#thats good but is also beloved by the cultists so like
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eroticcannibal · 3 days ago
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"80% of homeschooling resources are produced by fundamentalist cults" is an absolutely stupid brain dead thing to say. Saying "Homeschooling resources" as if it means something. Yes something labelled specifically to appeal to people in fundamentalist cults will be made by them. Everyone else is using EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES.
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wainwrightjakobshammerlock · 11 months ago
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what are your influences/inspirations for your art!! like, stylistically or thematically!
visual art, stylistically:
the Borderlands artstyle obviously. cel shading and outlines my fucking beloved. I am so fucking sad that gbx themselves is kinda toning down on it and that they didn't implement the crosshatch shader they put in teasers for bl3. come the fuck on
the Psychonauts artstyle. even if I do no longer draw in the hyperdeformed style I took from that game I still often deform characters and exagerrate their main features in order to make them more distinct. it also kinda made me addicted to shape language lolmao
Team Fortress 2. I am fucking serious btw. blame that one youtube video on its artstyle. it's been a formative experience for me when I watched it and it stuck itself in my brain. it made me appreciate blockiness/solidity/stockiness in art, as well as teaching me how to limit color palettes and how to draw attention to the important parts of the character by using color contrast.
as for actual artists and not. Video Games. I have been eyeing cubists and futurists recently (even went to a gallery with some of Picasso's earlier works) but it's nothing too substantial as of rn
visual art, thematically:
most of what I draw is characters & fanart so. yeah .
however one thing I've been enjoying recently is redrawing paintings or old photos. usually replacing the ppl in them with my fave old man yaoi. maybe it's cringe but they are a very "love in every time" sort of couple to me so :shrug:
literary art, stylistically:
positivist writing, particularly Lalka by Bolesław Prus. perhaps it's because I consider myself academically inclined, perhaps it's because naturalistic descriptions pander to my Biology Autism, perhaps it's bc of smth else idk
impressionism except not really bc im autistic and thus sensory descriptions come to me naturally
Terry. Pratchett. comparisons in my fics are often snappy(tm) as all fuck because they're, well, Borderlands fics, and to me a Borderlands novel should be Discworld-like. also because Discworld itself slaps
the work of Alexis Kennedy: the guy who wrote a lot of Fallen London, Cultist Simulator and also the Horizon Signal dlc for Stellaris. which is all shit im into. and good lird . its hard to describe you have to read this stuff for yourself
literary art, thematically:
again see the visual art section but largely my fics if they aren't self indulgent fluff are just. taken from my brain tee em because I cover topics or angles that the rest of the fandom wouldn't even think of
Alexis Kennedy again bc he writes gothic/cosmic horror. especially the latter. hoo doggy
other things that in general inspire me:
Darkest Dungeon. both the artstyle and the story have been big influences on me even tho I only played the game once and know everything abt it by watching youtube and bingereading wikis
the legacy of H. P. "Racist" Lovecraft. I guess. what can I say I am a sucker (haha) for those tentacles. except I do everything he ever did sexier and cooler and also he can go roll in his grave
legends, folklore, mythology and occultism. Hellenic of course since that's a big part of Borderlands symbolism but I ain't a coward I throw all that shit in there. slavic (creator bias lollll), norse, japanese, a bit of voudoun, biblical tradition, alchemy, tarot, et cetera. of course I usually don't talk about all the symbols that go into my Everything bc there's a crapton and everyone is entitled to their own interpretations but. yknow! and thats not even accounting for my love of assigning complex motifs to things
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kettlequills · 3 years ago
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i love the miraak cultists. sulis, ulf, drethys, mirdein, soskro, rokzaam, rekzaam, hjoti, agata, sadeni, hakir, my beloveds. rokzaam and rekzaam are from the miraak follower mod! these guys are all thats left rip rip but they're in waking dreams!
soskro: nb transman. dunmer. the o.g. cultist. lived in the temple all his life, brought there when he was a baby in the red year by his grandmother. best at blood and shape magic, did sacrifices to make the stones work for miraak. probably would be the leader if he was more into that than being mysterious.
mirdein: transwoman. dunmer. former redoran guard who saw soskro in her dreams until she came to the temple to be trans and free. extremely loyal, prefers to follow rather than lead but takes charge of temple defence cause of her experience.
