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inkyvendingmachine · 2 years

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DUCK!! Season 3, Episodes 15

💀 Call of Cthulhu: Haunted Hijinx Masterpost 💀 🎶 Call of Cthulhu Season Three Masterpost 🎶

Warning: This campaign is an edited version of Call of Cthulhu: Song and Dance scenario from the Tales of the Crescent City book. While a lot has been changed, there IS spoilers for it throughout these posts.

THIS SUMMERY BROUGHT TO YOU BY @inkdemonapologist !!!! I have been running low on energy for writing summeries, because it gets very difficult the longer it's been. And uh... it's been a long time since we played this episode. Luckily, we only have one more left of Season 3, and hopefully energy will be regained next season, as I get back into the habit of writing right after we play. BUT MEANWHILE, THIS SUMMERY and most likely the next HAVE MAINLY BEEN WRITTEN BY SHAZZ. THANK YOU, SO MUCH,,,

ART CHANGES THIS SEASON!! @inkdemonapologist and I are collabing on all the art for these summery posts!! Shazz does lines, and I compose and colour the pieces.

When we last left off, the monstrous Giacona mob-boss responded to Prophet & Joey’s interruption of his ritual by trying to… pULL THE INK OUT OF PROPHET’S BODY??? There was a reaction in the ritual circle, and now ink is leaking from his face and his pores and he’s starting to feel a bit light-headed without it, actually – and now it’s also hitting Joey. He had turned his hand into a Giant Cartoon Arm (as one does) to try to grab the lady being used in the ritual (that they are deeply hoping is Susie’s dancer friend Colette - all they can tell is that she’s covered in yellow ink), and the piece of his arm that had reached into the circle gets caught in this ink drain effect, too. Joey and Bendy are able to keep themselves stable, but the cartoon arm immediately starts to fall apart and drops the lady, as one of the mob-boss monster’s tendrils digs into Joey’s arm. Prophet tries to take another shot of ink, but it starts to fly out of his flask and aCTUALLY MAYBE LEAVING THE CIRCLE FIRST WOULD BE A BETTER IDEA. As he gets close to passing out, he can feel something familiar – like a vision Sammy had before, when that Muse Spirit in Susie had reached out to him. But now is NOT a great time to fall asleep and have a vision, so he scrambles out of the circle and takes another drink.

Meanwhile, Henry, Jack, Peter, and Leon finally sneak away from the tentacle-filled hallway when they all hear the screams of Joey and Bendy down the hall and decide maybe now is not a time for sneaking anymore! Henry runs ahead to tackle the one band member they can see in their way, putting his axe to the guy’s throat with a threat and a glare that is MUCH MORE INTIMIDATING THAN HENRY USUALLY IS, to let the others all run past unhindered, towards the doorway at the end of the hall where both the yelling and the yellow fog seems to be coming from.

Prophet and Joey are both vulnerable to getting ink drained out of their bodies, and starting to realise that maybe neither of them can truly touch this guy… unless… Something clicks for Prophet. That mirror is a link to Carcosa. And now that he’s not squinting at this monstrous creature of mouths and tentacles through a room full of fog, he recognises it as a creature of Carcosa, too. Destroying that link might be what they need…! Joey has an entirely different idea. More of the monster’s tendrils dig barbs into his leg, but he focuses all his willpower into taking back the ink from the ritual, claiming it as HIS OWN gold-threaded ink and not this corrupted yellow – and it starts to WORK! The cartoon arm feels solid again – it’s HIS again! As he’s fighting to take back control, Prophet breaks away from the tentacles grabbing at him and dashes out of the room, only telling Joey “They are connected, it must be broken!” – but when Joey sees the ink-stained streaks down the Prophet’s face, he understands why he’s running. If Prophet can’t get close enough to rescue Colette, he needs to do it. Still fighting against the ritual’s control, he’s able to grab the ink-drenched dancer for just a moment, and barely manage to toss her out of the circle’s influence.

Jack and Leon rush to the door just in time to see Prophet skidding out of the fog, insisting that they be ready to escape soon – he has a bad feeling that this place won’t be safe for long once they break the mirror – and then, an ink-covered muse is flung right in their direction. Jack wastes no time in pulling her out of the room. She’s so covered in yellow goop that they can’t even tell if she’s human… and when she pulls herself to her feet, it’s so strangely graceful… something uneasy sends a shiver down Jack’s spine, but, y’know, there’s been a lot of pretty unsettling things happening so maybe that’s to be expected. He starts to try to wipe the inky goop off her face and is able to find that she IS human under there…! Great! And also, judging from her expression, something in her is gROWING INCREASINGLY HOSTILE… LESS GREAT, Jack’s attempts to talk her down have zero effect, so he takes a risk and pushes Leon forward – HEY! YOUR BOYFRIEND IS HERE TOO!! – and she relaxes almost at once when she recognises him, both of them hugging each other with relief.

Peter, meanwhile, has noticed the room full of kidnapped people – one is that reporter from before! – and actually goes in to start trying to get them free. thank goodness someone oTHER THAN PROPHET noticed,,,

But since no one has yet checked in on Joey, and he is still very much grabbed and hoisted into the air by multiple tentacles and this is really getting old, he uses the last of his magical reserves to turn his arms into CARTOON BUZZSAWS, LIKE YOU DO, and slice himself free.

Henry, still taking up the rear and watching for trouble, notices another band member starting to peer out of the room where he was juicing (??) the mirror, and runs over to intercept him. He whiffs with his axe, but he’s unsettling enough that the guy takes several steps back – enough for Prophet to dash in, beelining towards the mirror. The band guy PANICS AT THAT, mouths suddenly opening up across his body (??!?!?) as he lunges with claws and teeth for the Prophet and screams in several voices for him to STOP. It’s way too close quarters for Henry’s axe. If he misses, he’d almost certainly hit Sammy. So… Henry drops the axe. And summons his glowing golden scythe, as all the colour drains from his body.

And yells, “Sammy, DUCK.”

The Prophet is too startled to react in time, and the scythe slices through them both.

The band member is sliced apart and splashes in a puddle to the ground, and Prophet… has a glowing gold line across his torso where the scythe hit. He felt a concentrated killing intent, like his actual soul was being attacked, pass through him, and Henry’s face finally shows a readable expression – relief. “I didn’t think it would hurt you, and I’m glad I was right.” He starts to apologise for killing Sammy once, in the past, when things were different – but a shaken Prophet is hearing none of it, demanding that he back away and do NOT touch the others.

Henry complies.

Jack peers in, catching the glowing line just before it fades away and wanting to make sure everything’s okay, but Prophet says he’ll join up soon and urges Jack to stay back. Henry frustratedly insists, “I’m not going to hurt him!” PROPHET JUST GIVES HIM A LOOK,,, but since everyone seems to be doing okay, Jack goes with it and ducks into the other room to help Peter try to free the kidnapped folks from their restraints.

Prophet finally winds up and smashes the mirror as hard as he can. He can see a shadow within the mirror moving closer, looking like… it’s trying to break the mirror, too? And as cracks spider quickly across the surface, he realises he definitely recognises this shadow, it’s a person, someone they knew had been dragged to Carcosa, thAT’S DOC MOONLIGHT –

WELL ANYWAY, THE MIRROR BREAKS!

A sudden torrent of water gushes out of the broken mirror at full force, shoving Prophet back and knocking Henry to the ground as it fills the room alarmingly quickly and spills out to flood the hall. Prophet, still doing his best on his resolution to not leave even murderous sheep behind, tries to pull Henry out of the room before it gets worse, but he slips, and falls under the water. It was only up to their knees, but as soon as he’s under, he can’t reach the surface… Henry reaches in and catches his arm to pull up a now very panicky Prophet, and they lean on each other to make their way out of the flooding room.

In the ritual room, the mob boss turned monster is melting and screaming general HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME sentiments which Joey isn’t interested in at all; he’s getting out of here and quickly scanning the hallway to figure out what everyone else has been up to while LEAVING HIM TO FEND OFF A TENTACLED HORROR ALL ALONE (with Bendy). He checks in the room full of kidnapped people, where Peter’s not having much luck with the restraints on the reporter and kidnapped musician he’s trying to rescue as the water starts to rise, so Joey runs in to help just to make this all move faster. The Lurker has a little magic left, and the best thing he can think of is to turn Joey’s hands into Way Too Many Scissors to snip the straps holding them down, so everyone gets to take their daily dose of Joey induced sanity damage!!! OKAY COOL THEYRE FREE LETS GO LETS GET OUT OF HERE Joey struggles his way through the water to Henry and Prophet, and Henry helps support him while Prophet warns that THIS IS THE LAKE, the one that connects to Carcosa, don’t fall in or you’ll be lost!! That’s exactly the kind of distractingly terrifying thing that makes Peter start to lose his grip and slip into the water, but Jack’s able to pull him back up again and they all make it back to that slippery spiral staircase. The water in the hallway has already surged to chest height.

Prophet doesn’t hesitate, crawling up the steps on all fours. Joey stays at the bottom to organise (and to hopefully use Bendy’s toon powers to catch anyone who falls), sending everyone up the staircase one by one - first Jack, then Peter, then Colette, then Henry to make sure Colette is safe, then Leon, then the rescued mob victims. Allison peeks out from above, asking “So… how did it go…?” but most of the party is still pRETTY PREOCCUPIED trying not to lose their footing on the unsteady staircase – Jack gets to the top and immediately starts digging through the bag he’s been compulsively hoarding things in and– YES. AT SOME POINT HE STUFFED SOME ROPE IN HERE. He ties it securely and throws that down, and almost everyone is able to use the rope to climb to the top, as the water starts to rise up the stairs – but Leon loses his grip, and goes under, and disappears in the haze beneath the water. Joey was ready, starting to use the last of Bendy’s power to give himself a rubberhose toon arm that can reach out to grab Leon, but as he ducks his head into the water to find him – holding onto the rope so he doesn’t slip under – he sees… Moonlight, ALSO reaching out to grab the doctor. UH, OKAY, CHANGE OF PLAN: USE TOON POWERS TO STAB MOONLIGHT IN THE FACE. If it was anyone else, Joey would have hesitated. But Moonlight has been way too much of a pain in the ass.

THAT WORKS, Joey is able to retrieve a panicked Leon uncontested, and they’re able to scramble out of the water, where Allison casually lets them know that she DID figure out the ritual and combined the two pieces of The Great Bertrum Piedmont – but the resulting TGBP just ran off. Well, he had the right idea, we’d better run too! Joey takes half a second to grab the gun Prophet dropped earlier before they all BOOK IT OUT OF HERE… quietly hoping that they haven’t doomed Coney Island to sink into Carcosa.

But they climb out into a quiet Luna Park, closed for the night, and a sky of normal stars. As they hustle towards the exit, they notice someone in the shadows, watching them go…. It’s Y? Apparently he’s human after all… and he keeps his distance, so the boys decide they have bigger things to worry about. The Muses still have to be released from the girls who summoned them. They decide to meet up at that apartment that Susie, Colette, and Nichole used to share. Joey sends Colette and her traumatised boyfriend ahead with Henry and Allison – those two are probably magically strong enough to do something if anything weird happens, and as far as Joey saw, Henry and Prophet even seemed to be getting along fine when the place was flooding! Prophet had nothing to worry about from that weird, stoic Henry after all! (The Prophet seems uneasy about no one else going with them, but doesn’t protest). And then Joey calls Norman at the Studio to bring Susie and Nichole and meet them there. Norman assures him “We weren’t sure for a minute, but didn’t run into any actual trouble,” so it sounds like everything went swell. Peter is put in charge of getting the rescued folks somewhere safe, and the rest of the boys take off for the apartment.

They’ve almost reached the apartment when Prophet’s ink begins to run out… and there’s that feeling again, the spirit reaching out to him. Maybe this time he should listen… he urges the others to wake him up again for the ritual, and starts to drift – before he fully loses awareness, he can feel the spirit’s message, just a small bit of offered help: that he and the Shepherd are closest when they’re in agreement, and that if they want, they can control the automatic swaps that have been happening recently by finding something to agree on. Prophet gives it a try. They both agree on saving these lost sheep– All of a sudden, it’s Sammy. Sammy’s here now. He never fell asleep. The others are confused at the quick swap, but reassure him that they’re about to do the ritual, and uhhhhhh maybe you don’t want to know why we’re all soaking wet actually, but on the plus side, when Joey checks the wound on Sammy’s arm, that yellow ink finally seems to be fading out, for good. Sammy asks about the helpful note in his pocket about some sort of Golden Sheep that he should not trust??? And Joey doesn’t really want to admit he’s not sure what was going on with Henry, but you know, everything seems to be fine now!

As they meet up and all head into the apartment, Allison makes sure they know how the ritual works – Henry does for sure, he saw a completed form of the ritual with his Special Eyes when they first searched the apartment! Susie stops Sammy, glad to see his eyes back to normal, but urges him to let her do another take of the new Alice song before they do this ritual. She’ll never be able to sing this well again, and she wants to be the best Alice Angel she can be! Sammy refuses – he knows none of them will make anything this good again, but this is too dangerous to put off. Besides, Joey confidently adds, “You’re already the best Alice Angel, and I need Susie to sing. We’re doing the ritual now.” Susie… is touched, though she still hums the song under her breath – the new version, the one she shouldn’t know.

“How do you know about that?” “I know all of your music!” :)

... SAMMY’S EXPRESSION CHANGES… this is Not Quite Susie. LETS UH… LETS DO THE RITUAL.

Norman asks the other boys how everything went, but has to pull out a pair of earplugs before he can hear Henry’s “could’ve been better.” Hm. Norman, amused, says they had a bit of an incident, but took care of it, and Tim, who was helping Norman, sheepishly informs them that he now knows The Three Musketeers is a musical, and Norman makes a decent cardinal. Well, glad you all were having a good time. Inside, once Jack finds the key to the ritual room in uhhhhhhh don’t worry about it don’t ask why he has it he definitely didn’t compulsively steal this earlier he just found it okay, Joey and Nichole and Allison all go about checking their ritual notes to figure out what needs to be changed… well, Nichole and Allison are doing that, Joey is absolutely confident in Henry’s vision and he knows what he’s doing, so he’ll be setting up the ritual CORRECTLY and fixing the others’ work if they set it up wrong. His work… looks good to the other magically inclined folks, so… it’s time to do this.

Nichole, the younger Orchid, feels terrible for starting the whole thing and says she should be the one to take the risk of going first. Joey is determined to make sure it’s done right and runs the ritual himself – and as he does, a golden glow diffuses out of Nichole’s body, she collapses, and Joey and Jack can both feel the creative urge of writing and stories finally dull back to normal. Also, Joey DID spend all his magical energy reserves in his various stunts at Coney Island and starts coughing up a little blood from powering the ritual. JUST A LITTLE. But the others agree he needs to be Done Doing Magic for now. Allison volunteers to handle the next one, and Sammy takes his last shot of ink, hoping Prophet can intervene if she does anything fishy. The apartment rattles ominously for a second, but the ritual seems to go off okay for Allison, too – soon that same golden glow floats out of Colette’s body… followed by, a strange shadow, that wasn’t there last time… As Colette falls to the floor and the shadow starts to fill the room, they all recognise the silhouette – a shadow of one of the Yellow King’s angels; not quite opaque, but VERY THERE, AND TURNING ON SUSIE, the last of the young women to still have a muse in her. “Seems like one of them had a hitchhiker!” Allison helpfully informs us. OKAY GREAT THANKS!! Prophet jumps in to try to pull Susie out before the Angel Shadow can grab her, getting grabbed by said Angel for his trouble. Allison runs in with a sword and Henry runs in to free Prophet, while Joey remembers that HEY WE HAD AN ANGEL-TRAPPING CIRCLE PACKED FOR JUST SUCH AN OCCASION, that probably also ended up in Jack’s Bag Of Acquired Things???? Jack digs it out, and together they manage to throw it under the Angel – at least it’s confined to the room now!

Henry tries to attack the Angel, gets attacked back and… it goes through him? But it manages to grab Allison, and when Norman runs over and tries to shoot it, the bullet also goes through and hits the wall – wait, this is like when Peter was halfway in Carcosa, sometimes he was corporeal and sometimes he wasn’t – the Angel is just not quite here… yet… The Prophet manages to usher Susie out of the room, Jack runs in to pull out the unconscious Colette, Henry pulls Allison free of the Angel – to her surprise, though she doesn’t get long to express her gratitude before the Angel CHOMPS HER SHOULDER and reminds everyone to get out of the room. Norman and Timothee are finally able to jUST SHOOT INTO THE ROOM FROM A SAFE DISTANCE until enough bullets hit that the shadow distorts, smears across the room, and fades out with a yell.

Angel defeated!!!

Creative art of dance restored to normal!!!!

Just one more to go.

