Hilton garden inn portland maine waterfront
Family visiting Tokyo/Kyoto in early April
2023.03.23 01:37 SoCaltravelwriter Family visiting Tokyo/Kyoto in early April
This thread has been very helpful as my family gets ready for our first trip to Japan. Any tips/advice/insights on this itinerary would be welcomed...We are big walkers so hoping to walk and see a lot as part of the fun. I added a few questions at the end. Thank you!
Day 1
Arrive Haneda, monorail to Tokyo Station, Hotel Metropolitan
Dinner Tokyo Ramen Street or somewhere nearby
Day 2
Walk to Imperial Palace area, Chidorigafuchi Moat, then walk or subway to
Akihabara/Tokyo ToweKanda Myojin
Dinner in Akihabara or near hotel at Tempura Shijuku Tsunahachi Ginza
Day 3
Walking tour of Asakusa or Shibuya
Yoyogi Park/ Takeshita Street, Harajuko
Walk or subway to Shinjuku/Toho Cinemas/Omoide Yokocho
If there’s time: shopping at Uniqlo, toy stores, visit Grand Hyatt bar
Day 4
Asakusa shrines/shopping/food court
SkyTree Tower
Hokusai Museum (no reservations)
Train to Yokohama for night baseball game/BayStars 630pm vs. Giants
Take JR Yokosuka or JR Tokaido lines from Tokyo Station
If there’s time before game: Gundam Factory, Cup Noodles Museum
Day 5
Leave for Kyoto/ stay at Airbnb near Shosien Garden
Nijo Castle/Imperial Palace?
Food options:
Kagizen Yoshifusa Shijo Main Branch
Tarokichi, yakitori restaurant
Day 6
Nishiki Market/Samurai Ninja Museum/Imperial Palace
Pontocho Alley for dinnecherry blossom walk by river
Gion at night
Day 7
Philosopher’s Path/explore other nearby options?
Train to night baseball game at Koshien Stadium, Nishinomiya -- suggestions for places to eat/things to do nearby?
Day 7
Train back to Tokyo, stay in Odaiba Bay
Diver City Mall for shopping
Waterfront area, Rainbow bridge
Dinner nearby?
Day 8
TeamLab Planets exhibition (morning reservation)
Possible night tour of Shibuya
Day 9
Train to Tsukiji Outer Market
Hamarikyu Park
Giant Ghibli Clock at Nittele Tower, Shiodome
Dinner (maybe) - Bills (Australian) Seaside Mall, views of Odaiba Bay
Day 10
Leave for Haneda
A few questions:
Ghibli Museum tickets – we tried and failed to get tickets. Is it worth it to take the train out early in case they have no-shows? My kids are big Miyazaki fans and are bummed that it’s sold out.
Best places to buy masks and umbrellas and stock up on snacks/drinks near Tokyo Station?
Any recommendations for eateries/sights around Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya? Would it be better to stop in Osaka for a couple of hours before the 6:30 game?
submitted by SoCaltravelwriter to JapanTravel [link] [comments]
Day 1
Arrive Haneda, monorail to Tokyo Station, Hotel Metropolitan
Dinner Tokyo Ramen Street or somewhere nearby
Day 2
Walk to Imperial Palace area, Chidorigafuchi Moat, then walk or subway to
Akihabara/Tokyo ToweKanda Myojin
Dinner in Akihabara or near hotel at Tempura Shijuku Tsunahachi Ginza
Day 3
Walking tour of Asakusa or Shibuya
Yoyogi Park/ Takeshita Street, Harajuko
Walk or subway to Shinjuku/Toho Cinemas/Omoide Yokocho
If there’s time: shopping at Uniqlo, toy stores, visit Grand Hyatt bar
Day 4
Asakusa shrines/shopping/food court
SkyTree Tower
Hokusai Museum (no reservations)
Train to Yokohama for night baseball game/BayStars 630pm vs. Giants
Take JR Yokosuka or JR Tokaido lines from Tokyo Station
If there’s time before game: Gundam Factory, Cup Noodles Museum
Day 5
Leave for Kyoto/ stay at Airbnb near Shosien Garden
Nijo Castle/Imperial Palace?
Food options:
Kagizen Yoshifusa Shijo Main Branch
Tarokichi, yakitori restaurant
Day 6
Nishiki Market/Samurai Ninja Museum/Imperial Palace
Pontocho Alley for dinnecherry blossom walk by river
Gion at night
Day 7
Philosopher’s Path/explore other nearby options?
Train to night baseball game at Koshien Stadium, Nishinomiya -- suggestions for places to eat/things to do nearby?
Day 7
Train back to Tokyo, stay in Odaiba Bay
Diver City Mall for shopping
Waterfront area, Rainbow bridge
Dinner nearby?
Day 8
TeamLab Planets exhibition (morning reservation)
Possible night tour of Shibuya
Day 9
Train to Tsukiji Outer Market
Hamarikyu Park
Giant Ghibli Clock at Nittele Tower, Shiodome
Dinner (maybe) - Bills (Australian) Seaside Mall, views of Odaiba Bay
Day 10
Leave for Haneda
A few questions:
Ghibli Museum tickets – we tried and failed to get tickets. Is it worth it to take the train out early in case they have no-shows? My kids are big Miyazaki fans and are bummed that it’s sold out.
Best places to buy masks and umbrellas and stock up on snacks/drinks near Tokyo Station?
Any recommendations for eateries/sights around Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya? Would it be better to stop in Osaka for a couple of hours before the 6:30 game?
2023.03.22 23:22 Snow_Goose_628_1 Stolen Wheels
 | Don't ever stay at the Hilton Garden Inn at BWI in Linthicum Maryland. My wheels were stolen off my 2023 Camry in their lot. They have a "free" shuttle for BWI airport. Park at your own risk so don't risk it. submitted by Snow_Goose_628_1 to Hilton [link] [comments] |
2023.03.22 18:24 Pickled_Jar [A4A] Trapped in a Game with your Childhood Friend [Isekai] [Friends to More?] [Dorky] [Worried] [Comforting] [Drama] [Survival] [Video Game] [Fantasy]
Summary: After starting a new virtual reality game with your childhood friend, you and the rest of the players discovered that you’re no longer able to log out. With the future uncertain, you regroup with your friend and try to make plans to survive, or escape.
Setting: Fantasy-themed MMORPG
Tags: [A4A] [Isekai] [Friends to More?] [Dorky] [Worried] [Comforting] [Drama] [Survival] [Video Game] [Fantasy]
Usage: - Monetization is OK. I’d appreciate being able to listen if you paywall. - Feel free to improvise or make small tweaks. - Sound effects are at your discretion, just suggestions. - Remember to give credit. - Please reach out if you have any questions.
[Intro] - Listener walks into town, is quickly noticed by the speaker.
(Town ambience, background voices)
(Speaker runs up to listener and hugs them tight)
“Sorry! Sorry, it’s me. I’m just so glad you’re here.”
[...]
“I mean, I’m not glad you’re here, but… If you’re still in the game, I’m glad you’re in one piece.”
(Speaker releases listener)
“Could you… Check your menu again and see if you can log out? If there’s even the slightest chance…”
(Game menu sounds)
“No good? Damn…”
[...]
“Of course not. Even if I could log out, I wouldn’t just leave you here. But if you could, I’d want you to…”
[...]
“Thanks… I’m… I’m so happy I found you.”
[...]
“Heh, I guess I could have just sent you a message, huh? Well excuse me for not thinking straight when I found out we were in the middle of some wacky anime shit.”
[...]
“I know things are calm for now, but… Can we go somewhere more private? This is just a lot to take in, and I wanna talk without having to worry about a big crowd or anything.”
(Speaker and listener walk around town, eventually sitting under a tree in a small, secluded garden)
“So, uh… This is really it. Stuck in a dang video game.”
[...]
“Okay, the question that I’m sure is on everyone’s minds. Do you… You think if we get killed in the game, do we…?”
[...]
“Who the hell knows. I mean it’s not like the evil mastermind came down from the sky being all ‘oh, if you die in the game you die for real, and you gotta beat the final boss to escape.’ Seems like that’s always how it goes, though.”
[...]
“Right, yeah. Gotta play it safe till we know what the heck is actually going on.”
[...]
“Heh, play it safe. Like… Cuz we’re… Sorry.”
[...]
“Well you better get used to it. You’re literally stuck with me now.”
[...]
(Speaker shifts toward listener)
“We really should stick together. Seriously. I’m not letting you out of my sight till we get out of here. Strength in numbers and all that. Plus, with me as a fighter and you as a healer, I bet we’ll be unstoppable.”
[...]
(Speaker and listener clasp hands/brofist/similar gesture)
“Hell yeah.”
[...]
(Speaker takes a deep breath and looks around the garden)
“Y’know… If something like this had to happen, we might be the best people it could have happened to.”
[...]
“For serious! We are gonna kick this game’s ass! It’ll be just like old times.”
[...]
(Speaker gently shoves listener)
“You did not always beat me! And, besides… I liked it best when we were on the same team. Speaking of which…”
(Game menu sounds, party invite)
“There, all partied up. I dunno if there’ll be anything in the game that makes us split up, I guess that would kinda ruin our plan pretty quick.”
[...]
“Yeah, I almost don’t wanna think about it. If it turns out the only way to escape is to solo the final boss or something, there’s probably a lot of people who won’t be able to make it.”
[...]
“Ugh. If you just see something like this on TV, maybe you think ‘oh hey, I bet that would actually be kinda cool.’ But when you’re actually in it…”
[...]
(Speaker sighs)
“Guess we’re gonna have to figure out how to live in here. Think we have to eat and sleep and stuff? I haven’t even tried any food yet.”
[...]
“Honestly it would be pretty weird if we don’t have to sleep. Like imagine if we’re just awake for months, or however long it takes us to get out of here.”
[...]
“On the other hand… What’s it gonna be like sleeping in the game? Usually you just log out for that.”
[...]
“Well, I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.”
(Speaker stands up, helps listener up, continues to hold listener’s hand for a second)
“Heh, almost feels like holding your hand for real. I mean, uh… Even in the game, you’re heavy! I mean… You wanna get a room at an inn or something? Like, just to make sure we have one. There’s a few around town.”
[...]
“Yeah. Sure. Sounds like a plan. Ha.”
(Speaker and listener walk through town. They arrive at an inn and step inside.)
“Hmm.”
(Speaker walks up to the counter. There are a few other people inside, but it’s eerily quiet.)
“Hey, uh, we’d like a room for the night, please.”
(Innkeeper hands over a key, speaker pays)
“Thanks. Looks like we’re upstairs.”
(Speaker and listener go upstairs)
“Man, talking to the NPCs was already weird before, but… Now it’s just kinda creepy. They’re all just goin’ about their day with no idea that shit just went tits up for the rest of us.”
(Speaker unlocks door)
“Alrighty, here we are.”
(Speaker and listener step into room, close door)
“Huh. Y’know, all things considered, this ain’t half bad!”
(Speaker sits on bed)
“Got two beds, a lil’ table, and even… A window. Probably not the most important thing to focus on, but everything feels pretty darn real. I think I could sleep on this if I had to.”
[...]
(Game menu sounds, message received)
“Oh, hang on, just got a message.”
[...]
“From Game Master Control? I bet we got the same thing. It probably went out to everybody.”
[...]
“‘Greetings players, and welcome to the… Great experiment. You have likely realized by now that you are no longer able to exit the game. Do not worry, everything is working as intended.’”
[...]
“I swear if this turns out to be some kind of stupid prank… ‘Revealing the full extent of the experiment to you would invalidate the results, but know that if you are reading this, you are one of a very special chosen few.’”
[...]
“My ass… Anyway… ‘You need only be aware of the following rules: One, if your avatar is killed and is unable to be revived, you will be… Rendered permanently comatose. The same will occur if your VR interface is removed. With the above exception, no other mechanics of the game have been changed. And two, in order to restore your ability to log out, you must complete the final dungeon. This may be accomplished with any allowable party size or composition. Best of luck, and… We will be watching.’”
[...]
(Speaker sighs)
“What the hell…”
(Muffled sounds of unrest from outside and below, glasses breaking, chairs being thrown, etc)
“Hey, uh… You okay? That was…”
(Speaker walks to listener’s bed and sits beside them)
“We’re gonna be alright, I promise. I mean, it’s basically what we already figured.”
[...]
“It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay. I’m…”
[...]
“Hey!”
(Speaker shoves listener)
“I’m tryin’ to be all compassionate or whatever. Don’t ruin my moment!”
[...]
“Yeah, I’m… Fine. Maybe it hasn’t hit me yet, like it just doesn’t feel real.”
[...]
“So… Any idea what we should do? I guess we could just stick to the plan.”
[...]
“Right. Take it slow and steady. Give people a chance to chill a bit before we get out in the open. Learn the game, level up, do whatever we gotta do to stay alive.”
[...]
“You tired or hungry or anything? Part of me just wants to go to sleep, but I still don’t know if we even can.”
[...]
“Oh! I know what we can do.”
[...]
(Speaker stands up, takes out a map, places it on the table)
“I grabbed a map earlier. It’s probably just for the region and not the whole game world, but we gotta start somewhere. C’mon, let’s take a look.”
[...]
“We’re here, at Searchlight Sound. That’s neat, there’s little icons for us even though it’s a paper map. Anyway, uh… The main road branches off and goes around both sides of the continent, and then they both lead to this city, Windemere. No idea if there’s a way we’re supposed to go, or if one road’s easier than the other or something, but that sure looks like the end of the region.”
[...]
(Speaker notices listener fall asleep)
“Oh, heh.”
(Speaker tucks listener in)
“Goodnight, dude. I’ll be right here.”
[End]
I initially intended for this to be a sequel to another script I wrote earlier, but in addition to that first script being really short, I've kinda realized this one can stand alone without it. I suppose I'll consider it an optional "Part 0," and you can find it here if you're interested:
https://www.reddit.com/ASMRScriptHaven/comments/11eunje/a4a_starting_a_new_vrmmo_with_your_eager_best/
submitted by Pickled_Jar to ASMRScriptHaven [link] [comments]
Setting: Fantasy-themed MMORPG
Tags: [A4A] [Isekai] [Friends to More?] [Dorky] [Worried] [Comforting] [Drama] [Survival] [Video Game] [Fantasy]
Usage: - Monetization is OK. I’d appreciate being able to listen if you paywall. - Feel free to improvise or make small tweaks. - Sound effects are at your discretion, just suggestions. - Remember to give credit. - Please reach out if you have any questions.
[Intro] - Listener walks into town, is quickly noticed by the speaker.
(Town ambience, background voices)
(Speaker runs up to listener and hugs them tight)
“Sorry! Sorry, it’s me. I’m just so glad you’re here.”
[...]
“I mean, I’m not glad you’re here, but… If you’re still in the game, I’m glad you’re in one piece.”
(Speaker releases listener)
“Could you… Check your menu again and see if you can log out? If there’s even the slightest chance…”
(Game menu sounds)
“No good? Damn…”
[...]
“Of course not. Even if I could log out, I wouldn’t just leave you here. But if you could, I’d want you to…”
[...]
“Thanks… I’m… I’m so happy I found you.”
[...]
“Heh, I guess I could have just sent you a message, huh? Well excuse me for not thinking straight when I found out we were in the middle of some wacky anime shit.”
[...]
“I know things are calm for now, but… Can we go somewhere more private? This is just a lot to take in, and I wanna talk without having to worry about a big crowd or anything.”
(Speaker and listener walk around town, eventually sitting under a tree in a small, secluded garden)
“So, uh… This is really it. Stuck in a dang video game.”
[...]
“Okay, the question that I’m sure is on everyone’s minds. Do you… You think if we get killed in the game, do we…?”
[...]
“Who the hell knows. I mean it’s not like the evil mastermind came down from the sky being all ‘oh, if you die in the game you die for real, and you gotta beat the final boss to escape.’ Seems like that’s always how it goes, though.”
[...]
“Right, yeah. Gotta play it safe till we know what the heck is actually going on.”
[...]
“Heh, play it safe. Like… Cuz we’re… Sorry.”
[...]
“Well you better get used to it. You’re literally stuck with me now.”
[...]
(Speaker shifts toward listener)
“We really should stick together. Seriously. I’m not letting you out of my sight till we get out of here. Strength in numbers and all that. Plus, with me as a fighter and you as a healer, I bet we’ll be unstoppable.”
[...]
(Speaker and listener clasp hands/brofist/similar gesture)
“Hell yeah.”
[...]
(Speaker takes a deep breath and looks around the garden)
“Y’know… If something like this had to happen, we might be the best people it could have happened to.”
[...]
“For serious! We are gonna kick this game’s ass! It’ll be just like old times.”
[...]
(Speaker gently shoves listener)
“You did not always beat me! And, besides… I liked it best when we were on the same team. Speaking of which…”
(Game menu sounds, party invite)
“There, all partied up. I dunno if there’ll be anything in the game that makes us split up, I guess that would kinda ruin our plan pretty quick.”
[...]
“Yeah, I almost don’t wanna think about it. If it turns out the only way to escape is to solo the final boss or something, there’s probably a lot of people who won’t be able to make it.”
[...]
“Ugh. If you just see something like this on TV, maybe you think ‘oh hey, I bet that would actually be kinda cool.’ But when you’re actually in it…”
[...]
(Speaker sighs)
“Guess we’re gonna have to figure out how to live in here. Think we have to eat and sleep and stuff? I haven’t even tried any food yet.”
[...]
“Honestly it would be pretty weird if we don’t have to sleep. Like imagine if we’re just awake for months, or however long it takes us to get out of here.”
[...]
“On the other hand… What’s it gonna be like sleeping in the game? Usually you just log out for that.”
[...]
“Well, I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.”
(Speaker stands up, helps listener up, continues to hold listener’s hand for a second)
“Heh, almost feels like holding your hand for real. I mean, uh… Even in the game, you’re heavy! I mean… You wanna get a room at an inn or something? Like, just to make sure we have one. There’s a few around town.”
[...]
“Yeah. Sure. Sounds like a plan. Ha.”
(Speaker and listener walk through town. They arrive at an inn and step inside.)
“Hmm.”
(Speaker walks up to the counter. There are a few other people inside, but it’s eerily quiet.)
“Hey, uh, we’d like a room for the night, please.”
(Innkeeper hands over a key, speaker pays)
“Thanks. Looks like we’re upstairs.”
(Speaker and listener go upstairs)
“Man, talking to the NPCs was already weird before, but… Now it’s just kinda creepy. They’re all just goin’ about their day with no idea that shit just went tits up for the rest of us.”
(Speaker unlocks door)
“Alrighty, here we are.”
(Speaker and listener step into room, close door)
“Huh. Y’know, all things considered, this ain’t half bad!”
(Speaker sits on bed)
“Got two beds, a lil’ table, and even… A window. Probably not the most important thing to focus on, but everything feels pretty darn real. I think I could sleep on this if I had to.”
[...]
(Game menu sounds, message received)
“Oh, hang on, just got a message.”
[...]
“From Game Master Control? I bet we got the same thing. It probably went out to everybody.”
[...]
“‘Greetings players, and welcome to the… Great experiment. You have likely realized by now that you are no longer able to exit the game. Do not worry, everything is working as intended.’”
[...]
“I swear if this turns out to be some kind of stupid prank… ‘Revealing the full extent of the experiment to you would invalidate the results, but know that if you are reading this, you are one of a very special chosen few.’”
[...]
“My ass… Anyway… ‘You need only be aware of the following rules: One, if your avatar is killed and is unable to be revived, you will be… Rendered permanently comatose. The same will occur if your VR interface is removed. With the above exception, no other mechanics of the game have been changed. And two, in order to restore your ability to log out, you must complete the final dungeon. This may be accomplished with any allowable party size or composition. Best of luck, and… We will be watching.’”
[...]
(Speaker sighs)
“What the hell…”
(Muffled sounds of unrest from outside and below, glasses breaking, chairs being thrown, etc)
“Hey, uh… You okay? That was…”
(Speaker walks to listener’s bed and sits beside them)
“We’re gonna be alright, I promise. I mean, it’s basically what we already figured.”
[...]
“It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay. I’m…”
[...]
“Hey!”
(Speaker shoves listener)
“I’m tryin’ to be all compassionate or whatever. Don’t ruin my moment!”
[...]
“Yeah, I’m… Fine. Maybe it hasn’t hit me yet, like it just doesn’t feel real.”
[...]
“So… Any idea what we should do? I guess we could just stick to the plan.”
[...]
“Right. Take it slow and steady. Give people a chance to chill a bit before we get out in the open. Learn the game, level up, do whatever we gotta do to stay alive.”
[...]
“You tired or hungry or anything? Part of me just wants to go to sleep, but I still don’t know if we even can.”
[...]
“Oh! I know what we can do.”
[...]
(Speaker stands up, takes out a map, places it on the table)
“I grabbed a map earlier. It’s probably just for the region and not the whole game world, but we gotta start somewhere. C’mon, let’s take a look.”
[...]
“We’re here, at Searchlight Sound. That’s neat, there’s little icons for us even though it’s a paper map. Anyway, uh… The main road branches off and goes around both sides of the continent, and then they both lead to this city, Windemere. No idea if there’s a way we’re supposed to go, or if one road’s easier than the other or something, but that sure looks like the end of the region.”
[...]
(Speaker notices listener fall asleep)
“Oh, heh.”
(Speaker tucks listener in)
“Goodnight, dude. I’ll be right here.”
[End]
https://www.reddit.com/ASMRScriptHaven/comments/11eunje/a4a_starting_a_new_vrmmo_with_your_eager_best/
2023.03.22 17:53 benjamin_manus Washington D.C. - Which Hilton to stay in?
We will be staying in D.C. for about a week in May and I just wanted to hear your opinions on which Hilton brand is best in the area (aside from Waldorf Astoria). We are considering the Embassy Suites and Garden Inn to give you an idea of our price point. Anything to keep in mind or avoid with certain brands?
submitted by benjamin_manus to Hilton [link] [comments]
2023.03.22 11:43 mygodisrealprobably Email with pre-order details and new tour dates
New Swans album The Beggar available for pre-order now. Here's what Michael Gira has to say about it:
“After numerous pandemic-induced cancellations of tours for the previous Swans album leaving meaning, and an apparent bottomless pit of waiting, waiting, waiting, and the strange disorientation that came with this sudden but interminable forced isolation I decided it was time to write songs for a new Swans album and forget about everything else. They came relatively easily, always informed by the suspicion that these could be my last. When I finally was able to travel, songs in hand, to Berlin to work with my friends recording this record, the feeling was akin to the moment in The Wizard of Oz when the film changes from Black and White to Color. Now I’m feeling quite optimistic. My favourite color is pink. I hope you enjoy the album!” – Michael Gira
SWANS have announced details of their sixteenth studio album, The Beggar, due for release on Mute / Young God Records (N America) on 23 June 2023. In addition, Swans have announced further dates for a tour across the UK, Europe and North America – full details below. The Beggar will be released on double vinyl in a brown chipboard sleeve with a download card for accessing an additional 44 minutes of music (also included on the album's CD version), as a double CD in a brown chipboard digi-pack, as well as digitally.
Listen to the first track from the album, ‘Paradise is Mine: https://youtu.be/HgtGHp2kfPQ
The Beggar was recorded and mixed at Candy Bomber Studio, Berlin, engineered by Ingo Krauss and mastered by Doug Henderson at Micro-Moose, Berlin. The album was written and produced by Michael Gira and features contributions from recent and former Swans, members of Angels of Light, as well as Guest Swan Ben Frost.
Primary contributors to The Beggar:
Michael Gira – Vocals, words, acoustic guitar, production. Gira started Swans in NYC in 1982 and has been the primary songwriter, singer and producer throughout the years. During the Swans hiatus (1999 – 2010), he released several albums by and toured with a group called Angels of Light. Gira recently published a book of his short stories, journals, and words for music, called The Knot. He lives in New Mexico.
Kristof Hahn – Lap steel, various guitars, vocals. Kristof first joined Swans in 1989 and was a principal contributor to Angels of Light, and a core Swans member 2010 – 2017. Kristof’s other musical ventures have included the Rock ‘n’ Roll Noir band Les Hommes Sauvages and Kool Kings (with Alex Chilton). When not making music Kristof translates books. He lives in Berlin, Germany.
Larry Mullins - Drums, vibes, orchestral percussion, Mellotron, various keyboards, backing vocals. Larry is a trained symphonic percussionist. He played through the ‘90s with Iggy Pop and later with The Stooges. He played with Swans in the late ‘90s and was a main contributor to Angels of Light. His current main job is playing drums with The Bad Seeds. Larry lives in Berlin, Germany.
Dana Schechter – Bass guitar, lap steel, keyboards, vocals, piano. Dana played bass in and was a core member of Angels of Light. She subsequently released music and toured as Bee and Flower. Her current band is the power-duo, Insect Ark. Dana is an animator and designer in the film industry and currently lives in Berlin, Germany.
Christopher Pravdica - Bass guitar, sounds, keyboards, vocals. Chris played bass as a core Swans member in 2010 – 2017. Chris has played with the bands, The Gunga Din, Flux Information Sciences, Xiu Xiu, Yonatan Gat’s Medicine Singers and has a project of his own called We Owe. Chris is a sound designer and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Phil Puleo – Drums, percussion, vocals, piano, exotic wind instruments. Phil played drums with Swans in the late ‘90s and was a core member in Swans 2010 – 2017 and contributed to Angels of Light. Phil’s early NYC musical venture was Cop Shoot Cop and has since played with Human Impact, among others. Phil is an extremely talented illustrator and lives in Chicago, IL.
Ben Frost - Guitar, synthesizers, sound manipulations. In his own work, Ben’s adventurous sound-craftings are sometimes harrowing and sometimes delicate and quite musical. His numerous albums and his powerful live shows have afforded him much recognition. He is also an accomplished composer and arranger of music for film and television. Ben lives in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Backing vocals are provided by Jennifer Gira, Lucy Kruger and Laura Carbone.
The Beggar tracklisting
And be sure to check out the rest of younggodrecords.com for recent restocks of Soundtracks for the Blind, Public Castration is a Good Idea, Angles of Light “Sing Other People" and We Are Him, all shipping now.
SWANS LIVE DATES - 2023
20 May – Leipzig DE, UT Connewitz – SOLD OUT
21 May – Poznan PL, CK Zamek – SOLD OUT
23 May – Katowice PL, Kino Teatr Rialto – SOLD OUT
25 May – Zilina SK, New Synagogue
26 May – Llubljana SI, Kino Siska
27 May – Innsbrück AT, Heart of Noise Festival, Treivus
29 May – Bologna IT, Teatro Duse
31 May – Lyon FR, Transbordeur
2 June – Barcelona ES, Primavera Sound Festival
4 June – Lisbon PT, Culturgest – SOLD OUT
5 June – Lisbon PT, Culturgest
6 June – Faro PT, Teatro Das Figuras
9 June – Madrid ES, Primavera Sound Festival
11 June – Athens GR, Vraxon Theatre
13 June – Thessaloniki GR, Moni Lazariston
15 June – Antwerp BE, Bourlaschouwburg
16 June – Utrecht NL, Hertz Theatre – SOLD OUT
11 Aug – Brighton UK, St Georges Church
12 Aug – Manchester UK, Albert Hall
15 Aug – Newcastle UK, Boiler Shop
16 Aug – Glasgow UK, St Luke Cathedral
18 Aug – Bristol UK, Arc Tangent Festival
19 Aug – Leeds UK, Belgrave Music Hall
21 Aug – Dublin IE, The Academy
23 Aug – Norwich UK, Waterfront
24 Aug – London UK, Troxy
26 Aug – Lausanne CH, Nox Orea Festival
2 Sep – Dallas TX, Granada Theater
3 Sep – Austin TX, Paramount Theatre
7 Sep – Phoenix AZ, Crescent Ballroom
8 Sep – Los Angeles CA, Lodge Room
9 Sep – Los Angeles CA, Lodge Room
12 Sep – San Francisco CA, Great American Music Hall
13 Sep – San Francisco CA, Great American Music Hall
15 Sep – Portland OR, Revolution Hall
16 Sep – Seattle WA, The Crocodile Showroom
19 Sep – Omaha NE, Waiting Room Showroom
20 Sep – Minneapolis MN, Fine Line Music Cafe
21 Sep – Chicago IL, Cabaret Metro
23 Sep – Detroit MI, Magic Bag
24 Sep – Cleveland OH, Beachland Ballroom
26 Sep – Toronto ON, Phoenix Concert Theater
27 Sep – Montreal QC, Theatre National
29 Sep – Brooklyn NY, Music Hall of Williamsburg
30 Sep – Brooklyn NY, Music Hall of Williamsburg
submitted by mygodisrealprobably to swans [link] [comments]
“After numerous pandemic-induced cancellations of tours for the previous Swans album leaving meaning, and an apparent bottomless pit of waiting, waiting, waiting, and the strange disorientation that came with this sudden but interminable forced isolation I decided it was time to write songs for a new Swans album and forget about everything else. They came relatively easily, always informed by the suspicion that these could be my last. When I finally was able to travel, songs in hand, to Berlin to work with my friends recording this record, the feeling was akin to the moment in The Wizard of Oz when the film changes from Black and White to Color. Now I’m feeling quite optimistic. My favourite color is pink. I hope you enjoy the album!” – Michael Gira
SWANS have announced details of their sixteenth studio album, The Beggar, due for release on Mute / Young God Records (N America) on 23 June 2023. In addition, Swans have announced further dates for a tour across the UK, Europe and North America – full details below. The Beggar will be released on double vinyl in a brown chipboard sleeve with a download card for accessing an additional 44 minutes of music (also included on the album's CD version), as a double CD in a brown chipboard digi-pack, as well as digitally.
Listen to the first track from the album, ‘Paradise is Mine: https://youtu.be/HgtGHp2kfPQ
The Beggar was recorded and mixed at Candy Bomber Studio, Berlin, engineered by Ingo Krauss and mastered by Doug Henderson at Micro-Moose, Berlin. The album was written and produced by Michael Gira and features contributions from recent and former Swans, members of Angels of Light, as well as Guest Swan Ben Frost.
Primary contributors to The Beggar:
Michael Gira – Vocals, words, acoustic guitar, production. Gira started Swans in NYC in 1982 and has been the primary songwriter, singer and producer throughout the years. During the Swans hiatus (1999 – 2010), he released several albums by and toured with a group called Angels of Light. Gira recently published a book of his short stories, journals, and words for music, called The Knot. He lives in New Mexico.
Kristof Hahn – Lap steel, various guitars, vocals. Kristof first joined Swans in 1989 and was a principal contributor to Angels of Light, and a core Swans member 2010 – 2017. Kristof’s other musical ventures have included the Rock ‘n’ Roll Noir band Les Hommes Sauvages and Kool Kings (with Alex Chilton). When not making music Kristof translates books. He lives in Berlin, Germany.
Larry Mullins - Drums, vibes, orchestral percussion, Mellotron, various keyboards, backing vocals. Larry is a trained symphonic percussionist. He played through the ‘90s with Iggy Pop and later with The Stooges. He played with Swans in the late ‘90s and was a main contributor to Angels of Light. His current main job is playing drums with The Bad Seeds. Larry lives in Berlin, Germany.
Dana Schechter – Bass guitar, lap steel, keyboards, vocals, piano. Dana played bass in and was a core member of Angels of Light. She subsequently released music and toured as Bee and Flower. Her current band is the power-duo, Insect Ark. Dana is an animator and designer in the film industry and currently lives in Berlin, Germany.
