#clay dungeon people

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[firefish55]

much better than beheila

[bean-face]

she'd make an excellent fumo

spot the difference

[justcallmeemily]

Realizing I'm probably gonna have to be the primary writer for Dungeon People. Specifically Beilleheila Langdass/Clay.

[pyritewolf]

The Dead People Tea patches are back in stock! You can find them here

[hauntingblue]

Here we fucking go...... Impel down.... at last I will get to see my beautiful NOT YET DEAD wife again....

GARP TRYING TO DEFEND ROGER??????? FOR WHAT!!!! YOURE GONNA LET HIS SON DIEEEE!!!!!!!!! DIEEEEEEE!!!!I couldn't even make it one page akdbaknqkqksks I CAN'T!!!

Where's luffy level 1

Their relationship here is so funny...

It's SO GOOD how he wants to betray him at every turn but for some reason or another he can't

Luffy riding the buggy plane.... I guess man

I forgot how funny this was......

Like what the hell are these panels??? Kdhaksjakska

ACEEEEEE AND JIMBEEEEEEEEIII 😭😭😭😭 ACEEE AND JIMBEEEEEI 😭😭😭

I can't do this... I'm not strong enough

LOOK at the wall behind ace and there is a hole beside him and behind him the wall is CRACKED AND DENTED from what I imagine was his body hitting the wall. Goodbye

I can't do this.... the one two punch that is knowing both ace AND whitebeard will die and everything will indeed crumble....

AAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

Luffy just playing with the sphinx....

He's so proud of luffy... well you didn't contribute A THING

Omg a joestar in impel down.... maybe another Dio secret child....

Is he shaking..... 🥺🥺🥺

I love him...... look at him he's so happy.... it's making me sappy

And I love this face too akdhaksjsk

The contrast.... killing myself again and again (early nights in white sheets with lace curtains... Pompeii in the distance)

COMPLETELY forgot about this.... even now he is keeping the peace????

The poison hydra looks so cool....

I can't watch...

AND THEN IT CUTS TO ACE I CAN'T DO THIS!!!!

BON CLAY YOU WILL GET ME THROUGH THIS!!!! THANK YOU BON CLAY!!!!

ENOUGH!!!! WHY IS IMPEL DOWN LUFFY JUST GOING DOWN HELL AND BEING VICTIM TO UNENDING HORRORS!!!! ALL FOR HIS BROTHER!!! (dante's inferno ref i know i know)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

BON CLAY APPEARING AFTER THAT!!!! BON CLAY!!!!!!

LUFFYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! LUFFYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

[probablyevilrpgideas]

*decides to write an adventure in a thri kreen village*

*realize after making the first map for their hut interiors that they don't sleep and do wouldn't have beds*

*realize while working on a new map that there are probably even more physiological factors that would influence their dwelling spaces*

*wind up googling "do bugs shit" because the results I get with more scientific language, like "arthropod waste excretion" was mostly comprehensible, but talking about the chemicals they excrete and I don't know enough about chemistry*

*decide that, since arthropod excretory outlets are on the tip of their abdomens, and non-bug people would probably mostly not know that and arthropod excrement is mostly dry and fairly innocuous that they probably have little taboo around it, and simply prefer a reasonably sheltered space simply due to the fact that they're predators and every predator is vulnerable while shitting*

*finally decide that their frass(1) is a component in dasl(2) so they store it in barrels, or at least the village blacksmith does*

*oh, and i also have to think about their fucking abdomens when I'm selecting chairs and such for the map!*

1- frass is the actual term for the waste that arthropods excrete. It's dry and crumbly because between size and how bug bodies work, they need to minimise water loss. Thri kreen are of course not small, but they're native to deserts, so their waste is probably still roughly equivalent in consistency to that of normal insects

2- dasl is a crystalline resin that thri kreen use to make their traditional weapons, the chatkcha and gythka. They allow other people to believe that thri kreen mine dasl, and simply closely guard the locations of dasl deposits, but in actuality they create it with a mixture of saliva, their venom, sand, and a certain herb (per 2nd edition).

Dasl is essentially a sacred object in Thri Kreen culture, as it is the material for their traditional weapons, but also because it is a product of their own bodies, and so they see it as a part of themselves.

[fumifooms]

If you asked I'd oblige, I would die in your arms

If you asked, I'd oblige, I would drown in your wake I've heard heaven itself was not mine to obtain But they lied, oh, they lied 'cause I've seen it in your face

Even when the sun is dead, will you tell them how hard I tried? (No matter how hard I try)

Even when the sun is dead will you tell them how hard I tried, glaive / Fading Kitten Syndrome, ROAR / Planet of Love, Richard Siken

Homegrown

Thistle and Delgal - Dungeon Meshi, Ryoko Kui

^ Fernando Pessoa / Killing Flies, Michael Dickman / A Brother Named Gethsemane, Natalie Diaz / Antigonick, Anne Carson v Oats We Sow, Gregory and the Hawk

[mehiwilldoitlater]

Hi I was wondering what if Reader slowly started to change ; all the kidnapping, all the times her and the destiny one got hurt , and still missing home. Slowly corrupted her , till she’s nothing more but a yaoguai 🤔👀 love to hear your on thoughts on this ?

Slow and clicky sounds came from the puddle; the small light of candles tried to reflect off that dark substance that reminded him of some kind of sludge or stuff, and yet the only stronger light source was that ominous pale glow...

He aligned the flowers on the ground, making sure that you could see them, even if, right now, he wondered if you could see at all. It could have been mistaken for smeared makeup, but he was there when it happened, and you cried...that thing.

He waited for a response, waiting for you to just act as yourself, another of the many of his attempts to at least get one prof that you were still there...

How did it started? Raksasi had a theory; to her, the process started a long time ago, but she couldn't be sure. She said that it's not the first time and that the corruption could change to people, you were no different from other Yaoguais, and since you obtained some powers, you weren't any different from other Yaoguais. Yet, she too knew how bad your condition was, and sadly, she had to watch yet another attempt of the Destined One.

He wondered... you had always doubted yourself... was the continuous danger the problem? The fear? No, fear is so natural...

"Sorry, I'm such a weight to your mission..."

You kept on saying those words so many times, but he had always made sure that those weren't true! And yet you kept on saying that, believing that.

He had always taken care of your injury, giving you his own healing wine and the pills to help you, and he had caught you keeping them away, trying to store them in case of some more important moments. If he had doubted you better, he would have understood that you just wanted to save them for him...

The last string, the last push that you needed, was him, covering you from another danger ... He still remembered the feeling of your body slowly losing its natural form, slowly molding in his own arms like fresh clay.

The unnatural gurgle of your voice, like water that has been stuck in your lungs. What you emitted from your mouth was a black substance like mud, then It started to leak out even from your eyes, dark tears that kept on flowing even now.

You lost every kind of color that your body possessed, only to be replaced by the pitch black of that sludge. The only color, that purple glow, a wisp that was placed where once was your heart, now the source of that substance, that name had completely taken over your body and mind.

You suffered; every second of it you suffered, and he couldn't do anything. He held you, begging you to hold on, to resist, but how can someone resist the poison that their own mind creates? The corruption claimed you before he could do something to help you.

You lost yourself, no more the mortal that once walked a path alongside him; you lost yourself in your own self-pity and hatred for yourself, and so you lost even why you were in that world in the first place. What you knew was that you wanted to eat, to consume, like a parasite, searching not for blood and flesh but for will and life itself.

