#dragonbreath book

[therealhawkball]

The fannest of all fans when it comes to Ursula Vernon's nowadays-partially-obscure book series, Dragonbreath! Being the only fan(/hj) of the series, I did a funny and recreated the album cover of Demon Days (by Gorillaz) with these...lizards...reptiles...yah (This is my 3rd version btw)

Credits to @ohapossum for ze designs and color inspiration! (I really liked that drawing because it showed them in a new light, and in color! :DD)

And @ursula-vernon for making da series that changed me (in a good way obviously)! XP

(May make an alt version that's more or less in the series' art style)

[book--brackets]

[skautism]

parents will be like “why are you a furry” like they weren’t the ones that paid for warrior cats books and tmnt dvds

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Ursula Vernon

Writer and illustrator Ursula Vernon, also known by her pen name, "T. Kingfisher", was born in 1977. The author of over forty books, Vernon is known for the popular Dragonbreath series. In 2015, she won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story for "Jackalope Wives", and in 2017, she won a Hugo Award for Best Novelette for "The Tomato Thief". Vernon won the 2020 Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel for The Twisted Ones. In 2023, she won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for Nettle and Bone. Vernon has also been nominated for the Eisner Awards and the World Fantasy Awards.

[ad-hawkeye]

(personally)i would say its around 2nd anni ssr maybe a little worse (lol)that i remember being baffled that they made luke’s free sr better written like?&?& hello why is the freebie better than what i might have to spend money on only way i can explain without wanting to burst into rant is that it feels like they wanted to appeal to the crowd that REALLY want domineering ceo energy from him and that art was more of the focus(the artermrosa art was cute but it is not a good distraction rip) i lied about ranting the sparklers bit was so annoying “oh you guys have to play a mouth to mouth candy game because you and another couple want some sparklers oh you cant just share/split the box because its considered bad luck” they’ve done artemrosa pda before and it wasn’t mid so whats going onnnn with this stupid “oh bad luck”excuse🫠

i definitely agree on his anni sss it could have been wayyy worse but i will take “if hook of love was more boring and instead of deer it was moving in” if that means we avoid mid atleast things are looking better for him imo would say that dragonbreath and beyond were all decent-good

SHIIIIT THAT'S A SCATHING REVIEW. and the worst part is i believe you entirely. i don't even need to read the card to sense the rancid vibes coming off of this summary alone.

see, the thing that absolutely baffles me about the people who are begging for Daddy Dom CEO Artem, and hoyo catering to those people, is like. if i wanted a Daddy Dom CEO i would go play literally any other otome. like literally any other one.

i picked the 29 year old virgin who gets his romance advice from a book for a reason. i feel like im wording this bad but like. if you make artem a daddy dom boss guy that just straight up. isn't artem anymore. that literally isn't his character.

if anything artem was a SUBVERSION of the daddy dom boss trope. he always emphasized being equal partners with rosa. he was utterly incompetent with romance or intimacy. he always respected rosa's boundaries and was extremely careful not to cross any lines.

i haaaaate ooc fanservice so much. i don't even hate fanservice, but if you're gonna have it, i just want it to be in character omfg.

ALSO HELP. i forgot it was named hook of love, but the way i knew EXACTLY what card you meant the SECOND you mentioned "boring" and "deer" HAHA. GOD YOU'RE SO RIGHT. oh the accuracy hurts so bad on that, oh my god hook of love was boring as all hell. i can't even remember what happened in it after the deer feeding.

though it is good to know things are all looking better?!?!??! i might act up once this all comes to global. a fair warning.

[savebatsfromscratch]

No.14 Dragonbreath

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50826493

Words: 1,059

Cws: Threat of drowning, frozen water, torture

Notes: The part before the “I’ll Never Give Up Fighting, You Witch,” scene, I guess, never leaves my head. This isn’t fully accurate to it, of course, I was just making stuff up on vague memories. I highly recommend the original book over this fic, this is just a pale imitation of an incredible series.

Prompt: No. 14: “Feed me poison, fill me ‘till I drown.” Flare | Water Inhalation | “Just hold on.”

