It's Good to be Alive

Got all these nice stickers added in packs/sheets to redbubble, meaning you don’t have to buy them one by one. Suggestions for other designs?

In olden days, before industrial clothing manufacturing was a thing, people used to own a single set of clothes. Medieval wanted posters and missing posters often described people by what clothes they wore, because the idea of them switching clothes as unlikely. Giving somebody new clothes was a big thing, and giving them your clothes as collateral meant you put a lot of trust in them.

!!! I created my own band full of cuties their called acid blue, blue haired is named Amara Afro bassist is named Jia and the blonde lead singer is named Ava

Hope you love them as much as I do

Hope 2019 I can post way more than I sadly did in 2018

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japanese creatures

greek creatures

creatures organised by type

creatures listed by letter

humanoid creatures

filipino creatures

chinese creatures

cryptids

‘fearsome critters’

angels

beings referred to as fairies

creatures that pretend to be human

a page on therianthropic creatures

shapeshifters

hybrid creatures

extraterrestrial creatures

deities

a page of mythology page links

a section of folklore page links

flying creatures

theological demons

fictional species lists

mythology related lists

I’ve been working on a post-war dieselpunk D&D setting complete with a wild-magic wasteland full of “mutants”.

“Hook Horror Sketch” © Matheus Graef, accessed at his ArtStation page here

[This run of conversions is going to be for monsters with a special place in my heart–creatures that I ran or wanted to run in games I DMed in high school and college. Join me, won’t you, for some self-indulgent nostalgia.

First up, the hook horror, which may have been one of the things that got me into D&D in the first place. When I was 10 or so, I was on a Boy Scout trip and the older boys were playing D&D. I wasn’t allowed to play, but I did get to flip through the 2e Monstrous Compendium, and I fell in love with Tony DiTerlizzi’s artwork. Some pieces of his that I remember with special fondness were his ankheg, kobold and hook horror.]

Hook Horror This bipedal creature resembles a cross between a beetle and a man, with a beaked head like a vulture. Its eyes are white, and its powerful arms end in long bony hooks.

Hook horrors are subterranean omnivores feared and prized for their strength and ferocity. Their diet consists mostly of fungi of both mundane and monstrous varieties, but they do savor the taste of meat. Drow flesh is a particular favorite, although whether this is for its flavor or the satisfaction of dispatching a hated enemy is uncertain. Hook horrors also enjoy the taste of silver items, and swallow them to keep their digestion running smoothly.

Hook horrors have slow metabolisms and spend much of their time sleeping, but they are ferocious if riled. They prefer to strike from ambush if possible, using their maneuverability when climbing to set up elevated perches from which to leap. Their long hooks make sweeping attacks that knock foes off balance, and they are skilled at tearing away armor and shields. Hook horrors hate bright lights, and will more readily flee from enemies wielding them.

Hook horrors are of near-human intelligence and speak their own stridulating language by rasping special noisemaking organs together. This language is difficult to speak for creatures other than hook horrors, but can be simulated with a stringed instrument. They live in family groups ruled by the eldest female, usually one past reproductive age. Hook horrors are egg-layers that guard their eggs communally—hook horrors will fight to the death in defense of their children. They tend to be short lived, and a forty year old specimen is considered ancient.

The photo above is the closest humanity has ever come to creating Medusa. If you were to look at this, you would die instantly. 

The image is of a reactor core lava formation in the basement of the Chernobyl nuclear plant. It’s called the Elephant’s Foot and weighs hundreds of tons, but is only a couple meters across.

Yeah, this is a selfie. The guy set the timer on the camera and went and stood by it, and it produced this horrifying image that now haunts my dreams. The reason all the photos from Chernobyl are grainy and poor-quality, by the way, is due to radiation. The cameras were fine; radiation just… does that.

