#trapped in a cursed game as an npc

[oocontextmanga]

Smarmy bastard

[abittersweetthing]

sdfskfhg well mine is manhwa character Shari Azrael. On the one hand I think she's smart and funny, so I wouldn't be too screwed, but on the other hand her mortal body is dying while she's stuck as an NPC and the in-game world is about to have an apocalypse, so assuming I was stuck there with her that could be, uh, bad.

Thanks for tagging me, I tag anyone who wants to do theirs!

You have to marry the last fictional character in your camera roll: how screwed are you?

I do not know her yet, i literally just watched ep 1 of Immortal Samsara today morning. Far as i can tell, I don't think I'm very screwed?? We can bond over shared Elder Sister Complexes. And as a self-declared Meng Ziyi simp, I'm just very gay about her already.

Thanks for the tag @redemption-revenge!! I'll find out exactly how screwed I am if I manage actually sit through this show till the end ;-;

Tagging @istgidek1234 @franklloydweft @iamnotmereally @stuffandatherstuff and anyone who wants to give it a go!!

[red-hot-temper]

If I had a nickel for every time Gwon Gyeoeul wrote the male lead "giving his greetings" to FL's neck, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice...

But, if I had a nickel for every time Gwon Gyeoeul wrote the first meeting of FL and ML as an assassination attempt towards her, I would have enough money to buy VADTD merchandise lmao

[steffyanie]

oh iris how i love you and the weight of your magic

[rainbowolfe]

Observations of The Goat

The first thing the trailer highlights is the lighthouse. Fully repaired, the yellow crystal gives off a pink light and aura.

Lamb on their last heart hides behind rocks marked with a parenthesis-like symbol with a slash through the lower half. This appears in Clauneck's room.

The light from the lighthouse highlights more of the symbols in a puddle on the ground. In this puddle we can see two chains. This could be a portal to the Realm Beyond. It would also imply that Goat is trapped somewhere they can't leave. A drop of Lamb's blood enters the puddle, triggering the next sequence.

A brand new, never-seen magic circle appears in pink. Placed on a hexagon, the ends decorated with the symbol of the Heretic (see: Fleece of the Old Faith). The inner circle has many of the symbols found on the Bishop's magic circle, but also a few new ones, for a total of 12.

There's this series of flash frames:

It looks like the Goat casts a second magic circle, this one with a prominent triangle in the center.

Lamb is pulled into the puddle. But when they cross over into the puddle, it swaps their position to turn them from being "the pulled" into "the puller". This may imply this was a mild act of possession.

Goat wears the same style of Crown as Lamb, but in purple. They have larger, curved horns and non-curly hair. Their cloak is purple (with a lighter purple stripe) and their bell is white. They've got a very... smug cat face.

Based on this frame, I don't think Goat is quite "alive". You can see them through the sword in pink. They're something non-permanenent, like when we turn our Followers into demons.

Cast in the lighthouse light again, they turn their Crown into an axe. They attack the Enforcer in this shot where the lighthouse is very prominent. (Also more Enforcers have arrived)

Then there's this symbol again as they cut the Enforcer in two. The force of which shatters the ground.

In-game, Goat is summoned from a pool of Ichor, like a demon. Based on the arch the ichor follows, we most likely summon them with a relic. They're summoned using white magic. Lamb's eyes typically turn red when summoning anything. The Goat most likely exists on a "meta level" as Player 2, and as an in-game NPC for people who don't have someone to play with.

Finally, the splash art. Goat and Lamb touch palms, seemingly combining their Crowns in some way, on another magic circle. This specifically is likely the "unholy alliance" this update is named after. The symbols we can see are all used in alchemy. This star seems to be the one that appears when the Red Crown speaks to us as a snake.

Goat uses pink, ground-shattering magic like they do in the animated trailer. But it's interesting to see Lamb using green magic. New curse maybe?

And an 'X' to add to my conspiracy board...

[interstellarrisa]

Reality ideas: Manhwa version

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

❀ Trapped as an NPC in a Cursed Game

In this manhwa you're stuck inside a game that you were developing and have to speed run it so that your real body doesn't starve to death. The premise of the game you're stuck in is that you have to approach the male lead also known as "The Lord of Nightmares" and help him and his comrades defeat the final villain. You'll wake up as the apothecary Shari Azriel and for some reason the male lead has a strong urge to kill you?

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

❀ Turning the Mad Dog into a Genteel Lord

You're Diarin, a priestess without any noteworthy background. One day your boss gives you the task of helping a war hero named Ceres reintegrate into high society. Deciding to make the most out of it and getting a fat juicy promotion you accept the task but upon reaching the estate you meet a mad dog!? While you dedicate yourself to turning him into a true gentleman an unexpected obsession starts growing in him for you.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

❀ The Beloved Fake Saint

Appointed as the saint merely for political power, you Ariel Celestin have a certain fate waiting for you if you're ever found out to be a fraud. Death. Knowing this you map out a plan to flee the temple with the help of the gods who dote on you but what happens when the crown prince, the pope and a powerful merchant have their attention drawn to you?

