Instagrams algorithm has been kicking my ass recently so I’m giving tumblr a try ig,, anyways here’s my silly little dnd character, Ezra. He’s an aasimar warlock and I love him to death

A character archetype I really like

After my recent reading of Pact Dice: Mile End, I once again started thinking about a character archetype I really like.

It can be summed up as such: "A character gains access to a very strong power, a power that is 'dark', easy to use with devastating consequences for both the attacked and the attacker. No matter who they are, they will be feared." It's a tad long more long-winded than I initially intended, but it gets the point across, I think.

Though I won't shirk examples, starting with two obvious ones: Naruto from Naruto, and Blake from Pact. The former learns that he is the host of the strongest demon, while the latter discovers that he inherited demonic magic.

I don't remember if I ever read a story in which the protagonist was eager to use this power, and it's easy to see why: in-universe because they presumably wish to live a long live, out-of-universe because it removes a lot of the stakes if our protagonist just shoots to the top of the power pyramid. (While you, as the author, can make it so that 'There are actually several tiers of powers above yours.' that feels like a bit of a cop-out.)

But despite these challenges, I love it when the character leans into this power. Burns bright and burns up, confirms the fears of everyone else, and maybe even comes out more or less in one piece; though this last one is a bit much, I admit.

Let's return to the previously mentioned works to see how they fare on this front: As far as I got in Pact, Blake never used demons/demonic magic, which made me sad.

Naruto, though, has good moments. Despite his refusal to use the demon's power, there are situations where he's forced to, life-or-death when the demon comes out and we truly see how far above everything else it is.

He never goes all-out though; he doesn't deliberately use the power, it's accidental on his part. He restrains himself, each time it happens, stopping it from advancing.

That's how it goes in Part 1, and for the start of Part 2, it's the same. There's one delightful moment where we see him reach a new best of 4 out of the 9 tails against Orochimaru, but after that he doubles-down on his refusal to use the power.

That is, until Pain's assault on Konoha. After the titular villain levels the village, and restrains him rather painfully, he is still adamant about his refusal. It changes though, when the girl he likes/loves puts herself in front of Pain to defend him, causing her to be 'mortally injured'.

The ensuing fight is my favorite one from the entire manga. Nothing even comes close. He willingly lets go, immediately manifesting 6 out the 9 tails, and only increasing it from there. When you realize that he was capable of this destruction the entire time, it recontextualizes a lot of Part 1.

What I wanted to illustrate with that is how exhilirating it is, in my opinion, to see the power used.

Anyways, the character who brought this little write-up on is called Gail Neumann, one of the player characters in the aforementioned Mile End campaign. Of the six main characters, she is by far the most powerful in a fight, and her feats outshine everyone else's.

Her Practice is about calling on the Abyss for power; she's a Scourge, infecting others with Taint. The Abyss is eager, easy to use but volatile and with a lot of potential to over-harm.

Watching her use it is thrilling. I love how freely she does it, not even watching the slippery slope. I want more of this, characters given great power, who when confronted by others, lean on said power, damn the consequences; while their lives might not be long or happy, the lives of their enemies won't be, at all.

Crawling through the Pact Dice docs, I found even more of this kind of power-user in the Otherverse, a whole category of them in fact: Harbingers: "Chosen of a higher power or powerful other, who bears their strength & serves to clear the way, metaphorically. Tends to come with transformations, changes, costs in other forms, far more direct, and doesn't necessarily have (or rarely has) a direct line to the power.  Practice includes ambient effects on surroundings & altered consequences to their actions (ie. fights happen around them), balancing act to restrain this or release it without too much casualties.  Harbingers are rarely inducted willingly, but rather forced to become a harbinger by intervention of powerful other, by family, or by accident."

Writing this up, I think I may be able to put it into words better than at the start: "This character archetype is about using power that is heavy: a heavy price for a heavy effect. What I like, is when they pay the price, over and over, using the power despite the cost." I love the atmosphere it creates, of barely restrained aggression just under the surface, of the fear it creates in others, and the volatile release when the fight finally erupts.

(Looking back, there are a couple fanfics that managed to get somewhat close. Here's a short list:

[Naruto] Red Eyes in the Dark

[Harry Potter] Antithesis

[Naruto] Introverted)

When Democrat Pat Ryan got elected to New York’s 19th – a largely rural district in upstate New York that swung for Trump in 2016 and only narrowly elected Biden in 2020 – people were surprised.

His contender in the August special election, Marc Molinaro, was a well-known local politician who entered the political arena when he was just 18, becoming the mayor of Tivoli, which is in the district, at 19. Molinaro was the favorite to win: leading in the polls, by as much as 10 points, right up to the moment Ryan claimed victory.

The special election was watched with bated breath, as a tight race in a swing seat that could be a harbinger in the midterm elections, where Democrats are fighting to keep a slim House majority come November. Now, people are looking at Ryan’s campaign as a political playbook for how to win other tight races across the country.

Many credit Ryan’s win to seizing the political moment around the fierce fight for abortion rights in the US.

Just hours after the constitutional right to abortion was dismantled by the US supreme court on 24 June, Ryan, a US army vet, released a campaign ad making his stance clear. In a surprising twist, the video tied his military service to the attack on abortion.

“How can we be a free country if the government tries to control women’s bodies? That’s not the country I fought to defend,” he said in the ad.

It was a much-needed balm at a time when the Democratic party was being criticized at the national level for lacking a sense of urgency in responding to the fall of Roe v Wade, the landmark decision that had protected abortion rights in the US for several generations.

“I think what is missing in our politics right now is just speaking from the heart, rather than poll testing,” Ryan told the Guardian when asked why he thought that message on abortion resonated.

Then, a few months into Ryan’s campaign, the Republican senator Lindsey Graham introduced a bill that would ban abortion at the national level, after 15 weeks. The bill never would have had enough support to pass, but it didn’t matter: after months of the Republicans saying abortion rights should be put to the states, Graham appeared to have revealed his party’s hand in pushing for a national crackdown.

“They showed themselves to be extremists. Suddenly, we saw the new Republican platform was wanting to criminalize abortions at the national level,” said Ryan.

His special election win gives him just a few months representing New York’s 19th before he has to run again in the midterms. And the abortion message is one he continues to campaign on.

“There was just another set of horrific reporting out of Ohio, where at least two teenage women under the age of 18 were raped and forced to fly to other states, just to get reproductive health care. That’s just as barbaric. And that’s not who we are as a country,” he said.

Adding that he thinks the Democrats will hold the house and the Senate, he continued: “We absolutely have to restore those decisions back to women, and away from politicians, frankly.”

Ryan just introduced a bill to make abortion medication legal at the national level. If it passes, it will undermine states’ attempts to ban abortion, considering that more than half of US abortions are completed using medication.

His pledge is again a foil to the national party’s mostly lackluster attempts to curtail the destruction of abortion rights across the US, with Joe Biden’s own abortion bill coming under fire precisely because it failed to make it easier for Americans to access abortion pills.

It may seem strange that a candidate like Ryan – who wants to pass gun control laws, raise taxes on the wealthy and make abortion pills nationally accessible – would win in a district that elected Trump.

But it’s the way he ties together seemingly progressive ideals under the banner of freedom that seems to resonate. He talks about seeing voters in his own district on the campaign trail. Whether in some of the most rural and conservative parts of his district, at events with small business owners, or speaking to younger people, he says abortion rights came up over and over.

So to him, the playbook is simple.

“All we have to do is show Americans that we understand how existential this fight is. The fight for reproductive freedom; for voting rights; the fight against gun violence; the fight for our democracy. We need to draw attention to how un-American it is to take away these freedoms,” said Ryan.

Does he feel it is contradictory, to stand for the rights of American women, or children at threat of being gunned down in American schools, when he participated in a war and occupation that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians?

“I have said publicly that the decision to go to war in Iraq and the way we conducted it – there’s an awful lot we should have done better,” he said.

“I personally had to wrestle with seeing my fellow soldiers and innocent civilians – whom I had built relationships with – put at risk. Seeing war very close and personally, you see the darkest and the most evil in human nature come forward. We need people in Congress who understand the seriousness of sending our young men and women into combat. War has to be our absolute last resort,” he said.

And with this call for unity he hopes he can win in November.

“We’re so divided. And for a long time politicians have pitted people against each other, but we showed in the special election that we can take so-called ‘wedge issues’ and remind people that we actually share these values in common – things like reproductive freedom. This is a moment where we have to be clear-eyed about the stakes,” he says.

“Authenticity, and just being a normal human being – that is something that is in short supply right now in our politics.”

Speaker Mike Johnson wanted to criminalize sodomy & called gay marriage the “harbinger of chaos”

A series of early 2000s editorials written by the newly elected and virulently anti-LGBTQ+ Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) reveal his long history of targeting the LGBTQ+ community, as well as his beliefs that the mere existence of homosexuality should be criminalized. In a local Louisiana paper, Johnson wrote a 2003 op-ed blasting the Supreme Court for striking down anti-sodomy laws in the historic LGBTQ+ rights case of Lawrence v. Texas. Johnson said the ruling “dealt a devastating blow to fundamental American values and millennia of moral teaching.” He referred to gay sex as “same-sex deviate sexual intercourse” and said it was a public health concern due to “the exponential spread of STDs and HIV.” Related: Viciously anti-LGBTQ+ Rep. Mike Johnson elected as new House Speaker He also worked to overturn the 2020 election in favor of Trump. He also said that gay people should not be a protected class because they “are capable of changing their abnormal lifestyles.” Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you: Subscribe to our Newsletter “By closing these bedroom doors,” he concluded, the Supreme Court has “opened Pandora’s box.” At the time, Johnson was working for the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), known then as the Alliance Defense Fund. In another op-ed written in 2005, Johnson argued against non-discrimination policies for LGBTQ+ people, describing the “homosexual lifestyle” as “behavior patterns that are proven to be destructive to individuals, to families, and to society at large.” “Your race, creed and sex are what you are, while homosexuality and cross-dressing are things you do,” he said. “This is a free country, but we don’t give special protections for every person’s bizarre choices.” In a third editorial written in 2004, Johnson argued against same-sex marriage, calling LGBTQ+ relationships “inherently unnatural” and said it could lead to letting people marry their pets. And in another, written in 2004, he called same-sex marriage “the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic.” House Republicans elected Johnson as speaker on Wednesday. He received three votes above the 217 threshold needed to assume the role. He was the fourth candidate for the position, following the failed nominations of Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Tom Emmer (R-MN). Johnson previously served as a senior attorney and national spokesman for the ADF, filing lawsuits against same-sex marriage, same-sex adoption, and same-sex marital benefits. ADF also led a campaign against GLSEN’s annual anti-bullying Day of Silence. Johnson said the day’s anti-bullying message “cloaked” the “real message… that homosexuality is good for society.” While serving in the Louisiana state legislature from 2015 to 2017, Johnson introduced a so-called “religious freedom” bill to legalize discrimination against married same-sex couples. Last December, he introduced a federal version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law called the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act.” The bill threatens to cut federal funding to libraries, school districts, hospitals, government entities, or other organizations for “hosting or promoting any program, event, or literature involving sexually-oriented material,” including “any topic involving gender identity, gender dysphoria, transgenderism, sexual orientation, or related topics.” In a July hearing, Johnson — who serves as the chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, said that parents don’t have the right to provide their children with access to gender-affirming healthcare, something he falsely called a form of “abuse and physical harm,” even though every major American medical association has endorsed it as safe, effective, and essential to the well-being of trans youth. A statement issued by Human Rights Campaign… http://dlvr.it/SxzlFg

