#rings of meropis

[shivo-research-assistant]

I knew that I’m now past my prime when my TTRPG group didn’t make the obvious bite of ‘87 joke. I was just sitting there waiting like a fool.

I’m over. I’m cooked. I just can’t keep up anymore. Throw me in the retirement home.

[imatin3222]

The only person that could make me suspicious is myself....

[shivo-research-assistant]

I am going to deal so much psychic damage to so many people in 2025. Campaign, NPC, and villain rosters are so stacked. I'm gonna be doing shit to people's brains that MK Ultra couldn't've achieved

I just realized the other problem with using "cavalier" as his official tag is that i take psychic damage every time i hear see or say that word

[robotnikholmescomicblog]

I really didn’t expect them to address that rings are found in all the zones (like in the games), but also in hidden Lakes of Rings (like in SatAM), which kinda confuses me. Either they’re rare trinkets or they’re found everywhere!

Man, the Waves of Change cast were really something, huh? They’re how you do worldbuilding right! They’re all unique characters on their own, they help and bond with the Freedom Fighters, and their inclusion led to a whole new civilization the games had never alluded to before. Sonic had always gone underwater and has an intense fear of it, but having Meropis be located down there gave the narrative a nice change of pace, like a vacation away from all the troubles of the surface world.

I just greatly appreciate Ian Flynn and Aleah Baker for coming together and making this concept and arc a really unforgettable one!

[shotguns-and-socialites]

Gun Weapons

Freedom

Item, Weapon, Gun

Cost: $38

Item Level: 1

Kind: Physical: D v. D

Range: 2

Critical Threshold: 10

Damage: 1d4 pierce

One of the cheapest handguns in the world. It’s the only thing standing between you and tyranny. Critical hit rate is improved to 8 if you are of the freedom alignment. Jams and is rendered unusable on a critical failure. Takes one minute to unjam. +1 damage on a critical hit.

Bambi

Item, Weapon, Gun

Cost: $56

Item Level: 2

Kind: Physical: D v. D

Range: 3

Critical Threshold: 10

Damage: 1d6 pierce

A reproduction of the signature hunting rifle of Bambi F. Davison, world-renown writer, marksman, drug enthusiast, and sheriff. It deals +2 anger damage to plant and animal characters. +2 damage on a critical hit.

Councilman

Item, Weapon, Gun

Cost: $80

Item Level: 3

Kind: Physical: D v. D

Range: 2

Critical Threshold: 10

Damage: 2d4 pierce

A revolver that Meropi councilmen used to carry for self-defense. The first time each round an attack with this weapon misses, the wielder may make a quick attack against a different target as a free action. +3 damage on a critical hit.

IFC Kane

Item, Weapon, Gun

Cost: $120

Item Level: 4

Kind: Physical: D v. D

Range: 3

Critical Threshold: 9

Damage: 1d8+1 pierce

A machine gun sold by the state-owned Itodan Firearms Corporation, named the after the magazine’s resemblance to the traditional Itodan instrument, +4 damage on a critical hit.

Winged Sirocco

Item, Weapon, Gun

Cost: $176

Item Level: 5

Kind:  Physical: D v. D

Range: 4

Critical Threshold: 10

Damage: 2d4+2 pierce

The World’s Deadliest Handgun®. Said to be strong enough to bring down a city’s walls. If you take a -2 penalty to the attack roll, the range is doubled. On a critical hit, it deals an additional 1d4 fire damage and you may move the target 1 yd. 

Kingslayer

Item, Weapon, Gun

Cost: $256

Item Level: 6

Kind: Physical: D v. D

Range: 3

Critical Threshold: 10

Damage: 1d8+3 pierce

Standard issue rifle to the Great Tang State Police in the 1930′s. Such a rifle was famously used to assassinate the Ysian president Adam Bernard in 1948. As a move action, the wielder may give themself a +6 bonus on their next attack roll with the weapon. +6 damage on a critical hit.

MOA 11

Item, Weapon, Gun

Cost: $376

Item Level: 7

Kind: Physical: D v. D

Range: 3

Critical Threshold: 10

Damage: 1d12+2 pierce

A battle rifle developed by Erseti Secretariat of Security in the early 90′s. The wielder receives no penalties from darkness during combat, as the firing illuminates the area. +7 damage on a critical hit.

