#time to active the Wizard Nexus

[citree]

Happy birthday trans people!!!!!! ✨💞🥰💙🫶🌟💕🦎🏳️‍⚧️💞the world is better with you in it ❤️

#trans day of visibility #tdov #trans pride #txt #time to active the Wizard Nexus #lgbtq pride #artists on tumblr #lgbtqia

[basiliskonline]

One of my MANY additions to the Quest For Frozen Flame

In the Quest for the Frozen Flame, a Pathfinder 2E Adventure Path, the PCs come across several "Apaku", these landmarks are structures that channel and mark the locations of a nexus of leylines for a specific school of magic.

While the Quest for the Frozen Flame has many of them, you don't encounter all of them. I chose to include a Conjuration Apaku on my own.

This comes with multiple components, this is mostly just kept very vague and general for ease:

What it does

The Conjuration Apaku can open to basically any plane of existence briefly at random. Usually this happens as Conjuration energy builds up over the course of a month or so, however as of the last several years it has been happening a LOT more frequently, though no one knows why (until this encounter).

As part of this i check daily if anything has come through the portal, if it does, I randomly roll a direction for it to move every day. It becomes an active wandering monster on the hex crawl (this is really fun to me, I honestly had a ton of fun with this part.)

The Divination Apaku

(One of my favorite parts is that there is, nearby, the divination Aapaku which shows vague symbols on where nearby things are, which means players may stop by the Apaku multiple time to track progress and try to avoid things based on what they guess symbols might mean)

At the Conjuration Apaku

Arriving at the Apaku you see a battle in progress, A group of Bearded Devils (and some hiding imps) fighting a Cu Sith and having JUST killed a Satyr.

Most PCs have jumped in both assuming Devils = Bad and to save the "Good Pupper".

A Volatile Portal'

Any conjuration magic cast in the area potential opens a portal, the higher level that is cast, the more likely a portal is to open and that accumulates each cast when a portal doesn't open.

The bearded Devils have At-Will Dimension Door at level 4, and that basically ensures a portal opens every 3 uses, and that doesn't even factor in the players VERY UNLIKELY ALLY.

Volkbaksh, an Unlikely Ally

The Apaku looks like a large archway etched in magical sigils and designs, just in front of the archway is a medium size boulder etched with the same type of symbols.

This Boulder is actually a Mimic named Volkbaksh.

Volkbaksh was made by a magical mishap experiment by a wizard and shortly thereafter became something of an assistant. Later that Wizard would take Volkbaksh with him to the North to research these Apaku in these untamed lands.

While researching the Conjuration Apaku, the portal activated and some horrific beast came through killed his master, Volkbaksh terrified only hid in his mimiced shape while his master died.

Knowing very little of this land, Volkbaksh was too anxious to venture forth and explore, so decided "I guess I live here now", days turned to weeks, weeks to month, and bored Volkbaksh began to read his masters notes, and later his spellbook.

Volkbaksh learned several things. Conjuration magic caused the Apaku to activate after several casts, and, after years, it became a powerful wizard in it's own right, learning only conjuration spells. It began to spam spells until the portal would open, if things came through it could eat it did so, if scary things came through, it'd just hide till they left and then continue spamming magic. All you can eat dinner.

(This has the thoughtless effect of flooding the valley with dangerous and random monsters, much to the chagrin of the denizens)

It however has a softspot for Humanoids and humans in particular, remembering its master and perhaps even abit of guilt, it will eat humans if it needs too but prefers not too. During the fight it secretly casts spells to support the players in their fight with the bearded devil.

Volkbaksh is recruitable and agrees to "not eat anyone so long as you keep me fed" and is just a pretty good bab, even if it doesn't really concern itself with this whole "morality" thing.

#Pathfinder 2e #pathfinder #pf2e #ttrpg #the quest for the frozen flame #pf2e homebrew #homebrew #mine #I ALWAYS fiddle and add stuff to Adventures

[luna-the-duel-chronologist]

It’s Format Friday!

Good Morning, Duelists! It’s me, Luna, the Duel Reporter and it’s Friday, March 31, 2023! Today, I’d like to bring attention a way to play Yu-Gi-Oh that you might not have tried. As I’ve stated more than a few times in this blog, I think Yu-Gi-Oh is a fantastic game, and there’s a near infinite amount of ways to play it.

Well, today, I’d like to start with one of my favorites, it’s a Time Wizard format that is a bit under the radar. Allow me to introduce you to HAT Format.

What is HAT Format?

HAT Format is a Yu-Gi-Oh format based on the cards legal in early July, 2014, also meaning it’s Master Rule 2, meaning there are no Extra Monster Zones, the player going first gets to draw a card, their can only be one Field Spell at a time, and the latest product releases were Primal Origin and the Lightsworn Structure Deck.

The name HAT comes from one of the best decks in the format, Hand Artifact Traptrix, a powerful control deck that revolved around a completely reactionary control base, using Traptrix monsters to Xyz Summon and set Trap Holes, Fire Hand and Ice Hand to pop monsters and spell/traps respectively, and Artifacts, which can react on being destroyed to do a myriad of things, but, primarily stun a turn to summon monsters and destroy cards without targeting, which was a huge deal back in 2014.

That being said, HAT wasn’t the only good deck in HAT Format, as the format has a myriad of powerful decks in it! Infernity returns to the format as a strong DARK Xyz deck, Madolche and Evilswarm are powerful Rank 4 decks, Hieratic, Sylvan, and Mermail provide an easy way to climb into high level and high rank plays!

HAT Format mostly uses the April 2014 banlist, which can be found here: https://www.db.yugioh-card.com/yugiohdb/forbidden_limited.action?forbiddenLimitedDate=2014-04-01

Here are my personal decks, if you want to get a good starting place for HAT!

Hieratic Rulers

Here’s Hieratic Rulers, it’s a powerful combo deck that has a strong going first or second game that can build huge boards and occasionally OTK, depending on your build. I personally play mine as a toolbox of Dragon Ranks, but, I’ve played against a few people who play more into the Synchros, the Rank 6’s and the Rank 7’s.

Hieratic Dragons tribute each other to swarm and activate effects, and when they do get tributed, they summon a Normal Dragon from hand/deck/GY, making Synchro, Xyz and Dragon Ruler set ups easy!

Here’s the link to my deck on Dueling Nexus!

https://duelingnexus.com/editor/adb9eb06a0851be9d340bd4092a89372

Evilswarm

Evilswarm is a really fun, really strong control deck that revolves around using the Rank 4 toolbox as a control tool to limit and restrict your opponent’s resources as much as possible before swinging for the kill.

Here’s the link to my decklist on Dueling Nexus!

https://duelingnexus.com/editor/ffe142b8ddbb5657a8ad4d52753629be

I hope that this article has inspired some Duelists to check out HAT Format!

#yugioh #yugioh tcg #yugioh ocg #yugioh news article #yugioh article #format friday #hat format #hat format mention #yugioh zexal #yugioh 5ds #yugioh gx #yugioh dm #traptrix #evilswarm #dueling nexus #luna the duel reporter

[loadbed424]

Fallout 4 commands

Fallout 4 - YouTube.

Some helpful starting console commands - Nexus Mods.

Fallout 4: How to Change Your Name - CBR.

Console command for carry weight? - Fallout 4 - GameFAQs.

Fallout 4 PC Item Codes Guide - Spawn Weapons, Ammo.

God Mode Console Command - Fallout 4 - Guide Stash.

Fallout 4 unlimited settlement size console command.

Fallout 4 - console commands and cheats.

Fallout 4 Console Commands.

Console Commands For AP Increase?.

Fallout 4 Console Commands and Cheats for PC and... - LiveAbout.

Fallout 4 companion code list for console commands. - reddit.

Fallout Commander at Fallout 4 Nexus - Nexus Mods.

Fallout 4 - YouTube.

Mar 26, 2021 · Fallout 4 cheats and console commands tgm — Good old god mode. RECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU... tcl — No collision. Walk through walls. Walk into the sky. Be free. tfc — Activates free camera. tfc 1 —.

Some helpful starting console commands - Nexus Mods.

Cheats and console commands for the character. Here are several commands that will give your Fallout 4 character some advantage in combat. tgm - activates the God mode of the game. speedmult - change the value to increase your character's movement speed. setscale - increase the size of your character. NOTE: For reference, if you do not wish to use console commands, the original Fallout 4 guide by BiggD is located HERE. Introduction: Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of Fallout 3.

Fallout 4: How to Change Your Name - CBR.

Sep 11, 2020 · Some of these cheats may occasionally cause the game to crash, so save your game before entering any console commands. Fallout 4 Console Commands. Effect. Cheat code. God mode (infinite ammo and invincibility) tgm. Invincibility to damage. tdm. Gain a level.

Console command for carry weight? - Fallout 4 - GameFAQs.

Fallout 4 supports Console Commands and guess what we have the full list of Console Commands that players can use in the game including add item, teleport and setscale. Before moving on to the entire list I would like to up a note that Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's 'COC QASMOKE' console command also works in Fallout 4 and it give players access to. Nov 10, 2015 · In order to use console commands in Fallout 4, you need to press the tilde (~) key on your keyboard and this opens up a command line tool in the game on PC. Of course, there is no such key on the.

Fallout 4 PC Item Codes Guide - Spawn Weapons, Ammo.

Fallout 4 companion code list for console commands. For anyone who is looking for the codes for companions, I had some trouble finding them so here they are, hopefully save you all some time. For anyone who is looking for the codes for companions. NPC Fallout 4 console commands tdetect Turn off all AI detection tai Toggle non-combat AI for NPCs tcai Toggle combat AI for NPCs targetID.sexchange Switches gender of targeted NPC, prone to bugs. Not changing this sig until a new is made for next gen consoles. Rhys_Magi 6 years ago #3. Use either carryweight xx or carryweight xx. The main difference is that set actually sets the carry weight and mod will add an amount equal to whatever number you place in the xx. Be warned though entering and exiting.

God Mode Console Command - Fallout 4 - Guide Stash.

Some helpful starting console commands - posted in Fallout 4 Discussion: So, over the past year or so Ive put together several startup console commands. It dawned on me some people wouldnt know about some/all of these settings and you might find them useful. All of these settings have been compiled via internet searches so I do not claim the credit for them. I don't need or want anything changed just help on how to use the AAF menu or wizard or whatever its called. I see it in the top right corner of peoples screen shots all the time. It has a little picture of a mans body and womans body and some text and shit. That's the menu Im asking about.

Fallout 4 unlimited settlement size console command.

Fallout 4.44 Ammo Code. Fallout 4 Out Of Ammo. This section contains the various Item Codes required to spawn Weapons, Armor, Meds, Chems and more in Fallout 4. To spawn an item near your location, open the command console with the ~ key and type: player.placeatme (item code).

Fallout 4 - console commands and cheats.

Aug 01, 2019 · Start spawning stuff fast with our quick console command breakdown. Open the console command input window; press (`) or Tilde. The game will pause and a prompt will appear in the lower-right corner of the screen. Input: player.addItem (Content ID) (###) player.addItem = This console command spawns the desired item into your inventory. (Content.

