#pg. 145

[every-yumichika]

[lgalacticjayl]

"I will send him seven excellent workwomen, Lesbians, whom I chose for myself when he took Lesbos -"

[moderncivilization]

Does anyone know where I can read all of yuwu? I just need to have easy access to fear and sadness and disgust

[luuxxart]

COMIC FURY | TUMBLR BLOG

Also, new Fog File.

[yasogamistudentcouncil]

FIRST | PREV | NEXT | COMICFURY  

[phantom-of-the-laboratory]

“ ‘Hold on, girl,’ she said aloud. She said it to Catherine Martin and she said it to herself. “We’re better than this room. We’re better than this fucking place,” she said aloud. “We’re better than wherever he’s got you. Help me. Help me. Help me.’ “

(Thomas Harris- The Silence of the Lambs- ch 24- pg 145)

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Vexgit

CR 1

Lawful Evil Tiny Fey

Bestiary 2, pg. 145 (Image from 2nd Edition's Bestiary 2, pg. 134)

Among the most dangerous breed among the Gremlins, the Vexgits are banes and blights in the civilized world, and can quickly spell doom for any structure they manage to infest, to say nothing of everyone inside. Every bit as weak and wimpy as the other CR 1 Gremlins featured on this blog so far, like all of them a Vexgit is not a direct threat to the party that pops out of the walls to battle them, but a background danger to the party's belongings, allies, and homes. They're not threatening the party with their hammer, they're threatening to knock out a support beam, trapping the party in a collapsing home with them!

Vexgit are not combatants, they're worse: saboteurs. They LIVE to rip apart and repurpose existing devices, turning everything from clockwork machines to simple wagon wheels into tools of inconvenience, harm, or even death. Their danger isn't in their attacks--they struggle to deal lethal damage with either their tiny warhammer (1d4-2) or bite (1d3-2)--but what they can do if they're not stopped before they settle in, using their +9 to Disable Device checks to jam locks, loosen wheels, strip nails, and generally make nuisances of themselves. While normally disabling any device is a time-consuming process, Vexgit are Speedy Saboteurs, lowering the time it takes to sabotage any device by one stage.

If you've never looked at the speed chart for Disable Device, take a moment to do so now. See how a 'simple item,' such as a normal lock, mundane hinge, or a rope and pulley, takes 1 round to sabotage? Vexgit can sabotage 'simple' items as a free action once per round as long as it's within their reach, letting them pull off malicious acts mid-combat if they so wish. While this typically boils down to jamming door locks after running through them so the party cannot follow (or becomes trapped), it does also mean they typically have the time to perform more elaborate follow-ups. Since they can perform simple sabotage as a free action, they can then use the rest of their round sabotaging something rated 'tricky,' such as a wheel, a larger item held together with screws or nails, or a simple siege weapon to hamper the party more severely than they would if they simply attacked with their weapon.

Vexgit prefer to lure opponents to them rather than the other way around, as their penchant for recycling disassembled items into traps either via their Craft (Traps) skill of +5 or the Snare spell they can use 1/hour makes any infested areas a death trap that requires extremely careful navigation. They're more likely to simply flee any fight they get into, and they have a good chance of getting away; they can easily scamper up any surface thanks to their 20ft climb speed, protected by their DR 5/Cold Iron, while their 12 Spell Resistance shields them from retributive magic cast by unlucky mages. Their DR is especially hard to pierce thanks to their 1/hour Rusting Grasp dissolving any weapon brought into their reach, so if only one party member has a cold iron cudgel, the group will be in for a... well, not a hard time, but a slightly more annoying time, because like most gremlins the Vexgit have only 8 hitpoints and a moderate 15 AC, going down in just a few swings from any weapon that deals more than 6 damage per round.

Easy for a party, less so for the common man. I've said this before about other gremlins, but their resilience makes them difficult for commoners and low-level guards to clear out, so they're perfect little horrors for a party to be sent after without making the local guards look incompetent. When the little bastards can reach out and turn your equipment to ash while you're dangling upside-down over a latrine, you'd probably be inclined to let mercenaries handle it, too.

