#puffin forest

[katgametable]

Introduction and Master Page

About three years ago, a friend of mine told me that if I really loved DnD, I would have at least 100 gaming podcasts in my library. I am still quite far from that number - and I’m starting to suspect she was having me on - but boy am I having a good time.

What do we do with the things we love? We hoard them, or share them. So let me share with you.

Everything I listen to, or watch, is either on Apple Podcasts (probably others, but that’s the app I use), and/or YouTube.

Oxventure

Main page here

Oxventure, my first and truest love. When I decided to really get into DnD, this was my first actual play show, and it managed to tickle me just right. It has definitely spilled over into my games, and I refuse to be ashamed of my house rule “if it worked in Oxventure, it can work here”, even when it meant a moonbeam blew up a drug lab.

Oxventure was started by video gaming channels Outside Xbox (OXBox) and Outside Xtra (OXtra). Two of the hosts of OXBox, Andy Farrant and Jane Douglas, and the two hosts of OXtra, Ellen Rose and Luke Westaway, got their colleague Johnny Chiodini, then of EuroGamer, to DM a one-off game for them back in 2017. Not much later, the OXs had acquired costumes, convinced the last OXBox host Mike Channell to join, and started doing live shows at cons. Johnny has since spent some time on the channel DiceBreaker (more about them later), and then moved on to their own independent projects. Luke has also left OXtra for his own projects. However, both are still heavily involved in Oxventure, which has gone from strength to strength.

The main series, The Oxventurer’s Guild, was retroactively rearranged into seasons when they changed from almost exclusively one-session adventurers (sometimes broadcast in multiple instalments but recorded in one) to extended storylines. They brought the adventures of the Guild to a close in 2024, but by that point had already spun off two side-series, Blades in the Dark and Deadlands, and announced a new DnD series, Wyrdwood. They also have a selection of special one-offs, One-Shot Wonders and DnD But…, plus several mini-series.

The Adventure Zone

Main page here

As far as I can tell, The Adventure Zone is one of, if not the, oldest actual play shows out there - it debuted several months before Critical Role started streaming. They began with 5e as it was launched; when they started, there was only the Starter Set, not even the Player’s Handbook. Over a decade later, it’s still going strong.

I found them because one of the team co-hosts Sawbones, another podcast I listen to. The team are all one family; Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy and their father Clint. They all have backgrounds in broadcasting and journalism, the boys were early into the podcast game with My Brother, My Brother and Me, and they’ve also done other podcasts. So their games are less technical, more jokey, and prioritise entertainment.

At time of writing, they are on their seventh main campaign, with numerous short series and one-shots, some of which attach to a campaign, some form their own series, and some are stand-alone.

DiceBreaker

DiceBreaker was a YouTube channel set up by Johnny Chiodini along with Michael “Wheels” Whelan and Alex Lolies in 2019. They were joined by Matt Jarvis, Alex Meehan and Sara Elsam. The channel was the home of all things tabletop, covering boardgames, trading card games, and TTRPG, or “pen-and-paper” role play games. Personally I’m only interested in the TTRPGs, though.

In 2020, Sara Elsam left, and then in 2021 Johnny left, and Lolies shortly after. Maddie Cullen and Olivia “Liv” Kennedy came on to take their places.

The parent company was acquired by IGN Entertainment in 2024, and DiceBreaker was shut down without public comment shortly after.

I miss DiceBreaker. Particularly the first two years; Liv and Maddie are great, but the chemistry just wasn’t the same. But I still loved it.

DiceBreaker’s stock in trade was to try a little bit of everything. While they tried extended serieses several times, most of their games were one-shots, often spread over two or three episodes. But their most endearing factor, for me, was a propensity for absolute chaos. They’re probably some of the games I revisit most

…damn I miss them.

Natural Six

Four voice actors and two writer/producers, all veterans of the video game industry, went to the pub to chat DnD, and left the stars of a new show. They recorded an episode zero, played a zero-point-five at a EGX 2023, and started a kickstarter. They got funding for ten episodes, then launched a Patreon to keep going. It’s a really quite high production value show, too.

