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I also have Grammarly installed. Grammarly has an interesting feature where it tries to gauge your tone.
Gah.
Freakin Grammarly.
I sometimes have YouTube music mixes playing while I'm working. There is nothing more HULKSMASH inspiring than rolling around on the floor for days trying to figure out how to write a novel only to be interrupted with a full blast ad:
"WRITING'S NOT THAT EASY! FORTUNATELY GRAMMARLY CAN HELP!"
Really? Really Grammarly? Writing's not that easy?! Can you help?! CAN YOU HELP ME NOT SUCK AT WRITING NOVELS?! CAN YOU MAKE THIS CHARACTER ANYTHING LESS THAN A WOODEN CLICHE PUPPET DESERVING ONLY OF THE FLAMES OF ETERNAL HELL?!
HRGH!
*flips Tableflip McRagequit alias in meta-rage*
:p
Ok. There. I feel better now.
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Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human grammar and style pedant.
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I also have Grammarly installed. Grammarly has an interesting feature where it tries to gauge your tone.Gah.
Freakin Grammarly.
I sometimes have YouTube music mixes playing while I'm working. There is nothing more HULKSMASH inspiring than rolling around on the floor for days trying to figure out how to write a novel only to be interrupted with a full blast ad:
"WRITING'S NOT THAT EASY! FORTUNATELY GRAMMARLY CAN HELP!"
Really? Really Grammarly? Writing's not that easy?! Can you help?! CAN YOU HELP ME NOT SUCK AT WRITING NOVELS?! CAN YOU MAKE THIS CHARACTER ANYTHING LESS THAN A WOODEN CLICHE PUPPET DESERVING ONLY OF THE FLAMES OF ETERNAL HELL?!
HRGH!
*flips Tableflip McRagequit alias in meta-rage*
:p
Ok. There. I feel better now.
I'm detecting an angry tone.
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*slow clap*
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Fantasy NPC: Sergeant Pox, the city's watch mom medic.
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I can use any of these as a hook. Thank you!She seeks the fiendish father of the fetus that drives her?
The child she would gave birth to was supposed to be an important heir (aristocracy? royalty? priestly lineage?) so confirming her and the heir's demise is vital for inheritance reasons.
There are multiple mothers of pain that serve the BBEG who is a fiend and the father of the fiendish fetuses.
The pregnancy was a result of experiments of a magician or a mad scientists and she seeks the one responsible for her torments. The culprit might not even have been malicious in the first place—maybe it was a honest attempt to cure infertility that was hijacked by fiendish spirit.
Expanding on the first idea: the father is (in that matter at least) an innocent person. He's merely a tiefling, whose sole fault was passing his fiendish seed which spontaneously blossomed into a full-scale half-fiend blood (maybe the mother was a tiefling too?), and then everything went downhill.
Or something completely different for a much bleaker scenario (Halloween after all): the pregnancy was a sort of Rosemary/Omen scenario, where the woman was unwittingly selected to be a mother for a host of an evil avatar, a demon prince, lord of hell, etc. The ploy was prevented before it even reached the birth phase, but that was enough to damn the mother.
While on my drive to a nearby polling place today for early voting, I had the idea that perhaps The Mother of Pain is a unique, one of a kind entity. Using the flavor text Drejk included I modified it somewhat to her being the unfortunate victim of a vampire attack while in the third trimester of her pregnancy. Although the initial bite from the vampire didn't cause her to become a horrid undead, it DID however affect the unborn child, causing it to become an undead parasite that sucked all the life from its mother, who, upon dying, rose again as one of the living dead. She now roams the countryside (or controls a village or region) and feeds upon the citizenry in an effort to sate her hellish, never-to-be-born progeny.
That could work, though it would probably involve removal of (evil) subtype and replacing DR/good with DR/magic and silver (like the one possessed by a vampire). Evil suppression was also written in mind with her state being a sort-of-fiendish-possession (that's why she reacts to banishment and dismissal) and might be changed to react to sunlight-based effects.
That could work, though it would probably involve removal of (evil) subtype and replacing DR/good with DR/magic and silver (like the one possessed by a vampire). Evil suppression was also written in mind with her state being a sort-of-fiendish-possession (that's why she reacts to banishment and dismissal) and might be changed to react to sunlight-based effects.
Thanks for the alteration suggestions. I didn't think about the banishment angle at all.
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I am not really feeling the vampiric angle for this particular monster, to be honest. It was written with the fetus being source of the torment (as a fiendish entity), while going the route of being victim of the vampire makes the fetus another victim. I don't know if the soundless cries of pain will fit your idea—you might consider replacing them as well. Or maybe they will work ok, can't really tell.
After much thought and no small amount of tinkering, I've decided to go with the Mother of Pain as is. There's really no need to change anything because honestly, Drejk is just so damned good at these things they're perfect from the get-go.
I think this is the hook I'm going to go with:
"Or something completely different for a much bleaker scenario (Halloween after all): the pregnancy was a sort of Rosemary/Omen scenario, where the woman was unwittingly selected to be a mother for a host of an evil avatar, a demon prince, lord of hell, etc. The ploy was prevented before it even reached the birth phase, but that was enough to damn the mother."
Fantasy NPC: Mikko Suntouch. A halfling ninja paladin who specializes in healing (like all of this week's NPCs).
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Fantasy NPC: Terrakhett-Nammar, a tiefling bastard, an unofficial healer at a decadent aristocratic court.
She is the last of healer(ish) NPCs for now.
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Daylight savings time is an outdated unnecessary concept that should have been dismantled years ago.
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Zzzzzzzz
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As long as it get darker "earlier" each day I'm happy. People can take their sunshine and stick it where the sun doesn't, er..ummm. Nevermind.
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Fantasy Monster: Bonepicker Hag. A hag that collects bones, and their spirits.
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Oh, for crying out loud, Monkey Santa's time change shenanigans are getting ridiculous.
A monkey after my heart.
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Fantasy Monster: Bonepicker Hag. A hag that collects bones, and their spirits.
Man, I wish I had your gift for creation. Your monsters and NPCs are astounding.
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Oh, for crying out loud, Monkey Santa's time change shenanigans are getting ridiculous.A monkey after my heart.
It's Monkey Santa. He's literally after your own heart. Like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein literally.
I, for one, eagerly welcome our new FrankenKong overlord. I'd like to remind them as a trusted Internet personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their banana liquor distilleries and underground Red Bull mines.
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Oh, for crying out loud, Monkey Santa's time change shenanigans are getting ridiculous.A monkey after my heart.It's Monkey Santa. He's literally after your own heart. Like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein literally.
I, for one, eagerly welcome our new FrankenKong overlord. I'd like to remind them as a trusted Internet personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their banana liquor distilleries and underground Red Bull mines.
Selling out to a Simian! Scandalous!
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I, for one, eagerly welcome our new FrankenKong overlord. I'd like to remind them as a trusted Internet personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their banana liquor distilleries and underground Red Bull mines.
My name is Monkey Santa and I approve this message.
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Selling out to a Simian! Scandalous!Oh, for crying out loud, Monkey Santa's time change shenanigans are getting ridiculous.A monkey after my heart.It's Monkey Santa. He's literally after your own heart. Like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein literally.
I, for one, eagerly welcome our new FrankenKong overlord. I'd like to remind them as a trusted Internet personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their banana liquor distilleries and underground Red Bull mines.
I've been warning about this for ages but no, no one listens to the prehistoric psionic reptilian genius royalty with the unwaveringly loyal fire-breathing tyrannosaur.
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Getting mighty cold these days... sure glad I have all this monkey fur and an endothermic metabolism... mmm... toasty... definitely not going to slip into torpor here.
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I've used the word "torpor" as a defense mechanism before, too.
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Torpor Gigio
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Selling out to a Simian! Scandalous!Oh, for crying out loud, Monkey Santa's time change shenanigans are getting ridiculous.A monkey after my heart.It's Monkey Santa. He's literally after your own heart. Like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein literally.
I, for one, eagerly welcome our new FrankenKong overlord. I'd like to remind them as a trusted Internet personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their banana liquor distilleries and underground Red Bull mines.
...Selling out to a Simian 'til the end of the night.
He's such a world-beater when flinging excreta,His foes are all spattered with s~+!e...
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WOOOOO!
*waves lighter over head*
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WOOOOO!
*waves lighter over head*
... and that's how Monkey Santa got those bald patches on his head and arms...
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Nonsense! My entire body is fire-retardant. How else do you think I survive chimneys?
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Nonsense! My entire body is fire-retardant. How else do you think I survive chimneys?
A diving helmet and bacon grease?
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Nonsense! My entire body is fire-retardant. How else do you think I survive chimneys?A diving helmet and bacon grease?
But enough about my honeymoon...
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But enough about my honeymoon...Nonsense! My entire body is fire-retardant. How else do you think I survive chimneys?A diving helmet and bacon grease?
There's part of an Aristocrats joke in here.
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Talk about a bad romance!
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Sorry, Tony Bennett nicked it back when we were on tour and never returned it. That guy... *shudder* Let's just say the heart he left in San Francisco was his, but it wasn't his if you know what I mean...
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Sorry, Tony Bennett nicked it back when we were on tour and never returned it. That guy... *shudder* Let's just say the heart he left in San Francisco was his, but it wasn't his if you know what I mean...
{mentally begins comparing Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and Huey Lewis & The News}
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Back in high school, Huey Lewis stole my lunch...
(⌣́_⌣̀)
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The GM for our Starfinder game just emailed a confirmation for tonight, saying: "I'm ready to kill some players!"
ME: "I know you're a first time GM, but killing players isn't just frowned upon in gaming culture. It's a felony...
Although, a couple more days of these shenanigans and I may welcome it. I'll let you know."
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LOL!!! They don't call us murder hobos fer nothin'...
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Hey! Hey!
We have jobs. We’re not hobos...
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Murder employees doesn't sound as good.
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Egad! I prefer the term 'homicide vagrant' if you please, good sir!
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Murder employees doesn't sound as good.
How about Murder Incorporated?
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Even in these difficult times, Monkey Santa is there for me. Gods help me.
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Even in these difficult times, Monkey Santa is there for me. Gods help me.
This was a much-needed laugh on a highly stressful day.