Caoimhe Oakreef

💙Caoimhe 🏳️‍⚧️trans woman 🔞️post and reblog adult stuff sometimes

[coossification]

The Japanese for “goo morning” is ｢おはようぐーざいます｣

[mollyjames]

I based a set of D&D villains around the six main stats called Virtues. (think Full Metal Alchemist sins, except Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, etc..) My favorite of the bunch was Charm. Her conceit was she could persuade, lie, cheat, change appearance, and manipulate the players pretty much however she wanted, but the second someone attacked her she would go down. I introduced her relatively early into the campaign, and I was a bit nervous because I was pretty upfront about her introduction. I didn't say it explicitly, but it was pretty obvious Charm was a Virtue from the offset. I thought "well, I like this character a lot, maybe I'll cheat it a little if I have to." Surprisingly, I never did.

In retrospect, I think the context of the Charm encounters was a huge boon. The party really only confronted her twice: the first time at a dinner party and the second at a war council, where leaders from various factions met to discuss retaking the main city for the finale of the campaign. Neither were explicitly combat scenarios, and both times it would have looked pretty bad for the party if they just up and killed Charm for apparently no reason. The end result was I had villain with only eight hit points to her name run around and torment my level 16 party unpunished for several sessions. Let me tell you, as a DM, that felt amazing.

[captainwolfstar5]

To add onto this as a player perspective, Charm was immediately positioned in such a way that, in the social and emotional dynamics of the roleplay, she was untouchable.

Charms first introduction was as the foreign dignitary of a far off nation who we knew had secret ties to the Church. We were at a mansion dinner party held partially in our honor - we were in part invited directly by the King, who we were favored by and wanted favor from. Charms plus 1 at the party was our party leaders sister - they were good friends. This was all true the second time she appeared at the war council, which was not only an expressly political appearance but also one where she represented the nation from which we were trying to secure military aid from.

It didn't matter at any point that we could have rolled a few dice for an attack roll and destroyed her. To destroy Charm of the six virtues, we had to murder, in cold blood, someone who was well liked, well connected, and well loved by some of the npcs closest to the party.

The only way we defeated her was because when we threatened her, subtly, she tipped her hand. Charm openly threatened the party leader's sister, who from then on no longer believed in her. We came to the bargaining table with her and convinced her (with no deception!) she could leave the battle march and be done with us. And when she got on her boat to leave, as it left port, our Bard (independently of anyone) snuck onto the ship, snuck into her room, and killed her in her sleep. The only kill that character ever got in the entire three year campaign.

It was an extremely well executed factor of the game because it was essentially a social encounter Boss fight. We had to construct and push and change the context of the situation until we could kill her without everything else crumbling around us - personal relationships as well as political ones.

[mollyjames]

I should add, Bard character *chose* not to kill anyone. She would willingly torment enemies and assist the party in combat, but never did any killing herself. She only killed Charm after everything had been resolved and Charm had effectively exited the campaign. She would have gotten away scot-free if Bard hadn't decided to take action. It was a great moment, and as a DM I couldn't have asked for a better character death

[mollyjames]

Here's what the fight with Tenacity (Constitution) looked like:

That little red bar at the top is her health. I don't show specific numbers, but I like having the health bar available for players to see so they have a general sense of how wounded the enemy is. I believe for this fight I started Tenacity at 999 HP out of a possible 20,000.

I greatly enjoyed watching my players realize what they were in for after they hit for 50+ damage on their first attack and saw the health bar get one pixel smaller.

[mollyjames]

Ferocity (Strength) was the most conventional of the Virtues, but context was everything. The players hadn't fought a Virtue yet, and were debating whether to defend some potential allies or lay low, only for the Paladin to slip away and confront Ferocity by himself. I was personally prepared to save the fight for later, but when a Paladin does something heroic and foolish you gotta let them have it.

I did not skimp on Ferocity's stat block either. She had a greatsword fashioned out of a massive hunk of stone that dealt bludgeoning damage and was much too heavy for anyone else to even lift. She could grab players and throw them across the map, resulting in fall damage from the distance thrown. She could chuck her sword at someone and leap to where it landed from a standing position. Paladin stood no chance by himself. The result was a mad dash to the join the fray while Paladin tried to hold out for as long as possible, with new party members arriving round after round to help. It was a very close fight, and my favorite combat of the whole campaign.

Incredibly, Monk found a way to disarm Ferocity after she threw her greatsword at him. He couldn't lift it of course, but he could use his new magic item to teleport away with it and hide it in a nearby river. Ferocity spent the rest of the combat leaping around the map to find it, allowing Barbarian to finish her off. Really ingenious play.

