#puzzle 63

[bugpysforge]

Try and Guess the Pokemon at dextrio.app

[nytconnections]

Connections Puzzle #63 🟦🟩🟪🟦 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪

[strawberrycandykitty]

Original

[alistairian]

Update: I'm still terrible at math

[queencvbra]

Tory is 100% convinced she could win The A.mazing R.ace.

[todays-xkcd]

Hint: If you ever encounter this puzzle in a crossword app, just [term for someone with a competitive and high-achieving personality].

A Crossword Puzzle [Explained]

Transcript

[A square 15x15 crossword puzzle is shown. Only 21 of the 225 squares are black. The black squares are in a pattern that are 180 degree rotationally symmetrical. Three black squares down from the 11th column and similarly three black squares up from the 5th column. Three black squares out from the right in row 7 and then two more black squares diagonally up from the end. Similarly three black squares out from the left in row 9 with two more black squares diagonally down from the end. A single black square is three above the first black square on the diagonal going down to the right and similarly there is a black square three under the first of the diagonal squares going down to the left. (Row 6 column 12 and Row 10 column 4). Finally there are three black squares on a diagonal crossing over the central point by going up from the left through the central point (Row 8 column 8). There are numbers at the top of every column (except the one that is a black square) and similarly at the left edge of all rows (except the one that is a black square). There are also numbers at the bottom of every black segment (except the one that reaches the bottom) and all rows after black segments except the one that reaches the right edge. In total all numbers from 1 to 51 is written. They are written in reading order from 1 to 51.]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51

[Below the square there are two rows of clues for each number that belongs to across (rows) and to the right there are one row of clues for each number that belongs to down (columns). Both segments have an underlined and bold title above the clues. ]

'''Across'''

1. Famous Pvt. Wilhelm quote

11. IPv6 address record

15. "CIPHERTEXT" decrypted with Vigenère key "CIPHERTEXT"

16. 8mm diameter battery

17. "Warthog" attack aircraft

18. Every third letter in the word for "inability to visualize"

19. An acrostic hidden on the first page of the dictionary

21. Default paper size in Europe

22. First four unary strings

23. Lysine codon

24. 40 CFR Part 63 subpart concerning asphalt pollution

25. Top bond credit rating

26. Audi coupe

27. A pair of small remote batteries, when inserted

29. Unofficial Howard Dean slogan

32. A 4.0 report card

33. The "Harlem Globetrotters of baseball" (vowels only)

34. 2018 Kiefer song

35. Top Minor League tier

36. Reply elicited by a dentist

38. ANAA's airport

41. Macaulay Culkin's review of aftershave

43. Marketing agency trade grp.

44. Soaring climax of Linda Eder's ''Man of La Mancha''

46. Military flight community org.

47. Iconic line from ''Tarzan''

48. Every other letter of Jimmy Wales's birth state

49. Warthog's postscript after "They call me ''mister'' pig!"

50. Message to Elsa in ''Frozen 2''

51. Lola, when betting it all on Black 20 in ''Run Lola Run''

“Down

1. Game featuring "a reckless disregard for gravity"

2. 101010101010101010101010 [sub]2→16

3. Google phone released July '22

4. It's five times better than that ''other'' steak sauce

5. ToHex(43690)

6. Freddie Mercury lyric from ''Under Pressure''

7. Full-size Audi luxury sedan

8. Fast path through a multiple choice marketing survey

9. 12356631 in base 26

10. Viral Jimmy Barnes chorus

11. Ruby Rhod catchphrase

12. badbeef + 9efcebbb

13. In Wet Let's ''Ur Mum'', what the singer has been practicing

14. Refrain from Nora Reed bot

20. Mario button presses to ascend Minas Tirith's walls

24. Vermont historic route north from Bennington

26. High-budget video game

28. Unorthodox Tic-Tac-Toe win

29. String whose SHA-256 hash ends "...689510285e212385"

30. Arnold's remark to the Predator

31. The vowels in the fire salamander's binomial name

32. Janet Leigh ''Psycho'' line

34. Seven 440Hz pulses

37. Audi luxury sports sedan

38. A half-dozen eggs with reasonably firm yolks

39. 2-2-2-2-2-2 on a multitap phone keypad

40. .- .- .- .- .- .-

42. Rating for China's best tourist attractions

43. Standard drumstick size

45. "The rain/in Spain/falls main-/ly on the plain" rhyme scheme

[omnomnomdomcaps]

All Game No Life (Remastered)

Another Halloween, another lovely opportunity to explore the bewitching, twisted, and the spooky of ab/dl fiction. This one was a collab with @drdaddy19, who you should totally check out!

To the adoring viewers, she was the legendary Kamiya254, a strategy-minded master of simulation, role-playing, and puzzle games. In reality, she was Steff, a dean’s list college student and star track athlete. And Steff was bored.  

She had conquered all the popular titles, besting many of her rival streamers - and never letting them forget it. But wanted a new challenge, and so she asked her followers for a suggestion - something deep and immersive, something she'd never seen before. And luckily, one of them had just the pick. 

From the moment she started Doctor D's Infinite Playground, Steff was impressed by the colorful aesthetic and creative level designs. The puzzles were wacky, the world was full of rich detail, and the play was simple and addictive. There was just one problem - her character sucked. 

Steff was baffled. How was she supposed to navigate through the world and solve puzzles with a character that couldn't even walk, or talk to the NPCs? Did she really have to crawl through every level? So she asked her follower for help - the same one who suggested the game - and he delivered. 

It all came down, he pointed out, to a hidden menu for character customization, and Steff was stunned when she saw how easy it looked. There was no request for payment, no gold or gems or progress required. All it took was a simple press of an "Upgrade" button with a large red "WARNING!" underneath it. 

It seemed too good to be true. And sure enough, when she pressed it, the girl felt an electric shock. 

"Well, this is new," she remarked, trying to shake off the odd sensation. Somehow, though, it only made the game seem more intriguing, and if that was all she had to pay to upgrade, it seemed like a great deal. And so, Steff brushed off her dull headache as the result of too much playing, and pressed on with her powered-up character, easing through the next few levels as she was finally able to move around comfortably and gather information from the other characters. 