Manual descriptions, fleshed out with Chat GPT:

The Aggressor:

Behold, the mighty and formidable figure known as The Aggressor, a character shrouded in darkness within this campaign. Born as the eldest son of the triad of Gods, he was cast away by his own father, The Watcher, to reign over the perilous domain of The Underworld. Severed from all contact with his father and younger brother, a seething resentment consumes The Aggressor, ignited by the merciless punishments he endured during his childhood. His heart burns with an unyielding desire to overthrow, defame, and ultimately assassinate his father, driving every fiber of his being and plaguing his mentality beyond repair.

Within the entirety of this game, The Aggressor embodies the archetypal villain, a model through which the shadowy depths of human psyche emerge—the primordial urges for destruction, violence, and dominance that dwell within us all. He personifies toxic masculinity, wielding his masculine power as a cruel instrument to subjugate, dominate, and annihilate all who stand in his way. Coveting power with insatiable hunger, he schemes to infiltrate and conquer the other realms, seeking to unleash his pent-up anger upon them.

In his own dark domain, The Aggressor indulges his sadistic and power-hungry inclinations without remorse. He subjects his subjects to unspeakable horrors, appeasing his ravenous and uncontrollable perversions. The realm slowly dismantles under the weight of his demands for weekly sacrifices and twisted labyrinthine death-games, fulfilling his insatiable thirst for morbid entertainment. His subjects, reduced to mere slaves, toil ceaselessly to erect monuments of grandeur—obelisks, dungeons, crypts, and pyramids—all in tribute to his insidious satisfaction.

Weaknesses:

The Aggressor stands as an agent of violence, forged in the crucible of his own harrowing experiences. His existence hinges upon an unrelenting hunger for control, employing despicable means to claim dominion over all. His wrath knows no bounds, yet his emotional turmoil exposes a chink in his armor—a volatility that compels him to lash out, making grave errors that reverberate across the realms, straying him further from his ultimate goal.

Character Design:

The Aggressor is manifested as a spectral Pharaoh or diabolical entity. Concealed behind an enigmatic full-face mask, his helmet bears an uncanny semblance to reptilian anatomy, evoking a sense of primal menace. His design emanates an aura of razor-sharp precision, intimidating all who dare to meet his gaze, while a subtle touch of cyborgian aesthetics add an element of eerie allure. Towering above mortal beings, his imposing stature and formidable build epitomize his divine lineage. Clutched tightly in his grasp is his spear, an embodiment of the phallic symbol—an instrument of death and destruction, a harbinger of doom.As you traverse the perilous realms of this game, heed the presence of The Aggressor. His insatiable hunger for power, sadistic tendencies, and relentless drive to dominate all aspects of existence render him a force to be reckoned with. Will you succumb to his dominance or rise above his malevolence? The path you choose shall shape the destiny of all. Brace yourself, for the shadows of The Aggressor loom large, waiting to engulf all in their embrace.

The Watcher:

Gaze upon the commanding figure of The Watcher, the venerable patriarch of this campaign, whose divine authority transcends all realms. With wisdom as vast as the cosmos, The Watcher has made the solemn choice to sever his ties with his two sons, The Aggressor and The Victim, as he deems neither suitable to inherit his exalted position. Driven by an unwavering dedication to truth, morality, and fairness, The Watcher's logical mind could perceive no other recourse but to disown them.

As the governor of order in this intricate world, The Watcher's domain is one of precision and balance. He metes out punishments and rewards with an impartial hand, ensuring that The Aggressor is never allowed to amass undue strength and that The Victim is perpetually cocooned in a state of everlasting safety. Through his vigilant watchfulness, The Watcher oversees the ebb and flow of existence, guiding souls and beings to their rightful realms and weaving the tapestry of their destined fates.

Within his own realm, The Midworld, The Watcher has established a structured capitalist system that mirrors the naturalistic fabric of reality. This system ensures that punishments and rewards are meted out in accordance with the cosmic balance he strives to maintain. While he does not actively impede acts of violence, his primary concern lies not in creating a world that is inherently safe or "good," but rather one that is inherently fair.

Deep within the recesses of this world lies the enigmatic Void, a domain shrouded in eternal darkness and despair, located at the base of the table. The location portals are entrusted with partial control to The Victim due to his meticulous tendencies, so therefore are located within the boundary of The Overworld. The Void represents a fate more harrowing than death itself. Even The Aggressor, with his innate malevolence, harbors a primal fear of this abyssal realm, for within its stygian embrace, all light is extinguished.

The Watcher, with his commanding presence, establishes the rules and laws that govern this realm. Those who defy or transgress these sacred tenets may face the dire consequences of dethronement, scapegoating, or worse—exile to The Void. This realm of eternal desolation serves as a stark reminder of the consequences that befall those who dare to challenge the cosmic order orchestrated by The Watcher.

As you embark on your quest through this board game, be ever mindful of The Watcher's unwavering gaze, for his omniscient scrutiny shapes the very fabric of existence. Will you align with his principles of truth and fairness, or will you challenge the boundaries he has established, risking the abyssal embrace of The Void? The choice is yours to make, and the consequences shall reverberate throughout this realm and beyond.

The Victim:

Venture forth into the realm of The Victim, the youngest, and the runt of the divine triad. While The Aggressor was cast out for his unruly transgressions and propensity for violence, The Victim suffered a different fate at the hands of their father, The Watcher. Disowned due to his inability to satisfy insatiable expectations, The Victim embarks on a lifelong quest to prove his worth and reclaim his rightful place as heir apparent to his father's divine mantle. Instead of nurturing resentment, he dedicates himself entirely to living up to his father's lofty standards, yearning for recognition and to be deemed fit to assume the sacred mantle when the time comes.

Yet, despite his unwavering determination, The Victim is plagued by profound anxieties that shackle him, hindering his progress toward becoming the honest and earnest embodiment that his father desires. Obsessed with achieving perfection, he employs his realm, The Overworld, as a canvas upon which to paint a utopian masterpiece of flawless safety and order. However, his relentless pursuit of this unattainable ideal only yields a realm that is overly cautious, overly controlled, and oppressively perfect—an illusory facade that masks the true essence of existence.

The Victim embodies the primal fears ingrained within the human psyche—fears of being devoured, maimed, violated, or abused. He allows these fears to consume him, distorting his understanding of the world and perpetuating a cycle of victimhood. Visually, The Victim dons a modest white toga, often marred by growing stains of blood, symbolic of his perpetual vulnerability. He treads the gardens of his acropolis, forever barefoot, confined by his own trepidation, fearful to venture beyond its secure confines. A helmet conceals half his face, an emblem of his ever-present fear of exposure. This helmet takes on the semblance of a shell, evoking an aquatic creature adorned with menacing teeth—a paradox of beauty and menace intertwined.

The Victim's innocent countenance belies the phenomenon known as cuteness aggression, a trait that unintentionally makes him a target for The Aggressor's predatory nature. Trapped in the cycle of victimhood, he becomes an unwilling recipient of his brother's torment, caught in a struggle for his own identity and agency, while struggling to gain sympathy and recognition from his father, the only one who would be able to protect him.

As you traverse the realms of this campaign, be attuned to the presence of The Victim, forever entangled in the intricacies of his tumultuous existence. Will you offer solace and aid him in breaking free from the chains of fear and victimhood? Or shall you succumb to the machinations of his tormented psyche? The choices you make shall shape the destiny of The Victim and reverberate through the realms that await your exploration.

Astonishing Artifacts: The Bottle of The Bound.

Source: Artifacts & Legends.

Image source: Artifacts & Legends, pg. 16.

“Swirling runes reminiscent of claws and flames circle this elegant but ancient-looking brass bottle, and a stopper shaped like a ferocious tiger seals it tightly.”

The Bottle of The Bound contains an army of fiends, which a prepared user can summon forth for a variety of purposes. The Bottle has incredibly powerful magic sealing it, requiring three words to properly use it: The Word of Opening, to unseal it, the Word of Binding, to command the fiends held within, and the Word of Banishment, so send them back into the Bottle.

Bound for Eternity. Only a holder who knows the Word of Opening can unseal the bottle, unleashing fiends and evil creatures in a flash of fire and smoke. No force in existence can open the bottle without the Word of Opening, and once opened, the Word of Binding is required to prevent the Fiends from unleashing chaos in the area. If the Word of Binding is not used, the fiends will begin to pour out randomly, until the very last one escapes. If any of these powerful fiends stays out of the bottle long enough without the Word of Banishment being invoked, they will be freed to roam the material plane for eternity.

Arduous Destruction. The Bottle is nearly indestructible— no known weapon, spell, or action can break it, or even leave a scratch upon the fiery glass. In order to finally destroy this artifact, every individual fiend held within must be summoned and slain, one at a time. Afterwards, the empty vessel can simply be shattered with a good-aligned weapon.

History of the Bottle of The Bound:

At the height of his power, an ancient Osirian Pharaoh wanted to devise a magical way to absorb the power of a godlike being into himself.

To reach this goal, he had a massive labyrinth built under his land. It stretched on and on, and was designed in the shape of a powerful trapping sigil.

He tested his labyrinth by directing it at the Daemon Harbinger Zelishkar, known as the Bitter Flame.

His experiment failed catastrophically, releasing the Harbinger and inviting an army of fiends to wreak havoc within the labyrinth. The great Pharaoh could only stem the tide by releasing a powerful Efreeti, and striking a deal with the genie.

