You cannot possibly guess where this is going
I ain’t even ashamed how many times I watched this.
Lmao this is the content I am here for.
Video description:
A shirtless man with surgical scars on his chest replies to a comment reading, "poor lady what did you do to your".
The man says:
"So, I'm actually not transgender, and this is a really good example of why it's important to be aware that different medical procedures can leave very similar types of scars. And also just not to make assumptions about people in general.
For example, yes, the scars I have do look really similar to what they call, um, I think top surgery scars. But they're actually from, uh, getting a set of my ribs removed, so I could suck my own -"
Video cuts off here.
End description.
I based a set of D&D villains around the six main stats called Virtues. (think Full Metal Alchemist sins, except Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, etc..) My favorite of the bunch was Charm. Her conceit was she could persuade, lie, cheat, change appearance, and manipulate the players pretty much however she wanted, but the second someone attacked her she would go down. I introduced her relatively early into the campaign, and I was a bit nervous because I was pretty upfront about her introduction. I didn't say it explicitly, but it was pretty obvious Charm was a Virtue from the offset. I thought "well, I like this character a lot, maybe I'll cheat it a little if I have to." Surprisingly, I never did.
In retrospect, I think the context of the Charm encounters was a huge boon. The party really only confronted her twice: the first time at a dinner party and the second at a war council, where leaders from various factions met to discuss retaking the main city for the finale of the campaign. Neither were explicitly combat scenarios, and both times it would have looked pretty bad for the party if they just up and killed Charm for apparently no reason. The end result was I had villain with only eight hit points to her name run around and torment my level 16 party unpunished for several sessions. Let me tell you, as a DM, that felt amazing.
To add onto this as a player perspective, Charm was immediately positioned in such a way that, in the social and emotional dynamics of the roleplay, she was untouchable.
Charms first introduction was as the foreign dignitary of a far off nation who we knew had secret ties to the Church. We were at a mansion dinner party held partially in our honor - we were in part invited directly by the King, who we were favored by and wanted favor from. Charms plus 1 at the party was our party leaders sister - they were good friends. This was all true the second time she appeared at the war council, which was not only an expressly political appearance but also one where she represented the nation from which we were trying to secure military aid from.
It didn't matter at any point that we could have rolled a few dice for an attack roll and destroyed her. To destroy Charm of the six virtues, we had to murder, in cold blood, someone who was well liked, well connected, and well loved by some of the npcs closest to the party.
The only way we defeated her was because when we threatened her, subtly, she tipped her hand. Charm openly threatened the party leader's sister, who from then on no longer believed in her. We came to the bargaining table with her and convinced her (with no deception!) she could leave the battle march and be done with us. And when she got on her boat to leave, as it left port, our Bard (independently of anyone) snuck onto the ship, snuck into her room, and killed her in her sleep. The only kill that character ever got in the entire three year campaign.
It was an extremely well executed factor of the game because it was essentially a social encounter Boss fight. We had to construct and push and change the context of the situation until we could kill her without everything else crumbling around us - personal relationships as well as political ones.
I should add, Bard character *chose* not to kill anyone. She would willingly torment enemies and assist the party in combat, but never did any killing herself. She only killed Charm after everything had been resolved and Charm had effectively exited the campaign. She would have gotten away scot-free if Bard hadn't decided to take action. It was a great moment, and as a DM I couldn't have asked for a better character death
Here's what the fight with Tenacity (Constitution) looked like:
That little red bar at the top is her health. I don't show specific numbers, but I like having the health bar available for players to see so they have a general sense of how wounded the enemy is. I believe for this fight I started Tenacity at 999 HP out of a possible 20,000.
I greatly enjoyed watching my players realize what they were in for after they hit for 50+ damage on their first attack and saw the health bar get one pixel smaller.
Ferocity (Strength) was the most conventional of the Virtues, but context was everything. The players hadn't fought a Virtue yet, and were debating whether to defend some potential allies or lay low, only for the Paladin to slip away and confront Ferocity by himself. I was personally prepared to save the fight for later, but when a Paladin does something heroic and foolish you gotta let them have it.
