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ferris-the-wheel · 3 months

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Multifandom Writing Event — { Vacation Event! }

Included Fandoms:

: ̗̀➛ Twisted Wonderland

: ̗̀➛ Genshin Impact

: ̗̀➛ Obey Me!

Premise: A group of friends invites you to go on vacation with them for a few days.

Rules:

: ̗̀➛ { REQUIRED } Read my regular request rules (you must use emojis or your request will be ignored). My request rules can be found at a link on my pinned post.

☆ Usable emojis: ❤️/💖/🧡/💛/💚/💙/🩵/💜

: ̗̀➛ In your request, you must include that your request is for this event or it will be treated as a normal request.

☆ Event requests take priority over regular requests.

: ̗̀➛ 5 characters max (can choose less than 5 obviously). Your chosen characters must all be from the same fandom.

: ̗̀➛ Include where you are vacationing (i.e. camping trip, someone's hometown/homeland, etc.)

: ̗̀➛ { Optional } Include how you're getting there (i.e. plane, driving, etc.)

: ̗̀➛ What are you doing while there?

: ̗̀➛ { Optional } If your characters are going to a hotel or resort, are they staying in a five-star resort? Or somewhere cheaper?

: ̗̀➛ All minors or minor-appearing characters will be automatically made platonic.

Here is an example of how you can phrase your request:

Hello! For the Vacation Event, may I request [your chosen characters + their fandom] where they invite the reader to [your chosen location]. They'll get there by [whatever way you want them to travel]!

{ Under the cut will contain all of the characters you can include in your requests }

Twisted Wonderland Characters:

: ̗̀➛ Riddle Rosehearts

: ̗̀➛ Trey Clover

: ̗̀➛ Cater Diamond

: ̗̀➛ Deuce Spade

: ̗̀➛ Ace Trappola

: ̗̀➛ Leona Kingscholar

: ̗̀➛ Ruggie Bucchi

: ̗̀➛ Jack Howl

: ̗̀➛ Azul Ashengrotto

: ̗̀➛ Jade Leech

: ̗̀➛ Floyd Leech

: ̗̀➛ Kalim Al Asim

: ̗̀➛ Jamil Viper

: ̗̀➛ Vil Schoenheit

: ̗̀➛ Rook Hunt

: ̗̀➛ Epel Felmier

: ̗̀➛ Idia Shroud

: ̗̀➛ Ortho Shroud

: ̗̀➛ Malleus Draconia

: ̗̀➛ Lilia Vanrouge

: ̗̀➛ Silver

: ̗̀➛ Sebek Zigvolt

: ̗̀➛ Neige LeBlanche

: ̗̀➛ Chenya

: ̗̀➛ Rollo Flamme

Obey Me! Characters:

: ̗̀➛ Diavolo

: ̗̀➛ Barbatos

: ̗̀➛ Lucifer

: ̗̀➛ Mammon

: ̗̀➛ Leviathan

: ̗̀➛ Satan

: ̗̀➛ Asmodeus

: ̗̀➛ Beelzebub

: ̗̀➛ Belphegor

: ̗̀➛ Simeon

: ̗̀➛ Luke

: ̗̀➛ Solomon

Genshin Impact Characters:

: ̗̀➛ All Mondstadt Characters

: ̗̀➛ All Liyue Characters

: ̗̀➛ All Inazuma Characters

: ̗̀➛ All Sumeru Characters

: ̗̀➛ All Fontaine Characters

A/N: You really thought I was going to list all 79 Genshin Impact characters? Nope, I choose life.

You can make multiple requests for this event, but please wait until I have finished with your first request before sending in another. Also, please keep in mind that you are not the only one making requests and that it may take some time to finish your request. Please be patient with me.

One more thing: if you send in a request and it isn't finished by the end date of the event, don't worry! If it was sent before the end date, I'll still write it! Please just try to send it sooner rather than later so I'm not writing new requests the day before the event ends.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your request! ☆

This event ends on March 15th, so send in your requests now!

If you enjoy this event and want others to enjoy it too, reblog it! I'd greatly appreciate it!

Taglist: @eeeeeyyy @edith-is-a-cat @twst-om-lover @officialdaydreamer00 @anni1600 @doodler17 @felixsterprankster @l7k-a @lu-lul @lyle-my-beloved @xen-blank @cookiesandbiscuits @b-floyd-o-leech-b @mermaidfanficlibrary

#multifandom event #multifandom writing event #genshin impact event #genshin impact #twisted wonderland event #twisted wonderland #obey me!#obey me! event #fanfic writing event #writing event #event #request event

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dedisgone · 7 months

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copying and pasting something i REALLYYYYY wanna talk about. all this is from a multifandom rp server i got silly about char subs in

uhhh i think theres spoilers somewhere in here, tldr is all in short, benry, although depicted to be, in reality, is not a barney clone!

