Day 16- Sword of the River Spirit
Sword- The Combing Claw
The river spirit patrols the river of the dead that leads to the underworld. As boats loaded with souls pass, it glides its sword over the water, fishing for stray souls. The blade's barbs hook any it finds and the spirit unceremoniously tosses them back on the ferry.
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There's getting lucky finding hagstones, and then there's being smiled upon by a River Spirit.
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Coin
They say when you travel to take a bag of coins. When you have to wade through a river, they say, you should toss a coin into the rushing waters to pay toll to the river spirit, bringing good luck and calming the waters enough to allow you to cross safely.
Of course, a bag of coins can only go so far, but the spirits are forgiving. Show them an empty bag that once contained coins, and they understand you have crossed many rivers, and to them, that earns you favor. They will be happy to help you negotiate a different form of payment, should you find yourself unable to pay the toll.
They’re good at mimicking humans, practically indistinguishable save for never-dry, strangely incorporeal androgynous bodies with blue-toned skin and deep sea-blue eyes that sparkle with inhuman power. You could almost be fooled into thinking they were just another human. Almost.
It’s always strange the first time, watching them pull themselves from the water, leaving damp footprints behind them in the mud, and shape the water that composes them into a cock or a hole that seems to perfectly mold with your own. They know you better than any human ever could, pushing you down on your back in the grass with the gentle but persistent force of flowing water, making sure you’re comfortable before showing you why explorers practically never have enough coins by their own count.
Your satisfaction is enough payment for them. Knowing they’ve satisfied you in a way a human never could and never will is more than enough.
Of course, there are those who are arrogant and don’t feel the need to pay tolls. They soon find that their tolls will be paid one way or another, and learn first-hand that nature spirits are not to be trifled with.
They don’t just mimic humans, as an unfortunate explorer quickly learns when they’re confronted with a serpent-like creature with glowing eyes and a toothy mouth, longer than a rope and thicker than a tree.
The lucky ones are simply pulled within the mouths, held within a fluid body as the spirit dives back into its river, dashing its victim against rocks and tree roots before releasing it, injured and with a valuable lesson.
Less lucky explorers may be grappled, the massive watery body coiling around the tiny human as the spirit noses at their skin, teasing a selected hole with a gargantuan prehensile cock before working it deep into them, filling them with pure essence of spirit and a primal, inhuman need to go to the nearest river.
Once they arrive at their destination, frenzied with instinct, they are simply coiled again as a second spirit draws the essence from them before depositing them weak and unconscious upon the river bank to pay toll when they wake, the river beginning to fork as a new spirit is created from the process…
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This is a big day for me! It's my 10 year anniversary on this hellsite (affectionate) and the launch of my first TTRPG crowdfunding campaign.
I'm funding a print run of "The River Spirit", a solo journaling TTRPG about saving your hometown from an awful drought by sacrificing your memory to the River Spirit. You use a deck of playing cards to build up your memories of your hometown and community, tell stories about them to a cast of eclectic spirits you meet walking through the forest, and finally cast pieces of your identity off to satiate the enigmatic River Spirit.
I have to thank @crowdfundr for making this such an easy process. It was a daunting proposition to embark upon this journey, but thanks to their help it didn't feel like I was doing it alone.
If you're interested in the game, check out the campaign here: https://crowdfundr.com/River_Spirit
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This pristine Canadian river has legal personhood, a new approach to conserving nature
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Soundtrack: Wild River Child by @sjtuckermusic. Painted during one of her and Leslie Hudson's recent Online Concert Thing concerts.
Troublemaker Abalone fountain pen ink on Arches paper, with Beam Paints Shell mica watercolor for the shiny bits
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This giant Hagstone, almost twice the size of my head, is one of the precious treasures granted to us by the river that nurtures our land. I've never worked with a Fluvial Spirit so prone to granting gifts—from bones, to hagstones, to ancient artifacts.
I occasionally use this stone for rites of 'Passing Through'.
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#Swordtember Day 16: River Spirit
Another more ‘abstract’ sword, I thought it’d be fun to have a fish shaped water sword with a handle made from lilypads 🪷 My thought process was that the river spirit’s weapon should probably be more organic and made of elements that might be found in or near a river 💧 🐠
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