#what a dreadful campaign

[ilynpilled]

love to read political takes from some smug sheltered white bitch who was in middle school in 2016 and gets all her information from tumblr. and y'all wonder why no one listens to you.

lol vote for the genocide lady all u want

[danwhobrowses]

Well Critters the year is almost up, at least for me here in England. Aside from the general pensiveness and reflection of the past year, it also means I'm about to (technically) complete my first full year of following the CR episodes as they came out; a year full of twists, turns, uprisings, downfalls, and just so much going on - only for the campaign to now be nearing its end.

We knew the end was coming sure, but since December's 4SD announced itself as the last of the campaign the number of episodes remaining has grown more finite, likely to be around 1-4 more episodes, and confronting the end is very different to acknowledging it ending. Admittedly in the confronting part I've become a liiiiittle bit of a mess, loaded with panic and worry beyond my own control; I sometimes tell myself that I'm being silly, they're fictional characters, the story's likely already recorded its end, and I never had any control or influence on the story to begin with, but as expected such attempts are both hollow and in vain. It's been a while since I was this invested in a story, or fandom for that matter, and the fact that most key and decisive moments will be determined by dice rolls continuously does nothing to soothe my nerves, or my uncertainties towards how it'll end - after all, the hardest battle has yet to be fought, the biggest decisions yet to be made, and Ludinus Da'leth is way WAY too calm about being trapped in a Force Cage for my liking.

I wonder if the fear and dread was the same for those watching the end of the previous two campaigns? If it was more or less than it is now by comparison? In hindsight, while the final stage so far feels more grounded compared to the more spectacular, massive miniature, larger-than-life endgame battles against Vecna and Lucien's Neo-Somnovem phases, it feels like the stakes are riskier for Bells Hells, on a low Level 15 with no cleric, dismal openings for additional support, and little wiggle room to get creative, especially since killing Ludinus - who continues to be touted as the 'strongest mage of our time' and could get even stronger depending on which way Matt goes with him - alone potentially won't end the overarching conflict, though he should still die nonetheless. At the very least I want the Hells (as we have for VM and the Nein) to all be free to live happily, be it settling down, embarking on new adventures, or just being the best they can be - and doing so with the people that mean the most to them - and at the very most I want them to make the best and kindest decision for the world as a whole, which I hope they get the chance and take the opportunity to do so.

It's still difficult to ready myself for it ending mind you, since I could have very easily spent another year with these idiots and still not be fully ready to say goodbye to them. On that however, I know not everyone shares my sentiment; some are truly ready for the campaign to be over and for C4 for explode (pun intended) onto the scene with brand new characters that in a few years time we'll also likely be unready to say goodbye to, and that's fine. But for all that can and will be said about Campaign 3 - positively and critically - it has very much delighted, disheveled, and deranged me for most of the year, usually at my desk of work, so trying to brace myself for the climax has, and continues to be, a lot of mental effort. Keeping myself positive and hopeful in these situations is tough especially when on the verge of a big battle; sometimes the negative thoughts creep in, Youtube videos full of pessimists and clickbait titles appearing unwantedly on my recommendations don't help, nor does the memory of what happened the last time the Hells were in a major boss battle at the tail end of their time on Ruidus, but when the campaign does end I want it to be looked upon fondly, and a lot of that does hinge on its conclusion. Obviously, I trust the group and Matt's storytelling, but that is only to an extent; defeating Ludinus is something I know Bells Hells are capable of doing - so long as the dice gods play ball and Matt doesn't inexplicably overbuff Ludinus to the nth degree like he did with Otohan - but the Predathos decision remains the root and focal point of the campaign's criticisms for good reason, often overshadowing and playing obstacle to character growth and direction. There is a satisfying and spectacular conclusion in there, but navigating it - even for a group that embraces 'when given two options, we pick option 3' more times than not - let alone achieving it is a very delicate path of fine margins, one that can indeed make or break the campaign - and a lot of my worries lie there, that and approaching/confronting an entity so voracious and eager to escape that it makes the gods terrified enough to deliberate breaking down the Divine Gate.