Hiccup didn’t even try to wriggle in his bonds. He didn’t need to try to get out to know that he couldn’t, especially not with half his body too sore to move. And, as a cruel bonus, the only unchained people in the room were Alvin’s Men who would gladly kill him if he got a chance to escape. Based on the hatred glowing in their eyes, if the dragon rebellion was not about to come to a close, it could have been all they had been training to do these past months.

All he could do was hope that Plan B was going to work. This hope, however, was pretty weak given how little time had gone into planning this mission, let ALONE Plan B.

That, at least, was evident in the position he found himself in.

It was clear that he had not thought about what he was getting himself into for nearly long enough, let alone a way out if something like this happened. 

But he was here, and she was here, and none of the promised King's Lost Things were here, and Hiccup was wrapped like a little present in thick metal chains that he doubted even Alivn himself could have broken out of. 

Hiccup was totally trapped, and his only hope at escape lay in the messily put together Plan B. He couldn't talk his way out of this, Alvin was already trying to argue why they should kill him immediately. He couldn't fight his way out, even if he wasn't chained up, his fighting arm was limp as crushed Nanodragon at his side. ...and Hiccup wasn't very good at much else, was he.

“Alvin my dear,“ the witch's awful whisper barely held back excitement as she scuttled around the room, ”Aren't you excited to see him drown?“

”I am, mother,“ muttered Alvin, nervously fiddling with his sword attachment, ”I just think we should kill him now to get it over with, you know how he is...“

”Pish posh,“ the witch cackled, ”he's just a BOY, and a very young one at that...“ she made a face at Hiccup, “it shouldn't take very long to break him,”

She galloped towards Hiccup, and he had to try very hard not to squirm away from her metal fingernails, even though he knew he could not be poisoned by them. 

“We're going to dunk you in that cold water there,” the witch purred, gesturing to a trapdoor that opened into the frigid winter ocean, “and when we pull you out, you're going to tell us the location of your mother's base, right?”

Hiccup could already imagine the pain of the frozen ocean, having fallen in once as a young child, but he tried not to let his terror show on his face as he shook his head no.

The witch's expression soured, and she scuttled backwards back to Alvin. Clearly, she thought that Hiccup was going to break, and, to be completely honest, Hiccup wasn't so sure he could disagree with her.

The chain began to pull him towards the hatch, slowly and painfully as Hiccup tried to fight his rising panic. So long as Plan B was getting followed through on, this whole thing should be survivable. (But, as he had realized before, the likelihood of that happening was one to zero, even with the months that he had spent perfecting his team's communication and collaboration skills.)

He wanted nothing more than to dig his fingers into the wooden floor of the boat, but the chains kept his arms in place. 

He looked up at the rows and rows of Dragonmarkers in the cages, each holding a solemn dull to their eyes, as if they had all already decided that he would break. The witch was right after all, he was just a BOY, and a particularly young one at that, what could he possibly do against the freezing, Winterflesher filled, waters of the archipelago?

He wasn't really all that impressive to look at, after all.

Hiccup was only a couple of feet away from the edge now, but his mind stretched milliseconds into minutes as he tried to look brave. If Plan B didn't work...

He glanced back at the opening and watched as a Winterflesher leaped a few inches out of the water, its shining white teeth glowing like little daggers in its mouth. 

Hiccup swallowed and did his best to square his shoulders.

If Plan B didn't work, he was going to have more to worry about than drowning or freezing to death. He'd seen Winterfleshers tear apart a fully grown deer in seconds before, and, as far as anyone in that room could tell, Hiccup was more comparable to a baby deer than an adult. There was no way he could stand a chance against those things.

One more foot.

One more inch.

Just a little more...

Hiccup felt himself tipping over into the hatch, and he only just managed to swallow in a breath before he hit the water.

The shock of it took a beat to hit him, and for that brief moment, all he could process was the incredible darkness of the water that surrounded him. 

And then the cold hit.

It took all of the strength he had not to let out his meager supply of air right then. (And even with his efforts, he managed to inhale a little through his nose anyway.)