The DM is Harry McEntire, and the players Doug Cockle, Hollie Bennett, Ben Starr, Aoife Wilson, and Alex Jordan.

The way these guys play is a lot more like a home game; the episodes tend to be longer, and there’s a lot more emphasis on mechanics in certain places. But it’s not too crunchy, it’s still very narrative, and a very cohesive story too, even though it’s clear players are still making a lot of the choices. Currently, there is one campaign, with each episode proper followed by a an after-show called Action Surge.

Fool’s Gold/ Fool’s Gold Sands

A YouTuber called DingoDoodles decided to make an animatic of a particularly memorable incident in her DnD game involving karaoke and a tarrasque. The viewers wanted more, so she animated the next bit. And the next, and the next. She kept going.

Dingo, her DM and now husband Felix, and fellow player Avery have managed to build it up: merchandise such as plushies; a successful kickstarter for a setting book and plethora of accessories; converting the game into a graphic novel; and an actual play with an all-new adventure called Fool's Gold: Sands.

The original animated series is still ongoing; Dingo has said she's not interested in animating the portion of the campaign before the karaoke incident (other than brief flashbacks), but she fully intends to animate to the end of the campaign. And Sands continues with Felix DMing and Dingo and Avery playing. Both are reasonably chaotic (honestly, the way I like it), but Sands feels more cohesive. However, that might be more of a reflection on the difference between Dingo remembering and retelling a game from years ago, and a game happening right now in your ear. Could also indicate Felix has tightened up his worldbuilding over the years. Either is totally fair.

Rusty Quill Gaming

This was recommended to me when they were midway through their…I believe it was their fourth season. I regret that I have yet to actually start the main campaign, as a 150+ episodes backlog is rather daunting. What I have listened to, and very much enjoyed, is their wide variety of one-shot specials utilising a whole host of different systems, and quite often guests as well.

Following the conclusion of their long-running campaign, they decided to start a new project called Chapter and Multiverse. This was relatively short-lived. The RQ network is still going strong - you may have heard of their hit horror podcast The Magnus Archives - but they seem to have stopped gaming. Which is a pity. If they started up a new campaign, I would love to jump in at the start.

The GM for the original campaign was Alex Newell, and the players were Brynn Monroe, Ben Meredith, Lydia Nicholas, and James Ross, who left partway through the campaign, replaced by Helen Gould. The GM for Chapter and Multiverse was Maddy Searle, and the players Ahmed Aljabry, Lowri Ann Davies, Lydia Nicholas, and Pip Gladwin.

Rolling With Difficulty

A couple of veteran podcasters and DnD aficionados decided to try their hand at an actual play show, and it came out quite nicely. It explores the Planescape, but before the Planescape was brought to 5e, which to my mind means DM Austin did a pretty impressive job. They ran a campaign of five seasons, then started a second, currently in its second season.

This is a rather more technical game than most I listen to. While it’s very definitely set into episodes, it feels a lot more like a home game than something like TAZ, which plays to the audience. It’s also less chaotic - some chaos, but much more restrained - but where it shines is in the setting. Not only is there the Planescape world-between-worlds, they explore so many different worlds, many with their own rules governing them. Of course the characters are also well-crafted, with their own quirks and foibles, and the characters and the settings mesh very well together. And of course, the Weird Little Dudes, the ever-growing cast of companion creatures running around at ankle level.

Not all the cast members use full or real names, so bear with. They are Austin Funk, OSP Red, Sophia Ricciardi, Noir, and Wally.

Realms of Peril and Glory

At time of writing (07 Mar 2025), Realms is my newest, and I haven’t really got to grips with it yet. They play a lot of different systems, shorter seasons that sometimes follow on from each other and sometimes don’t. They have guests often, including Johnny Chiodini from Oxventure and DiceBreaker. I will hopefully be able to write a better summary after I’ve familiarised myself with it; I’ve only listened to one short season so far, and it was very good.

I believe the main cast members are Zack Fortais-Gomm (who’s also Oxventure’s producer), James Barbarossa, Maddy Searle, Liz Campbell, Laura Girling, Naomi Clarke, and Pip Gladwin.

