#Sidequest Decks

[daniellethamasa]

Weekend Writer: April 2024 Prompts

Hey all, Sam here. It’s the start of a new month, and that means it’s time for more Weekend Writer prompts! As I mentioned in a previous post, I am making some changes to how this blog series works, mostly because I was spending so much time prepping and writing these weekly posts and it left me so drained. I absolutely loved writing all the writing posts and doing the writing craft book deep…

[way-maker-jan]

Hero's Journal Side Quest Decks: Little Adventures In Everyday Life

73 years. That is the average length of a person's lifespan according to statistics provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) back in 2019. However, a third of those years are given to the necessity of sleep. Ergo, we really have a total of 49 years to experience life.

If you think about it, that is not very long at all. As a matter of fact, those years can be a vapor (vanity in the NKJV of the Holy Bible) depending on how we live. I think Vimal Kaushik - content writer and copy writer/technical writer/social media specialist who has written articles for LinkedIn - describes it best in his article between living and existing:

Living truly means the present, which is now. The power of now is the master of all times.

Existing, on the other hand, means a life devoid of any control and options in it.

This doesn't mean that life is all wine and roses nor is it all pain and suffering. Instead, it is being thankful for the blessings and accepting and engaging of the lessons from said wine and roses or pain and suffering. Ergo, you either live life by accepting and appreciating the past, engaging in the present, and progressing into the future... or you're just "there" in "whatever."

In the United States or any 1st world country for that matter, I think we've become so comfortable in the sensory-overload that we do so much but we are stagnant. We've forgotten what it's like to live life on basics and uniqueness. That is why I love The Hero's Journal SideQuest Decks.

The Hero's Journal SideQuest Decks (which I will simply call the SideQuest Decks from this point onward) are a set of cards that provide a "side quest" for you to complete. It can be your choice or picked randomly, but the point of the cards is to go out and actually live life, possibly outside from the "existing norm" of social media, technology, and all the modern creature comforts we've come accustomed to that seem to make life more stagnant if overly indulged.

Also, there is an underlying beauty to the cards as each side quest allows you to be as simple or dynamic as you can be. For example, as of writing this article, my latest side quest I completed was to have your favorite meal. Now to be fair, I have many different favorite meals depending on the mood, but a meal I haven't had in a long time is an acai berry bowl.

Now eating an acai berry bowl sounds simple enough, but I can make this more of an adventure if I wanted to. I could have made it an adventure to the grocery store to buy the ingredients to make my own custom acai berry bowl at home since I have never made one in my life. Or I could have traveled to a farm, one that grows or stores acai berries, and makes a bowl fresh from the source.

For me, I decided to go to a local restaurant I knew made acai berry bowls and try one of their creations. This would give me the one-two accomplishment punch as I would not only complete the side quest, but have the experience to review the restaurant, the Smoothie Social Cafe, on Yelp as an Elite.

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"Eating My Favorite Meal" wasn't the first side quest I completed either. This isn't my first time at the side quest rodeo. Initially, I have completed three other side quests as shown in my IG videos. It also should be noted that side quests can be done solo or with friends and family. As shown in my side quest in visiting a museum or taking a virtual tour, I explored Kennedy Space Center with my dad.

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Ultimately, I am thankful God has given us the freedom to do what we would like to do for there is freedom in Christ. But that freedom is in what is good according to God. And it is good to take a 15-minute Walk in nature. It is good to make your bed. It is good to relax for 10 minutes as long as you stay grounded in the good God has given us.

For that reason, I pray that anyone interested in the The Hero's Journal Side Quest Decks finds fulfillment in them either solo or with friends, family, and/or loved ones. I pray it is a method of living instead of existing. I pray that by doing this simple quests that were basic in God's world before we made it a world indulged by men, you find God... though it may be that God will find you.

If you are interested in The Hero's Journal SideQuest Decks or any of their other products, check out their store at their official website.

If you live in the Palm Bay, FL area and want to learn more about the Smoothie Social Cafe, visit their official website. You can also check out my review of the restaurant at Yelp.

