#blindsight visions

[thewindowofthesummerhouse]

Blindsight Visions

[imagination-0011]

By blindsight_visions

[coldcoldlampin]

[alex-van-gore]

I just personally think Sarasti should have commited to the unhinged vampire act a little more if he’s already out here maiming people :>

[3y3]

BLINDSIGHT VISIONS ART

[auraguardians]

; [ Finally pulled up some DnD lore to try and figure out what Riley's abilities would translate to in that and... I'd have to maintain a delicate balance to ensure he's not TOO OP! ]

[kigieri]

Comfort

The Danny Ric Series🍯🦡

Daniel Ricciardo × Reader

Daniel returns home, after his last race, one last trip back to the factory and the announcement. Now they were alone, with their thoughts and each other.

A/N: Welcome! I hope you enjoy The Danny Ric Series. It is dedicated to the wonderful man that brought so much joy to Formula One and its fans.

This story on AO3.

Her head had been filled with static since Daniel had called her. There had been talks about his contract the last few races, but neither he nor she thought VCARB would drop him. She could only imagine how he must feel. The time after Mclaren had dropped him was branded into her mind. He had gotten over it slowly and his next contract had come before he could completely work through it. He had still been bitter, but getting back into a car had helped greatly. She hoped it would be better this time.

His plane had touched down hours ago. She had tidied the house and chucked most of the random pieces of memorabilia that had lain around the house into the attic. There wasn't much to begin with, a few caps and a mug or two in the cupboard, it was not really their style of decoration. His trophy case, however, had been polished and she had made sure that there was space on the wall for his last helmet.

There was a design for Austin he would never get to flaunt. He had talked to her about the race, that he was excited to have her there since she hadn't been to many this year. Now they'd have to find something else to occupy their weekends. Even though she was convinced it wouldn't take him long until he was racing again. In whatever capacity would offer itself up.

Chili stood on the stove and the table was set. Even though she would have enjoyed to simply cuddle up with him on the couch she knew he'd need a bit more than that. She had gone through every nervous habit she had before he arrived, from picking at her nails to making sure all the books on the bookshelf were standing flush to the wall.

When she heard keys in the lock she turned around to look at the door. Her hand up at her mouth once more. Daniel looked exhausted, the race, one last trip back to the factory, the announcement and the flight home had not done him any good. He turned around for a moment, waving goodbye to the driver that had brought him here. When he turned back his eyes landed on her.

His face fell, the neutral face he had put on replaced by desperation and betrayal. She walked over to him as he took off his bag, laying it on the ground. Her hands found his face and she turned it towards herself, stretching slightly to catch his lips in a kiss.

"It's good to have you home." He nodded, his breath warm again her face. "It's so good to be home." The first tears fell from his eyes and he quickly raised his hadn't to wipe them away. A sorrowful expression took over her face before she forced herself to smile. "I made dinner. How about we eat something? You probably haven't eaten anything sustaining since before the race." Her words became quite towards the end of the sentence, not wanting to start a conversation if he did not initiate it. He ignored the last part of the sentence, looking in the direction of the kitchen, even though he knew he wouldn't be able to look into it. "Chili?" He said hopefully, looking back into her eyes. "Of course. Only the best thing for my favourite man." Daniel took a deep, shuttering breath, he was overcome by adoration. The love she had for him and that she showed him so openly sometimes blindsighted him.

He was brought back from his thoughts when she stepped away and towards the kitchen. Disregarding his bags on the floor he followed her. She was maneuvering a big pot onto the table when she came back into his field of vision. It was steaming and smelled divine. Daniel stepped over to her chair and pulled it out for her. The look she regarded him with was slightly surprised but she sat down nonetheless. "Such chivalry in our own home." The Aussie sat down on his own chair before answering. "You deserve it." The smile he got in reply was worth everything to him.

They both filled their plates and began to eat. She started a light conversation, letting him in on the few things he had missed in his short time away. Afterwards she stood up and took their plates, disregarding Daniel's protest and telling him to relax. She filled the sink with water, put the dirty dishes inside and put the pot back on the counter, so the leftover could cool down.

Before returning to the table she crouched down infront of the little freezer underneath the fridge. She took out a tub of ice cream and filled two desert bowls with it, bringing them over after tidying up once more. Daniel had got lost in his thought's while watching her but accepted to offered desert, there was no more diet he had to follow.

"Should we go to the living room?" Her voice cut through the silence. He nodded, still a bit lost in his head. She squeezed his shoulder while walking past him and he got up to follow her. They sat next to each other, leaning into each other and silently eating their ice cream. After having scrapped the bottom a few more times than necessary she laid it on the living room table before turning to Daniel. He swallowed and continued to eat his ice cream which was mostly molten at this point.

She laid her head on his shoulder, simply waiting for him and after a bit more time had passed he too abandoned his bowl. They sat in silence, she began to draw invisible shapes on his thigh before switching to holding his hand and interwining their fingers.

"How do you feel about it?" Her words interrupted the quiet. He took a deep breath. "Like I'm going to puke." His words were between reflective humour and an honest confession. She hummed in response, lifting their hands to her mouth and kissing the back of his. Daniel followed her movements with his eyes. He let out a breath before continuing. "Not a fucking word. I mean yes, the writing was on the wall but still, not a word before the race. Only afterwards, one last goodbye from the team and that's it." His voice was aggravated, but there was a deep hollowness underlying his words. Disbelieve still had its grasp on him.