Puffin Forest

YouTuber Puffin Forest, Ben, has a wonderful range of bitesized animatics of notable characters or incidents, but he’s also done an absolutely brilliant retelling of an entire Curse of Strahd campaign he played in, another retelling of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and a handful of actual plays.

Ben’s illustrations are great, his breadth of game knowledge is impressive, but his storytelling is astounding. I remember awaiting eagerly each new instalment. He doesn’t seem to be doing much anymore, at least not publishing on YouTube, but what he’s given us is fabulous.

Reba Derps’ Chibi DnD

I'm not trying to throw shade on Reba Derps, she's got a lot more talent and a lot more gumption than me, but I highly doubt you'll ever see this channel on a recommended list. There's not a lot, Reba went silent quite a few years ago now, but it's fun, it's funny, and the illustrations are lovely.

Put simply, it's an animatic retelling what happened in a home game - not unlike the original Fool's Gold, but somewhat less dramatic. But games don't have to be overly dramatic to be fun. This was a series I found very early in my journey to loving DnD, and in reflection, I can see some really clever stuff that went on in that game.

And of course, adventurers in an adorable chibi style.

[bleu-guacamole]

While I understand this is a Doofenshmirtz reference my immediate thought was Absurd from Puffin Forest because that’s basically what his character is

You're a DM for a new batch of players.

They're all presenting their character sheets, but one of them stands out. He's high INT low WIS with a dump stat in CHA, and is level 1 in literally every class available.

You ask him for his backstory, and tell him if he makes a convincing enough one to explain this, you'll let him keep his weird jack-of-all-trades build.

It's going to be a hard sell.

And then he starts talking.

"You see, when I was a small boy, back in Gimmelshtump..."

[bjekkergauken]

Its mermay time babyyyy!

[grabyourhatphotography]

prompt: cave

[feralfennecfox]

Some of my fave critters I saw at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. You can pet the isopods! They're so smooth!

For @angelnumber27 and everyone else who wanted me to take photos on my recent California vacation <3 (Sorry I couldn't get photos of the otters, none of my pictures of them turned out...)

[wallpapersdehetalia]

Don't forget. Idk. Also, what do you think he's holding?

Character: Iceland, Mr. Puffin

Theme: Mystical; Foggy, Mist, Rain; Lake; Forest

[wallcute]

Which frame do you think is more beautiful? other images

[shadowsageingempress]

Kaworu: Well, all I’m saying is that when humans eat animals, it’s not a problem. And when animals eat other animals, that’s fine. But if a person eats another person, it’s all like “oh no, that’s terrible! It’s a bad thing.”

Kaworu: All I’m saying is that I think humanity needs to be a little bit more… consistent with their rules.

Shinji: Now that you mention it, I think you’re onto something. Maybe we should start being vegetarian.

Kaworu: That… That wasn’t actually where I was going with that.

[mrsonvsyoutube]

RPG Story: I've been running Pathfinder 2E for over a year now

[capturing-earths-beauty]

Emily made it on the Tumblr Radar!!!!

I'm so happy for her!

Puffin Stuff

a digital painting

my deviantart

[oldschoolfrp]

Yaztromo's Tower, in Darkwood Forest (Russ Nicholson, Titan: The Fighting Fantasy World, by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, Puffin Books, 1986)

[bestanimal]

Round 3 - Reptilia - Charadriiformes

(Sources - 1, 2, 3, 4)

Our next order of birds are the diverse Charadriiformes, collectively called “shorebirds”. This large order contains the families Burhinidae (“stone-curlews” and “thick-knees”), Pluvianellidae (“Magellanic Plover”), Chionidae (“sheathbills”), Pluvianidae (“Egyptian Plover”), Charadriidae (“plovers”), Recurvirostridae (“stilts” and “avocets”), Ibidorhynchidae (“Ibisbill”), Haematopodidae (“oystercatchers”), Rostratulidae (“painted-snipes”), Jacanidae (“jacanas”), Pedionomidae (“Plains-wanderer”), Thinocoridae (“seedsnipes”), Scolopacidae (“sandpipers”, “snipes”, “curlew”, and kin), Turnicidae (“buttonquails”), Dromadidae (“Crab-plover”), Glareolidae (“coursers” and “pratincoles”), Laridae (“gulls”, “terns”, “skimmers”, and kin), Stercorariidae (“skuas”), and Alcidae (“auks”, “puffins”, “guillemots”, and kin).

