#but the rest of the centaur's world keeps intruding

[theartingace]

hi do you still like centaurs?

I will never not be thinking about centaurs

[wanderingmoonsword]

Sciurian

Small, tribal woodsfolk, the sciurians resemble squirrels, with big bushy tails and furred bodies, their round ears poking out toward the back of their heads. Nimble, perceptive, and strong-willed, sciurians aren’t that strong but they climb quickly and efficiently, well-suited to a life lived partially in the trees with a climb speed and an acrobatic nature. What makes sciurians interesting is their sylvan lifestyle, living up in the trees and building connecting walkways and lines between their huts, a fun-loving nature that goes along well with gnomes, and their worship of the trees they live in and around. As creatures of the forest, sciurians make an interesting creature to add to your game. Friendly but territorial, driving off intruders, and led by spellcasters, there’s enough detail in the sciurian write up to guide you without being a straitjacket. Here’s a few of my ideas.

­Separated by the ancient, sprawling Heartwood, the kingdom of Yiceoiza has turned to the Heartwood’s native tribes to keep in touch. Sciurian messengers scurry about, moving faster than a horse could through the heavy brush. The sciurians use their agility to good effect, dodging the forest drakes and giant spiders, though when pressed to fight, they oven give a surprisingly capable match. Most of the messengers are rogues but a handful have arcane or divine talents, able to bend the world or reshape the woods to escape trouble, often traveling with an assistant or two to protect the most important letters. The prestige the sciurians place on this role mean many of their shaman-chiefs are former couriers.

Sticking to the treetops or roofs, the sciurian alchemist known as Ashtail – he refuses any other name these days – has begun a careful, methodical, and utterly malevolent campaign of retribution against the humans who have settled along the fringes of the Ulia Forest. Though he doesn’t know which group was responsible for the burning of his tribe’s treetop home, Ashtail doesn’t care. If they burned his people, any of them can burn.  All of them can burn.  All of them.

Adapting to the thinning of the woodlands of what was once the Great Forest of Arvania, the sciurians have turned their remaining trees into pockets of civilization. Despite their frequent skirmishes with the gnolls and occasional standoffs with roving centaur bands, the sciurians welcome most outsiders for three days, giving them a place to rest and replenish their supplies. After that, they’re encouraged to move on, lest they strain the community’s resources, though small sciurian patrols of scouts sometimes aid beleaguered herders and traders.

- Tome of Horrors 4 194

[brianobrienny]

10 Amazing Large Company Blogs To Inspire Your Content Marketing

You want your blog to knock it out of the park. But where should you start? One of the most effective tactics to take your content to the next level is by studying the world’s best large company blogs.

Learn what makes their content marketing strategy stand apart from that of their competitors, and you’ll have an edge over your own competition. Here are our favorites:

Quick Takeaways:

Top-ranking blogs share several characteristics that make them a standout.

Read about what characteristics these world-class blogs share.

Choose the blogs that inspire you most.

Revisit those blogs to study their content in depth and adapt their strategy to your own.

IKEA Ideas

A perfect example of a brand’s messaging aligning with its product offerings, IKEA Ideas places its products in supporting roles as it solves common challenges homeowners face. Its “Outdoor Furniture Maintenance Guide,” for instance, offers valuable advice about how to choose durable furniture and protect it from the elements once it is in your home.

Subtle product suggestions for each maintenance problem they solve never intrude on the readers’ experience. Rather, they simply illustrate each maintenance tip with vivid visuals that make the tips stick out in readers’ minds.

HubSpot

The blog that brought content marketing to the fore, HubSpot rose to fame in the marketing world with its lengthy, detailed guides on a variety of marketing topics. It remains one of the foremost authorities on content production and publication by expanding into research and maintaining its focus on top-quality, problem-solving content.

Home Depot’s DIY Projects Done Right

We’ve long been advocates of in-depth customer research and content that focuses on customers’ needs. Home Depot hits a home run with its customer-focused collection of blogs, “DIY Projects and Ideas.”