Fallout 4 Console Commands.

So, what are some of the Fallout 4 item codes? Fallout 4 Console Commands. The tilde key (~) unlocks the console, allowing you to modify your stats, speed up time, and create enemies or weapons with the simple touch of a key. Simply turn on the console, type in the command or item code, press Enter, and then close it to see the trick take effect. Dec 22, 2020 · If you want to bypass the levelling system of Fallout 4, just use this command to set your character’s level. Set Skill Level <skillID> <#> Increases a specified S.P.E.C.I.A.L skill by.

Console Commands For AP Increase?.

Here the <int> command represents the specified number of perk points that can be spent in the standard perk chart. For example, the CGF "Game.AddPerkPoints <6> command means that 6 perk points will be added to your character.--image from steam community. Here is the end of the Fallout 4 console command perk points guide.

Fallout 4 Console Commands and Cheats for PC and... - LiveAbout.

Nov 23, 2021 · Bethesda games like Skyrim and the Fallout series have “almighty” powers associated with the tilde key (~).Activating the in-game console in Fallout 4 provides PC players with access to a wide array of cheat commands which they can use to alter their gameplay experience, either for better or for worse.

Fallout 4 companion code list for console commands. - reddit.

No longer do you need mods to have unlimited settlement size! Someone has discovered a way to have an unlimited settlement size in just 2 simple console commands. Credit to TheCoetzee for telling me this. Now enough chit chat, this is how you do it: First walk to your workshop inside your settlement. Then open your console and select the workshop by clicking on it. FCOM was inspired by J3X's classic Enclave Commander mod for Fallout 3 and RickerHK's excellent New Vegas version. Karell2015 - For his assistance in the early days of the mod. Check out his mod Minutemen 2.0. Bethesda - For Fallout 4 and the Creation Kit.  Join us on Discord.

Fallout Commander at Fallout 4 Nexus - Nexus Mods.

Jun 21, 2016 · Open the console command input window; press (`) or Tilde. The game will pause and a prompt will appear in the lower-right corner of the screen. Input: player.addItem (Content ID) (###) player. The Fallout 4 console commands for Xbox one will be the same as for the PC. There are the few commands or fallout console commands which are dangerous for the health of your game like kill All, God Mode and Fly Kid. We will suggest you to use such commands in a limited way. We hope that you will enjoy the game using the above Fallout 4 search. The previous versions of Fallout used the tilde (~) to open the command console, but Fallout 4 is different - you use the ' (single quote or tick button) to access the command console. player.additem 000000F XXX (XXX being the amount) Add Bottlecaps; player.additem 00075fe4 amount Add Fusion Cores.

[warsofasoiaf]

I am definitely curious about fantasy trappings and democracy PLEASE tell us

living-is-hard-with-eyes-open said:Hi! Love your blog. Not the original anon, but could you elaborate a little bit about how a democratic system could play out in a fantasy story? Your first response was fascinating and I’m really curious. Thank you in advance and I would understand if you are not in the mood! (Sorry about my English, still learning) 

Anonymous said:“If you want to know how fantasy can use it’s trappings to its benefit to write a democratic settig, let me know” (paraphrased) I do!

I figured there would be interest in it. If I’ve being honest that was mostly me stalling for time because I had some ideas I wanted to flesh out but didn’t have the time to explore right then.

As an aside, @living-is-hard-with-eyes-open, your English is pretty good. No one ever needs to apologize, to me at least, for trying to use another language. 

Early historical democracies often extended suffrage based on gender, class, amount of personal property, and other things which frequently limited the size of the voting population. The Athenian Greeks, for examples, had to own the panoply of a hoplite, thus making the voting public liable for the city’s defenses, along with being a male, debt-free, etc.. There’s no reason that these things can’t be extended to fantasy concepts that apply to fantasy wars. If magic is large enough to have a military component, powerful enough to mandate one, and controllable enough not to blow up your army in a massive apocalyptic hellstorm, then magical service might be one way to become a part of the voting public. This lends itself to a new dimension of struggle between the enfranchised and disenfranchised, which I’ve seen in fantasy works portraying these sorts of democracies (again, usually based in some fashion off the Roman Republic), as well as opening up the question of extending citizenship based on how easy or difficult magic is to learn.

A fun twist on a democratic medieval burgh involved as a great production center might have democracy broken down into guilds, this might be the case for a fantasy race with a caste system (we’ll use dwarves, the go-to fantasy lawful industrial race), where they are arranged from birth into different guilds based on their future profession, with a democratic tradition within the industries that send a representative to the legislative halls. If history is any judge, these industries would fiercely guard their trade secrets and trade monopolies, leading to out-and-out conflict between industries when one gets too close to the prized pony of another. That would mean, if Northern Italy is our judge, the need to establish an executive to sort out those conflicts and thus the city is in control of a powerful Factor. Or conversely, the guilds don’t want a Factor getting in the way and so purposely neuter it with restrictions and bureaucracy to the point where the position is a meaningless figure ironically called a “plenipotentiary” for how little the character can actually do while the guilds wage assassination campaigns, electoral fraud, and out-and-out private wars, seizing control of the Miller’s Guild for example to deny grain to the rest of the workers or the Aqueduct’s Guild to deny critical water to needed industries; that sounds like a society in crisis. Once you have that and you want to write a fantasy political thriller, having the protagonist be someone elected to the position of worthless PlenipotentiaryFactor use the same bureaucratic wrangling and de jure powers that have been worthless to change the society. Do something with that and you might just have the foundation and plot for a good fantasy novel, or a plot within a larger fantasy work such as ASOIAF with this Factor merely as one POV.

Speaking of conflict, one of the reasons burghs and other city privileges came into being was conflict with the feudal fief-holders. Magic might provide an alternative nexus, either to start the conflict as they become a power holder, a means for the cities to provide oomph that calls for charters guaranteeing self-governance to avoid magical rebellion (especially if magical universities are centered in cities), or a weird three-way struggle for power between the rural, the urban, and the arcane in their wizard’s towers. A wizard’s tower would almost certainly have a town spring up around it, particularly if there are services that the wizard cannot use magic to provide for themselves and the wizard can provide services for the community. Magic might become a part of charters just like it might become a part of feudal contracts, with all the realpolitik that such a thing can provide such as when the wizards say that because of the valuable service they provide, they should be afforded certain tax privileges, which pisses off the other non-magical fiefs and possibly causes a rebellion, either by mages protesting royal disregard for the rights of the arcane with all the pomp and language you’d expect from the First Barons’ War (the First Wizards’ War!) or the barons protesting the king favoring the arcane, possibly whispering about how their magic has ensorcelled the king in the vein of every wicked evil councilor. 

One thing severely limiting most fantasy societies with democracy is that for the most part, historical societies like this were phenomenally illiterate, with travel and communication technology mostly limited to horses and boats. Magic can be a way to circumvent these limitations, either by moving people away from labor-intensive work like agriculture and mining which would allow something similar to what happened in our own history with the rise of more politically-active people by class. For example, an Icelandic thing or assembly could use magic or some form of racial telepathy to actually bind the people to be able to allow them to hear their lawspeakers from great distances so that they might be instructed in what matters are being put before the assembly (probably with some sort of magically-enforced truth telling to safeguard against corruption), and likewise be able to cast their vote before the assembled magical elders in a form of direct democracy that can manage the logistical problems that such forms entail. You can go one step further to have the coming-of-age ceremony, where a child becomes recognized as a full adult, require the giving of blood to create a blood link to be able to be contacted by the lawspeakers via sympathetic magic, a formal blood magic civic ritual done either on birthdays or holy days depending on how magic works in this setting. This could create a relatively modern, even futuristic conception of democracy (some science fiction uses cybernetic implants and quantum communication to establish massive direct democracies, Iain Banks’s The Culture series of books comes to mind) that would actually be more appealing to modern audiences than traditional monarchial models or limited democracies. There’s a lot to like about this theoretical blood magic democracy; it could have modern good things: universal suffrage, equality before the law (all of you are the same because you all have blood), freedom of religion as long as it doesn’t forbid participation in this blood magic stuff, the list can keep going, but it’s so creepy that audience members are going to be a little squicked out. That’s a great headspace to put your readers in, this cognitive dissonance between admiration and discomfort can be quite unique, it could really make the story stand out. However, it also has plenty of threats that you can use for storycrafting, corrupt lawspeakers who circumvent magical safeguards to enrich their self-interest ala corrupt politicians (maybe even lying that there is such a thing as magical truth-telling), use of the blood for nefarious magical purposes such as spying on the citizens or taking control of their bodies to commit proxy crimes, magically hacking into the vote to pump up the totals by mages looking to secretly control democracy. 

At this point, I think I may have just accidentally brainstormed a fantasy setting that can explore modern political concepts with fantasy metaphors. Let me know what you think of this essay, everyone, both in general and this theoretical blood magic democracy being used as a exploration of problems that exist in modern democracies. Is this a neat idea, or am I in my own headspace where only I think this idea is good?

Thanks for the questions and encouragement, both registered members and Anons who wanted me to explore it all in more detail.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

#fantasy #democracy #politics #essays on writing and worldbuilding #writing #worldbuilding

[isagrimorie]

[reaction] Doctor Who and the Ascension of the Cybermen - 12x09

I was out of town so I had to rewatch it several times to get into it -- my small screen and broken earphones weren't doing the episode justice. But once I got home I was able to really take it all in starting with the really fantastic opener when the camera goes into the eye of the dead cyberman and straight in to the vortex.

This is another episode with a story time voice over, this is a different form of fairytale storytelling, this is mythmaking from the Cybermen side.

Speaking of Ashad: I thought that Ascension was another synonym of the word "Rise" of the Cybermen but now knowing what we know of Ashad - a Cyberman whose neural inhibitors doesn't work and doesn't stop him but actually make him more terrifying especially since he is a zealot. He believes in the purity of the purpose of the Cyberman, like a religious fanatic and I realized that "ascension" has a different connotation too: Ascension can mean rising to the ranks and reaching a position or in a religious sense, ascension can mean 'ascending to heaven'.

I don't think that's a coincidence especially with Ashad at the helm of the Cyber race.

There is nothing more terrifying than someone who believes 100% that they are right, also this lines up with last season's penultimate episode, Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos about the Ux, whose faith were misused. It does seem like Chibnall likes to touch on things like faith, which is interesting. Faith can mean many things and not just the religious sense, as we're seeing now in Ashad.

Amidst everything there is the curious subplot of Brendan the deathless Irish man, and I wondered if the being set on Ireland ins the fruition of a long in joke about Gallifrey being mistaken for a city in Ireland. My suspicion there is that Brendan is a Time Lord trapped in a loop where he is grown and made to cycle his life over and over again.