[Final Episode]

[Previous Episode]

#call of cthulhu: haunted hijinx #sammy lawrnece #joey drew #jack fain #henry stein #bendy the lurker #the prophet #susie campbell #norman polk #peter sunstram #bendy au

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somaticallyincorrect · 2 months

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I was tagged by @silent-cha0s to shuffle my favorite playlist and post the first five songs that come up! 😊😊

#Spotify

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late-to-the-magnus-archives · 9 months

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Pet - a Malevolent fic

Arthur loses John.

Hastur loses Arthur.

Yellow does not deserve what happens here.

A Malevolent podcast AU one-shot.

AO3

———

“You cannot defeat me, Arthur Lester.”

He knew that. He’d always known, known ever since he was a child, known the way death stalked him, the way pain craved him, the way suffering seemed to follow his scent like some trained dog.

He’d known in the prison pits, known in Carcosa, known on his way up the Dancer-sharp stairs. Denying deities hadn’t protected him from them, and receiving care from a friend only meant that friend would die. He knew… but he didn’t have to accept it. “I can’t defeat you,” he sobbed. “But I don’t have to let you win.”

What? said John, who was the King, who wasn’t responsible for this, who’d had the bad luck of being shunted into the eyes of a guy pursued by Suffering.

“What?” said the King, who held all the cards, who thought he’d won the moment he’d tracked them down, who'd probably never lost a day in his life.

“That’s what Daniel told me," Arthur managed. "John, it wasn’t that 'life is loss.' He said, ‘You cannot defeat it, but you don’t have to let it win.’”

Arthur…

They wanted him so bad. The suffering, the pain, they wanted him so bad. “I know what this dagger is for.”

Don’t!

Death could have him. Death could win. And if that happened, nobody else would. “Goodbye, John.”

No!

“NO!”

And then it all grew so vague.

He hadn’t expected it to (Save him! ) hurt as much as it did. He’d thought, somehow, that the cut would be ( “Leave him and come to me!” ) one of those experiences where the pain grew in the offing, where it got worse by the moment. He’d been gutted, for fuck’s sake, torn into by a weird fucking lake monster, practically burned ( Save him first!) in a sandstorm, poisoned, bitten, scraped…

This was a different hurt. A deep one, a shocking one that took his strength, and he knew even as his hand betrayed him that it wasn’t going to be good enough.

It figured, somehow, that in the moment, Death would betray him, too. He couldn’t breathe. It hurt so much, burning and aching and throbbing and pulsing.

“It seems you just missed your jugular,” said the King, sounding so pleased (won), so amused (he’d won), almost fond . “But a promise is a promise.”

The ground fell away and everything spun.

His head hurt like it had been smashed with a brick. He couldn’t hear John ( the King had won ), and thought, Maybe Death has me after all, and really hoped it was true.

Arthur woke alive. “Son of a bitch!” he wheezed like a broken drill, and slammed his fists into whatever he lay on—

And found they were shackled around the wrists, with moderately heavy chains that jangled as they hit.

And found he was on a bed, and his throat felt horrible, but it was… bandaged? He touched it tenderly, movement slowed by the weight of the chain he had to lift with his arm. The bandages were silky, soft, not a material he could immediately identify.

He was still blind.

Come to think of it, all of him felt pretty horrible. Bruised, from head to toe, weirdly flattened , as though he’d been drained and left somewhere like a broken hose. But he didn’t smell like he had. That was really damn clear. The clothes were soft—zero scratchy bits, zero tugging where threads had pulled and stuck. He smelled nice, whatever the scent was. Yet another thing he couldn’t identify.

(And some bitter part of him wanted to laugh because of course he’d been cleaned of three solid months in a godsdamned pit, because his jailer wouldn't want to smell it.)

He tried to sit up, felt like his entire abdomen might be ripping, and lay back down. A little shifting discovered shackles on his ankles, too.

This was bad. Awful. Alive. How badly had he lost? How badly could he still lose? Was he being watched? Was… “John?” he managed, even his whisper sounding terrible.

Nothing. John was gone.

Arthur’s lips trembled. He couldn’t stop the tears, but he’d be damned if he’d sob for whoever might be watching. And if it was no one… well, Suffering and Pain were there. Tailing him, as usual.

John was gone.

Arthur turned his face to the side, fighting not to make any further noise, and grieved until weariness took him back to unhappy sleep.

He woke in the same position except his pillow was still wet, and felt like maybe he hadn’t ever had water in his life.

He burned, fevered; every muscle ached, traitorous. His throat… he wanted to cry again. He would have, except it felt like he’d be losing even more fluid if he did, and he wanted to die, but surely there had to be a faster way than this.

“You know, this isn’t how I thought it would go?” said Kayne, and Arthur startled.

“What?” he managed, sounding somehow even worse than he had.

“I mean, I hadn’t at all thought you’d use the dagger on yourself. Oh, darling boy, that won some points. Won’t lie.”

“Help me, Kayne,” Arthur said, because it cost him nothing, because he had no reason not to ask.

Kayne laughed.

It was a terrible laugh. It hurt, somehow, shook him, made his teeth feel loose, vibrated in his bones in a terrible way that reminded him keenly of being mortal. Arthur cried out, and his throat hurt.

“Oh, oh, careful, no, no, don’t blow that out… it’s barely sealed, you know. He did the bare minimum,” said Kayne brightly.

“What?” Arthur managed.

“ You’ll become my personal pet, hurdy-hurr, ” said Kayne, quoting the King, making Arthur shudder with memory of that horrible promise. “I mean, he’s sort of done that, but like, the pet that gets chained to the doghouse outside and left to starve to death.”

“What?” Arthur said again. His head spun.

“I mean, he’ll probably get to the skinning eventually, ” said Kayne. “I look forward to that? Not the skin part, because who the fuck cares, but the you part. You’re just so…” He inhaled through his teeth. “ Defiant. Not what he’s used to! Not what any of us are used to, but well, that’s why humans are just so neat . You never know what you’re going to get. Herculean strength! Diogenean irreverence! Arthurian defiance!”

Arthur was struggling to stay out of the darkness now, to stay awake. “Where is he?”

“Of whom do you speak?” said Kayne like this was the best joke in the world.

It hurt so much to talk. So much. “You know who,” Arthur said anyway, because… because…

“Oh, he’s gone,” said Kayne. “Absorbed. Eated like a cookie. Digested. Part of that sexy Peacock juice.”

It didn’t matter how stupidly Kayne phrased it. Arthur understood. He began to cry.

Kayne let him cry and began humming—offensively, a song Arthur had written himself, and heard on the radio performed by more famous people.

Nothing mattered, now. Nothing. John had said he’d fight, and Arthur believed he did, but… the King had won. He won. He won. John couldn’t be gone. He couldn’t be dead. He…

“I didn’t say dead , beloved," said Kayne. "I said gone . He’s absorbed. Fucking with Blondie’s head. I mean, why do you think he left you in here in relative comfort instead of the skinnening? Skinnennenning. Skinnening.”

“John,” Arthur wept.

There was no response at all.

Whatever. Arthur didn’t care anymore. He’d lost. “Kill me.”

Kayne laughed. “Why?

“You like killing,” Arthur managed.

“Yeah, but only when it’s the right time , and you, my little sugarplum, aren’t ripe yet.”

Whatever that meant. Arthur had seen dogs tied to the doghouse and left to starve, yards filled with shit, wood chewed on because the dog was desperate, the eyes of the animal completely crazy, its ribs pronounced.

Whatever. John was gone. Whatever.

“Now, where’s that fighting spirit?” said Kayne.

“I have nothing,” choked Arthur.

“Now, that’s not true! What if you had him to fight for again, hm? What would you do then?”

It wasn’t a serious question, so Arthur ignored it.

“Oh, I’m serious, sweetie.”

And in a moment of misery, of abandoned-hose thinking, Arthur said, “What, you can bring him back from the dead?”

“You want him back?” said Kayne, syrupy sweet.

Arthur couldn’t stop crying. “Yes.”

“You love him .”

The King had said that, too. “Yes.”

Kayne sighed. “I like you. I liked when you shoved my dagger into your throat. Tell you what, hose-boy: I’ll make you a deal.”

Arthur shifted; the weight of the chains held his arms down, as if to highlight that he’d grown weaker. “A deal?”

“I’ll put him back, right where he belongs! I mean, you’ll still be here . And of course, you won’t get your eyes back. We both know you only have eyes for him!”

Put him back? Kayne could put him back?

But they’d be here . Trapped. The King would just take him again. “And… and freedom.”

“Mmmm… no? No, that’s dull. No, I don’t think so. Ooh. Ooh! Ooh, but I do know what I’m gonna do. Oh, yes!”

Arthur couldn’t help his hitching breaths, his broken voice. “What?”

“John comes back, owns your eyes, as he always did, you get your body back… but! He. Remembers. Nothing.”

How was this a deal in any way at all? “Nothing?”

“Nothing! No first meeting, no memories in the Dreamlands, no path towards humanity. Nothing. Oh, and don’t worry… part of this little shit-cluster means Blondie can’t take him back. I’ll make sure of it.”

“I… but he…”

“Oh, Arthur! This is going to be so much fun. ” And Kayne disappeared with a pop.

What? What had just…

Arthur tried to lift his arms and could not. He let out one, small whimper.

That… ah. That’s painful, friend, came a voice so familiar, so kind, so not right. What has happened to you?

“John?” whispered Arthur.

The pause. The pause told him everything. Of course, lied the voice.

“No, you’re not,” said Arthur, because John was gone, and what else mattered, and Suffering and Pain were still here listening to everything and drinking it all in, and Arthur’s breath hitched.

Now, calm down, said the voice. You’re right; I’m not John, whoever that is. But I am a friend. The only friend you have right now. You’ve been through the wringer, it seems.

He couldn’t do this again. “You’re not John. You’re… fuck.”

Eloquent.

“Shut up, just…” His voice hitched. “John is dead. You’re… I don’t know what you are, but I suppose the same kind of thing.”

Which is?

Arthur's breath hitched. “A fractured piece of the fucking King in Yellow. I don’t know why… why did he…”

He?

“Shut up, just shut up!” Arthur couldn’t yell; his throat was too wrecked, what came out was almost like an angry tea kettle. He sobbed, voiceless.

Moments passed. We appear to be chained.

“The King did it.”

The one of whom I’m a part.

“Fuck you.”

And who was John?

Tiny, but somehow clear, Arthur said, “My friend.”

And then this room, whatever it was, began rumbling.

Shaking. It was a train sound, a behemoth sound, a sound that made Arthur’s sapped brain and strained nerves scream, run-there-is-a-predator , but he could not even sit up in the bed. Whatever it was would have him.

What… what is…

Wood crashed open, presumably a door hitting the wall so hard it splintered, and—

“WHAT DID YOU DO?” bellowed the King, grabbing Arthur up with things that were not hands , and Arthur’s arms wrenched back as the chain’s length ran out. Arthur shouted, bent the wrong way, shoulders popping. The King in Yellow growled.

Oh… said the voice in awe. You.

“Return!” commanded the King.

Arthur groaned. His arms, he suspected, were about to come out of their sockets.

I… I can’t.

“Now! I command it!” the King growled, pulling harder.

Something in Arthur’s left shoulder popped.

The voice in his head cried out.

The King dropped him. Arthur bounced on the bed, gasping, unable to pull his arms forward again.

“How?” said the King. “How did you…”

What's happening? cried the voice. You! Take me back!

“I can’t!” the King bellowed.

Arthur’s breath came too fast. “ Murderer. ”

“Thief,” the King replied.

“Murderer! You killed him! You killed John!”

That something-not-a-hand grabbed his face and turned it toward. “What have you done?” the King in Yellow whispered, and suddenly, suddenly, Arthur understood. The King may have won, but Arthur… had not lost. Not with this going on, he hadn’t.

Part of this little shit-cluster means Blondie can’t take him back.

Kayne was suddenly Arthur’s favorite person in the world, and Arthur began to laugh.

The laughing did not calm things down.

The King kept shouting, sounding increasingly desperate and furious. The voice in his head kept shouting, sounding increasingly desperate and despairing—and crying out whenever the King did anything that hurt Arthur’s left side.

Shaking Arthur changed nothing. The King broke his arm; Arthur screamed, then laughed again.

The voice could not leave.

Blondie can’t take him back. Was it revenge? As close as a mortal man could come. “That’s what you get!” he contributed to the conversation, wispy and filled with phlegm.

The King finally decided this wasn’t working (which it was not) and stormed out, leaving him there on the bed, body aching horribly, throbbing with pain.

Leaving Arthur with his new guest.

No! the voice cried. Come back! No!

“Oh, shut up,” said Arthur.

The voice was terrified. Gasping. Making straining sounds. Let me go! Let me go!

“I never put you in there, you whacko,” said Arthur. “Leave if you can. That Kayne guy’s the reason you’re stuck. I had nothing to do with it.”

Kayne? Wh… who the fuck is Kayne? Another friend of yours?

“No. Fucker. He… I don’t know what the fuck he is, but he’s more powerful than your King in Yellow.”

Nothing is more powerful than the King in Yellow, said the voice with deep, nearly sensual awe.

“Masturbatory,” pronounced Arthur.

The voice growled. It was so… little compared to the King’s.

Arthur laughed at him. “That’s what you get,” he said, and tried to shout it. “That’s what you get! Murderer!”

He’s not a murderer! Don’t you dare speak of him that way!

“I’ll speak of him however the fuck I want. He killed my friend. He…” And Arthur was crying again.

It took him a moment to realize that the voice was crying, too.

The soft hitching in his head… almost voiceless, but not quite. Such a broken sound. “The fuck is your problem?” Arthur wheezed, and his throat just felt so bad , like it was tearing, like it was—

He left me. He left me here with you. Why… why did he leave me?

And Arthur almost said, Nobody would want you, you fuck, but his throat betrayed him.

He started coughing, choking on blood; he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t swallow the blood, like it had nowhere to go, like the very pipe in his throat had severed. It wasn’t relief. He knew he wouldn’t be allowed to die. Tears sprung, joining the pink froth in his mouth; it would just be suffering, more suffering, more pain—

Ph’lloig, said the voice. And cast magic.

Arthur wasn’t prepared. John had never done this. He’d read esoteric texts, beheld things that would drive humans crazy, exhibited a wild knowledge of beasts and wraiths and monsters… but he’d never done this.

It surged through Arthur’s body from his eyes like some kind of electrical current, bringing singeing pain and then singing relief. He was suddenly able to swallow some blood and hork up the rest, which was a terrible process, but he could . His throat…

His throat felt so much better.

The voice was… sniffling?

“You…” Arthur was shocked to feel his own voice again, smooth and sweet, undamaged. “You healed me?”

Sure, it said, distracted, like it had been no big deal.

Arthur lay there and stared at nothing. The fucking stranger had healed him. “Why did you do that?” he said, finally.

You were choking, and you ask me that?

Yeah. He asked that.

Would John have done that, in the beginning?

Probably, he tells himself, if he’d remembered how. “How did you cast magic through me?”

I… when I looked at him, at him , I remembered so much, said Not-John, so much yearning in his voice that it made Arthur’s heart ache. I remembered so much, and then he took it away.

In a moment of insanity, Arthur said, “I don’t suppose you can get these chains off me.”

The voice was silent for three tight breaths. Why would I do that?

“Because that Kayne guy made sure you can’t go back to the King,” said Arthur. “And the King is going to torture me. He’s going to skin me, over and over.”

Maybe it’s deserved, the voice rumbled.

“You’ll feel it too. And it isn’t deserved. I didn’t do anything to him.” Arthur’s voice broke.

Why would I help you? said the voice, as if it just hadn’t done that. Like it had just reacted to his pain, his fear. Just reacted, not thought it through. Just… helped.

This wasn’t John. Not close. But it wasn’t the King, either. “We need to get out of here. I can’t… I don’t want to suffer like that, and neither do you.”

But if he’s done this, we deserve it.

“No,” said Arthur, voice cracking. “He did this because John wouldn’t go back to him.”

Why wouldn’t John go back to him?

“Because he didn’t like who he was with the King. Because he’d done wrong things. He was trying to… learn what it was to be human.”

Human!

“Yes. Human.” Oh, he ached. Tears slid down his face. “He’d grown so much. He… John was the best… anyone I’d ever met, he…”

Low, thick, the voice said, I’m not fucking John.

Pain and rage wrestled in his gut as if he’d swallowed evil weasels, but Arthur could not focus on them now. “No, you’re not. But you healed me, and you didn’t have to.”

The voice said nothing.

“Get us out of here. We need to get away from him.”

I belong with him.

“He can’t take you.”

I don’t care who this Kayne is! the voice declared. He can’t defeat the King in Yellow!

Arthur sighed. “Except he already did. You’re proof enough of that.” He couldn’t believe how much better his throat felt. “Thank you. For healing my throat.”

The voice was quiet for a moment. You’re welcome.

“What’s your name?” said Arthur.

I am the King in Yellow.