Anyway, that guy’s name is Artur Korneyev- and I use ‘is’ because he’s still alive! He helped to build the original sarcophagus which encased reactor 4 after the meltdown, and kept going back inside with reporters to be like ‘look how fuckin weird this is’. He helped plan the New Safe Confinement which now surrounds the sarcophagus, and would probably have helped build it too if they didn’t full-on ban him.

A quote:

‘Korneyev’s sense of humor remained intact, though. He seemed to have no regrets about his life’s work. “Soviet radiation,” he joked, “is the best radiation in the world.”‘

Possibly the coolest guy alive? I’m tempted to think so.

Honestly, I feel like Chernobyl has been shunted into this category of like, ‘a lot of innocent and naive people died horribly’, when in reality a lot of tough as fuck people saved everybody else. The oft-told story of the ‘suicide mission’ to dive into the reactor and open the valves of the pool? Yeah, all three of the men who dove lived. One died in 2005 of heart failure; the other two are still alive.

A total of 31 direct and 15 indirect deaths are thought to have occurred from the Chernobyl disaster. Long-term deaths are… difficult to measure. Oh, and there’s a few hundred people still living in the exclusion zone.

If you’re at all interested, I really recommend reading up about Chernobyl- and, in particular, what was done to contain it and deal with the radiation. This is a beautiful write-up, and the wiki page is also worth checking out.  A lot of people did absolutely incredible work and it goes unrecognised most of the time.

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So recently I had a post about how cults should be designed (IMO). I mentioned the four cults present in the D&D module Princes of the Apocalypse and said how those were really bad examples. Due to some interest, I decided to make this post that elaborates on how I have altered those four cults to make them more realistic and interesting.

Why I Dislike the Original PoA Cults

In the original book, the Players are supposed to face off against 4 cults: the Black Earth, Howling Hatred, Crushing Wave, and Eternal Flame. Each of them have a leader (referred to as “prophet”) and work semi-together to summon super powerful creatures called “Princes.” The book also mentions that they all serve the “Elemental Eye.” Here are my problems with this set up:

We don’t ever get told what the Elemental Eye is. It seems to be just a pedestal or an unnamed entity. But it’s never explained.

The cults work together. This makes them all just fade into each other. There’s no drama because now the players are just fighting a large group that happens to have 4 leaders.

The cults all have the same goal but very little distinguishing elements in terms of their philosophy or approach to said goal.

So let’s try to fix this…

Elemental Eye

I hate that this aspect is never explained. It was just so very vague and yet its what commands the four cults. Supposedly, the Eye has given the cults their power and influence. In turn, it will somehow eventually inform the cult leaders on what ritual to conduct to summon their respective Princes. The Eye does this only WHEN the Party kills the first two Prophets. So I changed it all around.

The Eye is a physical thing. It is a stone of great power, supposedly locked within the altar in Fane of the Eye dungeon. In my story, the Eye calls forth the four Prophets, but informs them that it will only choose the STRONGEST among them. This is important and I’ll discuss why below. But now it is a physical thing and once ONE of the Prophets proves themselves powerful enough, the Eye is gifted to this person. All others die upon touching the Eye.

Lastly, to get to the eye, each Prophet has to prove that THEIR cult is the strongest and has the most influence. They do this by getting the most recruits and building beacons across the valley. The beacons are something that you can see in the module’s artbook section, although they’ve been cut from the final game. I re-inserted them as buildings that would be a sign of the cults’ growing in power. Your PCs can stumble onto these as they explore the valley. The cult that proves to be most influential, gets to summon their Prince.

The Cults DO NOT Work Together

Around the Renaissance Era, the Christian church had several divisions. New branches and sects appeared all over Europe, and started fighting over who is the TRUE CHRISTIAN church. They all believed in the same God and Jesus. What was different is how they worshiped these figures. The result was a complex political game fought between these powerful and rich churches over the souls of their followers and the influence over Europe. These conflicts ended with people fleeing Europe, the Catholic Church setting people on fire, and a very powerful shift in the politics of the time.

