#help me i'm going GOBLIN mode

[bizarrocloudy]

I am geeking out about Halloween so bad right now. I can't focus on anything else!!!

Even though only like 2 of my friends are coming to my [whole apartment building] party, I still decided to do a fun Halloween decoration install. I've done one before, and people seemed to like it. And I had such a good time with it. Painted a giant sigil of baphomet in blacklight reactive paint! And made a little photobooth type setup for people to take pictures with signs and stuff.

Ahhhh, 2019. The before times. I was mothman... Feels like a completely different life.

This year I have no money, so I couldn't afford to do anything new, really. HOWEVER... I allowed myself one purchase because I finally found one on super duper clearance sale-- THE 5-FOOT POSABLE SKELETON!!! MY DREAM IS REALIZED

Everything else I scrounged together with things I already owned, and made a little SOMETHIN'. I'll post more pictures on the night of the party, where everything will be done. But like... I just love doing Halloween installs. So much. I was just hanging up this dumb little spider that dangles from a web, and I just started giggling uncontrollably because I was imagining someone seeing it out of the corner of their eye and freaking out, thinking it's a real spider. And I just. AGHHHH I LOVE IT SO MUCH

I bought the cheapest shittiest projector a few years ago to do art projects with (projecting art onto a large surface to trace outlines). And it works surprisingly well for projecting visuals like this!

A girl and her spider projector 🥹

Today I've been editing videos together to project, because I will be getting drunk at the party and I don't need to think about pressing play on a projector like 3 hours into a party!!!

I need to get my shit together some day and just do a haunt. GOD I WISH I HAD MONEY I WOULD MAKE SUCH A GOOD HAUNT

Also been listening to Goblin scores nonstop and WILL be subjecting partygoers to this in the SPIDER ROOM. Enter the SPIDER ROOM and get transported to 1970's italy!!! WITH SPIDERS

[rydrake6]

I've gone to the point of insanity to the point where I feel the urge to gnaw a man's leg off.

[tootkin-art]

Hello Tumblr! I haven't posted in a few weeks, but in the pure tradition of little goblins who don't know how time works, here a WIP Wednesday Thursday to show you what I'm up to : I have started to make a game! With Godot no less!

The game is called Fadunn, it's going to be a puzzle game about alchemy, the gameplay will be about creating specific shapes from basic ones, like Shapez, but with small challenges in small rooms instead of gigantic assembly lines in wide space.

Expect a few WIPWednesday to be on this subject, and approximately on wednesday, for the next weeks! Here you can see the beginning of a building mode, can't wait to show you how it goes later =)

Stay tuned for more, and don't hesitate to support me on kofi to help this game happen! ko-fi.com/tootkin (I'm also still open for commissions at the same link!)

[would-this-pokemon-be-a-friend]

I'm not sure they'd get a good score given their gremlin nature, but how about morgrem? I think they'd be neat to keep around if you've got a black thumb (like me lol), but idk.

Let me preface this by saying that I also love morgrems. I love the whole evolution line. That being said, I’m not so sure that keeping a morgrem as a pet would be the best idea.

Morgrems are a good size for a pet, pretty lightweight for their height. Unfortunately, they don’t seem particularly friendly. Disingenuous is the word I’d choose. These mischievous pokémon are quite intelligent, using their charm and crocodile tears to lure people into a false sense of security before striking (Shield, Sword). They are known to falsely apologize for attacking targets in order to bring them in close enough to stab with their “spear-like hair” (Sword). They also have a bit of a history of disappearing people into the woods for unknown reasons (Shield). Unfortunately, morgrems draw strength from negative emotions (Violet). This has made them pretty popular with trainers who tend to think on the gloomy side, but it also incentivizes them to keep an owner in a bad mood. They’re anti-emotional-support pets.

There is one silver lining to morgrems, which you pointed out in your request. Morgrems are said to have a peculiar ability to make crops grow (Shield). This will no doubt make them popular among those who struggle to keep plants alive (those with black thumbs, as you put it), who are willing to look past the species’ antisocial tendencies. This isn’t a very kind-hearted species, so they would likely need some coercion through treats and prizes to get them to help you. I’d say there��s probably other pokémon who would make better gardening partners, but if you love morgrem like I do you’ll be willing to look past that.

Thankfully, morgrems aren’t particularly lethal pokémon. There’s a reason that this species relies so much on trickery to get by: they’re not very confident in their combat abilities (Scarlet). Like the other species on their evolution line, morgrems have sharp, hardened hair that they can use as a weapon, specifically through the spear-like length on the back of their heads. Using this makeshift weapon, morgrems can use a variety of dark-type moves like Foul Play, Assurance, and their signature move False Surrender to menace enemies. We don’t really know if morgrems go out of their way to harm humans through violence, but we do know that you’ll never know when they’re tricking you into a false sense of security to strike. To put it simply, it’s difficult to trust a morgrem. They could hurt you pretty badly if they wanted to.

Morgrems are, at the very least, an acquired taste. While they seem to have the ability to help plants grow, they are sneaky tricksters with a spear built into their hair. My cat often goes into goblin-mode, but adopting an actual goblin might be a step too far. But hey, I love goblins. If you really want to make a pet morgrem work, you could, but they’re certainly not going to be the best fit for every home.

[wirewitchviolet]

Hey, where's all the endgames?

