#detective's journal

[the-starling-files]

"......"

"Coffee first. Important revolutionary changes in society and Hell's hierarchy later."

𝕰𝖉𝖎𝖈𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕬𝖌𝖊 𝖔𝖋 𝕴𝖒𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖚𝖒

" Many of you are aware of the issues that have transpired as of late. The controversy with my son, and all the fallout that has been birthed of this affair. This situation, despite my reluctance to admit it, have showcased the dire need of reform that is necessary for The Ars Goetia to function. I have discussed with our mutual master, Lucifer Morningstar and we have arrived to a joint conclusion. Before I begin listing the changes to come I will give justification through a brief look into our history.

When the rebellion in Heaven failed Lucifer's lieutenants were given their tasks. The sins were given their control over the hedonistic vice of their choice. Alongside them there was us, the Kings and Queens of the Ars Goetia. Our station was to act as minor nobility not tethered to land and sin but to governance. It was our task to rule in the name of Lucifer and his fellows. Thus was the first age of our kin when we Kings and Queens and a handful of what would becomes Earls began the construction of our power and bloodlines.

For centuries this Age of Harmony would go on, the Ars Goetia governed well and selflessly. I do not know the exact time frame that it ended, but as time went on and bloodlines became more powerful with more history a new age was born. This age was one where the Kings, and Queens competed with one another for resources and power. They made alliances through marriage as a means to keep order and their power secure. Factions came into being and the Ars Goetia became a group of wealthy nobles who hardly did much at all for the sake of Hell. We chose to place ourselves on pedestals, lord over the Hell born and sinners we were meant to treat with support. This is what I have come to view as the second age of the Ars Goetia, the Feudal Age.

As time went on and the endless contests and rivalries played out, I would emerge as the King most loyal to our original cause. I would make powerful allies in my piety and faithful service to our master, Lucifer Morningstar. I have traded alliances, bartered my children to maintain my power, and for many a thousand years of effort I have maintained absolute power over our order in all but name. As time has gone on I have only solidified my strength, my legions have grown to the point that I command nearly four times the legions of my closest rival, King Baal. Aside from military strength I have levied my other resources in such a way where the opinions and thoughts of my peers hardly see the light of day and my wealth overshadows them all combined. To summarize, I have won this contest over the Ars Goetia's soul. The people have spoken, our King has spoken. And I am now prepared to begin the third age of our existence, having bested all those who sought to undue us. The Age of Imperium is here.

Effective immediately the council Kings is dismissed and liquified. All former Kings and Queens of the Ars Goetia aside from myself shall have their titles cast aside, replaced by the title of Patriarch or Matriarch. The Ars Goetia shall be governed by an Imperial Administration with myself as its head. I place the crown upon my own head and proclaim myself THE King of the Ars Goetia, and the Tenth Great King of Hell. The Goetia shall continue to define themselves as the Parliamentary class but we shall now have our own seat at the council of nine, now ten.

I do not make this decision simply to take from the men and women who were once my peers. All Patriarchs are to be granted new authority, rather then being a vague individual in our order lording over you all I shall release you. You may each rule your own families as you see fit, no longer will I come to you seeking your aide and children unannounced for marriage. No longer will you be pressured into following my micro management and autocratic tendencies. My chosen cabinet alongside my Imperial family shall see to the governance of yourselves and all else within our designs, we shall not dictate the actions you perform in your politics and personal affairs so long as they do not contradict our own.

For the Imperial family made up of MY descendants I have this edict for you all specifically. All arranged marriages are hereby annulled and the practice is ended. For those couples wishing to stay together you may do so and I shall approve them once again should you elect to continue them. For all others and those who are yet to be wed, you are free to find your love in any way you wish, and with whomever you wish, from a hell hound in the slums of imp city, the royal family of sins, or perhaps no one at all. Let us heal this gaping wound that has placed us in such an unhappy state."

