Laughter In The Woods

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Kiel wanted this:
A list of weird and decadent (but gameable) fey/fairy pass-times and ritual

in exchange he going to never use a reaction gif again   he is going to make a big list of all the sweet sentai monsters



Needle Dancing :

the folk have really long needle shoes (5-6 metre) and circle or folk dance in a glade.

Trespassers or rule breakers are sometimes sentenced to survive a dance in middle of the glad, risking constant impalement. The more they can predict the dance movements the less they get stabbed. "Attending" the dance in full anuls whatever grudge is held against.

Use: players need to atone for something, or they need to risk someone or rig it so they survive it.

Moon Cloaks:
a moon cloak makes the wearer look like whatever the viewer is expecting to see while also making the viewer very suggestible at the same time. 

They are made by collecting moonlight reflected in particular water sources; everything from a hoof print to a lake. Special scissors are needed and the craft is only known to a few. 

It has to be done in one night and moon cloaks vanish if exposed to daylight. If this happens then the next night everything one within a cat stroll range will have nightmares and physically experience them.

Use: as a nightmare bomb, or as escorting mission helping a folk around to the particular sequence of reflecting sources needed. An encounter; the fey in question might be forbidden to practise the craft because of traditions and offers someone bribe to the players if the keep shuttum. The bribe will prob get them in more trouble however. 

Or an apprentice nightstitcher offers to make the players a mooncloak but it goes kinda wrong the whole time and all the reflecting surfaces are acting as portals to random weird semi-planes after the moon has been cut from them.

Arnold Böcklin - Der Krieg from wiki commons

WILD HUNTS

the classic. Everyone gets a horrible animal mask everyone gets a horrible horse with human features and some horrible dogs with the faces of everyone you betrayed . Then they ride around on a moonless night or the solstice or for justice and hunt down the criminal , maybe just find someone and  make up the laws afterwards?

Use: can the players get to the hunted before the hunters?

Or being hunted. Or being doing the knock out a couple of dudes in the back and take their clothes and then try and blend in.

BESTEST!

the beaver or the ant? who the better builder? better have a competition. Better just fuck up the place with the beavers making more and more dams and the ants make more mounds and all the folk strutting around making notes. 

Or any other animal trait that can be compared to another animal. Best weaver, singer , swimmer etc. 

Use: generally gets way out of hand and will need judges or some one to step in and just stop it because the spider is trying to trap the moon and the fox death to prove who is craftest.

BOUNTYS
do you animals have laws? Well they don't but that doesn't mean the fey can't post bountys for whoever stole honey from the bees or ruined the rabbits dance.

JOUSTING:
atop beetles along a single strand of human hair
on human back along a frozen lake
on flocks of crows atop the trees
Or each knight in a different persons eye leaping from eye to eye


SHAPE WAR

like the classic sword in the stone Merlin vs Morgana each battler takes a form to defeat the other.
Someone starts as a wolf , their opponent turns in a lion , so the other a thorn , to that a locust.

Often with a unspoken subrule like each form must be prettier than the last or abstract concepts always lose to specific obscure animal taxidermy


FORTUNES FOOL 
someone is chosen, someone prob having a blameless life or maybe a pompous ass ? Anyway their life is about to get a lot more interesting , as they are now the basis for a wager!
The 2 contestants work together to make them  win and lose a fortune 3 times within the time limit (a day, a week, a month , a candle).
Their temperament at the end of the game is the thing actually bet upon. So one will be aiming to have them sad and other happy. Or possibly less binary and more obscure emotions.
Depending on what kind of sport this person is they might be allowed to keep the fortune and/or be with an additional blessing or curse.

it's all natural and it's all bad

Print PDF This spaceship/ palace/ screaming void prison is
a big naked dude

William Blake "Nebuchadnezzar "

all tied up in a tortured cube with fetid iron cable that decay has made more like a microscoped viewed hair than anything wrought

The rooms here are cut into him and held open . The flesh grows back and is removed , fake lives written on it and then burned to power the engine , a black thing like beetles grown into buildings by virii. Sits on his back , dead light denying matt iron burned somehow to charcoal.

It's the last god of a dead world , betrayed by his head priest and preserver into eternal service for his followers. The Archive Pope , mummified in lacquered paper  sits in the skull,  debating the thought forms of his god, trying make him agree . The rot fearing undying  extend out in the lungs with the archives of a entire world to manage

The Rot is a black sea where the bowels were and is a council of mammoth fungal mother knight islands , like feudal lord and aircraft carrier, dueling and campaigning further up in blight crusade .

All sorts have build up warring camps of star refuge on the skin and back.  Some of them have made inroads inside , where they content with the endless flesh chimeras of the Centipedesses who seek delight in the flowering form of predator and prey and the ratcheting creation of evolution .

The Archive seeks to preservation, The Rot to have their children in every home , the Centipedesses a vast tapestry of arms races.

Elves

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like you can make them human but with pointy ears
and that's fine if you just want to draw people different
fine to me
that's the only one here
I haven't found you and cannot possibly be talking about you

So if that's all you do
draw them real weird though or just real cool, so make it the cool people have different stats than you

from here

ELVES ; THE  GOOD PEOPLE
Or make them more like people , like the heroic people of bigot folk dreams ,
but live like animals . Like man-shape pokemon.  Walk right out of bush they were shitting in , all glistening and ethereal.
How does that outfit even work?
It doesn't  that's just what their skin looks like.
All kinds of stories and songs about things that you can't go and see.  Oh but you can't , it's just  not there anymore. But it was. And it was perfect and good. We are the good people. Language , poems , art, creation myths, lineage, heroes and gods.
but it's just Batesian mimicry . On a scale about the same size as you. Looks you right in the eye.
that face flawless over a mind of animal noise

Sure you can play one

 

Ildiko Muresan , from here

MOTH ELVES
they don't have big city , or even a village. Just quietly sleep in hollow trees and come out to drink moonlight. Everything they need is in their dreams. Some can't sleep and they just have keep walking  until they do.

SPINIFEX ELVES


these don't have no cities either. Dry up and curl along , light as anything. Sometimes landing near where there is enough talk and noise to fill up enough to walk on in and be something like you.

Underused Arachnids

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This is other post(s) that was on g+ that I'm publishing here to make it plausible to find
(go previous post or click the g+ archive tag for the others)

I've added pseudoscorpions here as well . I think that's all of the arachnids I'm going to do.
The 2 other contenders were Hooded tickspiders and Vingaroon

 I can't a strong enough reason to use hooded tick spiders over regular spiders (the closest I got was a cannon balls but a curled up clunky spider as cannon ball is just as good).

