#they put a spell on me :D

[hyog-blog]

Fangs of Fortune & Polyamory

I don't think I've ever seen a drama explore polycules or, dare I say, polyamory in such an effortless and non-toxic manner. The show that came closest to this trope, I think, was the Wachowski's Sens8, but it was more about mind-sharing in various sometimes increasingly intimate ways, which is a different angle altogether.

It's incredible to see a show explore actual human (or demon) relationships and different kinds of love within a team of close people who can be considered as a found family. It also touches upon their other relationships and familial bonds in a lighthearted, but respectful tone that discovers and acknowledges those different types of love, and fondness, and affection. I loved it to the point that I actually found it to be a healing experience for me.

We put so many labels on people and our own different types of loves and affections (along with a society still devoured by numerous taboos about same-sex relationships or about having different types of relationships all at once simultaneously). But that's like… we're doing it anyway (if we allow ourselves some exploration). Some people are like soulmates but you do not necessarily have that physical spark with them. Others may be like that toxic magnet that brings out the primal desire, but you wouldn't be able to build a relationship with them even if your life depended on it. While others, still, are more like friends that sometimes turn into lovers (or vice versa). And it's a whole net of interconnectedness. And it's about love more than anything else (in its various forms).

And I love how the show doesn't even draw those lines, so we don't have very definitive couples as actual couples, we just see people sharing different kinds of bonds and sometimes doing romantic things together (and that equation changes all the time, whether it's M/M or F/F or F/M). And those bonds also differ - they can be deep and important, or painful, or loving and hopeful, or brotherly, and isn't that what human relationships are all about? They don't necessarily fit into some formulas of being 'one and only' or 'till death does us apart', and there can be many important people in our lives - each with a different flavor.

I might not have the mental and energetic capacity to support multiple relationships like that, but this show enlightened me at least to the possibility of those different types of loves that can co-exist with each other and not be mutually exclusive. The beauty of Fangs of Fortune is that they actually showed us how all that can work, setting that tight-knit little family of the Demon Hunting Bureau as an example. Of course, there's lots of drama, and doomed narratives, but this undertone has been evident throughout the whole series and it just made me all warm and fuzzy inside (and wanting to write fics not only about couple relationships, but throuple and, if possible, polycule as well :D).

[fckyeahraulesparza]

[turnaboutstar]

I'm so sorry trucy but ur 3d model in this game looks a little off to me but I'll get use to it eventually tho

[angelmichelangelo]

decided to reupload some of my old orphaned tmnt fics from way back in 2016 :] warning: they're kind of... not the best but yknow i liked them when i wrote them back then so yeah. maybe someone else will also enjoy them! you can find them here and here!

[void-snakat]

Plan to get a binder in rural Appalachia :3

> It's Halloween in October. > Say I want to cosplay as a guy character or a flat character (prbly the latter for safety :3) > My Dad (<- the main bigot (when it comes to politics mom just listens to him)) is weeb, dweeb and a nerd (only derogatory cause fuck him) so if I am going for accuracy he might let me have one for the costume. > But until then I have to be EXTREMELY not sus ;3 > So he doesn't think I'll keep it or use it after the costume > AND hope he doesn't take it immediatly after so I can't use it > Let's hope this works cause some days I'm this close ���� to taping or other non-savory things (like a break down don't worry Abt me) :D

[coridallasmultipass]

.

[dumbbullet]

Preparing for a d&d game im running for my coworkers tomorrow (which by itself is very fucking cool), but i'm running into trouble because the characters are like:

A monk turned assassin. She was taken in by a thieves guild after trying to steal from the leader, and has trained under him for the last 6 years. Her previous life prevents her from bringing harm to others, but she's about to be assigned her first mark. She owes the guild an outrageous amount and needs to set out to earn it in order to buy her freedom from the guild.

A bugbear fighter who once pillaged villages with his twin brother until a group of bounty hunters came after them. He was separated from his brother, but was taken in by a kindly shipwright, who taught him to build his own vessel. Now he's setting out on his own, looking for freedom on the ocean, and perhaps there's a strange connection with the moon?

A sorcerer who gets expelled from his academy for refusing to assist his corrupt proffessor with her human experiments.

Jeebus Creebus the shitty bard.

Shithead. Last i checked he's a bounty hunter?