I think, that’s a pretty interesting story. So why are the cults of PoA just working together, with some minor issues between them? I say cut them the fuck apart. They are four individual cults. They believe in the same deity (the Eye) but go about worshiping it in different ways. They each have their own beliefs and philosophies that conflict with one another, and pit them against each other. Why do we do this? Because 4 DIFFERENT baddies is better than 1 four headed baddie. This conflict between the cults, allows the Players to play a large and complex game of politics, where they play off each of the cults against one another to get them to destroy each other. PCs might ally with one cult, only to get into a big mess and have ANOTHER cult offer them help in return for betraying their former allies. In the end, you get a Game of Thrones level game of politics and alliances.

Unique Cults

Now all of the four cults want the same thing: summon forth their elemental daddy. The problem with this, they might just meld into each other and become very similar. So we have to differentiate them in three ways:

How they present themselves (identity).

What do they believe in (philosophy).

How they act during combat (gameplay).

If you distinguish EACH of these, you get distinctly diverse cults. Below is going to be MY breakdown of how I distinguish each of the Elemental Cults.

Howling Hatred Storm.

Change that fuckin’ name. No one will wanna be a part of a group called “Howling Hatred.” Bad guy groups usually pick actually socially OKAY names, otherwise they won’t get any supporters. Let’s call them “Howling Storm” or “Howling Wind.” ANYTHING else but HATRED!

Identity/Philosophy. The wind is fickle and full of lies. The leader of the cult, one Aerisi Kalinoth, pretends to be a winged elf by creating fake wings using illusions. Their main outpost is filled with cultists who PRETEND to be knights. The whole thing reeks of deception and illusion. So I made that their selling point. Make your dreams a reality is the tag line for this cult. They convince people to join, so that when THEIR Prince is summoned he can blanket the world in an illusive state, where everyone’s best dream will come true. Of course, they will all live in a constant dream state, but it doesn’t matter. People who are depressed enough would be willing to fall into eternal sleep if it is guaranteed to make them and their friends forever happy. This is what Aerisi offers. She appeals to the desperate, the depressed, the lonely. She offers them to live out their dreams in an eternal sleep. Kind of like a suicide cult.

Gameplay. This is very simple. The cultists stay airborne as MUCH as possible. Forcing PCs to fight vertically, instead of horizontally, find cover, find ways to fly up as well, climb high structures, etc.

Black Earth

Personally, the Prophet of this cult is my favorite. So to be fair, I don’t much to change about this cult.

Identity/Philosophy. For this cult I ran with the theme of burial. Marlos Urnrayle, the prophet of Black Earth, sells the burying of your past. Made bad choices in life? Did thing you regret? Forget about it. Bury that past, and on the dirt build your life anew. Atop the ruins of old, rise your new home. This would totally get the attention of past criminals and bandits, whose lives have been ruined by their own crimes. Now they can start anew, in an organization that accepts EVERYONE.

Gameplay. Another easy one. You should describe your cultists as being extra tough and hard to break. Maybe give some of them some earth powers, ripped out of Avatar: the Last Airbender. I let my cultists just call forth pillars and stone walls, while others would swim through earth as if it were water.

Eternal Flame

Identity/Philosophy. Compared to the other cults, this one seemed more combative and militaristic. So I ran with that. Vanifer, the cult’s leader, runs a militia. Again, remember that the valley is without any leadership. She offers leadership. Her message is that she is building the army this valley desperately needs and she intends to bring peace and order to this valley, by force if need be. Her selling point is that she promotes discipline and order. People who lack any purpose, live messy lives, or need some kind of a leader-figure to tell them what to do, would fall into this easily. Think of veterans or troops, who after wartime cannot fall back into normal life as they need someone to order them around.