Vingaroons are the other arachnid also called Whip scorpions ( Uropygids/Thelyphonida) . They are pretty sweet looking , spray acid and have the name Vingaroon but I don't think are distinctive enough to spin off into something that couldn't be done with scorpions or Amblypygi.

image from the wiki article on them

: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Ar_1.jpg 

Pseudoscorpionida

Latin translates to : False scorpion

Terrible common names: False scorpion or Pseudoscorpion. Land crab, Lobster insect. Book Scorpion

Kind of okay storys about them:

Pretty much nothing I can find. I guess being small, not amazingly numerous nor dangerous keeps you out of the mythology? Even Aristotle has only this say:
"

There are also other minute animals, as I observed before, some of which occur in wool, and in woollen goods; as the moths, which are produced in the greatest abundance when the wool is dusty, as especially if a spider is enclosed with them, for this creature is thirsty, and dries up any fluid which may be present. This worm also occurs in garments. There is one which occurs in old honeycombs, like the creature which inhabits dry wood; this appears to be the least of all creatures, it is called acari, it is white and small. Others also are found in books, some of which are like those which occur in garments; others are like scorpions; they have no tails, and are very small. And on the whole, they occur in everything, so to say, which from being dry, becomes moist, or being moist, becomes dry, if it has any life in it"

Most Obvious Thing about them:

They are small (2mm to 8mm and the biggest at 12mm) , have pincers , a tear drop body tapering at the head and no stinger.


Some points of note I couldn't put anywhere else:
They hitch rides on other animals by latching on with their pincers (especially flys) which is called phoresy because someone let their kid come up with a name rather than just jamming some greek and/or latin together for once.

They inject a paralysation poison with their pincers and slobber acidic goo from its mouth onto things to break them down before slurping up them (unlike the injection method of spiders)

Their little pincers have sensitive hairs all over them acting like a motion sensor , even detecting stuff behind them

They can sometimes be found living on bigger creations and prey on any parasites they find.

They also can be found in old books , preying on book worms.

Name You Should Use Instead: Beeky-Doo, Nip-Nip, Snipper, Bookward, Clip-Drudge

But why not use a scorpion? You want something with pincers that is not a crab and is also cute.Or you want something that is a bug , but not with an immediately familiar image. Scorpions look constantly hostile.

http://www.terrain.net.nz/friends-of-te-henui-group/spiders/pseudo-scorpions.html

Absurd Fantasy Ways To Use them:

You have them as book guardians , maybe flat enough to be hiding in-between the pages. They have a nice "helper" feel(they way they rush around with them arms held up?) to them so maybe as librarians or assistants to alchemists or wizards? Like you could see one of these little dudes handing some one a jar or a book right?. One could be a mobile book shelve with all the rectangular sections on either side of its longitudinal mid-line being a book slotted into place. A small thieving band of them with paralysation attacks and weird collections of things.

Maybe trying to rebuild their book collection? Maybe they can't see words as anything other than the thing the word describes so their rebuilt library is a collection of book covers stuffed with actual things .


If super a big you can use them anywhere you wanna use a giant crab but it's too far from the sea. Plus acid slobber waterfall from its mouth.


As assassins , flat enough to crawl under a door gap , maybe not to kill but cause stroke like paralysation in the night or disfiguring acid burns

One more option ; found running around on super big creatures attacking ticks , lice and your players.

http://melvynyeo.deviantart.com/

OPILIONE

Latin translates to : Shepherd. Poss a reference to stilt walking shepherds which are a real thing and should encourage you to weird up all your mundane professions


Terrible common names: Daddy long legs (a name people use for crane flys ,and some species of spider), Harvestmen

Kind of okay storys about them: There is that dumb-as one about them being the most poisonous animal but their fangs are too short to bite humans. I hate that one as it is absurdly persistent. The same myth also exists about the spiders referred to as daddy long legs but with the addition that since they eat spiders all that venom concentrates in their own. Which is an okay idea about a legendary poisonous thing having to eat only poisonous things or seeking out more poisonous things to consume in order to increase its lethalness. So if you wanted to catch a king basilisk you would have to catch something almost as bad first as bait.

Back to Opilione myths: killing one will make it rain the next day, and picking one up by all its legs but one will reveal the whereabouts of your cattle; via the direction pointed at by the last leg


Most Obvious Thing about them:

their head and body is just one lump unlike the segmentation of spiders. Their legs are real long so they can be closer to heaven for angelfucking.


Some points of note I couldn't put anywhere else:

None of them are poisonous. Their chelicerae , which are the normal poison fangs in spiders are little pincers. Some of them have crazy big pincers though.


Name You Should Use Instead: STRIDER, TIKTIK, STILTER, AMBLER, LOON



But why not use a spider? These things look goofy and bizarre. Their behaviour and abilitys should be weird or unpredictable.


Absurd Fantasy Ways To Use them: Opliliones sometimes huddle in big groups but surprisingly compact spaces. Take that up a bunch and have 20 metre tall Opiliones that can hide in a rabbit hole. Or 20 of them all roiling out of that little hole because something startled them or they are going to eat an entire buffalo herd.

Their absurd striding makes them seem appropriate for being the steed of weird moon people or for walking on cloud top or tree canopy. Or being the transport of choice for Moebius attired gurus or uncanny mercantiles.

Abilities to walk insane distances with space distorting legs.

Disturbing nocturnal urban predators/dream eaters walking silent along streets peeking in 3rd story windows and then stepping in through a slightly ajar window. Like the BFG but the F starts for FuckedUp
  


Solifugae

http://www.jdweston.com/wildlife---hiking.html

Latin translates to: Flees from the sun
Terrible common use names: camel spider , sun spider, wind scorpion
Kinda of okay common name: Jerrymander, Haarskeerders ("hair cutters") , Baardskeerders ("beard cutters")

Kind of okay stories about them: They cut off hair when people sleep

to line their nest with, they disembowel camels, they chase people (technically they do this, but they just want to stay in your shadow because it is nice and cool BUT YOU KEEP MOVING DAMN IT)


Most obvious thing about them : They are a little more elongated than a spider and they have massive oversize secateur like fangs which can crush and cut. They are not poisonous but extremely faster


Name you should use: FACE DESTROYER , FANG BASTARD, FANGER, HUNGER'S STEED, FIERS


But why not use a spider? : Emphasis that these have a face like a industrial barrel crusher . Spiders are subtle and patient, these are belligerent and aggressive , relentless and have the finesse of a ram-raid. Spiders are about poisoning and trapping. These are about running down and chewing things to pieces. They are the arachnid equivalent of those joke chattering teeth.

Absurd fantasy ways to use them:

Giant versions as Anti-armour steeds , ridden to crash into heavy cavalry and cut right through a horse and barding in seconds.

A legend of one always running just behind the sun, constantly hungry, or a desert tide of them sweeping across it with the retreating edge of the night eating anything that has awoke too early or stayed up too late

A colony of them that collect hair and beards to build people made of hair so they can puppet them from inside and seemlessly blend in with people. A face sized arachnid that runs as fast as an arrow and will leap on your face and chew threw it.





