Boonedox landing gear old town sportsman

[H] 300+ Games [W] Steam Marketable Items (Cases, Gems, Keys, Skins, Trading Cards etc) and Wishlist

2023.05.30 22:36 Vulcann111 [H] 300+ Games [W] Steam Marketable Items (Cases, Gems, Keys, Skins, Trading Cards etc) and Wishlist

I have multiple copies for most of my games, Trades are mostly based on prices from gg.deals. Please notify me if my keys are not for your personal use (i won't take any responsibility if i wasn't notified) and also please clearly state what you have and want in exchange when making an offer, i have no interest in buying games for Keys/Gems etc. and i also have no interest in Alpha, Beta, Curator, Dev and Non-Steam Keys

Barter.vg Reddit Steam Profile SteamTrades

FUEL (Removed from Steam Store) Magicka: Wizards of the Square Tablet (Removed from Steam Store) Human Resource Machine (Steam Inventory Gift) Magicka+All DLC's except Ninth Element Novel Magicka Shank 2 Operation Flashpoint: Red River (Removed from Steam Store) Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards: Reloaded (Removed from Steam Store) All Zombies Must Die! (Removed from Steam Store) R.I.P.D.: The Game (Removed from Steam Store) ibb & obb (Steam Inventory Gift) Afterfall InSanity Extended Edition (Removed from Steam Store) eXceed - Gun Bullet Children (Removed from Steam Store) eXceed 2nd - Vampire REX (Removed from Steam Store) God Mode (Removed from Steam Store) Gundemonium Recollection (Removed from Steam Store) Hitogata Happa (Removed from Steam Store) Naval War: Arctic Circle (Removed from Steam Store) Red Faction+Red Faction II Red Faction®: Armageddon™+Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered+Red Faction Guerrilla Steam Edition Real World Racing (Removed from Steam Store) GundeadliGne (Removed from Steam Store) Beast Boxing Turbo (Removed from Steam Store) BlazeRush eXceed 3rd - Jade Penetrate Black Package (Removed from Steam Store) FortressCraft Evolved! Jagged Alliance - Back in Action King Arthur Collection (March 2012) Mini Motor Racing EVO+Mini Motor Racing X Monday Night Combat Sine Mora+Sine Mora EX Surgeon Simulator The Showdown Effect (Removed from Steam Store) Zeno Clash 2 Angel Express [Tokkyu Tenshi] Cloud Chamber (Removed from Steam Store) Darwinia DEFCON Demigod Droplitz (Removed from Steam Store) eversion ENDLESS™ Space - Definitive Edition (Steam Inventory Gift) Frozen Synapse Prime (Steam Inventory Gift) Galaxy on Fire 2™ Full HD Hack 'n' Slash (Steam Inventory Gift) Hard Reset Extended Edition Hydrophobia: Prophecy MIND: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition Multiwinia No Time to Explain+No Time To Explain Remastered On The Path Out There Somewhere (Steam Inventory Gift) Paranormal State: Poison Spring (Removed from Steam Store) Patrician IV Gold Post Apocalyptic Mayhem Primal Carnage Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad with Rising Storm Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood Run Away Sacred Gold Space Rangers (Removed from Steam Store) Spirited Heart Deluxe Splendor Suguri Collection The First Templar - Steam Special Edition The Ironclads Collection The Old City: Leviathan The Ship - 2 Pack Gift (Steam Inventory Gift) Trainz Settle and Carlisle Trainz™ Simulator 12 UFO: Afterlight+UFO: Afterlight - Old Version Uplink Warlock - Master of the Arcane War of the Roses (Removed from Steam Store) World War 1 Centennial Edition (Removed from Steam Store) Jets'n'Guns Gold Anna - Extended Edition BanHammer (Removed from Steam Store) Beat Hazard Complete Betrayer (Removed from Steam Store) Bionic Heart Crazy Machines 2 Crazy Machines Elements Crazy Machines: Golden Gears Defenders of Ardania (Removed from Steam Store) Depths of Fear :: Knossos (Removed from Steam Store) Driftmoon Edna & Harvey: The Breakout Europa Universalis III Complete Fairy Bloom Freesia FlatOut Flower Shop: Summer In Fairbrook Flower Shop: Winter In Fairbrook Gettysburg: Armored Warfare (Removed from Steam Store) Grand Ages: Rome GOLD Hearts of Iron 2 Complete Heileen 1: Sail Away Heileen 2: The Hands Of Fate Heileen 3: New Horizons Interstellar Marines Ion Assault KAMI King's Bounty: Armored Princess Knights of Honor Knock-knock Koi-Koi Japan [Hanafuda playing cards] Lilly Looking Through Little Racers STREET LYNE Megabyte Punch Painkiller Overdose Painkiller: Recurring Evil Painkiller Redemption Patrician IV Praetorians Rebel Galaxy Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 SATAZIUS Skara - The Blade Remains Sky Mercenaries The Void Toby: The Secret Mine Tropico Reloaded Tropico 4 Unexplored Zombie Driver HD Complete Edition About Love, Hate and the other ones A Game of Dwarves Air Conflicts: Secret Wars A.R.E.S.: Extinction Agenda A Valley Without Wind+A Valley Without Wind 2 BANZAI PECAN: The Last Hope For the Young Century Beat Hazard Blood Knights CAPSULE Chroma Squad Cities in Motion Dangerous Waters Darkest Hour: A Hearts of Iron Game Dark Fall: Lost Souls Death to Spies+Death to Spies: Moment of Truth Dementium II HD Deponia Disciples II: Gallean's Return Disciples II: Rise of the Elves Dollar Dash (Removed from Steam Store) Dungeons Dungeons - The Dark Lord Eastside Hockey Manager Finding Teddy Frederic: Evil Strikes Back Ghost Master® Grand Ages: Rome Home Imperial Glory Imperium Romanum Gold Edition Kalaban Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition Leviathan: Warships (Removed from Steam Store) Men of War: Assault Squad - Game of the Year Edition Meridian: New World Motorama NecroVision NecroVisioN: Lost Company Not The Robots Nuclear Dawn Oniken: Unstoppable Edition Onikira - Demon Killer Patrician III PixelJunk™ Monsters Ultimate Rooks Keep Solar Flux Solar Shifter EX Summoner Sweet Lily Dreams Switch Galaxy Ultra Sword of the Stars: Complete Collection The Journey Down: Chapter Two The Last Tinker™: City of Colors Tropico 3 Truck Racer Trulon: The Shadow Engine Tulpa Vessel Violett Remastered Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa's Rampage Zombie Driver HD Alien Hallway Alien Shooter 2: Reloaded A New Beginning - Final Cut Angvik AquaNox AquaNox 2: Revelation Axis Game Factory's AGFPRO + Voxel Sculpt + PREMIUM Bundle Bad Rats: the Rats' Revenge Ballpoint Universe - Infinite Bang Bang Racing Battle Group 2 Bridge Constructor Bridge Constructor Medieval Cargo! The Quest for Gravity Cat on a Diet Ceville Cold War Commander: Conquest of the Americas Commandos 2: Men of Courage Commandos 3: Destination Berlin Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines Crash Time 3 Curse: The Eye of Isis Dark Fear Dead Hungry Diner Deadly 30 Deep Dungeons of Doom Drawful 2 Driftland: The Magic Revival Dynamite Jack East India Company Eidolon El Matador Elven Legacy Empress Of The Deep Eurofighter Typhoon Explodemon Face Noir Faces of War Fantasy Wars Final Slam 2 Fireburst Galactic Civilizations® I: Ultimate Edition GeoVox Gravi Greed: Black Border Greed Corp Grind Zones Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes Grotesque Tactics 2 – Dungeons and Donuts Gunman Clive Guns of Icarus Online Hacker Evolution Duality Hacker Evolution Source Code Haegemonia: Legions of Iron Helicopter Simulator 2014: Search and Rescue Hexcells Plus Holy Avatar vs. Maidens of the Dead Idol Hands In Between inMomentum Keebles Konung 2 Konung 3: Ties of the Dynasty Labyrinthine Dreams Last Knight: Rogue Rider Edition Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West Machines At War 3 Majesty 2 Making History: The Calm & the Storm Mata Hari Men of War™ Men of War: Assault Squad Men of War: Red Tide Miner Wars 2081 Miner Wars Arena Mirror Mysteries Mountain M.U.D. TV Musaic Box Overcast - Walden and the Werewolf Paranautical Activity: Deluxe Atonement Edition Perimeter Pixel Heroes: Byte & Magic Plush POPixel Probably Archery Purgatory: War of the Damned Puzzle Kingdoms Quell Quell Memento Quell Reflect Real Horror Stories Ultimate Edition Really Big Sky Reign: Conflict of Nations Rig n Roll Rush Bros. Sacraboar Satellite Repairman Saturday Morning RPG Save the Dodos Shadowgrounds Survivor Shadows: Price For Our Sins Sinless + OST Skilltree Saga SoulCraft Space Empires IV Deluxe Space Empires V Star Ruler Starsphere Star Wolves Star Wolves 3: Civil War Steel Storm: Burning Retribution Syberia II Teddy Floppy Ear - Mountain Adventure (Removed from Steam Store) Teddy Floppy Ear - The Race (Removed from Steam Store) Terrian Saga: KR-17 Theatre of War Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943 Theatre of War 2: Kursk 1943 Theatre of War 3: Korea The God's Chain The Joylancer: Legendary Motor Knight The Kings' Crusade Tobe's Vertical Adventure Trapped Dead Turba Twin Sector Two Brothers (Removed from Steam Store) Two Worlds II HD Type:Rider Vault Cracker Vegas: Make It Big™ Velvet Assassin Warriors' Wrath Who's That Flying?! Windforge XIII Century – Gold Edition Yumsters 2: Around the World Zombie Pirates ZombieRush Zombie Shooter
submitted by Vulcann111 to indiegameswap [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 22:29 xiaolii [H] Lots of Games [W] Trade for Games or Paypal (EU)

Last Updated List: 30/05/2023
 
I'm primarily looking to trade for games from my wishlist, otherwise I am also open to selling them. I am not interested in games I already have and all games I'm getting are for me and activated on my own account. Other than that feel free to offer your list of Steam games and something I may not have and fulfills my criteria I could/would be willing to trade for it/them.
If you're either trading or buying please state the game(s) you are interested in and your offer (game(s)/list/price).
 
Info:
 
I kindly ask of you is to be reasonable when making offers to make it a fair trade for both of us.
Let's have a good exchange/trade!
 
List of games:
submitted by xiaolii to indiegameswap [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 22:29 xiaolii [H] Lots of Games [W] Trade for Games or Paypal (EU)

Last Updated List: 30/05/2023
 
I'm primarily looking to trade for games from my wishlist, otherwise I am also open to selling them. I am not interested in games I already have and all games I'm getting are for me and activated on my own account. Other than that feel free to offer your list of Steam games and something I may not have and fulfills my criteria I could/would be willing to trade for it/them.
If you're either trading or buying please state the game(s) you are interested in and your offer (game(s)/list/price).
 
Info:
 
I kindly ask of you is to be reasonable when making offers to make it a fair trade for both of us.
Let's have a good exchange/trade!
 
List of games:
submitted by xiaolii to GameTrade [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 22:10 BustedUtensil This seems too good to be true, but maybe I'm missing something? Old model perhaps?

This seems too good to be true, but maybe I'm missing something? Old model perhaps?
Looking for a new pedal yak and came across this while browsing the web.
https://preview.redd.it/2e8fe0sih23b1.png?width=1510&format=png&auto=webp&s=653675325f992be24cd8e36444fcc5f6388121db
submitted by BustedUtensil to Kayaking [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 22:05 ItzMungo Writing My FIRST Fantasy Novella - Feedback Needed

Writing My FIRST Fantasy Novella - Feedback Needed
Hi everybody, I have a huge novel series in mind, but I decided that prior to writing it that I would start with the chronicles of the main characters first. So what I'm looking for is opinions on my writing style, the story itself, etc. Any advice would be huge for me. Don't fret however, my grammar throughout the story is in my opinion, fantastic. Here are some details, I hope you give me a try <3
P.S. There are currently 4 chapters released and I'm releasing a new chapter every 1-3 days and I already have 10 chapters written and ready to release.
​
Title: EVERMORE - Eadric's Chronicles
Genre: Fantasy
Story Link: https://www.wattpad.com/story/342566400-evermore-eadric%27s-chronicles
Blurb: In the ancient realm of Evermore, a land steeped in magic and marred by conflict, an age-old war rages between two mighty races-the humans and the elves. Bound by a tumultuous history of bloodshed and mistrust, their bitter enmity threatens to consume the very fabric of the world they call home.
Amidst this turbulent backdrop, we embark on a gripping tale that follows the extraordinary journey of Eadric Lightbringer, a formidable battlemage hailing from the town of Ravenhold. Eadric, a man burdened by the weight of destiny, finds himself thrust into a realm of unfathomable darkness, where courage will be tested, alliances will crumble, and secrets long forgotten will surface with devastating consequences. As the fragile balance of power teeters on the edge, Eadric's path converges with the ancient prophecies whispered in shadowed corridors.
A reluctant hero, he must navigate treacherous landscapes and face both the savagery of the elven forces and the inner demons that haunt his own soul. With his mastery of the arcane arts and a flickering glimmer of hope, Eadric strives to bridge the chasm of hatred that divides his people, searching for a means to forge a lasting peace in a land consumed by war.
​
The cover art that I made for EVERMORE - Eadric's Chronicles
submitted by ItzMungo to Wattpad [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 20:52 Koala_Guru [TotK] A roundup of new information learned about the races of Hyrule from Tears of the Kingdom

I've always enjoyed the lore of the various races of Hyrule, especially when they start to dive into them more such as the huge update the Gerudo got in BotW. TotK offers a few interesting new things about the different races that I thought people who hadn't found them might want to know. I can't guarantee that I've personally found every new bit of lore there is out there, but I wanted to share what I've found.
Hylians:
There is not much about the Hylians, as they are sort of the generic human fantasy race a lot of the time, but there is some important stuff. Now we know that the Hylian royal family was originally formed by a union between a Hylian and a Zonai, meaning all descendants have a bit of Zonai in them. Also, because we know that only Rauru and Mineru were around as Zonai in these ancient times, this original kingdom was nearly all Hylian, and they wore Zonai-inspired armor and worked with Zonai constructs. The other major bit of Hylian lore from this game is more about the Gerudo, so I'll save that for when we get to them.
Sheikah:
This game states that the Sheikah are not actually their own race but are in fact a tribe of Hylians. They simply embrace technology more and are the Hylian's premiere researchers as a result. I'm personally a bit mixed on this, as while it explains how, starting from BotW, white hair and red eyes were not a universal trait of theirs, I also miss things like that. It also brings into question why they are so long-lived if they are simply Hylians. Perhaps their research has found ways to artificially extend their own lives. Some may even voluntarily undergo a mummification-like process at a certain age to become functionally immortal, as we see with Maz Koshia in BotW that even in his corpse-like state he is still very active.
Rito:
The Rito unfortunately did not get the huge boost in culture I feel they needed from BotW. That's not to say there is nothing new, but not much. The main thing we now know is of their legend of a time a "god" saved Rito Village. They tell a story of how one day a figure fell from the heavens around their village and the winds around them ceased. They called this figure a god, and tried to fly them back to the heavens only to find they could not go high enough on their own. Instead, they gathered materials to build ships that created a pathway skyward, allowing the god to return. Later, the winds returned to their village, and with them came a gift from the god: a massive skyship called the Stormwind Ark. It's never answered who this perceived god was, but given the themes of the game, it was likely a Zonai. This would also mean that the Rito were disconnected from the Hylians for awhile before the time of the Imprisoning War, as otherwise they would've known about the Zonai.
The other thing that's maybe of note is that they may have walked back something they introduced in BotW. In that game, they established that the Rito cannot really fly upwards, but can instead glide on their wings, relying on updrafts to soar. This made Revali so special, as he made his own updrafts. In this game, however, we see plenty of Rito able to fly straight up. Penn does it all the time, the children of Rito village do it to reach various houses, and Tulin will fly beside you as you climb. So maybe now they can just fly where they want. Though the Stormwind Ark legend does say they couldn't reach the heavens without their ships, so maybe there is some limit there.
Gorons:
The Gorons got a huge boost in lore in this game, though a lot of it is hidden behind side quests. Let's start with the thing most everyone will encounter: Gorondia. It is confirmed by Douma, a reporter in Goron City, that the Gorons originally lived deep underground before coming onto the surface. We have never really seen this era of Goron history in the games before. Even going back to the start of the timeline with Skyward Sword and the Minish Cap, the Gorons we see are wandering on the surface or trying to establish a new home. We do see very few Gorons in those games, so perhaps the rest were living underground during this time. Douma also says that Gorons will tell you they don't know what you're talking about if you ask them, seemingly framing this as them hiding information, when instead it genuinely seems like most don't know about Gorondia beyond the legend. A young Goron named Dugby wants to find Gorondia and believes he has when he discovers Minecart Land. And Yunobo seems surprised to find Gorondia within Death Mountain.
Now let's go to the other major bit of information here, in the side quest called "Moongazing Gorons." Here you talk to two old Gorons who want to see a picture of where they were born. That's right, we finally find out where Gorons come from in this game. Many suggested new Gorons just sprout off the backs of older Gorons or something. But no, it's official, they simply emerge from the ground. We still don't know why, but they do. Perhaps it's whatever would also lead to the creation of Stone Taluses, but more advanced. Maybe whatever magic infuses certain rocks can either lead to the more mindless Taluses or the more advanced Gorons. We also find out in this quest that Gorons are exceptionally long-lived. Fitting, considering they're rocks. But once you show the old Gorons the picture, they decide to visit the area once they're ready. One of them decides they'll be prepared in about 15 years. The other smiles and says he has always loved how quick the other one is, saying that they will instead need "another century."
Lastly, this isn't so much lore as something curious. One of the biggest talking points about the Gorons in BotW was why we could find some in Gerudo Town. This town only accepts women, and the Gorons seem to all identify as male. Yet two could be found in Gerudo Town, with one even questioning why he was allowed entry. Well, in TotK there's a traveling duo of a male Hylian and a Goron who you can run into at various points. One of these is at the gates of Gerudo Town, where they are denied entry and the male Goron angrily says a friend told him he was let in just fine. So why is this one not allowed when the others were? Who knows? Maybe it's because he's accompanied by a male Hylian? But the Gerudo guard clearly states both are not allowed. Interesting food for thought.
Zora:
According to one of Sidon's journal entries, all Zora possess some ability of control over water. Some are just stronger with it than others. His own ability is said to be exceptional, and we can see this in-game with him working to separate the sludge from the water at Mipha's Court and later supplying a water shield for Link. We also see the abilities of the other Zora as three of them take over the separation duty for Sidon while he journeys to the Water Temple. Sidon is also able to create a massive whirlpool just by swimming quickly enough in circles, which shows the scale of his abilities.
The other major thing we learn is that there are other Domains elsewhere in the world. It's unclear where, as this is the only one we can see in Hyrule. Perhaps they're deep underwater, or in another land. But Yona is said to be from a different Domain, possibly suggesting this marriage started as a political one.
Gerudo:
There is not too much we learn about the Gerudo considering how much we learned in BotW. We learn that Ganondorf was once their kind but we already knew this. And we see in a flashback that ancient Gerudo apparently had a means of controlling the Molduga. We also now know that Gerudo girls born outside of Gerudo Town are required by law at a certain age to return to Gerudo Town and engage in their culture until they are old enough to leave and start a family of their own.
But the main thing we learn is finally figuring out the mystery of the seven heroines and the lost eighth. It turns out, the seven heroines were Gerudo who fought to protect their village from an unknown threat, but they were fighting a losing battle. In their time of need, a Hylian male came to their aid, and with his help they vanquished the threat. However, their laws regarding men are strict, and even with his invaluable help, he was not permitted entry into their town, something they regretted to their dying days. This man was the "eighth heroine," and it's why their statue is separated from the rest. It is unknown who this was, but they could have been a past version of Link.
Koroks:
The Koroks get nothing. They lose. Good day, sir.
Seriously though, Koroks were given absolutely nothing here. You'd think with the focus on the ancient past we'd see some Kokiri, or maybe learn just how old the Deku Tree is. But no. The only thing I could say that's maybe a stretch is that we see them all freeze up when the Deku Tree is incapacitated, maybe suggesting his continued health is required for their existence. But even that is odd because every Korok outside the forest is perfectly fine during this time.
submitted by Koala_Guru to truezelda [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 20:41 CIAHerpes My father always kept the shed locked. Today, I found out why (part 2)

