#like to succeed the mental fortitude must be insane

[u-know-too-much]

ANG SARAP MAGFEELING DOCTOR GRABE

[thecreaturecodex]

Qlippoth, Verakia

Image by Andrew Hou, © Wizards of the Coast

[Commissioned by @justicegundam82​, this was one of the last original monsters to appear in the Paizo run of Dragon Magazine, appearing in issue 357 (of 360). A creation of James Jacobs, it seems to have been reworked into Pathfinder as the vavakia demon, which has a similar dinosaur centaur appearance, a breath weapon that deals ability damage, and a stunning ability. So I had to make reference to that in my flavor text. My version tones down the 3.5 version considerably--in that, the horrific appearance equivalent drove victims into violent insanity permanently, mentioning that they keep wandering and killing until they die of dehydration. A little much for a CR 14 as an area of effect usable at will.]

Qlippoth, Verakia CR 14 CE Outsider (extraplanar) This creature resembles a monstrous saurian centaur. It has four clawed legs and one pair of arms, the arms featuring a pair of scythe-like talons. Its head has four eyes and a lashing tongue, as well as three horns, one curving back from the brow and two curving forward from its cheeks.

Verakia qlippoths are the embodiment of the feeding frenzy, the uncontrolled bloodlust that accompanies the hunt. They are found in the deepest jungles and swamps of the Abyss. Verakias are smart enough to enjoy the fear and pain of their prey, but dumb enough to view themselves as the mightiest creatures in the Abyss. The exception to this is the vavakia demon, which they keep a wide berth from. Since the two have similar shapes and even abilities, some sages believe that vavakias were originally created from verakias that embraced the influx of souls into the Abyss and became true demons. Vavakias for their part hunt verakias as trophies.

A verakia may stalk its prey for long distances, waiting until they are hindered by underbrush before striking. A verakia usually opens combat with its horrific appearance, forcing allies to turn on each other in a state of slashing frenzy. Their strength is often overwhelming, and the fire that burns in their bellies leaves grotesque mental and physical scars. They rarely retreat from fights once they have tasted blood.

A verakia is about fifty feet long and weighs around eight tons.

Verakia         CR 14 XP 38,400 CE Gargantuan outsider (chaos, evil, extraplanar, qlippoth) Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +21, scent, true seeing Defense AC 28, touch 8, flat-footed 26 (-4 size, +2 Dex, +20 natural) hp 200 (16d10+112) Fort +14, Ref +14, Will +12 DR 15/lawful; Immune cold, mind-influencing effects, poison; Resist acid 10, electricity 10, fire 10; SR 25 Offense Speed 50 ft., swim 30 ft. Melee bite +21 (2d6+9), 2 talons +21 (2d8+9), gore +21 (1d8+9), tail slap +16 (2d6+4) Space 20 ft.; Reach 20 ft. Special Attacks breath weapon (60 ft. cone, 1d4 rounds, 8d6 fire and 8d6 typeless, DC 25), horrific appearance (DC 21), stunning rend, trample (2d8+13, DC 27) Spell-like Abilities CL 14th, concentration +17 Constant—true seeing 3/day—dimension door, dispel law (DC 18) 1/day—power word: stun Statistics Str 28, Dex 15, Con 25, Int 6, Wis 14, Cha 17 Base Atk +16; CMB +29 (+31 bull rush; CMD 41 (43 vs. bull rush, 45 vs. trip) Feats Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Great Cleave, Great Fortitude, Improved Bull Rush,  Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack Skills Acrobatics +21 (29 when jumping), Climb +20, Perception +21, Stealth +9 (+19 in undergrowth), Swim +28; Racial Modifiers Stealth +10 in undergrowth Languages Abyssal, telepathy 100 ft. SQ woodland stride Ecology Environment any forests or marshes (the Abyss) Organization solitary, pair or pack (3-8) Treasure none Special Abilities Breath Weapon (Su) Any creature that takes damage from a verakia’s breath weapon must succeed a DC 25 Fortitude save or take 1d6 points of Charisma damage. The save DC is Constitution based. Horrific Appearance (Su) Creatures that succumb to a verakia’s horrific appearance become obsessed with cutting other creatures or themselves. For the next minute, the creature must attack the nearest creature with a slashing or piercing weapon. It attacks that creature until it is slain, and then moves onto the next creature, until the duration runs out or the effect is removed with a break enchantment or similar magic. If the creature does not have a slashing or piercing weapon, it tears at itself with nails and teeth, dealing 1d8 slashing damage to itself plus its Strength modifier. The save DC is Charisma based. Stunning Rend (Ex) A creature struck by three or more of a verakia’s natural attacks in a single round must succeed a DC 27 Fortitude save or be stunned for 1 round. The save DC is Strength based. Woodland Stride (Ex) A verakia ignores difficult terrain created by mundane vegetation.

[monstersdownthepath]

Spiritual Spotlight: Chucaro, Maiden of Haze and Whimsy

Chaotic Good Azata Empyreal Lord of Dreams, Hallucinations, and Mists

Domains: Chaos, Good, Madness, Magic Subdomains: Azata, Insanity, Revelry, Whimsy

Chronicles of the Righteous, pg. 10

Obedience: Drape yourself in gauze and eat hallucinogenic mushrooms or fungi while meditating on the teachings of Chucaro. Benefit: Gain a +4 sacred bonus on saving throws against poison.

I can’t recall having ever seen a Good-aligned god of drugs (though Pathfinder does contain two or three Good deities of madness!), so this is a refreshing change of pace. Rather than demonize the whole practice, Chucaro here advocates for responsible and safe use, like what you have to do when performing your Obedience! Somewhat restrictive in that you can only munch hallucinogenic mushrooms, of which very few are actually statted out (rather than the more commonly available Flayleaf), leading to the necessity of DM fiat. You can always get around the complication by growing your own fungi in a dank terrarium in your Bag of Holding, or you could plop a bunch of ranks in Survival to always be able to scavenge up a nice loopyshroom no matter your environment.

In times of troubles when you can’t find some good fungi, I think Chucaro would allow you any old hallucinogen, such as the commonly available Pesh (and, again, Flayleaf). This is definitely one of the Obediences you can’t do if denied your inventory, though, as it also requires a bit of gauze--not enough to wrap yourself up, but just enough to ‘drape yourself’ in it, making you look kind of like you walked into a spiderweb. The gauze and ingesting of hallucinogens also makes it one of the better Obediences to do just before you go to bed rather than when you first wake up; as a goddess whose portfolio includes drug-induced dreams, I’m sure she’d appreciate your before-bed trip as well.

The benefit is one we’ve seen before. It’s a little on the weaker side, but preventing stat damage from poison will save you and your party some gold in the long run, and it means the casters will have one or two extra spell slots available that would have otherwise been used on Neutralize Poison. Ironically, it doesn’t prevent you from becoming addicted to your nightly fungus crunching, because addiction is, mechanically, a disease! Be careful! 

Boons are gained slowly, typically achieved once you reach 12, 16, and 20 Hit Dice. Followers of the Empyreal Lords, however, can enter the Mystery Cultist Prestige Class at level 8, which grants them their Boons much quicker! Entered as early as possible, you gain the Boons at levels 10, 13, and 16 instead. Mystery Cultists MUST take the Celestial Obedience feat, NOT Deific Obedience.

