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Scaling Up

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Jacen1 said:
Some hydra in D&D are fairly low level as such things go. Not something a low level party should face, but a reasonable challenge for groups that haven't yet hit level 10 if the hydra is itself at the bottom tier of what they can be...
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Fair, but it's still not the sort of thing you expect.
 
Harry Leferts said:
The original movie for Watership Down followed the book pretty closely, with bonuses such as this song:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IAXDgOUr7c
Which, from memory, was played in the movie around the time when one of the rabbits died to a snare, complete with, on screen, coughing up blood and slowly choking on it as blood also seeped from around the snare itself. The description of "World War One with Rabbits" is pretty spot on.

Secret of NIMH I am less sure of with regards to the book... but was likely reasonably close. The Last Unicorn was dark as fuck... We're Back, A Dinosaur Story was similarly fucking dark...
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FaerieKnight79 said:
Oh gods, I haven't seen Watership Down in so very long. Nearly 30 years, I think. Amazing movie, amazing book... and it traumatized me as a kid.
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Wolf470 said:
I read the book in '88 so I was in High School.... enjoyed the heck out of it but I wouldn't let anyone under 14 read it... I was shocked that they gave the movie a PG (13 or R as far as I'm concerned)
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What's "funny" on my end – and relevant to this discussion – is that, after all these years, I can really only remember one particular scene near the end of the movie: that fucking demonic-looking dog, that one rabbit it had mauled with its entire side torn open, and a foaming-at-the-mouth crazed Woundwart charging at it.

Fuck, I had nightmares for weeks after seeing that!


And it's weird: Objectively, I agree that The Last Unicorn was pretty dark. But my memories of watching it repeatedly as a kid just… somehow refuse to acknowledge that fact. Maybe it was the overall fantasy setting, plus the lack of visible blood? (I mean, now that I actually think about it 30+ years later, that entire clearing where Mommy Fortuna died should have been painted completely bright red, after the Harpy got done with her; instead there was just two inert lumps of a corpse, hers and Rukh's, and that was it.)
 
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for "Last Unicorn" it was more a matter that it had a (somewhat) happy ending because the captured Unicorns were freed and the Red Bull was destroyed. The melancholy of the "regret" at the end was the humanization of that unicorn. As Smendric says, he did her a disservice, but the problem was that there was no other way to go about it.
 
As I believe has already been stated (multiple times at that) in this thread the majority of those old stories were DARK A/F. That one was certainly no exception to that. Nor was it an exception to Disney taking the original story and twisting it until it was barely recognizable to make it suitable for kids. Most of Disney's films bear little more than a passing resemblance to the original stories tbh.
 
I shall just leave this here, and hope you all have a pleasant day (whatever day that may be...).

"It is not necessary, your Highness," Naurelin answered. "History is written by the victors, and finding out what really happened can be quite the arduous and gruesome task. Much like the faerie stories of old."

"Those were meant to be object lessons for the young and foolish," Tuan said. "They were crafted to scare, so that when one was facing their own Rumpelstiltskin, or Maleficent, they would be cautious."

"So what is your opinion on the modern versions of those stories?" Naurelin asked.

"I find myself asking why," Tuan answered. "One cannot child-proof the world, one can only world-proof the child." He took a sip out of the coffee cup he had at hand. "My wife finds them hilarious. Oberon and Titania, though, have had their hands full, trying to keep many offended lords and ladies of the courts under control to prevent them from having certain words with people."

I'll be back in 7h 50m for today's chapter.
 
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A Midsummer Night's ??? 11 - Hand in Hand
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    • "Let's go hand in hand, not one before another."

    Comedy of Errors (Act 5, Scene 1)​
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    As the faerie royal procession made its way down Broadway from Captain's Hill, news had slowly spread that something was happening. People began to line the street, watching at first with wariness, then with wonder. Police were in the process of barricading the side streets, and had cars a block in front and behind making sure there was nothing in the road in front of them and to keep the crowds from closing in from behind.