Instead of a single blog, Home Depot segments its blog posts according to customer interests. It groups its blogs in three general categories: DIY projects, outdoor living, and home décor. Then, it breaks down each of these categories into smaller ones, each laser-focused on specific customer segments.

Take its outdoor living category, for instance. Home Depot’s content team segmented this content into three groups: garden ideas and projects, lawn and landscaping, and outdoor recreation. When a gardener looks for the latest news on her hobby, she doesn’t have to leaf through camping checklists, pool cleaning tips, or guides on how to build a playhouse. She can quickly find a wealth of ideas specifically targeted to her needs.

IBM Blogs

IBM dominates the business technology space with its innovative products. But what you might not know is that IBM has taken the industry lead in content marketing as well.

It, like Home Depot, segments its blog categories by reader interests. What makes IBM stand head and shoulders above the rest of the content in its sector is that it empowers employees outside its content team to contribute blog posts.

Not only does this move create way more engagement and more conversions, but it also positions each of those employees as thought leaders in their respective fields. It’s innovation at its best, elevating IBM’s sterling reputation even higher.

Fiverr Guides

In contrast to IBM, which aims its content to large enterprises, Fiverr caters to small businesses and startups. Its blog posts include a large collection of how-tos, which they call Fiverr Guides.

Newbies to the business world can learn how to build their business, create a website, build their brand, and many more tasks larger businesses usually delegate to internal teams. Knowing its customer base, again, is the secret to this freelancer portal’s success.

Links to various categories of freelancers are subtle, usually only anchor text, keeping the reader focused on the information they are learning. These easy-to-read posts take readers through each process step-by-step, making them invaluable for time-strapped small business owners.

John Deere’s The Furrow

Farm equipment giant John Deere did content marketing before content marketing was cool. From its founding in 1895 as a print magazine to its current incarnation as a blog, The Furrow continues to produce informative content that keeps farmers and other agriculture stakeholders on the cutting edge of the agriculture industry.

Progressive Insurance’s Commercial Blog

No, we’re not talking about Progressive’s TV commercials. Though the discount insurer is best known for its quirky TV ads about its wacky crew of employees and motorcycle centaurs, its commercial division publishes a superb blog aimed at small- to medium-sized businesses.

With advice on everything from data loss prevention to HR faux pas, it provides an excellent source of valuable information that can help businesses overcome many of the problems they face as they grow. Progressive’s non-commercial division, too, publishes an informative blog called “Answers,” that bills itself as an “easy guide to everything insurance.”

Once Flo et al. rope them in, Progressive’s content team nurtures auto and home customers down the sales funnel with well-researched, yet easy-to-understand content that builds trust in its brand.

Rosetta Stone

You might think that a blog from a language learning course would be stuffy, full of obscure tenses and verb conjugations. In Rosetta Stone’s blog, there are a few conjugations, but it’s anything but musings from the ivory tower.

Its content delves into a cornucopia of topics, from how various languages tackle inclusive language to fascinating glimpses into the world’s tapestry of cultures. It’s well worth checking out, even if you aren’t a foreign language buff.

Its subtle siren song lures customers into signing up for a course simply for the delight of immersing themselves more in the cultures they read about here. Just a little “Get the App” call-to-action button to the right of the new article choices is all they need to hook in the curious.

Slack’s Several People are Typing

After the coronavirus pandemic forced many businesses to work remotely, collaboration has taken on a whole new meaning. Slack, who make software for collaboration and productivity, upped its content production to provide guides and other articles to teach business leaders and employees alike to adapt to the “new normal.”

Earlier content, too, is well worth reading, particularly their tips on upping your business’s productivity through collaboration. Building its reputation as a thought leader through timely, actionable content, Slack has positioned itself to grow at a time when other businesses have shut their doors.

Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials

Once in the capable hands of Content Marketing World’s 2016 Content Marketer of the Year, Amanda Todorovich, Health Essentials grew its audience from 250,000 views per month to six million per month in only five years.

Its secret? A laser focus on its readers and their health needs. Combining user data analysis with customer personas to put a face on those numbers, Todorovich steered the blog to become one of the world’s foremost sources of health-related information.

Take the time to study these successful large company blogs in depth to draw inspiration for your own.

