Captain StarSkull @captain-starskull - Tumblr Blog

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conk-la-ree

Lil Nas X – DREAMBOY. Teaser

dancerswhirl

They are everything to me.

(Art by Dan Mora for Fortnite)

coolcomicbookcovers

strange-aeons

during pride month??????

strange-aeons

Great news: after being banned from Night Power Tools, my wife has taken up whittling and is making me a spoon

strange-aeons

Finished spoon!

thecreaturecodex

Siktempora, Anguish

Image © Paizo, accessed at Archives of Nethys here. For now.

[This is pretty close to the facial expression I made when I read that Archives of Nethys was losing their Pathfinder license. So I made sure to save pictures from all of the monsters in Monster Core 1 and 2 that I was planning to retroconvert. The anguished flame was among them, so a search brought up this siktempora, who I didn't know existed. I'm a fan of the siktemporas and have done retroconversions of all of the ones that were written for 2e only. I wrote those at a pretty rough time; around the time my students bullied me so badly I had a class reassigned, and the triumph siktempora got me harangued by a tumblr user who disagreed with my design decisions. Here's hoping that was a fluke, and I get out of the anguish siktempora without any more anguish.

One of my sources of periodic anguish is that I've been unemployed for more than a year. If you'd like to help make that a little less frightening, please join the Creature Codex Patreon here]

Siktempora, Anguish CR 13 CE Outsider (extraplanar) This creature resembles a malformed, oversized human head, its eyes rolling and its mouth filled with multiple rows of shark-like teeth. Dangling beneath its body are four insectile legs, each ending in a large hook.

Powerful emotions have a tendency to accumulate in the eddies and pools of the Dimension of Time, accruing until they manifest into living embodiments of strong emotions—the siktemporas. Anguish siktemporas are created from the pain and despair of mortals, and tend to gravitate toward areas where such emotions are commonplace. They are less common than the similar misery siktemporas, and the two lineages clash when they overlap, fighting over territory and emotions in an attempt to slake their endless thirst for pain and grief. Anguish siktemporas are stronger and more clever, but rarer and less likely to travel in groups, so the amount of misery siktemporas present often determines the outcome of these battles.

Anguish siktemporas are often called living screams; they cannot speak, but instead wail and moan constantly unless attempting stealth. They sometimes engage in telepathic communication while crying out in anguish, leading to discordant and frightening interactions. They can magnify these screams to the point of causing physical and mental damage, and when they bite down on a foe scream into their flesh to shake it apart. They are slow on the ground, moving with flailing legs more suited to tearing meat than movement, but can fly magically, drifting like sinister balloons. Anguish siktemporas can hit frightened foes harder and more accurately, and prefer to focus their attacks on those who succumb to their fear effects first.

Anguish Siktempora CR 13 XP 25,600 CE Medium outsider (chaotic, evil, extraplanar, siktempora) Init +16; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +27 Defense AC 27, touch 23, flat-footed 21 (+5 Dex, +1 dodge, +7 insight, +4 natural) hp 178 (17d10+85); fast healing 10 Fort +12, Ref +15, Will +17 DR 10/good or orichalcum; Immune disease, emotion effects, pain, poison Defensive Abilities temporal sense Offense Speed 10 ft., fly 40 ft. (good) Melee bite +24 (2d6+6/19-20 plus 2d6 sonic), 2 claws +23 (1d8+6) Special Attacks foster fear, rend (2 claws, 1d8+9), scream of despair, uncanny snap, wracking despair Spell-like Abilities CL 13th, concentration +17 At will—temporal jaunt3/day—displacementStatistics Str 23, Dex 21, Con 20, Int 21, Wis 24, Cha 20 Base Atk +17; CMB +25; CMD 41 (45 vs. trip) Feats Dazzling Display, Dodge,Flyby Attack, Great Fortitude, Improved Critical (bite), Lunge, Mobility, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bite) Skills Acrobatics +25, Bluff +25, Escape Artist +25, Fly +29, Intimidate +25, Knowledge (arcana, history, local) +22, Knowledge (planes) +25, Perception +27, Stealth +25 Languages Aklo (cannot speak), telepathy 300 ft. Ecology Environment any land or underground (Dimension of Time) Organization solitary or pair Treasure standard Special Abilities Flight (Su) The flight of an anguish siktempora is a supernatural ability. Foster Fear (Ex) An anguish siktempora treats all creatures suffering from a fear effect as if they were flat-footed. Scream of Despair (Su) As a standard action, an anguish siktempora can wail horribly. All creatures in a 30 foot radius must succeed a DC 23 Will save or take 12d6 damage, half of which is psychic and half of which is sonic, and be frightened for 1d4+1 rounds. On a successful save, the creature takes half damage and is shaken for 1 round. An anguish siktempora can use this ability at will, but must wait 1d4 rounds between uses. The save DC is Charisma based. Temporal Jaunt (Sp) As a standard action, an anguish siktempora can vanish into the time stream, reappearing in another location. This ability functions as dimension door (so a typical anguish siktempora can jaunt up to 920 feet), but the siktempora can take other actions that round after reappearing, and the destination must be in a location the siktempora could reach normally by walking or flying. Temporal jaunts are not true teleportation—the siktempora simply travels to a later point in the time stream—so the ability can be used in areas that bar teleportation effects; however, in such areas a siktempora can travel only a distance equal to its speed. Temporal Sense (Ex) A siktempora can sense all the possible futures of the coming seconds. This grants it an insight bonus on its Initiative checks and to its Armor Class equal to its Wisdom bonus (+7 for the typical anguish siktemporas). Uncanny Snap (Su) When it rolls initiative, an anguish siktempora can move up to its speed and make a single bite attack as an immediate action. It can make this attack before or after it moves. Wracking Despair (Su) As a move action, an anguish siktempora can magnify the pain of a creature suffering from a fear effect within the range of its telepathy, dealing 6d6 points of psychic damage (Will DC 23 half). This is an emotion effect, and the save DC is Charisma based.

