radio414

←Previous Post -- Next Post→ Week Forty-Seven -- The Alluring Siren In financial desperation, I struck a bargain with the ancient things that surfaced in search of sacrifice when the moon was right. Their price was the delivery of an obscure idol and one other item of more troubling portent. The pact struck, my new-found accomplices slipped silently beneath the brackish water. A fearful stirring at the edge of the torchlight betrayed a familiar witness and gifted me with malign inspiration. I was taking a look at the current levelling situation, and with several adventurers hitting Level Five, we’re pretty close to being able to take on the Darkest Dungeon proper. Which is a scary thought! I mean, I knew that going in, how limiting our access to more heroes, practically forbidding me from dismissing them, means we were getting more useful experience per run, but still. It also means we’re unlikely to actually hit all the versions of all the bosses, but we did thankfully see the first versions, so you can get the gist of what the next ones might be like. I’m still trepidatious because of our trinket situation, but that will get rectified in time. For now, we’re just staying the path with the Siren fight, as promised. A small mistake you don’t see here is that I forgot to give Audrey, our Grave Robber, a second trinket -- she’s only got one that boosts her speed. This is largely fine in this case since she’s mostly there to support the one-two punch of Skaia and LordCowCow, but a utility trinket to help with scouting wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. On a related note, a frustrating quirk of the map design is that the game likes to have the party in the center at all times, but in this case, that obfuscates which way we need to go. I was pretty sure the Siren was in the bottom-right square since that’s what the game defaults to in situations like this, but I needed to count the left path just to make sure it wasn’t longer, which the game seemingly enjoyed preventing by zooming in on the party. I eventually managed, but it was a small quality of life thing I hadn’t noticed in previous runs. We face this lineup a few times in the runup to The Siren fight proper. It would probably be a backbreaker necessitating some pretty heavy item usage if it weren’t for a few key points. The first and most obvious is that Margaret directly counters the two Shamans in the back with her Skeet Shoot ability, which serves to de-stealth them. The second is that Skaia’s ability to mark enemies also comes with PROT reduction, meaning the Giant Enemy Crab is a little less threatening. Lastly, it turns out the team’s Dodge stat was pretty high since everyone got at least one key dodge in when it mattered. One fun interaction we get after one of these fights is how the game will let you camp before taking loot or interacting with the curio in the middle of the room. It’s something I’ve done a few times without comment, but it’s especially exciting when I’ve given LordCowCow all the damage trinkets and we come across an idol that will buff damage even more when purified. That buff lasts until we camp, so we camp first, take the loot from the fight now that the camping log slot is empty, and then interact with the curio. Now all that can go wrong is if The Siren enchants LordCowCow first. Aw son of a - I mean, it’s fine. Does it still suck when CowCow deals twenty damage to Audrey cutting her HP to a fifth of what it once was? Yeah, sure, but she never gets put on Death’s Door and Cow only gets to do that once anyway. Like all the other summoner bosses, the real difficulty spike is in exactly what it can summon, and we’re prepared for that for the same reasons we could fight through those room battles. If the enemy has a high PROT, Skaia reduces it or Audrey’s pickaxe pierces right through it. If a healer gets charmed, we brought along a spare. It’s still a grind, but it’s always a grind in our favor. I alluded to solving our trinket situation in the next few weeks. I said that because hopefully, we’ll be able to do that soon. We might be running into a miniboss we haven’t seen yet to do so, so that’s exciting as well. Until then, -r ←Previous Post -- Next Post→