“No, you’re not.” Arthur found he could sit up. Whatever had torn in his stomach had been healed, too, and he ran his fingers over his abdomen, the chain rattling.

I am the King in Yellow!

“Well, I’m not fucking calling you that, so you’d better think of something else,” Arthur snapped, and tried to get out of the bed. No good; the chains on his legs weren’t long enough. He tried to feel along the chains and find where they was attached.

I… but that’s who I am, you peasant.

Arthur laughed. It turned into tears quickly enough; John would never have said anything like that, and might have laughed with him, and never would laugh again, and Arthur was not okay , but. But. “I’m from America, asshole. We don’t have kings there.”

This is the Dreamlands, moron, and we do.

“I don’t care.” Arthur couldn’t reach the bottom of the chain.

It… The voice sighed. They’re bolted to the floor.

“Fuck,” said Arthur. “Okay. Use magic. Blow them off.”

No.

“You want to be skinned? Because he’s going to. He said so. Very clearly.”

He wouldn’t, if you’re actually innocent.

“He would.” Arthur swallowed. “He snapped my legs.”

The voice breathed faster. What did you do?

“Nothing. Fuck you.”

You must have done something terrible, said the voice as if to himself.

Arthur sighed. “I provided harbor for John. That’s all it took. And I promise you, he won’t be kind to either of us. Can you get me free or not?”

Not-John was silent for a long, terrible moment. If I help you, I am saying I am not on his side.

“You already aren’t. It’s… maybe it’s not your choice yet, but that decision was made for you. We need to leave.” Arthur tried; he pulled at the chains. He twisted the shackles on his wrists, trying to force them over his hands.

The voice sighed. Yellow.

“What?”

Call me Yellow. I will earn back the title of King.

“Sure. Yellow. Can you free me or not?”

Silence.

Arthur held his breath.

Ch'nglui'ahog , Yellow rumbled like a passing train, and the shackles fell off. Just opened, wrists and ankles, pop.

Not John. What could they have done if John had remembered magic… “You’re powerful, I guess.”

And you’re weird . Your body receives my magic in ways it shouldn’t.

“Sure.” Arthur slid out of the bed. “I need you to be my eyes.”

Excuse me?

“I can’t see. Didn’t you notice?”

No, I… you tricked me!

Arthur snorted. “Fine. We’ll do it blind. Suit your fucking self.” He walked, hands out, and found the wall. “Is there a window?”

We can’t just leave! We… the King in Yellow…

“Is our enemy through not fault of our own,” said Arthur, who didn’t fully believe that, because his choices had a fuck-ton to do with it, but Yellow didn’t need to know that. “We have to get out of here.”

Window. To your right. About six of your steps.

Arthur felt along the window and managed to get it open. “What’s out there?”

The Dreamlands. We are in Carcosa, the city of the King.

“Is there a guard?”

No. We can’t do this, human. He will be angry.

“He’s already going to torture us.”

Human…

“Arthur. My name is Arthur Lester. And he already did torture us, though it wasn’t anyone’s fault.” His stomach twisted; arms and legs, snapping, the burn of internal bleeding—he would not forget.

I will help you if you agree.

“To what?”

I will be whole someday. If we do this, we find a way to reunite with the King. If you do this in good faith, Arthur Lester, I will help you escape, and then I will ensure you are not punished further.

Wow. Wow. That was… a lot.

If they got away, Arthur had absolutely no plans to ever come back. But if he admitted that… “Deal. It makes sense to me.”

All right. And Yellow just believed him, and sounded so relieved. Out the window. We will land in some bushes. This is not a prison. The King clearly didn’t expect you to escape.

So this felt not great. Yellow believed him so quickly. It was like lying to a kid. “Then surprise’ll be good for him,” said Arthur, trying to tell himself that this would work, that Yellow would, like John, be glad he left the King in time. And somehow, by a miracle, he pulled himself up and out that window.

He did indeed fall into a bush. It was prickly. “Ow! Fuck!” Arthur was barefoot. Whatever he was wearing was thin, and probably not suited for public. “What time of day is it?” he said, thrashing in annoyingly pokey leaves.

We shouldn’t do this. Yellow sounded scared. He’ll imprison us truly. We’re making everything worse.

“Worse than murdering my friend? Than breaking my bones? Than chaining me up and ripping my arms out of their sockets?”

Yellow was silent.

“Please tell me where to go.” He had to convince him. Getting away with the piece of the King in Yellow was the only revenge he could have for John’s loss. “You’ve already got my word. Tell me where the fuck to go.”

Ahead. Yellow’s voice was heavy. The city slopes down from the palace to the lake. There are many roads out of Carcosa, but the least populated will be across the lake.

“Got a plan, then,” said Arthur.

Why did he leave me? Yellow whispered.

And Yellow had healed him. And Yellow was so weirdly naive. And—“He didn’t want to. He had to. Kayne gave him no choice. Kayne said you can’t be taken back. That’s what he said.”

Why?

It was a heartbroken wail. Maybe they’d both lost someone, in a way, though Arthur could not emotionally connect losing John to losing the King in Yellow . “I don’t know.” He stayed crouched by the bush while Yellow processed, and began working the bandage around his neck loose. He could feel the scar there, edges rough, skin weirdly rubbery, and his stomach turned again—but the wound was well and truly closed. Yellow had healed him.

A tiny twinge of guilt squirmed deep inside, like a parasite.

All right, Yellow said. All right, Arthur Lester. Proceed straight. It’s very early in the morning; I don’t know what happened, but no one is around.

Arthur knew what happened. Kayne happened. He said nothing.

Our best bet is going to be slipping down to the lake and stealing a small boat and getting across the water. If you truly want to be free, Arthur Lester, then you need to enter the Dreamlands and run for all you’re worth.

This would not be heading home.

Arkham. His job. His office. His life. His… dead partner.

He couldn’t face Parker dead. He could not. And if he went home, the King would know where he was. The Dreamlands really were his only chance right now. “All right. Thank you.” Trusting—though this was not John— he walked.

Left just a little. Good. Yellow sounded as sad as if his best friend had died.

Arthur knew a thing or two about that. “You have my left arm.”

And your left leg. I can feel them both.

“Okay. We can make this work.”

If you say so.

“He wanted you, Yellow.” Arthur stumbled slightly. He wasn’t sure what the hell was wrong with him, giving this reassurance. “It wasn’t a choice.”

I believe you.

“You don’t sound like it.” Arthur kept walking, trusting.

He hurt us. You’re right. It didn’t matter that I was innocent; he hurt us. Oh, the heartbreak in that voice… I guess that leaves me with you.

“Go spit,” said Arthur.

You. Are you my vessel, or am I your fire?

What the fuck did he do with that? “Let’s go with partners.”

Maybe I prefer pet.

“Fuck that. We’re partners. We’ll figure the rest out as we go. You’ll make it home, and so will I. But we have to get out of here first.”

All right. Yellow believed him, oh gods, Yellow believed . You’re about to reach a road. It leads straight down to the docks. We have no chance of staying unseen on the way there, but we can disappear once we’re across the lake.

Oh, they would stay unseen. Yellow didn’t know the city was empty, denizens murdered. Arthur wouldn’t tell. He would also, if he had any say in the matter, never fulfill his promise. “Thank you.”

Keep moving forward. I hope you’re ready to row.

Kayne had called it his fighting spirit. Arthur just called it getting away. Would this work? He had no idea. Would it punish the King enough for John’s loss? Impossible to say. Did this give him a chance to get his own back against the fucking King, no matter how it ended? Yes. Yes, it did. Even if it required sacrificing the voice in his head, whatever that meant.

Though he… hesitated. Yellow had healed him. Arthur couldn’t seem to shed the guilt. This was complicated. “Warn me before we get to the water.”

Don’t worry, Arthur Lester, said Yellow, soft and sad. I will.

They’re gone.

Hastur inspected the twisted, ruined shackles, the metal torn like taffy.

I told you he’d outsmart you.

“Fuck,” said the King in Yellow, low. “This fool wouldn’t leave you behind. Why would he do this?”

John knew that was true, and stayed silent. Why had Arthur left? It was for the best, he told himself. It was . Even if it felt like it undid all he suffered, staying apart, fighting himself.

“I will find him,” warned the King. “And when I do, everything he went through to this point will seem like play. ”

I told you you should have been kind to him. He’s worth it, you fuck.

The King did not answer that. The thoroughly ruined bush showed Arthur’s initial exit, but from there, he’d left no sign. Arthur was lost in the Dreamlands.

The King would find him. It was a matter of time, and then—

Fuck you, said John.

“We will fix this problem,” warned the King, and floated out into the city to seek for any hint of where the thief might have gone.

#malevolent au #malevolent podcast #malevolent fic #arthur lester #yellow malevolent #john malevolent #kiy malevolent

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honourablejester · 2 years

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One thing I really love in D&D books are the trinket tables. They’ve so many tiny little suggested stories in them.

Some fun/curious ones from the Horror Trinkets Table from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft:

04 A spinning top carved with four faces: happy, sad, wrathful, and dead (there’s a bunch of demonic divination items on the list, they’re awesome)

08 A pocket watch that runs backward for an hour every midnight (this seems like it would wreak havoc on its ability to actually keep time, unless it automatically reverts to normal time at 1am)

11 A wineskin that refills when interred with a dead person for a night (this seems … extremely unhygienic, maybe don’t drink that, this is how you get turned into ghoul and it’s your own fault)

15 A lantern with a black candle that never runs out and that burns with green flame (handy and atmospheric, I approve)

17 A little black book that records your dreams, and yours alone, when you sleep (handy!)

26 Pallid leather gloves crafted with ivory fingernails (shades of Carcosa and an immediate bundle of nope!)

27 Dice made from the knuckles of a notorious charlatan (I love haunted knucklebone dice, it’s an extremely specific folklore thing that I absolutely adore)

33 A music box that plays by itself whenever someone holding it dances (lonely and rather beautiful)

34 A walking cane with an iron ferrule that strikes sparks on stone (for when you want to feel like Old Scratch walking into a joint)

44 An old doll made from a dark, dense wood and missing a hand and a foot (something about that strikes me not as creepy but as well-loved)

47 A tiny spool of black thread that never runs out (not creepy at all and in fact ridiculously handy)

58 A finger that's taken root in a small pot (disgusting, but I kind of enjoy the necrobotany vibes?)

66 A moist coral figurine of a lamprey with arms, legs, and a bipedal stance (absolutely horrifying, nope, absolutely not!)

75 A single high-heeled, iron shoe (fairytales tell us definitely do not dance with that on)

76 A candle made from a severed hand (no, no, make that a magic item, I want a proper Hand of Glory damn it!)

80 A sheet with two eyeholes cut in it (… yes perfect)

95 An ornate but empty reliquary made of silver and fractured glass (look I *like* the ‘weary gothic world mourning the remains of hope’ vibe, okay? I like my mournful paladins and tired clerics taking broken faith and using to help anyway. Seal the cracked glass with more silver and fill this with holy water and fight on regardless. Have it glow faintly with the ghost of hope and bring light to a grey world as best it can)

Maybe it’s just because I studied archaeology, but I really, really love how many stories an object can hold, and putting that in a fantasy setting only makes it more so. Who made them and why? Who used them and why? What changed them to make them the way they are? Were they loved, however creepy they are now? What did they mean to those who made and used and owned them? I love the idea of trinkets so much!

#d&d #horror #trinkets #van richten's guide to ravenloft #objects #i love the stories they suggest

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gcslightsarchive · 5 years

Text

they’d been here what felt like one hundred times before. late night texts turned into soft sighs and desperate touches in some secret location hidden away from the rest of the world, usually in a questionable motel or the cab of carcosa’s pickup truck. their affair should have come to an end several meetings back, but neither of them had made any solid attempts to stop. perhaps neither of them really wanted it to end, or maybe they were both just too weak to face the fact that what they were doing was truly wrong. either way, the song remained the same; a never ending cycle of lust and guilt that showed no signs of stopping.

and this night was no different, carcosa sitting up in bed after yet another rendezvous, dingy motel sheets covering her tiny frame. she had been silent for awhile now, the inevitable guilt of sleeping with her best friend’s love slowly spilling out of the box where she’d so carefully tucked it away. “you thought ‘bout breakin’ it off with her any?” her words broke the silence, catching even herself off guard. “or are we jus’ supposed to keep on doin’ this ‘til she dumps ya first? or worse, you wind up gettin’ hitched?” she picked nervously at the black paint that coated her nails. “c’mon. even you’ve gotta realize that what we’re doin... it’s pretty fucked up.” // @pvnchdrunk based on this. ( 1/2 )

#pvnchdrunk #( ch: carcosa lusk. )#( carcosa threads. )#hope this is okay!!#let me know if u want something different or need anything changed

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missdulcerosea · 4 years

Text

excerpt from “lineage of yellow”

in which camilla learns of some strange things...

“The Yellow Sign.”

Naotalba savors the words, ripe blackberries in his mouth. Long, oak-brown hair falls against his yellow cloaked back. He repeats the words with a smile, and as he does the puzzle pieces start to click into place.

That seal, Camilla thinks. The ones on the letters Mother burned. The Yellow Sign - Naotalba - he-

“Is everything alright, Naotalba?” Thale asks. Naotalba greets him with a smile sharp as broken, splintered porcelain.

“Alright? Everything is perfect - or at least nearly so if you hadn’t taken me away from the Yellow Hand all those years ago.”

“Naotalba,” Camilla says, “The only reason we took you away was because they had kidnapped you. Hurt you.”

“You only did more harm than you did good. If you had just let me be-”

“Again and again we have tried to tell you that that was not what happened.”

Naotalba stares up at Camilla from his chair. She wishes he wouldn’t look at her so - at least Aldones and Castellan look alive with that glint in their eyes. But in Naotalba’s dark brown eyes there is nothing.

Quiet. Then at last he says:

“The King in Yellow was kind enough to pay visit to my dreams while you took me away. He said in time he would send a sign - a herald that Carcosa is lost beyond repair. And he has visited our brother, too, in his dreams.”

Thale steadies himself against the chair with a trembling hand. “So-”

“It is an omen. An omen of things to come. An omen of when all will crumble in the grasp of the King in Yellow, the king of many names and non.”

He sinks into his chair.

“Our mother - Queen Cassilda of Carcosa - knows of this. She has seen the Yellow Sign on the letters that heralded our king’s servant. Did you not see her burn them?”

And still, she does not listen, Camilla reflects. Because she’s fighting fate. She doesn’t want the threads to unravel. That’s why she sent the Stranger away. All seems well. Aldones has recovered. Life is normal. My life is normal.

But then comes the thread through the eye of the needle, weaving a garish yellow into the tapestry.

The Stranger might come back.

#writing #writeblr #amwriting #wip #my wip #wip: lineage of yellow #the king in yellow

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aion-rsa · 5 years

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Best New Fantasy Books in September 2019

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Here are the best new fantasy books in September 2019.

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There's so much to look forward to in our speculative fiction future. Here are some of the fantasy books we're most excited about and/or are currently consuming...

Join the Den of Geek Book Club!

Best New Fantasy Books in July 2019

Dragonslayer by Duncan M. Hamilton

Type: First book in trilogy Publisher: Tor Books Release date: 7/2/19

In his magnificent, heroic, adventure fantasy, Dragonslayer, Duncan M. Hamilton debuts the first book in a fast-moving trilogy: a dangerous tale of lost magics, unlikely heroes, and reawakened dragons.

Once a member of the King's personal guard, Guillot dal Villevauvais spends most days drinking and mourning his wife and child. He’s astonished—and wary—when the Prince Bishop orders him to find and destroy a dragon. He and the Prince Bishop have never exactly been friends and Gill left the capital in disgrace five years ago. So why him? And, more importantly, how is there a dragon to fight when the beasts were hunted to extinction centuries ago by the ancient Chevaliers of the Silver Circle?

On the way to the capitol city, Gill rescues Solène, a young barmaid, who is about to be burned as a witch. He believes her innocent…but she soon proves that she has plenty of raw, untrained power, a problem in this land, where magic is forbidden. Yet the Prince Bishop believes magic will be the key to both destroying the dragon and replacingthe young, untried King he pretends to serve with a more pliable figurehead. Between Gill’s rusty swordsmanship and Solene’s unstable magic, what could go wrong?

Read our interview with Dragonslayer author Duncan M. Hamilton.

An Evolution of Dragon Stories: Checking in With Dragonslayer.

Dragonslayer is now available to purchase.

Best New Fantasy Books in June 2019

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

Type: Novel Publisher: Tor Books Release date: 6/4/19

Ivy Gamble was born without magic and never wanted it.

Ivy Gamble is perfectly happy with her life – or at least, she’s perfectly fine.

She doesn't in any way wish she was like Tabitha, her estranged, gifted twin sister.

Ivy Gamble is a liar.