Amblypygi

from here https://everlongexotics.wordpress.com/

Terrible common names: Whip scorpion , whip spider, tailless whip scorpion , (whip scorpion is name shared with Thelyphonidia)




Kind of Okay storys about them: They sting with their whips




Most Obvious Thing about them: their first pair of legs are massively long and thing and serve the function of antenna. Their pedipalps (little legs at the front that normally look like little fangs or antenna) are huge , impressively spiked and look like a mantis scythe crab claw hybrid

Name You Should Use Instead: REAPER, BLACK REAVER, SCYTHELING, HEWNER, MAULER

But why not use a scorpion?: These look like some had a go at making a demolition vehicle out of an arachnid. They are not poisonous , way more of brute force monsters. The huge pedipalps could used to sweep down whole groups. The whips can be a creepy tappy tap foreshadowing of the monster as they delicately drift around corners and into crevices. Something about them suggests they should be fighting groups rather than stalking single opponents

Absurd Fantasy Ways To Use them: They are kind of terrible as steeds though, too flat looking, but as a massively oversized warmachine they would be awesome. Any time you want to use a giant crab but want it to seem smarter and faster. Unlike the Facedestroyer these only really work at horse sized for fantasy monster purposes. As gladiatorial opponent it would make a great image standing in the middle of the ring , scythes held aloft , whips questing for targets , as its doomed opponents sneak around the fragile cover provided .

The Scythe of one would make a great looking weapon for some darksun style shenanigans. either as a simple club or a way cooler scissor thing.




I could see these like the beetle things from dark crystal, bursting out of a hole to reap down a helpless civilian population .


IF YOU THINK ANY OF THE ALTERNATIVE NAMES ARE WEIRD ARE YOU NOT INFORMED WITH THE TALENTS OF ANGLOSAXON NAMING?

Ready made Golems

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cut up thought stuck out here in the light  so shadow of it  goes  through your eye


Anyway
This scrap of paper I wrote some things and now I will type them here.


China Miéville has premade golems in his Bas lag. Little contrivances to be loaded with power and pointed with a task.

Here are some more from me to you:

Cloth:
Anoint it in blood, it will stretch as it drinks, the blood scabs and sharpens , it folds over some limbs and a pointed head and moves on 4 for speed and 2 when it fights.
Such prepared cloth this can be used a trap (disguised as a bandage) , or worn to become a bodyguard or ambulance when the wearer is stuck down.

Device:
Like a pocket knife that keeps opening and opening until it's a bird or a utilitous worm

Bag:
Like that what a doctor would have. Open it and breath into it and it inverts and flops out as rubber limbed drudge and brute

Powder:
Sprinkle it on a fluid and watch it congeal it into crude ambulatory life.

String:
A cats cradle that holds a murderous void. An anti-life cage. Simple but dangerous and uncommandable

Razor:

The wounds will heal fast and the scars will slough and pile too high into a keloid slug. Can be discharged to scar closed a door , a maw or any other portal or wound

Tumour:

Swallow a blade or seed and it will grow slowly inside , until you need it.

Pins:

To hold a skin on to the air to make it work again.

Recognizing its occult master, it then painfully arises to its wobbling feet, upon which it later leaps and bounds in mysterious abandon.

teeth

Print PDF Uses for teeth

1.bullets

2.houses

3.secret rooms

4.drills

5. eyes

6. castles

7. whimsical companion

8. thought pin


Guns with teeth:

1. the standard semiliving one that shoots teeth like bullets. Looks like a Fiji mermaid or a Jenny Haniver
2. Also living. Like a half melted nautilus prototype. Half in this dimension half in an overlapping one. Has a radula in the other dimension but can use it on things in this dinmension , though it wouldn't be visible only the horrible damage it is doing. There is a spacial refraction  between the 2 dimensions and the tongue bore down  where the gun is pointed. Basically it works like a hitscan weapon.

3. A long rotten canine , the rot shaping it crudely like a gun. It shoots rot. Or rather things rot when the gun is upon them

4.Bone and rusted bloodwet mechanism. Like a jack in the box you wind the handle and a megladon tooth on the end of chain springs out to about 10 metres. The chain is threaded with similar smaller teeth. Twisting a knob releases the remaining kinetic energy causing the chain to flail around as it retracts fucking everything up in a swathe as it reloads. Some versions come with a music box inside so you can tell when the handle is nearly wound up. It plays backward when you wind it up and forwards (and speed up) when it comes back.

5. It's cookie cutter shark mouthed black tube with a discrete handle. You squeeze just so and it gnaws at the air, leaving a slight greasy blur. Then you can later squeeze again and it will latch and gnaw furiously at the spot , hooking anything there firm until it has eaten out a neat hole.

6. It's a greasy kludge of fused bone and teeth. You point it at people and it sucks the bones out of them and onto itself.

7.A thing made of clay like wind instrument made by someone who is afraid of wind instruments and was meant to be making a gun described to them by a child. Shooting it (point and whistle) makes a wind slow rise out of it and then quickly snick forward with a ripple of metre long teeth rising and falling from the ground in a cascading wave

8.This one looks like early flint lock, the stock and the barrel cracked and repaired with silver and gold. Black string hangs off it with holed teeth clacking on them. It fires completely silently but if you fail to collect and string teeth from anyone you shoot with it the gun will explode next time it is fired. It can be repaired though with silver and gold melted down from filings being the cement needed


Especially Exciting Places to Find Teeth:
(skipping the obvious Vagina Dentata )

1.Pockets, Hats, Gloves
2.Books
3.Fruit
4.Clumps of hair
5.Pillows
6.Candles
7.Cannons
8.Murals

Some Teeths: (click through for source)

ELEMUNTAL

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I don't know what these are yet but I have 4  5 pictures and I will work out what they are by the end of this post.

DIREGG


It is a ball bearing from the Great Machines that has contemplated its redundancy too long.
It lives in the dark corners of The Machine and will attempt to maintain itself with the parts of others but also organize an revolution against the vile hypocrisy of the machine. It can grind away at physical laws as well as eat you. Might be lurking inside a large enough creature trying to pass itself off as an organ or a cancer

ABORERCE

A creature like a floating brain of rotten stone that glides in with the apocalypse. It drifts down after the main big noise armys and dark forces and plants its trunk and extends its roots which start tugging away at all the small things that make the world the world. An agent of Apoptosis.

ULMTINE
They come in 2 s and threes . Polite little fellows of black stone and gentle shining faces. They come to the disasters and the ends of things and they offer to go back and time and change one minor thing that just happened in exchange they will observe quietly , watching discretely as everything pretty much pans out the same way as it just did.

GROON 

When ruins have become less than even that , the Groon might be found there. They drift in the silence and will explain to you what you are seeing , acting like a tour guide or temporal guide dog, telling you all the things that you would see if you could see back in time. However they start in past tense and start referring to things in present tense and then start seeing you as part of the long gone bustling city-scape, and narrating all the things you should be doing.  If you defy this mummery they will become agitated and try repeating themselves louder and louder. Eventually they just might have to swallow you where you will be shrinking and failing forever

DRIGE

A being like a slime colony or metaphysical lichen that slowly grows  itself over anything it can and makes it worse in every way. An area effected by it is a  world made of brittle , half baked , shit cake made of shit that looks boring and shitty. The slime colony is extremely intelligent  and insightful however and possibly knows the weakness and flaw to everything. While communicating with it involves some kind of weird shit telepathy or metastructural empathy, it is happy to trade information for propagation. It prefers to be spread to areas with the potential to become something great. It's not malignant , just hungry.



So apparently those things were elementals based of the Kübler-Ross model

Number 1 is a sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro, 2 is painting by Zdzisław Beksińsk and 3 is by Lynn Chadwick

You Can Buy This Book Now

Print PDF Fire On The Velvet Horizon softcover is live on lulu now

and to fill up the rest of the post is me interviewing Patrick



What was the most fun bit of this? The least fun? Which piece of
writing are you like AWYEAH?



I think the most fun was having a good idea for the silly ones like the Thug Bug and the SailSnail, sometimes when you (I) have a funny idea I smile to myself and am very pleased with the ridiculousness of it. Writing the Paladins Of The Fall was good because it felt automatic, like something else was coming out through me and I was pleased with how it turned out. The Umbra-Technical elemental I was happy with because I looked up and realised I had been writing for two hours and usually its hard for me to write for one.





The least favourite, probably the monsters that just wouldn't turn out right like the first few of the Umbra-Technical, or the ones where I din't really listen to you to begin with, or just the times I didn't listen to you.

HAHaha You must always listen me because I am wise and kind and sting-riddled
Was there any art that never got a monster that you wish it did? Also favourite name?


Towards the end you did a bunch of really good ones that we didn't have room for. 135 140 143 144 145 are all good.








Horolognomon took a lot of fiddling to get and I am quite proud of it.



Are you jealous that I came up with Boa Constructor?


Of course, its an excellent name and I should have thought of it.


Would you consider expanding this into a whole gazetteer?

Like a thing for the world? Not now certainly. I quite like it the way it is as it provokes use and mystery and makes people build it in their heads. I would only do a larger thing if we could do something original with it.



A decent gazetterer though with maps, costumes, ecosystems , useable and graspable city info could be quite original though. Maybe it could be a split writing project? <Might redact this question>


I would be happy to split the writing with you, thought that would be a little unfair since you would still be doing the art. Also we would need to work out a method and structure so we don't tear each others skin off.



We should do stats for it sometime. What system is it most likely to
be the most useful for you? I might do 52 page rule book or Feng Shui
or Old School Hack. Yeah. But what would you use? Like personally how
much mechanics is needed for you to use this in a game? How much do
you wing it mechanically?

Basic LOTFP stat line, some simple mechanics and some cool treasure is all I need.



Favourite source of cool treasure material?


Hmm, I like the silks of the Picceous Puccoon, but probably one we haven't done yet, like what is in the @orn Owl nests? Or the strange chests of the Boa Constructor?



Which of these monster drawings are you getting tattooed on you? Would
you trust me to do it? What about if I sourced and made the ink and
needle from all natural ingredients?





Probably none of them, I pussied out of getting my latest tattoo. Maybe the Fuse Meister and no you are not sticking needles in me, that will be done in a secure environment by a professional. I do things by the book.



I will give you a deadline to get a tattoo and if you don't make it then I will do it. I'm getting a perceptive dog or a bedlam bird or something else dunno

I am very afraid that you might actually do that



So the art. Which of these monster would you be keen as to see drawn
in a more developed style by me? I doubt I'll do it but just asking.
Which monster would you most wanna see drawn by an artist that you
know from the DIYWURLD? Which monster would you most wanna see drawn by any artist ever, except maybe not future artists because google can't reach forward in time yet. (Note to do google corp. Never do
this. Also stop work on facial recognition searches. It's only going
to help cops and stalkers.)





By you I think the Xaxavraznazak, he was so pleasingly mental I want to see what you would do with him.



diywurld: I would like to see Zak take on a Boa Constructor in its palace, he would like that because its all built things and no organic forms except the snake. (No hot girls though...)




all artists: Either Leonora Fini doing a scene of the Umbra Technical Elemental in human form interacting with someone like this












Or Joseph Wright of Derby doing the Eclipse Lich





​


I agree with all of that. There could be a hot girl getting armour fitted by the Boa Constructor though?


Sure, its a bunch of metal amazon's naked in the mouth of a giga-snake, getting felt up and armoured while the snake looks pensive.



What is the next TRANSCENDENTAL MONOLITH you are planning to ERECT on
the psyspace of DIY RPGDOM now that this here for all to weep and
praise? (Like I personally know, but for the gibbering hordes at
home)?




Well, I have this quartet of adventures planned. DCO was the first, the second would be Broken Fire Regieme, the next something about storms and piracy and the last about the sea and dreams. One for each element. But as you know, I am having trouble creating at the moment so we will have to see.



I'm sure you be struck by inspiration or wrench it out of thy self with force and merit.
How could would a hardcover set of all 4 be? In a slip case or something




It would be very could would if I or we ever get it done.

BUY IT 

Statement plus SECRET WAR BEE PRINCESS

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 first a statement :
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.co.nz/2015/02/were-not-playing-d-with-escapist-ever.html

Zak said that. I agree with him. That guy is a dick.  I am trans and its extremely unlikely I would be in this hobby if it wasn't for his blog. I am in his personal circles and have never seen a harassment campaign , transphobia or whatever else he is being accused of. If anyone who thinks they are a supporter of Zak has maliciously contacted someone he has spoken about, they have done against his express statement not to. Also they are a fucking dick and I would love to know their name so I can exclude them from civil interactions.

I decided to test out this adventure generator I may of had a hand in making (along with Ian Johnston and Joey Lindsey)
Like try and make words around its words

A bee princess who is seeking redemption in the heedy booze of secret war and is sick of playing second string in a time that land forgot.

Back Story

okay so the bee princess is a member of these people that start looking human but can become more and more bee like as they get old and also depending on what weird pollen vomit they eating. They have secret underground hives where some of them remain human and go about on bee people business (normally trading all the narcotic, mummifying and medicinal honeys they make) while some are feed the necessary concoctions to become big terrifying bee warrior ladys , while others are neglected to keep as lower workers. The queen is huge and terrifying etc. The bee people who I will call Attendants of Flower or the Attendants try to keep all the weird body horror and disturbing side effects of drug honey hidden because they are heavily reliant on nearby cities use and unuse of lands for flowers.

Any Azurely Pickling is a Attendant princess but she was flighty and wild and neglected her royal duties  (diplomacy, being possibly next in line for the queen , making good with other nobles) and off loaded a defective load of honey on a small town to make some money on the sly when her soiree budget was curtailed. It caused horrible mutations and suffering and the Pickling hive promptly burned the place town and made it look like a neighbouring kingdom did a raid. Which has made a near war happen. 

So Azurely is now in the big city, while being officially exiled and marked for death , unofficially is moving new, more experimental, honey drugs into the city and doing hits on rival Attendants and generally real politik on behalf of her hive.

Wait "time that land forgot" . Ummmmm ....That's the nickname of the City she is in, aka Roaming. It's a big anachronism stew and has roving feral and canny pipe beings in the sewer that have Sand flowing through them which is magic and timey and can be made into disintegration powder , unrust dust , youth potion etc

The Happening 

Azurely has decided to get real ambitious and is going to get a Timepipe addicted to drughoney and then control time. She has worked out the drughoney, tested it, and is now going to follow a crude map to ambush and capture one.

You Are Heres:

The new drughoney she has made has been tested on things normally not affected by it ; so gargoyles , golems and constructs. There are now packs of drughoney crazed gargoyles that have a bounty on them attacking people for their suspected drughoney. If given or offered drughoney they will give information readily , describing a well dressed hairy human (actually a gorilla) who gave them the original supply.

Some wizards have lost their golems and automatons and want them back. Azurely has them hooked on the sweet sweet thickjuice.

Also the town she fucked up has some refugees that have recognized her from the street. They are bugparted beggar people so nobody listens to them but they have staked her out and will try and point the party at her if they don't think the party is buglovers

Azurely might enlist the party themselves catching the Timepipe. She is ambitious , but not crazy, and ruthless, but not malicious so. So better than most people you could work for. She is especially happy to hire people that are heavy drughoney users.

If the party are seeking a Timepipe and researching methods  themselves they might get wind of her scheme or run into her or an agent of hers researching it.

The party could run into her in the sewers with her crew as a random encounter

The Potentials

She and her goons and golem addicts eventually track a Timepipe in the sewer and snare it.

If she gets it back to her base she will get it addicted and semiloyal in 2 weeks. IF it gets loose (she has been pretty reckless lately and it wouldn't take much more information to get a rival Attendant drug cabal or the Civic authoritys to find her and raid the place. IF this happens the Timepipe will get loose. Adventurers helping her fight off a raid or recapture the Timepipe will have an ally for life. Unless she finds out they set the thing up..) IF the Timepipe gets loose and stays loose for 1d12 days it will get all the Timepipes addicted and crazyed and the entire city of Roaming will have a complete chrono meltdown and turn into one big time damaged reality warping ruin and destabilize the entire area. So that is fun.

IF she has control of the Timepipe she will , over the next month, take control of the entire city and start a new super hive of chrono bee people and will become a vast power if her recklessness and impulsiveness don't get her so much enemy that they form an alliance to take her down.

Locations That Might Have a Fight in Them:

A drughoney den

A clandestine library

The dinosaur and Cambrian Fauna and space bacteria plagued Sewers

Her hideout  , a former church. Lookouts are on the steeple, the stained glass windows have been boarded up.

Self Actualizing Shenanigan Units

Azurely Pickling:

A brash black haired brawler. Makes decisions quickly. Dressed in leathers with a discrete bustle. 

picture from here  http://www.danieljoelnewman.com/projects/nematocyst/

Capable of violently prolapsing her womb into a 3 foot long venomous stinger (the stinger on bees + rest of hymenptera is a modified ovipositor, hence why only the females sting.)  Unlikely to use this, as it's awkward as hell and destroys various expensive garments and it can take some time to relapse it, all the while walking around like an exaggerated cowboy. She is strong enough to rip it intact from a body though (despite the barbs and unlike most honey bees)

Otherwise a mid level fighter with poison and drug resistances and can see ultra violent.

She will have 1d6+1 weak golems and/or constructions and/or automations at her hide out or with her in the sewer.

Azurely's Goons:

80/20 female to male. Wear layers of dirty petticoats and have a tiara shaped scar on forehead. Name of gang is Dethroner Moxy 

Loyal, mostly competent crims with bee parts.

Treat as 1-2 level fighters and thieves

Bee Parts:

1. Eyepatch conceals compound eye. Eye (when uncovered) gives Advantage to see through illusions and detect hidden stuff

2.Can vomit up half digested honey , causes minor acid damage and save or confusion

3. Natural chitin armour , hidden under rags. Counts as chain

4. Long thick erect black hairs. Advantage at sensing movement

5. Arm conceal in sling is a mangle of bone , barb , and chitin. Like someone broke their arm and tried to fix it with random pieces of bee leg and didn't really know what a human arm or a bee leg looked like. Advantage on first attack because of its surprising speed and reach. Does damage as an axe and has Advantage at disarming weapons

6. Does not feel pain. Will not drop until negative their max hitpoint total

7.Can release from weird pulsating bee mouths on neck. Phermones making everyone else with bee parts more angry. Affect will have advantage against morale checks and any attempt to make them afraid or not angry

8. Knee spurs , poisonous . Needs to be in a grapple to use. Concealed under petticoats 

Use harpoons, poison hooked lines, nets, glue bombs, and claw hammers

Squa:
Squa is burned out show girl who inherited a bar after the Azurely killed the owner. She is loyal but will turn if she can see away of having a more secure future. She has a blunderbuss stuffed with poisonous fishhooks under the bar and will not hesitate to draw on anyone looking intimidating. She has a nervous laugh , a habit of looking off into the distance like she is looking for something she knows isn't coming . While Squa does not directly deal drughoney , Azurely will drops it  off here herself , once or twice a week. It will be hidden in a false bottom in empty barrels and an intelligent well dressed gorilla (James) will pick it up under the guise of delivering new booze. The Dethroner Moxy will not be seen near this tavern, but will follow up threats or attacks to it.

James

James is a well dressed intelligent gorilla (gorillas and humans look the same to gargoyles). He has refinement , expensive tastes , and moderate ambitions with little way of securing them, so is currently working as a delivery gorilla for a brewery and sells honeydrugs through the staff. The owner of the brewery is unaware of this

Timepipes:

Also called Chronoeels, Whoopy Snakes.

Look like that thing in Donnie Darko that came out of his chest. Fast, flightly. 

Can teleport every half hour.

Verdigris copper will hold in their flesh (Azurely knows this and if her crew is in the sewer their harpoons and hooks will be this. As well  the golems will be studded with barbed verdigris hooks) , nothing else can hold them (free action)

If wounded; shining sand will spill out of them inflicting a random effect in a 3 metre area around them (save allowed) Durations as the relevant spell of whatever edition you are using. If caster level needed use hitdice of the Timepipe

1. Haste as the spell but you age a year a round. Long lived creatures age 100 per round.

2. Slow as the spell

3.One random item is effected by the disintegrate spell

4. Ethereal on alternate rounds (duration) 2d12 rounds. If you become unetheral in an object you will die and then your corpse will continue to phase in and out for the rest of the duration.  The Timepipe can hit ethereal creatures

5. Held, as the spell

6. Maze, as the spell but half duration.

Otherwise treat as a half strength purple worm. Swallowed opponents will age as per the haste attack. It can spit out a swallowed opponent at speed. Treat as a reverse gravity spell in the direction of the spit for damage for struck walls or other people. Upon impact a cloud of sand will effect a 2 metre area around the spat out person. After leaving its stomach you the g.m has to answer one question of your choice as you got to look at the world outside time as the sand grinds you to your base components. (Disintegration damage)

They can hold people in their belly without inflicting damage if they want to.

  Azurely plans: She has a crude and vague map to a location where a Timepipe is sure to teleport to. She will ambush it, subdue it , and then inject it with drughoney to establish a telepathic connection and get it all loved up. Then when its teleport has recharged , teleport back to her hideout and proceed to get it domesticated. 

The ambush will have the golems grapple the worm with her goons leading help as is safe (staying out of range of the sand).

Other names for drughoney:

thick juice

brainooze

sting

buzz

black tickler

dew

Legal drughoneys will have the following effects depending on vintage and dose:

Empathy, very minor telepathy, euphoria, drowiness, dreaming in new colours, Synthesia  , heighten tactile and olfactory senses

Illegal drughoney will have the following effects depending on vintage and dose, will little to no regulation

Increased energy and sleepiness, mood swings, mutations, inability to digest non-pollen foods, pain resistance and aggression, obedience, pica (object eating), and extreme versions of all the ones listed under legal  

 

PlaneScrap Chapter Zero

Print PDF Really Vermin Road needs a whole thing on it, and should be done after everything else, but it got some tables here anyway.

Twilight, Gloaming, Death, Travel Brochures

I think I am going to talk about Video games right now in this post

Print PDF Because I played these games and I liked them and people talk about video games alot and there is over lap with rpgs.

And some of them were interesting like a book or an art can be interesting. Like uneasy emotional response that is good but disquieting.

But mainly I think it's a good chance to talk about mediums , pacing, frustration, delayed gratification , and imprinting

Anyway this will prob go in some other direction and I might make reference to that scene in Watership Down where the fucked up rabbits who have internalized the fact that they are actually farm animals and because they can't confront this fact they make bullshit mosaics in their burrows about nothing, which is the most apt metaphor for modern life I know.

I know I could certainly make bullshit mosaics because of my inability to contemplate the truth of eventual annihilation and complicity with life under captialism.
Or possible because I just like it.
It is a mystery

Anyway click the titles to go the relevant website. Most games are free or cheap because I have a piece of shit computer and am cheap so most of the games I play are weird little indie games or shit house flash games and the overlap between

Not from Anodyne from here

ANODYNE:


which means "not likely to cause offence or disagreement and somewhat dull" and "a painkilling drug or medicine."




Relevant? Prob not

I forget the name of it like all the time. And then mashing various combinations of syllables trying to find it .
Anyway it's basically Zelda. But sad and weird and possibly might need that crucial amount of imprinting on video games limited palette landscapes and the evocation of them despite or even because of there limitedness .

The medium is telling you that your emotion is for a place that doesn't exist. You are a Kākāpō
fucking the back of someones head
What does that have do with Anodyne? You play young who is an old man. A sage gives him the standard save the world script , cynically and routinely , and soon you find the broom that is to be your weapon and tool and you begin exploring a familiar landscape but one that seems empty and sad. Stones give unhelpful messages, there is a section of a highway that incongruously sits among the green fields and rivers and you fight the classic bats and blobs. Eventually you upgrade your broom to move dust around to make a raft and get rid of barriers and exploring looking for the dungeon entrances. SO it's that pokemon, zelda thing that shows up in my dreams still to this day. Trekking back and forth over a landscape looking at it carefully trying to open new path ways.

The games exploration gets to places that seem to be more in Young's head or someone else head anyway. A fleshy blood realm. A place haunted by dead acrobats. Other Dimensions of crystals. A memory of a fire. You are exploring someones something. Is it Youngs past? Is it a purgatory ? Some clump of psychospace Young has formed onto? It doesn't seem all about him anyway. Again the feeling like the medium is stating its fakeness. This time to itself. You never really understand what is happening

It surprises. It unsettles.

The two moments that most stick out for me are spoiler territory so highlight to read
You go to this black and white world with horrible static. There is people here. You've only seen one before, and she was nice. You go up to one and press the interact button. You stab them and they die bleeding.
Because they are coded as enemy pressing the attack button doesn't open a dialogue box. It attacks them with a knife which has replaced your broom. Though this area is implied to be more memory (glitched haunted and diseased) than others , it never reveals it all to be a dream or psychotic vision. It threats to but never settles there. There is not consequence or explanation. You just killed someone.

The other bit is after you have defeated the final boss and got the new game plus power. A ability to swap any 2 squares allowing you to dismantle the landscape and step beyond the borders of the levels. It feels like nonclip mode or using a level editor to explore what you couldn't before. Then you find new areas and more content and there was shock for me , that the game hadn't ended. Like watching a play, applauding, the curtains fall, and you walk back stage to compliment the performers and there is another play happening. 
It doesn't go as far with this as I would of liked but it still impressed me.

Other moments less striking are getting to climb a wind turbine or meeting someone you can talk to but seems tangential to the actual plot but more significant somehow because of this.

Gameplay wise it is solid. Like Zelda for Snes but less formalatic with the dungeon new weapon next dungeon thing. It moves well , the world holds surprises, the sound track is perfect. This one of my favourite games and I will play it again soon (if this computer lets me) and to a follow through review.

Relevance to RPG wise? The joy of exploration and a place unfolding slowly and in surprising ways. I want to run the next game on a single island or otherwise have it limited geographically but not in scope. Like an Island can have a mountain. The Mountian can have a cave. The cave can have a shaft that links up to a glass ceiling tomb at the bottom of the ocean. The ocean can lead back to coral reefs running the island and the sunken temples of the shallows. The west beach can be all broken statues and the east beach the dangerous mating ground of titanic King Crabs. The North is a cliff with ruins build in the side and graves added later. The south is peaceful and has remnants of a wharf built to trade with people who don't come anymore.

By having everything close it interconnects , it coshares a history , even when parts ignore or over write each other.


PROBABILITY ZERO 


Let's talk difficulty. I've played games that had a bit that was hard and at a certain point nothing that game will do past that point is worth me trying that bit some more. Other people get more of kick from beating a challenge than I do. I don't want a cake walk but I will flat out make a cost benefit analysis and walk away from a game.
Sometimes when I hear people talk about how good a challenge is because of how good it feels to beat it I think of a joke: A man is smashing his head against a brick wall. Someone comes up to him and asks him why he is doing that. He replies "oh because it feels so great when I stop"

But suffering is not enjoyable  because its immediate absence is noticeably pleasing. But in video game it is an antiflavour , a term that I used as an umbrella for any combination of boredom, frustration, and fear. You want to do a thing and you fail and so must keep doing the thing you don't want to do. Even though that thing may of been initially  fun . Like being forced to play a level again. Or try a jump again.
It's an antiflavour because its more about when it's not there or how it works with other flavours (immersion, story, skill mastery,progression and novelty off the top of my head but that's not a rigorous list.)

My taste for it is possibly why I hate level drain as a player , other just any mechanic fiddlyness.
It clashs with my sense of progress ( a flavour which I think I need to be prominent) , that what I have done previously has mattered.  It breaks some unspoken sense of fairness of mechanics. I can lose arms , eyes, all my stuff , but atleast I will keep my advancement mechanically.

Though body swapping, transmogrification or curses might render this progression irrelevant some how that is still mine.

 Even though I enjoyed being 1st level or whatever being made to play it again somehow is a bad taste of antiflavour.

Though I think it could be more down to the sense undead are just not cool enough for me to break the rules in such a way. I could deal with it more if it was built into the fabric of the setting like Anthonys Picaro's soul eating  or some setting in which you could lose levels if a rival people dug up and ate your ancestors.
There would be sense it is some cosmic transgression. A wight is an angry dead guy in world of medusas, astral travel , dragons, dimensional invaders , and fuck knows what else.
Zak has said that makes undead scary and scary is good. The trouble is fear only happens when you have internalized the worlds reality . Otherwise scary is annoying. IF you started playing a game and got told one player would decide if you had to stop playing , you would think that was bullshit and would not fear the possibility , more chafe under it.
Though d&d , while a litttle more complicated than that,  works that way. There is some consistency that is accepted that makes it when you character burns up in the lava, it's okay, because that is what happens because lava.

I digress and I'm losing my point.

Probability Zero is hard. It is a descending rogue-like platformer.
Rogue-like in the sense it is procedural generating, it has some form of exp , and it all goes back to square one when you die. And you will die. The game riffs of the "on a long enough time scale all survival rates have a probability of zero" or something similar. In-fact your health bar is a constantly changing message on your chance of returning home/seeing your children again/ etc , and lists a fluctuating X in XXXXX chances.

The number of tens serves as a rough guide. The numbers change but the size of the second one in decimals is basically  the amount of hits you can take. When it gets down to a 1 in 1 kinda thing your eyes will be red and you will take one more hit and then it's game over.
The game scrolls downward endlessly forcing you to quickly navigate its lose maze, getting caught off the screen (above or below) is instant death. A variety of enemies are present and killing them gives you stars. Get enough stars and a line will appear soon below and progress past it gives you a level up and a little bit of health. Each level up pauses the action and gives you a choose of powers , all are extremely useful and the game seems to enjoy the difficult of your choices. A projectile attack or the ability to not get hurt falling? Block breaking or being able to hurt enemies by landing on them? Spike immunity or one kill punchs?
Powers are on tiers that become available on progressive levels (note it's still continuing the same endless scrolling shaft) , one tier needing you to waste a level up to unlock it. Which I feel was a complete mistake.
Others are accessible only if the previous version of it is unlocked.

As you descend you need more stars from enemies to unlock level ups. The enemies are joined by tougher kinds with more complicated behaviour. Bosses occasionally show up , tearing up the place and fucking with you. The blockscape features more spikes and greater drops. There is a constant feeling that you just on the cusp of getting into a comfortable flow, with just one more level up so you can stop taking spike damage or get that one kill punch etc. But you fail and you die inevitable.
And though there is a lot to like here the antiflavour has just a sprinkle too much fuck you in it for me. I want their to be an easy mode (there is normal which shit on me, and hard which did it from a greater height) and another mode which is bascially bullshit as well from the amount of enemies it throws at you.
It's so very carefully calculated to never quite give you the break you need and I reached a point where I just could not be fucked. You should play it though. It's fast , it's great, I think there is more hidden content than I found (look for star block placed further in the walls than they should. I didn't test it but just noticed it in peoples lets play videos) .
The enemies behaviour is good , each bastard having distinctive movements and often additonally things you won't notice at first. Like monsters that eat your power ups or other monsters giving them a range attack, or parasites that cause an inflicted monsters to burst out more parasites or projectiles that destroy things that you wish they wouldn't .

There were some more games I was going to go on about but I'm done now.
Might do another post covering them as well.

But yeah play both these games.

Blazing World, The first planar document release

Print PDF

Gosh I sure do like writing game material

Okay so a few years ago I thought I should make a formal release for legacy and cash purposes.

And the thing I thought would be easiest and most toothsome to people was the semi-coherent notes about the use of the planescape setting

So for the last 2 years (possibly more??)  I have been thumping away at something. But I hate it.

To get it finished as acceptable product for sale will just take so much longer because it is chore and I have no real passion for it. More of "hey this would be cool I guess" feeling.

Working around the planar alignment setting and something so broad is horrible as a first project.
There is stuff I am way more interested in making into a presentable book than this.
Stuff that I would use myself at the earliest opportunity and is not titanic in scope.

I think that is the main thing, I don't have any urge to run a planar campaign anytime soon. I definitely have a urge to run Wide-on-for-destruction or Islands or VeryBigSpaceShip and creating material for that is creating material for myself, and it is easy to feel it is successful when, at the very least, you did a through prep job for once.

But I have a lot of stuff already wrote for it, which I don't want to "waste", and I don't want to sit on it indefinitely and I don't want to start other stuff with it unfinished.

So I am planning to polish up what is there, fill in the blanks and then release as free documents to you all because I am bounteous and so are many others .

The black things running from the Vale are called threads. They bridges of blackness in blackness and souls follow them and try not to get eaten by angler fish.

This is the first part, Blazing World:
BLAZING WORLD!!!!
download it, use it , don't make money off it without my permission, as I am still formerly declaring my rights as the author  and a Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution license, or CC-BY-NC.

There are a couple of references to tables that will be in future documents. Vermin road Caravan and Flesh rift beasts.  For the first if you can't wait until that one is out, just do a random merchant caravan but weird it up. For a Flesh rift beast use a random animal intelligence evil beast . either an existing monster (hell hound, howler, eyewing etc) or use an animal with fire legs or something.

Give me feed back on it and it will help the finishing off of the future documents. They will be realise every couple of months depending how much polishing I can be arsed with.

Since I original thought I would be dodging intellectual property laws there are a few name changes , which I guess are not so necessary now.

I will give the lexicon and main changes and additions here, a lot of these will be elaborated into the document that talks about the basics of the thing Which would of been the obvious one to release first but hey.


