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codfanficedits · 4 months

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Behind the mask - Part eight.

Pairing: Simon Riley x Fem!Reader

Summary: Because Simon wasn’t born as Ghost.

Wordcount: 3454 | Rating: E! (18+ only!)

Warnings: Fluff and Angst.

A/N: Simon would be around 22/23 in this fic, so it would be set around 2015 ish? Sorry for uploading so late, I had a massive writersblock and my life is a mess right now lol

There, he said it, and Simon could feel his heart thumping out of his chest. What if you didn’t feel the same way? What if you just mumbled those words the other night? What if he just ruined whatever it was that the two of you had going on. What if. What if. What if.

“I love you too.”

Your words are like music to his ears and he can’t supress the smile that formed on his face. His arms wrap around your waist again, and your face gets peppered with little kisses. “I can’t get enough of you.” He whispers into your ear, and he finally feels happy, he finally feels as if the universe isn’t out to fuck him over, no, Simon feels as if the universe is smiling at him.

He finally lets go off you, to turn on the shower and he watches in awe when he sees you put up your arm. “Not a hairwash day.” He chuckled, remembering your earlier words from the day before. Just watching you do the most basic things feels like a treat to him. Simon still doesn’t fully know how the two of you shifted from being friends to being.. this so easily, but he is not the one complaining.

He pulls you closer to him in the shower, being careful enough to not wet your hair, and he can’t help but smile. Your naked body looks absolutely gorgeous and he would devour you whole if he could. But something stings him. Even though you’ve been inseparable the moment you woke up in his arms, there was never been an official title for the two of you, and he can’t help the slight worry that someone will come and take you away from him, and he can’t have that. You’re his girl, and he wants the rest of the world to know that too.

He watches while you wash yourself, what if another man would ever lay hands on you? The same way he had done? No, he can’t have that. He doesn’t want to share you, he doesn’t want to risk losing you because he never had the balls to put an official name on it.

“Was wondering what we are.” He mutters, his voice barely audible over the constant stream from the showerhead. You turn around to face him, and you can see the whirlwind of emotions on his face, the worry, the jealousy, the tenderness. “What was that?”

Simon straightens his back, trying to silence his insecurities. “Just wondering what we are.” He repeats, a bit louder than before. Your head gets tilted to the side, while there might never have been a verbal agreement that the two of you were exclusive, it certainly felt that way for you. “Let me ask you a question.” You respond. “How would you like to be introduced as the next time I skype my parents again?”

“As your boyfriend.” He is quick to answer, worried you’ll slip through his fingers if he doesn’t answer you quick enough. “That is if you would have me.” Simon added with a sheepish smile.

In response you can only laugh, wrapping your arms around his neck to press a kiss on his lips. “Of course I would have you as my boyfriend. And I think my grandmother would love it when I introduce you as my boyfriend too.” Your hands move down to give his ass a playful slap, before you step out of the shower. “Go get your ass washed.” You command him. “I want to get the stuff we need for the paper mâché.”

Simon salutes you with a grin before he starts his shower routine.

Who would’ve thought going craft shopping with two soldiers would be so chaotic? You knew what you needed, balloons, glue, water, paint and a bunch of old newspapers. Simon however, had never really had the opportunity to explore that side of him, so the man needed to touch every single texture he could get his hands on, from the googly eyes, to a magic twisty worm.

“Are you sure I don’t need this?” He asks, holding up a pack of glitter glue. “I like the dark blue.” He muttered to himself. And it pains you, no matter how much you try to see the good side of this, the fact that he can finally discover all the things you deemed normal during your childhood. It hurts knowing that he never got the chance to when he was growing up.

“Well.” You start your answer. “You can always buy it and maybe we can use it for something else?” You can’t think of a single thing it might be useful for, but at the same time, it’s impossible to say no to him. If a little bit of glitter glue will help his inner child, who are you to ruin it.

“Do we have everything?” He asks, placing the glue into the shopping cart. You shake your head. “Before I forget it, we need a mixing bowl, and some paintbrushes too. Or do you want to paint with your fingers?”

In return he shoots you a grin. “I can do a lot of things with my fingers.”

You just roll your eyes at his comment, before you go and study the different paintbrushes, eventually settling for a large pack with different kind of sizes. You drag him and the cart along through the store in order to get a mixing bowl, and Simon holds it up triumphantly when you walk past it and he spots it.

“After this, we just need to go to the library.” You say, as you guide him and the cart towards the checkout. “For what?” He asks, carefully following your movement.

“The newspapers. Apparently they have a huge amount of newspapers that become worthless after a few days.”

Simon nods, it did make sense what you were saying, it was just something he would’ve never thought about. Another little thing about you that he adored so much. “Anything else we need to do while we’re out and about?” He asks, placing the equipment on the conveyor belt so the cashier can scan them.

“Oh yeah, I ordered my Katniss costume a while back, it should be delivered at my PO box, so maybe we can check that out?”

Again Simon just nods, he is more than happy to just spend time with you, even if it meant running some errands. It was funny to him, he never thought he would be the person to emotionally open up to another human being ever again, but there was just something in you that made him want to live again. Not that he was suicidal, not in the slightest, but before you, his days were gray, coated in a layer of thick dust, the same over and over again. And then you came in, blowing that dust away, painting his days with your colours, and it was as if he could see the beauty of the world for the first time.

He doesn’t even pay attention to the price when he goes to swipe his card. Although he is always a little nervous that his card would be declined, a breathe of relief passes his lips when its not the case, and he stuff the receipt into the plastic bag. He offers you his arm as the two of you walk out of the store. “Where do you want to go first?”

You think for a little while. “I think it would be best to first go to the library, then go to my PO box, and maybe we can grab a bite to eat afterwards?”

Good, that meant more time with you, and Simon is ready to rip the world apart if that meant being with you. “Sounds like a plan, lovie.” He murmurs, feeling content, before he presses a kiss against your temple again.

He puts the bag into the trunk of the car before he takes place in the drivers seat. He frowns when you don’t put on your seatbelt, and he crosses his arms in front of his chest, refusing to even start the car. Right now, you’re the most important thing in his life, and he would be damned if he put you in to danger. His eyes shift from the seatbelt to you and you finally catch his hint.

“Sorry, sorry.” You mutter as you put on you seat belt, his shoulders lose their tension and he starts the car, the moment he’s comfortable enough, his hand rests on your knee, creeping a little towards your inner thigh, before he settles on a comfortable spot, his thumb mindlessly running circles over your skin.

The drive to the library feels way too short, and Simon waits in the car while you run inside to get those newspapers. A sigh escapes his lips as he leans back into his car seat. For so long he has thought that being happy, being content wasn’t written in his stars, but now that you were his, he allowed himself to feel that happiness again, to look towards the future as something that he wants to experience.

And when he spots you again, a big bundle of newspapers in your arms, he can’t help but feel relieved, everything would be okay, everything would work out in his favour. Your parents liked him, your grandma liked him, you liked him, that was all he needed.

He wants to help you take care of those newspapers, but he knows you, he knows your pride, the constant urge to do everything yourself, to not give any of your work out of your hands, it’s something he doesn’t like, but he understands, so Simon patiently waits until you’re done, in the meantime he is just silently admiring you.

“Do you know where the post office is?” You ask, before you can even take a seat inside the car. You make sure to make eye contact with him when you put on your seat belt, and Simon let out a dry chuckle. “I do, I do, don’t worry your pretty head over it.” His hand moves to your thigh again, the moment the car starts rolling, he enjoys feeling the warmth of your skin beneath his fingertips.