It is unknown what the King bargained to convince the Efreeti to aid him, but a great army of genies used their wishcraft to create a prison that would hold the army of fiends.

In the end, the Pharaoh stood within the labyrinth, the only survivor, bearing the cursed Bottle with him.

Since then, the Bottle has been used as a weapon and prison for centuries, passing between rulers and eras. The Daemon Harbinger Zelishkar is desperate to enact his vengeance, to escape and spread death across the world.

Ramifications of the Bottle:

Legion of Fiends. Along with Zelishkar and his hoard, other well-known fiends reside within the bottle. From conjoined Quasits, to a powerful Kyton called the “Splinter Sister,” many unique fiends serve as prisoners trapped by the Pharaoh and the Efreeti.

The Promise. It is unknown what the Pharaoh long ago promised to the Efreeti and the army of genies in order to guarantee their aid, but it had to have been substantial.

The Words. It is known that there are three incantations used to control the Bottle, but few actually know the meaning behind them. It is believed the Three Words are actually phrased in ancient Osirian: Zelishkar’s true name, The name of the Efreeti who imprisoned him, and the birth name of the Pharaoh.

Ideas for using the Bottle of The Bound in your campaign:

The party happens upon the bottle while looting, along with a note containing just the Word of Opening.

An antagonist of the party has gotten their hands on the Bottle, forcing the party to face a near-endless army of fiends.

A powerful fiend has struck a contract with a party member, forcing them to help free their “companion.” The party later comes to find out this companion is trapped within the Bottle.

The Bottle of The Bound has passed between many hands over the years, but has always brought destruction with it.

While having an army of fiends bound to follow orders would seem like a blessing, the improper use or order of the Words could risk freeing every fiend held within, risking the world being overrun with a great number of friends.

It is suggested that if you ever find this artifact, it’d be safe to just throw it somewhere dark and forget about it. Let the fiends live out their sentence for eternity.

And if you, like myself, think that’s a boring idea, make sure you know the Three Words so you can put the Bottle to good use.

- A Weird Warlock.

Having a lot of thoughts and feelings about Beauregard today. 

Also maybe it’s cause I just finished rewatching The Cupcake Episode, lol. 

(tw, talks of suicide ideation and mental health) 

But there’s this thing that I know I and others who have had rough childhoods or teenage years and struggle with mental health do when they magically reach their mid twenties and realize - Hey, I’m still alive. Shit. Now what??? 

A big coping mechanism when you’re going through big impossible things is to lash out, act without care, be destructive. Some quiet voice in you is going “it doesn’t matter. You’re gonna be dead soon. Who gives a FUCK.” You ruin your credit, drop out of school, can’t keep a job, don’t have savings. Worse than that, drug use, unsafe sex practices, being dangerous places at dangerous times. ETC ETC. 

And then, maybe, just maybe, you work to be better. You try and do some healing. You live, you grow. You hit your mid twenties and realize, oh shit. I’m still fuckin here. That credit debt is still there, I still don’t have a degree, I don’t have good work history and my car is shit. But I’m alive. 

And that was Beau for the first big half of the campaign. She had just run away from the Soul at the very start. She was still in full blown “I don’t give a FUCK” asshole mode. She was was that line from the song Halleluiah “Well all I’ve ever learned from love, is how to shoot somebody who out drew you.” Tell everyone else to fuck off before they have even a chance to do it to you. 

Until she starts healing. Trying to grow people skills. Trying to care. Trying to, dare I say, leave the world better than she found it. Realizing her life does have worth, meaning and she isn’t just the harbinger of doom she’d been told she was her whole life. 

So when they go and talk to her dad... And she’s standing there, broken and angry and vibrating with self loathing... her first instinct is to want to end it all. Living is hard, growing and healing even harder. She’d been working so hard, but at the end of the day - it felt to her like nothing had really changed. And it was all going to end some day right? RIGHT?! They were all going to leave, this new found family she was with. They would hate her too, she was sure. Eventually, it would all fall apart and then she’d be lost and alone again. So why not end if herself? Once again, tell them to fuck off before they get a chance to say it to her. Punch first, never ask questions. Why not end it now, while things feel good instead of deal with even the possibility of it ending not on her terms? After all she’d done, her dad still thought she was an asshole. So she was an asshole. She’d always be one. And it was just a matter of time until her friends saw that too and left. 

It’s so important that they all sat her down the next episode and literally just grabbed her by her cheeks shouting “WE LOVE YOU YOU IDIOT” haha. We all need that sometimes, I think. Especially when you’ve been so broken by those you’ve trusted in the past (like parents). 

not to be years too late. but like. I’ve been rewatching teen wolf. and I just finished 6B finally (I followed TW very closely in its heydays and ultimately stopped watching after 6A). and I know we are all WELL aware of writing oversights, poorly done plot points, outright disregard for previously established lore, etc. but I’ve been thinking obsessively over this one instance that I just. need to share. under the cut for anyone that cares to listen I don’t promise I’ll make sense but food for thought and etc.

in the first few episodes (if not the first? I can’t remember don’t hate me I binged all 10 eps in two nights it’s all blended together rn) there’s a scene where Lydia visits her mom (the principle of BHHS) in her office and gives her a list of every supernatural in BH. presumably it’s a leftover of the whole dead pool thing but she wants her mother to have it to be prepared and have the knowledge so she can look out for the kids on the list. her mom rejects it and feels it’s not their responsibility etc etc and doesn’t want to take the list. Lydia slips the list in a drawer in her mom’s desk and we never think about it ever again.

well spoiler alert: I’m thinking about it. I’m mad about it, actually. honestly when I first saw the scene I thought. okay whatever as one would reasonably do. and then I started thinking about it. and thinking about it. and then I thought, oh wow, this is a set up. 100%.

with the new Hunter army emerging, Monroe spearheading the anti supernatural campaign with Gerard whispering in her ear… Monroe is the (very concerning) guidance counsellor at BHHS. she interacts with the principle at some point no doubt I mean she’s faculty. and it would be plausible for her to be in the principle office. do you see where I’m going with this? I was so excited. can you imagine?

if you don’t quite see through my rambling. drawing conclusions means it would be very easy for Monroe to eventually happen upon this list. of every supernatural in BH… I mean it’s in the principles top drawer unlocked for gods sake. RIPE FOR THE PICKING. we are showed it, we’re given a scene about it, god forbid I made the assumption it was deliberate and a smoking hot chekov’s gun. (should I have known better? probably.)

I was so incredibly disappointed when nothing came of it. can you IMAGINE? if Monroe got her hands on that list… holy shit. just thinking about it fills me with horrible dreaded glee. I mean she was very resourceful and was able to manipulate (literal children no less) to systematically weed out the supernatural and she very targeted on Scott’s pack specifically but. having that list? goldmine. death and destruction. and it could have been used in such a great way to highlight some of the characters and add motivation and etc.

like. Monroe finds the list that Lydia gave to her mom with the best of intentions. indirectly, Monroe got the list FROM Lydia. indirectly, Lydia has all this blood on her hands (harbinger of death anyone) and she would feel so guilty and helpless. and how does she deal with that? how does the pack deal with that? what a motivator as well to double down to take the hunters out. I just really think it was set up so nicely and would have been SO satisfying to see it play out this way. and it’s a shame it wasn’t capitalized on. I know shit went down but the hell that would have been raised if it went like this… the real all out brutal war it would have been when the hunters already knew the names of all the supernaturals they were hunting. oof. and the best part. very little of the plot would realistically have to change. just a few very small tweaks here and there. ughhhhh teen wolf why do you betray us like this.

please if you made it this far. talk to me. tell me what you think. am I crazy. be honest.

Daemonic Harbinger, Hexxus

“Hexxus” © Xavier Ward, accessed at his deviantArt page here

[Commissioned by @menaceomysterio​. They asked for a high ranking Harbinger of Pollution, inspired by Pollution’s role as a Horseman in Good Omens and by Hexxus from Ferngully: The Last Rainforest. After some consideration, I decided to just make Hexxus straight up. So polish off your Tim Curry impressions.

The flavor text here makes reference to the events in the movie, so Hexxus is currently trapped in Ferngully [and if we’re using Pathfinder canon, it’s currently the 1920s on Earth, so he’s going to make a quick break in seventy years and then get trapped again]. But, of course, he could be an active power player in your campaign world, instead of a behind-the-scenes figure. The reference to the Permian extinction in the flavor-text is inspired by a Cthulhu Mythos story I forgot the name of, in which an oil rig discovers that “shoggoths” are in fact oil deposits that remember, and try to recreate, the lifeforms they once were.]

Daemonic Harbinger, Hexxus CR 25 NE Outsider This immense being appears as a humanoid skeleton from the waist up, and a seething mass of ooze below. It wears a mantle of tar like a cape, and an inner fire burns in its ribcage, casting eerie shadows through its bones.

Hexxus The Paragon of Pollution, Toxic Lover Concerns deforestation, extinction, pollution Domains Death, Destruction, Evil, Fire Subdomains Catastrophe, Daemon, Decay*, Smoke Worshipers industrialists, nihilists, poisoners Minions blights, daemons, trench mists Unholy Symbol a black skull dripping with slime Favored Weapon greataxe Obedience Kill an animal or plant, burn its body and inhale the smoke until you begin to cough and choke. Gain a +4 profane bonus on saves against poisons *Clerics of Hexxus can use the Decay subdomain to modify the Death domain.

Hexxus is the Paragon of Pollution, a massive entity made of the compressed corpses of a million lives—oil. His genesis was an extinction event widespread enough to murder an entire ocean of life, and he was released when a second extinction event was triggered by an asteroid impact strong enough to crack the planet’s crust. Although he was born of natural disasters, he has since changed focus. Mortal life is capable of creating death and destruction on that scale in a fraction of the time, and Hexxus stokes the fires of greed to create unsustainable consumption and widespread ecocide.

As to be expected from a spirit of pollution, the Toxic Lover is a terror in combat, combining acid, fire and poison in an overwhelming wave of destruction. All poisons are stronger in his wake, and he is enough of a sadist that Hexxus enjoys watching enemies die slowly of poison rather than simply kill them quickly. If foes are immune to poison, or are capable of resisting its clutches, he traps them in sticky sludge, incinerates them with his fiery breath or desiccates them with horrid wilting. If battlefield mobility is an issue, he assumes the form of a gaseous cloud to soar above the fray and launch spells and sludge.

