#simply esoteric

[salembehindbars]

Me and my playlist till death do us part.

[hollydogs]

lo, marvel at me

[cherryangeles]

[ghostlyheart]

hello only other person on this website who likes the apoc players. what’s your top three fave scenarios of theirs?? 🎤 the world needs to know

@downton-not-downtown-smh hello I just wanted to say that this has been sitting in my inbox for months (😬) but I've been thinking about it The Whole Time. And I'm sorry I took so long to answer!! I've been battling my own personal lovecraftian horrors this summer and have finally emerged with a shred of sanity

1. A Residence at the Bay- I loooooove this scenario so much. This was my introduction to Jamesian horror and I fully intend to go down the M.R. James rabbit hole when I have some time. I actually listened to it before A Christmas Inheritance, which left me slightly confused by the end but didn't pose a huge problem (and made going back and listening to the first scenario all the more tragic). I'm very into the atmosphere of subtle but creeping dread that culminates in the realization that things are deeply wrong but you still have no fucking clue what actually happened. I think one of the players (Danaan?) said in an Instant San Loss episode that horror is at it's best when no explanation is offered, and that definitely rings true here. This probably also has my favorite batch of characters. The way McCuthcheon, Carraig-Muir, and Lady Bjalmier play off each other is so entertaining. The balance of truly disturbing moments, heartwrenching emotion, and insane humor is perfect (and really encapsulates why I'm so drawn to this podcast in the first place). Danaan is such a wonderful keeper, and I can't wait for An Uncommon Burial!!

2. Crimson Letters- This one is so zany and over the top, and has some of the moments that have made me laugh the hardest. It sports such an iconic cast of characters who would be standouts on their own but combine forces to become an infinitely entertaining force for chaos. The guest players gel super well with the main cast and the way it keeps dragging on and on very much has up late at a sleepover energy. I'm such a sucker for classic era cthulhu and this scenario is just very very solid. I have the keeper's handbook now so I'm excited to get to actually read through it! Really hoping I can run it for my game group one day. Abner Wick is a legendary NPC and Dom in general is very good at embodying a huge cast while still making them all feel fleshed out.

3. MTSK-37- Genuinely creeps me the fuck out!!! I listened to this before reading The Colour Out of Space so I was completely lost and had no idea what the threat was supposed to be. I'm actually very happy that's the way it worked out because I think the ultimate way to experience lovecraftian horror is to be thrown into the middle of it and just let it wash over you. The intra-party conflict is so delicious and the players did such a wonderful job at adapting these pre-made characters and making them their own.

Honorable mentions go to The Crack'd and Crook'd Manse (the one that started it all 🥺), The Moonchild (still trying to figure out exactly what happened aksjsks), and Unland (completely heartbreaking)

[esotericas-sims]

From the journals of Florence Spectre,

Day 5.

Dig team headed back up the mountain today, and began the mammoth task: Exploring the temple. Floors seemed sturdy, but it was clearly large. Long way to go.

First room of interest had racks of articulated skeletons, armed with weaponry. Colorfully painted - guards? Against what?

Tried out a new camera to take photographs. Spotted jewels in broken urns, alongside bones. More burials. Not sure this is a temple. Maybe burial site? Another room had just plants, with a carving of leaves on the wall. Plants underground? Lots of questions.

Deeper into the underground, found plinths with bowls - offerings? Same four symbols we have seen multiple times. Leaves, sun, etc.

R.S. located another set, this one with gold dust in one of the bowls.

Not sure what we should take and what we should leave. Seems like a bad idea to desecrate this place. R.S. disagrees - wants to put it all in a museum.

Eventually reached the bottom chamber - large, symmetrical. Two unlocked boxes in the center. Not looted? Why was this place abandoned? Riches still remaining. Very strange.

Boxes contained golden idols - they attached together into one whole piece. More on that later. All in all, very successful day, although brought up more questions than answers. Life & death symbolism? Religious building or burial site? So many skeletons - why?

Not sure we will be able to find answers to any of them.

Playing with  SeveralPerson’s Ultimate Decades Challenge Rules

Started: 1800s

Current decade: 1910s

Family tree

Spreadsheet

CC Finds

[astrxlfinale]

While this is unrelated (somewhat) in my grand scope of HC creation.

To have someone like me, a Kingdom Hearts fan, also have the Clockwork ability deal with aspects similar to keyblades in terms exploring the realm within people's Hearts pleases me to know end.

