#I was thinking of that weasel necromancy post

[arandomtennisplayer]

I wanted to draw fakemon, and it’s been a while since I have, so I decided to do the design prompter that @erinscoolart made. I went into this expecting to do a simple one or two evolution line to help me get back into designing fakemon- I immediately rolled a sixteen on the first step. Which meant it was time to design starter pokemon. 9 of them. I went to roll for the secondary types; ghost, poison and dark. Very emo honestly.

And so I got to work on these guys. They did end up sort of emo. I’ll admit that I’m not entirely happy with these guys but I think they’re pretty neat. I don’t actually have names for any of the evolutions because shrublet is probably the best I can do in terms of names.

[pikachugirltits]

Magic Set Speculation: Bloomburrow and Creature Types

So Bloomburrow is the set I'm most excited about this year and I saw someone on Reddit speculating about what sort of creature types we might see, so I chimed in on there with my speculation... but honestly I'm proud enough of my post that I'm copying it over here, partially in hopes of seeing what people over here think (well, with some tweaks to work better on here):

What we know for certain:

-the one piece of key art we've gotten shows a Mouse facing off against a giant fiery Wolf (perhaps it'll be an Elemental Wolf) There's also a firefly in the shot, so there might be some kind of Insect presence, although likely not major as per Mark Rosewater's comment on Blogatog here

-we've gotten another piece of art work showing a Squirrel using necromancy

-this WPN page specifically mentions Squirrels, Rats, Frogs and Rabbits

-this one borders on speculation, but I'm like 90% certain Tunnel Tipster from MKM is an Omenpath traveler from Bloomburrow. Ravnica does not have Mole people like that.

What we can speculate:

-Eldraine sure did give us several random Otters for no apparent reason, and also Bramble Familiar being a Raccoon stands out, as well as Ixalan's scientifically accurate classification of Coati Scavenger. Mark has spoken about how the Rats and Mice in Eldraine were a plant for Bloomburrow, so it's safe to say that they might not be the only ones.

-I've never actually read Redwall but I knew a guy who did, so as far as already existing Magic creature types, I think Badger, Ferret and/or Sable, Lizard, and Turtle are likely candidates for the more anthropomorphic creatures on the plane

-likewise, I can easily see Birds, Snakes, Foxes, and Cats taking on some kind of role, possibly similar to the fiery wolf we saw...and perhaps Bats as well

-as far as possible candidates for new creature types, I think Weasel and Hedgehog would be neat

[starlit-meloncholia]

i was tagged by @bisexual-paladin

Name: Alex/Will

Gender: Ostensibly a cisgendered male

Star sign: Scorpio

Height: 5′10

Time: ~0145 GMT-5

Birthday: 10/23

Favorite bands: Vansire, Polkadot Stingray, My Chemical Romance, uhhh probably others?

Solo Artists: Lemon Demon, Khai Dreams, Forrest, Takeuchi Mariya, Ohashi Junko, Panic! at the Disco (solo since 2015 at least lol)

Song stuck in my head: All I Feel is Love - Taiyo Ky

Last Movie: Uhhh... I think I watched Annabelle with my mother last week sometime. Past that, no clue - I don’t watch much TV or many movies ^-^;;

Last show: If web shows count, Helluva Boss. If not, the last thing I can remember watching was old some old Billy and Mandy episodes

When did I create this blog: Sometime around 2012  

What do I post?: Whatever I find amusing or interesting or worth sharing or... well, anything

Last 3 things I googled: A Weaseller, Tracklayer’s Helmet, Bulldog Mansion

Other blogs: Smolscreamingcrow (Gothic aesthetic blog where I share necromancy memes, corvid memes, and my depressed-ass poetry), psychstudentkitchen (where I save recipes I wanna keep), thefallofenthura (where I intended to keep information about my homebrew d&d setting before I ended up just getting a Worldanvil)

Do I get asks: I can’t remember the last ask I got lol

Following: 213

Followers: 158

Hours of sleep: Some days 1-3 hours, some days 12-15 hours. My sleep schedule’s been fucky since I got laid off lol

Lucky number: 13

Instruments: In general or that I keep up with? Throughout my life I have at various times played and/or given up on the flute, piano, violin, ocarina, harmonica, and ukulele. These days, I pretty much just play ukulele and occasionally piano

What am I wearing: A black tank top and camo shorts.