HLVRAI IS AN IMPROV SERIES. SCORPY, WHO PLAYS BENRY, DID NOT KNOW ANYTHING OF HALF LIFE BEFORE HAND. ENTIRELY, HE IS USING A GUARD MODEL, THE SAME USED THROUGHOUT THE *ENTIRETY* OF THE GAME. all the guards have that uniform, and more often than not, benry's design is COMPLETELY different! [edit: fan designs play into his alien-like nature, exploring a xen origin, and nearly all have very little semblance to barney or his "clones."]

when scorpy picked out benry's name, it wasn't based upon barney. this implies that, no, benry is NOT a barney clone, as is beauty calhoun or barmey for example! beauty and barmey PLAY barney's role in half life (2 for beauty.) they both DIRECTLY take barney's place for that series, using the same name, title, storyline, etc. [edit: GRAAAHHH i love that coincidence. its so cool... ALSO! NOTE! barney's variants usually associated with a play on their last name as well, like how gordon's variants do, or keep it entirely. benry doesnt have that. its benry benry benry... all the way through. hes also not located in the spots that barney is in! hell, we dont even see the tram scene that you DO find barney in!]

BENRY DOES NOT [TAKE ON HIS ROLE]! benry is an entirely separate entity, a piece within the code, that exceeds the game's expectations. even in non-game aus, hes still not. taking barney's place. he never does. [edit: id like to add on, he doesn't lead the resistance [barney and beauty(?)], or run through blue shift [barmey]. he isn't an old piece within the story to recall [beauty]] because scorpy doesn't have the knowledge of that role, and never takes it on. benry is writen to be the antagonist. the final peak of the game. he works alongside feetman, something NEVER displayed in adjacent media! all he REALLY shares js the same uniform, but all the guards in black mesa do!!

#talks from the grave #barney calhoun #hlvrai benrey #ded freaks out over 20 year old polygons again #im so ill abkut this topic i loooove talking about how sheer fucking INSANE hlvrai is compared to its counterparts #the same as is hlfr #dude that shit is AWESOME even if it doesnt work well according to typical half life adjacent lines #i need more hlfr content sorry

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dopegardenersheep · 2 years

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HL & Portal / Wings of Fire crossover time bc I like dragons and both of these franchises and I want to get it off somewhere before I made art of them

This crossover is basically just the characters of Half-Life and Portal in a Wings of Fire setting. The worldbuilding is altered slightly to accustom them more, Pantala and Pyrrhia still exists and tribes from both continents are well-acquainted with each other to a degree that's beyond what the books depicted, tribes from one continent are frequently sighted in another and are found to even inhabit them.

Animus dragons (god forbid they can just thanos snap the Combine and Xen flora-fauna invasion out of existence) and scavengers don't exist in this crossover. So essentially all characters are just dragons, and humanoid entities are also dragon-esque in design

Black Mesa and Aperture Science are located on Pantala, their company names remain unchanged because I have no idea on what else to call them lol. The events of HL2 and so forth takes place in Pyrrhia

Anyway on with the characters themselves keep in mind these are only humans (and probably some robots) so there'd be no humanoid aliens like Vorts or the Nihilanth. Also because I said in the context of the world that means their names will follow the naming rule of the tribe I designated them with so there won't be last names (but I'm tempted to call Gordon Freeman 'The One Free Wing' lmao) I won't show their names yet bc some aren't finalized yet 😭

HALF-LIFE

Gordon Freeman - MudWing

Alyx Vance - RainWing/NightWing

Barney Calhoun - SilkWing

Adrian Shephard - LeafWing

Gina Cross - SandWing

Colette Green - RainWing

Isaac Kleiner - SeaWing

Eli Vance - NightWing

Arne Magnusson - SkyWing

Judith Mossman - HiveWing

Wallace Breen - SeaWing

Father Gregori - NightWing

The G-Man - NightWing/IceWing

Russell - IceWing/MudWing

Olga - SkyWing

Larry - SandWing

The Contractor - HiveWing

Adding in my fav HL mod aka Entropy Zero bc I can

Aidan Walker (3650) - IceWing

Wilson - HiveWing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PORTAL UNIVERSE (and PS:Mel)

• Humans :

Chell - SkyWing/SeaWing

Doug Rattmann - NightWing

Cave Johnson - SandWing

Caroline - IceWing

Greg - HiveWing

Henry - NightWing

Charlie - HiveWing/LeafWing

Mel - SkyWing

• AI (modelled after) :

GLaDOS - IceWing

Wheatley - SeaWing/IceWing

Rick - RainWing

Fact Core - NightWing

Space Core - SilkWing/NightWing

Morality Core - MudWing

Curiosity Core - RainWing/SandWing

Intelligence Core - SeaWing/HiveWing

Anger Core - SkyWing/MudWing

ATLAS - SeaWing

P-Body - SkyWing

Oracle Turret - NightWing

Animal King Turret - RainWing/MudWing

Prima Donna Turret - SandWing

Grady - SilkWing

Virgil - LeafWing/SilkWing

Friendly Frank - SeaWing

Alan - HiveWing

Deceptive Danny - RainWing

Bill Cunningham - LeafWing

And... done.

