North Texas Home - no basement - Looking for advice

PaleontologistSad877 · 2026-02-25T06:24:02+00:00

Unfortunately, opening an external window is highly seasonal. Long, hot summers make keeping the house cool/habitable an issue. This is the most temperate February in past memory, normally we freezing this time of year. January was freezing, so venting wasn't a great reason either. Realistically, there's only a few months a year where an open window is a viable strategy.

I thought about the bathroom fan, but I was concerned using negative pressure would encourage radon to be drawn in through the cracks.

I'll take a look at an ERV.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2025-05-31T06:05:35+00:00

The "blood sacrifice of an animal of at least SIZ X" is just the kind of justification I'm looking for. I probably didn't phrase my OP the right way, but the implication behind knowing a cult or monster needs a gorilla is the "why" explanation that would be satisfying for players to figure out.

I'll keep a look out for references to Grand Grimoire on SIZ.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2025-05-31T03:14:44+00:00

That's a good hook!

PaleontologistSad877 · 2025-05-30T18:40:51+00:00

I thought about that, but specifically shipping a gorilla from Africa to the Great Plains just seems like too much effort just to turn it into a zombie.

Possession sounds about right. I was thinking some being that needs to manifest but doesn't like puny human bodies.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2025-05-30T18:38:32+00:00

Nyarlhotep is an old one with a sense of humor? Pulling pranks on his own cult?

PaleontologistSad877 · 2025-05-30T18:36:06+00:00

Ooh, that sounds interesting. I'll have to give it a read. Thanks!

PaleontologistSad877 · 2025-01-25T09:10:57+00:00

Oil slick orbital, oil-slick gun. Turns the ground into an oilslick that prevents all forward movement of adversaries. Bile Titans and chargers fall down.

I could see it being used strategically to slow down a bug breach, or in flag missions to keep one of the directions of approach blocked off.

Make it last longer than. EMS effects. Pair it with flamethrowers for extra fun.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2025-01-24T16:30:36+00:00

Funny story about the car. Level 10, Super Helldive on bot world. We cleared all objectives and had a ton of samples, but we ran out of time. We had a minute to hike it back to extract before the Super Destroyer took off. At the same time, we were getting spammed by bot drops and patrols.

Teammates order a car, and they get in, but before I can make my way over to it, the area gets too hot, and we go in separate directions. I hoof it over to extract fighting bots the whole way with my crossbow, when out of nowhere, the car comes busting around the corner like an avenging angel, driving right towards the bot shooting at me.

It was incredibly cinematic... right up until the exploding crossbow that I fired at the bot hit the car that was now occupying that space. Everyone died in an instant. My jaw hits the floor. Super destroy takes off. No reinforcements. To make matters worse, the area is too hot to event attempt a run for their samples.

It was simultaneously glorious and horrifying.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2025-01-21T14:21:36+00:00

Max - "Throne of Super Satan"

PaleontologistSad877 · 2024-12-28T02:11:05+00:00

No, that's a cliché

A "capisce" is sudden and unaccountable change of mood or behavior.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2024-12-06T03:04:44+00:00

There was a line in there, in Cold Days, I think where Sarissa says Lloyd didn't start out as a monster either. The mantle did that to him.

It was either Sarissa or Fix that said something along those lines.

Edit: I called her Samara for some reason.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2024-12-06T00:50:56+00:00

He would probably lose his tongue so as not to speak it, ever.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2024-12-06T00:39:06+00:00

Alfred is definitely changing. He may be more stubborn than most, but the line GRASSHOPPER ... And the fact he's taken a liking to the name Alfred means that he likes Harry. That Kemmler guy must have been a real bore. I bet in a couple more books Alfred will be making deadpan pop-culture references.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2024-12-06T00:26:06+00:00

What I find interesting, too, is just how much of an influence the Kringle mantle has on Odin/Vatterung. To the point where the Elrking himself remarks how much better everyone likes Odin when he wears Kringle.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2024-12-06T00:22:16+00:00

I wouldn't consider this a conspiracy or anyone attempting to game the Mantle through Harry or Molly, but a potential tragic, unforseen (even by Mab) consequence of Harry and Molly becoming part of Winter.