And then the main plot has our team going separate ways, Yaz and Graham with the remaining Humans with Yaz stepping up into the Doctor role and Graham acting as a supportive second, and then stumbling into a carrier full of dormant Cybermen, reminiscent of the Tomb of the Cybermen. Ashad follows and begins his reconversion of the newest line up of Cybermen which have a big 80s vibe going for them.

And then there's the Doctor and Ryan, poor Ryan got left behind but fortunately Thirteen spotted him even if Thirteen is not in the best of headspaces, since Spyfall Thirteen's on a slow train to a breakdown and the Cybermen just expedited that and because the Master knows how to compound the problem, he shows up in the end like the Right Bastard that he is.

Anyway, the Doctor's plans to take down the Cybermen didn't account for an aerial attack and all their equipment is broken, three people die because of her and I love how Thirteen takes a moment to look at the dead boy, unfortunately, the team come right behind her informing her of the things she already knew had gone wrong. It's that time I realize, they really think they're still on a jaunt, a soft ball adventure, and they think Thirteen is on the same page as them when she just isn't.

She's back in the battlefield on the Mondasian colony ship, fighting a losing war having failed Bill Potts, and lost Missy to herself, never knowing that Twelve did have an impact on her and she was about to return to him.

So, of course, she snaps and shouts at them and then orders them, more firmly to leave -- all the times she's asked them to do that and all the time Ryan and Yaz were Ride or Die for her, and not once did she like that, but she tried so hard to honor their agency. But in a warzone against Cybermen, they're more a liability than help.

Thirteen's also in full commander mode and I just remember Clara at this time gently admonishing Twelve in Girl Who Lived, to stop playing at soldiers, and be the Doctor. Because Clara's right, everytime the Doctor plays into that role, in what people are likely to do, the Doctor is much less effective but when they step out of the box, and be the Doctor, they do amazing things. I think Thirteen needs that reminder but right now, she's running on fumes, fear, and trauma.

They end up in a planet with Ko Sharmus and the Boundary, set to be the final hope of Humanity, a kind of nexus point to other places in the universe, Ko Sharmus has a bit of Wizard/Time Lord vibe. Ko Sharmus tells Thirteen to stand in front of the Boundary and it will open -- my theory is that the Boundary locked on to the Doctor, because Time Lord, and maybe because of the other bastard at the end of it, waiting in anticipation. And the moment it locked into Gallifrey, The Right Bastard made a flying leap, almost tripped and declared his entrance was great.

I love him.

But also, I think this is the first time in a ship where I actively want one pairing to punch the other in face and by that I mean, the Doctor just ripping him a new one. Also, consider, the Doctor went back to Gallifrey several times and this tool must have known and was just hiding because It Wasn't Time for him to make an entrance.

What a magnificent bastard, I hope Thirteen gets a good kick in.

TLDR, there's a lot in this episode and it's fun but also since this is part 1, this is very much a lot of table setting for part 2. Part 2 is where everything hinges if this whole set-up worked.

#thirteenth doctor #13th doctor #dw 12x09 #ascension of the cybermen #doctor who spoilers #initial reactions

[theonyxpath]

Now available in PDF from DriveThruRPG: Yguman’s Guide to Ghelspad, Part 2 for Scarred Lands!

Pay Heed to the Wisdom of Yugman the Sage

A century and a half after the Divine War, the titans lay defeated and scattered across Scarn and beyond. As the people of Ghelspad work to build a new world on the war-torn remnants of a fallen paradise, new heroes rise, and new threats emerge. Yugman the Sage brings an overview of these new heroes and villains, as well as the tools they use to rise to power.

A Land Where Legends Walk

Drawing enthusiastically on Greek mythology, the revised and re-imagined Scarred Lands nonetheless retains its place as a modern fantasy RPG setting. This is a world shaped by gods and monsters, and only the greatest of heroes can expect to be counted among them. The most populous continent of Scarn, Ghelspad, plays host to vast unexplored regions, hides unsolved riddles from ancient cultures, and taunts adventures with the promise of undiscovered riches hidden among the ruins of older civilizations.

Yet the myths of the Scarred Lands are relatively recent events. The effects of the Titanswar still ripple through the world, and the heroines and villains of many of these stories are part of living memory, if not still alive themselves.

Also available: our first Slarecian Vault product activated for print-on-demand (and our second community content title available in print overall): the collected Vengeance of the Shunned!

Maghiel Will Have Her Revenge!

When the quiet village of Durgan’s Rest is rocked by a sudden explosion, the heroes discover the foul plot of a power-mad wizard who seeks to steal the might of a titan! Soon, the party is thrust into conflict with Maghiel the Shunned, a veteran of the Titanswar who seeks to rule all of Ghelspad. The shunned Drendali is willing to risk rousing the titans to achieve her aims. Can your adventurers stop her?

Over 20 community content creators have banded together to bring this full-length campaign to the Slarecian Vault! Vengeance of the Shunned takes your adventurers across Ghelspad on a quest to end the greatest threat to the world since the Titanswar!

Vengeance of the Shunned includes:

   •    A campaign that takes the player characters across Ghelspad    •    Over 80 monsters and NPCs for Scarred Lands or any 5e setting    •    New magic items and spells from the Scarred Lands   •    Adventure content from some of the finest authors working on 5e compatible materials, including Beatriz T. Dias, Bill Bodden, Bryan Gillispie, Catherine Evans, Dan Layman-Kennedy, Elise Cretel, Emilie Gunderson, Jeremy Hochhalter, and Scarred Lands Line Developer Travis Legge.

Sales

For the next week (until the end of March), all Scarred Lands 5e/Pathfinder PDFs (not including today’s release), all Scion 2e, all Trinity Continuum, and the Dystopia Rising: Evolution jumpstart are 50% off!

Scarred Lands products for Pathfinder (the Scarred Lands Players Guide and The Wise & The Wicked 2nd Edition) are upwards of 90% off from Indie Press Revolution! Both products are an incredible $5 each!

Kickstarter Update

Unfortunately, due to the effects of the coronavirus quarantine, we made a difficult decision and cancelled the Legendlore Kickstarter. It’s the first time out of 44 Kickstarters we’ve done anything like this, but then, we’ve never had a situation like this before. We’re going to regroup, and are planning on relaunching it later this year.

Did you miss one of our previous Kickstarters? The following Kickstarted products are still open for preorders via BackerKit:

Scarred Lands: Creature Collection 5e

They Came from Beneath the Sea!: They Came from Beneath the Sea! rulebook

Trinity Continuum: Trinity Continuum: Aberrant

Realms of Pugmire: Pirates of Pugmire

Exalted: Lunars: Fangs at the Gate

Chronicles of Darkness: Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2

Chronicles of Darkness: The Contagion Chronicle

Chronicles of Darkness: Deviant: The Renegades

Chronicles of Darkness: Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition

Community Spotlight

The following community-created content for Scarred Lands has been added to the Slarecian Vault in the last week:

The collected Vengeance of the Shunned campaign, as mentioned above, also available in PoD!

Your product could be here! Have you considered creating your own to sell?

The following community-created content for Realms of Pugmire has been added to Canis Minor in the last week:

100 Dogs to Meet in Pugmire

Your product could be here! Have you considered creating your own to sell?

The following community-created content for Storypath has been added to the Storypath Nexus in the last week:

Scion: A Rude Awakening

Your product could be here! Have you considered creating your own to sell?

#Onyx Path Publishing

[elizabethemerald]

kill me for the drabble thing it's three am and angst time (if you're awake)

Hey I hope you’re still in the mood for some angst!

If you want to send me a character and a Prompt I’ll write a drabble!

Trollmarket roared with noise as the battle raged. Jim hid behind a large piece of rubble. He stuck his head out from behind his cover for a second and could see Toby across the marketplace rolling into cover, just ahead of a sparkling beam of light. He only just managed to duck back down before a similar magical attack blew a piece off his cover, right where his head had been.

In the center of Trollmarket, the nexus of.the magical energy floated Claire. Or to be more accurate Morgana possessing Claire’s body. Jim flicked his long ears towards a distant sound, his keen nose tracking a certain smell. There! He unconsciously growled past his tusks. While his half troll form was often more bane than boon it did have some small advantages.

“Now Aaarrrgghh!” He shouted. A boulder the size of a Buick was hurled across the battle field towards Claire, no, Clairgana. Jim was already running full sprint across the battlefield. Clairgana blasted the boulder out of the sky with a hail of magical orbs. Another hail targeted the spot where the boulder had been thrown from, several of them exploded, creating a rain of rubble.

Jim hoped Aaarrrgghh had gotten out of the way in time but Jim had little time to worry about his friend as a similar attack came his way. He was able to dodge most of them. One that he had no avenue to escape from turned sharply to the side before it struck him. He had made it to his next cover before Morgana could levy another blast. He heard her scream of rage come from Claire’s mouth.

There hidden by the rubble was the wizard. Merlin had certainly gotten the worst of his exchange with Morgana. He lay unconscious in a heap, but at least he was alive. Jim thought back to their journey here as he checked the wizard.

Claire had been having nightmares since the Eternal Night.  Several times a week she would wake in a cold sweat or wake screaming. Jim was never far to comfort her when she woke, but still they persisted. Claire feared Morgana’s presence, feared she would take control again. But Merlin insisted again and again that he would be able to sense Morgana’s power. He called her nightmares simple proof that women had no place on the battlefield. He called it simple hysteria. He had probably never heard of PTSD, Jim thought. That’s what he had assumed it was.

Jim did everything he could for her and gradually the nightmares slowed. He thought she was getting better. When they were in Kansas she had the idea to take a detour to gyre station, then Jim could pick up the stone for his armor that would allow him to walk in daylight. The rest of the trolls hid in Kansas, while Blinky, Claire, Merlin and Jim went back to Arcadia. They of course texted Toby and Aaarrrgghh to meet them in Trollmarket.

At first they couldn’t find the stones. Blinky wasn’t sure where Vendel had hidden them. Claire was sure he had returned them to a vault chamber under Trollmarket. In the chamber she picked up a strange crystal. Merlin snapped at her telling her not to pick up things she didn’t understand. He tried to snatch it out of her hands.

The moment he touched it Morgana activates the stone. It sapped his strength, stealing almost all of his magic. The wizard had no chance. He was powerless against not one but two powerful sorceresses, both of whom hated him. The blast knocked him through the roof of the chamber into the rest of Trollmarket.  

He would live, Jim thought, but not if Morgana found him. Fortunately Toby was keeping her busy. He had clearly been training during the intervening months, and unlike the sword of Daylight, Morgana had no immunity to Toby’s warhammer.

Any time she tried to take to the air he would hurtle towards her hammer first, so she was keeping the fight on the ground. With a little distance Jim could see that Toby had another advantage. Some of Morgana’s attacks seemed to come off weaker. Some went wide of their mark. Some turned in mid air to avoid Toby. Claire must be fighting Morgana’s control!

Jim ran forward his shield on his arm. “Claire! Claire!  You have to fight her! You can retake control!”

“Claire is gone you stupid boy! Only I remain.”

