#npc: boggle

[maydaymadier]

The Docks and The Return (session 8)

Welcome back to the Merano campaign!  All character names are in bold, spells are in italics.  Party members are tagged “merano: [character name]”.  Locations visited (cities, specific establishments) are tagged “location: [NAME]”.  Important npcs are tagged "npc: name." All posts for this campaign are tagged “campaign: merano”.

INTRODUCTION:

The party splits up, Marasmius leaving to go relax for a bit. Calypso, Delphie, and Hugo start looking around for jobs and find a job board with several gigs listed. They end up following up on two. First helping a woman in the Doors with some griffons in her garden. Then heading North to the Upstream district to get a gig as musicians for the opening ceremony of the Radiant Festival. And have a run-in with someone from Hugo's past. Before the day is over, they find a place to stay while they're in town and drown out the unpleasant encounter by having Calypso teach them how to tie knots so they'll be prepared to try and get the gig at the docks tomorrow.

IT IS MORNING AT THE RUSTY BLADE

The next day, the three of them make their way back to Upstream, the Skytouch Port specifically.  They still have some time before the bard gig and the festival, so they’re gonna try and make some money.

Calypso makes sure to pick up their axe before leaving the Clouds.

It’s pretty easy to find the guy they’re supposed to talk to, there’s a long line of people waiting to talk to Constantine Ocea.  Long enough that it takes twenty minutes for the three of them to get to the front of the line.

This Constantine person is dressed in a similar uniform to the captain of the Ceretal’s Fang but dressed down for the heat, more importantly, he bears a shocking resemblance to Calypso.  Same build, same hair, same coloration (though not as muscular or tall).

He’s obviously nervous and ends up sending the three of them to the Singing Port on the other side of the district and to just tell them that he sent them.

Hugo guesses that the two of them must be related, not that any of them have any way of knowing.

As they double back to go to the Singing Port, the three keep an open ear for any rumors flying about.  The word on the street seems to be that there’s a wedding coming up, one of the noble families, not sure who.  But if it’s true, this’ll be a large, sprawling event that becomes a public festival.

The two names they keep hearing are Yildirim and Cortese.

The manager at the Singing Port briefs everyone that they need the docks cleared in the next two hours, it needs to be EMPTY, that includes the workers.

Calypso is directed to a larger ship on the far end of the dock for more heavy lifting.  Delphie and Hugo are paired off for helping unload a nearby ship with more delicate cargo.

Calypso blends right in and starts unloading cargo no problem.  Delphie and Hugo are keeping an eye out for anything arcane as they work.  Delphie finds a box of gold rods that shine with conjuration magic.

Hugo catches a falling box, small, about the size of a shoebox, and he catches it gently with a soft clink as it lands in his hand.  He opens it to get a peak at what it is, it’s a box of star rubies.  When he shows Delphie she recognizes them as being used for spell storing.

Calypso tries to keep an eye out for anything suspicious but only sees decorations for the festival.

Back on the other ship, Hugo tries to pocket one of the gems but gets caught, another sailor shouting him down, snatching the box from him, and marching away.

The two hours pass, and everything is cleared out, the ships leaving as well as the people.  Hugo and Delphie go to catch up with Calypso.

Calypso asks around, trying to find out why the dock needs to be empty.  An annoyed sailor explains that one of the noble families paid out the ass to clear out the port so that they could bring someone in to Keystone Island by water.

They’re suspicious that the Virastis are behind this.

The three of them meet back up and decide this is too suspicious, they should try and snoop.

So Delphie casts Invisibility on herself and Calypso.  Hugo decides to go hide in a box.  However, the only box he can find is next to the Gatekeeper Box, where the controls for the gates to the lake are, and the only person still in the port.

Hugo utterly fails at any attempt to be stealthy but the goddesses must be smiling at him because the people in the Box are too enraptured in an argument about a show they saw at the local community theater.

A small, ornate ship, decorated in green and gold, rows itself down the river.  A sheer-canopied tent obscures a slumped over figure behind it.  Whoever it is seems to be alive, but unconscious.

The gates swing open, with a heavy slosh as they push through the water, and clank shut behind the ship as it enter the lake.

They all wait for another minute or two to regroup.  But immediately come to the conclusion that whoever was on that boat is going to be an ‘unwilling participant’ in that wedding.

When they go back to the Skytouch Port to get paid, Constantine starts to ask Calypso a question that sounds like it should be ‘how old are you?’ but he can’t get himself to ask it, gives them their money, and sends them off.  Everyone is very confused though.

Deciding what to do next, well, they decide fuck the bard gig, they’ll go follow up on that posting for the guard job.

Hugo Sendings Renon, to quit and mentions that he told Agatha where he is.  The reply: “You could have just killed me yourself.”

The Ozdemir Watchtower is also in Upstream so they’re headed that way.  When they get there and ask around about the job, they’re redirected to the workshop of a halfling man named Argo, who’s working on tuning up a clockwork robot when they come in.

He’s willing to hire on all three of them but needs some convincing that they can all hold their own in a fight.

Hugo sticks his foot in his mouth, mentioning fighting the Storm Warden but correcting himself and insisting no, that he’s strong enough that he could fight a Storm Warden.

Delphie does a little demonstration with Magic Missile, Calypso finds a plank of wood to hold up as a target for her.  She pulls it off with enough precision that it does push them back five feet, but they don’t take any damage.

Argo makes sure they’re okay with the travel and let them know to be at the Stonehome Fortress at 7pm, they’ll be there until the guards change off at midnight.

They ask if he thinks they’ll have time to help with the hippocampi they heard about and are told, “they’re large and stupid” instead of an outright no.

So all three head back to the Clouds and decide to do something fun and touristy.  This district is very eclectic and a major cultural center so they stumble their way into an art gallery, with plans to go axe throwing tomorrow.

This one, in particular, is a show of mosaics made out of salvaged materials, cool in theory, sloppy in execution, and the three of them clown on the artist mercilessly.

Before they have to arrive at Stonehome, they stop back at The Rusty Blade to check on their stuff.

When they get there, they notice the goblin and dwarf from earlier with a water genasi and they are having a hushed argument in the common area on the first floor.  While eavesdropping, Hugo notices the name Tobias and Delphie hears a little more, that they’re arguing about this Tobias.

Hugo approaches them and the genasi is not interested in talking but the goblin is fed up with his companion and squeals, explaining that he’s Boggle, the dwarf is Urist, and the genasi is Hippor but there’s one more of them, Tobias, he went to go follow up on a job with the Families, that was two days ago and he still hasn’t come back yet.  That he most likely went to Keystone Island.

The party’s concerned and promise to keep an eye out for him once they get a description.  That Tobias is a halfling, in plate mail, he’s a paladin, with curly brown hair and mismatched eyes.

