Hey Hey Hey buds. We are back at it again with the Alien ER. how was your week? I hope it was good. This week we have our first glimpses of what Martinez's combat experiences were like, i do mean a literal glimpse. I have a couple of chapters to really drive home the day's events in detail later on. We also have shiksie breaking out of her shell a bit today, and get some more insight into how she treats people.
anyways let's get this bread.
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Regrettably for Martinez, walking Lysa back to her home would be the last part of his night he would describe as enjoyable in any way. By the time he made it back home, it was well past two in the morning; the few hours of sleep he did manage to get were restless and filled with memories he would rather forget. The events of the night had whipped him back years in his life.
Usually, Martinez would not get night terrors anymore, but they still on occasion reared their ghoulish head. Thankfully Martinez was not able to vividly recall the nightmares from today, but he knows he had them because he woke up in a cold sweat. Whenever they are vivid he feels like garbage for days afterward; He becomes little more than a writhing mass of anxiety and regret wishing if anything he could go back and change what happened. The faces of his brothers contorting and twisting in agony were seared into his mind and soul, the vivid dreams were him going through those events over and over again, as if the grim reaper was showing him a horror movie of his past.
He had been to therapy for years trying to eventually move past the memories of what happened on Verilon. The therapy did help for a while, but eventually, he stagnated and stopped going; he could not accept that he was the only one left, He could not move forward; so he just did his best to keep going on living with the memories, his brother's deaths held tightly on his soul, like a ball and chain.
He still hated that the lowest moment of his life was what the Navy decided was what he should be rewarded for. That bright gold cross on his dress blues was nothing he was proud of, it was just a bitter reminder of his failures; He thought it might as well be a cruel joke life had for him.
The last time he had thought about Verilon was a few months before he arrived here on Draun; He had heard through the grapevine that his old unit was getting ready to start building up to redeploy there. He was glad he was reassigned so he did not have to return to that hell-blasted desert world. He had his turn in the sandbox, it was someone else's chase to spend a year there.
After having woken up three separate times throughout the night, Martinez had given up on getting any sleep at all. He only had two hours left until he had to go to work anyways, the few hours of sleep would not make a difference to his well-being anyways.
He took to answering some of the questions Shiksie had given him, but focusing on the intricate details of alien anatomy while completely lacking sleep was not easy by any means, the words on the datapad were twisting and blurring into one another. Before he knew where the time went, the shrill beeping of his alarm clock had already started to fill the apartment.
As he idly went and got ready for the day, he was glad he did not try to get Lysa to stay the night. He would have hated her to see him like this, he would rather no one see him like this at all. The fact he felt this made him feel broken, and to him, a woman he had only been on one date with would certainly think the same. Sometimes life has a funny way of working out, he supposed.
Halfway stumbling into work with a yawn Martinez could not wait for the day to be over, he was planning on just going through the motions and doing his best to keep Shiksie off his back. He set himself up in his usual corner and started to read from the datapad; In all of Martinez’s experience if you looked busy, or at least looked like you were doing what those over you wanted, they would likely leave you alone.
Surprisingly the one who threw a wrench into that plan was Therin. The small avian alien had spotted Martinez as soon as he entered and scooted his chair nearby. Therin tapped Martinez on the thigh.
“So how was your night?” Therin chirped. Hoping his little ploy from the previous night worked out well. They were busy at the shop last night and he was about to leave when the police called, but the cop mentioned Martinez and his Aviex girlfriend were on a date; He just could not help himself to mess with the new guy and maybe push him towards spending some more time with someone other than Shiksie, or Ivorn.
You would know how it went you little shit, Marinez thought as he tucked the datapad back into his scrubs pocket and then turned towards his co-worker
Therin looked at Martinez, his feathers slightly puffed up. He stood on the chair and got slightly closer to Martinez Intently looking Martinez over. Therin took particular interest in the small circle of healing puncture wounds on his Human compatriot's shoulder. “What did your lady friend do to you?” He asked jokingly.
“Therin you already know what happened, I got into a fight” Martinez grumbled. Not wanting to have the prodding bird ask further into the rest of the evening. He already knew that Aveix, where hated and did not doubt Therin knowing about him and Lysa’s more intimate time, would be trouble.
“Oh come on new guy, I'm asking about after I was on the phone with the cops” Therin replied, “Did you have a nice evening?”
Martinez stepped slightly away from Therin. “Look man, I had a long night. Nothing happened after the fight” Martinez groaned
Therin shook his head and tapped his wing claw on Martinez’s shoulder. “Those little marks I can see tell me otherwise” he chirped
Dammit, I was hoping those were not visible, Martinez thought. Martinez had always worn slightly larger scrubs than he needed to out of comfort, he did not make much effort to hide the bite mark on his trap, but it's not like it's anyone else's business who he goes on a date with anyways.
“I mean it, nothing else happened,” Martinez growled. Hoping Therin would get the hint and drop the subject.
“Oh yeah, whatever you say new guy” Therin chuckled “So when is the wedding?”
“Fuck off Therin,” Martinez said jokingly, pushing Therins chair away from him with his boot “Don’t you have something better to be doing?”
Therin chuckled a little, before scooting his chair back towards the center desks of the room “Wow you really are Shiksies trainee, you are already acting just like her'' He said before tapping his wing claw on his datapad. Therin wondered what else he might be able to do to mess with Martinez about the events of last night, when he opened the list of current patients he saw his answer.
The bird has more jokes than I thought he would Martinez thought, while pulling back out his data pad. At least Therin was a good sport about who he went out with, unlike those two Urintal did. The fact Therin was giving him a little bit of shit wasn’t surprising, It was in a way customary for the old salts to poke fun at the new guy's love life. At this point, Therin was the only one who knew he had gone on a date at all, and he hoped it stayed that way at least with Skiksie; If Ivorn figured it out, Martinez doubted he would care much; Martinez had already met Ivorns chipper girlfriend at his point.
I should get back to studying before Shiksie shows up, Martinez thought as he buttoned his top up a bit higher than he preferred. Martinez did not want the others to see the hickey or dig any more into his private life than he was comfortable with.
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Shiksie arrived at work excited, she was eager to see what Martinez had managed to study during his time away from work; She had given him what she saw as a small number of questions and things he should have been studying over the weekend. She had always done her best learning when she had a nice calm place to read, at least the new Human hopefully had that allotted to him at his own home.
If he did a good job answering what she had given him, she would hopefully be able to increase the rate of his training; She had no idea how long he was going to be here but she wanted to get Martinez certified as a basic Interspecies technician as soon as possible; Getting Martinez that certification would be a great boon for the shop, she and the others could then allow him to assess class green patients without their oversight.
When she entered, something was off in the shop. She could hear Therin and Ivorn chatting happily about their weekends, but the place smelled horrible. A rancid combination of stem cells, iron, pine, the same strange scent Martinez gave off when she knew he was agitated. She initially assumed Martinez just had forgotten to wear his scent suppressors, but when she rounded the corner and saw the massive gash and pink hemostatic gel on the human's face she knew something was definitely off.
Getting closer to Martinez, Shiksie was still nervous about being around him; She felt slight twinges of fear of him striking at her, or her overstepping and boundaries she had yet to learn. While they had managed to build a shaky but cordial relationship at best, she would rather not jeopardize what they do have.
The Human smelled like he had when they had their meeting, along with his heart pounding extremely quickly.
Is he nervous about something? Shiksie thought as she made it next to him, once again without him noticing. She wondered if she should stop sneaking around him, but she would rather not bother the Human whenever she could. Assuming her mere presence was more often than not a bother to the man.
She peered over his shoulder to catch a glance at what he was currently studying. It surprised her, he had quite a few tabs open on the datapad, but the current one was her list of questions. Most of them had not been answered, but he was flicking back and forth between the list and the other tabs searching for answers.
Shicksie could not help but feel her tail sway a bit faster, the fact that he was doing what she asked was certainly progress in repairing their abysmal start to working together. She walked past him, and headed towards her desk; With the human still not having noticed her entrance.
Shiksie decided to not dig into whatever had Martinez on edge, even if she was worried that it has him so unsettled. She assumed if Martinez wanted to talk to her about it, he would do so; most species did that after all, and humans were supposed to be rather social; even if Martinez seemed a bit more… reserved, he was still Human at the end of the day.
Later in the Morning Dr. Harnsis arrived and the crew had their pass down from the night shift regarding any patients that were already in rooms. They only had a Urintal in one of the rooms. He had a broken jaw and dozens of other fractures across the rest of his body. From the briefing, Shiksie knew the Urintal was caught up in some fight the previous night, but with no injuries that were directly life-threatening, He would be perfect practice for Martinez. The Urintal had surgery on his jaw and was still asleep from the heavy painkillers that night shift had pumped into the Lizard-like Alien.
“I will take over the treatment of the Urintal,” Shiksie said, jumping on the chance to treat the patient that was already here. The Urintal were a green species that had been in the Galactic Union for thousands of years. It would be a perfect chance to have Martinez assess a patient and go through the discharge process.
“Very well Shiksie, you, Therin, and Martinez handle that first. The patient should be ready to leave within the hour” Harnsis Chittered as he pointed at the two of them with his larger forelimbs.
Shiksies' ears twitched when Martinez groaned and muttered under his breath. It was rare she mishears someone, but she did not understand why Martinez was muttering he would rather not. She glanced over and saw that therein was patting Martinez on the shoulder reassuring him of something.
What the hell happened? Shiksie thought as she walked toward the two of them.
“Martinez, pull up the patient's charts and their species data; You will be giving myself and Therin a briefing on the species before we go into the room. Do you understand?” Shiksie asked.
Martinez pulled out his datapad, and lazily saluted “I will get it ready” he groaned, before tapping on the screen.
Shifting her attention towards Therin. The bird looked up at her and tilted his head slightly. “What's up Shiksie? Do you need something from me?” Therein chirped.