sulis: agender nb dunmer. young, ex-mephalite. stabby, fantastic shot. definitely on the run from the morag tong. is in the cult to lay low, but also curious about the power.
ulf: man. nord. large, quiet, hairy. solstheim native, either ex.werebear or skaal. as tall as miraak. nervous about talking because he has anxiety, so mumbles. unintentionally kind of mysterious but generally good-natured
drethys: man. dunmer. rumoured kicked out of a bandit group after being tricked and betrayed. knows agata from those days, has a healthy fear of her. possible learning disability - maybe adhd, dyscalcula and dyslexia. the trickery involved cutting him short on money cause he struggled with counting. kind of bitter.
hjoti: woman. nord. bandit who got defeated by mirdein. joined up. boisterous, typical mead-swilling nord. likes a fight, also kind of bitter about the empire, possibly was a runaway from the army during the great war.
agata: woman. nord. alchemist. old. implied ex-bandit when she accrued gambling debt, fell in with the cult when she got too old to be a bandit. old butch, v sharp, would cut your throat without hesitation despite seeming a friendly old lady.
sadeni: woman. redguard. a trader from high rock whose ship crashed on the way to morrowind. soskro healed sadeni, and she decided to stay cause the debts she'd rack up from the ship would make her broke anyway. likes to read the books in the temple.
hakir: man. redguard. weaver from raven rock originally who saw miraak in his dreams. he joined kinda by accident cause he was stumbling around the temple of miraak having seen miraak in his dreams and tranced his way up there. quite a gentle guy.
rokzaaam: nb. dunmer. besties, possibly twins. a dark backstory mo one knows. they were found by soskro and raised in the temple. took the dovahzul names to distance themselves from their past. prefers to present a little more femme, has imprinted on mirdein like a duckling.
rekzaam: nb. dunmer. the more outgoing one, generally speaks for rokzaam. likes to help hakir with weaving.
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lua-born · 5 years ago
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A spawned AU plot bunny that spawn when I was playing Warframe like the nerd I am. I am also a GOC/ROTG cultist fan who loves rainbow snowcone / frostbite. Bless @aleikats / @alei-kats for wonderful coconut club and Jayson Frost. Thank you for birthing this AU with your art!
Toothiana is a princess coming to age in a kingdom far into space (think like Star Wars Naboo but floating islands) and her parents (king and queen) throws a grand and extravagant festival/ball announcing her coming of age and celebration of her newly found engagement to another neighboring kingdom.
As the festivities went on, Toothiana felt unhappy and upset that her parents had decided to marry her off instead of letting her go on an adventure like she had read in many stories. She wished there was something more than being a barter chip and a princess and sat unhappily in the gardens while the party went on.
Suddenly there was a large overcast above her and screams could be heard as she looked up to see so many pirate ships up close. Pirates descended onto the land, attacking both civilians and guards alike. Then another group descended and found and grabbed Toothiana, dragging her back into one of the smaller ships to depart.
Realizing there was no escape that could leave her in one piece right away, she partially gave up letting them, but not letting them off by giving a few of them some bruises and a black eye.
In turns out they were looking for several targets to capture for ransom and conveniently they managed to nab only at least the princess and a child of a noble, Seraphina.
Few weeks pass (and deep in the outer reigion of the galaxy) Toothiana and Seraphina was held for ransom far from the kingdom and there were several attempts to take them back. But the pirates were cunning and slippery to boot, almost avoiding all attempts but gaining substantial damage on their ship.
Nearly out of fuel and the ship in major need of repair,the pirates dock into an obscure docking port. The pirates attempt to reach their other crew member ship to transfer both Toothiana and Seraphina into separate cargo to prevent losing some ransom money.
Just before they were going to be transferred out into the loading area to be split up, a space pilot comes breaking in, kicking the door open and started fighting the worn down pirates.
As both Toothiana and Seraphina watched (Seraphina becoming more excited and shouting joy as the space pilot kicked ass), Toothiana had several thoughts. ‘Goodness gracious, that’s it! I want to be a space pilot, that’ll be my way to adventure all over the galaxy!’ and another stray thought was ‘oh my, what a nice ass he got there.’