Especially if there's a lot of them. Vexgits can form insanely dangerous Wrecking Crews in groups as small as six, bolstering one member's Disable Device checks from +9 to +19 if each of them spends their turn contributing to the sabotage, letting them rip apart almost anything in less than a minute... or swiftly reset any traps that may have already gotten sprung, making the trip out of a gremlin's lair just as painful as the trip in. While on their own a Vexgit is content with causing injuries and humiliation with their pranks, when a whole crew of Vexgits is present, it becomes a race against time to track them down and destroy them all, because full infestations aren't satisfied with anything less than full-blown death and mayhem, driven to destroy greater and greater structures until whole city blocks are crumbling to ruin because of them.

You can read more about them here.

[friendly-books]

Bi Harry moments

All Bi Harry moments I could find

Storm Front

“A man of handsome and unassuming features” pg. 45 Bi Harry 1 (Harry describing Marcone)

“Good looking, tanned, athletic, and enthusiastic” pg. 46 Bi Harry 2 (Harry describing Marcone)

Fool’s Moon

“Middle-aged, starkly handsome man” pg. 145 Bi Harry counter 3

“Good-looking detective” pg. 231 Bi Harry counter 4 

“A man in his mature prime, his hair immaculately graying at the temples, his custom-made suit displaying a body kept fit in spite of the advancing years” pg. 293 Bi Harry 5 (Harry describing Marcone)

“Marcone looked good in his gray suit and perfect hair and his manicured hands, but he wasn’t” pg. 295 Bi Harry 6 (Harry describing Marcone)

Grave Peril

“Rudy’s clean cut good looks” pg. 126 Bi Harry 7 (Harry describing Rudolph) 

“Hell’s bells, I noticed how good he looked” pg. 290 Bi Harry 8

“The handsome vampire” pg. 440 Bi Harry 9 (Harry describing Thomas)

Summer Knight 

“Complemented his smile” pg. 490 Bi Harry 10

Death Mask

“Rudy was young, good looking, clean-cut” pg. 231 Bi Harry 11 (Harry describing Rudolph)

“He had a male model’s face” pg. 241 Bi Harry 12 (Harry describing Thomas) 

“He had handsome but unremarkable features” pg. 264 Bi Harry 13

“He pulled in, dressed in casual clothes and wearing a baseball cap, which alone generated enough cognitive dissonance to make me start dropping” pg. 481 Bi Harry 14 (Harry describing Marcone)

Blood Rites

“He was tall and built like a statue of Hercules” pg. 86 Bi Harry 15

“His face didn’t match the Olympian body” pg. 86 Bi Harry 16

“Thomas writhed sinuously” pg. 201 Bi Harry 17 (Harry describing Thomas)

“He was better looking than Thomas” pg. 218 Bi Harry 18 

“He didn’t have Thomas beat when it came to smiles. Thomas’s grin had so much life to it was practically sentient” pg. 222 Bi Harry 19

Dead Beat

“Thomas looked like someone’s painting of a forgotten Greek god of body cologne” pg. 18 Bi Harry 20 (Harry describing Thomas)

“He looked handsome and wholesome” pg. 274 Bi Harry 21 (Harry describing Marcone)

“Because Thomas is too pretty die. And because I’m too stubborn.” “And polka will never die” pg. 331 Ha and Bi Harry 22 (Harry describing Thomas)

Proven Guilty

“All lean muscle, sculpted and well formed” pg. 58 Bi Harry 23

“Crane was a surprisingly good-looking man” pg. 252 Bi Harry 24

“He turned that dazzling smile on Murph” pg. 256 Bi Harry 25

“As tall and dark and handsome as you please” pg. 341 Bi Harry 26

“Slim, dark-haired, pale, and handsome” pg. 289 Bi Harry 27

“He wasn’t wearing a business suit. He had on jeans and a black leather jacket. His hair was longish, a little mussed and he also sported a stubble of a beard that gave him a rakish look that would attract attention from the girls who fantasized about indulging with a bad boy” pg. 393 Bi Harry 28 (Harry describing Marcone)