[karyanastore]

[journalofabird]

Have some Edwin Payne angst🤭

[currant-owo]

Awkward meetings

Pretty much the same things happen as in canon, but Danny almost constantly bumps into Ra's in his time travel (where dc and dp can exist together or as separate/parallel alternate universes). After an indeterminate number of meetings, the contents of which I won't reveal, both came to an unspoken agreement to ignore each other no matter what.

Remarkably, the order of encounters for Ra's and Danny is chronologically confusing, as is their timeline relative to each other. How strong. No one knows at what segment of their meetings the other is. It's so damn confusing that Ra's and Danny keep logs of meetings, in a futile attempt to sort this shit out one day without potentially destabilizing the current time stream, the Flash's bullshit is more than enough, thanks.

And out of a desire to avoid all this headache, they most often just walk by and report their subjective meeting number. On rare occasions, they warn each other about how their next meeting might go, or simply ask the other to remind them of something.

Their awkward meetings/attempts to avoid prolonged interaction will look quite funny from the outside.

It seemed that the League always had its own "Cryptid". At truly random intervals (day, week, month, years), the same child quickly appeared in front of the Demon Head and just as quickly disappeared. Most often they exchanged some numbers, less often he uttered some phrases. Neither of them will even look at the other, eager to leave as soon as possible (the longer they are around, the higher the chance that something unpleasant will happen, strange, but together they often attract any kind of trouble from an earthquake to level threats end of the world).

[weightedplushie]

⚠️ BIVE STIMBOARD

1 2 3 • 4 5 6 • 7 8 9

[chaoticly-shy-dragon]

Whoever wrote that percy jackson au of the dead boy detectives, you live under my skin and I love you. So much so that my brain tried to think of a way to make it even more canon-accurate without making them dead. or reborn Hazel Levesque style.

What I have so far is playing on the whole West civilization bit and how it moved to the.. well west - but also that World War 2 was a big three kid conflict? So. I have sort of a time-table and I'm throwing it out of the window.

Edwin is a child of Athena - that much stays the same - who is very bookish and very studious but not in the way the rest of his siblings are. They are handy and crafty, strategic and interested in architecture or design. He.. is not. (I need a reason why his siblings didn't come to help him when the "death scene" happens.)

The whole boarding school is one of many spread across the London countryside - Chiron moves a lot. They teach both ancient and modern warfare because magic or not you can't escape the bloodshed forever - you either get drafted or you run and get blacklisted somewhere or another.

(St Hilarion was actually a son of Apollo that got really popular during the Crusades - Zeus didn't smite the school when it was established because times are different and Hera would be angry if there was another big fire with no explanation that put their soldiers'- eh-hem- kids' lives at risk.)

They still teach Latin alongside Greek because it was what all normal boarding schools did and that's what they were. Maths, English, and Sciences - were all taught to the boys. The girls went to another school - where they were taught the bare minimum to survive. Because sexism was rampant and if the Romans were on the wrong side of the civil war, that means no matter how progressive the gods could have been in certain areas, they aren't now/then–

Artemis really, really hated that time period. Zoë or this version of Zoë got a kick out of shooting so many assholes in the face. Or in their dicks. They also got way more recruits than in later years. Silver lining.

Anyways: Simon - son of Hecate - and the bunch of boys, one of which was a son of Hades, do the whole let's sacrifice Edwin. Only the book is a Christian book on witchcraft that Simon truly didn't think would work. He and the rest - Hades boy included - did the whole preparation of the sacrifice as it was absolutely terrifying for Edwin to experience on top of everything else. They didn't know it was a real thing - but is the only reason why Edwin stays alive.

It's essentially a stasis charm that lets the ritual run for as long as needed without the poor victim dying beforehand. It requires bloodletting and "runes" and such. The thing is scary, traumatizing stuff so it seemed like a fun thing for Simon and his buddies to do. So they did it.

They skimmed the reading. Blood with power is spilled, ritual that is very real gets haphazardly done and so monsters get involved.

Fun fact, that I'm really hoping is actually true - sometimes monsters with names similar to other religions' occult beings pick up the summoning calls. If the ritual is shoddy enough for them to hear, the participants all die either way, it's only important who gets there first.