Sawed-Off Shotgun

Item, Weapon, Gun

Cost: $551

Item Level: 8

Kind: Physical: D v. D

Range: 2

Critical Threshold: 10

Damage: 2d8+1 pierce

A shotgun with the useless do-less-damage tube expertly removed via hacksaw. Once a round when the attack hits, if there is something immediately behind the target, you may attack that target as a free action for half damage. On a critical hit, you may attack the same target as a free action for half damage.

Scarborough Fair

Item, Weapon, Gun

Cost: $804

Item Level: 9

Kind: Physical: D v. D

Range: 3

Critical Threshold: 10

Damage: 4d4+1 pierce

“Scarborough Fair,” or SF, is a nickname for a family of illegal small caliber pistols. Made of only ceramic and plastic, this gun disassembles into a half dozen innocuous items, with the most common layout consisting of a mechanical pencil, a belt buckle, a mini-flashlight, a wedding ring, a bobby pin, and a memory card. Finally, the firing mechanism is magical instead of chemical. All together, these features gives a character advantage on all opposed rolls made to hide, smuggle, or discretely fire the weapon. +9 damage on a critical hit.

Trick Shot

Item, Weapon, Gun

Cost: $1,176

Item Level: 10

Kind: Physical: D v. D

Range: 4

Critical Threshold: 10

Damage: 3d6+1 pierce, water, fire, electric, or poison

A handgun designed to be quickly reloaded, with a variety of special ammo. As a full-round action, the damage type can be changed to pierce, water, fire, electric, or poison. On a critical hit, it deals an additional 10 explosion damage.

[vikkikassioras]

VERONIKA Ring 18ct yellow gold featuring a bird in flight. Teamed here with MEROPI earrings. 18ct yellow gold featuring a flower design from Knossos in Crete. . . . #goldjewellery #goldsmith #uniquejewellerydesigns #contemporaryjewellery #vikkikassioras #australiandesigner #melbournemade #specialjewellery #goldring #studiojeweller #studiojewelery #bespoke #handmadedesigner / on Instagram https://ift.tt/2whuiEv

[readhp]

Half-Blood Prince: Ch 10

Marvolo, Morphin, and ... I forgot the girl’s name (Meropi?). I suppose this history of Voldemort is important. It isn’t catching me. I dunno.

That ring again. What is it? ...a special ring...?

[shivo-research-assistant]

Players: We saved the world!

GM: Ok, here's the next campaign!

Players: World not safe!? We just save this world!!!

GM: Would you like a new campaign world?

Players: No new world

Players: Just safe world

Players: With boss fights

[shivo-research-assistant]

It is very clear who paid attention in English class and who gave into the brain rot.

[shivo-research-assistant]

What if we did Paradise Regained...but Jesus is tempted with getting his old life back?

[shivo-research-assistant]

I keep on seeing the nurse chick with a phat ass on my feed with the #maiden tag below her. Bro, tumblr, I’m not talking about this baddie. Get her away from me. I’m talking’ about a depressed super weapon lesbian who loves frogs. Correct yourself

[shivo-research-assistant]

What's so scary about a Clown?

The clown is a symbol of laughter and joy so why do we, especially children, find them so scary? Well I think it boils down to this: we're not supposed to be happy all the time.

The Greek philosopher Chrysippus, laughed at his own joke, died shortly after because he laughed for too long. Laughter (and the joy that goes along with it) are good in small doses. A good belly laugh is good for the soul. However laughter can hurt and even kill a person if it goes on too long.

Now look towards the clown. This is a symbol that is constantly laughing, smiling, and being the fool. Their faces and garb I believe are so disturbing because they show this forced happiness that ought never be. This feeling is only increased when we see a "defiled" clown or one that is obviously haggard, dirty, and past their prime. Even in their squalor the clown laughs. It does not laugh out of joy. It laughs out of something else at the moment. The laughter itself is done in spite of pain.

I believe people instinctively pick up on this fact when they see a clown. They see a being forced or unwilling to stop laughing which stops making the joke funny. In fact, then there is no joke. What is left is tortured animal seeking relief or, worse, others to join in their misery.

