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brownstonearmy · 4 years

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2020-11-06: Cleansed In The Water (Pt 2)

August 14 (Friday Morning)

It's Friday, and that means our band of adventurers is checking out the weekly auction in the town square! Well, except for Lucky, who is indisposed for reasons arcane and unknowable to those without sorcerous lineage. Anyway, here's what's on the auction block this morning:

Boots of Satyrday Nightfevre - 75GP

Necklace of the Smoky Mistress - 1000GP

Shield of the Yawning Maw - 800GP

Mr. Poppables Box of the Arcane - 2800GP

Spleenifer buys the Boots of Satyrday Nightfevre because she loves fauns and wordplay, while Norm brings out the big gold and snags Mr. Poppable's Box of the Arcane. Q opts for the Necklace of the Smoky Mistress; it comes with free eye shadow, which is a must-have for any competent performer. As the bidding winds down, something erupts like a geyser from between two peaks on the mountain range east of town.

The ground shakes and a thunderous roar fills the air. Norbert Haversham leans out from his window and yells for everyone to seek shelter and higher ground because a flood's coming. A low wall of filthy, frothy water is rushing toward the town of Brownstone with only a scant eight minutes before it breaches the town and washes everything away. There's enough time to save some things, but they can't save everything.

For Q, the silver lining of this situation is that their apartment is on the second floor, so at least flooding won't be as big of an issue. But the animals at Stormblossom Ranch are the more pressing concern for Q, so they dash off to help Robin. They take up a defensive position on the easternmost wall of the biggest barn and cast Leomund's Tiny Hut to keep Robin and 8 smaller animals safe from the deluge. Water crashes through the ranch's fencing and sweeps away the horses and larger dogs. Q hopes they made the right choice in thinking the larger animals can swim! The water slams against the Q's Tiny Hut and the wall of the barn where Porkchop the dinosware is being kept, but the wall manages to hold fast.

Back at the auction block, Spleenifer sprints off toward the stables where she sleeps. Norm's still hanging around the town square and helping people make it to safety, but will get back to him in a moment. Spleenifer, having put on the boots of Satyrday Nightfevre just before the wall of water began its dangerous descent toward the town, leaves fish prints in the mud instead of the soles of her usual intimidating boots. Like Q, Spleenifer's goal is to save the animals, but the animals she's after are her numerous pets. She makes it to the barn with her goats and innumerable ducks, but her goats aren't very good swimmers. Time to improvise a raft!

She grabs some rope and yanks planks out of the walls. There's only about 3 minutes left before the water reaches the stables, and time is of the essence. She stuffs her collection of tithes into Heward's Handy Haversack and sets to work on the raft. But Spleenifer's faith in Lathander as well as her surprisingly capable skills in animal husbandry allow her to (literally) put her ducks in a row and complete the task. The ducks are yoked to the planks like a team of amphibious oxen to become the flotation bladders, while Spleenifer and the goats stand at the ready to mount the raft as soon at the water breaches the building. And in case you're wondering, the ducks are fine; the will of Lathander is expressed in mysterious ways.

And now it's time to circle back to Norm! Those he could help have already found shelter, and now our assassin is left to brave the deluge alone. You may be surprised to learn that Norm intends to solve the problem of his immediate safety by unleashing his folding boat and using it as... a boat. The small form of the boat appears in front of him and he climbs inside just as the wave hits. The lumbering form of the lizardfolk's house appears in the distance, trudging against the current as Norm tries to keep the boat stable.

The boat slams into the side of a building as more chaos unfolds on the scene. Everyone's favorite celebrity adventurer, Anaxilas, plummets out of the sky and into the raging waters. He screams an apology about not being able to use the stopper to halt the deluge. Norm tries to pursue Anaxilas, but the waters are too turbulent and Norm nearly tumbles out of the boat. A shivering band of wererats clutching a turtle drifts past, and Norm helps them into his boat once he gets himself situated.

Back at Stormblossom Ranch, the waves have blown the door open to Porkchop the Dinosware's barn. Q can't leave the protection of the Tiny Hut without endangering the other creatures it's protecting, so they persuade Robin to wade into the flood and shut the door before Porkchop can escape. Robin agrees and fashions a makeshift harness out of some rope, leaving Q to hold fast the other end.