Shiksie was not sure about what happened but she had to know what she was about to step into. “Yes I do, follow me,” She said flatly before turning around and walking away. Therein following quickly behind.
Once the two of them were well out and away from the center of the shop, far enough that Shiksie was certain Martinez would not hear them. She turned around and knelt in front of Therin. The bird looked at ease like he normally did. Shiksie had never seen anything disturb Therin over the last few years; Therein always just shrugged most issues off, or would on occasion try to pull pranks at others' expense, much to her chagrin. She wanted to make sure the situation was the former and not the latter.
“Therin, does Martinez’s injury have anything to do with that Urintal?” She asked as she leaned her hands on her knees.
Therin fluttered his wings and puffed out his plumage; faking offense to the question. He did not want Shiksie to ruin his chance to see the drug-hazed Urintal being treated by the person who put them in the hospital. He was hoping that Urintal would freak out and try to run away.
“I have no idea, Martinez did not tell me anything at all about what happened,” Therin lied.
Shiksie gave Therin an ice-cold glare that was as sharp as any scalpel. She did not believe the bird at all, he was far too obvious when faking anything. “Therin, I know you are lying. I can hear your heart rate increasing, and I know you aren't afraid of me like Martinez is” Shiksie sighed.
Therin only increased his bolstering refusing to let Shiksie stop his only good joke on the new guy stop before it even started “I mean It, I don't know anything that happened, Why do you assume I know more?”
“Because your pranks are seldom if ever funny, it's clear enough you know more” Shiksie said, tapping her finger on her knee. She looked up behind Therin towards Martinez who was still diligently reading from his datapad, she did not want Martinez to be freaked out and leave. She had caused that with a new trainee once, and Therin once as well. “If anything bad happens to Martinez out of this, I'm holding you accountable, Got it?” She hissed.
Therin backed up and swallowed his spit. He would rather not piss Shiksie off but with the video of Martinez throttling the Urintal he had seen before work. He had no doubt nothing bad would happen to the Human.
“Don't worry Shiksie nothing bad will happen” Therin said.
Shiksie stood towering over Therin, She shook her head. Therin was too stubborn and she knew it, If he wanted a prank to happen it would. No matter how twisted she might think it is. She also wasn’t so stupid as to not pick up on the implied admittance she managed to get out of Therin. “Come on, you are going to be doing this assessment with him after all,” Shiksie said, gesturing towards Martinez.
Shiksie and Therin returned to Martinez as he was finishing his initial reading of the needed information. He initially hoped it was just a coincidence that another Urintal would be here, but once he saw the scans of the patient's bones, he had no doubt his next patient was going to be the man he and Lysa kicked the crap out of the previous night.
He could recall each hit he had seen on the Urintal and was able to point out what ones were his and what ones had to be Lysa’s. The amount of damage was surprising, and the number of fractures was unreal; nearly every rib, and limb had at least one fracture if not more.
Hopefully, this asshole is way too dusted to recognize me, Martinez thought as he looked up at Shiksie and prepared to give the summary of the patient and the Urintal species as a whole.
Shiksie paid close attention to every word Martinez said, Holding tightly onto them. The majority of his summary on the Urintal was accurate; A few mistakes here and there, but he did not have the summary of all the green species memorized as she had. She offered a few corrections but the errors would not affect anything.
Then the summary of the patient's wounds and needed treatment came up, Martinez gripped the datapad tightly and had to periodically pause to take a deep breath. His heart rate would suddenly accelerate. She leaned in closer and got a good view of the Humans dark bark-colored eyes, whenever he paused she saw the vibrant brown was far smaller than normal; He had that same look in his eye from when he took a fighting stance in the storage room with her.
She looked over at Therin, the bird either did not notice how uncomfortable Martinez was or simply did not care. What the hell are you trying, She thought as she started to boil. She was not about to let whatever was going on happen, at first it might have been him trying a prank, but Therins short-sightedness might get the Human or the Urintal hurt.
“Stop,” Shiksie said as she carefully reached her hand out and rested it on Martinez’s shoulder. Martinez recoiled when she touched him, being pulled back from whatever trance he was in. She gently patted his shoulder “Martinez come with me” She said flatly.
Martinez looked up at her sweat rolling off his brow. “Uhh, are you sure? We haven't even seen the patient yet?” he meekly said in protest.
Shiksie had worked with soldiers and police officers enough to know Martinez had some kind of Trauma, and these events were obviously triggering something. The patient can be handled by Therin, while she figures this out. His training be damned, his health came first; even if he likely did not want her to intervene.
“Yes I am sure,” Shiksie purred. She pulled the datapad out of his hands “I need you to come with me now”
She passed the data pad to Therin and glared at the small bird, Therin looked like he was trying to hold back laughter about the state Martinez was in.
I will pluck out your feather you little bird, Shiksie thought. She always thought Therin was a reliable nurse, and a decent friend to have small talk with; but not much else.
“Therin, go ensure the patient gets out of here,” Shiksie said.
Therin looked like he was about to protest the interruption to his idea of a joke, but even Therin did not want to mess with Harnsis’ right hand. Her icy glare had him skittering off toward the patient's room.
“Come with me Martinez, '' Shiksie said softly, doing her best to seem unopposing to him.
Martinez grumbled slightly, he did not want to have to spend more time alone with Shiksie. At least today she seemed to be slightly less forceful with him. The two of them walked out of the office, Martinez saw Shikise pull out her datapad and send a message off to someone, he assumed it to likely be Harnsis. He hoped whatever Shiksie had sent wasn’t going to reflect badly on him. He had knuckled down through his PTSD and episodes to treat patients before, he has never really had the choice not to do so, at this point it has just become a habit.
Once the two of them were out of the building Shiksie led Martinez towards one of the small gardens that was nearby to the building. It was just a simple fountain that had some benches nearby. A ring of well-kept flower beds surrounds it, this time of year they were in full bloom; dozens of vibrant colors swaying like waves as the wind gently pushed on them. Shiksie had always liked it out here, it was not uncommon for her to eat lunch or take a break out here after a particularly nasty patient or situation.
“Would you like to take a seat?” Shiksie asked Martinez while gesturing towards the nearest bench.
Martinez did not say a word, but at least for the moment his heart rate had gone down slightly and he seemed more calm. She was overjoyed that she seemed to be right on the money and that it had something to do with that Urintal that was setting him off.
“Would it be alright If I have a seat as well?” Shiksie asked, still treading carefully around Martinez and his need for boundaries.
The look Martinez gave her was a surprise, it was a strange mixture of shock and confusion. Like he was amazed, Shiksie was asking for permission to do anything.
“Yeah go ahead,” Martinez said, scooting to the far side of the bench as Shiksie sat down nearby.
“So would you want to tell me what happened with the Urintal?” Shiksie asked.
Martinez groaned, he should have figured the moment the icy cat had stopped him she knew something was wrong. He was in no way going to tell her every vivid detail of his previous night, nor did he want her of all people to know the details of what happened in his past. The fact those two events were stacked on each other was just a lot for the sailor to tackle at once.
“I would really rather not, but I assume based on my injuries you probably already know something,” Martinez said
Shiksie sighed, leaned forward, and rested her elbows on her knees. She looked away and at the fountains flowing water, already well aware that just looking at Martinez had upset him before. She wanted him to feel safe and able to talk if he wanted.
“I have my assumptions, but nothing concrete,” Shiksie replied. “I would like it if you trusted me enough to talk about anything bothering you”
Martinez wondered if she truly meant that, She had done a lot to try and help him be welcome; That does not mean she should be fully trusted though.
“Shiksie I just want to get back to work,” Martinez said with a deep sullen tone. Shiksie could still easily smell the sheer amount of adrenaline oozing out of him.
“Listen I'm not going to force you to tell me about it, I just know you want to. You would not have followed me if not” Shiksie replied, “let's just sit here for a while, you can just tell me anything you feel comfortable with, alright?”
Martinez shifted awkwardly and looked towards Shiksie. The fact she looked almost as bad as he did was something he was not used to seeing from her. She was looking off at the far side of the fountain, her tail and ears were more still than he had ever seen them.
Maybe she is not as cold as I made her out to be, Martinez thought.
The two of them sat there in silence for a while, neither certain how long it was but eventually Martinez resumed talking. Shiksies' ears twitched to listen in on what had happened. Martinez walked her through the events of the previous night, but he left out what his dreams had been about. He just told her that the whiplash of going from a nice relaxing date to being in a fight for his life had brought up bad memories from when he was in the Navy.
Shiksie was surprised by the story she heard. She did not expect Martinez to have started to date so quickly, She felt that thorn in her side remembering how badly she messed up with meeting him; Not that she wanted to date Martinez, but the fact he was so easy to get along with just showed her how badly she failed. The most shocking part was how he hospitalized two Urintal, one completely on his own. She just had a few more things about the previous night she wanted to ask.
“Why did you jump into the fight so willingly?” Shiksie asked.
Martinez sighed slightly unsure of the answer himself. He immediately thought it might have been “because it was the right thing to do” but even he knew that wasn’t the whole answer. He felt guilty about not being able to help in the past, and he would be damned if he could stop something bad before it happened.
“I'm not sure” Martinez lied, he just did not want to tell Shiksie about his previous fights with the Human Navy.
“That's alright, we don't always do,” Shiksie said. She thought back to her own parents, how she was still to this day unsure why they sacrificed themselves, or even why the accident caused that sacrifice to happen.
Shiksie looked back at Martinez for the first time since they sat down. Her usually sharp predatory features seemed far softer than before. She did not even hear Martinez’s heart run away when they made eye contact.
Martinez smiled softly back at her, his usually fiery glower a much duller blaze. It wasn't the usual inferno she saw in him, more akin to a tired dwindling flame.
Before she had a chance to say anything else she felt her datapad ringing indicating a call. Looking at the screen, her own heart sank. Why is the director calling me?
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So what did you think? lemme here it I love to talk to you all. updoot if you liked.
side note: I am planning out my next project to be a offshoot set on Verilon, in the current day of the story.
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your bud
-pirate
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Next:
Previous :
https://www.reddit.com/humansarespaceorcs/comments/13t55y6/human_trauma_section_eleven_blood_and_bandages/
First
https://www.reddit.com/humansarespaceorcs/comments/121mgy1/human_trauma/