If you are ready to get more traffic to your site with quality blog content published consistently, check out our Content Builder Service.

Set up a quick consultation, and I’ll send you a free PDF version of my books. Get started today – and generate more traffic and leads for your business.

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[mikariazure]

http://miliblue.carrd.co http://twitter.com/miliazure http://app.roll20.net/users/5710223/mili

This is a homebrew adventure full of inprov scenes and random fun so the plot has changed over time as new ideas come and new characters are added. These are two versions of it, one that I made originally just to detail a series of events that corresponded to the characters’ background stories and another that I turned into a homebrew campaign where my characters are NPCs offering clues, quests and items and the main adventures falls to a group of unnamed adventurers. The geography of the land also changed a bit with each draft until I decided to keep everything in the same general area. If you want to play my homebrew when I DM it without spoilers, this is your chance to stop reading.

Homebrew Timeline Many years ago, a group of good Dragonborn monks sealed an evil dragon underground in a secluded island. One of them volunteered to stay behind frozen in time, only to awaken if he needed to defend the seal from intruders. Starlight Kingdom was located in a small island, secluded from the rest of the world. The vast majority of the population and the royal family were humans, but there were also a few elves and half-elves. An elf was chosen at birth to serve as the caretaker of the magical archives and tasked with dedicating her life to studying magic. The shrine maiden died of old age and a new elven shrine maiden was selected, Azure. Though she had no claim to the throne, she was given the family name of the royals, Starlight, to show their connection to the kingdom’s magic. The evil elven sorcerer Blanc Noir reached Starlight island and casted a spell to make the island invisible. This caused ships to become disoriented and travel to be almost non-existent. Blanc Noir and the human wizard Cerise, had twin boys. Blanc choose one as his heir and partner in crime and abandoned the other, deeming him to have insufficient magical potential. The captain of the royal guard, sir Larry Lavender found a half-elf baby abandoned in the forest and adopted him as his son, Lore Lavender. Blanc Noir kidnapped young prince Crimson Starlight IV. Tabaxi adventurer Lilac and her young daughter, Cyna, accidentally ran their boat into the shores of Starlight Island. The citizens of Starlight were suspicious of Lilac. To earn their trust, and because this was in her line of work, Lilac left her daughter in town and set out to help rescue the young prince. Lilac and Larry, teamed up with a few others and rescued prince Crimson. However, Lilac was mortally wounded protecting the prince. With her dying breath, she asked that her daughter be taken care of. In gratitude for the safe return of his only son, King Crimson Starlight III adopted Cyna as his daughter. Azure Starlight became tired of her life of studies and isolation. Princess Cyna, who missed the life of adventure of her childhood, helped Azure escape from the archives and leave the island. Azure arrived in a neighboring continent and started looking for work as an adventurer. She teamed up with another adventurer called Genesis and continued to travel with him ever since. The Tenshi Knights met the genasi seer, Rose Pyro, who told them of an island that disappeared years ago. She sensed that a great evil was on the island, but was unable to perceive any further details. She gave them precise directions to reach the island that they would not see until they set foot on its shores. Tenshi Knight Turquoise and his daughter, Indigo, who were in training, teamed up with Larry, Lore and a few others to defeat Blanc Noir. Blanc knew he couldn’t win, so he retreated in a weakened state. The Tenshi Knights left Starlight Island, which was visible and ready to reconnect with the rest of the world. After that mission, Indigo became an official Tenshi Knight and began her own journey, able to take on missions on her own. The human wizard Cerise, poisoned Sapphire lake, to exterminate the triton living in it and take over the magical artifacts they collected. Most of them survived, but had a slow recovery, unable to stop Cerise from taking their treasures. Aquamarine was away from Sapphire Lake during Cerise’s attack. When she returned from her trip she was shocked to find out about the attack. Cerise stole her family’s treasured Bowl of Commanding Water Elemental, which Aquamarine was determined to get back. At Starlight, Blanc’s son, Void Noir, pretended to be Lore while the real Lore was off on a trip, but Larry realized that wasn’t his son. Before Larry could inquire further, Void managed to kill him, but not without a witness. Lore returned