Jim ignored her. He focused on continuing to distract her. She was using a lot of her magic to dodge and block his and Toby’s attacks. “Claire you beat her before, and you’re stronger now! You can beat her again!”

Toby started to cheer Claire on as well while he fought. “Come on Claire! Show this old witch who’s boss!”

Clairgana screamed in rage again and attacked with a new fury. Yet still none of her attacks hurt the two boys. Her attacks missed again and again, even direct hits glanced off their armor harmlessly.

Toby was mid swing when she suddenly dropped to the ground. He was barely able to avoid hitting her. Claire looked up at them, tears leaking from her brown eyes.

“Jim? Toby?” They were already hugging her, holding her tight.

“Claire! I knew you could do it,” Jim said, while kissing away her tears.

“You sure showed that old hag!” Toby said.

Claire’s face contorted in pain, her eyes took on a golden light for a second then returned to brown.

“She’s still here!” she gasped in fear. “You’re never going to be safe as long I’m here! Jim you have to kill me!”

“I’m not going to do that! I love you Claire and I know you can beat her!” he held her close, then kissed her. Their kiss stretched long in their passion. Then Toby saw Claire’s face contort again.

The explosion bowled Toby over sending him rolling backwards. Aaarrrgghh caught him before he rolled off the edge of Trollmarket. Jim was right at the epicenter. He went soaring up and back. His body landed near the entrance to the Hero’s Forge with a sickening thud. Toby turned to Aaarrrgghh and Blinky who ran up.

“We have to push her back into the Forge! We know that area better than anyone. And Claire’s connected to that place, if she can take control anywhere it will have to be there.”

The two trolls nodded. Clairgana rose into the air laughing. She started to float toward where Jim had fallen. The explosions of two Dwärkstones at her feet knocked her off balance.

Toby, Aaarrrgghh, and Blinky pushed her back again and again with their onslaught. Exploding stones, hurled boulders and hammer blows all drove her back. When they reached Jim, Blinky helped the Trollhunter to his feet. Jim helped as best he could, but he was badly hurt. An errant stone hit the mechanism that turned on the obstacles of the Forge.

Clairgana was struggling. The four of them were hitting her with everything they had, on top of that Claire was fighting her every spell. Before long she collapsed again.

Jim rushed to her but a purple bubble surrounded Claire. “Jim, Toby you have to kill me. I can’t let you closer unless you’re going to kill me. I can only hold her for so long you have to kill me. Please.”

Jim stood there, leaning heavily on Blinky. “We’re not going to kill you. We will find a way to stop her!”

She turned sad eyes to Toby, but he shook his head. “Claire I love you almost as much as Jim does. As long as you keep fighting we won’t stop fighting with you.”

She looked tired, frail, laying on the ground of the Forge, all the gears and blades still spinning. “I have been fighting her since I opened that portal. I can’t fight her anymore.”

Her face contorted again. This time she bent over double like she had severe cramps. Jim pressed himself against her bubble trying to get closer to her. When she straightened sweat was beading on her forehead, she grimaced in pain. She looked around at the rising and lowering platforms of the Forge, and stood.

“I love you all so much. Toby, Aaarrrgghh you were the best friends a girl could ever have.” her bubble kept the others more than an arms length away, as she walked near the center of the arena.

“Claire, what are you doing?” Jim’s voice echoed with worry.

“Blinky you were the best teacher I could ask for.”

Everyone stayed as close as her spell would allow them, following her across the floor of the Forge. As she walked she doubled over in pain again, her breathing fast and hard.

“Say goodbye to my family for me. I love them so much.”

“Claire! Please stop!” Jim cried. “I love you!”

She looked at him, she stood with her arms out wide.

“I love you too, Jim Lake Junior. Goodbye.” Golden light flowed out of her eyes. Her face twisted into Morgana’s haughty smirk. More golden light pooled at her fingertips as Claire’s bubble disappeared. Time seemed to stand still. Then Morgana’s triumphant laugh was cut short as one of the blades of the Forge sprang from the floor and sprouted from her chest.

Aaarrrgghh went and turned off the Forge traps. They had done their work. Jim held his girlfriend’s body as he wailed his grief.  Toby and Blinky held him. Aaarrrgghh returned and held them all in his embrace.

The moment that they all wished would never end, lest they have to face the reality of what had happened, came to a close at the ringing steps of Merlin entering the Forge. Jim laid Claire down and rose to his feet, tears still pouring from his eyes.

“So she’s dead?” Merlin said after a glance at the body. The other stared at him. “At least now we don’t have to worry about Claire opening any more doorways for Morgana to escape.”

“What did you say?” Jim growled. Toby glanced at him, past his own tears, he had never heard his friend like that.

“Morgana was almost freed, again, because of her. Claire-” Jim moved faster than any of them could even see. He moved faster than thought, every inch of his Armor glowing. He grabbed the wizard by the neck and lifted him one handed without any visible effort.

“If you ever mention her name again,” Jim roared. “I’ll tear your throat out!”

The Trollhunter dropped the wizard to the side. Then Jim knelt, picked up Claire’s body and began to walk away. The others followed him out of the Forge. Merlin was left behind, gasping for air and bleeding from where Jim’s claws and dug into his skin.

#tales of arcadia #trollhunters #jim lake junior #claire nunez #clairegana #possessed!claire #toby domzalski #angst #trollhunters angst #my writing #emerald's drabble #writing emerald

[cosmicsolipsism]

Callum’s Dream/Angst Coma Analysis (1/?)

This sequence has a whole lot going on--a lot of thematic stuff, a lot of possible foreshadowing, a lot of character stuff for Callum--but the thing I want to focus on right now is the Destiny Cube (Key of Aaravos), mostly because it’s simpler and involves less conjecture than the other stuff and also because I’ve seen some misconceptions about it floating around

This post contains a lot of screenshots, but hey, I did the cube-staring so you didn’t have to, so bear with me.

Cube: 

The first shot we ever see of the Key (and I feel very vindicated that it is, in fact, a key, not that it was an especially clever logical leap). From this shot and others like the following:

We get a good idea of how the cube is laid out. It looks like this.

We know that Sky is the bottom rune and Star the top because Sky is usually the one Callum is looking at, and when he is, the Ocean and Earth runes are upside down.

Side note: the cube has to be pretty close to magic to start glowing. Callum’s sitting right next to Bait here and the Sun rune isn’t lit up at all--it’s an on/off thing, and it doesn’t happen until it’s right against magic like when Callum rolls it even closer to Bait. Similarly, the Moon rune isn’t doing anything in the screenshot above where Rayla’s dumped it onto the table.

I bring this up mostly because I’ve seen the theory that Aaravos was busting out all types of magic in the last episode to try and activate all sides of the cube just in case it was around, but unless he doesn’t totally know how it works, it would have had to be pretty darn close for that to work. I think he was probably just showing off. Additionally, I think it’s the presence of an arcanum that the cube is reacting to rather than just magic or energy itself, because otherwise the Moon rune probably would have been lighting up all the time when they were at the Nexus. If that’s true, we can conclude that when the Sky rune starts glowing as Callum wakes from his dream that either he’s grown/forged an arcanum or activated one that was latent within him.

Anyway, now that we’ve established the layout of the cube and a bit about its behavior, here’s Dark Callum holding it. We can see from the Earth rune being upside-down that it’s the Sky rune that’s been replaced by Dark.  Dark isn’t naturally a feature of the Key.

My interpretation of this is pretty simple. Callum is focused on learning Sky magic, but now he’s used Dark magic, so in his dream he’s replaced the path he wants to take with the new one that seems more within his power.  I think this interpretation can be extrapolated upon when the whole cube turns into Dark runes a little later on--not only is Sky, the magic you feel connected to, lost to you, but there’s no point in starting down other paths either. You’ve already got the Dark. It’s easy. Don’t look elsewhere because you’ll fail and get hurt--there are no other real options.

Now that we’ve established the physical facts about the cube and I’ve talked a little bit about Callum’s relationship to it, I want to talk about how it relates to our favorite mirror-bound elf. Here’s the text of what Harrow’s letter says about it:

[...] an unusual cube, with rune symbols on each side. This cube is an ancient relic that has been passed down through the ages. It belonged to an elven wizard in Xadia: the Archmage Aaravos, a master of all six primal sources. It is hidden in a box of keys because it is known as the Key of Aaravos, and legends say it unlocks something of great power in Xadia. Perhaps it will be you, Callum, who will unlock its secrets.

The general consensus seems to be that the cube is the key that will free Aaravos from the mirror, but if we can take Harrow’s knowledge of it as fact, then it was something Aaravos owned and it unlocks something else. Of course, there’s always the possibility that he was imprisoned in one of his own creations/experiments, or the possibility that the legends Harrow has heard are incorrect or incomplete. But there are two ways “Key of Aaravos” can be understood--either as “the key to Aaravos” or “Aaravos’s key”, and I think evidence supports the latter.  Only time will tell what the cube is actually for. I suspect that some people Callum meets in Xadia may not be happy to see it.

Additionally--how did the king of Katolis, or any human really, come to know so much about it? Was it stolen from Xadia at some point, was it already in the west when the humans were exiled there, or was it deliberately hidden from Xadia to keep whatever it unlocks locked? We know of one human who has a connection to Aaravos already--I wonder if Elarion has a connection to the royal family of Katolis or if the cube has a connection to the “gift” or “spark” Aaravos gave her.

But that’s entirely speculation at this point.

Finally, and this struck me as odd right off the bat, why did Harrow think of giving the cube to Callum in the first place, and why was it so important that he made sure to tell him on his deathbed? As far as we know, Callum never had an interest in magic, Xadia, or history before he used the primal stone. What @caladblog suggested, and I like this theory a lot, is that Harrow wanted Callum to think about magic outside of just what Viren could teach him.

Anyway, I think that’s all the Cube Thoughts I have for right now. I may or may not go on to make more posts about symbolism in Callum’s Angst Coma, but I’m definitely going to keep writing tdp meta.

#the dragon prince #tdp s2 #spoilers #callum

[dresden-sandiego]

World Building, Part 2

Welcome to the second article detailing the initial building of the city of San Diego in the world of the Dresden Files. This is done for my monthly Dresden Files Role Playing Game, stories from which will be featured on this blog. You can check out the previous article (Part 1), but here’s a quick summary of the threats and themes of DF San Diego:

A city of change. [NOBODY IS FROM HERE]

A hub of supernatural R&D. [I CAN GET THAT, BUT IT’LL COST YOU]

Summer’s power is growing. [SUMMER IS COMING]

The Red Court is Infiltrating. [THE RED COURT IS COMING]

In the Know and the Status Quo

The themes and threats of a city will color everything else we build, which is why they are first. Once those are established, it’s important to take a high-level view of the city and the groups that have power and interests there, both mundane and supernatural. The DFRPG book suggests defining a status quo for the city; this gives your game a baseline for the current state of affairs.

Working together, my players and I wrote the following descriptions of the supernatural status quo:

The Summer Court is the dominant power in San Diego, which provides a de facto check against the power and the influence of the Red Court, who does not wish to antagonize and provide Summer. The Red Court does use San Diego as a major port for traffic. The White Council is here, on paper - mostly to scout.