Man I like rambling about things no one would hear is this what Tumblr is all about?

#portal #portal 2 #half life #wings of fire #hl & portal wof crossover #wof crossover au #?#just a list

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sodapop1034 · 1 year

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So… there’s two stars, I think I’m in a binary star system, evidently on the only planet that supports life around here, and this place I got dropped into is a heavily overgrown area of the planet, with the portal gate smack in the middle of an abandoned research base that’s been abandoned for quite some time by the looks of it. Come to think about it, this base is suspiciously human, nothing here looks like it belongs to the locals. As for what the locals are like… there’s s lot of variety in their species, there could even be multiple species coexisting as a civilization. Most of the ones I’ve seen are gray bipedal beings, with four arms, a tail and one eye each. The ones that found me did have bioweapons ready to fire electricity at me, but pretty quickly lowered them when I made it clear I wasn’t a threat. Now they’re helping me learn how to survive out here: they’ve taught me most of the edible plants and there’s a conveniently placed water source nearby, so if nothing tries to kill me I should be fine for now. There’s also small brown spiky guys that demand I play with them sometimes, I was a little put off by the spikes at first but now I actually think they’re pretty cute! They do have a means of teleportation, but it isn’t very reliable outside of this universe because they can’t really set targets: they can only go where the boundaries between universes are currently weakest. Which, of course, makes it nothing like the gate in front of me. Caught a few more glimpses of Doctor Door-Slammer’s hands between the last message and now too. Turns out the white shirt isn’t the only thing to it. Right hand’s got a blue blazer, left hand has a red one, so either there’s more than one Doctor Door-Slammer or it just wears a really funky blazer.

*intense static*

Aww, come on! The blazer comment was a positive thing! Anyways, Moonlight out!

*click*

(...shit)

[Look at me, it's ok. He's not going to hurt you again, ok? Keep looking at me. I promise to keep you safe, ok?]

(...)

[Everything will be ok. It sounds like he's trapped right now.]

(...for now)

[Can I tell Moonlight about him?]

(...yeah)

[Moonlight, stay away from Doctor Door-Slammer, ok? We know who he is and he's not something you want to be around. He's known as The Amalgamation. He has another name, but we're pretty sure it summons him somehow. From what we know, it's a split from Mike.]

(...not exactly...)

[Oh, right, it's really complicated. But that's not important right now. What is important is trying to get you out. From what you said, it sounds like you're in some sort of Border World. I'm not sure if it's Xen, but it sounds somewhat similar.]

(and the creatures sound similar to what Adrian delt with)

[I believe thoes are called Race X if I remember correctly. Here, let me look up known Border Worlds. I want to see if any of them match.]

*keyboard sounds*

[Hmmm, it's somewhere beyond Xen... Here! It looks like a name hasn't been given to this place yet.]

(Is there a location for it?)

[Yep! It looks like it's within the bots range too!]

(That's good. Moonlight, we'll see if we can send out Mark VI bot. It has both audio and photography. From there, we might be able to find a way out for you.)

#the archivist

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justaddgame · 2 years

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GOTY 2021: #1 - Black Mesa

This was it. This was easily my favorite video game of the year and was the clear winner after reaching the credits. Not to sound overly dramatic, but Black Mesa is one of the finest video games in existence today.

In order to unravel my bold claim, it’s important to examine this one a little more closely. At its heart, Black Mesa began as a mod of Valve Software’s Half-Life, which released on PC back in 1998. First-person shooters were rapidly growing in both technology and innovation at this time, with id Software being responsible for more than a few—Wolfenstein, DOOM, and Quake. What all three had in common were the impressive technical feats that pushed video game graphics forward, and a new level of immersion where you, the player, were front row and center to the carnage and chaos with enough weapons to make a gun shop owner blush.

But Valve rocked the genre once more by integrating a narrative element into the formula to give the player more urgency, where previously everything you needed to know was in the initial splash screen.

You are Gordon Freeman, theoretical physicist at the Black Mesa Research Facility—located somewhere within New Mexico—and part of a team performing an experiment on “anomalous materials” that goes haywire in the worst way possible. The facility is overrun by creatures from a neighboring dimension, pouring in through the tears created by a resonance cascade, and as one of the scattered survivors, you have to do whatever you can to make your escape.

Part of what makes the narrative of Half-Life special is that it is delivered unbroken, foregoing cutscenes entirely in favor of real time interactions. It’s a technique in video game storytelling that I argue is underutilized—you’re never taken out of the experience.

