You have probably seen discussions elsewhere on reddit about the latest hot topic regarding reddit's controversial decision to introduce / raise prices on its API usage. You can read more details about the situation on these posts:

• April 18th: https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/12qwagm/an_update_regarding_reddits_api/
  
• June 2nd: https://www.reddit.com/Save3rdPartyApps/comments/13yh0jf/dont_let_reddit_kill_3rd_party_apps/
  
• June 4th: https://www.reddit.com/ModCoord/comments/1401qw5/incomplete_and_growing_list_of_participating/
  
• June 9th: https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/
  

The Moderation team here at TrueZelda is directly affected by these changes, as well as anyone who uses a 3rd party app (whether for accessibility, privacy, or other features). Everyone is indirectly affected, because while users of 3rd party apps may not be the most numerous demographic, they are a particularly active demographic - which means that a significant and disproportionately large amount of the posts and comments that you read here come from users of 3rd party apps.
Some 3rd party apps, including Apollo, Reddit is Fun, and Sync have already announced their closures at the end of this month.

We are asking for the community voice on this matter

We want to hear from members and contributors to TrueZelda about whether this subreddit should participate in the protest / blackout for 2 days starting June 12th.
Please voice your opinion here in the comments. To combat community interference, we will be locking and removing comments from new accounts and from accounts with low subreddit karma.
To make things clear, please start your comments with one of the following words:

• Blackout - if you think TrueZelda should go private for the 48 hours (no one will be able to view anything on or from TrueZelda).
  
• Stay Open - if you think TrueZelda should remain open for the 48 hours.
  
• Abstain - if you want to voice an opinion or comment without voting one way or the other.
  

Tomorrow, we will lock this post and tally the results in another announcement post.

Link - https://tabletopmerchant.com/products/dog-park-standard-edition-see-low-price-at-checkout
BGG - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/331401/dog-park

Did a drywall patch and paint . Patch was 6x8 Paint was a wall upon which the stairs climb so triangle shaped in living room no more than 70 sq ft. I’ve been told I bill too low .

I visited my first pen show last Sunday and just wanted to leave some observations.
What I enjoyed most is that you can hold a pen, look at its features, design, filling mechanism and overall weight and inspect the nib. Ask questions about the fountain pens. Look at what interests others and ask them what they like. Perhaps they like something you haven’t considered. Prices were reasonable as well and was able to get some fountain pens for last year’s prices (all vendors seem to be raising prices this year, by several hundred $/€).
Some fountain pens will look fantastic online (honeycomb) and neh in the wild… a pen show takes care of that in a heartbeat!
I also noticed that some brands like the Omas are (excuse my ignorance) overly hyped. I found them really light, material nice but nothing wow, trim very thin and prices trough the roof. In my opinion if you like Arco then get a Montegrappa Extra (Otto) Custom with the Shiny Lines celluloid or a Zebra pattern and have a fountain pen that can be serviced and has guarantee…
It also became clear to me that, just like online platforms, you don’t necessarily find the best fountain pens out there on a pen show. Perhaps people tend to hold on to the really nice pens and offload what they don’t want. For example if you have a good M100x or M80x with EF nib it’s just a beautiful pen to write with, but on eBay you will hardly find a EF nib on the listed Pelikans, most will have a M nib, that says something.
So you really have to be on the lookout not to buy someone else’s disappointment. Some fountain pen collections presented on a show could be a graveyard of unwanted pens of sorts. So you really have to pay attention to the practicality of what you are holding. I use all my fountain pens, so I consider useability, it is key.
The pen show also prompted me to re-arrange my collection. I have many Japanese pens because they are almost always perfect, so low risk for a online purchase and import. They can also be very … well boring design wise (should say timeless classics). The pen show allowed me to purchase some nice fountain pens that I did not consider before but that are stylish timeless objects, with heavy use of silver and colorful celluloid or acrylics.
Anyway, let me know your pen show takeaways, and thanks for reading.
I will go again next year and save up for the event.

I don't understand why I'm being hit while blocking on wake up. the attacks that are hitting me aren't low or high hitting attacks but they will still hit me. this problem also occurs when the opponent drops combo for a short period of time and will then hit through my block when it shouldn't. does anyone know why this could be happening? I am going insane because of this game.

Remnant 2 standard edition is 50 dollars which is good for us I guess but is it? Is the price tag being that low in this day and age a bad sign?