As it turns out the space pilot, now newly revealed ‘Jayson Frost’, wasn’t exactly there to save them but it seems like a plus to return them back home, took them into his ship after they pleaded (more on Seraphina’s part because she got a guardian waiting for her) to be taken home. Toothiana, who had become interested in becoming a space pilot, convinces him over a few days to teach her a space pilot.
He calls her princess several times jokingly and teasingly, not knowing Toothiana is actually a princess.
Jayson eventually has a crisis and figure out he really like Toothiana because of her quirks and he hoped to ask her if she would become her partner in bounty hunting and just deep diving into space for treasure, with the added bonus of traveling everywhere.
Meanwhile Toothiana is also freaking out because damn he is funny with his dark humor and she loves how he would treat her and Seraphina right and not like fragile glass. He also acts like a really good father/big brother to Seraphina so that was a major plus in her books if she wanted to make her own family.
As they travel far back to Toothiana and Seraphina’s Kingdom, detours had to be made while oddly Jayson was suspiciously being slow and stealthy in the neighboring kingdom. The two girls then figure out as he was exposed by a guard at a checkpoint, revealing him to be the lost prince of the King (MiM) who had lost his only son in an invasion. Nearly escaping the guards Jayson takes them into a wild goose chase into the asteroid labyrinth, effectively losing their pursuers.
Toothiana is shocked that this could be the prince she would be expected to marry if he wasn’t a space pilot.
It eventually ends up as an action/comedy/romance as the three runs all over the galaxy, avoiding authorities of certain kingdoms and beating up pirates and completing bounties.
During their travels, Jayson picks up a special artifact from one of the old ruins of a derelict kingdom and it also turns out there's a huge conspiracy around it and they also have to fight a big baddie who threatens the whole galaxy. Which they end up saving with some cliche power of love thing and because Seraphina remembers thats her dad, Kozmotis Pitchiner, the lost and best Head General of Jayson’s kingdom.
Kozmotis ends up hitching for a ride and get them a better ship with the untouch money vault he had hidden away. It was more of a thank you for saving him and letting him reunite with his beloved daughter.
Meanwhile amongst all this, Jayson and Toothiana becomes a couple and unofficial become this weird family where clearly they are to young to get married and have a former Head General and his daughter as family.
Seraphina is pleased about the two getting together and teases both of them about when she’s going to have a little sibling and it always gets them beet red. She often get scolded lightly by her father but she most often gets away with it due to certain incidents.
There’s later in the future, Jayson and Toothiana does get married but then suddenly both their home kingdom crashes in to see them tie the knot. Of course both the couple and Pitchiners escape (Seraphina was both the flower girl and ring barer and Kozmotis was the best man in the wedding.) in a blaze of glory.
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kaiju-z · 5 years ago
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FINALLY back on track, after a month and a half of stuff getting in our way, but here we are with session 20!!!
Seon Adventures Episode 20: Going Solo...
With the passing of the night, comes the light of day.
The trio of Belli, Luctan and Mournimar awake alongside Morgan and the elf baby with notably Amelia, Archie, Burk and Rimefang missing. Luctan does elaborate where Amelia had gone, though it gets missed in the confusion when everyone wonders what happened with Burk.
Thinking quickly on her feet, Belli sends a message to Burk to check where he is. But all he answers with is that  Rimefang’s fine, don’t know where Amelia is.”
As Luctan fixes the baby up for the day, packing him like a little baby burrito (a babitto, if you will), the remaining bunch go upstairs, while Belli gives a call to Amelia. Amelia, who had been having the most wonderful of sleeps she has had since a long while.
“No.”
Belli sends her a message again with a whistle.
“No. Just no.”
Luctan has to repeat himself on where Amelia actually is, much to the amusement of the adopted duo.
As they climb up the stairs, everything seems normal and as expected from the previous night, people coming and going, welcomed and- And the party for some reason get approached by a very confused human, wearing the robes of the temple of Keemis.
Brunette, with an undercut, in his 30′s, scars on his arms and face, the kind man delivers a letter to the bunch, asking if they’re the Cultbusters.
“Are you the Cultbusters?”
“Depends on who’s asking?”- Belli.
“3 of them!”- Mournimar.