Empyreal Lords do not grant the typical Evangelist/Exalted/Sentinel spread, instead having only one set of Boons granted to their followers regardless of their class.

Boon 1: Kaleidoscopic Images. Gain Color spray 3/day, Hypnotic Pattern 2/day, or Gaseous Form 1/day.

I’ve stated multiple times in past articles that Gaseous Form’s biggest weakness is the absolutely crippling movespeed reduction it slaps you with, capping your cloudy shape at 10ft/round, limiting its use as an effective scouting tool or a method of escaping some nasty situation, except perhaps in the rare cases where you have access to vents or a window out of a preposterously tall tower. The actions you can perform while gaseous are painfully limited, and it can’t even really be used to stealth around since you still look like you, just cloudy.

Plus, it’s up against Color Spray and Hypnotic Pattern. Both of them excel in knocking minions out of the fight, with Pattern’s 10+2d4 HD limit potentially lets it affect boss-level monsters, or at least their larger minions, freezing them in place for as long as you can keep concentrating on the effect. Not only is it useful in battle, but throwing it out as a distraction before a fight even begins can work as well, keeping a guard’s eyes off you or redirecting the attention of civilians elsewhere.

And Color Spray? A classic, always useful... Provided you don’t mind getting within 15ft of your enemy, or multiple enemies. It’s at its most powerful at low levels, but you’re going to be at 10 when you finally get this power, so its saving throw (11+Cha) is struggling to keep up with the enemy’s rapidly growing saves. At its best, it’s a 1-round stun against foes kind enough to line up in a 15ft cone. At its worst, you’ve essentially gotten into melee range of your foe. I’d stick with Hypnotic Pattern. 

Boon 2: Wispy Form. Your body becomes misty when you are under attack, diluting the damage of edged weapons. Though outwardly you appear the same, you gain DR 5/bludgeoning.

This is one of those Boons that’s great, but difficult to talk about since it’s a simple mechanical bonus with little room for creativity. It’s a one-size-fits-all Boon that benefits literally any class it’s slapped on, subtracting 5 damage from pretty much every melee attack (characters with bludgeoning weapons are remarkably uncommon--swords are cool!) you see coming your way. You want it as a frontliner because it’s extra protection, you want it as a midliner because it makes getting caught out easier to handle, and you definitely want it as a backlner because suddenly taking physical damage likely means your life is about to meet an abrupt end. Having 5 whole free DR against the most common physical damage types can be a world of difference!

That’s all I can really say here, unfortunately, because at the end of the day it is just a simple buff.

Boon 3: Terrible Reverie. 1/day, you can cast Weird.

And this, this is much more fun to talk about. We haven’t seen Weird as a Boon before, and one look at what it actually does may give you a hint as to why: It’s a mass Phantasmal Killer with no limit to the number of creatures it can target. Far from the pathetically crunched version some people may get disappointed by in 5e, Pathfinder’s Weird is the widest Save-Or-Die effect available to players, able to affect entire crowds so long as none of them are more than 30ft apart and plucking their lives from them in a single instant. To say you can clear a room is an understatement; you can clear an entire city if it’s densely packed enough.

Good thing you’re a good guy!

It’s not all sunshine, roses, and horrifying death, though. Phantasmal Killer has some pretty hefty downsides: namely, it’s a mind-affecting, emotion, AND fear effect, meaning it’s unlikely to affect higher-end Outsiders and is utterly useless against Constructs, Undead, Plants, and most Oozes and Vermin. However, it’s notably NOT a death effect, so creatures relying on immunity to instant death effects without making themselves immune to mental attacks is still vulnerable to Weird.

The other biggest weakness is that Phantasmal Killer and, thus, Weird require the subject to fail two saves, first a Will save to fail to realize the illusion is an illusion, and second a Fortitude save to keep from having a fatal heart attack as fear overwhelms them. The good news is that succeeding the Fortitude save still causes the target to take 3d6 damage, 1d4 Str damage, and become stunned for 1 round, so it’s still potentially a Save-Or-Suck if your party can capitalize on the enemy losing their next turn.

The third but perhaps most dangerous weakness, however, is that if the victim of Weird succeeds the Will save to disbelieve the illusion and they possess telepathy, they can send the attack back to you and force you to make a save against it. Now, I can’t find any particulars on how Weird’s mass-terror interacts with this particular rule from Phantasmal Killer, but for the sake of safety, I would avoid hurling into a crowd of minions with telepathy, lest they force you to make dozens of saves to avoid being terrified to death.

Still a good spell, but just be careful with who you send it against!

You can read more about Chucaro here.

[askmalal]

The spirit who was once the Night Haunter watched, spellbound, as a cosmic flare rippled through the coruscating haze that defined that section of The Warp just then. He thought, for a moment, about Nostramo, and considered, not for the first time, that the lonely shade of that haunted world was not, itself, wandering through the aether. It made him shiver, and sent a pang of regret down the ridge of where he imagined he still had a spine.

Konrad Curze turned from the porthole - the place that he imagined was a porthole - and looked into the interior of what his mind had constructed as a sort of audience chamber. He knew, as with the illusion of a physical body or the illusion of a porthole, this too was merely a construct framed by his intellect. A helpful means of finding an anchor in a place that was, at its purest, a raw mix of animus and entropy unbound by logical form. He considered it an irony that his suffering in life, the long periods of insanity, had given him the experience to, paradoxically, keep his mind intact here. No, he did not miss The Night Haunter, but he did, at times, appreciate its... finer... points.

The shadow that had once been his brother stirred like the ash of a long dead city around him, and he knew that the Faceless God had entered. There was a slight smell of creosote. Whether this was his own construct or a deliberate attempt by that entity he did not know.

“Welcome back...” he began. The shadow took a vaguely anthropomorphic form and nodded, vaguely.

“He is looking for you again, you know. All of you.”

The voice was a murmur and yet utterly, unmistakably clear down to every perfectly formed syllable. He had grown used to this over time, but the Eighth Son reckoned that, if there was one thing about Malal’s voice that put him on edge, it was that the dark thing did not have “a voice.” He... It.. seemed to have one thousand. Each distinct. For a mortal mind to hear all of those voices murmuring at once would be maddening. Curze wondered at the mental fortitude it had taken those amongst his siblings who had heard it speak, unfiltered and without obfuscation, and yet avoid becoming unhinged.

“I know,” the Night Lord shrugged, “Not to the extent you do...” his Nostraman accent, one he knew that in a different time might have been described as “vaguely Magyar, vaguely English, with a touch of the Germanic” reverberated around the “chamber.” “But,” he continued. “I know. I felt his mind brush mine. It is a curious feeling, I must say. Very different from the way it was in my breathing days. Despite having been here quite enough to experience it more than once or twice.”

The shadow seemed unmoved by this, but it spoke. “Would the Night Haunter have felt it differently, I wonder?”

Curze shrugged, “I do not know.”

The shadow nodded, satisfied at this, at least. Malal had given him shelter here. A tether in the midst of the madness that surrounded them. Malal, Malice, the Faceless Sphinx... he made an arrangement with Konrad Curze in those final hours. One Konrad Curze, not the Night Haunter, had accepted. The dark god hated the Night Haunter, as had the fragment that was his brother. His brother, however, had shown kindness to Konrad Curze.