https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/13u9t3m/my_father_always_kept_the_shed_locked_today_i/Part 1:
The darkness around us was oppressive, cloying and total. Anywhere we weren’t pointing our flashlights would turn into a solid wall of black, impenetrable shadows. But we could hear something. As we walked further down the hallway, we heard soft footsteps and giggling.
Sometimes, it sounded like it came from directly behind us. At other times, it would come from the rooms all around us, the endless rooms that split off the hallway on both sides. We found some strange things in those rooms as we walked slowly, the gun raised in my hand and the bowie knife raised in my brother’s.
There were corpses in some of the rooms. Many had partially mummified in the dry, chilly air down here. Others were clearly fresher. One woman was hanging from the rafters with a note pinned to her chest. I looked back at Gil when we reached this part of the hall. We had stayed out of the rooms since the incident with the little boy, but some deep innate curiosity needed to know what was on this note. Gil nodded at me, and we walked forward side by side, scanning every corner of the room and looking behind smashed-out fish tanks and torn sofas covered in black mold for any signs that we weren’t alone in here. Once we were both satisfied, we returned to the young woman hanging in the center of the room.
She had somehow climbed up to the ceiling, opened a panel and found a sturdy enough beam or rafter to tie the rope to. Yet there was no ladder or anything remotely tall enough to reach the ceiling nearby. It was somewhat of a mystery. I explained this to Gil, who looked somewhat confused- and alarmed. He clearly hadn’t realized it until I pointed it out to him.
I turned back to the woman’s corpse, picking off the note, which had been stuck into the front of her blouse with a huge wooden splinter. Gil kept a look-out while I read, shining his light back and forth in a circle across the room, holding his ridiculously huge knife in the other hand like some sort of medieval swordsman. I saw with increasing horror that the note appeared to have been written in the woman’s own blood. Looking at her body, I saw a deep slash on her left arm, one that had clotted days ago. I looked back down at the desperate message this dying woman had left for us.
“To anyone who finds this,
“My name is Michaela Mansfield. I came in here by accident through the sewers underneath the town of Caplin. My two friends and I went exploring and got separated after a girl in our group twisted her ankle. I went forward alone to find help while my other friend stayed behind with the injured girl. After perhaps a day of being lost, my flashlight started to die, and I thought I was going to die with it. And then I saw fluorescent lights up ahead. They were flickering and looked like they might sputter out at any moment, but it was the only hope I had. I followed the lights and found myself in this hallway. When I tried to turn around and go back, the entrance to the sewers had disappeared. It was just a hallway that seemed to extend forever, the one that has haunted me for weeks now.
“Please, if you find this note, tell my parents what happened to me. Take my golden locket and return it to my mother and father as proof. I hope you have better luck getting out of here than I did.
“Goodbye, and may God forgive me for what I’m about to do.
“-Michaela.”
I looked up at Gil, with one eyebrow raised. I saw he had been reading the note over my shoulder rather than keeping a look-out. I sighed, deciding not to say anything.
“We can’t take the locket,” I said. Gil shook his head.
“We have to take the locket,” he said.
“They’re going to think we had something to do with this girl’s death if we just show up randomly with a piece of her jewelry. Actually, I think I remember when this girl and her friends went missing. It was on the news. Her parents were pleading for anyone with information to come forward. I think the cops were acting on the suspicion that it was murder or kidnapping or something. But they probably just went exploring without telling anyone and never came back.”
“We’ll wipe it down and send it anonymously through the mail with a note explaining what happened,” he said. I sighed, giving up. He was right. It was the right thing to do. But I’m sure many innocent men have gone to prison over trying to do the right thing. I pointed to the note.
“This doesn’t help us at all,” I said. He shrugged.
“Maybe it does, and maybe it doesn’t. It doesn’t really help us formulate a plan, but it does give us information. For example, now we know that this place probably connects to a lot more places than the shed. We might be able to get out through dozens or hundreds of exits. If it connects to a random sewer over in Caplin, then it could connect to places all over the county.”
“True,” I said, “but what if it connects to some alien world? Or to a black hole? What if it connects to some point in the void between galaxies and we get sucked out to our deaths?” He simply shrugged again, seeming apathetic to these possibilities.
“Well, in that case,” he said smugly, a half-smile forming on his lips, “our deaths would probably be a lot quicker than they would at the hands of these creatures down here.” Then he started laughing. It sounded eerie in this dark, forlorn place, where everything smelled like yeast and the floors were all wet substrates growing strange jungles of alien molds. He reached forward and took the golden locket off of the woman’s neck, placing it carefully in his pocket. We started walking out of the room together.
“Also,” I said, “the note seems to imply that the entrances are temporary. She couldn’t find her way back out after she got in here. What if they’re all like that? What if they’re like… I don’t know, lobster traps, or Venus fly traps, or something? They draw people in here, and then once they’re inside…” I stopped speaking as soon as I realized I heard someone following us.
I heard running footsteps. A high-pitched giggling started, then was cut off. We both stood there in the darkness, our flashlights pointing forward. Then the voice of that demonic little girl started up, high-pitched and somewhat inhuman-sounding. Her words all had a strange hoarseness to them, an uncanny valley sound as if she were only imitating human emotions and human speech.
“Adam’s ‘It’, but he won’t play,” she said sulkily, her voice bouncing off the walls, the rapid beat of the footsteps approaching nearer and nearer. “He says his throat hurts. So I guess I’m ‘It’! You better run!”
“God dammit,” Gil said, swinging his giant knife around from side to side as if he were going to bat a mosquito with it. His light flashed and wavered as he tried to keep a watch on all sides. But I knew she was coming from behind us. I could feel it. I kept my light shining down there, the gun raised, trying to emanate a calm I didn’t feel. Then I saw a flash of blue, zigzagging crazily past a chair leg and the snapped remains of a folding table, tiny legs pumping at a superhuman speed. She looked like little more than an approaching blur.
“Listen to me very carefully,” I said, trying to keep my gun pointed on her. “We need to cut off her head.”
“What?!” Gil said. “Why?”
“Last time, bullets didn’t work on…” I began, but then she was on us, no more than a few feet away, jumping over the discarded junk that intermittently appeared on the sides of the hallway. And then I felt myself knocked over by a tremendous force that took the air right out of my lungs.
I still had my hands crossed in front of me, one holding the gun and the other the flashlight. The skeletal face of the creature was mere inches away from my own, biting and gnashing madly. I could see small muscles in the back of her mouth working furiously. She was pushing down on my arms with all of her strength, which was far more than such a small body seemed to suggest.
The gun was pressed closely to the front of her chest. I was about to pull the trigger when I felt the weight start to lift off of me. I saw Gil behind her, wrapping his arm around her neck and pulling her back. She still gnashed and bit in a mad frenzy, small droplets of blood and saliva dripping off her mouth and into my face. She kicked her body back and forth like an enraged snake, freeing her neck from Gil’s grasp. He went to grab her, and her skeletal face opened up wide, the jaw hanging halfway down her neck.
With the speed of a cat snatching a mouse, she leapt forward, snapping her jaw around some of the fingers on Gil’s left hand. I saw his index and middle finger disappear into her mouth, and he began to scream in agony.
I was scrambling back to my feet by this point. I ran at the girl, using all of my body weight to push her. She went tumbling on the floor, her mouth flying open as she landed hard on the wood. Two mutilated fingers flew out, rolling across the floor and disappearing into a dome of black mold. I was sweating heavily now, drops of perspiration rolling down my forehead and stinging my eyes. I tried to wipe them away, thinking of what to do. My mind screamed at me to shoot, to empty my entire magazine into this little monster, but I knew in my heart that it would just be wasting bullets. Deep down, I knew what I had told Gil earlier was true- we had to cut off her head. Just like in the old myths of vampires or demons, I had a deep instinctual feeling that fire or decapitation would be the only way to deal with her, and as for fire, we had no flamethrowers.
“Gil!” I said. “Get ready!” He was holding his spurting hand tightly against his chest, still grasping the bowie knife in his right. His face was alarmingly pale and white, and I wondered if he might not just pass out right here and doom both of us. But he hadn’t dropped the knife, even while fighting the writhing monster, even while getting his fingers bitten off. He is stronger than he looks, I reassured myself.
A sense of calm and clarity overcame me then, and I saw what I needed to do. The demonic girl was getting up, growling and spitting and laughing. I ran over and stomped on her back, putting my full weight on her body to drive her back down. Then I took the pistol and shot her through the back of the kneecaps, one bullet for each.
She wailed as dark red blood poured out of her small legs, turning her head almost all the way back to try and bite me. Her hands were changing, the small fingers lengthening and darkening into sharp, black claws, and I knew our time was running out.
“Now!” I yelled, and Gil ran forward, using his right hand to swing the bowie knife. I watched it fall in a descending arc, as if in slow motion, watched it approach the spitting skeletal face that looked at us with black eyes and unfathomable hatred. It went clean through, and was so sharp that for a split second, the head stayed there, the face blank, looking like it was still attached to the body. Then it tumbled forward, dark blood spurting out of the neck and staining the white and gold molds underneath with its crimson hue.
Gil fell back against the wall, breathing fast. He dropped the bowie knife on the floor. I saw his flashlight, still on, had rolled against an ancient wheelchair that was probably new back in the 1960s. I stopped and grabbed it, shoving it in my pants belt so it would give me more light to work with. Gil still had his hand clasped to his chest. Slowly, I put my hands forward and grasped his injured hand by the wrist. He inhaled deeply, gritting his teeth and closing his eyes.
“We’re going to need to wrap it in something,” I said. He nodded. I took off my shirt and started ripping long slices from the bottom, then wrapping them around his hand tightly in an attempt to slow the bleeding. When I got to the fingers, he flinched and seemed to waver on his feet. I reached a hand out in case he was about to fall over, but he managed to steady himself. “All done,” I told him as I put my shirt back on, which was missing the bottom third portion now and looked rather absurd, almost as if I was wearing a woman’s crop top.
“It feels like my hand’s on fire,” Gil said in a hoarse whisper. “We’re going to need water, too.” I was feeling the start of dehydration pangs myself.
“That girl, Michaela, her note said she was stuck in here for weeks. That must mean there’s water. Assuming her counting was correct, seeing as there’s no sun or sky to go by. If there was no water, she would have died after a few days, especially being on the move,” I said. I was hoping that we would find food as well, but it wasn’t really life or death. I knew that we could potentially go weeks without food and still live, even though it would feel extremely unpleasant and weaken us physically. I sighed, shining my flashlight at Gil.
“Ready to keep going?” I asked, and then the lights started turning back on. Most of them were still either out or flickering on and off rapidly, but enough of them were lit to see down the hall.
“Oh, thank God,” Gil said. “At least now we’re not walking through this junkyard in the fucking dark.” Up ahead, I saw something new as well. It looked like the hallway forked off. I pointed at it, and Gil’s eyes widened. “Finally, after walking for endless miles, this place does something!” As we neared it, I saw there was even a sign. One pointed left, reading, “To Veriden”. The other pointed right, reading, “To Rusty Township”.
“Hmm…” I said, “I’ve never heard of either of those places. They’re definitely not in the county.” Gil’s dark brown eyes looked past me, into the room behind us, and they widened. I reached for the pistol, turning quickly, but I found nothing but a mostly empty, half-lit room. Against the corner was a vending machine and a soda machine.
“Oh thank God!” I said, running forward, reaching in my pocket for some money. Then I remembered I had left my wallet at home. After all, I thought we were just going into the shed. Gil strode right past me.
“Don’t be an idiot,” he said, taking the butt of his bowie knife and smashing the glass of the vending machine. “You don’t need money. Who’s going to call the cops, the walking undead and demons here?” He pulled out brands I had never heard of: Overholser’s Beef Jerky, chocolate bars with caramel and peanuts called Eisenhearts, Took’s salt-water taffy and Riza’s fruit snacks. The other vending machine was no less alien, as I smashed it with the butt of the gun and found Springy’s Lemon-Lime Soda, Kanna-brand cola and Saint Kristoff’s Ginger Ale, among others. Not one of the brands was recognizable from our world.
We tore into the food with ravenous hunger, chugging bottle after bottle of soda. It all tasted similar enough to what we expected, though some of it was rather strange. The ginger ale, for example, had small silver shavings on the bottom of each bottle, their trademark gimmick, and Gil swallowed them and nearly ended up choking. I smacked his back hard, laughing.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to drink those,” I said sarcastically. We were filling up our pockets when the drumming started from down the hall. It was so sudden and loud in the otherwise perfect silence that I jumped nearly a foot, spinning around and taking out the gun. It was becoming second-nature to me by this point, and so much adrenaline was constantly pounding through my body that I was as jumpy as a cat.
The drumming grew louder and fast. It reminded me of the drums some ancient Aztecs must have used when cutting out the hearts of prisoners of war. It had a deep, primal beat to it that would be useful for stirring people up during acts of savagery and violence. It was coming from the direction labeled “Rusty Township”. I could barely hear myself think over the intensity of the drum beats. I tried to motion to Gil that I would go first since I had the gun but that he should stay right behind me, but he looked like he was just smiling and nodding and likely hadn’t understood a bit of what I was trying to communicate. Sighing, I started forward down the corridor.
I peaked my head around the next corner, where a doorway opened up into a huge gymnasium. The ceiling towered over me. I saw dirty, disheveled people standing in a semi-circle around a metal coffin that was stood up on one end against the back wall. Blood was pouring out the bottom, following a river of clotted gore that stretched across the gymnasium and curved off to the right corner. The people surrounding the metal coffin were laughing, clapping their hands and cheering, stomping their feet in time with the beats. I saw scurvy blossoms and festering sores across their faces and exposed skin. And, for the first time since we had gotten lost down here, there were windows around the edge of this massive chamber, windows showing the outside world. I ran over, looking out.
I saw a city on fire, the buildings burning and sending up thick, black plumes of smoke. It reminded me of what Berlin at the end of World War II must have looked like. Fronts of houses had collapsed inwards, the streets were cracked and filled with debris and I saw bodies hanging from lampposts up and down the street. Many of them were so old that the ropes were starting to fray. Some of the bodies had started to mummify, with thin, papery skin clinging tightly to desiccated muscles and hanging jaws.
Around the corners of houses and alleyways, I caught glimpses of strange shapes: crouching half-animal, half-human beings who carried sledgehammers and long knives, robed figures who seemed to float over the devastated and cracked ground, and children with red skin who I saw crawling up walls on all fours like geckos.
The drums stopped as suddenly as they had started. My ears were still ringing. I turned back to the semi-circle of sickly, dirty people. They had stopped their clapping and dancing and cheering, and now just stood like statues, staring at Gil and me with flat, dead eyes.
“You shouldn’t stare into the Township,” a thin woman with filthy black hair said. A strange accent crept into her words, one that I had never heard before. “Strange things live in there, and they come out when the drums stop.” She stepped forward, whispering. “We keep them away by giving a sacrifice every time the drumbeats come. The blood satisfies the ones in the city and the others in the halls. We will all have our turn in the coffin, sure enough.”
Another member of their group stepped forward and opened up the metal coffin. I saw long, thin spikes sliding out of a body, and then a pale form fell out, landing on the dirty floor with a wet smacking sound. The smell of coppery blood in the air was now overwhelming. Gil and I both gasped in unison as we saw this form on the floor was a person, a young woman in fact, almost totally drained of blood. Dozens of puncture marks were sliced into her face, neck, stomach, legs and arms. An expression of pain and horror was frozen onto her dead face, her wide, staring eyes looking up at the ceiling.
“You killed her!” Gil said, aghast, still clutching his mutilated hand close to his body in an unconscious gesture of his anxiety and fear. “Why? Why would you put someone from your own group in an iron maiden?”
“Iron maiden?” the woman with the black hair in front responded. “Aye, that’s as good a name for it as any. We call her the steel mistress in my world, in my time, and the steel mistress sees a lot of use…” She gestured out the window, her face emotionless. “You see my world, after all. It is a place that always reeks of death, and more often than not, reeks of fire too.”
“What part of the United States is this?” Gil asked, gesturing out the window. The woman frowned.
“I do not know these ‘United States’,” she said, shrugging.
“What country are you from?” he asked.
“Why, Victoriat, of course. But Victoriat only has three states. Rusty Township was the capitol, until ‘twas attacked by the Black Hand Allegiance soldiers. We’re all refugees from Rusty here,” she said sadly.
“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” I said to Gil under my breath. He nodded, sighing.
“Can you tell us how to get back to the stone steps? Big, circular stone steps that go around and around?” Gil asked the woman in one last attempt to get a sensical answer out of her. She nodded her grimy face.
“Aye, in the center of the Undergraves,” she said, pointing past the iron maiden and the dead body on the ground. I realized that there was a sign up on the ceiling in front of the next corridor, one pointing left and saying, “To Rusty Township center” and one pointing right and saying, “To the Undergraves”. The sign was so covered in dust and specks of black mold that it was no wonder I hadn’t seen it.
“Do you have any maps of this place?” I asked the dirty woman and her friends. They all shook their heads.
“There are no maps of the Undergraves, but the stairs be at the center. You just take a right here and follow the path straight. Ignore all forks to the right or left, just keep following it straight…” We were walking away fast now, trying to leave these lunatics behind. “But you’d be mad to go there now after the drums just stopped!” Her voice was fading rapidly as Gil and I ran forward.
“Those people were fucking nuts,” Gil said. “Killing each other just because they think the blood keeps away demons.”
“Brother,” I said through heavy breaths, “if you and I lived down here for a few months, we would be just as crazy as those people.”
As we jogged into the Undergraves, I realized the walls were turning into something organic and pulsating, like being in some huge intestine. Massive forks to the left and right appeared every few hundred feet. From them, dark shapes appeared, stepping forward. They moved shakily, blurring as they stepped to the right or left randomly, their mouths opened wide and seeming to be filled with blackness. Their eyes looked like pure black sockets, and the rest of their body was no more than a shaky silhouette of shadows. When the first few stepped forward, I didn’t know what to do.
I gingerly raised the gun, deciding better safe than sorry. They were coming at me fast, jerking randomly, their skin seeming to writhe and shiver as I stared at it. As they got within ten feet of me, a deep burning heat started to fill my body, as if I were standing in front of an oven. I started shooting, one bullet for each of their center mass, and they dissipated into smoke. I watched the black stuff curl back into the red, pulsating room they had just come out of. The sense of heat dissipated instantly, but my skin still felt warm and strange.
We were running through the Undergraves now. Miles of slick gore covering the floors, strange tissues growing across the rooms and tumor-like sacs covering the fluorescent lights, which even here flickered endlessly across the ceiling.
In many of the rooms, I saw people strung upside down from the ceiling, their ribs sliced open. Strange, hunched figures sliced the meat into strips, preparing it and drying it. One of them looked at me with its pig-like face, its bovine legs walking across the sticky floor, slowly and uncertainly at first, and then running for me. I was running low on ammunition by this point. Gil came from behind and disemboweled the creature as it raised its butcher’s knife. It had been so focused on me that it hadn’t noticed him jogging up with his blood-stained bowie knife in one hand.
“I can’t run much longer,” Gil said, panting. I nodded wearily. Neither could I. “My hand is still on fire, too. I really should have gotten medical attention, like, twelve hours ago…”
Part of me wondered if the stairs were even here, or if we had been lied to, sent into the worst part of this strange hall to become sacrifices to these abominations. We had, after all, put our lives in the hands of a band of lunatics.
But at this point, we had nowhere else to go but forwards.
submitted by CIAHerpes to nosleep [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 20:30 TheDrungeonBlaster Gutterpunks Reloaded #7:100 Dead Nazis

-Red-
April 19th, 11:13 A.M., The Sprawl
I sparked a dilapidated Vita-Cig that I’d snagged from Trodes and peered out into the Sprawl; the careful equilibrium of a well-orchestrated black-market had returned; pushers and gangers lined the alleys, watching for signals from rooftop lookouts to avoid the single Peacewatch cruiser that had been stupid enough to enter the dockside. The poor bastard would be dead before the afternoon was over… not that I had much sympathy for his kind. Peacewatch made it a habit to stay out of the Sprawl: unless the Eggheads predictive crime system said something catastrophic was coming, they policed their kind and left us in the hands of the mob. I’d never iced an officer. Not yet at least.
“Your partner should be ready shortly, I think he’s just tying up a few loose ends,” Akari said, snatching the cigarette from my hand and taking a long drag.
“Remind me again why you think I should take the shrimp with me instead of Nico and Roman?”
“He’s smart… and the other two are working on something else. Besides-- you need brains on this one, Red, not muscle,” she giggled, passing the cigarette back.
“Whatever you say,” I paused, grabbing the smoke, “what do you have them up to?”
“There’s a shipment of Xeno-grade weapons coming down from the colonies. Nico and Roman will be liberating them from the Slicers. Or, their share, at least. It won’t be much, maybe a dozen guns, but it’ll be worth it: the force field tech alone will pay for the trip as soon as Fincetti’s goons start trying to take your heads off with plasma cannons and mono blades.”
“What do you mean, their share?”
“The job was too big for us to take on alone. I linked up with another enterprising group of Freelancers. If it goes well, maybe we can hire them on for the heist, we’re going to need more people if we want to walk out of there alive.”
We?
“What, are you planning on coming along now?” I asked, snuffing out the smoke.
“It only seems right; Trodes is coming along, and I’m a better shot than he’ll ever be. Besides, you have a dangerous habit of getting shot, and I can’t have you going down in the field,” she said, winking as if to punctuate the sentence.
“You sure? We can manage, you don’t have to come with us, you’ve done so much already.”
“I know I have, that’s why I have to protect my investment. If you go down out there, then the team is without a leader. A military scale operation like this will go south real fast without someone competent in command.”
“You’ve got me wrong, Akari: I’m no leader. I’m just someone who wants to live in a better city and doesn’t mind taking the trash out himself. Besides, why do we need a leader? We’re all competent adults acting in concert, of our own free will. We all know what we’re doing, if a situation arises and someone needs to take charge, it’ll happen.”
“You’ve got a lot of faith in a crew you just met,” Akari said with a sneer.
“You know why I asked you to put the team together, Akari?”
“Because there’s a bounty on your head that could finance twenty retirements, and you know you can trust me?”
“No, well yeah, but that’s beside the point—I asked you because you’re not a Fixer, you’re a part time street doc that works the front desk at the most popular Freelancer hotel in the Sprawl. If there’s anyone who knows who’s gonna get the job done, it’s you. See, a Fixer is going to be okay with whatever losses they deem acceptable beforehand, but they’re fine with keeping that to themselves. If you thought any of these mooks were going to crack under pressure, or do something stupid, you wouldn’t have set me up with them.”
Before she could respond, Trodes emerged from the stairs leading to the lab. He winced as the sunlight hit his eyes, shrugging on the hood of the oversized sweatshirt that blanketed his meek frame. Glimpses of pain showed through every tremor laden step he took. A cloak of wires enveloped his skull, feeding into an old-world cyber console.
“It’s insufferably hot out here,” Trodes sighed.
“Don’t worry, we’re not going far. Chances are that whatever hole we’re meeting BFU in will have air conditioning,” I responded, clicking my key fob, and signaling the bike to pull around.
Trodes face fell flat when the Supersonic rolled around the corner; apparently, the prestige of carving through the skyway on a state-of-the-art Taffington jet-bike was lost on him.
“Are we taking… that?” Trodes stammered.
“We are. Unless you’ve got a pair of wheels with two seats?” I asked, mounting the bike and revving the engine.
With an exasperated sigh, Trodes boarded the passenger seat. I could feel him behind me, vibrating as tremors gripped his body.
“You good, buddy?” I asked.
He nodded vigorously, clenching the handrails with white knuckles.
Akari shook her head and headed back to the lab.
I heard Trodes mumble something under his breath, but it was quickly drowned out by the jet-bike’s purr. I carved into the skyway. Driving in the Sprawl was pure freedom: almost nobody owned vehicles with aerial capabilities in this part of town. It didn’t take long to reach top speed.
Slummers and gutterpunks walked the streets like zombies in a drug addled haze. The scent of gunpowder, pollution and burning ozone coalesced into a putrid stench that reeked of poverty and violence. Patches of azure moved in militant formation below; the Vorrath had taken to the streets. On a different day, a better day, I would’ve helped them. Most slummers hated the Offworlder Coalition, but not me—at the end of the day I always figured that I had more in common with poor people from another planet than rich people from another district of the city. At least we shared the same struggle.
The bike slowed to crawl; the Neo-Confederates were about, backed by a platoon of Brown-Shirts that looked like a tide of sewer run off, crashing through the streets with reckless abandon. Civilians fled for their homes. Fuck.
The jet-bike careened through the air before finally landing atop a building a few blocks away from the impending conflict.
“Get off,” I said, turning back to Trodes.
“Why? You don’t intend to abandon me at this altitude, do you?”
“Not as long as I survive—I’ll be quick, I just need to ventilate some Nazi fucks, understood?”
He shook his head and muttered a string of curses.
I tore through the air, circling around the impending conflict. I chased a handful of cheap amphetamines with a poorly rolled joint and swooped low, behind the rolling tide of brown shirts. This wasn’t the first time I’d made myself an enemy of the city’s Neo-Nazi’s; I’d killed at least a dozen of them in my career as a courier, but those were isolated incidents, back-alley brawls away from the mob.
This was a whole new ball game.
I fell slack as my Teleoperations module synchronized with the bike. My consciousness faded, reemerging into the HALO-Net’s stylized rendition of the bike’s interior. I wasn’t just the pilot now—I was the bike. Bullets carved twin streaks of crimson into the brown tide. It didn’t take long to hit top speed, 3.7 seconds, to be exact.
The group turned in nearly perfect unison, launching volley upon volley as I passed overhead. The bike’s shields barely held together; I felt every round, like a flock of birds violently slamming into my side—not enough to cause any real damage, but more than enough to get the blood pumping. I slid into an alley a few blocks off and waited for the shield generator to recharge. Gunshots rang out from the streets, alongside the sizzle of plasma meeting flesh. Soon the din was drowned beneath the roar of dozens of Vorrath war cries. I took to the sky.
Trodes was exactly where I left him, nervously clutching a knock off version of a Locust flechette pistol.
“I was beginning to doubt your survival,” Trodes said shakily.
“Wrong again, little guy,” I paused, reigniting a half smoked joint, “it was just a quick hit and run, we don’t have the time or the numbers for a pitched battle. Now, hop on.”
It didn’t take long to find BFU’s base of operations. Black flags and Anarchist graffiti covered the walls of the abandoned warehouse they’d apparently taken up residence in. A field of repurposed Peacewatch turrets were installed atop the roof, complimented by a web of cameras that spread across a three-block radius. Anarchists of all species and creeds loitered outside. The guards ranged from Cyborgs and Vat-Grown, to Vorrath and Vorstihl, each wearing a variant of the black flag with colors corresponding to their ideologies.
As I hovered above the building, I saw a familiar face: the rookie from earlier. Alarmingly, his cruiser was nowhere to be seen. His face was wrought with horror, as a pair of cyborgs led him inside the warehouse.
“They’re certainly less than subtle,” Trodes said.
“They don’t have to be subtle, they’re the biggest citizens political organization in the Sprawl. Peacewatch avoids them if they have anything less than a full platoon on hand,” I explained.
“Red… before we enter negotiations with these hooligans, I must inquire as to what your motivation hitting the vault is? Surely you know there’s a strong likelihood that you won’t make it out, and from what I’d heard about you, I always understood you to be a man who knew how to keep himself out of the line of sight of dangerous people,” Trodes said, nervously.
“Fincetti is the most dangerous man in the city, short of O’Bannon. He controls the black market with an iron fist and is instrumental in all the things I hate about living here. The problem is, I have no way to do anything about it right now… but there’s something big in the safe—there must be—for fucks sake, he iced his family over it. I’m hoping there’s something in there that can give me a little leverage, so I can cross him out afterwards.”
Trodes was silent for a moment, simply reaching as if to ask me to pass the joint. I obliged.
“I have my reasons to want O’Bannon dead too, I’m in,” he paused as a coughing fit seized him, causing the joint to fall to the ground, “there’s something you should know though: I’m working with an entity of great power in the Net; I don’t know what precisely it is, but I know it saved my life more than once. As a matter of fact, it’s the only reason I was able to obtain the blueprint of Fincetti’s bunker, and his security plan.”
“Is it… is it an unshackled AI?”
“Unlikely: it seems to understand compassion and empathy on a uniquely organic level, something that rarely slips past Netwatch.”
“Alright, well whatever it is, you keep an eye on it and let me know if things get shady. I appreciate you telling me.”
Trodes nodded in silence.
The crowd parted expectantly as I landed along the streetside. Dozens of eyes were immediately glued to Trodes and I. A cyborg with a steel double mohawk emerged from a sea of leather, patches, and smoke. A sawed-off shotgun hung at his side.
“Red, I presume?” the Cyborg asked, extending a steel hand.
“That’s right, and who’re you?” I answered, clasping the borgs hand as firm as I could manage.
“They call me Diezel, and I’ll be your host today,” he released my hand and looked me up and down as if assessing whether I was a threat, “follow me, everyone’s here so we can get straight down to business.”
The warehouse’s interior had been renovated drastically; layers of open-faced lofts sat stacked upon each other, consuming the walls. Nearly every non-violent law in the city was being broken in the lofts, from cooking chems and explosives to studying banned literature and Doomguard martial arts. It was beautiful. We followed Diezel through a winding hallway of munitions manufacturing stations, before finally emerging into an immense circular room, with rows of seats climbing the walls. I couldn’t believe it—there must have been two hundred people present.
The lights dimmed as we entered the arena. Diezel led us to the rooms center, ushering Trodes and I onto a great circular platform; he fell into place on a platform across from us, beside a Vat-Grown woman bearing an orange and black flag on her arm, and augmentations that cost more than my bike. Behind the duo a bulbous Vorstihl lurked; tentacles draped down his back, carefully pulled away from his cyclopean eye. A red and black flag was displayed on his arm… it was only then that I noticed the blue and black flag on Diezel’s arm.
The platforms each rose roughly fifteen feet into the air, before microphone stands emerged from the center of each platform. Diezel stepped forward, past the microphone.
“Before we start, I’ll explain how this works: the three of us are representatives of our specific unions—but the people are free to interject. One union voting to aid in your endeavors does not guarantee the help of the other two, as each union demands a perfect consensus. Likewise, if a faction without one union decides to help you, it does not necessarily mean you have the support of the entire union. The only way you’ll end up with total support is cross union consensus. Do you understand?”
A consensus: of course, they needed a damned consensus.
“I do,” I answered, speaking away from the microphone.
“Then let’s get this show on the road,” Diezel stepped back, finding his microphone before continuing, “Red, Trodes, welcome to the Bouleuterion,” he paused a moment as the crowd erupted into cheers, “beside me are my comrades Aria and Korvirex, and we stand ready to hear your proposal.”
“As most of you probably know, Don Fincetti is the most powerful man in the underworld, hell—maybe even the city—what you likely don’t know is that he has a vault beneath the city, guarded by an army of Harvesters. I intend to break into the vault, slaughter the Harvesters and strike a blow to Fincetti that he won’t forget… and I intend to kill him shortly after. What I ask is simple: you help me in what’s to come, and when he’s finally dead, you can all split his turf among yourselves. All I care about is making sure he doesn’t live long enough to poison the Sprawl more than he already has.”
A murmur emerged from the stands. I gazed across the way to see the three representatives huddled together, whispering amongst themselves. Finally, Aria stepped towards her microphone.
“What you ask of us will likely mean the death of many of our people… we need something greater than what you offer—we need a guarantee of mutual aid—you have a reputation in the Sprawl, we would ask that you employ it in helping us when the time comes to resettle the Sprawl. Namely, we’d request your assistance against the gangs that may try to fill the power void you seek to create,” Aria explained.
“That seems reasonable,” I said.
Aria stepped back as Korvirex moved forward.
“Tell me, Red, are you familiar with the Offworlder Coalition?” Korvirex asked.
“I am—as a matter of fact, I aided them on the way here—they were marching against the Neo-Confederates and the Brown Shirts. I insured that they had the element of surprise.”
Korvirex stroked the beard-like tentacles that hung from his chin in contemplation.
“Good. What I ask is that you help us to secure their trust, we have offered solidarity where we could, but our forces are spread thin. The ideology of many of the exiled Vorrath rebels that found their way to Nova City—it matches that of our union. If our help was offered, would you agree to assist us in aiding the Coalition, so that they finally have an opportunity to get on their feet?”
Trodes leaned towards in, whispering in my ear.
“It would be prudent of you to make a counteroffer: proclaim that you’ll help with the Coalition, if they’ll spread the word to other groups whose goals may align with ours. There will likely be at least a couple hundred Harvesters in the Undercity when we strike… unless they’re occupied elsewhere.”
“I would happily help with the Coalition, on the condition that your faction spread the word about what we’re doing to like-minded organizations. As it stands, we could still use more numbers to match the Harvesters,” I said.
“These conditions may be satisfactory,” Korvirex said, before retreating into yet another group huddle.
The audience watched on in silence.
Finally, Diezel reapproached the microphone.
“The representatives have deemed this topic worthy of discussion: you’re free to leave, we’ll get ahold of Akari in a couple days, when all the details are ironed out.”
“A couple days?”
“Reaching a consensus can be a slow process at times—be prepared for a renegotiation of conditions, as there will likely be more stipulations made once the process is complete,” Diezel explained.
I nodded, and the platform beneath my feet began to descend towards the floor. The crowd erupted into cheers.
Hopefully Nico and Roman would beat us home.
submitted by TheDrungeonBlaster to WriteFantasyStories [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 20:29 TheDrungeonBlaster [SF] Gutterpunks Reloaded #7: 100 Dead Nazis

