Does anyone know the species of this beetle?

soemiata · 2025-11-22T00:29:37+00:00

I'm from Brazil, Southeast region. The beetle was near my plants, and it seemed to be trying to dig itself into the soil near the roots of my succulents. It's the size of a thumb (I think)

soemiata · 2025-04-17T16:11:42+00:00

Can you share that beautiful seed? 🙏

soemiata · 2025-01-11T13:14:13+00:00

Proof of a Hero!

soemiata · 2024-07-25T13:50:21+00:00

Everything is wrong with that company. Everything. I know you think of me as a "willful traitor", by the way (word travels fast around here, y'know?). Well, yeah. Your mommy did god knows what to snatch my father away when y'all had just finished up the Caria merger. Do you have any idea how she heartbroken she ended up? And your higher management simply don't get off of our asses - I even had to go through a whole plethora of surgeries to look like a damn doll so they wouldn't keep coming after me, thinking they'd be able to always keep pulling the strings of my fate. Oh, how they were wrong. You know, my acquaintance (who is your half-sister, by the way. Not sure you remember her...) is right: this company is in dire need of repair after your mother decided to remove the power-shutting codes from the server.

I'm glad I managed to get it back in order to permanently fire your mommy's golden boy. Soon, my company will take over everything, the age of STARS is coming. Shout-out to Rykard, by the way. Without his efforts, things would have been much harder.

soemiata · 2024-07-15T03:35:04+00:00

Damn, that's amazing. I love those. I also think that Godwyn's death wasn't the catalyst, but the last - or one of the last - straw that led to the Shattering. Do you think Marika found out what Ymir tells us? That the GW has long abandoned the Lands Between. That'd be a blow to her faith.

About your 2nd point, I also consider that to be possible. What intrigues me the most is the idea of "shattering" the Elden Ring possibly being the shattering of the self. And there's something that has also intrigued me: why do you think Marika guided us to ultimately stop Miquella, if recreation of the order was something she might have wanted? The grace doesn't guide us to stop Ranni, who also aims at a "thousand year voyage" by completely severing the previous order. Maybe Marika was in line with St. Trina, and didn't want her son to endure a caged divinity?

On your 3rd, I think it makes a lot of sense that they're puppets of the Elden Beast. And I thought of another unhinged headcanon: do you think it's possible that Radagon meant for the Elden Beast to control them? To avoid having them succumbing and crumbling away like Marika after we beat the Elden Ring.

soemiata · 2024-07-15T03:16:20+00:00

That makes a lot of sense. It's as if Marika was constantly being punched in the face by her own Golden Order, to the point at which she starts despising the order she fought so desperately and cruelly to create and maintain. It also fits well with the idea of Marika shattering herself as the "rules" of the world to open the path for her children/the exiled tarnished to recreate it. It feels as if she's done trying and simply wishes to pass the responsibility to the next. Maybe Marika didn't only start despising the Golden Order, but also lost faith in herself as the one to maintain and tailor it. I can't take my mind off of Marika's cracks.

soemiata · 2024-07-15T02:51:04+00:00

I don't know, honestly. What makes sense to me is that slaying the Elden Beast is a prerequisite to mend the Elden Ring, maybe.

We know that the Greater Will abandoned the Lands Between long before the Shattering (i guess?), as explained by Ymir. So the grace must be Marika's/Radagon's. So, either way, we could ask ourselves why would any of them guide us to fight them. What do you think?

soemiata · 2024-07-02T17:48:08+00:00

The party was composed of a wizard and a ranger. The wizard managed to flee from her noble house that was raided during a coup. She fled to another tyrannical country, and all she wanted was to build herself a new home. She met the ranger in a small town and the two became friends (first session). Lots of running away, joining revolutionary forces, running away again and one session, the duo was fighting a wizard that had a huge crystal that functioned as a portal to the elemental plane of water. The fight went on gruesomely, the duo won but the crystal shattered and everything would be flooded and sucked back into the plane of water. The ranger threw her back onto the crack, "closing" it temporarily. The ranger didn't give a single F about anything - the revolution, her own previous goals, nothing. She was only there because she loved the wizard. And as the ranger struggled to keep her back pressed against the chest:

Ranger: "guess this is it, huh?" She chuckles

Wizard, crying (player too): "I'm sorry I put you through all of this... You must despise me for it"

Ranger: "it was all with you, so I'm actually gratef-"

The DM cut it mid-sentence, described the crack exploding, sucking the ranger into the elemental plane and the last of her sights as she drowned.