TLDR: I’ve finally had enough of the cheating, lies, manipulation, and abuse and I’m ready to leave for good but my life is in shambles and I’m afraid of him. Seeking advice on how to navigate and recover from this terrible situation I’ve put myself in.
I’ll try to be as brief as I can. It’s a lot…
I was with my child’s daddy for my whole adult life. 14 years. He’s all I ever knew and for the most part, our relationship was great. There was no cheating or abuse. He was a good dad and my best friend. The last couple years were a nonstop barrage of curveballs and hardships that took a big toll on both of us and our relationship. He made some big mistakes that hurt us a lot and I eventually decided we needed to separate.
When I left, he turned into a man I didn’t recognize. It was and still is traumatizing. I thought we’d be best friends, or at least good coparents. I expected him to be angry and fight me initially but I had no idea he was capable of what he’s done. He hates me. False accusations of domestic abuse and infidelity, accusations of mental illness and unfit parenting. Vicious smear campaign and endless frivolous litigation from his team of very expensive men’s rights lawyers trying to take our child from me.
It was the worst thing that had ever happened and I didn’t understand. I was a stay at home mom and we weren’t married so when I left, we agreed to “nest” in our home while it sold, taking turns staying with our daughter to ease her into the transition. But when I left the first night, he changed the locks on our home, filed a police report of lies and a protective order not allowing me near our home or daughter, and hired a lawyer to petition for full custody. He cleared out my bank account. I was penniless with nothing but an overnight bag and my car. Nothing ever stuck because it was always based on lies. He would drop the accusations before we ever saw a judge. But then would start the whole thing over again.
One after another, I was able to prove my innocence against his lies. Even has a full psych eval with third party input that took a week with one of the top doctors in the state to put to rest his claims of being delusional and mentally unstable. The doctor said that I was depressed and had ptsd from what he’d done but that I was otherwise mentally sound. He also noted that in all of his career, he’d never had someone try so hard to manipulate him into a diagnosis and that my ex’s reaction when he caught him in a lie was troubling. He recommended he have a psych eval as well but I didn’t have the 7k to pay for it and I just kept hoping that he would tucker himself out and stop wanting to hurt me. It wasn’t like him and I attributed everything to him feeling helpless and afraid himself, and betrayed and broken hearted that I left. He really is a good man. I hoped if I stayed the course and didn’t fight back other than defending myself, he would want to move forward and focus on rebuilding his life and giving our sweet baby the best childhood possible. I only ever asked for 50/50 and no child support, despite being her primary caretaker while he worked (at his request) for her entire life until then. I wanted nothing but to be left alone.
It was only a little over a year in and I certainly was not ready or healed enough to be dating. But things were getting better. He’d run out of things to accuse me of. I got a job and a cute apartment for my girl and me and it was finally steady. I thought I’d dip my toe back in and try casually dating. I shouldn’t have. I was lonely and still struggled on the days I didn’t have my daughter.
It didn’t take long before I met him. Oh my gosh. An angel. It was whirlwind. I’d never met anyone like him and I didn’t know love could be so good. The most charming, romantic, handsome, perfect man in the world. And he wanted me!?! It was crazy. I was smitten. It was passionate and intimate and exciting every single day. He’d hand write me the most beautiful love letters. My apartment looked like someone died with the amount of flowers he sent. He was always planning amazing adventures for us and doting on me. It made it all make sense. It was all worth it because it lead me to him.
I’m an idiot… And introduced him to my daughter four months in. I’d never been so sure about anything. I mean, we’d already mapped out our future together. This was for keeps. Might as well lean in! And my god, they hit it off instantly. She adored him. She lit up when he came around. He’d bring a bouquet of flowers for each of us. They’d text each other memes and jokes. Ugh my heart. My girl doesn’t like men.. She’s sassy and the way she latched onto him was proof that this was all meant to be.
He has a daughter about the same age! They loved each other, too. My girl always wanted a sibling and it couldn’t be more perfect. My life was perfect. He was the sweetest daddy. He always planned an adventure the weekends we had our girls. He was so thankful I let him be a part of our lives and told me he took it very seriously. He would be a man she could look up to. He would show her stoicism and strength and restore what she had lost from the trauma of what her father did.
He said he was going to marry me. He’d text me house listings and tell me stories of how we’d spend our evenings reading to each other on the porch and watching our babies play.
It was only 6 months in that something changed. He would snap at me for things I didn’t understand. He would get wasted and yell at me for not really loving him. Accuse me of cheating or using him or wanting to make him my “little b**** boy.” It was horrible. I would pour myself into trying to explain away whatever he was on about but it never worked. Always ended in me fleeing and him blocking me for a day or two. Then he would come back full of remorse and regret and say he realized he was looking at it all wrong. He just loved me so much. He would be so sweet again.
I didn’t understand. I’d never experienced anything like this. The highs or the lows. And I loved him so much. I loved the future we were building.
Not long after, during one of his rages, he told me he’d been cheating on me. Not to confess, but to hurt me. He hates when I cry and it makes him so cruel. I was crying about him being mean and mad at me for some drunken thing he made up and he let me have it. Said the meanest things. Ripped me to pieces. And then told me he was sleeping with a beautiful young nurse who was much more fun than me.
I could go on and on. But the gist is that I kept taking him back. And it kept getting worse. Before long, I was completely isolated from my friends and spend every second I had trying to make him happy and get back to the yum we had before.
He’s now admitted to having 6 physical affairs and doesn’t know how many women he “talked to.” I know of at least 3 others that he slept with.
Each time I would find out, he would rage at me and then block me and go be with other women for a few days. Which was bad enough but then I found out about the smear campaign. He’d been spreading vicious lies about me. And most of them mirrored the same accusations my child’s father said. That was intentional. He told everyone in his life that I was mentally ill, abusive, violent, controlling. That I stalked him and got him. He told people I tried to stab him one night.
I found this out because he called my child father and told him all of these things. He claims he was drunk and doesn’t remember it, which could actually be true but I don’t know. My kids dad recorded the phone call and used it to file a motion to take her from me.
He kept promising he would come clean and fix everything he did. Kept saying he needed a couple days to figure out how and to make sure he did me justice. But it kept not happening. It’s been a year now and every time I break down and demand he finally clears my name, he managed to twist the whole conversation into me just wanting revenge for the past and I’m a vengeful abuser that doesn’t love him. And then leaves and blocks me again.
A few months ago, after yet another breakup, I was done. I left for good. But I’m still an idiot and when he came back, he said he had an epiphany and he couldn’t stand the shame and pain of suddenly realizing what he’d done to me. He was ready to be honest and do whatever he could to fix what he broke.
We sat down and he admitted in detail to all the women he physically cheated with. Admitted the lies he told about me. Explained his reasons for everything, which were basically that he’s a scared little boy that doesn’t think I could ever love him and he needed the comfort and validation of others and couldn’t see what it did to me. Partially compartmentalization and partially thinking I wouldn’t care anyway because I didn’t actually care about him and was probably doing all the same things behind his back.
It was an exhausting and emotionally taxing conversation but it was so good to me. He cried with remorse and held me and validated all the things he’s worked so hard to make me feel bad for. I believed him. I had hope again but I was too mentally drained to continue and he was too so we decided to “love bubble” for a couple days and then sit down and actually take steps to fix what he did to me.
When it came, he went right back to the same narrative and behavior as before. That I wanted to punish him and rub his nose in his mistakes and ruin his life. I was livid. I left and took his iPad. Found out he was still cheating with multiple women, that the “truth” he told me was bull, that he was still smearing me and nobody even knew we were seeing each other. And that one of the affairs was with a 19 year old girl he met on a hunting trip while he was still married. He wrote her love letters and poems all day and then snuck her off and got her drunk and slept with her in the backseat of his truck. He hasn’t seen her since but they send nudes and declare each other their soulmates and talk about how they’ll end up together someday. We’re in the process of planning a trip together in the next month.
Gross.
She was 29 years old and he was 41 and married with a child when he went after her. And they’ve continued on for 3 years. One of the love letters he sent her was mine. I wrote it to him. He stole my words and used them to seduce this girl. I found out recently he used that same letter on several of the women he cheated with. It makes me sick.
I think I stayed so long because I felt so helpless in my life. I just wanted to give my daughter a happy family and be a normal person. And I thought I’d found that so when everything was proving otherwise, I was too scared and weak to admit it. I gaslit myself because I was scared what it meant for me to have to go against two men that want to hurt me. I am still too scared.
I still don’t understand. I’m not perfect but I’m good to the men I love. I spoil them. I fulfill all of their fantasies. I’m patient and generous and give endless grace and always look for the good under a mistake. I’m the best hype girl. I love nothing more than lifting up the people I love and showing them how powerful and worthy they are. I hate letting people down.
I have only ever once turned down sex with him. and it was after he’d just yelled at me and made me cry because I found out he rawdogged a tinder woman in our bed and let me sleep in the dirty sheets. He got so angry and accused me of thinking he’s a predator and he ripped the sheets off the bed and threw them at me so hard that when I blocked it, it made my hand hit me in the face and gave me a black eye. Then he chased me out of the house while I was scurrying to get dressed, telling me to Jill myself and nobody would ever love me, and punched the door next to my face as I was trying to open it to leave. Then he called the cops and filed a report saying I hit him. I guess he’s done that several times after I left.
Anyway… sheesh. I’m scatterbrained. So after he’d taken back his promise to clear my name, I told him I would have to do it myself. I started recording his rages after I found out he was telling people I abused him. I also recorded the conversations of him admitting he was lying about me. Also many of the conversations about the women were via text. Including the ones about the teenager, his friend/coworker’s wife, a married woman that worked for him who had a mental breakdown from the affair, etc, etc, etc.
I said that he had the opportunity to clear my name however he wanted to without exposing himself. That I didn’t want to harm his life, just fix mine. He could create a whole new narrative of lies for all I cared as long as it cleared me from the vile things he made up about me.
He broke his hand in the wall next to my head by punching it so hard. I left. He called the police and filed a report that I broke in and hit him. And then hired a lawyer and filed a PO on the basis of domestic violence, stalking, and blackmail. All the while trying to bait me into coming over saying he loved me and wanted to fix it so he could have me arrested.
I didn’t even hire a lawyer because it seemed so absurd and I had so much proof he was lying. If recorded it. I had screenshots of him denying it and telling me to come see him and he wanted to marry me. Also because I was poor. He has gotten me fired from my job a couple weeks prior.
His lawyer was good. She shot down my evidence in the heating and used the police reports as proof… which seems like a weird thing to do because they were his testimony. But the judge said she almost never denies a PO because at the very least, those people should stay away from each other. It was granted based on stalking because I’d made a Google drive file of some recordings and screenshots and sent them to several family members and friends begging them to help me. They ignored me. He told them I was insane and not to open it.
My child’s father used that to take her away again.
I’ve been fighting tooth and nail but I’m drowning. Nobody cares. I’m so worn down and have panic attacks almost every day.
Unsurprisingly, he came back recently. So sorry and full of remorse and shame. She’s it all so much clearer now and can’t live with himself for what he did. Can’t live without me. Tugs my heartstrings talking about reading on the porch of our beautiful family home and reminiscing about the good loving times.
Means promises. Same lies. The thing is, I do believe he means it. I think he means it every time. It’s just that the shame and fear of actually following through and publicly facing what he did makes him retreat and go back to the delusional narrative that I abused him and he didn’t do any of the things he did.
I believe he really means it but I no longer believe he’s capable or will mean it in the times he should. He will not change. He wants to be a good man. Something is broken in him. He stopped drinking bourbon but still drinks beer every night. He abuses steroids and vyvanse and they make him irritable and angry and unpredictable. He has so much self loathing and shame. He hates himself. He’s built like a Greek god, the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen, but he has body dysmorphia and starves himself and binges and runs several miles every single day and also goes to the gym for two hours. He has to smoke those super strong joints dipped in something and take half a bottle of zzzquil to sleep at night. On top of the 10+ beers, steroids, and vyvanse. He never remembers anything and I think he really thinks I’m making a lot of it up but refuses to listen to the recordings.
This time, even though I didn’t believe him, I was so broken and felt so helpless that I let him come back hoping he would at least drop the PO and help me get my daughter home.
He finally dropped the PO after weeks of being sketchy about it. I think he wanted to use it as leverage to protect himself in case I exposed him. I’d go to jail.
But once again, I told him either he needs to clear my name or I would and he’s latched on tot he same old victim narrative that I’m trying to get revenge and destroy him for the past. Has blocked me again. I have a feeling he’s out filing police reports and trying to get another PO. But it won’t work this time because I refused to be physically near him and haven’t told anyone anything yet.
I have to defend myself from his lies to get my daughter back. He’s not going to come clean. But after seeing how rotten the court system is, I am terrified he’s going to either find a way to put me in prison with his lies or kill me if he feels trapped. I really believe if he felt it was hopeless and he was exposed, he would him me and himself.
This was so long. I’m sorry. I’m wordy. It’s a lot. But if anyone read this and can give me some advice, I would be so thankful. I can’t see straight and have no idea what I’m doing. I haven’t left my house in days because I panic and get dizzy trying to go outside. I need help. And I need to never date ever again if I manage to climb out of this mess. I’m not good at it.