That night, she bought herself a stuffed animal. She didn't know why - it just felt right. 

Steff was completely hooked. She kept upgrading, zooming through levels as her character gained ability after ability, learning to jump, drive, swim, and even sneak around undetected in the game world. All the while, her pile of stuffies grew, and her bedroom transformed from a simple gaming den to a pink and pastel wonderland. 

Of course, as she was quickly becoming incapable of realizing, the boosts in her character’s abilities and intelligence were coming at the cost of her own. As she went deeper and deeper into the game, she started to falter at those track meets she once dominated, finishing 4th, then 10th, then last. Her grades, once top of her class, began to plummet. And her commentary, once full of powerful strategic insight, turned to clueless, childish babble - something her viewers seemed to enjoy tremendously.

By the time she reached Level 38, Steff had to drop out of school altogether, unable to keep up with what her professors were saying. She chalked it up to the time she spent playing, but it didn't matter to her anyway - she had always dreamed of being a full-time streamer, and her follower count was booming.

By level 63, though, the girl was even struggling with getting her console set up. Luckily, a follower volunteered to come over and help her- the same one who told her about the character upgrade hack, the very same one who suggested she buy the game in the first place. The old Steff would never be so naive as to invite over a complete stranger like that, but she had fallen far from the old Steff. 

Her character’s stats and skills were through the roof, but the game’s puzzles were giving her headaches. Even when her chat seemed to insist they were simple challenges that small children could solve, Steff found herself baffled, and if any numbers were involved she would simply give up. Pumping more stats into her character seemed to be her only option, but she swore off the upgrade button after her regular electric shock on level 81 caused her to wet herself suddenly, leaking through her pants in front of all her viewers (who seemed to eat it up).   

Her new friend, though, was more than happy to help, guiding “Steffie,” as he called her, along through the play, reading and explaining text on screen to her, and always checking to make sure she remembered to go potty while streaming. And when he noticed that she kept trying to play one-handed because of a thumb-sucking habit she developed, he was even nice enough to find a pacifier for her to use. She started calling him Daddy, and he seemed to enjoy that. 

And then, she reached level 96. Even with a character capable of flying, punching through walls, and reading minds, it seemed she had no way of breaking through. Frustrated, Steffie banged her fists against her bed, bawling as her chat gawked at her tantrum. But as her daddy pointed out, it seemed the only way forward would be to max out her character completely. 

And so, Steffie went to the hidden menu, and clicked the “Upgrade” button one last time.   

In an instant, everything went blank. The girl spent several minutes sitting on her bed in a stupor, sucking rhythmically on her pacifier as the last remnants of her intelligence were sapped away into the game. When it was done, she collapsed onto the bed in a heap, toppling over her tall can of iced tea in the process. Two puddles immediately formed - one around the can, that had spilled onto the carpet below, and the other around the bottom of Steffie’s short blue dress, as her new lack of potty control made itself readily apparent to her viewers. 

She would keep playing after that - sort of. Her daddy worked through the levels for her, while Steffie just sat and watched, oohing and aahing at the flashing colors. By then, she was nothing more than an oversized infant - she had forgotten how to read, how to count, how to walk and how to talk. She would often giggle as she mindlessly filled her diapers on stream, bouncing and squishing on the bed while her daddy finished each new level. 

But her character? Her character was unstoppable.

****

Image Credit: LittleforBig (IG)

Model: Mercurial Mouse

This picture has been modified from its original version

[cosmowes]

100 things to try

getting off the phone can be hard. i find that i’m only ever motivated to do it when there’s something else to do. so! here are those things, dollie.

hobbies:

collecting (figurines, blind boxes, vinyls, books…)

2. embroidery

3. thrift flips / diying clothes

4. jewelry making

5. kandi

6. collage making

7. painting

8. sketching

9. start an album list

10. thrifting

11. baking (w/o the box mix !!)

12. cooking

13. origami

14. doll customization

15. making stuffed animals

16. building models

17. clay sculpting

18. customizing shoes

19. dancing

20. yoga

21. pilates

22. singing

23. learn an instrument

24. skating (skateboard, roller skating/blading, ice skating)

25. biking

26. hiking

27. jogging/running

28. doing nails

29. doing hair

30. building costumes/cosplays

31. soapmaking

32. play dnd

33. writing

34. poetry

35. web design

36. character design

37. graphic design

38. font design

39. make short films

40. make bath bombs

41. start tutoring people

42. join a new club

43. start a book club w/ friends

44. read a play

45. write a play

46. go see a play (support small theatres!!! wooh)

47. journaling

48. programming

49. design clothes

50. crochet

halfway through… ps, if you’ve had the energy to scroll this, you have the energy to start one. pick your battles!

51. knitting

52. cross stitch

53. beading

54. learn solitaire

55. typing

56. learn cursive

57. start learning a language

58. make a dreamcatcher

59. start making smoothies

60. take cute notes

61. photography

62. climb a tree!!!

63. swimming

64. press flowers

65. get a pen pal

66. make tea (the nice kind)

67. make coffee (same as above)

68. make bookmarts

69. annotate books

70. jigsaw puzzles

71. crosswords

72. sudokus

73. word searches

74. quilting

75. make perfume

76. make lightboxes

77. skincare

78. making jams

79. whittling

80. carpentry

91. tie dye

92. archery

93. axe throwing

94. martial arts

95. making ornaments

96. music writing

97. terrariums

98. gardening

99. scrapbooking

100. pottery

[empressofthewind]

Full List of Near's Toys & Activities:

Chapters 59 & 61: Puts together a blank puzzle with "L" in the corner

Chapter 61: Builds a tower of regular playing cards

Chapter 62: Builds a tower of matchsticks

Chapters 63 & 64: Tries (and fails) to throw darts at a dart board

Chapter 66: Builds what looks like an entire city of dice, and then proceeds to wreak havoc on the city when his team members die

Chapter 67: Surrounds himself with multiple "plastic models" (as described in HTR13) - includes robots and several planes/air vehicles, as well as crafting supplies which he uses to glue the robot back together after purposefully breaking it