San Diego is a nexus of power and Ways, most of which are untapped because nobody wants to risk upsetting the power. 

As we discussed in the previous post, we chose the Summer Court as the dominant power in San Diego, largely to tie in with the real-life climate here. Once we knew that, we wanted to explore how and why that mattered; choosing them as the force that was keeping the Red Court vampires at bay made sense. That also allowed us to reduce the need for a White Council presence.

Once we had the supernatural status quo, we wrote one for the mundane world:

San Diego is the city of sunshine. Citizens live (or dream of living) the low stress, high-style lifestyle. For travelers, San Diego is all the glamour of Los Angeles without actually being Los Angeles.

Our goals with these status quo descriptions were to weave the themes and threats into them, explaining why those themes and threats were the way of things in the city. Once we knew the status quo of the city, we took a look at the groups or powers in the city. These would be the entities that lived, worked, and manipulated life in San Diego and that might run across the players during the game.

We started out by making a list of the powers that would be represented here:

Supernatural Powers

The Summer Court of the Sidhe

The Vampire Red Court

The White Council of Wizards

We discussed having more of the supernatural groups represented here, but many of them didn’t feel like a good fit. Plus, this would give us room to add more later, and for me as the GM to keep some surprises for later. We did consider the Vampire White Court, but decided that they would have their major power center be in Los Angeles and not really care much about San Diego.

Next, we did the same thing for the mundane groups and power centers. Most of these come from the reality of San Diego:

Mundane Powers

The US Navy

The FBI

US Border Patrol

The Catholic Church*

San Diego Tourism Board

Native American Tribal Council*

*These groups contain some supernatural elements, but not enough to define them as supernatural elements.

So, with our lists of supernatural and mundane groups, we get to my favorite part of the process. The DFRPG suggests making a graph with two axes, then plotting each group on that graph. One axis represents how “clued in” the group is as to supernatural matters: “In the Know” vs “In the Dark.” The other axis represents how much the group wants to change things: “Maintain the Status Quo” vs “Rock the Boat.” Here is our graph:

https://imgur.com/a/4MjnO9G

Here is a quick run down behind section of the graph and the groups that fall in that section:

In the Dark & Maintain Status Quo

The US Navy

San Diego is home to several military bases and a military population of active and former soldiers and sailors. There is no question the US military wants to maintain the status quo (in SD and elsewhere). And while we suspect someone in the military or government is in the know, the majority of officers and enlisted men and women won’t be, hence their “in the dark” rating.

The FBI

Someone in the government has to know something about weird stuff, and the FBI was our most likely candidate. After all, the X-Files had already put this idea in popular culture. Add to the fact that one of our players made an FBI agent, and the agency having a presence in the area was a given. They are much more clued in than the Navy, though there are still a lot of agents that aren’t, and a little more willing to change things to protect the country.

In the Dark & Rock the Boat

This section is suspiciously blank. That won’t at all be relevant to the story later, he said, clearly lying.

In the Know & Maintain Status Quo

San Diego Tourism Board

Why is this here? It came about because we had an idea that, long ago, someone in the city government wanted a way to boost tourism to the city. What if they made a deal with someone, say the Summer Court, to trade great weather for a power base? We thought that was a cool idea, so we included it on the chart. Someone would have to know what’s going on, especially if a major anniversary of the contract - say a century - was coming up.

Catholic Church

San Diego has a history with missionaries and the church, so it made a lot of sense to include them as a political player. We know from the books that they know a lot more than they let on, though not as much as the actual supernatural powers. We rated them more towards the status quo than not, if only because such a monolithic organization is always going to be slow to change.

White Council

If there is any organization in the book series that is more opposed to change than the White Council of Wizards, it has escaped me. Wizards definitely know what goes bump in the night, and absolutely want things to stay the way they have always been; hence, their place in the bottom left of the graph.

Summer Court

I’ve talked a lot about how these faeries have a power center in the city, so their appearance here shouldn’t be a shock. They are literally supernatural creatures, which makes it easy to rate them far down the “In the Know” axis. We decided that, as mischievous faeries, they wouldn’t ever be too far towards the status quo or rocking the boat. We never formalized it, but I imagine the Winter Court (who don’t have much of a presence) to be just opposite Summer’s position on the status quo axis.

In the Know & Rock the Boat

Native American Tribal Councils

All of American is tainted with the stain of our sins against the native peoples, and San Diego is know exception. We wanted to include them on the chart because of their rich history here, and because one of our characters is a member of a local tribe. They’re in the know more than any other ethnic groups, and just a little bit on the side of rocking the boat.

The US Border Patrol

Does this one surprise you? We included this group due to the threat of Red Court infiltration in the city. Since the White Council would barely have a presence here, someone had to be the bulwark against supernatural border jumpers. The Border Patrol made sense, so we made them a bit more clued in than most law enforcement. The are a bit on the side of shaking things up because they know the status quo is pretty rough for immigrants, mundane or supernatural.

The Red Court

These guys, as major players, are at the same level of “in the know” as their enemies, the White Council. They absolutely want to rock the boat - hence the war - and gain as much power as they can. No institution is safe from the Red Court’s aggression and their desire for dominance.

Conclusion

I’d forgotten about this middle set when writing these posts, so if you were expecting locations and faces today, I apologize. We’ll get started on those next time, as we continue the world building part of this DFRPG game set in San Diego. The ask box is open if you have questions!

Thank you for reading!

#dresden files #spoilers #role-playing game #dresden files rpg #san diego #dresden files san diego

[professorlizzard]

Below is a list of Nthspace factions for reference, nothing is final, mind you. They are many other large and small factions, but these are the ones whose influence grips at least the third of the worlds in the Nthspace Council.

Education Factions

Amber League of Universities: Founded right in the hearth of Hexaspace, the jewel of Nthspace, is the largest university campus of all. Situated on Junk Planet Pie, most of its staff is crocodilian scientists, who tend to farm Dangerous Fruit in their free times. But thanks to Nthspace renowned scientists and administrators, they are kept in check, and the place barely explodes anymore. Various fields of research most people would label as mad science are regulated with watchful eyes, protecting the geniuses from themselves. The more theoretical, and less explosive researchers sigh in relief, as their daily reading is not hampered by the sound of explosions. This weird blend of chaos and order is extremely fragile, though...

MXNMTCH Foundation: Nominally a terraforming organization, in practice they are all extremely enthusiastic biologists, who want to know everything about all possible versions of Life. To this end, they buy land on barren worlds, and plant nature preserves there, importing various beasts from all over Nthspace, partially to save endangered species, partially to see what would happen. They also big on gene manipulation and extracting medicine from various critters. The group is rather wide eyed idealist, and firmly believe they could solve all the problems of the world. They also produce documentaries of their work, narrated by the softest speaking narrators of all time, and run campaigns on the importance of science.

Uncharted Exploration Factions

HECKWALKERS, Inc: What started as a small radio(active) shack, has now begun the leading researcher in Strange Energies, a specific form of cosmic radiation used in most superscience marvels. Recently, it has shifted its research sites to barren borderworlds, which are conveniently far from rivals, and conveniently close to strange mines. Many people flocked to their sites to work as technicians, or miners, which in turn resulted in an exodus of people who traveled there to cater for the prospectors. A true wild west in space(s), if you ignore the ominous spindly dark science towers in the distance.

Project D.O.R.F. : A cultural and industrial union of various “dorfish” species. Originally, the group was extremely exclusive due to a long list of strict guidelines, but has been lowered to “likes being underground“ and “unlucky history”. Still, common features among members include whiskerlike facial features, low height and penchant for alcohol. These dorves tend to stumble upon strange monsters, mysterious ruins, and pure bad luck, when all they want is new ores from asteroids, or uninhabited ruins. They just can’t catch a break at all! 

Megacorporation Factions

Odobenus Corporation: Currently owned by Zmar Odobenus, this mass of walrine merchandise and pinniped software is an evergreen giant in Nthspace’s market. They are the people behind the widely beloved (or behated, if you prefer an open source system like WildebeestNux) operational system, WalrOS, which made them a household name in basically the entire Nthspace territory. They also produce electronic household appliances, and for odd reasons, custom made small bronze trinkets, which is explainable by the fact that in ancient times, this company used to be a Redsmith Guild, and several of its higher ups still practice this craft, even today. The company also has a flipper in the pie of the magic market. Frankly, they are worryingly omnipresent. 

Qregon Voidships and Racing: If commerce is the lifeblood of Nthspace, Qregon Voidships is the veins. Qregon has figured out the correct application of strange energies, to make travelling between spaces financially viable, and affordable to the wider populace. Every year, newer and newer interspatial voidship trains and buses roll off their assembly lines, ready to ferry more and more people from World A to World B, and back. Qregon takes travel safety very seriously, virtually no incident has occurred! That we know of. They are also the suppliers of world travelling equipment to many of the other factions, for a nominal fee, of course. A smaller, less famous part of the company is about high tech racing. Still, the GraNth Prix is popular enough to be viable, and zooming through alien landscapes is an idea that will always grip everyone’s mind. And some say that there is a secret race, which includes crossing through worlds...

Militarized Factions

Interspace Mercenaries: a private defense concern, united by their love of hats and money. They sell out their services to both the highest and lowest bidder, as long as they pay upfront. They sometimes get to defend magical points of control, but the regular grunts are largely unaware of the exact nature of these places and power. The group never takes missions that include raids, that is purely bad form. Their leader’s intentions are mysterious, but probably leads up to some kind of eternal stalemate, or perhaps it involves their various front companies.

Nthspace Patrol:  loosely tied to the Nthspace Council, this faction is the multispatial police force. Their main task is to search and capture interspatial rogue elements, such as corrupt politicians on the run, bankrobbing wizards, mind controlling parasitic fungi (like the cordi-chefs), malicious cults and many more. Its secondary task is to monitor the peripheries of the central Nthspace, for surprise outside threats, like agents from the unknown “Shatterverse”. Its third function is missions to uncontacted worlds, but only if not undertaking the mission would spell doom (for example, detected supervolcanoes, or a malicious god who escaped there).

Obscure Factions

Magicians Guild: Does magic exist? Yes, this is a fact. Do the magician guild use actual magic? Do they perform stage magic? Maybe. This Ancient Siblinghood was founded a few years ago, but its roots are vast and numerous. Their mission: to protect the universe from the misuse of magic, and from the influence of demons, gods, and other influences from both INSIDE and OUTSIDE. Some megalomanical people might join, but they are quickly expelled. Of course, given the diffuse nature of this group, some might learn that their friend has been exocommunicated too late, after said friend betrayed them and stole a thing from them... The group is often jaded, but still receptive to the wonders of Nthspace.

Nightmare Mafia: They didn’t exist. They were just figments of multiple people’s imagination in the INSIDE. Now they are more than just passing visions. They are really surreal, but they say, that the material world has things stranger than them. So why can’t they go there? They have the right. They can learn almost anything. They influence events. They exist. They could open up a new door for travelling even...