Dream job: Wacky college professor or gainfully unemployed (deja vu). Since I feel I’ve answered this same question before, lemme add: After the revolution, if it ever comes, I’d like to work with my hands doing repair work. I can repair most major appliances, and I’d love to learn to work on other things too like cars or electronics.

Dream trip: Japan for sure.

Favorite food: Uhhhh that’s a tough one ;v; I’m a gourmet at heart, I love so many foods. I guess bun bo xao, since I could really go for some right now~♪

Nationality: American, though I’m hoping to expatriate after I get my Ph.D

Favorite Song: Uhhh... Lately I would say Ichidaiji by Polkadot Stingray, or Metamodernity or Halcyon Age by Vansire, but my phone says my #1 most played song is Telephone Number by Ohashi Junko. Take that as you will.

Last book I read: Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson

Top 3 fictional universes I’d like to live in: Pokémon (Main series or spin-off, doesn’t matter), Cosmere (particularly Roshar), and possibly a big mistake but lately I wouldn’t mind living in the vivziepop version of hell (though I may well come to regret that)

I’ll tag @knighthawkxz, @treefullofstarlights, @ara-queen, @abortionbouquet, and @forgotten-fool!

[lilaclily00]

Curiosity

Truth's blocked off demonic omniscience from instantly understanding alchemy-so, of course, Alcor wants to learn about it BADLY. He grabs his chance once it's there, but things are rarely that simple.

I! Posted!! FMA!!! And!!!! TAU!!!!!

This is a crossover I started a long time ago, and I decided to post up some of it for Oct. 3rd and TAUathon! I have a couple other chapters I plan to post soon-ish. Cross-posted on FFN and AO3:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13713206/1/Curiosity

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26848849/chapters/65506687

It’s also under the cut:

Alcor wasn’t a regular customer at the Midway Bar. That was why, when he once dropped by, he was surprised to see another highly irregular customer there he’d only known of through word of mouth.

A vaguely humanoid shape sat on the corner stool, stark white that faded into black static around the edges. A blue drink, half-finished, floated by their elbow. Nyhraarhyn, the Palindromic Pain-Inflictor, tiredly slumped by their side, apparently having had to sit and listen a long while to the white demon’s tirade that reverberated even to Alcor’s stance at the bar’s entrance.

“Evidently, it was only equivalent exchange to rob him of his legs,” Truth was saying as Alcor broke out of his surprised stupor and inched his way to a stool of his own. “It is truly astounding how stupid my humans are, to think they can reverse death and defeat me of all gods!”

The rumors were true, Alcor’s mind supplied, his omniscience filling in the rest as he numbly sat down.

Truth was… an interesting guy, the other demons said, one of the oldest and oddest around. They didn’t bother making deals for people’s souls, most of the time, opting instead for pieces of their body or mind. That, coupled with their claim on every transmutation circle for human necromancy as their summoning circle—when alchemy actually worked and thrived in few universes, and even fewer humans attempted to use it to bring someone back from the dead—made their modus operandi seem like a rather inefficient way of gaining power. Nonetheless, they seemed about as happy as a demon could be, with their wide grin full of flat-edged teeth. Alcor reasoned that they likely had enough power that a regular supply was just not necessary—he was reaching that point, himself.

He was personally more intrigued by how they would play at being a god when they were rather obviously not. He supposed they could get away with it if the majority of the humans they “ruled” over didn’t believe in supernatural beings like demons…

“Yes, that is exactly how!” Truth chirped, suddenly floating beside Alcor with their signature grin, their body smaller than he expected. “My infinite stores of knowledge are also rather convincing.”