Charadriiformes are small to medium-large birds that typically live near water, however, some live in the open sea, some live in dense forest, and some living in deserts. Most eat small animals ranging from invertebrates to fish to other birds. The order was formerly divided into three suborders based on behavior, the “waders”, the “gulls”, and the “auks”, but these three groups were paraphyletic. However, they represent a good summary of the main forms charadriiformes can take. The “waders” are generally long-legged, long-beaked birds which tend to feed by probing in the mud or picking items off the surface in both coastal and freshwater environments (however, terrestrial shorebirds like the Woodcock [Scolopax minor] and thick-knees [family Burhinidae] would also be considered “waders”). The “gulls” are generally larger species which catch fish from the sea, scavenge, or steal food from other animals. The “auks” are coastal species which nest on sea cliffs and dive underwater to catch fish, on flipper-like wings that can swim as well as fly. Now, it is generally understood that the auks are closer related to the gulls than any other family, and birds traditionally considered “waders” exist in all three suborders. Charadriiformes are one of the most, if not the most, widely dispersed bird orders, living on every continent and in almost every habitat.

Charadriiformes demonstrate a larger diversity of reproduction strategies than do most other bird orders (see propaganda below the cut for more). In most species, both parents take care of the young, but in some, the father is the main caretaker. Some breed and raise young in large colonies, while others nest alone.

Alongside the waterfowl, the Charadriiformes are the only other order of modern bird to have an established fossil record within the Late Cretaceous, living alongside the other dinosaurs. The modern groups of charadriiformes emerged around the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, roughly 35–30 million years ago.

Propaganda under the cut:

Many of the “stone-curlews” or “thick-knees” (family Burhinidae) are nocturnal, singing their eerie wailing songs at night. Suiting their nocturnal habits, they have very large, yellow eyes. They are effective hunters of insects, and some farmers will keep tamed thick-knees around their fields for pest control.

Like flamingos, the rare Magellanic Plover (Pluvianellus socialis) lives and breeds near saline lakes.

The unique Sheathbills (genus Chionis) are the only Antarctic birds without webbed feet.

Sheathbills and the Spur-winged Lapwing (Vanellus spinosus) have rudimentary spurs on their “wrists”, in place of wing claws, which they use for defense.

The “Trochilus” or “Trochilos”, sometimes called the “Crocodile Bird”, is a mythical bird first described by Herodotus (c. 440 BC), and later by Aristotle, Pliny, and Aelian, which was supposed to have been in a symbiotic relationship with the Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus), supposedly cleaning parasites and debris from the crocodile’s mouth and teeth. Various charadriiformes have been suggested as the inspiration for the Trochilus, including the Spur-winged Lapwing and Egyptian Plover (Pluvianus aegyptius). These birds are the most likely to feed around basking crocodiles, and tend to be tolerated by them, but this “tooth-cleaning” behavior has never been witnessed in the modern day. Nevertheless, the legend has become so prominent that these birds are sometimes still used as examples of symbiotic relationships!

The European Golden Plover (Pluvialis apricaria) spends its summers in Iceland, and in Icelandic folklore, the appearance of the first plover in the country means that spring has arrived. The Icelandic media always covers the first plover sighting.

The avocets (genus Recurvirostra) (image 2) are some of the only birds with upturned beaks. They use their strange beaks to feed on small invertebrates such as brine shrimp (genus Artemia) and brine fly (family Ephydridae) larvae.

The unique Ibisbill (Ibidorhyncha struthersii) has evolved a convergent appearance to the unrelated Ibises (subfamily Threskiornithinae), which are Pelecaniformes. Its long, downward-curved bill is used similarly to the ibises, as it probes under rocks or gravel for aquatic insect larvae.