[averyangrytissuebox]

The issues with Vecna: Eye of Ruin are foundational because they got Vecna himself wrong

If you either didn't know about this book or only vaguely looked at it because it is part of the content run that Wotc is pumping out before dnd 6e comes out soon, I can't blame you. A brief scan of *shudders* reddit shows that the it wasn't very well recieved by the die hard fans of r/dndnext and I've seen very little buzz about it in the general dnd zeitgheist. While I have lots to say about why this is probably due to lack of trust in Wotc after the OGL, official adventures being underwhelming and the community being fractured as all fuck, but I want to focus on one very specific thing to show what is wrong with the adventure: Vecna's statblock himself.

Here it is. If you downloaded the Vecna dossier a couple of years back, this will look very familiar and it isn't abundantly obvious where this goes wrong so I want to break it down.

The first is a flavour fail. Vecna in the lore is the archlich supreme, formerly a king and lich who ascended to godhood. Once considered one of the strongest liches to dwell in the Greyhawks setting, he has grown to be a scourge of the whole multiverse. An unmatched sorcerer and epic BBEG worthy foe (just ask Matt Mercer). Iconic to his appearance are four things: His eye and hand which were all that is left after he was betrayed by Kas, his right hand man. Just as synonymous to his appearance is the sword of Kas itself, the only blade capable of permanently destroying the hand and eye. Finally, Vecna created the most profane tome of them all, the book of Vile Darkness.

With all that established, there are some immediate flavour issues with this. Firstly, Vecna is not particularly intelligent as far as high level villains go. At 22, he is dumber than Auril (24), Zariel (26), Acererak (27), the demon lords and Manshoon (23), the guy who is well known for being paranoid enough that he created clones that turned on him. Notable wise guy. He isn't even the most intelligent character in his own book because Kas and Tasha are intelligence 23. Truly a bizarre decision for one of the greatest liches of all time.

Secondly, he isn't actually that good of a spellcaster. He is an innate caster and not a wizard for ease of use I assume but as far as spellcasters concern, he is lacking a lot of fire power that a CR 26 god should have. He doesn't have any 9th level spells, making him an inferior wizard to both Acererak and the humble CR 12 archmage. He doesn't have counterspell, instead having a non spell version (But I will come back to this later) and he doesn't have shield. He is not so sturdy that he shouldn't have it and there is no in lore reason why he doesn't have basic spell casting.

Finally, there is no mention of his eye or hand in the campaign itself. The blade of Kas gets an honorary "However, if the characters wish to find it and use it against the warlord, you might place the artifact somewhere in this adventure for them to find" in the introduction and can be acquired at the very end on an extremely high roll. The book of Vile Darkness is buried in his chest which is very cool though, I will admit.

The second and arguably bigger issue with the statblock is that it is bad to fight and lies to the DM because it is the wrong CR. Actual CR is calculated by averaging defensive CR (which is effective hit points and armour class) and offensive CR (damage dealt per round). So lets fact check those CRs to confirm the maths. [A quick side note before we continue, the closest approximation of Flight of the Damned is a dragon's breath weapon which assumes it hits two targets for offensive CR].

Offensive CR = 2(7+9+9) [From two attacks with afterthought] + 96 [Rotten Fate] + 10 + 10 + 10 [For all three reactions] + 10 [Vile teleport used offensively] = 186 dpr.

A very impressive but decidedly not CR 26. In fact, his offensive CR is only 23. Vecna's attack bonuses are higher than average which can increase CR by 1 but not that much. Also he never wants to cast a spell unless he has to because it is a massive damage loss on Vecna

Calculating Defensive CR is trickier. Effective health is calculated by taking his actual health 272 and multiplying it by 1.25 because he has immunities to poison and non magical bludgeoning piercing and slashing damage. Then we add 30 to that total for each legendary resistence. (272 x 1.25) + 150 = 490 which is CR 22. Averaging both of them gives you 22.5

The issue with this is twofold: It means the DM doesn't actually know how strong Vecna is and if they take it at face value, they might nerf them or pull punches when they shouldn't making the fight feel cheap. The second and much bigger one is that Vecna's defensive tools allow him to dispatch a party of spellcasters with ease because of 5 legendary resistance, impressive saves and dread counterspell which cannot be countered but he gets easily overwhelmed by any martial. This is further compounded by the fact that players win the encounter by reducing him to 50hp or less so two fairly optimised martials (e.g. took the relevant combat feat and have maxed out their main stat) can kill him on the first turn, ignoring magical weapons which this adventure has a lot of. This makes the fight swingy and not fun because the martials get to party like there is no tomorrow but if you are a full caster, you do not get to participate.