-Red-
April 19th, 11:13 A.M., The Sprawl
I sparked a dilapidated Vita-Cig that I’d snagged from Trodes and peered out into the Sprawl; the careful equilibrium of a well-orchestrated black-market had returned; pushers and gangers lined the alleys, watching for signals from rooftop lookouts to avoid the single Peacewatch cruiser that had been stupid enough to enter the dockside. The poor bastard would be dead before the afternoon was over… not that I had much sympathy for his kind. Peacewatch made it a habit to stay out of the Sprawl: unless the Eggheads predictive crime system said something catastrophic was coming, they policed their kind and left us in the hands of the mob. I’d never iced an officer. Not yet at least.
“Your partner should be ready shortly, I think he’s just tying up a few loose ends,” Akari said, snatching the cigarette from my hand and taking a long drag.
“Remind me again why you think I should take the shrimp with me instead of Nico and Roman?”
“He’s smart… and the other two are working on something else. Besides-- you need brains on this one, Red, not muscle,” she giggled, passing the cigarette back.
“Whatever you say,” I paused, grabbing the smoke, “what do you have them up to?”
“There’s a shipment of Xeno-grade weapons coming down from the colonies. Nico and Roman will be liberating them from the Slicers. Or, their share, at least. It won’t be much, maybe a dozen guns, but it’ll be worth it: the force field tech alone will pay for the trip as soon as Fincetti’s goons start trying to take your heads off with plasma cannons and mono blades.”
“What do you mean, their share?”
“The job was too big for us to take on alone. I linked up with another enterprising group of Freelancers. If it goes well, maybe we can hire them on for the heist, we’re going to need more people if we want to walk out of there alive.”
We?
“What, are you planning on coming along now?” I asked, snuffing out the smoke.
“It only seems right; Trodes is coming along, and I’m a better shot than he’ll ever be. Besides, you have a dangerous habit of getting shot, and I can’t have you going down in the field,” she said, winking as if to punctuate the sentence.
“You sure? We can manage, you don’t have to come with us, you’ve done so much already.”
“I know I have, that’s why I have to protect my investment. If you go down out there, then the team is without a leader. A military scale operation like this will go south real fast without someone competent in command.”
“You’ve got me wrong, Akari: I’m no leader. I’m just someone who wants to live in a better city and doesn’t mind taking the trash out himself. Besides, why do we need a leader? We’re all competent adults acting in concert, of our own free will. We all know what we’re doing, if a situation arises and someone needs to take charge, it’ll happen.”
“You’ve got a lot of faith in a crew you just met,” Akari said with a sneer.
“You know why I asked you to put the team together, Akari?”
“Because there’s a bounty on your head that could finance twenty retirements, and you know you can trust me?”
“No, well yeah, but that’s beside the point—I asked you because you’re not a Fixer, you’re a part time street doc that works the front desk at the most popular Freelancer hotel in the Sprawl. If there’s anyone who knows who’s gonna get the job done, it’s you. See, a Fixer is going to be okay with whatever losses they deem acceptable beforehand, but they’re fine with keeping that to themselves. If you thought any of these mooks were going to crack under pressure, or do something stupid, you wouldn’t have set me up with them.”
Before she could respond, Trodes emerged from the stairs leading to the lab. He winced as the sunlight hit his eyes, shrugging on the hood of the oversized sweatshirt that blanketed his meek frame. Glimpses of pain showed through every tremor laden step he took. A cloak of wires enveloped his skull, feeding into an old-world cyber console.
“It’s insufferably hot out here,” Trodes sighed.
“Don’t worry, we’re not going far. Chances are that whatever hole we’re meeting BFU in will have air conditioning,” I responded, clicking my key fob, and signaling the bike to pull around.
Trodes face fell flat when the Supersonic rolled around the corner; apparently, the prestige of carving through the skyway on a state-of-the-art Taffington jet-bike was lost on him.
“Are we taking… that?” Trodes stammered.
“We are. Unless you’ve got a pair of wheels with two seats?” I asked, mounting the bike and revving the engine.
With an exasperated sigh, Trodes boarded the passenger seat. I could feel him behind me, vibrating as tremors gripped his body.
“You good, buddy?” I asked.
He nodded vigorously, clenching the handrails with white knuckles.
Akari shook her head and headed back to the lab.
I heard Trodes mumble something under his breath, but it was quickly drowned out by the jet-bike’s purr. I carved into the skyway. Driving in the Sprawl was pure freedom: almost nobody owned vehicles with aerial capabilities in this part of town. It didn’t take long to reach top speed.
Slummers and gutterpunks walked the streets like zombies in a drug addled haze. The scent of gunpowder, pollution and burning ozone coalesced into a putrid stench that reeked of poverty and violence. Patches of azure moved in militant formation below; the Vorrath had taken to the streets. On a different day, a better day, I would’ve helped them. Most slummers hated the Offworlder Coalition, but not me—at the end of the day I always figured that I had more in common with poor people from another planet than rich people from another district of the city. At least we shared the same struggle.
The bike slowed to crawl; the Neo-Confederates were about, backed by a platoon of Brown-Shirts that looked like a tide of sewer run off, crashing through the streets with reckless abandon. Civilians fled for their homes. Fuck.
The jet-bike careened through the air before finally landing atop a building a few blocks away from the impending conflict.
“Get off,” I said, turning back to Trodes.
“Why? You don’t intend to abandon me at this altitude, do you?”
“Not as long as I survive—I’ll be quick, I just need to ventilate some Nazi fucks, understood?”
He shook his head and muttered a string of curses.
I tore through the air, circling around the impending conflict. I chased a handful of cheap amphetamines with a poorly rolled joint and swooped low, behind the rolling tide of brown shirts. This wasn’t the first time I’d made myself an enemy of the city’s Neo-Nazi’s; I’d killed at least a dozen of them in my career as a courier, but those were isolated incidents, back-alley brawls away from the mob.
This was a whole new ball game.
I fell slack as my Teleoperations module synchronized with the bike. My consciousness faded, reemerging into the HALO-Net’s stylized rendition of the bike’s interior. I wasn’t just the pilot now—I was the bike. Bullets carved twin streaks of crimson into the brown tide. It didn’t take long to hit top speed, 3.7 seconds, to be exact.
The group turned in nearly perfect unison, launching volley upon volley as I passed overhead. The bike’s shields barely held together; I felt every round, like a flock of birds violently slamming into my side—not enough to cause any real damage, but more than enough to get the blood pumping. I slid into an alley a few blocks off and waited for the shield generator to recharge. Gunshots rang out from the streets, alongside the sizzle of plasma meeting flesh. Soon the din was drowned beneath the roar of dozens of Vorrath war cries. I took to the sky.
Trodes was exactly where I left him, nervously clutching a knock off version of a Locust flechette pistol.
“I was beginning to doubt your survival,” Trodes said shakily.
“Wrong again, little guy,” I paused, reigniting a half smoked joint, “it was just a quick hit and run, we don’t have the time or the numbers for a pitched battle. Now, hop on.”
It didn’t take long to find BFU’s base of operations. Black flags and Anarchist graffiti covered the walls of the abandoned warehouse they’d apparently taken up residence in. A field of repurposed Peacewatch turrets were installed atop the roof, complimented by a web of cameras that spread across a three-block radius. Anarchists of all species and creeds loitered outside. The guards ranged from Cyborgs and Vat-Grown, to Vorrath and Vorstihl, each wearing a variant of the black flag with colors corresponding to their ideologies.
As I hovered above the building, I saw a familiar face: the rookie from earlier. Alarmingly, his cruiser was nowhere to be seen. His face was wrought with horror, as a pair of cyborgs led him inside the warehouse.
“They’re certainly less than subtle,” Trodes said.
“They don’t have to be subtle, they’re the biggest citizens political organization in the Sprawl. Peacewatch avoids them if they have anything less than a full platoon on hand,” I explained.
“Red… before we enter negotiations with these hooligans, I must inquire as to what your motivation hitting the vault is? Surely you know there’s a strong likelihood that you won’t make it out, and from what I’d heard about you, I always understood you to be a man who knew how to keep himself out of the line of sight of dangerous people,” Trodes said, nervously.
“Fincetti is the most dangerous man in the city, short of O’Bannon. He controls the black market with an iron fist and is instrumental in all the things I hate about living here. The problem is, I have no way to do anything about it right now… but there’s something big in the safe—there must be—for fucks sake, he iced his family over it. I’m hoping there’s something in there that can give me a little leverage, so I can cross him out afterwards.”
Trodes was silent for a moment, simply reaching as if to ask me to pass the joint. I obliged.
“I have my reasons to want O’Bannon dead too, I’m in,” he paused as a coughing fit seized him, causing the joint to fall to the ground, “there’s something you should know though: I’m working with an entity of great power in the Net; I don’t know what precisely it is, but I know it saved my life more than once. As a matter of fact, it’s the only reason I was able to obtain the blueprint of Fincetti’s bunker, and his security plan.”
“Is it… is it an unshackled AI?”
“Unlikely: it seems to understand compassion and empathy on a uniquely organic level, something that rarely slips past Netwatch.”
“Alright, well whatever it is, you keep an eye on it and let me know if things get shady. I appreciate you telling me.”
Trodes nodded in silence.
The crowd parted expectantly as I landed along the streetside. Dozens of eyes were immediately glued to Trodes and I. A cyborg with a steel double mohawk emerged from a sea of leather, patches, and smoke. A sawed-off shotgun hung at his side.
“Red, I presume?” the Cyborg asked, extending a steel hand.
“That’s right, and who’re you?” I answered, clasping the borgs hand as firm as I could manage.
“They call me Diezel, and I’ll be your host today,” he released my hand and looked me up and down as if assessing whether I was a threat, “follow me, everyone’s here so we can get straight down to business.”
The warehouse’s interior had been renovated drastically; layers of open-faced lofts sat stacked upon each other, consuming the walls. Nearly every non-violent law in the city was being broken in the lofts, from cooking chems and explosives to studying banned literature and Doomguard martial arts. It was beautiful. We followed Diezel through a winding hallway of munitions manufacturing stations, before finally emerging into an immense circular room, with rows of seats climbing the walls. I couldn’t believe it—there must have been two hundred people present.
The lights dimmed as we entered the arena. Diezel led us to the rooms center, ushering Trodes and I onto a great circular platform; he fell into place on a platform across from us, beside a Vat-Grown woman bearing an orange and black flag on her arm, and augmentations that cost more than my bike. Behind the duo a bulbous Vorstihl lurked; tentacles draped down his back, carefully pulled away from his cyclopean eye. A red and black flag was displayed on his arm… it was only then that I noticed the blue and black flag on Diezel’s arm.
The platforms each rose roughly fifteen feet into the air, before microphone stands emerged from the center of each platform. Diezel stepped forward, past the microphone.
“Before we start, I’ll explain how this works: the three of us are representatives of our specific unions—but the people are free to interject. One union voting to aid in your endeavors does not guarantee the help of the other two, as each union demands a perfect consensus. Likewise, if a faction without one union decides to help you, it does not necessarily mean you have the support of the entire union. The only way you’ll end up with total support is cross union consensus. Do you understand?”
A consensus: of course, they needed a damned consensus.
“I do,” I answered, speaking away from the microphone.
“Then let’s get this show on the road,” Diezel stepped back, finding his microphone before continuing, “Red, Trodes, welcome to the Bouleuterion,” he paused a moment as the crowd erupted into cheers, “beside me are my comrades Aria and Korvirex, and we stand ready to hear your proposal.”
“As most of you probably know, Don Fincetti is the most powerful man in the underworld, hell—maybe even the city—what you likely don’t know is that he has a vault beneath the city, guarded by an army of Harvesters. I intend to break into the vault, slaughter the Harvesters and strike a blow to Fincetti that he won’t forget… and I intend to kill him shortly after. What I ask is simple: you help me in what’s to come, and when he’s finally dead, you can all split his turf among yourselves. All I care about is making sure he doesn’t live long enough to poison the Sprawl more than he already has.”
A murmur emerged from the stands. I gazed across the way to see the three representatives huddled together, whispering amongst themselves. Finally, Aria stepped towards her microphone.
“What you ask of us will likely mean the death of many of our people… we need something greater than what you offer—we need a guarantee of mutual aid—you have a reputation in the Sprawl, we would ask that you employ it in helping us when the time comes to resettle the Sprawl. Namely, we’d request your assistance against the gangs that may try to fill the power void you seek to create,” Aria explained.
“That seems reasonable,” I said.
Aria stepped back as Korvirex moved forward.
“Tell me, Red, are you familiar with the Offworlder Coalition?” Korvirex asked.
“I am—as a matter of fact, I aided them on the way here—they were marching against the Neo-Confederates and the Brown Shirts. I insured that they had the element of surprise.”
Korvirex stroked the beard-like tentacles that hung from his chin in contemplation.
“Good. What I ask is that you help us to secure their trust, we have offered solidarity where we could, but our forces are spread thin. The ideology of many of the exiled Vorrath rebels that found their way to Nova City—it matches that of our union. If our help was offered, would you agree to assist us in aiding the Coalition, so that they finally have an opportunity to get on their feet?”
Trodes leaned towards in, whispering in my ear.
“It would be prudent of you to make a counteroffer: proclaim that you’ll help with the Coalition, if they’ll spread the word to other groups whose goals may align with ours. There will likely be at least a couple hundred Harvesters in the Undercity when we strike… unless they’re occupied elsewhere.”
“I would happily help with the Coalition, on the condition that your faction spread the word about what we’re doing to like-minded organizations. As it stands, we could still use more numbers to match the Harvesters,” I said.
“These conditions may be satisfactory,” Korvirex said, before retreating into yet another group huddle.
The audience watched on in silence.
Finally, Diezel reapproached the microphone.
“The representatives have deemed this topic worthy of discussion: you’re free to leave, we’ll get ahold of Akari in a couple days, when all the details are ironed out.”
“A couple days?”
“Reaching a consensus can be a slow process at times—be prepared for a renegotiation of conditions, as there will likely be more stipulations made once the process is complete,” Diezel explained.
I nodded, and the platform beneath my feet began to descend towards the floor. The crowd erupted into cheers.
Hopefully Nico and Roman would beat us home
submitted by TheDrungeonBlaster to shortstories [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 20:25 TheDrungeonBlaster Gutterpunks Reloaded #8: 100 Dead Nazis

-Red-
April 19th, 11:13 A.M., The Sprawl
I sparked a dilapidated Vita-Cig that I’d snagged from Trodes and peered out into the Sprawl; the careful equilibrium of a well-orchestrated black-market had returned; pushers and gangers lined the alleys, watching for signals from rooftop lookouts to avoid the single Peacewatch cruiser that had been stupid enough to enter the dockside. The poor bastard would be dead before the afternoon was over… not that I had much sympathy for his kind. Peacewatch made it a habit to stay out of the Sprawl: unless the Eggheads predictive crime system said something catastrophic was coming, they policed their kind and left us in the hands of the mob. I’d never iced an officer. Not yet at least.
“Your partner should be ready shortly, I think he’s just tying up a few loose ends,” Akari said, snatching the cigarette from my hand and taking a long drag.
“Remind me again why you think I should take the shrimp with me instead of Nico and Roman?”
“He’s smart… and the other two are working on something else. Besides-- you need brains on this one, Red, not muscle,” she giggled, passing the cigarette back.
“Whatever you say,” I paused, grabbing the smoke, “what do you have them up to?”
“There’s a shipment of Xeno-grade weapons coming down from the colonies. Nico and Roman will be liberating them from the Slicers. Or, their share, at least. It won’t be much, maybe a dozen guns, but it’ll be worth it: the force field tech alone will pay for the trip as soon as Fincetti’s goons start trying to take your heads off with plasma cannons and mono blades.”
“What do you mean, their share?”
“The job was too big for us to take on alone. I linked up with another enterprising group of Freelancers. If it goes well, maybe we can hire them on for the heist, we’re going to need more people if we want to walk out of there alive.”
We?
“What, are you planning on coming along now?” I asked, snuffing out the smoke.
“It only seems right; Trodes is coming along, and I’m a better shot than he’ll ever be. Besides, you have a dangerous habit of getting shot, and I can’t have you going down in the field,” she said, winking as if to punctuate the sentence.
“You sure? We can manage, you don’t have to come with us, you’ve done so much already.”
“I know I have, that’s why I have to protect my investment. If you go down out there, then the team is without a leader. A military scale operation like this will go south real fast without someone competent in command.”
“You’ve got me wrong, Akari: I’m no leader. I’m just someone who wants to live in a better city and doesn’t mind taking the trash out himself. Besides, why do we need a leader? We’re all competent adults acting in concert, of our own free will. We all know what we’re doing, if a situation arises and someone needs to take charge, it’ll happen.”
“You’ve got a lot of faith in a crew you just met,” Akari said with a sneer.
“You know why I asked you to put the team together, Akari?”
“Because there’s a bounty on your head that could finance twenty retirements, and you know you can trust me?”
“No, well yeah, but that’s beside the point—I asked you because you’re not a Fixer, you’re a part time street doc that works the front desk at the most popular Freelancer hotel in the Sprawl. If there’s anyone who knows who’s gonna get the job done, it’s you. See, a Fixer is going to be okay with whatever losses they deem acceptable beforehand, but they’re fine with keeping that to themselves. If you thought any of these mooks were going to crack under pressure, or do something stupid, you wouldn’t have set me up with them.”
Before she could respond, Trodes emerged from the stairs leading to the lab. He winced as the sunlight hit his eyes, shrugging on the hood of the oversized sweatshirt that blanketed his meek frame. Glimpses of pain showed through every tremor laden step he took. A cloak of wires enveloped his skull, feeding into an old-world cyber console.
“It’s insufferably hot out here,” Trodes sighed.
“Don’t worry, we’re not going far. Chances are that whatever hole we’re meeting BFU in will have air conditioning,” I responded, clicking my key fob, and signaling the bike to pull around.
Trodes face fell flat when the Supersonic rolled around the corner; apparently, the prestige of carving through the skyway on a state-of-the-art Taffington jet-bike was lost on him.
“Are we taking… that?” Trodes stammered.
“We are. Unless you’ve got a pair of wheels with two seats?” I asked, mounting the bike and revving the engine.
With an exasperated sigh, Trodes boarded the passenger seat. I could feel him behind me, vibrating as tremors gripped his body.
“You good, buddy?” I asked.
He nodded vigorously, clenching the handrails with white knuckles.
Akari shook her head and headed back to the lab.
I heard Trodes mumble something under his breath, but it was quickly drowned out by the jet-bike’s purr. I carved into the skyway. Driving in the Sprawl was pure freedom: almost nobody owned vehicles with aerial capabilities in this part of town. It didn’t take long to reach top speed.
Slummers and gutterpunks walked the streets like zombies in a drug addled haze. The scent of gunpowder, pollution and burning ozone coalesced into a putrid stench that reeked of poverty and violence. Patches of azure moved in militant formation below; the Vorrath had taken to the streets. On a different day, a better day, I would’ve helped them. Most slummers hated the Offworlder Coalition, but not me—at the end of the day I always figured that I had more in common with poor people from another planet than rich people from another district of the city. At least we shared the same struggle.
The bike slowed to crawl; the Neo-Confederates were about, backed by a platoon of Brown-Shirts that looked like a tide of sewer run off, crashing through the streets with reckless abandon. Civilians fled for their homes. Fuck.
The jet-bike careened through the air before finally landing atop a building a few blocks away from the impending conflict.
“Get off,” I said, turning back to Trodes.
“Why? You don’t intend to abandon me at this altitude, do you?”
“Not as long as I survive—I’ll be quick, I just need to ventilate some Nazi fucks, understood?”
He shook his head and muttered a string of curses.
I tore through the air, circling around the impending conflict. I chased a handful of cheap amphetamines with a poorly rolled joint and swooped low, behind the rolling tide of brown shirts. This wasn’t the first time I’d made myself an enemy of the city’s Neo-Nazi’s; I’d killed at least a dozen of them in my career as a courier, but those were isolated incidents, back-alley brawls away from the mob.
This was a whole new ball game.
I fell slack as my Teleoperations module synchronized with the bike. My consciousness faded, reemerging into the HALO-Net’s stylized rendition of the bike’s interior. I wasn’t just the pilot now—I was the bike. Bullets carved twin streaks of crimson into the brown tide. It didn’t take long to hit top speed, 3.7 seconds, to be exact.
The group turned in nearly perfect unison, launching volley upon volley as I passed overhead. The bike’s shields barely held together; I felt every round, like a flock of birds violently slamming into my side—not enough to cause any real damage, but more than enough to get the blood pumping. I slid into an alley a few blocks off and waited for the shield generator to recharge. Gunshots rang out from the streets, alongside the sizzle of plasma meeting flesh. Soon the din was drowned beneath the roar of dozens of Vorrath war cries. I took to the sky.
Trodes was exactly where I left him, nervously clutching a knock off version of a Locust flechette pistol.
“I was beginning to doubt your survival,” Trodes said shakily.
“Wrong again, little guy,” I paused, reigniting a half smoked joint, “it was just a quick hit and run, we don’t have the time or the numbers for a pitched battle. Now, hop on.”
It didn’t take long to find BFU’s base of operations. Black flags and Anarchist graffiti covered the walls of the abandoned warehouse they’d apparently taken up residence in. A field of repurposed Peacewatch turrets were installed atop the roof, complimented by a web of cameras that spread across a three-block radius. Anarchists of all species and creeds loitered outside. The guards ranged from Cyborgs and Vat-Grown, to Vorrath and Vorstihl, each wearing a variant of the black flag with colors corresponding to their ideologies.
As I hovered above the building, I saw a familiar face: the rookie from earlier. Alarmingly, his cruiser was nowhere to be seen. His face was wrought with horror, as a pair of cyborgs led him inside the warehouse.
“They’re certainly less than subtle,” Trodes said.
“They don’t have to be subtle, they’re the biggest citizens political organization in the Sprawl. Peacewatch avoids them if they have anything less than a full platoon on hand,” I explained.
“Red… before we enter negotiations with these hooligans, I must inquire as to what your motivation hitting the vault is? Surely you know there’s a strong likelihood that you won’t make it out, and from what I’d heard about you, I always understood you to be a man who knew how to keep himself out of the line of sight of dangerous people,” Trodes said, nervously.
“Fincetti is the most dangerous man in the city, short of O’Bannon. He controls the black market with an iron fist and is instrumental in all the things I hate about living here. The problem is, I have no way to do anything about it right now… but there’s something big in the safe—there must be—for fucks sake, he iced his family over it. I’m hoping there’s something in there that can give me a little leverage, so I can cross him out afterwards.”
Trodes was silent for a moment, simply reaching as if to ask me to pass the joint. I obliged.
“I have my reasons to want O’Bannon dead too, I’m in,” he paused as a coughing fit seized him, causing the joint to fall to the ground, “there’s something you should know though: I’m working with an entity of great power in the Net; I don’t know what precisely it is, but I know it saved my life more than once. As a matter of fact, it’s the only reason I was able to obtain the blueprint of Fincetti’s bunker, and his security plan.”
“Is it… is it an unshackled AI?”
“Unlikely: it seems to understand compassion and empathy on a uniquely organic level, something that rarely slips past Netwatch.”
“Alright, well whatever it is, you keep an eye on it and let me know if things get shady. I appreciate you telling me.”
Trodes nodded in silence.
The crowd parted expectantly as I landed along the streetside. Dozens of eyes were immediately glued to Trodes and I. A cyborg with a steel double mohawk emerged from a sea of leather, patches, and smoke. A sawed-off shotgun hung at his side.
“Red, I presume?” the Cyborg asked, extending a steel hand.
“That’s right, and who’re you?” I answered, clasping the borgs hand as firm as I could manage.
“They call me Diezel, and I’ll be your host today,” he released my hand and looked me up and down as if assessing whether I was a threat, “follow me, everyone’s here so we can get straight down to business.”
The warehouse’s interior had been renovated drastically; layers of open-faced lofts sat stacked upon each other, consuming the walls. Nearly every non-violent law in the city was being broken in the lofts, from cooking chems and explosives to studying banned literature and Doomguard martial arts. It was beautiful. We followed Diezel through a winding hallway of munitions manufacturing stations, before finally emerging into an immense circular room, with rows of seats climbing the walls. I couldn’t believe it—there must have been two hundred people present.
The lights dimmed as we entered the arena. Diezel led us to the rooms center, ushering Trodes and I onto a great circular platform; he fell into place on a platform across from us, beside a Vat-Grown woman bearing an orange and black flag on her arm, and augmentations that cost more than my bike. Behind the duo a bulbous Vorstihl lurked; tentacles draped down his back, carefully pulled away from his cyclopean eye. A red and black flag was displayed on his arm… it was only then that I noticed the blue and black flag on Diezel’s arm.
The platforms each rose roughly fifteen feet into the air, before microphone stands emerged from the center of each platform. Diezel stepped forward, past the microphone.
“Before we start, I’ll explain how this works: the three of us are representatives of our specific unions—but the people are free to interject. One union voting to aid in your endeavors does not guarantee the help of the other two, as each union demands a perfect consensus. Likewise, if a faction without one union decides to help you, it does not necessarily mean you have the support of the entire union. The only way you’ll end up with total support is cross union consensus. Do you understand?”
A consensus: of course, they needed a damned consensus.
“I do,” I answered, speaking away from the microphone.
“Then let’s get this show on the road,” Diezel stepped back, finding his microphone before continuing, “Red, Trodes, welcome to the Bouleuterion,” he paused a moment as the crowd erupted into cheers, “beside me are my comrades Aria and Korvirex, and we stand ready to hear your proposal.”
“As most of you probably know, Don Fincetti is the most powerful man in the underworld, hell—maybe even the city—what you likely don’t know is that he has a vault beneath the city, guarded by an army of Harvesters. I intend to break into the vault, slaughter the Harvesters and strike a blow to Fincetti that he won’t forget… and I intend to kill him shortly after. What I ask is simple: you help me in what’s to come, and when he’s finally dead, you can all split his turf among yourselves. All I care about is making sure he doesn’t live long enough to poison the Sprawl more than he already has.”
A murmur emerged from the stands. I gazed across the way to see the three representatives huddled together, whispering amongst themselves. Finally, Aria stepped towards her microphone.
“What you ask of us will likely mean the death of many of our people… we need something greater than what you offer—we need a guarantee of mutual aid—you have a reputation in the Sprawl, we would ask that you employ it in helping us when the time comes to resettle the Sprawl. Namely, we’d request your assistance against the gangs that may try to fill the power void you seek to create,” Aria explained.
“That seems reasonable,” I said.
Aria stepped back as Korvirex moved forward.
“Tell me, Red, are you familiar with the Offworlder Coalition?” Korvirex asked.
“I am—as a matter of fact, I aided them on the way here—they were marching against the Neo-Confederates and the Brown Shirts. I insured that they had the element of surprise.”
Korvirex stroked the beard-like tentacles that hung from his chin in contemplation.
“Good. What I ask is that you help us to secure their trust, we have offered solidarity where we could, but our forces are spread thin. The ideology of many of the exiled Vorrath rebels that found their way to Nova City—it matches that of our union. If our help was offered, would you agree to assist us in aiding the Coalition, so that they finally have an opportunity to get on their feet?”
Trodes leaned towards in, whispering in my ear.
“It would be prudent of you to make a counteroffer: proclaim that you’ll help with the Coalition, if they’ll spread the word to other groups whose goals may align with ours. There will likely be at least a couple hundred Harvesters in the Undercity when we strike… unless they’re occupied elsewhere.”
“I would happily help with the Coalition, on the condition that your faction spread the word about what we’re doing to like-minded organizations. As it stands, we could still use more numbers to match the Harvesters,” I said.
“These conditions may be satisfactory,” Korvirex said, before retreating into yet another group huddle.
The audience watched on in silence.
Finally, Diezel reapproached the microphone.
“The representatives have deemed this topic worthy of discussion: you’re free to leave, we’ll get ahold of Akari in a couple days, when all the details are ironed out.”
“A couple days?”
“Reaching a consensus can be a slow process at times—be prepared for a renegotiation of conditions, as there will likely be more stipulations made once the process is complete,” Diezel explained.
I nodded, and the platform beneath my feet began to descend towards the floor. The crowd erupted into cheers.
Hopefully Nico and Roman would beat us home.
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2023.05.30 20:02 Centumviri Welcome to Green Valley: 4 Bumpkin Quest Adventures

Welcome to Green Valley

Four Merry Jaunts Through in the Bumpkin Quest Campaign

It’s a big world filled with far off folks who have far off problems. In the quaint farming town of Hills Furrow that has certainly not been the case. Here life is simple, local, and paced by the seasons. There ain’t been a need for “Venturers” and their ilk since your Papaw was just a sprout. However, the winds of change are blowin, and things are about to git just a bit more exciting round these parts.
Welcome to Green Valley, The down-home home of Rural Fantasy Misadventures and Grass-Roots Shenanigans. The Valley is Filled with Colorful Characters, Brimming with Odd Ball Neighbors, and has more than a few Local Yokels. Welcome to Bumpkin Quest. These adventures are intended to be a series of silly adventures that all go awry in some way or another and stir up trouble throughout a peaceful little village that has in many ways been overlooked by the troubles of the world “outside”.
CHAPTER 1: Green Tide CHAPTER 2: A Cartload of Chickens CHAPTER 3: Marvin the Magnificent CHAPTER 4: High Society
ADVENTURE MECHANICS - Target Character Level: Commoners - Level 1 - Target Party Size: Four Players - Average Adventure Playtime: 1-2 Hours - Tone: Rural Misadventures
I’ve also put these adventures into a PDF that includes our Bumpkin Quest: Campaign Guide which fills in the details of Green Valley pretty thoroughly. The quests are simple enough to be run in any setting you choose, but if you're interested in more the Guide as over a dozen Custom Maps, 70+ NPCs, Location Descriptions, 20+ Local Legends, and Scores of Adventure and Event Ideas. You can grab the PDF Free at the link above.

Hills Furrow

At the center of the Valley sits a patch of small grassy hills, through which the Slow Water meanders through. Built into these hills is the Village of Hills Furrow. Celebrated by everyone living in The Valley and boasting a whopping population of almost 150, Hills Furrow is the center of commerce and social importance. Well, at least as far as the locals are concerned. Realistically it would be less than a blip on the grand scale of things, a mere kernel of wheat in the silo of civilization, but to those who live here, there is nothing quite like living in the “city”.
The Village itself, like the Valley, is predominantly Halfling, and their fancy dwellings are burrowed into the hillsides as often as possible. These dwellings have been family owned for generations only becomeing available if there are no heirs to pass them along to. Other folk live in well kept two story shingled buildings, most of which house a business on the lower floor and house the Shopkeepers and their families above their workplaces, though a few live in nearby homes. There aren’t many “rental” spaces in town, as property is usually bought up quickly by the Halfling Families, but there are long term options at either of the Inns in town.
Hills Furrow: Locations 1) The Crocked Crow (Inn and Tavern) 2) The Dancing Lamb (Inn and Tavern) 3) The Moaning Toad (Tavern) 4) Granny's Groceries (General Market) 5) Get Nailed (Hardware and Distilery) 6) Gimdurh's Hammer (Smithy) 7) Brenra's Mechanicals (Tinker) 8) Hjoldren's Home Goods (Carpenter) 9) Standard Industries (Office) 10) Fit to be Dyed (Tailor) 11) The Last Loaf (Baker) 12) The Cloudy Cleaver (Butcher) 13) Nature's Medecine (Apothecary) 14) Sheriff's Office 15) Green Valley School House 16) The Waterwheel 17) The Windmill 18) The Undercloak Estate 19) Truefoot Burrow 20) The Meadows Family Hill
The people themselves are hospitable and friendly enough, but they do not really trust outsiders. Folks from foreign places are good for trade, news, and little else. Those that come through are treated well enough as long as they don’t wear out their welcome. Locals, well, that’s a bit of a different story. The city and area doesn’t operate under a written caste system or social structure, but there is clearly a pecking order, and family heritage matters a great deal to folks in Hills Furrow. Most locals, whether they’ve gotten an education or not, can easily be classified as simple. It isn’t that they are slow of mind or unintelligent, but more that they are unconcerned with matters the outside world considers important. This sentiment has created a general, but friendly, dislike between those that consider themselves Highfalutin and those that clearly are not.
Well now that I've given you the fifty cent tour. Shall we get on to adventure?

CHAPTER 1: Green Tide

We will open our journeys in the Green Valley at Green Tide, the annual celebration of Winter’s End. This adventure is designed to give a tour of Hills Furrow and introduce them to the locals. It will begin with some chores around their house to prepare for the festival and end with a battle involving an enchanted broom. If you did not do Session Zero, this chapter may take a bit longer as we get to know everyone and their characters.

ACT 1: Pre-Festival

The locals spend the week cleaning out their houses and farms. They gather old junk and unused items to be used later in the festival. They also begin preparing what food is left from winter to be used in a celebration and feasts.
Things to do! - Have the Players clean up junk around the house - Have them Find something strange (Perhaps used for a later mystery?) - Have them Decorate their Broom - Have them run a Household Errand (Meet an NPC)

ACT 2: Sweeping Day

A merry festival celebrating Spring cleaning and putting the past behind them. They form a parade, with one member from each house carrying a brightly decorated broom and using it to symbolically “Sweep Away Winter”. The rest of the family marches their winter’s trash and unused goods down to the Fairgrounds. The goods are often traded, while the trash is piled in the fire pit to await burning later. The entire day is filled with fun outdoor activities. Households also symbolically bring their problems to the bonfires to burn them later.
Things to do! - March in the Parade - Carry Junk to the Bonfire - Meet more of the Locals
EVENT: I Love a Parade
The parade will march North from near the Cross Roads in the South up around the hill and back again to the South where it will head for the Fairgrounds. There isn’t anything particularly challenging about this event, but it would be a wonderful place to start leaning into or building local rivalries.
EVENT: Never Seen a Broom Do That… As they come into the home stretch of the Parade one of the local’s Brooms will animate and take off. It will chase folks around the parade. The players can attempt to stop it, but the broom will flee soon after being attacked. It will fly up into the air, attack a flock of geese, and chase them off until it can’t be seen anymore. They can go and collect a fallen goose if they wish. I highly recommend giving it a motorcycle type sound as it flies around hitting folks. Maybe even going as far as giving it a rough gravel angry voice and letting it insult people.