I don't like how lichess shows you the material imbalance while you are playing the game. If online is to be as close to OTB chess as possible (except for premoves), then this feature should be removed. When I play OTB blitz it sometimes takes a moment in complications to count exactly how many pawns you and your opponent have, and keeping track of material imbalance requires an extra effort especially in wild positions. It's weird to me that lichess gives you this extra piece of information during the game.

So my father always plays the same setup, King's indian defence and King's indian attack, and always manages to get a very good position / or straight up win (against me that is). What are some key concepts and ideas that I have to know that might help me? I usually respond with the same setup, 3 pawns in the center develop the knights and then the bishops to e2 and e3, castle and wing it from there.

Title says it but I'll explain a little more
I've had pretty bad reflux for a few days now (I have GERD) but for some reason tonight my stomach feels super empty, like I haven't eaten, despite eating a normal amount of food today. I even ate a decent size dinner (just some plain udon noodles with some honey soy sauce) when this feeling started coming on and it feels like I didn't eat at all. The thought if eating anything turns my stomach, but it still feels very empty and like I have hunger pains. I now ate nearly 2 hours ago and it's been waves of severity, but there's very little actual n*, just this feeling of hollowness/emptiness and huge anxiety because of it. I was meant to do a grocery shop today but felt too lazy and decided to put it off until tomorrow, so I don't have many snacks I could nibble on that wouldn't probably upset my stomach more.
I'm trying to reassure myself that since my body is asking for more food it wouldn't be a sb*, but google is literally zero help with this and when I texted my mum asking for reassurance and telling her how I feel she just gave me a sad face react when normally she'll tell me I'm being silly and it's fine, so that's freaking me out even more.
If this is a symptom of a sb* I'd love to know and don't want to be given false hope, but also google is coming up blank... It feels like a more severe version of when my hormones are off a few days a month and I get what I call "hungry-not-hungry".

Im (21f) alone in az. I’ve been living with my ex for almost 3 years now. I moved across the country, left school and am now a SAHM. He has cheated on me countless times. From sending thousands of dollars to women online, messaging all of his exes as recently as a week ago, and just being a shitty person. I always expected him to keep cheating, no matter what i said or threatened to do. I just finally have the courage and strength to break him back. I have gave everything to this man. We now have added a kid to the mix (not planned) and I feel terrible for doing what I have to do, but it’s not my fault. I have nobody to vent to. I feel alone. I just know that I’m worth so much more and I can do it all for my baby.
I’ve tried countless times to make it work and he thinks I’m never going to leave him now. I’m pawning the engagement ring for some cash to get us by. And Flying back to my hometown while he’s on his work trip.
I hope coming home to an empty house will break his heart as much as he’s broken mine. I just hope im doing the right thing for my baby.

My mum is suffering from peri menopause atm and is constantly complaining and staying in bed all day, there have been multiple times in which she has promised to take me somewhere then felt too “panicky” to go.
As I am not old enough to drive yet I find this very hard to cope with because I cannot get anywhere without a argument starting. I got stranded at my gym for 3 hours because she didn’t want to come, and she called me a taxi for nearly 100 pounds rather then pick her child up.
I needed to go shopping for basic stuff such as deodorant, tampons ect and she refused to take me saying I can wait. I’m not sure if I’m being insensitive, but I feel like as a mother she has a job to do, to make matters worse my dad had a accident so he can’t drive either. I cant bring up going anywhere without a argument starting, am I the asshole?