When a gruesome murder is discovered at The Osthorne Academy of Young Mages, where her estranged twin sister teaches Theoretical Magic, reluctant detective Ivy Gamble is pulled into the world of untold power and dangerous secrets. She will have to find a murderer and reclaim her sister―without losing herself.

Read Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

Read more about Magic for Liars here.

Unraveling by Karen Lord

Type: Standalone Novel Publisher: DAW Release date: 6/4/19

Dr. Miranda Ecouvo, forensic therapist of the City, just helped put a serial killer behind bars. But she soon discovers that her investigation into seven unusual murders is not yet complete. A near-death experience throws her out of time and into a realm of labyrinths and spirits. There, she encounters brothers Chance and the Trickster, who have an otherworldly interest in the seemingly mundane crimes from her files.

It appears the true mastermind behind the murders is still on the loose, chasing a myth to achieve immortality. Together, Miranda, Chance, and the Trickster must travel through conjured mazes, following threads of memory to locate the shadowy killer. As they journey deeper, they discover even more questions that will take pain and patience to answer. What is the price of power? Where is the path to redemption? And how can they stop the man—or monster—who would kill the innocent to live forever?

Read Unraveling by Karen Lord

The Fire Opal Mechanism by Fran Wilde

Type: Second novella in the Jewel Series Publisher: Tor.com Release date: 6/4/19

Jewels and their lapidaries and have all but passed into myth.

Jorit, broke and branded a thief, just wants to escape the Far Reaches for something better. Ania, a rumpled librarian, is trying to protect her books from the Pressmen, who value knowledge but none of the humanity that generates it.

When they stumble upon a mysterious clock powered by an ancient jewel, they may discover secrets in the past that will change the future forever.

Read The Fire Opal Mechanism by Fran Wilde

Spine of the Dragon by Kevin J. Anderson

Type: First book in the Wake the Dragon series Publisher: Tor Books Release date: 6/4/19

Two continents at war, the Three Kingdoms and Ishara, are divided by past bloodshed. When an outside threat arises―the reawakening of a powerful ancient race that wants to remake the world―the two warring nations must somehow set aside generational hatreds and form an alliance to fight their true enemy.

Read Spine of the Dragon by Kevin J. Anderson

The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey

Type: Standalone novel Publisher: Harper Voyager Release date: 6/11/19

From the bestselling author of the Sandman Slim series, a lush, dark, stand-alone fantasy built off the insurgent tradition of China Mieville and M. John Harrison—a subversive tale that immerses us in a world where the extremes of bleakness and beauty exist together in dangerous harmony in a city on the edge of civility and chaos.

The Great War is over. The city of Lower Proszawa celebrates the peace with a decadence and carefree spirit as intense as the war’s horrifying despair. But this newfound hedonism—drugs and sex and endless parties—distracts from strange realities of everyday life: Intelligent automata taking jobs. Genetically engineered creatures that serve as pets and beasts of war. A theater where gruesome murders happen twice a day. And a new plague that even the ceaseless euphoria can’t mask.

Unlike others who live strictly for fun, Largo is an addict with ambitions. A bike messenger who grew up in the slums, he knows the city’s streets and its secrets intimately. His life seems set. He has a beautiful girlfriend, drugs, a chance at a promotion—and maybe, an opportunity for complete transformation: a contact among the elite who will set him on the course to lift himself up out of the streets.

But dreams can be a dangerous thing in a city whose mood is turning dark and inward. Others have a vision of life very different from Largo’s, and they will use any methods to secure control. And in behind it all, beyond the frivolity and chaos, the threat of new war always looms.

Read The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

Type: Novella Publisher: Tor.com Release date: 6/18/19

There is a Wild Man who lives in the deep quiet of Greenhollow, and he listens to the wood. Tobias, tethered to the forest, does not dwell on his past life, but he lives a perfectly unremarkable existence with his cottage, his cat, and his dryads.

When Greenhollow Hall acquires a handsome, intensely curious new owner in Henry Silver, everything changes. Old secrets better left buried are dug up, and Tobias is forced to reckon with his troubled past―both the green magic of the woods, and the dark things that rest in its heart.

Read Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall

Type: Novel Publisher: Ace Release date: 6/18/19

Upon returning to the city of Khelathra-Ven after five years fighting a war in another universe, Captain John Wyndham finds himself looking for somewhere to live, and expediency forces him to take lodgings at 221b Martyrs Walk. His new housemate is Ms. Shaharazad Haas, a consulting sorceress of mercurial temperament and dark reputation.

When Ms. Haas is enlisted to solve a case of blackmail against one of her former lovers, Miss Eirene Viola, Captain Wyndham is drawn into a mystery that leads him from the salons of the literary set to the drowned back-alleys of Ven and even to a prison cell in lost Carcosa. Along the way he is beset by criminals, menaced by pirates, molested by vampires, almost devoured by mad gods, and called upon to punch a shark.

But the further the companions go in pursuit of the elusive blackmailer, the more impossible the case appears. Then again, in Khelathra-Ven reality is flexible, and the impossible is Ms. Haas' stock-in-trade.

Read The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall

Best New Fantasy Books in May 2019

Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

Type: Standalone novel Publisher: Tor.com Release date: 5/7/19

Meet Roger. Skilled with words, languages come easily to him. He instinctively understands how the world works through the power of story.

Meet Dodger, his twin. Numbers are her world, her obsession, her everything. All she understands, she does so through the power of math.

Roger and Dodger aren’t exactly human, though they don’t realise it. They aren’t exactly gods, either. Not entirely. Not yet.

Meet Reed, skilled in the alchemical arts like his progenitor before him. Reed created Dodger and her brother. He’s not their father. Not quite. But he has a plan: to raise the twins to the highest power, to ascend with them and claim their authority as his own.

Godhood is attainable. Pray it isn’t attained.

Read Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

Empire of Grass by Tad Williams

Type: Second book in the Last King of Osten Ard series Publisher: DAW Release date: 5/7/19

Set in Williams' New York Times bestselling fantasy world, the second book of The Last King of Osten Ard returns to the trials of King Simon and Queen Miriamele as threats to their kingdom loom...

The kingdoms of Osten Ard have been at peace for decades, but now, the threat of a new war grows to nightmarish proportions.

Simon and Miriamele, royal husband and wife, face danger from every side. Their allies in Hernystir have made a pact with the dreadful Queen of the Norns to allow her armies to cross into mortal lands. The ancient, powerful nation of Nabban is on the verge of bloody civil war, and the fierce nomads of the Thrithings grasslands have begun to mobilize, united by superstitious fervor and their age-old hatred of the city-dwellers. But as the countries and peoples of the High Ward bicker among themselves, battle, bloodshed, and dark magics threaten to pull civilizations to pieces. And over it all looms the mystery of the Witchwood Crown, the deadly puzzle that Simon, Miriamele, and their allies must solve if they wish to survive.

But as the kingdoms of Osten Ard are torn apart by fear and greed, a few individuals will fight for their own lives and destinies—not yet aware that the survival of everything depends on them.

Read Empire of Grass by Tad Williams

The Witchwood Crown by Tad Williams Review

Mythic Journeys: Retold Myths and Legends, Edited by Paula Guran

Type: Short story collection Publisher: Night Shade Release date: 5/14/19

Award-winning editor Paula Guran presents a diverse reprint anthology collecting classic myths and legends, retold by today’s top fantasy writers.

The Native American trickster Coyote . . . the snake-haired Greek Gorgon Medusa, whose gaze turned men to stone . . . Kaggen, creator of the San peoples of Africa . . . the Holy Grail of Arthurian legend . . . Freyja, the Norse goddess of love and beauty . . . Ys, the mythical sunken city once built on the coast of France . . . Ragnarok, the myth of a world destroyed and reborn . . . Jason and the Argonauts, sailing in search of the Golden Fleece . . . Myths and legends are the oldest of stories, part of our collective consciousness, and the source from which all fiction flows. Full of magic, supernatural powers, monsters, heroes, epic journeys, strange worlds, and vast imagination, they are fantasies so compelling we want to believe them true.

This new anthology compiles some of the best modern short mythic retellings and reinvention of legend from award-winning and bestselling authors, acclaimed storytellers, and exciting new talent, offering readers new ways to interpret and understand the world. Adventure with us on these Mythic Journeys . . .

Contributors include: Neil Gaiman, Ann Lecki, Yoon Ha Lee, and Ken Liu.

Read Mythic Journeys: Retold Myths and Legends

A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay

Type: Standalone novel Publisher: Berkley Release date: 5/14/19

International bestselling author Guy Gavriel Kay's latest work is set in a world evoking early Renaissance Italy and offers an extraordinary cast of characters whose lives come together through destiny, love, and ambition.

In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. Danio Cerra's intelligence won him entry to a renowned school even though he was only the son of a tailor. He took service at the court of a ruling count—and soon learned why that man was known as the Beast.

Danio's fate changed the moment he saw and recognized Adria Ripoli as she entered the count's chambers one autumn night—intending to kill. Born to power, Adria had chosen, instead of a life of comfort, one of danger—and freedom. Which is how she encounters Danio in a perilous time and place.

Vivid figures share the unfolding story. Among them: a healer determined to defy her expected lot; a charming, frivolous son of immense wealth; a powerful religious leader more decadent than devout; and, affecting all these lives and many more, two larger-than-life mercenary commanders, lifelong adversaries, whose rivalry puts a world in the balance.

A Brightness Long Ago offers both compelling drama and deeply moving reflections on the nature of memory, the choices we make in life, and the role played by the turning of Fortune's wheel.

Read A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay

Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs

Type: Eleventh book in the Mercy Thompson series Publisher: Ace Release date: 5/14/19

My name is Mercedes Athena Thompson Hauptman, and I am a car mechanic. And a coyote shapeshifter. And the mate of the Alpha of the Columbia Basin werewolf pack. Even so, none of that would have gotten me into trouble if, a few months ago, I hadn’t stood upon a bridge and taken responsibility for the safety of the citizens who lived in our territory. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. It should have only involved hunting down killer goblins, zombie goats, and an occasional troll. Instead, our home was viewed as neutral ground, a place where humans would feel safe to come and treat with the fae. The reality is that nothing and no one is safe. As generals and politicians face off with the Gray Lords of the fae, a storm is coming and her name is Death. But we are pack, and we have given our word. We will die to keep it.

Read Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs

Read more: Patricia Briggs Does Werewolf Romance Right

An Illusion of Thieves by Cate Glass

Type: Book one in the Chimera series Publisher: Tor Books Release date: 5/21/19

A ragtag crew with forbidden magic must pull off an elaborate heist and stop a civil war in An Illusion of Thieves, a fantasy adventure from Cate Glass.

In Cantagna, being a sorcerer is a death sentence.

Romy escapes her hardscrabble upbringing when she becomes courtesan to the Shadow Lord, a revolutionary noble who brings laws and comforts once reserved for the wealthy to all. When her brother, Neri, is caught thieving with the aid of magic, Romy's aristocratic influence is the only thing that can spare his life―and the price is her banishment.

Now back in Beggar’s Ring, she has just her wits and her own long-hidden sorcery to help her and Neri survive. But when a plot to overthrow the Shadow Lord and incite civil war is uncovered, only Romy knows how to stop it. To do so, she’ll have to rely on newfound allies―a swordmaster, a silversmith, and her own thieving brother. And they'll need the very thing that could condemn them all: magic.

Read An Illusion of Thieves by Cate Glass

Lent by Jo Walton

Type: Standalone novel Publisher: Tor Books Release date: 5/28/19

From Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-winning Jo Walton comes Lent, a magical re-imagining of the man who remade fifteenth-century Florence―in all its astonishing strangeness

Young Girolamo’s life is a series of miracles.

It’s a miracle that he can see demons, plain as day, and that he can cast them out with the force of his will. It’s a miracle that he’s friends with Pico della Mirandola, the Count of Concordia. It’s a miracle that when Girolamo visits the deathbed of Lorenzo “the Magnificent,” the dying Medici is wreathed in celestial light, a surprise to everyone, Lorenzo included. It’s a miracle that when Charles VIII of France invades northern Italy, Girolamo meets him in the field, and convinces him to not only spare Florence but also protect it. It’s a miracle than whenever Girolamo preaches, crowds swoon. It’s a miracle that, despite the Pope’s determination to bring young Girolamo to heel, he’s still on the loose…and, now, running Florence in all but name.

That’s only the beginning. Because Girolamo Savanarola is not who―or what―he thinks he is. He will discover the truth about himself at the most startling possible time. And this will be only the beginning of his many lives.

Read Lent by Jo Walton

Best New Fantasy Books in April 2019

Holy Sister by Mark Lawrence

Type: Third and final book in the Book of the Ancestor series Publisher: Ace Release date: 4/9/19

The searing conclusion of the thrilling epic fantasy trilogy that saw a young girl trained by an arcane order of nuns grow into the fiercest of warriors...

They came against her as a child. Now they face the woman.

The ice is advancing, the Corridor narrowing, and the empire is under siege from the Scithrowl in the east and the Durns in the west. Everywhere, the emperor’s armies are in retreat.

Nona Grey faces the final challenges that must be overcome if she is to become a full sister in the order of her choice. But it seems unlikely that she and her friends will have time to earn a nun’s habit before war is on their doorstep.

Even a warrior like Nona cannot hope to turn the tide of war.

The shiphearts offer strength that she might use to protect those she loves, but it’s a power that corrupts. A final battle is coming in which she will be torn between friends, unable to save them all. A battle in which her own demons will try to unmake her.

A battle in which hearts will be broken, lovers lost, thrones burned.

Read Holy Sister by Mark Lawrence

Read our full review of Holy Sister by Mark Lawrence

Read our review of Red Queen by Mark Lawrence

Read our review of Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence

No Country for Old Gnomes: The Tales of Pell by Delilah S. Dawson & Kevin Hearne

Type: Seconds book in the Tales of Pell Publisher: Del Rey Release date: 4/16/19

War is coming, and it’s gonna be Pell.

On one side stand the gnomes: smol, cheerful, possessing tidy cardigans and no taste for cruelty.

On the other side sit the halflings, proudly astride their war alpacas, carrying bags of grenades and hungry for a fight. And pretty much anything else.

It takes only one halfling bomb and Offi Numminen’s world is turned upside down—or downside up, really, since he lives in a hole in the ground. His goth cardigans and aggressive melancholy set him apart from the other gnomes, as does his decision to fight back against their halfling oppressors. Suddenly Offi is the leader of a band of lovable misfits and outcasts—from a gryphon who would literally kill for omelets to a young dwarf herbalist who is better with bees than with his cudgel to an assertive and cheerful teen witch with a beard as long as her book of curses—all on a journey to the Toot Towers to confront the dastardly villain intent on tearing Pell asunder. These adventurers never fit in anywhere else, but as they become friends, fight mermaids, and get really angry at this one raccoon, they learn that there’s nothing more heroic than being yourself.

In No Country for Old Gnomes, Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne lovingly tweak the tropes of fantasy and fairy tales. Here you’ll find goofy jokes and whimsical puns, but you’ll also find a diverse, feminist, and lighthearted approach to fantasy that will bring a smile to your face and many fine cheeses to your plate.

Read No Country for Old Gnomes by Delilah S. Dawson & Kevin Hearne

All My Colors by David Quantick

Type: Novel Publisher: Titan Books Release date: 4/16/19

It is March 1979 in DeKalb Illinois. Todd Milstead is a wannabe writer, a serial adulterer, and a jerk, only tolerated by his friends because he throws the best parties with the best booze. During one particular party, Todd is showing off his perfect recall, quoting poetry and literature word for word plucked from his eidetic memory. When he begins quoting from a book no one else seems to know, a novel called All My Colors, Todd is incredulous. He can quote it from cover to cover and yet it doesn't seem to exist.

With a looming divorce and mounting financial worries, Todd finally tries to write a novel, with the vague idea of making money from his talent. The only problem is he can't write. But the book - All My Colors - is there in his head. Todd makes a decision: he will "write" this book that nobody but him can remember. After all, if nobody's heard of it, how can he get into trouble?

As the dire consequences of his actions come home to both Todd and his long-suffering friends, it becomes clear that there is a high - and painful - price to pay for his crime.

Read All My Colors by David Quantick

The Unicorn Anthology by Peter S. Beagle & Jacob Weisman

Type: Anthology Publisher: Tachyon Publications Release date: 4/19/19

Unicorns: Not just for virgins anymore. Here are sixteen lovely, powerful, intricate, and unexpected unicorn tales from fantasy icons including Garth Nix, Peter S. Beagle, Patricia A. McKillip, Bruce Coville, Carrie Vaughn, and more. In this volume you will find two would-be hunters who enlist an innkeeper to find a priest hiding the secret of the last unicorn. A time traveler tries to corral an unruly mythological beast that might never have existed at all. The lover and ex-boyfriend of a dying woman join forces to find a miraculous remedy in New York City. And a small-town writer of historical romances discovers a sliver of a mysterious horn in a slice of apple pie.