Chapter 71: Handcrafts a dart that looks like an evil narwhal, fails to throw it at the board and breaks one of his robots with it instead

Chapter 75: Sits in the centre of a Lego structure, surrounded by many other toys including his robots. Breaks one of the Lego walls using a robot

Chapter 76: Sits in the centre of a circular train track. Later when Mello shows up, he is playing with a robot and a plastic gun

Chapter 77: Plays with a few plastic robots

Chapter 78: Surrounds himself with a ring of tarot cards

Chapter 79: Plays with a "secret base set" (once again, HTR13 wording) which looks like a large diorama with palm trees, a road and some nondescript building in the background. At the end of this chapter, he can be seen breaking a robot

Chapter 80: Attempts to smuggle six robots into his new base; only manages to smuggle five (interestingly only five are mentioned on his toy list in HTR13, so I'm guessing this is actually just a continuity error)

Chapter 81: Plays with a robot, then builds a small structure using dice

Chapter 82: Reveals that the dice in the structure are actually boxes containing even more dice and empties them out onto the desk. Then moves on to his robots

Chapter 83: Plays with a toy plane

Chapter 85: Uses finger puppets to represent his thought process

Chapter 86: Plays with two remote-controlled rubber ducks in an inflatable pool

Chapter 88: Now has a total of 28 rubber ducks. Stacks several of them on top of each other, then fills the pool with them. 10 are left on the floor

Chapter 89: Builds a radio tower out of paper

Chapters 90-94: Once again uses models to represent his thought process; this time he has Lego figurines, a model of the NHN building, a plastic gun and a tiny notebook. He also decorates his Christmas tree with them in Chapter 92

Chapter 94: The finger puppets return in the second half of the chapter

Chapter 95: Plays with a marble roller coaster

Chapter 96: Works on Misa Amane's finger puppet

Chapter 97: Has kagami mochi on the floor with several plastic toys surrounding it; he can be seen playing with one of them

Chapter 98: Uses his puppets while explaining his rules for the warehouse confrontation, and also brings out the miniature notebook from chapter 90

Chapters 100-107: Uses his puppets again when necessary, and also wears a mask of L which he apparently made himself

Chapter 108: Plays with a robot and eats chocolate while surrounded by an array of plastic figurines

[littleseasalt]

Update on @v@ arg

SO! First of all, I wanna say that we did get the answer to the flower enigma two days ago: the answer is "Tallulah" and we get that by the first letter in the flowers names. However, the "u" is filling a gap, because in the video, instead of a flower that starts with the letter "u", theres a question mark. We do know it's the right answer because when we get the right answer we also get the thank you message, which we did get that day.

NOW. Here's the resolve from the help me message enigma. Once again, I'm translating stuff from cellbit's discord so props to them!

First of all, if you haven't seen it yet, here's the "help me" animation from yesterday's stream.

At almost the same time, forever's channel's twitter accounts posts yet again, with the tweet saying "I need your help, one last time" and a "help me" in echantmant table symbols.

THEN, at the same time, this is where @disfrutalakia post about the arg enters. There's the message on the website that translates into "the sound that the clock does? @v@", with new sound on the background.

They analyzed the website audio's spectrogram, and realized that it's actually a code. "aW5ienlfa21jaHp2b3NfeHd5eG13d2k=". Using the Base64 on this code, it turns into "inbzy_kmchzvos_xwyxmwwi", which, at first look would mean nothing, but following the "the sound that the clock does" clue, they put the code in a TikTok URL, finding the profile @inbzy_kmchzvos_xwyxmwwi

In the description of each video, there's a different code.

Video 1 - 70 72 65 63 69 73 6f Video 2 - 64 65 Video 3 - 61 6a 75 64 61 Video 4 - 65 6c 65 73 Video 5 - 6e e3 6f Video 6 - 70 6f 64 65 6d Video 7 - 6d 65 Video 8 - 70 61 72 61 72 Video 9 - 61 67 6f 72 61

Decodifying that in hexadecimal, we get the phrase "I need help they can't stop me now"

On the videos themselves, a picture would always blink. The pictures from a puzzle.

At the end, what they got from the binary code was "Dqpoamtbsav / Sajidp / Xcpq". After they sent this answer, a new link was made available: https://foreverstudios.com.br This new link has a timer, at the time I'm making this post this is how it looks like:

(the timer is set to end at 17 PM brasília time (GMT-3), today. which is also usually the time forever generally starts his livestreams btw)

We also got a new post on twitter. "almost there... keep these informations for the right time." The echantmant table translation goes "you just need to wait..."

So, yeah! This was yesterday's part of the arg. Let's all hold hands and pray for forever's stream today lmao

Once again HUGE props to cellbit's discord and also forever's team for coming up with this arg! Here's a link to the cellbit discord fan twitter account and also noozy's twitter account, since shes the main person behind the arg stuff <3

[haunting-heroes-creative-games]

Guess That Fic: Rec List Pt 7

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6]

Haunting Heroes DPxDC Discord played a fun game during 2023 named "Guess That Fic?" (hosted by the amazing DisillusionedDanny). The premise: guess the name of a DPxDC story based on the following bad summaries, memes, or strings of emojis.

Here are the stories suggested by some of our members for rounds 61-70, anonymized so you can play and find new stories to read (thanks to Nixxie, T (Ectoentity), Chroma, Dizzly Puzzled, and Leith for these submissions!)

Ready for more guessing? 👀

61. [Story Link] - (Hint: It's a summary)

62. [Story Link]

Jason and Danny meet up to fight randomly for months before they learn each others' names.

[More under the cut]

63. [Story Link]

Danny didn’t mean to kill the Joker. Or get adopted by Catwoman.

64. [Story Link]

Jason is charged with taking care of the baby ghost king and has to be roommates with the Fright Knight.

65. [Story Link]

66. [Story Link]

67. [Story Link]

👍➕🚫🪦➖👻📖🚼🦸‍♂️🚫🪦

68. [Story Link]

🦸‍♂️🤷😮‍💨🤡🦇👻👻😈

69. [Story Link]

70. [Story Link]

Danny's pissed, the Bats are panicking, Jason's dramatic, and Tim hates dreaming

[Jump to the next part]

[cicerfics]

007 Fest 2024: Masterpost

Just made it to the finish line, with 100% of my goals complete! Like Bond, I left a few things till the very last minute, but I managed to pull off a win!

