#3E-Organized.

[thydungeongal]

Different subject now, but D&D 3e is interesting in its approach to prep because the game explicitly tells you or at least strongly suggests that you should use the party's average character level as a baseline for prepping content and give them a bunch of encounters with a pretty wide range of Encounter Levels. But it also explicitly suggests prepping at least some Overpowering encounters. Encounters that if the party charges blindly into, they will most likely die.

I actually think 3e was kind of cooking with this idea. However. 3e is exactly not the type of game you want to have these types of encounters in unless you have specifically signposted to your players that not all encounters are beatable.

This largely relates to those recent discussions about incentives and how games can basically encourage certain behaviors through their structures. D&D 3e was a pretty massive shift in terms of how the combat rules were structured in the sense that while D&D as a game had always rewarded smart, tactical play, the rules had always been kind of zoomed out (makes sense, because they had their origins in a wargame), D&D 3e was suddenly a very zoomed in, tactically satisfying skirmish game that rewarded tactics on a micro level.

D&D has always been opinionated about combat but D&D 3e made combat the most tactically satisfying part of the game and finally finished what 2e started and basically made combat the thing that granted most XP by the book. So of course now you have a situation where engaging in combat is fun for the players while also rewarding characters with growth.

So you might see how the idea that each adventure have a mandated quota of Overpowering encounters may not be in line with that goal, especially since character creation is now a pretty complex minigame which isn't exactly fun.

I do still think they were kinda cooking. I think there is something to be said for adventure prep where adventures are prepped as basically little theme parks with "you must be this tall this level to ride" written at the door, and with those Overpowering encounters there as a spice, provided they are signposted. Alternately, something similar to 3e in structure but with guardrails to make sure that even if the players end up accidentally sending their characters into an impossible encounter it can always be salvaged with the expenditure of resources or something or other.

And in the context of a sandbox setting consisting of multiple overlapping areas with different encounter levels and locations with their own encounter levels, those Overpowering encounters are no longer just there to be ignored: they're content that can be returned to at later levels. Thus making the world more organic. And I think that's actually really in line with 3e's immersive sim style design.

[thecreaturecodex]

Zap Kraken

Image © Turtle Rock Studios

[Sponsored by Soluman Blevins. The second of the Evolve monsters I've done, other than the warpwraith. Mechanically, the Kraken is interesting, but design wise, it's a little drab. Because it's just a Cthulhu. The lightning bolt wings are a cool touch, but otherwise, it's very much a Cthulhu. And in a game that already has Cthulhu and his star-spawn, I wanted to differentiate it a bit. So I tied it to one of my favorite one-shot weirdo monsters from the 3e era.]

Zap Kraken CR 16 CE Aberration This immense creature has a roughly dinosaur-like body and the head of a colossal cephalopod. A vertical maw stretches between its beard of tentacles, and two large jointed appendages grow from its back and crackle with electricity. Its long tail is segmented like the vertebral column of a great beast.

Zap krakens are rare aberrant creatures that use electrical energy for both offense and mobility. Although they are enormous, they fly with surprising grace by manipulating electricity, essentially creating wings of lightning that hold them aloft. They are remarkably stealthy for their size, and can sneak up on prey from above before dropping to melee or merely blasting away with channeled lightning bolts.

Zap krakens are territorial, and maintain their territory by creating banshee mines, so called for the shriek of their explosions. These mines home in on creatures that get too close, and the zap kraken can also visit them to see what it has seen, similar to a prying eyes spell. Although zap krakens typically view other creatures as prey first and foremost, they have a mutual fondness for zeugalaks. Both species have tentacled maws and an affinity for electricity, and sages speculate that they are related to each other. A zap kraken often views zeugalaks the way a nobleman views their prized hunting hounds, using them to flush out prey or occupy melee combatants. 

Zap Kraken CR 16 XP 76,800 CE Gargantuan aberration Init +7; Senses blindsense 120 ft., darkvision 60 ft., Perception +17

Defense AC 30, touch 14, flat-footed 22 (-4 size, +7 Dex, +1 dodge, +16 natural) hp 225 (18d8+144) Fort +14, Ref +13, Will +15 DR 10/magic; Immune cold, electricity; SR 26

Offense Speed 50 ft., fly 100 ft. (good) Melee 2 claws +18 (2d6+8), tentacles +17 (4d4+8), 2 wings +16 (2d6+4 plus 1d6 electricity) Space 20 ft.; Reach 20 ft. (30 ft. with tentacles) Special Attacks banshee mines, lightning strike, shock pulse

Statistics Str 26, Dex 24, Con 28, Int 11, Wis 19, Cha 19 Base Atk +16; CMB +28; CMD 46 Feats Blind-fight, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Flyby Attack, Hover (B), Mobility, Multiattack, Stand Still, Weapon Focus (claw) Skills Acrobatics +20 (+28 when jumping), Fly +21, Intimidate +17, Perception +17, Stealth +16, Survival +17; Racial Modifiers +8 Stealth Languages Aklo

Ecology Environment warm hills Organization solitary or band (1 plus 1-4 zeugalaks) Treasure standard

Special Abilities Banshee Mines (Su) As a standard action, a zap kraken can create up to three animated mines. Treat these as the eyes generated by the prying eyes spell, only when a creature approaches within 30 feet of them (all creatures or of a type set by the zap kraken on creation), they fly towards that creature and explode. Treat this as a ranged touch attack using the zap kraken’s modifiers (+19 for a typical specimen). If it hits, the creature struck takes 4d6 points of electricity damage and 4d6 points of sonic damage. Whether the mine hits or not, it explodes, dealing this damage in a 5 foot radius (Reflex DC 23 halves). A zap kraken knows when one of its mines has detonated as long as it is within 1 mile of the mine. A zap kraken can create up to nine mines a day, but can have a maximum of three in existence at a time. The save DC is Charisma based. Lightning Strike (Su) As a standard action, a zap kraken can call down a bolt of lightning within 160 feet. It fills a column 60 feet high with a 20 foot radius, dealing 16d8 points of electricity damage to all creatures in the area (Reflex DC 23 halves). A zap kraken can use this ability once every 1d4 rounds. The save DC is Charisma based. Shock Wave (Su) As a standard action, a zap kraken can release an electrical pulse in a 60 foot radius centered on its body. All creatures in the area take 16d4 points of electricity damage and are pushed back 10 feet. A successful DC 27 Reflex save halves the damage and resists the knockback effect. A zap kraken can use this ability every other round. The save DC is Constitution based.  Tentacles (Ex) The tentacles of a zap kraken are treated as a single primary natural weapon

[clockworkdragonffxiv]

I started my D&D campaign back in April of 2020 shortly after the COVID Lockdown hit. I was bored out of my skull and stressed, and a friend had expressed his frustration with his own D&D group and I just went "Fuck it."

I hadn't played DnD since college. I had never GM'd a tabletop game. But I had nothing better to do. So I went on to Discord into, like, the three channels I'm active in and rounded up a gaggle of friends from FFXIV and from my old City of Heroes group. For my starter campaign I used the very first Eberron campaign ever published for I think 3e or 3.5e, converted to 5e, "The Forgotten Forge."

And three and a half years, multiple cases of COVID, two rounds of cancer and chemotherapy, four or five moves, three kidney stones, multiple bouts of depression, and a half dozen job changes, we finally finished the campaign at level 16, having convinced the Lord of Blades to devote his talents to building the new Warforged nation and healing the Mournlands using the unique techno-organic warforged plants and animals we'd discovered, instead of his original plan which was to absorb the power of a Creation Engine and a Demon Overlord into himself, achieve apotheosis, and drown the world in a tide of blood.

My original plan for the final battle has in large underlined letters the phrase "Biblically Accurate Chainsaw Angel" and included a speech with lines like "LET THE SEAS BOIL AND THE SKIES FALL! LET THE WORLD BURN!"