Christopher Pravdica - Bass guitar, sounds, keyboards, vocals. Chris played bass as a core Swans member in 2010 – 2017. Chris has played with the bands, The Gunga Din, Flux Information Sciences, Xiu Xiu, Yonatan Gat’s Medicine Singers and has a project of his own called We Owe. Chris is a sound designer and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Phil Puleo – Drums, percussion, vocals, piano, exotic wind instruments. Phil played drums with Swans in the late ‘90s and was a core member in Swans 2010 – 2017 and contributed to Angels of Light. Phil’s early NYC musical venture was Cop Shoot Cop and has since played with Human Impact, among others. Phil is an extremely talented illustrator and lives in Chicago, IL.
Ben Frost - Guitar, synthesizers, sound manipulations. In his own work, Ben’s adventurous sound-craftings are sometimes harrowing and sometimes delicate and quite musical. His numerous albums and his powerful live shows have afforded him much recognition. He is also an accomplished composer and arranger of music for film and television. Ben lives in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Backing vocals are provided by Jennifer Gira, Lucy Kruger and Laura Carbone.
The Beggar tracklisting
- The Parasite
- Paradise is Mine
- Los Angeles: City of Death
- Michael is Done
- Unforming
- The Beggar
- No More of This
- Ebbing
- Why Can't I Have What I Want Any Time That I Want?
- The Beggar Lover (Three)
- The Memorious
And be sure to check out the rest of younggodrecords.com for recent restocks of Soundtracks for the Blind, Public Castration is a Good Idea, Angles of Light “Sing Other People" and We Are Him, all shipping now.
SWANS LIVE DATES - 2023
20 May – Leipzig DE, UT Connewitz – SOLD OUT
21 May – Poznan PL, CK Zamek – SOLD OUT
23 May – Katowice PL, Kino Teatr Rialto – SOLD OUT
25 May – Zilina SK, New Synagogue
26 May – Llubljana SI, Kino Siska
27 May – Innsbrück AT, Heart of Noise Festival, Treivus
29 May – Bologna IT, Teatro Duse
31 May – Lyon FR, Transbordeur
2 June – Barcelona ES, Primavera Sound Festival
4 June – Lisbon PT, Culturgest – SOLD OUT
5 June – Lisbon PT, Culturgest
6 June – Faro PT, Teatro Das Figuras
9 June – Madrid ES, Primavera Sound Festival
11 June – Athens GR, Vraxon Theatre
13 June – Thessaloniki GR, Moni Lazariston
15 June – Antwerp BE, Bourlaschouwburg
16 June – Utrecht NL, Hertz Theatre – SOLD OUT
11 Aug – Brighton UK, St Georges Church
12 Aug – Manchester UK, Albert Hall
15 Aug – Newcastle UK, Boiler Shop
16 Aug – Glasgow UK, St Luke Cathedral
18 Aug – Bristol UK, Arc Tangent Festival
19 Aug – Leeds UK, Belgrave Music Hall
21 Aug – Dublin IE, The Academy
23 Aug – Norwich UK, Waterfront
24 Aug – London UK, Troxy
26 Aug – Lausanne CH, Nox Orea Festival
2 Sep – Dallas TX, Granada Theater
3 Sep – Austin TX, Paramount Theatre
7 Sep – Phoenix AZ, Crescent Ballroom
8 Sep – Los Angeles CA, Lodge Room
9 Sep – Los Angeles CA, Lodge Room
12 Sep – San Francisco CA, Great American Music Hall
13 Sep – San Francisco CA, Great American Music Hall
15 Sep – Portland OR, Revolution Hall
16 Sep – Seattle WA, The Crocodile Showroom
19 Sep – Omaha NE, Waiting Room Showroom
20 Sep – Minneapolis MN, Fine Line Music Cafe
21 Sep – Chicago IL, Cabaret Metro
23 Sep – Detroit MI, Magic Bag
24 Sep – Cleveland OH, Beachland Ballroom
26 Sep – Toronto ON, Phoenix Concert Theater
27 Sep – Montreal QC, Theatre National
29 Sep – Brooklyn NY, Music Hall of Williamsburg
30 Sep – Brooklyn NY, Music Hall of Williamsburg
2023.03.22 00:52 Luchamore Trip Report 2/15-3/6: Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka, and more!
After a couple weeks of recovery, I've had some time to write up a trip report! This vacation was the best I've ever had and I'm excited to share some highlights here, along with some mistakes I made and travel tips. My plans were to meet up with two friends for the first 1.5 weeks of the trip, then to go solo for the last week. They would fly to Chicago to connect with me, then we'd all fly over together to Narita.
Pre-flight
- I filled out the Japan entry forms to provide proof of vaccination, declare for customs, etc. We saved a pretty good amount of time with that compared to people filling out paperwork on the plane.
- For phone / internet we went with pocket wireless and it was incredibly smooth basically the whole time. We got two units for times where we'd be separated as well as a pocket translator, which was an unnecessary expense. You're not getting any added value over Google Translate.
- For daily travel we all went with Suica and that was again a very simple, intuitive experience. I'd just periodically add on funds to my Apple Wallet and ended up paying for a bunch of stuff with that rather than cash / credit. My one friend went with the actual card instead of using his phone, which had one advantage: some ticket machines would only accept Suica via card and through the app.
- For the shinkansens we skipped the JR Pass and just booked tickets that day, which was mostly fine. The machines wouldn't accept my credit card so I'd need to go talk to a person, but I knew enough about where I wanted to go and what to do I muddled through. We did opt for the Hakone Free Pass as that would cover basically all the transportation for that area and saved a little money.
- I'm fortunate to have a friend living in Japan who helped arrange a couple events for us... if you don't have that option you can try to book some tickets at Lawson, or for restaurants you can try to go 1-2 days in advance and ask about reservations.
- I tried taking a language course ahead of the trip and learning a few key phrases... I was not able to hold a conversation but the little bit I did know helped I believe. One "caution" I'll give is that if you use Google Translate to construct a sentence for you in Japanese, you're likely to get a response in Japanese!
Part 1: Tokyo
2/15 + 2/16 - Friend B unfortunately overslept and missed his first flight, so Friend A and I met up in the morning at O'Hare. I did have to check one of my bags at the gate because it was over 10 lbs, but otherwise the trip was uneventful until we arrived at Narita, where I had a momentary panic when my checked suitcase did not show up on the carousel. I talked to an agent and for some reason, they had set my bag aside from all the others behind a sign. With that out of the way, we picked up the pocket wi-fi and on our way out the door, a film crew from "Why did you come to Japan" asked us if we would do a brief interview. I recognized their logo and thought it might be fun, but I wasn't prepared for a 40 minute conversation! I mentioned I was visiting a Game Center CX exhibit and they asked me a long line of questions about meeting the show's host (Shinya Arino), what I would say to him, what games we would play, etc. Finally I had to explain we were tired and would like to be on our way. I don't believe my interview was ever shown.
By the time we got tickets and were seated on the Narita Express, we could barely stay awake. Maybe because of the fatigue we had difficulty with exiting Shinjuku station: we eventually talked to an Australian family who showed us the fare exchange kiosk where we converted our Narita Express ticket into a regular train ticket for the gate. Once we settled that we checked into our hotel (Hundred Stay Tokyo Shinjuku), briefly went out to Family Mart for snacks, then crashed for the night.
2/17 - We got up around 7 and went to a Sukiya near our hotel for breakfast, then headed over to Akihabara. Things were still opening up so we stopped for Mr. Donut, then visited a couple stores before moving further east to Yokozuna Tonkatsu Dosukoi Tanaka where we had a lunch / sumo demonstration. This was very much a tourist thing: there was a brief explanation of the sumo ceremony and technique before they invited the audience to get in sumo costumes and step in the ring and have matches with the wrestlers. I (and about 90% of the attendees) went up: this was absolutely not a serious match and was closer to improv comedy than anything. Still, we had a good time and the food was fine.
Afterward, we went back to Akihabara for a reservation at an owl cafe. We got some cute photos but I admit those owls could not have been happy, as there were 30 of them in a small room. The handlers would let one perch on your arm but were adamant you not let go of their leash, because if you did... it wouldn't be pretty. At this point we had to return to our hotel to link up with Friend B who had just arrived, then we went back to Akihabara for dinner. Dinner was at Merino, an all you can eat place where we had lamb and beef tongue in a hot pot. Fittingly, there was a collaboartion with a lamb girl V-tuber. We were again pretty wiped out after dinner and retreated back to our hotel.
2/18 - After a quick stop at Family Mart we headed to Ueno for the Tokyo National Museum. Unfortunately the special exhibition was closed, but we enjoyed the historical artifacts that were available. We had a ramen lunch at one of the restaruants at Ueno Station, then head over to Akihabara (yes, again) and crawled through the shops in more depth. We were there on Saturday afternoon so there were people everywhere, so that only lasted for a couple hours. Our bags were full so we dropped things off at the hotel, then ate dinner at a Coco Ichibanya: we all kept our orders pretty low on the scale but as advertised, there's a kick even at "2". Finally we visited Star Club, a Super Mario themed bar located nearby. Despite the gimmick, the crowd appeared to be local aside from our group. We each ordered a couple of the themed drinks and bonded with the bartender over Cowboy Bebop through the language barrier, as he was playing the soundtrack for ambience.
2/19 - Our first stop in the morning was the Ghibli Musem. While my previous visit had been lackluster, this one went much better as there was a significantly smaller crowd so early in the day. Plus, while they are still largely not supporting English, the movie shown had no dialogue and they did actually provide an English guide for the special exhibit on Future Boy Conan! The merch shop was of course seductive and we ended up with souvenirs for ourselves and friends. Our lunch plans unfortunately fell through as our targeted spot (Chillmatic, a burger place) was closed for a building inspection. We opted for another random ramen place as we walked over to the PARCO mall in Shibuya. We visited all the character stores (Nintendo, Pokemon, Capcom, etc.), which were of course also mobbed on a Sunday afternoon. At this point I had easily outgrown the space in my luggage, so our next stop was Don Quijote so Friend A and I could each buy a duffel bag. To make up for earlier we visited Shogun Burger for dinner, which was fantastic.
2/20 - Our first travel day, but before heading out we did a little more shopping in Shinjuku: my friends and I really got into visiting every BookOff we could find. I also took the opportunity to stop at McDonalds for an early lunch and try their "exclusive" menu items. We then boarded the Odakyu line to make our way out to Hakone. In hindsight, I definitely should have forwarded a bag to our Kyoto hotel: I had a very uncomfortable trip moving between trains and walking uphill but after a couple hours we made it to Ajisai Onsen Ryokan. The building was in a traditional style but with modern furnishings: to paint a picture, our room had futons and an Amazon Fire Stick. We booked times to reserve some of the baths, then walked to a local gyoza place - and I mean local, a bunch of schoolchildren stampeded in with us as it opened - then headed back to the hotel for our evening bath. To cap the evening we enjoyed some sake and watched a few episodes of Spy x Family.
2/21 - We got an early start with our morning bath and quickly came to a realization. The previous night we had booked the "indoor / outdoor" bath, which had both an indoor and outdoor bath but critically kept the showers indoors. For the morning we were in the "outdoor" bath, which... had the showers outdoors. When it was right around freezing. Afterward we ate breakfast at the hotel, then went on the "Hakone Loop". We started by walking through Gora Park and participating in a brief tea ceremony, then took the rope car up to Owaukudani. We were lucky and there were clear skies so Mt. Fuji was very visible in the distance. Unfortunately part of the ropeway was out of service so we took a bus down to Lake Ashi, which we then crossed by boat. We quickly stopped for snacks then walked along Ancient Cedar Avenue before catching a bus back closer to our hotel. We unfortunately missed the last cable car for the day - they stop before 4:30 - but we managed to figure out the local bus line to get back. After a brief rest we found dinner at Pub Stop Pizza & Bar and took in some local entertainment (a TV was playing Fast and the Furious 7).
2/22 - Another bath, another hotel breakfast, and a quick stop at the Hakone Art Museum before we got on our way to our next destination. I asked / begged for us to take a cab back down the mountain to Hakone-Yumoto, which saved me from more luggage struggles. At the station we stopped in Eva-ya: I had only learned yesterday that Hakone is the setting for much of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but luckily they had some cover files and sweets ready for me to buy. After a couple hour trip on the shinkansen we arrived at Kyoto and with a bit of fumbling got to our hotel. The key here is that there is a second floor walkway that runs North - South through the station and doesn't require paying train fare. Our Kyoto hotel (Daiwa Roynet Hotel Kyoto Ekimae) had a very slick entrance way: it blended in with the building to the point you'd think you're walking towards a wall without signage. We did some laundry, then went next door to the Yodobashi to pick up a couple items (Friend A needed new sneakers) and literally got lost again. After again getting reoriented, we headed back to Kyoto Station where we got conveyor belt sushi. These places do technically exist where I'm from (US) but this was still one of my favorite moments on the trip.
2/23 - Kicked off the day at the Kyoto International Manga Museum. The bulk of the museum is an impossibly large manga library, which didn't serve me too well, but I enjoyed the history sections. One room was devoted to sculptures of the hands of famous artists, which was certainly a choice. They also had an artist there who would draw sketches of you for 1500 yen. I was a little worried I was paying for the equivalent of a carnival caricature, but the skill and detail were much better than that. Be advised, the artists are only available on holidays and weekends.
Afterward I took the train down to Osaka to meet a friend living in Japan for... you guessed it more shopping. We visited the Capcom Cafe first and checked out the rest of the nerdy stores at Daimaru Umeda. Unlike in Shibuya, we did need to get a timed entry ticket for the Nintendo store, so we went over to Mandarake to kill time. After finishing up in Umeda we hit up the Daimaru / PARCO at Shinsaibashi, then visited the Dotunburi Glico sign and walked the river. They took my picture and when I offered to take theirs they replied "no... I'm not a tourist". Oof. In the evening I met back up with my travel group and had udon at a spot in Kyoto Station.
2/24 - Slightly mixed things up here: we went to the Imperial Palace in order to get tickets for Katsura Imperial Villa. Unfortunately, same day tickets were not available as we expected, so we instead had to get them for Sunday 2/26. Still visited the palace, and in spite of the rain still had fun. Then back to Osaka where we ended up visiting Daimaru again - the other guys liked some photos I sent so much they wanted to see it too. Had takoyaki for lunch, then took the train to the Osaka Aquarium. The absolutely massive tank at the center was very impressive. Then stayed in the area and went to the park to wat a New Japan Pro Wrestling show. This was one of the first shows that allowed the whole audience to cheer: people were quiet but by the end of the night things were rocking. Interestingly they still only sat people in every other chair. Lastly while the other guys went to bed I had read on Twitter there was a party near our hotel to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Fox. Stopped by there and while it was a little awkward at first once I found the more gregarious / drunk people there it was a good time. One guy insisted I get in front of a camera and talk for a second, and it showed up in a video they posted on Twitter.
2/25 - Went to Nara and saw the deer. The deer are docile if you don't have food, friendly if you do, and absolutely terrifying to children. The amount of "yada yada yada" and "kowai" I heard... At first we were giving whole crackers out, but we learned that we could break them up, leave them on our palm, get them to bow, etc. Headed over to Todai-ji and saw the huge Buddha. It was in fact very, very large. Doubled back and played with the deer a bit more, then took the train to Kyoto. I took the lull in the afternoon to visit the office of Edit Mode, a clothing maker that specializes in video game goods. They occasionally host an "open house" at their office and we were lucky enough to be there during one. For dinner we ate okonomiyaki at a restaurant in the Yodobashi building, then afterward took a trip to the nearest BookOff before hitting the hay.
2/26 - This was definitely our biggest mixup on the trip. We had been planning to go to Fushimi Inari in the morning but there were some scheduling issues:
Next up was one last stop at our Kyoto hotel before taking a quick train ride to Osaka. We stayed at the Hotel Granvia Osaka, which is literally right above the station, so the location was certainly convenient. We ate sushi for lunch at one of the many restaurants in the building, took a quick nap, then went out for some taiyaki. Specifically, I forced my friends to go to a particular chain that was collaborating with a V-Tuber. back to the hotel where we checked out then hopped on the train to Osaka. Checked into our hotel and people napped for a bit before we headed out again. Got taiyaki (making my friends visit a chain with a Hololive collab). More shopping followed with a stop at Mandarake, then to Don Quijote where I bought another small suitcase. We ended up more or less skipping dinner and heading out for karaoke, where we had some snacks and drinks.
2/27 - For my friends' final day we went to Universal Studios Japan. This could be its entire own post but I recommend looking for tickets at least a month in advance, get the Express Pass, and get there early. The park is supposed to open at 9, and even though we showed up at 8:30 people were already pouring inside. Our main objective was Super Nintendo World but our timed entry wasn't for a couple hours, so we tried Jujutsu Kaisen 4D (okay), Spider-Man (good), and Jurassic Park the Ride (okay) first. As for Super Nitendo World itself... as long as you know it's intended for kids and has about a 4 hour lifespan you'll enjoy it. The Mario Kart ride was very good the AR game was interesting tech, and the restaurant food was alright. Really though, the Flying Dinosaur which went on afterward was incredible and easily my favorite ride. Unfortunately, Friend A became ill afterward so we ended up bailing to go back to the hotel and rest. After he felt better we grabbed dinner at a local ramen place: the gimmick was they lined the bowl with slices of pork, which you could then put in the broth to cook a little and season the whole bowl.
2/28 - My two friends left for America, so we checked out of our room and I checked into a smaller one at the same spot. This hotel didn't have laundry machines, just an expensive service (200 yen to clean one pair of underwear), so instead I found a laundromat nearby and caught up with family by phone while I waited. On the way back to the hotel I stopped at another Yodobashi, where I committed a gaffe: you're supposed to check out on each floor. Once I apologized a bunch and paid, I grabbed lunch at Wendy's and got settled into my new room. For dinner I went to another of the restaurants in the building, then took a train to Namba to see a retro video game bar. A couple drinks and a chat with the bartender later, I headed back for the night.
3/1 - A very nerdy shopping day in Osaka: first to the Daimaru character shops, then over to Parco character shops, then I just used Google Maps to hit BookOffs one after the other. I made my way south until I hit DenDen Town where I stopped in every store I saw until I had to break away for dinner. A local friend helped me book a reservation in Kobe Took the train out to Kobe where a friend had helped me make a reservation at a steak restaurant. I went for the "modarately" cheap option that was about $100 total and loved it from beginning to end. Also strangely this was the only restaurant anywhere I could tip: you had to tip individually and could only max it out at 500 yen. I tipped the two waiters, the chef, and the host / barker outside (who had good English so we talked a bit).
3/2 - My Fushimi Inari revenge trip! I got there around 9am so things were already pretty busy, but I did get the chance to chat with one of the tour guides while I had a morning coffee. The starting area was pretty busy and even as I went along, I ran into a lot of people but there was still enough space to take photos and see everything. I definitely paused at a few points: even walking 20,000 steps daily on the trip hadn't prepared me for all the stair climbing. I'd also suggest that you don't NEED to go all the way to the top: there's just a store up there that completely obscures the view, the better views are earlier in the hike. With that said, I still really enjoyed myself, taking a different route back down. I grabbed a couple of snacks and took the train back to Osaka, where I finished up exploring Namba and went with a friend for an unagidon dinner. I'd had broiled eel before as sushi but never as the full entree and found it delicious!
3/3 - After checking out of the hotel and forwarding two of my bags to Tokyo, I caught the shinkansen but made a detour while in Yokohama to visit the Gundam Factory. The Gundam is very impressive in person and I would definitely recommend visiting in the early evening to see it after dark if possible. I proceeded onto Shinjuku where I ran into another issue: I was staying at a capsule hotel and immmediately realized I was not comfortable there. Everyone's bags were kept in a locker room that was not closely monitored, there were signs everywhere advising the hotel was not responsible for any theft... I should have done more reading to understand where I'd be staying. I would have been better off in a hostel, at least that would've been cheaper! I did at least have a chance to visit Shogun Burger again for dinner, after which I booked a new hotel for the next night, then got a few hours of restless sleep as I heard every snore and cough from my neighbors.
3/4 - I rose early and walked to Shinjuku Gyoen Garden. You really can use Suica in a lot of places, they even accepted it here! Most plants weren't in bloom yet but I did spot a lone cherry blossom tree that had blossomed: as I passed by it later in my walk a dozen people had crowded around for photos. A lot of stuff was not in bloom yet but I did see one cherry tree had blossomed at least. After getting my fill of nature I ventured over to Nakano Broadway. Out of all the nerdy shopping I did, this spot was my least favorite: maybe if I knew Japanese I would've fared better but because I didn't, I found all the various specialty stores confusing to navigate. I stopped back at the capsule hotel to pick up my luggage, then headed to Nipponbashi to check into my backup hotel (S-Peria Inn Nihonbashi Hakozaki). This new spot was pretty out of the way so I opted to just grab some sushi from a nearby supermarket and park it for the evening with the hope of a strong start tomorrow.
3/5 - Checked out of my hotel and headed over to Shinjuku to check in to my final hotel (Kadoya Hotel) for the trip. Dropped off my bags and confirmed my other ones had shown up safely, then headed to Shibuya Parco for the Final Fantasy 35th Anniversary pop-up. Shopped there for a bit, then headed back to Chillmatic and this time they were open! It was a neat experience but I think I preferred Shogun Burger. Next stop was Meijijingu - I didn't leave a votive and instead just walked around, including a stop in one of the gardens. Then over to HMV Books where there was a 20th Anniversary Celebration for Game Center CX. However busy I expected it to be, it was not... at all. I was the only person who paid the 800 yen for the museum part in the 30-45 minutes I was there. But I did enjoy it and picked up a T-shirt. I also found a small pop-up gallery titled "9Days" on a lower floor that was interesting. It was getting late but I pressed onto Akihabara where I went to the Radio Kaikan tower. I stayed there until closing, then headed over to Tokyo Video Gamers, a bar. They had closed down last year but were in the middle of a soft re-launch when I stopped by. Finally, I headed back to my hotel and ordered some Dominos because I was tired of walking around.
3/6 - Checked out of my hotel, but left my bags so I could go eat breakfast at Eggslut at the station. Took the Narita Express to the airport, shopped a little bit at the airport shops, then the long sad flight back to the US.
That was a linguistic dreadnought so if anything is unclear let me know and I'll try to clean it up. Hope you enjoyed and it helps with your own planning: I'll answer questions as best as I can!
submitted by Luchamore to JapanTravel [link] [comments]
Pre-flight
- I filled out the Japan entry forms to provide proof of vaccination, declare for customs, etc. We saved a pretty good amount of time with that compared to people filling out paperwork on the plane.
- For phone / internet we went with pocket wireless and it was incredibly smooth basically the whole time. We got two units for times where we'd be separated as well as a pocket translator, which was an unnecessary expense. You're not getting any added value over Google Translate.
- For daily travel we all went with Suica and that was again a very simple, intuitive experience. I'd just periodically add on funds to my Apple Wallet and ended up paying for a bunch of stuff with that rather than cash / credit. My one friend went with the actual card instead of using his phone, which had one advantage: some ticket machines would only accept Suica via card and through the app.
- For the shinkansens we skipped the JR Pass and just booked tickets that day, which was mostly fine. The machines wouldn't accept my credit card so I'd need to go talk to a person, but I knew enough about where I wanted to go and what to do I muddled through. We did opt for the Hakone Free Pass as that would cover basically all the transportation for that area and saved a little money.
- I'm fortunate to have a friend living in Japan who helped arrange a couple events for us... if you don't have that option you can try to book some tickets at Lawson, or for restaurants you can try to go 1-2 days in advance and ask about reservations.
- I tried taking a language course ahead of the trip and learning a few key phrases... I was not able to hold a conversation but the little bit I did know helped I believe. One "caution" I'll give is that if you use Google Translate to construct a sentence for you in Japanese, you're likely to get a response in Japanese!
Part 1: Tokyo
2/15 + 2/16 - Friend B unfortunately overslept and missed his first flight, so Friend A and I met up in the morning at O'Hare. I did have to check one of my bags at the gate because it was over 10 lbs, but otherwise the trip was uneventful until we arrived at Narita, where I had a momentary panic when my checked suitcase did not show up on the carousel. I talked to an agent and for some reason, they had set my bag aside from all the others behind a sign. With that out of the way, we picked up the pocket wi-fi and on our way out the door, a film crew from "Why did you come to Japan" asked us if we would do a brief interview. I recognized their logo and thought it might be fun, but I wasn't prepared for a 40 minute conversation! I mentioned I was visiting a Game Center CX exhibit and they asked me a long line of questions about meeting the show's host (Shinya Arino), what I would say to him, what games we would play, etc. Finally I had to explain we were tired and would like to be on our way. I don't believe my interview was ever shown.
By the time we got tickets and were seated on the Narita Express, we could barely stay awake. Maybe because of the fatigue we had difficulty with exiting Shinjuku station: we eventually talked to an Australian family who showed us the fare exchange kiosk where we converted our Narita Express ticket into a regular train ticket for the gate. Once we settled that we checked into our hotel (Hundred Stay Tokyo Shinjuku), briefly went out to Family Mart for snacks, then crashed for the night.
2/17 - We got up around 7 and went to a Sukiya near our hotel for breakfast, then headed over to Akihabara. Things were still opening up so we stopped for Mr. Donut, then visited a couple stores before moving further east to Yokozuna Tonkatsu Dosukoi Tanaka where we had a lunch / sumo demonstration. This was very much a tourist thing: there was a brief explanation of the sumo ceremony and technique before they invited the audience to get in sumo costumes and step in the ring and have matches with the wrestlers. I (and about 90% of the attendees) went up: this was absolutely not a serious match and was closer to improv comedy than anything. Still, we had a good time and the food was fine.
Afterward, we went back to Akihabara for a reservation at an owl cafe. We got some cute photos but I admit those owls could not have been happy, as there were 30 of them in a small room. The handlers would let one perch on your arm but were adamant you not let go of their leash, because if you did... it wouldn't be pretty. At this point we had to return to our hotel to link up with Friend B who had just arrived, then we went back to Akihabara for dinner. Dinner was at Merino, an all you can eat place where we had lamb and beef tongue in a hot pot. Fittingly, there was a collaboartion with a lamb girl V-tuber. We were again pretty wiped out after dinner and retreated back to our hotel.
2/18 - After a quick stop at Family Mart we headed to Ueno for the Tokyo National Museum. Unfortunately the special exhibition was closed, but we enjoyed the historical artifacts that were available. We had a ramen lunch at one of the restaruants at Ueno Station, then head over to Akihabara (yes, again) and crawled through the shops in more depth. We were there on Saturday afternoon so there were people everywhere, so that only lasted for a couple hours. Our bags were full so we dropped things off at the hotel, then ate dinner at a Coco Ichibanya: we all kept our orders pretty low on the scale but as advertised, there's a kick even at "2". Finally we visited Star Club, a Super Mario themed bar located nearby. Despite the gimmick, the crowd appeared to be local aside from our group. We each ordered a couple of the themed drinks and bonded with the bartender over Cowboy Bebop through the language barrier, as he was playing the soundtrack for ambience.
2/19 - Our first stop in the morning was the Ghibli Musem. While my previous visit had been lackluster, this one went much better as there was a significantly smaller crowd so early in the day. Plus, while they are still largely not supporting English, the movie shown had no dialogue and they did actually provide an English guide for the special exhibit on Future Boy Conan! The merch shop was of course seductive and we ended up with souvenirs for ourselves and friends. Our lunch plans unfortunately fell through as our targeted spot (Chillmatic, a burger place) was closed for a building inspection. We opted for another random ramen place as we walked over to the PARCO mall in Shibuya. We visited all the character stores (Nintendo, Pokemon, Capcom, etc.), which were of course also mobbed on a Sunday afternoon. At this point I had easily outgrown the space in my luggage, so our next stop was Don Quijote so Friend A and I could each buy a duffel bag. To make up for earlier we visited Shogun Burger for dinner, which was fantastic.
2/20 - Our first travel day, but before heading out we did a little more shopping in Shinjuku: my friends and I really got into visiting every BookOff we could find. I also took the opportunity to stop at McDonalds for an early lunch and try their "exclusive" menu items. We then boarded the Odakyu line to make our way out to Hakone. In hindsight, I definitely should have forwarded a bag to our Kyoto hotel: I had a very uncomfortable trip moving between trains and walking uphill but after a couple hours we made it to Ajisai Onsen Ryokan. The building was in a traditional style but with modern furnishings: to paint a picture, our room had futons and an Amazon Fire Stick. We booked times to reserve some of the baths, then walked to a local gyoza place - and I mean local, a bunch of schoolchildren stampeded in with us as it opened - then headed back to the hotel for our evening bath. To cap the evening we enjoyed some sake and watched a few episodes of Spy x Family.
2/21 - We got an early start with our morning bath and quickly came to a realization. The previous night we had booked the "indoor / outdoor" bath, which had both an indoor and outdoor bath but critically kept the showers indoors. For the morning we were in the "outdoor" bath, which... had the showers outdoors. When it was right around freezing. Afterward we ate breakfast at the hotel, then went on the "Hakone Loop". We started by walking through Gora Park and participating in a brief tea ceremony, then took the rope car up to Owaukudani. We were lucky and there were clear skies so Mt. Fuji was very visible in the distance. Unfortunately part of the ropeway was out of service so we took a bus down to Lake Ashi, which we then crossed by boat. We quickly stopped for snacks then walked along Ancient Cedar Avenue before catching a bus back closer to our hotel. We unfortunately missed the last cable car for the day - they stop before 4:30 - but we managed to figure out the local bus line to get back. After a brief rest we found dinner at Pub Stop Pizza & Bar and took in some local entertainment (a TV was playing Fast and the Furious 7).
2/22 - Another bath, another hotel breakfast, and a quick stop at the Hakone Art Museum before we got on our way to our next destination. I asked / begged for us to take a cab back down the mountain to Hakone-Yumoto, which saved me from more luggage struggles. At the station we stopped in Eva-ya: I had only learned yesterday that Hakone is the setting for much of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but luckily they had some cover files and sweets ready for me to buy. After a couple hour trip on the shinkansen we arrived at Kyoto and with a bit of fumbling got to our hotel. The key here is that there is a second floor walkway that runs North - South through the station and doesn't require paying train fare. Our Kyoto hotel (Daiwa Roynet Hotel Kyoto Ekimae) had a very slick entrance way: it blended in with the building to the point you'd think you're walking towards a wall without signage. We did some laundry, then went next door to the Yodobashi to pick up a couple items (Friend A needed new sneakers) and literally got lost again. After again getting reoriented, we headed back to Kyoto Station where we got conveyor belt sushi. These places do technically exist where I'm from (US) but this was still one of my favorite moments on the trip.
2/23 - Kicked off the day at the Kyoto International Manga Museum. The bulk of the museum is an impossibly large manga library, which didn't serve me too well, but I enjoyed the history sections. One room was devoted to sculptures of the hands of famous artists, which was certainly a choice. They also had an artist there who would draw sketches of you for 1500 yen. I was a little worried I was paying for the equivalent of a carnival caricature, but the skill and detail were much better than that. Be advised, the artists are only available on holidays and weekends.
Afterward I took the train down to Osaka to meet a friend living in Japan for... you guessed it more shopping. We visited the Capcom Cafe first and checked out the rest of the nerdy stores at Daimaru Umeda. Unlike in Shibuya, we did need to get a timed entry ticket for the Nintendo store, so we went over to Mandarake to kill time. After finishing up in Umeda we hit up the Daimaru / PARCO at Shinsaibashi, then visited the Dotunburi Glico sign and walked the river. They took my picture and when I offered to take theirs they replied "no... I'm not a tourist". Oof. In the evening I met back up with my travel group and had udon at a spot in Kyoto Station.