This hardly seemed fair, Melissa thought. Time and time again, she found herself face-down in the mud. This wasn’t even specific to this fight with Rei, though it had happened at least twice -- the first time it happened with that one sand woman had been the inciting incident of the computers’ worry. It really only served to remind her of that. She’d tried to correct it since then. She’d slid through the air without protection a few times, sure, but those had explicitly been temporary measures. That just meant apparently it was her and Zadkiel eating dirt, and between those two, only one of them had to really experience the consequences of that. The impact of Rei’s strike had shattered that connection, too, so it was especially just her dealing with the taste of artificial earth. It wasn’t over yet, but her health was dwindling, and one of Rei’s ghostly hands on Melissa’s back meant she wasn’t moving anytime soon. At least, she thought, she didn’t need to move to fight back, though she did need to draw up the will. One last effort, then. She went with what worked. She still had the memory of where Rei had just been, and summoned Zadkiel right behind that spot, again, sword at the ready. The move wasn’t as quick this time, probably because this time it had to identify that Rei was still there. That split-second was all Rei needed. She launched herself upwards, dodging the attack completely. Melissa could see what was coming next. She couldn’t see the exact nature of Rei’s arms, but past experience -- all that playing of the information game -- told her there was certainly a riposte headed her way in the form of an ethereal fist. Of course, the gulf between realizing something invisible was going to hit you and actually being able to do something about it was a pretty wide one. The best she could do was obscure Rei’s line of sight to her, and hope that that messed things up. Zadkiel disappeared and Sandalphon took its place, now between Rei and her still-prone body. Sandalphon was larger, at least, even if it had holes in itself any ghost worth its salt could fit through. It also could fire at Rei. There weren’t any trees up in the air to hide behind, after all. Time seemed to slow. Melissa watched the beam get closer and closer to Rei, even as she, at the same time, braced herself to take whatever Rei could throw at her.I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. -Ecclesiastes 9:11 (NIV)Melissa stumbled out of her pod. Waking up was a disorienting experience, though it was helped by the fact that she was slowly getting used to suddenly being shunted back into her body. She didn’t fall over after a few wretched half-steps, so that was good. The difference, probably, was that she frequently had control over when the angels put her back in her body, while this time, she’d barely expected it to happen. At least, she hadn’t expected the pod to kick her out for the reasons it had. She could still feel the impact point on her back from where Rei had delivered that final strike, burdened even further by her nascent awareness of the blinking red display behind her. Sandalphon’s laser had been fired too late. She had lost. The computers were still rather silent. She’d ask them for an assessment on the fight later, but first, there was a bit of ceremony and the rest of the denouement. Melissa made her way around to the other side, where Rei’s pod was in the process of ejecting her. Already, the pain was fading. It had been imaginary all along. “Thank you for the fight,” she told Rei as she helped the girl out of her pod. “I got something out of it, I think, so the effort I asked of you wasn’t in vain.”

6/10 good voice but kinda just thereOP Suggestion: was doing nothing at work and this melody came into my head. had to dig a bit to remember what it was 7.5/10

The further they moved into the room, the weirder Chris felt. He was used to having to try to not be seen, but even when he tripped that zombie he hadn’t been noticed while under Ziun’s illusion. The monsters just kept acting like Lana was the only one there. It was uncanny. That didn’t mean the monsters didn’t pull out new surprises, of course. The zombies were quicker than expected when they wanted to be, and one of the eyes pulled out some new kind of magic that spread a red fog out in front of them. That was another part of the weird. Normally, he’d have to run headfirst into one of those things to draw out whatever tricks they were hiding, maybe even get hit with it. Now, he was still reacting, but in a different sort of way. The eye was the one causing the most issues? He motioned for Estellise, and the mage took a few steps forward and shot an arrow cutting through the mist, striking the eye right in the… eye. It wasn’t quite enough to kill the thing, but it did nearly knock it to the ground. When it came back up, though, it was able to focus back on the mage. It didn’t do anything, but Chris realized the attack had been enough to draw attention past Ziun’s illusion. He swore under his breath, though if anything was going to see past anything, it probably would be the giant eye, wasn’t it? He had other, more immediate problems anyway. A zombie was moving around to flank Lana and, when he looked to the rest of the group’s flank as well, he saw another zombie coming around there too. “Robin,” he mouthed at that one, since she was closest to it. By that logic, that meant he had to deal with the one about to attack Lana while she was busy with another one, though. He ran up and cut the zombie’s head off in a single, clean stroke. But this far up, this close to the mist, two things happened. First, he could see around the black box in the middle now, and there were more monsters than he’d originally expected -- at least one more eye and several more zombies. The second was his visceral reaction to that additional knowledge. More? They couldn’t fight more. They’d all get torn apart while still fighting the first wave. No, better to get out while they still could. The dungeon would never be completed, but at least he’d be alive. Chris jumped back, back out of the mist, and sprinted a couple steps before stopping to catch his breath. He’d been hyperventilating and the run hadn’t helped. It was enough to get him doubled over, dropping his sword and clutching his stomach. Only then did his vision clear. No, obviously they could do this. He’d just cut a zombie’s head clean off, what else did he have to prove? He was still a little shaken, but he was able to turn back around and say, “Don’t, uh, don’t go in that red stuff. Also, there’s more back there, so watch out,” before returning to the fray.

