Latest Posts by thegreenkeeper - Page 5

I've always believed this to be canonically correct.

Fun fact! According to folklorists, all myths, fairy tales and nursery rhymes that are about some dude named Jack are talking about the same guy

What this means is, that ever single one of the following

Jack Be Nimble (who jumped over burning candles for fun)

Jack the Giant Killer (who sold his cows for magic beans then robbed and killed a giant)

Stingy Jack (who tricked the devil so many times he was banned from both afterlives)

Jack of Jack and Jill (who splattered his head open falling down a hill)

Jack o’ Lantern (the headless horseman spirit of halloween)

Jack Frost (the spirit who heralds the end of autumn and the start of winter)

Are literally the same jackass who made so many bad life choices he ended up an immortal ice dullahan with a pumpkin serving as both his head and flashlight

This is amazing, sign me up?

Barnes and Nobles is gonna start serving food and alcohol.

Everybody’s cracking jokes about how it’s a desperate attempt to stay relevant in the age of Amazon.

But you know what? Props to them. This is exactly what Blockbuster didn’t do. At no point was Blockbuster like “Hey, movie rentals aren’t the lucrative enterprise they once were. Perhaps it’s time we become known for our cheesy garlic bread.”

This is such a motivating message.

I love Ghibli rain scenes.

I want this

Book of the Day

“Bestiary: An Anthology of Poems about Animals” edited by Stephen Mitchell

I'm really into these.

The Mighty Nein Yasha & Beau & Caleb & Fjord & Caduceus & Molly & Nott & Jester (My other Critical Role Fanart)   (Find me on Twitter)

I love these films, can't wait to see the third and final film in the trio

Secret of Kells/Song of the Sea

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Cartoon Saloon makes beautiful films, check them out if you have the chance!

This quote speaks to me

“When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.”

— Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (via books-n-quotes)

Beautiful

Walt Disney Animation Studios ➞ The Silver Age (1950 - 1967)

What an awesome story!

Masha The Hero

Their work is amazing

Varguyart on Instagram

Follow So Super Awesome on Instagram

I really want this book, I've got to have this book, I really need this book!...

Wow, this artist's work is studio ghibli level amazing. The use of simplistic forms to portray a highly detailed narrative; it really does "paint a picture" (story) in my mind. What a world they have created.

Ikegami Yoriyuki

Beautifully melancholic

The procession of the months: the verses by Beatrice Crane; the designs by Walter Crane, [1889].

Typ 8302.89.10

Houghton Library, Harvard University

Cool armor bro

Armadillo Cloak- Wondrous item (cape), Uncommon

The outside of this cloak has a rough, leathery texture, while the inside is soft like velvet, and the cloak itself is large enough to swaddle your whole body. The cloak has 5 charges, and regains 1d4 charges each day at dawn. As an action on your turn, you can draw the cloak around yourself and speak the command word, expending a charge as you do so and causing it to harden into a sphere that fully encloses you. Then as part of the same action you can move up to your speed by rolling along the ground. During this movement you can move through hostile creature’s spaces as if they were difficult terrain, and when you move through a creature’s space, make a melee weapon attack against it. On a hit, the attack deals 1d6 bludgeoning damage plus your Strength modifier. At the end of your movement, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the damage dealt this way.

If you’d like to help support me to keep doing what I’m doing, as well as request your own card conversions, check my page or the notes for the links to my Patreon.

Keep reading

These are so cool.

Stained Glass Suncatchers

Elena Zaycman on Etsy

See our #Etsy or #Stained Glass tags

Beautiful! I haven't seen this Mucha before.

Laurel, 1901, Alphonse Mucha

Medium: lithography

https://www.wikiart.org/en/alphonse-mucha/laurel-1901

These are pretty cool

Enamel Pins

Jinxyee Studios on Etsy

See our #Etsy or #Enamel Pins tags

Beautiful

Avalon by puimun

I want all of these!!

Uhhhhh?? These are gorgeous?? 😱

Wow, that's a lot of information, but amazing and exactly how I have been imagining archfey in my head.

