Yadri Tippits: Conditional Perfection

Just need to get this down. I thought it up yesterday at dinner and told myself to go home and type this up immediately. Note "yesterday at dinner".

I was at Subway eating dinner. I drink Diet Coke but I always mix something else in to add a tinge of flavor (just a small spritz totally changes the taste for me). I like to start off with Sprite or Dr. Pepper and then move towards Cherry Coke (if I want sweet) or Barq's Root Beer (if I want bite). Too often Subway will have Coke Zero instead of Dr. Pepper and it really limits me (I will mix Sprite and Cherry Coke but neither goes with Barq's, so I go from 6 flavors to 3).

Anyway, as I was mixing my drink, I noticed someone looked at me adding two different flavors to my Diet Coke. They were not watching me or giving me a disapproving look, but it did bring the concept of conditional perfection to mind.

Conditional Perfection is a label I give to things that are perfect in certain circumstances but not others. If I want a sweeter drink, such as when I get a Turkey sub, Cherry Coke and Sprite make the perfect drink. But if I get a Roast Beef sub, Cherry Coke and Sprite are no longer the perfect drink; instead, I want Barq's Root Beer.

In a world where the Gods of Law oppose the Gods of Chaos, is there room for conditional perfection? Would one not assume that the Gods of Law have a set and unchanging ideal of perfection? I oppose any relation between Chaos and Perfection but sterility and uniformity do not account for differing circumstances.

Yadri Tippits, a priest of Derrgan, the Wandering God, has long had the quirk of collecting rain water from the petals and leaves of various plants. For one who's palate is properly cleansed and sensitized, these waters provide a myriad of tastes and combinations that can accentuate and perfect any meal. Of course, to the boorish and uncouth drinker, they all taste like water.

Yadri uses his waters to teach the lesson of conditional perfection (along with food, music, painting, and other arts). "Which is perfect," he would ask, "the red wine or the white? Each is perfect in its own place: the red wine with steak, the white with fish." This music is perfect for joyous celebration while this is perfect for sorrow. If you switch them around, neither seems perfect.

Trokair's Monastery - Xian Gi Wo!

I cannot for the life of me remember what the name of the monastery was near the ruins of Trokair. I remember lots of things about it, and I know I had a notebook with the name written inside because I listed three separate monasteries near Trokair and differentiated between their teaching styles, but I do not recall more than it started with X and was two words. This was not all that long ago either as I used the radio tower in the mountains visible from my community college's adjunct campus's second floor as the basis for the monastery.

Xong Guo?
Xia Shou?
Xin Gao?

Nothing rings true.

This post brought to you by Kung Fu Panda, which I am watching right now.

Pharmacist's Prayer

The Pharmacist's Prayer

Lord, as I work behind this counter
may I feel your presence here.
Help me to fill each prescription
with knowledge, love, and cheer.
May I always be humbled by the
privilege that is mine
of making life more comfortable
and giving peace of mind.
For all who seek assistance
give me wisdom to meet their needs
And for each encounter I pray,
Dear Lord, that I follow as You lead.
Amen.

Faces of Fear, Fangs of the Wyrm

Had this idea while in the shower.

Today's Cool Comic Book Moment on Brian Cronin's Are Comics Good? blog was Skurge the Executioner holding off the armies of Hel at Gjall while Thor, Balder, and some mortal warriors escaped back to Asgard (the mortals were originally being held captive in Hel). The moment is quite poignant and Skurge comes off as quite heroic since holding the bridge was certain death, even for a god like Skurge. I was thinking about a similar moment for my campaign.

The obvious, non-psychopathic enemy group would be the Fangs of the Wyrm. The Dragon King, Demitri von Rhinestadt, would be the only member whose word would be his bond as Groder worships the god of murder, Rath revels in mindless violence, and Marhault's entire modus operandi is based on lies and betrayal. I envisioned a scene wherein the party had to work with the Fangs to each group's mutual survival. Demitri vouches for the other Fangs when the party rightly questions whether they can be trusted, being devotees of murder, rage, and deceit. Demitri's rule of the Fangs is based on a combination of birthright and personal power; he vows that any Fang who breaks the truce would answer to him. This is far greater incentive than even personal survival.

