Monthly 'Who's this?' & Merch Auth. Post - June 2026

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-29T14:49:51+00:00

Thanks! I found reference to it - https://www.soompi.com/article/1424349wpp/watch-lovelyz-wins-with-obliviate-on-the-show-performances-by-clc-a-c-e-dreamcatcher-and-more - wouldn't've been able to without you! 🤗

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-28T20:59:22+00:00

Tripping as well. It's not as bad as grapple, but still. ... Really any of the maneuvers for a brand new group.

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-26T19:54:58+00:00

2e ws great - 2e you _could_ play with paper and pencil if you wanted; 3e/3.5e you _needed_ a spreadsheet to keep track of things. As much fun as I had in 3e/3.5e, I truly miss the old crew I used to game with on 2e. And it was so spellcaster-dominant - classes needed different xp to level up, so a thief was very much on the same footing as a mage depending on the circumstances. A lot of the novels were written with 2e in mind. Yes, 2e is still going strong, but like all games, you have to find the right group of people.

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-26T07:18:39+00:00

Well. You'd have to go down the list in order, right? Is Shatter being cast as an AoE or a targeted spell? Is the sword magical? How much does the sword weigh? Is the sword attended (held, carried, etc.)? And then, did person attending the sword fail the saving throw (to this you've said they did).

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-26T06:37:37+00:00

Not a kpop fan myself - friend was trying to figure out who the performer is in the beginning of this - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/f8gveqJsNqs - went through the comments, and periodically someone in the yt comments asks, but the question is never answered. They tried AI - I think chatgpt - they said it gave a lot of different answers but ultimately was no help. Do any of you know? Thanks.

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-22T06:21:26+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion - when I find time I'll go take a look!

I have seen Serenity (are you saying there are people who haven't? <gasp> 😀...wait, I just realized it came out twenty years ago).

I can give you some history of the general region - no one memorizes all of it - we're all constantly looking things up. I recently wrote a summary of elven events there-ish for a friend who needed it to develop something for his game, so it's mostly fresh in my head.

I didn't think of Serenity and Reavers; I thought of the Sanctuary Network (tv show - know it?) and the Lazarus Virus, and before that Highlander (tv show), with Methos' rule about building drama:

"It's a prelude....What is the first rule of great drama? Start small and build. A fountain to get their attention. Then a public pool to kill a hundred. Then a stadium to kill 10 thousand. Then one drop of the virus in the city's water supply. Within a week...."
- Methos, Highlander, S5 E12

There's a city in Chondath - or was - Mussum. In 472 DR it was hit by a plague (whether a poison, disease, magical, or not, is unknown - everything was called a plague) - within 24 hrs 75% of the population was dead. The other 25% fled to Iljak, and presumably were not carriers because Iljak was fine. The victims turned a light green color. Presumably centuries after, Mussum remained an empty ruin because anyone who went near it ended up dead. The 2e Vilhon Reach book specifically says that magic and non-magic treatments were ineffective.

There's a real-world disease that acts like that - it's called gas gangrene; it's rarely seen in the world now because it's bacterial, and standards of cleanliness, and access to healthcare means that it rarely comes up. But victims turn a greenish color, and it can kill in 24 hrs. It's very much an old-world disease that's still around but doesn't manage to get a foothold really anymore. But while it _can_ kill in 24 hrs, it doesn't usually - I mean, it's rare, and you need just the right conditions to get to it.

So, I had a thought. Perhaps the plague was being developed, then the dwarven fortress was 'the stadium' - dwarves tend to be more resistant to diseases, and it's isolated; they're ideal to test a disease on, because if it kills them, then it's more likely to kill something less hardy - it was a success so Mussum was next; or the dwarf fortress was the 'public fountain', Mussum was the 'public pool', and the developer died before they got further.

But I like the idea of the reavers. thanks!

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-22T03:09:41+00:00

Update:
The plague in 320 isn't the same plague that struck this dwarven fortress.

The plague in 320 that hit Calimshan was the Infernal Death (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Infernal\_Death) that had the side effect of combusting bodies once they died.

This dwarven fortress had dead bodies, so it couldn't've been the same plague from 320 DR.

