Skulld Stuff

^ me when I was very young, thumbsucking in the living room and my brother when he was even younger, gamecubing in the same living room surrounded by our toys

Short story for those who have not seen the liveblogging as this has unfolded: my grandma died November 2021, responsibility for handling my grandpa’s & disabled uncle’s finances was handed over to my mom. She developed a serious gambling addiction and stole all of their money. My grandpa’s retirement check & my uncle’s disability payments, loans in their names, maxing out their credit cards. She has not paid a single one of our bills in several months, and didn’t tell us until recently when the house people called her & threatened foreclosure. The house is over $6000 past due. Mom swore to help catch up the payments but so far has fallen through on every promise, and threatened to kill herself sooo. Not expecting much.

I can’t post a lot of pics for my family’s privacy but this is thee only real home we have ever had. My grandma is buried in the backyard. My dog is buried in the yard. Not to be dramatically Native American but the gigantic tree my great x3 grandmother planted, which every generation has gathered & played under since, is in this yard. We NEVER imagined this house would ever leave our family. Ma nanka nei- I belong here, and I’m so afraid to leave.

Here is a round-up of all eight of the free digital brush packs that I’ve released so far for Photoshop CC, Clip Studio Paint, and Procreate!

You can download them on this page (click) Type in “0″ for a free download or tip any amount you so desire!

On your phone, go to Settings> Security and Privacy> Privacy> Other Privacy Settings> Ads> Delete Advertising ID

Then go back to Other Privacy Settings> Google location history> Turn off Location History &/or Turn-on Auto-Delete (you can set a time period of how long to keep it)

Then, staying on Other Privacy Settings, go to ’+ See all activity controls’> Web & App activity> Turn off (you can also turn-on Auto-Delete for here too) Then Scroll down to Personalized ads> My Ad Center> Turn Off Personalized Ads.

Google has no business knowing/storing everything you do online, and knowing/storing where you go everyday. Turn it off.

Settings -> privacy -> apple advertising -> turn off.

Settings -> privacy -> analytics and improvements -> share iCloud analytics -> turn off.

Settings -> privacy -> analytics and improvements -> share iPhone analytics -> turn off.

Settings -> privacy -> tracking -> ‘allow apps to request to track’ -> turn off.

Settings -> privacy -> location services -> customise per app. Most you can set to ‘never’. Some will need ‘while using’.

Okay so clearly I've underestimated y'all

So how about we make this more interesting?

GRIMA

(almost) everyone!!!!

It was a Halloween one-shot for me a three of my friends, one of the rare one-shots that actually STAYED a one-shot in fact. It was a cosmic horror game with a Victorian-England inspired backdrop (NOT run in 5e, this was a specific horror system that I can’t remember the name of), obviously, my jam. The start of the game was the party all meeting in a bell tower after being forced into its lobby to take shelter from a storm. 

Now, obviously, there was some spooky shit in the tower. I don’t remember my original plan well as this was four years ago (disgusting) and the note doc I could find was 101 words long, but, from what I remember, the tower was cursed by the bellringer Virgil Belle (I think I’m funny) completely under the nose of the tower keeper Lady Adelaide who knows about the curse rumors but also thinks they are complete nonsense. However, the tower maid Emma recently came across Virgil doing curse antics and is now terrified of him and trying to tell what she saw to anyone who will listen. That’s what I had going into the one-shot.

My plan was for Emma to burst into the tower lobby from outside claiming things about Virgil to hook the party to start the quest. 

So, that’s what I did. After the players had introduced their characters and roleplayed a little bit and I sensed a pause in the moment, I had Emma show up. “You suddenly hear loud bangs coming from the front tower door.” However, I decided her just running in terrified wasn’t quite scary enough, so, when one of the players went to the door I describe the rain as suddenly turning thick, and black, like tar. Before him is this woman, wide-eyed and white as a sheet in a grey dress, looking up at him dripping with this mysterious ooze is now falling from the sky. 

The player sees this, this terrifying woman standing in the rain that has suddenly turned black, the hook of my entire plot for this game ready to spill the beans on what’s going on in the creepy tower. What does he do? 

He closes the door in her face before she can say a single word  

And suddenly I am DMing a completely different story 

Suddenly, the story is about uncovering the horrific secrets of Lady Adelaide, or as she is truly known, Adelaide Belle, a woman bound to the clock tower living endlessly through unnatural means. Those means? Bringing an aspect of an unspeakable cosmic horror in the world by forcing her daughter, Emma Belle, to birth it, killing Emma in the process but “rewarding” Adelaide with eternal youth. Emma’s ghost appearing to the party to try and beg them to put an end to it. 

And what is that aspect? Adelaide calls it Virgil Belle, an unseen inhuman thing that lives in the shadows of the upper bell tower floors and never actually confronting the party physically, them only knowing he was truly up there when the bell started ringing. 

All of that I pulled directly out of my ass during the course of a four hour game by just watching what my players did and suspected and building off of that. A game which, by the way, ended with the party blowing up the tower in a gas explosion and walking away without looking at it

I still think of it as one of my “shining moments” in DMing. It taught me that I work best as a DM when I am forced to improvise and think on my feet, not only that, it taught me that I like to improvise and think on my feet which is pretty good if you’re going to be a dungeon master.