“He will be looking for the others. Some will know...” the gentle cacophony of voices replied, “others, perhaps not.”

“Will he succeed?” Konrad asked.

“I am not given to prophecy,” the darkness said, but not with cruelty, so much as certainty. “I would imagine that it depends very much as to what he hopes to accomplish.”

“I see,” the spirit sighed, drawing in an illusory breath, “I see.”

“Do you wish to speak to him?” The shadow seemed genuinely curious. Konrad blinked. “I... you could make that possible?”

“I could,” the eyeless, featureless face regarded him for a moment. “I could. For you, it would not be without risk.

Curze gave a bitter laugh. “What would he do? Destroy me? I don’t think he...”

“-Never-,” the cacophony warned, its voice icey cold, “never attempt to divine what he will or will not do. Konrad Curze, “That is a mistake all twenty of you made. And it is a mistake that four others like myself make even today.”

Konrad shook his head. “Really, Malal, do you think he would harm me?”

The god gave the semblance of a shrug, the tiniest hint of humanity. “Unlikely. I do not feel that is what he seeks to do, not just now. If he had wanted to do so, he would have tried to do so before. He could simply point The Raven in your direction, for that matter.”

Curze felt a tinge of grief. “Poor Corvus.”

“He knows what he is doing. Sympathy is not an emotion I would register for him.”

“Well, yes,” the Primarch thought to himself, “your capacity for empathy, at least for the powerful, is... limited.” But instead, he asked, “What do you think he wants?”

“If I were to hazard a guess...” a narrow, eldritch smile appeared on the featureless face. It was unmanning. Konrad Curze, who had faced monstrous creatures and super heavy tanks alone on many occasions, had to turn his head. The beast-thing that had once been his brother spoke. “If I were to hazard a guess? Some progress toward closure. He may hope to turn your wayward brothers. He may hope to probe their weaknesses.”

“And for me?”

The grin disappeared. The shadow considered.

“I cannot say.”

“That... is troubling.” Curze muttered.

[mr-entj]

Can you talk about the quality(ies) or trait(s) that contributed most to your success? I read about your adversity and I want to know what is your personal mindset of getting through those challenges.

Combined with the following asks:

Hello, Mr. ENTJ. Have you ever been depressed? How did you manage to come out of the rut and find the will to live on? I realize that this is a personal question, and you don’t really have to answer but it’d help in understanding different paradigms and help someone who else who is struggling. Thank You

Related answers:

What do you think is required from a person to succeed ?

Dealing with failure and overcoming adversity

What are some of your top habits that have helped your success? What are some habits in your life you think you need to change?

Did the qualities you’ve mentioned (emotional self-regulation, mental fortitude) come naturally to you? Was it something you had to develop? How can I develop them? Thanks for dedicating your time to this blog. Helped a lot.

The answer is grit (resilience). I have an abundant supply of resilience that’s carried me through a childhood rife with crushing poverty, domestic abuse, physical danger, health crises (hip reconstruction, cancer), rejection, failure, and all the in-betweens that life threw at me to get to where I am today.

To develop and maintain grit, there are 3 core values carved into my soul:

1. “I am not a victim, I am my own hero.”

This stops spirals of self-pity and feelings of helplessness. This creates hope and courage. This reminds me that while I’ve been on the receiving end of some awful events (I mean, truly, ridiculous shit), I still have within me to change my circumstances– then I do it.

Poverty? I put myself through school (I paid 100% of my own tuition, no help from my parents– not a single penny– for undergraduate and graduate school), grinded through 6+ years of studies to graduate from 2 elite universities at the top of my class, hustled through my career, and now I’m wealthy. My parents never have to worry about money again, ever, my wife is taken care of, my daughter is spoiled rotten, my vacations are booked, my bank account is fat, my stock portfolio is cruising, and my career is skyrocketing. I have clothes on my back, a roof over my head, food in my stomach, and a smile on my face.

Physical danger? I fulfilled a lifelong dream to move my family out of the ghetto, buy our parents a home a few years back, and they now live in an affluent neighborhood within a gated community.

Health crisis? I saw the best physicians available, ate healthy, exercised, and continue to take care of my health to the best of my ability. I’ve recovered, I’m well, I’m healthy, I’m cancer free, I’m pain free.

There are many things in life that are unfair and out of your control; but how you prepare for the worst, plan for the best, and respond to those circumstances are in your power. That’s where you need to step up and shine. There will be amazing people along this journey that will help by providing advice, encouragement, and support but at the end of the day they have their own lives to live, their own problems to solve, and their own mountains to climb so you must always be your own advocate. You can’t hitch a ride on their wagon because they’re not going where you’re going. This is your ship and you are the captain, it’s your responsibility to steer it in the right direction so master the things within your control.

2. “Tomorrow will be better.”

This helps with impatience when progress is slow and fights off doubts and despair when changes don’t come as quickly as I want. This creates discipline and consistency. I always tell my wife, the INTJ, after every setback that “I feel like something good is waiting for me around the corner. I don’t know what it is, how it’ll come, or when it’ll come, but I feel it.” And it inevitably does as long as I show up, give 100%, and keep working towards my goals.

“Tomorrow will be better” helps me take things step by step because I have the tendency to look a hundred miles down the road and cringe at the distance still left to travel. I’ve repeated this over and over again, through my crap retail job at Target, through being a janitor scrubbing toilets in the mall, through my long hours cramming for the MCAT, through high stress in my consulting job, and so on and so forth. 1 day becomes 1 week, 1 week becomes 1 month, 1 month becomes 1 year, 1 year becomes 10 years, and suddenly we’re in 2019 and I’ve graduated from my dream schools, I work in my dream job, I’m married to my dream girl, I drive my dream car, and I’ve traveled to destinations around the world I used to only dream about.

Confucius wasn’t playing around when he said “a journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step.” It won’t be an overnight thing. If your goal is to lose weight, then you’re not going to do 100 push-ups today and get a six-pack tomorrow. If your goal is to raise your grades, then you’re not going to read a chapter and magically get a 4.0 GPA tomorrow. I didn’t snap my fingers one day and suddenly my dream life appeared at my doorstep the next morning. That’s not how it works. However, if today is better than yesterday, and tomorrow is better than today, then those wins will add up over time until you finally get to where you’re going.

3. “You’re going to have to kill me to stop me.”

This is not an exaggeration, this is a fact. This creates tenacity and stamina. You may be smarter than me, you may be taller than me, you may be richer than me, you may be more handsome than me, you may be better than me in every facet but you are not going to outwork, outhustle, or outlast me. Period.

Learn to fight like hell.

This is a mentality I take towards every goal I’ve set because it keeps me alert, prepared, and responsive to seize opportunities as soon as they pop up. I always tell people around me whenever we’re working on their goals to “be ready” because if you’re ready, then you don’t need to waste time getting ready. Opportunities in life fly by in a blink of an eye like a job posting that opens and closes because you didn’t have a resume prepared, a scholarship perfectly matched for your background that got away because your grades weren’t high enough, or the love of your life that gets away because you weren’t available when you two crossed paths. Be ready and stay ready so when the opportunities present themselves you can immediately seize them.