(Pictured above, Ferocity and Paladin.)

[mollyjames]

Celerity (dexterity) was had a similar setup to Charm. She was fragile, with only 8 hp. The trick was hitting her, or, thanks to her ridiculously high Stealth, even knowing she was there in the first place. I wanted to give the party a puzzle to solve, as opposed to an enemy to fight.

I had Celerity stalk the party in secret as they made their way through a lengthy dungeon, until eventually the Barbarian made an abnormally high perception check; not enough to know she was there for sure, but enough to sense something was off. They later verified her location through a magical telescope.

Deducing (correctly) that Celerity was there to try and capture an important npc, they decided to lay a trap. The Druid disguised themselves as the npc and drew the attention of a nearby Ancient Deep Crow. As they were about to be snatched up, Celerity intervened, eviscerated the crow, and spirited away the disguised Druid. Before she could realize she'd been tricked, the Paladin, who had been disguised as a spider on the shoulder of the Druid, smote Celerity while her guard was down, killing her instantly.

I remember this encounter fondly, as my players spent a good two hours planning their trap, which then took only about 5 minutes to execute. It was quick and clean, exactly what it should have been.

[mollyjames]

I struggled a lot with what to do for Wisdom. I already had Brilliance (Intelligence) cast as my big bad mastermind final boss encounter, which ate up a lot of the design space. I could make her a religious figure and lean into the divine casting aspect of D&D, but there was already a quasi-religious sect of corrupt paladins hounding the players and I don't like to double dip.

Eventually I settled on Vigilance, a machine made up of wires and tubes with a network of mechanical eyes that spied on the players as they made their way through the capital city. Wisdom is the stat use for Perception after all. I was happy with Vigilance as a background presence. She contributed a lot to the eerie atmosphere and aloof puppeteering nature of the Virtues. The problem was turning a network of cameras into a compelling boss fight.

I wish I could say I had a clever idea here but, uh... I really got nothing this time. She just showed up and harassed the party as a giant tentacle monster. I do like how her token came out though.

In hindsight I think this still could have worked if I hadn't given her a voice and made her a silent powerful threat. Unfortunately, I did give her a voice, and a very silly one to boot.

Oh well, no campaign is perfect.

[doedipus]

Hey if you want some of those silly pins I posted about a bit ago, I'm selling them here

They come in 1.5" and 1" sizes. I have it set up so you can pick them out individually or get one of each for a discount.

[patcoet]

Went for a walk and met someone who would not stand still because they absolutely needed to cuddle my feet from all angles.

[sunshinetomorrow]

hey there, you've arrived at a Tumblr checkpoint!

are you thirty? have a sip!

are you hungry? have a spack!

have you been snitting in the sale proclation? mack your tabbers!.

are you stick? purt your indies!

do you need to prot a buntle? go! now!

are you tired? break your togs!

do a quick snat of your vitals. are you fond? do you need to reduct your plandles? if you have a trick, tog it. if you need to sitch, go so.

are you grod or too trinking? if you need to break off a grint or mend the bontle, go to that now!

I hope this helps! and I hope your tunderfal day :-)

[alphabetizing-posts]

a a a a a a a and

are are are are are are

arrived at been bontle, break break

buntle? checkpoint! day do do do fond? go! go go grint

grod have have have have helps!

hey hope hope hungry? I I if if if

in indies! it. mack mend need

need need need now! now! of off or or plandles? proclation? prot purt quick reduct sale sip! sitch, snat snitting so. spack! stick? tabbers!. that the the there, thirty? this tired?

trick, trinking? to to to to to tog togs! too Tumblr tunderfal vitals. you you you you you you you you you

you you you your your your your your your you’ve :-)

[biomaterial]

new kind of guy dropped

[shinolavolume1-deactivated20240]

Dragonball: Evolution (2009) BEST SCENE

[default-cube]

reblog to tell prev she's a good girl

[harsh-noise]

[morganlefag]

fun fact there were at least two people named lancelot recorded in the 1292 paris census so I think we know what the 13th century equivalent of naming your kid sasuke was

[marzipanandminutiae]

other names that sound normal now but are actually From Pop Culture- meaning they were used for fictional characters before they became real-people names -include:

- Mavis (from the book The Sorrows of Satan, 1895)

- Pamela (from the book The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, late 16th century, but popularized by the 1740 novel Pamela)

