DM-Nastics #100: The Century Mark

first off thank you DMB folk for sailing this crazy ship through the twisting tides of interwebs-podcast uberverse

Okay my favourite was the deities one, there was such a wild and varied response, fleshed out the pantheon nicely

dungeonmasterblock.freeforums.net/thread/353/dm-nastics-23-pantheon-builder

just this bit -
1) Yithalin, Lord of Silence and Shadow
2) Chaotic (4 on a scale of 0 to 10) Evil (5 on a Scale from 0 to 10)
3) Intermediate
4) Stealth, Darkness, Death
5) He is conniving and sudden.

makes me think of thieves guilds, with necromancer allies, and shadow priests.
they don't have to be the campaigns big bads, but they will certainly up to no good.. like Slitherin!
they may even have doppleganger or lycanthrope members that are unknown to the others. a wealth of intrigue I tell ye!

1) I would love to hear from everyone what their favorite DM-Nastics is, and why that way we can shape the next 100 to focus on what people love the most!

DM Nastics 14: Gods among us 2. I love general 'Tell is about your X' prompts. Often it is something we are already using in our own campaign, and we can use the DM Nastics prompt as an excuse to sit down and fully flesh it out.

These prompts tend to be more practical since it often directly correlates with the DMs current game (or at least for me it does), and it's not creativity for its own sake (which isn't bad, but I would have to make my players jump through a couple hoops to make my 2 fast 2 furious post useful in my game even if it was fun to make).

2) Grab a piece of that DM-Nastics and share it here. If it is one with pictures, find a picture of your own to post here and talk about. If it is some sort of prompt twist it into your own version and do it. Whatever about DM-Nastics that sparks your imagination the most. 

Since I'm still using the pantheon I posted in DM Nastics 14 I think I'll twist it and talk about cosmology!

The two planes of existence in my Campaign Setting are the material plane and the spiritual plane. Each plane has three distinct layers and share several other qualities.

Aether) This is the empty space where zaratan swim.
Drift) The drift is made of thousands of branching currents that expedites aether travel.
Gravity) Gravity pulls uniformly down in both the material and spiritual planes.
Nexus) This is the focal point of all the aether drifts.
Zaratan) These are colossal space turtles that swim through the aether. Every World (Toril, Eberron, Krynn, etc) lives on the back of its own zaratan.


Material Plane
The material plane is the land of the living. Throughout the vast cosmos there is a zaratan that reflects just about any kind of culture imaginable.

Oblivion) There are not that many entities in the distant sky. It is simply a bleak emptiness with horrors waiting to descend.

Miderra) This is the land of the zaratan. Most civilizations and the Nexus exist here.

Abyss) When a zaratan dies its sun fades, it stops producing elements, and the creature sinks into the abyss. This grey land of death hides countless lost civilizations.

Spiritual Plane
The spiritual plane is the land of the dead. Throughout this entire plane are signs of the unending war of souls.

Elysium) This is the land of the gods. Spirits that share the beliefs of the gods or struggle through Pandorum make their way here.

Pandorum) This land of chaos is where most souls go when they die. The soul then either struggles into Elysium or falls to Gahenna. Angels and Demons eternally war here for control of the souls.

Gahenna) This is the home of demons and heretics. It is a place of misery, pain, and hatred.

Anyhoo there is my twist on a classic prompt...

1) I really really loved the DM-Nastics #41 - Tipping The Scales! I thought the dragons that people made were just super fun and unique. And I feel like all of the pictures each were awesome for inspiration. I think the best thing about it was the fact that it allowed people to build something that we all loved: Dragons. But to our relief it wasn't just the generic dragons we were used to seeing. There were all sorts of cool dragons in this post that kinda broke the mold (like the storm dragon) that people latched onto more than the ones that tracked more with the standard dragon figures in some of the other pics.

2) Oh man it's dragon time.

Name: Ostrianis, the Undying



Reason for notoriety:
Ostrianis, and his horrendous hurricanes of black flame, target the most advanced civilizations at the time of his awakening and wipe them out of existence. Acting as a sorta reset button when the ambition of mortals has reached its limit. It is unknown weather or not this is a conscious choice of target, or merely a result of ritual used to create the creature. 