I achieve this by being in constant motion in my life; I am reading, I am exercising, I am traveling, I am working, I am mentoring, I am meeting new people, I am growing relationships with the people I already know, I am perfecting my craft, I am expanding my network, I am learning a new skill, I am building my knowledge, I am recharging, I am reflecting on my life, priorities, mistakes, and next steps– I am improving every single day and I don’t stop. I stay insanely busy, which you might’ve noticed if it’s taken me 6 years to respond to your ask or Tumblr message (my bad), with meaningful things that add to my life. I move with purpose, I work like I’m possessed.

The United States Armed Forces has a saying:

“Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.”

There are many people in this world who fall short of their full potential because they aren’t willing to work or fight for what they want. They hit a little speed bump, lose heart, and give up, but with a little digging it becomes obvious they didn’t try hard enough to push through the barriers. I worked 3 jobs from 3AM to 8AM and 12PM to 10PM while taking classes to pay tuition and rent, I scrubbed toilets, I bussed tables, I lived on packets of ramen for weeks because that was the only food I could afford, I studied by flashlight, I slept in my car, I walked to work in the rain when I couldn’t afford gas, I studied from outdated textbooks in the library because I didn’t have the money to buy or rent new ones, I attended every career recruiting event, I showed up at office hours to every class I struggled in, I chased every tutoring session until I understood the subject matter, and I was always the first one in and last one out of the classroom or the office wherever I was. I always fought for it. I exhausted every option so that even if I failed, I could sleep peacefully knowing I had done everything in my power to succeed, I had closure that I did my absolute best.

And that’s how I did it.

That’s how a scrappy kid born in poverty in the slums of a third world Southeast Asian country, raised in an unstable home, and burdened with too many challenges to list, became educated, graduated, elevated, and gainfully compensated. To not only survive in life, but to thrive.

[the-struggling-musician-blog]

When stress overtakes passion

I very clearly remember a time when, as a teenager who was starving to succeed as a musician, I lost my ability to simply listen to and play music as a pleasurable pursuit. 

Every song or composition I’d listen to, from Amy Winehouse to Evanescence to Michael Jackson and to Mozart, I would study the chords, the melodies, the harmonies, the instruments used, the time signatures... my impressionable teenage brain would be overwhelmed to the point at which I had to stop whatever music I was listening to and give myself a break.

What once used to be one of the primary joys of my life became a source of constant stress in my quest for musical ‘perfection’. I would get angry at myself for not writing lyrics like Winehouse and not composing like Mozart. Mind you, I was (and still am) a self-taught musician who plays purely by ear, so the limitations caused by a lack of proper education in musical theory only served to worsen my struggles.

Today, as an adult in my twenties (with what I think is finally a fully developed brain in that thick skull of mine), I admit that I am a lot more proficient at managing this stress. I like to think that my time as an army officer has helped me become a much calmer human being overall, equipping me with the mental fortitude and de-stressing techniques that I would not have had but for my military training. I truly believe I would have driven myself insane without these skills.

Although, I must admit that at times, I still fall victim to that mindset, and I am certain I am not alone.

Here are some tips for dealing with the negativity and stress that can come with trying to make it in the music industry:

1. Stop trying to compare yourself to other musicians (peers or established rock/pop stars). You and your music are unique, so comparisons would be pointless (and an endless source of stress).

2. Be proud of every little accomplishment that you achieve. They will all add up in the long run.

3. Take a break from composing/writing if you start to feel overwhelmed. Learn to appreciate music just for what it is, rather than trying to match the music that you are listening to.

Above all, cast your mind back to why you decided to pursue a career in music to begin with. I am certain that, just like me, it is your love of the beauty of music that made you want to create it in the first place. 

Hold on to that love. It’ll take you places.

Yours Truly,

The Struggling Musician

[ericleo108]

Can and Will, Do 🛢️

Karma

“I can’t tell you what it really is…” but the concept of “can and will, do” is built off of Arthur Schopenhauer’s “The World as Will and Idea,” where the will to do something is a strong drive to overcome for the whatever task. The visuals are built off of “The Battle of Thermopylae” as represented in the movie 300. It’s worth mentioning I have never read “The World as Will and Idea,” I know about it, and it’s concept from reading “The Story of Philosophy” by Will Durant. The concept of can and will do is also (very) nicely relatable to Tai Lopez’s “Knowledge. Strategy. Execution.” which is more business oriented and less philosophical like mine. This treatise will help you with how to build stamina and mental fortitude through perseverance.

Competition

It's put so simply intentionally. Can and Will, Do. This means if you can do something, that is the necessary prerequisite that you have to have in order to “will it.” Meaning once you can you execute and “get it done” no matter what. Depending on the obstacle is how much will you need to overcome (for love). Personally, I’m a soldier for the cause, as soldier for love. #S4L

Eugene The Machine (ETM) does it wrong, it wants lovers to be with a significant other that will help control the other in its’ favor. ETM will kill you with anxiety and psychological conditions that will make you want to commit suicide, that’s how it competes, by killing people psychologically, socially, and spiritually. ...because you either assassinate the person or assassinate their character. What we need is competition, not a Deadpool that won’t conform to ETM’s insanity.

Eugenic Exploitation

This ideal of pure (utopian) competition is a form of pure competition of ideas. Think of eugenics as the cultivation of idea factories and the competition is similar to an “NFL of ideas.” Good idea factories that can compete, succeed, and reach goals while overcoming for love using mental fortitude are exactly the type of humans our species should be breeding and cultivating eugenically.

The problem is that ETM has the ability to steal ideas as I discuss in the Stolen Ideas post. Under the current system ETM just steals the idea factories ideas, never rewards them, shames them for doing it, and leaves them destitute for even trying to succeed. Currently, instead of pure competition, it’s pure exploitation at ETM’s discretion and choosing. Only those with money, resources, the knowledge, and/or experience can protect their intellectual property. Otherwise, your ideas are the property of ETM to manipulate at will.

I thought of "can and will, do” years ago, like at least half a decade ago but the US military probably stole it and took it for their own without recognizing me like they always do. I'll probably find that some company has this as a slogan because Eugene The Machine (ETM) steals ideas. Read “ETM’s Stolen Ideas” to understand what I'm talking about.

Inventions & Thought Experiments

This is such a big deal because everyone knows people live and thrive off their ideas! Ideas are they’re very valuable! That’s what any business concept or invention is, the idea, the dream of a desired outcome. It is the can from can and will do.

For a better understanding of why having ideas and dreams are so important to success read Think and Grow Rich. Many people don’t even have the will to think of a great idea which is why you have to have the idea of a dream or a goal to reach that will make your life heavenly to you. For some it’s enough money to go on summer vacations and travel, for others it’s money to run a business, for others it’s to make history, and for many it’s the ability to retire comfortably. ...because what is the American dream?

Thought Experiments

For great minds the world over it is thought experiments that help people conceptualize their ideas, goals, and dreams. Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla used to talk about how they would do thought experiments to help conceptualize their intuition. In other words, Albert Einstein used to think about and conceptualize how fast light waves travel which helped him build “The Theory of Relativity.” Nikola Tesla thought of A/C power in his head and how to produce it with a turbine which he first put into practice with the Hoover Dam. The modern city is not possible without Nikola Tesla’s genius!