ACT 3: Winter’s End

Winter’s End is a Combination of Groundhog’s Day and Fasnacht, this day gets a little wild. The Festival kicks off at dawn with the Great Gopher Hunt. Gophers are well known spies for The Voice of Winter and thus need to be hunted before they can tell The Voice to delay Spring. Gophers themselves are quite tasty, and are notoriously bad for crops, so this works out economically all around. Throughout the rest of the day families continue to contribute to the Bonfire Pile which often gets quite large. At dusk a large effigy of The Voice of Winter is placed on top of the pile. Once the sun has fully set they light the fire and burn the Effigy. Folk usually dress darkly during the day and brightly at night. After the burning they feast on sweets and treats that were made from goods saved up from winter storage.
Things to do! - The Great Gopher Hunt - Carry Junk to the Bonfire - Meet more of the Locals - The Fairground’s Activities
EVENT: The Great Gopher Hunt The Hunt begins at dawn and takes place all over the Valley. Locals race to collect as many Gophers as possible. It is easiest to kill the Gopher, but there are some that find that distasteful. Instead they live trap the critters. It is a bit tougher to do so, but an option should your players wish. This is most easily played out as a series of appropriate Skill Checks, in which the higher they score the more gophers they obtain.
EVENT: Trash Removal They may find some locals willing to pay them to help cart junk down to the bonfire pile. Not a lot of skill involved in this, but it is a great opportunity to meet locals, and you could throw a runaway cart at them.
Fair Activities They will probably want to take part in Fairground Activities. Players love these types of challenges. Here are a few ideas you can build on. - Axe Throwin: Basic attack rolls on a Round Target. Higher scores equal Higher points. - Bow Shootin: Basic attack rolls on Moving Targets. Higher scores equal Higher points. - Pig Chasin: Catch the greased Pig! Medium DC Challenge requiring three success before three Failures. - Mud Wrastlin: Nothing says bumpkin like a good Mud Wrastlin Pit. Contested Skill Challenges. - Sausage Eating Contest: Increasingly difficult DC Challenge. Eat till you puke! Can also be Pies or Ribs or Little Fish… you know whatever someone wants to stuff dozens of in their gullet. - Tug O’War: Team Strength Challenge. Three to Five Contested Rolls with opposing teams. - Gopher BBQ Cook Off: A Hard Culinary Challenge to see who can BBQ the best Gopher! - Races: Foot and Mount Races based on Three to Five Contested Rolls. I usually include a few odd mounts like a Giant Chicken or some such nonsense.

ACT 4: Day of Ashes

The Day of Ashes is a day of rest, recovery, and reflection. Locals take the ashes from the bonfires and rub their hands in them to symbolize the end of a hard year’s work and hardships of the past. The day ends with a large family feast, typically Pork. Activities this day are light, but many folks head to the Temple for the Calling of Spring Blessings. They put on their fancies and head down to ask forgiveness for over-indulging in the festival and for worship. Well sort of…
Unfortunately, a lot of folks take this as an opportunity to peacock about and practice their one-upmanship over other locals. If you’re looking for inspiration for their outfits look to older photos of the Kentucky Derby. Over the years this troubling practice has caused more than one fight to break out after the service.
*Things to do! * - Go to Temple and Meet More Locals - Pick a Local Patron!
EVENT: Temple Services
The majority of the town comes to Temple on this day. The service is usually longer, and a bit more “Where have most of you been all year?” But otherwise it is a call for the Divine Blessings to touch their crops and protect their lives. It ends with a ceremony in which the locals put their hands into the ashes from yesterday’s bonfire. Once services end they will head outside, where the trouble will begin. Two of the wealthier families will get into it with each other. Starting with a couple of veiled insults, probably before service and continuing afterward. If one of your players is from a local Rich Folk family then they can be right in the middle of it all, otherwise they will have to pick a side. This choice will determine their house Patron moving forward. Tension will increase until folks start drawing up sides, and then someone will throw a rotten tomato at one of the House Matrons. That will blow the lid off the incident and a yokel brawl will break out. For comedy purposes I recommend the instant appearance of several food carts filled with expired products, and maybe a six year old hustler selling big sticks for wacking folks with. As the locals brawl call for perception checks. Who ever rolls highest begins to hear… The Broom returning!
ENCOUNTER: Stick In The Eye
The broom returns ready to whoop some ash. It will be absolutely bent on cleaning anyone and everyone who is even the slightest bit dirty! If it successfully attacks a character they will have to make a Strength Saving throw or be knocked to the ground and swept clean by the broom. As this would be an awful omen for the year folks are terrified and will be running around screaming. Absolute mass hysteria. If the players were lucky enough to hear it coming they can avoid being surprised by the broom. Otherwise the broom will get a full round to attack before they have a chance to do anything. They’ll have to beat the broom into submission any way they can before it sweeps the whole town into chaos!

CLOSING

After defeating the broom things will settle back down again. Bumpkins are quick to return to normal when things go awry. However, they will have gotten the attention of one of the Wealthy Families in the area and be offered jobs. Which family is really, based on what will work best for them and you as the DM. For gags you might be tempted to have the Yokels pick them up, but that is a hard bit to sustain, and you may be better served keeping them on the side as a comic foil rather than up front. Completely up to you. The session should end with them being invited to meet their new patron tomorrow someplace important.

CHAPTER 2: A Cartload of Chickens

After successfully defeating the Enchanted Broom, our Bumpkins have gained the attention of a possible local Patron. This individual has summoned them to a nearby farm to discuss future work. That work includes proving themselves capable and not just lucky.

ACT 1: Meet the Boss

In this Act the players will meet with their new patron, one of the Family Heads, who that is entirely depends on their choices from the last game. This entire side branch is designed to flavor the background of the campaign, but if you’d rather just have them stay freelancing and independent that’s fine as well. There is also the possibility of “competing” offers should they have second thoughts for any reason. Once they arrive at the meeting spot their Patron will ask them some questions about their ambitions (Class Goals), they will then hand them off to their new “boss” who will assign them their task. They will take them to a nearby barn.
NEW NPC: “Boss”
Needs a fitting name for the Family they work for...
Character wise, what we got here is a standard “Ranch Foreman” character. They’re tough, A little mean, and completely loyal to their employer. They almost certainly chew tobacco (by the handful), have a tattoo of the Ranch’s Brand, and know where all the bodies are buried. They also have a huge and obvious scar on the side of their head where a Giant Chicken pecked a hole in their skull, so they’re not as bright as they used to be, not at all truthfully. Nor are they actually the Foreman anymore, but no one has a heart to tell them. They’ve been quietly downgraded to Chicken Handler, which is something they seem to remember quite well, but the brain damage keeps them from realizing all that. They can be found wandering the Farm giving strange orders to other Hands. These Hands nod politely and then go back to what they are doing.
Things To Do! - Meet Their Patron - Discuss Their Future - Meet Their New “Boss”

ACT 2: Chicken Dance

Boss will lead them into the odd looking barn. This building is filled with Giant Chickens. These two-three foot fouls have extremely exaggerated features, spiky looking beaks with sharp tooth like edges, big darting eyes, bumpy cracked skin, long gnarled talons, and dirty mottled feathers. They’re more beast than bird. But, they’re good for eatin! These creatures should have a stat block similar to an Axe Beak. When the players enter into the Barn the Chickens will go nuts, obviously deeply bothered by the intrusion. Boss will throw in some deer haunches and the birds will tear them apart in a feeding frenzy. They will then put on a Chicken Suit and begin a flapping dance. (Google Magnificent Riflebird) It should be absolutely captivating and the chickens will become mesmerized, watching every move. Boss will then load two dozen chickens onto a large wagon and lock it. They will have the players push the wagon out while he keeps the Chickens calm. Once outside they’ll hang heavy tarps on the sides of the wagon, and remove the suit. He will then explain to them that they need to keep the tarps on the wagon, and keep the birds well fed, or the chickens will get restless and become violent. When they do need to interact with them someone will have to wear the suit and dance to keep them calm. The bigger the person in the suit the better. Boss will then give them a Map of Green Valley and instruct them to drop off two chickens at each of the outer settlements. They have two days to get this done.
Things To Do! - Head into the barn - Witness The Dance of The Chicken - Push the Wagon out - Get the Costume and Delivery Instructions

ACT 3: Bumpy Roads

They will be off to deliver the Chickens to various locations. There is no specific order to this delivery, they just need to pick a route and go. If they’re short on time they can take the country roads that lead between the outer settlements, but these aren’t as well kept as the main roads are. Whatever road they take and wherever they decide to stop for the night there are problems they will encounter along the way. You can make them random or pick the ones that best suit your players. Most of these should at some point require someone putting on the suit and dancing for the chickens to keep them calm. I would also increase the difficulty of each event. If they fail a dance the Chickens will become restless and start attacking the cart until they are calmed down. Too many failures and the wagon’s cage will break and the remaining chickens escape. They will then have to be rounded up and the cage repaired.
Things to Do - Decide the delivery route - Deliver the chickens - Keep the Chickens calm
Possible Road Events 1) Rough roads cause problems 2) Yokels attempt to see what’s in the cart 3) Bad Weather swamps the road or scares the chickens 4) Pack of Coyotes causes trouble. 5) Chicken Rustlers! Protect the Flock! 6) Wagon breaks and needs repair 7) Cows in the road, someone’s herd is out. 8) Broken Bridge, not gone, just broken

ACT 4: Final Delivery

They’re now closing in on the final delivery. Something needs to happen here to cause them to put the suit on. Or maybe they never took it off! I love that idea, that one of your players just loves the suit and wants to be a chicken… lol… Anyway I’m a fan of having them need to get out of the suit for some reason, maybe a bathroom break, or they stand on a fire ant hill, or a snake slithers up their leg. You know something silly and fun. BUT the zipper is stuck! So they’ll have to try and unstick it and fast! Whatever happens they’re going to get shot at by some hunters looking for a big score who have mistaken the flailing caused by the stuck zipper to be the chicken attacking. After dealing with the Hunters they can go ahead and make the final drop. And head home.
Things to Do! - Head for the final delivery - Get shot at! - Deliver the last chickens
ENCOUNTER: That’s a BIG Chicken!
Having two hunters in the field is more than enough to cause a problem for the players. The hunters will almost certainly surprise the players, but you can allow them a perception check, if they succeed they’ll see the hunters just before the muskets go off. It would be OK to down the Chicken Player here if the hunters successfully hit it. They’ll have healer’s kits on hand because, well, this seems to happen to them a lot out here. After the initial attack the players can decide to attack back or try and talk the hunters down. A basic Bandit or Scout stat block should do will for the hunters. If you’re looking for a bit more mayhem, if the hunters miss the players you could have them hit the cage, and you know, bust it open. This may be especially tempting if they
POSSIBLE ENCOUNTER: Big Ol' Frog
So there is a giant frog hiding in the mud down in the creek. If a player takes cover behind the banks there is a good chance that the frog will attempt to nab the player as a snack. If it is successful in grabbing a player with its tongue it will immediately head down river, and they'll have to chase it to get their friend back.

CLOSE

When they return, Boss will reward them. How much will depend on how successful they were delivering the birds. If they did a descent job, they will be paid two day’s wages each. If they were completely successful they can have a bonus. However, if the wagon is in bad shape they might have some money deducted. After they’re paid out, they will be dismissed, and told to expect a new assignment next week.

CHAPTER 3: Marvin the Magnificent

After successfully delivering chickens Boss is going to trust them with a more important task. Their employer has requested an item to be created by Marvin the Magnificent. This is a farming community so having enchanted Farming Equipment is extremely desirable. Marvin has done a lot of basic enchantments over the years, but this new one, an The Stone Skipper, a plough whose blade goes ethereal while in contact with stones too large to push away, has really put him to the test. He needs some help with the final enchantments. The players will have to travel to the Ethereal Plane and hit the Blade of the plow with large rocks. But there’s a problem, they’re going to have mischievous Ethereal Sprites attempting to stop them! If they’re successful, which they should be, they get to take the plough for a test drive, and deal with the strange side effects of the enchantment. Angry goats that blink in and out of existence.

ACT 1: To the Tower

They’ll be summoned out to the Ranch where they’ll meet with Boss again. Once there they will notice a large pile of bent and dinged up plows. Boss will explain to them that a recent land acquisition has become problematic. The Fields are filled with large stones just under the topsoil and they’ve damaged a lot of Plow Blades. The Smithing costs are getting out of hand and so their Patron is looking for an alternate solution to the problem. He is sending them to help Marvin the Magnificent, who has taken the job, but run into some complications and needs some help. They may ask about Marvin. Or perhaps the fields that were purchased, so be ready to answer these types of questions. Once they’re done here they can head to Marvin’s Tower, which is just north of town.
Things to Do! - Meet Boss again - Ask some Informational Questions - Head for the Tower
NPC: Marvin the Magnificent

ACT 2: Marvin the Magnificent

As they approach the tower they should see an explosion at the peak of the structure. It should look similar to a fireworks mishap. When it clears there will be no visible damage to the tower, But Marvin will plummet to the earth just off to the side of them, landing in a small pond. He will then come charging out of the pond, laughing hysterically, and riding on a large turtle. Once he gets a few feet away from the pond the turtle will disappear and he will tumble to the ground right in front of the players. He will leap up quickly and turn toward the players. “Behold Travelers, You stand in the presence of Marvin the Magnificent! And everything you have witness was mostly intended!” He will then strike a cool pose with his wand pointed to the sky! “Now why do you approach my tower!?”
Once Marvin finds out they’ve been sent about the plow he will become more nervous looking. “I see, well follow me. We have work to do.” He will then start walking toward the tower… his boots squishing out water. This should give them a little time to ask a few questions. Marvin will be a little subversive about what they need to do. He will attempt to frame it very mysteriously, saying things like “All will be revealed soon.” and “Save your questions! All Answers await us… in the future!” If they ask him about what they witnessed outside, he will tell them he was working on a mount summoning spell designed for lakes and rivers.
Things to Do! - Head toward the Tower - Meet Marvin - Ask Questions

ACT 3: The Cabinet of Mysteries

The inside of the Wizard’s Tower will be far more mundane than they likely expect. At least on the first floor. It will have a sitting room, dining room, and kitchen, as well as a few odds and ends about. Nothing special at all. The second floor, are Marvin’s personal quarters and some room for study, but it is the third floor, where Marvin will lead them, and it will be more of what one would expect in a Wizard’s tower. There will be books shelves, arcane equipment, and storage for components. In the middle of the room will be a tall cabinet.
:
Marvin will explain to them that the Cabinet is a transportation device, and that he will need them to enter into it with a plow that he has recently enchanted. They will be taken to the Ethereal Plane, and once there they’ll need to take the plow outside and begin hitting it with large field stones. There is a large pile of stones just on the north edge of the tower. They’ll have to do this quickly, before the “others” show up. Who are the others? Hard to say, but there are things that live in the Ethereal Plane that don’t like intruders. The idea is to imbue the Plow with Ethereal Powers so it can pass through large stones while plowing fields. Once they return with the Enchanted Plow, Marvin will have them load it on a cart, pulled by a very smart Donkey, and send them on their way.
Skill Challenge: Enchant the Plow This skill challenge will require five successes before they’re incapacitated by the others. However they decide to do it, they’ll have to successfully hit the plow with five large stones. Failures will result in strange indiscernible entities attacking them. They do minimal damage but could knock people out if there are enough failures.
Things to Do! - Move Through Marvin’s Tower - Enter the Cabinet - Enchant the Plow

ACT 4: Blinking Goats

Upon returning to Boss with the Plow they will be happily greet and paid. Their Patron will be there and will be very pleased with their success. He will ask them to demonstrate the plow’s abilities. Once they get set up out in the field and begin plowing something weird will happen. Every time they hit a stone and the plow’s power activates an Ethereal Goat will manifest and kick or ram the plow, and then disappear. It will feel very similar to what they encountered in the Ethereal Plane. They’ll have to find a way to deal with the manifestations.
ENCOUNTER: Ethereal Goats These goats should function very similarly to Blink Dogs, but I would trim the HP and AC a little to put them in line with the party’s. They will be intent on breaking the Plow not the party, although they will attack the party if they can’t get to the Plow.
Things to Do! - Deliver the Plow - Drive the Plow - Defeat the Ethereal Goats

CLOSE

Once defeated the Boss will come over to yell at them, but the Patron will find the entire thing amusing and more importantly, another impressive demonstration of the player’s skills. He will invite them to the “House” for an important party next week.

Chapter 4: High Society

They've definitely been noticed now and have impressed with their ability, unconventional as it may be. They are invited to their patron's home, but not as guests. Though, they might think they were actually invited as guests! They have been brought in to help work the event held out at the Party Field. They will have to gather party supplies, help put up the tent, and then serve the actual guests. During the evening’s entertainment a hypnotist “The Great Dr Hypnotika” will mesmerize the crowd and attempt to rob them all. Hopefully the players don’t fall victim to her schemes. And if they do oh well, they’ll be entertained all the same.

ACT 1: Special Delivery

The players arrive at the Patron’s very nice property. They will be greeted by a properly dressed servant with a clipboard, the Party Planner. The Planner will be rigid and direct. They will immediately begin tasking them about. If they mention that they were invited to the party the servant will laugh “You didn’t think you were a guest? Oh dear, how embarrassing. You’re the help! It is still a great honor to be tasked to help at the Party, but you’re not guests. Now as for your current task. Head into town and gather these supplies. Bring them to the field by noon.” After the instructions are given the servant will go back to their tasks and expect the players to do the same. They will have three stops; The Crocked Crow for Food and Beer, Get Nailed for the Tent and Spirits, and Shalana Proud-Breed’s Tailor Shop to pick up the Dry Cleaning. Feel free to make any and all of these go sideways! Its a good place to toss in some shenanigans as well! They should also be introduced to Dr Hypnotika and her associates.
Things To do! - Go to their Patron’s Home - Meet the Party Planner and Dr Hypnotika - Run their Errands
NPC: Dr Hypnotika
Dr Hypnotika and her group will perform for the party. Hypnotica is a Tiefling Mezmerist and illusionist. She has an obnoxiously high charisma and some pretty serious skills to back up her claims. However, she uses those skills to beguile her guests, robbing them blind while they are under her spells. She wears a fine robe with a bedazzled headwrap. She has dark upward spiraling horns, light purple skin, and matching eyes. She wears a monocle and walks with a ceremonially carved staff depicting the "Struggles of the Universe". She is extremely persuasive and even more deceptive. Even if someone were to grow suspicious she can easily talk her way out of trouble.
NPCs: Clapper and Bob Hypnotika brings with her two assistants. Clapper the suit wearing Kenku who will perform wondrous displays of mimicry and slight of hand, and her strongman Bob the Kobold. Bob wears a leopard print strongman's outfit and is amazingly swole, particularly for a kobold, and capable of lifting upwards of 400lbs. Bob doesn't do much else other than get hit with things. in the act.

ACT 2: Put up the Tent

After they finish running their errands they will be tasked with putting up a large party tent. This Act is an ongoing Skill Challenge and should have a constantly distracted feel to it. First they have to unpack the tent. Then they have to realize some pieces are missing, they’ll have to form a solution to that problem. After that wind should cause some problems as the tent is at least being pulled up. This is a great moment for some wondrous tom-foolery.
Things To do! - Unpack the tent - Deal with missing parts - Secure the tent during the wind gusts

ACT 3: Put These On

After they finish putting up the tent they’ll be sent to the Servant’s Quarters to bathe and change. They’ll get a little time to explore and snoop if they wish. Afterward they’ll be tasked with helping in the kitchen, but unfortunately the cooks are going to have been playing a drinking game all afternoon and are no longer fully capable of doing their jobs. This would make a great moment for some sort of mini-game where the players have to determine whether or not the cooks are doing the right things. Once the dinner has been completed they will have to serve the guests. This is a good place to insert gossip and help them meet a few other folks.
Things To do! - Get changed for the party - Deal with the drunk cooks - Serve the guests drinks and food

ACT 4: An Evening to Remember

At some point in the evening things are going to start sliding downhill. Some of the locals will have become extremely inebriated and will need to be encouraged to leave, or just moved off to the side as they’ve already passed out, before the show begins. Once the show begins the locals will become fixated on the goings on. “The Great Dr Hypnotika” will have put an additive in the drinks for the that will make everyone more susceptible to her powers of persuasion. Once the show starts she will have them all doing silly things, those who drank have disadvantage on saves against her powers. She will end the show asking the guests to display their most valuable treasure, a with a hypnotic pattern and then send her assistants out to collect those treasures. The players will have to “do something” about the thieves.
Things To do! - Deal with Drunks - Watch the Show - Stop the Criminals
ENCOUNTER: Hypnotika's Gang This encounter doesn't have to be a fight. If Hypnotika is caught she may claim it was all part of the act and simple return the valuables with a "no harm, no foul" type attitude. This will be he go to in an attempt to avoid a fight, but if the character persist in some kind of retribution or punishment the situation will devolve into a combat. Hypnotica herself is an Illusionist Wizard but is low on spells after the show. Clapper is a low level rogue and Bob a Barbarian, and should play out as such. Even with Skills they are combat adverse and will be looking for an opportunity to flee rather than fight. They do have a getaway wagon out front that they'll be headed for if things go south.

CLOSING

We’re assuming the Bumpkins at least attempted to stop the robbery. This will draw a lot of attention to them. Their Patron will be well pleased with them, and let them know they will be getting much more important jobs in the future. The guests will also take note and will begin treating them all a bit better. They’re all essentially Folk Heroes at this point for secondary backgrounds. Their Patron should reward them with something very nice as the party kicks back in. They will need to finish out the nights work of course.

Quest-line Closing

Congratulations! Your Players have completed their first Quest-line! Hopefully it was a delightful experience. But now that they've finished what comes next? Well, here are some ideas.
*Reward Them! * They've been doing some rather Adventurous things lately, and therefore should now have a Class Level under their belt, so the real D&D world now opens to them! Maybe it is time for some real adventuring gear. No more sticks, stones, and burlap sack armor.
Folk Heroes? There's a good chance that the Valley is Speaking the News about them and their exploits while drinking in the taverns. They may have even earned the actual Folk Hero Feat! Maybe someone would be interested in giving them a task!
Simply Go Exploring! There are a lot of places in Green Valley that we only dipped our toes into. You could have them head down to Stinkmarsh, or maybe climb up the cliffs of Longridge. The world (Well, the Valley) is wholly open to them.
Explore Local Legends There are lots of local legends they can look into! Hopefully they search out something that isn't too far over their heads!
Continue Working for their Patron It would be an easy DM go to simply to have them continue working for their current Patron. They've probably been impressive enough fo a family to be interested in keeping them on.
Establish Themselves as Adventurers! Maybe they want to set up a Adventurers for Hire business? This "Heroes Guild" approach is really appealing to a lot of players and absolutely plays into Bumpkin Quest. Just remember, this is a place of low key problems that locals make really big deals out of. So the idea of slaying dragons shouldn't really be on the table... that is until an actual dragon shows up! Which one day absolutely should.
submitted by Centumviri to amplusordogames [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 19:54 atown1z All Armor in TotK 2 Electric Boogaloo

All Armor in TotK 2 Electric Boogaloo
I made a post earlier with all the armor I could find in the datamine. Now that I have the game and have gotten all the armor. I can actually explain what everything is, and the general idea of where you get it at least, as well as what they do.
I am not looking up the exact specific names of pieces and locations if I don't know them off the top of my head, but you'll have the general info for it.
​
If you don't want spoilers be cautious, I won't give like story specifics, but if you want to go in blind, why are you here?
​
All Armor
Archaic Set: Shirt, Skirt, Warm Greaves
Upgrade-able: no
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Only warm greaves which give cold resistance
Locations: All found on the Great Sky Island
​
Hylian Set: Hood (Both up and down), Shirt, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: No
Locations: Buy at Lookout Landing
​
Soldier's Set: Helm, Armor, Greaves
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: None, just that it has higher defense if you find it early than other armor
Locations: Royal Passage Ways cave, near Lookout Landing
​
Snowquill Set: Headgear, Tunic, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Cold resistance, and at level 2 you gain unfreezeable.
Locations: Buy at Rito Village
​
Flamebreaker Set: Helm, Armor, Boots
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Flame guard, and full set gives fireproof.
Locations: Buy at places in Death Mountain, full set is available in Goron City.
​
Zora Set: Helm, Armor, Greaves
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Swim speed up, armor lets you swim up waterfalls, helm lets you do a spin attack in water, at level 2 it lowers swimming stamina use.
Locations: Armor is a story item, helm and greaves are rewards for sidequests found in Zora's Domain.
​
Desert Voe Set: Headgear, Armor, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Heat resistance, at level 2 you get shock resistance
Locations: Head piece is bought at Kara Kara Bazaar, armor and pants are bought at Gerudo Town Secret Shop.
​
Rubber Set: Helm, Armor, Tights
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Shock resistance, at level 2 you are lighting proof
Locations: In caves on the surface, I think you can get a Misko quest for them, but you can just stumble across them without the quest.
​
Stealth Set: Mask, Chest Guard, Tights
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Stealth up, at level 2 night movement speed up
Locations: Buy in Kakariko.
​
Climbing Set: Headgear, Chest, Boots
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Climbing speed up, Climbing jump stamina down.
Locations: In caves on the surface, Misko quests for it.
​
Barbarian Set: Helm, Chest, Leg Wraps
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Attack up, charge attack stamina down
Locations: Found in caves on the surface, Misko quests.
​
Radiant Set: Mask, Chest, Tights
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Glows in the dark, not sure how bright it is, at level 2 gives bone weapon proficiency and disguise bonus, probably for stal enemies
Locations: Buy at Kakariko.
​
Royal Guard Set: Hat, Uniform, Boots
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: At level 2 they lower charge attack stamina.
Locations: Found throughout Hyrule Castle
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Froggy Set: Hood, Shirt, Tights
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Slip resistance, at level 2 slip immunity.
Locations: Do the sidequests for the Lucky Clover Gazette, near Rito Village.
​
Glide Set: Mask, Shirt, Tights
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Increased movment while skydiving, at level 2 no fall damage.
Locations: Do the 3 skydiving challenges in the sky. They are the tall pillars of islands, you can't miss them.
​
Depths Set: Hood, Shirt, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Gloom resistance, at level 2 gloom attack resistance
Locations: Buy from Barginer's Statues in the Depths with poes, you need to find enough of the statues to unlock all 3 parts.
​
Miner's Set: Helm, Top, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Glows, at level 2 leaves glowing footsteps temporarily.
Locations: Found in chests in the Depths, probably at the canyon mines not the abandoned mines, I can't quite remember the exact ways I found them.
​
Mystic Set: Hood, Shirt, Pants
Upgrade-able: no
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Rupee padding, take damage with rupees instead of health.
Locations: Give Bubbel gems to Koltin, you can find him and his brother Kilton for the first time at the Woodland Stable.
​
Ember Set: Helm, Shirt, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Hot weather attack, at level 2 hot weather charge.
Locations: Found in caves around Death Mountain.
​
Charged Set: Helm, Shirt, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Stormy weather attack, at level 2 stormy weather charge.
Locations: Found during the main story quests, won't spoil that.
​
Frostbite Set: Helm, Shirt, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Cold weather attack, at level 2 cold weather charge.
Locations: Found in caves in Hebra and the cold parts of the Tabantha area.
​
Yiga Set: Mask, Armor, Tights
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Stealth up, at level 2 night movement speed up
Locations: Find the tailors in the 3 surface Yiga hideouts outside of the Gerudo areas.
​
Divine Beast Helms: Vah Medoh, Vah Rudania, Vah Ruta, Vah Naboris
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: VM, Cold resistance VR, Flame guard VRu, Swim speed up VN, Shock resistance
Locations: You get quests to find them in caves from the sages after you complete their parts of the story, although you could probably find them earlier. They can also be obtained from the Revali, Daruk, Mipha, and Urbosa Amiibo.
​
Zonai Set: Helm, Waistguard, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Zonai part energy up, at level 2 Zonai battery recharge up
Locations: I can't remember where I found these, but I am pretty sure it was in chests in the sky. Could've also been in some caves on the surface.
​
Jewelry Set: Diamond Circlet, Ruby Circlet, Sapphire Circlet, Topaz Earrings, Opal Earrings, Amber Earrings
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: DC, Attack up RC, Cold resistance SC, Heat resistance TE, Shock resistance OE, Swim speed up AE, none just high defense
Locations: Buy in Gerudo Town.
​
Hairband:
Upgrade-able: No
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Lets you have Link's hair from BotW
Locations: Your old house in Hateno.
​
Cece Hat:
Upgrade-able: No
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: None
Locations: Do Cece's quests in Hateno, she will give it to you.
​
Lightning Helm:
Upgrade-able: No
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Lightning proof
Locations: Do the fight challenge in the Yiga Clan Hideout in the Gerudo Highlands
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Sand Boots:
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Increased sand movement speed.
Locations: Buy at the Gerudo Town Secret Shop.
​
Snow Boots:
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: Increased snow movement speed.
Locations: Buy at the Gerudo Town Secret Shop-
​
Monster Masks Set: Bokoblin, Horriblin, Moblin, Lizalfos, Lynel
Upgrade-able: No
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: They keep the monster related to the mask from attacking you, except lynels, they aren't dumb.
Locations: Give Bubbel gems to Koltin.
​
Tunic of Memories:
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Edit, was just told they let you do the beam attack when not at full health. I tested and it works even all the way down to just a heart and a half. The distance seems to get reduced the lower your health.
Locations: Find all the Barginer's statues in the Depths, then buy it with poes.
​
Champion's Leathers:
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Edit, was just told they let you do the beam attack when not at full health. I tested and it works even all the way down to just a heart and a half. The distance seems to get reduced the lower your health.
Locations: You get a side quest in Hateno for it, don't wanna spoil it.
​
Island Lobster Shirt:
Upgrade-able: No
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Heat resistance
Locations: Edit, was reminded that the you get this in a chest near Lurelin with a side quest.
​
Ravio's Hood:
Upgrade-able: No
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Sideways climbing movement speed up.
Locations: I think this was also in a chest in the Depths colosseums.
​
Zant's Helmet:
Upgrade-able: No
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Unfreezable
Locations: It was a colosseum reward in the Depths.
​
Midna's Helmet:
Upgrade-able: No
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Gloom resistance
Locations: Colosseum reward in the Depths.
​
Majora's Mask:
Upgrade-able: No
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: I am pretty sure it works like the monster masks, but for all of them and not just one monster.
Locations: I can't remember, I would guess the colosseums because all the other BotW DLC single pieces were also in those.
​
Korok Mask:
Upgrade-able: No
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Detects korok puzzles.
Locations: Found in the colosseum in the Depths under the Lost Woods.
​
Tingle Set: Hood, Shirt, Tights
Upgrade-able: No
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Night movement speed up.
Locations: Found in caves on the surface, there's a Misko quest for it.
​
Phantom Set: Helm, Armor, Greaves
Upgrade-able: No
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Attack power up.
Locations: Found in caves on the surface, I am not sure if it had a Misko quest, but it probably did.
​
Evil Spirit Set: Helm, Armor, Greaves
Upgrade-able: No
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Stealth up, full set disguise and bone weapon proficiency.
Locations: Complete all 3 of the sky, surface, and depths sets of each Lonai Labyrinths.
​
Sheik's Mask:
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Stealth up
Locations: I can't remember, either in a cave on the surface or a random chest in the Depths. You can also use the Sheik Amiibo.
​
Dark Set: Hat, Tunic, Pants
Upgrade-able: No
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Night speed up
Locations: Find enough Barginer's statues in the Depths to unlock all 3 parts, then buy them with poes.
​
Fierce Diety Set: Head, Tunic, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Attack power up, at level 2 charge attack stamina down.
Locations: Found in caves on the surface, has a Misko quest. You can also use the MM Link Amiibo.
​
Awakening Set: Hat, Tunic, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: I don't know for a fact yet, but I think because the level 2 Wind and Wild sets give bonus attack power, I would guess all the other Link tunics do too, but I haven't quite gotten enough star bits yet to confirm this.
Locations: Found in 3 caves on the surface, there is a Misko quest for it. Also the LA Link Amiibo.
​
Wild Set: Hat, Tunic, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: Yes
Bonuses: At level 2 attack power up.
Locations: Found at the 3 great skeletons in the Depths.
​
Hero Set: Hat, Tunic, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: I don't know for a fact yet, but I think because the level 2 Wind and Wild sets give bonus attack power, I would guess all the other Link tunics do too, but I haven't quite gotten enough star bits yet to confirm this.
Locations: Found in chests in the Depths. Also from the 8-bit Link Amiibo.
​
Time Set: Hat, Tunic, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: I don't know for a fact yet, but I think because the level 2 Wind and Wild sets give bonus attack power, I would guess all the other Link tunics do too, but I haven't quite gotten enough star bits yet to confirm this.
Locations: Found in chests in the Depths Also from OoT Link and SSB Young Link Amiibos.
​
Wind Set: Hat, Tunic, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: At level 2 attack power up.
Locations: Found in the Depths. Also from WW Link and SSB Toon Link Amiibos.
​
Twilight Set: Hat, Tunic, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: I don't know for a fact yet, but I think because the level 2 Wind and Wild sets give bonus attack power, I would guess all the other Link tunics do too, but I haven't quite gotten enough star bits yet to confirm this.
Locations: Found in chests in the Depths. Also from the SSB Link and TP Link Amiibos.
​
Skyward Sword Set: Hat, Tunic, Pants
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: I don't know for a fact yet, but I think because the level 2 Wind and Wild sets give bonus attack power, I would guess all the other Link tunics do too, but I haven't quite gotten enough star bits yet to confirm this.
Locations: Found in chests in the Depths, I think. Also the SS Link Amiibo.
​
Ancient Hero's Aspect:
Upgrade-able: Yes
Dye-able: No
Bonuses: Probably have something at level 2, but I have used my lynel guts for other things.
Locations: You get it once you complete all the shrines. You might have to go to a temple first to actually get it after that.
​
There that's everything. I suppose I will come back here and update the bonuses for the classic tunics when I know what they give.
​
https://imgur.com/a/BTRhsgz Armor Pictures Part 1
https://imgur.com/a/HlDjeNh Armor Pictures Part 2
https://preview.redd.it/0tjd0pt1u13b1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=28f2a4c5d4accd96954f55fd0b6f6f800cbb331d
submitted by atown1z to TOTK [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 19:50 ChatFilterGoBrr Dang 'ol regex, man