The scariest clowns (Art, the Joker, etc) laugh at things most would consider down right awful. They elevate the dissonance between the clown and "how" we should be laughing. Because that's the thing with clowns. So many times the laughter is analyzed from a "should" or "ought" lens when that makes no sense. People have different senses of humor and thus laugh at different things. The unsettling nature of the clown really doesn't come from the should nor the ought only the HOW.

That's what I think you need to keep in mind to MAKE CLOWNS SCARY; how are they laughing? Is the laughter constant? Is it an unstoppable, painful, raw response to stimuli that is birthed from the nightmarish concoction of mental defects within the mind of the clown? Does the laugh have a tenor that is different than the average laugh? These are things to keep in mind.

Sure the clown might do something horrific and that could be scary. But to make the CLOWN scary? Oh, simply have the clown laugh at the wrong time when they're cutting up the body. A laugh so out of nowhere, devoid of context or cause, that it is unsettling. Was the clown's throat just slit? Best time to have a laugh. Yes it will kill the clown but the sickening wheeze as the blood spurts from the jugular is perfect.

Did the clown just burn down a house? Well perhaps they are laughing all the way up to setting the house on fire and then fall silent. Only when they start coughing from the smoke does the laughter pick up again.

The topic doesn't matter, the presentation of the laugh does. The laugh must reflect something inhuman about this clown. It must show a disconnect from the normal and drive the viewer into a darker world. A world where laughter isn't connected to joy. A world where the macabre peers through and the clowns cannot help but laugh else there would be nothing to laugh at. The clown shows us joy that has soured, turned to ruin, then has rebuilt itself to inflict pain on the world in its scariest form.

When a child cries at a clown because it is "scary," this is what I think at some base level is driving it. Joy should be a precious, momentary, experience. The clown, by trying to prolong this "joy" twists it into pain. We have a fear of becoming Chrysippus. A fear of dying to laughter because we have over indulged and have turned happiness into pain.

For what more horrible thing is there then learning that you have transformed your own world into hell?

The clown is this manifest. Joy to pain. Happiness to hate. The clown is the Shinto spirit gate of horror in many ways. It ushers us from the mundane to the horrific as it turns the usual into the unusual and dark.

Essentially, to make a clown scary, the clown must exist as happiness soured.

[shivo-research-assistant]

If you won't stand for anything, won't for fight anything, and won't change for anything, then what the fuck is it all for?

[shivo-research-assistant]

Talking about Evil is Impossible these days

My fantasy world, the Rings of Meropis, truly is a vehicle to couch my ideas, thoughts, and notions about a few specific topics. These are issues that have plagued me for years. One of the most obvious, and most prominent, is the topic of evil. Now, as the world moves into its second arc, I am finally able to put into words and actions the "diegetic" problem of evil.

You see, I think there is a problem when discussing evil. Evil comes in many kinds with each kind needing its own tool. Beacons of good are like handymen really because to combat evil, they need to utilize an arsenal to fully exorcize evil. The evil of homelessness and the evil of a fascist dictatorship require vastly different tools to handle. Yet, there is one type of evil that is perhaps the most insidious because it is the evil, that vicious seed, that spreads in the hearts of good people and binds them in the spider's web. This is the evil that causes good to fail and curdle into the vile evil it once sought to destroy.

Cormac McCarthy, author of books like The Road, No Country for Old Men, and (maybe most importantly for this point) Blood Meridian, often discusses evil. Once he coined the term "prophets of destruction" for some of these characters. These are individuals who are the living embodiments of evil. They are twisted, irredeemable, vile beasts that seek only to level the world and its goodness. If you've read these books, you know the characters. They are the only ones that can truly give me nightmares anymore. Not because of the contents of the book but because of the reality of their being. When you've met a prophet of destruction, everything else seems so flimsy. There are wolves in the bodies of men with only the desire to destroy not because they are hungry or even because destruction makes them happy, but because they just ARE destruction.

I don't think many people truly comprehend the beings of these people. There is no reasoning with them. Because of this, there can be NO HALF MEASURES. A prophet of destruction will rip out your tongue as they're complimenting you on your wonderful diplomacy.

Yet, the problem comes when people, who haven't met one of these prophets, thinks they've found one. The easiest example is the person who shamelessly points to the evil politician of the day. No, Donald Trump, Pelosi, or any other politician is not a prophet of destruction. They aren't the type.