Not so many Yaoguais were able to do that; only another prof of what kind of incredible thing you were: you were able to take away the life force of creatures, and plants were unlucky enough to be gotten by you. Creatures were drained, living only perfect corpses that died for no reason, covered in that black mass, and plants faltered, dying under a sudden freezing night. The flowers he had brought you met the same fate, losing every kind of color or perfume they had.

You were a danger, Raksasi had told him many times, but he didn't listen to one word from the princess. She did have a solution, a drastic one that he was aware of too, and yet she had allowed him to keep you in that dungeon, hiding you from the world and avoiding it to fall under your poisonous new existence.

Many were vocal about the situation, like PingPing, who had been pleading with her mother to talk to the Destined one.

"Mother, please!" She pleaded, "This is torture! For her and for him! Putting her out of this misery is the least thing we could do!"

"Daughter," the princess spoke, "you CANNOT comprehend the weight that he had to hold now. Even if death seems reasonable, making our peace about it will not lead to a result."

"I was friends with her too! Please, mother, I... I CANNOT bear to see her like that..."

And she wasn't the only one.

"Kid... please..." The voice of the old pig never sounded so grieving since when he lost his brother. "You can't just let her stay that way... She would want you to move on! Finish this mission! This... this just would hurt her more..."

But he didn't listen; he never had listened. One time of the many pleadings and requests. Just like that day, he ignored everybody and kept on with this mission, which now seemed more important to him than searching for the relics.

Today there were flowers; some time ago there was a dress that you had admired from afar; before that, a hairy pin that had stayed perfectly to you.

Another was a book, another some scrolls; he brought everything that could bring something out of you. He knew that it was there; you were there! He just needed to wait and try harder!

Maybe the relics could help you, so he never stopped in his mission! 

But he sighed, watching those flowers being engulfed in the dark matter, feeling like another attempt had failed again. 

"Alright ... It seems that...even the flowers didn't work..."

He searched for your gaze, but where once your eyes looked at him full of joy, now only two back sockets stared at the nothingness. He believed that at least he would be weak enough to not look at you; instead, he cared enough to still lay his eyes on you, still seeing what was there before.

He massaged his eyes, feeling a mixture of feelings: tiredness, sadness, hopelessness...he felt so many things, but mostly he felt like being crushed by the reality that he had been avoiding for...how long? Weeks? He didn't know, but maybe he just didn't want to know.

Your attention was on him only, even if it was hard to see that; maybe you waited a good moment to dry him, or you were keeping your guard on him... Who knows? You slowly moved ahead, closing the distance between the two of you.

"Are you trying to eat me again?"

He expected that it was a common thing now with you. Instead, you just started to look at him, now closer, the purple glow now shining stronger, a faint reflection on the surface of the mud. 

He looked at you, carefully, noticing something off. You were...examining him...

"... Hey... Hey, listen..." His voice came, as a whisper. "I... I KNOW you're... you're in there, Y/n... And I know that you... they say that it was this corruption, but I know that you did this to yourself..."

His voice trembled, his breath became heavier, and his hands slowly shook.

"And I... I don't understand how you could not see yourself... I thought that you could, but... this happened... And..."

He had cried before, but he had never once shed a tear in front of you. He wanted to be strong, to hold on to the hope that you were able to get back to normal, but no one can be that strong for so long, and so fat tears started to fall, mixing in the substance.

"I... I'm not strong like you think I am... I need you back... I need you back... because you're my Y/n... my friend... and I'm your Yuán fèn... so... so please..."

His hands slowly came around you, not caring for the energy that you could suck away from him. Now he just wanted to hold you in his arms, feeling just the glimmers of you.

"Please ... come back..."

And you didn't take anything from him.

[jjs-brainrot]

2024 is coming to an end, all my anime from the current season finished up and next season has yet to be begin. it's time for me to actually sit down and figure out what my top 10 anime were for this year!

God damn was this an amazing year of anime for me. Every season had multiple shows I was hardcore obsessing over with a surprising amount of them outright entering into my top 10 of all time. I'd say I'd be surprised if 2025 can match it, but a lot of the shows I was obsessing with are getting continuations next year so I might end up with back to back peak years.

10. Yuru Camp S3

The greatest propaganda camping has ever received is back again to try to convince you that you should totally buy some camping gear and drive out to the nearest camp ground. You will surely not regret both of these decisions!

Yuru Camp feels like it's the platonic ideal of the iyashikei genre. It has just the right mixture of beautiful scenery, slow and chill vibes, the right amount of goofy humor and some really delicious looking food to make you feeling rejuvenated (and a bit hungry) every episode.

Season 3 has been particularly notable as its the first season being handled by Eight Bit instead of C-Station. While I'd say it's still as strong as previous seasons, the environmental backgrounds definitely felt like a step back compared to the previous 2 seasons and movie. It wasn't bad enough that it put a damper on my enjoyment of the series but it was a noticeable downground. The rest of the animation was pretty solid though with some of the later episodes (7 and 8 in particular) being incredibly creative and fun.

It's Yuru Camp. You should watch Yuru Camp if you haven't already…. You will not regret any purchases you make after watching Yuru Camp…

9. Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf

The classic medieval fantasy/economic/romance/drama series has returned to once again lure unsuspecting otaku with the promise of a cute wolfgirl, only to lock the door behind them and reveal that they've been signed up for an econ 101 class.

It's an updated adaptation that's much more faithful to the light novels then the first anime was. Not too much to say until we get season 2 as it covered a lot of the arcs the first anime covered. The one exception being that it actually animated book 3 which the first anime skipped over in order to cover book 5 (or rather 90% of book 5… I'm still salty about that…)

Holo is still a complete charmer, Holo and Lawrence still have excellent chemistry together and the economic drama is still top tier.

8. Dungeon People

Dungeon Keeper Yuri or the other show from this year from a mangaka thinking long and hard about how a fantasy dungeon would actually work. Though Instead of looking at it as an ecosystem like Dungeon Meshi, it approaches the idea as a workplace with its own logistical and management issues that need to be addressed in order to function.

It's mostly a pretty chill series but it also doesn't shy away from exploring darker topics like how the dungeon management deals with sexual assault and murder amongst adventurers.

Both of the protags (Clay and Belle) are fairly morally grey characters with neither having any qualms about killing when the job calls for it. There's also some strong coworkers yuri going on between them as well.

Kinda got overshadowed by Dungeon Meshi, but it's another really interesting examination on the idea of fantasy dungeons with some light yuri elements on top.

7. 'Tis Time for "Torture", Princess

The princess will be pampered, cared for and provided more friendship then she's ever experienced in her life until she divulges state secrets of frivolous quality.

An extremely chill little comedy that manages to be both extremely funny and incredibly relaxing as the same time. The closest series I can think of to compare it to is Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle (and maybe The Helpful Fox Senko-san to an extent). Just a nice series of skits about a character getting pampered.

Each of the "torturers" having the own niches (i.e. the titular Torture Tortura (yes that's her name) being a foodie, Krall being an animal lover, Youki and Inki basically playing around as the princess' best friend, etc) does a good job of making skits varied enough to never get stale.

Very good series to chill to after long day at work. Also has a season 2 on the way.

6. Dungeon Meshi

It's Dungeon Meshi, one of the best fantasy and foodie series to come out in decades.

In truth, the fact that I've been keeping up with and recommending this series for like 8 or 9 years now kinda does lower it a bit on my list since most of the novelty has faded over the years and most of the stronger moments of the series will be in the second season.