[wanderer-chronicles]

These seemed intriguing, so I went ahead and ordered a couple decks. They're about the cost of a sourcebook, nice quality cardstock, small map on one side and an adventure outline and possible encounters and hooks on the other. Seems like a nice source for one-shots, gap adventures, or starting points for a campaign the ambitious DM fleshes out themselves.

[pinky-in-blankets]

《 Abel has acquired (1) Feral Gremlin little Sister.

It's okay she has a good reason for the things she does.

I've been rotating these two's dynamic in my brain for SideQuests for a while, and I Adore them skskss.

Can't wait to write them In it in the future. 》

--

Tadc Carnival!au & Abel Belong to @sm-baby

[doctorfreak]

7 years of therapy later i am still struggling with mindfulness and it still ends up being a good answer for almost all of my problems lol

[deckof-dragons]

Hot take: Tears of the Kingdom shouldn't have gone for a serious story. Instead, they should've just let Master Kohga and the Yiga Clan be the primary antagonists.

[notedchampagne]

Is now the right time to ask even though it was a while ago about the Pyrrhawake pirate au you did😭I still think about it the designs were soooo good

teehee id gladly speak about it! a lot of these are cooypasted from discord so its a little disorganized but anyway

btw this au is now called nonapelagic zone. "The pelagic zone includes all ocean waters away from shores. The term pelagic is derived from the Greek word pelagos, meaning "open sea."" and they have nine seas now just because

in this au necromancy is a thing. harrowhark has a literal skeleton crew and gideons onboard it as a sort of prisoner as well

before gideon was with harrow she was raised by john like his little princess. she does rapier and normal swords because she needs the enrichment but god shes so depressed. one day she grabs some of johns money and tries to get one of his boats to ride around on. maybe to never come back in maybe to die in she doesnt care. then harrow ransacks her. kiris held hostage and made to swab the decks because she might be the prince BUT. shes not staying on that boat doing nothing

harrow has a davy jones type thing going on with alecto, who is kept in a well in brackish water underneath johns castle. harrows been looking for alecto for years

the other ship groups on here are pyrrhawake (broken up bc wakes in prison), the rest of boe (riding with pal and cam because theyre on their own atlantic type adventure to go to islands and log research), and the tridentarii (they are rich and have a silly yacht)

boe is a group of smaller ships with the hopers, wakers etc and they all have an "alliance" but only out of mutual distaste. all the houses are Lands but ninth was a little shitty island so after the death of harrows parents she took her loyal ones and made a ship

wake stole one of johns ships and ransacked him a few times before. she also sinks his other ships for the hell of it until she got captured and is behind bars. pyrrhas been trying to get her back

pyrrhas ship temporarily took over harrows and thats when pyr bonded with gideon, then returned her to john so that she could sneak in and release wake. a beautiful reunion + betrayal combo

some years later kiri runs away AGAIN. shes really truly so desperate bc johns trying to set her up for marriage to the third to see if itll make her normal. shes on the boats shes about to go off but then she sees a boat explode. and then another. hi wake. you picked a bad time to try and leave gideon. her revenge era where shes really intent on racking up bodies

gideon gets onto wakes ship, realizes shes her mom and that shes crazy, takes her leave and dips before she gets killed. she finds harrow in a cave with a little tattered sailboat still searching for alecto

harrow: aww. did the prince try to kill herself again

gideon: yes

harrow: say it

gideon: i dont WANT to go on your stupid ship

harrow: i will cut your blood on the tide pools and watch the sharks cut you holes

gideon: SHUT UP!!! just give me the fucking mop and a sword ok

after a few more brief adventurings w the sixth and second (john sent them to find kiriona) they go back to johns castle and harrow tries to rescue alecto, chained to the bottom of a well

you have to do cpr on alecto to wake her up harrow keeps trying to swim down there but ooooh. its so deep. shes trapped shes asleep harrow has to hold her breath and breathe it into her and then come back up alive. its tough

gideon comes in now because its been 2 hours and harrows not back and she finds alecto out and harrow half dead. harrow breathes life into alecto gideon does cpr on harrow ok. ok. its the rituals

meanwhile the sixth have been speedrunning treason in the bg like a fun cameo. theyve been imprisoned too and they helped griddlehark break out

johns mad at them i think this is about as far as it goes. alectos free YAY

there was a previous sidequest where the fourth are baby sailors trying to capture gh and they had to fucking return them back to land where theyre allied w the fifth laaaame

[zorphie]

wizard101 oc ask game <3

questions under the cut!