The traffic is quiet and again, the drive doesn’t take long enough for him, as he parks the car close to the post office. A quick kiss gets pressed on his cheek before you disappear out of the car again. He drums his fingers on the steering wheel, and his mind wanders over to you again, how grateful he is that you felt the same way that he did, that he had not misread the situation. Yet he couldn’t seem the shake this eerie feeling, the feeling that nice things like this don’t last for a man like him. But he pushes away those thoughts when he sees you approaching the car again, a box in your hands, a huge smile on your face. You seemed so excited for your costume. The box gets tossed on to the backseat, and he has to hold himself back from pulling you into the car, onto his lap and pepper you with kisses.

But he doesn’t, not yet anyway. “Still want to grab that bite to eat?” He asks and you nod, it is nice to have a day away from the base, to not be a soldier all the time. “There is this little sandwich shop, that is like a five minute drive.” You propose and if it was up to Simon he would take you to the end of the world to get you whatever it was that you wanted.

Simon starts the car once more, following your instructions to the brim, and he parks the car in front of the sandwich shop, it’s small, it seems cozy, it seems perfect to spend time with you. As you unbuckle your seatbelt, you press your lips against his, your tongue teasing his bottom lip, and in response Simon let out a soft groan, before his hand cupped your cheek.

There is a grin on your face as you pull back. “Ready to go?” Simons shifts uncomfortably in his seat as he shakes his head. “I can’t, not yet.” For a second you’re worried he is hurt, but your eyes shift to his lap and he tries to straighten the fabric of his jeans. The bulge in his pants reveals the reason why and you can’t help but grin at it. “You poor, poor boy.” You tease him, as your fingers run up his thigh.

“Can you stop it?” He groans. “You’re not making this any easier for me.”

“Tut, tut.” You counter, “do you not want to be a good boy?”

Good boy.

Good fucking boy.

Shit, that is making him feel things he has never experienced before. Before he knows it, he can feel himself get all flustered at your words. “Stop it.” He grumbled, trying to hide how he really felt. He was a soldier for crying out loud, he wasn’t supposed to swoon this hard when someone, even if it was you, called him a good boy.

With a final shake of his head, Simon gets out of the car, his arm around your shoulder while he pressed a kiss against your temple. “You’re an awful tease.” He murmured, his lips still pressed against your temple.

His around falls off you when you enter the sandwich shop, though Simon has the need to keep on touching you, to at least have a hand on you, no matter when you two are, he keeps his hand to himself. After all, you two are still in public.

“Any idea what you would like to get?” He asks, as he stares at the menu board. “Don’t know yet.” You answer. “Either the sandwich with roasted chicken and arugula. Or the goat cheese with honey and walnuts.”

“Oh.” All of the sudden Simon feels like a fool, He had been focussing on a simple egg salad sandwich, or a grilled cheese. But goat cheese with honey and walnuts? It wouldn’t have even crossed his mind to try it. It makes him feel a little bit like a simpleton.

“How about we order both and share? Half of each.” He proposed, trying to hide his feelings regarding the whole subject, but you seem to miss the clue, just nodding slowly as you take in the offer. Simon gives your temple another quick kiss. “Go take a seat, lovie. I’ll order.”

You do as you’re told, taking a seat in a little booth while you watch the large soldier order for the both of you. You rest your head in your hand, intrigued by him. Sure you had a little crush on him when you first met him, those dark blonde locks, that cheeky smile. But once you got to know him, to see past the façade that was being a rough soldier, that was when that stupid little crush turned into something more and you couldn’t be more grateful that he felt the same way about you too.

You look up as he sits down next to you, arm wrapped around your shoulder as he pulls you close. He never had imagined that the hardest part about being in a relationship would be the amount of touch he felt he needed in order to survive. “What were you smiling about?” He murmured, his lips pressed against your hair.

“You.” You answer, and Simon looks up with a smile. “Me?”

“Yeah, you.”

“And what is it about me?”

“Everything.” You say with a sigh and you wonder how much love he has ever received in his life, you know some men don’t like it, but you want him to experience what you had gotten before. “You’re amazing Si, you’re sweet, you make me feel wanted, you make me feel at home.” You add.

After your words you lean towards him. “And on top that, you’re handsome, I keep getting lost in your eyes, there is no place where I would rather wake up in than your arms.”

Simon feels flushed after your words. How should he respond to such kindness? Is it even possible to respond to something like this? Part of him wants to tell you, you’re talking out of your ass, that you’re talking bullshit, that he isn’t all that special.

But the other part, holy shit, that other part is over the moon. He is so, so happy that you feel that way about him, that you love him the way he hasn’t been loved before. The way he isn’t able to love himself.

He wants to say so much, he wants to thank you, to hold you, to kiss you and to keep you close to him until the end of times, because being with you, feel like he could concur the end of the world. “Thank you.” He mumbled softly, Simon wants to say more, but he is interrupted by the sandwiches being brought over to the table.

It had never occurred to Simon that goat cheese would be delicious, or that arugula belonged on a sandwich, but you made it him favourite flavours. The day seems to end way too quickly when you and him arrive back to base, days like these make the army more tolerable.

But no matter how nice it has been to be with him, no matter how much you enjoyed having him around you, you crave some time for yourself, some silence, no more stimulation for your brain.

“My room or yours?” Simon’s voice snaps you out of it.

“Well.” You begin. “I was kind of hoping we could both stay in our own rooms tonight.” It wasn’t something you could say easily, you were worried he would understand it wrong, you were worried he would be upset.

And damn right Simon was upset, he could feel a tug on his heartstrings the moment the say those words. Did you not want to be with him? Did he do something wrong? “What? Why?” He’s confused, not understanding why you need the space, while you felt as if you had to walk on your toes.

“I just need some peace and quiet around me, Simon.” You answer. “It is nothing personal.”

“Nothing personal?” He shoots back. “You just told me, I don’t provide you with some peace and quiet.”

Well, yes, you did say that, but you didn’t mean it like that, you didn’t meant to tell him he didn’t provide you with some peace and quiet, you just needed some time alone, some time so your brain doesn’t get overstimulated and fried to mush. Why was that so hard for him to understand?

“It’s not like that.” You mumble, unable to process what is really happening, but Simon sees it as indifference, he just told you how much this hurts him and you’re acting like this? Hours ago you told him the sweetest things known to man, and now you’re telling him you need the peace and quiet that he can’t provide you?

“Then how is it?” His tone is sharp, a defence mechanism to stop himself from getting too hurt, too attached. And you’re getting tired, you don’t want to explain yourself, you don’t want to talk, you don’t want to think, all you want to do, is to be alone for the night, to unwind.

“I just need some time alone, okay?” You snap back. “It’s not the end of the fucking world, Simon.”

But it felt like the end of the world for Simon. It felt as if he was attached to someone who didn’t want to be attached to him. And Simon only knew violence, Simon only knew how to solve things with harsh words, shouting and screaming. “Not the end of the fucking world, huh?” He hisses. “You pretend to love me, only to rip my heart out hours later?”

You roll your eyes at him. “You’re being dramatic.” You huff.

I’ll show you dramatic.

This would be the perfect time to break the cycle, but it is hard, it is difficult to change what he had learned to do all his life. His jaw clenches and his fist clench too, but he takes a deep breath. He is not his father and he never will be, he will do better.

“Maybe we need some time apart.”

His voice is calm, too calm even for the situation, you want to say something, anything at all, but the moment you open your mouth to speak, he turns around on his heels to walk away.

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ash-and-books · 4 months

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Rating: 5/5

Book Blurb: A teenage sorcerer’s apprentice must solve her boss’s murder in order to prove her innocence in this twisty, magic-infused murder mystery perfect for fans of Knives Out and The Inheritance Games.

