This Looks So Cool, I Haven't Seen This One Before.

These are beautiful, I recognized the first from Exandria Reborn but I'm trying to place where the 3rd (with the oxycotl) is from.

Art by Zuzanna Wuzyk

Hilarious!

Get that shit outta here! My website – My Facebook page – See me on LINE Webtoon!

This is beautiful, I'd be curious to know exactly where the original saying came from.

After this image became so popular, the quote passed me by on an almost daily basis. Eventually, my brain settled on a bit more darkish interpretation of ‘the crows leading you home’. 

Made for inktober initially, original drawing can be found here 

So cool, trees for days

Quiador, Remedios Varo

Just another reason to love apples.

APPLE: Malus pumila

In Ireland, the apple is considered one of the foods of the dead; during Samhain apples are often piled on altars and graves, giving the festival the nickname ‘the feast of apples’. Before a funeral, a coffin may be lined with apple wood to restore youth in the afterlife. During Samhain, bobbing for apples is a common game to play; if you are to capture an apple, it is symbolic of being allowed to cross over to the island of Avalon and you will be blessed for a year. Incidentally, the name Avalon is considered to be of either Welsh, Cornish, or Breton origin, from avallen, meaning ‘fruit tree’ or the old Irish aball, meaning apple.

I want this

Book of the Day

“Bestiary: An Anthology of Poems about Animals” edited by Stephen Mitchell

This is so cool, imagine if you were playing a rogue. I can't think of a more fitting way to roll skill checks.

How does the lock dice work?

Sorry this took a minute to respond to, things have been nuts over here...

Okay! So, it’s actually a very simple design! The whole thing comes in two parts, like this:

On the left is the lock-shaped housing, on the right is the lockpick, which has all the numbers 1-20 arranged around the outer edge of the disc. The bottom of the lockpick disc comes to a point, like a spinning top, which is exactly what it is.

You thread the lock over the pick so the pick emerges from the keyhole in the lock, like this:

Now your lockpick die is all set. When it’s time to do a skill check, you hold the lock down with one hand for stability, and you twirl the lockpick with the other like a spinning top. After a moment, use your finger to nock the lockpick firmly down and reveal the result of your “roll”.

The window above the keyhole shows the number. In this case, I “rolled” an 18.

From behind, you can see the disc has teeth all around the edge, and there’s a point at the bottom of the lock that will catch between those teeth when you nock the pick to ensure it lands properly on one number instead of coming up between them.

And that’s how the lock-and-pick d20 works!

This is amazing, sign me up?

Barnes and Nobles is gonna start serving food and alcohol.

Everybody’s cracking jokes about how it’s a desperate attempt to stay relevant in the age of Amazon.

But you know what? Props to them. This is exactly what Blockbuster didn’t do. At no point was Blockbuster like “Hey, movie rentals aren’t the lucrative enterprise they once were. Perhaps it’s time we become known for our cheesy garlic bread.”

This so cool, these could be used for writing fantasy works as well.