Hey guys. Here is a continuation of what I was writing. Sorry for the formatting, just typing it out in my notes and copy and pasting here.
Our story begins with our friend Jackie Chan and soon to be an unknowingly hero of the people as he journeys through a Bavarian jungle towing with him a group of people, a scholar and exhibitionists who would seek out a treasure to gain fame and attention from the world, either in academia or media attention, to announce to the world and peers that they broke through the many traps that the castle says to contain. Trudging through this weary jungle comes along the castle they seek, our friend Jackie, a lean individual, unassuming and gentle hearted who is deceptively athletic and studies and practices martial arts, continues his journey into the castle. "The mad king Ludwig would invite many guest into the castle but would fall victim to many of its deadly traps" says the scholar "Rude..." an exhibitionist joins in saying. "That's why his name was not Lovable Ludwig or good neighbor of Bavaria - Huh, stand back..." says Jackie. Jackie stops dead in his tracks with his group to follow, well enough light pours into the castle that would lead unbeknownst treasure seekers to rummage the castle recklessly to fall victim to its many traps, with nothing a stir and everything quiet, Jackie finds this to be too eerie and finds in their way a wire, though invisible to those who enter the castle, not invisible to Jackie as his fine tuned senses crafted by his self-discipline and with a sensible sharp mind are at work, lowers himself with aerosol can in hand and makes visible the invisible wire. "What are the odds that these traps still-..." remarks one of the men. Jackie motions over to the exhibitionist and grabbed his hat to drop on the wire, suddenly two walls collide into each other this time only in succeeding in killing a hat. Loud clicking noises and rumblings of the walls suggest that the mechanism for the trap is resetting and moments later the two walls come apart leaving the invisible wire intact waiting for its next victim. The exhibitionist stares in disbelief by the sudden closing and opening wall of death and has his jaw left gaped opened by his astonishment that he nearly just died was closed by Jackie and motions forward leaving an air of unspoken reason that following Jackie's lead may keep them alive. Following hallways left and right leading to a room with pictographs and decorations of stone statues, against the far wall has a human skull that Jackie handles to find a handle that releases the door. Looks of triumph that he beat the castles traps and looks of shock and excitement on the group, Jackie has found the treasure room. As the door rises revealing the treasure room, light pours into the room and Jackie leads forward to light torches along the wall and once was a dimly lit room is now glowing brilliantly with gold, gold coins, golden assortments from goblets to swords, gems and expensive stones covering the floor and piled high. "Ludwig's lost treasure..." remarks the scholar. "I'm sure that the booty is booby-trapped so don't-...." begins Jackie to everyone. With blind enthusiasm, the would be still alive exhibitionist runs towards the treasure picking up a golden sword hilted in rubies, sapphires and emeralds, then the room and door begin to convulse violently, another trap! As quickly as the room begins to rumble and the door jerks downward threatening to close them inside, Jackie kicks up a spear into the air and with a spin through the air, kicks it toward the closing door jamming it open as Jackie shouts "Go! Go! Go!". Motioning everyone out, everyone in a panic stricken run, all begin towards the door until Jackie finds himself running into the door when the spear snaps finding himself alone as the group escaped. Moments later an arrow shoots across Jackie's face and launches himself backwards as arrows after arrows begin ejecting themselves from the walls that would kill any person or persons who gets this far; yelping out the words "bad day! bad day! bad day!" Staggering backwards and leaping into the air, above these arrows, ducking more, spinning mid jump over treasures, in a leap lands over a golden shield emblazoned with some chicken scratch, begins to deflect arrows left and right cornering Jackie. Jackie in danger of never being seen again, looks up, a hole in the wall, Jackie wall jumps into a sliding tunnel and in a panic places the shield under himself to ride the shield down the trail and finally bursting out of the castle and within view the group is spotted to have also exited the castle, with Jackie landing and coming to a stop on the shield sliding on the ground, "Snowboarding works better with snow" says Jackie, relieved for everyone to have made it out alive. From a distance, strange men observing Jackie with binoculars, the seemingly men to appear to be the leaders issuing an order to their men. "Follow him..." "Follow him..."
Jackie returns from his trip to Bavaria to his home in San Francisco. Jackie resides in his uncle's two story antique shop, "Uncle's Rare Finds". In his room we carry on as Jackie blow by blow, ebbs and flows, as he strikes a dummy. In his studio room for his training displays a number of photographs, taken at events or jobs he was hired on to take people on exhibitions, there in all his photographs is a man who never has trouble finding his smile in all of them either as a leader or competitor. Jackie with another day of training in, is summoned by his uncle with the clattering of a bell. Jackie's uncle is a fairly old man, in his signature bright yellow vest, glasses, gray standing hair and his garlic and mung bean smell, that originates by his consumption of garlic and mung beans that he always believes is good for you. From the second story calls out to his uncle, "What is it Uncle?". "Come, give Uncle a hug", Jackie jumps over the railing and effortlessly twist in mid air to land and give uncle a hug, SMACK, Jackie was just struck over the head by Uncle's strong fingers that he uses to scold. "Ow!" Jackie yelps. "You did not make coffee this morning, coffee is the only thing keeping Uncle's ancient heart beating, you want dead uncle? No? Then you make coffee" "Ok" replies Jackie "One more thing" uncle begins again, "You received phone call from the University, they want you to translate parchments" "Ok" replies Jackie "One more thing" Uncle continues before Jackie begins his work, Uncle examines the newly brought in golden shield, talking out loud with his thoughts of the ancient chicken scratch on the shield with an odd encrusted pewter center with a rooster emblazoned on it, "I cannot translate inscriptions, very old writing, I must reference my journals." "Ok" replies Jackie "One more thing" Uncle continues "This is Jade, your niece, she will live with you for a year? Ok?" Jackie with no second thought on his list of instructions from Uncle, "ok" Taken back, Jackie exclaims "I have a niece?" Now discovering the child in plain view by the entrance as she wears a scowl under her black hair that spikes downwards with her arms folded. Uncle explains, "Your cousin Shin's girl from Hong Kong, Jade is not behaving well there, doing poorly in school, your cousin thinks she will do better with you" "Nobody asked me" exclaims Jackie. "Did not want to bother you" Uncle coolly states, then sends Jackie to tackle his new instructions. Jackie nervously chuckles, "Hello, I am Jackie". Jade, stiff as a statue, continues her scowling and looks with contempt for being in this dibilated antique shop. "No English?" Jackie tries another greeting, "Ne Ho Ma-...." Three men enters the shop. Jackie welcomes the new customers and begins exercising his retail sales abilities, as Jackie also helps Uncle in his Rare Finds shop as a salesman. "You're Jackie Chan, the archeologist?" Asks one of the three men. "Oh, I dabble in the study of past civilizations" replies Jackie. "Well, we are aware that you recently dabbled a shield from a Bavarian Castle, our extremely wealthy employer is interested in purchasing the shield"
Jackie seeing this is not the regular customer Uncle's Rare Finds usually receives, wearing a 70's style white suit, all red blazing combed back slick hair and seems to be having trouble clearing his sinuses and seems a bit on edge. His two companions, just as unremarkable and out of the ordinary among usual customers, one quite tall and burly, sporting a wrinkled black jacket, red tie and white shirt with dress shoes that could do with some polishing, Jackie faintly smells alcohol from where he stood and the other, short but stands tall with his bright orange sunglasses and leather coat suggest he may kick you up side along the head at the wrong moment.
Jackie with great suspicions, "I'm sorry, I have already donated that piece to the university" "Really...?" The man in red and white nods to the others behind him to send a small message, pokes out his wild swinging hand and pokes out a finger to drive an antique to the floor but unable to shoot straight misses with a hurried "whoops", tries again, sending two antiques rolling to the floor! Jackie thoroughly shocked, dives across the floor coming to a roll right under the falling antiques and catches them on his back - the shorter of the men with a smirk on his face sends flying an antique, but in a flash Jackie sends off a cushion from a nearby seat, throwing the two in hand and with a bounce with the cushion, Jackie runs forward to catch all three antiques in a snap, antiques in hand, puts them down safely and takes a seat with a smile. Looks of horror and awestruck coves over the three, as well as Jade, whose left speechless of his Uncle's ability, just stood standing in place. "It would be in your family's best interest to undonate the shield, Mr. Chan... places hand over Jades head by this time tomorrow", the three exit without another word. Uncle walks in "did they buy anything?" "No" Jackie answers "You are a terrible salesman!" "Watch the girl and hide the shield" Jackie instructs. "Where am I going to hide a big shield? sputters on where did I put the shield?" Uncle continues on as Jackie exited to follow the men and unknown to Uncle, so did Jade.
Jackie exiting Uncle's Rare Finds finding the vehicle leaving, quick and light on his feet, leaps for the fire escape of the building, leaping gracefully and the mastery of his body to do so, clambers onto balconies and shop signs onto a roof catching up to the vehicle. Running along side the vehicle, Jackie peers in, the man in red and white is hunched over and takes a great deep inhale, crushed powder in forms of lines on a plate is visible to Jackie. The wrinkled out suit man is also clambering with something in hand, Jackie is catching up as the vehicle comes to a stop, running to the ledge, down gutter pipes, SNAP, the pipes snatch free from the wall sending Jackie down BANG. Wrinkled out suit man chokes on the contents of his flask and sputters, finding his breath and the man in red and white being seen hiding his plate and all three wordless, Jackie continues innocently, "That will buff right out" pointing at the ding he has caused as if it's the only problem there. Angry, the gas petal is floored with Jackie and gutter still on top, coming onto and off side walks sending people wildly running in all directions to come to a sudden stop at a fenced playground. The three exit to introduce themselves more physically to Jackie, launches themselves at him. Jackie pulls back from attack, dishes one of his own with the gutter sending them away, Jackie jumps and rolls into the sunroof of the window, the men, SLAMMED by the doors that Jackie kicks open, ejects himself from the vehicle, musters up his strength and leaps over the fench, rolls to a stop, sitting upright begins to mock the men, "Nya Nya!" The three men remain to be unknown to Jackie, had not even realized they were watching him in Bavaria nor did he know that they're extremely wealthy employer has equipped them with military grade electric rods, these men were The Enforcers. The Enforcers leap forward with their electrified rods, melting the fence and sending Jackie backwards. As agile Jackie is, he swerves, ducks, rotates and spins, comes to a semi truck and takes the windshield wipers with him, coming to a landing with a flourish of the wipers in a stance that says I'm ready. With a chuckle of the Enforcers, Tap! Tap! Jackie has struck two over the hands, disarming them and kicked another away. Running off to the still occupied playground, Jackie yells out "No more playtime, Go! Go!". Children running and the enforcers come around, on the right slow going, Jackie kicks a tether ball right around to the man in the wrinkled out suit face and almost lazily falls over. Jackie looks up and finds another lunging from a nearby jungle gym, Jackie kicks and with a loud CRACK, finding a broken nose "that's where I put my drugs!". The third, short yet strong, comes to spare with Jackie, jabbing in and out, showing signs that he learned martial arts is swept backwards onto a rocking horse and sits down dazed and defeated. The other two continues still, after Jackie, they are led to a swing set, "Oh hey! - what the --" Jackie has tangled them together in the swings, stuck together now Jackie jumps onto a jungle gym with continually readiness. "Wow!" Says one "Let's get out of here" says another. The enforcers make a run for it, watching them run, leaps down to discover Jade has followed him, taken aback, "Jade?" We have another man appear from behind and with a weapon that released a gas, renders Jackie unconscious.
"Now he's coming too" remarks the men inside the van Jackie finds himself in, is saying. Jackie opens his eyes, "Aaahhh! Agustus Black!" Jackie opens his eyes and finds a familiar face with the others left in confusion, "hmmm?" Jackie continues "What are you doing here? Ow, what am I doing here?" "I'm afraid its official business, Jackie. Replies Black. "Where have you been? I don't hear from you for six years, BOOM, you're in San Francisco saving me from those thugs" "Jackie, I knocked you out" explains Black. Jackie outraged, the van stops to a screech, Jackie exits. "Why did you do that?" Jackie continues. "Jackie--" Black beckons "I thought we were friends" "We are, Jackie." Replies Black. "I'm sorry but this location must be kept a secret. "Oh, yes, I can see this is some very special garbage, maybe I will see you in another six years" "Jackie--" Black stammers Excuse me, while I call a cab" "Jackie--" Black calls out. Jackie turns to a lone telephone booth amongst the garbage. Enters. Jackie dials, "Oh?" With a sudden jerk, the telephone booth is swallowed by the wall and in a rush Jackie screaming for dear life, the booth is fast tracked along a corridor to a halt and let's out a sigh of relief but without warning it drops. Screaming once again trying to keep himself centered, DING! the booth landed, doors open with Jackie plopping out. "Tried to warn you" Black states. "How did you get down here?" "The stairs... Follow me." "Jackie, Welcome to Section 13." Leading Jackie in, Black shows him around. "I thought you were with interpol" "Even with them I was shepherding this agency in secret" answers Black. "You're a spy?... are they spies too?" "Law Enforcement, Jackie, Elite Special Forces." "So why give me the big tour?" Asks Jackie. "We are aware you've recently acquired an artifact in Bavaria" explains Black. "Why does everyone know that?" Jackie continues, "You are the second one to ask about the shield today" "I was afraid of that" Black leads Jackie to a terminal. "Secrion 13 was founded to investigate large scale international crimes - crimes which often can be traced back to The Dark Hand, a criminal syndicate. The Dark Hand has connections to nearly all criminal activity and their leader is this man pulls up image of a man in striking white long blonde hair that is tied back in a nice Italian suit Valmont. Today you met his cronies that Valmont sends on personal errands around town. Finn, who is Irish and believes disco will never die, another only known as Ratso then there is Chow, as you seen, Chow has some martial arts training. The three known as the enforcers but won't think twice to push over an elderly lady if it meant completing their orders.