Despite his hatred of mortal life and devotion to mass death, Hexxus is a being capable of surprising charm. His appeals to greed can often find purchase in the ears of mortals. Hexxus is an excellent singer, and he sings to himself to while away the hours when he is idle. Unsurprisingly however, this charm is a mere façade for his sadism, and Hexxus views all mortal life in the end as disposable tools. This arrogance has been his downfall in the past and he tends to underestimate mortal strengths.

Hexxus is among the most powerful of the daemonic harbingers, and could theoretically pose a threat to the Horsemen and usurp one of their places among the Four. Fortunately for both the status quo of Abaddon and the fate of multiple worlds, he is currently imprisoned. The Paragon of Pollution is held by a powerful binding spell in an ancient rainforest tree on a far-flung planet in the Material Plane. He currently seethes within his prison, using scrying spells to keep tabs on the developments around him and directing his worshipers to find and free him. His influence is still relatively strong, for as long as mortals cut down forests for profit, pump toxins into the air and water, and tear up the soil in search of mineral wealth, Hexxus will never be forgotten.

Hexxus CR 25 XP 1,640,000 NE Gargantuan outsider (daemon, evil, extraplanar) Init +7; Senses darkvision 60 ft., lifesense 120 ft., Perception +40 Aura pernicious poison (60 ft.), unholy (DC 26) Defense AC 41, touch 14, flat-footed 37 (-4 size, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +27 natural, +4 deflection) hp 585 (30d10+420) Fort +28, Ref +26, Will +25 DR 15/good and epic; Immune acid, charm and compulsion, death effects, disease, fire, poison; Resist cold 30, electricity 30; SR 36 Defensive Abilities adhesive, amorphous, vitriolic mist Offense Speed 50 ft., fly 50 ft. (perfect) in smoke form Melee 2 claws +41 (4d6+15/19-20 plus 4d6 fire), bite +41 (2d8+15 plus 4d6 fire plus poison) Ranged 2 sludge bombs +29 touch (15d6 acid plus entrap) Space 20 ft.; Reach 20 ft. Special Attacks breath weapon (Ref DC 39, every 1d4 rounds, 60 foot cone, 30d6 fire plus poison), engulf (Ref DC 40, 20d6 acid plus poison) entrap (Fort DC 39, hardness 5, hit points 20) Spell-like Abilities CL 25th, concentration +33 Constant—vitriolic mist, unholy aura (self only) At will—arcane sight, blight (DC 22), greater dispel magic, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs objects only), poison (DC 22) 3/day—acid fog, quickened blight (DC 22), quickened cloudkill (DC 23), disintegrate (DC 24), greater scrying (DC 24), empowered horrid wilting (DC 26) 1/day—greater possession (DC 26), incendiary cloud (DC 26), summon (9th level, 1 daemon of CR 20 or lower, 100%), wail of the banshee (DC 27) Statistics Str 40, Dex 17, Con 39, Int 24, Wis 26, Cha 27 Base Atk +30; CMB +49 (+51 bull rush); CMD 66 (68 vs. bull rush, 70 vs. disarm, cannot be tripped) Feats Awesome Blow, Blind-fight, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Empower SLA (horrid wilting), Exhausting Critical, Fatiguing Critical, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Vital Strike, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Quicken SLA (blight, cloudkill), Vital Strike Skills Acrobatics +36 (+44 when jumping), Bluff +31, Climb +45, Escape Artist +33, Fly +38, Intimidate +31, Knowledge (arcana) +37, Knowledge (engineering) +37, Knowledge (nature) +40, Knowledge (planes) +40, Perception +40, Perform (sing) +28, Sense Motive +40, Spellcraft +37 Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Infernal, Ignan, telepathy 100 ft. SQ compression, daemonic harbinger traits, herbicide, shift form Ecology Environment any land or underground (Abaddon) Organization unique Treasure standard Special Abilities Adhesive (Ex) A creature striking Hexxus with a manufactured weapon must make a DC 39 Reflex save; failure means the weapon sticks to Hexxus and cannot be used to make attacks until freed. Freeing a stuck weapon requires a successful grapple check. This adhesion grants a +4 racial bonus to CMD against disarm attempts. The save DC is Constitution based. Daemonic Harbinger Traits (Ex/Su) Hexxus is a daemonic harbinger, a powerful unique fiend. This grants him the following traits:

Immunity to acid, charm and compulsion effects, death effects, disease and poison

Resistance to cold,electricity and fire 30

Telepathy 300 ft.

Hexxus’ natural weapons, as well as any weapons he wields, count as evil and epic weapons for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction

Hexxus can grant spells to his worshippers, as detailed in his divine information.

Engulf (Ex) A creature engulfed by Hexxus does not gain the pinned condition and can move normally—such a creature is not in danger of suffocating, but as long as it begins its turn engulfed, it takes the listed damage and is exposed to Hexxus’ poison. Hexxus’ vapors obscure sight as per the spell obscuring mist. The save DC is Strength based. Herbicide (Ex) Poison effects generated by Hexxus are capable of effecting creatures with the plant type. Pernicious Poison Aura (Su) All creatures within 60 feet of Hexxus suffer a -4 penalty to all saving throws against poison, and any poisons they suffer from have their durations increased by two frequency increments. Any attempt to cure the poison with either skill or magic suffer a -4 penalty. Effects that automatically remove a poison, such as heal, must succeed a caster level check equal to Hexxus’ spell resistance or fail to work. Poison (Ex) Contact—bite, breath weapon or engulf; save Fort DC 39; duration 1/round for 10 rounds; damage 1d4 Str, Dex and Con drain; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution based. Shift Form (Su) As a standard action, Hexxus can transform into a being of smoke, or back into its solid form. In smoke form, Hexxus loses his land speed and gains a fly speed of 50 ft. (perfect maneuverability). It cannot make natural weapon attacks in smoke form and loses the adhesive defensive quality, but can use its breath weapon, spell-like abilities and sludge bombs, and can make engulf attacks. Sludge Bomb (Ex) As a standard action, Hexxus can throw two balls of acidic sludge. Treat these as ranged touch attacks with a range of 60 feet and five range increments. A creature struck by the sludge bomb takes 15d6 acid damage and must save against Hexxus’ entrap attack. Any creature adjacent to this target takes 15 points of acid damage and is entangled for 1d4 rounds—a successful DC 39 Reflex save halves the damage and negates the entangled condition. The save DC is Constitution based.

Masks Liveblog

Masks is a powered-by-the-apocalypse rpg about teenage superheroes dealing with problems that confront both sides of that identity. This is our first longer campaign. We’ll see how it goes!

The Mustache playing Deadweight (aka Jonathan Marshall) the Nova, a mega-powered superhero struggling to control the consequences of actions that happen when his lash outs cause city-wide destruction. He glows noticably. He currently lives under scientific observation with a kindly scientist, and his father is unknown. He is 17-18.

The Beloved playing Fever (aka Evan/Evangeline/Evie), a Delinquent who can create illusions and manipulate emotions because their parents got paid to allow a lab to experiment on her in the womb. They are 17.

Your Darling Bastard playing The Good Shepard (aka Dion Zimmer), a Harbinger, who has travelled back in time from a water-filled apocalypse when their grandmother amplifies their teleportation and portal powers. They are 16.

Experimenting with my art style by drawing the BBEG of our dnd campaign, Argheim! I wanted to pepper in some body horror in my design!

JLCR: instrumental track edition

Just hit another milestone on the JLCR playlist (1250 songs!) so I’m doing another mini-playlist, this time focussing on instrumental songs for locations and specific scenes. 

I’ve organized the playlist by campaign and then by order within the campaign. Because Critical Role gives us stunning scenes every single episode, I’ve only been able to include a fraction of my favourites, usually chosen because I had a specific song in mind. I’ve also quoted parts of Matt’s descriptions, so that this is also an ode to his beautiful narration.

This playlist has got a little bit of everything: folk/trad, lo-fi beats, post-rock, soundtrack, and classical. I hope you enjoy!

Campaign 1

Whitestone, Briarwood Arc

The Night King, Ramin Djawadi (from Game of Thrones, Season 8)

“As you get close enough to start scanning over details, you can see that a lot of the buildings appear to be closed or empty. There are people working in the fields. As you make your way to the centre of the town, there is a town square. There is a tree there, a very large, old tree that is twisted, with all these various gnarled branches that reach out. You recall Desmond mentioning something called the Sun Tree that is the centrepiece of this area. And you get a view enough of the tree to see that there are eight humanoid bodies of varying ages swinging from it.” (e28)

Bolts of lightning are coming down from the storm in the distance, too, as the thunderstorm itself is reaching more of a fervoured pace, the rain itself getting harder and harder on you guys. So, with that, you can see, looking over your shoulder on the other side of this wall another bit of skeletal horde is starting to come down one of the nearby intersections. (e32)

Okay, okay, I know this is a little too on-point: this song was literally written about fighting an undead army in and around a castle. But when I listen to this song and close my eyes, I can imagine a dozen scenes from the Briarwood arc, played out perfectly in my head. And Ramin Djawadi is just a fantastic composer.

The Flute Duels in The Diamond Nest

The Ballroom Set, Jean-Michel Veillon

“So you pull out your flute and other gnomish girl with her flute as well gives you a look, and you guys start weaving together this flute duel, almost like Flight of the Bumblebees but two conflicting sides. As you guys begin to build this perpetual symphony of — it’s almost jazz flute almost in this improvisational feel to it. The drums build, you can see Dr. Dranzel is tapping his foot to it and he gets this really fast fiddle sound out of a classic violin, the whole room begins to gather around and cheer. [...] 

Eyes locked, tapping your feet heavily against the actual wood to the table. The rhythmic pounding of your feet and the drums — because the entire room is now also slamming their tables in with it as the music builds and builds until eventually you both take one deep breath and go for that same sustained note a second time. She’s challenging you at the game she lost last time, and the two of you both swell into this cacophonous spray of music that hits this one final note.” (e37)

As a flute player of 14+ years with a strong interest in traditional music, I can fairly confidently say that a flute duel would be unlikely to end on a very long note, because flutes sound like shit when you start to lose air, which is usually after only a few seconds — flutes are the least air-efficient of all wind instruments, unless you can circular breathe, in which case it’s a moot point. 

That being said, I love this scene, and I’ve chosen a song by one of my favourite trad flutists for it, Jean-Michel Veillon. He’s a master of Breton and Irish flute, both of which contain improvisational elements that you can hear in this mind-numbingly fast piece. While it has none of Dr Dranzel’s fiddle in it, there’s only one flute, and it doesn’t end on a particularly long note, it’s definitely a crowd-pleaser that would both provide a distraction for a stealthing party and challenge a long-lost daughter to keep up. 