Service Factions

Artificial Intelligence Support League: A machine, either by the fault of their programming or by design, can reach sentience. But does it have a soul? Can it have a purpose other than the designated one? Is there a virtual place where AIs can roam free? The AISL exists to ease these anxieties. They’ll teach them, that they all have life force, deep inside, just like organics. Also, thanks to their efforts, a large chunk of Nthspace populace got accepted as people. They don’t care for magical constructs though. The reasons are blurry, but some think it is because they never required any saving, because while their bodies are artificial, the magic animating them is not artificial, as opposed to the artificial souls of robots.

Nthspace News Network: Spreading truth all over Nthspace! Undaunted by threats! Unbribeable! Unpossible Impossible! The journalistic integrity of this group is unparalled, but only because almost every journalist is secretly a superhero, fighting for truth, justice, and the right to wear colourful costumes. They don’t actually know that their fellow heroes are also their coworkers, but still, their hearts beat as one even when exposing corruption and the state of the disenfranchised. Their power sources and original all vary, but their fervor unites them. How did all these heroes come together by complete accident? Maybe they have been steered by an ancient force of justice, radiating from OUTSIDE...

The Nexus

Cerberus Nexus: Nothing to see here

Which one would you join? 

#nthspace #long post

[appdevelopmentcompanyinusa]

How Much Does it Cost to Develop an App like OYO?

The hospitality sector is set to see a big change; it got a shot in the arm when investments in the sector were booming between 2005 and 2010. With immense private equity and bank funding, the new generation has changed the landscape of the hospitality sector, therefore, it has become more advanced and soothed through Enterprise Mobility Solution.

We all are aware with the OYO as this has become an inseparable part of the hotel industry. Today, it covers 18,000 properties in 500 cities around the world and has earmarked $950 million to bankroll a multi-pronged expansion across Asia over the next five years. So this could be your startup idea as still, some people find trouble in searching fully-furnished room to stay in a new city.

  A Brief History of OYO

OYO, OYO rooms or Oravel Stays is India’s largest hospitality company, founded in 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal. Today OYO is ruling in the market of China, Malaysia, Nepal, UK, and the USA and has become 3rd largest hotel brand in China. The brand has launched various new products in the market including OYO Living, SilverKey, OYO Homes, and Palette.

According to STR, “OYO has collected 515,000 rooms, making it the world’s eighth-largest hotel chain by rooms under management”.

  Top Players of the Hospitality Market

Notable hospitality networks;

OYO Rooms

9flats

Airbnb

BeWelcome

CouchSurfing

Friendship Force International

Gloveler

GuestToGuest

  Recent Fundings Raised in the Co-Living Market

The co-living industry was valued at $55 million in 2017 and in 2018 it gained a market value of $120 million. And according to the RedSeer study, this market is expected to gain $2.2 billion by the year 2022.

Co-living startup Colive has raised $9.2 million from real estate developer Salarpuria Sattva Group.

Stanza Living has raised $4.4 million in debt from Alteria Capital, a venture debt firm.

StayAbode raised an undisclosed amount from Voyage Group, Akatsuki and Incubate Fund as an add-on to Pre-Series A funding.

Housr has been co-founded by Tribeca Developers MD Kalpesh Mehta and Deepak Anand.

Grexter, a co-living startup based in Bengaluru, gained $1.5 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding from Venture Catalysts.

ZoloStays raised a $30Mn Series-C funding by IDFC Alternatives, Mirae Asset and Nexus Venture Partners.

Oyo has raised over $1 billion in funding from Son’s SoftBank in September for $800 million, and then Singapore’s ride-hailing giant Grab in December for $100 million and China’s ride-hailing major Didi Chuxing in February for $100 million

Airbnb received $600,000 in seed money from Sequoia Capital and, in November 2010, raised $7.2 million in financing from Greylock Partners.

  Features of OYO like App

Take a quick look to ease the OYO mobile app design and development process:-

  User Panel

Profile creation and management

Search option

Invite and Earn

Book a Room

Payment option

Notifications

Check-in, Check-out option

Wallet

Booking History

  Hotel Vendor Panel

Account creation and management

Booking Management

Room Management

Track Booking

Upgrade/Degrade Amenities

Customer Review and Rating

  Admin Panel

Customer Management

Booking Management

Manage discount and coupons

Regulate Payment Transaction

Manage Promotional Activities

Hotel Management

 These are the simple features of co-living space mobile application. Recently OYO has introduced various new functionalities to provide a better living experience to users such as;

 1.      OYO Money and OYO Rupee

2.      OYO Wizard

3.      OYO Captain

4.      OYO Assist

5.      OYO SOS

6.      Deals for You

If you want to develop an app like OYO with all these latest features, it won’t help as OYO already established itself in the co-living market. Therefore you have to think out of the box to come up with a new approach to enter in the market and get the hype like OYO.

Let’s get into the technical aspects of the mobile app design and development and see what framework and languages lie under OYO app tech stack.

  OYO Mobile Application’s Technology Stack

Framework: Android, iOS, and Website

Web/App Development Language: Java, JavaScript, Kotlin, Xamrin, Objective-C, Swift, PHP, Node.js, and Angular

Map: Google Map API

Interface: Rest API, Slim Framework

Database: MongoDB, MySQL, Redis

Payment Gateway: Paytm, Mobikwix

Web Server:Nginx

Real-Time Analytics: Hadoop, Spark, Bigdata

Traffic Analysis Tools: Google Analytics, Mouseflow

  Business Model of OYO Rooms

When it comes to how to start a business like OYO, you can go with two different business and revenue models:-

 1.      Aggregator Model

2.      Revenue Model

Aggregator Model

In this model, OYO Rooms partners with other hotels across the world to provide rooms to the customers under their own brand. OYO only partner with those hotels which meet certain guidelines such as the standardization of basic amenities, the standard of rooms, staff quality, security, pricing, location, etc.

 Revenue Model of OYO Rooms

Currently, OYO is working on this business model. Under this model, OYO used to rent out the hotels at a predefined price and offered them to the users at a take-up rate. This is a commission based revenue model and this commission does vary according to the services provided by the brand.

  OYO Mobile App Development Cost

The cost that we have mentioned in our blog for OYO mobile application development is not finite. The cost of iOS Mobile App Development and Android Mobile App Development varies based on various factors, including the app features, tech stack, hourly price of the hired mobile app developer, and most importantly – the number of hours required for the development cycle.

At Consagous Technology, we calculated the cost of OYO-like app development based on the number of hours, the value comes down to nearly $65000. This estimated cost of OYO-like app development may differ.

#Enterprise mobility applications #Mobile app developers #Mobile application service provider #Mobile App Development Company in USA #Mobile App Development Services #Mobile App Development Solutions #App Development Company #Mobile App Development Company #Mobile App Development

[thesevenseraphs]

Update 2.6.0 - Age of Triumph

Raids

Recommended Light level: 390

New Weapons, Armor, Armor Ornaments, Ghosts, Sparrows, Shaders and Emblems to discover

Players will receive one Age of Triumph Armor Ornament token for successful completion of the featured Raid (once per week per account)

All Challenge Modes are enabled on the weekly featured Raid

Players will receive one Age of Triumph Armor Ornament token for successful completion of Challenge Modes (once per character, per Challenge Mode, per week)

Players will receive a "Knuckles of Eao" by completing a featured Raid's opening encounter (once per week, per account)

Use Knuckles of Eao then defeat a Raid boss in the weekly featured playlist to receive extra rewards

Knuckles of Eao consumables stack to a maximum of 5

Three of Coins should now activate on the following bosses:

Templar

Atheon

Ir-Yut

Crota

Added Challenge Modes to the following Encounters:

Templar

Atheon

Ir-Yut

Crota

Fixed an issue where killing Ir-Yut would not always end the Deathsinger encounter and players would have to deal with infinitely respawning Knights

Removed a condition that prevented Fireteams of less than three from progressing past the Gorgons in the Vault of Glass

Fixed an issue where one of the door switches in the second Vosik encounter was partially obscured by the wall and difficult to hit with a SIVA Charge

Crucible

Updated core nodes to cycle between available activities on a weekly cadence:

Node 1 cycles between Control and Clash

Node 2 cycles between Rift and Supremacy

Node 3 cycles between Elimination and Trials of Osiris (on weekend only)

Node 4 cycles between Skirmish and Salvage

Node 5 cycles between Rumble and Rumble Supremacy

Weekly Featured Crucible activities consolidated into a single node

Weekly Featured activities include Combined Arms, Zone Control, Mayhem Clash, Mayhem Rumble and Doubles

Classic playlists have been removed, players who do not own Rise of Iron can now access the Weekly Featured Crucible activity

Crucible Bounties

Updated Crucible Daily Bounties to be more inclusive, no longer requiring specific Subclasses or Fireteams

Added new Weekly Crucible Weapon Bounties to the Crucible Quartermaster

Possible Weapon rewards include items from the Crucible Vendor, Crucible Playlists, Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris

Lord Shaxx will now offer his Weekly Bounty for both available 6v6 modes each week

Trials of Osiris Bounties have been updated:

Existing Bounties will remain in your inventory and can be completed to acquire their respective rewards

New versions of the Bounties will now be offered by Brother Vance and can be completed daily when Trials of Osiris is active

Armor and Weapon rewards from Bounties updated to include all non-adept Y3 items

Quests

Crucible Quest chain from Lord Shaxx has been removed, you can complete the current quest you are on but will not acquire the next quest in the chain

Iron Banner

Dusty Iron Engrams updated to decrypt immediately upon purchase

Dusty Iron Engrams now have a chance to contain Year 2 Iron Companion Armor

Iron Banner match rewards updated to include Year 2 Iron Companion Armor

Slightly increased chance for Year 1 and Year 2 armor rewards from Iron Banner matches

Support added for Iron Banner Mayhem Clash

Some vendor items on Efrideet have had their rolls updated

Trials of Osiris

Fixed an issue where a player on the surviving team could use Fireborn to cause the round to continue even when all enemies were dead

General

Made Special Ammo crates instantly refill your Special Weapon on pickup

Disabled Join-in-Progress for Rumble playlists if any player has at least 100 points

Private Matches

Removed Power and Vehicle options, added Ammo and Respawn options that vary by mode:

Ammunition -  Default, No Special, No Heavy, No Ammo Crates

Respawns - Teammate Revives, Instant, After 3 Seconds, After 5 Seconds, After 10 Seconds

Vehicles are now enabled on maps that support them, except in Inferno modes

Round Time options adjusted for Elimination to default to 90 seconds to match the playlist setting

Maps

Fixed an issue where players were able to leave the intended playable area on Icarus and Skyline

Patrols

Fixed an issue where Plaguelands patrols were not dropping collection items

Grimoire

Grimoire card "SRL: Sparrow Racing" can now also be earned from Private Matches using the Sparrow Racing gametype