Also probably ending up with the players picking the Red, Blue or Green endings from the End-o-Matic 9000.

But that didn't happen.

So instead, the campaign that started with our little group of heroes stumbling onto the murder of a professor with the clues to a hidden workshop, ended with the wedding of Seeker the Warforged Artificer, the man who'd talked the Lord of Blades down (despite having a Charisma of 8) and now holds the title of Maestro Seeker, is an advisor to the national leadership, and is the teacher of a whole new batch of warforged, and the warforged medic Solace, an NPC whose existence began as a joke about Seeker having a whirlwind romance with a medic in the space of about 23 minutes while the rest of the party were running errands.

Hot damn was that a lot of work. Three and a half years, and despite it starting in modules by the second I'd decided I didn't like the story as it was written, threw it out, and told my own story. Featuring friendly little fire elementals named Phil, packs of extremely patriotic and laddish mimics named Jimmy, an eight foot robotic sweetheart named Friend whose primary weapon was an equally massive tower shield and her totally-not-boyfriend warforged druid/allosaurus/swearasaurus Din, a wrestling match with a hobgoblin that nearly turned lethal when an 18 foot tall warforged titan came in with the steel chair, an alligator with a gun, and banishing the elemental dragon powering a flying battleship while A) the team was still on the battleship and B) it was still several hundred feet in the air and C) it was the only thing keeping it there... it's done.

And it was all worth it. God I love these guys. So here's to you, Katie, Jacquie, Mike, Stan, and Will. I'll see you all next week for our next adventure.

[optiwashere]

I became completely unhinged because of the full version of this art by @forestborg so I had to write about it. It cooked my brain.

This is smutty, smutty smut, but it's also a light exploration of drow trans women as well. Drow culture has always been one of my favorite things about the Forgotten Realms ever since I was a lil DM running my fucked up version of 3E. Combine that with my constant need to trans all the ladies? Yeah.

Really though... this fic is super explicit. I'm adding this to my Kinktober series because I selfishly want that series to say 31/31 some day and this fic definitely belongs.

Rating: E for Exquisite frottage

Category: F/F

Ship: Minthara/Karlach

Tags and AO3 Summary under the break.

Tags: Explicit Sexual Content, Shameless Smut, Smut, Trans Female Character, Trans Karlach, Trans Minthara, Light Dom/sub, Frottage, Come as Lube, Tail Sex, Size Difference, Choking, Breathplay, Drow-typical Gender Hierarchy, Gender Identity, mentions of Minthara/Lae'zel, Inspired by Fanart

Summary:

A vision on the battlefield. A heart warm enough to beat a thousand times too strong for its own good. An axe with a sharp edge, though its haft is unkempt and left to rust. These are the ways Minthara knows Karlach. There is one other way she desires to know her. Or: Minthara and Karlach spend an evening in a tent together.

[the-insomniac-emporium]

SWORDTEMBER '24, DAY 6: ENTANGLING

Item ID: 3E-2406 Item Name: Wiretrap Chainsword Category: A-4/B-6 Origin Point: Kha’xai’tian Sector, Malltaran Owner: Ockterr Delti Nyx (C), Arebisius Vahlen’de Nyx (O) Description: Approximately 75 cm in length, with a 10 cm handle and an attached vacu-container. Flexible tubes are used to transfer collected material into a processing unit, which rapidly breaks down and reuses inorganic material to create wire constructs. These can be deployed as either a tripmine, a net, or multiple can be used as a bola. Any organic material that gets caught is filtered into a separate section for safe disposal. The blade itself functions identically to a long chainsaw. Although the item is primarily intended for construction/demolition, the potential usage as a weapon resulted in its confiscation. It will be held in storage until the intended recipient fills out the required paperwork. WARNING: THIS ITEM HAS A THUMBPRINT LOCK, IF UNINTENTIONALLY ACTIVATED IT WILL ENGAGE SECURITY FEATURES. HANDLE WITH CAUTION. Cataloger’s Notes: Really wish somebody had warned me about those security features, instead of leaving me to figure it out on my own. At least I was able to add a custom warning to the file… Hopefully nobody else will have to deal with that little booby-trap.

-----

Less than ideal. That’s how Cynthia would describe the unfortunate position she’s found herself in today. Somebody had neglected to inform her of a potential hazard, which had been left out of the initial confiscation report, and now she’s stuck dealing with the fallout. More specifically, she’s entangled in wires made of recycled metal. Stuck in her spinny chair, her phone just beyond her reach, with her coworkers currently out at lunch. She had almost gone with them.

Instead she had lost track of time while trying to figure this oddity. Personally, she couldn’t figure out the original purpose of it, or at least she has difficulty aligning it with her own experiences. It’s not until this forced break shifts her frame of mind that she recalls some trivia about the item’s homeworld, Malltaran. Apparently, the planet is famous for mineral growths, which the locals use extensively in their construction. Giant spires of crystal get cut down to be sculpted into new forms. Something like this item, a recycling chainsword (that doesn’t accept organic material) probably makes more sense there.

Maybe. Oh well, she was going to have at least another fifteen minutes to mull over the possibilities before anyone would come rescue her. Then she’d get to give somebody an earful about neglecting safety protocols… after she gets her lunch break, at least.

[good-grade-in-cleric]

A quick breakdown of the hierarchy of the Shaodw Thieves for my own benefit because Forgotten Realms lore loves more than anything else to contradict itself, especially when the CRPGs get involved. The main sources cited below will be Baldur's Gate II (2E, Sep 2000 CE, 1369 DR), Cloak & Dagger (2E, Jun 2000 CE, 1370 DR), and Lords of Darkness (3E, Oct 2001 CE, 1372 DR). For Baldur's Gate II, i am primarily cross-referencing the wiki with my own limited screenshots, so be prepared for some holes there. Hopefully, i can someday replay the game with a focus on getting more information out about these guys and reblog with that additional information, but let's not get ahead of ourselves

I may be a bit obnoxious in how frequently i point to my sources, but that's because my head is spinning looking at my notesheet for this. How did i let them get so disorganized? Oh dear

The general structure of the Shadow Thieves places the Shades at the top of the hierarchy followed by the Cloakmasters then the Guildmasters then the Silhouettes then the Rank and File and Raw Recruits

Bases of Operation

The Shadow Thieves are headquartered in Athkatla, the City of Coin. From 1303 DR to the time of Troubles, their headquarters was the Shadow House (C&D, p103 and 111). Although it no longer functions as the headquarters of the entire organization, it does still act as a decoy headquarters (LoD, p172). The Shadow House is the base of operations for "one part of the organization" (C&D, p104), or "just three of the guilds in Athkatla" (C&D, p111). The true headquarters is explicitly left up to the DM's discretion in Cloak & Dagger, but by 1372 DR, it is confirmed to be a large and well-protected underground complex underneath the Gilded Rose on the opposite side of town from the decoy (LoD, p172)

They also converted a building in Athkatla in 1303 DR into a training complex called Assassin's Run, and Gorion's Ward is able to visit two of their guildhalls in that city (C&D, p103; BGII)

Shades

In the highest tier of the Shadow Thief hierarchy exist the six Shades who have divided their territory amongst them (C&D, p104; LOD, p172). Together, they form the Shade Council (C&D, p104) or the Shadow Council (LoD, p172)

The current Grandmaster of Shadows, the leader of the Shades, is Rhinnom Dannihyr (C&D, p104-105; LoD, p172). Formerly a Guildmaster of Spies in Athkatla, he took over after Bhaal absorbed the life forces of his worshippers during the Time of Troubles and killed the entire Shade Council (C&D, p103). In addition to that, he was Iltarch of Amn's Council of Six which was the highest governing body in the country (C&D, p105). Rhinnom keeps his affiliation with both of these councils secret from the other (C&D, p105). Despite being human, he has lived for over a century but maintains the appearance of youth through magic (it is unclear whether the benefits of this de-aging magic extends past appearance) and is biding his time to push his way through the ranks of the Council of Six (C&D, p105)

