#bordering on Cthulhu Mad

[maxwell-grant]

Jumping off from my previous question/suggestion, might I please ask if there are any superheroes you think would make fine Pulp Villains and any Supervillains you think would make convincing Pulp Heroes?

I'm gonna go ahead and remark that I'd personally suggest to anyone who's trying to create pulp characters inspired by superheroes (which would be probably about 90% of you who may want to do that sort of thing) to flip the script around a little. As in, don't try to create pulp analogues to the Justice League/Avengers upfront, but play around with some of the lesser-known icons and filter those through your idea of what “pulp” means (which is gonna be quite different than my own or anyone else’s). 

I’m not gonna really mention characters I’ve already talked about before like Vandal Savage or Namor, instead I’ll pick new ones and see what can be highlighted about them.

Regarding “Superheroes who could make fine/convincing Pulp Villains”, even though he’s a character I've read basically nothing on, Martian Manhunter definitely leaped out to me as an obvious option. He’s a Sci-Fi Superman who takes the first half of the name to an extreme that borders on comical, except he’s not a square-jawed white man, he’s a 1.000 year old green alien from Mars with shapeshifting powers who can look as monstrous as the artist desires. He’s the product of an advanced civilization and genetic modification, and on top of the Flying Brick powerset and shapeshifting, he also has incredibly powerful and extensive telepathic abilities, he can become invisible, phaze through matter, use telekinesis and other weird abilities. A lot of pulp stories closer to sci-fi were based around the idea of taking one of these abilities and extrapolating horrific consequences for them, and J’onn has those by the dozens. He also has an extremely mundane weakness that would allow him to be beaten by Macready with a blowtorch if that’s where the story ended.

He was also a law enforcement officer from Mars who became a police detective and it’s even right there in his name, and again, I have never read anything he’s in (I should probably pick the Orlando mini), I know he’s for all intents and purposes a generally nice man who tends to job a lot in crossovers and cartoons, but the idea of taking all those great vast and horrifying alien powers, combining all of them into a single character who also happens to be the last survivor of a doomed planet (and one who actually lived through it’s collapse), and then making that character a former cop trying to resume his work on Earth? 

That is a Pulp Supervillain begging to happen, and a particularly horrifying one at that. And hey, speaking of The Thing-

Now, Plastic Man’s potential for horror has already been explored quite a bit in some of the darker DC continuities like Injustice and DCeased, and it’s quite funny seeing a lot of these turn Plastic Man into The Thing because there were quite a handful of Wold Newton pages that ran with the idea that Macready from the original story was Doc Savage, and that the secret chemicals that Eel O’Brian was hit by that gave him his powers were actually samples of The Thing contained in one of Savage’s labs. Regardless, the idea of a former street crook suddenly gaining bizarre shapeshifting abilities that allow him to reign terror on his gangster associates could make for a great premise as a pulp crime story that veers into horror as the gangsters gradually figure out what is Eel O’Brian’s deal, and then the story can take a more tragic turn.

The thing about Jack Cole’s Plastic Man that modern takes on the character neglect is that, while Plas was a lively roguish anti-hero (arguably the first of it’s kind in comics), he’s still for intents and purposes “the straight man” (HA, right, Plastic Man being “straight”). He’s the relatively sane hero who plays off Woozy’s wackier misadventures and the imaginative madness that Jack Cole paints his adventures with, and it makes for an interesting contrast considering Plastic Man is already a weird character, having to ramp up the strangeness of the world around him so that he still remains the sane man. There are ways to twist this into something quite horrifying, even tragic for Plastic Man as he either struggles to maintain coherency, or embraces the shifting chaos the world’s spiraling into for better or worse (and definitely for the worse towards those on the receiving end of his vengeance, or even his humor).

Now, onto the flipside, regarding Supervillains that could become Pulp Heroes -

Normally I’d not mention the Batman villains here, because I already have a lot to talk about in regards to them as is, they comprise some of my favorite comic characters, but I pretty much have to make an exception for Two-Face in this topic, as not only a pretty obvious option but one with even case studies to prove it, as not only do we have The Black Bat, a 1930s costumed pulp hero with an identical origin story and several other conceptual overlaps with Batman, as well as The Whisperer, a young hotshot police commissioner who dresses up as a disfigured vigilante to kill criminals without consequence (and who’s somehow less of a maniacal asshole in his secret identity than in his regular one), but it turns out that there actually was a 1910s pulp hero called The Two-Faced Man:

Crewe was created by “Varick Vanardy,” the pseudonym of Frederic van Rensselaer Dey (Nick Carter, Doctor Quartz), and appeared in three short stories and two novels and short story collections from 1914 to 1919, beginning with “That Man Crew” (The Cavalier, Jan. 24, 1914). 

Crewe is “The Two-Faced Man.” 

He is in his forties and has gray hair and a “sharply cut and handsome profile—until one caught a view of the other side of his face and saw the almost hideous blemish that nearly covered it, and which graduated in corrugated irregularity from a delicate pink to repulsive purple.” 

Crewe is two-faced in another way. Crewe is a saloon owner in below Washington Square. But he has another identity: Birge Moreau, portraitist and socialite hanger-on. Crewe uses both his identities to solve crimes as an amateur detective.

The only person to know about both of Crewe’s identities is a police inspector who is also Crewe’s friend and who Crewe helps in pressing cases - The Encyclopedia of Pulp Heores by Jess Nevins

And speaking of obvious picks for Supervillains turned Pulp Heroes,

Assuming I even need to make a case for Kraven the Hunter other than just presenting this cropped panel from Squirrel Girl and in particular the art painted on the Kra-Van, or even just telling you to read Squirrel Girl and it’s take on “The Unhuntable Sergei” (I had no idea most of the people saying “Kraven’s arc in Squirrel Girl is as good if not better than Kraven’s Last Hunt” weren’t actually joking in the slightest and I speak as someone who has Kraven among their absolute favorite Marvel characters, it had no right being that good), I’m going to quote the brilliant Rogue’s Review from The Mindless Ones that lays down in painstaking detail why Kraven could make a killer protagonist in that horrifically over-the-top pulp fashion

One thing that strikes me writing this, is how well Kraven could hold his own comic. There’s always room for a book spotlighting a ruthless, hardcore, gentleman bastard, and Kraven’s raison d’etre makes him supremely versatile, so well suited to any genre, any environment. It’s odd that more writers haven’t jumped on the fact that in a universe where off-world travel is possible – indeed, common – a hunter like Kraven would have a field day. 

I can just imagine the opening scene – herds of weird cthuloid bat creatures grazing in the gloomy green nitrogen fields, bathed in lethal, bone splintering fog, when, suddenly, LIGHT! from above and an unholy bellowing: “CTHGRGN fthgrgnARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHGN!”

They look up in fear and then they start to run – ploughing into and over each other, tentacles flailing, as from the space-ship’s docking bay Kraven silently plummets, barely dressed for the cold, a glowing knife smothered in elder signs jammed between his teeth. 

You should have seen him one night previous, sipping alien tokay around the Captain’s table with the other guests, discussing the morning’s hunt; and the way he insulted the Skrull dignitary by forgetting himself and accidentally sporting his favourite piece of formal wear: his boiling unstable dinner-jacket of many colours, fashioned from the hide of one of the Ambassador’s super kinsmen.

Whoops!

Midway through Kraven explaining how the best way to irreparably damage a symbiote is to wait until its bonded with you and then seriously maim yourself, the Skrull decided it might be a good idea to simmer down, while his beautiful Inhuman lover hung on every word.

The deeper I get into this the more convinced I am that the MU’s hunter-killer extraordinaire wouldn’t limit himself to bloody planet Earth. And neither would he limit himself to this dimension, or universe or timeline. The guy’d be just as at home leaping, sword raised, onto the back of a T-Rex in the Savage Land, as he would be ploughing through werewolves in the graveyards of Arkham or tracking a howling Demon across Mephistopheles’ realm. 

He’d work perfectly in all these environments because he has a damn good reason to be casting a bloody swathe through them: wherever there’s big game, you’ll find Kraven.

The next choice I guess is an oddball, but not that much of an oddball if you know already what is my main frame of reference towards Marvel

I don’t think people appreciate enough that the main reason Shuma-Gorath has anything resembling a fanbase has nothing whatsoever to do with the comics he was in, but entirely because, when Capcom designers had a list of Marvel characters to pick from to work on Marvel Super Heroes, they took a look at the diet Cthulhu and went “gimme THAT one”, and then went all-in in giving the alien squid monster a funky personality along with a great stage and music and animations and all that great fighting game character stuff, and now he’s maybe the most popular Dr Strange villain along with Dormammu and Mordo, despite having ZERO film appearences or major showings in comic sagas.

Capcom's designers redefined Shuma-Gorath from a nebulous cosmic evil into a comically smug cartoon bastard who can rant about devouring all dimensions and souls horrifically while also cracking poses and zingers like “How do you expect to win a fight with only two arms?” and having dinners with Dhalsim or hosting Japanese game shows in his endings, and it kills me that none of this ever made it’s way into any depictions of the character outside of MvC. 

So that’s kinda what I’d go with. I’d take Capcom’s Shuma-Gorath, depower him a bit obviously from his canonical power, and run with the premise of his MvC3 ending where he decides that, well, if he's the unlikely savior of this pathetic planet and these wretched human dogs like him so much, and he’s clearly having a much better time here among them than he ever had drifting among the stars cealessly consuming life, then maybe he can take a break from all that eldritch business and keep up hosting the Super Monster Awesome Hour and maybe fight whatever PITIFUL villains think can take HIS planet. I mean, he’ll probably still end up destroying the planet by the end, but why not give this hero business a try?

Just until he gets his full powers back of course. 

I mean you can’t deny he DOES look pretty good in that bowtie, surely The Great Shuma-Gorath wouldn’t be so unmerciful as to deny these vile wastes of flesh something good to look at in their brief and miserable lives.

[hottestthingalive]

a storm in your eyes (lightning and dark skies)

It is then, with Virgil curled up against him, wet hair soaking Logan’s neck and the smell of hot chocolate in the air, that Logan realizes he loves a thunderstorm in human form. 

His best friend.

Oh, god, Logan is in love with his best friend. And also his roommate. And also his favorite person in the whole of the universe.

(He’s pretty sure that if Virgil could hear his thoughts, and if, y’know, Virgil wasn’t the person in question, he’d roll his eyes and say, “Oh my god, they were roommates.” The idea nearly makes him laugh.) 

–

Notes: Thank you so much to @snek-snacc, @smileyzs, @confused-sunflower, @xaimelarks​, and all my other followers for putting up with me ranting about this story, and helping me edit. Y’all are the best!

Edit: After publishing this, I got this AMAZING piece of art from @ent-is-undecisive / @birdsongisland! Go check them out, because they’re insanely talented, and looking at this piece makes me so so so happy!

Two sequels also exist for this now! 

waffles and wedding vows (promises and proof)

songs and stars and silence (of loving you)

Hope you enjoy!

Relationships: Romantic Analogical, background romantic Royaliceit, background romantic Intrusleep/rem^2, platonic drlamper

Words: 6885

Ao3

–

Logan Sanders falls in love with a thunderstorm.

Well, not a thunderstorm, exactly. As far as Logan knows (and he knows quite a lot), a tempest, no matter how powerful, cannot take the form of a human.

Still, the first time the boy with a hurricane’s eyes enters Mugnificent (the coffee shop Logan very reluctantly works at), he swears the smell of ozone fills the air. 

His name is Virgil Foley, and he sweeps into Logan’s life like a summer storm, filling it with wind and chaos and unmatched wild beauty. 

The first time they meet, it is 5:26 in the morning, and he’s considering revolt. Yes, he needs this job to supplement his scholarship, but being up this early is awful enough to warrant mutiny. Besides, customers are few this early in the day, and thus the tip jar is woefully empty. 

The door opens with a ding 

(there is a smell like lightning)

and in walks a person with dark hair tied in a bun under a black beanie, rummaging around in their backpack. Their bag is covered in pins, and Logan notes a rainbow one near the center. 

“Hey,” they say, and he meets eyes the color of stormclouds, a grey bordering on purple and blue simultaneously. “Can I just get a small coffee, please? Black is fine.” 

“Yeah,” Logan nods. “Name?”

They glance around the empty Mugnificent with a raised eyebrow, but reply with “Virgil,” anyways. 

“Nice to meet you, Virgil,” says Logan, and he’s not normally one for small talk, but he also is sleep-deprived, and too tired to have any sort of filter. “I’m Logan.”

Virgil relaxes, and they hold out a hand for him to shake. “Nice to meet you, too. I use he/him pronouns, by the way.”

“Ah, yes,” Logan nods, returning the handshake. “He/him for me, as well, thank you.”

Virgil pays and waits by the counter as Logan goes to prepare the coffee, scrolling through his phone. There is a comfortable silence as he makes the drink, which Logan spends mentally cursing out Roman, his coworker who was supposed to arrive for work thirty minutes ago. “Here,” he says finally, holding out the cup for Virgil to take. 

“Thanks.” Virgil is wearing fingerless gloves, and his nails are painted a bright purple. They shine in the fluorescent lighting. “Have a nice day, Logan.”

“You too,” he replies, and it seems too little. Logan doesn’t believe in magic, or gods, or destiny, but as he watches Virgil turn, about to walk out the door, something twangs in his chest. Despite himself, Logan opens his mouth, searching for something to say, anything that will make him stay. 

He blinks, about to speak, and Virgil is gone.

A few minutes later, it begins to rain. 

–

The second time he meets Virgil, it is in his psych class. 

Logan has always liked psychology. It’s fascinating how the human brain works, he thinks, and even if he isn’t always so good at understanding emotions, he’s quite good at the science behind them. His appreciation for said science is the only reason he signs up for the class at all, when it has practically nothing to do with his astrophysics major. 

He’s just about forgotten about the boy with eyes of a storm by the time he sits down for the first psychology class of the semester, pulling his computer and textbooks out of his own bag, and setting them before him. Logan cracks the knuckles on each hand individually, a nervous habit he’s had since he was in high school. He’s done his best to break it, but he supposes, as annoying as it is, it’s better than some of the alternatives.

Case in point, the boy from Mugnificent, who walks into the room nervously tapping his thigh while chewing at his lip. There’s a split in it, one that shines a bright red against the chapped surface, and Logan wants to wince just looking at it. 

His eyes flash with recognition as he spots Logan in one of the back rows, and he pauses. “Logan, right? From the coffee place.”

“And you’re Virgil,” Logan smiles, and okay, maybe he hadn’t forgotten Virgil so much as attempted to forget him. 

“Can I sit there?” he asks, nodding to the seat beside Logan. 

It turns out Virgil is smart, and funny, and just a little bit snarky, and a English major minoring in psychology. He’s got all kinds of nervous habits, chewing on his lip and tapping out rhythms known only to him and drawing on every available surface, and Logan often notices a tendril of ink wrapping around one of his fingers from under his gloves. 

They become fast friends, him and Virgil, bonding over a love for space and science and poetry. He starts coming to Mugnificent for coffee more often, and Roman teases Logan incessantly about it. 

“You’re finally making friends!” he pretends to sob, throwing his arms around him, and he has to shove Roman away, rolling his eyes. Virgil is stifling a laugh behind one gloved hand, and Logan mouths “Traitor,” at him, though he isn’t really mad at all.

They fall into patterns -- psych and history and statistics together, always seated side by side, sometimes accompanied by Roman or Patton or Remus or Janus or any one of their expanding circle of friends. The two of them buy each other coffee, edit essays, go out for junk food (that Logan complains about but secretly loves) with their friends. 

Virgil begs to paint Logan’s nails one night as they watch documentaries together in Patton and Virgil’s dorm room. His tongue sticks out of his mouth slightly as he focuses on the tiny white dots he’s adding, and Logan ends up loving the night sky that graces his fingers. In return, Logan styles Virgil’s long hair into a crown of braids. 

“Your Majesty,” he bows as he leads Virgil to the mirror. 

