#the candlestone
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me: ik this book is a return to the medieval and chivalry and king arthur and swordplay and all that but couldn't they just like. carry a gun?
mrs. bannister: *patting her pocket* i gotchu girl
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Best of Walter Foley, part two: The Candlestone
Walter continues to pretend not to know about Bonnie or Billy's secrets (without once lying to ANYONE) out of respect to their privacy
That said
He is Not Subtle, but also kinda stealthily telling Bonnie that he thinks her wings are awesome
Him being a supportive best friend
His Arlo Hatfield impression
*hears Bonnie crying* *goes and gets Billy so they can check on her* *also doesn't invade her privacy*
His spot on ability to bail out of a conversation whenever there's something they need to talk about that they can't tell him yet
THE SICK DUCK JOKE
Walter's all, CALLED IT
Have I mentioned I love how supportive of his friends Walter is? Cheering Billy on, encouraging him to show them his fire breathing, celebrating when he pulls out Excalibur... the list goes on
His love for food
Like, same, Walter. Food is awesome
*gets STABBED while trying to help Billy*
*literally chases down a car and almost gets hit trying to save Billy*
I love this part SO MUCH 🤣🤣🤣
That part where he asks Karen if she wants to get away from Dr. Conner gives me FEELS
*smashes a glass enclosure with a sword*
I love how, when Ashley tells them her mom was a dragon, Walter's immediately all, Cool, now I'm friends with three dragons! He INSTANTLY claims Ashley as a friend, and I love it
*makes puns about getting rid of Devin*
He tries to take a full tray of food instead of a plate. This kid is my LITERAL favorite
First | Next
#walter foley appreciation#walter foley my beloved#walter foley#diom#diom party 🥳🐉#dragons in our midst#the candlestone
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The Candlestone appreciation prompts!
- Who was your favorite character in this book? What was your favorite scene/defining moment with that character?
- What was your favorite theme from this book?
- writing/drawing prompt: the candlestone! What does it look like? On the outside or the inside. What do you think it would feel like, either to be a dragon and have it around, or to be light energy inside of it?
#diom party 🥳🐉#the candlestone#original post#it's late because i was busy but here!!#'what does the candlestone look like' i think is kinda cool with how it absorbs light?? i actually don't know what that would look like but#it sounds cool
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dragons in our midst was scaly propaganda for christian kids
#sleeper code in my mind activating when I hear the name ‘walter’: hey remember those buckwild christian dragons#SHOULD I REREAD DRAGONS IN OUR MIDST AND LIVEBLOG???#looking at the cover for the candlestone is so nostalgic bro……….. my favorite cover ever as a kid#looking at the pub dates for these and I KNOW i was heavily on board before the sequel series came out#which was 2006#so. my god I was single digits when i got into them??? lord#and i don’t think i ever reread them so it’ll have been well over ten years ago since i picked up a diom book#anyway. i think i should reread them#I’ll make a booktube channel specifically for diom reading vlogs and never anything else
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Candleston Castle, South Wales
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So I just finished rereading the Dragons in Our Midst and Oracles of Fire series (a 7-month-long endeavor), and I thought I would share my thoughts now that I've finished revisiting what were arguably some of the most influential (to me) books of my preteen and early teen years.
Much to my relief, my level of enjoyment while reading these books didn't go down — actually, I think it probably had an overall upward trend.
(Except for the bit where I literally hurt my thumb while reading Bones of Makaidos because of supporting that thick of a book for long reading sessions.)
I think I had forgotten just how weird these books are? Or maybe I just never realized in the first place? But somehow you end up with dragons and King Arthur stuff coexisting with sci-fi-ish elements like Ashley's inventions and Mardon's experiments, plus multiple different dimensions, most of which are some form of afterlife, and it's crazy. I like it, though, and I deeply respect the fact that Davis has managed to build a career out of more or less writing whatever he wants without really worrying about either genre or genre conventions. Life goals right there, y'all.
