I’ve been slow to explore spells; the one I’ve used the most is the “Strike” spell which casts a bolt at enemies. I tend to use it on fleeing enemies so I don’t have to chase them.

Sound is also quite well-done. Much of it uses spoken voice recordings. (In fact, one voice they used, a deep bass, sounds eerily like my own.) When you first start the game, the voice says, “TaskMaker.” A different one says, “What is it?” when you use the (I)dentify commands. There are screams for deaths on both sides and solid attack and spellcasting effects.

The TaskMaker’s first task was to retrieve a package he left in Skysail Village. It was in an area of the village amidst a horde of monsters and required me to figure out a switch puzzle. The game is fond of puzzles involving doorways blocked by electric forcefields for which you have to find a switch to deactivate. When I returned the package, he rewarded me with five “Instant Vacation” scrolls, invaluable items that replenish all of your meters.

His second task was to retrieve a chessboard in his own castle. It was in an area north of the bar. Getting it involved fighting a few monsters, but it was otherwise pretty easy. He gave me a double-bladed sword.

My reward for the second quest.

For Task 3, he wanted me to travel to some silver mines, where he owns a share, and kill some conspirators who had taken over the mines, bringing him back a golden chalice as proof. This was a tough mission; the mines were full of numerous tough monsters, but also some nice treasure rewards. By the time it was done, I had mostly magic gear and a magic sword in each hand. The TaskMaker’s reward was a suit of platemail, a huge armor upgrade from the leather I was wearing before.

Battling a “war wizard” in the silver mine.

I’m still working on Task 4, which is to find an unknown magic item in the “sands of Porta.” He indicated he doesn’t know where the item is buried, so I might be “in for a lot of digging.”

The TaskMaker gives the fourth mission.

As you quest, you amass experience and gain levels (I’m on Level 7 now) and your attributes increase. I guess they must increase proportionally to the skills you actually use because my spirit and intellect (which governs magic) have barely gone up but my strength, agility, and stamina are almost at maximum. Health and maximum food didn’t budge for a while but increased a bit during the last few hours.

Other features of the game:

The game tracks your karma based on how many good, neutral, and evil creatures you’ve slain and other acts like stealing from shops and houses in town.

Checking out my personal statistics. I’m “basically good.”

There’s also a score. It increases every time you solve a quest or kill a creature and slowly decreases as you move around in between those moments. High scores are tracked on a scoreboard.

There’s an “identify” command that will tell you what’s in front of you. An “action” command will use it if it’s usable.

A “get info” command tells you a bit about the history of whatever area you’re in.

The TaskMaker’s castle.

The game has its own “runic alphabet” used for shop and city signs. It’s not translated in the game manual, so I suppose you have to figure it out by noting the runes in places where you can guess what they’re saying. I haven’t been bothering with them, but I wonder if I’m missing hints and clues because of it.

As I’m in Skysail, I’m guessing those runes say “SKYSAIL.”

NPCs aren’t terribly valuable in this game unless you bribe them by giving them things. Even then, they rarely tell you anything you need to know.

The game pokes fun at Lord British. I didn’t realize his adoption of a more executive role was well known in 1989.

If you drink alcohol, you start to go the wrong direction when moving. I think Ultima introduced this, but I don’t remember what edition. IV, probably.

There’s a fun system where you can find valuable objects like gold bars and necklaces and “cash them in” at ATMs. It feels like ATMs were pretty new in 1989. I think my Maine hometown may have only gotten one that year.

Finding an ATM in a dungeon. This dungeon happens to be full of treasure, so it was a relief to find it.

There’s a set of miscellaneous game options I’ve never seen in any other place. I feel like every game could benefit from these. I don’t know what “wandering monsters” does, though. Un-checking it doesn’t seem to stop them from appearing.

Setting various game preferences.

A shop in the castle offers an invisibility cloak. If you put it on, the shop will no longer transact with you because you’re invisible.

Come on! You’re the one who sold it to me!

I rather enjoy this basic approach: offer an open game world with a variety of small missions. You don’t have to follow the TaskMaker’s quests exclusively; nothing stops you from simply exploring the towns and dungeons in a random order, or even from solving some of the quests before the TaskMaker even gives them to you. We’ve seen this approach before, going all the way back to Akalabeth, but this is perhaps the first game to use it with such a variety of lengths, difficulties, and objectives.

But while I’m having fun, it’s tempered by an inability to ever feel like I’m getting more powerful no matter how much my statistics and inventory increase. Every time I think I’m doing well, some new enemy suddenly pops up in a familiar location and kicks my butt. Frankly, if it hadn’t been for the extra Instant Vacations I’ve been able to loot from locations where I’ve died, I’m not sure I would have been able to make it this far. I think eventually a cycle of starvation and poverty would have put me in a permanent downward spiral. I’ve watched videos of the remake, and it looks like the developers took the edge off the difficulty level between the two, although the remake still seems challenging.

