Older editions of D&D sure liked its “ thing that looks like an aninanimate object that secretly is going to kill you” monsters. There were pretty much no objects that could be trusted. Sure you have classics like mimics ( chests) Golems ( statues) Gargoyles ( uglier statues) elementals ( any substance really), but you also had individual monsters that pretended to be ceilings, casks of ale, the atle itself, handkerchiefs, cloaks, beds, ponds, stars, treasure, and even the tunnels of the dungeon itself.
Naturally the shock factor wore off, and we all got tired of the “ everything in this room is trying to kill you” gameplay loop, but Mimics have remained an iconic D&D monster, just the thing to put on a Tshirt or gamepaly to show that you’re in on the joke… a treasure chest with teeth.
But what if you took the “everything in the room is a mimic” concept further? What happens when a mimic lives long enough to get smart, and gets bored with waiting for adventurers to stick their hands inside its mouth?
What if the mimic got lonely?
Enter Mimanse, a colossally ancient mimic that has decided that the best way to attract company was to transform into a comfortable (if conspicuously placed) tavern and invite travelers inside. Located in a “shallow” underdark cavern near the surface where fresh water collects, Mimanse has made itself the place to camp along a set of subterranean dwarven trading roads.
Thanks to all the foot traffic of implacable dwarves, Mimanse has grown fat, adding superfluous wings and towers, as all it asks is that travelers pay for shelter from the underdark’s denizens by offering supplies to the mimic’s stomach/second larder, and tell their stories while they are inside.
Mimanse favors travelers from the surface world for the sake of novelty, but considers itself neutral ground. Here bands of adventurers might rub shoulders with drow freebooters or kobold prospectors, and swap gossip, treasuremaps, and the occasional drunken punch.
Mimanse is quite knowledgeable about several underdark vaults, able to recall elements of their architecture and information about their inhabitants. Scholars and treasure hunters often seek it out, as its centuries prowling the cavern of the underdark have given it great insight into the challenges they might face on future excursions.
The inn’s “caretaker” ( as owner or proprietor wouldn’t exactly apply) is a Canny gnome by the name of Estavius Darestoop, descendant of the first guest to ever cross Mimanse’s threshold. So daring was that act of bravery and trust, that the guest changed their last name and decided from that moment on that they would be manager of Mimanse’s enterprise from that moment forward. The Darestoop clan is now expansive, working as servers, guards, cooks and cleaners within the mimic’s slowly expanding halls.
One of the clashes between folk from above and below got out of hand, and the culprit took a hostage, one of the youngest Darestoop, for fear that the mimic would hurt it. Now they’ve fled off into the tunnels. Mimanse is in a rage, threatening to uproot its foundations and go after the kidnapper,, perhaps the heroes can offer a more subtle alternative?
Every half decade or so, a group of dwarven cavern-caravaneers meet at Mimanses nicest table to discuss contracts and reminisce about old times. The engagement usually takes weeks, and is full of drinking, mirth, and arguments… but something is different this time. Someone has drugged Mimanse with potent alchemy, and now all the doors and windows are sealed shut. If being trapped with bickering merchants wasn’t enough, sections of the building are starting to revert to a “mimmic like” state, contracting and becoming abhorrently sticky. If they can’t find a way to wake Mimanse up, they’re going to get up digested as the rooms turn back into stomachs.
There is a species of butterfly that lives in the mountains.
When it hatches as a caterpillar, it lowers itself to the ground on a strand of silk, and then produces a chemical that smells like the larvae of ants. An ant eventually discovers it, lured by the scent, and brings it back to the anthill, where it is cared for by the colony until it pupates. After a few weeks, the adult butterfly crawls back up through the anthill, through the dirt and the winding tunnels, and out into the sunlight before it can finally open its wings.
Some say that the caterpillar “tricks” the ants into doing this. I don’t know if I agree – I think it’s too small a thing to accuse of guile, don’t you?
With this in mind: Once upon a time, there were seven dwarves.