As a note, it appears that the Council of Six has been replaced by the far less clandestine Council of Five sometime before 1479 DR, but House Dannihyr still holds a seat on the council (Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, p92)

Another Shade is Rheax Bormul. He rules over either the Alandor Sect (C&D, p105) or the operations in Amn (LoD, p172). This is likely just a matter of semantics between sources considering the Alandor Sect is described as including "Athkatla, Crimmor, Purskul, Keczulla, Amnwater, and northern Amn" (C&D, p105). He hopes to someday take Rhinnom's place as Grandmaster of Shadows (C&D, p105)

The wiki makes mention that Aran Linvail answers to Rheax Bormul, but it cites as its source "the Baldur's Gate novel". This is not something i would normally accept as a source, but i wanted to take a look anyway to see if i could make use of their wording. BG2 was not specified, but in the games, Aran only appears in Shadows of Amn, so i only checked that one. Admittedly, i did not read the entire book, but i did read Abdel receiving the mission to kill Aran Linvail, that fight scene, and when Abdel reports back to Bodhi after killing him as well as some smaller segments here and there. I could not find the source, but whatever. I should have known it would be a fruitless search from how it was cited on the wiki

Cloakmasters

Back to the sources i actually do intend to cross compare, it varies by source how many Cloakmasters answer to each member of the Shadow Council. One source claims that exactly two Cloakmasters serve each Shade for a total of twelve (LoD, p173). The other claims that each Shade has at least two Cloakmasters, with Athkatla alone having ten (C&D, p104 and 106). Every city with a population of 10,000 or more has at least one Cloakmaster as well as another Cloakmaster for the more rural areas around those cities, or a city where many foreigners trade may receive an Cloakmaster for the purpose of facilitating information from said foreigners (C&D, p104)

Due to their close proximity, the Cloakmasters of Athkatla are all careful to respect the authority of their Shade and the Council of Shades (C&D, p106). The Cloakmaster of Athkatla'd Bridge District, Dinnom Baraizal, is especially loyal to Rheax (C&D, p106)

Guildmasters

Every Cloakmaster is served in turn by 10 Guildmasters (C&D, p104; LoD, p173). Whereas the ranks above Guildmasters are defined by geography, the Guildmasters each control a number of smaller guilds within a single speciality (C&D, p104; LoD, p173). Lords of Darkness gives as examples: smuggling, extortion and blackmail, theft and burglary (LoD, p173). Cloak & Dagger presents what seems intended to be a more complete list: "assassins; beggars; bounty hunters; burglars; con artists and tricksters; cutpurses and pickpockets; enforcers and thugs; racketeers; scouts and spies; and fences, smugglers, and pirates" (C&D, p104). These are the middle managers of the guild

Silhouettes

The final noteworthy tier are the Silhouettes. There are dozens of Shadow Thieves who bear this title, but they are all decoys for the true powers within the guild (LoD, p173). They may hire out external groups, guilds, and individuals on a contractual or permanent basis (C&D, p104). They may pose as guildmasters, but in truth they report to and act to obscure the true Guildmasters (LoD, p173)

Sporting a name that makes you question his mother's love, Renal "the Bloodscalp" is a Silhouette of Burglars based in Athkatla who enjoys donning a disguise to join teams on their missions (C&D, p108). Additionally, he hides Aran Linvail in his base of operations, labelled on the map as simply Shadow Thief Guildhall (BGII). Him being as Silhouette also checks out as he is Gorion's Ward's main point of contact for the Shadow Thieves after properly entering the city and before they might conditionally receive an offer to join (BGII)

Oryal Forestal is a Silhouette of Spies based in Athkatla (C&D, p108). He joined at the same time as Renal Bloodscalp, and the two have long been close friends and partners (C&D, p108)

(Cloak & Dagger, p104)

Most information indicates Silhouettes and Guildmasters are two distinct ranks, but the above quote could not be completely ignored. An important piece of additional context for the above quote is that it comes immediately after describing the roles of Guildmasters, blurring the lines between the two. The segue is somewhat unclear as i'm sure the Shadow Thieves prefer, so there are a number of potential interpretations of this. The one that i think is most internally consistent is that, as part of their role as decoy Guildmasters, Silhouettes are only called by their proper title while in private or are even sometimes considered a subgroup of Guildmasters

After all, part of the role of the Silhouette is to be the fall guy for the real powers, and "[o]stensibly they are 'guildmasters,' but in actuality they control nothing and have no authority." (LoD, p173)

Any other interpretations i will leave to the floor as i've got enough going on here already and could make a whole post on that alone

The Rank and File

The average rank and file Shadow Thief is unaware that they are part of the guild structure at all and is largely irrelevant to the goals of this post

Shadowmasters

The Shadowmaster is a rank which i can only find evidence for in Baldur's Gate II. This is a problem. Aran Linvail, chiefly, is identified as a "Shadowmaster" (BGII). Although she is heavily implied to be lying about her rank to lure you into her ambush, the Shadow Thief Ama claims to be the Shadowmaster of eastern Esmeltaran (BGII). While the validity of the claim is highly dubious (if not outright stated to be false in a line i don't remember), we can still glean information from it. Firstly, Shadowmaster is an actual title within the context of BGII. There's no reason to make up a new rank if your goal is to have people believe you. Secondly, this Shadowmaster rank is tied to geography rather than specialization. This means the Shadowmaster is not meant to correlate to a Guildmaster or Silhouette but rather a Cloakmaster or possibly even a Shade. These greater titles are also more accurate to the scale and scope that Aran is implied to be operating at

The wiki states Aran Linvail dies in 1369 DR. This is likely to align with the events of the novelization, but it does technically allow for him to be replaced by Rheax Bormul by the time of Cloak & Dagger if we are to believe he was a Shade. However, the way Rheax is described in Cloak & Dagger lends itself to an image that he has been in the position for some time

I believe Shadowmaster is more likely meant to analogue to Cloakmaster. There are likely multiple Cloakmasters in the city. Additionally, Shadow Thieves generally only know the one superior they report to, those that report to them, and a small number of equals (C&D, p104). While Silhouettes such as Renal Bloodscalp are said to report to Guildmasters, it isn't unreasonable to assume that there is some wiggle room there, and some may report to Cloakmasters instead

Also, it counts for literally nothing, but i'm still holding onto that unsupported line on the wiki about Aran Linvail reporting to Rheax Bormul, which would make him a Cloakmaster

All in all, i will be considering him as a Cloakmaster moving forward

The Ward's Guildhall and What is Going on There?

If one is playing as a Thief in Baldur's Gate II, then they have the option of taking over a Shadow Thief guildhall for their stronghold, but as mentioned, the CRPGS can have a sometimes contentious relationship with the lore books. This leads to the question: if Gorion's Ward accepts the thief stronghold and takes over management of a guildhall, what exactly is their rank?

