Posted this on bluesky earlier but thought i'd put it here too.
Something I don't like much about modern fandom culture, and specifically the theory-crafting sphere is how it doesn't treat stories like they're full, cohesive narratives that already exist in the creator's head, and that we're just in the dark. Instead it treats them like purposeful puzzles in need of solving.
So people make these out-there, sensational theories that get clicks and get viewer retention, but absolutely make no damn sense when you actually think about them for a while. If a theory being true overcomplicates the story and adds needless detail, its probably not a good theory.
I largely blame all of this on Scott and the writing for Five Nights at Freddy's, because that was made to purposefully contradict theories and keep the idea that nobody can solve the lore, to create an illusion that he had a full story and that nobody could understand his genius. And the fact that this has impacted basically every theory-crafting sphere out there that aren't connected to fnaf kinda fucking sucks, and it ESPECIALLY sucks how people seem to be angry when their theories turned out to be wrong when the theories in question probably sucked.
“Alright. We’ll find a more elegant way f’r this later, but take this lil’ disc. ‘S a button ‘ere on th’ side. Press it, an’ then walk outside.” Mathaes folded his arms over his chest and watched as the petite dancer inspected the construct control disc. Fianel pushed the button as instructed, then took the disc with him as he stepped out through the open garage bay door of Silverdew Servitors.
They’d been at this for several hours now, refining the operations of the last piece of the security system he’d designed for the Red Moon Cabaret. The modified S.E.L.F.I.E cameras were ready, their operations retooled for consistent and subtle recording. Each could be hidden with an eye no larger than a fingernail visible. The crystalline-based comm system was ready - simplistic voice transmitters which could be worn as jewelry and more complex playing-card-sized slabs of draenei holographic refractor crystals which could accept text messages, pictures, and other more complicated transmissions than just voice. (He was exceptionally proud of those; Mat had never made such a robust crystalline comm before.) Several small patrol constructs had been reprogrammed to perform mundane guard functions inside the bordello; each was about the size of an imp and a hundred times less obnoxious.
But the last piece was being finicky.
Fianel stepped outside and nothing at all happened. The Tauren-sized construct beside Mat didn’t move. “Finally,” he muttered. “A’ight, come back inside.” He waved Fia back in. “Last check an’ I think it’s set.” He took the control disc from the dancer and rewarded him with a slow, languid kiss while his hands worked the reset sequence without looking.
“‘Ere, take it out, but don’t press th’ deactivator.”
With an enticing little hip sway, Fia took the control disc back outside the perimeter of the building. The construct beside Mat whirred to life. “Retrieval mode engaged. Commencing rescue operation.” Inexorably, the arcane golem stomped out through the garage bay door towards Fia - who was ready for such a sight. “Departure not authorized. Stand back from the host.” The life-force check found no one else in reach of Fia, so the construct reached out and wrapped both lithoformed arms around the dancer and picked him straight up. “Harmonic Ubiquitous Geolocating Servitor returning to base with host.”
The construct - powered with crystal technology and location harmonics borrowed straight from the Vindicaar research papers - turned with Fia in its grasp and marched back into the shop. Mat laughed as he reached out and helped Fia swing down from the construct. “Seems pretty solid, aye? Didn’t squeeze too hard? We’ll have t’ get it set t’ read each host an’ anyone else worried about gettin’ taken off premises ‘gainst their will, but I think we’ve got it.” The construct mechanic turned his perpetually tired gaze on Fia and gave him one of those rare smiles, the ones that crinkled the corners of his eyes and brought creases to his cheeks. “Let me take y’ out f’r celebratory dinner?”
((OOC for sake of reference - the Red Moon Cabaret and Bordello is outfitted with:
two small patrol constructs which respond to simple guard and standby requests, as well as a fetch help command
a closed-loop system of monitoring cameras which automatically purge recordings after three days
thumbnail-sized jewelry stone comms which respond to a specific activation phrase before transmitting voice to others holding comms on the network - these do not have a single link-to-link capability - think of these like sophisticated walkie-talkies
playing-card-sized holographic crystal comms which do have single link-to-link ability and can transmit text, voice, and photo (but no video) - think of these like an iPhone
high-powered electro-magnetic door locks in addition to magically warded standard locks which resist lockpicking and disenchanting
one large HUGS construct which is programmed to search for and peacefully retrieve any on-duty host who leaves the premises without pressing the deactivation button on their holo-comm (i.e. presumably unwilling) - this construct comes equipped with heavy armor plating, in case the person who took the host from the building tries to fight it
I had a great deal of fun brainstorming for this and I hope the use of Silvermoon arcane construct lore and draenei holographic crystal lore, along with gnomish camera technology feels creatively appropriate to my fellow Moonies. Your comms will be handed out at the next guild meeting and the constructs explained and programmed to recognize you. If you have more ideas of things you’d like to see as far as magi-tech construction and large-scale engineering, please come talk with me! I love this stuff!))
Okay, so recently I had a commission for an urban fantasy character from Rachel Denton aka Tallinier and I let her go where she wanted with the direction. She ended up going for a deep-one/merfolk inspiration and also something a bit more colorful than the drab appearance deep ones usually get.
Rachel Denton's links:
Instagram
Patreon
Artstation
The Husk of Twitter
As a note, this reminds me of some past concepts of my own (which I resisted showing her until she was done because didn't want to influence her) but also reminds me of a video game named Call of the Sea.
Call of the Sea is an otherworldly tale of mystery and love set in the 1930s South Pacific. Explore a lush island paradise, solve puzzles an
In any case, I'm going to build a couple of characters off of this picture. And, because I feel like rolling dice. I'm going to start with Sentinels Comics.