“If I’m royalty now, I demand a feast to celebrate,” Virgil grins, admiring his hair. “Sir Logan, this calls for pizza!”

“All the junk food you consume is going to kill you one day,” Logan sighs, but he’s already dialing their favorite pizza place.

They eat dinner seated on the floor, holding paper plates and drinking soda as they watch Cosmos. Patton returns to the dorm a few minutes later, accompanied by Janus and Roman both, and snags some of the pizza for himself – luckily, they’d thought to order extra, as soon Remus, Remy, and Emile all show up, too, crowding into the dorm room and around Logan’s laptop. The documentary is switched to Big Hero 6, Virgil showing off his hair and Logan his nails as the others admire them. Soon Virgil is breaking out his nail polish again, painting delicate puppies on Patton’s fingers, and Logan is teaching Roman how to do the same hairstyle on Emile’s curls. 

It’s a Saturday night, so they feel comfortable all crashing in Patton and Virgil’s room, squeezing far too many young adults into one small space. Emile giggles that it reminds them of sleepovers they went to when they were in elementary school, and Remus points out that they ought to play Truth or Dare with a manic grin. Virgil quickly puts a stop to that, however, distracting Remus with conspiracy theories and carving marshmallows to look like Lovecraftian monsters, and Logan wants to laugh because Virgil is very much a mom friend, despite his protests to the contrary. Still, as he sips hot cocoa with a marshmallow Cthulhu staring up at him from the mug, he has to admit it was a good idea. They all get into the fun, carving marshmallows with whatever cutlery Patton and Virgil have in their room, and eventually Monster Mallows will become a tradition for all of their friend group. 

When he falls asleep that night, lying on the floor in the blanket fort Patton and Roman had insisted on building, he dreams of rain and lightning, across dark skies that resemble Virgil’s eyes. 

–

Logan realizes Virgil is his best friend in the middle of winter, when he shows up at Mugnificent at the end of his shift, ordering two coffees and taking them as Logan gets ready to leave. “Sorry, Roman,” Virgil says, though he doesn’t look sorry at all as he hands Logan one of the drinks and reaches out to hold his other hand. “C’mon, L, we’ve got to hurry if we’re going to get there in time.”

“Where are we going?” Logan raises an eyebrow, throwing on his coat and waving goodbye to Roman (who is saying something dramatic about a grievous betrayal) as he sips at the coffee. It’s perfect, his order exactly. 

“Look!” Virgil grins as they leave the coffee shop, and it’s snowing, white flakes falling around them and coating the ground. Some of the cars nearby are already covered in it. “C’mon, we’ve got to get to the park.” 

“Wait, why?” he asks. “Virgil, this looks rather like the makings of a blizzard. We should probably go back to our dorms so we can prepare if we get snowed in.”

“I know it’s a snowstorm,” Virgil rolls his eyes, and his stormy eyes are bluer than Logan’s ever seen them, shining with excitement. “Now, let’s go!”

Logan should probably argue more, but he’s laughing as he gets pulled along, the two half-running towards the park. 

They slow down at the top of a hill already lightly coated with snow, and Virgil reaches into his bag to pull out a picnic blanket. “No,” Logan protests, but he’s cackling as Virgil yells “Snow picnic!” and spreads it over the snow. 

“This is going to turn into a blizzard,” he manages to say, stifling his giggles. “We are going to be buried alive because you wanted to have a picnic in a snowstorm.”

“Oh, shush,” Virgil grins, flopping down onto the blanket and digging into his bag again to retrieve two bagels wrapped in tinfoil. “Drink your coffee and watch the snow with me, Logan Sanders.”

The bagel he hands Logan has Crofters jam instead of cream cheese spread across it, still warm from toasting, and Logan could kiss Virgil if they weren’t very platonic…

Well, it feels like they are a whole lot more than friends, at this point. There’s something about their relationship that feels different from the ones Logan has with their other companions, be it Remus or Emile, Patton or Janus, Roman or Remy. 

Are they best friends?

He asks, and Virgil merely grins and says “I hope so.” 

It’s amazing, lying there as they watch the sky, munching on bagels and sipping at their coffee and pointing out oddly shaped clouds. Virgil is practically covered in snowflakes by the time they have to leave, the wind picking up too much to stay, and Logan is no better. Still, he thinks it was worth it, even when he gets a cold and has to spend the weekend curled up in blankets, sneezing and coughing as he works on his essay for his cosmology class. Virgil gets a cold, too, and they end up on the phone together as they work, Virgil blasting music on his end and Logan parroting his roommate’s consistent reminders to take medicine, and drink some water! 

Emile seems to think it’s cute, for some reason, and they tell Logan to say hi to Virgil for them, a smile playing on their lips that he’s too sick to interpret. 

–

Logan has a crush on a boy in their shared statistics class by March, the one who sits three rows in front of him and two seats to the right, who has green hair and a cheerful grin. Virgil listens patiently about it whenever Logan brings it up, and when they have to pair up for a final project, he pushes him towards his crush, joining Remus instead.

He finds out his crush already has a romantic partner in a strictly monogamous relationship when they’re nearly done with the project, and Virgil shows up to Logan’s dorm room with ice cream and his laptop that night, pulling aside Emile as he comes in and whispering something to him. Emile leaves shortly after, and the two of them are alone.

“What did you tell Emile?” Logan asks later, when they’re sitting on his bed and watching trashy teenage romcoms, because, according to Virgil, “This way, you won’t associate any good movies with this.” 

“Well, Patton invited him for a ‘sleepover,’” Virgil says, eating directly from the carton of chocolate ice cream, gaze shifting from the screen to Logan. “Did the moment he saw your text on the groupchat.”

Logan had texted that his crush has a partner when Roman had begun teasing him about it on said chat. Looking back, it may not have been the best of decisions, but all he wants to do right now is curl into the comforter and watch bad movies, while simultaneously eating unholy amounts of ice cream. 

“It’s not a big deal,” he protests, pulling the blankets closer around him. 

“Listen, L, you’re sad ‘cause the boy you like… well, you know. Anyways, you being sad is a big deal, at least to us.” Virgil isn’t wearing his normal clothes, only a pair of pajama pants and a sweatshirt (Logan knows he ran over in his nightwear, which makes him feel worse), so he can see the ink covering his hands, smudged in places.

“Why do you draw on yourself so much?” He leans over to look at the patterns of spirals winding their way up Virgil’s arms, tracing them with one finger. “That much ink can’t be good for your skin, pretty as it is, Vee.”

Virgil bats his hand away, blushing behind his curtains of dark hair, and Logan laughs. “It’s just a nervous habit, okay?” he exclaims, and Logan pokes his cheek, cooing. 

“Aw, lookit you,” he smiles, and even though Logan’s heart hurts from what happened with his crush, he doesn’t think he would trade anything for his friendship with Virgil Foley. “So cute.”

“I’m not cute,” Virgil grumbles, pressing play on the computer. “Watch the shitty movie and shush, nerd.”

He gets over the boy from statistics eventually, and gets an A on the project, which Roman insists they celebrate with breakfast at Logan’s favorite diner on campus. (Logan’s pretty sure Roman just feels guilty about teasing him about it, but he goes anyways, pulling his friend aside later to tell him it’s fine.)

–

They return from summer vacation changed. Janus, Patton, and Roman are dating now, for one thing, and it’s disgustingly sappy. Emile comes out as asexual and aromantic a few days after they get back, and Logan helps them hang flags in their dorm room when they arrive a week later. Remy has switched majors, from biology to culinary classes, and Remus tells them excitedly that he’s managed to start a rather popular horror comic online. (Logan reads it, and learns Remus is quite adept at art, writing, and scaring the crap out of him. He never looks at door knobs the same way again.) Virgil, meanwhile, has started wearing far less baggy clothes and more makeup – in other words, people around campus start realizing that Virgil is actually hot, and not just a relatively cute bundle of sweatshirts. 

Logan kind of feels weird about it. He knows how aesthetically pleasing Virgil is, of course – they’ve spent enough time together for him to have figured that out – but… well, Logan had realized while he was away how much he’d missed Virgil, even more so than his other friends. He tells himself it is because of how close they are, and ignores the ugly anger in his chest when people flirt with Virgil, or how his heart pounds and face flushes when they curl up to watch movies these days. 

As for him, well, he’s dyed his hair a dark blue, a color so dark it’s almost black. Roman marvels over it, asking how he managed to not damage his hair in the process, and Logan doesn’t feel like telling him that he had meant to do a brighter shade, but hadn’t realized how hard it would be to get proper color without bleaching his normal dark hair. He does end up telling Virgil later, though, when Remy and Patton drag them and the rest of their friends to a party.

For the record, Logan tended to avoid such events. He didn’t see the point, firstly – he’d never been a fan of crowds, especially not ones where everyone was drunk off their asses, and he generally had too much work to do to bother with parties. Secondly, he simply didn’t care enough to look nice for such a thing, or to go at all. Logan would much rather spend time with his friends if he had to be up in the middle of the night, whether haunting the 24/7 diner a few miles off campus or playing stupid games in the woods or making fun of Disney movies while throwing popcorn at the screen and shushing each other so they didn’t get noise complaints. 

But then there were Patton and Remy, social creatures who liked seeing other people and didn’t mind getting wasted to do so. Roman and Janus typically followed Patton wherever he went, so they were a given, and Remus had developed a raging crush on Remy by then, so he’d probably have tagged along even if Remy hadn’t grabbed his hand and said “You’ll come, right, Ree?” with a grin. 

Well, Remus was lost to them after that, and that left Emile, Logan, and Virgil alone.

Which would have been fine! Except then Virgil had got dragged in by Patton (a difficulty of being his roommate, according to Logan’s best friend, was that Patton was very, very persuasive when he wanted to be) and Virgil had begged Logan to come for “Introvert solidarity, L! Introvert solidarity!”

Then Emile had sighed, said something about being the only responsible one, and appointed themself designated driver. So Logan didn’t even have that excuse to pull himself and Virgil out of it early. 

He finds himself on a couch in someone’s house, sitting besides Virgil. Janus tells him that it is owned by someone who goes to their college but lives nearby, a summer home belonging to their parents or something. Janus says ze aren’t sure who the actual host is, and ze run off to go find Roman or Patton before Logan can ask why all of them are attending a party hosted by someone they don’t know.

Virgil has obviously already had something to drink, or he’s insanely sleep-deprived, as he has started playing with Logan’s hair. Logan’s willing to bet on the former (although knowing Virgil, he can’t be sure – he has an awful sleep schedule) especially since he’s never known the other to be so touchy, even when tired. 

“How’d you get it like this?” Virgil asks, running his fingers through Logan’s curls. He’s perched on top of the couch, and though he would normally be concerned that Virgil might fall, Logan is just glad he doesn’t have to bend over so his friend can examine his hair. 

He tells Virgil, and can’t help but smile as he laughs, perhaps a little more than the story warrants. They sit there in peace for a few minutes, Virgil humming along with any song he recognizes and Logan scanning the room for any of their friends. 

“Your hair is so pretty,” Virgil eventually says, and Logan is surprised he can hear him at all over the noise of the music and other people. He slides down from the couch to sit beside him, reaching up to poke Logan’s cheek. “You’re pretty. You know that, right? You’re real, real pretty.”

“Aw,” Logan grins, hoping the dim lights and Virgil’s addled brain will hide his red cheeks. “What is it you say? Oh, right; you think I’m warm.”

“No, dummy, I think you’re hot,” Virgil sighs. “Get it right.”

“Why, thank you.”

“‘Course. You’re my best friend, Logan Sanders.”

“Same,” he replies, dodging Virgil’s attempt to flick him as he scans the room. “Have you seen Remy or Remus around recently?”

“Oh, they’ve been making out in that closet over there,” Virgil says offhandedly, pointing, and Logan nearly chokes. “You didn’t know? They’re so obvious, Remy’s been whining about it to me for weeks. ‘Oh, Virgil, I’m doomed to be alone forever!’ ‘Oh, Virgil, Remus is so hot, and I’m going to whine about it to you for hours!’ ‘Oh, Virgil, I have a crush on a trash rat man and I won’t stop talking about it ever!’”

“Did Remy actually call Remus a ‘trash rat man’?” he snickers, turning to look at Virgil, who is wringing his hands in mock despair as he imitates Remy.

“No,” Virgil pouts. “Wish he had. Remus would love that.”

“He would,” Logan agrees, rolling his eyes fondly. “Hey, do you want to leave?”

“Why, Logan Perfect-Hair Sanders, are you asking me to ditch a party with you?” he laughs.

“That isn’t my middle name and you know it.” Logan shoots off a text to Emile, standing and turning to grab Virgil’s hand, pulling him upright. “But sure. Will you, Virgil Emo-Nightmare Foley, ditch this absurd party with me?”

“Logan, I thought you’d never ask,” Virgil smirks. “Let’s bounce!”

They get lucky – Logan hasn’t had anything to drink, and due to how large their group is, Virgil had had to drive over Patton, Janus, Roman, and himself earlier. Virgil hands him the keys to the car, and Logan drives them to the nearby McDonalds, where they order fries and milkshakes. “Let’s go somewhere high,” Virgil says when they return to the car, grinning, and Logan obliges, driving them to his favorite stargazing spot near campus, partway up a mountain in a parking lot for an old playground. 

Soon, he finds himself sitting on the hood of Virgil’s car, dipping his fries in a chocolate shake as the two of them stare up at the stars and the moon, pointing out constellations. “Look,” giggles Virgil, his head on Logan’s shoulder as he traces lines between stars. “It’s the glasses one!”

“There is no ‘glasses’ constellation, Virgil,” he points out, but the path his friend is etching into the sky does look rather like a pair of glasses. 

“Well, there is now,” replies the other. “It’s your constellation! You deserve one, y’know, ‘cause you’re pretty, and smart, and nice, and funny, and you’re just the best, Lo, okay?”

“How much did you have to drink, exactly?” Logan asks, raising an eyebrow, and his friend punches him in the arm, lightly. “Ow!”

“I’m telling the truth,” Virgil rolls his eyes, pulling the blankets they’d retrieved from the trunk closer around the two of them. “You deserve a constellation. You deserve the universe.”

“Well, now we have to find you a constellation, too,” he muses, ignoring the heat in his cheeks (he seems to be blushing quite a lot lately, talking to Virgil) as he searches the sky. It takes a few minutes, and Virgil is half-asleep on his shoulder by the time he makes his choice, but finally Logan says “I found it.”

“Well, lemme see,” Virgil mumbles, opening his eyes. 

He traces lines between a series of stars. “It’s a cloud,” he explains, “and a lightning bolt. Because you’re a thunderstorm, V.”

“Isn’t that a bad thing?” He’s biting his lip, suddenly subdued, and Logan feels a surge of guilt, because no one should ever make Virgil look like that, anxious and hurt and scared all at once.

“No,” he answers, fiercely enough that Virgil jumps slightly. “You’re wild, and chaotic, and occasionally a bit destructive, but you also make people feel alive. You bring rain to help things live, you bring the sound of a storm and the beauty of lightning, you simultaneously wake me up and help me sleep. You are beautiful, and inspiring, and so amazingly you, and the best friend I could ever ask for.”

“...And I thought I was the English major,” Virgil says quietly, and his face is bright red. “You have no right to be better at words than me, Sanders.”

“Well, Foley, I’m the astrophysics major, and you’re the one who started making constellations, so turnabout’s fair play,” Logan replies, and Virgil lets out a laugh at that.

Later, when the fries and milkshakes are both gone, they get back into the car and drive back to their dorms. For Logan’s birthday that year, a month or so later, Virgil presents him with a painting of the glasses constellation. He’d commissioned Remus, he explains, staring at his feet, and Logan tells him he loves it. For Virgil’s birthday, he gets a similar art piece from Roman, of the stars making a storm, and Virgil pulls him into a tight hug.

For now, though, the two of them simply sit and gaze into space. 