There is so much allegory and Christian/spiritual messaging in these books. Like, I remember them as being very heavily Scriptural/Christian even for 2000s Christian fantasy, but I think I originally didn't pick up on half of what was in there. It's kind of a lot at times, but it's also kind of nice to read something that's so up-front about its message.
On a related note, I actually appreciate The Candlestone and Enoch's Ghost a lot more now because I understand what the author was doing! Like, Enoch's Ghost was originally probably my least or second-least favorite in the series? And now I'm like, this is great! I see what's going on! And storm me if this does not explain a lot about why Ashley is one of my favorite characters!
(Side note: at one point, I was making a comment about how my favorite book in any given Davis series is, for some reason, usually the one in which the characters go through literal hell, and I said that this was true "with the exception of Enoch's Ghost." Davis saw this and helpfully pointed out that no, the characters definitely do end up in hell a bit in the book, and I was just . . . too polite to point out that I meant the exception in the other direction. But at this point, Enoch's Ghost might be my favorite in OoF, so . . . retroactively true? IDK.)
There's a lot of family in this series, and it's absolutely wonderful. And Davis really emphasizes parent-child relationships (which are hard to do well in adventure fantasy) as opposed to sibling relationships (which are comparatively easy to work in and probably more common), and I just love any instance of multiple generations fighting and adventuring alongside one another, or of the main characters turning to their parents for advice and support even as they're getting older and becoming more independent.
I legit cannot stop thinking about how these books kind of came out at the last possible moment. They were published from 2004 to 2009, and had they come out ten years later, they would've been a completely different story. In the 2000s, you have this sweet spot where the internet is very much a thing, but people don't really have camera phones or constant access to the internet. Like, can you imagine the beginning of Raising Dragons in today's society? Besides the fact that, depending on the school, Bonnie probably wouldn't be able to get away with keeping her backpack on all the time . . . like, her and Billy's escape? There wouldn't be rumors about giant bat creatures floating around the school; there'd be two dozen photos and videos being rapidly posted to FB and IG and someone catching just the right angle to be like "Is that Bonnie???? and that's definitely Billy????? what the heck????" And that's mild compared to the chaos that something like the climax of Circles of Seven or the modern-Earth-side events of Oracles of Fire would create.
Anyway, rereading these was an excellent choice. 10/10 would recommend. I'm going to reread Children of the Bard too sometime soon, but I don't have the same experience with them that I do with DiOM and OoF, so they're part of a different Event.
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Billy Bannister and Bonnie Silver + Christmas in Killarney (if that doesn't inspire you, you can also do something generic like 12 Days of Christmas, I'm not picky😂)
(in my head this is set in between The Candlestone and Circles of Seven. Also I kinda adore that song!!!)
Humming a Christmas song to herself, Bonnie headed into the Foley’s living room, cradling a basket full of greenery for the decorations. Billy and Walter looked up at her arrival— the two of them had been tasked with wrapping presents, while Ashley finished up some of the baking.
“Where are the others?” she asked.
Getting to his feet, Billy took the basket from Bonnie, and she shot him a grateful smile as he set it on the coffee table. “Walter’s dad took them out on a sleigh ride with Mom to keep them out of the way while Walter and I wrap presents,” he explained.
“And Prof is helping my mom and Ashley in the kitchen,” Walter added, adjusting the Santa hat he was wearing. “Between you and me, I wouldn’t go in there. There’s a lot of anti-cookie eating sentiments going on.”
“Because you keep stealing them!” came a shout from the kitchen, and Walter offered them a guilty smile.
Covering a laugh, Bonnie said, “I’m sure we won’t have too much longer to wait.”
“Which is good, cause I don’t know how much longer either of us can wait,” Billy joked as Bonnie started sorting through the contents of her basket. “Want some help?”