Wanting to improve upon an already influential game, Crowbar Collective—the studio behind Black Mesa—was formed with the goal to properly remake Half-Life, after the 2004 Source port from Valve was met with a lukewarm reception—Source being Valve’s proprietary engine. It was a project of passion from the start that wouldn’t see an official release until 2015 as an Early Access game on Valve’s digital storefront, Steam. With this release, Crowbar informed their community of eager fans that they were finally satisfied with the majority of Black Mesa’s content but were choosing to hold back the final act in order to give it the extra attention it needed.

The final act of Half-Life, known collectively as “Xen” was infamous in Valve’s original release for having been rushed and not as polished as the remainder of the game. Crowbar Collective spent an additional five years to get it right this time around, essentially rebuilding Xen from the ground up using their combined talents until, in March of 2020, Black Mesa achieved 1.0 and left Early Access.

They not only got it right, but they also blew the whole damn thing out of the water. Black Mesa resets the bar for first-person shooters.

It has the benefit of being built on top of Valve’s solid foundation, while every facet has been shined to a modernized edge with improved physics, graphics, and more. Those first moments in Xen are simply awesome, and it was so well received that it’s been said even Valve, while researching during the development of their VR title, Half-Life: Alyx, Black Mesa’s version of Xen was referenced in favor of the original Half-Life.

Something I’ve always appreciated about Half Life’s level design, is that everything feels “lived in” and generally operates like you would expect as you explore offices, parking garages, maintenance areas, and more. Black Mesa raises that level of detail and soaks every environment with a density of atmosphere and memorable sequences spanning its 20 chapters.

The masterstroke that ties it all together is the superb direction, with spot on timing in its adrenaline-fueled crescendo moments, of which there are many. One in particular, in Black Mesa’s 12th chapter, “Surface Tension” features one of the coolest moments I’ve witnessed in a game—it’s a magical combination of these elements working in tandem with the game’s composition.

The credit for Black Mesa’s stellar soundtrack goes to Joel Nielsen. Give this man’s work a listen sometime on his YouTube page, JoelNielsenMusic, and I promise you’ll be impressed. Within Black Mesa, these tracks hit even harder with emotion, and are cued perfectly to the action on screen. It was convincing enough to relate with Gordon Freeman’s agency for his task and, frankly, I could’ve based my entire reasoning for choosing Black Mesa as my #1 game solely on its soundtrack.

But it would be a disservice to leave anything out. Black Mesa is a massive journey and one hell of a satisfying experience—and I could write pages and pages about it. But I’ll end here with this message.

To the modern first-person shooters, look here. To the Hollywood directors trying to translate video games to film, look here. To the future video game historians, remember Black Mesa.

#goty 2021 #black mesa #video games #crowbar collective #valve software

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ardeawritten · 4 years

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Headcrab Thoughts

I'm making stuff up :P but in a fandom this old there’s gotta be convergent headcannoning going on somewhere.

Headcrabs in HL are a wild-type spawned from the headcrab brood mother on Xen. All headcrabs are reproductive and reproduce mostly via parthenogenesis, with variety arising from random expression of mutations or deliberate genetic tampering. Brood mothers can devour smaller crabs and 'import' their genetic material for additional diversity, but there's no mechanism akin to sexual reproduction in their life history. They never stop growing if left to their own devices in a place with plenty of food, but they reproduce in proportion to their size and age. So a brood mother can spawn vast quantities of more crabs, while the little ones in the vents might only lay one or two eggs per host body.

The lifecycle goes Crab hatching feeding on insects -> mature crab searching for host body -> finds live host body and latches onto cranium -> co-opts nervous system and uses body for defense and to acquire additional nutrients -> when a threshold of stored nutrition is reached, pilot the body to a sheltered location, lay eggs in body cavity and detach -> begin search for fresh host body. Once a certain physical size is attained, a brood mother no longer requires a host body and can both protect itself and devour nearby life forms to acquire nutrients.

If no additional nutrition is available or there's a population threshold reached, crabs will go into a dormant phase and wait for either population drop or additional nutrition to become available (i.e. living bodies in proximity). They can access limited, primitive body functions of the host, so the quality, age and skillset of the host body can influence how successful the crab is at acquiring nutrition and reproducing. They demonstrate some selection based on host body fitness and defensive capabilities.

Crabs with specific traits or mutations or crabs genetically engineered by the Combine for military purposes can use host bodies in different and often novel ways. They are highly adaptable but a body must have a base level of cognitive function to be co-opted successfully. A crab can take a human body and most primates, and would probably have success with dolphins and similar species if it could acquire them, but can't take anything smaller or of a lower cognitive level than a mid-size primate. That said, there are legends about head-crab wolves, lions and bears being encountered in particularly remote areas, where they have successfully adapted to a lack of their preferred human hosts.

When Dr. Kleiner makes head-humping comments he’s being a physicist, not a biologist; Lamarr is actually trying to get a grip to pierce the skull and lay eggs. Not that that’s any better.