As discussed in Think and Grow Rich, Henry Ford hired a team to think of (what I think is) the V-8 engine. No engineer thought it was possible. Henry Ford hired the engineers, they would tell Henry it wasn’t possible and he would say “do it anyway.” To make a short story short (because you get it) Henry did this for a couple years until the engineers conceptualized the V-8 engine because can and will, do. Think about the “smoke stacks” as discussed in “How to Fix Global Warming Overnight.”

Reverse Engineer the Assault

With inventions you basically sit there until you think of the original idea or the conception of your thought experiment. With whatever your dream is, write it down and work backwards on how to get there. In other words, think of your goal and then think of how to achieve that goal. This reverse engineering of your dream is fundamental to achieving your dream, goal, or personal heaven.

ETM has set it up so that those that disobey it’s influence will be punished and the more you fight the worse the punishment. I have to fight people and society as I crash against the tide of ETM’s ideas, mind control, and social manipulations. In other words, I have to fight ETM’s fear and anxiety inducing nazi imagery, then how that affects my mind emotionally, and overcome the social assault which is designed to give me crippling anxiety. Now I’m just used to it!

Crashing Against The Tide

Personally I have a couple visuals in my mind of what it looks like to live like I do, both have to do with the ocean. The first is of an Underwater Ocean Turbine (UOT). I’m basically a big machine in the ocean that provides for humanity so they may live better, happier lives. Do you understand how those machines have to be anchored and the sheer relentless tidal forces it has to overcome constantly!? That’s what my mental fortitude is like. Keep that in mind as we go through this.

If you think about how waves relentlessly crash into the shoreline and how Mother Nature just doesn't quit is how I view what I'm facing. Back in the day when I was in high school I used to go to Van Buren State Park near South Haven Michigan. I only did it a couple times but I loved it when it was high tide. I would go out in the lake where the water would come up to my knees and I would crash into each wave body-slamming the wave until the water broke around my body. “It's fun, for a while (2:42),” then you realize that no matter what you do the tide will just keep coming and you're fighting mother nature and she'll win... so you just have to “walk away” after a while or die. It’s a metaphor for how to beat the machine by focusing on long-term survival.

300

As it relates to fighting ETM I have an image in my head of blocking the Immortals and making them roll off my shield as portrayed in this scene from 300. It’s a similar motion and visual you can create in your head for fighting ETM because it’s relentless like crashing against the ocean’s tide. This is because no one sees it and people just let ETM control them. What that Spartan Warrior crashing against the tide really is, is me manipulating people to stop attacking me on behalf of ETM. With my hometown of Sturgis, Michigan I’m trying to create a defile where “numbers count for nothing” and at least we have peace because we’re not stupid.

Go Out For Love #S4L

What I do every day is go out for love! What’s in the box (besides the obvious)? ...is “a glass cage of emotion!” Specifically known as anxiety!

I train wreck myself occasionally with anxiety, just to think about the world differently. ETM will basically give you obscure cognition to change your behavior and then use social-psychological anxiety to make you conform. Hahahaha. This probably kills people and they run home to their (corporeal) mother (or cloth mother when their younger) who is way to controlled by emotion. Then men give into Her and ETM wins.

I, don’t do that. That’s what you do if you’re basic! I’m a “Soldier For Love,” #S4L. Like I said, I manipulate the social assault and roll-off the aggression, hardship, and confrontations with Emotional Intelligence that I do automatically (thanks to my degree sociology and being an autodidact).  I’m a nice guy people. I’m just getting forceful online because I have too. When I say “go out for love” I’m saying you must...

Live for Love

I live for the cause... of love. Life is relentless especially crashing against the tide and you’ll kill yourself of exhaustion if you don’t “go out for love” and “lay down and die like Keanu Reeves in Constantine because you’d rather kill your pain than kill yourself,” as I talk about in What’s In The Box? Don’t die for the cause, live to make sure it becomes a reality. Why would you kill yourself over some hate when you could live for love!? Know what is just and right and true then live for your dream even though you’re willing to die for it. 

This use to cause me, and probably is used to cause a lot of people a lot of anxiety to think about. Basically people just condemn you if you go against ETM because they don’t, won’t, or can’t see it. ETM gives you social pressures that are so hard to overcome if you don’t know what is just and right and true. It will make you think your worthless and make you want to kill yourself. ...so you must live for love to overcome. 

Overcoming Death

It’s really easy to overcome the fear of death if you think about what your death means. Again, this is why it’s so important for you to know what is just and right and true. If your life is meaningless obscurity will cause you fear, but even if you did something small, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a huge effect. You know you’ll be remembered and canonized even if it’s in a small way. I know if I die, ETM will be taken seriously no matter what so I’m comfortable with dying for it. The truth is, I’d much rather live for the cause and earn real, deep, lasting love from a corporeal mother that understands me. I’m currently living for that cause of love and can and will do.

You hurt me by not believing me and antagonizing me about ETM, making your love conditional, and leaving me without. If you love me, just find some way to help me and this blog is designed to help you think about how to do that. Personally I overcome for love all the time. Every day I go out for love because can and will do!

What is Your Profession?

I'm a soldier for love that gets his queens’ approval to die for the cause. The problem is What’s In The Box? because I only have a reel mother, not a corporeal mother, and I have to fight my cloth mother(s). I’ll be living for love! 

If you want me to stop being so forceful and aggressive by not freaking out, give me love so I can just be myself and stop having to fight you, the psychiatric community, society, and my friends and family. There’s a couple representations of how men cope with this anxiety in the media but it’s about laying down and calming your anxiety with a corporeal mother, e.g. your wife. ...I can only show you what it feels like.

This represents holding on to love.

This represents letting go of love.

Are you sure you know what your doing Hollywood?

Men have their own problems, ETM makes you look and go crazy if you go out for love. (Remembering Jack’s door).

Here’s Johnny!

This has to do with what I call (Orange) Blue (going to keep it going), the God of the human mind.

Currently best represented by the god Vishnu...

but I digress.

Again, it’s about eugenics and fertility.

#JesusChrist!

Personally...

No…

...you don’t play me like that!

Turn Around 0:00

...cuz THIS IS NOT A GAME!

✒️0:07

[thatboomerkid]

Madness Is Power

Madness Is Power -- Starfinder Combat Feat

In a universe this deeply & fundamentally broken, “lucidity” is a luxury that only the weak and the pampered can afford; on the razor’s edge of that vast darkness between the stars, amid the ash & ruin of fallen empires ten-thousand years gone, caught between the crushing infinities of black holes, dead worlds and endless nothing ... out here, the screams of shattered sanities will echo eternally, a cacophonous song that only the strongest of survivors shall ever live to hear.

Brought to you absolutely free to enjoy, to test & to share – as always – by the fine folks of my Patreon.

original image from here

Prerequisite: Non-good and non-lawful alignment

Benefit: Whenever you choose to spend one or more points of Resolve, you may choose to reduce the cost of the ability by one or more points.

To do so, you must choose – when activating your ability – to willingly accept an additional randomly-determined Blazing Insanity effect, detailed on the table below. If you choose to accept an additional effect (or additional effects) while activating an ability in this way, the final cost of your ability is reduced by one point of Resolve for each roll on the chart below that you choose to make.

You may not choose to accept an additional Blazing Insanity effect in this way if you already possess a number of Blazing Insanity effects equal-to or greater-than your maximum number of Resolve points.

