WilloftheWest

A common thread between the two short stories of this week are questing and unanticipated consequences of said questing. Both serve, in referencing previous Dream Cycle tales, to establish this set of tales in a continuous and connected canon of the Dreamlands. This is particularly interesting as again it suggests a connectivity between dreams beyond the imaginations of their dreamers. Can we really say that these dreams belong to the dreamers of those previous stories, or do these dreamers in fact travel to some independent place in dream?

The Quest of Iranon is are more tragic tale, telling of a different kind of madness resulting in lifelong dissatisfaction, loneliness, and a feeling of never truly belonging. Our protagonist Iranon has spent almost his entire life as a wandering bard, his purple travelling cloak in tatters. His wandering is not borne of wanderlust; he is an exiled scion from the marvellous city of Aira, whose location is now unknown to him and any that he asks. Wherever he wanders, he draws a crowd as he laments for his homeland, though inevitably his audience dwindles. Having effectively been driven out of the latest settlement that he has visited, he finds a travelling companion in a young boy Romnod who has become disenfranchised from his city's culture of hard toil and abstinence from the arts and other forms of pleasure.

Iranon and Romnod wander for years towards a city beyond the mountains. Iranon seemingly does not age at all during this time, though Romnod grows, experiences puberty, and finally overtakes Iranon in age. In the city of Oonai they find some satisfaction: Iranon has widespread recognition of his talents and Romnod finds liquor and partying. They grow content there and eventually fall to decadence. Iranon gradually loses his audience until the only listener left is Romnod, who soon thereafter dies from an excess of drink and partying.

Iranon leaves Oonai, continuing on his quest for Aira. One night he comes along a squalid cottage and elderly shepherd, and asks once more for news of Aira. The shepherd in fact has something to say of Aira. As a child he played long with a child who considered himself a lost scion of the city of Aira. This boy would constantly sing laments of Aira until one day running away in search of Aira. The moment of denouement comes when the shepherd names his long lost friend Iranon.

As if released from a spell, Iranon ages rapidly until he too is an old man. Knowing finally that his quest is in vain, he wanders into the lethal quicksands and towards his death.

In this tale we see reference to two previous Dream Cycle stories: Polaris and The Doom That Came to Sarnath. He notes that he has "gazed on the marsh where Sarnath once stood" and that he has been "to Thraa, Ilarnek, and Kadatheron (N.B. confusingly not related to Unknown Kadath, the namesake of a later story) on the winding river Ai (N.B. no relation to the city of Aira), and dwelt long in Olathoë, in the land of Lomar."

There has been some debate over which of the dream tales actually take place in the waking world, as Polaris certainly takes place in Dream but hints at a long dead (and lost to historical record) hyperborean city of Olathoë. A tale from last week, The Nameless City certainly takes place entirely in the waking world, yet makes reference to Sarnath in the land of Mnar. I'm inclined to believe that they may be analogous locations dreamt up by ancient societies of the waking world, though I can't support that with references in the literature. It's simply my head-canon to justify locations being referenced both within and without the Dreamlands.

‘We have put up with them for two years but I’ve had enough.

‘They are in such a hurry to beat everyone to the food they spoil everything.

‘We are supposed to be a buffet but they eat everything out of the bowls before people can get there. We just can’t keep doing this.’

I have no sympathy for the guys. They sound like pigs.

My go to is the Call of Cthulhu Sessions, moody jazz mixed with noir and ambient horror. Even though it’s anachronistic, I also use it for my gaslight games, as ragtime doesn’t lend itself to horror.

These are actually my table’s favourite type interactions. Comically appropriate flubs. The funniest one from recent memory is playing arkham horror (card game with a bag if random tokens). I was attempting a dex check against falling down some stairs and was fine for every token in the bag except for the “you fail” chaos token. So confident was I that I declared “watch this”, a maneuver where I bet money and double my bet on a success.

Well I pull the crit fail token, lose all my money, tumble down the stairs taking damage, and land in a room with a fellow wanting a fight.

Edit: I remember the instance that began our fascination with fumbles. Playing the Witcher RPG, I was a dwarf merchant, another player a witcher. Coming up against a locked door, I declared that I was dramatically diving through the window. My Reflexes (REF) are abysmal but I play my characters suicidal anyway. Rolled a 10 on a d10 (dice explode), rolled another 10, etc. rolled a 36 with 3 REF, which means my unadjusted roll was 33.

The witcher, not wanting to be upstaged and having super high REF, dives through another window. Only he rolls a 1 (which explodes, except the total die roll is subtracted from your REF score). Naturally he fails and gashes his leg on a shard of glass. And thus an obsession with fumbling rolls was born

It’s always disappointing news when business gets in the way of creativity. Hoping Zedeck can move swiftly onto new writing endeavours where his input is properly valued!

I feel your pain when browsing local or all for new communities. Luckily bots are usually marked as such. I just block them whenever they pop up. I sort by new by default and I find that the new page refreshes at a decent pace without bots. It’s enjoyable to be completely caught up within a 10-15 min window, rather than doomscrolling as a force of habit.

I've heard of him from others. I got the Red brick recommendation from someone who keeps up with the coffee side of social media.

I swear by Red Brick espresso from Square Mile.

Of late I've become a North Star drinker, great coffee from a Leeds based roaster. Easy to pop into when I visit the Royal Armouries.

I advertise Lemmy in general as a content aggregator that isn't trying to sell you stuff, with an early net small community do it yourself feel. I advertise Feddit-uk by saying that I'm here ;)

Looking slick. Definitely jealous with my hand grinder and moka pot.

It's been a while since I've run D&D but there's some info to be gleaned from how Pathfinder runs swarms. My procedure is based off of some PF2e rules together with some house rulings for off the cuff swarms, and is intended to be quick, minimising admin and adding some exciting flavour to the encounter:

• Choose your creature(s) which occupy the swarm

• Set the AC to the lowest AC among creatures in the swarm

• Don't worry about the precise number of creatures in a swarm. Just do it based on size. If you want a rough idea of how many creatures fit into a swarm of a certain size, have 4-6 creatures of the same size occupy a space one size category larger. 4-6 groups of creatures of a certain size form a group of one size category larger.

• Take average HP of the most populous creature in the swarm. For each size category the swarm is above that creature's size category, multiply that average HP by 4.

• Characters can occupy the same space as the swarm with no penalty

• Any creature sharing space with the swarm is automatically hit, assign damage based on the median among damage values in the swarm (5 snakes and 8 kobolds, probably does the damage of a kobold. Could roll luck to see if they take a random venomous bite)

• Swarms are immune to grapple, restrained, prone, etc. Swarms are vulnerable to area spells.

• Optional: Mind altering magic could affect a swarm hive mind as if the swarm is a single creature. This is completely discretionary. You could probably manipulate a swarm of bees with a single charm spell, but not a city-spanning mob.

• Optional: Give resistance to B/P/S damage. If a significant number of creatures in the swarm have a resistance (down to your judgement), add that resistance to the swarm.

• Optional: Characters in the middle of a swarm could probably swing wildly and hit something. Give players advantage if they are attacking the swarm while stood in the swarm

• Optional: Be narrative about the health of the swarm. Every so often mention one or two of the swarm falling dead or disengaging from the conflict.