Small Favor 

“He had a good voice, mellow and surprisingly deep” pg. 361 Bi Harry 29 (Harry describing Nick)

“He was a man of medium height and build, his features handsome, strong, his eyes dark and intelligent.” pg. 363 Bi Harry 30 (Harry describing Nick)

“Nicodemus let out another quiet, charming laugh.” pg. 365 Bi Harry 31 (Harry describing Nick)

“Michael had some serious pecs.” pg. 423 Bi Harry 32 (Harry describing Micheal)

“Never mind Michael’s pecs. Sanya made us both look like we needed to eat more wheat germ” pg. 424 Bi Harry 33 (Harry describing Sanya)

Turn Coat 

N/A

Changes 

N/A

Ghost Story

“Sanya said, his dark, handsome face lighting up with a white grin.” pg. 679 Bi Harry moment 34 (Harry describing Sanya)

Cold Days

N/A

Skin Game

“That voice had once been smooth and flowing, but now there was a hint of rasp to it, a roughness that wasn’t there before, like silk gliding over old gravel. pg. 30 Bi Harry moment 35 (Harry describing Nick)

“His features were clean-cut, pleasant, without being handsome.” pg. 166 Bi Harry 36

“There might have been slightly more silver at his temples than last time I’d seen him, but it only made him look more distinguished. Otherwise, he looked exactly as he did: calm, alert, impeccably groomed, and as merciful as a lawn mower’s blade.” pg. 665 Bi Harry 37 (Harry describing Marcone)

“Marcone’s eyes, the exact green shade of old dollar bills, focused pleasantly on me.” pg. 666 Bi Harry 38 (Harry describing Marcone)

AAAA Wizardly

“He was a good-looking man” pg. 151 Bi Harry 39

Curses

“ruggedly handsome” pg. 211 Bi Harry 40

“Gwynn ap Nupp’s handsome face broke into a smile” pg. 223 Bi Harry 41

Jury Duty

“He held up a glossy professional headshot of a handsome man in his thirties and showed it to us.” pg. 520 Bi Harry 42

[itsfantasticac]

Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble fanart, submitted to Arcadia magazine in 2003.

Arcadia magazine no. 34 (Mar. '03), pg. 145

[keithjamescomics]

Scam the Gods, Lie 5, Page 17 https://scamthegods.com/index.html?pg=145

[every-yumichika]

[burningvelvet]

Some of Mary Shelley’s journal entries from late July 1816 when she, Percy, and Claire toured the Valley of Chamounix and visited the Mer de Glace (Montanvert). The scenery inspired Frankenstein and Percy Shelley’s poem Mont Blanc:

“Tuesday, July 23 (Chamounix). — In the morning, after breakfast, we mount our mules to see the source of the Arveiron. When we had gone about three parts of the way, we descended and continued our route on foot, over loose stones, many of which were an enormous size. We came to the source, which lies (like a stage) surrounded on the three sides by mountains and glaciers. We sat on a rock, which formed the fourth, gazing on the scene before us. An immense glacier was on our left, which continually rolled stones to its[Pg 145] foot. It is very dangerous to be directly under this. Our guide told us a story of two Hollanders who went, without any guide, into a cavern of the glacier, and fired a pistol there, which drew down a large piece on them. We see several avalanches, some very small, others of great magnitude, which roared and smoked, overwhelming everything as it passed along, and precipitating great pieces of ice into the valley below. This glacier is increasing every day a foot, closing up the valley. We drink some water of the Arveiron and return. After dinner think it will rain, and Shelley goes alone to the glacier of Boison. I stay at home. Read several tales of Voltaire. In the evening I copy Shelley’s letter to Peacock.”