My landlord recently told me that the parking in front of my building is mine, I used to park in a parking garage.
Today was the first day I used it. A restaurant owner whose shop is opposite to the building had taken over it because no one uses it and was very annoyed that i parked there. I simply told him that my landlord told me that this is mine and that i have a signed paper from them, allowing me to park.
Tonight, i saw one of his friends (I've seen him around) from the window, crouching near my tire. I went down and confronted him. He ran when i came, and my tire was popped. I called the police, they came, and i told them what happened. They wrote something and left.
They came again to check and then left. I parked my car in the garage now. What can i do? Should i just accept that I people can fuck my life and I can't do anything about it?
Edit: he is parking there now. In my packing space, illegally.

I'm pretty sure that the majority of Barovian content creators have already seen some version of this list. I actually went back to update my original post of the list to discover that I never made my own post of it! I put together the first version of this list a couple of years ago. I'm pretty sure this is the most complete list of its kind anywhere: Alternate areas of Barovia that are commonly needed, besides the commonly published CoS specific battlemaps:
0) The (Dark) Carnival - nobody ever makes maps / assets for this, even though gobs of people always throw it in to their campaign, even though it's old as crap. I understand that there's a Carnival Realm in the new VRGtR book.. I'll probably never use the realm-carnival, but that's a second place the Dark Carnival maps/assets could be used. There are also a trio of third party Ravenloft carnival modules as well that they could be used in.
1) Battlemap sized maps of the towns. At LEAST a 5 foot per square / hex map for the tiger chase. (Obviously modern VTT platforms don't actually need the grid on the map. ;) )
2) Random shops, stables, blacksmiths and generic places the party is likely to go anyway.
3) Generic encounter locations.. country roads / rivers / bridges and combinations of the three. It sounds dumb because you can get generic encounter maps like that anywhere.. but it would be AWESOME to have matching Barovian roads and Svalitch woods on all of your encounter maps. Don't forget the specific crossroads with the gallows from CoS.. I don't recall if there were hanging cages mentioned, but you could throw in some PNG options for them.
4) A covered bridge, including the roof, deck and under views. (To tack on to the Headless Horseman add-in.) The Woodcutters hut as well.
5) Besides the Carnival, there are a few other old school modules that people like to bolt on to CoS (Adam, etc. etc.).
6) DragnaCarta, MandysMod and Pyram King have all developed alternate encounters and a handful of setting that might be able to use an alternate map here and there. (Orphanage.) In particular, I recall battles in/near the bogs, on mountain sides with/without roads and watch towers. Military and outfitter style tent interiors and exteriors and camps placed.. you know what? Make those camps be PNG assets that could be dropped in a bog, next to a river or on a mountain side as needed. ;) I recall Lunch Break Heroes making an encounter for Borgia/Borca, but I don't recall if they made any scenarios / encounters for Barovia. I got a special request for Beneath the Abbey.
7) The Interactive Tome of Strahd sends the party back in time and would be a PHENOMENAL set of maps to expand Barovia. Seriously, you could drop those on DMsGuild and make some bank. Some additionally pre-Strahd bright and shiny versions of the village of Barovia and other basic maps might be nice for some throw-back adventures.
8) Retro Castle Ravenloft.. Castle Ravenloft fully restored to its former glory! (Castle Barovia? I picture it as more of a walled garrison, looking like a giant stone bubble from a distance, but it did have at least one tower overlooking the cliff.) We know that the old pre-Strahd castle had multiple floors located in roughly the same place as Castle Ravenloft, but with significantly different floor plans, as the ghosts walk staircases and pass through doorways that don't exist anymore. :D (Important side-note: Strahd did not grow up in Castle Ravenloft. I believe that there is one (1) painting of him looking out over Yesterhill, through the mists at a vision of the castle he grew up in, but I don't think anyone has ever tackled it.)
9) The caverns and the alter area in and under the Pillarstone of Ravenloft (from Expedition to Ravenloft) are frequently added in to CoS. I've never seen a map of a hidden cavern entrance in the Svalitch woods, let alone a set of creepy Barovian caverns.. or the Castle side of the entrance, for that matter.
10) Around a decade ago, some weirdo drew an artistic image of Castle Ravenloft with the foundation bedrock rotted away under it. I'd like to see a detailed elevation map of the curtain wall and gatehouse with the bedrock still under the curtain wall, because that irritates me to no end. NOBODY would build a massive curtain wall on a questionable foundation. Reference Vlads actual castle (which is admittedly ten times smaller than Ravenloft) for a rather specific example of a (THE) castle built on the side of a cliff. As I recall, if looking at the gatehouse, the left side and back left corner of Vlads actual castle are protected by a cliff, and that's where the inspiration for Castle Ravenloft came from.
11)Speaking of elevation, at the other end of Castle Ravenloft are balconies and windows jutting out over the cliff. I'd love to see detailed maps of those areas, an 'ant sized' map of the Svalitch woods and Barovia as seen from the castle, and an elevation map of the cliff-side reaching from the Svalitch woods up past the windows and balconies to the Curtain wall. Parties occasionally decide to attempt to scale the cliff. Having a cliff and curtain wall that actually matches would be awesome.
12) Odd ball areas we never see. The druids must have huts or a village somewhere. The Roc must have a nest somewhere. The Mad Mage in Barovia has one of either a tower / cavern / pocket dimension somewhere. We could use Barovian flavored versions of all three. Oh, and the woods and encounters with said mage on the backside of the lake.. so a lake / forested area with spread out trees for players to run in terror or attempt to attack at range.. or whatever.
13) UNDER Lake Zarovich, there are a handful of generic encounters. There are also a few river monster encounters, generally near the Berez Swamp, could use a lair map and an underwater river encounter map, Barovia flavored. Speaking of Berez, I've never seen a detailed large scale swamp map for the Berez Swamp.. let alone the whole town being overrun by the swamp.
14) A proper Berez Swamp. A full sized swamp, with river banks, fields of cattail and reeds, murky backwaters, underwater groves of trees, and a couple of dozen oddly shaped islets and sandbanks.. a few dead logs.. not to mention a proper full sized assortment of Berez town ruins.
15) What's the village in the Adventurer's Guild Supplements?? Orasnou! There's a tiny village there (the size most people depict Berez as, because the CoS book doesn't describe the whole town of Berez properly). So that map is needed, along with.. 4 interior maps, if I recall? (Probably more, + a manor.) As well as an alternate werewolf lair and a few others, like a Barovian bluff, again if I recall off of the top of my head. I've had requests for the Gundarak villages Teufeldorf, Zeidenburg and Renika, as well as the other minor villages and..
16) The complete map of Barovia, post Grand Conjunction (done in standard modern style/graphics).
17) Various encounters have been depicted on Mount Baratok. Which would be a stark stone mountain, snowy and generally above the treeline, not like the hilly tree covered mountains where Argynvostholt and the Roc and etc. are located. I think a largish rocky encounter map of the mountainside would be the first needed. I (seem to) recall a three tiered monastery built on the side of a cliff, with a freshwater spring enclosed that would require an elevation map along with three small interioexterior maps showing the wooden stairs going up and down the cliff-side. I recall one encounter involving a lai small cave sized area.