Being an apprentice to one of the world's most famous sorcerers has its challenges; Tabatha Zeng just didn’t think they would include solving crime. But when her boss, the infamous fortuneteller Sorcerer Solomon, predicts his own brutal death—and worse, it comes true—Tabatha finds herself caught in the crosshairs.

The police have their sights set on her and Callum Solomon, her murdered boss’s youngest son. With suspicion swirling around them, the two decide to team up to find the real killer and clear their own names once and for all.

But solving a murder isn’t as easy as it seems, especially when the suspect list is mostly the rich, connected, and magical members of Sorcerer Solomon’s family. And Tabatha can’t quite escape the nagging voice in her head asking: just how much can she really trust Callum Solomon?

Nothing is as it seems in this quick-witted and fantastical murder mystery.

Review:

A teen sorcerer's apprentice must solve her teacher's murder and deal with the strange inheritance he left her while also dealing with his very complicated family, it's Knives Out but with magic and a bit of romance! Tabatha Zeng is the apprentice to one of the world's most famous sorcerers... and she's known about his prophesied death for months. Tabatha apprentices's under fortuneteller Sorcerer Solomon, and he predicts that he will die a brutal death by "his most beloved" and that Tabatha must stick close to one of his sons, Callum Solomon, no matter what after his death. Tabatha finds herself in the list of suspects as well as in the potential crosshairs of whoever murdered her boss. It's up to her and Callum, her boss's youngest son, to solve the mystery before the killer aims for one of them and in order for them to both clear their names. Yet the Solomon family is complicated, filled with drama, money, and power... and Tabatha can't trust anyone, not even the boy she's begun to work with and who has begun to worm his way into her heart. This was such a fun murder mystery with a dash of romance and magic. I loved the Knives Out vibes in this book and it perfectly balances the mystery with the drama. I had so much fun reading this one and the story kept having fun twists and turns. You don't know who could have done it and it was a really nice twist at the end. I really loved the chemistry between Tabatha and Callum, I can't resist a cute investigative couple. Tabatha herself was a really fun protagonists to read. Overall, if you enjoy Knives Out and are looking for a fun mystery read, I would absolutely recommend this!!

*Thanks Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

#book review #bookish #book #these deadly prophecies

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amuseoffyre · 8 months

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Fandom: Our Flag Means Death Rating: R Summary: The year is 1873. In a city with a thriving stage-magic circuit, the Gentleman Conjurer is ready to make his mark, but things do not go as planned.

Snippet:

Beyond the alleyway, carriages and people bustled here and there, but Stede put them from his mind to focus on breathing in and out. He could still hear the shouts of awe and thunder of applause from inside the theatre, a twisty little worm of embarrassment and frustration niggling at his belly. Why had he run away? He had been thoroughly enjoying the show and it wasn’t as if a memory of someone could really do anything. It was stupid. He was stupid, overreacting to nothing, just as he always had, just as father always said he did. He jumped with a squeak of alarm when a door a little further down the alley crashed open.

#ofmd fic: a trick of the light #ofmd #our flag means death #our flag means death fic

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feuqueerfire · 9 months

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Enigma Live Blogging

I've literally only heard good things and hopes for a season 2, so I'm hoping to love it, esp since I've been excited since the mock trailer.

Ep 1 (Aug 7)

1-1

Prim so pretty

stabbing a teacher with a pencil

Win's tattoos are nice, Sung Hanbin should get something similar, it'd go well with his celestial chest tattoos

Oh the way he acts with Fa vs so nervous with the teacher

ah, magic healing?

pls he really is going hard on bumbling fool teacher Ajin

that twisty crack thing + cracked glass

1-2

oh the girl drowned herself? did she succeed?

girl wtf is this "misbehaving children must be disciplined" voice D:

and is Ajin staying late to investigate what goes on?

girl not the security person

1-3

oh, Ajin undid things and healed her and security and brought her back to her room? or something? because that can't have been a dream

waitttt, Ajin and Fa don't end up in a relationship, right? I feel like I would've been aware of it. I kinda did want them to get together from the concept trailer though since it seemed dark and twisted anyway + that one Win and Prim clip with the oranges and them beside a pool gave me intense brain worms, so I am Very Open to them together in this show or a different one

but anyway, they're cute talking after the water spill thing even though I'm assuming Ajin orchestrated just for this purpose of showing how different he is than his powerful magician self

oh Ajin, how did you know about the dream?

1-4

oh she confronted Ajin by herself, that's kinda scary

damn, what is that thing she found and has been carrying?

omg... what's happening. does the evil thing that's hurt Wan and Matt have its grips on Fa and he's trying to expel it?

the villain eats glass

Who is the person who records Fa in the past roof clips? Who is the villain - I know Bright appears at the end

I'm reading the r/gmmtv ep 1 discussion and lol I didn't notice a "blurry figure" behind Fa even though apparently she appeared twice rip. Also, Piploy is supposed to be in this as well

Ep 2 (Aug 7)

2-1

Fa's an adult? isn't she a high schooler? Did they carefully drop that piece of info so that they can get together <- my hopes

pls okay and he's not even her teacher and they're literally doing forced cohabitation with "this side of the room is mine, don't cross it" stuff like? okay, love interests

plsss "my plans never fail, they're perfect" -> getting a photo taken by the girls at school

damn, how'd Ajin get the uncle thing to work?

Namsine played by Piploy is significant somehow

2-2

ewww throwing up blood after taking out a glass shard from her mouth?

bro, was that a dream for real?

girl, not the Music Room by yourself

oh, Prikhing was the one behind the window when Fa, Namsine, and Ajin were all in the music room

ah, more of Prikhing

2-3

plsssss Yiwha thinking Ajin is a perverted spirit

Yiwha is cute and endearing but also... is she innocent? completely off the list of suspects? hmmm like maybe she's just doing this so cast the doubt off of herself? and get info from Fa herself?

anyway, Yiwha and Fa are cute though, girls of the world! I'd ship them harder if I wasn't already invested in Fa and Ajin

omg everybody already infected and vomiting blood and stuff? and who is the person with the red cloak?

oh, this is from the concept trailer when she went into a different room and entered some other dimension or something through the door

oh, blinded by a spell in the same place, I see

who is the red-cloaked girl? is that Namsine?

I knew people mentioned Piploy quite a bit and the thing with having a GMMTV roster of actresses is that you immediately know they'll be significant enough somehow or other, so Namsine being the red-cloak girl makes sense. though I do see mentions of her being a puppet in the gmmtv subreddit ep 2 discussion

Ep 3 (Aug 8)

3-1

Ah, Namsine puppet as they mentioned

3-2

Not the wound tending

ahh and he still let her patch him up despite him healing soo quickly

they're so cuteeeee what the heck, they've gotta be hinting at romance right?

Him sharing magic with her in a way he's never shared with anybody

ah, Fa and Namsine fun, intense friendship, girls who only understand each other

omg the way the mother found the videos of them spending time with each other and being so attached, ah it's so gay girls <3 as if the videos would have them kissing or something

scary ass mother, reminds me of button eyed Coraline other parents kinda

3-3

oh I hate Namsine's mother so bad

White Arts, Black Arts, Enigma

he won't let anyone else die... is he seeking revenge for somebody who already died?

3-4

i lost the stuff here rip

Ep 4 (Aug 8)

4-1

oh self-mutilation

Fa and Namsine soooo lesbian intense girl relationship

anyway i'm scared that Namsine is gonna stab Fa still with the blade

bro a shattering sky glass

hey what?

4-2

The bees around Ajin are reminding me of the moths in Midnight Museum of Bright's episodes

so Ajin's being haunted/posessed and is gonna now have a spell over him to see something else too?

