#and an enemy hiding behind the npc’s house was the cause of it

[dontmindme2600]

Idk if it’s just my game but every time I go to Girdershade to see the Nuka cola girl (I forget her real name lmao), some weird glitch happens where she’ll always be running frantically into the wall as if there’s an enemy nearby. The game will say she’s “fleeing.” This will happen for like a few seconds then she’ll suddenly stop and be normal again. But even stranger, I’ve noticed that if I bring a companion into her house, the companion will suddenly turn hostile towards her??? Like, while she’s fleeing. I brought Star Paladin into her house and she started shooting the nuka cola girl so I had to make her wait outside like a misbehaving child 😭 I think the game keeps acting as if there’s some sort of enemy outside even though there isn’t?? I can’t explain why my companions will just start shootings civilians though. And I’m on good terms with the other npc that lives in Girdershade too so I don’t see why the game would think he’s the nearby enemy. I just need to trade some quantum for some caps man

[honourablejester]

Ideas for Dragons (D&D)

Or rather, thoughts on characters-who-are-dragons-in-(sort of)-disguise. Assuming that all ancient dragons have the ‘change shape’ option, metallic or otherwise, because it’s more fun that way. Sprinkle secret dragons everywhere! Why not? Also, bit lenient on the alignment here.

White

Keywords:  feral, primal, vengeful, with long memories

Thoughts:  Whites in disguise will be independent forces in the world. The wilderness dragons. They’ll have personal goals and points of pride. They’ll be your lone ranger seeking vengeance against a hated enemy. Your fearsome druid seeking to drive out invaders from their pristine wildernesses. Or, perhaps, your barbarians, warrior kings and queens, carving out their own territories. Quite likely to only nominally be ‘in disguise’, unless they’re really trying not to draw attention to their weakness/enemy. The pirate/whaler queen based in an iceberg shanty town, the proud spear-fisher challenging strangers to beat her, the capable outlander in a western. Heh.

Gold

Keywords:  aloof, grim, reserved, dedicated foes of evil

Thoughts:  Weirdly, I’m kind of liking gold dragons for rogues? Spies and spymasters. ‘Rarely does a gold dragon in disguise reveal its true form’. What I’m getting here is that golds in disguise are professional about it. They go undercover to hunt out evil. I know golds are usually seen as paladin material, and they definitely work as weary knights, but I’m liking the lawful rogue here. Add in aloof, grim, and you’ve a lovely set up for the stoic spymaster sending people to live and die in tyrannical empires and evil cults, or the grim spy going in themselves. Golds are the dragons you meet when you’re chained in a dungeon, or the one you’re taken to meet when you escape.

Green

Keywords:  cunning, manipulative, ambitious, intelligent

Thoughts: I’m guessing it’s the association with envy that makes green always the cunning ambitious colour, but hey, we’ll work with it. Greens in disguise are your wizards, your courtiers, your merchant princes, your ‘legitimate businessmen’. Your Petyr Baelishes. Anyone in a position to pull strings and topple dominos and thrive on chaos. La Voisin. The courtesan, the poisoner, the palace physician. Also, greens feel like they’d have multiple disguises on the go at once. What people think are four separate NPCs are actually one, and she’s gently wheeling five or six factions into her grasp, for good or for ill. Honestly, greens are great.

Copper

Keywords: cautious, tricksy, miserly, hospitable

Thoughts:  Couple of directions coppers can go, depending on whether this is a whim or if they have an enemy. They’ll either be the once-off, amusing-to-aggravating encounter, enough to tweak some noses and teach some lessons, in which case they’ll be much louder and more cheerful about things, OR they’ll be in much deeper cover and likely covering a long game with humour and a more subtle disguise. Bards and rogues. They can play spies as well as greens and golds. But I like the hospitality as a defining feature. A copper undercover as the most dangerous gang lord you ever saw will still have impeccable manners. (Coppers are basically fey)

Blue

Keywords:  dramatic, patient, methodical, vain

Thoughts:  Aristocrats to the core. Blues strike me as basically vampires? Lestat de Lioncourt. Patient, fond of the high life, dramatic as a thunderstorm when riled. When you look at a blue, you know there’s something off, something predatory, but not exactly what. Blues will be regal, noble, well-connected. Smart about alliances. Like whites, they’ll have a list of people who’ve ticked them off, and they’ll take their time returning the favour, but unlike whites blues will be indirect about it. Ambush predators, and dramatic ones. They’ll set up something truly notable. Patient and dramatic. The worst sort of enemies. But excellent friends if pointed at mutual foes.

Silver

Keywords: friendly, benign, fond of history, prone to attachment

Thoughts:  Innkeepers. Back alley healers (the ‘helping the poor for free’ kind, not the ‘shady as hell’ kind, though you never know). The uncle or auntie in the village that everyone knows and no one is entirely sure of the age of. The lovely, nice, friendly old lady who would never hurt a fly but wicked people who come to the village tend to walk away rather thoughtful after sitting down to tea. Or, you know, don’t walk away at all. The librarians, teachers, bakers, healers. The most normal-seeming, right in the thick of it, but often slightly forgetful when it comes to how long their ‘disguises’ are supposed to be able to stay alive. Ah. Oops?

Black

Keywords: paranoid, brutal, survivalist, ‘do unto others before they do unto you’

Thoughts:  Guerrilla warlords. We’re back out in the wilderness. Run and hide and strike where your enemies are weakest. Disguise yourself to find out where they’re weakest, who is your enemy now and who will be your enemy later. Rebels and outlaws. I like the link to crumbled civilisations. If you want a more ambiguous black, you can have them championing a dead kingdom against a foreign invader (for given values of ‘foreign’ depending on how many centuries on this is). Blacks are your outlanders, unwilling to accept any dominion but their own, hardened and vicious when maintaining their independence, paranoid about where the strike will come. Blacks are hard-edged, the allies you really need to work to keep good, the enemies you need to hit hard and hit now.

Bronze

Keywords: daring, warlike, nautical, rebels in search of a cause

Thoughts:  Well. Rebels, to start with. Again. Consulting heroes. Les Amis from Les Miserables. Odysseus. Though bronzes can be patient and like to be fully sure who’s done what and when and why before they start swinging, they really don’t hesitate from that point. So, like whites, often they’ll only nominally be ‘disguised’. They’ll be bold and daring and in-your-face, unless they’re actively on a mission that needs secrecy. I feel like they tend to use whatever form is most useful for the moment, and don’t tend as much towards long-term covers. They’re good students of history, though, and effective at what they do. If a bronze is well-established, they’ll be a respected leader.

Red

Keywords:  proud, territorial, explosive, obsessive

Thoughts:  Reds are very … wizardy. Classic tower wizards, I mean. Isolated, explosive, unhappy about conversing with inferiors. Etc. But they’re also curious. They don’t want to be left behind, or become obsolete. So they’ll disguise themselves as something well-respected, important, unlikely to be challenged. Nobles, yes, but also academics, emissaries, foreign dignitaries. Historians. Treaty-makers. Archmages. Reds want to be the linch-pins, the fulcrums around which the world turns. They can be very valuable if you manoeuvre them into the right places, but don’t put them anywhere you wouldn’t be comfortable putting sweaty nitroglycerine. They will go boom eventually.

Brass

Keywords: curious, gregarious, conversationalist, craving stimulation

Thoughts: Merchants. Straight away. Peddlers, merchants, coffee house proprietors. Innkeepers, too. Anywhere that’s gossip central. Anywhere that sees objects and curiosities from around the world. Certain stripes of academics as well. Brasses won’t be spies like greens or golds, even coppers or blacks, they won’t be collecting things for a cause, but they might sell information afterwards for their own amusement. Collecting whatever’s shiny, passing it on to whoever’s interested. Might play cheerful games of one-upmanship with other information brokers. Assets to everyone, but beholden to no one. Reactive if tricked or feel like they’ve been used badly, though. Brasses make good neutral, independent, ambiguous contractors.

Just … throw in lots of dragons. Dragons are always a fun surprise! Ancient, wily serpents steering the world or local events in varying directions. Have a world where anyone you meet could be a dragon! Dignified nobles, fearsome rebels, motherly innkeepers, travelling merchants, tired functionaries, annoying children, proud survivalists, touchy emissaries, old soldiers, cunning brothel keepers, the gossipy old biddy on the corner …

What is life without the idea that just about any of them could suddenly sprout wings and breath weapons and a lot of teeth very suddenly in your face? Heh.

[puppypaw-wc]

i just wanted to ramble ‘bout undertale... hhhhhhhh.

aka me just describing the whole plot of the game... this one’s just the ruins tho cuz i don’t think tumblr would let me type out the whole game’s plot in detail.

i understand if y’all don’t wanna see this so it’s under the cut.

soooo uh. the opening “cutscene”/whatever you call it is just a few images with text explaining the events prior to the game.

“long ago, two races ruled over earth: humans and monsters. one day, war broke out between the two races. in the end, the humans were victorious. they sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell. many years later . . . mt. ebbot. 201X. legends say those who climb the mountain never return...”

the last frames show a human who you’d at first assume to be the player character climbing the mountain and falling in; however, it is not the player character (frisk), as the human in the intro only has one stripe on their shirt, while frisk’s shirt has two.

anyways after that you get presented with the start menu (it’s track is creatively entitled, you guessed it, start menu!) with instructions on how to play the game. once you start, you get to name the fallen human.

now, this is honestly kinda ingenious. it doesn’t say “name your character”, it doesn’t say “what is your name?”; no, it says “name the fallen human”.

there’s also responses to some specific names.

like if you name yourself “fight” (or something like that) or “mercy”, the response is “that’s a little on the nose, isn’t it?”, though the name’s still allowed to be used.

naming yourself one of the main characters’ names (or however much can fit) also elicits special responses, and most of them aren’t allowed to be used, but there’s a couple instances of them being usable. like papyrus’ name is too long so if you enter “papyru” as your name the response is “I’LL ALLOW IT” and the name’s allowed to be used. the names “blooky” or “napsta” (as in napstablook) are also allowed, with the response being “... (they are powerless to stop you)”. my favorite is either naming yourself “flowey” or “temmie” tho.

the name “flowey” gets the response “i already CHOSE that name” (flowey had the ability to reset/save/etc. before frisk) with it not being allowed, while naming yourself “temmie” gets the response “hOi!!!” as a reference to the species of temmie (temmie is best undertale character /hj) and is allowed. it used to make tem flakes heal more but that was removed for some reason.

ANYWAYS the game starts after you name yourself (the “true name” is chara, which elicits the response “the true name”, so i’ll be referring to “the fallen human” as such). you start out with your armor as the bandage and your weapon as the stick... both of which have 0 of their corresponding stat.

in the next room, you meet a talking flower, who introduces himself.

“howdy! i’m flowey! flowey the flower! hmm, you’re new to the underground, aren’t’cha? golly, you must be so confused! someone oughta teach ya how things work around here. (oop i’m listening to the undertale ost and finale started playing-fitting-) guess lil’ old me will have to do? ready? let’s go!”

you then find yourself in a battle. on the bottom of the screen, there’s two things: your LV, which is 1 at the time, and your hp, which is 20/20. in the middle of the screen is the bullet board, with a red heart inside. flowey’s above the bullet board. oh, and in battles, everything’s black and white other then the heart and some attacks.

“see that heart? that’s your SOUL. the very culmination of your being! your SOUL starts off weak, but grows stronger with LV. what’s LV stand for? why, LOVE, of course! you want some LOVE, don’t you? *he winks* down here, love is spread through little, white... “friendliness pellets”. go on! collect as many as you can!”

now, here, there’s two options: run into the “friendliness pellets” (which makes this part go by faster) or dodge them, which elicits some funny responses from flowey.

“hey buddy. you missed them. let’s try this again, shall we?”

“is this a joke? are you brain dead? RUN. INTO. THE. BULLETS friendliness pellets.”

