#Design Beast bonuses

[theresattrpgforthat]

Thinking about solo or GM-less games, I found myself wondering if there are any TTRPGs that are sort of like Vampire Survivors, or that genre of run-based autoshooters where you collect semi-random power-ups/weapons and face off against hordes of enemies and work to level up/evolve the powers/weapons that you have. It's maybe a bit specific, but do you know of any games like that, or with systems similar to that?

THEME: Vampire Survivors.

Hello friend,

I tried to learn a little bit about Vampire Survivors, but I'll be fairly candid here when I say I'm not sure if I nailed this assignment or not.

Vampire Survivors appears to be a rogue-like shoot-em-up game with special abilities and bonuses applied to your character using upgrades acquired by opening chests.

I tried to spread as wide a net as possible, so I hope you still find something that suits your tastes!

Blister Critters, by stillfleet.

Take the reins of radiation-blasted animals known as Critters starring in an eco-apocalyptic Saturday-morning cartoon show in this goofy and exciting tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) from Odd Gob Games and the Stillfleet Studio!

Using the innovative Grit System, Blister Critters drops players into a bizarre post-human world of Blisters (mutations), physics-bending Nonsense powers, dangerous feral Beasts, and a near-infinite amount of human Stuff.

Blister Critters is all about getting new stuff, but Stuff in this game is a rather broad category. This includes loot that is mechanically helpful, or loot that is more descriptive, and adds interesting flavor to the world. I think post-apocalyptic games in general can have a lot of fun narrative flavor added just through the gear you can pick up.

That being said, the most common benefits Stuff can give you is either additional damage, or additional protection from damage, so that tells me this is a fairly combat-friendly game. The design aesthetic is also so inspirational, and I think you could get a lot of fun ideas just flipping through this game.

Escape from Hades, by only1marek.

Escape From Hades is a roleplaying game inspired by Hades from Supergiant games which uses a card-based twist on the LUMEN system kit. This game follows the escape attempt of Condemned trying to ascend through the underworld in opposition of its Master.

Condemned players are the could-have-beens of Greek myth, favored for greatness by the Gods but condemned to obscurity by Fate; a warrior who trained under Achilles but died of plague before seeing battle, or an oracle who learned the secrets of Delphi just as prophecy was deemed forbidden.

The Master player holds Hades’ authority, and is divinely charged with deploying the hordes of the underworld's greatest soldiers, criminals, heretics, beasts and monsters to stymie the Condemned's escape from their assigned place in the underworld.

Escape from Hades is a LUMEN game, and I wanted to recommend at least one LUMEN game in this post, because this system is so very good at replicating the feeling of video games, and also provides a very satisfying game loop. This particular game is inspired by the Hades video game franchise, and so the items are inspired by the divine power-ups that you get from various deities.

As written, the power-ups aren't very random, but I think some small tweaks from the game master might be able to replicate randomization if you really want it. Finally, leveling up your powers to feel more and more competent is definitely part of these kinds of games: each upgrade to your character can enhance abilities you already have, making future runs more and more effective at taking out some of the higher-level obstacles.

Blood Neon, by Radmad.

Show no mercy because you will be shown none. Bash and shred your way to glory, and become the one thing the fearless fear. The 11th Realm’s elected monarch has reached into another dimension for profit, creating a golden age of consumerism in the material world. That greed has cost the 11th Realm dearly. Now monsters from a plane only known as the Neon tear through into our reality and wreak havoc on the citizens of the land. The only thing standing between us and annihilation are heroes like you, Neon Hunters who become living weapons. Devastate the enemy, die, and die again, and ascend to new heights of power.

Blood Neon definitely has the feeling of fighting large numbers of enemies at great effect. It's also designed to allow your character to meaningfully progress. However, if you really want to get the feeling of variety and surprise, I think you'll also need to check out the supplement called Atomic Shock. It has new mechanics and rewards, new gear, and new enemies. Probably a good addition if you're looking for powerful gear!

Decree, by Phantom Limbs.

The Demiurge is slain, and the Lords of Sol have vanished. Now, we only have each-other, and the ruins that lie beyond our walls.

Decree is a roleplaying game in which you and your friends play as a party of post-human adventurers, who have set out to delve into the great ruins of our solar system far into the future, in search of lost technology and ancient knowledge. It features a simple and intuitive 2d6 resolution system inspired by Classic Traveller and Chainmail, fast and lethal combat, a wealth of character creation options, and a bounty of tools and gadgets to aid you in your delves.

This game is still fairly early in play-test, which means that it's free to download. Each class in character creation includes a d10 table that you can roll on for gear, so you already start out pretty randomized. The game also has an artifact list that the GM rolls on when the players pick up more loot; some artifacts provide mechanical boosts, while others give you money for purposeful power-ups.

At the end of the day however, the gear in this game doesn't hold nearly as much relevance as the narrative, and the focus of the game is primarily exploration, although I feel like combat might come in at a close second.

Sweet Revenge, by World Champ Game Co.

You may be dead but you’re not quite done living. Journey downward through spirals and circles of Hell, laying waste to any demonic beast that stands in your way. Use the method you died to inform your inventory and abilities on your violent quest. Face off against a trove of fallen angels, giants, infernal beasts, and more on your way to confront the devil and demand your final wish be answered… if you don’t succumb to your darkest traits along the way.

Sweet Revenge is a tabletop roleplaying game for 2-6 players including a Grave Master (GM). The Dead make clever use of their wonderful cabinet of items, the fragments of souls they claim, and the powers of the 7 Deadly Sins in lieu of stats to dive into the depths of hell. Each region is controlled by a powerful demon with whom The Dead face off (if they survive long enough) to make their demand.

Your starting inventory is determined by the method by which you died, which feels very unique and helps Sweet Revenge stand out. You're fighting the forces of Hell in this one, which I think is on par with the overwhelming forces you face off in Vampire Survivor.

Sweet Revenge indicates that it pulls much from OSR-style games, which means that your inventory and items (which are dropped randomly) will be about as useful as the players can make them. A lot of things you find in the game won't have concrete mechanical bonuses - instead your players will need to rely on their own creativity to make the most out of what they find. What I'm really interested in is how the game replaces character stats with the seven deadly sins, which you need to lean into if you want to use your dark powers.

Sweet Revenge comes with a couple of circles for you to get started in, including some enemies for the players to face off against. If you want not just a game but also a guiding scenario to help you learn as you go, you might like this game.

1000 HP Planet, by Sandy Pug Games.

Last week, the planet turned evil and killed every single person on it except for you and your friends. Every ocean became a crushing fist smashed against the cities of the world, and every volcano was a loaded gun pointed right at a cowering humanity.

You and your buds are heroes. Super powered beings with near godlike powers. You’re wizards who have unlocked the secrets of the universe, martial artists who can control every atom in their body, and genius inventors who’ve broken the limits of science. And you’re gonna kick the planets arse for killing everyone you’ve ever met.

But you have a dark secret.

You know why it happened.

Maybe you are why it happened.

Play to find out.

TEN MILLION HP PLANET IS COMING FOR YOU!

10 Million HP Planet is GM-less and fast-paced, with damage to your own character abstracted and damage to the planet counted meticulously. You can leverage pretty much anything that you describe on your turn to improve your dice rolls, and deal massive damage to the gigantic, terrible planet.

This game is about dramatic anime-style fights, with mooks who fight for you to provide ambient damage, conditions that you can fill to multiply damage or add dice, and power colours that synchronize to provide combat currency to buy or activate special powers.

One caveat: the game as written was originally meant to be a little bit unplayable. That doesn't seem to have stopped fans, judging by this fan-made Google Sheet to help you keep track of your die rolls. If you want a big, dramatic, larger-than-life game that's primarily one big fight, you probably want 10 Million HP Planet!

You can also check out…

My Hellbusting Games Recommendation post, which might have some overlap.

I have yet to find a game that does randomized power-ups like Numenera, whose Cypher System consistently gives players interesting short-term abilities that are very effective.

Lancer has character development that is very purposeful, but as you build your mech you can do a lot to make your character very effective at one or two things, which can feel so so so rewarding in play.

Plasmodics focuses a lot on mutation, which is something that I think can be really fruitful if it's randomized. The game page also mentions uncovering artifacts, which can change the world if you find them. Artifacts won't be common, but I think they're probably very impactful.

If you like what I do, you can always leave a tip at my Ko-Fi!

[bookwyrminspiration]

Transcript of The Trade, the Marella KOTLC short story (Including the author introduction)

Note: OG pictures taken by Kenna!, provided by @fintan-pyren. Some words are obscured and the transcript may contain errors. Neverless, I hope this is useful to anyone who may need/want it :)

Hello, wonderful Keeper readers! Some of you might already know that I love to sneak a little something extra into the paperback versions of my books whenever I can (since I don't think hardcover readers should get to be the only ones who sometimes find fun bonuses). For those who didn't know that: surprise! :)

I knew I wanted to include a story from Marella's POV this time. Not only is she on the cover (looking fierce and fabulous!) and a fan-favorite character, but she also had some key scenes in Stellarlune that we only got to "hear" about. The Keeper books are limited to Sophie's POV, so I can only include moments where Sophie is present--and since Sophie didn't go with Marella to her meetings with Fintan, we only learn what Marella tells Sophie later. But what if there was something Marella didn't share?

Over the next few pages, you can watch one of Marella's conversations with Fintan play out in real time and hear all Marella's thoughts and reactions to what's happening. I've called this story "The Trade"--and I've worked in lots of fun little extra details (some of which might even turn out to be important later...*wink*).

For those wondering, this story is based a [sic] scene in chapter 31 of Stellarlune--and if you haven't read Stellarlune yet: SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! Reading this first will probably be confusing and will also give away a few tidbits too early. You'll be much happier if you start by reading Stellarlune and then come back here for all the Marella fun once you're done!

Happy reading! [shannon's signature]

~

"Ugh, I hate this place," Marella muttered, shaking the freshly fallen snowflakes out of her gilded blond hair much harder than necessary and yanking her thick velvet cape tighter around her narrow shoulders.

She said the same thing every time she had to trudge through the knee-high snowdrifts and found herself staring at the icicle-crusted entrance to the now familiar cave.

Didn't matter how many times she'd gone there--or how important her visits were. She was never not going to dread making the long, slippery trek down to Fintan's frozen cell.

The cave looked like some sort of open-mouthed snow beast waiting to devour everything in its path--which was probably intentional, since the prison was designed to be as miserable as possible.

Especially for someone like her.

The goblin guards even gave her pitying stares as they moved aside to reveal the endless icy path that wound down and down--and down a whole lot more--to a place where the tiniest glimmer of heat had long since been swallowed up by the suffocating cold.

No amount of clothing could keep Marella warm in the heart of the prison She'd actually tried wearing so many layers that she'd looked like an overstuffed gulon--and she still couldn't stop shivering. And the whole "body temperature regulation" thing wasn't exactly possible when she had to use so much concentration to make sense of Fintan's ranting.

it wasn't fair.

Everyone else got to train their special abilities in fancy rooms at Foxfire, with Mentors who weren't creepy, unstable murderers.

But they weren't Pyrokinetics.

Marella was lucky the Council was letting her use her ability at all.

They could just as easily label her Talentless, kick her out of their snobby academy, and ban her from ever sparking another flame.

Or they could decide she was too dangerous and lock her away.

in fact, Marella wouldn't have been surprised at all if the Council was already building an icy cage just for her--but the thought still made her shiver and wish she could've manifested as...

Nope.

She stopped herself from finishing that sentence.

If life had taught her anything, it was that there's no point wanting things that were never going to happen.

Instead, she focused on the thin beams of sunlight streaking through a gap in the gloomy gray clouds. The light was far from warm, but if she really concentrated, she could feel a hint of lingering heat tangled among the brightness.

She called the warmth closer and soaked it in--let it pool under her skin, pounding with her pulse, swelling with every heartbeat. Growing hotter and hotter and hotter until...

Snap!

A flick of her fingers sent a small tangle of flames sparking to life above her left palm.

"Feel better?" Linh asked as Marella let out a long, slow sigh.

Marella nodded--though she definitely could've done without the whispered that were now hissing around her head.

The flames had a soft, crackly voice. And they always made the same plea.

Feed me.

Feed me.

Feed me.

Fire craved fuel--constantly wanting more, more, more--and it would've been so easy for Marella to let the fire swell bigger and bigger and bigger.

But that was the kind of thing that would lead to a lifetime of shivering in an underground ice cube, so she forced her gaze to shift to Linh, who stood in a small, snowless circle surrounded by a halo of hovering snowflakes---none daring to touch her long silver-tipped hair or shimmery purple cape.

Marella knew how hard Linh had fought to achieve that level of control, and how tentative Linh's hold over her ability still was. But the fact Linh could stand in a sea of frozen water and do nothing except keep the falling snow from settling on her flushed pink cheeks was very...

Annoying.

Then again, everyone annoyed Marella a little.

Her dad used to call her "fiery" long before he realized how accurate that description truly was.

But it wasn't Marella's fault!

People tended to be annoying.

Especially a Hydrokinetic who was currently looking all peaceful and pretty and perfect while making snowflakes flutter and spin in intricate patterns.

That didn't mean Marella wasn't also grateful that Linh was willing to tag along to her Pyrokinetic lessons. it was nice to see a friendly face after hours of Fintan's rambling. Plus, it seemed like a good idea to have someone with water powers around while she practiced setting things on fire.

They were even finding some pretty cool ways to work together. Fire and water might be opposites--but that didn't mean they couldn't be combined. Marella had actually figured out a way to ignite Linh's rain, and she couldn't wait to use that little trick on the Neverseen--assuming those black-cloaked losers ever showed up again.

For a fearsome, unstoppable rebellion, they sure spend a lot of time hiding.

"Are you going to start by asking him about the cache or do the lesson first?" Linh asked, reminding Marella why they were there.

Marella shrugged. "Depends on Fintan's mood."

Sometimes he was already babbling about some fancy new fire trick when she arrived, as if he'd started the lesson without bothering to wait for her. Other times she couldn't get anywhere with him until she'd let him go on and on and on about how foolish the Council was, or how badly he'd been wronged, or how much he missed the feel of a flickering flame--and she didn't necessarily blame him for the last one.

Part of her wanted to hold on to her fireball forever.

Make it her smoky little pet.

Instead, she curled her fingers into a fist and snuffed it out--but she didn't let all the heat dissipate. She called a single tingling glint deeper, letting it sear through her veins and settle into her heart.

She knew it was a risky move, even with all the defenses she wrapped around it. But she couldn't bear the cold emptiness of Fintan's prison without a least a tiny fleck of warmth tucked away.

A secret spark whispering, I'm here. You're not alone.