“Sure,” she said, smiling at him. “Start with the pine branches— I’ll help you figure out where to put them. We’ll work as a team.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
#thanks for the ask!!#billy bannister#bonnie silver#walter foley#diom#diom party 🥳🐉#dragons in our midst#my first diom fic!! i'm very proud of myself lol#christmas drabbles#christmas time#writing stories is a kind of magic too
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Ran back through Raising Dragons and The Candlestone for DIOM read-along in August and September. (Thank you @diomappreciation for putting this together!!) So many thoughts!! What wonderful books!! thank you Bryan Davis for this beautiful world you've created
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#dragons in our midst#raising dragons#bryan davis#prison#oracles of fire#children of the bard#billy bannister#dragon breath#bonnie silver#bonnie backpack#the candlestone
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Ashley, to Billy: You were more like the sidekick
Walter: Awww, I thought I was the sidekick
Billy: Dude, chill. We can both be the sidekick!
#dragons in our midst#diom party 🥳🐉#diom#walter foley#billy bannister#ashley stalworth#the candlestone
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2022 Reading List
Hamlet - William Shakespeare**
Hamlet - William Shakespeare* **
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare*
All the Bright Places - Jennifer Niven
New Storm Rising - Rob Thier (Wattpad)
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
An Impossible Deception - Spiszy (Wattpad)
Divergent - Veronica Roth
Insurgent - Veronica Roth
Educated - Tara Westover**
Allegiant - Veronica Roth
A is for Arson: A Langley & Porter Mystery - ANHorton1227 (Wattpad)
Until You - LeeleeKez (Wattpad)
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak**
17776 - Jon Bois
From the Earth to the Moon - Jules Verne*
Around the Moon - Jules Verne
In the Year 2889 - Jules & Michel Verne
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls**
Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare*
At First Light - Spiszy (Wattpad)
The Stowaway - LittleLo (Wattpad)
The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis**
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood**
Mystical - VAN.J (Webtoon)
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Star's Crossing - Madeleine_Graves (Wattpad)
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak*
North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
Madame Outlaw - Junk Ren (Webtoon)
Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
A Solemn Promise - littleLo (Wattpad)
An Earnest Favour - littleLo (Wattpad)
A Simple Deception - littleLo (Wattpad)
A Defiant Liaison - littleLo (Wattpad)
Anne of Ingleside - L. M. Montgomery*
Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare*
Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones
The Martian - Andy Weir
The Prince and the Pauper - Mark Twain
The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
A Room With a View - E.M. Forster
Raising Dragons - Bryan Davis
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë**
In Memoriam - Alfred, Lord Tennyson**
The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point - Elizabeth Barrett Browning**
Goblin Market - Christina Rossetti**
The Candlestone - Bryan Davis
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands - Mary Seacole**
The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe*
Much Ado About Nothing - William Shakespeare*
The Story of an African Farm - Olive Schreiner**
The Speckled Band - Arthur Conan Doyle**
Mrs. Warren's Profession - George Bernard Shaw**
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson* **
Circles of Seven - Bryan Davis
The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde**
Unholy Matrimony - xxinlove (Wattpad)
Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne*
The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
AXED - Shren Patel, Emi MG (Webtoon)
The Nose - Nikolai Gogol
Bernice Bobs Her Hair - F. Scott Fitzgerald
An Indecent Gambit - Spiszy (Wattpad)
Always in April - Spiszy (Wattpad)
The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe*
* reread ** for school
#reading list#⭐⭐⭐⭐#⭐⭐⭐#okay I've probably read it three or four times at this point but i lost track#i HATE over analyzing things because it makes me hate reading them and that's exactly what happened here#if I'd read it on my own. once. enjoyed it. set it aside for a while... I'd probably give it 5 stars :/#but despite that rating i do love the funky little insane man with an affinity for puns lol#...it'll probably grow on me later like dorian gray did. maybe.
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Monster Spotlight: Candlestone Courtier
CR 12
Neutral Evil Medium Fey
Andoran, Birthplace of Freedom, pg. 52
Hiding their goofy haircuts unusual appearance beneath layers of illusion and misdirection, Candlestone Courtiers venture into the surface world from deep within the Darklands at the behest of their mad nymph queen to infiltrate societies for their own dark purposes. Trapped in the Darklands for (of course) ancient crimes against the Eldest, Queen Frilogarma is constantly reaching to take more power and reach beyond her cavern for herself, and her Courtiers are her means at acquiring more, setting up deals and bargains which benefits the ancient nymph.
