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zanpyreanor · 8 years ago

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Stumbling upon the SOS

Zan sat hunched over his workbench in the workshop of the Pyreanor Gift and Boarding House working by the light of an enchanted lamp. The 5'8" tall freckled ginger paladin and inventor wore silky red pajamas, large red lensed glasses, and had not one but two thistle joints in his mouth--this was a two joint problem. His long train rested on the floor and his wings rested against his back, folded up nicely.

He looked over schematics for a big fucking spell gun, well, a spell cannon because it might come in handy someday. He pondered it as he put one of his prototype phoenix drones, Sunsoul II, back together after maintenance and an upgrade.

He turned the device on and it whirred to life. He grabbed its controller box, flipped it on, and for whatever reason the box began to scan frequencies. The ginger raised a brow at the frequency scan and looked to see if he accidentally flipped a switch.

The scan found the tail end of something. One of the little spell beads on the control box began to flicker on and off, but the ginger paid it no mind he investigated the box. He flipped the search lever and the box remained on that frequency. He set the box aside and examined the drone until he noticed a series of flashes from the controller box. Familiar flashes.

...---... ...---...

Zan's ears perked, his crest feathers rose slightly, and his train bristled up off the ground and rested parallel to the floor for a moment before lowering. His attention was piqued.

He grabbed the box, put it in front of himself, put the earpiece attached to the box on, and listened to the code. He grabbed his scratchpad and a stick of parchment and started writing out the letters he could make out. He turned on another switch and another glowing bead around the enchanted crystal display panel lit up indicating which repeater was broadcasting this message.

The message mentioned "The Kingly Dispute" in a way that seemed like a name, a name he'd seen before perhaps. Sounded like the name of a ship or vehicle, perhaps a shipwreck.

The repeater indicator noted it was repeater WTTBR. Western Thalassian Transcontinental Bridge Repeater, a large repeater on an island west of Quel'thalas which had two antennas, one which broadcasted and received signals across a wide area of Quel'thalas, and the other which used a high powered narrow beam directional antenna that was aimed precisely at the East Bilgewater Transcontinental Bridge Repeater at Bilgewater Port in Azshara.

This signal originated from Kalimdor. Zan put his tools away, grabbed his shrink ray from a drawer and slipped into the kitchen where the chubby white mage Iviaen Brightblaze was preparing fresh bread for the coming day.

The ginger spoke to the mage, "I'm going to need food stuff for a supply dump. Like the last time. Could you get that for me?"

The mage tilted his head, "Who are you helping this time?"

"SOS from something called The Kingly Dispute," the Ginger replied.

Iviaen frowned and thought to himself as he replied, "Alright but I have a bad feeling about this."

Zandrae shrugged, "If it is what I think it is, I've seen the bounties in the spire when I go in for my weekly briefings."

The mage opened the large walk-in icebox door, "And yet you're willing to help. Why?"

"It's not my job to decide who lives or dies. I'm not an executioner, and not responding is, to some degree, tantamount to execution without trial. Besides, dying a painful miserable death from injuries while stranded somewhere with no supplies is cruel and unusual punishment," the ginger replied. A devious smirk spread across his lips, "Besides, we'd be doing them a favor, perhaps for one in return later."

Iviaen canted his head to one side, "A favor?"

"Well, let's say we want to go hit the Dawnraker estate in Elwynn after we hit the one in Arathi. A Warden and Blood Knight and his people attacking a location in Alliance territory is an international incident that could result in an escalation in the conflict between the Alliance and Horde. But if someone who is already a public enemy does it, well, then it was criminals," explained the grinning fool.

Iviaen rubbed the back of his head, "Well that makes sense, I suppose, aiding wanted individuals for the sake of the greater good. The ends justify the means. Making sure that Ravennia and Elramir leave no one as a successor is a good idea. You're not going alone, are you?"

"I'm going to scope things out before I get anyone involved. Locate them and get them some supplies. I will also talk to Grand Inquisitor Sunfall, he knows stuff about things and I'm told he has personal stakes in our conflict. He might be able to brief me on what we're dealing with so I can help them in spite of their status," Zan turned to the door, "I'll fetch the stuff for the drop crate."

The ginger departed as Iviaen began cooking up a storm with the help of magic. The ginger delivered a couple of large square insulated black food boxes branded with the Sunpyre Innovations logo and some empty jugs then descended to the lower levels of the building.