1. what school does your wizard go to? how was their first day?

2. how do they feel away from home?

3. how did they get into practicing magic? how has their magic evolved overtime? how long have they been practicing?

4. how does their magic affect their personality, job, and way they perceive the world?

5. if they could change their school of magic, what would it be?

6. how do other people see your wizard?

7. which npc do they get along with the most? which npc do they get along with the least?

8. what is their pet/mount? whats their personality like? how do they act throughout your wizard's journey?

9. what is their combat style? are they more offensive/defensive?

10. have they ever lost a duel while questing or failed a mission?

11. what is their favorite and least favorite world?

12. what is your wizard's favorite minigame at the fairegrounds?

13. what is their favorite side activity?

14. what does their house/dorm look like?

15. how often do they return to their homeworld?

16. where is their favorite hang-out spot?

17. what's their opinion on pirates? (optional: opinion on the armada?)

18. what's their opinion on magic outside of the main 7 schools? (shadow, astral, etc)

19. how do they feel about bartleby, grandmother raven, and grandfather spider?

20. what's the spell they use the most? what's the spell they hate, but use anyway? a spell they'd never use, no matter what?

21. do they prefer to quest/duel alone or with a group? how does this go for them?

22. anything about their magic they handle differently compared to others? how often do they bend the rules?

23. what is their go-to wand(s)?

24. what is their title/badge? any specific achievement they're best known for?

25. how often does your wizard do sidequests? how long do they take doing them?

26. how organized is their deck/spellbook?

27. what other schools do they get along with the most outside of their own?

28. how would your wizard be as a mentor?

29. what would they do without magic?

30. whats their favorite polymorph?

31. one funny situation that happened to your wizard?

32. how do they use their magic outside of combat?

33. one favorite memory they have?

34. how long does it take for them to get through the arcs?

35. what's one thing they wish they could change about the spiral?

[lilbittymonster]

Before I get back into the game I wanted to get down my first impressions of the first branch.

So I chose Kozama'uka for my first path, because I loved the Vanu and the Hanu seem like the same big friendly bird types. And they are! The village designs are very thoughtful about their environment and the worldbuilding with all the sidequests concerning reeds are great for my lore whore brain.

The MSQ is......kinda boring. Boring in that it feels like we, specifically, do not need to be there. Wuk Lamat does not need The Warrior Of Light, she needs someone who is significantly more worldly than her to lead by example. And the twins can do that just fine, Alisaie especially. It felt like half the time I was there just to have someone for Alphinaud to rubber duck off of. I can fully have Kitali not there and spending time with her husbands in the cabin and not miss a single thing.

The element of having locals gossiping nearby to give us more insight to the Turali view of the plot is interesting. Feels very organic as a way to reveal more information instead of just interrogating random locals.

I wonder how long it will be before we see Thancred and Urianger, since we the audience know they've been helping Koana, but our little group has only just been given the clue of "Archon allies". And what is the next weirdly coincidental appearance Estinien will make? Hello shiny husband nice to see you too. Our husband is currently relaxing and recovering from seasickness in our cabin, do you need a place to stay?

She's gonna pounce.

He's so fucking pretty. I wanna chew on his ears.

Once posing crimes come back I am just going to be living in these cabins. This is what I had in mind for what Kitali and Estinien had in Rads before we got the canon view of Estinien's bachelor pad lol.

Though, "comfy feather bed" my ass, these are solid planks of wood with a single layer of hide and a burlap pillow. I put her to sleep on the deck chair because that actually looks comfortable. The three of them will likely be sleeping on that gigantic couch until she can make a feather tick mattress topper or something.

Today's plan is to get Urqopacha tackled and possibly the first dungeon.

