Got an enormous bag of spinach at the farmer's market this morning, contemplated having popsicles for lunch, and after dinner went for a walk down to the cemetery, got ice cream, and wandered over to the garden. A perfect 1.5-mile stroll. The spinach will be turned into palak paneer, I will once again have an opportunity for popsicle meals later this week, and my evening routine for the next three months is sorted. (Well, in future I will try to make it to the cemetery before they close the gates, although I did glimpse squirrels joyously converging on the now-deserted road through the graves, so at least I have learned a lesson about what happens in the cemetery at dusk.)
Andy called this morning while on the road. They were, at the time, heading for Billings, Montana. Based on the things he didn't say, the drive hasn't been as smooth they hoped for, but that didn't surprise me. This was never going to be nearly the easy journey I know they hoped for. But they haven't been in a crash, and they haven't defenestrated each other out of a moving car.
And there were positive things. They spent an hour at Glacier National Park, and Andy took pictures of the sky as they traveled east. "It really is big sky country, he said, and I could hear just a bit of wonder in his voice as he said that. I predict that this time next year, when most of the boxes have been opened and their home looks and feels like a home, he and Emily will remember the wonder of Montana's sky, and consider the rest of first 36 hours worthy of being in anecdotes rather than giving them headaches.
I'm looking forward to more calls - at least two, before they hit Illinois. We'll see if my estimate is correct in a while.
I don't believe I've shared recent pictures of Harlan and Julian. Since Andy put this one up on Facebook recently, I'm happy to put it up here. Andy is a really good photographer of children, and it shows in this image.
I’ve always loved the various Books of the Wyrm supplements for Werewolf because, let’s be real here, I am forever an edgy fourteen-year-old in my heart (especially when I was, in fact, an edgy fourteen-year-old), and I love dumb shit like that. So Wyrmtide had some pretty big wolf-prints to follow for me, personally, particularly after how disappointing I found the way the Sabbat/Black Hand were handled in their V5 book.
Thankfully, Renegade have seemingly learnt from that book’s mid-ass take, and while Wyrmtide definitely does not want you to play Black Spiral Dancers or fomori or whatever, there is a little appendix of Gifts and powers tucked away in the back, ostensibly for Storyteller characters only, that certainly make it so you can. Because, y’know. It’s your fucking game, hey.
More broadly, Wyrmtide‘s take on the Wyrm has dropped or glossed over a lot of the more silly aspects from previous editions (Urge Wyrms and Maeljin Incarna, I’m looking at you guys), while keeping the body horror and ramping up the cosmic and, like, capitalist exploitation horror. These three aspects are exactly what appeal to me, personally — and have always appealed to me, specifically, about W:tA — and combined with the revamped Black Spirals as a kind of extremist accelerationist cult, as opposed to the silly Captain Planet villains they had a tendency to be in previous editions, the 5e Wyrm now sits on that beautifully uncomfortable “ . . . maybe they are right, maybe the only way out is through” line that feels both very timely and very, very real. Like, this is finally a version of the Wyrm you could find yourself tempted by, at your lowest and more despairing, while still pretty unambiguously rejecting the “solution” that temptation is offering (particularly given that the specific counter presented in the setting, as represented by the Garou, is basically a kind of community focused socialism).
So yeah. As an oldschool W:tA enjoyer I remain pleased by the 5e take on it. Also, as usual with these books, the art slaps and I’m always a sucker for an appearance by Baby’s First Goth Dommy Mommy, Zhyzhak . . . now with bizarre maternal side!
I think this has been said to death already but goddamn Aabria is so locked in on the thematic resonance of this campaign it’s crazy, any time Brennan touches on something Thaisha is connected to, Aabria picks it up immediately and spins it into something beautiful,,, her druid magic and calling, the Circle of Ancients, the Lloy family, the Pariah Blades, the treatment of the orcs and their liberation, Thaisha’s feelings about the Shapers and the War,,, she uses it all to cut so incisively to the emotional core of these big themes
It’s such good character creation because Thaisha isn’t just connected to the history of Araman, its personal to her it’s all so personal to her,, Aabria hasn’t just written an interesting factual history, she’s seen some of the questions and conflicts at the core of this worldstate and made a character who has deeply held beliefs and strong emotions in answer to those questions and it lets her make character choices that both make sense for Thaisha as an individual and connect to the themes of the campaign at the same time and it’s so good it’s just so good Aabria Iyengar you’re very good at this we should be telling you this every day
Sorry for the slow posting this week, WE’VE BEEN IN WHITBY.