"Okay," she said, weaving a few strands of her hair together to clam her twitchy fingers. She'd picked up the nervous habit years ago--after her mom's accident--and the tiny braids were kind of her trademark now. "i guess I should stop stalling and head down to deal with Sir Creepysparks, huh?"

Linh smiled. "Probably. Unless you want to rehearse what you're going to say."

"Nah. I'm just going to offer him an ugly flower--that doesn't exactly need a big speech. Oh, but that reminds me..."

She reached into her cape pocket and pulled out the spiky dark blue Noxflare--which looked more like a dying weed than a super-rare flower--and held it up to the guards. "Mr. Forkle already checked this before I brought it here, to make sure it's safe for me to offer to Fintan. but I figured you'd want to check it too."

"We do," they agreed in unison as one of the biggest, deadliest-looking guards took the Noxflare from Marella and brought it over to the other goblins.

A lot of mumbling about potential kindling and fire hazards followed.

Eventually, the guards decided to quick-freeze the Noxflare into a block of ice in case there was any heat stored inside.

"Whoa," Marella said when the scary guard returned with the flower-filled ice cube--which had turned out as big as her head. "How heavy is that thing?"

The guard studied Marella's skinny arms. "I can carry it for you if you'd like."

"That's probably be smart." Marella was pretty sure she'd drop it, or her fingers would freeze off during the long walk--and using telekinesis would drain her mental energy. "But can you stay out of sight? I was planning to tell Fintan he can only see his weird flower thing if he gives me access to his memories, and that's kinda ruined if there's a giant goblin holding it right next to me.

Not that it made the plan any less pointless.

Fintan was obviously going to turn her down.

He's already made it super clear that the only trade he was interested in was for his freedom--which was never going to happen.

Marella doubted a dying flower frozen in ice was suddenly going to make him be like, You know what? Who needs out of this horrible prison when I can have that!

But she was out of other ideas.

And Sophie wanted her to try the Noxflare thing, so...

Whatever.

Marella didn't care about Sophie's current power trip the way Stina did.

As long as she didn't have to be the one coming up with all the plans--or almost dying all the time--Marella was fine following orders. Especially if she got to say I told you so when they turned out to be a huge waste of time.

"Sure you don't want me to come with you?" Linh asked as Marella pulled thick gloves onto her hands. "Fintan likes me."

Marella wasn't sure if "like" was the right word, since Fintan didn't seem to like anybody. But he'd definitely been impressed with Linh.

He'd demanded to speak with "the Hydrokinetic" after Marella mentioned she practiced her pyrokinesis with Linh, so Marella had convinced the goblin guards to let Linh down into the prison. And when Fintan asked for a demonstration of Linh's ability to ensure she wouldn't "hinder his training," Linh had stirred up all the ice shards on his floor and made them rain around him like he was trapped inside a snow globe--which actually made him applaud.

Apparently, most Hydrokinetics struggled to manipulate water in its solid form, and were limited to liquid water or water vapor.

But not Linh.

Of course.

Marella was pretty sure that Linh was more powerful than any of her other friends.

"Well, if you need me, you know where to find me," Linh said as Marella forced her feet to carry her into the cave. "I'll just be here, making another snow menagerie." She flicker her wrist and wove the hovering snowflakes into a soaring alenon.

"Ugh, at least make some ugly creatures this time," Marella called over her shoulder. "I want to see a row of snow ghouls when I get back here. Or a giant Princess Purryfins!"

Linh gasped. "Princess Purryfins is not ugly! I'm going to tell her you said that!"

Marella laughed. "I'm sure you will."

She would've teased Linh more about her ridiculous obsession with her pet murcat, but the frigid air from the prison hit Marella hard, and she had to lock her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering.

As least she didn't have to make the journey by herself this time.

Marella could hear the scary goblin guard keeping pace several steps behind her as her eyes slowly adjusted to the dim blue light cast by a series of glowing spheres dangling from the ceiling. The downward slope grew steeper with each winding curve, and Marella was always tempted to try sliding down the icy floor instead of walking--but she'd probably end up crashing into one of the weird ice thrones outside Fintan's cell. And she knew better than anyone that injuries couldn't always be healed.

Plus, the trudge gave her a chance to add extra defenses to the heat she'd tucked away in her chest.

She often wondered if Fintan had hidden a few sparks of his own when he was arrested. After all, he had to know the Council would put him on ice for the rest of eternity. Wouldn't he try to preserve what little heat he could?

But Marella had stretched out her senses a zillion different ways and never felt the slightest tingle of warmth when she was around him. So either there was nothing to find or Fintan was that good.

She had a horrible feeling it was the latter, and he was waiting for just the right moment to reveal his grand plan--but that wasn't the kind of thing she should be thinking about before having to face him.

Still, she spent the next few turn trying to figure out what she'd do if she were right.

Her feet turned numb while she plotted, and her bones were officially aching by the time the path widened-- the only warning that they were getting close to Fintan's cell.

A few curves later, his cage came into view: a stark, icy bubble in the center of a circular cavern.

The round wall was reflective on the inside, so even though Marella could see Fintan pacing along the edge of his frozen barricade, he wouldn't be able to see her until she triggered the sensor by sitting in one of the freezing thrones positioned at the only point Fintan could peer through.

He looked extra tired that day--his sky blue eyes sunken by more shadows than usual, and he kept muttering under his breath about incompetence as he tucked his messy blond hair behind his pointy ears with a bit more force than necessary.

Marella glanced back at the scary guard, making sure he'd ducked into the shadows near the back of the cell before she made her big appearance. Then she took a deep breath and pressed her hand against her heart, reaching for her secret spark of warmth one last time before plopping into the closest ice throne.

"Awwwww, looks like you missed me," she said, tossing back her hair and flashing her brightest smile.

She liked to start her visits by showing Fintan she wasn't afraid of him--even if she totally was.

But Fintan didn't glance her way.

"I'm not in the mood for games," he warned as he continued his slow march around his cell.

"Neither am I" Marella assured him, deciding that was her cue to start with the cache. She sat up taller, trying to look extra confident as she added, "But I do have an awesome trade to offer you!"

Fintan sighed. "If this is about my cache, I already told you what I'm willing to accept. Unless you're here to grant me a day of freedom--"

"I'm definitely not. But! I found something you should like even better." She paused, hoping the extra bit of anticipation would somehow make her offer should more exiting when she told him. "Noxflares!"

Fintan scrunched his slender nose. "What are Noxflares, and why would I care about them?"

Marella tilted her head, trying to tell if he was faking.

She hadn't expected him to jump around or applaud or anything--but she had expected him to at least know what Noxflares were.

Then again, his mind had been shattered and pieced back together so many times, his memories had to be in shambles--and Ancient minds tended to be a total mess anyway, since they were crammed with thousands of years of information and the past and present blurred together.

"Would it help if I told you I stopped by your old estate on my way here?" she asked, "Your garden could use some gnomish help, by the way. All the plants have turned into a giant dying tangle. But I dug around and managed to find this scraggly vine with dark pointy flowers--and I hear that plant is special to you, so I picked a few and--"

"You picked my Noxflares?" Fintan snapped, rushing to the wall of his cell and pressing his palms against the ice. "You must let me see them!"

Marella's lips curled into a huge smirk. "I thought you didn't know what they were."

Fintan gritted his teeth so hard, it sounded like cracking ice.

"Hey, I'm not saying I won't share. Buuuuuuuuuuut it'll cost you--and I'm pretty sure you can already guess what I want." She paused for another beat before she added, "Just so we're clear: I'll show you one of your Noxflares if you open your cache and show me what's inside."

Fintan's jaw tightened even more and his hands curled into fists.

But he didn't say no.

He didn't say anything--which was definitely new.

Marella had already offered him a long list of trade suggestions that she, Linh, Maruca, and Stina had all come up with--some really cool ones! And Fintan had shot down each one down before she could even finish the offer.

She couldn't believe he looked so tempted by an ugly flower.

but as the silence dragged on, Marella started to wonder if she'd misread the situation.

maybe she'd pushed him too hard--taunted him too much--and now Fintan was letting her sit there in the cold, knowing the icy throne was turning her butt and legs numb.

She was trying to decide if she could make standing up look like a power move when Fintan told her, "Fine. You have a deal--but since you're only offering one Noxflare, I'll only show you one memory."

Marella barely stopped herself from blurting out, SERIOUSLY?

"Orrrrrrrrrrrrrr," she said instead, wanting to kick herself for not bringing more Noxflares with her. The whole thing had just seemed so silly--and the first few she'd picked had crumbled to dust. But the vine had lots more flowers, so she could fix the mistake super easily. "How about I go back, grab eight more Noxflares, and then you show me all nine memories?"

Fintan grinned. "Tempting. But one Noxflare is really all I need."

Need?

Marella wasn't a fan of that wording.

But before she could ask him what he needed it for, he added, "My offer expires in ten seconds," and started counting down.

By "six" she decided that one memory was better than nothing.

"Fine," she said, pulling the cache from her pocket and holding the marble-size orb up to the light. "But you go first. How do I open this thing?"

No way was she going to risk letting him back out--especially since he probably wasn't going to be happy when he saw his precious flower was stuck in the middle of a giant ice cube.

Fintan held out his hand. "Give me the cache, and I'll open it."

Marella laughed. "Hard pass."

"Ah, but you don't have a choice. I'm the only one who can access the memories. And I need to make physical contact with the cache in order to do so."

Marella squinted at the tiny gadget.

She didn't know much about caches--aside from the fact that only Councillors used them and that each colorful inner crystal held a single Forgotten Secret. But she did know that Dex had already tried everything he could think of to open the cache and failed--and he was one of the best Technopaths ever.

"Do I need to start counting down again?" Fintan asked. "I believe we'd gotten to five..."

Marella chewed her lip. "Uh, how do I know you're not going to destroy the cache or try to hold it for ransom or something?"

Fintan's smile was colder than his cell. "You'll just have to trust me."

"Yeah, I don't see that happening."

Fintan shrugged. "Then our deal is off."

Marella rolled her eyes. "Come on. Even if I wanted to, it's not like I can open your cell door and hand the cache to you."

She wasn't even sure if his cell had a door. The wall looked like one big solid piece of ice.

"You've proven to be very resourceful during our lessons," Fintan reminded her.

"Yeah, but--"

"It's your call," he interrupted. "If you want a memory, you'll have to trust me."

She snort-laughed--but before she could get another word out, he repeated, "You'll just have to trust me." And she could tell that was the only response he was going to give.

She turned to the scary guard, who had started pacing in the shadows. "Is there a way to pass Fintan a small item?"

"Ah, you have a hidden goblin escort--I knew you were resourceful!" Fintan clapped his hands. "And yes, there is a way to pass me my cache, otherwise I wouldn't have suggested it. Any guard can open the disgraceful tube they pass my horrid, frozen bits of food through. The cache should fit nicely."

The guard gripped his sword. "I cannot allow any unauthorized item to enter his cell."

Fintan clicked his tongue. "Clearly you're not considering the fact that I've already had plenty of chances to make this trade--and turned them all down. Do you think I would do that if the cache was even remotely useful to me?"

The goblin couldn't argue with that logic.

Neither could Marella.

And when Fintan went back to counting down, she told the guard, "The Black Swan knows I've been trying to make this trade--and they're working with the Council now. No one would let me do this if they thought the cache was dangerous."

Then again, they'd never discussed the possibility of handing the cache over to Fintan--but surely someone must've considered that during all their endless talking and obsessive overplanning...right?

Besides, if anything went wrong, she could always remind them that this was Sophie's idea.

"I don't like this," the scary guard growled. But Marella gave him her I-totally-know-what-I'm-doing glare until he set the frozen Noxflare down with a particularly dramatic thud, snatched the cache, and spent an eternity squinting at the tiny crystal, spinning it all different ways. "If anything happens, my priority will be subduing the prisoner--not protecting you. Are you certain you want to take that risk?"

Marella absolutely wasn't.

But...this might be their only shot at seeing one of Fintan's Forgotten Secrets.

Plus, she had her tiny little spark buddy she could call on if she needed. Surely she could use that to...

To what?

Take down a superpowerful, much more experienced Pyrokinetic with a history of murdering poeple?

But...did she really want to wimp out?

Sophie wouldn't.

And yeah, Sophie had, like, a permanent bed in the Healing Center. But Marella was pretty sure their whole group would vote "DO IT!"

There were also a dozen other armed goblins who would rush down as backup.

And Linh could attack Fintan with her cutesy snow animals.

It'd almost be worth it to watch Fintan get swallowed up by an ice wave shaped like Princess Purryfins.

"I can handle myself," she decided, using a tone that hopefully sounded intimidating.

Fintan's gleeful laughter echoed of the ice.

The scary guard muttered something about the arrogance of elves as he reached toward the top of Fintan's frozen cell and felt around for a specific spot. A faint clicking sound followed, and a tiny round door slid open--far out of Fintan's reach.

"I can neutralize you within seconds," the guard reminded him as he held the cache up to the opening. "By numerous means. Some far more painful than others."

"Yes, I'm well aware of the absurd lengths the Council has taken to keep me contained," Fintan assured him. "But I don't plan on giving you a reason to use any of them. Not today, at least."

The guard bared his supersharp pointy teeth, and Marella wanted to shout NEVER MIND, JUST KIDDING! But she let the guard shove the cache through the tiny opening--and then it was too late to change her mind.

All she could do was watch the glass orb make its slow descent, rolling around and around and around--down some sort of invisible path etched into the wall of the cell.

Her stomach backflipped with each rotation, and she felt more than a little vomit-y when the cache dropped low enough for Fintan to catch it. But he simply held it up and studied it.

Then he coughed on it.

And sneezed on it.

"Ewwwwwww," Marella groaned when he followed that up by drooling on it. "You know, there are better ways to give it your DNA."

"Yes, I'm aware." Fintan cleared his throat and launched a slimy blob of spit at the cache. "I also know your little Technopath friend is going to ask you how I accessed the memories, so feel free to give him a detailed list." He wiped the cache dry with his fingers and then ran it through his greasy hair before sneezing and coughing on it again. "Some of these methods are vital. Some are distractions. None can be re-created without me--but it'll be fun if he tries, don't you think?"

He laughed so hard, it brought tears to his eyes, and he smeared them across the cache before sneezing and spitting on it again--making Marella very glad she had gloves to keep her hands clean once he returned the cache.

Assuming she actually got it back...

She tried to make out what he was saying when he started mumbling a bunch of stuff into the crystal, but the words were all mushed together. He also tapped the cache in so many different places that she doubted even Sophie and Keefe with their fancy photographic memories would be able to re-create the patterns. And he looked so smug as he did it all that Marella decided to look as bored as possible--which was why she was barely paying attention when the cache flared to life, projecting a small hologram of Fintan standing alone in a wide, empty field.