home to find his father at the verge of death with the look alike murderer before him. Lore tried to stop him, but Void escaped. Void’s existence was a secret, so everyone thought Lore was guilty, since he was the only one anyone thought they saw going in and out of his father’s house. Declared a traitor and murderer, Lore realized that Void had fled the island and went on a quest to find him, traveling under the alias of Mythos. Princess Cyna believed in Lore’s innocence and after the king declared him a wanted criminal, she had enough of the life she was never truly comfortable with. Cyna left Starlight, but she occasionally wrote to her brother, who had also disagreed with his father’s decision against Lore. The king contacted the Tenshi Knights and Indigo took on the mission of investigating Lore’s whereabouts. Blanc Noir began to take over the Emerald Forest, trying to make it his next base of operations, like Starlight Island had been in the past. Cyna wrote to Crimson about a delicious dessert made with fruits from the Emerald Forest, which got him curious about it. The people of a small human town called Lost Edge, located just outside of Emerald Forest, said the centaur came out to trade for weapons, which was very unusual, but it gave them access to fruits of the forest. After Starlight was freed, they became traders, being an ideal point in the middle of a long stretch of ocean for ships to stop. Due to the increasing maritime commerce, many exotic products could be found at the Starlight markets. Prince Crimson left Starlight Island on a diplomatic mission to establish a trading contract with the rulers of the Emerald Forest. The centaur of the Emerald Forest were very territorial and didn't like establishing trade, but Crimson was adamant in taking any opportunity that could be good for the Starlight Kingdom. The prince ignored the warnings from the people of Lost Edge about getting lost in the forest. He became separated from his guards and though the guards managed to make it back to town in a disoriented state, thanks to some help from a mysterious centaur, the prince was missing. King Crimson fell ill during his son’s absence and the nobles began to fight over who would inherit the throne. Word reached Cyna about her brother’s disappearance and the king’s condition, so she began to search for the prince. During her travels, she found Azure and asked her to temporarily return to Starlight and reclaim her position as shrine maiden to help stabilize the kingdom. Cyna revealed that she took responsibility for Azure’s departure and to save face, the royal family had kept it a secret. The nobles thought the shrine maiden had retreated deep into the magic archives to study for the benefit of the kingdom. Indigo found Mythos and sensed no evil in him, thus promised to help find the mysterious evil twin. They met up with Cyna and learned about the missing prince. Indigo, Mythos and Cyna ventured into the forest and become disoriented. They were attacked by dangerous plant monsters, until they were found and guided out by a centaur called Vermilion, who had also helped the guards before. Vermilion explained that his people didn’t usually accept help from outsiders and generally kept to themselves, but were up against an enemy of great magical power, the elven sorcerer Blanc Noir and human wizard Cerise. While Cyna, Indigo, Mythos and Vermilion prepared to venture back into the forest, a strange light overtook the forest. Upon investigating, they found runes had been carved into the trees surrounding the outer forest, encircling the center. They discovered Cerise casting a strange spell on the forest. Indigo, Cyna, Mythos and Vermilion teamed up to defeat Cerise. After she was defeated, her magic dissipated from the Emerald Forest, but it was too late. Upon examining the forest, they found several of its deceased inhabitants, reanimated as undead monsters. After getting past the undead and making their way to the center of the forest, they found some suspicious magic scrolls that were not able to decipher, but no signs of the prince. The surviving centaurs rebuilt their village and Vermilion decided to continue traveling with the group until Blanc was defeated. Cyna suggested going to Starlight to ask Azure if she could get any clues from the scrolls. Blanc was clearly gone and was unlikely to return, since he had clearly gotten what he wanted from the Emerald Forest. Aquamarine arrived at Starlight Island, following rumors that a man on a ship had used what could be her heirloom. She hoped to collect information, since so many ships stopped there and rumors from across the globe reached the island. A nobleman was drowned by a water elemental. While Azure investigated the happenings, she met Aquamarine and learned her story. Rose Pyro arrived at Starlight requesting an audience with the shrine maiden in the name of the Tenshi Knights. Though she was not a Tenshi Knight, she knew the name of the Tenshi would be