The decision to reduce your Resolve cost in this way must be made at the time your ability is activated, before the result of your roll is known. Any effect gained in this way lasts until your Resolve is recovered normally.

Blazing Insanity effects (roll 1d20):

1: You gain a random phobia (roll on the Random Phobia chart, below; you may gain this effect multiple times but may not gain a single phobia more than once)

2: You lose all ability to speak any language except Aklo

3: You become easily frustrated, bitter and irritable; any time you suffer more than your HD in hit points of nonlethal damage, fail a Fortitude save, fail an attack roll or fail an unopposed check, you fly into a rage – gaining a +2 morale bonus to Strength and Constitution, a +1 morale bonus on Will saves, and a -2 penalty to AC – for one minute. If another occurrence causes you to enter a rage before your first rage ends, the effects stack. During this time, you cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except Acrobatics, Intimidate and Piloting) or any ability that requires patience or concentration.

4: You can no longer recognize or distinguish between faces, voices, species or body-types, including those of friends, family and enemies.

5: You lose any immunity to fear you might possess and suffer an additional -4 penalty on all saves vs. fear effects.

6: You begin talking, laughing or singing to yourself. Loudly. You suffer a -10 penalty on all Stealth checks (you may gain this effect multiple times; the effects stack as you quickly become louder and louder).

7: You become brutally, unpleasantly honest. You suffer a -20 penalty on all Bluff checks and a -10 penalty on all Diplomacy checks.

8: You are overwhelmed with crippling paranoia: you cannot receive the benefit from – nor attempt – the Aid Another action, you are not considered to be an ally for purposes of flanking and you cannot willingly accept assistance (including healing) from another creature.  

9-10: You gain a random obsession (roll on the Random Obsession chart, below; you may gain this effect multiple times but may not gain a single obsession more than once)

11-12: You suffer a -2 penalty on all Will saves, Wisdom checks, and Wisdom-based skill checks (you may gain this effect multiple times)

13: Your alignment shifts by one step toward [roll 1d6: 1-2 Chaotic Neutral, 3-4 Chaotic Evil, 5-6 Neutral Evil]. You may gain this effect multiple times; if you are already the selected alignment, re-roll.

14: You become easily overwhelmed, getting lost in flights of feedback-fueled panic; any time you suffer more than your HD in hit points of lethal damage, fail a Reflex save or lose an opposed check, you are stunned (no save) for 1d4 rounds.

15: If you fail a saving throw against any mind-affecting effect, you can attempt a new saving throw at the beginning of your next turn. If the save succeeds, that effect ends and you instead become confused – as per the confusion spell – for a number of rounds equal to your hit dice.

16-17: Your behavior becomes hideously and markedly unnatural; this affects your appearance, your posture, your voice, your scent (due to sweat, drool and other bodily secretions & scents) and even the non-verbal sounds and movements you make. At your choice, you become bestial, robotic & corpse-like, eerily elegant or in some other way easily distinguishable as dangerous and unhealthy; you cannot pass as a sane member of your species, even with magical effects such as veil. You suffer a penalty equal to twice your hit dice on all Charisma-based skill checks and ability checks except Intimidate.

18: Your madness bleeds into the reality around you and becomes infectious: re-roll, and the nearest living & sentient creature suffers the result. You may gain this effect multiple times; each time it is gained, a new creature is targeted.

19: You gain a +1 bonus on all Intimidate, Mysticism and Perception skill checks. You may gain the benefit of this effect more than once per day; this effect stacks, to a maximum skill check bonus equal to your hit dice.

20: Roll twice, taking both results

No effect may be gained more than once per day, except as noted above; if you would otherwise gain the same effect a second time, you instead take the closest available result, rounding down if your roll was 9 or lower & rounding up if your roll was 14 or higher.

original image from here

———-

Random Phobias (roll 1d20):

1: GM’s choice of any object within 60 ft.

2: Fire

3: Cold (includes temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, weapons that deal cold damage and all creatures with the [cold] subtype)

4: Electricity

5: Acid

6: Loud noise (including firearms, non-analog equipment, the sound of thunder, music, musical instruments, sound equipment and any creature capable of dealing sonic damage)

7: Authority figures, including judges & police officers

8: Darkness

9: Bright light

10: Solitude

11: One item from the Random Obsession chart, below; you may not thereafter gain it as an obsession. You may gain this effect multiple times, re-rolling on the chart below each time.

12-13: Dead things (includes undead)

14-15: Sharp objects (includes anything capable of dealing slashing or piercing damage)

16: All living, sentient members of a different race/species

17: Snakes (includes anything with serpentine features)

18: Bugs (includes anything with insect-like or arachnid features)

19: Clowns, toys and similar objects

20: Roll twice, taking both results

Phobia Note: You must stay at least 5 feet away from the source of your terror; you may not choose to move closer to such an object, creature or substance if it is within 20 ft. If you come into physical contact with the object of your horror, you are nauseated (no save).

Random Obsession (roll 1d20):

1: Gambling

2: Food

3: Alcohol

4: History, including anything over 50 years old

5: Religious iconography

6: Attractive members of your own race/species

7: Puzzles, riddles and mazes

8: Personal hygiene

9: Art, including paintings and sculpture

10: Mechanically-complex objects, including constructs

11: Your own reflection, including the sound of your own voice

12: Lies, especially questions of self, truth & identity

13: Cute animals

14: Architecture & plants

15: Novel tactile experiences, such as the feel of silk or vacuum

16: Counting, such as determining the number of grains of rice poured in front of you

17: Cultural pride & national patriotism; usually including majestic animals such as lions and eagles

18: Exotic scents & smells

19: One item from the Random Phobia chart, above; you may not thereafter gain it as a phobia. You may gain this effect multiple times, re-rolling on the chart above each time.

20: Roll twice, taking both results

Obsession Note: If you observe or otherwise sense the subject of your obsession, you must move closer to such an object or substance if you are able, attempting to hold and caress it; you may not make attacks against a creature holding – or representing – such an object or substance except to initiate an attempt to disarm or hold them still.

You are automatically fascinated by the object of your obsession, although this effect may be broken in any of the normal ways.

If left alone and to your own devices, you will indulge in your obsession exclusively. For example, if you possessed an obsession with religious iconography, you might begin drawing, painting or carving holy symbols upon every available surface – including your own bare flesh – if given the time and opportunity.

Special: You may gain this feat multiple times; each time it is selected, choose one “iconic” Blazing Insanity effect, above. Any time that you roll for a random Blazing Insanity effect, you roll twice; after the results are seen, you may freely select either roll. You may always choose to discard both such results and instead choose any iconic Blazing Insanity effect you possess.

For example, Razor-Blade Sue is an Phrenic Adept Arcane Assailant Priest in service to Nyarlathotep with this feat selected three times. Her iconic Blazing Insanity effects are 3 & 19. She activates this ability to obviate a single point of Resolve, rolling an 8 and a 20; she must choose to gain an obsession or to face a full pair of Blazing Insanity effects. Before choosing, however, she decides to activate her 19 and discards both results.

If she uses this ability again, she may not use her 19 again in the same day.