She turned her head to look at him. "You said Laurent told you." Daniel nodded. "He got the balls to tell me himself. And yes, they got the data and all these reasons but still-" He stopped himself from continuing, biting his lip. She squeezed his hand. "You didn't think they'd drop you like that." He nodded once more, his eyes were glossy once more. "I dont think anyone did, RedBull might be ruthless, but this was a blunder even for them. They're going to get ripped apart for it, the press already started, not including the fans." His eyes had drifted of, he was no longer looking at her, his gaze had found a point somewhere next to her head. "It won't help me..." She sat up and turned her body towards him. "Not on the surface, it won't give you back your seat, but it is important." Daniels gaze returned to her, looking slightly questioning.

"It shows that people value you, on track and off it. It might not give you your seat back, but it'll help with negotioations and other series." She could feel his hand shacking lightly and stretched over to take the other one into hands as well. "It also just shows that you are so incredibly loved. The fans adore you, they're creating tribute after tribute for you. The others have all posted something or texted you, haven't they? And you've got the press on your side. They're talking about unfair treatment and they're right! You didn't deserve that and we'll get you justice. One way or another."

Her leg pushed against his, initiating as much contact between them as possible while still being able to look at each other. "Your job right now is to ignore them all. Pretend to not give a fuck even if you do." He still looked at her without answering. "You're going to live your best life and Blake is going to try to get you one of the seats left for next year. If that doesn't happen? Indy will take you with open arms, as will any other racing series. Is that where you want to be? No. Are going to be happy there? Probably. But this fucking shit in Formula One is ripping you apart and I have spend enough time looking on from the sidelines! You had an incredible career, season after season you were one of the 20 best drivers in the world. I am so fucking proud of you!" There were tears gathering in Daniels eyes. If from sorrow or because of her words, she did not know, but she hoped it was the latter. "You're going to show them that their games may affect, but not destroy you." She leaned over and kissed him lightly. "There is so much here for you." A sweep of her hand motioned to their surroundings. "And the world has so much to offer." She took his hands again, lifting them to her mouth and kissed the back of each of them. "We're so young, there is so much left to do for us together." A slight smile found its way on Daniels face. They had talked about marriage and children, but Daniel had wished to be more present for both. Even if it wasn't by his own choice, maybe now was the time.

He swallowed. "Thank you. I, uhm... needed that. Real bad. I just can't think about not sitting in that car again yet." She nodded her head, smiling pained and her eyes became glossy too. "I can only imagine that. But we're going to try our best and you have shown that you're not at the end of your career. They'll take it or leave it, but we're not going to wait for them okay? You're not going to wait for them." Daniel looked at her, her eyes where sincere and she was almost pleading. "I can't... I can't promise that." She let her head hang for just a moment and then looked back up, she opened her mouth to answer but he shook his head. "I'll try. You're right, there is so much here for me and us." He freed one of his hands, touching her belly with his knuckle. "I'm going to enjoy whatever comes next. It's just going to take a hell of a lot of time and tears." A hesitant smile spread over her face. "Well, I can work with that." The laughter she let out was watery.

She looked over at the clock on the wall, it was quite late. Daniel had been exhausted when he came here and dinner had been comforting but long and this emotional exchange may have been what he needed, even if it confronted him with things hed rather forget, but now he was dead on his feet. She nodded in the direction of the stairs. "There is a comfortable bed waiting for you and tomorrow there are quite a few dirtbikes that need testing. Otherwise we wont know if they're still running right." They stood up. This time Daniel took the dishes to the kitchen. When he returned she had slung his bag over her shoulder, his suitcase stood next to the door, to be ignored until morning. She held his helmet in her hands, having opened the bag it was in. She stroked over the material before tightening the bag once more and placing it on their shoe rag.

She smiled at him, warm and beautiful. He walked over to her, encircling her waist with his arms and pulling her against his chest. He buried his nose in her hair, breathing in a few times, feeling her breath against his own chest. She hugged him back, grabbing his shirt in the back to pull him closer. "I love you." She smiled against his chest. "I love you too."

@kigieri 2024. All rights reserved. Do not copy, steal, translate or repost any of my work.

[monstersdownthepath]

Homebrew Horror: The Unnamed

The world hosts all manner of boogeymen and ghost stories, many of which are based on very real entities that prank or prey upon mankind when the sun sets and the lights go out, but few enjoy the obscurity and success of the Thing with No Name. There is perhaps a handful of people in all the world who can claim to have witnessed the nameless horror hunt its prey, and fewer still who are telling the truth about it, as to speak of it to another is to invite it into your life.

The scant scratches of concrete information that can be pieced together all paint a similar picture: It is predator that has haunted thinking beings as far back in history as anyone can look, its methods of hunting and its means of killing leaving precious little evidence behind. What it truly is, where it came from, and why it hunts the way it does are all mysteries which cannot be solved. Rare and esoteric writings which tell of it list numerous titles, all unhelpful; The Thing with No Name, the Stain on the Page (or simply "the Stain"), the Nameless Legend, and simply the Unnamed. It is written that such ambiguous titles are to protect the reader, not the creature, for attempting to affix any more descriptive title to it is the surest way to invite its horrific attention.

The Unnamed is one of several self-keeping secrets in creation, hunting down and annihilating any creature which knows too many details or who becomes too curious of it, for reasons which may never be truly known. For those it hunts, it seems like a nightmare made terribly real in a way few other creatures can match; an unstoppable, inescapable force which will use seemingly any trick to disorient, mislead, and ultimately capture its victim.

Anyone targeted by the Stain can always feel when it's near, and rarely do they ever manage to find help before they're simply never seen again. Witnesses to the scenes rarely speak, and never coherently, never to say what they saw, lest it target them next. Even in scenes where a tremendous struggle obviously took place, investigators struggle to turn up so much as a single drop of blood or scrap of hair of the victim... but sometimes they find something else. A misshapen footprint, a handprint caused by something deeply inhuman, or some strange fluid almost but not quite like blood that causes the mind to reel with a single touch.