"Huh," Marella mumbled. "Gotta admit, I was expecting something a little more exciting than a tiny glowing Fintan in the middle of nowhere doing...nothing."

"Then you should learn to be more observant." Fintan pointed to the swaying grass around the hologram's feet, and after a few seconds, Marella realized there was a vine of blooming Noxflares. "I figured I'd show you what Noxflares can do, since you're so generously bringing one back into my life."

Marella squinted at the tiny flowers, waiting for something to happen.

And waiting.

And waiting.

"So...they...blow in the wind?" she asked.

Fintan sighed. "No, they do this."

The hologram of Fintan waved his arms, and all the Noxflares erupted with searing white flames.

"Yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah, still not seeing why this needed to be a super-hush-hush Forgotten Secret," Marella grumbled as the Fintan hologram flicked his wrist and added purple fire to the white.

Sure, the flames were pretty--but all flames were beautiful.

"Try thinking like a Pyrokinetic!" Fintan snapped. "Tell me, are there any other flowers that could remain intact under such an inferno?"

Marella couldn't think of any.

And the Noxflares still didn't burn when the Fintan hologram added yellow flames to the fiery mix.

but other than clearly being fire-resistant, Marella didn't see the Noxflares actually doing anything--and the hologram of Fintan must've been equally unimpressed.

He frowned at the flaming petals and dragged a hand down his face, mumbling "something's missing."

"Still not seeing the point of this," Marella noted. "I mean..."

Her voice trailed off as the tiny Fintan waved his arms again and blasted the Noxflares with pink flames--which made the flowers spray sparks in every direction.

The effect was breathtaking.

Kind of like the sky during the Celestial Festival.

But that still didn't necessarily scream, THIS MEMORY IS IMPORTANT.

"How come the grass isn't catching fire?" she asked, grasping for anything that might be significant. "Do the Noxflares protect it or something?"

"No, I was protecting it. A pyrokinetic should always be in control of their flames."

He sounded so smug Marella was tempted to remind him that he let five Pyrokinetics die when he tried to teach them how to call down Everblaze and they all lost control--but that would probably make him throw one of his tantrums and send her away.

She needed the cache back first--and to hopefully find something useful in this boring memory. But sadly, all Fintan's hologram did was stare blankly at the stars and mumble "something's missing" again before the image flashed away.

"That's it?" the scary guard demanded, beating Marella to the complaint.

"Yeah, so...you put on a little fire show all by yourself with some spark-shooting flowers," she added, trying to sum up what she'd seen. "You were clearly disappointed by that little show. And then you must've remembered you needed to..."

She waved her hands, cuing Fintan to fill in the blank with whatever was "missing."

But he just stood there, staring at the cache with the same glazed look he always got whenever he started rambling about the beauty of fire--and Marella wished Linh had come with her after all.

Linh could pelt him with snowballs or something to snap him out of it.

But then she realized...

"You never figured out what was missing--did you?"

Fintan blinked and met her gaze. "Noxflares are full of possibility. But they need to burn."

"That doesn't answer my question," Marella noted.

Fintan shrugged. "Context was not part of our bargain."

"yeah, because I figured when I saw the memory, it would be obvious why it's this big Forgotten Secret. How does you setting some flowers on fire and then realizing you did it wrong matter to anyone?"

"I did nothing wrong," Fintan assured her, with a particularly haughty smile--butt Marella wasn't buying it.

There was a tightness around his eyes that was way too familiar.

Her dad had that same tightness every time her mom was having one of her "bad days," and she knew exactly what it meant.

Disappointment.

Frustration.

A hint of helplessness.

So she marched over to the guard and grabbed the frozen Noxflare from the floor--too irritated to even notice how heavy the ice must've been as she hauled it back.

She plopped it in front of Fintan's cell. "Ta-da! One ugly flower, as promised--and I'm sure you're not surprised that I had to freeze it before i brought it down here."

"I'm not." Fintan dropped to his knees and gazed at the Noxflare like he was seeing a long-lost friend.

He pressed his hand against his cell, trying to get as close as he could. "Such power. Such...promise."

"Uh-huh," Marella agreed, letting his stare and stare, hoping it would help him let his guard down.

When his eyes turned a little teary, she went in for the kill.

"But there is something still missing, isn't there? That's why you saved this memory--to remind yourself to keep looking."

A whole lot of painful silence passed before Fintan slowly nodded.

Marella wanted to feel triumphant.

But all she'd done was prove the entire trade had been pointless.

There was no game-changing clue.

No dirty little secret about the past.

Certainly nothing to help them stop their enemies.

And she had a pretty strong hunch the other eight memories in the cache would be just as ridiculous.

"The answer is out there," Fintan murmured. "I can feel it. I just can't grasp it. Perhaps..."

"Perhaps?" Marella prompted when his eyes locked with hers.

Fintan stepped closer to the ice, keeping his voice low, like he didn't want the guard to hear him. "Perhaps a different Pyrokinetic is meant to find the truth. One who's already convinced the Council to trust her."

Marella laughed. "The Council doesn't trust me."

"The fact that you're here for a pyrokinesis lesson says otherwise--particularly since the lesson is with me." He started circling his cell again, mumbling under his breath and nodding. The only words Marella caught were "possible," "improvising," and "best option."

After three more times around the cell, he stopped in front of Marella again, leaning even closer to the icy wall as he whispered, "I believe it's time for me to offer a trade of my own."

"A trade," Marella repeated, not missing the way the scary guard gripped his sword.

Fintan glared at him. "This conversation is between me and my prodigy. She stands here of her own free will, shielded by who knows how many different kinds of protections--and she can leave anytime she pleases. Your presence is no longer needed."

"You still have her gadget," the guard argued.

"I suppose I do. but that can be easily remedied." Fintan set the cache on whatever invisible ledge it had slid down in the first place and gave it a good shove, sending it spinning up the path toward the top of the cell.

The guard had to scramble to catch it when it launched out of the ice bubble.

"See?" Fintan said, shifting his gaze back to Marella. "I can be trusted."

"Pretty sure the only thing I can trust is that you'll do what's best for you," Marella countered.

"As long as you get what you want, why would you care? After all, no matter what, I'm still stuck in here, aren't I?" He waved his arms around his little ice bubble, which suddenly looked way less secure than it had during her other visits. "Oh, relax--all I'm asking for is a little information."

Marella crossed her arms. "Right--and information has never gotten anyone hurt or killed."

"It's not that kind of secret. It's..." He frowned. "Honestly, I don't know what it is--and for someone my age, with my connections, that says something, doesn't it? I doubt any of the Vackers even know the full truth."

"Then how am I supposed to find it?" Marella demanded.

"As I said, you've proven to be quite resourceful. Particularly when you team up with your little friends." He scowled at the guard again before motioning her to step closer--until her ear was practically pressed up against the ice.

A voice in the back of her head kept screaming, WHY ARE YOU LISTENING TO HIM?

But...she was curious.

And there was nothing wrong with hearing his offer, was there?

Fintan's breath fogged the ice, obscuring his face as he whispered, "All I ask is that if you ever find out what's missing from the Noxflares, you share it with me."

"Why?" Marella glanced at the frozen flower, wishing she could see something more than just ugly shriveled petals.

"Because I want to know," Fintan said simply. "And because I can give you what you want in return."

"The rest of the memories in your cache," Marella clarified.

Fintan nodded. Then his lips curled into a smile. "And one other--something you've long wondered about, even though you probably don't admit it to yourself."

Marella raised one eyebrow, refusing to show any more interest than that.

Fintan cupped his hands around his mouth and pressed them to the ice before he whispered, "I know what happened to your mother."

Marella sucked in a breath.

"Yes," Fintan added. "I'm talking about her 'accident'--if we can really call it that. I know why she fell. And why her injuries were so incurable."

Marella stumbled back, collapsing into the nearest throne and hugging herself to stop her body from shaking with tremors that had nothing to do with the cold.

A tiny, terrified part of her had always thought the story she'd been told about her mom's fall hadn't totally made sense.

But everyone--everyone--was convinced it had been an accident.

Even her father.

And if it wasn't...

She leaned toward Fintan. "I don't need your games."

"Oh, this definitely isn't a game. But it's the only way you'll ever know the truth, and before you start overthinking everything, consider this: You have all the power here. Make the trade, don't make the trade--it's totally your call. You also don't have to make a decision right away. I'm trapped in this prison. I'll never find the answer on my own--and I'll never know if you find the answer unless you decide to tell me. So there's zero pressure. No one even knows we've had this conversation--and don't worry about the guard. See how frustrated he looks? That's because I made sure he only heard what I wanted him to hear. The rest is our little secret."

Our little secret.

Fintan was probably the last person she should have a secret with.

And yet...he had a point.

No one knew he'd made her this offer--and it wasn't like she'd come to any decision.

She didn't even have the information Fintan wanted anyway!

And with the way their investigations always seemed to go, she'd probably only find a whole lot more questions.

So there was really no point in telling anyone about this.

She could tell them whens he needed to.

If she needed to.

That wouldn't be wrong...would it?

It didn't feel wrong--or it wouldn't have if Fintan's smile wasn't so creepy.

"I'm not agreeing to anything," she said, wanting to make that very clear.

"You're not," Fintan assured her. "So how about we put this out of our minds and get started with our lesson? I'm sure your Hydrokinetic friend is wondering why you haven't come up to practice yet."

Linh was probably starting to worry.

She'd probably also built enough snow animals to make a frozen Sanctuary.

"Fine," Marella said, standing up and dusting ice off her cape. "What do you want me to work on today?"

"How about I teach you how to make those colored flames you saw in the memory," Fintan suggested. "You know, in case that ever comes in handy."

He winked, and the guard groaned and held out the cache to Marella. "Sound like I'm no longer needed."

"You aren't" Fintan agreed.

The guard growled--looking scarier than ever--and turned to march away. But he spun back after a few steps. "He's right that I don't know what he offered you. But I can tell you're tempted. And I hope you're smart enough to reject it. Never make a deal with someone who has nothing to lose."

"I'm not," Marella promised.

And she wasn't.

She hadn't made any decisions--except to keep this to herself. But that didn't mean anything.

She was just trying to avoid a ton of drama and arguing and having people give her advice she didn't need.

Plus, everyone has secrets.

Shoot--the great Sophie Foster had more secrets than anyone.

So it was fine.

Everything was fine.

Nothing had changed.

Time to focus on controlling her fire.

And yet, for the rest of the lesson, the tiny spark in her heart burned hotter and hotter and hotter. Whispering a new plea.

Trust me.

Trust me.

Trust me.

[madlabgames]

🍖 Forge Your Legend: Monster Hunter Crafting in D&D 5.5e! 🛠️

Hey #DnD fam and #MonsterHunter enthusiasts! Mad Lab Games here, dropping some exciting homebrew we've been tinkering with: a robust system to bring that satisfying 'carve & craft' loop right into your D&D 5.5e campaigns!

Ever wished you could turn that freshly slain dragon into epic gear? Now you can! We've designed a comprehensive mechanic that lets your players:

🔪 Harvest Resources: After a grueling battle, make a Wisdom (Survival) check to carve valuable components from defeated monsters. From common hides and bones to rare scales and elemental cores, every beast offers unique spoils!

📊 Tiered Components: We've got components categorized by rarity (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare/Legendary), each with specific uses – whether it's building the basic structure of an item or imbuing it with powerful magical properties. We even added an optional Component Quality system so a truly exceptional carve yields superior materials!

🔨 Craft Unique Gear: Utilize various artisan's tools at different crafting stations (Forge, Workbench, Alchemist's Lab, etc.) to transform those monster parts into incredible weapons, armor, and accessories. Imagine a Dragonfang Greatsword dealing bonus fire damage or Golemhide Plate resisting bludgeoning attacks!

🔥 Unlock Set Bonuses: Just like in Monster Hunter, wearing multiple items from the same monster type can grant powerful Set Bonuses! Specialize in hunting a specific monster to unlock incredible synergies – like the Dragon Scale Set offering fire resistance and fiery breath!

✨ Infuse & Augment: Beyond initial crafting, enhance your gear further by infusing elemental cores or augmenting items with very rare monster organs to grant new active abilities or stronger passive bonuses.

🐾 Monster Abilities as Gear: Our favorite part? We've worked to directly translate iconic monster abilities into gear properties! Want a Displacer Beast Tentacle Whip that causes disadvantage on attacks, or a Medusa Hair Brooch that helps against charms? It's all possible!

This system is all about making every hunt feel meaningful and giving your players a tangible, exciting progression path tied directly to the monsters they overcome.

What kind of monster-themed gear would YOU want to craft first? Let us know in the comments! 👇

[pathfinderunlocked]

Moontoucher Vizier - CR7 Wizard

An archwizard responsible for creating a lycanthrope curse.

Artwork is in-game art from Hearthstone, by James Ryman, copyright Blizzard Entertainment.

This vizier, an accomplished wizard, learned of a way to magically induce the lycanthrope curse, and learned that creatures infected by this curse became stronger.  In an attempt to fortify his nation's position against the encroaching undead, he began experimenting with this curse, inflicting it on soldiers under his command in a fortress on the nation's border.

The moontoucher vizier is based somewhat on Archmage Arugal from Warcraft. I designed him to be fought alongside several werewolves - the basic CR 2 werewolf stat block is perfectly fine, but I used custom werewolves that have claws and inflict disfiguring touch on a successful claw attack. He casts rage and bone fists on the werewolves as soon as he gets a chance, before battle if possible, and casts moonstruck on enemies, preferably spellcasters If his enemies get within his melee range, he'll cast forced mutation and disfiguring touch before teleporting away with his ring of return, which is keyed to three different points around the room, if possible. If he's caught in a fight away from his keyed points, he'll set up one new point ASAP.

The Ring of Return is an official magic item from Ultimate Equipment page 173, but it's not listed on Archives of Nethys because... there's another unrelated item with the same name, and the website developers got confused. Its high value increases his CR by 1.

Moontoucher Vizier - CR 7

The robed man's cloth headgear has massive horns, his eyes glow with green fire, and the staff he holds blazes with magical energy.