The number of entries will be determined by the number of tasks, I guess. Ten would be just about perfect. I suspect the TaskMaker is going to turn out to be evil based on the things he’s having me do and how he reacts if I happen to pop by with a task unfinished.

Time so far: 6 hours.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/game-367-taskmaker-1989/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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nerdarchy-blog · 4 years

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In my last piece I wrote about one of the modules I wrote back in the Mesozoic era. “After all our 12 year old minds, while imaginative, couldn’t spin a coherent narrative. I still have a dungeon I wrote back then called Torth. It’s… um… well, the Plan 9 of modules. Made no sense.” Within hours, the stalwart and suffering editor sent to me “I am curious about Torth! Although my opinion of Plan 9 is colored by Ed Wood, which I’ve seen several more times than the actual Plan 9 haha.” [NERDITOR’S NOTE: That’s me!] However, by that point the semester was concluding, work was piling up, and I couldn’t do it. Now the semester is done (I earned 2 A’s and an A-) and here I am sitting on the couch writing about something I wrote some 40 plus years ago. Get off my lawn.

A mockup from the author for Torth: Castle of Evil. Pretty cool if you ask me! Check out the gallery at the end of the post for the creator’s original cover, maps and notes. [Art by Erol Otus]

Torth: Castle of Evil

I started this while I was still the Dungeon Master for my first module, B1: In Search of the Unknown. For those who don’t know this module it was the first Basic Box Set module even before B2: Keep on the Borderlands. While B2 had all the monsters filled in, B1 didn’t. What the writers did for this one was they’d describe the room and leave space for the DM to include Monster then Treasure. So this kid got to enter whatever monster they wished whether they made sense or not. In one room would be a couple of goblins while the next room over (a 20 ft. x 20 ft. no less) would have a red dragon. My player (the Dave I mentioned last column) didn’t care. Kick open the door, kill the monster, collect the treasure (never mind how much people could actually carry), do whatever was in the room (ooh, pools!) then repeat. Yes, that was Quasqueton, stronghold of Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown!

I added a third level to Q, which featured an underground lake with an island on which were the barracks for all the off-duty monsters. There was a bugbear barracks, a room for vampires…you get the idea. That was me trying to figure out a reason for the monster placement.

After that it was Dave’s turn to DM and I played my first character, Apollo. We played almost every night. During study halls or after going home after gaming I started writing what I thought would be my magnum opus! It needed a name. One afternoon when we weren’t playing the Monkees were on TV. One of them was Peter Tork. I changed the name a little and so the module had a name: TORTH!

I started by drawing one third a map, wrote about the rooms, then more map and so on. Oh, this was great stuff! Killer! No character could possibly survive! Plot? What’s that? Dave also wrote some of the dungeon and I asked people who had no idea about the game for trap ideas as well. Torth eventually had three levels, two of which had giant underground lakes (one on top of the other??) with 200 total rooms and was finished on June 10, 1980. I even bought a report folder for it to make it more official and traced the umber hulk picture for the cover. I made the umber hulk the proper colors even though some of the umber hulks appearing in the module are orange. Don’t ask — I’m already embarrassed enough.

Eventually Dave and I learned that a new kid in the school, I’ll call him Rodney, also played D&D! Well, he wanted to learn anyway. He was and still is a goof ball and was enthusiastic about playing. As Dave and I were now experts at the game…hey stop laughing! Ahem, experts at the game, we would teach him. And where would he learn? TORTH!

You can see this train wreck coming, can’t you?

Not being one to make things easy on himself, and with the new AD&D Player’s Handbook in hand he decided to create a 1st level half-elf fighter/cleric named Pantalian. I, with the brand spanking new Monster Manual, was determined to try all of these new monsters.

The adventurers needed a reason, no matter how flimsy, to enter this dungeon. I reproduce it here, word for word, misspellings and all. On the word for word stuff I’ll insert my comments in italics. Because.

CONTENT WARNING — rape

****************************************************** Many years ago, when orcs ruled the countryside, a magic user came. He enslaved the orc tribe the green foot and made them build him a castle. The orcs were also forced to build new homes for poor people of the towns they destroyed. The castle was dug deep into the cliff side of a mountain. (So… it was a cave? A castle?)

This good magic user, ruled the countryside fairly the townspeople loved him dearly.

Many a cleric and Magic user came to him to study and for advise.

Soon Torth was getting old, and said he needed an heir. He adopted a boy by the name of Rascen. A few years later, the old wizard died, and left everything to Rascen.

Rascen, like his stepfather, was a good man. He trained to be a druid. (As one who lives in a fancy cave castle does.)