Any time I'm browsing through my Steam library, I see Stellaris staring out at me, with a big ol' number on hours played next to a prompt asking if I'd recommend it to people. I don't generally do user reviews, but also I never actually know if I'd recommend that one to anyone, because the developers keep doing massive overhauls every so often that it's perpetually a totally different experience from the last time I played it. So now and then I'll fire it up again, put in another large number of hours, struggle for a little coming to grips with some feature that's completely changed, but get a handle on that, start thriving, get to the end game, and then just kinda stall out and quagmire for some reason or another. For the longest time I thought this was happening because the newly redesigned way the game worked meant there was some new concept I had to be mindful of for the whole game or it'd eventually come around and bite me, but on my most recent attempt to get a handle on it, the mid-game complications tipped their hand a little too hard and I realized no, I keep stalling out into an unending mid-game because that's how the game is designed to work.

It helps that this is the first time I've played it since somehow ending up with a big ol' pile of DLC, as the constant redesigns are really pretty blatantly structured such that you really need to have the DLC for it to feel like a properly functioning experience. Otherwise there's just a bunch of weird dummied out stuff basically. But yeah, Stellaris is set up with a variety of both hard and soft systems such that any time you really hit the momentum to start dominating the map and taking everything over, SOME sort of sudden crisis is going to pop up and demand your attention. Do you have a big enough fleet to take out anyone who might oppose you? Well, every other faction in the galaxy is suddenly going to form a federation where if you attack one of them, you're at war with all of them. Reach a point where that's a fight you can handle? Uh... there's suddenly a massive pirate fleet poking at you from behind! Dealt with that? Oh, well, here's a "random" disaster to destroy half your economy. Those fallen empires just sitting on the map with their overkill death fleets the whole game have decided they now have a problem with you. Space Godzilla suddenly appears and starts eating the whole galaxy. SOMETHING is going to happen to perpetually keep you in still a pretty good position but with some big crisis demanding your attention so you can't just go mop the map up.

Attempting to play this game before I realized this was how it worked was super frustrating, because I thought I was just always missing something really important and playing badly, but, OK no, it's just generating new problems on the fly to maintain this eternal mid-game. I'm... not going to call that bad design. I can see it appealing to a certain kind of person, but me? I hate it. And I hate how commonplace it's getting.

Dwarf Fortress is rad, and kind of has a bad endgame. At some point, you're either going to lose your fortress to early bad luck or some critical mismanagement, or get overwhelmed by invading goblins or forgotten beasts or something, but if you play well, you can get to a point where those sort of threats are fully manageable, and from there... either you just get really bored because the normal ways you interact with the game don't have any fresh challenges to offer, or you train up an impressive army and start conquering/destroying/exploring the world in a less than engaging mode most people don't know exists, OR you can go the traditional route, dig too greedily and too deep, crack open hell, and have demons flood your fortress. Like it shows in the intro. I don't really like any of these, but they're something, and Dwarf Fortress is quite famously a super ambitious game that's not anywhere close to finished and may never be.

Dwarf Fortress clones are getting pretty popular, and a feature I keep seeing them advertising is some sort of adversarial event manager that will keep hitting you with random disasters, paced out such that you always get hit with something new if you start getting complacent... and they do this instead of having any sort of end game.

There's a lot of survival type things with infinite procedural worlds. You explore this area and build up tools and defenses and deal with some aggressive enemies, and that leaves you in a position to venture out towards that big landmark on the horizon where even more aggressive enemies will attack you as you try and get even more resources to explore the next landmark, and this just continues forever, this is the game.

Basically every MMO's "endgame" is a series of really hard to survive dungeons/boss fights that give you slightly better gear than what you came in with which should let you just barely manage the next dungeon/boss fight and we're just literally going to keep adding these forever, hopefully at a pace where you aren't just sitting there bored waiting for the next one to go in because you're done with the last one.

And like, again, I dunno, maybe this is just me, but THIS IS THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS! Hades was super mad at a guy and decided to subject him to the absolute worst punishment he could think of- being tasked with pushing a boulder to the top of a hill, but rigging it so that every time he got close to the top, the boulder would slide off and roll all the way back down. So he's just stuck in this eternal loop of the mid-game of boulder pushing. And people who give talks and write papers on game design will say this is great because the strenuous task of pushing the boulder up the hill is the core gameplay loop and that's where all the focus should be.

This feels like a fundamental failure of game design from where I sit, but it's possible I'm just showing my age. I'm just barely old enough to remember when infinitely looping through the same stuff until you screw up and die was just what videogames were. Every arcade game was this single screen challenge where you kill everything or you platform to some goal or you do a race, and then maybe there'd be a few other similar levels, but ultimately you loop back to the first screen you started on but the difficulty's been incremented up in some way, usually just kinda ratcheting the speed up, and yeah, you just play until you lose, maybe get on the high score chart. Then the NES came along and people realized this design philosophy didn't really work when people buy a game up front and that's that, versus feeding quarters in every time they sit down with it, and the fundamental nature of game design changed, and now we've got a more narratively structured sort of deal where you're continually moving through a variety of novel situations requiring greater and greater mastery of the mechanics a particular game is bringing to the table until we build to a proper climax that really puts all your skills to the test and then gives you a nice little ending afterwards.

And like, technically this is subjective, but I am certain that more or less everyone at the time agreed that a game structured like Contra or Super Mario Bros. was just hands down better than a game structured like Pacman or Space Invaders.