the fastest way to get an audience. She had finally been able to decipher the prophecy that took the Tenshi to Starlight long ago. A dragon was slumbering sealed beneath Starlight Island, waiting to wake up and devour the kingdom. Azure, Aquamarine and Rose went to Blanc’s old hideout and found a secret passage thanks to Rose’s predictions. Underground they found a frozen Dragonborn encased in an icy crystal. The ice melted away and the Dragonborn attacked. After fighting him, he began to regain his senses and Rose realized he was trying to prevent the evil dragon from being woken up. They assured him that was not their intention and advised by Rose, laid down their weapons. Upon investigating the caverns further, the Dragonborn, Silver, realized that someone had already gone past him without waking him thus if the dragon still slept, it was left that way on purpose. Silver couldn’t explain how someone got past him, but knew it was no one in present company, since they were unable to get by without detection this time. They wondered why the dragon wasn’t awake if Blanc Noir possibly made it through before. The water elemental attacked and began to flood the caverns. Azure, Aquamarine, Rose and Silver tried to locate the source. Aquamarine went underwater to attack Void, and try to make him lose control over the elemental. Silver, Azure and Rose took the chance to catch up and attack Void, who retreated and got away. Aquamarine had recovered her heirloom but decided to stay and help her new friends. After Void was gone, the group continued to explore the caverns and found many previously magical artifacts drained of their power next to the dragon. The cave floor was filled with strange runes and a dome of energy surrounded the large red dragon in the center. When the group tried to approach they were teleported unto a trap. They discovered some runes that could focus energy and used them to have Azure receive energy from Rose, Silver and Aquamarine, for a teleportation spell strong enough to escape. That explained the drained artifacts and how Blanc got past Silver. Azure mentions she might not have figured it out without the knowledge of the outside world. Cyna, Indigo, Mythos and Vermilion returned to Starlight. Mythos, who was reluctant to return, went into hiding while Cyna and Indigo sorted things out. Cyna, Indigo and Vermilion met up with Azure, Aquamarine, Rose and Silver. Azure was able to interpret the scrolls and found that the magical energy from the artifacts the centaur kept was drained out of them and absorbed into something or someone else. Cyna told the king they found Crimson and he stayed behind doing business protected by the Tenshi. In a separate audience, Indigo told the king that she believed in Lore’s innocence and they were working on finding the real culprit. The king passed away that night and Cyna announced to the nobles that Crimson was on his way home. Mythos tracked down Void and challenged him. The battle caught the attention of Tenshi Turquoise, who had recently arrived at Starlight and chosen to keep his presence a secret. Though he just barely made it, Mythos managed to defeat Void and Turquoise captured him. Void was taken captive and interrogated. They found out that Blanc was already somewhere on the island and he had prince Crimson captive. They also learned the truth about Lore’s origin and his parents, Blanc and Cerise, but kept it a secret from the rest of the kingdom. Silver returned to guard the red dragon. Rose said she was unable to see the future, as her predictions came at random. Void escaped from prison and used his necromancy that he claimed to have learned from Cerise, to raise a zombie army, but overdid it and his life was consumed by the intensity of the spell. The royal guards scattered overwhelmed by the zombies, but Turquoise, got them organized to protect the kingdom. A mysterious masked bard joined the fight on the side of the zombies. Indigo, Mythos, Vermilion and Rose went to check on Silver and he met them half way. The Dragonborn had left the cave to announce that the red dragon within the energy dome disappeared and he had a bad feeling about it. Azure, Cyna, Aquamarine encountered the mysterious bard and fought him. Cyna recognized him as Crimson and the rest of the group met up with them. After tiring him out, they were finally able to destroy the mask used to amplify his power and control him. Crimson was saved, plus Turquoise and the royal guards were getting the zombies under control, but they still didn’t understand what happened with the dragon. Blanc Noir finally revealed himself. It was Blanc’s plan all along was to fuse with the dragon to obtain his power, a process that was very slow and required a lot of magical energy to accomplish it and survive. While Turquoise and Crimson protected the Starlight Kingdom alongside the royal guards, Cyna, Mythos, Indigo, Azure, Silver, Rose, Vermilion and Aquamarine faced the final battle against Blanc Noir.