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

hi! so I saw a reddit post a few days ago about a dead aasimar (Omar) who can be found in the House of Healing - but what was interesting is that they said it was *his* wings Balthazar took for Marcus. I always thought they were Aylin's wings; isn't there a line about how Balthazar experimented on her early on, or Isobel reacting to the wings/realizing what Balthazar did, something like that? or did I imagine that? I would love to hear your take on this! (I don't know if I can send links in asks, but it's r BaldursGate3/comments/1gxo0tm/)

Oh, hey! It's Olam the Dead Aasimar Harper, my own personal favourite basically nonexistent NPC to shower with utterly disproportionate levels of attention! He's the guy I brought up in the final part of Moon-chosen, Moon-guided, who Aylin hears about and then really wants to retrieve and give a proper burial to. Entirely because of my aasimar fixation and because I love playing around with Aylin being an aasimar but also absolutely not being a regular aasimar, and how she'd feel about others both like and unlike her.

Olam is indeed the only other aasimar in the game. I love the little story we get told there, via one journal and one note, and one fight against a special animated armour.

The full text of his journal aka "a chilling account of an aasimar Harper's final tendays in the cursed lands" is here, and I find it a really nice bit of writing and an insight into that period - piecing together all these little bits and pieces about what happened to the Thorms and Reithwin and the armies on both sides is my favourite part of the game. Act 2 my beloved.

'All beings should walk free of fear', I was taught. Oh, if only were I granted such a fine fate.

So, Olam is a Harper who fought against Ketheric a century ago, and was there when the curse first happened. He was some kind of spellcaster (his insistence on research and experimentation screams wizard, to me) and he had an affectionate bird familiar called Corvin, presumably a raven. In his experimentation and efforts to lift the shadow curse, he accidentally animated his own armour, which you can fight in that acid pit area. But he ultimately failed, and then he succumbed to the shadows, alone. Tragic stuff, right?

You've activated my trap card! By which I mean I saw that post, saw videos of "you won't believe this NPC you missed!!!" go viral, saw people take it as gospel and start parroting misinformation about a very specific fandom interest of mine again, and got so frustrated I almost started posting WELL ACTUALLY Reddit comments. Horrifying.

Instead I get to ramble here! Thank you so much for providing an excuse (genuinely). It's kind of like the oathbreaker/disowned by her mother nonsense, people just can't seem to leave Aylin alone and let her have any of her actual damn story beats and themes and it grinds my gears. And just like the Child of the Moonmaiden stuff, someone has already added it to the BG3 wiki with zero sources, and now it's spreading like wildfire based on absolutely nothing. What a glorious microcosm of our reality.

Salt aside, thank you for the question! Let me actually answer it, and dig out exactly what is in the game itself.

TL;DR: While nobody looks at the camera and says as much, I'm convinced the wings are Aylin's, and that Balthazar had nothing to do with this guy.

First of all, and my simplest point: regular 5e aasimar don't actually have physical wings. One subtype of them (or, more recently, one of their three once-per-day "transformation" options) gives you this:

You can use your action to unleash the divine energy within yourself, causing your eyes to glimmer and two luminous, incorporeal wings to sprout from your back.

Two luminous, spectral wings sprout from your back temporarily.

This lasts for a whole minute, and then you have to long rest to do it again. Of course, BG3 plays around with 5e rules and adapts them as needed, and there's no actual BG3 aasimar set of racial abilities implemented in the game. There's only Aylin who has the wings on by default, and there's our wingless boy of the hour, Olam - who is a corpse statted as "Human" if you right-click inspect him, so no help there. The only actual mention that he is supposed to be an aasimar comes from the description of his journal I quoted up there, and from the inspiration popup that some character backgrounds get when you find him (Sage and Acolyte, to be specific).

On a personal note, as a player of aasimar characters who've died by being thrown from great heights after having used up their wings for the day, believe me when I say I am deeply envious of whatever Aylin has going on in the wings department. She makes them appear and disappear in a flash at will and it's very cool. I love it. There's a special graphical overlay of feathers fluttering down all over your screen sometimes when she's around. I am enamoured.

Next, in the Marcus confrontation, Isobel doesn't give any signs of recognising the wings, nor does she comment on them specifically - she's shocked by Marcus' betrayal as he's been with them for a long time and nobody ever suspected a thing. I checked the dialogues/devnotes to see if there's anything else there, and there isn't. It's delicious angst material, certainly, the implications are deeply horrifying, and several people have written about it, me included, in tumblr posts and in fics, so you've probably seen the idea around a bunch. Not in the game itself, though.

Moving on, here's the full text of Balthazar's note you can find in Moonrise, titled "A Little Gift":

Marcus - I assume no explanation is needed for just how rare these appendages are, and I trust you shall make good use of them. You have a golden opportunity to please the General. Do not squander it. Access to the unwilling donor has proven difficult since the harvesting, but if I am afforded the opportunity, I shall pass along your gratitude. B.

This is pretty much it with regards to the wings explicitly. Speak With Dead on Marcus doesn't give anything related to the wings either. The only other thing is a little exchange between Z'rell and Marcus at Moonrise if his mission was a success, part of a series of little dialogues where she keeps rebuffing him and his efforts to get his hard-earned "audience with the General":

Marcus: I am free to do more for the Absolute, Disciple. Anything. Z'rell: Would you cast yourself from the tower-top? Marcus: Of course. I have the Absolute's wings to catch me. Z'rell: Off you go, then. I've always wanted to try those ballistas.