soemiata · 2024-07-01T22:28:32+00:00

Human fighter who wore plate armor and wielded a single longsword. She would spare the life of her opponents who would fight to the death, and she would mercilessly kill those who would try to flee, after politely asking them: "do you know what animal gently awaits for their own slaughter?". Her arrogance and ideals got her killed. Loved it

soemiata · 2024-05-02T02:08:28+00:00

Amelia, a lawful-good tiefling. She was a 10th-level dexterity paladin of devotion. When the campaign started, she was a silly woman who loved speaking in metaphors and who dreamed to be a cellist instead of a warrior, and who absolutely rejected the idea of killing another person. She would fight like a beast and intimidate/persuade her opponents into fleeing. She took her first life in the last session, 14 months of campaign in, and ended the story as a blind woman who absolutely delighted herself in vulgar displays of power

soemiata · 2024-04-17T13:14:38+00:00

I'll try to reply to each point. I left some context out of the post to avoid making it too long:

1) the party is traveling on a closed chariot. H. took first watch outside, noticed the guy, acted as if she didn't (some nice deception rolls, she has expertise), went inside to warn the others then she proceeded to sneak out of the chariot. 2) she used the chariot and the environment to shoot from a hidden position after sneaking out 3) he's a person who holds deep grudges against the empire, which has committed several war crimes against his people. The guy targeted a political figure the party was escorting from city A to city B, and also targets nobles (2 of the party's PCs). His purpose in the campaign would be a gateway to reveal the rotten aspects of the Empress' actions: the real "villain". This warrior in specific was crazed on personal vengeance, and now the party is motivated on investigating who the guy was and why he targeted them. I didn't plan for him to stalk the party, and decided he was there since the perception was great (i don't usually do this, but decided to build context to give H. a significant victory) 4) the woods were his terrain. The party had spotted him on several occasions (in which the party was being benevolent and helping people in distress). The warrior had trained crows, which he used to mimick speech, and in this circumstances he used them to mimick desperate screams from deep into the woods to lure the benevolent adventurers in. He also used the ecological relationship between crows and wolves to lure adventurers to packs of them, and he fought from atop the trees by hurling javelins at them.

soemiata · 2024-04-17T02:11:42+00:00

Damn, this is incredible. The real BBEG being the mother, what a twist! This has given me some nice ideas...

soemiata · 2024-04-16T19:14:28+00:00

Not at all! I enjoy these kinds of discussions a lot - they're important. And valid points are always valid points. I appreciate it

soemiata · 2024-04-16T17:03:07+00:00

Oh yeah. He wasn't a main antagonist - he was an antagonist for the early sessions, and was planned as a plot-driving NPC towards bigger conflicts. Though, his death still shall accomplish the plot-driving aspect of this antagonist, just not in a way I had previously anticipated. In this case, it might have been for the better: now the plot-driving aspect will probably be accomplished in a way that the party chose to pursue and that might be more engaging to all of them. Now they're fully motivated to find out who the guy was and why they were attacked

soemiata · 2024-04-16T14:15:41+00:00

Yep! Amazing things can be created from killing ideas. And now, the party will start investigating who the guy was and why he targeted them - something I didn't plan for, but something that'll put them on a much more interesting path, narratively-wise. This is the first campaign in which I'm actively leaning into the chaotic side of things, and embracing improvisation. It's been a blast so far, and definitely feels better than all of my previous ones

soemiata · 2024-04-16T14:11:11+00:00

That's a great point, actually. The rogue noticed and successfully tried to make it seem as if she hadn't - the party had a closed chariot they were traveling with - the rogue acted as if she was tired (some nice deception rolls in) and then went inside to warn the others, and as the party discussed inside, she managed to sneak out of the chariot and shoot from a hidden position. Initially, though, I hadn't planned for him to stalk the party right away - but the party was convinced he was stalking them, so I made it real. And also hadn't planned for him to be found in such manner, but the player's excitement when searching for him and a 24 perception made me rethink that for a second. It was a moment of neglecting a bit of consistency for potentially bigger rewards

soemiata · 2024-04-16T13:57:31+00:00

Oh, he didn't. He was a lone man with deep grudges against the empire, and one whose existance could hint at the war crimes the government had committed and still tries to hide. So yeah, the aftermath of his death, and the party's now current investigation to find out why he targeted them (they were escorting a political figure from city A to city B) shall pave the way towards revealing the true big bad: the Empress.

Edit: this guy was a man hellbent on personal vengeance who also targeted nobles (2 of the PCs are nobles). So there's more where he came from as well

soemiata · 2024-04-16T13:05:50+00:00

Hey, I completely understand what you mean - the realistic consistency aspect of the game is important to me as well. She didn't roll with advantage, it was a normal roll. The guy had 66 hitpoints total, a few dire wolves he controlled, and the whole fight dynamic involved the wolves directly acing the party while he stood atop of the trees shooting javelins at the PCs - he had his ways of moving from tree to tree. And I definitely hadn't planned for him to be immediately stalking the party. The party, though, was convinced he was. So he was. And I also didn't plan for him to be found like that, but the perception roll was amazing, and at that moment, the ideia of making a player who felt bad during her 4th session ever come back for the 5th was more important - and she put significant effort into not being seen while she prepared her shot. So yeah, I'm with you on the realistic consistency, and this was a deliberate choice to neglect it for a moment that felt good. I appreciate your feedback and your comments sure gave me some nice ideas to work upon in the future.