2/24 - Slightly mixed things up here: we went to the Imperial Palace in order to get tickets for Katsura Imperial Villa. Unfortunately, same day tickets were not available as we expected, so we instead had to get them for Sunday 2/26. Still visited the palace, and in spite of the rain still had fun. Then back to Osaka where we ended up visiting Daimaru again - the other guys liked some photos I sent so much they wanted to see it too. Had takoyaki for lunch, then took the train to the Osaka Aquarium. The absolutely massive tank at the center was very impressive. Then stayed in the area and went to the park to wat a New Japan Pro Wrestling show. This was one of the first shows that allowed the whole audience to cheer: people were quiet but by the end of the night things were rocking. Interestingly they still only sat people in every other chair. Lastly while the other guys went to bed I had read on Twitter there was a party near our hotel to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Fox. Stopped by there and while it was a little awkward at first once I found the more gregarious / drunk people there it was a good time. One guy insisted I get in front of a camera and talk for a second, and it showed up in a video they posted on Twitter.
2/25 - Went to Nara and saw the deer. The deer are docile if you don't have food, friendly if you do, and absolutely terrifying to children. The amount of "yada yada yada" and "kowai" I heard... At first we were giving whole crackers out, but we learned that we could break them up, leave them on our palm, get them to bow, etc. Headed over to Todai-ji and saw the huge Buddha. It was in fact very, very large. Doubled back and played with the deer a bit more, then took the train to Kyoto. I took the lull in the afternoon to visit the office of Edit Mode, a clothing maker that specializes in video game goods. They occasionally host an "open house" at their office and we were lucky enough to be there during one. For dinner we ate okonomiyaki at a restaurant in the Yodobashi building, then afterward took a trip to the nearest BookOff before hitting the hay.
2/26 - This was definitely our biggest mixup on the trip. We had been planning to go to Fushimi Inari in the morning but there were some scheduling issues:
- We didn't take not of how long the hike would be (2-3 hours).
- We overslept (woke up at 7:30 instead of 6).
- We had a hard stop time to make the Katsura Imperial Villa tour we'd booked on Thursday.
Next up was one last stop at our Kyoto hotel before taking a quick train ride to Osaka. We stayed at the Hotel Granvia Osaka, which is literally right above the station, so the location was certainly convenient. We ate sushi for lunch at one of the many restaurants in the building, took a quick nap, then went out for some taiyaki. Specifically, I forced my friends to go to a particular chain that was collaborating with a V-Tuber. back to the hotel where we checked out then hopped on the train to Osaka. Checked into our hotel and people napped for a bit before we headed out again. Got taiyaki (making my friends visit a chain with a Hololive collab). More shopping followed with a stop at Mandarake, then to Don Quijote where I bought another small suitcase. We ended up more or less skipping dinner and heading out for karaoke, where we had some snacks and drinks.
2/27 - For my friends' final day we went to Universal Studios Japan. This could be its entire own post but I recommend looking for tickets at least a month in advance, get the Express Pass, and get there early. The park is supposed to open at 9, and even though we showed up at 8:30 people were already pouring inside. Our main objective was Super Nintendo World but our timed entry wasn't for a couple hours, so we tried Jujutsu Kaisen 4D (okay), Spider-Man (good), and Jurassic Park the Ride (okay) first. As for Super Nitendo World itself... as long as you know it's intended for kids and has about a 4 hour lifespan you'll enjoy it. The Mario Kart ride was very good the AR game was interesting tech, and the restaurant food was alright. Really though, the Flying Dinosaur which went on afterward was incredible and easily my favorite ride. Unfortunately, Friend A became ill afterward so we ended up bailing to go back to the hotel and rest. After he felt better we grabbed dinner at a local ramen place: the gimmick was they lined the bowl with slices of pork, which you could then put in the broth to cook a little and season the whole bowl.
2/28 - My two friends left for America, so we checked out of our room and I checked into a smaller one at the same spot. This hotel didn't have laundry machines, just an expensive service (200 yen to clean one pair of underwear), so instead I found a laundromat nearby and caught up with family by phone while I waited. On the way back to the hotel I stopped at another Yodobashi, where I committed a gaffe: you're supposed to check out on each floor. Once I apologized a bunch and paid, I grabbed lunch at Wendy's and got settled into my new room. For dinner I went to another of the restaurants in the building, then took a train to Namba to see a retro video game bar. A couple drinks and a chat with the bartender later, I headed back for the night.
3/1 - A very nerdy shopping day in Osaka: first to the Daimaru character shops, then over to Parco character shops, then I just used Google Maps to hit BookOffs one after the other. I made my way south until I hit DenDen Town where I stopped in every store I saw until I had to break away for dinner. A local friend helped me book a reservation in Kobe Took the train out to Kobe where a friend had helped me make a reservation at a steak restaurant. I went for the "modarately" cheap option that was about $100 total and loved it from beginning to end. Also strangely this was the only restaurant anywhere I could tip: you had to tip individually and could only max it out at 500 yen. I tipped the two waiters, the chef, and the host / barker outside (who had good English so we talked a bit).
3/2 - My Fushimi Inari revenge trip! I got there around 9am so things were already pretty busy, but I did get the chance to chat with one of the tour guides while I had a morning coffee. The starting area was pretty busy and even as I went along, I ran into a lot of people but there was still enough space to take photos and see everything. I definitely paused at a few points: even walking 20,000 steps daily on the trip hadn't prepared me for all the stair climbing. I'd also suggest that you don't NEED to go all the way to the top: there's just a store up there that completely obscures the view, the better views are earlier in the hike. With that said, I still really enjoyed myself, taking a different route back down. I grabbed a couple of snacks and took the train back to Osaka, where I finished up exploring Namba and went with a friend for an unagidon dinner. I'd had broiled eel before as sushi but never as the full entree and found it delicious!
3/3 - After checking out of the hotel and forwarding two of my bags to Tokyo, I caught the shinkansen but made a detour while in Yokohama to visit the Gundam Factory. The Gundam is very impressive in person and I would definitely recommend visiting in the early evening to see it after dark if possible. I proceeded onto Shinjuku where I ran into another issue: I was staying at a capsule hotel and immmediately realized I was not comfortable there. Everyone's bags were kept in a locker room that was not closely monitored, there were signs everywhere advising the hotel was not responsible for any theft... I should have done more reading to understand where I'd be staying. I would have been better off in a hostel, at least that would've been cheaper! I did at least have a chance to visit Shogun Burger again for dinner, after which I booked a new hotel for the next night, then got a few hours of restless sleep as I heard every snore and cough from my neighbors.
3/4 - I rose early and walked to Shinjuku Gyoen Garden. You really can use Suica in a lot of places, they even accepted it here! Most plants weren't in bloom yet but I did spot a lone cherry blossom tree that had blossomed: as I passed by it later in my walk a dozen people had crowded around for photos. A lot of stuff was not in bloom yet but I did see one cherry tree had blossomed at least. After getting my fill of nature I ventured over to Nakano Broadway. Out of all the nerdy shopping I did, this spot was my least favorite: maybe if I knew Japanese I would've fared better but because I didn't, I found all the various specialty stores confusing to navigate. I stopped back at the capsule hotel to pick up my luggage, then headed to Nipponbashi to check into my backup hotel (S-Peria Inn Nihonbashi Hakozaki). This new spot was pretty out of the way so I opted to just grab some sushi from a nearby supermarket and park it for the evening with the hope of a strong start tomorrow.
3/5 - Checked out of my hotel and headed over to Shinjuku to check in to my final hotel (Kadoya Hotel) for the trip. Dropped off my bags and confirmed my other ones had shown up safely, then headed to Shibuya Parco for the Final Fantasy 35th Anniversary pop-up. Shopped there for a bit, then headed back to Chillmatic and this time they were open! It was a neat experience but I think I preferred Shogun Burger. Next stop was Meijijingu - I didn't leave a votive and instead just walked around, including a stop in one of the gardens. Then over to HMV Books where there was a 20th Anniversary Celebration for Game Center CX. However busy I expected it to be, it was not... at all. I was the only person who paid the 800 yen for the museum part in the 30-45 minutes I was there. But I did enjoy it and picked up a T-shirt. I also found a small pop-up gallery titled "9Days" on a lower floor that was interesting. It was getting late but I pressed onto Akihabara where I went to the Radio Kaikan tower. I stayed there until closing, then headed over to Tokyo Video Gamers, a bar. They had closed down last year but were in the middle of a soft re-launch when I stopped by. Finally, I headed back to my hotel and ordered some Dominos because I was tired of walking around.
3/6 - Checked out of my hotel, but left my bags so I could go eat breakfast at Eggslut at the station. Took the Narita Express to the airport, shopped a little bit at the airport shops, then the long sad flight back to the US.
That was a linguistic dreadnought so if anything is unclear let me know and I'll try to clean it up. Hope you enjoyed and it helps with your own planning: I'll answer questions as best as I can!
2023.03.22 00:35 ooroger Tampa - Hilton Garden Inn St. Pete Beach, Hilton Clearwater, or Doubletree Redington?
Heading there next week. Family of Four with two teenagers. Priorities are pool, beach access, relaxation.
Any preferences? Any hotel on this list that seems rundown?
submitted by ooroger to Hilton [link] [comments]
Any preferences? Any hotel on this list that seems rundown?
2023.03.21 07:37 Jrubas The Wolf and the Warrior: Pt 1
Griger Kel-Am watched from his cell in the old town jailhouse as workers busily erected a scaffolding in the courtyard below. It was shaping up nicely, he thought with an appreciative nod; the skeletal beams reminded him of the bones of dead animals in the Karel Desert and that comparison almost disturbed him.
Which was no easy feat. Griger had seen the worst the world had to offer. He fought beasts in the Staygin Mountains, fended off feral bandits in the Jarel Plains, and weathered more attacks, fights, battles, and death than most people even knew existed. Nothing on earth could rattle him. He couldn’t afford to let himself be shaken. Life, he had learned, was like a surging storm tide. You either stand strong against it, or you get knocked down and swept away. Griger refused to be swept away. He refused to wind up like the old bones he stumbled across on the North Road and in the snowy stepps at the top of the world. A man must be hard and stoic to survive, and he must be harder and colder to thrive.
Despite his grizzled face, many scars, dead eyes, and unseemly facial hair, Griger, a sword for hire since before the Great Plague, had always thrived.
Sighing, Griger left the window and walked over to the door; three brisk paces. He threaded his arms through the bars and tried his best to look up the corridor. In the cells across from him, other men, their faces dirty and white, cowered, waiting for their judgement.
Their open fear disgusted Griger.
Cowards.
Griger wasn’t afraid to die. Dying was easy; you closed your eyes and went to sleep. Living...living was hard, every day a knock down, drag out fight for dominance against something. Outlaws, nature, your own inner darkness. He did not seek death, but he welcomed it. The prospect of a noose tightening around his neck, of his body jerking and dancing before many jeering eyes and spitting mouths, however, almost bothered him.
But as a wise old man he once knew had said, This too shall pass.
A sardonic smile touched Griger’s chapped lips and he shook his head like a man who couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Of all the things he’d done in his life to deserve a hanging, self-defense is what did him in. Ha.
Two weeks ago, he was following the river from the North, on foot and alone save for his sword and his rucksack. He stopped at a tide pool to drink, and was beset by a man with a knife. In his frock coat and rubberized boots, he was too well dressed to be a highwayman; he never spoke a word until he lay in the grass, his throat laid open and gushing rich red blood. “Scoundrel,” he gurgled.
Griger relieved him of his boots and pocketbook and carried on. Before dusk, he came across the village and rented a room at the inn. Women in cheap, homespun dresses haunted the halls, knocking at doors to sell their company, and Griger, lying in bed by the flickering light of a lamp, was considering spending the rest of the money on one when three constables broke down the door.
The man he killed, they told him later, was the son of the mayor. At that moment, Griger knew he was in trouble.
They refused to believe that the son attacked first and pointed to the things Griger had taken from his as proof of overland piracy, theft, and murder. He was tried in a packed courtroom and found guilty, standing tall and proud but alone as no lawyer in the land would take his case.
Out in the courtyard, someone shouted, and a team of horses neighed, Griger, sitting on the edge of his cot, looked up at the window. The light was getting weaker as night approached. Shadows, long and black, fell through the slats and made unwholesome shapes across the earthen floor. Down the hall, a man cried out for water, and elsewhere, someone raked a metal cup back and forth across the bars. Would they hang him tonight, Griger wondered, or would they wait for dawn?
“You,” someone spat.
Griger looked up to find the mayor standing at the bars, his bloated face filled with hatred. Another man was with him, this one taller and thinner. They were both clad in the finest garments, but the stranger was undoubtedly better suited. Griger took him for a government official.
“What do you want?” Griger asked, an edge in his voice.
The mayor opened his mouth to speak, but the stranger silenced him. “My name is Urick Farbin. I’m the governor of Ezk Province and I have a proposition for you.”
“What’s that?”
Farbin flashed a tight smile.
It looked to Griger like he wouldn’t be hanged at all.
And that made him smile.
***
Griger watched the countryside pass slowly by, all green hills, trickling brooks, and dense thickets. The occasional straw hut loomed out of the wilderness like an antsy thief, and six miles out of the village, they passed a stately manor house that could only have belonged to the mayor.
It was mid-afternoon and the overcast day wrapped itself around Griger like a wet blanket. The previous night, Governor Farbin sprang Griger from his cell and brought him to the inn, where he was kept under armed guard. Griger spent most of the evening in a straight back chair and whittling. You don’t have to worry, he said to the sentry standing at the door, I’m not going anywhere.
And he wasn’t. He was not an honor bound man by any stretch, but Farbin saved his life, and Griger reckoned that earned him a little loyalty.
The guards didn’t stand down, but Griger didn’t blame them. He wouldn’t have either.
In the morning, they set off in a horse drawn carriage, heading northwest along the Western Road. Now, hours later, Griger sat next to the Governor, who wore a dark cloak and wide-brimmed hat befitting his office. Beside him, the driver held the reins and stared ahead with the practiced indifference of a man used to tuning out things he wasn’t supposed to hear.
“Will you explain to me what I’m doing?” Griger asked.
Farbin was quiet for a moment, then he looked up at the sky, the muted light bathing his craggy features. “Your file says that you’ve done work for the Government.”
“Some,” Griger replied.
“You’ve handled things of a singular nature,” the old man continued. “Things that most other men have never dreamed possible.”
Gringer nodded. He had. His only oath was to himself, and he worked for whoever paid him the highest sum. Men like him were called mercenaries but he preferred to think of himself as a businessman.
“There’s a matter in a nearby village that has been ongoing for quite some time,” Farbin said, picking his words carefully. “I have sent my best agents and they’ve done nothing for it. When the paperwork on you came to my office, I checked your name, as I do all condemned men, and knew at once that you were the man for this job.”
Griger was almost touched. “What’s the job?”
The Governor turned to face Griger, his expression bloodless and sober, as though he had something great yet terrible to impart upon him. “Do you believe in werewolves?”
“Yes,” he said, “I do.”
“Have you ever killed one?”
Griger hesitated. “No,” he said, “not personally, but I was with a party that did.”
Five years before, Griger wintered in a village among the steep foothills guarding the forbidding expanse of Mount Grez. In the deepest, darkest days of the freeze, local livestock began to die, ripped asunder and strewn across snowy fields like trash. Wolf tracks larger than any Griger had ever seen led to and from each scene, and at night, high, ghostly howls rose above the shrieking wind, curdling the blood of even the most sturdy men.
After a watchman on patrol was attacked and gutted in the main square, the men of the village banded together and tracked the beast, eventually cornering it in a cave near a frozen river. Even if he lived to be a thousand, Griger would never forget the monster they encountered. Seven feet tall, coated in matted gray fur, its face canine yet human, its eyes blazed with the fires of hell, and as the men approached, it snapped and snarled, the sounds it made so close to words that even now, Griger wondered if it were trying to speak. They beset it with swords and torches, and when the dust settled, five men were dead and three were wounded. The wolf lay crumpled on the ground, decapitated and aflame. Even with no head, even with its heart divorced from its body, it screeched as the fire consumed it, a high, hitching wail that haunted Griger’s dreams for many moons after.
Farbin nodded. “I figured as much. A man as well-travelled as you has to have seen such things.”
He went on to explain that a suspected werewolf was loose in the countryside around the village of Koreth, a tiny fishing port on the sloped and muddy banks of the Rey River. Three weeks before, sheep and horses began to turn up dead, their bodies laid open and their intestines pulled from their stomachs. Before long, travellers along the Western Road started to die in a similar manner. Every time a new victim appeared, officials found large wolf tracks and strands of fur nearby.
Several nights ago, it broke into the home of a land baron and killed him, his wife, and his daughter. His young son survived, but was blinded in one eye.
‘It was a massive beast,’ the boy told the Governor, a personal friend of the baron. ‘It stood seven feet tall, was as wide as it was long, and had the snarling face of a man mixed with a dog.’
“You want me to kill it,” Griger said. It was not a question.
“Yes.”
The carriage jostled as its big wheels splashed through ruts and puddles. “And in return…?”
“You’ll get a full and unconditional pardon.”
Hmm. Griger considered the offer carefully, even though he was in no position to bargain. “Alright,” he said at last, “I’ll do it.”
They arrived at the village three hours later. Perched on the banks of the lazy river, it seemed a single estate rather than a town. A stone wall, roughly a dozen feet high, enclosed it, pitched roofs visible beyond. Two guards in helmets and chainmail, swords on their hips and crossbows in their hands, stood at the gate, their expressions stony and as hardscrabble as the fields sloping away from the walls.
Inside, tiny buildings lined narrow dirt streets and people in plain, homespun clothes went about their business, pushing carts, hawking vegetables, and playing dice. Old men sat in canned chairs before the town pub and a group of boys chased each other back and forth through shadowed warrens, their faces smudged and weatherbeaten beyond their years. Chickens and pigs, both plump and hale, ran free, the former flapping their impotent wings and the latter snorting happily as they wallowed and shat. Griger spotted a blacksmith in his quarters, striking an anvil with a hammer, and wondered idly if he had any interesting items for sale.
“The people here are stubborn and refuse to flee,” Farbin said.
Griger faced forward. “These types usually are.”
“You are not to worry about their safety,” Farbin warned. “They can see to themselves. Your only concern is to be the wolf.”
“Understood.”
The driver parked near the town inn and tied the horse to a hitching post while Griger and Farbin got out. Griger rolled his neck and flexed his shoulders. After so many years of walking wherever he went, he was unaccustomed to sitting for long periods and inevitably ended any long, stationary trek sore.
Past the batwing doors, a shadowy lobby lit by candlelight greeted them. Farbin led Griger directly up the stairs and to a tidy room with a single, neatly made bed and a desk beneath the window. “These are your quarters,” Farbin said.
“Spacious,” Griger said unsarcastically. He sat on the edge of the bed. “What leads do you have on this wolf?”
“None beyond what I’ve told you,” Farbn said. “My men have scoured the countryside but they haven’t found a thing.”
Griger hummed. “No tracks? Droppings? Nothing at all?”
“Not beyond what I’ve told you.”
That was odd. Werewolves rarely strayed far from their den. Unless they were of the rare half-breed that turned upon the cycle of the moon, man at day and beast by night. But those were as common as an honest man in the High Council - not very damned common at all.
“What are you thinking?” Farbin asked.
Griger said what was on his mind.
“But those aren’t real,” the Governor said, a hint of confusion in his voice.
“I tell you they are.”
Farbin’s brow furrowed with incredulity. “A man cannot simply change his form, nor can a wolf, for that matter. It goes against all logic.”
All Griger could do was spread his hands. That a man - even a large one - could transform into a werewolf (and that a werewolf could shrink back to the size of a mere man) did defy logic. Griger could not account for it, but he knew it to be so, and he said as much. Farbin, shaken by the confidence in Griger’s tone, nervously scratched the back of his neck and looked constipated. “Put aside what you think you know and ask yourself. What if it is a wolf-man?”
“But what if it isn’t?” Farbin countered.
Griger ticked his head to the side in acquiescence. “Maybe it’s not. Maybe your men have failed to uncover a den large enough to house a seven foot tall monster. Maybe they’ve been looking up each other’s backsides instead of where they should be.”
A dark shadow flickered across Farbin’s face. “My men are highly trained and highly skilled.”
“That’s why you came to me.”
Farbin fumed. “I came to you because you have experience in such things.”
“Right,” Griger said. “I do. And I’m telling you - in my expert opinion - that if there is no den, the wolf is a changeling. I cannot explain the science behind how and why it is a changeling. I don’t know how it can happen...but it does. You have to consider the possibility that you are looking for a phantom, that your wolf may be out there right this second ploughing a field or herding sheep and not asleep in a cave waiting to be found and made.”
Farbin turned away and put his hands on his hips. No shoulder had ever been colder, and for a second, Griger thought the old man was going to send him back to the gallows. “Alright,” Farbin finally said, “suppose it is a half-breed. What then?”
“I want to see where the latest attack happened.”
A half an hour later, Griger and Farbin stood before a large stone house with a slate roof and wide windows. A dirt drive looped around an ornate fountain and tall trees rustled in the new breeze. Several Provincial Guardsmen accompanied them, all with swords and crossbows and one, the commander, with a rare flintlock on his hip. Farbin led Gringer to the west side of the structure. “The wolf came in through the servants’ entrance,” he explained. A set of paw prints led to the door and Gringer knelt to study them. Roughly half a foot apart, they were slightly larger than any other he had seen.
Inside, the house was dark and cold, shadows clustered in corners like demons waiting for the fall of night to advance their ghoulish aims. Dried blood stained the wooden floors and spackled the bare walls. “Has anyone seen this creature and lived but the boy?”
Farbin shook his head. “No.” His face was white and strained, the somber, funeral atmosphere affecting him.
“You’ve told me everything?”
“Yes.”
Griger nodded to himself. If the wolf were a changeling, someone, somewhere likely would have seen it coming or going. That was a strike against his theory. On the other hand, there were likely dozens of isolated farms and homesteads scattered through the surrounding countryside. The wolf could be anyone from anywhere.
“I want to talk to the locals,” Griger said as he and Farbin walked back to the carriage.
“Right.”
“I’ll also need a team of men at my disposal,” Griger said. “And a sword.”
They were sitting across from each other in the carriage’s enclosed cab. Without, the sky was beginning to cool to purple and evening gloom stealthy crept from the forest. “We’ll get you one.”
“It must be made with silver,” Griger said.
Farbin frowned. “Silver is a poor alloy for sword-making.”
“But it’s the only alloy for werewolf killing,” Griger said. “It shouldn’t be made entirely of silver, but there must be some in it, the more, the better.
Farbin nodded that he understood.
By the time they made it back to the village, full dark had fallen. The streets stood deserted, the animals locked up for the night and most of the people hunkered in their homes. A few guards walked the lanes and dooyards, bows and swords at the ready, and a stray cat with no tail slunk furtively between piles of refuse, its ears laid flat against its skull and its fur matted and crisscrossed with scars from battles past.
The only activity was at the pub attached to the inn, where lights burned in the segmented windows and the chatter of many voices drifted into the street, occasionally flaring in laughter or song. Apparently, those hearty souls refused to let a wolf stand between them and their end-of-day festivities.
Griger’s respect for them increased.
Before entering, Farbin and Griger called on the blacksmith, a burly man with a bald head and a mustache that reminded Griger of walruses he had killed and eaten at the top of the world. Griger explained his need and impressed upon the man a sense of urgency. “I need it as soon as you can possibly have it ready.”
The blacksmith nodded gamely. “I’ll have it by dawn.”
Farbin took out his purse and paid, then they made their way to the inn.
Inside, a roaring fire crackled in the stone hearth and lamps on the walls sent shadows flickering across the floor. A dozen men sat at the bar with stines of beer and a half dozen more occupied the many tables in the middle of the room. A barkeep kept the drinks flowing while a pretty waitress with her blonde hair done up in an elaborate braid like a golden tiara brought trays of beer and pretzels to the tables.
Griger and Farbin sat at an empty table near the fireplace and Farbin removed his gloves. “Men will make merry even while the world burns around them,” he mused.
“Why not,” Griger said, “they can’t do it in the grave.”
The women came over and they ordered a pitcher of beer and a sandwich each. While they waited, Griger went to every man one-by-one and asked them about the wolf. They responded, to a man, with an eye roll or a dismissive laugh. None were worried in the slightest. One man lifted his brow in a pitying sort of way and looked Griger up and down as though he were mad. “Werewolves? Why, those were banished from the Realm centuries ago, it’s all much ado about nothing.”
“It’s a big wolf,” the barkeep said, “and dangerous too, that much is fact. But it’s a lot of hysteria. People today are too goddamn soft. In my time, we had wolves and bears too. If they acted out of line, we hunted them down and cut their heads off.”
The last man Griger came to was a wispy, white-haired oldster with rheumy eyes and three days’ worth of stubble covering his angular chin. Baggy brown clothes, old and wrinkled and caked in the dirt of the field, hung slack from his scrawny frame, and his long, spindly fingers threaded through the handle of his mug like fleshless bone. If Griger had ever seen a man who bore the official title “Town Drunk” he wouldn’t look the part any more than the old man.
Before Griger could ask him a single question, he spoke in a rusty voice that conjured images of graveyard gates in the dark Province of Helem. “I seen it,” he said, “and it weren’t no regular wolf neither.”
The barkeep sniffed. “You see lots of things, Sel. Like them little pink elephants.”
A wave of mean-spirited laughter ran through the bar, and Sel’s jaw clenched. Griger sensed that Sel was often made sport of at the bar.
Ignoring the other, Griger asked, “You’ve seen it?”
Sel nodded and held up three fingers. “Thrice, in fact,” he said with a belch.
“Tell me.”
The old timer looked up at him with a twist of suspicion. “Down by the road leadin’ up,” he said.
“All three times?”
“All three times,” Sel confirmed.
Once a mason, Sel had moved to the village ten years before to try his hand at farming, he explained. His homestead, comprising five acres, a tumbledown barn, and a decomposing shack masquerading as a house, sat below the walls, in a hollow between the hill and the river. Many nights, he sat on the front porch and “communed with the King” (King Rum, Griger assumed). From that perch, he witnessed “The damned beast” loping toward town. “The first time, I seen’t it over in the road,” he said, pronouncing road as rud. “I have good eyesight and I knew right off it weren’t normal, so I jumped outta my chair and ducked down real low so ways he couldn’t see me.”
Sel couldn’t provide a description of the wolf beyond “near eight damn feet tall and built like a mountain” but Griger didn’t need one. The old man’s story supported his supposition that the wolf was coming from somewhere else and not a den in the hills. Why would it come down the middle of the road each time? The only thing to the south was the river and open fields dotted by stands of forest, all of which Farbin’s men had already searched.
Werewolves are nocturnal creatures who sequester themselves somewhere dark and dry during the day. Farbin’s men should have found it by now. That they hadn’t suggested that it was a changeling.
Thanking Sel for his help, Griger went back to the table and sat across from Farbin. “The baron’s house lies in the direction of the river,” he said, more to himself than to the Governor. “What of the other attacks?”
“Mainly in that area,” Farbin said, “why?”
“The changeling - and that’s what it is - comes from across the river. How many homesteads are there beyond the banks?”
“At least two dozen,” Farbin said.
Griger crossed his arms and thought for a moment. “I want your men, tomorrow, out there going door to door with garlic. Make everyone they come across smell it and anyone who sneezes is put under watch.”
The Governor looked stricken. “But...why?”
“Changelings are allergic to garlic,” Griger said.
Farbin pursed his lips in contemplation. “Alright,” he said, “I’ll have them start at first light.”
After dining, they adjourned to their rooms, Farbin on one side of the hall and Griger on the other. A team of six Guardsmen took up position in the empty saloon and kept watch, ready to roll out at a moment’s notice. Griger threw the window open and perched on the ledge, the night breeze washing over him and rustling his graying hair. He rolled a cigarette, lit it with the bedside candle, and looked up at the glowing face of the waxing moon. Tomorrow night it would be full and the changeling would be compelled to turn and hunt as the tide was compelled to crest. It could come tonight still, but unless it was killed, it would return tomorrow for certain, mad with bloodlust.
Well past midnight, Griger blew out the candle and retired. The mattress was far too soft and it took him nearly a half hour of tossing, turning, and muttering curses to himself to find a position he liked. Once he did, he fell into a light sleep from which he was aroused near dawn by a knock at the door. One of the guards informed him that the blacksmith was finished with his sword, and after dressing, he and Farbin went to collect it. Comprising a simple blade with a guard and a grip, it was far from the most opulent weapon Griger had ever wielded, but it was well-suited to his needs and fit comfortably in his hand.
Back at the inn, Farbin gathered every available man under his command, including the constable and his three deputies, and ordered them to sweep the countryside as Griger had suggested the night before. They showed no reaction despite their lord’s strange request, and departed in a single file line.
The saloon opened for breakfast at six and Griger and Farbin each had a plate of eggs, bacon, and beans. People began to drift in as they ate, Sel the Drunkard at the head of the pack. The maiden, who quartered somewhere upstairs, came down in a simple white dress beneath a waist apron, and Griger’s eyes tracked her as she carried out her functions. The dress - loose and high cut - revealed nothing of her bosom, but pulled tight across her bottom when she leaned over to set food and coffee in front of her guests. Their gazes met, and her eyes flicked quickly away like two timid minnows in a fish bowl.
She was beautiful.
She reminded him of someone.
His mind went back to the jagged mountains atop the world, to a little cabin where weary travellers waited out the snowstorms that raged sometimes for weeks in the winter. There, in one of the most isolated outposts of the Realm, lived a woman Griger had known. She was tall and gaunt whereas the barmaid was average and healthy, her hair was black to the maiden’s blonde, but their eyes were the same breathtaking hazel. Now, staring at his plate, his chest stirred in a way that it hadn’t in years.
He didn’t like it.
“...else,” Farbin was saying.
“Yeah,” Griger said, as though he knew what Farbin had said. Now, the woman he loved one winter was on his mind and his mood was verging on foul. He recalled the way her hair brushed the creamy slope of her throat when she turned her head, the sound of her laughter, how her heels dug into his behind, urging him deeper unto her.
He was young, then, and a fool. People, he learned later, come and people go. Loving someone...indeed even hating them...was pointless, for in a breath of summer wind, they’re gone.
After finishing with breakfast, Farbin requested a metal tub be filled with water so that he could bathe. While he did that, Griger threaded his sword through his belt and walked down to the river, keeping his eyes open for wolf tracks. He spotted a few in the dirt edging the road, all pointing in the direction from which he had just come, and squatted down to examine one more closely.
Just before reaching the water, Sel’s farm appeared on the right, the main house seeming to sag in the middle as though under the burden of years and the field out back overgrown and gone to seed. The place looked as though it had died, come back to life, then died again. The screen door, which naturally hung askew, banged open, and Sel himself backed out butt first, a ceramic pot in his hands. He turned, saw Griger, and hesitated, then ducked his head and scurried down the stairs, disappearing around the side of the house Griger lingered a moment, then followed, tangles of grass pulling at his boots. In the back, a clear patch boasted several pots like the one Sel had come out with, each blossoming with an assortment of multicolored flowers. Sel knelt before one and heaped rich soil in with his hands. A gust of wind flipped his lank, white hair back and forth, and a satisfied smile played at the corners of his thin mouth.
“You garden?” Griger asked.
Sel shot him a dirty look. “I do,” he said, a defensive edge in his voice. He stopped, favored the flowers with a sober look, and added, “These plants are the only friends I’ve got.” He chuckled self-consciously.
“Plants seem like they’d make poor friends,” Griger said. “When the first frost comes, they leave you.”
Sel ticked his head to one side in acquiescence. “Tis better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all.”