Ah, Z'rell, always a delight.

Now, let's look at the relevant final line in Balthazar's note.

Access to the unwilling donor has proven difficult since the harvesting - Balthazar, the necromancer who makes dead pixie moonlanterns, does not have big problems navigating the shadow curse like the Harpers do. Thus, getting to a corpse in the House of Healing morgue a little ways away from Moonrise is not the access problem he's having, nor is it the bunch of zombies that stalk the place. Rather, it is that Shar is angry at Ketheric who betrayed her for Myrkul and is keeping him and his out of the Shadowfell. I've so often seen people rather bafflingly confused by why Balthazar needs the player's help getting to the Nightsong prison when he's the one who imprisoned Aylin there in the first place, and this is why. He tells you as much himself - for instance when you actually enter the Shadowfell:

Balthazar: It seems Shar bears a grudge against my master, General Thorm, and so sought to prevent me from entering in his name. Luckily, you were the perfect agent in helping me slip past her defences. Now the Nightsong is within reach.

As for the unwilling donor bit, and your question of whether there is a line about how Balthazar experimented on Aylin early on - not really? He calls her "his masterpiece" a bunch and loves objectifying her in very specific and gross ways. There's again no mention of wings specifically, but what they do say is he cut out her tongue at least once before:

Nightsong: Ramblings most unsane. Poor Balthazar, for maggots ate his brain long ago. Balthazar: Hold your tongue, Aylin. Or I'll take it away from you again.

They make it so very easy to hate the guy - and agree with Aylin when she says her "heart lit like a full moon when you struck down that cadaver". Here is all the overworld banter you can hear from them, which fleshes out their relationship a bit more. Shocking spoiler: Balthazar is revolting.

Balthazar: As much as I savour our conversations, it's high time we got started. Nightsong: Do what you will. I cannot prevent you. But you know as well as I, I will come for you. One day. Balthazar: Poor child, so enthralled by gory revenge fantasies. You may find yourself disappointed by reality. Nightsong: Let us find out.

Nightsong: Someone's coming. Another Justiciar, I presume. Balthazar: Do you hunger for more company? Am I not enough to keep you sated? Nightsong: I'd [rather] live a thousand years in solitude than lay my eyes [upon] thy putrid visage again. Balthazar: Only a thousand?

Nightsong: Hatred makes you so hideous, Balthazar. Balthazar: Unkind, Aylin. Unkind and incorrect - I could never hate my masterwork. Nightsong: Perhaps you're right - perhaps you're incapable of feeling at all. Balthazar: Please, Aylin - spare me. Your insults grew tired and shopworn years ago.

Balthazar: How long has it been so far? With my work, time just slips away from me. Nightsong: A hundred years. Balthazar: A mere interlude for the likes of you and I. But nevertheless, perhaps it is time for a new chapter. Nightsong: Do as you will. You can pierce my flesh, but my heart beats on, forever.

There's also a tidbit if you ask Aylin how come all it took to release her from the prison was a friendly hand on her shoulder, and she'll tell you Balthazar "taunted and cajoled" her about how easy it would be to break the spell, if anyone just thought to try. So considering all of this, you bet he'd just love to "pass along gratitude" to Aylin and tell her alllll about how they used her own stolen wings to kidnap Isobel, of all people.

So basically, yeah, Balthazar is the one who's been in the Shadowfell prison most often, before Ketheric's relatively recent turn to Myrkul and Shar barring the way in response. We're given the above general vibes and implications of what he was doing there, and the rest is left up to our own gory imaginations. As Gale put it:

A dismal place for an aasimar to spend her existence. Especially with that necrotic toad for company.

There is no connection between Olam and Balthazar at all in the game, but there is one connection between Balthazar and the House of Healing - a negative one, notably.

You find Olam in the morgue of the House of Healing, which is Malus Thorm's stomping ground. It is his laboratory and research notes you find there, not Balthazar's. Malus complains in those very same notes found there that he gets the dregs of cadavers to experiment and mess around with because his nephew Ketheric is letting his Evil Chancellor Traytor Balthazar get first pick and keep the best for himself.

So no, Balthazar did not experiment on this guy or "harvest" anything. Olam is a fairly regular Harper who we can imagine may have lasted a bit longer in the necrotic curse because as an aasimar he'd presumably have necrotic damage resistance and the ability to cast light. He's been dead for about a century, and that's about it.

Aylin is the one the note clearly points to, and, setting aside all the crunchy mechanical and nitpicky details about who does or doesn't have wings and for how long, on every meta and storytelling and textual and subtextual and thematic and classically tropey level, Aylin is the only relevant person those wings could (and should) have come from. It is evocative, it is part of the chilling tale of her betrayal and captivity and serves to paint a vivid picture of the depths Ketheric and Balthazar have sunk to, as well as make Aylin's immense rage and desire for vengeance all the more visceral - and ultimately satisfying.