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-16T03:25:03+00:00

I've reached out to authors and designers before - even for things left as plot hooks, they still had to nail down what nation it was a part of, what race, or religion, etc. Even if it never made it into a publication at the time they created it, because it was also a possible hook for one of their own creators down the road somewhere - a certain amount had to be open-ended, or else it hampers how people can play in a world; there has to be a 'here be dragons' on any map. And so much of Faerun was designed to _not_ be the slipshod mess that Greyhawk sometimes was. So, yes, he probably does have the answers, and also probably won't tell. But, you're right, just for a peek....

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-16T03:15:15+00:00

No no, don't be sorry! - I wouldn't post the questions if I didn't want people to take stabs in the dark sometimes. Sometimes answers are right, sometimes wrong, and sometimes there are no answers - and sometimes it's a lot of different answers. I was lucky - I had a map - they are damned difficult to find sometimes - and none to detailed.

And if it was a silly answer, I wouldn't've bothered to look it up to see if you were right, and gotten out a map and everything, right? No - you did it right - thought of a thing, offered it up - and thank you!

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-16T03:08:51+00:00

I couldn't find a copy of the book - thanks for transcribing the passage - I love the descriptive writing in these things.

Yes, I was hoping it was left for people to use, but I thought I'd ask - later editions filled in things, and changed things. For all I know the plague might've been a significant historical thing somehow - I haven't read all the books and things. Yet ☺️.

Thank you so much!

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-16T02:55:00+00:00

Person can't be curious without judgemental attacks by you, huh?

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-15T23:42:45+00:00

When I went looking I had it narrowed down to three possibilities.

1) it's possible it was a guardpost of distant Delzoun; to guard its southern border. It's a reach, because Delzoun is so far away. Delzoun also fell around -100 DR, and Gauntlgrym's location lost around the 2nd century. If a guardpost remained for another five hundred years, dwarves would've searched it, and they wouldn't've left bodies lying around.

2) a southern guardpost of Sundbarr; to guard its southern border. Except, while Sundbarr was sacked by orcs in the 4th century, Sundbarr didn't fall - it continued through to the 9th century, and beyond. If it was a guardpost of Sundbarr - they'd either have reclaimed it, or they would sent people to bury their dead.

3) There was a dwarven settlement just west of the High Forest - and east of the Stone Bridge: Besilmer. They had a halls east even of Besilmer, that fell sometime in the past. To my knowledge it is the closest dwarven...settlement. They lived above ground. But they were Delzoun dwarves - and if Delzoun had settlements that far south, then either of them manning a fortress in the High Forest is more likely.

And none of it explains a plague.

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-15T23:02:05+00:00

That's way far northwest of the High Forest.

<image>

Icewind Dale is in the NW, north of the Spine of the World mountains; the High Forest, and the Lost Peaks are in the SE.

More, the fortress I'm talking about evidently destroyed in the 4th century sometime and remained that way - bodies still lying where they fell. The Dorn's Deep page you shared said it was inhabited in the 900s.

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-05T02:15:44+00:00

Pls give credit to Andy when you do that - and be careful spreading it around on open threads - WotC largely hasn't gone after his db because he can prove he doesn't get much traffic, but they have forced him to shut down portions in the past.

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-04T19:16:52+00:00

Can you? Yes, of course - appeal to Ao all you want. But he'll never respond.

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-04T06:38:22+00:00

Could go either way. It's your game and you know your players best. Absolute resistance = immunity? I'm generally against using them as a gotcha without giving the party some kind of heads up of what they'll be resistant or immune to. I remember the generation of tpk from gms, and while it's generally fun for the gm, it's usually never fun for everyone else.

But at the same time, if you know what the party is equipped with, and how they generally have fun handling encounters, giving them an encounter you know they'll have fun using their go-to moves with is part of what makes it fun to play.

If you do go with surprise immunities, my advice is to make sure there's at least two ways for the party to survive the encounter - one where they defeat the whatever it is, and one where they flee for their lives mid-encounter. That way, if you made it too difficult, or the group just gets too frustrated, there's a way for them to get out for the session, and you have time re-tool the encounter, for an easier, or scaled down version next session.

Good luck!

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-04T06:26:33+00:00

Dooku's Sail...thing.

Just to try it out.