That being said, this adaptation has been fantastic so far with it easily being a contender for one of Studio Trigger's best works.

5. Mayonaka Punch

Desperate simp vampire girl wants to suck a cancelled youtuber girl('s blood) dry, the cancelled youtuber wants to reach 1 million subscribers. Win-win!

An absolutely hilarious comedy that also manages to pull out some pretty strong emotional guy punches when it feels like it and has an absolutely exquisite cast of girls who suck (pun intended).

Easily up there with Shirobako and Ya Boy Kongming as one of PA Works' best anime.

4. Shangri-La Frontier

A trash game loving birdman plays an actually good game for the first time in his life. Alternatively: LetMeSoloHer the anime.

One of the very few VRMMO anime that's… actually about the joy of playing an MMO? Honestly it feels weird to say but it feels like almost ever other anime that takes place in an MMO is either an isekai or a romance where the MMO aspect is just a forgettable backdrop. The only other series I can think of that did something similar to Shangri-La Frontier is Bofuri. So it's weirdly an untapped aspect of the genre.

Shangri-La Frontier really does nails every aspect of enjoying an MMO excellently though. The fun of first loading into a game and trying to figure out the basics, gushing about the game to one of your old gaming buddies and getting them interested in it, finding another old gaming buddy you didn't realize was also playing the same game as you, learning and mastering a raid with your friends, getting real into the lore of the game and even taking a break from your main game to play other games to recharge your love for the main one.

The entire cast is a wonderful collection of gamer cryptids with the main 3 protags being up there as one of my all time favorite trios as they're just as easily likely to help each other out when it counts as they are to stab each other in the backs for the laughs. They absolutely nail the "gaming buddies who've known each other for years" vibes.

It easily has the most stellar fight scenes this year with The multi-episode Weathermon fight alone absolutely deserving to top everyone of those "top x anime fight scenes" lists people put out there.

It's painful how under talked about this series seems to be for how good it is.

3. VTuber Legend

Lesbian VTuber gets drunk and loudly talks about how much she loves to fap to women. Proceeds to awaken a new fetish in every one of her coworkers (never the same one).

Hilarious, unhinged, gay af, probably the second kinkiest yuri this year and is the gold standard all future VTuber anime must be compared to. It gets it. It fully understood the level of unhinged insanity it needed to be to represent what watching VTubers is actually like and does so with flying colors.

Awayuki Kokorone is my oshi of all time. May she forever suffer the consequences of being a human lightning rod of fetishes by becoming a chew toy for every woman in her life.

Easily the one of the funniest comedies to come out this year and is well worth watching even if you have 0 interest in VTubers.

2. Gushing Over Magical Girls

Girl who really, really, really, REALLY loves magical girls gets black mailed into joining the evil organization that fights them. This turns into an unexpected positive for her as she finds out that she really, really, really, REALLY loves domming magical girls.

As wild as "the extremely smutty, borderline pornographic bdsm yuri magical girl show was one of the most compelling and interestingly written shows this year while also being the most hilarious" is to say… The extremely smutty, borderline pornographic bdsm yuri magical girl show was in fact one of the most compelling and interestingly written shows this year while also being the most hilarious.

It's easily one of the most kink positive anime series I've seen, and I think out of every anime from this year, this one might well have had the biggest impact on me. The general themes of self-accepting ones own perversions and kinks genuinely got me accepting and being way more open with my own and others'.

The bdsm magical girl show made me a better person which is a hell of a thing to say.

1. Girls Band Cry

RAISE YOUR MIDDLE FINGERS WITH ME! (or at least you pinkies as we sadly can't have the actual members of TogeToge flipping their audience off every live show…)

Hands down the best band anime yet, easily a rival to Studio Orange's work as one of the best 3DCG anime out there and without a doubt the best completely original anime released this year. It's writing was consistently strong from beginning to end with a few episodes outright being some of the best 20 minutes of anime this year (episode 8 and 11 in particular). The entire cast was super fun with Nina in particular being an incredibly interesting protagonist. And god the music is some of the best out of any band anime with Togenashi Togeari easily being up there in my top 3 bands of all times and I've basically not gone a single week without listening to every one of their songs on repeat.

Girls Band Cry might be the most near perfect anime in years and is easily the series I'd most recommend everyone pick up from this year (now that you can actually do so legally cause god damn was it a crime that this one wasn't picked up by streamers when it aired).

[eugeneplace]

seeing as your answering questions about your world domination au how did each bro react to poppy and ramon(branch)?

is cooper part of the world domination team and if so, how does the funk family react to cooper?

You're not going to stop asking for family drama, are you?

You have my respect, dude

Okey so... I think it's important to note that it was Poppy who invited Ramon's brothers to the tour. She wanted them to sing at the wedding (after transforming them into zombies, of course) and she thought that Ramón would like the surprise!

Haha... He did not

And he liked it even less when he found out that Poppy sent them a fucking ransom note

IN HER DEFENSE! She thought that the relief of knowing their little brother wasn't actually kidnapped was going to put them in such a good mood that they would forget how much they hated each other!!

...Back on topic-

When the brothers first found out that Bitty B was alive, before knowing about the kidnapping, their first reaction was very emotional. Toño (Bruce) hugged the messenger and Floyd started crying.

...Jonh Dory just grabbed all the weapons he could find. He armed himself to the teeth to go on the Baby Bro Rescue Mission.

Clay too, but more discreet. Because Viva was also coming and she couldn't conceive the idea that her baby sister had someone hostage just for a concert.

Anyway, those two were going, like- full violence to meet the sister-in-law

It's hard for me to imagine Toño and Floyd as fighters. I mean- One is a family man and the other a party animal, I can believe a fist fight, but I don't think they have an arsenal in theirs houses (I don't think Floyd even has a house)

But yeah, those two definitely got bloodthirsty when they found out lil bro was in danger

They didn't recognize him at first- I mean, yeah, they saw him first with the bird skull mask thing- but even when he took it off it took a while. The eyes ended up gaving it away.

They tried to hug him, obviously, but Ramón wouldn't let them. In fact, it was Poppy who welcomed them with open arms and a smile. Because of course she was very happy! Imagine it: your favorite band are going to be yours brothers-in-law AND your long-lost sister showed up for your wedding! AAA-

So yeah, at first they didn't notice anything wrong with Poppy. Yes, the whole 'tricking them into coming' was weird, but at least she wants them to be there! And Poppy gave them a chance to try to talk to Ramon!

She invited them to stay for dinner (because they ended up arraving at the mobile castle at night time (she came out in her pajamas, Ramón did too but he put his poncho over them))

Besides, they had more important things to worry about. Like the whole grandma got eaten, Ramón is gray and he hates them.. and is about to marry the goddamn Queen of Pop situation

It's only when in the middle of the dinner that Ramón blurts out the whole "we're planning to conquer the world and kill a lot of people" thing that she takes off her mask. They end up knocked out and locked in the dungeon.

[firefish55]

Beihe-?

[charlesoberonn]

The Last World: Dark Fantasy novel concept inspired by Dark Souls and the bible:

The God of the world grew to hate the inhabitants of his creation, and so he brought down a cataclysm to destroy them, so that he might repopulate the Earth. But centuries after the cataclysm, four cities still remain. Growing tired of waiting for the cities to die out on their own, God sent down a slayer in the form of a mute soldier made of bronze, clay, and sand.