#this is why you shouldn't let an ecologist play too many computer games #also go read about insects and galls sometime #or other fun parasites that can co-opt and control their hosts #it's equally horrifying and fascinating #like wasps that have mastered genetic engineering of their host plants #and fungus that can control ants #head crabs #half life #half life headcannons

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talesfromtheabyss · 5 years

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Blaze of Glory

Having barely survived a fight with Juiblex, but cheered by not only defeating him, but saving Auramycos from infection, the party returned to Araj.

Vizeran had finished the construction of the Dark Heart, a five pound black rock that would act as a talisman at the center of the final ritual to draw the demon lords together. Vizeran's plan is to pull all of them to the same location (much like they were pulled from The Abyss to this plane) where their mutual hatred should cause them to fight. The hope is that they will fight until they are dispatched back to The Abyss and that only one, weakened lord would remain. It would then be the party's job to finish that last one off and rid the Underdark and this plane of them all.

Vizeran has two remaining requests: The party must head to Menzoberranzan and gain entrance to the Sorcere where they can find Gromph's Grimoire. The book he used to perform the original summoning ritual. Vizeran will need it to perform this similar ritual. Furthermore, Vizern tells the party with grim determination that the Dark Heart must be placed somewhere in Menzoberranzan for the ritual to work correctly (since that's where the demon lords entered the plane to begin with). He said the best chance for success is to leave it in the Sorcere itself.

Grin Ousstyl offers to guide the party via a safe and secret path to the Drow city. The party accepts and begins a twelve day journey via path Vizeran has shaped from stone over many, many years. There is no danger, but the party becomes aware that Grin is distracted and troubled by something he claims is just his sadness that his childhood home will have to suffer so greatly to solve this problem.

They all reach the end of the and make their way out of a secret door in the Westrift and find themselves in the neighborhood of West Wall. The party decides to simply head for the Bazaar in hopes of finding a contact with the secretive Council of Spiders. Vizeran has sent word ahead with this group to assist the party if they can. As the party moves quickly through West Wall, they begin to hear odd clicking sounds that sound like rocks and sticks being knocked together. As they move from street to street, the clicking increases in rate and number of sources. Finally, the party notices young Drow bouncing from roof to roof and gradually gathering numbers as they move through the area. As they finally leave the neighborhood, the collection of youth seem to stop at an imaginary boundary taunting them with the noisemakers. But, they do no more.

As the party enters the Bazaar, they realize that much of it has been heavily damaged and flattened. Grin explains that this is the result of the Demogorgon. Several merchants are moving about attempting to clean up and re-open, but it is a depressing scene. The party soon realizes that those working are keeping their eyes down as they are being watched by several patrols of town guards to prevent looting. One patrol spots the unusual party and comes over to ask their business. Grin claims he is leading you all to one of the main houses in an effort to fulfill a job they have. The guards seem skeptical, but let everyone go.

Grin decides it would be good to head towards Duthcloim, just east of the Bazaar, to find a pub and inn more friendly to outsiders. He seems to get turned around in this district, but does finally find an inn he is looking for. As they wandered, though, the party realized they are being followed by a Drow attempting to stay out of sight.

At the inn, Grin finally reveals that he is conflicted about the part of the plan to place the Dark Heart in Menzoberranzan. He has followed much of Vizeran's preparations and believes that the location of the Dark Heart is irrelevant. Having seen his hometown again, he is now resolved to not let the party place the talisman here. Whatever it takes he wants to place it elsewhere.

After much posturing within the spy in the inn, the party finally learns that their follower is a representative of Bregan D'Aerthe. Once he learns that you are attempting to send the demon lords back to where they came from, he believes his leader would want to talk to them. Agreeing to meet, the party is led to a safe house back in West Wall, but surrounded by several guards. Later that day, they are taken to a large, but run down house back in the west of town where they meet Jarlaxle who is an unusually chipper and suave Drow wearing an eyepatch and large hat. He confirms the party's claim that they are attempting to rid the world of the demon lords. Once he learns that they need to get into Sorcere (the Drow wizard school), he agrees to put the party in touch with the Council of Spiders who will have a way for them to sneak in. As the party leaves, he gives a deep bow and with a smile says, "Thank you for visiting House Do'Urden"

The party eventually meets up with a member of the Council who gives them a password to disable the wards for an hour within Sorcere and scrolls of greater invisibility so they can get inside. Combined with a casting of "Pass Without a Trace", the party makes its way into Gromph's private chambers without much difficulty.

Through a series of events involving a four-armed statue coming to life, a secret door with a dark void beyond, Philis becoming entrapped in a diamond, and a desk with bottomless drawers, the party is able to access Gromph's inner sanctum. At this point Grin and Killak are stuck in an outer room, Philis is entrapped, and Kelkoa, Ashin, and Xen have to face the unexpected sight of a Drow priestess stuck in a magic circle in this inner sanctum.