They grab a bite to eat before they leave the district and as they’re traveling, they notice the Merchant’s Guild Hall from across the lake, a grand, domed building, flying pennants in the black and gold of the guild.

Upon taking the bridge to Keystone Island, there are seven sprawling mansions arranged in a circle, the circular green space in the middle is well-maintained and neat.  This area is being set up as event space.

Once they find Stonehome Fortress, it turns out to be the Virasti family home.

The three of them are split up and posted in different wings of the fortress.

Calypso is assigned to the front entrance.

Delphie is posted in the east wing.

Hugo is sent to the south wing.

Calypso starts up a conversation with one of the staff guards.  They find out that the permanent staff are getting underpaid and overworked, especially in comparison to the urgent temp hires.  In fact, there’s even some talk about striking.  Especially with the festival coming up they’ll have leverage.  Calypso is hands-down in full support of the idea.

Delphie immediately notices that this hall is filled with enough magical items and cast spells that she can more or less see, though she is alone in the hallway.  Until she hears something activate in the room across from her and the Storm Warden comes out, looking frazzled and in a rush, clearly looking for someone/something, holding the book she left behind in Dire.

The south wing is some kind of large greenhouse with a dining area.  There’s another guard there too, but isn’t interested in talking when Hugo tries.  Kitchen staff are setting up the table.

Hugo inserts himself into the conversation the kitchen staff are having.  They’re complaining about being asked to make another place setting at the last minute.  They’re not even being paid overtime.

Hugo casually suggests that she should quit if they’re treating her so badly.  He’s so casual and sensible about it that she does, she quits right on the spot and leaves.

Calypso sees the Storm Warden marching out, heading across the green to meet with a man whose hair is half cloud, the two of them immediately start arguing.  They ask the guard they’d been talking to who the cloud man is.

The guard is also confused, because that’s Lord Tuono, the Storm Warden, Crescenzo, works for him and the Tuonos and the Virastis are good friends, visiting each other pretty often.  Before the shift wraps up, Calypso notices a blip in the sky for a second.

Delphie sees nothing else of notice in the hall before the shift ends.

Hugo sees a woman enter, she walks with an air of authority, finely dressed, with solid amber eyes, hair that turns into wheat, and she has a marble staff, the top carved into a motif of clouds.

The three of them exchange all of the information they’ve learned once they meet back up with each other.

Skipping ahead to the following afternoon, the party returns to Keystone Island for their next shift, as crowd control for the opening ceremonies of the Radiant Festival.

The musicians are warming up and a certain someone is conspicuously absent.

There’s a dias in the center of the green space, the three of them need to be in front, maintaining the distance between the crowd and the stage.

About an hour before the ceremony is set to start, a group of Storm Wardens and druids arrive on the island.  They step up onto the dias, the wardens forming a circle along the outer edge and the druids begin what looks like a color guard routine.

Ending with all of them pounding their staffs into the dias simultaneously, conjuring a massive updraft of wind that clears all of the clouds out of the sky.

Calypso is keeping an eye out for the guard they were talking to last night but can’t find them in the crowd.

Hoever Calypso does notice someone who fits Tobias’ description.  They go to talk to him and tell him that his friends are looking for him.  But he’s never heard of his friends, his name is Tobias but he doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

Delphie checks out the situation and can see that something was cast on him but can’t tell what or how recently.

Visitors start coming in, so they have to go back to their posts.

At the start of the ceremony, seven chairs are brought out for each of the heads of the seven families.

One of them, a middle-aged man with hair that turns into ginkgo leaves, in crisp green robes stands and approaches the gathered crowd, this is Lord Virasti.

He begins a speech, which starts as follows:

Welcome, welcome, people of Feolinn!  It is that time once again!  The goddesses have reached out to each other across the universe and are finally within reach!  This will be one for the histories!  It has been a bountiful year for our amazing city and we will only become a brighter beacon of excellence as time wears on.  I would like to thank the guilds for their help in arranging the festivities, our seven families for their commitment to this tradition, the Temple of Storms for their tireless efforts throughout the city, the Circle of The Stars who ensure that all of us can always see this stunning gift, and most importantly, the citizens of Feolinn!  Tonight is the first of three amazing nights and I expect you all to enjoy them to the fullest.  I will not keep you here long.  But I do have one announcement to make, in conjunction with the Radiant Festival.  Cybele, Cesare, will you both please join me?

Two people join him on the stage, coming down from the nobility seating behind on the dias.  The same woman Hugo saw the night before, though now they know her name is Cybele, carrying the same staff with her.  The second person has long, light brown hair that turns into vines, solid jade green eyes,in a crisp black and gold ensemble, gazing out into the crowd with a thousand-yard stare.

And continues: I would like to announce a day that I will hold close to my heart.  My eldest daughter, Cybele is to be wed to this dashing young man.  We are eager for you to join our family, Cesare.  The wedding will coincide with the final night of the festival, and our celebration will keep yours going for a few days more!  The city of Feolinn is invited to celebrate this momentous occasion with us.  With that…let the festivities begin!

Once the last scrap of sunset has succumbed to the night sky.  It erupts into a dancing, dazzling light show, the Radiant Storm has begun.  Fireworks zip into the sky, the crowd on the island and watching from the shores of the lake erupt into celebration.

[bogglesgate]

On a funnier note, something I like to do is imagine an AU set in Baldur's Gate when Yllis is still in her villain era except it's a WWDITS-style dark comedy. I want to see her try to rob Astarion's grave and get pissed off when she finds it empty.

[pixel-bloom]

To be honest, Dakota has been grinding away for a while. She’s focusing on her career/skills and less on the relationship aspect of her life. Sounds familiar...

[abimee]

thinking about teenagers playering ff14 makes me ? in a way i cant describe. the idea of coming home from highschool to tank a dungeon just feels off. thats something you do in wow meanwhile all ff14 players pop up at the ages of 25-50 fully formed and ready to raid

[bogglebabbles]

After coming from a fandom in which everyone talks about their OCs with such ardour and affection, it's weird to ease into one where people seem so much more hesitant to talk about them despite their existence and development being one of the major aspects of the game.

I want character sheets y'all. I want references. I wanna know their relationships to the NPCs. I wanna know why you picked such and such a design choice, why they are where they are and why they do what they do. We're playing in the sandbox and I'm asking your dolly's name.

[tingtangtone]

When...u win the game by seducing the narrator who was pissed at you? I guess????

[raguonmynieceandnephew]

"It's so unfair to the Rat Grinders that they are killed instantly and the Bad Kids get to roll death saves." SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUP

THIS IS LONG, AND HONESTLY FOR MYSELF, SO YEAH READ IF YOU WANT

I swear to god, this discourse is going to fucking be the end of me. Idk what kind of mind boggling spell Brennan Lee Mulligan wove into the fabric of the universe that spread through the data center of Dropout in order to absolutely hijack y'all's brains when it comes to Cocklord Assgape and her ragtag of character foils but whatever it was has made you Rat Grinder stans INSUFFERABLE in this site.