4-3

woahh Fa performing an exorcism in the pool, she's so cool - you've learnt well and have a good brain

omg lesbianssss Namsine stopping Fa from drowning

Hm, that's it? What even happened with the glass sky shattering and possessing Ajin and stuff?

4-4

Girl, we're gonna get something new starting up in the last part of ep 4 cuz things weren't properly fully fleshed and closed out by part 3 anyway and they'll introduce something for me to hope for season 2 ah D:

Fa-Ajin get together plsssssss they're so ~~~<33~~~

I don't like how he holds her mouth like that though, it was okay the first time when he was angry but not when he's stopping her from talking about spending all the time with him

oh kiss okay, even though we can't even see it

oh not a kiss, rip :(

ah it hits midnight

and he makes her forget everything? D: so sad

oh okay, he didn't make her forget, that's good. he just made her sleep as usual and took her home and disappeared

We get Ajin and Namtaan kisses but no Ajin and Fa fr D:

bro, Priking?

What is the significance of Ajin's ring?

agh, so sad that the ending/wrap-up was just okay but the tease for next season is so intriguing. The setup for this season was good too, well-paced since it's such a short show.

Overall:

I wish the wrap-up/ending was done better/explained a bit more,, like what was that Ajin possession thing? No Ajin past? Why did we redeem mother so easily?

I wish the horror aspect continued on cuz I think it was strongest in the first episode but not much after that.

It's such a short series with a large focus on magic and evil but they still had me hetshipping and lesbian shipping (Fa/Namsine were literally soooo) and that's a good mark that it made me care about the relationships/characters.

Good after credits scene to pique interest for a larger story, hope we get it for gmmtv 2024 and that it remains about 4-6 episodes with the same quality and possibly better writing when tying things up

good acting from everybody, especially the girls.

It was good but I'm not super attached to anything or anybody but if there's a second season, I'd watch it.

Rating: 6.5/10

Trailers:

Original Mock: Watched it in the early morning during GMMTV 2023 and it was one of the only non-queer GMMTV series that was interesting. Was looking forward to it.

Official Trailer: Still cool, though I don't like the very fast cuts they had.

#ep by ep commentary #enigma

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southie-dakotie · 1 year

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................ a scythe who covers their robe in magic twisty worms the same way goddard and the new order scythes do with their gems

#Key Speaks #Arc of a Scythe #it would look atrocious. i want it to exist physically

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canigetacupofugh · 1 year

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Agnosticism Now!

Okay, so I did the dumb thing and argued with somebody online, and now this is a brain worm that I can't express in the tiny blurbs of that particular social media. The following is my long-winded brain dump on my opinions and why I chose the label I did - Hi, my name is Shawn, and one of my adjectives is Agnostic. The argument is over what label I should use to describe my faith/lack of faith. They think I should call myself an "agnostic atheist" where I say just "agnostic" is the better fit. (in their defense, I did say something a bit atheist, but in mine, they're allowing NO ROOM for nuance or paying attention to the fact that I said I don't know for sure). The point of this blog is to get this brain worm out of my head so I can move on to other things. This is self-care. The brain weasels must be appeased or I can't function.

(Not sure if the images are uploading... If not, please refer to the google definitions of Agnostic and Atheist.) First lets treat it draconian - to be agnostic you MUST believe that we will never know if there is a god/gods and we can never know- this is the core to it. Atheism therefore is a staunch belief that there are, for sure, no gods. Well, neither fit me then. But even so, Agnostic fits better if I HAVE to have one of these labels and combining them as suggested I feel takes too much from there might be- but now we're getting into nuances. If you have to BELIEVE in either no knowledge or no god, I fit neither, and tacking on "agnostic" to atheism is kind of disrespectful - IF we're being draconian of the definitions. If we allow nuance, which is how communication and words work - it's how humans work - then Agnostic is still the better fit for me. If I believe there's a god sways with mood and experience. Sometimes I think it's more likely, sometimes I think it's less likely. The only thing I am firm on is that IF there is a god of some kind, they are uninvolved and do not care. That's the only thing I am certain about - and even then, I sometimes utter a, "if you're there, if you care" kind of prayer to the void in hopes that MAYBE I am wrong and there's something out there more powerful than me that maybe gives a shit how things go. But I BELIEVE there's a god about as much as I believe maybe there's a leprechaun who will hear me and decide helping me is worth their time... So yet again, the biggest factor that defines me is not being sure.

Catching me in an atheist moment does not an atheist make! Who I am and what I think just doesn't fall under the strictness atheist people have told me they have (YMMV). Atheism is almost it's own religion- a religion of science and human understanding - but there's a blind faith in the men telling you what to think and know a lot of the time- you aren't peer reviewing papers if you're just some dude, you trust they aren't lying to you and add it to your science faith. I tried that with Christianity for years, and another thing I'm certain of, that I can say I BELIEVE is that some people are fucked up and will try to control you or sway you for their own gain. So even if "true" atheism allows for thinking there COULD be a deity of some kind, I cannot wear that label. That label wants too much from me that I simply don't have. I don't have faith in mankind, and I'm not about to review every single study or test myself. I am very comfortable in admitting I don't know. In admitting that I trust people about things blindly because, well, I'm lazy by nature and like to think that MOST people are good, or try to be. So anyway - no, stranger on the internet- I am not an atheist. It means too much, the label is too heavy. Also, their comparison with "do you feel the same about unicorns" is preposterous, even as an argument to support themselves. What are we arguing here? My belief in magical horse creatures, or the definition of the word? Because if we want to get nit-picky about words, then I'm still right when I say words evolve and are twisty - while the definition of unicorn is more unified in people's minds than god, or religion - do you picture them with cloven hooves? Does their horn twist? Do they have a tail of only hair, or is is more akin to that of a cow? Should we defend our opinion of what it means- or should we allow that other people may think differently than us and that is costs us nothing? If we woke up tomorrow in a world where a large percentage of the population wanted to make life decisions based on their belief in unicorns, and there was no proof one way or another they existed, AND I had to pick a label to say if I believed in them or not, AND there was a word that acknowledged uncertainty - I'd pick THAT word for me. Because by part of what they are being magical, then I can't be certain, and having ideas on which is true shouldn't cost me the label of uncertainty. I don't understand why what I call myself matters SO MUCH to strangers on the internet- especially when I clearly understand the definitions, and the nuances, and hurt no one or even "lead them astray," to use a phrase I only hear from Christians. We're all making this shit up and until we all agree, the words aren't solid and even if we agree now, they might change. Why invest? If you read all that, have an internet hug. I've no delusions that my thoughts matter to people who don't already care about me, I'm not important, but I'll keep talking in case it provides comfort to others, or just makes them laugh.

If you're a friendly atheist, and you think there MIGHT be a god, but are pretty sure there isn't, so you call yourself an atheist - if you like that label and not mine - that's okay! You're valid too! You aren't hurting me by disagreeing with me and we can still get along. Guess my adjectives is a series now...

#my adjectives #labels #agnostic #atheism

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scuppy · 9 months

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me needs commissions I HAVE to buy RWHXRWY 100 Pieces Magic Worms Toys 10 Colors Wiggly Worms On String Twisty Fuzzy Worm Toys for Carnival Kid Party Favors !!!!!1!!!!

#/j #scuppyspeaks

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funkyflowers12 · 1 year

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Floral Fantasy at Gardens by the Bay

Floral Fantasy is an enchanting landscape that combines nature, art and technology to create an immersive experience. Located within Gardens by the Bay, this magical garden exhibit features a mix of live plants, cut flowers and preserved blooms in four distinct garden landscapes: Dance, Float, Waltz and Drift.