Without talking more to death about the god stuff and Predathos thing like we the fandom have already done aplenty, there's not much else I can say except that I'm worried but also trying to be hopeful. The campaign ending in tragedy or a pyrrhic victory is possible but it's not an outcome I personally desire or want to entertain. You could perhaps aptly translate that to my general feelings towards the new year too; having wants and wishes, hopes and hesitancies, fears and fandom, just currently a bit more compressed here than it is for the full year - and given our recent run of the years playing dystopia simulator, I'm more hopeful in one than the other right now - and perhaps it would do good to start the year with something to smile about. Right now, it's just that it's happening; it's happening, it's soon, and it's very apparent how close we are to finishing, which means I'm panicking and rambling, and panicking, and of course, rambling. I don't know what emotions will January send me through, but I do hope with all my being that they'll be positive ones.

So whether or not you reached the end of this, I wish you all a Happy New Year and, much like the end of Campaign 3, I hope it's a good one.

[landfilloftrash]

pov you are The Red Dragon crew realizing; this is gonna be theme.

[coldgoldlazarus]

Metroid Prime Commercial: "The cold silence of space only punctuates the feeling of death that emanates from this virtually lifeless planet. Only one thing is alive and well here... evil. And it must be destroyed, decimated, exterminated. But first it must be found."

Metroid Prime Magazine Ad: "Use everything at your disposal. Dispose of everything."

Metroid Fusion Commercial: "Exterminating evil gives you strength. But are you strong enough to face your greatest fear?"

Metroid Fusion Magazine Ad: "Sometimes, the only way to defeat a predator is to become one."

Metroid Prime 2 - Echoes Commercial: "Two separate worlds: One shadow, one light. Where the difference between life and death... is a few inches of metal."

Metroid Prime 2 - Echoes Magazine Ad: "If you're not scared of the dark... you will be."

Metroid Prime - Hunters Commercial: "More bounty hunters, more ways to die."

.

If the other games in the series had been released during this time, I wonder what sort of cheesy edgy taglines they might have gotten.

[ashmcgivern]

Been a while since I've had a moment to draw stuff for myself. Lots has happened in our campaign, I don't think I'll have the time to write any of it up, but Zeal got a new sword! Actually, it's Xan's greatsword, sized down and modified ever so slightly to become a rapier so he can actually use it. Zeal has more or less accepted that he wants to follow in Xan's footsteps in working with Lathander, and so his 'training' for it began (the boy also met Lathander, so that helps)

He's also taken some more sorcerer levels, so the gold is now bleeding into his feathers for real.

[bloodwards]

when you have an incredibly stressful d&d session and come away from it frustrated and dreading the next one and two days later your DM has a Talk with you about you playing or not playing your character a certain way ✌

[windsroad]

making these is extremely addicting.

[transdeans]

just woke up from a dream where misha announced his run for presidency in 2024. so, there's that.

[six-improbable-things]

Man, it fucking sucks that the two pre-written things I'd most want to DM are two that I'm playing in right now, so I can't look at them. And also that then all my friends have already played/DM'd them so I'd have no one to do it for. (And I really don't need another group. I'm in 4-5 already.)

[isaacathom]

bad alternate timeline is going well in that my character, a perennial wuss, realised that another pc has kidnapped her aunt and threatened her cousin and immediately went 'oh im gonna fucking kill him'

[soraavalon]