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After making it such a pivotal setting for the start of The Holmwood Foundation Season One, we took a little trip across the moors to say hello to one of the best-known Dracula locations, and the fictional home of Maddie, Jeremy and Arthur, as well as the destroyed Lucy Westenra building.
We’ve visited the Abbey, walked through St Mary’s churchyard - previously explored by one Mina Murray - and walked many a walking tour (also highly recommend checking out the Hand of Glory in the Whitby Museum, if you like a bit of dark folklore and you’re not too squeamish.)
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Oh, and there might have been an engagement as well.
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Next stop tomorrow: The Yorkshire Moors! As we chart the route walked by Maddie, Jeremy, The Harkers, and a head in a bag.
Is there anything you would like to know or see? Let us know!
god I wish I had a pair of menacing black gauntlets with really sharp fingertip claws I bet it feels good as fuck to have your hands resting palm-down on a surface and then scratch some deep fucking gashes into it as you clench your hand a little closer to a fist when your evil minion delivers some bad news to you
A couple scenes from a little gay vampire story I was kicking around a couple years ago! I sometimes do little pencils-only scenes for things and never post them. But I was looking back at these and was like why not? They’re cute!
I have a whole story for these two, but just for funsies, something to do every now and then when I need to let loose.
there’s something about the old path holding echoes of people who’ve walked it even if they’ve already been reincarnated, and the circle of ancients knows that people leave memories of themselves behind. and the people azune comes from believing there are multiple deaths / stages of death with the final stage being the disappearance of memories. i wonder if he and thaisha have ever talked about it.
sorry i am simply so unwell about azune nayar but despite being in actuality a younger brother that boy has fucking eldest daughter syndrome like nobody’s fucking business to me. this boy has taken the idea of needing to be useful to heart so much that he is the poster child for all the “adults” around him to be like “we never worried about you because you were always fine, you didn’t need it”
except he DID need it and he does need it but everyone has just told him he’s so good and mature and how impressive that is and he has now developed a complex and doesn’t want to need help because everyone has told him he’s good for not needing it. but the stakes are getting higher now and people need more help now and they need to be banding together more but azune has Always been a little separate, and in a position of supporting others and not others supporting him so he’s fully unequipped for the way things are now
In light of the recent episode, I think we’re starting to zero in on the core of Murray’s recent mini arc regarding Azune VS Demodus. Really, the issue of Azune, period
The timeline:
Two episodes ago, Azune approaches Murray about the upcoming Einfasen meeting. Already nervous. Terrified. He needs all the evidence he can bring against Tachonis. The moment he mentions needing to ask Demodus to come as a witness, Murray flips from ‘I’ll help how I can’ to a scene-long spiel of veiled how dare you endanger this child sanctimony, insistence that Azune’s so good at this, he can’t stop lying now, dangling ice cream as a consolation prize if Einfasen doesn’t kill him, and poetic babble about how his pretty sunset eyes mean he’s still innocent et cetera et cetera. Only for Marisha to confirm on Vaelus’ insight that Murray 100% knows that Azune is right but ‘That doesn’t matter right now.’
Eventually, after Vaelus steps in with actual words of connection to Azune—showing up an entire speech in 2.5 sentences—Murray caves enough to say she’ll talk to Demodus. While still talking to Azune like she’s deigning to let him borrow some forbidden treasure, she’s going to be glued to his side to make sure you don’t fuck this up for him, Azune.
We move to the meeting with King Gus. Lots of good moments. Murray donated an important portent and won Gus as a solid ally! Nice!
And then we get to this recent episode, where Gus asks Murray:
Gus: “You’re not a sorceress, are you?”
Murray, immediately disgusted: “No, everything I have I’ve worked my ass off for.”