Candlestone Courtiers are more social threats than direct ones, using their impressively massive skill checks (+10 in almost every Knowledge field, +27 Bluff and +15 Diplomacy) to sway public opinions in their favor and bamboozle the party through bold-faced lies that are almost impossible to discern (and even harder to disprove) without magic... And, because of their constant Misdirection, even magic isn’t foolproof! By the time a party even knows one of these political players is present, it’s likely inveigled itself into high society with every noble it can have a moment of time with, and each time the players catch up with it, ALL THREE of its 1/day spells allow it to make a swift escape (Ethereal Jaunt, Phantom Steed, and Shadow Walk) to try, try again later. It’s a good recurring villain! If not a direct threat, then absolutely an indirect one as it hampers their ability to stop any of Queen Frilogarma’s other plans for the surface to come to fruition.
While Courtier’s are typically concerned only with establishing trade and business between their trapped queen and the surface world--a very mundane sort of evil, all things considered, but a DM can easily play up the fantastic threat of just what’s getting shipped out of the Darklands--they are also tasked with something far more insidious and far more likely to attract an adventuring party’s attention: Securing a food supply.
Not every noble the Courtiers have wrapped around their fingers began that way; some may owe the Fey for more than just advice. Once per week, a Courtier can grant a mortal anything they can dream of via a Fey Bargain, either gifting them with a Limited Wish or permanently increasing one of their ability scores by +2. As you may have gathered, this is not without its cost, and it’s a terrible one indeed: Each night their mind flees their body and is drawn into the eternal ballroom of the Court of Ether, where they’re forced to dance for the amusement of Queen Frilogarma and her entourage of twisted fey. Doesn’t sound to bad, does it? Well, whether the guests dance together peacefully for the night or are made to dance as knives and fires are hurled at their feet doesn’t matter, because each and every dream is considered a Nightmare that requires a DC 21 Will save to avoid.
It’s the constant, steady drain of the victim’s vitality and sanity from the constant Nightmares which feed the Queen and her court, the spell impossible to fully resist so long as the Fey Bargain is in place. Breaking the bargain is, thankfully, MUCH simpler than worming your way out of a hellbound contract, merely requiring the application of Remove Curse to dispel it. Removing it becomes much simpler if the Courtier is dead, and it’s removed from every single victim at once automatically if you coup de grace the fiendish Fey with a cold iron weapon... but be wary of potential backlash, as any wishes granted by the Fey Bargain are also undone, which can have terrible consequences depending on just what is being taken away.
While they prefer to keep their hands clean, a Courtier forced into battle to defend its investments is no slacker. Befitting of an elegant noble, they wield +1 Keen Rapiers, their weapons striking up to twice in one round for 1d6+4 damage. Not impressive enough? Remember these are rapiers, and they’re Keen. Their critical hit range is thus 15~20, giving them a 1 in 4 chance to threaten a crit instead of 1 out of 20, but even that’s likely not enough to scare a party out of melee... So how about combining it with Whirlwind Attack to attack everyone in its reach at once? Or, even better, Spellthrust?
That’s not a feat, but an ability unique to the Courtier that allows it to instantly cast a spell it knows with a range of touch against anyone it threatens a critical against. THREATENS a critical with, not actually hits! If the Courtier actually HITS someone with its critical, they must roll twice on their save and take the lower result. At base, Courtiers have Touch of Idiocy and Disfiguring Touch at will, and at 3/day they have Sands of Time and Excruciating Deformation to debuff and dishevel foes. Each of those spells serves not only a purpose in battle, but navigating the courts the Fey often find themselves in, each curse and alteration helping humiliate and punish anyone who’s made an enemy of it.
You can read more about them here.
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Fixer upper! (at Candleston Castle) https://www.instagram.com/p/CTWpA0Po-6b/?utm_medium=tumblr
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Candleston Castle, Merthyr Mawr https://www.instagram.com/p/CNagZ5lns0t/?igshid=11i1j2ko2kcox
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youtube
5 Dangerous & Sinister Paranormal Locations
Published on Aug 29, 2020
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