It hurt so bad.

The ocean was so cold it almost felt like swimming in a pool of molten lava, and trust him, he'd gotten pretty close to that experience a couple of times.

He squeezed his eyes shut as salt began to burn them. (Or maybe it was so he didn't see the Winterfleshers that were getting over their surprise that someone had been thrown into the middle of them.)

He braced for the feeling of their teeth on his unprotected skin, but so far, nothing was happening.

He braced a little harder, but nothing happened.

Hiccup felt the brush of a familiar dragon on his side, and his frozen body seemed to warm up in relief. Plan B was a go. So, as Hiccup hung limp in the water, he opened his mouth to that dragonbreath that was filling his lungs. So long as he survived the cold, he could do this.

[therealhawkball]

I'm glad you also read those books as a kid. That art style in those books are probably what gave off the vibes, as someone that was addicted to those books.

I think my goth/scene and vaporwave awakening was a memory of me sitting next to a teen scene girl at a laundromat while she checked her phone and read Danny Dragonbreath. I was, like, eight? Seven? Ish? Either way, she's probably what caused this hot mess right here and I'm grateful for it.

[thestarsshinebrightcomic]

4.19.198 - Fahrenheit 451

the return of everyone's favorite comedy duo!

(Myu smiles at Topaz, and prepares another dragonbreath on Opal. It’s used as a transition to cut back to Gamma in the library. She is holding an open book.) Gamma: “When two pokemon fuse, they protect each other’s Cores with the benefit of being able to share magical abilities.” Well, basic stuff! But it’s a start.

[spuddlespud]

Manuscript Search/Find the Word Tag

Tagged by:

@primroseprime2019 💜: walk, surprise, allow and impress

@blind-the-winds 💜: young, yearn, yelp, yellow, and yes.

@eccaiia 💜: happy, hurt, head, hour, and hole!

@winterandwords 💜: thought, though, through and tough

I tag: @aohendo @inkspellangel @talesofsorrowandofruin @ahordeofwasps @bardic-tales @untethereddreams @theglitchywriterboi @junypr-camus @frostedlemonwriter

Your words are: run, rain, real, road

Walk

So when Charlie just walked up to her and said with a smile ‘You’ll never guess what happened last night!” Andi knew she was in for some tale of the miraculous, some fresh nonsense.

Surprise - A Workers Guide to Demonology

I'm the first to admit that I detest most things about this human meatsack I'm lugging around, but it has a nice belly, a belly that can hold plenty of sustenance for my soul-devouring spirit. I'm surprised that I'm starting to feel somewhat...protective of this body. It almost feels like it's me that's been insulted by the titters around the office and the insolent humans eye roll.

Allow - A Short Way to an Angry AI

"Language!" Despite having the foulest mouth of any sentient being Riley had ever known, Sadie took every little opportunity to chastise her crew for the same faux pas. She said living beings should know better. AI's had a lot of shit to remember and deal with, as well as stupid crews putting them in stupid situations, they could be allowed a little swear every now and again, as a treat.

Impress - Dragonbreath and Skelefellas

Saph was just having a peaceful morning minding her own business and  polishing her knife collection when Skully clattered into the room. The  necromancer wasted no time in sweeping Saph’s mini workshop half off the  table and replacing it with an impressive pile of papers and books. It  was only thanks to Saph’s well developed reflexes that she managed to  save her magic polish from a tumble to the floor.

Young - Contained World Potions

So, young apprentice, whatever you do, don't you dare open the Contained World.

Yearn - none

Yelp - Untitled

Erika's sword swung down, meeting the knights shield with a clang and following through with a kick to his kneecap. The other knight let out an undignified yelp, only just managing to keep his balance.

Yellow - Old Inn Door

Mabel pushed the sheets of her body, revealing her old yellowing slip. Her hair stuck up in a sweaty clump on her forehead, leaving her jealous of Robin's short cropped hair.

Yes - A Worker's Guide to Demonology

Her malleable little human soul is no match for my domineering spirit. Even a level 1 demon would be able to...Harry! Molly! Yes it's me can you hear me?"