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I have a storm shelter in the basement. The wall is made from cinderblocks. the ceiling is drywall. I see 1.5-inch gaps along the top where the cinder block wall is supposed to meet with the drywall ceiling. Is there a reason / purpose for this or is it just unfinished? I am planning to fill the gaps with a foam backer rod and then caulk it with acrylic latex. Hoping to get some advice on whether to do what I plan to do or leave it alone.

My maid of honor and I went to start looking at dresses, didn’t intend to buy, just to start looking at styles that worked for me. Well, at our second appointment, the first dress I tried on was so amazing. Every dress after that just didn’t feel as good as that first one. The only thing I didn’t like about it was that it didn’t have a corset back but the shop said they can alter it and give it a corset back for $100. The dress cost $1,400, but because they didn’t have to order it they gave me 20% off, plus all alterations are included in the price. Overall, it cost $1,200.
I put the deposit on it and I’m happy with my choice, and there’s no going back now even if I wanted to. But I wanted to keep that cost as low as I could, thinking I would just buy a cheap dress somewhere else and get it altered. I guess I just feel bad to myself that I didn’t stick to my plan of keeping it cheap? I never in my life thought I would spend that much on something I’ll wear once. Is this normal?? Did I make a horrible mistake?
For more info, my dad is paying up to $10k towards our wedding, and we can pay up to a couple thousand more if we go over. We can still fit this in our budget, it was just more than I intended to spend. I’m also bad at shopping and generally indecisive so I’m wondering if I made a choice too quickly since we got the dress at only the second shop we went to. (The first one had really poor service)

I have a buyer who previously harassed me through 3 different accounts several times a day to come down in price, free shipping etc. All of the accts had the same zip code. I asked them why they were talking to me through 3 different accounts and they immediately stopped messaging. I eventually blocked the 3 accts and relisted the item.
About a month later the item sold and I shipped it out.
Today the buyer messaged me saying the item is damaged (sent photos) and demands partial refund or they will return it and leave negative feedback. I offered free returns on this listing and said that I'm happy to offer a full refund if they send it back. They replied saying it would take two weeks for me to get the item and refund them. They insisted that I give them half their money back and we can move forward.
I checked their address because I didn't understand why they said it would take 2 weeks. Turns out it's the exact zip code of the other 3 accounts who had previously harassed me about this item non-stop.
I noticed a few mins ago that they left negative feedback. Saying I sent them a damaged item and refused a partial refund.
My question is...should I wait until the return window is closed before asking for ebay to remove the feedback? Or just go ahead and assume they aren't returning it and ask for it to be removed now?
This is my first negative that I think qualifies for removal in my 23 years on eBay.
TIA!

Originally posted on psychonaut
I’ve never smoked DMT, but it’s a possibility I’ve been considering for about a year now. I find it fascinating to ponder the nature of what “reality” truly is, and how our perception (and the limits thereof) shape what we believe to be real. I’m somewhat experienced with psychedelics, having taken LSD a handful of times (never more than a single tab, though), but nothing else.
Last night, I hit up an old plug of mine from my hometown (since nobody in my town seems to have any DMT), and he had it! So in my mind, this put actually taking the damn stuff into the realm of real possibility; I could probably pick some up next time I visited family! I ended up reading trip reports pretty late until I fell asleep around 3:30am, and reality and dream began to blend together:
I’ve driven back to my hometown, and I’ve ostensibly arrived at my plug’s apartment (which I’ve never seen or been to). I enter the apartment, and an aura of friendship and camaraderie is palpable. I haven’t/don’t communicate with this guy outside of picking up drugs, so I would have expected to feel like a fish out of water at a stranger’s home, but instead it was as if I was where I belonged. He then showed me various 510 cartridges with clear liquid, as well as a jar of freebase DMT. He showed me his personal cartridge, which was extremely low (basically an e-roach, lol), but it was still something. When I realized I had no money in my pocket, he generously offered me the remains of his cartridge. The feeling when he gave it to me was a feeling of completeness; the attainment of something seemingly unattainable. My plug gave off an energy of pure friendship and calmness, which helped my anxiety around taking flight. Not wanting to impose, though, I thanked him profusely , and I went home to hit my nearly-depleted cartridge.
I laid down in my home at my parents’ house, took just one large hit, and immediately I was soaring through a tunnel of electric, pulsing light. It was like being sucked through a wormhole of all quantum possibilities; a condensation of all reality is, was, and could be. I had an intense body load that made me feel as if I was riding on the fastest rollercoaster I would ever ride. I was quite scared at my loss of control of the situation, but an internal voice essentially told me that everything was okay, and that I could let go. When I did let go, I entered a sort of white space of nothingness. I calmed myself down by taking long, deep breaths, and eventually, the blinding white void faded back into my regular vision. I was still on the bed, heart pounding, but ultimately feeling transformed.
That’s the last I remember before waking up around noon. It felt so real yet unreal; there was absolutely the feeling of being outside oneself that I’ve come accustomed to in my LSD trips, only magnified. When I woke up, though, I was back in base reality, ego intact. I had an intense, gripping desire to go back to the DMT world, but was disappointed when I realized I didn’t actually have any. Usually, I’m glad to wake up and realize my dreams weren’t real, however, this was certainly an exception.
I talked to my plug this morning, and he’s offering freebase for $100/g, which seems to be a fair price. After this dream experience, I would love to take him up on that offer, but I feel that I may be in over my head. It’s been over a year since I’ve done LSD, so I’m considering taking 2 tabs at least once and then psilocybin for the first time at some point to better prepare myself for DMT. If DMT is a fraction of what I experienced in my dream, I think I’ve got a lot of preparation to do.
If anyone else has had a dream experience taking a psychedelic (and perhaps one you hadn’t taken in base reality already), I’d love to hear your experience! It’s fascinating what our minds can show us, and how fragile our reality is; there’s no telling what is actually out there, as we’re limited by our balance of neurotransmitters, other chemicals, and the limited/inadequate “technology” of our own senses.
Safe trips everyone!

Has anyone seen Vitalik's new "Three Transition Plan"? https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/06/09/three_transitions.html
He just posted it on twitter yesterday. The one, "Transition" that caught my attention was privacy. So now, all these years, and countless hours of development later, it becomes apparent that privacy might matter. I applaud them for seeing that as an important feature. But dang, its coming a little late. Don't you think?
So as I see it, after handing over a somewhat decentralized system of POW mining, over to a more centralized system of wealthy elite. Privacy has now come to the forefront of ETH development and innovation. Undeniably, a large portion of node owners are wealthy private investors, corporations, hedge fund investors, etc. Capable of pooling 32 ETH blocks, for indefinite amounts of time. Centralized wealth, now in control of distributed ETH revenue. I'm of the thinking that these large investors, are not keen on publicly displaying capital for all to see. Which is my theory on why privacy is now coming to the forefront of Vitalik's development map.
Either way I'm still loading up on the dip, buying more Monero. Two more XMR mining rigs coming in the mail. Hopefully, I'll be able to really take advantage of our newfound RandomX rental hashrate price increase. Turning more of my analog power into anonymous digital energy. Private, digital energy, that contributes to the largest, most decentralized, private network of digital power that's ever been available.