After a brief sibling argument about just up and telling people their identities, the man elaborates that the letter is written by Burk. Or. Well, he helped Burk write that letter for the party.
Mournimar is the one to read it to everyone else. All lower case, a lot of the words are misspelled.
“ hi. this is from burk. i am leaving now. ive been thinking and i think i do not need to be here anymore. i found one of the guys i was looking for and it was really easy and no ofense but i was hoping for cold hard killers and u r not. but you were all realy nice to me, nicer than any one has before so i am going to miss all of u very much. rimefang is coming with me because hes too cool for u. also i think hes geting bigger cause he started sheding or some thing i dont know. i left some scales for u, and ur share of the gold. there is a lot of stuff i wana go do and i feel bad draging u guys with me so i gotta go do it my self. but i want u all to know im not just going to kill people for me. i am doing stuff for u. For amelia and luc i am going to come back and we are gona have the best fight ever and learn a lot. For beli i am going to steal the biggest shinyest kazoo i can find. For morni i will stop punching wolfs and also be nicer to weird animals i find in the forest. u were all very nice and good with peeple and not good at vilence, and thats a good thing. but i dont fit in. bye for a while
 burk “
The trio are devastated. Belli is the most vocal, with Mournimar having to calm her down, while Luctan stands stoically, with the baby in his arm.
Burk left.
It’s heart breaking.
It’s heart breaking and the cleric tries to cast Calm Emotions on the lot of them to try and soothe their woes. Mournimar fails his save, Luctan doesn’t even try and Belli tanks that and starts shouting at him for imposing his magic on them, without their consent.
“Don’t you fucking dare try and tell me what to fucking feel.” -  She is emotion personified.
When things calm down, Luctan apologizes and asks for the messenger’s name.
“ My name is Malak. I am a Devotee of Keemis. I’ve been living here in this temple for a few years.” He had heard of the Cultbusters’ reputation and found interest and want to join them on their questing, seeing as they’ve stirred some cults out of their comfort.
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Thrown them out of their rhythm, if you will.
He is accepted, Belli referring to him as their “intern” for now and, with introductions made, and Malak gathering his equipment, the bunch of them take to the last tavern they had gone to for breakfast and meeting back up with Amelia.
Amelia waits for them there. Nel had spoken to her about how she managed to get her mother to agree on leaving town for a while with the help of a family friend. And she had made some sort of offer to Amelia.
The group are again together at the tavern and introduce Malak. Amelia and Malak shake hands as a distraught Belli pays the tavern keeper to go and work the kitchen for a while.
Amelia encourages her. “The fact he wrote us a letter means he cared about The Cultbusters.” She gently holds Belli’s arm, ‘cause Belli’s abandonment issues have kicked in hard.
There’s stress baking and then there’s stress cooking. And Belli does this handily. And she makes... so much food! 1st, second, third Breakfasts, if those were actual things, of course.
“It’ll be alright. He had to do what he had to do.”
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As Belli comes and goes with increasingly more and more plates of food, we end up talking about the baby and his future. The little elven boy keeps tugging at Luctan’s hair, fussing at him and getting fussed at.
A few suggestions get made. From Malak’s suggestion to raise the child in the orphanage, to the talk with Nel the other day, involving handing him over to a rich family.
The decision is hard to make. Whether he likes it or not, Luctan’s attached himself to the little one, but he knows he can’t keep him with the party as dangers keep increasing on their journey. He had been having waking flashes back to every incident since the child was with them and how scared he was from the screams and roars and hurts and aches.
He couldn’t let the baby travel with them further. He knew what he was going to do, regardless of where the baby went, but still.
Amelia catches up with Malak on his Keemis Clergy work.
 He’s been at this for 5-6 years or so. He heard about the party after the CB helped arrest the local cultists. He’s fascinated by souls and how they transition, based on their alignment. He’s searching for an answer to this question. Basically, he’s looking for research.
Amelia asks where he’s from.
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“I’m from Lian. It is not a good place to raise a kid and I left home, got a lot of people from my home town killed. We wanted to leave, thought we’d make our own band of soldiers to fight in the war and I’m the only one left. And so I try to find some meaning in the senseless death and resurrection and ended up meeting some Keemis priests. Fell in with them and came up here.”