Now, it DOES make sense to me why the bloated dying dinosaurs that are big name game publishers are super keen on undoing about 40 years of progress and returning to that Sisyphian drudgery. Ultimately, they want to munch quarters again. And while I would rather passionately debate how true this actually is, the corporate consensus on how to make the most money from games is to... trick people into compulsively playing a game for as long as they possible, while not especially enjoying it, through a combination of having no end game and pressures like "daily login bonuses" while tempting them with little additions that theoretically will make it a more enjoyable experience but ultimately have very little impact (cosmetic DLC stuff, little minor content packs, etc.) and just kinda maintain this false hope that if they stick it out and keep throwing in money it will eventually become a more satisfying experience.

But besides, you know, the fact that the people making their money out of that sort of gross exploitative model keep giving their GDC talks about compelling game loops and player retention and microtransactions and all, I can't for the life of me work out why indie developers who presumably just want to make a really cool game and maybe a better one later are ALSO increasingly designing games with thes endless mid-games and no real longterm goals to work towards. So... please stop doing that? Focus on making games that are only as long as they need to be, where you acquire some skills and ways of approaching problems, then get tested on those, and have a nice satisfying ending, then get to move on to play something else cool, and fondly remember this experience such that they'll hopefully want to see what you do next.

I personally would also very much like to spend all my time making things like that, and it'd be so much easier to focus on that if I didn't have to waste all my time begging for rent money and struggling to stay alive with all the medical problems I can't afford to see doctors about. So... maybe help a gal out there?

[whathebeep]

SO ZEVLOR YEAH??? And Halsin????

End game spoilers under the cut! (Specifically for Halsin's ending)

"where's the druid" is such an impactful line in my mind cause like,,, how long had the tieflings been there before Halsin left with Aradin for the temple?? Had Halsin been a bit more reclusive while leading the grove? Was he so caught up in studying the tadpole that he never fully interacted with Zevlor and the other tieflings? Cause like

You cannot tell me Zevlor and Halsin aren't like one in the same- these men both dealt with the roles of leaders who had to be strong for others before themself. Halsin literally spent so many years as Archdruid, putting the needs of the other druids before himself, before his needs to be within nature or simply doing his own thing. Zevlor was a Hellrider and saw Elturel be pulled into avernus, and this man has been in survival mode ever since. Like how many people did the tiefling group lose before the grove? And even once in the safety of the grove they had to worry about the goblins, and then also the druids wanting to force them out into the waiting jaws of the enemy??? Like

Long story short, I can't believe these two weren't fast friends. That Halsin, (had he been more present before going to the temple) would have seen Zevlor and the stress in those eyes and seen a bit of himself, that they would of sat together near the water and shared a pipe or a drink and just talked.

Hells, going even further into the story, post game, I could see Zevlor and a handful of the other tieflings going with Halsin back to the shadowlands to help make a settlement there. Zevlor and Halsin would have such great insight to offer each other- Zevlor would found a new branch of the hell riders to protect the community, while Halsin focused on supporting the children and creating the orphanage (I'm just saying, some heavy renovations and Moonrise would be a cool orphanage). They wouldn't personally want to be the community leaders but they would provide great insight and wisdom to whoever took on the role.

Long rant short, I think these rad dad's need friendship from each other

[oneatlatime]

The Chase

Saving the commentary for next time. I haven't actually listened to any of the commentary tracks. Are they worth it?

Disney princess Aang.

There is no way the Air Nomads didn't have some sort of textile-based industry with that much shedding going on.

Sorry Katara, but Toph is much more Goblin than girl.

In a completely unsurprising move, the 12 year old formerly caged only child high on her first taste of freedom takes it too far.

The beat up Sokka quota is fulfilled! 3 minutes and ten seconds in might be a new record.

This is the kind of miscommunication I can get behind. Katara thinks they've had this whole fight complete with big issues, a falling out and a need to apologise. Toph has no idea that there are any issues.

Comfy.

What kind of cows are they expecting to meet to necessitate that!?!

How exactly is Toph supposed to help unload anyway? Unloading = throwing things down from a place she can't see. The last time anyone threw something to her from Appa she got beaned in the head. I get that she could help set up tents maybe, but unless Appa's saddle is made of stone she can't see it or anyone on it.

I get that they're all tired, but I'm with Toph on this one.

Sokka! Truly a man of wisdom. Sometimes all you should do is sit back and watch the fireworks.

Did Katara just insult Toph for being blind? Not cool.

Why would a tent made of stone have seams?

I love how when Sokka sticks his head under the covers his voice gets muffled.

Pushing Appa this hard has got to be borderline abusive. And how it keeps finding you? Maybe the trail of breadcrumbs maguffin you spent the first scene of the episode setting up? These poor kids are dumb when they're tired.

Zuko's so angry that his anger wins out as a descriptor over the whole 'half his face is missing' thing. That's impressive.

"Fun and Perky!" Honestly, no comment. Trying to put "FuN and PeRkY" in the same sentence as Sokka broke my brain.

"There's no way they could have possibly followed us" except for the giant carved pathway up to where you are?

These three. Hmm. Did not miss them.

Wow those ride on lizards sound annoying!

Since when can lightning demolish walls?

Pretty.

Siblings!

"We've been up all night with no sleep." LIES. FILTHY LIES.

That's sleep.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

I had not thought about the dangers of ten tonne sleep deprived flying animals.

Katara's really in full bitch mode this episode huh?