They lived and worked in the mountains, mining for gold and jewels and precious things. And one night, after a long day’s labour, they heard a knocking at the great stone doors of their mountain.
Outside, shivering and small, they found a human child.
I’m sure you can guess most of what she told them. Stepmothers were involved – it’s not important. What’s important was that each of the dwarves felt a dire and pressing need to care for the child, and they took her into their home, fed her, clothed her, and gave her a warm bed to sleep in. And many seasons passed around that mountain, with the dwarves raising the child as one of their own, until one autumn’s day.
The girl laid, slender and still, in a coffin of spun glass. And some weeks later, one of the dwarves had the idea to call for a prince. This was of course the sensible thing to do, and the prince of a nearby kingdom who listened to the story thought an ensorcelled girl would be a grand thing to rescue.
Poor devils. It feels cruel to judge them. But there were so many questions they could’ve asked – what was this stepmother’s name? Was she real? Did she exist? Who had made the glass coffin? Surely one of them must’ve thought of the question. And why did it grow more opaque with every passing day?
Were they wrong to trust?
I guess it doesn’t matter now.
The moment the prince stepped into the subterranean chamber with the glass coffin, it shivered with a twinkling, plinking noise. Threads of glass exploded into glittering, razor-edged confetti.
A claw split the great glass cocoon.
The thing that spilled out of it, hulking and huge, knew in the fog of its mind, in a base animal sense that screamed, that it was in a room too small for it to fit. It wanted up. It wanted out.
In front of it was some twiggy little thing holding a sword.
It took its first breath.
The flames were the colour of cornflowers.
The dwarves fled. The thing followed close behind, up, up, up through the stone and the winding tunnels, not to chase, not to hunt, but to get up, to get out, out, out–
It struck the great stone doors at a run. They crumbled like gingerbread. And then there was sunlight, and the open sky…
And it could finally open its wings.
Convergent evolution is a hell of a thing.
The dragon, of course, lived happily ever after with its loot of gold and jewels from a hastily abandoned dwarf mine. Being much bigger than a caterpillar, we could accuse it of tricking the dwarves who were kind to it, had taken it in, had fed and clothed and warmed it.
an interesting linguistics find! so I'm reading this text from 1908 and it keeps referencing "hp" in the context of "not being at full hp" "applying your full hp to a task" etc
and I'm like....... okay that is a perfectly normal way to describe energy and reads totally clear to me, but I KNOW you don't mean hit points/health points which is the first place my brain goes, so what are YOU using hp to mean
and it's not explained in-text, which means it was common enough to not warrant explanation to the 1908 audience, so gotta look elsewhere
horsepower. turns out it's horsepower.
and I'm absolutely FASCINATED that a commonly used initialism from 1908 now stands for something different AND YET the contextual meaning is still the same to a 21st-century reader
I could hand this guy my nintendo switch and he'd be like, ah yes I understand, this ''''pokemon'''' loses horsepower throughout the fight
Description: The lantern flies up 15ft and hovers there for the duration, the lantern shines bright light in a 60ft radius. each creature within that radius do not require sleep and have resistance to saving throws agents being put to sleep. additionally they have advantage on all perception checks. As an action you may move the lantern 15ft in any direction.
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you just seem confused and probably believe that he's gonna make america great
When all he's doing is making us infight so much that there's nor gonna be a great anything
Also the whole ice thing
He's doing raids in elementary schools
Fucking kids man
he's literally arresting native Americans for not being white
He's not doing good things
Also the tariffs will only harm the economy more
He's looking to start a war which would only hurt the economy
And gas prices have barely been brought down
I understand you are human
But if you start spouting nazi bullshit about how trump and elon are only doing good
welllllll
Sorry if it comes off as rude I just am very angry at our government
Also just so I'm not affiliated with ass sitter liberals
I am an anarchist
So pls don't call me a liberal
Starting with the final, bottom part, then going to the top:
I don't plan to put labels on anyone. I wish to just ask questions and seek understanding. I believe that you're free to have your own opinions and beliefs, so long as those beliefs and opinions can hold up to some basic levels of scrutiny. I've had people tell me they hate America and Trump and so on, but whenever I ask about it, it immediately jumps to some "if you're not with us, you're against us / kill yourself" ad hominem nonsense.