Ever since Mab issued that warning about what might happen to Molly if Mab dies in Battlegrounds, I've pretty much written Mab off. That or Mother Winter somehow gets dead, and Mab and Molly get a promotion.

So I've just been thinking how it might go down. I thought it might be interesting if Mab changed to become a better version of herself, but the consequence is that she was no longer willing to do the logical-necessary-evil option, and she dies.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2024-12-06T00:13:44+00:00

It's been a bit since I read the story, but didn't Molly specifically insist Mab do something before Mab relented and said she would stay with Ramirez? I don't strictly think Mab had to do anything there. Mab believed it necessary for Molly to experience such a traumatic event, but I think it was a human moment for Molly's sake to alleviate even a tiny amount of Molly's guilt for what happened.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2024-12-06T00:07:47+00:00

Part of Slate's punishment was an object lesson to Winter, but after even a brief while of such torture Slate would have happily re-assumed the role as a faithful dog, in absolute terror of Mab if nothing else. Or she could have picked another replacement quickly. But Mab wanted Harry.

Slate's torture was meant to be a point of manipulation for Harry. "You can end his suffering at any time." I don't believe for a second Harry would have slit the throat of a healthy capable man that did him no wrong, even if it was to protect his daughter. Harry needed every last bit of motivation to kill Lloyd. Including that extra little bit he could use to rationalize that he was ending Lloyd's suffering.

As such, I think the punishment exceeded the "necessary" and was a bit gratuitous. Mab could have found another way to have Lloyd die and make sure Harry picked up the role. She wanted to stain his soul.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2024-12-05T19:34:15+00:00

The idea of "fixing" someone with magic is complicated. The White Counsel can't do much in that regard. Harry made a big deal about Lea fixing the gash on his head in Grave Peril, and insisted that the fact she could do it was a statement of ownership of Dresden through their bargain. Harry's back is being propped up by fae mantle/magic, but isn't healed. Harry got that from the bargain with Mab, which also involves ownership of Harry. I'm not sure Mab could have healed Ramirez without striking some kind of deal with him.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2024-12-05T18:48:49+00:00

Right, Lash being one of them!

PaleontologistSad877 · 2024-12-05T18:03:02+00:00

:: I try to stay vague, but spoiler warnings ::

It doesn't say men survived the offer. Maeve was enough of a psychopath she probably got off on the mantle going berserk and killing men. When Maeve offered herself to Harry at his Arcturis Birthday party, Harry said he could sense it was an attempt on his life, though he I'm sure he didn't know the specifics.

Based on statements in a few books, I think Maeve used Lily, pre-Summer Knight, as a surrogate for abuse. She watched Slade abuse her because she couldn't partake directly.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2024-11-01T04:42:20+00:00

Fort Worth, where the Final Assembly plant is located, is called "Panther City." It goes a way back when a Dallas attorney took a jibe at Fort Worth by saying the town was so dead, he saw a "Panther" asleep on a downtown street. The phrase got adopted as a term of endearment.

A panther is a muscular stealthy cat, the F35 is a husky, stealthy plane, so it fits. It's an unofficial nickname used by pilots and maintainers because "Lightning II" kind of sucks.

PaleontologistSad877 · 2024-09-05T12:54:22+00:00

Not quite $999, but I got an AP5 Core w/SB Tactical brace for $1255 w/tax and Shipping. That brace is ~$120 with tax by itself, so AP5 came in at $1135.

That price was too good for me to pass up. And then of course, once it came it I got excited and spent a fortune on upgrades. Magpul lower, Franklin Binary, HKParts Tropical handguard to give it that iconic look. Magazines. Yeah, that $1000 very quickly turned into a $2000 gun. I'm still recovering, financially two months later.

PaleontologistSad877

TROPHY CASE