DM: Yeah eventually, I will say, you do manage to as you're going through books on folklore, books on fairy tales, books on this or that, you follow a trail of stories of people bargaining at crossroads kind of in margins and things like that. To more of a, okay you got a dirty 20, I'm gonna say you probably find a compendium on a lot of various devils and are able to flip through there until you find the section on the Hexweaver. Where you learn the Hexweaver is a being that is known to meet at crossroads, the very much the classic crossroads devil. Nathaniel: Hmm. DM: You go and you make an offering and make a deal to summon them and once there, the Hexweaver will offer you a favor and instead of trading in souls, the Hexweaver's known to trade in favors because the soul trade in the Hells is tangled and complicated, so a lot of devils do business with mortals will try and avoid making soul deals. Nathaniel: He did it anyway, so he can get fucked. DM: Yes. Hunt (OOC): Yeah. DM: Of course the soul is the highest commodity, so you know, there's usually the stories of the Hexweaver tend to end in tragedy if something goes wrong, there's a loophole and you know, not always it's... The weirdest comparison I almost want to give it is like to the Baba Yaga, the stories where it is very much sometimes this tragedy and this creature does just take your soul and drag you to Hell and other times enough times it's very much just trade a favor for a favor and everything works out in the end. Nathaniel: Huh. DM: Enough that there would be reasonable doubt of that, you know, 'Maybe they could help me if I play my cards right?' but it seems that the Hexweaver does tend to avoid souls so they're considered one of the safer devils if you're gonna make a deal, but you shouldn't 'cause don't deal with devils. Nathaniel: It's like despite souls being the highest commodity, the Hexweaver doesn't want to deal with them, it almost seems like I could ask for Amelia's soul as a favor. I feel like he would want to get rid of that. I also kind of don't want to fuck with that, I kind of want to punch him in the face. DM: *laughs* yeah, I mean with a dirty 20 and with what Nicholas sort of described as well, it's like the reason devils will avoid souls is 'cause it all goes back to the Smiling Prince. There's so much paperwork that ties up every devil to one another in the Hells, into this strict hierarchy basically, but technically it's trickle-up economics and the Smiling prince owns everything in the Hells through barter and deals and loopholes. Nathaniel (OOC): [in chat] the Mental Illness in my brain: I could be the next smiling prince DM: Has some to basically rise above the rat race... *sees message and laughs* Hunt (OOC): *laughs* DM: You know, hey. Marigold (OOC): [in chat] n o DM: Yeah, that's kind of the thing. With a dirty 20 I'll also say you learn too that the Hexweaver, the name comes from that they, their actual role in the Hells, is to keep track of mortal bloodlines that have been hexxed. Hunt (OOC): oh. Nathaniel: Oh fuck. I'm in his book. Okay, cool. Hmm. Shit. Okay. DM: And there you go. Nathaniel: Alright. Thank you. DM: Mm-hmm. Nathaniel: Oh that was terrifying.

[peregrineggsandham]

Just realized why that first meeting with Five Pebbles gave me chills. Not just the sheer, overwhelming, artistic presentation of the General Systems Bus (but holy shit did that make an impression) but... this quote:

"Go to the west past the Farm Arrays, and then down into the earth where the land fissures, as deep as you can reach, where the ancients built their temples and danced their silly rituals. The mark I gave you will let you through."

It has the same vibes as the Last Unicorn quote that haunted me as a child:

"Listen. Don't listen to me, listen. You can find the others if you are brave. They passed down all the roads long ago, and the Red Bull ran close behind them and covered their footprints. Listen! Listen, listen quickly."

...I cannot explain, but it feels the same.

[ruins-of-gods]

Something that I think Warhammer 40,000 storytellers miss sometimes is the sheer scale of their setting. I mean, don't get me wrong - I love the big, dramatic clashes, the characters you can buy in mini form and their convoluted, interwoven lore, the dramatic combats against unstoppable foes across a thousand ruined worlds. But that's the top of the setting, as it were - the most powerful beings in the universe, all fighting for supremacy. And at ground level, the level of the ordinary person, are so many other stories.

Did you know that a Lunar-class void cruiser has a crew of 95,000? Nearly a hundred thousand people, aboard a spaceship five kilometers long. A city, flying through outer space to wage war. Many of those people are proper trained soldiers, fresh from some academy or veterans of long, grueling campaigns, and many more are pressed into service, begrudgingly laying their lives at their Emperor's feet. But, unless the ship is currently actively involved in a really bloody campaign, most of those people were born aboard that ship. Most of their parents were born aboard it. And their grandparents. And their great-grandparents. Lineages stretching back centuries, so far that the original soldier who came aboard has been forgotten. A lot of those people probably know, on some level, that they're aboard a ship flying through space - but a lot of them probably don't, and I guarantee you almost none of them understand what that means. This ship is their world. To look out the window means madness so often that they avoid it - not that windows are readily available anyway. Most of them probably barely even understand that they're fighting. All they know is that when the readouts on their analog instruments display like so, when they hurry to obey the blared orders through the klaxon, the Emperor is pleased with them. They were born into that world. When they were children they did smaller tasks the adults couldn't. Their entire existence was winding metal corridors, laid out according to some archaic design, any logic that might dictate their layout long since degraded after millennia of ignorant maintenance, lit only by emergency lights that have long since become the default. They learned how to read an angle readout or how to relay an order perfectly the way another child might learn history or math. When they grew up, their service was flawless, born of pride and ignorance, and when they grew old and died, their legacy was remembered until it was forgotten. Many were killed in battle, but who cares? They gave their lives to the Emperor - a name whose meaning they don't understand, but whose importance they believe in wholeheartedly, all but synonymous with the commanding officers up above.