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submitted by ChatFilterGoBrr to u/ChatFilterGoBrr [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 19:42 FrostyPoos Which option would you pick?

I would like some investing and personal advice in regards to real estate. Long story short I am being offered 2 homes.
A) seller financed at 0 percent 940 sqft, 1940s home, 11.2 acres at 250k, 40 minutes from the beach, 30 minutes from major city, metal storage shed with electricity in great condition, generax generator installed. FIL wants my wife to take this house to so we can be closer to them. The plan would be to move into the shack and start clearing out land to build a custom home asap.
B) VA loan at 6.1 for 305k, brick house, 1850 sqft, yard is measured in sqft, 2 car garage, house appraised at 355k, in town. We would live in this until we could find something else and begin to rent it out with an estimated 2200 a month rental.
We have a combined income of around 230k and the only debt we have is 10k on a car loan at 0 percent interest.
That being said, what would you do? Obviously 0 percent interest is insane, but the house is really small and very old and the most enticing part of it is the land. The other home is okay, but having no yard kind of sucks and there's very little natural light that gets in.
I'm just curious on everyone's opinion (and by me I mean my wife asked me to post this lol)
submitted by FrostyPoos to RealEstate [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 19:33 becassidy Sellers remorse 3 years later

I apologize if this is the wrong place to post this, I just need to vent, and Google isn't offering any 2ays to mentally move through this.
My husband bought a home in 2014. We met in 2015. We toyed with the idea of selling on and off, but kept making updates to be how we like it until we decided. I didnt want to move and loced our home. It was a split ranch, 5 acres, beautiful, hated the dirt road and traffic but whatever, it was amazing to me. We'll, after ongoing issues with a neighbor, we had our last straw and i folded to selling.
While pregnant in spring 2020, we listed. We had our baby in late summer and found a home that was 80 acres, 3 bed 2 bath old farm house. We wanted about 30-50 acres, but the price hadn't inflated for covid and we could sell our home with covid pricing inflation. We had literally just gotten everything in the home as we wanted except the kitchen and a few things outside. (Edit to add, because apparently some think we pissed away money, we put excess money from the sale toward the down-payment /closing of this house and toward updates thus far, aiding and insulation in the second floor.)
The whole house needs to be updated, and we increased out mortgage payments for 50%. We would've had the other home paid off in another 3 years if we stayed and now we have 25 more years at a higher mortgage.
Esp now with a potential recession, I am so worried about costs. We also only have electric here, our old home had a wood stove and propane, we are now spending a fortune in heating oil, and have only remodel the second floor and done siding, so first floor doesn't have Insulation.
We did a garden and its 2 fields away in a horse circle. We have no idea how to get water back there. The old home we had made 3 raised beds in the yard.
I know we had to work to get the old home how we wanted, but it just seems so much harder at this new home.
We now have 2 kids and I am so happy they have land, yard, pool, tractor, etc to grow up with... but I think my husband has dreams of them wanting it... and i diubt they will. Heck we probably wont even want it when were 80 people we wont be able to maintain it, much less climb stairs to our bedroom. Mowing, brush hogging, everything is just more time and more money here, and I am seriously struggling.
If you made it this far, thank you!
Edit to add, we are 5 minutes from town. Our old home we were 30 minutes. My kids' future schools are 5 minutes away. We did live more in the country before so this isn't a city dweller moving into the country as many did in covid. We moved about 15/20 miles.
submitted by becassidy to homeowners [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 19:01 YIzWeDed A PeanutButterZebraHacker Comprehensive Guide for Leveling Uniques.

Preface: While this guide will not include EVERY facet of leveling, it will give a deep dive into unique items for leveling. While some of these may be known, there are others that I hope will change how you level new characters. The focus is on gear sub level 20 that can be used all the way until act 10 or at least until you can get a better replacement unique throughout the leveling process.
Hello, my name is PeanutButterZebraHacker, or Peanut for short, and I love Path of Exile. I find myself playing this game whenever I have free time and with nearly 19k hours in the game, it's something I have loads of experience with. I am making this guide because I always hear about people HATING the leveling experience and for me... well I tend to enjoy it; however, this is because the way I level lets me pick nearly any build I want, something people often feel they cannot do when they make a new character.
This post will be VERY long, I understand that many may not read it, and that my formatting and order for this may need work if I want something more formal; though, for now I will just post how I see fit!
Leveling in PoE is often considered a chore that pigeon holes you into playing the same exact build (Hollow Palm normally, my aim is to change that). This guide will demonstrate every good leveling unique in the game and show how an individual can leverage these unique items to play almost any build they desire.
The bottom of this write-up will have a PoB with my favorite uniques to mess around with and a sample setup to see what you can do with the right gear!
​
Unique Items per slot: My favorite item per slot is in Bold.
Helmets: This slot is flexible for survival, damage, or speed!
  1. Honourhome: This is by far the BEST leveling helmet in the entire game. While +2 may seem like a minor bonus, the fact that it can get TWO +2 implicit corruptions and then also have a level 2 empower socketed allows any skill with the right corruptions to have +9 to gem levels! The mana cost reduction is an additional bonus that shouldn't be forgotten either! It is INSANE when used alone or moreso when combined with the rest of the items on this list.
  2. Thrillsteel: While I only consider this to be a glorified MTX, there is some merit with running this helmet on builds that cannot take advantage of Honourhome. The Onslaught is nice to have while leveling but because they removed its effect from in-town use, it is just that bit worse off.
  3. Goldrim: The CLASSIC leveling helmet. This thing is cheap solid leveling helmet that can easily cap resistances through the acts.
  4. Fairgraves Tricorne: This helmet is old but potentially usable. The "can be touched by tormented spirits" mod provides 50% increased attack, cast, and movement speed as well as 50% increased damage; however, you hardily encounter spirits in acts and will likely be overall less strong than the above.
  5. Crown of Thorns: Really only viable with Ghostwrithe and Energy Blade, otherwise just a solid tanky option when you have nothing else.
  6. Asenath's Mark: While I wouldn't suggest this for a spell casting build as long as Honourhome exists, especially because you give up the potential for two axioms for a bow, this can be solid for auxiliary damage in a bow build or extra curses/utility while leveling with a bow!
Note: The corruptions for helmets are avaliable on all helmets, not just honourhome. If there is a helmet you want to use, always be sure to price it out with the corruptions you want! A +2 Aoe/+2 Aura helmet is still really good for leveling with haste for the extra movement speed!
​
Body Armour: These options each have benefits that can be compared when choosing your build.
  1. Thousand Ribbons: While everyone knows tabula as "the leveling unique", it should always be remembered that Thousand Ribbons exists. ESPECIALLY when corrupted with up to 50% increased damage, Thousand Ribbons provides large flat damage bonus, resistances, and other modifiers that are VERY helpful for leveling. If used with a +4 helmet or Honourhome, the number of sockets doesn't even matter because you will be using the helmet for your links. This thing is INSANE.
  2. Tabula Rasa: The most well known leveling unique in the game, Tabula is a great "generic" item that provides extra damage or utility through extra links. It is advised to get an increased damage corruption for this body armour, though it is important to remember that mana cost may be an issue with 6L skills while leveling.
  3. Ghostwrithe: This is a great item for builds transitioning into CI at some point or builds that want to use Energy Blade to level, otherwise, it is just a solid chest when you have nothing else.
  4. Foxshade: This body armour can provide some solid stats and movement speed while leveling if you can stay at full life! Get yourself a % damage corruption and you have yourself another way to hurt and run!
Note: There are quite a few good corruptions for body armours, +! socketed being one often overlooked at low levels; however, it is often just best to take the increased damage corruption for that small boost while leveling.
​
Gloves: These options all provide an offensive bonus that will help speed up leveling!
  1. Lochtonial Caress: These are a SIGNATURE for leveling form level 1 in any build, try getting a max rolled cast or attack speed for your build and they could last you to act 10 Kitava alone. There are other options to upgrade into after these gloves; however, these are the premium gloves to use when you first start out.
  2. Hrimsorrow: These gloves are perfect for any player that wants to use a physical attack that then gets converted into cold. Otherwise they are just a lump of stats.
  3. Sadima's Touch: The flat damage provided can be largely helpful early game and quant could always be fun to have but I would rate these poorly compared to other options.
  4. Doedre's Tenure: The ULTIMATE spell leveling gloves. Fear not the reduced cast speed; by time you can use these, you can also toss on a pair with cast speed corruption to negate the downside. These gloves provide SO much extra damage while leveling a spell build and should ALWAYS be used on any build that wants to level with spells. Buy these with cast speed corruption and youll be blasting!
  5. Flesh and Spirit: The rampage CAN be nice; though, it isn't often you are stopping to clear entire screens that these will see much use beyond Lightning arrow or other solid clearing skills that would allow you to actually get stacks easily.
  6. Facebreakers: With the existence of Hollow Palm, these gloves have fallen behind. They CAN still be used but the other options are much better.
  7. Ondar's Clasp: These gloves are hard to take advantage of until you can use arrogance to reserve some of your life, otherwise, I wouldn't suggest using them.
Note: The curses or speed corruptions can REALLY round out a pair of leveling gloves and should not be forgotten about if you can get a pair with it!
​
Boots: The options below are chosen to assist with the speed through the acts!
  1. Seven-League Step: These are generally a bit pricey, especially early, but they are easily the BEST leveling boots in the game. When corrupted with increased movement speed, they turn you into a speeding bullet, but even without they are VERY strong.
  2. Abberaths Hooves: A solid leveling alternative that gives good damage and a fun mechanic to mess with to kill monsters. The ignite prolif can add to the fun on ignite builds as well!
  3. Wanderlust: The most budget option, these boots give freeze immunity which is awesome and solid movement speed to run through the acts!
  4. Nomic's Storm: A cheap alternative to Seven-Leagues, these boots can provide a great movement speed buff with some stats; though, it is important to remember you will take a big first hit while wearing these!
  5. Stormcharger: With a good roll on the movement speed, you can get yourself a really fast pair of boots that also scale shock very well for that extra damage!
Note: Always remember to look for cheap pairs with movement speed corruptions! These can really make leveling feel that much better!
​
Shields: Overlooked for higher damage option, shields are great for tankiness in the early levels.
  1. Lycosidae: This shield is great for builds that use attacks but is often looked over because accuracy isn't much of an issue early. Using counter-attacks with this shield can be fun though!
  2. Crest of Perandus: The life given by this shield can really pump up your early game tankiness and the extra stats are nice too. This shield is a comfy "I don't want to die" alternative.
  3. Kaltenhalt: This shield is GREAT for any build that wants to level with a strong physical skill. The gained as can feel great for early game chills/freezes for additional "defense" as well.
  4. Springleaf: Really only used for EARLY EARLY RF leveling, this shield is solid for adding some additonal regen to a build that doesn't die quick but doesn't heal quick either!
Note: Shields are often weak for leveling but it is important to realize they do exist! While it may be better to run a stronger weapon for damage, a shield can make leveling a bit more comfy and open doors for other options.
​
Jewellery: Jewellery has a large list of strong usable items. While there are technically some unique items that can have their level requirement removed via corruption, I will only list the unique items that I find to be genuinely beneficial to use.
Amulets: There is a large list of usable amulets, just remember to pick the one that best fits your build!
  1. Sidhebreath: This amulet is very niche for minion builds and pretty much requires you run added cold with the minions to counter lack of other damage they can no longer deal. If you REALLY want to run this, you're going to notice a drop in damage as your minion gems level up.
  2. Blood of Corruption: Really strong for early game levels but falls behind the Karui setup for benefits. Usable but not strong.
  3. (Replica) Karui Ward: The BEST leveling amulet in the game. This amulet should be purchased with a movement speed corruption if possible to help BLAST through the game. The speed provided by this slot alone is huge and with the right annoint can turn you into a speed demon!
  4. Tear of Purity: The extra resistances and ailment immunity provided by and early game Purity of Elements can feel great while leveling but otherwise isn't that strong.
  5. Xoph's Heart: Now usable at level 5, this amulet and the ash covering ability really add some nice early game damage for leveling if you are using a fire build.
  6. (Replica) Atziri's Foible: If built around, these amulets are easily some of the coolest. The bonuses they provide given the right build are astounding, otherwise its just a filler amulet.
  7. Astramentis: INSANE for leveling because it cuts back your need for stats, Astramentis is always great to have around and can make for some easy gearing without worrying about stats.
Note: Make sure to annoint your amulet! While I always check for a movement speed corruption, the extra tainted oil can make the cost too high so going with an uncorrupted amulet might be the play!
​
Rings: The ring slot options are somehow large and small all at the same time.
  1. Blackheart: The extra chaos damage added can really boost the early game clear, though the flee can be VERY annoying for melee builds.
  2. Doedre's Damning: While additonal curse may seem strong, the lack of curses early makes this ring really just a ball of resistances.
  3. Perandus Signet: My favorite ring to use as it gets me closer to using my full set at level 16, otherwise I run a few other options once I get there.
  4. Berek's Rings: These rings are all solid for leveling assuming your build uses their bonuses correctly, read each of them to see what you might want to use!
  5. Call of the Brotherhood: Great for those early game lightning builds (Spark is a favorite for me). Being able to do cold damage is huge for early game and can feel awesome for defense as well!
  6. Le Heup of All: This ring is a generalist ring that fills the gap you may need for certain stats or resistances. It is always nice to keep a few on hand and use them when you are lacking somewhere!
  7. Mark of Submission: This ring feels REALLY good early game to get extra damage from a curse and if it can be used, should be used! A early curse on hit can add a LOAD of extra damage, much more than most other rings this early into PoE.
  8. Praxis: The reduced mana cost from this ring is a godsend and when used as a pair, your skill will often cost ZERO mana! Just remember, if you use inspiration, you want at least 1 cost for the mana!
  9. Pyre: This ring is CRAZY for ignite builds and can even enable some cold ignite builds early game (just slao some elemental catalysts on it!) The bonus from destroying corpses is also very nice and can cutback on some on death stress effects that occur during the acts!
  10. (Replica) Tasalio's Sign: This ring is GREAT for any build that can apply a chill! The huge added flat can really boost up your leveling speed while slowing down your enemies!
Note: Rings are pretty flexible and it is best to use a pair that best fits your build, though it doesn't hurt to run Perandus Signets until you can toss on two Le Heups!
​
Belt: Belts are a pretty large slot for unique items but like many other slots, there is generally one that is best. (Yes, MB is obviously the best belt BUT this writeup is moreso about uniques that people may not always think about and also ones below level 20, give or take a few items. Anyone WITH MB know they're going to use it and anyone without is either going to buy one or can't afford it)
  1. Darkness Enthroned: This belt is the BEST if you are willing to hunt down good abyss jewels. The fact that you can gain loads of life, movement speed if you haven't been hit recently, and other benefits, really makes this belt take the number 1 spot for early into late leveling stages.
  2. String of Servitude: This belt can have some solid mods; however, it's often lacking in areas that could make it feel good and unless you're going Hollow Palm, the belt is on the sidelines.
  3. Meginord's Girdle: The added flat physical damage can be great for Pillar or Facebreaker builds; otherwise, this is just a filler belt with some stats.
  4. Perandus Blazon: This belt is GREAT for the extra attributes and some quantity, though these stats are either made up elsewhere or generally useless for the acts!
  5. Belt of the Deceiver: This belt can provide some additional damage to attack builds through intimidate as well as some resistances and life, it is still often better to run a Darkness Enthroned to make up for those potential missing stats.
  6. Bated Breath: If you are looking to focus on an ES build or Energy Blade, this belt is just about the best you can go with until later in the game.
  7. (Replica) Prismweave: This belt is INSANELY strong for the added flat it can provide to both attacks and spells and makes for a REALLY good leveling belt if you opt out of the huge added flat from a +9 Honourhome.
Note: While belts are often flexible, it is generally understood to just run with a Darkness Enthroned and search for level 1 jewels that fit your build. Remember that each abyss jewel has different rolls. (Ghastly: Minions, Searching: Bows/wands, Murderous: Melee/Attacks, Hypnotic: Spells)
​
Weapons: Weapons will be classified by their type, though some types may be more popular than others. When it comes to leveling with attacks, its often you will upgrade your weapon with something throughout the acts. Spells don't need much of an upgrade with some of the options below. I will not be listing weapon classes that have mediocre uniques, if a class isn't listed a cheap rare is best (Ex. Daggers have poor options and should instead be a rare if you want to use them.)
Axe: This weapon type is often overlooked for leveling but can be beneficial given some extra "tech".
  1. Screaming Eagle: The movement speed provided makes this axe worth dual-wielding in your offhand to swap to for extra speed!
  2. Limbsplit: While the culling strike isn't neccessary for early-game, having a way to cull early on weapon swap can cut some seconds off of killing some tanky rares! (I am looking at you spinning birdcage skeletons with extra life!)
Notes: Axes are often just kept on weapon swap for their bonus, if you want to use an axe for damage, an axe purchased from a vendor, qualitied, and essenced often do far more damage.
​
Bows: Bows are something I really enjoy leveling with and the options are quite large, below are the some solid choices if you don't want to craft a rare every 5-10 levels!
  1. Silverbranch: This bow is a generic leveling bow that when found early can really assist with early game bow clear.
  2. Widowhail: With the right quiver, this bow is INSANE! It does require further planning but given the right setup, this bow can be used from level 1 to level 100, even being something to build around! If you want to go with stat stacking, remember that 249% is only 2x effect while 250% is 3x effect, so buy a max roll!
  3. Quillrain: The classic leveling bow that can be used from 5 to 100, the speed and mana gained on hit make this bow feel nice and comfy for leveling, though the damage reduction is a bit noticable.
  4. Storm Cloud: This bow does so much for an early game build and should not be forgotten. While the attack speed is much lower than Quill Rain, it does feel very nice to use with LA and other bow skills early.
Note: Bows can be bought with corruptions but it is often easier to just buy high rolls, but never overlook a high roll AND corruption that still retains the low level requirement.
​
Quivers: Using the right quiver can really change the bow leveling experience, though a crafted rare often does the trick too!
  1. Hyrri's Bite: Insane for leveling, this quiver is VERY good with the extra stats it provides, it will really change how your gems level early game!
Note: Quivers are often better if just cheaply essence crafted, otherwise, Hyrri's Bite is the strong go-to quiver.
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Maces: While the choices are small, it is fun to run a mace with slams early!
  1. Gorebreaker: The damage done by this mace early game is enough to kill most rares in a hit or two; however, it falls off quickly given the slow attack speed.
Note: There are technically more options in the 20s range; though, they are often overshadowed in damage from a crafted rare.
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Sceptres: This is where the fun weapons begin!
  1. Axiom Perpetuum: This is by far the BEST spell caster leveling unique in the entire game. When combined with other unique items in this list (often the ones I bold), the damage provided is MASSIVE. This is brought up even HIGHER with a cast speed corruption. This sceptre is the BEST spell caster leveling weapon in the entire game and should ALWAYS be kept in pairs of two with cast speed corruptions. The Crit and Cast speed alone turn a boring spell into a KILLING machine.
  2. Brutus Lead Sprinkler: I know this is level 28 but it holds a strong place in my heart. This is one of my favorite items in PoE (I WISH I could get one with a great crucible tree for standard but I don't have the desire to make one right now, maybe later, I REALLY want one!) It is VERY fun to level with for Str stacking and should be remembered if you are looking to try a stat stacking build early.
Note: There really isn't a better caster weapon than Axiom for leveling and really limits the unique items worth using for said builds.
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Staves: An uncommon leveling piece, staves can see some use but are often outclassed by Axiom or other items:
  1. Fencoil: Great for early damage until you get two axioms but not needed when you can use +1 All X Spell gem magic wands instead.
  2. Replica Bloodthorn: The increased fire damage can feel great for early game Rolling Magma until Axioms; however, it is useless afterwards.
  3. Pillar of the Caged God: This is often used at much higher levels after stats are scaled better but can be used early if you can find some good added flat physical damage and strength while leveling.
Note: It is generally much better to use +1 wands but staves can still make for an easy to store unique weapon to hold until you can use Axioms.
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Swords: The choice of swords for leveling is pretty open with one clear winner; though, it is often better to use a crafted rare if you want to level with them.
  1. Oni-Goroshi: This sword has so much lore behind it and is very strong to level with. While farming it may not be fun and making sure you get enough ignite chance to trigger the proc may not be fun, it can scale all the way to level 100 if built around and is very solid for leveling with melee weapons.
  2. Redbeak: This is often dropped for a rare the moment you can hit a Thrusting sword with an essence or two, this sword is still strong for early levels if given the chance!
  3. The Princess: I really enjoy dual wielding this sword with another copy when using a physical build, it is still often better to use Axiom or a crafted rare.
  4. Shiversting: When it comes to two hander swords, Shiversting takes the cake for early game damage. Sady it is still outclassed by a crafted rare if you have the essences, otherwise, it can clear early levels easily until you can upgrade.
Note: Like other melee weapons, swords are often better crafted ever 5-10 levels, unless you use Oni.
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Claws: Claws really only have one option for leveling and it always requires Elemental hit to work.
(Replica) Last Resort: This claw is VERY good when leveling with elemental hit once you can get to low life; however, it is otherwise useless.
Note: If you want claws, use a rare, its really that simple.
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Wands: While outclassed by Axiom, wands can be used early for an extra damage boots until you can use those sceptres.
  1. Lifesprig: A solid wand to use until you can use Axioms, the life it heals is nice for early sustain.
  2. Abberaths Horn: This wand is useable if you cannot get +1 wands early, is should be dropped as soon as possible. While ignite isn't insanely strong early, the reduced ignite duration can be noticed when it comes to additional damage from fire builds.
  3. Ashcaller: This wand is really strong with SRS from the covered in ash debuff, it is otherwise not that usable.
  4. Poet's Pen: This wand, while not as popular, is a cult classic for leveling. Throw on two with your favorite spells (and make sure to use clarity to counter to trigger costs!) and you can BLAZE through the game using frenzy as your trigger. Poet's Pen builds do require some planning but can be VERY fun for early game.
Note: It is often better to use a magic +1 to all X spell set for leveling. Aside from Poet's Pen, the benefit of using the above wands is worse than a simple +1 wand.
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Jewels: The number of leveling jewels has dropped drastically after the jewel change but here is a short list of some!
  1. One with Nothing: Your typical "leveling" jewel. This build has been tried and true for years and is always something to look into if you want the generic Hollow Palm leveling experience.
  2. Thread of Hope: A late game found jewel that can be used in early leveling to get some extra passives early in the game (Think about getting two extra projectiles for a bow build early instead of pathing all the way to those nodes).
  3. Watcher's Eye: Another late game found jewel that can add some convivence to an early leveling experience but needs to be built around.
  4. Sublime Vision: The final of my suggest jewels, using the haste version of this can add some extra speed to an otherwise speedy leveling experience!
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When deciding your build, the most important part is deciding the "prime unique" to build around, when it comes to spells, make sure you can buy the perfect +4 Honourhome helmet and then go from there, a perfect Honourhome is the difference between 6k DPS at level 16 and 800 dps. Build around this helmet and you'll LOVE the spell caster leveling experience, I PROMISE!
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Build Template(s): I will add more templates if this thread gets some views but otherwise here is my generic "Spark leveling template" that I used. The damage is VERY high for a level 16 and I have personally leveled a character all the way to act 10 with this gear setup without using a SINGLE passive point. (Though I did need to swap in Astramentis and swap rings to make up for lost resistances and stats to level up skill gems.) None of these builds have passive points in, just gear.
Spark: https://pobb.in/7ikhk0q3MVNU
Lightning Arrow: https://pobb.in/hDzo2YyYcOp-
Generic Spell Level 2 Build: https://pobb.in/prpMjcZLrdLG
Freezing Pulse: https://pobb.in/yQc_4q20wMQQ
Ignite Ice Shot with Pyre: https://pobb.in/aqUBF7Vk-OKk
Molten Strike (Cheaply crafted swords): https://pobb.in/B45bzsd9DWF5
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If you have any questions feel free to ask! I can also make a video guide that is a bit more fleshed out so let me know if you like it!
submitted by YIzWeDed to pathofexile [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 19:01 Sigma-Alpha_2 [Video Games] A history of the Legend of Zelda history

If you are into the video game scene, you'll likely have been inundated recently with people talking about latest game in the long-running Legend of Zelda franchise, Tears of the Kingdom, which came out earlier this month. It has become a commercial and critical hit, so much so that it is their fastest selling game ever. The Zelda series is over 35 years old now, with the most recent Switch titles being its most successful entries. Because of this, there are many players who are only vaguely aware of what came before. How do all the other titles fit together? What is the canonical history of the kingdom of Hyrule? Why are there all these nerds who grumble to themselves about "timelines" and "Historia"? Let's go back and walk through the games as they released, looking at how each entry adds new lore to the series and what it does, or doesn't do, to place itself amongst the history of its peers. I do spoil some of the endings and events for the older games, and I do mention some plot points that in Tears of the Kingdom. Everything I mention there happens within the first few hours, and I try to give warning that it's coming, but if you want to know nothing about the game at all, you've been warned.
As you'll soon see, the timeline of the games is anything but cut and dry. I'm going to try and discuss some of the issues of putting them in a neat order, but there have been lots of theories over the years that get into the minutia of different things. For those curious, this is a good list of some of the now defunct ideas. I would also like to apologize ahead of time for the large amount of abbreviations used in this article.