Players who have acquired the Y3 Khvostov will be awarded all Grimoire cards for the Khvostov Manual pages (including pages 1, 15, and 17) upon entering Orbit

Players will now be awarded with the Y1 Icebreaker Grimoire card upon acquiring the Y3 Icebreaker. Players who have already acquired the Y3 Icebreaker will receive the card upon entering Orbit

Sandbox

Health Regen changes:

Changes reverted:

Suros Legacy perk

No Backup Plans

Ward of Dawn cast

Apotheosis Veil

Embrace the Void

Kept the recent changes, but increased the amount of Health/Shield given per kill from 36 to 57:

Hungering Blade

Transfusion: Cooldown was also removed

Cauterize: Cooldown was also removed

Red Death perk

Lifesteal:  Also applies to The Ram

Memory of Skorri will now require a kill to start working and will charge Supers for 1 minute, or until the round ends or the player dies

Sidearms will no longer allow ammo to stack through death and instead will reset to a single magazine every respawn

Added 1 round to Truth’s maximum inventory and increased its reload speed to max

Added more flinch to No Land Beyond and widened its potential recoil space — it will recoil the same amount, but not necessarily in the same direction

Recovery reduction was removed from the Blink Talent Grid Nodes and the time the player was left HUDless has been lowered

Hand Cannon range falloff now starts  ~3m earlierAuto Rifles' minimum damage (damage done at maximum range falloff) increased by 7%

Kills with Necrochasm no longer require headshots to explode enemies (flying enemies such as Shanks and Wizards  do not explode)

Increased Recovery given by Astrocyte Verse's Move to Survive perk from +3 to +7

Fixed an issue where the Rescue Mag perk would replenish ammunition when taking self-damage

Fixed an issue where changes to the Shotgun perk Rangefinder intended with Hotfix 2.5.0.2 did not go into effect

Fixed an issue that where changes to Shotgun in-air accuracy did not go into effect

Strikes

New Nightfall modifier: Daybreak combines the Epic and Mayhem modifiers every fourth week

Nightfall blue flames and Radiant Light Reputation bonus on completion have returned

More aggressive idle player detection; now in line with Crucible Activity

Fixed an issue in The Nexus where the Aegis would be continuously deleted and respawned

Fixed an issue in The Shadow Thief where players would get the "Joining Allies" message while in the playable space during the fight with Taniks

Vendors

Increased the reputation awarded by the Gunsmith for completing weapon tests

Eris Morn now accepts Moldering Shards and charged Antiquated Runes as donations in exchange for Crota's Bane reputation

Adjusted the price of ammo synthesis for purchase from Eris Morn

Shiro-4 will now accept Isenfyre Tokens in exchange for 500 Vanguard reputation

The Crucible Quartermaster now sells ammo synthesis consumables in exchange for Hadium Flakes

Vendor items sold for Legendary Marks have had their light levels increased to 380

Vendors selling level 40 Legendary Armor and Weapons now update perks and stats at the weekly reset

This includes the following vendors:

Vanguard Mentors and Quartermaster

Crucible Quartermaster

Lord Shaxx

Dead Orbit

New Monarchy

Future War Cult

Xûr now sells two new Exotic weapon bundles each week in addition to his regular weekly sale items

Each bundle costs 30 Strange Coins and 25 Silver Dust and contains 1 Exotic Weapon and 1 matching Weapon Ornament

Two new Emotes are available from the Emote Kiosk: Please and Thanks

Adjusted the rarity of certain ships available from Amanda Holliday

Silver Dust Store

Many Eververse items available from the Dawning are now available on the Silver Dust Kiosk

Sterling and Radiant Treasures have been removed from the Silver Dust Store

New Silver Dust Engram items have been added to the Silver Dust Store and their corresponding vendors for a cost of 5 Silver Dust

Items obtained from these Engrams dismantle into 1 Silver Dust:

Arena Engram - Lord Shaxx - Contains infusible Crucible Armor from Year 1 and 2

Exodus Engram - Arach Jalaal - Contains infusible Dead Orbit Armor from Year 1 and 2

Warpath Engram - Lakshmi-2 - Contains infusible Future War Cult Armor from Year 1 and 2

Unity Engram - Executor Hideo - Contains infusible New Monarchy Armor from Year 1 and 2

Triad Engram - Vanguard Mentors - Contains infusible Vanguard Armor from Year 1 and 2

Sterling Engram - Silver Dust Store - Contains Spektar Armor from Year 2's Sterling Treasure

Icy Engram - Silver Dust Store - Contains Chroma Armor from Treasures of the Dawning

Cost is 10 Silver Dust, items dismantle to 5 Silver Dust

Players who have previously obtained Dawning and Desolate Armor pieces may purchase these items from the Silver Dust Store

Eververse

Treasure of Ages is now available for purchase from Eververse

The Treasure of Ages contains existing Eververse items, as well as many new items to collect:

Shaders

Weapon Ornaments

Ships

Triumph Armor Set

Players can receive up to three free Treasure of Ages per account per week for their first completion of the following activities:

Heroic Strike playlist

Weekly Crucible playlist

Weekly Story playlist

General

Fixed an issue impacting some players' ability to join Fireteams over local network connections

Fixed an issue preventing dropped Engrams from being sent to the Postmaster if the player disconnects without returning to Orbit

Fixed a bug causing equipped Sniper Rifles to occasionally become invisible

Fixed an issue that allowed Supers to stay activated longer than intended

Twilight Garrison now changes color to match the equipped Shader

Skeleton Keys and Siva Fragments may now appear at Postmaster to prevent an issue where these items may have been removed from Character Inventory

#destiny #destiny the game #age of triumph

[rightinfront-ronno-blog]

My Grass Is Greener || Ronno Final Selfie

Planning. It always came down to planning. What to wear, where to be, how to start into conversation, how to direct it, and every scenario in between. It was a while since he had won his freedom. A few weeks that felt like an eternity while he gathered himself and his supplies. The phone was the trickiest part as he set it up and tried to fill it with things to engage him while he waited for his parents at the pub.

Date night. A Schavez parental tradition that went back as far as the young boy could remember when he was yet being saddled with babysitters. It was always at the same pub; their favorite. All the waiters knew them and all would greet them favorably, and each time they would sit at the bar and hope to make a few new friends along the way. Knowing the other regulars was one of the few ways they got out anymore and enjoyed things. Ronno was planning on being one of their ‘younger’ new friends and get under their noses to trigger some memories.

Though he knew very little about memory charms and how they all worked, he’d been informed by a hopeful young enthusiast that they weren’t always done right. Mistakes were made and sometimes they could be reversed or triggered. Due to his situation and how important he was in their lives, it was likely that the memory charm used would be extremely difficult to perform effectively. Given the right prompts and bits of information, they could come to remember their only son that was so suddenly ripped from their lives.

So here he sat, a beer in one hand and a phone in the other. They’d not yet shown up, but he had also arrived early with all the giddiness sitting in his belly. Oh to hear the sounds of normal conversations, phones going off, people bustling about and not using magic. It was like a quaint sense of home that he’d always read about and yet never experienced. And yet, something was missing from the world by knowing the other side of things. Something wonderful in knowing that dragons and hippogriffs and fairies truly existed just on the other side of a veil of lies. But yes, it was home. Chinga-ling! The door chime went off and Ronno attempted to casually glance over as any bored patron would do. And there they were.

Two years, it seemed, and nothing had changed them. They were never perfect and he was more often than not a spoiled child, but they were still his parents. He owed a lot to them and only in his struggles and time without them did he realize how much he had missed them, including all their annoying habits. They made their way over and through careful planning and a lot of luck they sat down near him. Ronno could have jumped for joy.

“Whoah! Nice new gadget you have there. Is it nosey if I ask what it is?” His dad said, leaning over. Ronno looked up and smiled.

“Yeah, it’s the new Nexus from Android. Why, looking to buy a new model?” His dad paused and nodded, which was odd, but Ronno held out hope for any and all pauses. Maybe that meant things were working?

“Absolutely. Mine seems to die so quickly on charge. Time to get a new one, really. Oh! Sorry to be rude, this is my wife, Camelia. My name is Jim.”

His mother reached out her hand for a shake and Ronno returned it, “Pleasure to meet you.”

“Ronno.” He expected a pause, a reaction, or something. Nothing. They went on smiling without a single pause.

“So what do you do, Ronno? Young man like you hanging out at a bar mid week alone? Waiting on a girl?”

“No, not really. Just enjoying the evening and the company.”

“Oh us too, dear!” His mother cooed smiling, “Well actually this is our date night. No idea why this night in particular, but habits, you know?”

“Hope I’m not interrupting, then.” he said, slowly becoming worried as to whether or not they’d recognize him. “And I’m in entertainment. Well… online entertainment, actually. I did videos on popular websites and I get sponsored.”

His father’s eyebrows raised and he prayed for recognition. They had both been so proud when he’d been active. His mother’s ‘wonderfully talented little boy.’ They had to pair his name with what he used to do, didn’t they?

“Good job, is it?” His father asked. “Bet you’re inside a lot though.”

“Bachelor pad of the tech man.” His mother said with a grin.

“Yeah, something like that. I was living with my parents for a while. They were alright with it, but initially they had worried about my health. All worked out in the end though.”

“Oh I should say they would be. I’d certainly be.” His mother said, “But then again I never was a mother so what would I know?” she laughed, “we enjoy our freedom a bit much for all that.”

That hurt. And solidified how good a job those at the ministry had done on his two loving parents. He knew when he had first been whisked away from his home and his life it had started when he had been forced to flee his own home. His parents called the cops after a long drawn-out argument about how he did actually live there. And yet, it was so long ago and so fresh he had hoped that the memory spell had somehow… worn off or something. Fat chance. Perhaps his separation from them had only made it stronger, or persist longer. The weight of that was quickly starting to come crashing down.

“Ah, I’m sorry to cut you two off especially since we just met but... “ he checked his phone, “...apparently I’m needed by a friend for a problem.”

“Well, nice meeting you then, dear. Good luck with your friend.” Camelia said, all cheer that he would probably never see again. He wasn’t an overly sentimental sort of guy, but even Ronno’s chest ached at her words and ached again as he paid his tab and waved goodbye to them. It was most likely his last goodbye, and it was as empty and cold as he felt.

The crisp night air around him made for a good reason to walk around the block and calm down. Ronno’s eyes were feeling red and stinging with the promise of tears. His hopes and dreams felt crushed at the feet of the patrons in that bar and his throat threatened to close from the panic of it all. He let his feet walk where they would while his head swam with fear, sorrow, and disappointment and all sorts of other feelings about his situation. He walked and walked, unaware of where he was going until he had arrived in the dim lighting of the park.

The Park. It was the first place he had run to when his parents called the cops, thinking he was a robber breaking into their home. Under those bright lights he first met members of the Wizarding Law Enforcement. Over by that bridge he was informed that he had violated some unknown law. By that path he was forced to come with them and magically teleported to his new residence.