“Wednesday, July 24. — To-day is rainy; therefore we cannot go to Col de Balme. About 10 the weather appears clearing up. Shelley and I begin our journey to Montanvert. Nothing can be more desolate than the ascent of this mountain; the trees in many places having been torn away by avalanches, and some half leaning over others, intermingled with stones, present the appearance of vast and dreadful desolation. It began to rain almost as soon as we left our inn. When we had mounted considerably we turned to look on the scene. A dense white mist covered the vale, and tops of scattered pines peeping above were the only objects that presented themselves. The rain continued in torrents. We were wetted to the skin; so that, when we had ascended halfway, we resolved to turn back. As we descended, Shelley went before, and, tripping up, fell upon his knee. This added to the weakness occasioned by a blow on his ascent; he fainted, and was for some minutes incapacitated from continuing his route.

We arrived wet to the skin. I read Nouvelles Nouvelles, and write my story. Shelley writes part of letter.”

Excerpts from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein:

“At length I arrived at the village of Chamounix. Exhaustion succeeded to the extreme fatigue both of body and of mind which I had endured. For a short space of time I remained at the window watching the pallid lightnings that played above Mont Blanc and listening to the rushing of the Arve, which pursued its noisy way beneath. The same lulling sounds acted as a lullaby to my too keen sensations; when I placed my head upon my pillow, sleep crept over me; I felt it as it came and blessed the giver of oblivion.”

“These sublime and magnificent scenes afforded me the greatest consolation that I was capable of receiving. They elevated me from all littleness of feeling, and although they did not remove my grief, they subdued and tranquillised it. In some degree, also, they diverted my mind from the thoughts over which it had brooded for the last month. I retired to rest at night; my slumbers, as it were, waited on and ministered to by the assemblance of grand shapes which I had contemplated during the day. They congregated round me; the unstained snowy mountain-top, the glittering pinnacle, the pine woods, and ragged bare ravine, the eagle, soaring amidst the clouds—they all gathered round me and bade me be at peace.”

“Where had they fled when the next morning I awoke? All of soul-inspiriting fled with sleep, and dark melancholy clouded every thought. The rain was pouring in torrents, and thick mists hid the summits of the mountains, so that I even saw not the faces of those mighty friends. Still I would penetrate their misty veil and seek them in their cloudy retreats. What were rain and storm to me? My mule was brought to the door, and I resolved to ascend to the summit of Montanvert. I remembered the effect that the view of the tremendous and ever-moving glacier had produced upon my mind when I first saw it. It had then filled me with a sublime ecstasy that gave wings to the soul and allowed it to soar from the obscure world to light and joy. The sight of the awful and majestic in nature had indeed always the effect of solemnising my mind and causing me to forget the passing cares of life. I determined to go without a guide, for I was well acquainted with the path, and the presence of another would destroy the solitary grandeur of the scene.”

Mary used some of Percy’s poetry in Frankenstein. Here’s an excerpt from one of Percy Shelley’s most famous poems, Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni:

“Some say that gleams of a remoter world

Visit the soul in sleep, that death is slumber,

And that its shapes the busy thoughts outnumber

Of those who wake and live.—I look on high;

Has some unknown omnipotence unfurl'd

The veil of life and death? or do I lie

In dream, and does the mightier world of sleep

Spread far around and inaccessibly

Its circles? For the very spirit fails,

Driven like a homeless cloud from steep to steep

That vanishes among the viewless gales!

Far, far above, piercing the infinite sky,

Mont Blanc appears—still, snowy, and serene;

Its subject mountains their unearthly forms

Pile around it, ice and rock; broad vales between

Of frozen floods, unfathomable deeps,

Blue as the overhanging heaven, that spread

And wind among the accumulated steeps;

A desert peopled by the storms alone,

Save when the eagle brings some hunter's bone,

And the wolf tracks her there—how hideously

Its shapes are heap'd around! rude, bare, and high,

Ghastly, and scarr'd, and riven.—Is this the scene

Where the old Earthquake-daemon taught her young

Ruin? Were these their toys? or did a sea

Of fire envelop once this silent snow?

None can reply—all seems eternal now.