18) Lots of people want Van Richtens magic shop and other stuff described in his escapades. We could also use a handful of Vistani Vardos and Camps. If I recall, there are only two described in the CoS book, but there are many more tribes of Vistani than that, and we're told that they move around frequently. If might be easier to provide PNG files for the vardos, outfitter tents and assets for a large scale camp. Come to think of it, there aren't a whole lot of tokens for those smallish horses they use either, so someone might whip up 10-12 smallish shaggy horses with unique patterns to show off. They don't care one ounce for a horses pedigree, and are more than happy to keep unique looking mongrel horses as their personal caravan animals. They use mountain horse stock when breeding their horses, so they would be a bit hairier and stockier then say an Arabian.. just scaled closer to a pony size. Donkey size! They're donkey sized horses. :D ..real donkey size, if I recall 5e has some weirdness going on with their official donkey/wagon sizes that makes no sense at all for Vardos sized horses and wagons like the Vistani would have.
19) The valley where the village of Barovia is located is described as a massive fertile farming area, yet we never see any medieval farms, ranches, graineries or farmers markets for Barovia. Definitely need a few of those. Barovian farmers and ranchers would SPECIFICALLY all have the buildings that (in the real world) later became fortifications, Thick werewolf proof walls and heavily barricaded doors everywhere. No window on the ground floor. Livestock was housed indoors, in enclosed courtyards with family areas wrapped around them, or with the animals on the ground floor and the family living above on the second floor. Horse stalls and farrowing areas would be fenced off within the area. Graineries would be large round wooden buildings with barricaded doors and sturdy out-buildings. 10 foot tall max, today's 4-5 story tall graineries are a modern invention. There would probably be a large stone community grainery far on the other side of the valley from the Village of Barovia. for that matter, there ought to be a functioning grainery or warehouse somewhere between the Village of Barovia and Bonegrinder. ALSO, if Bonegrinder is no longer being used as a mill, there would HAVE to be another windmill or waterwheel driven mill somewhere else in Barovia. Many artists have envisioned a water-wheel grainery on the River Ivlis near the Village of Barovia. Corn cribs would be on the second floor of a barn for drying grain, doubling up to dry bales of hay, not primarily as a hay loft. PNGs for 2-3 styles of fencing and gates, water troughs, and some medieval horse drawn plows and rakes would be nice. Dog kennels!! Every farm would probably have it's own horse pasture or rink with a training post, and a dog kennel or run for dogs to run during the day. You know those giant mastiffs that the Barovian nobles are so fond of? Yeah, the farmers in the fertile valley near Barovia would be the only ones rich enough to be able to afford to raise those pups for the nobles. Somewhere out here would be a medieval rancher set up to raise mastiff puppies with an assortment of full grown mastiffs. Mongrel pups or runts would be sold off to neighboring farms at a discount. Roaming wolves would stay FAR away from them, and werewolf packs would likely attack them for any reason at all (if they could find a way in to the basin). I picture a LARGE farmers market and stockyards just inside the River Ivlis bridge of the Valley of Barovia. We know that Barovia is a trade center.. so there MUST be one. The bridge would offer protection if needed, and it would be the closest place farmers and ranchers could set up to provide commerce with the other villages and domains and still have the protection of being inside the gates. Hmm.. they might have a dirt race track there for showing off horses going up for sale. Make that very probably, The Vistani/Romani are famous for defending their mountain horses at the drop of a hat. This would be the main place of commerce for farmers goods in Barovia. This is (the main area) where Vistani Caravans would import and export farm goods in to and out of Barovia.
20) There would absolutely be homestead (small) sized farms and ranches carved out up in mountain valleys or even on mountain sides facing south. In fact, a south facing mountain side might get enough sunlight to raise delicate crops, spices and herbs, whereas most of Barovia can't, due to the mists blocking the sunlight. Also, a couple of mountain pastures with matching rocks / trees bordering them would be nice. Honestly though, if you pass out some rock and tree assets that match the ones you already use, anybody could throw together their own mountain pastures, or even their own valley pastures. Rows of crops are hard to find though! You could easily have scenarios of wolves/werewolves hunting the party in a cornfield.. but there are no Barovian cornfield battlemaps. ACTUALLY, I don't think I have any battlemap sized crop assets, and I probably have the largest collection of map assets around. You could probably sell these farming assets/maps on DriveThruRPG and DMsGuild as well, I've never seen them anywhere. ..OR you might ask Forgotten Adventures or Tom Cartos to throw some together, whatever seems clever. :) I've been asked specifically to try to get Yaedrag (barbarian-esque village in the mountains that Dragna wrote up) made up.
21) Jenny Greenteeth's Hut.. perhaps a grove of her untainted trees from the Quivering Forest? (Also the Glumpen Swamp and Vanishing Hills, various locations within these.) I picture the Quivering Forest loaded with fruit and nut trees and songbirds fighting for real estate (the text mentions angry squirrels).. surrounded by classic Svalitch Woods half-dead spooky trees. ;) I recall seeing a couple of versions that roughly followed the description given in DDAL04, but they're just a hut, not the whole barrow surrounding her hut as described. Additionally, many artists have upscaled her hut to be a small trading post, and put it on wooden poles, swamp style (never seen a battlemap of it, though). Lots of room for creative renditions there. :)
22) Another thing that I haven't seen ANYBODY making is small abbeys. The hills and mountains of Barovia are said to be littered with small abbeys. ..some of them abandoned, some not.
23) Abandoned mansions and manors. Strahd massacred the noble families of Barovia for their involvement in his father's murder. There is one legend of a nobleman possessed by a demon that Strahd left alive, as a curse 'worse than death'. At any rate, there ought to be a handful of abandoned / haunted mansions and manors dotting the Barovian countryside for the party to stumble in to (or check out due to a hook dropped by an informative villager).
24) There are currently NO mines in the CoS version of Barovia.. bizarre for a mountain country. It would suit that some of those decimated noble families ran some mines that have since been abandoned. Of course, it wouldn't do to host your standard monsters in a Barovian mine. I'm thinking Lair of the White Worm. Something more horrifying than dungeoneering.
25) It's been mentioned that instead of murdering the losers from the werewolf trials, they might be shipped off to be slaves in a mine, or to a plantation in the swamp. The plantation would be stick construction, as you would expect in a swamp, they would collect tubers and reeds that grow in the swamp, not traditional plantation type crops.
26) The various Barovian villages NOT included on Schleys map of (Central) Barovia usually have a town sized map plotted out and published somewhere, but no really decent overview maps or battlemap sized maps of them exist. (This need might easily be filled by a couple of handfuls of generic Barovian village buildings, field-stone and dirt street assets, and sundry village constructions.
27) Besides the Gates of Barovia, there are supposed to be watch-towers dotting the landscape as well. An operational watchtower and a couple of partially ruined ones would be awesome.
​
Assets nobody has made like the Dark Carnival and lake/river encounters and the Mad Mages various lair options would be the most needed. I simply don't understand why EVERY CoS map developer doesn't provide matching roads, forests, rivers and generic shops with matching Barovian assets. The maps I mentioned which you could make money selling on DriveThruRPG and DMsGuild (to me) would just be silly NOT to make. ...Van Richtens magic shop is requested a LOT. When the party first enters Barovia, I can picture them being chased in to a fortified farm by a pack of dire wolves / werewolves at dusk (perhaps the first couple of farms won't unbarricade their doors). I'm sure you can see the utility of the rest. Will everybody need a Roc nest on a cliff above the forest? No. Will DMs derail their campaign for a minute just for the opportunity to make the party loot a Roc nest? Yes. :
Finally, I would note that since I wrote this list, a few cartographers have added some of the above locations to their Library, but the vast majority of these are as of yet, untouched. :)