[rambleonwaywardson]

have u seen the video snoop dogg doing a sidequest by feeding the horses of the US equestrian team carrots in the weirdest way possible while decked out in a rider‘s uniform?? it’s hilarious

Yes 😂😂. He’s all ready for his dressage debut, if only he wasn’t afraid of the horses!

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[sapphim]

I posted a video of this cut sidequest from Dragon Age 2 featuring Teagan and Connor a few years ago, but because I wasn't able to figure out exactly where the encounter was supposed to take place, the cutscenes didn't appear as they were originally intended. All the files for the quest are named with an Act 1 prefix, but I recently did a search again and discovered the missing piece: the cutscenes are still properly positioned in the files---in Act 2!

Dialogue under the cut.

Connor: They're looking for us, Uncle.

Teagan: I hoped to avoid violence, but the templars are determined to make that impossible. Teagan: You're not with the templars, are you? Can you help us? Hawke: (I might help.) I'm not with them. What's going on? Hawke: (Fight the templars?) Oh, just attack the templars? You know they practically run this city, right? Teagan: I'm all too aware. Hawke: (Why should I?) I don't know you. I have no reason to help. [Eamon is chancellor:] Teagan: My name is Arl Teagan. [else:] Teagan: My name is Bann Teagan. Teagan: And this is my nephew, Connor. Connor: Uncle, they're here for me. I caused enough suffering at Redcliffe. If you are harmed… Teagan: Loghain and Jowan are to blame, not you. I will not let these templars imprison you. Hawke: (Why do they want Connor?) I take it your nephew is a mage? [Connor sent to circle:] Connor: I'm a mage of the Circle Tower of Ferelden. [else:] Connor: There's no use keeping it a secret. Yes, I'm a mage. Connor: Years ago, I fell prey to a demon. I did… unspeakable things. Teagan: The Kirkwall templars must have learned of that incident. Teagan: Connor is a good boy. A good man. Hawke: (I won't fight templars.) A fight's inevitable. I won't kill any templars for you. Teagan: Who could blame you? Farewell. Hawke: (I'll help.) What's the plan? Teagan: Our ship isn't far. Once we're aboard, we should be safe. Teagan: Let's go.

Teagan: We just need to make it to the ship.

Templar: Hand over the abomination. Teagan: He's not possessed, you fool. You have no right! Templar: The Maker will shed no tears if the boy and his uncle die. Attack!

Teagan: We made it. Connor: We must get below decks, Uncle. [Warden and Hawke are both female:] Teagan: You remind me of someone… I hold dear. Though I never had the courage to say that to her. Teagan: You're very brave. Take this, with my blessings.

Journal entries: The Getaway Escort Teagan and Connor to their ship. Connor and Teagan were safely escorted to their ship. It is not known whether Connor and his uncle escaped from Kirkwall.

If you meet Teagan again in act 3 with King Alistair, he recognizes Hawke.

Alistair: Right! I'm Alistair, uh… king of Ferelden. And this is Teagan, my uncle. Sort of. Teagan: We've met—a few years back. Thank you again, Champion.

The headmorph in the video is Teagan Fix by DragonReine/dragoragirl.

[daniellethamasa]

Weekend Writer: March 2024 Prompt Share

Hey all, Sam here. On occasion, time really feels like it flies. Somehow we are already at the end of another month…which per my new schedule with these Weekend Writer posts means that we are at another prompt sharing post. Basically, in each month, on the first Friday I will use various creativity generators to come up with a number of options to hopefully spark our interest and get us…

[cherrybombrs]

do u have any wiz101 beginner tips!! i just started recently cause it's a very charming mmorpg but after the unicorn way quest it threw so much tutorial and gameplay mechanic at me and my little pea brain cannot keep up, any advice?