Another charadriiform to convergently evolve with a pelecaniform is the Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea). While it is the size of a typical sandpiper, it has the spoon-shaped bill of a Spoonbill (genus Platalea). It has a similar feeding behavior to spoonbills, moving its bill side-to-side as it walks forward with its head down. However, this sandpiper typically feeds on tundra mosses, as well as small animals like mosquitoes, flies, beetles, and spiders, as well as brine shrimp occasionally. The Spoon-billed Sandpiper is critically endangered, and its population has been decreasing since the 1970s. It is estimated the species may become extinct in 10–20 years if its habitat is not protected. The Spoon-billed Sandpiper was the milestone 13,000th animal photographed for Joel Sartore’s The Photo Ark.

While oystercatchers (genus Haematopus) are monogamous and tend to return to the same nesting site every year, some have been observed “egg dumping”, laying their eggs in the nests of other birds such as gulls.

The Jacanas (family Jacanidae) (image 4) are sometimes referred to as “Jesus Birds” or “Lily Trotters” due to their highly elongated toes and toenails that allow them to spread out their weight while foraging on floating vegetation, giving them the appearance of walking on water. They are one of the rare groups of birds in which females are larger, and several species maintain harems of males in the breeding season with males solely responsible for incubating eggs and taking care of the chicks.

A “snipe hunt” is a type of practical joke or hazing, in existence in summer camps and scout groups in North America as early as the 1840s, in which an unsuspecting newcomer is duped into trying to catch an elusive animal called a snipe, a creature whose description varies. However, snipes (three separate genera in the family Scolopacidae) are actual birds, who search for invertebrates in marshland mud with their long, sensitive bills, and are highly alert. They would be hard to catch in a pillow case.

The Ruff (Calidris pugnax) is notable for having 4 separate sexes: 1 female and 3 types of male. The most common male, called the “territorial male” has a black or chestnut ruff, is much larger than the female, and stakes out a small mating territory in the lek. They perform elaborate displays that include wing fluttering, jumping, standing upright, crouching with their ruff erect, or lunging at rivals. The second type of male is the “satellite male”, which have white or mottled ruffs, are larger than females but smaller than territorial males, and do not occupy territories. Satellite males enter leks and attempt to mate with the females visiting the territories occupied by territorial males. Territorial males tolerate the satellite males because, although they are competitors for mating with the females, the presence of both types of male on a territory attracts additional females. The rarest type of male is the cryptic male, or "faeder", which permanently mimics the females in both size and plumage. Faeders migrate with the larger males and spend the winter with them, but use their appearance to “sneak” into leks and gain access to females. Females often seem to prefer mating with faeders to the more common males, and those males also copulate with faeders (and vice versa) relatively more often than with females. Homosexual copulations may attract females to the lek, like the presence of satellite males. Satellite males seem to be more attracted to faeders, and in homosexual encounters, the faeders are usually “on top”, suggesting that the satellite males know their true identity. The behaviour and appearance of each male Ruff remains constant through its adult life, and is determined by genetics.

The unique buttonquails (family Turnicidae) convergently evolved the small, round shape of the galliform quails. Unlike true quails, the female buttonquail is the more richly colored of the sexes. Both sexes cooperate in building a nest in the earth, but normally only the male incubates the eggs and tends the young, while the female may go on to mate with other males.

The stork-like Crab-plover (Dromas ardeola) is unique among waders for the shape of its bill, specialized for eating crabs, and for making use of ground warmth to aid the incubation of its eggs. The nest burrow temperature is optimal due to solar radiation and the parents are able to leave the nest unattended for as long as 58 hours, protected by large colonies of up to 1,500 pairs. The chicks are also unique for for being less precocial than other waders, and are unable to walk and remain in the nest for several days after hatching, having food brought to them. Even once they fledge they have a long period of parental care afterwards.

The skimmers (genus Rynchops) are the only birds which have a built-in underbite, where the lower mandible is longer than the upper. This adaptation allows them to fish in a unique way, flying low and fast over streams, letting their lower mandible skim over the water's surface, ready to snap shut the moment it touches a fish.

The Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) is the only species of bird known to have slit-shaped pupils.

Gulls, Skimmers, and Noddies can see ultraviolet light.

The snow-white, pigeon-like Ivory Gull (Pagophila eburnea) breeds in the high Arctic and is an opportunistic scavenger. It has been known to follow Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) and other predators to feed on the remains of their kills.