An image of the girl at the top of the world flashed across Griger’s mind, and for a moment he could feel, feel, her presence. “I don’t believe that,” Griger said. “Loss is hard for a man who’s known love.”
“Still better than never knowing it at all,” Sel said and got stiffly to his feet. He dusted his hands on his pants.
“You’ve never lost someone,” Griger said.
“You’ve never loved someone,” Sel countered.
Griger stiffened. Mouthy old bastard, yes I have.
“What do you want?” Sel asked.
“I wanted to ask you about the werewolf.”
Sel’s face crinkled. “I told you everything I know.” He started walking back to the front of the house, and Griger fell in beside him.
“Is there anywhere around here you think a werewolf might live?” Griger asked. “Caves? Dens? Anything.”
“There’s some caves about,” Sel said, “other than that, I can’t say.”
They were on the porch now, Sel holding the door open.
“Can you tell me your story one more time?” Griger asked. “Maybe it might jog something you forgot.”
Sel sighed. “I don’t have nothin’, okay?”
He started to go inside, but Griger stopped him. “Please?”
The old man looked at him, then sighed. “Fine. Come in.”
They sat in Sel’s tiny and cluttered parlor. The furniture was as old and threadbare as the man who owned it, and the simple walls were crowded with old photos, many of them featuring a smiling woman with dark hair. She looked nothing like the girl at the top of the world, but Griger was reminded of her anyway. “Your wife?” he asked.
Sel, seated in an armchair across from him, busied himself pouring Griger a cup of tea. “Yes,” he said shortly.
From his tone - and the woman’s absence - Griger inferred that she was dead. “I’m sorry.”
Sel’s hand shook as he pushed the cup across the table. “So am I,” he said.
“Children?” Griger asked.
“Three,” Sel said. “Two boys and a girl.” Tears crept into the old man’s faded eyes and he fixed his gaze on a point over Griger’s shoulder. Open displays of emotion made Griger uncomfortable, and he shifted in his seat, sorry that he had brought the topic up. “We were married thirty years,” Sel said. His lips trembled and Griger thought he was going to break down crying. Instead, he smiled. “Those were good years.”
Griger nodded to himself. “I bet.”
He must not have sounded convincing, because Sel creased his brow. “Are you married?”
“No.”
“Ever loved someone?”
“No.”
Sel looked at him with a frank directness that bordered on mind-reading, and though it wasn’t possible, Griger could almost imagine the old man was seeing into his mind...and his heart. “You’re a liar.”
Griger considered his reply for a long time. “When I was a boy,” he said. “I thought I was in love.”
“What happened?”
Perhaps the old man had cast some kind of pall over him...or maybe he was in a rare mood...but Griger heard himself answer honestly. “I left her.”
A heavy silence lay between them.
“You left her?”
Griger nodded. “I moved on. She had her ways and I had mine. I didn’t see us working.”
“You regret it.”
“Yes,” Griger responded instantly. “I wish I tried.”
Sel nodded understandingly. “All boys make mistakes. Some are just luckier than others, I reckon.” He laughed, his posture relaxing, and Griger realized he was starting to like the old bastard.
“True,” he said. “Now your story…”
Sighing, Sel lifted a hand. “I don’t have much ways else to say.” He ran through his story just as he had before, with no additions or subtractions.
Griger nodded that he was satisfied, and got to his feet. “That’ll be all.”
Sel walked him to the door and stuck out his hand. “That damned thing’s a monster,” he said as they shook, “you watch yourself.”
“I can handle a werewolf,” Griger assured him.
Later on, after returning to the inn, Griger and Farbin rode out to meet the men on the other side of the river, catching up to them at a fork in the road. “No one’s sneezed or broken out, sire,” Farbin’s second-in-command, a tall, rodent-faced man, reported.
“Expand the dragnet,” Griger said.
Rat-face looked at Farbin for confirmation, and the Governor nodded.
They would find the wolf...or the wolf would find them.
Griger wanted the former, but would settle for the latter.
If he had to.
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Griger Kel-Am watched from his cell in the old town jailhouse as workers busily erected a scaffolding in the courtyard below. It was shaping up nicely, he thought with an appreciative nod; the skeletal beams reminded him of the bones of dead animals in the Karel Desert and that comparison almost disturbed him.
Which was no easy feat. Griger had seen the worst the world had to offer. He fought beasts in the Staygin Mountains, fended off feral bandits in the Jarel Plains, and weathered more attacks, fights, battles, and death than most people even knew existed. Nothing on earth could rattle him. He couldn’t afford to let himself be shaken. Life, he had learned, was like a surging storm tide. You either stand strong against it, or you get knocked down and swept away. Griger refused to be swept away. He refused to wind up like the old bones he stumbled across on the North Road and in the snowy stepps at the top of the world. A man must be hard and stoic to survive, and he must be harder and colder to thrive.
Despite his grizzled face, many scars, dead eyes, and unseemly facial hair, Griger, a sword for hire since before the Great Plague, had always thrived.
Sighing, Griger left the window and walked over to the door; three brisk paces. He threaded his arms through the bars and tried his best to look up the corridor. In the cells across from him, other men, their faces dirty and white, cowered, waiting for their judgement.
Their open fear disgusted Griger.
Cowards.
Griger wasn’t afraid to die. Dying was easy; you closed your eyes and went to sleep. Living...living was hard, every day a knock down, drag out fight for dominance against something. Outlaws, nature, your own inner darkness. He did not seek death, but he welcomed it. The prospect of a noose tightening around his neck, of his body jerking and dancing before many jeering eyes and spitting mouths, however, almost bothered him.
But as a wise old man he once knew had said, This too shall pass.
A sardonic smile touched Griger’s chapped lips and he shook his head like a man who couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Of all the things he’d done in his life to deserve a hanging, self-defense is what did him in. Ha.
Two weeks ago, he was following the river from the North, on foot and alone save for his sword and his rucksack. He stopped at a tide pool to drink, and was beset by a man with a knife. In his frock coat and rubberized boots, he was too well dressed to be a highwayman; he never spoke a word until he lay in the grass, his throat laid open and gushing rich red blood. “Scoundrel,” he gurgled.
Griger relieved him of his boots and pocketbook and carried on. Before dusk, he came across the village and rented a room at the inn. Women in cheap, homespun dresses haunted the halls, knocking at doors to sell their company, and Griger, lying in bed by the flickering light of a lamp, was considering spending the rest of the money on one when three constables broke down the door.
The man he killed, they told him later, was the son of the mayor. At that moment, Griger knew he was in trouble.
They refused to believe that the son attacked first and pointed to the things Griger had taken from his as proof of overland piracy, theft, and murder. He was tried in a packed courtroom and found guilty, standing tall and proud but alone as no lawyer in the land would take his case.
Out in the courtyard, someone shouted, and a team of horses neighed, Griger, sitting on the edge of his cot, looked up at the window. The light was getting weaker as night approached. Shadows, long and black, fell through the slats and made unwholesome shapes across the earthen floor. Down the hall, a man cried out for water, and elsewhere, someone raked a metal cup back and forth across the bars. Would they hang him tonight, Griger wondered, or would they wait for dawn?
“You,” someone spat.
Griger looked up to find the mayor standing at the bars, his bloated face filled with hatred. Another man was with him, this one taller and thinner. They were both clad in the finest garments, but the stranger was undoubtedly better suited. Griger took him for a government official.
“What do you want?” Griger asked, an edge in his voice.
The mayor opened his mouth to speak, but the stranger silenced him. “My name is Urick Farbin. I’m the governor of Ezk Province and I have a proposition for you.”
“What’s that?”
Farbin flashed a tight smile.
It looked to Griger like he wouldn’t be hanged at all.
And that made him smile.
***
Griger watched the countryside pass slowly by, all green hills, trickling brooks, and dense thickets. The occasional straw hut loomed out of the wilderness like an antsy thief, and six miles out of the village, they passed a stately manor house that could only have belonged to the mayor.
It was mid-afternoon and the overcast day wrapped itself around Griger like a wet blanket. The previous night, Governor Farbin sprang Griger from his cell and brought him to the inn, where he was kept under armed guard. Griger spent most of the evening in a straight back chair and whittling. You don’t have to worry, he said to the sentry standing at the door, I’m not going anywhere.
And he wasn’t. He was not an honor bound man by any stretch, but Farbin saved his life, and Griger reckoned that earned him a little loyalty.
The guards didn’t stand down, but Griger didn’t blame them. He wouldn’t have either.
In the morning, they set off in a horse drawn carriage, heading northwest along the Western Road. Now, hours later, Griger sat next to the Governor, who wore a dark cloak and wide-brimmed hat befitting his office. Beside him, the driver held the reins and stared ahead with the practiced indifference of a man used to tuning out things he wasn’t supposed to hear.
“Will you explain to me what I’m doing?” Griger asked.
Farbin was quiet for a moment, then he looked up at the sky, the muted light bathing his craggy features. “Your file says that you’ve done work for the Government.”
“Some,” Griger replied.
“You’ve handled things of a singular nature,” the old man continued. “Things that most other men have never dreamed possible.”
Gringer nodded. He had. His only oath was to himself, and he worked for whoever paid him the highest sum. Men like him were called mercenaries but he preferred to think of himself as a businessman.
“There’s a matter in a nearby village that has been ongoing for quite some time,” Farbin said, picking his words carefully. “I have sent my best agents and they’ve done nothing for it. When the paperwork on you came to my office, I checked your name, as I do all condemned men, and knew at once that you were the man for this job.”
Griger was almost touched. “What’s the job?”
The Governor turned to face Griger, his expression bloodless and sober, as though he had something great yet terrible to impart upon him. “Do you believe in werewolves?”
“Yes,” he said, “I do.”
“Have you ever killed one?”
Griger hesitated. “No,” he said, “not personally, but I was with a party that did.”
Five years before, Griger wintered in a village among the steep foothills guarding the forbidding expanse of Mount Grez. In the deepest, darkest days of the freeze, local livestock began to die, ripped asunder and strewn across snowy fields like trash. Wolf tracks larger than any Griger had ever seen led to and from each scene, and at night, high, ghostly howls rose above the shrieking wind, curdling the blood of even the most sturdy men.
After a watchman on patrol was attacked and gutted in the main square, the men of the village banded together and tracked the beast, eventually cornering it in a cave near a frozen river. Even if he lived to be a thousand, Griger would never forget the monster they encountered. Seven feet tall, coated in matted gray fur, its face canine yet human, its eyes blazed with the fires of hell, and as the men approached, it snapped and snarled, the sounds it made so close to words that even now, Griger wondered if it were trying to speak. They beset it with swords and torches, and when the dust settled, five men were dead and three were wounded. The wolf lay crumpled on the ground, decapitated and aflame. Even with no head, even with its heart divorced from its body, it screeched as the fire consumed it, a high, hitching wail that haunted Griger’s dreams for many moons after.
Farbin nodded. “I figured as much. A man as well-travelled as you has to have seen such things.”
He went on to explain that a suspected werewolf was loose in the countryside around the village of Koreth, a tiny fishing port on the sloped and muddy banks of the Rey River. Three weeks before, sheep and horses began to turn up dead, their bodies laid open and their intestines pulled from their stomachs. Before long, travellers along the Western Road started to die in a similar manner. Every time a new victim appeared, officials found large wolf tracks and strands of fur nearby.
Several nights ago, it broke into the home of a land baron and killed him, his wife, and his daughter. His young son survived, but was blinded in one eye.
‘It was a massive beast,’ the boy told the Governor, a personal friend of the baron. ‘It stood seven feet tall, was as wide as it was long, and had the snarling face of a man mixed with a dog.’
“You want me to kill it,” Griger said. It was not a question.
“Yes.”
The carriage jostled as its big wheels splashed through ruts and puddles. “And in return…?”
“You’ll get a full and unconditional pardon.”
Hmm. Griger considered the offer carefully, even though he was in no position to bargain. “Alright,” he said at last, “I’ll do it.”
They arrived at the village three hours later. Perched on the banks of the lazy river, it seemed a single estate rather than a town. A stone wall, roughly a dozen feet high, enclosed it, pitched roofs visible beyond. Two guards in helmets and chainmail, swords on their hips and crossbows in their hands, stood at the gate, their expressions stony and as hardscrabble as the fields sloping away from the walls.
Inside, tiny buildings lined narrow dirt streets and people in plain, homespun clothes went about their business, pushing carts, hawking vegetables, and playing dice. Old men sat in canned chairs before the town pub and a group of boys chased each other back and forth through shadowed warrens, their faces smudged and weatherbeaten beyond their years. Chickens and pigs, both plump and hale, ran free, the former flapping their impotent wings and the latter snorting happily as they wallowed and shat. Griger spotted a blacksmith in his quarters, striking an anvil with a hammer, and wondered idly if he had any interesting items for sale.
“The people here are stubborn and refuse to flee,” Farbin said.
Griger faced forward. “These types usually are.”
“You are not to worry about their safety,” Farbin warned. “They can see to themselves. Your only concern is to be the wolf.”
“Understood.”
The driver parked near the town inn and tied the horse to a hitching post while Griger and Farbin got out. Griger rolled his neck and flexed his shoulders. After so many years of walking wherever he went, he was unaccustomed to sitting for long periods and inevitably ended any long, stationary trek sore.
Past the batwing doors, a shadowy lobby lit by candlelight greeted them. Farbin led Griger directly up the stairs and to a tidy room with a single, neatly made bed and a desk beneath the window. “These are your quarters,” Farbin said.
“Spacious,” Griger said unsarcastically. He sat on the edge of the bed. “What leads do you have on this wolf?”
“None beyond what I’ve told you,” Farbn said. “My men have scoured the countryside but they haven’t found a thing.”
Griger hummed. “No tracks? Droppings? Nothing at all?”
“Not beyond what I’ve told you.”
That was odd. Werewolves rarely strayed far from their den. Unless they were of the rare half-breed that turned upon the cycle of the moon, man at day and beast by night. But those were as common as an honest man in the High Council - not very damned common at all.
“What are you thinking?” Farbin asked.
Griger said what was on his mind.
“But those aren’t real,” the Governor said, a hint of confusion in his voice.
“I tell you they are.”
Farbin’s brow furrowed with incredulity. “A man cannot simply change his form, nor can a wolf, for that matter. It goes against all logic.”
All Griger could do was spread his hands. That a man - even a large one - could transform into a werewolf (and that a werewolf could shrink back to the size of a mere man) did defy logic. Griger could not account for it, but he knew it to be so, and he said as much. Farbin, shaken by the confidence in Griger’s tone, nervously scratched the back of his neck and looked constipated. “Put aside what you think you know and ask yourself. What if it is a wolf-man?”
“But what if it isn’t?” Farbin countered.
Griger ticked his head to the side in acquiescence. “Maybe it’s not. Maybe your men have failed to uncover a den large enough to house a seven foot tall monster. Maybe they’ve been looking up each other’s backsides instead of where they should be.”
A dark shadow flickered across Farbin’s face. “My men are highly trained and highly skilled.”
“That’s why you came to me.”
Farbin fumed. “I came to you because you have experience in such things.”
“Right,” Griger said. “I do. And I’m telling you - in my expert opinion - that if there is no den, the wolf is a changeling. I cannot explain the science behind how and why it is a changeling. I don’t know how it can happen...but it does. You have to consider the possibility that you are looking for a phantom, that your wolf may be out there right this second ploughing a field or herding sheep and not asleep in a cave waiting to be found and made.”
Farbin turned away and put his hands on his hips. No shoulder had ever been colder, and for a second, Griger thought the old man was going to send him back to the gallows. “Alright,” Farbin finally said, “suppose it is a half-breed. What then?”
“I want to see where the latest attack happened.”
A half an hour later, Griger and Farbin stood before a large stone house with a slate roof and wide windows. A dirt drive looped around an ornate fountain and tall trees rustled in the new breeze. Several Provincial Guardsmen accompanied them, all with swords and crossbows and one, the commander, with a rare flintlock on his hip. Farbin led Gringer to the west side of the structure. “The wolf came in through the servants’ entrance,” he explained. A set of paw prints led to the door and Gringer knelt to study them. Roughly half a foot apart, they were slightly larger than any other he had seen.
Inside, the house was dark and cold, shadows clustered in corners like demons waiting for the fall of night to advance their ghoulish aims. Dried blood stained the wooden floors and spackled the bare walls. “Has anyone seen this creature and lived but the boy?”
Farbin shook his head. “No.” His face was white and strained, the somber, funeral atmosphere affecting him.
“You’ve told me everything?”
“Yes.”
Griger nodded to himself. If the wolf were a changeling, someone, somewhere likely would have seen it coming or going. That was a strike against his theory. On the other hand, there were likely dozens of isolated farms and homesteads scattered through the surrounding countryside. The wolf could be anyone from anywhere.
“I want to talk to the locals,” Griger said as he and Farbin walked back to the carriage.
“Right.”
“I’ll also need a team of men at my disposal,” Griger said. “And a sword.”
They were sitting across from each other in the carriage’s enclosed cab. Without, the sky was beginning to cool to purple and evening gloom stealthy crept from the forest. “We’ll get you one.”
“It must be made with silver,” Griger said.
Farbin frowned. “Silver is a poor alloy for sword-making.”
“But it’s the only alloy for werewolf killing,” Griger said. “It shouldn’t be made entirely of silver, but there must be some in it, the more, the better.
Farbin nodded that he understood.
By the time they made it back to the village, full dark had fallen. The streets stood deserted, the animals locked up for the night and most of the people hunkered in their homes. A few guards walked the lanes and dooyards, bows and swords at the ready, and a stray cat with no tail slunk furtively between piles of refuse, its ears laid flat against its skull and its fur matted and crisscrossed with scars from battles past.
The only activity was at the pub attached to the inn, where lights burned in the segmented windows and the chatter of many voices drifted into the street, occasionally flaring in laughter or song. Apparently, those hearty souls refused to let a wolf stand between them and their end-of-day festivities.
Griger’s respect for them increased.
Before entering, Farbin and Griger called on the blacksmith, a burly man with a bald head and a mustache that reminded Griger of walruses he had killed and eaten at the top of the world. Griger explained his need and impressed upon the man a sense of urgency. “I need it as soon as you can possibly have it ready.”
The blacksmith nodded gamely. “I’ll have it by dawn.”
Farbin took out his purse and paid, then they made their way to the inn.
Inside, a roaring fire crackled in the stone hearth and lamps on the walls sent shadows flickering across the floor. A dozen men sat at the bar with stines of beer and a half dozen more occupied the many tables in the middle of the room. A barkeep kept the drinks flowing while a pretty waitress with her blonde hair done up in an elaborate braid like a golden tiara brought trays of beer and pretzels to the tables.
Griger and Farbin sat at an empty table near the fireplace and Farbin removed his gloves. “Men will make merry even while the world burns around them,” he mused.
“Why not,” Griger said, “they can’t do it in the grave.”
The women came over and they ordered a pitcher of beer and a sandwich each. While they waited, Griger went to every man one-by-one and asked them about the wolf. They responded, to a man, with an eye roll or a dismissive laugh. None were worried in the slightest. One man lifted his brow in a pitying sort of way and looked Griger up and down as though he were mad. “Werewolves? Why, those were banished from the Realm centuries ago, it’s all much ado about nothing.”
“It’s a big wolf,” the barkeep said, “and dangerous too, that much is fact. But it’s a lot of hysteria. People today are too goddamn soft. In my time, we had wolves and bears too. If they acted out of line, we hunted them down and cut their heads off.”
The last man Griger came to was a wispy, white-haired oldster with rheumy eyes and three days’ worth of stubble covering his angular chin. Baggy brown clothes, old and wrinkled and caked in the dirt of the field, hung slack from his scrawny frame, and his long, spindly fingers threaded through the handle of his mug like fleshless bone. If Griger had ever seen a man who bore the official title “Town Drunk” he wouldn’t look the part any more than the old man.
Before Griger could ask him a single question, he spoke in a rusty voice that conjured images of graveyard gates in the dark Province of Helem. “I seen it,” he said, “and it weren’t no regular wolf neither.”
The barkeep sniffed. “You see lots of things, Sel. Like them little pink elephants.”
A wave of mean-spirited laughter ran through the bar, and Sel’s jaw clenched. Griger sensed that Sel was often made sport of at the bar.
Ignoring the other, Griger asked, “You’ve seen it?”
Sel nodded and held up three fingers. “Thrice, in fact,” he said with a belch.
“Tell me.”
The old timer looked up at him with a twist of suspicion. “Down by the road leadin’ up,” he said.
“All three times?”
“All three times,” Sel confirmed.
Once a mason, Sel had moved to the village ten years before to try his hand at farming, he explained. His homestead, comprising five acres, a tumbledown barn, and a decomposing shack masquerading as a house, sat below the walls, in a hollow between the hill and the river. Many nights, he sat on the front porch and “communed with the King” (King Rum, Griger assumed). From that perch, he witnessed “The damned beast” loping toward town. “The first time, I seen’t it over in the road,” he said, pronouncing road as rud. “I have good eyesight and I knew right off it weren’t normal, so I jumped outta my chair and ducked down real low so ways he couldn’t see me.”
Sel couldn’t provide a description of the wolf beyond “near eight damn feet tall and built like a mountain” but Griger didn’t need one. The old man’s story supported his supposition that the wolf was coming from somewhere else and not a den in the hills. Why would it come down the middle of the road each time? The only thing to the south was the river and open fields dotted by stands of forest, all of which Farbin’s men had already searched.
Werewolves are nocturnal creatures who sequester themselves somewhere dark and dry during the day. Farbin’s men should have found it by now. That they hadn’t suggested that it was a changeling.
Thanking Sel for his help, Griger went back to the table and sat across from Farbin. “The baron’s house lies in the direction of the river,” he said, more to himself than to the Governor. “What of the other attacks?”
“Mainly in that area,” Farbin said, “why?”
“The changeling - and that’s what it is - comes from across the river. How many homesteads are there beyond the banks?”
“At least two dozen,” Farbin said.
Griger crossed his arms and thought for a moment. “I want your men, tomorrow, out there going door to door with garlic. Make everyone they come across smell it and anyone who sneezes is put under watch.”
The Governor looked stricken. “But...why?”
“Changelings are allergic to garlic,” Griger said.
Farbin pursed his lips in contemplation. “Alright,” he said, “I’ll have them start at first light.”
After dining, they adjourned to their rooms, Farbin on one side of the hall and Griger on the other. A team of six Guardsmen took up position in the empty saloon and kept watch, ready to roll out at a moment’s notice. Griger threw the window open and perched on the ledge, the night breeze washing over him and rustling his graying hair. He rolled a cigarette, lit it with the bedside candle, and looked up at the glowing face of the waxing moon. Tomorrow night it would be full and the changeling would be compelled to turn and hunt as the tide was compelled to crest. It could come tonight still, but unless it was killed, it would return tomorrow for certain, mad with bloodlust.
Well past midnight, Griger blew out the candle and retired. The mattress was far too soft and it took him nearly a half hour of tossing, turning, and muttering curses to himself to find a position he liked. Once he did, he fell into a light sleep from which he was aroused near dawn by a knock at the door. One of the guards informed him that the blacksmith was finished with his sword, and after dressing, he and Farbin went to collect it. Comprising a simple blade with a guard and a grip, it was far from the most opulent weapon Griger had ever wielded, but it was well-suited to his needs and fit comfortably in his hand.
Back at the inn, Farbin gathered every available man under his command, including the constable and his three deputies, and ordered them to sweep the countryside as Griger had suggested the night before. They showed no reaction despite their lord’s strange request, and departed in a single file line.
The saloon opened for breakfast at six and Griger and Farbin each had a plate of eggs, bacon, and beans. People began to drift in as they ate, Sel the Drunkard at the head of the pack. The maiden, who quartered somewhere upstairs, came down in a simple white dress beneath a waist apron, and Griger’s eyes tracked her as she carried out her functions. The dress - loose and high cut - revealed nothing of her bosom, but pulled tight across her bottom when she leaned over to set food and coffee in front of her guests. Their gazes met, and her eyes flicked quickly away like two timid minnows in a fish bowl.
She was beautiful.
She reminded him of someone.
His mind went back to the jagged mountains atop the world, to a little cabin where weary travellers waited out the snowstorms that raged sometimes for weeks in the winter. There, in one of the most isolated outposts of the Realm, lived a woman Griger had known. She was tall and gaunt whereas the barmaid was average and healthy, her hair was black to the maiden’s blonde, but their eyes were the same breathtaking hazel. Now, staring at his plate, his chest stirred in a way that it hadn’t in years.
He didn’t like it.
“...else,” Farbin was saying.
“Yeah,” Griger said, as though he knew what Farbin had said. Now, the woman he loved one winter was on his mind and his mood was verging on foul. He recalled the way her hair brushed the creamy slope of her throat when she turned her head, the sound of her laughter, how her heels dug into his behind, urging him deeper unto her.
He was young, then, and a fool. People, he learned later, come and people go. Loving someone...indeed even hating them...was pointless, for in a breath of summer wind, they’re gone.
After finishing with breakfast, Farbin requested a metal tub be filled with water so that he could bathe. While he did that, Griger threaded his sword through his belt and walked down to the river, keeping his eyes open for wolf tracks. He spotted a few in the dirt edging the road, all pointing in the direction from which he had just come, and squatted down to examine one more closely.
Just before reaching the water, Sel’s farm appeared on the right, the main house seeming to sag in the middle as though under the burden of years and the field out back overgrown and gone to seed. The place looked as though it had died, come back to life, then died again. The screen door, which naturally hung askew, banged open, and Sel himself backed out butt first, a ceramic pot in his hands. He turned, saw Griger, and hesitated, then ducked his head and scurried down the stairs, disappearing around the side of the house Griger lingered a moment, then followed, tangles of grass pulling at his boots. In the back, a clear patch boasted several pots like the one Sel had come out with, each blossoming with an assortment of multicolored flowers. Sel knelt before one and heaped rich soil in with his hands. A gust of wind flipped his lank, white hair back and forth, and a satisfied smile played at the corners of his thin mouth.
“You garden?” Griger asked.
Sel shot him a dirty look. “I do,” he said, a defensive edge in his voice. He stopped, favored the flowers with a sober look, and added, “These plants are the only friends I’ve got.” He chuckled self-consciously.
“Plants seem like they’d make poor friends,” Griger said. “When the first frost comes, they leave you.”
Sel ticked his head to one side in acquiescence. “Tis better to have loved and lost than not to have loved at all.”
An image of the girl at the top of the world flashed across Griger’s mind, and for a moment he could feel, feel, her presence. “I don’t believe that,” Griger said. “Loss is hard for a man who’s known love.”
“Still better than never knowing it at all,” Sel said and got stiffly to his feet. He dusted his hands on his pants.
“You’ve never lost someone,” Griger said.
“You’ve never loved someone,” Sel countered.
Griger stiffened. Mouthy old bastard, yes I have.
“What do you want?” Sel asked.
“I wanted to ask you about the werewolf.”
Sel’s face crinkled. “I told you everything I know.” He started walking back to the front of the house, and Griger fell in beside him.
“Is there anywhere around here you think a werewolf might live?” Griger asked. “Caves? Dens? Anything.”
“There’s some caves about,” Sel said, “other than that, I can’t say.”
They were on the porch now, Sel holding the door open.
“Can you tell me your story one more time?” Griger asked. “Maybe it might jog something you forgot.”
Sel sighed. “I don’t have nothin’, okay?”
He started to go inside, but Griger stopped him. “Please?”
The old man looked at him, then sighed. “Fine. Come in.”
They sat in Sel’s tiny and cluttered parlor. The furniture was as old and threadbare as the man who owned it, and the simple walls were crowded with old photos, many of them featuring a smiling woman with dark hair. She looked nothing like the girl at the top of the world, but Griger was reminded of her anyway. “Your wife?” he asked.
Sel, seated in an armchair across from him, busied himself pouring Griger a cup of tea. “Yes,” he said shortly.
From his tone - and the woman’s absence - Griger inferred that she was dead. “I’m sorry.”
Sel’s hand shook as he pushed the cup across the table. “So am I,” he said.
“Children?” Griger asked.
“Three,” Sel said. “Two boys and a girl.” Tears crept into the old man’s faded eyes and he fixed his gaze on a point over Griger’s shoulder. Open displays of emotion made Griger uncomfortable, and he shifted in his seat, sorry that he had brought the topic up. “We were married thirty years,” Sel said. His lips trembled and Griger thought he was going to break down crying. Instead, he smiled. “Those were good years.”
Griger nodded to himself. “I bet.”
He must not have sounded convincing, because Sel creased his brow. “Are you married?”
“No.”
“Ever loved someone?”
“No.”
Sel looked at him with a frank directness that bordered on mind-reading, and though it wasn’t possible, Griger could almost imagine the old man was seeing into his mind...and his heart. “You’re a liar.”
Griger considered his reply for a long time. “When I was a boy,” he said. “I thought I was in love.”
“What happened?”
Perhaps the old man had cast some kind of pall over him...or maybe he was in a rare mood...but Griger heard himself answer honestly. “I left her.”
A heavy silence lay between them.
“You left her?”
Griger nodded. “I moved on. She had her ways and I had mine. I didn’t see us working.”
“You regret it.”
“Yes,” Griger responded instantly. “I wish I tried.”
Sel nodded understandingly. “All boys make mistakes. Some are just luckier than others, I reckon.” He laughed, his posture relaxing, and Griger realized he was starting to like the old bastard.
“True,” he said. “Now your story…”
Sighing, Sel lifted a hand. “I don’t have much ways else to say.” He ran through his story just as he had before, with no additions or subtractions.
Griger nodded that he was satisfied, and got to his feet. “That’ll be all.”
Sel walked him to the door and stuck out his hand. “That damned thing’s a monster,” he said as they shook, “you watch yourself.”
“I can handle a werewolf,” Griger assured him.
Later on, after returning to the inn, Griger and Farbin rode out to meet the men on the other side of the river, catching up to them at a fork in the road. “No one’s sneezed or broken out, sire,” Farbin’s second-in-command, a tall, rodent-faced man, reported.
“Expand the dragnet,” Griger said.
Rat-face looked at Farbin for confirmation, and the Governor nodded.
They would find the wolf...or the wolf would find them.
Griger wanted the former, but would settle for the latter.
If he had to.
2023.03.20 16:22 Snow_Goose_628_1 WHEELS
 | Careful everyone. I lost all 4 wheels at the Hilton Garden Inn in Linthicum Maryland. 2023 XSE. The hotel does the whole park here and we will shuttle you to and from the airport. Never again. I will pay the extra money at the airport. submitted by Snow_Goose_628_1 to Camry [link] [comments] |
2023.03.20 08:56 xexorian In response to asmongold's "honest thoughts" I thought I'd share too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RNrCRjZO0M
So below is my list of stuff I'd like to see/thoughts I had watching asmongold's video, thanks for reading and I hope you all have a blast playing this game. I sincerely hope they can keep all forms of P2W out of the game (last point contains spoilers and I ramble a bit more at the end, please bear with me!)
POSSIBLE SPOILERS
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POSSIBLE SPOILERS
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POSSIBLE SPOILERS
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POSSIBLE SPOILERS
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LAST WARNING!!!