Villains - Archfey - Worldbuilding Wednesday

The villain is my favorite part of ANY campaign. So here I am gonna talk about how you can make different kinds of villains, honing down on a specific type and offering various ways to make them interesting. As always, we will be looking at real world history, culture, and mythology to make your villains seem realistic and specifically dastardly. For our first entry let’s discuss…

~~~~~~~~~~~~Archfey Villains~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why archfey? Two reasons: 1) I like archfey, they’re fuckin’ dicks. 2) Someone who’s name I can’t find asked me to make this and I am more than happy to make things for my followers.

NOW, let’s understand what an archfey really is.

An archfey is a creature of fey ancestry that is excessively powerful, nearing the power of a deity. Usually, such creatures are native to the Feywild. Within this realm, they command great power and can even shape the realm itself to their whim and whimsy. 

Common Misconception

Archfey doesn’t mean “superelf.” An archfey can be a pixie, a dryad, a ghost, a beast of some kind, anything that is classified as “fae” or “fae-like” can be turned into an archfey. Elf-like archfey are the most COMMON, but absolutely not the ONLY form of an archfey.

The other misconception is that the archfey are good. This is because the Feywild is mistaken as a plain of good, while Shadowfell is a plain of evil. This is wrong. Feywild and Shadowfell aren’t images of good and evil. Their are images of abundance vs lack of emotion. Shadowfell is a plain of the depressed, the emotionless, the broken. Feywild is a plain of the bipolar, the expressive, the artists and the madmen.

(I’m getting tired of saying “archfey”)

Characteristics of the Archfey

So to understand how we get an Archfey villain, lets discuss some general characteristics of the archfey.

Background.

The archfey come from the Feywild. This is a place governed by emotion. When its denizens feel something strongly, they can physically change their environment. A cruel witch will transform the forest around her to grow trees that bleed and produce fruits shaped like heads. While a kind princess will transform the fields around her into a gorgeous plain of crystalline flowers.

Now, the archfey can transform the Feywild at a moment’s notice. Which means they can do one or both of these things:

They can control their emotions very well.

They only ever have emotional extremes powerful enough to instantly alter the Feywild.

Lifestyle

The archfey live careless lives. They are too powerful to have any natural predators, as such live carefree and happy. Due to their extended life (they live like thousands of years), they are NEVER in rush. Why should they be? They’ve got time, ALL the time.

Environment

Based on HOW the Feywild is, how it is ever-shifting and changing, its denizens must learn to control this change to be able to thrive. Since we are working with an archfey, we can assume they’ve already thrived to the top of their food chain. As such, they must have learned to command the Feywild OR adapted to this changing world, having very drastic changes in personality, behavior, or even looks.

With all this information, let’s share some ideas for archfey villains.

Examples of Archfey Villains

Example #1: The Many Faced Man. Simply put, a doppelganger. The archfey are ever-changing. For this example, our villain always changes their looks. So your Party pisses off this archfey or in some way becomes enemies with him. So when your spends the night camping outside, whoever is keeping watch suddenly poof, is teleported away (because this is an Archfey, it can do this kind of shiz) and in steps a the Many Faced Man who takes this lost PCs form.

I urge you, IRL, pull the Player of this character aside and tell them your plan. Tell them that you want to replace them with a Doppelganger, but not to worry, because their PC will eventually be rescued. THEN, offer them to role play as a doppelganger pretending to be their character. Most players will have TONS of fun with this idea. If you player doesn’t want to RP a doppelganger offer them to role a new temporary PC or just dump the idea.

Example #2: Prince of Liars. A very powerful archfey this one is. He has immense power in the Feywild, and has managed to TRAP the Party in his domain. I’m stealing from Curse of Strahd here, but essentially rework that campaign with more fey-like themes. Instead of vampires, we got fey, instead of Strahd we got a spoiled brat of a prince who is all-powerful but only wants to mess with the Party before killing them in a cruel manner for his or her amusement.

For additional complexity, you can make the Prince of Liars have very drastic shifts of emotion. Think, the bad guy from Split (the movie). One moment he is nice to the Party and leads them to a place filled with treasure, the next he snaps into sheer brutal cruelty and slaughters the ranger’s companion. This will put the Party on edge when dealing with the guy. Furthermore, knowing that the archfey is powerful enough to destroy them with ease puts the Party on the edge, at least until they find something that can kill or neutralize this big bad.