8-bit Wonder

In the beginning, things were pretty straight-forward. The first few games in the series were released in a time before elaborate plotlines were typical or even possible.
In 1986, Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda (LoZ) for the NES. You play as Link, a vaguely elf-like collection of pixels as he travels the land of Hyrule to save its princess, Zelda, from the evil pig-like creature known as Ganon (or in this game, "Gannon"). With limited dialogue available, most of the plot is given to the player via the included instruction manual and through a paragraph that displays if you wait on the title screen for long enough. The dynamic between these three characters will form the foundation for plots being used to this day. The game also introduces other series namestays, such as Death Mountain, some of the recurring bosses, and most notably, the concept of the Triforce, two triangle-shaped magical relics sought after by the characters. Only the Triforce of Power and Wisdom are described in this game, and Wisdom has been broken into several pieces for the player to reassemble. The game was a success and our series has a solid foundation to proceed.
In 1987, Nintendo released a sequel, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (AoL) also for the NES. This title is a direct sequel to the first game, picking up with Link as he again travels Hyrule to awaken the comatose Princess Zelda. Except... it's not the same Zelda as the first game. This is apparently the very first Zelda, who was put into a magical slumber in an age long past, and has been stored in a back room until someone will come around and wake her up. This game introduces the third piece of the Triforce, that of Courage, and features actual townspeople you can talk to as you try and stop Ganon's followers from reviving him. While the addition of a second Zelda is a bit odd, these two games fit together well enough, although if you were hoping that long lost Zelda would be mentioned later on, you might not want to hold your breath.
In 1991, A Link to the Past (ALttP) was released for the Super Nintendo. With greater processing power came greater graphical fidelity (quote Uncle Ben, year unknown), and with it a greater possibility for story telling. Link, now equipped with pink hair, must rescue the seven Maidens, descendants of a group of sages who sealed Ganon away in an "Imprisoning War" to an alternate Sacred Realm to stop him from obtaining the Triforce. Princess Zelda is one of these maidens, and Link must travel back and forth between the normal Light World and Ganon's now corrupted Dark World to stop him. More long-running elements are introduced, most notably Link's Master Sword, a magically empowered blade that has the power to defeat evil. You may notice that this game presents a number of contradictions to the NES games. For one, this game seems to completely contradict the events of the first game with Link, Zelda, and Ganon having completely different backstories. This game sets the precedent that there are multiple Ganons, Links, and Zeldas throughout history, with the latter two rising up to stop Ganon whenever the need arises. The Link we played as in the NES games is not the Link in ALttP, and in fact this game is set far before that game, with Ganon being defeated by the end of the game and the Triforce still unbroken and together. Fine, okay, that's potentially a bit confusing, but with only three games, it's not too much to keep track of.
Not wanting to be left out, the Game Boy got its own Zelda game in 1993, Link's Awakening (LA), which was re-released in color in 1998 and fully remade for the Switch in 2019. This game is the first to not take place in Hyrule, instead Link is traveling by ship and is caught in a storm, waking up on Koholint Island. Given that it doesn't take place in Hyrule, some of the typical elements are missing. The Triforce does not appear, Zelda is only briefly alluded to, and Ganon only appears as a form taken by the final boss. This does imply that this Link is familiar with Ganon, and while the game itself is vague on which Link this is, it's generally assumed that this is the same Link from ALttP, travelling after saving Hyrule. For the sake of brevity, we'll skip the discussions about this title, as there's much more to get to.
For those keeping track, the chronology of the games, as far as we understand it, looks like the following, with the left hand side being the earliest entry.
ALttP/LA - LoZ/AoL

Things start getting complicated.

While the first four games follow each other well enough, the intra-game connections aren't super important, and so far not too hard to follow. This will begin to change with 1998's Ocarina of Time (OoT) for the Nintendo 64. OoT does a lot to further the lore of the series, giving a backstory to the Triforce, establishing Ganon's human form as Ganondorf, King of the Gerudo people, who are also established in this game. Familiar Hyrule races such as the Gorons, Kokiri, and Zora (this type, not the enemies from ALttP). The Triforce returns, but each of the three pieces is given to a different character; Courage to Link, Wisdom to Zelda, and Power to Ganondorf. This game also seems to represent the Imprisoning War described in ALttP with Ganon being sealed by Zelda and six sages into the Sacred Realm, to end his reign of terror. There are some differences however. The sages are a diverse collection of characters, not a group of bearded old white guys as previously depicted, and Ganon is sealed away as Ganondorf and not as his pig-like form. These are minor discrepancies however, and for the most part OoT seems to set itself as the earliest yet game in the series (the towns in Zelda II also share their names with the sages, a cute homage that in-universe reinforces the idea that they were named after famous heroes).
There are two features of Ocarina of Time that makes its entry into the series more complex than the games that came before. Firstly, the game features time travel, which naturally introduces another layer of complexity. You play as Link as a child at the start of the game, but at roughly 1/3rd the way through the game, Link is placed into magical stasis for seven years, awakening as an adult into a ruined future. While you can return to the child period in the game, the main plot has Link attempting to defeat the evil powers in the future. It begs the question to what is the actual canon ending to the game. You defeat Ganondorf in the future and seal him away, with the end credits showing the characters you've met celebrating his defeat. However, the adult Princess Zelda sends Link back to the past to "relive his childhood", with the final shot showing the child Link and Zelda. It's left ambiguous which time period continues forward, or if child Link was able to avert the future after all. The other important thing to know about OoT is that it was incredibly popular. The game was the best selling Zelda game for nearly two decades after its release, and is often cited as one of, if not the best game ever made. This popularity will lead Nintendo to incorporate more direct references and allusions to this game in future entries, which I'm sure won't complicate things for us.
The year 2000 gave us the direct sequel to OoT, Majora's Mask (MM), also for the N64. The "Child Timeline" as it is now called is confirmed to continue, with the entirety of the game focusing on the child form of Link as he travels to the parallel world of Termina. Like Link's Awakening before it, MM doesn't impact the timeline too heavily due to being set in Termina, but it does confirm that Link remained as a child rather than return to his slumber following OoT. It might be fair to assume that Link did something about Ganondorf before leaving for Termina, but that isn't explicitly shown.
In 2001, a pair of games were released for the Game Boy Color, Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages (OoS and OoA respectively, sometimes collectively called OoX). These games are notable for being developed by Capcom, not Nintendo, and they form a pair; when you finish one of the games you receive a password that transfers some of your items to the other game. Upon finishing both, a special epilogue is unlocked completing the story. Both of these games take place outside of Hyrule, with Seasons taking place in the land of Holodrum and Ages in Labrynna. The evil forces in these games are vaguely working together to revive Ganon, who is stated to have been defeated by Link previously. The developers decided that was enough backstory and thus didn't bother to specify which Link this actually was. The game is very similar to Link's Awakening in gameplay and style, but the events are also vague enough to be placed after the original game, Majora's Mask, some previously unseen Link, or maybe completely non-canon entirely given the involvement of Capcom. It's now generally accepted that this is the same Link as ALttP, with the events of Link's Awakening following these games, but for many years their placement in the timeline was up in the air.
Accepting the Oracle games as following ALttP, our timeline up to this point looks like this:
OoT/MM - ALttP/OoX/LA - LoZ/AoL

We now enter the Very Messy Time.

We are now eight games and 15 years into the series, and while things haven't been super clear up until now, it arguably hasn't really mattered. The games don't really reference each other, and some haven't had much of a plot at all. With ever increasing technological advances, however, this is likely to change, and no game throws a bigger wrench into the whole chronology business like The Wind Waker (WW). Released in 2002 for the GameCube, Wind Waker takes place on the Great Ocean, a large body of water with some sparse islands occupying the landscape. It's revealed throughout the game that this is Hyrule, which was flooded by the Goddesses at the request of its King to stop the freed Ganondorf, since no Link was around to stop him. The islands seen in the game are the tallest peaks of the kingdom beneath. This poses quite a dilemma as, I'm not sure if you've noticed, Hyrule is typically not under miles of water, and continues to be this way at the end of the game. The game makes explicit references to Ocarina, such as the sages being depicted in stained glass windows and Link being told his green tunic represents the clothing a previous hero wore. Even more confusingly is that this is stated to be the same Ganondorf from OoT, not a reincarnation, freed from his prison. Given that ALttP also featured the freeing of the imprisoned Ganon from OoT, this game seems to completely fly in the face of the games that came before it, and if Nintendo had an answer, they were being tight lipped about it. Much of the debate regarding the "timelines" begins here, as the advent of the internet lead to lots of online debate about how WW fits into the overall story of Hyrule. Nintendo seemed to finally be more focused on referencing the events of previous games, but managed to only confuse the matter even further. We'll get to some of the theories in a moment.
The next three Zelda games would be once again developed by Capcom, following their relative success with the Oracle games. The first would be a port of ALttP to the Game Boy Advance. Nintendo wanted to market the wired intra-connectively of the GBA, and so a special multiplayer-only campaign was added to this release, titled Four Swords (FS). This game features a new villain, the wind mage Vaati, who is defeated by Link with the help of the newly established Four Sword, a magical sword which gives Link the ability to split himself into up to four copies. This sword exists mainly as an excuse to have several Links available for this multiplayer game, and the game itself gives very little context as to where it might fit into the timeline, if at all. Note, if you want to play this game for yourself, Nintendo hasn't made it easy for you. A special single player version, titled Four Swords: Anniversary was available for free for six months in 2011-2012 for the DSi and 3DS, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the series, and also to try and help flagging sales of both systems. It was then removed for download until 2014, where it was again made available for four whole days before again being delisted. The game has never been made officially available by Nintendo since then.
In 2004 a follow up to Four Swords was released for the GameCube, titled Four Sword Adventures (FSA). Again developed by Capcom, and again an excuse to show off the connectivity features of the GameCube and GBA, with Vaati escaping her imprisonment, requiring Link to take up the Four Sword again. Given the similarity between the games, it is assumed that FSA is a direct sequel to FS, featuring the same Link and Zelda. Ganondorf is also revealed to be behind Vaati's actions, but this one is pretty clearly a new reincarnation than before. The game's overworld also has similarities to that of ALttP, implying that the titles take place close together. Ganon is sealed away at the end of the game, into the Four Sword rather than the Sacred Realm, but some theorized that this could be the same Ganon as ALttP with a slightly altered backstory to accommodate for WW, and the two games were often placed either preceding ALttP or left out of the timeline altogether.
The final Capcom developed game would be 2004's The Minish Cap (MC) for the GBA. The game establishes the origins of Vaati and sets itself as the first game in the Four Sword trilogy. The game also establishes the origins of the Four Sword, created throughout the game from the Picori Blade, a legendary sword used by, you guessed it, a hero from an age long past. We'll put that aside for now, as while MC establishes itself as occurring far before FA, it's unclear how far in the past it is. I mentioned that Nintendo often referenced OoT in later games, and this game is no exception. Several townsfolk have the same name and appearance as NPCs in Ocarina and Majora's Mask despite being clearly separate characters. This is never explained and you either need to attribute it to the reincarnation effect prevalent in the series, or just to Capcom/Nintendo wanting to have familiar faces in their game.
While Capcom was busy adding their own confusing take on the timeline, Nintendo was hard at work doing the same thing. In 2006, Twilight Princess (TP) was released for the GameCube and Wii, featuring a very much not underwater Hyrule. The Hyrule here seems to resemble that of Ocarina, but with some of the landmarks slightly shifted (there's a whole line of reasoning trying to identify the games' orders based on the actual landmarks of Hyrule, but it's even hard to resolve than the plots). Link and Zelda are new characters, but Ganondorf is implied to be the same from Ocarina, again. Through flashbacks we see Ganondorf on trial for unspecified crimes, but after he receives the Triforce of Power through vague means, he attempts to escape captivity before being sealed in the Twilight Realm, another new parallel world to Hyrule which seems distinct to the Sacred Realm. He eventually escapes and is defeated by Link, Zelda, and new character Midna, the titular Twilight Princess. Given that this game also makes some direct references to OoT, this seems to directly contradict WW, but all might not be lost. It was left vague as to which timeline was the canon ending to OoT, and the combination of WW and TP lead to the fan theory that both are actually canon and the timeline splits following Ocarina. In the "Adult Timeline", where Link and Zelda seal Ganondorf away, he eventually escapes and Hyrule is flooded to stop him, eventually leading to his defeat in WW. In the other "Child Timeline", Link returns as a child with the knowledge of the future and manages to have Ganondorf arrested, where he is sealed into the Twilight Realm following an attempted escape. TP continues from here, and given Hyrule's much less wet state, most of the other games do as well. This raises the question about where those games fit in, but we'll get to that in a second.
Let me mention two more games before we look at the bigger picture. Two sequels to Wind Waker were released on the DS in 2007 and 2009, Phantom Hourglass (PH) and Spirit Tracks (ST). PH is a direct sequel to WW featuring the same Link as he fights the new villain Bellum, while ST takes places roughly 100 years after WW on New Hyrule, founded by the Princess Zelda of that time (any actual lineage between the two generations is annoyingly vague). It does feature a new Link and Zelda, but it's pretty explicitly a direct sequel to WW and ST and isn't too hard to resolve into the timeline.
Alright, let's go over what we have now, and try and put everything together. The facts we have are:
There were multiple theories at this time, with some arguing the 2D games were their own continuity separate from the 3D games, or that there were even more timelines than just two after Ocarina, but one of the more previlent timeline orderings (and the one I favored) went as follows:
OoT is the first game in the series, and following its events, the timeline splits in two, the Adult Timeline following the world ruined by seven years of Ganon's rule, the other Child Timeline where his reign was avoided.
Adult Timeline: MC? - OoT - TP - MC? - FS/FSA - ALttP/OoX/LA - LoZ/AoL Child Timeline: MC? - OoT/MM - WW/PH/ST
The placement of The Minish Cap is unknown. We know it takes place prior to Four Swords, but whether it was before or after the timeline split isn't clear. The Ganon in ALttP, who was originally meant to be the one in OoT is now a completely different Ganon, who may or may not be the one in FSA. For this reason, and many others, this remained one of the most popular ordering, but still heavily in debate.

Finally, some answers

The year is 2011 and Nintendo is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Zelda series. The main attraction is the release of Skyward Sword (SS) for the Wii, which will usher in a brief but earnest period of actually caring about the timeline. SS explicitly sets itself as the first game in the entire timeline, depicting the creation of the Master Sword and the cause for the perpetual reincarnation of Link, Zelda, and Ganon. The game takes place not on Hyrule, but on a series of floating islands above it called Skyloft. Skyloft was lifted into the sky by the newly established Goddess Hylia, to protect it and the Triforce from the forces of evil below, and sealed away their leader, Demise. Hylia herself decided to become the mortal Zelda. This new Link is forced to take up the Goddess Sword (which becomes the Master Sword) to save Zelda and defeat the freed Demise who, upon his defeat, decrees that he shall be reborn time and again to defeat the reincarnations of the hero and the Hylia and take over the world. It is the soul of Demise that is reborn as Ganon and has continued to plague Hyrule from then on. Like this concept or not, the game pretty explicitly places itself as the foundation of the series, and as the earliest entry in the timeline.
In addition to releasing Skyward Sword, Nintendo released a companion book called Hyrule Historia. Historia is mainly an artbook featuring concept art and documents from the 25 year history of the series. However, its main attraction for many people was the inclusion of an official, definitive ordering of the games from Nintendo themselves. So, how we do? Does our timeline(s) agree with Nintendo themselves? Well, while the general order was correct, Nintendo threw a curveball into everything by announcing that following Ocarina of Time the timeline split into three parts, not two. One following the Adult ruined world, one following the Child un-impacted world, and another... where Link died. That's right, despite not being seen, a canonical ending to OoT is that Link died trying to defeat Ganondorf in the future and he was able obtain the combined Triforce. Nintendo explains that despite this, the sages were able to seal him away in the Sacred Realm anyway, but with the completed Triforce. For intents and purposes this is rather similar to the Adult timeline, but allows for the distinction between Ganondorf needing the Triforce in WW and having it in ALttP; not to mention that they both need to co-exist. Fans argued that a timeline based on the bad ending didn't seem terribly canonical, and also opened up a can of worms for every other game having its own canon Bad End. Other more minor discrepancies from our theory are present, most notably that Four Swords Adventure is not a direct sequel to Four Swords but instead takes place long after, following TP. MC and FS are instead placed before OoT in the unified timeline. Personally this is the one I have the most trouble with as there is nothing really linking FSA to that timeline at all. In any case, here is the timeline as presented:
 (Child Timeline) - MM - TP - FSA / SS - MC - FS - OoT - (Adult Timeline) - WW - PH - ST \ (Fallen Timeline) - ALttP - OoS/OoA - LA - LoZ - AoL
There you have it, Nintendo's official explanation for how three games can each be a follow-up to Ocarina of Time. The Fallen Timeline inclusion lead to many a nerd grumbling on the internet, but this is the official order of events from Nintendo themselves, and they seem pretty dedicated to the idea of keeping the timeline neat going forward.
... Or do they. In 2013 A Link Between Worlds (ALBW) was released for the 3DS. The game was designed as an indirect sequel to ALttP with the overworld heavily inspired by that game. Despite the similarity, this is said to be a new Link and Zelda as they stop the evil Yuga from another parallel version of Hyrule, Lorule (how clever). Their eventual goal is to, you guessed it, free an imprisoned Ganon. This begs all sorts of questions. If this is a follow-up to ALttP, why is there an imprisoned Ganon? Why is the Triforce split again? The explanation is that another Ganon was born between ALttP and ALBW and sealed away with the Triforce of Power, eventually leading to the events of this game. Even more confusingly, Nintendo released the Legend of Zelda: Encyclopedia in 2017 where they placed ALBW into the timeline. It fittingly goes between ALttP and LoZ, but at the same time decides that the Oracle games no longer feature ALttP's Link, but the one from ALBW. This could be taken with a grain of salt though, as the book has some errors, and in other places even says it's the same Link as ALttP, directly contradicting itself. I'm personally prefer to ignore it.
Nintendo also released Tri Force Heroes in 2015 for the 3DS. It's in the same style as ALBW and probably a direct sequel, but it's really goofy and there's barely a plot.

Back to the Future

This finally brings us to the present day. In 2017, Breath of the Wild (BotW) was released for the Wii U and Switch. Despite spending a lot of effort cleaning up the timeline in their last 3D game, this title goes out of its way to completely ignore the question altogether. When asked about its placement, the canonical reply is that it takes place far in the future from the other games, in some vague era where the timelines either have converged or it's far enough to not really matter. In any case, don't worry about it. 10,000 years prior to the events of the game (ugh), great machines were built to assist with the defeat of Calamity Ganon. With the help of the Link and Zelda of their time, they succeed, with the Divine Beasts being left to decay over the millennia. 100 years prior to the game, it was predicted Calamity Ganon would return, so a new Zelda and Link (the ones in the game) begin to prepare for that day. When it eventually does arrive, it goes very poorly, with Link being placed into a century-long stasis to recover from his wounds and Zelda alone holding the seal containing Ganon. Link eventually wakes up just in time for the game to begin, and you defeat the Calamity. The inclusion of the Calamity being at least 10,000 years old puts this game insanely far into the future, and throws the whole timeline a bit out of wack. There are some other oddities too, such as the Temple of Time as it appears in OoT being present, and the Rito being established in WW as the successor race to the Zora, yet both co-exist here.
I'll spend a little bit of time talking about the newest game, Tears of the Kingdom. I won't discuss anything you won't see in the first few hours, but if you want to be completely spared from spoilers, skip the next paragraph.
2023 saw Tears of the Kingdom (TotK) for Switch, a direct follow-up to BotW. At the start of the game, Zelda and Link discover the still-alive mummified body of Ganondorf, sealed away in an era long past and the cause of the Calamity. He is freed and Zelda is inadvertently sent back in time to meet with the very first king of Hyrule, which would place her between Skyward Sword and Minish Cap. Through flashbacks you see their attempts to stop Ganondorf before eventually just sealing him away. This would imply that there has been a sealed Ganondorf throughout most of Hyrule's history, even during periods where other Ganondorfs reigned. I won't say too much else for fear of spoilers, but I assume Link is able to defeat this Ganondorf once and for all (I actually don't know, I haven't finished the game yet).

Conclusion

To sum up, the Zelda series has gone through periods of relative attentiveness to the connections between games to directly ignoring they exist. While all this timeline theorizing took place, there was a camp that believed that the Legend of Zelda was just that, a legend, and that each game took place completely separately, except for any explicit direct sequels. This seems to be how Nintendo views the series. The plot inside of each game is focused on, but how it features together as a whole doesn't really matter to them, and even when they tried to more actively focus on it, they quickly gave up due to the pre-existing state it was in. We'll see if future titles will try and reconcile themselves better with the older games, or if this latest trend of just ignoring the timeline will be the norm going forwards.
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2023.05.30 18:12 CaptainYew Five Hard Mini Bingo Reviews: The Stone Road / Legends & Lattes / A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking / Neom / The God of Endings

Five Hard Mini Bingo Reviews: The Stone Road / Legends & Lattes / A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking / Neom / The God of Endings
I am having a lot of fun with Bingo so far this year! These are my reviews for squares 6-10, and I am going for hard mode, hero mode, and library mode.
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Fantasy Bingo - Squares 1 - 10
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The Stone Road by Trent Jamieson

Publisher: Erewhon Books in 2022 (320 pages)
Keywords: Standalone / Indie Published / Light Horror / Dark Fantasy / Alternate World / Speaking to the Dead / Traveling to the Land of the Dead / Disappearing People / Witches / Young protagonist who ages
Rating: 4 / 5
Review: This was an enjoyable read and something I would classify as light horror - a good horror read for people who do not read a lot of horror or who are new to horror. We follow Jean, a young girl, who starts learning how to communicate with the dead, how to create barriers, and other methods to keep the small town of Casement Rise safe. She is being haunted by an individual called the "graceful man" and during this town individuals are leaving Casement Rise in waves to follow the siren call to the mysterious Furnace. Very mysterious, I would recommend this to anyone who wants to try to horror (I consider it to be light, and it has no detailed gore or violence).
Bingo Squares: Horror [HM] / Self Published or Indie Published [HM] / Multiverse or Alternate Realities [HM]
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Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) by Travis Baldree

Publisher: Tor Books in 2022 (294 pages)
Keywords: Standalone book with a prequel coming out / Originally Self Published / Debut / Cozy Fantasy / Coffee Shop / Lesbian Romance / LGBTQIA+ / Cute friendships / Alternate world with Orcs, succubi, ratkin, elves, etc. / Slice-of-life / After-the-adventure / CUTE
Rating: 4 / 5
Summary: I would highly recommend if you are in the mood for something cute, cozy, and/or lgbtqia+. We follow Viv, an ex-mercenary orc, who falls in love with coffee and decides to start a coffee shop in a town that has never heard of coffee. Through this process we see the coffee shop grow, and friendships and love bloom.
Bingo Squares: Mundane Job [HM] / Book Club or Read a long Book / Queernorm Setting [HM]
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A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

Publisher: Red Wombat Studio in 2020 (306 pages)
Keywords: Standalone / Younger Young Adult / Self-Published / Alternate World / Bread Magic / Most Sorcerers Have "Small Magic" / 14-Year-Old Girl Protagonist / Baker Protagonist / Gingerbread Men / Bob the Sourdough Starter / Saving the Queen and Kingdom / Lighthearted / Friendship
Rating: 4.5 / 5
Summary: I was a little worried about this square, as I sometimes see books classified in different age categories on different websites. This book, however, won the 2021 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, so I feel confident in using this book for this square. This book was super cute, and cozy-ish. But the MC ends up saving the city with her bread magic, so there is some adventure as well. Really creative use of magic! I would highly recommend.
Bingo Square: Title with a Title [HM] / Young Adult [HM] / Mundane Jobs [HM] / Self Published or Indie Published
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Neom by Lavie Tidhar

Publisher: Tachyon in 2022 (256 pages)
Keywords: Standalone set in the world of Central Station / Futuristic / Desert City / Red Sea, Earth / Robots / Some robots were built to fight in a war, now abandoned / Robot Immortality / Human and protagonist MCs / The Golden Man / Can robots love / Can robots have a religion
Rating: 4 / 5
Summary: This is hard to write a summary for, as I really believe you benefit from reading with little knowledge. This story takes place in a futuristic city called Neom, set in a desert on Earth near the Red Sea. We follow some human and robot POVs, who seem to have nothing in common, but eventually all their stories cross. This book is rather philosophical, and raises some interesting questions. What do robots do after their purpose is over? Can robots love? Can robots have a faith?
Bingo Squares: Set in the Middle East [HM] / POC Author [HM] / Featuring Robots [HM]
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The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland

Publisher: Flatiron Books in 2023 (480 pages)
Keywords: Standalone / Debut / Dark fantasy / Historical fantasy / Two timelines from the same POV / One timeline starting in 1830s and following the MC till WWII / The other in Upstate NY in 1984 with the MC as a preschool teacher / MC is a Vampire / Not your normal Vampire story / Loneliness of immortality / Feeling haunted by the God of Endings / Love of children / Art
Rating: 5 / 5
Summary: I really loved this story, and I think it will be one of my top bingo books. However, I believe it may not be everyone's cup of tea, so I think it is good to approach this book with the right expectations. The MC (Anna / Anya / Collette) is turned into a vampire when she is young and dying of TB, without her consent. However, this book really explores the idea of being immortal, and growing fond of people who are not immortal, as well as witnessing war and extreme poverty and being unable to change anything. This is juxtaposed with her current life in 1984 as a preschool teacher at an elite school, where all of the children are wealthy, although she becomes concerned with the life of one of her children, whose domestic life she is worried about.
Bingo Squares: Title with a Title [HM] / Mundane Jobs / Published in 2023 [HM] / Mythical Beasts [HM]
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Bingo Reviews for Squares 1-5: Ariadne / The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories / The Witness for the Dead / Kings of the Wyld / Things in Jars
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2023.05.30 17:43 Worldly_Mood9382 What are the best trekking destinations in the india?