Gus, slowly: “I wouldn’t have known that that’s not true.”
Fast forward to Azune and Murray heading over to talk with Demodus. She tells Azune she’ll do the talking, Demodus trusts her most, he’ll see Azune as ‘stranger danger’. Azune, who was also there in the sewer, helping in the rescue mission. Azune, who Demodus himself gawped at with googly eyes and conjured an illusory knight for to help in battle.
Murray: “I trust you, Azune.”
Azune: “I know. I know.”
Murray: “You’re my best friend in this whole cursed fucking world. If you ever do anything to betray that trust, I swear to god.”
Azune: “There you are again, talking to me like that way that I told you you do sometimes. Like I’m a part of something that you know I’m not.”
Murray: “Trust keeps people in danger.”
Azune: “If you say no, I won’t take him.”
Murray: “You’ll help me get him out of the city after this?”
Azune: “I will.”
Murray: “You promise?”
Azune: “I promise.”
Murray: “Skepticism keeps people alive. Let’s go.”
Said by a bursar who’s been behind a desk for decades and started actively scheming a week and a half ago, to the young man who’s been living a double life since he was a teenager.
They get to Demodus. Murray ‘Let me talk to him’ Mag’nesson offers her sweet honey bear:
Murray: “Listen to me, you are going to be able to get out of this apartment. I’ve got a plan for you tomorrow. You are going to go away tomorrow. I need you to pack all of your bags.”
Demodus: “I don’t have anywhere to go.”
Murray: “You do now. But we need one more favor from you.”
Demodus: “You got it. Whatever you need.”
Murray: “Azune?”
Hot-potatoing the talk immediately to Azune himself, as though hoping (expecting) him to fumble it. Instead, Azune brings up the need for testimony and…
Azune: “Demodus, are you brave enough—”
Demodus: “Yes.”
Azune: “—to be with us.”
Murray: “Listen to the full proposition before you—"
Demodus:“I thought you were done talking.”
Azune goes on to be as explicit as possible about how dangerous the situation is. How potentially fatal. He can’t just let Demodus march into the lion’s den without clear eyes. The way Murray was fine to let him do solo before being embarrassed into budging on Demodus.
We get to the Stahlkeep. Azune adds some Einfasen to his face. Presents his evidence, Demodus included. This, combined with whatever Harondus has already told his house of him, powers that glorious Nat 20, and Lord Otto himself pours on the commendations. Murray and Demodus are dismissed before all of it comes out.
Demodus: “If you ever need anything, or if a bunch of demons attack tonight, I’ll make sure that whatever I do in Timmony—”
Murray: “You’ve done enough.”
(You can’t stop now, Azune. You’re so good at this.)
In the midst of the big departure, Murray misses the rest of the meeting. Captain Nayar gifted a new weapon, the symbol of House Einfasen, all laced through with half-joking insinuation of relation and queries about the source of his sorcery.
And we’re left to wait on the fallout when Azune inevitably brings this to Murray’s attention. The I-told-you-so of it all, see how good you are at this, Azune? The villains see one of their own in you! A fellow sorcerer, practically family, ha ha
Maybe it’ll be papered over. Ice cream and all. Or maybe it’ll finally be the thing that takes the lid off the whole mess that’s been simmering under the surface since the moment Azune mentioned Demodus at all.
More, an issue that has clearly come up again and again in their relationship, as Azune clearly clocked it well enough to mention it to Murray down in the sewers. His fear that Murray’s view of him might be stained by the institution he’s a plant in. (No, no, she could never hate him! It’s all in his head! He’s a good egg!) But this whole bit of the story arc has proven that even if Murray doesn’t think she lied then, she definitely wasn’t telling the truth.
Because the thing is, no, I don’t think the institution—be it the Arcane Marshals or House Einfasen or any other labeled faction—is the problem.
It’s the sorcery.
I think it’s always been the sorcery.
Demodus doesn’t have two copper to rub together!
Azune came from a village so blasted and destitute it’s possible they didn’t even have currency anymore. They shared hovels and starvation. Azune and Mayali probably only encountered money for the first time when the mercenaries came to harvest some children.
