“You just gotta trust the process”, says man working with no plan, no clear idea of what the ultimate outcome should look like, and even less of a clue about whether this is the way to achieve it.
Revamp of my lamb!! Or mostly an outfit redesign, pretty much everything else I kept the same.
A little bit about Miel: Although discouraged by godhood, she is devoted to protecting her followers. Bashful, shy, but is also witty and high-spirited depending on the right person. They convey to be a low-key and humble leader, always trying to be sympathetic and fair… but resents having to be put into a position to be a god in the first place.
“there’s a guy in the walls” movies exist in a universe that I fucking WISH was real. imagine how easy it would be to install stuff in walls if the space behind a wall was not 3.5 inches/8.9 cm deep and I could get my whole self in there. of course that would mean a guy could get in there too, but what are the odds.
<currently blogging from inside this idiot’s walls>
PLEASE help me feed these ethernet cables downstairs or I’m gonna kill myself before you get a crack at me
thread it down here champ, we’ll get this installed come hell or high water
you are the best scary murderer who could have ever crawled into my walls
I based a set of D&D villains around the six main stats called Virtues. (think Full Metal Alchemist sins, except Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, etc..) My favorite of the bunch was Charm. Her conceit was she could persuade, lie, cheat, change appearance, and manipulate the players pretty much however she wanted, but the second someone attacked her she would go down. I introduced her relatively early into the campaign, and I was a bit nervous because I was pretty upfront about her introduction. I didn’t say it explicitly, but it was pretty obvious Charm was a Virtue from the offset. I thought “well, I like this character a lot, maybe I’ll cheat it a little if I have to.” Surprisingly, I never did.
In retrospect, I think the context of the Charm encounters was a huge boon. The party really only confronted her twice: the first time at a dinner party and the second at a war council, where leaders from various factions met to discuss retaking the main city for the finale of the campaign. Neither were explicitly combat scenarios, and both times it would have looked pretty bad for the party if they just up and killed Charm for apparently no reason. The end result was I had villain with only eight hit points to her name run around and torment my level 16 party unpunished for several sessions. Let me tell you, as a DM, that felt amazing.
To add onto this as a player perspective, Charm was immediately positioned in such a way that, in the social and emotional dynamics of the roleplay, she was untouchable.
Charms first introduction was as the foreign dignitary of a far off nation who we knew had secret ties to the Church. We were at a mansion dinner party held partially in our honor - we were in part invited directly by the King, who we were favored by and wanted favor from. Charms plus 1 at the party was our party leaders sister - they were good friends. This was all true the second time she appeared at the war council, which was not only an expressly political appearance but also one where she represented the nation from which we were trying to secure military aid from.
It didn’t matter at any point that we could have rolled a few dice for an attack roll and destroyed her. To destroy Charm of the six virtues, we had to murder, in cold blood, someone who was well liked, well connected, and well loved by some of the npcs closest to the party.
The only way we defeated her was because when we threatened her, subtly, she tipped her hand. Charm openly threatened the party leader’s sister, who from then on no longer believed in her. We came to the bargaining table with her and convinced her (with no deception!) she could leave the battle march and be done with us. And when she got on her boat to leave, as it left port, our Bard (independently of anyone) snuck onto the ship, snuck into her room, and killed her in her sleep. The only kill that character ever got in the entire three year campaign.
It was an extremely well executed factor of the game because it was essentially a social encounter Boss fight. We had to construct and push and change the context of the situation until we could kill her without everything else crumbling around us - personal relationships as well as political ones.
I should add, Bard character *chose* not to kill anyone. She would willingly torment enemies and assist the party in combat, but never did any killing herself. She only killed Charm after everything had been resolved and Charm had effectively exited the campaign. She would have gotten away scot-free if Bard hadn’t decided to take action. It was a great moment, and as a DM I couldn’t have asked for a better character death
Here’s what the fight with Tenacity (Constitution) looked like:
That little red bar at the top is her health. I don’t show specific numbers, but I like having the health bar available for players to see so they have a general sense of how wounded the enemy is. I believe for this fight I started Tenacity at 999 HP out of a possible 20,000.
I greatly enjoyed watching my players realize what they were in for after they hit for 50+ damage on their first attack and saw the health bar get one pixel smaller.
Ferocity (Strength) was the most conventional of the Virtues, but context was everything. The players hadn’t fought a Virtue yet, and were debating whether to defend some potential allies or lay low, only for the Paladin to slip away and confront Ferocity by himself. I was personally prepared to save the fight for later, but when a Paladin does something heroic and foolish you gotta let them have it.
I did not skimp on Ferocity’s stat block either. She had a greatsword fashioned out of a massive hunk of stone that dealt bludgeoning damage and was much too heavy for anyone else to even lift. She could grab players and throw them across the map, resulting in fall damage from the distance thrown. She could chuck her sword at someone and leap to where it landed from a standing position. Paladin stood no chance by himself. The result was a mad dash to the join the fray while Paladin tried to hold out for as long as possible, with new party members arriving round after round to help. It was a very close fight, and my favorite combat of the whole campaign.