Not enough to solve a mystery, just enough to make one curious. Just enough to make one try and wipe away a stain of ink on some dusty old report tucked away in the back of an archive to see what could have been written underneath.

The Unnamed CR 13 Chaotic Evil Medium Aberration (Shapechanger) Init: +8 Senses: Darkvision 60ft, low-light vision, thoughtsense 60ft, blindsight 20ft; Perception +23 Aura: Unwind (30ft, DC 24) ------ Defense ------ AC 29, touch 14, flat-footed 25 (+4 Dex, +15 natural) HP 193 (15d8+105), Regeneration 5 (Cold) Fort +12, Ref +9, Will +14 Defensive Abilities: Amorphous, Unbound, Undone; DR 10/Cold Iron and Lawful; Immune: Charms and compulsions, death effects, poison; Resist: Acid 15, Electricity 15, Fire 15; SR 19 ------ Offense ------ Speed: 50ft, climb 30ft Melee: Bite +17 (1d8+6 plus poison/19-20), slam +15 (1d8+6 plus grab), 3 tentacles +15 (1d4+6 plus pull) Ranged: Bone dart +15/+10/+5 (1d3+6 plus poison/19-20) Space: 5ft, Reach: 5ft (10ft with bite, 20ft with tentacles) Special Attacks: Pull (10ft), rake (Bite +17, 1d8+6 plus poison), Unwind Spell-like Abilities (CL 15, concentration +17) Constant: Freedom of Movement At-will: Dancing Darkness, Ghost Sound (DC 13), Ventriloquism (DC 13) 3/day: Rusting Grasp, Telekinesis (DC 17), Warp Wood 1/day: Knock, Modify Memory (DC 16), Teleport, Traumatic Eyebite (DC 18) ------ Statistics ------ Str 23 Dex 19 Con 25 Int 13 Wis 21 Cha 15 Base Atk: +11; CMB: +16; CMD: 31 Feats Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Improved Critical (bite, bone dart), Improved Initiative, Multiattack, Traumatic Spell-like Ability (Eyebite), Sickening Critical Skills Acrobatics +13, Bluff +13, Climb +21, Intimidate +15, Perception +23, Stealth +21, Survival +23 Languages All; language mastery. SQ Change Shape (any past victim; see Uncanny), Compression, Unknown ------ Ecology ------ Environment: Any Organization: Unique Treasure: Standard (taken trophies) ------ Combat: The Stain enjoys toying with its Target out of both sadism and pragmatism, forcing them to make mistakes and expend resources battling shadows and hallucinations. It goes Unseen as long as it is able to, tormenting them with its spell-like abilities to haunt them, destroy or remove light sources, weapons, and escape routes, and make it seem as though it is coming from everywhere at once. It will attempt to hit them with one or several of its bone darts to infuse them with its poison and terrorize them with the hallucinations, but it will try to avoid killing them with its darts (including by making them nonlethal). It will further toy with them with its tentacle attacks from a distance, making them think their hallucinations are real, until eventually wearing them down and closing in to finish them off and consume them. Against a large group of victims, it will attempt to isolate and pick them off one by one after loosening their reasoning with its poisonous aura, stolen voices, and Eyebite. When the mood strikes, it leaves one survivor (never its Target) alive but traumatized and possibly insane, usually using its Modify Memory to erase the majority of the encounter. But never all of it.

Morale: If a group of creatures has no Target among them, the Unnamed will fight only long enough to potentially traumatize one into becoming a Target later, and then flee to let the memories fester. When in a combat involving its Target, the Unnamed will always attempt to kill them, even if its own life is in danger. If its foes prove to be beyond its power, it will still attempt a death or glory attack against its Target. Its own life doesn't matter. It will come back eventually. ------ Special Abilities ------

Unbound (Ex): The Unnamed will not be denied its happiness. It may make an additional saving throw at the end of each of its turns to remove any effect causing any of the following conditions, even if the effect causing the condition does not normally permit a saving throw: blind, confused, dazed, deafened, exhausted, fatigued, nauseated, sickened, slowed, staggered, and stunned. This does not require an action. If it is affected by multiple effects or conditions, it may only make one additional saving throw with this ability each turn.

Uncanny (Ex): The Unnamed can use its Change Shape ability as a full-round action to change into any creature it has ever consumed, but its shape is grotesquely twisted to the point it could not possibly be mistaken for a normal creature. It does not gain any additional abilities or attacks, the changes are purely cosmetic. Similarly, though it can speak any language, its voice is completely inhuman and distorted. Creatures under the effects of its poison (see Unwind, below) or who are confused or insane instead see and hear it as if the transformation was flawless. This effect is lost if they are adjacent to it.

Undone (Su): If the Unnamed reduces a Target to 0 HP or lower with its attacks while the Target is both within its reach and suffering from the effects of its poison (see Unwound, below), the Target's body crumbles to a fine dust the Unnamed may inhale as an immediate action or at any point within the next minute as a swift action. When it does so, it regains 4d8+15 hitpoints and may immediately end one condition or effect on itself.

Unknown (Su): Whenever a creature attempts to give a more descriptive title or a name to the Unnamed, or attempts to describe or dictate its appearance or abilities in detail to another being, they must attempt a DC 19 Will save. Success indicates that they stop themselves from going through with the attempt as a brief sense of dread washes over them. Failure allows them to fully convey the information, but they become a Target. When creature becomes a Target, they are shaken automatically for one round by the sense that they have committed some unfathomable wrong. What "naming/describing the Unnamed" entails will vary at the DMs discretion; it could be as simple as writing details into a document meant to be read by another, speak the details aloud to another, or drawing it a little too clearly, but it must be a willing, conscious attempt to define or describe the Unnamed to another intelligent creature. Creatures defining or describing the Unnamed only for themselves may still become Targets, at the DMs discretion (it often allows these creatures to write just enough to make a potential reader curious, but no more). The Unnamed knows the precise location of all Targets not shielded by divine power, as well as the distance and direction to them relative to itself. Targets become permanently shaken whenever the Unnamed is within 1 mile of them as a feeling of impending doom creeps into their minds, and if it is within 100ft, this condition pierces all forms of immunity to fear. All parts of this ability work across all boundaries and through any barrier.