All of Savathun’s Truths and Lies so far
In each of these, two are truths, and two are lies.

Insight

• Savathun is in control of Io, Titan and Mercury
• The Witness returned Mars from the Void
• The Guardians will soon learn to move planets
• The Taken King will return

Catalyst

• The Enigma is one key to defeating the Witness
• The Witness seeks the Final Shape, which is nothing
• The Last City is not the last city
• The Witness will build its army on Mars

Pact

• Osiris is dead
• Savathun is dead
• The Witness created the Darkness
• Your Destiny lies beyond the Solar System

Choice

• The Traveler will leave
• The Traveler will fall
• The Traveler is not the only one of its kind
• The Hive are not the last to be chosen by the Light

Thanks u/Luke-HW for putting this^ together.

Insight:

• Savathun is in control of Io, Titan and Mercury Honestly seems unlikely as we have personally put The Witch Queen into a very nice retirement home that doubles as an urn. Her Ghost is still alive yes but Titan came back while she was still in her new 1 bedroom.
• The Witness returned Mars from the Void. Again, still unsure. Why take it away in the first place just to return it? Does this have anything to do with the truth/lie in Catalyst? Why is Void capitalized?
• The Guardians will soon learn to move planets So are we moving the actual celestial bodies of planets in RoN? Or did someone or something else force Titan and Mars out of The Witnesses grasp?
• The Taken King will return As of last week it seemed pretty obvious that this would have been one of the two lies. But here we are with the living body but dead mind of The Taken King. He has, in a way, returned. There's always another secret.
  

  Catalyst:

• The Enigma is one key to defeating the Witness I may be jumping the gun a little bit but I find it hard to believe that the, tutorial to crafting, legendary, sub-par for it's weapon type glave is anything close to a key to defeating The Witnesses, unless of course the real ~treasure~ key was the ~friends~ weapons we made along the way.
  
• The Last City is not the last city Seems like an obvious one, Neomuna has been discovered and brought (arguably) more questions than answers. But here it is none the less.
  
• The Witness seeks the Final Shape, which is nothing Seems likely enough to me. Calus was promised, more or less, to be the last thing The Witnesses destroyed in the universe. (Calus is the Final Shape confirmed) *The Witness will build its army on Mars Does he even need an army? I mean, he uses Disciples as pawns because he can't be everywhere at once himself but both Rhulk and Calus where fucking raid bosses. And they're just the ones we know about. So is he training new disciples on Mars?
  

Pact

• Osiris is dead On God, if Osiris is a meat puppet again I will personally [REDACTED] in Savathun's ashes.
• Savathun is dead Yet another with too many meanings. TECHNICALLY whoever was rezzed is no longer Savathun, similar to how Crow is no longer Uldren. And even then, if she still is Savathun she is again TECHNICALLY dead, as her Ghost hasn't rezzed her.
• The Witness created the Darkness Nope. Have pretty solid confirmation that The Witnesses is just it's controller, not it's creator.
• Your Destiny lies beyond the Solar System Roll credits she said the name. But in all seriousness what happens after we either beat or get beaten by the darkness? Probably help the Cabal and Fallen take back their home worlds right? Or go beat up the Vex

Choice

• The Traveler will leave Traveler traveled. It left the last city, but it's still in our system. How far does something have to go to be considered "left"?
• The Traveler will fall Sigh notice the very obvious use of the word "fall" and not "die" or "perish" so if the traveler either plops itself down somewhere or Fucking dies this could be true.
• The Traveler is not the only one of its kind We got lots of pyramids and only one ball. For all we know there may be millions of pyramids and travelers out there doing their own thing. The Witness is the one with problems against the Traveler, for all we know the Darkness would rather just be vibing.(tbh I hope this one is a truth)
• The Hive are not the last to be chosen by the Light Hey why not. Cabal and Fallen aren't our enemies anymore (excluding certain factions) and if hive, our undiplomatic 100% for certain enemies can be revived, why couldn't our new homies. Imagine a Cabal phalanx using a titan shield or a Fallen vandal popping spectral blades. (yet another I hope to be a truth)

I'm conclusion, Savy loves her double meanings and I need a 20 pack of crayola because my head hurts. Any and all help narrowing down answers would be most appreciated, and thank you for your time.

I'm a beginner, not really an expert with gear, and still trying to choose what type of gloves I should get. There's an MMA gear shop near me which is actually the exclusive distributor of Twins gloves for my country, so I thought I should save up and buy from them.

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A hardware or software issue may be the cause of your iPhone's screen flickering or flashing Try increasing your iPhone's brightness settings, turning off auto-brightness, or upgrading the software. If the problem persists, butler, an iPhone screen repair may be necessary Problems with the backlight or display may be the cause of your iPhone's screen seeming dark, too bright, or with uneven lighting. You might try changing the brightness settings, turning off auto-brightness, or clearing the settings on your iPhone. If the issue persists iPhone screen repair services are required.
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I was looking at buying a 50cc and I've heard the buddy is one of the better ones. A scooter shop near me has one for sale with 2100 miles on it. Is that alot of miles for a 50cc buddy? How many should you expect to et out of it? Thank you in advance

So I'm 60 hours in and just reached bbi yesterday and killed matt daimon. The only time my pawn was ever hired was when I was level 20 so that rc really helped my first run of bbi.
​
Male fighter Abydon level 89
​
Skills:
literally only dragons maw no shield skills at all.
​
Augments:
Vehemence
Clout
Sinew
Proficiency
Prescience
Ferocity
​
Gear:
Ascalon and Sable sentinel for weapons
Immortals helm
Plated coat and divine surcoat
Immortals bracers
full chain hosen and hellfire greaves
direwolf cape
​
Inclinations
Scather
Mitigator
​
Rings
Ogre bone
bailfull nails
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Mans is a walking tank literally eats everything and perfect blocks all the time.
​
I had to do another playthrough after seeing that trailer. Just playing dd again is getting me so hyped. Any tips would be most appreciated!
I'm on pc btw if that matters

Not sure if Roland, Yamaha or some other brand is recommended. It looks like good options might be Roland TD17kvx2 or Yamaha DTX10k.
There is no shop near me with either drum.
What’s recommended in this budget? Want something durable that has great drum sounds and feel. Large drum size or kit size is not important.

Hello guys, I’m looking for a band willing to write some good music. Inspiration from all genres is welcome. I’ve played in metal bands and alt/indie cover bands, but now I want to write some music of my own with a band that is willing to welcome me. Something close to a Tame Impala w/Shoegaze sounds would be cool.
I have gear and I have transportation. I stay in Compton, but work in Orange, so any bands along the 91 east bound to the 5 South anywhere near theBlock shopping center would be great!!! I’m willing to drive a little further down and even up to Whittier. If the band is good and the mates are willing… then we just might be able to rock!

