Green Intern posted:

So I admit to skimming over the first few Polaris posts. Is infertility really a widespread crisis in-setting? Any hooks as to what is causing it?

Also reading the word Fertile so many times in a row feels uncomfortable.

Nuns with Guns posted:

1. Yeah, it's a global issue. 2. No one knows why, it seems. Maybe metaplot antics we will never know or understand?

Green Intern posted:

So I admit to skimming over the first few Polaris posts. Is infertility really a widespread crisis in-setting? Any hooks as to what is causing it?

Also reading the word Fertile so many times in a row feels uncomfortable.

wdarkk posted:

Oh wow Goblin Rogue Daredevil.

Tasoth posted:

So is it actually possible to have 'Fremen Fedaykin' or 'Titan Pilot' as end game builds in SotDL? Because that's kind of fantastic if it is.

quote:

“Gate.”

At least this kid has some vocabulary, thought Vince. That’ll make it go faster.

“Want to hear what happened to my dog?”

Vince put down his pen. “Sure.” He already knew, of course; it had been in the referral report. This kid had been bounced around in foster care for the past 18 months, and one of the families he’d lived with had a dog and a 20-something son with anger issues and a penchant for drinking. He’d run over the dog in the driveway and then passed out, and the foster mom had found the boy — Richard — trying to bury the poor thing in the backyard. Vince wasn’t sure of the particulars after that, but he knew Richard wasn’t with that family anymore, and the foster mom who’d come with him to the evaluation seemed like she had her head on straight.

“Arlow murdered it.”

Vince kept his poker face, but barely. He made a mental note to write that down, at least to ask the school psych. “Who’s Arlow?”

“I used to live with his mom.”

Past tense, complex sentence, possessive pronoun. Interesting he’s using ‘it’ to refer to the dog. “OK. And then what?” Vince felt weird about this; kids didn’t normally open up to him about this kind of thing. If they had the language skills to do it, they didn’t need him anyway.

“Arlow ran it over. With his car.” Richard didn’t seem sad. He didn’t even seem angry, really.

“That’s terrible.”

Richard nodded. “I loved Niko. He sat with me when I was scared.”

Change in pronoun to ‘he.’ Regular past tense, irregular past tense, complex sentence, relating past events, talking about feelings, what the hell am I even doing assessing this kid? “What made you feel scared?”

“Monsters.”

Vince paused. He wasn’t sure how far to take this, and he still needed to finish the drat test. He had two other kids to assess today, and Richard was pretty obviously going in the DNQ file. “Monsters aren’t really real, though.”

“Are too. Sometimes people turn into monsters when they get mad.”

Oh, hell. Please don’t let this turn into a call to DCFS. “Who does that? Who turns into a monster when they get mad?” Vince kept his voice low, friendly, and warm, and looked Richard in the eye. If the kid was being abused, it was better to hear about it now than later. Richard fixed his gaze, and Vince almost shuddered.

“Me.”

quote:

He walked down the hall to the psych’s office and sorted the reports out by case manager. Donna, Jim, Mia, Beth…Grace. gently caress.

He stood by Grace’s desk, staring at the report, staring at the photos pinned to the cube wall, staring at her loving chair, willing it all to catch fire. gently caress her, he thought. She can’t see it. She doesn’t see it. This kid is going to hurt someone for real, and she can’t hear the thunder.

“Vince?”

He turned. Grace was standing there; he was blocking the entrance to her cube.

“Yeah. Just dropping off some reports.”

“Okay, thank you.” Polite. Neutral. Just like a goddamn psych.

Don’t say another word, thought Vince. Not another loving word. Just get out, get your coat, go home, walk the dog.

He stood aside, and Grace brushed by him to get into her cube. He turned to leave. Walked two steps. He was five feet from the door when she said it.

“I think you should have skipped the meeting.” She was sitting down, now, looking at her screen. Not even really talking to him.