One day while holding the passover feast, the holy grail appeared. This brought pride to Rascen and his people. (Ummm. Yeah.)

While holding Court a beautiful girl came and stated a powerful knight was disturbing her. Her name was Rachel. Rascen himself slew the knight, and fell in love. (Fell in love with whom? The knight?) Soon Rascen asked Rachael to be his wife. She consented.

A few years, later a son was born. They named him Carnan. He grew up to be a magic-user after his parents died. But Carnan was evil. Carnan ruled harshly until one night, the castle mysteriously caught fire. He was said to be killed, along with other evil clerics and magic users. (Ok, the cave castle caught fire. HOW???)

The townspeople lived in harmony. A knight named Maskoth was appointed mayor. He ruled fairly.

One night, Maskoth disappeared, only to be found the next day, totally insane. He was babbling something about Liches or other evil. He died a few years later of mummy rot disese. This was the first evil. (ooh — scary!)

A sage said there would be six evils on the town. No one believed him. Soon a mysterious beggar came to town. A few days later he killed the captain of the watch. This was the second evil. (Damn mysterious beggars!)

After that, a good cleric came to town, and was told of the two evils and went to the castle, never to be seen again. A month later, bones were found in the woods near the castle. On them was a holy symbol. Scholars doubt this carnage was the cleric, but the people knew it was. This was the third evil. (Scholars studied this???)

The month after the finding of the bones, ghouls, mummies, zombies, wights, wraiths and ghosts plagued the town for one week, killing many. This was the fourth evil. (Okay — this is a town. By this point, there can’t be many people left, and those who survive, why did they stay?)

One night later, a girl named Josephine disappeared. She was found the next day, brutally murdered and raped. This was fifth evil. Now the windows of the castle are scarlet, as if a fire was burning inside. (I was a screwed up kid going for shock value. Also, what windows? There are no windows in the cave castle!)

A few days later all the infants and old men were killed. Evil swept the town. The chapel was burned! The monastery pillaged! This was the final evil. (Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria! Oh wait.)

Now the sage stated that evil will kill us all if it is not removed, and that the source of the evil was the castle. “A fighting man would be needed” stated the sage. That night he died of mysterious causes. (As one does in these tales.)

One night a merchant was passing on a road that is near the castle. He claims he saw a hooded figure in a rear window looking, staring out. The figure was all white, had glowing eyes, and burnt, shabby clothing. (WHAT WINDOWS?) That was last night. Go now to the castle and defeat the evil inside.

(Yeah. Go. Defeat…whatever.)

*****************************************************

Pantalian and his NPCs died very quickly. He was reincarnated five times. He lasted longest as a troll. Then one day his character sheet vanished. Turns out someone we both knew tore it up and flushed it down the toilet. Rodney to this very day blames me for this and in revenge he and the other person destroyed my character’s painstakingly kept journal. However, I was not the culprit. Doesn’t matter, he still blames me.

How did Pantalian die so quickly? Well, here’s a few rooms, typed in exactly as scrawled back then, mistakes and all. The first room the characters will encounter after entering the castle would be room 17, which was a 20 ft. x 40 ft.

“The room is dingy. In the southeast corner is a 10 ft. circular iron cylinder. It has elvish runes on it and cannot be read except by the evil. They tell the history of evil. (That must’ve been small type!) When the door is closed, the lid pops open, orange smoke issues forth and 2 lemures pop out. 7 hp, 13 hp. 1 potion of flying, ring of skeleton, 900 sp.” (The ring would reduce the wearer to a skeleton instantly, no save, just dead.)

It was Pantalian and an NPC fighter. Lemures were devils with 3 HD and regeneration. Only blessed objects could kill them. Of course a brand new player wouldn’t know this, nor would they possess such an item. Or be aware of regeneration. So the lemures just kept coming and Rodney, being the jock type, wasn’t about to run away!

Splat!

He created a second character specifically to go in and drag Pantalian’s body out. He was then resurrected and the second character became an NPC, a half elf fighter/magic-user. Neither lasted long. I decided the player needed help. I know! A magic weapon! I gave a gnoll a longsword +5 Defender. And again, Pantalian fell. His NPCs, as he now kept several, managed to kill the gnoll and get the sword for him. It helped against the night hag in the next room. Seriously.

The true shame of Torth was the way it was designed. This was supposed to be the castle of a good wizard but the map is a jumbled mess. Nowdays if I were to make that map I’d say chaos magic twisted it into its current form. Back then I just figured that dungeon maps were supposed to be mazelike. The Ruins of Undermountain proved me right. Again, I was a kid and hadn’t any experience writing.