The wilderness has a mysterious tongue

Which teaches awful doubt, or faith so mild,

So solemn, so serene, that man may be,

But for such faith, with Nature reconcil'd;

Thou hast a voice, great Mountain, to repeal

Large codes of fraud and woe; not understood

By all, but which the wise, and great, and good

Interpret, or make felt, or deeply feel.”

Excerpt of a letter from Percy Shelley to his friend Thomas Love Peacock, July 25th:

“We have returned from visiting the glacier of Montanvert, or as it is called the Sea of Ice, a scene in truth of dizzying wonder. The path that winds to it along the side of a mountain, now clothed with pines, now intersected with snowy hollows, is wide and steep. The cabin of Montanvert is three leagues from Chamouni, half of which distance is performed on mules, not so sure-footed but that on the first day the one which I rode fell in what the guides call a mauvais pas, so that I narrowly escaped being precipitated down the mountain. We passed over a hollow covered with snow, down which vast stones are accustomed to roll. One had fallen the preceding day, a little time after we had returned: our guides desired us to pass quickly, for it is said that sometimes the least sound will accelerate their descent. We arrived at Montanvert, however, safe.

On all sides precipitous mountains, the abodes of unrelenting frost, surround this vale: their sides are banked up with ice and snow, broken, heaped high, and exhibiting terrific chasms. The summits are sharp and naked pin-nacles, whose overhanging steepness will not even permit snow to rest upon them. Lines of dazzling ice occupy here and there their perpendicular rifts, and shine through the driving vapours with inexpressible brilliance: they pierce the clouds like things not belonging to this earth.

The vale itself is filled with a mass of undulating ice, and has an ascent sufficiently gradual even to the remotest abysses of these horrible deserts. It is only half a league (about two miles) in breadth, and seems much less. It exhibits an appearance as if frost had suddenly bound up the waves and whirlpools of a mighty torrent. We walked some distance upon its surface. The waves are elevated about twelve or fifteen feet from the surface of the mass, which is intersected by long gaps of unfathomable depth, the ice of whose sides is more beautifully azure than the sky. In these regions everything changes, and is in motion.

This vast mass of ice has one general progress, which ceases neither day nor night; it breaks and bursts for ever: some undulations sink while others rise; it is never the same. The echo of rocks, or of the ice and snow which fall from their overhanging precipices, or roll from their aerial summits, scarcely ceases for one moment. One would think that Mont Blanc, like the god of the Stoics, was a vast animal, and that the frozen blood for ever circulated through his stony veins.

We dined (M[ary], C[lare], and I) on the grass, in the open air, surrounded by this scene. The air is piercing and clear. We returned down the mountain sometimes encompassed by the driving vapours, sometimes cheered by the sunbeams, and arrived at our inn by seven o'clock.”

[real-time-twilight]

Breaking Dawn in Real Time

September 8th, 2006 (Friday)

Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous 🌖

🌄 Sunrise: 6:43 AM

🌅 Sunset : 7:46 PM

Breaking Dawn, Pgs. 145-224

Ch. 8 ("Waiting for the Damn Fight to Start")

Ch. 9 ("Sure as Hell Didn't See that One Coming")

Ch. 10 ("Why Didn't I Just Walk Away? Oh Right, cuz I'm an Idiot")

Ch. 11 ("The Two Things at the Very Top of My Things-I-Never-Wanted-to-Do List")

5:30 PM (Approx.) - Jake argues with Paul about Paul hanging around when Rachel (Jacob's sister, Paul's now-fiancé) isn't home, and breaks his nose; Jake retreats to his room and contemplates the rapidly growing number of pack members who have imprinted (an occurrence which is supposedly rare), and his discontent at waiting for the news of Bella's return as a vampire, or her death

6:00 PM (Approx.) - Unable to sleep with Paul laughing in the living room, Jake leaves for a walk

6:05 PM (Approx.) - At the beach, Jake meets Quil babysitting Claire; Jake asks Quil if he ever thinks about dating until Claire grows up; Quil tells Jake he has no interest because Claire is his only concern; Quil returns Jake's question and tells Jake that he should maybe try dating and move on from Bella.