Everything I have I busted my ass for! The way all wizards do! The way my good little children students of 20+ years do! Unlike all those nepo baby sorcerers.
Azune was born into below-poverty living, starving every day of his life until age twelve. At which point he and his thirteen-year-old sister were swept into a war to avoid said starvation at the cost of their own parents’ lives. He was a soldier until he was sixteen, meaning Thjazi and the Torn Banner kept him on the battlefield until the very very end of the Falconer’s Rebellion, at which point Thjazi handed over a teenage veteran to his brother who had two kids the boy’s age. Not when he was twelve. Not when he was thirteen, fourteen, fifteen (bleeding to death and forgotten in the mud as the wyverns came down). From age sixteen to his hiring in the Arcane Marshals, he lived on another family’s couch.
These rich bastards are trying to take over my school!
Said the woman who comes from a family with a well-known name, formerly big money, now moderate money, with a mouth full of jewels and one hand on a university’s purse strings, who accepted a teenage war vet when Thjazi Fang passed him into her mentorship as a favor. Not on the books, we can guess. Azune came from a void of education. King Gus had to sneak out of the dog kennel to creep into the house and learn his letters. Did Azune’s home have any books to its name, any starving teachers? When and how did he get to learn his letters? What schooling did he have, if any, before Murray took him on as a side gig? Obviously on the side, because while the students of the Pentevral might need financial aid, they would at least have some kind of record of living and/or schooling prior to that, unlike the youth from a dead village and a boyhood spent at war.
It’s all in your head. I could never hate you, Azune.
Because Azune’s not just a good egg, not just a boy scout, but ‘one of the good ones.’
Who never questions her. Never doubts her. Champions every feat she accomplishes. Soldiers up and silences himself when he dares to ask for permission to speak with one of her (real) students (who actually matter) about testifying and she purges all the excuses and platitudes he already suspected were coming, swallowing it down as he has likely swallowed so much more in the length of their friendship. Drinks and knife-throwing lessons when he was just budding out of adolescence, being shined up and sharpened for Thjazi’s needs, both mentors knowing all along they were handing him over to the Arcane Marshals to be a useful plant for the rebels at age…what? Twenty? Nineteen? Doesn’t matter.
Murray knows he’s right. But that doesn’t matter right now.
Because for all that she cares about him, for all that she’s had his back in scheming and battle, the fact remains: Azune Nayar wields sorcery. A form of magic so entrenched in Murray’s mind as being the stamp of Sundered Houses and upper-class power, that when that trait appears in an individual whose every single fact of lived history not only aligns with the level of scrappy, do-it-yourself, pull up by the bootstraps origins she champions, but wildly outclasses them in terms of sheer horror, trauma, and destitution, none of it matters.
Azune being a child soldier. Azune living two thirds of his life in varying levels of constant starving malnutrition. Azune being actively molded by every person in his life with a constant stream of speechifications and attaboys to keep him living as a useful thing, with not one person, including his parentswho sacrificed everything to get him a sword and a meal, telling him his life was worthwhile for its own sake; that he didn’t have to fight for others’ causes, that he deserved access to joy and safety and comfort like all the people he was told to fight and lie and kill and die for.
Doesn’t matter.
Azune reveals his sister was the faux assassin for Photarch Yanessa. Murray latches onto him, insisting she must be found, she must speak out against House Halovar and vouch for Murray’s testimony. Azune asks her if he can ask Demodus to come as a witness before the Einfasens. How dare he? This could ruin the kid’s life. Now get in the lion’s den, friend, you’ve got this.
Doesn’t matter.
Azune, who she has known for at least a decade, who she tutored after a life of combat and not a single classroom or unbroken roof to speak of, who has proven himself over and over and over again to be trustworthy to his friends and venom to their enemies…
Doesn’t matter.
You’re my best friend in this whole cursed fucking world. If you ever do anything to betray that trust, I swear to god.
Trust doesn’t have shit to do with it. It isn’t even the same brand of constant fumbling of care that every other peer has exhibited in Azune’s life when it came to reducing him to a utility with a face. The math in Murray’s head boils down to Azune is a sorcadin sorcerer -> Sorcery is a hallmark of the Sundered Houses and high society rich bastards -> Sorcery is bad -> Sorcerers are bad -> Azune is only my friend as long as he stays within the lines I’ve drawn around him
And oh, but those lines are cramped and crooked.