Homebrew Adventures Characters are introduced, make notes about their background. Level (1). The adventurers are looking for work and learn about the genasi seer, Rose Pyro. She reads their fortunes and gives them specific directions to Starlight Island. The group must choose a ship to travel on between merchants, fishermen or pirates. The merchants are attacked by pirates and a sea monster, the pirates betray the adventurers and the fishing boat almost sinks because of a sea monster. The adventurers get 100 gold each from the merchants for helping them. They also level up (2). Upon reaching Starlight, people are suspicious of them and the group learns about the island and Blanc Noir. They can also buy supplies. The royal guards take the adventurers to Azure and Cerise. If they resist they must fight the guards, Cerise and Azure. If they go with the guards Cerise explains more about Starlight’s traditions of the royal family and shrine maiden. Then she tests the adventurers by sending them on a dream adventure. The adventurers are transported to an illusion of Starlight’s past. The queen is killed and the prince is kidnapped. They meet young Cyna in town and Lilac has gone to save the prince. The adventurers must get through the traps in Blanc Noir’s hideout in time to save Crimson. Arrow corridors, slippery stairs, trap bridge, monster den, if they take too long they fail, but if they hurry, they see Lilac die protecting the prince and take the prince outside. The illusion is so real they somehow level up (3). If they succeed Azure gives them a choice between: Tome of Clear Thought (Int +2) Tome of Understanding (Wis +2) T of Leadership & Influence (Cha +2) Manual of Bodily Health (Con +2) Manual of Gainful Exercise (Str +2) M of Quickness of Action (Dex +2) Cerise storms off and Azure talks to the adventurers a bit more. They can’t get the benefits of the book yet. Indigo arrives and tells them she represents the Tenshi Knights and is here following Rose’s prediction about an invisible island containing a great evil. Cerise says Blanc is gone and his hideout is abandoned but Indigo insist on investigating. They go through the same hideout but the traps have been rearmed with a spear corridor, poison gas stairs, lava bridge and a stronger monster den. A masked figure challenges the group. Indigo says she senses a greater evil deeper in and tells the group to move forward while she fights the masked figure. The group fights Cerise, defeats her and levels up (4). Indigo caches up and says the so called servant was the real Blanc, who teleported away. They report to the king, who rewards them with 1000 gold. Indigo says she senses something on the island but can’t quite figure out what’s going on. The king is feeling unsure and requests that Indigo stay in the palace. They can also stop for supplies. Mythos is accused of killing Sir Lavender and the adventurers must investigate. There’s a chase through town with obstacles in the city. They finally see the twin and follow him into a haunted house. They chase him, fight ghosts and find Mythos and Void together. Void and the ghosts are defeated. They level up (5) and obtain the Oathbow. The king is growing restless and insist Indigo stay at the palace. Cyna asks the adventurers to consult with the centaur. When they go to the Emerald Forest they find it full of zombies and must make their way to the center. They help the centaur and Vermilion gives them the Cloak of the Mantaray and they level up (6). He tells them the triton know a lot of old legends. At Sapphire Lake Aquamarine tells them about the Dragonborn atop the mountain and gives them the Pearl of Power. She says that the water of Sapphire Lake will awaken the mountain guardian. At Lightning Mountain they must pass through narrow paths, an unstable bridge and climb. The top has a lot of lightning strikes and a petrified Dragonborn. Using the water on him wakes him up. Silver tells them about the Dragonborn monks and the sealed dragons. He gives them the Staff of Thunder and Lightning. Blanc Noir attacks and the city is filled with zombies and ghosts. He appears riding the red dragon. Indigo leads Azure, Mythos, Cyna and Silver to protect the island while the adventurers fight Blanc. They level up (7). Indigo will continue her travels as a Tenshi Knight. Azure wants to see the outside world and make friends. Cyna wants to be an adventurer. Mythos wants a vacation. Silver wants a nap. The king and prince reward the group with 2000 gold and the Helm of Brilliance.