Holy Mother Of Nuggets

Bombarding you with more white starling baby because they’re too cute. This time with their sibling for contrast. Biting, begging, perching.

Some context of the session: The party was trying to reach the estate of Count Los Feratu (Not actually a vampire despite what the name suggests, he's literally D&D Live action Gomez Addams) but first they have to cross The Lawn. To borrow from the late great comedian John Pinette when describing the castle lawn of Windsor Castle in England:

So the entire session was the party going through various non-lethal traps, skill challenges, and encounters. There were open grave pit-traps, grabby skeleton hands out of the ground, a troll construction worker yelling at them that the bridge is out of order, and a Hedge maze complete with a Minotaur Gardener they passed on the way out.

Now I had been intending to use these sphinxes for a while and was happy I could work them into this adventure. They would be the final obstacle before the party reached the house and the session would end. However at the last second I realized I hadn't picked names for them! So I borrowed the names of a mother/daughter duo from a She-Ra fanfiction I'm currently obsessed with. So the Mama is now Kitt and the Baby is Isha.

I will quote parts of the Discord chat directly.

There seems to only be one more gate between you and the main house. You just need to go past that large catlike statute and you'll be at the front door. ...Wait a second. Statues don't usually breathe do they. Kobold Wizard: "NNNOPE!"

From there I basically added the panels into the chat one at a time. At the reveal of shy baby sphinx Isha, the players were delighted and the characters immediately decided that 1. She was adorable, and 2. they were going to encourage the little darling to ask her riddle and hype her up as much as possible.

Paladin: "Good riddle, little one." Leonine Barbarian: “A dastardly clever one. We were lucky.” Isha perks up. "I did it Mama!" Kitt smiles at her daughter. "Yes you did. Now let's let the nice people pass."

Here's the cat burglar. She wears comfy clothes and has zero social skills. She has sex appeal but only if you're into a very specific type of woman, and crucially she has zero idea she has it. She probably doesn't know what an innuendo is.

Here's the hacker. He's a Black nerd, and also the most moral character of the bunch. He's a nerd but also not socially awkward; in fact, he's the second best at grifting, right after the person who's been doing it for decades.

Here's the muscle. In his heart of hearts, he is a chef. He is tough and manly but he uses that to look out for the working class and children and everyone else the system leaves behind. He's feared by politicians and he reminds his friend to tip the delivery person.

Here's the femme fatale. She's over forty years old, and she's the one seducing the mark. She's the heart of the team. Her calling is to be a director. She loves attending her own funeral.

Here's the mastermind. He's the only one who doesn't start out as a career criminal. He manipulates his own crew, kills two people after promising them he won't, and takes deals behind their back. He was in seminary school.

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.

1: aroace-ryland-grace’s phm google drive, including a folder of rocky screenshots

2. rocky 3-d model poses (if you follow the insta link it takes you to the page for one of his character designers where i think some more images of the model may exist?? i, however, am too lazy to leave tumblr)

4. close up images of his hands + xenonite weaving tools !!! (i think about this one Often. the xenonite tools. ough) this one also has links to insta pages of various character designers.

5. video from james ortiz’s instagram of the rocketeers testing out the rocky puppet’s hands (including the freaky crab claw of deleted scene fame)

6. gifs of the rocketeers piloting various rocky puppets (i find this one helpful because, unlike the movie, here we get to see our glorious guy in good lighting and not stuck behind a sparkly xenonite wall)

7. rocky detail gifs (closeups of matestone, carvings, xenonite weaving)

8. rocky movement gifs (has one in particular im a huge fan of where he does a spin. also has him climbing, in the ball, and ofc, more xenonite weaving. also one of the few shots of the crab leg that made it into the movie)