Pyrah, Destroyed

Study for Player Piano (II), Ólafur Arnalds

“Your vision crests the mountain and steps into the valley of broken, blackened shale to the ever-burning forest. As you come upon it, you recall where the Fire Ashari village was and where you were greeted before and given your trials. Where there is now nothing but sundered, broken wood, tents, destroyed bodies burned and charred and curled up in horrible ever-gasping pain. 

The forest itself is flattened from the inside out, like a blast from the centre of it just exploded outward, the trees all bent and snapped at the base, and in the centre, where there once was that small pool of molten lava that you created the portal through and stepped into the elemental plane, there is a large, ominous, flickering gash between the planes that is roughly 30 to 40 feet in width and height that is pulsing as fire and magma pours out of it. You can see wandering imps and elementals and various entities slowly peeking out and escaping and wandering throughout the mountain tops. From what you can see, there are no signs of any survivors.” (e40)

The entire Chroma Conclave attack is emotionally harrowing but Matt’s description of (and Marisha’s reaction to) Pyrah’s destruction just kills me. This piece gives off such a horrified, mournful mood to it, and the glittering piano throughout makes me think of falling ashes. 

Glintshore Island

Hydrological Story, Kishi Bashi (from the Fourth Phase)

“As you begin to grow closer to the island, you see, as it begins to come more into form, there is a singular mountain peak that’s shifted mostly to the western side. It’s not a super peak. It’s a gradual point. You can see a little bit of a brush-like detail of the jungle that you had heard mentioned before. He begins to bring you up towards the southern shore of the island. At this point of perspective, the sunlight that’s hitting the island is causing a glittery shift of thousands of points of light across the beach shoreline, deep into where the blackened jungle tree line is. It’s beautiful. It’s a very strange and awe-inspiring sight, to be such a small little forgotten part of the land and to look so pretty from this distance.

The closer you get, the beauty begins to fade as you see the black beaches. You can see the landscape is barren and broken, aside from the ashen grey and black jungle plants and trees that have been left there, dead, for an extended period of time. The mountain itself, the rock itself going from black to a ruddy red and brown colour. The sands themselves and the glass surface across the eastern shore that tends to reach out, almost like a mouth of a creature, is rough and varied in topography” (e67).

Glintshore has fascinated me from the moment I heard its description — what a setting for one of the most intense fights of all of campaign 1, and the arguable emotional climax of Percy’s character arc. I think this piece perfectly captures a sense of beauty, strangeness, menace, and anticipation. 

The Birth Heart

Aspen Trees, Danny Norbury

“As you enter the Birth Heart, it’s an archway of branches and trees that knit into each other and wrap around as you step in. You can see what looks like a heavy cluster of forest is really just an outside row of trees that are all intertwined. The inside is open with the occasional stalk of tree that blossoms up into the higher portion. [...] 

This is the centre of the Birth Heart. And within there are a number of lanterns that are hung from the branches all throughout that all have their own yellowish fairy glow within each point. They’re all through the inside at different levels. It’s just hundreds and hundreds of these yellow glowing lights that are hooked up into the boughs ahead. There are a number of people walking off the path, just through the soft mulch wood and dying pine soft floor of the canopy, all wearing similar robes of greens and yellows, golds and whites” (e84).

The description of the Birth Heart is among my favourites in all of Critical Role; if I had to live anywhere in Exandria, it would for sure be the Birth Heart (despite Ashley’s misgivings about what Senokir’s wife’s ashes might be doing to the place...) This song, for me, evokes the feeling of being surrounded by nature and totally at peace. 

Ioun’s Test

Harbinger, Mike Oldfield

“Clutching the Ioun stone, as you sing this song, the stone glows ever so faintly in your hand and you glance up and you can see about ten of the various spectral librarians that are wandering have stopped and they’re all looking at you. Seemingly temporarily distracted or entranced by the song. [...] As you continue to sing, with each beat, each name that’s mentioned that deals with the Calamity and the Chained Oblivion, you watch as their pace seems to quicken a bit, and then as the singing slows they begin to slow down again. [...] 

They continue to push at a brisk pace and you watch as other of the spectral librarians begin to gather into this group and is now a cluster of about 25 of them that are snaking around these bookcases and traveling at a pretty fair pace. Which once was walking pace, and then went to a jogging pace, they’re now darting through. And they’re leading you quickly away from the centre of the library where everyone else seems to be clustered. So the two of you are following and swooshing behind them, you’re going over and around bookcases. Some of the bookcases you see have giant holes in the centre and you can dart through and dive past. The speed is increasing to the point where the wind is starting to kick up in your hair and you’re amazed at the speed of these librarians and the fact that they’re being driven by your very song, and also the fact that you have no idea how far away the rest of your friends are in this library, and this library seems to just go on and on and on” (e105).

The imagery of Scanlan conducting the spectres with Mythcarver and his singing, desperately holding onto Vex as she maneuvers her way perfectly through eternal bookshelves — it’s just too much. I love it. This song feels celestial and ethereal, appropriate to Ioun’s realm, but conveys the excitement, urgency, and movement of the scene — with a large orchestral sound that surrounds you.

Whitestone’s Epilogue

Coronation March, Edward Elgar (performed by George Hurst & the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra)

Cassandra, as a note by the way. She’s had a few pretty difficult brushes with death and the experiences definitely left a mark on her. Within the year following the battle with Vecna, she begins to remind you of yourself at a very dark time. Recognizing that, you come to her and help pull her from a dangerous edge of lashing out at the place she’s worked so hard to build. You help her realize that this guilt she’s been holding as being a tool of manipulation, the times that she has been is not her fault, and used against the ones she loves. In that determination to no longer be a tool for others to use, she asks Vex to teach her and train her. To not just be the lady beacon of Whitestone, but also join in as one of its protectors” (e115).

This is among my favourite pieces of classical music ever. The opening theme — melancholic but stately — reminds me particularly of Cassandra. No matter how much time passes, the halls of Whitestone will always bring some memories of the years she was a captive in her own home. However, there is something of hope in it, too, and the transition into a major theme reminds me in particular of Vex and Percy’s devotion to their city, and of the healing that Cassandra and Percy might find together. Also big fancy balls. 

Campaign 2

The Evening Nip

Passage, linanthem 

“Eventually, you hear some voices and some laughter, and a clink of glasses. As you curve down, the light gets brighter from around the corner, until suddenly you look into a stone-set subterranean tavern. From floor to ceiling, it’s about 20 feet tall. You can see there are two balconies that overlook it from the left side, and one that’s barely visible around the corner, as the room opens up to the right of you.” (e13)

You can see in the far back right corner of the chamber there is a long, dark mahogany well-carved table. [...] Sitting feet crossed up on the table in a nice, long deep-blue coat, leather-gloved hands, light teal skin, jet-black hair that’s long, just past the shoulders, a widow’s peak in the centre, a bit of a dark goatee, male figure standing there, hands entwined and crossed, looking at you from across the way with a curious grin” (e14).

Shouldn’t the Evening Nip be playing medieval tavern music? Probably, but I think sleazy, jazzy beats fit the Gentleman perfectly. You can almost hear his skin dripping.

The Underground Laboratory

I Don’t Think About You Anymore But, I Don’t Think About You Anyless, Hungry Ghosts

“Each couple of splashing sounds that hit as the oars hit the water and the occasional crack of the water against the brook or a rock in the centre, you being to maneuver your way through this dark tunnel with just the low light that you’ve been applying. It gets colder and colder the further down the tunnel you go and while it is moist, you begin to see your breath just in general this low in the ground. [...]

The torchlight extends into the chamber, and you can see a little more now. The two side chambers are almost pill-shaped. They’re rounded at each side, and they’re enclosed, but open into the center chamber. At each of these rounded edges, as you step inside and glance to the right and left, you can see cage-like contraptions: iron domes that are very tight-knit, dark iron rusted metal. They’re on the edges of each side. You see load-bearing pillars in the center of the chamber to the right and left, and cold braziers behind those against the walls: little domed pieces of stone that once contained flame for light. Across the way you can see two tables with chairs, a bookcase” (e15).

This is the song that’s running through my head anytime the Mighty Nein are going to a remotely spooky place. And can’t you imagine some drips and metal bar squeaks superimposed over this track to make it the perfect spooky-underground-lab track?

The Blooming Grove 

Owl Song, Cosmo Sheldrake

“There is something unnatural, or at least magical, that maintains this little pocket of untouched paradise. There you can see small pools, bits of bog where the soft green and browns of compost fall into green, thick, algae-covered bits of water. You can see dozens and dozens of stone tablets, about a foot to two feet high, with bits of script across them, too far to see, that have partially fallen or leaning. [...] 

As the light passes between the small breaks in the tree canopies, the green comes to light with colour, numerous types of colour. A rainbow of flowers, of pigments you’ve never really seen before, begin to emerge as the light hits it. Nearly every inch of these gravesites contain a smattering scatter of rainbow colors across petal and stame.” (e28).

I have so much love in my heart for the Blooming Grove, and Caduceus’s introduction — it’s my favourite example of the trope that @night-filled-mountain so beautifully described once: "The tension breaks and everyone is so incredibly tender.” Their arrival, through thorns, to a paradise and a new ally, gave me a feeling of peace and relief that I’ve rarely felt in fiction. I think this song just really gets to the heart of the Blooming Grove: peaceful, though strange, and surrounded by mysterious circumstances.

The beaches of Nicodranus

another perspective, Idealism

“Looking past the afternoon sun at this vantage point especially, you can see it dancing across the distant horizon shore like hundreds of little glistening flecks of glass. The shore’s sound itself is very soothing as you approach and pull up your pants and take off your boots to begin to step into the soft sand. [...] 

As you guys gather your things, dusk has set in, and now the sky shifts from light blue to a deep blue and purple on the eastern side as the oranges, reds, yellows, and pinks begin to overtake the western side of the skyline” (e33).

“As you gather in the mid-afternoon here in Nicodranas, you walk your way towards the ocean side of the port, finding the lengths of the city that lead to the familiar beaches where you once had yourself a stroll, a soak and a battle with a crab. [...] Beautiful open sky. The warm sun hitting you up through your clothes. You can see now Yeza and Luke, both, marvelling at the sight before Luke just goes running off into the water” (e71).