Gameplay. These guys are on FIYAAAA. Make their armor too hot to touch, make being around them uncomfortable. Allow them to be strategically more intelligent, using maneuvers to flank, surprise, and stun their opponents. This is a military organization, after all.

Crushing Wave

Identity/Philosophy. This cult consists of smugglers and pirates. What do pirates stand for? That’s right, an anti-establishment way of life. So the cult preaches FREEDOM. But absolute freedom. In fact, anarchy. Gar seeks a world that he can drown, where only those deemed strong enough can survive and are thus freed from the shackles of social restrictions. This idea of absolute freedom without authority, of being able to live off your own merit and not having to answer to anyone, is something many would like. People who have been duped by corrupt officials, people who dislike the restrictions of society, or dislike social norms. The Wave offers them all a chance to be free of this.

Gameplay. I got Lovecraft vibes from the cult. his cult is led by Gar Shatterkeel, who almost drowned but heard a voice in the oceans that led him to safety. Borderline Cthulhu-esque. SO, I made them all weird and creepy. They talk strange, they walk strange, they tend to stare. Ultimately, while they all fight for absolute freedom, the irony is that they are being manipulated by a primordial entity that is slowly brainwashing them.

Last Point - Diversity

In the book, all cultists (except the prophets) are human. That’s all fine and dandy but I don’t see why it needs to be so. I recommend you make the cults more diverse in their composition. Elves, dwarves, orcs, dragonborn, whatever you got. Not because YAY DIVERSITY or anything. Just because, I think it makes most sense that cults that fight for influence and power, wouldn’t discriminate based on race or gender. This, in fact, could be a selling point for them. Especially if you have racial tensions in your Fantasy setting.

I hope you all find this breakdown of how I modified the cults helpful. Please remember, that these are not “THE BEST WAY TO PLAY.” These are only the best way I found to play. You might find something that fits your campaigns and players better. Special shoutout to @ravenbane13​ (and everyone else who reblogged my last post) for encouraging this piece. I did go a bit longer than I wish, but hey, I hope you find some use in that wall of text.

For more go and check my Instagram.

What is a sigil?

Sigils are symbols representing specific intend and charged with energy to fuel our manifestation. They can be used in all kinds of spells like healing, love or prosperity spells as well for cursing and banishing.

How to create a sigil?

There is a lot of ways of creating sigils. The basic idea is to form a statement (lots of folks prefer to use present time) and to arrange letters into an unrecognizable shapes.

LETTER BASED METHOD. For me it’s the easiest way of making a sigil. First state your intent like “I am safe”. Remove all repeating letters to “IMSFE”. You can simplify the letters and rearrange into a shape. Try as long as you are satisfied with the result. Charge the sigil and use it as you like!

MAGIC SQUARES METHOD. Write down your statement and use squares to form a shape.

LETTER WHEEL METHOD. Here you use a special letter wheel, just like the magic square to form a shape.

DRAWING METHOD. Draw all the symbols that you want to put into your intent. Then rearrange them into a simplified shape.

How to charge a sigil?

Traditionally sigils are charged and then supposed to be forgotten to stay deep in your subconscious, but lots of people keep them and recharge after some time. There is a lot of ways to charge a sigil as it is an act of putting an energy into your shape. 1) Burning the sigil. I guess it’s one of the most popular forms where you can get a big dose of energy as well it tunes in with the traditional ‘forgotten’ idea.  2) Dissolve in water. You can use magic water that works with your intent!  3) Meditating over the sigil with an intent. 4) Using energy work and “pushing” energy into your sigil. 5) Putting the sigil in the sunlight/moonlight. 6) Using crystals to charge a sigil. 7) I also found an interesting method where you talk to other about the sigil! I believe that sharing sigil so others can use it, definitely charge them as each person adds some energy into it! 8) Singing, dancing, chanting or praying over the sigil. 

Every act that trigger some kind of emotions/memories in us is a good form of charging a sigil if it’s made with intent!

Where to use a sigil?