Dance

The first garden landscape at Floral Fantasy showcases a kaleidoscopic display of hanging flower arrangements swaying gently from the ceiling and glimmering in the light. Featuring over 15,000 flowers at any given time, this section of the attraction is filled with vibrant flowers like carnations, roses, statices and delphiniums that will captivate your senses.

Float

Floating through the serene environment of this area of the attraction, you'll discover a tranquil pond adorned with hundreds of delicate fuchsias. This is also the place where you'll find Nobu, the garden guardian who watches over his plants and his nine fairy friends! If you're lucky, you may even spot them!

You'll also encounter a vivarium full of tiny poison dart frogs in a gamut of stunning hues. They are a wonderful addition to this part of the attraction as they make you feel like you're in an enchanted forest!

Drift

This section of the attraction consists of a series of twisty trees and droopy branches, driftwood structures and waterfalls of flowers among cascading rocks that give this part of the attraction a rainforest feel. This area of the attraction also boasts 300 species of orchids – all colours of the rainbow!

It is a must-visit for everyone who loves bankstown flower delivery! The enchanting garden also includes an interactive AR storytelling experience where you can help a lost fairy to reunite with her family. You can even take a simulated flight around the gardens from a dragonfly's perspective.

Drift is a great place for families with children because of its calming environment, where you can take in the soothing sounds of a bubbling brook and the gentle perfume of the hundreds of Fuschias hanging above. If you're lucky, you might even be able to spot Nobu's nine fairies!

Waltz

Lastly, the final zone of the attraction is called Waltz. It houses a vivarium filled with a variety of flowers and a big tank containing poison dart frogs. This is a must-visit for kids, as they will love getting to see these colourful frogs.

To add a touch of mystery, this garden is swathed with mosses and ferns that mimic the ethereal glow worms found in caves in New Zealand and Australia. It's an excellent way to learn about the importance of biodiversity and how we need to protect it!

The garden is also equipped with a special theatre where you can watch a short film about the importance of biodiversity and how we need more care for our planet. You can also choose your preferred entry timing from the available ones, which will help in regulating crowds. To know more information visit at www.funkyflowers.com.au.

#bankstown flower delivery #luxury flowers sydney #burgandy flowers #nunkeri

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maniculum · 1 year

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The College of Grotesque Arts -- Week Eight

For new people, I’m doing the Dungeon23 megadungeon project, basing each room on the marginalia of a different page in the 14th-century Luttrell Psalter. Previous entries in this project can be found here.

First, apologies for length. A couple things in this one got away from me, and this week’s material ended up substantially longer than the previous two combined.

Also, this is the section I was mainly thinking of when I said that this level was more labyrinthine than Level One. Either Appendix A or my dice (or, I guess, the crude sort of analog machine made by combining the two) just decided to go:

I was actually worried I was going to have to cheat to get to seven rooms — usually it’s the other way around, and I have to stop rolling & cut off various excess passages & doors because I don’t want any more rooms in this section — but we got there. Barely.

Anyway, the disaster map and everything else can be found below the cut:

Room 2.19: f.37v

Appendix A wants this room to contain a monster, some coins in invisible pottery jars, and a magic item. It also wants it to be 20x30, but I’m expanding it to 40x40 because that’s a lot of stuff and the material I’m getting from the page needs space too. And because there’s room to do that, since it’s a tiny room in a twisty little maze of passages, which looks ridiculous anyway. (I do this more often than I mention; I’m just bringing it up here because of the quantity of stuff and the egregious nonsense of this section of the map.)

The room is large, with the counters and cabinets that mark it as a dedicated laboratory space. None of the equipment is intact, and the counters/cabinets themselves are practically destroyed despite being made of stone. There are quite a lot of scorched scraps of ancient parchment notes lying around. Bits of loose stone from the counters, walls, ceiling, and floor litter the room, along with the bones of at least three people. Something went deeply wrong here.

So, the manuscript. This page is a little difficult to work with because it’s just got a couple examples of “worm/vine with face” and… this.

So, all right. That looks like a priest who’s so mad he’s literally fuming, scolding a pair of civilians about how the Bible does not condone their Nondescript White Blobs. However, I think it’s meant to be a martyrdom; they’re probably stoning him. Which would explain why some forgotten reader of this manuscript was angry enough to smudge out their faces like that. No idea who the martyr is; the little flag on his robes is probably a clue, but I’ve got nothing. A red saltire on a white field is the Cross of St. Patrick, but looking that up tells me that this is actually a modern-era thing and can’t be traced back to medieval times. So identifying it as the Cross of St. Patrick is not actually any more helpful than identifying it as the state flag of Alabama. The stuff on his head… not sure either. It might be those flames that let you speak in tongues, but I’m not an expert on Christianity, so I’m just going to leave that alone.

Anyway, since this is what I’ve got to work with, I’ve decided this room is haunted. Which, frankly, more parts of this dungeon should be. I need to make a mental note to start doing more of that. The ghosts are Wandregisilius and Scolastica, two apprentices of Februaria who died due to a sabotaged laboratory experiment. (I won’t blame you if you’ve forgotten, but things got real bad between the wizards near the end of this place’s actual use.) Something exploded, which is why the room is so badly trashed. (Also, those names were chosen off my list as “names that sound wizardly” rather than rolling at random; the two figures in the manuscript are probably meant to both be male, but… #feminism?)

Wandregisilius and Scolastica are, unfortunately, not particularly hinged as ghosts go. Maybe it’s being stuck down here for centuries, maybe it’s something to do with how they died, maybe they’re just Like That. They react with extreme hostility to anyone entering the laboratory, and throw the broken stonework at them with surprising force. (For stats, take an incorporeal undead of your choice, give it telekinesis if it doesn’t already have the ability to throw stuff, and call it done — I know I said “ghost” earlier, but that’s just a generic term.) Wandregisilius and Scolastica don’t seem to have any kind of grasp on reality; they’re just reflexively hostile and violent at this point. If your PCs manage to subdue and speak to them somehow, they’re angry, confused, and have extremely fragmented memories. The fact that they’ve been like this for centuries is probably news to them, but they won’t remember you told them anyway.

They’re pretty certain (correctly) that they’d be able to move on to the afterlife if they, or someone else using this room, successfully completed the sabotaged experiment. However, they’re not working towards this because (1) they’re completely mad & can’t stay tethered to sanity long enough to do anything about it and (2) it’s pretty much impossible. All of the equipment is trashed, and the extremely rare materials & reagents they were using destroyed. Even if they were completely stable, they’d need a lot of expensive and hard-to-find stuff to make this work, much of which would require expeditions to far places or at least negotiation with a few highly specialized merchants… and they can’t even leave the dungeon. They’re tied to the room where they died, and while that tie is flexible — they can roam this level with some discomfort, and even go to other levels if they push themselves — the exit from the dungeon is an impermeable barrier to them.

I mentioned that there was a third body, so here goes: this was Lefwin, an adventuring cleric who tried to do an exorcism here. It didn’t go well. His equipment is still with him, including coins and at least one magic item (there you go, Appendix A — skipping the pottery jars, though).

Room 2.20: f.38r

Did the same as with 2.17 and expanded a small room to fill the available space. This roughly-triangular room with a 20-foot-high ceiling looks like someone has tried to convert it into a barn of some kind — the “ground floor” has a number of stalls around the edge, and there’s a loft of sorts over for a “second floor”.

This is, in fact, exactly what has happened. This room is the home of Anura, a lab-monkey descendant with human-level intelligence. Apparently this is the result of some kind of experimentation on her ancestors, and the intelligence gene or whatever crops up every so often in the population of monkeys that inhabit the dungeon. (If you read the Hork-Bajir Chronicles as a kid, it’s like that.) Treat Anura as an awakened monkey with a few levels apiece in rogue/expert and a martial class of your choice (not barbarian). (Also, yes, that name did come from my 13th-century name list, and yes it does mean “frog”; she named herself after a word she liked from a scrap of lab notes. I don't know if that connection existed when medieval parents were naming their daughters or if it's pure coincidence.)