Once those three realize where Philis is, they find her diamond jail and carry it with them. The priestess claims that she can help release their friend if they just break the circle and free her. Against their better sense, they do release her and she immediately attacks. While the party fights valiantly (briefly fearing that the are fighting Lolth herself), the priestess is killed and returns to her natural form which looks something like a lump of yellow mud... with eyes. But, the room does contain the grimoire and the party grabs it and runs.

As they exit Sorcere and move quickly through the Bazaar they hear a commotion coming from the direction they need to go. Soon, they hear a mad voice screaming above the general hubbub of the crowd. Through the crowd they can only see a non-Drow creature running as fast as it can with some kind of orange necklace above its head. They see several Drow guards racing behind. As this creature stops and begins to rant some awfully racist (against the Drow) things and claiming that it is this city and this race's fault that the demon lords are here at all, the party finally sees who it is. A filthy, crazed Anar is holding the necklace of fireballs over her head and is clearly planning to blow herself and much of the bazaar up.

As she finishes her rant and moves to throw the necklace, Kelkoa attempts to disable her. Anar is hit in the wrist, but holds on to the necklace. Another shot from the party delays her a bit more, but finally they realize that there's no stopping her. Worse, even if they do talk her down, they will be drawing attention to themselves and putting the entire plan at risk. So, with a lump in their throat, they let Anar complete her mission. She disappears in an intense fireball that seems to explode repeatedly. They party makes its way back to the secret tunnel in the commotion.

As the party is walking back, Philis is finally able to dispel the magic of her prison and is released, destroying an enormous diamond. They also discuss how they might follow through with the ritual without placing the Dark Heart in the city.

When they return to Vizeran and explain that they must place the Dark Heart elsewhere, he is having none of it. He is glad that the party has retrieved the grimoire, but insists that they return to place the talisman somewhere in the city...anywhere. The party leaves, but working with Grin they decide to head south towards the Darklake instead and look for a battlefield of their choosing and place the Talisman there. To avoid tipping Vizeran that they've gone a different direction, they know they must get to where they want to be in twelve days or fewer.

So, they leave without being absolutely sure that the ritual will even work in a different location and having no idea exactly where they are headed. Vizeran's carefully arranged ritual to rid the Underdark of the demon lords is now depending on the party and a plan they are making up as they go.

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otisoverturf · 5 years

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Craig Xen Is XXXTentacion’s Musical Successor: Members Only Rapper Details His Favorite XXX Memories & “Broken Kids Club”

This week marks the one-year anniversary of XXXTentacion’s tragic death. One of the core artists in the Members Only collective, XXX had an impact on his immediate surroundings and on the entire world, connecting with a group of young people who live life every day with worry, fear, anxiety and depression. During his time on Earth, the late rapper crafted several singles that would become early classics, like “SAD!,” and his closest friends, family and collaborators are doing everything in their power to keep his memory alive. That brings us to Houston artist Craig Xen. Having lived with Jahseh, Xen knows X better than anybody else. He was often in the studio with him and lived through tons of crazy experiences with the rapper. If you think of it, he is the logical choice to take over from where X left off and Broken Kids Club is where that all begins.

Craig Xen and XXXTentacion came up at around the same time. They were both creating heavy music and they gravitated towards each other, building a tight bond, which eventually culminated in Craig Xen joining Members Only. After the release of Members Only Vol. 4, Xen felt it was time to make a proper impact by himself, showing everybody what he’s all about and growing his personal brand.

We had the pleasure of speaking with Craig on June 17, just days before the release of Broken Kids Club, to learn more about the project, his connection to Members Only, and where he might be headed next.

Read our full interview below, edited slightly for clarity and length.

Craig Xen: What’s going on man?

HNHH: Not much man. It’s a pleasure to speak with you. Thank you so much for coming to the office.

Yeah. I appreciate you having me.

No worries man. I know you’ve lived in a few different places: Houston, Los Angeles, Florida, etc. Where do you consider home?

I’d say where my brothers are at. Wherever my people are at. I feel at home with certain people because I move around so much, now especially, just getting off tour. Anytime, at a show, after work, the meet and greets, or just performing is when I feel most at home. There’s no specific geographical location. It’s more so with a certain group of people.

I feel you. Home is a feeling.

It is. I can’t deny going back to my mom’s in Houston, but my mom is home. It doesn’t matter. If I see my mom in LA, sometimes she’ll be travelling and I’ll see her out and that feels like home too. Yeah, it’s a feeling bro.

I know your father was in prison. I wanted to ask if you hear from him ever.

It’s funny you say that. I guess he was released recently because somehow he got my phone number and he texted me so I auto-replied since I didn’t know the number. I hit him with “Sorry, I can’t talk right now” and then he sent me a selfie of himself. I didn’t respond. I had to change my number a few times also. He’s out somewhere.

So, you guys don’t have a good relationship? I’d say we just don’t have a relationship. It’s not necessarily bad, it’s just that I learned how to do everything without him. I think a part of me when I was younger was really resentful that he was locked up but, as I got older, I learned to forgive and understand. I’ve just been so busy and it’s such a touchy spot to make time to develop that relationship.