What are the best trekking destinations in the india?
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https://preview.redd.it/j4j5tdo0613b1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=98bd8733d217c38a4ee8a6d62eb93e69b438cb99
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"Trail Seekers Unite: Discover the Best Trekking Destinations with Universal Adventure 🌄👣"
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Are you ready to unleash your adventurous spirit and explore the breathtaking wonders of India? 🎒✨ Brace yourself for a whirlwind of exhilarating experiences and jaw-dropping landscapes as we uncover the best trekking destinations in this incredible country, where every step is a testament to nature's resplendence. Whether you seek adrenaline-pumping adventure trips, unforgettable best outdoor family vacations, or thrilling escapades for seasoned explorers, India has it all! 🏞️🌿
🗻 The Mighty Himalayas: The Crown Jewel of Adventure 🏔️🌟 Ascending towards the heavens, the majestic Himalayas beckon, offering an awe-inspiring playground for intrepid souls. Picture yourself trekking through the ethereal valleys of Himachal Pradesh, where the snow-capped peaks stand guard like stoic sentinels. The spellbinding trails of Manali-Leh, Roopkund, and Triund will ignite your spirit of adventure trips, leaving you breathless amidst nature's splendor. 🏔️❄️
🌿 Verdant Vistas of Uttarakhand: A Tapestry of Nature's Finest 🌲��️ Welcome to the nature lover's paradise, Uttarakhand, where serenity embraces thrill in a blissful union. From the iconic Valley of Flowers, where vibrant blooms paint the landscape like an artist's palette, to the legendary trek to Gaumukh-Tapovan, where the sacred Ganges River originates, this region is a dream come true for adventure travel for seniors and adventure enthusiasts seeking solace in nature's embrace. 🌸🌼
🌄 The Mesmerizing Trails of Ladakh: A Land of High-Altitude Wonders 🏜️🏞️ In the remote reaches of northern India lies Ladakh, a region straight out of a surreal painting. Brace yourself for the ultimate best adventure trips as you traverse the challenging terrains of Stok Kangri, Markha Valley, and the frozen wonderland of Chadar Trek. Amidst the rugged mountains, azure lakes, and centuries-old monasteries, an expedition to Ladakh will leave an indelible mark on your heart. ❄️🏔️
🌴 Tropical Trekking in the Western Ghats: Nature's Verdant Haven 🍃🌴 Escape to the lush embrace of the Western Ghats, a UNESCO World Heritage Site blessed with pristine rainforests, gushing waterfalls, and diverse flora and fauna. Explore the stunning trails of Kerala's Munnar, Karnataka's Coorg, and Maharashtra's Rajmachi, where every step immerses you in a world of unparalleled beauty. These family-friendly treks offer an ideal blend of adventure list and rejuvenation for nature-loving explorers. 🍀🌿
🏞️ Unraveling Mysteries in the Northeast: Hidden Gems Await 🚣🗺️ Prepare to be captivated by the untouched beauty of India's Northeast, where mystical lands await the intrepid traveler. The trek to Meghalaya's Double Decker Living Root Bridges is a surreal journey through misty forests and hidden villages, while the Dzükou Valley in Nagaland reveals a breathtaking canvas of rolling meadows and blooming flowers. 🌿🌈
🗻🌊 The Coastal Charms of Goa and Kerala: Nature's Coastal Symphony 🏝️🌅 Who says trekking is limited to mountains? Venture along the pristine coastlines of Goa and Kerala, where sun-kissed beaches, tranquil backwaters
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Here are some additional tips for planning a trekking trip in India:
· Choose a trek that is appropriate for your fitness level. If you are not in good shape, start with a shorter and easier trek.
· Do your research. Read about the trek you are interested in and make sure you are prepared for the challenges involved.
· Hire a guide. If you are not experienced in trekking, it is a good idea to hire a guide.
· Pack the right gear. Make sure you have the necessary gear for the trek, including a backpack, hiking boots, a sleeping bag, a tent, and a stove.
· Be prepared for the weather. Check the weather forecast for the area you will be trekking in and pack accordingly.
· Respect the environment. Leave no trace and pack out all of your trash.
Trekking is a great way to see the world and experience
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2023.05.30 17:15 NickelTheWise WILDLIFE Ch. 1-2 pt. 2

"You did WHAT?!" The half-completed apartment building was a dangerous ribcage affair of a building, wind easily guiding itself thru it at higher floors, of which there were four total. The entrance office was enclosed and hard to notice, so they'd parked in the nearby crew lot and walked before talking business, which Fennel was already regretting. "Hey, it's a fullproof way to do this stuff without attracting attention, like you said." Her contact with the Syracuse Runners was this wiry albino fox, red eyes and piercings adding to the shock of his white pelt and various tattoos, like the tiger stripes on his burly arms. Fennel thought an 80s action movie was missing an antagonist somewhere, but that was the point of this whole venture; to maintain attention. "She'll come here, we beat her near to death in the ensuing ambush, then we split that reward money fifty-fifty, it's easy as that." "Yeah? Well, genius, what if she decides to just show up now?" He held up a finger as his phone suddenly beeped a phone call, which he answered with a hands-free. "Talk to me... uh huh, did you pay him? Alright cool, once you get the go-ahead from D&D, tell 'em to sit tight at their hotel room until I call 'em, then we can get everyone paid and leave town, alright? Okay, good, set up at the look-out spot once you're here, we'll be waiting. Right, see ya." He hung up the phone and gestured purposefully with both arms. "You see? Everything's coming up roses, all we gotta do now is take her down." "WITHOUT killing her." Fennel said firmly, crossing her arms. "Without killing her, yeah sure." and the gang leader turned to meet his men outside. Fennel's bodyguards came down from upstairs, putting their suit jackets back on. "We checked it out, the real party's ready to go and the last of the extra team is about 10 minutes from here." "Alright, good, some news I can count on. Has Fez sent any further information?" One of them nodded. "Yeah, apparently this red-haired cat was talking with some striper earlier, our guy on the streets saw them and figured to call it in, he said they seemed on complete speaking terms." Fennel's eyes narrowed. "Could be a possible proxy or old partner, do we got any further leads on this guy?" "Only that he's the only northern raccoon the guy's seen in town recently, should make finding him a cinch." The wolf nodded, heading onwards with her entourage in tow. "Alright, that simplifies things; you guys see him at any time before we head home, you pull him off the streets, take him into the woods and slice him, and not a trace left behind, capisce?" "You got it boss, this chick's gonna be our main concern until we break her down, then we just find this dude and ice him." "Right, Moe? Starting to like working out here after all, how 'bout that?" They chuckled maliciously and left the skeletal building, but from up on a pile of particle-board slabs, Tom's head poked out a little and he let out a huge breath, his eyes darting wildly all over the place in mind-crushing trepidation. A step went awry and he fell to land on two feet, skidding backwards a bit to crash into a stack of pallets. Fear stung his mind again as he got up quickly and headed up his escape path, making it to the trees and falling breathless behind a wide-trunked spruce, trying to calm his mind. He'd taken a detour through the woods, but there was still a good 300 paces between the route and the gas station next to the Door. "Fuck... holy fuck, they're gonna kill me... shit, this--" He sat in that one spot for a long time, feeling a terror in his chest even as he somehow fell asleep with thoughts of losing it all ringing in his mind.
Shank of night was approaching, and Karilara Sunkiller was readying herself for a real fight, one that she intended to survive. The point she'd been trained for, and trained in her own time for, was maximum movement, keep the vitals out of the fight, and shoot first. She'd gotten into her old worn-in black jeans and tank top, which she further covered with custom combat armor, meant to maintain ease of movement while covering a few more than the standard weak spots. She frowned a bit while inspecting the plates and weave, wishing she had a better alternative. Still, these fools had called her out, and leaving the engagement area wide open was a mistake... a slightly obvious mistake, but maybe that was for the best. She unrolled an old weapons satchel and began to equip the blades. Throwing knives, a folding dagger she hid at the base of her tail, and then, a hunting knife with a dark crimson hue to the blade. She unsheated it and took a look over the finished sheen of it, putting the pommel to her eye to check the tang and tip, taking some copypaper and deftly slicing it in two with nary a hiss. It had been quenched and treated in special oils to allow a dangerous level of swiftness to its edge, and it was Kari's singular trophy she retained from her days as Death's Eyes. The scarlet color of the weapon shone blood red across her face from the light in her bathroom. The weapon went back into its sheath and the whole bargain was belted to her waist, along with her trusty K90 ten-mil pistol, taken apart and prepared for the occasion earlier. It wasn't the strongest pistol she owned, but the point was to wound and finish up close; if anything, she rarely used the weapon except for a few bad jobs and her escape from DEN. The monitor of her computer had an online map of the area in question, and the ingress/egress routes drawn in dry-erase marker, one of them leading off the road and into the wooded area. It was all in her mind now, and it was time to go. Kari took a while yet to braid her hair into a short bun at the back. Her armor and pride rode on keeping her back away from the enemy at all times, so she worried little about someone grabbing it. With one final tightening of straps and stares into the mirror, Karilara Sunkiller went to leave her room, looking over it for a moment, then headed downstairs and out to her car, leaving the darkened home behind as she crawled inside herself to unlock the chains of a killer that rested patiently there.
There wasn't much to describe of the surrounding area besides the road leading to the attack site. The evening sky was overcast and lent a spooky muted tone to anything he could see. Larry, the look-out spot was in a perfect spot with a long view down the main road, which would give him ample time to call it in, get back to the others, or just hit the dirt and remain quiet while the others got the work done. Equal shares, that's what their leader had said, so this would be easy. Any second now, the binoculars, the road, and his awareness would lead to a huge payout and easy street for the rest of the year, if not, more. Sure enough, a car's lights topped the small rise before heading into the slight downgrade before rising back up into view, only the car pulled off to the right and vanished. Larry blinked, checking the road again; there wasn't any other way to the site than this, maybe he was seeing things? Larry hastily returned to his watch, waiting quietly, breath fogging in slow sequence, his weapon loaded and phone fully charged, he was ready. A blade gently touched under his chin and throat, making him lock up completely. "How many." said a voice, not asking a question. "Fuck you." The blade slid faster than he could call out with a smooth, silent metallic ring in the air and a puff of red mist, the thicker liquid behind drooling from the thin slice across his throat, deep enough to sever vocals, and so wickedly fast. Larry was gone a second after he hit the ground and laid still. Kari wiped the blood off on his coat and hurried to the site down the way.
Tom gasped wildly, his memories tangled at the ankles in dreams before reality. It all came back to him, the site, the run back, the conversation at the site, the orders to find and kill him. He almost got up and ran in a random direction, better judgement holding him in place to plan first. The gradual bones of the building were still nearby, a couple hours had passed, and from a careful peek around the tree and immediate area, he could see the cars hidden behind the portable offices for the project site. Lights were on in the first floor area, the gangers from before were visible, but just as he leaned closer, he noticed some movement on the top floor. His ears turned and listened carefully... definitely voices and movement up there. Further movement caught his eye suddenly, from on top of the portables. A dark monster of some kind was crawling across the aluminum roof, but it took on a more real shape when the red hair and tail were spotted. "You've gotta be shitting me..." he whispered, watching Kari move like a spider, hopping off silently to move around to the sides and disappear thru a small doorway in the wall there. Somewhere between panic and preservation, perverse interest was beginning to mount and urge him on towards what might be something crazy. With his heart pumping a little faster, he hurried from the woods and across to a vantage point. He almost shouted in surprise at someone staring right at him in the window he looked into, only to recognize his reflection as he ducked back down in the throes of a micro-coronary. 'A clean window... I'd only ever heard stories.' he thought, wondering for the 33rd time if this was a good idea, only to hear a voice above him. "I'm just opening it to let the breeze in here." "Just get back over here, something doesn't feel right." Tom sank lower, his shoulders somewhere behind his ankles as he held still. Movement was heard now, up the stairs to the balcony overlooking the office. The raccoon slowly stood up to try and have a look around the office area. They were silent, looking around, guns drawn... there was a squawk, a noise, like when you bump into someone, heard from up high, then near-silent taps. Blood was on the air. "Jack! What's up there, dude, hey!" called their leader, with seven of his men closing ranks. A bouncing thud was heard and something had fallen into the first floor. One of them produced a flashlight and pointed it towards the sound. It was a severed head. Sounds of terror and surprise followed, clicking of hammers, more flashlights now. Tom felt his mouth go warm and wet, portending vomit, but he held in check, looking around for the red-haired woman... something hit the ground heavily to their right and the bullets went chasing after it, the biomancers eyes growing wider as he saw it happen. The headless body had gone in one direction, Kari went the other, landing at their backs now as they turned to shoot, and she attacked. Her movements were continuous, impactful, touch-and-go, almost a dancer's grace. A knife flashed in the dark, and arms went around where it sailed past before their owner fell to their knees and collapsed. Two or three entanglements got more of the group injured or killed outright, one especially for certain as she held him as a bullet shield as a volley of blasts went her way. Gunfire erupted again, chasing the blue-eyed shadow aside, a gagging sound following from the attacker feeling a thin metal needle go into their open mouth. The attacker drew her own gun and fired twice, two shots blowing a splatter of red against the wall. There was only one left now, and barely 23 seconds had passed. "Oh FUCK this!" the fox grunted, laying down more bullets rapidly to force Kari back behind cover as he ran up the unfinished access stairs which lacked walls. The snow leopard wiped her blade off on the sleeve of one of the dead men, exhaling for a moment to assess her body quickly. In the confusion, she'd actually been attacked a few times, but seemed unhurt. She got a thumb under her sweater and lifted it, making Tom feel like looking another direction, only to see one bullet had struck home on the armor. As adrenaline ebbed, he could actually see she was breathing a bit labored; the flattened bullet was low and to the left, definitely struck a rib. Kari dug the slug loose with her knife and sheathed it, hurrying to the stairs to finish the job, leaving Tom to consider how to follow for a bit. That was when he heard the shout of 'NOW!' and football-arena lights erupt from the third floor landing. "That can't be good!" he said under his breath, moving into the atrium gingerly to try and see up above. There were probably 14 of them, all too big and almost arm to large arm. Kari began marking off targets in her mind, but it would be a terrible squeeze. It would hurt, and she was fine with that, it would really hurt, and she was fine with that... but capture was tantamount to death, so that she was not fine with, and would prevent at all costs. The hallway 'ledge' might be her only shot, but two stories down without a minute to prepare could cause a broken leg or arm. Many variables, all of them pointing to a grim conclusion. No capture. "She's cut off, get her!" someone shouted, and they came at her and she came at them. A haymaker greeted her first, dodged, a second attack stopped in a spray of blood as she clawed at the exposed side, aiming a hard kick up at the third, but three more were already upon her. Kari raked out and hissed, putting her foot hard into the side of an exposed knee to extend in sideways. The owner shrieked in pain, but Kari felt two blows, and another begin hitting home, so she dove through the opening and tried to get clear from the four behind them. Another fist cut across her face, all the shouting and yelling from her and them was gathering into a fever pitch, she was throwing fists and kicks, but could barely see from the mob striking at her from all directions. Someone pulled her back, and the racket was muffled by bodies as she was kicked at from the left and right, her arms crossed over her face and chest to guard. One hand closed around something, a brick, and she managed to hold it hard and punch its dense weight into what shins she could, managing to make enough room to get back up and go on the attack again, putting two of them down hard with savage brick-slams to the head. Suddenly, an explosion went off behind her and she went down to barely stop on one knee: her back stung like it had been ripped off and replaced again, she'd been shot and it went thru the armor just behind her right shoulder. Winded and wounded, she collapsed to the floor, motionless, hair hanging from the tight braids. The assembled attackers stayed around her, out of breath and some clutching at hard injuries. "Fuck... aaahh-- fuck, the bleeding won't stop.." "Did we get her? Someone make sure she's still breathing." "Hold still, man, I think your skin is flapping off." "AAAAHH! DON'T TOUCH IT!" "Moe! Hey, someone get the med kit, he's not breathing!" The damage sustained from the attacks were enough to hopefully repair, but Kari was facedown and feeling her body alive with pain, wisely trying to breathe shallow to appear harmless. Hands suddenly grasped her from behind and hauled her around on her knees, bent before the doorway as her breathing came in low, labored gasps. It hadn't gone well, and there could be more in reserve. What the feline wasn't expecting to see was Fennel, who had flipped her off only two days ago now, stepping out of the shadowed doorway to close the distance. A zip-tie closed at Kari's wrists and her odds shrank significantly. Fennel put a finger under the snow leopards chin to meet her face-to-face. "Hey, bitch, guess you've been having a pretty nice fuckin' time of it, yeah?" Heavy breathing only responded, Kari's face contorted in anger. "Well, don't expect us to lose any sleep over those guys you killed or anyone in your career, no... we're here because one specific job." Kari felt inwardly lucky; this Fennel woman seemed to have a need to talk, a perfect way to buy time. It was a long time ago, but she had ways of escaping zip-ties. "You're gonna have to refresh my memory here, sweetheart," she managed, coughing only once, "I've killed a lot of people." Fennel's eyes narrowed and she began to pace, Kari barely resisting rolling her eyes at this move. "2005, it was," said the wolf, "an old villa house in a secluded area of Campigliano, the home of a very important old man, one Allesandro Gabriele Russo." Kari thought for a moment, her ears pointing up as she pretended to vaguely remember "Oh, him! Head of a rogue crime syndicate that was attempting to muscle in on the Cosa Nostra operations setting up in Salerno. Yeah, entire crew found dead on the scene, and apparent leader stabbed once and left burning in a hearth like the old trash bag he was, THAT Allesandro Gabriele Russo?" Fennel looked beyond enraged, and decided to let a hard kick to Kari's nose provide the rebuttal. Her face exploded in cold pain, she felt something crunch in her nose and she bent forward, nearly falling onto the poured concrete to cough again, blood pouring from her onto the floor. She laughed somehow and leaned back as she sat up, feeling her options shrinking and somehow, not minding so much, or so it appeared and sounded. "Ha ha, heh.. kffh hnhh... oh wow, I haven't been beaten like this since prom night. Look, if you're gonna kill me or take me back to them for the reward, let's hurry it up already, can we?" Composure managed to return to the wolf woman's attitude and she came closer again to hunker down with a psychotic glint in her eye. "Oh, it'd be easy and a better use of time, no doubt. But you see, you killed my great grandfather, ruined my family's wealth in the subsequent criminal charges and all, and broke my father's heart... so no, we're not going anywhere." She had cupped Kari's cheek here before patting it gently and getting up again. "You gotta understand two things I got to work with here: one, the contact from DEN just said alive, not necessarily intact, and two, when I put the word out for people interested in this gig, I made sure to find some scum, I mean real monsters here, the kind of people that can't be trusted with pictures of a playground." There was sinister chuckles and calls from behind Kari and she began to feel a sting of actual worry, trying to hurry up with her wrists. "Once these disgusting reprobates are done holding you down and violating your fucking brain to pieces, we're gonna take some of these here medical tools and cut you down to size by numbers. We even brought a doctor to make sure you're alive when we toss what's left at the feet of this Bear guy." 'Come on, hands...' Kari thought wildly, almost stuck in the zip-ties now. Fennel smiled viciously, her back teeth exposed in the killers grin. "Gotta admit, this'll be fun to watch. Alright, you sick fucks, she's all yours." As a foot was pressed to her shoulder, Kari opted to make a quiet, scared noise all of a sudden. The others were still coming closer, but Fennel held up a palm and they stopped. "What?" said Fennel. Kari shook and trembled, feeling the terrible visions the imagination produced of her damnable fate. "Oh god, it's the end... let me just say something fast." The wolf huffed a bark of laughter and crouched close, shaking her head. "Always such badasses until you clip those wings... what is it, bitch?" "The... oh god-" and she whined a little, her head hung and trying to breathe, "Just remember this next time you have to kill someone, please!" "What about it, cunt?" Kari's palm slid up the other and relocated into place, and she smiled a skull-like grin.
"Just kill them."
All at once, she sprung out onto Fennel's torso like a cobra, her free hands scratching and raking at whatever she could reach, the wolf's going berserk as she shouted in pain while clawing and kicking at the serpentine assailant. The others recovered from the stunning instant and moved to attack her, but faltered as Fennel's screams became a wild shriek of agony, rising in pitch as Kari's head pulled back, one blood-soaked paw holding her down. Clamped in her sharp teeth, at the end of a long, stretched line of viscera and optic nerve, was a dark brown eyeball, coming free with a snap. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHAAAAAAA!!" Kari looked coldly into Fennel's shocked face as the moment froze in aghast eternity, her jaws holding the little fleshy ball up before smiling again and chomping it with a wet splatter and taking off to run to the stairs to the third floor. The goons were coming, she had to hurry. Clamored voices from below; they'd cut off the stairwell. Kari lungs were working like bellows as she gained distance down a 3rd story hall. With a little luck, the scaffolding could be a way down, if she had one good jump in her. It was on the left side of the building, she was almost there as the footsteps neared from behind, but the incomplete walls vanished fast and the jump was before her. 'Jump, take the landing, roll with the impact.' she hurriedly thought before turning to get a sprinting start back. As she turned, it all happened in slow motion. The loading mechanism advanced a shell into the barrel, and the quiet clicking of the trigger pull barely registered before there was an explosion and an impact that knocked wind and mind from her. She flew backwards so suddenly, the snow leopard might've seen her own tail. She tried to turn in mid air, but only glanced her arm across an unseen fixed pipe. It was definitely broken, and the pain threatened to blur out her senses. She turned more now and felt a dull explosion at her back this time, and the limit was reached. Her autonomic system seemed to have shut her down for reboot, and when she fell with a thwack to the poured cement below, she barely felt anything. One weak attempt at rising proved nothing and the lights went out all at once, leaving her at the worlds' mercy.
submitted by NickelTheWise to u/NickelTheWise [link] [comments]

2023.05.30 17:11 AdventureMaterials The Third Son - Pt 2 - A D&D-Themed Ironsworn Actual Play