- Imogen (from Shakespeare’s play Cymbeline, c. 1611. possibly a typesetting error on the earlier name Innogen)

- Enola (from the book Enola, or Her Fatal Mistake, 1886)

- Vanessa (from the poem Cadenus and Vanessa, 1812)

- Cedric (from the book Ivanhoe, 1819. transposition of letters from the earlier Saxon name Cerdic)

- Dorian (from the book The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891. similar masculine names had previously existed, like Dorus, Doros, and Dorios, but Wilde is believed to have coined this specific usage)

- Jessica (from Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice, c. 1596-7. Possibly an Anglicization- Italianization? -of the Hebrew name Yiskah, since the character is Jewish)

[princesssarisa]

– Wendy (from Peter Pan, 1904. It was sometimes used beforehand as a nickname for Gwendolyn, but wasn't used as a given name until J. M. Barrie popularized it.)

– Cora (from the book The Last of the Mohicans, 1826.)

– Lorna (from the book Lorna Doone, 1869.)

– Miranda (from Shakespeare's play The Tempest, c. 1610-11.)

– Norma (from Alexandre Soumet's play Norma, ou L'infanticide, 1831, best known as the source for Bellini's opera Norma, which premiered later the same year.)

[karis-the-fangirl]

— Madison (from the film Splash, 1984)

[depths-of-steamgriddb]

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (2010)

Ark Harvey

[depths-of-steamgriddb]

Team Fortress 2 (2007)

Bold&Brash

https://www.steamgriddb.com/grid/659680

[Image ID: gif of soilder tf2 in front of an american flag firing off guns. Text: What the fuck is a kilometer?]

[finnlongman]

You guys enjoyed the "drawing heads as an abbreviation for the word ceann" so much, how about ... drawing eyes for the word súil... complete with length-marks and lenition marks.

That's right. They've lenited the eyeballs.

Thank you, whichever of the Ó Longáin brothers this was. This is my favourite kind of scribal nonsense. Although possibly only because I already know what that line is supposed to say.

(RIA 23 B 21, 19th century.)

[army-of-bee-assassins]

okay i'm reading the semantics chapter of my language development textbook now and i know i've already posted a bit about the wacky methods researchers have employed to test infants' and toddlers' linguistic knowledge, but this is a really fucking great one.

so they were trying to figure out if children use syntactic knowledge to learn new vocabulary, specifically in this case they were researching two year olds. with verbs, some are done to a person ("x hit y") and some only have a doer ("x laughed"), and they wanted to see if these different sentence structures had an effect on how toddlers learn.

they got some grad students, put one in a rabbit costume and one in a duck costume. they had the rabbit repeatedly push the duck into a crouching position using their left hand. at the same time, both the rabbit and the duck were moving their right hands in a repetitive circling motion. they had a bunch of two years olds watch this. with half of the kids, they said "the rabbit is gorping the duck!" and with the other half, they said "the rabbit and duck are gorping!" afterwards, they showed two videos at the same time to the kids, one with the rabbit pushing the duck down but no circling motion, and one with both making the circling motion but no pushing. then they said "where's gorping now? find gorping!" and the kids who had heard the first statement would consistently look towards the video of the pushing motion, while the kids who heard the second statement would consistently look towards the video of the circling motion.

so it provided good evidence that kids do learn new words using their knowledge of sentence structure! my textbook says it's called the "syntactic bootstrapping hypothesis", which is also a fun term. anyway, i just think it's a fucking hilarious way to have tested this. imagine being a linguistics grad student and your advisor is like "hey i got this furry suit. i'm gonna need you to put this on for research purposes."

[foone]

ever since I took a developmental psychology class in college I've wanted this job. I want to be a professional baby-confuser, for SCIENCE

[badassdemonsword]

Open your mind to new pastabilities

[certified-delinquent]

I wish to know a block of magnetic core memory carnally

Core memory uses toroids (rings) of a hard magnetic material (usually a semi-hard ferrite). Each core stores one bit of information. Two or more wires pass through each core, forming an X-Y array of cores. When an electrical current above a certain threshold is applied to the wires, the core will become magnetized. By the late 1960s, a density of about 32 kilobits per cubic foot (about 0.9 kilobits per litre was typical. The cost declined over this period from about $1 per bit to about 1 cent per bit. Reaching this density requires extremely careful manufacturing, which was almost always carried out by hand in spite of repeated major efforts to automate the process. Core was almost universal until the introduction of the first semiconductor memory chips in the late 1960s. Wikipedia

[rozzed]

why not have the reader re-read a sentence now and then? it won't hurt him....