This scene then brought to mind the various villain parties I had created. At first, I could only recall the Faces of Fear. Having started to write this, however, I recalled that Rath was a member of the Fangs and that the Fangs each have their own extensive entourages: Groder has his undead companions (the crazed skeleton and methodical zombie serial killers) and a virtual undead army; Demitri has his half-dragon sorcerer and dragon mount in addition to the troops he can levy and the awaiting demon army of his father, Ashardalon; Marhault has his devoted defender and traveling troupe (truly the weakest force of arms among the Fangs); and Rath has his Ravager companion and loyal followers among the Sons of Wrath cult.

I had always wanted a witch-type villainess on the Fangs and envisioned a pair of sisters, a siren and a harpy (in theme, if not in form). However, unlike the other members of the Fangs, these two never saw any development past that point. Tonight, I briefly thought about Saren filling in that roll but I feel her self-importance and particular philosophy do not fit particularly well with the Fangs. I can envision a manner in which she could fit, namely that she seeks to free those who would break the present order and expose true reality. Ashardalon could easily be the Face of Fear who speaks to her in her dreams and visions. But the crazy religious cult overtones of the Faces does not quite fit with the Satanic, overarching power of Demitri as head of the Fangs. And Saren's great insistence on self mutilation and grotesquerie is likewise incongruent with the Fangs' nobility and respectability. In Demitri's world order, there is a place for grotesque mutilation; it is in the dungeons and it is reserved for his enemies. No way would he defile himself in that way. So the Faces of Fear are not quite right to integrate into the Fangs.

But that still leaves the door open for them to work together. In particular, I imagined that Garrett would be encountered with the Fangs. The party would already know Garrett and the Faces, likewise the Fangs, and would wonder why he was working with the other group. In a just world, the party would be scared to death at the thought of these two groups cooperating. Their minds would boggle at the depths of evil they would seek together. I imagine Garrett is involved with the Fangs in one of two ways: either he is trying to infiltrate the group for some end (in which case he really tries to silence the party to protect himself) or he has taken leave of the Faces of Fear and has sought another powerful group to enable his cruelties (which would probably be my way of getting him more screen time when the Faces were geographically removed from the campaign, as the idea of Garrett is rather independent from the Faces).

God I miss D&D.

Magical, Musical Battle-Axes

From a post by High Priest Syriax in a thread about adding anachronistic elements to a fantasy game (specifically, axes that are also magical electric guitars wielded by barbarian/bards):

The more I think about it, this is the way I would go with any "musical weapon." A series of holes and grooves along the weapon itself make sound as it is swung at varying speeds in a trained combat style. Each maneuver/attack sequence produces different notes. The location and pattern of the holes/grooves on each warrior's weapon produces a slightly different voice/quality, which uniquely identifies that warrior to the other members of the tribe. When they are fighting together they can pass short communications along the battlefield via sound, and when fighting in concert they can even weave their individual combat maneuvers/songs into an ensemble which produces greater magical/morale effects for the entire tribe and drives their enemies before them.

Prison Ship

We already have The Boiling Rock but the (not as terrible as you would think but still pretty terrible) GI Joe movie gave me another idea for a sea-based prison. They lock Cobra Commander and Destro up in fancy laser-cages in the hull of an aircraft carrier at sea. The prison ship would not be an aircraft carrier. In fact, it does not possess any alternate means of transportation (no helipad, no lifeboats, etc). In a fantasy setting, the ship might not even have doors leading inside. Supplies are dropped hours ahead in the path of the ship and are collected by guards or even the prisoners over the side of the hull without the supply ship coming within sight. The ship travels an endless circuit in the midst of the ocean, never approaching within a few hundred miles of islands or the coast. The message is plainly that if you are on this ship, heading into the water is a good way to be lost to death. Of course, such a prison ship leaves many open questions. Are there guards on the ship? If so, do they get breaks or vacation and how are they replaced? How are new prisoners brought to the ship? What stops the prisoners from staging a riot and gaining control of the ship? Since there are no other ships within sight (to prevent prisoners from swimming over and stowing away), how would anyone respond to the prisoners taking control of the ship? Lots of problems, many of which are easily solved in a fantasy setting. Prisoners are teleported into the sealed, magically guided ship that provides food or even a field of sustenance.

