wewererogue

[wewererogue]

"If you think curiosity without rigor is bad, you should see rigor without curiosity."

xkcd: Good Science

[wewererogue]

hey, what, absolutely WILD news

the linked article is a piece from the LA Times:

[wewererogue]

French brass knuckles pistol "Centenary" (for the anniversary of the Great French Revolution)

The barrel was smooth and had a length of 68 mm. A 5.6 mm cartridge was placed in the barrel.

The system was patented in 1888. Drawing from the patent

A brass knuckles pistol in a box

[wewererogue]

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Facebook ads: (fabricated sponsored "news" article) Here is why, everyone is buying the new thing. Trust us everyone is buying it

TikTok ads: (paid actor) I just bought this thing and it totally changed my life! Join me on my Journey, with Product...

Tumblr ads: (ai generated image of heaven) The Truth About Your Elbows

[wewererogue]

Judy Collins - Anathea

Lazlo Thea stole a stallion, Stole him from the misty mountains. And they chased him and they caught him, And in iron chains they bound him.

Word was brought to Anathea That her brother was in prison. "Bring me gold and six fine horses, I will buy my brother's freedom."

"Judge, oh, judge, please spare my brother, I will give you gold and silver." "I don't want your gold and silver, All I want are your sweet favours."

"Anathea, oh, my sister, Are you mad with grief and sorrow? He will rob you of your flower, And he'll hang me from the gallows."

Anathea did not heed him, Straightway to the judge went running. In his golden bed at midnight, There she heard the gallows groaning.

"Cursed be that judge so cruel, Thirteen years may he lie bleeding, Thirteen doctors cannot cure him, Thirteen shelves of drugs can't heal him."

"Anathea, Anathea, Don't go out into the forest. There among the green pines standing, You will find your brother hanging."

aka "Anna Thea" [1] [2] [3]

[wewererogue]

folk songs about horrendous industrial accidents

[wewererogue]

Sailor's Knife

An essential part of a Sailor’s equipment was his knife. It was needed in all possible situations on board and was therefore always on hand. However, they were not always used for work, but also in the context of fights or other conflicts. Richard I (Lionheart) of England was also confronted with this issue and said “Who kills a man on shipboard, shall be bound to the dead body and thrown in the sea”, a way of dealing with it, although not a good one, because two sailors were lost.

On the left side sits a Sailor with his knife (x)

Therefore, from the 14th century onwards, it was introduced that the person who caused the blood to flow was pinned to the mast with his knife through his hand, and he was only allowed to move freely again when he had managed to pull out the knife. This did not solve the problem, however, and the number of acts of violence on board in which a knife played a role increased greatly until the middle of the 18th century.

A sailor’s rigging knife, late 18th century (x)

Therefore, it was said that the point of the knife was changed into a square or rounded one. This was not only done to reduce violence, because knives were still very sharp and would always remain so, even in rigging where they had to cut ropes.

A sailor’s work knife incapable of stabling thus reducing the possibility of its use as a weapon, late 18th century (x)

The points were also changed so that the men could not hurt themselves, because their number had also increased steadily over time. Therefore, the men on board had rigging knives with rounded or square points.

[wewererogue]

Fried eggplant or zucchini with tzatziki

It's a hassle, it's time sensitive (you can't reheat it and it's no use cold) and it takes a ton of olive oil, but it's (otherwise) very cheap and delicious. Serve as a side-dish, or ignore the main dish and combine with a bunch of other mezze. It screams for booze, preferably ouzo.

@st-just (and @tuulikki, this is what I cooked for you!)

1) T-minus 2 hours: Eggplant / zucchini preparation

1 zucchini or 1/2 eggplant per person, +1 for the wayfarer (y'know, backup)

You can fry the eggplants with or without batter. Decide beforehand: if you don't use batter, you need to cut them in paper thin slices. If you do, make the slices a bit thicker, but no more than 0.5 cm. I always fry zucchini with batter.

