The Harbinger of Ferocity

Post a random fact about yourself.

“When a great thinker despises men, it is their laziness they despise: for it is on account of this that they have the appearance factory products and seem indifferent and unworthy of companionship or instruction. The human being who does not wish to belong to the mass must merely cease being comfortable with himself; let him follow his conscious which shouts at him: 'Be yourself! What you are at present doing, opining, and desiring, that is not really you.'”

Nietzsche

Perhaps no truer expression for the sum of my experiences can be made than this. The first component, the notion of the laziness of man, is something I despise right to my core; that people are complacent and ill to be moved. The second of these truths is that beyond any shadow of doubt, it is entirely my experience that to be who and what I am now, to have been actualized to some extent, I needed to cease being comfortable with myself and the thoughts that what I was told do, believe, and want in life, that none of it was ever truly me. Only when I freed myself from those things and accepted the discomfort of it all that I began to really understand anything at all. What an illusion and a lie I had lived, one I managed to escape from only by personal study and great trial.

What Are You Listening To?

Why

No added comment needed.

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

It was no simple matter, the escape from the confines of the tent, but Brannor had not once led himself to any delusion it would be. At the onset of evening his captors herded them, the slaves and captives, together like sheep, though the people seemed all too wary of him. What did they know? What rumors circled in their huddled, hushed circles? What stories had they heard? Enough, so it seemed, that when they were at last allowed to rest upon the earthen floor. Fortunately the company of an ally had arrived and awaited with him throughout the onset of the night - the somewhat crazed, somewhat lucid old man in one of many disguises he seemed to where. Just what he was, was a mystery in its whole, but what he did make for was one particularly convincing animal.

To and fro the druid scuttled and scurried upon tiny clawed feet, drawing the attention of the eyes of the night. Warily, having slept only lightly seated where he was, the captive noted the touch of the rat and the soft chirp of a squeak it gave. Initially the man thought it was one of the wandering vermin of the camp, but the recall returned to him when sleep was dispelled in full; Torus, yet again. At first the man noted it was well time to go, but to the sharpened senses so bestowed upon him, something was... sickly, wrong, off.

It took a few moments of awkward delay, perhaps to the frustration of the shapeshifted form entrusted with him, but the huntsman-knight knew just what it was, what bothered him so. Smoke, pungent and sweet, something he had scented before on the wind and something in concentration around but one man who carried with him a pipe. Where it came from it was not clear initially, but while not the erudite of thinkers, Brannor was wise. The most obvious approach, the most obvious escape was out the open door flap of the tent, which the majority of slaves gathered near and by. It was a trap laid in plain sight for any would be escapee, something he might well not have noticed was under watch or even thought to - after all, who would be so bold but him to even dare? Let alone was not shacked to another?

The bone-knife at this point made itself of use, but not as carefully as he had first hoped, for when he finished freeing the connecting bond between his hands, the ferine eyes came to note the others of the tent cowered and huddled out of fear. Whatever they knew, the fact now he was free made them far, far more frightened. Yet the powerfully built man paid them no real mind, instead content to poke the gently the company of Torus in the side of his fur. With a nod, he communicated what little he could in silence, suggesting an alternative way out, one which the clever druid exploited in a breath; the slave tent, pitched poorly and hastily, had a gap beneath it and the ground, one which the vermin impostor exploited with resounding ease, slipping under and away. Delaying for a bit, the man laid flat initially and watched his cohort scamper across, drawing the attention of the smoking man whose face lit with the glow of his pipe.

So it was true that he was keeping watch on the entrance, to which the wilder could only thank the Pale Lady for her blessing that so enabled him to do as he needed to do and know as he needed to know. What he did next was instinct, slinking upon his hands and feet in the darkness, blending among the grass and earth, vanishing under and behind the tent. The observer seemed not to notice, or if he did he feigned naivety, but the wild warrior did not end his deeds there, instead creeping along until he broke from the man's breadth of vision and followed on behind the druid.

By divine grace or sheer luck, he had escaped, but time was short. They needed to find the others and manage the issue of the monk...

Rolls

Brannor makes a Sleight of Hand check to cut his binds, rolling a 4, 14 with circumstantial advantage. From there, he is left to wonder where next to go as they cannot escape by the means of the entrance due to a watchman, being unable to know what is outside. As such, given Brannor would be blindly leaving and trying to escape the tent without detection, he rolls a 1, but has Torus providing advantage by following the same route. He then proceeds to sneak by, succeeding by having advantage from using the natural cover and concealment as per his natural instinct to do so cancel out his armor's disadvantage. He rolls a 23 to evade detection.

@Hekazu@Ryonara@Lucius Cypher@Gordian Nought@Norschtalen

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

I believe the message is still in your court at the moment, @Hekazu, unless that was the end of it and its details.

Revenge of the Dragon

I am still interested, mostly just left at a point of waiting is the issue. I believe that might be the problem for a few of us, is that we need input from the non-player characters at this point, twice over now as we did something manage to split the group. Granted I can understand the slow turn thanks to that.

What Are You Listening To?

Can You Feel the Love Tonight (Cover)

I am obligated to enjoy this after being shown it. A cover of perhaps the second most famous song in the Lion King? Essential to its appreciation.

Post a random fact about yourself.

I have but only four characters who I truly maintain, though I have had others in the past. They have either all finished their story arcs or have been put on hold for the four primary ones to carry out their interests. Uniquely, in almost no circumstance have any of these characters ever been found in an actual roleplay, as I do not try to wedge characters in, rather I attempt to dynamically develop one for each game I find myself in to best fit the world and its theme.

Post a random fact about yourself.

I am a lucid dreamer and in many cases where I exert no influence, being only a participant rather than the guide, I use dream symbolism and messages to influence and orient my direction. Primarily by lifting archetypal imagery or symbolism itself, I have found that I can reasonably and to some extent even reliably, use the unconscious information and urges that surface as a means to understand conflicts or issues I am confronted with due to their abstract or often strange imagery. In some ways I enjoy them more than lucid manipulations.

Post a random fact about yourself.

The more I delve into self reflection and assessment, namely through various disciplines of psychology, the more I find myself greeted by agreeable and far more terribly disagreeable portions of my being. In a way the "we", the self and the shadow, come to a point of debate and argue decisions or directions internally. Consistently I have come to note that the more I deviate from the norm inherently, not by conscious design, the more I find contentment with myself through that internalization and improvement to individualization; that I care not that I am eccentric and unusual naturally, but more that I am in fact proud of that. Yet as one indeed imagines this places me at odds to the social norms and customs, where it then becomes a game to remain a distinct entity with agency, yet find a way to work it into the system at place for both to achieve desired ends without disruption.

A long story short, I invest a fair amount of time into self assessment and I am equally pleased and frustrated with myself as a result.

Post a random fact about yourself.

I lack any semblance of artistic talent perhaps short of writing. I can play no instruments, I can sing no songs, I can neither draw nor paint, and traditionally artistic pursuits elude me. Writing, however? That arose out of need, at least in the sense that I had no other outlet to turn to.