[xamiipholia]

SOTE Ending Spoilers

after the jump because I have moots who haven’t finished it

—————————————————————————

Y’all. The ending was not out of nowhere jfc. Aside from the fact that they very clearly telegraphed what Miquella was like and who the king consort would be if you did the npc quests - the VERY first trailer for Elden Ring pretty much showed us two things, establishing their importance in the world: 1) Marika breaking the Elden Ring as Radagon tried to fix it

and

2) The Battle of Aeonia. You know, the one where Malenia, who has no interest in conquest or ambition other than loyalty to Miquella, engages in a fight with Radahn that is so brutal that she has to nuke Caelid to win and then it doesn’t even kill him.

I totally get not liking where this story ended up but this was pretty clearly set up from the beginning. AAA games take a long time to develop- this wasn’t some story they changed on a whim because of Radahn memes.

And I don’t get why people thought we would get Godwyn. Godwyn is dead. Deadady-dead-dead. Resurrecting him would fundamentally break the story - the entire point is that Marika fucked with something that not even gods should fuck with, and as a result lost the only child she had who wasn’t born cursed to a horrific fate. There is no soul to recover. Godwyn’s death is so profound that it alters the fabric of the world in a way that the Golden Order can’t reconcile with. Miquella tried to find ways to bring him back - and failed. I think that’s part of his motivation for seeking godhood, along with rectifying the heinous persecution committed by the Golden Order. Like his mother, he seeks godhood so he can create a world where the pain his loved ones endured can never happen again, and like her he falls into the same trap.

[maddy-k-reads-all-day]

The hospital scene in Play My Way.

Okay now for the whole "Things I noticed in the Play My Way music video" part 2 where I talk about the whole "I don't wanna go in there" scene.

First off, Wooly telling us that she "isn't in there just trust me" I find it interesting how he really does not want to go into this hospital. "Hide and Seek" in the Amanda timeline is the pilot and I'm pretty sure it happens before the events of the first game so why would Wooly be afraid of the hospital. I say hospital mainly because of the scenes that follow and the heart monitor beeps flowing across the screen.

Then again, in the second game they both seem afraid of the meatman who is tied to a surgeon so... that "fear of hospitals" trait might just be Hameln trauma. 👀 (But I don't know why Amanda wouldn't be afraid them. She's straight up playing surgeon.)

Is it just me or did the door just appear out of nowhere? :/ Also. "I don't wanna go. I just wanna play my way." Interesting...

"I just wanna go... anywhere." "I just wanna go... home..."

I'd say that these lines apply to Amanda because these lines clearly fit Amanda to a T. But why are they showing up during Wooly's verse. Maybe... this line applies to both of them? Amanda is just more... forward about it? IDK seeing "I just wanna go home" makes me so sad for them tho.

Okay so my theory that Amanda killed Mr. Fox is right... also the theory that Mr. Fox was a living character similar to the opossum seems to probably be true. But then... why did Mr. Fox never come back like Wooly? And why in both games is Amanda so glad he's gone? Was he a Hameln Employee? Or an annoying character like the opossum?

Now if you play this scene in 0.25... hold up... did Wooly kill Mr. Fox? At first I thought it was Amanda... but Wooly's the one covered in blood here. And there's a bit of a pause before he gets covered in blood and gasps. Also... why are there questions marks next to Amanda's name here? Is it really Amanda talking or the demon? Okay... honestly I think it was the demon talking here. And the look that Wooly gives the demon is just... weird. A little angry even.

Either way someone killed Mr. Fox... and Amanda seems pretty happy about it. Playing with his organs and stuff. That said, the idea of Wooly snapping and killing someone in the past would be so interesting and unexpected. Because when I first heard the song and it's lyrics I assumed Amanda had killed Mr. Fox. While that could still be the case... now I'm unsure. But it is an interesting idea specifically because it is so unlike Wooly. This is literally just an idea tho.

After Mr. Fox dies, Amanda says "Now we can PLAY ALL DAY and we will play MY way." which honestly makes me wonder what kind of role as an NPC Mr. Fox played. Maybe Mr. Fox was in some way in charge of keeping Amanda and Wooly on-script in some way? He seems like an elderly character... so maybe a caretaker to Amanda and Wooly? Like... maybe someone who told them when the adventure was over at the end of the day? IDK. If I sound like I have any clue what I'm talking about during these Play my Way theory posts I don't I'm honestly just posting ideas of what it could mean cuz I don't have a solid idea myself.

Amanda goes on to say that she made her own game. So maybe the way the first and second games go is how things are going under her control? Then the lyrics say they are "puppets with beating hearts and strings made out of magnetic tape." which... yeah makes sense. They are real people trapped in this fictional world. Magnetic tape seems oddly specific too... hmm... "we're cursed to play all day, but never play our way." Hmmm... interesting... this is all so very interesting.

[the-amazing-digital-guardians-au]

Could you explain your au a little, I'm kind of new here and I want to know the main plot, if you're okay with that of course ^^!!

Of course!

The Amazing Digital Guardians is an AU that takes place in the late 70s/early 80s. The basic premise is the same as the canon TADC—some unsuspecting humans in the real world put on some headsets and now they’re trapped in a digital realm.