–

Logan goes on a few dates with someone he meets at the coffee shop, named Andy. They become boyfriends. Virgil teases him about it whenever he brings it up, and eventually he stops talking about his partner to his best friend. The two of them start to pull apart, their friendship strained.

When Logan and Andy separate, Virgil is dating a girl he’s only met a few times, who shares Virgil’s English classes and wears colorful barrettes to hold back her curls.

He hadn’t even known Virgil liked her. 

–

College passes by quickly. They graduate, and Logan tumbles into a job at a rather prestigious observatory. He lives in a small apartment in the city nearby, buys coffee from the Starbucks across the street every morning, settles into a routine.

Gradually, they all start to fall out of touch. It sucks, but things have been off between Virgil and him ever since Logan had dated Andy Michaels, and at the moment Logan sees his ex-boyfriend more than his ex-best friend. Their relationship had ended amicably, but still – he misses Virgil Foley, more than he’d ever like to admit. 

A year or so later, Logan receives the invitation to Remy and Remus’ wedding. 

It is in the fall, and Logan isn’t surprised in the least that they plan to have it in a forest, if only because he knows that the odds of Remus wanting the guests to jump into leap piles with him are absurdly high. At least they’re at an actual wedding site, so they can be inside if needed – Logan half expected, when he found out they’d gotten engaged, for them to drag a bunch of guests to a Starbucks for the event. 

What does surprise Logan is the fact that Remus has apparently sent it early, because Logan is going to be one of the wedding party attendants. 

He calls Remus and Remy that night, certain they’ve mixed up things, but Remy simply laughs. “Logan, you’re still one of our best friends,” he says. “Come on, please?”

“Besides,” Remus adds, “Virge will be one too, and Patton and Roman and Jan and Emile! You can’t break up the team!”

He ends up agreeing, and no matter how much Remy teases him about it later, it was not just to see Virgil again. 

The wedding rolls around. Logan has managed to avoid speaking to Virgil for more than a friendly greeting and a bit of small talk through all the preparations the two of them had had to attend, but the they both arrive early on the day of, and Logan doesn’t know anybody else, and, well, he does miss Virgil. 

“Hey,” he says. Virgil is nearly as tall as him in the heels he’s wearing (Logan had managed to opt out of them, convincing Remus to let him wear flats with his dress), and his green dress offsets his stormy eyes perfectly. Logan doesn’t think he looks nearly as good in the color, but he’d decided not to argue with Remy’s puppy-dog eyes. Besides, he much prefers the dress to the suits Emile and Patton had opted for. 

“Hi, Logan,” Virgil replies. The tension in the air is palpable, and Logan hates it. “How’ve you been lately?”

“I’m good,” he answers. 

“Oh, good,” nods Virgil. He’s gnawing at his lip again, and Logan can see the split in it even through the lipstick. “Me too.”

“I miss you,” Logan says suddenly, because he does. “You were my best friend, and I hate not being close, because you are one of the best things that ever happened to me.”

“...I miss you too.” He smooths his dress, looking out the window at the trees, and then laughs. “I’m surprised they didn’t have their wedding in a Starbucks, honestly.”

Logan can’t help but chuckle at that, especially when he spots Remy breezing past them, a coffee cup in hand and makeup only half-done, frantically trying to catch his little brothers and sister, whom he and Remus had appointed flower children. “I thought the same thing,” he admits. 

It’s easy for the two of them to talk, after that, sharing jokes and telling stories and talking about their new lives. Logan feels oddly happy when he learns Virgil is single, and when he mentions how he’s looking for a roommate and Virgil remarks that he is too, it feels as natural as breathing to ask where he’s currently living. Finding out they live in the same city makes Logan feel strangely elated. 

“Help!” Remus exclaims, skidding to a stop in front of them, collapsing into Virgil’s arms and only barely being caught. “I’ve lost my husband-to-be!” 

“Alright, please calm down,” Logan says, exchanging exasperated looks with Virgil, who pulls Remus back to his feet. “Have you actually lost Remy, or are you just being overly dramatic?”

“He has been stolen from me,” Remus whines. “We were kissing, and then he was dragged away by my evil brother!”

“By any chance, was he dragged away to prepare for your wedding? The event we’re attending, so you two can get married? The one that most guests are expected to arrive for in fifteen minutes?” Virgil crosses his arms over his chest, eyes narrowed. 

Remus’ eyes widen. “Fifteen minutes?” he asks, checking Logan’s watch, and groans. “Oh, drumsticks. Drumsticks torn right off a chicken. Bloody chicken legs everywhere.”

He darts off, and Logan and Virgil sigh simultaneously.

“We should go help, shouldn’t we?” Virgil asks, and Logan nods reluctantly. “Well, it was great to talk to you.”

“It was pleasant to speak with you, as well,” he agrees. 

As he turns to go find Patton, Virgil grabs his arm. “Hey, L, save me a dance, okay?”

They do indeed dance together that night, after they watch Remy and Remus get married among the colorful leaves, and talk, and laugh, and by the end of the wedding they are good friends again.

Virgil and Logan move in together by the end of November. 

–

They become surprisingly domestic, the two of them, moving into their large apartment that is close to both Logan’s job at the observatory and Virgil’s work at a publishing company. He’s not surprised Virgil has become an editor (he was always the best at it, when they exchanged essays to review), but he is rather impressed when he notes some of the books in Virgil’s room have his full name on the cover. “I write poetry, mostly,” he explains when Logan asks. “It’s… I used to use it like therapy, I guess, and I got some of it published. I’m not famous or anything.”

“That’s amazing,” Logan says sincerely. 

The poetry becomes important, later, but then, it is simply something for Logan to admire, another flash of beautiful lightning in Virgil’s storm.

Saturdays become movie nights, and they order junk food and make popcorn and watch documentaries or horror movies or cartoons together. Occasionally, some of their friends will join them, and every so often, all eight of them cram into Logan and Virgil’s living room. Despite his love for the others, however, Logan’s favorite nights are usually the ones when the two of them are alone, when they curl up together on the couch and make fun of trashy films or contribute their own knowledge to documentaries or sing along quietly to Disney. It is peaceful and lovely and utterly perfect.

Logan doesn’t mean to fall in love with Virgil. It sneaks up on him, mornings of coffee for him and tea for Virgil and memes shared over breakfast, afternoons texting each other with reminders to get groceries and news from the office, nights of cooking together and dancing to the radio. 

One day, when both of them have work off, Virgil pulls him out of bed, waits impatiently while Logan gets dressed, and drags him outside into a storm. They walk through the park together, enjoying the rain on their skin, both of them jumping into puddles and belting the title number of Singing in the Rain and getting utterly soaked. 

They return home for cocoa, each taking a warm shower and then sitting together on the couch to watch old movies with small white krakens bobbing in their cups. It is then, with Virgil curled up against him, wet hair soaking Logan’s neck and the smell of hot chocolate in the air, that Logan realizes he loves a thunderstorm in human form. 

His best friend.

Oh, god, Logan is in love with his best friend. And also his roommate. And also his favorite person in the whole of the universe.

(He’s pretty sure that if Virgil could hear his thoughts, and if, y’know, Virgil wasn’t the person in question, he’d roll his eyes and say, “Oh my god, they were roommates.” The idea nearly makes him laugh.) 

Logan tries to get over his crush (and there’s no other word for it, as juvenile as it sounds). He really does. But it’s so hard, now that he knows it exists, especially when he has to see Virgil every single day. And he can’t just cut himself off, or leave their apartment, because that might ruin their friendship, and that’s the whole reason he’s trying to escape his feelings, because he loves being Virgil’s friend more than anything. 

So he exists in this inbetween state, thrashing in the eyewall of a storm, so close to safety and danger simultaneously, trapped in chaos and uncertainty. 

Logan isn’t quite sure whether he really wants to return to the eye, blissful quiet and the peace of oblivion, or if he can at all. But he thinks entering the storm itself, the danger of telling Virgil how he feels, the potential for a life with him, is equally impossible. 

Eventually he decides that it is best to just ignore his rebellious feelings. It works, sort of – Virgil doesn’t seem to notice anything different, and Logan gets to keep his best friend. Still, every moment together is tinged with a sort of bittersweet sadness, the dancing in the kitchen and cuddling on the couch and meals together a harsh reminder that they are just friends.

He’s not sure exactly how his other friends figure it out, but they do, judging from how Remy and Janus tell him exasperatedly that he really ought to say something to Virgil, how Patton and Roman tell him how cute they would be together, how Remus does his best to shove Logan towards Virgil at any opportunity, how Emile tells him pointedly that repressing his feelings isn’t exactly healthy. Logan does decide that he’ll confess… eventually. 

The problem with eventually, however, is how ambiguous it is. The others have realized as much, evidently, but they don’t force Logan to say something, or tell Virgil themselves, and he appreciates that.

It is a Saturday when eventually finally comes, a peaceful movie night interrupted by a phone call with Roman’s name flashing on the screen. He holds up a finger over his lips as he accepts the call, grimacing apologetically to Virgil as he steps into his own room. “What do you want?” he asks exasperatedly when he picks it up, and winces as the other line fills with noise. 

“Logan, have you read Virgil’s latest book?” Roman practically screams, and in the background Logan can hear Patton squealing with excitement as Janus shushes them both. 

He frowns, closing the door to his bedroom. “I wasn’t aware he’d been working on one.” Normally, Logan knows whenever Virgil is working on another collection of his poetry – he’s often the first person Virgil hands it to for editing. 

“Get on your computer this instant, Pocket Protector,” says Roman, and Logan can hear his grin.

A quick search confirms it; a new book of poetry, just released by Virgil Foley. The revelation is almost painful (does Virgil not trust him anymore? Not like him?) until Janus’ voice comes over the line, hir voice sarcastic and concerned altogether.

“Way to go, love, he’s definitely not overthinking this,” ze sigh. “Logan, listen to me. I need you to go look at some of the reviews for the book, okay? Actually, no, if you can find a sample online, go read that.”

He’s operating in a haze, a robot in human flesh, and what do robots do but obey orders?

Logan barely understands what he’s reading at first, lines of poetry in the sample flashing past him. He checks the reviews, words of praise and admiration flowing through his mind, and it takes a second before he understands any of it. 

Clicking back to the online sample, he starts to recognize the story being told. It is a tale of late nights and hot drinks in the morning, of pining and fear of destroying a friendship older than love.

It is Logan’s story, told through another’s words, a voice speaking of a scholar of the stars, of glasses and storms, of hugs and hand-holding and a cute barista, a boy in psych class, a friendship repaired at another’s wedding, of admiration and hope and love. A love for someone seen not as a storm, but as stars, as the universe in human flesh. 

Virgil is in love.

Virgil is in love with Logan. 

“I’ll call you back,” he hears himself say, and drops his phone on his bed in his haste to get back to the living room. 

“Logan?” Virgil’s voice pierce the haze of his thoughts, his eyes 

(a storm, wild beauty) 

shining with concern, and he sits up from where he’s lying on the couch. “You okay? What happened?”

There are many things he wants to say, questions and explanations and promises, but in the end, all he says is “Can I kiss you?”

“What?” He doesn’t expect Virgil to look quite so flustered, but then again, Logan did just storm into the room, looking desperate and probably a tad deranged, and ask to kiss his best friend. 

“Roman told me about the new book,” Logan says first, and Virgil’s eyes widen even further, and he can sense the incoming apology, but he isn’t done, not yet. He begins to crack his knuckles, a habit he’d thought he’d finally lost, full to the brim with nervous energy. “I’ve read some of it, and as far as I can tell, you are romantically attracted to me. Which is good, because I also harbor such feelings for you, and have for about a year now. So. Can I kiss you?”

“Isn’t it ‘May I kiss you’?” Virgil grins, playing off his feelings with humor, as always. Logan opens his mouth to apologize as his world comes crashing down, because oh, he’s messed up, oh no, but then his best friend’s expression softens, and he whispers “Of course, Logan Sanders.”

“Thank you, Virgil Foley,” he says, and abandons the eyewall for the storm. 

They don’t watch any more movies that night. The two of them kiss, and talk, and kiss some more, and Virgil grabs his author’s edition of the new book from his room, and they read it together on the couch. 

The next morning, they sit with their coffee and tea and talk some more, about labels and boundaries and dreams. Their friends come over for movies the next Saturday, and Virgil and Logan hold hands as they tell them they are dating. 

(Roman choking on the popcorn in his excitement almost makes up for the money Logan spots being exchanged between Emile, Remus, and Patton.)

Eventually, Virgil’s latest book will gain fame, and they will end up with quite a bit of money between the two of them, especially after Logan gets a promotion. Eventually, they will move to a larger house, one a bit outside the city, one where they will have two cats and a dog and a son named Thomas. Eventually, they will get married in the spring, and when it starts to rain as they say their vows, the two of them just laugh. 

But that is eventually. In the now, Logan Sanders is in love. In the now, Virgil Foley is in love. 

They are glasses and hoodies, poetry written and spoken, dancing in the kitchen and cuddles on the couch. 

They are thunderstorms, and they are stars.

[a03feed-percico]

Fragment: The Color Out of Space

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3CStVSB

by BobInTheComments

The first time I saw the color, I thought it was a sign that things were going to work out.

How could I not see those vibrant purples and cobalt blues framed in a swirling aura of chimerical colors lighting up the rumbling midnight storm clouds as a bad thing? How was I to know then that this color composed of many, but still one, was an omen while the world around us burned? That it wasn’t to be our rainbow from God signaling our salvation from the madness that consumed those outside our borders? That the hues I failed to recreate with my crayons and pencils on the floor of my brother’s cabin would twist and corrupt everything bathed in its light?

Words: 9308, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 12 of Fragments

Fandoms: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan, The Kane Chronicles - Rick Riordan, The Demigod Diaries - Rick Riordan, RIORDAN Rick - Works, The Colour Out of Space - H. P. Lovecraft, Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, LOVECRAFT H. P. - Works, At the Mountains of Madness - H. P. Lovecraft

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death

Categories: F/M, M/M

Characters: Hazel Levesque, Nico di Angelo, Chiron (Percy Jackson), Will Solace, Butch Walker (Percy Jackson)

Relationships: Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Calypso/Leo Valdez

Additional Tags: Body Horror, Universe 72798, Phone Calls & Telephones, Apocalypse, cosmic horror, I torture Hazel, Definitely regret that, Or Do I?, Hopeful Ending, Or is that also a lie?, Lovecraftian Monster(s), Rituals, The Mist - Freeform, The Nameless Mist - Freeform, Dreams, Disease, Nyarlathotep is trolling once more, Happy fucking Birthday Percy...

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3CStVSB

[rpgsandbox]

Welcome to Britannia and Beyond!

A regional guide for the Cthulhu Invictus™ setting detailing the province of Britannia, and the barbarian lands of Caledonia and Hibernia

‘Britannia is the border, the furthest outpost of Empire, bounded by cruel Oceania on all sides… what lies beyond that border, what crosses and passes unseen… those things concern me more than any barbarian tribe, more than any army of men… yes, you are right to worry about approaching that border, for what waits in Britannia and beyond… is said to be the doom of Rome.’ – Vatia of Rhodes, 54 AD

The earliest accounts of Briton the Romans saw were from Greek writers, such as Horace, who wrote ‘the shores of the distant Britons’ lay where ‘the real world came to an end and the world of unknown peoples and mythical creatures began.’ To even approach those shores, Horace writes, the Romans would have to cross ‘the stream of Oceanus, filled with large numbers of sea-monsters.’ And so, the island remained a complete mystery, shrouded in shadow and fog.

But eventually the expanding Roman Empire crossed that ocean, and through hard battles and bitter campaigns enveloped Britannia into its borders. Today (96 CE to 180 CE) the province of Britannia is a place of contradictions, a clash of peoples, cultures, and ideologies. It is a land marked by conquest and brutal oppression, but also by peace, productivity, and great progress. Its citizens enjoy prosperity and health, but to most Romans Britons are still seen as unwashed and uncivilized barbarians, the ‘Britunculli’ or ‘nasty little Britons.’ It is a land, and a people, who are slowly forming a new identity, often at odds with themselves.  