I fucking love that series and the fact I get embody it with my Star rail muse too makes me do backflips.

Dive to the Heart when.

[criticalrolo]

bashing my skull in with various rocks because I should be running a 15-20 session focused mini campaign for Maximum Enjoyment Output for my players

[space-spring]

Cerya Phoraena from tactics ogre IS really cool btw, she's a great character. Fierce and ruthless militia leader lady who takes bullshit from no-one :>

She definitely seems right up my alley lol!!! I'm a sucker for lady knights and doubly so for the ruthless leader type :) I went and looked her up after seeing that art you rb-ed and went, "okay okay alright I think tactics ogre got me with this one..... 😔" I've always stuck more on the nintendo side of jrpgs so I just need to get over the hurdle of finding a good way to play it, but after that I'm really looking forward to getting into tactics ogre (+ a bunch of other games that are more on the sega side of things)

[demonicimagery]

mmm maybe imo webcomics are … better than physical comics

[simptasia]

i’m especially fond of that time i put futurama trio quotes on lost science trio quotes because not only was it was very funny and surprisingly fitting, it feels like something only my brain could have specifically come up with

[raubtierfuetterung]

I hate being a girl

[salembehindbars]

To the untrained eye I may be off-putting and strange and even a loser but to the trained eye, I am a hauntingly esoteric dream girl with a poetic, mysterious aura and a hunger for knowledge.

[headofocs-inklesspen]

Delighted the work child today by my description of Jon Sims, head archivist as “just a tired sad wet rat of man. Experiencing the horrors except he did kind of agree to be there” apparently “wet rat of a man” is their new gender identity, is this what being cool to teens is like? I would not know, I was not a popular teenager

[homunculus-argument]

When it comes to high-context and low-context cultures, where one has the expectation of people understanding specific subtle nuances of what someone says, and the other has the expectation that everything needs to be explicitly said to be understood, I've heard plenty of people from low-context cultures ask "why not say what you mean and mean what you say then, why would you have to speak in riddles?" about high-context ones, like people of the latter type are just being cryptic and esoteric on purpose.

But culture does not consist of things you do on purpose, it is just the way things are done where you were raised. And when you were raised in a high-context culture, the thought of needing to explicitly state something instead of using some phrase or expression that you've learned to use comes as a culture shock, too. It's not "fuck you for not correctly understanding my riddles three", but "oh shit, I hadn't occurred to me that I would need to say that out loud."

The first time I went on a business trip to the US, my partner came with me, and we immediately discovered that he does not fare well on long flights. So when my publisher asked me about future trips, inquiring whether my partner would be coming with me, I asked him. He said that he would, if the flights weren't such a problem - he would need to travel in some way where he could get his feet up or lay down during flights, like business class or first class. Being also a finn, I understood what he meant and relayed the message as is to my publisher, not considering that they might not.

To both of our surprise, they started to actually look for first class tickets for us.

Finnish culture is a high-context one, people don't talk much and aren't very confrontational. Being demanding and putting someone else into a position where they're forced to be upfront or demanding is rude. And in finnish, saying "this would only be possible if these entirely absurd/completely impossible conditions were met" is a polite way of saying "no". You are simply explaining why something cannot be done, without either saying an explicit "no" or seeming like you're making up excuses. It offers the other party an opportunity to agree that these conditions cannot be met, so neither party will come off as confrontational or demanding.

Both me and my boyfriend considered it self-evident that the request was absurd, and could not be read as anything but a polite way to decline. It had not occurred to me that an american's natural response to "it would be impossible to do this" is to start figuring out how to do it anyway.

[esotericas-sims]

Le Journal de Sainte-Aude, March --th, 1890.

FOREIGN WEDDING IN TOWN It is no doubt public knowledge by now that after ---- Spectre's death, her mysterious American nephew has taken up her house and farm. His public appearances have been rare up until recently, and the reasoning for this change in routine is now known. His daughter has moved in with him, and recently celebrated her wedding to a Mr. G.B. last Sunday, at 11am in the chapel. The event was well-attended, although entirely by foreigners, and wealthy ones - Inns overflowing - and one can not help but wonder what sort of people the new Mr. & Mrs. G. B-S (as of Sunday) will be. Wishing them the best in their new marriage. -- P.F.

Playing with SeveralPerson’s Ultimate Decades Challenge Rules

Started: 1800

Current year: 1890

Family tree

Spreadsheet

CC Finds

[tamaharu]

AUGH i love reading trans academic literature