Giant Centipedes in Trokair

Centipedes live in moist areas so they should be in the sewers, the forest, and in trash heaps by the bandit and orc camps as well as under large rocks and by fallen logs.

Parthogenesis, Gynogenesis, Hybridogenesis

Someone on OYT described an almost 3-inch long wasp that he encountered in the middle of the night. He swung a broom at the thing, fell off balance when it charged his face, and cut a big gash in his hand on a vent cover.

Another poster kindly provided a picture of a 1.5-inch long wasp from Kansas that he found dead in his basement. He remarked that huge wasps do not scare him (because he always finds them dead) but house centipedes freak him out.

I had no idea what a house centipede was so I used mankind's latest, greatest inventions: Google and Wikipedia. While reading about centipedes, I came across the term parthenogenesis. Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction where an egg cell develops into a fully grown organism without fertilization. It comes from the Greek parthenos (virgin) and genesis (creation). Parthenogenesis does not (necessarily) create clones because it is an egg cell that matures and egg cells are products of meiosis, a process that includes crossing over between chromosomes. For species like humans, with an XY sex determination, all parthenogens are female (because the mother only has XX to give to the child).

Two relations of parthenogenesis are gynogenesis and hybridogenesis. Gynogenesis is akin to parthogenesis but requires the presence of sperm from a closely-related species for the oocyte to develop. The sperm does not contribute any genetic material to the oocyte and so all gynogens are also female.

Hybridogenesis is not asexual but hemiclonal. The female mates with a male in the usual fashion and father and mother each contribute one set of chromosomes to the child. However, in hybridogenesis, when a female child matures and produces her own oocytes, only her mother's chromosomes are passed on; the father's genetic material is excluded from her gametes. In this way, the female line continually passes down the same genetic material while each individual female possesses novel genetic material from a male donor. It produces a distinct and powerful hereditary factor with respect to the progenitor female's chromosomes while allowing for individual hybrid vigor from the male's contribution. No mention was made of the male hybridogen's gametes but one assumes, from the silence, that they reproduce as normal (their gametes are varied by crossing over during meiosis and randomly assigning either mother's or father's chromosome to each).



Parthogenesis, gynogenesis and hybridogenesis have some potential for a magical society of women who have lasted through the ages. Perhaps a goddess served as the founding matriarch of the family and all of her daughters through the ages share her genetic legacy. With an isolated society like Wonder Woman's Themescarra, parthenogenesis would allow them to reproduce without any contact with mankind.

With a gynogenetic society, women would have to enter the world to find appropriate mates (perhaps, due to magic, each woman's mate must be discovered in a sort of 'one true love' or 'Mr. Right' kind of way, though owing more to genetics and magical arbitration than romantic feelings (unless one wanted those too)). Or a sister society of normal men and women develops as servants to the goddess's descendants with suitable men being plucked from them to mate (perhaps a reward for heroics or exceptional service or maybe chosen like racehorses for genetic worth; this might lead to resentment on the part of the lesser, normal women who keep losing their best men and sons to the goddess's daughters). This latter idea would not be a fateful Mr. Right situation but a "closely related species" kind of mating, perhaps evoking a sense of Jack Kirby's New Gods.

A hybridogenetic society would be less fantastic and more subtle than the other two. It could play into a prophecy where the party has to find a descendant of the goddess to prevent some disaster (since each of her daughters would have her DNA unsullied by mortal man).

I Alone Love You, I Alone Tempt You

I should have posted this months ago when I first came up with it. Luckily, they were playing Live's I Alone on the way home from the doctor's office and I remembered.