He’s an equal and a peer among the Schemers, expected to always punch above his weight class, so competent, so good at what he does, him and his lists and his proactive work and his battle prowess and his finessing of villains, 10/10
Unless he isn’t. Unless he’s a lost little boy scout (who is also too useful to the mission to stop now) who only needs a pep talk and a tissue and an ice cream party to get his ass out the door and away from daring to think of including her helpless 22-year-old sweet honey bear baby boy grad student in his evidence. If Azune dies, he dies. But he’ll probably be fine. He’s so good at this. Any sorcerer would be. And if he isn’t? Well, that’s one less sorcerer.
And now. Now, after she watched him physically alter himself to better assimilate with their enemies, after she’s about to learn of his promotion, his new weapon, his successful absorption into House Einfasen as their own official mole to infiltrate the Candescent Creed and House Halovar, how much bigger will this bias grow in her? When will the inevitable hit, with Azune joining Thjazi in her realm of ‘suspect and accuse first, ask questions later?’ What scene will we have, to Azune’s face or behind his back, Murray ruefully shaking her head…
It’s just. He’s so good at it, isn’t he? I swear I meant it as a compliment before, but now I’m worried that he’s too good at it. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he really was part of the houses. Best to keep a close eye on him.
And in the face of that, what will Azune be able to say? What reaction can he possibly have that doesn’t dig the hole deeper in her eyes?
He’s been meek to her. He’s been in awe of her. He’s been a wreck in front of her. He’s never, not once, raised his voice against her. The most he’s ever done is point out that—for all she swears he’s her best friend—she still talks at him like someone she doesn’t trust, someone who’s part of a thing she hates. Even after all this time.
Azune is trying so hard to be seen as ‘one of the good ones.’ A good soldier. A good Schemer. A good thing person. ‘Sorcerer’ has never been on his mind as an identity. Sorcery’s just a thing he has, despite coming from a commoner family. And so I wonder if, in light of that moment shared with King Gus, Azune might be zeroing in on that factor for the first time. Finally seeing the invisible box Murray’s put him in to explain why she treats him the way she does.
I don’t know if he’ll be able to bring it up to her. I’d hope so. It would be the most cathartic version of that confrontation. This young man, standing so clearly as a symbol for the unfair position of those left othered by their heritage in a place not their homeland, forced to assimilate to have any chance of survival, forced to bite their tongues and take the barbs of their peers’ biases or else lose their position as a friend, as one of the good ones. To do otherwise, to express anger at this lot, would mean–gasp!–they might not be good. They might be like those entitled sorts. Perhaps a true bastard of the Sundered Houses, after all.
If it isn’t him who calls her out, it either has to be Murray having an awakening on her own, or someone in the party who can properly clock the situation and be an equal or greater caustic force than Murray once her hackles come up. Julien is far from afraid of playing the asshole and was quick to stick up for Occtis when he and Thaisha were having their prickly moment in Tannesar. Thaisha would probably see the signs and have no issue calling out the hypocrisy on the wall. Bolaire’s Bolaire. Not sure who else could handle it.
Or, for maximum knife twist, have Murray confronted by someone with her same issue, turned up to its logical awful conclusion.
Maybe a fellow rebel mistakes Azune for the things he’s pretending to be and takes a shot at him. Either verbally shitting on him or perhaps actively attacking what looks like a Sundered House minion. In that moment, Murray gets to hear her biases parroted back to her without the shield of internal excuses to mask it. Worse, what if it’s a fellow wizard? One of the Pentevral faculty or another grad?
Come on, Mag’nesson, you know it’s true. The guy’s just another sorcerer lackey with the Sundered Houses. Probably one of their bastards they boosted up the ladder. Fuck him.