Here's a round-up of all my Fest stuff from this month!

Fics

An Exhaustive Review of the Quartermaster's Favorite Jumpers, Personally Rated and Reviewed By 007

black cat, nine lives (short days, long nights)

like a match in a forest fire

as gaps between the teeth

Headcanons

The MI6 crew's film and TV preferences

The MI6 crew's approach to workplace gossip

What the MI6 crew wanted to be when they grew up

Bond's quirks when filling out his AARs (PLEASE read everyone else's notes/reblogs for this post!!)

Post-retirement 00Q headcanon

Puzzles

Skyfall crossword puzzle

Cipher puzzle

Playlists

Are You Missing Me? - A Post-SPECTRE 00Q Playlist

More of a Man - A Bond/Vesper Playlist

Scavenger Hunt Items

#45 - Design a wedding invitation for the ship of your choice

#63 - Send a message of encouragement or positivity to someone from another station

#66 - Spot a Bond reference in the wild

Meta

About Craig Mitchell's betrayal and its impact on Bond

Memes

The Quartermaster of MI6

James Bond: Equipment Destroyer

Incorrect Quotes

Incorrect Quotes #1

Incorrect Quotes #2

Incorrect Quotes #3

Incorrect Quotes #4

[oloreandil]

Months and months ago I saw this post with these tags by nateriverswife (whose blogs no longer exists): "#I wonder why he corrected himself #was it to keep an emotional distance from them or something". I had a look at the surrounding chapters and thought “Wow, it’s interesting that Near uses two different types of building blocks for his castles :)”. And now here I am. Let’s talk about how Near’s use of toys parallels his state of mind and investigative methods as he solves the Kira case !

I’m tagging @neallo and @applestorms since they asked to know when this would be up ! (it's been 84 years… hello……). My deepest thanks to @peace-and-a-place-of-your-own for reading this over !

Puzzle (vol. 7 – ch. 59 + 61)

No toys during vol. 8 – ch. 65

Near first appears in the manga completely isolated and refusing contact : he doesn’t want to play with the other children at the orphanage, instead, he’s completing the same puzzle on a loop, entirely white with an L in the corner (started from the middle because it’s harder but he knows it by heart anyway. And also to flex, I assume). Roger calls him to his office with Mello to tell them that L is dead right before he can complete the letter, to really lay it thick with the symbolism.

On top of that, to highlight the dichotomy of Near as withdrawn and Mello as animated, Mello is first shown playing football outside. He says to Roger : “Unlike me, Near will calmly and unemotionally solve the puzzle”. To him, this ability to plan and not throw himself into action is Near’s best quality and something essential to being L. In French, Mello talks about self control rather than calmness, which I actually think is more accurate both to what we see and what he envies about Near. In turn, Mello’s capacity for action and his adaptability are what Near envies about Mello, but he isn’t able to argue his case and Mello refused the title of L anyway.

After the ellipsis, we see Near again when he talks to the president of the USA and the SPK members. Now that he’s no longer in a place catered to child geniuses, and especially if he’s not playing with any toys (like in ch. 65), he looks really uncomfortable : fidgeting, playing with his hair, or sitting away from the “real adults” planning the investigation. Though he’s led the Kira case since L’s death, the past 5 years have been uneventful and Near had no occasion to legitimise his claim to the succession.

House of cards (vol. 7 – ch. 61)

Matchstick towers (vol. 8 – ch 62)

Darts (vol. 8 – ch. 63 + 64)

Dice tower (vol. 8 – ch. 66)

And then… Mello kidnaps several people and shoots the Death Note into a rocket, kicking the second half of the plot into action very unexpectedly and forcing everyone to react to his plans, instead of forming their own.

Near builds increasingly elaborate towers as his counter-measures have to get more and more complex : first out of playing cards, then out of matchsticks (glued together), and finally out of dice. He starts out unsure of how to deal with the sudden public-facing role of calling the Task Force, then most of his plans go up in flames as Mello successfully steals the notebook. During the first few calls with Light, Near is trying to get a feel for what tactics to use against him and doesn’t succeed either (all of the dart he throws end up on the floor). Finally, the rest of his plans come crashing down along with his dice as the SPK members shoot themselves under the influence of Mello’s notebook. The sound of the dice falling bleeds into the sound of gunshots, which is a very neat way of integrating Near’s prop in the flow of the story and serve as a visual parallel to the bodies falling on the floor.

For the first time, Near is physically confronted to the reality that he and his team can die, and he can’t always prevent it, and it will be his fault. Mello didn’t even make them die of a heart attack, he purposefully made them take their own lives, to show Near’s who’s really in control. It’s harrowing, no matter how hard he tries to hide it – this is the most sincere emotion he’s shown so far, and the most shaken he ever looks in the manga. While he opposes the rhetoric of Kira (that you have rights over other people’s life) from the start, I think that’s when Near starts properly formulating the takedown he delivers in the warehouse.

In a really ironic turn of events, Light is the one to tell Near what he has to change : “It’s meaningless to be at each other’s throats like this… I’m not asking you to work under me, […] we should just share our information…”. Yes, this is in part an emotional decision, I don’t think Near (or most Death Note characters) enjoy seeing people die needlessly and he made an effort to accommodate the people he worked with. But this is mostly pragmatic : if collaborating gives you the best chances at adapting to the circumstances and winning, and you don’t have an ego to put first or secret goals to conceal, then that’s what you do !

Toy robots and planes (vol. 8 – ch. 67, vol. 9 – ch. 77)

Hand-carved dart, shaped like a bird (vol. 9 – ch 71)

Lego brick castle (ch. 75)

Train tracks (vol. 9 – ch. 76)

In his newfound quest for adaptability, Near is now building toys capable of movement ! He’s not quite there yet (the robot’s arm falls down when he talks to Light), but he already has a better understanding of everyone’s flaws and how they articulate in the case : Mello’s need to prove himself, Light’s ego, and his own unwillingness to take risks. Even when he builds another wall to hide behind, he quickly destroys it and keeps theorising about Light being Kira (with the hilarious reveal of the skull inside the robocop toy).