Read The Unicorn Anthology by Peter S. Beagle & Jacob Weisman

Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse

Type: Second book in the Sixth World series Publisher: Gallery/Saga Press Release date: 4/23/19

Kai and Caleb Goodacre have been kidnapped just as rumors of a cult sweeping across the reservation leads Maggie and Hastiin to investigate an outpost, and what they find there will challenge everything they’ve come to know in this action-packed sequel to Trail of Lightning.

It’s been four weeks since the bloody showdown at Black Mesa, and Maggie Hoskie, Diné monster hunter, is trying to make the best of things. Only her latest bounty hunt has gone sideways, she’s lost her only friend, Kai Arviso, and she’s somehow found herself responsible for a girl with a strange clan power.

Then the Goodacre twins show up at Maggie’s door with the news that Kai and the youngest Goodacre, Caleb, have fallen in with a mysterious cult, led by a figure out of Navajo legend called the White Locust. The Goodacres are convinced that Kai’s a true believer, but Maggie suspects there’s more to Kai’s new faith than meets the eye. She vows to track down the White Locust, then rescue Kai and make things right between them.

Her search leads her beyond the Walls of Dinétah and straight into the horrors of the Big Water world outside. With the aid of a motley collection of allies, Maggie must battle body harvesters, newborn casino gods and, ultimately, the White Locust himself. But the cult leader is nothing like she suspected, and Kai might not need rescuing after all. When the full scope of the White Locust’s plans are revealed, Maggie’s burgeoning trust in her friends, and herself, will be pushed to the breaking point, and not everyone will survive.

Read Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse

Read our inteview with author Rebecca Roanhorse.

Read our list of 2018's Best Fiction Books.

Best New Fantasy Books in March 2019

The Municipalists by Seth Fried

Type: Standalone novel Publisher: Penguin Books Release date: 3/19/19

In Metropolis, the gleaming city of tomorrow, the dream of the great American city has been achieved. But all that is about to change, unless a neurotic, rule-following bureaucrat and an irreverent, freewheeling artificial intelligence can save the city from a mysterious terrorist plot that threatens its very existence.

Henry Thompson has dedicated his life to improving America’s infrastructure as a proud employee of the United States Municipal Survey. So when the agency comes under attack, he dutifully accepts his unexpected mission to visit Metropolis looking for answers. But his plans to investigate quietly, quickly, and carefully are interrupted by his new partner: a day-drinking know-it-all named OWEN, who also turns out to be the projected embodiment of the agency’s supercomputer. Soon, Henry and OWEN are fighting to save not only their own lives and those of the city’s millions of inhabitants, but also the soul of Metropolis. The Municipalists is a thrilling, funny, and touching adventure story, a tour-de-force of imagination that trenchantly explores our relationships to the cities around us and the technologies guiding us into the future.

Read The Municipalists by Seth Fried

The Perfect Assassin by K.A. Doore

Type: First book in the Chronicles of Ghadid series Publisher: Tor Books Release date: 3/19/19

A novice assassin is on the hunt for someone killing their own in K. A. Doore's The Perfect Assassin, a breakout high fantasy beginning the Chronicles of Ghadid series.

Divine justice is written in blood.

Or so Amastan has been taught. As a new assassin in the Basbowen family, he’s already having second thoughts about taking a life. A scarcity of contracts ends up being just what he needs.

Until, unexpectedly, Amastan finds the body of a very important drum chief. Until, impossibly, Basbowen’s finest start showing up dead, with their murderous jaan running wild in the dusty streets of Ghadid. Until, inevitably, Amastan is ordered to solve these murders, before the family gets blamed.

Every life has its price, but when the tables are turned, Amastan must find this perfect assassin or be their next target.

Read The Perfect Assassin by K.A. Doore

Miranda in Milan by Katharine Duckett

Type: Novel Publisher: Tor Books Release date: 3/26/19

With Miranda in Milan, debut author Katharine Duckett reimagines the consequences of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, casting Miranda into a Milanese pit of vipers and building a queer love story that lifts off the page in whirlwinds of feeling.

After the tempest, after the reunion, after her father drowned his books, Miranda was meant to enter a brave new world. Naples awaited her, and Ferdinand, and a throne. Instead she finds herself in Milan, in her father’s castle, surrounded by hostile servants who treat her like a ghost. Whispers cling to her like spiderwebs, whispers that carry her dead mother’s name. And though he promised to give away his power, Milan is once again contorting around Prospero’s dark arts.

With only Dorothea, her sole companion and confidant to aid her, Miranda must cut through the mystery and find the truth about her father, her mother, and herself.

Read Miranda in Milan by Katharine Duckett

Best New Fantasy Books in February 2019

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons

Type: First in A Chorus of Dragons series Publisher: Tor Books Release date: 2/5/19

Jenn Lyons channels The Kingkiller Chronicles in this epic fantasy debut that follows a boy thief called Kihrin as he goes from growing up in the slums of Quur to finding out he may be the long-lost son of a cruel prince to a slave to the potential key to a world-changing prophecy to a prisoner awaiting his death.

The Ruin of Kings is structured as a conversation between a prisoner, Kihrin, and his jailor, a shapeshifting demon named Talon. In their alternating chapters, they tell the story of how Kihrin came to be in prison, awaiting his potential death, and how the fictional world they are a part of includes gods, dragons, krakens, sorcerers, and more. Read our full review of this page-turning fantasy epic here.

Read The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

Type: First in trilogy Publisher: Riverhead Books Release date: 2/5/19

It's becoming more common to see fantasy worlds and stories that use something other than the western world as inspiration for a new fictional universe. Black Leopard, Red Wolf is one such book. Written by Marlon James, the author of A Brief History of Seven Killings, the novel follows Tracker, a man tasked with finding a missing boy. Though Tracker usually works alone, he teams up with some other hired help in his pursuit, becoming part of a team that has its fair share of secrets, leading to the biggest mystery of all: who is the boy and why have they been tasked with tracking him?

The screen adaptation rights for Black Leopard, Red Wolf have already been snatched up by Michael B. Jordan and Warner Bros., so get a head start on reading this book before the adaptation.

Read Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

read more: Binti & The Wonders of Nnedi Okorafor

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark

Type: Novella Publisher: Tor Books Release date: 2/19/19

Set in an alternate Cairo in which humans live alongside otherworldly beings, The Haunting of Tram Car 015 follows Agent Hamed al-Nasr and his new partner Agent Onsi. They work for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, tasked with dealing with any problems that might arise between the magical and non-magical folks. When the two agents are tasked with subduing a possessed tram car, they find it a much more complicated task than it first appears. I mean.... you know how it is.

Read The Haunting of Tram Car 015

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

Type: Standalone novel Publisher: Orbit Release date: 2/26/19

Ann Leckie's debut, Ancillary Justice, remains one of the most talked about science fiction novels (not to mention science fiction author debuts!) of the last decade. Leckie is back, with The Raven Tower, a fantasy story set in a land known as Iraden. Iraden has been protected for centuries by the god Raven, who appoints a human ruler to carry out his command. When the land is overtaken by attack and the Raven's rule challenged, a warrior named Eolo works to restore the power of the throne to its rightful ruler. We will follow Leckie to any genre.

Read The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Type: First in trilogy Publisher: Bloomsbury Release date: 2/26/19

With whispers of "the Nameless One"—aka the scariest dragon of them all (OK, I'm in!)—returning after 1,000 years, Queen Sabran of the House of Berethnet is in danger of losing power. Things are further complicated by Sabran's current lack of an heir. Luckily, Sabran has lady-in-waiting Ead Duryan on her side. Ead Duryan uses her secret powers to protect the queen. This tale of female warriors working to save the world may be long, but, from all accounts, is more than worth the commitment.

Read The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samatha Shannon

Best New Fantasy Books in January 2019

In An Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

Type: Fourth in series Publisher: Tor Books Release date: 1/8/19

Seanan McGuire's brilliant Wayward Children novella series, which began with the excellent Every Heart a Doorway, continues in In An Absent Dream. Here, we learn the story of Katherine Lundy, the group therapy leader at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. As a child, the academic Katherine wanfers into the Goblin Market and immediately falls in love with this land of logic and reason. When Katherine realizes she will soon be unable to return to the Goblin Market, she makes a desperate bargain to keep her place in this world. #bewaretheconsequences

Read In An Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire

read more: 9 Fantasy Books Set at Magical Boarding School

The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden

Type: Third in trilogy Publisher: Del Rey Release date: 1/8/19

The Russian folklore-inspired Winternight trilogy comes to a close with The Winter of the Witch, which sees a medieval Russia in chaos, overrun by demons with Moscow working to recover from disaster. We continue to follow 17-year-old Vasya, a girl who can see and speak with spirits. As the country moves toward war under the rule of The Grand Prince, Vasya is guided into the midnight realm of Polunochnitsa, or Lady Midnight, where she meets her ancestors, the mythical firebird Pozhar, and a mushroom spirit called Ded Grib. While I have yet to read this trilogy, by all accounts this is a satisfying conclusion to a fantastic trilogy.

Read The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden

The Iron Codex by David Mack

Type: Second in Dark Arts series Publisher: Tor Books Release date: 1/15/19

While Midnight Front was set in the lead-up to and during World War II, The Iron Codex picks back up in the midst of Cold War paranoia in 1954, with Cade Martin chasing ghosts in Southeast Asia, Briet Segfrunsdóttir heading the Pentagon's top-secret magickal warfare program, and Anja Kernova (with the help of a magickal book known as The Iron Codex) hunting fugitive Nazi sorcerers in South America. It all leads to Bikini Atoll, where the Castle Bravo nuclear tests are scheduled to begin...

Read The Iron Codex by David Mack

Marked by S. Andrew Swann

Type: First in series Publisher: DAW Release date: 1/15/19

I love a good supernatu

rally-charged backstory mystery! This one centers on Detective Dana Rohan, a cop with a near-perfect arrest rate who can't remember how she got the mark on her back... the mark that allows her to travel through time and to alternate dimensions. The ability helps with her job investigating crimes, but when she is approached by a homeless man warning that the Shadows are coming, Dana is thrown into a much larger and even more dangerous multi-world adventure.

Read Marked by S. Andrew Swann

The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

Type: Second in trilogy Publisher: Harper Voyager Release date: 1/22/19

We were very into The City of Brass, S.A. Chakraborty's 2017 fantasy novel about Nahri, a young woman living in 18th-century Cairo, and Ali, a prince living in the djinn city of Daevabad. In the first book, the two both struggle to stay alive, keep the ones they love safe, and use their power in moral ways—they are only partially successful. The Kingdom of Copper picks up five years later, and sees Nahri in a loveless and childless marriage with Ali's older brother, and Ali in exile and presumed dead in the desert. A return to a fantastical world that is just as satisfying and complex (if not moreso) as the trilogy's first installment.

read more: A Conversation with S.A. Chakraborty

Read The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

What new speculative fiction books are on your radar? Let us know in the comments below or over at the Den of Geek Book Club!

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.

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The Lists Kayti Burt

Sep 11, 2019

Fantasy Books

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asklotarasarrin · 5 years

Text

(From this thread)

@echo-of-carcosa if it’s separate from an actual game session then more power to you. If that’s something fun for you cool.

It starts being a problem when people insist on it being allowed in game sessions even when it’s mechanics bullshit. Your monkey cleric shouldn’t be able to grapple gods to death at level 5. Having played with people like that it gets really unfun for the rest of the party really fast. Playing table top games is a group experience, not a “who can min max the best” competition and that seems to be where people confuse breaking the game- and ruining the experience for everyone else- and fun.

#out of command #too many assholes play tablet top and its so tiring

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workingonmoviemaps · 5 years

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Feature Friday

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

When Rachel Chu travels to Singapore with her boyfriend to attend a wedding she learns he comes from an insanely rich family who may not approve of him dating someone like her. Crazy Rich Asians was filmed in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and elsewhere in Malaysia.

The Young family encounters some racist hotel clerks at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel in Penang, Malaysia who become concerned when they learn that the Youngs have recently purchased the hotel.

Nick invites Rachel out to eat at the BLVD House in Kuala Lumpur (posing as New York) where has asks her to come to Singapore for the wedding.

Nick is recognized at the restaurant leading to a text thread around Singapore including Merlion Park, Esplanade Park, Gardens by the Bay, and Marina Bay Sands.

Word eventually reaches the woman at book club taking place in the Young hillside villa and Eleanor decides she needs to call her son. This was filmed at the Be-landa House, a unique home built into the hillside for a Dutch family outside Kuala Lumpur.

Rachel and her mother go out shopping for clothes at Musse Boutique in Kuala Lumpur posing as a NYC vintage shop.

Rachel is surprised when Nick and she are personally greeted upon their arrival at the airport. This is Kuala Lumpur International Airport posing as JFK.

Astrid visits a high-end jewelry store to spend exorbitant amounts of money. A restaurant in The St. Regis Kuala Lumpur was transformed into this store.

Nick and Rachel arrive in Singapore’s Changi Airport where they are greeted by Araminta & Colin, the two betrothed.

The four of them go out to the Newton Food Centre where Rachel gets a chance to try Singapore’s beloved food experience.

During their time in Singapore Rachel and Nick stay in the Presidential Suite at the famous Raffles Hotel.

Rachel visits her friend Peik Lin at her eccentric family’s ostentatious mansion located at 4 Cluny Park.

Peik Lin drives Rachel to the pre-wedding party, turning off Eng Neo Avenue onto Fairways Drive.

They arrive at the massive and secluded Tyersall Park, home of the Young family, and join in the festivities. The original Tyersall Park in Singapore has been demolished or fallen into ruin, so the production filmed at Carcosa Seri Negara, a pair of colonial-era mansions that currently house a museum inside the Perdana Botanical Gardens in Kuala Lumpur.

The bachelor and bachelorette parties both depart from a private hanger at the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Kuala Lumpur.

The bachelorette party takes place at the Four Seasons Resort on Langkawi island in northwest Malaysia.

Just to the north of the resort in Pulau Gua Bay, Nick and Colin escape the ridiculous original bachelor party to hang out alone and drink beers. While much of this location was real, CG was used to conceal parts of the resort nearby.

Peik Lin comforts Rachel at Humpback after the confrontation with Eleanor during the dumpling making party.

Rachel makes a splash at Colin & Araminta’s wedding being held in Chijmes, a 19th-century church restored and turned into an events venue.

On the way to the wedding, Astrid gets into a fight with Michael and he storms out of the car just before Anderson Bridge.

The wedding reception featuring hundreds of people and fireworks is held in the Supertree Grove at Gardens by the Bay.

Rachel arranges to meet Nick in Merlion Park to talk about what happened at the reception and leaves after he tries to propose.

Eleanor goes to her regular mahjong game to find Rachel waiting and they have a tense conversation. This is a combination of two locations, the exterior being at the Yen Yakiniku restaurant in Singapore, and the interior is Cheong Fatt Tze (aka The Blue Mansion) in Penang.

Rachel and Nick celebrate the engagement with a huge party on the pool deck of Marina Bay Sands.

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fragilelcngs-blog · 6 years

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INTRODUCING…. me.

hey, babes !! my name’s dee, and i’m very new around here. i’m twenty-three, live in the est, and use she/her pronouns. i’m a moody aquarius, chaotic neutral, and infp for those of you that are into literally anything that will tell you about your personality like me. i’m legit so painfully shy but i’m so down for plots, threads, and ships of all kinds so please bring me whatever your little hearts desire !!! i’m so stoked to be here and write with y’all it’s INSANE, and my ims are ALWAYS open for screaming about plotting, sharing headcanons, or making friends !! i only have two triggers that i feel should be mentioned and those are anything involving heavily graphic or explicit mentions of self-harm or pedophilia. otherwise, i’m good to go but please let me know if i miss something and don’t tag or give a content warning for any of your triggers !!!

INTRODUCING…. the muses.

HEATHER VINCENT, phoebe tonkin, ( 26 ) + screwtape by cane hill.

JANIE FOLEY, holland roden, ( 21 ) + disco tits by tove lo.

CARCOSA LUSK, lucy hale, ( 23 ) + ain’t no grave by johnny cash.

MICKEY ST. CLAIR, lynn gunn, ( 24 ) + soon be gone by boots.

VERONICA ST. CLAIR, carlson young, ( 21 ), + hotter than hell by dua lipa.

EVE RAYNER, holland roden, ( 27 ), + when the levee breaks by led zeppelin.

VALERIA PADILLA, eiza gonzalez, ( 27 ), + down by stone temple pilots.

MOLLY STARRETT, madelaine petsch, ( 22 ), + ultraviolence by lana del rey.

BRITNEY STARRETT, katherine mcnamara, ( 20 ), + come as you are by nirvana.

NIKKI FREY, maggie lindemann, ( 19 ), + baby i’m dead inside by kopps.