Every time the Mighty Nein come to Nicodranas, I know we’re in for a treat with Matt’s descriptions. Their beach day marked a peaceful moment before the pirate arc, while their return before this current arc allowed them to breathe after Yasha... leaving, and for Nott to have some much-needed beach conversations. This peaceful lo-fi track evokes that same sense of calm and nostalgia that I get from those episodes, and in particular makes me think of, perhaps, a quiet moment between Nott and Yeza, watching a Nicodranas sunset. 

Darktow

Under Ceilidh Pressure, Coìg

“This island, unlike the jungle islands that you’ve come across and a vast majority of the Swavain Islands here off the Menagerie Coast, is mostly rock and cliff. In fact, from what you can see, most of this island from this perspective is jagged cliff face and probably a few hundred feet up is where the island’s even surface even begins. At the base around this cliff face you can see a scattered web of a shipyard, just tangled docks that maneuver around containing dozens and dozens of ships. Across that you see numerous torches that mark various intersections where they all meet, and built into the base of this cliff face, you see a number of buildings and windows, all slowly being lit as the night grows darker and darker. This mass of natural-looking, hive-like pirate city there stands before you. Welcome to Darktow” (e41).

You guys walk out into the cold night air. The heavy mist has fallen across Darktow and you can barely see beyond the outskirts of the city where the ocean begins. You can still hear the waters coming in against the rocks on the outside of the island, but you cannot actually see where the water connects. Beyond that, you can see the outline of the ship masts that are set at the end of the shipyard that are vanishing into the mist that surround you” (e42).

Wow, Darktow sure was cool — wouldn’t it have been nice if they’d stayed there for more than 24 hours? Either way, though, this Cape Breton folk band’s song gives me strong pirate-town-at-night vibes, and the part where it picks up in the middle reminds me especially of their chaotic heist on the boat.

Felderwin

Elégie in C Minor, Gabriel Fauré (performed by Jacqueline du Pré)

“As you come upon the outside of Felderwin, which is built not too far from the Eistus River, you can already see there are a number of buildings burned and blackened on the opposite end of the fields. The fields are on the northern side of the city. On the southeastern side, there's a section of the town that appears to have burned or burnt down to varying degrees” (e48). 

“You make your way past the outskirts and you can see the river itself cruising right along. It would be a beautiful landscape if there wasn't this intensity of emotion and the distant haze of long-greyed smoke that still hangs over the vicinity of the partially burned farmlands. Nevertheless, Nott leads you over towards one of the shaded banks under a few trees and you come to a stop” (e49).

An elegy seemed like a good choice for Nott’s return to Felderwin, both for her mourning her (presumed dead) husband and for her recounting the details of her death. The happy, nostalgic middle theme makes me think of Nott’s happier memories in Felderwin, and in particular her description of coming to the river with Yeza. And Jacqueline du Pre’s gorgeous, evocative cello playing makes my heart hurt. 

Rosohna

La Cathédrale engloutie, Claude Debussy (performed by Martin Jones)

“As he turns, you can now see before you, throughout the vicinity, this beautiful courtyard of subtle grey and green bushes and trees. You see that you're on a hill. The centre of the city seems to be on some sort of hilltop and looking down, you can see the perimeter wall, made of a dull grey with a purplish-tint type stone and across the crest of it, you see these green lanterns that alight with this soft, green glow. 

Beyond that, beyond the barricades, your vision stretches out to see the entirety, it seems, of Rosohna, this incredible, vast metropolis, alit with thousands of the same little, green lantern glows. You see stone and metal and dark clay making up all the structures in various sizes and shapes, some of which have been repurposed ruins of old that have been built upon and refurbished, some of which, at least closer to the centre, appear to be extensions of an elvish, domicile design that is familiar yet unfamiliar, in some ways slender and jagged, but beautiful and sleek. Then, beyond that, you can see extending wards of the city that tend to be a little more patchwork and scattered. You can see distant bonfires that are lit in some of the streets, giving distinct orange glows that break up the rest of the green, sparkling lights that make up the entirety of your vision. It's beautiful.” (e57)

Matt’s description of Rosohna took my breath away: such a monumental city in a place that the characters had been told was barely “civilized.” This piano prelude captures, for me, the idea of walking up that hill and gradually, this enormous, dark, glittering, beautiful city sprawling before you. Musically, this song is built in parts on unusual scales, so that it gives me the sense of “familiar yet unfamiliar.”

And that’s a wrap! Thanks so much for reading and listening!

Prestige Class Spotlight 9: Souldrinker

 The third and final of the “fiendish obedience” prestige classes, the souldrinker venerates the neutral evil classical fiends, the daemons. Such fiends are the embodiment of nihilism, seeking to snuff out existence in its myriad forms, most notably by consuming souls, removing their quintessence from the cycle of renewal.

While demoniacs seek to become demons, and diabolists seek to use devils, souldrinkers emulate the daemons more directly, seeking to devour the essence of others to empower themselves and utterly end their foes.

Only someone whose nihilism reflects these dark creatures would ever consider such a path to power, for like the other two, choosing to become a souldrinker means pledging yourself to a dark power. However, in this case, one is less likely to be set up as a new servant or denizen of that lower plane, and more likely to be simply devoured, with the vast majority just more fodder for their destructive masters, only a few deemed useful enough to find new life as a daemon. Such individuals must surely not care about their own lives, and exist only to compound the suffering of others, their cruelty shaped by hateful influences and history.

Aside from knowledge of spellcasting and fiendish obedience, the only requirement of this prestige class is that the aspirant have ever existed as a disembodied soul, either having died and been revived, or having use the magic jar spell or similar effect.

 Like all such classes, these dread mystics continue to master their magic as they grow in power, albeit at a reduced rate.

As previously mentioned, souldrinkers pledge themselves to daemons, either to one of the four horsemen, or to one of the daemonic harbingers. Doing so nets them a one-way ticket to Abaddon, making them extremely difficult, if not impossible to resurrect. Naturally, they must also perform regular obediences to their patron to maintain their powers.

Early on in their careers, these cultists gain the services of a cacodaemon familiar, messily devouring any previous familiar as needed to free up the role.

Though in theory, souldrinkers can literally devour souls whole with the help of their dread familiars, their primary way to consume life force is blasts of life-draining negative energy.

These rays, along with any and all other ways that they can inflict energy drain, nets them soul energy they can use to help craft magic items, ward their own soul against assault, and even recover spell energy.

Like all obedience prestige classes, fiendish or otherwise, this prestige class puts one on the fast track to rapidly gaining all the obedience boons for that particular path for that deity.

What’s more, souldrinkers also gain one of four sets of abilities based on which of the four horsemen they venerate, or which harbinger most closely matches one of the four. Those following the horseman of pestilence are immune to disease while also spreading it magically, death wards the soul while draining life with a touch, war protects against blood loss and enfeeblement while inducing bloodthirst and fury, while finally famine protects them from ingested and inhaled poisons and removes the need to eat while also bestowing curses.

The various builds possible with this prestige class are numerous, so this should really be more of a character decision than anything else, rather than merely going for an effective build. Their ability to fuel their spellcasting with drained energy can be quite effective from a back of the line build, though.

 While not typically tyrants or destroyers, souldrinkers are a mix of both, and exploring the terrible atrocities that have to occur to shape someone into such a being is part of the fun of developing them as NPCs, or perhaps as evil characters in an evil campaign.

  Desperate to reforge the Crucible of Truth, the party must diligently work to gather the esoteric components to do so… but there is another way. A terrible dark way being offered to them by the cult of the Great Devourer. However, to travel that path would surely corrupt the crucible.

 Rarely worshipped by bipeds, one of the great spirits of destruction is the Maw Wyrm, a primordial draconic spirits of devouring and death. However, some evil dragon cults, particularly those with degenerate wyvarans as members, do follow that path, and are granted ravenous boons.

 In some places, owls are seen as symbols of wisdom and the occult. Not so in Erbrida, where the scars of the Soulbinder War still linger, and owls remind folks of the terrible avian harbinger that the armies of the Soulbinder marched under. Anyone seen with an owl is suspected to be a remnant of that fell army.

A drawing of the Evillest Boi and bane of Kristoff's existence, Kravitz: God of Decay and Destruction

This is @nightfae13 's version of Kravitz (unrelated to TAZ Kravitz) and of the main villains in the campaign I play in. Kristoff hates him for good reason but I kind of enjoy his personality OOC.

This incredibly flamboyant harbinger of doom was the one who poofed away Kris's brother. He seeks to unravel the multiverse out of sheer boredom

GROUPS SUE FEDS TO STOP SEISMIC AIRGUN BLASTING IN ATLANTIC OCEAN 

Earthjustice - December 11, 2018

Leading environmental groups sued the federal government today to prevent seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean. This extremely loud and dangerous process, which is used to search for oil and gas deposits deep below the ocean’s surface, is the first step toward offshore drilling. If allowed, seismic airgun blasting would harm marine life, including whales, dolphins, fish, and zooplankton — the foundation of the ocean food web.

The lawsuit, filed in South Carolina, claims that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act when it issued Incidental Harassment Authorizations (IHAs) in late November. Those permits authorize five companies to harm or harass marine mammals while conducting seismic airgun blasting in an area twice the size of California, stretching from Cape May, New Jersey to Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The government has estimated that seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic could harass or harm marine mammals like dolphins and whales — which depend on sound to feed, mate, and communicate — hundreds of thousands of times. Seismic airgun blasting would also jeopardize the iconic North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered species, according to 28 leading right whale experts.

BELOW ARE STATEMENTS FROM THE GROUPS INVOLVED IN THE LAWSUIT:

“This action is unlawful and we’re going to stop it,” said Diane Hoskins, campaign director at Oceana. “The Trump administration’s rash decision to harm marine mammals hundreds of thousands of times in the hope of finding oil and gas is shortsighted and dangerous. Seismic airgun blasting can harm everything from tiny zooplankton and fish to dolphins and whales. More than 90 percent of the coastal municipalities in the blast zone have publicly opposed seismic airgun blasting off their coast. We won this fight before and we’ll win it again.”

“The Trump administration has steamrolled over objections of scientists, governors and thousands of coastal communities and businesses to enable this dangerous activity. Now it wants to steamroll the law,” said Michael Jasny, director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “Allowing seismic blasting at this scale in these waters is not consistent with the laws that protect our oceans.”