Happy - The Familiarity Between the Owl and the Pussycat

Séamus burst through the window twittering and going on and on about Midnight and all the uncouth things the cat had done. Bathsheba tuned most of it out, focusing on the herbs she was trying to organise into the correct order on the wall. She let out a low hum every once in a while to keep Séamus happy as he twittered on.

Hurt - A Worker's Guide to Demonology

"How dare you refer to me, the burner of galaxies, the tamer of snakes as 'it'?!"

"Ah look you've hurt its feelings now"

"It!?"

Head - Untitled Werewolf WIP

John's pale skin looked washed out under the fluorescent light of the office. His head was in his hands.

Hour - A Short Way to An Angry AI

As funny as the 'your majesty' caper had been, Celeste could tell it was starting to get on Riley's nerves. They'd been stewing in their room for the last two hours after the burnt toast and toilet incident, and when a crew consists of two humans and an AI there isn't really any space for long term disagreements. That's how disasters happened.

Hole - A Worker's Guide to Demonology

The other one, in a holey tshirt and scruffed up hair, seems more amused than concerned. "Feeling a bit worse for wear?"

Thought

But the fears and the sins of you alive humans are just another thing entirely. Another dialect almost, as your species is very clever at distracting yourselves above ground. I suppose your brains only have room for a limited number of thoughts at a time.

Though - A Short Way to an Angry AI

"It's nothing you haven't said before, Sadie," Celeste admonished, before turning to Riley.  "She has a point though, it was a bit insulting."

Through - A Short Way to an Angry AI

"Riley....Riley." The ever calm voice spread throughout the room, cutting into Riley's sleep. Fucking AIs!

Riley rolled over with a groan, pulling their pillow over their head. "Sadie, power down."

"'Sadie, power down'" the mocking voice repeated "You disabled that command remember. You said you we're fed up with missing your wake up call."

Tough

“Go fuck yourself”

“I’d rather fuck you”

“Tough, I’m too busy doing monster things”

[fishthegenderwitch]

A series of unlikely events yesterday at work led to me finding a new author to try out.

My coworker found some adorably hilarious children's books by Ursula Vernon that she was pricing and she had tears in her eyes from just reading excerpts of these Dragonbreath books. When she researched the author she realized that Ursula Vernon also writes under the name T. Kingfisher.

When she turned her phone to show me the covers of the books that Kingfisher has published, I realized immediately that I must read whatever I could find on Libby by this author, because the covers are badass.

However, as I like to not spoiler myself, I read absolutely no blurbs, no write-ups, no summaries of anything. So I had absolutely no idea what kind of an author I would find, what kind of story I would encounter, and what kind of amazing experiences I could have.

I just finished reading The Hollow Places.

This story was so scary that I had to turn my lights on in my house three times over the span of the 3 hours and 47 minutes that it took me to read this book. I must now read every single thing that I can find by T. Kingfisher, and if you like horror I suggest you do the same. But maybe keep the lights on or read during the day. I might have nightmares, but I will definitely have art

[therealhawkball]

We Are Still Lizardz

Dragonbreath has got to be one of the best series' I've ever come across and I've been obsessed with it for a long time now. I wish they made like a Dragonbreath series or cartoon because I would definitely be involved with it :D

[book--brackets]

[nightzap]

Looking at your old FE3 LP, its an interesting game, there's alot of stuff in both books that didn't make it into the various remakes!

It's got some pretty cool stuff like the growth-boosting star shards and Starsphere, which really lets you use anyone well if you want to. FE12 turned these into flat stat boosts, which is so much more boring.

I also like the way Manaketes work. Rather than having each fight consist of Tiki transforming, attacking for one Dragonstone use, and turning back into a human right after, like all the manaketes in later games, instead you have Tiki use the Dragonstone during Playerphase and then she remains a dragon for several turns. It's a little overpowered in the manner that you pretty much never run out of Dragonstone uses with just the two Firestones and one Divinestones you get for free, without even needing to buy extra stones in the secret shop in chapter 14, but it makes more sense than rapidly switching ten times in a minute because the manakete fights multiple enemies in one enemy phase.