Caine and Abel created the universe of the game, but they kind of had some rivalry. Now Caine rules over the main parts of the game(circus tent, digital lake, fairgrounds, etc), while Abel rules over a city called ���Midnight City”. Abel has gathered various NPCs here to live away from Caine (so they don’t get destroyed), and so he can rule over them. Princess Loo and Gumigoo are trying to rally up their own army of NPCs, and with Abel’s help, they want to overthrow Caine and take over the entire digital world.

Caine has appointed two circus members (currently Jax and Ragatha) as his Guardians to protect him from various viruses and monsters that inhabit the circus. They will eventually have to protect him from characters like Gummigoo and Abel when they try to attack him. These Guardians yield weapons to protect the innocent.

So far, my basic idea is that the game is either under some sort of possession or curse, which explains the biblical themes and the monsters in the game. The story is just about their adventures, the various monsters that Jax and Ragatha encounter, protecting Caine, discovering Midnight City, etc.

So far, here is everyone’s roles:

Caine: Ringmaster. Controls his designated circus areas. Makes the cast go on adventures.

Jax and Ragatha: Caine’s Guardians, protect him from monsters, viruses, rogue NPCs, etc.

Pomni, Gangle, Zooble: Regular Circus members, who are forced to go on adventures so they don’t go insane. Pomni also MAY become a Guardian or posses Guardian-like abilities.

Kinger: Used to be a Guardian, but was taken away by Abel (exploited because of his weaknesses by Abel, basically), after Queenie died. Abel promised that he would “get Queenie back” if Kinger helped him run Midnight City.

Princess Loo and Gummigoo: Are trying to form an NPC army with Abel’s help.

This is all I have right now. It’s kinda all over the place.

[go-go-devil]

Pate and Patches: What's the Difference?

As an avid Patches Enjoyer, I had initially found myself a bit underwhelmed with Mild Mannered Pate after completing his questline in Dark Souls 2, particularly with his overall lack of any truly devious trickery towards my Bearer of the Curse.

However, I didn't think it was fair to him to completely compare his role to Patches's. So after much assessment and taking in all the gameplay & environmental clues I could, I think I may have finally deduced how Pate's differences to Patches help him fit into his own niche in this game.

Y'see, while Patches is a predator, Pate is a parasite.

Patches goes after his victims directly. He lures them in with the promise of treasure only to flip a switch that'll send them into dangerous/fatal areas or will straight up kick them down there himself. If they somehow manage to get out of his traps then he'll start groveling and offering gifts for forgiveness. He also uses this predatory tactic to determine which of the people around him are both resilient and forgiving enough for him to trust, which leads him to becoming a merchant and thus a kind of ally to you. A sketchy, devious ally, but one who actively benefits you and gives you his occasional musings on the world and its characters.

Pate, on the other hand, doesn't seem to want to get his hands dirty at all when it comes to scavenging his victims' loot. Instead his strategy is to directly attach himself to anyone who proves strong enough to get through any dangerous areas he stumbles upon. He does this by playing the role of an unassuming, cautious treasure hunter who gives you helpful advice about the immediate area and wishes for your safety. It can even be seen through his choice of clothes; Pate dresses in the armor of a common warrior, unlike Patches who proudly wears the thief's set.

I remember at first finding it strange how he of all NPC's was the one who gives you the white soapstone, contrasting how in DS1 it was Solaire, one of the kindest characters in that game, who gave it to us. Looking back, however, it does fit his strategy well. Summons directly benefit from their summoners by getting souls & items for their participation, and so Pate can offer his help by turtling with his greatshield and stabbing the boss safely with his long spear to get his fill of the large number of souls you acquire.

Once he becomes his next victim's "ally," all Pate has to do now is just mosey alongside them and keep finding areas where they can acquire great treasures. But only for them, of course! He's just too nervous about what terrible traps await, but surely his ally is brave and strong enough to persevere while he watches from a distance. If they were to die by a swarm of hollows, or fall into a pit of poison, well, it wasn't HIS fault that it happened! He did warn them, after all...

With that in mind it's easy to assume that Pate was pulling this parasitism on Creighton for a good while, tagging along with him and benefiting from all the undead, hollow or sane, that the man slayed. The two even stored their treasures together in the same hovel. Why exactly he locked him up is never directly explained, but if I were to guess I'd say it had to do with Creighton's claim of wanting to set up a trap for Pate. He began to grow wise (or maybe moreso paranoid) to the fact that he was being used, and once his mild mannered "friend" figured it out he tricked him right back, took what he could from him (that being the Ring of Thorns), and booked it!

And even after all of that, this man still has the gall to share this story with strangers by twisting it around and turning the guy who tried to kill him into this poor, foolish little warrior that Pate tried so hard to stop from falling into such an obvious trap.

That's what separates the two tricksters. Unlike Patches who defines himself by living independently from others, Pate cannot function without hooking his claws onto the trust of more daring individuals to do all the dirty work for him. After surviving Patches's tricks he becomes your merchant and ally, but Pate wants nothing to do with you after surviving all of his traps. While Patches locked up and warns you about Yurt and Lautrec in DeS and DS1 respectively because he was genuinely afraid of how cruel and violent they were, Pate locked up Creighton upon realizing he wasn't beneficial to him anymore and doesn't even bother warning you about the fact that he's a convicted serial killer, instead pretending he doesn't even know the guy.