You can slice along the axis (for fewer and larger, oval slices, it's what I usually do), or perpendicular to the axis (for more and smaller, round slices). If you do that with the eggplants, don't peel them, just cut the top and bottom. If you do oval eggplant slices, peel them completely or "one on, one off" (they end up looking like striped pants).

The goal is to make them slightly crispy, so you need to get rid of the water before frying. Some people squish them or leave them in a strainer, but I place the slices on a large plate (spread, not lumped together, and well-salted), with thick absorbent paper towels below and above them. It usually takes 2-3 layers. I then ignore them for an hour, then change the paper towels and keep ignoring them until it's time to fry them. By then the towels are soaked but the vegetables are dry.

2) T-minus 1 hour 40 minutes: Tzatziki

1 cup of strained yoghurt (aka greek yoghurt), full fat

1/2 cucumber or 1 baby cucumber

~4 large cloves of garlic

~1 teaspoon of olive oil

salt

[Measurements for ~4 people]

Tzatziki has to be thick and firm, not watery. So first you need to strain the cucumber, which is like 90% water. How I do it: I peel the cucumber and grate it in a flat plastic plate. I spread it there like a paste, then place the plate diagonally. I let gravity do the work, emptying the water periodically. (Other people squish the cucumber with their hands, or leave it in a strainer. Whatever works for you, as long as you get rid of the water.)

Chop the garlic as fine as possible, or use a garlic press. How much garlic? Oh I couldn't tell you. People have come to blows over this. If unsure and timid, try it with 3 and adjust to taste while you mix it.

If there's any water in the yoghurt, empty it. Put the yoghurt in a big bowl and work it with a spoon, make it smoother. Add a little olive oil, mix it well. Add salt, mix it. By now the cucumber's strained, so start adding that and the garlic, bit by bit, and mix very well. When all the ingredients are incorporated evenly, cover and put it in the fridge. Half an hour minimum, 1 hour better, and it's fine if you make it the day before.

Optionally garnish with fresh spearmint, and/or plop a Kalamata olive in the middle.

3) T-minus 45 minutes: Batter

~3 tablespoons of flour / person

pinch of baking powder

water

ouzo

salt

I don't have good measurements to give here, I eyeball it. Mix flower with water in a bowl, add salt, a pinch of baking powder and bit of ouzo (optional but so good, it makes it tingle!), and try to end up with a batter that you can coat your vegetables in, but is not too watery.

It's better if you leave it in the fridge for half an hour, but it's not a disaster if you use it immediately.

4) T-minus 15 minutes: Into the frying pan

This is tricky. We're deep-frying with olive oil. It's not impossible, but it needs precision. So here's how to eyeball it. (What did y'all expect, a food thermometer?)

Take a big skillet, put it on the big whatsitcalled (burner?) of the stovetop, high heat. Mine goes from 1 to 6, so let's use these numbers for reference: 5 out of 6. When the surface of the skillet is hot for your hand, add a bucket of olive oil if you're making zucchini, or two buckets of olive oil for the notoriously oil-friendly eggplants.

Okay, not bucket, but enough for the zucchini slices to flow freely in there. For the eggplants, enough to submerge and drown them forever. And keep the olive oil handy, it may take more. Seriously, it's hilarious how much oil this plant absorbs.

Let the oil heat VERY well, but do NOT let it burn. If there's a whiff or smoke and the smell of burning oil, sorry, it's too late. While you wait, take out the vegetables. Throw them in the bowl of batter if that's what you went for, mix around until they're all covered, and wash your hands. Equip the Tongs.

Is the oil ready? If in doubt, cheat: throw a little bit of eggplant or zucchini in there, it's ready when it sizzles riotously. Use the Tongs to place the slices in the skillet, in a single layer, none on top of the other, and not lumped together. If you used batter, leave a margin between them so that they won't stick together. Put as many slices fit in the skillet, and no more. It behooves you to be quick about it.

Depending on the stove and thickness of the slices, it will take ~2 to 3 minutes for the colour of the dipped-in-batter zucchini/eggplants to turn golden-coloured, and a little less for the colour of the plain eggplants to turn mostly golden brown with a little yellow. That's when they're ready, it's time to flip them!