Down in the basement garage, beyond the common garage area, behind a roll up door, Zan approached a cloth covered pair of devices. He pulled the covers off one and spoke, "Hello my lovelies." One of two dwarven biplanes he had stolen sat ready, its pilot's compartment was rigged with a device that allowed him remote control navigation.

He prepped that one for flight. Fueling, testing the engines, going over a mechanical check, and prepared the supply towing harness. He attached the harness to a pallet with crate bolted to it and then left it.

He got dressed in his armor, gave Tyan a kiss, grabbed his portal pass, a directional antenna, Sunsoul II and III, and their controller boxes, then set off for the spire. It was time for some signal hunting.

(What follows is loosely based on actual signal hunting which is a real thing. Some amateur radio operators do it for sport.)

Eventually he arrived in Orgrimmar with a tired look on his face. He got atop a tower and set up his equipment then took a listen and observed the repeater indicator. West. He then hopped the zeppelin to Thunder Bluff and toyed with the equipment as the flying boat traveled over the land. He glanced at a compass and scribbled notes on his scratchpad as they might come in later for calculations. Once in Thunder Bluff he noted the repeater indicator. North.

He sat down on the ground near some Tauren braves and pulled out a folded up map of Kalimdor from his pack. He found the location of the repeaters and from the information he recorded deduces a general area to search. He noted general areas where he had been hearing the signal off repeater. He tucked his supplies away then secured transportation to the Horde Outpost on Zoram Strand.

He fell asleep on the flight and was startled awake by a female Orc wyvern keeper that was terribly amused by the situation.

Dumbass sat in the outpost plainly in the sight of guards, and set up, map, phoenix drones, controller, radio, hand held directional antenna. He put on his ear peace, activated the directional antenna, swapped to the frequency, spun the dial slightly to go slightly off the frequency so it was unclear, then spun the antenna slowly until he could hear the signal. He turned the antenna until he lost signal.

He compared it's start and end direction with his compass and the map and drew an angle on the map with his graphite. He drew dotted lines from the readings to create more angles using the information he got while flying high over the barrens. The signal originated somewhere in the area where the angles overlapped.

He sent a ping signal to the device and noted the response time then scribbled some mathematics and put a point in the marked off area, an estimate of distance from his location.

Zandrae then scribbled a note, rolled it up, and tied it to one of the little phoenix drones, fired them up and flew them in the direction of the signal, one over the shoreline, the other about a mile out to sea. He could use them to triangulate on the broadcasting SOS.

He would eventually find the source signal and the two mechanical phoenixes could be spotted overhead circling like vultures as Zan notated their position on his map then they sat in a completely still hover.

The phoenix drones are about the size of a pet phoenix with horizontal props in the chassis of their wings, vertical ones on the front of the wings, and vertical props on the wing tips that run parallel to the body of the device. They are, of course, painted like little firebirds. In the beak of each one is a gazing stone which allows Zan to see from the devices' perspective.

The device with the scroll took a nose dive towards the ground and stopped about four feet from the sand then began to survey the situation, looking for survivors, how injured people are, and if the survivors have resources nearby.

If it found a survivor up and about, the drone would fly over to that person, hover, and the props on the side of the wings turn on and alternate in their spin direction, making the drone playfully strafe horizontally back and forth before the survivor in a friendly playful sort of greeting as it waited for someone to claim its note.

The note reads. "Friendly. Supply drop to follow via stolen dwarven plane. Do not fire. Possible healers if you agree not to harm us. I can hear you through the device. -Z"

#It's long #the part to respond to is at the very end #the last few paragraphs #long post #long post is long #I wanted to write how it works #Because it's not magic #it actually has basis in real life stuff

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monkandmaster-blog · 6 years ago

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4.Kingless Heathkinn Part two

Brandy, Velly, Bobby and Nelion, Kelion’s adopted son, found a ship that would take them south, provided they went ashore and sold a valuable box for them. The box is as big as a large shoe box but made of a fine dark wood and covered in carvings of dragons. The captain said that there would be buyers interested if they head to the nearest town. Nelion does not find his sea legs and spends the entire journey sick in the cabin.

On the ship a murder mystery happens…(one shot by someone else)

They get to shore and begin journeying on foot to the nearest town with the valuable box peeking out the top of Velly’s bag. They find a buyer by the name of Martell Fawn, a well dressed gnome . He offers a fair fee for this one and more for any others they can bring him; there are two others out there. Martell also asks if you could take his daughter Nimble Fawn, a beautiful red haired Gnome, home to Harbor Fawn; the southernmost island of Heathkinn.