It took a moment for their words to register.

“Did you read my mind?” Alcor balked.

Truth, now evidently the size of a human preteen, barked out a laugh that grated at Alcor’s immaterial skin. “There is no need to read your mind when I am you, Dipper Pines.”

A discordant note struck at Alcor’s insides, and Truth’s grin softened the slightest bit. “Ah, I see I should be more careful. That name has not been spoken in decades. Here, how about I buy you a drink?”

Despite their demeanor, Alcor felt his guard go up as much as it does around most demons—if Truth understood him as well as they seemed to think, then this was likely a manipulation tactic for—for something, even if it was only their own amusement.

“I would say your distrust is a silly human quality to maintain, but… it is only reasonable to not trust other knowledge demons, yes?” Truth continued after ordering Alcor’s recent go-to, as if they just knew. “However, I know you have many questions about alchemy, while none of the other creatures here seem particularly interested. I suppose, then, that it is for my own amusement to indulge your inquiries for a moment.”

Alcor glanced between their face and the blue drink again floating at their side. They held nearly all information about their universe’s alchemy under lock and key—as in, Alcor’s omniscience didn’t work. They certainly wouldn’t just indulge Alcor’s increasing curiosity. “No deal?”

“Well, nothing is for free!” Truth tutted, grin growing again.

“I see,” Alcor said. “That’s too bad.”

“Oh, if you believe that will work on me, Dreambender—”

Surprisingly, their banter was pretty easy from there, and Truth even let Alcor weasel a few morsels of alchemic knowledge out of him, probably considering it “equivalent exchange” for succeeding at entertaining him through conversation. Perhaps, in being oddities and outsiders among their own species—the youngest and oldest among the most powerful demons—they found a commonality.

Truth’s drink was gone despite never actually sipping it, and Alcor had finished two refills by the time he began, “Okay, fine, you can’t tell me the best things humans have done with alchemy, so what about the worst?”

The white figure’s grin slowly dropped. Before Alcor could take back the question, they muttered, “Creating the Dwarf in the Flask,” and faded away.

He quickly realized they had probably answered because his omniscience couldn’t provide the explanation for why this "Dwarf in the Flask" was so awful. If even the weirdest knowledge demon out there was unsettled by it, though, perhaps Alcor’s reawakening human side did not want to know.

[cyberkevvideo]

Throne of Night Theory Builds Part 5: The Drow Demon Binder of Book 4

Continuing the posts of wondering what the builds of certain encounters would be for this AP, here’s a drow queen that has at least two demons under her command.

Like the other post, this uses only OGL material. I had discussed things with the Paizo legal team (it was suggested I do so and it’s good that I did), and to do this without any legal issues from their side, I would have to abide by the same rules that Gary did. I’m okay with that. However, Kickstarter is out of their jurisdiction so they couldn’t comment on anything further regarding that. I’m still being careful of what information I’m sharing (despite it being six years later and most of the public now has access to the updates anyhow).

Also, I didn’t note this in the last one, but any monsters that don’t change stats and are directly part of the encounters, I’ll just link them directly. Summons don’t count though as that can change from GM to GM. Tactics can be ignored if the NPCs have gained information about the party and this would cause them to act differently.

For space reasons, cropping the encounter build.

Again, all images shared here were done by the forever fantastic and amazingly talented Michael D. Clarke, aka SpiralMagus.

EDIT: Cleaned up the stats and fixed the broken link.

Book 4 discussed entering the drow city, for whatever reason that may be. It could finally be time for revenge for the drow siblings or maybe the dwarves wish to finally avenge the svirfneblin back in Book 1. Either way, the party enters here, take on an arena with spider riders and confront drow royalty that looks exactly like a dark elf version of a marilith. Both of these I’ve done previously, and have linked to those blog posts.

The situation here is that the party encounters the queen after they witness what looks to be some kind of civil war between drow families. One side are all regular drow surrounded by darkness, while the other is surrounded by flames and winged demons. My assumption is that you side with one of the two warring factions.