And for levity, I think "anarchy royalism" is a very funny government concept, if you haven't heard of it!
Starting from the top!
I appreciate you not coming out the gate swinging at me and instead offering things to discuss.
Infighting: Is this happening? Yes. Is Trump to blame? I can definitely see that being a factor, though by action and not by statement. From what I've seen, Trump will say some hot takes, but I haven't seen or heard him incite violence or anything. I also believe the media has a big part to play in the infighting business. As far as I can tell, they've thrown nothing but negative press at the man (some deserved, some not). But when I've asked people before on their opinions or viewpoints, it's always sort of been a "News Network said X, so it's true", which is a dangerous worldview to have. Chalking all disagreements in America to one man seems to be giving him too much credit.
ICE raids: I've seen news articles where a teacher invited ICE to raid his classroom, but I couldn't find anything saying they did. I had someone state that ICE was deporting legal US citizens and Native Americans, but the article they showed me as evidence said that while, yes, some Native Americans and citizens were taken into questioning and it certainly disrupted their day, none of the legal residents were deported. Are the raids disruptive? Certainly. But I haven't seen anything actually stating that they weren't deporting strictly illegal aliens.
Tariffs: I've taken economics, and heard all the arguments against tariffs. I agree. However, the tariffs Trump has imposed have worked to accomplish other goals, such as that situation with the Colombian president. It feels like a Teddy Roosevelt doctrine of "speak quietly but carry a big stick", except Trump says exactly what he wants for America, and if people don't cooperate, he throws the big stick of the US economy/trade at them. Are tariffs in general bad? Yes. Are they being utilized to accomplish a lot? Yes.
War: What war is he trying to start? I remember everyone in 2016 saying he was going to start WW3, but he did his damndest to pull us out of the middle east, started zero new wars, and made North and South Korea play nice and sign peace treaties. I'm not saying you're wrong, but this is the first I've heard of it and his track record says otherwise.
Oil prices: Just as egg prices didn't magically drop once Trump entered office, it'll take time for other prices to figure themselves out. 100 days is normally the benchmark for every president, so I'm holding judgement on the economy until around that point.
Conclusion: I don't think I'm spouting Nazi rhetoric? Yes, Elon did that wackass cringe salute at the inauguration which was weird and bad and awful. I don't think he should have done that and I do think he should've apologized or clarified. I understand this sounds cliche, but "aside from that one thing", saving tax payers countless dollars via DOGE and actually taking a fine comb to what we're paying for sounds great. And I haven't seen (besides "the one thing") or heard of Trump or Elon doing anything bad or evil once taking office. I appreciate your civil discourse and hope to continue it!
Picture this: Dragons using their caves to age cheese. Dragon Cheesemakers!!
The dragon coiled his enormous body, completely blocking the entrance of the tunnel that lead to the caves.
“No,” he snarled, smoke pluming from his nose.
The cheesemonger pinched the bridge of her own nose. “Look, I explained this to you at the start,” she tried once more. “I make cheese.”
“Yes,” the agreed, nodding his scaly head.
“Then I bring the cheese here.”
“Yes.”
“Then you store all the cheese in your cave, keeping it at the perfect temperature and humidity.”
“Yes.” He sounded particularly proud of this part.
“And then when the cheese has ripened,” she concluded. “I come to pick the cheese up again.”
A thunderous scowl clouded his maw. “No.”
“But that’s how it works!” she cried in exasperation. “I make the cheese, you store the cheese, I sell the cheese, I make more cheese!” She peered up at him. “You do realise I cannot bring you new cheese until I have sold this cheese.”
The dragon considered this for a moment. “Ah, but what if—” he began. “What if you go and make more cheese. And bring me the cheese. And I put it in my cave, with the rest of the hoard. And then I keep it there forever.”