First the party decide to have a look around and find any information to feed back to Gandorf. The most noteworthy information is that the race of dragonborn’s that originate there seem to be called home from any of their travels. With that the party head back to the ship with Nimble to take her home. Bobby is put in charge of looking after her as they are both Gnomes, and single! They spend the evening picnicking out on the ship’s deck as they sail for her home. The two gnomes get very well acquainted and even stealing a kiss or two. Nimble gets rather excited and sends word home to her family to expect them. Velly and Brandy enjoy a drink or two with the crew while Nelion continues to be unwell below deck. Brandy uncovers the identity of a female crew member, Elaine, who was pretending to be a male. She is actually very beautiful which makes Velly very nervous as his only flaw is seeing a pretty face. Thankfully Elaine is just as awkward and Velly and they have a nice evening.

The ship eventually arrives at a private dock on the east side of the tiny island of Harbor Fawn. Harbor is known for its mechanised creatures, hunting and air and water transport.

Nimble leads the party to a small cable car that reaches to the top of the cliff above. At the top of the cliff Nimble leads everyone to the family home where they are warmly greeted by her family. There is also a large animated suit of arms that guards the doorway. As The Eye Rollers enter this large manor house they notice many people are gathered around, and not just family, Elves, Humans and a few Dragonborn are also present. There are small mechanical creatures serving food and drink to the guests.

After some polite chit-chat with the guests Velly notices Nimble’s Brother, Bramble has been handing out secret notes to some of the male guests. Nelion finds himself being handed one of these notes, it is an invite to his room after the party has wound down. Velly and Bobby try to warn Nelion about the potential dangers. Nelion is young and naive, and as the guests begin to retire to their rooms, he heads up stairs to find Brambles room. Nimble and Bobby head to bed together and Velly and Brandy head to their rooms.

Nelion knocks at Brambles room and enters into a dimly lit room, there is a mechanised wine fountain, large brightly coloured paintings on the walls and men sat on pillows embracing and giggling. Nelion politely stays for a drink and a chat with Bramble and then finds his excuse to leave. On Nelions way to his room he overhears two guests, Gregard a human and Darius a dragonborn, talking of their friendship, permission to use a dock and his departure tomorrow.

The next morning the party wake and go from breakfast. Nimble is excited about a big party that is due to happen today. Nimbles Grandparents encourage The Eye Rollers to go out and find something splendid for the evening meal.

The party head out and find some horses to use. They ride out and find a small village of people working together to prepare a meal with a large wild boar. They learn that the villagers are celebrating the departure of a man named Flizzard who kept accidentally causing trouble with his magic. They are called aside by a man named Reggie, who asks if they can help get him side Fawn Manor to see a girl he likes. The party decide to take a note from him and pass it on when they get back.

The group then see a man cleaning and sharpening his knife, he has a fey hound asleep next to him. His name is Bron and he sells Brandy a fey hound puppy and tells the party where they can find more wild boar.

The party hide in the trees by a lake and Brandy knocks out a boar before the other step in to do the killing.

On their way back home The Eye Rollers are stopped by some tiny mousefolk who need help with a cursed part of the forest near a cave. The party head out to try and help, but soon Brandy calls out to Velly and Velly is hit by a magic missile. They soon realise, after many hits with magic missiles, that when someones name is said that person is immediately hit. Velly says it must be the work of Flizzard. When Flizzard’s name is said a magic missile explodes inside the nearby cave. The party venture in and find his body lying dead on the ground inside. Velly searches his body and find a deck of unusual cards in his pockets and keeps them to experiment with later.

The party return with their kill and supply it to the kitchens to be cooked for later.

Bobby is then lead to the main hall with his friends following behind. There are various people sat on either side of the room as Bobby is told to head to the front where Nimble is waiting next to her Grandfather. Bobby starts to sense something is going on, he begins to whisper to the party as they walk down the aisle. The party try to convince him that this is a good idea as Nimbles family seem wealthy and well connected.

When Bobby reaches the front and stands beside Nimble, her Grandfather, Ricart, begins a speech that sounds very like wedding vows: “In the name of the Raven Queen, Bobby and Nimble join together as two cogs turning in harmony. May they keep their marriage well oiled from this day forward. For better, for worse, in sickness and in health. May your love last the distance and the closeness. These are your vows.”