I read somewhere that he was friends with DJ Screw?

I actually don’t know where that came from. There was some misinformation that I was DJ Screw’s nephew, which would’ve been really badass. I don’t know how close they were but I know my dad and my uncle hung around FCC and hung around those guys. I didn’t ask too many questions but one of my uncles produced for the Geto Boys. Rest in peace to Bushwick man.

For real man. You’ve got your Broken Kids Club project coming out on Wednesday. How would you describe it?

I haven’t heard anything like it be released this year. It’s for after the party. It’s not necessarily party music. It’s for after the party, when all the smoke clears and everyone goes home and you’re still up late at night and you have to deal with your emotions.

There’s a lot of people that need music like that. X was making music like that too.

Absolutely, I’d say X, Peep, Mac was hitting that spot.

RIP to all three of those dudes. How did you come up with the title Broken Kids Club?

Yeah, there was this girl named Julia and we were hanging out, talking about how sometimes you’ll be in a room and you won’t necessarily know everybody, you’ll go to a party and not know anybody but you feel certain people on certain vibrations resonate with you. It’s a resiliency thing. You can detect people who have been through shit. I felt like I wanted to be and I needed to be the voice for the kids and I wanted them to know that not only are they not alone but it’s okay to not be “perfect.” It’s okay that you’re struggling with depression, it’s okay that you’re struggling with anxiety, it’s okay that you didn’t grow up with a picture-perfect household. Sometimes some kids who grow up in picture-perfect households are broken on the inside also. I felt like it’s a club. I felt like there was no title to it but we can detect people like ourselves who are resilient.

You’re part of Members Only. What’s it like to be in such a tight collective of talented artists?

I’d say we’re all brothers before we’re rappers or recording artists or performers. We hang out. We’ve spent so much more time together bullshitting and kicking it than we do making music and I think you can attribute such an organic sound over the past years and projects to that: just friends making music together. That’s what it’s always been. Obviously, everybody’s working really hard on their solo stuff right now and we’re all really proud of each other. Everybody’s got their own moves to make and then we all come together for the Members Only tour. We’re always ready to come together and have all of us in one spot.

What’s it like being on tour and seeing all the different types of people that fuck with you?

So many different backgrounds. At the meet and greet, I’ll sit there until the venue kicks me out. That’s another thing. When I was younger and I would go shows, I remember there were two artists that I paid for meet and greets with. I took a picture with one of them and that was it and I was like “When I get in that position, I’m gonna meet and greet and get to kick it with my fans.” I’m grateful that I’m in a position where I’m able to help so many people in so many different ways. Just having kids come up to me, some of them have similar backgrounds, some come from opposite socioeconomic backgrounds but it’s really cool man.

Who did you pay for meet and greets with?

One time was Wiz Khalifa and, I don’t know what the limit was, but there were so many people. I remember with Wiz it was a good experience. I told him I wanna make music and he said “chase your dreams” and we took a picture. Regardless of that being a cliché response or not, it gave me so much inspiration and motivation that I remember watching him perform after that and I knew one day I was gonna be on that stage. That night I went and recorded my first song and I think him just sharing his energy with me really inspired me.

Have you spoken to Wiz since then?

Nah, I haven’t spoken to Wiz yet. It’s coming though.

I wanted to also ask how you met XXXTentacion.

We met on Twitter and we both had maybe a couple of songs out. We just fucked with each other. The first time we got to hang out was when he came to LA, I wanted him to stay at my crib, we had been talking for a while. He came when I was asleep so I didn’t see the text message until the next morning but there were so many people staying at the crib that there wasn’t enough room for him and his manager at the time. I know Ski [Mask the Slump God] was with him. He told me “Man, I really appreciate the gesture.” He ended up getting a hotel. The first time we hung out after that was the South Side Suicide tour with Pouya and the $uicideBoy$. When we met, instantly there was a connection. At the time, both of our music was really heavy and hard-hitting so we decided, since we were both openers for them on tour, that we’d share a set. I knew his music, he knew my music, he fucked with me, I fucked with him so when we met it clicked, so we decided to share a set. It was phenomenal man. It was an experience. I remember every show there was something we couldn’t do. There was one time he performed in his boxers. That was funny as shit. I remember the guys with Buffet Boys were like “Hey man, can you guys not do that at the next show?” Then, the next show would be some other shit. Me and him were like “One day we’re gonna have our own tour,” because we didn’t wanna disrespect anybody, we were just in the moment. After that tour, we just ended up kicking it. I think I ended up staying in Miami for like two weeks and we just hung out. That’s when I met all the guys. I met Flyboy Tarantino. That’s when I got to meet everybody and he was like, “You wanna be in Members Only?” I was like “Sure.” It was a really natural, organic thing.