Overall, the stat block is a failure of flavour and balance, feeling like it was thrown together after the fact because they needed Vecna here. Ultimately, Vecna: Eye of Ruin is less about Vecna and more about going through the most iconic places in d&d's history to get the rod of seven parts, which is perfectly fine but then why put Vecna on the cover when he isn't even the main villain. It feels like they shoved Vecna into this book because recognisability from stranger things and Vox Machina rather than him being an integral part of the adventure and that is reflected in the stat block.

I have a lot more to say about d&d balance, official adventure design and homebrew fixes including how to make a Vecna that doesn't suck but this post is long enough as is so maybe another time

[teetertotterseesaw]

it has come to my attention that garfield also bites thats which he loves

[swagging-back-to]

i cant wait until tiktok explodes and people stop faking having did so yhere can actually be resources for people with real dissociative disorders

[killjoy-prince]

So I'm on playthrough #4 of this game playing as Astarion this time around with the intention of romancing Wyll and man, picking all the good and heroic options as Astarion especially in Act 1 really is a case of "He would not fucking say that" bc Wyll likes all the good and heroic options and Astarion is. not that lolol

One thing is by chance I found a workaround on how to not make Wyll a devil and still keep Karlach alive. It worked but now im wondering if making him a devil would of been better narratively? Also I just got used to the horns that I kinda miss them. I do have a save thats right before doing the workaround but I did quite a bit of stuff so is it worth it?

[captain-amadeus]

Naps are so cool they take naps all the time put blankets and pillows on the floor and snuggle together and doze off and one of them wakes up before the other and slides their hand through their hair and holds the others hand like a slumber party

[mockingbirdshymn]

ao3 hates me :(((((

also off topic but here throws the songs i listen to when writing harrison angst at you have this

oh ana by mother mother

its alright by jack stauber (loud sudden screachy noise warning. very big warning for this)

i cant handle change by roar

this isnt the end by owl city (the lyrics in this fit very well with my hcs for harrison's brother)

goodbye by bo burnham but only at 2:40 in the song to the end

gods whisper by ruary but this is mostly just a harrison writing song not specificly for angst

michael in the bathroom from be more chill the musical

look whos inside again by bo burnham

[veinpursuer]

WHERE’S MY FUKING CAPO

[soraavalon]

Nathaniel: Nathaniel will find Tark and ask about the actual spell 'Speak with Dead' and what that entails. Tark: Well... Let me flip. -laughter- Tark (OOC): Hold please. Nathaniel (OOC): Yeah. Tark: That's a real good question. I just look at a body and go, 'We need to have a chit-chatsies' and they chit-chatsies. Nathaniel: That's an interesting choice of words. Does it...and you need specifically the corpse of the person? Tark (OOC): *flipping book* Hold please. I went past it. Nathaniel (OOC): Oh my god Tark (OOC): Wait, where is it? God, what the fuck? Marigold (OOC): He doesn't actually have it. It's one massive ruse so that [something] Nathaniel (OOC): That's one hell of a con to pull on a guy. Tark (OOC): No, no, I didn't go far enough. Here it is. Nathaniel (OOC): *laughs* Marigold (OOC): No, I think it's pretty far. Tark: *relaying spell* Nathaniel: Surprisingly, that doesn't answer my question. Tark: Yeah. *relays more of the spell* Nathaniel: Hmm. Tark: So it's not really their soul, kind of like Eudora (OOC): Their memory. Tark (OOC): Yeah. DM: Residual consciousness. Tark: Residual consciousness of the person who had passed. Nathaniel: Alright. Tark: So, it's not like i would be... Nathaniel: No, I understand that. I just... I'm wondering how necessary actually exhuming is. Tark: Well, I always...That's a good question, I always assumed... Nathaniel: The automaton might have been alive briefly, would that work? Moriarty (OOC): Umm? Tark: There's no harm in trying, I could certainly most definitely try.     Nathaniel: May as well try before going through the trouble of messing with the graveyard itself. Tark: Yeah, 'cause i don't know, if, I mean it could work if and only if her consciousness, her soul was removed from her body. Nathaniel: Which would answer a great deal of questions, wouldn't it? Tark: Yes. To the automaton and it was there long enough for it to...I don't know have some type of thought. 'Cause I would think it would need to be there for a second for it to actually latch on. Or maybe not? Hmm. Hmm. Nathaniel (OOC): [in chat] the bluetooth connection had to last long enogh for it to sync Eudora (OOC): [in chat] I'd guess it would have to at least have a foothold in the new vessel DM: Yeah. Yeah. Tark: I can't really experiment with that or... Nope... well... hmm... Nathaniel: We have time to think about it. Tark: Most certainly when we get back. First thing we should do Nathaniel: Okay? Tark: 'Cause I'm curious. Marigold (OOC): You're not allowed to have a shower or anything. Immediately. Tark: Usually I dig them up or... Technically, they're not even buried yet and I ask them 'Hey, who killed you?' or 'How'd you die?' type of thing. Do we even need to dig, they just need to have, as long as they're... Eudora (OOC): I'm assuming the reason why they need to actually have a mouth is because you're getting the answer from the corpse's mouth. Nathaniel (OOC): Yes, so the range is 10ft but casting it at a person who's 6ft underground, you cannot hear them. -various 'yeah's- Tark (OOC): Okay, what if, you know how sometimes they have those... Nathaniel (OOC): Oh god. Eudora (OOC): The bell? Hunt (OOC): The tube?! DM: Oh. Tark (OOC): The tube. Nathaniel (OOC): Stop stop stop. DM: They don't have the tube. Nathaniel (OOC): I visited the gravesite and that means if there was that I would have been told. Moriarty (OOC): [in chat] you should ask Amelia's corpse "do you have anything you wish you'd said to Nathaniel?" Tark (OOC): Oh, okay. Hunt (OOC): Also at this point in time, it would've been long gone. Or theoretically. Nathaniel (OOC): [in chat] STOP DM: It's been a year. Tark (OOC): Maybe. Nathaniel (OOC): [in chat] AHH Tark (OOC): Who would've got rid of it? Nathaniel: I'll think on it then. Tark: So will I. Hunt (OOC): That's dangerous. Nathaniel (OOC): Yeah. Tark: Tark flips out a notebook, sparkly pen--- Nathaniel (OOC): Putting ideas into Tark's head probably was not my best move. Tark: Hmm.