Bobby and Nimble are then directed to roll a ball together, which starts a chain reaction of mechanised contraptions. Culminating in ravens being released and men carrying them to their marital chamber.

During this commotion one of the musical entertainers, Roderick Stewart, asks Velly if he will hold onto some of his sheet music until this evening as he thinks someone is trying to steal it. With that he disappears.

Velly, Nelion and Brandy notice that Reggie is among the crowd and is looking for the musician who just left. The party find out that Roderick stole the music from Reggie, so the party just hand the music over back to its original owner.

The guests sit down to enjoy the meal hunted by The Eye Rollers early that day. Bobby and Nimble rejoin and speeches are given about them. Velly begins showing an interest in the mechanical creatures that frequent the house. He asks Grandfather Riccart more about them and learns that he is the one who makes them. Velly strikes a deal to buy one for Brandy, the most sarcastic one money can buy.

As the night continues Velly slips off and finds the visitor book with secret message in thieves cant that eludes to a treasure room somewhere in the house. Velly sneaks around eventually finding a hidden door leading to a room with many old paintings, diaries and family heirlooms. He decides to take a book with blueprints of mechanical creatures.

The following morning the party decide to head back to Mythmere. Bobby explains to Nimble that his job can be dangerous and she should stay with her family for a while. They agree to stay in touch via messages sent by ravens. Velly asks Elaine to come with them and she agrees, she thinks it would be nice to spend some time on dry land. Brandy wakes up Nelion to tell him they are on their way back home to Mythmere.

********

During this time Kelion is in the library at Mythmere transcribing his journey and experiences so far for Denathor.

Kelion also catches up with the youngest of the children bought at the slave market, Jack, and learns of his interest in baking. Jack is taken to see Mrs Dungell who is the cooking instructor at the college. Jack takes to his new roll immediately and begins by glazing pastries.

Kelion then requests a meeting with the council members, Lady Ollana, Baron Bartlett and Denethor. His request to build a base for The Eye Rollers is granted, but his idea for a temple devoted to the Raven Queen is met with concern. They feel that it would be unfair to have a temple simply devoted to one religious figure as it may cause conflict. Kelion agrees to make a temple that welcomes all faiths, with himself as a representative of the Raven Queen with the hope of finding other people to represent their faiths.

The Eye Rollers base and The Temple of all Faiths is built in the destroyed part of the wall and old building materials are reused.

Kelion heads down to the entrance of Mythmere to check on the construction work when he hears a commotion just outside. A cart has fallen over spilling its contents. A halfling lady is looking worried and trying frantically to get everything back onto the cart. Kelion hurries over to help gather everything up and tip the cart back over. The halfling, Terry, insists she buy him a drink to say thank you. Terry brings the drinks to the table and they start to get to know each other. Terry begins asking questions about Kelions adventures and he realises he is unable to lie. Kelion then discloses the location of the rune stones and Terry runs off back to her cart. Kelion rides after her on the back of his Elk and shoots a fire bolt at the wheels of the cart. They explode and Terry is thrown to the side. Kelion discovers that she has been hired by a man named Lord Bayroy and tells her to go to him and say all the rune stones are located in Tregath. She makes her way on foot to deliver this message.

Kelion then decides to relax at a local bar, Shooters, that caters to every individuals needs. He chooses a private booth and is presented with a choice of waiter. Kelion chooses a young Elf man named Bartholomew. Safe to say, Kelion got particularly drunk and spent along, intimate evening with Bartholomew. Leaving in the early hours of the morning Kelion heads to his bedroom at the Library.

Kelion then spends a few days over seeing the building of The Eye Rollers building and The Temple of all Faiths.

Once the construction is complete Kelion asks a local lady, Jessica, who recently split up with her husband, if she would come and look after the gardens at the temple. She agrees and moves into a small room upstairs. The Temple of all Faiths has a large, double height, glass entrance that is full of tropical plants. There are columns separating this area from the main prey and sermon area beyond. Set in the walls here are spaces for religious iconography for many religions. Kelion commissions an idol to be made in honor of The Raven Queen.

As Kelion heads outside to tell the town of his new temple the sky appears to become very bright. A radiant light beams down and a voice speaks out to Kelion.