Unseen (Sp/Su): When not being observed by an intelligent creature, the Unnamed may become invisible as a standard action, as per Greater Invisibility, except the effect lasts until an intelligent creature successfully sees the Unnamed through any means (such as if it's outlined through Glitterdust or mundane dust, or viewed through True Seeing), until any creature ends its turn adjacent to the Unnamed (or vice-versa), or until the Unnamed ends the effect itself as an immediate or free action. It can only use its spell-like abilities while invisible using this ability.

Unwind (Ex): The Unnamed produces a powerful, hallucinogenic poison which it delivers with its bite and dart attacks. It may also produce a colorless, odorless version of the poison as an aura with a 30ft radius, affecting all creatures which inhale it, though they gain a +5 circumstance bonus to the save. It may begin producing this aura version of its poison as a full-round action and stop as a move action; its bite and dart attacks do not poison their targets while it's producing the aura, and it can only maintain the aura for a total of 7 rounds a day (they do not have to be consecutive).

--Unwinding Venom: Bite, dart, or aura--injury, contact, or inhaled; save Fort DC 24, frequency 1/round for 5 rounds, effect 1d3 Wis damage plus hallucinations for 1 round (all other creatures have 20% concealment), cure 2 consecutive saves.

[foone]

Concept: fursonas with non-human senses. Not just canine "can smell better" ("My fursona has no nose." "How does she smell?" "Terrible!"), but actually different senses. (Under a readmore because big surprise, I write a lot)

Sharks who walk into a dark room and go "hey guys!" to the people about to shout "surprise!". Electroreception, yo. They can feel the electric fields in bodies. They have a good job as an electrician, because they can tell which wires are active and which aren't, without needing a tester. One of the guests is a snake who says "I told you this wouldn't work", as they can see in the dark through thermoception.

Corvids who don't watch human movies, especially not in theaters. They're just flickery slide-shows to them. Their vision is too fast, persistence of vision doesn't kick in until like 200 FPS.

I know the mantis shrimp colors aren't real (it's actually just a thing where they have extra cones to make up for not having enough brain to merge them. Like, humans have red/green/blue cones, and we see "yellow" when the red and green cones are both activated, but shrimp can't do that merging. So they have a yellow cone) but fuck it, this is fantasy. Make your fursona have access to all the forbidden colors.

Hell, have them able to see outside the "visible" spectrum! Imagine a furry working at a human-majority office who gets pulled into a meeting with her manager one day, who has to tell her that even if she's covered in fur, she can't wear a top that revealing, they have a dress code. She goes "what? But.. Sally in accounting wears that semi-transparent blouse most weeks!" and then they both come to realize that humans can't see near-IR and therefore don't realize that a lot of their clothing choices are transparent to that wavelength. The furry has just been seeing all these exposed chests and going "wow, I had heard the humans could be prudes about nudity, what with not having fur, but apparently not." and decided to join in one day. Whoops.

Hell, let them see radiation! Who needs a giger counter? They're digging through an junk shop and WHOA, shouldn't this be in the back or in a safe or something? The owner (a Shetland sheep dog) is like "what do you mean?" and they go "it's pretty radioactive, man! Can't you tell?" "uhh.. No. Why don't you put that down quickly and I'll go grab a lead bucket."

An octopus that goes to see a 3D movie but turns down the glasses. No need. They can see circularly polarized light just fine on their own.

You go over to visit a bat's warehouse to get an old computer they offered to loan you and they sheepishly (is that offensive to sheep?) admit that they never bothered installing any lighting inside. Why would they? They can see fine with echolocation. And their friend Skippy never complained, either! Mind you, they are a dolphin.

A park ranger who is a jewel beetle. They can detect fires miles away, but only if pine trees are involved. They're a firefighter in a pine tree forest, so that's fine.

A bee who keeps giving directions in terms of cardinal directions and forgetting that not everyone has an innate sense of North/South thanks to being able to sense the magnetic field of the Earth. And this is after they went to all the trouble of giving the directions in words, instead of dancing!

Tangent idea: a bee pirate who writes a pop song, and it's not until another bee hears it years later that they realize that the dance instructions in the song are actually a treasure map.

Creatures who can sense RF directly. Some of them can't even get near human-style cities, as they're "too noisy". It takes the more mundane inhabitants a while to realize they aren't talking about sound, and earplugs won't help.

Others can pull off amazing mental tricks like the Scramblers from Peter Watts' Blindsight, and the first time they get near a human city they figure out how to decode all these FM signals and within minutes they can watch TV, listen to the radio, or log onto the wifi. They're not robots or cyborgs, they're just unholy smart and frighteningly fast.

And there's no reason it should be limited to natural things... The supernatural is there as well. A furry who mentions they hate going to some human cities because they're so crowded with ancestors. It's not for a while until someone realizes that word isn't being translated exactly right, and they don't just mean "old humans". They mean the ones who lived there before, but are dead. They still see them, and are surprised that the humans can't.

Hell, how about a fursona with an asymmetric design? Different fur patterns, heterochromia, things like that. But it swaps sides from time to time. It's not an art mistake, they really do that. No one understands why until they casually point out a missing item is in the drawer of there, the locked one. Then they reach around all six sides of the drawer and pull it out. What, you can't see in four dimensions? Yeah, sometimes their body swaps left/right because they rotated through the 4th axis and inverted their body. No big deal, but they have to be careful with what food they eat sometimes. All those chiral molecules... You don't want them backwards. Fortunately they've got a pretty strong digestive system so it's not a big deal. And vodka always goes down smooth, alcohol is symmetric!