“Yeah?” Vince glanced down to his left. He was standing by Beth’s cube. She had a geode paperweight sitting on her desk. He thought he remembered her saying her son had given it to her for her birthday.

“Yeah. It was kind of embarrassing, actually.” Typing. Not looking. Not communicating. Not paying attention. “He doesn’t qualify. You know he doesn’t.”

Vince picked up the geode. It had to weigh a solid three pounds. He turned. “Well, I think he does. I think we’ll be sorry for not keeping an eye on him.”

“Well, Vince, we can’t just qualify kids for services to keep an eye on them. If he gets to school and he can’t succeed, then we’ll—”

Vince brought the geode down on her head. He heard a distinct crack. She gasped, a wet, broken sound, but she couldn’t scream. He raised the geode again and brought it down. It glanced off exposed bone and drew a ragged stripe of flesh from her cheek, snapping the frame of her glasses. She fell out of her chair and tried to push herself up.

Vince crouched down next to her. “He qualifies,” he hissed. “I said he loving does. He’s going to hurt people.” He raised the geode again and brought it down on the base of her skull, near the brainstem, near the medulla oblongata. Something shifted under the rock as it landed, and Grace collapsed, eyes open, barely breathing, staring at nothing.

Vince stayed there, squatting next to her, until the raspy breathing stopped. He waited for someone to come running. No one did. The only people in the building were custodians, and they’d done their sweep of these offices already. He grabbed a garbage can and pulled the empty bag out, wrapped up the geode, and carried it back to his cube. His right hand was bruised and had a fleck of blood on it, but he was otherwise clean. He put the geode in his coat pocket, and walked out into the cold.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and Vince counted the seconds. It was close. The storm was close. He tightened his grip around the stone.

So many storms, his mother had said. How many others would qualify for his services?

That’s why we do this work, he thought, starting up his car. Because someone has to. Because no one takes care of these kids.

He pulled out of the lot and turned right, following the thunder.

quote:

What makes a Hero in any time and age? Is it the impetus to take up sword and shield to defend those less capable? Is it the desire to right perceived wrongs, to drive back the terrors of the night? Some would say yes to both, yet the truth of the matter is more complex and often much dirtier than that. The desire to be known as a Hero is every bit as intoxicating as doing good, often leading someone to see things in blacks and whites, while the rest of the world exists in shades of gray. Everyone is the protagonist in their own story; everyone believes they are the hero, the savior, and the person doing the right thing, regardless of how far from the truth they really fall. Those Heroes who take it upon themselves to hunt Beasts are all of these things, and worse.

How then, does a Beast come to conquer such creatures? The fairytale version tells us of the creature lurking in its cave, terrorizing people until a hero comes to save the day. But these are not fairytales, and this is no way for a Beast to really live her life. Why should she wait until some Hero comes by to stalk and hunt her as though she is prey? Sometimes she does take the initiative, hunting Heroes before they can hunt her, but she must be careful of the Horror inside. She must balance the terrible hunger she feels with the need to survive. Because if she isn’t careful, she may find herself becoming a true terror, a Beast without reason or purpose, killing and living only to satiate her hunger.

quote:

Two themes pervade this book; the first is that sometimes good people do terrible things because they think they are right, and the other is that sometimes terrible people use the expectations of others to get away with their terrible deeds. Heroes throw their followers at problems, caring only for the final outcome, destroying a Beast, and not for the many innocent lives they endanger. Beasts give in to their Hungers, giving up any pretense of providing a lesson in favor of embracing their Legends and Myths. Insatiable are selfish creatures driven wholly by the Hunger inside them, caring nothing for the havoc they wreak as they feed for prolonged periods in an area.

quote:

The concept behind this book is not to display Heroes who boldly go forth and conquer Beasts. While some of the Heroes examined here believe that this is their mission, most do so for selfish reasons. Instead, those who take on these monsters are the heroes and the creatures found within these pages are the ones who need conquering. Heroes and Insatiable alike prey upon supernatural creatures, seeking them out to kill them to satisfy either a bloodlust or a hunger they cannot satisfy through any other means. Heroes looking for their next power fix tend to lose any vestige of the heroic demeanor in which they protect innocent victims, and instead throw followers and sycophants into the clutches of the Beasts they hunt.

quote:

Insatiable are also born of the Primordial Dream, but their existence predates that of Horrors. The Insatiable live in a deeper, more primal place within the Primordial Dream, allowing them to move about nearly unseen by both Heroes and Beasts alike, but also preventing them from really connecting to humanity the way Horrors can. They instead must hijack people with a connection to the Primordial Dream, but not those who are fully realized as either Heroes or Beasts. The process is spontaneous, as the Insatiable is constantly looking for a way to feed its Hunger, and jumps on any opportunity that presents itself.

quote:

The Insatiable are creatures from a time before man, a time before the dreams and fears of man filled the Primordial Dream. In this time, the terrors of the world were not fears born of legends, but instead were the very landscape of the earth. These terrors live on, even though they are no longer prevalent thoughts in the minds of dreamers. Some of the Children believe they are some kind of progenitor species, created and then discarded by the Dark Mother, but they themselves believe they come from an entirely different entity called the Primogenitor. These creatures capture and take over those with any connection to the Primordial Dream before they come to realization as either Beasts or Heroes. They have an insatiable hunger they constantly try to fulfill by devouring human and Beast prey alike. This chapter details mechanics and powers specific to Insatiable, including rules for taking over a Beast’s Lair, or the Beast herself.

Tasoth posted:

So is it actually possible to have 'Fremen Fedaykin' or 'Titan Pilot' as end game builds in SotDL? Because that's kind of fantastic if it is.

Kurieg posted:

[New Beast stuff]

Asehujiko posted:

None at all! The vague hints about the future is the closest the book will ever get to explaining anything and all of those are written as inscrutable lovecraftian forces beyond mortal understanding doing their thing instead of spaces left blank for the GM and the players to fill in. The sleazy feeling of the book so far mainly comes from the weird decision for the book to start off with 8 pages of the Hegemony and it's fascist rape prisons as it's first major block of fluff. Or even the inclusion of the Hegemony in general, really.

Hostile V posted:

loving hell wow that first bit of fluff really sums up everything wrong with how Heroes are handled. There's some pretty decent Hunter-style characterization but then there's a giant wet fart followed by beating someone to death with a loving geode along with "well guess I'll just be stupid forever now". gently caress me.

Doresh posted:

Kurieg posted:

There was basically no reason for him to kill her besides the fact that she said he was wrong, she wasn't a beast, she didn't serve his hunt, and he wasn't using her to further his own legend. He just killed her in a rage and is now going off to kill a 4 year old with a geode in a plastic bag because his ghost mom said so.


This is apparently what BHM writes when he's off the leash.

Kurieg posted:

Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes

Zereth posted:

It seems like a reaction to people not finding Heroes unsympathetic/villainous enough for his tastes. Just have one beat a woman to death for no loving reason!

Hostile V posted:

loving hell wow that first bit of fluff really sums up everything wrong with how Heroes are handled. There's some pretty decent Hunter-style characterization but then there's a giant wet fart followed by beating someone to death with a loving geode along with "well guess I'll just be stupid forever now". gently caress me.

Mors Rattus posted:

you don't understand, we're flipping the script and showing how all those jocks heroes are actually pathetic losers

The Sin of Onan posted:

What is Vince supposed to be? A hero? A beast? An insatiable? I can't tell his character beyond "murder a woman with a rock for questioning me, and also my dead mum wants me to do something, hosed if I know what."