XP 2,400 Male human transmuter wizard 7 NE Medium humanoid (human) Init +2 Senses Perception +6

DEFENSE

AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 14 (+2 Dex, +1 dodge, +4 mage armor) hp 55 (7d6+28) Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +8

OFFENSE

Speed 50 ft. (30 ft. without animal aspect) Melee mwk quarterstaff +3 (1d6-1)

Wizard Spells Prepared (CL 7th; concentration +14) 4th—moonstruck (2) (CL 8th, DC 20) 3rd—beast shape I, forced mutation (DC 18), rage 2nd—animal aspect (already cast, raptor, CL 8th), bone fists, defensive shock, disfiguring touch (touch +2, DC 16) 1st—depilate (DC 16), expeditious retreat, magic missile (3), protection from evil 0—detect magic, mage hand, mending, read magic

STATISTICS

Str 8, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 20, Wis 12, Cha 8 Base Atk +3; CMB +2; CMD 16 Feats Arcane Discovery (Forest's Blessing), Arcane Discovery (Multimorph), Combat Casting, Dodge, Craft Wondrous Item, Scribe Scroll, Toughness Skills Craft (alchemy) +11, Heal +7, Knowledge (arcana, local, history, nature) +15, Linguistics +12, Perception +4, Spellcraft +15; Racial Bonuses +2 Craft (alchemy) Languages Aklo, Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Elven, Draconic, Giant, Gnomish, Infernal, Sylvan SQ arcane bond (staff), arcane school (transmutation), industrious Gear cloak of resistance +2, headband of vast intelligence +2 (perception), mwk quarterstaff (arcane bonded item), ring of return, scroll of mage armor x4 (1 already used), spellbook (prepared spells, face of the devourer, bull's strength, monstrous physique I, phase step)

EQUIPMENT ABILITIES

Arcane Bond (Su) Once per day, while holding his arcane bonded item (his masterwork quarterstaff), the moontoucher vizier can cast any spell he knows without needing to prepare it ahead of time or expend a spell slot.

Ring of Return Three times per day, the wearer of the ring can, as a move action, use it to form a link with the particular 5-foot square she occupies at that moment. This causes one of the stones on the ring to glow. As a swift action, the wearer of the ring can teleport to any unoccupied linked square within 100 feet.

The moontoucher vizier typically has all three stones linked to different 5-foot squares in his lair or the area he expects to fight in, if possible.

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Multimorph (Su) When the moontoucher vizier casts a spell of the polymorph subschool on himself, he may expend 1 minute of the spell’s duration as a standard action to assume another form allowed by the spell.

Typically, the moontouched vizier begins combat with animal aspect already cast, and thus can alter its effects with Multimorph.

[masterqwertster]

Chetney in Daggerheart

Gonna do the hot old wolf now.

Ancestry

Mixed: Clank/Katari

So there's no direct for a Gnome in Daggerheart. And while you could mix Halfling and Goblin based on being smaller folk, I think if you're going to multi-class without it being for the express purpose of visual aesthetic or playing into mixed bloodlines, make it for function.

So Clank gives Purposeful Design for a +1 bonus to one Experience, which you know Chet's got an MC Experience that would be fun to boost. And Katari provides Retracting Claws for a little werewolf action.

Community

Wanderborne

I mean, Chet's been around. And I think it'd be fun to reflavor pulling items out of the pack as carving them on the spot, as Chet is wont to do.

Though I will say there's an argument for Loreborne just because Chet's old as shit and been around.

Class/Subclass

Wayfinder Ranger -Ruthless Predator: 1 Stress to gain a +1 Proficiency to damage. And it you cause Severe damage, the target must also mark a Stress. -Path Forward: You find the shortest, most direct path to anywhere you've been or have an item that's been at the location Specialization-Elusive Predator: +2 Evasion against your Focused enemy with Call of the Slayer Warrior multiclass -can replace gaining Hope with gaining a Slayer d6 (up to Proficiency stored at once). Spend the d6 on attack or damage. Leftovers at the end of the session become Hope.

Probably my most controversial take on classes since everyone else is a little more clear cut.

After all, there's no Blood Hunter, but Ranger's Focus is not dissimilar to a Brand of Castigation. Plus the Wayfinder is a Ruthless Predator. Very werewolf vibes if you ask me.

And I like the Slayer dice as a sort of situational Crimson Rite damage bonus. Also, being a Slayer just speaks to the Blood Hunter idea. And the Warrior Hope feature is No Mercy, and Chet can get pretty bloodthirsty.

Domain Cards

Gifted Tracker (lvl 1, sage)

For that sharp werewolf nose. Plus, Chet's got to have some idea of tracking if he survived in the Bramblewood and Savalirwood for a while.

Deft Maneuvers (lvl 1, bone)

By the Order of Lycan bonuses, Chet's got one of the highest speeds in Bells Hells. And this card allows Chet to charge up and shank a bitch.

Nature's Tongue (lvl 1, sage)

A nod to Chetney's Forest Gnome ability of Speak with Small beasts.

Untouchable (lvl 1, bone)

A little nod to how when Chetney wolfs out, he gets a little AC bonus, Untouchable adds half your Agility to Evasion.

Vicious Entangle (lvl 1, sage)

It kind of speaks to Chetney's Blood Curse of Binding, so I'm putting it in.

Corrosive Projectile (lvl 3, sage)

This card makes for a kind of fun replacement for a Blood Curse. You attack with magic for d6+4 damage and if you mark 2+ Stress, you can give them Corroded, which drops their Difficulty (basically AC) by -1 for every 2 Stress. And it's stackable.

Tactician (lvl 3, bone)

Chet does his best to help the rest of BH, and he's got a lot of experience to draw on, so a card that allows a second Hope to be spent when providing Help to further add an Experience to their roll alongside the Advantage makes sense. Also his Tag Team Hope die is a d20

Versatile Fighter (lvl 3, blade)

A nod to the fact that Chetney is using wood chisels as his main weapon when we meet him. This card allows you to wield any weapon with any trait. And for 1 Stress, you can do max damage for 1 damage die instead of rolling it.

Deadly Focus (lvl 4, blade)

Much like the Brand of Castigation, it gives you a leg up on a single foe, so does Deadly Focus, giving you a +1 Proficiency until you attack someone else, defeat the target, or the battle ends once per rest.

Wild Surge (lvl 7, sage)

A little werewolf transformation. It does have more of a kickback, as it's a Stress to start and adds another at the end, but I guess that's a little hemocraft kickback too, just in a different spot.

On the Brink (lvl 9, bone)

It kind of works as Chetney's Advanced Transformation, except instead of regenerating health when he's below half (and transformed), On the Brink prevents Minor damage when you've got 2 or less HP left. Just a little trick to keep Chet standing.

Force of Nature (lvl 10, sage)

More powerful werewolf transformation, baby! I mean, we never saw him use the Savage Spirit blessing he got with the Gorgynei, so whhy not an even nastier transformation ability?

Swift Step (lvl 10, bone)

If an attack misses, clear a Stress, or gain a Hope if there's no Stress to clear. Chet lives another day, defying Fate once more and all the stronger for it.

At the End

Chetney really is a trickier one to port into Daggerheart, just because there's nothing exactly like a Blood Hunter, but I think this one worked out. It's interesting to see how he just skips out on entire levels of the Domain cards, mostly because the vibes just don't match. Especially in Sage, since he's not really that nature focused, and yet it provided some really good cards for him

[gdpm]

Optimize, Optimize, Optimize - I Am Your Beast

I Am Your Beast is an FPS game developed by indie studio Strange Scaffold and released on September 10th, 2024. The premise of I Am Your Beast centers around the player character - Alphonse Harding - fighting a guerilla war against your previous employers as they try and pull you back in for one last job. Here's a link to the game for anyone interested: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1876590/I_Am_Your_Beast/ The core gameplay involves completing a mission's given objective as fast & efficiently as possible, with additional bonus objectives that are only unlocked upon clearing the previous objective. Main objectives vary from interacting with objects around the map to killing all enemies, always ending with an escape hatch. The bonus objectives tend to be more specialized, placing restrictions on what methods you're allowed to use to kill enemies (such as requiring the player to only kill with headshots, for example). At first glance, the gameplay seems pretty standard. However, there is one mechanic that turns I Am Your Beast into an addictive test of mechanical understanding and planning: The timer. The timer is what determines the rank you receive after completing a mission, and it can be quite unforgiving at times. Here's the thing though; killing enemies gives you a time bonus, shaving seconds off your final time. The method you use matters as well. Killing an enemy without doing anything special only rewards 0.3 seconds, while explosive kills reward an entire second. This variance in reward encourages the player to experiment with their routing and forces them into a cycle of risk-reward decisions based on the potential time they could save by changing the methods they use to slaughter enemies. Of course, there are a variety of weapons available to capitalize on this. While there aren't any that stand out compared to typical offerings (apart from a tree branch), the way they play into eachother makes them feel incredible. All weapons have durability, either in the form of limited ammunition (you cannot reload guns), or a literal durability in the case of melee weapons. Though, nothing is stopping you from commendeering any weapons that happen to be lying around. Throwing a weapon at an enemy will knock them down - or outright kill them, in the case of the knife - and send the weapon they were holding flying to you. You can also knock enemies down by kicking them, should you find yourself in the rare situation of not having a weapon. With this, a new layer is added to the player's routing decisions: What gun is going to be the most efficient at netting time bonuses? How do I ensure that I get that gun when I need it? When can I afford to swap weapons? All of these things, combined with relatively non-linear levels and lively chatter from your opposition, result in a game that encourages in-depth routing which culminates in a spectacle straight out of a John Wick film. Here's some footage I recorded of one such run to demonstrate.

In my personal opinion, this game does everything right. It introduces mechanics at a steady rate, iterates on them regularly, and keeps the player on their toes the whole way through - even throughout the bonus levels. There are additional updates planned as well that will add things such as the ability to disable the timer outright for a more relaxed experience, as well as more levels. I cannot recommend this game enough, especially with it's relatively low price tag of $20. P.S. - I Am Your Beast has an excellent story as well. Wanted to add it at the end as - although it isn't related to the game's design - it is still very noteworthy.

[kotlc-deleted-scenes]

Stellarlune Paperback Edition Marella Short Story

Hello, wonderful Keeper readers! Some of you might already know that I love to sneak a little something extra into the paperback versions of my books whenever I can (since I don't think hardcover readers should get to be the only ones who sometimes find fun bonuses). For those who didn't know that: surprise! ☺

I knew I wanted to include a story from Marella's POV this time. Not only is she on the cover (looking fierce and fabulous!) and a fan-favorite character, but she also had some key scenes in Stellarlune that we only got to "hear" about. The Keeper books are limited to Sophie's POV, so I can only include moments where Sophie is present—and since Sophie didn't go with Marella to her meetings with Fintan, we only learn what Marella tells Sophie later. But what if there was something Marella didn't share?

Over the next few pages, you can watch one of Marella's conversations with Fintan play out in real time and hear all Marella's thoughts and reactions to what's happening. I've called this story "The Trade"—and I've worked in lots of fun little extra details (some of which might even turn out to be important later…*wink*). For those wondering, this story is based on a scene in chapter 31 of Stellarlune—and if you haven't read Stellarlune yet: SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! Reading this first will probably be confusing and will also give away a few tidbits too early. You'll be much happier if you start by reading Stellarlune and then come back here for all the Marella fun once you're done.

Happy reading!

—Shannon Messenger

THE TRADE 

Marella

“Ugh, I hate this place,” Marella muttered, shaking the freshly fallen snowflakes out of her gilded blond hair much harder than necessary and yanking her thick velvet cape tighter around her narrow shoulders. 

She said the same thing every time she had to trudge through the knee-high snowdrifts and found herself staring at the icicle-crusted entrance to the now familiar cave. Didn't matter how many times she'd gone there—or how important her visits were. 

She was never not going to dread making the long, slippery trek down to Fintan's frozen cell. The cave looked like some sort of open-mouthed snow beast Mating to devour everything in its path—which was probably intentional, since the prison was designed to be as miserable as possible. 

Especially for someone like her. 

The goblin guards even gave her pitying stares as they moved aside to reveal the endless icy path that wound down and down and down a whole lot more to a place where the tiniest glimmer of heat had long since been swallowed up by the suffocating cold. 

No amount of clothing could keep Marella warm in the heart of the prison. She'd actually tried wearing so many layers that she'd looked like an overstuffed gulon and she still couldn't stop shivering. And the whole "body temperature regulation" thing wasn't exactly possible when she had to use so much concentration to make sense of Fintan's ranting. 

It wasn't fair. 

Everyone else got to train their special abilities in fancy rooms at Foxfire, with Mentors who weren't creepy, unstable murderers. 

But they weren't Pyrokinetics. 

Marella was lucky the Council was letting her use her ability at all. 

They could just as easily label her Talentless, kick her out of their snobby academy, and ban her from ever sparking another flame. 

Or they could decide she was too dangerous and lock her away. 

In fact, Marella wouldn't have been surprised at all if the Council was already building an icy cage just for her—but the thought still made her shiver and she wished she could have manifested as…

Nope.

She stopped herself from finishing that sentence. 

If life had taught her anything, it was that there's no point wanting things that were never going to happen. 

Instead, she focused on the thin beams of sunlight streaking through a gap in the gloomy gray clouds. The light was far from warm, but if she really concentrated, she could feel a hint of lingering heat tangled among the brightness. 

She called the warmth closer and soaked it in—let it pool under her skin, pounding with her pulse, swelling with every heartbeat. Growing hotter and hotter and hotter until…

Snap! 

A flick of her fingers sent a small tangle of flames sparking to life above her left palm. 

"Feel better?" Linh asked as Marella let out a long, slow sigh. 

Marella nodded—though she definitely could've done without the whispers that were now hissing around her head. 

The flames had a soft, crackly voice. And they always made the same plea. 

Feed me. 

Feed me. 

Feed me. 

Fire craved fuel—constantly wanting more, more, more—and it would've been so easy for Marella to let the fire swell bigger and bigger and bigger.

But that was the kind of thing that would lead to a lifetime of shivering in an underground ice cube, so she forced her gaze to shift to Linh, who stood in a small, snowless circle surrounded by a halo of hovering snowflakes—-none daring to touch her long silver-tipped hair or shimmery purple cape.

Marella knew how hard Linh had fought to achieve that level of control, and how tentative Linh's hold over her ability still was. But the fact Linh could stand in a sea of frozen water and do nothing except keep the falling snow from settling on her flushed pink cheeks was very…

Annoying.

Then again, everyone annoyed Marella a little.

Her dad used to call her "fiery" long before he realized how accurate that description truly was.

But it wasn't Marella's fault!

People tended to be annoying.

Especially a Hydrokinetic who was currently looking all peaceful and pretty and perfect while making snowflakes flutter and spin in intricate patterns.

That didn't mean Marella wasn't also grateful that Linh was willing to tag along to her Pyrokinetic lessons. it was nice to see a friendly face after hours of Fintan's rambling. Plus, it seemed like a good idea to have someone with water powers around while she practiced setting things on fire.

They were even finding some pretty cool ways to work together. Fire and water might be opposites—but that didn't mean they couldn't be combined. Marella had actually figured out a way to ignite Linh's rain, and she couldn't wait to use that little trick on the Neverseen—assuming those black-cloaked losers ever showed up again.

For a fearsome, unstoppable rebellion, they sure spend a lot of time hiding.