Watch out for the oil. Is it dangerously low, or does your nose tell you that it's about to burn? Add some more, don't be stingy. Wait until the 2nd side is done like the 1st, colour-wise, remove and serve. Then keep putting slices in the skillet, keep watching out for the oil level in there, lower the heat from 5 to 4 (out of 6) when you put your last batch of eggplants/zucchini, and kill the heat altogether when you flip the last batch.

Note: if your slices are evenly thick, you can flip/remove them in the order you put them in, and get done with it. If not, the thinner they are the faster they're done, so judge each by their colour. It's okay if you miscalculate and end up flipping them more than once. Just don't let them burn.

If you have leftover batter once you're done, plop it in the skillet and flip it after a couple of minutes: this is how the supremely low-tech greek pancakes are made.

5) T-0: Eat!

zucchini fried with batter. the arrow shows what colour to aim for, according to most people (I like'em crispier, personally). bad photo but eh.

Serve the eggplants/zucchini hot, plop tzatziki on top, grab a bottle of ouzo, off you go.

Only the eggplants without batter are any good when they're cold, and even then they'll last until dinner or the next lunch, no more. But leave them uncovered. Like, you can put a paper towel on top or something, but nothing air-tight, they'll lose the crispiness.

[wewererogue]

The Joan Baez Ballad Book, 1972. Artwork by Eric von Schmidt.

[wewererogue]

Two Love Knives / Coltelli d'amore

Italy, Sparanise, 19th / late 19th century, 20 cm / 21.4 cm

"Traditionally, love knives were given by girlfriends to their future husbands, the hearts and keys being symbols of love. On the other hand, the eyes depicted on the handles (known as "occhi di dado", dice eyes) had both a superstitious purpose and were used to protect against the evil eye, as well as to control a man's behaviour. "

(Text from the auction site, grain of salt recommended. It's definitely an engagement/courtship knife, though.)

[wewererogue]

My grandma’s on and off again boyfriend that she cheated on grandpa with died today.

[wewererogue]

Rogue: Bloodstalker

You are a relentless killer, a predator who marks your prey and ensures they cannot escape. Unlike other rogues who rely on subtlety and deception, you thrive in the thrill of the hunt, locking down your target and cutting them down with brutal efficiency.

Bloodstalkers are feared for their persistence—once they’ve set their sights on a victim, there is no running. Through sheer instinct and ferocity, they dismantle their foes piece by piece, reveling in the carnage left behind.

Crimson Dance

3rd-level Bloodstalker feature

You learn to single out your prey, forcing them into a desperate struggle.

Predator’s Mark. When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can mark them as prey until the start of your next turn. A marked creature:

Cannot take the Disengage action while within 5 feet of you.

Has disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than you.

Always qualifies for your Sneak Attack, even if you don’t have an ally within 5 feet of the target. You still cannot use Sneak Attack if you have disadvantage on the attack roll.

Once per turn, when you hit a marked creature with an attack, you can choose to leave them bleeding. Until the mark ends, the creature takes extra damage equal to your proficiency bonus at the start of each of its turns.

Thrill of the Kill

9th-level Bloodstalker feature

The heat of battle fuels you, driving you into a relentless pursuit of violence.

Sanguine Recovery. Whenever you hit a marked enemy with an attack, you regain hit points equal to your proficiency bonus.

Hunted Prey. Your Sneak Attack applies to a marked enemy regardless of any other conditions, unless you have disadvantage on the attack roll.

Adrenaline Surge. When you reduce a marked creature to 0 hit points, you can immediately take the Dash or Disengage action as a free action.

Survivor’s Tenacity

13th-level Bloodstalker feature

Your body refuses to fall, pushing itself beyond its limits.

Endless Hunt. When you roll initiative and have no uses of Uncanny Dodge left, you regain one use.

Gritted Resilience. When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you can make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. On a success, you drop to 1 hit point instead. Each time you use this feature after the first, the DC increases by 5. The DC resets when you finish a long rest.