And what would she say? Murray, who worried for Occtis Tachonis, redeemed of his family name by being a wizard student? Murray, who saw Wicander Halovar, freshly horrified by some revelation about his corrupt family that sent him running, shaken with the reality that he is no cleric, but a sorcerous descendant of a monster, and insulted him for his naivety all the way out the door? Murray, who has coasted the line between friendship and distrust with Azune ‘Came from less than nothing’ Nayar, for at least a decade as the latter jumped through every hoop to stay in her good graces, to earn his place as a friend, only for it all to prove as conditional and flimsy as a business transaction?
being generous to the players due to a somewhat difficult filming schedule to kick off the year (being off for six to eight weeks and then cramming 9 sessions into ~two weeks to accommodate everyone’s schedules for travel, press tours and con seasons) making it hard to digest information the way you might in a normal weekly play session format… i do think there is probably an origin point for this “sundered houses are doing a ritual” theory and it’s not illogical, really
i think they erroneously connected primus’s return to the city to hal’s play and not just coincidental timing based on when azune told harondus about the palazzo and when julien and aranessa spoke to otto back in seekers 1.
they’re also probably conflating all of the big swings the houses are making against the institutions of the city with primus’s rituals (which are a thing that, at minimum, cormoray and einfasen do not know a thing about and halovar seems…apathetic towards) and thjazi’s death. they are treating nothing like coincidence or consequence and everything like a Plan, when sometimes it’s a little bit of all three.
the houses are moving on dol makjar because they were converging on the plan to assassinate gus, cast votes of no confidence against the revolutionary council and take over the government and all of it’s public facing institutions.
it’s all very mundane! they had been planning this for months: harondus said they had been waiting on funding from the halovars to establish the sons of the dawn and petra and ryah’s letter to segundus is at least two months old, meaning they had been working with the other second generation lords on this for some time. but the timing of everyone making moves at once, in the immediate aftermath of thjazi’s execution, i think sticks in players brains more than the minor details of the letters and conversations, and knowing that primus is coming and he himself has been doing scary rituals is being projected onto the whole lot of them, while they are just committing your everyday kind of coup (which, judging by the trailer, primus is on board with, he just also has some shit going on in the underworld too)
ultimately the moves they made in the last episode are good. they can’t sneak half the table into obrimus, so they have enough people there and they have the right balance for a fight (cyd and thaisha can heal, occtis can support, julien can tank and thimble can DPS.) they didn’t technically move troops, they just agreed on sky signals, which are unobtrusive. maybe there are too many people at the theatre, but there are the right amount of people at the villa aurora to not arouse suspicion and those three fronts are what matter. gus told thimble pretty directly to plant the miller’s road seed near the city so that they can move men and arms and refugees in and out of the city. we know the fae population is being repressed, and the demons are likely to join them, and them being able to escape to timmony through the tintazi is a good plan. framing it as there being an immediate attack isn’t based on any information in the game, but that was meant to be the plan with the seed no matter what.
i guess tldr they’re too primed to believe every single thing is connected to every single other thing to believe that the meeting of the houses and thjazi’s ritual and primus’s ritual are all separate things and have settled on the correct course of action for the wrong reasons
wanted to draw that Hannan/Vaelus moment+Katt, but I needed to draw hannan and there is so few references of him so I decided to draw my own, then got too tired to draw the rest XD…
Writers have two modes and they are “i haven’t written in three weeks and i am rotting from the inside and everything feels wrong and i don’t know who i am anymore” and “i wrote for four hours straight and forgot to eat and it’s dark outside and when did that happen and i feel like a god” and there is nothing in between. no chill. no medium setting. just famine or feast and a very confused nervous system.
Between Luis stating that Azune 1) Has had sex, and proving in-game that he 2) Has zero gaydar, it paints a very interesting picture of how the two possibly overlap
Gus, full warrior flirt: You tell anyone, I’ll kill ya >;)
Azune: Understood :)
Demodus, unbroken eye contact with the beautiful nightmare of fire and storm who came to rescue him from a dungeon: I will be so brave. So brave and good for you. So so brave no problem ever
Azune: Thank you :)
Julien, has had to physically touch him during every meeting, has been perking up every time Azune’s name is even mentioned since reaching the city, may actually die if he doesn’t get a homoerotic solo scene soon: Is it safe here? You need to be careful. Who the fuck was that guy who knew you and I don’t know.
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