The obvious answer is that this would make them Guildmaster, but no one loves misdirection quite like a Shadow Thief, so i'm hesitant to accept that off the bat. Also, i would not be who i am today if i did not overthink every inconsequential detail

The key evidence (all sourced from BGII) is as follows:

The Ward's guildhall is labeled as a guildhall, and they are referred to as a guildmaster

This same was true for their predecessor, Mae'Var

Mae'var intended to work his way up the ladder by assassinating Renal Bloodscalp

You report to and pay your quotas to a Silhouette

Your immediate underlings operate a diverse range of specialities*

*(Specifically: house-breaking and safe-cracking; assassination and racketeering; pickpocketing; smuggling; and blackmails and possibly also racketeering again)

Now all of this can be waved aside as the game simplifying and altering the structure for the better gameplay experience for the player, but let's take this at face value

The Ward and Mae'Var are labeled as guildmaster(s) yet report to a Silhouette, the position that most traditionally hires outside aid, even up to permanently contracting entire guilds. They view him as their superior to the point that one of them intended to assassinate him to take his place, but if they are Guildmasters, then he should be reporting to them. Taking his place would be a definite downgrade in both power and security if Mae'Var were truly a Shadow Thief Guildmaster

Why replace Mae'var's guild with more contractors once he's been dealt with? Well simply put, there's power in numbers and money in that power

What of Aran Linvail then? Why would a Cloakmaster show his face to an outside contractor? Because i lied, and he's a Silhouette. The fake title that is not substantiated by any other source is to deploy an illusion of power. He and Renal are operating on multiple layers of nonsensical chicanery

But why would the Shadow Thieves go through all the work of hiring outside help only to disclose who they work for anyway. That's begging for problems. At that point, why not do what they say they're doing and make you an actual Guildmaster? This is all so bizarre and convoluted, even for the Shadow Thieves

Because the job of a Silhouette is to make you think they are a powerful figure in the Shadow Thieves and to take the attention from the actual powers that be

Because fuck you is why

[multidimensional-trashcan]

(particle) physics dashboard simulator

professional-ton follow reblogged 🔄 particl...

➕ professional-ton follow

big L when the top doesn't even last long enough to couple with a bottom

🪦 massivest-quark-deactivated51025

SCATTER YOU AND YOUR DECAYONISM!!! I HOPE YOU'LL NEVER FIND A STABLE NUCLEUS AND MAY THE β-DECAY GET YOU!

➕ professional-ton follow

'never start an argument you know you'll never be able to finish in your lifetime'

- Albert Einstein

#the comment section is full of these freaks #looks like a graveyard in there #at least there's no need for blocking with these types

(22,045 notes)

🏋️‍♂️ giga-chad-particle follow

pussy so good you tunnel right through that coulomb potential

(43 notes)

giga-chad-particle follow reblogged 🔄 neutr...

🟢 neutrinonionionio follow

for someone that can be stopped by a sheet of paper alpha particles are surprisingly full of themsleves

🏋️‍♂️ giga-chad-particle follow

at least im not some fucking WIMP

🟢 neutrinonionionio follow

you do realize that WIMP stands for Weakly Interacting Massive Particle? there isn't even proof they exist. And while im not very massive at all you are a massive buffoon

🏋️‍♂️ giga-chad-particle follow

yuor still fucking WEAK

(578 notes)

📶 scatter-couple-kill follow

They're the cryptids of the particle world and you loved them so much we're bringing them back in a new format! So let's radiate...

#poll #who'd you rather scatter on #scatter couple kill #we'll be back to our usual bullshit soon

(9,084 notes)

physics-strongest-soldier follow reblogged 🔄 e...

⚡ electron-shmelectron follow

i'm sick of this gluonormativity! electromagnetic, weak and gravitational interaction are just as important as strong interaction!!!

⚛️ atomatic-jesus follow

you are right and you should say it

➿ physics-strongest-soldier follow

colour me impressed! an electron all on it's own, how cute... but now go back to your sugardaddy @atomatic-jesus before you hurt yourself okay?

also, gravitational interaction? really? this would be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic.

⚡ electron-shmelectron follow

gravitational interaction holds whole galaxies with planets and stars together! maybe you should inform yourself before you go around annoying people

➿ physics-strongest-soldier follow

omp you're one of those freaks. i cant believe theres still particles out there that believe in something bigger than us. bet you also believe that we all can work together to form some sort of "organism".

honey, you're view of reality is so cracked, maybe you should put some gluon

#thought i had all of those freaks blocked #but im kinda proud of that pun ngl #freaks dni

(129,506 notes)

❌ contron follow

so if proton = pro + ton and neutron = neutral + ton shouldn't the electron actually be called contron?

#polarising ideas by me #contron #electron #proton #neutron

(3 notes)

🌈 wollaston1802 follow

hello 👋 im a bound electron ⚡ looking for a radiant photon ☄️ to excite me 🤭. i prefer a length 📏 of 656.278 nm ♥️, 486.132 nm 🩵 or 434.045 nm 💙 (some of you in the violets and ultraviolets may also do it but please no less than 364.56 nm, last time my sugar daddy got ionized they almost didn't take me back). you can find me in the L-shell 🐚 of the 5,000,000,205th H-atom ⚛️ to your left.

#balmer series #very excitable #find me 😘

(113 notes)

⬇️ a-real-downer follow

some of you really need to reconsider your word choices. using 'positive' to describe good things and 'negative' to describe bad things is sooo plum pudding model times. as someone with negative charge of -1/3e myself i refuse to accept such every-day discrimination manifested in our speech pattern

#actually negative #down quark #negatively charged particles unite!

(73 notes)

photon-with-more-than-211-mev follow reblogged...

🪦 special-relativity-my-love-deactivated2024

thank physics that there are no anti-muons in my vicinity im not ready to meet my antiparticle yet

🪦ordinary-nonrelativity-my-hate-deactivated2024

hi :)

〰️ photon-with-more-than-211-mev (new) follow

*waves at you*

#gotta love pair annihilation

(1.6 Mio notes)

🌀 double-u-double-fun follow

🎶i'm a WEAK interaction FREAK🎶

#this song just rules #everybody should listen to it #bosonic vibrations #check them out #they're great

[xxxdragonfucker69xxx]

The Abyssals crowdfunding campaign closes in about 24 hours.

I did not get to hourinblack all their charms. As penance, I am going to skim just the end of each charmtree, and tell you about the biggest, coolest power of each tree. I am also going to do this for necromancy because i am a necromantic slut.

ARCHERY:

World-Wounding Darkness: Shoot a hole in the world, leaving a black hole that sucks people in. This isn't actually near the end of the tree but it caught my eye and I was like holy fuck.

Heart-Numbing Spike: When you shoot someone, wound their ability to care about things.

Last Days Portent: Shoot out the fucking sun. Kills the lights over the battlefield. If you're being goth about it, kill the lights for miles around.

ATHLETICS

Mountains Become Dust: Physical scale is no longer a limit on feats of scale or destruction.

Light-Killing Stride: Move faster than someone. Didn't ask how fast they moved, you move faster than them.

Temple-Shattering Ruination Curse: Destroy a building to curse the land, making it shadowy and blighted and supernaturally scary. if you were being intense about it, it becomes an abyssal demesne, a permanent upwelling of goth energy

AWARENESS

All-Seeing Overlord's Lair: Extend your senses throughout your stronghold, you can't be surprised inside and your ghostly sentinels (you know, the wraiths you cast to patrol for you) can roam throughout

Morbid Inspiration Witness: Find inspiration in " the morbid, the eerie, or the darkly beautiful: an albatross dropping dead in flight, three  black cats crossing the same street in sequence, lightning striking a distant temple." That inspiration grants you bonuses on various projects, and also makes you care deeply about it. This is enhanced by further charms like Fervent Caprice Fever and Unrelenting Obsession Genius

Piercing Gaze of the Unmaker: Pick a place within, like 20 miles. You see it like it's your lair and you're there. Or maybe you want to cast your gaze on your rival instead? they are going to feel a crawling sensation up their spine from your gaze through <3

BRAWL

Illustrative Overkill Technique: When you kill or incapacitate a guy, it's so fucked up you can use it to threaten anyone else. Or like blow up a building or whatever

Explosive Gore Eulogy (!!): When you do that ^ you can also use their corpse as a weapon. Jesus christ.

Life-Annihilating Castigation: Pyreflame your attack and multiply (!!) damage by your opponent's wound penalty. If you get their ass they explode with pyreflame from within, and if it kills them their ghost burns up on the spot

Void Avatar Embodiment: Now with 0% prana! Envelop yourself in the void, dealing aggravated damage on touch and withering ranged attacks away. Also you're as close to death as you want to be <3

BUREAUCRACY

Hateful Scorn Panopticon: when you use Accursed Overlord Authority to inspire hatred in your followers, you can sense when any of them encounter your enemy, and where.