The levels of treating fictional characters as if they were real people have reached a level I honestly have never anticipated, to the point of y'all actually being mad AT THE CAST for "mistreating" them and ACTUALLY QUESTION BRENNAN'S CAPACITY TO DM. Do you not get how fucking insane that is?

We can't make fun of Copperkettle, one of the most pathetic, petty and incompetent villains in D20 history anymore (even though she is masterfully written and developed to generate this reaction from us) anymore because it's bullying apparently. I saw an account flip the fuck out because someone compared her rivalry with Kristen to Drake and Kendrick's beef. KIPPERLILY IS NOT A REAL GIRL. SHE IS A MAKE BELIEVE CHARACTER IN AN IMPROV SHOW SPAWNED FROM THE BRAIN OF A 36 YEAR OLD MAN

And then what truly pissed me off the MOST about this whole hell is the fact that, being chronically online avid consumers of this goddamn show, I would think you would have but a grasp of the main cast of characters' characterization.

Why the uproar about Riz saying they should chop Oisin's head off? The same Riz who tortured that pixie from Freshman year by shooting off their finger one by one? The same Riz who murked a disarmed and unconscious Coach Daybreak without battin an eye? The same Riz who ATE THE CORPSE OF KALVAXUS?

And the whole Fabian vs Ivy debacle MY GOD, THE GIRL WAS RACIST TO HIS GIRLFRIEND AND USED HER LAST BREATH TO CALL MAZEY "OBJECTIVELY UGLY". And the funniest thing is that is not even the most unhinged shit he has ever said.

And finally, Death Save Gate: THE RAT GRINDERS ARE NOT PLAYER CHARACTERS. THEY ARE NPCS! THE RULES FOR EACH WORK DIFFERENTLY, ESPECIALLY THEM BEING BOSS ENCOUNTERS. Imagine having to still hit Ivy or Oisin 2 more times to kill them when there is 14 foot tall Porter throwing legendary actions left and right, with Jace, and other 3 spell casters + Mary Ann and KLCK up and running. It's called balancing the fucking game. Also, game masters are entitled to break, mold and make up any rules they want if they find necessary in order to service themselves and their players. IF YOU PLAY WITH ALL THESE RULES AS THEY COME, GOOD FOR YOU AND YOUR TABLE. THIS IS NOT YOUR TABLE.

Not only is Brennan DMing for his CLOSEST FRIENDS EVER, he is also shooting and producing an ENTIRE TV SHOW. So yeah, i think he knows wtf he is doing.

"But the Ratgrinders had no real development": True. But it wasn't for lack of trying from the players. Everytime they tried to know more, the dice didn't let them, so they decided to focus on the mystery. It simply do be like that sometimes.

"But they are just kids!": And so were Penelope, Dayne, Ragh, Zayn, the Bloodrush Players, Aelwyn and Biz. Why wasn't it a problem then? Because most of them were evil to some extent and were about to bring the fucking apocalypse to the world? Yeah, sounds familiar right? And the ones who were manipulated or had any sort of redemption worked their way into earning it, right? Yeah.

In conclusion, I fucking love the Rat Grinders, I truly do, and not unlike 90% of this website, i'm still holding on to hope that they have any sort of development and redemption in the last episode, because I agree, they ARE children and they WERE manipulated by Porter and Jace, but like, can we also agree that they are fucking assholes and had it fucking coming? Also, the BKs are children too y'know. SO STOP BEING FUCKING ANNOYING.

[maximumzombiecreator]

Seeing your post about improv theatre vs. D&D culture and the amount of skill in "humility, vulnerability, and ability to share the spotlight" that improv theatre requires. And realizing that every single good ttrpg I've played over the years had a table full of people that had that skill. I have a post about it half-written, but I'm still boggling over the idea that there are so many people coming from the D&D side that have so much contempt for the other players. (And the GM is a player, from that perspective, IMO.)

It can be contempt, and certainly sometimes it is. I think most of the time it's fear. Despite what tumblr may have told you, cringe culture is not dead, and the fear of being cringe has a deep hold on a lot of players. It has a deep hold on the culture in general, just look at the profusion of bathos in mainstream movies. For whatever reason, we treat sarcasm, detachment, and cynicism as neutral, and so they create a great suit of armour against being cringe.

Improv is exposure therapy for being cringe. There's just no way to get into improv theatre without being deeply embarrassing so many times that you learn to deal with it. But TTRPGs have a lot of opportunities to hide from embarrassment. To some extent, that's why some groups are playing TTRPGs at all. The rules provide protection. They're not playing pretend, they're playing a game which is normal and socially acceptable.

So you end up with players who are constantly protecting themselves. They make a character whose personality is a one note joke or pun. They refuse to learn NPC names and give them snarky nicknames. They constantly undercut the tone of the scene with quips and jokes. They mistreat NPCs to show that they don't actually imagine them as people. Anything to signal to the table that they're not taking this seriously, that would be cringe.

This is mostly stuff I try to talk to my players about in session zero. One thing I always say when I'm GMing is that I am committed to being the most cringe person at the table. I will not be outcringed. And I do this because I am a profoundly ridiculous person, but also because it carves out space for the players to be cringe too. And once people are comfortable enough at the table, secure enough that they won't be judged, often they can learn how great it can be to roleplay with that humility and vulnerability. Other times they'll quit the table and talk to their friends about how cringe I am for my full commitment to the inner life of a sapient hedge.

Either is fine with me.

[valle-de-sombra-de-muerte]

Homestuck Reread: Act 4, Part 4/4 (p. 1865-1988)

Read the previous post here.

Oh boy it's the final stretch for this Act. I want to take a moment to express my appreciation for all the new followers I've gained over the course of this reread. I have 60 now, which is incredible. Thank you all!

With that said, this post will contain some... sticky subject matter. I wonder how many of you will choose to dip after this.

[CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of incest starts below the second image]

Oh my fuck it's the ectobiology section. Out of all the convoluted and frivolous mechanics in Homestuck, this one might be the worst in my opinion. Worse than the adventure game jokes cribbed from Problem Sleuth, worse than the punch card alchemy and other ponderous Sburb mechanics... I'd say it's worse than the time travel shit, but this is actually more of a subset of that. So yeah, time travel continues to be the worst thing about Homestuck, and shit like this and the bunny subplot are prime examples of that. But my ire is fully directed at ectobiology at this moment.

The stuff I mentioned before at least has a purpose; they parody needlessly complicated video game mechanics. But ectobiology doesn't have a purpose. It's not funny, nor does it serve the story in a meaningful or even interesting way. So why does it exist? Is it to drive home the point that these select individuals are the "chosen ones" by Sburb? If I had to hazard a guess what Hussie meant by that...