Predator’s Grip. If a marked creature moves more than 5 feet away from you, you can use your reaction to make a melee attack. On a hit, the target’s speed is reduced to 0 until the end of its turn.

Bloodstalker’s Finale

17th-level Bloodstalker feature

You are an unstoppable force, a butcher whose presence signals the end of the hunt.

Relentless Execution. If you hit a marked creature with Sneak Attack, you can make another melee attack against a different creature within 5 feet as part of the same attack action.

No Escape. If a marked creature starts its turn within 5 feet of you, its speed is reduced by 10 feet until the end of its turn.

Killer’s Momentum. When you reduce a marked creature to 0 hit points, you gain advantage on your next attack roll before the end of your next turn.

[wewererogue]

Indexed

[wewererogue]

Penknives

From the book Explanation or Key, to the various manufactories of Sheffield, with engravings of each article, designed for the utility of merchants, wholesale ironmongers, and travellers (Sheffield, 1816) [x]

[wewererogue]

Scout Roguish Archetype | Scouts that scout, not set up ambushes

PDFs of this and more can be found over on at my Patreon here! I release everything for free, so your support makes this possible. I've also started making a new system based off of 5e, 6th Dawn! Become a patron and join the playtest.

This week, as part of a theme most foul, I decided to go upon a foul task and revise our hired killer.

The second the theme this month is tracks, so I used it as an excuse to visit the scout archetype. I'm rather fond of it conceptually, but I will say, I was surprised when I realised that the latter half of its features are a better assassin than the official assassin. They get a second attack as a bonus action and can sneak attack with it too! Damn! That said, as cool as those are, I don't think a scout is best embodied by its ability to do devastating ambushes. Moreover, the rogue's base featureset is pretty good at doing that on it's own if you want to go that way. So, I opted to focus on mobility and detection.

Pathfinder

I won't lie, I couldn't resist calling this pathfinder. I didn't have to, but I wanted to. Anyway, the 5e scout gets nature and survival, which definitely gives it a ranger vibe, which is cool but not really the part of the ranger that fits this concept, instead I decided they'd be really good at navigating, reading maps, and making maps.

Skirmisher

This feature is really good in the base scout, so I kept it, and kind of made it its defining feature

Superior Mobility

While I kept the name of the scout feature, I decided that, as a class that can dash as a bonus action, they don't really need an additional 10 feet of movement speed. But they can probably do with other forms of mobility. Also, if you're going about in nature, not being slowed down sounds like a good idea.

Lookout

I'm not the proudest of this feature, seeing as half of it is part of my modified (and the oneD&D) alert feat, but quite frankly I had to try really hard not to make this subclass the Alert feat archetype. Which I mostly succeeded. But these are important skills for a scout to have. I am amused that it's basically the opposite of the lookout feature the other one gets.

Unfond Farewell

I enjoyed naming this one. This isn't much, but it does give the scout more to do during combat, instead of stuff largely surrounding combat.

Right Place, Right Time

I'm not sure if I'll keep this feature going into 6th dawn, but I have been toying with the concept that this one pulls off for a while. How did the monk or rogue evade the fireball and take no damage? By not being in the area, of course

And now to plug my stuff. I release homebrews weekly over on my Patreon. Anyone who pledges $1 or more per post don't have to wait a month to see them, and also help fund my being alive habit.

At the moment, they have exclusive access to the following:

Poisons: Reapplied

Finding the Trail

Skill Challenges

College of Epics

I also have four classes, and two splatbooks over on DriveThruRPG to check out:

The Rift Binder. A class specialising in summoning monsters and controlling the battlefield.

The Witch Knight. A class that combines swords and sorcery in the most literal way.

The Werebeast. A class that turns you into a half beast to destroy your foes.

The Beguiler. A spellcaster dedicated to illusions, enchantments, and general fuckery.

d'Artagnan's Adventurer Almanac. A compendium of races, subclasses, feats, spells, monsters and more!

d'Artagnan's Lycanthrope Survival Guide. A book of lore, stats, and werebeast subclasses for lycanthropes.

[wewererogue]