The weight system, while generally annoying due to the absence of a mitigation stat (in particular, like 95 % of the enemies have zero attack speed because they are weighted down, with the only enemies you will ever have trouble doubling past the early game being some heroes in Chapter 20) it does provide an interesting way to nerf 1-2 range: Javelins and Dragonbreath attacks all have 20 weight, so you can never double with them. If you want ranged attacks, you gotta use bows and magic, no juggernauting here! Unless we're talking about my thicc 16 defense Merric. It also prevents Tiki from being totally overpowered. She can still easily OHKO enemies with low max HP since her attacks pierce defense, but she can only do one hit, and the few enemies that do actually have 3+ speed can deal huge damage to her. Very unlike some later Manaketes, who are total onerounding machines who can kill just about anything as long as their very limited dragonstone lasts.

I guess I've been gushing about FE3 for a while now due to your ask. Thank you!

[ilikereadingactually]

Thornhedge

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

GOSH. i went into this knowing nothing, and having read none of the author's other work aside from Dragonbreath and Hamster Princess (written under the name Ursula Vernon). and listen, i love Dragonbreath and Hamster Princess, i sold a lot of them when i was a bookseller, i still recommend them for friends' and coworkers' kids. but i was not prepared for Kingfisher's grownup writing! @digger1649 never steers me wrong, and he's been telling me i will really like Nettle & Bone, and suggested i request the galley of Thornhedge, and now here i am in that extremely pleasant dreamy state where my heart is so full of love for this book above all others.

this is top tier galaxy brain fairy tale retelling. roles are twisted around, not in a way that makes the story's origins unrecognizable, but in a way that gets my brain whirring wondering what's going to happen next. even when it became clear what the "twists" were, i was shocked and terrified at just the right times, i fell in love with sweet and sheltered Toadling, i fell in love again with gentle Halim, i cried buckets as usual, i want to go to sleep with my face just above the surface of the water in a swampy tangle of my magical pond creature adopted family. it's a story about persistently choosing kindness and love even when it doesn't change evil, it's a story about perspectives, and it hits me personally really hard right now at a time when i feel like i'm starting to emerge from a long holding-pattern-rut.

this is also a quick read, i think technically a novella, which is such a lovely bite-sized delight in my reading life and i'm glad there are more novellas around than there used to be!

the deets

how i read it: an e-galley from NetGalley! excited to pick this one up when it comes out! it's so nice to feel a little bit like i'm on top of what's new and good.

try this if you: dig fairy tales and changeling stories, delight in a sweet and good and unassuming main character, get weepy about found families, or ever just wanted to be a toad so that life would be simpler.

some lines i really liked: another one where i have to resist the urge to just reproduce the entire book here

She learned that her ideas of beauty were wrong and of no use to anyone. In her world, the Eldest was the most beautiful, swollen with power and secrets and the deaths of her enemies. Duckwight was beautiful, with her patience and her quick, many-jointed fingers. Reedbones, who had enormously long, thin arms and who could swim side to side like an eel, swifter than a kelpie could run, was beautiful. Toadling, who was small and slow and could not breathe water, did not consider herself beautiful, but it hurt to learn that she was homely and her family were considered among the most hideous of Faerie.

---

"Next?" said Toadling. "I'm supposed to hurl this mixture of moly and salt in your face," he said doubtfully. "But that seems quite hostile." "Do it." She closed her eyes. She felt an absurd smile on her face and couldn't quite stop it. He still could not bring himself to hurl the mixture. She felt salt and herbs patter gently on her cheek. It did exactly nothing.

---

The moonlight was silver and the grass dense as fur. Toadling sat by the banked fire, watching the hillside shake itself and become a hare with eyes that held the moon.

pub date: August 15, 2023!

[bootstraplemon]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Dragonbreath : Revenge of the Horned Bunnies, Ursula Vernon, good condition.