The Soldier washes up on the shores of Sidon, another survivor city that a few decades earlier was defeated by the others. They're found by Magenel, the last knight of Sidon, still patrolling its now empty corpse-strewn beaches. Initially thinking the Soldier an enemy, Magenel learns through a vision about the Soldier's mission to avenge Sidon by slaying its enemies. And so he joins them on their quest.

First they must leave Sidon through the haunted bridge, where the remnants of 100,000 dead soldiers cling on to life to stop anybody from crossing. Once they make it to the mainland they head to Jericho.

The Living Walls of Jericho, reinforced with the bodies of the city's inhabitants, try to stop them. But they sneak through the living city's lungs and veins into its heart, where they slay its king. They then run away as the city, long merged with its monarch, collapses around them.

Next they travel to the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, where time stands still. Long ago, the cities violated a treaty of mutually assured destruction against one another. Thankfully, just in time the mages of both cities activated a spell to hold time in place to prevent the destruction from raining on both cities. The Soldier and Magenel try to attack the time mages directly, but they're caught and defeated, separated through time.

The Soldier is sent back in time to the day of the mutually assured destruction. They try but cannot defeat the forces of Sodom and are trapped in the city's dungeons. There they help incite a riot using visions of the city's future. This causes the visions to come true, and soon the treaty of mutually assured destruction is broken. The day of destruction arrives. The Soldier is then sent back to the present. Or so they think.

In truth they're sent too far forward by decades. The Soldier travels to the city of Gommorah where Magenel has been fighting alone all this time. Helping him, together they defeat the time mages, ending the time freeze and escaping back in time to the present to witness both cities destroyed. Magenel then reveals that in those decades he was trapped in Gomorrah he learned things, including the Soldier's actions in the past. He questions why the Soldier didn't try to change things for the better. He decides to leave for the final city, Babylon, on his own.

After a long time wandering through the desert, the Soldier arrives at Babylon. The city is home to the refugees of all the world, who all work as builders on the city's central tower. They hope that by reaching the heavens, they can escape their hellish existence on Earth. The Soldier fights through Babylon's defenses, that are well prepared for them.

They rise floor by floor, defeating the challenges and obstacles put to them by Babylon's leadership. For each obstacle they overcome, a piece of their armor is lost, and so they replace it with a piece of their slain enemy. By the time they reach the unfinished tower's final floor to face the king, they're a Frankenstein's Monster of different parts.

But it's not the King waiting for them at the top. He’s been long dead, a mere symbol for the people of Babylon to rally behind. The one awaiting the Soldier of God is Magenel. And he knows what the Soldier has been fighting for all this time.

He's regretful for being blind and fool thinking that he was working towards a restoration of a false past. He’s sorry for slaying his enemies, realizing that now that Babylon is dead, the hope to rebuild is truly gone. Or is it? The ingredients to start anew and the plans still exist. He could rebuild, if given the time. And he has all the time in the world. So long as he can defeat the Soldier.

And so the final battle commences. Magenel is more skilled and powerful than any enemy the Soldier faced so far. He learned the techniques of all the kingdoms and now fights for humanity's past and future. Still, the Soldier is beyond human, especially now. Magenel loses, perishes. And with him humanity's hope for redemption.

God then comes down to the tower to congratulates his slayer for a job well done before he turns him back to sand. And with the Soldier, the rest of the world dies as well, washed away into nothingness as God starts anew.

Until the next time he's displeased with his creation...

[doomed-era]

Expanding Hyrule Bingo Card!

I've been studying for an exam a lot recently, so I didn't think I'd be able to participate fully, until I realized. Hey. I've already read a bunch of these. Nifty.

A5 - I made an Original Legends work!

I, in fact, did make a work about this little guy.

he begins handing out scratch n sniff cards that say "this comic stinks!" in reference to the cult classic 1994 RPG Earthbound's failed marketing campaign

B5 - Subscribed to an Ongoing Work

Triforce of Power by @nayru-s-clay-tablet

I'm insane about this comic I'm crazy I'm crazy I'm crazy!!!!! I've been following it for around five years now and I'll never get enough of Link and Ganondorf just goofing off. On my hands and knees begging people to read this please it's so underrated. probably THE best characterization of Ganondorf I've seen in a long-running comic I'm dead serious he's great-- the perfect mix of pretty awful but has a begrudging respect for link (finally. after years...) The Beedle gags...Cia and Lana being silly lil sisters...

C5 - Multiple POVs

All That Hurts Us by @karama9

I started reading because I was interested in Link's personality and I haven't been disappointed. He's pretty cool! I like that he's already an experienced adventurer and honestly I'd read a bunch of chapters of him and Zelda just chilling because they're neat. I haven't read enough to fully understand the plot besides, well, spoilers, so there's plenty of mysteries to be solved still.

D5 - Picked Because of the Title

Uneasy Lies the Chosen of Farore by @drsteggy

I did genuinely pick this because of the title and because I liked the little chapter previews I kept seeing on the Expanding Hyrule blog. I love pretty descriptions. I have only read the first chapter thus far but honestly it seems neat!

E5 - Left a Review on EH's Story Spotlight (lmk if I got this mixed up)

Goddess of Secrecy by @amelias-zelda-calamity-quintet

Really like the vibes here, as I have said, and Endeavor, because who wouldn't. The adventure has been progressing at a nice pace and I'm enjoying the little bits of characterization I've been picking up on in the dungeons. They really do feel very nicely done, and seeing as dungeons are tricky to make interesting I think this is impressive.

[mythos321]

Part 5 of my Wof x Persona au!

Chapter five: Wrath of the Seas!

As the Trio began their sneaking through the castle, they exited the small room that they entered from, and began their way through the main hall, only for it momentarily shift from a castles hall to the front of the school, making both Clay and Tsunami look momentarily shocked at its momentary distortion.

“Woah, so it’s actually literal?! I thought the school being the castle was just a metaphor or something!” Tsunami said, as Turtle pinched his snout.

“Obviously not, this place is still your school!” Turtle stated

“Wait, so do people from the school see us differently? or are we still in the mind and so aren’t actually there.” Clay asked, as he began to slowly sneak forward to avoid any sounds as Tsunami and Turtle followed with

“It’s the latter, yep. While this shows how he views the school, it will momentarily distort back to its true state, though should be noted these are extremely brief, and only certain areas have the constant shift between reality and his subconscious viewing. Those could even be safe spaces for later! Anyhow, we should hurry now!” Turtle explained and stated, as the three speed sneaked across the hall and down towards the dungeon area, but before they could foolishly rush in, Clay grabbed Turtle who subsequently grabbed Tsunami, as they saw one of the puppet guards up ahead.

“Dang, I guess we’re gonna have to fight our way forward! Clay, hand me one of those weapons you got I’ll help!” Tsunami said as Clay went to grab manifest his dagger, however ended up manifesting something a bit more…booming.

“Oh hey, it’s like Obsidians head! I didn’t know I also had one of these! Oh! I know, I can give you this, and them you can bludgeon enemies with this handle part!” Clay explained, as Tsunami nodded in agreement

“Okay, first of all, that is horrifying gun safety. second of all, using that right now would just give you away! Big Blue over here should just stand back as you and me handle this thing!” Turtle explained.

“What we need to do is attack from behind, even if we could handle them head on, it’s much better for us to catch them off guard and keep a low level!” Turtle further explained

“Oh, kind of like hunting! Except instead of hunting food, we’re hunting doll knights!” Clay responded, and Turtle despite having a clear face of bewilderment decided to just go with it.