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My friend asked me where's big D if it's a Diablo game, and all I said was... he's right at the beginning. People forget the lore behind the prime evils, and how they're master manipulators... also seem to have forgotten the end of RoS and the dialogue when you beat malthael.. I think we'll see more of said wolf, and the black soul stone fragments(or something to that effect). Lilith is a distraction IMO and I'm already seeing all the foreshadowing during the main campaign. Even Lorath's dialogue near the end is sus. Just look at the giant armor you can interact with during/after Vigo's quest. Look at what that leads to. Pretty quick foreshadowing/reveal but I think the long one we'll be waiting on is gonna definitely be the sus Bloodied Wolf. He specifically talks about diablo mocking at how things turned out, scoffs at the horadrim and foretells their downfall, brings up tristram, opens hell portals and just 'knows things', something prime evils are known for, calls lilith's "little rebellion" like he's her older uncle or something, it just all makes sense that's the prime evil.. even when going to black lake you hear a clank sound and your character says something to the effect of 'shit im being followed' when you're own your way to rathma's temple basically. I'm pretty sure big D is the wolf. Probably had other plans for following you to black lake, maybe even with Rathma's "stuff" left behind. We'll see though. I don't know if the angels or demons are that aware of the giant cosmic snake god, don't recall any specific references they make to it, but it's in rathma's writings even in the game already, and inarius' overall attitude towards things seems pretty bitter. I did get nervous when he approached my character and when my dude stood up to him and retorted I was like fuck yeah, screw inarius and the church of light lol. Just another cult if you ask me. But he's also known to manipulate mortals on a vast scale just as much as the triune does/did.
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POSSIBLE SPOILERS above please start from TOP
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tldr; love this game so far, hope it turns out great in the end, but we'll have to see how the 50-70+ experience plays out. I hope there's enough content for us to grind on without getting burnt out trying to hit max level and playing with paragon. I know there's 100+ dungeons in the game or something to that effect, but I can already see them making an expansion or DLC as well.
people often forget what blizzard does in their in-house development - they usually make great outstanding tools for making their games, and because of that have a lot more hands on with making things work nicely - imagine what the diablo 4 version of warcraft 3's world editor must be like. With such a high quality bar being set, you know the editor they used internally must be nuts. I imagine they can add new stats, powers, anything they want really pretty quickly. They've probably gone as far as making some really awesome database support / toolkit as well for managing new content they may want to add. Those who are familiar with WC3 World edit will know what I mean with adding variables/custom scripts/etc. If you were advanced in that you could do quite a lot, hell there's a D2 remake and SC remake in Wc3r as well that's actually pretty solid given the single-person developer of custom map/limitations of the wc3 engine itself. Also, at least the servers don't seem to be hosted by AWS - if they were - we wouldn't have even gotten through the queues. I hope people can really chill tf out and stop acting like we haven't seen like a hundred failed launches/full releases and really god awful queus.. mortal online 2 had like queues that took 40+ hours. Star citizen is pretty awful for their year+ long 3.18 patch, and EVERYTHING broke, with many gameplay breaking bugs, I could make a fucking dozen more examples but I'm just saying there are FAR WORSE launch experiences and yall need to remember this was like the first open beta and the fact I had a 64 min queue actually get through in like 20 mins was a huge breathe of fresh air, the only real complaint was adding discord's stupid bugginess with streams ontop of that which made me give up trying to stream it after a few hours of going through the queue due to d/cing and having issues with discord. Which is not the game's fault. Each time the queues got better, and they fixed a duplication glitch relatively quickly even during the beta, so they have teams obviously fixing things in real time which takes other devs whole ass weeks or months to even do. I hope they can keep up the pace and this isn't just a result of 'all hands on deck' and employee burnout making miracles happen in the short term.
Overall I'd say a 8.5~ if they can't fix the QOL issues like the map completionist things, having to re-explore everything shouldn't be a character thing OR seasonal thing - it should DEFINITELY be account wide, I'd knock the game a whole point and a half just for that, but also there's some other stuff to address with the UI and again like asmon said, maybe that's just a me thing but there's some work with inputs they could do like modifier+button combinations should be a thing, I mean cmon.
Also like having a 'wardrobe' but for skills and equipment at the stash would be nice - also having a stash in all the small towns would be nice, since it should be closer and not so far away like it is with the main town.. (up in the inn with the paths not being straight shots to the buildings nearby..) - and things like invisible walls happened a few times, minor bugs, nothing super gamebreaking..
Overall all the positives so far vastly outstrip the few annoyances or minor details.. and finally, I'll say it again. I really need a private zone option for when I wanna do me stuff and not have other people running around taking my enemy packs before I can get to them, the area in Kor is split up into like 5 microscopic sub zones and you don't get credit for everything killed in the area, just when ur in that very small sub zone with others (like the chancelory vs the cathedral area, its like 30 feet away and all in the same event area...) which is really quite dumb. I hope other areas and zones aren't like this with "micro zones" where people can basically grief a grinding rotation without even realizing it. I also did not think for one second there wasn't enough stuff in the open world until then and then shortly after I tried going to crucible on foot from veles and the whole zone didn't populate until I was almost in crucible - so there's still a few server side things they need to get sorted with the load.
BLIZZARD: Remember Blizzard, you're still on you're last leg here (I, and many others, are 110% in the F bobby kotick boat, this is like your last chance at redemption for us), if you still plan to add any form of p2w you're not only gonna lose me but I'd wager like 75-90% of this community and all you'll have left are bots and RMT cheaters/meta gamers with 1%'er wallets. Keep the game clean from all MTX, and fix the few issues prior to launch for the sake of your customers. BAN hackers/cheaters/botters with keyword here being immediately<--. It's not hard. People want a fair experience. No botters. No hackers. It's that or we all quit due to no SP and the BS toxic players doing said stuff.
I look forward to next weekend's beta and hope they can sort out the few server issues/hitching and people disconnecting in kyovashad/from streaming.
submitted by xexorian to diablo4 [link] [comments]
So below is my list of stuff I'd like to see/thoughts I had watching asmongold's video, thanks for reading and I hope you all have a blast playing this game. I sincerely hope they can keep all forms of P2W out of the game (last point contains spoilers and I ramble a bit more at the end, please bear with me!)
- account wide exploration, statues, waypoints, fog of war, etc. (more details in 5.)
- better keybind support - some people want to use a stick for movement and mouse for aim/targeting/skills (side buttons) (swapping currently causes some hitching when there's lots of stuff going on - option to disable tooltip changes when using multiple inputs, ie; gamepad+m&kb)
- itemization isn't complete - many powers I'm just now seeing, are really strong, for example I have a power for %dmg at max resource, %dmg when I have barrier, adds barrier when I hit an elite every 30s, lucky hits give barrier, 70% faster basic attacks, etc. some of this is huge. For example; in kor stronghold/zone event area I found an item with +%dmg when dual wielding, and +%imbued skill dmg which was totally new and I started seeing other new modifiers on lv 30 mobs there that weren't present at lower tier
- I believe there's a mechanic to randomize the dungeons into like nightmare dungeons or something with new random layouts and modifiers. Some dungeons seemed to have different layouts than my friends when I ran them - try resetting dungeons and entering a few.. haven't confirmed 100%.
- UI is incomplete - let me see a list of what waypoints, shrines, etc that I've missed, I still can't find the 23rd dungeon in act 1...
- They need to have some chat updates ingame, finding information on twitter from random xyz blizz dev is a pain in the ass.
- scale boss dmg way down if you're gonna allow newbs to show up at a world boss -- or lock the world bosses to the zone range (it says Level 25+ in crucible yet people were all level 10-15 and getting totally wiped out and I saw many groups failing..) many ways to possibly address this, so Blizz needs to look into that or we'll have a continuation of toxicity like that seen in lost ark when it comes to world bosses. Clans will take up all 12 slots in a zone specifically to not deal with the BS low levels making the event undoable.
- Let me go to a zone in a singleplayer like mode, I absolutely get frustrated if I'm trying to find a grind rotation and there's a ton of people there running around like chickens with their heads cut off, I tried to explain to them even without grouping u can share xp/loot if ur just nearby and while a few would follow and we'd get a nice train going, people doing their quests in kor would pop in and start messing it up, so highly frustrating and right now I would say in the future I might look into buying 11 more accounts with d3 just to lock all the randos out of an area I want to farm specifically. That's about the only p2w aspect I could identify at the moment. Just gimme a SP or private party invite only experience when I want it.
- I think it's just you asmon, there were plenty of powers I picked through as a rogue and at the moment I'm so OP I can face tank any boss including the world boss due to the amount of defense and stats I have optimized atm. I only have 69 thorns and I can sit in kor event area and everything dies before it can kill me unless it's an elite, an entire pack of ghouls will kill themselves before I'm even remotely close to dead... it's pretty absurd how tanky you can get - not to mention how much damage potential you can get up to even at 25. I'm now at the point of one shotting entire cellers in 4 clicks, pop dark shroud, pop shadow imbuement, left click > apply vulnerable, right click > flurry explode the entire pack surrounding me.
- you can LOS ranged enemies except specific ones like large spiders tend to run away and skitter to much, most non-beast ranged will give chase and come around the corner, great for lining up aoe on them since they like to spread and strafe.
- Combat/Control schemes; I personally like the slightly more tactical feel I had between levels 8-24. It felt great once I bound Force Move to R so I could literally dodge things, I wish I could bind CTRL+LMB or something to force move or separate my targeting from movement by having WASD for movement as an option.
- blizzard PLEASE make your ultimate a separate key, many of my friends and I said the same thing, an 'ultimate' button would be nice, we desparately want to keep our 6 other buttons, make ult it's own thing if people want to spec for it. This will not only incentivize it but also I think would feel better - THAT SAID - we don't know what will change with sacred items, unique items in tier 3, or ascended items and 'high uniques' in world tier 4. Legendary powers are called aspects. Legendarys feel like 'dungeon gear' in classic wow, significant upgrades - rares should roll with 5 affixes more often.
- Streaming discord w/ nitro and changing my settings and everything would also consistently lead to a crash, don't know why this is happening but we really need to get the game streaming properly on high end hardware. Not only that, but it starts hitching the game and locks the cursowindows up while the game still runs and so you just die to stupid shit cuz u tried streaming it to your friends. Should really figure out if that's a discord thing or diablo 4 thing, but I've also seen it happening on some other games, might even be an nvidia driver update issue even though as of writing im still having problems w/ fully updated windows, discord fresh install, and latest drivers from nv.
- UI QOL aside, please make a gem tab in our personal inventory and let all gems go there. it's hyper annoying they take up my precious inventory slots and make me go back to town even quicker when they don't vendor for much and I can't just leave them on the ground.... Make them vendor for a lot more like 500 gold instead of 2 or 4.... and/or please give them their own space in your bags, like all your other salvage mats.
- salvage mats and gems and aspects should be account wide. I never extracted enough at once to fill my aspect powers tab but I really hope there's a scroll bar that pops up and we're not limited to having just a few single-use aspect powers on reserve.
- explain why some powers are different on armor or 1h weapons and far stronger on 2h weapons? For example arrow storm does 1058 dmg on 2h, but half that on ring or 1h weapons. For example; basic attacks deal %Dmg is halved on my 1h weapons but doubled on 2h... - there's no explanation for this presented anywhere
- secret of the spring quest should teach players how to emote and customize emotes, I must've sat there for 15-20 minutes before it dawned on me there was a big fat customize button I was overlooking while confused about this quest in the E menu that I must've skimmed over. Every single friend I had also didn't realize that.
- Your neighbors video bombed you doing some gardening and that was funny.
- there's a spec of dust or something that's bright in your left eyebrow and once I saw it I couldn't unsee it the whole time I was trying to pay attention to what you said while I just wanted to wipe it off your brow and I was probably getting a lot more anxiety over it that I should've let myself but yeah..
- blizzard did good but the world boss fixes, and maybe adjust the UI a bit in the M world map - sometimes opening the map would take me straight to rewards or the "W" menu you can open when u mouse over fractured peaks - this wasn't obvious to me at first and I had to just spam keys trying to open the map to figure out there was a little tooltip showing up only when I then moved my mouse over the map, so I think this is a lot of us getting used to a new system and learning but also that could be like highlighted in red since it's so small and be more noticeable, also they should fix up that completionist stuff to be account wide as stated and also let us click on things to see what we're missing, that way I can go look it up and finish my exploration/completion of a zone after spending nearly 4 hours exploring every nook and cranny I still missed 4 side quests *somewhere* nothing is showing up on my map - also please make it so if there's a side quest giving item explored by revealing the fog of war, you should put a marker there basically saying hey there's something here to interact with, I would also like to see if ANY items are left on the ground and exactly where, a little blue, white, yellow pip should suffice, I don't want to just see legendary+ that I missed. I NEED my GOLD .. OKAY?!
- Overall I mostly agree with your sentiment, but I don't have that much worry about the itemization/build defining aspect you mention - I have a strong inkling that we'll see more there we can't see with just the 1-25 experience after seeing the world tier descriptions, tooltips during load screens, and the new powers like %imbued skill dmg and %dmg while dual wielding which were totally new once I equipped them they also showed up on my stats window. (in other words, there's some obfuscation going on with how many stats we're seeing and what's actually in the game when u inspect ur character to read about those stats.)
- Silent Chests dropped 'horse armor' for my friend but after opening nearly 7 of them I still hadn't got one, some of my friends were seeing multiple treasure goblins and 'other spawns' where it took me until sunday no-lifing it before I found my first one, then I found a second one. It would be nice if there were more UI/Minimap/Map icons options/indicators after revealing fog of war.
- I'm excited for the massive return of occultism/gothic aspects of the game, it's so great seeing vampires and werewolves and all the mythological creatures they've got. Loving it so far.
- STORY-RELATED (POSSIBLE SPOILERS;/PERSONAL THEORY AHEAD)
POSSIBLE SPOILERS
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LAST WARNING!!!
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My friend asked me where's big D if it's a Diablo game, and all I said was... he's right at the beginning. People forget the lore behind the prime evils, and how they're master manipulators... also seem to have forgotten the end of RoS and the dialogue when you beat malthael.. I think we'll see more of said wolf, and the black soul stone fragments(or something to that effect). Lilith is a distraction IMO and I'm already seeing all the foreshadowing during the main campaign. Even Lorath's dialogue near the end is sus. Just look at the giant armor you can interact with during/after Vigo's quest. Look at what that leads to. Pretty quick foreshadowing/reveal but I think the long one we'll be waiting on is gonna definitely be the sus Bloodied Wolf. He specifically talks about diablo mocking at how things turned out, scoffs at the horadrim and foretells their downfall, brings up tristram, opens hell portals and just 'knows things', something prime evils are known for, calls lilith's "little rebellion" like he's her older uncle or something, it just all makes sense that's the prime evil.. even when going to black lake you hear a clank sound and your character says something to the effect of 'shit im being followed' when you're own your way to rathma's temple basically. I'm pretty sure big D is the wolf. Probably had other plans for following you to black lake, maybe even with Rathma's "stuff" left behind. We'll see though. I don't know if the angels or demons are that aware of the giant cosmic snake god, don't recall any specific references they make to it, but it's in rathma's writings even in the game already, and inarius' overall attitude towards things seems pretty bitter. I did get nervous when he approached my character and when my dude stood up to him and retorted I was like fuck yeah, screw inarius and the church of light lol. Just another cult if you ask me. But he's also known to manipulate mortals on a vast scale just as much as the triune does/did.
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POSSIBLE SPOILERS above please start from TOP
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tldr; love this game so far, hope it turns out great in the end, but we'll have to see how the 50-70+ experience plays out. I hope there's enough content for us to grind on without getting burnt out trying to hit max level and playing with paragon. I know there's 100+ dungeons in the game or something to that effect, but I can already see them making an expansion or DLC as well.
people often forget what blizzard does in their in-house development - they usually make great outstanding tools for making their games, and because of that have a lot more hands on with making things work nicely - imagine what the diablo 4 version of warcraft 3's world editor must be like. With such a high quality bar being set, you know the editor they used internally must be nuts. I imagine they can add new stats, powers, anything they want really pretty quickly. They've probably gone as far as making some really awesome database support / toolkit as well for managing new content they may want to add. Those who are familiar with WC3 World edit will know what I mean with adding variables/custom scripts/etc. If you were advanced in that you could do quite a lot, hell there's a D2 remake and SC remake in Wc3r as well that's actually pretty solid given the single-person developer of custom map/limitations of the wc3 engine itself. Also, at least the servers don't seem to be hosted by AWS - if they were - we wouldn't have even gotten through the queues. I hope people can really chill tf out and stop acting like we haven't seen like a hundred failed launches/full releases and really god awful queus.. mortal online 2 had like queues that took 40+ hours. Star citizen is pretty awful for their year+ long 3.18 patch, and EVERYTHING broke, with many gameplay breaking bugs, I could make a fucking dozen more examples but I'm just saying there are FAR WORSE launch experiences and yall need to remember this was like the first open beta and the fact I had a 64 min queue actually get through in like 20 mins was a huge breathe of fresh air, the only real complaint was adding discord's stupid bugginess with streams ontop of that which made me give up trying to stream it after a few hours of going through the queue due to d/cing and having issues with discord. Which is not the game's fault. Each time the queues got better, and they fixed a duplication glitch relatively quickly even during the beta, so they have teams obviously fixing things in real time which takes other devs whole ass weeks or months to even do. I hope they can keep up the pace and this isn't just a result of 'all hands on deck' and employee burnout making miracles happen in the short term.
Overall I'd say a 8.5~ if they can't fix the QOL issues like the map completionist things, having to re-explore everything shouldn't be a character thing OR seasonal thing - it should DEFINITELY be account wide, I'd knock the game a whole point and a half just for that, but also there's some other stuff to address with the UI and again like asmon said, maybe that's just a me thing but there's some work with inputs they could do like modifier+button combinations should be a thing, I mean cmon.
Also like having a 'wardrobe' but for skills and equipment at the stash would be nice - also having a stash in all the small towns would be nice, since it should be closer and not so far away like it is with the main town.. (up in the inn with the paths not being straight shots to the buildings nearby..) - and things like invisible walls happened a few times, minor bugs, nothing super gamebreaking..
Overall all the positives so far vastly outstrip the few annoyances or minor details.. and finally, I'll say it again. I really need a private zone option for when I wanna do me stuff and not have other people running around taking my enemy packs before I can get to them, the area in Kor is split up into like 5 microscopic sub zones and you don't get credit for everything killed in the area, just when ur in that very small sub zone with others (like the chancelory vs the cathedral area, its like 30 feet away and all in the same event area...) which is really quite dumb. I hope other areas and zones aren't like this with "micro zones" where people can basically grief a grinding rotation without even realizing it. I also did not think for one second there wasn't enough stuff in the open world until then and then shortly after I tried going to crucible on foot from veles and the whole zone didn't populate until I was almost in crucible - so there's still a few server side things they need to get sorted with the load.
BLIZZARD: Remember Blizzard, you're still on you're last leg here (I, and many others, are 110% in the F bobby kotick boat, this is like your last chance at redemption for us), if you still plan to add any form of p2w you're not only gonna lose me but I'd wager like 75-90% of this community and all you'll have left are bots and RMT cheaters/meta gamers with 1%'er wallets. Keep the game clean from all MTX, and fix the few issues prior to launch for the sake of your customers. BAN hackers/cheaters/botters with keyword here being immediately<--. It's not hard. People want a fair experience. No botters. No hackers. It's that or we all quit due to no SP and the BS toxic players doing said stuff.
I look forward to next weekend's beta and hope they can sort out the few server issues/hitching and people disconnecting in kyovashad/from streaming.
2023.03.20 04:10 Narrow_Image_6807 Portland, Maine and Quebec.
I will be traveling to Portland, Maine and somewhere in Quebec in mid May. It’s undecided where we’ll be going in Quebec exactly, but most likely Montréal. The group (ages 21-25) I will be traveling with are not all beer drinkers, but I still want to drink local beer. I’m looking for venues that offer drinks besides beer, specifically wine. I personally love breweries, but a beer garden or dive bar that will offer various beverages would work best. We’d be looking for a more “chill / artsy / hipster” spot. Another aspect that would be great is a very LGBT+ and POC friendly spots as the majority of the group falls into those groups.
Thanks!
submitted by Narrow_Image_6807 to Untappd [link] [comments]
Thanks!
2023.03.19 15:28 Reckless_Waiter Secret Zones
Hi, I had this idea swimming around in my mind for a while but only recently put it into words, and wanted to share and see how you guys would feel about it in DD2.
They're quite a common thing in roguelikes, enter the gungeon, for instance, has one for every floor in case you wish for a longer attempt, extra loot, new enemies, biomes, hardships and what not. And what I think is really beautiful about them is how they're absolutely hidden away and not mandatory in the slightest.
Now, having the Sluice as a unmaped bonus zone with unique enemies and more or less unique rewards was a great way to have a throwback to the previous game and implement a optional way to elongate the game, try for more masteries, extra loot and all those other things.
But perhaps we could have ways to access new zones during the main ones.
○ The Sprawl could have a unmaped fork in the road leading to a catacomb filled with reanimated bones, the dead raising the dead.
○ A coral cove could lead us off path to a underground domain of fishfolk and gigantic crabs, far more intimate to the leviathan and who now worship a tragic siren.
○ A fungal growth could be found amidst the fleshy crops, inhabited by giants and curious slime.
○ Perhaps a metal gate in the woods could lead to a garden of degenerate, bloodsucking, nobles.
And hey, who knows, there could be many hoops to jump through for us to access these extra zones, maybe finding a certain item, having killed the region boss. Perhaps they could be preceded by unique Inns.
So, how would you feel were we to be graced by such an excess of content?
submitted by Reckless_Waiter to darkestdungeon [link] [comments]
They're quite a common thing in roguelikes, enter the gungeon, for instance, has one for every floor in case you wish for a longer attempt, extra loot, new enemies, biomes, hardships and what not. And what I think is really beautiful about them is how they're absolutely hidden away and not mandatory in the slightest.
Now, having the Sluice as a unmaped bonus zone with unique enemies and more or less unique rewards was a great way to have a throwback to the previous game and implement a optional way to elongate the game, try for more masteries, extra loot and all those other things.
But perhaps we could have ways to access new zones during the main ones.
○ The Sprawl could have a unmaped fork in the road leading to a catacomb filled with reanimated bones, the dead raising the dead.
○ A coral cove could lead us off path to a underground domain of fishfolk and gigantic crabs, far more intimate to the leviathan and who now worship a tragic siren.
○ A fungal growth could be found amidst the fleshy crops, inhabited by giants and curious slime.
○ Perhaps a metal gate in the woods could lead to a garden of degenerate, bloodsucking, nobles.
And hey, who knows, there could be many hoops to jump through for us to access these extra zones, maybe finding a certain item, having killed the region boss. Perhaps they could be preceded by unique Inns.
So, how would you feel were we to be graced by such an excess of content?
2023.03.18 20:13 systematicTheology Antifa Attacks Pregnancy Center That Abortion Activists Firebombed Last Year
https://www.lifenews.com/2023/03/16/antifa-attacks-pregnancy-center-that-abortion-activists-firebombed-last-yea
submitted by systematicTheology to prolife [link] [comments]
The New York pro-life organization CompassCare was attacked for the second time in nine months on Wednesday when an individual was caught on camera vandalizing its sign.LifeNews has been keeping track of the attacks. Since 2022, they include:
The Buffalo pregnancy center also was firebombed on June 7 in one of the first of many attacks on pro-life organizations in the past year. The fire caused approximately half a million dollars in damage and injured two firefighters, but the perpetrators still have not been caught.
CompassCare, a pro-life Christian ministry, runs several pregnancy centers across New York that offer medical and other pregnancy and parenting support services to help mothers choose life for their babies....
He criticized the FBI and Department of Justice for not doing more to crack down on the growing domestic terrorism. In January, frustrated by the lack of action, CompassCare hired its own private investigators to find out who was behind the June arson attack.
“This fits the definitions of domestic terror,” Harden said this week. “Those in the FBI and DOJ who refuse to treat it as such need to be fired and investigated. This is an act of intimidation and a violation of the FACE Act. America needs to return to a civilized order.”...