Speaking of which, fursonas with vulture-like digestive systems. They yell at their roommate for throwing out that expired meat. It's only expired by human standards, and they're just a bunch of wimps who can't handle a little putrefaction in their lunch.

And I know I said "not like canines with just better senses of smell" but there's some interesting options for having beings who can smell things humans just can't. A fursona that detects a gas leak because they can smell carbon monoxide, not just the bitterants added to help humans detect it. Or can pick up on human pheromones, although that one is often covered in werewolf media, I hear. But instead of just arousal/fertility/pregnancy, they can also be like "hey you smell different... Have you talked to your doctor about testing for diabetes? I think your a1c might be high."

Speaking of pheromones, how about fursonas that do things like ants, who automatically put down invisible scent trails and follow them? They are a pain to go hiking with, since they just assume you can follow them if they get out of sight, and you gotta remind them to slow down sometimes.

Hell, fursonas who have quorum sensing, either type. The bacteria-like type have gene expression that changes based on population density. Members of their species in the wild, in rural areas, and in urban areas have radically different phenotypes. The social insect type make decisions with an implicit silent democracy, bordering on a hive mind. They are always surprised when humans and similar want to talk out decisions. Can't they just tell what the majority want and just do that? It seems so much similar.

Speaking of which, ACTUAL HIVE MINDS. You're dating a nice worker bee and and another member of the same hive comes by and says "hello love!" and gives you a big kiss. Your partner is surprised you had any problem with this. They're the same person, basically? And they feel their love for you just as much. (obligatory A Miracle of Science reference: Mars thinks you're cute)

Combine that with insect-like lifespans for some extra weirdness: the one you're dating isn't even the one you started with. The bee-people only live a month or two, and you've been dating for nearly a year now. Hell, even when your first partner was still alive, it wasn't always the "same" bee that came by to visit. Of course, that's putting a human-like kind of perspective on if it's the same bee. To the hive-mind bees, it is. It's the same hive. They have the same mind, just in 70,000 separate bodies. So of course it's the same person. Just not the same body.

Heh. How about magnetic sense? This may be overly specific to my interests, but you hand a furry a floppy disk and they hold it for a few seconds and then hand it back. "Thanks!" "oh, don't you want it?" "oh yeah. But I already got all the data off it." "but... You didn't put it in a floppy drive?" "no? What's the point in that? I just read the flux transitions off the surface. It's not hard."

More esoteric senses, too. You're driving down California one with your partner, listing to some Decemberists and they idly go "huh, Diablo Canyon is still running? I thought they had shut it down!" You're like "what?" They point out the window at the two cooling domes. "The power plant! It's still running. Can't you taste all those neutrinos?" "uh, no." "what, really? They're quite fresh compared to the usual solar ones." "I can't 'taste' those either" "oh. Weird!"

Your plasma-lifeform boyfriend who evolved in space sometimes has dizzy spells where he nearly drives his containment vessel into a wall. "sorry, that was a big one. Those gravity waves must have been from, like, an 80-90 solar-mass black hole merger? A close one too, only a few dozen megaparsecs."

You've long since given up explaining that you have no way of detecting events that take place over 30 million light-years away.

The atemporal energy being who proposes the first time you meet. You're shocked, but they point out why? You have/are/will spent/spending (tenses are hard) over 60 years of your experience of years with them. They just don't really see how this time is different from all the times you have/will spend together. They thought humans liked this "till death do us part" ceremony, even though death has no meaning for them. They're not immortal, but their death is just like their birth (or the energy being equivalent): a discontinuity on the edges of their lifeline. They don't exist past there, just like you don't exist outside of the 3D volume of your body. So what does it matter? Besides, we've had this conversation before, or is it later? Either way.

A hive mind being who only has one body you can see, because they're actually a hive mind across themselves in different timelines. They sometimes get mixed up which version of you they're talking to, and ask odd questions like how your son is doing in college. You don't have son, or any kids for that matter. "whoops, that's the other you. Lemme... You're married to Tony, right?" "Who's Tony?" "Obviously not. Uhh, is Sarah your girlfriend?" "no? I'm not a lesbian!" "Not this you, at least. Oh, I've got it. You work at the newspaper?" "yeah. I'm an editor" "oh cool. Got it. Sorry, it's easy to get all the yous confused sometimes."

Later that week, your boss introduces you to a new reporter, Sarah Torres. You can't help but wonder of this is the Sarah another you is dating. You don't see it. But apparently another you does.

And that tangent makes me think of another one: mind reading, either full or just empathic, isn't that unusual in aliens and such, but imagine a race that doesn't go around reading minds unless given permission, but they have a persistent problem with pronouns. See, they can just tell what your gender is. And closeted trans people keep getting outed accidentally. Sometimes outed to themselves, because they call you by your "true" pronouns, not the ones you're using now.

And the same goes for orientation. Like your coworker will be like "why don't you ask out Steven on a date?" and you're like "Steven? I don't even know if he likes guys, I've never gotten any hints from him..." and they go "what? No, of course he does. Can't you tell?"

(I just invented a species with perfect gaydar. That's weird, right?)

Someone who has that ESP "there were strong emotions and events here" sense, but it goes both ways. They would never visit Hiroshima for the same reason they will never visit Chicago. They don't want to explain to you what will happen there, but they go a bit teary-eyed when you bring it up.

A species that magic tricks just don't work on, and no one can figure out why. They can't see through solid objects, they don't seem to have a super-fast vision, they can't read minds, but everytime you show them a magic trick they're like "the ball is in your hand" or "you have a fifth ace in your sleeve" or "there's another rabbit under the table". They don't even seem to realize it's supposed to be a trick. They're just slightly confused at what you're trying to do.