• My steam profile: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198063019123
• My steam rep: https://steamrep.com/profiles/76561198063019123
• Payment methods: TF keys
• Buyer goes first, no exceptions
• We need to be friends for 30 days before we can trade (according to DOTA 2 gifting policies for new friends)
• Please send me a friend request if you want to reserve any item but please do not try to scam because I will check your profile before adding and ignore if it is a private or a new profile or if your steam rep is low

​

Hero	Item Name	Price	Quantity	Available
Alchemist	Darkbrew's Transgression	1 TF key	1	1
Oracle	Transcendent Path	1 TF key	1	0 (Sold)
Brewmaster	The Wilding Tiger	1 TF key	1	0 (Sold)
Doom	Dawn of a Darkness Foretold	1 TF key	1	0 (Reserved)
Night Stalker	Feasts of Forever	1 TF key	1	1
Phantom Assassin	Darkfeather Factioneer	1 TF key	1	0 (Sold)
Ogre Magi	Freeboot Fortunes	1 TF key	1	1
Vengeful Spirit	Acrimonies of Obsession	1 TF key	1	0 (Sold)
Techies	War Rig Eradicators	1 TF key	1	1
Treant Protector (Rare)	Grudges of the Gallows Tree	4 TF key	1	1
Void Spirit (Very Rare)	Sublime Equilibrium	8 TF key	1	0 (Reserved)

I’ve never smoked DMT, but it’s a possibility I’ve been considering for about a year now. I find it fascinating to ponder the nature of what “reality” truly is, and how our perception (and the limits thereof) shape what we believe to be real. I’m somewhat experienced with psychedelics, having taken LSD a handful of times (never more than a single tab, though), but nothing else.
Last night, I hit up an old plug of mine from my hometown (since nobody in my town seems to have any DMT), and he had it! So in my mind, this put actually taking the damn stuff into the realm of real possibility; I could probably pick some up next time I visited family! I ended up reading trip reports pretty late until I fell asleep around 3:30am, and reality and dream began to blend together:
I’ve driven back to my hometown, and I’ve ostensibly arrived at my plug’s apartment (which I’ve never seen or been to). I enter the apartment, and an aura of friendship and camaraderie is palpable. I haven’t/don’t communicate with this guy outside of picking up drugs, so I would have expected to feel like a fish out of water at a stranger’s home, but instead it was as if I was where I belonged. He then showed me various 510 cartridges with clear liquid, as well as a jar of freebase DMT. He showed me his personal cartridge, which was extremely low (basically an e-roach, lol), but it was still something. When I realized I had no money in my pocket, he generously offered me the remains of his cartridge. The feeling when he gave it to me was a feeling of completeness; the attainment of something seemingly unattainable. My plug gave off an energy of pure friendship and calmness, which helped my anxiety around taking flight. Not wanting to impose, though, I thanked him profusely , and I went home to hit my nearly-depleted cartridge.
I laid down in my home at my parents’ house, took just one large hit, and immediately I was soaring through a tunnel of electric, pulsing light. It was like being sucked through a wormhole of all quantum possibilities; a condensation of all reality is, was, and could be. I had an intense body load that made me feel as if I was riding on the fastest rollercoaster I would ever ride. I was quite scared at my loss of control of the situation, but an internal voice essentially told me that everything was okay, and that I could let go. When I did let go, I entered a sort of white space of nothingness. I calmed myself down by taking long, deep breaths, and eventually, the blinding white void faded back into my regular vision. I was still on the bed, heart pounding, but ultimately feeling transformed.
That’s the last I remember before waking up around noon. It felt so real yet unreal; there was absolutely the feeling of being outside oneself that I’ve come accustomed to in my LSD trips, only magnified. When I woke up, though, I was back in base reality, ego intact. I had an intense, gripping desire to go back to the DMT world, but was disappointed when I realized I didn’t actually have any. Usually, I’m glad to wake up and realize my dreams weren’t real, however, this was certainly an exception.
I talked to my plug this morning, and he’s offering freebase for $100/g, which seems to be a fair price. After this dream experience, I would love to take him up on that offer, but I feel that I may be in over my head. It’s been over a year since I’ve done LSD, so I’m considering taking 2 tabs at least once and then psilocybin for the first time at some point to better prepare myself for DMT. If DMT is a fraction of what I experienced in my dream, I think I’ve got a lot of preparation to do.
If anyone else has had a dream experience taking a psychedelic (and perhaps one you hadn’t taken in base reality already), I’d love to hear your experience! It’s fascinating what our minds can show us, and how fragile our reality is; there’s no telling what is actually out there, as we’re limited by our balance of neurotransmitters, other chemicals, and the limited/inadequate “technology” of our own senses.
Safe trips everyone!

