thestuffedalligator

[thestuffedalligator]

I’m too soft of a DM to put the player characters into real danger but I have no gumptions about torturing their favourite NPCs, which is usually more effective anyways.

In our Ravenloft game the party met and befriended an apprentice mage who was studying magic as a way to break an ancestral curse on her bloodline. The party teamed up with her, helped her separate from her awful family, brokered a peace with the undead unicorn that had cursed her bloodline, and then sent her off with a travelling Vistani caravan.

The next time they met her she had been kidnapped and tortured and turned into a doll by a mad scientist, and that motivated the party to murder that mad scientist faster than anything I’ve ever done in any game in my life.

#dnd #ravenloft

[thestuffedalligator]

should i get into bird watching?

#truly #‘holy shit is that a whiskeyjack’

[thestuffedalligator]

Tolkien’s best passage

Tolkien gets a lot of respect for being a great storyteller, but I think a lot of times people don’t really understand that, as an author, he had an amazing command of language and style (and poetry). I wanted to share my favorite passage of his, in terms of linguistic style, which comes from the Return of the King, for those who may not be as familiar with his work. It is worthwhile to read this aloud and really listen to how the sentences flow: 

“And far away, as Frodo put on the Ring and claimed it for his own, even in Sammath Naur the very heart of his realm, the Power in Barad-dûr was shaken, and the Tower trembled from its foundations to its proud and bitter crown. The Dark Lord was suddenly aware of him, and his Eye piercing all shadows looked across the plain to the door that he had made; and the magnitude of his own folly was revealed to him in a blinding flash, and all the devices of his enemies were at last laid bare. Then his wrath blazed in consuming flame, but his fear rose like a vast black smoke to choke him. For he knew his deadly peril and the thread upon which his doom now hung. From all his policies and webs of fear and treachery, from all his stratagems and wars his mind shook free; and throughout his realm a tremor ran, his slaves quailed, and his armies halted, and his captains suddenly steerless, bereft of will, wavered and despaired. For they were forgotten. The whole mind and purpose of the Power that wielded them was now bent with overwhelming force upon the Mountain. At his summons, wheeling with a rending cry, in a last desperate race there flew, faster than the winds, the Nazgûl, the Ringwraiths, and with a storm of wings they hurtled southwards to Mount Doom.”

I hope you appreciate this as much as I do. If you have similar favorite passages (in terms of storytelling, or style, or anything), reblog and let me know. In terms of pure emotion, I don’t think anything in the Lord of the Rings is more beautifully done than the scene of Sam and Frodo talking about being in a story and part of an adventure, but this passage wins in terms of literary ability. 

#lotr

[thestuffedalligator]

I can’t get over how much the couple in this movie are like my roommates.

Which I think makes me the ghost, which checks out.

Despite being an absolute freak for found footage horror I’ve never seen Paranormal Activity.

Let’s see how this goes.

#horror #i move pots and pans around and steal their garlic

[thestuffedalligator]

Why do they have so many layers on their bed if they’re just going to take them off before they sleep.

Am I just too north to get this.

Despite being an absolute freak for found footage horror I’ve never seen Paranormal Activity.

Let’s see how this goes.

#horror #i live in northern alberta. it gets to 10 degrees C at night in my room in summer #i am using every layer every night or else I Will Die

[thestuffedalligator]

Despite being an absolute freak for found footage horror I’ve never seen Paranormal Activity.

Let’s see how this goes.

#horror #paranormal activity

[thestuffedalligator]

Lost Americans wheel. Watercolor and ink.

[thestuffedalligator]

Congratulations! You are now a Magic-User!!

#oh frostbitten hands and autumn leaves are both very good…. #i’m going with autumn leaves but frostbitten hands is a VERY close second #i want the feylost look

[thestuffedalligator]

It occurred to me today that I posted photos of my plate for Enoch, but I never posted the finished print...

#over the garden wall #otgw

[thestuffedalligator]

While we wait for a second printing of my book, here's a new comic l've been working on in between other projects that I finally finished. This is actually my longest comic ever, at just under 40 pages. 😵‍💫 I'll be sharing more parts of it this week but of course you can read the whole thing early for just a buck! Here!