A species that has the equivalent of a spectroscope/chromatograph built into their body. You hand them a drink and they can list the molecules in it and their concentrations. You'd think they'd mainly be scientists, but a lot of them are bartenders. They make perfect mixed drinks (down to the nanoliter of exact composition) and they can spot a spiked drink from across the room.

A species that can taste your DNA when you touch them. They're a weird blob that rewrites their own DNA on a daily basis, and find static-DNA beings "weird and unusual" and always want to help you with that. Wouldn't you be happier if you had a couple extra arms? Maybe claws? How about switching sex? Just for the weekend, they can put you back to "normal" if you want. Or maybe you'd like to spend some time as a dog? Your two species are pretty close, evolutionary speaking. It shouldn't take more than a day or two to rewrite every cell in your body. Sometimes you "humans" are so boring. They can't imagine staying in the same form for more than a few days, and you fuckers do that for, what, up to a century? Before you "get old and die"? You know, that's a choice. They can fix that. You don't have to age, if you don't want to.

Speaking of which, species with radically different lifespans and approaches to life.

The Dragon's Egg beings occasionally give humans gifts, of books of poetry about their unrequited love for you. There's no point in responding, even if you do come to love them from their writings. By the time you have opened the first page of the book, they're dead, their children are dead, and their grandchildren are getting old.

Similarly there's a race of trees where you can be dating one for 40 years before they reveal that they've considered this just a minor flirty bit of fun. They don't get involved with humans and human-likes, they'll be gone in the blink of a century, so what's the point. You ask them their age one time and have trouble grappling with the fact that when they sprouted, your ancestors hadn't yet mastered the written language. Their still-living parent remembers visiting earth before it had any life outside the seas. You had dinner with them last Thanksgiving. They liked your broccoli casserole.

So... yeah.

[dailyadventureprompts]

DM Tip: Getting Stealth Right

After I posted my recent breakdown of how Baldur's Gate 3 adapted and in many ways improved the 5e ruleset I got a lot of people in the comments specifically talking about the modification to stealth:

If you hide while not in a creature’s sight cone, you automatically succeed. If you try to hide while in a creature’s sight cone, you automatically fail. If you are hidden and enter a creature’s sight cone, you must roll stealth against the creature’s passive perception. This may be a straight roll, advantage, or disadvantage, based on the creature’s senses and the level of lighting. Some creatures with different senses such as blindsight may follow different rules

Now there was a lot of tumblr standard bad reading comprehension going on, but what stuck out to me was that most of these people didn't appreciate the changes/improvements because they wern't aware of how badly stealth is worded in base 5e, and that just about every good dm just adlibs it to avoid the pitfalls of playing RAW

Look how often in the official hide rules it says something along the sides of "The DM decides", rather than giving guidelines or reasonable expectations about when a player should be able to hide. DMs should of course be empowered to make rulings, but players should always have a baseline that they can use to make reasonable decisions and calculated risks.

Because BG3's rules are run by a computer they can't be arbitrary: Players KNOW they have to get out of vision/sense range so that's the action they take if they want to hide. Likewise, making the stealth check when they enter an enemy's vision rather than when they start hiding feels better at the table because it doesn't tell the hiding character that they've been spotted or not until the moment it happens.

Forgive me if it seems like I'm being pedantic but we need clear and elegant design when it comes to the rules of our game, especially when we're dealing with something as fundamental as who can see who when.

Art

[darkdemeter]

DARK FEATHERS (REQUEST TEASER) ────────────────

Horsemen x Crowfather's Heir! GN Reader ↳ a request submitted by @screechinginthevoid I'm (currently) working on. Unsure when to say this one will be coming out, it's gonna be quite long I imagine considering that I want to implement a lot of lore and history into this one, even from the book. Hopefully you enjoy this teaser though Jer! and know that I am working on this piece bit by bit!

As your first introduction with the four, it had been accidental at best. Honest. You never meant to intrude on your dear father or his business with the Nephilim soldiers and their commander. 

You entered their lives like a breath of fresh air. One they could finally swallow without fearing it would poison their lungs on the next gulp, that it didn’t taste of bitter ash and desolation. 

True and raw beauty incarnate, a mold of flawed perfection, so fragile and regal with a frightful innocence they cannot help but become allured by. 

Though utterly blindsighted to the improper enthrallment of their attention on you, the Crowfather sternly clears the ragged chimney of his old throat, beckoning the glowing orchestra of eyes to him again. And in turn, it brings you out from your own stupor, cheeks warmed to a degree you didn’t know was possible. 

“I finished inscribing those tomes for you.” Your voice is a euphoric and blended splendor of everything Heaven denied them. 

How could they have been warded off by the Keeper of Secrets from something so undeniably divine? 

“Good. You have done well, my child,” croaks the Crowfather. For the first time since they dared to step foot in his domain and obtain his audience, they saw the Old One’s lips fold into a tender smile. 

With a small bow of your head you then turn your eyes, shyly allowing your gaze to take in the four standing at the bottom of the darkened steps. 

“Dad,” you whisper lowly, sinking down to level yourself to where he sat on his throne. “Who are they?” 

“They are…” He hesitates a moment, eyes shrivelled into a narrowed vision as they flitter back and forth. The last thing he’d wish for is to scare you despite the terrible need of such an emotion. It will grant you a better understanding of the worlds and universe around you when you eventually take your place on the Veiled Throne of Secrets. 

“I shall explain later, child. Now off you go.” His long and jagged nail points forth in a direction that urges you with firm banishment. You knew that tone better than any living creature. His dismissal came in a coldly played act, a ploy meant to deceive any perception of your close relation to the Keeper; to protect you. 