Sokka is the only person with sense this episode. Also love the toilet brush trees.

"We're all just trying to get used to each other." Actually, the only person who had a problem with Toph was Katara.

Sokka speaks truth and has his priorities in order. What else can I say? This guy rocks.

This guy can't catch a break.

I hope Appa was napping during that bath.

I take it back. They're not toilet brushes. They're moustaches.

And that's all you're getting for today folks because I just lost power!

edit: part 2 + wrap up is posted.

[zeekszooks]

I'm thinking of making a bigtop burger Oc that isn't part of either food truck but is basically a VERY common customer. A running gag she will never get to eat any of the food she orders either on comedic timing or just like situational events like the 'my cabbages' guy from Avatar Last Airbender but every time she will say on the lines of 'I never got my _ in the end'. Usually filling the blank with burger. This leads to her usually having to eat stuff that even Cesare wouldn't even DARE consider selling even for HIM and he sells charcoal on a BUN!

I'm thinking an overworked female office worker that sometimes looks more goblin mode than other days depending on how her work environment is going. I imagine her having blonde hair so frazzled and poofy it looks like how some people portray flowey's hair if they were human from Undertale. However it is rarely shown to be a golden blonde because of the constant mess she's in.

She will always order food from the two trucks being like a link in communication between the two if be a secret relationship or just general news like "Oh yeah Zomburger is doing a cool promotion, though you guys know I switch between you both daily on lunch and dinner. I visit you both once a day then flip flop my visits mostly based on whose closer on my first break." Then it would spark some sort of plot thing.

She has no idea what trouble she causes until one day she mentions to both groups "I cannot pay anymore due to my pay cut and you guys were the most affordable food around here... unfortunately I'll have to stop eating here for the time being. I mean my only regret is that I don't get to taste your food at you full potential " They both notice that the competition tanked their prices and they started getting really competitive with prices deals and whatnot.

Now, not everything is horrible for her! She just has really REALLY bad luck. She has someone close to her other person. This person is very much good luck. People will sometimes ask how is the husband or wife or partner. She would always correct them 'we are basically childhood friends calm down'.

Completely oblivious to her best friend's reaction looking like a sad puppy. Though basically why they never get together is one wants to help the other dosen't want to be a burden and be independent. Even though she very much needs help she will never ask for it.

Her friend I'm still debating but I'm thinking making them a male and black hair... possibly either African or Asian mostly so he can contrast her hair wise..? Idk... honestly I'm just gonna slap black hair that's REALLY shiny from being over managed all the time he is afraid of germs afterall but never was sick.

Though honestly his focus on his character will be his good luck and unsettling personality though good with words basically me trying to write a slightly bad person without him being completely evil.. he does everything to impress her and help her seeing her as the canary in the coalmine for life quality of the public.

She will be slightly pessimistic, foul mouthed and very bad at talking to people but has a heart of gold and people take advantage of it. She's terrible at speaking to new people almost comedic.

I plan to dress he constantly in ragged suits and stumble a lot mostly because she's always tripping and pretty much always trying to avoid falling piano. The fact she survives is a miracle or a curse. Though honestly both because the medical bills and eventually the guilt of her friend helping be an umbrella for her.

Basically her whole purpose is to help move along the plot at times and be a running gag. Also I think it would be nice to have a girl customer and not something eye candy more like a walking goblin girl who JUST WANTS A BURGER....

I never got my burger in the end.

[mermaidsirennikita]

Hello! Happy Valentines day! I love your blog, and I’m wondering if you have recs for books with really solid friendships for the heroines? I’m rereading the wallflowers rn (my first historical series i ever read!) and I’m just delighted by how much the four of them like each other, and also how they get to do kinda silly stupid stuff together bc friends DO encourage each other to be deranged sometimes lmao

Yes! (And thank you.)

Offbeat rec, but I really love the way Lucia and Regin love each other in IAD--specifically Pleasure of a Dark Prince (Lucia's book) but in general. They're *technically* sisters, as all valkyries are, but they're really best friends and so ride or die for each other. When Lucia is like "I need to go on the run so my werewolf fated mate can't find me" Regin is all "I'm ON IT" and goes with her and helps her like, push Garreth down a ravine and attempt to crush him with cars. It's great.

The Mating Habits of Scoundrels by Vivienne Lorret has great, funny friendships. The girls are really supportive of each other, but they're also like... encouraging one another's worst fears. I think Wallflowers fans would really like this series--my favorites are The Wrong Marquess, How to Steal a Scoundrel's Heart, and Never Seduce a Duke.

Oooh The Fifth Avenue Rebels by Joanna Shupe has fabulous friendships. This is definitely a "friends encourage friends to go goblin mode" series, especially on Nellie's part. Nellie is like, always steering Maddy to cheat on her fiancee with Archer (to be fair, Nellie had.... a conflict of interest there, but she was Right) and taking Katherine to French balls to go hook up with masked men and stuff. And in her book especially, I think you really see how much she adores her friends, and how much she feels that "everyone is getting married and growing up and moving on without me" thing, which leads to a lovely friendship moment between all four.

Hell's Belles by Sarah MacLean OBVIOUSLY has an amazing girl gang that encourages women's wrongs.

Grace Callaway's Lady Charlotte's Society of Angels series by Grace Callaway has a group of crazy young vigilante girls, led by a much calmer, but secretly insane, Lady Charlotte. I just love how these girls will be like "LET'S KICK FLIP VILLAINS AND KISS BOYS".