I did not skimp on Ferocity's stat block either. She had a greatsword fashioned out of a massive hunk of stone that dealt bludgeoning damage and was much too heavy for anyone else to even lift. She could grab players and throw them across the map, resulting in fall damage from the distance thrown. She could chuck her sword at someone and leap to where it landed from a standing position. Paladin stood no chance by himself. The result was a mad dash to the join the fray while Paladin tried to hold out for as long as possible, with new party members arriving round after round to help. It was a very close fight, and my favorite combat of the whole campaign.
Incredibly, Monk found a way to disarm Ferocity after she threw her greatsword at him. He couldn't lift it of course, but he could use his new magic item to teleport away with it and hide it in a nearby river. Ferocity spent the rest of the combat leaping around the map to find it, allowing Barbarian to finish her off. Really ingenious play.
(Pictured above, Ferocity and Paladin.)
azifafel asked:
am I misreading (sorry very tired) or did the chiropractor cause the injury? oh no I have my first chiropractor appointment in a week for my chronic neck pain/hypermobile neck D: is this a sign to cancel it?
thebibliosphere answered:
Hypermobile neck.
D: Nonononononononono!!! No don’t let them touch you!
Back in 2018 before we knew I had Ehlers Danlos, a chiropractor gently (I cannot stress this enough. He was so, so gentle with me and I still suffered a major, life threatening injury) adjusted my neck, tore all the surrounding soft tissue and I had to get an emergency MRI because I was at risk of a brain bleed.
Fortunately none of the arteries in my neck were impacted but the surrounding soft tissue and nerves were so badly damaged I’m still in rehab. It’s never going to fully heal, but I’m very lucky to be alive.
Honestly, no one should let chiropractors near their neck but especially not people with hypermobility. I cannot stress this enough, do not do it. Please.
I know it might be hard to get (I know my insurance only covered chiropractic care at the time and that’s how I ended up worse off🫠) but you’d be much better off pursuing long term relief through physical therapy intended to help stabilize and strengthen the area. Chiropractic care will not do this. It actively destabilizes the neck and doesn’t offer long term stability.
Please take care and be careful with your neck. It’s been 6 years and I still sometimes can’t hold my head up without getting shooting pain and vertigo.
Chiropractors are not even actual medical professionals.
Source: am besties with a massage therapist who has had to deal with the aftermath of chiropractors.
guy tries to toss a cigarette on the ground but the ground parries it and it flies back into his mouth and he solemnly continues to smoke it
hard to believe there are actually people out there who think that big noses are ugly and unattractive … like what the fuck is wrong with you ?
I need you specifically to kill yourself. choose a slow and painful method also
BIG NOSE WOMEN SUPREMACY ðŸ™ðŸ™ðŸ™ðŸ™ðŸ™ðŸ™
literally how can anyone not find these women the hottest people ALIVE
I like to think that Vulcans who come to understand that Humans just can’t try to process emotions the same way as them, it’s just healthiest to let it out in harmless ways, decide that venting and stuff should be taken just as seriously as Vulcan’s meditation time, and will encourage the Humans around them to complain about what’s upsetting them
People who are used to aloof Vulcans who avoid Humans at all cost running into one comforting a Human
“-and then they said my cheesecake was subpar, and they didn’t even bring a dish!!!”
“The purpose of this event was that every participant brings a food item of sorts, correct?”
“Yeah!!”
“And they did not follow this rule while insulting dishes that were brought?”
“Mostly just my dish but yeah >:(“
“How illogical”
“That’s what I’m saying!!!”
@mcspirkmindmeld your tags *chef kiss*
Crazy how so many of you on here are shamelessly didkriding Joe Biden, when it just broke that the House of Reps approved a 1.2 trillion funding bill that bans UNRWA funding—mere days after the IPC said that northern Gaza is on the official brink of famine. The bill is now waiting approval in the Senate, and Joe Biden has literally stated that he would “sign the bill into law immediately.” Remember that this is all based on hearsay that the UNRWA had something to do with the initial Hamas attack on Oct. 7, which was already thoroughly debunked. But this is the “lesser evil” you want voted back into office? How can you say that in good conscience, knowing he’s an active participant in Gaza’s starvation and terrorism campaign?
punromantic