“Yeah, sure. You just need to break the mask off them, then it’ll free them of the palace rulers control and allow us to deal with them without consequence! At which point you have my permission to be as loud as you want while we beat the crap outta them!” Turtle told Clay, who then nodded along with it as he then slowly crept up behind the puppet knight, and took a long deep breath, before jumping onto the back of the shadow, revealing its true form as its old armor went away, revealing itself as a small dragonet of an indiscernible tribe, with glowing yellow eyes and a long wizards hat and coat, almost like it was a magician.

Clay found himself intrigued by the shadow. It didn’t seem harmful, actually seemed kind of adorable, like a little toy he and his sibs might have played with when they were younger, and wondered perhaps he could try to talk to the shadow after he defeats it.

Naturally, it took very little effort to knock it down, but before it could be finished off, Clay decided to walk up to the shadow, and strike a conversation with it.

“Oh, what, come to gloat at beating weak old me? Everyone always makes fun of me!”

“I don’t think you’re weak at all!” Clay responded to the shadow, as it seemed to momentarily cheer up.

“O-oh! really? you think I can have potential as a true mage?”

“Sure! I think you could even join us!” Clay responded genuinely to the shadow

“Wow! no one ever believed in me! OH! I REMEMBER MY TRUE SELF NOW!” The shadow spoke, as it suddenly floated in the air.

“I am thou! Thou art I! I am The Magician Arcana, True Name:Blue Apprentice!” The Shadow then suddenly turned into a mask like Clays own, and rammed right onto his face, making him momentarily befuddled as Turtle looked just as confused as him.

“…what just happened?” Clay asked, as he felt a sudden surge of power in him

“You have harnessed the natural ability within yourself! The Wild Card.”

“Now we are joined together! With fellow spirits sure to follow!”

Clay heard Obsidians voice speak from within himself, alongside that of The Blue Apprentice, and Clay realized he now harnessed the power of two personas at once.

“That’s no fair! Why do you get 2 personas while I only get one!” Turtle asked, visibly a little upset.

“At least you HAVE a Persona! I don’t even have one!” Tsunami said afterwards, as Clay felt a little bad for having a power neither of his friends possessed…though he had to admit, it felt amazing, almost as though he had found another part of himself.

After the two seawings finished their whining, the trio continued through the dungeon…and found no one there, no guards, no prisoners, not even some dumb note saying they got the better of them like in the sillier stories Clay would be read as a child.

“Where the hell is everyone?! Maybe they’re up front!” Tsunami stated as she rushed over.

“Hm, seems they had them transferred for some reason…ughhhh, so much running around, it feels like one of those stupid novels that purposefully drags on…” Turtle depressingly said, as Clay suddenly grabbed the small cat like dragon and tossed him onto his back.

“There ya go! now you won’t have to waste energy!” Clay said to Turtle with a smile, as Turtle smiled back in gratitude after processing it, only for Tsunami to run back to them.

“I heard footsteps, lots of them!“ Tsunami said as she regrouped with them, as Turtle hopped off of Clays back and tried to quickly think up something before seeing a distorted door.

“Over there! It’s one of the rooms I mentioned before!” The 3 then quickly rushed inside, with Tsunami giving herself a breather.

“Well, we should be safe here! Whirlpools control over this area is pretty weak!” Turtle stated, as the room switched between a random castle room ti a random classroom.

“So this place meanwhile is a classroom? It’s so weird, to turn a place into a castle from a school.” Tsunami said.

“Now you’re catching on! This is a world where distorted desires materialize, no matter the true nature of the distorted location! for example, a mobster might view a city under his control as his bank, or even further than that! I call these places of distorted desires a “Palace.” This place is a castle because Whirlpool views it as such.”

“Really now…THAT SELFISH SON OF A BITCH!” Tsunami yelled as she threw a small chair against the wall, shattering it into a bunch of wooden pieces, as Clay placed his claws on Tsunamis shoulder to try and calm her down.

“Woah, seems you really hate this Whirlpool guy.” Turtle observed

“Hate doesn’t even describe it! I despise that bastard more than anything in the world! Him and my mother are practically two peas in a pod with how she coddles him and lets him do whatever he wants just because he praises her crap writing, her crap leadership, and her crap parenting!”

“Hey hey now, calm down alright? I don’t know what happened but this clearly isn’t something to get blinded over.” Turtle tried to say

“Turtle, I know you’re trying to help, but this isn’t really one of those times.” Clay interjected, as Turtle felt a small wave of guilt now that even Clay was against his words.

“I’m sorry, just trying to keep things safe…..soooo, you’re probably curious about the outfit right?” Turtle asked Clay, trying to change the subject.

“Yeah, I’ve been curious about that too!” Tsunami interjected.

“Well, that my friend is also caused by these distorted realities.”

“Of course it is…”

“It helps acts as a sort of shield against the distortion of the world, which can only come forth from a powerful will of rebellion! Essentially, it is your mind battling against theirs.”

“Wait, but isn’t Tsunami doing fine? How come nothing happens to her without it.” Clay questioned

“Well it’s simple, you’re around to keep her from ending up on the chopping block!” Turtle answered

“Well now that that’s wrapped up…Seriously, what ARE you???” Tsunami asked

“I’m a dragon just like you two! Honest-to-moons Dragon!”

“Maybe some crude attempt of a disguise as one! Firstly, your eyes look like a cats! Secondly, you’re extremely tiny yet have the physical body of a 4 year old dragonet!” Tsunami stated, as she momentarily clenched her teeth after Clay stepped on her tail for her rude comments

“W-well, this is just because I lost whatever my original form was!…I think. But I know how to regain it! That’s why I even came here, for preliminary investigations of how!…well, until I got captured and tortured. Yeah scratch what I said a while back screw this guy we’re making him pay no matter what!” Turtle yelled out, as he suddenly tripped against a shelf and a small contraption came out of it.

After Clay checked to see if Turtle was okay, he then looked at small item and realized it was kind of like a grappling hook. Usually nothing to special outside of small construction, Clay thought about Turtles words before, and realized that maybe he could use his own cognition to use this even further than that. Or at the very least, it could be a neat gift to give to one of his sibs in a year.

“Man, that was embarrassing. I’m okay though.” Turtle said as he got back up.

“Well, we should get going. Oh! Before we so though, I just remembered I brought some juice! Maybe they can heal us up if we get to tired and all that.” Tsunami stated, as she reached into her jackets pocket and handed it to Clay, as it then turned into a fine drink they could safely drink later, manifesting it away for now as the three exited the safe room.

“Let’s eavesdrop on some of the soldiers so we can figure out where they sent those prisoners to.” Turtle suggested, as the 3 peeked behind a bunch of barrels to listen in on them, hearing one of the guards mention a training hall.

“That should be just a bit ahead!” Turtle commented, as the guards walked pass them with no notice, and the three snuck pass them down towards the halls and saw a large gate door, which they proceeded to open it and walk through a small but well lit corridor, as they went slightly further down before stopping in their tracks as they saw 2 shadows speak to one another.

“Darn! I should’ve expected we’d see some shadows even with our evasions! We need to conserve energy though, so we can’t just rush at them!”

“If only I had a persona, I could help you guys shoot right through them!” Tsunami said, as a lightbulb went off in Clays head.

“Moons bless the Nightwing who made these.” Clay said as he manifested his gun, took aim and fired, making one shadow fade away as the other soon followed as Turtle himself got the memo and used his own weapon, a slingshot.