Jennifer Ashley's first four Mackenzie books especially have really lovely, supportive friendships between the Mackenzie brides. Beth and Isabella are probably the closest, but they're all really tight and understanding of one another.

Adriana Herrera's Las Leonas series is only two books in thus far, but I've been LOVING the female friendships in that series. The women really GET each other, and I super enjoy the fact that there is like... an acknowledged bonding that goes beyond them being women in the 19th century, and goes into them being woc in a predominantly white European society especially.

And for books that have great friendships between men and women, I looove Frannie's relationships with the Scoundrels of St. James, especially Jack. Like, all these guys are a little in love with her (Jack least for sure because he actually gets that their love is platonic lol), but it's pretty quickly clear that it's like, this trauma bond situation where they actually just really GET each other and where they're coming from. So it's not like, objectifying in any way and she's more like the heart of the group, while also being great at forging things and such as that lmao.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Hurdles and Challenges

Wow. Sometimes the world goes to lengths to give me a break. Though honestly, it's kind of backfiring because apparently the world doesn't know me very well.

See, I was debating calling out today. It was nearly 5am before I got any sleep because the stress and worry and ... well, everything ... caused pain flare and migraine. I woke up before my alarm, feeling a little bit better overall, but still kind of crap. Still, I know that we're struggling a little at work and I'm off all next week so I decided to take painkillers about it and carry on.

Apparently the Small God of IT had other ideas, because there is currently a hiccup with our patient records system and it's not letting me log in. I've spoken to IT and this is not a me-problem; this is an IT problem and while they are working on it, they have no idea when it's getting fixed. Though I have to say, IT was a little stunned when I got on the phone to them and they started the, "Have you refreshed the browser?" thing and I went, "Refreshed the browser, restarted the browser, cleared the cache, restarted the entire computer, everything. Nothing worked". I get why they had to go through all that, but I kind of wish they'd looked at their notes before running me through the "A statistically significant percentage of end users are ignorant of anything beyond 'press button to do thing'" spiel. We could have skipped a whole part of the interaction that way.

Anyway, so I'm sitting here, wiggling my work mouse every so often and keeping an eye on my email client, and honestly getting shit all done. I could check the typing queue, at least, and that honestly isn't too bad right now ... though it's about to get worse because Goblin's going out to an appointment and may or may not be back today. (I hope she's okay.) The thing I said about the world not knowing me very well is ... well. I could probably take it easier, not worry so much about immediately knowing when I can get to work, maybe even say, "Maybe this is for the best because I feel horrible and could use a sick day" ... but I can't stand being forced to not do things. I get nervous when IT things are going wrong, because what if it's a huge problem that won't get fixed for days? I need to know when it's fixed, so I'm going to keep trying. Plus, if I'm honest, I am an ornery so-and-so and I only get more determined when faced with a set of hurdles between myself and a task - whether I need to do it or I just want to, I want to know I can.

On that subject, Veilguard. I woke up nearly an hour before my alarm, which means I'm running on maybe four and a half hours' sleep right now. But I figured since I was up, I'd check in on Veilguard. Now, it would have been nice if someone had warned me how long it takes to configure shader settings, but never mind - my early wake-up meant I still had some time to poke at things. From the looks of things, I can play it, at least in early stages. I might want to look at whatever invincibility mode the thing has, and will be careful to not stand near any cliffs just in case, but I've been making it through the prologue without too much issue. It helps that this isn't my "real" playthrough yet, mostly because between compiling shaders and figuring out the character creation thing, I didn't get that much time to actually play. On short acquaintance, though, I think the issue is mostly the visual noise, so to speak. So much is happening on the screen that it's hard to know what you're supposed to be focused on at any give moment. I'll probably get used to it. I'm not going to be seeking a refund, anyway - which is good because I barely have time to do so. If games are going to spend over half an hour configuring shader settings at launch, Steam needs to be more generous with its return policies.

So ... yeah. Today's been me dealing with the hurdles technology sets. Not entirely winning, but coping. I'll have another try at restarting my work browser just to see, and then find something to do. I mean, maybe I could even get through the Veilguard prologue on this practice character. (I don't even remember what I named them; that's how tired I am.)

[beecreeper]

*vibrates excitedly*

We're doing asks again!?

5,6,26 for the gang please

5 answered here and the rest under the cut!

6.) How would the player go about meeting them in Act 1? What is their introduction?

Briar -- Briar would be found inside the dank crypt, having landed outside the cave entrance round the back and followed the smell of death and mildew inside. She was just about to try and ambush the thieves but then the player comes in and deals with them instead so Briar just waits and listens, preparing to ambush the player instead. If you fail a perception check she tries to jump you but the tadpole connection stops her and she immediately goes into “lying to get this person on my side” mode. “Oh sorry about that I thought you were with those bandits thank GOODNESS I found someone else who escaped that ship maybe we can help each other?” If you pass the perception check you can spot her and choose to attack or say something but the tadpole interrupts you either way.

Ferox -- If Ferox were a companion, you would him find having just killed a bunch of goblins. He got confronted and SNAPPED. The player would hear the sounds of a struggle somewhere outside of the deserted village. The encounter space would need to be set up in such a way that you can only see the combat happening when you’re close enough to be dragged into initiative (like down where you find scratch? But scratch would probably have to be moved somewhere else). There’d be a bunch of goblins already dead but a few more to pick off before you can talk to him. Once initiative ends, the dialogue tree starts immediately.