The gang try to cheer him up about his backstory woes and some end up sharing their own troubles. Mournimar does so. Luctan gives away the shocker that his family owned slaves and that triggered his sense of aiding those in need, freeing the captive ones and fleeing via teleport scroll.  And lastly Belli tells the tragic story of her family.
Doting on the baby commences, while Mournimar gives Malak some pointers on the shenanigans he is up for with Belli, now that he is part of the group.
Following their hefty meal, Mournimar gets his new armor. Better fitted than his previous one. Since he found it in the barracks??? This one is more custom. Studded Leather, which raises his AC + 1
Going back on forth on where to go next, during this tragic shopping episode, Belli shares Burk’s treasures with the cleric, seeing as he had left them for the rest.
Before anything can be really bought, though, aside of the meals, we go for the payment on the Serial Kilelr job.
As the party draw closer to the dungeons, Mournimar suggests Belli let Luctan talk, which offends Belli, who gets encouragement from Luck and Malak that she’ll do great. Malak ingretiating himself by casting Guidance and Enhance Ability on the Half-Orc Bard, right before she approaches the receptionists, an older Half-Elf man and a yellow tiefling.
“Now is the time to prove them wrong.”
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The conversation is quick and Belli shines during this process. We are thanked, the lot of us, for the work we did and are pointed to the office of the Captain in charge.
While walking, we get a few pointers on places to visit around town.
Generally South-West of the city is a good night’s time.” the HElf answers Amelia. Though, uh,  he wouldn’t know personally. Definitely.
We walk down to the office, knock on the door before walking in.
We are welcomed in by the Halfling woman inside. She’s dressed well for her job. Not exactly the outfit one would expect for prison duty, but then again, they didn’t have a good idea on that, themselves. Blue eyes observe us warmly and kindly, through a wavy bob haircut, while she fiddles with the cuff of one of her sleeves. Her office is bare, maybe she’s new, maybe it’s how she likes it.
She kind of looks everyone up and down. “I’m guessing you’re the folks we’ve been expecting, huh?”
The party apologize as they didn’t have a proper schedule in mind and the thought is shared vice-versa as it just... Really was like that sometimes? Often times?! A lot. It happened a lot.
For finding the hide out of the slayer of cityfolk, for convincing his husband to give himself up and testify about his beloved, the ‘busters gain a monetary reward. As she pulls out a big chest on the table, Belli tries to convince her to unionise. To some possible success? She certainly seems curious about the suggestion itself.
Ames kinda looks her up and down and gives a smol little thumbs up
She’s a valuable worker, she’s worth more.
On behalf of the city of Crystalgate, thank you for all of your efforst in intervening with the issue. The culprits have been dealt with.” Much to the four original members’ surprise, the husband has been released, having promissedto turn over a new leaf.
Luctan would later ask the captain, who introduced herself to the five as River Blackbrace (Just River), where he could find the husband and, after ensuring her that he planned no ill will towards the man, she guesses he’d be back in town or at one of the temples.
The woman feels like rewarding us with more, since this isn’t her gold, yeah? Lots of paperwork time prevented. The five are given suggestions on places to go and spend our money. Between " Neladrie's Rarities” and “Snipper’s Hall’, the clothing store of Grinella, they have some good options on their way.
Grinella is the best at her work, as far as River’s concerned.
Before they go, we mention to River that we plan on participating in the Spring Festival’s tournament.
River mentions that it was originally created as a celebration of the heroes Septum Sabata. It’s a series of trials re-creating what they went through to save everyone. Malak has watched it a few times and things happening around the arena a few good times. He’s the local CG expert.
And if they really feel down, there’s also a place... a-a-
Café where they summon fae animals.
And should they need a good book,  there’s a library in the north east. “The Lady Stormweaver National Library.” The conversation about books prompts Luctan to show off the “Handerstaad” he got from Sa Doma.
And River spills the tea that Kheyha is a local. And has spent some time in the dungeons for her alcoholism antics. (Never meet your heroes, kids.)
They are suggested to stay away from the Ebryosis followers. Best leave those kinky fellas to their own “dungeons”.
As they walk walk to the clothes and magical trinkets shops, Mournimar has a heart to heart with Belli, apologizing for his behavior. While Luctan checks the money with Malak. The sibs hug it out, while the money is counted and distributed amongst all of them, even as Malak protests some.