6:15 PM (Approx.) - Jake and Quil hear Sam howling to call a meeting; Jake heads off while Quil takes Claire to Sue Clearwater's House; while Jake is en route, Seth informs the pack that Bella and Edward returned the previous week and that Bella is supposed ill and quarantined at the Cullen House; Jake takes this to mean that Bella has been turned and that the treaty is broken, giving the Pack carte blanche to eliminate the coven

6:18 PM (Approx.) - Jake and Leah arrive to the clearing where the pack has gathered; Sam is reticent to attack, feeling that the Cullen's should not be punished for Bella's decision

6:22 PM (Approx.) - Quil enters the Wolf Chat; Jake and Sam continue to argue; Jake returns to human form, deciding to confront the Cullens himself

6:30 PM (Approx.) - Jake returns to his house to get his bike, but its waylaid by Billy, who asks him to help him into the house; Billy asks Jake about the pack meeting, and tells Jake to leave the Cullens alone

6:35 PM (Approx.) - Jake leaves on his bike

6:50 PM (Approx.) - Jake arrives at the Cullen House and is greeted by a somber Carlisle; Bella asks to see Jake, who immediately realizes that Bella is still human and that something is very wrong with her, as she looks extremely ill; Bella reveals that she is pregnant

6:53 PM (Approx.) - Edward tells Jake to go outside with him, Bella asks them not to fight; Edward and Jake go out and Edward confirms Jake's suspicion--that Bella's pregnancy is killing her and that they cannot abort the pregnancy, even by force, as Bella wants to carry it to term and is being supported by Rosalie, Emmett and Esme.

7:02 PM (Approx.) - Edward proposes that Jake try to convince Bella to terminate Edward's child and, if she wants children, to have them with Jacob instead; Jacob says that Bella will never agree to that, but promises, on Edwards request, to kill Edward if and when Bella dies

7:10 PM (Approx.) - Edward and Jacob return to the house; Edward asks that Jake and Bella be left alone to talk; Rosalie reluctantly leaves Bella's side; Jake tries to convince Bella, who insists that she can survive the pregnancy long enough to give birth, with the intention of being turned as soon as the baby is out

7:14 PM (Approx.) - Jacob switches tacks, reminding Bella of what Edward will do if her plan fails, but Bella remains intransigent; Jacob asks why she is suddenly desperate for a baby, and Bella explains that she doesn't want to carry the pregnancy through because she wants a child, but because she wants to have Edward's child (despite the fact that it bruises her when it kicks)

7:17 PM (Approx.) - Jacob indirectly hints at Edward's suggestion and Bella realizes how desperate Edward is

7:19 PM (Approx.) - Bella asks if Jake will come see her again; Jake says he doesn't want to watch her die, and leaves

7:20 PM (Approx.) - In the woods, Jake transforms into a wolf, greeted by the relieved and furious thoughts of the pack; Sam orders Jake to return at once; the shocked pack are apprised of Bella's condition in Jake's thoughts and rush to meet him about ten miles from the reservation

7:23 PM (Approx.) - The anxious pack conclude that the unknown nature and swift growth of Bella's child poses a threat which must be eliminated, even at the cost of Bella's life; Jacob and Seth object, but Sam uses his authority as Alpha to force them to comply, and begins to formulate a strategy

7:30 PM (Approx.) - Quil and Embry try to engage Jake in planning the attack; Jacob defies Sam, invoking his own unclaimed authority, as the great-grandson of the previous Alpha, and splits off from the pack

7:35 PM (Approx.) - Seth catches up with Jacob, having chosen to follow him instead of Sam; Jake tells him to go back, but Seth refuses, and posits that his decision may not even be reversible, pointing out that neither of their minds are linked to the rest of the pack anymore; Jacob reluctantly allows Seth to stay

