Speaking of small monsters, bugs and vampires. Lets talk of the T, Vampira, aka the Vampire bug.
The vampire bug belongs to the assassin bug family, but unlike other members of the family it's very much a threat to humans. Fist-sized, well-camoflaged, a sharp probiscus that can easily stab through thick leather and a venom that can drop a bull. Like other assassin bugs a bite is immideatly followed by the bug injecting its prey with venom. The venom acts as a powerful paralytic, with an almost immideatly noticeable effect and will kill an adult human within 2 minutes. As soon as the prey appears to be dead the vampire bug will inject it with digestive fluids, dissolving the preys insides, and within 3-4 hours the bug will suck its meal dry. When dawn arrives all that remains will be a deflated balloon of bone and skin with a nearby puddle of water as the bug gets rid of excess fluids.
Unfortunatly the venom is so fast-acting that the victim rarerly has a chance to even utter a sound after being bitten. This makes finding and killing the vampire bug remarkably difficult.
To defend yourself effectively you should sleep in an uncluttered and sealed bedroom, with any ventilation covered by metal mesh (non-metal mesh which keeps most bugs out is sadly inadequate).
The best tips for going on the offence is perfume, sunscreen and active illumination nightvision goggles. The vampire bug hunts primarily by scent and by sight, being highly sensitive to light in the ultraviolet spectrum. Altering your scent with perfume, reducing and breaking up your UV profile with sunscreen and using IR lights (the bugs camoflage is nowhere as good in the IR spectrum) can give you the advantage you need to strike first. It's almost impossible to find vampire bugs during the day, as they tend to hide in rotten logs, deep crevices or other hard-to-find locations.
Fiendishrabbit on
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
The revenant is a peculiar type of undead abomination, in that they aren’t typically created by a man wizard or some kind of ritual, or even a bite or curse. Ultimately, they create themselves. Revenants are created when someone dies in such a personally unjust manner that their soul rages hard enough that it effectively overcomes death. This leaves the revenant as a 90s esque anti hero type situation, consumed for hatred towards the people that killed them that they’re going to murder their way to that person no matter what, now death won’t even stop them. It’s all pretty metal. That said, there is no real cosmic force controlling this as far as we can tell, it is literally up to the individual to be so mad they punch oblivion in the face and say “No, fuck you, that dude needs to die too!” So, they aren’t always on the side of ‘good’ and will come after people who were either doing a duty or plane just don’t need to die. That is hopefully the reason one might come into conflict with a revenant, hopefully no one reading this would be the intended target of one.
The Revenant has some very useful tools in its arsenal to accomplish goals. For starters, it’s basically unkillable. During its second duration on this earth, killing it is basically out of the question. Even if you set it on fire, crushed it in a trash compactor, and then exploded the still closed compactor, it is eventually walking out of that. We have it on record. They can however be delayed, as they take time to heal and dealing enough damage to one kind of shuts them down for a bit, though never really more than several hours. More than enough time for the target to flee. They’re also superhuman in strength, roughly on par with a vampire, however unlike a vampire they’re not prone to pull punches and give people a fighting chance, they’re in it to win it. In rare cases they even have been seen shooting fire and with minor teleportation powers. These are extremely rare though. Lastly, they always know where their intended target is, and it is super accurate. Even high powered obscuring spells have little effect. With something this frightening, you might be wondering how you save the person it is after. The answer is simple, time. Revenants only have so much time on this Earth before their rage burns out , on average this is a month, some are a bit longer, some a bit shorter. After which time their bodies turn to dust, and their souls go, wherever.
Being a human shaped enemy, most weapons that work against humans are going to have at least a moderate effect on a revenant, though items enchanted to be better against the undead are advised due to how powerful these things tend to be. Items designed to pin and trap things are are also advised, though they will likely eventually get free from sheer force of will, any time delayed is a boon as it is a race against the clock ultimately. They have no specific weaknesses to speak of, however many will try to get loved ones to attempt to talk them down. This rarely works, and can sometimes even lead to the death of person being used. It is safe to say these corpses are basically unreasonable murder machines.
Tracking a revenant isn’t that difficult all things considered. They tend to work in a straight line to their target. If someone has a revenant after them the best bet is to set them up in a secure place with a clear escape route that can’t be easily trapped or ambushed, and wait. Once you know where it is, get the target across an ocean asap and don’t lose eyes on the revenant. If you can pull that off it is usually enough to put an end to the threat if they can stay there for the duration. If they can’t, this get a little messier, especially if the revenant knows they can’t. As this is when they would be setting up traps and such for their return. Try to not let this happen. IF they don’t know they can’t stay there, they might try to pursue and that’s where you buy your time. Wait until they’re more than halfway to your location and head back, you’ve now just wasted a lot of valuable time. Repeat until you win.
How can you tell the difference between a revenant and a barrow-wight? Lets say, hypotheticly, if I stolen a treasure (which incidentally happened to be the most prized possession of a long dead maya king) from an ancient gravesite, and then killed my partner so I didn't have to split the treasure. Then after a week I find out, again hypotheticly, that some type of highly resistant undead is pursuing me, is there a way to tell which one it is?
I'm sure you can tell why it would be important. The revenant is, as you say, unkillable, but will dissipate with time. A barrow-wight o the other hand is killable, but will hunt you forever.
/Concerned totally-not-rogue archeologist.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
How can you tell the difference between a revenant and a barrow-wight? Lets say, hypotheticly, if I stolen a treasure (which incidentally happened to be the most prized possession of a long dead maya king) from an ancient gravesite, and then killed my partner so I didn't have to split the treasure. Then after a week I find out, again hypotheticly, that some type of highly resistant undead is pursuing me, is there a way to tell which one it is?