“Y’know, while these aren’t that useful against actual dragons, they can REALLY pack a punch here.” Clay stated as he put the weapon away

“You’re a surprising marksman, I gotta say.” Turtle complimented him

“Oh, well I used to play with toys like these when I was younger, I was super competitive about it so I developed a bit of an aim for it. Just to check, are the shadows weak to these, or are these just stronger here? Because usually these just kind of leave a bruise at worst.”

“Correct! our weapons are indeed stronger here than in the real world, and will likely become only stronger with our mental fortitude and experience!” Turtle explained

“Ha! we’re really about to defeat these guys with a childrens toys!” Tsunami laughed as the 3 rushed through and made it to the room connecting to the training and study halls as a sign above it read “Whirlpools Training Hall of Care.”

“Hall…of Care? That’s the biggest bullshit I ever heard! Only thing Whirlpool cares about is himself!” Tsunami stated as the 3 walked into The Castles Hall of Care and were greeted by the pained screams of students.

“Those voices…they’re coming from over there!” Tsunami told the others as she rushed to where she heard the screams with Clay and Turtle close behind her as the pained screams only got louder until they finally found the source of the screams below.

Their they saw multiple dragonets being whipped by the palace puppets as “training” and “helping” as they were helpless to the guards attacks.

“DAMN IT, WHAT IS THIS PSYCHOTIC SHIT HES PULLING.” Tsunami yelled, as she had to be held back by Clay before she did something she’d regret.

“Look, I understand, but you need to keep your voice down!” Turtle whispered to them

“THIS IS BEYOND HORRIBLE TO THESE POOR KIDS, WE CANT JUST LEAVE THEM, DAMN IT, CLAY, HELP ME OPEN THIS!” Tsunami commanded as Clay followed, determined to help those dragonets just like her, until they heard a sudden faint voice.

“Please…just leave us alone…it’s useless…” One of the abused prisoners said to them.

“If we stay obedient, we’ll be fine…” another of the abused said, as Clay and Tsunami looked disgusted.

“Damn it, to think that bastard would have them feel so helpless!” Tsunami said as she held her head in frustration as Clay crushed the ground in his talons.

“Look you two, I know you want to help them, but it’s important to remember these are still just Whirlpools cognitions! Trying to help them here won’t have any effect. Trust me, if they were real, I’d be busting that door down with you! The truth is, all they are is just similarly looking dolls for Whirlpools mind to play with!” Turtle told the two, which slightly eased their nerves, but also made them angrier in other aspects.

“So while the school is a castle, the students are its slaves…” Clay thought out loud

“It’s a moon forsaken comedy with how much it lines up. This really is all in that frog eyed assholes head.” Tsunami added on, as she began to think to herself of how she can help still.

“…wait, these are based on real life, right? Then these people must exist in the real world to! They must be Whirlpools students!” Tsunami told the two, as she then developed a scowl on her face after she realized that Whirlpool truly does just view his students as slaves.

“Then that means if we can talk to them in real life, we might be able to get something out there! Even your mother would have no option but to be forced to put him away! Even if she got him a light sentence he wouldn’t be able to teach the same ever again, if at all!” Clay added on, as he and Tsunami gained some hope, as Clay pulled out his notebook and attempted to write inside it some descriptions of the people they saw, only for the pages to turn blank afterwards.

“Huh, so that book just has you write palace locations instead of letting you do anything on your own for it?” Tsunami asked

“Admittedly, I think it just writes it all down on its own.” Clay admitted, while Turtle simply looked confused as he had no idea what the two were talking about.

“I think I can memorize their faces and scale colors, We should probably get going soon though.” Tsunami admitted

“I believe there’s an easy exit just up ahead! So we’ll have to cut through there…Unfortunately we’ll also have to see what the other poor kids go through.” Turtle told the two, as the trio then rushed through the hall and saw the various horrible tortures they went through, from having to run forever without water with threat of being crushed by a spiked roller, to being forced to swim at depths far to deep for children to handle, and even one poor kid being pelted with stones over and over to shape their endurance, all making Clay, Tsunami, and Turtle suck to their stomach at the horrible abuse.

Just before exiting, they heard the scream of a small child beyond what they thought was an empty cavern, as Clay and Tsunami recognized the voice as none other than Anemones cognitive self.

As they looked down, they saw the cognition constantly be hit with a staff even while down, as a copy of Whirlpools voice constantly berated the poor child for being “Useless” or “Weak” and even claiming her to be selfish garbage that is a waste of space, and Clay and Tsunami both felt a burning hatred at what the poor girl was being put through by this piece of garbage “Teacher.”

“That poor kid…Maybe we can try to talk with her after all of this is over, try to help her before it’s too late I guess…” Clay tried to say, as Tsunami nodded her head in agreement. But even so, all the two could feel was sadness at what Anemone was being put through, and how her mother outright encouraged this horrific abuse while praising the man who did it. All of it just made the two saddened for the poor dragonet.

The 3 then began to rush through the exit up back to the castles main hall, expecting to escape without a hitch.

Only for Shadow Whirlpool to appear, with multiple Puppet Guards at his side, one larger and in golden armor next to him.

“To think you knaves would dare to intrude upon me again! You’re a bunch of hopeless buffoons! Intruding upon a kings castle!” King Whirlpool shouted to them.

“This school ain’t your castle lord dipshit!” Tsunami yelled back.

“We know all about the abuse you’re putting those poor kids through, we’re gonna take you down!” Clay yelled with Tsunami, as King Whirlpool lightly chuckled

“ “Barking dogs seldom bite.” as the saying goes. How far The Ugly Princess has fallen. Your dear old dad wore the face much better than all of you worthless ingrates that’s for sure! Guess there was a silver lining in Gills death though, he never had to see his idiot daughter make a fool of herself!” King Whirlpool taunted

“The hell are you getting at?!” Tsunami loudly questioned.

“Come on now, I speak of the Queens second disgrace! Who acted in violence against the greatest man to ever exist, and crushed her already weak relation to her mother. Oh I can only imagine poor Queen Corals sadness at her daughter’s selfish little actions.” King Whirlpool continued, as Tsunami gritted her teeth.

“The hell are you talking about?” Clay asked, as he had Tsunami get behind him so she couldn’t get hurt.

“My, I knew Mudwings were stupid, but I never knew they would blindly accompany others without knowing anything at all! To put it simply so your tiny brain may understand it, she attacked me in a fit of rage, betraying her mothers trust in the process and breaking away in a tantrum! Yet here she is, acting like a carefree monkey playing with its dung.” King Whirlpool mocked, as Clay got in a fighting position over his constant insults to his friend.

“Th-that’s not true!” Tsunami yelled.

“Such a tragedy! A poor dumb mudwing and small tiny freak led to their deaths by a foolish former princess! My, it almost sounds like the opening plots to one of the queens books!” King Whirlpool stated as he walked behind his guards. “Hurry up and put an end to these fools, I can’t stand their stench.” King Whirlpool ordered his guards as they suddenly surrounded Turtle and Clay without warning, with Clay bumping Tsunami out of the way before being kicked down to the ground, with Turtle kicked a few feet by one of the other guards right under Whirlpools talons as he stepped down on Turtle.

“Ow…you piece of…” Turtle tried to say solething, but couldn’t muster up any more words, as Clay tried to get up but was still surrounded by the guards without a way to fight back. Meanwhile Tsunami kept a fighting stance, though slightly terrified, she refused to show it in any capacity.