Incredibly, Monk found a way to disarm Ferocity after she threw her greatsword at him. He couldn’t lift it of course, but he could use his new magic item to teleport away with it and hide it in a nearby river. Ferocity spent the rest of the combat leaping around the map to find it, allowing Barbarian to finish her off. Really ingenious play.
(Pictured above, Ferocity and Paladin.)
Celerity (dexterity) was had a similar setup to Charm. She was fragile, with only 8 hp. The trick was hitting her, or, thanks to her ridiculously high Stealth, even knowing she was there in the first place. I wanted to give the party a puzzle to solve, as opposed to an enemy to fight.
I had Celerity stalk the party in secret as they made their way through a lengthy dungeon, until eventually the Barbarian made an abnormally high perception check; not enough to know she was there for sure, but enough to sense something was off. They later verified her location through a magical telescope.
Deducing (correctly) that Celerity was there to try and capture an important npc, they decided to lay a trap. The Druid disguised themselves as the npc and drew the attention of a nearby Ancient Deep Crow. As they were about to be snatched up, Celerity intervened, eviscerated the crow, and spirited away the disguised Druid. Before she could realize she’d been tricked, the Paladin, who had been disguised as a spider on the shoulder of the Druid, smote Celerity while her guard was down, killing her instantly.
I remember this encounter fondly, as my players spent a good two hours planning their trap, which then took only about 5 minutes to execute. It was quick and clean, exactly what it should have been.
I struggled a lot with what to do for Wisdom. I already had Brilliance (Intelligence) cast as my big bad mastermind final boss encounter, which ate up a lot of the design space. I could make her a religious figure and lean into the divine casting aspect of D&D, but there was already a quasi-religious sect of corrupt paladins hounding the players and I don’t like to double dip.
Eventually I settled on Vigilance, a machine made up of wires and tubes with a network of mechanical eyes that spied on the players as they made their way through the capital city. Wisdom is the stat use for Perception after all. I was happy with Vigilance as a background presence. She contributed a lot to the eerie atmosphere and aloof puppeteering nature of the Virtues. The problem was turning a network of cameras into a compelling boss fight.
I wish I could say I had a clever idea here but, uh… I really got nothing this time. She just showed up and harassed the party as a giant tentacle monster. I do like how her token came out though.
In hindsight I think this still could have worked if I hadn’t given her a voice and made her a silent powerful threat. Unfortunately, I did give her a voice, and a very silly one to boot.
having pet stick bugs is fun because every so often i will hear the distinct sound of several stick bug falling and ill go to check on them and find them all in a pile on the ground of their enclosure and i have to figure out if theyve just decided that its floor time now or if they kept mistaking each other for actual sticks again and bundled together the ceiling until gravity got the best of them.
yeah they love forming a faggot together its like their favourite thing to do
please show us bugfaggot op please
they have plenty of plants and sticks to climb and play with they just keep doing this
the classic Finnish mix of extreme dutifulness and “we will make actual conversation after a silent interaction trial period of 6 weeks, thank you” can be really funny sometimes. told my coworker that I’d like to save the coffee grounds the workplace generated and take them home “for my mushrooms and worms” and she was just like “okei” and dutifully saved every single grounds-filled filter for weeks and weeks. about five weeks into this whole thing, after I thank her for the coffee grounds and tell her my worms must love them because they’re breeding very enthusiastically, she finally asks “so your worms… do they have a purpose or are they just… worms”. like sure I’ll save you all these coffee grounds every single time I drink coffee, 3+ times a day, but god forbid I inquire about your specific worm habits before propriety allows it. you could be eating them for breakfast for all I know but that’s your business
this post has been up for so long I’m at a new workplace now, and here’s a new one: someone finally getting a close enough look at the jar of homemade nut butter I’d been using to make snacks for days (in a reused jar, still with the pesto label on it), realising the contents were not as advertised, and saying with poorly concealed relief “ai!!! you weren’t spreading pesto on bananas!” like she’d been quietly dying inside the whole time but had grimly committed herself to never ever presuming to ask wtf was going on
congrats, this is so cursed and the best addition someone has made to this post
#i’m not gonna lie i feel like a lot of people online could do with a dose of this type of finnishness #y'know. the ‘i have no idea what you’re doing and it seems really weird but it’s not my business to pry and also you do you’ attitude
Reminder that the fall of the Berlin Wall was a tragedy for humankind, and that Marxist-Leninist LGBT+ Liberation will always be superior to rainbow capitalism. ☭ 🏳️🌈 ☭ 🏳️⚧️ ☭
Some additional reading for people curious about the DDR/GDR! There will be a third article released from this organization all about the history of land reform in the DDR/GDR— that’ll be shortly released so here’s the full site to find it once it is. :3c
Reminder that the fall of the Berlin Wall was a tragedy for humankind, and that Marxist-Leninist LGBT+ Liberation will always be superior to rainbow capitalism. ☭ 🏳️🌈 ☭ 🏳️⚧️ ☭
Some additional reading for people curious about the DDR/GDR! There will be a third article released from this organization all about the history of land reform in the DDR/GDR— that’ll be shortly released so here’s the full site to find it once it is. :3c
FINALLY DONE. Y'all have been really interested in the dynamic between Leshy and Hastur, and I needed something to help me get back into the swing of things, so TA-DA!