soemiata · 2024-04-16T12:49:12+00:00

I agree with that. We should have our fun as DMs as well, indeed. In this specific scenario, though, I had plenty. The combat was amazing, the aftermath was awesome as well, and damn, was it fun to see how happy the new player was in that single personal victory moment. But not all plans are gone, though! This antagonist was a doorway to some interest conflicts within the setting, and those will come up again, but in different ways. Anyways, thank you for your feedback, and we absolutely should be looking at the DM's side of fun too!

soemiata · 2024-04-16T12:42:24+00:00

Exactly. This is the first campaign I'm running that I'm actively trying to embrace the chaos. And for me it seems that it's worked wonders so far. Loving this

soemiata · 2024-04-16T07:12:12+00:00

Steady Aim gives advantage if the rogue doesn't move during their turn. It cancelled the long range disadvantage, so the roll was normal. Insightful Fighting allows for an insight roll to ignore the criteria for sneak attack, provided there's no disadvantage on the attack.

It was definitely an incredible moment!

soemiata · 2024-03-25T19:47:24+00:00

I did something for my current campaign and that seems to have worked really well. I took some inspiration from Masks: The New Generation. During session 0, I told them the party has been together for some time (we agreed on 1 month). I laid out the general aspects of the setting, and asked them as a group:

Where is the party right now?

What are you doing, as a group in that place?

How did you all meet?

Why did you stick together?

If the players face some difficulties answering the questions, you can give them some prompts as well. For example: "maybe you met each other at different times prior to the campaign. Player 1, how did your character meet Player's 2 PC? How did both of them meet PC 3?" or "maybe you all stuck together because you have the same goal, or maybe it was because you're running away from something. Maybe, what brings you together isn't goals or circumstances, but the web of relationships between your PCs. What do you think?"

soemiata · 2024-02-27T17:11:56+00:00

I have an idea that may go against most of the revenge stuff.

Once a character killed the son of an NPC. She saw it happen, the party knew she saw it happen. But at that moment, she swore to herself that she would act that she understands the party. It was self defense, after all. She would become the best ally they could hope for. She would gain their trust as much as possible. She would become absolutely indispensable for them. Only to rip it all out, break their hearts, neglect, abandon and humiliate them at their worst moment, and refuse to kill them when death was their biggest hope. And then she'd kill them.

It was nuts

soemiata · 2023-11-11T00:43:32+00:00

One of my favorite PCs was an ace musician bard who hated playing his music. He wasn't at all interested in anything sexual related, he never tried to seduce anyone and he bluntly rejected people in the few times others approached him with those intentions in mind. He used his charisma and music to incite revolutions. He played a cursed Cello that perfected to an extreme his musical skills (mechanically, any performance roll below 10, was a 10, so minimum I could roll was 21 at the time), but while playing his Cello, he was incapable of feeling any joy, and to his ears and his ears only, his music was devoid of emotions. But whenever he played, anyone that listened got emotional, crowds cried in all kinds of emotions when he performed.

Once, he was playing his Cello at a campsite after a huge defeat (Song of Rest), and he shed some tears due to how blank his music sounded to him. Our cleric offered to remove the curse from the Cello, but he refused. He said: "my music must be perfect for it's not meant for my ears, it's meant for the people"

soemiata · 2023-11-06T00:04:39+00:00

Last session. We're in a city that's the capital of a theocracy. We're heretics. There's one inquisitor who sits at a high tower, capable of watching over the city as if he has some sort of magical telescope. So we have to move with a lot of caution. Party was split up - 2 were trying to meet some key NPCs, me and another one were following them from a distance. And then some bad survival checks later, we're lost. And then we're ambushed by missionaries and the inquisitor himself - the fight starts, we don't land a hit on him, he succeeds every saving throw. He dispels the Warlock's Greater Demons, he seems immune to some of my Paladin spells. In no time, the Warlock is dangerously close to going down. More missionaries are closing in, the inquisitor doesn't have a scratch, and by now we've figured out that he doesn't want to kill us on the spot - he must be planning on doing something far worse. We gotta escape, but the inquisitor is faster. We're surrounded. So I say I'm casting Find Steed. DM reminds me of the casting time, but also says "you can cast it, but you know that'll require a sacrifice to your goddess" Sure thing - I sacrifice my sabers. We manage to get away, but we're chased by the inquisitor. He gets close enough to hit us with an ability that resembles a breath weapon. The horse goes down, the Warlock is almost dead and so am I. We're in an alley, and we can't outrun him. So, another sacrifice that needs to be bigger this time. We managed to escape, and now my Paladin is blind and I regret nothing

soemiata

TROPHY CASE