    Silmë had rejoined her adoptive mother, taking a position behind her but in front of the minstrels, often joining the latter in singing some ribald verse of recognizable song. The young dragon had a wonderful singing voice.

    Hlal and her consort were shown a great honor, being allowed to walk with Mab and Tuan as they made their way slowly down the street towards the Boardwalk. Tuan kept the conversation light and Sulazhaal kept his replies polite, while Mab was busy talking Hlal's ears off.

    From her position overhead, Naurelin had a clear view of everything going on, including the approach of the Aleshins. They were coming in from the ocean, hiding that their home was actually in the opposite direction.

    She also noticed that she was about to have company. Which wasn't too unexpected. Ever since Vicky discovered her sister was a dragon, they often took a bit of a flight together around Brockton Bay in the evening.

    "Ladies," Naurelin said as she maintained her course. Glory Girl and Helbrede took up positions near her, Vicky in particular taking care not to get in the way of their wings.

    "So what's going on?" Helbrede asked, looking down as she soared.

    "Looks like some kind of strange parade," Vicky noted. "Is one of those renfaires setting up in Brockton Bay?"

    "After a fashion," Naurelin allowed. "I guess they didn't tell you. What do you know about the really old faerie tales?"

    - - - - - - - - -​

    Kid Win found himself fleeing the scene. Sure, with his teammate's help they were staying ahead of their pursuers, but that meant he had to endure her ire as well.

    "You just had to go and say something, didn't you?" Vista yelled at him as she did strange and unnatural things to local space-time.

    "I said I was sorry!" He looked behind him. "How was I know this was going to happen?"

    Chasing them was a very odd collection of… something. They resembled simple geometric shapes – spheres, cubes, tetrahedrons and a demented starfish – all with spindly arms and legs. All of them armed with various primitive weapons – spears, knives, and in the case of one type of the cube figures, bows. The demented starfish was the only one unarmed, but it was also in charge of the rest.

    "What did you do to get them so upset?" Vista asked as she diverted their path out of another group who had somehow managed to intercept them and obstruct their escape.

    "I think it was when I missed the trash can," Chris admitted. "Or maybe it was when I tried imitating their fake language?"

    "That weird collection of 'beeps', 'boops' and 'bdbdbdbd'?" Missy retorted. "Of course it was a language. If you'd have waited, I could have told you what they said. Instead, when told 'Dispose of your refuse properly', you basically told the thing in charge to do something very rude."

    "You understood that?" Chris said as space time bent at angles alien to the human experience, again, avoiding interception.

    "Well, duh! What part of 'allows me to communicate in any spoken language' didn't you get?!" Missy was fuming now.

    "I didn't think it applied to old three hundred baud modem tones!"

    "I don't know what those are, but they spoke it, I understood it!"

    "I have an idea," Chris said after thinking. "Take us over to the starfish."

    "You want us to get closer?"

    "Yes. From what you've said, this is a misunderstanding, so let's clear it up before this becomes an interdimensional incident!"

    "Hold on, then, this is gonna get weird…" Suddenly, there was a straight path to the starfish-like creature. Everyone came to a halt.

    The two junior heroes contemplated the alien creature, who was watching them with three of its five eyes.

    "What now, genius?"

    "Tell them I'm sorry, and I will pick up my refuse," Chris said, bowing his head.

    Missy nodded, and while she spoke the words in English, it came out as a series of old school modem tones.

    The creature looked sternly at Chris, and replied with a short burst. "Comply with request," Missy translated for him.

    Chris nodded, went and picked up the wrapper which was still sitting next to the trash can, and carefully placed it within the receptacle.

    One of the five arms – the starfish had an eye and a mouth on each one – raised up over its body and let out a loud series of tones which echoed through the ranks. Soon all activity ceased, and the creatures formed up into orderly ranks with clockwork precision.