Molli -- If Molli was a companion, she would be found lost in Ethel’s swamp and getting accosted by something, though I haven’t precisely decided what. Gut instinct says some kinda plant thing, like being all tangled in vines or something and she’s calling for help. You can approach to help her but then the whatever it is attacks. If you save her but don’t recruit her there she shows up again at the grove and can still be recruited at any time but disappears after act one. If you leave act one without triggering the fight, then she can be found dead tangled up in the same vines.

Myrala – I'm struggling with Myrala the most because I have so many half ideas for her and none of them are singing to me just right. Gut instinct says she’d be near the grove, helping out with the tieflings and probably getting involved with the tiefling kids specifically because she’d have such an immediate soft spot for them. Another idea is that she could be encountered in various places (either determined randomly or by whatever you run into first) that are all little treasure stashes that she’s trying to lock pick into. Even though Myrala hasn’t been a thief in years, being flung into the wilderness has activated her survival instincts and she’s picking back up the habits she had in Menzoberranzan that kept her alive, justifying it to herself as necessary and telling herself that as long as she’s not stealing from/hurting people *directly* it’s still morally okay. Maybe you could confront her about stealing and she’d try to lie about what she was actually doing? I gotta stew more on this but I don’t wanna keep this reply waiting any longer lol

Poppy – Poppy would be in the goblin camp drinking in the main area, evidently having a great time. If you talk to her, she tadpole connects with you and says GET ME. THE FUCK. OUT OF HERE. She had landed in an area where she ran across the goblins first and was just rolling with the whole true soul thing to avoid getting gutted on the spot. If you don’t recruit her or specifically warn her, she’ll die if you poison the goblin ale.

26.) Give us one of your Tav’s secrets!

Ferox -- Ferox usually discloses his urges and the fragments of his past that he remembers but he deliberately chooses NOT to tell anyone how familiar that roasted dwarf smelled. He's taking that one to his grave.

Briar -- okay like. BESIDES the memory loss and murder urges that she hides from her companions that's old news. Pre-tadpole Briar kept her last name and hometown a secret, mostly because she considered that part of life completely worthless. As far as she was concerned she emerged fully formed at 14 covered in her foster parents blood. (Gortash tracks down this information anyway just to be petty with it)

Molli -- Something Molli doesn't tell anyone, even after the details of her situation with Gortash come out, is that she BEGGED to stay with him when he was sending her away to be tadpoled. Not only was she terrified for her life but she was also SO broken and dependent on him at that point. She was convinced that *she* must have done something wrong and was desperate to get back in his good graces because that's the pattern that had been so deeply ingrained into her.

Myrala -- that she *has* stolen things since coming to Baldur's Gate. She sets rules for herself (only from people who can afford it, never involve the people directly, only take what you need) but she feels awful about it anyway. She spends so much time preaching about how Eilistraee gave her a second chance, so stealing, even just to survive or to help her converts, feels so much like a betrayal of that. It's ESPECIALLY important to her that none of her little group of converts/refugees ever find out.

Poppy -- she's low-key scared of dogs but doesn't like to admit it so she just grits her teeth and bares it. Scratch makes her SUPER uncomfortable

[goop-thoughts]

And here we are!

Heya! New to using Tumblr beyond scrolling endlessly, so I have no clue what to do at all. My main haunt is being a Discord goblin, but I'm not quite ready to make any sort of public server there just yet. So, hopefully going to post here from time to time and maybe do some doodles (depending on whatever mood strikes me, although my main strength lies in writing and editing), but seeing where things go on their own is half the fun anyhow. And... what else... Oh, right, introduction! I'm Cam, Cammy, or Chameleon, whichever you prefer. I have a variety of appearances but my current one is best seen on dark mode this:

As an entity, I do not feel as though I have any core identity, yet I can shift and shape myself however I see fit and take up other masks, as it were, but being a being like this is what feels most comfortable at the moment for me. Depending on what I feel like sharing through this blog, I may introduce other characters that may also act as masks. For now though, I'm content with sharing odd ideas that pop into my head, any tagging suggestions are always appreciated if relevant and especially good thoughts, and I will do my best to have at least some semblance of activity on here (which I may help with from one of my partners).

[margridarnauds]

So, my Honour Mode Anathematisma Run, aka "How Many Ways Can I Fuck Up This Run Without Dying"

So, I got the Friends cantrip, which I've never really used before on this difficulty level. This is important for down the line.

Ana is RIDICULOUSLY powerful because I installed a cambion mod because it's what Hell's Little Princess deserves.

We easily demolish most of the early Act 1 things that can end an Honour Mode run easily, even getting the Everburn blade.

Then...we get to the Grove. I'm not able to prevent Zevlor from being punched by Aradin, but it's *fine*. Kagha's there, wants to speak with us, etc.

Ana goes to talk with her with her bardy powers

Because this is Honour Mode and redos are MUCH more expensive (and I don't want Arabella to die), I use. The Friends cantrip.

It succeeds, Arabella runs free.

Then...it runs out. Kagha and co. turn hostile immediately.

Worse, when I try to run out as a way of getting RID of the temporarily hostile buff, the druids decide that's the time to start the tiefling genocide party. I'm able to take down Kagha and the remaining druids, but then I have to take down the rest outside.

It's...not pretty.