“you know what’s going on here, don’t’cha? you just wanted to see me SUFFER. who would pass up an opportunity like this? DIE.”

running into them elicits basically the same thing as the last response, though he states that “in this world, it’s kill or be killed” first. i also don’t remember what he says if you run into them cuz i always dodge them... cuz it’s funny...

you find your SOUL surrounded with the “friendliness pellets”, and it seems that you’re doomed to death... but when they hit you, instead of harming you, they heal you.

flowey gets a confused look on his face before he’s hit with a fireball and goat mom toriel appears!

“what a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth. do not be afraid, my child. i am toriel, caretaker of the ruins. i pass through here everyday to see if a human has fallen. you are the first to have come here in a very long time.”

she also says some other stuff but i don’t remember it so. :shruggie:

anyways, you follow her into the next room, where you find a four-pointed star; a save point.

“the shadow of the ruins looms above, filling you with determination. (HP fully restored).”

this is your first opportunity to save, which is interestingly enough not just a game mechanic; it’s an in-universe feature as well.

(okay wtf undertale ost on shuffle, it played temmie village and then tem shop immediately after, wtf???)

anyways, toriel guides you through (read: does for you) a few puzzles, before you find yourself in a long hallway, where she says she wants to test your independence by making you walk to the end of the hallway by yourself. 

she’s just hiding behind a pillar at the other end of the hallway.

toriel says that she has a few errands to run, and gives you a cellphone before leaving. you can get some funny calls if you do wait, and at the end of it all her phone gets stolen by a dog. despite this, she still calls you when you leave the room. she does actually have special dialogue, though: “My apologies. A strange dog kidnapped my phone.”

anyways, you travel through the ruins, getting encounters with the enemies (froggit, whimsun, loox, vegetoid, moldsmal, migosp), who you can all spare.

i forgot the dummy battle tutorial, basically toriel has a training dummy as a battle tutorial.

things you can do:

talk to it: this makes the battle end, and makes toriel seem happy with you. it’s technically the right thing to do but the others are funnier.

fight it: this kills the dummy, though it doesn’t give you exp, and thus you can still get a true pacifist route.

flee: you run away from the battle and toriel says that it’s a good strategy... but it’s just a dummy, it can’t hurt you and doesn’t seek revenge.

do nothing: if you do nothing for eight turns (including missing attacks), dummy “tires of your aimless shenanigans” and leaves. toriel is confused by this, but continues on as if nothing happened.

whatever you do elicits a different response in a future mini-boss’ pre-battle dialogue, so. yeah.

ANYWAYS!

the ruins’ mini-boss is napstablook, a ghost who, according to themself, “usually comes to the RUINS because there's nobody around”.

to spare them, you need to cheer three times; this makes them show you their “dapper blook” trick, which is a top hat made of tears. they stop attacking to await your response, and if you flirt or cheer, the encounter ends.

also random fun fact: just like with the dummy, killing napstablook doesn’t give you exp, and thus a true pacifist route doesn’t end.

“FIGHTing Napstablook causes them to remind the protagonist that they are a ghost and therefore unable to be killed; they were only lowering their HP to be nice. They then vanish, and the protagonist suffers a loss of one "experience point" (not the same as EXP). This action does not abort the True Pacifist Route since it does not accrue any EXP.”

(x)

oh yeah, did i mention that EXP and LV don’t mean experience points and level?

flowey was actually correct about LV being LOVE. however, it’s an acronym, namely for level of violence. EXP, on the other hand, is an acronym for execution points.

continuing through the ruins and doing some puzzles (one of which includes several holes you must fall through to find a switch, one of which has the faded ribbon, a piece of armor, in it), you can get the toy knife, a weapon, before heading to toriel’s house, where she’s made you a butterscotch-cinnamon pie.

you see, earlier on in the ruins, she asks if you prefer butterscotch or cinnamon (if you’ve reset/loaded a save from after this point, she actually remembers your answer), before asking if you’d turn up your nose at the sight of the other/if you have allergies. there wasn’t enough of both at the store or something along those lines if i remember right.

anyways, you go to sleep in your room (yes, you have your own bedroom and yes, that is pure, and yes, toriel is the best), and she puts a slice of the pie on the floor for you to collect. it’s a healing item that restores all your hp, but i’d recommend saving it honestly.

toriel’s reading in the living room, where you can talk to her and either ask how to leave, or just talk to her. you do have to leave for the game to progress, though.

after asking her how to leave like three or four times, she goes downstairs and talks to you before fighting you, asking you to prove that you’ll be able to survive.

you see...

“Every human that falls down here meets the same fate. I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave. They die. You naive child... If you leave the RUINS... They... ASGORE... Will kill you. I am only protecting you, do you understand? ... go to your room.”

the fight with toriel is one that people often mess up on, though the strategy for her fight is actually foreshadowed by an npc froggit earlier on in the ruins.

many people think that you have to weaken her, or just end up killing her because they don’t see how else to do it.

so, what does happen if you kill her? well, it depends.

if you attack her once she stops attacking:

“You... ... at my most vulnerable moment... To think I was worried you wouldn't fit out in there... Eheheheh!!! You really are no different than them! Ha... Ha...”

on a neutral route:

“Urgh... You are stronger than I thought... Listen to me, small one... If you go beyond this door, Keep walking as far as you can. Eventually, you will reach an exit. ... .... ASGORE... Do not let ASGORE take your soul. His plan cannot be allowed to succeed. ....... Be good, won't you? My child.“

on a genocide route:

“Y... you... really hate me that much? Now I see who I was protecting by keeping you there. Not you... But them! Ha... ha...”

fun fact: until today my dumbass though that “them” was referring to chara and only just realized that it’s referring to the monsters further in the underground.

and now, it’s time for flowey (slash indicates a break in the text).

on a pacifist route (where you don’t kill anyone):

“Clever. Verrrryyy clever. / You think you're really smart, don't you? / In this world, it's kill or be killed. / So you were able to play by your own rules. / You spared the life of a single person. / Hee hee hee... / I bet you feel really great. / You didn't kill anybody this time. / But what will you do if you meet a relentless killer? / You'll die and you'll die and you'll die.Until you tire of trying. / What will you do then? / Will you kill out of frustration? / Or will you give up entirely on this world...... / and let ME inherit the power to control it? / I am the prince of this world's future. / Don't worry, my little monarch, my plan isn't regicide. / This is SO much more interesting.”

on a genocide route (where you kill everyone, exhausting the kill counter until the “but nobody came” message appears):

“Hahaha... / You're not really human, are you? / No. You're empty inside. Just like me. In fact... / You're Chara, right? / We're still inseperable, after all these years... / Listen. I have a plan to become all powerful. / Even more powerful than you and your stolen soul. / Let's destroy everything in this wretched world. / Everyone, everything in these worthless memories... / Let's turn 'em all to dust.”

(note that by “chara” i mean “whatever you named the fallen human”)

and that’s it for the ruins.

uh. yeah.

sorry for rambling about undertale so much on main, i love it too much.

[luv4fandoms]

Of Wood and Steel-CH1.

So this story was originally inspired by this post from @tolkien-fantasy that I agree 100% with lol.

So here is chapter 1 of my story, you can also find it on ao3 if you prefer reading there.

I do not own the canon characters, but I do own Elizabeth, Abby, Benjamin, and Thistle.

Part 2

Chapter 1- Coming home again.

Warnings- None

Word count-2,078

The song used in the story can be found here

“Go Belstram I'll hold them off!” I yelled to the young man beside me, though we were so close, our voices were faint amongst the roar of our enemies.

“I can't leave you here Elizabeth!” He yelled back, stabbing yet another foe.

“You have to! I'll hold them off, you complete our mission! Now go!” I yelled, pushing further into the throw of enemies, if their attention was on me, Belstram could escape easily. My axe came in contact with enemy after enemy, one blow after another as I watched the crowd begin to thin, but it was not without price. My body began to tire of blocking blows from every angle, and just as I sidestepped one sword, I had to block another. But alas...A sweet sound rang through the air, one louder than the roar of enemies I found myself amongst...The victory horn.

“Not again!” One of the men cried out, all of our weapons lowering, the ones who had “died” stood from their fallen places upon the ground, some mumbling curses, some patting my shoulder and saying “good game”, yes, good game.

“Who knew capture the flag could be so brutal” my friend Abby or “Ava” as she was known in our larp group, said as she walked up to me, water bottle in hand.

“Well when we both want to win,I suppose it can get competitive” I laughed, nodding my thanks as I took the bottle and drank.

Benjamin or “Belstram” soon came jogging up to us while we made our way back to our camp.

“You did it!” Abby cheered, jumping into her boyfriend's arms.

“I had to protect my queen, if they would have gotten our flag, they would have gotten you” He replied before leaning down to kiss her.

“Please excuse me, your majesty, I must go before I lose my lunch” I laughed while making my way to the woods for our next game.

“Are we 23 or just 5 Elizabeth?” Abby called after me, laughter in her voice.

“I don't know, are we 23 or 15?” I called back before disappearing into the brush. Abby and I had been friends for several years, but it's only the past three years that I have been part of her LARP scene. The factions that usually partook in the event were the Orcs, Humans, Dwarves, and Elves…Abby, or rather, “Ava” is the Elvish queen, and though my character is only human, I am in the Elvish faction, though you will find other races scattered amongst the other factions, except the Orcs...Nor will you find any Elves on the Dwarf faction and vice-versa.

Games usually consisted of all out battles, Capture the flag, Raids, and my favorite...Quest of Glory. A game where the brave follow quests given to them by “NPCs” where they must battle a tiered party member before advancing...Why is this my favorite? Simple, as a high ranking party member, I'm the last they battle before going to Abby, and it's rare that people get that far, So I get to rest.   

Climbing into my claimed spot, aka a 100 year old tree that resided on the oldest trail in our state park, I made myself comfortable and waited...Maybe drifting off into a light sleep.

“The journey's over; another's just begun

Beneath moonlight, but by the warming sun

I seek to hold you in sunshine or rain

Beneath the heavens, I'm coming home again”

The soft tune drifted along the wind that blew past, and though I hadn't heard the voice or song before, I chalked it up to just another player singing.

“So far we drifted, like ships upon the sea

Horizons fading, we lost to destiny

Storm clouds hover; our vanity like pain

Which held back the winds that bring us home again”

The song struck a strange cord within me, it was almost...familiar...and yet I knew that I had never heard it before. I watched as scenery flashed behind my eyelids, an open field of lush green grass, small mounds adorning it, and upon closer inspection, the mounds had windows to the houses that resided inside. Next a beautiful waterfall that ran alongside a breathtaking city, finely sculptured architecture making it stand out from the trees that dotted the land...And lastly...A mountain, tall and intimidating, yet the face of it showed detailed and beautiful stonework, two large statues of dwarves flanked the entrance.

“What are these places?” my mind wondered as I stared at the scenery in my mind, but my vision was soon disrupted by another voice, this one male, a soft sweet tone that spoke in only a whisper.

“amrâlimê”  the voice was so quiet, almost as if the person didn't want to be heard, or hadn't meant to say it. But the tone was so full of longing, and a promise of happiness.

“ Could I see, now, the swallows in their flight

Watch the moon dance on oceans in the night

The trees reach upward to help the birds to fly

And of the creatures who'll hear them when they cry”

The scene changed once more, to that of a deep and dark forest, a forest that seemed old as if time itself never touched it...And yet it felt very...Alive.

“We walk the hillside like lost souls in the night

And in the darkness, we're searching for the light

And in the morning, like freshly fallen dew

Much like a moon's breath, I'm coming home to you”

From the dark of the forest a soft orange glow took over, the crackle of a fire could be heard before I swear I felt a light kiss being pressed to my cheek.

“amrâlimê”  the voice whispered again, so sincere, so full of admiration, a tone that would be reserved for a lover.

“This journey's over; another's just begun

Beneath moonlight or by the warming sun

For I remember that if my heart be true

Just like an eagle, I'm coming home to you”

A snow covered landscape came into view, and I felt a shiver run down my spine. Not from the cold scenery, but from the dread that made my stomach uneasy.

“amrâlimê” The voice whispered one last time, the tone stained and faded at the end, as if spoke with a final breath.