Earth is a vile place and must be destroyed, so sayeth Sburb. Everything living on it is flawed by extension, so its chosen destroyers must be fully disconnected human society and the planet itself. These destroyers have been plucked from the aether and reconstituted from bullshit plot slime in a faraway part of time and space, ensuring that they are unquestionably divorced from anything from Earth, and therefore pure.

Now that I type all that out, it's no wonder none of the kids were all that shaken up about bringing about the apocalypse. Considering that they're essentially game constructs with no actual ties to humanity, it really throws away any sort of conflict and sense of sacrifice brought about by destroying the planet. All the innocents who perished in the meteor showers? Eh, fuck them! They were all NPCs anyway. All hail the slime people!

Okay, I'm sure this wasn't Hussie's actual intent, but if there's no grander symbolism at play, what else is there? None of this adds anything to the plot. The fact that the main cast are non-humans is never touched upon and the whole thing reads as superfluous sci-fi garbage. The only significance the meteors carrying the babies had was that John's Nanna died from a meteor strike. But it was already suggested way earlier that she died because she was crushed by the Colonel Sassacre book.

That was a perfectly serviceable, slightly comedic death befitting of a family of jokesters. There's no need to escalate it and involve a giant meteor.

One other thing I take umbrage with: because the cast were all birthed from the same slurry, this means that Dave and Rose are now """related""". They aren't related by blood, no, but by slime. Which, in the eyes of Hussie and the fandom at large, means the same thing, I guess. Even though they never grew up as siblings, lived separate lives in different parts of the country, and only met online as strangers before developing a (very flirtatiously charged) friendship, the fandom treats them as if they're flesh and blood brother and sister. It boggles my mind. Why is this being treated as legitimate? Did Hussie plan all along to take the two characters with the best chemistry only to pull a Luke and Leia on us? Why would he write them like that if this was his endgame? Does he just have an incest fetish?

I wouldn't doubt it because themes of incest are actually quite pervasive within Homestuck. And that's without even mentioning how Hussie developed an alien race that fundamentally relies on incest to reproduce. Ectobiology creates several relationships, incidental or otherwise, that tie nearly the entire main cast in a complicated web of pseudo-familial dynamics. Like John is actually the kids' progenitor/father because he's the one who brought them all into existence. So even if he isn't related to Rose or Dave by genes or slime, he still gave birth to them in a sense.

I've even seen people say that since Betty Crocker/The Condesce was Nanna's adopted mother, that makes the Egbert/Crocker/Harley/English family tree "related" to the Peixes trolls, so any ship with that combination is "incest." What if I told you that Feferi is related to all the other trolls via bullshit slime mechanics as well? I guess that makes Johnkat incest too. And if John is Dave's father... gasp! Davekat is also incest!? It's over folks, burn everything down.

Anyway, I don't acknowledge Rose and Dave as biological siblings because I don't treat being born from a vat of slime as the same as being birthed from the same womb. That would be treating ectobiology as valid and sensible, which I refuse to do. I don't want to lend Hussie's fixation on incest any amount of approval. All I know is that the trolls are made of the same stupid plot sludge and nobody cares if you ship them. There are no humans and trolls: only slime constructs. Either everyone is related or none of them are. You can't have both.

In the end, none of this matters. The world would be a much happier place if we all collectively agreed to forget ectobiology's existence. If this ruffles your feathers, just block me. Don't come at me because I'll just ignore you.

So Grandpa Harley had time-traveled forward to the future and into Sburb before returning to the past, living out his life on Earth, and dying. Fucking okay I guess!

At least this answers the question I had that yes, Mom Lalonde knew what she was doing before entering the game because Grandpa told her everything. Same with Bro and Dad, it seems.

Ah yes, Dad x Mom. A relationship that ends nearly as soon as it begins. Let's put this right alongside the Exile love triangle and DaveTav in the "relationships that are teased but never manifest into anything meaningful" pile.

"Ackshually, everyone was born from a vat of slime on a distant meteor and sent back to Earth to live out their lives!" - the ramblings of an utter lunatic.

Like god fucking forbid the kids be normal people placed in extraordinary circumstances.

The babies all gravitate to the things they'll have a connection to in the future. Nanna gets her son's hat, Bro gets Cal, etc. Dave clings to Maplehoof, which doesn't seem like a clear connection. Except... that's Rose's horse, isn't it? Ohhh. It all makes sense now. 😏

This exchange is a top 10 Karkat moment for sure.

The supposed saviors that will revive the human race aren't even human, they're slime creatures! Beyond the fact that none of them are human, the Superman analogy falls flat because none of these kids are humanity's protectors. They're just following the whims of a game that ultimately does not give a fuck about any of them.

I need "JOHN EGBERT, YOU HAVE ASSASSINATED MY PATIENCE." emblazoned on a banner or something.

Also Karkat calls Superman a "Caucasian alien" and he also refers to a genie as an "Earth Arabian" in an earlier log.

He really knows a lot about different human ethnic groups, for some reason.

I think about "you always call jail the slammer when you are extra angry" on a somewhat regular basis.

Sassacre is killed, but since he was a human, his death is inconsequential. Grandpa, a slime homunculus just like Nanna, is given new life, which is a cause for celebration. This whole sequence is quite morbid with Sassacre's bloody corpse just hanging out in the frame.

But wait, if Nanna and Grandpa are adopted siblings, and John and Jade are their "genetic children"... augh, never mind! This is what I mean when I say ectobiology produces all kinds of unfortunate relationships. I don't want to think about any of this pseudo-incest anymore. How are there people who make it their whole online careers to dissect this garbage so they can harass people about this shit? Don't they get tired? It's giving me a headache.

Rose is even referred to as John's "daughter" in the title of this flash. I'm not just blowing smoke when I say that John is everyone dad. That's literally what just happened.

Now that we're finally done with this segment, I'll cap it off with this: Nothing of value was added with the inclusion of ectobiology. I know I've been throwing around the phrase "waste of time" in these posts, but this bit of worldbuilding is unequivocally, without a doubt, the biggest fucking waste of time in this entire comic.

Woof. Shall we move on?

While Davesprite and Terezi sort of reconciled in their conversation and formed a bit of a bond, Dave doesn't receive her nearly as amicably. Why is she doing the "1S TH1S YOU" joke with Dave when that was a bit she did with Davesprite?

Oh right, because she thinks that same relationship will carry over to "real Dave". She sees them as the same person just like everyone else. Lovely.

Dave thinks he can burn Terezi by repeatedly insulting her blindness, even though it's clear that it doesn't bother her at all. This is really weak, especially when compared to his log with Tavros where he forced Tavros to block him.