There's also the fact that if you summon Pate for The Last Giant boss fight, he'll give you his clothes, spear, greatshield, and even the ring (or at least copies of them, he doesn't strip down in front of us). Since this is also when he tells us he's heard of a man who's out hunting for him, it's more than a little suspicious that he would want us to dress to his likeness. Especially if that certain someone might end up mistaking us as him.

All-in-all Pate may seem less harmful than Patches on the surface, but in the end he proves to be far more cowardly and arguably WORSE than him from a moral standpoint.

[krovscastlerpg]

Welcome to Halloween Town!

Krovs Town has been decked out with fog, jack-o’-lanterns, cobwebs, and all kinds of spooky decorations lining the streets upon entering the quaint village. The main events take place along Oymyakon Street where the hottest bars and clubs, like Cannabites and Euphoria, are hosting parties with special themed drinks, food, and music for dancing among other activities. The enchanted park has been turned into something quite frightening bathed in moonlight. Here attendees can partake in a haunted maze cursed with nightmare magic to bring forth the worst nightmares and fears as realistic illusions for those brave enough to venture through.

We hope you all enjoy yourselves!

HAUNTED ESCAPE ROOMS

The council has also created a few haunted-themed escape rooms in an abandoned mansion between the edge of Oymyakon Street and the residential area. The mansion has been redecorated to fit the aesthetic of a classic home from olden days with multiple rooms repurposed with puzzles, trap doors, and hidden secrets. A touch of nightmare magic around the property gives anyone who dares to enter a sense of foreboding, not enough to make them run away but to properly set the mood. The game master of this area shares with the participating pairs and groups the backstory behind this haunted home:

A century ago, a well-known wealthy family that once lived on the property centuries ago. The family's patriarch was once a mayor of Oymyakon Village before its rebranding into Krovs Town. The daughter fell in love with a poor stable boy that worked for the family, which remained a secret to avoid her father's wrath. It inevitably couldn't be avoided when it was discovered she was pregnant with the stable boy's child and the father shot him in their home. Devastated, the daughter threw herself off the second floor balcony killing herself and her unborn child. Some days you can hear her cries as she begs her father to spare her lover, or hear the gunshots echoing throughout the house...

Escape rooms within the mansion all take about an hour to solve and are in between easy and hard difficulty levels. Rooms to participate in include the grand parlor, the daughter's bedroom, and the basement. Though do be warned that the rooms will feature volunteered actors dressed as terrifying spirits of the house to help make these puzzles all the more fun and challenging.

(OOC: Players using this part of the event in threads are welcome to get creative with any NPC actors or other aspects like hidden rooms and clues. Player characters are also invited to work as one of the actors scaring escape room guests.)

DRESS CODE

Halloween costumes are strongly encouraged for this event!

Masters, staff members, and villagers all can pick their own costumes.

Claimed and purchased slaves should discuss with their owners if they will choose something for them or allow them to pick for themselves.

Unclaimed slaves will have costumes chosen for them by the castle – these can be anything given that there’s no theme this year, however, the possibility of them showing more than enough skin is pretty high. (Players will choose these costumes themselves from the castle)

EVENT TASK

Post your characters’ Halloween costumes now that the event has begun! Make sure to tag these posts as #krovscastletask so we can all see and enjoy them.

OOC RULES

Our Halloween event will run OOC until 12PM EST Monday, November 4th. In game, this event will take place only on Halloween night (October 31st). Like always, players are free to choose if they wish to participate or not.

Players should only post starters that are related to the event now that it has begun. Please tag all open starters only with #event starter and #krovscastlestarter. Make sure to @krovscastlestarters​​ as well! Our rules on open starters in terms of limits and response requirements still apply; please see here for information. Please do NOT use the #krovscastleevent tag for starters so that players can easily find event information without clogging this tag. Keep in mind to reply to other open starters being posted. Open starters that are not related to the event will be reblogged after it has ended. Any starters prior to the event needing five responders will be advertised after our event ends.

Anyone looking to post event-related open starters should do so by Friday (11/1) evening. This is to ensure that all event open starters receive enough responders before our event ends next Monday. Any open starters for the event posted after Friday will NOT be accepted.

Players can choose whether they would like to place prior threads on hold to focus on event threads, however, this is not mandatory. All we ask is that players communicate with their partners or drop a note in the OOC about their thread status. 

Rules for masters, slaves, staff, and villagers still apply in Krovs Town! This means anyone, regardless of their role, who misbehaves or breaks town rules will be taken into custody or fined by the chief of police or his officers.

Unclaimed slaves are advised to behave their best and follow any orders they’ll receive. They are allowed to wander through town this evening without escorts to enjoy all the fun properly. Police officers and guards who have volunteered to work the event are everywhere and will report all misbehaving slaves to the police chief or enforcer. After the event, all unclaimed slaves will be returned to the Undercroft where they’ll be given a decent meal and allowed to shower.

Claims and purchases will stay intact throughout the event and all individual collars and marks will remain as well. Unclaimed slaves and staff members will continue to wear their usual collars, which can only be taken off by a master.

Applications will still be accepted during the event week.

Players, please LIKE this post so that we know it has been read.