I'm able to put them down, but there are a lot of casualties. Including Wyll and Dammon. Wyll...who is Ana's canonical love interest.

Okay, fine, this would make me reload another game, but we can move ON from this. It'll be *fine*. Especially once I resurrect Wyll. We're back on track.

I still have to give Rath money in order to make him like me again even though he turned on Kagha.

...I go to recruit Karlach. She shames me for killing everyone in the Grove. Calls Wyll a rat.

...well, she's not joining our side AND was rude, so she's gotta die.

Okay, so a lot of people are dead AND Karlach's dead, but we can move on from this.

I go to the Owlbear cave after convincing the expendable Absolutists to avenge their brother. The owlbear cub stays hostile after I kill both of the older owlbears. I have to knock it out. (I'd been hoping to trigger Wyll Approval Points by sparing it in the cutscene)

I go to the Zhentarim locked in the cave. Unfortunately, even though I succeed in convincing Flind to kill all her pack mates, I'm not able to get her to eat herself. So she's gotta go.

I'm not able to win this fight because my team's exhausted after everything else, so I'm able to book a retreat with Astarion.

I get everyone resurrected, do a long rest, go back, kill Flind. Rugan and his buddy are dead, but they're Banites (albeit hot Banites), so I don't care about them.

Go to Waukeen's Rest, save everyone there, go to the Zhentarim hideout, hand over the chest. I go to negotiate for the painter's release. And I use. Friends.

I have to fight the Zhentarim.

At least I got a Titanstring bow out of it.

Astarion is lagging behind in approval, so I decide to go to the swamp. He kills Gandrel instantly because he hasn't revealed he's a vampire.

I go back to the Goblin Camp, prepared to kill the leaders + make it to the Underdark (it's...going to be fun giving Halsin the news). I go to Priestess Gut, especially since she's USUALLY the easiest to kill.

...some combination of my dialogue means she isn't willing to even talk to me and tells me to go away. So I have to initiate combat. I cast Silence so she won't call for help, but she runs outside of it and does it anyway.

She then DRAGS Roah Moonglow, aka One of the OTHER Best Merchants In Act One, into the battle. I have to put MORE Zhentarim down as well as deal with Priestess Gut.

Eventually, I kill all of them.

So, at the moment, Ana has a relatively poor relationship with Astarion (even though she allows him to munch on her), not NEARLY as good a relationship as she could have with Wyll (even though she's making him worse now that Karlach's gone), Gale has been asking for magical artifacts freakishly fast, we've lost a total of four merchants, the druids are dead, and Karlach is McFucking Dead. And I honestly have no idea whether the Owlbear Cub will spawn, especially since Korra is too focused on me poisoning her friends to want to play Chicken Chase.

And we still haven't had the chance for the Family Reunion with Raphael.

At least Ana's new design is hot?

[apalestar]

What the fuck is "goblin mode"? Next thing you're telling me you're "orcpilled". Not going to make it because you're a "dwarfcel"! An elfed-up shorty! BUSTING it down CENTAUR style!

Anon... get some help

What pray tell the fuck? Astarion was starting to see the appeal of his master's edict to not bring back bards. Especially when subjected to this shit. "Whoever you're looking for I can assure you I'm the wrong elf."

He sidestepped the drunkard to continue on his way.

[bhaalest]

MCs

i'll probably make posts for each main character and then edit in links for them. in the meantime, a summary:

Koth (Lolth-sworn Drow Tempest Cleric of Lolth tav) escaped from Menzoberranzan at just 15 and spent several years unsuccessfully trying to make it on the surface before being scooped up and tadpoled. If there's one lesson he learned in Menzoberranzan it was the importance of power, so imagine how he felt when he accidentally saved some people from a goblin raid and then they just handed it over. He played the hero in the public eye (saving the tieflings, saving Isobel, etc.) but chose power whenever no one was watching (ascending Astarion, letting Shadowheart do whatever she wanted with the Nightsong, etc.). In game he got the good ending and even went to the hells with Karlach, but that's only because the game doesn't support your tav trying to pull the same thing ascended Astarion is doing (or that the Emperor previously did—the game really teased me with that). He did not want to dominate the Netherbrain. He knows all too well that that kind of obvious evil always falls.

Mortash (Frost Dragonborn Oath of Vengance Paladin durge) woke up on a Nautiloid with naught but a copy of a Paladin oath in his pocket. He seized on that as his only connection to his old self and, following it, chose the resistance path. When he met Kressa Bonedaughter and she mentioned dressing him in some random adventurer's old clothes, he was nearly broken. The oath he had built his new identity around was never his. It took a serious pep talk from Karlach (who he romanced) to keep him going. His companions helped him through it and they went on to smite the fuck out of everyone in Act 3, including Orin who was in Slayer form. That was the highest burst damage battle I've ever seen, with Mortash getting Orin down to around 30hp on his first turn (she only survived because he missed once) and then her critting twice and getting him down to around 30hp, through a 6th-level Aid and hero's feast, on her first turn. Then I forgot I was already in dishonor mode, mentally kissed over 100 hours of playtime goodbye, and told the god of murder "I'd rather die". From there he cured the urges, defeated the Netherbrain with the Emperor, and went to Avernus to fix Karlach's engine. And yes, he romanced Karlach and his name is almost Gortash. No, I did not realize I had done that until halfway through act 3. Yes I'm still mad about it. Also, for some reason I never got the kill-your-lover scene that you're apparently supposed to get in Act 2 if you don't kill Isobel, which I'm still disappointed that I didn't get to see.