Terezi seems to have completely given up on John and now wants to be annoying and nasty to Dave instead. She has officially been downgraded from minor antagonist to obnoxious interloper.

Tavros could only ever enjoy himself when he could escape to Prospit, be mobile, and most importantly fly. Nobody ever wants to talk about how Tavros has a lot of avoidance issues, how he always shrinks away from action and confrontation, and how he copes with adversity through escapism (both in a figurative sense through his interest in fantasy, and in a literal sense when he dreams on Prospit). A big part of his character comes from Peter Pan, the archetype of childlike escapism! IDK man, it sucks to see people reduce him to this lovable, pure-hearted woobie while ignoring the key part of his character.

Just like with Davesprite, Terezi just needed to send the right drawing for Dave's opinion of her to flip. Fantastic conflict resolution right there.

[S] Descend is the End of Act flash for Act 4. It might be the most ambitious flash up to this point. Lots of guest artists contributed here, and it's at this point where Homestuck really begins to feel like a much more collaborative project instead of solely Hussie's work. I don't mean to discredit the music team when I say that, because they've been around since the start, but this feels more substantial since Homestuck is a primarily visual work.

Anyway, Bro slices a meteor in half to save Dave's life, and later has his rocket board transport Dave into the game safely. Chalk that up to his list of noble deeds to try and balance out his dastardly ones.

Jack fucks shit up indiscriminately, so why does he spare WV? Feels a little out of character for him.

The brief Jack and Bro fight is pretty sweet. I'm not a shonen guy, but I'm getting that same sort of energy from this. Knowing that Bro probably knew all about the kinds of monsters he'd have to fight in Sburb, he has probably been training for something like this for most of his life. Had Jack not gotten god powers, Bro probably could've wasted him.

I like to think that Rose's merging with her doomed self is what causes her to act so destructive and nihilistic from this point on. She wants to destroy the game that killed her.

So okay... when Dave and Rose gave John their bunnies for his present, both of them clearly put a lot of thought in their gifts. Dave gifted him a piece of merch from his favorite movie. Rose restored an old heirloom using John's previous gift to her. Jade assembled "a fun and completely ridiculous thing" that has no sentimental meaning and only carries a vague sense of importance.

Does she just not know what he likes? This is less a gesture of friendship and more of her blindly fulfilling the whims of Sburb. I really struggle to see how Jade fits in this friend group dynamic. She's like the weird kid that the others let hang around out of pity.

Waow! After all that buildup with the box mystery, the bunny and Jack are going to have a showdown! Finally we can see what all the fuss is about and why this bunny is so important.

... Or Jack can just fly away and they never fight at all. Cool Hussie. It's so cool how you spent several pages devoted to this plot point only to let it fizzle out like this. Incredible writing.

How much time do you think elapsed between Grandpa bringing Dream!Jade's corpse aboard his airship and gutting, cleaning, stuffing, and mounting her? He probably did it all after he flew off, but I like to imagine him doing this all before that while Mom and Dad just stood around awkwardly waiting for him to finish.

Act 4 had its ups and its downs. A lot of downs. The ups also felt a little bittersweet because for every intriguing story hook like the Exile love triangle, Dave's relationship with Tavros, Rose and her mother, or anything involving Davesprite and doomed Rose, they all amount to nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Homestuck truly is a collection of fun ideas all unfortunately cobbled together by someone who doesn't know how to properly execute them in a story. The colorful art and the kickass music can only serve to cover up the flaws so much before the veneer peels and you see the ugly cracks underneath. I wish we lived in a world where Andrew "writing is easy" Hussie had an editor to salvage the good stuff and throw shit like ectobiology into the garbage.

If it sounds like I'm wrapping things up, think again. This journey isn't over yet. It's time for Act 5! People like to joke about how you should skip all the way to that one, but after everything I've read so far... I wouldn't blame anyone if they did.

Read the next post here.

[mylordshesacactus]

Suncrest Campaign Wrap-Up: The Duality Of Session Titles

Our player-notes document is a communal Google Doc, where everyone (including the beleaguered DM) can hop back to check details from earlier sessions--highly recommend this system, honestly. And, for ease of reference, every week after the session wraps up I go in and give the session a title, so that we can use the gdocs Table of Contents feature to easily jump between entries.

In general, I try to make these at least somewhat informative--I try to match the tone of the title to the overall tone of the session, and reference something that'll make it clear in six months what the hell I'm talking about.

So, in honor of the party reaching the campaign endgame: A final write-up of all our session titles over the course of the campaign.

A Long Time Ago In A Campaign Setting Far, Far Away (Level-1 Adventures & The Doppelganger Arc):

1: You Meet In A Tavern Fire 2: Patience Is A Virtue (in which the party got what was meant to be mid-campaign reveal information in session 2 due to excellent restraint and investigation, and also met long-term NPC Virtue Chirelli) 3: Secrets Of Shroudpost 4: Nightfall 5: Jumping At Shadows 6: Teamwork Makes The Dream Work

Both Parts Of The Name (Abandoned Temple Quest Arc)

7: Stories & Stoves (the party meets Arlette, who runs a magic-and-general-store called Staves & Stoves, and is given a quest) 8: Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Realistic Consequences 9: D&D A-Bridged 10: This Temple Is Weird (the party fights a water weird) 11: Big Fucking Dragon 12: Max and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Campaign, or: The Gang Gets Obscenely Rich

Night Hag Arc

13: Once More Into The Breach 14: #WWFD? (What Would Farrah Do--her player was absent that week) 15: The Power Of Friendship And These Tits I Found 16: GAH, Or: Wake Up There's Hags 17: Now With 33% Less Hag! 18: Hag-gling Over Loot 19: Good Thing We Didn't Leave Those NPC Guards Unsupervised

Werewolf Arc

20: Trouble In Thistledale 21: Family & Forestry 22: First Blood 23: There Wolves 24: Protectors 25: Assassin's Creed This Shit 26: The Silverlight Hounds 27: Overwhelming Force 28: New Moon 29: Firelight Festival

Election Fraud Arc

30: Political Theater 31: Landlords & Other Bloodthirsty Monstrosities 32: Hashtag Escapism 33: Of Mortgages & Murder 34: A Dish-tressing Discovery (a friendly NPC was almost murdered via sleep deprivation using a cursed goblet) 35: Jackoff And The Giant Beanstalk 36: The Key To Success

Requiem Arc

37: Directionality 38: Brought To You By The Letter 'N' 39: Long Rest 40: Please Do Not Bother The Violet Guard 41: Crimes 42: MASQUERAAAAAAAAADE 43: Everything Goes Completely Tits-Up 44: Breadcrumbs 45: A Suspiciously Well-Maintained Passageway 46: Foul Water 47: Several Discussions Of Traps 48: In Memoriam (the TREATY puzzle; the party learns everything about the day the world ended 50 years ago) 49: This Is Fine 50: Sax And Violince 51: You Have [36] New Messages