“NO!” I yelled, bolting upward into a sitting position amongst the tree limbs.

“What?” I reached up and felt my cheek and the hot tears that rolled down it.

“No” I whispered, unable to fathom why a simple voice made my heart feel like it had been torn from my chest.

“Interesting...You saw it too” A female voice spoke, startling me and causing me to turn my head towards the voice.

“Who's there?” I asked upon not seeing anyone anywhere.

“I wonder...If you could be the one?” The voice spoke again, this time the voice came from the other side. Upon looking around, I was only met with the same forest I had been in...alone.

“Show yourself!” I demanded, standing up and balancing on the branches.

“Feisty one aren't you?” The woman giggled, the voice now in front of me as a woman stepped out from between the trees. Her pale skin was covered loosely by sheer green fabric that pooled around her bare feet, her smile and face were youthful, but the wisdom in her Lilac eyes made her appear older. Her short green hair did nothing to hide the long pointed ears, and I wondered how I hadn't seen this girl on the battlefield earlier, surely she couldn't fight much with that long of a dress.

“Who are you?” I asked, her smile only grew, and in a blink...she was in front of me. I stepped back, my hand grabbing at a branch to steady myself.

“W-What? How?”

“My name is Thistle, and I'm a forest Nymph, on a mission from Yavanna to find the one, and I think you are who I am looking for” the girl smiled.

“A forest...Yav….what?” The girl simply rolled her eyes at my confusion, as if everything she just said was the simplest thing that I should be able to grasp.

“You saw the visions did you not?” she asked, my mind flashing back to the different scenery.

“The different landscapes?” I asked, to which she happily nodded.

“Those are places in my world, if you were able to see them that means that you are connected to my world, and so far, you are the only one of your world that I have found that has seen them.

“How long have you been looking?” I asked, Thistle stopped for a moment, her finger resting on her chin while she thought.

“How old is your world again? I've honestly lost count of the years” she replied.

“Holy hell” I breathed, was this really happening? Or was I dreaming right now.

Wait.

“Whose voice was that?” I asked, remembering the soft whispers.

“Singing? That was me” she beamed before adding.

“I know, I have an enchanting voice don't I?”

“Well yes” I laughed

“But I meant the man's voice”

“Man's voice?” She asked, her expression just as confused as mine.

“Yes the man whispering that word...Am...Amra-lime...I'm not sure how to say it right.” I told her now beaming face.

“I don't know to be honest, but if you also heard a voice that surely confirms that you are indeed who I am looking for!”

“To do what?” I asked

“You have told me nothing besides your name, who sent you, and that you are here to find someone” I added.

“I...I don't know” she confessed, her smile falling.

“I was simply told to find the one and bring them to our world, that it was very important for our future” she replied, looking like a small child who had been reprimanded by a parent.

“Our?” I asked

“The forest”

“Oh”

“Please come with me, I know that you are who I have been searching for!” Thistle begged. I looked into her pleading Lilac eyes for a moment before looking around. Go to another world? My family, my home was here though...My parents...Who were always visiting family that lived out of state...My brothers who...Had their own families and lives...My friends who...I really only saw during our larp events...Oh…

“amrâlimê” That sweet whisper rang in my head, a promise that perhaps...perhaps there was a reason I always felt off in this world, perhaps my happiness was somewhere else.

“When would you like to leave?” I asked, turning back to Thistle, her pleading expression turned into one of pure glee.

“Right now would be good, just try not to scream” she replied.

“Scream? Why would I scREAM?!” I yelled as I felt the branch move out from under my feet causing me to fall backwards. I waited to hit the hard ground, but I just kept falling..Surely I should have hit the ground by now shouldn't I? So why hadn't...Suddenly a hard impact struck my back and I felt the air leave my lungs...Ah..There was the ground.

Opening my eyes I gasped for breath and noticed that I was next to the tree I had been sitting in...But I was not alone, nor was I in the same forest.

“Thistle...Who is this?” A large tree...creature spoke, his golden eyes bore into mine and as I found my lungs filling with air, I tried not to scream.

“I finally found the one!” Thistle beamed as she stood beside me.

“This is the one?” The tree asked.

“Yes Treebeard, I know she doesn't look like much, but she saw the visions..and also...she heard a voice from this world” she replied, whispering the last bit rather loudly.

“Hmm” the tree hummed as he reached out and grabbed me, the scream escaped me before I even thought about it...well..looks like I couldn't keep it in.

“Loud one isn't she?” He asked sitting me upright.

“Yeah she is” Thistle giggled before looking at the tree she called Treebeard.

“So, should we start her training now?”

“It would be wise” Treebeard stated

“After all, we only have a couple of years as of now according to Yavanna” he added

“Training?” I asked, finally finding my voice

“For what?”

“Your destiny!” Thistle smiled.

Thank you all for reading! I hope you all enjoyed the story, let me know what you think 😊

[plounce]

two new npcs........... they’re very self indulgent and i’ve grown very attached to them very fast

caleb amamiya is a member of vee’s metalmancy coven, her friend, and works in her mechanic shop. andy is his spouse, and an unpacted magic theoretician. they’re both noted veterans of the conflict, but are currently raising a daughter together, whose name is daisy. they’re very sweet, and happily married.

(backstory under the cut)

they met ten years before the main story, during the conflict. caleb was already oathed to vee’s coven (she wasn’t the doyen yet) and was dedicated to their defense, as one of their top ranking fighters. he fought alongside vee a lot.

andy was in a very strict coven that dealt with runic magic - a small coven, but very powerful due to how restrictive their pact was. andy’s adoptive father had joined the coven years previously and quickly climbed to doyen, and upon coming of age andy was basically forced to join as well, and from there pressed into entering combat as andy was probably the most talented member of the coven. they’re a foremost expert at magical theory regarding writing and pictograms. the rune coven was allies with the vela, actually - andy had discussed theory with amaretta’s parents.

the two covens were in conflict, but one day they ended up in a shootout... that turned into chaos once a third, larger coven force arrived. caleb and andy ended up behind the same piece of cover, and sort of... clicked. they have a battle chat, lobbing spells over their cover and just like. getting attached fast. in a spur of the moment decision, caleb used his armored arm (metalmancers can coat their skin in metal as armor) to block an attack from reaching andy, but the shot was tailored to get through that and it blasted off his arm.

andy managed to drag caleb to his coven before having to flee, as helping him - a declared enemy of the rune coven - was causing them magisomatic agony because of their pact’s rules. the kindness wasn’t forgotten - andy had gotten very used to the stringent, merciless atmosphere of their coven, and caleb’s sacrifice was... impactful, to put it mildly.

caleb was taken to intensive care - luckily, the heat of the metal armor cauterized the wound, and it was a fairly uncomplicated recovery, especially as caleb was surrounded with members of his coven - friends. vee was actually one of caleb’s assistants in crafting adaptive prosthetics.

over the next year, as the conflict neared its zenith, andy continued to help caleb in whatever little ways they could when the two of them crossed paths, especially as caleb was getting used to not having a left arm and using his metal prosthetics as auxiliary weapons. andy did nothing major that would incur magisomatic pains, but enough to quietly build up.

until (in a very dramatic fashion) andy and caleb are hiding in an abandoned building as skirmishing rages outside and andy is just like “i feel so hopeless. i feel like this will last forever and they’ll keep forcing me out there to kill people and then i’ll die someday, and all i’ll have done is destroy things and kill people and it’d just be for the best if i died right now--” and then caleb kissed them, because andy’s gotta know they’re valued (how ridiculous to think that andy’s coven doesn’t appreciate the kind person they have in their ranks - how stupid of them), because caleb suddenly just realized that andy dying would be unacceptable. and the problem is, andy kissed back, for a perfect crystalline moment.

and then andy screamed, and the dark brown color of their iris dripped out of their right eye, leaving cold, cold blue, and burns started to spiral from their eyelid.

it is forbidden to have relations with enemies of the coven.

this had broken andy’s pact with their coven, and their coven had punishment for oathbreakers.

caleb dragged andy to his apartment, and stayed there with them for the couple days as andy shook and screamed and sweat as the burns settled. a brand.

caleb was planning to send a message to his coven, explaining what had happened, that andy had accidentally broke oath with their bitch of a coven and that they’d probably come after them soon, it wasn’t safe for andy to stay here in the city - andy’s the one who saved him a year ago, remember, eye for an arm - you gotta understand - caleb can’t abandon them, not now, not ever -

but then word reaches him that the rune coven had been eradicated in a totally unrelated incident. arson of their headquarters. andy was actually the only remainder of what had once been a powerful, potent coven.

the conflict ended a couple months later - a lot of covens had been dissolved, even more people had been killed, and the government was threatening to break treaties in order to send in the military because fighting was spilling over into nonmagical neighborhoods of the city. the rune coven and andy’s injury & story were held up as examples of what covens should not be able to impose with their pacts (although very little of these sentiments actually made it into law due to... opposition).

andy consented to speaking about their experience in hopes that it would help lead to peace, then withdrew from the public eye once the entente was established. caleb withdrew from his coven’s politics to be with them and to properly adjust to living life without an arm.

andy just sort of... moved in with caleb, as they had previously been living in the rune coven’s headquarters with their father. they grew their hair out as they had always wanted to, started publicly presenting as more gnc.

caleb used vee’s workshop to craft more adaptive prosthetics for himself, and has made some good business selling them as well as taking commissions. he adjusted to life without fighting - he’d gone from a tumultuous young adulthood into a pact, and from there into the conflict. vee hired him on at her shop for steady work.

as things leveled out, andy started writing papers and books on magical theory - people were interested in the theory behind rune magic, and andy was one of the only people left in the region who had much knowledge on it, and they had a lot of knowledge. eventually they started travelling to give talks at magical studies summits. they did not join another coven, their previous experiences leaving them with... boatloads of trauma. puzzling out theory doesn’t require a pact, only aptitude and a willingness to toil through academia.

five years after they met, they got married. it was very good. a small ceremony with just close friends - neither of them have much family left.

a year or two before the current story, they adopted a baby girl named daisy, and have been raising her with a lot of love, care, and kindness. caleb grew a beard. andy got their ears pierced. they bought a nice little house. at least once a week you’ll see andy and daisy bringing caleb lunch at vee’s shop, daisy toddling along holding andy’s hand, and caleb taking his lunch break to go eat with them at the park a couple blocks away, returning a little bit late carrying daisy in the crook of his arm.

if you read this, thank you. love is so good. i love people getting happy lives together past their troubles and hardships. none of this is permanent but it’s all good.

[aion-rsa]

20 Scariest Horror Games Ever Made

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Video games have been trying to scare us since the early ’80s. While the seminal Haunted House Atari game, one of the earliest survival horror games, presented its scares through a mix of heavily-pixelated ghosts and spiders that weren’t so frightening at all, it was indicative of where the genre would one day go. With another push, thanks to titles such as Sweet Home and Alone in the Dark, the survival horror genre would give birth to some of its most frightening creations: Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, Eternal Darkness, and Dead Space, to name a few. 

Today, the genre lives on and continues to evolve. From interactive horror movies like Until Dawn to first-person experiences beyond comprehension like P.T., the survival horror genre continues to prove why it��s one of the mainstays of the industry and why it will always rise from the grave for one last scare. 

Den of Geek has taken a look back at the long history of the horror genre and chosen 20 titles we think stand as the scariest games ever made:

Dead Space

2008 | Visceral Games

Many of the best examples of sci-fi horror rely on the terror of the unknown. From Alien to Event Horizon, sci-fi horror stories often show us the consequences of going too far and facing something we don’t entirely understand.

That idea is at the heart of nearly everything that makes Dead Space brilliant. While the game’s atmosphere and world-class sound design deserve all the praise they’ve gotten over the years, Dead Space truly distinguishes itself in the ways its enemy design influences the combat and storytelling. You’ll never forget the first time you fell for a Necromorph “playing dead,” a shocking moment that assured that you’d never feel safe in this game, whether in a save room or walking down a quiet hallway.