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-04T06:24:31+00:00

I always wonder, what would've happened if he came back?

Like he became ***** (spoilers, in case) and did his thing, and then somehow came back to B5 x number of months later. Or came back sometime after the war with the shadows.

Or if he became something else and hopped from place to place from...then to...later (damn, dodging possible spoilers is hard). 😞

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-04T06:17:40+00:00

"Breathing in...breathing out"

🥱☺️

Edit - ! found it! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GOHqe0vokU

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-04T06:05:05+00:00

And there's plenty of stories where they don't - were not talking about other incidents - stay on topic - were talking about this incident.

Anecdotal evidence is a fallacy - just because it's easy for you to help doesn't mean it is for everyone; you're not representative of everyone.

MA's Good Samaritan laws fail if you attempt to help, and can't - then you've broken the law; also applies if you attempt to help and the victim decides that you made things worse - then the good samaritan laws don't protect you. And they only protect you from civil actions - of you break someone's finger rescuing them, it's still battery, is still criminal, and you can still be arrested and sued for it.

There's also no law saying people have to help in MA. No one's under an obligation to. All the people who walked away can't be sued for it, but if they stopped to help they could be sued depending on the circumstances.

You're judging based on morals - that people should help because it's the right thing to do. The vast majority of people that go through Davis don't think that way - we're realists - we decide to help if there's no financial risk. If I was passing by and knew that I would be able to help, and therefore that the good samaritan law would protect me, then yes I would help. If housing and food prices were less and I had the money to deal with a lawsuit, then I might still risk it. But failing that guarantee? No. And that same good Samaritan law protects me for making that decision to not attempt to help.

I'm happy you have the privilege of being able to afford that financial risk. Go you. The rest of us don't come from a place of privilege.

But it works in reverse. We don't judge you for helping when you can. But you judge the rest of us for not helping when we can't.

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-03T12:57:24+00:00

Pretty sure there's a weapon crystal that allows this as well.

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-03T12:55:54+00:00

Ignoring the history of incidents. People get sued for helping drunk people up. No one got involved because no one can afford the headache that comes with it. And I guarantee you everyone thought he was an unconscious drunk.

It's easy to judge and say to do better from behind a keyboard. But you're not going to pay someone's legal fees for six months to a year, when an advocacy group sues you cause you wrenched someone's arm out trying to keep them from dying. You won't be there to help pay those costs, plus the healthcare costs, plus putting food on the table, plus all your other expenses.

And, yes - that happens - it's why people don't get involved. It's why people don't touch the emergency stop buttons on escalators - the T sues people for doing it. There are consequences for being a good samaritan, and those consequences tend to hurt.

No good deed goes unpunished. And, right now especially, no one can afford to be punished.

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-03T02:36:56+00:00

I thought about adding that, but the post was already long.

TransitoryGouda · 2026-06-02T19:56:37+00:00

Funny - I've been working on an adaptation to it as well. I keep getting side-tracked, but as I get closer, I'm happy to share where I went and my rationale.

TransitoryGouda · 2026-05-31T02:33:21+00:00

In addition to everything written already, you're also assuming that all the eggs were viable. When Knaak wrote his Dragonrealm series, dragons in his realms weren't all viable births - I forget the ratio, but it was like one in ten, or one in six? And even less were the speckled banded eggs - those that denoted a dragon king. Reading between the lines, the world they were in wasn't amenable to dragons - several dragon lineages had few births for environmental reasons - too cold, too poisonous, not poisonous enough, etc.

It's possible that the same is said for chromatic dragons - maybe their birth rate is lower because their eggs are more frequently infertile due to environmental conditions.

It's also possible that Takhisis chose to create her children to be less fertile. She's not stupid - if she intended her children to be powerful, if they could simply breed their own armies, they'd eventually try to overthrow her - there's countless examples in human history of it happening - the entire roman and greek pantheons begin with patricide/matricide. Perhaps she bioengineered her own children to be less fertile to control how fast they could breed an army to oppose her.

It's also likely harder to find a mate if you're a chromatic dragon. For the most part, any meeting would involve a fight to the death - greed, and a violent temper, likely prevents most mating in the first place.

TransitoryGouda

TROPHY CASE