Rotting Palace Proclamation: Reveal that you embedded a traitor in a rival organization. Or was it someone we knew all along?

Iron Tyrant Reign: When you do that Accursed Overlord thing, if it's a Defining Principle you can carve it into the world as an Old Law: everyone who hears or reads it must follow, words bleed through coverings or hover like fire in the air, the mindless dead automatically obey

Suffer No Betrayal: When you do the Panopticon, you can also count people who've broken your laws as enemies. You can immediately gain Defining Hatred... and possibly carve that as an old law with Iron Tyrant Reign? That isn't in the charm im just reading between the lines

CRAFT

Malicious Mechanism Mastery: Jesus this one is a cartoon supervillain bit. Reveal that an enemy has stumbled into your trap! If it's a corpse-based trap, it's worse!

Fivefold Malice Curse: Lay a curse on something you make, for instance if its bearer breaks an oath or acts against one of your principles. and if they trigger the curse they get blasted by your Bleak Expiations, aka Abyssal Limit Break aka You Cannot Escape The Goth

Soul-Tarnishing Treasure: Instead of an overt curse you can cause it to inspire vice, a sword demanding bloodshed or a chalice inspiring drink. You can't be totally free of this unless you give the object up

Drawn to Death's Beauty: When you use Magnificent Cenotaph Allure to imbue something with emotion, you can also fill it with the mesmerizing lure of death, so that people wander towards it like a will o wisp and cant look away

Betrayal-Spurring Gifts: Annatar their shit socially if you've given them something you've made. &btw cursing that shit is free

DODGE

Hanging Shrike Focus: Dodge up into the air and float back down, or fall on your enemies maybe

Queen of Killers Pirouette (!!): dodge so good you turn it back on them, like fucking zelda's neutral-B in smash

Tenebrous Cloud Dissolution: DRACULA FOG its fucking dracula fog

Breath-Seizing Mist: Hey how would you like it if dracula fog was inside your lungs

Icy Sepulcher Entombment: When you cause someone to despair at hitting you the ice literally grows around your heart and then freezes them over. The freezing stuff is actually pretty early in the tree but this is setup for

In Awful Glory Crowned: When you bring them to despair with Frozen Fears Blossom you can also drain their Willpower, and if you drain it all they become obedient to you. Unless they're unimportant in which case they might just fall over dead, turn into a ghost, and then be obedient to you

INTEGRITY

Freedom In Chains: If forced to act against death's chivalry or your principles, brood about it, then break free

Clarity in Hatred: Shaping defense if you're mad enough

Immortal Malevolence: If you've enshrined an intimacy with Eternal Enmity Approach, you can care so much that you simply do not die. Wake up the next sunset completely healed, but you can't use that intimacy again

INVESTIGATION

Heart-Haunting Condemnation: Scrooge a bitch. Nightmares and omens reinforce your accusations.

Bleak Justice Malediction: If your victim of the above draws on Ties to resist giving in to your accusations, the haunting spreads to those people and things too. If they die they haunt your victim. You can fully Book Of Job somebody here.

Omniscient Spymaster's Web. Know something. Your people told you. You think anyone can keep a secret from you?

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Proba-3 will constantly measure Sun's energy output

Proba-3 is such an ambitious mission that it needs more than one single spacecraft to succeed. In order for Proba-3's Coronagraph spacecraft observe the sun's faint surrounding atmosphere, its disk-bearing Occulter spacecraft must block out the fiery solar disk. This means Proba-3's Occulter ends up facing the sun continuously, making it a valuable platform for science in its own right.

The sunward side of the Occulter therefore hosts a dedicated instrument that will maintain a continuous measurement of the sun's total energy output, known as the total solar irradiance, which is a essential variable for climate studies.

The shoebox-sized Davos Absolute Radiometer, DARA, has been supplied to the mission by the Physical Meteorological Observatory Davos, PMOD, in Switzerland.

"Researchers used to talk about the 'solar constant' but in fact it is always changing slightly," explains Wolfgang Finsterle, DARA Principal Investigator at PMOD. "And it's essential to keep track of the total solar irradiance, because it is the dominant energy input to the surface of the Earth.

"It amounts to something like 99.978% of the energy available on Earth, including the conserved solar energy stored in coal and oil. It drives all the dynamic processes of Earth's climate, so even the tiniest variations are hugely significant."

The mountain-based PMOD has been studying total solar irradiance for more than a century, initially with ground-based instruments and then from the 1970s deploying space-based radiometers to acquire a continuous dataset. The World Meteorological Organization has mandated PMOD as the World Radiation Centre to calibrate radiation measurements across global UN monitoring programs.

Wolfgang adds, "Total solar irradiance varies along with the 11-year cycle of solar activity, and one of the most obvious ways to look for long-term energy drift is to compare total solar irradiance between consecutive solar minimia.

"This requires a long time-series of data, ideally coming from multiple instruments because single radiometers will undergo degradation in sensitivity from the hard ultraviolet in the sun's rays they are continuously exposed to. That said any degradation is very gradual: the radiometer aboard the ESA-NASA SOHO solar observatory for instance, which was launched in back 1995, is still working satisfactorily."

DARA's basic operating principle is simple. The radiometer possesses a 5-mm diameter cavity made from black-painted silver, possessing low temperature emissivity. For 15 seconds at a time, sunlight warms the interior of the cavity, then a shutter blade automatically closes at its entrance.

For the next 15 seconds, electric heat maintains the cavity's previous temperature—and the energy needed to maintain this temperature is extrapolated to the unit of total solar irradiance, which is watts per meter squared.

This process continues for the entire lifetime of the instrument—the actuated shutter design employed in DARA has been tested for millions of openings and closings in PMOD's vacuum chamber.

"DARA is an improvement on previous radiometer designs with an optimized cavity design to minimize unwanted straylight and a multi-channel measuring system for self-calibration," adds Wolfgang. "This generation of instrument also possesses a fully digital control loop, allowing the possibility of experimenting with higher frequency observations.

Two versions of this radiometer design have already flown, notes Werner Schmutz of PMOD, who oversaw its development: "A compact version called CLARA flew on Noway's NorSat-1 CubeSat in 2017, remaining operational to this day, while a previous DARA is serving aboard the Chinese FY-3E weather satellite, launched in 2021. So we have high confidence in the design, which can operate whenever the Proba-3 Occulter is pointed at the sun within half a degree of accuracy."

The main difference between Proba-3's DARA and previous radiometers will be its very elongated orbit, which will carry it 60 000 km above Earth's surface. DARA can automatically adjust to slight changes in the size of the solar disk based on how far it is away—which are also due to Earth's yearly elliptical orbit around the sun. All the radiometer needs to know is its position in space and its data gathering compensates for the shift.

[bethanythebogwitch]

Bee people in my D&D world

The Abeil are an obscure race of bee people from D&D 3e that I decided to make playable in my world and give some worldbuilding and lore expansion to. Stats at the bottom.

The Abeil line in the continent of Rakada, which was originally part of its own planet before a magical catastrophe ripped a piece of it off of its world and deposited on my main campaign world. The piece that ended up on my world, the Lost World of Alvestra, is only a fragment of the original Rakada, whose fate remains unknown. The region of Rakada the Abeil originate from is known in Rakadan as N’Zar NiTotalu-i (N'Zar = land, Totalu = bones, i as a suffix = people, also seen in the Tabaxi (cat people) and Tlincalli (scorpion people), and Ni as a prefix = without) and in common as the Land of the Boneless People, for its primary occupants are the Abeil and the Kreen, both of which have exoskeletons instead of endoskeletons.