"Are you going to start by asking him about the cache or do the lesson first?" Linh asked, reminding Marella why they were there.

Marella shrugged. "Depends on Fintan's mood."

Sometimes he was already babbling about some fancy new fire trick when she arrived, as if he'd started the lesson without bothering to wait for her. Other times she couldn't get anywhere with him until she'd let him go on and on and on about how foolish the Council was, or how badly he'd been wronged, or how much he missed the feel of a flickering flame—and she didn't necessarily blame him for the last one.

Part of her wanted to hold on to her fireball forever.

Make it her smoky little pet.

Instead, she curled her fingers into a fist and snuffed it out—but she didn't let all the heat dissipate. She called a single tingling glint deeper, letting it sear through her veins and settle into her heart.

She knew it was a risky move, even with all the defenses she wrapped around it. But she couldn't bear the cold emptiness of Fintan's prison without a least a tiny fleck of warmth tucked away.

A secret spark whispering, I'm here. You're not alone.

"Okay," she said, weaving a few strands of her hair together to clam her twitchy fingers. She'd picked up the nervous habit years ago—after her mom's accident—and the tiny braids were kind of her trademark now. "i guess I should stop stalling and head down to deal with Sir Creepysparks, huh?"

Linh smiled. "Probably. Unless you want to rehearse what you're going to say."

"Nah. I'm just going to offer him an ugly flower—that doesn't exactly need a big speech. Oh, but that reminds me…"

She reached into her cape pocket and pulled out the spiky dark blue Noxflare—which looked more like a dying weed than a super-rare flower—and held it up to the guards. "Mr. Forkle already checked this before I brought it here, to make sure it's safe for me to offer to Fintan. but I figured you'd want to check it too."

"We do," they agreed in unison as one of the biggest, deadliest-looking guards took the Noxflare from Marella and brought it over to the other goblins.

A lot of mumbling about potential kindling and fire hazards followed.

Eventually, the guards decided to quick-freeze the Noxflare into a block of ice in case there was any heat stored inside.

"Whoa," Marella said when the scary guard returned with the flower-filled ice cube—which had turned out as big as her head. "How heavy is that thing?"

The guard studied Marella's skinny arms. "I can carry it for you if you'd like."

"That'd probably be smart." Marella was pretty sure she'd drop it, or her fingers would freeze off during the long walk—and using telekinesis would drain her mental energy. "But can you stay out of sight? I was planning to tell Fintan he can only see his weird flower thing if he gives me access to his memories, and that's kinda ruined if there's a giant goblin holding it right next to me.

Not that it made the plan any less pointless.

Fintan was obviously going to turn her down.

He's already made it super clear that the only trade he was interested in was for his freedom—which was never going to happen.

Marella doubted a dying flower frozen in ice was suddenly going to make him be like, You know what? Who needs out of this horrible prison when I can have that!

But she was out of other ideas.

And Sophie wanted her to try the Noxflare thing, so…

Whatever.

Marella didn't care about Sophie's current power trip the way Stina did.

As long as she didn't have to be the one coming up with all the plans—or almost dying all the time—Marella was fine following orders. Especially if she got to say I told you so when they turned out to be a huge waste of time.

"Sure you don't want me to come with you?" Linh asked as Marella pulled thick gloves onto her hands. "Fintan likes me."

Marella wasn't sure if "like" was the right word, since Fintan didn't seem to like anybody. But he'd definitely been impressed with Linh.

He'd demanded to speak with "the Hydrokinetic" after Marella mentioned she practiced her pyrokinesis with Linh, so Marella had convinced the goblin guards to let Linh down into the prison. And when Fintan asked for a demonstration of Linh's ability to ensure she wouldn't "hinder his training," Linh had stirred up all the ice shards on his floor and made them rain around him like he was trapped inside a snow globe—which actually made him applaud.

Apparently, most Hydrokinetics struggled to manipulate water in its solid form, and were limited to liquid water or water vapor.

But not Linh.

Of course.

Marella was pretty sure that Linh was more powerful than any of her other friends.

"Well, if you need me, you know where to find me," Linh said as Marella forced her feet to carry her into the cave. "I'll just be here, making another snow menagerie." She flicked her wrist and wove the hovering snowflakes into a soaring alenon.

"Ugh, at least make some ugly creatures this time," Marella called over her shoulder. "I want to see a row of snow ghouls when I get back here. Or a giant Princess Purryfins!"

Linh gasped. "Princess Purryfins is not ugly! I'm going to tell her you said that!"

Marella laughed. "I'm sure you will."

She would've teased Linh more about her ridiculous obsession with her pet murcat, but the frigid air from the prison hit Marella hard, and she had to lock her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering.

At least she didn't have to make the journey by herself this time.

Marella could hear the scary goblin guard keeping pace several steps behind her as her eyes slowly adjusted to the dim blue light cast by a series of glowing spheres dangling from the ceiling. The downward slope grew steeper with each winding curve, and Marella was always tempted to try sliding down the icy floor instead of walking—but she'd probably end up crashing into one of the weird ice thrones outside Fintan's cell. And she knew better than anyone that injuries couldn't always be healed.

Plus, the trudge gave her a chance to add extra defenses to the heat she'd tucked away in her chest.

She often wondered if Fintan had hidden a few sparks of his own when he was arrested. After all, he had to know the Council would put him on ice for the rest of eternity. Wouldn't he try to preserve what little heat he could?

But Marella had stretched out her senses a zillion different ways and never felt the slightest tingle of warmth when she was around him. So either there was nothing to find or Fintan was that good.

She had a horrible feeling it was the latter, and he was waiting for just the right moment to reveal his grand plan—but that wasn't the kind of thing she should be thinking about before having to face him.

Still, she spent the next few turns trying to figure out what she'd do if she were right.

Her feet turned numb while she plotted, and her bones were officially aching by the time the path widened— the only warning that they were getting close to Fintan's cell.

A few curves later, his cage came into view: a stark, icy bubble in the center of a circular cavern.

The round wall was reflective on the inside, so even though Marella could see Fintan pacing along the edge of his frozen barricade, he wouldn't be able to see her until she triggered the sensor by sitting in one of the freezing thrones positioned at the only point Fintan could peer through.

He looked extra tired that day—his sky blue eyes sunken by more shadows than usual, and he kept muttering under his breath about incompetence as he tucked his messy blond hair behind his pointy ears with a bit more force than necessary.

Marella glanced back at the scary guard, making sure he'd ducked into the shadows near the back of the cell before she made her big appearance. Then she took a deep breath and pressed her hand against her heart, reaching for her secret spark of warmth one last time before plopping into the closest ice throne.

"Awwwww, looks like you missed me," she said, tossing back her hair and flashing her brightest smile.

She liked to start her visits by showing Fintan she wasn't afraid of him—even if she totally was.

But Fintan didn't glance her way.

"I'm not in the mood for games," he warned as he continued his slow march around his cell.

"Neither am I" Marella assured him, deciding that was her cue to start with the cache. She sat up taller, trying to look extra confident as she added, "But I do have an awesome trade to offer you!"

Fintan sighed. "If this is about my cache, I already told you what I'm willing to accept. Unless you're here to grant me a day of freedom—"

"I'm definitely not. But! I found something you should like even better." She paused, hoping the extra bit of anticipation would somehow make her offer sound more exciting when she told him. "Noxflares!"

Fintan scrunched his slender nose. "What are Noxflares, and why would I care about them?"

Marella tilted her head, trying to tell if he was faking.

She hadn't expected him to jump around or applaud or anything—but she had expected him to at least know what Noxflares were.

Then again, his mind had been shattered and pieced back together so many times, his memories had to be in shambles—and Ancient minds tended to be a total mess anyway, since they were crammed with thousands of years of information and the past and present blurred together.

"Would it help if I told you I stopped by your old estate on my way here?" she asked, "Your garden could use some gnomish help, by the way. All the plants have turned into a giant dying tangle. But I dug around and managed to find this scraggly vine with dark pointy flowers—and I hear that plant is special to you, so I picked a few and—"

"You picked my Noxflares?" Fintan snapped, rushing to the wall of his cell and pressing his palms against the ice. "You must let me see them!"

Marella's lips curled into a huge smirk. "I thought you didn't know what they were."

Fintan gritted his teeth so hard, it sounded like cracking ice.

"Hey, I'm not saying I won't share. Buuuuuuuuuuut it'll cost you—and I'm pretty sure you can already guess what I want." She paused for another beat before she added, "Just so we're clear: I'll show you one of your Noxflares if you open your cache and show me what's inside."

Fintan's jaw tightened even more and his hands curled into fists.

But he didn't say no.

He didn't say anything—which was definitely new.

Marella had already offered him a long list of trade suggestions that she, Linh, Maruca, and Stina had all come up with—some really cool ones! And Fintan had shot each one down before she could even finish the offer.

She couldn't believe he looked so tempted by an ugly flower.

but as the silence dragged on, Marella started to wonder if she'd misread the situation.

maybe she'd pushed him too hard—taunted him too much—and now Fintan was letting her sit there in the cold, knowing the icy throne was turning her butt and legs numb.

She was trying to decide if she could make standing up look like a power move when Fintan told her, "Fine. You have a deal—but since you're only offering one Noxflare, I'll only show you one memory."

Marella barely stopped herself from blurting out, SERIOUSLY?

"Orrrrrrrrrrrrrr," she said instead, wanting to kick herself for not bringing more Noxflares with her. The whole thing had just seemed so silly—and the first few she'd picked had crumbled to dust. But the vine had lots more flowers, so she could fix the mistake super easily. "How about I go back, grab eight more Noxflares, and then you show me all nine memories?"

Fintan grinned. "Tempting. But one Noxflare is really all I need."

Need?

Marella wasn't a fan of that wording.

But before she could ask him what he needed it for, he added, "My offer expires in ten seconds," and started counting down.

By "six" she decided that one memory was better than nothing.

"Fine," she said, pulling the cache from her pocket and holding the marble-size orb up to the light. "But you go first. How do I open this thing?"

No way was she going to risk letting him back out—especially since he probably wasn't going to be happy when he saw his precious flower was stuck in the middle of a giant ice cube.

Fintan held out his hand. "Give me the cache, and I'll open it."

Marella laughed. "Hard pass."

"Ah, but you don't have a choice. I'm the only one who can access the memories. And I need to make physical contact with the cache in order to do so."

Marella squinted at the tiny gadget.

She didn't know much about caches—aside from the fact that only Councillors used them and that each colorful inner crystal held a single Forgotten Secret. But she did know that Dex had already tried everything he could think of to open the cache and failed—and he was one of the best Technopaths ever.

"Do I need to start counting down again?" Fintan asked. "I believe we'd gotten to five…"

Marella chewed her lip. "Uh, how do I know you're not going to destroy the cache or try to hold it for ransom or something?"

Fintan's smile was colder than his cell. "You'll just have to trust me."

"Yeah, I don't see that happening."

Fintan shrugged. "Then our deal is off."

Marella rolled her eyes. "Come on. Even if I wanted to, it's not like I can open your cell door and hand the cache to you."

She wasn't even sure if his cell had a door. The wall looked like one big solid piece of ice.

"You've proven to be very resourceful during our lessons," Fintan reminded her.

"Yeah, but—"

"It's your call," he interrupted. "If you want a memory, you'll have to trust me."

She snort-laughed—but before she could get another word out, he repeated, "You'll just have to trust me." And she could tell that was the only response he was going to give.

She turned to the scary guard, who had started pacing in the shadows. "Is there a way to pass Fintan a small item?"

"Ah, you have a hidden goblin escort—I knew you were resourceful!" Fintan clapped his hands. "And yes, there is a way to pass me my cache, otherwise I wouldn't have suggested it. Any guard can open the disgraceful tube they pass my horrid, frozen bits of food through. The cache should fit nicely."

The guard gripped his sword. "I cannot allow any unauthorized item to enter his cell."

Fintan clicked his tongue. "Clearly you're not considering the fact that I've already had plenty of chances to make this trade—and turned them all down. Do you think I would do that if the cache was even remotely useful to me?"

The goblin couldn't argue with that logic.

Neither could Marella.

And when Fintan went back to counting down, she told the guard, "The Black Swan knows I've been trying to make this trade—and they're working with the Council now. No one would let me do this if they thought the cache was dangerous."

Then again, they'd never discussed the possibility of handing the cache over to Fintan—but surely someone must've considered that during all their endless talking and obsessive overplanning…right?

Besides, if anything went wrong, she could always remind them that this was Sophie's idea.

"I don't like this," the scary guard growled. But Marella gave him her I-totally-know-what-I'm-doing glare until he set the frozen Noxflare down with a particularly dramatic thud, snatched the cache, and spent an eternity squinting at the tiny crystal, spinning it all different ways. "If anything happens, my priority will be subduing the prisoner—not protecting you. Are you certain you want to take that risk?"

Marella absolutely wasn't.

But…this might be their only shot at seeing one of Fintan's Forgotten Secrets.

Plus, she had her tiny little spark buddy she could call on if she needed. Surely she could use that to…

To what?

Take down a superpowerful, much more experienced Pyrokinetic with a history of murdering poeple?

But…did she really want to wimp out?

Sophie wouldn't.

And yeah, Sophie had, like, a permanent bed in the Healing Center. But Marella was pretty sure their whole group would vote "DO IT!"

There were also a dozen other armed goblins who would rush down as backup.

And Linh could attack Fintan with her cutesy snow animals.

It'd almost be worth it to watch Fintan get swallowed up by an ice wave shaped like Princess Purryfins.

"I can handle myself," she decided, using a tone that hopefully sounded intimidating.

Fintan's gleeful laughter echoed off the ice.

The scary guard muttered something about the arrogance of elves as he reached toward the top of Fintan's frozen cell and felt around for a specific spot. A faint clicking sound followed, and a tiny round door slid open—far out of Fintan's reach.

"I can neutralize you within seconds," the guard reminded him as he held the cache up to the opening. "By numerous means. Some far more painful than others."

"Yes, I'm well aware of the absurd lengths the Council has taken to keep me contained," Fintan assured him. "But I don't plan on giving you a reason to use any of them. Not today, at least."

The guard bared his supersharp pointy teeth, and Marella wanted to shout NEVER MIND, JUST KIDDING! But she let the guard shove the cache through the tiny opening—and then it was too late to change her mind.

All she could do was watch the glass orb make its slow descent, rolling around and around and around—down some sort of invisible path etched into the wall of the cell.

Her stomach backflipped with each rotation, and she felt more than a little vomit-y when the cache dropped low enough for Fintan to catch it. But he simply held it up and studied it.

Then he coughed on it.

And sneezed on it.

"Ewwwwwww," Marella groaned when he followed that up by drooling on it. "You know, there are better ways to give it your DNA."