INTRODUCING…. wanted plots.

oh wOW alright so i’m gonna be basic for a second and tell y’all that i fucking love angst. i mean, fluff’s great and all, but my heart truly lies with the gritty, toxic, dysfunctional, and fucked up. i’m also a huge fan of anything having to do with crime so if you ever wanna do any crime plots come my way !!! it’s also no secret that i’m a very big fan of age gaps ( obvs not with minors because GROSS ). but seriously, give me everything. friends or exes or enemies to lovers, two toxic people that know they should walk away from each other but can’t live without the other, criminals on the run, any kind of criminal or bad influence with pure characters that have hearts made of gold, characters that go through something horrible together and become each other’s lifeline because they’re the only ones that understand, secret and / or taboo relationships, slowburn and unrequited love, exes that reconnect under literally any kind of circumstances, etc. i’ll link some good examples of my favorite plots so you can get a feel for what i’m describing !!!

x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x are all some ( hopefully ) pretty good examples !!

i’m also always down for plots away from the romantic side of things. i LOVE giving my characters ride or dies, enemies, exes, family, or anything else you can think of. the more unique the connection the better !! legit one of the best relationships i ever played out in an rp was between carcosa and another girl. totally platonic, but it was such a rich and fucked up dynamic that was full of toxicity and power struggles and manipulation and backstabbing, but also drunken benders and risky adventures and late night confessions, and those were easily some of the funnest threads and plotting sessions i’ve ever had. so please, like i said, give me all of the connections.

INTRODUCING…. the favorites.

i’m totally gonna break this down into quick lil sections because i have a lot of favorite things lmao so here you go !!!

SHIPS

tbh i have so many favorite crackships so pls don’t even get me started on those ?? but i love both f/f and m/f ships and have absolutely zero preference when it comes to which one we do. i’m also a huge fan of poly ships and i’ll never say no to having multiple ships/plots/threads with the same person. i’m very much a multi-ship kinda gal so as long as it’s cool with my writing partner(s) i tend to assume each ship is in it’s own little verse unless otherwise discussed. though i’m totally down for and love ic drama so don’t be afraid to approach me about ships existing in the same timeline !! i’m a fan of everything from the sickly sweet and fluffy to the fucked up, toxic, and angsty so just give me all of the ships because tbh i’m a slut for ‘em.

FACES

alright so some of my favorite faces to play are holland roden, lucy hale, phoebe tonkin, eiza gonzalez, madelaine petsch, katherine mcnamara, dove cameron, halsey, emma greenwell, maggie lindemann, emmy rossum, madison davenport, lynn gunn, vanessa morgan, carlson young, deborah ann woll, and maggie siff. some of my favorite ladies to play against are zoey deutch, lindsey morgan, kat graham, vanessa morgan, dua lipa, eliza taylor, adelaide kane, candice patton, dove cameron, arden cho, chloe bennet, vanessa hudgens, danielle campbell, ashley benson, margot robbie, blake lively, ginny gardner, angelina jolie, emeraude toubia, meghan markle, and zoe kravitz. some of my favorite fellas to play against are charlie hunnam, jon bernthal, dj cotrona, charles melton, manny montana, oscar isaac, andy biersack, andrew lincoln, chris evans, bob morley, garrett hedlund, tom hardy, jason momoa, tyler posey, michael b. jordan, frank grillo, jeffrey dean morgan, dom sherwood, jensen ackles, skeet ulrich, and froy gutierrez.

EXTRAS

just for fun, here’s a mismatched list of some of my favorite things across the board !! snakes, glitter, the colors purple, teal, and black, dogs, iced coffee, horror movies, outlaw bikers, drag queens, classic rock, vinyl records, bath and body works, geodes, mexican food, pulp fiction, the moon and stars, tattoos, neon lights, iasip, succulents and cacti, richard siken, candles, myths and folklore, metallic lipstick, sons of anarchy, and concerts.

INTRODUCING…. future plans.

tbh i hope to get a lot of things out of this group. i’m hoping to find a safe space to let my creativity run wild and a home for my muses where they can constantly grow and develop through interactions with other characters, in-depth plots, and my own exploration the more i write with them. i’m also hoping this will be a good opportunity to make friends, since i’m very much a loner and some of the best people i’ve met have been through the world of roleplaying. i definitely want to push my muses and challenge myself to be a better writer here, and i hope to help out those of you that are seeking the same things in your journey !! i’m already planning on adding some more muses in the very near future ( because i have ZERO impulse control ), and as far as future plans for plots go i want EVERYTHING. romantic, enemies, exes, familial, platonic, and literally anything in between. i would definitely love some slowburn ships where our characters don’t just fall in love overnight. i’d also be so down for exploring the dynamics of age gap relationships. not just the taboo aspect of them but like the differences in generations, the potential repercussions, the ups and downs and the times where they’re not sure if they can make it work.

INTRODUCING…. why i said fuck it.

i mean who hasn’t felt like saying fuck it to the rpc ??? i’ve been rping for several years, about six of those years have been on tumblr and as much love as i can have for this community at times, most days it’s just fucking exhausting. i feel like it’s mostly become a very toxic, judgmental, and honestly shallow place. i hate the expectation groups put on members these days with activity checks and whatnot because honestly who even has the time to write every single day ????? or y’know sometimes we just don’t feel like it ?????? i know for me personally between my mental health and irl responsibilities i just don’t have the time or energy to be on every two days. and plus a lot of them are cliquey af or die in a week or are riddled with petty drama so i tend to avoid them altogether. i joined the indie community in hopes of rping on my terms and while i def feel like that was a step in the right direction, it’s still a very exclusive community at times and i’ve had difficulty fitting in. there’s still a lot of ugliness towards female ocs or muns that exclusively play females and tbh i’m over it ??? i decided to give this group a try because i love the idea of the indie format but in a group, making it easier to plot with people and put yourself out there. tl;dr i decided to say fuck it because the community’s gone downhill and i needed a change.

#fckit:task001 #( dee you gangly uncoordinated b*tch / ooc. )#i have to censor my own ooc tag bc otherwise my posts don't show up in the tags rip #anyway i'm def gonna do the second task and get my intro posts up for my muses in the next couple of days #in the mean time it's so nice to meet y'all and i'm v excited to write with you!!!

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paintagram · 6 years

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Twin suns sink - Detail. For the Deluxe illustrated edition of The King in Yellow, published @arc_dream_publishing, you can order it here: https://ift.tt/2KBT9sp The King in Yellow surely will arrive by boat to Carcosa, at the sunset of the twin suns. In magical tradition, thresholds are places of power, thus the threshold of day and night as the setting for this image. The King in yellow always struck me as a book that threads on the threshold, it leaves you in an in between space with its brief descriptions of the play, and how it affects its characters. It moved me to create suggestions, objects to populate that great unknown territory, and its my sincere wish that these illustrations helps you too in that journey. I created this illustration right after Cassilda's Song, hence the raven of Cassilda delivering the song to the figure. Of course, there is no such thing in the text, but again, its always about expand and explore where Chambers work will take us. The figure of the King as a bird is a nod to one of my favorite painters, Stephen Kasner, who uses birds as symbols of perfections. The feathers on the back are those of a peacock, because of the carnaval... KIDDING! The peacock holds a special meaning in alchemy, but more of that later. #art #darkart #raven #yellowsign #CallofCthulhu #digitalart https://ift.tt/2IzlVbI

#Instagram #art #darkart #illustration

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monstersdownthepath · 6 years

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Theme Finale: Xhamen-Dor, the Inmost Blot

CR 26

Neutral Evil Gargantuan Plant

Pathfinder Adventure Path: Strange Aeons: What Grows Within, pg. 86~87

Meet the final boss of Strange Aeons, the Great Old One Xhamen-Dor. The Inmost Blot, the Star Seed, an infection born of Carcosa’s deepest pits and Hastur’s greatest hungers.

Yes, while Hastur may indeed be the driving force behind the adventure path, with his original plans ruined, most of the heavy lifting is shunted onto Xhamen-Dor, encountered personally no less than twice in the adventure, though in both cases it’s not quite itself... But even its corpse is a significant enough threat to pose as a climactic boss fight. The regrowing incarnation fought at the conclusion of the Strange Aeons adventure path is ‘only’ CR 19, but here we will go over the stats of the Great Old one at its highest.

Xhamen-Dor is a creature of rot, decay, and infection. While The King In Yellow as a play sends out the signal that a civilization is ‘ripe,’ sometimes Hastur is too impatient and demands something be served rare. In this case, Xhamen-Dor is hurled at a targeted planet, spreading across its surface to consume all intelligent life before returning to Carcosa with the combined essence of all the world’s inhabitants. This method of parasitism is much, much less efficient, less ‘nutritious’ for Carcosa as it were, than using The King In Yellow. Though Xhamen-Dor swallows up whole worlds at a time, without the taint of aristocratic depravity and nihilistic decadence to flavor the meal, an entire planet is a bag of chips compared to the 3-course dinner spread of a single, ‘properly seasoned’ city.

Xhamen-Dor makes up for this by bringing lots of chips and stocking the shelves even when Hastur isn’t hungry, to make sure he’s got something to snack on when he is, and I’ve stretched this metaphor as far as it can go, so ANYWAY!

Anyone who learns both Xhamen-Dor’s name and nature--that is, they become aware that Xhamen-Dor is a parasite in service of Carcosa--has a chance of becoming exposed to its Contagious Lore. There is a 1% chance each year that a tendril of the Blot’s essence will finally find its way to any creature that’s thought of it, touching down and allowing it to use Infected Dreams on them. Anyone that succumbs to the Nightmare spell-like ability of the Blot becomes infected with a fungal blight equal parts imagined and real, the Seeded Infestation disease that slowly drains Constitution and cannot be cured without powerful magic. With this, Xhamen-Dor can infect multiple worlds across multiple planes at the same time, waiting for one of them to finally call out to it.

Anyone who succumbs to Seeded Infestation’s Constitution drain rises in 1d4 rounds as a hideous Seeded creature provided their soul was powerful enough (translated: Charisma was high enough) for the Blot to deem them worth assimilating. Seeded creatures are equal parts plant and undead and retain all the skills and intelligence they had in life, but now have fungal tendrils lashing from their wounds and orifices as they search for new victims to expose to Seeded Infestation and spread the Blot’s influence until it can be called down completely to begin and end the assimilation process.

Once summoned, the Inmost Blot is a force to be reckoned with. Its quartet of lashing tendrils deal 3d8+18 damage and can hit from 20 feet away, and anyone struck suffers constriction damage as they’re pulled closer to the pillar of fungal tissue that is Xhamen-Dor so it can deliver a painful, debilitating bite. In addition to dealing 4d8+18 damage, the Blot’s teeth transfer Dread Decay to the victim, a savaging of (thankfully short-lived) fungal filaments that drains their Strength and Constitution by 2d6 points each, and even making the save against Dread Decay merely lessens this drain to 2 points to both scores. Anyone whose Strength is drained to 0 is rendered unconscious, instantly affected by Nightmare, and potentially exposed to Seeded Infestation, and even if the victim manages to escape, Xhamen-Dor can target them forevermore with its Nightmare to try and infect them. Still, that’s a mercy compared to what happens if they’re drained to 0 Constitution: They’re absorbed mind, body, and soul into Dor’s bulk, impossible to save or resurrect without Miracle or Wish. It is through this method that Dor claims most of its victims to transfer them to Carcosa, devouring its own Seeded minions and exposing them to Dread Decay to assimilate them. Even they aren’t immune to the fungal destruction.

Speaking of fungus, though! The Blot is absolutely surrounded by fungal filaments! Dor’s Entangling Shroud is a 20-foot cloud of nearly microscopic threads of fungal matter that work together to sway aside incoming projectiles, imposing a 50% miss chance to all ranged weapon attacks targeting anything in that 20 foot reach. In addition to that, anyone ending their turn in Dor’s reach must make a DC 37 Reflex save or be entangled by the shroud, restricting their movement and making them vulnerable to its other attacks. Victims must make this save every single time they end a turn in the shroud, much like how they must also make a save versus Xhamen-Dor’s Unspeakable Presence every round--while less directly punishing than, say, Hastur or Chtulhu’s, anyone within 300 feet of Xhamen-Dor must save every single round or become nauseated for 1d4 rounds, then sickened for 2d4 rounds after. Without immunity to mind-affecting effects or nausea, this essentially translates to permanent paralysis, victims unable to do anything but take move actions until they overcome the nausea.

Unlike most other Great Old Ones, whose defeats merely feel like minor impediments, Xhamen-Dor’s death actually has a point due to its death stopping Carcosa from claiming another world. Killing the horror will not instantly undo what it’s done, but upon death the quasi-real core of Dor fires itself back into space, ripping 2d6 Charisma out of everyone nearby as it takes a parting gift. All its surviving Seeded creatures will still exist and must be hunted down, but Dor cannot be called back until A) It crashes into a new planet and restores itself over time, or B) One of the Seeded travels back to Carcosa and sacrifices itself to serve as a new vessel (they do still retain their intelligence, remember, and this includes spellcasting prowess). Until one of those things happens, Dor’s essence floats freely through space and cannot be called down by the rituals of the Seeded.

... Though this doesn’t protect anyone from being infected by Infected Lore, potentially starting a new Seeded uprising elsewhere and potentially accelerating its rebirth. So long as knowledge of Xhamen-Dor exists somewhere in the multiverse, there will always be fungus among us.

Xhamen-Dor, thankfully, has stats online.

#Theme Week 9 #CR 26 and up #Monster Spotlight #Pathfinder #dungeons and dragons

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barlemusic · 4 years

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Guten (#avantgarde) Morgen 🌞 #KLANGFORSCHUNG 15.11.2020 https://www.mixcloud.com/ribi/klangforschung-15112020/ 🤘 #experimental #coldwave #darkambient #abstract #ambienttechno #darkelectro #electro #synthwave #EBM #industrial *** 1. Denial Of Service - dr manhattan 2. Panic Scenery - mountains of madness 3. Geistform - pi10.4 4. Max Durante - mondo violento 5. Obscure Formats - scare tactics 6. Monolake - alu minimum 7. 6th Circle - lost 8. Headless Horseman - sand mountain 9. Polygonia - transparent creatures 10. Adam X - standing the test of time 11. Vertical Spectrum - midnight poison 12. Alex Banks - siren call 13. Cabaret Voltaire - the power (of their knowledge) 14. Regis - manbait (restructured) 15. Snowbeasts + Solypsis - the ultimatum 16. NN - deception 17. Denial Of Service - a fine, new mother now 18. Carrier - threads 19. 6th Circle - blight 20. Panic Scenery - signs of carcosa 21. Maedon - vorsicht 22. Geistform - pi10.1 23. Regis - masterside 2 (remastered) 24. Adhémar - see the light through the leaves 25. Blessed are the Hearts that Bend - kaal 26. Koraal - la casa del volcán 5 27. Blinkhorn - woods (day) 28. Monolake - gantt exodus 29. Verge - hope 30. Calogero Aquilina - low tide 31. Dyl - 1.7 32. Nawie - perennial (at Hake Cape Hill) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHo-5rPJ7Fs/?igshid=sz59bbx15hf4

#avantgarde #klangforschung #experimental #coldwave #darkambient #abstract #ambienttechno #darkelectro #electro #synthwave #ebm #industrial

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armsinthewronghands · 7 years

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Timeline of the Zak Wars

OP:

October 15th 2008 – Zak Starts His Blog, It's called 'Playing D&D With Porn Stars. You can see the opening post here;

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/hi.html

Archive;

http://archive.is/i44G7

Act One.

The Long Build Up/The Sex Wars

Feb 2010 to Dec 2013

This probably has roots in forum arguments in the past but it enters the public record in February 2010 in the Canon Puncture Incident and proceeds through to the Desborough Rape Threat Accusations of December 2013.

This period is characterised by the relatively long periods between each incident and the fact that opponents and arguments don't always carry over or fold into the next incident. Alienation and anger build up slowly, are sometimes diffused, but don't go away.

Most are triggered by arguments over sex and responses to Zaks gaming group (mainly women, mainly models).

Canon Puncture Incident - Zak defends his group from condescending comments.·

Hyung Tae Kim Incident - Zak argues about the validity of sex in art.·

The Maxim Article - Zak defends his group again, from accusations that their public profile is bad for gaming.·

The Carcosa Thread - This starts off about sexual violence in the game in question.·

The Math Skills Fight - Zak defends his player, is accused of misogyny.·

The Numenera Succubus Incident - Again, triggered by the presence of sexual materials in the game.·

The James Desborough Rape Threat Accusation - Desborough angers many of the same people with his arguments about the validity of rape in games, is then accused of making rape threats.

The tl;dr for all of this:

Zak S is beyond the shadow of a doubt the target of a long-running smear/harassment campaign from conservative gamers that’s been really successful because it plays on the fears of would-be progressive ones.

The campaign against him is mostly from “goons” (their own nickname for themselves) from the troll site Something Awful and from disgruntled members of the semi-allied “storygame” community who have issues with sexuality in games.