Just as Robin manages to shut the door, a giant bottle spewing a torrent of water slams into the roof of the barn and leaves behind a huge hole. The bottle ricochets off the roof and skips like a stone over the floodwaters toward the quarry. With a final heave, Q hauls Robin back into the safety of the Tiny Hut.

At the western edge of town, Spleenifer and Norm are still fighting against the currents. The swift waters send Norm hurtling toward Spleenifer's location, but there's yet another complication: random buildings are suddenly tripling in size and making the path through the cramped streets even more treacherous. When Spleenifer appears on the horizon, clutching her goats atop a duck-powered raft, Norm steers his boat toward the rescue of his companion.

Spleenifer extends her staff toward Norm once they get close, using it to keep the two watercraft stable as they consolidate everyone into one boat. Opportunistic gulls swoop down into the water to snag morsels unearthed by the raging waters. Norm notices a thick green liquid that seems to be floating in the water near the houses that have gotten bigger, and one of the birds dives into the green stuff while chasing a piece of food.

The bird sinks below the surface and emerges as a much bigger and deadlier bird of prey. Yeah, when seagulls get to be the size of a house, they're considered to be birds of prey. And Spleenifer's tiny city of ducks looks like a pretty good snack. The big bird swoops down again and tries to grab the duck-powered raft.

Norm activates Mr. Poppable's Box of the Arcane, and a wall of force surrounds the boat that prevents living creatures from passing through it. But Spleenifer's righteous staff isn't living, and thus it cuts through the barrier and smites the bird's mighty talons something fierce. The bird screeches and bolts skyward to plot its next action.

It doesn't take long for the bird to reach a decision. Big birds have big appetites, and the recently-embiggened bird needs snacks more than anything. So it swoops down one last time and grabs the raft of ducks.

But there's a complication to this plan: Norm and Spleenifer tied the raft to the boat when they were consolidating passengers. So now a force-field shielded boat is hanging by a rope attached to a hastily-constructed raft in the talons of a big ol' bird soaring above the town. No pressure, right?

From this vantage point, Norm and Spleenifer can see a giant bottle spewing water and spinning around within the flooded quarry. They can also see Q, which seems like a fine time to check in with our favorite bard!

The lizardfolk's house has nearly reached Stormblossom Ranch, but the house has a very pronounced limp. All the debris from the flooding appears to have bent one of the house's legs into an unstable position. This is something Q may be able to help with, if only the lizardfolk can get close enough. From the safety of the Tiny Hut, they produce the Didgeriboop and play a song to beckon the lizardfolk closer.

Q's plan works and the house limps toward the source of the rhythmic drone. Once the house is just outside the Tiny Hut, Q extends their hand through the barrier and casts mending on the broken leg. The structural damage to the leg is repaired and the house is as limber as ever, but the patches of green floating in the water give Q another idea.

That green stuff is something Q has seen before, albeit not is such large quantities. Without a doubt, that stuff is Kingmaker Size Enhancement Serum, normally used in very small quantities by people to augment the size of... certain things, and Q knows of several potential suitors who have used it in the past in an attempt to make a good first impression, if you know what I mean.

Q asks the lizardfolk to try to wade into a patch of the green stuff in order for the house to get bigger and sturdier. Then the house could hold the animals the Tiny Hut was protecting and Q could leave the safety of the hut to stop the source of the flooding. The lizardfolk are amenable to holding all the animals, but less amenable to the idea that the animals are not supposed to be eaten. Q promises to surprise the lizardfolk with a new ingredient if they agree to help without eating the rescued animals.

After spending most of the session apart, our group of adventurers converge on the quarry. Spleenifer attacks the talons of her captor to release the boats from its grip, while Norm gathers everyone inside and prepares to flip the effect of the force field on the box of the arcane. Once Q gets sufficiently close to the quarry, they slather some on of the Kingmaker Serum to GET ULTRA LARGE and then cast Dimension Door to teleport on top of a giant lily pad next to the furiously spewing bottle.