7:40 PM (Approx.) - Jacob and Seth arrive at the Cullen House and warn them of Sam's intentions; Seth leaves to run the perimeter of the Cullen's exclusion zone; Emmett calls Carlisle who had gone hunting with Esme; Edward thanks Jacob, who asks after Bella: Edward says that Bella is worse

7:43 PM (Approx.) - An irate Alice (her clairvoyance stymied by the wolves involvement) demands to be brought up to speed; Seth reports no sign of the attack yet; Jacob leaves to patrol with him

7:50 PM (Approx.) - Seth meets Carlisle and Esme and fills them in

7:52 PM (Approx.) - Seth returns to wolf form and suggests that Sam will have abandoned any plans of attacking now, having lost the vital element of surprise; Jacob recalls his conversation wherein he agreed to kill Edward if Bella dies; Seth, very put out with Jacob for this, begins to howl

7:55 PM (Approx.) - Jacob returns to the house; Edward informs Emmett, put on alert by Seth's howls, that it was a false alarm, and that it seems unlikely that Sam will go forward with the attack

8:00 PM (Approx.) - Jacob patrols outside the house and sees Bella in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV, through the windows; Jake returns to Seth to begin an all-night patrol.

[heart-songs]

She drifted in and out of thin sleep.

Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing (pg. 145)

[abdullahblogsposts]

Imām ash-Shâwkānī (رحمه الله) said:

❝Whoever falls into Shirk ignorantly is not excused because the Ḥujjâh has been established upon all of creation by the coming of the Prophet (ﷺ).

Therefore, whoever is ignorant, then indeed in came from himself due to turning away from the Kitāb and the Sunnāh.❞

📚 [al-Fatḥ al-Rabbānī , pg:145]

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Grendel

CR 19/MR 7

Chaotic Evil Large Monstrous Humanoid

Bestiary 4, pg. 145

Hideous, terrible, and almost unstoppable, Grendel is described by the book as less of a creature and more of a force of nature, but a quick look at his lore block (especially his 2e one) reveals this not to be the case. If he were a force of nature, he would be an impartial destroyer! Instead, though, he specifically targets locations where joy runs high and celebrations ring out into the wilderness, seeking to crush as much happiness as possible with his every foray into civilization. Despising the sounds of happiness and revelry, Grendel attacks such settings with all the brutality of a tornado and the spiteful fury of a demon... After he sneaks, ever so quietly despite his bulk, into the settlement to murder its greatest warriors while they sleep so that no survivors could ever come close to opposing him. He does not seek a fair fight. He’s not even in it for the thrill of battle; he exists to cause pain, spread misery, and remind humanity that death is the only constant in life. Little else brings him more joy than watching the aftermath of his own carnage from afar, seeing the survivors sob over the broken and shredded bodies of their loved ones.

If you’re wondering just how a lumbering goliath like him can be sneaky, look no further than Mythic Skill Focus (Stealth), which allows Grendel to take 10s and 20s on his Stealth checks even while under duress. Without rolling a single dice, Grendel can have a flat 34 to Stealth no matter what the situation, making him all but invisible to the societies he preys upon as he slips behind houses, between shadows, and even across rooftops with no more noise than the wind. If he’s not in any particular hurry, that’s a 44 to Stealth instead, letting him scout out his prey in advance with little risk of being detected. A civilization may be be visited by this horror for many days before he decides to strike the moment they’re at their weakest, slaughtering as many warriors as he can under the cover of night before roaring in rampage to scatter the rest like roaches caught in the sunlight. Unfortunately for him, he NEEDS to be sneaky, because he has only meager resistances (10 each of Cold, Acid, and Fire), no resistances or immunities to any status ailments, and low saves for his Hit Dice.