[dootznbootz]

Niko, you're fucking fantastic. You put all my feelings into words

There's the saying of “being mean is easy. Being nice is hard” and I get really saddened by the whole "they're so nice! They must just be so innocent." when no. It's a CHOICE. Especially for most adults like Polites, even more as he's still a warrior in Epic.

To act like he's too "naive" to simply not know of such horrible things is honestly astounding to me.

As a character as well, it'd hit home harder if fandom has Polites be this guy who has been by Odysseus' side in many of these battles and STILL have hope. "We've been through similar shit. If I can hope that things will get better, so can you." Showing how it IS possible.

Yes, it's true that in Epic, it's about “learning ruthlessness” but that to me, is mostly because Odysseus is dealing with immortals and monsters. They don't live by mortal rules so therefore mercy isn't going to work.

Also if this goes along with the Odyssey more, the whole "Joy like that of a sailor", moment TO ME, feels like "hey, you don't have to struggle anymore. You are kissing the sweet earth of your homeland (in Penelope's arms. who wouldn't start crying in joy from being hugged by her?) and so you can breathe. You are cold and covered in brine but it's a start."

I hope that's where Jay is going too 🥺 How Odysseus has had to become so hardened for so long but now he can be soft again because he's with those who KNOW him and love him.

sometimes the way the epic fandom treats polites really rubs me the wrong way. like, sure, they are the fans of a musical and it's a common phenomena in musical fandoms (or in any fandom actually) that any character with a softer side is represented as a baby that never did anything wrong. bro, polites survived the trojan war. he was at siege there for the whole 10 years of it. he can be a good-natured and kind soul, but surely he did witness a lot of horrible stuff

I am 100% with you on this. To be fair, we only got Polites in like,, one and a half song so there's not really much to work with. However, he has definitely been bottled down to an "innocent baby" (as fandoms, as you said, have a habit of doing). He has been in a ten year long war. It is very much possible that he just kept on hoping and had a positive outlook on life even after the war. (If you look at the cut song Your Light, he very much says "i know the world's not always pretty"). Holding on to hope and trying to go through the struggles of life with a happy mindset is a thing people do, so when any similar character gets treatment like that, it really doesn't sit right with me.

NOW. It's important to note that Polites is mentioned only once in the odyssey iirc, so what we got in epic is entirely unique to the musical. We have no idea what he was like in the odyssey (except that he led the scouting group to circe's home and was one of odysseus' most trusted and dearest friends). I feel like he's something of a personification of the concept of optimism, hope and amiability. Still, representing him as an "innocent baby" or whatever takes away from his thematical role in epic. I've seen him portrayed as very passive, naive, and his agency is very often taken away in favor of serving that bright, hopeful, "greet the world with open arms" image of him people have in mind. (something like madeline miller's patroclus).

People need to understand that optimistic, kind people can still go through horrible stuff. And good people can do bad things! Unfortunately, any character that shows even a sliver of kindness, compassion and empathy seems to get that treatment.