The Siege of Suncrest

52: Storm of Vengeance 53: Andromeda Gets Drugs From The Cops 54: Mindboggling (the party fights boggles) 55: The Siege Of Suncrest 56: What, Like It's Hard? (the party defeats what was meant to be a session-long boss fight in two rounds) 57: Breach 58: Your Stunned Silence Is Very Reassuring (death of a beloved NPC; the party was so stressed that nobody took a single note in the doc) 59: Tallyho 60: Release The Hounds

Faewild Arc

61: Crossover 62: The Tortoise And The Almost Perfect Aesop Reference (the party rides a dragon turtle and meets rabbitfolk) 63: Warren Of The Shining Wires 64: The Next Step 65: Perfect Time To Get Stoned (party fights a gorgon) 66: The Feathered Serpent 67: Plan C: Jo [the DM] Kills Us In Real Life 68: Frostfire 69: Wolves of Winter 70: Do It For The Vine

Endgame

71: [Preposition] The Hedge (the party begins infiltrating the Palace of Summer, which sits at the center of a giant hedge maze) 72: The Dread Gazebo 73: A Wolf A Goose A Cabbage And The Concept Of Summer Walk Into A Bar 74: Domination 75: In Which Nobody Touches Anything (the wizard, after spending the entire session of sneaking through several different trophy rooms frantically trying to keep the party from touching anything, pockets a legendary item off a display case without telling anyone) 76: The Hand Of Fate 77: Hold Fast 78: The Fall Of Summer 79: The Distant Light

[orinthered]

Finally got around to finishing the post game and gotta say, if DD1 was 50% of what they wanted to do, DD2 felt like 70% but the other 30% was the story and Battahl. I loved the game, but it really suffers from the lack of a narrative.

the game's story really does feel like a rough draft that was somehow polished up into a full game. sometimes not even that: more of like a pitch that got tossed around like "ohh yeah i guess we could do that"

the most egregious part for me is now that i'm in ng+ i can really think about just how fucking weird it is that after act 1, where lord phaesus gets the big "i'm the bad guy looking disdainfully out my carriage window, onto you, the arisen, whom the camera states i see as lesser" cutscene the rest of the game just pivots to us working with him and his assistant, i guess.

a lot of stuff in dd2 also feels like it exists out of necessity because "well, we had it in dragon's dogma 1, so it has to be in this game!" largely the beloved system. we don't have a character like duke dragonsbane who really just exists to justify the idea of having a character you're willing to give up for ultimate power and seeing what that effect might have on someone, because in dd2 you just see the dragon (who isn't named! what!) clutching your beloved, 99% some random fuck npc if you didn't manage to get the ring off the sphinx, and you just have to laugh because like there's a good chance the player has no emotional attachment to this character bc they're just pretty faces with stock personalities and the game doesn't treat the arisen as a person so what reason does the player have to do the same?

i also like briefly talked about this on twitter but when i was looking through the design documents for dragon's dogma 1 and you see how much concepting went into cassardis, the starting area... it makes it really hard for me to buy the conceit of the arisen in dragon's dogma 2. games that just drop you into the action without any backstory work really good if roleplaying was a major aspect of the gameplay, but for dragon's dogma 2 it's not. the point of being chosen to be arisen is that you have the ability to show courage in the face of futility — in dragon's dogma 1, the arisen throws away their life in order to save the village that they love.

in dragon's dogma 2... what, you push some pretty girl out of the way? you're maybe like a village guard? ulrika has like so much more motivation to be chosen as arisen it's kind of mind-boggling. dd2's arisen is a cipher but they need to be an actual character for the conceit of the arisen's will changes the world to make any sense.

this screenshot actually made me laugh out loud but in the way that one might laugh in the face of oncoming traffic. what do you even mean man. the only characters with any story relevance for the entirety of the game's plot are brant, sven, and phaesus lmfao you could get rid of everyone else and it wouldn't matter whatsoever

i mean i love this game. it's easily an 8/10 for me but it's so much harder for me to ignore a good game's bad story than it is for me to ignore a good story's bad gameplay. and if dd2's story is markedly worse than dd1's in every single possible facet...

[eff-plays]

Wyll really is just so ignored, I'm playing for the first time and just got to act three and jesus, first time seeing his dad in forever at gortash's ceremony thing and theres like no reaction from Wyll?? unless my game bugged which it's been doing more than a fair amount since patch 7.. Like a lot. I saw someone say that Wyll gets treated like Karlachs backpack and like yeah... that scene is about gortash and karlach mostly, Wyll and his dad are just kinda there?? Mean while astarions plotline about vampires doesnt really seem relevant to the story literally at all but theres so much content focusing on that.

HEY sorry for coming back here to yell. If you know all of this or don't care for my flabbergasted yelling then please don't mind me, apologies if this is nonsensical, I am bewildered and my mind has been servery boggled. I just fully took a second to notice that wyll has 1 (ONE) greeting if you've romanced him, I was a lil baffled so I spent a minute spamming everyone in camp and saying hi and ahahahahah, everyone but lae'zel and the side npcs has at least two for the approval I have with them, karlach has 4. So I went to the wiki and, lae'zel has 4 possible romantic greetings and everyone else have above 10 APART FROM WYLL, WHO HAS 1, some of those greetings are if you've broken up but Wyll apparently has 0 (ZERO) if you've broken up BECAUSE Wyll has 7 possible greetings TOTAL TOTAL!! lae'zel has the same amount of platonic greetings as Wyll does total, asstarion has 27, shadowheart has 36 , Karlach has 38. what the actual shit, I'm not sure if the wiki is outdated and they added more for patch 7 but like?????? I also just had that cutscene with mizora, we had just doomed either Wyll or his dad, his dad in my case (even though what Mizora was offering was his location and protection from all but us, doesn't mean that he's dead for sure but everyones acting like Wyll just sacrificed his dad for his freedom, EXCEPT for Karlack whos acting like I took the deal, they really refuse to fix any bugs that involve Wyll huh), and we just get one of those "talk to me" interactions in camp, you don't even get to talk to him about it after that, he just goes right back to "I'm here for you, always" and all the default dialogue options, like bro you dad apparently just had his death cemented and THATS ALL WE GET? thats all he gets? No extra lil bit of dialogue to reassure him seeing as we may have just killed his dad?? idk it feels very significant to his character seeing as he often talks about how much he adores his dad but no? I really regret romancing Wyll first, I'm just getting mad at the game and his treatment like damn. I'm so disappointed, usually fandom ignoring any and all poc in games is just their racism and I've no doubt thats still happening here but I really can't blame people for not latching onto Wyll, he's great and I love him but even when romancing him and no one else, every other companion seems to have so much more going on, cause they literally do, they have so much more content. I knew he had less, I've seen that reddit post about the amount of hours each companion gets but the greeting thing really just whacked me in the face. small and minor correction, i misread the 10 as a16 I believe, so astarion has 21 not 27 as i think i said before! STILL OVER DOUBLE WHAT WYLL HAS AHAHA

(I assumed these were the same person so I bundled them in one big ask)

Oh but remember, Larian ENSURES all their devs work on EXACTLY what they want to work on!!! :))))

This is also why I think Durgewyll is the big brain romance of the game. Because it's the only way to experience even slightly more Wyll content. Like?? ONE romance greeting that was BUGGED for until a much later patch? Like!!!!! GENUINELY THE FUCKING AUDACITY. They should be legit fr fr ashamed lmao. Also Neil Newbon glazing Larian for being soooooo inclusive and making such groundbreaking representation while their only Black character is in the fucking toilet.