Dharron (Mephistopheles Tiefling Wild Magic Sorcerer durge) is the smuggest, most annoying, most punchable baby cult leader in the realms. When he was told at 12 years old that he was sculpted from godflesh to be the head of the cult of ball and murder every creature in the realms, he was happy that finally someone recognized how special he was. He was a textbook evil durge: killing the grove, killing Nightsong (which it turns out makes killing Kethric so much harder), killing Isobel, even killing Karlach over her protestations that she wasn't a devil. The only big non-traditionally-evil choice he made was romancing Gale, a choice that was initially made at the goblin party when Gale gets upset with you for making him an accessory (at minimum) to murder. In response, Dharron decided to demonstrate that Gale had no right to call him out like that by getting close to Gale and corrupting him into someone who would murder without a second thought. He was not the most well-adjusted guy. However, while he was corrupting Gale, Gale was corrupting him back with temptations of godhood. He enthusiastically accepted being Bhaal's chosen after defeating Orin (who apparently sucks in humanoid form), but still dreamed of more. From here I can't decide how I want things to end so I have two timelines I consider equally canon for the endgame. In one, Dharron dominates the brain, forces the people of Baldur's Gate to turn on each other, and then takes his army to carry out the murder lord's work on the rest of the world. Contrary to canon, though, he kills the other companions but leaves Gale alive and enthralled. He can't bring himself to give up Gale's ability to use the crown to ascend, but he also can't actually have Gale ascend because he'd lose power over the brain and be immediately enthralled. So he just keeps Gale with him, enthralled but aware and forced to watch as his one-time lover slaughters millions using the power Gale helped him acquire. In the other, the temptation of godhood is too great. Dharron destroys the brain with the aim of claiming the crown and ascending with Gale to godhood. (I thought for a while about what he'd be the god of, since murder is taken, and decided that the only thing that makes sense is ambition. Just steal Gale's whole thing. Can a god murder another god?) However, he didn't account for the consequences of failing Bhaal. At the docks he walked away, believing he could resist. He could not. After screaming at Withers from jail he ends up outside the reunion party, nearly feral, ready to kill them all when the sun goes down. Or more likely, since the party is made up of two entire gods, a vampire lord, and multiple level 12+ adventurers, to get blasted to smithereens.

Elkyn (Seldarine Drow Circle of Spores Druid + Oath of the Ancients Paladin tav) was part of an Underdark commune whose goal was to oppose Lolth. Their role in the commune was as liaison for trade and diplomatic reasons, which is both how they got captured by the Nautiloid and why they're so competent in battle. In the Underdark, to survive traveling anywhere you need to be competent in battle. Despite being from the Underdark they're a strong pacifist, at his insistence the party did nonlethal damage most of the time (notable exceptions include undead, hags, Bhaalists, Baneites, Kethric, Orin, Gortash, Raphael, ok maybe quite a lot). They're also very interested in helping their companions get out of the clutches of evil gods, so paid particular attention to Lae'zel's and Shadowheart's quests. They dated Astarion and Halsin together. Halsin is obvious but I don't have a good in-game reason for Astarion. The actual reason is that I wanted to take the polyamorous option and only he, Karlach (who I already romanced) and Shadowheart (who I'm not interested in, sorry Shadowheart fans) agree. I wanted this to be a high-body-count run but managed to lock myself out of both Mizora and The Emperor through dialogue. I tried to have it both ways with Haarlep by sleeping with him but then attacking him before the cutscene ended (since he vanishes), then knocking him out to get his loot. I haven't gotten the scene about him using my body yet though so I assume this didn't work. At least we had a fivesome with the drow twins. Their playthrough is still ongoing, though we've almost finished Act 3 and are nearly ready to start the finale. This might be the run where I finally accept Karlach's offer to become a mind flayer.

[khaosophist]

Finished a second bout of writing. It was really emotionally engaging for me. I got deeper into it. It helped me process a prejudice I'm working on letting go. I think something taught me to expect friendship from others just because I'm nice to them. But that's not how any of this works. Nothing should push someone to do something unless it's something they want to be pushed by. Even I have trouble when people are too nice to me, y'know? I might feel guilty for being so invested at the get go. But, at least it doesn't leave my emotions bottled up. It shows who I am in ways I've forgotten, and I need to see that as a new starting point, rather than rock bottom. I shouldn't see it as rejection, but matter of fact; reality. Rejection implies I've asked something of someone. I don't ask much of anyone. But I do expect a lot. At some point I'll be able to share, without experiencing anxiety. Hopefully.

I love shortstacks. A whole head shorter. It's perfect for hugs, cuddling, kissing. God, the little tip toes that happen sometimes when they're really into the kiss is fucking crack.

When they're sleeping and those cute thick thighs and ass are a phenomenon...then they sling their leg over you and you can caress their skin that's just softness incarnate that hacks into your brain. Then the heavy boobs hit. WOOOOF!

It's not just about what it is. But, what you believe it is too...if I wasn't in love then what would I be? She's too sweet. Too cute. Too determined. Too funny. Just ...she lets me call her my gobberina, it broke me. I have so many terms of endearment for her. Sappy be damned! I'll live what I can, and accept whatever I'll become...I'm going to make my wife orgasm so hard that she'll go goblin mode on me.

I swear it.

If my journal could talk...