Ignoring that one or two of the encounters might include drow troops, I’m jumping straight to the main course. In Way of the Wicked, this same spot was a CR 18 encounter. Unfortunately, the picture doesn’t tell the entire story because no matter how I try, I can’t balance it that high without adding in a fourth party that’s not in the picture.

Meet Queen Alyarra Aleanmtor. Her name literally means “Legendary Queen of the noble line of the Abyss.” I used this generator. She’s described as a merciless monarch who wants to rule over everything, and wants to destroy the empire the party is trying to create.

Thinking about the drow side of the AP, I thought it’d also be interesting if she was also the antagonist that was responsible for their mother’s death and their banishment. It’d be a great story beat if that was the case so they could finally get their revenge on her. If this wasn’t the case in the original story, then it definitely should be now.

The best part of this build is I even got to use a feat from Fire Mountain Games Book 5 (which I’ll attach a link to it). I’m assuming that he would have used at least something from his previous publication. It’d be too sad to have made those feats, class archetypes, items, and spells only to have them appear once. This all takes place in the same universe, after all.

Don’t forget to add the +2 hp/HD for any and all demons the queen summons with summoning spells. As well, as the extra +1 for Superior Summoning and bonus to stats for Augmented Summoning (which grants even more hp) or all creatures summoned.

QUEEN ALYARRA ALEANMTOR OF HOUSE UNDORIEL   (CR 16; 76,800 XP) Female blasphemous covenant drow noble conjurer (teleportation) 16 CE Medium humanoid (elf) Init +8; Senses darkvision 120 ft., see invisibility; Perception +3 DEFENSE AC 19, touch 15, flat-footed 15 (+4 armor, +1 deflection, +4 dodge) hp 110 (16d6+52) Fort +6, Ref +9, Will +11; +2 vs. enchantments, +2 vs. continuing effects Immune sleep; Resist fire 30; SR 27 Weakness light blindness OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee mwk staff +8 (1d6–1) Arcane School Spell-Like Abilities (CL 16th; concentration +22)   10/day—shift   At will—dimensional steps (480 feet/day) Conjurer Spells Prepared (CL 16th; concentration +22)   8th—maze, quickened wall of fire, summon monster VIII   7th—caustic eruption (R-DC 25), quickened fireball (R-DC 24), quickened haste, reach mass bull's strength, summon monster VII (usually shadow demons)   6th—conjure black pudding, globe of invulnerability, greater dispel magic, planar ally (already cast; hezrou), quickened acid arrow   5th—acidic spray (R-DC 23), cone of cold (R-DC 22), hungry pit (R-DC 23), reach greater invisibility, wall of force, whip of centipedes   4th—acid pit (R-DC 22), black tentacles, greater invisibility, solid fog, touch of slime (F-DC 22), wall of ice   3rd—displacement, fireball (R-DC 20), mad monkeys, rain of frogs, slow (W-DC 20), stinking cloud (F-DC 21), twilight knife   2nd—acid arrow, create pit (R-DC 20), glitterdust (W-DC 20), mirror image, see invisibility (already cast), resist energy, web (R-DC 20)   1st—grease (DC 19), heightened awareness, magic missile (2), mudball (DC R-19), shield, vanish   0 (at will)—mending, message, read magic, resistance Opposition Schools enchantment, necromancy Spell-Like Abilities (CL 16th; concentration +19)   Constant—detect magic   At will—dancing lights, deeper darkness, faerie fire, feather fall, levitate   1/day—divine favor, dispel magic, suggestion (DC 16) Hedge Wizard Cloak Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st)   At will—acid splash, prestidigitation   1/day—mage armor, unseen servant TACTICS Before Combat Queen Alyarra casts mage armor from her cloak, then heightened awareness, resist energy (fire), and see invisibility. If there’s time, she casts greater false life from her scroll. During Combat On the first few rounds, Queen Alyarra casts mass hold person and quickened fireball, before dropping them into a pit spell or hitting them with black tentacles. Afterwards, she summons as many allies to the front lines as possible while her demon bodyguards protect her and attack anyone who gets too close. Queen Alyarra starts with summon monster VIII, calling greater fire elementals, surrounding as many targets as she can and using a quickened wall of fire to trap as many creatures with the elementals. Anyone heavily armored becomes the target of her maze spell, with healers being a prime candidate. Arcane casters have the best chance of inhibiting her summons and countering her spells, so she targets them with quickened acid arrow and mudball, hoping to blind them, then using globe of invulnerability to make them ineffective against her.