Live's song, I Alone, has the following lyrics (in part):

I'll read to you here, save your eyes
You'll need them, your boat is at sea
Your anchor is up, you've been swept away
And the greatest of teachers won't hesitate
To leave you there, by yourself,
Chained to fate

I alone love you
I alone tempt you
I alone love you
Fear is not the end of this!



The beginning of the song conjures the image of a dark god talking to a goblin or other supposedly fell creature. The goblin wishes to better himself, to escape his station as a pawn of evil. However, as the dark god explains, "I alone love you" (only the dark god cares about the goblin; the heroes of good are constantly killing his people and the general populace is prejudiced towards and afraid of him), "I alone tempt you" (the love is not a one way street from dark god to goblin; both recognize the innate lure of evil and darkness in the goblin's soul; therefore, the power and words of the dark god are tempting to the goblin despite its lofty dreams and desire of good intentions). Finally, the dark god explains that fear is not the end of this (the goblin's myriad fears, of falling back into the darkness of his people, of prejudice and rejection by good people, of making a life-changing, nay, defining decision that is also a point of no return, closing off the other avenue forever).

The short scene that plays out in my mind sees the goblin leading the party to the dark god to defeat him. Throughout their adventures together, the goblin shows that he is actively fighting against his darker tendencies (whether in-born or cultural) and honestly striving towards good but he is still a ways off. When the party finally encounters the dark god, he explains to the goblin the words above, "I alone love you; I alone tempt you" and the goblin recognizes this as true and turns on his friends, though the pain of doing so is clear.

It is a definite, "but this is who I am; I'm sorry" kind of moment, where someone does something they really don't because they perceive it as their identity and feel they must remain true to who they are. Gang members who have to turn against non-gang friends are a good example of what I am trying to get across; a gang member must keep up appearances for the gang even when it hurts to do so. Likewise, for the goblin to fight against the dark god on the side of the party would require him to turn his back on his entire race and that is a difficult thing to do, even when your race is generally evilly inclined. Think of Red Cloak from Order of the Stick and his championing of the goblin race.

Strovil's Wizard Academy

I thought this idea up years ago on my way to undergrad for use on Venura. The point of Strovil's school is to teach the theories of magic and magery in addition to practical knowledge of spells and reagents and rituals.

The theory of wild magic is reserved for higher level students. The idea I had now and the idea I had then was a series of tests for beginning students to teach them the successful tactics and strategies of wizards.

The initial tests for cantrip-only students involve a series of challenges that can mostly be overcome through mundane means. Most students, excited to use their newly-learned spells, quickly exhaust themselves of their magical power. They then encounter the latter trials that can only be overcome by magic (unless one is very clever, very skilled, and very lucky). The point of these initial lessons is to teach the young wizards that magic should not be their first choice in overcoming challenges; instead, they should overcome as much as possible using their own minds and bodies, utilizing their magic only when necessary.

A further test involves using illusions to attack students in the middle of the night. The student is awakened by sounds of scuffling or mumbling in or near his room. An illusory enemy then accosts the student. Students who heeded their lessons and retained some spell power are in much better position to fend off the attack. Students who felt that their lessons for the day were done and used up their spells will be left overpowered (wizards being rather ineffectual at manual hand-to-hand combat).



Trials could include getting an object from a high shelf, finding one's way through a dark room, cutting an object down from a rope, etc. I need to look through the SRD at the cantrips to develop appropriate tests.

Elemental Nemuranai

These small tokens contain their respective kami. Activating these single-use fetishes releases a ten foot diameter sphere of the contained element. The element can be directed to appear up to 20-30 feet away from the nemuranai (helpful when releasing a huge fireball) and can be altered from a perfect sphere into another shape of similar dimensions (but not intricately; the purpose of the nemuranai, and the will and ability of the kami, is to produce a mass of elemental material).

Fire, water, and air can be directed forth like a flamethrower, firehose, or airhose as appropriate. Earth can be summoned as several boulders and rocks instead of one large chunk.

