The Harbinger of Ferocity

D&D 5e - The Lost Lands

The Town

The Mystical Martin,
Currently

The gnome shrugged, as seemingly happy to have this outcome as any other. Their complaints and concerns really did not appear to affect him, not that he hadn't heard them - on the contrary, his eyes were lively and he leaned in throughout the conversation despite his perch atop the large wood windowsill. Whatever school of the mind and thought the little man consctibed to did not realize or know actual concern. He had some experience with the darkness, enough to see a whole town disappear, but had no real surrender of his odd, almost hysterical approach to life.

"Don't be sad! There are plenty of things that uhm, come back here. Just not the shadows... yet... but that is a guess." Birbin answered the downtrodden cat of Katia, closing and latching the window by him.

With a hop he was back to the floor and going over to their two bottles of healing elixir, to which he gathered up. "Don't forget these. I am not sure if the rules apply to you! Birbin hasn't tried for himself... but Birbin knows the townsfolk used to come back. They were from here though."

The bottles clattered audibly as he hefted them and their deep crimson contents, obscured by the dark green glass they were crafted from. He presented them to Katia, passing by the rest of the entourage that was Wick, Cesar, Theodore and Thea. It was clear that despite his frustrating nature, the gnome probably had no idea what a grudge was; a better wizard might have been flustered at these events, but the purple Birbin was not exactly good at being a wizard.

Presenting them he added only with, "When the sun comes up, we can find the Green Man and go save the town! Or you can..." Birbin paused tilting his head, "Come to think of it, you are now the town's heroes! That means you can go to the Hall and get inside!"

"That is a great idea! We can go when you wake up and find our missing friend, fight the baddies and save the day!"

Effects

Score
Town

Map
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@Big Dread, @Cu Chulainn, @Gordian Nought, @Hekazu, @JBRam2002, @Zverda

"You Are Your Avatar"

@Conch Shell VII, @Majoras End, @CollectorOfMyst

"You 'killed' the darkness as best you could manage. As for our quarry, it found itself fit to flee, but now..." The great cat's eyes washed over the strange text and whatever it had just done to both girl and apple, then back to the man upon his knees, "There's something new, a gate of sorts."

The other company appeared to be a yet another young woman, a prince of some kind who introduced himself as "Endar", and one of the faces of death that manifest as a tiny reaper shouldering a blade as an old man would a cane. The ferine soul paused for a moment, looking toward Jane then back again, certain that the man was more coherent the longer time went on and the more he caught his breath. Things were changing yet again, as swiftly as ever; overwhelming him when he recovered from a seeming brink of exhaustion would do no one any good, least of all not the uneasy truce.

Its tremendous jaws, flanked by deadly curved blades of ivory teeth as long as a forearm, drew more momentarily tight before it spoke again.

"These two, the younger, seem to know one another to some extent, or at least the other girl who disappeared into the book."

The GMing Catch 22

There is no shame to be had in being direct to a fault. Being so forward and explicit to the point people might think their feelings hurt really is better for everyone. There exists no room to be misinterpreted or misunderstood when you emphasize, consistently throughout I might add and not just in one specific case, that you are making an executive decision. Traditionally, I will negotiate with players or hear them out, but make a decision either way that favors the overall goal of what I am doing and the game I am running. Furthermore, coming predominantly from a tabletop realm, I will always side with the player who has the rules citation and defer to the official ruling on it; when there exists no such rule, I create a universal rule everyone is held to. Exceptions might exist in extreme circumstances, specific beats general, but those are few and far between with me.

It is transparency at its finest in this approach. No less, I take it even in the games I am a participant in. I will be as blunt with you as I can be to show exactly what I have in mind and why. I absolutely disdain politicking and playing instances of "Mother may I?". Roleplays are most often, at least here, among a group of people and with that group they wish to be roleplaying rather than arguing. Wasting more time on that puts everyone worse off.

As for being intolerant and trying to be right, they do have a point in my specific case. Either you are right or you are not right is my perception of things. Why? If I am the Game Master, how else could I be wrong unless I violated one of my own rulings? And with intolerance, either something does or does not fit into the world and work I am building for players to then build off of. Simple, or so I see it. Shades of grey are unneeded in something as simple and less than nuanced as a roleplay topic.

"You Are Your Avatar"

@CollectorOfMyst, @Majoras End

"You almost seem... worried." The Harbinger's low voice added to the ambiance that followed the wake of the exchange, looking over both the apparent young mage and the silent girl who drew her weapon. The great sabertoothed tensed none in response to either of these outcomes, not that it was disassociated from them but rather that it knew better than to be too forward in its challenges. After all, the rules of this place seemed to change like the chaos of just earlier; from one moment a place of learning then to a jungle, across an expanse and then into this ruin.