“No,” she said flatly.
It was remarkable how much a dragon could look like it had just swallowed a lemon.
“You can’t keep cheese forever,” she insisted. “It will spoil and go bad!”
“You said it would get better and better!” the dragon roared indignantly. “And I take good care of them! With the air flow and the humidity and the temperature!”
“And that is great,” she said, trying to smile through her frustration. “But when a cheese is ripe, it’s ripe! Then you should not be kept anymore, it should be eaten.”
The dragon scraped it’s formidable claws against the stony ground and sulked.
“Look…” The cheese mongering business did not tend to require a lot of sweet-talking, but she was making an effort. “I’m sure the cheeses that aged in your cave are the best cheeses people have ever tasted. When they find out how delicious they are they will want us to make loads more. Maybe several caves’ worth!”
The reptilian eyes stared at her with disgruntled, reluctant interest. “Several caves?”
“If we’re lucky! And I could make so much cheese that I could bring you new cheese as soon as I pick up the aged cheese. Your cave would never even be empty!”
This seemed to strike a chord. The dragon lifted his head a little.
“And that would really be much better for the rest of your hoard,” she continued with fresh inspiration. “Because if you leave cheese too long, it might go bad and spoil the cheeses next to it too!”
A nervous ripple went through the beast’s scaly body, but he clearly was not convinced just yet. “But what sort of a hoard is it if I have to give it away,” he complained.
“Well! Cheese is not just any old hoard! It’s a developing creation! And you will have a hoard that is constantly developing too. Constantly changing, but, if we do this right, never shrinking.”
The dragon looked at her solemnly, wavering with uncertainty. Perhaps she shouldn’t hold it against the poor thing, it must be a difficult concept to wrap his head around.
“And I will tell you what,” she said encouragingly. “If business is good, I can start investing in some really good crumbly cheeses. You can keep those in your cave for five whole years!”
“That is quite a long time for humans, is it not?” he said, sounding a little more cheerful.
“Very long. Especially when it comes to cheese. Cheeses that have been aged that long are very expensive.”
In retrospect, she should perhaps have led with that. Gourmand or not, a dragon was still a dragon after all. A glittering, toothy grin appeared on her recalcitrant business partner’s shout and he moved just enough for her to move past him into the mountain.
“Tell me more about this expensive cheese that crumbles.”
She hid a smirk. “If you help me carry some of the current ones out, it would be my pleasure.”
i wish i could say that the media is blowing trump's actions out of proportion, but, that's not the case. you asked to know what evil things trump has done,
here's a comprehensive list of trump's first executive orders in his second term. i would really recommend doing research into this topic yourself, to become more informed on why exactly trump's presidency is a bad thing.
anyway, regardless of who you are or what you support, we're all human. but there are a lot of people trying to reduce others to below human. trump is contributing greatly to that.
sorry if this is not typed out well.
First off, I want to thank you for giving me an article to read, with several links from that article, to research and review. I also appreciate that the article is surprisingly objective, and states simply the facts, for the most part.
I also want to thank you for, though our viewpoints may differ, treating me like a human being and not acting like other anonymous comments I get when I ask for clarification on opposing viewpoints, namely being asked to kill myself, have my family and friends raped, or other horrible things. Thank you for being a human being and treating me as a human being.
That all being said, I've completely read through the article and it's supporting documents that you've given me, and only come away with a sense of, for lack of better terms, victory? I am struggling to see anything that was included in that article as "evil", as you put it.
I don't use Tumblr much, so in case the link is weird, this is the article in question:
President Donald Trump began his second administration with a blitz of policy actions to reorient U.S. government priorities.
I don't mean to sound condescending or anything. If anyone wishes to have a civil conversation about this, I welcome it! I want to understand and see other perspectives, and if whoever sent this ask wishes to elaborate on how these orders are evil, I definitely want to listen. All I ask is that we talk and have a conversation.
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