What begins as gory jump scares quickly turns into a deeper feeling of dread for the player that, when combined with the incredible art and sound design inside the USG Ishimura, makes you feel like you’re constantly in danger. Any second, a Necromorph could pop out of a vent or sneak behind you or…

Resident Evil 4

2005 | Capcom

Many words have been written (including a few of our own) about how Resident Evil 4 brought more of an action movie feel to the horror genre and popularized a more cinematic style that stood in stark contrast to the more methodical survival horror titles the original Resident Evil helped popularize. The significance of the game’s contributions in that respect can’t be overstated.

Yet, it’s easy to forget that Resident Evil 4 remains a truly terrifying game. In lieu of making you feel utterly helpless, Resident Evil 4 delivers its frights in a series of sequences that test your newfound abilities with overwhelming horrors. You may be able to control your weapon more freely in Resident Evil 4 than you could before, but when you’re being chased down by a hulking figure wielding a chainsaw, precision aim is a cold comfort.

Silent Hill 2

2001 | Konami

Ask gamers what they remember about the first Silent Hill and they’ll likely say “the fog.” Granted, that game’s fog-filled streets can partially be attributed to the PlayStation’s atrocious draw distance, but there’s no denying the effectiveness of making a player feel like they’ll never know what’s around the next corner.

Silent Hill 2 relies a little less on fog but secures its status as arguably the most intimidating horror game ever made by invoking similar feelings of uncertainty. The game’s complex psychological narrative loosens your grip on reality while the visceral terror of creations such as Pyramid Head ensure that you’ll find no comfort in whatever answers you may uncover.

Few games have the ability to scar you quite like Silent Hill 2. It lingers in your mind long after the quick scares of other games have settled into a vague memory.

Outlast

2013 | Red Barrels

While Resident Evil and other early horror hits were appropriately labeled as survival horror, the “survival” element in those titles typically revolved around managing limited resources. Even modern survival games are still largely about item management.

The appropriately named Outlast takes a different approach to survival horror. Yes, it deprives you of resources (your battery hungry camera is equal parts annoying and your only real weapon), but surviving Outlast is really about finding a way to mentally overcome the game’s relentless scares. Some may rightfully ask what’s so fun about a game that largely consists of hiding and running through the dark, but genre veterans will see Outlast as a test of their resolve and wit. The joy of Outlast doesn’t necessarily come from playing it or even beating it but from getting to say you survived it.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

2010 | Frictional Games

Even the lowest budget slasher film understands that much of the action in a horror story is based on “running.” In real life, running away from something is typically (if not sometimes unfairly) seen as an act of cowardice. In horror, running away is your first line of defense when faced with something too terrible to comprehend.

Amnesia understands the relationship between running and horror better than many games released before it and after it. By depriving players of any real way to defend themselves, Amnesia not only turns running into an act of courage in a game where sound triggers monsters and traversing darkness blindly drives you mad, but it showed that horror games no longer had to incorporate half-baked combat systems to engage and scare players.

BioShock

2007 | 2K Boston

Horror films fans often debate about what “is” and “isn’t” horror. For instance, some may label Silence of the Lambs “horror” while others call it a thriller. But there are also many others who simply find cause to enjoy everything that scares them regardless of the label.

Maybe BioShock doesn’t typically receive the horror designation, but it’s absolutely one of the most unnerving and effective examples of horror that you’ll find in gaming. From its opening sequence, which quickly reveals the bloody aftermath of a madman’s delusions, to its enthralling questions about the nature of control, BioShock is genuinely terrifying when it needs to be.

BioShock may not run on nightmare fuel, but it uses the genre’s best tricks to propel its brilliant narrative and incredible world-building.

F.E.A.R.

2005 | Monolith Productions

F.E.A.R. released around the height of the “scary little girl” movement that really kicked into overdrive when The Ring became a surprise hit in the US. Without a doubt, the ghastly little Alma remains one of the best uses of the “creepy child” trope in gaming.

What’s easy to forget, though, is that F.E.A.R. was also an innovative action game that set a new standard for the quality of enemy A.I. in a first-person shooter. It’s that combination of Western action and Eastern horror that not only makes F.E.A.R. unique but the kind of horror gaming experience that finds a way to keep you on your toes while still letting you blast your way through rooms of enemies.

The Thing

2002 | Computer Artworks

Back in the early 2000s, it was easy to dismiss a licensed game meant to tie into a movie or TV show, which is why you may not know that The Thing was ever adapted into a video game. But despite all of that, The Thing offers a truly innovative take on horror gaming.

Much like the film it’s based on, The Thing‘s gameplay revolves around mistrust and isolation. You never really know which of your NPC companions is infected, but what’s truly fascinating are the ways that the game makes you work to gain the trust and loyalty of those same characters who are also unsure whether you are who you say you are. Never knowing who is friend and who is foe makes for a truly unnerving experience, to say the least, and few horror titles since have come close to replicating the terror of The Thing‘s trust system.

Alan Wake

2010 | Remedy Entertainment

Essentially gaming’s finest unofficial Stephen King story, Alan Wake features many of the legendary horror writer’s most notable tropes. There’s a writer, a small rural town surrounded by woods, and monsters who feed off of the protagonist’s own words.

But this isn’t just a copy and paste King video game homage. Developer Remedy Entertainment puts real heart into the title’s incredibly creepy story, which is complemented perfectly by the game’s emphasis on lighting and shadow as well as its dreamlike atmosphere. Alan Wake is absolutely a love letter to the small-town horrors most associated with King and Stephen Lynch, but the game’s occasional winks to those storytelling masters do little to dilute the effectiveness of its best scares.

Clock Tower

1995 | Human Entertainment

Released about a year before Resident Evil, Clock Tower was barely out before it was consumed by the impact of one of the most revolutionary games of the ’90s. Yet, Clock Tower excelled at horror concepts that were not only missing from Resident Evil but are arguably underrepresented in modern horror games.

Thematically inspired by Dario Argento films, Clock Tower was a point-and-click adventure game that required you to work your way through an old house while constantly evading a relentless stalker armed with a comically large pair of garden shears. Not only was Clock Tower‘s “evade and escape” gameplay ahead of its time, but we’d argue that few games can boast a slasher villain as memorable as the wonderfully named Scissorman.

The Clock Tower series is seemingly doomed to never get the love it deserves, but the original remains one of the absolute scariest games of its era.

P.T.

2014 | Kojima Productions

It sometimes feels like the drama surrounding P.T. (its stealth release, the involvement of Hideo Kojima/Guillermo del Toro, the cancellation of Silent Hills) overshadow the game itself. That’s understandable, but when people talk about P.T., the conversation should begin and end with how it may be the scariest piece of entertainment in any medium. 

The brilliance of P.T. lies in its ability to disorient the player no matter how many times they navigate its labyrinthine environment that somewhat invokes the maddening maze of Hellraiser 2‘s vision of Hell. Much like when you have a nightmare that takes place in your own home, P.T. constantly finds ways to alter seemingly familiar surroundings until you feel so betrayed that you don’t want to look around the next corner. It’s that invocation of insanity that truly defines P.T. scares, even if the visuals of the game’s ghosts and disturbing occurrences are enough to leave you petrified. Many have tried, but few other developers have come close to replicating the pure fear that P.T. instills in those who were brave enough to play it. 

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

2003 | Tecmo

Confrontation only instills fear if you are not confident in the outcome. This is why many horror game creators often strip players of all forms of self-defense. After all, having a weapon with which you can repel and kill the monsters inspires a sense of safety — or at least confirms that you have a fighting chance to survive to the end of the game. 

Fatal Frame II takes a different and brilliant approach to confrontation and video game combat. The game arms you with a special camera that is able to ward off spirits. However, the camera is only really effective if you are willing to get uncomfortably close to the spirits and wait for your camera to indicate that you are going to get an optimal shot. This style of in-your-face combat, combined with the grotesque design of the spirits themselves, means that you never feel confident in your ability to defend yourself despite the fact that you’re armed with the best possible weapon for your situation.

The original Fatal Frame is also quite good, but the level and character design of Crimson Butterfly puts it over the top. 

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

2002 | Silicon Knights

The best horror games are the ones that take full advantage of the unique abilities of the video game medium. That isn’t to say that a more cinematic video game experience can’t be scary, but rather that there’s something special about horror games that explore what’s possible when you’re the one responsible for what happens. So far as that goes, few do it better than Eternal Darkness.

We really like Eternal Darkness‘ level design, centuries-spanning story, and memorable cast of characters, but Eternal Darkness‘ sanity system is the reason it’s on this list. As your protagonist loses their sanity through various in-game mechanics, the world around them is altered in fascinating ways. Statue heads follow them around, you can noises everywhere, the room shakes, the walls bleed…madness has really been depicted this effectively in a game since.

However, the best moments come when the game makes players believe that all of their saves have been deleted or that their GameCube somehow shut itself off. Those moments of meta-horror genuinely make you question what’s real and what’s in your head.

Manhunt

2003 | Rockstar

The horror of Manhunt isn’t limited to the ways the game scares you. This gem’s premise, environments, and tense stealth sequences are all exceptional but we’ve also seen them elsewhere before. What makes Manhunt truly horrifying is how it makes you feel when you play it. 

In Manhunt, you are a contestant in someone else’s perverse snuff fantasy, one that forces you to reckon with your own humanity and just how far you’ll go to survive. While you can simply kill the foes in your way (or sometimes avoid them entirely), the game entices you to commit increasingly brutal murders in order to get the best rewards. The slimy praises from the director of this interactive snuff film, the uncomfortable visuals of the kill itself, and that disturbing feeling of accomplishment you get from pulling off a truly brutal kill stay with you long after the traditional scares of other games have faded away. 

We once called Manhunt a true grindhouse game. Well, much like the grindhouse films of old, Manhunt will challenge your perception of what constitutes entertainment.

Resident Evil Remake

2002 | Capcom

The original Resident Evil is a brilliant game. It forever changed our expectations of the video game horror genre and set a standard that is still used to measure horror games to this day. However, the original Resident Evil pales in comparison to the greatness of its very own 2002 remake.

Resident Evil‘s remake is more than just a series of upgraded visuals (even if those are so good that the game somehow still looks incredible to this day). It’s about the Resident Evil team’s desire to make the game they wanted to make in 1996 but couldn’t due to the technical restraints. That vision includes incredible visual scares (many of which are made possible by the cinematography of the game’s fixed camera system), claustrophobic environments that feel like they’re choking the life out of you, and even the presence of Crimson Heads, a vicious mutation that may emerge if you don’t properly kill a regular zombie. It embodies everything that’s brilliant about the ’90s survival horror classic while improving it in ways that make it feel timeless no matter when you play it.

The fact that this remake somehow makes Resident Evil more accessible and more terrifying is an accomplishment that can’t be overstated. This truly is the gold standard of video game remakes. 

Until Dawn

2015 | Supermassive Games

The thrill of ’80s slasher films was rarely about the story, the message, or any other traditional cinematic virtues. It was more often about the dark pleasure of finding out who is going to get it next and how they are going to die. Until Dawn takes that thrill and mixes it with the interactivity you can only find in video games.

In this game, your choices can directly – or indirectly – affect whether a character lives or dies. You know how horror fans sometimes shout at the movie screen to warn characters to run or turn around or not to go in there? Well, now you get to see how far your advice will really get those characters.

Of course, the novelty of that mechanic sometimes results in people forgetting just how scary this game is. Granted, most of the horror revolves around jump scares, but the way that Until Dawn is able to consistently make us jump out of our seats through an escalating series of terrifying moments showcases not only the developers’ love for the slasher genre but its understanding that a jump scare is only as good as the feeling of dread right before it.

Until Dawn is the ’80s slasher film that gamers spent decades asking for, but it’s also more than that. It’s a game that manages to turn quick scares into lasting nightmares that are as fun to share with friends as the most memorable horror hits of the ’80s.

Condemned: Criminal Origins

2005 | Monolith Productions

Quietly released as part of the Xbox 360’s launch lineup, there’s a good chance that many gamers of that era overlooked Condemned in favor of titles like Perfect Dark: Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3, and Kameo: Elements of Power. That said, those who took a chance on this obscure horror title know it easily ranks among the scariest game ever made. 