“I bet you fools came here on a whim, and now ended up like this. Is that correct?” Whirlpool questioned, as Tsunami was then knocked down by a guards shield and hurt in the process.

“That’s not it at all…” Tsunami said weakly.

“To think you would dare to raise your hand against me! After I bestowed such kindness in even teaching a stupid brat like you!”

“Teaching? All you did was abuse me just like you’re abusing these kids! You were trying to get me to attack you on purpose!” Tsunami shouted back with resistance, as she managed to get herself standing once again.

“You’re nothing but an eyesore! Of course I’d try to get rid of a loudmouth buffoon like you! I also knew your mommy would naturally side with me, though I gotta say, the dumb broad dislocating one of your wings was an extra icing on the cake of victory! Maybe I should break your other wing! Coral will just think it’s self defense anyway!” King Whirlpool began to cackle, as Tsunami looked at the ground in defeat.

“Damn it…am I gonna lose again?…Not only can I barely fly or swim anymore, hell even runnings a challenge…But I’m completely estranged from my family because of this asshole…” Tsunami explained sadly.

“So that’s why…” Turtle realized to himself, only to let out a pained yelp as Whirlpool continued to squish him under his talon.

“Once I deal with these two, I’ll make sure you’ll join them quite soon. HahahahahaAHAHAHAH!” Whirlpool laughed

“TSUNAMI! DONT LET THIS TOAD EYED ABUSIVE PIECE OF GARBAGE GET THE BETTER OF YOU! YOURE STRONGER THAN HIM! KEEP BELIEVING IN YOURSELF AND STAND UP AGAINST HIM!” Clay shouted from the ground, trying to think of a way out of his own predicament, but it was clear his words were not met on Deaf ears.

“…You’re right. I can’t let this trash get the better of me! All you do is use people like some damn puppets…you’re the real piece of garbage, Whirlpool!” Tsunami said as she walked towards him, and a fear from Whirlpool began to emit from himself

“G-guards! seize her!” Whirlpool yelled, as Tsunami continued towards him.

“QUIT LOOKING DOWN ON ME WITH THAT STUPID SMILE ON YOUR FACE.” Tsunami yelled, as guards began to surround her

It’s about time you came through.

Tsunami suddenly collapsed to the floor as she felt like her brain began to bash itself like a hammer, swinging her tail in the process and breaking one of the puppet guards into pieces by proxy.

Since your name has been disgraced by this oaf already, why not form a pact and gain power to deal with this oaf?

Tsunami shouted loudly from the constant pain, making the remaining guards back away in fear they may be destroyed by accident next.

Let us raise your weapon and wreak havoc against those who dared to disgrace you! The other you within desires the very same!

Tsunami shook across the floor grasping at her head from the agonizing pain as the contract forged itself

I am thou, thou art I. Now stand forth against your oppresors, AND FLOOD THE OCEAN WITH THE SKULLS OF THOUS ENEMIES

A metal mask appeared upon Tsunamis face as she stood tensely against the guards.

“Hmph, what do you think you can even do! Just cower in fear!” The Golden Guard yelled, only to be ignored as Tsunami ripped her mask away and let forth a scream that was like the thunder itself,

The castles hall began to shake, as the ground broke apart from rising winds mixed with powerful waves as they manifested into a mighty beast, with a blade replacing the left hand as a dagger was held in its right. Its wings were like that of silver and blue diamonds, with a ferocious yet beautiful face topped with a crown like hat. Its lower body was like that of a constant storm, it wore a long deep blue coat over its silver underbody that complimented its blue scales, held up by 2 other blades within its possession. Top it all off was a constant thundering from its body like that of a constant roar.

Dozens of guards were ripped to shreds by the Persona and the earthquake it brought forth, allowing Clay and Turtle to free themselves and stand by with Tsunami as she let forth a massive smile upon her face at her newfound power.

“Hahaha! Now that’s what I’m talking about! Now that I got this power! I think I owe these bastards some payback!” Tsunami exclaimed.

“D-Don’t mock me, you brat!” The Golden Guard yelled, as it prepared to fight

“BLOW THEM ALL AWAY, HURRICANE!” Tsunami commanded ferociously, preparing for the ensuing battle to come!

[greyplainsttrpg]

The Darkness Part 0 (Delving into r/DND)

Hello. For the time being I am putting off my discussion of the actual mechanics of 5e and instead want to pivot to what I refer to as "The Darkness." The discourse around any subject has degrees of ridiculousness, and no one is ever too far from a truly unhinged opinion. However, The Darkness is personal to me because, in combination of the written mechanics of Hasbro's: Wizards of the Coast's: Dungeons and Dragons (2014), I was also the victim of trying to run games that went against the popular discourse around the system.

For the context for this blog in general, but especially for the rest of The Darkness posts, here is a long, but not fully complete, story of my history in TTRPGs. Please note that while I do not mention games outside of D&D here, I was also playing and running other systems.

I started running games in the beforetimes (the times before the D&D Next Playtest and before the official release of Hasbro's: Wizards of the Coast's: Dungeons and Dragons (2014)). I was a part of a friendgroup that TTRPGs were pretty central to. However, I lived in an awkward part of the city compared to everyone else, and my parents hated driving to the house where D&D (and other games) were played, so I did not get to play all that often. I was also the fortunate recipient of dozens of books for AD&D and AD&D 2nd Edition (one of the games that my group played consistently) from an older friend/employer of my older brother. As such, my outlet for TTRPGs was primarily reading, making characters that would never get played, and writing content for a game that I might run eventually.

In 7th grade, I tried to run my own game, and that went okay. Mixed results. I let one of the players brute force a house-rule that when they roll a 00_0 on a percentile die, they get to roll for a better magic item (which I would now say "no" to and tell them to shut up and play the fucking game). They got +5 full plate at Level 1 and I decided that instead of playing out the rest of a full campaign with that (or finding some convoluted way to get rid of it), I would just call it there at the end of the session. I kept my notes for that session for a LONG time.

I was asked in High school by an upperclassman if I would run a game for her. She was aware of TTRPGs/D&D but had never played. I said "sure, I can do that." I scheduled a day to play a couple weeks out and invited all the players over to my house ahead of time to individually make them a Character in AD&D 2nd before the session. Working with them personally, I would know that they would both 1) have a Character they’ll want to play and 2) have a Character that I can work with to the fullest in the campaign. At the time, none of these people had played ANY TTRPG before, so they had no connection to discourse or conventions, and this was in the time before The Darkness, so (even if they had played before) people were generally more down to kind of just figure out what the GM was up to and vibe with that.

I ran the first session in the basement of my parent's house on a yellowed pop-up table. The players sat on whatever chair we were allowed to grab and hoist down the long-dark stair onto unfinished, damp, earth-cement mixture ground. Due to the high amount of moisture and clay deposits of Appalachia, the basement had a distinct smell of causal mildew. There might not ever be a more fitting place to play. This time, I had learned the rules of the game better, and this time I had Players who were not going to say "WELL AT MY TABLE." This would not be surprising for old-heads, however this will shock new players. We played from around noon to around midnight. Players that could not drive had to get picked up by their parents early. The players accomplished very little in all that time. That is how we played back then. Everything was war: the players had to fight, reason, and bargain for every yard of material and narrative ground against a hostile world.

The player that started the whole thing enjoyed the session AND ALSO never showed up to the latter ones. This was due to her going to college and getting busy, I believe. It could also be as simple as “yes, I have now played D&D.” Thus—mission accomplished. 