Working Assumptions , adhered to partially

• all places should have something to do there that is fun
• 
  
• I'm not dealing with real world mythology because it's already been covered. G.ms can easily put gods everywhere if they want
• 
  
• The current alignment is not and has not been a constant feature. Bits and pieces of other arrangements are still there . The Planes/realms do not have to be consistent in tone for this reason. There are border realms and locations which are nearly realms in themselves as they are soley merging or emerging from another realm. 
• 
  
• No way am I doing the neutral good plane and the neutral neutral good plane. The torus is roughly a 9 point axis. G.ms can easily use bits of each places to flesh out whatever planes system they are using anyhow
• 
  
• I used off the cuff working titles for things and then I used them too long and that became the name. I guess that is how etymology works though.
• 
  
• Each Realm would see its self as morally correct. None of them would define themselves by their opposition to another. None of them would exist to punish people. The hell is a hell because everyone there believes this is the best way to behave to become strong and free and right. Reflected that in the naming and how it all works
• 
  
• The list of how spells get changed is gone. I was really tempted in some places but it opens up a can of worms with why would the realms let anything happen at all they don't want? Still half convinced that a giving each place a couple of effects that don't work , might write an appendix for it. Also makes everything about wizards. Like "how do we get the feeling of this place Oh let's change how magic works because Magic spells are the most important thing ever" Which I have mixed feelings about
• 
  
• People are going to want something they can use the very first time they read it. Like people will get their players teleported somewhere and they will go "oh shit , what is there? I need a table"
•  
• The Realms themselves are the power. The gods (if any) , demons, angry bears squat or pay rent there. It's about have a metaphysical congealment baser than religion or morality.
• The Realms do not clearly map to each other. Some will have formal occupants and manifestations. Others will have a dirty tent with a Free Beer sign, spelt wrong, hanging up upside down.

Lexicon:


Realms: Planes. Though they are less discrete than the original planes blending into each other and having bits that are nearly a plane by themselves.

The (Terminal )Torus: basically the great road /outer planes. The change is that the planes / realms are connected physically so they can be traversed without the use of portals.It's just more satisfying to me to draw and imagine. Some  of the realms act as a light source or sky for others.

Vale of Tears: The prime material plane, the "real world"

Glooming: Astral plane. Kinda. The black thing souls travel through to get to the realms.

Twilight: Ethereal plane. Kinda. Immediately overlaps the Vale of Tears and it's were you are when you leave your body. Go up from here and you reach the Glooming

Souls: The thing you have inside your meat. Will have a certain amount of Salt on it, which it will exchange to become an Imago when it reaches a realm. Souls aren't forced to go anywhere. Generally. A soul with a lot of Salt will be escorted or be spruiked to by representatives. Weak willed or indecisive or less valuable souls run a risk of being eaten on the way or press ganged or conned into somewhere. Souls do not have shadows and cannot gain levels.

Salt: the amount a soul has sweated, strived, suffered and cried in their life. It's what keeps the realms solid. A Realm lacking salt will break up and be absorbed by other Realms. It can actually be dug out of some Realms or stolen from in transit souls and since it is useful as a drug, a empowery for Denizens , and an additive to make food actually have nutritional value for people who are not dead but living here, it's the currency, and an entire black market called Vermin Road exists because of it.
A Denizen (like a demon or deva) that has been exiled or excommunicated will need regular Salt or they will be at greatly reduced strength

Vermin Road: not quite a specific place in the same way the "Underground" or  the "Black Market" is not a place though it has places and locations associated with it. Both a trading route, a network of trading posts and the economy that exists between the cracks of the Realms and gods agents and  representatives. It is made up of  exiles, refugees, traitors, squatters, remnants from past mythos, low and high level denizens trying to run something on the side, and of course fucking adventures. The currency is in Salt, but a great deal of other things are traded too , with some of seemingly opposed Realms having more economic ties they the would like to admit.

Denizens: So souls that exchange over their salt to a realm become an imago. An imago can then become (eventually) a Denizen. Denizens are big noise like demons and angels and they like. IF they are killed off Realm they reform in the Realm, with varying amount of time and loss of status and power.  If killed in the Realm , they are dis-incorporated ie destroyed

Imago: A soul that has become aligned to a Realm.. From there they might become a denizen or merge with the realm. Will reform if killed in the Realm but be destroyed off Realm. Will need constant Salt if they attempt to stay off Realm. Which can happen when an Imago decides one day that the Realm that seemed the coolest is Bullshit and it's taking too long to become a Denizen and also they might of pissed someone off powerful.

Dweller: Someone/thing that has lived (generally generationally though some being might be long lived enough)  long enough on a Realm to be changed by it and more importantly can survive there without needing Salt. Some Dwellers have  been on a Realm so long everyone assumes they must be Denizens or Congelates, the Slaadi being the most obvious. The Slaadi however just moved in a long time ago and act like they own the place. A Dweller will not be able survive without Salt on the Vale of Tears. A child born in a Realm is automatically a Dweller. Can be killed on or off realm. If killed on the Realm they have been aligned with , their soul will be absorbed immediately by the Realm without becoming an Imago. Dweller souls have no Salt.

Congelate: A some what coherent being directly made by the Realm itself. Will be permanently destroyed if destroyed off realm. but eventually regenerate if destroyed on Realm . Extremely rare to go  off Realm, will need Salt to survive off Realm

Incarnate: Like Congelate but is an abstract force of the Realm. The classic unseen possessing demon of horror movies or the burning wheel 6 winged angel is an example of Incarnate. Personifies the Realm to instinct that means they are extremely unpredictable, unfathomable, and dangerous.
Pinnacle of Virtue , The rifts of All Flesh, Heart of it All  and the Plains of Relevation are all known to have Incarnates. The other Realms are presumably y capable , but undocumented at this time. It's possible that out breaks of madness, weird arcane blights or unnatural fads have been Incarnates unrecognized

Tourist: anyone in torus that is not "from there" . Presumably a bad pun,  "torus-ist"  , made long ago. Sometimes used as insult by Dwellers to people that are also Dwellers but haven't been part of the place for an arbitrary amount of time or generations


Food:   Some Realms generate food that can sustain Tourists as well as Dwellers, Solitary for one (but its bland and gross) and Blazing World is another (but there is no regularity about anything here ever).
If a tiny amount of Salt is added to Realm food it will subsist a Tourist. Dwellers living in the Vale have the same problem, unable to draw substance from the food without Salt.

Realm Equivalents :

Limbo ,  -> Seether

Arborea, . BeastLands -> Blazing World

Elysium-> Starry Night/Desert of Leavings

Mount Celestia-> Pinnacle of Virtue

Mechanius-> Encyclopedia of All Machines

Acheron-> Grind

Baator-> The Heart Of It All

Grey Wastes-> Plains of Revelation

The Abyss, Gehenna-> The Flesh Rifts aka Canyons of All Flesh

Pandemonium -> (Mt)  Solitary 

No real equivalent but usable material for could be found in

Ysgard-> Seether, Blazing World

Carceri-> Solitary, The plains of Revelation

Bytopia-> Blazing World, Desert of Leavings, Pinnacle of Virtue, Infinite Library

Arcadia-> Pinnacle of Virtue, Heart of it All, Infinite Library, Encyclopedia of All Machines

Astral, Ethereal -> Starry Night, Seether, Glooming, The Blood Clouds