What’s your favourite memory with him?

I’d say whenever we were riding three-wheelers. We would go at like three, four in the morning. We would argue like brothers do and, we were living together at the time, so I’d go to my room, he’d go to his room, time would pass, three or four hours, then I would go knock on his door or he’d knock on my door and the ice-breaker was always “You wanna go riding?” That was our thing. We’d ride these three-wheeled motorcycles. Just riding those around. There were a couple of times where we’d go invite girls over and they’d hop on the bar and we’d go to a bar. Just go kick it man. Those rides were really special to me because they were a time where he wasn’t X. He had his helmet on and nobody could tell who he was. There was nobody on the roads; it was just us. That was our thing. Good memories.

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of his death. If you could tell him anything tomorrow, what would it be and why?

It’s hard to encapsulate that into one statement. Not only that, but he’s still here. Just because he’s not here physically, I know he’s still here in spirit. He experiences all the growth. I felt like his energy was there with us and the fans on tour. We would play a lot of his music and everybody would get lit and hype. I would just tell him how proud I was and still am of him and how many people he’s helped. I remember that was his biggest thing. He just didn’t want anybody to feel alone. I just wish he could see the impact the way that we see it. I would just tell him that he did it. He wanted to be a legend and he did it. Not on like some underground shit, not even on some mainstream shit, timeless music– a legend.

You just released “RUN IT BACK!” with X. What does that song mean to you?

To me, that song is such an important piece to the culture because a lot of the new fans either don’t know about the roots of his sound or haven’t gotten into the older work, whatever it may be. Personally, I love the song, not only because we made it in person, but I can remember all the times where we listened to it together. We were really listening to it a lot when we got into working out. We got a CrossFit membership together which was a funny story too because, for some reason, he just wouldn’t carry around a fucking card so we went to sign up for personal training at a CrossFit and the guy was like “It’ll be [x] amount of money” and Jah was like “Alright, can you help me count this shit?” He just pulled out hella bands. So, we listened to that song a lot pre-, and post-CrossFit. I feel like it’s really important for the culture, for the OG fans to have that itch satisfied like “Oh man, I want that old X so bad” because we made that song when he still had half black and half blonde hair. It’s one of those. It’s an artifact, a fossil dude.

I read that you were obsessed with Eminem and Lil B. Obviously, they run two completely different spectrums, what led you to both of those artists?

As a creative, I’ve grown to appreciate something about every artist. I feel that every artist is a genius in their own way and their own fashion. It’s hard for me to dislike an artist because I feel every artist is special in their own way, whether it be lyrically or sonically. There’s always something that I can take and appreciate from an artist. With Eminem, it was his resiliency. That was also the first album that I bought, The Eminem Show. I remember my uncle didn’t fuck with it so that was the first rebellious thing that I had. I had a CD player and I would listen to it and his pain resonated with me. Him being an outsider and being proud and speaking firmly, saying “Yes, I’m different and I’m not gonna fucking change for anybody,” helped me with my confidence in that area and, “If my uncle doesn’t like it, fuck him.” I love this shit. You don’t have to like this shit, I like it which was really rare for a kid like me because I was heavily influenced by my uncle and idolized him. I’d say Lil B, in high school, when I was going through a dark time in my life, he helped me find courage. He made being positive cool to me, and being yourself cool, and being raw and unfiltered cool. I think that’s somewhere Eminem and Lil B both meet. They’re both really rare and unfiltered with what they say. I still got love for Lil B to this day. I feel like he’s set so many trends and opened so many doors for so many artists. Even the way he went about business, being independent and his marketing and the way he released a lot of free music, I love the way that he moved and that he genuinely felt great being himself.

After Broken Kids Club, what’s coming next?

I’m gonna be working on my album and in between, I’m gonna be releasing singles and I’m definitely gonna drop a bunch of videos. I’d say there’s gonna be collabs, there’s gonna be solo singles and there’s gonna be a new album coming. People have found out about me through features and now I’m ready to show them that this is my solo work and this is me.

Is there anything you want to add about Broken Kids Club?

The only thing I would touch on is that I used the EP as an introduction to the movement. I feel like, me personally, there’s no movement right now, there’s nobody doing what I’m doing and I feel like it’s really important to the culture and to the kids that they know what it is and that the doors are open for them to be apart of the Broken Kids Club. I wanna welcome them somewhere where they feel at home and that’s something that’s hard to come across. For instance, at shows we mosh but we’re not actually trying to hurt anybody, nobody came to fight. We’re just trying to let all that negative energy out in a healthy way. That’s the same thing I do with music and I hope the way that they digest it. Even with my loud, angry shit, I told my fans, “Don’t go fighting anybody to this shit.” You can scream as loud as you want. You can swing at the air as much as you want. I just want my music to be used as a tool to get that negative energy out and for them to know that they are not alone.

STREAM CRAIG XEN’S “BROKEN KIDS CLUB” HERE.

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