I'm sure you can tell why it would be important. The revenant is, as you say, unkillable, but will dissipate with time. A barrow-wight o the other hand is killable, but will hunt you forever.
/Concerned totally-not-rogue archeologist.
Dear Legitimate Archaeologist,
Appearance would would be a give away. Does it look like the unmurdered partner or does it look like someone you never met? That right there would be a good tell. If you can't tell because of the way this person was in no way murdered by you, maybe set up a trap using the treasure as bait. It it attempts to reclaim the treasure, you got yourself a wight, if it doesn't you might still have either.
A sure fire way would be to get a team of experts to lure it into a trap and destroy it the best they can. If it comes back that certainly means you need to cross an ocean and keep moving at a steady pace. If it doesn't, then you only have to worry about paying the armed thugs you hired and being able to sleep at night.
Alright, so i'm probably going to spin down on hydras. I'm kind of hitting a creative wall with them because really, outside of specific differences i think i hit a wide breath of hydras. Might have an idea and pop it in, but I think I am going to pivot focus to the fey. at least a couple of people have suggested it, and honestly i feel like i fucked up some things last time i tried it, even if i like some of the ideas i had.
going over old notes I have, i still think the shitty joke of naming the somewhat evil competition the Magical Research Association is pretty good. even if it sparked everyone mislabelling questions that would never get answered.
Also, man a lot of people who used to post here hate horses. I don't get it.
But you haven't even touched on hypergolic breath hydras?
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I would love to talk about the fae with you Melding
I just read Angela Carter's Erl-king and the seven year tithe is currently in my top three Halloween decorating ideas for the year
But you haven't even touched on hypergolic breath hydras?
wouldn't that cover just about every fire breathing hydra? since they are effectively mixing chemicals to make fire come out of their mouth? These are actual questions, I am not a scientist.
There are four ways that a creature could breathe fire.
1. Hypergolic ignition. Two fluids that ignite on contact.
2. Catalyst ignition (actually used in real life by bombardier beetles). The creature ejects something that once it comes into contact with a catalyst starts an exothermic reaction.
3. It could use a mechanism similar to dust explosions, where a normally rather safe (although definitely burnable) material becomes extremly so by dispersing it into fine particles (so that it has contact with a lot of air). This cloud can then be ignited by a relatively mild source of energy such as static electricity or friction. This produces more of an explosion than fire, but hey.
4. Electric ignition. Basically a flued could be ignited by a powerful electric spark. There are several animals that can generate electricity, everything from electric eels to the decidedly odd Stargazer fish (which electroshocks prey with its eyes. Well, eyemuscles. But still).
Hypergolic ignition is generally a very bad idea for an animal with a long an easily severed neck, which would kind of turn into a firehose. However, if each component of the hypergolic fluid was produced by a different head? Catalytic or electric ignition would generally be a lot safer if the fluid is generated within the main body and travels through channels all the way up to the head.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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TrippyJingMoses supposes his toeses are roses.But Moses supposes erroneously.Registered Userregular
These chips say they are made from partially hydragenated vegetable oil. Are they kind of venemous? If I eat one, will half a chip take its place?
If they're hydragenated instead of hydrogenated. Higly venomous.
Or possibly just soaked in hydra pee.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Our strange neighbours we don’t fully understand, but seem benign enough at the moment.
They fey as a group are, an interesting lot. While not of this world they seem to have a deep rooted connection to nature all the same. All fey seem to have a connection to one of the spiritual elements, currently classified under Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and Metal. We suspect this might not be all of them, but most encountered can either fall under these categories, a derivative, Lightning under Air, or a combination, Storm under air and water. These are typically controlled by our current understanding of magic as they seem to follow common rules, but if something that directly counters this method this is still a new enough field that changes aren’t going to be contested too hard if provable.
Despite this being a generally new field of study the Fey have been among us longer than just about any other extra planar beings, it is just now that we’ve recently been able to understand them as not apart of other groups such as angels or demons, and instead their own distinct entities. After all with some of the fire fey out there, most people assume they’re demonic, where in fact this couldn’t be further from the truth, most are actually very helpful creatures. This said, even helpful fey shouldn’t be completely trusted, even with good intentions they are an alien mind and while goals might align now their end goals could be disastrous for humanity.
When dealing with the fey proper respects should be remembered, they tend to be fickle so keeping on their good side should be a top priority, in addition most tend to be arrogant, acting as one might expect a powerful noble even if reigning over a small hill. They are the de facto ruler of the hill and if caught trespassing you should be ready to pay tribute. This is often hard for people to deal with, as treating a two in tall light with the voice of a child like you might the queen of England seems laughable, but even the very small Fey can be shockingly powerful, or at the very least bothersome. Able to command local wildlife to attack or altering aspects of another to make them more pleasant to the fey being are a common method of the fey.
Currently not a lot is known about the world of the fey. Most fey beings that are found on earth are functionally vagrants or runaways coming to Earth to escape the nobility and attempting to set up a domain on earth were they will generally unopposed. The second group of fey one might encounter tend to be members of a group calling itself The Witches of the White. Or at least that is what they claim the name translates to, and our attempts seem to match up generally speaking. They claim to be a group sworn to “All four courts”, but operate independently. What this means exactly, we can not be use, but for the most part their interactions seem to be benevolent in nature, and have actually provided some great aid in the past, but as Head Researcher Jackson often says, “Don’t trust a fey further than you can throw them.” And with their current leader being a eight foot tall woman that looks like fire, that’s not going to be very far at all.