Lair/Locale for Living:
After unleashing his wrath upon the mortal plane, Ostrianis' essence fades and it seals itself inside of an egg made of obsidian.

Etc: Ostrianis the Undying was the creation of a powerful Black Dragon who managed to impregnate a Phoenix through the use of dark rituals. The arrogant wyrm, whose name is long forgotten, did not realize the raw power of his creation, and was burned to smoldering ash upon Ostrianis' first hatching. 

I have to say #38: The Final Countdown was my favorite.

I have a really soft spot in my heart for tragic and epic ends to stories and characters. The fact that this one so heavily promoted the creation of those type of stories, to fill in their final moments and the ones that lead up to them based off of pictures. Honestly it was right up my wheel house and has one of the things I am proudest on these forums for.

Basically the idea was to take a pic showing what looks to be a characters final moments and describe the event and/or the ones that led up to them.

I write this with shivering hands and my last bit of charcoal. I do not even know if this will even be legible once I have finished, but I feel this disaster must be recorded in some way. Those who may find this must understand what we did, and what little choice we had. The mountain caused so much fear, the city itself was trembling of what it might do. Its rage was billowing forth from cracks and crevices, shooting steam and ash in anger. Families where being boiled alive in their homes. The mountain was sick and dying, and its death throws where killing the ones it had once protected. We knew it was only a matter of time before it's sores began to bleed and burn us away in its sickly fire.

While the city leaders tried to treat the symptoms, my friends and I decided to end the chaos at its source. We decided to kill the mountain, put it out of its misery. So we traveled to its heart, deep within its caverns. We lost Alcarda and Dogright during the impossible journey deep into the mountains core. But we made it. We looked deep upon Core Stone, pulsing with such power, pumping the life blood of the mountain throughout the caverns. It looked strong. Gregor, oh poor Gregor. He tried to tell us the heart looked healthy, that something else was the matter, but we refused to listen. This was the only solution we had. Our people where dying. Together, the last of us used our combined magical skills and stopped its heart dead......if we had only listened. 

The rhythmic beating stopped, and the blood slowed. We began to cheer and celebrate, we didn't even notice the cold creeping around us, or the once vibrate lifeblood turn hard and black. And out of the hardened pools of blood it rose. A gigantic skeletal creature which exhaled frosty gales, wielding a rusted and frozen blade which cleaved its way through the corpse of the freshly dead guardian we had just slain. Those of us who where not killed in the devastation rushed surface ward to try and warn the city, but by the time we arrived it was far to late. The beautiful city we had once called our home was completely overrun in ice and snow. Bodies which were not frozen into horrified visages, lay strewn across the roads, slowly becoming hidden under the snow.

There were survivors from the atta...the slaughter. But most did not last long. We were not prepared for the cruelties of the winter beast. Guardian mountain had protected and provided for us. Much more then any of us were aware. Quickly our nightly huddles became smaller and smaller, colder and colder. It still lurks out their, casting its frosty gaze over the mountainside, searching for its last survivors....searching for me. We thought we knew best, we thought we understood. We knew nothing. I will not die here, alone, hiding from my mistakes. I will go out and try and fix my mistake, make up for my sins, and upon failing to do so, accept my chilling penance. I pray the next soul to find this account is reading this in the warmth of day, because if you are not, then I fear my sins may have condemned you as well. I a sorry.

finallyfoundahobby these are awesome! Some of the photos are in there, but you found ones I hadn't and they are so intriguing and inspiring. It is always crazy to me how much of the real world is crazy and could be inspiration for our games!

Unfortunately I have not been around for very long, just joined in the discussions this week, even! But the one I've liked the best so far, that I've been able to take part in, would be "DM-Nastics #88: Its So Mind Numbing", simply because I love everything Psionics. Some day, I may have a chance to go back and read through the earlier episodes, but for now, having heard them on the podcast will have to be good enough. I'm looking forward to lending my brain muscles to future DM-Nastics and spotting other players as they lift.