Example #3: The Undying Court. This is for LARGE scale campaigns. Let’s say you have a game that is heavy on politics, but spans different dimensions. So the PCs are working with the politics between Mount Celestia and the 9 Hells and the Abyss, etc. That’s when you throw in the Undying Court. A hive-mind of several Archfey that operate as a singular entity and wish to expand their chaotic influence across the many plains. They may ally with Demon Lords and expedite chaotic situations to gain more power, so your PCs would have to negotiate a turbulent field of politics.

And that’s that folks. I hope this provides SOME use to y’all and helps you out with future ideas. Of course you don’t HAVE to follow my guideline 100%. You don’t need to follow it at all, in fact. Just take it as it is, my ideas for a good fey villain. What about you folks? Would you like to see breakdowns of other kinds of villains? I’d love to do more. Send your recommendations my way or share your ideas for villains. I’d love to hear it. Good luck everyone.

The Unfair DM

Still hilarious; even more so it comic form!

PHEW, it’s finally done! I debuted it at the CR weekend to the cast, but now that I’m back and it went up on the Patreon, I can share it here! I’ve been working on it in my spare time (of which there is SO LITTLE), but this moment was so good, I just had to ^_^

Enjoy!

This is absolutely amazing!

I could spend the next couple of years mostly doing Vox Machina art, but I’m juggling things as is, so I tried to squeeze in everything in a four month project. Since the file is so ridiculous I cut it up for posting here, but you can see the whole assembled thing over on my Patreon.

Thank you to my patrons as well for sticking with me during this project! I’ll cover the last quarter of the painting, from Kashaw and Lyra (under the white dragon) and down to the end, in one of this month’s tutorials.

These all sound like good listens, even though I typically don't listen to podcasts.

Could you recommend a couple of your favorite scary story podcasts? I need something to keep me awake at my office job and a lot of scary story ones tend to get. Well. Ableist or racist or some other -ist that kinda spoils it all for me xD

Oh HONEY. I’ve got you on this one. 😊

The No Sleep Podcast - Probably the best damn horror story podcast I’ve found to date. Amazing two-hour episodes with full-production stories and original music every week. Hugely talented cast of voice actors and authors, and a community which embraces and celebrates diversity. (I recommend starting with C.M. Scandreth’s “A Seaside British Pub” and the full-length sequel “Return to a Seaside British Pub” from Season 10.) Season passes are available and they are WORTH EVERY PENNY.

And That’s Why We Drink - Ghost stories, true crime, and general wackiness from best buds Em and Christine, with occasional cameos from the adorable Gio. There’s a fair amount of rambling in each episode, but it really feels like sitting down with friends and listening to some wild-ass stories.

The Cryptid Keeper Podcast - If creepy creatures and mythical monsters are what butters your crumpet, have a sitdown with Alex and Addison for tales of their favorite scary (or friendly) bois. Jokes are rampant, but the hosts are very aware of cultural context and show a great deal of respect for it, as well as pointing out problematic elements when they appear.

Lore - History is a strange place. Author Aaron Mahnke dives headfirst into the pages of the past and kicks up all manner of monsters, murderers, hauntings, and mysteries. If you’re a history buff or a lover of folklore, you’ll find plenty to love. This is less scary than interesting, as far as I’m concerned, but the subject matter is often very creepy.

There are SO many others out there, and I’ve got half a dozen waiting in my Stitcher favorites that I haven’t had time to get into just yet, but these should be enough to get you started.

Enjoy!!!

Anyone else think this looks like the home of a little woodland creature or the home of little Piglet in the hundred acre wood?

The most amazing tree

If animals as different as these two can get along with each other this sweetly, why can't we put our differences away and do the same?

I love this artist/architect's work; so beautiful.

writ in water ~ mark wallinger + studio octopi | photos andrew butler © national trust at runnymede

I want one someday

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT COB CONSTRUCTION

Does cob work in humid climates?