Since that time D&D writing improved vastly. Jennell Jaquays introduced the concept of sandboxing an adventure with her Judge’s Guild pieces. Narrative plots began having some depth. Maps began to usually make sense. Also the players, me included, became more experienced along with the game as it developed.

Torth’s ending had the Heart of Evil which had absolutely no reason for existing except as a McGuffin for the character to reach and destroy. Of course in a linear sense it was in the last possible place.

“194 — The Heart of Evil. On the heavy door is a tarnished plaque that says “The Heart of Evil.” (As the major quest targets always do.) If the leader of the party is good, the door only opens on a one (if hit by an evil person.) (Huh?) When the door is open, the outcropping is seen. The two sides emit an orange yellow glow. This is the heart of evil in the castle, placed here by Balzebul. (Why???) This outcropping pulses, for it is alive. AC -2 Hit Dice 5. 21 hp. If the “heart” is threatened, it will summon 5 manes or other devils. When somebody is killed in this room, the heart grows brighter (that is only if a good person is slain, if an evil thing is slain in this room, it dims) Good slain — it gains 1 hp. Evil slain — loses 1 hp. (Fair enough but why only one?) If there is an evil person is in this room during melee, there is a 75% chance that he or she will turn against the good in the party. (Before you ask, there were many rooms that changed the character’s alignment. And every 13-14 year old kid plays chaotic neutral, no matter what their declared alignment.) When the heart is killed, all evil in the castle dies and disintegrates. A cherubim comes to warn the adventurers to leave, for in 12 hours the castle will crumble into dust. (When heart dies the yellow orange glow leaves) (It doesn’t help or anything. It just comes in, makes its grand proclamation and leaves.) Also if the heart is threatened, it will generate an evil energy field. If a good character goes in, they lose 1-4 hp per round. (Oh, by the way, it has protection from good sort of.) 1000 exp for killing the heart.”

Hearts of Evil can be pretty innocuous looking!

Sigh. When I wasn’t available to DM Dave would DM for me. Eventually, near the end of the first level a magical slide appeared taking whatever character Rodney was playing by that time directly to the island where the Heart of Evil was. No devils popped up but he had a major time beating on the thing before it died. And so ended the only time Torth was ever played, with over two thirds of it avoided.

Why write a column about this aside from the editor asking? I write a lot now between this, my monthly column at Transgender Forum, my blog and other things. Whatever a person creates, be it art of some kind, writing, song or whatever they leave a piece of themselves in it. That’s why no two artist’s works are alike or no two authors (not counting intentional style stealing.) Torth took me quite some time to write during a tumultuous time in my life.

It was around this time that my inner demons, which I later understood to be my misplaced gender identity, really began to plague me. Also around this time I started studying martial arts as I was tired of the beatings I received at the hands of bullies. Add to that I was a late bloomer and while all the other kids were hitting puberty, I wasn’t. I dreaded puberty as I knew it would make me exactly what U didn’t want to be: a man. All of this and more all swirled in my head. My only real escape then was gaming, especially D&D.

As I wrote above, when someone writes they bring part of themselves and that includes D&D adventures. I have since that time written over 100 D&D adventures for my players or for others to run. I haven’t read Torth since, well, 1980 or 81. I’ve kept it in my pile of D&D papers or with my modules since then and it’s moved with me many times. I started reading it for this piece and I had to stop. Yes, some of what’s written is Ed Wood bad or worse. That’s not what stopped me, nor was it the poor penmanship, as it was all written in longhand (in pencil!).

I stopped because what I read was a howl of anguish (cliché, I know) from a child who knew they were different, couldn’t understand how or why and whose life was changing and out of control. I was lashing out at whatever caused me pain. I can tell when Rodney started playing. Rodney was a goofball and is still a great friend but he was also a jock. He would become a champion wrestler, attend VMI and serve as an officer in the Army like all men in his family before him. He was everything I wasn’t. Unconsciously, I lashed out at him through the module. There were many times in Torth where the characters were magically transformed, just as I wished I could be.

So yes, Torth was a train wreck but so was I. In many ways I’m still that child struggling against all I am. However I now understand who I am and have the power to change what I don’t like. Rodney and I still play D&D every other weekend on Roll20, as he lives in Michigan. And he still brings up Torth every session. Other players live in Philly, Maine and one here in State College. They’re going through Keep on the Borderlands — my selection. It reminds me of a far more innocent time when gaming was just gaming, yet also a lifeline to other worlds. Sometimes an orc is just an orc after all.

Be well.

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Original cover for Torth: Castle of Evil

Grid map of the Castle of Evil dungeon

Dungeon Master’s notes for Torth: Castle of Evil

Torth Updated!

Step back in time with our resident old school D&D creator to explore Torth: Castle of Evil! (warts and all) #staynerdy In my last piece I wrote about one of the modules I wrote back in the Mesozoic era.

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