“I’m sorry; we’re going to astral travel to a flea market?” Charlotte asked incredulously as she watched Genevieve and I set up a meditation circle under the shade of a towering old willow tree in my cemetery. “What if we want to buy something? How will we bring it back?”
“We’re not going there to shop, Lottie. Samantha’s finally had a vision about Emrys,” Genevieve explained.
The Veil between the Physical and Astral Planes is exceptionally weak in my cemetery, especially at night and on hallowed days. When I sleep there, my subconscious mind is highly receptive to all manner of revelations from the Spirit World. When I saw a Blood Moon rise on the night of May fifth, the same night as a penumbral eclipse, I knew that my dreams would be prophetic.
“I had a dream about him last Friday,” I expounded. “He’s at some sort of otherworldly marketplace, one that’s not connected to the Crypto Chthonic Cuniculi, so it’s mostly inaccessible to the Ophion Occult Order. In my dream, Emrys invited us to come and speak with him while we were lucid. He drew a sigil for me, the same one I’ve drawn in the middle of the mediation circle. He said that all I’d have to do is toss an Undying Rose – the earthly effigy of the rose Persephone used to steal a drop of his blood – into the sigil and it will become an astral portal to where he is.”
I held up the deep purple rose that I had cut from its bush earlier that day. I don’t know for certain where the roses came from, but my best guess is that they were made by the same Occultist who hallowed my cemetery to Persephone; Artaxerxes Crow. They have some connection to Emrys as well, since the only other time I saw someone else use one was when his avatar was summoned into the Physical Plane on Halloween 2020.
Knowing that Emrys wouldn’t dare to set foot in a place that was sacred to the Goddess who was ultimately responsible for his cosmic defeat, I gently tossed the rose into the middle of the sigil.
“He invited all of us?” Charlotte asked with an incredulous raising of her eyebrow.
“He said me and my coven. If he had just meant me or me and Genevieve he would have said that,” I replied. “You and Elam are coming too. I want as many eyes on this place as possible so that we don’t miss anything. We may not get an opportunity like this again.”
“And this is safe? Visiting some random flea market between worlds?” Charlotte asked.
“Samantha and I have visited the Underworld and come back no problem,” Genevieve reminded her. “So long as we’re bound to our bodies and Elam is bound to Samantha, we can come back anytime. Don’t worry; this is going to be a blast! Adventures like these are the best part of being a Witch.”
“The only reason you were able to go to the Underworld is because Samantha’s cemetery came with an astral portal in the back,” Charlotte countered, gesticulating in the general direction of the archway that was still partially visible behind the light spring foliage. “Other than that, when have any of us ever done anything useful with our astral projection? This is still a physical place, right? We don’t have any of our physical senses available to us when we astral project, and I get extremely disoriented trying to navigate the mortal plane with clairvoyance alone.”
“It is a physical place, but one saturated with astral energy and full of occultists and occult artifacts. It will be extremely illuminated to our clairvoyance,” I assured her. “Elam will also be there to guide us. As a ghost, he’s much more practiced at traversing the mortal plane in an astral form.”
Charlotte folded her arms over her chest and turned to look at Elam, who was leaning up against the willow tree as he waited for us.
“I don’t suppose you could go and scout the place out for us ahead of time?” she asked.
“I can’t go too far from Samantha, and definitely not across planes,” he said with a shake of his head. “But Eve’s right. Your astral bodies will be in no danger, and you can return here in an instant whenever you want.”
“But what about Emrys? Didn’t that book Leon gave you say that he’s some sort of soul-flayer?” Charlotte asked me.
“It did,” I admitted. “Keep in mind though, that book was written by his enemies. I want to hear his side of things before this conflict of theirs spirals out of control.”
“Any update from Chamberlin about that?” Elam asked.
“Yeah, he said that after he failed to purify the Sigil Sand, Ivy’s onboard with negotiating some kind of truce with Emrys,” I replied. “The Grand Adderman’s still reticent, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s running out of options. I need to find out if Emrys will agree to peace talks.”
“Um, I get that, but I’m still kind of hung up on him potentially flaying our souls,” Charlotte reiterated.
“If Emrys and the Ophion Occult Order go to all-out war, there’ll be a lot of collateral damage and innocent souls caught in the crossfire,” Genevieve told her, gently grabbing hold of her and looking her straight in the eye. “Samantha, Elam, and I are doing this because if there’s any chance we can put an end to this before it starts, then it’s our responsibility to try. You don’t have to come with us, Lottie, but you’re still a member of our coven. Samantha and I would both feel a lot better with you there to help us.”
“Arghhh! All right, fine! I’ll come with you,” Charlotte gave in, plopping her butt down on the edge of the meditation circle. “If we’re holding hands, that will help keep our astral bodies together too, right?”
“I believe it should, yes,” I smiled at her, sitting down and reaching out for her hand.
Genevieve lit the incense and her bong filled with the entheogenic Delphi Dream, before sitting down to join us. She took a hit from the bong before passing it to me, and then to Charlotte before setting it aside out of the circle.
“Start with taking a deep breath, completely filling the lungs, and holding it for five heartbeats,” she guided us as she took hold of each of our hands. “Exhale completely, and wait five more heartbeats before breathing in again. Eyes closed, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Focus on the astral energies flowing through you with each breath, gently aligning each chakra until those energies are enough to lift you up and out of your body.”
In unison with one another, the three of us slowly breathed in and out, ignoring the material world around us and focusing upon the task at hand. Eve was first, as usual, and because we were all holding hands, Charlotte and I felt her eagerly tugging us up to speed us along.
I opened my eyes, and beheld the dull and muted Physical Plane through my clairvoyance, everything outshined by the radiant forms of my coven mates. I noted that Genevieve had eschewed her normal skyclad form when astral projecting and instead wore a cloak like Charlotte and I.
“Are you worried this place might have a no shirt, no shoes, no souls, no service policy?” I teased her.
“I just don’t want to risk a confrontation over it. I realize how important this is,” she answered. “Though I’m not actually wearing shoes, now that you mention it.”
“Christ, look at the sigil Samantha drew!” Charlotte said, pointing down at the meditation circle beneath us. The sigil wasn’t just glowing but flowing as well, churning the Aether around it in a misty, spectral vortex. “It’s an astral portal, isn’t it?”
“Oh yeah. It’s not stable, though. Good for one trip only,” Genevieve said with a delighted smile. “And Lottie, since we’re Neopagan Witches, try not to swear by Christ, okay?”
“Jesus!” she swore, both in defiance and in genuine annoyance.
“Elam! Elam, come join the circle! I don’t want to take any chances of severing our bond,” I instructed, letting go of Charlotte’s hand and waving him in between us.
Faithful Familiar that he was, he obeyed without hesitation. Despite my concerns, I think that he probably could have stayed behind if he had wanted. The fact that he was willing to follow me to an unknown otherworld without complaint really made me appreciate how devoted he was to me.
“We step in together on the count of three, got it?” I instructed, each of them nodding clearly in response. “One. Two. Three!”
We all extended our right feet into the vortex together, and the instant we did we were swept away, falling out of our own world and tumbling between the cracks of countless others. They weren’t real, I don’t think. At least, not as real as our world. They were potential realities, or realities that could have been once but now can never be, or fantasies that are so persistent in the minds of real people that in some sense or another, they become real themselves. I only saw glimmers of them, glimmers in nebulas made of primeval chaos and uttermost void.
It was outside of time, that place we travelled through, or at least we had no sense of it there. Our souls were haphazardly spat out upon a surreal landscape of earth, sea, and fire. Hilly plains of volcanic ash, incandescent calderas of lava and bubbling hot springs all intermeshed in a chaotic mosaic that didn’t seem to abide by any laws of geology or geography that I was familiar with. A strong but slow wind pushed fractal formations of dark silver clouds through a pale silver sky, illuminated by a single white orb which could have been either a bright moon or a faint sun.
While our spectral feet left no trace upon the ash we now stood upon, our presence nonetheless elicited a response from some of the local fauna. We were just able to catch a glimpse of some kind of shimmering scarabs burrowing themselves into the ash to escape the four otherworldly ghosts that had invaded their territory.
“Holy shit,” Charlotte murmured as we all gazed out upon the strange world we had found ourselves on. “This really isn’t on the Astral Plane. This is a real planet. This a real, alien planet! This is unbelievable!”
Genevieve glided over to one of the bubbling pools and peered into it, looking for any more signs of life.
“There’s some kind of bluish-grey algae growing on the rocks down there, and I think I can make out some small arthropods too. This planet’s alive!” she announced with glee, smiling and looking up at the alien sky.
Conjuring an astral approximation of my staff, I plunged it into a small mound of ash beside me. I watched curiously as the scarabs shot out in all directions, moving too quickly for me to get a good look at them, before scurrying back into the surrounding ash.
“These bugs can sense our presence,” I remarked. “How and why would clairvoyance evolve in insects on this world, and why would their first instinct be to flee?”
“Samantha!” Elam called out. “I think I found the Flea Market.”