Cob is a form of earthen building developed in the British Isles, a very wet area famous for beautiful mists and vicious storms. Yet the native cob buildings in these places have withstood centuries of harsh weather and still remain in use today. When I built a cob studio Pensacola, Florida in 2002 many people were skeptical that it would survive our 98% humidity and frequent hurricanes. However, the building has had no problems despite soaking rains throughout the building process and a hurricane that destroyed many of the surrounding wooden buildings. Even in humid climates cob does not rot, grow mold, get eaten by termites, or melt on the rain.

Cob is very porous and can absorb a tremendous amount of water without softening. In fact, unless it is completely submerged, cob will never just “melt”. It will however erode over time if it is exposed to direct rain. The solution to protecting cob from moisture is “a good hat and boots”. In other words, a cob house needs a good roof with wide eves and the bottom of a cob wall must sit on a non-absorbent stem wall so that it cannot wick moisture up from the ground or be splashed by water coming off of the roof. Cob walls are very thick, often two feet or more, so even the heaviest rain will never soak through more than the outer layers of plaster. Even if your walls get soaked with rain occasionally (like in a really big storm) they will be fine as long as they can dry back out. For this reason it is very import to never plaster a cob wall with a non-breathable coating like cement stucco. 

Why can’t I just seal my walls with cement stucco?

Don’t make the mistake of trying to protect your cob walls by sealing them from moisture. Even the best stucco job will inevitably develop tiny cracks and allow moisture into the wall, but it will not allow the moisture to evaporate back out. Eventually water will condense on the inside of the stucco and build up inside until the wall is saturated. Many cob buildings in Europe that had stood for hundreds of years have suffered partial collapses in recent years because of new cement plasters. 

Is it dirty inside?

No. Once the inside of an earthen building is plastered there is no more dust or dirt than you would find in any other building. In fact, the plasters used in cob buildings are often the same ones used on the plaster and lath walls of older wooden homes. If you want smooth white walls you can still have them with cob.

Is it cold and wet inside?

No. Cob homes are exceptionally dry and warm in winter/cool in summer. The breathable clay walls seem to pull some of the moisture out of humid air keeping the inside cooler in hot humid weather. In winter cob absorbs the energy of the sun during the day and radiates it back into the building at night, keeping the inside warm and cozy.

Is it well insulated?

Technically speaking, no. Cob is very cool in summer and warm in winter and with good design you may never need to heat or cool a cob building. If you do heat and cool your building it will hold that temperature for a long time. But, cob does not get these thermal properties from insulation. Instead cob works because of its thermal mass. Thick heavy earthen walls absorb the heat of the day and store it like a battery, keeping the inside of the building cool and comfortable. Then, when the weather is cooler they radiate that heat back out keeping the building warm.

Can I paint my cob walls?

Yes! In addition to colored plasters, you can paint an earthen wall with an almost endless variety of colors from clay and mineral pigments. There are many excellent recipes for beautiful natural paints and there are few stores and mail order businesses that sell ready made natural paints. In fact, natural paints are beginning to come back into use in conventional homes as well. Even if you are painting a conventional wall you may want to consider natural paints because latex and oil based paints off-gas very toxic chemicals, sometimes for years.

You should never paint your cob walls with latex or oil based paint for the same reason that you would not plaster with cement; it impairs breathability. You can find sources for Natural paints and recipes here (resources).

Will termites eat the straw out of my cob?

No. There is nothing in cob that the termites are interested in.

How fast can I build with cob?

How fast you finish your house depends on how skilled you are, how hard you work, how many people help, how big and elaborate your house is and, to some extent how much money you have. In warm breezy weather you can build 2 or 2 ½ feet of height on your wall each day. That may not sound like much, but if you build your walls 8ft high then you could theoretically have them done in four days. Cob is actually faster than most other building methods (including traditional stick framing and straw bale) because once the walls are built they are done. In other types of building there are multiple layers. For example, even if a framing crew framed your entire house in four days or less they would still have to add insulation, vapor barriers, exterior sheathing, drywall and paint. This process would probably take you the next thirty years to pay for. With cob, you may spend an entire summer building your walls yourself plastering them and putting a roof on them, but it could cost you as little as $5,000 so you won’t be working to pay the mortgage for the rest of your life.