This is especially strange because Zak is an outspoken advocate of pretty much every progressive political position, his game group is mostly queer women including trans women, the company he most often works with--LotFP--has the most diverse staff in RPGs and the RPG movement it’s part of--the OSR--is the most diverse in independent RPGs. There are nerds--especially nerds who have a problem with sexuality--who have a problem with this.

Back to the OP:

February 2010 – The Canon Puncture Incident

The hosts of the Canon Puncture Podcast talk about Zaks game with his group. They say some things that Zak regards as condescending towards the girls in the group, Zak requests an apology and the hosts apologise. This gets spoken about on story-games.com and Zak comes in to describe the situation. You can read that thread here;

http://story-games.com/forums/discussion/11540/d-d-with-porn-stars-and-canon-puncture

Archive;

https://archive.is/13HKO

February 11

2011 – The Hyung Tae Kim Incident

Anna Kreider makes an argument against the art of Hyung Tae Kim, you can read it in full here;

https://donotlink.it/Q0Ek

Archive;

https://archive.is/zJBbm

Zak disagrees and the two of them get into it. Zak calls her a prude. Later, on March 10, 2015, Kreider posts her own chronology of her interactions with Zak, you can find it below.

I've been asked to point out that Zak wasn't invited into this thread, he just turned up, which is true, he hasn't been invited into any of these threads, but neither has anyone else? They are almost all public posts or they wouldn't be available to link here. This has been described as a scary incident to me.

Well, take a look for yourself.

December 2011 – The Maxim ArticleThe US magazine Maxim carries an article about Zak and his group. You can read the article itself here;

http://www.maxim.com/women/playing-dungeons-and-dragons-porn-stars

Archive;

https://archive.is/2cbyr

An argument breaks out over representation. Much of this happens on G+ and has subsequently been deleted. You can read a transcript of that (by Zak) here;

http://armsinthewronghands.tumblr.com/post/148473329613/filamena-young-attacks-the-dd-wporn-stars-girls

Archive;

https://archive.is/Iv58T

This was the best evidence I could find of the origins of an important disagreement that, like everything in this chronology, forms resentments and hatreds that pile on into the next thing. If anyone has any publicly available links describing or showing what happened then let me know.

February 2012 – 'Confessions of a Dungeon Master' thread on Storygames,This is an interesting argument over a game transcript from 1980 by John Eric Holmes.

http://story-games.com/forums/discussion/15862/history-of-gaming-confessions-of-a-dungeon-master/p1

This starts out as being between Luke Crane, creator of Burning Wheel and Zak, a lot of classic behaviours are exhibited here and, like a lot of times in this chronology it's based on very different perceptions of, and reactions to, a potentially sexual situation.

Zaks opinion of Luke Crane comes up again four years later in an April 2016 post below.

February 29

2012 – Zak Encounters Something Awful

Zak says that the enmity between him and the Something Awful forum dates from this contact. In his own words;

“The backstory on this is an enmity with Something Awful beginning with me attempting to talk to them about their extreme statements here, years after noticing they took Mandy to task for having extension cords on her wish list”

Link to his post is here;

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/evil-mastermind-from-grognardstxt.html

Archive;

https://archive.is/X91ji

April 2012 – Zak Banned from Story-Games.com

Zak starts a thread about the 2nd Edition of Geoffery McKinneys Carcosa book. An argument breaks out about Anna Krieder, you can read the thread here;

http://story-games.com/forums/discussion/16258

Archive;

https://archive.is/sHVHL

September 27 2012 – The Math Skills Fight on Somethingawful

Zak argues with the posters on the something awful forum about dice notation. During this, he is accused of misogyny in regards to one of his players. You can read about that here;

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/apologizing-in-advance-for-this-hey.html

Archive;

https://archive.is/3OxeK

This adds to the enmity between Zak and Somethingawful which he has said is the engine behind the Tom Hatfield Failforward article in July 2014.

August 3rd 2013 – The Numenera Succubus Incident

Game Writer Monte Cook releases his game Numenera. This game includes rules for a Science Fiction Succubus. This causes a massive scandal and argument (google “Numenera Succubus”) especially on RPG.NET where the thread runs for 561 posts;

https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?697888-Numenera-W-T-F-Monte

August 5th 2013 – Zak Banned from RPG.NET

The succubus thread is what finally gets Zak permanently banned from rpg.net. You can read the exact wording of the ban here;

https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?698051-Infraction-for-Zak-S-17)-Permanent-Ban

He's banned by Ettin / Paul Matijevic, which is a name you will see several more times in this chronology.

It's interesting at this point to take a look at the different viewpoints. Here is part of the argument for the ban;

"You serially derail sexism threads with bad-faith arguments. You insist that nobody can ever make generalizations about anything ever (even when they're not), then post generalizations. You pull out arguments that boil down to "words don't mean things" like that's ever been constructive outside the philosophy forum. You're passive-aggressive and occasionally condescending, you post anecdotes as facts, you tell people that things can't be sexist because you know ~females~ who would disagree. You're convinced that you're always right and refuse to consider otherwise, or at least that's the only explanation I can think of for why you keep making up strawmen to dismiss people who disagree with you (cf. the pass-agg "stop assuming all women are alike!" business, asserting that feminist game bloggers and others who disagree with you must be "conservative", every time you say "Tipper Gore" ever). You don't take anything that isn't agreement for an answer, and will argue in circles about it instead of making the positive contributions you could be until you get bored or someone makes you stop."

And here, from the ban itself, is the mods example of Zak doing this;

"Nobody does this research or even seems to ask for it. And they should.

That this idea is going to turn away more women than it brings in has no experimental evidence behind it.

That this idea is going to make folks' attitudes towards women worse has no experimental evidence behind it.

So if your only case against the trope is Monte is being accidentally sexist (via effect) it's pretty much accusing someone of sexism with no evidence.

The idea that this is even a sexist trope in Monte's hands is based on claims it will have a sexist effect. It requires them to be true. It doesn't seem fair or right to do that in absence of anybody trying to test it.

Me, here's who I can test: 2000 blog readers and G+ people. 4 figures of "I Hit It With My Axe" fans on Facebook. Mandy's fans which are like in the 5 figures. We ask what keeps women from gaming: The data we get has nothing to do with content and everything to do with a social environment of weird controlling nerd boys.

But, hey, that's a biased sample

Somebody do some research, rather than assuming all women are like the ones in your environment.

The closest thing we have in terms of experimental data on anything moving the needle of gaming concerning women is the advent of Vampire which proves:

Tim Truman illustrations of sexy vampires --male and female--attract female gamers, a lot of whom want to dress like them.

Folks who run conventions and publishing companies and forums should try to do a better job by publishers, designers and women by actually basing claims about what is and isn't bad for the community on testing stuff."

August 5th 2013 – Zaks 'open letter' to rpg.netIn response to this perma-ban, Zak posts an 'open letter to the managers of rpg.net pointing out the alleged sexism of the ads that run on the site n contrast to the moderators attitudes;

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2013/08/open-letter-to-shannon-appelcline-and.html

Archive;

https://archive.is/sQpvo

If you look at the comments, waaay at the bottom you will see Shanna Germain, Monte Cook’s partner and co-creator talking about her reaction to the arguments made against her and the game.

This is also the first time I recall hearing the name Shannon Appelcline in this history. It will come up again in Febuary 2017. You will see that below.

December 16

2013 – The James Desborough Rape Threat Accusation

About 10 months prior to this Ben Lehman publicly accused James Desborough, RPG writer, of being "Someone who threatens their critics with rape". Several people +1 this post.

Desborough has been involved in culture-war arguments with this faction for some time and, in my opinion, persistently trolls them. The verbal violence between these groups is intense. Just google "james desborough in defence of rape" or any combination of those words to take a look at the shitstorm.

John Stavropoulus an RPG writer not aligned with Desborough’s faction or opinions, checks up on the claim that he threatened people with rape and finds no evidence to back them up.

Zak in his own words; “

The short of Jon's research is this accusation turned out to be bullshit even though 80some people +1ed it and it got shared all over the RPG internet.

Now Jon didn't name names, because he "doesn't want a witchhunt". Which is respectable. But I'm not Jon and I do think the RPG community as a whole deserves an apology from every single one of these people for confusing and distorting a very real and very serious issue of real violence that actually affects peoples' lives.”

He names names. Some people retract their +1’s, others do not. I’m not going to provide a link to that post but it is still up.

Zaks naming of names on this issue is used as evidence of harassment from this point on, in particular as evidence of him having a ‘list of enemies’.

Many of the people on this list appear elsewhere in this chronology, almost always as opponents of Zak I think. I can't really point out

who

because, like I said, its alleged to be an act of harassment or directing harassment towards those parties so if I repeat the same names then this chronology also becomes harassment.

December 17

2013 – Paul Ettin Recommends plussing the Rape Threat PostIn response to the above incident, Paul Ettin, RPG.NET moderator and Something Awful moderator recommends +1’ing the accusation against Desborough of making rape threats, he later also says he is fairly sure they aren’t true;

https://plus.google.com/115194116430466884350/posts/jefADpVt1rJ

Archive;

http://archive.is/mw3GC

.....................................................................................................

Act Two. The Summer of Hate

July 2014 to August 2014

As soon as it came out that Zak and Pundit were consultants on 5e, the attacks, accusations and counter-accusations come in thick and fast. This is a very short period of great intensity.

July 3rd 2014 – D&D 5e ReleasedThe new edition of D&D comes out and it is revealed that Zak and the RPGPundit are counted as consultants. This marks the beginning of Consultancygate.

July 4th

2014 – Ettin Admits Trolling This is from a chat log you can read here;

http://pastebin.com/nAzfnHbj

In lines 1174 10 1178 he admits that he does not think Desborough made rape threats but plussed the accusation anyway.

July 6th 2014 – Eric Haddock Asks For Evidence on G+ This is in a public thread so I hope he doesn't mind me putting it here;

https://plus.google.com/u/0/114899023370792587252/posts/c6aeERrjbAw

Archive;

http://archive.is/itg0y

This is relevant largely because of this quote from Sean Patrick Fannon (recently revealed to have been behind straightforwardly guilty of a large number of sexual harassment incidents) which gets a blog response from Zak later;

"The Internet is

screaming

with the harm caused, Zak; this very conversation wouldn't be happening if you'd not actively hurt and pissed off a great many people. You know this as well as I do. You've simply chosen to deafen yourself to it, demanding bullet point accounting that you can then dismiss or refute as you choose.

This is one of your tactics. You ask others to present evidence so you can play your lawyer roleplaying game. You have no actual interest in evaluating your actions or your impact. You are resolutely convinced you cannot possibly be wrong.

You are telling me what I need to know here. You don't acknowledge the harm you've caused, nor your capacity to cause it. Anyone who claims you've harmed them is Swine (or a liar, or worse). I am disinclined to spend any more time on this, since it is clear you've made your choice to stand on the treacherous ground of your own making.

As for being discredited... I think not. Your refusal to give even the slightest ground, to acknowledge even the minimal amount of flaw or fault, delineates your narcissistic arrogance in clear, bold colors.

There was an opportunity here, Zak. You pissed it away. You've discredited yourself, sir.

My credit will remain intact, thanks."

July 7th 2014 – My Defence of Zak As the abuse of Zak intensifies I write this post about him in defence;

http://falsemachine.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/zak-smith-is-not-homophobe.html

Archive;

https://archive.is/b73Rc

July 7

2014 – The Pigfucker Post

A few hours after I post my defence of Zak, I wake up to find this article in which he lays out his own (by my standards, highly aggressive) policy on internet arguments, and also accuses someone of (metaphorically) fucking a pig;

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/why-pigfuckers-fuck-pigs-and-people.html

Archive;

https://archive.is/9J0Ls

July 9th 2014 – The “The Internet is Screaming” Post This is really interesting. It kicks off with the quote from Sean Patrick Fannon above, then leads into an (I think we would have to say alleged) message from Zeea, who I think I recall from the rpg.net threads about Zak. I will include a little bit here;

So, I've spent a few hours doing as much research as I can, and I've talked to folks some more.

I'm not going to equivocate. People made accusations against you without proof, the accusations got amplified and distorted and repeated through the Telephone Game effect, and I bought into it when I shouldn't have.

................

I don't think anyone I talked to privately is intentionally lying about this. I think they believe it. But perceptions color memories, as does hearing the same event discussed by multiple people, and some of things look a bit stretched by this point. I can't base an opinion on stretchy-looking facts."

The whole thing is quite interesting and you can find it here;

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/the-internet-is-screaming.html

Archive;

https://archive.is/eXjOV

BUT

Zeea then (according to this post) retracts their statement based on the 'outing' controversy of July 26th (see below). She does not present new evidence, however.

July 2014 – The Olivia Hill Death Threats I think it’s about this time that Olivia Hill, game designer, claims that she has received death threats, including the names of her children’s teachers and phone calls to her address. These claims go on to become a major part of the case against Zak.

The only publicly available link I could find in which Olivia Hill repeats them is here in post 49 of this forum thread;

http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/general/off-topic/1050412-white-wolf-hires-zak-smith-im-out/page4

Archive;

https://archive.is/WjTp4

July 19th

2014 – The Scrap Princess Defence

Scrap Princess, who is trans and who is a co-creator with me of numerous projects (one of several trans creators directly linked to Zak) makes a public statement about the accusations (which is blissfully short.) here;

http://monstermanualsewnfrompants.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/just-for-record.html

Archive;

https://archive.is/jzaJG

July 21

2014 – Fred Hicks Weighs In Fred Hicks of Evil Hat productions makes a public G+ post in which he seems to support the allegations against Zak and apologises for not doing so earlier;

https://plus.google.com/+FredHicks/posts/SJHZ8Jc5SoW

Archive;

https://archive.is/KY554

July 26

2014 – The ‘Outing’ Incident

This is where Mandy, Zaks girlfriend talks about some of the trolls attacking her and Zak and uses a variety of openly available aliases for someone who later turned out to be trans. You can read the post here;

http://mandymorbid.tumblr.com/post/92910013775/more-reasons-people-found-to-hate-me

Archive;

https://archive.is/YyJyx

Like every archive in the chronology this link is only frozen from the point of this blog post.

Going forward, this incident forms one of the core pieces of evidence against Zak in future arguments. If you read someone saying that he outs trans people as a form of retaliation or revenge it is probably referring to this incident.

The case for the defence is that Zak and Mandy had argued with this person many times, knowing them only by non-gendered internet handles,and had no idea what gender they were, or that the handles referred to identities with different genders, when the two names were linked.

Zak in his own words;

“The person was not revealed to be trans until Wordmercenary/Tom Hatfield said she was. It was not public knowledge so how could Mandy or I have known?”

July 31st, 2014 – The Failforward Article This article is where the real bomb goes off. From this point on the situation massively intensifies. The article is shared by a very large range of people and is cited in nearly every major attack on Zak from this point on.

https://donotlink.it/VY0M

Archive;

https://archive.is/pi55s

You can read the clearest and most detailed debunking here;

https://www.seebs.net/log/articles/791/consultancygate-an-overview

Archive;

https://archive.is/pYOA8

July 31st, 2014 – The First Dongion Accusation

The Dongion is a blog posting sarcastic commentary about the RPG community. Zak has always claimed that he was not the writer of the Dongion but has said that he 'takes responsibility' for it based on the fact that it is in his blogroll along with many other blogs.

This tumblr reblog of the failforward article is the earliest I have been able to find that links the Dongion blog to Zak. It also links the Dongion to the Outing Incident.

https://donotlink.it/Wp95

August 2014 – “Get at him” Screencap

In August of 2014, in response to the spread of the Failforward article, Zak posts this. It is used in many subsequent attacks on him as evidence of his harassment campaign;

From the image; “hit him up? Correct him? Eat him?”

Zak – “get on twitter. tweet at him, ask questions, give links.I have a girlfriend in the hospital and 111 trolls to deal with please just either help or don’t but pls no silly nerd questions.”

Complete public text of the post (provided by Zak) here;

http://armsinthewronghands.tumblr.com/post/157572020868/complete-text-of-the-get-at-him-post

Archive;

https://archive.is/AUorP

August 2014 – “Destroy” Screencap

A few days later, in response to another article, Zak says this;

It should be noted that the link is aimed at a Metafilter thread and that you can go and look at this thread here, if you want to see if it was, in fact, destroyed:

http://www.metafilter.com/141806/Gender-inclusive-language-in-DandD-5e-raises-roleplaying-questions

Archive;

https://archive.is/iXics

Here (from Zak) is the full text of the post;

http://armsinthewronghands.tumblr.com/post/157572086858/complete-text-of-the-destroy-post

Archive;

https://archive.is/OLIFc

August 2014 – Zaks Response To The Failforward Article

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2014/08/how-dungeons-and-dragons-is-totally-not.html

Archive;

https://archive.is/ZKdRP

In his own words; “it debunks, with evidence, every single claim made up until that point in every single venue”

............................................................................................