Anura is a bit isolationist, but she treats the PCs with polite hospitality if they conduct themselves properly. She behaves like a yeoman farmer or minor knight. She occasionally works for the Gatekeepers as a sort of independent contractor, providing information regarding the dungeon (and access / guide services as needed) in exchange for outside goods. (Most of the Gatekeepers don’t like venturing too far out of their safe areas, but Anura grew up here and is more comfortable moving about / more familiar with the dangers.) She will likewise be willing to help the PCs for goods or money. If the PCs are strapped for cash, she’ll accept stories, songs, and other bits of culture / entertainment, but will insist on the PCs talking slowly, repeating themselves, and answering questions as they relate these things so she can transcribe while they talk. Anura knows the contents and layout of this dungeon level in detail, but her knowledge of other levels is more vague the farther down they are. It’s dangerous down there, don’t you know — she’s only ventured to the deeper levels a few times, and hasn’t been below Level Nine at all.

Some of the empty stalls are used to store Anura’s worldly possessions: you’ll find saddles sized for her, falconry gloves, and other equipment necessary for the care & husbandry of goats & owls. Luxury goods include: a selection of nice outfits tailored for her; a couple volumes of literature she’s copied or transcribed herself, along with a supply of ink, writing tools, and pens made from dungeon-sourced feathers; a book that collects several texts on hunting, falconry, & animal husbandry; and a small sack of coins. Her most expensive possession is the +3 longsword, also sized for her, which she wears on her belt at all times.

The barn, as I’m sure you’ve guessed from the image and the above description, houses a few goats in the stalls and owls in the loft. These animals are trained and domesticated; the owls are local, but the goats are purchased through the Gatekeepers. She uses these to practice the arts of hunting and falconry to the extent that she can in the dungeon — after hearing about them in stories of outside culture, she was able to order a book on the matter through the Gatekeepers and learn how to do them properly.

Room 2.21: f.38v

No Caretaker, ghost, or any other creature that was in existence while the dungeon was still a site of active research will enter this room. The doors are intact, but locked. Examining the doorframes will inform the PCs that they used to be magically warded and trapped, but someone has permanently deactivated those spells, carefully scratching out exactly the right runes and removing exactly the right material anchors for the spell. Each door has a note painted directly on it: “ONGOING PROJECT”. The notes are signed “Markewart”.

This room is very similar to Room 1.5 — the center of the room is occupied by a set of tarnished, rune-covered pillars that support some kind of magical field, and an extremely complex, very broken control device is set into the wall in the southwest corner. (The description of the control device in 1.5 can be used here as well.) There are, however, two major differences. First, someone seems to be working to fix the control device — many of the old, rusted parts seem to have been removed, and some have been replaced. Many of the parts have been labeled, and there are various notes scratched onto the wall in charcoal. There is also one note painted onto the wall: “DO NOT TOUCH” in large letters. The other major difference is that the magical effect doesn’t seem to be fully functioning as a stasis field. The stuff inside is moving. Moving very, very slowly, but still.

Inside the field is what appears to be a chunk of some other plane overlaid on our reality. On the surface, it looks like it’s all in miniature, but it gives the impression of being something vast and terrible that just appears small because you’re seeing it from very far away — even though, you know, it’s right there. This is a bit vertigo-inducing. It’s a nighttime ocean scene, the water level with the floor, where the sea is somehow both intensely tempestuous and as smooth & calm as glass. Thinking about that too much makes your brain hurt. The water is very clear, but you still can’t see the bottom; admittedly, that’s mostly because you can’t really get the right angle to look straight down, but something about it makes you certain that the water goes down for miles. (Were this scene fully, really present in this room, the water would cut through all the lower layers of the dungeon, but it is of course not.) Serpentine creatures swim through the depths, creatures that are smaller than an earthworm from your perspective but are also fearsome leviathans.

At the very center of the field is an elaborate golden palace, seeming to float on the top of the water while remaining perfectly motionless. It’s only a foot tall, but like everything else in this scene, despite looking like the world’s most intricate miniature, it weighs on the mind like a tremendous work of cyclopean architecture. There are lights in some of the windows — it’s clearly inhabited. Glowing orbs on the top of each tower cast a baleful light over the waves that may or may not exist. Equally intricate, and far tinier, are the golden boats moored along the edges of the palace. One boat is near the edge of the field, with a crew of lilliputian/brobdingnagian humanoids aboard. Their faces are too small for the PCs to make out their expressions, and the crew can’t see outside of the field at all, but were the two sides of the field able to look at each other properly, the PCs would see that the crew’s tiny faces look down on them in scorn and hatred as if they were some sort of particularly offensive insect.

Asking the Gatekeepers about this will reveal that repairing the control mechanism is indeed a project of Markewart’s, and helping him with it would probably be an excellent way to curry favor. Giving that help is pretty difficult, though — the mechanism is much more comprehensively destroyed than the one in Room 1.5, and is also sufficiently different that knowledge about one doesn’t necessarily transfer to the other. Markewart is in fact convinced that it’s impossible, but persists in making the occasional stab at it because Agnes (his boss, in case you don’t recall the Gatekeepers section from a while back) is very interested in getting access to that golden palace. (The Gatekeepers are profit-motivated — the unicorn in a similar situation on Level One isn’t as interesting to them as this room. A captive unicorn might have some value, but probably not enough to be worth the trouble. This, whatever it is, is definitely very valuable to someone.) Markewart may also share, if he thinks the PCs can help, that he’s been trying to find a way to communicate with the people inside the field — the settings the machine is stuck on block sound in both directions, and prevent the people inside from seeing outside. From their perspective, the field is a blank wall.

If the PCs somehow have intense and specific knowledge of this sort of thing, or some way to acquire said expertise, they may, through some heroic effort, figure out a way to repair the control mechanism and allow sound, sight, or even people to cross the boundary. This should, I want to emphasize, be tremendously difficult and time-consuming. (If they managed to fix the mechanism in Room 1.5, you can concede that they have experience in this area, but again, the devices are not fully analogous.) Slightly easier, but still very difficult, would be to repair the mechanism in such a way that it’s possible to turn the field off and return those inside to their proper place. Unlike in the unicorn room, there seems to be an extra layer of protection keeping someone from just breaking the pillars: what appears to be a permanent forcecage encloses the whole thing.

Just in case the PCs actually accomplish such a herculean task, here’s what they’ll find.

The Court of the Fathomless Folio

One of Februaria’s side interests was aquatic life, as is somewhat indicated by the high-magic aquarium she installed in her tower. Using the extraplanar specimen-abduction device installed in this room, she often explored the contents of the strange pockets, demiplanes, and border zones on the outskirts of the Elemental Plane of Water. Until one day she pointed it somewhere new and got this.

Februaria was not sure what she was looking at, but was an experienced enough wizard to recognize certain types of red flag, and swiftly realized she’d gone fishing and inadvertently hooked Cthulhu, metaphorically speaking. As, again, a wizard who’d been around the block enough to know these sorts of things, she was pretty sure that “just put it back where it came from and hope they didn’t notice” was not an option. She locked all the settings on her machine to keep anyone from taking the stasis field down, then systematically destroyed every part of the mechanism that would allow someone to unlock it. She put the permanent forcecage over the field, left the room, locked all the doors and destroyed the keys, put traps and wards on the doors just in case, and forbade the entire College from ever entering that room in the strongest possible terms.