←Previous Post -- Next Post→ Weeks Forty-Five and Forty-Six -- The Best Revenge Is Living Well I’m a little tired of how the game’s been populating missions, even if I understand what’s happening. In a strange twisted benevolence, it never wants to give you more than it thinks you can handle. That’s why there’s always at least one green mission in the pool, it’s so you can always pull new recruits off the stagecoach and try again. It also won’t introduce harder missions until you have characters that are ready for them, which is why we didn’t see orange or red missions until characters started crossing those thresholds. At the same time, though, I’ve only got three adventurers who can comfortably go on one of these champion-level missions without cowering in fear and taking a boatload of stress, so, like, what is it expecting me to do with all these red options then, hm? I feel like I’m being dared. I won’t fall for it, though. I just lost my occultist and am immediately turning around and going to the Cove, you think I’m going to be cocksure now? You’ll notice this is a Short mission, which is ideal for this team given that it’s running three veteran (level three) adventurers. The one holdout, Doggo the Abomination, is ideal here as he’s got a solid blight attack, a stun in Manacles, and his beastly side can help dance Paracelsus back to where she belongs. We encounter a lot of bandits, which makes it really nice that Thar’s riposte has only gotten stronger, but they’re also not interesting to recap in the same way as introducing The Cove’s new enemy is. This giant enemy crab has two attacks and they both suck, but then, what else is new? The first one, Arterial Pinch, is the real reason you bring a Plague Doctor to high-level Cove missions, because it inflicts a whopping 8/turn bleed, the most in the game, and something only Battlefield Bandages can cure without spending actual resources. It also debuffs healing, just for the extra rub-ins. The other move it has is called Tidal Slam, which deals some pretty significant damage and will stun and knock you back if it gets the chance. Did I mention this thing has 50% PROT also, meaning if you’re not prepared to pierce through that it has effectively 120 health? I mean, we are prepared for it, but still. Thar gets put on Death’s Door, but there are two party members with healing abilities so he’s not in any particular danger. It’s just the Cove being the Cove, really. I also packed a slight surplus of food, which helps a bit as well. I forgot to take a pregame lineup screenshot like I normally do, oops. This is a pretty standard mark party with a bit of Sethera to taste. The biggest problem is no heals, but this is another Short dungeon and I packed extra food again, so it’s not a big deal. It also helps that everyone on this team seemed to dodge like a god. Seriously, this was the attack with the highest likelihood to screw things up. I wish I managed to screenshot the time the team dodged the Swine Marcher’s Drum of Doom AoE stress attack. Like, how do you manage to dodge being drummed at? There wasn’t much else to report back about, though. The Warrens offer plenty of damage buffs, and both Skaia and Joan do a decent amount of damage already, so all the fights got resolved pretty quickly. There was a small moment of panic when three attacks went Skaia’s way in a row, but again, extra food. You know what they say about an apple a day, right? We’ve unlocked the second Siren fight, so that’s where we’re probably going next. As long as we’re being extra cautious, I’ll be sure to learn from last time’s mistakes, right? We’re not going to lose another character to a boss, right? Guess we’ll all find out together. -r ←Previous Post -- Next Post→

alright the sudden latin chanting was pretty funny 7/10OP Suggestion: i think i might be weird 7/10

All I Can Say Clotho and Lachesis guided their respective heroes to Echo Park’s entrance again. Atropos was there waiting for them. “Just so you know, because we wouldn’t want you to think we had anything to do with it,” she said, “your friend got a page or something and had to go on ahead. Nothing to worry about, I don’t think, unless you’re one of those people who worries about everything.” “We were the first gang you met with, right?” Clotho said. “Oh, that means we get to do all sorts of influencing over your next two meetings, huh? We could say something stupid like ‘Ophiuchus likes to eat live rats so make sure to catch one and bring it to him’ and you might even believe us.” “And don’t comment on Caesar’s height because he’s got a complex about that,” Lachesis added. “He says he’s five foot five and a half but he’s not, and besides, who says how tall they are on a regular basis anyway?” She snapped her fingers and pointed some finger guns Thessa’s way. “Anyway, tell your boss we’ll see him on Monday. Have fun saving the world or whatever it is you heroes do. Don’t forget your favors either. We’ll be in touch.” The next stop on the now duo’s mission was further north, towards the neighborhood colloquially referred to as “Wonderland.” The name was an old relic, as were most of the buildings -- this was an area that had managed to survive most of Scarlet City’s superpowered battles, and certainly all of them in recent memory. At the same time, only the more impressive buildings seemed to receive any kind of regular exterior maintenance (or perhaps it was because of their maintenance that they seemed at all impressive), and in the center of Wonderland was where Ophiuchus, leader of the Zodiac, resided. This is what G3’s files had to say about the man: Ulmer, Ray Cape Name: Ophiuchus XIII Active for: 5 Years, 5 months Power Classification: Shaker Current leader of The Zodiac gang. No known direct participation in criminal activity but orchestrates the distribution of controlled substances grade C-52 and above. Goals: As the oldest currently active gang, The Zodiac’s goals have shifted from power and expansion to a consolidation of power within their territory and maintaining the status quo. Any improvement is spent on efficiencies of already existing processes. Included in the dossier was an extra sheet of paper with one extra instruction: DO NOT INCLUDE “XIII” WHEN ADDRESSING OPHIUCHUS. Marking is for archival purposes only. The Zodiac considers each Ophiuchus as less a successor to the previous as another segment of one long, continuous string. Reference previous bearers of the title only when absolutely necessary. There was no signage in Wonderland proper like there had been for The Fates. It seemed everyone knew where they were and what else was expected of them if they remained. They were met at the door of arguably the most ostentatious building in the area (and certainly the most maintained -- it even had a lawn trimmed to a precise height) by a woman a strong memory or a quick check of the G3 database revealed to be Cassiopeia, Ophiuchus’ right hand. There was no need for introductions beyond that. The only real acknowledgement she even gave the heroes was a stare and a curt nod before she turned around and led them into the manor. The interior of the place matched the aesthetic of the outside, though as Cassiopeia guided Thessa and Victor to a room just off the main foyer where Ophiuchus and his snake awaited them, the more immediate impression they'd probably get was that it was hot. Swelteringly so, made even more apparent by the fact it was the beginning of November outside. Neither Zodiac member seemed to mind. Cassiopeia didn’t even loosen her collar and Ophiuchus, well… Ophiuchus sat practically motionless on his throne, not even shifting his gaze to watch the three enter the room. The snake draped around his shoulders was a bit more animated, constantly adjusting its coils even if it wasn’t slithering around, but still only a bit. When he finally did speak, his voice was methodical and steady. “Welcome, honored guests,” he said. Looking at Thessa, he added, “and, to our particularly honored guest, welcome back. It is a shame we could not meet under better circumstances, but what can one do?” He slouched in his chair but immediately straightened himself back up. “I assume you are here to apologize for last night’s… indiscretions? Let us call them that. Your messenger certainly made it seem as though that were the case.” The Curse of the Blackened Eye She really ought to have kept running, Dee thought. After all, the closer she was to Babs’ room the better everyone’s chances were. But no, her tinker curiosity had gotten the better of her, she just had to watch to make sure her robot was properly deflecting incoming attacks. Generating force fields just to dismiss them immediately on impact was energy-costly, but the extra space meant she could be a little less efficient about things. At least it meant the barriers were harder to break. In terms of offense, well, that was a little more lacking, but its arms could extend and fire off electrical pulses just as her drones could. It wasn’t completely helpless. Still, it wasn’t able to keep another person from coming around the corner and… okay, there wasn’t a great way to describe how Dee ended up in the situation she now found herself in, but that was superpowers for you. If she’d had more time or knew in advance this was coming, she probably could have designed around it, but Moray Clan didn’t seem like the type to play fair. Dee wasn’t sure what to make of the cell phone offer, in light of that particular thought. She took it, if only because it was one additional resource at her disposal even if it was booby-trapped. If she could manage a minute or two to herself, she might even be able to make something out of it. She had to get that far, but she still had options. Her kidnapper was giving her basically unlimited access to any sort of technology? That was certainly one way to go about things. Her eyes instinctively reached up for her glasses again to check the camera feeds. There were still only three attackers total, which meant either this was a particularly long con or things had been on equal footing numbers-wise from the start. When her captor threatened to throw her past The Shimmer, though, that snapped Dee back to her current predicament, but not in the way he probably hoped. It was enough, even, to get a “tut” of air -- not quite a chuckle -- to escape her lips. “Either you don’t know what you’re talking about or you know nothing organic is getting through The Shimmer and that’s an empty threat. In either case, why bother? But look, I’m cooperating, see? You want me to call for help? I can do that. The alarm’s already going off so that’ll turn some heads if they’re listening for it, and I can use this --” a gesture to her glasses, relatively innocuous even as it made her drones much more aggressive to the one remaining hostile in the warehouse, now looking to surround and subdue, “-- and I can use this.” Dee procured her airhorn, pressing down on the plunger. It didn’t make any noise, but it wasn’t designed to. It was one of Güber’s patented useless things, an airhorn that could only be heard by unconscious people. The thing was, of course, that it was really good at doing just that, and the resulting low, almost distant rumble signaled that it had indeed done its job. Babs, or Baba Yaga, had finally woken up. To her right, Dee noticed that her robot had indeed returned fire on the demon woman, its arm extending outwards and electricity arcing between its fingers. Next to the robot, she saw the hole in the wall it had created getting patched up, and through her glasses, she could see the warehouse was growing its door back. She smiled despite herself, damn the consequences. Once Babs had everything just how she liked it, that was when she could really start playing with the space provided to her. OOC

going up that elevator looking real familiar anyway 6.5/10OP Suggestion: Got recommended this today so now I get to pass it on 7.5/10

←Previous Post -- Next Post→ Week Forty-Four -- The Hag Her knowledge of horticulturalism and its role in various arcane practices impressed me greatly. My licentious impulse gave way to a genuine professional respect, and together, we began to plant, harvest, and brew. I don’t know why they decided to give The Hag this particular progression of names. I don’t know why “The Hag” gets to be more powerful than “The Wizened Hag” and yet less powerful than “The Hag Witch.” But that’s a semantics problem, and there are bigger problems with The Hag, as we’ll soon see. Well, you’ll soon see. I already saw two weeks ago, but here we are after some delay. Here’s the lineup. There are two ideas for this party. The first is that The Hag is the boss that you race, so each member of this party can deal a decent amount of damage. The second is most of them are still level three and I would really rather they not be, especially when some of the more-used members are reaching level five. There’s a small contradiction there -- we’re not exactly putting our best foot forward to race, though we do have level four weapons so the numbers should even out. Another good reason to bring Amani the Shieldbreaker is the large number of high-PROT enemies for her to do her namesake action on. This is the only other notable fight of the run, and really only notable as a showcase for Amani. The gargoyles only have 10 health, after all, and she’s only getting stronger. The Ghoul, too, has a 40% damage reduction to ignore. And yeah, these are both location-neutral enemies, but maybe that just means Amani’s value is going to keep going up. A problem, though, lies in her nightmares. She’s getting up there in levels and still refusing to have any. I wouldn’t be complaining as much but it’s a progression track we’re behind on. One thing I learned about this fight since the last time we were here is that the Hag’s cauldron actually does a percentile of the adventurer’s in the pot’s health of damage every action. I thought it was just 3 at a time, but no, it’s intended to put them on Death’s Door after twelve actions, or three full rounds, of combat. Of course, when the Hag is healing herself on three of her six turns, then it gets hard to actually whittle her down in time, even after she puts the party member with the lowest output, Alhazred, into the pot. But, then again, that’s what The Hag wants to do. She wants to be around just long enough to cause trouble. The Cauldron is the main damage dealer of the fight, but The Cauldron can’t actually kill people (unless you retreat with someone in the pot, in which case it absolutely will). That’s why The Hag has an otherwise nonthreatening party-wide attack. It’s to kill people, and basically nothing else. And that’s exactly what happens. Amani gets revenge a few moments later, but that’s a few moments too late. That’s the first death we’ve gotten. It’s ironic. I didn’t want to use him while he was a vampire, and as soon as he wasn’t one anymore, he died. Honestly, at least it happened to a boss. It would have been really embarrassing if it just happened to some random enemy in the middle of a random run. It’s also not the worst loss. It is a healer, yes, but not a premium one. Wyrd Reconstruction could occasionally be powerful, but he was always more of a utility than a healer you could trust to keep people alive. We can still complete the game with him dead. Still, it would be good to at least visit his grave in the given spot. Anyway, on to the next one. -r ←Previous Post -- Next Post→

What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? -Romans 9:22 (NIV)The splinters didn’t do much to provoke Melissa. She saw them coming and remembered what one of the Spike Brothers had done when they had seen Sandalphon in the wheeled winged flesh (that was the second time she associated the Spike Brothers with Rei -- how odd!) and did the same as she had then. She didn’t even register until too late that she had contradicted herself, having previously played up Zadkiel as especially fragile and now Sandalphon was taking a series of haphazard wooden strikes without any regard at all. Melissa’s health bar dinged her for it, both those hits and the few splinters that had snuck through the wheels within wheels that made up Sandalphon’s body. Wasn’t Sandalphon supposed to have a minor healing effect? Maybe that had been disabled for the simulation too. She didn’t want to linger. She didn’t want to betray herself any more than she had to. At the same time, Rei had disappeared again, and Sandalphon was significantly less mobile than Zadkiel, so she didn’t really have a means of doing anything that might help track her target down. Sandalphon may have multitudes of eyes and give off its own ambient light, but it still couldn’t see through wood. An idea seized Melissa. She’d already demonstrated the capability to strike down one tree. It wouldn’t be too hard to just continue the process. But something else seized her also, the tell-tale sign of one of Rei’s ghostly hands reaching through Sandalphon and seizing her shoulder. What followed was practically an instinctual response, even if it had a vague chain of reasoning attached. She’d seen Rei get pulled around by her ghosts. They had to be attached somehow, right? If she could disrupt that enough, she wouldn’t get grabbed again. The best tools available to her were the wheels themselves, so she had them do what any wheel was supposed to do – she had them spin, hoping to cut off any link the ghosts might have. It didn’t work; she was still being dragged outside of Sandalphon’s center. Whatever was going on with Rei was intangible to Melissa. Which meant more drastic actions needed to be taken. Melissa had already primed Sandalphon to fire, and fire it did, every which way as its wheels kept spinning, each taking out another tree in the process. She was aiming at anything in her effective range, creating a space where she could see everything and there was nothing to hide behind. Rei’s effective range might have been longer, but that was for steps where she wasn’t being physically accosted. She was slammed into the inside of one of Sandalphon’s wheels -- Rei appeared not to agree with her wishes and added an extra bit of violence on top of that. Melissa only managed to stay unconscious by focusing on the why: One of Sandalphon’s beams had found Rei’s tree, and through her angel’s eyes she could see Rei and a barricade of the leftovers quickly building back up. That wouldn’t do. She knew where Rei was, which meant now she had to be on the offensive. Melissa had one of Sandalphon’s rings keep spinning around her while the other stopped, locked on target, and fired once again. She was slammed into the other wheel this time. Rei’s ghost had wrapped around her once again. It had probably been easier with one less wheel to get through. Melissa let her hold on Sandalphon slip. The beam was already on its way, crashing through Rei’s quick barricade and sending the girl scrambling. She relinquished her hold on Melissa as well, and Melissa crumpled to the ground. It hurt to move, not to the point that, like, she couldn’t, but she didn’t particularly want to. It was fortunate then, that she didn’t have to move to keep pressing the attack. When she summoned Zadkiel again, it was already on top of her, already ready to pick her up and charge forward after Rei. When she was close enough -- or closer, at least -- she arced upwards, giving her enough time to swap Zadkiel for Sandalphon, summoning the ophan as high above her as she could manage to fire a few more beams in Rei’s direction before swapping back to her cherub in time to catch her and keep up the chase. The maneuver asked a lot of her angels, even more than normal. It asked a lot of Melissa, really, what with the flying around like her own speeding missile that she insisted on doing. There had to be a better way to do that, but it wasn’t something she could think about right now. Both she and Rei had landed some pretty hefty blows already. One way or another, things had to be coming to a head soon.

i'm not even learning a game unless there's a character i like looking at and i'm also bad at a lot of games so i guess the first one?

second-most lit thing since sluggo ig 6.9/10 cool but feels lacking without an album surrounding it, like it's supposed to be longer idk how to put it 6/10 ok but can smokin' joe hit texas red who's got one and nineteen notches on his pistol from the men who've tried to stop him anyway tom cardy's great 8/10OP Suggestion: i don't think i got to talk about sault releasing five albums at once but, like, that happened last year too what a wild year 7/10

hey what's up I did this last year, which means it was fresh in my mind in January to start compiling the stronger albums. Here's my honorable mentions in alphabetical order by artist name, and then the actual top 10 list. Also just like last year, don't feel bad if I didn't include your favorite. I know for a fact there are albums from last year that I just didn't get a chance to listen to in time. CowCow already put up a "best song 2022" thread, and I've resolved to better maintain my rates music thread, but still leave a comment if you want. I hope you found something you enjoyed out of the 18 albums between these two lists. Here's to 2023 being a good year for music and good for life in general. -r

Estellise had almost fired an arrow when Ziun spoke up, and Chris had to grab at her bow to keep her from following through with the shot. It didn’t quite work -- the bow was made of magic, of course, and he wasn’t exactly magic-attuned -- but he managed to wordlessly get the point across all the same. Ziun had a good idea. He could get behind any idea that involved sneaking and hiding, given that those were two of his best skills. Ziun even had the illusion magic to back it up. It even worked on Chris a little; if he weren’t paying attention, he probably wouldn’t have spotted his teammates behind him. It did not, however, seem to work on Lana, who had to deal with an energy blast from one of the floating eyes in their way. As the illusion took hold, Chris noticed that most of the zombies had shifted their focus to the sole visible human remaining as well. A more selfish Chris might have kicked Lana over to one side, to give everyone more space to maneuver where Ziun was pointing, but he was trying to be better about things. He could just take advantage of their distraction and trust Lana to take care of herself. At the same time, that was a lot of zombies to suddenly have to deal with all by one’s lonesome, not even factoring in the floating eyes. There had to be something he could do to help. “Go around me,” he said to the other illusory members of the group, keeping his voice low. “Lana, I think if I actually swing something the illusion’s not going to work on me, but I’m going to try to trip this one on your left, so maybe you can take advantage of that.” He moved over to the side of the zombie in question and held his sword low and ready. “I’m also looking for more of whatever magic that was because there’s definitely more where that came from. Hit the deck if you hear me scream something, I guess. “Keep following Ziun,” he added, “and definitely remember to keep moving.”

I finished an RP this year and it was a banger so I'm going to say that.