Step 1 - Background
Roll, 7 and 10.
Options
7: Academic
10: Military
17 (7+10): Interstellar
I've done Academic recently, there is an amphibious alien species in sentinels, though they don't look like the picture above.
But it does mean that the idea of aquatic aliens is there. And I'm not sure I've done an Interstellar background, at least not in easy memory.
I think I will put the d12 into hmmm.... I'm going to say Deep Space Knowledge, and the d6 into Investigation.
For Esoteric principal, I'm grabbing Principal of the Sea:
And now on we go.
Step 2 - Power Source
Roll, 3, 5, and 6
Options
3: Genetic
5: Mystical
6: Nature
8 (3+5): Powered Suit
9 (3+6): Radiation
11 (5+6): Supernatural
There's a few magical interstellar characters in the canon of the setting, the picture doesn't seem to point to Powered Suit everything else seems likely. I've done a Genetic recently. I generally enjoy doing Supernatural... but I think I might do Radiation this time. No, actually, I am going with Mystical.
Okay, I'm going to assign the d10 to Awareness, d8 to Toxic (from Materials category), and d6 to Telepathy (from Psychic category).
For abilities, I'm taking Sever Link using Awareness and Modification Wave using Toxic.
For the extra Information quality, I'm taking Magical Lore.
And to the next step.
Step 3 - Archetype
Rolled 1, 7, 8
Options:
1: Speedster
7: Armored
8: Flyer
9: Elemental Manipulator
15: Wild Card
Hmm, I think I'm going to go for Wild Card.
I think I'm going to go with d10 Vitality, d8 Persuasion, and d8 Close Combat.
For abilities I'm going for Multitask with Vitality and Gimmick for Close Combat.
Then for the yellow ability, I'm going for Expect the Unexpected.
For the Principle, going with Justice.
And now for the next step.
Step 4 - Personality
Rolled: 8 and 9.
Options:
8: Fast-Talking
9: Inquisitive
17 (8+9): Naive
I've been having the image of her as an interstellar explorer, so I think I'm going to go with Inquisitive.
The background quality will be Star-Hopping Deep One.
Step 5 - Red Abilities
For Red Abilities I can choose.
Athletics powers
Intellectual powers
Materials powers
Psychic powers
Information qualities
Mental qualities
Physical qualities
Social Qualities
I think I'll go with Push Your Limits and Aware Response.
Aware Response goes with Investigation.
Step 6 - Retcon
Going to take a third Red Ability in the form of Impenetrable Defense with Toxic.
So it's been a while since I posted anything. I finally managed to upload photos of the tournament I went to a month ago. It's been so long since the tournament though that I don't really remember the games that well. I must have got caught up playing to remember to take photos too, so they are pretty sporadic and incomplete. I will do a small write-up to accompany the pics eventually, but for now I have managed to get my hands on a Warmachine: Wrath book and have been checking out the most recent caster addition to Toruk's army:
Lord Exhumator Scaverous
Scaverous is an interesting caster - He has access to some great debuffs, but is no Denegrah. He has a high armor (for Cryx) and a decently-powered Thresher attack, but is no Terminus. To me he seems to be a jack-of-all-trades utility caster with a very interesting kit of spells (and a feat to make great use of them). The ultimate spell at his disposal is Telekinesis (TK) and I have been thinking about models for a potential list specifically catered to locking down the enemy and denying their actions and movement.
The Ripjaw
Warwitch Sirens
Pistol Wraiths
Gorman Di Wulf
Machine Wraith
Ripjaws fill the arc-node role, but also have a special attack called vice lock. An enemy model hit by vice-lock is unable to advance for one round. This ability shines when used in conjunction with TK. TK can spin the enemy model around to face its own team. The Ripjaw then can advance/charge and perform Vice Lock with a +2 to hit. The killer is that model can't even turn around as facing is done as part of an advance. A 5 point Ripjaw can potentially lock down a 9-13 point heavy (as long as they don't have 360 vision) just by biting them in the ass. The Ripjaw can continue to arc as well as it is engaging the locked model, but the locked model is not engaging the Ripjaw. Nasty.
The Warwitch Sirens inflict Shadowbind on an enemy that they hit. This means that the model can't advance except to change facing. A little less useful than vice lock with TK, but it can still render an enemy reach-less model useless. A shadowbound enemy can't even make ranged attacks, as it will be in melee with the siren. Their Magic Ability: Venom also synergises well with Scaverous's feat which gives all friendly faction spells boosted attack rolls. Damn gurls' you nasty.
Pistol Wraiths bring Chain Attack: Chill to the table. If they manage to hit with both of their attacks, they can make another attack which forces the enemy model hit to sacrifice either their movement or their action next turn. A TK'd model facing his own army will either have to sit and do nothing, or sacrifice his action just so he can turn the right way. Also nasty.
I've written about Gorman before, and all we are interested in here is his Black Oil. Similar to the Pistol Wraiths, anything hit by it must sacrifice its movement or action. The kicker is that it stacks with Chain Attack: Chill. Nasty with a capital 'N'.
Finally the Machine Wraith can inflict some real headaches on a Warmachine army. If it manages to meld, it interupts both the Warcasters focus resources and their activation (the Warcaster must activate in order to attempt to boot the wraith out). This can give a vice-locking Ripjaw some breathing space. Alternatively, against Hordes armies it can still block charge lanes or go hunting important solos. You guessed it - nasty.
I am going to order him soon and will write further about his performance once I give him a go. I will also try running him with Croe's for the bonus back-strike die with TK (if I have any friends left from the nastiness).