robinboardman

An albino turtle hatchling sits among other Arrau turtles Tapauá, Brazil Photograph: Edmar Barros

wellfine

Au fucking revoir Mister Prince

The other day my wife told me about this influencer who said she needed to go on ozempic so she could go from 130 lbs down to 115 and I really cannot stress the degree to which we have so COMPLETELY lost the plot with this glp1 shit. Like not only are people are going on this shit for purely cosmetic purposes, the cosmetic purposes are delusional. This is the kind of mindset that gives people eating disorders but now because you can get a prescription instead of having to starve yourself or enduce vomiting a big swath of the general public seems eager to go along with it. Body Positivity did not go fucking far enough because I am being so real when I say that fatphobia is more of a public health crisis than obesity has ever been

doubleca5t

People making a choice feminism argument for Ariana Grande looking skeletal have me feeling like this

rjzimmerman

Not long after the Great American Experiment began, the newly established nation set its sights west. Here's how a series of conflicts, forg

Excerpt from this story from National Geographic:

1775-1819 In 1775, most of the United States was still Indigenous land; however, even George Washington acknowledged that it would require a “great wall” to restrain European settlers from encroaching on Indigenous territory. Over 200 years of land transfers (in which lands previously inhabited by Indigenous people became official property of non-Indigenous people), the Indigenous population was gradually confined to small areas within the U.S.

1820-1864 By 1820, settlers had moved well into the Midwest, displacing Indigenous inhabitants through conflict or the simple pressure of their presence. By 1834, the frontier reached as far as Kansas. In one astonishing 14-year period, starting in 1850 and motivated by mid-century gold finds, nearly the entire west coast of the United States transferred from Indigenous to U.S. hands. The only state still almost entirely unscathed was New Mexico.

1865-1894 At the end of the Civil War, 20,000 soldiers were manning western forts. Between 1865 and 1879, vast areas of land were seized, including the rest of Kansas and most of Texas, North Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, and Nevada. The Department of War struggled against the Apache and Navajo in New Mexico. Cessations and treaties continued to chip away at Indigenous lands, with the exception of Oklahoma, though the 1887 Dawes Act would soon change that.

1895-2026 From 1895 to 1988, Indigenous people lost another two-thirds of their lands to non-Indigenous people. The largest of these losses was in Oklahoma, previously known as Indian Territory. A major catalyst was the Dawes Act (aka the General Allotment Act), eventually rescinded in 1934, which broke up commonly held land and parceled out plots to Indigenous individuals—destroying collective social structures—who were often later obliged to sell.

byjove

btw, the Canadian wildfire smoke is all the way in middle Appalachia

wonderlandifulcat

byjove

Neighbors to the north, I know we’ve had beef recently but please avoid burning down.

On a serious note, if anyone has any donation links to help the communities under evacuation orders like the Mishkeegogamang First Nation, I’d love to share those.