Near also starts to carefully detail each step of his plans to the SPK, using more and more representational toys. It starts very rough (like the dart he carves), like he hasn’t found the best way to translate what he is thinking into words – or words they will understand easily, and he is still separated from them by train tracks and facing the other way (until the confrontation with Mello in ch. 77). Meanwhile, Light has been spiralling since Soichiro’s death. The more he feels cornered by Near, the more secretive he becomes, even when sharing information wouldn’t threaten to reveal him. Not following his own advice makes it very, very easy for Near to contrast their behaviours and put the past 5 years of inaction into perspective for the Task Force.

Side note : the title of ch. 75 is “Reconnaissance” in French, which holds both meanings of “reconnaissance mission” and “gratefulness”. Looking out for a better path, and being grateful that you survived long enough to be able to do that !

Tarot cards (vol 9 – ch. 78)

As Near finds his footing in the investigation and develops ways of expressing himself clearly, he starts using more and more custom toys : pre-made strategies only work when you’re facing stupid or preprogrammed opponents, and in turn mass market props can only supplement his explanations for so long. He can’t leave anything to chance or fate, he has to win over both the circumstances and the players, which is really ironic since the first entirely custom prop he uses is a tarot set. Each card is Death except one for Kira which is the Devil, but Light doesn’t actually see them : the cards are visual tools entirely for the benefit of the SPK (and the reader), as opposed to provocation for Kira (in direct opposition to L’s tactics at the beginning, when he didn’t mind playing with Lind L. Tailor’s life).

Spatial base (vol 9 – ch. 79 and vol. 10 – ch. 81)

Mogi (vol. 10 – ch. 81)

Dice with skulls (vol. 10 – ch. 81 + 82 + 83)

When he and Mello team up to kidnap Mogi and interrogate him, Near is sitting in the middle of a massive spatial base launching toy spacecrafts into the air. Even though it ends with Near having to flee in a helicopter while dropping wads of cash on an angry mob, this is one of the most crucial moments for his victory. Not only does he get confirmation that Kira is the second L and plant that idea in the heads of the Task Force during his meeting with Aizawa, but he also manages to show Mello that collaborating leads to the best outcomes.

Controversially perhaps, I’m gonna add Mogi to the list of props, since faking Mogi’s death right after their escape is what coaxes Aizawa into meeting with the SPK. That’s one of the most manipulative tricks that Near pulls on the other investigators, but compared to the torture contraption that L puts Misa into or Light making people write charades before they die, Mogi bound on a chair with duct tape over his mouth feels almost cartoonish. While I am arguing here that Near is the person in power who holds the most respect for the people he is working with (or even fighting against), he still does that in ways that have the narrative weight of vicious little kids trying by all means to get their ways. That false equivalency, along with his evil frog smirks and his myriad of toys, gives a visual balance to Light making sinister faces at the camera, but the tactics are fundamentally different.

It was a gamble to trust Aizawa and Mogi with seeing his face (right as Near opens mystery dice boxes, some of which have skulls on them), but trust keeps paying off and he gets the information he wanted while still respecting their boundaries in terms of what they feel comfortable revealing : confirmation that Light is Kira. He immediately shares that information with Mello… apart from Light’s name, just to see how fast Mello figures it out. That’s about as far as Near actually engages with the idea that he and Mello are competing to catch Kira before the other, since that never seemed to be the most viable plan to him in the first place.

Motorised rubber ducks (vol. 10 – ch. 86 + 88)

Paper Tokyo tower (vol. 11 – ch. 89)

With a secure network of allies and the net closing in on Light, Near moves his headquarters to Japan, first sending Rester, Linder and Gevanni (while playing with motorised rubber ducks in a pool), before he goes there himself (announcing it while building a papercraft Tokyo Sky Tree). Even the SPK didn’t expect this move from him, which I think is the reason why he uses the NHN to tell Mello (and Light, by the same occasion). This is also the first time that SPK agents are going on extended missions outside the headquarters, with great risk since their faces will be out in the open, something Near worries about out loud several times and tries to mitigate.

Lego Kira (vol. 11 – ch. 90 + 92 + 93 + 94)

Then, Near reveals that he wants to confront Kira in person as he unboxes what is, according to HTR13, the official “NHN shooting game set (With block dolls)”. Rester comments he had to wait “hours” in line to get them, but I’m truly doubtful that in a pro-Kira world, a company would mass produce a shooting game featuring Kira’s chosen TV network, with two notebooks included and also the SPK… I'm assuming this is a retcon from HTR13, since it was written after the fact. They simply act as Near’s placeholder props while he finishes the finger puppets (they first showed up during ch. 85 and reappear in ch. 94).

In any case, the fake gun included in the set is immediately used by Near to dismiss the idea of killing Kira and his associates before the case is solved, and after that, only as a last resort. Mello, Light and Near play the same game with vastly different rules : the mafia and the Kira team have licence to kill, but Near and his allies (the SPK and the Task Force) do not. Near outright refuses to kill Light and prove his guilt after the fact, both because it would fail to morally oppose Kira, even if it were more convenient, and they have the added goal of preventing someone else from continuing Kira’s mission.

I love that Near presents this as the same reasoning L had, when the closest we get is… Light himself, during the Yotsuba arc. Poring over insane amounts of data to set up your plans, bending the rules as much as possible while never breaking them, and stopping at hard moral boundaries regardless of how much it complicates your work, that’s a far cry from L’s style. He never really considered it an investigation against Kira in all potential incarnations, as opposed to a one-on-one entertaining fight against Light.

Christmas tree decorated with various toys (vol. 11 – ch. 92)

Marbles maze (vol. 11 – ch. 95)

Ultraman figurines (vol. 11 – ch. 97)

After the interim Lego are no longer needed, the only props Near uses to talk about the case are his finger puppets. Most if not all of the other toys are just that : toys. He used them as an investigative tool, a way to talk through his plans out loud for himself and the other people that needed to follow along (and there is an arrogance in thinking they wouldn’t be able to understand him otherwise !), but ultimately, Near just likes to play. He looks and is the youngest of the cast, an even bigger reminder that most of the main characters had their childhoods stolen by expectations placed on their intellect. The many toy robots shown in Near’s last panel (ch. 108), or the insane displays in the one-shots, only highlight that he clings to that comfort in an otherwise pretty desolate life.