With a blink of its ferine, vibrant golden eyes it then continued in turn, "For the most part the threat seems to have passed."

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

I'm honestly surprised the difference is that small. Seem's like I very rarely heard about homicides in the news when I was there.

@Penny

I believe one can more readily attribute that to the focus of media and outlets. In the United States the "controversy" about ownership and firearms, as well as their relation to crime, is a well loved topic of public interest, as is any scandal or terrorist attack. Firearms just earn more attention because it stirs up people's emotions and also, uniquely, has a very important role in American history. Consider me none too shocked to hear that Australia was not focused on homicides in their news.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

@Penny

Loyalty was in reference to if you claim the United States or another nation as part of your identity and allegiance, or as some do now, claim to just be "people". I mentioned it only because of your previous commentary that states you have moved from one or more nations. Not wanting to assume anything, I brought that up. Given you have a very transactional, to use your words, relationship that is as answered as it need be. To be honest, this particular feline is hardly surprised.

At least you are consistent with your record and likewise I do not believe I need give my particular and personal feelings on my perspective of the United States again. Perhaps some of the newcomers, or those rejoining, to the topic might wish to do so.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

@Penny

I would not consider that to be quite the same. Others might have differing opinions on it, as I am sure they do, but to me that appears to be more closely related to opportunity, availability, and reality rather than heartfelt support for the United States. Correct me if I am wrong there as I would like to hear your actual opinion and place in patriotism or loyalties rather than be left to appearances and assumptions.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

@POOHEAD189

I believe that the current use of nationalism as some sort of exclusively pejorative word is newspeak. I have stated before my belief that nationalism has as much potential to do tremendous good as it can inflict harm and that there are countless forms and incarnations of it. I am under no illusion that Soviet nationalism was really positive for anyone, to include the Soviets themselves, just as I hold the same belief for nationalistic Nazi Germany. This is of course ignoring incredible discoveries and advancements of the world, because terrible acts of atrocity were committed under those banners of which nationalism was tied into; there is no denying that.

However, because nationalism in the United States is manifest most commonly by patriotism, even to some extremes, I see no real or tangible danger in it. The country that is in question has too diverse an idea of what it means to be nationalist, patriotic, or even American in practice, rather than word. It is not likely to drum up some horror like a mass genocide, even if provoked and panicked. No less, it certainly does have claim to being a "superior nation" as many First World Nations could also grasp at, although it has added elements to this proclamation that make it more credible. It is the last true superpower - not forever of course, but in this time it is still the largest and most prominent player whose competition are attempting to chase after; I am not just speaking militarily either.

Its people are diverse, from virtually any and all backgrounds, making them reasonably "the best" because of the multitude of differing cultures and ideals all the way on down to genetics. It has a history or prioritizing its citizens and state over that of others, something naturally beneficial to those who live within its confines, reasonably to some detriment of outsiders while remaining not callous to them as a whole in the process. There's minimal comparative suppression and repression of the populace, allowing even extreme forms of dissent and minority to hold very loud and at times powerful voices. So on and so forth - all luxuries in other nations, if present at all in them.

To me, it is hard to believe that more people are not somehow nationalistic or patriotic in the United States.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

@POOHEAD189

They do not exclusively prove your point, not at all actually. In the context of what @mdk said, they are pretty true to the angle he was advocating. No less, I purposefully mentioned Google and discredited it because I went right to several sources of varying leanings to get the answers. Google is an excellent tool to search the internet with and learn by its results, but a very poor source in itself as with Wikipedia. They do not tell the entire truth or the contextual truth, which to some lengths is their own fault and others just the practicality or reality of the situation.

Point being, you cannot issue an "Ah-ha!" as with "No, it's more like that's some dictionary bullshit, cuz it's the legit definition." because if you take everything literally as is and out of context, without accounting for the other components involved, more so out of character for the person speaking, there's no real reason to even hold a discussion. If we devolved to that in a topic as diverse as nationalism and what people are talking about in it then we are all going to be talking about different things. Again, the particular brand of what we are discussing is not that. I am fairly certain there's no actual jingoist or narrow nationalism at hand.

The purpose of linking the results of the dictionary searches was to prove that is not the exclusive use of nationalism. It might be how people are starting to use it, certainly, as well how they do now with patriotism as a whole, but that does not make it unerringly accurate.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

@POOHEAD189

I would beg to largely differ on that particular front. Of course there are other definitions of it, as is typical with modern language, but this was the only major one I could find. Mind you I did not spend much time investigating this any further, but the only other similar result is just searching the word in Google or on Wiktionary, both of which are notoriously biased narrators.