The story of a federal investigator who is tasked with tracking down a series of serial killers, Condemned covers thematic ground that we surprisingly don’t see that often in gaming. It’s closer to a movie like Seven than the supernatural fare we typically get in horror games. However, it proves to be the perfect setup.

The mindset and motives of these serial killers often manifest themselves through the lairs they inhabit. While none of the lairs are as terrifying as the department store where some mannequins are actually killers in disguise, the design of each area brilliantly forces you to dive into the mind of some truly disturbed individuals in order to stop them.

On top of that, Condemned set a gold standard for first-person horror (and first-person horror combat) at a time when that concept was as rough as it’s ever been. In fact, the great Resident Evil 7 owes more of its design pedigree to Condemned than P.T. or previous Resident Evil games. Yet, Condemned may still be scarier than even its spiritual successors.

Darkwood

2017 | Acid Wizard Studio

2017 was an incredible year for gaming, so it’s really no surprise that Darkwood flew under the radar during its initial release. Then again, we don’t know many players who would willingly wade into this nightmare once they realize what it is.

You wake up in Darkwood unsure of who you are, where you are, or what is happening. All you know is that some malevolent force is attacking your cabin at night. To survive its increasingly violent attacks, you must scrounge for supplies, defensive tools, and anything that will help you keep the lights on for another night. While those nighttime scenes are the source of Darkwood‘s most memorable moments, it’s those other times when you’re wandering an endlessly dark forest scrounging for supplies that Darkwood instills a feeling of hopelessness in you that leaves you wondering how you’re ever going to make it.

Survival has long been a core element of horror gaming, but when it comes to making you truly dread the dark and feel as if you are surviving against impossible odds, Darkwood does it better than any game in recent memory. 

Fallout 3

2008 | Bethesda Game Studios

Surprised? Don’t be. We already named Fallout 3 one of the scariest games ever made and we’re sticking by that claim.

Yes, most visions of a post-apocalyptic future tend to be pretty horrifying. Skeletons holding hands on their death bed, grotesque mutants who stalk you in the dark, a lack of resources…there is plenty of traditional horror in Fallout 3. Yet, few of those traditional elements would be as effective if it wasn’t for the untraditional way that Bethesda delivers them. 

Fallout 3 is a game that lets you get into trouble. You explore the Capital Wasteland at your own peril, and that freedom of exploration usually results in some nightmarish creation that you are usually not prepared to properly deal with. Remember your very first encounter with a Deathclaw? The way that Fallout 3 creates a general level of tension and fear is impressive, but what separates the game are those moments when you stumble into its darkest depths and encounter its true horrors.

Five Nights At Freddy’s

2014 | Scott Cawthon

We tend to misremember cult classics. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is remembered as this unflinchingly brutal and violent horror film, but there’s actually very little on-screen violence in the movie. First Blood is typically considered one of the prime examples of the high octane ’80s action movie, but it’s actually more of a character study in which Rambo barely kills anybody.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is in a similar position. It’s seen as one of the godfathers of the YouTube jump scare era, which some people consider to be the cheapest form of horror imaginable, but actually playing the game reveals something much more interesting. While Five Nights at Freddy’s often warns you of impending scares via a gameplay language that you must learn to decipher, the game’s animatronic monstrosities feel unpredictable at first, as you scramble from camera to camera trying to figure out their next move. 

Through its minimalist design, lack of gore, and fascinating premise, Five Nights at Freddy’s helped usher in an era of horror gaming that aimed to show that scaring the living hell out of the player was a selling point in and of itself. 

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from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/371C8GC

[a-d-n-d-journal]

Game Session #13

Characters:

Mirri in the wind, tabaxi "cleric" (of Tempus); rapier, lute, robes

Rysiel "Riceboy", half-elf druid (Circle of the Moon); acid burns, simple clothing (vest w/bare chest) and leather armor, scimitar

Zastu, dragonborn rogue (Thief); white scales almost completely covered in a hooded cape and mask, leather armor, short bow and shortsword + dagger

Introducing...

Kix, ?race? rogue (Arcane Trickster); nice clothes, leather armor, rapier, shortbow

Saying goodbye to...

Teir, tiefling warlock;

Noteable NPCs...

Sydiri Haunlar, human (Chondathan) fighter; brunette, chain shirt, dagger, shortbow, wooden club

Darathra Shendrel, human; Lord protector of Triboar

Narth Tezrin and Alaestra Ulgar, humans; Own and run the Lion's Share trading store

Darz Helgar, human; Groundskeeper for the two large caravan camps in Triboar; squirrelly

Urgala Meltimer, human; ex-adventurer and owner of the Northshield House (inn); her late wife died during an adventure

Ghelryn Foehammer, dwarf; master armorsmith, claim to fame is fashioning armor for the kind and queen

Urlam Stockpool, human; owner of the Triboar Travellers, a caravan escort company; dresses very well and sports a bright red eye patch with the Zhentarim winged serpent

Valken Naspeer, half-elf; Urlam's friend and body guard; dresses almost as suave as Urlam, his posture suggests that he's very dangerous.

Nemyth, tiefling; owner and proprieter of the Triboar Arms tavern

I'm a little late writing this, but notes from Rysiel's player really helped! :D

The adventurers wake up at the Northshield house, in a small two-bed room they decided to share, despite having more than enough gold to get separate rooms. Sydiri paid for her own room. Teir's brain has been spinning all night regarding the issue with upsetting some members of the Lord's Alliance. He decides to buy a horse from one of the stables and travel back to Waterdeep--alone--in order to petition the nobles there for forgiveness on their behalf. (Reminder: Rysiel attacked dwarves loyal to queen Dagnabbet of Mithril hall, at Zephyros' tower without provocation) He tells the others his plan, but doesn't invite them along.

Without her employer, Zastu has a momentary crisis about what to do. Luckily, Rysiel suggests they pay back those snooty guys at the Everwyvern Inn for being so rude. (Sydiri stays behind at the inn to hang out with Urgala, the innkeeper) They decide to break into the wine cellar, but first they head over to the Lion's Share to get servant costumes. Once there, Narth tells them that they don't sell such things. The Everwyvern Inn is an upscale establishment that provides its workers with uniforms. Besides, the Lion's Share isn't that kind of store... But whyever would they want to dress like servants anyway? The three of them visit the Triboar Arms to find something for breakfast, and to talk to Nemyth (the tiefling owner) about the Everwyvern House. The party is mostly upfront about their goal-robbing his 'competitor'. Nemyth balks at the idea, but maintains his suave composure. The Everwyvern Inn has very different clientelle, plus they have rooms, while he does not. "I can't be seen with their wine! I would go out of business. What did you think I would say?" He subtly guides them out back for a more frank conversation. He doesn't like the people who own the place, but if anyone asked him about a robbery there... He would have to pretend like he knew nothing. And no, he's not going to help! Here's what I know, he says... Half the people there are actors, paid to make the place look busy and exclusive. Second, the owner, Draven is a mage, so be careful of any magic, though you probably could tell that just by looking at all the glowing lights and floating plants. Third, he hires thugs to keep the riffraff out (the party had a run-in with them as they were considered riffraff themselves). The party presses him for information, such as how to get into the cellar, but Nemyth frowns at them. He knows nothing. It's uncertain if he's telling the truth or not. They give him a big tip of 100 coppers (1 gold/10 silver) for their meal, and head off to the Triboar Traveller caravan escort service to ask the same questions.

They approach the man wearing a red eyepatch with the Zhentarim serpant emblazoned in black, Urlam. They seem surprised when the immaculately-dressed human (and his suave half-elf bodyguard, Valken) recognizes them. Rysiel asks Valken if he's up for some mischief but doesn't offer context. Valken says he's on the clock, so Rysiel asks "Later?" Valken asks if he's hitting on him, and Rysiel asks in Valken wants him to be. Then they become more upfront about what they're after: "Hey, we want to rob the Everwyvern Inn's wine cellar. Do you want any?" Urlam purses his lips and shares a glance with Valken. He gives them a shit-eating grin. "Their wine is quite good, but I can't be seen with contraband bottles. Wouldn't want to have Darathra on my back." They try to get some information out of them, but all they find out is that the two of them like to eat there occasionally, and are on good terms with the owner, Draven. (I check Urlam's alignment, and roll a d100 to determine whether or not he tips off Draven, with 51-100 being a yes... I roll a 91)

The three adventurers stake out the inn from the trees, for about 40 minutes. They're waiting for a servant to come out of the inn, but grow impatient. They joke that they turn to crime as soon as Teir leaves. Riceboy turns into a cat to go in through a window at the back of the inn and unlock the door for the other two. Rysiel easily finds his way downstairs, but he also finds burly guards in waiting for them in the cellar. They're talking openly about Draven being tipped off, and the dubiousness of the warning. He reports back and they decide to try to steal from the other fancy restaurant instead. Despite the fact that this restaurant wasn't the one that was so rude to them, now they just want some pretentious wine, and to cause some mischief. They move to the trees on the perimeter of the Pleasing Platter, and Rysiel changes into a cat again to scope out the place. it's very busy in the kitchen, as lunch is approaching, but Rysiel is stealthy enough to sneak in. He finds someone (Kix) drinking behind a makeshift wall of barrels, who is happy to see him and offers cat-Rysiel some wine. Rysiel lets out a confused maow and then darts off to report back to his companions.

Rysiel and Mirri start performing out front of the restaurant to distract the workers, so Zastu can sneak in through the kitchen. (Keep in mind that this is a fancy restaurant in the country, not a bar in downtown Waterdeep) Zastu goes around back to the open kitchen door, and tries to convince the cooks to go see the performers, but they're suspicious and uninterested. "Why would we care that our bosses hired musicians out front? That happens all the time, and besides, it's almost lunch." She then tells them she has to go to the cellar and talk to someone who went down there. Somehow she's convincing enough that they go with that. "New Girl" takes Zastu downstairs, but there's no one in sight. The girl notices that the barrels are stacked oddly, and the two of them discover that there's a youngish-looking person in nice clothes wasted and drinking wine. New Girl leaves to get her supervisor. Zastu immediately tries stuffing bottles into this rando's bag, but quickly discovers that the weight and clinking of the bottles is inhibiting. She only has a moment, so she empties the bag again and just grabs one bottle. She also grabs the rando's arm and hauls him out of the cellar. They run into New Girl and Supervisor on the stairs, and somehow Zastu bluffs her way past them.

They collect Mirri and Rysiel--who are playing out front for no audience--and they go to the nearby abandoned house, which has obviously been grafitti'd and carved up by the local teens. New person/Kix is already pretty drunk, so the other three split the sole bottle of nice wine that Zastu stole. I guess they chat or something?

Their short rest is interrupted by a boulder crashing loudly into the building in front of them--the splinters and shrapnel flying everywhere while people start screaming. More boulders fly overhead and more crashes are heard. The field before them dips down to another level, hiding the approaching enemies. Only two heads on two broad sets of shoulders are visible at first, then several large flightless birds with axe-shaped beaks appear from behind the ridge with orcs riding them! They enter the town quickly and start harassing and chasing down townsfolk. They don't seem to be trying to kill anyone, but they aren't pulling their strikes as they ride past either. Lagging behind the axebeak birds are two groups of six goblinoid-shaped creatures, with skin like molten lava, all glowing and sinister. Everything they touch catches on fire, and they like to touch a lot of things! Seconds later, three larger orcs march up wearing heavy platmail, and behind those three another orc on an axebeak, but this one has a single ominously glowing eye...