Sometimes, the klaxons sound a specific command, and every person on board who understands what it means feels a deep, awful dread as they run to their battle stations. They don't know what a warp jump is. They don't understand they're going from one place to another by the fastest way available. All they know is that, for a time, the ship dips into hell. The corridors go wrong. Things and people might not be where or what they were before. Daemons stalk the halls, and must be killed by any who can hold a lasgun. The overcrowded berths, the little nooks that families find for themselves - they are not private anymore. They are not safe. Things drift through the shift that do not care about the laws of physics, but that delight in killing and torturing human beings. Vast energies shake the ship and tear parts of it away - their home, their world, their existence, the biggest thing they can imagine, assaulted by something bigger. Is it the Emperor's punishment for failure? Is this what battle is? What's going on? They don't know, and no one who does can be bothered to tell them. The dread of those who have seen this before is even worse, because they don't know how long it will be. It might be just a few hours. It might be days, or weeks, or months, or years, or decades. It might be centuries, as the captain of the ship goes hunting daemons deep in the warp - the officers live that long, after all, and have little care for those who don't. There will be people born in hell, who spend their entire lives fighting from the day they can stand, and who die in hell, as old age and need catch up to them and they curl up in a corner to perish. To them, it isn't even hell. It's just the world. The world is death and pain and cruelty, an infinite metal box through which monsters stalk, and sometimes you must run to a battle station and do as you're ordered to do. And sometimes, as they reach forty or fifty or even a ripe old sixty, the ship drops out of the Warp, and, for the final years of their life, they are granted a life of relatively safe service better than anything they ever hoped to dream of.

Those are the kinds of stories I want to see more of. Super-soldiers fighting each other is cool, yes, but I want to see this universe explored. I want stories from the perspective of those that keep the Imperium going, or the aeldar, or the tyranids, or anyone, really. There's just so much potential in this setting. It deserves it.

[batmanego]

DON’T SKIP! READ THE WHOLE POST!

personally, i’m already looking forward to the new year and the promises there. but i definitely understand the dread people feel, especially in regards to the US presidential election. my friend ibrahim is one of those people — he’s anxious about what effects trump’s presidency might have on the ongoing genocide in gaza. the current administration has made it difficult enough for him to survive, but now he has no idea what to expect or how much worse it could get.

his campaign is currently at €21,750/€30,000 and donations have slowed down significantly. i can’t stress enough how urgent this is and how worried i am for ibrahim every day. he’s lost relatives, seen friends and family wounded, gotten horribly ill, lost sleep, starved himself so his family can eat, and gone through hell just to survive and to give his family the chance to survive — all while he’s only recently turned 16.

please donate and share. help my friend ibrahim.

[valkwise]

Hi! Today I want to introduce you to my husband and I's dear friend, Abdelrahman Hajjaj.

This campaign is verified by the Butterfly Effect Project. Click here, find the "Verified Campaigns" tab, and check line #947.

Abod is 34 years old, and lives in Al Maghazi camp in Gaza. He is raising money to evacuate himself, his wife Aya, his daughter Leen, his parents, and one of his brothers. Leen was born premature and needs special care. His mother has blood cancer, his father uses a colostomy bag, and his brother is diabetic. Abod is desperate to leave Gaza and build a better life for his family elsewhere.

Abod's life is extremely dangerous. Something I especially want to highlight is the condition of his house. He lives on the top floor of his building, which has no doors and is missing walls. Thin blankets are the only thing separating him and his family from the elements, and the occupation's ammunition.

His daughter Leen just turned one on September 2nd, and she's able to crawl around more every day. What should be an exciting milestone also comes with a lot of dread. Abod has built barriers around the house to try and prevent Leen from crawling where it's most dangerous, but anyone who has young children knows it can be difficult to keep them out of trouble. Parents should not have to worry about their baby falling off the edge of their house, three stories to the ground below. Yet, this is just another everyday terror for Abod and Aya.

Abod and my husband are very close. They talk for hours every single day, sharing their hopes and fears with each other. A couple of weeks ago, gfm flagged Abod's campaign for verification, something you have probably seen happen to a lot of Gazan campaigns (this often leads to them being arbitrarily shut down). My husband assisted Abod with gfm's intense verification process, and thankfully it was successful. His campaign is also finally connected to a friend's bank account so he can receive funds.