OK HIII for starters thank u for helping me realize i had asks turned off on da wiz blog... i've since fixed that so. that should be good now <3 ^_^

AS FOR BEGINNER TIPS... i played the very first arc YEARS ago like a year or two after wiz's first release. i played back in 2011 so everything is like a blur to me- and i do have like. TWO wizards that i made to start fresh with just to see like. how things changed and. YEAH. i see what u mean with how they just kind of throw u at the wolves once ur done with that section

unfortunately i dont have many tips in that regard just because the starting point of the game has changed SO much fundamentally from the time that i played, to now. but i could give u some small things that might make ur life a little easier???

edit: PLEASE ALSO CHECK ALL THE REBLOGS AND THE REPLIES FROM ALL THE LOVELY PEOPLE!!! THEY HAVE ADDED MORE THAN I COULD EVEN THINK TO REMEMBER THEY R THE REAL MVPS!!!!

find a friend who can trade u monstrous TC (treasure cards)!! they're additional spell cards you can add onto your deck that upon use get used up, but monstrous comes super in handy because they boost your damaging spells DMG by a big amount. it'll make the slough of early game much quicker.

WHILE UR DOING UR main scenario quests, look around at the side quest in the area!! i never did this growing up but it dawned on my now how crazy smart this is LOL a lot of side quests will be like "hey wizard go beat up these things for me pleaseeeee" and you can sync up ur quests along with ur sidequest and they'll both count. literally a win-win

the further u go on in the game, u should keep ur deck smaller- less spells means more likely to pull what u need in that moment means less prolonged battles that go on for longer than they need to. ALSO LEARN RESHUFFLE its a balance spell and you learn it in krokotopia. CORRECTION YOU LEARN IT IN COLOSSUS BLVD FROM MILDRED FARSEER (THANK YOU @/divine-deer!!!!) literally worlds most op spell in the game love it

there's some side content that the game throws at u randomly. iirc, theres grizzleheim starts at level 20 and then you keep getting called back there until u reach 45 (that's for wintertusk, highly recommend for that level!!) wysteria, lvl 25 i believe there's the underwater section in wizcity sewers in olde town aquilla (HIGHLY rec doing this for the sky iron hasta, that bad boy will carry you to lvl 100 LOL) and much much more. i know there's more but I'm literally forgetting because there's so many side worlds

when in doubt. just look up whatever you're dealing with and add reddit on the end. i don't like reddit but damnit those mfs have ALL the answers for literally anything

this is ALL i can rlly think of off the top of my head rn BUT if u ever have anymore questions my dms are always open as well as my ask box ^_^ i love wizzzzzz

[silver-wield]

Ffxvi ending spoilers

I'll tag this too, but this is your warning, I'm about to rant about the ending.

Because I didn't like it.

Lemme preface by saying I loved the game! Love Clive, Jill and everyone else in the cast, except Annabel, she's a bitch and deserves to die. Main story is great, sidequests great, combat is fun and it's great. Except the ending.

It's one thing to pepper hints throughout the story when you have a hero who maybe hasn't done as much to earn the definitive ending you, as a player, expect, and wind up with some ambiguity as to their fate.

It's totally okay to have secondary characters' fates left up in the air and wondering what became of them because they are not your primary hero.

It is not fucking okay to throw out not one, not two, but four ambiguous ending hooks when a hero such as Clive has literally done everything humanly possible to earn the kind of ending you see in ffix, with our hero returning home to his loved ones.

Onto the actual ending. Last chance to dip.

No pics except at the end, but I will be describing what happened.

Last chance fr

Can't say I didn't warn yall.

After Clive defeats Ultima and destroys the crystal, we pull back to see it crumble. Now, if you were going for an ambiguous ending, at this point you would leave Clive there and not return. It's a stupidly high drop and it would leave his fate literally up in the air.

Nope. We see he survives the thousands of feet fall into the ocean and makes it to shore.

We rejoice, believing he'll be okay and keep his promise to Jill to return and actually save himself along with everyone else like she's been begging him this whole time.

Haha, you thought.

Clive attempts to use magic, only for his hand to petrify. He smiles, knowing he's succeeded for definite. And then come some last words as he stares at the star he recalls Jill making a wish on, and his hand falls to the sand in the typical symbolism for death, which we've seen multiple times not only in this game but across FF.

Cut to Jill, staring at the star, which winks out of existence. She bursts into tears and runs to the deck, fearful it means Clive's dead. Torgal howls, mourning his master, and that should be clue enough that Clive is dead because Torgal never gave up looking for Clive all the years they were apart.

Then, comes the pathetic trope of the "light of hope" as the sun rises, and we see Jill's tears stop as she looks at the horizon.