But there is another truth, another history: one that predates human existence which is unseen by all except a chosen few. The Shadow War. Humanity’s battle against alien gods, their servitor monsters, and the depraved humans who serve them both or exploited them for personal gain, has raged on for millennia. For centuries, this war in Britannia was mostly contained, the dark forces kept dormant through a combination of rituals, ancient magics, and powerful seals erected over the doors of various mystical prisons.

But the coming of the Romans and their Empire changed all that. With the destruction of the druids and their faith, a darkness long kept at bay is now returning. Spells and rituals are no longer performed, protective groves have been burned, sacred stones toppled, and the prison doors to many dark gods now stand open. These entities seek to spread their dark influence, from the new “colony” cities and wealthy villas to the simplest villages of thatch roof huts and century old farms, from the most powerful elite to the lowliest of slaves. Nowhere and no one is safe from their vile machinations.

This misty, mysterious island is the latest front line of the Shadow War. At the edge of the Empire, a new history waits to be written: one of adventure, but also madness, of glory, but also unspeakable horror. Welcome to Britannia and Beyond.

Three years and five Kickstarters ago we were lucky enough to bring Cthulhu Invictus back to the world of Call of Cthulhu, updating it for 7th Edition. That book proved to be quite difficult and time consuming, but the end result proved worth all the effort. We are deeply proud and grateful that it was honored with the 2019 Silver ENnie for Best Supplement at Gencon.

We caught our breath to play with some cats (Tails of Valor), make a stand for justice (An Inner Darkness), and remember our childhood (The Lovecraft Country Holiday Collection), but through it all, we planned our return to the setting we hold so dear. That time has come at last. The Shadow War never ends, and dark things stir on this rainy island on the edge of the known world. It’s time to set sail for Britannia and Beyond!

The scholar Zosimos, Lady Dexia of the Vestal Virgins, and the centurion Galarius Rufus along with his loyal hound Brita sail towards Portus Dubris, and the misty, mysterious province of Britannia. For Brita, the war dog, this is a homecoming of sorts.

For our first setting book for Cthulhu Invictus, Britannia was an obvious choice. With the rich, often tragic, history of the Roman conquest and colonization of Britannia, the fascinating cultural and social results of the blending of so many diverse cultures, and the enchanting folklore of the ancient Celts… one might ask, how could we NOT start with Britannia? From the Roman baths at, well, Bath, to the Antonine (and yes, Hadrian’s) Wall(s) in the north, from Stonehenge, to London (or is that Londinium?), Tír na nÓg and the Sidhe, the savage Picts of Caledonia in the north and bloodthirsty Hibernian raiders from across the western sea, to the dark tapestry of Great Old Ones connected with Britain (especially its Severn Valley). The attraction to delve into these things and create a version of what Britannia is like in the world of Cthulhu Invictus was completely irresistible. So, here we are!

This well researched and comprehensive guide will provide keepers everything they need to take their Cthulhu Invictus campaign to the province of Britannia, and possibly beyond. The book covers:

1. A detailed history of Britannia, from pre-history to the end of the Antonine Period of the Roman Empire (180 CE).

2. Details on Britannia’s climate, geography, natural resources, and economy.  

Today, the streets of a rebuilt Londinium look much like any other provincial capital in the Empire, maybe a bit cloudier than most.

3. Information on the Roman government, including the military legions stationed there, including both past and current client kingdoms.

4. Tips for creating characters living in Britannia, from Roman settlers, to Romano-Celtic natives (Latinized natives), and native Celts, with a list of Celtic names and gender-naming conventions.

Our heroes and heroines arrive at the home of Veldicius, an old friend of Galarius Rufus from their days serving with the Legio XX, many years ago.

5. A guide to the province of Britannia by region, describing its distinct cultural outlook, the tribes native to the region (and their attitudes towards Rome), important cities and towns, notable sites, sinister seeds, mythos threats, and more.

Paying a courtesy visit to (and seeking advice from) Queen Caratacae of the Dobunni, ruler of one of the few remaining client kingdoms of Britannia.

6. Information on the religion, folklore, myths, magic, temples, and sacred sites associated with Britannia, including Druidism and new rules for creating Druid characters.

7. A collection of patrons, investigator organizations, and sinister cults located across Britannia.

8. The Britannia Bestiary, a listing of the native plants and animals, as well as mythos entities drawn from traditional folklore viewed through cosmic horror colored glasses.

The wilds of Britannia can be a dangerous place, with forests old and dark, where older and darker things lurk.

9. The Dark Gods of Britannia, a discussion of the most iconic Great Old Ones and Outer Gods found across the province, including Eihort, Gla'aki, Y’golonac, Byatis, Yegg-Ha, The Keeper of the Moon Lens, and more.  

Britannia is home to many dark and dangerous gods, and since the coming of the Romans, the powers of those gods are not only growing, but spreading.

10. A discussion of The Dreamlands, Tír na nÓg, and the mysterious Sidhe.

11. A listing of new mythos tomes, magical artifacts, and spells.  

New Roman roads are only a good idea if they avoid places no one should ever go. Getting the engineers and bureaucrats to change their "well laid out plans" is seldom an easy task.

12. Beyond the Wall and Across the Sea: the barbarian lands of Caledonia (Scotland) and Hibernia (Ireland), detailing their people, the conditions there, and the rules for creating characters from these far off lands.  

Walls alone won't protect the Empire from its enemies, human and otherwise. Sometimes, it take courage, steel, arrows, and a fair amount of blood!

13. A pair of scenarios set in Britannia, allowing Keepers and players to dive right into daring and horrifying adventures in this misty land on the edge of the empire.

A Mortal Harvest by Oscar Rios - Shortly before harvest, three villages of the Ordovices suddenly abandon their homes and head towards the city of Viroconium. The investigators must delve into this refugee crisis and get the Ordovices to return to their homes and bring in their crops, lest they face starvation come winter. The Ordovices are too terrified to do so because of a mysterious figure singing haunting ballads under the cover of night. He strums upon a harp, singing a tale of an army of the dead serving a dark god, and warning of their impending doom should they remain.

The Long Dark by Oscar Rios - Just south of the Antonine Wall, in the village of Trimontium, an old friend needs help. An old army buddy, Caito Lupis, retired from the legions and settled down. He's gotten married and begun farming on the land given to him in return for his 25 years of service. At least, that's what he's trying to do. For the Romans, it is time to harvest, but for the natives it's a sacred time, the start of their New Year, a time when ghoulies and ghosties and long legged beasties are free to enter our world. It seems that some of these creatures are set on ruining your friend's harvest and driving him off his land.

==========================================================

Kickstarter campaign ends: Mon, April 13 2020 5:00 AM BST

Website: [Golden Goblin Press] [facebook] [twitter]

[siyizhangblog-blog]

Annihilation, destruction or rebirth?

I watched this movie, Annihilation, with my friend in a cinema near the college. Usually, we would like to talk about our feelings with each other when we finish the movie but this time we didn’t. It was so complicated to summarize the main idea of this movie and my feeling to it even though I was totally attracted by its picture, music and lines. And I failed to fall asleep at this spring night and couldn’t stop thinking about it in a chorus of insects.

It was not the first time I encounter with this movie. In fact, I read the original work named the Southern Reach Trilogy two months ago. Jeff VanderMeer, the author who won Nebula Award in 2014 because of this science fiction novel created a mysterious and enthralling world for a romantic and also thrilling fantasy story, which was perfectly reproduced on the screen visually and aurally by director Alex Garland. A team of five female scientists consisting of a psychologist, a physicist, a geologist, a nurse and a biologist are sent into an area known as Area X to explore what is happening behind a shining border. The biologist, Lena, also wants to unravel the puzzle of her dying husband who is the only survivor of the previous expedition and find the way to save his life. Although the plot seems to be reasonable, it does gives the audience, especially, me a lot of surprises in terms of the atmosphere, the connotation and insight.

          Figure 1 Five female scientists (the second from left is Lena)

Why is the atmosphere of this movie so significant? Because the atmosphere is the essence of unique and evident Cthulhu style throughout the entire one hundred and twenty minutes. Different from other horror fictions, Cthulhu Mythos scarcely put a group of teenage friends into a dilapidated medieval castle hovered by a ghost, a desolate and cursed forest or a typical party with an unexpected visitor but intend to build a horrific, desperate, depressive and melancholy atmosphere and background which hits on viewer’s nerves all the time. Even without the specific symbol or incarnation of horror and fear, you can still feel the insanity contained in words and sentences. That’s how I felt when I first read the novel, At the Mountains of Madness, written by H.P. Lovecraft, the father of Cthulhu Mythos. The similar tension and anxiety grasped me again when watching Annihilation. No background music and no monologue or dialogue, just silence, the movie starts only with a woman (the biologist) in a white hospital gown sitting in a separated room. The whole picture looks dull and gloomy, which reminds me of a distant memory or a childhood nightmare in blur. More than the quiescent and depressing tone, the movie also successfully integrates fantastic and beautiful scenes with when following the female expedition to enter this unearthly Area X. The leafy and thick forest interspersed with small flowers, lucid stream and strange animals as if they come from the fairy tales. But remember, beauty always comes along with death.  

                 Figure 2 A book cover of At the Mountains of Madness

Quite a lot spectators left negative comments on the Internet to criticize the ambiguity and mystification of this film resulted in the weak and illogical storyline. However, in my opinion, it is unfair to deny the value of contemplation on the meaning of life. In the movie, Area X is surrounded by “the shimmer” that reflects everything, lights, sound waves and, most importantly, genes, the basic genetic materials in charge of growth and propagation. They are disrupted into small pieces and arranged into a completely new order, which explains those strange and incredible creatures like the twin deer and fish, a crocodile with shark-like teeth and a bear whose howling sounds like a man speaking. And the same effect happens on human who visited this area. We may think naturally that is a huge destruction and catastrophe to creatures in this area in that they are no longer themselves, but how about thinking of it in the other way? Instead of standing on a human-centered viewpoint, it can also be the prosperity of new life form and the beginning of an unprecedented era. Is it a death or a rebirth? That’s probably why Annihilation, a physics term, was chosen to be the appropriate title of this movie.  

                              Figure 3 Plants grow into human shape

                                    Figure 4         Twin deer  

                                         Figure 5          the shimmer

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Said by H.P. Lovecraft. We are born to be afraid of things we have ever known or understood. That is what Area X means to us, no matter the characters in the movie or the audience. Nevertheless, human beings are too proud to give up so called “the most intellectual creatures and the center of this planet” without realizing how minimal we are compared with the infinite universe or something superior to us, which is also the main idea of Cuthulhu Mythos, a strong dispute to “Man is the Measure of All things”.

[yellingmetatron]

A Scene in a Bookshop

(I have no idea what possessed me to write this.  Just kinda felt like it.  It’s been awhile since I had that impulse, and it’s nice.  Anyway, just a little scene between Meta and H. P. Lovecraft’s eldritch asshole, Nyarlathotep.  I realize that parts of this story may be kind of unclear... but that’s what I was going for.  This is the Cthulhu mythos, cryptic unexplained references are par for the course.  Hope it amuses.)

--- Metatron hated Nyarlathotep for a number of reasons. Foremost, of course, was the alignment issue.  Beings whose essence was Cosmos tended to be instinctively repulsed beings whose essence was Chaos.  The keyword, of course, being “tended”.  Personality could make a big difference.

Nyarlathotep had a shitty personality.

“—And then, oh, fuck, his eyes just, like—melted!  Ha!  And all over his fuckin’ daughter!” The Crawling Chaos made a noise at the intersection of giggling, guffawing, and crowing.  “I mean, she was probably too out of it to experience it properly, but I can always slip some images in while she sleeps.  Pretty sure humans make three-year-olds take a lot of naps, right?”  He looked at Metatron attentively, eyes hidden behind smoked lenses.  “Serious question.  Been awhile since I fucked around with toddlers.”

“Yes,” Metatron said, voice neutral bordering on disinterested. Showing how angry he was would only goad the entity on.

“Right, right, that’s what I thought.  And I mean, she’s got her whole life ahead of her, so that’s a lot of time to really make some memories, ya know?  And GateKey knows I’m gonna make sure she lives good and long.”  He leaned back, satisfied.  “Anyway, that’s how I spent my summer vacation.”

“Your summer vacation.”  Metatron said.

“That’s right.”

“Your summer vacation, which, if I have the chronology of your story right, began in October and has now ended in mid-February.”

It was best to signal incredulity at the least harmful of Nyarlathotep’s eccentricities, Metatron had found.  He was fairly sure the god-thing had him pegged as an absurd pedant whose main concern was with procedural correctness rather than morality. It was usually the reaction that Nyarlathotep was after, regardless of what he’d done cause it.

“Ya-hm,” Nyarlathotep affirmed, grinning.  It was a pleasant grin, incandescently white against the darkness of his human skin, in no way indicative of the yawning void that hid behind it.  “Summer is as summer can be extracted from, and boy did I do a lot of fuckin’ extraction.”

Metatron did his best to keep himself grounded.  He concentrated on his surroundings, and not the fact that every fiber of his being was pulled taught near to snapping, thrumming in bellicose rage against the very existence of this... person.  It really was a nice little second-hand bookstore they were seated in.  A nice little table by the window where people can eat without risking the books.  A nice little New England commercial district by the sea.  The nice little doughnuts and nice lot of coffee the bookstore sells were, well, nice.  The sun was shining, but there were enough clouds to make the sky interesting and… reassuring.

Metatron had always wondered why humans claimed to love a cloudless sky; didn’t they know what kinds of things could come down out of that flat, merciless blue?  Couldn’t they remember?  How much hope could there be for a species who didn’t understand the danger of empty space?

“But!”  Nyarlathotep said, “You didn’t invite me for snacks and conversation.  I take it there’s family you want me to troll?”

“If you want to think of it that way.”

“I don’t,” said Nyarlathotep.  He took sip of coffee.  “I want to think of it as undermining the very foundations of their putrid, pretentious little not-lives.”  He smiled. His smile was not as nice as his grin. The void peaked out, somehow.  “So: Who, how, where, why do you care, and why should I?”

“Gloon,” said Metatron.  “His statue has fallen into the possession of an art collector with a philanthropic streak, and she intends to display it publicly.  Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts.  I have a few mortal agents in the area who are at risk, and are unlikely to survive without outside intervention.  You fucking know why I can’t take direct action.  And as to what’s in it for you…” Metatron half-shrugged.  “You have your own reasons to do this.  Gloon is currying favor with the Outer Gods.”

“…Interesting that you are aware of that.” Nyalathotep said.  His tone changed almost imperceptibly; beyond the void, there is something more.  Something weary and saturated with hate and madness.  “Mm.  Yes.  Pretty happy with him, or as close as that mindless pile of spaceshit gets to happy.  So yes, for myself, I might do this.  But why should I for you, my dear featherduster?”

“Spiting your masters doesn’t interest you?” Metatron asked.  He knew what the answer would be, but he needed Nyalathotep’s hackles raised.  The Crawling Chaos was more pliable angry.  He watched the wry little grimace on Nyarlathotep’s face with a certain satisfaction.

“There will never be anything I can do that would be spiteful enough,” Nyarlathotep murmured, hissed, “As well you know, friend.  I’ve watched Gloon with increasing… distaste, yes, but the satisfaction I derive from fucking him over shall be fleeting.  And then, why, I’d just be all worked up, wouldn’t I?  Might need to do a little venting.”  He grinned again, exhaling through his teeth.  His breath was cold, smelling of coffee and something… else.  He drummed long, sharp-nailed fingers against the tabletop.  “If you don’t give me something more, I will take it, angel.  You won’t like what I take from them.”