[mrslittletall]

I am still slowly playing myself through the Elden Ring DLC and I find it kind of sad. I don't look forward to the boss fights. The boss fights are normally a highlight in the FromSoft games. Learning the dance with them, bash your head against a wall over and over again until you finally manage to dodge every attack and punish them until you get them down either near perfect or crying, bleeding throwing up with not a single healing item left and a sliver of HP. I don't feel that in Elden Ring anymore. The bosses either feel like an unfair mess where you are only allowed to hit them once every three minutes or they feel far too easy because you summoned your Mimic Tear who can use your build 100 times better than you. And it makes me sad. There is no balance anymore. It is either too hard or too easy. And it pains me, because I love the level design! I have so much fun in the levels! Finding the way, beating the enemies on the way (minus Curse Blades! FUCK CURSE BLADES!), picking up new and exciting items, finding NPCs in obscure corners or solving puzzles. Screaming when I run into an obvious trap and reading the messages of the players warning me from corner enemies. And then I am through and have to fight the boss and know it is either a boring slog that makes me frustrated or is over in a couple tries because my spirit summon does the heavy lifting. And it makes me realize, that it also is the reserve of Dark Souls 3 DLC. I loved the bosses in Dark Souls 3 DLC! Hard but fun to fight and incredibly fair! While the levels felt too bloated with far too difficult enemies, so that I normally summon someone to get through this slog. And it makes me worried for the future of FromSoft. Why can't you do both?! Why can't you connect great level design with great bosses? You know, how the first Dark Souls was?! As clunky as it was, the first Dark Souls is still my favourite game of them for this exact reason. And yes, Bloodborne would be up there if not for the stupid blood vial farming. Anyway... I just hope that FromSoft takes a looong break from the formula and thinks how to make games difficult but fair again. Because that is not the way.

[pathfinderunlocked]

Werespider Poisoner - CR 4 Rogue

Spins a web, five by five; catches rogues, just like flies...

Artwork by Conor Burke on ArtStation.

The werespider is an entothrope - basically the term for a lycanthrope of any species that has an exoskeleton - introduced to Pathfinder in Bestiary 6. The default werespider is a rogue, but is only CR 2. This one is a couple levels higher and has some abilities that actually fit the idea of a werespider.

The official werespider art only has two arms and two legs, but holy shit that's lame. Give the poor man some extra limbs. They don't have to be mechanically useful (although this particular werespider has a climb speed).

This werespider would make a good assassin to attack the PCs in their sleep. I'm generally in favor of starting such encounters by having the death of an NPC wake the PCs up and force them to fight without their armor, rather than by telling a level 3 player to roll a DC 31 Fortitude save against a coup de grace or instantly die, but I mean, it's your game, so you do you. Definitely use its web ability to set traps for people to step into though.

This is an afflicted werespider. A natural-born werespider has DR 10 instead of DR 5.

Feel free to decide that lycanthropes and entothropes in hybrid form count as monstrous humanoids rather than humanoids in your game, because, like, dude. Why? Why does the monstrous humanoid creature type even exist if lycanthropes aren't included? Werewolves are the most "monstrous humanoid" of any monster ever conceived. I wouldn't recalculate hit points, BAB, or saves though. Just make it count as both humanoid and monstrous humanoid for the purposes of effects dependent on type.

Werespider Poisoner (Hybrid Form) - CR 4

The arachnid form of the person perched on the corner of the ceiling above you catches your eye just a little bit too late as he drops down from the shadows and attacks.

Human toxic talon rogue 4 NE Medium humanoid (human, shapechanger) Init +8 Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 60 ft.; Perception +8

DEFENSE

AC 19, touch 14, flat-footed 17 (+3 armor, +4 Dex, +2 natural) hp 33 (4d8+12) Fort +4, Ref +8, Will +3; +4 vs. mind-affecting effects; +1 vs. poison Defensive Abilities evasion, insect mind DR 5/silver

OFFENSE

Speed 30 ft., Climb 20 ft. Melee mwk short sword +8 (1d6+4/19–20 plus medium spider venom (DC 15)), bite +3 (1d6+1 plus curse of entothropy and poison) Ranged mwk blowgun +8 (1d2 plus medium spider venom (DC 14)) Special Attacks catalyst (1/hour, already used) , sneak attack +2d6, web (+5 ranged, DC 13, 2 hp), vanish (2/day)

STATISTICS

Str 14, Dex 19, Con 17, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 8 Base Atk +3; CMB +5; CMD 19 Feats Improved Initiative, Extra Rogue Talent (Expert Leaper), Weapon Focus (bite) Skills Acrobatics +10, Bluff +6, Climb +16, Disable Device +11, Escape Artist +10, Knowledge (local) +6, Perception +8, Stealth +11 Languages Common SQ change shape (giant spider, human, and hybrid; vermin shape II), entothropic empathy, rogue talents (expert leaper, shadow duplicate, ninja trick [wall climber]) Gear mwk short sword, mwk blowgun, mwk studded leather armor, 3 doses of medium spider venom, 1 potion of delay poison, healer's kit

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Poison (Ex) Bite—injury; save Fort DC 16; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1d2 Strength damage; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution-based and includes a +2 racial bonus.