Roll for initiative! Some of the townsfolk get ready for battle... I hand out character sheets for Darathra the Lord Protector, Ghelryn the orc/giantslayer, Darz the ex-rogue, Narth the wannabe adventurer, and Urgala the retired adventurer. ((Riceboy takes Darathra, Zastu takes Darz, Mirri takes Urgala, and Kix takes Ghelryn; I take control of Narth and Sydiri)) Mirri casts Vicious Mockery at the enemies as they advance. One of the Orogs (large orcs in platemail) is hit with psychic damage and has disadvantage on its next attack. Narth dashes from his store to see what's going on, and to see if he can help. The magmin (goblin-looking things) have fun lighting trees and fences on fire. Darz follows Narth to see what's going on. Urgala leaves her inn and takes out her shortbow. She sticks two arrows in the closest magmin, killing it. Kix takes out his shortbow as well, and sticks another magmin with an arrow, then uses their bonus action to hide around the corner. Sydiri shoots her own shortbow, sticking an orc with an arrow. One of the orogs jumps the fence of the abandoned house's yard, and attacks Zastu. Fortuntely, it misses with both swipes of its axe. Darathra sees Narth and Darz, as well as the advancing enemies. She dashes toward them, but isn't fast enough to engage just yet. The orcs on axebeaks advance. -one goes towards Urgala and Sydiri at the inn -one leeps the fence to attack Zastu, but misses -others continue to harass the townsfolk -three see the dwarf, Ghelryn, and attack their mortal enemy, injuring him greatly The two fire giants move forward, stepping over the fence, seemingly approaching Zastu. Zastu, intimidated, backs up to where Mirri and Rysiel stand. Rysiel casts the Tidal Wave spell, and manages to knock an Orog and one of the Fire Giants to the ground. The second giant is hit, but stays standing. Oddly, that giant only checks on their partner before continuing past the adventurers. The one-eyed orc is Norgra! He sees his sworn foe: Sydiri, and rides toward her on his axebeak, casting Spiritual Weapon as he approaches. The spectral spear attacks Sydiri, but misses. The dwarf Ghelryn manages to escape the three orcs by falling back into his house and barring the door. He dashes through to the other side to get away. --end of round one--

[donegeonsndragons]

CoS: Session 2 Highlights

Long-awaited second session! The party gets to learn how combat works, gets major plot points, and has some pretty interesting interactions with NPCs.

Premise: the party has run away from the town of Luna, away from the were-people there. As they go down the road that they came from, thick fog rolls in and where they expected the town of Initia to be, it’s just skeletal trees and fog... 

First off, they notice that Raynn has disappeared somewhere, most likely while they were running

The party then takes a really long to decide what they’re doing

The fog is really thick, and not even dancing lights illuminates much more than 5 meters ahead

To get some bearing, they check to see if the trees around them are the same trees they saw on the way to Luna

Damakos gets a nat20, and he knows that the trees aren’t the same and this type of tree shouldn’t even live in this area

After awhile, they decide to sleep and get a long rest while Buzzlorn acts as a sentry (as he doesn’t need to sleep)

It’s daylight now, and it’s so dim and grey that it’s not any better, and the fog is still just as heavy

Buzzlorn hears the sound of footsteps and yells “We have visitors!”

That wakes up everybody

At this point, Damakos and Mu can see silhouettes slipping in and out of the fog

Mu immediately gets weapons out

Damakos casts thaumaturgy to make his voice 3 times louder  Damakos: We come in peace!

5 people approach slowly, looking scared and a little crazed ???: No apparition of Strahd comes in peace

Combat start!

The varana immediately runs up a tree and prepares for battle that way while Vogal hides behind the tree

Damakos casts Cloud of Daggers, which accidentally catches Mu too

Mu actually takes a lot of damage during the entire combat session, being the main target 

After an arduous combat session with 3 of the strangers taken down, two of them attempt to take out Damakos and Buzzlorn

The guy attacking Damakos gets stabbed by Vogal, who coughs up blood before dying

The other guy crit fails his attack roll, looks up at Buzzlorn, and immediately falls to his knees, crying and praying

Combat ends with 3 dead guys, 1 unconscious, and 1 terrified 

Buzzlorn leans down and hugs the praying guy, consoling him

Vogal, cautious about looting around the party since last time he stole from the treasury and got slapped, stealths and loots the bodies

He finds very little money, but he also finds a letter with a fancy seal 

The letter reads: To whoever may receive this, I, the burgomaster of the town of Barovia, ask for your help to protect my daughter against the monster that preys upon her. You will be rewarded handsomely.

They question the guy, who, because of some name mix-ups, is called Tatiana now

He says that he and his party were hired and they were headed to Castle Ravenloft when they stumbled across the party

While this is happening, Mu takes his axe and chops off the head of the unconscious guy to the horror of everybody else

They then convince Tatiana to lead them to his town

As they walk through the fog (and later, rain), Tatiana tells them that the monster Strahd has a habit of kidnapping maidens from the land of Barovia, and that the burgomaster’s daughter Ireena seems to be the latest target

The fog and the forest clears out, and now they see an encampment on a hill filled with colourful tents and caravans

Two guards immediately call out to them, asking them to state their business

They say that this is a Vistani camp, and Tatiana is not one of them 

After convincing the guards that they’re not sketchy and they should let them in, they hear the familiar voice of Besnik (the teen that hired them in the first place)

Besnik looks confused, then happy, then really ashamed

Besnik: What are you all doing here? Nobody should be able to...wait...I made an oopsies. Oops?

He says that he waited for 3 days for them to return, and ended up going home instead

He also says that people can only enter Barovia if they have an item of Strahd’s or they were invited in, and that they can’t leave 

The varana, Mu, and Damakos are really pissed off

The varana tries to bribe the guards to look the other way as he punches him, but they say that they can’t because Besnik is the chief’s son

Damakos causes a small explosion right behind the guards, causing them to turn around in shock

Because of the explosion, a bunch of Vistani are coming down the hill to see what the kerfuffle is

The varana punches Besnik in the face, then proceeds to convince him that it was out of shock from the explosion

He succeeds

Suddenly, a scream sounds from the middle of the camp, and Bisnek recognizes it as his dad

Mu picks Besnik up by the scruff of his neck, and tells him to guide them to where his dad would be

They get there before anyone else does, and they see the Vistani chief on the ground dead while a pale man with dark hair and red robes stands over him

The varana feels the strongest presence of undead emanating from this man (or rather, vampire), enough to almost make his head hurt

They ask the vampire why he killed the Vistani chief, and the vampire responds “Someone stole my book, and I believe you have it”

Vogal, the one holding the book, tries to sneak and fails

The vampire points at him, and Vogal is charmed

As Vogal approaches Strahd, compelled to give him the book

Mu grabs Vogal and tosses Vogal into the nearby tent to avoid it

The vampire casts mage hand and catches the book in mid-air, starting to take it in

The vampire introduces himself as Strahd von Barovich

Damakos starts to talk to Strahd about what the book is and the contents, to which Strahd smoothly avoids the topic

The varana tries to jump and grab the book mid-air while Strahd is distracted, but Strahd immediately turns and asks if he thought that he really wouldn’t notice

The varana lets go, and Vogal manages to recover and get out of the tent

Strahd is questioned more, and the varana manages to grapple the book again

Strahd tells Vogal to “take care of his monkey friend”

Damakos goes to help the varana pull the book (which doesn’t budge) while Vogal starts approaching the varana

Mu tries to grab Vogal again, but in a blink of an eye Strahd moves in front of Mu and punches him in the stomach

Mu passes out

The varana and Damakos, seeing that their efforts are going to waste, let go and the book floats to Strahd’s hand

Strahd looks smug and asks if anyone else wants to try anything

Buzzlorn: We’re clearly outmatched, we’ll leave you in peace Strahd: See, I like him, he’s polite

Strahd raises his hand, and fog descends upon him, and when it lifts, he’s gone

Buzzlorn goes and heals Mu 

Bisnek is sobbing over the body of his dad, and the party asks him what just happened

He says that his dad was in charge of holding onto Strahd’s book, but that since the book went missing he must’ve punished his dad by killing him

Damakos: Does this mean you’re the chief now? Bisnek: ...oh shit

Bisnek says that he doesn’t know what to do next, but that Granny Eva has the gift of the sight and would know what to do (grandmas always know)

They approach a small purple tent, which everyone enters except for Buzzlorn, who is too big to fit inside

The inside smells of smokey wood, and an old woman sits at a table with a deck of cards

Damakos: Hey Granny Eva! Madame Eva: That’s Madame for you, kind sir

In the same breath, they tell Madame Eva that the chief is dead and that they need information on Strahd

After giving her a moment to mourn, she turns and tells them that she has been expecting them, and that she can answer questions

She tells them that Strahd has been the ruler of the land of Barovia for centuries, ruling with an iron fist. Barovia exists on another dimension of sorts, and so Strahd has control over who can enter and leave. She says that only the Vistani, who he had a blood debt to many generations ago, are allowed in and out of the land. Everyone else is trapped, and it will probably require killing Strahd to escape. She also says that Strahd has a habit of kidnapping girls whenever he gets bored, though she knows no pattern

She then takes her cards and spreads out 5 of them, telling them she can give them their fortune

“This card tells of history. Knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand the enemy.” The card shows a picture of a necromancer. "A woman hangs above a roaring fire. Find her, and you find the treasure.” 

“This card tells of a powerful force for good and protection, a holy symbol of great hope.” The card shows a picture of a monk. "The treasure you seek is hidden behind the sun, in the house of a saint.”

“This is a card of power and strength. It tells of a weapon of vengeance: a sword of sunlight.” The card shows a picture of a priest.   “You will find what you seek in the castle, amid the ruins of a place of supplication”

“This card sheds light on one who will help you greatly in the battle against darkness.” The card shows a picture of a fierce beast. “A werewolf holds a secret hatred for your enemy. Use his hatred to your advantage.”

“Your enemy is a creature of darkness, whose powers are beyond mortality. This card will lead you to him.” The card shows a picture of a dark shadowy figure. “He lurks in the depth of darkness, in the one place to which he must return.”

With their new quest and objectives, the party heads out of the tent, ready for their adventure!

[gwythaint]

For several years, I have been running a Wuxia pastiche campaign within my Northport setting.  The population of Northport is quite mixed,  having a large number of goblin artisans (the goblins have lived in the city since its founding a few thousand years ago), humans, orcs, and a fair amount of mixed folk, given the situation to the east, where the nation of Shevnia lost a war with orcs because of a lost paytrain for their army, sort of like the post goblin war of Lesserton & Mor.  There are nations with different cultures to either side of Northport, which is set in an area inspired by Banestorm, in the old empire of Aral, with Valdassya to the west, and Shevnia to the east.  In addition to the Aralaise speaking Orcs, Goblins, and humans, there are two other communities: Little Shevnia to the east, and Little Sahud to the west.  I was sort of looking at Tredroy as an inspiration for part of this.  (Of course my city was also informed by the advenure Banrnacus, City in Peril. from Dragon Magazine # 80, as mentioned on my last podcast, along with my frequently recommended Ruins of the Undercity)

I know that using a pan-Asian pastiche like Sahud in my campaign is pretty crassly not PC, but I had a request by several players armed with google translate and wikipedia articles and a general knowledge base of cheesy kung fu films that wanted to play in that kind of setting. With apologies to the large number of people who may be offended by this kind of colonial cultural appropriation, this is how the long running conflict between Sakemoko , the patron of these characters, roughly 450 points:

Sakemoko is a squire+treasure hunter+ 50pt genin lens with born warleader 3 ,charisma +2, social regard 2: respected, (Social stigma minority, code of honor: bushido, sense of duty to Sahudese,) guild rank 4, status 2 filthy rich Large ally group of catfolk ninja office:master of funerals, He also has several points in independent income based on His involvement in numerous side businesses

and Akira Aku No, his enemy, roughly 500 points

half oni boss, head of rival ninja clan Brute +treasure hunter+ 50pt wizard lens+ 50pt ninja lens+ infernal + half ogre, has bloodlust, berserk

Both of these figures had extensive ally groups, each having at their service numerous ashigaru, and rival ninja clans.

The Team consisting of Chye Isuel, an ashigaru with some distant dragonman heritage, Chou-Zen Mou, an elder infused wizard specialized in lightning spells, Ales Konstantin, a Shevnian Squire+Adept, Iskander, a Valdassian martial artist (the player was using mostly 3e to build him), Tanaka Kojimaru, a Samurai warrior poet. Jin the Yak and Airis Moonshadow were no longer with the group.