Metatron spent a moment quietly watching Nyarlathotep’s face.  Then, he reached down to the black leather satchel he’d brought with him.  Pushing his cup and plate aside, he placed a small, red, spiral-bound notebook on the table.  It was wholly unremarkable, save for a strange repeating pattern of geometric shapes drawn in the lower right-hand corner.

“Living names,” Metatron said, “Two-hundred and forty-nine of them.  Some you may know, but certainly not all.  I think you’ll agree it’s a better chance for ‘venting’ than you’d get otherwise.  Just promise me you’ll leave the mortals alone, get the Gloon fuckery done quickly, and they’re all yours.”

Metatron knew he had succeeded from the moment Nyarlathotep had seen the pattern on the book.  As uncomfortable as it was to acknowledge the fact, he and the Crawling Chaos had certain similarities.  They understood each other, messenger to messenger, and Metatron knew that he’d take the same deal if it were offered to him.  And yes, there was that smile on Nyarlathotep’s face again.  The sunlight seemed to take strange colors against that smile.

“Deal,” Nyarlathotep laughs, “I promise all you ask.”  He reached for the book, then stopped.  “Or will you only trust me if you’re holding this over my head?  I trust you, natch.”

“Take it,” Metatron said curtly.  He did not tell Nyarlathotep that he trusted him back, because the words would taste like ash and bile, all the worse for the truth of them.

Nyarlathotep made a pleased noise as he picked up the book. For a moment, the shape of it wavered; it sunk into his flesh like blood into gauze, and he stood, crane-like and serene.

“Well,” Nyarlathotep said jovially, “Guess I’d better skedaddle. Busy times ahead.”  Metatron made a noncommittal grunt of affirmation.  He picked another book from his satchel without looking.

Chesterton.  Good.

“Remember,” Metatron said, “You aren’t going to damage the mortals unduly.  And you know what I mean by that.  No fucking around with loopholes.”

“I’ve yet to disappoint, hm?”  Laughed the god-thing.  “No.  We have our understanding.  Ha.  Yes.” He flashed a winning smile, tipping an imaginary cap, and waltzed out of the store.  All his movements were vivacious and elegant; people he passed on the street smiled a bit wider without realizing it.

Metatron closed his eyes, and counted to five.  He opened them again, and tried to read, but found his gaze drawn back to the window. The sky was clearer than it had been a moment ago.

And Metatron prayed.

[theraphos]

can you explain the khajiit moon bullshit because whathe fuck am i looking at??? also, blame my friend for saying you are the expert on this, i am confuse send help

First off my bad for this taking a few days to get back to, the house has been hectic and tumblr decided to stop reminding me this was in my inbox which is rude.

Anyhow, this is the part where I shuffle my feet and say I mostly exist in the daedra and argonian corners of the lore and also I’m not entirely certain WHICH khajiit moon bullshit you mean (there is a lot and if it’s anything to do with TESO or the stuff Kirkbride wrote after leaving the franchise I can’t help you there) BUT I can try, and I have links by people who know more than me. \(._.)/

Khajiit are bound as a species to the Lunar Lattice, which is a fancy way of saying the many combinations of the phases of Nirn’s two moons. Essentially, the body type of a Khajiit is not at all determined by genetics (though presumably fur color, etc. is) and it is entirely possible for a fairly humanlike Khajiit to give birth to a literal kitten or a cat monster the size of an elephant to have a delicate anime catgirl for a daughter.

According to Khajiit mythology this was the work of Azura, who scooped up some “forest people” that “did not know their shape” and “were torn between man and beast.” In other words, the ancient predecessors of modern Bosmer, trust me Bosmer have some serious shit going on in the background. And Azura was like “okay u guys are pretty fucked up so I’m gonna staple you to the moon to bring some order to this madness” and they were like “holy shit we’re cats” and also had cool accents and did a lot of drugs and thus were the Khajiit born.

The remaining Forest People made a thing called the Green Pact, which fixed their shape problems by way of eating nothing but meat (including people meat) within the borders of Valenwood and that’s where little Bosmer came from. But sometimes they get mad and choose to revert to what the Forest People were like and a lot of people fucking die.

Anyway, yes. Khajiit are basically an offshoot of ancient Bosmer that Azura stapled to the moon to give them some kind of coherence as a species but it ended up super weird because who the fuck lets daedra design anything, they’re all Cthulhu in fancier clothes.

A full listing of known moon phase combinations and the resulting effect on Khajiit babies can be found at http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Khajiit#Morphology

Hope that helps!

[alamutjones]

I would love to hear more about your headcanons about regional art styles in Westeros if you have more thoughts! 💕

Okay. I can do that. My thoughts have been gathered! 

Initially, I covered the North, the Riverlands, the Westerlands, the Stormlands and Dorne. I’ll crap on for a bit about the ones I left out.

The Iron Islands are fascinating for me, because they have such a paucity of materials to work in that visual art would be very difficult. They DO produce it, because almost everyone produces it, but they’re a challenge. If I was going to pick an artform for them to attach importance to, it would be music rather than any visual medium - songs to help oarsmen keep the beat. I could so easily see young Theon realising that tiny Sansa loves music, teaching her a song because he thinks he’s being nice…and getting in trouble, because the song he picked is a reaving song full of blood and thunder and it frightens her.

In terms of materials for visual artforms, I think they use what they can get from the sea. They work in bone and ivory to make scrimshaw or polished carvings. They use shell. They set smoothed and sea-tossed pebbles into the walls and floor or stone buildings to make a kind of ur-mosaic effect - imagine the lord’s chamber or the main hall at Pyke having a huge kraken sprawling on the wall to challenge you as you come in. They do NOT work in wood except for very rare and special pieces - the ocean tosses driftwood up, but that would be too precious to use for art when it could be used to make useful things.

When they weave, it’s dyed in the kind of muted colours you get from the older Harris tweed where they were still using natural dyes. I’ve always put a bit of the Orkneys/Shetlands/Hebrides into my version of the Iron Islands - the island chains of Scotland were heavily influenced by the Norse.

They mine lead and tin as well as iron, so they may have a practice of casting pieces from lead.

I think the ironborn are like the North in that they’re a bit iconophobic. There are so many Cthulhu touches to the mythos of the Drowned God, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a strict rule about not depicting His Tentacular Godhood - seeing the Drowned God too clearly drives men mad (Patchface), and that aversion remains even if the ironborn no longer remember exactly why. They depict ships, in loving detail. They depict animals. But they do not like showing people, and they HATE showing gods. Part of the violent backlash against the Seven on the Islands can be traced to the fact that the Faith of the Seven NEEDS to depict its gods, which made even ironborn who weren’t notably devout hideously uncomfortable.

The Riverlands and their practice of painting literally everything (huge ass murals, lavish illumination in books etc etc) becomes a direct rebellion against their ironborn rulers. Screw you, we know you hate it when there are human faces everywhere…we’re going to paint LOTS! On EVERYTHING!

The Vale…stone carvers. I have a really vague idea of the Vale in general, sorry!

The Reach is in some ways a lot like the Westerlands. They have the wealth to invest into glassmaking and ceramics, and if ANYONE has put stained glass windows into important buildings, it’s them. They do a lot of woodwork too, especially near the border of the Stormlands. They work in things like oak and cherry and applewood - I have a very clear image of little Reach girls having tiny dolls carved from the pits of stone-fruit, to look like a baby in a crib.

Smallfolk weave the stalks of the harvest into mats and hats and dolls too. It sounds simple, but variation in colours can make it quite pretty.

Does that sate your curiosity?

[comiccrusaders]

Welcome back to BROKEN MOON: LEGENDS OF THE DEEP, where warring factions of monsters have temporarily laid down their arms upon the threat of Old God Cthulhu and his relentless spread of madness! Creator Philip Kim (MONSTER WORLD) and writer Ben Meares (HELLRAISER) have brought our band of heroes to the edge of the ocean, where mysterious Depth Dwellers will lead them to their last hope: Dagon. But they have to get past a protective army of sea serpents first… Rockstar horror artist Nat Jones (’68) infuses this monster mash with incredible atmosphere.

#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Creator Philip Kim writer Ben Meares artist Nat Jones PUBLISHER:  American Gothic Press

PREVIEW: BROKEN MOON: LEGENDS OF THE DEEP #5  Welcome back to BROKEN MOON: LEGENDS OF THE DEEP, where warring factions of monsters have temporarily laid down their arms upon the threat of Old God Cthulhu and his relentless spread of madness!

[internationbookhouse]

#gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Mansarovar lake

A must-have classic that every Lovecraft fan and collector will love. From the sumptuously designed Timeless Classics series, The Complete Tales of H.P. Lovecraft collects the author’s novel, four novellas, and fifty-three short stories. Written between the years 1917 and 1935, this collection features Lovecraft’s trademark fantastical creatures and supernatural thrills, as well as many horrific and cautionary science-fiction themes that have influenced some of today’s writers and filmmakers, including Stephen King, Alan Moore, F. Paul Wilson, Guillermo del Toro, and Neil Gaiman. Included in this volume are The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, “The Call of Cthulhu,” “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath,” “At the Mountains of Madness,” “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” “The Colour Out of Space,” “The Dunwich Horror,” and many more hair-raising tales. The Timeless Classics series from Rock Point brings together the works of classic authors from around the world. Complete and unabridged, these elegantly designed gift editions feature luxe, patterned endpapers, ribbon markers, and foil and deboss details on vibrantly colored cases. Celebrate these beloved works of literature as true standouts in your personal library collection. Other titles in the series include: The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales, The Complete Novels of Jane Austen, The Complete Sherlock Holmes, The Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.   [amz_corss_sell asin=”1631066463″] The Complete Tales of H.P. Lovecraft A must-have classic that every Lovecraft fan and collector will love. From the sumptuously designed Timeless Classics series, The Complete Tales of H.P.

[waynekelton]

Seven Scrolls Review

You see the word 'roguelike' thrown around so much these days. It can be difficult to discern what it actually means. Broadly, we use it to describe games that are run-based, with an element of procedural generation. They are hard, but fair. They reward a learning of a set of systems, as opposed to memorizing preplaced, hand-designed stages. It’s learning a language as opposed to just memorizing a book. But from there, anything goes. Action games like Dead Cells and card battlers like Slay the Spire all take this general formula and use it as a base for something way more extravagant and experimental. We like to call these 'rogue-lites'.

More narrowly, 'roguelikes' are games that share the same design constants as Rogue, the ASCII-based dungeon crawler from the 80’s. Rogue included tile based movement, where each step taken was a 'turn'. Enemies moved in reaction, and this dance occured as you attempted to navigate your way to the end of a floor of a dungeon. Various weapons and abilities can modify how you dispatch your foes, but should you die in your journey, the game is over. You’ll have to start from the beginning.

Put another way, 'rogue-lites' are like mezcal, made from basically the same ingredients as a 'roguelike', but because they aren’t made a very specific way, they aren’t tequila.

All that to say that Seven Scrolls, the new game by Jesse Venbrux, is maybe the best attempt out of making modern tequila on mobile since Imbroglio. It’s mechanical simplicity makes it easy to pick up and play, but the tiny wrinkles it throws into the formula are innovative.

As a purple skinned monk, your goal is to travel to the end of this dungeon, one little, grid-based room at a time. Each floor is small - only 5 x 5 - with Pac-Man style doorways on the outside borders, and little walls within the board to obstruct movement. Monsters periodically spawn in to give you grief and impede your mission. One of them, always the chicken, must be killed to get a key to move on to the next floor. The rest can be avoided and dispatched at your discretion.

These floors feel less like action games and more like puzzles. Moving around in ways that minimize your risk can require you to think several moves ahead. Once you get a few rounds in, never feels unfair when you get cornered by a pair of monsters. That said, it can take several deaths and restarts before you begin to really “get” Seven Scrolls.

This is largely because of its titular 'scrolls' system. Picking one up will add a passive effect that reads like an if-then statement. For example, if the Monk (you) kills an enemy, the Monk is healed. There are tons of different triggers and effects that can make some pretty potent spells. There’s absolutely no guarantee that these scrolls will work in your favor or not, though. Effects like shielding and healing can target monsters too. Triggers can pile up, causing a cascade of effects when something as benign (or necessary) as walking into a new floor occurs.

You can also use scrolls actively, so long as a target is applicable. Activating your scroll prematurely ignores the trigger, and just plays the effect out on the target. Maybe you need healing now, or want to make room in your limited inventory for a potentially better scroll. Just tap and burn it immediately. I find this adds a necessary element of crisis mitigation, as I often use it to get bad effects over with quickly. I’d rather the cthulhu beast that's aggressively chasing me get a shield now then some other, way worse time. This is my favorite feature of the game, because it provides some much needed agency in a set of systems that are seemingly going mad without your input.

This messiness is part of Seven Scrolls’ ultimate charm though. On top of the puzzle of navigating the floors, the chaos that the scrolls can add really unlocks a tactical layer that is a rare gem shining complexity and fun. Once you pass your first round by getting through all 7 floors and starting over again, new game plus style, you're hooked.

The scroll system has a charm reminiscent of Damian Sommer’s Chesh or Michael Brough’s Corrypt. Both are games that embrace mechanics that feel like bugs, and turn them into core gameplay. Jesse Venbrux’s project can stand shoulder to shoulder with some of these highly experimental successes.

Seven Scrolls has a strong, almost Holy Roman Empire visual style. Many of the icons have that twisted look to them - monk’s limbs crooked like paper dolls, one creature looks like a head coming out of the mouth of some other beast. I wouldn’t say that any individual piece of art is excellent, but as a whole, they come together to create a distinct “feel.”

All in all, if quick, turn-based puzzle/tactics are your thing, there's something in Seven Scrolls for you. It's the most “roguelike” game you’ll play so far this year, and is a great look at how sometimes just slight innovations can move a genre into new territory much faster than overdressing it with tons of other features.

Seven Scrolls Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[halloweendailynews]

The comics that will be available during Halloween ComicFest 2019 this October were officially revealed today, including 19 full size and nine mini comics, featuring Batman, Spider-Man, Boba Fett, Ghost-rider, the kid-slasher parody Junior High Horrors (pictured above), and many more.

Read on for the full press release and the complete list of 2019 titles, and then enjoy browsing through our photo gallery of all the Halloween comic covers coming your way for the 8th annual Halloween ComicFest.

This year, Halloween ComicFest (HCF) features a whole new selection of 28 comic book titles for the industry’s most anticipated fall event taking place Saturday, October 26, 2019 at participating comic shops worldwide.

Of the 28 titles available, 19 are Full Size and 9 are Mini Comics for fans to pick up and enjoy. All will be available for free at participating comic shops on Saturday, October 26th, with the Mini Comics also available for purchase in packs of 25 for $4.99 at the beginning of October—a perfect item to give to trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

“This year’s Halloween ComicFest is poised to be bigger and better than last year!” said Halloween ComicFest spokesperson Ashton Greenwood. “The comics available this year are designed to appeal to a broad range of tastes, from the all-ages Mini Comics featuring popular properties like Archie, DC Superhero Girls, Nickelodeon’s The Loud House, and Pokémon, while the Full-Size Comics feature well-known characters like Sonic the Hedgehog, Boba Fett, Iron Man, and Batman. Halloween ComicFest is the perfect time to discover the wonders of comic shops and experience them as premiere destinations for Halloween fun!”

Read on for the complete listing of all Halloween ComicFest 2019 comics and our gallery of the covers for each.