Ronno felt himself frown as he stared down at his feet with a pout. What was he to do? His own parents didn’t recognize him, despite how hopeful he had been that they would. If they didn’t, it was unlikely that any of his friends did. What was there even left for him here? What could there possibly be for him if nobody remembered his name and his own family couldn’t recognize him? He was so used to fame and recognition ever since he was fourteen that he wasn’t sure what to do now that he didn’t have it. That same feeling persisted after the memories were wiped and he hated it.

Ronno sighed, looking once more at his feet and finding he really didn’t want to walk anymore. What was the point? He might as well fade back into anonymity. Who cared for the non-magical boy without family or friends?

He held out a ticket stub, magically enchanted, along the side streets of London. It didn’t take long for the Knight Bus to find him and whip around the corner to stop right before his feet. It was a marvel, really. Though he didn’t have a wand or any magical talents, the round-trip ticket seemed to do the trick.

The young man stepped forth from the step and looked at the non-magical boy with a look of confusion. “Help you, sir?” he asked.

“Yeah. Heading back to Hogsmeade, or however close this takes me.” He responded, stepping into the light of the bus windows and holding out his ticket. Ronno didn’t feel so great and though the ride was bumpy it was better than walking. He’d done enough of that and he didn’t want any more extended time to think on things now that everything was ruined.

“Hey, don’t I know you?” The bus boy asked, curiously eyeing the young man’s face.

“I dunno.” Ronno replied, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah I do! Oh hell! You’re Ronno Schavez! The-the inventor of the Scolla and Scrapwitch, yeah? Hey! Charlie, guess who we got ridin’ in back?” The old man grumbled curiously, “It’s Ronno Schavez! The kid who did the stone thing? This thing.” He pulled it out of his pocket and showed the old man. A look between the device and the non-magical boy happened before the older driver nodded his head like he was impressed. The bus-boy looked back and grinned, “Hey, mind if I ask for an autograph?”

Ronno nearly fell over. His eyes darted back and forth between everyone involved as the situation unfolded. “Ugh… yeah, sure, dude.” He said, nodding and taking the outstretched piece of paper and the pen. “Who am I… making it out to?” His head swam. He was autographing something. He was being asked for his signature due to his face. He was being recognized.

The signature itself was nothing pretty, nor was the paper, but the boy seemed over the moon thrilled to have it. A quick tuck into his jacket and he graciously let Ronno up onto the bus. The dark-skinned boy’s head was wrapped in confusion and realization all at once. That empty feeling that had been there had magically dispersed, if only a little. Why? What happened that made it go away? Why had a signature somehow make it disappear, if only a little?

Because you are recognized. People do know you, and they like you. Just not here anymore.

It hit. It felt like a ton of bricks and stone and concrete, but it made so much sense that he was left stricken. He wasn’t known where he had come from, but he certainly made a name for himself where he had gone. So much so that he even revolutionized how they used technology. And that wasn’t all, he could continue doing it. He was known, considered smart, popular, and well respected. Sure he didn’t have his family, but he’d focused so hard on getting back home due to the fame he’d lost that he nearly ignored the fame he had.

Why should he go back to the non-magical world and live there? Why not simply stay in the magical one, continuing to be Ronno Schavez, the non-magical inventor who changed the course of wizarding history? Ronno sat down on one of the beds within the bus and swallowed, his brow furrowed in thought. What if… he stayed where he was? He had his freedom, so it wasn’t as if the world was banned to him.

Those two long years of planning and working hard were wasted on something he’d lost forever, but that didn’t mean his future was taken from him. He still had one, and it was even brighter than his old one.

#fhogself #final #my grass is greener #holy shit no tws

[melchiordahrk]

What mods do you recommend for someone who's just getting their Morrowind modding feet wet?

The first thing I recommend to people is to try Morrowind with a bare minimum of mods first to experience the world and gameplay in its original form - this way you have a sense of how various mods come in and shake things up and can make an informed decision if you like it or not. I will purposely steer away from most graphics and content mods here since they are each a whole ‘nother ball of wax for another time, but if you’re ready to look at adding mods to the game, the starter pack which I recommend would include:

Essential Utilities

Wrye Mash Standalone - if you’re planning on installing a bunch of mods or want to swap out different graphical replacers, then Mash is a must. It’s the best mod manager for TES3. The Morrowind Modding Wiki has a fairly comprehensive article on using Mash and it may seem daunting, so I would say the two most important features for players are Installers (you can put mod packages into a folder to install/uninstall using Mash rather than cluttering your Data Files folder if you then decide to try removing a mod) and Repairing a Save Game.

mlox - this program should be used in tandem with Mash to organize your mods. This program uses an extensive database of mods to set a load order with the best chance of eliminating conflicts and errors.

Morrowind Code Patch - still actively being supported by our resident wizard, Hrnchamd, MCP was just updated to 2.3. The effect the patches included in the MCP have on the quality of life when playing cannot be overstated.

4GB Patch and Exe Optimizer - these two programs combined significantly reduce the number of CTDs you will experience while playing. Even if you don’t want to use mods, use these. Install MCP first, then 4GB Patch, then EXE Optimizer - the order is important.

Morrowind Graphics Extender XE - major graphical enhancement to the game without even updating any models or textures. I would recommend limiting your distant land to under 7 cells. Removing the artificial “veil” by being able to look across the entire island is great for screenshots, but removes some of the mystery which lends to this old game’s charm. I personally use the beta version from Hrnchamd which can be found here and have found it to be relatively stable.

tes3cmd ( - To get to the download page yourself, follow the MW Modding Wiki instructions. I recommend this insanely powerful program to players for one primary reason: Multipatch. tes3cmd can create a patch from your entire load order to fix a number of common issues. The MW Modding Wiki has instructions for creating a batch file to help make the multipatch creation easier since tes3cmd is a command line program with no GUI.

Plugins

Morrowind Acoustic Overhaul - this mod overhauls the environmental, music, and effect sounds in the game. Even having the option to have a player voice. This mod is an impressive technical feat which will truly help immerse you in the world of Morrowind.

Morrowind Patch Project - like the unofficial patches you may be familiar with from later Bethesda titles, the MPP is an extensive bug squasher. Version 1.6.6 is the latest, but you will need to install 1.6.5b first.

Landscape and Object Fixes (assorted) - complementing the MPP, this series of fixes address a lot of visual errors such as floating objects, bad texture mapping, and visible seams.

Boats and Silt Striders - makes the “fast travel” services of boats and silt striders have a “scenic” option where you can actually ride the ship or giant flea. Excellent, must have mods. If you’re wanting another excellent transportation mod by abot, check out Guars.

Fatigue and Magicka Overhaul - managing fatigue and magicka burn in TES3 is fairly challenging. Not that it’s wrong, but this mod - along with other alternatives like it - make the systems function a bit more like TES4 and TES5 while still remaining balanced for TES3. Note: if you’re playing a magic character, you might be interested in Mastering Magicka which is a gameplay mod focused on magic users. You’ll just want to turn off its magicka regen feature if using it with this mod.

Go To Jail - instead of just getting warped outside of an Imperial Fort, you will actually serve your time if you commit a crime. This mod may be geared more towards thievish players, but it’s still a great addition to the game.

Graphic Herbalism - geared more towards magic characters, this mod makes it so if you pick from a plant, it will change visually as a helpful queue not to bother with it.

Morrowind Containers Animated - this mod makes containers open when you activate them like in the later Bethesda titles. A relatively simple mod, but to great effect.

There are so, so many more amazing mods out there. I myself keep a very full mod list when I am actually playing and not modding. Get in there on MMH and Nexus and find your own diamonds in the gold! Or feel free to ask me if you’re looking for something in particular. if you think I missed some crucial mods, feel free to let me know.

#ask

[nightphoebe]

This is my Mandalorian, Ni’dea Ordo. Adopted into clan Ordo as an infant, Ni’dea is a close-range fighter who prefers vibroknives to blasters any day, but isn’t stupid enough to forego a sidearm. She’s very chill and family oriented, loves her incredibly dangerous swoop bike almost like it’s a sibling, and is the main pilot of her family’s ship, the Dxun Shadow. She enjoys singing, playing the bes’bev, swoop racing, adventure seeking, and taking care of (i.e. baby-ing the hell out of) her nexu, Orir. She’s mildly force-sensitive, even though she’s actively derisive of force users (because I told my GM that it would be the one thing she’d hate most and he thought it would be hilarious). She had her formative years during the rise of the Empire and thinks Jedi are hypocritical asshats and Sith are manipulative, murderous lunatics. The only force user she doesn’t treat with disdain is her older brother Kylain, a Jedi who went into hiding with and was later adopted into her clan.

When she reached adulthood, Ni’Dea traveled alone to Shili to learn more about what being a Togruta meant. She completed her own Akul hunt and made her personal Akul tooth headdress. She also designed her own belt sash and wears it with her kit. While learning the Togruta ways, she discovered a love of being barefoot and connecting with whatever planet she happens to be on. She also liked learning how to kill things with her teeth. That was cool. While she did experience a lot, and enjoyed her time on Shili, Ni’dea quickly got homesick and returned to her clan.

Ni’dea enjoys bounty hunting more for the challenge and the travel than for the credits. If she ever retired, she’d probably search out some nice, warm, water planet where she could spend her time sailing a boat, because “water always has some scary shit in it, vod!” Or she’d just swoop race until it killed her.

Some of her more notable in-game accomplishments are:

1. Killing a Wookie madclaw in hand-to-hand combat with her bes’bev. He tried to steal the family ship while her aliit were off hunting and she was on watch. He took a chunk off her face (and came very close to taking her head off) and she kept his bowcaster as trophy/main firearm.

2. Helping to take over a Victory Class Star Destroyer after the Dxun Shadow was taken aboard for inspection. On this adventure, she may or may not have also told the Emperor, indirectly, to suck a bantha dick.

3. Modding her beskar’gam to be covered in small, flip-out vibroblades so she could literally hug a person into a fine, red mist. This did not catch on or last, and no one on the ship appreciated the amount of cleaning it lead to. It was, however, hilarious at the time.

4. (In a joke session where nothing in story canon actually happened) Stealing the Sun Crusher and flying it through an Interdictor that tried to stop them as a birthday present/date with her husband. He sure knows how to treat her right.

Ni’dea is from my very first Star Wars tabletop RPG back in 2007 (as shown by her HEAVY Legends influences) when Wizards of the Coast came out with the Saga Edition of their system. Since she’s been my main go-to character since then, I figured I should probably share a vague approximation of her. Someday, I’ll actually draw her with her real kit, correct colors, and proper markings, but for now, I’m tired and online avatar makers are easy to use.

I’m also working on trying to get an actual kit together for her so I can finally join the Mando Mercs, but that involves makeup and prosthetics, as well as armor crafting, so yeah. It’s a long way off.

#ni'dea ordo #togruta #mandalorian #mando #mando'ade #mando'a #star wars #original character #i remember being really pissed off when Clone Wars came out #because I was sure people would think I was just riding the togruta bandwagon #when i had made this lady first #oh well #long post #hello me