Handmade puppets (vol. 10 – ch. 85, vol. 11 – ch. 94 + 96 + 98, vol. 12 – ch. 100 + 101 + 103 + 104 + 105 + 106)

Mask (vol. 12 – ch. 101 + 103 + 104 + 105 + 106)

No toys during vol. 12 – ch. 107

Official puppet time ! The buglies ! One of my favourite parts of Death Note !

The first finger puppets we see are L, Kira and the second Kira while Near is looking into the real identity of the second L. The SPK puppets appear in the background of ch. 85, along with a few tools (moulds, paint…), so we know Near is hand-making puppets for everyone in the investigation. Even though Near’s own face remains protected until the final confrontation, when he knows he’s won, putting a face on every person he uses in his plans prevents them from feeling like interchangeable pawns.

L’s finger puppet is shockingly accurate, despite Near never seeing him or finding any pictures. He has, at most, descriptions from the university students who briefly saw him 6 years ago. It’s made from the same cast as Near’s puppet, but in this scene he is distancing himself once again from both the first and second L – Kira.

On the one hand, Kira is the morally corrupt enemy that managed to stall the Task Force’s investigation by infiltrating them and making them run circles around him while he carried out his plans. On the other hand, the first L was reckless and lacked foresight, showing his face to Light early in the investigation out of overconfidence. Risky moves are flashy if they pay off, but this one didn’t, erasing L and his work and setting the case back 5 years in the process. We have an echo of Near’s words in the Wammy flashback : “If you can’t beat the game […] you’re nothing more than a loser”. In comparison, Near tries to be as methodic as he can in his takedown of Kira. I also love that Near reacts very differently to Mello’s recklessness, but that’s a rabbit hole for another day.

In contrast to the others, end even though Near knows his face, Light has the only puppet which isn’t life-like. Instead, it looks like a generic (if mischievous) boy scout with a mask scribbled on. The girl scout puppet is not Misa but the concept of the second Kira – someone who kills on Light’s behalf, and therefore a counterpart to Light’s figure. According to Obata in the HTR13 interviews, it’s like Near made them look like he could have bought the puppets elsewhere, and the level of care and realism he puts into each figure directly correlates to how much he esteems the person represented (Mello’s being the most detailed). That means he deliberately chose not to afford Kira the humanity of a face, even as Misa, Takada and Mikami get realistic (-ish…) puppets. Since Near is very concerned with preventing the passing down of the notebook and motives to kill, Light, as a person, doesn’t matter in the face of his ideology. I think that’s one of the only indulgences Near allows himself in the investigation : never hiding his disgust for Kira, be it through an ugly finger puppet or mocking Light during their calls.

Near reverts back to the puppets from the customised Lego until ch. 94, only keeping the Lego notebooks (that he adds a Death Note cover to, after seeing Mikami’s notebook).

The Task Force and SPK puppets often show up when Near is talking about how to prevent Kira from killing them all or manipulating them with the Death Note : talking Aizawa out of trying to catch Kira himself, making sure Mikami doesn’t write Gevanni’s name in the notebook and win the warehouse confrontation, or kidnapping Misa so Light can’t use her as the second Kira. He has to avoid a scenario where he is the last one fighting against Kira at all costs, especially after the planned confrontation in the warehouse where he would be unable to physically protect himself.

Misa is unpredictable and dangerous in unknown proportions, so she gets a realistic but crude figure. The Task Force is well-meaning but useless and easily fooled, if Aizawa and Mogi get perfectly fine depictions, Matsuda and Ide have barely-resembling puppets (especially since Near thinks way less of them). The SPK figures, meanwhile, are very life-like and pretty flattering compared to others. Near also doesn’t use them much, but they often appear around his puppet during explanations – since they are essential parts of his plans and he is in active communication with all of them, they work as extensions of him in the outside world.

After that, we see Mikami and Takada’s puppets, now full-time actors as the second Kira. Takada’s puppet is low effort compared to most, and I should point out: Misa and her being sidelined as stupid or irrelevant pawns, even through the eyes of other characters, is one of the many sexists narratives of Death Note. Mikami’s puppet however is grotesquely detailed, with claw-like fingers and just… the most wonderful hair and grin. Could it be that in spite of Near’s utter contempt for his beliefs, he admires Mikami’s perfectly calibrated routine ? That’s certainly a lifestyle he could follow…

Quick note on the puppets : a large number of them don’t have discernable eyeballs, but those that do all have them pointed up, except Near and L who are looking straight ahead (quite vacantly). We see them mainly from Near’s level – meaning, the floor – but if you were a member of the SPK standing next to him, they would be looking up at you, with only Near's puppet avoiding your gaze, like the real one does. What a lovely and creepy detail !

For the end of vol. 11, we wait for the warehouse confrontation with barely any puppet action. That’s when we see Near play with the robots and marbles, even though we sometimes see the rest of the puppets in the background. He doesn’t have much to explain since all his plans are in place, the latency period was only necessary to make sure Gevanni doesn’t die 23 days after touching the notebook, as per the fake rule. Mello is once again the one to shake things up by kidnapping Takada and allowing Near to realise the notebook he tampered with was fake. In a single day, the puzzle pieces have to fall into place : either Gevanni manages to replace the real notebook, or Kira wins and kills them all.

Near takes all of the finger puppets to the warehouse apart from Misa : the SPK members, the Task Force, Kira (along with Takada and Mikami), and all iterations of L (himself, Mello, and L). He also wears an L mask, which Light is really upset about for completely normal nemesis-related reasons. This is the first time Light, Ryuk, Ide and Matsuda see Near and the visual aids for his explanations, and it doesn’t inspire them much trust. He looks so creepy (and in a scene where optics really matter !), surrounded by the dolls and telling them to wait for Mikami to write their names in the notebook, that even Mogi and Aizawa start to suspect Near has trapped them or is Kira himself – though they still decide to momentarily trust his judgement.