As for the courts themselves, we don’t have a lot of information to go on, the mention of four courts, suggests past folklore about courts named after the four seasons carries some weight, in addition to some fey announcing their affiliation to the Seelie/unseelie split. Though most Unseelie fey don’t announce themselves so much as leaping into action when noticed, those who do are painstakingly honest about it, which suggests it is a source of important in fey culture. With this apparent the idea of a Seelie Summer and Spring court, standing in reflection of an Unseelie Autumn and Winter court holds some water. As of yet, we don’t know if these splits affect the type of fey that appear in what courts, as we have come across the same type of fey who have been both Seelie and Unseelie.
So, how does one protect themselves from such beings?
In a general sense there’s a few things that can keep you safe during a fey encounter. Firstly the fey hate the touch of iron. Typically the more pure the better. Specially treated iron such as Cold Iron work especially well, but for the most part the most pure iron you can get your hands on is an excellent thing to have. This is less effective against metal fey, for obvious reasons, which is where cold iron shines as it effect is less reduced. Next, Tin seems to interfere with their magic. This isn’t full understood, but i can attest personally to fey magic being affected by the presence of tin. It doesn’t cause spells to fissile so much as act irrationally. Irrational as far as literal magic is concerned. But it can stop some of the nastiest spells from taking hold and can cover your tracks when fleeing the Hill King. As well garlands made of rowan, mountain ash, and or holly berries can seal them off from entrances, these are worth making note of in addition to more classic extra planar protection methods.
Lastly it is important to remember most Fey as Sentient, if not sapient, simply making yourself useful to them can stay their hand, though do not enter long term contracts with the fey. Despite the fact they are going to keep their word, like demons it is going to be in the most literal sense and to their benefit as they can, especially with unseelie fey, wiggle room is sometimes obtainable with the Seelie fey.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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Orphanerivers of redthat run to seaRegistered Userregular
I know we've moved on, but how plausible is it to ride a hydra like a mechanical bull
I know we've moved on, but how plausible is it to ride a hydra like a mechanical bull
Asking for a friend, Johnny-come-lately
Hydras are still an applicable topic, i'm just moving focus. Also, not a great chance. even if you say muzzled the hydra, unless you got one with a very short neck it would probably use its muzzled heads to knock the person off. Which i guess it could be part of the channel, but if it then still had claws it would just rip the rider apart.
So, i guess i am saying that unless you want to set up a lot of safety precautions, it's a bad idea.
Out of curiosity, is there any reason a revenant could not be born of hatred for multiple people, even an organization? If the catalyst is merely excessive hatred at time of death...
Out of curiosity, is there any reason a revenant could not be born of hatred for multiple people, even an organization? If the catalyst is merely excessive hatred at time of death...
Well, it's important to remember that this is basically magic, and magic is a lot like cooking where while there is science in it, it is largely art. This said, the reason it seems to be focused on a single person is because of the rage required. And this rage is typically tied to the person directly killing them. The person pulling the actual trigger too, not even necessarily the person who ordered their death, it can be that specific. Now, smarter revenants will in fact strike at the power structure that lead to their deaths if it is in their path of destruction, and lash out that anyone who would try to protect them, but as near as we can tell it is focsued on a single person because it's harder to be mad at a group of people than it is one single guy who killed you.
The Aos Sí are likely fey, we haven't had much if any interaction but from what i am seeing they certainly fit.
The Sluagh however, are undead. They might have a connection to the fey, but they are certainly undead. Possibly they are mortals who sold their sousl to the fey for power in life, possibly any connection to the fey are incidental.
Lately I've been having very vivid dreams involving a bunch of snooty-looking, and yet completely alien, people standing in front of four treasure chests in an enclosed grove of some sort. I always start on the edge of the grove and nothing happens until I walk forward, they will wait for hours if need be. Once I do walk out into the light though, those people suddenly look at me and start speaking some sort of gibberish. The first one opens their chest and I look inside to see a large, black cauldron. For some reason though I don't have much interest in it and the chest is closed before vanishing.
I'm then beckoned over to the second chest, which is opened and I see inside a spear with a tip that seems hazy from all the heat radiating out of the chest. I again ignore it and the chest closes before vanishing.
The third chest is opened and I look inside to see a glowing stone. This one, unlike the others, looks intriguing but when I look closer I suddenly get the sense that I shouldn't and let that chest close before vanishing.
The fourth chest though. When I look inside I see a sheathed sword, unremarkable aside from a small glimmer of light leaking from the scabbard. Completely involuntarily I reach down into the chest and withdraw the sword. The alien people chatter at me again and I can only understand one word: Nuada. Then I wake up fully rested in the morning.
I get the feeling it means something, and the little research I was able to do here points to something fey, so I thought I'd see what I ought to do next. Because honestly I've been feeling this urge to abandon my research and hop the next flight to Ireland.
Lately I've been having very vivid dreams involving a bunch of snooty-looking, and yet completely alien, people standing in front of four treasure chests in an enclosed grove of some sort. I always start on the edge of the grove and nothing happens until I walk forward, they will wait for hours if need be. Once I do walk out into the light though, those people suddenly look at me and start speaking some sort of gibberish. The first one opens their chest and I look inside to see a large, black cauldron. For some reason though I don't have much interest in it and the chest is closed before vanishing.
I'm then beckoned over to the second chest, which is opened and I see inside a spear with a tip that seems hazy from all the heat radiating out of the chest. I again ignore it and the chest closes before vanishing.
The third chest is opened and I look inside to see a glowing stone. This one, unlike the others, looks intriguing but when I look closer I suddenly get the sense that I shouldn't and let that chest close before vanishing.
The fourth chest though. When I look inside I see a sheathed sword, unremarkable aside from a small glimmer of light leaking from the scabbard. Completely involuntarily I reach down into the chest and withdraw the sword. The alien people chatter at me again and I can only understand one word: Nuada. Then I wake up fully rested in the morning.