- Florida – Pro-Abortion Students Arrested at the University of Florida for Allegedly Stealing Pro-Life Display
- Texas – Abortion Activists Threaten Federal Judge Who Could Block Abortion Pill
- USA – Actress Jane Fonda Suggest “Murdering” Pro-Life Lawmakers to Protest Overturning Roe
- Mexico – Mexico City Pro-Abortion Protest Turns Violent, Explosive Devices and Sticks Used to Vandalize Buildings (Mexico News Daily)
- Mexico – Pro-Abortion International Women’s Day Protesters Set Government Building on Fire in Monterrey (Reuters)
- California – Police Remove Abortion Activists for Disrupting March for Life in Sacramento (CapRadio)
- North Carolina – Pro-Life Student Leader Assaulted at Raleigh Protest (Students for Life)
- Minnesota – First Care Pregnancy Center Vandalized, Threatened in Minneapolis
- Virginia – Pro-Life Materials Stolen from Student Display at Virginia Commonwealth University (Students for Life)
- Virginia – Display Vandalized at Christopher Newport University (Students for Life)
- North Carolina – Pro-Abortion Students Stomp on, Steal Pro-Life Display at Campbell University (Campbell Students for Life)
- California – Murder Investigation Begins in Shooting Death of Catholic Bishop Dave O’Connell, A Strong Pro-Life Advocate
- USA – Video: Pro-Abortion Man Shoves Pro-Lifer, Threatens to ‘Knock Him Out’
- Illinois – Pro-Life Sidewalk Counselor Hit by Car, Another Pushed Outside Planned Parenthood
- Arkansas – Memorial Garden for Aborted Babies Vandalized (Arkansas Right to Life)
- Utah – Monument for Unborn Babies Vandalized at Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Salt Lake City (Deseret News)
- Connecticut – Torrington Pro-Life Billboard Vandalized with “Pro-Choice” Graffiti (Family Institute of Connecticut)
- New York – Pro-Abortion Protesters Block Peaceful Witness for Life Rally in NYC (Students for Life)
- Tennessee – Abortion Supporter Throws Glass Bottle at Pro-Life Students in Chattanooga, Shards Damage Pro-Lifer’s Eyes; Steals Pro-Life Signs (Students for Life)
- Connecticut – Torrington Pro-Life Billboard Vandalized with “Pro-Choice” Graffiti (Family Institute of Connecticut)
- New York – Pro-Abortion Protesters Block Peaceful Witness for Life Rally in NYC (Students for Life)
- Vermont – Fetal Model, Personal Information Stolen from Pro-Life Students’ Display at University of Vermont (Students for Life)
- Washington, D.C. – Abortion Activists Threaten Justice Amy Coney Barrett Outside Her Home
- Texas – Houston Pregnancy Help Center Vandalized: “Abortion for All” Painted on Windows (Houston Pregnancy Help Center)
- Florida – Two Pro-Life Banners Vandalized at St. Stephen Catholic Church in Riverview
- USA – Another Pro-Life Billboard Vandalized with “Kill Babies” (Prolife Across America)
- Pennsylvania – Unborn Child Monument at Greenfield Church Defaced, Pro-life Billboard Vandalized (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
- Washington, D.C. – Police Remove 2 Abortion Activists for Trying to Disrupt March for Life (Ford FischeNews2Share)
- Oregon – “Kill Them Kids”: Pro-Life Billboard Vandalized in Portland
- Georgia – FBI Offers Reward for Info on Pro-Abortion Vandalism of MLK’s Ebenezer Baptist Church
- Illinois – Pro-Abortion Activist Charged with Battery for Allegedly Assaulting Pro-Lifer Outside New Abortion Facility in Rockford (more) (video)
- Colorado – Bella Health and Wellness Pro-Life Ministry Vandalized in Englewood (Catholic News Agency)
- Michigan – Another Pregnancy Center Vandalized in Eastpointe, Pro-Life Leader’s Home Also Vandalized with Threat
- Virginia – Pro-Life Advocate Attacked, Injured at George Mason University (TFP Student Action)
- Pennsylvania – Pro-Life Advocate Attacked while Holding Sign Saying “Smile! You Survived Abortion!” at Gettysburg College
- California – Pro-Life Student Display Vandalized at University of California San Diego (Students for Life)
- Nebraska – Church, Pro-Life Students Receive Violent Threats from Pro-Abortion Activists (Omaha World Herald); Governor Condemns as Domestic Terrorism
- Washington, D.C. – Radical Abortion Activists Disrupt Pregnancy Center Banquet Just Months after It was Vandalized
- Indiana – Another Pro-Life Billboard Vandalized with Red Paint in Greenfield, Indiana (Prolife Across America)
- South Carolina – Clemson University Pro-Life Student Group Gets Violent Threats for Hosting Students for Life Chief (The College Fix)
- Pennsylvania – Carnegie Mellon University Republican Club Competition Display Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Campus Reform)
- Alaska – St. Andrew Catholic Church in Eagle River Vandalized Twice Since Supreme Court Abortion Leak (Alaska Watchman)
- New York – Ulster County Sheriff’s Office Investigates Vandalism of Pro-Life Billboard in Esopus, Third Time This Year (Daily Freeman)
- North Carolina – Campbell University Pro-Life Student Leader Receives Violent Threats, Display Vandalized (Campus Reform)
- Michigan – Prayer rally to defeat Michigan abortion amendment is victim of ‘pro-choice cyber attack’ (Catholic News Agency)
- Kentucky – Numerous Pro-Life Signs Supporting Amendment 2 Vandalized, Stolen at Homes and Churches (WDRB)
- North Carolina – Attacker Shoots Up Home of Pro-Life Candidate, Bullet Barely Misses His Children
- Washington state – St. Pius X Church Vandalized with Satanic Symbols, Window Smashed (Lynnwood Times)
- Idaho – Police Investigating Death Threat, Vandalism of Pro-Life Republican Rep’s Billboard (Idaho State Journal)
- USA – National Pro-Life Chalk Day Results in More Campus Vandalism (Campus Reform)
- Washington, D.C. – Three Abortion Activists Arrested for Disrupting U.S. Supreme Court
- California – Elderly Pro-Lifer Attacked Outside Planned Parenthood (Life Legal Defense Foundation)
- Florida – Four Attackers Brutally Assault Marco Rubio Supporter (police report)
- Alaska – Pregnancy Center, Church Targeted by Pro-Abortion Vandals in One Day
- Pennsylvania – Police Search for Woman who Vandalized 5 Police Vehicles at Pro-Abortion Protest (Shore News Network) (video)
- Michigan – Elderly Pro-Life Woman Shot by Abortion Supporter while Campaigning against Pro-Abortion Constitutional Amendment
- Michigan – Abortion Activists Caught on Video Vandalizing Lansing Catholic Church with Pro-Abortion Graffiti
- Connecticut – University of Connecticut Students for Life Materials Vandalized and Stolen (Students for Life)
- Washington, D.C. – Police Arrest Abortion Activist for Allegedly Harassing Pro-Lifers at Women’s March (Students for Life)
- Virginia – Students Vandalize Pro-Life Memorial at the College of William and Mary (Campus Reform)
- USA – Liberty Counsel Website Hacked, Private Info Published after Dobbs Ruling (Christian Post) (more at CyberScoop)
- Missouri – Pro-Life Students told to Kill Themselves, Display Vandalized and Materials Stolen at University of Missouri (Students for Life)
- New Jersey – SFLA: Pro-Abortion Student Steals & Rips Head Off Fetal Model at Rider University (Students for Life)
- West Virginia – Police Arrest 2 Abortion Activists at State Capitol during Debate on Pro-Life Legislation (12 WBOY)
- Michigan – Mother and Unborn Baby Care Center Vandalized Twice Since June
- North Dakota – Man Allegedly Kills Teenager With His Car Just Because Teen Was a Republican
- Virginia – SFLA ‘Abortion Is Not Right’ Fall Tour Begins on College Campuses, Urine Allegedly Thrown at Pro-Life Students at College of William and Mary (Students for Life)
- Maine – Abortion Activist Accused of Vandalism outside Conservative Leader’s Home in Mount Desert (Bangor Daily News)
- California – Two Arrested at Pro-Abortion Rally in Hollywood (CBS News)
- Virginia – George Mason University Students for Life Harassed, Materials Stolen from Table (Campus Reform)
- Vermont – Jane’s Revenge brags about vandalizing PRC in Burlington (Live Action)
- Iowa – Angry Leftist Smashes University of Iowa Pro-Life Club’s Table With Bike Helmet, Targets Other Pro-Life Groups
- California – LACMA Pro-Abortion Protest Stops Traffic; Police Arrest 2 Women (Hey SOCAL)
- New York – Alpha Pregnancy Care Center in Schenectady Vandalized with “Fake Clinic” and “Jane’s Revenge” (Catholic News Agency)
- USA – Pro-Life Businesses Face Backlash, Harassment Since Dobbs Ruling (World Magazine)
- South Carolina – Swastikas Painted on Spartanburg Church, Pastor Attributes to Pro-Life Stance (WBTW News 13)
- Massachusetts – Pro-Abortion Extremists Vandalize Another Pro-Life Pregnancy Center, Bethlehem House Inc. Pregnancy Care Center in Easthampton, That Helps Women
- Arkansas – Conservative Pro-Life Group Ammo-Can Coffee in Soldotna Is Vandalized, Locks Glued Shut (Peninsula Clarion)
- Idaho – Compassion & Hope Pregnancy Center in Pocatello Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti, “Beware” (Idaho State Journal)
- Pennsylvania – Another Pro-Life Billboard Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti in Pittsburgh (Prolife Across America)
- Colorado – Catholic Church Shot Up as Wave of Pro-Abortion Violence Continues Nationwide
- New York – Police Arrest 5 Pro-Abortion Demonstrators who Harangued Pro-Life Catholics at Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral (Daily Mail)
- Maine – Abortion Activist Arrested Outside Home of Federalist Society Leader, Allegedly Threatened 11-Year-Old Girl
- Kansas – Calvary Temple Assembly of God Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti, “My Body, My Choice” (The Lawrence Times)
- Kansas – Emporia Police Report Stolen, Damaged “Vote Yes” Signs Ahead of Pro-Life Vote (KVOE)
- Kansas – Pro-Lifer with Students for Life Assaulted while Campaigning for Pro-Life Amendment in Kansas (more at Kansas City Star)
- Kansas – Lawrence’s Victory Bible Church Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti after Supporting Pro-Life Amendment (Lawrence Journal-World)
- Minnesota – Police: Abria Pregnancy Resources in St. Paul Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Threat (KSTP Eyewitness News)
- California – Abortion Activists Vandalize Riverside Historic Courthouse, Five Arrested (The Press-Enterprise)
- California – Los Angeles Police Arrest 3 after Urban Light Display Vandalized during Pro-Abortion Protest (KTLA 5)
- Wisconsin – Pro-Life Sign Vandalized in Kewaunee County, Sheriff Looking for Info (WFRV)
- Massachusetts – Your Options Medical Pregnancy Center in Revere Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Threat (Catholic News Agency)
- Louisiana – Pro-Life Man Assaulted, Camera Smashed outside Abortion Facility in Baton Rouge (WAFB News 9)
- Georgia – Vandals Attack St. Boniface Catholic Church’s Pro-Life Sign (Effingham Herald)
- Illinois – Abortion Activists Terrorize Pro-Life Attorney, Throw Smoke Bombs and Firecrackers at His House (The Gateway Pundit) (more at The Daily Northwestern)
- Wisconsin – Police Investigate Pro-Abortion Vandalism at Abundant Life Christian School, Bernard Catholic Church in Madison (WKOW 27)
- California – Sacramento Pregnancy Center Had to Hire Security Guard When Abortion Activist Showed Up With Machete
- Louisiana – Woman’s New Life Clinic in Baton Rouge Vandalized, “Abortion is a Right” (National Right to Life News) (more from 4WWL News)
- Utah – Arches New Hope Pregnancy Center in Moab Vandalized, Black Paint Splattered Across Building (Moab Sun News)
- Pennsylvania – Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia Had Windows Smashed, Office Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Philly Anti-Capitalist blog) (more from the Pro-Life Union)
- Kansas – Derby Neighborhood Fence, Mural Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (KAKE)
- Kansas – Overland Park Catholic Church Vandalized with “My Body My Choice” after Speaking Out for Life (Kansas City Star)
- Ohio – Right to Life of Northeast Ohio in Akron Vandalized a Second Time, “If Abortions Aren’t Safe Neither RU” (RTL of Northeast Ohio)
- Washington state – Care Net of Puget Sound in Kenmore Vandalized with Spraypaint, Windows Smashed (My Northwest)
- Massachusetts – Two Worcester Pregnancy Centers Problem Pregnancy, Clearway Clinic Vandalized, Windows Smashed (MassLive) (more from Clearway Clinic website)
- Washington state – Two Churches Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti in Sumner (My Northwest)
- Washington state – Police Investigate Attempted Arson at Two Hearts Pregnancy Center in Everett (Live Action News)
- Iowa – Vandals Deface Pro-Life Billboard at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Vinton (Vinton Today)
- Kansas – Salina Police Cite Woman for Damaging Pro-Life “Vote Yes” Signs at 8 Locations (Salina Journal)
- Wisconsin – Four Catholic Churches in Chippewa Falls, Tilden Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Spectrum News 1) (more from CNA)
- Texas – Man Arrested for Allegedly Threatening to Shoot Supreme Court Justices with AK47 (Fox News)
- Minnesota – Birthright Pregnancy Center Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Catholic News Agency) (more from The Globe)
- Oregon – Radicals Smash Building, Attack Journalist at Pro-Abortion Riot in Portland (Andy Ngo)
- Texas – Abortion Activists Block Traffic in Austin During Pro-Abortion Protest (Insider)
- Michigan – Abortion Activists Block 4th of July Parade in Lansing (Newsweek)
- Florida – Pregnancy Help Medical Clinic in Hialeah Vandalized: “If Abortions Aren’t Safe, Neither Are You” (Martha Avila/Heartbeat of Miami) (more from Local 10 News)
- Wisconsin – St. Bernard Catholic Church in Madison Vandalized with “Anti-‘Pro-Life’” Graffiti (National Review)
- Ohio – Right to Life of Northeast Ohio Office Vandalized Hours after Roe Overturned (Right to Life of Northeast Ohio)
- Washington, D.C. – Police Arrest Abortion Activists for Blocking Roadway near U.S. Supreme Court (Bloomberg)
- New Hampshire – Pathways Pregnancy Care Center in Littleton Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Message, “Fund Abortion, Abort God” (WMUR News 9)
- Kansas – Cowley County GOP Office in Winfield Vandalized, Pro-Life Materials Lit on Fire (Fox News)
- Utah – Pregnancy Resource Center of Salt Lake City Vandalized Hours after Supreme Court Overturns Roe (Catholic News Agency)
- California – Abortion Activists Vandalize Mobile Clinic of Pro-Life Pregnancy Center Options Health in Concord (Catholic News Agency)
- Pennsylvania – St. Patrick Catholic Church in Philadelphia Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Catholic News Agency)
- Tennessee – Pro-Life Hope Clinic for Women in Nashville Vandalized, Molotov Cocktail Found (Tennessee Lookout)
- California – A Woman’s Friend Pregnancy Center in Yuba City Vandalized, Window Smashed (CBS 13 Sacramento)
- Washington state – St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Renton Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti, Windows Smashed (KIRO 7)
- Indiana – Monroe County Courthouse Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Fox 59 News)
- Colorado – Heart to Heart Pregnancy Center in Cortez Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Catholic News Agency)
- Indiana – Memorial for Aborted Babies Vandalized at St. Therese Little Flower Catholic Church (Catholic News Agency)
- Florida – LifeChoice Pregnancy Center in Winter Haven Defaced with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Catholic News Agency)
- Oregon – First Image Pregnancy Center Vandalized Again in Portland, Photojournalist Assaulted for Reporting the Crime (Andy Ngo)
- Washington state – Video: Man Smashes Bellevue Church Doors, Throws Rock at Employee (Fox 13 Seattle)
- Texas – 3 Statues Vandalized at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Harlingen (Valley Central 4)
- New York – Ascension Roman Catholic Church in Upper West Side Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Threat (Newsweek)
- Florida – Methodist Church in Tallahassee Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Newsweek)
- USA – Hackers Attack Pro-Life States and Organizations, Steal Data (The Byte)
- Louisiana – Tombstones for Unborn Babies Vandalized at Holy Name of Mary Church in Algiers (Live Action News)
- Iowa – Informed Choices Pro-Life Center Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Live Action News)
- Oregon– All Saints Catholic Church in Northeast Portland Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Catholic Sentinel)
- North Carolina – NC GOP Responds to Abortion Graffiti at Raleigh Headquarters (News Observer)
- Rhode Island – Police Arrest Two at Pro-Abortion Protest in Providence (The Providence Journal)
- Virginia – St. John Catholic Church Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti after Supreme Court Ruling (NBC Washington 4) Vandals Allegedly Tried to Set Garden on Fire (MRC-TV)
- South Carolina – Police Arrest 6 Abortion Activists at Pro-Abortion Protest in Greenville (The Daily Wire)
- Virginia – Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center Vandalized after Supreme Court Abortion Ruling (CNN) (more from 10 News WSLS)
- Vermont – Windows Smashed, Pro-Abortion Graffiti Found on Vermont Statehouse after Roe Overturned (VT Digger)
- California – Paso Robles Tree of Life Pregnancy Center Vandalized after Roe Overturned (KSBY News 6) (more from The Tribune)
- Colorado – Abortion Activists Burn, Vandalize Pro-Life Pregnancy Center after Supreme Court Overturns Roe
- California – Abortion Activist Charged with Attempting to Murder Police During Pro-Abortion Protest (more)
- Washington, D.C. – MAGA hat swatted off pro-life protester’s head in front of SCOTUS (Richie McGinnis/Daily Caller)
- Washington state – Pro-Abortion Radicals Destroy Street Preacher’s Bible during Seattle Protest (Jonathan Choe/Discovery Institute)
- Washington state – Security Guard Hit with Metal Pipe during Pro-Abortion Protest in Seattle (Jonathan Choe/Discovery Institute)
- Washington state – Antifa attack and pepper spray pro-life woman in Seattle (The Post Millennial)
- Iowa – Pro-Abortion Protesters Hit, Try to Block Vehicle at Protest in Cedar Rapids (Andy Ngo)
- California – Pro-Abortion Protesters in Sacramento Surround Car, Block Driver from Leaving (Fox 40)
- Oregon – Pro-Abortion Protesters Smash Mall Windows, Start Fire Near Federal Courthouse in Portland (Andy Ngo)
- Oregon – Eugene Police Arrest 10 during Pro-Abortion ‘Night of Rage’ (The Hill)
- California – Los Angeles Pro-Abortion Protesters Shut Down Street, Hit Drivers with Sticks (El American/Andy Ngo)
- New York – Fox News Studios Vandalized in New York City at Pro-Abortion Protest (more)
- Arizona – Police Disburse Pro-Abortion Protesters for Kicking Doors, Trying to Break Senate Building Windows, Interrupting Session (Arizona Family)
- New York – Entrance to Expectant Mother Care Frontline in Brooklyn Vandalized (Religion Unplugged)
- Minnesota – Northfield Women’s Center Vandalized, Window Broken (Northfield News)
- California – Abortion Activist Rips Bible, Disrupts Church Service at Nesting Place Home for Mothers and Children in Long Beach (Catholic Vote) (video)
- Maine – First Step Pregnancy Resource Center in Bangor Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Christianity Today)
- Virginia – Bullet Hole Found in Virginia Attorney General’s Office after He Condemns Pro-Abortion Violence (Daily Wire)
- Washington, D.C. – Wall near U.S. Supreme Court Vandalized: “Abort the Court, Keep Abortions Safe & Legal” (Live Action News)
- Michigan – Family Life Services Pregnancy Center Vandalized Twice in One Week in Ypsilanti (Pregnancy Help News) (more at Live Action News)
- Indiana – Video: Abortion Activist Grabs, Restrains Pro-Life Student Activist at Indianapolis Protest (Students for Life/SBA Pro-Life America)
- Washington state – Options 360 Pregnancy Center Vandalized in Vancouver (SBA Pro-Life America) (more at The Post Millennial)
- New York – Two Pro-Life Billboards Vandalized in Esopus (Daily Freeman)
- Iowa – Republican Office in Cedar Rapids Vandalized (The Gazette)
- Kansas – Pro-Life Yard Signs Ripped Apart, Stolen at Multiple Homes Ahead of Pro-Life Amendment Vote (Value Them Both) (more at KSNT)
- Michigan – Two More Sites Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti, Including Pro-Life Group and Congressman’s Office (Right to Life of Michigan)
- Michigan – Pro-Abortion Domestic Terrorists Destroy Pro-Life Pregnancy Center in Redford, Smashing Doors and Windows
- Ohio – Pro-Life Billboard in Columbus Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Right to Life of Northeast Ohio)
- Michigan – Windows Smashed, Threat Spray-Painted on Dearborn Heights Pregnancy Center
- Wisconsin – Leftists Target Pro-Life Congressional Candidate With Vandalism: “F— Charity Barry”
- Minnesota – Minnesota Pro-Life Organization MCCL Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti, Windows Smashed; Second Vandalism in Weeks
- Pennsylvania – Abortion Activists Attack Pro-Life Pregnancy Center in Philadelphia, Smash Windows
- Washington state – Pro-life Republican Lawmaker’s Office Hit with Arson Attempt, Vandalism
- Michigan – Naked Protester Disrupts Catholic Mass to Promote Killing Babies in Abortions
- Iowa – Abortion Activists Brag About Vandalizing Another Pregnancy Center
- Alaska – Pregnancy Center Vandalized with Nails, Pro-Abortion Graffiti (EWTN Ireland)
- Oregon – Abortion Activists Firebomb Another Pro-Life Pregnancy Center, Fourth Bombing in Weeks
- New York – Topless Abortion Rights Protesters Storm Court At New York Liberty WNBA Game (Huffington Post)
- New York – Statues of Lúcia dos Santos and Jacinta Marto smashed and decapitated at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church (ABC 7 New York)
- New York – Tabernacle stolen, Holy Eucharist thrown on floor, statues of angels on the altar decapitated and destroyed at St. Augustine Catholic Church, Brooklyn (Catholic News Agency)
- Michigan – Police Arrest Abortion Activist for Allegedly Disrupting Michigan House Session (Bridge Michigan)
- California – Abortion Activist Arrested Trying to Approach Joe Biden to Urge Him to Promote Abortion
- Maryland – Police Arrest Man with Weapon outside Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh’s Home, Allegedly Threatened to Murder Him (Washington Post)
- North Carolina – Asheville Pregnancy Center Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Lauren Muzyka/Sidewalk Advocates for Life) (more at FOX Carolina)
- New York – Abortion Activists Firebomb Pro-Life Pregnancy Center, Third Bombing in Weeks
- New York – Pro-Abortion Protesters Mob Catholic Pro-Life Procession (National Review)
- Texas – Radical Abortion Activists Invade Church Service to Promote Killing Babies
- Florida – Pro-Abortion Violence Continues as Abortion Activists Vandalize Catholic Pro-Life Office
- Washington, D.C. – Abortion Activists Trash Pregnancy Center: Dump Paint on Door, Egg Windows, Write “Revenge” on Wall
- Pennsylvania – Pro-Life Billboard Vandalized in Pittsburgh (ProLife Across America)
- Oregon – Mother and Child center vandalized; Address was publicized by group that favors abortion rights (Catholic Sentinel)
- Oregon – Eugene Pregnancy Center Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Andy Ngo)
- New Jersey – Catholic Pro-Life Student Attacked at Public School, 7 Pro-Abortion Students Suspended (CNA) (video)
- Washington state – Radical Abortion Activists Vandalize Pro-Life Center, Smash 5 Windows and Leave Threats
- Michigan – Grand Rapids Meeting Adjourned after Unruly Protesters Shout Down Anti-Abortion Activist (MLive)
- Mississippi – Rural Black Church Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti
- Oregon – Pro-Life Billboard Vandalized in Portland: “Abort the Supreme Court” (Andy Ngo)
- Washington state – Four Churches Vandalized by Pro-Abortion Radicals in Olympia (more from the Washington Free Beacon)
- Alabama – Vicar, Parishioners Respond to Vandalism at Pro-Life Women’s Clinic in Auburn (Opelika-Auburn News)
- Kansas – Supports of Pro-Life “Value The Both” Amendment Report Yard Signs Stolen (KAKE)
- Arizona – Planned Parenthood Chair Brags How Her Husband Assaulted Man in “Blacks for Trump” Shirt
- USA – Abortion Activists Threaten to Burn Down Supreme Court, Kill Justices When Roe is Overturned (more at CBS News)
- Arizona – Watch: Pro-Abortion Demonstrators Attack, Spit on ‘Students for Kari’ Volunteers (College Fix)
- Missouri – Pro-life Student Group at University of Missouri Calls for Dialogue after its Memorial Was Vandalized (Campus Reform)
- Indiana – Pro-Life Student Advocates Shoved, Grabbed from Behind at Pro-Abortion Rally (Students for Life)
- Idaho – Two Arrested at Pro-Abortion Rally, Protester Allegedly Kicked Police Officer (KTVB 7)
- Maryland – Birthright of Frederick Vandalized: “F— Fake Clinics”
- Maryland – Alpha Pregnancy Center in Reisterstown Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Andy Ngo) (more at WBAL-TV 11)
- USA – Video: Pro-Life Student Activists Kicked, Shoved by Pro-Abortion Protesters (Students for Life)
- Michigan – Michigan Catholic Church Vandalized with Satanic Symbols after Roe Leak (more at The Tennessee Star)
- New York City – Abortion Activists Threaten to Bomb, Burn Down St. Patrick’s Catholic Church
- Maine – Republican Senator Receives Threats after Voting No on Radical Pro-Abortion Bill (Boston Globe)
- Texas – Another Pro-Life Pregnancy Center Vandalized in Denton (NRL News)
- Virginia – Pro-Life Organization Office Vandalized; Man Exposes Himself, Urinates on Front Door (Concerned Women for America)
- California – Pro-Life Billboard Vandalized in Sebastopol (SBA Pro-Life America)
- Colorado – Parish church in Fort Collins tagged with pro-abortion graffiti; police investigating (Catholic News Agency)
- Oregon – Oregon Right to Life Firebombed With Molotov Cocktail
- Texas – Catholic Church Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti
- Virginia – Pregnancy Center Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti in Northern Virginia (National Review) (more from Human Coalition)
- USA – Pro-Abortion Feminist Calls for Violence against Pro-Life Americans, Celebrates Arson
- Wisconsin – Abortion Activists Light Fire in Pro-Life Group’s Office, Throw Molotov Cocktails
- Texas – Pro-Life Pregnancy Center Vandalized in Denton, Texas (more from Students for Life)
- Oregon, Maryland – Radical Abortion Activists Vandalize Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers That Help Pregnant Women
- Washington, D.C. – Two Pro-Life Leaders Say Abortion Activists Punched Them at D.C. Protest (Stand True)
- Texas – Pro-Abortion Group Brags about Vandalizing Trotter House Pregnancy Center in Austin (Stop the Sweeps ATX) (more at Pregnancy Help News)
- Texas – Pro-Life University of North Texas Student Says Antifa Vandalized Door, Issued Threats (Fox News)
- Washington state – Antifa Assault News Crew during Pro-Abortion Rally in Seattle (Andy Ngo)
- Colorado – Catholic Church in Boulder Defiled Following Roe v. Wade Draft Opinion Leak (Denver Gazette)
- Oregon – Pro-Abortion Protesters Damage Property In Portland Following SCOTUS Leak On Abortion (KXL 101 FM News) (more at KOIN 6)
- California – Two Police Officers Injured at Pro-Abortion Protest in Los Angeles (more at CBS News)
- Malta – Pro-life Leader’s Office Vandalized in Malta as She Fights Radical Pro-Abortion Bill
- Spain – Sant Vicenç de Sarriá Church in Barcelona Vandalized with Pro-Abortion Graffiti (Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe)
- Northern Ireland – Man Bites Pro-Life Advocate at Rally in Belfast, Arrested by Police (Precious Life)
- Mexico – Pro-Abortion Feminist Groups Vandalize Monuments in Mérida, Yucatán (The Yucatan Times)
- Colombia – Abortion Activists Try to Set Fire to Cathedral in Botoga during International Safe Abortion Day Protest (The City Paper Botoga)
- Switzerland – Zurich Church Vandalized with Satanic Symbols, “Burn” in Red Paint to Protest March for Life (FSSPX News)
- Switzerland – Police Arrest 8 Abortion Activists at Swiss March for Life (Evangelical Focus)
- Northern Ireland – Abortion Advocates Assault Pro-Life City Councilman
- Canada – Windsor, Ontario Church Vandalized with ‘Hate-Motivated’ Message: “Abort Christ” (CTV News)
- Canada – Video: Man Assaults Pro-Life Woman, Threatens to Put “Bullet in Your Head” in Hamilton, Ontario (Campaign Life Coalition)
- Canada – Cambridge Right to Life Building in Ontario Vandalized after Roe Overturned (Cambridge Today)
- South Carolina – Abortion Activists Attempt to Intimidate Pro-Life Student at Home, Vandalize Sign (Live Action News)
- Czechia – Abortion Activists Block March for Life in Prague (Expats CZ)
- New York – Pro-Life Advocate Shoved, Smacked by Pro-Abortion Couple on New York City Sidewalk (Created Equal)
- Michigan – ‘I Love Abortion,’ Dead Baby Drawn on Vandalized Pro-Life Display at Eastern Michigan University (Campus Reform)
- Massachusetts – Abortion Activists Rip Sign Out of Pro-Lifers’ Hands, Scream Expletives (Students for Life)
- Washington, D.C. – Abortion Activists Push and Shove Pro-Life Students at Supreme Court During Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearing
- Ontario – Judge Issues Injunction Against Abortion Activists for Alleged Sabotage of 40 Days for Life (40 Days for Life) (more at Pregnancy Help News)
- Connecticut – Leftist Students Threaten Conservative Legal Group: I’ll “Literally Fight You, B—-,” Block Exit at Yale Law School Event (Washington Free Beacon)
- California – Cal Poly Investigates Alleged Vandalism against Pro-Life Display (The College Fix)
- California – WATCH: Pro-Abortion Handmaiden Attacks Pro-Life Advocate, Tries to Destroy Her Sign
- California – Pro-Life Display Vandalized at Clovis Community College (Young America’s Foundation)
- Florida – Police Arrest Planned Parenthood Leader for Disrupting Vote on Pro-Life Bill
- Arkansas – Abortion Clinic Owner Faces Assault Charges After Allegedly Trying to Hit Pro-Life People With Her Car
- California – Pro-Abortion Students Vandalize Pro-Life Flag Display at Cal Poly (Mustang News)
- Ohio — Video: Abortion Facility Worker Shoves Pro-Lifer, Says ‘Kill Yourself’ (PAAU on Twitter)
- Poland – WATCH: Abortion Activist Attacks Man Because He’s Driving a Truck With Pro-Life Signs
- Mississippi – Abortion Activists Vandalize Pro-Life Billboard, Celebrate Its Destruction Online
- New York – NYC pro-abortion activists curse at churchgoers, beam ‘God loves abortion’ onto St. Patrick’s Cathedral (Catholic News Agency)
- Texas – Pro-Abortion Rioters Attack Pro-Life Conference, Throw Bombs at Pro-Life Students
- Nebraska – Police: Man Charged with Threatening Pro-Life Woman Outside Planned Parenthood Abortion Facility (Lincoln Journal-Star)
- Nebraska – Pro-Life Legislator Gets Death Threats and Rape Threats After Introducing Bill to Ban Abortions
- Illinois – Antifa Radicals Harass Pro-Lifers at March for Life in Chicago, Shouting at Pro-Life People and Calling Them Fascists
2023.03.17 14:36 nyx_bringer-of-stars Finished my first Bingo card + mini-reviews
 | In August of last year I was in a sort of book slump and I didn’t know what to read next. I was searching the internet for fantasy top lists and stumbled across this sub. After years of reading AITA, I finally decided to take the plunge and join reddit, literally just so I could participate in this sub. I discovered the book Bingo card and it reignited my reading passion. Luckily many of the books I had already read since April applied and the rest I discovered from the Bingo threads. submitted by nyx_bringer-of-stars to Fantasy [link] [comments] To up the ante and give myself a bit of a challenge, I decided my card would be no-men-authors.* *Men were allowed if they were in multi-author groups with women, for the short story anthology book which also had women, or if I didn’t know they were a man. The last one was the case for P. Djèlí Clark and I reasoned that since I loved the book and it had a female protagonist it could stay. I only got back into reading for pleasure about 5 years ago (I left academia and finally had the time for pleasure reading, but that’s a whole other story) and so many of these authors were new to me discoveries - 22/25 squares! A note on the ratings – I’m fairly easy to please when it comes to fun reading. If I like a book I will rate it high regardless of its flaws or whether or not it is ‘literary’ or something like that. So its basically my enjoyment rating and not a quality rating (although the two are sort of linked). https://preview.redd.it/3eqyk0ovxaoa1.jpg?width=4226&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=41fcb6dba99cbfc4297bd80ef2501bddabec6976 Top LGBTQIA List – hard mode Greenhollow Duology (Silver in the Wood and Drowned Country) by Emily Tesh (3.5/5) Summary: Book-smart folklore hunter buys a mansion attached to an ancient wood and stumbles into the life of the reclusive, possibly immortal woods caretaker, proceeds to get caught by a malevolent spirit and needs rescue. Liked: I’m a sucker for legend/myth retellings so when I saw these books described as a ‘lush reimagining of the Green Man legend’ they went straight into my TBR list. The forest/woods setting and the cozy eldritch vibes were just up my street. And although there was a bit of life-threatening conflict in book 1, both books felt very cozy and low stakes. I also quite enjoy the opposites begrudgingly fall in love trope, especially if one of them is a grumpy introvert. In the second book, the addition of Maud was a welcome break to the tension between Henry and Tobias and I actually liked her character a bit more than the two mains. Disliked: I thought both books were a bit too short. I am a fan of novellas done right, but I hate it when it feels like authors leave things out for the sake of shortness or just to make you think things are ‘mysterious.’ I thought more detail could have been added for characterization and explanation and backstory of the events in the book. Just because a character is reticent doesn’t mean that the readers should be kept in the dark as well. Weird Ecology – hard mode The Books of the Raksura by Martha Wells (5/5) Summary: Orphaned shapeshifter Moon doesn’t know what he is or where he comes from and in his humanoid form tries to make a life in various ground-living communities. But the ancient evil beings known as the Fell who ravage cities and eat people seem to be expanding their empire making life on the Three Worlds difficult. Liked: I initially planned to read just The Cloud Roads, but left it for last since I had a feeling I would like the series and want to read all of it in one go. And boy was my intuition correct. I was absolutely hooked from page 1 and it has been a really long time since a book or a series pulled me in so completely. I loved these books and the characters and managed to finish all of them and the short stories before the Bingo deadline (which means I cant use them on next years card, whoops). The world was lush and fascinating (Flying islands! Shape-shifting flying lizards! A plethora of sentient land, sea, and air species! Ancient relics with dangerous magic! Trees the size of mountains!). The characters are relatable and sympathetic – I desperately wanted to know what Moon was and I wanted him to find his people. The plots of all the books and short stories had me on the edge of my seat and reading well past my bedtime. The threats felt real as some side characters were killed. The Raksuran views on love and sex made for interesting character interactions, both amongst themselves, with Moon (who is essentially an outsider), and with other races of people on the Three Worlds. All of the books were very well written and I enjoyed them completely – I can see myself re-reading them in the future. Disliked: In book 1, the main baddies are the Fell and they felt very one dimensional, classic evil-because-evil. Their story gets expanded a bit in the other books, but they never really become well-rounded adversaries. Some sort of explanation for why they are the way they are, instead of just ‘they are evil’ would have made these books outstanding. Also, I’m still not really sure how I feel about an entire race of beings based on eusocial insects (think ants or bees) with rigid gender roles and castes, but this is probably the best example of this that I have come across. It was very well done and the whole predetermination at birth thing bothered me less than I thought it would. Two or more authors Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews (4/5) Summary: Earth is an interplanetary waystation and aliens stay at inns shielded from humans by magic. Young innkeeper Dina becomes embroiled in a conflict in her town involving a werewolf, vampires, and dangerous predatory animals and she must break more than a few innkeeper rules to keep their presence secret from the locals. Liked: The protagonist Dina is a no-nonsense, smart, strong-willed but perceptive magical innkeeper and a likeable story teller which was good since first-person narrative can be so hit or miss for me. Sometimes I just do not want to be inside a characters head and feel they are doing the story a disservice by telling it. It was a quick read, but it had enough exposition and characterization, and a good denouement for a short novel. I also liked that there is a larger mystery that is (presumably) going to be picked up the next books in the series and you the reader don’t know yet how plot relevant it is, but it’s a good hook for future installments. Dina is very much ‘I do not have time for romance or the drama that other species of men bring’ in this book which made the posturing and attempts at romance from the two potential suitors fun to read (get out your popcorn folks and watch the drama unfold). I enjoyed the dialogue and banter between characters and the not so subtle nod to the human/werewolf/vampire love triangle trope. I will deffo be picking up the rest of the series. Disliked: The prose was a bit simplistic and at times I thought it leaned a bit too heavily on classic urban fantasy tropes. Historical SFF – hard mode These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong (4/5) Summary: A retelling of Romeo and Juliet but gangsters set in 1920’s Shanghai with a monster running amok and killing people. Liked: I have to admit the concept of star-crossed gangsters in 1920’s Shanghai fighting a horrifying monster was a lot of fun. Once I got into the book the plot and the central mystery was engaging enough that I zoomed through the book. The worldbuilding was great and gave the book an immersive feel. You could almost smell and hear the sounds of the city around you. The monster was imaginative and a bit terrifying if I’m being honest (which was unexpected but good). If you are easily grossed out and do not like a bit of horror maybe give this one a pass. Disliked: I didn’t know this was a duology (my bad) and I’m not really a fan of whew the monster is dead and everything is resolved and on the last page it turns out the horror has just begun. It always feels a bit cheap, a bit of a bait and switch, but that might just be me. My only other gripe was how often the characters discuss/think about how horrible immigrants are. I get that the author was trying to show why the gangsters rose to power, and the impacts that colonialism had on early 20th century Shanghai, but it felt a bit overdone and simplistic. Set in Space – hard mode\* (*I think the human characters are from Mars or other colonized planets but it wasn’t clear) Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes (4/5) Summary: Captain Eva Inocente’s sister has been kidnapped by a criminal syndicate and the captain and her motley inter-species crew of morally grey cargo runners must do unsavory things to get her back. Liked: Multi-cultural, multi-species space opera with a likeable foul-mouthed protagonist and cast of characters, although it had only