"Yes, I'm aware." Fintan cleared his throat and launched a slimy blob of spit at the cache. "I also know your little Technopath friend is going to ask you how I accessed the memories, so feel free to give him a detailed list." He wiped the cache dry with his fingers and then ran it through his greasy hair before sneezing and coughing on it again. "Some of these methods are vital. Some are distractions. None can be re-created without me—but it'll be fun if he tries, don't you think?"

He laughed so hard, it brought tears to his eyes, and he smeared them across the cache before sneezing and spitting on it again—making Marella very glad she had gloves to keep her hands clean once he returned the cache.

Assuming she actually got it back…

She tried to make out what he was saying when he started mumbling a bunch of stuff into the crystal, but the words were all mushed together. He also tapped the cache in so many different places that she doubted even Sophie and Keefe with their fancy photographic memories would be able to re-create the patterns. And he looked so smug as he did it all that Marella decided to look as bored as possible—which was why she was barely paying attention when the cache flared to life, projecting a small hologram of Fintan standing alone in a wide, empty field.

"Huh," Marella mumbled. "Gotta admit, I was expecting something a little more exciting than a tiny glowing Fintan in the middle of nowhere doing…nothing."

"Then you should learn to be more observant." Fintan pointed to the swaying grass around the hologram's feet, and after a few seconds, Marella realized there was a vine of blooming Noxflares. "I figured I'd show you what Noxflares can do, since you're so generously bringing one back into my life."

Marella squinted at the tiny flowers, waiting for something to happen.

And waiting.

And waiting.

"So…they…blow in the wind?" she asked.

Fintan sighed. "No, they do this."

The hologram of Fintan waved his arms, and all the Noxflares erupted with searing white flames.

"Yeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah, still not seeing why this needed to be a super-hush-hush Forgotten Secret," Marella grumbled as the Fintan hologram flicked his wrist and added purple fire to the white.

Sure, the flames were pretty—but all flames were beautiful.

"Try thinking like a Pyrokinetic!" Fintan snapped. "Tell me, are there any other flowers that could remain intact under such an inferno?"

Marella couldn't think of any.

And the Noxflares still didn't burn when the Fintan hologram added yellow flames to the fiery mix.

but other than clearly being fire-resistant, Marella didn't see the Noxflares actually doing anything—and the hologram of Fintan must've been equally unimpressed.

He frowned at the flaming petals and dragged a hand down his face, mumbling "something's missing."

"Still not seeing the point of this," Marella noted. "I mean…"

Her voice trailed off as the tiny Fintan waved his arms again and blasted the Noxflares with pink flames—which made the flowers spray sparks in every direction.

The effect was breathtaking.

Kind of like the sky during the Celestial Festival.

But that still didn't necessarily scream, THIS MEMORY IS IMPORTANT.

"How come the grass isn't catching fire?" she asked, grasping for anything that might be significant. "Do the Noxflares protect it or something?"

"No, I was protecting it. A pyrokinetic should always be in control of their flames."

He sounded so smug Marella was tempted to remind him that he let five Pyrokinetics die when he tried to teach them how to call down Everblaze and they all lost control—but that would probably make him throw one of his tantrums and send her away.

She needed the cache back first—and to hopefully find something useful in this boring memory. But sadly, all Fintan's hologram did was stare blankly at the stars and mumble "something's missing" again before the image flashed away.

"That's it?" the scary guard demanded, beating Marella to the complaint.

"Yeah, so…you put on a little fire show all by yourself with some spark-shooting flowers," she added, trying to sum up what she'd seen. "You were clearly disappointed by that little show. And then you must've remembered you needed to…"

She waved her hands, cuing Fintan to fill in the blank with whatever was "missing."

But he just stood there, staring at the cache with the same glazed look he always got whenever he started rambling about the beauty of fire—and Marella wished Linh had come with her after all.

Linh could pelt him with snowballs or something to snap him out of it.

But then she realized…

"You never figured out what was missing—did you?"

Fintan blinked and met her gaze. "Noxflares are full of possibility. But they need to burn."

"That doesn't answer my question," Marella noted.

Fintan shrugged. "Context was not part of our bargain."

"yeah, because I figured when I saw the memory, it would be obvious why it's this big Forgotten Secret. How does you setting some flowers on fire and then realizing you did it wrong matter to anyone?"

"I did nothing wrong," Fintan assured her, with a particularly haughty smile—but Marella wasn't buying it.

There was a tightness around his eyes that was way too familiar.

Her dad had that same tightness every time her mom was having one of her "bad days," and she knew exactly what it meant.

Disappointment.

Frustration.

A hint of helplessness.

So she marched over to the guard and grabbed the frozen Noxflare from the floor—too irritated to even notice how heavy the ice must've been as she hauled it back.

She plopped it in front of Fintan's cell. "Ta-da! One ugly flower, as promised—and I'm sure you're not surprised that I had to freeze it before I brought it down here."

"I'm not." Fintan dropped to his knees and gazed at the Noxflare like he was seeing a long-lost friend.

He pressed his hand against his cell, trying to get as close as he could. "Such power. Such…promise."

"Uh-huh," Marella agreed, letting his stare and stare, hoping it would help him let his guard down.

When his eyes turned a little teary, she went in for the kill.

"But there is something still missing, isn't there? That's why you saved this memory—to remind yourself to keep looking."

A whole lot of painful silence passed before Fintan slowly nodded.

Marella wanted to feel triumphant.

But all she'd done was prove the entire trade had been pointless.

There was no game-changing clue.

No dirty little secret about the past.

Certainly nothing to help them stop their enemies.

And she had a pretty strong hunch the other eight memories in the cache would be just as ridiculous.

"The answer is out there," Fintan murmured. "I can feel it. I just can't grasp it. Perhaps…"

"Perhaps?" Marella prompted when his eyes locked with hers.

Fintan stepped closer to the ice, keeping his voice low, like he didn't want the guard to hear him. "Perhaps a different Pyrokinetic is meant to find the truth. One who's already convinced the Council to trust her."

Marella laughed. "The Council doesn't trust me."

"The fact that you're here for a pyrokinesis lesson says otherwise—particularly since the lesson is with me." He started circling his cell again, mumbling under his breath and nodding. The only words Marella caught were "possible," "improvising," and "best option."

After three more times around the cell, he stopped in front of Marella again, leaning even closer to the icy wall as he whispered, "I believe it's time for me to offer a trade of my own."

"A trade," Marella repeated, not missing the way the scary guard gripped his sword.

Fintan glared at him. "This conversation is between me and my prodigy. She stands here of her own free will, shielded by who knows how many different kinds of protections—and she can leave anytime she pleases. Your presence is no longer needed."

"You still have her gadget," the guard argued.

"I suppose I do. but that can be easily remedied." Fintan set the cache on whatever invisible ledge it had slid down in the first place and gave it a good shove, sending it spinning up the path toward the top of the cell.

The guard had to scramble to catch it when it launched out of the ice bubble.

"See?" Fintan said, shifting his gaze back to Marella. "I can be trusted."

"Pretty sure the only thing I can trust is that you'll do what's best for you," Marella countered.

"As long as you get what you want, why would you care? After all, no matter what, I'm still stuck in here, aren't I?" He waved his arms around his little ice bubble, which suddenly looked way less secure than it had during her other visits. "Oh, relax—all I'm asking for is a little information."

Marella crossed her arms. "Right—and information has never gotten anyone hurt or killed."

"It's not that kind of secret. It's…" He frowned. "Honestly, I don't know what it is—and for someone my age, with my connections, that says something, doesn't it? I doubt any of the Vackers even know the full truth."

"Then how am I supposed to find it?" Marella demanded.

"As I said, you've proven to be quite resourceful. Particularly when you team up with your little friends." He scowled at the guard again before motioning her to step closer—until her ear was practically pressed up against the ice.

A voice in the back of her head kept screaming, WHY ARE YOU LISTENING TO HIM?

But…she was curious.

And there was nothing wrong with hearing his offer, was there?

Fintan's breath fogged the ice, obscuring his face as he whispered, "All I ask is that if you ever find out what's missing from the Noxflares, you share it with me."

"Why?" Marella glanced at the frozen flower, wishing she could see something more than just ugly shriveled petals.

"Because I want to know," Fintan said simply. "And because I can give you what you want in return."

"The rest of the memories in your cache," Marella clarified.

Fintan nodded. Then his lips curled into a smile. "And one other—something you've long wondered about, even though you probably don't admit it to yourself."

Marella raised one eyebrow, refusing to show any more interest than that.

Fintan cupped his hands around his mouth and pressed them to the ice before he whispered, "I know what happened to your mother."

Marella sucked in a breath.

"Yes," Fintan added. "I'm talking about her 'accident'—if we can really call it that. I know why she fell. And why her injuries were so incurable."

Marella stumbled back, collapsing into the nearest throne and hugging herself to stop her body from shaking with tremors that had nothing to do with the cold.

A tiny, terrified part of her had always thought the story she'd been told about her mom's fall hadn't totally made sense.

But everyone—everyone—was convinced it had been an accident.

Even her father.

And if it wasn't…

She leaned toward Fintan. "I don't need your games."

"Oh, this definitely isn't a game. But it's the only way you'll ever know the truth, and before you start overthinking everything, consider this: You have all the power here. Make the trade, don't make the trade—it's totally your call. You also don't have to make a decision right away. I'm trapped in this prison. I'll never find the answer on my own—and I'll never know if you find the answer unless you decide to tell me. So there's zero pressure. No one even knows we've had this conversation—and don't worry about the guard. See how frustrated he looks? That's because I made sure he only heard what I wanted him to hear. The rest is our little secret."

Our little secret.

Fintan was probably the last person she should have a secret with.

And yet…he had a point.

No one knew he'd made her this offer—and it wasn't like she'd come to any decision.

She didn't even have the information Fintan wanted anyway!

And with the way their investigations always seemed to go, she'd probably only find a whole lot more questions.

So there was really no point in telling anyone about this.

She could tell them whens he needed to.

If she needed to.

That wouldn't be wrong…would it?

It didn't feel wrong—or it wouldn't have if Fintan's smile wasn't so creepy.

"I'm not agreeing to anything," she said, wanting to make that very clear.

"You're not," Fintan assured her. "So how about we put this out of our minds and get started with our lesson? I'm sure your Hydrokinetic friend is wondering why you haven't come up to practice yet."

Linh was probably starting to worry.

She'd probably also built enough snow animals to make a frozen Sanctuary.

"Fine," Marella said, standing up and dusting ice off her cape. "What do you want me to work on today?"

"How about I teach you how to make those colored flames you saw in the memory," Fintan suggested. "You know, in case that ever comes in handy."

He winked, and the guard groaned and held out the cache to Marella. "Sounds like I'm no longer needed."

"You aren't," Fintan agreed.

The guard growled—looking scarier than ever—and turned to march away. But he spun back after a few steps. "He's right that I don't know what he offered you. But I can tell you're tempted. And I hope you're smart enough to reject it. Never make a deal with someone who has nothing to lose."

"I'm not," Marella promised.

And she wasn't.

She hadn't made any decisions—except to keep this to herself. But that didn't mean anything.

She was just trying to avoid a ton of drama and arguing and having people give her advice she didn't need.

Plus, everyone has secrets.

Shoot—the great Sophie Foster had more secrets than anyone.

So it was fine.

Everything was fine.

Nothing had changed.

Time to focus on controlling her fire.

And yet, for the rest of the lesson, the tiny spark in her heart burned hotter and hotter and hotter. Whispering a new plea.

Trust me.

Trust me.

Trust me.

Note: Thank you to @bookwyrminspiration for doing the bulk of this transcription!

[huntunderironskies]

If (hypothetically speaking) a guy (not necessarily me, but whoever's doing it would definitely be very smart and handsome) were to make a game about were-creatures (guess what it's inspired by) in an urban fantasy setting (ft. a lot of fighting on both the social and physical front and sick-ass powers), how would you like the player characters to be handled in terms of mechanics?

For context: I'm planning on doing a splat type deal (like a character class if this somehow breaches containment from my normal sphere) with your species being your splat. This will determine powers and other benefits you'll have access to. Uncertain if it'll function on an x/y splat axis, this is still very early development phases and honestly I need to hack out just how I'm going to handle everything before we get to that step. I'm torn on whether or not I like the idea but I feel like the secondary solution here is to just do both.

And to be clear, I am very set on having a monster secret society here. I don't like the idea of them being individualistic or isolated, so having the splats be culturally cohesive in some way is very important to me. I'm also somewhat set on having a medium-to-high crunch system here, rules-lite monsters has been done a bit more extensively than I'd like. This will almost definitely be an in-house system as well.

So, with that said, here is my cost-benefit analysis for the three options. You might have to pitch me the secret fourth thing but I promise I will at least consider those.

Folkloric Archetypes

As you are probably very aware if you've heard me talk for more than five minutes, I really like religious studies. It's very easy to come up with general roles that certain animals can play within human folklore and mythology. Tricksters, warriors, psychopomps, and so on. The idea here is you get fairly abstract powers (like being able to talk to ghosts if you're a psychopomp) and get to roughly pick what species you might be that fits into that general archetype.

Bonuses: Permits a very wide variety of potential animal species. Lots of wiggle room in terms of what species can be what and I could just give general examples. Allows people to use their own animal species I might not have thought of.

Drawbacks: Extremely difficult to give broad archetypes any specific lore focus or concentrated society. My preference is towards simulationist systems and it'd be very hard to come up with ways to handle form bonuses since that will absolutely be a thing, what's the fun of a shapeshifter system if you don't get to literally go beast mode? Not as much room to expand on roles either since there's far less you can do with general archetypes.

Species-by-Species Case

Kind of self-explanatory. You get a grab bag of well-known species heavily associated with shapeshifting (wolves, hyenas, cats, bears, possibly seals, et cetera) and pick one you like. You'll still get at least some abstract powers, though.

Bonuses: Lends itself well to mid-to-high crunch simulationist thing. Easy to incorporate actual fun facts about what the animal in question is capable of and make those innate abilities. Easier to justify in an urban fantasy setting as having inspired various folklore bits IRL, meaning they feel like they have a natural place in the setting. A lot easier to justify each group having highly specific cultural practices, making the options feel more unique.

Drawbacks: Way less freeform in terms of character options, meaning player options are more limited. Simulationist usually means tons of tweaking stats and having to fuss over game balance while remaining somewhat realistic, so lots of cognitive overhead for the designer, who may or may not be me.

Both (usage of an x/y splat axis?)

Yeah. My first thought is that in this case the species splat would be like..."giant predator" or "stealth ambusher" or whatever, and then you have a cultural splat that's more like what your folklore role is (so the whole "trickster" or "psychopomp" thing.)

Bonuses: Best of both worlds...? Maybe?