“You honor me with your life. You and your friends speak highly of me and i wish you reward you.”

Kelion finds himself being lead by The Raven Queen through brilliantly bright fields full of colour. Suddenly Jason, the Flumph, appears. The Raven Queen smiles and everything starts to fade away.

Kelion is returned to Mythmere, the air has grown colder and it begins to snow. This is first snowfall of the year. Kelion looks down and notices Jason has arrived in Mythmere with him. The Raven Queen has brought their friend back to them. Kelion shows him to The Eye Rollers headquarters and tells him to make himself at home.

The towns folk of Mythmere are now gathering around Kelion and asking him about the appearance of The Raven Queen. Their faith has been ignited by this devine experience. Kelion shows them to The Temple of all Faiths where they can pray to whom they choose.

Velly, Elaine, Bobby, Brandy and Nelion all arrive back from their trip to Harbor Fawn. Kelion shows them around their new headquarters. Brandy tells the sarcastic mechanical creature that this will be his new home and that his name will now be Sarcasmo. He tells Brandy sarcastically that he is thrilled with all of this. Brandy then settles in and begins training her fey hound named snuffles. Bobby and Nelion all choose rooms in The Eye Rollers HQ; Velly takes a larger room for himself and Elaine.

Kelion then takes them all outside to see The Temple of all Faiths next door. Before they can enter, Pontii jr appears battling a Large floating eye that has four smaller eyes attached by stalks, known as a Spectator, right in the center of Mythmere. The party jump into action and take out each of its eyes before defeating it for good. Pontii jr looks disturbed and is ranting about Grulaag but not making much sense. Bobby, Velly, Brnady and Kelion notice the teleport stone in Pontii’s hand. They all touch it and are taken to Orcia.

In Orcia the party travel around trying to find information about Grulaag’s whereabouts. (Campaign written by someone else.)

The party arrive at a cave with a dark portal deep inside. They head through and come to a dark network of caverns, tunnels, vaults and passages, mushrooms and dead trees rise from the ground.

They notice a dim light that envelops a town, Kelion recognises this light as faerzress magic, this type of magic is common in The Underdark. The party head in and talk to a dark elf who recalls a man came in and kidnapped Dragor. He took him to a boneyard, interrogated him and got them both attacked by a minotaur skeleton. The paty ask for directions and follow his tracks. They come to the bone yard and defeat two minotaur skeletons. They then noise a ladder leading down further into the darkness. At the bottom the party notice more faerzress magic glowing inside rocks of crystal. One of these clusters is smashed. They follow the chamber around into a forest of mushrooms. They continue into the forest, feeling denser and darker as they journey through. In the darkness the party are attacked by shadow demons, they swiftly defeat these and continue looking for Grulaag.

The party come to a chamber with four tunnels leading out, all of which are covered by sticky vines. They notice that one of the tunnel’s vines have been cut and rebuilt. They nimbly weave their way through between the vines. They party find themselves in another chamber with many entrances. They hear hurried footsteps coming towards them from one of the tunnels behind them. Two elves appear and stop in the center looking around confused. The party try and talk to them but they have clearly been down here too long and have been affected with some kind of madness. They tell the party that they feel like they were going somewhere, with somebody. The party notice two dead fire beetles at the entrance to one of the tunnels. The party assume this was Grulaag and head in. They notice there are smaller tunnels entering this one on all sides. Fire beetles emerge and are taken out. During the distraction of the fire beetles tendrils extend out and take the teleport stone out of Pontii’s backpack. Pontii tries to reach in after it but gets stabbed in the hand. Kelion tries you put his snake staff into the hole, turning it into a real snake, but it dies inside the tunnel. Deflated the party move on. After a number of days traveling through tunnels and caverns the party come to an abandoned city. As the party enter they notice one of the small stone buildings has a sign on the door that reads “do not enter” and a picture of The Eye Rollers symbol, an eye looking to one side.

