Dunbeath Iron Age Broch, Caithness, Scotland

A huge ancient city has been found in the Amazon, hidden for thousands of years by lush vegetation. The discovery changes what we know about the history of people living in the Amazon. The houses and plazas in the Upano area in eastern Ecuador were connected by an astounding network of roads and canals.

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Jarlshof // Shetland

It’s a sight to behold

“I didn’t realize that Arefu was Careful on the sign but the C and the L fell off.”

Fallout Confessions

Abernathy Farms coming together.

This city plan is working pretty good, I guess. I usually build up Abernathy myself to ensure food is being produced but my builds are so boring.

Adventure: A Tumult in Towerford

The baron repeatedly asked the populace to bear with him through this difficult time. The malcontents took him up on the offer.

Whether through natural good fortune or some long forgotten work of magic, the lands around town of Towerford and the ancient elven spire at its center are famed far and wide for their bountiful game. In recent years, the town’s ruler, Baron Lozin Blotzco has attempted to reserve these lands for the exclusive use of the nobility, hoping to turn the bounty of his holdings into political influence. This has caused a clash with a section of the populace who’ve made their living hunting, trapping, and foraging within the woods for generations. These supposed “Poachers” have suffered increasingly steep fines, punishments, and even imprisonment as the Baron’s grip has tightened, creating a bone deep resentment that threatens to boil over just as the party stroll into town.

Adventure Hooks: 

In hopes of turning the wilderness into a place where nobles can course as they please the baron has posted several hefty bounties for various monsters throughout the region which has attracted the party and several other slayer bands. While some of these are quite run of the mill, others involve driving off otherwise peaceful inhuman denizens or culling predators in a way that any sensible hunter would know poses a risk to the environment. The party are likely to get heckled by the locals should they take one of these contracts, letting them know there’s more going on here than a simple payout.

Sometime after returning to town the party is caught in the public square as a hanging is about to commence. The old huntress Yilri Splitbough was one of the first accused of poaching, and ever since has been in and out of the baron’s cells as she flouts his laws on principle alone. Many consider her to be the unofficial leader of the malcontents, and the baron has decided to make an example out of her in the hopes of putting an end to all this rabblerousing. A last minute rescue attempt is made by the forest folk, but is obstructed by the baron’s guards, meaning the old huntress will likely die if the party does not intercede. If they do, it’s very likely that they’ll end up outlaws, but perhaps that’s worth it to do the right thing.

Early in the adventure the party will make the acquaintance of Countess Etoria of Ashfield, one of the many nobles Blotzco was hoping to win favour with and the first to accept his invitation. Charming, capable, and vivacious the countess and her hunting party might help the party out of a particularly nasty encounter in the wilderness, then treat them to drinks back in town to hear about their perspective on what’s going on. She’s a good friend to have, and a potential patron for future adventures.

Background: Constructed by a long faded elven court, the great spire which stands at the centre of Towerford is but the last of a series of constructions made to guard the river approach to the sylvan realm. While the rest of the spires have crumbled over time or become havens for unfriendly things, the towerford construction has lasted into the modern day primarily because of the non-elven population that took over the upkeep after the original owners moved on to unseen lands.

Located at the join of two rivers, the town is a minor trading hub for the region, specalizing in lumber and furs from the forest as well as leather goods and stone quarried from the nearby bluffs. While not as exciting as jewels or spices, these staples ensure a healthy stream of merchants in and out of Towerford all year round, making it a good place for adventurers to seek out while looking to pick up work or listen for some rumours.

Further Adventures:

Things escalate a week or so after the execution when the poachers ( with the help of a dryad who recognizes the risk to her forest) manage to sneak a direbear into his quarters several dozen stories up the spire. Knowing from allies within the towns craftspeople that the Baron is refurbishing his quarters in preparation for entertaining guests of a higher station, the poachers use a little fey trickery to polymorph the bear into an exact replica of a fancy chair and let the Baron’s own servants walk it past the guards. The party may hear about this account after the fact and be called upon to do something about the unbearable beast rampaging through the upper halls of the spire, though for added laughs consider the fun of having an outlaw party captured and dragged before the baron to awnser for their crimes, only to be suddenly faced with the dilemma of whether or not to rescue their enemy from a savage mauling or leave him behind as a distraction.

 After the Baron’s unexpected mauling Etoria will step up to take charge all smiles and understanding... atleast until her troops march on and occupy the town. The countess really has no issue with the poachers and sees reason in their plight, but their murder of one of the nobility provides the perfect excuse for her to lay claim to the area under the guise of putting down “rebels”. Once her men have found a few scapegoats and mounted their heads on pikes 

Unrelated to everything going on down below, it’s said that a group of elven mystics dwell at the top of the tower, having chosen to stay behind while their kinsfolk left, guarding some secret or contemplating some hidden truth. Seeking the advice of these sages could provide an excuse for why the party needed to visit Towerford in the first place.

From Sketches 01 by Wayne Haag

Important: File a claim to cash in on the Facebook settlement

If you used Facebook between 2007 and December 2022 you have until August 2023 to file your claim in the class action lawsuit.

It's literally the easiest thing to file. If you deleted your account, you still qualify. You just need the month and year you signed up and deleted. Check the email associated with your account.

The amount you receive depends on how many months you had Facebook during this time (so if you've had Facebook since the beginning, you'll get more than people that only had it for a month).

"But Thom. Doesn't sharing this mean you get less?" Yes but this is about community. I only know because a nice guy that filed decided to share with his tiktok followers. It's the right thing to do to keep it going.

-fae

Mesolithic Harpoon Head, 4500 BCE, Stewartry Museum, Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland

This is a 6500 year old harpoon made from a Red Deer antler and found in the River Dee. It is of a similar type of harpoon to those found in Mesolithic caves or rock shelters near Oban. This piece has been carbon dated to around 4500 BCE.

Exciting new findings reveal the oldest city found on a Pacific Island, constructed around 300 AD in Tonga. Thanks to advanced LiDAR scanning, researchers from the Australian National University have mapped the remains of this 1,700-year-old city in Tongatapu, uncovering fascinating details about ancient urban life way before European contact.

Pogroms and Violent Assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank

While the world is focused on performative airstrikes. Pogroms and massacres are happening in the West Bank. All eyes on Rafah and West Bank.

Bowomataluo village

What if they studied Bobby’s medical lawsuit in one of his law classes? Like the names were changed but he still knows it’s about him. And the prof is asking all the students “how much does this boy and his family actually deserve?” and Bobby refuses to answer. And he’s like Bobby you need to answer for participation credit for today’s lecture. So he’s like “fine, $100 bajillion.” And the prof just sighs and asked anyway “and why do you think that?” And he just explodes saying something like “sure, you can assign a price to the medical expenses, to the x amount of surgeries and x amount of specialist hospitals and x amount tests. That boy would spent then next x amount of years in a hospital barely able to do much more than sit up in bed. He’d collectively spend xx,xxx amount of days in the hospital. There is no fathomable cost for a childhood. “

And then he just gets up and leaves and goes straight to his boys because he’s suddenly very much not okay.