We all gathered around him and looked where he was pointing. On a distant dune, we beheld the moulted carapace of a colossal insect, gleaming a brilliant, lustrous gold in the broken white light.
“That’s impossible!” Charlotte claimed. “That thing must be hundreds of meters long! No insect, no animal period could ever get that big on the Physical Plane!”
“It could be the Incarnation of some kind of Titan,” Genevieve suggested. “But… it’s dead. I can tell that even from here. It’s dead. It’s the corpse of a dead god, and now it’s being used as a swap meet with a punny name. Either whatever killed it just abandoned it, or…”
“Or is running the place,” I finished for her. “Well, we should see if we can find Emrys.”
In an instant, the world moved around us until we were at the entrance to the Flea Market. The colossal carapace was hollow inside, of course, and had been filled with a bustling city that looked like it had been created in the most ad hoc manner possible. There wasn’t a single straight street to be seen, and they converged with one another at random intervals. Stalls and buildings varied wildly in both design and materials, all imported from a plethora of different cultures across the planes.
Enormous shards of luminous glass levitated above the throng like a thousand Swords of Damocles, any or all of them seeming capable of succumbing to gravity at any moment. In the very center of the moulted husk dangled a great spiralling chrysalis or hive woven of iridescent silk, its function not being immediately apparent to me.
There must have been thousands of people there, and hundreds of merchants hawking their wares. Most of those who looked human still seemed a little off, like they were members of ethnicities that didn’t exist in our world. Some of the beings were near-human in appearance, many seemingly some kind of Fey or Seelie folk. There was even a small handful of people that weren’t remotely human at all.
The only thing they all had in common was that none were native to this world.
“Most of these people are here in person, aren’t they?” Charlotte asked.
“It would’ve been quite a feat for them to have built all of this while astral projecting,” Genevieve agreed.
“But if this place isn’t connected to the Cuniculi, then how did they get here?” Charlotte asked. “We’re on another planet, maybe even in another dimension. If getting here is beyond the Ooo’s abilities, then what sort of ungodly reality benders decided to turn it into a Flea Market?”
“Ladies, gentlemen, and any beings either too ancient and alien or too modern and alienated to settle on one or the other, come bear witness to one of the most astounding and atrocious abominations on this or any other world!” a fast-paced male voice rang out over the din of the crowd.
We turned to see a short, skinny, old-timey sort of carnival barker standing on a literal soap box, placed next to a large object draped in a black tarp.
“For the paltry price of a single three-headed coin, you can peer beneath the veil and behold with your own unbelieving eyes the mangled and mutilated monstrosity that lurks beneath!” the carnival barker continued. “But I must warn you, it is not possible to truly understand what dwells underneath without seeing it first! I cannot guarantee that you will still retain your sanity or will to live after witnessing the proverbial Mountains of Madness, for this low creature is truly like no other and serves only as a grim testament to the cruel sadism of the Lord Above! Anyone plagued by even the faintest lingering doubt as to their spiritual fortitude should not dare to even contemplate what might lie before me! But, for those brave, noble few who are truly dauntless of heart and incorrigible of spirit, I am proud to share with you this rare, unfathomable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness sublime –”
The carnival barker was interrupted by a man yanking the sheet off the object beside him, revealing it to be a mirror.
“Whelp, that was a hell of an Im14andthisisdeep post, eh?” Charlotte mused.
Genevieve and I, however, were far too stunned to be amused; not by the mirror, but by the man who had unveiled it.
“It’s him, Lottie. That’s Emrys,” Genevieve whispered.
We had only seen him briefly once before, more than two-and-a-half years ago, but he was far from what anyone would call forgettable. He was tall and gaunt, with literal blue blood flowing beneath translucent skin. His long, receding hair and regal beard were pitch black, and dark miasma wafted from his eyes, nose, and mouth. He was dressed in dark sable robes with three overlapping Ouroboros’s tattooed on his forehead, with a pair of ophidian pupils lying in the spaces between them.
What stood out the most to us were the six silver Ouroboros chains bound around his wrists, ankles, waist, and neck. These were the chains the Ophion Occult Order had made to limit the power of his physical avatar, and it seemed he had not yet found a way to free himself from them.
“Are you still here?” Emrys asked in exasperation, tossing the veil back at the carnival barker in disdain.
“…Possibly,” the strange man replied evasively. “But not definitively, for purely legalistic reasons.”
“I believe Mathom-meister was quite clear when he said that your rather pitiful chicanery wasn’t welcomed here,” Emrys reminded him.
“And who is he to judge chicanery from cutthroat, capitalistic competition? Should not the Flea Market be a free market?” the charlatan demanded. “And while we’re on the topic of commerce, I don’t suppose you have enough three-headed coins to pay for all the poor souls you have so discourteously exposed to my exhibit against their will? I’d hate to have to start shaking people down to get my due.”
“Hard to believe your own circus threw you out,” Emrys said with a sardonic eye roll as he tossed him a small medallion. “You get one coin. Take it and get out of my sight.”
The charlatan flipped the coin in the air thrice, presumably to confirm it actually had three heads. Satisfied with its impossible dimensions, he shoved it into his pocket.
“It will cover the trolley ride home, at least,” he acquiesced, stepping off his soap box and turning to face his looking glass. “A shame though you can’t see the genius in my little avant-garde performance piece here, Emmy. Even I know that the monster in the mirror is often the hardest to recognize.”
As the man reached to pick up his mirror, his reflection’s arms shot through the glass and grabbed him by the wrists, pulling him in. Emrys immediately tried to chase after him, but bounced off the glass as if there was nothing supernatural about it at all.
“Bastard!” he cursed under his breath, before turning towards us and giving us a small apologetic smile. “I’m sorry you had to see that rather pathetic display. Unfortunately, the few meeting places I know of that are relatively safe from any Ophionic incursion also attract their fair share of other annoying miscreants.”
“If it didn’t attract a little bit of everything, it wouldn’t be a Flea Market, would it?” I asked rhetorically. “Thank you, Emrys, for inviting us. I’ve never been anywhere like this before.”
“And thank you for accepting. Samantha, Genevieve, it’s a pleasure to see you again, and a relief that you have not fallen under the auspices of the Ophion Occult Order,” he said with a gentle bow. “Elam, I remember you as well. Valiant but not reckless, you remained atop Pendragon Hill during my battle with the Darlings until your mistress was well out of harm’s way, and then you got the hell out of dodge yourself. Samantha couldn’t hope for a better Familiar. And Charlotte, any Witch that Samantha deemed worthy to induct into her coven is obviously someone whose acquaintance I am pleased to make. Welcome, all of you, to Mathom-meister’s Flea Market!”
“So this is where you’ve been hiding out the past two years?” Genevieve asked.
“Oh no. Far too Cosmopolitan for my tastes,” Emrys replied. “No, this is just a friendly place to meet those I consider friends – or potential friends, at least. I’d offer to show you around, but I know it’s difficult for you to astral travel for prolonged periods. Come with me to Mathom-meister’s house where we can talk freely, and we’ll discuss the situation with the Order.”
I gave him a small, single nod in response, and gestured with my staff that he should lead the way. He responded by pointing upwards, then vanished into his shadow form. When we looked up, we saw him waving at us from a balcony atop the great silken chrysalis.
We exchanged hesitant glances with one another, but ultimately followed him into the strange structure, moving from the ground to the balcony in an instant by will alone.
“How would an incarnate being get up here if they couldn’t fly or teleport?” Charlotte asked as she peered over the balcony’s teetering edge.
As though answering a summons, a humanoid creature apparated beside her in a flash of dark vapours. The hunched-back entity stood over six-and-a-half feet tall, and was clad in golden-brown erudite robes. Its squid-like skin was of a similar colour, and its entire face was a single gaping orifice that held a wispy, glowing orb in the center of its skull which I immediately recognized as its soul. A pair of long, fanged tentacles lined with pores and tendrils hung down from its head like a long, forked beard, and the seven digits shared by its two hands all bore wicked-looking talons, as did its two-toed, digitigrade feet.
“Not fly or teleport? What sort of pedestrian house guests do you think I entertain here?” the being asked wryly, its voice seeming to come from nowhere in particular.
Charlotte instinctively backed away from the creature and into the protective fold of our coven, but Emrys was quick to hold up his hand to plead for calm.
“Please, there’s no need for alarm. This is our host, Mathom-meister. He’s the only reason any of this is here in the first place,” Emrys informed us. “A year or two ago a companion of his unfortunately became one of the Darling Twin’s victims, and when he heard of my vendetta with them, he tracked me down; which is no small feat, I assure you.”
“It is for us. My people are a race of Planeswalkers. Traversing the many worlds of Creation is second nature to us,” Mathom-meister explained.
“I’ve… I’ve heard of your people, I think,” I said, softly and unsurely. “A friend of mine had an encounter with an artifact that gave her a vision of a race of strange and powerful sorcerers slaying their own god. I take it you’re the ones who slayed this Scarab Titan as well? That’s, that’s…”