In the center of town is a large court house building with yellow ooze all over the inside of the windows and pouring out of the closed door. There are two stone boulders either side of the door and two vertically in front of the door with a plank of wood between. Kelion uses his fire magic to burn most of the remaining ooze. Velly then notices some Drow and Duergar hiding behind some of the buildings looking up to the roof. There is a large female warrior, known as a Drider, looking down upon The Eye Rollers. She yells at them for releasing the ooze into her town, they try to explain that it wasn't them but she tells them to leave and they don’t feel like arguing. They exit through the back of the town where they pass another house with The Eye Rollers symbol on the door. The party stop briefly as a battle between ghost figures of men and drow takes place before dissipating. They eventually find their way into a chamber with a door that is wide open. Spider themed tapestries adorn the walls, A female with white hair is lying dead on the floor. A large male figure stands in front of an empty fireplace with his back to the party. As they enter they notice it is Grulaag and he is holding a black rune stone. He appears gripped by some other worldly power. He begins to talk about how strong and powerful he is. Velly hit Grulaag’s hand and he drops the stone. The ground begins to rumble and a candlestick falls over. Velly and Bobby check the doorway behind them and notice a number of large Basilisks charging down the tunnel. They slam the door shut and tell Brandy to help them keep it closed. Kelion notices there is a ritual circle of some kind. He begins looking around and finds an ingredients list and all the ingredients he needs on the shelves. He also finds a dark book with the image of a demon on the front, The Book of Vile Darkness. He refuses to open it but puts it in his bag of holding. Kelion uses his abilities in arcana to perform the ritual and creates a portal in the centre of the circle. They party force Grulaag into the portal and make it out just in time as the Basiliks break through the door.

#d&d

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viralhottopics · 8 years ago

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How Trump’s Election Woke Women Everywhere

He hugged her every day.

He was the chief executive of the company, a large health care outfit in New Jersey. Married. Decades older. She was his executive assistant.

He seemed committed to those hugs, making a point to walk around her L-shaped desk every day to get his. If they skipped a day, next time hed say, I didnt get my hug and make a grab for it. He sent her flirty text messages. One day when Susan was sitting at her desk, he messaged her from his office next door. You look pretty in that dress.

I felt uncomfortable that whole day, Susan told The Huffington Post recently. Susan rarely wore the dress again, fearing hed mistake it as her trying to please him. She was creeped out. I didnt feel safe. It felt like he was grooming her, Susan says now.

Still, it was those daily hugs that felt the worst; a personal affront, as though her boss felt he had the right to just pull her body close to his. He had this air of arrogance.

Talking to human resources wasnt an option. The CEO was chummy with the guy who ran the department. The plan was to find another job and quietly move on. Then last Thanksgiving, she reached her breaking point.

Susan, who asked that we not use her name or reveal her place of employment while her lawyers work out her claims against her now-former boss and company, is one of many women who are feeling more confident about speaking up about sexual harassment, discrimination and assault in the workplace.

High-profile cases have raised awareness, including all those Bill Cosby accusers who came forward in 2015 and the implosion at Fox News kicked off by anchor Gretchen Carlson in July.

And in October, after a recording revealed boastful remarks Donald Trump had made in 2005 about assaulting women, more than a dozen women came forward with personalstories about how he had mistreated them. But despite those claims, Trump won the presidential election, and the message his victory sent sexual harassment allegations dont hurt men couldve been utterly chilling to the many women who face discrimination and harassment at work.

Instead,the stream of stories about sexual abuse and harassment has hardly subsided. In the past few weeks, Susan Fowler, a former Uber engineer, published a blog post about how she was mistreated by her employer, launching an image crisis for the ride-hailing giant.

Nicholas Hunt via Getty Images

After Gretchen Carlson, left, sued her boss Roger Ailes, she opened the door for other women at Fox News to reveal their experiences. Ailes later resigned.

Theres the Tesla employee who filed suit against the electric car maker last yearand just recently starting speaking openly about her experiences to the press.

And there are the thousands of women who worked for the mall jewelry stores Jared and Kay who are now starting to open up about the harassment they suffered.

Sexual harassment claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have risen since 2014, but data since the Nov. 8 presidential election is not yet available. Still,Nancy Erika Smith, the lawyer who represented Carlson in her harassment case against former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes, says more women have been coming to her with sexual harassment cases since November.

Maybe [the election] has gotten a lot more people awakened, or woke, as they say, Smith says. That might be something that cant be stopped.

David McNew via Getty Images

Summer Zervos announces her lawsuit against then President-elect Donald Trump in January. The former “Apprentice” contestant accused him of sexually inappropriate conduct and defamation.

Instead of intimidating women, the election of a sexual harasser as president seems to have had an empowering effect for many women who had stayed quiet about being harassed and discriminated against at work.