Abod's campaign has not received much attention since it was created in June, and donations have been very slow. Abod does not have much hope for his campaign's success. Please help my husband and I prove him wrong.

He has only reached €11,784 of his €30,000 goal

Please share this post, and give generously and consistently to Abod's campaign. Even small donations add up quickly, so please don't hesitate!

I'm mailing mystery prints to anyone in the US who gives at least $10 (or the euro equivalent), and if you donate any amount and send me an email, I'll send you some comic PDFs (more info here).

Thank you for reading. Here is a video of Leen and her grandfather's cat :-)

[heritageposts]

A week ago, US President Joe Biden claimed that a “ceasefire” deal in Gaza was imminent and could take effect as soon as March 4. “My national security adviser tells me we are close,” he told reporters while eating ice cream in New York City. But ice cream or not, Biden’s actual position was not nearly that sweet. A subsequent statement by a senior Biden administration official claimed Israel had “basically accepted” a proposal for a temporary pause in fighting. But as of March 4, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Mossad director were still refusing to send a delegation to Cairo, where talks with Hamas were under way. The Biden administration’s eagerness to claim victory in its search for some kind of temporary truce indicates how much it is feeling the heat of the rising global and domestic pressure demanding an immediate ceasefire, an end to the Israeli genocide, an end to the threat of a new escalation against refugee-packed Rafah, and an end to the siege of Gaza and immediate unhindered provision of massive levels of humanitarian aid. Despite Washington’s vain hopes for March 4 and the unofficial goal of a ceasefire by the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on March 10, the deal remains elusive. Media reports indicate Biden is telling the Qatari and Egyptian leaders that he is putting pressure on Israel to agree to a truce and a captives swap. But his claim of pressuring Israel is undermined by the continuing US vetoes of ceasefire resolutions at the United Nations Security Council, most recently on February 20, as well as the continuing flow of United States weapons and money to Israel to enable its assault.

And, on the alternative resolution the Biden admin has put forth after vetoing Algeria's resolution (which called for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire," "forced displacement of the Palestinian civilian population," and "unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza."):

[...] Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden’s ambassador to the UN, cast the sole veto against the Algerian resolution, and instead put forward an alternative US text, claiming it also supported a ceasefire. But the proposed US language does not call for an immediate or permanent ceasefire or an end to Israeli genocide; it does not prevent an attack on Rafah or end the Israeli siege. The proposed US resolution is not designed to end the murderous Israeli war against Gaza – nor is the deal that is currently being negotiated in Cairo. To the contrary, the provisions of the US draft resolution reflect the true intentions of the Biden administration vis-a-vis its continuing support of Israel, and reveal the limitations of the truce it is trying to orchestrate. While the US draft resolution does use the dreaded word “ceasefire” – which had been prohibited in the White House for months – it does not call for an immediate halt in the bombing, only “as soon as practicable”, with no indication of when that might be. It does not call for a permanent ceasefire either, leaving Israel free to resume its genocidal bombing – presumably with continuing US support. Virtually everything the US draft calls for is undercut by what is left out. The demand for “lifting all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale” in Gaza certainly sounds appropriately robust. But that’s only until you realise that the text’s failure to challenge or even name the principal barrier to aid getting in – Israel’s bombardment – means that this is not a serious plan to end Israel’s deadly siege. It should not surprise anyone that “the Biden administration is not planning to punish Israel if it launches a military campaign in Rafah without ensuring civilian safety” – as Politico reported – despite claiming it wants a credible plan to ensure Palestinian safety. No one in the Biden administration has even hinted at imposing consequences for Israel’s constant rejection of the insipid appeals for restraint – such as conditioning aid on human rights standards (as required by US law) or cutting US military aid altogether. That’s what real pressure would look like. A more accurate picture of Washington’s approach to Israel’s war against Gaza is the continuing US pipeline of weapons to make Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza more effective, more efficient, and more deadly. According to the Wall Street Journal, the “Biden administration is preparing to send bombs and other weapons to Israel that would add to its military arsenal even as the US pushes for a ceasefire in Gaza.” The arms the US intends to hand over to the Israeli army include MK-82 bombs, KMU-572 Joint Direct Attack Munitions and FMU-139 bomb fuses, worth tens of millions of dollars. It is more than likely that the administration will do another end run around US Congress to send the weapons without relying on congressional approval, as it did on at least two occasions last December.

. . . full article on Al Jazeera (4 Mar 2024)