“Ignoring the mounting opposition to offshore drilling, the decision to push forward with unnecessarily harmful seismic testing defies the law, let alone common sense,” said Catherine Wannamaker, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). “An overwhelming number of communities, businesses, and elected officials have made it clear that seismic blasting — a precursor to drilling that no one wants — has no place off our coasts.”

“Seismic airgun surveys pose a dual threat to the biologically rich waters off the Atlantic coast,” said Steve Mashuda, managing attorney for oceans at Earthjustice. “Their continuous blasts can injure and deafen whales, dolphins and other marine life, and they are the sonic harbingers of even greater risks associated with offshore oil and gas drilling.”

“The Trump administration is letting the oil industry launch a brutal sonic assault on North Atlantic right whales and other marine life,” said Kristen Monsell, ocean program legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Right whales will keep spiraling toward extinction if we don’t stop these deafening blasts and the drilling and spilling that could come next. That’s why we’re taking the administration to court.”

“South Carolina has spoken: We don’t want offshore oil and gas drilling,” said Laura Cantral, executive director at South Carolina Coastal Conservation League. “Seismic blasting is a big step in that direction, threatening our fragile coast and economy. We will firmly defend our communities and vulnerable marine life.”

“Seismic blasting poses unacceptable risks to vulnerable marine wildlife, especially the critically imperiled North Atlantic right whale,” said Jane Davenport, senior staff attorney at Defenders of Wildlife. “The species already faces effective extinction within a few short decades. The right whale simply cannot withstand the direct harm and habitat degradation seismic blasting will cause.”

“Seismic testing and offshore drilling is incompatible with our coast in North Carolina,” said Todd Miller, executive director at North Carolina Coastal Federation. “There’s never a window that would be a good time for seismic testing to happen. Studies show that seismic affects the behaviors of marine mammals, fish and zooplankton, and seismic is harmful for fisheries. And on top of all that, it’s a precursor to offshore drilling which is strongly opposed here in North Carolina.”

“With a vibrant commercial fishery industry and the only known calving ground for endangered North Atlantic right whales just off our coast, Georgians oppose seismic testing for offshore oil exploration and the threats it poses to our state’s wildlife, wild places, and quality of life,” said Alice Keyes, vice president at One Hundred Miles. “Our coastal communities have spoken out for years against seismic testing and offshore drilling because they understand what’s at stake — risks to our coastal economy and wildlife ranging from right whales to zooplankton. We are proud to stand with our fellow Georgians and thousands of others across the East Coast in opposition to this dangerous plan.”

“As usual, the Trump administration is pulling out all the stops to give favors to the fossil fuel industry, whatever the cost to coastal communities and wildlife," said Athan Manuel, program director at Sierra Club. “We will continue to fight back against their dangerous plans to subject our coasts to seismic blasting and expanded offshore drilling."

“Seismic testing can be harmful and even fatal to the hundreds of thousands of dolphins, whales and other marine animals in the Atlantic,” said Angela Howe, legal director at the Surfrider Foundation. “This litigation is aimed at protecting the Atlantic Ocean from the destruction of seismic testing, which is the first step of proposed offshore oil drilling. We will continue to stand up to protect our marine environment and our ocean ecosystems for this and future generations.”

As of today, opposition and concern over offshore drilling activities in the Atlantic includes:

Governors of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire

More than 240 East Coast state municipalities

Over 1,500 local, state and federal bipartisan officials

An alliance representing over 42,000 businesses and 500,000 fishing families

All three East Coast Fishery Management Councils

Commercial and recreational fishing interests such as Southeastern Fisheries Association, Snook and Gamefish Foundation, Fisheries Survival Fund, Southern Shrimp Alliance, Billfish Foundation, and International Game Fish Association

BACKGROUND

In April 2017, President Trump issued an executive order to expedite permitting for harmful seismic airgun blasting, reversing the previous administration’s decision to deny all pending permits for such activity in the Atlantic.

The Obama administration concluded that the “value of obtaining the geophysical and geological information from new airgun seismic surveys in the Atlantic does not outweigh the potential risks of those surveys’ acoustic pulse impacts on marine life.”

NMFS issued permits to five companies on November 30, 2018. Before those companies can begin seismic airgun blasting, they must also receive permits from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

A recent economic analysis by Oceana finds that offshore drilling activities, including seismic airgun blasting, along the Atlantic threaten over 1.5 million jobs and nearly $108 billion in GDP, and would yield less than seven months’-worth of oil and less than six months’-worth of gas.

A May 2017 poll by Oceana, NRDC and the International Fund for Animal Welfare revealed that 76 percent of Americans support protecting marine mammals from threats, including injury and death resulting from offshore oil and gas drilling.

Bonus Spotlight: Ahriman, the Shadow Across Creation

Neutral Evil Demigod of Destruction, Divs, and Nihilism

Domains: Darkness, Death, Destruction, Evil Subdomains: Catastrophe, Fear, Loss, Rage

The Complete Book of the Damned, pg. 12~13

Obedience: While praying to Ahriman, destroy something of monetary or sentimental value to another person, preferably in front of someone with a strong emotional connection to the item. Alternatively, willingly take 1 point of Constitution damage by flagellating yourself with a barbed lash as you pray to Ahriman. Benefit: Your true alignment becomes masked for 24 hours, or until you perform this Obedience again. Upon performing this Obedience, choose a particular alignment. You read as the chosen alignment to all forms of magical detection, and can fool both items and magic which respond to particular alignments.

just kidding about End of the World Month being over. It can’t be over, not until we talk about this world-ender.

Anyway THIS combo is very, very interesting! To my knowledge, Ahriman is one of the three deities in existence which allows you to mask your alignment, and unless I’m mistaken, is the only method in the game which does so for a full 24 hours without needing a spell slot. It’s not one that will give you an outright power boost like most benefits do, but it makes it much, MUCH harder for Good folk to sniff you out. Be careful, though, because your mask is so thorough and complete that you’re actually vulnerable to spells like Blasphemy and Dictum if you masquerade as alignments that those spells can hurt.

The mask can’t actually be dispelled, either, so anyone scrutinizing you can’t reveal your true alignment unless they keep you from performing your Obedience... But it also means you can’t just ‘pull off’ the mask to avoid being creamed by an alignment-reliant spell that gets hurled at you.

Speaking of the Obedience, though, this is a deceptively simple one to both perform and keep on the down-low. Flagellants are unusual--and often unwelcomed--but not unknown in many societies, and you don’t have to audibly pray to Ahriman as you beat yourself bloody. If you wanted to really push the illusion you could even do so publicly, chanting hymns to other gods as you scar yourself in “their name.” Whether you keep it secret or flaunt your status aloud, you may earn some sour looks, and perhaps you won’t be invited into polite company, but you won’t look evil. Just very, very odd.

The Constitution damage is annoying but not crippling as, say, Charon’s demand that you dull your mind every day, as 1 point of Con damage repairs itself the next time you rest.

The “primary” means of proving your devotion to Ahriman is also deceptively simple, depending on how hard you Murder Hobo your way through a given campaign. You may end up gathering a lot of possessions that mean a lot to other people, and the Obedience doesn’t indicate that they need to be sentimental to someone who’s still alive! So go ahead, shatter that bandit’s sword, which was gifted to him by his father! Destroy that sorcerer’s locket containing a memento of their one love! Desecrate and destroy that altar to Desna! Maybe even in front of the priests! Maybe not that last one if you’re among Good folk, though.

Unless you happen to be projecting a Chaotic Good aura and can convince them that the altar is somehow already desecrated and must be torn down...

It’s not a particularly hard Obedience to do, but it’s definitely finicky to keep doing. At least Ahriman gives you an out in the form of a blood sacrifice!

IMPORTANT NOTE: As Ahriman is neither a Horseman nor a Daemon Harbinger, you cannot take the Souldrinker prestige class to get Ahriman’s Boons early (without DM fiat). You must use the Evangelist, Exalted, or Sentinel prestige classes to get the Boons early, at levels 10, 13, and 16 instead of 12, 16, and 20.

----------

EVANGELIST

----------

Boon 1: Ahriman’s Word. Gain Command 3/day, Detect Thoughts 2/day, or Suggestion 1/day

Nice! Command is a decent Baby Save or Suck, and Suggestion is ALWAYS nice to see, but in my opinion the real utility star here is Detect Thoughts. Lock onto invisible foes, sniff out enemies through walls (some walls), read the minds of anyone who fails a Will save... It’s a pretty fun spell! Especially for finding out if anyone has sentimental attachment to any items in the area, so you can hoard them away for later Obediences.

Still, all three of these options are pretty good! Not particularly stellar, but useful.

Boon 2: Unassailable Conviction. 1/day, if you fail a Will save, you may immediately roll again and use the second result. If you succeed the second save, you receive a +2 morale bonus to attack and damage rolls for 1 hour.

This is actually a fairly weak Boon, all things considered... But it will absolutely, 100% save your life at some point. That morale bonus is actually you, the player, in real life breathing a sigh of relief as you wiggle out from under a Dominate, Feeblemind, or Imprisonment. Note that the ability only triggers if you already know you’ve failed the throw, so there’s no real chance of ‘wasting’ this ability preemptively.

The reroll itself is powerful enough that the morale bonus feels kind of unneeded.... But truth be told, despite its strength, when compared to other second Boons this is still pretty weak. You could have at least given it to your followers 2/day, Ahriman!

Boon 3: Force the Lie. 1/day, you may designate any point within 90ft of you to become shrouded by a 30ft mist of crackling black energy. You and other worshipers of Ahriman can see through this cloud with perfect clarity, but all others within the cloud treat it as Obscuring Mist. Creatures in the mist other than you must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your hit dice + your Charisma modifier) or have all luck, morale, or sacred bonuses they’re benefiting from twisted into a penalty so long as they remain inside the mist. This mist lingers for 1 round/hit dice you possess and cannot be dissipated by winds.

Evangelists of Ahriman just kind of get screwed, don’t they? Being able to drop cover for yourself or allies and screw up enemy ranged fighters is good, yes... But 1/day as a capstone ability? That’s really, really pathetic.

Morale bonuses are fairly common, sacred bonuses get thrown around like candy for Good-aligned folk, but both of them are less common than enhancement and alchemical bonuses, which are seen in more or less every fight with casters and martial characters using magic weapons. I won’t talk about luck bonuses, though; those are so rare I can only really think of two sources... Both of which apply to AC. Suddenly going from +2 AC to -2 AC is a pretty big deal, I’ll admit. Twisting huge benefits into penalties is more powerful than I’m giving credit for, I’ll admit, and the power to do that to everyone in a 30ft spread means that it’s likely more than one victim will suddenly be scrambled by it. I’m probably not valuing as high as I should be, despite the fact that high-level enemies often come pre-packaged with morale, luck, and sacred bonuses, or slap them on themselves if they know a battle is coming.