There’s a faint tingle of wind chimes as the five go to one of the most eclectic collections of goods of various kinds we’ve ever seen. Sort of an order to it, anyways. A rainbow pattern across the show. Vaguely arranged in no particular order. Pretty much everything’s in a different size and shape.
A high elven woman, Neladrie, sits in a tall stool behind a desk, very long hair. She glances vaguely at us and has a monocular on.
Good morning. Feel free to look around. Please be aware you’re being watched, so don’t get any funny ideas. And Welcome.”  She points at her watchful little pseudodragon, watching from the rafters.
Belli uses mage hand to pat the dragon.
She knows she’s a good gorl.
The search commences as each member of the party search foritems with some help of the shopkeeper.
Malak gains supplies for his Divination magic, including dragon bones.
Mournimar tries and fails to find anything that could enhance his wisdom.
Amelia gets her hands on some lovely sea shells.
Luctan gets helped with finding a focus for his recently developed magical abilities. A small purple crystal.
All the while Belli takes her pick, between some wild musical instruments.
There is an holy banjo with all the gods’ symbols.
There’s a great axe with a wider handle. A didgerydeath, if you will.
And also, what appears to be a kazoo 2. One sort of kazoo entrance and branches out into different sights. It’s like if a kazoo had different pitches.
There’s also a set of bagpipes.
And last, but not least, an ukulele of sorts. Upon testing it, the ukulute sounds like a spannish guitar, almost.
Ostentatious is her brand and after testing all the instruments, she agrees to buy the ukulute.
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With purchases made, the gang take the next step of their journey, going to the “Snipper’s Hall”, where they meet the one and only  Grindelia Snipper. A Goblin Woman, standing atop a 7ft tall step ladder, measuring a tall model with her arm tattoo.
“OH! Welcome!” 
"Snipper’s Hall” is a long building, like a miniature Viking lounge house, with elements of stone to keep it stable. There is a wide variety of different sort of premade outfits, models of different heights going from 4.5 to 8ft tall... And. There’s a jewelry section.
After a greeting, the party make their requests and orders in a friendly sort of manner. Mournimar buys a jacket and a stag brooch, Belli gets herself a new, lovely outfit, a dress of blue and pink, as well as a canine bracelet. Malak’s fine as he is and Amelia is left uncertain with what to purchase.
Upon Luctan’s request... A custom outfit which’ll take a few days to put together, the poor secret Tieflingman gets handled with amazing strength and tenacity by the spunky and overly friendly goblin woman, who measures him nice and well with her arm and finger, taking his numbers with keen eyes, even with his armor still on.
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He can’t be sure why, but the very suggestion she’s sent people to get treatment over the roughhousing sends a chill down his spine. The elf baby just has a blast during the entire developement.
Business transaction made, the next stop is “Peppery Pete’s Pile of Potions.”
Belli is still angry with the old gnome, over his potions involving Orcish strength, given the negative stereotype about Orcish intelligence lowering the user’s titular stat.
A stern talking to is to be had, before any dealings get made there.
Along the way to the shop, Luctan asks Malak if he knows anything about the tournament, beyond what the party had heard and he shares his knowledge with the gang:
“The Tournament is divided into three trials The Trial of the Elemental Lords, the Trial of the Beast and the Trial of the Betrayed.
The Trial of the Elemental Lords involves the blending of the elements being worked into a challenge that teams must overcome together.
The Trial of the Beast involves fighting a mighty beast that establishes victors as a cut above the rest.
The Trial of the Betrayed is the grand finale, the remaining 2 groups battle it out. But there are clerics on standby. You cannot aim to kill, just to knock unconscious. Any deliberate murder would be acted upon as such in a court of lawAfter the tournament, a party is held for all groups within the Echosmith Hall and the champions are presented with their rewards.”
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Luctan’s mind wanders. Things to be re-worked in his goals.
The lot of them soon reach the shop and, upon summoning Pete inside, welcomes are had. Arguing commences between the Half-Orc and the Gnome as Pete ultimately admits that he stopped producing the particualr offending potion, much to the losses in his product.
Ideas are being thrown around on potions Pete could work on in turn, before any business could be had, involving the party’s wants and needs.