“Horrifying, yes. That’s the idea,” he nodded. “You have nothing to worry about, young Witch. My people have no special interest in your world. This is purely personal. My friend is dead, and I want his murderers brought to justice; a goal which Emrys and I happen to have in common.”
“Feel free to share this information with the Ophion Occult Order, Samantha,” Emrys said. “I’d very much like for the Darling Twins to know what’s hunting them. Mathom-meister, please excuse me while I take my guests inside. We do have pressing business to discuss and their time is limited.”
The squid-cyclopes bowed gracefully, and my coven and I quickly scurried after Emrys as he led us inside through a towering hallway and into a large chamber that had been appointed as a living space.
I had thought that Emrys would want to speak with us alone, which was why I was surprised to see a young woman sitting cross-legged on a spongey yet chitinous object that I will for the sake of my sanity call a bean bag chair. Like Emrys, she was pale and blue-blooded, her choppy hair as black as coal. She wore a black robe and heavy black eyeliner, but these could not conceal the fact that she too had thin wisps of miasma emanating from her eyes.
“Is that your… daughter?” Charlotte asked, as baffled by her presence as any of us. The woman smiled warmly at the question.
“In a way. I was dead, and Emrys gave me new life. Now a part of the Outer Primordial Darkness he represents lives in me too,” she said serenely.
Hovering above her left palm were three small bluish-green orbs, lazily going around in a circle. They were translucent and held something inside them that I couldn’t make out, but the orbs themselves appeared to be melting and solidifying by the woman’s will.
“You’re Petra, aren’t you?” I asked as I cautiously approached her. “Chamberlin had mentioned that Emrys had taken an acolyte. I’m Samantha, and this is Genevieve, Elam, and Charlotte.”
“I know. The whole reason we’re here is to speak with you,” she nodded.
“The Ophion Occult Order calls me a soul-flayer, and I’m sure you were all wondering exactly what that meant before you came here,” Emrys said, standing proudly behind his acolyte. “Well, this is it. The Darkness Beyond is now a part of her, and a part of her now lives within the Darkness Beyond. She is not unchanged from what she was before, but neither has what she was been lost.”
“My interpretation of the term ‘soul-flaying’ was the complete removal of a person’s consciousness from their astral and physical bodies to be subsumed by your Darkness,” I countered. “They told me that what you’ve done with Petra here is just the limit of your power while you’re bound in their chains. Are you telling me that if your chains were broken, you wouldn’t be able to do any worse than this?”
“On my physical avatar? No. So long as my astral form remains chained and bound with the World Serpent, I cannot cleave a conscious mind from its astral substrate,” Emrys assured me.
“But that is your ultimate goal, isn’t it? Breaking the chains the Ophion Occult Order put on you is just a stepping stone to breaking the ones the gods bound you with?” Genevieve asked. “You’ve allied yourself with a literal god slayer. Do you expect us to believe that his people’s abilities aren’t something you intend to put to your own ends?”
“I don’t have an ultimate goal so much as I have a fundamental principle of opposing tyranny,” he claimed. “When I was a mere man, thousands of years ago, I was a tyrant. I believed that might made right so unquestionably that when my might began to fail me, the only thing I could think to do was to try everything in my power to restore it. This quest eventually led to me becoming one with the Darkness Beyond, which gave me not only the might I coveted but the wisdom I didn’t know I needed. It gave me perspective. It made me stronger than any human alive at that point but still let me realize how insignificant I was. It was humbling, and enlightening, and filled me both with remorse over my past actions and an impetus to use my newfound gifts to rectify them. I tried to overthrow the gods themselves which, in hindsight, was overly ambitious. I not only failed but had my soul devoured by the World Serpent, where it still resides to this day.
“I am not eager to bring the wrath of the gods down upon me once again. No, for now, I will be content to end the tyranny of the Ophion Occult Order. This is the message I’d like you to relay to them. If the Grand Adderman agrees to unbind my chains and step down from his post, I will spare his life. If he declines, I want the rest of the Order to know that I will show mercy to any who sides with me over him. I am willing to allow the Order to exist so long as it agrees to become more decentralized, democratic, and accountable. They will have to forfeit certain artifacts and individuals in their possession over to me, chief among them the Darling Twins, but I am willing to negotiate. If they aren’t, then I will overthrow the Grand Adderman by whatever means necessary and see the Order scattered to the four winds. It is entirely up to them whether or not the conflict between us escalates to full-on war. Have I made myself clear, Samantha?”
“I think so,” I said as I pensively considered everything he had said. “Why should they trust you to keep your word once your chains are broken? For that matter, why should we?”
He took a moment to consider his response, eyeing me over as though he was trying to divine something that would win over my trust.
“Samantha, you made a pact with Persephone to get your Spirit Familiar there; one where she swore by the River Styx. Is that correct?” he asked.
“It is,” I nodded.
“And in the years since, has Persephone ever broken that pact she swore to?” he asked.
“No, she hasn’t,” I replied.
“I may not be an Old God, but so long as my astral form remains bound by their chains, they have power over me,” he said. “Samantha Sumner, Hedge Witch of Harrowick Woods, I swear on the River Styx that I have spoken no lies to you today. I swear by the River Styx that I will abide by any Covenant that I and the Ophion Occult Order agree to in good faith and fair dealing that they do not break first. I swear by the River Styx that when my chains are broken, I will give you no cause to fear me or regret your trust in me.”
I gave a questioning glance to Genevieve, and then Elam, both of whom nodded in the affirmative.
“All right. An oath sworn on the River Styx is good enough for me. I’ll deliver your terms to Seneca Chamberlin,” I agreed. “I’m very grateful for the trust and respect you’ve shown for me and my coven, Emrys, though I can’t say I quite understand it. Out of all the guests that were there on the Hallow’s Eve you were summoned, why did Evie and I stand out to you?”
“The Ophion Occult Order deemed you worthy of inclusion in their cult, an offer you rejected on principle. You cheated Persephone, but you did it not to gain immortality for yourself but to save your friend from hell. You came here, thinking I could very well tear your souls asunder, but did so because you believed it was your duty to prevent needless suffering,” Emrys answered. “You are extraordinary in your craft, courage, and conscience, the latter of which especially stood out among the degenerates at that party. I do apologize if I frightened you at that event. I was a bit… irritable, given the circumstances. I’m glad we were able to meet again under more pleasant conditions.”
“So am I, Emrys,” I nodded. “I’m not sure exactly what this means or how relevant it is, but Seneca wanted me to tell you that he’s able to offer you the Dream Demon Red Ruck as a sacrifice.”
“Pffft. Tell him it’s hardly a sacrifice if I’m getting rid of a boogie man for him,” he scoffed. “In fact, now that you mention it, Ruck’s one egregore that might be of more use to me alive.”
I wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but we were suddenly interrupted by the rapid pounding of a gong somewhere down below. It seemed to be an alarm of some kind, as we could hear the panicked shouting and frantic racing of people either battening down or forsaking the Flea Market altogether.
Mathom-meister apparated into the middle of the room, his facial tentacles reflexively raised in a defensive position.
“Were you outside the market?” he demanded of us.
“The portal we came through deposited us a few miles outside of the market, yes,” I admitted.
“Damn,” Emrys cursed softly, though he sounded more frustrated than angry. “Meister, it’s not their fault. I knew they weren’t experienced Planeswalkers, I could have – ”
“It doesn’t matter!” Mathom-meister interjected. “They need to leave, now!”
“Why, what’s going on?” Genevieve demanded.
“The scarabs are swarming,” Petra explained. “Don’t feel bad; it happens often enough that they’re prepared for it.”
I wanted to press for more details, but I could hear the humming of a vast winged swarm steadily encroaching upon us.
“Don’t worry. Once you leave the swarm will disperse… eventually,” Emrys told us. “We’ve said all that need be said for now. Return home, and I’ll reach out to you again shortly, Samantha.”
Again, I wanted to object, but the swarm outside was growing louder and louder, and it occurred to me that we might not be completely safe from a biblical swarm of insects that could not only sense but evidently sought out souls.
This occurred to Charlotte as well, as she was the first of us to vanish and awaken back in her body. We could all feel the weight of her reembodied soul tugging on us to return with her. Genevieve immediately grabbed hold of my right hand and Elam my left, both of them refusing to leave before I did.
I spared one final glance at Emrys, lamenting that we couldn’t have had more time.
“I’ll relay everything you said to the Order. I’ll make sure they know you’re willing to negotiate a truce,” I vowed.
He gave me a gracious nod, and just as we heard the swarm start to pelt the exterior of the market, I forced my physical eyes open and was back in my body, still safely under a willow tree in my cemetery.
I immediately looked beside me to Genevieve, and saw that she was awake as well, and then around me for Elam, who seemed to be suffering a bit of spectral whiplash from being pulled back with me so suddenly, but was otherwise all right. Sighing with relief, I turned lastly to Charlotte, and saw that she was looking down at the mediation circle in dreaded horror.
Following her gaze, I saw that the Undying Rose was gone – spent, perhaps, in exchange for our passage – and in its place was the inert, and hopefully dead, body of one of the shimmering scarabs.