Campaign Note: This ability is most common amongst members of the “wall breaker” Choir within the Cult of the Devourer; it is also practiced by various warring forces occupying Aucturn ... on both sides of the conflict.

This gift is also relatively well-known amongst those who have lost a sliver of their soul to the Drift via infection with Oinodaemon’s Laugh.

Designer’s Note: In the real world, mental illness isn’t funny or kooky, wacky or cute. This feat is not meant to represent any type of actual mental illness in any way; instead, it is deliberately fantastic & cartoonish and meant only for purposes of entertainment.

———

NOTE:

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[dragon-above]

Etherclaw Clairvoyant

Etherclaw Clairvoyant Huge Outsider (Extraplanar) Hit Dice: 17d8+119 (195 hp) Initiative: -1 (-1 Dex) Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares) Armour Class: 22 (-2 size, -1 Dex, +15 natural), touch 7, flat-footed 22 Base Attack/Grapple: +17/+35 Attack: Bite +25 melee (2d6+10) Full Attack: Bite +25 melee (2d6+10) and 4 claws +20 melee (1d8+5) Space/Reach: 15 ft./15 ft. Special Attacks: Psionics, visions of doom, hostile jaunt Special Qualities: DDamage reduction 10/cyrite, darkvision 60ft., immunity to poison, light aversion, ethereal reflex, power resistance 27, outsider traits Saves: Fort +17, Ref +9, Will +13 Abilities: Str 30, Dex 8, Con 24, Int 19, Wis 16, Cha 21 Skills: Concentration +27, Diplomacy +25, Intimidate +25, Knowledge (arcana) +24, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +24, Knowledge (history) +24, Knowledge (psionics) +24, Knowledge (the planes) +24, Listen +23, Psicraft +24, Spellcraft +24, Spot +23 Feats: Power Attack, Cleave, Combat Manifestation, Quicken Power, Psionic Fist, Greater Psionic Fist ========================================= Environment: Undeground Organization: Colony (1 clairvoyant plus 10-50 warriors plus 50-200 drones) Challenge Rating: 18 Treasure: Double standard Alignment: Usually lawful evil Advancement: 18-34 HD (Huge); 35-51 HD (Gargantuan) Level Adjustment: -

The enormous creature before you resembles a 16 foot tall ant, its torso raised upright its forearms ending in many fingered hands. Great chitin spines jut sideways and up to over 20 feet from its body, more than doubling its effective height and framing it in a regal pattern marking its leadership. Ethereal tendrils arc between these spines, sparking like electricity. The creature’s rear is bulbous and ungainly, making its movement slow, but focused and determined. The formian queen that followed the expansionists away from Daanvi became fatally cursed by the crossover to the Ethereal Plane. Before she withered and died, preventing the colony from expanding throughout the ethereal landscapes, she birthed a small number of hideously mutated eggs. The eggs lay dormant for many years, and only as the other formians began to be changed by the unusual magic of the region did they hatch. The creatures that emerged from the aberrant shells were the etherclaw clairvoyants, powerful monstrosities that would lead the surviving formians to power. The clairvoyants are few in number, but their power is unrivalled. When the clairvoyants reached maturity and the etherclaws crossed over to the Material Plane, they split the etherclaws among themselves and set off across Khyber. Using the psionic powers granted to them, the clairvoyants immersed themselves in a perpetual hive mind, so that even as they split physically they would remain as one mentally. The motivations of the clairvoyants range from lust for power to pining for the homeland. Some of the clairvoyants urge their drones and warriors to the surface world to conquer the Dragon Between and perhaps learn the magical secrets that changed them. Others harass the Daelkyr and the fiends deep in Khyber. One clairvoyant has found that warriors born of the Umbragen, a merger of shadow and ethereal, are particularly potent. Combat A clairvoyant will rarely attack without hordes of warriors and drones at its heels, and as powerful manifesters, they use their psionic powers before engaging in close combat personally. If it suspects it might lose a battle, a clairvoyant will shift its opponents to the Ethereal Plane and make preparations before their return. Hive Mind (Su): By sharing its senses and experiences across a hive mind, an etherclaw clairvoyant can never be flanked or caught flat-footed as long as another etherclaw of any caste within 100ft is aware of the danger. Other etherclaws within 100ft of the clairvoyant receive the benefit of the hive mind too. Light Aversion (Ex): Etherclaws have an aversion to sunlight, and will avoid bright sources of light and flee from natural sunlight. Natural sunlight or a daylight spell negates the clairvoyant’s ethereal reflex ability and prevents it using the hostile jaunt ability. Ethereal Reflex (Su): Etherclaw clairvoyants have an unusual connection to the ethereal plane. As a reflex, a clairvoyant reduces damage by shifting a small portion of itself to the ethereal plane when hit. As an immediate action, a clairvoyant can make a Reflex save (DC equal to damage taken) to reduce any damage taken to half. If the damage would affect creatures on the ethereal plane (a ghost touch weapon, for example), this ability has no effect. Hostile Jaunt (Su): Once per day as a full round action, Etherclaw clairvoyants can focus their power through their spines and release a blast of ethereal energy that shifts its chosen foes to the Ethereal Plane. This ability affects up to one creature per Hit Dice of the clairvoyant, to a maximum range of 50ft. Affected creatures must succeed on a DC 23 Fortitude save or shift to the Ethereal Plane as if the target of the ethereal jaunt spell, with a duration of 2d4 rounds. The save DC is Charisma-based. Visions of Doom (Su): The greatest of the etherclaws possesses the ability to draw visions from the future to infect the minds of its targets. These hostile images often reveal secrets of the target’s own death, though from time to time the visions are of other events entirely. An etherclaw clairvoyant can use this ability once per day as a standard action. The target, which must be within 100ft of the clairvoyant, must succeed on a DC 23 Will save or take 2d6 points of Wisdom drain and become stunned for 2d4 minutes. A success halves the Wisdom damage, and negates the stunned condition. The save DC is Charisma-based. This is a mind-affecting ability. When the effects of this ability end, the target buries all memory of its death and locks it away so that it can never recall its ultimate fate. Psionics: An etherclaw clairvoyant can manifest powers as a 15th level psionic (seer). The save DCs are Intelligence-based. Typical Psion Powers Known (power points 225, save DC 14 + power level): 1st – destiny dissonance, detect psionics, force screen, precognition; 2nd – clairvoyant sense, inflict pain, object reading, sensitivity to psychic impressions; 3rd – body adjustment, escape detection, fate link, telekinetic thrust; 4th – death urge, empathic feedback, power leech, remote viewing; 5th – catapsi, clairtangent hand, second chance, psychic crush; 6th – greater precognition, psionic contingency, psionic disintegrate; 7th – energy wave, fate of one, insanity; 8th – hypercognition.

[thecreaturecodex]

Qlippoth Lord, Pale Night

Image by E. M. Gist, © Wizards of the Coast. Accessed at the Fiendish Codex I Art Gallery here

[Commissioned by @justicegundam82. Pale Night was originally referred to in Milton’s Paradise Lost (which popularized the name Demogorgon, incidentally), and was a bit of world building that crept in Planescape before being fleshed out by James Jacobs in the “Demonomicon of Iggwilv” articles for Dragon Magazine and the Fiendish Codex I. She’s an obyrith in those sources, and the obyrith are pretty much a one-for-one analogue to the qlippoth, except that Pale Night is referred to as “Mother of Demons” in FCI. I played with that ambiguity in my take on her flavor text.