In order to form one of these nemuranai, a sufficient volume of appropriate material must be stored within. This means a water fetish drains a pond, an earth fetish can leave a crater in the ground, and a fire fetish requires a bonfire or other large source of flame to extinguish. The fetishes do not create their element; they store it.

Eagoragion

I just played Isabelle, Poppy, and Bling, a flash game by Andy Master of Fish on Albinoblacksheep.com.

At the end of the game, a thing that looks like a gorilla crossed with a lion and a toucan shows up on screen. It gave me an idea for a chimera.

It has the hind legs and body of a lion, the arms and chest of a gorilla (it walks on all fours but the ape's long arms gives it a centaur-like chest). From there, you can add different heads and wings. The eagoragion has the head of an eagle and the wings of a dragon but the opposite is also quite possible. And the thought of a rhino- or boar-headed variety without wings also just sprang to mind.

Principled

I had a thought at work today, hearkening back to a conversation we had the other day. The pharmacists usually complain that the pharmacy is too cold while the technicians complain about it being too hot. This discrepancy is easily attributed to the fact that pharmacists typically stand in place while technicians move around doing actual work.

This brought me to the comparison of a wage-worker's exertions compared to a salaried worker's exertions and the notion of a hard/honest day's work. This does not hold true across all professions but in the general scheme a wage worker is concerned with physical matters while a salaried worker is paid for the benefit of his mind.

My thought, and the reason for this post, was a simple exchange between a white collar and a blue collar when there was physical work to be done (perhaps a shelf had fallen and the mess needed picked up) and the white collar left it to the blue collar.

The blue collar asks, "How about you help me clean this mess up?"
The white collar responds, "It's a matter of principles."
The blue collar asks, "You're principled?"
"Yes."
"Huh, that's a mighty long word for lazy."

However, I was just reminded of a most delightful word: sesquipedalian. Sesquipedalian as an adjective refers to an overly long or multi-syllabic word or one who uses overly long words. So the exchange becomes a bit more subtle and impenetrable if the blue collar responds, "Huh, that's a rather sesquipedalian term for lazy."

Drums of War, Chimes of Defense

As I was walking out of my room, the video playing on my computer had a particularly deep note that sounded like a moment of deep thunder or the strike of a very large drum. It occurred to me that such deep, thunder-like rumblings are inherently frightening (humans and animals alike are frightened by huge claps of thunder, even when distant) and that might be the reason why drums of war are so evocative a means to demoralize an enemy.

I thought about the Owl Clan constructing a huge drum to sound the deepest, most primal notes possible. I remembered the huge speakers the team on Mythbusters built in an attempt to make the loudest car stereo system and wondered how a Rokugani people would make such a device. I imagined a drum 20+ feet across. Where would you get the material to make a skin? Does a drum work the same when the skin is patched together from multiple pieces? I assumed not because every real drum I have seen (made from natural materials) is one continuous piece. Perhaps if I used magic to seamlessly merge multiple skins. But where would I get so many skins?

My first thought turned to goblins from the Shadowlands. Now that would be a hell of a drum, constructed from the flesh of Rokugan's enemies. It would also creep the hell out of Rokugani. In fact, it would likely be considered a tainted object of great evil and I would be seen as an evil, insane artisan in the vein of Asahina Yajinden. So I immediately thought of the exact opposite idea: a bell.

Bells are strongly connected to good and right and religion. Temples sound a heavenly, clear peal of the blessed bell to start the day and mark special occasions. But no one uses bells in an advancing army because of the size and weight issues (and you want to sound a bell from high up to let the sound reach as far as possible). Bells are a defensive signal, raising the alarm to alert the defenders while drums are an offensive signal, keeping time for the march and instilling that primal fear of approaching thunder.



However, the thought of an army that sounds chimes and bells as it camps across from the enemy. Large bells have have an ominous, deep ring. Not quite the fearsome thunder but evoking the death knoll has its advantageous connotations.

Quaeless's Adventure Log

We played through ADAP1-1 Barrow of the Ogre King, Core 1-1 Inheritence, Bald1-1 Flames of Initiation, and Corm1-1 Black Knight of Arabel.