HALLOWEEN COMICFEST 2019 FULL SIZE COMICS AfterShock Comics | Dark Red #1 Halloween ComicFest B&W Edition – Charles “Chip” Ipswich isn’t one of those coastal elites with a liberal arts degree and a job at a social media start-up who knows where all the best brunch places are… No, Chip is one of the “forgotten men.” He lives in a rural area in the middle of the country where Jesus still has a place at the dinner table and where factories ship jobs to Calcutta. Chip is also a vampire. Stuck working the last shift at a gas station, Chip is lonely and bored…and then his dull, bleak life is turned upside down when SHE comes to town. SPECIAL BLACK AND WHITE REPRINT. Tim Seeley (BRLLIANT TRASH) and Corin Howell bring you a contemporary and horrifying tale of vampirism in the heart of America — one that’ll make you jump right out of your boots. Aspen Comics | Aspen Mascots and the Portals of Doom – When Wormier and Griff accidentally open multiples portals from another dimension, the Aspen Mascots must band together to stop their own doppelgängers from wreaking havoc in our world! In this new jam-packed activity-coloring book featuring Aspen’s most popular critters and oddities, readers must solve puzzles, mazes and more in order to finish the story and save the planet! Benitez Productions | Lady Mechanika: La Dama de la Muerte – After suffering a tragic loss, Lady Mechanika takes a trip to a small Mexican village just in time for their Día de los Muertos celebration. But the festivities turn truly deadly after the arrival of the Jinetes del Infierno, the mythical Hell Riders! Includes the first chapter of the Lady Mechanika Day of the Dead special, collected in the La Dama de la Muerte TPB.  Dark Horse Comics | House of Fear: Attack of the Killer Snowmen! – A group of kids throwing around a football on a pleasant winter afternoon are suddenly set upon by snowmen with jagged grins and twisted limbs instead of cute button eyes and corncob pipes. They’ll need to think quick in order to defeat these frozen foes! A spooky scare for young readers!House of Fearis the perfect comic for monster hunters young and old. DC Comics | DCeased #1 HCF Special Editon – A mysterious techno-virus has been released on Earth, infecting 600 million people and turning them instantly into violent, monstrous engines of destruction.The heroes of the DCU are caught completely unprepared for a pandemic of this magnitude and struggle to save their loved ones first…but what happens to the World’s Greatest Heroes if the world ends?New York Times best-selling writer Tom Taylor (INJUSTICE) returns with a terrifying new tale and is joined by artists Trevor Hairsine (LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT) and Stefano Gaudiano (The Walking Dead). DC Comics | The Secret Spiral of Swamp Kid / Black Canary: Ignite HCF Special Edition IDW Publishing | Sonic the Hedgehog #1 HCF Edition Keenspot Entertainment | Junior High Horrors Halloween Special – Halloween is here! But Mikey, the boy that’s always ready to dress to impress, has changed his tune and wants nothing to do with costumes this year. The gang gets together to change his mind, but will they succeed? This original story drawn by series creator Rob Potchak is the perfect jumping on point for anyone wanting to see why Robert Kirkman may have said this All-Ages Horror Parody was “Awesome!” This comic also features dyslexic reader friendly fonts, a first in the industry! Kodansha Comics | Tales of Berseria Preivew & Other Game Manga Mad Cave Studios | Battlecats: Halloween ComicFest Special Marvel Comics | Ghost Rider: King of Hell #1 Marvel Comics | Iron Man: Road to Iron Man 2020 Marvel Comics | Miles Morales: Spider-Man #0 Marvel Comics | Star Wars: Boba Fett #1 Random House Children’s Books | Doodleville/ Aster and the Accidental Magic Exclusive First Look Source Point Press | The Adventures of Cthulhu Jr. and Dastardly Dirk Vertical Comics | Bakemonogatari (Monster Tale) Exclusive HCF Edition VIZ Media | The Drifting Classroom/ Smashed YouNeek Studios | Iyanu: Child of Wonder

HALLOWEEN COMICFEST 2019 MINI COMICS Albatross Funnybooks | Spook House – A spooky book for kids of all ages! This Albatross Funnybooks anthology features works by William Stout, Eric Powell and Gideon Kendall! American Mythology | Under Dog Halloween Hijinks – There’s no need to fear! Underdog is here! Its an extra special Halloween treat as we present a mini comic adventure of everyone’s favorite superhound, Underdog! We’ll have you singing the Underdog theme as you trick or treat this year, “Speed of lightning, roar of thunder, fighting all who rob or plunder, Underdog!”  Don’t let Simon Bar Sinister ruin your holiday, join us for Underdog hijinks this Halloween season! Archie Comics | Archie’s Madhouse Magic – Get ready for magic and mischief in this fun collection of Halloween stories! Archie and everyone’s favorite teenage witch, Sabrina, are proud to present two enchanting and bewitching tales from Archie’s Magical Madhouse–sure to leave you spellbound! BOOM! Studios | Just Beyond: Horror at Happy Landings – THERE’S SOMETHING IN THE WOODS. Family camping trips are already a drag for Annie and Parker, especially with their cousin Clark tagging along, but when strange things start happening, they’ll discover startling secrets out of this world! When a pair of Martian siblings find themselves stranded on Earth, they must take over Annie and Parker’s bodies to retrieve the tracker that can signal Mars to bring them home. Can the Martians make it home safe, or will they be forced to become Annie and Parker forever? DC Comics | DC Superhero Girls: At Metropolis High Halloween ComicFest Special Edition – When Batgirl, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Green Lantern, Bumblebee, and Zatanna are continually late to class because of their crime-fighting, they are sentenced to finding an after-school club for a whole week … or else they’ll be suspended!But finding a club is not as easy as it looks, and when the girls keep finding themselves kicked out of the clubs they like, they must think outside of the box and go outside their comfort zones to avoid suspension. This first chapter from the DC SUPER HERO GIRLS: AT METROPOLIS HIGH graphic novel is perfect for ages 6-10 and a great entry point into the DC Universe. Golden Apple Books | Blastosaurus Halloween Special IDW Publishing | Usagi Yojimbo HCF Mini Comic Papercutz | The Loud House: “A Very LOUD Halloween” VIZ Media | Pokémon Adventures

(Click an image to enlarge and view in gallery browser.)

#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

  For more Halloween news, follow @HalloweenDaily.

Halloween ComicFest 2019 Comics Announced The comics that will be available during Halloween ComicFest 2019 this October were officially revealed today, including 19 full size and nine mini comics, featuring Batman, Spider-Man, Boba Fett, Ghost-rider, the kid-slasher parody…

[swipestream]

Fantasy and Adventure New Releases, 27 April 2019

Fighter jocks, secret conspiracies, elemental academies and Cleopatra’s tomb all feature in this week’s roundup of the newest releases in fantasy and adventure.

Alt-Hero: Q #1: Where We Go One – Chuck Dixon and Helix Haze

When federal agent Roland Dane is sent to Peru to escort a U.S. Cabinet member, he has no reason to believe his assignment is connected in any way to his Treasury team’s recent bust of a ring of amateur counterfeiters. But when the Secretary of State and his entourage is unexpectedly attacked and the subsequent news reports of the attack bear no resemblance to the events he witnessed, Dane is forced to confront the shocking discovery that nothing in his world is quite what it appears to be.

Alt★Hero: Q is an incendiary comic series that explores the mysterious phenomenon of QAnon. Set in the Alt★Hero universe, the story is written by The Legend Chuck Dixon, the co-creator of Bane and the most prolific author in the history of comic books.

The Earth Awakens (Elemental Academy #2) – D. K. Holmberg

Having passed his first test at the Academy, most believe Tolan has proved he belongs. Only Tolan knows the truth: that his shaping required power from the borrowed bondar—and possibly from the elementals themselves. If he can’t find a way to shape without one, he’ll be expelled from the Academy.

When he intervenes to stop another attack on the city, he once again finds himself in the middle of the battle between Terndahl and the Draasin Lord. Worse, because of his continued reliance on the bondars, he begins to fear he might be responsible for releasing elementals.

Another test approaches. For him to remain at the Academy, he must find real power within himself, but a greater challenge distracts him. With increased attacks on the city, Tolan might be the only one to know what they’re after—and how to stop them.

Lions of the Sky – Paco Chierici

Sam Richardson is a fighter pilot’s pilot,i a reluctant legend with a gut-eating secret. He is in the last span of his tour as an instructor, yearning to get back to the real action of the Fleet, when he is ordered to take on one last class—a class that will force him to confront his carefully quarantined demons.

Brash, carefree, and naturally gifted, Keely Silvers is the embodiment of all that grates on him. After years of single-minded dedication, she and her classmates can see the finish line. They are months away from achieving their life-long dream, flying Navy F/A-18 fighters. They are smart and hard-working, but they’re just kids with expensive new toys. They’re eager to rush through training and escape to the freedom of the world beyond, a world they view as a playground full of fast jets and exotic locales.

But Sam knows there is a darker side to the profession he loves. There is trouble brewing in the East with global implications. If they make it past him they will be cast into a dangerous world where enemy planes cruise the skies over the South China Sea like sharks, loaded with real weapons and hidden intentions.

The Lost War – Karl Gallagher

It was supposed to be a weekend of costumed fun. Instead these medieval historical reenactors are flung into a wilderness by magic they don’t understand. They must struggle to survive and deal with monsters who consider them prey . . . or worse.

“Karl Gallagher’s first production, the Torchship Trilogy, was good enough so that I read and reread it. He has now turned his hand from science fiction to fantasy.” – Professor David D. Friedman, Professor, Santa Clara University, also known as Duke Cariadoc of the Bow, KSCA, OL, OP, founder of the Pennsic War.

“Highly recommended for those who enjoy watching a group fighting for their own survival on a sticks-and-stones level of technology in a brand-new world which has magic (and to make it more interesting some in the group are becoming magic users themselves)!”–Amazon Reader Review

The King’s Enemies (The Henchmen Chronicles #5) – Craig Halloran

In the final inning Abraham must shut the enemy out or die.

The invasion begins with an enemy the likes the people of Titanuus have never imagined. Armed modern weaponry, diabolical forces muster at the Kingsland border wall, while savage barbarian forces called the Gond, secretly lay siege upon the House of Steel.

With the Crown of Stones incomplete and the king slipping into madness more treachery bears fruit as former alliances are broken and old enemies rise again.

Outgunned and overmatched, Abraham Jenkins, must use his wits and sword to bring the enemy down before the curtain closes and he is trapped dead or alive in Titanuus forever.

Savage Sword of Conan: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 1 – presented by Marvel Comics

Crom! This inaugural volume ushers in Marvel’s line of definitive Savage Sword of Conan collections. Full-color covers, letters pages, pinups, extensive articles and reviews on Conan, his world and his creator -everything’s included just as no one is spared the vengeance of Conan! After the breakout success of Conan’s color comic, Marvel brought the legendary sword-and-sorcery saga of Robert E. Howard’s hero to its black-and-white magazine line. In lushly illustrated novel-length adventures with all the drama, violence and allure the comic book medium can off er, writer Roy Thomas and Marvel’s greatest artists craft a host of Conan classics like Barry Windsor-Smith’s “Red Nails” and John Buscema’s “Black Colossus” and “A Witch Shall Be Born” featuring the infamous Tree of Death are just the beginning!

COLLECTING: SAVAGE TALES (1971) 1-5; SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN (1974) 1-12, SPECIAL (1975) 1

Tomb of the Queen (Jo Bennett Archaeological Mysteries #2) – Kristi Belcamino and Nick Thacker

Jo Bennett, fresh off her incredible discovery of a temple full of snakes hidden in an Arizona desert cave, wants to answer the question that’s been plaguing her for her entire life:

Where is Cleopatra’s tomb?

She’s idolized Cleopatra since she was a girl, following in her mother’s footsteps. Now she has the career and education to back her up, as well as her small team of close friends.

But she’s not the only one looking for Cleopatra…

And whoever finds her first will control a fortune, as well as something even more sinister…

Uncanny Collateral (Valkyrie Collections #1) – Brian McClellan

Alek Fitz is a reaper, a collection agent who works for the supernatural elements of the world, tracking down debtors and solving problems for clients as diverse as the Lords of Hell, vampires, Haitian loa, and goblins. He’s even worked for the Tooth Fairy on occasion. Based out of Cleveland, Ohio, Alek is the best in the game. As a literal slave to his job, he doesn’t have a choice.

When Death comes looking for someone to track down a thief, Alek is flung into a mess of vengeful undead, supernatural bureaucracy, and a fledgling imp war. As the consequences of failure become dire, he has few leads, and the clock is ticking. Only with the help of his friend Maggie—an ancient djinn with a complex past—can he hope to recover the stolen property, save the world, and just maybe wring a favor out of the Great Constant himself.

It’s a hell of a job, but somebody’s got to do it . . .

A Witch in Time (The Halflife Chronicles #5) – Wm. Mark Simmons

Years back, a blood transfusion with a member of the undead left Christopher Cséjthe a half-vampire. Since that time, he’s gone mano y monster with zombies, werewolves, master vampires, and creatures from the Cthulhu Lagoon—not to mention an immortal Nazi, an ancient Babylonian demon, a six-thousand-year-old necromancer, voodoo queen Marie Laveau, the mad monk Rasputin, and a couple of the Great Old Ones.

As founder of After Dark Investigations, he’s seen his fair share of the seedy side of the supernatural world. He’s saved New Orleans from total destruction in the past. And lost his family to another temporal realm. To add insult to injury, someone cut the gas line of his SUV and then ran over him with a semi-truck while he tried to get a tow. But this is the third time Chris has died.

It’s old hat at this point for him. Now, awakened in a world he doesn’t quite recognize, he’ll have to use his wits to once again keep the supernatural world at bay. INTERPOL is interested in some of his associations with Vlad Drakul’s grandson—better known as Dracula—and a trio of witches from Greek myth want him dead—and for good this time.

Bad enough. But what’s worse is that the IRS is looking into his tax returns and not at all liking what they find. Now that’s really terrifying.

Fantasy and Adventure New Releases, 27 April 2019 published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[aurriii]

30 Most Haunting Books You’ll Ever Read

There’s finally a fall chill in the October air, now let’s send that chill to our spines and get all Halloween creepy and moody.

The Color Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft

H.P. Lovecraft’s classic short story about a terrible alien presence that descends upon a rural area, with dire consequences for surrounding life.

Misery by Steven King

The #1 national bestseller about a famous novelist held hostage by his “number one fan” and suffering a frightening case of writer’s block—that could prove fatal. One of “Stephen King’s best…genuinely scary” (USA TODAY).

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

The Descent by Jeff Long

We are not alone…In a cave in the Himalayas, a guide discovers a self-mutilated body with the warning–Satan exists. In the Kalahari Desert, a nun unearths evidence of a proto-human species and a deity called Older-than-Old. In Bosnia, something has been feeding upon the dead in a mass grave. So begins mankind’s most shocking realization: that the underworld is a vast geological labyrinth populated by another race of beings.

The Lurking Fear by H.P. Lovecraft

Twelve soul-chilling stories by the master of horror will leave you shivering in your boots and afraid to go out in the night. Only H.P. Lovecraft can send your heart racing faster than it’s ever gone before. And here are the stories to prove it.

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston

The bestselling landmark account of the first emergence of the Ebola virus. A highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There is no cure. In a few days 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic “hot” virus.

Requiem For A Dream Hubert Selby Jr.

In this searing novel, two young hoods, Harry and Tyrone, and a girlfriend fantasize about scoring a pound of uncut heroin and getting rich. But their habit gets the better of them, consumes them and destroys their dreams.

Something Wicked This Way Comes By Ray Bradbury

For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin. Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. A calliope’s shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes…and the stuff of nightmares.

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

Haunted is a novel made up of twenty-three horrifying, hilarious, and stomach-churning stories. They’re told by people who have answered an ad for a writer’s retreat and unwittingly joined a “Survivor”-like scenario where the host withholds heat, power, and food. As the storytellers grow more desperate, their tales become more extreme, and they ruthlessly plot to make themselves the hero of the reality show that will surely be made from their plight. This is one of the most disturbing and outrageous books you’ll ever read, one that could only come from the mind of Chuck Palahniuk.

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

Feed your fears with this terrifying classic that introduced cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter.

FBI agent Will Graham once risked his sanity to capture Hannibal Lecter, an ingenious killer like no other. Now, he’s following the bloodstained pattern of the Tooth Fairy, a madman who’s already wiped out two families.

To find him, Graham has to understand him. To understand him, Graham has only one place left to go: the mind of Dr. Lecter.