Act Three; The Small Wars

January 2015 to August 2016

This is a series of spot fires or low-level conflicts based around particular incidents. During this period we get mutual counter-accusations, the Ennies walkout and the Magpie Games Incident. So far as I know the accusations against Zak don't widen in scope or intensify, but no-ones position changes. This is something like a 'Cold War' period.

Inexact Date but probably Jan 2015 – The Ettin Dongion Accusation

Ettin, the rpg.net mod, accuses Zak of running the Dongion, which he calls a harassment blog and which you can find on his tumblr;

https://donotlink.it/m0RJ

Archive;

https://archive.is/pyQ7J

A link to the blog is here;

http://thedongion.blogspot.co.uk/

January 1st 2015 – Mandys Chainmail Bikini Feminist Defence Zaks girlfriend Mandy makes a long post on her tumblr giving screencaps of various kinds of abuse she has received-- including rape threats--and talks in detail about the alleged outing of a trans person. You can read it here;

http://mandymorbid.tumblr.com/post/106857162470/im-a-chainmail-bikini-feminist-and-im-fucking

Archive;

http://archive.is/w8Wvr

March 10th

2015 – Anna Krieder Posts Her History With Zak

Anna Krieder makes this post;

https://donotlink.it/gGQo

Which is a chronology of her interactions with Zak from her perspective, so now you have a chronology in your chronology.

It's quite interesting and I recommend going through it if you have the time and if you want to see the whole fucking cavalcade through the eyes of someone on the opposite side. It's almost like the mirror/antiverse version of this post with many of the same events from an entirely different perspective.

Amongst other things it locates their first contact in January 2011 and the the opening of hostilities to the storygames thread in April 2012, not the Hyung Tae Kim Incident in February 2011 as I have above.

Unlike Zak, Kreider never defines harassment or tells her followers not to do whatever that would be to Zak.

March 13th, 2015 – The Sampat Mob Assault Accusation

A brief moment of levity here to give everyone a break. Elizabeth Sampat accuses Zak of riling up a “mob to the point that I was assaulted in front of witnesses.” The “mob” consisted of two women: Karolyn Gehrig, disabled activist, and Charlotte Stokely, adult film actress

Elizabeth SampatVerified account‏@twoscooters

 FollowMore I RTed a blog post about how Zak has pushed women out of the industry. Zak riled up mobs to the point I was assaulted in front of witnesses

Elizabeth SampatVerified account‏@twoscooters

· 13 Mar 2015

More I'm sure rational minds can discern which one of us is an abuser. And that's the last I'm going to say.

karolyn ⚔️gehrigVerified account‏@karolynprg · 13 Mar 2015 More Saying"this isn't a great time, but I really don't like what you're saying about my friends Zak & Mandy online" is not assault.@twoscooters2 replies1 retweet1 likeReply 2 Retweet 1 Like 1

Elizabeth SampatVerified account‏@twoscooters · 13 Mar 2015 More @karolynprg Wait, were you the one who dumped the drink on me, or was it your friend?1 reply0 retweets0 likesReply 1 Retweet Like

karolyn ⚔️gehrigVerified account‏@karolynprg · 13 Mar 2015 More @twoscooters nobody dumped a drink on you. A glass of water spilled a full 6 feet away & more spilled on her than you.

https://twitter.com/twoscooters/status/576553462562840576

Archive;

http://archive.is/zFIHj

This is Karolyn Gehrig, disabled activist

https://twitter.com/karolynprg

The other accused member of the mob was Charlotte Stokely. Adult film actress

https://twitter.com/char_stokely

August 2015 – Red and Pleasant Land Wins At The Ennies

Zaks book Red and Pleasant Land wins multiple awards at the Ennies. Stacy Dellorfano of Contessa, the feminist game organisation gives a speech to accept the award in his absence and a few people walk out in protest.

Having adopted a conscious policy that trying to profit of of being harassed was more efficient than trying to sue an entire internet subculture, on August 1st Zak documents the twitter response to his win here;

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-reaping-of-tears.html

Archive;

http://archive.is/l687z

August 4th, Kiel Chenier talks about that incident and about the abuse he got for supporting Zak here;

http://dungeonsdonuts.tumblr.com/post/125851772599/i-am-so-very-tiredtired-and-angry

Archive;

http://archive.is/wbYjp

October 20th 2015 – Zak Mocks Olivia Hills Views on Star Wars

In this post, Zak persistently mocks and argues against Olivia Hills views on the Star Wars franchise.

This has been described (in the comments below) as "a blatant attack on Olivia Hill, using screenshots of social media accounts that Hill has said she blocked Zak from."

http://archive.is/20151021233535/dndwithpornstars.blogspot.de/2015/10/the-fetid-shit-stink-of-right-wing.html?zx=ab04705888fd97b7

Zak's defence, from the comments;

"I am blocked from Olivia’s social media, it is still public information available to anyone not logged in.

Criticism is not harassment. Olivia Hills Star wars problem is she hadn't seen it whens he made his years worth of irrational accusations about it."

Both sides get deep into it in the comments of this post if you want to read more.

April 11th 2016 – "Why There's No Tabletop RPG Theory

In this post by Zak he goes further into his numerous and deep disagreements with the Storygames community.

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/why-theres-no-tabletop-rpg-theory.html

Archive;

http://archive.is/lEwEr

I was asked to bring this in becasue people think Luke Crane is misrepresented in this post, and in particular becasue of the request for people to contact Lukes friends which apparently people did try to do. Luke is directly quoted in the post.

It has stuff on Luke (half way down), Cam Banks, Ettin and a few other people. You can read one of the interactions with Luke Crane in a storygame thread entry for 2012 above.

August 26th

2016 – Zak Calls His Critics Psychotics

Also knuckle-draggers, edition-warriors and sociopaths. This is claimed to be an act of harassment by some (see the comments to this post). If you’ve read this far you know that simple namecalling has been done a lot by many parties on both sides. You can read it here;

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/3-dozen-psychotics-agree-go-buy-vornheim.html

Archive;

http://archive.is/IyQzs

July 26

2016 – The Magpie Games Incident

Mark Diaz Truman, one of the heads of Magpie Games and one of the few storygamers of color, a storygames publisher, writes an article about aspects of his gaming circles that trouble him. You can read it here;

http://www.magpiegames.com/2016/07/26/two-minutes-hate/

Archive;

http://archive.is/CDQkA

He is accused of defending Zak and therefore aiding a harasser. All the usual people arrive to do all the usual things.

Peoples responses and attitudes to this article become another form of contention which is carried forwards into future arguments. I mean, come on, if you've read this far you know how it works by now.

July 28th

2016 – The Invisible James Raggi Accusations

In this public thread by Mark Diaz Truman;

https://plus.google.com/+MarkDiazTruman/posts/2aRBa37wEtf

Someone accuses James Raggi, one of Zak’s publishers, of.. something? Then deletes the accusation. You can still see the replies to the ghost accusation but not the thing itself.

July 28th

2016 – Zak Talks About Mental Illness in the RPG Community

In this post Zak, without mentioning anyone specific, talks about how to talk to mentally ill people;

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/mental-illness-in-rpg-community.html

Archive;

http://archive.is/6S1d0

Despite having no names attached nor any claim anyone has disputed, this has been described, (in the comments below) as "an accusation that his critics fabricate and distort facts due to being mentally ill. I would argue this is a clear attack, and in the context of the previous posts can be understood as continued harrasment "

August 4th, 2016 – Zak on Anna Krieder

You've seen Anna Krieders chronology from March 10th 2015, now you get to read Zaks, equally long, response to that. And yes all of this is slowly killing me

http://armsinthewronghands.tumblr.com/post/148469806573/anna-kreider-wundergeek

Archive;

http://archive.is/CNj7B

..................................................................................................................

Act Four; We Eat Blood

Feb 2017 - Ongoing

Zak brings out a collaboration with White Wolf and all the old accusations are resurrected and combined with new ones.

February 17th 2017 - 'We Eat Blood' Begins

White Wolf announce that they have produced an interactive text game with Zak. Their announcement is here;

https://blog.white-wolf.com/2017/02/17/a-howl-for-our-bloody-writer-artists/

Archive;

https://archive.is/WGOMv

February 19th 2017 - The We Eat Blood rpg.net megathread

On discovering the news that Zak is working with White Wolf, outrage begins immediately. Numerous threads are started, the primary one on RPG.NET ;

https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?798635-necro-Whitewolf-Hires-Zak-Sabbath-and-Denies-Harassment

(I was banned from this thread).

The main charges against Zak are;

· That he is a known harasser of transwomen, gays, minorities etc.· That he used a false name on Reddit, impersonating Shannon Applecline, the owner of RPG.NET.· That he named one of the characters in the game, Avery, after one of his enemies.

'Known Harasser'

See everything in the above thread as evidence used by various parties.

The SAppelcline Situation

I remembered seeing the SAppelcline identity on Reddit multiple times, very often after a thread was pointed out by Zak on G+.

If you can't see these well, they are from here;

https://donotlink.it/QZ7E

I was bothered enough by this that I contacted Zak directly about it.

He gave me a response with enough detail to persuade me that it was likely true:

“

A fellow gamer in Los Angeles (who does not want to be harassed and so does not want their name mentioned) had a reddit account long before I did.

They posted totally mundane game opinions there. They did not use their account to talk up my work as has been claimed, nor did they ever claim to be Shannon Appelcline or post in a way that could remotely be mistaken for Shannon. These things are recorded, you don't have to trust me.

Why did they pick that screen name? Well, since Shannon Appelcline was responsible for so much of the harassment I and the rest of my game group experienced over the years, when they were picking a name I was like "SAppelcline" and they were like "Ha! Yeah!" the way you might name your dog Nixon. Lots of people have screen names like "illary Clinton" etc. It was a joke at my harassers expense, but not an attempt at impersonation.

Once in a while I'd be like "Are you on Reddit? Can you ask about...." something. Until I got eventually my own account.

The night my video game came out, this person was at my house. We were watching a movie on one computer and watching Reddit explode with harassment of me and Sarah Horrocks (my trans co author) on the other.

My friend and I were commenting and fact-checking the smear campaign Hill and the other Something Awful commenters were launching (within like hours of my game coming out) and passing the laptop back and forth.

There you go.

One more thing: There's a receipt for literally every single incident but this one. And in every case it objectively proves the people attacking me are lying or negligent in fact-checking before making attacks (equivalent evils). Often two or more of our harassers have mutually exclusive stories so literally at least one of them must be lying or wrong. After 6 years of absolutely provable harassment and smear campaign it seems silly people are worrying even a little about what I did rather than holding them to account for things they objectively and provably did for all that time. If you think this explanation is too thin? It’s still more than we’ve ever had from the folks making all these endless not just “thin” but actually-disproved claims. When does the burden shift to them defending themselves?

“

Although the SAppelcline identity neither claimed to be anyone in specific nor did it promote Zak’s own work despite those accusations having been made.

The Avery Situation

Zaks argument is that;

.This name was chosen with no particular reference to anyone real.·

.The only supposed opponent of his it could be named after is Avery Alder, the creator of Monsterhearts and they had no significant contact until the Magpie Games Incident, July 2016 and that wasn’t particularly hostile (especially compared to all the other people we’ve seen so far in this drama). He says the script for the game was finished and locked before that point.·

.He regards the Avery character as a hero in the game, someone witty and funny and cool who saves your life, it would make no sense for him to name her after an enemy as a supposed act of revenge.

.The Avery character is directly based on Zaks (trans) friend Bailey Jay, with her approval.

.The trans co-author (whom Zak suggested for the job) Sarah Horrocks both approved the text and aggressively defended the character.

I'll editorialise a little more than usual here. Claiming making a trans character a sketchy hyper-sexualised slut as an act of aggression seems a bit mad to me since Zak

a sketchy hyper-sexualised slut and so are most of the people he likes and he, and they, have all been pretty open in both speech and deed about how they think this is a pretty great way to live. It's a bit like saying the Pope wrote a book and condemned the villain by making them a

catholic

February 19th 2017 – Stacey Dellorfano Responds

Stacy Dellorfano, who runs the feminist Contessa event, responds to the accusations against Zak and describes the various different kinds of harassment and abuse she has received, sometimes from the same people who are opposed to Zak, whilst trying to make Contessa a thing;

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+StacyDellorfano/posts/9DgcEuirpPP

Archive;

https://archive.is/cPSMA

February 21

2017 – Sarah Horrocks Responds

The co-creator of the We Eat Blood game, Sarah Horrocks, is trans. You can read her tumblr response to the accusations here;

http://mercurialblonde.tumblr.com/post/157525001658

Archive;

https://archive.is/AF2Mt

Which include, interestingly, an anonymous commenter, without irony, explaining to a trans woman what transphobia is and that she doesn’t really understand how it works.

February 22nd

2017 White Wolf’s ResponseWhite Wolf responds to the accusations here;

https://blog.white-wolf.com/2017/02/22/breathing-the-same-shadow/

Archive;

https://archive.is/BCvrq

May 13th 2017 - Still Eating Blood

White Wolf has released a bunch of information about its new edition. Kenneth Hite is confirmed as the lead designer. This kicks off another thread on RPG.NET;

https://donotlink.it/wvWo

If you've gone through all of this you will see the same accusations from the same people, everything basically unaltered. This thread got locked soon after I posted it here, with 290 posts on it.

Then, the thread from back in February, got woken up. As of the time of writing that one has 1390 posts. (Looks like that has been shut down as well.)

June 20th 2017 - The Mark Rein-Hagen Thread

Mark Rein-Hagen, game designer and original creator of Vampire: The Masquerade, opens a Facebook post about play-testing of his new board-game;

https://www.facebook.com/Reinhagen/posts/10155667328577240?comment_id=10155667453877240

http://archive.is/ZmKON

After a few nice posts, this comes up;

Which, as you can see, has 358 replies as of the moment of this entry. So far as I can see the accusations are all things covered so far.

August 3rd 2017 - 'Art and the Artist' on RPG.NET

Were back!

Thread opens with this; "If he was just some asshole, I'd still buy his books, because I believe in supporting a skilled person if even they kinda suck. But this stuff about driving people out of the industry, calling people's phones to harass them, targeting their families, it sounds super skeevy and crazy.

I'm not trying to start any fights here, but can someone give me some links or information on the above? Being an abravise person who use's sock accounts, and makes some dumb blog where you talk shit all day, that's shitty and all, but it's not really enough to send me over the line of "I'm not doing to buy your books".

The Mods then ban all mention of Zak. Then I get kicked off (2nd 3-day ban)

Oh and I found this cool list of every thread with 'Zak S' as a tag.

August 13th 2017 -

I am Banned from Defending Zak on RPG.NET

Text of the ban; "Dear pjamesstuart,

You have received a warning at RPGnet Forums.

Reason:

-------

Topic Ban

Since your previous ban, we've reviewed your posting history and noticed that you've been posting exclusively in threads discussing a permabanned friend of yours. Specifically, you've been trying to reframe these discussions around a blog post you wrote. Though you present your views as a reasonable, neutral foundation for discussion, your posting mostly consists of attacks on other users and anyone who disagrees with you. Some of these posts are simply drive-by speeches directed at hypothetical future lurkers, and don't engage with the discussion in any meaningful way.

You've made it clear that you have personal and financial reasons to continue this behavior, and have no intention of changing. After discussion, we've decided to formally topic ban you from discussing Zak Smith, including linking to blog posts discussing him. You're still free to promote and discuss any games you've worked together on, provided you focus on the games themselves. You're also free to discuss any other topic on RPGnet, and we hope you take this opportunity to find other threads you'd enjoy participating in.

-------

Warnings serve as a reminder to you of the forum's rules, which you are expected to understand and follow.

All the best,

RPGnet Forums"

Image of the ban;

August 15th 2017 - 4Chan False Identity Accusation

We are back with Olivia Hill on the following twitter thread;

https://donotlink.it/WbaL

Hill accuses Zak of having a 4Chan identity;

Based on the use of the phrase 'get at hi in this anti-Hill comment;

And this G+ thread you will remember from August 2014 (see above).

And including what I think is an accusation of Fascism?

Later on we get Zaks denial of the accusation

“

Of course not--and in what world does that tactic make sense? Like if you go to some rpg part of 4chan and go "somebody should get at him" it's not like 4chan gives a rat's ass or would do anything. Especially if they thought it was me--they hate me way more than him

REPLY “

“

I mean: Olivia Hill writing shitty vampire e novels that nobody reads is an ideal outcome for me, what possible motive could I have to harass her out of that? Let her do that forever. I just wish people would just stop picking it up and running with it like it's a real thing

“

(G+ link may not be accessible to all)

(This document gets periodically edited to reflect new information and clarify content about what’s in the longer links. Links are added but never deleted. The original draft of the doc and any the opinions injected are by Patrick Stuart.)

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