In following rounds, she turns invisible and buffs her allies with her quickened haste, reach bull’s strength and reach greater invisibility, before using levitate to survey the battleground. Using her wall spells to control the fight, Queen Alyarra traps opponents and summons shadow demons with summon monster VII, or frogs and monkeys, to battle those within her created barriers. If anyone turns invisible, she hits them with faerie fire or glitterdust. Queen Alyarra never stays in one place for too long, utilizing her shift ability as best as she can.

If forced into melee combat, she casts displacement, and mirror image, then divine favor, and summons a twilight knife and whip of centipedes to attack the would-be attackers. Morale Queen Alyarra does not fear death thanks to her aegis of recovery and countless summoned minions. If the aegis is used to keep her alive, she calls her summons to protect her. Her pride does not allow her to leave the battle, and fights to the death. Base Statistics Without greater false life and heightened awareness, Queen Alyarra’s stats are hp 90; Senses Perception +1; Skills all Knowledge skills are 2 lower. STATISTICS Str 8, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 24, Wis 12, Cha 16 Base Atk +8; CMB +7; CMD 26 Feats Augment Summoning, Contract Master (FMG #5), Craft StaffB, Improved Initiative, Quicken SpellB, Reach SpellB, Spell Focus (conjuration), Scribe ScrollB, Spell Penetration, Superior Summoning, True Name (greater planar binding [nalfeshnee], planar binding [glabrezu]) Skills Appraise +17, Diplomacy +19, Fly +11, Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, history, local, nature, nobility, religion) +22, Knowledge (planes) +27, Linguistics +15, Sense Motive +17, Spellcraft +20 Languages Aboleth, Abyssal, Aklo, Common, Draconic, Drow Sign Language, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Skis'raal, Terran, Undercommon SQ arcane bond (staff), compression (belt), summoner’s charm (8 rounds) Combat Gear scroll of greater false life, scroll of mass hold person, acid (2); Other Gear ring of protection +1 (signet ring), Aleanmtor Crown (acts as a headband of vast intelligence +4 [Diplomacy, Sense Motive]), aegis of recovery, belt of the weasel, cloak of the hedge wizard (conjuration), jaunt boots, spellguard bracers, staff of speaking (bonded object), ring of counterspells, spell component pouch, traveling spell book (contains all prepared spells plus all Core cantrips, scorching ray, whip of spiders, and fly) SPECIAL ABILITIES Blasphemous Covenant (Ex) Since their twisted beginnings, the drow have consorted with demons. Some drow have strong ties with these creatures and may call upon ancient and obscene associations to sway demonic cooperation. Drow with this racial trait gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy checks made against unbound creatures with the demon subtype. Furthermore, demons conjured with any summon spell gain +2 hit points per Hit Die. Lastly, the cost of bribes or offerings for any planar ally spell cast by these drow to summon a demon is reduced by 20%. This racial trait replaces keen senses and poison use.

--name means “legendary queen of the noble line of the abyss”

UL'GUTH XELGRARITH   (CR 14; XP 38,400) Nalfeshnee

VOROK BASTROR    (CR 13; XP 25,600) Glabrezu

TOZZAN    (CR 11; XP 12,800) Hezrou

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And that’ll do it at this time. If I come up with anything else that needs stats, I’ll probably do another one of these. We’ll see though.

These are my own designs for how I thought things would go, and can be changed or ignored entirely. It was just something I wanted to do for myself. The itch has been scratched for the time being.