    One of the eyes caught sight of Missy's medallion and looked concerned. Another arm sighed. Two more took a small rod and snapped it in half. The last rolled its eye and took on a 'Why Me?' look. Upon doing so, a tear in reality opened up and an even stranger creature stepped through. It resembled a sphere with ten evenly spaced tentacles around its circumference, with four equally spaced eyes, a single mouth at the very top of its body, and two stumpy legs.

    There was a brief exchange in the strange language before the newcomer turned to face them. Or maybe just turned, it was hard to tell. "Designation: Decaton 79. Query: Family member, Lady of Pain, Yes / No?" It pointed a tentacle at Missy. It had spoken in perfectly understandable English, though its voice was more like early attempts to make a computer speak.

    "Yes," Missy answered.

    "Alarm. Concern: Retribution, Yes / No?" 79 asked.

    "No."

    "Relief. Gratitude," 79 replied. "Unplanned event. Withdraw, Modrons, immediately." It then broadcast a series of tones to the smaller creatures, who formed up into columns and marched into the portal the decaton had stepped through. 79 bowed, and followed its servitors through the portal.

    The portal closed with a weird sound, leaving the two Wards standing there.

    "What just happened?" Kid Win asked, somewhat confused.

    "I have no clue," Vista answered. "However, from now on you're going to be placing your trash directly into a trash can instead of tossing and missing."

    Chris nodded vigorously in agreement.

    "And we are now going straight to the Rig," she commanded. "Miss Militia can either tell us to get back out here, or we can bunker down and hope this all passes by morning."

    Kid Win did his best to come to attention and salute. "Yes Ma'am!"

    Then space really got bent as Vista made the path to the Rig a direct one. They landed just in time to see three gold dragons, including Naichi, land on the beach at the water's edge.

    - - - - - - - - - -​

    "It begins."

    Two voices uttered these words in very different locations. One was in a garden, one that grew in perfect, crystalline beauty. Its mistress reclined on a bench, watching the goings on on one of the prime material planes, wherein a certain queen of the fae, a demi-power in her own right, brought back the wonder and mystery of magic to a world long bereft of it.

    She watched as the first strands of the rest of the weave started to heal, connections long since severed gleaming with new life as magic flowed through them. "Let the magic flow here again," she murmured, "for good or ill."

    - - - - - - - - - -​

    The other voice uttering those words was in a place that was a prison; dark, dank, noisome and fetid. One by one, crystals began to glow. As the hours passed, another crystal began to flicker with its sickly green and purple light. "Soon," a voice that would make demon princes cringe in fear whispered, "the stars and planets will be in alignment, and I shall be able to force the first cracks in my prison."

    Those around him scuttled about their duties, not wanting to voice their opinions on the matter, lest their own souls be used to add power to the ritual their master was about to perform. One who was watching did exactly as he was instructed.

    Skima had watched the miserable wretch of a mezzoloth that his Master had foisted off on them. Squeaker may be weak and tormented by the other yugoloths here, but he was far from helpless. Slash, one of the nycaloths that had helped with the prison job, had somehow run afoul of some of the demodands that inhabited this plane of existence. He would be out of commission for years.

    While he couldn't be killed here, it would take him quite some time to reform his body and gain enough power to be useful again. The one thing he was sure of was that Squeaker was plotting and scheming like a true yugoloth, and about as treacherous as the ground on the elemental plane of Earth.

    He'd been there once, when an earthquake of great power hit the Great Dismal Delve. While the natives quietly dug themselves out and got on with things, thousands of servitors had perished, along with one of the representatives of an efreeti nawab, a prince of the Emirate, and his entire retinue.

    That had been a waste. And the Emir had been furious.

    There was something going on. The paranoia that was in the background of every yugoloth's head was practically screaming at him about it. But it was kind of confused screaming and shouting, because the scheming wasn't directed at him.