I get the feeling it means something, and the little research I was able to do here points to something fey, so I thought I'd see what I ought to do next. Because honestly I've been feeling this urge to abandon my research and hop the next flight to Ireland.
Sincerely,
South Pole Dreamer
You have absolutely not been chosen to wield one of the four legendary treasures of Ireland and you have definitely not been chosen to wield the sword of Nuada and fight crime.
It's my strong recommendation that you avoid any and all shops that carry spandex fabrics, capes or ridiculous armor.
/Completely Legit Archaeologist (not graverobber)
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
So here's a thing I've always wondered with the "iron repels fairies" bit, does steel count as iron? Steel is almost entirely iron anyways
Steel causes the fey some level of pain (and they won't voluntarily handle it), however the alloy lacks the Nemesis quality that cold iron has.
A theory that has some level of scientific basis is that a metals capability to wound fey relates to its magnetic permeability, perhaps it disrupts whatever magic they use to defend themselves. Cold iron has a magnetic permeability that's 50 times greater than that of most steel alloys and almost 5000-6000 times greater than copper and bronze (the materials that fey prefer to use). It's noted that Austenitic steel has virtually no effect on fairies.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Lately I've been having very vivid dreams involving a bunch of snooty-looking, and yet completely alien, people standing in front of four treasure chests in an enclosed grove of some sort. I always start on the edge of the grove and nothing happens until I walk forward, they will wait for hours if need be. Once I do walk out into the light though, those people suddenly look at me and start speaking some sort of gibberish. The first one opens their chest and I look inside to see a large, black cauldron. For some reason though I don't have much interest in it and the chest is closed before vanishing.
I'm then beckoned over to the second chest, which is opened and I see inside a spear with a tip that seems hazy from all the heat radiating out of the chest. I again ignore it and the chest closes before vanishing.
The third chest is opened and I look inside to see a glowing stone. This one, unlike the others, looks intriguing but when I look closer I suddenly get the sense that I shouldn't and let that chest close before vanishing.
The fourth chest though. When I look inside I see a sheathed sword, unremarkable aside from a small glimmer of light leaking from the scabbard. Completely involuntarily I reach down into the chest and withdraw the sword. The alien people chatter at me again and I can only understand one word: Nuada. Then I wake up fully rested in the morning.
I get the feeling it means something, and the little research I was able to do here points to something fey, so I thought I'd see what I ought to do next. Because honestly I've been feeling this urge to abandon my research and hop the next flight to Ireland.
Sincerely,
South Pole Dreamer
Dreams of the fey can be, troubling. There is a chance that the dream an offer of power and perhaps a connection of their leadership is present, but also likely they're merely attempting to lure you into a terrible trap. For personal experience, offering lordship to humans is a common tactic to get servitude. Sure for a time you might be giving a small land to rule over, the trick is you've sworn to rule and serve the people there for all time. You'd assume that is symbolic, but it's actually literal. Sure, you will die, but the soul more or less exists, and now you're basically a soul slave to some powerful fey who thought you might be useful down the line. Could this end up not being bad? sure, will it at least be sometimes be terrible? Absolutely.
I advise not pursueing thing, and if you do, bring a lawyer, an iron sword, and at least five pounds of iron shavings.
So here's a thing I've always wondered with the "iron repels fairies" bit, does steel count as iron? Steel is almost entirely iron anyways
Well, steel is a iron alloy, so it does have some effect, but not as much as you would hope. The act of adding stuff to the iron seems to drastically reduce its effect. Again, it's a magic thing, not a science thing. I figure it's the same reason cast iron doesn't work very well either, it's jsut iron and carbon but here I am, giving with satyr what for with a cast iron pot and he claims it barely hurts more than copper.
The Dryad is a fairly common type of earth fey, well known in most respects, and is typically thought to be rather docile. This is in part of their appearance of typically a young lithe woman, is typically beautiful, if not a little off putting, however as they get older their skin naturally begins to appear more bark like and their hair becomes more like vines. However this appears to largely be intentional as they are able to like their younger selves with no strain at all and might simply just be an extension of their powers growing and requires suppression. As we have found out in the past, it is rude to directly ask. The Dryad is a symbiotic creature, forming a close bond to a young tree, helping it to mature as she does beside it. The dryad develop close connections to the animals and plants surrounding her chosen tree, and in time becomes their liege, called on in times of need or support in return she protects them and their families from harm from the outside world. However, blood sacrifices still happen, so it’s not a perfect deal by any stretch.
If unprovoked the Dryad is more than willing to let people pass through its grove unimpeded, she might even offer gifts to those who draw her attention, however what counts as provoking a dryad is currently unknown. We know for sure chopping a tree down in her grove without permission, that’s a provoking, but for some merely stepping into her domain could be enough. Maybe they have a blood feud the person was unaware of, it’s hard to know for sure, as once they launch into attack getting information from a dryad is notoriously difficult. Once on the offensive, any wild animal in the area will be on the attack for that person, often giving warning to ward the person off, sometimes just going for blood on the outright. Typically after that, tree branches and roots come into the mix, this is often enough to swallow a person into the ground, which is a pretty terrible way to go, but if you’re careful it’s not terrible hard to get around the slow moving trees. After that, the Dryad herself will go on the offence, appearing typically as a bark covered humanoid with long gnarled claws, and with an impressive command of the earth domain of magic. Luckily as the dryad themselves aren’t terribly robust as far as fey go, this often signals the ending of the fight, they are still not to be discounted, as their claws are sharp, and earth magic is second only only to metal in self buffing, combine that with constantly shifting terrain and you have a complicated wizard fight on your hand.