Aside from getting a Greater Health Potion and a new Potion of Wizard’s Folly (after giving his first one to Danton back in Sa Doma), the party have... particular requests.
Belli takes note of the “ Basilisk Tears “ potion. For 200 gold, she most definitely buys that and makes plans. Fast plans on the use.
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On Luctan’s end, with the deal being made for Peter sponsoring the adventurers for the tournament to come, Luctan gives in to the support of the full party, now that they are all in the shop, as opposed to only half there. With the price for his sword’s modification being brought down to 1,000 gold and the helping hand of Mournimar, Amelia and Malak, who didn’t even want the share of money given to him, Luctan accets.
And hands his greatsword over to the gnome for the specific enchantments he requested.
Belli has that moment of realization, you know? The one, where you just know that you have to move, while the moving is available and contacts Ficus about the Potion of Basilisk Tears, a concoction that might JUST bring her family back to their old selves!
With the party’s blessings, she runs off towards the Crusty Challice, where Ficus will wait for her.
But she doesn’t go alone as Mournimar tails her, just to make sure she doesn’t get messed with, before getting to her older brother. All the while the rest of the group are welcomed to the back of the shop by Pete for training.
As the work out commences, Mournimar follows. And as he follows, he keeps an eye out for anyone shady that might be watching Belli on her way out of the walls of the city.
He doesn’t see anyone. But gets the feeling that he is watched. He investigates that feeling. He notices that someone in the crowd is watching him. Seems to be, looks like a bald older man, stocky built, little bit tall and for a second the tiefling swears there's the faint glimmer of horns in his shadow, but then they disappear. As does he as Mournimar tries to find him in the crowd. To no avail.
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Regardless, he continues on the path to the tavern.
There’s a bit of a smog in the tavern as people’ve lit cigarettes and pipes. Belli and Ficus have a good long talk as she shows him the potion of Basilisk tears. They are shaken, misty eyed and anxious to see if it works. This horror that befell their family... It could end in the next couple of days!
By the time she hugs Ficus, Mournimar has entered the tavern and commenced watching over the shadyness that may be observed from the patrons.
Which is to say, he’s basically looking through a sea of shade.
He does notice, though, one of the bartenders has a sort of, finely shaped jaw and stood up black hair, a bit of stubble and seems to be watching Mournimar a bit more intently than normal.
Mournimar tries to stealth closer to the guy, even though he’s aware. He tries to figure out who the guy is, but he has no idea.
Eye contact is made between the two as the guy slides a glass with Brandy over to Mournimar and just continues with his work behind the bar.
Mourni has a leetl sip to make sure everything’s Gucci. Tastes like some of the brandy from around Bavorum. Nostalgic.
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Through some small talk, Mournimar learns that the man’s name is “Joe”. Just a working Joe, you know?
It’s less of a talk and more of an interrogation as they don’t break eye contact.
“The brandy’s on the house, Mournimar.” the man answers with the name that the tiefling hadn’t given him. Like. At all.
No answer given on how he knows that.
He backs out the back door with a wink and Mournimar follows after her.
There’s no way the Half-Orcs don’t see this by now and they dash and jump on after the digitigrade ranger, who finds himself and Morgan out in the back alley, with no sign of the mystery man, named Joe.
He tries everything he can, from following tracks, to Hunter’s Mark, to Morgan’s snoofer, but nothing works. The man is just... gone.
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With the Narahs catching up to him, he explains what happened and has to be talked down from pointlessly searching for a man, or whoever, who is just “GONE”.
It is then that Belli must explain to him that she has to leave Crystalgate with Ficus. To try the potion on her family. It’s hard on Mournimar, but the frazzled tiefling understands.
Belli hands him Orion and states that, if anything is to happen, she’ll call the others. They then agree to meet up with the others for a proper goodbye.
The others, by the way, doing pretty well for themselves in this new enviroment.
A deal has been made that every time Amelia does good in the training, Archie gets a treat.
Given that the chunky kitty is on his back, getting pats on his big belly from the baby, she’s killed this training.
The entire development has left the running quartet staggering back to the rest of the party. Mournimar doesn’t spot anything off on the way back. 