“Y-yes, Crowfather.” 

You make good on his command and hastily walk towards the chamber’s archway, doing your best to hide your face from the Nephilim as you pass by them. You have to ignore the heated trance of their eyes following you as you do, failing when you let your eyes drift aside and make contact; an intimate fusion between which grants you a peeking view into the depths of their souls.

A mere stolen glance turned into a keen and flustered fascination. Forbidden and yet so desirably wanted all within one moment. One observant and not so secret study. So much for being the inheritor of the very one who upholds that principle. 

Your footfall fades into the distance and eventually the darkened trail of your robe reminiscent of the Keeper’s himself disappears out of sight. 

“I wasn’t aware that the Keeper of Secrets harboured a ward under his care.” Death says this with a lowered drawl that strums the deepened cords of his voice like a rustic purr. The Crowfather sneers, hearing the belittling snicker in the commander’s tone. 

Strife adds with a velveted chuckle, his body arched forward with a laced pounce, “And a rather fine looking one at that.”

Your father’s nails ring with a scraping claw against the stone arms of his throne, long and square teeth bared by his ferocious temper to restrain himself. The nerve of these insufferable creatures…

The four began to run errands for your father. Their presence came and went through the Veil and fortress. Attending jobs that required their expertise and skills, their other objectives that you suspect were related to their kin became abandoned, instead favoured by these visits. Whether to actually get into the good graces of your father or to have some excuse to run into you, you didn’t have a clue. 

Because of these visitations, it was expected that you would have your run-ins with the four, almost chased around as you meant to go about your business. Furthermore when affections began to rise it was also very futile for the Crowfather to intervene. Somehow your young heart was set as was the four Nephilim that pursued you.

[thewindowofthesummerhouse]

Blindsight Visions

[somardani-reblogs]

🖤

By blindsight_visions

[selfixsworld]

I´m bored...

so i´ll give some ideas for quirks for BNHA DRs or OC:

Script Template: @/mx.levias on TikTok — linktree (NOT MY SCRIPT)

VAMPERY:

Powers MASTERLIST

Quirk Inspired By: Bats (Mammalian Animals) and Vampires (folklore of East Europe)

¦ ⌈Quirk Type⌉ ⩵ Transformation

APPLICATIONS:

Enhanced Condition

Limb Regrowth

Enhanced Bite

Enhanced Vision

Night Vision

Fear Inducement

Wing Disguise

Claw Retracion

Echolocation

Blindsight

Enhanced Hearing

Radar

Pain Suppression

Healing Blood

Invisibility Awareness

Night Empowerment

Wing Blades

Wing Barriers

Pointed Ears

Vertical Pupils

Night Empowerment

Fang Retraction

Blood Flow Vision

Blood Empowerment

Special Moves:

¦ ⌈Echo Pulse⌉ == Using echolocation, the user emits a sonic pulse that reveals the location of all nearby enemies and disorients those within the area of ​​effect.

¦ ⌈Fear Mirage⌉ == The user induces a state of extreme fear in their enemies, causing them to view the user as their worst nightmare. This can temporarily paralyze opponents and cause confusion.

¦ ⌈Winged Assault⌉ == The user performs a rapid aerial attack, using their wings as blades to slice through multiple enemies in a single motion. This technique is extremely effective in high-speed combat.

¦ ⌈Dark Vision⌉ ==The user combines his night vision, enhanced vision, and bloodstream vision to detect and track enemies even in complete darkness and through thin walls. This ability is extremely useful for espionage and planning strategic attacks.

¦ ⌈Blood Bond⌉ == By sharing their healing blood with an ally, the user not only heals their wounds, but also creates a temporary mental link, allowing them to communicate telepathically and better coordinate their movements in battle.

¦ ⌈Silent Stalker⌉ == The user suppresses all sounds and scents he makes, becoming a silent hunter who can approach his enemies without being detected. This move is ideal for ambushes and surprise attacks.

Backlash:

Uncontrollable Bloodlust: The user may experience uncontrollable bloodlust after using their abilities, which may lead them to attack allies or innocents unintentionally.

Exposure to Fire Weakness: While not a direct weakness of the Quirk, vulnerability to sunlight can extend to an extreme weakness to fire, which can cause serious or even fatal damage to the user.

Regeneration Side Effects: Rapid regeneration can cause extreme pain or an intense burning sensation, affecting the user's concentration and performance in combat.

[thecreaturecodex]

Spawn of Rovagug, Xotani

Image © Paizo Publishing

{Sponsored by @tar-baphon​. Although I imagine that @monstersdownthepath​ will be happy to see it too, since they had to sort of average the 3.5 and PF2e statistics of Xotani. PF1e skipped it completely, maybe because it appeared in literally the last D&D 3.5 adventure Paizo published. I did run Legacy of Fire, and loved it. Personally, I made a few tweaks. Even if Jhavhul had succeeded, his consciousness was just going to be overwritten by Xotani; you don’t compromise with a Spawn of Rovagug. The sponsor asked me to adjust its CR up by 1, which was really only a matter of deciding how many HD to give it. Besides that, and the lava bombs borrowed from PF2e, this is a pretty straightforward conversion.]

Spawn of Rovagug, Xotani CR 21 CE Magical Beast This creature is a living magma flow, a cross between a wingless dragon and a centipede. It is the size of a building, jagged obsidian plates rising from its back and sides, and gouts of flames shooting from cracks in its surface and drool from its maw. It has eight empty eye sockets, but still seems able to see just fine. 