Also I strongly object to this narrative of "the hero just sends other people in to die while they sit back and jerk off about how great they are." Most heroes of myth do their poo poo themselves; if they have followers, they're usually either heroes in their own right or retainers whose job is to stand around holding the hero's cloak while he beats the dragon to death (and occasionally get killed or kidnapped for pathos/motivational purposes). Like, Herakles is sometimes a dick, but you can't say he doesn't get poo poo done.

Night10194 posted:

The funny thing is ancient myths usually contained, within themselves, that the Hero was often kind of a dick and paid for it.

Cythereal posted:

Especially in the Greek myths, which are one of the go-to inspirations for "hero fighting monsters." Almost every Greek hero's story ends with "and then the hero pissed off someone powerful in a moment of hubris [a god more often than not] and died/was punished for all eternity."

Cythereal posted:

Especially in the Greek myths, which are one of the go-to inspirations for "hero fighting monsters." Almost every Greek hero's story ends with "and then the hero pissed off someone powerful in a moment of hubris [a god more often than not] and died/was punished for all eternity."

MonsieurChoc posted:

Except Odysseus, who eventually got home.

Mors Rattus posted:

Odysseus, comma, whose superpower is lying.

MonsieurChoc posted:

Except Odysseus, who eventually got home.

MonsieurChoc posted:

Except Odysseus, who eventually got home.

JackMann posted:

Traditionally, Perseus is the one hero who was the "perfect" hero. Didn't succumb to hubris, served the gods faithfully, died of old age after ruling well for many years. He's the archetype against whom the other Greek heroes are ectypes.

Night10194 posted:

"Haha! He has no idea who fooled him and blinded him! Hey rear end in a top hat, Odysseus is the guy who got you!" -A man making a terrible mistake.

MonsieurChoc posted:

Except Odysseus, who eventually got home.

Count Chocula posted:

The closest I can think of to a traditional 'hero kills monsters and always wins' is Beowulf, who dies to a dragon that he knows will kill him. He's not that much of a jerk in the original poem, especially compared to the heroes in... every other myth.

I can't remember if there's a Trickster Hero archetype in Beast. They were usually the biggest assholes in myth.

wiegieman posted:

As ever, there is a topical SMBC for this.

Count Chocula posted:

I have never read anything that read more like a videogame than Beowulf. Maybe it was the translation? I think it was the Tolkien one, and he did kick off the whole epic fantasy genre that spawned all these RPGs and games. But it was weird to be in a college English literature class reading about a guy killing monsters, getting upgraded loot, and then using that loot to kill more monsters.

No wonder every modern adaptation tries to change or subvert it.
I prefer Gilgamesh 'cause it's more existential.

quote:

Inanna spoke:
“What I tell you
Let the singer weave into song.
What I tell you,
Let it flow from ear to mouth,
Let it pass from old to young:
My vulva, the horn,
The Boat of Heaven,
Is full of eagerness like the young moon.
My untilled land lies fallow.
As for me, Inanna,
Who will plow my vulva?
Who will plow my high field?
Who will plow my wet ground?
As for me, the young woman,
Who will plow my vulva?
Who will station the ox there?
Who will plow my vulva?”

Dumuzi replied:
“Great Lady, the king will plow your vulva?
I, Dumuzi the King, will plow your vulva.”

Inanna:
“Then plow my vulva, man of my heart!
Plow my vulva!”

Kurieg posted:

We've barely hit the tip of the iceburg man, you're going to need a bigger siren.

The Sin of Onan posted:

Also I strongly object to this narrative of "the hero just sends other people in to die while they sit back and jerk off about how great they are." Most heroes of myth do their poo poo themselves; if they have followers, they're usually either heroes in their own right or retainers whose job is to stand around holding the hero's cloak while he beats the dragon to death (and occasionally get killed or kidnapped for pathos/motivational purposes). Like, Herakles is sometimes a dick, but you can't say he doesn't get poo poo done.

Night10194 posted:

The funny thing is ancient myths usually contained, within themselves, that the Hero was often kind of a dick and paid for it.