It was a teaching moment, said Kathleen Peratis, a partner at Outten and Golden law firm who has handled hundreds of harassment cases. She compared Trumps election to the 1991 confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas despite former colleague Anita Hills accusations of sexual harassment. The controversyultimately led to more women running for office and is widely recognized as a turning point in the battle against sexual harassment.

Since then, the culture has changed, Peratis noted. Todays younger generation is more likely to take harassment claims seriously. In the Fox case, that meant James and Lachlan Murdoch,who head 21st Century Fox, actually launched an investigation into Ailes behavior instead of sweeping it under the rug, as their 85-year-old father, Rupert Murdoch, might have done.

Peratis also made a key point that is at play right now: Theres safety in numbers. In her practice, shes found that the more women who come forward at a single company, the more successful their claims will be and the more likely it will be that they are believed. Thats what happened at Fox. Carlsons suit helped enable other women to come forward with their stories.

Maybe [the election] has gotten a lot more people awakened, or woke, as they say. That might be something that cant be stopped. lawyer Nancy Erika Smith

But this strength-in-numbers thing also seems to help women in other organizations, too. When women see others publicly standing up and speaking out, they feel more empowered to act even if theyre the only ones at their company brave enough to speak.

The media have become better about elevating those voices. When Smith and Peratis were starting out decades ago, business and politics reporters were overwhelmingly male. As more women have become journalists, more attention is being paid to cases like these, and they are covered with a heightened sensitivity. Many of us have been there in one way or another.

Youd likely hear about even more harassment cases if companies hadnt gotten so adept at keeping claims quiet, through methods such as closed-door arbitration. Sophisticated HR departments are also better about education and training, Peratis said, so claims dont escalate.

Ultimately, though, there is no simple answer for why more women appear to be coming forward. The decision about whether to speak up is particular and personal. And the pressure to stay quiet is overwhelming. Its part of the air women breathe: He didnt mean anything. Hes just being friendly. Its something I did. I just need to be less friendly, dress differently, act professionally.

Though the culture has warmed to the idea that sexual discrimination is real, theres still a lot of pressure on women to just live with it. Susans mother and sister suggested she try to apologize to her boss for not hugging him. Whats wrong with a little embrace, her mom wondered.

Peratis said that the instinct to disbelieve women who come forward can be strong. Theres practically a genetic predisposition to disbelieve claims having to do with sex, she said, adding that until the 1970s you couldnt bring a rape case to court if the only witness was a woman.

The one thing that seems to unite these women is a clear sense of right and wrong. A strong belief in justice. Fowler writes in her blog that the way she was treated at Uber was bizarre. Another way of putting it: The treatment wasnt right.

Until somebody stands up, nothing is going to change. AJ Vandermeyden, Tesla employee

Until somebody stands up, nothing is going to change, AJVandermeyden, the woman who is suing Tesla, told The Guardianin a recent interview. Im an advocate of Tesla. I really do believe they are doing great things. That said, I cant turn a blind eye if theres something fundamentally wrong going on.

Susan told HuffPost over and over that she felt like what happened to her wasnt right. She finally stood up for herself just a few weeks after the presidential election, after six months on the job.

Over Thanksgiving, her boss texted her while she was home for the holiday. Was she making the meal for her family? When Susan said no, her mother was preparing Thanksgiving dinner, he typed, Good. Youre too cute to cook. He then added how grateful he was that she worked for him. Thank you for all you do, he wrote.

The presumptuousness of his texts infuriated her. She couldnt take it anymore. When she returned to work on Friday, Susan couldnt bring herself to hug him.

I knew there would be consequences, she says. I dont have to hug a man every day to come to work. This is not a job requirement.

Apparently, for her boss it was. When he didnt get his hug, the CEO locked eyes with Susan, she says. It was only for about 30 seconds, but it felt longer. His whole demeanor changed. I knew something was coming. It was like how you feel when you disappoint [a parent] or you break a rule and you know a consequence is coming.

Seven days later, Susan was fired. The human resources department said it had found her interpersonal skills to be lacking. Coming with no warning about her performance and just days after her boss had thanked her for her good work, Susan knew this was about the hugs.

She packed up and left, and, before she drove out of the parking lot, she sat in her car and stewed. I knew it wasnt right.

She found a lawyer who is working on settling Susans case with her former employer and believes theres a chance the CEO may be fired, her lawyer told HuffPost.

Sometimes people do get justice, Susan said.