Style and Narrative

The game looks excellent, from small clutter to massive building fronts. Every street corner is packed with traces of human life ripped apart by the puppet uprising without being stuffed, floating furniture or badly aligned windows are rare, although they do exist here and there. That's completely fine, it happens in every game and often more obviously than here.
Areas are interconnected nicely, although not particularly complex so far. Being able to climb to another level here and there and not dying for jumping off a low roof is good fun.
The hub is not too large, has a lovely atmosphere, and you can see from the stargazer teleport which (additional?) NPCs are in it. Being able to groove with sad tunes is a great design choice. When talking to NPCs however, I have to ask: why can't I talk to them from any direction and why do they take such long pauses between their lines when every other readable prompt disappears two seconds too early?
Favorite NPC confirmed already.
In many aspects, I find the game too derivative of Bloodborne. Blatantly so, to be honest. Stalkers are hunters, puppets are beasts, both appear to be bereft of humanity. Workshops are workshops, Sophia is a firekeeper (with standard greeting!), the petrification disease stands in for a beast plague driving victims mad, the aesthetic and layout of the city is vaguely adjacent to Yharnam--not gothic of course, but bridges and plazas and carriages and boxes are all so strongly reminiscent that I sometimes felt like recognizing Cleric Beast's bridge, Gascoigne's summoning spot or Arianna's alley. Ergo and otherworldly materials will probably develop into an alien influence adjacent to BB's Great Ones and the arcane cosmic.
But don't fret, the original story elements possess some intrigue of their own. Next to the mystery of maddened puppets, it appears we will come across fairy-like influences that explain the origin of Geppetto's automaton vision, which has been wiped from at least two puppets' minds.
The petrification disease could also be interesting. I am not sure if it comes from the puppets yet, maybe an influence of their ergo, but having more cause of chaos than brutal mayhem is always good.
I always love me a good critique of large companies, so the different depictions of how they influence Krat's life on the large and small scale are welcomed. Soulslikes tend to struggle to put meaning behind their copies, but here I can already posit theories, like the struggle representing P's drive to gain a speck of humanity.
Hooray for making the dingy Daedalians blow up, boo for implying that Venigni is going to be a rad wheel-spinning robogrinder instead of the greedy loser he is meant to be. Knowing the genre, he's probably going to end up mad anyways though.
P should be voiced. No reason not to, really. He is a character with development, not a blank slate. FromSoft allowed Sekiro to speak, you don't have to cling to other titles' concepts.

Gameplay

So you don't think I'm *just* salty, here's my Souls Cred (I'm a bit proud of these, fight me): Finished DS1, DS3, BB, Sekiro & Elden Ring, the middle three several times, and recently beat DS3+Ashes at SL1. I gave up on my BL4 and No Beads Runs halfway through because I hate getting one-shot. On my first playthrough, I beat every (and I mean every) ER boss bar five in less than 10 tries. I like these games a lot and would like to believe that I know what I'm talking about.
Let's start with the compliments!
Enemies appear in plentiful sizes and shapes with interesting models and varied move sets. Regular puppets have a fun amount of health and deal dangerous but not overwhelming damage.
P's quickly unlocked weapons are equally versatile, even if they only seem to have two light/heavy attacks each. For the most part, they feel appropriately weighty and I never noticed a swing being too fast or slow. Reassembling weapon parts can be strange because the handle determines the moveset, so a blunt mace head might adopt a rapier's quick stabs. Funny enough to not be off-putting.
P himself moves adequately well. He doesn't slip too easily from the thin catwalks bridging Krat's roofs and turns quickly. Same for the camera, this is the first game in a while where I didn't crank the sensitivity up to 8.
Dogs don't teleport. Good dogs.
I skimmed most of the tutorials because they are just Souls mechanics, but they do a fine job of explaining the basics. Being able to see that you have enough ergo by the number becoming blue is a wonderful idea.
The skills seem to be fairly extensive and might allow for a solid build once you get far enough. They should be unlocked earlier though.
There is a rewarding amount of items strewn throughout the world and even the frequent sawtooth cog drops feel nice. It's cool to have something to trigger traps with from afar!
Dropping ergo in front of the boss room is very kind and a good conclusion when you hand the player infinite homeward bones with the watch.
I like the pulse cell regain through attacking. Could go a bit faster though, you don't have that many to begin with.
I've seen this arrangement somewhere before and I don't know where :(
And now we get to the detailed negatives, much of which comes down to the ever-maligned frame data.
Parrying needs a few more frames. Maybe guard should linger on its own instead of being spammable. Since they basically do not have to recover after a parry, slower weapons get one hit in, then they strike again and hyper armor through anything, even charged heavy attacks. This does not feel good by being unresponsive to player actions. Where's my reward for nailing three perfect parries in a row? And why do I sometimes take damage after I get the SUCCESS vibration and ping? Even red attacks shouldn't knock me down and punish me for perfect parrying.
Perhaps there should also be an indicator like Sekiro's red kanji, whose fading tells you when to act. The red sparks only tell you that a special attack is coming sometime in the next five seconds. Subverting Sekiro's kanji into not being able to *dodge* the red attack is also an odd choice, since you can dodge it with proper spacing. Without mikiri counter or jumps it only leaves parrying, and again, odd choice. The game didn't need this feature, considering...
Dodge has no travel distance and struggles to actually *dodge*. I am fine with limited iframes, but if I can't move out of an enemies range with two dodges, I question why I even have the ability.
Another factor for the insufficient dodge is how little Capacity improves your carry weight. If I want to stay under 29% for a somewhat acceptable dodge, I can't use a club AND armor pieces. The legion arm was thrown right out because of how heavy it is.
Strongly delayed attacks a la Elden Ring are just annoying. Malfunctioning puppets have an actual reason for doing it, but it's not natural. You have to memorize attack patterns instead of reacting to them. Waiting three seconds for an attack to come down in an instant feels weird.
The waiting game makes for a lackluster combination of Bloodborne and Sekiro. There need to be larger windows between attacks for heavy weapons and less recovery after striking back.
The weapon durability system isn't very appealing to me. The game moves too fast for this tactical element, which would work better in something paced like earlier Souls titles. Bouncing off the opponent with everything, including weapon arts, is *bad*. That's not how durability works or should be represented. Just make me deal less damage instead of stealing my turn for surviving until the end of the fight. You also forget about it because the areas are too short for your weapon to degrade noticeably.
Take a closer look at that snout!
The stronger watchmen feel like they have too much health (I was level 30 with a balanced build + rapier at the end). Not a lot too much, but their resistance could be lowered for more enjoyable mini bosses inbetween areas of enemies.
Dummy traps could last about 1.5 seconds less.
Why do you only get rally on chip damage? There is no lore reason like in Bloodborne, and I doubt there could be any that would make sense for it to be restricted to blocked attacks. Enemies (bosses!) should not have access to rally, period.
Enemies feel like they have block or jagged models/boxes that won't let me pass. When P collides with them, they stick instead of sliding past each other, which often meant that I was stuck right in the enemy's weapon arm. This is particularly obnoxious with long-limbed bosses, who will just trap me with their left arm and attack with the right. Because of the long dodge recovery, I can't adjust after this happens either.
Why are there six enemies with what appears to be instant parry next to each other? Give that to one or two in a group, otherwise you'll be ganked (completely fine) and an attempt to strike back after parrying one enemy will be punished.
Watchman Paarl leaves shock traps that sometimes hit you as soon as you get up, making it an unnecessary double punishment. He also has two very fast attacks with barely any windup that are inconsistent with his regular attack speed (and another fast one that winds up for about 2.5 seconds). Since all his strikes are either right-left windup while crouching or standing, they and the grab are difficult to distinguish.
Since all his larger attacks place him right on top of you (slams and Sonic slam), he can just combo any attack from there and hits. The grab often caught me because of our models sticking together when I tried to dodge after such a slam or a shock trap. The grab also reaches too far and has unintuitive windup-followup, which messes with dodge timings too hard for an early enemy.
Speaking of shock traps, the radial burst with random lightning bolts surrounded by a ring of lightning doesn't feel fair. Where am I supposed to dodge with my half-inch frolicking steps? Run startup is too long to flee, what fires first is hard to foresee. And when he decides to do another Paarl burst right after, which doesn't have the appropriate charge before blowing up, you've just eaten three to five attacks without seeing any of them.
I enjoyed my time a lot, some improvements and this'll be great!

I'm bedbound so ideally it'll be as comfortable as possible for all day use - I can't work due to the same issues that keep me bedbound so cost is an issue for me
I ended up ordering a cheap frame from Wayfair (Giacinto brand) because it was on sale and has good reviews on Wayfair
If you have any suggestions for the best low price mattress please share!