Some species of gull, such as the Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla) and Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus) have adapted to live alongside humans in places where humans have overtaken their habitat. These gulls have little fear of humans, and will pirate food from them just as they would any other animal.

Auks are superficially similar to penguins, having black-and-white colours, upright posture, and adaptations for swimming underwater. However, they are an example of convergent evolution, and are not closely related to penguins. Auks fill the niche of penguins around the arctic, while penguins fill the niche of auks around the antarctic.

In fact, the extinct, flightless Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) was the original “penguin”. Penguin was the Spanish, Portuguese and French name for the species, derived from the Latin pinguis, meaning "plump". The penguins of the Southern Hemisphere were named after it because of their similar appearance and flightlessness. The last two confirmed Great Auks were killed on Eldey, off the coast of Iceland, on June 3, 1844.

[herpsandbirds]

i'm gonna be studying in Wales, UK later this year and i'm excited about seeing all the new birds. Can you show me some birds common in Wales please? 🙏 absolutely in love with your blog.

Hello, yess, here are a few lovely birds you can find in Wales.

And here are a few resources for Welsh birds:

List of birds of Wales - Wikipedia

Welsh Ornithological Society (WOS) | Birds in Wales

European Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis), male, family Picidae, order Piciformes, Cardiff, Wales

photograph by Mike Brownhill

Goldfinch aka European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), family Fringillidae, order Passeriformes, Wales

photograph by Andy Rouse Photography

Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea), family Sittidae, order Passeriformes, Forest Farm Country Park, Cardiff, Wales

photograph by Mike Brownhill

Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica), family Alcidae, order Charadriiformes, Wales, UK

photograph by Sean Weekly Photography

Red Kite (Milvus milvus), family Accipitrdae, order Accipitriformes, Wales

photograph by StrawberrySkiesYurts

[gluevah]

Yesterday, I went to the National Aquarium with Jeremy and some friends. Vaporeon and Quagsire came along! :D

They had a fun adventure seeing all the habitats and exhibits! Vaporeon's favorite was the rain forest exhibit, and Quagsire really liked the puffins (and one of them seemed to like him, too!)

[earthnashes]

It's been a long day, and Melon is exhausted. Ever since escaping Hookbill and those pesky Lakitus, he and Mario had been on the move almost non-stop, taking advantage of the Super Star Fruit's power to cover more distance. But it had to wear off eventually, with Mario burping off the remnant of the magic before they slowly--but surely- sunk all the way back to the forest floor and in the middle of the Sluggy Snowdrift Mountains.

As soon as they touched ground a blizzard fell upon them, and Melon set out to find suitable shelter.

So far, no such luck. No matter where he turned, all Melon could see was the vast expanse of snow, the screen of heavy snowflakes, and the dark silhouettes of tall mountain peaks in the distance. As a yoshi the cold didn't bother him as much, but he could feel the shivering of Mario upon his back even wrapped so tightly in his favorite blankie (how he managed to keep it, Melon can't be too sure).

Melon stopped for only a moment, just to pick the boy up from his back and instead cradle him close to his chest. He huffed hot air across Mario's red-tinged face, tucked his blanket closer (if that were possible). When all Mario did in response was shiver even harder, Melon let out a trill of distress; he had to find something.

With his eyes straining against the blizzard Melon set off again, head on a swivel in hopes of finding anything that could work.

His luck finally earned him a place in the form of an old burrow. It must've been home to a Huffin Puffin before it migrated. Whatever the case, it was empty, and Melon wasted no time setting the place straight.

Snow was dug out and away, debris cleared, dirt scrapped until it lay flat and dry. Only when he felt it right did he set Mario down in the bare nest, being sure to tuck him into his blanket before he settled in himself. Melon positioned himself in front of the entrance to shield the boy from the cold, curling protectively around him.

He didn't dare sleep, not at first. He waited until he felt Mario's shivering subsided, until his breath evened out into the cadence of a peaceful slumber. Until he was sure the kid was warm and secure, red eyes trained on his face for any sign of discomfort.