    A Light spell suddenly went off in his head. It wasn't directed at any of the yugoloths. It was directed at Him. Skima almost laughed out loud. Little Squeaker set his sights very high, indeed.

    Skima decided that if the Boss couldn't see this one coming, he deserved what happened to him.

    - - - - - - - - - -​

    In a chamber in the Demonweb, Lolth sat watching the images in a crystal ball. Her chosen one on the world of Earth Bet gave her a connection she could use to scry the world, and she could see events beginning to line up that would bring ruin to everything.

    That would, even in Lolth's mind, be bad. Existence was theirs to destroy, not somebody else's, and especially not someone who'd been imprisoned by three beings whose power even Lolth had a healthy respect for. The last time she'd encountered Bahamut it took nearly a century for her hair to grow back. She was sure he'd barely missed on purpose, if only because it had been a chance encounter.

    The Demon Queen of Spiders sighed. "It's too soon, but what can you do?" she muttered. With a gesture, she summoned one of her handmaidens. "Eleuia, go find Murk and Menace, have them report here. I have some tasks for them."

    The yochlol bowed and disappeared in a cloud of foul smelling smoke.

    "I'd better let dear Tia know what's going on as well," Lolth muttered. "Not that she'll believe me if she knows I'm the one telling her. Don't blame her for that, either. I wonder if Plaata is still in Sigil as well..."

    - - - - - - - - - -​

    The parade slowly came to a halt at the north end of the Boardwalk, most of the nighttime denizens of the city out watching the spectacle. Sitting there on the beach were three gold dragons, one of which was known to the city, having opened up the campaign to remove the Empire Eighty-eight from the city. The other two were less familiar: Kurya from footage from the final Endbringer battle, and Naich from the incident that led to ever larger dragons asking Kaiser to surrender.

    They had flown in from the ocean, and had landed as silent as something the size of an airliner could. They watched as the faerie procession came to a halt, with the knights and archers fanning out to each side of the Queen and her Prince.

    "Well, dearest," Tuan said softly with a smile tugging at his lips, "you wanted to meet dragons. Your wish, as they say, has been granted." He turned to face Sonngrad, Kurya, and Naichi. "Hail and well met!"

    "Hail and well met indeed," Sonngrad replied, sketching a draconic bow, "Prince Tuan, consort of Queen Mab of the Summer Court."

    There was a flash of purple, orange and green, and Naichi found herself with a new accessory attached to her right foreleg which Queen Mab was hugging for all she was worth. A squeal of excitement was almost audible over nearly everyone facepalming.

    "Uhm," Naichi said nervously, "could I have a little help here?"
     
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    • I was going to comment that I don't see anything new over at CTC and was wondering if here was going to be catching up to there. But then I noticed you only posted a couple minutes ago.
     
    A collection of cubes with spindly arms and legs march in, with such order and precision that would make any US Marine Drill Sargent weep with envy.

    Each is holding a sign. The first one displays it's sign : "Event : Chapter posted."
    After a few seconds, it is lowered, and the second one raises its sign. "Gratitude : Editing, Text, McClaw @ CTC."
    After a few seconds, it is lowered, and the third one raises its sign. "Asssertion : Reading, Words, Enjoyable."
    After a few seconds, it is lowered, and the last one raises its sign. "Statement : Return, Later."

    The four monodrones stow their signs and march off.
     
    Aadarm said:
    Unless you have a law degree and specialized in contract law and a mastery of customs, etiquette, languages, riddles, and word games becoming Fae would probably be a bad idea.
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    True. Unless being fae grants you the equivalent naturally.
     
    Yhalee said:
    I was going to comment that I don't see anything new over at CTC and was wondering if here was going to be catching up to there. But then I noticed you only posted a couple minutes ago.
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    The good news is today's CTC chapter can be easily summarized in two words:

    "Well, fuck."

    Seriously, that chapter's awesome.
     
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