I’ve got both a PS4 and an Xbox Series X. I recently played all 4 Uncharted Games back to back and watched tons of videos comparing the two series and most of the time people say Uncharted is better but holy sh-t do I disagree. I wanted to give Lara and Tomb Raider a fair shake since they did it first anyways (in the 90s). 2013 Tomb Raider was an awesome but flawed game, I personally think the combat was more fun and intuitive than the First 3 Uncharted Games which relied heavily on super scripted arenas or awful hand to hand. I’ll admit there are a lot of things Nate can do that Lara can’t as a controllable character (shooting while hanging or balancing etc.) but the actual world in the 2013 TR was really cool because there was actual reason for backtracking and rewards for exploring. In uncharted “off the beaten path” was taken a bit too literally in the linearity of the game. There would often be 1 smaller path that has 1 or 2 collectibles. They expanded on it a lot in each game but still felt incredibly linear. In the 2013 Tomb Raider I felt none of that restriction with most areas being semi open area with an obvious direction you’re supposed to go. I found it fun to just explore around for 30-40 minutes before heading to the next objective.
I’m not here to talk about 2013 though. I’m currently on Rise and wow they improved nearly everything to the point where this game is significantly more fun for me than even Uncharted 4 so far. The open areas are even bigger and the increased emphasis on stealth like climbing trees and a better detection system/colors to know if enemies can be spotted makes it fun to sneak around and take out enemies. There are still scripted battle arenas but there’s a LOT more player choice than the first game AND the entirety of the Uncharted series. They increased the amount of tombs and added several caves that aren’t tombs to explore. One of my biggest complaints about the Tombs in the last game was the rewards felt meaningless. Now Lara gets abilities from the Tombs, though the ones I’ve gotten haven’t been anything revolutionary I think it goes a long way towards my enjoyment knowing the reward will be more tangible for completing the tomb.
Adding crafting into the game (even though I think it’s kind of annoying) further incentivizes players to engage with the mechanics of the game. Lara had little to no reason to hunt in the first game outside of XP Gain. Giving you a reason to hunt to upgrade your weapons and use resources in the environment to craft weapons and bombs is genius and I’m sure was ripped straight from TLOU but is 100% welcome and makes sense for this universe too. I’m not too far into the story of Rise yet but these are just some of the many improvements I’ve seen over the gameplay from the first, and a lot of reasons why I think these games are just as good if not better than the Uncharted ones for me. Obviously I think Uncharted wins in terms of spectacle, and climbing mechanics (Uncharted 4) but minute to minute gameplay? I’m surprised more people gravitate towards the Uncharted Series. I was a bit disappointed with UC 1. 2 was amazing. 3 dragged on longer than it should have and 4 was absolutely phenomenal. But TR 2013 for me came out swinging attempting to fix the flaws of past Tomb Raider games and Uncharted ones. And Rise is a true return to form improving basically everything.
My only complaints about Rise is that Lara still can’t perform any actions while balancing or hanging. I understand not being able to craft/shoot while gaming but you should 100% be able to craft and shoot while in the trees. Maybe these are upgrades I’ll get later so please excuse me if I’m wrong on that critique but I tried to shoot someone with an arrow while standing in a tree branch and she wouldn’t do it, nor would she craft the arrows while standing up there. I could also do without the translation thing. It doesn’t feel as natural of a reason to backtrack as getting a new tool or weapon does. And speaking of tools. I appreciate the ability to buy old upgrades at shops but I also think it’s wild. Most of those upgrades were earned through story progression or optional challenges in the last game. Taking them all from us then making us buy then back opposing to earning them or getting them when the story provides is crazy. Once again not super far so maybe I’m wrong but like the Rope Ascension Tool should not be locked behind a purchase I should get it once it’s needed or better yet put items like those in secret areas. It’s a small nitpick I think I just appreciated Lara’s naturally progression of acquiring these tools and felt let down about them all just being in a shack in Rise.
Sorry for the novel just wanted to get these thoughts out. I’m toying around with idea of being one of those YouTube video essayists but that’s a lot of footage to edit 😂.

Has anyone else had car accidents or near accidents as a result of their ADHD?
A post I just read and commented in reminded me of mine and it makes me feel horrible. I feel like the worst example of ADHD and why it is so stigmatized. Then I also remember that at the time of my accidents, I was still undiagnosed and unmedicated.
Fortunately, only one of the accidents I was in resulted in major damage to the vehicle I was driving, and there was no other vehicle in the road when it happened. That was the first one. I wasn't distracted, I was just driving maybe a little too fast, spun out in the snow after making a turn, careened into the ditch and crashed into the tree. That may have been more a result of my carelessness than the ADHD. I was driving my dad's van at the time.
The second time, I was texting at a red light (I know, I am ashamed to admit to my phone useage behind the wheel). Saw the light turn green but didn't pay attention to the car in front of me and rear-ended them (I had only just started moving from a stop so it wasn't that bad but it did take off a piece of their rear bumper). I pulled over to the shoulder behind them and the driver came to my car and talked to me. I apologized profusely. A cop came to the scene and gave me a ticket, I was told to show up to court and if the other driver didn't show up to just plead innocent. I insisted on pleaing guilty because I didn't want to lie, but I'm pretty sure the other driver didn't show up (I couldn't remember what he even looked like and didn't get his information). Even my dad said I should have just plead innocent like the cop told me to do. I was driving ANOTHER one of my dad's vans (he had 2 or 3 at the time but I think when he got a 3rd was because of the accident I had in the 2nd).
Other times were just near accidents (almost side swiping someone because I was excited talking to my friend who was in the passenger seat) or just scraping other cars while trying to park (I feel like the awful, awful stereotype of "bad female drivers", this is not how I feel about females but I feel like a poor representation). One time I scraped a car was because I had smoked weed with a friend and decided to stop for doughnuts on my way home at like 6am. -_- When I parked, there wasn't a car next to me. But a car did pull in next to mine before I got out. I was on the phone with a friend (hands free), and I went into the doughnut shop, got my doughnuts, and went back to the car. Started talking to my friend again, and silly me I forgot that car was parked next to me and yeah. A man saw me do it, and was like "you need to tell the person" when I got out to inspect the damage and I told him "I know, I was going to do that". I went into the doughnut shop and the owner was the girl behind the counter. I told her what I'd done and we both went out to look. I told her how I was sorry, i was really tired, and she seemed understanding in the moment saying "it's okay, I'm tired too, I get it" but I sat in my car a while processing it. I saw the guy go into the store and talk to the girl, who then came out to ask to exchange info, she wanted because I think it was her dad's car or her dad had bought it for her and in case her dad wanted to handle things. I texted her and asked for an estimate, told her I'd pay cash, but she didn't respond. This was in my car. My dad noticed the damage after a while and was understandably pissed. There was one time I was still driving one of my dad's vans and I pulled into a space. Was blasting music and didn't know i got a little too close to another car and scraped it. They were in the car when it happened. I got out to look with them and they were able to just buff out the scuff wirh their finger and said it was okay after I apologized.
I dented the side of the front of my car by backing in too fast and closely to the fence on the side of my driveway.
OH, quite possibly the worst and most recent (a few weeks ago) was when I accidentally ran a red light after stopping to give a guy holding a sign some money... there were no cars behind me so I stopped before getting to the green light, and after handing him the money and telling him I liked his sign ("Why lie? I need a beer"), I kept going because I didn't notice the light had changed. I got distracted, YET AGAIN. Thankfully I noticed pretty quickly and just kept going instead of panicking and stopping like I normally would have done, and didn't collide with anyone else. It was so scary and quite possibly one of my worst experiences with ADHD. I had to sit in the parking lot of the store i was going to for a bit to process before going in.
I think that's it. But it's pretty extensive. I guess my only "saving grace" if there is any is the fact that I always apologized and took accountability for every instance where there was another vehicle involved. And thankfully most damges were minimal and forgiveable. I also feel like I kind of skated around harsh consequences like increases in my insurance and major collisions with others.
Just posting this has me sweating and worried I will be ridiculed for recklessness. Sometimes I wish I didn't have to drive in all honesty, I've gotten a lot better, I'm more cautious when parking now (though I find it a lot easier and snoother when I have more confidence), but I get stressed while driving sometimes and I had really bad anxiety over it when I was first learning. I grew up having a few bad dreams about driving and losing control of the wheel and I feel like my dreams were prophetic in a way, but I also wonder if my dreams stuck in my subconscious and made it worse, contributing to my anxiety. I enjoy driving now, but honestly it seems my worst moments are in parking situations or when I'm driving slower. How do you run into a parked car... smh.
I did have a couple instances of my car being hit in parking lots this year and once getting side swiped leaving my old job, and none od those times did the person stop and leave info so that kinda makes me feel a bit better lol. But I'm still somewhat ashamed of the careless mistakes I've made behind the wheel. My dad even lectured me and made a comment "I've never gotten into an accident and I've driven drunk" and comments like that really hurt because it's like great, I'm sober and can't function (except the time I was driving high which I will never do again at least not right after smoking).