one POV. The plot itself wasn’t particularly imaginative or different, but the planet hopping hijinks were fun. It felt like a mash-up of the politics and evil science of The Expanse with the intergalactic federation of alien planets and species of The Wayfarers. The psychic cats were a joy and a bit under-used but then again I’m a big fan of animals making chaos due to curiosity. I have seen reviews where people were annoyed at the amount of Spanish phrases in the book, but I was fine with it. Most were just swears and if you look them up once you know them, but also most I was able to figure out by context clues (and besides I like to collect odd knowledge like saying something is mango rice [arroz con mango] means its a mess). Disliked: It was a bit too much action-packed – the characters barely had time to breathe in between the various crises. Not enough psychic cat hijinks. Stand alone The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh (4/5) Summary: Plucky young girl jumps into the ocean on the back of a dragon to enter the spirit realm, face a sea god, and save her family. Liked: As I said above, I love a good reimagining of myths/legends and this was a lovely story. I found it among a list of books for lovers of Studio Ghibli and it felt very much like Spirited Away in the best possible way. If you are looking for a cozy, atmospheric, spirit world story I recommend this one. The characters were likable and the love and courage they had felt very real. It is a YA book, so some of the plot points and mysteries were a bit obvious, but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story. Disliked: The pacing was totally off and really kept the book from a higher rating. It felt too slow in some places and rushed at others and I got the feeling it was meant to be a longer book but someone (An editor? A beta reader?) forced the author to cut it down. A lot of action happened in some places with only a few lines of text or explanation, which was frustrating. Equally frustrating was when it seemed like conversations were half there or cut short weirdly – again like someone cut out big chunks of the book for sake of brevity. (How is anyone falling in love when all you’ve shown ‘on-screen’ is the exchange of 4 statements each over the course of a month or more!?) Anti-hero – hard mode Nimona by ND Stevenson (4/5) Summary: Angry young shapeshifter joins a famous villain to take on the regiment of heroes protecting the king’s peace. Liked: I’m a big fan of Stevenson’s She-Ra series, so when I was looking for recs for this square I figured I’d give this a go. It’s a short-ish graphic novel that grabs you and doesn’t let go, told from the POV of the villains (likable villains like Gru from Despicable Me). Although how Nimona got her shape-shifting powers is never fully explained and the reader is left to ponder why she became so homicidal, it was clear that it was through some sort of trauma. I enjoyed the comedic thread of her turning into a shark and although I usually dislike open-ended endings, this one was well done. Disliked: A teensy more backstory would have been nice – it wasn’t very clear why there was a need for an entire training academy of good guy heroes if there was only 1 apparent villain. Book club book – hard mode The Cartographers by Peng Shephard (3/5) Summary: Nell is a discredited and blacklisted former cartographer. When her estranged father is seemingly murdered she is drawn back in to her former life to try and unravel the mystery surrounding her father’s work, which may just be connected to the argument that led to their estrangement and her professional downfall. Liked: I really wanted to like this story more than I did since it had a lot of elements that I generally enjoy. Intelligent people nerding out on arcane academic pursuits, puzzle-like historical mysteries involving said academic pursuits, new and interesting magic systems, multiple POVs to show the past from different character angles, smart, driven, well rounded characters, an adversary that at first seemed sympathetic. The book started out well with a believable backstory on Nell’s professional downfall and subsequent limits on job options, and Nell was a likeable character, but that’s all I got for positives. Alas, I picked the book apart during the two book club discussions and I just could not get over the failings to enjoy it more. Disliked: the ‘cartographers’ were not map makers as the title would have you believe, they were a mix of museum/map preservationists, map historians, and cartographers (map makers) – for a book meant to depict nerdy academics these would be important distinctions as they are not all the same. The PhD projects did not strike me as something that a university would actually give a PhD for (and I have one, albeit in a different field) let alone 7 related PhDs. The past tense POVs were all told in the exact same voice as the present tense main character – I just couldn’t get into them and believe they were different people. The danger, and the reason that the adversary ‘turned bad’ was totally unbelievable and nonsensical. The system of magic also had flaws that were never explained – what constitutes a ‘map’ and why can some drawings of a map have the magic and not others? PS if you want a book with academics nerding out done right go read To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers. It is excellent and one of the most accurate portrayals of biologists getting jazzed about their work and discovering new species that I’ve come across. Cool weapon The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (5/5) Summary: Almost 1000 years ago balance in the world was disrupted and a chaotic evil dragon that was set to destroy the world was banished. Exactly how he was banished was lost amongst myth and legend, but the protagonists must figure it out since all signs point to his return. Magical practitioners from a secret society in the East must band together with dragon riders from the West and the Queendom of Virtuedom (where both magic and dragons are outlawed) to defeat the evil once and for all. Liked: I loved the epic-ness of this tale (ok that’s not a real word but I hope you get my gist). It is high-stakes, must save the world, continent-spanning fantasy with magic and dragons and politics – what more could anyone want? If you like A Song of Ice and Fire, but get tired of all the in your face rape and torture, then this is for you. I loved the mythology of this world and how different countries developed different secret sects of magic or dragon-riders. I also enjoyed that the book didn’t rely on heteronormative society structures, which to be honest, gets a bit boring after a while. The normalcy of same-sex relationships and how they fit into society and all the queendom politics felt like a fresh take for what was an otherwise traditional epic fantasy. The relationships between the characters was another plus point and the romantic side plot felt like a natural development out of these relationships. Disliked: Similar to the Stories of Raksura, the dragon adversary was pretty one-dimensionally evil, but also similar to that series it didn’t detract from my enjoyment. Revolutions and rebellions - hard mode The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow (4.5/5) Summary: In an alternate Salem, USA where witches were real and the witch trials resulted in magic being forbidden, three estranged sisters join the suffrage movement. The sisters must reconcile their past grievances, and the traumatic past of their witch descendants to help forge a new world where perhaps women can vote and also practice practical magic again. Liked: Witchy women inciting a rebellion with both magic and civil disobedience turned out to be a better plot than I had initially thought. The three sisters were all distinct characters with their own motivations, fears, desires, and each had a different take on the unfolding story and their shared history. This was a richly detailed story that involved a lot of personal and collective past trauma for the sisters and women magic practitioners in general, but it didn’t feel as heavy as it could have. It helped that it was interspersed with uncovering past mysteries and general chaotic mayhem inherent in rebellions. The story also picked up a bit when the political adversary started using magic against the sisters and the suffragettes; for once the evil being to overcome had a decent backstory and reasoning. Disliked: It started off a bit meh for me as it was heavily focused on the suffrage part and I’m a terrible feminist for admitting that it was a bit boring compared with the magic and mayhem later in the book. Name in the title Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin (3.5/5) Summary: Lavinia was a minor character in Roman mythology as Aeneas’ final wife in Virgil’s epic Aeneid. This is her story of how she almost tore the kingdom of Latium apart by choosing Aeneas. Liked: This is Le Guin, so it goes without saying that it is a well written book with lovely prose. If you want to know more about the daily lives of ancient Romans, this will probably interest you as I imagine it’s also well researched since Le Guin herself read and translated the Aeneid into prose for this story. The best parts of the book are the conversations that Lavinia has with the poet. Disliked: It pains me to rate a Le Guin book so low, but this story was just not for me. It turns out I’m really not all that interested in ancient Rome or the daily lives of people back then. I had to read a lot of Roman/Greek mythology in school, including Homer’s epics, so it appears as though I’ve had my fill (I know this is a bit ridiculous coming from someone whose username is literally the Greek goddess of the night). I struggled to stay interested in the story and it was a slog to complete it. I only did because I really couldn’t be arsed to figure out what else to read for this square and because I’m a completest and I very rarely DNF a book. Author uses initials – hard mode Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher (5/5) Summary: Marra, the third-born princess of a poor kingdom decides to embark on a quest to save her sister from the tyrannical king she was married off to. She must complete 3 impossible things to broker the help of a graveswitch. In addition to the graveswitch, Marra is joined on her quest by a reluctant fairy godmother, a former knight, a bone dog, and a chicken possessed by a demon. Liked: I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I’ve had several of T. Kingfisher’s books in the TBR pile for years and only just got around to reading one now for Bingo. And since I absolutely adored this book I’ll be reading the others in short order. It isn’t always the case, but in this book it worked really well to be dropped in the story after Marra has already started her quest. The past is revealed bit by bit, but the pacing is so well done that you never feel like you’re missing important information. Although Marra is young, none of the other important characters are, and their combined wisdom and life experience are what make this quest possible. Also, the side characters felt very reminiscent of Discworld characters, complete with wit, dry humor, and a bit of absurdity so if that’s your jam then you’ll enjoy this book. Disliked: I honestly can’t think of a single thing I disliked about this book. Published in 2022 The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance #3) by Naomi Novik (4.5/5) Summary: El and almost everyone ‘graduated’ from the Scholomance, except the plan went tragically wrong and now she has to figure a way back in to the cursed magic school. As if that wasn’t enough, someone is still destroying enclaves and in the process of trying to save them El and her friends learn the horrifying truths behind their creation. Liked: Even though I’m a fan of Novik’s other work I actually waited until a month before this book came out and then read the other two Scholomance books (A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate), partly because I hate waiting years between books (22 years of waiting for the rest of A Song of Ice and Fire has burned me) and partly because my husband told me book 2 ended in a cliffhanger and I knew I’d be frustrated. So I read all 3 in one go. Initially I was annoyed with El as a character, but she grew on me. I had to keep reminding myself that she was just a kid growing up in a very grim reality. In fact these books are probably the grimmest I’ve read since I stopped reading grimdark and horror, but if you’re interested in schools of magic and magic that has consequences these are great reads. Despite the dark tone, I enjoyed the entire trilogy and I thought Novik stuck the landing in the final book. Although I had guessed already in book 2 who/what was damaging the enclaves (the why eluded me and it ended up being worse than I imagined) and the gist of the reason El’s prophetic great grandmother had the family shun her, the reveal of both was still satisfying. Also similar to the first two, this book deals with some pretty heavy moral/philosophical concepts, chief among them is it right to sacrifice a few people for the many – and if you agree with that then you are probably not the one being sacrificed. Disliked: It wasn’t so much of an issue in the final book, but El’s penchant for over-explaining every little thing did at times feel info-dumpy. I like knowing every little detail in everything I read and even I found it a bit off-putting at times. It’s a minor quibble though. Urban fantasy – hard mode Exorcism Academy by Asmodeus (https://ea.asmodrawscomics.com/) (4/5) Summary: Humans have been warring against various species of demons (Lucifer’s children) for centuries. They have figured out how to trap a demon on earth, pair them with specially trained humans (exorcists), and utilize their powers against other demons and monsters. This webcomic is the story of an exorcist and his paired demon who fall in love and the consequences of that. (Note, it’s not yet complete and is NSFW.) Liked: I’ve been following Asmodeus’ alter ego on twitter for years so I don’t know why it took me so long to start reading this comic. I started it last spring one day when I was off work ill and spent the entire 2 days off binging it. It’s well written, the art is fantastic, and it’s a fun read. It has quite a bit of nudity and smut (the mains are both male but there’s a dash of hetero relationships/smut so there’s something for everyone) which I enjoy, but if that’s not your cup of tea then it’s not for you. The story is intriguing, there’s a bit of magic, demon mythology, monster slaying, young people goofing off, and we’re nearing the climax which I think will be a big battle. I also enjoy that it doesn’t shy away from dealing with moral conundrums (it does delve into the thorny issue of how the demons who are paired are essentially slaves) and although the demons initially seem like stereotypically evil beings, they aren’t all that way so it never felt like it was relying too heavily on tropes. Disliked: The first chapter was uploaded images of pencil drawings which made it hard to read, but Asmo has been going back and slowly replacing them with the digital inked panels they use now. Set in Africa Dreamblood duology (The Killing Moon [3/5] and The Shadowed Sun [4/5]) by N.K. Jemisin Summary: In Gujarrah priests can gather dream magic that healers can use to heal, or Gatherers can use to kill those judged to be corrupt. Book 1 follows the acolyte Nijiri as he becomes a Gatherer and his mentor Ehiru as they try and unravel the mystery of who or what is killing people in dreams. Book 2 picks up several years after the first and finds Gujarrah under the tyrannical rule of a neighboring city. Hope for rebellion comes from two unlikely and slightly unwilling allies – the first women healer of Gujarrah and an exiled former Sunset prince now living among a nomadic desert tribe. Liked: Having read and loved the Broken Earth trilogy I had high hopes for these books. Set in an alternate Egypt, there was of course a lot of terminology to wrap your head around in the beginning, but it wasn’t as difficult going/confusing as the start of the Fifth Season. The books were of course well written with rich and fully realized settings and backstory/mythologies. I liked the first book less than the second, I’m not entirely sure why other than I didn’t find the points of view of either of the priests all that interesting. I also didn’t find the central theme of power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely all that interesting either. The second book, which has POVs from a much more varied cast of characters was enjoyable. I also like it when there are unexpected allies or alliances and different groups of people forced together and in turn that changes the way they see the world. Disliked: The first book was a bit on the long side, but I probably felt it more as I wasn’t really enjoying the story. As I said above I can’t really put my finger on particular things I didn’t like, I just didn’t find book 1 as interesting as book 2. Non-human protagonist – hard mode Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton (3/5) Summary: The zombie apocalypse, but through the eyes of domesticated animals. This is their story, and how they survive the aftermath, told primarily by Shit Turd, a crow raised as a pet by humans. Liked: This was another book club book that I read and participated in the discussions as the same time as The Cartographers. A long time ago used to devour zombie stories, didn’t matter if they were books, short stories, graphic novels, TV, movies, I consumed them all. I was a zombie apocalypse connoisseur. I eventually grew out of this phase, it had been a while, and this one caught my attention since the POV was so novel and unique. While the cause of the zombie infection was never fully explained (how could it be from the animals perspective) the instigating or transmitting vector was identified by the animals and that was also quite different (its been done a few times but not overdone). All of this is to say that I really wanted to love this book, but I didn’t. The best parts were the chapters that had POVs from various wild and domesticated animals all over the world. These were brilliant and the author really thought about their lives and how they might think/respond to the world around them. Disliked: S.T.’s long-winded explanations were just too much. Everything was over-explained in agonizing detail. It got so bad that I started skimming through most of the book because I just could not focus on what was actually happening with all of those adjectives getting in the way. He wasn’t a good narrator and he desperately needed an editor. This book would have been fantastic as a novella. Keep all the various animal chapters as above and heavily edit the main story told by S.T. PS If you’re looking for a superb character-driven zombie apocalypse story, The Last of Us is an amazing show. Go! Watch it! It has one of the most believable and plausible scientific explanations that I’ve encountered for apocalypse stories. Wibbly wobbly timey wimey This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (3/5) Summary: Set in an unknown universe at an unexplained time, two operatives on opposite sides of a time war begin a correspondence. Liked: After reading reviews on this sub, I knew this was one that people generally loved or hated. While I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it either. It had many elements that should have led to my enjoyment, and the letters between the two operatives were fun to read, including their imaginative ways of ‘sending’ them, but it was just too difficult, too much of a slog. I liked the concept and the letters, and that was about it. Disliked: I read to relax from my mentally taxing job that requires much brain, and this novella was too much like work to enjoy. I spent too much effort trying to figure out what was going on when everything was cryptic and not explained. I know I’m a person that likes backstory, explanations, mythology, etc, but this book just had nothing. No explanations of anything at all. That’s just not for me. It took me longer to read this novella than many of the other full-length books I read for bingo, which pretty much says it all. Five short stories – hard mode\* (*I read the entire anthology but wasn’t sure if it counts as a short story anthology since some of them were novelette length) The Long List Anthology Volume 7 by various authors (4/5) It’s been a while since I picked up a short story anthology. My favorites in the past were edited by Gardner Dozios and/or GRRM and sadly Dozios is gone and GRRM isn’t looking likely to edit one anytime soon. This was a good choice though. My favorites were: "Sinew and Steel and What They Told" by Carrie Vaughn "My Country Is a Ghost" by Eugenia Triantafyllou "The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly" by Alix E. Harrow "Sunrise, Sunrise, Sunrise" by Lauren Ring "The Salt Witch" by Martha Wells "Lone Puppeteer of a Sleeping City" by Arula Ratnakar Mental Health – hard mode The Kingston Cycle (Witchmark; Stormsong; and Soulstar) by C.L. Polk (5/5) Summary: Set in a quasi-Edwardian English world where magic practitioners are arrested and imprisoned in witches’ asylums while the wealthy and powerful are allowed to practice magic in secret. The first book follows Miles, who has returned from the war with PTSD to return to his life as a medic. He heals his patients in secret with magic and uncovers a diabolical magical sickness while falling in love with a mysterious, possibly fae man. The second book follows Miles’ sister Grace, and her break from her powerful fathefamily to try and save their country from itself while she falls in love with a potentially dangerous reporter. The final book follows Miles’ friend Robin as she discovers her own latent magical powers and the aftermath of her partner’s release from the witches’ asylum. Liked: I loved all three of these books. The system of magic and how it could be harnessed for good or evil was fantastic. It was so very realistic how the powerful could harness magic ‘for the greater good’ to do something that the country relied on but was actually horrifying and caused extreme suffering for a portion of the population. The magical fae-like beings were an interesting addition as well, and I liked the twist that they were more moral and just than the humans. I really loved that all three books were centered on non-hetero romances and how people who have experienced pain and suffering can survive and even find joy in life. There was a lot of trauma to go around, and at times it did feel heavy, but not dark. There was always hope. Disliked: I had a minor quibble that the end of book 1 was a bit deus ex machina (specifically relating to Miles but I don’t want to give spoilers), but they’re books with magic and fae creatures so that was always a possibility. Self Published (not sure if this counts as hard mode since its not on Goodreads at all) Alchemy of Love by science_is_magic (https://archiveofourown.org/works/26524690/chapters/64650748) (4/5) Summary: This is a Strange the DreameMuse of Nightmares fan fic that picks up just after the events of Muse when they go through the portal. It’s a happily ever after romance that focuses on two side characters, Ruza and Thyon as they stumble their way into dangerous situations with magical creatures, diplomatic incidents, and each others arms on this new world. Liked: Coming in at a whopping 129,000 words and 40 chapters this is probably one of the longest fan fics I’ve ever read. The author laid some good groundwork for the build-up of the romance and there was a good amount of sweet/cozy scenes in between plot and smut. The plot was decently imaginative and the original characters were fun – there was a lot of nice banter and dialogue with them. The worldbuilding was pretty good as well and honestly even though it was a fan fic on AO3 it was just as good as some of the self-pubbed and indie pubbed fantasy romances I’ve read. Disliked: The first few chapters were a bit lacking on descriptions and world building, but it got better from there. Obviously, it could have used an editor to clean up the meandering plot a bit, but considering some of the shite books I’ve paid actual money for, this was a minor quibble. Award finalist, not won – hard mode (British Fantasy Award Nominee for Best Fantasy Novel and Best Newcomer 2021) Threading the Labyrinth by Tiffani Angus (3.5/5) Summary: American owner of a failing gallery, Toni, is unexpectedly called to England when she inherits a manor house in Hertfordshire from a mysterious lost relative. A cozy, historical ghost story centering around a haunted manor garden that shows snippets of the lives of previous inhabitants through the centuries. Liked: I enjoyed reading the snippets of the lives of the people who had lived at and worked on the manor. This wasn’t a very linear story, and jumped back and forth through time a lot, so it was at times difficult to keep track of. But once I realized that it wasn’t all that important to keep track of the different times, it was more enjoyable. This is also one of those stories that, like many Studio Ghibli movies, doesn’t have a real plot. So if you need one, this book isn’t for you. What it does have is cozy magical garden vibes and character-driven snippets of stories and a haunted garden. Disliked: It was a difficult book to get into. The modern timeline story that starts and ends the book about Toni inheriting the manor wasn’t all that interesting to me at first. The descriptive prose was ok and the worldbuilding also just ok. BIPOC author The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall (4/5) Summary: Aboard a pirate ship, an orphaned girl has to take the identity of a man to earn the respect of the crew. She befriends a young Imperial Lady being sent to marry a general who is held captive by he crew. Together they hatch a plan to free themselves and another captive - a mermaid. Liked: I’ve got to confess that I bought this book purely because the title was intriguing and the cover art is gorgeous. I’m really glad I did though; it was an enjoyable and interesting read. All three of the nouns in the title are characters in the book (the Sea is a sentient being which was neat) and each has their own section of the book relating to the main characters Flora and Lady Evelyn meeting each of them. It does have a happy ending, but considering that it’s YA I was surprised at how horrible Flora’s past was, and how horrible the pirates were (content warning – her brother is raped by the pirates as a sort of hazing and takes magical drugs and alcohol to numb himself). The book wasn’t overly grim, but it did confront the harsh realities of this world. Disliked: The middle part with the witch, and one of the girls learning about her latent magical abilities, fit less well into the story as a whole as the other two parts. Some of the aspects of that section felt like unused Chekhov’s guns – we were shown things that didn’t seem entirely relevant to either the plot or the characters’ development. Shape shifters – hard mode A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark (5/5) Summary: In a steampunk 1920’s Cairo, where humans live alongside magical Djinn, Fatma, the youngest women agent of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities chases down the suspected return of a powerful magic wielder from the past. Liked: If anyone had told me that a story with what is essentially a magical FBI agent as the protagonist would be one of my favorite reads of 2022, I’d have probably laughed myself silly. And yet, here we are. I loved the steampunk setting, I loved clever Fatma and her stylish, dandy suits, and her magical girlfriend Siti, and I loved the Djinn and the magic. And who doesn’t love a good murder mystery involving a weird secret society? The story was so well written I could deffo see how it had been nominated fowon so many awards. Disliked: Nothing – this book was brilliant. No Ifs, Ands, or Buts Hex Appeal by Kate Johnson (3.5/5) Summary: Essie is a witch with an apparently mostly useless magical ability, living with other witches in Beldam House in Essex. Josh is an American looking for a new life renovating the English cottage he just inherited. When Josh looks deeper into the history of the properties he inherited, he discovers one called Beldam House, which he can’t seem to find, that hasn’t paid rent since 1700, and his poking around upends Essie’s life. Liked: I saw a review describing this book as a cozy autumnal Encanto meets Hocus Pocus and that’s pretty spot on so I’m using it here. I enjoyed all the different witches and their odd powers and the central mystery was decent. This was a fairly standard fantasy romance, enjoyable, with a believable build up (including magical mishaps and misunderstandings) to the relationship part. It had plenty of magic and a magical evil being to defeat, so plenty of plot. Disliked: There wasn’t much wooing, flirting, or witty banter and Essie’s pompous mother was pretty stereotypical. Family matters – hard mode Black Water Sister by Zen Cho (4.5/5) Summary: A stressed zillennial lesbian fights gods, ghosts, gangsters & grandmas in 21st century Penang. Liked: This book was so different from any other book I read the past year and I really enjoyed it. After graduating university and not knowing what to do, the protagonist Jess moves back to Malaysia with her parents, a country she hasn’t lived in since she was a toddler. She manages to stumble into the world of gods, spirits, and gangsters, a world that her grandmother and uncle were deeply involved in and her mother fled from. There was a good balance between Jess’s modern life and uncovering her family’s secrets and throughout the story is interwoven with Malaysian myths and legends. Disliked: Jess makes quite a few bad decisions that land her in dangerous situations, some of which were bordering on my tolerance for intimate violence. Most of her bad decisions were believable considering the stress she was under, but there was 1 in particular that was slightly unbelievable that someone could be that naïve. |
2023.03.17 14:17 dub13v Cork City Regeneration Plan based on feedback from my elder relations. Let me know if what you think
 | Basically the lack of parking in the city centre is whats killed it. This is how the city could be improved. Any feedback welcomed. submitted by dub13v to cork [link] [comments] |
2023.03.17 10:33 giraffe824 Heavy rain in KL. Never realised, outside of PJ, traffic isn't that crazy.
 | submitted by giraffe824 to malaysia [link] [comments] |
2023.03.16 21:37 Emleaux Came across a stash of matchbooks from some classic Portland establishments
 | submitted by Emleaux to Portland [link] [comments] |
2023.03.16 11:54 Taxisonoqui_ Choosing accom - Waikiki
I’m getting bogged down in the reviews so thought I’d take to Reddit! My husband and I will be travelling in June for our honeymoon and will be in Waikiki for 10 nights. We are looking at 3-4 star accom that will cost us no more than around $300 per night.
So far we have come across Pacific Monarch, Sheraton Princess, Hilton Garden Inn and Wayfinder Waikiki. I like Pacific Monarch’s offerings but can’t find too much on whether the rooms are comfortable including beds (this is important).
As much as we’d love a great pool, we are happy for the compromise to be short walk to main beach. Other than that we aren’t needing flashiest facilities as we’ll try and be out and about.
Thanks!
submitted by Taxisonoqui_ to VisitingHawaii [link] [comments]
So far we have come across Pacific Monarch, Sheraton Princess, Hilton Garden Inn and Wayfinder Waikiki. I like Pacific Monarch’s offerings but can’t find too much on whether the rooms are comfortable including beds (this is important).
As much as we’d love a great pool, we are happy for the compromise to be short walk to main beach. Other than that we aren’t needing flashiest facilities as we’ll try and be out and about.
Thanks!
2023.03.15 22:51 CommercialAd3390 I have placed bullet points beside each one of my mods.
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.RaceCompatibility with fixes for SSE .Not So High-Poly Head Mesh (NSHHM) 1.22 - ReFix .Belethor Vendor Fix 2.0 .Cheat Room - Additions and Merchant NPC .SkyUI_5_2_SE .SkyHUD .Elaborate Textiles .aMidianBorn Book of Silence SE .Mythical Ages - 1.10 .Lightning During Storm Sse V3 (Minty Lightning) .snowflakes 2021 .Enhanced Shadows .Obsidian Mountain Fogs .Weather of World .WhiterunHoldForest .Realistic Grass Field 1k .grass lod noise green tint .Treeslod_23 .KS Hairdos SSE .Calientes Beautiful Bodies Edition -CBBE- .XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended - Fixed Scripts .Racial Body Morphs - Extreme 2.1 .Heartland Horses .Vera's Female Skeletons 2.01.1 .360 Walk and Run Plus .The TBBP animation of Dragonfly with butt bounce .NPC Animation Remix (DAR) - main archive .Pretty Female Idles .Static Mesh Improvement Mod .High Poly Project .Better Dynamic Snow SE .Dungeons - Revisited .Dynamically Disable Eye Adaptation and Bloom .Dynamic Camera .Dynamic Display Settings .AI Overhaul SSE .JKs Skyrim - AI Overhaul SSE Patch - for use with SE version of AIO .SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators 1_65_02 NOSM (No SurvivalMode) .Serio's Enhanced Dragons .Improved Bandits - Rebalanced .Farm Animals 1_7_1 .Rally's Shaggycows of Skyrim .Oblivion Horses SE Basic Version. For manual installation .house cats (se-ae) 1.1 .Lanterns of Skyrim SE .Rallys Hanging Moss .HD Photorealistic Ivy .Cathedral - 3D Mountain Flowers .Ruins_Clutter_Improved SE .Green Grass in Whiterun .Whiterun Garden .4K Spider Egg and Sacs .Comfy Mammoth Cheese Textures .ElSopa HD - Giant Paintings .JS Common Cages SE - 4k Textures .Glorious Dummies .WiZkiD Carriages .Ennead - Septims 4K Gold .Creatures Retexture Pack .Draugr Horrific Textures .Enhanced Blood Textures .morebloodandgore_full_strength .KD - Realistic Fireplaces SE .Embers HD .Inferno - Fire Effects Redux .Vanilla hair - Salt and Wind .Kyoe_BanginBrows_StandalonebyShiva182alt.zip .JK's Arcadia's Cauldron .JK's Belethor's General Goods .JK's Warmaiden's .Jk's Angeline's Aromatics .JK's Bits and Pieces .JK's Radiant Raiment .JK's White Phial .JK's Sadris Used Wares .JK's Elgrims Elixirs .JK's The Pawned Prawn .JK's Arnleif and Sons Trading Company .JK's The Hag's Cure .JK's Riverwood Trader .Farmhouse Chimneys SE .InnCredible .Cathedral - Luminosity .Realistic Lighting Overhaul (RLO) SSE All-In-One Installer .BHTNFver2-8 .City Trees .Sacred Trees .Vivid Gildergreen Tree 2k .Glorious Doors of Skyrim (GDOS) .Player Blink Fix - ESL .Player Headtracking SE .Simplicity of Snow .Snow Fix .CG4 Trees and Bushes SE - (WOODLAND Version) .Treerific .Simply Bigger Trees SE .Volcanic Heat Haze .Realistic Water Two SE .Animated Forge Water .Skyrim Is Windy .DustEffectsSSE .Impact Effects - Vanilla Sparks .More Critters 0_8 .BeastHHBB - Npc replacer and player .Slof's Fluffy Khajiit Tails SSE .Beauties Of Skyrim HD Uncensored .Seductive Lips HD SE Edition .300 and More NPCS Converted to PC Presets .Outfit Changer SSE .SC Horses Mane Fix .Quality Cubemaps .Optional Quick Start - SE .The Skyrim Distance Overhaul Beta (S.D.O.) .Water Flow Fix .Botox For Skyrim SE .Tamriel Reloaded HD SE FULL 0-9c for NMM .Northern Roads .Immersive Interiors .Deathbell HD 2K .Mihail Bruma Wolves Retexture and Remesh .Realistic RS Children .Northern Realistic Clouds .Animated Clutter .WSCO 1.1 .Tempered Skins for Males - Dressed Version .The Elder Scrolls Legends - Loading Screens .Blackbeerd's Beards .JH Combat Animation Pack .Forest Bark .Waterplants .Vanargand Animations - One handed Mid Stance .More Tavern Idles compatibility version .R.A.S.S. - Rain Ash And Snow Shaders .Lucid Rain
submitted by CommercialAd3390 to skyrimmods [link] [comments]
.RaceCompatibility with fixes for SSE .Not So High-Poly Head Mesh (NSHHM) 1.22 - ReFix .Belethor Vendor Fix 2.0 .Cheat Room - Additions and Merchant NPC .SkyUI_5_2_SE .SkyHUD .Elaborate Textiles .aMidianBorn Book of Silence SE .Mythical Ages - 1.10 .Lightning During Storm Sse V3 (Minty Lightning) .snowflakes 2021 .Enhanced Shadows .Obsidian Mountain Fogs .Weather of World .WhiterunHoldForest .Realistic Grass Field 1k .grass lod noise green tint .Treeslod_23 .KS Hairdos SSE .Calientes Beautiful Bodies Edition -CBBE- .XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended - Fixed Scripts .Racial Body Morphs - Extreme 2.1 .Heartland Horses .Vera's Female Skeletons 2.01.1 .360 Walk and Run Plus .The TBBP animation of Dragonfly with butt bounce .NPC Animation Remix (DAR) - main archive .Pretty Female Idles .Static Mesh Improvement Mod .High Poly Project .Better Dynamic Snow SE .Dungeons - Revisited .Dynamically Disable Eye Adaptation and Bloom .Dynamic Camera .Dynamic Display Settings .AI Overhaul SSE .JKs Skyrim - AI Overhaul SSE Patch - for use with SE version of AIO .SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators 1_65_02 NOSM (No SurvivalMode) .Serio's Enhanced Dragons .Improved Bandits - Rebalanced .Farm Animals 1_7_1 .Rally's Shaggycows of Skyrim .Oblivion Horses SE Basic Version. For manual installation .house cats (se-ae) 1.1 .Lanterns of Skyrim SE .Rallys Hanging Moss .HD Photorealistic Ivy .Cathedral - 3D Mountain Flowers .Ruins_Clutter_Improved SE .Green Grass in Whiterun .Whiterun Garden .4K Spider Egg and Sacs .Comfy Mammoth Cheese Textures .ElSopa HD - Giant Paintings .JS Common Cages SE - 4k Textures .Glorious Dummies .WiZkiD Carriages .Ennead - Septims 4K Gold .Creatures Retexture Pack .Draugr Horrific Textures .Enhanced Blood Textures .morebloodandgore_full_strength .KD - Realistic Fireplaces SE .Embers HD .Inferno - Fire Effects Redux .Vanilla hair - Salt and Wind .Kyoe_BanginBrows_StandalonebyShiva182alt.zip .JK's Arcadia's Cauldron .JK's Belethor's General Goods .JK's Warmaiden's .Jk's Angeline's Aromatics .JK's Bits and Pieces .JK's Radiant Raiment .JK's White Phial .JK's Sadris Used Wares .JK's Elgrims Elixirs .JK's The Pawned Prawn .JK's Arnleif and Sons Trading Company .JK's The Hag's Cure .JK's Riverwood Trader .Farmhouse Chimneys SE .InnCredible .Cathedral - Luminosity .Realistic Lighting Overhaul (RLO) SSE All-In-One Installer .BHTNFver2-8 .City Trees .Sacred Trees .Vivid Gildergreen Tree 2k .Glorious Doors of Skyrim (GDOS) .Player Blink Fix - ESL .Player Headtracking SE .Simplicity of Snow .Snow Fix .CG4 Trees and Bushes SE - (WOODLAND Version) .Treerific .Simply Bigger Trees SE .Volcanic Heat Haze .Realistic Water Two SE .Animated Forge Water .Skyrim Is Windy .DustEffectsSSE .Impact Effects - Vanilla Sparks .More Critters 0_8 .BeastHHBB - Npc replacer and player .Slof's Fluffy Khajiit Tails SSE .Beauties Of Skyrim HD Uncensored .Seductive Lips HD SE Edition .300 and More NPCS Converted to PC Presets .Outfit Changer SSE .SC Horses Mane Fix .Quality Cubemaps .Optional Quick Start - SE .The Skyrim Distance Overhaul Beta (S.D.O.) .Water Flow Fix .Botox For Skyrim SE .Tamriel Reloaded HD SE FULL 0-9c for NMM .Northern Roads .Immersive Interiors .Deathbell HD 2K .Mihail Bruma Wolves Retexture and Remesh .Realistic RS Children .Northern Realistic Clouds .Animated Clutter .WSCO 1.1 .Tempered Skins for Males - Dressed Version .The Elder Scrolls Legends - Loading Screens .Blackbeerd's Beards .JH Combat Animation Pack .Forest Bark .Waterplants .Vanargand Animations - One handed Mid Stance .More Tavern Idles compatibility version .R.A.S.S. - Rain Ash And Snow Shaders .Lucid Rain
2023.03.15 22:49 CommercialAd3390 I have placed bullet points beside each one of my mods.