This was the correct decision. Ensnaring the Fathomless Folio for even an imperceptible sliver of time in between heartbeats was already an unforgivable insult, and had she let them back out, the College of Grotesque Arts would have been destroyed shortly afterwards — rather than being torn apart by escalating interpersonal conflicts several years later.

The palace on the other side of the field is the Court of the Fathomless Folio, a rogue fae court presided over by the exiled Ishmateutha, Marchioness of the Sulphurous Depths. They are excluded from the greater Realm of Faerie due to some impenetrable fae politics, which is why they’re out in this distant border zone near the Elemental Planes, and why there have thus far been no reprisals for their kidnapping. Like other Faerie courts, you can expect them to be arrogant in their inhumanity, alien in their reasoning, casual in their cruelty, and terrible in their rage.

Were the Fathomless Folio released, they would at once seek satisfaction for their imprisonment. Februaria, dead these several centuries, is not immediately available for vengeance — though certainly the Marchioness will begin negotiations with whatever presides over the afterlife Februaria landed in to acquire her soul — so they’ll start with anyone else who can be argued to be complicit. That will include (1) anyone who has ever set foot in the College of Grotesque Arts, up to the moment the Court was released, and (2) anyone descended from someone who was part of the College’s operations while it was active, or descended from their family if there is no direct line through which the sin can be inherited.

The first category is a threat to the PCs (as well as a number of adventurers who survived a trip through this dungeon, plus any sapient dungeon inhabitants, and of course all current & former members of the Gatekeepers), so it’s the most directly relevant. The second category is far more destructive in the big picture, however. Between the wizards & their apprentices, the campus staff, and the mercenaries they hired for security, the number of people involved is sizable. And given the passage of several centuries, the family trees have had quite a lot of time to branch. This category thus includes an enormous quantity of people, spread out over every level of society, almost none of whom have any idea the connection exists. This is, in short, an existential threat in a bottle, and the order of the world will be overturned if the Court is ever released.

It’s also inevitable. The fact that Februaria managed to trap the Fathomless Folio was a bizarre fluke of interplanar physics, and probably would never have worked if she were trying to do it on purpose. The only thing that’s kept them from seeking their vengeance long ago is the stasis field — there’s not much you can do when time isn’t actually moving for you. However, this has not fully worked, the fae within being sufficiently powerful to bend the rules of frozen time; the glacially slow movement one can see from the outside of the field is theoretically impossible, but it’s happening nonetheless. Even now, Ishmateutha is very slowly preparing a spell that will allow her to break the stasis field through her own power. From the perspective of the Fathomless Folio, they will have been trapped for less than two days; from the PC’s perspective, it’s still about 200 years before Ishamteutha will effect the Court’s escape.

There’s probably an oracle somewhere right this moment who is terrifyingly aware that a fae Armageddon could happen at any moment in the next couple centuries (the delay isn’t guaranteed if Markewart or someone else manages to fix the device). Anyway, um… sorry for potentially derailing your whole campaign.

If the Fathomless Folio does become something you have to deal with, I’m afraid you’ll have to do the stats yourself — it’s a substantial job, and I don’t have the time for it in this context. (I.e., in a Dungeon23 project that only a handful of people are reading, and in a scenario where, even if someone does run the dungeon, it’s extremely unlikely the PCs will end up in a situation where it’s relevant… if I ever go back and edit this after it’s done, I’ll add in a proper appendix on these folk.) Anyway, if you need to do stuff with this, I recommend you use existing stats for high-ranking faeries as a numerical reference, and maintain an ocean theme (read up on deep-sea ecosystems and maybe flip through Moby Dick). Ishmateutha herself should probably be at least close to a CR 20. Also, keep in mind that the Fathomless Folio are not going to be tiny after their escape; the fact that they appear so now really is just a trick of perspective over an interplanar vantage point.

Room 2.22: f.39r

This room feels a bit odd to the senses. To people standing inside it, it seems as though there’s a strange odor in the air, and an audible vibration, and a sensation like your hair standing on end from electricity — but if one tries to focus on any of those, it’s not actually present. It doesn’t really smell any different from the rest of the dungeon, there’s no extra noise, and your hair is right where it usually is; it just seems like these sensations are present.

There is a set of stairs going down to the next level in the northeast corner.

In the center of the room is something that has pretty obviously been added and maintained by the Gatekeepers with some effort and expense: an iron fence held up by metal spikes driven into the stone floor, forming a square in the center of the room 20 feet on a side. Within the fence, a series of long planks have been laid over the floor, completely covering whatever is under them. A sign on the fence reads “FORBIDDEN”.

If they investigate what’s under the planks, the PCs will find the Pit of Symphysy. (And if they just hop the fence and step on the planks without being really careful about it, they’ll probably fall in; the planks aren’t nailed down.) This is a deeply flawed experimental method for easily creating grotesques; the bugs were never hammered out and it shouldn’t be used. Within the pit is a strange magical field; if multiple living beings enter at once, they are fused together in a random fashion. (Drat, I’m going to have to write rules for that… see section below.) At the bottom of the pit, there are the remains of a number of unfortunate mutated bugs, mice, and bug-mice; nothing down there is currently alive, as anything trying to stay there over an extended period of time is repeatedly fused with whatever else wanders in, eventually resulting in a non-viable creature. This means that if only one PC falls in, if they can get themselves out without anything else getting in, they’ll be fine. Unless they have a familiar or something with them. (Familiars may be exempt if you so choose, since they’re already kind of merged with the mage’s soul. Mundane animal companions do not get the same consideration.) Or if you want to be really mean and make them merge with, like, a louse on their skin or something.

Incongruously, this room is also inhabited by a small flock of bluebirds. They like to perch on the fence.

The Pit of Symphysy

Any two living creatures that enter the pit are combined in a randomized fashion to form a Symphytic Grotesque. (A living being that is not a creature by the rules , e.g. a mundane plant, can be treated in whatever way makes most sense to you. I’d recommend just giving the subject a few unusual qualities based on the non-creature and skipping the tables.) If more than two creatures enter, combine the first two, then combine the result with the next one, and so forth. If the creatures enter simultaneously or in such a way that you cannot identify which order you should combine them in, randomize the order. (If you're not interested in the details, scroll until you're past the tables.) Make the following changes:

The Symphytic Grotesque’s creature type becomes Aberration.

The mass of the Symphytic Grotesque is slightly lower than the combined mass of the constituent creatures. Change the resulting creature’s size category to match the new mass if necessary, making adjustments for space, reach, height, length, and so forth in whatever manner makes sense for the resulting configuration. For reference, the maximum (typical) weight for each size category is as follows:

Fine: ⅛ pound.

Diminutive: 1 pound.

Tiny: 8 pounds.

Small: 60 pounds.

Medium: 500 pounds.

Large: 2 tons.

Huge: 16 tons.

Gargantuan: 125 tons.

Colossal: n/a

For each special ability or quality possessed by one creature and not another, roll a d4. On a 4 the ability/quality is lost.

If the creatures somehow have mutually-exclusive qualities, the one that comes from the lower-CR creature is lost. If the creatures are the same CR, both are lost.

This also applies to unusual methods of movement — flight, burrowing, &c. Adjust as necessary given the resulting configuration. (E.g. a human merged with a bird might be able to fly, but if your results indicate the wings are tiny, absent, or misplaced, then they probably can’t.)

CR adjustment: I guess you’re just going to have to go by vibes. Maybe average the two if you really need to know and don’t want to work it out?

Each time the Pit of Symphysy is used, there is a chance that the resulting creature is non-viable.

You can decide what percentage to assign based on how deadly you want this to be.

The percentage should increase if you’re merging more than two creatures.

The Symphytic Grotesque retains all memories of the constituent creatures, though it may or may not retain their intellect depending on table results. If the heads of the constituent creatures remain separate, each head retains its own memories; if they merge, the resulting head has the memories of both.