Along with them were Di San Ge Er Zi the one eyed Ashigaru, and a number of mercenaries they hired away from Akira Aku No’s mercenary recruitment drive  for promises of better pay, the swordsman Xu, and his partner Chung Wang (Thank you Jackie Chan) as with most of my npc’s, I give a super brief stat block pulled usually from DF15 until more details are needed.

Chung Wang is a Brute St 15 DX 12 IQ 10 Ht 12 Hp 15 per 10 will 10 fp 12 T/s 1d+1/2d+2 Bs 6 mv 6 dodge 9 parry 10 DR 3 torso 5 Skills brawl 13 Two handed sword 14 tetsubo, 2d+4 crushing Gluttony, overconfident, compulsive carousing, greedy

  Xu is a Skirmisher St 11 dx 14 iq 10 ht 11 Hp 11 per 10 will 10 fp 11 T/s 1d-1/1d+1 Bs 7.5 mv 7 dodge 11 parry 12 Dr 3 Combat reflexes, ambidexterous Extravagant, impulsive, compulsive carousing Ambitious, suspicious, jealous Broadsword 16 1d+2 cut Shortsword 12 1d cut Karate 12 Fastdraw katana 15 Fastdraw shortsword 15 Light lamelar and helmet with ear and neck protection, Cheap ornate katana and wakizashi

Having decimated the forces of Akira Aku No on the initial raid to recover the tea set containing a divine being or two, and then by robbing his casino, the oni blooded boss had to resort to hiring mercenaries, including, initially Xu, and Chung Wang and a couple of naginata wielding ashigaru, along with Ale’s enemy, Bresnark, a magic user equipped with Rain of Stones and also accompanied by a Created Brute Warrior, who was defeated and robbed of his mundane gear by Iskander and Tanaka. Bresnark could probably have been taken out, except that he has plot protection as an enemy, and has to be defeated by Ales.

During the assault on Sakemoko’s compound, with rooftop ninja archers and assorted poorly armored mooks attacking the gate, a couple of ninja’s got in ( one disguised as a new ashigaru hireling, who was spotted as odd by Di San Ge er Zi,) and  poisoned the food stores in the kitchen  and then through poison shuriken at the two ashigaru it was hired with. They then led a chase through the complex, cutting holes in shoji paper walls and hiding in the rafters before being cornered in the library, where they were cornered and threatened to burn the place down (Ales stepped in and used Extinguish Fire) They were locked in irons, from which they made an escape, and were eventually hunted down.  Chou-Zen had eliminated another ninja who had been on the roof, by casting grease and causing them to fall into the koi pond in the courtyard. Another one was dispatched after the shoji walls were all collapsed and it had no place to hide. The poisoned Ashigaru were treated by the house physician, Yodoko no Hana, who is based on Ehi Shiina from Audition

Yodoku no Hana (poisonous flower) 125pt sage, with Alchemy, poison, physiology first aid, physician, herbary and esoteric medicine, Psychology diagnosis and surgery and detect lies, but no modular book learned wisdom. (Instead, she has the ninja lens) She has callousness, sadist and curious and has torture, pressure secrets and massage? She is attractive and immune to poison and has high pain tolerance. She makes poisons and potions That cause sensitivity and reduce will

In the end, Sakemoko siezed a coveted office, MAster of Funerary Services, from Akira Aku No, who had botched things when his barrels of salt packed dead waiting shipping to the homeland were animated by a toxifier demon, and arranged for all of the funerals of the people who had attacked him, and even gave stipends to the families, building him more Social regard.

Akira Aku No appeared a day later with a full procession including dragonmen and musicians, and sued for peace, saying that he was relocating to Little Shevnia for a beaurocratic job, and sold off his remaining interests in Little Sahud to Sakemoko.

From here, the crew will be heading to Veroigne, a region south of Northport where rice is grown for the Sahudese of Northport.

Veroigne developed in the campaign because a new player wanted to play a member of royalty and his husband, captain of his guard. I had little trouble building them, except for the general absence of Social Status in DF, and settled on giving him a couple of levels of Courtesy Rank. The two, both handsome  Chivalrous knights, had a backstory that created some campaign setting. By not accepting an arranged marriage, Baronet James forfeited the barony to his sister Loraine, who had married Marcel Pequenaud, the baron from a neighboring comunity that had serfs, while most of the Veroignese had died during the plague forty years ago, leaving the small barony struggling.  Pequenaud is a horrible ruler, and most of the family retainers loyal to Sir Percival and James have become Robin-Hood like bandits dedicated to protecting the peasantry from the Barons predations. As his soldiers are largely collecting taxes, Several other PC’s from Northport (Kirpich Rockson the Priest of Grom, Syvanus the elven archer/thief/wizard,  Marlena the Seasoned Apprentice and Snorry Rosslovich the Seasoned Guard, all of whom searched for the lost paytrain in the Shevnian Hexcrawl, along with Dionysus the faun swashbuckler, Aethul the ranger, and Balir Ironhide the Dwarf are on their way to hunt the Terrible Beast of Veroigne, which is terrorizing the peasantry.  Along the way they have met a party of Dolmenwood creatures,  a moss dwarf, a woodgrue, a frost elf and a grimalkin, and had little issue with them except for the compulsive playing of the woodgrue, that affected a party member or two, and a fantastic creature, the Stag of Veroigne, which gave Aethul a blessing when he approached it nicely. Killing it would have brought on a curse, which would have intensified if they had eaten it. It would have resurrected itself like Frey’s Goats the next day had they done so.

As to what James and Percival were up to in Northport? Thjey joined up with a pair of warrior /wizards, Sederic and Grimaldi to hunt down the racketeering Connard DuMenteur (Asshole the Liar) who had informed the Guard of Vilgar’s underground fighting operation at the very start of the campaign, back in August of 2013.  Connard had a fortified building with all access to the undercity cut off, so as to prevent an attack from below.  Among his personal crew of kneecappers and fingertakers who collected money for him were five brutes (including Lourdad and Chienne LaChatte, a gigantic elder infused brute that collected fingers as trophies.

After bashing through the brutes, one surrendered (Lourdad) and they went after DuMenteur. He had holed up in his Magelocked lower appartment, and had time to load up on paut, and  set up a trap. He opened a secret door that lead into an L-shaped closet, and hid in an alcove behind an arras, and waited for them to break in the door. They had been using sense foes earlier, but they all blindly ran into the close, and had it Magelocked behind them, and were stuck for an hour. when they got out ( the door was stone, and the knights were in front, unable to squeeze past to attempt to break down the door), Both DuMenteur and Vilgar were waiting for them, having come to a financial arrangement. ( I have a lot of bosses parlaying).  Grimaldi and Sederic of the cursed, dancing sword went on to do some advertising work for the underground tavern, standing watch while some laborers nailed signs.

  Another group, the one that had negotiated a truce with the ogres in the winecellars and are travelling with a four-armed demon hunting celestial descended from a servitor of Kali had tracked down a couple of cultists who were on their way to buy cuttlefish. The cultists of Saturnos the Devourerer have an initiation rite in which the supplicant dyes theyr robes in cuttlefish ink by placing it in a barrel with them and agitating the squiddos by drowning a cat. This leads to the typical markings of the cultists, blackened hands and scratches all over their faces.  Typically, they are led into what they think is a sex cult with offers of carnal relations with succubi and incubi, and up until now, the assorted groups of PC’s had thought they were dealing with a demon cult, especially due to all of the petty demons and Demons of Old that they had faced. They were forgetting about the Demons from Between the Stars… As it was discovered by this group, which included Oly the thief, who had funded the paytrain Hexcrawl with loot from fighting the cult when Ludlow the Munificent  accidentally blocked their ceremony and created a gate to Hell, Mancini the Guild agent (Agent+Treasure Hunter) and his guard ally Norman, Aoife the Leprechaun Druid who was on the mission to negotiate with the Trolls and entered the Library of Flax, Ardenas Barehand, who had been involved with Oly  in stealing the Jugga Trophy from the Orcish Dojo, along with Kalima, they discovered what the cultists were really about.

Kalima - 250 pt celestial avatar of Kali Att 80 Adv 149 Dis -50 Q-5 Sk 44 Sp 32 Total: 250 Attributes: ST 15 [0]; DX 12 [20]; IQ 13 [60]; HT 13 [10]. Damage 1d+1/2d+1; BL 39 lbs.; HP 15 [0]; Will 14 [0]; Per 13 [0]; FP 14 [0]; Basic Speed 7.00 [-10]; Basic Move 7 [0]. Advantages: Celestial [75] (ST+1, dx+1,iq+1, ht+1, will+1, fp+1, bs +.5, attractive , fit, spirit empathy, celestal nimbus,divine gifts, Divine curse (preferred enemy of demons) weakness to evil areas) Half Ogre [20] ST+4 [40]; IQ-1 [-20]; HT+1 [10]. Advantages: Damage Resistance 1 (Tough Skin, -40%) [3]; Fearlessness 1 [2]; Night Vision 3 [3]. Disadvantages:Appearance (Ugly) [-8]; Social Stigma (Savage) 2 extra arms [20] Higher Purpose, Slay Demons [5] Sharp Teeth [5] power Investiture 2 [20] signature gear, spear [3] Charms [6] Dis: Unattractive [0] Honesty [-10] Pacifism, Cannot harm Innocents [-10] Sense of Duty [-5 ](Adventuring Companions) selfless [-5] Bloodlust [-10] Bad Temper [-10] Unnatural Features 3, (3rd eye, Black glossy skin, flame red hair) Q usually wears only silk loincloth, coral bracelets and anklets, marigold wreath, likes to dance Charms Aura Invisibility Turn Spirit Final Rest Steal HT Eviscerate Skills: Brawling 8 15 Wrestling 4 13+2 Spear 12 15 Garrotte 4 13 Theology 2 12 Thanatology 2 12 Hidden Lore, Demons 4 14 Meditation 2 12 Intimidation 1 15 Detect Lies 1 11 Diplomacy 1 11 Stealth 1 12 Observation 1 12 Dance 1 12 Spells: Protection from Evil 4 15 Invisibility 4 15 Final Rest 4 15 Aura 4 15 Steal HT 4 15 Turn Spirit 4 15 Eviscerate VH 8 15 Equipment: Spear Pussiant +1 vs Demons Currently wearing a bolt of reddish linen as a sari.

When they followed the cuttlefish seekers back to their lair, finding their signature trap, Evil Runes that drain FP,  and stealthily took them and a couple petty demons out, they found a large crowd of cultists about to sacrifice a demon of old! the demon, along with some petty demons participating in the ceremony, immediately attacked Kalima, a favored enemy. The feeling was mutual, and she drained health on a couple, like her ancestor, and the demon ripped free of his silvered chains and flew up to attack her (he had berserk). She killed him by eviscerating him and eating his heart.  Unfortunately for the PC’s all of the deaths (and there were many) enhanced the ceremony in progress, the summoning of an Elder Servitor.  It took a lot, including Ardenas using Winged Knife on the cult champion’s silvered greatsword to kill the servitor but they did. The cultists of the Devourerer, who started the campaign by killing everyone who had the spell divination or any kind of oracular ability, are Cultists of the Elder Gods!

This was noticed by the Ymid, with his Sense Weird ability, but he was two bothered by the destruction of his skiff ( a nifty little contragravity craft he had parked on the other side of the Bone Gate) by a Bhole passing through the gate. Yaay there is now a super Dire Rot worm  somewhere in the dungeon (pencilling in a purple worm encounter). The Juniors group will be fetching alchemical components for the repair of the skiff. Additionally, they have just acquired some cultists of their own; some serfs fleeing Veroigne who were met on the road by thatr gorup, who are all worshipers of Vejovis, the roman defender of injustice, worshiped by Nodwin, the Initiate travelling with the Juniors group.

Now for some art updates:

These two are going to be in Gabor Lux‘s Echoes from Fomalhaut 5.

I am also working on a bundle of Dungeon entrances:

Links coming soon when I get a few more drawn.

In the meantime: Support my Patreon!