This is the final time Near has anything to demonstrate, but Light is wrong when he thinks of it as a one-on-one battle – Near isn’t solely focused on Light like L was, and monitoring Mikami so closely is actually one of the keys for his victory. But what he highlights, and what Light seems most shocked by, is that he communicated with the SPK, the Task Force, and even Mello to some extent, and that their coordination and cooperation is what allows them to win. With the L, Mello and Near dolls on his fingers, Near taunts him as he wholly demolishes whatever was left of Kira’s chances to rule the world.

After the first page of ch. 105, when Light says “That’s right. I am Kira”, there is nothing left to prove and the mask and puppets are only part of the background… except the Kira puppet, which Near crushes between his fingers after Light finally admits the truth. They don’t appear at all during ch. 107, in which Light dies, always hidden by the framing or other characters. Near basically ceases to be a character after that. We don’t see his thoughts anymore, and he speaks twice : once to reassure the others that Ryuk will not help Light by killing them, and then once more in ch. 108 to ask Aizawa for help with a drug busting operation in Japan, a year after the case.

When I first read Death Note, I was surprised how much Near fades into the background at the exact moment of Light’s downfall, but not only is his narrative role over, so is his implication in the case. Near does not have a personal attachment to Light, or to proving Light (and no one else) is Kira, no reason to gloat endlessly or question whether that case will come back to haunt him… In the two subsequent one-shots, Near deals with the new killers not as apparitions of a former enemy, but as new notebook owners, none of them even close to having Kira’s ambitions. You could say he looks depressed the same way L did during the Yotsuba arc, or the way Light did after he killed L, but I would interpret it as intense boredom and loneliness rather than sulking or obsessive sadness.

I still don't feel like I've said it all – what do I make of the two indiscernible puppets Near sets up on L’s mask, the giant L towers made of playing cards and the Ryuk head from the one-shots, I haven't even talked about precisely how Near sits on the floor while he plays – but I have to stop somewhere in my thesis and that shall be it. I would be more than delighted to hear your opinion if you’ve read this far, I hope I've demonstrated that I love talking about this !

Edit: I forgot to link this excellent post on Near by @/empressofthewind that gave me the last push to finish this !!! Required further reading, I might say !!

(dis)honourable unrelated mentions :

Mello is introduced barefoot (apparently playing football with bare grippers…) and there’s a panel of his toes clenched in fury at L’s passing. Immediately after he decides to leave L’s role to Near, he’s wearing leather boots, and this is NOT a coincidence ← average theory in a 20 year-old fandom

The French translation is immaculate. 100/10 no notes. I had so many good laughs, everyone say thank you Shinya Seto, Myloo Anhmet and Guillaume Abadie for their amazing work ! This has cemented in my mind that Ohba should switch gears to comedy, where he will undoubtedly excel

During their raid on Mello’s mafia hideout (vol. 9 – ch. 73), Light calls his father “Deputy director” until he finally corners Mello, at which point he loses all professionalism and yells “Dad, his face ? Did you see his face ?”. It’s so interesting how Kira is consistently the most childish, naive and impulsive side of Light. The worst of it comes off during the warehouse confrontation, where Light has to physically refrain himself from smirking or cackling before he’s sure he’s won, and doesn’t even manage to wait the full 40 seconds to confirm the others are dying before gloating (which he managed for L’s death…)

Mello points out that Soichiro’s hesitation to finish writing his name in the notebook is due to the fact that, in the entirety of his policeman career, he has never killed anyone. Harrowing that he dies relieved his son isn’t a murderer, because until the end, Soichiro believed that even state-sanctioned killing on the line of duty doesn’t absolve you of that crime !

Near has imo the most correct view of Kira supporters in the entire manga. When a mob swarms the SPK HQ in Kira’s name, he outlines 3 groups : genuine Kira supporters, those who got swept up by their frenzy, and people using Kira to justify acts of violence they would commit anyway. I think that parallels Kira’s journey, the inevitable end it brings Light to : sincerely held ideals of justice and a profound disgust for the way violence goes unchecked, increasingly worse justifications for his spiral of violence, and self-serving behaviour as he grapples to remain in power

Reading the interviews at the end of HTR13 is a trip. What do you mean Obata would have tried to convince Ohba to let Mello live at the end because he finds him so cool and loyal. What do you mean Obata paid special attention to apple drawings only for Ohba to tell him he didn’t think about any apple symbolism, sorry to disappoint. What do you mean they barely spoke or saw each other and Obata makes heart-eyes at Ohba so he can visit his “enchanting office, decorated western-style”. In fucking tears

To contradict my finger puppet analysis in a very funny way, O&O said in HTR13 that Near manipulating the events of the investigation, to the extent of playing with the other characters as puppets, was meant to show his “negative” and “dark” side (his dark and twisted mind, if you will). I genuinely love reading their interviews because it never fails to prove that the story you want to tell, the story that comes out of the printing press, and the story each individual reader will understand are wholly different concepts and should be treated as such

[coochiequeens]

Update on a crime the news media refuses to call femicide

TINLEY PARK, Ill. (CBS) -- A father has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of his three daughters and wife inside a home in Tinley Park on Sunday.

Maher Kassem, 63, was charged Tuesday with four counts of first-degree murder, according to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. At his initial court appearance, prosecutors an argument led to Kassem using two guns to first shoot his wife and then, after stepping over her body, his three daughters. 

Maher KassemTINLEY PARK POLICE

The victims were identified as Majeda Kassem, 53; twins Halema Kassem, 25, and Hanan Kassem, 24; and Zahia Kassem, 25. 

Officials said Kassem shot his wife, Majeda, seven times, and each daughter was shot twice. The Kassems' 19-year-old son was in the home but was not physically injured. The women's bodies were found in the basement. 

Authorities also said Kassem was cooperative with police and admitted to the shooting. Kassem indicated the fight started over the family's finances. 

Prosecutors said the shooting took place after an argument on Sunday morning between the father and one of his daughters. That prompted his wife and two other daughters to get involved and urge him to calm down.