Mario eventually sighs and snuggles deeper into the yoshi's side, chewing contently on his binki, and it's only then Melon allows the insistent pull of sleep to drag him under.

-----------

Against the darkness of the night, three pairs of red eyes peek into the den. Even against the howl of the blizzard they can hear the reptile's rumbling from within; it's likely a purr, but one as small as a mouse can never be too careful.

Two of the three stay back, mindful of their distance, but one braves the entrance and quietly patters into the den. Closer to the yoshi and the human cub he's curled around.

The hidden mousers squeak out questioningly, but the brave one doesn't answer at first. It clambers up a rock and leans as far as it dares, peering into the sleeping face of the small child.

Brown hair? Check.

Big nose? Check.

Red hat with an M? Double check.

This is the one they were searching for. The Tweeters reported true.

Finally the brave Mouser squeaks its affirmative; perhaps a little loudly, if the sudden growl--sleepy but full of warning-- was of any indication. The rodents flee the den before they could wake the yoshi and his boy up, cowardly but excited nonetheless.

The boss will be very pleased with their findings.

-------------------

Part 7<<– Part 8 (CURRENT) –>> Part 9 (TBA)

-------------------

Part 8 of Melon's Adventure is here! :) We're now entering the home stretch of the first act of this story; only 2 more parts to go!

I'm super excited to finally get so close to the end, largely because I have plans on making mini artbooks out of the story's illustrations (it'll include both the art and the written shorts). The books is planned to also include things like concept art, a few WIP progress shots of some of the pages, character bios of the main characters + enemies, and unique cover art. It's gonna be a bit of an undertaking but I think it'll be fun!

At any rate, that's all for now! Apologies for the writing in this one; I've been a little sick the past few days so the quality may have suffered a little bit, but I wanted to deliver both to ya'll on time. ;_; I hope you enjoy! More to come soon!

[vamp-bites]

Happy Icelandic day of independence🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸 fuck you denmark♡

Fun iceland facts of the day:

The 17th of June is celebrated as our day of independence but we actually fully officially got independence on the 1st of december

We celebrate the 17th because its the birthday of the guy who was out in Denmark in 1944 and was like "hey guys, hear me out, what if you let iceland rule itself? We've kinda been asking for years and you're kinda under nazi occupation right now so they're doing their own stuff over there anyway cause you can't really intervene cause of the. The nazis."

I dont know why we celebrate his birthday. He didn't even fucking live here, he moved to Denmark when he was young and never came back, false idol that he is (Jón Sigurðsson)

Iceland was originally under Norway (thats where we came from, mostly) but then Denmark claimed us in the divorce (they invaded Norway in 1537 and turned it into a Danish puppet-state)

Iceland is bigger than Denmark in land mass but wayyy smaller in population and no one is happy about this

Why is our population so low? Why do we all live around the shores and not in the middle of the land? Well, you see, like 90% of this country is uninhabitable. It is just mountains and glaciers and ravines and black sands and fields of nothing out there. Only 2% of the country is forested, and most of it is imported

We do not have an army. And yet we have been in a war. The Cod Wars. A small Icelandic fishing boat rammed itself into the side of a huge British ship fishing in our waters. The brits got really offended because the giant hole we made in their ship knocked over a picture of the queen. America had to intervene so we wouldn't keep sending our tiny but fast fishing boats headfirst into British ships fit for war. In our defense, our pride and our fish were on the line

Pretty much all Icelanders are at least bilingual, tho they try to make us trilingual but very few of us actually retain any of the Danish they try to teach us at school, Icelandic preteens notoriously hate Danish (or maybe that was just me)

We make ourselves out to have descended from great vikings, its basically our whole brand besides puffins who aren't even our national bird we just love to show off our puffin population, but we actually weren't really vikings, we came mostly from farmers

Half of the country is located in the American continent, and the other half is in Europe, there's a mall out in the country that has a line down the middle of it because that's where the line between the continents splits and u can walk between America and Europe

We had the worlds first female president (Vigdís Finnbogadóttir🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸🇮🇸)

Despite our low crime rates, we have an unusually high crime fiction writer rate

I'll leave the fun facts about the phallus museum and the likes for next time, gleðilegan 17. júní góða fólk!