We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Lionel Shriver’s resonant story of a mother’s unsettling quest to understand her teenage son’s deadly violence, her own ambivalence toward motherhood, and the explosive link between them reverberates with the haunting power of high hopes shattered by dark realities.

The Whisperer In Darkness by H.P Lovecraft

The Whisperer in Darkness brings together the original Cthulhu Mythos stories of the legendary horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. Included in this volume are several early tales, along with the classics The Call of Cthulhu, The Dunwich Horror and At the Mountains of Madness.

The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

The Lottery, one of the most terrifying stories written in this century, created a sensation when it was first published in TheNew Yorker. “Power and haunting,” and “nights of unrest” were typical reader responses. This collection, the only one to appear during Shirley Jackson’s lifetime, unites “The Lottery:” with twenty-four equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate Jack son’s remarkable range–from the hilarious to the truly horrible–and power as a storyteller.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, his lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.

Pet Semetary by Stephen King

When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic and rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Yet despite Ludlow’s tranquility, there’s an undercurrent of danger that exists here. Those trucks on the road outside the Creed’s beautiful old home travel by just a little too quickly, for one thing…as is evidenced by the makeshift pet cemetery out back in the nearby woods. Then there are the warnings to Louis both real and from the depths of his nightmares that he should not venture beyond the borders of this little graveyard. A blood-chilling truth is hidden there—one more terrifying than death itself, and hideously more powerful. An ominous fate befalls anyone who dares tamper with this forbidden place, as Louis is about to discover for himself…

The Shining by Stephen King

Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.

The Beach by Alex Garland

Richard sets off with a young French couple to an island hidden away in an archipelago forbidden to tourists. They discover the Beach, and it is as beautiful and idyllic as it is reputed to be. Yet over time it becomes clear that Beach culture, as Richard calls it, has troubling, even deadly, undercurrents.

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

In American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis imaginatively explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence in our time or any other. Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront.

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

Meet Frank Cauldhame. Just sixteen, and unconventional to say the least:

Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I’d disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim.

That’s my score to date. Three. I haven’t killed anybody for years, and don’t intend to ever again.

It was just a stage I was going through.

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi, Curt Gentry

In the summer of 1969, in Los Angeles, a series of brutal, seemingly random murders captured headlines across America. A famous actress (and her unborn child), an heiress to a coffee fortune, a supermarket owner and his wife were among the seven victims. A thin trail of circumstances eventually tied the Tate-LeBianca murders to Charles Manson, a would-be pop singer of small talent living in the desert with his “family” of devoted young women and men. What was his hold over them? And what was the motivation behind such savagery?

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

It is autumn 1981 when inconceivable horror comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenager is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last—revenge for the bullying he endures at school, day after day.

But the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door—a girl who has never seen a Rubik’s Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There is something wrong with her, though, something odd.

IT by Stephen King

Welcome to Derry, Maine. It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real.

They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But the promise they made twenty-eight years ago calls them reunite in the same place where, as teenagers, they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city’s children. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that terrifying summer return as they prepare to once again battle the monster lurking in Derry’s sewers.

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

Inspired by a true story of a child’s demonic possession in the 1940s, William Peter Blatty created an iconic novel that focuses on Regan, the eleven-year-old daughter of a movie actress residing in Washington, D.C. A small group of overwhelmed yet determined individuals must rescue Regan from her unspeakable fate, and the drama that ensues is gripping and unfailingly terrifying.

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin

Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling actor husband Guy move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and mostly elderly residents. Neighbors Roman and Minnie Castavet soon come nosing around to welcome the Woodhouses to the building, and despite Rosemary’s reservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that she keeps hearing, her husband takes a shine to them.

Shortly after Guy lands a plum Broadway role, Rosemary becomes pregnant―and the Castavets start taking a special interest in her welfare. As the sickened Rosemary becomes increasingly isolated, she begins to suspect that the Castavets’ circle is not what it seems…

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo

This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered—not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives…This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome…but so is war.

Night by Elie Wiesel

Night is Elie Wiesel’s masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps.

1984 by George Orwell

Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching…

A startling and haunting vision of the world, 1984 is so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the influence of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of multiple generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions—a legacy that seems only to grow with the passage of time.

Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons

THE PAST… Caught behind the lines of Hitler’s Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazi’s themselves…

THE PRESENT… Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saul will span decades and cross continents, plunging into the darkest corners of 20th century history to reveal a secret society of beings who may often exist behind the world’s most horrible and violent events. Killing from a distance, and by darkly manipulative proxy, they are people with the psychic ability to ‘use’ humans: read their minds, subjugate them to their wills, experience through their senses, feed off their emotions, force them to acts of unspeakable aggression. Each year, three of the most powerful of this hidden order meet to discuss their ongoing campaign of induced bloodshed and deliberate destruction. But this reunion, something will go terribly wrong. Saul’s quest is about to reach its elusive object, drawing hunter and hunted alike into a struggle that will plumb the depths of mankind’s attraction to violence, and determine the future of the world itself…

The Tell-tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe

Written in 1843, “The Tell-Tale Heart” is a dark and eerie tale of a man’s unhealthy obsession that leads him to commit murder. Will his paranoia get him caught? This is one of Poe’s finest and most memorable short stories.

Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

The classic and terrifying story of one of the most famous supernatural events–the infamous possessed house on Long Island from which the Lutz family fled in 1975.

from Textbook Case | Bigwords.com http://ift.tt/2zypVG1 via IFTTT

[randomisedgaming]

The very best of Xbox 360 Indie titles and what other platforms they are available on

Over the last week Randomised Gaming has been researching and playing the best and worst games on the Xbox 360 Indie Games (XBLIG) format. While playing 3398 in the space of a week is impossible, we have tried to cover as many games as we can in the time frame. Before the shutdown event on October 7th 2017, which is the end of day tomorrow. We’ve also covered a nice sections of them in our reason three part video series:

So today we present a work in progress list of the best games on the platform, some of these titles are already available on other platforms. No doubt we have also missed a few of the great games on this service, but this should serve as a guide. Randomised Gaming will update this list over the weekend up until the shutdown. As there is so many games on the service no doubt we have missed a few classic.

Quite a few of these games are available on Steam and PSN network and even Xbox One, but many aren’t and will be lost once this service closes. It’s fair to say there are plenty of awful games on the service but many should be re-released on the Xbox One, this is the best of the games we have played so far. And also where if possible you can still buy them or not!

Games highlighted in bold are available on another format.

2D Voxel Madness (Listed on Steam Greenlight) A Voxel Action Aah Impossible Rescue Aah Little Atlantis (Free Flash web browser version available) AardBloxX (Developer Bat Country Entertainment, website closed) Aban Hawkns & the 1000 Spikes (1001 Spikes on Steam) Ace on Steroids Aeternum (Available on Steam) Akane the Kunoichi (Available on Steam) All the Bad Parts Along Came a Spider (Released on Desura for PC, but this service is now defunct also listed on Steam Greenlight made by WobblyTooth) Alpha Squad Amazing Princess Sarah (Available on Steam, Xbox One and Mobile) Ancient Trader Aphelion 1 & 2 Apple Jack Apple Jack 2 Aqua Kitty Aqualibrium Arcadecraft Arkedo Series – 01 Jump! Arkedo Series – 02 Swap! Arkedo Series – 03 PIXEL! Astralis Astroman Avatar Ninja 2 Avatar Ninja Avatar Typing Bad Caterpillar Battle High 2 Battle High: San Bruno Beat Hazard Beat Hazard Ultra Biology Battle Bird Assassin BitStream Bleed Blood & Bacon Bloody Checkers (Supposed to be coming to Steam 2017) Boot Hill Heroes Border Wars. Break Limit Breath of Death VII Breeze Broken Pearl CarneyVale Showtime Cell: Emergence Chester (Chester One on Steam) Chompy Chomp Chomp Chronoblast Chus Dynasty Compromised Coral's Curse Crosstown (Author released a donate what you like PC version) Cthulhu Saves the World Cubicity Cubism Cursed Loot Dark Quest (Available on Steam) Dark Reign (delisted) Dead Kings (Supposed to be coming to Steam 2017) Dead Pixel Death Goat DELTA Desert Commando Diehard Dungeon Distant Galaxies DLC Quest DLC Quest: Live Freemium or Die DUENDE ＜デュエンディ＞ Earth Shaker (ZX Spectrum title) ENGO Entropy Escape Goat Evil Quest Explosionade Final Rift Fist Puncher Flight Adventure 2 Flotilla Flowrider Funky Balls Gateways! Ginga Saikutsudan (delisted) Glow Arcade Racer Gravitron360 Grid Space Shooter Head Shot 2 Heavy Recoil Hypership Out Of Control Hypership Still Out of Control HYPOTENUSE I, Zombie Inferno! Infinity Danger (Available on gamersgate.com) Invasion Ionball Iota Jet Set Willy (ZX Spectrum title) Johnny Carnage Juggle!, Junk Fields Kung Fu Fight! Lair of the Evildoer Laser Cat Leave Home Lightfish. Little Racers Little Racers Street. Lots of Guns Lumi Magicians & Looters Manic Miner (ZX Spectrum title) Mechanoid Army Meep 2 Mega Shooter 11 Midnight Bites Missile Escape Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess Motorheat Mount your Friends Niji (koi) Ninja Train Ninja War STOLEN SCROLLS Nuclear Wasteland Odyssey 3011 Office DisOrders Ogre's Phantasm Sword Quest One Finger Death Punch Oozi: Earth Adventure 1~4 (All in one on Steam) Opposites Orbitron: Revolution OSR Unhinged Overdriven (Overdriven Reloaded available on Steam) Parasitus: Ninja Zero Pendulous Pester Pixelbit Helicopter Challenge Pixelbit Snooker & Pool Platformance: Castle Pain Platformance: Temple Death Poopocalypse Power Up Prismatic Solid qrth-phyl (Available on Steam) Rad Raygun RadianGames Ballistic RadianGames Crossfire RadianGames Crossfire 2 RadianGames Fireball RadianGames Fluid RadianGames Inferno RadianGames JoyJoy Rasternauts Raventhorne Retrofit Overload Revolver 360 Robotriot Saturn 9 Score Rush (Score Rush Extended available on PS4) Shipwreck Shoot 1UP (Available on Steam) SHOOTING CHICKEN REVENGE Sins of the Flesh Smooth Operators Snops Attack!: Zombie Defense Soulcaster II Spartans in Candyland Speedrunner HD Squid Squid Yes! Not So Octopus! Star ninja Storage Inc Super Amazing Wagon Adventure Survivalist (Available on Steam) Sushi Castle T.E.C. 3001 Tacticolor Take Arms Techno Chopper Techno-Kitten Adventure The Deep Cave The TEMPURA of the DEAD The Undead Syndrome The Zombie Shotgun Massacre 2 There Will Be Brains, Thunder Moon Tic Part 1 Titan Attacks Treasure Treasure Fortress Forage Tunnelvision Ultratron Uncraft Me 2 Valkyrius Vampire Rage Vidiot Game Vintage Hero Vorpal Weapons of Choice Wizorb (Available on Steam and PSN and PSN) Wool WoOOPuP! Xenominer Swarm Zombie Football Carnage ダウンタウン激凸ドッジボール！/ Downtown Smash Dodgeball! まもって騎士 / Protect Me Knight 一>◇ 鉄鋼歩兵 / Steel infantry 魔物な勇者と謎の遺跡 / Demonic braves and mysterious ruins 龍炎高校伝説 / Legend of the Dragon Flame High School

Our final word one the matter is this, if any one at Microsoft reads this please keep the Indies service open to at least the end of 2017. There are some truly great games on this service that just haven’t been advertised at all well. Once this service is turned off many of these games will be lost forever.

[largando]

EMO_OSR_AfterDeath

Header: </style><a style="font-family:arial; font-weight:normal" >Death is only the Beginning<br><br>Dying really sucks most of the time. In some genres real death is rare like with superheroes. Modern espionage agent probably not. In Cthulhu, if you're lucky you just die in ignorance. Being resurrected in Cthulhu is not so great. Fantasy and mythology have stranger options and D&D and RuneQuest have always had a few direct options. I could envision a party TPK where they awake in underworld and fight their way back to the land of the living and restore their own lives, which is pretty legendary stuff.<br><br>When you are killed, hopefully your chums will recover your body and take it to the church for <i>raise dead</i> or at least a sanctified burial in a ghoul/necromancer-free graveyard.<br><br>Sometimes this does not happen and the party leaves your corpse in a stinking dungeon. Imagine finding fallen friends body in a dungeon a few days later, the joy!<br><br>You may think being undead and your soul being in heaven presents a difficulty but Egyptians and Tibetans have elaborate theologies of souls where different parts do different things after death.<br><br>from Elfmaids and Octopi<br></a><a style="font-family:arial; font-weight:normal; font-size:75%"><br>elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2013/09/death-is-only-begining-part-one.html<br>elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2013/09/death-is-only-begining-part-two.html</a><hr>

use: common/nbos/Tools.ipt

prompt: Show me: {What price doth the reaper charge?|What price does the healer pay?|What happens to your soul on death?|A funny thing happened to my corpse|What price is your life?} What price doth the reaper charge? prompt: Soul happenings modifier {|-9|-8|-7|-6|-5|-4|-3|-2|-1|0|+1|+2|+3|+4|+5|+6|+7|+8|+9|+10|+11|+12|+13|+14|+15|+16|+17|+18|+19|+20|+21|+22|+23|+24|+25|+26|+27|+28|+29|+30|+31|+32|+33|+34|+35|+36|+37|+38|+39|+40} 0

;table: x ;a--{mod==10}[@GetRoll with SoulAfterDeath2, yes, 0]\n\n& ;b--{mod==10}[@GetRoll with SoulAfterDeath2, no, 0]\n\n& ;c--{mod==10}[@GetRoll with SoulAfterDeath2, yes, -50]\n\n& ;d--{mod==10}[@GetRoll with SoulAfterDeath2, no, -50]\n\n& ;e--{mod==10}[@GetRoll with SoulAfterDeath2, yes, 50]\n\n& ;f--{mod==-40}[@GetRoll with SoulAfterDeath2, yes, 0]\n\n& ;g--{mod==-40}[@GetRoll with SoulAfterDeath2, yes, -50]

set: judging=no

table: Start <style>ul \{margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;}</style>& [when]{rep}=1[do]{showdesc=='yes'}{showtitle=='yes'}[end]& {choice=='[@GetInitials with {$prompt1}]'}& {mod=='{$prompt2}'}& [#{choice} ChooseTable]

table: ChooseTable type: dictionary WPDTRC:[@ReaperPrice] WPDTHP:[@HealerPays] WHTYSOD:[@SoulAfterDeath] AFTHTMC:[@CorpseHappenings] WPIYL:[@HealerPrice]

table: ReaperPrice [when]{rep}=1[do]& Resurrection for me is the ultimate; it restores life for the long dead and even the undead. But raising the dead has a cost. I've seen a few different versions in play but possibly different cults, relics, or machines could have varied side effects. Also make them age 1d4 years if they fail a CON roll.<hr><br>& [end]& [@ReaperPrice2]

table: ReaperPrice2 Muscles atrophy and seize up - lose a STR point Nerves and reflexes dulled - lose a DEX point Lose a CON point (finite number times for most, might lose HP) Not all there anymore, brain damaged - lose an INT point Part of inner self gone - Lose a WIS point Grow darker inside and aged - lose a CHA point Lose a level (not usable on zero level types like commoners or children) Lose 1d4 HP permanently (might kill the weak all over again) Otherworldly beings (demons?) will cause mischief every game Given a Quest by the power source Given a curse by the healer's power source (possibly a taboo thing) Shift alignment one step towards the healer.  If already equal, reroll.