Ugh. It sucks so bad lmao. It's frustrating too cuz there's nothing one can do. Clearly speaking up about it has done fuck-all. Even if they drop the world's biggest Wyll patch, it'll still be like oh ok so all that racism was just a funny joke I guess? "Haha tricked you all into thinking we were racist?" To be clear I do want a massive Wyll patch, but I'm still never getting a Larian game again even if they drop it. I'll mayhap pirate one but even so. They've shown their priorities and preferences. They're SOOOOOO keen on speaking to their fans and addressing every little piss-ass useless gripe as soon as possible, except when you ask about Wyll. Then it's radio silence. Because even acknowledging it, apologizing for it, would be inconvenient. It would make it a Big Deal that people would Talk About, and it would tarnish Larian's current status as the gamer audience darling. So better to pretend it's not happening. After all, the only people upset are just some Twitter randos, and nobody listens to those guys.

Whatever man. Theo Solomon saying peanits.

[kaleuh]

tell me about ghis GlenMac?

I WILL Tell you about GlenMac !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SO

THIS IS GLENMAC (Official Book Art) AND THEN HERE'S A PICTURE OF HIM WITH HIS BEST BUDDY, Adjunct Professor and Graduate Jackson Green (art that me and my group got commissioned of them by nico on twitter!)

FULL NAME: Glenn MaClanahan (If you're formal, it's Professor MaClanahan, but all the students gave him the nickname GlenMac!)

He's a professor in the Anthropology Department at East Texas University, located in the cozy town of Pinebox, Texas. He and Jackson know fully well that there's something extremely uncozy about Pinebox, though. When you (the player) attend ETU as a freshman, you are quick to notice that there is something very unnerving about the town, and the school. Rumors of ghosts, monsters, and rituals—things that could easily be explained away by pointing at college students and children in town with too much liquor and imagination. GlenMac and Jackson are here to tell your character: No! You are not crazy! You definitely saw the ghost of a student who was burned alive in the gymnasium!

GlenMac (as well as Jackson) are the NPCs in this story who are initially there to serve your character with an introduction to the supernatural. GlenMac can really be any professor-appropriate age (I believe the book says he’s in his 40s but given the book art our DM [my boyfriend!!] deemed him to be 32 in our game. He also thought it would make sense to make him younger since him and Jackson (who is in his mid 20s) are supposed to be close pals.)

GlenMac has been investigating the supernatural for years, and deeply cares about the well-being of his students. Anyone who comes to his office hours for help will never be turned away—especially if "weird stuff" has been happening to them. In his office you'll also meet his life-long companion, a Scottish Terrier named Argyle, with whom he takes on regular walks throughout campus. He is overly caring and self-sacrificing to a fault, though, willingly placing himself in danger to protect someone who needs it. He's aware that students will occasionally stumble upon magic resources and rituals—because of this, he's been said to be searching for a method in which anyone can safely accomplish a ritual...without having to sacrifice anything to the Magical Powers That Be in return. Which seems like a great idea! A Professor with a deep thirst for the knowledge and power of the unknown, also willing to try literally anything, even if it means putting himself at the whims of Possibly Dark Magic for the good of others. It will work out fine for him, is what I've been telling myself!

SO OF COURSE, because it's a TTRPG, not all GlenMacs are the same. Here are some other fast facts about the GlenMac I know, and why I'm insane about him:

When my basketball himbo son (my character Trey) went through a tough breakup during freshman year, him and Jackson played Boggle with him and the party until he cheered up.

Also when my son was alone and sad in Pinebox during summer vacation, GlenMac adorned his best dork-ass dad jock attire and joined him on morning runs (with Argyle).

He's often stressed and formal but under that he is Sweet and A Tad Silly and a bit of a dork and god. we love him for it

GlenMac doesn't really pay attention to current pop-culture stuff online but if you tell him he Lost the Game he WILL get mad.

Unbelievable in that turtleneck.

Grew up in North Dakota, had a big falling out with his parents and has been largely alone. It's implied that he never really had a friend like Jackson, up until him (and depending on how nice your party is to him, your group.)

AND YOU CAN TELL HE'S LONELY. GOD. HE PUTS EVERYTHING INTO THIS WORK AND HIS STUDENTS. How much time he spends alone with his thoughts...the supernatural stuff probably pushed anyone he cared about away. He has his little apartment with his folded-cornered books and half-finished coffee cups and toys for his dog...but we want him to meet someone So bad 😭 (GOD I wish it were me.)

His desire to know the unknown and try things "just to see if he can" is dangerous, reckless, scary, and a little unhinged...he a little fucked up...I'm scared for him...(but its also...😳...).

This is not canon to our game but we keep joking about how girls on Rate My Professor won't stop referring to him as "Big Mac" and that he's desperately been trying to get those reviews removed.

If you ever get curious about East Texas University, I highly recommend it! I love the Savage Worlds system so much!! We're playing the East Texas University “Degrees of Horror” adventures, which is the "main plot" campaign for East Texas University (we also do some 12-to-Midnight adventures.) I think the story can be set anywhere in the 2000's so we just set ours in modern day.

We're not finished yet, but it has truly been a life-changing story so far!