Planning to fight a Dryad is not super complicated supplies wise, however it does require a bit of scouting before hand, trying to figure out where her grove starts, what kinds of animals live there, et cetera as planning to fight foxes and rabbits only find out, whoops that’s a brown bear could be disastrous. The animal themselves aren’t enchanted, and most means to drive them off should still work, they’re loyal but not to the death in most cases. As for the Dryad herself, an iron sword or axe should be enough to do harm, an interesting tactic i’ve seen deployed is a tin tipped arrow to disrupt the dryad’s magic at the source, it worked fairly well until she caught on.
Tracking a Dryad is not very difficult, as in a wooded area it will be the one that looks looked after, that’s not to say there won’t be broken trees and such rot is important for life to grow, but typically speaking all the plants there will be noticeably healthy, even if the rest of the woods are looking kind of meek. Large well fed predators being near large well fed prey animals that aren’t being attacked can also be a good clue cause that shit ain’t normal.
Well, it's less that they don't care about human life and more they don't value it above any other kind of life. this is typically true with most fey, killing a human isn't really any more evil an act than say, killing a rabit or a dog, so logn as you have reason enough to do it, oh well.
Only reason we're more valuable in bargaining is because we're smarter.
I've always found that the best way to deal with troublesome dryads is a dry summer day and some creative arson. If the rest of the forest is of value then you pre-cut a firebreak a safe distance away from the grove.
Note. If there are ents in the way, run immideatly after setting the fire. Sure, fire is one of the few sure ways of dealing with ents, but they take a long time to go down. Fighting a flaming giant that can pulverize stone with his bare hands is not a pleasant experience.
/Totally legit Archaeologist.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Is the Mythical Cerberus related to a hydra or does it lack the ability to regrow heads and heal and thus constitute a separate category of monster?
Cerberus seems to be a mutant off shoot of the ancient dog, and as such, is in no way related to hydras. It is right now stored under the general tag of "Mythical" in that we can't find any relatives to it, just things that suggest a theme. This suggests an artificial origin, such as a magical lab experiment or a sleepy wizard.
There is literally no examples, ever, of a fey/human romance ending well.
No! Don't you dare suggest Peter Pan. Tinkerbell kidnapped him and dozens of other kids from their families (although some were from orphanages), brainwashed them, stole many of their memories and used them as cannonfodder against some sort of Sorceror-Pirate.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Posts
The vampire bug belongs to the assassin bug family, but unlike other members of the family it's very much a threat to humans. Fist-sized, well-camoflaged, a sharp probiscus that can easily stab through thick leather and a venom that can drop a bull. Like other assassin bugs a bite is immideatly followed by the bug injecting its prey with venom. The venom acts as a powerful paralytic, with an almost immideatly noticeable effect and will kill an adult human within 2 minutes. As soon as the prey appears to be dead the vampire bug will inject it with digestive fluids, dissolving the preys insides, and within 3-4 hours the bug will suck its meal dry. When dawn arrives all that remains will be a deflated balloon of bone and skin with a nearby puddle of water as the bug gets rid of excess fluids.
Unfortunatly the venom is so fast-acting that the victim rarerly has a chance to even utter a sound after being bitten. This makes finding and killing the vampire bug remarkably difficult.
To defend yourself effectively you should sleep in an uncluttered and sealed bedroom, with any ventilation covered by metal mesh (non-metal mesh which keeps most bugs out is sadly inadequate).
The best tips for going on the offence is perfume, sunscreen and active illumination nightvision goggles. The vampire bug hunts primarily by scent and by sight, being highly sensitive to light in the ultraviolet spectrum. Altering your scent with perfume, reducing and breaking up your UV profile with sunscreen and using IR lights (the bugs camoflage is nowhere as good in the IR spectrum) can give you the advantage you need to strike first. It's almost impossible to find vampire bugs during the day, as they tend to hide in rotten logs, deep crevices or other hard-to-find locations.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
The revenant is a peculiar type of undead abomination, in that they aren’t typically created by a man wizard or some kind of ritual, or even a bite or curse. Ultimately, they create themselves. Revenants are created when someone dies in such a personally unjust manner that their soul rages hard enough that it effectively overcomes death. This leaves the revenant as a 90s esque anti hero type situation, consumed for hatred towards the people that killed them that they’re going to murder their way to that person no matter what, now death won’t even stop them. It’s all pretty metal. That said, there is no real cosmic force controlling this as far as we can tell, it is literally up to the individual to be so mad they punch oblivion in the face and say “No, fuck you, that dude needs to die too!” So, they aren’t always on the side of ‘good’ and will come after people who were either doing a duty or plane just don’t need to die. That is hopefully the reason one might come into conflict with a revenant, hopefully no one reading this would be the intended target of one.
The Revenant has some very useful tools in its arsenal to accomplish goals. For starters, it’s basically unkillable. During its second duration on this earth, killing it is basically out of the question. Even if you set it on fire, crushed it in a trash compactor, and then exploded the still closed compactor, it is eventually walking out of that. We have it on record. They can however be delayed, as they take time to heal and dealing enough damage to one kind of shuts them down for a bit, though never really more than several hours. More than enough time for the target to flee. They’re also superhuman in strength, roughly on par with a vampire, however unlike a vampire they’re not prone to pull punches and give people a fighting chance, they’re in it to win it. In rare cases they even have been seen shooting fire and with minor teleportation powers. These are extremely rare though. Lastly, they always know where their intended target is, and it is super accurate. Even high powered obscuring spells have little effect. With something this frightening, you might be wondering how you save the person it is after. The answer is simple, time. Revenants only have so much time on this Earth before their rage burns out , on average this is a month, some are a bit longer, some a bit shorter. After which time their bodies turn to dust, and their souls go, wherever.