Sorry if the style is inconsistent - this was partly a drawing exercise for me too.
obsessed with the guy who just won gold in windsurfing
Wasn’t there a whole thing in the comics about aang getting offended over some air nomad super fans using the arrow since you have to be a master to get your arrow tattoos? And basically the super fan group was doing a cultural appropriation by having arrow tats? I feel like that was a whole ass thing in the comics.
well i have great news that will ease your mind. air benders aren’t real
Webcomic platforms can help get your comic published when you want something quick and easy to start out! They generally share a few qualities:
They format everything in a basic way so you don’t have to do much set up your own space to look nice on web/mobile
They have no fee to publish your comics there, because you are using their web hosting
They may get your comic in front of other readers with mobile apps or online catalogs
If you meet their criteria, you may also be able to find hosting with digital comic stores, publishers, and collectives, and this may get you a bit more in the way of money, promotional opportunities, or editor assistance.
Even if you choose to host your website on its own webhost with a comic CMS, you might also consider finding a platform that aligns with your comic goals and “mirroring” your pages there.
In this post, we look at all the webcomic platforms out there we could find in our research!
This post may be updated as time goes on as new platforms enter the hosting arena, or other important updates come to light.
Webcomic platforms can help get your comic published when you want something quick and easy to start out! They generally share a few qualities:
They format everything in a basic way so you don’t have to do much set up your own space to look nice on web/mobile
They have no fee to publish your comics there, because you are using their web hosting
They may get your comic in front of other readers with mobile apps or online catalogs
If you meet their criteria, you may also be able to find hosting with digital comic stores, publishers, and collectives, and this may get you a bit more in the way of money, promotional opportunities, or editor assistance.
Even if you choose to host your website on its own webhost with a comic CMS, you might also consider finding a platform that aligns with your comic goals and “mirroring” your pages there.
In this post, we look at all the webcomic platforms out there we could find in our research!
This post may be updated as time goes on as new platforms enter the hosting arena, or other important updates come to light.
told my parents i miss archaeology and my mom was, very sympathetically, like: “do you want to dig holes in the garden?” and i was like. yes. i want to dig holes in the garden.
my wife, after reading this to me aloud: It’s your people! …do you want me to break a clay pot for you to put back together?
me, burying my face in my hands: Maybe…?
These are both moods, but unfortunately I am primarily a bioarchaeologist. (IE, I specialize in digging up old human skeletons.) And, uh, home-made bioarchaeology is tragically discriminated against by law enforcement.
i like tumblr because occasionally i’ll be recommended a 12 year old post that depicts something so absolutely my shit that it makes me believe in art again
the Jesus trope is a character that “dies” but is too cool to stay dead, whether it’s Gandalf or Harry Potter or the J-dawg himself, and while it’s usually used to add a patina of suffering to the good guy it can also be used to redeem the bad guy, or the misunderstood catgirl in the case of She-Ra, where Catra takes an absolute beating before being brought back to life as part of her redemption arc.
the neat thing about this trope is that it conveniently punishes the character for any of their previous misdeeds (whether they be waging an aggressive war of invasion, betraying their friends, attempting to destroy the world, etc.) and allows them to return to the fold having already paid off their debt, I mean they literally died! what more can you ask of them!
but it gets even more interesting if you reinterpret the good guy reborn trope in the light of the bad guy redeemed trope, like maybe Gandalf deserved to get whacked by the Balrog? perhaps it wasn’t humanity that was redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus, but Jesus that was redeemed by getting his ass kicked and coming back penitent and contrite.
the other incredibly common trope is the bad guy turns good but still has to die to atone for what they did, they can’t just chill.
tomboyism is so funny to me. gender non-conformity for girls is acceptable for like two minutes between the ages of 8 and 10. beyond that it’s appalling and you’re a freak but for those two years…… they could’ve had it all
If you go on this site and say something like “I’m broke right now, I’ll have rice instead of steak for dinner” then somebody will come into your notes with the most condescending tone possible and say “EXCUSE ME but rice is FAR more expensive than steak”, and if you disagree with them then they’ll be like “Fancy gourmet rice cooked for you by a professional chef is much more costly than if your parents give you the steak that they won in a raffle” and act like this is a reasonable reading of your original post and they’ve successfully corrected you
“Fancy gourmet rice cooked for you by a professional chef is much more costly than if your parents give you the steak that they won in a raffle”
OP were you briefly possessed by Lemony Snicket to write this sentence
I don’t know what you mean mate, that’s a normal arse sentence?
I can’t articulate why but this sounds like a sentence Lemony Snicket would write
I think it’s because the steak was won in a raffle
Who the fuck is out here raffling off steaks
like if the parents bought the steak at Costco then it might have sounded normal to me but the idea of steak being raffled threw me off so bad
Sorry if this sounds like I’m being an asshole, I swear I’m not I was just thrown
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