Drawbacks: Not sure how to handle the way shapeshifter culture would work here. Justifying something like a trickster bear seems like it would be difficult which could lead to some incongruities. oh god so many powers to make

[autumnbrambleagain]

Vampiric Hunger is the most fascinating thing to me, and the quintessence of early Morrowind Modding.

With just janky MWScript, the author was able to make a hunger system where you need to feed on blood, and often early on, petering out as you go longer. It adds sun damage based on a percentage of health and ways to deactivate it with items. It gives you new vampire powers the longer you're a vampire. As far as coding goes, it's arguably not the most impressive vanilla Morrowind mod to exist, but it is certainly up there in the top few pushing the vanilla engine as far as it could go without MWSE.

In terms of writing you have lines like "Please Noooo." in response to you harvesting someone's blood. It's... bad.

And in terms of actual design... they changed the bonuses Vampirism gives you from Attributes to Curses. Which is an actual, in-engine mechanic! And for all the incredible scripting work, lovingly commentated and clear and coherent, I can only imagine this:

They changed it to Curse because uhm vampires are cursed right that's way cooler.

And as a result, the stats and skills you get for being a vampire are temporary and if anything drains or damages them you can never get them back ever because curses are an in-engine function that was never finished being implemented and you set it to curses without it being a function that works and now your mod doesn't fucking work.

There are mods that fix this, allegedly, but the one I'm using doesn't seem to be working for me, which is just. Just fantastic really because it's going to be a huge fucking deal to reset my stats to where they're supposed to be, and then even more testing to see if I can get the "fixed" version to actually work right before I just scrap the mod alltogether.

Because the version I'm using helpfully put half the fixes in a DIFFERENT .esp that adds a bunch of shit I don't want and wasn't using and didn'' realize until later the fixes were in THERE for some reason, you know, because who would put the fixes in the bonus extra optional fucking esp lol? And switching to a fixed .esp doesn't seem to be working and worse, seems to prevent stat restore on drinking blood, which, I don't even know why that's fucking up now did you HOOK the stat restore into it being a curse somehow??? The fuck did you do.

But it's the utter living SYMBOL of early Morrowind modding. You accomplished something far beyond the expectations of what the game could do... and then fucked it up, entirely, made your mod actively deleterious and broken, because you went "haha isn't vampirism a curse? there's an option for curses here that sounds way cooler I"m gonna make them a curse instead"

And to this day no one's done a better vampire mod. There's Devilish Vampires now, but Vampire Embrace has a complex dialogue system that allows people to talk to you if they like you enough, and has a pre-greeting system that allows you to convince them to talk to you even if they normally wouldn't, and... Devilish Vampires has it so you can do it if you wear a closed helmet and only if you do that. If you're a beast race there's One Hat that works and that's it. And instead of allowing you to feed on people repeatedly, and collect thralls and make new vampires, it... makes you feed on corpses, forcing you to kill someone every time ? ? ? I guess? ? ? You're basically exchanging like two dozen awesome systems for a fifth of the content like no offense very impressive mod also but VE/VH just remains completely unmatched

Vampyr looked cool but that project hasn't gotten an update in over a year so rip.

Meanwhile Vampiric Hunger would have worked great if the author hadn't gone "wow... vampirism is a curse and there's a curse option here... neat!"

And that's. That's So <s>Raven</s> Morrowind.

well i guess my next morrowind time is going to be spent fixing someone else's mod. again. because that's what morrowind is BAYBEY

[trigun-sims-shenanigans]

freak bug lover themselves, Zazie Beast has arrived, and they hate everyone

info on zazie !

zazie goes by they/them pronouns

zazie is a vampire, so they are immortal

their design is based on the second body created in trimax !

still a huge bug lover

bonuses !

[denimbex1986]

'Now that we have the official release dates for the upcoming Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials confirmed, sci-fi fans can't wait to see just how David Tennant and Catherine Tate's return will unfold.

Well, as if the news of the new episodes couldn't get any more exciting, it's also been announced that all three episodes will be available for fans to own for themselves.

Being released as a three-disc pack, the release will be available to own on steelbook, Blu-ray and DVD from Monday 11th December.

Pre-orders are available today, with the 60th anniversary specials available from Amazon on DVD, Blu-ray or steelbook, as well as Rarewaves, HMV and Zavvi.

But having the special episodes for yourself is not the only draw for the new DVDs.

The three-disc release will also have some exclusive additional content for fans, with the full list of exciting bonuses including scene breakdowns, a Yasmin Finney set tour and new actors introducing their characters.

The additional content in the DVD set includes scene breakdowns from Rachel Talalay, Chanya Button and Tom Kingsley. But the list of special features is much longer, and includes:

The Star Beast Behind The Scenes

The Fourteenth Doctor Reveal

Wild Blue Yonder Behind The Scenes

The Giggle Behind The Scenes

The Giggle In-vision Commentary

The Star Beast In-vision Commentary

David and Catherine's Flashbacks

Yasmin Finney Introduces Rose Noble

Designing the Fourteenth Doctor

Set Tour with Yasmin Finney

The Star Beast - Behind The Scenes Trailer

Wild Blue Yonder - Behind The Scenes Trailer

The Giggle - Behind The Scenes Trailer

The Cast Introduce the Villains in Wild Blue Yonder

Behind The Scenes Fun with David and Catherine

Video Diary with David Tennant's Stand-in

TARDIS Set Tour with David Tennant and Phil Sims

Ruth Madeley Introduces Shirley Bingham

Neil Patrick Harris Introduces the Toymaker

Becoming the Toymaker

60th Specials Recap with David Tennant

The anticipated episodes will, of course, see the return of Tennant, this time as the Fourteenth Doctor, in episodes which are titled The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder and The Giggle.

The 60th anniversary run will see Tennant reunited with his former on-screen companion Donna Noble, played by Tate.

The new specials, which finally have a confirmed release date, will be followed by a Christmas special which will star Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor, before his first full season arrives in 2024.

And the Doctor Who news just continues to get ever more exciting, with it recently being announced that Kate Herron and Briony Redman are joining forces to write an episode for the upcoming season.

The new era of the long-running sci-fi show sees a return of showrunner Russell T Davies, who doesn't seem to be going anywhere else anytime soon.

Recently speaking at the recorded concert of BBC Radio 2's Doctor Who @ 60: A Musical Celebration, Davies hinted at possibly staying on for four seasons, which has come as a delight to fans who are counting down the days until the new episodes.'

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation

Reality Quest is an odd beast, with a player/protagonist who's so used to being worthless that he has to be magically kicked in the nuts before he engages with the risky, scary quests it sends him on.

Which is at once good humor and a curious choice that gets the reader wondering whether the gift is a weird faustian bargain like in some "real world with game rules" comics like Dice or (I haven't read to the reveal but I'm confident anyway) Real World Mobile.

I dunno, imagine if Frodo was like, "Wait there are hooded ghost men with swords who will try to murder me if I try to take this ring? Nope. Nope! Take it yourself!" And then Gandalf responded with, "Ooh, thing about that. I accidentally put a curse into the muffins you just ate and now if the Ring exists but you're not holding it for twenty minutes or so-" - Frodo screams and falls over, holding his groin - "-Whoof. That looks harsh. Hey, so, will you carry the Ring?"

Extreme Asshole Mentor is a usable flavor of comedy, and I find it works here for me. I totally understand if it's a flavor you despise. I also find it especially functional when paired with a faceless system. So it presents more like the game itself is designed to be hostile or hard, but then you get little hints - particularly in outrageous timing of some quests - indicating that it's probably a bespoke quest list being generated by a kinda-belligerent GM on the fly. Especially fun when you consider that the whole thing is a "gift for a good deed." He handed off a powerful item to a much more stacked player even though he won the loot roll, as a way of saying thanks for partying up, without being asked. It seems like that player wasn't just super-powerful in-game, but was actually some kind of deity.

I have now gone on a tangent, and gone from there onto a cotangent, and we need to get back to the point before I start teaching geometry.

The point, in short form, is that I think it's really interesting that the game doesn't give him quests for the things he'll do anyway. Even if they're hard. Even if they're scary. Even if they're dangerous or involve "fighting monsters" as the game system describes it.

He didn't have a quest to try and find evidence of how his father died. It's a real quest, in his real life, and with that unknown entity clearly watching every moment of his life I wonder what it thought. Does it not care whether he figures that stuff out? Is it limited in how much xp it can grant him so it's trying to only give rewards when the behavior will only be chased to avoid the magical nut shot and/or to gain the in-game bonuses? Does it think it would be gauche to give a real human a quest to try and learn how his father died? It's such an implied entity that all of these seem possible.

The game hasn't been bothering with extrinsic motivators for the main character's personal goals. This, in general, indicates that the game is pushing him around. By not rewarding him for doing what he wants and giving rewards for doing what it wants, it indicates clearly that It Wants.

This doesn't have to be as evil as in Dice, and I don't expect it will be. But it gives the game systems their own agency as an independent, quiet, but extremely impactful character of the story.

[marketingprofitmedia]

TeeStik Review – Create & Sell Trendy Merch in Seconds Using Just AI

Welcome to my TeeStik Review. In the hot creator economy right now, everyone is seeking how to make money online based on unique, trending content. Tailor-made merchandise is one of the most lucrative and never-ending industries, especially t-shirts and stickers. Not everyone has the budget to hire a designer, even if they are skilled in design.

That is where TeeStik comes in. This is a new app that will allow you to make and sell viral, eye-catching t-shirt and sticker designs instantly using a patent-pending artificial intelligence tool, requiring zero design or marketing experience.

This TeeStik review covers its features, benefits, price, pros and cons, and whether you should buy it. Whether you are a person who would like to develop a passive income stream with merchandise or if it is your hobby and you desire to make some money out of it, then this review is just for you.

What Is TeeStik?

TeeStik is a fully cloud-based, new AI app that assists in generating and selling t-shirt and sticker designs instantly without even requiring design skills. TeeStik uses text prompts that only require simple typing on the computer to produce print-ready, royalty-free designs within seconds. It also generates SEO descriptions, titles, and tags so that you can list your designs without any problems on the best marketplaces, such as Etsy, Redbubble, and Amazon Merch.

Whether a print-on-demand novice or an old pro, TeeStik makes the process of going from idea to live product elegant and easy. It offers a powerful set of automation features and simplicity of the user interface, allowing anyone to launch a profitable merch company working only a few hours a week and with zero investment in tools and zero learning process.

TeeStik Review: Overview of Product

Product Creator: Rick NG

Product: TeeStik

Launch Date: 2025-Jun-23

Launch Time: 11:00 EDT

Front-End Price: $12 One-Time Fee! (Lifetime Access)

Official Site: Click Here To Visit Official Salespage

Product Type: Tools and Software

Support: Effective and Friendly Response

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TeeStik Review: About Developer

This offer Rick NG is the creator of TeeStik. He is a renowned developer, known for his successful product launches. His concept for Booklytic derives from a desire to help people and organizations seamlessly capture their digital entrepreneur profiles and achieve results. Rick’s dedication to the highest standards in AI innovation sets him apart as a pioneer in software development and cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI).

He earned a reputation via lots of launches, including Storix, Booklytic, AIDigiMaker, AITravelBlog, PromptBuddy, EBBuddy, BlogAutoMate, 6SiteAI, eBSiteMate, RapidStoreZ, PromptSiteZ, AITravelSite, AI Beast, Easy Faceless Vid-Review Builder, eBGenius, and many others.

TeeStik Review: Key Features of TeeStik

AI T-Shirt Design Prompt Builder:

Type in your niche, and pick among various styles, types of audience, layouts, moods, and color themes. TeeStik will auto-generate a comprehensive Midjourney-style prompt that has been specifically personalized to create clean, high-converting t-shirt designs, and one that you do not need to guess .

Prompt Builder: AI Sticker:

TeeStik comes with another builder devoted to sticker designs. You will put in your main idea and select the emotional mood, type of art, color scheme, and white outline. The app then creates an AI prompt without any text that is ideal to create funny, captivating stickers.

Design Generator:

When you are ready with your prompt, simply generate an AI-created image that you can download within moments. It does high-quality designs and formats them for print-on-demand sites, such as Etsy, Redbubble, and Merch by Amazon.

Campaign Saver:

When you make a prompt or design, TeeStik remembers your settings. It means you may reuse, edit, or enhance your past work at any moment, which is ideal when planning a scale or seasonal product line.

10,000+ Preloaded Designs:

Short of time to start building? Inside TeeStik comes a huge bank of ready-made designs—both T-shirts and stickers—that you can download, edit, and resell. Effectively doing it quickly overwhelms your store or test audiences.

Selling Fast Built-In Training:

Lesson-by-lesson instructions will help you start selling on Etsy, Redbubble, Merch by Amazon, etc.—they will be a perfect choice as a beginner.

TeeStik Review: How Does It Work?

Launch Your First Design In 3 Simple Steps

Step #1: Type in a Keyword

Just enter your niche or idea, such as “funny dog” or “golf grandpa.” Decide on your style, layout, mood, and colors.

Step #2: AI Worm the Work

TeeStik creates your design and makes a T-shirt or a sticker design ready to use within a matter of seconds.

Step #3: Download and Sell

Save your design and upload it to Etsy, Redbubble, Merch by Amazon, POD channel, or any of the other ones.

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TeeStik Review: Benefits of TeeStik

Instantly transform any keyword into a fully formatted AI prompt to achieve amazing Midjourney-like T-shirt designs. Easy to select niche, style, layout, and mood.

Designer-quality sticker prompts, devoid of any text, are available upon request. All you need to do is click on an object and select a style and mood; then, AI creates a sticker sample design that can be used as a prompt to create a professional design.

One click to produce images with your prompt—you can download designs of high quality in seconds and then sell them in any print-on-demand marketplace.

There is a huge library with hundreds and thousands of DFY T-shirts and sticker designs. You can download, customize, or resell them instantly, which is wonderful when it comes to making fast product launches.

Learn how to capitalize on your TeeStik designs through step-by-step training. Learn how to sell on Redbubble, Merch by Amazon, and Etsy.

Anyone can do it, as no design skills are required, and no experience is necessary to create the AI. With a simple ability to type in a keyword, TeeStik will convert it into a sellable product within a short span of time.

Sell as much art with the AI-created designs as you want and retain 100 percent of the sales. Make your store, clients, or freelance business.

Access TeeStik with any device—no installations required. All you need to do is log in and start creating at any location.

All of your timely preferences and designs are stored so that you can revise or restart campaigns or use them whenever you want.

Verify Users Say About TeeStik

TeeStik Review: Who Should Use It?