ANYWAY, that was not the last session that I ran. I would continue this game biweekly for the rest of senior year all the way into the summer before the rest of us went to college. I would run games for anyone and everyone that was willing to show up. Sessions as few as 1 player and as many as 12 players. I would create custom class options for Players, I allowed players to write their own spells, forge their own magic items, etc. The campaign was harrowing, exhausting, melancholic, and yet engaging. The Characters were always outgunned and on the run, and the Players were constantly paranoid that anything could and would go horribly wrong at any instant. The game was about strategy: “what can we do to figure out what Jacob is about to throw at us, and how do we go about negating that.” We would play from around 4PM to as late as 2AM on Saturdays. It was a genuinely magical experience where I had the opportunity to learn a lot and develop a very effective style that all my players love and remember fondly to this day.

About 2/3 of the way into the campaign, the D&D Next playtest dropped. Because I was still playing with the same group of people, and because The Darkness had not yet crept into any of their minds, we had a decent enough time finishing out much of the campaign with heavily customized D&D Next mechanics. To this day, I am a D&D Next defender. I think there are many gameplay mechanics that are better in Next than in Hasbro's: Wizards of the Coast's: Dungeons and Dragons (2014).

HOWEVER, when I got to college, a similar thing happened. "Does anyone know how to play D&D?" "I know how to play." "Can you run!?" "Sure, I guess."

After finishing the campaign from high school and starting the one in college, Hasbro's: Wizards of the Coast's: Dungeons and Dragons (2014) was released to the general public. I only had the Player's Handbook at the time (the shittily manufactured one where the pages weren't glued in well) and that's all. I bought the DMG and Monster Manual, and that's part of what began my dark spiral with TTRPGs.

The monsters did not look right. Why do they look like animals? Why do these have "realistic" skin textures. This is not "my D&D." I forged past that and continued anyway. I did the same procedure as last time. I scheduled time with all the players to make their characters and play a personal 1-1 session. However, this time, things were off. In high school, I explained what kind of game I was planning to run, and then I worked with each player so that they would produce Characters that both made sense for the world/story that was going to happen but also they wanted to play. This time, Players were not really interested in what I was trying to do. They only wanted to do what they wanted to do. They pulled up things from reddit, referenced spell combinations they wanted to build around, etc. I must stress, they knew spell and class combinations before ever playing the game. In general, there was far less interest in being challenged (and overcoming those challenges) and more interest in RP (obtrusive/time-wasting RP) and being a dickhead. In hindsight, I did have some bad players, however that was not the sole problem. These new players had very different goals than I did when I was a player and different goals than I have as a GM. And I'm going to say it, their goals suck. You see, The Darkness had crept into my table for the first time and I was not mentally or emotionally prepared for how to deal with it.

I quickly stopped having fun GMing that campaign and so I stopped. The players, however, were seemingly still having fun, somehow? Like, they enjoyed fucking around with their (now called) paper buttons, and I was not interested in running a paper-button-mashing campaign for selfish assholes. It was very confusing. Like, okay pop-off, king, you cast sacred flame?

I ran a couple of different one-shots with other groups over the years. I would drop by the university where most of my former players went to college and run games of Hasbro's: Wizards of the Coast's: Dungeons and Dragons (2014) for them, but it still didn't feel right. The players that they got to play also tended to just mindlessly fuck about with their characters and then get mad when they walked into a telegraphed ambush. I ran a session for a friend's little brother and a few other people. When the little brother delivered unto me a 4 page backstory for a level 1 Character that involved them being kidnapped by pirates and being part angel or something, and I explained "hey, that's not really going to work for my setting/game," I got delivered the most iconic line of my entire career: "Oh, I'm sorry. You see, my other group—we're all writers, so we REALLY care about our character's backstories UwU." Keep in mind that, by this point, I had written several hundred pages of material for the game world. Unsurprisingly, that session did not manifest into a continuous campaign either.

I was completely defeated. Based on failures of varying degrees of all my latest attempts at trying to run games, I was convinced that I was just a bad DM. I cannot stress how much despair this wrought upon me. Being good at GMing was a part of my personality, and my failure to live up to this positive image of myself unironically contributed to at least some of the depression I was experiencing at the time. It was still nagging me that, "if I am a bad DM, then why did my campaign in high school go so well?" I would lament this anxiety to my old players and they generally agreed to this point: "look, since high school, I have had other DMs, but you are THE Dungeon Master." They also noticed that other players and DMs are not playing D&D in the same way that they were used to with me. At the time, we could not really figure out exactly what was going on or why.

This is what led to the creation of Greyplains. Taylor, my best friend and DM pupil, and I had a long conversation about the old days one time when I was visiting him in Knoxville in 2018. We shared our experiences and frustrations. We lamented that we would probably never get to play the kinds of games we want to again. Instead of embracing The Darkness we started figuring out what gameplay experiences we wanted to deliver and started cooking up how to execute them. By this time, we both had experience writing our own systems to varying degrees of success (his more successful than my own). Actually, they were both Zombie Apocalypse TTRPGs. I wrote a shitty one in 8th grade and he wrote a better alternative in college. Anyway.

Until recently, I just assumed that I was a bad GM who got lucky with a bunch of great players in high school. The Darkness had fully enveloped my mind even whilst I was trying to fight it with game design. Now that Greyplains is done, as well as other systems to surround it, I was forced to GM to market the game. It was during that period I learned that I was actually not a bad GM. I was never a categorically "bad" GM at all (not that I never made mistakes or whatever, I know that I did). It was, unironically, everyone else that was wrong (everyone in the limited scope of people that I interacted with trying to run Hasbro's: Wizards of the Coast's: Dungeons and Dragons (2014)). Once I started going to conventions and running demo games at bars and whatnot, I started having more positive interactions.

One of my favorite post-game conversations I had was earlier this year. This was a game that I ran at a bar. The Player said to me, "you know, my Character made (X) decision, and I stand by that, but I know that it was wrong in the long-run." Something like that. What a great compliment for a TTRPG one shot's "story": melancholic malaise—AFTER VICTORY. I cannot think of a single Hasbro's: Wizards of the Coast's: Dungeons and Dragons (2014) event retelling where the result is that the Player-Characters won AND that the Players were unhappy at their own character's decisions. I would share more of this story, but if you would like to play that one-shot, you can instead let me know and I can run it for you and your friends wink wink.

Do I think that it is categorically impossible to have these sorts of experiences in Hasbro's: Wizards of the Coast's: Dungeons and Dragons (2014)? No... BUT I know from my time trying to beat a dead horse that the system is designed in such a way that makes it almost impossible to have a genuine human experience in it. By playing Hasbro's: Wizards of the Coast's: Dungeons and Dragons (2014), you are handicapped in several ways as to make having real experiences impractical to reach while also maintaining the intended play-pattern of the game. Worse than the game itself holding players and GMs back, The Darkness is doing the most work at denying players compelling, fun, and genuinely challenging/rewarding gameplay.

This context is important for understanding the rest of these "The Darkness" posts on my blog. This is a way for me to laugh and cringe at where I used to be and at the kinds of people who used to have power over me. This is not a Crit Crab or RPG horror story arc where I am targeting specific players or GMs. I am approaching all the posts I grab from reddit as an interesting vector to understand The Darkness and how you, the reader, can maybe learn to overcome it.

(The secret is MOSTLY just normal communication).