Being a human shaped enemy, most weapons that work against humans are going to have at least a moderate effect on a revenant, though items enchanted to be better against the undead are advised due to how powerful these things tend to be. Items designed to pin and trap things are are also advised, though they will likely eventually get free from sheer force of will, any time delayed is a boon as it is a race against the clock ultimately. They have no specific weaknesses to speak of, however many will try to get loved ones to attempt to talk them down. This rarely works, and can sometimes even lead to the death of person being used. It is safe to say these corpses are basically unreasonable murder machines.
Tracking a revenant isn’t that difficult all things considered. They tend to work in a straight line to their target. If someone has a revenant after them the best bet is to set them up in a secure place with a clear escape route that can’t be easily trapped or ambushed, and wait. Once you know where it is, get the target across an ocean asap and don’t lose eyes on the revenant. If you can pull that off it is usually enough to put an end to the threat if they can stay there for the duration. If they can’t, this get a little messier, especially if the revenant knows they can’t. As this is when they would be setting up traps and such for their return. Try to not let this happen. IF they don’t know they can’t stay there, they might try to pursue and that’s where you buy your time. Wait until they’re more than halfway to your location and head back, you’ve now just wasted a lot of valuable time. Repeat until you win.
How can you tell the difference between a revenant and a barrow-wight? Lets say, hypotheticly, if I stolen a treasure (which incidentally happened to be the most prized possession of a long dead maya king) from an ancient gravesite, and then killed my partner so I didn't have to split the treasure. Then after a week I find out, again hypotheticly, that some type of highly resistant undead is pursuing me, is there a way to tell which one it is?
I'm sure you can tell why it would be important. The revenant is, as you say, unkillable, but will dissipate with time. A barrow-wight o the other hand is killable, but will hunt you forever.
/Concerned totally-not-rogue archeologist.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Dear Legitimate Archaeologist,
Appearance would would be a give away. Does it look like the unmurdered partner or does it look like someone you never met? That right there would be a good tell. If you can't tell because of the way this person was in no way murdered by you, maybe set up a trap using the treasure as bait. It it attempts to reclaim the treasure, you got yourself a wight, if it doesn't you might still have either.
A sure fire way would be to get a team of experts to lure it into a trap and destroy it the best they can. If it comes back that certainly means you need to cross an ocean and keep moving at a steady pace. If it doesn't, then you only have to worry about paying the armed thugs you hired and being able to sleep at night.
Hope this helps,
D. Melding, Busy for the next month or so.
going over old notes I have, i still think the shitty joke of naming the somewhat evil competition the Magical Research Association is pretty good. even if it sparked everyone mislabelling questions that would never get answered.
Also, man a lot of people who used to post here hate horses. I don't get it.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I just read Angela Carter's Erl-king and the seven year tithe is currently in my top three Halloween decorating ideas for the year
I'm all amped up on fairie juice
wouldn't that cover just about every fire breathing hydra? since they are effectively mixing chemicals to make fire come out of their mouth? These are actual questions, I am not a scientist.
1. Hypergolic ignition. Two fluids that ignite on contact.
2. Catalyst ignition (actually used in real life by bombardier beetles). The creature ejects something that once it comes into contact with a catalyst starts an exothermic reaction.
3. It could use a mechanism similar to dust explosions, where a normally rather safe (although definitely burnable) material becomes extremly so by dispersing it into fine particles (so that it has contact with a lot of air). This cloud can then be ignited by a relatively mild source of energy such as static electricity or friction. This produces more of an explosion than fire, but hey.
4. Electric ignition. Basically a flued could be ignited by a powerful electric spark. There are several animals that can generate electricity, everything from electric eels to the decidedly odd Stargazer fish (which electroshocks prey with its eyes. Well, eyemuscles. But still).
Hypergolic ignition is generally a very bad idea for an animal with a long an easily severed neck, which would kind of turn into a firehose. However, if each component of the hypergolic fluid was produced by a different head? Catalytic or electric ignition would generally be a lot safer if the fluid is generated within the main body and travels through channels all the way up to the head.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Will you be coming home soon?
Totally-Not-A-Revenant-Hunting-You-Down
Yeah, in a few hours probably. Why would a Revenant even be hunting me down? i haven't killed anything in like 4 months.
If they're hydragenated instead of hydrogenated. Higly venomous.
Or possibly just soaked in hydra pee.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Our strange neighbours we don’t fully understand, but seem benign enough at the moment.
They fey as a group are, an interesting lot. While not of this world they seem to have a deep rooted connection to nature all the same. All fey seem to have a connection to one of the spiritual elements, currently classified under Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and Metal. We suspect this might not be all of them, but most encountered can either fall under these categories, a derivative, Lightning under Air, or a combination, Storm under air and water. These are typically controlled by our current understanding of magic as they seem to follow common rules, but if something that directly counters this method this is still a new enough field that changes aren’t going to be contested too hard if provable.
Despite this being a generally new field of study the Fey have been among us longer than just about any other extra planar beings, it is just now that we’ve recently been able to understand them as not apart of other groups such as angels or demons, and instead their own distinct entities. After all with some of the fire fey out there, most people assume they’re demonic, where in fact this couldn’t be further from the truth, most are actually very helpful creatures. This said, even helpful fey shouldn’t be completely trusted, even with good intentions they are an alien mind and while goals might align now their end goals could be disastrous for humanity.
When dealing with the fey proper respects should be remembered, they tend to be fickle so keeping on their good side should be a top priority, in addition most tend to be arrogant, acting as one might expect a powerful noble even if reigning over a small hill. They are the de facto ruler of the hill and if caught trespassing you should be ready to pay tribute. This is often hard for people to deal with, as treating a two in tall light with the voice of a child like you might the queen of England seems laughable, but even the very small Fey can be shockingly powerful, or at the very least bothersome. Able to command local wildlife to attack or altering aspects of another to make them more pleasant to the fey being are a common method of the fey.