Buy my Stuff!

I am an affiliate of Drivethru, all of those links are affiliate links, except for the SJ Games stuff that goes to their website.

A resolution to part of a campaign, and some play reports For several years, I have been running a Wuxia pastiche campaign within my Northport setting.  The population of Northport is quite mixed,  having a large number of goblin artisans (the goblins have lived in the city since its founding a few thousand years ago), humans, orcs, and a fair amount of mixed folk, given the situation to the east, where the nation of Shevnia lost a war with orcs because of a lost…

[sorayahigashikata]

Chapter 58: "YOU HAD ONE JOB."

[a-d-n-d-journal]

Game Session #4

Characters:

Bakunawa, dragonborn paladin; copper scales, chainmail, a longsword and shield

Zastu Qqs, dragonborn rogue; white scales almost completely covered in a hooded cape and mask, leather armor, short bow and shortsword + dagger

Rysiel, half-elf druid; simple clothing and leather armor, scimitar

Teir Maccailleach, tiefling warlock; vibrant gold skin and black hair w/silver highlights, horns, hooves, expensive-looking clothes and leather armor, carries a crossbow and a hand-axe but tries not to use them

Guest starring...

Xolkin Alassandar, half-elf bandit leader; rougishly handsome, vibrant green winged snake on his shoulder, leather armor, scimitar and dagger

Kella Darkhope, human probably-not-actually-a-monk; blonde, weilds a crossbow

I had a friend help me out with the NPCs, and it worked out well. We'll probably do the same again later. For this game, I was at Bakunawa's player's place, while the others were remote.

The party wakes to the sound of a rooster crowing in their barracks. After a few seconds of disorientation, Teir shoots it with Eldrith Blast, spraying rooster guts and blood all over the nearest bunk (which is thankfully empty). Zastu tries to run away from the guts and blood, but runs directly into a guard coming to wake them. A group of people has entered the village! The adventurers rush outside into the brightening gloom (the sun has barely risen) to see if they can make out anything. Unfortunately, the walls of the village are in the way and they hear the crank of the drawbridge being raised. Teir sends his spectral raven into the village to scout, but the newcomers are too far away for him to see through his raven's eyes. The raven returns with vague information--its not very good at human things--counting eight peoples and seven horses, with one of the peoples being the same blonde one from the inn. The adventurers retract the ladder and go back inside to deliberate, though Zastu stays outside to keep watch. Inside the fort's study and lounge, Teir convinces Rysiel to check out the skulls mounted on the space the landing creates between the first and second floors. Rysiel, being a half-elf, is the only one of the part who lacks horns, and wouldn't it be great if he tried one on? Only the dragon-skull fits though, and it looks pretty cool! It works well as a helmet, seeming to fit his head just right, and he has the sense that he feels more protected (but he's not sure how) Bakunawa doesn't try to hide his disgust, and Rysiel tries to remove the skull... But it just slides around his head a bit. It doesn't get stuck on his ears or anything, but... He can't take it off. The half-elf lets out a half-hearted curse. They got back to discussing what to do. Time passes. They can't stay holed up in the fort forever (though there is food available). The people on the other side... Maybe they're nice? And they're going to figure out the ladder trick if they wait long enough... A rooster crows. Rysiel points at Teir accusingly. "Don't kill this one!" Teir puts up his hands. "Fine! But make it stop!" A rooster crows again. And again. And again, before Rysiel finds it behind a chair and picks it up. A rooster stops crowing. "I shall name him Jest," he declares.

Eventually they go back outside (leaving Jest behind) and Teir sends his raven out again. The sun is brightening the sky now. The newcomers are looting the village, going in and out of the trading post and the inn, checking out the stable, and gathering up the weapons the goblins had (shortbows, arrows, scimitars). Zastu reports the dying screams of a couple goblins. The adventurers place the ladder back on the gap in the bridge and cross to the other side. They cross into the village, and a shadow moves off to the side. Within a few seconds, they are met by a rougishly handsome half-elf, standing with Kella and six other ruffian-looking people. The leader looks them up and down, his eyes lingering on the paladin. Teir tries to greet them, but is interrupted. "What are you doing in my town?" The leader sneers at the Tiefling in noble's clothing. The rest of the conversation goes downhill from there. The leader introduces himself as Xolkin, and claims Nightstone for the "Black Network". The gears turn in Bakunawa's head. He knows of the Black Network through his mercenary connections. He tries to claim the town for the "Red Network", but Xolkin calls his bluff. Two of the bandits disappear and reappear to their sides, flanking them. Teir decides it's a good idea to send a 'warning' blast near one of them. But the others ready their crossbows, and they outnumber our adventurers, so eventually they negotiate an exit.

The bandits escort them to the two towers flanking the drawbridge, and let it down... But the adventurers are just over halfway across when they hear a faint rumbling coming from the north and the forest in the distance. They wait as the sound becomes louder. Suddenly, a small horde of orcs burst from the treeline! The adventurers stare at them dumbly for a moment as they run toward them. "Do they look mad?" Teir asks. "They look mad," Zastu replies. "Yeah, but are they running toward us, or away from something?" Teir insists. "At this point, I don't think that matters, let's get back inside," Rysiel says. They run back inside and burst into the watchtowers to raise the drawbridge. Startled, the bandits don't resist. Xolkin demands to know the meaning of this, but his face hardens at the mention of orcs. He orders his people up the ladders in the towers and onto the roofs. The orcs very quickly arrive at the end of the road near where the drawbridge had rested briefly. Those atop the towers can hear the rough orcish being spoken as two of the orcs, dressed in war and ceremonial gear the others lack, shout and point at the bridge and towers. One of them is quite huge, and many arrows pierce his flesh and armor. They don't seem to bother him much.

The disbelief of the bandits and adventurers causes them to hesitate. By the time they realize they should be raining arrows and bolts on the orcs, the small horde starts to fan out and explore the bank of the lake/moat. As the orcs slowly surround the village, the bandit group disperses to keep an eye on them. After about ten minutes, the orcs are spotted swimming across the moat to the broken bridge between Village and Fort. The boulder that took out the bridge has also taken out many of the protections to prevent stuff like this, so the orcs start climbing. The bandits take up a formation inside the village with orders to shoot on sight, but there isn't much cover. The adventurers hang out on the bridge, raining down a few attacks before retreating. Rysiel casts Ice Knife, killing one orc outright and knocking it off the scaffolding, while injuring two others. Seconds later two more heads pop up over the edge of the bridge and get an Eldritch Blast and an arrow to the face. They keep coming.

On the fort-side of the bridge, the guards have retracted the ladder and start shooting their own crossbows at the orcs. The seconds pass slowly. For a moment, the adventurers are able to kill the orcs as they come up in twos and threes. Then one makes it past the edge of the bridge into the village and is struck down by a bolt from one of Xolkin's bandits. A second orc follows, moving at an incredible speed (orcs have 'Aggressive' as a bonus action, allowing them to move at-speed toward an enemy they can see; that means, if they don't attack, they have Move action for 30ft, Dash action in lieu of Attack for another 30ft, AND Aggressive for 30ft, making a 90ft DASH IN ONE ROUND) The orcs start to pour in.

The guards aren't doing a very good job of shooting them in the back, either. They're just poor peons... Then they spot a strange-looking orc rest against the embankment on the far side, squinting at them with one eye. The embankment is too steep to climb, but he manages to prop himself up and is weaving his hands in rough gestures. Suddenly! A glowing spear appears in mid-air next to one of the guards! And attacks! The guards try to fight back, but the spear seems impervious, so they start shooting at the orc spellcaster.

The bandits fall back, shooting their crossbows. The adventurers also fall back, leaning on their strengths: Zastu climbs the hill on which the windmill sits, and shoots her shortbow. Nearby, Teir has retreated between a house and a field further back, shooting Eldritch Blasts. Bakunawa casts Shield of Faith and tanks 3 and 4 orcs at a time as they reach him. Rysiel disappears behind a house, and appears on the roof as a Panther with a dragon skull still on his head, growling in defiance. The orcs pour in. There must be about ten of them now... A dozen... And a hulking form comes through the break in the wall, charging at Xolkin and the bandits. Gurrash is full of arrows, and he doesn't care. He shouts in a roar that rivals the panther, and the orcs are bolstered. Then he swings his greataxe and cuts a bandit in half. Other orcs crash and overwhelm the humans, but they're still dying. Some of the bandits turn and run. Another one is cut to bloody pieces. A bright green line of acid splashes through the line of orcs from atop the hill. Zastu wipes her mouth, embarassed, and disappears into the windmill. Xolkin quaffs a thick, viscous liquid and steps forward with scimitar and dagger. Two orcs fall to his blades in seconds. Bakunawa draws a few of the orcs into another field, lightening the pressure on Xolkin's forces. Rice-panther leaps and pounces, ripping into Bakunawa's foes, the two of them working together for the advantage. Another bandit dies, but so do three more orcs. Four take their place. Zastu reappears from a window within the windmill, and starts shooting arrows (stepping around the two goblin corpses inside). Teir manages to take out another orc from an incredible distance, and a bandit pops out from the same house Rysiel disappeared behind--and fires his own crossbow. Another of Xolkin's bandits drops, and another runs, shooting behind him. Xolkin himself goes toe-to-toe with Gurrash, nimbly avoiding most of the big orc's attacks, and dealing his own. The two of them exchange blows at a faster rate than the others, and the orc's blows could cut a man in two without trying. Bakunawa and Rysiel are suddenly free, and the paladin moves into position. A long gout of fire bursts from his mouth, hitting five orcs in a line. None of them fall right away, but the bolts of Xolkin's remaining bandits find them and put them down. Rysiel pounces in and out, taking out another before Bakunawa is swarmed--Xolkin and the others starting to fall back again.

Meanwhile, at the bridge, the one-eyed orc spell caster has stayed behind the others, directing his spectral weapon to attack the guards. The guards retaliate, shooting bolt after bolt into him, but he just laughs. The guard, Sydiri, lines up a shot, betting if she could just shoot out his other eye... The bolt flies, and she succeeds. The floating spectral spear disappers as the orc screams in pain. The other guards shoot a couple more bolts, but half of them miss as the orc totters back and forth over the bridge. Then he takes one wrong step... And falls from the bridge, hitting the rocks beneath the surface of the water. He thrashes for a moment, and disappears. The guards cheer, and rush to put the ladder back in place, so they can go help. Torem crosses and Alara stumbles a bit on the rungs, not falling, but slowing their progress.

The orc forces are dwindling. There are eight of them left, including Gurrash. Two bandits are drastically wounded, and try to retreat while a third ducks in and out from behind a house, still uninjured. At some point, Kella appeared, shooting her own crossbow into the mess. Xolkin is bleeding, but he seems fine, protected by the magic of his potion. Four of the remaining orcs surround him. Gurrash looks about ready to fall apart, but his anger has shifted to the paladin and the panther who had just taken out so many seconds before, and he can still swing his waraxe. Three orcs are in front of the boss, but the paladin's armor aborbs their hits, then Gurrash pushes them aside to get at him, taking a chunk out of his hide. But Gurrash is on his last legs--Bakunawa's sword swings, and the big orc stumbles back--but he's still standing. Teir--somehow--blasts one of the orcs around Bakunawa and Rysiel, and Zastu's arrows continue to soar their way. In a flurry of bladework, Xolkin stabs and slashes at the orcs surrounding him, dropping three of them in two seconds. Only one left.

---At this point, it was after 11pm, and people had to sleep, so we wrapped up with 5 orcs still standing, including Gurrash--

Spells cast:

Rysiel: Ice Knife, Druidcraft Teir: Eldritch Blast (lots) Bakunawa: Shield of Faith Orc spellcaster: Spiritual Weapon

Killcount:

I kinda lost count of who-killed-what... 3 goblins died from the bandits, before the adventurers arrived--two in the windmill, and one in a tower 16 orcs died from the adventurers, guards, and bandits

Treasure looted:

Shortbows, arrows, and scimitars from the goblin corpses

One cursed/magical dragon skull

Left behind:

Who knows???