The Abeil mostly inhabit the outskirts of the Land of the Boneless People where rain is abundant, massive flowers grow, and the mighty wasp dragons dwell. They avoid the arid interior of the region, which is inhospitable to them and the homeland of the Kreen. An abeil resembles a humanoid bee, with a very human or elf-like upper body and face (though their eyes are compound and they have antennae). Their lower bodies are much more insect-like, with four narrow legs and a curved, flexible abdomen that ends in a venomous stinger. Two pairs of translucent wings emerge from their upper backs and their hand have three fingers and a thumb. The wings allow flight and can produce a droning noise that triggers drowsiness and unconsciousness in those that hear it.

Abeil are innately social beings, even moreso than other sapient species. While a human or tabaxi could shun company and go become a lone wolf, the Abeil are so innately social that being alone is extremely stressful to them. Lone Abeil will instinctively seek company and become highly attached to whoever they find. They are also biologically programmed to place the needs of the group over the needs of the individual. This is not to say that individualism is shunned, it is just a secondary priority to the health of the group. There are Abeil artists, Abeil games, and other things that do not directly contribute to the survival of the group, they are just not as heavily emphasized as in the societies of other species. Abeil are raised to understand that they are all part of the whole that is the community and everyone needs to support each other. Abeil build hive cities with hexagonal districts organized by what purpose they serve. These cities can be very difficult to navigate for members of flightless species, so there is usually at least one district built for trade and diplomacy with outsiders that is built accordingly. Smaller outlying communities such as farming or mining villages help support the cities. Trade with the other residents of Rakada (and more recently, Alvestra) is common. As with the other inhabitants of the Land of the Boneless People, Abeil tame and domesticate native massive bugs, using huge beetles as beasts of burden, dragonflies as mounts, and cat-sized isopods as pets.

Like the bees they resemble, Abeil have distinct castes: queens, soldiers, and vassals. Queens are always female, but soldiers and vassals may be of either sex. Queens are also not the only Abeil to reproduce, all Abeil can. An individual hive city will usually have one queen, with 1/3rd of the population being soldiers and the rest being vassals. The primary visual difference is that soldiers stand about about a head taller than queens, who stand about half a head taller than vassals. Queens act as the spiritual and authoritative leaders of their hive cities, usually with a council of advisors from the other sects. Soldiers are bred to take up martial roles as the warriors that defend the hive and scout out into unclaimed territory. Vassals fill all other roles, from laborers to traders to artists to scholars to clergy and everything in between.

Abeil are born as larvae who hatch from eggs. All larvae will grow into vassals unless fed a special diet. Abeil larvae are raised communally in nurseries and spend about a year as large grubs before pupating and emerging six months later as a young adult. The tenders of the nurseries will select the largest and most aggressive larvae to be fed the diet to become soldiers. When they finish pupating, the young Abeil are sent off to learn the tools of their future profession based on their temperament and the hive's needs. For example, an inquisitive Abeil may be sent to become a scholar and if their is a shortage of farmers, young Abeil will be sent to fill those ranks. There is usually only one queen, but if a hive city is growing too large, new queens will be raised and sent out with a portion of the population to found a new hive city elsewhere. If new queens are needed, the current queen (or council of advisors if the queen dies) will visit the nursery and take the most promising larva with them back to the palace. This larva will be fed a special diet of royal jelly that triggers maturation into a queen. This young queen will then be trained by the current queen or advisors in the skilled needed to become a leader.

As with most of the sapient species of Rakada, the Abeil claim to have been created by one of the divine Animal Lords, the Bee Lord in their case. As with the other Animal Lords, the bee lord has many aspects or masks, each of which can be thought of as its own god while also being part of the greater whole. The Abeil worship the various masks of the Bee Lord, with the most widely-worshiped one being known as the Queen of Queens, the Lawful Neutral mask of order, leadership, and society.

The Abeil are generally expansionist and their hive cities can be found in most of the wetter, coastal regions of the Land of the Boneless People. Attempts to expand into the arid inner regions of the region have mostly been thwarted by the native Kreen, leading to a great deal of animosity between the races. So far, political infighting between hive cities and the threat of retaliation by Thri- and Tohr-Kreen have prevented attempts to expand hive cities into the southern Tabaxi lands, but this state of affairs may not last long. There is no central government for the Abeil, each hive city acts as an independent, self-governing city-state. Relations between the hive cities are complex, with rivalries and alliances. In addition, hives may form alliances or trade agreements with the Tabaxi to the south or (in more recent years) Alvestrans. In particular, Abeil-produced honey is considered a delicacy in Tabaxi lands and fetches a high price.

Homebrew Abeil race stats for 5e (note: this has not been playtested)

ASI: +2, +1 or +1, +1, +1

Size: medium

Speed: 30 ft. Have a flying speed equal to walking speed, but cannot use this speed if wearing medium or heavy armor

Languages: common and 1 other

Sting: you have a stinger which counts as a natural weapon with the finesse property with which you are proficient. When you make an unarmed attack, you can choose to deal 1D4 piercing damage. When you successfully attack a creature with your stinger, you can force them to make a constitution saving throw with a DC equal to 11 + your proficiency modifier. On a failure, the creature takes 2d8 poison damage and is poisoned until the end of your next turn. On a success, the creature takes half damage and is not poisoned. You may use this ability a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all uses when you finish a long rest.

Drone: you can use your wings to create a horrible, droning noise that can lull creatures who hear it into a deep sleep. As an action, you can force every creature within a 15 ft sphere centered on yourself that can hear you to make a wisdom saving throw (DC 11 + your proficiency modifier). Any creature that fails this check falls asleep for one hour or until they take damage or another creature takes its action to rouse them. Once you use this feature you may not use it again until you take a long rest. 

Caste: Abeil are born into one of three castes, which shape their physical features. When you choose this race, pick one of the following options:

Vassal: you gain proficiency with one set of artisans tools of your choice and one skill proficiency of your choice, picking from history, religion, medicine, or persuasion. 

Soldier: you gain proficiency in one weapon or set of armor of your choice and one skill proficiency of your choice, picking from athletics, acrobatics, survival, or medicine.

Queen: you gain proficiency in one weapon or set of tools of your choice and one skill of your choice, picking from history, persuasion, intimidation, or deception.

[chronotsr]

No. 6 - D3, Vault of the Drow (August 1978)

Author(s): Gary Gygax Artist(s): David C. Sutherland III (Cover), David A. Trampier Level range: Average of 10, preferably party size 7+ players Theme: Underground exploration Major re-releases: GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders; Dragon #298 and #300 (kind of), Drow of the Underdark (even less so)

Fuck I love old module covers. Again the later revision (the blue one) changes the art to be less gloriously trash, which is a shame. The cartoony sketch era is not long for this world, C1 (Tamoachan) represents a pretty noticeable change in art style towards the kind of THIN YOUR PAINTS looking characters in color. We have another year of modules before they make the art less silly.

In re-release news, again we get a very lightly altered treatment in GDQ Queen of the Spiders. Less well known though is a section in Dragon #298 (immediately after Paizo took over) on the Vault of the Drow, although it is…almost entirely setting material, which makes it actually somewhat faithful to D3. What makes it unfaithful to D3 is that it takes place after the events of 1e/2e DND and doesn't contain any of the pre-Vault materials of D3 or the Egg of Lolth section.

Drow of the Underdark is a similar situation, but curiously uses totally distinct materials (like yet another map of the city), but contains even less information about the non-city parts of the Vault. Still, it's interesting seeing 3e-style treatments of D3, and if nothing else it gives you some damn visuals of what Erelhei-Cinlu actually looks like.

The module starts with a recap, and also a brief note as to how to get to the titular Vault of the Drow. Apparently you are now avowed nemeses to Drow, despite plenty of routes to the contrary. We'll also find out later that we're actually enemies to only one bloc of Erehlei-Cinlu Drow. We get the same list of warnings as the previous 2 modules, which themselves contained a lot of warnings from the G series, so this is our 6th time reading some of these bulletpoints. Strangely, apparently "because of the chaotic nature of the dark elves", active raiding parts of the town won't rouse organized resistance to the party, Light spells don't work right here (they go dark and brownish), and Drow resent even the slightest natural-ish light. The upshot is that you can get away with a lot of bullshit.