Currently not a lot is known about the world of the fey. Most fey beings that are found on earth are functionally vagrants or runaways coming to Earth to escape the nobility and attempting to set up a domain on earth were they will generally unopposed. The second group of fey one might encounter tend to be members of a group calling itself The Witches of the White. Or at least that is what they claim the name translates to, and our attempts seem to match up generally speaking. They claim to be a group sworn to “All four courts”, but operate independently. What this means exactly, we can not be use, but for the most part their interactions seem to be benevolent in nature, and have actually provided some great aid in the past, but as Head Researcher Jackson often says, “Don’t trust a fey further than you can throw them.” And with their current leader being a eight foot tall woman that looks like fire, that’s not going to be very far at all.
As for the courts themselves, we don’t have a lot of information to go on, the mention of four courts, suggests past folklore about courts named after the four seasons carries some weight, in addition to some fey announcing their affiliation to the Seelie/unseelie split. Though most Unseelie fey don’t announce themselves so much as leaping into action when noticed, those who do are painstakingly honest about it, which suggests it is a source of important in fey culture. With this apparent the idea of a Seelie Summer and Spring court, standing in reflection of an Unseelie Autumn and Winter court holds some water. As of yet, we don’t know if these splits affect the type of fey that appear in what courts, as we have come across the same type of fey who have been both Seelie and Unseelie.
So, how does one protect themselves from such beings?
In a general sense there’s a few things that can keep you safe during a fey encounter. Firstly the fey hate the touch of iron. Typically the more pure the better. Specially treated iron such as Cold Iron work especially well, but for the most part the most pure iron you can get your hands on is an excellent thing to have. This is less effective against metal fey, for obvious reasons, which is where cold iron shines as it effect is less reduced. Next, Tin seems to interfere with their magic. This isn’t full understood, but i can attest personally to fey magic being affected by the presence of tin. It doesn’t cause spells to fissile so much as act irrationally. Irrational as far as literal magic is concerned. But it can stop some of the nastiest spells from taking hold and can cover your tracks when fleeing the Hill King. As well garlands made of rowan, mountain ash, and or holly berries can seal them off from entrances, these are worth making note of in addition to more classic extra planar protection methods.
Lastly it is important to remember most Fey as Sentient, if not sapient, simply making yourself useful to them can stay their hand, though do not enter long term contracts with the fey. Despite the fact they are going to keep their word, like demons it is going to be in the most literal sense and to their benefit as they can, especially with unseelie fey, wiggle room is sometimes obtainable with the Seelie fey.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Asking for a friend, Johnny-come-lately
Hydras are still an applicable topic, i'm just moving focus. Also, not a great chance. even if you say muzzled the hydra, unless you got one with a very short neck it would probably use its muzzled heads to knock the person off. Which i guess it could be part of the channel, but if it then still had claws it would just rip the rider apart.
So, i guess i am saying that unless you want to set up a lot of safety precautions, it's a bad idea.
Origins I imagine. a lizard wizard is just an exception lizard, were as a slann is a minor old one that wields the fabric of reality.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Is a Sluagh a fey or an undead?
Well, it's important to remember that this is basically magic, and magic is a lot like cooking where while there is science in it, it is largely art. This said, the reason it seems to be focused on a single person is because of the rage required. And this rage is typically tied to the person directly killing them. The person pulling the actual trigger too, not even necessarily the person who ordered their death, it can be that specific. Now, smarter revenants will in fact strike at the power structure that lead to their deaths if it is in their path of destruction, and lash out that anyone who would try to protect them, but as near as we can tell it is focsued on a single person because it's harder to be mad at a group of people than it is one single guy who killed you.
The Aos Sí are likely fey, we haven't had much if any interaction but from what i am seeing they certainly fit.
The Sluagh however, are undead. They might have a connection to the fey, but they are certainly undead. Possibly they are mortals who sold their sousl to the fey for power in life, possibly any connection to the fey are incidental.
Lately I've been having very vivid dreams involving a bunch of snooty-looking, and yet completely alien, people standing in front of four treasure chests in an enclosed grove of some sort. I always start on the edge of the grove and nothing happens until I walk forward, they will wait for hours if need be. Once I do walk out into the light though, those people suddenly look at me and start speaking some sort of gibberish. The first one opens their chest and I look inside to see a large, black cauldron. For some reason though I don't have much interest in it and the chest is closed before vanishing.
I'm then beckoned over to the second chest, which is opened and I see inside a spear with a tip that seems hazy from all the heat radiating out of the chest. I again ignore it and the chest closes before vanishing.
The third chest is opened and I look inside to see a glowing stone. This one, unlike the others, looks intriguing but when I look closer I suddenly get the sense that I shouldn't and let that chest close before vanishing.
The fourth chest though. When I look inside I see a sheathed sword, unremarkable aside from a small glimmer of light leaking from the scabbard. Completely involuntarily I reach down into the chest and withdraw the sword. The alien people chatter at me again and I can only understand one word: Nuada. Then I wake up fully rested in the morning.
I get the feeling it means something, and the little research I was able to do here points to something fey, so I thought I'd see what I ought to do next. Because honestly I've been feeling this urge to abandon my research and hop the next flight to Ireland.
Sincerely,
South Pole Dreamer
https://www.paypal.me/hobnailtaylor
You have absolutely not been chosen to wield one of the four legendary treasures of Ireland and you have definitely not been chosen to wield the sword of Nuada and fight crime.
It's my strong recommendation that you avoid any and all shops that carry spandex fabrics, capes or ridiculous armor.