When the bird finally lets go, the boats and their occupants tumble toward a boat-sized belly flop. Just before everyone hits water, Norm deactivates the cube's force so everyone doesn't slam into an unyielding force wall upon impact with the water. The boat slams into the gargantuan body of a lazy goldfish, cushioning everyone's fall.

The bottle is still spewing a raging river's worth of water, and the party must dodge the violent surges of water to get close enough to stop it. Q is hulked out right now and leaps onto the side of the bottle where the 4-foot diameter stopper is tethered. They try to stopper the water, but it's too powerful to stop alone. Spleenifer takes a blast of water trying to help Q, and Norm deftly clambers onto the bottle with a plan of his own. He activates the cube once more, this time making it so that living matter can pass through, but nonliving matter can't.

An invisible wall of force traps the water and the bottle's stopper, allowing Q and Spleenifer a few precious seconds to heft the stopper into position. The second attempt succeeds, and Norm deactivates the cube. Ever so slowly, the flood waters begin to recede; though it will be several more hours before all the stuff touched by the Kingmaker Serum returns to normal size. As the adventure session draws to a close, Norm pledges to train his wererat and turtle buddies in the Arts of the Assassin, since they were all calm under the pressure of today's unusual situations.

Spleenifer declares this new group to be henceforth known as the Needle Tootles, but whether Norm lets that name stick remains to be seen. Norm does assign codenames to each member of his new group, though: Master Sliver is the turtle; while the names of Manet, Monet, Degas, and Renoir go to the four wererats.

Stay tuned next time for more!

#adventure log #shits and giggles #Dungeons and Dragons #fishdavidson #flood #bottle #kingmaker #wererat

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kansassire · 7 years

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Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers, 2005, Satoshi Miki

#words #satoshi miki

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dybdahltravels · 6 years

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Whale Watching in Tenerife

Hola mis amigos

On one of the beautiful sunshiny days - they have all been like this - FYI - we decided to book a 2 hour trip in search of the short fin pilot whales that call the waters of the Canary Islands home - year round. My expectations on these adventures is LOW so if we don’t see a thing, I am happy that I got some time on the water. The advertisements for the place we selected said we will see dolphins, turtles AND whales. Right. So we boarded the catamaran and headed out. The temps were perfect - not enough wind to put up the sail - but the motor was quiet and we were on the water. And - ta-da - dolphins - bottle-nose dolphins - a lot of them. They were feeding and to do that the swim to the bottom and drive up lots of small fish providing a tasty dinner for the dolphins and the sea birds. They were jumping and having so much fun and we got so close that in these crystal clear water we were able to see them swim under the boat. AWESOME!!

The waters get deep fast and the temperature of the water changes only 4-5 degrees C during the entire year - so the dolphins don’t really have to find other homes. Bottle-nose dolphin live approximately 40 years and are 12-14 feet long. They average 660 pounds and they look so graceful yet powerful. All of the occupants on board were happy to hang around and watch these cool dolphins but the naturalist and the captain wanted to push on. We needed to get out to 1,000 meters deep if we wanted to find whales and surprisingly we were there in a very short time. And then WHALES!! Mark and I have been whale watching a couple of times - once in Maine and once in Hawaii - and we have been lucky each time - but these pilot whales were a new experience for us. These whales are here year round and they stay in family groups or pods their entire lives. They dive down to eat. They are not filter feeders but toothed whales that eat squid and octopus and other fish when their first 2 choices are in low supply. They float on the surface and rest between dives that take about 10 - 12 minutes. They do shallow diving (300 - 500 meters) during the day and deep dives after dark. They locate all their food using echolocation and they are amazingly fast swimmers. They are also territorial - VERY territorial. Lots of other types of whales like to visit (Sperm whale is often observed off shore) but it is rare to see them for long - because the pilot whales keep them moving along despite being smaller. The average female adult weighs 2,800 pounds and is 18-20 feet long. The average male adult weighs 7,000 pounds and is 22-24 feet long. We also learned that pilot whales have dorsal fins that are like fingerprints and although the fins all looked the same to me - the naturalist knew exactly which family it was. For her - it was like seeing old friends. There are more than 600 short fin pilot whales that call these waters home. And here was a pod just hanging out. It was simply remarkable to see such a thing.

They would “hang out” then disappear only to re-appear in an area not too far from the boat for another few minutes. Every second that we could see them was a thrill. They were “playing with us,” our naturalist told us - because when they went to find food, they would be underwater for 12-15 minutes and would emerge in a location a great deal away from us. We all loved it.

But - we soon left the pod in serch of other sea life. We saw more dolphins - they were amazing and a sea turtle - in the distance - but it wasn’t close enough for me to to see. These short fin pilot whales didn't send up water plumes from their spots, or show us their remarkable tail as they dove. They didn’t breach either - which we saw in Maine and still remember vividly - they just hung out.. Apparently they do all these things - but only in rough water - and today was CALM - unless you were talking to one member on the excursion who did NOT find this trip calm. (We all felt soooooo sorry for her!) Our whale watching trip was a great success!! Parking by the marina had been a royal pain in you know where - so after our trip we headed back to our place - where parking is a breeze and spent the rest of the day by the pool. A well deserved break for our driver and all his friends. Life is good in the Canary Islands!

Adios

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apple53-ak · 1 month

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#turtles swim faster than expected #turtles are surprisingly fast swimmers #ueno juri

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uniquestream · 6 years

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Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers 2005 Suzume Katagura is an bored housewife, she spends her days doing chores and taking care of her husbands pet turtle. One day she sees an wanted ad for spies, hoping for some excitement she decides to give them a call.

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talkingpitures2020 · 6 years

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'What’s your favourite film?’

I was interested in filmmaking almost before I was interested in films. When I was a child I went through phases of loving drawing, painting and novel writing. I even put together a newspaper detailing the happenings of my family household which I distributed amongst my soft toys. But I kept coming back to the old unwieldy 90s video camera my dad had bought but hardly used. Filmmaking seemed like the most challenging and exciting thing to do because you had to do all of the other things; write, act, make props and then put them all together into something that made sense.

I started off bullying my siblings into performing for my films, then I’d persuade friends, finally when I was 18 I went to film school so I could stop annoying everyone who wasn’t interested in making films and work with people who were. I was so excited about learning top make films I didn’t even think about how much I had to learn about watching them.

My love of films themselves (the ones other people make) developed more subtly. I remember watching a few of the same VHSs over and over, and then the excitement in the lead up to the release of The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King but it was in the films I saw by accident that I think my deep love and respect for cinema began. Around age 11 my parents let me watch Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? on TV probably thinking it was a nice old black and white movie and forgetting it was actually a haunting horror/thriller. I immediately decided it was my favourite film.

I’ve been through a strange set of phases when it comes to watching film; that childhood wonder phase, obnoxious teenager, obnoxious film-student, confused film-student, obnoxious and confused film-student… and then when I met my partner, now of 5 years, I went back to a phase of wonder and delight as I got introduced to whole wealth of new films outside what exists in a film course curriculum or from watching Film 4 with your mum. I discovered Italian Giallos and the weird exhilaration of Japanese nunsploitation. I’m now at a point in life where I think I love watching films more than ever before, I seem to have come out of a practical film course with my enjoyment unscathed and my appetite for figuring it all out thoroughly whetted.

I’ve always hated the question ‘what’s your favourite film?’ there are so many kinds of films that effect you in so many different ways that aren’t comparable. But some of my favourites are; The Apartment, Harold and Maude, Bicycle Thieves, The Fly, A History of Violence, Ace in the Hole, The Devils, Brief Encounter, The Fireman’s Ball, Dog Day Afternoon, Fiddler on the Roof, Possession, Perfect Blue, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Turtles are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers and Ratatouille.

After having met Emma and deciding to embark on this project together I’m really excited to set out and find answers to the millions of more interesting questions you can ask about film; what makes some films work and some not? Why don’t people like AI: Artificial Intelligence? Why do we say CGI effects aren’t as good as practical ones? What’s the line between homage and plagiarism? Is William Friedkin the one who needed the bloomin’ exorcism?

I can’t wait to get started!

(I’m Xanthe by the way and this was supposed to be an introduction!)

#X #filmlover

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