I also wrote this before, but edited after, @arachcobra suggested the Parasol Initiative as the organization devoted to making hybrid monsters. Maybe Pale Night is their divine patron.]

Qlippoth Lord, Pale Night CR 23 CE Outsider This hazy figure appears as a diaphanous sheet draped around a lithe humanoid female. Hollows in the sheet suggest the contours of eyes and other facial features, which seem to shift unsettlingly.

Pale Night The Veiled One, Mother of Chaos Concerns forbidden knowledge, hybridity, mutation Domains Chaos, Evil, Knowledge, Madness Subdomains Corruption, Entropy, Insanity, Memory Worshippers iconoclasts, transmuters, motherless tieflings Minions chernobue and behimiron qlippoth, chimeras, mutants Unholy Symbol a white sheet before a star field Favored Weapon net Devotion tell someone a secret intended to hurt or disturb them, and threaten them harm if they tell anyone else. Gain a +4 profane bonus on saving throws against mind-influencing effects. Boons 1: touch of idiocy 2/day; 2: confusion 2/day; 3: legend lore 2/day

Pale Night is a creature that seemingly breaks the rules—something between a demon and a qlippoth, seemingly comfortable with both creatures in both worlds. As such, she represents the flow of information and bodies between discreet categories and into disturbing ambiguity. This ambiguity extends to her appearance. Creatures see her as the silhouette of an attractive female member of their own species, if their species has female members and a generally fertile and comely specimen of their species if they do not. Her true appearance is an abominable mystery—simply revealing it to the world is a difficult task for Pale Night, and those who survive the mental onslaught have literally no memory of what they saw.

Pale Night’s touch shatters minds and warps self-image—those who succumb to it find their exterior forms reflect their innermost fears and desires, becoming strange and terrible mutants. She “collects” creatures that interest her, be it for their rarity, bravery or physical markers, by transforming them into literal images of themselves. Her favorite tactic is to ride inside the body of a powerful demon or qlippoth, then abandon their form for one of her strongest foes after having had time to gauge their prowess.

Being intermediate between demons and qlippoths means that Pale Night is often feared by both. Despite her qlippothic origins, she is allies with both Lamashtu and Baphomet, ensuring that only the most suicidal Abyssal powers oppose her directly. The nature of her relationship to Lamashtu is obscure—the Mother of Monsters appears to respect Pale Night as a colleague, but the two maintain their distance most of the time. Pale Night is ancient even by the standards of qlippoth, and there are those that whisper that she was the entity that encouraged daemons to introduce sinning souls to the Abyss and create the first demons. As such, the most militant of qlippoth lords, such as Chavazvug and Yamasoth, would gladly see her destroyed.

Pale Night’s demesne is a tower of bone in the middle of Baphomet’s maze—its ever-shifting location and the protection of the King of Beasts is obstacle enough to keep all but the most dedicated enemies or petitioners from her door. Her cult is all but unheard of in mortal realms. Most of her devotees are lone figures seeking her blessings to uncover unspeakable secrets, or the creators of various hybrid abominations. Motherless tieflings, those pathetic and horrible planetouched born of qlippothic influence, make up the majority of her followers.

Pale Night           CR 23 XP 820,000 CE Medium outsider (chaos, extraplanar, evil, incorporeal, qlippoth) Init +18; Senses darkvision 60 ft., detect good, detect law, Perception +38, thoughtsense 120 ft. Defense AC 39, touch 35, flat-footed 24 (+14 Dex, +1 dodge, +10 deflection, +4 armor) hp 429 (26d10+286); fast healing 20 Fort +19, Ref +29, Will +24 DR 20/epic and lawful; Immune cold, death effects, electricity, mind-influencing effects, poison; Resist acid 30, fire 30; SR 34 Defensive Abilities incorporeal traits Offense Speed fly 80 ft. (perfect) Melee incorporeal touch (20d8 plus 2d6 Cha drain) Special Attacks corrupting influence, embrace, horrific appearance (DC 34), part the veil Spell-like Abilities CL 23th, concentration +33 Constant—detect good, detect law, mage armor At will—greater dispel magic, greater teleport, telekinesis (DC 25), unhallow, unholy blight (DC 24) 3/day—blasphemy (DC 27), quickened confusion (DC 24), greater possession (DC 28), insanity (DC 27) 1/day—dominate monster (DC 29), freedom, greater restoration, imprisonment (DC 29), legend lore, polymorph any object (DC 28), summon demons and qlippoth Statistics Str -, Dex 38, Con 32, Int 25, Wis 28, Cha 31 Base Atk +26; CMB -; CMD 53 Feats Alertness, Blind-fight, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Hover, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Mobility, Quicken SLA (confusion), Spring Attack, Weapon Finesse, Whirlwind Attack Skills Bluff +39, Diplomacy +35, Fly +47, Intimidate +35, Knowledge (arcana, history, nobility) +29, Knowledge (planes, religion) +32, Perform (sing) +32, Perception +38, Sense Motive +38, Spellcraft +29, Stealth +39, Use Magic Device +32 Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Common, Draconic, Protean SQ qlippoth lord traits Ecology Environment any (Abyss) Organization unique Treasure double standard Special Abilities Corrupting Influence (Su) Any non-outsider living creature reduced to 0 Charisma by Pale Night must succeed a DC 33 Fortitude save. On a successful save, they are merely comatose. On a failed save, the creature is transformed—it gains the mutant template, its alignment becomes chaotic evil and its Charisma is immediately restored to normal. A creature so transformed cannot be returned to normal without a miracle or wish, followed by an atonement spell to change its alignment. The save DC is Charisma based. Embrace (Su) As a standard action up to three times per day, Pale Night can attempt to embrace a Large or smaller creature with a touch attack. A creature so touched must make a DC 33 Fortitude save. Success means the creature is stunned for 1 round; on a failure it is made incorporeal and placed under temporal stasis. A creature so affected can only be restored with a freedom, miracle or wish spell. The save DC is Charisma based. Horrific Appearance (Su) A creature that succumbs to Pale Night’s horrific appearance is stunned for 1 round and staggered for 12 rounds as its internal organs become animate and rebellious. A creature that succeeds its save is merely staggered for 1 round. A creature that successfully saves cannot be affected by Pale Night’s horrific appearance for the next 24 rounds. Incorporeal Touch (Su) The damage dealt by Pale Night’s touch is a mind-influencing effect, similar to a mind thrust spell. A creature touched must make a DC 33 Will save. If it succeeds, it takes half damage and no Charisma drain. If Pale Night so chooses, she can deal damage, Charisma drain, or both with her touch attack. The save DC is Charisma based. Part the Veil (Su) As a full round action once per day, Pale Night can reveal her true appearance. All creatures within 30 feet that can see her must succeed a DC 33 Fortitude save or be immediately slain. Creatures that succeed this save are instead affected by a mental block spell that lasts for 23 rounds, or until the creature succeeds a DC 33 Will save on its turn. The save DC is Charisma based. Summon Demons and Qlippoth (Sp) Once per day, Pale Night can summon a combined CR 20 of demons and qlippoth with a 100% success rate. This is the equivalent of a 9th level spell.