Total Beginners

Print-on-Demand Sellers

Etsy & Redbubble Sellers

Freelancers & Designers

Affiliate Marketers & Bloggers

Anyone Looking for a Passive Income Stream

TeeStik Review: OTO’s And Pricing

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Front-End (FE): TeeStik ($12)

OTO1: TeeStik Advanced ($37)

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TeeStik Review: Money Back Guarantee

Try TeeStik 100% Risk-Free For 30 Days Money Back Guarantee

We know that committing to tackling the unknown is scary, particularly when you have already had negative experiences with solutions that are either too complicated or untrue. That is why we come with a complete 30-day money-back guarantee for trying out TeeStik.

There is even an option to completely disregard TeeStik within 30 days in the event that you want to. We will refund you everything without asking any questions. We will remotely disable your license, guaranteeing no further charges. It is as easy as that.

Through this process, we ensure that you are completely risk-free and confident in your decision to join. We are proud of TeeStik’s offerings and want you to enjoy them. You have 30 days of time to test everything. The worst you can do is lose out.

TeeStik Review: Pros and Cons

Pros:

In seconds, AI can organize the creation of design.

These do not require Photoshop or Canva.

Straight-on designs on t-shirts, stickers, etc.

Inherent publishing services offered by Etsy & others

No learning curve involved; friendly to beginners

Single-time pricing and commercial rights

Good as side businesses, Etsy stores, and affiliate stores

Regularly Monthly Updates

World Class Support

Cons:

Required  One-time payment

Upsells may be needed for full potential

The app needs an internet connection to use it.

No one has noticed it until now!

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Complete your purchase of the TeeStik: My Special Unique Bonus Bundle will be visible on your access page as an Affiliate Bonus Button on WarriorPlus immediately after purchase. And before ending my honest TeeStik Review, I told you that I would give you my very own unique PFTSES formula for Free.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)

Q. What exactly is TeeStik and what does it do?

TeeStik is an AI-powered platform that helps you instantly create and sell T-shirt and sticker designs. It includes prompt builders, a design generator, 10,000+ ready-made designs, and built-in POD training—no design skills or software needed.

Q: Do I need to be a designer or have experience?

Not at all. TeeStik was built for complete beginners. Just enter a keyword, choose a few options, and the AI handles the rest. No technical or creative skills required.

Q: Can I sell the designs I create?

Yes! Every design you create or download comes with full commercial rights. You can sell them on Etsy, Redbubble, Merch by Amazon, or any other print-on-demand platform.

Q: Do I have to use MidJourney separately?

No. TeeStik has its own built-in AI image generator. You can create designs directly inside the platform without needing third-party tools.

Q: Is TeeStik cloud-based? Will it work on any device?

Yes, TeeStik is 100% cloud-based. You can access it from any browser on your desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone—no installation required.

Q: What if I don’t have any design ideas?

TeeStik comes with a massive vault of 10,000+ ready-made designs. You can start selling them immediately or use them for inspiration.

Q: How do I get started selling?

You’ll get access to a step-by-step POD training masterclass that walks you through how to list products, price them, and drive traffic using proven strategies.

Q: Is there a money-back guarantee?

Absolutely! You’re protected by a 30-day money-back guarantee. If TeeStik isn’t right for you, just contact us and we’ll refund your full purchase—no questions asked.

Q: Can I really resell TeeStik and keep 100% of the profits?

Yes, but only if you’re one of the first 100 buyers. You’ll receive a free Reseller License, which allows you to promote TeeStik as your own and keep 100% of each sale. We handle the support.

Q: Are there any ongoing fees?

No. TeeStik is available for a one-time payment only during this launch. There are no monthly subscriptions or hidden charges.

Final Verdict

TeeStik is an effective and easy-to-use AI tool allowing you to overcome the common barriers to entering a t-shirt business or sticker business. The software automates the design and listing on the marketplace, which allows anyone, with or without the relevant skills, the ability to quickly and easily create viral, print-ready merch. This makes TeeStik a valuable resource that no entrepreneur, creative, or side-hustler can afford to overlook.

TeeStik offers a business license and seamless connectivity with other leading print-to-order systems, making it an affordable option for generating passive income. If you have an idea to enter the thriving retail market but don’t want to invest hours in product design or copywriting, TeeStik is an excellent option. It may be the difference between ideas translated into products that sell and are trendy in no time.

🚀 Don’t miss out guys and start your journey with TeeStik today!

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Check Out My Previous Reviews: Fitness AI Review, Broadcaster AI Review, Fusion App Review, MagicBeast AI Review, MagicBeast AI Review.

Thank for reading my honest “TeeStik Review” till the end. Hope it will help you to make purchase decision perfectly.

[alltheotherblogs]

D&DB:Z Update.

Well, it's Saturday, and it's fully playable.

Races

Earthlings, Namekians, Frost Demons, Androids, and of course, Saiyans are all added and fully playable.

Classes

The Brawler, with the subclasses Precision, and Speed Blitz.

The Conqueror, with the subclasses Beast, and Demon.

The Blaster, with the subclasses Prince of Destruction, Emperor, and Demon King.

The Tactician, with the subclasses Trickster, and Copycat.

Items

We have ALMOST every item I intend to add as of it's playable state. We need Dragon Balls, Larger Space Ships, and the specific stats surrounding Capsule Houses. I intend to have Capsule houses provide you with temporary HP and KP bonuses.

Core Rules

Core rules as of right now are considered nearly finished besides Dragon Balls and Beam Clashes. And I'm planning on making the Dragon Balls TONIGHT. If I fail to do that, I'm gonna be so mad. I have the rough layout of both features. So, don't worry. They'll arrive.

Ending Statements

I will have Genie and Magician done relatively around the same times. They are going to heavily rely on magic. Which, to make them I'm just gonna convert spells into Magic Techniques using the Technique List. And you can do the same! The cost afterward should be reduced by 1/4th. So, whatever Ki Cost it ends up being in the end, it costs 1/4th of that in Kili.

I made the template so people could make all their own stuff. So enjoy. And just so you know, it's fully playable. I mean FULLY playable. You can go be any number of the classes right now. They are much stronger than normal DND classes and they are not intended to be played amongst the normal DND classes, but it's really fun to fight Tarrasques as a higher level Blaster, flying around so it can barely do anything to you. There will be some awesome enemies coming up soon, enemies like Frieza, his soldiers, Zarbon and Dodoria, and maybe even a few of the saiyans. I intend to design the enemies as they appeared in the original Dragon Ball Z, and even include things like King Piccolo, Mercenary Tao, and the original Oozaru, as well as Red Ribbon soldiers, battle suits, and androids!

(might have to add eighter)

It's gonna be a blast, and i'll be doing from Dragon Ball all the way up to the Buu Saga with increasing power for our custom enemies.

Oh and Appule is going to be the god of destruction in this universe.

[jblaketoper]

🔥 JACKPOT ALERT! THE HOTTEST GAMES YOU NEED TO PLAY RIGHT NOW 🚨

Ready to turn up the heat and chase the thrill? 🎰 The gaming world is buzzing with excitement, and if you're on the hunt for electrifying gameplay, jaw-dropping wins, and non-stop action, you're in the right place. From pulse-pounding slots to immersive adventures, there's something here for every thrill-seeker. Buckle up, because we're diving into the most talked-about games lighting up the scene today! 💥

🎮 GAME CHANGERS: THE TITLES THAT ARE BREAKING THE INTERNET

Let’s kick things off with the current chart-toppers those irresistible games that everyone is raving about. These are not just games; they are full-blown experiences, packed with vivid graphics, explosive bonuses, and gameplay that keeps you on the edge of your seat. 💣

🌟 Starburst Xtreme

This iconic intergalactic slot has been revamped for maximum thrill! Starburst Xtreme catapults you into a galaxy of blazing colors and wild wins. With expanding wilds, random multipliers, and super-fast spins, it’s designed to keep your heart racing. ✨🚀

Why It's Hot:

Wilds can land with up to 150x multipliers.

Payouts come fast and furious.

The new Xtreme Spins feature is a total game-changer.

🐉 Dragon’s Legacy

Venture into an ancient realm where dragons rule and treasures await. Dragon’s Legacy blends cinematic storytelling with blazing-hot mechanics that include free spin rounds, cascading reels, and mystery symbols. 🐲🔥

Why Players Love It:

A captivating mythical theme with stunning visuals.

Huge potential for back-to-back wins.

Unlock powerful dragon features as you progress.

🎭 Mask of Mystery

This masked adventure takes you into a luxurious masquerade ball, where secrets and riches hide behind every spin. With bonus rounds that play out like mini-movies and a soundtrack to die for, Mask of Mystery is a sensory delight. 🕵️‍♂️💎

Standout Features:

Multistage bonus game with escalating rewards.

Mystery symbols that transform into wilds or multipliers.

Elegant theme with a touch of mystery and glamour.

🧨 BONUS BONANZA: WHERE THE REWARDS EXPLODE

What’s a thrill without the thrill of winning BIG? These games aren’t just about aesthetics they pack a serious punch when it comes to bonuses. Let’s explore the bonus-packed beasts delivering jaw-dropping prize potential.

💸 Gold Rush Blitz

Feel the rush of digging through riches with every spin. Gold Rush Blitz is a high-volatility hit that throws bonus rounds at you like gold nuggets from a broken minecart! Pickaxe multipliers, exploding reels, and dynamic wilds are all in the mix. ⛏️🏆

Why It's Worth Your Time:

Massive free spin potential.

Multipliers can stack up to 200x.

Dynamic reels that shift and expand.

⚡ Zeus’s Fury

Enter the stormy skies of Olympus where the god of thunder himself might bless you with divine fortune. Zeus’s Fury features power-charged spins and thunderbolt bonuses that rain down wilds and multipliers. ⚡🧿

What Sets It Apart:

Lightning wilds that electrify entire reels.

God-tier payouts in the special Olympus round.

Stunning animation and soundtrack.

👑 LEGENDARY EXPERIENCES: WHERE STORY MEETS STRATEGY

The next generation of gaming isn't just about spinning and winning it’s about living the game. These picks are for those who love to sink into stories, unlock secrets, and take a strategic path toward big-time rewards.

🏹 Quest for the Emerald Blade

An epic medieval adventure awaits! Quest for the roosterbet puts you in the boots of a fearless hero on a mission to recover a magical sword. With branching storylines and a leveling system that affects your rewards, it’s like a role-playing game with a jackpot twist. 🧝‍♀️⚔️

Epic Elements:

Choose your path and unlock different endings.

Upgrade your skills to boost game features.

A narrative that changes based on your play style.

🦜 The Pirate’s Plunder

Set sail on a high-seas journey filled with danger, treasure, and cannon-blasting fun. The Pirate’s Plunder is more than just a game it’s a swashbuckling odyssey. 🏴‍☠️⚓

Why It Hooks You:

Ship battle bonuses where you pick your attack.

Collect treasure maps to unlock hidden game levels.

Sea-shanty soundtrack that keeps the vibes high.

💥 FAST-PACED FRENZY: QUICK-HIT GAMES FOR THE WIN

Pressed for time but still want a shot at glory? These rapid-fire games deliver the goods in seconds. Whether you’ve got five minutes or an hour, you can dive in, spin hard, and walk away victorious. 🕒💨

🧨 Turbo Spins

As the name implies, Turbo Spins is all about speed. With ultra-fast gameplay and simplified mechanics, you can get in and out with wins faster than a blink. It’s ideal for mobile players or anyone looking to fire off a few adrenaline-fueled rounds. 🌀🎯

Key Highlights:

Super-quick rounds with high volatility.

Instant win features that pay fast.

Minimal loading and maximum fun.

🍀 Lucky Shot

A modern twist on classic pull-and-win gameplay, Lucky Shot combines arcade energy with slot strategy. Perfect for casual players and high-rollers alike, its charm lies in the balance of chance and skill. 🎯💚

Fast Fun Includes:

Bonus games every few rounds.

Chance to multiply wins instantly.

Light-hearted, colorful visuals that are easy on the eyes.

🎁 FEATURE EXPLOSION: WHAT MAKES THESE GAMES STAND OUT

It’s not just about spinning reels. The hottest games of the moment feature inventive mechanics that transform the entire experience. These features aren't just flashy they directly impact your odds and elevate the excitement.

🔄 Cascading Reels

Watch the symbols fall and disappear like dominoes, making room for new ones with every win. Cascading reels create chain reactions and multiple opportunities to cash in on a single spin. 🧊💣

🌀 Expanding Wilds

Wild symbols that grow to cover entire reels can massively amplify your payout. They often come with multipliers, animations, and sound effects that make every spin feel like a blockbuster moment. 🎇🌈

🧿 Mystery Symbols

These hidden gems transform into random icons, often landing with a suspenseful animation. It's the gaming equivalent of opening a present you never know what you're going to get! 🎁🔮

🎲 Bonus Pick Rounds

Engaging minigames where you get to make choices that influence your rewards. Whether you're picking treasure chests, unlocking doors, or spinning a prize wheel, these moments add an extra layer of excitement. 🎰🗝️

📈 WINNING STRATEGIES: HOW TO MAXIMIZE THE THRILL

Gaming is fun, but smart gaming is next level. Let’s look at some tips to stretch your sessions and boost your winning chances. 🎓🧠

🎯 Know Your Game Volatility

High-volatility games offer big wins, but they may take longer to hit. Low-volatility games pay smaller amounts more frequently. Choose based on your style do you want consistent rewards or are you hunting that one massive payout? 📊

🧮 Use the Demo Mode

Most platforms offer a free version of games. Use this to learn the mechanics, understand the features, and practice your strategy without risking your balance. 🆓🕹️

💰 Set Win and Loss Limits

Before jumping into a session, set a limit on both your potential wins and losses. Knowing when to walk away whether you're up or down is the sign of a seasoned gamer. 🎓💼

🌐 COMMUNITY FAVORITES: WHAT OTHER PLAYERS LOVE

In any dynamic gaming environment, the wisdom of the crowd can’t be ignored. These games are not just trendy have a loyal fanbase that keeps coming back for more. 🎤💬

🧛 Bloodline Hunt

A vampire-themed slot with dark, gothic visuals and nightfall bonuses. Its community challenges and leaderboard make it a social experience as much as a solo one. 🦇🩸

🐾 Jungle Beats

A rhythm-based game where you sync spins with music. Fans love the immersive vibe and its syncopated bonus rounds that feel like a playable music video. 🐒🥁

✨ THE FINAL SPIN: WHAT MAKES A GAME UNFORGETTABLE

It’s more than graphics. It’s more than payouts. The hottest games on the market today combine innovation, engagement, and pure fun. Whether you're after the next mega jackpot or just a burst of adventure, there's a universe of thrilling options waiting for you.

So what are you waiting for? 🔥 Dive into these adrenaline-pumping hits and find your new favorite way to win. Spin smart, chase the thrill, and remember the next big jackpot might just be one click away! 💸🚀