Catalyst (Su) A werespider poisoner can use secret alchemical techniques to enhance a poison when applying it to a weapon, increasing the save DC of the poison by 1. This increase to the save DC lasts for 1 minute or until the poison is used up, whichever comes first. A werespider poisoner can use catalyst once per hour.

Expert Leaper (Ex) When using the Acrobatics skill to jump, a werespider poisoner is always considered to have a running start and adds +4 to the check result. Whenever it deliberately falls, a successful DC 15 Acrobatics check allows it to ignore the first 20 feet fallen. For every 5 by which it exceeds the DC of this check, it can ignore an additional 10 feet of distance fallen.

Debilitating Injury (Ex) Whenever a werespider poisoner deals sneak attack damage to a foe, it can also debilitate the target of its attack, causing the target to take a penalty for 1 round. The werespider poisoner can choose to apply any one of the following penalties when the damage is dealt.

Bewildered: The target becomes bewildered, taking a –2 penalty to AC. The target takes an additional –2 penalty to AC against all attacks made by the werespider poisoner. At 10th level and 16th level, the penalty to AC against attacks made by the werespider poisoner increases by –2 (to a total maximum of –8). Disoriented: The target takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls. In addition, the target takes an additional –2 penalty on all attack rolls it makes against the werespider poisoner. At 10th level and 16th level, the penalty on attack rolls made against the werespider poisoner increases by –2 (to a total maximum of –8). Hampered: All of the target’s speeds are reduced by half (to a minimum of 5 feet). In addition, the target cannot take a 5-foot step.

These penalties do not stack with themselves, but additional attacks that deal sneak attack damage extend the duration by 1 round. A creature cannot suffer from more than one penalty from this ability at a time. If a new penalty is applied, the old penalty immediately ends. Any form of healing applied to a target suffering from one of these penalties also removes the penalty.

Poison Adept (Ex) A werespider poisoner is trained in the use of poison and cannot accidentally poison itself when applying poison to a projectile weapon. It can apply poison to a projectile as a move action.

Shadow Duplicate (Sp) Once per day as an immediate action when the werespider poisoner is hit, the werespider poisoner can create a single shadow duplicate of itself, as per mirror image. The GM randomly determines whether the attack hit the werespider poisoner or the shadow duplicate. The shadow duplicate lasts for a number of rounds equal to the werespider poisoner's level, or until the shadow duplicate is dispelled or destroyed.

Wall Climber (Su) The werespider poisoner has a climb speed of 20 feet, but only on vertical surfaces. This ability cannot be used to scale perfectly smooth surfaces or to climb on the underside of horizontal surfaces. A werespider does not need to have its hands free to climb, and can use both of its hands while climbing.

[character-selecton]

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[drakeanddice]

Someone was asking about sentient magic items, specifically the sort that are haunted or powered by a soul.

I ever tell y’all about Tomb?

Tomb was designed as a weapon of legacy for a game I ran about a million years ago. I can’t remember exactly what rule system we were using (though I’m fairly sure it was a D&D of one kind or another), but I recall very clearly that it was for a proposed one-shot that turned into a decently long campaign. Typical stuff. Hero’s Journey stuff. Young would-be hero doesn’t watch their feet and they get swept up into a whirlwind adventure that blows them far from home and croft. The classic. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t exactly plumbing vast unknown depths here.

The sword, Tomb was supposed to make up for the fact that our hero was alone on this journey for the most part. Random NPC tag alongs occasionally, sure, but not always. Tomb was supposed to be the toolkit that this player had to overcome the stuff that really should have fallen to the other specialists in an adventuring party.

Tomb is short for Tomb of the Unknown Hero. The souls of heroes past, those who had forged the legends this sprat had grown up with, the ones that had made them want to wander in the first place, resided in this sword. It was a conclave of voices—advice, exhortation, expertise. When the hero didn’t know how to move forward as a Fighter, couldn’t pick the lock, couldn’t identify the magic item, couldn’t break the curse, they’d turn to Tomb.

But it was also an amazing lore-delivery device. The Player came to know these characters, trapped ostensibly in this sword at the moment that they died while wielding it, and would turn to them, talk to them, seeking not only their advice, but their perspective. Over the course of the game, we fleshed out about two dozen distinct voices in this sword. Every time the character leveled up, I presented a list of optional powers that the sword would get as it too leveled up.

When finally the campaign reached its end, Tomb and the Hero triumphed in their struggle against…I can’t even remember what dark fate was threatening the world. Whatever BBEG was hellbent on ruining everything for everyone was defeated. And the Hero asked if Tomb was finally at peace, if the souls of the heroes of the ages could now rest.

The answer was no.

They weren’t trapped. They weren’t longing for peace.

Every hero, when struck down in the course of their mission, regardless of whether or not they are holding Tomb, is presented a choice.

“You can let go, hero. Your mission can end here. But another hero is out there. They are alone. They don’t know what you know. They haven’t learned the hard lessons by dint of toil and pain like you have. They are just as young and feel just as invincible as you did when you first set out.” And then it tells them again, “But it can all be over now.”

And some of them choose that. Most of them choose that. The burden is heavy and the road is long. They are happy with the evils they overcame and the lives they’ve changed for the better. The other hero will learn as they did.

But some still have a little more to give.

And that’s Tomb.