So. The bullies get killed and a fury-type thing drags Edwin's whole being to the fields of punishment so it can feast on its offering. He gets dusted Sally Jackson style.

We enter his hell era. ( Part 2, Part 3, TBC )

[moodymakeshifter]

Just a heads up: Afterlife Archive is available for free download on Itch, and its page just got a bit of a redesign yesterday.

BUT— I implore you, if you're interested in trying this game, to wait just a few more days for the update to release. New features will be included. New aesthetics. New art. New writing. So it will be worth the wait. I promise~

And after that, I'll be launching the Kickstarter campaign for the first official print run of the game zine!

Super stoked to share these new features with you! >u<

Soon, soon, soon~

[rvnclyd]

[gummiibladii]

gosh i wish detectives were real

[pandiongames]

It's out!

We're so excited to have worked with Overshia and Turtle76 to publish this illustrated solo horror mystery TTRPG!

We offer it in Print and PDF! And it's also up on itchio!

And we already got our first review?? I want to hear more about the lonely crab god!

The Second Edition adds:

10 new illustrations

Completely redesigned layout

Built in player journal

Extensive editing and fixes

New rolling tables to help generate rooms and items Look at all these cool spreads. :D

[karyanastore]

[journalofabird]

I'm making a Monty- and an Edwin-related Playlist, so if you have song recommendations for either of those please drop them!!🙏🏼

[digitallyfanged]

Phantom Lady here is pretty Halloweenish, and makes for a great visual journal page. Stuck with black, reds, and golds here.

[journalsouppe]

Frog Detective!!!! I absolutely love this game and I highly recommend watching Snapcube play. The voice acting is immaculate and made the whole game funnier than it already is. I cannot recommend this game enough.

Here's Snapcube's video!!

Writing typed below!

Rating: 9.0 Watched: Su 2023 -> Snapcube Favorite? Y Replayable? Y Recommend? Y

Comments:

Games 1-3 on Midnight Snap

Snapcube's Voice Acting is so good I decided to watch instead of play

books have no place in society

love the dialogue and characters they're so weird

ground pie T^T

what was that weird thing Snap saw??

oh no I think that little creature stole the notebook

omg the crab and shrimp band I love

love the wizard outfit and disappearing poof

i love the cowboy poem

FROG ON A SCOOTER

not the actual haunted photo

HAT STEW I AM LITERALLY JOKING LOL

I am so obsessed with the art style

omg love the gay chemistry between Frog Detective and Sherman

THE EYEBROWS

They're so mean about his head shape

oh no is this a setup?

one year in the bad room???

The T^T CREDITS

MYSTERY MONKEY

MAGICAL GIRL MONKEY

LOVE THE ENDING AND CREDITS

love the creator interrupting the dialogue for questionable morals

Game dev notes

love the polygonal modeling and character designs

short stories - mostly fetch quests (fun since the dialogue is ?? (idk what i wrote here oops)

a 3d point and click mystery

silly achievements with breaking physics

I loved watching these games SO much. Not only were the games themselves so fun and charming, but the voice acting was superb and fit the characters so well. I can't imagine playing without the VA lol. The character models were super cute and very well done, each animal was designed to be very recognizable while also having a ton of personality. The dialogue is honestly my favorite dialogue of any game, It's so witty and silly and goofy and charming omg the writers deserve an award. It just fits with contemporary humor so well in the best possible way. The plots were also unique and fun. Crime doesn't exist so the mysteries were so creative like an invisible wizard. It's a shame no more frog detective games will be made but they ended the trilogy on a great note. I will have to follow the dev team to see if there are any plans for other games bc I would love to play or watch more!! A highly recommended game, def also a game to relax to and watch midnight snap's video on. Love you Frog Detective <3<3

[starlight-archer]

Edwin and Crystal at the start are so "I know you are but what am I" / "oh yeah well I'm rubber and you're glue" in the way they bicker and it is so endearing I love them

[covventry]