This is part two of my Ironsworn campaign experiment meant to emulator an “Old School” D&D like experience–a party of vulnerable allies, location-based adventures, and strange monsters lurking just on the outskirts of human civilization.
In the last episode, the party gained a quest to figure out why the fishing has dried up for the town of Longhill, and they have followed what clues they could find into the woods east of town.
The Party: Sir Gethin Oyvind E-1 H-2 I-3 S-1 W-2 Health: 5, Spirit: 5, Supply: 5, Momentum: 8/2. Assets: Commander (strength 4), Ironclad (light armor), Empowered (Knight Errant). Equipment: chain armor, sword, shield, crossbow, horse Vows: Become worthy of the Oyvind family name (epic): 0.0, bring back the fishing (dangerous): 2.0
Bonds:
  1. Baggi the Carpenter.
  2. Frej the Mercenary.
  3. Tessa the Wheel-maker.
Because this is a D&D style game, my PC won’t be solo, but the rest of the characters will not be represented by Ironsworn PCs. Instead, they are represented by the party contained within the “Commander” perk. As it stands, they are:
  1. Sola the Cruel (fighter). Workcrew overseer.
  2. Inguna the Naive (fightescout). A trapper.
  3. Bjarn the Jealous (fighter). A falconer.
  4. Somhaile the Tactless (thief/scout). A thief.
#
Cautious after their near-encounter with the strange crab-mosquito, the party moves forward with as much stealth as five people, a horse, and a donkey can muster.
Delve the Depths (Shadow): [Delve the Depths: Mark progress.]. [Mark Progress: Haunted Forest :9 boxes]. What do they find? Clearing (complex/refuge).
They eventually find a game trail and make faster progress. It winds through the wood until emerging in a large clearing that holds a walled camp. The walls are made of ~8 foot high poles and enclose an area about 80 feet across. A light gate stands open on one side.
Because I had no encounter, I’m going to rule that this is unoccupied. Since my supply is full, I won’t need to resupply but I may make camp.
Gethin sends Somhaile and Inguna in to investigate. They creep up to the walls, peer carefully around the open gate, and eventually disappear inside. A few moments later, they come back out waving and reporting that the camp appears to have been abandoned.
Are there supplies inside still (50%)? No, and…
The interior is entirely bare. Few signs of the prior occupants remain. Still, it’s a defensible spot and Gethin orders the party to set up camp for the night.
Make Camp: [Strong Hit: 4 + 5 + 0 = 9 vs 7 1]. +1m (now 9) and +1 next move.
The night passes easily, and the party sleeps well knowing that they have walls around them. Even the watches are uneventful. They rise early and break camp just after sunup.
[Progress Roll: Haunted Forest :Strong Hit = 9 vs 7 7]. +1 to next move (now +2).
[Mark Progress: Bring back the fishing :4 boxes]
The road passes beyond the forest and emerges onto the shore of a small lake.
Is the smell of death worse here (75%)? Yes, but…
The smell of death worsens as they leave the woods, but they still cannot see any sign of what may be causing it. There are no fish decomposing on the lake’s shoreline, and they see nothing floating atop the water. Still, they are confident that they are growing closer to their goal.
With nowhere to go but further upriver, Gethin dispatches the two scouts to see what they can find.
Gather Information: [Weak Hit: 5 + 2 + 2 = 9 vs 9 2]. +1m (now 1). What do they find? Blighted/Thicket.
It is very late before they come back. When they do, they look wary of what they have to report. A thicket ahead, near the great eastern forest–but the trees there are dead, and not by fire. The grass, too, is yellowed and crunches underfoot. They dared not go further by themselves, for they heard strange sounds within.
That sounds promisingly sinister, so they head toward it, although they make camp when they are still a fair ways off, and they take care to keep their watches carefully.
Because we have already traveled through a dungeon and scored a hit on our gather info, I’m going to rule that this is probably the thing we seek. To figure out what kind of dungeon it is, I’m going to roll from three options and I’ll randomly assign a theme:
  1. Barrow
  2. Cavern
  3. Sea Cavern (river, in this case)
Result: Corrupted Cavern. Good theme result! I’m going to make this one formidable, because I think this should spell the end of my quest once we complete it. I haven’t finished a full, formidable dungeon yet, so we’ll see how it goes. Formidable means that there should be ~10 locations in the dungeon before I can be confident that I have cleared it.
The next day they rise, but they take their time approaching the thicket. Even from far off they can feel a sense of wrongness about it. Even so, glory (and hopefully payment!) lay on the other side, so they push forward.
Discover a Site: Corrupted Cavern (Formidable).
They enter the thicket, fighting the horse and donkey all the way. Inguna finds a hint of a trail in the dead grass and leads them up a gentle rise to a low hillock. Just to the north lies the river; it would have been hidden behind a canopy in better days, but the bare tree limbs hide little. The circle of death extends equidistantly in all directions; even a few trees on the far side of the river are chalky gray instead of brown.
At the peak of the hillock stands a low wall of pale gray stone that is all that remains of the foundation of some building now long gone.
A dark pit, ringed by a strange red moss, gapes open in the earth like a sucking wound. A faint wet sound can be heard from within. “Underwater river,” Bjarn posits. All the rest pretend to believe him as they stake the animals and prepare to descend into the earth.
What do they find within? Something Unusual – Fortified/Hideaway.
The pit descends as a narrow chute through almost twenty feet of earth until it emerges into a cavern of unworked stone. Gethin lifts his torch and paces the chamber while the rest of the party follows him down. By the time the last of them arrive, he has mapped the room. It is featureless and without exits except for a single door of iron set into the northern wall.
“This strange curse is no work of nature, red in tooth and claw,” Gethin observes. “Some man had a hand in this. And that man might still be here. Be ready.” The party draws their weapons.
[Delve the Depths (Wits): Mark progress and Reveal a Danger.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Cavern :1 boxes]
Feature: Subterranean Waterway (Treacherous/Exit)
Danger: Lose way or are delayed
The door opens with a rusty groan, revealing a claustrophobic tunnel that sinks deeper into the stone. Gethin leads with his shield high as the others follow behind with torches and weapons. The fires cast long shadows that move strangely against the warped walls.
The faint water sounds become louder as they progress. Eventually, their tunnel opens into a large cavern that is split in half by a wide and swift river. The water is roaring here, for at the far end of the cavern the water gathers and throws up spray as it drains in a violent whirlpool.
“Where do you think it goes?” Inguna asks. None of them want to find out.
Unfortunately, there is no bridge and the span is too far to jump. They cast lots for who will have to swim across, and it falls on [d5=] Inguna. “Guess you’ll get the chance to find out,” Somhaile jokes. Inguna doesn’t laugh as they tie a rope around his waist.
Face Danger (iron) to swim across: [Strong Hit: 5 + 3 + 0 = 8 vs 3 2]. +1m but I’m already at 10 (I should burn it!).
He swims across but is swept quite a ways down stream before he reaches the far bank. They throw him a torch and wait as he secures the rope to a stone outcropping on his side. The rest of the party passes by safely, though they are cold and shivering when they emerge and begin to dress again.
[Delve the Depths: Mark progress.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Cavern :2 boxes]
Feature: Cramped Caves (Secret/Entry)
The tunnel beyond the river leads to a series of cramped chambers. In one, a faint breeze stirs the air. They investigate and eventually find a chimney that might lead up into the world above, although the climb upward would be nearly impossible.
[Delve the Depths: Choose one: Mark progress or Find an Opportunity.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Cavern :3 boxes]
Feature: Twisting Passages (Unstable/Valuables)
Eventually, they progress out of the caves and into a maze of twisting passages. Time seems to stall as they track and backtrack their way through the tunnels. All grow weary and–truth be told–frightened when they realize that they have been underground for far longer than they had expected, and that the way out may not be trivial.
It is Somhaile who spots them first, with her keen thief’s eyes–a smattering of reflective discs down a side corridor. They investigate and realize that they are silver coins, shining in the torchlight. Someone has definitely been here. Somhaile pockets the coins as they pass, though the others want to leave them behind to track their return. “Leave your own silver, then,” she retorts.
Inguna drops a few coppers before he realizes that no one else is doing so. Feeling foolish, he stops.
[Delve the Depths: Mark progress and Reveal a Danger.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Cavern :4 boxes]
[Reveal a Danger: Denizen controls dark magic]
Feature: Vast Chamber (Fortified/Boundary)
The passage emerges into another chamber, on that stretches out so far in all directions that their torchlight is swallowed by the darkness.
Face Danger (Wits) to detect the foe: [Miss: 3 + 2 + 0 = 5 vs 7 8].
Unwilling to become lost in the darkness, they decide to hug the walls and circle the cavern in a counterclockwise direction. Eventually, the come around again to the tunnel where they started. With nothing left to do, they leave the safety of the wall behind and step out into the great open chamber. Soon the wall is lost behind them. Their torchlight flickers feebly in the darkness, revealing a dim circle of dun beige stone floor and nothing but void beyond.
Eventually, something materializes out of the darkness–a squat, perfectly square structure of worked stone, possibly twenty paces to a side and 10′ high. [Description: Assault/Desolation] Scenes of battle and destruction appear to be engraved upon its surface, but even in the still air underground the ancient carvings have been worn smooth by countless aeons.
In one wall stands a door. With no where else to go, they open it.
Here’s where the Face Danger miss comes into play. Let’s decide what kind of monster we’re facing.
Monstrosity: giant-sized – fish (I’m going to interpret as eel) – spikes/spines – keen senses
A robed figure stands within, hunched over a darkly stained altar. As the party enters, the figure turns and begins to howl. Foul green mist pours of its open mouth, billowing across the narrow room toward the party. None want to test it, so they fall back into the large chamber, slamming the door behind them.
Just then, a whistling sound fills the air. They look up just in time to see a shadow, almost iridescent in its blackness, falling from the ceiling. The thing strikes the ground just within the light of their torches. It is a silver-scaled thing with a mouth full of razor-pointed teeth; its head it huge, easily large enough to bite through a man’s torso if it can get hold of him. Suddenly it begins to move, wiggling forward like a snake with an explosive burst of speed.
Enter the Fray against Eel-Monster and Wizard (Formidable): [Weak Hit: 3 + 2 + 0 = 5 vs 6 4]. Keep initiative.
Strike (I’m going to rule I can use my warband here): [Weak Hit: 1 + 4 + 0 = 5 vs 1 10].
[Mark Progress: Battle: Eel-monster and wizard :2 boxes]
The band falls together into a group as the beast comes at them. Spears out, they manage to turn it aside just as it sends its snapping maw against Gethin’s shield. In a moment, it slithers out of sight around the building and disappears into the darkness.
They can hear it moving, just beyond the circle of torchlight. The band presses their backs together, peering futilely into the darkness.
Suddenly, it snaps forward out of the dark. Its body is long–they can see it now–dozens of feet long, and as thick around as a man. Heavy spines like sharpened quarterstaffs drag behind it, flaring from the sides of its body.
Clash: [Strong Hit: 5 + 4 + 0 = 9 vs 7 4]
[Mark Progress: Battle: Eel-monster and wizard :5 boxes]
The party scrambles aside at the last second and the beast cannot stop its momentum as it sails through their midst. They stick it several times at it passes, cutting long scores in its scaly hide.
Strike: [Weak Hit: 1 + 4 + 0 = 5 vs 3 6]
[Mark Progress: Battle: Eel-monster and wizard :7 boxes]
They follow it this time, gaining confidence. Several more hits land home. Suddenly, the door behind them smashes open and a whip of silver-green fire lashes out at them–the wizard has arrived.
Clash: [Weak Hit: 2 + 4 + 0 = 6 vs 10 1]. Can’t use momentum, so one of my men goes down.
Who is hurt? Bjarn.
[Mark Progress: Battle: Eel-monster and wizard :9 boxes]
Sola, Gethin, and Inguna stay focused on the eel while Bjarn and Somhaile turn their attentions on the newly arrived wizard. The eel lashes out again, but not in time–Sola and Gethin form an effective wall while Inguna runs it through the neck with his spear. The thing writhes violently for a few moments, but it has been stuck well. It dies.
Just as the party turns, the wizard’s whip catches Bjarn across the chest. He goes down in a heap, like a puppet with the strings cut.
Clash: [Strong Hit: 5 + 3 + 0 = 8 vs 1 3]
[Mark Progress: Battle: Eel-monster and wizard :10 boxes]
[Progress Roll: Battle: Eel-monster and wizard :Strong Hit = 10 vs 3 6]
The wizard’s victory is short-lived. Somhaile manages to sneak behind the robed figure and plant her dagger in the center of its back. It collapses with a groan and lies still.
After that fight, I’m going to say we completed one of the major steps on our quest. Surely this wizard and big eel were related to Longhill’s troubles.
[Mark Progress: Bring back the fishing :6 boxes]
Was Bjarn killed (75%)? No!
They go to Bjarn and find that he still lives, though his breathing is shallow and his eyes will not open. They need to get him rest, but none of them would be mad enough to rest in that cavern. Gethin and Somhaile investigate the building while Inguna and Sola try to prepare Bjarn to be moved.
What’s inside the building? Transform-Wound / Avenge-Time.
The chamber is spartan in its decoration. The altar stands alone near one wall; near the other lies the top of a staircase that leads deeper into the earth. Gethin averts his eyes from the altar and even Somhaile turns away; neither know what poor creature contributed to the mass of tortured flesh upon the bare stone, but both are glad that they killed the robed figure outside.
This doesn’t seem like a good place to rest, so Bjarn is going to have to stay out of commission for a while. Meanwhile, I’m going to use the stairs as an opportunity to change the domain of this dungeon–instead of a Corrupted Cavern, we are now moving into a Corrupted Underkeep. Otherwise, progress remains the same.
[Delve the Depths (Shadow): Choose one: Mark progress or Find an Opportunity.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Underkeep :5 boxes]
Feature: Hall or Chamber (Fragile/Exit)
The party moves more slowly now, and with as much quiet as they can muster given Bjarn’s condition. Somhaile moves a few dozen paces ahead of the others, keeping an eye out for signs of trouble. The stairs descend into a large, worked hall. Colonnades progress up the sides of the hall and lead toward an imposing set of bronze doors, but when the party draws near they realize that the right hand doors is ajar; there is enough room to pass through without disturbing it.
[Delve the Depths: Choose one: Mark progress or Find an Opportunity.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Underkeep :6 boxes]
Feature: Foundry or Workshop (Foreboding/Breach)
The door leads into a maze of 10′ wide corridors of worked stone. They choose a direction at random and move that way, passing several locked doors before coming at least to an open chamber. Light and heat emanate from within, but the room is empty. Inside, a forge’s embers lay dying. Strange tools of iron line the walls, devices of torture and war, twisted armor or weapons designed for bodies clearly inhuman.
[Delve the Depths: Mark progress.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Underkeep :7 boxes]
Feature: Stairs into the Depths (Mystical/Threshold)
Finally, they come to the end of the mazelike corridors. Another chamber stands there, and against the far end looms the maw of some devilish beast. It takes a heartbeat before they realize it is carven stone, and that within that maw stands a staircase that descends even deeper into the earth.
None of them want to follow it, but what choice do they have now?
[Delve the Depths: Mark progress and Reveal a Danger.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Underkeep :8 boxes]
Danger: Ancient Mechanism or Trap
Feature: Carved Passages (Active/Entry)
They descend further into the earth. The stairs spiral down, deeper and deeper, seemingly forever. Finally, they level out and open into a tunnel of perfectly smooth stone. They take cautious steps forward.
Face Danger (Wits) to avoid the trap: [Miss: 6 + 2 + 0 = 8 vs 8 8]
That could be bad! I’ll use momentum.
[Strong Hit: 6 + 2 + 0 = 10 vs 8 8]. Reset to 2m. +1m (now 3).
Suddenly, Somhaile reaches out and grabs Gethin’s armor and jerks him backwards off his feet. The clatters to the ground with a resounding echo. In a second he’s up, ready to berate her for making so much noise, but she puts her hand over his mouth. With a finger she points at the ground. A low wire, no thicker than a hair, runs at ankle height across the tunnel.
After a moment he removes her hand. Thank you he mouths at her. She reaches forward and pulls the coin purse off his belt and ties it to her own. He decides that argument can wait for later.
[Delve the Depths: Take both: Mark progress and Find an Opportunity.]
[Find an Opportunity: You are alerted to a potential threat.] +1 to next move and +1m on hit.
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Underkeep :9 boxes]
Feature: Shrine or Temple (Marked/History)
Monstrosity: person-sized – beast – tentacles – crusheconstrictor
The tunnel eventually leads to a small complex of carven chambers, all leading toward one center chamber. There, the ground slopes forward like an amphitheater toward a terrible shrine. That strange red mold grows everywhere here, red enough that it seems to glow with its own inner light. Water seeps in from countless tiny cracks on the walls, flowing down the pulsating mold and eventually draining through a small hole set before the altar.
A half dozen figures are here, worshipping at the altar on bended knee. The sound of their inhuman ululating covers the sounds of the party’s approach [thanks Find an Opportunity!]. The adventurers ready their weapons and prepare to throw.
Battle: [Weak Hit: 2 + 3 + 1 = 6 vs 4 9].
Who pays the price? Sola. -1 strength to warband (now 2).
The party’s ambush catches the cultists off guard and two of them are cut down immediately. The others turn, though, and the wailing becomes a scream of anger. They throw back their hoods, revealing faces that had once been human but are not mixed inseparable with that horrific red mold. Tentacles sprout from the fingers and backs as they run, spreading out from beneath dark fabric robes.
The party fights valiantly, holding the strange things off with fire and steel, and eventually the last of them lies dead. It is then that Gethin notices Sola, kneeling at the side of one of the defeated cultists. He goes to her, reaches out a hand, but that’s when he sees it–one of the cultist’s long tentacles has found a weak spot in her armor and has punched through her side.
Can he get the tentacle out without killing her? [Weak Hit: 5 + 2 + 0 = 7 vs 4 10]. -1 Supply (now 4).
The mold fears the fire, even in death, and he thrusts his torch into the wound on her side. She screams and tries to wrench away, but Inguna grabs her by the arms and holds her tight as Gethin thrusts the burning brand right into her flesh. She shudders, bites her own tongue until blood pours from her mouth, and falls still. He keeps the torch on her as her skin blisters and blackens.
Finally, he tosses the torch aside and digs in his pack for a small glass vial. He tips it into her mouth and holds back her head. The potion works quickly. The burnt flesh begins to pinken and scab. Her pale face flushes with color. Gethin sinks to his knees beside her.
Finally, he looks around. “I think we’ve done it,” he says.
Have they done it?
Reach destination: [Progress Roll: Corrupted Underkeep :Strong Hit = 9 vs 4 7]. Success! +1m (now 4).
[Mark Progress: Bring back the fishing :8 boxes]
There is no where deeper to go. The put the torch to everything they can find. The mold on the walls catches and the fire races up toward the ceiling of the cave, filling the chamber with acrid smoke. The party then takes hammers to the altar and throws the shattered stones to the four corners of the chamber, so that even its foul presence will no longer infect the water seeping through the walls and down the drain.
Finally, they retrace their steps and, after many long hours, emerge once more onto the surface.
That's it for this session! And as a reminder: You can find links to every one of my solo session game reports on my Campaign Logs page on my blog.
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2023.05.30 17:10 AdventureMaterials The Third Son - Pt 2 - A D&D Themed Ironsworn Actual Play

This is part two of my Ironsworn campaign experiment meant to emulator an “Old School” D&D like experience–a party of vulnerable allies, location-based adventures, and strange monsters lurking just on the outskirts of human civilization.
In the last episode, the party gained a quest to figure out why the fishing has dried up for the town of Longhill, and they have followed what clues they could find into the woods east of town.
The Party: Sir Gethin Oyvind E-1 H-2 I-3 S-1 W-2 Health: 5, Spirit: 5, Supply: 5, Momentum: 8/2. Assets: Commander (strength 4), Ironclad (light armor), Empowered (Knight Errant). Equipment: chain armor, sword, shield, crossbow, horse Vows: Become worthy of the Oyvind family name (epic): 0.0, bring back the fishing (dangerous): 2.0
Bonds:
  1. Baggi the Carpenter.
  2. Frej the Mercenary.
  3. Tessa the Wheel-maker.
Because this is a D&D style game, my PC won’t be solo, but the rest of the characters will not be represented by Ironsworn PCs. Instead, they are represented by the party contained within the “Commander” perk. As it stands, they are:
  1. Sola the Cruel (fighter). Workcrew overseer.
  2. Inguna the Naive (fightescout). A trapper.
  3. Bjarn the Jealous (fighter). A falconer.
  4. Somhaile the Tactless (thief/scout). A thief.
#
Cautious after their near-encounter with the strange crab-mosquito, the party moves forward with as much stealth as five people, a horse, and a donkey can muster.
Delve the Depths (Shadow): [Delve the Depths: Mark progress.]. [Mark Progress: Haunted Forest :9 boxes]. What do they find? Clearing (complex/refuge).
They eventually find a game trail and make faster progress. It winds through the wood until emerging in a large clearing that holds a walled camp. The walls are made of ~8 foot high poles and enclose an area about 80 feet across. A light gate stands open on one side.
Because I had no encounter, I’m going to rule that this is unoccupied. Since my supply is full, I won’t need to resupply but I may make camp.
Gethin sends Somhaile and Inguna in to investigate. They creep up to the walls, peer carefully around the open gate, and eventually disappear inside. A few moments later, they come back out waving and reporting that the camp appears to have been abandoned.
Are there supplies inside still (50%)? No, and…
The interior is entirely bare. Few signs of the prior occupants remain. Still, it’s a defensible spot and Gethin orders the party to set up camp for the night.
Make Camp: [Strong Hit: 4 + 5 + 0 = 9 vs 7 1]. +1m (now 9) and +1 next move.
The night passes easily, and the party sleeps well knowing that they have walls around them. Even the watches are uneventful. They rise early and break camp just after sunup.
[Progress Roll: Haunted Forest :Strong Hit = 9 vs 7 7]. +1 to next move (now +2).
[Mark Progress: Bring back the fishing :4 boxes]
The road passes beyond the forest and emerges onto the shore of a small lake.
Is the smell of death worse here (75%)? Yes, but…
The smell of death worsens as they leave the woods, but they still cannot see any sign of what may be causing it. There are no fish decomposing on the lake’s shoreline, and they see nothing floating atop the water. Still, they are confident that they are growing closer to their goal.
With nowhere to go but further upriver, Gethin dispatches the two scouts to see what they can find.
Gather Information: [Weak Hit: 5 + 2 + 2 = 9 vs 9 2]. +1m (now 1). What do they find? Blighted/Thicket.
It is very late before they come back. When they do, they look wary of what they have to report. A thicket ahead, near the great eastern forest–but the trees there are dead, and not by fire. The grass, too, is yellowed and crunches underfoot. They dared not go further by themselves, for they heard strange sounds within.
That sounds promisingly sinister, so they head toward it, although they make camp when they are still a fair ways off, and they take care to keep their watches carefully.
Because we have already traveled through a dungeon and scored a hit on our gather info, I’m going to rule that this is probably the thing we seek. To figure out what kind of dungeon it is, I’m going to roll from three options and I’ll randomly assign a theme:
  1. Barrow
  2. Cavern
  3. Sea Cavern (river, in this case)
Result: Corrupted Cavern. Good theme result! I’m going to make this one formidable, because I think this should spell the end of my quest once we complete it. I haven’t finished a full, formidable dungeon yet, so we’ll see how it goes. Formidable means that there should be ~10 locations in the dungeon before I can be confident that I have cleared it.
The next day they rise, but they take their time approaching the thicket. Even from far off they can feel a sense of wrongness about it. Even so, glory (and hopefully payment!) lay on the other side, so they push forward.
Discover a Site: Corrupted Cavern (Formidable).
They enter the thicket, fighting the horse and donkey all the way. Inguna finds a hint of a trail in the dead grass and leads them up a gentle rise to a low hillock. Just to the north lies the river; it would have been hidden behind a canopy in better days, but the bare tree limbs hide little. The circle of death extends equidistantly in all directions; even a few trees on the far side of the river are chalky gray instead of brown.
At the peak of the hillock stands a low wall of pale gray stone that is all that remains of the foundation of some building now long gone.
A dark pit, ringed by a strange red moss, gapes open in the earth like a sucking wound. A faint wet sound can be heard from within. “Underwater river,” Bjarn posits. All the rest pretend to believe him as they stake the animals and prepare to descend into the earth.
What do they find within? Something Unusual – Fortified/Hideaway.
The pit descends as a narrow chute through almost twenty feet of earth until it emerges into a cavern of unworked stone. Gethin lifts his torch and paces the chamber while the rest of the party follows him down. By the time the last of them arrive, he has mapped the room. It is featureless and without exits except for a single door of iron set into the northern wall.
“This strange curse is no work of nature, red in tooth and claw,” Gethin observes. “Some man had a hand in this. And that man might still be here. Be ready.” The party draws their weapons.
[Delve the Depths (Wits): Mark progress and Reveal a Danger.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Cavern :1 boxes]
Feature: Subterranean Waterway (Treacherous/Exit)
Danger: Lose way or are delayed
The door opens with a rusty groan, revealing a claustrophobic tunnel that sinks deeper into the stone. Gethin leads with his shield high as the others follow behind with torches and weapons. The fires cast long shadows that move strangely against the warped walls.
The faint water sounds become louder as they progress. Eventually, their tunnel opens into a large cavern that is split in half by a wide and swift river. The water is roaring here, for at the far end of the cavern the water gathers and throws up spray as it drains in a violent whirlpool.
“Where do you think it goes?” Inguna asks. None of them want to find out.
Unfortunately, there is no bridge and the span is too far to jump. They cast lots for who will have to swim across, and it falls on [d5=] Inguna. “Guess you’ll get the chance to find out,” Somhaile jokes. Inguna doesn’t laugh as they tie a rope around his waist.
Face Danger (iron) to swim across: [Strong Hit: 5 + 3 + 0 = 8 vs 3 2]. +1m but I’m already at 10 (I should burn it!).
He swims across but is swept quite a ways down stream before he reaches the far bank. They throw him a torch and wait as he secures the rope to a stone outcropping on his side. The rest of the party passes by safely, though they are cold and shivering when they emerge and begin to dress again.
[Delve the Depths: Mark progress.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Cavern :2 boxes]
Feature: Cramped Caves (Secret/Entry)
The tunnel beyond the river leads to a series of cramped chambers. In one, a faint breeze stirs the air. They investigate and eventually find a chimney that might lead up into the world above, although the climb upward would be nearly impossible.
[Delve the Depths: Choose one: Mark progress or Find an Opportunity.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Cavern :3 boxes]
Feature: Twisting Passages (Unstable/Valuables)
Eventually, they progress out of the caves and into a maze of twisting passages. Time seems to stall as they track and backtrack their way through the tunnels. All grow weary and–truth be told–frightened when they realize that they have been underground for far longer than they had expected, and that the way out may not be trivial.
It is Somhaile who spots them first, with her keen thief’s eyes–a smattering of reflective discs down a side corridor. They investigate and realize that they are silver coins, shining in the torchlight. Someone has definitely been here. Somhaile pockets the coins as they pass, though the others want to leave them behind to track their return. “Leave your own silver, then,” she retorts.
Inguna drops a few coppers before he realizes that no one else is doing so. Feeling foolish, he stops.
[Delve the Depths: Mark progress and Reveal a Danger.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Cavern :4 boxes]
[Reveal a Danger: Denizen controls dark magic]
Feature: Vast Chamber (Fortified/Boundary)
The passage emerges into another chamber, on that stretches out so far in all directions that their torchlight is swallowed by the darkness.
Face Danger (Wits) to detect the foe: [Miss: 3 + 2 + 0 = 5 vs 7 8].
Unwilling to become lost in the darkness, they decide to hug the walls and circle the cavern in a counterclockwise direction. Eventually, the come around again to the tunnel where they started. With nothing left to do, they leave the safety of the wall behind and step out into the great open chamber. Soon the wall is lost behind them. Their torchlight flickers feebly in the darkness, revealing a dim circle of dun beige stone floor and nothing but void beyond.
Eventually, something materializes out of the darkness–a squat, perfectly square structure of worked stone, possibly twenty paces to a side and 10′ high. [Description: Assault/Desolation] Scenes of battle and destruction appear to be engraved upon its surface, but even in the still air underground the ancient carvings have been worn smooth by countless aeons.
In one wall stands a door. With no where else to go, they open it.
Here’s where the Face Danger miss comes into play. Let’s decide what kind of monster we’re facing.
Monstrosity: giant-sized – fish (I’m going to interpret as eel) – spikes/spines – keen senses
A robed figure stands within, hunched over a darkly stained altar. As the party enters, the figure turns and begins to howl. Foul green mist pours of its open mouth, billowing across the narrow room toward the party. None want to test it, so they fall back into the large chamber, slamming the door behind them.
Just then, a whistling sound fills the air. They look up just in time to see a shadow, almost iridescent in its blackness, falling from the ceiling. The thing strikes the ground just within the light of their torches. It is a silver-scaled thing with a mouth full of razor-pointed teeth; its head it huge, easily large enough to bite through a man’s torso if it can get hold of him. Suddenly it begins to move, wiggling forward like a snake with an explosive burst of speed.
Enter the Fray against Eel-Monster and Wizard (Formidable): [Weak Hit: 3 + 2 + 0 = 5 vs 6 4]. Keep initiative.
Strike (I’m going to rule I can use my warband here): [Weak Hit: 1 + 4 + 0 = 5 vs 1 10].
[Mark Progress: Battle: Eel-monster and wizard :2 boxes]
The band falls together into a group as the beast comes at them. Spears out, they manage to turn it aside just as it sends its snapping maw against Gethin’s shield. In a moment, it slithers out of sight around the building and disappears into the darkness.
They can hear it moving, just beyond the circle of torchlight. The band presses their backs together, peering futilely into the darkness.
Suddenly, it snaps forward out of the dark. Its body is long–they can see it now–dozens of feet long, and as thick around as a man. Heavy spines like sharpened quarterstaffs drag behind it, flaring from the sides of its body.
Clash: [Strong Hit: 5 + 4 + 0 = 9 vs 7 4]
[Mark Progress: Battle: Eel-monster and wizard :5 boxes]
The party scrambles aside at the last second and the beast cannot stop its momentum as it sails through their midst. They stick it several times at it passes, cutting long scores in its scaly hide.
Strike: [Weak Hit: 1 + 4 + 0 = 5 vs 3 6]
[Mark Progress: Battle: Eel-monster and wizard :7 boxes]
They follow it this time, gaining confidence. Several more hits land home. Suddenly, the door behind them smashes open and a whip of silver-green fire lashes out at them–the wizard has arrived.
Clash: [Weak Hit: 2 + 4 + 0 = 6 vs 10 1]. Can’t use momentum, so one of my men goes down.
Who is hurt? Bjarn.
[Mark Progress: Battle: Eel-monster and wizard :9 boxes]
Sola, Gethin, and Inguna stay focused on the eel while Bjarn and Somhaile turn their attentions on the newly arrived wizard. The eel lashes out again, but not in time–Sola and Gethin form an effective wall while Inguna runs it through the neck with his spear. The thing writhes violently for a few moments, but it has been stuck well. It dies.
Just as the party turns, the wizard’s whip catches Bjarn across the chest. He goes down in a heap, like a puppet with the strings cut.
Clash: [Strong Hit: 5 + 3 + 0 = 8 vs 1 3]
[Mark Progress: Battle: Eel-monster and wizard :10 boxes]
[Progress Roll: Battle: Eel-monster and wizard :Strong Hit = 10 vs 3 6]
The wizard’s victory is short-lived. Somhaile manages to sneak behind the robed figure and plant her dagger in the center of its back. It collapses with a groan and lies still.
After that fight, I’m going to say we completed one of the major steps on our quest. Surely this wizard and big eel were related to Longhill’s troubles.
[Mark Progress: Bring back the fishing :6 boxes]
Was Bjarn killed (75%)? No!
They go to Bjarn and find that he still lives, though his breathing is shallow and his eyes will not open. They need to get him rest, but none of them would be mad enough to rest in that cavern. Gethin and Somhaile investigate the building while Inguna and Sola try to prepare Bjarn to be moved.
What’s inside the building? Transform-Wound / Avenge-Time.
The chamber is spartan in its decoration. The altar stands alone near one wall; near the other lies the top of a staircase that leads deeper into the earth. Gethin averts his eyes from the altar and even Somhaile turns away; neither know what poor creature contributed to the mass of tortured flesh upon the bare stone, but both are glad that they killed the robed figure outside.
This doesn’t seem like a good place to rest, so Bjarn is going to have to stay out of commission for a while. Meanwhile, I’m going to use the stairs as an opportunity to change the domain of this dungeon–instead of a Corrupted Cavern, we are now moving into a Corrupted Underkeep. Otherwise, progress remains the same.
[Delve the Depths (Shadow): Choose one: Mark progress or Find an Opportunity.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Underkeep :5 boxes]
Feature: Hall or Chamber (Fragile/Exit)
The party moves more slowly now, and with as much quiet as they can muster given Bjarn’s condition. Somhaile moves a few dozen paces ahead of the others, keeping an eye out for signs of trouble. The stairs descend into a large, worked hall. Colonnades progress up the sides of the hall and lead toward an imposing set of bronze doors, but when the party draws near they realize that the right hand doors is ajar; there is enough room to pass through without disturbing it.
[Delve the Depths: Choose one: Mark progress or Find an Opportunity.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Underkeep :6 boxes]
Feature: Foundry or Workshop (Foreboding/Breach)
The door leads into a maze of 10′ wide corridors of worked stone. They choose a direction at random and move that way, passing several locked doors before coming at least to an open chamber. Light and heat emanate from within, but the room is empty. Inside, a forge’s embers lay dying. Strange tools of iron line the walls, devices of torture and war, twisted armor or weapons designed for bodies clearly inhuman.
[Delve the Depths: Mark progress.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Underkeep :7 boxes]
Feature: Stairs into the Depths (Mystical/Threshold)
Finally, they come to the end of the mazelike corridors. Another chamber stands there, and against the far end looms the maw of some devilish beast. It takes a heartbeat before they realize it is carven stone, and that within that maw stands a staircase that descends even deeper into the earth.
None of them want to follow it, but what choice do they have now?
[Delve the Depths: Mark progress and Reveal a Danger.]
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Underkeep :8 boxes]
Danger: Ancient Mechanism or Trap
Feature: Carved Passages (Active/Entry)
They descend further into the earth. The stairs spiral down, deeper and deeper, seemingly forever. Finally, they level out and open into a tunnel of perfectly smooth stone. They take cautious steps forward.
Face Danger (Wits) to avoid the trap: [Miss: 6 + 2 + 0 = 8 vs 8 8]
That could be bad! I’ll use momentum.
[Strong Hit: 6 + 2 + 0 = 10 vs 8 8]. Reset to 2m. +1m (now 3).
Suddenly, Somhaile reaches out and grabs Gethin’s armor and jerks him backwards off his feet. The clatters to the ground with a resounding echo. In a second he’s up, ready to berate her for making so much noise, but she puts her hand over his mouth. With a finger she points at the ground. A low wire, no thicker than a hair, runs at ankle height across the tunnel.
After a moment he removes her hand. Thank you he mouths at her. She reaches forward and pulls the coin purse off his belt and ties it to her own. He decides that argument can wait for later.
[Delve the Depths: Take both: Mark progress and Find an Opportunity.]
[Find an Opportunity: You are alerted to a potential threat.] +1 to next move and +1m on hit.
[Mark Progress: Corrupted Underkeep :9 boxes]
Feature: Shrine or Temple (Marked/History)
Monstrosity: person-sized – beast – tentacles – crusheconstrictor
The tunnel eventually leads to a small complex of carven chambers, all leading toward one center chamber. There, the ground slopes forward like an amphitheater toward a terrible shrine. That strange red mold grows everywhere here, red enough that it seems to glow with its own inner light. Water seeps in from countless tiny cracks on the walls, flowing down the pulsating mold and eventually draining through a small hole set before the altar.
A half dozen figures are here, worshipping at the altar on bended knee. The sound of their inhuman ululating covers the sounds of the party’s approach [thanks Find an Opportunity!]. The adventurers ready their weapons and prepare to throw.
Battle: [Weak Hit: 2 + 3 + 1 = 6 vs 4 9].
Who pays the price? Sola. -1 strength to warband (now 2).
The party’s ambush catches the cultists off guard and two of them are cut down immediately. The others turn, though, and the wailing becomes a scream of anger. They throw back their hoods, revealing faces that had once been human but are not mixed inseparable with that horrific red mold. Tentacles sprout from the fingers and backs as they run, spreading out from beneath dark fabric robes.
The party fights valiantly, holding the strange things off with fire and steel, and eventually the last of them lies dead. It is then that Gethin notices Sola, kneeling at the side of one of the defeated cultists. He goes to her, reaches out a hand, but that’s when he sees it–one of the cultist’s long tentacles has found a weak spot in her armor and has punched through her side.
Can he get the tentacle out without killing her? [Weak Hit: 5 + 2 + 0 = 7 vs 4 10]. -1 Supply (now 4).
The mold fears the fire, even in death, and he thrusts his torch into the wound on her side. She screams and tries to wrench away, but Inguna grabs her by the arms and holds her tight as Gethin thrusts the burning brand right into her flesh. She shudders, bites her own tongue until blood pours from her mouth, and falls still. He keeps the torch on her as her skin blisters and blackens.
Finally, he tosses the torch aside and digs in his pack for a small glass vial. He tips it into her mouth and holds back her head. The potion works quickly. The burnt flesh begins to pinken and scab. Her pale face flushes with color. Gethin sinks to his knees beside her.
Finally, he looks around. “I think we’ve done it,” he says.
Have they done it?
Reach destination: [Progress Roll: Corrupted Underkeep :Strong Hit = 9 vs 4 7]. Success! +1m (now 4).
[Mark Progress: Bring back the fishing :8 boxes]
There is no where deeper to go. The put the torch to everything they can find. The mold on the walls catches and the fire races up toward the ceiling of the cave, filling the chamber with acrid smoke. The party then takes hammers to the altar and throws the shattered stones to the four corners of the chamber, so that even its foul presence will no longer infect the water seeping through the walls and down the drain.
Finally, they retrace their steps and, after many long hours, emerge once more onto the surface.
That's it for this session! And as a reminder: You can find links to every one of my solo session game reports on my Campaign Logs page on my blog.
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