Trilodroid: July 2026

Well… I’m not crazy about the rich and corruption angle. I prefer a more grounded, normal humanistic movie. Not some thing that glorifies this type of money grubbing political type.

But! The ending seems to be ramping up. Maybe satisfying , let’s see.

Broader movie landscape thoughts - -

The Amytyville Horror was released the same year 1979. The Shining in 1980. The first Spielberg movie about a haunted house was a tv movie in 1972 (nobody watched), but his (he wrote it) blockbuster haunted house movie Poltergeist with the line “They’re here” must have not been long after, maybe 1982. Lotsa haunted house movies.

Dnd names

Names

Marsh

Springford

Thornton

Sherwood

Wannberg

Hunter

Gray

Morse

Thursday, July 30, 2026

Hilarious analysis of prestidigitation

Hilarious analysis of prestidigitation by “xp to level 3” guy https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5ixXjdVt4kI&t=917s

Scooby-Doo’s influence on D&D

The influence would seem to be there overall, but it is seemingly obvious in the episode

Hassle in the Castle, s01:e03 of Scooby-Doo Where Are You?

Old knight armor in haunted castles (one that is basically a trap with the axe coming down next to Shaggy’s head)
A magic carpet
a trap door (Daphne says “they say these old castles are full of traps” or something )
A talking skull
It’s in a castle!
Finding loot (giant key clue) in an old chest
Catacombs
An old mummy sarcophagus in the background
Magic items (ok it’s just a top hat and wand but you know… )
A ghost

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Wrath of Khan, even better on rewatch

So why did he (Kahn)keep his right glove on? The world may never know.Supposedly Michael Jackson started his thing two years earlier in 1979 but it became a thing a year after this movie in 1982 (which is when us youngsters saw it) … so is it related or not? Coincidence I think. https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/comments/19bfia8/what_is_the_purpose_of_this_device_that_khan/?solution=a5815bf4a4387efba5815bf4a4387efb&js_challenge=1&token=7afd7253fec22262ff1c52b1703fe9ecff6f378825601f4c8e1634b30517e585&jsc_orig_r=

Ole Ricardo Montalban was a heck of a villain. But the Pock scene and the lines of Kirk and son afterwards were moving. Good stuff.

Sunday, July 26, 2026

Results so far, our campaign - Entrope statblock, work in progress for 5e

G3, third level, mostly clear. Room 8 and room 15(?).

Wand of viscous globs… used the 5e version. Will only last an hour… sunlight (sunsword) will destroy in one hour. Kid beat me to it, used dimension door. Smart.

Killed 8, aka half the drow with a level 8 spell. Rest of drow retreated.

Then uncovered… the Entrope (2e monster). For next time! I've never been compelled to use a 2e Planescape monster, but this one works for what we are doing in G3 I think. It's like the drow worshipping the elder elemental evil type stuff have caused problems/caught the attention of this thing.

The Entrope is a fairly difficult sounding foe till you figure him out.

https://adnd2e.fandom.com/wiki/Entrope
https://www.completecompendium.com/appendix/entrope/
Ote the book is Planescape Monstrous Compendium https://www.completecompendium.com/catalog/ps/2635/
Some 2e stats below... so think of them in 2e terms and convert.
For 5e conversion: I'm going to add 1 die to each super attack AoE thing... hell maybe I should add two, but we'll see.
For 5e conversion: Maybe add a +5 per melee dmg.
WHAT ELSE
2e stats below, as I was saying...
Intelligence: Low to average (7-10) (((doesn't talk, but understands common))).
Hit Dice: 11+6 --->>88+6 max HP for 2e, so in 5e terms probably stay around 200-300HP range (i used 300hp).
Movement: 12 for 2e, that means speed 60 ft. for 5e. VERY fast.
Damage/Attack: (3 attacks) 1d8/1d8/1d12 for 2e, so add +5 for each for 5e.

And for 5e, I think allow it to do these attacks AND the super AoE attacks ... almost every round instead of every 3 rounds (yes i did that and it worked great as a solo boss). Need to do some math to be sure though... maybe every 3 rounds is better (But TELL the party??? Or do the visual description... all four of its eyes are lit up, BAM, a major AoE attack, now only one eye is lit up, next round 2 eyes light up, once four are lit up again, BLAM! UPDATE- yes i used the eyes lighting up) .

XP Value: 10,000 for 2e, (that means dangerous at medium to even medium high levels maybe even in 5e).
Dangerous tone right off the bat in description- There are holes throughout the multiverse. Call them conduits, portals or any other name, they're still holes. The Inner Planes are no exception. In fact, these planes in particular are full of tiny leaks where bits of one element seep into another plane. Some graybeards theorize that one day, in the far distant reaches of the future, the borders of the Elemental Planes will completely break down and all the elements will combine. Such a thing could signal the end of the multiverse, if it's true.
Combat: Because the entrope can literally break down the fabric of reality, it's nothing to fool around with. Anywhere within the Inner Planes, the beast can “eat” through elermental borders, creating a small, temporary hole in space leading to any other Inner Plane. The rent results in a mass of the foreign element bursting into the plane with great power. While the entrope itself isn't harmed by this action, anyone within 25 feet is subject to the elemental explosion. The results depend on which plane the hole leads to (a decision made by the entrope):

Air, Earth, Mineral, Ooze, Salt, Water: Matter or air explodes through the hole with great force, inflicting 3d10 points of impact damage (save versus breath weapon for half). Victims must save versus breath weapon or be knocked down and/or back 10 feet; they're also stunned for 1 round afterward.
Ash, Dust, Smoke, Steam: Particulate matter bursts through the tear, inflicting 2d6 points of impact damage (save versus breath weapons for half). What's more, all victims must save versus poison or cough and choke for 1d6 rounds, incapacitated.
Fire, Lightning, Positive Energy, Radiance: Raw energy gushes through the rent, inflicting 8d6 points of damage (save versus breath weapon for half).
Ice, Magma: Energy (along with varying amounts of matter) erupts through the tear, inflicting 6d6 points of heat or cold damage (save versus breath weapon for half). Victims must save versus breath weapon or be knocked down and/or back 10 feet.
Negative Energy: This hole sucks the life energy from all victims, draining one experience level from each. (((In 5e Terms, it'd just last a day)))
Vacuum: Matter and energy is drawn into this rent. The implosion inflicts 3d6 points of damage (save versus breath weapon for half) on victims and requires them to make a save versus death magic to avoid being pulled into the plane of Vacuum before the hole closes. (((In 5e terms.... OMG this is scary as hell. Good thing party has some wish ring stuff.)))

The entrope can open these holes once every three rounds. The rest of the time, it defends itself with two huge claws (1d8 points of damage each) and a gigantic tooth-filled maw (1d12 points of damage).
The strange creature is also immune to the effects of all elements, even ignoring impact damage from thrown boulders or similar attacks. Graybeards know of only two ways to harm an entropy[entrope they meant]: strike it with a magical weapon of +2 or greater enchantment, or subject it to nonelemental-based spells such as cause light wounds, magic missile, and so on.
ok
So Extras I might add for our 5e campaign -

maybe it can go into a hole in one spot and teleport to anywhere nearby and reappear (yes i used that)... making a new hole. OUCH. So maybe that makes it seem gone for half a round or something? Think of it like 5e Lair Actions or something, in which case it is skipping the turn of one or two goodguys and then appearing in backlines to do dmg on casters.
Head or body changes (i did not change looks)

it's head might change to be the head of a dragon for a split second when doing certain elemental attacks
head might be more like an UNDEAD(?? or is that spacey enough) for a split second when doing a Negative Energy attack. How about... Black Void like a blackhole??
head might be like a beholder (it already looks like one) when...
head split second like a fish-sea-serpent-whale when water and salt attack
head split sec like a ... volcano(????) when doing ash, dust, smoke, steam............ maybe something better, but what..........

If it hits with a claw, maybe it gets an auto-bite and doesn't have to roll to hit for bite? Or maybe if it hits with 1st or 2nd attack, it auto hits on just one more attack. If MISS MISS then HIT I'm rolling for 3rd attack, that's it... it'll either hit with 3rd attack or not. (Update - i just once had it get to roll for a bite when it did a free action of two oincers that both hit).

So in 5e Terms -

can say arcane type dmg would work, like magic missile or eldrich blast. I might still stick to +2 magic weapons or greater, since the party has SOME of those.

NOPE, they mention Radiant. Would RADIANT dmg count... that'd make the sunsword yet another counter to something so... not sure it should count. Think about it though. Radiant spells aren't super common, the warlock has them and has eldrich blast. Maybe that'd be OK since only Sunbeam would work for Druid....

Since it is about entropy, I think a RANDOM save stat roll is appropriate for each big AoE attack. So it could be anything if I do it this way... might be Int, might be Dex, might be Con. Is that cooler/funner?

UPDATE AFTER ENCOUNTER , I gave these extras and changes

Spit a boulder one round (i was gonna keep dmg around 1d10+5, as extra action
Spit a mini lightning bolt one round as an extra action, for 4d6
+10 on its initiative
Dc17 on most of its stuff. And I picked randomly between wisdom, int, dex, con saves. Idea was wisdom or int could predict or figure out a new explosion sooner. And sometimes let the kid pick between 2 saves.
Gave it 15 foot reach, but only 10 foot attack of opportunity
Gave it a tail attack ad an extra action one round. 1d12 plus 5 dmg.
To Hit was +10 on pincers, bute, tail, etc.
300 HP.
Had legendary resist sort of… I think it took half dmg. Only used twice… let the final max Blight spell do full dmg since the Barb had gotten sucked into a Vacuum/Air plane and the fighter got ash poison cloud into incapacitated for 5 rounds (on a 1d6).
It had underground free movement like swimming through rocks, 60 ft movement.
Party of four are level 15 against it.
Barbarian got a crit on first round… he has a +2 to hit but no plus dmg. Wasn’t sure how to do that because was trying to stick to the 2e “need a plus 2 magic weapon to hit”, so decided that that weapon would do half dmg.
Fighter eventually used a plus 1 weapon for 1/3 dmg.
Necrotic did full dmg against it. Blight, etc.
Psychic would have done full dmg, but used legendary resist so i think i said it’d take half on that crazy mental prison spell, … even tho maybe it is supposed to do full dmg even on a save, just no actual prison????
Radiant, fire, cold, lightning, acid(?) did no dmg.
It would attack 2 or 3 times even when it dis the explosion. I think I sometimes or always counted that as an extra action.
Gave it 3 extra actions per round, basically anytime it wanted.
Used 2 legendary resists sort of, like i said. But always allow some dmg.

(((Recap… Round 1 the barbarian hit crit huge dmg and a second hit but halfed, warlock mental prison huge dmg but halfed, Entrope went 3rd [I gave it +10 on initiative] it did explosion eh and attacks… druid lightning bolt (round 1 or 2) no dmg, fighter using flamesword so low or no dmg all in round 1. Actually in round 1 the explosion was the Energy Drain, and the kid barely made the save for both melee guys. I let him know what he avoided. For round 2… ))) (((trying to remember- barb missed most attacks I think, boulder spit, Entrope did explosion of magma and ice (now i realize was probably supposed to pick One type listed???) bcause warlock i think is resist to both. So lots of hard calculations on how much dmg per element type and did they make the saving roll and do u half it before or after or does it matter. )))
It went like 5.5 rounds or so.
Round 3 was either fire lighting etc or change places with round 2’s magma ice. Forgot to add an extra die of dmg for fire lighting but did remember for others. The fire lightning energy probably hit 2 guys.
Second to last round was Round 4(5?) was a Vacuum explosion and sucked up Barbarian. Let him know was temp. Floating around in a air and cloud world with like nothing around. [Here is where a DM needs to figure out how long till he would be pulled back into the normal material plane. At the end after dead monster I had the hole open and and bring him back. Maybe shoulda had party use wish spell instead. )
Last explosion round Round 5(6!?) was the Ash, etc. And it knocked out the fighter. Good thing the moster was almost dead from the blight.

Sidenote, what is this?! https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmonsters/comments/yl9ims/monster_manual_expanded_ii_2nd_edition_update_2/

Movie - Night of the Comet

Better than expected. What a slice of 1980s west coast teen movie… favorite pieces so far are

The competition around initials on arcade games… Tempest was cool.
After practice with a Mac-10 machinegun, it keeps jamming… the younger sister says something like “That’s the problem with these things. Daddy would have gotten us an uzi.” This is definitely 1980s lore we all knew.

Origins and future influence (I think)

28 Days Later. Speedy zombies. Empty city.
Shaun of the dead. Zombie comedy. Empty city.

Saturday, July 25, 2026

The Odyssey TV Series from 1997 is truer, more fun

Things I'm liking:

Christopher Lee's scene... that whole into the lava with the goat scene was great. The poetic language, great.
Monsters

There was a sea serpent, very cool.
Scylla is freaky and scary. Looked 10 times cooler than the Aliens-Egg-Laying-tube-worm-tail looking one from the 2026 movie.
Main guy being of Italian heritage makes him seem a lot closer than Matt Damon being Greek.
And the Whirlpool monster actually exists, and is awesome. Charybdis is the name.

Origins (in reverse?)

The Dance from O Brother Where Art Thou (a super loose adaptation of the Odyssey, a fun one) seems to reference this TV series about the Odyssey from 3 years before:
From O Brother'
From 1997 Miniseries, they nod exaggeratedly also and walk around in a big circle.

Friday, July 24, 2026

Art - covers of Dragon mag in 1990s mostly

Supergood, but what IS that thing https://www.completecompendium.com/catalog/dr/Dragon172/

Dozen more https://www.completecompendium.com/catalog/dr/

Foreshortening dragon face is great https://www.completecompendium.com/catalog/dr/Dragon238/

I did have a dream not all that long ago, where an alligator in water nearby turned into a dragon (green, not purple) but this reminds me of it a tiny tiny tiny bit:

Raistlin new book mentioned... good ole Raist:

The Odyssey 2026 movie... whelp, kind of disappointing, but some good

Disappointing. I tried to like it more for the kid. It's not terrible. But it was disappointing in:

1. Setting. Drab as fk. Where's that cool Mediterranean cave & island world?
2. Casting. Killing me in the suspension of disbelief department.
3. Historical accuracy in look. Killing me in the suspension of disbelief department.
4. Modern day dialog, dear lord. Killing me in the suspension of disbelief department.
5. The monsters were not cool, they went for gross.

The cyclops was passable, maybe, but... I lie, I did not like the design look, a twisted face and nose with a "missing" eye, though the actor/CGI was fine (but gross).
Scylla... lol, you will never see a picture of it online b/c it was so.... meh. It's a damn sock puppet in the movie. I've got a picture, check below. And this picture looks "better" as a still than in motion... was a split second piece of the film, you barely saw it at all, and not in a "cool reveal" way either.
Charybdis the whirlpool monster was completely missing.
The Sea serpent sent by Poseidon was missing.
Gods were missing.

6. Body horror, yes body horror in this tale is about as weird as you would imagine. BTW,Circe in Nolan's version apparently hates men (despite her being an Earthgirls-are-Easy-type in the original poem).
7. Audio sucked. Whispering dialog all day, hard to hear. Then super loud terribly distorted sounds during action.

2026 movie Scylla is darn sad. Rock skinned tube worm style. Elbow joints in its neck(s). Toothless, eyeless. Just gross, nasty, and uncool. When you first see it, it looks like a sock puppet, 100%.

And this reddit post , the first couple of paragraphs, knocks it out of the park on what it did incorrectly. Once it rants about Matt Damon's Odysseus as being too "above reproach" i disagree. I can get past that because in a MOVIE I do like a hero who is a good guy. The kids were flipping out about how in class, they taught how bad Odysseus was, etc. While, yeah, as a kid myself I was completely pissed at him for leaving his family for 10-20 years, and shacking up with the Nymph and witch, ... I hate all hero types in most stories when I think about them in a realistic way b/c they are ALWAYS screwing over their family ... when I want entertainment, I like the hero to be likeable. That's all.

And then the post says what they did to Odysseus is "This downgrading of the moral architecture of the original work reminds me of what Guillermo del Toro did to Frankenstein." I say wrong wrong wrong, it is an UPGRADE of the moral architecture. I hate it when critics think being morally a shitbag is a better story. F*ck 'em. Well I'll excuse this b/c it is perhaps the main point of the original story, for some reason. I guess it as a story has endured for two reasons 1) supernatural coolness for my brain types and 2) shitbag morals for the gossip crowd brain types.

And this dude gives details on all the good parts of the movie, which I seem to agree with mostly (except I hate not seeing real Greece, not seeing cool monsters, etc.): by thigerlel

"There's no Greece in the movie because it's not about Greece. It uses Odysseus's journey to talk about the 20th Century, which is also why there' s the Bronze Age line. By coming up with the Horse, Odysseus breaks the implicit mythical trust humanity had on each other, a la Pandora or Eve unleashing sin. The veterans of Troy become the Sea People, who spread arround genocide in Troy, pillaging in other islands, rape if Cercei hadn't been prepared. Odysseus isn't curious in this version because he's guilty, and his delay in getting home is reframed as him having become so twisted he can't look at his old family in the eyes again. He listens to the sirens not because he's full of whimsy, but to suffer for all that he's done. He created an atomic bomb, there's no putting it back in the box, and their civilization will crumble until another one rises that will forget their mistakes and repeat them (us). It's an origin story for our current affairs. Odysseus is certainly a story teller. The structure of the film is less about him being passive and more about him orally narrating events to Calypso just as the story was originally spread around. In fact, there are no fantastical elements in the movie; creatures only appear in stories told to other characters. The landscapes in these tales often lack delineation, becoming surreal, endless beaches reminiscent of the Freudian sea of the unconscious as Odysseus's tale is nothing but a way for him to work though his feelings. Athena, who seems the most tangible mythical element, is revealed to be the face of the child Odysseus caused to be beheaded in Troy, just Odysseus's conscience. The actors look modern and the armors look out of place because it's a story about all time periods, extending into the future perpetually (they still look like shit)"

Thursday, July 23, 2026

History medieval Europe

Greatly done by an Irishman, no bloddy ai crap

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kVEldvGXg4w&t=337s

Free pdf Dolmenwood module

The Weaver and the Redcaps. On the official website of anecrotic gnome.

Old Star Wars concept art paintings

Are the best this yt has more than ive ever seen

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Eepb2B4z3uE

Tuesday, July 21, 2026

Ettercap, Ettercop, Cobweb, Spiderweb

These things are all related. Check out the whole Wordsmith entry for it:

This week’s theme
Words with hidden animals

This week’s words
auspicate
ettercap

The Crying Spider, 1881

Art: Odilon Redon

ettercap or attercop

PRONUNCIATION:

(ET-uhr-kap or AT-uhr-kop)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A bad-tempered or spiteful person.
2. A spider.

ETYMOLOGY:

A variant of attercop, from Old English attorcoppa, from ator (poison, venom) + coppa (spider). It’s the same element that shows up in cobweb, literally spider’s web. Earliest documented use: before 1525.

NOTES:

If you know someone who is always spinning webs of gossip or ready to bite your head off, this is the perfect label for them. The form attercop got a modern boost from J.R.R. Tolkien in The Hobbit. Bilbo Baggins uses it to taunt the giant, venomous spiders of Mirkwood, and the insult works. No spider, Tolkien tells us, has ever liked being called attercop.

USAGE:

“At least we can see the auld ettercap into the ground now, Christ be praised.”
Pat McIntosh; The Counterfeit Madam; Constable; 2011.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry and ask the dead. -Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (21 Jul 1899-1961)

Monday, July 20, 2026

Sound of fantasy horn (real) - Carnyx horn, Iron Age.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=68Hds0OYrbg&ra=m

Time 8:27

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/06/06/the-carnyx-a-long-curved-instrument-used-by-the-celts-during-the-iron-age/ says -- Prior to 2004, fragments of only five such instruments had been preserved, from Germany, Switzerland, France, Scotland, and Romania, but in November 2004 archaeologists discovered more than 500 fragments of unique military and religious objects in a Gallo-Roman site at Tintignac, in southern France. These objects, all made of iron and bronze, included 10 helmets, a dozen swords and scabbards, iron spearheads, a shield, two animal heads, one foreleg, a cauldron, and seven carnyces. Once one of the carnyces was restored, it proved to be the most complete carnyx ever found.

wikiped -- Six of the carnyces had boar's heads, while the seventh appears to be a serpent-like monster.

-- The carnyx (pl.: carnyces; /kɑːnɪks/, KAR-nicks) is a wind instrument that was common in Celtic cultures during the Iron Age, between c. 200 BC and c. 200 AD. It is a type of trumpet made of bronze with an elongated S shape, held so that the long straight central portion was vertical and the short mouthpiece end section and the much wider bell were horizontal in opposed directions. The bell was styled in the shape of the head of an open-mouthed boar or other animal.

The Celts used the carnyx in warfare, probably to incite troops to battle and to intimidate opponents, as Polybius recounts.[1] The instrument's significant height—typically around 1.8 metres (6 feet), standing as tall as its player—allowed it to be heard over the heads of the participants in battles or ceremonies.[2] The carnyx was not only used by the Celts but also by the Dacians in modern Romania, and depictions have even been found on a Buddhist sculpture in India, attesting to the far-flung connections of the Iron Age world.[3]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtefactPorn/comments/10dvmb3/a_nearly_complete_1st_century_bce_carnyx_found_in/ says -- A nearly complete 1st century BCE carnyx found in 2004 at Tintignac, France (the one in the left picture, with a reconstruction in the right). Fashioned as a snarling boar, the carnyx was a war horn used by the Iron Age Celts between c. 200 BCE and c. 200 CE

Sunday, July 19, 2026

Swords in the Mist, Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser - I now read

Starting Swords in the Mist now.

Wikiped says Contents

"The Cloud of Hate" (1963)
"Lean Times in Lankhmar" (1959)
"Their Mistress, the Sea" (1968)
"When the Sea-King's Away" (1960)
"The Wrong Branch" (1968)
"Adept's Gambit" (1947)

Origins

Could the 1980s movie “the fog” by Carpenter be influenced by this first story of an evil sentient fog with an evil red light in it… disguised as normal fog. Pg. 17 has four killers walking nearly invisible through the fog… with weapons attacking folks and feeding the fog.
Dnd - eldrich things (magic from wizards at least in part) mentioned - lightning from clouds, black coalescing shadows that suffocate men in a forest, sea serpents, smoke from a wizard’s fire that snakes out to strangle.
Pg. 27 Issek of the jug vs. Jugged Issek, who was confined in an earthenware jar for 17 years. Could it be the idea for the weird goofy living Jug/pot people of Elden Ring???
Mingol glue, pg.59…. Mayne lead to dnd super glue… i forget the name.
Pg 89, zombies it looks like. Tho watery sailors turned zombies of some calmer sort.

Trivia

Mouser is revealed as perhaps slightly evil, more so than Fafhrd for sure, on pg. 18. The fog was easily resisted by Fafhrd, not so easily by Mouser.
Sheelba is described as demonic and Ningauble as alien and multi-serpentine… through others’ views… in “Lean times in Lankhmar”.
Fafhrd is pronounced close to “fafherd” so it says in “Lean times…” pg. 24.

Analysis

Story 1. Solid. Freaky cultists, magic fog monsters, fighting.
Story 2. Overly descriptive (of boring or silly religious dudes) in the first half of story 2. I mean it is kinda entertaining, but it’s too much for me. Need action. Need weird and fantastical. Update - the whole thing was a comedy, no fantasy. This was the "change up the heroes... make them look different... one gains weight, etc." thing.
Story 3,super short… probably written to tie stories together. Nothing happens really... they ride in their boat and become "normal" again.
Story 4 is starting kinda slow. They’re “jumping” into a magical air tunnel through the ocean to find sea women. A shark has been the only action for about 2 seconds. It has mostly been about Fafhrd not being worried and Mouser being very worried they’d die when the magic tunnel of air breaks. Like pages and pages of this. OK, then they had like 1 paragraph of watery zombie-type undead and something else they killed. Then they got with the sea ladies with blue or green or something skin. End of story basically.
Story 5 was confusing at the beginning, I thought it said it was going to be on Earth around the Roman empire days due to Ning's caverns that lead to other times and universes... I skimmed through 5 or 10 pages of stuff, then I started seeing Ilthmar references and very very VERY briefly references of 1 and 2 and 3 headed sea dragons. So I don't know if this is supposed to be Earth or not. LATER… ok they do get transported to Earth and all thst. Weird.

D&D ideas to use; Names:

Names: Gnarlag, Skel, Kreshmar. Sory 2- Pulg.
Cultists create the evil fog near a river. This fog turned into a squidlike fog monster w ten tentacles… grew a single red eye as big as a face. Had infected evil types to become truly murderous, and when it sucked up enough life force from whomever, that’s when it started to look like a giant monster with an eye. Can grab weapons. A single pinkish silvery thread connected it to the larger evil fog. Cut that, and you beat that one part. Dying, weapons drop, fog disperses, and a stink.
X

Mistakes in continuity

Pg.27, says the twain heroes split up… Fafhrd joined up as an acolyte with Bwadres worshipping Issek of the jug, a religious type “godlet”. But in another story I thought it said Mouser and Fafhrd met for the first time after that.

Saturday, July 18, 2026

Scifi trivia and Golden Age reads

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GhNtYhvDsvo&t=856s

Time 14:20 shows that yeah, Ridley Scott probably stole this old idea of planting eggs in spaceship crewmen feom this story “Discord in scarlett” by A. E. Van Vogt.

Or did that author van Vogt steal from John Campbell’s creatures in “Who goes there”?

Youtuber J. Scott Phillips.

Friday, July 17, 2026

Ningauble of the Seven Eyes - art

Fantastic Stories cover "Adept's Gambit".

Ningauble of the Seven Eyes. Wow, I guess that's what he looks like... was hiding his face and hands and feet in the stories I've read so far, but did freakily reveal his 7 eyes that can extend very very far... they're supposed to glow slightly green and have cat-like pupils.

On the picture. Nice and freaky, I like it. Thanks/credit for picture (of an old maganize) to Goodman Games and the Lankhmar PDFs I got from that humble bundle last year. This was in the PDF named "DCCL 8 EightCities".

BTW, that usual yellowish comicbook art you see everywhere of them incorrectly shows hands (wrapped and less fingers on Nongauble) on Sheelba and Ningauble. I just finished reading the stories in “swords against death” and specifically nobody knows if the two wizards have human anatomy on their faces or hands still (or feet). When Fafhrd gets to borrow the blindfold of true seeing, one of the wizards, I think Sheelba, says NOT to put it on right then or risk insanity and death (implying the perhaps Lovecraftian nature of the two wizards).

Trivia from that PDF (note that "The Twain" means Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser):

Something that was produced though was the game of
Lankhmar, originally released by TSR in 1976 and ushering
in a long-time partnership between Leiber and the “Game
Wizards.” The game of Lankhmar was based on a wargame
of sorts created by Leiber and Fischer and played during the
years of the Great Depression. The original board, a massive
piece of cardboard that showed the terrain and geography of
Nehwon, was long lost along with the rules the two wrote.
When Gygax learned of this game, he expressed a desire to
reproduce it, leaving Leiber and Fischer with the chore of reconstructing the game from memory. These rewritten rules,
penned in longhand, can be found in the Papers Collection.

As part of the development of the game, Gygax sent Leiber
and Fischer a number of illustrations done by David C.
Sutherland, III, each depicting his take on the characters
in the game. Fischer sent these back to TSR with a number
of corrections, pointing out where Sutherland had veered
away from Fischer’s own personal interpretations of the
characters and cultures of Nehwon. Sadly, these corrections
arrived too late for them to be implemented. The annotated
illustrations are preserved in the Collection, granting an interesting insight into how the Twain’s co-creator envisioned
the duo and the world they inhabited.

That B&W one is from https://dungeonfantastic.blogspot.com/2019/03/fafhrd-grey-mouser-by-russ-nicholson.html pointing to artist https://russnicholson.blogspot.com/2019/03/as-one-came-lets-see-if.html

Thursday, July 16, 2026

Get Tenkar’s book

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-yYZdrUi_Zw

Transcription from vids, so it's not super fancy prose... it's just basic info, which is just fine. It'll be updated a couple times a year.

He says "Download link is right here https://tenkars-tavern.games/TavernGuide

— no email, no signup, no store page. It's CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, so print it, share it, post it in your Discord, hand it to your table. Read the chapter that matches whatever's actually broken at your table this week, pick one procedure out of it, and run it three times before you judge it. Then tell me whether it held up."

Extra good parts:

The Three Steps, on page 7.
Telegraphing Danger: The Escalation Ladder, on page 8.
Room Description: Scene, Oddity, Risk
Adding These Procedures Without Burning Your Table Out
What This Handbook Assumes: The B/X Loop - ...common sense first, dice only if needed....

The three steps (I'll paste the whole thing)

Step one: the player states intent, and "I search" doesn't count. "I'm checking the fireplace for drafts." "I'm feeling the mortar lines for a seam." "I want to know if that chest's lid seam looks tampered with." Intent tells you what kind of clue to hand back.

Step two: you respond with information, not a verdict. Not "you find a secret door" — "the soot above the fireplace is thicker on the left, but there's a clean arc on the right, like something's been swung open, and you feel a faint cool draft near the right inner stone." You've told them nothing is confirmed and everything is worth pursuing. Layer the clues if a player keeps investigating: one standout detail, one suspicious detail, one confirmation of safety.
Step three: roll only when time, risk, or precision are actually in question. Not "did you find it" — "can you do this quickly," "can you do it quietly," "does this trigger while you're working it." The roll stops being permission to discover and becomes a cost for speed or stealth.
Applied to traps, the same three steps hold, with one addition: think about what job the trap is doing. Traps exist to make the dungeon feel engineered — somebody built this place and expected intruders — and to make time matter, the same way searching does. If a trap doesn't create a decision, it's just random damage.
WORKED EXAMPLE — THE NEEDLE CHEST
Slot-machine version: "I check for traps." Roll. Fail. Open it. Save vs. poison or die. Nobody learned
anything — that's a death tax, not play.
Clean version: "Before we touch it, I check the lock, the lid seam, the hinges — anything out of place."
You: "There's a hairline scratch around the lock plate, like it's been removed and reset. The keyhole smells
faintly of bitter almonds." Now the table has a real decision — rotate the chest so the lock faces away and
work it with a pole (slow, safe, a turn); force it (fast, loud, risks the contents); or hand it to the thief with
time to work (a roll, but a chosen one).
Give real credit to good tools and good method. A 10-ft pole probing ahead, chalk or flour dusted on a floor to catch a disturbed seam, a mirror on a rod checking behind a statue, water or oil poured along a seam to reveal airflow — if the approach is sound, let it succeed outright. The thief's Find/Remove Traps skill isn't the only way into this system; it's the cleanest option for a fine, dangerous mechanism under time pressure. Everyone gets to investigate and attempt a bypass. Only the thief gets to neutralize the hard ones cleanly.

Telegraphing Danger: The Escalation Ladder (just a piece of his write up below)

Three rules keep this from turning into spoilers. Give clues, not labels — "little animal skeletons in the corner, all frozen mid-scream," never "this is a basilisk's lair." Make every warning actionable — a scratched note reading "mirrors help" is useful; a vague sense of dread is not. And keep the truth accurate but incomplete — the player should be thinking it might be poison, might be gas, might be something on the ceiling. Uncertainty creates tension. Ignorance just creates resentment.

Room Description: Scene, Oddity, Risk (summary here, but read his details, good stuff)

10 second delivery
Scene -Shape and obvious function of room.
Present one oddity - something that invites interaction.
Imply one risk. What it might "cost" to interact.

Adding These Procedures Without Burning Your Table Out

If it doesn't fit your table, don't use it at your table.
Add one tool at a time, so you can keep up.

What This Handbook Assumes: The B/X L

The referee describes a situation. The players ask questions and declare actions. The referee resolves — common sense first, dice only when needed. Time passes, resources get spent.

Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Books To Read Maybe

The rest of the Dying Earth stuff. What's up with this cool cover from 1974 (but different author, not Jack Vance. But check out the name, Michael Shea is the same name as the 35-45ish year old guy on youtube doing all the Lazy Dungeonmaster type books for D&D 5e type stuff. I bet his parents read this book):

Most of the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stuff. I'm still in the middle of Swords against Death.

A book list of fantasy and sf, some good ones, maybe some I need to read:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u8CFFCVBRP4&t=325s

Long running series or shared worlds with various authors.
Dragonriders of Prrn had more than I knew.
Elric has new ones.

Monday, July 13, 2026

Swords Against Death - Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser- need to read authors

Reading it. More sword and sorcery than most other Leiber books, Goodman says.

Published dates per short story (seems halfway correct from Amazon, puke):

The Circle Curse (1970) - Oh, they go back to Lankhmar in the end. Circle, OK.
The Jewels in the Forest (1970, isn't it really from 193x?) - weird one. Pretty fun.
Thieves' House (1943) - Black skeletons. Skulls with jewels for eyes.
The Bleak Shore (1940) - “The Bleak Shore, The Bleak Shore, The Bleak Shore”. Freaky and potentially deadly so far. Let's see what happens. Ships. Read.
The Howling Tower (1941) - wolves or hounds or people?
The Sunken Land (1942) -
The Seven Black Priests (1953) - my favorite short story so far.
Claws from the Night (1951) - birds.
The Price of Pain-Ease (1970) - Sheelba is in it. OK, here he becomes the patron of Mouser. Ningauble, in his mazy cave, talkative, also becomes patron of Fafhrd.
Bazaar of the Bizarre (1963) - ppl say its good. Sheelba is here. Ningauble, too. Yes this is a fun one, some humor!

Comments on stories

The Seven Black Priests is my favorite so far. The poison dart, conical hat, ~3 foot tall, covered in grease black priests were cool. The introduction with the first one was just right… he was painted by the author as a man, but then you saw what happened/his response if there were intruders. Dangerous. Fanatical. Unrelenting. I loved how they kept popping up from nowhere. And their evil idol was menacing. Their background in the jungles of Klesh, but then their relocation in an opposite cold world was surprising yet effective.

Trivia -

Hot blooded and furred snakes of the north, Fafhrd let’s us know. Any chance this is related to dnd’s burning hot insectoid worm giant monster -> Remorhaz? Nah, I think the snakes are just warm blooded snakes, as they mention them more later.
MISTAKE The bubble of Nehwon thing is different here compared to "The Swords of Lankhmar"… mentioned on pg. 16 as a mere made up spur of the moment thing. I don't know which story was first; it's just a minor inconsistency.
MISTAKE The wizard warlock Sheelba … is seen for the first time in his walking hut. But in Swords of Lankhmar, Mouser is surprised when it walks. And Fafhrd I believe near the end indicates he never saw the hut before (right?). I don't know which story was first; it's just a minor inconsistency.
Pg. 16, fireflies exist here… other short stories/book (The Swords of Lankhmar) had fire beetles.
Pg. 208, says they steal to replace lost weapons and rename them the same thing every time. Graywand, Heartseeker, Cat’s claw and Scalpel.
Pg. 214, once again Sheelba is described as maybe having tentacles instead of legs based on his uncomfortable squatting posture. So is that color picture of … oh yeah that picture was Ningauble, not Sheelba, that showed monstrous legs and claws. I bet they both are never revealed.
Pg. 217, the Shadowlands have a Really good description. Almost night with clouds, but only a mist at most. An open Black cedar forest. Black antelope and reindeer nibble grass. No people. Boulders of black. Many faraway lights of every hue but blue… only when approached they’d be gone. No trace of ashes from a fire. Ghosts???
Pg. 221, Sheelba and Ningauble are said to be the two most powerful wizards…and were able to do powerful magic in a temper moody “revenge” (made very lighthearted in the story). Ning “magicked” all stolen belongings from a house to be gone. And Sheel did burn a whole house down magically. Seemingly both from afar, but unspecified actually.
Sheelba and Ning are in the last story.
Archimage is a real word, pronounced ark-uh-maje. Maybe like archetype(???).
Archbishop is pronounced arCHbishop.
Archangel is pronounced (ark anjul)
Pg. 230 lists… devils, sword armed demons, cults, lamias, succubi, bacchantes, and hamadryads.
Pg. 235, Fafhrd suggests the two good mages come to help fight as sorcerous “archery and artillery” while he be the assault battalion.
Leiber did fencing they say… so better fight scenes (think Salvatore).
Leiber pronounced (lye ber) as expected. Fafhrd is (Faf hrd) not (Fawf hrd) or a short o sound. Also Leiber like mouser pronounced mouZer, but that’s optional says the dictionary.

More words n phrases to use/ideas

Time in “when the first stars show”
Hearing it whippoorwill might be a bad omen.. Anaugry of a bad omen. An augury of ill omen.
And the day of the toad a bad day to enter a deserted home. Bad luck.
Building… outjutting cornices and friezes
Mayhap
Feather you with arrows
Make yourself scarce
Almost got home an attack
Sibilant (hiss like sound)
A faint, high, listless voice came from the dark….
…gleamed the Sapphire eyes of a brazen dragonhead that was the pommel of his longsword.

D&d and one OSE origins

Pg 34has a list of d&d dungeoneering gear. Rope, mallet and pry-bar. Wedges. Candles. Flint. Chisels.A pick. etc
Pg. 43 his “good luck” amulets, talismans, … prayers and cantrips.
Pg. 49, fear… a spell? Described well.
Pg. 66, mentions leather, with studs of brass. The maybe not real studded leather of dnd?
Pg. 68, good room descr. “It was a large room full of alcoves, and like the rest of the building, of dark smooth stone walls and floor. On a heavy cypress table four earthenware lamps paced randomly lit the place. “ That’s paraphrasing.
Pg.72 and 98 and earlier… a skull and a hand (pair of hands?) … bejeweled… able to kill by strangulation if menaced(?). Vecna inspiration? Later were many jewel eyed skeletons all related to this short story. Think demi-lich art in ad&d (CORRECTION - Monster Manual 2 of 1st edition doesn't have jewels in the eyes... jewels don't show up that I can see until 3.0e's Monster Manuals, so nevermind).
Pg. 98 has black skeleton, and a few OSE modules inspired by these black skeletons, eh?
Pg 158, stealing a jewel3 eye from a giant evil idol. Like the old 1e book cover.
Pg 167, a sleepspell
Pg 167, a cursed object… taking over your mind
Pg. 236, the Cloak of Invisibility - master sorcerers can prepare and see thru it. Blood will not be hidden.
Pg. 236, The Blindfold of True Seeing, (dnd spell True Seeing) it shows all things as they truly are. Origin of the 1980s movie, They Live, with Roddy Piper and the sunglasses… especially since “The Devourers” are evil greedy merchants from another universe with plans to trick people into (being like slaves and) buying their trash and not worried about people running out of cash/things… they’d just move on to a new universe. Actual trash and worse… worn out loincloths, broken bits of glass, roaches, maggots, etc.
Pg. 237ish… Sheelba once again pulled something from his face hole (if I understood). Does Orco of the He-man cartoon do the same? He is also a mage without human legs or face… blue hands, eh?
Pg. 240, the tall black iron statue… with a sword… is alive. AKA, an iron golem in D&D. Though in the book, a being… a Devourer.
*** reading that Cervantes (of Don Quixote fame) invented the “thieves guild”, though dnd uses the one from Leiber in these Fafhrd Mouser stories.

Need to read

The Tale of Satampra Zeiros by Clark Ashton Smith. It is very D&D, also. Says commenter on Grognardia about Jewels In the Forest and Swords Against Death… https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2021/04/pulp-fantasy-library-jewels-in-forest.html
Andre Alice Norton’s stuff (also Alice Andre Norton). She did The Beastmaster, but it was scifi not fantasy like the movie. She won awards… had a bunch of books.
Kane stories by Karl Edward… he fuses Kane into an immortal evil Elric plus Conan they say. But he is a villain sort of (hero sometimes) so maybe I won’t like it. Start with “Darkness Weaves” probably. Others say start w “Bloodstone” then “black crusade” then “darkness weaves”.
Who is Robert Bloch Blake? Another pulp guy?
Poul Anderson.
Jack Vance, more.
past masters like Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, E. R. Eddison, C. L. Moore, and Lord Dunsany, you come very quickly to Fritz Leiber.

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Friday, July 31, 2026