As everyone reconvenes, Mournimar gives them an update on the respective situations, giving in detail a description of this “Joe” character. He worries it could be related to Lazarus, his ex. Or Kahlia. Or Potencia herself. He gets calmed by Luctan’s wording on the subject.
“We’re a bunch of famous and attractive people. Let’s face it. we have fans.”
As the party splits up, with Belli making her goodbyes with the rest of the gang, Luctan Blesses her and Ficus, which catches Malak’s attention. Thinking about the type of magic being used, he can tell that, though holy, it is not one of the Five that has given Luctan his abilities.
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With Belli and Ficus taking Kevin and Killer, the rest of the party opt to go to the circus on the outskirts of town.
“The Voluptani Mystique “, a big tent circus in the north-west part of town’s outskirts. It’s fabulous on the outside.
They pay and notice at the entrance, a red skinned tiefling woman with a long, ball gown dress, leaning against the booth she stood inside and she waves a hand over and leaves a small mark with Prestidigitation.
Lead inside,  it’s basically how you imagine a circus. An arena with seats around the circle. The four and their animal companions take a seat at the front as the Dancing Lights Cantrip flies around the tent, lighting and highlighting everything and everyone gathered, people of many walks of life. Just here for a little show to end the evening.
A cloud of smoke emits from the middle and the huge entrance of the tent swings shut.
Inside the cloud the lights start hovering, we can see the lights start changing color and go in different directions, erratic and suddenly there are hops from around the room where everyone’s sitting. And back in the middle, when they look, they see a high elf woman with pitch black hair falling long and wavy towards the bottom.
She stands with one hand in the air and one hand spread outwards towards the side. She pauses, looks around the audience and she whistles three high pitched notes. She snaps with her pointing up hand and the lights skatter, going right towards the audience. The cloud disappears and in the time it was there, the original woman is gone and there are two halflings, a man and a woman and they start doing all sorts of contortions. They entwine and roll in a ball. Throughout the whole show there is this almost hypnotic flute music. Pyrotechnic displays and after each one, there is a set of three elven dancer,s almost dangerously close as they maneuver around. Really fucking weird. A whole lot of illusion magic is happening here.
At one point the elven dancers starts flying around and Mallak, being a local, has seen this before.
After 3 hours of this weird bewhildering performance the entire room lights up and it’s completely clear and the original high elf woman, who’s actually an eladrin, is still in that same pose as when things started.
And she says “Thank you all once again, as always, please leave your tips with faith on the way out and thank you. She snaps with fingers and purple energy surrounds her as she leaves.
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Bewhildered and amazed, Mournimar kinda wants to give this a go. Run away and joy the circus? Follow your dream, bud!
Having been in Crystalgate for a few years now, Malak had abided in a few viewings of the spectacle and, though it’s often with some modifications, it’s generlaly been the same good experience over time. He’s happy.
Amelia shares with the gang about the possibility of hanging out at Nel’s for a few days. As though there was any question on whether they would say “no” to such an offer.
 As the night covers the sky above Crystalgate, the party find themselves again at the rich sector of town, being watched by a guard.  Nel arrives at the gate, red faced after messaging Amelia. She forgot to give her a badge and was now paying the price with the run she had to make.
Sadly, though a talented bard,  Nel has the muscle content of a slug.
The party soon make it back to Shadowspire Manner, lead by Nel, after introducing Mal to the Half-Elven woman and sharing of Burk’s departure.
They are shown around. the rooms, the kitchen, everything they’d need, before she takes Amelia’s hand and leads her to her room. Nel’s room. She is the body guard and she must guard that body.
Mournimar and Malak opt to crash in Luctan’s room for the evening, deciding not to split the party any further than this.
Luctan watches out of a window for about an hour, while humming to the baby, before going to bed.
As Mournimar and Malak sleep, Mournimar has some kind of dream...
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But Luctan doesn’t sleep.
No.
Instead, once he’s sure the others have fallen in rem sleep, he sneaks outside and goes for a short walk around the neighbourhood, doing whatever it is that he does at this time.
After coming back in, 5-10-20-to-30 minutes later, he feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and notices a shadow close to Mournimar, with no one casting it.
Then it disappears.
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After investigating out the window, Luctan goes to bed and meditates... on something else.....
Day 2 comes to an end.
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