/Completely Legit Archaeologist (not graverobber)
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Steel causes the fey some level of pain (and they won't voluntarily handle it), however the alloy lacks the Nemesis quality that cold iron has.
A theory that has some level of scientific basis is that a metals capability to wound fey relates to its magnetic permeability, perhaps it disrupts whatever magic they use to defend themselves. Cold iron has a magnetic permeability that's 50 times greater than that of most steel alloys and almost 5000-6000 times greater than copper and bronze (the materials that fey prefer to use). It's noted that Austenitic steel has virtually no effect on fairies.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Dreams of the fey can be, troubling. There is a chance that the dream an offer of power and perhaps a connection of their leadership is present, but also likely they're merely attempting to lure you into a terrible trap. For personal experience, offering lordship to humans is a common tactic to get servitude. Sure for a time you might be giving a small land to rule over, the trick is you've sworn to rule and serve the people there for all time. You'd assume that is symbolic, but it's actually literal. Sure, you will die, but the soul more or less exists, and now you're basically a soul slave to some powerful fey who thought you might be useful down the line. Could this end up not being bad? sure, will it at least be sometimes be terrible? Absolutely.
I advise not pursueing thing, and if you do, bring a lawyer, an iron sword, and at least five pounds of iron shavings.
Well, steel is a iron alloy, so it does have some effect, but not as much as you would hope. The act of adding stuff to the iron seems to drastically reduce its effect. Again, it's a magic thing, not a science thing. I figure it's the same reason cast iron doesn't work very well either, it's jsut iron and carbon but here I am, giving with satyr what for with a cast iron pot and he claims it barely hurts more than copper.
The Dryad is a fairly common type of earth fey, well known in most respects, and is typically thought to be rather docile. This is in part of their appearance of typically a young lithe woman, is typically beautiful, if not a little off putting, however as they get older their skin naturally begins to appear more bark like and their hair becomes more like vines. However this appears to largely be intentional as they are able to like their younger selves with no strain at all and might simply just be an extension of their powers growing and requires suppression. As we have found out in the past, it is rude to directly ask. The Dryad is a symbiotic creature, forming a close bond to a young tree, helping it to mature as she does beside it. The dryad develop close connections to the animals and plants surrounding her chosen tree, and in time becomes their liege, called on in times of need or support in return she protects them and their families from harm from the outside world. However, blood sacrifices still happen, so it’s not a perfect deal by any stretch.
If unprovoked the Dryad is more than willing to let people pass through its grove unimpeded, she might even offer gifts to those who draw her attention, however what counts as provoking a dryad is currently unknown. We know for sure chopping a tree down in her grove without permission, that’s a provoking, but for some merely stepping into her domain could be enough. Maybe they have a blood feud the person was unaware of, it’s hard to know for sure, as once they launch into attack getting information from a dryad is notoriously difficult. Once on the offensive, any wild animal in the area will be on the attack for that person, often giving warning to ward the person off, sometimes just going for blood on the outright. Typically after that, tree branches and roots come into the mix, this is often enough to swallow a person into the ground, which is a pretty terrible way to go, but if you’re careful it’s not terrible hard to get around the slow moving trees. After that, the Dryad herself will go on the offence, appearing typically as a bark covered humanoid with long gnarled claws, and with an impressive command of the earth domain of magic. Luckily as the dryad themselves aren’t terribly robust as far as fey go, this often signals the ending of the fight, they are still not to be discounted, as their claws are sharp, and earth magic is second only only to metal in self buffing, combine that with constantly shifting terrain and you have a complicated wizard fight on your hand.
Planning to fight a Dryad is not super complicated supplies wise, however it does require a bit of scouting before hand, trying to figure out where her grove starts, what kinds of animals live there, et cetera as planning to fight foxes and rabbits only find out, whoops that’s a brown bear could be disastrous. The animal themselves aren’t enchanted, and most means to drive them off should still work, they’re loyal but not to the death in most cases. As for the Dryad herself, an iron sword or axe should be enough to do harm, an interesting tactic i’ve seen deployed is a tin tipped arrow to disrupt the dryad’s magic at the source, it worked fairly well until she caught on.
Tracking a Dryad is not very difficult, as in a wooded area it will be the one that looks looked after, that’s not to say there won’t be broken trees and such rot is important for life to grow, but typically speaking all the plants there will be noticeably healthy, even if the rest of the woods are looking kind of meek. Large well fed predators being near large well fed prey animals that aren’t being attacked can also be a good clue cause that shit ain’t normal.
but seriously don't date dryads
they are monsters they straight don't give a shit about human life
(no matter how much we yearn for the monster girls, bad idea)
Only reason we're more valuable in bargaining is because we're smarter.
Fuck yeah he could.
Succubus hips, horns and hooves are sure a thing
Note. If there are ents in the way, run immideatly after setting the fire. Sure, fire is one of the few sure ways of dealing with ents, but they take a long time to go down. Fighting a flaming giant that can pulverize stone with his bare hands is not a pleasant experience.
/Totally legit Archaeologist.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Lab experiment gone awry, you say?
since actual Dracula isn't actually a dracula, there is no proof he isn't.
Listen, i am probably the last person who should be saying this, but seriously, don't fuck the fey. It's leads, bad places.
oh, but that is only the beginning!
the enchanting tails of nagas, those awkward horns of oni, the way a mermaid swims through water or the powerful frame of a centaur...
b-but no, it is not to be!
No! Don't you dare suggest Peter Pan. Tinkerbell kidnapped him and dozens of other kids from their families (although some were from orphanages), brainwashed them, stole many of their memories and used them as cannonfodder against some sort of Sorceror-Pirate.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden