Crimson forest backrooms level

So, this is the story of the first time my girlfriend Gwen and I played D&D. I have our DM Matt here with me to help me with the names, rules and just remembering stuff in general. Matt and Jack have been playing 5th edition for years, but Zach never played 5E. He played 3.5 and 4th and liked them both, so this is his first time playing 5th. Here's all of the people involved and our characters.
Matt (DM) had been playing D&D for years. We played 5th edition starting at 3rd level, and his house rules included letting us use any setting specific race, and the One D&D play test rules.
Me playing as Remy, the non-binary plasmoid Hexblade Warlock, and my bonus feat was Fey Touched. Remy was just an ordinary slime running from predators, until one day he found an ancient temple that he was able to hide in. There, he found a magic sword possessed by the soul of an ancient dragon. The dragon promised to give Remy magical powers as long and Remy took the sword with him around the world cause the dragon was bored and lonely. My character is inspired by Rimuru Tempest from the anime Reincarnated as a Slime, and Matt gave me lots of ideas on how to build this character.
Gwen played as Tea Swift, the female half-elf College of Eloquence Bard, and her bonus feat was Lucky. Tea's father was and adventurer, so she went around telling stories of his adventures to improve his reputation. One day he went missing, and Tea set out to find him. While we were deciding which characters we wanted to play, Gwen found the YouTube video Life of a Bard song, and fell in love with the class.
Zach played Leon, the male leonin Battle Master Fighter, and his bonus feat was Shield Master. Leon was part of a tribe of hunters and warriors. One day his tribe was wiped out and he was the sole survivor. He set out on his own to find the dragon that killed his family, and get his revenge. Zach based his character on Leo from Red Earth, and he picked the battle master so he could have variety in combat.
Jack played John Belmont, the male dhampir Swarmkeeper Ranger, and his bonus feat was Crossbow Expert. John’s family was enslaved by a vamipre lord. The lord’s daughter Rosa fell in love with John, and when he was 24, they tried to run away together. The lord’s minions hunted them down and left them for dead as punishment. To save his life, the Rosa tried to turn John into a vampire, but she died in his arms. He became a dhampir, and vowed to hunt down the vampire lord and kill him. John trained himself in the forest and discovered he has a connection with bats, and could control them.
Matt asked us to make connections to one another so our characters already knew each other, so this is what we came up with. The dragon in Remi’s sword is the sworn enemy of the dragon that Leon wants to kill, Tea befriended John and started telling his story so people would be less afraid of him. Leon saved Tea from a pack of dire wolves once, and John met Remi while training in the forest.
Here’s how the game went. Tea and Leon went into a town to look for leads on the dragon and look for work to make money. At the bar, they found a job offer to take out kobalts attacking merchants on the road. They took the job but another group tried start a fight and take the job offer from them. Tea seduced the whole group, took them to a nearby hotel bedroom, and immediately cast Sleep on them all to put them to sleep and left with the flier for the job offer.
John was training Remy in the forest on swordsmanship, and they were attacked by a group of kobalts. Leon and Tea heard the fight and showed up to help and caught a kobalt as a hostage. Tea recognized John and introduced him to Leon, and then Leon brought up his backstory. John said “I understand your pain, I’m also on a quest for revenge.” Remi’s dragon spoke out loud from the blade and said “I hate Cyan as well. Remi, we should join him on his quest to kill Cyan.” So our party was together and we agreed to work together to take out the kobalts and split the reward. They tried to interrogate the kobalt, but it was being stubborn, so Leon grabbed him by one leg and hanged him over the edge of a cliff by the leg. Tea said “you know his arm is going to get tired sooner or later so you better start talking now.” The kobalt cried for mercy and told us where the main camp was. “I told you where they are, please let me go” he said, and Leon said “sure if that’s what you want” and just let go of the kobalt’s leg and let him fall. We all looked at him and he said “what? I let him go. He should have asked me to put him on the ground first.”
John used the info to track down their camp from a safe direction where we were uphill and could play an ambush. We saw that they had lots of people as prisoners, some of which were soldiers. Remy can use Disguise Self at will with Mask of Many Face, and reshape his body since he is a plasmoid. He looked like a human this whole time, but he changed to look like a kobalt to sneak in and let the prisoners free. Remy got in and started to unlock the cages, but some kobalts saw me and I rolled a 1 to deceive them. Luckily, Tea stayed close and cast Cloud of Daggers in their way, and then Leon jumped down to attack the kobalts as a distraction. He took out his sword, rolled a 20 and killed a kobalt in one shot, cutting him in half from above. Remy shot the kobalts that caught him through the Cloud of Daggers using a blast spell (Eldritch Blast), then finished freeing the prisoners before using Armor of Shadows and summoning his sword to run right into the fight. John was sniping from above with a hand crossbow, and he did so much damage. He had two attacks per round because of Crossbow Expert, could use Hunter’s Mark for more damage and let his bat’s bite his targets for even more damage, so he was killing kobalts left and right. Tea climbed up a tree to stay safe, pulled out her lute and started singing, using Viscous Mockery to make it harder for the kobalts to hit Leon and Remy. She was yelling stuff like “hey, nameless lizard number 2, your so weak, your name should be ‘free XP’.” Matt laughed and said “the kobalt starts to cry and says ‘my name is Joey’” but then Leon came right behind him and said “wrong. Your name is dead meat” and cut the kobalt in half. The soldiers Remy freed grabbed their weapons and helped us capture the rest of the kobalts and the fight was over.
Gwen was a natural and jumped right into the game. Matt said she played like a veteran, who had been playing for months. We all had a lot of fun, and I’ve enjoyed playing D&D with my friends ever since.

[This is a translated excerpt from Clemens Traub’s “Future for Fridays?”. It’s a reflection about his time as an activist in “Fridays for Future” – the German branch of “School Strike for Climate”. The specific problems of western environmentalism adressed therein is germane to the issue of dysfunctional leftism often discussed on stupidpol and as far as I can tell nothing of this unique to Germany. The book is from 2020 and by now the movement “Fridays for Future” basically defunct. Meanwhile, the preferred tactic of current activists is it to glue themselves on main roads during rush hour. This protest method obviously affects working class people most, who usually have to physically show up at work (and often have to use cars to do so), and is less disruptive for the WFH email caste. The result of this is, surprisingly, a staggering 80+% disapproval rating for the climate organization “Last Generation” which is doing this.]
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I know the typical milieu of most “Fridays for Future” protesters well. In a way, it's my own and that of my current circle of friends: metropolitan, left-liberal, hip. A space for the daughters of doctors to meet the sons of lawyers. Gin tasting and discussions about plastic-free shopping and zero waste are equally high on the agenda. Veganism is as much part of the unspoken code of being trendy as frequenting second-hand shops. And the organic grocery store around the corner naturally enhances the location of your own home.
The offspring of the professional class keep to themselves. Does the climate movement represent a cross-section of society? Not even close! Fridays for Future is the rebellion of the privileged, and the movement offers them the perfect opportunity to flaunt their own cosmopolitan lifestyle and talent.
Many of my climate-concerned friends are questioning whether the social background of the demonstrators matters at all. Isn't that absolutely unimportant? The main thing, they are convinced, is that the earth is saved. It doesn't matter by whom. The population has been silent for long enough, and now it is finally time to stand up.
I admit that the consistency of this chain of thought was extremely appealing to me and that using social origin as an argument against a group is of course nonsensical. The outlined combative spirit also enthralled me at first. At the beginning of my participation in "Fridays for Future", saving the world was the only thing that counted for me. It didn’t matter who stood by my side. And it still wouldn’t matter for me today.
But what matters to me is the behavior and reasoning of the people protesting with me. And here the circle closes, because the social background reveals more about the movement than the demonstrators would like to admit.
In fact, I take the view that the exclusive social background of the young protesters is the actual birth defect of "Fridays for Future". But because the movement was far too homogeneous, far too elitist and correspondingly far too aloof right from the start, its members remained oblivious to it. Ultimately, only those who are doing well in material terms have the time and leisure to consider climate protection as the most important and also the only political issue of our time and to subordinate everything else to it.
Located in its ivory tower, the movement doesn't even notice that its criticism is leveled at the lifestyle of many economically disadvantaged people, who for financial reasons do not always have a choice. They are denounced as climate sinners because they don't shop in health food stores but at discounters. It never occurs to the demonstrators that there are people whose worries about ever-increasing electricity bills and rental charges make a discussion about forgoing air travel irrelevant from the outset.
And how could they? In their sheltered world, all of that is very far away. But that is exactly what makes the movement a risk, because it jeopardizes the already fragile cohesion of our society. For a large part of the population, however, other, more pressing everyday concerns prevail. For those who are afraid of being affected by job cuts in view of the announcements by the industry, the slashing and burning of tropical rain forest is currently of secondary importance.
Likewise, the extinction of exotic animal species is very far away for someone who worries every day about their tenuous retirement arrangements. That doesn't mean that everyday worries should completely obscure the problems of climate change, but it does explain why climate change is not the first priority for people with existential concerns.
It also explains why measures to save the climate must take economic concerns into account. And it explains why more and more people are wondering whether protesters will finally also take to the streets to deal with their everyday distress: lack affordable housing, declining pensions... plenty of issues exist.
The entire political discourse, both between the parties and outside of parliament, on the street, completely ignores the reality of life for many people in Germany! And I can well imagine that that's not a good feeling for many. The public discussions, which are often far removed from everyday life, exclude less privileged people. The result: we are all sitting on a social powder keg.
I don't originally hail from this metropolitan milieu, but grew up in a region that is often dismissed as "rural backwater". Publications such as "Landlust" and "Landleben" [trendy magazines promoting life in the country side] fulfill the longing of city dwellers for pure nature, but this dream only seems to apply to those people who consciously decide to have a weekend house in the forest. However, anyone who grew up in a rural environment will hardly benefit from this.
My parents live in the Palatinate. I grew up there too. My heart clings to the region, it is scenically beautiful with rows of wine-growing villages. But for an urbanite in pursuit of self-actualization it has to be the worst nightmare. In case your are unfamiliar with Palatinate’s culture: Schlachtfest instead of whiskey tasting. Very few apartments are actually furnished in this “country style” featured in the magazines. My home village isn’t shooting location for documentaries about gentrification. Maybe a camera team will get lost in one of our many hamlets at a Saumagen-centered village festival. But that would be pretty rare.
Drowsy villages provide the perfect backdrop while growing up. An ideal, idyllic world. But the older I got, the more I was drawn to the big city. I longed for a place that was more vibrant than the Palatinate and which could offer me more adventures and opportunities on the way to adulthood. Precisely this big, wide world I longed for. And I today I indeed enjoy its advantages. Whenever I drive home today, I have a feeling that two worlds that don't really have much to do with each other are colliding.
Shortly after attending my first Fridays for Future rallies, I paid another visit to my old homeland – these are becoming less and less frequent. When I enthusiastically told my acquaintances there about my experiences at the recent "Fridays for Future" demonstrations, I quickly realized how little they were interested. Out of pure friendship and politeness, they listened to me with half an ear.
I was quite surprised by that. What was the most hotly debated topic of recent weeks in my university town was met with absolute indifference among my old school friends here. They were more interested in the last day of the Bundesliga match or their last Tinder date than in the great climate revolution.
To be honest, I was initially disappointed and then increasingly angry at this lack of interest. While we young people in the big cities are trying to save our planet, the people in my home village are letting us down, I thought. Don't they understand that they too only have one planet at their disposal, just like us from "Fridays for Future"? Luckily, out of politeness, I kept those thoughts to myself.
In the days that followed, I started hearing disparaging comments about Fridays for Future with increasing frequency. In the eyes of my old friends, the movement was an "eco-sect", the self-promotion of big-city, left-wing weirdos. Someone called Greta Thunberg a "deranged menace". In addition to insults, they appeared to become increasingly bothered by the patronizing demeanor of many Fridays for Future protesters, who seem to perceive ICE-car drivers and meat eaters as second-class citizens.
The more often this happened, the deeper the wedge was driven between my current city life and my origins in my home village in the Palatinate. Between my old and my new world. For the first time in my life, I was just happy when I was able to drive back to the big city: finally the ideal world again, even if it was on the verge of collapse.
Ever since that visit, I've been quite hypersensitive whenever my enthusiasm for "Fridays for Future" wasn't shared 100 percent. In my eyes, there were simply only climate heroes on the one hand and climate sinners on the other. The absolute good or absolute bad – and nothing in between! It was only later that I realized how much I was already influenced by the “Fridays for Future” movement.
At first I could only offer my my old acquaintances reproaches. I accused them of being apolitical and uninformed about the world anyway. A mechanism of exclusion that is very common in "Fridays for Future", as I later realized. After all, at university I even mocked my old acquaintances as provincials, something I had always hated myself when my new metropolitan friends teased me about it.
But it was so much easier to just dismiss them as uninformed "provincials" than to argue with them and take them seriously. I didn't ask why my friends from my old home country saw "Fridays for Future" as arrogant or aloof, I didn't care at the time. Possible self-doubts could not arise in the first place.
I didn't anticipate, that this would actually fiercely play up in me over the coming weeks! I thought more and more about the experiences in my home country. It just wouldn't let me go. Where does the rejection of “Fridays for Future” come from, I asked myself. Where does the indifference in the face of urgent global climate problems come from? How could it be that my friends didn't see those and that they didn't comprehend the seriousness of the situation? I looked for answers but couldn't find any.
For several weeks, every Friday, there was no longer any plastic dishware in the university cafeteria. This gesture, following the "Fridays for Future" demonstrations, was intended to set an example for environmental protection. What should have caused storms of enthusiasm in theory, however, meant a very special kind of chaos in practice: balancing a piece of raspberry cake on your bare hand without a plate is more difficult than it might sound. Once the first piece of cake hit the floor, a discussion about the plastic boycott quickly broke out in the canteen.
It immediately turned out that the cashiers could only laugh at what they considered to be an idiotic ban on plastic. Their statements shocked many of my fellow students, who are big "FfF" fans. Instead of relaxed humorous small talk, my fellow students reacted with deadly seriousness. In the heat of the moment, the cashiers were even treated with extremely condescending insults. I will never forget how my fellow students lost all human decency that day in the supposed fight for climate protection. For the first time I noticed how fanatical and arrogant many of my "FfF" acquaintances had long since become.
After that event, something actually changed in me. But I didn't want to admit it to myself at first. But the more often I demonstrated at "Fridays for Future", the more alien the movement became to me. Today I know: It took an event like the one in the university canteen or a stay in my old home country to open my eyes and to realize how important sincerely attempting to understand other realms of experience before applying crude labels to people. Due to its exclusionary megalomania, “Fridays for Future” is incapable of this realization. But only a person who approaches other people, takes them seriously and wants to understand their everyday lives will be listened to. Only those people can actually affect something. They might even, in the best case scenario, save our planet!
While "Fridays for Future" was unable to make inroads my home village’s community, the media was showed more interest. Interviews with activists became more and more frequent on television. The talk shows couldn't get enough of them. "Markus Lanz", "Anne Will" or "Hart aber Fair": All of them had at least one "FfF" activist to visit. The more I saw them there, the more their arrogant demeanor bothered me. I suddenly switched off people who I still saw as inspiring personalities a few months ago. They kept raising their index fingers admonishingly. Looking down from the ivory tower at anyone who disagreed.
Finger wagging was slowly but surely becoming the hallmark of the movement. Their image of the enemy was crystal clear. Their worldview is dangerously one-dimensional. My big city friends suddenly fought everyone they saw as being complicit in the misery of the world: the meat eaters, the plastic bag carriers, the ICE-car drivers, the short-haul fliers, the long-haul fliers, the cruise tourists, the farmers, and of course the evil SUV owners. But honestly, don't we all belong to one of these groups from time to time?
Once they suddenly started cursing anyone who accidentally commits a tiny climate sin, even if it's just incorrect sorting of trash, I felt like they were in the ultimate battle against the rest of humanity. Elitist hubris everywhere I looked. In their moral arrogance they were (and still are) completely unaware of how many "normal" people they alienated by doing so. My assessment that "Fridays for Future" is primarily a movement of socially privileged young people has now been backed up by corresponding figures. The Berlin “Institute for Protest and Movement Research” got to the bottom of the social composition of the climate movement. On March 15, 2019, it surveyed “Fridays for Future” protesters at rallies in Berlin and Bremen. The study was financed by the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen-affiliated "Heinrich Böll Foundation".
The study’s results were illuminating: More than 90 percent of those surveyed stated that they had at least completed their Abitur (or advanced technical college entrance qualification) or were currently striving to do so. An overwhelming majority of 90 percent! Not even 1 percent of the demonstrators attended secondary schools [which prepare pupils for non-academic vocational training]. Almost two-thirds of the students considered themselves to be in the upper-middle class. Even before that, I had no doubt that "Fridays for Future" is a movement of the affluent. But what I read in this study surpassed my estimated. "Fridays for Future" does not in any way represent a cross-section of society, as has often been claimed.
I was surprised how little the sobering result of the study was then discussed. Society had to be informed about the privileged background and the resulting aloofness of the young protesters. Doesn't this change the entire perspective on the defining social debate of the last few months?
The figureheads of the movement in particular all come from the “most bourgeois” background. For example, we have Luisa Neubauer, the best-known German "Fridays for Future" activist. She grew up in the relatively expensive Elbe suburb of Iserbrook in Hamburg. Everyone in Hamburg knows: Not exactly a residential area that is known for its social housing. She did her Abitur in Hamburg-Blankenese. It is Hamburg's villa district par excellence. Sightseeing buses now offer tours through the district to present the magnificent villas to curious tourists. She is a scholarship holder of the party-affiliated foundation Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and is also a member of the party. So nothing stands in the way of a career in politics, she says so herself. "I don't want to rule out a career in politics," she told Zeit Campus, for example. [Neubauer is, in fact, a scion of the oligarchical Reemtsma clan; so is her cousin, another figurehead of the movement]
It’s less a rebellion from below and more a case of perfect self-marketing. But now cracks do appear in this underdog stage production. Today Luisa Neubauer can only be reached via her management. Demonstrators as pop stars! And of course you can't just talk to them on the street when you're demonstrating together. At least not with “Fridays for Future”. Please, what a naive notion! Although there are also critics of the excessive portrayal of people within the "Fridays for Future" movement, there is no real change in sight.
In the meantime, the climate movement has become one thing in particular: a career springboard for ambitious young elites. "Fridays for Future" is the perfect stage to make a name for yourself. Many of the educated offspring of academics are of course aware of this. The more media attention, the more attractive it is to be in the front row. Supposedly idealistic activism can now be marketed very well.
But not only the figureheads like Luisa Neubauer want to get some of the public spotlight. More and more "Neubauer disciples" are trying their luck in the "Fridays for Future" profiling machine. There we have, to name just a few examples, Linus Steinmetz, Carla Reemtsma or Sebastian Grieme.
Getting an appearance on a talk show or at least being able to read your name in the newspaper - all of this can become an opportunity of a lifetime. Being in the front row not only feels incredibly good, it is also a kind of free ticket for later professional life. And as if that wasn't enough: A flood of new Instagram followers is of course also a fantastic side effect. With this in mind: full speed ahead!
Who could object? Everyone is looking for recognition. Doesn't everyone want to take advantage of the opportunities in their life? And finally, every society needs ambitious young people who will later enrich politics, business and culture.
At best, people who want to be the center of attention also bear responsibility for themselves and others. So far no problem, you might think at first.
But how will many people with limited financial resources feel when those rebels who constantly lash out at the lifestyles of others take advantage of it for themselves? While many citizens have to accept new climate costs in their everyday lives, they also experience how Luisa Neubauer is offered a position on the supervisory board at Siemens. In view of this, the suspicion of many people that climate activists are making careers at the expense of other citizens is all too understandable.
I have other concerns as well. In our time, the frustration with the elites is growing. The "enraged citizen phenomenon" has become one of the most discussed topics of this decade. Intellectuals around the world are concerned about the cause of this worrying development. Our society is currently experiencing a "rift" between two major population groups. In an anthology they edited, the political and social scientists Wolfgang Merkel, Ruud Koopmans and Michael Zürn differentiate between “cosmopolitans” and “communitarians”.
There are those who benefit from the future and are therefore relaxed about it. Above all, they see opportunities in it and view the globalization of our world with optimism. This group is referred to as cosmopolitans. But many people are also afraid of change. They believe that the future will not hold anything good and, potentially, only the ever-possible economic decline. Given the "opening" of the world, communitarians see the dangers in particular. They often have the feeling that they are not really noticed by society's elite.
The well-known distinction between “anywheres” and “somewheres” by the British journalist and author David Goodhart supports this finding. Goodhart distinguishes "anywheres" who are educated, wealthy and will feel at home in their circles around the world, and "somewheres". They belong to completely different social milieus and are relegated to a specific place where they work, live, have their friends and struggle to assert their status.
Most "Fridays for Future" activists know: the future belongs to them. Many have the classic biography of a cosmopolitan. Because of their social background, they were born with everything they needed to benefit from our system. Everything is just right: the appearance, the social environment and of course the education.
Although they face the end of the world as a constant threat, their future does not scare them. Why? The doors are wide open for them. They master the complicated rules of our individualized knowledge society very well. You will do your internship in Brussels and not in Bottrop. Better the EU Commission than retail, a sector without future anyway. And also: cultivate connections! Your English vocabulary is usually larger than German. Perfectly prepared for the future, come what may - because they are the elite of tomorrow. The dangerous thing about it: most of the demonstrators are not even aware of this.
The well-trained "Fridays for Future" activists prefer to see themselves as misunderstood outsiders in society. Being an outsider is what makes rebellion sexy. At the same time I say to myself: What must a socially disadvantaged person think when suddenly wealthy cosmopolitans like to play the role of the outsider! And they don't just like it the role. No, they are really putting effort into staging it.
The classic distribution of roles between "perpetrator" and "victim" in the social context is thus turned upside down in a negligent manner: no longer the single mother and multi-jobber is seen as a victim of the existing social conditions, but the climate-conscious scholarship holder who has to experience how the consumption of affordable meat endangers our environment.
But that's not all: instead of listening to the concerns of hard-working people, they blame them for their environmentally unfriendly diesel car, which they need for their daily commute to work.
Instead of considering questions of justice with "Fridays for Future", the movement reduced itself from the start to questions of lifestyle. In my circle of friends, too, the extinction of species is simply cooler than poverty in old age and the issue of gender is hipper than low basic pension.
Above all, the privileged know the social code of the new “morally good” life. The new green-bourgeois bearing regulates the friend-foe scheme of the climate debate. A mechanism of exclusion that often pushes fellow citizens who are already worse off even further aside. A good person has long been only someone who can show an ecologically sound certificate of good conduct. The existential feeling of many that they just have to somehow make ends meet does not exist in the living environment of the (upper) bourgeois offspring. In the climate debate of the last few months, worlds have collided that couldn't be more different. Worlds that are moving further and further apart.
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[The author doesn’t mention it, but the social milieu that makes up the bulk of the climate movement is also very fond of importing Anglo-inspired race discourse. Towards the end of its decline, they were increasingly caught in purity spirals. For example: should white musicians with dreadlocks be allowed to play during happenings?
The study from “Institute for Protest and Movement Research” also examined ethnicity of the protesters: they are predominantly of ethnic German stock, much more so than the average German citizen. Who could have known?]

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Autumn 4986, 16 Aoimoth
Shon slid down the side of a tree to the ground and watched the tower burn. Ivelm did a circle of it, dousing the surrounding trees with his water wand, while Nangran inspected the few bodies he could reach without burning himself. At one point, he tried to pull a corpse further from the fire only to have its arms snap off at the shoulder, meat pulling away from the bone like a well-cooked turkey.
Somewhere in the back of Shon’s mind, he knew he should be sickened by the sights and smells. When they first stepped through the portal, he‘d had to hold back retching from the scent of smoking hair and cooking flesh. Now he could hardly muster the energy to keep breathing. He took long and slow, but shallow breaths. As if he were about to fall asleep despite the horror before him.
So much death. Shon had never seen a dead person before. Though he wasn’t sure if these still counted, so blackened they could almost be mistaken for macabre statues... if it wasn’t for the smell.
“What was going on here ‘Elm?” Nangran demanded of Ivelm as the mage rounded the other side of the tower and rejoined them.
Ivelm sheathed his water wand, pulling forth the diamond-studded wand again. He didn’t answer.
Nangran growled, grabbing Ivelm's arm as it rose to point the wand toward the forest. The Archmage shook him off and spun, his robes fluttering around him as he gestured angrily at the fire, “I don’t know, Flintchest. This tower was supposed to be empty, abandoned. I’m the only Mage with authorization to set up in this area.” he pointed his wand over Shon’s shoulder and spat something indistinct. A rush of cool air flowed from behind accompanied by shouting and armor clanking. Knights running.
Shon rolled limply to the side, planning to stand but finding his arms shaking as he tried to push himself up. Boots stomped around him as Paladins flooded from the magical gate into the clearing. Shon managed to lift his head, though even his neck seemed to be rebelling against his attempts at holding himself up. His vision swimming, he saw Major General Selibra and Master Daunas step through the portal, their mouths agape.
Shon’s arms gave out from under him, and he fell to the side, hearing as if from a great distance, “Squire! Shon… Shon… Nangran, what happened?” From the ground he could see the girl, now wrapped in Nangran’s cloak, leaning against the side of his tree. When had they brought her there? Why hadn’t he noticed?
“He’s fine.” Ivelm’s voice, Shon couldn’t see anymore, so he closed his eyes, “He’ll wake up in a few days. Hell of a Sorcerer that one…” No… no, no, no... he wasn’t a Sorcerer. He was a Squire. He would be a Paladin… For a brief moment, a flicker of an image played in Shon's mind. He saw himself lying on the muddy ground, Master Daunas knelt by his head, and Ivelm spit off to the side. Then, only the sweet relief of darkness as he passed out.
***
“Any other survivors?” Sir Selibra’s soft voice drifted through the darkness.
“Only the girl,” Daunas whispered from nearby.
“I doubt she’s human,” Ivelm spoke loudly, and Shon flinched, his head pounding as the mage didn’t bother to keep his voice low, “No fire-resist spell should have lasted in that heat. Even fire Sorcerers can't survive melting stone.”
“She looks human.” a fourth voice, the Hamerfoss Cleric. Shon couldn’t move. The light filtering through his eyelids sent stabs of pain into his head, making it hard for him to concentrate. He tried to lift a hand to cover his eyes, but the limb wouldn’t obey his call.
“And a table looks like it’s made of wood but does that mean it’s still a tree?” Ivelm snorted, and something wet splattered on stone.
“Archmage, please, this is an infirmary…” the Cleric said, shocked.
The mage didn’t apologize and continued to speak at full volume, “Whatever was going on out there it wasn’t sanctioned by the Guild, and that girl has most certainly been subject to experimentation. Those scales? That hair?” he spat again.
“Archmage, please…”
“Let’s take this outside, shall we?” Sir Selibra said, and three pairs of boots thumped away, a door swinging open. Sir Selibra’s voice retreated as they left the infirmary still in conversation, “We have sent for the Temple and Guild. They should be here shortly.” The boots left, and the door closed again.
Only one pair of feet remained, shuffling around the room before the rustling of curtains being pulled closed accompanied the sweet relief of darkness. Shon steeled himself and forced his eyes to open just a crack. More pain. He closed them again, his ears ringing. With a slow breath, he tried again, blinking in the weak light filtered through the cloth covering infirmary window.
A groan slipped from his lips, and the Cleric rushed to his bedside, “Don’t try to sit up, Squire. You’re drained, but unhurt,” which seemed a direct contradiction to Shon’s pounding head. The Cleric continued, “After a bit of sleep, you should be fine…” Shon let his head fall to the side, wanting to look away from the window, and saw a second bed, where a girl with golden hair slept.
“It happens to Paladins too, you know. You have to be careful not to expend too much of your own energy when casting magic…” the Cleric continued to talk, busying himself by checking Shon's vitals, “It’s inevitable, but with practice, you can mitigate some of the effects…” She was the only survivor, and she had been experimented on… “After you take your Oath, you'll receive training in divine magic…” even if she was okay physically, would she be alright mentally?... “For now, just rest. You did well. It’s thanks to you the girl got out alive…”
Shon closed his eyes. Thanks to him? Nangran had seen the smoke, Ivelm had taken them there. He… he hadn’t known what to do, had frozen at the sights and smells. He'd formed a path of ice, but the girl hadn’t been burning… Her feet had melted his ice... Shon let himself drift back to sleep. He wasn’t a hero. Not yet.
***
The tower was supposed to be empty. General Rasnah and the Mages Guild had combed through their records finding that the building had been abandoned over fifty years ago; when the old alchemist living there passed away. Archmage Ivelm reported that he'd surveyed the tower twenty years previous, before setting up his lab miles further south.
“Having a tower like that is practically begging for wanna-be-apprentices to come interrupt you. Looking for a teacher and free room.” he'd explained, with obvious disgust at the idea, even spitting on the floor of Sir Selibra’s office.
Sir Rasnah personally led the Temple Paladins and Guild Mages through a gate from Smilnda to Hamerfoss and from there to the ruins of the mysterious tower. Mages and Paladins crawled together over the still-smoking remains, now a mear hill. Trying to break apart the stones that had melted together and find anything that could explain what had happened here. Bodies covered in white cloth lay in lines along the edge of the forest, ten in total, though how many had been trapped in the tower was still unknown.
The Clerics of Lune would identify the bodies, though she wished they could do more than just give names. It would take months, possibly years, to scour the records to determine who these poor souls had been in life. And more years besides to track their movements through the meticulous paperwork kept by the kingdom.
She could practically hear Veon-Zih snickering at her, ‘Silly Ras, you gave up the battlefield of blood and stone for one of words and paper…’ she shook her head, banishing thoughts of the Monk. This work would be just as important. How else would those fighting the physical battles find their enemies without information and resources? And yet… She rested her hand on her sword with a sigh, “Some retirement…”
“Sir Rasnah,” a female Mage with dark hair and tan skin approached from the tower, “We found the basement…” she looked over her slumped shoulders back at the pile of melted rock.
“Not as promising a find as we'd hoped?” Rasnah asked, arching her steely eyebrow at the Mage. What had her name been? Vevi…
To her credit, the woman straightened her shoulders and answered clearly, “Oftentimes, we learn as much from a rejected hypothesis as a failed-to-be-rejected hypothesis.” As Rasnah tried to wrap her mind around what in the hells that meant, the Mage continued, “We had hoped that the basement level would be relatively unscathed as heat should rise to destroy the upper levels and possibly spare the lower…”
Those were words the Paladin understood at least, but they implied bad news, “And that wasn’t the case?”
The Mage sighed, “It was. The fire behaved as fire always does, barring external influence,”
“Mage Vevi, I admire your Guild's desire for specificity, but please, get to the point.”
Vevi blinked then shook herself, saying, “Evidence suggests that the fire started in the basement and that the heat there was far greater than we assumed.” Rasnah arched an eyebrow at the woman again and the Mage threw her hands into the air, “It looks more like a cavern carved by pure magma. Nothing but melted stones remain in the form of caves we can only guess were originally rooms.”
“Damn,” Rasnah gripped her sword and glared past the Mage toward the tower, “So we have no way of knowing what they were doing.” The girl still hadn’t woken up. What were the chances that she had any information of value? Archmage Ivelm was convinced that she'd been the subject of magical experimentation. Would those who had abused her also give her information?
“We have one way,” Vevi interrupted Rasnah’s worries, and the Paladin focused on her again. The Mage turned away, motioning to some of her fellows standing near the bodies. An old man with a bent back and shuffling gait split from the group and approached slowly. Rasnah had to resist the urge to walk to him just to speed up the process.
“Sir Rasnah, this is Archmage Meshed, our divination master.” Vevi introduced the old man while he was still a few steps away, “There is a chance we will be able to obtain some information from the tower remains. Though I’m afraid it might not be as clear and concise as you wish. Divination often creates more questions than answers.”
“I am well acquainted with the frustrations of interpreting symbols and signs…” Rasnah led, unsure of the value in this new idea. Arcane magic didn't get its power from a higher intelligence or any god, it utilized the natural magic and energies running through the world and every object in it, manipulating them with precise words and symbols directed by human will. It was all well over her head.
Meshed’s laugh turned into a dry cough. He cleared his throat, “I think you will find, Mage Vevi, Sir Paladin, that the information I will glean from this place to be far more clear and concise than you are accustomed to. It simply won’t be as complete as you wish.”
With a groan and many popping joints, he sat down on the ground, fishing through his robes and pulling out a small bag. From it, he withdrew a massive tome and a silk cloth that Vevi quickly helped spread on the ground before him. Next came a censor and many jars of herbs and incense, which, after checking his book, he carefully measured before pouring into the censor.
He waved a hand towards the tower without looking up from his work, “Stones, please, Vevi. Choose wisely, I don’t want to do this all day…” Despite being a senior Mage, well on her way to Archmage, Vevi rushed off towards the tower herself and eventually returned with two fist-sized stones.
“One from the upper floors and one from the basement, Meshed,” she explained, handing them to the Divination Master. Meshed pulled a set of brass scales from his small pouch, measuring the stones and muttering to himself as he adjusted the volume of herbs in the censor.
He placed the first stone with the herbs, and his eyes glazed over, “A light if you will.” Vevi performed some complicated motion with her hands, flicking her fingers forward at the end with a muttered word. A spark of flame appeared over the censor, lowering onto the herbs and setting them alight. Smoke billowed in a gray noxious cloud, and Rasnah covered her nose as Meshed began to chant.
He ran his hand through the smoke, which wrapped around his fingers, and continued skyward. “No divine magic was cast here…” he mumbled, moving his hand again. The smoke shifted above his fingers as they passed, creating images of people in robes leaning over books, “Arcane magic…” Obviously. Still, for some reason, his brow furrowed. He passed his hand through again, and the smoke turned nearly black. Before Rasnah could make out any shapes Meshed pulled his hand away and shook it violently before rubbing it on his robe, “Warlocks, Sir Paladin.”
“Damn.” Rasnah smothered more colorful curses and managed a half step closer, “What were they doing, Archmage?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he chanted a new spell, and his hand glowed with a soft red light. Reaching into the censor, he plucked out the stone and replaced it with the second. The smoke again turned gray and rose lazily into the air. Once again, he passed his hand through the flowing tendrils, and once again, they turned black. He shook his head, “Obviously… damnation… what to ask… what to ask…” He seemed to settle on something, muttering, “The fire, tell me about the fire…” he ran his fingers through the smoke. Flames leaped from the censor, the smoke turning red and billowing out before them.
Rasnah stepped back as great smoke wings spread wide, illuminated from below by flames. A horned head atop a sinuous neck stretched for the heavens and Meshed scrambled to his feet. Vevi kicked the censor over, spreading burning debris across the silk to smolder, releasing tiny lines of, blessedly, normal smoke.
“What was that? A wyvern?” Rasnah asked, her heart in her throat.
Meshed coughed his dry cough and shook his head. Vevi stared at the upturned censor with wide eyes. “Much worse, Sir Rasnah,” the Mage whispered, “A dragon.”
“It was dragon fire that destroyed this tower,” Meshed confirmed.
***
--- Part 2/2 ---
--- Table of Contents ---
Thanks for making it this far, you are the real MVP

(WARNING‼️INTENSE THEORIZING FOR ADVANCED PLAYERS) Now recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the story line and how Update 5 is going to shed some light on a lot of questions we might have but I decided to go back to the beginning and pick out details that I may not have noticed before. Now it all started when the last update was released and Simba and Nala had to join the valley. In addition to them joining many things that have been obvious to the player is now being discussed by the characters in the game. 1 topics in particular, like how on earth is someone like Scar able to skip death and appear in the valley. This isn’t the first time we’ve thought about it, since characters like Ursula and Mother Gothel have been roaming around since the beginning but this is the first time another character mentions it. Whether the characters remembers their death or not is a topic for another day but their presence in the valley is easily explained. They are there simple because we made it so. It’s our imagination so death is not a barrier in the valley but for some reason Memory is.
Now I know the entire game is about the forgetting and whatever we forget is essentially forgotten in the valley but this ISNT TRUE! Now this is where I need the DDLV community detectives to join me on solving this mystery. Now Im assuming there are plenty of things that the characters remember but just haven’t asked us about or haven’t had the other triggering character enter the valley for the memory to appear. With this being said there is still something off, Just how far do the characters memories go? When I say this, I mean do they remember everything that has already happened to them in their original stories? What is considered cannon to the writers of the game and what is not considered to have taken place at all. Characters like Elsa remember events up to Frozen 2 since she mentions how the powers of the forest spirits work, we can assume that much since this knowledge can’t be obtained unless you’ve seen that movie. On the other hand characters like Nala and Simba can’t even remember that they’ve already had a child named Kiara. If you talk to Nala she mentions wanting to name their child by that name, making it obvious that those events haven’t taken place but they are inevitable because these characters already have stories. Part of me believes it is popularity based but if this is true why even mention something that happens in the future if it isn’t relevant. This is the same with characters like Woody and Buzz who remember Bonnie who is fairly new in their story arcs as their new owner after Andy but Ariel and Eric seem to be stuck in the moment after escaping Ursula? They have no hints so far of having memories of a child named Melody or having to fight Ursula’s sister Morgan’s in their second movie arc.
I’ve thought of one explanation and I’ve resulted in their memories being based on how many characters from their respective movies they have in the game. So the more characters they have the more memories. This is partly true since many of the quest have requirements of other characters being in game or have accessed a certain level of memories. Since Frozen and Mickey Mouse has the most characters they should obtain the most memories of their stories but there is one thing that debunks this. The Toy Story characters! There are only two and somehow they remember up to where their movies drop off. This racks my brain so with further investigation I wanted to include you all on what keeps me up at night and see some of your theories as well. Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read and think about this🥹

That level is:
• Relatively safe
• habitable
• Few entities
The level is a basically endless set of martial arts training rooms, and the hall you enter in that level varies wildly. It could be a Boxing training hall, a Karate Dojo, a Shaolin Temple, any space like that!
These places have exit doors, but they just lead to more and more different training halls, and it's easy to get lost along these paths. The appliances are in great condition, like brand new, like no one has used them before! In the closets of these rooms, you can even find martial arts costumes such as Karate Kimonos, Kung Fu Tchen Moous and even Sumo Mawashis, but they are not much better than ordinary clothes, they do not protect you from attacks or give you more speed, but if you want it, you can take it!
From time to time, you can find sports locker rooms, but in contrast to the clean halls, they are full of slime, rusty lockers and leaky showers that flood the floor. It's a pretty chaotic, uncomfortable scene and you'd want to stay the hell away from them!
However, in the midst of these training halls, you can find the Championship Stadiums: they are places that have large audiences of empty chairs, with mats on the court below. But the good thing about these places is that there are Food Machines, where you can get Energy Bars and Super Almond Water! To get this, you'll need a Gold Coin for every item you want, and you can find them by scavenging the benches in the grandstands! It can take a long time, but on the other hand, the machines are never empty, as they are replenished in a supernatural way!
When approaching some training objects, you will have an instant reaction of wanting to try them, and when you touch them, a motivation to practice that martial art will appear in your head, and soon you will be practicing. And even with no one to train you, you will see several books in the academies, teaching you the fundamentals of each art!
Even if you've never practiced or shown interest in a martial art, it will seem like the most fun and enjoyable thing in the world to you! And if you already practiced, you'll love spending a lot of time at that level!
Those who went through the level report the constant feeling of strengthened muscles, zero sleep and improved concentration, which extended a little further, when they left the level, showing themselves stronger, faster and with martial techniques worthy of a black belt!
The most important things you need to look for are the weapons of these martial arts, but not just any weapon! Because normal weapons like sticks, knives and others are very common! There are specific weapons that will save your skin in the Backrooms! Are they:
Tyson Gloves: These are a pair of gold boxing gloves, with the Tyson signature on the left hand, presumably a reference to boxer Mike Tyson. They are made of foam, but when punching with them, the impact is overwhelming, capable of throwing objects weighing more than 100 kg away! You get them if you walk into a boxing ring and punch the punching bag for 12 hours straight! They appeared in your hands at the end of that time!
Lee's Nunchaku: A black nunchaku, with two engraved dragons and a golden chain joining them together. His name is a reference to martial artist Bruce Lee. The impact of these nunchakus is even stronger than Tyson's gloves, with the difference that, after repeated attacks, it starts to catch fire, but without injuring the user. It will only incinerate the target it hits, which will be consumed by flames in seconds! You can get it at the Kung Fu Hall, needing to do 100 fingertip push-ups and stay 5 minutes in the Mabu base, the most exhausting Kung Fu pose. The nunchaku will be in the center of a mat with the Yin Yang symbol. Good luck!
Kusarigama: is a weapon composed of a metal scythe and a chain that is somehow infinite when the scythe is thrown. This scythe is insanely fast, being able to slice through multiple entities quickly at once! It is obtained in the Ninjutsu room, after you hit 10,000 shurikens in the center of the target, and it has to be in the middle, around doesn't count! When you succeed, the weapon will come down from the ceiling, hanging from the chain.
Musashi's Katana: It is the strongest weapon among all these. A sword from the Edo Period in Japan, which belonged to the legendary Miamoto Musashi! Wielders of this sword have already been able to slay countless Partygores, slicing them into pieces at Fun Level, and even kill a Death Whale at level 4000! The wielders of these swords have superhuman strength and speed, so any entity that is tangible will be slashed.
However, obtaining this sword is the most risky of challenges, and it is in this challenge that the only real danger of this level lives, The Samurai Challenge, and its only entity!
To find her, you must spend a lot of time in the Kendo Hall. How much time? It is not known, perhaps a matter of days or a week. Who says you should make 10,000 strikes with a training sword, it's not known for sure, but believe me: it's better to spend all that time training!
When you least expect it, you'll see a door that wasn't there before. Upon entering that door, you find a Championship Hall, but not an ordinary one, one specific to traditional Kendo in Japan. In the arena, you will see a box with Japanese inscriptions that say:
“Power must be earned. Prove yourself now!”
When you open it, you'll have access to the katana, but when you turn around, the whole scene changes!
If you were alone just now, you will have right in front of you an entity in the form of a samurai, in armor that seems to be rusted and worn by time and marks of combat, which earned him the nickname of Rusty Musashi.
Sometimes his katana varies in size, being little more than a kitchen knife, or even a huge 2 meter blade.
If everything was silent before, you can now hear screams and roars from the audience, even if there is no one in the pews! And now, you'll have to fight that samurai!
Combat with him is pretty tricky, as he seems to be experienced, but his armor is heavy and he moves slowly. Make no mistake though: his attacks are explosive and take you by surprise, and he's very strong with every hit! Agility and strategy are your best bets to win!
If you get hit, it's your death, but if you win, you'll be applauded by the audience, and you can take that weapon with you. So, throughout your stay, train Kendo until you're sharp, and don't fight the samurai until you're sure you're good enough!
Appetizer:
• Enter the hall with the “Martial Goods” sign at level 33
• Beat a level 4000 island native in a melee fight
• Ritual of the Mountain King has a 40% chance to bring you here
• The Red Knight can take you here if you ask to learn to fight, but it's not 100% sure
• Beat a fighting game at level 849
• Reading the book “The Way of War” in the level “The end is near” will get you here!
Departures:
• Using a lot of Incense to meditate will get you to Level 5000
• Upon exiting Samurai Challenge, you will exit at The Hub
• Finding a 90's phone in one of the stadium's bleachers will take you to Level 11.
• Diving into the Buddha-like fountain in the Shaolin Temple will take you to the Poolrooms, but touching the moss at the bottom of the fountain will land you in the Rotting Pools level!
• Trying to break into a Vending Machine will get you to the “You Cheated” Level, you greedy bastard!
• If you try to escape the Samurai Challenge through the door you came from, you'll exit the Run for Your Life Level, without your sword!

I already loved BOTW despite making a long whishlist out of it, because what it focused on made it worth coming back for years. I have completed most of TOTK and have let thoughts settle. I think it improves many things over BOTW and adds incredible stuff. Still here I'll focus on what bugged me, because having waited for so long, and having so much to it also means frustrations here and there and a lot of potential for whatever comes next. Hopefully this is constructive.

World & Scope

I expected the sky to be a proper "sky world" but while I love the aesthetic and ambiance, it's mostly small repetitive sky segments. I'm not addressing sky temples here, only the general overworld for casual exploration and discovery. The big structures that gave Wind Waker vibes from afar fall into a few categories of quick challenges, without many unique finds on them. The rest are copy-pasted platforms with slight variations for a shrine, a map, a few resources, a construct or gleeok. I really hoped in the beginning that the Great Sky Island wouldn't be the only ambitious one, and it was by far.
I expected underground to be secondary, maybe with some underwater. We got the "mirror" depths and many caves, which are impressive but daunting and not really varied. To be clear, they're definitely part of my addiction to the game, so they definitely have value. Some amazing spots and intense encounters, exploration in the dark was surprising and awesome. But I'd take a smaller extra map for a few more big unique moments.
Red herrings in marketing can be double-edged. Especially after going through Skyward Sword recently, reminding of its shortcomings for the sky intended as a focus, only to see the most fully realized open world version do little more with most of its real estate. I do enjoy what's there but hype can be a b*tch.
Quick word on underwater, yes we were a lot to expect or wish for it, personally what they decided to focus on is just as interesting, in parts more, it doesn't have to be the obvious choice and it can't be everything. I did find it suspicious (though funny) that one NPC got my hopes up when mentioning a flooded well which was just about waiting for the rain to stop, or when Bolson had underwater exploration as a suggestion for new activities which is of course denied. It could be a big deal but they had great stuff instead so no biggie.

Main challenges

I expected traditional dungeons adapted to the open world, we got... an interesting version of that. The environments and ambiance are unique, the lead-up segments were great but puzzles were oddly trivial with terminals.
To me the Wind Temple is the best of the four big ones. Fairly simple but really fun parkour, epic and ominous ambiance (some of the best music), a mind-blowing moment that perfectly combines the build up, the trampoline mechanic to go above the eye of the storm, and the heavily marketed skydiving mechanic to go through a stunning introduction. The terminal puzzles remain on the weaker side when thinking about "big dungeons" but in this game I liked their integration best. Colgera is great and so is the music once again. The myth about flying boats is properly brought up and ends up happening before our eyes, the most compelling one IMO. Unfortunately that was also the temple teased the most by Nintendo and suggested to be done first.
By contrast the three others were less impressive * For the Fire Temple, we're told about this mysterious ancient city Gorondia, we go up Death Mountain, fight a cool godzilla miniboss, dive through one of the most epic world building reveals. Then it's all about mine carts, like many people I got confused about some "puzzle" parts and rushed with climbing and ascend. The boss was ok but a pretty underwhelming payoff. * For the Water Temple, I don't have anything against it and low gravity is fun. Interesting lead-up and architecture, but the terminals and boss felt underwhelming. * For the Lightning Temple nothing negative either, the boss introduction and fight were more remarkable, the setting was great, but I can't say I remember going through puzzle rooms.
The Spirit Temple is a highlight by how it integrates a cool quest that spans multiple locations, a multi-part puzzle, a unique item / ability / boss / reward and lore.
The Great Deku Tree had a nice integration with the Depths, really cool to realize how deep his roots are. But it's mostly some environmental lore, a reused Phantom Ganon fight and a short memory, then it's Korok Forest as usual. I could see a Forest Temple if other temples had been more consistently fleshed out.

Secondary challenges

As mentioned before, lots of sky islands have the same minimalist repetitive nature. There are a few big vertical ones that still feel limited: short skydiving challenges. Looking at the art and trailers I had come to expect maybe a couple villages, at least occasional unique NPCs, or more unique finds. It gives the impression of bloated structures for the sake of recognizable landmarks, without much to give in the end. There's that one with an obscurity puzzle, despite the same aesthetic as anywhere else it at least stands out. Maybe I'm underplaying the focus on the "journey more than the destination" this time around, while I was all about that in BOTW, maybe I figured out too quickly how to optimize travel and put too much expectation on what I'd find there. But they're really sparse, unlike the surface and depths which could hide something at any corner, so I'm not sure I was in the wrong mindset.
Zonai mazes are pretty fun but yet another type of major landmark with underwhelming payoff. I liked how they address the fact that most BOTW players already completed the surface with in-game explorers leaving a trail. Getting to the sky portion is nice but nothing unique. Once there it's fun to fly around but I didn't feel challenged to reach glowing points on the map. There's one instance where the map isn't enough with walls blocking on all sides, so you have to dive and go back up on the other side. But it doesn't seem like one of those open-ended challenges where you make it as tough as you want. Unless you want to stay blind and bump against every single wall of the maze, you're meant to use the map which makes it trivial. It felt like they had settled to make mazes as landmarks, and added the standard terminal fetch quests as an afterthought. Then the idea of diving back down into the depths is neat, but here again I had mixed feelings with the outcome. It happens three times which seems like a manageable amount for a conclusion specific to these places, so coming across yet another flux construct and BOTW DLC item isn't too exciting.
The fact that they repurpose DLC content for "ancient lore" discovery isn't a big deal and can even be great if well integrated. But a lot of these felt underwhelming, with random placement which emphasizes "repurposed DLC" more than proper "ancient lore", and the fact that many of us have been using these for years now. So instead of feeling like long-lost meaningful items, it feels like accessing parts of your previous save file bit by bit. I don't know what could be in their place, I'm just saying how it felt.

Wildlife

I noticed almost nothing new with animals which were such a novelty for immersion in BOTW. Except the harness and perks at stables, but horses are as stiff as ever and even less valuable now. I doesn't take away what was already in BOTW, but the sky, undergrounds, verticality and vehicles drastically diminish the presence of animals.
I didn't like how some NPCs tease the mysterious creature Zelda was seen with, only to be what dondons turned out to be, some version of what we saw her ride in the first trailer. Nothing special besides feeding them rocks. I can appreciate that the dondons quest is a play on rumors which is a quite nice trope in this game, but there's also a few unique mounts that also start as gossip and turn out to be real, so I did let myself hope it would be more than a cute stationary animal.
Also I understand why we didn't get loftwings but that goes with wanting a grander sky world.

Lore

The lore and presentation are more epic, but we don't really learn anything valuable that isn't reusing previous tropes. I won't bother speculating on the actual meaning of the "kingdom's foundation" or "ancient times" relative to the entire series, it's not the most important and the creators may not have bothered themselves.
This was Ganondorf's best time to shine, writers touch on his origin yet mostly stick to callbacks; vaguely bring up Gerudo males born every 100 years though we don't know more about what that means or how it works; have him express motive and cunningly pledge fealty, without more insight into his past as an individual; show him as a fierce leader and user of dark magic even without god-like powers, without expanding on how he got there, how much of it is actually innate, how it relates to the ancient curse... All cool stuff, I get that a story can remain basic to serve the game, but it could be more thoughtful to engage players in a different way. Some people still prefer WW Ganondorf for this reason, we had a slightly more intimate feeling when he opened up about his past, making his madness and downfall more impactful.
The Zonai are referenced everywhere to the point where I understand why some people feel like it retcons stuff. I think you can always add more layers so I don't mind. But I wish they'd tell us more explicitly what it's meant to be. While I enjoy environmental storytelling and letting players figure it out, it can also come across as "this is the ancient aesthetic, mysterious stuff happened, the Zonai did it". It raises the stakes while none of our BOTW speculations about Zonai ruins have been addressed, to my knowledge. I'm expecting DLC to use more of that trope but hopefully they tie in more unique lore than they did with the Sheikah in BOTW DLC, which was essentially more challenges without telling us anything major. And if they resort to an official artbook to say more that's fine, but I wish they went all the way in the game itself. NPCs, logs and stone tablets can go a long way.

Story delivery

Memories are more captivating than in BOTW but even if non-linearity is intended, it can be counter-productive. I carefully got to tears in order but stumbled upon Mineru's quest in the middle, without a clue that there was an intended way to clear the skies only after the fake Zelda confrontation. Nothing Mineru tells us was completely unfathomable but still, the tension should work better in order. * On one side there are memories. If they tell a linear story, they could play memories in order regardless of which tear you get. Though I'm fine figuring out by myself if they provide an obvious suggestion, they might as well prevent people from being confused just for the sake of calling it "open gameplay". * On the other side for things in the present it's a dilemma, I wish I was told the thunder storm island had late-story reveals, or that it kept locked until enough progression. But going through it blind, following to a temple, solving the puzzle without a clue of where I was going was one of the best moments of the game. The hostile environment didn't feel like a warning, because early on we're taught to find our way through obstacles and obscurity.
Zelda goes through crazy stuff, I liked seeing her experience unfold in the past but with suspense. I already defended the BOTW memories as a nice development of her character, this is taking her faith in Link further while being a story device that feels natural enough. Her transformation is a great twist, though I got very suspicious of that when casually dropping on the Light Dragon, before deciding I wasn't ready for spoilers. This only adds to my point about the linearity compromise. But in the end she's back to normal and it seems she wasn't conscious of the ages passing by. This lack of lasting consequences kinda defeats the purpose, but I should appreciate a simple happy ending that also works. It also convinces me that they're done with this BOTW/TOTK iteration beyond DLC.
When the construct on the sky Temple of Time proposes to share the backstory of the floating island, I postponed until I felt I could be spoiled major stuff. I liked revisiting the island with the bonfires challenge, but it also cemented my concern that the sky overall was under-utilized. As I completed the challenge looking forwards to some exciting lore, the construct simply told me through text that the island floats because... ancient people wanted it to float, so it's safe and the Hero could be there. Ok, thanks, but that delivery buried my sky-related expectations.
The repetition of the ancient sages cutscenes after each temple was ridiculous. None of it is bad, but if they're not going to add something each time, at least have a shorter version. Make a full sequence rewatchable like memories, but keep these moments short so it doesn't turn the initial impact into an expected joke. Secret stone? Demon King?
Finally I had a couple of odd moments when progressing the main quest. * All gathered at Lookout Landing after people saw Zelda at the castle, all the main quest stuff is brought up and my Link eventually decides to update people on the fifth sage, the Master Sword and what happened to Zelda. Nothing about a fake Zelda though, because we need the "twist" we're about to get of course. Purah observes he could have said so earlier about the sword, people are shocked for 5 seconds about Zelda despite the mind-shattering implication for anyone who cares about her, and we move on. This dialogue was extremely weird. * When about to go fight Ganondorf, smart Purah had the most uncharacteristic brain fart, observing he likely wasn't on the surface and nowhere in the depths we explored, wondering where he could be. Hmmm let's see, we met him under the castle, he fell there, where the gloom still comes out and he just tricked us, hmmmm... that's a tough one... So while I'm sure I could have ignored that and gone straight under the castle, for proper completion I "had" to talk to Josha, she essentially put me back on track to find Kohga, in our final encounter he "revealed" that Ganondorf was under Hyrule Castle. Shocker.
These moments yet again showed a contradiction in an open approach to something designed with a specific path in mind, and it felt a bit like the game said "weird choice, but anyway..."

Mechanics

I think every hand ability is more interesting than runes in BOTW, regular items are more useful than ever, crafting is impressive. I already liked shrines in BOTW but the new ones are even more interesting because of that.
However I'm not sold on the sages. When going to a temple I liked that one follows you for tailored segments. In battles though they're too messy, you need them close to activate but it goes against you and them fighting freely. Outside of battle sometimes they get in the way when pressing A, sometimes they just stand far away. I was more comfortable with the ability triggering through Link in BOTW. Given how randomly useful they are, it's also annoying to go to special items to turn on/off. Tulin is really apart with the airborne wind gust, to the point where I had it on for most of my exploration but it was annoying to see him fly around or attack things without me asking. It could have been special Rito feathers for the paraglider or something. I understand they focused on fighting along companions but IMO combat was unnecessary for the sage ghosts. Keep it for the temples with the real sages, it's more unique and enjoyable. Mineru's construct may be the exception.
I'm reserved about some Zonai devices despawning after a while. I get a point of view that wings and ballons shouldn't take you anywhere from the start, but at the same time it's also being able to fly the thing, and it becomes quickly irrelevant anyway as you can find ways around that. Either with rockets or fans (two fans at an angle with a control stick quickly became popular), gliding with more stamina, or inevitable glitches. Nintendo knew how it went with BOTW crafters, it's in good part what encouraged them in that direction. They also knew it was about providing tools for free exploration which they even promote. So I don't know what putting a timer on some base items does, besides unnecessary anxiety to players we don't know any better but enjoy traveling around. Not a huge deal, but I don't really get it.

User interaction

They somehow made the weapon swap menu more sluggish and horizontal menus are a mess when going through many items. For less frequent items I often ended up opening the full menu, obviously a grid cuts down on time to get to the item you need. But you can't do that with arrows, so occasionally I'd spend well over 15 seconds scrolling, sorting clumsily hoping that would help. I get that the horizontal layout may be to keep sight of the action... If they really need to minimize clutter vertically, they could for example spread items in one row per category (zonai devices / food collectibles / minerals / etc), the row in focus is fully visible in the middle like we have now, rows above and below are faded, and you can move up and down to change category. Armchair developer suggestion I know, but surely they can work on something better.
Nintendo love unnecessary prompts in repetitive interactions. In this game we still have Great Fairies armor upgrades happening one by one and telling you what's going on each time, Beedle's casual observations no one reads for the billionth time, stable folks apparently recognizing you but thinking you have the worst memory... It depends on the player I guess, but if there's one they should streamline it's shrine rewards. I think no one intends to watch the whole thing again besides the first and last ones. No one can do anything with the orb as you stand there, there's no relevant information about it. Just say congrats and load me out please.

Design, Art & Tech

The Zelda team are incredibly competent in everything that makes up a game but aren't immune to hardware limitations. BOTW was already an amazing technical feat, they one-upped it despite comments that TOTK "looks the same". It doesn't exactly, it's more ambitious and better optimized. It's still fair to point at frame drops, resolution drops, pop-in. As amazed as I was by the Wind Temple for example, the heavy stutters took me out of it a few times which is a shame. And this isn't lack of time, care or resources, comparing to any AAA is a clear indication that the Zelda devs are masters on this platform. While this is the best we'll see on this console everyone is justified in wanting hardware closer to a modern standard to support the devs' ideal vision.
I'm generally cautious about that argument because "more power" doesn't magically mean "more and better content". In fact restrictions and simplicity can play in favor of a game's qualities, for example not worrying too much about photo-realism and extremely detailed models due to a wonderful art direction. But it's tough to admit when the game is undermined by those restrictions. The under-utilized sky world may be concerned by this, officially they kept it sparse for level design concerns, but I can't help to feel like filling up the sky would also have the Switch struggle much more than it does. I may be biased but of all the islands, I remember the most persistent frame drops when messing around on the Great Sky Island, where there's so much more to see. I can also imagine dark undergrounds partly justified by less detail on display, and caves by much smaller environments.
If you read everything you get a bubbul gem, if not tell me what you thought anyway

Taking csgo skins mainly (knives, gloves, aks, m4s, awps and so on). Anything as long as offer is good
I don't update this list everyday, so I have many items which aren't listed here. Check if something interests you! Also, some of the items are on trade hold, for release date you can add me or check by yourself.
TRADE LINK: https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffenew/?partner=35769104&token=J30wyEpy
Add me to talk here: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197996034832
Keys from these buy outs aren't TF2 keys. I don't take Hydra keys either.
Buy outs are in keys for the sake of having a buy out, I trade for skins mainly.
Gloves/wraps:
Gloves Slingshot FT 0.36 float - B/O 200 keys
Gloves Amphibious WW 0.42 float - B/O 170 keys
Gloves Omega FT 0.33 float - B/O 160 keys
Gloves Snow Leopard FT 0.36 float - B/O 150 keys
Gloves Snow Leopard FT 0.37 float - B/O 150 keys
Gloves Tiger Strike FT 0.32 float - B/O 140 keys
Gloves Smoke Out MW 0.14 float - B/O 120 keys
Gloves King Snake FT 0.36 float - B/o 120 keys
Gloves Tiger Strike WW 0.44 float - B/O 100 keys
Gloves Field Agent FT 0.36 float - B/O 85 keys
Gloves Bronze Morph MW 0.14 float - B/O 75 keys
Gloves Cool Mint FT 0.36 float - B/O 75 keys
Gloves Arid BS 0.64 float - B/O 72 keys
Gloves Emerald Web BS 0.56 float - B/O 71 keys
Gloves Diamondback MW 0.13 float - B/O 68 keys
Gloves POW WW 0.38 float - B/O 66 keys
Wraps Caution FT 0.31 float - B/O 59 keys
Gloves Overtake MW 0.14 float - B/O 59 keys
Gloves King Snake BS 0.59 float - B/O 58 keys
Wraps Caution WW 0.38 float - B/O 50 keys
Wraps Overprint WW 0.43 float - B/O 50 keys
Gloves Big Game BS 0.69 float - B/O 47 keys
Gloves Polygon FT 0.18 float - B/O 50 keys
Gloves Blood Pressure FT 0.32 float - B/O 43 keys
Gloves Blood Pressure FT 0.35 float - B/O 43 keys
Gloves Blood Pressure FT 0.36 float - B/O 43 keys
Gloves Finish Line FT 0.22 float - B/O 50 keys
Gloves Finish Line FT 0.32 float - B/O 42 keys
Gloves Nocts BS 0.62 float - B/O 42 keys
Gloves Boom FT 0.37 float - B/O 38 keys
Gloves Lunar Weave FT 0.36 float - B/O 36 keys
Gloves Finish Line WW 0.41 float - B/O 36 keys
Gloves Diamondback FT 0.37 float - B/O 35 keys
Gloves Field Agent BS 0.77 float - B/O 34 keys
Wraps Overprint BS 0.75 float - B/O 34 keys
Gloves Marble Fade BS 0.57 float - B/O 33 keys
Gloves Case Hardened MW 0.12 float - B/O 33 keys
Gloves Mogul BS 0.60 float - B/O 33 keys
Gloves Cool Mint BS 0.63 float - B/O 31 keys
Gloves Bronze Morph BS 0.61 float - B/O 30 keys
Gloves Jade FT 0.23 float - B/O 35 keys
Gloves Forest Ddpat FT 0.35 float - B/O 26 keys
Wraps Duct Tape MW 0.12 float - B/O 25 keys
Gloves Charred FT 0.21 float - B/O 30 keys
Gloves Overtake FT 0.16 float - B/O 30 keys
Gloves Jaguar Queen FT 0.37 float - B/O 22 keys
Gloves Rezan FT 0.16 float - B/O 30 keys
Gloves Rezan FT 0.28 float - B/O 21 keys
Gloves Yellow-banded FT 0.30 float - B/O 21 keys
Gloves Diamondback BS 0.58 float - B/O 20 keys
Wraps Arboreal FT 0.31 float - B/O 20 keys
Gloves Snakebite FT 0.16 float - B/O 25 keys
Gloves Blood Pressure BS 0.74 float - B/O 19 keys
Gloves Forest Ddpat BS 0.46 float - B/o 19 keys
Gloves Convoy WW 0.44 float - B/o 19 keys
Gloves Case Hardened FT 0.15 float - B/O 23 keys
Gloves 3rd Company FT 0.36 float - B/O 17 keys
Goves Buckshot FT 0.15 float - B/O 20 keys
Gloves Unhinged FT 0.24 float - B/O 17 keys
Gloves Overtake BS 0.45 float - B/O 17 keys
Gloves 3rd Company FT 0.38 float - B/O 16 keys
Wraps Constrictor FT 0.31 float - B/O 16 keys
Gloves Buckshot WW 0.40 float - B/O 16 keys
Wraps Desert Shamagh FT 0.35 float - B/o 16 keys
Wraps Constrictor WW 0.38 float - B/O 16 keys
Gloves Transport BS 0.60 float - B/O 15 keys
Gloves Rezan BS 0.74 float - B/O 15 keys
Gloves Yellow-banded BS 0.63 float - B/o 15 keys
Gloves Guerrilla BS 0.53 float - B/o 15 keys
Gloves Buckshot BS 0.53 float - B/O 15 keys
Wraps Desert Shamagh WW 0.41 float - B/O 15 keys
Gloves Case Hardened BS 0.53 float - B/O 15 keys
Gloves Emerald FT 0.36 float - B/O 15 keys
Wraps Constrictor BS 0.74 float - B/O 15 keys
Gloves Needle Point FT 0.36 float - B/O 14 keys
Gloves Rattler FT 0.35 float - B/O 13 keys
Gloves Mangrove FT 0.25 float - B/O 12 keys
Gloves Racing Green FT 0.30 float - B/O 11 keys
Knives and high tier items:
Talon Black Pearl MW 0.07 float - B/O 600 keys
Karambit Autotronic MW 0.13 float - B/O 350 keys
Nomad Fade MW ST 99% 0.07 float - B/O 400 keys
M9 Tiger Tooth FN 0.003 float - B/O 300 keys
M9 Tiger Tooth FN 0.01 float - B/O 270 keys
Daggers Sapphire FN ST 0.004 float - B/O 230 keys
Karambit Black Laminate FT 0.29 float - B/O 210 keys
M9 Black Laminate MW 0.11 float - B/O 200 keys
Talon Slaughter FN 0.03 float - B/O 200 keys
DEAGLE Blaze FN 0.01 float - B/O 170 keys
Flip Lore FN 0.05 float - B/O 170 keys
Butterfly Night FT 0.19 float - B/O 190 keys
Bayonet Tiger Tooth FN 0.02 float - B/O 160 keys
Flip Gamma Doppler FN P4 0.02 float - B/O 160 keys
Butterfly Stained BS 0.90 float - B/O 150 keys
M9 Freehand MW 0.11 float - B/O 150 keys
Flip Marble Fade FN 0.004 float - B/O 140 keys
Butterfly Forest Ddpat FT 0.16 float - B/o 140 keys
Flip Gamma Doppler FN P1 0.01 float - B/O 140 keys
Butterfly Safari Mesh FT 0.19 float - B/O 140 keys
Flip Doppler FN P2 0.03 float - B/O 140 keys
Karambit Ultraviolet BS 0.51 float - B/o 140 keys
Bayonet Lore FT 0.25 float - B/O 140 keys
Ursus Doppler FN P4 0.06 float - B/O 140 keys
Nomad Vanilla - B/O 130 keys
M9 Damascus Steel FT 0.20 float - B/O 130 keys
AK Head Shot FN ST 0.05 float - B/o 130 keys
M9 Blue Steel BS 0.99 float - B/O 150 keys
Stiletto Tiger Tooth FN 0.006 float - B/O 130 keys
Huntsman Fade FN 0.03 float - B/O 130 keys
Flip Tiger Tooth FN 0.03 float - B/O 120 keys
Skeleton Stained FT 0.23 float - B/O 120 keys
Ursus Crimson Web MW 0.12 float - B/O 120 keys
Ursus Doppler FN P1 0.03 float - B/o 120 keys
Flip Vanilla - B/O 120 keys
Stiletto Vanilla - B/O 120 keys
Huntsman Gamma Doppler FN ST 0.02 float - B/O 120 keys
M9 Stained Ft 0.28 float - B/O 110 keys
Karambit Forest Ddpat FT 0.36 float - B/O 110 keys
Flip Doppler FN 0.01 float - B/O 110 keys
M9 Rust Coat BS 0.66 float - B/O 110 keys
M9 Night BS 0.49 float - B/O 110 keys
Ursus Tiger Tooth FN 0.008 float - B/O 110 keys
Bayonet Lore BS 0.62 float - B/O 100 keys
Flip Autotronic MW 0.14 float - B/O 100 keys
Skeleton Night FT ST 0.27 float - B/O 100 keys
M9 Urban Masked FT 0.28 float - B/O 100 keys
Bayonet Black Laminate MW 0.12 float - B/O 100 keys
Paracord Slaughter FN ST 0.03 float - B/O 90 keys
Flip Slaughter FT 0.23 float - B/O 90 keys
Huntsman Marble Fade FN 0.009 float - B/O 90 keys
Skeleton Stained BS 0.65 float - B/O 90 keys
Ursus Vanilla - B/O 85 keys
Gut Autotronic FN 0.05 float - B/O 84 keys
Bayonet Crimson Web FT 0.34 float - B/O 84 keys
Paracord Slaughter MW 0.10 float - B/O 83 keys
Bowie Marble Fade FN 0.01 float - B/O 82 keys
Bowie Marble Fade MW 0.07 float - B/O 82 keys
Bayonet Damascus Steel FT 0.22 float - B/O 82 keys
Bowie Doppler Fn P3 0.03 float - B/O 81 keys
Flip Autotronic FT 0.23 float - B/O 80 keys
Huntsman Tiger Tooth FN 0.02 float - B/O 75 keys
Talon Boreal MW 0.08 float - B/O 73 keys
Survival Vanilla - B/O 72 keys
Flip Ultraviolet MW 0.14 float - B/O 72 keys
Daggers Gamma Doppler FN P4 0.02 float - B/O 71 keys
Stiletto Damascus Steel FT 0.31 float - B/O 71 keys
Flip Bright Water FN 0.04 float - B/O 71 keys
Skeleton Safari Mesh FT 0.15 float - B/O 68 keys
Talon Safari Mesh MW 0.13 float - B/O 68 keys
Ursus Ultraviolet MW 0.13 float - B/O 67 keys
Bowie Tiger Tooth FN 0.02 float - B/O 67 keys
Paracord Crimson Web FT 0.15 float - B/O 80 keys
Classic Case Hardened MW 0.09 float - B/O 65 keys
Nomad Blue Steel BS 0.87 float - B/O 64 keys
Falchion Lore MW 0.09 float - B/O 61 keys
Gut Lore MW 0.12 float - B/O 60 keys
Paracord Forest Ddpat FN 0.06 float - B/O 57 keys
Bowie Case Hardened FT 0.18 float - B/O 57 keys
Gut Tiger Tooth MW 0.07 float - B/O 56 keys
Falchion Vanilla ST - B/O 55 keys
Ursus Damascus Steel FN 0.05 float - B/O 54 keys
Daggers Marble Fade FN 0.05 float - B/O 53 keys
Navaja Marble Fade FN ST 0.01 float - B/O 51 keys
Flip Night FT 0.23 float - B/O 51 keys
Gut Marble Fade FN 0.01 float - B/O 50 keys
Huntsman Black Laminate BS 0.80 float - B/O 50 keys
Falchion Lore Ft 0.24 float - B/O 50 keys
Gut Doppler FN P2 0.008 float - B/O 50 keys
Huntsman Freehand FN 0.06 float - B/O 49 keys
Huntsman Night MW 0.14 float - B/O 49 keys
Daggers Tiger Tooth FN 0.01 float - B/O 49 keys
Classic Blue Steel MW 0.12 float - B/O 48 keys
Ursus Ultraviolet FT 0.28 float - B/O 48 keys
Huntsman Crimson Web FT 0.31 float - B/O 48 keys
Huntsman Case Hardened WW 0.42 float - B/O 48 keys
Gut Doppler FN P4 0.02 float - B/O 48 keys
Ursus Damascus Steel MW 0.10 float - B/O 47 keys
Bowie Vanilla - B/O 47 keys
Daggers Lore MW 0.14 float - B/O 46 keys
Gut Tiger Tooth FN 0.03 float - B/O 46 keys
Daggers Vanilla - B/O 46 keys
Nomad Night FT 0.25 float - B/O 46 keys
Flip Rust Coat BS 0.63 float - B/O 46 keys
Navaja Doppler FN P2 0.02 float - B/O 46 keys
Navaja Marble Fade FN 0.03 float - B/O 46 keys
Ursus Night MW 0.14 float - B/o 45 keys
Gut Doppler FN P1 0.03 float - B/O 43 keys
Navaja Slaughter FN 0.05 float - B/O 43 keys
Stiletto Safari Mesh FT 0.20 float - B/O 43 keys
Classic Night BS 0.73 float - B/O 43 keys
Nomad Boreal FT 0.37 float - B/O 43 keys
Huntsman Freehand MW 0.11 float - B/O 43 keys
Daggers Slaughter MW 0.11 float - B/O 42 keys
Huntsman Damascus Steel MW 0.13 float - B/o 42 keys
Falchion Crimson Web FT 0.18 float - B/O 45 keys
Gut Vanilla - B/O 41 keys
Flip Urban Masked FT 0.28 float - B/O 41 keys
Paracord Blue Steel FT 0.36 float - B/O 40 keys
Nomad Safari Mesh MW 0.12 float - B/o 40 keys
Navaja Tiger Tooth FN 0.01 float - B/O 40 keys
Ursus Blue Steel BS 0.95 float - B/O 39 keys
Falchion Bright Water FN 0.05 float - B/O 39 keys
Daggers Lore FT 0.32 float - B/O 39 keys
Bowie Bright Water FN 0.06 float - B/O 39 keys
Gut Lore BS 0.59 float - B/O 38 keys
Flip Forest Ddpat FT 0.36 float - B/o 38 keys
Flip Scorched FT 0.34 float - B/O 37 keys
Flip Safari Mesh FT 0.36 float - B/O 37 keys
Nomad Scorched FT 0.35 float - B/o 36 keys
Nomad Safari Mesh WW 0.44 float - B/O 36 keys
Daggers Lore WW 0.42 float - B/O 35 keys
Daggers Crimson Web FT 0.37 float - B/O 35 keys
Classic Scorched FT 0.16 float - B/O 35 keys
Classic Boreal MW 0.08 float - B/O 34 keys
Falchion Bright Water MW 0.14 float - B/O 34 keys
Ursus Urban Masked FT 0.33 float - B/o 34 keys
Navaja Blue Steel FN 0.01 float - B/O 34 keys
Daggers Freehand FN 0.06 float - B/O 34 keys
Classic Urban Masked FT 0.35 float - B/O 34 keys
Classic Forest Ddpat FT 0.18 float - B/O 33 keys
Ursus Scorched MW 0.13 float - B/O 33 keys
Classic Safari Mesh MW 0.12 float - B/O 33 keys
Ursus Safari Mesh MW 0.12 float - B/O 32 keys
Ursus Scorched FT ST 0.35 float - B/O 32 keys
Navaja Vanilla - B/O 32 keys
Gut Ultraviolet MW 0.13 float - B/O 32 keys
Huntsman Bright Water FT 0.35 float - B/O 32 keys
Bowie Bright Water FT 0.17 float - B/O 31 keys
Bowie Ultraviolet WW 0.38 float - B/o 30 keys
Ursus Boreal FT 0.15 float - B/O 30 keys
Ursus Safari Mesh FT 0.20 float - B/O 30 keys
Falchion Black Laminate WW 0.39 float - B/O 29 keys
Survival Night BS 0.66 float - B/O 28 keys
Paracord Urban Masked FT 0.22 float - B/O 28 keys
Navaja Case Hardened WW 0.44 float - B/O 28 keys
Huntsman Boreal FT 0.27 float - B/O 28 keys
Huntsman Scorched FT 0.20 float - B/O 28 keys
Gut Bright Water FT ST 0.21 float - B/O 27 keys
Daggers Ultraviolet FT 0.30 float - B/O 27 keys
Gut Damascus Steel FT 0.35 float - B/O 27 keys
Gut Rust Coat BS ST 0.52 float - B/O 27 keys
Gut Bright Water FT 0.26 float - B/O 27 keys
Bowie Rust Coat BS 0.48 float - B/O 27 keys
Paracord Forest Ddpat FT 0.26 float - B/O 27 keys
Gut Night FT ST 0.18 float - B/O 26 keys
Gut Blue Steel FT 0.32 float - B/O 26 keys
Paracord Forest Ddpat WW 0.38 float - B/O 26 keys
Gut Freehand FT 0.30 float - B/O 26 keys
Paracord Safari Mesh FT 0.17 float - B/O 26 keys
Navaja Damascus Steel Fn 0.05 float - B/O 26 keys
Falchion Rust Coat BS 0.52 float - B/O 26 keys
Bowie Scorched FT 0.19 float - B/O 25 keys
Gut Freehand WW 0.40 float - B/o 25 keys
Falchion Forest Ddpat FT 0.15 float - B/O 25 keys
Daggers Ultraviolet WW 0.38 float - B/O 25 keys
Gut Rust Coat BS 0.55 float - B/O 24 keys
Gut Safari Mesh WW 0.38 float - B/O 23 keys
Daggers Bright Water FT 0.21 float - B/O 23 keys
Daggers Ultraviolet BS 0.52 float - B/O 23 keys
Navaja Blue Steel MW 0.12 float - B/O 23 keys
Gut Urban Masked FT 0.19 float - B/O 23 keys
Gut Boreal FT 0.23 float - B/O 23 keys
Gut Safari Mesh FT 0.28 float - B/O 22 keys
Daggers Black Laminate FT 0.37 float - B/O 22 keys
Gut Scorched FT 0.15 float - B/O 22 keys
Navaja Ultraviolet FT 0.36 float - B/O 22 keys
Daggers Night FT 0.25 float - B/O 22 keys
Navaja Boreal BS 0.67 float - B/O 21 keys
Navaja Night MW 0.12 float - B/O 21 keys
Navaja Stained FT 0.30 float - B/O 21 keys
Navaja Blue Steel WW 0.40 float - B/O 21 keys
Navaja Night BS 0.57 float - B/O 20 keys
Daggers Rust Coat BS 0.66 float - B/O 20 keys
Navaja Boreal FT 0.15 float - B/O 20 keys
Navaja Boreal Ft 0.15 float - B/O 20 keys
Navaja Urban Masked FT 0.28 float - B/O 20 keys
Navaja Night FT 0.20 float - B/O 20 keys
Navaja Safari Mesh BS 0.65 float - B/O 20 keys
Navaja Forest Ddpat FT 0.29 float - B/O 20 keys

Having more tools to bypass the clunky parts of Minecraft is part of what has led to the VAST interconnectivity we enjoy.
I think one of those issues is determining Light Level and mob-spawnable surfaces. This is doubly the issue if I want to light up an underwater cave and I'm using nightvision or a Conduit to navigate.
What if we could brew another potion, maybe even using a Torchflower, that creates a visual overlay compatible with Night Vision that creates an unobtrusive overlay on surfaces that are dark enough to spawn hostile mobs. Spectral outline, gentle red glow, etc. Perhaps it even cuts through precipitation.
As for a suggestion on ingredients...

• At first I thought of Torch Flowers since the name kind of lends to the activity of "torching up" your base to prevent spawns (the chore I was doing when I had this idea).
  
• But maybe there's a different, much earlier-game ingredient that could match the tech level you may be at if you're already brewing potions. Might be fun to brew with Crimson Fungi or Soul Soil?
  

Thoughts?

Alternate name suggestions!

• Cold Vision (name if using soul soil, since people say ghosts feel cold, and most of the dark-spawning mobs are undead)
  
• See Fireflies (name if using Torchflowers, the fireflies/plankton could be like a full-brightness yellow version of basalt ash, spore blossoms, etc)
  
• Tremorsense
  
• Creepy Feeling
  
• Gravesense
  
• Detect Evil
  
• ???
  

Dying is the easy part.

Welcome to /Paladins' Champion of the Week, a place to celebrate the Champions of the Realm. Share your fan-art, gameplay videos, and memes. Tell your funniest and most exciting stories! Talk about the best card loadouts and strategies, and tell us why you love the Champion of the Week! This week, we're celebrating
​Vora
The Harbinger
Affiliation: ​Darkness
Lore:
A life, once devoted to Io, the Moon Goddess. Her sacred martial order was one tasked with protecting the ancient seals, but even they did not know the extent of the chaos beneath. Feeling forsaken by her Goddess, surrounded by unanswered prayers and broken bodies, she has chosen to embrace that chaos. The Realm is on the path of self-destruction, but she will deliver it from that fate. She brings the end... of those wars, of that suffering - an end to everything. Those who know of her dread her coming, for she is Vora, Harbinger of the End of the Realm; and they are not prepared.
Class: ​Flank
Health: 2000
Abilities:

Name	Skill Type	Description	Cooldown
Deadly Scythe	Direct Damage	A Scythe that sends out projectiles that deal damage over a short duration. Its attack chain is: Medium, Light, Light, Heavy.Light: 300 damage every 0.35s.Medium: 470 damage every 1s.Heavy: 680 every 1.2s.Passive: Hits with your scythe provide a Darkness stack to you. Using Dark Siphon or Obliteration will consume all Stacks, Healing you for 100 over 1s per Stack and augmenting the ability if at 5 Stacks. You can have a maximum of 5 Stacks.	-
Obliteration	Area Damage / Crowd Control	Jump up and slash down around you, dealing 500 damage and applying a small Knockback to enemies hit. While using this ability, you are Immune to Damage and Crowd Control.Using this ability with 5 Stacks of Darkness deals an additional 300 damage and Slows enemies hit by 30% for 2s.	12s
Dark Siphon	Direct Damage / Crowd Control	Launch a vicious projectile from your Scythe, dealing 200 damage on hit and an additional 400 damage over 1.5s. Hitting an enemy causes you to Regenerate 300 Health over 2s.Using this ability with 5 Darkness Stacks will Cripple the enemy hit for 1.5s.	6s
Tendril	Mobility	Manifest your will, propelling yourself towards your target with a tendril. Can hit players to pull you to them.	10s
Harbinger's Wrath	Direct Damage / True Damage	Channel your wrath to hunt your enemies, increasing your Movement Speed by 60% and decreasing the damage you take by 40%.Select a target in range with to hit them, Stunning, Crippling, and Silencing them. Enemies above 66% maximum Health take 1100 damage, while enemies at or below 66% maximum Health are Executed. This ability lasts 5s or until you select a target. Can be refired to cancel. If your target dies during the Stun, refund 25% Ultimate Charge.	-

Talents and Cards:

Name	Ability	Description	Cooldown
[Default] Unyielding Pressure	Unknown	Your Dark Siphon now deals an additional 10% of the target's maximum Health as damage over 1.5s.	-
[Level 2] Relentless Presence	Tendril	Tendril gains a second charge, but its Cooldown is increased by 2s.	-
[Level 8] Deafening Silence	Obliteration	Obliteration now Silences enemies hit for 1.65s.	-
A Broken Path	Dark Siphon	Increase the Healing received from Dark Siphon by {50/50} health.	-
A Change of Faith	Dark Siphon	Reduce the Cooldown of Tendril by {0.6/0.6}s after hitting an enemy with Dark Siphon.	-
Crimson Ascent	Dark Siphon	Reduce the Cooldown of Dark Siphon by {1/1}s if it fails to hit a target.	-
Unified in Purpose	Dark Siphon	Reduce the damage you take by 10% for {1/1}s after hitting an enemy with Dark Siphon.	-
Broken Promises	Obliteration	Heal for {60/60} for each enemy hit with Obliteration.	-
Deadly Dance	Obliteration	Generate {1/1}% Ultimate charge for each enemy hit by Obliteration.	-
Inevitability	Obliteration	Reduce the Cooldown of Dark Siphon by {0.4/0.4}s after hitting at least one enemy with Obliteration.	-
Ruthless Elegance	Obliteration	Increase the effect of the Knockback applied by Obliteration by {8/8}% of its base value.	-
Dance with Fate	Tendril	Reduce the cooldown of Tendril by {0.6/0.6}s.	-
Elegant Paring	Tendril	Reduce the Cooldown of Dark Siphon and Obliteration by {0.4/0.4}s after activating Tendril.	-
Otherworldly Tether	Tendril	Gain a {75/75} Shield for 5s after activating Tendril.	8s
What May Come	Tendril	Reduce the damage you take by {4/4}% for 3s after activating Tendril.	-
False Idol	Armor	Increase your Movement Speed by {5/5}% and gain {5/5}% Lifesteal for 2s after falling to or below 40% Health.	15s
New Purpose	Armor	Increase your maximum Health by {50/50}.	-
Sharpened Resolve	Weapon	Consuming Darkness stacks Heals you for an additional {10/10} per stack.	-
The Maw's Embrace	Weapon	Increase your Movement Speed by {6/4}% for 1s after hitting anything with Deadly Scythe.	-

You can find an archive of every Champion of the Week here.
Join us next week when we talk about ​Willo!

Down to the last 32!
I'm looking for the certified Anisprays below. The numbers in parentheses are my credit offers. If you are on a different platform, I can offer non-crate items worth more than the listed credit amounts (I typically pay in non-crate Fennecs).
These offers are flexible.
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Burnt Sienna
*Acrobat (300)
*Goalkeeper (300)
*Paragon (300)
*Scorer (300)
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Crimson
*Acrobat (400)
*Guardian (400)
*Juggler (400)
*Show-off (400)
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Orange
*Paragon (350)
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Saffron
*Goalkeeper (350)
*Guardian (350)
*Playmaker (350)
*Scorer (350)
*Victor (350)
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Lime
*Goalkeeper (400)
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Forest Green
*Acrobat (350)
*Guardian (350)
*Paragon (350)
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Sky Blue
*Acrobat (400)
*Guardian (400)
*Juggler (400)
*Sweeper (500)
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Cobalt
*Acrobat (400)
*Paragon (400)
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Purple
*Guardian (400)
*Playmaker (400)
*Turtle (400)
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Pink
*Juggler (400)
*Playmaker (400)
*Sniper (400)
*Turtle (400)
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Grey
*Sniper (500)
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Toxic Rats: Geoff, Scott, Leshawna, Sammy, Trent
Mutant Maggots: Anne Maria, Katie, Molly, Scarlett, Dave, DJ
Episode 04: Finders Creepers
"Last time, on Total Drama Revenge of the Island!" Chris opened over a stock shot of the camp, the recap montage starting off with a clip of the contestants racing off towards the side of Mt. Looming Tragedy. "Twelve bumbling buffoons battled it out in a brutal buffet of bombastica," Chef was shown gleefully dropping ice blocks on the climbing campers, catching Geoff and Scott but narrowly missing Molly and almost catching Anne Maria.
"Why all the 'B' words?" B was shown demonstrating his couch invention created from junk, "Because, B proved he was a brave and brilliant improviser who scored big time for his team!" B used an ice pick to poke holes onto a shard of ice and placed it on top of the castle, directing the sun beam towards the Maggots' base and melting it effectively. "Until his bitter teammate Scott allowed brainy Molly to botch it on purpose and B got the boot," Molly threw a snowball onto the shard, melting the castle and B was shown being flung into the night.
"And now," Chris said, popping up in front of a shot of the full moon in a cloudy sky with a lit candle in his hand, marking the end of the recap montage, "tonight's challenge is about fear." He made a devilish look. "And everyone knows fear is a dish best served, in the dark!" he said in an exaggeratedly spooky manner, an eerie sound playing as he laughed evilly. "Huh?" he stopped suddenly, the camera pulling back to reveal Chef standing next to him...dressed like a showgirl with lots of peacock feathers. "Chef!" the host said in annoyance.
"Wardrobe was all out of vampire costumes," Chef explained as the series's capstone then began to play.
"It's all scary!" Chris said, walking off to the left. "Other than that," he scowled and gestured back toward his off-screen assistant. "Right here! Right now!" he resumed his usual demeanor. "On Total! Drama! Revenge, of the Island!" He adopted his spooky tone as he finished the title, and ended with another evil laugh.
XXXXX
Frogs and crickets chirped and croaked, joined by an owl's hoots as the episode opened on a shot of the full moon. The camera panned down to the cabins as the sound of snoring was added to the nighttime mix, and the scene cut inside to the girls' side of the Maggots' cabin where Anne Maria and Katie were sleeping peacefully in the bunk they shared. Dave and DJ were also shown sound asleep on the boys' side, and the scene cut to the Rat boys to show Geoff also sound asleep.
The camera cut next to show Sammy waking up with a yawn. She stretched her arms out for a few good seconds and fell right back to sleep...until the sudden shrill wail of a blow horn pierced the air.
"RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" Chris hollered from off-screen as the scene cut back outside, the blowhorn continuing even over the panicked shouts of the campers.
The camera briefly cut to a close-up of the blowhorn still blowing, then over to the Maggots' cabin as they ran outside fully dressed – first Katie screaming "What's happening?!"; then DJ just screaming; then Scarlett yelling out "This is unethical!"; then Anne Maria just hollering; and then finally Dave coming out, calling out "I'm wide awake!"
The Rats were shown next, Scott grunting "Me first!" as he shoved Geoff down the stairs and slid down the railing; Leshawna quickly running after him; Sammy screaming at the top of her lungs; and Trent coming out last at around the same time while screaming.
They assembled nervously in the common area between cabins, where Chris – wearing a pair of heavy earmuffs – finally eased up on the blowhorn. "Glad you all could make it," he grinned as he took off his headgear.
Molly soon arrived later. "Is there an attack or what?" she asked her teammates.
Katie shot her a quick glare. "Of course not, but why would you care about anything but yourself?"
Confessional: Molly
"Olay, yes," Molly moaned. "I left my teammates behind, but that was because I wanted to win the challenge first. I was always taught to focus on one thing before moving on to the next, and that's what I did." She grew concerned. "I don't see any problems with that."
Confessional Ends
"I hope you're all ready," Chris continued, "'cause it's challenge time!" He stepped to the side as Chef rolled up a large widescreen television on a wheeled cart. It was currently displaying an aerial map of the island with several additional colored icons – six bright green skulls scattered around the island; three yellowish envelopes over the campfire pit, the western edge of the campgrounds, and deeper into the forest; and a large purple spider in the middle of it all.
"We're gonna do a challenge?" Anne Maria wondered. "In the middle of the woods? At night?"
Confessional: Anne Maria
"Doesn't Chris know that we need our hours of sleep?" Anne Maria criticized. "I haven't even done my hair."
Confessional Ends
"Your challenge," Chris continued as though there'd been no interruption, "a scavenger hunt for three creepy souvenirs. Your locations? A haunted forest," he walked across to the other side of the television, "a scaaary pet cemetery, and an extra spooktastic cave. First team to each location gets a special clue," he said, the camera zooming in as he pointed towards the westernmost letter icon on the screen. "But watch out for booby traps," he added jovially as he moved his finger to one of the skulls, "I really went to town with them, heheh." The campers were shown watching warily.
"So move fast," the host added, "and stick together. You'll be penalized for each player you lose!"
"Umm, what's with the giant spider?" Sammy asked.
"Oh yeah," Chris answered as the shot zoomed in on the icon in question, "there's some kinda gigantic mutated spider sorta running around loose on the island."
The cast immediately started to voice their fears and protests.
"A huge, humongous spider is on the loose?!" DJ hugged Katie out of fear.
"I guess so," Katie said frightfully, but was secretly enjoying DJ hugging her.
The shot zoomed in on Dave in particular as he looked around, moaning "Oh no..." in annoyance.
Confessional: Dave
"Ever since I was a kid, I've never been a huge fan of spiders," Dave admitted. "They leave messy webs everywhere they go, and it takes me a long time to clean them up in places like my uncle's attic or my aunt's basement." A spider soon crawled down on a string. "This is gonna be unpopular, but I'm not a huge fan of Spider-Man because of my dislike of spiders." The spider hissed after hearing the criticism, making Dave flinch.
Confessional: Leshawna
"I may seem fearless on the outside, but spiders are one of the few things I'm terrified of," Leshawna said nervously. "Anything with eight legs is frightening enough."
Confessional Ends
"And since I want to keep things fair for both teams," Chris continued, "I decided to bring back an eliminated contestant for the Rats."
"It's so good to be back here!" the familiar voice of Sierra was heard, becoming more recognizable when she ran next to Chris.
"Sierra! I haven't introduced you yet!" Chris snapped at her.
"If I waited any longer, the episode would've been past the usual 22-minute runtime," Sierra explained. "I'll just go join the Toxic Rats and save you the trouble of doing so since I've rejoined."
Chris watched the fangirl run up to the contestants in annoyance. "Long story short, Sierra is the returnee." Chris regained his smile, and the dramatic and almost heroic tune started playing again. "There's nothing to fear but mortal terror itself! Talk soon," he added impishly, sounding his blowhorn once again.
The twelve campers ran off towards the woods.
\
The footage flashed ahead to another shot of the full moon over the forested hills of Wawanakwa, an owl hooting as the scene cut down to ground level. The logo of the Toxic Rats appeared in the corner of the screen just before the team itself did, running up and stopping in front of a tree with a loudspeaker set up in its branches.
"We're in first place! Sweet!" Geoff cheered just before the loudspeaker whined into activity.
"Welcome to the Haunted Forest!" Chris announced over it, the shot panning downward to show the six Rats gathering around a small crack in the ground. "Your clue can be found at the base of this tree!" Sierra reached into the hole...and screamed in pain as something metallic snapped inside the hole.
"Inside a bear trap," Chris finished his announcement with a laugh.
Sierra withdrew her hand from the hole, the trap clamped down firmly on her arm – though she was at least clutching a note in her hand. "Here! Read the clue," she said, passing it to a mildly shocked Sammy. Just as she was about to read it, the sound of approaching footsteps distracted her and her teammates.
"Bad news guys," Anne Maria commented from the six Maggots. "They have the clue."
"Even with a team advantage they still managed to beat us," Katie reminded them.
"We can let the opposing team have their clue," Scarlett said, looking back towards her teammates. "I have another plan," she said, running ahead with her teammates in tow.
\
The shot cut to the Maggots as they stopped at a clearing further along the trail. "So what's the plan?" Katie asked the girl in front.
"Find a place to hide so we can follow the Rats and their clue to our first souvenir," Scarlett answered. "Into that bush!"
The Maggots dived and painfully tried to hide in a thorn bush.
"Be quiet," Dave hissed, "They're coming."
"Inside a knot is a nest," Sammy read as the scene cut to the Rats. "Your souvenir lives with a pest. Find Polaris to travel northwest? Polaris is the North Star."
"The North Star is right there, so this way's northwest! There's a path!" Trent declared. He ran off, the rest of his teammates following suit.
"Now we follow!" Scarlett declared as the rest of her teammates came out of the bush.
\
The Rats' logo reappeared as the footage skipped ahead again to them running along through the woods.
"Inside a knot is a nest," Geoff muttered to himself as the shot zoomed in on him. "Hey Sammy, what was the rest of that poem again?" he called back without taking his eyes off the path ahead.
When he didn't get an answer he immediately skidded to a stop. "Sammy?!" he yelled in rising panic, and looked back to see nobody behind him.
The shot cut back to show that the rest of the Rats had stopped in their tracks. "What? Did we lose the mouse?" Scott asked.
Geoff gulped. "We get a penalty for each player we lose, right?" he asked nervously.
"And there's a spider crawling around, right?!" Leshawna said in panic. The shot cut outward as he did so, showing a large purple spider crawling down through the shadows of the forest trees.
"We're looking for a knot with a nest, right?" Scott looked off to the right; the camera quick-panned over to a large tree with a noticeable hollow knot in the trunk with the hints of a nest inside; a few green and red marks had been spray-painted on the bark under it.
"There it is!" Leshawna said, immediately rushing towards it.
"But what about Sammy?" Trent asked his team.
"We'll look for her after we get the souvenir," Sierra assured him.
Leshawna started climbing up the trunk as the rest of her team ran up to join her, and soon began to root through the tree hollow with one arm.
Suddenly, a large eye opened up inside the hollow and stared directly at Leshawna. She screamed, and several squid-like tentacles reached out of the tree's other hollows. One quickly grabbed her around the neck and held her up, while another gave her a few wet slaps then poked her in the eye.
"My eye!" Leshawna yelped in pain and terror. In response the tentacle tightened its grip, and Leshawna began to choke.
"What do we do!?" Sierra yelled in panic.
Geoff looked around, then bent down and picked up a handful of small rocks. "We can throw these stones at the octo guy!"
"Good idea!" Scott said as he and his team picked up rocks of their own and began throwing them at the creature, but they seemed to be hitting Leshawna more than the mutant squid-tree monster. Eventually, the thing just raised its captive up even higher, then slammed her down onto the ground and hissed at the others.
"RUN!" Geoff shouted, turning to flee as a tentacle shot towards them, forcing them to scatter.
Unfortunately, Trent was unable to get away in time and was lifted up by the leg. Trent cried in pain as the mutant began to punch him in the stomach with a curled-up tentacle.
The sounds of pain and wet punches caused Leshawna to get frustrated. "No way am I gonna get pushed around or let a squid attack my teammates!" she declared, getting back on her feet and climbing up the tree-squid's trunk while it was distracted. "Quit buggin' us!" she cried as she punched the mutant in the eye.
The beast bellowed in pain, dropping Trent and retracting into its tree. As soon as he got back up, a strand of spider's webbing shot down from above, sticking on to his head and pulling him away from the floor.
Leshawna reached into the knot once again, quickly and triumphantly pulling out a brass key. "And that's how I roll!" she called down to her teammates.
She dropped down to the forest floor, and landed in front of Geoff, who grinned when he saw it. "We got the key, Trent." Geoff received no response as Scott rejoined.
"Trent?!" Leshawna yelled out in concern. "Where are you?!"
As she panicked, the shot changed to a perspective further away, and the footage switched to an infrared shot of the four Rats.
"Guess he's gone," Sierra sighed sadly. "On the plus side, we found the key."
"We lost two players!" Leshawna said. "Shouldn't we go and look for them?"
"Knowing Chris, he probably has them trapped someplace else, so I'm not too worried right now," Scott brushed it off.
"You've got a point there," Geoff agreed.
Just then, the six Maggots arrived on the scene.
Scott was the first to notice them. "No luck here," he quickly said with faux disappointment, "Do you want to see if Sammy and Trent saw anything better over there?" he looked back and asked Sierra, Leshawna, and Geoff.
"Absolutely. It's not just the three of us," Sierra caught on before they turned and ran off.
"I see something!" Katie pointed off to the camera's right – the direction of the squid-tree. "Team colors!" The camera briefly cut over to the knot in question, with a focus on the marks below it in the two teams' colors.
"Excellent eye, Katie," Scarlett complimented while DJ ran to the tree.
"I'm not just a phone addict, y'know," Katie laughed a bit.
"I got the key, everyone," the camera cut to DJ who was in the tree's hollow and holding out a key. He threw the key in front of Dave and Molly.
"Way to go, DJ!" Molly said.
"Now you want to support us," Dave snarked at her. "Where was that when I was frozen?"
"Are you still mad about that?" Molly groaned.
"Of course we are," Katie snorted.
"You don't just leave your teammates behind," Dave lectured.
"Whatever happened happened," Anne Maria got in between them. "Let's focus more on the challenge and less on squabbling right now."
Confessional: Anne Maria
"I'm here to start no fights," Anne Maria confessed. "What Molly did was messed up, but they can scold her after the challenge."
Confessional: Molly
"Thank you, Anne Maria," Molly let out a sigh of relief. "Finally, someone who won't ride on me for my choices!"
Confessionals End
"You're right, Anne Maria," Dave sighed. "We shouldn't waste anymore time fighting."
As Dave bent down to pick up the key, however, a line of spider silk shot down from the treetops, wrapped around Molly, and pulled her up out of sight.
DJ regrouped with his team. "They said they saw something far away, so maybe-" he paused and looked behind his teammates. "Wait, where's Molly?"
The other four looked behind them and gasped. "Oh no, Molly's got taken by the spider!" Dave cried out.
"What do we do now?" Anne Maria griped.
Scarlett sighed. "Not to sound apathetic, but I think we're gonna have to continue on without her."
"Are you sure about that?" Katie questioned.
"I'm sure we can catch up to wherever she's being taken to," Scarlett waved off her concern.
"Well, I hope so," Katie said as she and the team exchanged nervous looks.
Confessional: Dave
"I don't see Molly in the best light right now, but that doesn't mean that I want her to be taken away," Dave began to shudder. "Especially by a spider."
Confessional Ends
"Why are we running so slow when we're in a challenge?" Geoff said as the scene moved back to him, Sierra, Scott, and Leshawna running through the forest. "We won't beat the other team at this rate."
"Relax, I know what I'm doing," Scott conversed with him.
Confessional: Scott
Scott was whittling another piece of wood with his shark tooth. "I'm heading us back into last place where we belong. Another elimination ceremony for the Rats and it's bye-bye Geoff! Or Sierra. I can't decide."
Confessional Ends
"C'mon, let's rock this! With years of exercise and partying, I've got energy to burn!" Geoff said, snatching the key from Leshawna and jogging ahead. The three followed him, but the camera kept its focus on Geoff as he passed a tree stump, then a rock; then stepped on a mysterious clump of dirt… which exploded and sent him flying.
Leshawna, Sierra, and Scott stopped immediately, the shot showing Sierra and Leshawna being shocked and Scott showing delight as Geoff got launched from one land mine to the next off-screen.
During this, however, a line of spider webbing was shot onto Sierra's leg. It quickly wrapped around it and tugged Sierra away from her team.
The camera finally cut back to Geoff, singed and groaning on the ground in an awkward but still holding the Rats' key. The Maggots approached him moments later. "Sorry that had to happen, doll!" Anne Maria comforted as she ran past Geoff.
Scott and Leshawna came to Geoff's need. "You gonna be alright?" Leshawna helped him up.
"I'll walk it off," Geoff tried to remain cool headed.
"Thanks, focus boy," Scott said.
"I don't want to strain my calves," Geoff added.
"We should leave in a few minutes just to make sure we catch up to the other team," Leshawna said. "Sierra just got captured, and I don't want us sticking around here."
\
The scene cut to the lantern-lit cemetery. The camera panned left across its headstones and crosses, several of which were pet-themed, to the entrance as the five remaining Mutant Maggots arrived, huffing and puffing from their run.
"Welcome to the Wawanakwa Pet Cemetery!" Chris greeted them over the loudspeaker.
"We're first. Nice!" Dave said.
"What's the clue?" Anne Maria asked Scarlett.
The camera cut in close as she opened the lid to a small coffin in an open grave, revealing a ragged piece of paper within bearing a list of numbers: 5 in the first row; 5 in the second; 5 in the third. Notably, while most of the numbers were plain black there were three 6s and the 18 were all an eye-catching red. "Three 6's is normally not a good indication of luck," Scarlett said with a nervous look.
"Let's fan out and look for numbers!" DJ said as the perspective cut back to its usual sideview.
"By ourselves?" Anne Maria asked.
\
"I'm in a creepy cemetery in the middle of the woods looking for three 6s. It's no big deal," Anne Maria said warily as she backed through the graveyard. "Good news is, there aren't any owls hooting around. I think I'm safe," she told herself, pausing to smile. "Now, let's see if I can find any numbers..."
She turned around and started examining the nearest headstone, and the shot cut to a view from afar, the footage switching back to infrared. The monster serving as the camera's viewpoint blinked, and when it opened its eyes it had gotten much closer to the jersey girl, and had extended four sharp limbs with tiny claws on the end towards her...
Anne Maria's scream echoed through the cemetery, quickly catching the attention of Katie, DJ, Scarlett, and Dave as they looked up in shock. "Anne Maria?" Dave asked out in concern, the footage quickly skipping ahead to show all four arriving at the location the tanned young lady had been snatched from.
"I could've sworn she was just here," Dave said in confusion.
They all gasped. "Where'd she go?" Katie asked in mild terror.
"I'm just as concerned as you all are," Scarlett started, "but like what happened with Molly, we should move along and hope to catch up with them."
"I know you're trying to be reasonable," DJ said, "but you're rubbing me off the wrong way."
"Yeah, it's like you don't care about what could happen to our teammates," Dave told her.
"I'm just used to not expressing my emotions on occasion," Scarlett told her team members. "Thank you very much."
\
The scene flashed to the Rats, where Scott and Leshawna were next to grimy coffins propped upright against a couple statues.
"Find the souvenir, hide the souvenir, lose the game…" Scott went in to unlock the coffin, but was interrupted by Fang bursting out of the coffin with a menacing grin.
"AAAAHHHHH!" The devious ran away screaming when Fang moved to chase after him.
Geoff was looking at a grave that was open. "This grave smells like french fries. Weird, but I'm not complaining." He got shoved in thanks to Scott running away from Fang.
The camera followed Scott as he ran past two open graves, one of which with a mound of dirt in front of it.
The mutant shark followed his quarry, but when Scott leapt over the mound of dirt, Fang tripped over it. The shark fell into the open grave and growled.
"Why does this graveyard smell like fries?" Katie wondered aloud, following a scent as she walked through the cemetery. She soon came to the pit Geoff was in. "Maybe it's coming from there."
"Hello? Anybody? I need someone to help me down here!" Geoff called out.
Katie backed away a bit. "Did that hole just talk?"
"It's me. Geoff!" Geoff tried to denounce her belief.
"Oh right," Katie sighed in relief. "You're the guy with the cowboy hat."
"That's right," Geoff confirmed her statement. "I fell down this hole, and I'm covered in grease right now."
"So that explains the smell," Katie realized.
"Can you get me out of here?" Geoff begged her. "Grease doesn't mesh well with my shirt."
"I would, but I have to help my team right now," Katie declined. "One of your teammates could get you out. Bye," she left the scene.
"This sucks," Geoff whined, unaware of four maggots coming by the grave. As soon as they saw the grease and Geoff, they jumped in and attacked him, making him howl in agony.
\
The scene cut to Chris, who was watching feeds of both teams on a trio of monitors and laughing hysterically. "Will anyone make it to the spooky cave?" he turned and asked the camera, holding a covered cup with a straw in it. "And if so, how can they possibly make it all the way to the finish line? Less brain, more pain, when we return!" he said, finishing with a sip of his drink.
\
(Commercial Break)
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I have m416 glacier level 5 and crimson ephialtes AMR level 3

hello trading all my inventoryhave 200 knifes / gloves and a lot of skins looking only for trade feel free to send me offer or contanct me at steam
Links to my profile / trade offer
Steam Profile : https://steamcommunity.com/id/filimon-trade
Trade link : https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffenew/?partner=169178735&token=NOaCmr8O
feel free to send me your offer
Name Price B/O Tradability
★ M9 Bayonet Gamma Doppler (Emerald) - MW - 12895.11- Thu Jun 08 2023 10:00:00 -
★ StatTrak™ Bayonet Gamma Doppler (Emerald) - FN - 6664.31 - -
★ Stiletto Knife Doppler (Ruby) - FN - 4988.16- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Butterfly Knife Lore - MW - 4384.63 - -
★ Butterfly Knife Lore - MW - 4384.63 - -
★ Butterfly Knife Fade - FN - 4042.39 - -
★ Butterfly Knife Fade - FN - 4042.39 - -
★ Flip Knife Doppler (Black Pearl) - FN - 3736.57- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
★ StatTrak™ Ursus Knife Doppler (Ruby) - FN - 3348.41 - -
★ Karambit Fade - FN - 3330.34- Wed Jun 07 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Butterfly Knife Gamma Doppler (Phase 2) - FN - 2826.32- Sun Jun 04 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Sport Gloves Amphibious - MW - 2730.74 - -
★ M9 Bayonet Fade - FN - 2519.43- Fri Jun 09 2023 10:00:00 -
★ M9 Bayonet Fade - FN - 2519.43 - -
★ M9 Bayonet Gamma Doppler (Phase 2) - FN - 2167.20- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Sport Gloves Hedge Maze - WW - 2029.20 - -
★ StatTrak™ Karambit Marble Fade - FN - 1997.34- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Falchion Knife Doppler (Sapphire) - FN - 1940.77- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Talon Knife Fade - FN - 1932.32 - -
AK-47 Hydroponic - MW - 1823.73 - -
★ Karambit Gamma Doppler (Phase 3) - FN - 1787.99 - -
★ M9 Bayonet - - 1690.13- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Specialist Gloves Crimson Kimono - FT - 1666.07 - -
★ Karambit Tiger Tooth - FN - 1614.06- Wed Jun 07 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Karambit Tiger Tooth - FN - 1614.06 - -
★ StatTrak™ Butterfly Knife Slaughter - MW - 1609.18- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
AK-47 Fire Serpent - MW - 1592.12- Thu Jun 08 2023 10:00:00 -
M4A1-S Imminent Danger - MW - 1527.91 - -
★ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Phase 4) - FN - 1498.66- Thu Jun 08 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Sport Gloves Pandora's Box - BS - 1487.28 - -
★ Gut Knife Gamma Doppler (Emerald) - FN - 1479.15 - -
★ Karambit - - 1462.73- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ M9 Bayonet Tiger Tooth - FN - 1434.45 - -
★ M9 Bayonet Lore - FT - 1389.75- Wed Jun 07 2023 10:00:00 -
★ StatTrak™ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Phase 2) - FN - 1384.88- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Phase 2) - FN - 1381.62- Fri Jun 09 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Butterfly Knife Black Laminate - FT - 1372.52 - -
★ Skeleton Knife Crimson Web - FT - 1335.95- Thu Jun 08 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Bayonet Fade - FN - 1316.20 - -
★ Butterfly Knife Autotronic - BS - 1296.29- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Talon Knife Marble Fade - FN - 1267.83- Tue Jun 06 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Talon Knife Doppler (Phase 2) - FN - 1259.72- Wed Jun 07 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Karambit Lore - FT - 1235.33- Fri Jun 09 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Karambit Lore - FT - 1235.33- Fri Jun 09 2023 10:00:00 -
★ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Phase 3) - FN - 1165.44- Fri Jun 09 2023 10:00:00 -
M4A4 Poseidon - MW - 1154.06 - -
★ Moto Gloves POW! - MW - 1153.90 - -
★ StatTrak™ M9 Bayonet Doppler (Phase 3) - FN - 1153.74- Wed Jun 07 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Stiletto Knife Fade - FN - 1137.03 - -
★ Talon Knife Doppler (Phase 1) - FN - 1124.72- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Talon Knife Doppler (Phase 1) - FN - 1124.72- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Talon Knife Doppler (Phase 3) - MW - 1080.92 - -
★ Navaja Knife Doppler (Ruby) - FN - 1072.79 - -
★ Butterfly Knife Damascus Steel - FT - 1054.58- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Flip Knife Gamma Doppler (Phase 2) - FN - 1032.16 - -
★ StatTrak™ Bayonet Marble Fade - FN - 1024.03- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ StatTrak™ Butterfly Knife Damascus Steel - WW - 1022.22- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Sport Gloves Slingshot - FT - 1006.96 - -
★ Talon Knife Slaughter - FN - 999.33 - -
AK-47 X-Ray - FT - 991.28- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Bayonet Gamma Doppler (Phase 3) - FN - 975.02- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate - FT - 963.80 - -
★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate - FT - 963.80 - -
M4A1-S Hot Rod - FN - 950.47- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
M4A1-S Hot Rod - FN - 950.47- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
StatTrak™ AK-47 Vulcan - MW - 949.26- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Talon Knife Tiger Tooth - FN - 949.18- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ M9 Bayonet Black Laminate - BS - 934.55- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
Desert Eagle Blaze - FN - 915.86- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
Desert Eagle Blaze - FN - 915.86 - -
Desert Eagle Blaze - FN - 915.86 - -
Desert Eagle Blaze - FN - 915.86 - -
★ StatTrak™ Ursus Knife Fade - FN - 915.12- Sun Jun 04 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Sport Gloves Vice - BS - 908.29 - -
AUG Akihabara Accept - FT - 870.42 - -
★ Sport Gloves Nocts - MW - 859.86 - -
★ M9 Bayonet Bright Water - FN - 853.36- Thu Jun 08 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Butterfly Knife Stained - FT - 830.60- Tue Jun 06 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Karambit Blue Steel - FT - 828.98 - -
★ Butterfly Knife Rust Coat - BS - 824.58- Sun Jun 04 2023 10:00:00 -
★ M9 Bayonet Crimson Web - FT - 812.64- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
Desert Eagle Blaze - MW - 798.01 - -
★ Paracord Knife Fade - FN - 796.47 - -
★ Stiletto Knife Doppler (Phase 2) - FN - 788.34- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
Glock-18 Gamma Doppler (Emerald) - FN - 788.18- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Flip Knife Marble Fade - FN - 785.09- Tue Jun 06 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Flip Knife Marble Fade - FN - 785.09- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Paracord Knife Fade - MW - 780.22- Wed Jun 07 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Bayonet Doppler (Phase 3) - MW - 772.09- Fri Jun 09 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Karambit Crimson Web - BS - 771.27- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Skeleton Knife Crimson Web - BS - 763.96- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Bayonet Doppler (Phase 1) - FN - 763.71- Sun Jun 04 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Karambit Bright Water - FT - 747.71- Thu Jun 08 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Gut Knife Doppler (Black Pearl) - FN - 731.45- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
M4A1-S Blue Phosphor - FN - 728.03- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
M4A1-S Blue Phosphor - FN - 728.03- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
StatTrak™ AWP Oni Taiji - BS - 702.35- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Butterfly Knife Forest DDPAT - FT - 698.94- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
★ StatTrak™ Skeleton Knife Stained - MW - 698.61- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ M9 Bayonet Damascus Steel - FT - 693.98- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Butterfly Knife Safari Mesh - FT - 690.82- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Sport Gloves Slingshot - WW - 690.66- Tue Jun 06 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Karambit Night - BS - 674.56- Wed Jun 07 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Stiletto Knife Tiger Tooth - FN - 673.65- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Broken Fang Gloves Needle Point - FN - 672.12 - -
★ Ursus Knife Doppler (Phase 2) - FN - 666.44- Thu Jun 08 2023 10:00:00 -
★ M9 Bayonet Blue Steel - FT - 666.44 - -
AWP Lightning Strike - FN - 664.00- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ StatTrak™ Huntsman Knife Slaughter - FN - 648.55 - -
★ Flip Knife Tiger Tooth - FN - 646.74- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Skeleton Knife Blue Steel - FT - 641.87- Fri Jun 09 2023 10:00:00 -
★ StatTrak™ Ursus Knife Marble Fade - FN - 633.59- Wed Jun 07 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Stiletto Knife - - 617.66- Thu Jun 08 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Stiletto Knife - - 617.66 - -
★ Hand Wraps Slaughter - MW - 609.37 - -
★ M9 Bayonet Case Hardened - BS - 600.60 - -
★ Nomad Knife Slaughter - MW - 598.82 - -
★ Skeleton Knife Stained - FT - 589.35- Wed Jun 07 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Flip Knife Doppler (Phase 1) - FN - 581.91- Fri Jun 09 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Flip Knife Doppler (Phase 1) - FN - 581.91- Thu Jun 08 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Driver Gloves King Snake - FT - 580.28- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Karambit Urban Masked - FT - 575.90- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Talon Knife Damascus Steel - MW - 549.32- Fri Jun 09 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Talon Knife Damascus Steel - MW - 549.32 - -
★ Hand Wraps Cobalt Skulls - FT - 544.27- Tue Jun 06 2023 10:00:00 -
AK-47 X-Ray - WW - 529.90 - -
★ Talon Knife Case Hardened - WW - 526.48- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
StatTrak™ AK-47 Case Hardened - MW - 519.98- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Ursus Knife Slaughter - FN - 512.50 - -
★ Ursus Knife Slaughter - FN - 512.50 - -
★ M9 Bayonet Boreal Forest - FT - 503.72 - -
★ StatTrak™ Huntsman Knife Marble Fade - FN - 493.97 - -
★ Classic Knife - - 491.69- Thu Jun 08 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Talon Knife Stained - MW - 490.80 - -
SSG 08 Death Strike - BS - 487.55- Thu Jun 08 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Talon Knife Damascus Steel - FT - 486.66- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Huntsman Knife Slaughter - FN - 474.55 - -
★ Paracord Knife Slaughter - FN - 463.16- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Ursus Knife - - 456.26 - -
★ Stiletto Knife Damascus Steel - FN - 451.87 - -
★ Bowie Knife Gamma Doppler (Phase 1) - FN - 445.37 - -
★ Falchion Knife Gamma Doppler (Phase 3) - FN - 428.06 - -
StatTrak™ AK-47 Vulcan - FT - 422.29 - -
★ Specialist Gloves Foundation - FT - 412.46- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
AK-47 Case Hardened - FN - 404.73 - -
★ StatTrak™ Classic Knife Crimson Web - FT - 396.61- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Falchion Knife Marble Fade - FN - 394.98 - -
★ Huntsman Knife Tiger Tooth - FN - 393.04- Fri Jun 09 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Huntsman Knife Tiger Tooth - FN - 393.04 - -
★ Survival Knife - - 390.10 - -
★ Driver Gloves Imperial Plaid - FT - 389.13- Fri Jun 09 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Driver Gloves Imperial Plaid - FT - 389.13- Fri Jun 09 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Stiletto Knife Ultraviolet - MW - 385.23- Thu Jun 08 2023 10:00:00 -
Sticker LGB eSports (Holo) Katowice 2015 - - 385.23 - -
★ Paracord Knife - - 378.23- Sun Jun 04 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Gut Knife Fade - FN - 369.78- Wed Jun 07 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Bowie Knife Lore - MW - 363.85 - -
★ Bayonet Stained - FT - 356.79 - -
★ Talon Knife Night Stripe - FT - 349.96- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Bowie Knife Tiger Tooth - FN - 346.95- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Stiletto Knife Blue Steel - FT - 345.98 - -
★ Falchion Knife Tiger Tooth - FN - 334.03- Fri Jun 09 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Specialist Gloves Crimson Web - FT - 333.13- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
★ StatTrak™ Talon Knife Scorched - FT - 332.89- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
StatTrak™ AK-47 Fuel Injector - FT - 324.83 - -
★ Bayonet Rust Coat - BS - 323.46- Fri Jun 09 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Bayonet Rust Coat - BS - 323.46 - -
★ StatTrak™ Talon Knife Safari Mesh - FT - 316.96 - -
StatTrak™ AWP Asiimov - FT - 316.80 - -
★ Stiletto Knife Damascus Steel - WW - 312.01 - -
★ Driver Gloves King Snake - BS - 300.22- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Hand Wraps Overprint - FT - 299.08- Tue Jun 06 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Hand Wraps Overprint - FT - 299.08- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Hand Wraps Overprint - FT - 299.08- Sun Jun 04 2023 10:00:00 -
Glock-18 Twilight Galaxy - FN - 298.90 - -
StatTrak™ M4A1-S Printstream - FT - 298.26- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
StatTrak™ AWP BOOM - MW - 298.26 - -
★ Nomad Knife Night Stripe - MW - 295.34 - -
★ Hand Wraps Slaughter - FT - 286.07- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
M4A1-S Printstream - MW - 285.83- Wed Jun 07 2023 10:00:00 -
AUG Flame Jörmungandr - MW - 281.20 - -
AK-47 Vulcan - FT - 280.71- Sat Jun 03 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Stiletto Knife Stained - BS - 272.73 - -
★ Driver Gloves Black Tie - FT - 265.59- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
★ StatTrak™ Classic Knife Case Hardened - BS - 263.33- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
StatTrak™ AK-47 Head Shot - MW - 262.51- Thu Jun 08 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Shadow Daggers Marble Fade - FN - 260.07 - -
★ Bowie Knife - - 259.26 - -
★ Flip Knife Blue Steel - MW - 258.44 - -
M4A1-S Master Piece - MW - 256.82- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Hand Wraps CAUTION! - WW - 250.24- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Specialist Gloves Lt. Commander - WW - 249.02- Thu Jun 08 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Stiletto Knife Ultraviolet - BS - 245.44 - -
AWP Graphite - FN - 239.83- Sat Jun 10 2023 10:00:00 -
Sticker Keyd Stars (Holo) Katowice 2015 - - 238.13 - -
★ Moto Gloves Polygon - FT - 231.95- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Moto Gloves Polygon - FT - 231.95- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Moto Gloves Polygon - FT - 231.95- Sun Jun 04 2023 10:00:00 -
★ Falchion Knife Freehand - FN - 230.82- Mon Jun 05 2023 10:00:00 -
Souvenir Desert Eagle Fennec Fox - FT - 229.02 - -

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    In the past there were many Walled Cities, more than the six we have today. The first to be built is much contested, and any [Scholar] who gives a definitive answer is assuredly lying, but it is well-known that Salazsar is the youngest, starting out as a mining town so-to-speak. Sadly, several of the original Walled Cities have fallen, the causes of which are also much debated, but from those that fell was a Walled City that stood out from the rest, so great it was that all traces were wiped from history, until I happened to uncover them. A Walled City to rise above all other Walled Cities, more impervious than Manus, more magical than Fissival, a lust for gold to rival Salazsar, growth to match Oteslia, fantastical inventions that rival Pallass, and trade-routes greater than Zeres. Let me tell you a story about the fabled Walled City of Walls.
    Originally the Walled City of Walls was a small fort, constructed in the middle of a grassy plain, where a small garrison of [Soldiers] lived. They defended their fort and nearby town with pride, but as they had such a large area to defend, they struggled to stop invaders from going around their fort and attacking the nearby settlement. In those days we did not yet build walls around our cities, and people were constantly threatened from [Bandits] and [Raiders] who sought to pillage and steal! The valiant [Soldiers] did their best to repel the attacks, and defend the plains, but there were just too many [Bandits] and other ne'er-do-wells!
    Then one day a [Mason] stopped outside the fort, and yelled up at the [Soldiers] manning the battlements. He said, "My name is Zezzyzil Wallbuilder! You [Soldiers] have been fighting so hard to protect these lands, I want to help you by building a wall so high that not even dragons can fly over it!"
    His words were ridiculous, but resonated with the tired [Soldiers], who would do anything to stop the invaders, and the [Captain] agreed to let him enter and use spare materials to improve the fort.
    Zezzyzil got to work, and by dawn of the next day, the walls of the fort had grown by five feet. The [Soldiers] were astounded, and they thanked Zezzyzil for his work, but instead of leaving he spoke again, "I have done all I can with the materials you have here, but if you can gather more stone I can expand the walls further!"
    They had seen proof of his Skills, and decided to send a few men to the nearby village to gather more materials.
    The townsfolk trusted the [Soldiers] who had protected them time and time again, and rushed to gather whatever they could for the project. Stone was taken from abandoned houses and carted over to the fort, where soon a large pile sat in the courtyard. The top of the pile was as tall as the fort's walls, and was everything the villagers could spare. Once again Zezzyzil got to work, and by dawn of the next day a wall ran through the plains, dividing it in half.
    The villagers went to see the result of Zezzyzil's hard work, and were amazed with what he had accomplished, but before they could cheer, the [Mayor] of the town approached Zezzyzil and begged, "Oh great Zezzyzil, you are clearly of a high Level, and have done so much for all of us! I will pay you what little gold I have, and I feel ashamed to ask, but if I give you all the stone from my house, will you expand the walls further?"
    His offer shocked the [Soldiers] and the townsfolk. Zezzyzil thought for a moment, rubbing a claw against his chin, and then replied, "You are willing to sacrifice your own home for the good of your people, I admire your noble spirit, and so I agree and will take the stone to expand the wall."
    The [Mayor] laughed with delight, handing a bag of gold to Zezzyzil, and returned to the town to tear down his house and cart the stone over. However, word spread of his deed, and by the time he returned there was a pile larger than the one before, sitting outside of the fort, behind the new wall. All of the villagers had taken the stone from their homes and brought it there, for Zezzyzil to use, for being safe from [Bandits] was better than comfort.
    As before, night passed, and by dawn an even larger wall had been built, surrounding what used to be the village. The townsfolk no longer had homes, and had all crowded into the small fort, which was now safe from [Bandits]. Zezzyzil did not leave, as they thought he would, and instead chose to stay with the [Soldiers] and [Villagers] and help them maintain the walls and further expand them.
    Time passed, and gradually more Drakes moved into the fort, seeking shelter and safety behind the large walls. Eventually, the fort turned into a small city, and one day Zezzyzil left when it was clear the citizens could continue maintaining the walls without him. The citizens threw him a parade and lavished him with gifts, and then Zezzyzil was gone, followed by a stream of flower petals and coin.
    The town had not had an attack in years, but still kept expanding the walls, using knowledge that Zezzyzil had given them. By now the walls surrounded the entire plain, constantly being built taller and taller, thicker and thicker. Quarries were dug where more stone could be excavated, and expeditions were sent to a nearby mountain to get more material for the construction.
    As the town was safe and growing, [Merchants] started to pass by, bringing with them goods from faraway lands, bringing the city great fortune, turning it into a local hub for trade. A few clever [Merchants] took note of the citizens peculiar tradition, and started to sell the city more stone and wood for their work.
    The walls by now were almost one hundred feet tall, and the city grew more prosperous the taller they became. It became common for ordinary buildings to look fortified, with ramparts, crenels, and merlons on even homes of the poor, stylized after the walls that protected them. But the good times were not to last, and a group of [Bandits] had heard of the city, and worked in secret to undermine its defenses.
    The [Bandits] knew that even though the walls looked imposing, they had no enchantments to strengthen them, and so they observed from afar until at last they discovered a weakness in a section of the walls. Like lightning they rushed towards the city, but no alarms sounded, and no [Watchmen] yelled out. They had gotten too comfortable, too used to their safety, and thought that it would just be another group of [Raiders] breaking themselves upon the walls.
    The damage to the city and its populace were horrible, and although the [Soldiers] and [Guards] managed to beat the [Bandits] back, they were shaken. The walls were not as safe as they had thought, and it was only a matter of time before a worse attack occurred.
    The highest Level townsfolk gathered, and pooled their resources together, just like how the original villagers did. Renowned [Enchanters] and [Architects] were hired to teach the townsfolk their ways, and more [Guards] and [Soldiers] were hired to man the walls and keep the city safe.
    By now the town's desire for safety was feverish, every alleyway was surrounded by walls, the streets were lined by walls, the [Guards] lived within the walls. The work of every citizen was related to building walls, expanding walls, and maintaining walls. A school was created to teach citizens how to enchant, so that never again would their walls be damaged.
    The city kept growing and expanding, and by now the walls were five hundred feet tall! People from afar started to call it the Walled City of Walls, and the citizens wore the name with pride, leaning further into their ideals. The first Wall Lords arose, promoted from the original fort garrison for their great work for the city. The mountain they had been mining for stone turned out to be rich with gemstones and other resources, and the Wall Lords used this money to keep expanding the walls and better equip the [Soldiers] and [Guardsmen]. Great gardens were built to feed the city, ensuring that they could live while cut off from the outside world. New construction methods were pioneered to aid with the building of the walls.
    But gradually the attitude of the city started to change. All of the original space within the walls had been used up, and there was nowhere left to build but out. A second wall was built, then a third, then a forth. Decades passed as the city crept past the plains into the forests, swallowing up other villages and towns. And then first war happened.
    The name of the town is unknown, but they were unhappy with the expansion of the Walled City of Walls. They marched their valiant army over, trying to stop the construction and expansion, but the Walled City retaliated with force, and crushed the small town, resettling the villagers and forcing them to join.
    The Walled City of Walls had never attacked anyone before, they had always been a defensive state, and were shocked with how easy it was to crush the small town. One of the Wall Lords proposed that they keep expanding as far as they could, not letting any force stop them. After all, the more the walls expanded, the safer the city was.
    Armies marched, destroying nearby villages and towns, clearing the way for [Masons] and [Geomancers] to come and create more walls. Hundreds of [Woodcutters] cleared forests, making it easier for the walls to be constructed. The city ever grew, and the original walls were now over a thousand feet tall, and still growing. Constant lines of materials were gathered, and any land that wasn't being lived on was mined and carved out. Any stone that wasn't useful for the walls was instead used for decoration and for the construction of smaller houses.
    But word spread of what the city was doing, and it reached Zezzyzil. By now he was an old Drake, over 150, still doing work as a [Mason], trying to help small towns and villages. When he learned what the city was doing he was furious, and returned as quickly as he could. He asked for audience with the Wall Lords, and to his shock, they refused.
    The current Wall Lords were descendants of the original [Soldiers], and none of them knew of Zezzyzil. Zezzyzil found that the city had forgotten him, and not a soul in the city remembered who he was or what he had done for them. He stopped to think, rubbing his claw against his chin, and then that night, he went to work.
    And by dawn of the next day, all of the walls were gone, and in their place stood the original small fort. Without their walls to protect them, many citizens chose to leave and head elsewhere, deciding it would be too much work to rebuild them, instead working to build small walls around other towns. The Wall Lords tried to hold onto what they could, but it was too late. They sat in the peaceful plains, staring at lines that marked where the walls used to be, and left. Thus was the fate of the Walled City of Walls.

Im looking to meet a good pal to play games with on PC regularly and be good friends in general, I play a lot of different games, right now though ive mostly been playing SMITE, gunfire reborn, RoR, and Dark and darker (when it's back) . I'm mostly on after 5 Mountain time on weekdays but on almost all day on the weekends.
I'm looking to find people to play games like (in no particular order) :

• smite
• smite ranked (I feel like it's a different game, I'm plat 3)
• Dark and darker (whenever it's around)
• Across the abolisk
• Company of Heroes
• Company of heroes 2
• fight crab
• endless legend
• Parkitect
• phasmophobia (I find it a little boring but I goof around and have fun for a bit)
• risk of rain 1
• risk of rain 2
• Slay the Spire (apparently there is some coop mod so that could be interesting)
• pummel party
• Gunfire reborn
• tabletop simulator
• Zombie Army 4
• Killing floor 2
• Overcooked 2
• Plate up
• Evil west
• Fury unleashed
• We were here
• gloomhaven
• baldurs gate 3
• Orcs must die 3
• Ready or not
• for the king (the rng is so dumb in this)
• remnant from the ashes (except im pretty high level and would like to be around the same level as you and do nightmare difficulty or willing to restart even if we hit it off after a while)
• 7 days to die (I've never played it and ideally neither have you)
• Terraria (I've made it kind of far in it previously but then ppl stop playing u know how it goes so I'd only be willing to do this one after we have known each other for a bit)

I also enjoyed games like raft, valheim, and the forest but I wouldnt go back to those as I've already played them a ton (maybe the forest with the right person)
but im down to play a ton of other games too, im probably missing some on that list, I love coop games, I just don't have anyone consistent to play with. Preferably we have more than just one game in common so we aren't just playing one game, and again I may have not mentioned everything so I'm open to other suggestions too.
When it comes to coop progression games I like to both be pretty new to it, I don't like if you already have 280 hours in a coop game and I'm brand new.
I also like watching smash melee tournaments and keeping up with it lol. I can't figure out how to get slippi to work so I can't really play but I'm not very good anyway.
Ideally we'd start off with with playing some non committed games first like risk of rain or gunfire or smite or warzone and then we can move on to real coop stuff 😁
Some games I DON'T play are:

• dead by daylight
• Valorant
• csgo
• apex
• OW
• r6

I'm pretty laid back and friendly but I still like to get hyped up, meme, and have fun playing and goof around and make obscene jokes, I like competitive in games more but I am down for just casual play as well. I like to win but I'm not going to rage or cry if we lose 😅
I enjoy banter, dark humor, uh being BASED and lighthearted trolling / trash talking but never to the point where it's super toxic, I have pretty thick skin and I would even say I would enjoy you shit talking me. So ideally looking for someone with a similar kind of vibe. Also be 21+.
Music I like: Cage the elephant, AM, Foster the people, Ok Go, the strokes, MGMT, Brad sucks, alvvays, Nas, YEEZY and other random things (we don't have to like the same music to be friends obviously, just something more about me, if we do that's pretty cool)
Shows: It's always sunny, parks and rec, breaking bad, death note, 30 rock, stranger things, Malcom in the middle, scrubs (again this doesn't matter to be friends, just something extra about me)
Politically I am more left leaning but I don't really care as long as you aren't weird one way or the other.

Hello,
Hoping this is the correct subreddit for this question, but I'm finally diving in to using some AI tools in my editing process and thus far I've been rather amazed at how much easier these are to work with.
For my current concerns, I've got a hoard of videos that aren't *quite* level and I'm rotating the frame to level the horizon.
Problem is that this now creates blank space on the sides that has generally just been cropped out.
I'd like to standardize my format and go with as large a size as I can; is there currently an AI tool that'll auto-generate the blank spaces to match the rest of the video?
It's mostly forest scenes, but there's some movement when it comes to water.
(Also, if anyone has suggestions on a good upscaling workflow, that's what I'll be working on next as I have a backlog of videos with lower resolution I'd like to match to my current format.)

My tradelink: https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffenew/?partner=102474654&token=BH1q6eSo
My steam profile: https://steamcommunity.com/id/darknezz\_/
Everything up for a trade, some skins might not be tradable yet
Buyouts are in cash (EURO), send trade offers, only trading
★ Bowie Knife Crimson Web WW - B/O 217.61
★ StatTrak Bayonet Safari Mesh FT - B/O 217.55
★ Navaja Knife Doppler (Phase 4) MW - B/O 204.42
★ Navaja Knife Marble Fade FN - B/O 187.65
★ StatTrak Flip Knife Ultraviolet BS - B/O 174.09
★ StatTrak Huntsman Knife Damascus Steel FT - B/O 170.86
★ Nomad Knife Scorched FT- B/O 152.92
★ Gut Knife Slaughter FT- B/O 144.95
★ Gut Knife Freehand FN- B/O 129.25
★ StatTrak Bowie Knife Urban Masked FT- B/O 118.70
★ Huntsman Knife Rust Coat BS- B/O 112.76
★ StatTrak Gut Knife Rust Coat BS- B/O 105.51
★ StatTrak Navaja Knife Night Stripe MW- B/O 104.19
★ Navaja Knife Crimson Web BS- B/O 101.55
★ Shadow Daggers Forest DDPAT MW- B/O 92.19
★ Gut Knife Forest DDPAT BS- B/O 88.36
★ Navaja Knife Rust Coat BS- B/O 83.61
★ Navaja Knife Ultraviolet BS- B/O 81.30
★ Navaja Knife Safari Mesh MW- B/O 80.45
★ Hand Wraps Desert Shamagh FN- B/O 308.09
★ Broken Fang Gloves Needle Point MW- B/O 107.29
★ Specialist Gloves Buckshot WW- B/O 65.94
★ Hand Wraps Duct Tape FT- B/O 63.31
AWP Oni Taiji MW- B/O 398.04
AWP Oni Taiji WW - B/O 205.08
AWP Pink DDPAT FN- B/O 123.84 -
StatTrak Desert Eagle Cobalt Disruption FN- B/O 142.01
Desert Eagle Golden Koi FN- B/O 88.76
Desert Eagle Printstream MW & BS- B/O 59.86
AK-47 Fuel Injector FT - B/O 150.28
AK-47 Vulcan WW- B/O 129.91
AK-47 Head Shot FT- B/O 64.49
AK-47 Neon Rider MW- B/O 61.46
StatTrak M4A1-S Chantico's Fire MW- B/O 93.51
M4A1-S Golden Coil MW- B/O 76.82
StatTrak M4A1-S Guardian MW- B/O 55.13
StatTrak M4A1-S Golden Coil BS- B/O 54.66
M4A4 Temukau FT- B/O 41.54
StatTrak M4A4 Spider Lily FN- B/O 39.96
MAG-7 Bulldozer FN - B/O 104.32
Sticker Ninjas in Pyjamas (Holo) DreamHack 2014 - - B/O 84.79
Five-SeveN Berries And Cherries FN- B/O 55.46
Glock-18 Gamma Doppler (Phase 1) FN- B/O 39.69
USP-S Monster Mashup FN- B/O 36.27
Stickers, pins, capsule
And more…
Some prices might be outdated
My tradelink: https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffenew/?partner=102474654&token=BH1q6eSo