The problem with misidentifying these prophets is that, for people who understand that there are no half measures, they begin to take no half measures. Yet, they're using the wrong tool. When kindness and empathy leaves the heart, all other evil grows stronger. False prophets of destruction are the ones who create the asphalt to pave the road to hell. The purest of heart, who think they know the danger, are made pawns.

Diegetic sound is sound heard inside the "scene" of a movie or other piece of media. It is circumstantial and not universal to the audience. While regular sound is crisp and clear, separated from the media that it is stitched to, diegetic sound is muddy. It is not clear. It is a part of the world. The diegetic problem of evil is when we confuse one type of evil for another because we are a part of the world and not separated from it. We do not have the forty-thousand foot view to witness the problem and fully diagnose it. Our understanding of evil is only diegetic.

So how do we get around this problem?

Well first, we instill a strong sense of empathy and kindness. You need a group of people who can handle these "lesser" evils. The ones who can see a broken person and fix the problem that turned them vile, while not just snuffing out the person themself. This is a matter of knowing what tools are in the toolbox and practicing with them.

This was the intent of world arc one. Train the players, show them evil, and slowly have them reach a state where they can diagnose and treat the core problems. This has been a challenge and I do not believe they are fully there. Although, this is truthfully expected.

Now though, in world arc two, prophets of destruction begin to take center stage. What happens when there is no problem? What happens when evil stops being a person and starts being an "is?" Can people safely throw away their empathy, their compassion, and their restraint so they can take no half measures? That is yet to be seen.

I'm fascinated yet terrified to watch as people, who have grown so much, face what has felled so many good souls. Can they reach their breaking point? Can they return from the abyss?

Most examples of heroes in our media have shown that you CANNOT return. Batman doesn't kill the Joker. Yet, in some iterations, the Joker IS a prophet of destruction. There is nothing under the mask, no problem to fix, and no greater meaning. The Joker isn't a man. The Joker is. That is what makes them hellish.

In the real world, one could take no half measures against the Joker or Chigurh. You have to root them out else they will take everything from you, everything you love, and the world. Does that mean killing? No, not always. Sometimes it does but again, that requires nuance which prophets of destruction seek to kill.

The final pages of Blood Meridian involve a prophet of destruction seeking to destroy all nuance and impose a basic binary on the world. A simple yes or no choice. Yet, the world is not made of two colors and such a construction is a fallacy. To try to impose such a basic yes or no intentionally destroys all the tools one can use to destroy evil at its source. Without the other shades, evil will always exist in the dark. Because in a world made out of only black and white, there shall ALWAYS be shadow.

We cannot let that happen. Not for our own sakes but for the sakes of future generations.

Talking about evil has to include so much nuance which is a problem. However, I hope the Rings of Meropis can help expand at least my own ability to do so.

The prophets of destruction will be coming soon. I sit patiently and hope they receive no quarter from heroic hands that, in the same motion, can comfort a broken man without snapping their neck.

Let the games begin.

[shivo-research-assistant]

Average TTRPG Experience

Player: I want **this** things

GM: Ok, here ya go!

Player: *Does the opposite of that thing and doesn't touch it.*

Also Player: Hey GM, we never get **this** thing. Why?

We're all dogs barking at our own reflection thinking there's someone else. There is nobody else. We're that dog.

[shivo-research-assistant]

Sin vs JFC

Number one predictor for how a player first vibed to the High God of Sin: how Christian was your family?

Very Christian: SIN IS SO EVIL. He is not right in the head. We have to destroy him!

Not Christian: SIN IS SO HOT. He makes me not right in the head. We have to keep him around.

They turned my darling boy into Hades. Just like Hades, the traditional Christian notion of Sin rises up and bitch slaps the guy. In most religions, there isn't this traditional Christian conception of Sin. It's actually kinda weird. But people don't know that's weird and thinks its normal when it is NOT.

Just like how death and the underworld isn't necessarily bad (Hades), to sin (breaking divine law) isn't necessarily bad. It is a chance to learn and grow which is a part of life in many cultures. You are going to make mistakes and transgress which is like...part of the whole process.

Hades wasn't forcing anybody to die and Sin wasn't forcing anybody to transgress. They only manage the process and the results.

Fuck I wish the Church didn't take out the books where Jesus was a bratty kid and an absolute trickster god. Maybe we'd have a better understanding of sin and its role in life.