I saw someone say they spent a stupid amount of time looking for a boat and claiming Clive is rowing back to her, but you have to look reaaaaaaally hard to see it. That's because there is no boat. There is no boat.

Jill is recalling her own words and hoping Clive will return to her just like the sun rises, and that's what we're supposed to cling to. Her words, along with all the other "hints" left along the way about Clive saving himself, how he should hang up his sword and pick up a quill (and I'll get to that in a second) and all the plans he makes for a life once things are over are meant to make us hopeful he's alive, despite the previous scene of deathly symbolism.

Then come the credits. No, we didn't see anybody else at the Hideaway besides a short moment with Gav, Mid and Edda, so literally everyone's fate across the realm is left open ended, which is so fucking unsatisfying. As unsatisfying as the ending to ffxv when we see empty landscapes because most of the fucking population across the planet is dead bar a few pathetic survivors huddled in Lestalum, who we don't even see enjoying the "new light of hope" because apparently a view of a barren landscape is meant to be good enough (and then came the dlc with one alt ending and a novel with a "definitive" ending that erases the original canon one because they fucked up so much they couldn't even work out how to end the damn game. Showing a mostly dead world with a "hopeful sunrise" ain't it. Nobody's alive to enjoy the fucking hope!)

Anyway, this is not a ffxv rant, so moving on. After the credits is a short scene of a beautiful cottage surrounded by greenery and flowers with two boys and a smol dog. The elder boy has Clive's dark hair and the younger has Joshua's hair colour. They're doing chores without magic and lamenting that magic and eikons are fairytales and Clive's favourite play makes a reference as well.

We end on a book written by Joshua Rosfield that depicts the war of eikons that the boys are pretending to play out in the garden.

And that's our fourth "did he live?" moment, using Harpocrates words about picking up a quill, and taking on his dead brother's name so it might always be remembered the way he took Cid's name on, Clive writes about his people's deeds. But did he? Or was it one of the Undying who penned it and listed Joshua, their lord, as the author?

But you know what? I don't give a fuck about some distant future where Clive's efforts pay off and the world is free and safe. It was a fucking given that would work out.

What I cared about and wanted to see was the characters I cared about being free and safe.

Throwing some NPC children with Clive and Joshua's hair colours at us as some consolation prize while Clive finished either dead or unconscious alone on a beach and Jill is sobbing is not the ending any of us laboured for. We have no attachment to these children, and the weird fucking hint about reincarnation or whatever that was, is fucking stupid and undermines everything about them living and dying on their own terms. The idea that Clive and Joshua, having been imbued with the power of the phoenix will rise again in some distant and free land, undermines everything they did in destroying magic and eikons and crystals. It's not a good enough ending when it comes off the back of the absolute fuck all that came before the credits and reincarnations were never introduced as a concept in the entire game.

Maybe if they showed Clive alive and reunited with his loved ones it would be a further heartwarming moment to see his and Joshua's souls together in another life. Their bond is such a huge part of what makes the story so damn good, but as it is, it feels cheap and flatter than a pancake to end like this.

It's clear the devs teams eyes are on future dlc to pick up where this "ending" left off and hopefully provide the fulfillment we expected, but to have the canon ending at this point of their next gen mainline FF game be so disappointing and low note just isn't good enough.

And people can say there's hints all over and we just need to look, but after everything Clive went through, we deserved a little more certainty of his survival.

All we needed was a boat on the horizon.

[ilikedyourablogithere]

AW YEAH BABY MORE DINOSAURS!

Don't you worry Taiga, you're not the only dino dude in the digimon fandom anymore

This gymbro is down with the dinos :D

and he brought guess what?

THAT'S RIGHT BRO

MORE DINOS :D

like Ryutaro is all like "don't you worry Taiga bro. We're gonna make Tyrannomon decks meta one way or another"

meanwhile Taiga is still confused as to how Tyrannomon became his flagship digimon partner when all he did was literally just met the same Tyrannomon in sidequest a couple of times

[kerflubble]

River City Girls 2 Tarot Deck XV-Devil to XXI-The World

In game art for a collectable sidequest