CBS 2 first reported Monday that there was a witness to the crime. That witness was identified in court as Maher Kassem's 19-year-old son.

Amid all the yelling, the son – who was sleeping at the time – woke up and went to see what was going on. He would later hear gunshots and first found his mother and two of his sisters fatally shot. He walked in moments before his father shot the third daughter.

Police said the father never turned the gun toward his son.

Left: Halema Kassem, Right: Zahia and HalemaPHOTOS SUPPLIED TO CBS

Around 11:20 a.m. Sunday, police responded to a report of the shooting in the 7400 block of West 173rd Street.

Village Manager Pat Carr said a male - who police later said was Kassem - made a 911 call saying someone was shot in the residence, and and police found his wife and four daughters dead at the scene. Police recovered two guns at the scene.

When police asked Kassem where his family was, prosecutors said, "the defendant pointed in the direction of the basement. The officer asked the defendant who else was there, and the defendant stated, 'They're gone.'"

Prosecutors said Kassem appeared to be disgruntled over how he was treated at home.

"The defendant was recorded volunteering things about having just retired, and that 'She treats me like a [expletive] dog," said Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Scott Clark. "'I worked 40 years.' and 'I worked all my life to give my family a better home and they treat me like [expletive].'"

Police said there had been no record of police interaction at the home.  

Meanwhile, hundreds of mourners gathered at the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview for a prayer in honor of the four women who were killed in what police called a senseless act of domestic violence, something they hope is addressed more in the community.

"It's about not only mental illness, but control and abuse so it's something that it's important," said Fida Zoubeidi, who attended the prayer service. "We need to keep our eyes open."

Funeral services for the women were held Tuesday night. Mourners gathered one by one for a vigil – hours after the mother and three adult sisters were buried.

Hanan Kassem had recently graduated from St. Xavier University with a master's degree in speech therapy.

"I would say that she lit up a room - you know, like you could talk to her about anything," said classmate Corinna Olsen.

Olsen wishes she could talk to her friend one more time. Instead, she and so many are puzzled with the circumstances of the quadruple murder.

"Very, very shocking," said Olsen. "You know, expect this to happen to someone that you know."

Off camera, the nephew of Maher Kassem said the family is torn – shocked at the crime his uncle is accused of committing against a family for which he seemed to care so deeply. 

The nephew added that the family does not know the man who prosecutors are portraying as having committed such a crime. He said prior to Sunday, his uncle really would have done anything for his family members.

Kassem will be due back in court on Feb. 16.

I'm going to take a guess that once he retired he expected to be waited upon like the "man of the house". Instead he was asked to pick up after himself. And instead of accepting that he's s grown man he complained about being treated like a dog. Just based on how a lot of couples divorce after one of them, usually the man, retires and becomes a pest around the house.

[blueiscoool]

Rare Bronze Mirror Found in 2,300-Year-Old Grave of Greek Courtesan in Jerusalem

Archaeologists in Israel have discovered what they believe to be the remains of an Ancient Greek courtesan.

The cremated remains of a young woman were found in a burial cave alongside a perfectly preserved bronze box mirror on a rocky slope close to Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, not far from Jerusalem.

The tomb is believed to date back to some time between the late 4th century and early 3rd century BCE, according to a joint study carried out by Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

Guy Stiebel, from the department of archeology and the Ancient Near East at Tel Aviv University, saiid in a phone interview that the find is “very significant.”

“It’s almost like bringing back to life a woman who passed away 2,300 years ago,” he said of the research, which he compared to a “jigsaw puzzle or riddle.”

He and his team believe this could be the first discovery of the remains of a hetaira, as courtesans were known in Ancient Greece.

“If we are correct with our interpretation, it appears that this burial points to the very unique circumstances of what we call a hetaira, a Greek lady who accompanied one of the Hellenistic government officials, or more likely a high general,” he said.

In the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean, the Hellenistic age refers to the period between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE and the conquest of Egypt by Rome in 30 BCE. Stiebel said that he and his team believe the woman would have been among the first Greeks to arrive in the region.

Liat Oz, the director of the excavation on behalf of the IAA, described the mirror found in the tomb alongside the remains.

“This is only the second mirror of this type that has been discovered to date in Israel, and in total, only 63 mirrors of this type are known around the Hellenistic world,” she said in a news release about the discovery.

“The quality of the production of the mirror is so high that it was preserved in excellent condition, and it looked as if it was made yesterday.”

Folding box mirrors such as this were documented in tombs and temples in the Greco-Hellenistic world, the researchers noted. They were usually decorated with engravings or reliefs of idealized female figures or goddesses.

Stiebel said a woman of high status might have received such a mirror as part of a dowry, but this was unlikely to have been the case in this instance as married women rarely left their homes in Greece.

Alternatively, he said, she might have been a courtesan, as they often received gifts from men. Likening the hetairai to Japanese geishas, Stiebel explained that the women were regarded as “muses.”

He said: “Women in society were breaking glass ceilings in very strict and male-oriented Greek society and we do know that they served not only as sexual escorts, but were similar to geishas and provided an element of culture. For that they were given gifts and part of the economy of gifts in Ancient Greece had to do with mirrors.”

The fact the remains were cremated also hinted at the woman’s origins, Stiebel said.

“Cremation is alien to this country and the religion,” he said, explaining that cremation is not only forbidden in Judaism but would not have been practiced by the Persian empire either, which occupied the region at that time.

“The tomb was found in the middle of nowhere, not near any village or farm or settlement, which suggests that she would have been connected with one of the military campaigns and dated to the time of Alexandra the Great or slightly later.

“We are suggesting that maybe she was with one of the generals.”

Stiebel went on to explain the significance of four iron nails found with the mirror and remains.

“Nails were used to protect the deceased and also to protect the living people from the dead. The bodies were literally nailed down to ensure they will not come back to the world of the living,” he said.

Stiebel said that the team are continuing with further research in order to “zoom in” on the finer details of the mirror.

He said: “We hope to shed more light on the origin of the production of the art and maybe shed more light on the history of the owner of the mirror, the general who bought it or where she came from.”

The research will be presented for the first time at an Israeli archaeology conference next month.

By Lianne Kolirin.

[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