[tomthefanboy]

#the only other thing i spotted was black dragon breath#should not have been able to breathe that many times in one combat#but eh as a dm i’d have called it a moving environmental effect#and moved on with the game

Okay. Let's pull the receipts on this.

Pet the Monster Manual the dragon can make a breath weapon as an action and cannot use their breath weapon again until they roll a 5 or 6 on their recharge. This is visible later on as we see Themberchaud trying and failing to breathe fire.

So the question falls to does the dragon use its breath weapon more than once a round. It could be "rolling a 6" every time and just get lucky if the breaths are spaced out. Let's look at the footage.

In this brief clip we do in fact see the dragon use THREE breath weapons in a span of TWO rounds. Start your six second counter whenever you'd like there's always going to be some overlap with at least two of the acid streams.

If they had only done two streams it could've been a lucky roll and Rakor was just breathing in two separate rounds.

The only justification is if the middle use of the breath weapon was either a reaction or bonus action. This could be prompted by the use of a magic item, or the class ability of a Cult of the Dragon allies, or if you're using the dragon spellcasting sidebar it could be a triggered contingency.

There's something else to consider. The first line is about 60 feet, in keeping with that of an adult black dragon. You can measure by the length of the horses as well as their speed across difficult terrain.

But the breath weapon of an ancient black dragon is 90 feet long, so I propose that we are seeing two parts of a single breath weapon attack. Counting a six second round from when Rakor begins spewing the first line of acid and stops spewing the second stream, you get exactly one round.

The excluded area in the middle would be where the cult of the dragon stood on the battlefield so this could be an exclusionary ability of the cult similar to the powers of an evocation wizard or a sorcerer with Careful Spell metamagic. Metamagic is not too far a stretch since spellcasting dragons use charisma as their magic user attribute and one of the base sorcerer bloodlines in the PHB is draconic. Breath weapons are not effected by metamagic, but the Dragonbreath spell or Tasha's Caustic Brew could be augmented to create an identical effect to what's on screen.

Suffice to say that the breath weapon's speed is not in keeping with the rules of the basic set, but it is allowed for in the wider supplementary books.

D&D Movie Follows the Rules

I want to make it very clear that this was not a criteria for me to enjoy D&D Honor Among Thieves. I would not have blamed the actors, crew, or writers if this had not been the case…

I was unable to find anything that would interfere with the Rules as Written.

There are things that go beyond the rules included in the Player's Handbook, yes. But everything is well within the realm of feats, magic items, and background abilities that needn't be specifically called out or even have visible evidence. Everything in the film is BALANCED. ESPECIALLY for high level characters.

In every fight scene I compulsively counted 6 second rounds and saw no damage dealt that would be beyond the normal number of attacks for the character. Weapons drawn fell within the range of bonus actions. No spells cast too quick. No simultaneous concentration spells. Spells stayed in keeping with saving throws, durations, ranges, and areas of effect. Creature abilities and attacks matched their statistic entries. Class abilities like rage or wild magic even stayed in their framework.

One possible issue would be wildshape going beyond the usual "twice per day"and shows 6 uses in one encounter. But a feat to trade spell slots for shapes fixes that! Even the owlbear of it all is easy enough to dismiss with Polymorph, a magic item, or simply replacing the Circle of the Moon's Elemental form with 4 Monstrosities (more than fair since it's a drop from CR5 to CR3). But even if you had to bend the capabilities, the uses of wildshape are still utilized as actions and bonus actions within their rounds and don't grant any abilities not in keeping with rules.

Bigger nerds than me can cry homebrew all they want but the DMG provides framework for changes in keeping with game balance and Tasha's Cauldron laid the groundwork for even more customization. And if you let player characters craft magic items then you might as well just log off mad about it.

It's all there on the page! (It's even more rules compliant if you don't restrict yourself to 5th edition. I can show you all SORTS of nonsense you can get away with if you turn back the clock!)

D&D Honor Among Thieves is more than a great movie! The diverse cast, the detailed production design, the writing that mixes high fantasy with the hi-jinks that INEVITABLY happen at the game table, and the unnecessarily accurate choreography make it a MASTERPIECE in adaptation!