To determine the specific configuration of the resulting creature, use the following tables in the manner instructed below. (Note: Still can't figure out the best way to put tables on Tumblr, so they're images again.)

1. Designate one of the constituent creatures Creature A and the other Creature B. If you’re asked to flip a coin, heads is Creature A and tails is Creature B.

2. Roll on Table 1 (Body). If this is a creature that’s gone through the symphysy process before and got any result on this table other than “Seamlessly Merged”, roll separately for each torso.

3. If your result on Table 1 was “Seamlessly Merged”, roll on Table 2 (Heads Merged). If you got another result, roll on Table 3 (Heads Separate). Separate heads operate independently. If one of the constituent creatures already has more heads than torsos, you may choose between the following options:

Treat them as a single head that happens to be a cluster

Roll separately for each head

Roll for one head and distribute the others over the body using Table 5 (Limb Misplacement)

4. Roll on Table 4 (Limbs) once for each limb on whichever creature has more limbs. — e.g., if Creature A has four limbs and Creature B has eight limbs, you’ll roll on this table eight times. Tails count as limbs for the purpose of this table. Note that the type of limb (arm, leg, tail, &c.) is not specified in this table. After you’ve made your rolls, decide (or randomize) which limb to assign to which result. Try to maintain the same general ratio between different types of limbs as the constituent creatures, to the best of your ability. If you got anything other than “Seamlessly Merged” on Table 1 (Body), default to attaching each limb to the torso that they fit the best (e.g., human arms go on human torso, bird wings go on bird torso).

5. Roll on Table 6 (Abilities) for each of the six abilities. Subtract three from the result when rolling for Int and Wis; add three to the result when rolling for Con and Dex.

Congratulations! You now have a bouncing baby affront to the gods.

Room 2.23: f.39v

Trellis-like lattices are placed in front of each wall of this room. Another is built into the ceiling in a sort of drop-ceiling configuration. A half-dozen pillars with a similar trellis-like structure are spaced through the room.

On these trellises are a flock of flying vines. They’re similar to the biting vines in Room 2.1, but with a pair of bat-like wings on either side of their head. Their flight is somewhat clumsy, as their vine-like body trails far behind them. They’re much more mobile than biting vines; here is a set of altered stats you can use for them.

Flying Vine: CR 2; XP 800; N Medium Plant; Init -1; Senses Low-Light Vision; Perception +8

DEFENSE: AC 16, touch 9, flat-footed 16 (-1 Dex, +7 natural); hp 13 (2d8+4); Saves Fort +5, Ref -1, Will +1

OFFENSE: Speed 10 ft., climb 10 ft., fly 20 ft.; Melee bite +3 (1d6+2 plus poison); Space 5 ft.; Reach 10 ft.; Special Attacks Constrict, Poison

STATISTICS: Str 14, Dex 8, Con 14, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 10; Base Atk +1; CMB +3; CMD 13; Feats Alertness; Skills Perception +8

SPECIAL ABILITIES:

Constrict (Ex): A Flying Vine can crush an opponent, dealing 1d6+2 bludgeoning damage, when it makes a successful grapple check (in addition to any other effects caused by a successful check, including additional damage).

Poison (Ex): A Flying Vine can poison those it attacks. A Flying Vine's bite attack will inflict a poison on its victims that has a fortitude save DC of 13, a frequency of 1/round for 6 rounds, causes 1d3 con damage, and takes two consecutive saves to cure.

Room 2.24: f.40r

There are a number of bones scattered around this room.

This is the lair of a harleon, a scaled-up and improved variant of the harcats from Room 1.27. The harleon has striking blue fur and a vine-like tail that crackles with a golden light. It is aggressive and territorial. I honestly think that covers what you need to know.

Harleon: CR 6, XP 2400; N Large Magical Beast; Init +8; Senses Low-Light Vision, Darkvision 60ft; Perception +15

DEFENSE: AC 19, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (-1 size, +4 Dex, +6 natural); hp 68 (8d10+24); Saves Fort +9, Ref +10, Will +3

OFFENSE: Speed 40 ft.; Melee bite +13 (1d8+6 plus disease) , tail lash +8 (1d8+6 plus grab and shocking grasp); Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8, DC 11 + spell level): At Will: Shocking Grasp; Special Attacks Disease, Grab.

STATISTICS: Str 23, Dex 19, Con 16, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10; Base Atk +8; CMB +15 (+19 grapple); CMD 29; Feats Ability Focus (Tail), Improved Initiative, Run, Skill Focus (Perception); Skills Acrobatics +15, Perception +15 Special Qualities: Magical Beast Traits, Part Plant

SPECIAL ABILITIES:

Disease (Ex): A Harleon’s needle-like teeth are prone to communicating disease. Pick any disease you’d like to throw at your PCs; if you don’t want to choose, filth fever is a sensible fallback.

Grab (Ex): If a Harleon hits with its tail attack, it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. Grab can only be used against targets of a size Large or smaller. The Harleon has the option to conduct the grapple normally, or simply to use the part of its body it used in the grab to hold the opponent. If it chooses to do the latter, it takes a -20 penalty on its CMB check to make and maintain the grapple, but does not gain the grappled condition itself. Creatures with grab receive a +4 bonus on combat maneuver checks made to start and maintain a grapple. A Harleon may use its shocking grasp ability only when it has a target grappled.

Leap (Ex): As a move action, a Harleon can jump up to twenty feet in any direction, including straight up. This does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Part Plant (Ex): Anything that is Part Plant has a flat 50% chance of ignoring any paralysis, poison, or stun effects. They gain +5 to any save against mind-affecting effects and sleep effects on account of their brain working a little different now. Sneak attacks on something that is Part Plant have a 10% failure chance; the organs aren’t all where they’re supposed to be. They can photosynthesize so long as their leaves are exposed to sun during the daylight hours; this cuts their food requirement in half. Their sleep requirements are also halved. Any magical effects that target plants (e.g. control plants) have a 50% chance of working on them; any effect that does damage to plants does half damage to them. To any spell or effect that checks a creature’s type, they count as a plant in addition to their original creature type.

Room 2.25: f.40v

This appears to be a long-empty storage closet. The only thing on this page besides leaves is a dude hanging out at the bottom looking unhappy about a picture of an animal, so I guess he’s what’s here. On one hand, that’s nice since this is a small room and there’s not a lot of room for stuff… on the other hand, now I have to figure out what this guy’s deal is.

Meet Avenel, a new member of the Gatekeepers. Avenel has exactly one level in an NPC class — Warrior, probably, but feel free to make him an Expert or a Commoner or something instead. He’s… basically being hazed. Some of the other Gatekeepers active on this level got him drunk and dumped him in here with nothing but a blanket (which he’s now wearing) and a note indicating it’s on him to find his way back to Room 2.26. The note also warns of some of the dangerous creatures in the area, but it’s not very clear. Whoever wrote it was semi-literate, drunk at the time, or both. Mostly it’s badly-rendered pictures of monsters with notes like “eats people” or “nope”. Avenel is particularly worried about the picture of some sort of leonine creature that reads “nearby — watch out”. (It’s the harleon in Room 2.24.) Avenel will be very grateful if the PCs can help him find his way back safely. And maybe lend him some pants.

Well, that certainly ends my streak of keeping things brief. Including two rooms with contents that required subheadings makes this one of my longest entries, I think. Drat.

Edit -- I forgot to mention:

Room 1.28

This is where the elevator room from the first level ends up if the PCs use it to descend.

#dungeon23 #college of grotesque arts #pathfinder #d&d #dnd #dungeons and dragons #medieval art #medieval #medieval creatures

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