Against non-Mythic targets, Grendel can certainly feel like a force of nature. He rolls all Fortitude and Will saves against the abilities of non-Mythic foes twice and picks which result he wishes to use, and he has 7 charges of Mythic Surge to use each day as he sees fit to add +1d10 to any d20 roll he feels like. While saving throws are nice and all, Grendel is built to attack, and his Brutal Surge ability emphasizes that better than any: Whenever he Surges on an attack roll, the 1d10 is added to the damage roll as well. He ALREADY has Mythic Power Attack, allowing him to take a -6 penalty to his attack rolls for +18 to damage, so his Surge has a decent chance of negating the penalty altogether and letting him pile sky-high damage... if he doesn’t just opt to spend a Surge point to eliminate the attack penalty completely for 1 whole minute, letting him tack +18 damage to his Full-Attack without worry.

Grendel’s sole means of offense is his raw, physical power: His gigantic claws and his gnashing jaws. Unusually, his jaws are less dangerous than his claws, dealing only 4d8+6 damage compared to 3d10+13 (these are just base numbers; remember he tends to have 18 extra damage!). Those nails also have a critical range of 19-20, and he’s got Bleeding and Exhausting Critical waiting to ruin a melee fighter’s chance of hurting him at all. His claws also Grab onto anything they manage to strike, and more than just about any monster in any book, staying free of Grendel’s grapple should be your highest possible priority. If you don’t have Freedom of Movement or couldn’t cast it before he dropped in and ambushed your party, the casters need to put it on whoever he’s closest to as swiftly as they possibly can, because anyone who remains in his grip when his turn rolls around again is subject to very literally being torn limb from limb.

There is no saving throw a victim can make to prevent their Gruesome Dismemberment, ONLY breaking out of his grapple or not being grappled in the first place can avoid it. Otherwise, Grendel can spend a Surge point to immediately and unavoidably tear off one of the victim’s arms or legs, potentially robbing them of their weapons or shields if they’re a martial character, their somatic spells if they’re a caster, or their mobility if they’re... anything that doesn’t want to be anywhere near Grendel, which should be everything. The agonizing pain inflicts the sickened condition and the cruel tearing deals 2d6 extra bleed damage, both of which last until magical healing is applied, but of course healing the damage is meaningless if the victim can’t break free of Grendel’s grip, because then he can just do it again.

While your options for reattaching severed limbs are plentiful by the time you can expect to fight something like Grendel, your options for doing it mid-combat are basically next to nothing. Regenerate takes 3 rounds to cast, Trollskin Tourniquets take 24 hours to work, and Rings of Regeneration (alongside the regenerative Ioun Stones) take hours or days to restore lost limbs, so none of those options in particular do much to undo the damage the lumbering sadist does. The party’s frontliners are one failed grapple check away from becoming dead weight, and while Grendel is no genius by any stretch of the imagination, he’s smart and wise enough to recognize two-handed weapons or two-weapon fighters, and cautious enough to scout the party ahead of time for priority targets like casters who need both their arms for somatic components, mobile midliners who he can pluck the legs from, and--again--frontliners whose builds rely on them having all their limbs.

Not that those builds would have done much good, anyway; the legends say that Grendel cannot be slain by any weapon or spell, and they’re right. He’s not only Unstoppable, able to expend Surge points to shrug off an enormous list of status ailments (and can do so even if those ailments would have kept him from acting), but he flat out cannot be killed by weapon attacks! Is this a unique ability or power he has?

Nope!

It’s Regeneration 10. Humble Regen 10, which can only be suppressed if Grendel is attacked by a natural weapon or unarmed attack. Depending on your party composition (mainly whether or not there’s a Monk or Brawler present), you’ll either be howling in frustration as the beast refuses to die and slinks back into the swamplands to heal after tearing your arms off, or you won’t notice he even has Regeneration. While this may seem like a pretty glaring weakness, and you may think to yourself ‘so all we have to do is slap him really hard to suppress his healing?’ you’re falling into a terrible trap. Grendel’s DR 10 can only be bypassed by an Epic-quality weapon, so unless you can throw a punch with the force of a greataxe rolling max damage, this is a job for Monks, Brawlers, Wild Shaped Druids, and Animal Companions. Y’know, provided he hasn’t torn off their limbs.

You can read more about them here.