Our random encounter tables have been updated to reflect being past the main Depths foes of kuo-toa and the like, it's mostly Drows and monsters from this point on. Well, and undead. And bugbears. And trogs. And trolls. And slaves, of course. So mostly just that Kuo-Toa are gone? Svirfneblin are listed with the random encounters despite not actually being on the random encounter list? Anyway.

We have a few canned encounters.

The first one is, suspiciously similar to the Drow checkpoint in D1. It's basically the same. I'm not going to cover it again, it's just the D1 checkpoint but with the weird Battle of the Sexes angle removed.

The second one is a bizarre encounter -- a succubus is pretending to be a statue, a Drow vampire is glamored to look like a songbird, and the whole cavern is glamored to look like a beautiful grove. The vampire is, obviously, named Belugos, because fuck it why not name the vampire Bela Lugosi? They're gonna do their level best to make the players turn around without fighting, but the odds of the whole party failing the charm person AND not finding this suspicious is 0%. Their mesmerized gnome servant completes the Dracula reference.

It's passingly mentioned in their treasure notes that, Bela Lugosi lead-lined a box to hide magic items from magic detection. So that's our newest data point in the "we have to have rational explanations for magic" series.

I guess she always goes nude. She's also nude on the revised edition back cover, which I'm sure got someone in trouble with their parents in 1985. This is one of your two possible routes into the Vault, by the way.

The other way is through a giant spider trap. The only thing of note is the idol of Lolth you can find that gives you a variety of neat powers (but slowly turns you into a giant spider).

In the vault proper, we have some fun special qualities. Everything is simply a different color here, for starters -- modified by your vision type. The ceiling is literally a kind of radioactive parody of the heavens, complete with "stars" and "moons" being played by particular types of rocks and lichens. Everything's got a vague red hue, except the roads which are enchanted to be lightly blue to drowish eyes -- that's what those magical glasses from a few modules ago do, they help you see drow-enchanted markers.

The place is lit with growing shrooms, for all the light that'll give you. A lot of the random encounters give us little glimpses into drowish life, from the lumberjacks clearing fungi for food, leather, et c., to drow nobles on a hunting party, to merchants feuding, to kuo-toan spies lurking in the river.. A good amount of love went into these tables, which I really wish was the norm. "There are bugbears, they have these items and this leader" is a pretty lame encounter good only for punishing slow moving. That being said, this adventure loosely implies Bugbears are Polish? What?

D3 is actually super sparse on artwork, and this is the best one we're going to get all module. This is the Black Tower, which overwatches a chokepoint to everywhere in and out of the Vault. If you have a drowish medallion, you can just saunter on in, enjoy your Evil Elf TSA checkpoint experience, then go about your business in the Vault. The medallions are coded by noble/merchant house, which means that your party just automatically became affiliated in a highly partisan city! Woe betide you, sucker that approached the tower openly hostile, cus they're guarding it with the GDQ series' perennial favorite: hand ballistae, and if you linger around the tower when the alarm goes off Gary straight up tells you to declare Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies because 300 drow troopss show up. Very cool, Gary!

So this is when D3 gets Complicated.

The best part of the Drow are is how much they plot. The worst part of the Drow is how much work that plotting is to run. 24 different families are all circling around each other, looking for weaknesses, allying and warring with one another. I think you would literally need multiple relationship maps to keep them all straight. The above list is actually only about two-thirds of the total relationships between houses, the rest come later with the noble house keys.

So, this tiny picture is the only visual we get of Erelhei-Cinlu. Well, that sucks. OK, well, let's presume you don't go in through the front gate, because that's obviously suicide, what then?

I'm sorry, what? The doors automatically sense your race and summon a demon with no ability to disarm? Fuck off, Gary. You have to go through the Black Tower. You have to get a medallion. You have to go through the Front Gate. You have to fight Lolth instead of the Elder Elemental God. Fine, I go through the front door.

E-C's description is exhausting to read because it's one of those times Gary just vents his orientalist, misogynist biases. Women are in charge? The men aren't buff?? There's sex workers??? Get me my fainting couch!

A lot of ink is spilled on the treatment of slaves, half-drow, non-drow, et c. Tragically the actual appearance of the city is not commented on very much beyond "it's very mazey" and "it's dark". E-C is perpetually 5 seconds from collapse at all times, but also hilariously stable. RIP to anyone dumb enough to rebel here.

Understandable.

E-C's section is a fairly rote "city that sucks" so let's move on.

Ah, the Noble Houses section. There is no way to put this gently, so let's rip the bandaid off. This is so much information that it's overwhelming (8 noble house houses with equipped npcs, special magic items, motivations, room counts, et c.) but also so little information about each individual house that you're going to have to heavily homebrew huge chunks of content.

For example, the first listed House is Tormtor. We know they're:

Rank 7 in the Nobility Hierarchy

They've bought off the head of the Male Fighters' Society.

Allied with Eliservs House, the unnamed Prism and Chain Clans, & indirectly to the unnamed Coiled Whip, Bars, Star, and Bone clans

They on the up and therefore unpopular with the other nobles

Have 6 unnamed nobles ruling the house

Have 6 named and 7 unnamed magic items.

But…what is special about this house? Why are they so ahead? What does their palace look like? Why would you go to it? How could you possibly interact with the alliance and enemy system, as a non-drow?

These descriptions are just not useful, and by the time you have written out enough information on all 24 families you have made the actual module into a footnote. Those later write-ups of E-C can't save you either, because the timeline advanced.

By reading the whole thing and taking notes you reveal that there are two blocs (the Tormtor-Eilservs bloc and the Despana-Kilsek-Noquarto bloc) and a handful of neutrals waiting for a clear winner to back.

The Eliservs are the first rank house, headed by Eclavdra, and their big plot was pivoting from Lolth worship to Elder Elemental God worship because the Lolth priestesshood didn't back Eclavdra's claim for Queenship. Remember Eclavdra? The text explicitly says that if she died in G3 she was cloned (eyeroll) by her consort. Why organize the events of the G series? To get more EEG converts and attain Queenship. An extremely risky plan that we will discover in T1-2 and A1-4 is more plotholes than plot.

Like,

Eclavdra's house is about to fall before you showed up.

She's in charge of the Giants

Eclavdra's fall would signal an end to the Giant incursions

There is no longer a reason to deal with the Giants

There is no longer a reason to deal with the Drow

There was no reason to do any of this

The EEG temple is actually the one from G3, so you've even already punished the Drow before D1 even started! And also, how exactly is that possible? The route to the G3 temple and the route to D1 are 51 miles apart?

I have read quite a few suggestions on how to un-fuck GDQ, and my personal preference is this:

Flip every House's religions, EEG to Lolth and vice-veras

The Giant plot is Lolth's, and Eclavdra's sister is acting for her

Regardless of G1-3, Eclavdra is about to win the secret war for Queenship via the Lolth cult.

A unified Erelhei-Cinlu is a threat and must be stopped

Anyway, having now shredded the politics in here, we move onto the dungeon-dungeon.

First, the Egg of Lolth, which is the broader Lolth zone in Erelhei-Cinlu. Yada yada yada spider sacrifices, orgies, et c. It's all very rote. The head priestess of the lesser temple (not the greater temple!) has a lot of money but not so much magical items -- a weird quirk of D1-3 is that there are basically no magical weapons, so your fighter is probably livid by now. Then, we enter the Great Fane of Lolth, which is to say the greater temple. And we will go into keyed mode:

The temple itself is pagoda-themed, in case you haven't guessed that the Drow are supposed to be vaguely China-themed yet. Naturally trying to climb around and not dungeoncrawl properly promptly punishes you by being suddenly attacked by a giant pile of gargoyles and shadows.