#ooo #oh i’m fascinated #really want to see where this goes

[thestuffedalligator]

I'm re-reading the Discworld series for reasons, and honestly the most relatable part of reading these as an adult is how many of the protagonists start out being tired, used to their little routine and vaguely disgruntled by the interruption of the Plot. Sam Vimes wants to lie drunk in a gutter and absolutely doesn't want to be arresting dragons. Rincewind is yanked into every situation he's ever encountered, though he'd much rather be lying in a gutter too. (Minus the alcohol. Plus regretting everything he's ever done said witnessed or even heard about fourth-hand in his whole life.) Granny Weatherwax is deeply suspicious of foreign parts and that includes the next town over; Nanny has leaned into the armor of "nothing ever happens to jolly grannies who terrorize their daughters-in-law and make Saucy Jokes"

Only the young people don't seem to have picked up on this---and that's fortunate, because someone has to run around making things happen, if only so Vimes and Granny and Rincewind have a reason to get up (complaining bitterly the whole time) and put it all to rights. Without Carrot, Margrat, Eric, etc. these characters don't have that reason; they're likely to stay in the metaphorical gutter and keep wondering where it all went wrong or why anything has to change.

............well, that's not quite true. You get the sense that Vetinari knows how much certain people hate the Plot. And as the person sitting behind the metaphorical lighting board of Ankh-Morpork, he takes no small pleasure in forcing the Plot-haters specifically to stand up, and say some lines.

#discworld

[thestuffedalligator]

Birdwomen Family: Harpyidae

Birdwomen are the most common of magical creatures, appearing on every continent except for Antarctica*. Opportunistic omnivores, birdwomen take the form of massive carrion birds, typically corvids, vultures, condors and eagles, with the heads of women. They appear to be exclusively female; however, some species such as the Mediterranean harpy (Harpia strophades) do pair up during the mating season, with members impressing prospective partners by inflating a pair of gular sacks at the base of the throat similar to the behaviour of frigatebirds (family Fregatidae) and the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus).

The magic of most species of birdwomen are affiliated with storms and disease. The alkonost (Harpia bilibinae) lays its eggs in the sea, and their hatching causes thunderstorms to form, while the droppings of the Mediterranean harpy immediately befoul food.

While most species are reluctant to directly attack humans, birdwomen have no qualms in consuming carrion. Multiple cultures report birdwomen as constant companions to sites of battle and bloodshed. Nordic myths of Valkyries spiriting away the dead are almost certainly inspired by the sight of Scandinavian species of birdwomen feasting on the bodies of the slain after battle, possibly the crested harpy (Valkyria cristatus), nicknamed by professional harpiers as the "Thor's falcon."

The North American birdwoman (Harpia canadensis) is the largest known species of birdwoman, with species standing between five and six feet tall, with respective wingspans of 12 to 15 feet wide. Easily identified by their black, iridescent plumage, North American birdwomen exhibit an intelligent, often playful and curious personality. While native to western and central Canada and the northwestern United States, one birdwoman was sighted in Point Pleasant, West Virginia through the late 1960s; following the 1967 Silver Bridge collapse, one harpier reported seeing this same birdwoman consuming the bodies of two disappeared travellers who had washed up downriver.

*Sightings of the "penguinwomen" of Antarctica are unsubstantiated and should not be counted as fact.

#harpies #unreality #narrativia #i have spiderwick on the brain and this happened #valkyries #norse mythology #mothman #cryptids

[thestuffedalligator]

nudges u go read @bonus-links ✨

#legend of zelda

[thestuffedalligator]

The first gravestone of Se.

[thestuffedalligator]

I have been listening to the Hobbit audiobook while working. Bad idea. I didn't work, I drew Bilbo and his fancy home ♥

#lotr #the hobbit #oh my god absolutely gorgeous

[thestuffedalligator]

The Third Expedition

by Darío Mekler

Illustration for the story by Ray Bradbury included in "The Martian Chronicles"

Instagram

[thestuffedalligator]

Series with big cast of protagonists, but it’s revealed to the audience very early on that character A is a traitor who’s secretly working for the villains. They secretly sabotage missions, they leak information to the villains, they do tangible damage to the protagonists’ success, they possibly even hurt people, and the audience is prepared for them to be revealed as a traitor or redeem themselves or both.

And they do have a character arc — over the course of the series they continue to feel worse about trying to sabotage people who see them as a friend, and in one episode character A finally goes “Wait this is awful. I don’t want to do this anymore.” They cut contact with the villains and actually for real start helping the protagonists.

But character A never tells anyone that they were ever a traitor. To the rest of the protagonists nothing’s changed except that wow we’re having a lot more luck these days, isn’t that weird? They never apologize for working against the protagonists but they do work to change themselves and try to help people they’re warily calling friends.

#reblogging again for the morning crowd #but also. read the notes. the discussion going on is fascinating and there are too many tags i want to highlight #if a character redeems themselves in a forest and nobody is around to hear it does it make a noise