How much does a cob house cost?

Ianto Evans has been quoted with the best answer to this question that I have ever heard; “How long is a piece of string?” Your cob house can cost as much or as little as you have to spend on it. The basic materials, clay, sand and straw are very cheap and you may even be able to get most of them on your own land. Huge amounts of excellent, often brand new, building materials are thrown into dumpsters every day. I have found porcelain sinks, entire boxes of marble tile, endless amounts of high quality lumber, and every other material you can imagine for free. Because cob is so malleable, it is very easy to use odd salvaged windows, doors, and wood, so if you take the time to scavenge you may not have to buy much at all. Some cob homes have been built for as little as $500 and many for as little as $5,000. 

How big can I make a cob house?

Just like with any other house, you can make it as big as you can afford (in money or in time.) You probably won’t need as much square footage as you think you will though, because cob homes are usually built in rounded shapes which offer far more useable space than square buildings.  Since cob home owners generally do most of the work themselves, they usually choose to keep their houses to a modest size. One of the great things about cob is that if you decide later that you need more room you can just make an addition or build another cottage next door for the kids.

Do cob houses have modern conveniences?

Cob homes usually include all of the same plumbing and electrical wiring as a conventional home.  They can also have central heat and air conditioning although the need for these is far less than in conventional house.

Is it legal to build house out of cob? Can I get a permit?

It is not illegal to build with cob anywhere in the US, but neither is it specified in the building code.  In order to get a permit to build with cob, many people have first been required to employ an engineer to help with their building plans.  In nearly all cases a building department will approve plans once they are stamped by a “licensed design professional.” In addition, the building code does include specifications for adobe construction and many building officials have simply looked upon cob as a form of adobe and approved construction according to that code even without the help of an engineer.

In some cases you may not even need a permit.  For example, there are permit exemptions in most places for buildings under a certain size, agricultural buildings, and in some rural areas no building permits are required at all.

Should I try to build my own cob house?

For many people building their own house is a wonderful experience. The materials for building a cob house are very inexpensive and the skills for assembling them are easily acquired. For that reason cob can offer you the opportunity to build a unique home for very little money if you are willing to do the work yourself.  Many of our workshops are tailored to prepare you to build your own efficient, healthy and mortgage free home.  We also provide a range of services to help owner builders along the path to success in building their own homes. For some people it may be better to hire a great deal of help and to hire a professional to oversee the construction.  If you can afford to pay cash for the construction of a house and do not relish physical labor, or if you want a large and complex design, then hiring a professional may be the best path for you.

Are there professionals to help with cob building?

Yes! There are very few natural builders who act as general contractors. However there are a number of natural builders who are available to assemble and lead paid building crews, train your crew, act as consultants, project managers, or otherwise help you through the process.  You can see details about our range of services here.  

Can I host a workshop to help build my cob house?

Yes! Here are some of the things you probably want to know about hosting:

We much prefer that you take a workshop before you host one.  There are some exceptions, but usually taking a workshop is the best preparation for being a host.

Workshops do not generally complete a building unless it is tiny.  They do get a great jump start, involve the community, and are a lot of fun. They also afford you a great deal of professional help as part of the workshop package.

Hosting a workshop seldom actually saves you much money over the cost of hiring help.  A workshop is not a way to a house built for free.  However, there are many less quantifiable benefits to hosting a workshop.

http://www.barefootbuilder.com/faq.html

This was amazin, still not over this!

Inspiration is waiting. Rise up, don’t think twice. Put your fate in your hands. Take a chance, roll the dice!

These are beautiful. If you've never watched critical role, it's never too late to start.

The Mighty Nein

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