Hello my Skyrim brethren, My name is Oliver and I am asking for the help of a kind soul. I have had all the Skyrim mods I could ever want for many months now (a little under a year) and am at the pointe where I am reaching out for help. I have organized my mod list in every order I am capable of coming up with and have followed every load order guide available on the net, I have even gone as far as to post a help add in my cities largest newspaper as I am currently at the end of my rope and don’t know what else to do. So I am asking for the help of someone who is an expert at ordering a PC load order to the extent that they could do it in their sleep to please find it in your heart to help me by placing my below mods in their correct order. I love my Skyrim and want nothing more than to just be able to play and never have to worry about my mods ever again, especially since I know now that Starfield won’t be releasing before September so Skyrim is all I’ve got to carry me over. Please help a brother out? Thanking you all in advance for your kindness. Cheers everyone, Oliver.
.RaceCompatibility with fixes for SSE .Not So High-Poly Head Mesh (NSHHM) 1.22 - ReFix .Belethor Vendor Fix 2.0 .Cheat Room - Additions and Merchant NPC .SkyUI_5_2_SE .SkyHUD .Elaborate Textiles .aMidianBorn Book of Silence SE .Mythical Ages - 1.10 .Lightning During Storm Sse V3 (Minty Lightning) .snowflakes 2021 .Enhanced Shadows .Obsidian Mountain Fogs .Weather of World .WhiterunHoldForest .Realistic Grass Field 1k .grass lod noise green tint .Treeslod_23 .KS Hairdos SSE .Calientes Beautiful Bodies Edition -CBBE- .XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended - Fixed Scripts .Racial Body Morphs - Extreme 2.1 .Heartland Horses .Vera's Female Skeletons 2.01.1 .360 Walk and Run Plus .The TBBP animation of Dragonfly with butt bounce .NPC Animation Remix (DAR) - main archive .Pretty Female Idles .Static Mesh Improvement Mod .High Poly Project .Better Dynamic Snow SE .Dungeons - Revisited .Dynamically Disable Eye Adaptation and Bloom .Dynamic Camera .Dynamic Display Settings .AI Overhaul SSE .JKs Skyrim - AI Overhaul SSE Patch - for use with SE version of AIO .SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators 1_65_02 NOSM (No SurvivalMode) .Serio's Enhanced Dragons .Improved Bandits - Rebalanced .Farm Animals 1_7_1 .Rally's Shaggycows of Skyrim .Oblivion Horses SE Basic Version. For manual installation .house cats (se-ae) 1.1 .Lanterns of Skyrim SE .Rallys Hanging Moss .HD Photorealistic Ivy .Cathedral - 3D Mountain Flowers .Ruins_Clutter_Improved SE .Green Grass in Whiterun .Whiterun Garden .4K Spider Egg and Sacs .Comfy Mammoth Cheese Textures .ElSopa HD - Giant Paintings .JS Common Cages SE - 4k Textures .Glorious Dummies .WiZkiD Carriages .Ennead - Septims 4K Gold .Creatures Retexture Pack .Draugr Horrific Textures .Enhanced Blood Textures .morebloodandgore_full_strength .KD - Realistic Fireplaces SE .Embers HD .Inferno - Fire Effects Redux .Vanilla hair - Salt and Wind .Kyoe_BanginBrows_StandalonebyShiva182alt.zip .JK's Arcadia's Cauldron .JK's Belethor's General Goods .JK's Warmaiden's .Jk's Angeline's Aromatics .JK's Bits and Pieces .JK's Radiant Raiment .JK's White Phial .JK's Sadris Used Wares .JK's Elgrims Elixirs .JK's The Pawned Prawn .JK's Arnleif and Sons Trading Company .JK's The Hag's Cure .JK's Riverwood Trader .Farmhouse Chimneys SE .InnCredible .Cathedral - Luminosity .Realistic Lighting Overhaul (RLO) SSE All-In-One Installer .BHTNFver2-8 .City Trees .Sacred Trees .Vivid Gildergreen Tree 2k .Glorious Doors of Skyrim (GDOS) .Player Blink Fix - ESL .Player Headtracking SE .Simplicity of Snow .Snow Fix .CG4 Trees and Bushes SE - (WOODLAND Version) .Treerific .Simply Bigger Trees SE .Volcanic Heat Haze .Realistic Water Two SE .Animated Forge Water .Skyrim Is Windy .DustEffectsSSE .Impact Effects - Vanilla Sparks .More Critters 0_8 .BeastHHBB - Npc replacer and player .Slof's Fluffy Khajiit Tails SSE .Beauties Of Skyrim HD Uncensored .Seductive Lips HD SE Edition .300 and More NPCS Converted to PC Presets .Outfit Changer SSE .SC Horses Mane Fix .Quality Cubemaps .Optional Quick Start - SE .The Skyrim Distance Overhaul Beta (S.D.O.) .Water Flow Fix .Botox For Skyrim SE .Tamriel Reloaded HD SE FULL 0-9c for NMM .Northern Roads .Immersive Interiors .Deathbell HD 2K .Mihail Bruma Wolves Retexture and Remesh .Realistic RS Children .Northern Realistic Clouds .Animated Clutter .WSCO 1.1 .Tempered Skins for Males - Dressed Version .The Elder Scrolls Legends - Loading Screens .Blackbeerd's Beards .JH Combat Animation Pack .Forest Bark .Waterplants .Vanargand Animations - One handed Mid Stance .More Tavern Idles compatibility version .R.A.S.S. - Rain Ash And Snow Shaders .Lucid Rain
submitted by CommercialAd3390 to skyrimmods [link] [comments]
.RaceCompatibility with fixes for SSE .Not So High-Poly Head Mesh (NSHHM) 1.22 - ReFix .Belethor Vendor Fix 2.0 .Cheat Room - Additions and Merchant NPC .SkyUI_5_2_SE .SkyHUD .Elaborate Textiles .aMidianBorn Book of Silence SE .Mythical Ages - 1.10 .Lightning During Storm Sse V3 (Minty Lightning) .snowflakes 2021 .Enhanced Shadows .Obsidian Mountain Fogs .Weather of World .WhiterunHoldForest .Realistic Grass Field 1k .grass lod noise green tint .Treeslod_23 .KS Hairdos SSE .Calientes Beautiful Bodies Edition -CBBE- .XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended - Fixed Scripts .Racial Body Morphs - Extreme 2.1 .Heartland Horses .Vera's Female Skeletons 2.01.1 .360 Walk and Run Plus .The TBBP animation of Dragonfly with butt bounce .NPC Animation Remix (DAR) - main archive .Pretty Female Idles .Static Mesh Improvement Mod .High Poly Project .Better Dynamic Snow SE .Dungeons - Revisited .Dynamically Disable Eye Adaptation and Bloom .Dynamic Camera .Dynamic Display Settings .AI Overhaul SSE .JKs Skyrim - AI Overhaul SSE Patch - for use with SE version of AIO .SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators 1_65_02 NOSM (No SurvivalMode) .Serio's Enhanced Dragons .Improved Bandits - Rebalanced .Farm Animals 1_7_1 .Rally's Shaggycows of Skyrim .Oblivion Horses SE Basic Version. For manual installation .house cats (se-ae) 1.1 .Lanterns of Skyrim SE .Rallys Hanging Moss .HD Photorealistic Ivy .Cathedral - 3D Mountain Flowers .Ruins_Clutter_Improved SE .Green Grass in Whiterun .Whiterun Garden .4K Spider Egg and Sacs .Comfy Mammoth Cheese Textures .ElSopa HD - Giant Paintings .JS Common Cages SE - 4k Textures .Glorious Dummies .WiZkiD Carriages .Ennead - Septims 4K Gold .Creatures Retexture Pack .Draugr Horrific Textures .Enhanced Blood Textures .morebloodandgore_full_strength .KD - Realistic Fireplaces SE .Embers HD .Inferno - Fire Effects Redux .Vanilla hair - Salt and Wind .Kyoe_BanginBrows_StandalonebyShiva182alt.zip .JK's Arcadia's Cauldron .JK's Belethor's General Goods .JK's Warmaiden's .Jk's Angeline's Aromatics .JK's Bits and Pieces .JK's Radiant Raiment .JK's White Phial .JK's Sadris Used Wares .JK's Elgrims Elixirs .JK's The Pawned Prawn .JK's Arnleif and Sons Trading Company .JK's The Hag's Cure .JK's Riverwood Trader .Farmhouse Chimneys SE .InnCredible .Cathedral - Luminosity .Realistic Lighting Overhaul (RLO) SSE All-In-One Installer .BHTNFver2-8 .City Trees .Sacred Trees .Vivid Gildergreen Tree 2k .Glorious Doors of Skyrim (GDOS) .Player Blink Fix - ESL .Player Headtracking SE .Simplicity of Snow .Snow Fix .CG4 Trees and Bushes SE - (WOODLAND Version) .Treerific .Simply Bigger Trees SE .Volcanic Heat Haze .Realistic Water Two SE .Animated Forge Water .Skyrim Is Windy .DustEffectsSSE .Impact Effects - Vanilla Sparks .More Critters 0_8 .BeastHHBB - Npc replacer and player .Slof's Fluffy Khajiit Tails SSE .Beauties Of Skyrim HD Uncensored .Seductive Lips HD SE Edition .300 and More NPCS Converted to PC Presets .Outfit Changer SSE .SC Horses Mane Fix .Quality Cubemaps .Optional Quick Start - SE .The Skyrim Distance Overhaul Beta (S.D.O.) .Water Flow Fix .Botox For Skyrim SE .Tamriel Reloaded HD SE FULL 0-9c for NMM .Northern Roads .Immersive Interiors .Deathbell HD 2K .Mihail Bruma Wolves Retexture and Remesh .Realistic RS Children .Northern Realistic Clouds .Animated Clutter .WSCO 1.1 .Tempered Skins for Males - Dressed Version .The Elder Scrolls Legends - Loading Screens .Blackbeerd's Beards .JH Combat Animation Pack .Forest Bark .Waterplants .Vanargand Animations - One handed Mid Stance .More Tavern Idles compatibility version .R.A.S.S. - Rain Ash And Snow Shaders .Lucid Rain
2023.03.15 22:15 CommercialAd3390 I have placed bullet points beside each one of my mods.
Hello my Skyrim brethren, My name is Oliver and I am asking for the help of a kind soul. I have had all the Skyrim mods I could ever want for many months now (a little under a year) and am at the pointe where I am reaching out for help. I have organized my mod list in every order I am capable of coming up with and have followed every load order guide available on the net, I have even gone as far as to post a help add in my cities largest newspaper as I am currently at the end of my rope and don’t know what else to do. So I am asking for the help of someone who is an expert at ordering an Xbox load order to the extent that they could do it in their sleep to please find it in your heart to help me by placing my below mods in their correct order. I love my Skyrim and want nothing more than to just be able to play and never have to worry about my mods ever again, especially since I know now that Starfield won’t be releasing before September so Skyrim is all I’ve got to carry me over. Please help a brother out? Thanking you all in advance for your kindness. Cheers everyone, Oliver.
.RaceCompatibility with fixes for SSE .Not So High-Poly Head Mesh (NSHHM) 1.22 - ReFix .Belethor Vendor Fix 2.0 .Cheat Room - Additions and Merchant NPC .SkyUI_5_2_SE .SkyHUD .Elaborate Textiles .aMidianBorn Book of Silence SE .Mythical Ages - 1.10 .Lightning During Storm Sse V3 (Minty Lightning) .snowflakes 2021 .Enhanced Shadows .Obsidian Mountain Fogs .Weather of World .WhiterunHoldForest .Realistic Grass Field 1k .grass lod noise green tint .Treeslod_23 .KS Hairdos SSE .Calientes Beautiful Bodies Edition -CBBE- .XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended - Fixed Scripts .Racial Body Morphs - Extreme 2.1 .Heartland Horses .Vera's Female Skeletons 2.01.1 .360 Walk and Run Plus .The TBBP animation of Dragonfly with butt bounce .NPC Animation Remix (DAR) - main archive .Pretty Female Idles .Static Mesh Improvement Mod .High Poly Project .Better Dynamic Snow SE .Dungeons - Revisited .Dynamically Disable Eye Adaptation and Bloom .Dynamic Camera .Dynamic Display Settings .AI Overhaul SSE .JKs Skyrim - AI Overhaul SSE Patch - for use with SE version of AIO .SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators 1_65_02 NOSM (No SurvivalMode) .Serio's Enhanced Dragons .Improved Bandits - Rebalanced .Farm Animals 1_7_1 .Rally's Shaggycows of Skyrim .Oblivion Horses SE Basic Version. For manual installation .house cats (se-ae) 1.1 .Lanterns of Skyrim SE .Rallys Hanging Moss .HD Photorealistic Ivy .Cathedral - 3D Mountain Flowers .Ruins_Clutter_Improved SE .Green Grass in Whiterun .Whiterun Garden .4K Spider Egg and Sacs .Comfy Mammoth Cheese Textures .ElSopa HD - Giant Paintings .JS Common Cages SE - 4k Textures .Glorious Dummies .WiZkiD Carriages .Ennead - Septims 4K Gold .Creatures Retexture Pack .Draugr Horrific Textures .Enhanced Blood Textures .morebloodandgore_full_strength .KD - Realistic Fireplaces SE .Embers HD .Inferno - Fire Effects Redux .Vanilla hair - Salt and Wind .Kyoe_BanginBrows_StandalonebyShiva182alt.zip .JK's Arcadia's Cauldron .JK's Belethor's General Goods .JK's Warmaiden's .Jk's Angeline's Aromatics .JK's Bits and Pieces .JK's Radiant Raiment .JK's White Phial .JK's Sadris Used Wares .JK's Elgrims Elixirs .JK's The Pawned Prawn .JK's Arnleif and Sons Trading Company .JK's The Hag's Cure .JK's Riverwood Trader .Farmhouse Chimneys SE .InnCredible .Cathedral - Luminosity .Realistic Lighting Overhaul (RLO) SSE All-In-One Installer .BHTNFver2-8 .City Trees .Sacred Trees .Vivid Gildergreen Tree 2k .Glorious Doors of Skyrim (GDOS) .Player Blink Fix - ESL .Player Headtracking SE .Simplicity of Snow .Snow Fix .CG4 Trees and Bushes SE - (WOODLAND Version) .Treerific .Simply Bigger Trees SE .Volcanic Heat Haze .Realistic Water Two SE .Animated Forge Water .Skyrim Is Windy .DustEffectsSSE .Impact Effects - Vanilla Sparks .More Critters 0_8 .BeastHHBB - Npc replacer and player .Slof's Fluffy Khajiit Tails SSE .Beauties Of Skyrim HD Uncensored .Seductive Lips HD SE Edition .300 and More NPCS Converted to PC Presets .Outfit Changer SSE .SC Horses Mane Fix .Quality Cubemaps .Optional Quick Start - SE .The Skyrim Distance Overhaul Beta (S.D.O.) .Water Flow Fix .Botox For Skyrim SE .Tamriel Reloaded HD SE FULL 0-9c for NMM .Northern Roads .Immersive Interiors .Deathbell HD 2K .Mihail Bruma Wolves Retexture and Remesh .Realistic RS Children .Northern Realistic Clouds .Animated Clutter .WSCO 1.1 .Tempered Skins for Males - Dressed Version .The Elder Scrolls Legends - Loading Screens .Blackbeerd's Beards .JH Combat Animation Pack .Forest Bark .Waterplants .Vanargand Animations - One handed Mid Stance .More Tavern Idles compatibility version .R.A.S.S. - Rain Ash And Snow Shaders .Lucid Rain
submitted by CommercialAd3390 to SkyrimModsXbox [link] [comments]
.RaceCompatibility with fixes for SSE .Not So High-Poly Head Mesh (NSHHM) 1.22 - ReFix .Belethor Vendor Fix 2.0 .Cheat Room - Additions and Merchant NPC .SkyUI_5_2_SE .SkyHUD .Elaborate Textiles .aMidianBorn Book of Silence SE .Mythical Ages - 1.10 .Lightning During Storm Sse V3 (Minty Lightning) .snowflakes 2021 .Enhanced Shadows .Obsidian Mountain Fogs .Weather of World .WhiterunHoldForest .Realistic Grass Field 1k .grass lod noise green tint .Treeslod_23 .KS Hairdos SSE .Calientes Beautiful Bodies Edition -CBBE- .XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended - Fixed Scripts .Racial Body Morphs - Extreme 2.1 .Heartland Horses .Vera's Female Skeletons 2.01.1 .360 Walk and Run Plus .The TBBP animation of Dragonfly with butt bounce .NPC Animation Remix (DAR) - main archive .Pretty Female Idles .Static Mesh Improvement Mod .High Poly Project .Better Dynamic Snow SE .Dungeons - Revisited .Dynamically Disable Eye Adaptation and Bloom .Dynamic Camera .Dynamic Display Settings .AI Overhaul SSE .JKs Skyrim - AI Overhaul SSE Patch - for use with SE version of AIO .SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators 1_65_02 NOSM (No SurvivalMode) .Serio's Enhanced Dragons .Improved Bandits - Rebalanced .Farm Animals 1_7_1 .Rally's Shaggycows of Skyrim .Oblivion Horses SE Basic Version. For manual installation .house cats (se-ae) 1.1 .Lanterns of Skyrim SE .Rallys Hanging Moss .HD Photorealistic Ivy .Cathedral - 3D Mountain Flowers .Ruins_Clutter_Improved SE .Green Grass in Whiterun .Whiterun Garden .4K Spider Egg and Sacs .Comfy Mammoth Cheese Textures .ElSopa HD - Giant Paintings .JS Common Cages SE - 4k Textures .Glorious Dummies .WiZkiD Carriages .Ennead - Septims 4K Gold .Creatures Retexture Pack .Draugr Horrific Textures .Enhanced Blood Textures .morebloodandgore_full_strength .KD - Realistic Fireplaces SE .Embers HD .Inferno - Fire Effects Redux .Vanilla hair - Salt and Wind .Kyoe_BanginBrows_StandalonebyShiva182alt.zip .JK's Arcadia's Cauldron .JK's Belethor's General Goods .JK's Warmaiden's .Jk's Angeline's Aromatics .JK's Bits and Pieces .JK's Radiant Raiment .JK's White Phial .JK's Sadris Used Wares .JK's Elgrims Elixirs .JK's The Pawned Prawn .JK's Arnleif and Sons Trading Company .JK's The Hag's Cure .JK's Riverwood Trader .Farmhouse Chimneys SE .InnCredible .Cathedral - Luminosity .Realistic Lighting Overhaul (RLO) SSE All-In-One Installer .BHTNFver2-8 .City Trees .Sacred Trees .Vivid Gildergreen Tree 2k .Glorious Doors of Skyrim (GDOS) .Player Blink Fix - ESL .Player Headtracking SE .Simplicity of Snow .Snow Fix .CG4 Trees and Bushes SE - (WOODLAND Version) .Treerific .Simply Bigger Trees SE .Volcanic Heat Haze .Realistic Water Two SE .Animated Forge Water .Skyrim Is Windy .DustEffectsSSE .Impact Effects - Vanilla Sparks .More Critters 0_8 .BeastHHBB - Npc replacer and player .Slof's Fluffy Khajiit Tails SSE .Beauties Of Skyrim HD Uncensored .Seductive Lips HD SE Edition .300 and More NPCS Converted to PC Presets .Outfit Changer SSE .SC Horses Mane Fix .Quality Cubemaps .Optional Quick Start - SE .The Skyrim Distance Overhaul Beta (S.D.O.) .Water Flow Fix .Botox For Skyrim SE .Tamriel Reloaded HD SE FULL 0-9c for NMM .Northern Roads .Immersive Interiors .Deathbell HD 2K .Mihail Bruma Wolves Retexture and Remesh .Realistic RS Children .Northern Realistic Clouds .Animated Clutter .WSCO 1.1 .Tempered Skins for Males - Dressed Version .The Elder Scrolls Legends - Loading Screens .Blackbeerd's Beards .JH Combat Animation Pack .Forest Bark .Waterplants .Vanargand Animations - One handed Mid Stance .More Tavern Idles compatibility version .R.A.S.S. - Rain Ash And Snow Shaders .Lucid Rain
2023.03.15 21:23 CommercialAd3390 Asking for help out of the goodness of your heart.
Hello my Skyrim brethren, My name is Oliver and I am asking for the help of a kind soul. I have had all the Skyrim mods I could ever want for many months now (a little under a year) and am at the pointe where I am reaching out for help. I have organized my mod list in every order I am capable of coming up with and have followed every load order guide available on the net, I have even gone as far as to post a help add in my cities largest newspaper as I am currently at the end of my rope and don’t know what else to do. So I am asking for the help of someone who is an expert at ordering an Xbox load order to the extent that they could do it in their sleep to please find it in your heart to help me by placing my below mods in their correct order. I love my Skyrim and want nothing more than to just be able to play and never have to worry about my mods ever again, especially since I know now that Starfield won’t be releasing before September so Skyrim is all I’ve got to carry me over. Please help a brother out? Thanking you all in advance for your kindness. Cheers everyone, Oliver.
RaceCompatibility with fixes for SSE Not So High-Poly Head Mesh (NSHHM) 1.22 - ReFix Belethor Vendor Fix 2.0 Cheat Room - Additions and Merchant NPC SkyUI_5_2_SE SkyHUD Elaborate Textiles aMidianBorn Book of Silence SE Mythical Ages - 1.10 Lightning During Storm Sse V3 (Minty Lightning) snowflakes 2021 Enhanced Shadows Obsidian Mountain Fogs 1.01.zip Weather of World WhiterunHoldForest Realistic Grass Field 1k grass lod noise green tint Treeslod_23 KS Hairdos SSE Calientes Beautiful Bodies Edition -CBBE- XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended - Fixed Scripts Racial Body Morphs - Extreme 2.1 Heartland Horses Vera's Female Skeletons 2.01.1 360 Walk and Run Plus The TBBP animation of Dragonfly with butt bounce NPC Animation Remix (DAR) - main archive Pretty Female Idles Static Mesh Improvement Mod High Poly Project Better Dynamic Snow SE Dungeons - Revisited Dynamically Disable Eye Adaptation and Bloom Dynamic Camera Dynamic Display Settings AI Overhaul SSE JKs Skyrim - AI Overhaul SSE Patch - for use with SE version of AIO SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators 1_65_02 NOSM (No SurvivalMode) Serio's Enhanced Dragons Improved Bandits - Rebalanced Farm Animals 1_7_1 Rally's Shaggycows of Skyrim Oblivion Horses SE Basic Version. For manual installation house cats (se-ae) 1.1 Lanterns of Skyrim SE Rallys Hanging Moss HD Photorealistic Ivy Cathedral - 3D Mountain Flowers Ruins_Clutter_Improved SE Green Grass in Whiterun Whiterun Garden 4K Spider Egg and Sacs Comfy Mammoth Cheese Textures ElSopa HD - Giant Paintings JS Common Cages SE - 4k Textures Glorious Dummies WiZkiD Carriages Ennead - Septims 4K Gold Creatures Retexture Pack Draugr Horrific Textures Enhanced Blood Textures morebloodandgore_full_strength KD - Realistic Fireplaces SE Embers HD Inferno - Fire Effects Redux Vanilla hair - Salt and Wind Kyoe_BanginBrows_StandalonebyShiva182alt.zip JK's Arcadia's Cauldron JK's Belethor's General Goods JK's Warmaiden's Jk's Angeline's Aromatics JK's Bits and Pieces JK's Radiant Raiment JK's White Phial JK's Sadris Used Wares JK's Elgrims Elixirs JK's The Pawned Prawn JK's Arnleif and Sons Trading Company JK's The Hag's Cure JK's Riverwood Trader Farmhouse Chimneys SE InnCredible Cathedral - Luminosity Realistic Lighting Overhaul (RLO) SSE All-In-One Installer BHTNFver2-8 RogueUnicorn - City Trees Sacred Trees Vivid Landscapes - Gildergreen Tree 2k Glorious Doors of Skyrim (GDOS) Player Blink Fix - ESL Player Headtracking SE Simplicity of Snow Snow Fix CG4 Trees and Bushes SE - (WOODLAND Version) Treerific Simply Bigger Trees SE Volcanic Heat Haze Realistic Water Two SE Animated Forge Water Skyrim Is Windy DustEffectsSSE Impact Effects - Vanilla Sparks More Critters 0_8 BeastHHBB - Npc replacer and player Slof's Fluffy Khajiit Tails SSE Beauties Of Skyrim HD Uncensored Seductive Lips HD SE Edition 300 and More NPCS Converted to PC Presets Outfit Changer SSE SC Horses Mane Fix Quality Cubemaps Optional Quick Start - SE The Skyrim Distance Overhaul Beta (S.D.O.) Water Flow Fix Botox For Skyrim SE Tamriel Reloaded HD SE FULL 0-9c for NMM Northern Roads Immersive Interiors 0 Deathbell HD 2K Mihail Bruma Wolves Retexture and Remesh Realistic RS Children Northern Realistic Clouds Animated Clutter WSCO 1.1 Tempered Skins for Males - Dressed Version The Elder Scrolls Legends - Loading Screens Blackbeerd's Beards JH Combat Animation Pack Forest Bark Waterplants - lily only Vanargand Animations - One handed Mid Stance More Tavern Idles compatibility version R.A.S.S. - Rain Ash And Snow Shaders Lucid Rain
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RaceCompatibility with fixes for SSE Not So High-Poly Head Mesh (NSHHM) 1.22 - ReFix Belethor Vendor Fix 2.0 Cheat Room - Additions and Merchant NPC SkyUI_5_2_SE SkyHUD Elaborate Textiles aMidianBorn Book of Silence SE Mythical Ages - 1.10 Lightning During Storm Sse V3 (Minty Lightning) snowflakes 2021 Enhanced Shadows Obsidian Mountain Fogs 1.01.zip Weather of World WhiterunHoldForest Realistic Grass Field 1k grass lod noise green tint Treeslod_23 KS Hairdos SSE Calientes Beautiful Bodies Edition -CBBE- XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended - Fixed Scripts Racial Body Morphs - Extreme 2.1 Heartland Horses Vera's Female Skeletons 2.01.1 360 Walk and Run Plus The TBBP animation of Dragonfly with butt bounce NPC Animation Remix (DAR) - main archive Pretty Female Idles Static Mesh Improvement Mod High Poly Project Better Dynamic Snow SE Dungeons - Revisited Dynamically Disable Eye Adaptation and Bloom Dynamic Camera Dynamic Display Settings AI Overhaul SSE JKs Skyrim - AI Overhaul SSE Patch - for use with SE version of AIO SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators 1_65_02 NOSM (No SurvivalMode) Serio's Enhanced Dragons Improved Bandits - Rebalanced Farm Animals 1_7_1 Rally's Shaggycows of Skyrim Oblivion Horses SE Basic Version. For manual installation house cats (se-ae) 1.1 Lanterns of Skyrim SE Rallys Hanging Moss HD Photorealistic Ivy Cathedral - 3D Mountain Flowers Ruins_Clutter_Improved SE Green Grass in Whiterun Whiterun Garden 4K Spider Egg and Sacs Comfy Mammoth Cheese Textures ElSopa HD - Giant Paintings JS Common Cages SE - 4k Textures Glorious Dummies WiZkiD Carriages Ennead - Septims 4K Gold Creatures Retexture Pack Draugr Horrific Textures Enhanced Blood Textures morebloodandgore_full_strength KD - Realistic Fireplaces SE Embers HD Inferno - Fire Effects Redux Vanilla hair - Salt and Wind Kyoe_BanginBrows_StandalonebyShiva182alt.zip JK's Arcadia's Cauldron JK's Belethor's General Goods JK's Warmaiden's Jk's Angeline's Aromatics JK's Bits and Pieces JK's Radiant Raiment JK's White Phial JK's Sadris Used Wares JK's Elgrims Elixirs JK's The Pawned Prawn JK's Arnleif and Sons Trading Company JK's The Hag's Cure JK's Riverwood Trader Farmhouse Chimneys SE InnCredible Cathedral - Luminosity Realistic Lighting Overhaul (RLO) SSE All-In-One Installer BHTNFver2-8 RogueUnicorn - City Trees Sacred Trees Vivid Landscapes - Gildergreen Tree 2k Glorious Doors of Skyrim (GDOS) Player Blink Fix - ESL Player Headtracking SE Simplicity of Snow Snow Fix CG4 Trees and Bushes SE - (WOODLAND Version) Treerific Simply Bigger Trees SE Volcanic Heat Haze Realistic Water Two SE Animated Forge Water Skyrim Is Windy DustEffectsSSE Impact Effects - Vanilla Sparks More Critters 0_8 BeastHHBB - Npc replacer and player Slof's Fluffy Khajiit Tails SSE Beauties Of Skyrim HD Uncensored Seductive Lips HD SE Edition 300 and More NPCS Converted to PC Presets Outfit Changer SSE SC Horses Mane Fix Quality Cubemaps Optional Quick Start - SE The Skyrim Distance Overhaul Beta (S.D.O.) Water Flow Fix Botox For Skyrim SE Tamriel Reloaded HD SE FULL 0-9c for NMM Northern Roads Immersive Interiors 0 Deathbell HD 2K Mihail Bruma Wolves Retexture and Remesh Realistic RS Children Northern Realistic Clouds Animated Clutter WSCO 1.1 Tempered Skins for Males - Dressed Version The Elder Scrolls Legends - Loading Screens Blackbeerd's Beards JH Combat Animation Pack Forest Bark Waterplants - lily only Vanargand Animations - One handed Mid Stance More Tavern Idles compatibility version R.A.S.S. - Rain Ash And Snow Shaders Lucid Rain