Every depiction of Lolth, even from this second-release copy I'm using, is just….truly sad. Why was "monster but animal head" so common for so long? It's not scary or weird or funny, it's just lame?

The walls are decorated with fake halloween spiderwebs, so this whole place feels like Spirit Halloween. The actual Fane itself is weirdly empty?

Like an evil confessional, all the council chambers have secret spying rooms.

You run into a fake Lolth illusion who pranks the party, which is really not helping the Spirit Halloween vibes

If you walk into a painting of the Demonweb Pits, you just instantly die (or skip directly to Q1 if your GM hates you -- general consensus is that Q1 is bad and that you should just use the pre-planned D3 version of the Lolth fight)

Finally, as you enter the dungeon part of the dungeon (which is actually pretty small by late-game dungeon standards), there is a passive fear aura and all the spiderwebs are now made of onyx and silver, which means your party is going to have a field day with the chisel.

To my great shock and happiness, there is a drow dissident here! And he's good! And won't backstab you! He is neutrally aligned and wants to reform drow society. Good for him! There's a messed up enchanted silver cage which essentially magically webs a victim in a sort of metaphorical representation of a true spider enwebbing their prey. It's a cool visual!

Lolth just kind of, hangs out in room D5. She isn't doing anything. If you kill her, she drops an egg with plot items for Q1, and geases you to walk through that one painting. No save, of course. Lolth herself is a "hard to hit, high resistances, low HP" affair, but also she can heal herself for 50% three times a day, so she is triple dipping on difficulty (in this biz we call this "deeply unsportsmanlike" but I'll give a pass for a demon queen being bullshit)

There's no real reason to go up. Lolth is down and you have no reason to believe good shit should be up, but if you do anyway you will find a variety of random people wandering around with magical goodies, like the high priestess and the commander. It's implied the priestess has been fucking a demon?

Your taste is a lot different than mine, ma'am.

Naturally the treasure room for the fane is hilariously trapped in like three different ways, including with permanent dust of disappearance. Inexplicably, there is a talisman of lawfulness that, if combined with some diamonds, tells you how to reach Lolth. Why was there a talisman of lawfulness in the treasury? Why does it tell you how to get to the demonweb pits? Why does it write in drowish runes?

Finally, you find a wharf with a boat in it. It's trapped with the previously mentioned sentient statue, but hey -- you now have a galley that you can only use on the Pitchy Flow, Svartjet, and Sunless Sea (in an unexplained way). Good luck with the 66 ghouls, 6 ghosts, and type 2 demon!

That's, that's it? Again, D3 reads like a tiny setting book larping with an obligatory dungeon at the end. The Fane is the blandest dungeon thusfar, and G2 was already pretty lame. Still, it is not lost on me that you could form an entire campaign in the Vault's materials, and it might even be good if you relax the "Drow are ontologically evil" quite a bit and allow your party into the factional fighting.

Next time, Tomb of Horrors! Possibly the most over-discussed module is actually a quite early one. See you then!

[thecreaturecodex]

Herexen

Image © Paizo Publishing, accessed at Archives of Nethys here

[As part of PF2e's divesting from the OGL, a number of classic monsters inherited from the 3e Monster Manual and the Tome of Horrors have undergone some branding changes. Ankhegs are ankhravs, treants are arboreals, kytons are velstracs. And huecuvas are now herexens. The name "huecuva" was taken from Mapuche mythology, but the actual entity has nothing to do with undead clerics. And the mechanics of the D&D/PF1e huecuva are a remnant of a Gygaxian-era gotcha encounter--what looked like a kindly cleric infected you with disease by touch--and is weirdly low-intelligence. So I welcome this change to both name and mechanics wholeheartedly.]

Herexen CR 2 NE Undead This person is clearly dead, with rotting skin and half-missing facial features. It wears a holy symbol around its neck, but its talisman has been clearly defaced.

When a cleric forsakes their god before dying, their body may rise again as an undead heretic known as a herexen. Herexens hate the god they once worshipped, and go out of their way to desecrate holy spaces, interrupt festivals and slay adherents of the faith. They may attract necromancers or death cultists with their activities, and some even continue to advance as clerics, albeit turning to the worship of some demon lord, god of undeath or similar fell power. Herexens may be found as lone predators, or gathered together into parodies of worshipful congregations. In numbers, herexens often engage in cruel parodies of liturgical ceremonies.

A herexen focuses its attacks on divine spellcasters, especially those that worship the god that they once did. A formerly sacred weapon in their hands becomes a tool against all servants of the divine. Herexens are capable of using some clerical magic, thematically similar to that of the god they once followed. They can also inflict negative energy with a touch, which they use to both harm others and to heal themselves or any undead they may have allied with. When slain, a herexen explodes in a burst of negative energy.

Herexen                                CR 2 XP 600 NE Medium undead Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +9 Defense AC 14, touch 12, flat-footed 12 (+2 Dex, +2 natural) hp 18 (2d8+9) Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +7 Immune undead traits Offense Speed 30 ft. Melee slam +3 (1d4+3) or masterwork dagger +4 (1d4+2 plus blasphemous strike) Special Abilities death throes Spell-like Abilities CL 2nd, concentration +5 7/day—bleeding touch (1 round) 3/day—inflict light wounds (DC 14) 1/day—cause fear (DC 14) Statistics Str 14, Dex 15, Con -, Int 11, Wis18, Cha 17 Base Atk +1; CMB +3; CMD 15 Feats Toughness Skills Disguise +8, Knowledge (religion) +9, Perception +9, Stealth +7; Racial Modifiers +4 Knowledge (religion) Languages Common, Necril SQ blasphemous focus (Death domain, dagger) Ecology Environment any Organization solitary, pair or congregation (3-12) Treasure standard (defiled holy symbol, masterwork dagger, other treasure) Special Abilities Blasphemous Focus (Ex) All herexens are tied to the god that they worshiped and abandoned in life. This grants them access to a single domain or subdomain of their god (aside from the Good or Healing domains), from which they can use the 1st level granted powers as a 2nd level cleric, and can use the 1st level domain spell as a spell-like ability 1/day. A herexen loses these abilities if it is not carrying or wearing a defiled holy symbol of that god. A herexen also gains proficiency with that god’s favored weapon. Blasphemous Strike (Su) When wielding the favored weapon of its former god, a herexen deals an additional 1d6 points of damage against extraplanar outsiders or creatures capable of casting divine spells. Its blasphemous strike counts as evil for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction. Death Throes (Su) When a herexen dies, it explodes in a burst of negative energy, dealing 1d6 points of negative energy damage to all creatures in a 30 foot radius (Will DC 14 halves). The save DC is Charisma based.

[ponyregrets]

"This isn't my apartment," Buck says, like maybe the guy doesn't know.

"I sure hope not."

Buck checks the number, just to be sure; he's in 3E, and this is 3B. He rubs his face, his palm catching on stubble. It's the second of the month, isn't it? This guy must have moved in yesterday and brought a ghost with him, and Buck's feet just assumed he'd want to deal with that now.

"I'm really sorry, man. I'm a probationary firefighter and I just finished my first forty-eight hour shift. I'm lucky I made it to the right building."

"You sure about that?"

"Like ninety percent."

The guy cocks his head at Buck, a small frown creasing his handsome features. He's handsome, right? He seems really handsome. "Is your name Evan?"

"Uh, yeah. Did you get some of my mail? I'm in 3E, so they probably look kind of similar."

"I think you exorcized my grandfather. El Paso, 2007."

[kolikei]

As the writer of “ 2:53 A.M. on a stormy night “ I think I should post my Hyperlaser with prosthetics headcanon

So here it is ( ignore the half assed body, the post is abt legs not body )

Here’s the fic if you’re interested in reading : https://archiveofourown.org/works/49550122%22%3E