Villains - Archfey - Worldbuilding Wednesday

The villain is my favorite part of ANY campaign. So here I am gonna talk about how you can make different kinds of villains, honing down on a specific type and offering various ways to make them interesting. As always, we will be looking at real world history, culture, and mythology to make your villains seem realistic and specifically dastardly. For our first entry let’s discuss…

~~~~~~~~~~~~Archfey Villains~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why archfey? Two reasons: 1) I like archfey, they’re fuckin’ dicks. 2) Someone who’s name I can’t find asked me to make this and I am more than happy to make things for my followers.

NOW, let’s understand what an archfey really is.

An archfey is a creature of fey ancestry that is excessively powerful, nearing the power of a deity. Usually, such creatures are native to the Feywild. Within this realm, they command great power and can even shape the realm itself to their whim and whimsy. 

Common Misconception

Archfey doesn’t mean “superelf.” An archfey can be a pixie, a dryad, a ghost, a beast of some kind, anything that is classified as “fae” or “fae-like” can be turned into an archfey. Elf-like archfey are the most COMMON, but absolutely not the ONLY form of an archfey.

The other misconception is that the archfey are good. This is because the Feywild is mistaken as a plain of good, while Shadowfell is a plain of evil. This is wrong. Feywild and Shadowfell aren’t images of good and evil. Their are images of abundance vs lack of emotion. Shadowfell is a plain of the depressed, the emotionless, the broken. Feywild is a plain of the bipolar, the expressive, the artists and the madmen.

(I’m getting tired of saying “archfey”)

Characteristics of the Archfey

So to understand how we get an Archfey villain, lets discuss some general characteristics of the archfey.

Background.

The archfey come from the Feywild. This is a place governed by emotion. When its denizens feel something strongly, they can physically change their environment. A cruel witch will transform the forest around her to grow trees that bleed and produce fruits shaped like heads. While a kind princess will transform the fields around her into a gorgeous plain of crystalline flowers.

Now, the archfey can transform the Feywild at a moment’s notice. Which means they can do one or both of these things:

They can control their emotions very well.

They only ever have emotional extremes powerful enough to instantly alter the Feywild.

Lifestyle

The archfey live careless lives. They are too powerful to have any natural predators, as such live carefree and happy. Due to their extended life (they live like thousands of years), they are NEVER in rush. Why should they be? They’ve got time, ALL the time.

Environment

Based on HOW the Feywild is, how it is ever-shifting and changing, its denizens must learn to control this change to be able to thrive. Since we are working with an archfey, we can assume they’ve already thrived to the top of their food chain. As such, they must have learned to command the Feywild OR adapted to this changing world, having very drastic changes in personality, behavior, or even looks.

With all this information, let’s share some ideas for archfey villains.

Examples of Archfey Villains

Example #1: The Many Faced Man. Simply put, a doppelganger. The archfey are ever-changing. For this example, our villain always changes their looks. So your Party pisses off this archfey or in some way becomes enemies with him. So when your spends the night camping outside, whoever is keeping watch suddenly poof, is teleported away (because this is an Archfey, it can do this kind of shiz) and in steps a the Many Faced Man who takes this lost PCs form.

I urge you, IRL, pull the Player of this character aside and tell them your plan. Tell them that you want to replace them with a Doppelganger, but not to worry, because their PC will eventually be rescued. THEN, offer them to role play as a doppelganger pretending to be their character. Most players will have TONS of fun with this idea. If you player doesn’t want to RP a doppelganger offer them to role a new temporary PC or just dump the idea.

Example #2: Prince of Liars. A very powerful archfey this one is. He has immense power in the Feywild, and has managed to TRAP the Party in his domain. I’m stealing from Curse of Strahd here, but essentially rework that campaign with more fey-like themes. Instead of vampires, we got fey, instead of Strahd we got a spoiled brat of a prince who is all-powerful but only wants to mess with the Party before killing them in a cruel manner for his or her amusement.

For additional complexity, you can make the Prince of Liars have very drastic shifts of emotion. Think, the bad guy from Split (the movie). One moment he is nice to the Party and leads them to a place filled with treasure, the next he snaps into sheer brutal cruelty and slaughters the ranger’s companion. This will put the Party on edge when dealing with the guy. Furthermore, knowing that the archfey is powerful enough to destroy them with ease puts the Party on the edge, at least until they find something that can kill or neutralize this big bad.

Example #3: The Undying Court. This is for LARGE scale campaigns. Let’s say you have a game that is heavy on politics, but spans different dimensions. So the PCs are working with the politics between Mount Celestia and the 9 Hells and the Abyss, etc. That’s when you throw in the Undying Court. A hive-mind of several Archfey that operate as a singular entity and wish to expand their chaotic influence across the many plains. They may ally with Demon Lords and expedite chaotic situations to gain more power, so your PCs would have to negotiate a turbulent field of politics.

And that’s that folks. I hope this provides SOME use to y’all and helps you out with future ideas. Of course you don’t HAVE to follow my guideline 100%. You don’t need to follow it at all, in fact. Just take it as it is, my ideas for a good fey villain. What about you folks? Would you like to see breakdowns of other kinds of villains? I’d love to do more. Send your recommendations my way or share your ideas for villains. I’d love to hear it. Good luck everyone.

The Unfair DM

Yummmmmmmmmm... just a small smackeral.

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