GENUINELY, TRULY, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING

[satoshi-mochida]

Side-scrolling roguelike action Million Depth to be published by PLAYISM - Gematsu

PLAYISM will publish Cyber Space Biotope-developed side-scrolling roguelike action game Million Depth, the companies announced. It will launch for PC via Steam in 2025.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

Million Depth is a “deep-diving action strategy game” where Moma, a human girl from outer space, visits Earth to find her only friend, and dives into the million-floor deep underground world known as Naraka Akasha. As Moma, players will have to design and craft their own original weapons and engage in strategic time-freezing battles to survive the hostile environment of Naraka Akasha in order to reach the bottom and uncover the true identity of Moma’s elusive friend. To Moma, left drifting all alone in space, messaging her Earth friend was the only thing that kept her going. After all of her dearest crewmates died from a virus, the only thing to do was the daily aptitude test. But as long as Moma could imagine the scenery of Earth as described by her friend, she managed to live through the boredom and solitude of life on the ship. “This will be my last message. I’m sorry. Thank you.” Her friend never sent another message, but Moma knows where they are—a million-floor deep abyss known as Naraka Akasha, the only place on Earth fit for human survival. Even though she has no idea what they look like, Moma decides to dive into the underground world in search of her only friend…

Strategically Craft Your Own Weapons and Shields

Million Depth has a crafting system where you can freely combine blocks to build your very own original weapons and shields. Every creation has different offensive and defensive abilities depending on its shape and materials used, and combining the same type of block can create parts that have special effects. Editing your weapons and shields and working towards the best creations for your playstyle through trial and error only gets more enjoyable as the going gets tougher.

Mind-Boggling Time-Freezing Battles

When Moma moves, so does the enemy, but when Moma stops, the enemy stops too. In this time-freezing battle system, you will engage in hectic, overwhelming battles… one physical step at a time. Every enemy attack and the power of each attack is clearly shown on-screen, which means you can take your time to analyze the situation and deal with them one by one. The key to winning is using your brain every step of the way to make the best decisions.

Deep-Diving Exploration

Naraka Akasha is very, very deep, and floors can either be completely empty or swarming with dangerous creatures. Scanning the upcoming areas is crucial to effective exploration, and by doing so you can choose between a wide variety of floors. Will you face off against hostile creatures, trade at a shop, expand your crafting abilities, recover some health, or gather much-needed resources? Dive deeper and deeper into the abyss and aim for floors of civilization, locations strongly connected to the secrets of the story.

What Awaits at the Bottom?

Depending on what floors you visit as well as other criteria, you will reach one of multiple story endings. What’s more, over multiple playthroughs, NPCs will act differently, and you might even be able to affect Momas from different worlds…

A Word from Pop, the Representative of Cyber Space Biotope

Million Depth is a game where Moma, a girl who drifted in space all alone, explores an underground world over a million levels deep in order to reach her one and only friend—“you.” The weapon crafting system where you can freely design your own weapons and the unique battle system where enemies only move when you do are closely tied to each other. I’m striving to make a system that encourages “crafting for battle” as much as possible. I’m also working hard on the sci-fi story with the theme of parallel worlds, and on the meaty details of the mysterious underground world, so please look forward to it!

Watch a new trailer below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.

Publisher Announce Trailer

English

Japanese

Traditional Chinese

Simplified Chinese

[miquella-everywhere]

sooo, the elden ring, before it was shattered, had the great rune that was later given to miquella. meaning that marika had the bewitching charm part of the great rune before miquella did. but it doesn't seem like she did, given the (justified or not) hate that was lobbed at her throughout her godhood? with a power that's as unique as bewitching, you would think we'd see some indication of marika possessing it prior to the shattering? npcs whose were once fans but "came to their senses" afterward?

also, why would marika give that great rune to miquella, who can already bewitch without it? it's just weird. and we don't get any indication as to what gave him the bewitching ability unassociated with his great rune in the first place. none of the other demigods, to my knowledge just have a random extra power without reason or explanation. it being a part of his nascency / eternal youth curse would make enough sense, but it remains after he breaks the curse?

it's also weird that those that live in death just wind up in the land of shadow. it's sort of an alternate dimension that marika banished, right? do the regular dead end up there too? and the fact that you can hypothetically kill maliketh to bring back destined death before killing radahn and mohg, and for them to still be able to come back? it's weird. this is why i feel like the dlc should have been explicitly end game instead of having end game and beyond difficulty with a mid game plot.

In regards to the Great Rune part, I wouldn't say that Marika gave Miquella his Rune because that is not fact. All the Demigods inherited their Runes during the Shattering, when Marika broke the Elden Ring.

How they got their Runes can be debated, but for now, and for simplicity's sake, lets say that at the moment of the Shattering the Shards flew across the heavens and landed in the hands of their respective bearers, and leave it at that.

But going on from that....

Great Runes by nature are odd. Great Runes are weird. So weird and odd, to the point that they are never fully expanded upon because that's just how Fromsoft infuriatingly operates...

Sometimes they come out of the Elden Ring fully formed and with a set purpose; the Rune of Death and the Rune of the Unborn. And other times they can be shaped and molded by their Shardbearers; Radahn and his rune, catching fire to ward off Scarlet Rot, and now (sadly...) with Miquella's Rune, that he broke by-the-by, that can apparently resist Charms...

So it's truthfully hard to say if there was in fact a straight "Rune of Charms" that came from the Ring, but for no I can only assume that the Rune Miquella inherited from the Shattering molded to whatever his soul/persona/hopes and dreams/affiliation was, and when it was Shattered, all that remained was its ability resist charms... his charm specifically. It's impossible to say what kind of Rune it was before it was shattered, I would say that it could've been the Rune of Abundance but that's technically cut content so who knows 🤷

The worst part about your last statement is that there technically isn't any Those who Live in Death in the RoS, specifically the TWLID that are associated with Godwyn. You've got those skeletal beast-men at the Dragon Shrine, a few on the dragon peak and thats kinda it. Even in the catacombs which house Godwyns cancerous head there are so few TWLID, instead being primarily infested with those new imp creatures, that it is genuinely mind boggling and infuriating. You would think that the place that suppresses death would be infected with Death Root, the Death Cancer that can apparently manifest outside of time at Farum Azula. But no. Expanding Godwyns story and making it satisfying wouldn't leave any room for the Promised Retcon after all 🙃

Sorry for getting a bit salty at the end there, but yeah, I personally don't take the DLC that seriously any longer. It's contradictory treatment of Miquella, plotholes, and other subjects have left such a foul taste in my mouth that any new "lore" that is presented I treat with a heavy dose of skepticism.

It sucks that it's come to this 😞

[randomthefox]

lol oops

Valve put this moment in as a gotcha for the player. But it happens even if you don't push the button. Always follow safety signs, kids!

How Valve managed to get these NPCs to have hostile actions towards enemys but not the player IN THE QUAKE ENGINE will forever boggle my mind. We take it for granted nowadays.

I always considered THIS guard to be The Barney. I don't necessarily think that there's anything endemic to the Blue Shift guard to definitively assert that he is The Barney from Half Life 2.

Hate these models. Fuck gearbox.

Half Life doesn't get enough credit for practically being a horror game

You can interact with the vending machines and they'll drop out soda cans that will actually heal your HP

Guthrie was fucking ready

NO NOT THE THERMOS D=

Lot of pieces of the environment are intractable and damageable.

Everyone else is doing a really bad job of not dying.

seizure warning

GUN!

god DAMNIT I hate the gearbox models x3 they changed it from a glock to a beretta.