I probably am. It just seems pretty weak in a vacuum, and no ability operates in a vacuum. Perhaps one of the biggest benefits to this ability is the power to drop it directly onto yourself to grant yourself some impenetrable cover; you can see perfectly through it, but no one else can, and it can’t be blown away or otherwise removed. Amusingly, even against foes who aren’t running with any bonuses that Force the Lie twists around, you can still curse them by slapping your buffs onto them to have them turned to penalties. Just... pray that they fail the saving throw, or prepare to get yelled at by your team for buffing the enemy.

Alright, alright, sorry Ahriman. This ability isn’t that bad. I do like the touch that if you can convert the rest of the party to your nihilistic faith, they can see through the mist as well.

----------

EXALTED

----------

Boon 1: Hamper the Righteous. Gain Protection From Good 3/day, Touch of Idiocy 2/day, or Bestow Curse 1/day.

Oof, Bestow Curse? That’s a real nice ability to have tucked away. It IS negated by a save, but it’s a Save or Suck that keeps on sucking with penalties that last permanently until removed. Being able to eternally deny a target half of all turns they’d otherwise take is painful, and if you’re the creative type, you can even whip up curses of your own to plague someone with! Perhaps every time they tell a truth, they have to spend the next 6 seconds screaming. Or maybe they cough up a spider every time they lie. Or maybe their hands twist any weapon they wield back onto themselves.

There’s a lot you can do with the creative freedom Bestow Curse offers.

However, if you’re not a fan of 1/days being negated by successful saves, how about Touch of Idiocy? Sure, it’s a touch-range spell, which I--a lover and player of squishy classes--tend to shy away from, but it offers no saving throw and docks 1d6 Int, Wis, or Cha off the target for 10 minutes/level. It’s unlikely to make much of a difference past level 10 or so... Unless you use it against creatures who have extremely low mental stats anyway, such as most humanoids. It’s a Save or Suck but without the save! Unless you roll a 1. But that’s why you can use it twice!

In an Evil campaign though, the one that really shines here is Protection From Good, a lengthy spell that shields you entirely from the natural attacks of Good-aligned creatures and gives you bonuses to resist the weapons and spells of Good-aligned people. If you’re not in an Evil campaign, or are just Evil vs Evil, then the other two options are much better (I’d personally run with Touch of Idiocy for the potential shutting down of melee people breathing down my neck), but Protection From Good is always a fantastic choice for the times when you plan to launch attacks on the good folk’s towns.

Boon 2: Pierce Obfuscation. You can see perfectly through darkness of any intensity, including that created by Deeper Darkness. 1/day, you may cast True Seeing as a spell-like ability.

You get Darkvision Except Beefier, so beefy that you can see even through the otherwise impenetrable Deeper Darkness. Even if something ELSE gets in your way, you can immediately invoke True Seeing on either yourself or another. Everyone should know the utility of True Seeing by now, hopefully; the power to pierce just about any illusion or magical distortions in the game, utterly ruining the ability for Illusionist casters to do anything fancy.

Still, despite its power and usefulness, this is also an incredibly boring ability. The only real flair you can give it is dropping Deeper Darkness onto yourself and being the only one who can actually see in it, which pairs well with the power to Sneak Attack, either your own (somehow), or by slapping True Seeing onto an ally who can.

Boon 3: Call For Ruin. Once per day, you may call you may call either 1d4+1 Ghawwas, 1d3 Shira, or 1 Sepid Div to your side. You gain telepathy out to 100ft with any Div you summon. They follow your commands perfectly for 1 round per hit dice you possess, but will not perform any action that’s overtly Good, and will not follow any order to save any mortal life aside from your own, and may vanish immediately out of indignity if told to do so.

As we’ll eventually see, this is a powerful ability! No creature on this list is below CR 10, with Ghawwas being amphibious, resilient and poisonous fighters, Shira being powerful front-line brawlers capable of creating their own concealing dust clouds on a whim, and Sepid wielding extremely spooky spell-likes like Disintegrate, Enervation, Hold Monster and Baleful Polymorph. In most situations, calling a Sepid to your side is the best option, as it possesses powerful utility spells, powerful blaster spells, powerful melee abilities, and the ability to Call Debris 3/day to blast everyone in a 40ft circle with 15d6 damage... but both of the other options have their uses.

Ghawwas can all use Hallucinatory Terrain 3/day to scramble the environment (which you or an ally can see through with True Seeng), and the Shira can hurl out Waves of Fatigue 3/day in between their full-attack actions. Shira make excellent tanks as well, granting themselves concealment with their Dusty Pelts until they can close in and rip enemy souls from their body with their Consume Essence. Ghawwas can deliver Strength-damaging poison with every bite attack they make, and in an underwater battle they boil the seas around them to weed out life incapable of handling the heat.

Ahriman is pretty generous with this power, though summoning fiends tends to make your obfuscated alignment impossible to hide any further. I wish summoning the Shira was more reliable (like 1d3+1 or something), but as I said before, getting 1 Sepid is often more powerful than getting lucky rolls on any of the others.

----------

SENTINEL

----------

Boon 1: Break the Weak. Gain Inflict Light Wounds 3/day, Death Knell 2/day, or Dispel Magic 1/day.

‘Break the weak’ is right, because Inflict Light Wounds isn’t going to break anything above 3 or 4 hit dice. By the time you get it, it’s maybe useful to patch up any undead in the party or deliver a humiliating final blow to a particular enemy, but beyond that it’s likely not going to get brought out.

Death Knell I’ll forever harp on; it’s a spell with only one real, inflexible use, and it’s only a moderately good one. It deals a finishing blow and grants you a buff for doing so, but sacrificing your turn in the middle of pitched combat to use it can end with you getting walloped by the target’s allies. It is moderately more useful for the frontline Sentinel than a typical caster, though.

Dispel Magic, though, has a thousand and one uses. Getting rid of enemy buffs or glamours, shattering illusions, removing debuffs from an ally, breaking magic locks... It’s a good spell to just have available, even at 1/day.

Boon 2: Serpentine Lash. You gain Weapon Specialization (Whip) and Whip Mastery as bonus feats, even if you do not meet their prerequisites. Whips you wield take on the illusory appearance of a live serpent, and grant you a +2 on combat maneuver checks to trip opponents. If a whip you wield has a +1 enhancement bonus or higher, you may grant it the Dancing Weapon ability as a swift action. You may have your weapon animate for 6 rounds each day; they do not have to be consecutive.

This ability is deceptively useless. If you’re a whip-wielder by nature, you likely already have both Weapon Specialization and Whip Mastery by level 12, and if you don’t, what in god’s name is wrong with you? Did you just roll over and die whenever something with moderately thick skin came along?? Did you devote yourself only to disarming and tripping opponents for everyone else to deal with??? ... Alright that one sounds pretty cool, actually. But still, whips don’t deal lethal damage to their victims and don’t deal damage at all to enemies above certain armor bonuses if you don’t have Whip Mastery, and it can be taken as early as level 2. Waiting until level 12 (or 16 if you didn’t take the prestige class) to learn how to lethally wield a whip is agony.

However, if you’re NOT a whip specialist... That means that you’re unlikely to become one. Ahriman’s sacred weapon is the whip, so a Sentinel of Ahriman doesn’t have an excuse not to have one, but since you’re not specializing with a whip you’re unlikely to break it out in combat when the boring but practical swords, axes, and maces are available.

The Dancing quality is a pretty good enchantment to slap onto a weapon out of nowhere, essentially doubling the number of attacks you make each round, but whips aren’t exactly known for being devastating weapons, and the animated whip doesn’t have your Str/Dex bonus to go along with it and can’t use combat maneuvers, which is what whips are basically for. If you already have a +5 Super Duper Death Whip of Oblivion And Destruction, slapping Dancing onto it can be nice, but enchanted whips are difficult to justify creating and even harder to come by in the wild.

All in all this is a very, very disappointing Boon that more or less reads as “you get a +2 profane bonus to trip combat maneuvers when using a whip. Also, 6/day you can deal maybe 3d3+3 damage to an enemy as a swift action.”

Boon 3: Crush Opposition. 3/day, you may cause a corporeal enemy within 60ft of you to crackle with a black energy that attempts to crush them from every angle. They take 10 damage per hit die you possess, but may reduce this damage by half with a successful Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 your hit die + your Charisma modifier). Creatures killed by this damage are completely obliterated, all of their belongings falling to the ground. All individual items the creature was carrying at the time become cursed for 1 hour per hit die you possess, the curse blighting any nonevil creature holding, carrying, or wearing the item with a stacking -1 penalty on saving throws versus fear and insanity effects.

My jaw dropped when I saw this. This is a significantly beefier version of Szuriel and Trelmarixian’s third Exalted Boon, which respectively allow you to cast a nerfed Implosion, and a regular Implosion.

Implosion itself is a pretty nice spell, letting you put the squeeze on any corporeal target you can see (Constructs and Undead have no get-out-of-jail free card here), but its biggest weakness is that it can only target a particular creature once per cast, and it’s completely negated with a successful save. Not only will Crush Opposition’s saving throw typically be higher than Implosion’s (10 + 1/2 HD + Cha mod vs 10 + 9 + Spellcasting mod), but it still deals half damage even if they DO make their save.

At the time you get it, that means Crush Opposition will do a flat 160 damage to any victim you designate, and 80 damage even if they succeed. 80 will shave off maybe a sixth of a CR 16~20 enemy’s health bar and will outright kill most mooks the instant you hit them with it, letting you focus on the main boss more. Though this ability can only hit, at max, three targets a day... Well, Implosion can only hit a given target once per cast, but Crush Opposition can hit the same person three times. It’s a good trade-off, if you ask me.

The whole ‘all their items get cursed if they die’ bit is more of an amusing add-on than anything that could be potentially useful. Evil folk like you don’t tend to leave survivors that can reclaim the gear of their fallen allies... But maybe you’re not among Evil folk (which is impressive, considering that Good folk tend not to wield live snakes as weapons). Maybe you can convince your party that all that gear is really and truly cursed, but you can uncurse it for them! You’ll just... Hold onto all that loot for a while.

Not very feasible, given that you’ll likely have casters that can uncurse the stuff, but it’s still a potential roleplaying opportunity.

You can read more about him here.