Xotani the Firebleeder is the weakest of the Spawn of Rovagug, but this still makes it one of the most deadly creatures in Garund. When Xotani is awake, it avoids the sun. It finds sunlight blindingly bright and surprisingly painful, and so remains underground by day, creating a network of tunnels from its own burrowing and from the lava that it spews and leaks. By night, it emerges, setting everything ablaze in its path. It has no desires or intentions other than pure destruction, although it will consume the ashes of what it destroys as a mockery of natural predation. It does take extra damage from the touch of cold, but cold damage enrages Xotani more than dissuades it.

Xotani is an unstoppable force in combat, moving like a lava flow over anything that stands in its path. Its very touch sets combustible objects ablaze, and weapons turned against it melt into slag. Xotani’s main strategies are either breathing a torrent of fire over clustered enemies, or grabbing and swallowing a single powerful foe. Wounds that open in Xotani’s flesh spew magma reflexively, and Xotani can fire lava bombs from its back. Xotani is barely sapient, but knows enough to avoid using its breath weapon against foes that are immune to fire: these it just eats after softening them up with claws and teeth.

The Firebleeder was “slain” by a powerful order of mages millennia ago, and is currently slumbering beneath Pale Mountain in Katapesh, where the color of the rock is said to come from the crushed bones of those who died in battle.  However, Xotani came very close to being awakened in the recent past. The lovesick Jhavhul, an efreet general, attempted to possess Xotani in order to have a form worthy of the object of his obsession, Ymeri the Queen of the Inferno. Without the twisted wishcraft used by Jhavhul, Xotani will not awaken for centuries. But it does now stir in his slumber, and droughts, wildfires and heat waves are more common around the Obari Ocean because of it. And plenty of other doomsday cults, misguided fire worshipers or simply bad actors may be able to wake Xotani yet. 

Xotani the Firebleeder       CR 21 XP 409,600 CE Colossal magical beast (fire, spawn of Rovagug) Init +8; Senses blindsight 120 ft., darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +26 Aura frightful presence (300 ft., Will DC 27) Defense AC 38, touch 6, flat-footed 34 (-8 size, +4 Dex, +32 natural) hp 403 (26d10+260); regeneration 30 Fort +25, Ref +21, Will +20 DR 15/epic; Immune ability damage, ability drain, bleed, disease, electricity, energy drain, fire, mind-influencing effects, paralysis, permanent wounds, petrifaction, poison, polymorph; SR  32 Defensive Abilities heat, hibernation, supreme regeneration; Weaknesses cold, sunlight blindness Offense Speed 60 feet, burrow 40 ft., climb 60 ft. Melee bite +32 (4d8+14 plus grab and 5d6 fire), 2 claws +32 (2d8+14 plus 5d6 fire) Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft. Special Abilities breath weapon (70 ft. cone, 1d4 rounds, 16d10 fire, Ref DC 33), firebleed, lava bomb, swallow whole (AC 26, 40 hp, 2d8+21 plus 20d6 fire), trample (2d8+21 plus 5d6 fire, Ref DC 37) Statistics Str 38, Dex 19, Con 30, Int 3, Wis 17, Cha 18 Base Atk +26; CMB +48 (+52 grapple, +68 overrun); CMD 62 (cannot be tripped) Feats Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Greater Vital Strike, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Initiative, Improved Vital Strike, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Nimble Moves, Power Attack, Staggering Critical, Stunning Critical, Vital Strike Skills Climb +27, Perception +26, Survival +23; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception, +8 Survival Languages Aklo (cannot speak) SQ unstoppable force Ecology Environment any land or underground Organization unique Treasure incidental Special Abilities Blindsight (Ex) Xotani’s blindsight is based on hearing. If it is deafened, Xotani cannot use its blindsight. Firebleed (Ex) As an immediate action upon taking at least 10 points of slashing or piercing damage, Xotani can spew lava from its wound in a 30 foot cone. All creatures in the area must succeed a DC 33 Reflex save or take 10d6 points of fire damage. Creatures that fail the save are coated in cooling sticky lava, being entangled and taking 5d6 points of fire damage for the next 1d3 rounds or until they spend a full round action to scrape the lava off. The save DC is Constitution based. Heat (Ex) All of Xotani’s attacks deal an additional 5d6 points of fire damage, and any creature touching or striking it with a unarmed strike or natural weapon take that damage. A manufactured weapon that strikes Xotani is incinerated and destroyed; a magical weapon may attempt a DC 33 Fortitude save in order to survive. The save DC is Constitution based. Hibernation (Ex) Spawn of Rovagug can sleep for years, decades, or even centuries and do not need to eat or breathe during these periods of dormancy, though they breathe normally and eat ravenously and almost constantly once they’ve been awakened. If a spawn of Rovagug is forced into an environment where it cannot breathe and would suffocate, it goes into hibernation until conditions are right for it to reawaken. Lava Bomb (Su) Once every 1d4 rounds, Xotani can create lava bombs as a standard action. Treat this as a supernatural version of the meteor swarm spell (ranged touch +22, Reflex DC 27) with a range of 400 feet. The save DC is Charisma based. Sunlight Blindness (Ex) Xotani’s light blindness is only activated by true sunlight. Supreme Regeneration (Ex) All spawn of Rovagug possess regeneration, and no form of attack can suppress this regeneration; they regenerate even if disintegrated or slain by a death effect. If a spawn of Rovagug fails a save against an effect that would kill it instantly, it rises from death 3 rounds later with 1 hit point if no further damage is dealt to its remains. It can be banished or otherwise transported as a means to save a region, but a method to kill Spawn of Rovagug has yet to be discovered. Unstoppable Force (Ex) A spawn of Rovagug can always charge, even if its movement is impeded or its path is blocked by another creature. It receives a +20 racial bonus on combat maneuver checks to overrun and Strength checks to break or destroy objects, and can make one such check as a free action as part of a charge. In addition, the natural weapons of a spawn of Rovagug ignore all forms of damage reduction and hardness.

[3y3]

BLINDSIGHT VISIONS