table: HealerPays [when]{rep}=1[do]& Just to make life harder, make the priest feel some reason to not raise the dead. Perhaps when you raise an idiot or enemy just to question them or for some trivium the god gets mad. An Item with a cost like this could be handy.<hr><br>& [end]& [@HealerPays2]

table: HealerPays2 Must battle the dead spirit that tries to resist life Must fight the spirits or demon that took the spirit to the beyond Rebuked by god, given an atonement Quest Responsible for raised person's conduct and behavior Priest is rendered unclean and needs purification from peer Lose a year of your own life Cannot raise the same person more than once Take 1d3 damage per level of the raised person Halves STRl, for a duration of one hour for each level of the raised person Lose one level, for a duration of one hour for each level of the raised person In a coma, prayer or ritual, lasting of one hour for each level of the raised person, required [#{1d11} ReaperPrice2]

table: SoulAfterDeath [when]{rep}=1[do]& <style>table \{border-collapse: collapse;\}tr \{border-bottom: 1px solid black;\}</style>& You can apply the following modifiers with the "Soul happenings modifier" prompt:\n\n& <table><col width="50"><col width="1000">& <tr><td>+1</td><td>per 2 levels, or per 1 level if priest</td></tr>& <tr><td>+1-3</td><td>for each matching alignment step\n(eg each part of compound alignment like lawful evil)</td></tr>& <tr style="border-bottom: none;"><td>-1-3</td><td>if total jerk or mismatched alignment step</td></tr>& </table>\n& You could also roll here for what a raised character experienced while dead<hr><br>& [end]& [@GetRoll with SoulAfterDeath2, yes, 0]

table: GetRoll {oldTableName=='{tableName}'}& {oldPct=='{Pct}'}& {tableName=='{$1}'}& {useMod=='{$2}'}& {Pct=='{$3}'}& {thismod==mod}& ;{tableName} {useMod} {Pct}\n& [when not]{usemod}=yes[do]{thismod==0}[end]& {ts=='[@RevisedTableSize with 1, {tableName}]'}{newTS==ts}& [when]{Pct}<0[do]{newTS==floor({{ts}*{Pct}*-1/100})}[end]& [when]{Pct}>0[do]{newTS==floor({{ts}*{Pct}/100})}{newTS=='{newTS}+{ts-newTS}'}[end]& {roll==1d{newTS}+thismod}& ;ts{ts}  newTS{newTS}  mod{mod}  thismod{thismod}  {roll}  & [when]{roll}<1[do]{roll==1}[end]& [when]{roll}>{ts}[do]{roll=={ts}}[end]& ;{newTS} {tableName}: {roll}\n& [#{roll} {tableName}]& {tableName=='{oldTableName}'}& {Pct=='{oldPct}'}&

table: RevisedTableSize {tname=='{$2}'}& [when]{{tname}_Size}[do]{{tname}_Size}& [else][@TableSize with 1, {tableName}][end]

table: SoulAfterDeath2 Absorbed into the bosom of chaos Slowly digested, helpless, in the belly of an outer god for aeons In the underworld, fused into a huge mass of screaming tortured souls Turned into a [|tool|weapon] used by beings of evil to inflict suffering Turned into a helpless pool of liquid filth that demons bathe in Turned into a wailing, starving ghost begging for dung and dust to eat Turned into a wandering shade, mad with loneliness Local ghost lord claims dominion over you and sets you to haunt a location Turned into an invisible speechless phantom, wandering the world, seeing all, missing out on in life Bullied and beaten by other spirits in spiritworld In the underworld, become a human-faced worm being tortured in the pit In the underworld become an imp, bullied and enslaved by greater powers In the underworld become a small familiar monster feeding from the scraps of others In the underworld become a minor devil or demon in army waging eternal pointless war Reborn again and again as cattle of the underworld and butchered daily Tortured constantly by devils in a pit with pitchforks Tortured constantly by toad devils molesting you in every way Tortured by [|imps|worms] living inside you and biting you constantly Tortured constantly by devils boiling you in [|oil|blood|sulphur|water|tears] Tortured constantly by devils using mockeries of your vices Tortured constantly by devils with illusions and temptations Tortured constantly by devils using dungeon torture equiptment Tortured constantly by devils with execution and dismemberment daily Tortured constantly by devil lord as his special plaything and slave Tortured constantly by devils locking you in dungeon madhouse Demons of darkness torment you in an eternal void of dispair Demons of putrescence swim around you in a quagmire of vomit and excrement Demons of [|fire|ice] strip your body of flesh then rebuild you daily Demon succubi/incubi abuse you and raise your demon spawn to torment you Demons hurl you into the great abyss of madness and chaos Servitors of the outer gods use you as fuel for a machine in agonizing process Servitors of the outer gods dine on you alive and refine your pain into rare wines Servitors of the outer gods warp your spirit into a monster then send you back to the world Servitors of the outer gods use you to feed their parasitic offspring in a nest Servitors of the outer gods experiment on you in multidimensional space Trapped in tavern of lost souls with other miserable adventurers and drunks Trapped in city of despair on the bottom social rung in a city of the dead Trapped in the citadel of a great underworld lord as a bottom-rank house servant Trapped in the stable of an underworld being as a mount, ridden hard Trapped as a hunting beast and used to hunt wayward souls, led by hunt master Sent as a [|spirit|devil] to claim the souls of mortals Become a formless spirit in a ethereal infinity Trapped like an insect in amber, frozen in a block of pure Law but maddeningly aware Placed in a queue for processing in a formless void Trapped in a formless void to be judged at the end of the world 20:[@GetRoll with Reincarnation, yes, 0] 5:[@Judgement] 10:[@GetRoll with Paradise, yes, 0] 5:[@GetRoll with GodHalls, yes, 0] Given a job in celestial bureaucracy in the underworld Given a job in celestial bureaucracy monitoring a natural process on earth Given a job in celestial bureaucracy under the sea in the court of a sea lord Given a job in celestial bureaucracy monitoring adventurers on earth Given a job in celestial bureaucracy in the heavens, among the stars 5:[@Offer] Gods affronted by your death, return as undead Gods affronted by your death, return in a new body Gods affronted by your death, return in the body of a different species Gods affronted by your death, not part of their plan, return to the land of the living Apotheosis - gods make an example of you for better or worse; become a minor divine being

table: Offer [when]{judging}=yes& [do][#{roll[|+|-]5} SoulAfterDeath2]& [else]{judging=='yes'}[@Offer2]& [end]

table: Offer2 Offered a chance to pass to paradise if an obstacle is overcome: [@OfferResults] Offered a chance at life if a quest on earth is fulfilled Offered a chance at paradise if a quest on earth is fulfilled: [@OfferResults] Offered a choice:<ul><li>Return reincarnated (DM: [@Reincarnation >> lower]), or<li>[@GetRoll with SoulAfterDeath2, no, 20]</ul> Offered a choice:<ul><li>Reincarnation-free annihilation, or<li>Be reincarnated (DM: [@Reincarnation >> lower])</ul>

table: OfferResults <ul>& <li>If you succeed, [@GetRoll with SoulAfterDeath2, no, 20 >> lower]& <li>If you fail, [@GetRoll with SoulAfterDeath2, no, -50 >> lower]& </ul>& {judging=='no'}

table: Judgement [when]{judging}=yes& [do][#{roll[|+|-]5} SoulAfterDeath2]& [else]{judging=='yes'}[@Judgement2]& [end]

table: Judgement2 1:Judgement from the first ancestor: [@JudgementResults] 1:Judgement from ferryman: [@JudgementResults] 1:Judgement from the reaper: [@JudgementResults] 1:Judgement from lord of dead: [@JudgementResults] 1:Judgement from the great beast of the pit: [@JudgementResults]

table: JudgementResults <ul>& <li>If positive, [@GetRoll with SoulAfterDeath2, no, 50 >> lower]& <li>If negative, [@GetRoll with SoulAfterDeath2, no, -50 >> lower]& </ul>& {judging=='no'}

table: GodHalls 20:Admitted to the halls of the gods to be their plaything and object of amusement 20:Admitted to the halls of the gods, get to be a servant of a god 20:Admitted to the halls of the gods, get to care for the pets of the gods 20:Admitted to the halls of the gods, get to be a god's champion in games and contests 20:Admitted to the halls of the gods, shrines on earth bear your name

table: Paradise 10:Admitted to a minor paradise of your religion, put in army for eternal cosmic war 10:Admitted to a minor paradise of your religion, put in administrative position 10:Admitted to a minor paradise of your religion, get to be a messenger for a divine being 10:Admitted to a minor paradise of your religion, get to study and train eternally 10:Admitted to a minor paradise of your religion, get to feast and party eternally 10:Admitted to a minor paradise of your religion, live a happy family life forever 10:Admitted to a minor paradise of your religion, where a divine being takes you for a lover 10:Admitted to a minor paradise of your religion, where divine lovers attend your need 10:Admitted to a minor paradise of your religion, see friends and family 10:Admitted to a minor paradise of your religion, become divine being

table: Reincarnation 5:Reincarnated as a [|tiny creature|bug] 5:Reincarnated as a small creature 5:Reincarnated as a plant 5:Reincarnated as a [|monster|goblinoid] 5:Reincarnated as a medium farm animal 5:Reincarnated as a medium wild animal 5:Reincarnated as a large animal 5:Reincarnated as a huge animal 5:Reincarnated as a peasant 5:Reincarnated as a well pampered pet 5:Reincarnated into the body of an adult in great crisis 5:Reincarnated as an elemental being 5:Reincarnated as one of a minor outer plane race, which one depends on alignment 5:Reincarnated as anewborn [|elf|dwarf|gnome] 5:Reincarnated as a monk 5:Reincarnated as a [|nymph|satyr|nature spirit of the forest] 5:Reincarnated as a [|nymph|mermaid|nature spirit of water] 5:Reincarnated as a member of the aristocracy 5:Reincarnated as a minor divinity, living a life of otherworldly pleasure for aeons

table: CorpseHappenings [when]{rep}=1[do]& Mostly bodies rot or are eaten but this could be handy alternative if abandoned in a dungeon for any period. Roll again if you think ending not enough or definite.<hr><br>& [end]& [@CorpseHappenings2]

table: CorpseHappenings2 Infected by horrible parasitic worms Infected by rot grubs Infected by flesh boring snakes Infected by kyuss grubs Infected by giant maggots Dragged into lair by giant invertebrate for food Dragged into lair by giant invertebrate to feed young Covered in cocoon and dessicated by giant arachnid Covered in cocoon and dessicated by giant arachnid Dessicated and used as bait by giant invertebrate Eaten by humanoids, scraps left Gnawed on by humanoids, tastiest bits missing Mutilated for fun and collectibles by humanoids Head collected by humanoids or monster Humanoids have corpse on a spit, being roasted Flesh removed in gory heap, skeleton animated Become a zombie Become a ghoul Become a wight Become a shadow Become a phantom or haunt Become a angry spirit seeking body to possess for vengeance Become a poltergeist Become a greater undead type for inept disguise or ritual Parts used in a flesh golem or other construct Humanoids turn into sausages and cured meats Humanoids skin and make into human suit Humanoids use for bizarre puppet show to entertain kids Humanoids use as bait to catch monsters Humanoids use to feed monstrous pets Necromancer students abuse body for perverted fun Necromancer students loot certain organs or fluids Necromancer students perform public dissection Necromancer students turn into revolting tools, equipment or instruments Necromancer students turn into hideous artwork Gnawed by rodents Gnawed by dogs or wolves Gnawed by lion or bear or similar creature Gnawed by gremlins or goblins or kobolds Gnawed by wildcat or hyena Pecked by ravens, crows or dungeon chickens Torn apart by vultures or giant bats Eaten by ghouls Occupied by evil spirit on a mission Eaten and replaced by mimic Dissolved by gelatinous monster Covered in toxic mould with dangerous spores Infected with green slime Covered in giant shrieking fungi Covered in giant explosive fungi Covered in chaos mushrooms that cause mutations Covered in fungus that turns into mushroom zombie Covered in poison fungus Covered in hallucinogenic fungus (possibly magic visions or crazy illusions) Covered in magic fungus gives spirit sight, healing or other effect Humanoids flay skin and turn into throw rug or nail to wall Humanoids crucify, mutilate and cover in graffiti as warning Humanoids cut off head and stick on pole or spear as warning, roll again for rest Humanoids burn body and scatter ashes Humanoids dismember body in series of party games Buried in ditch and looted by other adventurers or demihumans Buried with full honours and most stuff by other adventurers or demihumans Taken to nearby settlement by adventurers or demihumans Looted and dismembered by adventurers or demihumans who fear undead Taken and dumped by roadside by adventurers or demihumans Found by clergy who bury in sanctified location Head or other part removed to claim a bounty or reward from someone Cremated by clergy to prevent rising as undead Found by clergy, beheaded, staked and buried under rock or sealed crypt Found by peasants chucked in lime pit Found by weirdo taxidermist (possibly not human) Turned into zombie for use as slave or in sweatshop Found by maniac who chucks in a well Thrown in river or sea, roll again Thrown in river or sea, eaten by fishes Thrown into peatbog as sacrifice Thrown into sea or lake or well as sacrifice Thrown into pit with monster as sacrifice Thrown into ghoul pit as sacrifice Exchanged with local humans for monster or humanoid bodies for burial Crushed into bone meal for ogres bread, flesh scraps eaten Thrown in mass grave with other victims Necromancer keeps to study decay Thrown in acid pit Erected in standing position with weapons as grisly guardian (possibly undead) Cultists collect and perform ritual to feed soul to otherworld masters Dismembered and sold as fake relics Dismembered and sold in pies or sausages or cured meat Turned into jerky for monster rations Mummified or Embalmed for practice or teaching by humans or monsters But in a sack for later collection Bricked up or put under foundations for ritual Taken to local morgue to await collection Cooked in a big pot for monsters dinner Taken to have spirit questioned by some spell casters Raised by monsters or villains so they can torture and question you Raised by demihumans - given quest Raised by clergy - given quest Resurrected by clergy - given quest Resurrected by divine beings - given quest

table: HealerPrice [when]{rep}=1[do]& When a priest or god return you to life they dont just do it to be nice. Most demand some price if not from the recently deceased then from whoever partitioned them for help. Some may not suit some faith so reroll till something more appropriate if DM deems it.<hr><br>& [end]& [@HealerPrice2]

table: HealerPrice2 Convert to the faith of the god if not already a member (if so re-roll) Donate 10% of everything you make, for life Donate 10,000 gp Donate 100,000 gp Donate 1,000,000 gp Reclaim a lost [|temple|shrine] Find a lost [|priest|missionary] Find holy scriptures Find a holy relic Find a holy artifact Find the remains of holy person Free an imprisoned holy person Free an imprisoned outer planar servant of god Free a petty god ally of the faith Slay an enemy of the faith Recover stolen goods of the temple Slay a traitor to the church Burn a rival church Build a temple in a new territory Guard a shrine from harm for one year Cleanse the local [|village|graveyard] of meanacing undead Guard worshipers on pilgrimage Guard missionaries in new lands Rescue a holy person from imprisonment Cleanse a town of a vice frowned on by the religion Accept a [|brand|tattoo] of the god on your [|face|hand] for life Abstain from an action or vice frowned on by the religion Donate land to church Spend a year as a hermit in prayer Make peace with a traditional enemy Must devote spare time to charitable acts and deeds Must concvrt 100 persons to the faith Must convert 1000 persons to the faith Every monster you kill, do so in name of the god in public Must always protect members of the faith Dedicate souls of the slain to the god Must marry a member of church Must raise your children as church members Give one of your children to the church Go on a crusade killing enemies of the faith until released from service by the church Explore and find new lands for missionaries Kill monsters that will not convert to the faith Find long lost outpost of the faith Preach to carry faith into the hearts of nonbelievers Reclaim a holy site [|occupied|built on] by another faith Commemorate holy days with substantial feasts, donations and charity Sponsor yearly [|missionaries|pilgrims], [|1000gp if possible|10% total wealth] Scourge self with flagellation, scarification and self-harm Free slaves whenever possible and insist they adopt the faith Offer enemies a choice to convert or die in battle