Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Kara-Tur - Part 6 - Laothan: The Kingdom Under Shadow

 

Then and Now

Laothan was once a lush, monsoon-fed realm of terraced rice fields, jungle hills, and bamboo villages. Its people, the Seng, were known for their artistry, silverwork, festivals, and devotion to the Path of Enlightenment—especially the Ku Nien school of monks who taught balance and discipline. Power was divided among Seng princes of the Thok dynasty, each tied to local traditions and monasteries.

Now, the kingdom is a stage for the Psycho Army, ruled by Madam Bao (M. Bao) and her criminal empire. The capital of Cheinang blazes with neon light and martial pageantry; temples ring with distorted chants; villagers toil to feed Bao’s armies while her clones stalk the land. Yet beneath the surface, the Seng resist. Priests, farmers, and wandering kenku scholars form a patchwork underground rebellion, seeking outside aid.

The Present Kingdom - Bao’s Rule

Government

Bao dismantled the Thok dynasty, replacing nobles with her psycho generals and clone-doubles. Local governors are puppets—sometimes literally mind-controlled.

Military

Orc “Zhu Bajie” battalions form the rank-and-file, Minotaur enclaves act as overseers and enforcers, and kenku raids are deployed as precision strikes or terror campaigns.

Spectacle

Massive concerts and tournaments keep the populace cowed and distracted, serving as both propaganda and psychic indoctrination.

Madam Bao, Psycho Idol and Tyrant of Laothan



Titles

            The Eternal General

            The Idol of Pain and Grace

            The Crimson Queen of Laothan

Role in the World

M. Bao is the supreme commander of the Psycho Army, ruler of Laothan, and global crime figure. Her presence dominates every concert, every battle, and every whispered tale of corruption. To her followers, she is the future empress of all Kara-Tur. To her enemies, she is a nightmare that refuses to die.

Yet even her identity is a puzzle. Some say she is a single woman who has extended her life with forbidden rituals. Others insist she is just the strongest of her own clones, and the “original” Bao is long dead.

Three Contradictory Origins

1. The Fallen Seng Princess

Bao was born as Bao Lian, youngest daughter of the Thok dynasty of Laothan. A prodigy in music and martial arts, she was said to be “chosen by the spirits.” But when her family sought to marry her into Shou Lung politics, she fled. Bitter at being treated as a pawn, she embraced dark teachers who promised her the strength to rule by her own will.

                     Evidence: Rebels whisper that old records show a Princess Bao Lian vanished around the time the Psycho Army rose. Bao’s intimate knowledge of Seng culture supports this.

                     Contradiction: Surviving Thok family members insist Bao is not their kin — and her ruthless personality bears no resemblance to the compassionate girl remembered in songs.

2. The Clone Who Survived

Bao is said to be one of her own magical clones — a prototype created in secret decades ago. Where other clones serve as disposable pawns, this Bao learned to kill her “sisters” and ascend. She believes herself the truest Bao, the perfected one, destined to command all others.

                     Evidence: Some rebels claim they’ve seen her “die” only to return stronger within days. Scholars note her tattoos match those of her clone assassins.

                     Contradiction: If she is a clone, who created the original? And why does this Bao seem to possess memories stretching back before the clone program even began?

3. The Imaskari Shade

Arcane historians whisper that Bao is not a woman at all, but a possession spirit awakened when she unearthed the Imaskari gate beneath Cheinang. This Bao may be the echo of a long-dead Imaskari psychic, who fused with a host body to walk again. The Psycho Army’s obsession with gates, clones, and psychic domination may all be shadows of ancient Imaskari sorcery.

                     Evidence: Bao demonstrates knowledge of ancient glyphs and rituals no living Shou or Seng sage has mastered.

                     Contradiction: Her distinctly modern charisma and obsession with concerts and performance are far removed from Imaskari traditions. Unless… the spirit is adapting to the modern world.

Appearance & Persona

                     Always appears in brilliant crimson and gold, adorned with psychic tattoos.

                     Switches seamlessly between idol-like charisma (singing, speeches, promises of unity) and tyrannical fury (telekinetic strikes, clone assassins, public executions).

                     Every concert or tournament is half-propaganda, half-ritual. Bao believes performance is power.

Powers & Abilities

                     Psychic Idolry: Her voice carries enchantments — enthralling crowds, amplifying morale, or breaking wills.

                     Clone Dominion: Can command her clones telepathically across distances.

                     Martial Arts Mastery: Combines flowing, dance-like combat with bursts of psycho energy (light, sound, telekinetic force).

                     Concert Finale: When pressed in battle, Bao unleashes a destructive psychic crescendo that devastates allies and enemies alike.

How to Use Bao in a Campaign

                     Recurring Villain: Thanks to clones and contradictory origins, Bao always returns. Players may never know if they’ve killed the Bao or just a Bao.

                     Faction Anchor: She embodies the Psycho Army — flashy, ruthless, manipulative. Any Psycho Army arc circles back to her.

                     Mystery Arc: PCs can chase her origins: Was she the fallen princess? The surviving clone? The Imaskari echo? Or something else entirely? Each truth leads to different endgame revelations.

 DM Tip:

When players ask, “Is this the real Bao?” — smile, shrug, and let them argue. Bao thrives in contradiction. Defeating her body may be possible, but defeating her myth is another matter.

The Four Generals of the Psycho Army

1. General Zhu Tán, the Glutton of Xiang Vale

                     Vice: Gluttony (consumption, indulgence, waste)

                     Location: Xiang Vale (the terraced rice fields of Laothan)

                     Species: Orc Warlord (Zhu Bajie archetype)

                     Role: Overseer of Laothan’s farmlands, and quartermaster of the Psycho Army.

                     Personality: Boisterous, crude, but shrewd. He feasts in excess while peasants starve, demanding tribute in both food and flesh. His orcs eat like kings while the Seng farmers scrape by.

Abilities:

·                Devouring Strike: On a critical hit, regains HP equal to damage dealt.

·                Belly Bellow (Recharge 5–6): Thunderous roar that knocks foes prone in 30 ft.

·                Feast of Strength: Can consume food/drink mid-battle to gain rage-like benefits.

Adventure Hook: Peasants whisper of hidden granaries stocked for Bao’s armies. PCs must infiltrate Zhu Tán’s fortress, where he throws a feast in his own honor — one where captives may be on the menu.

2. Mistress Koryu, the Jade Serpent of Wa

                     Vice: Greed (avarice, hoarding, manipulation)

                     Location: Wa Isles (she controls a Psycho Army smuggling network through Wa’s ports)

                     Species: Kenku Mystic & Smuggler Queen

                     Role: Overseer of the Psycho Army’s smuggling and artifact theft operations.

                     Personality: Elegant, sly, obsessed with rare magical items. She surrounds herself with jade idols and enchanted trinkets, caring little for loyalty but everything for acquisition.

Abilities:

·                Mimic’s Curse: Forces targets to repeat an action (PC wastes their next turn copying what they just did).

·                Treasure Binding: Once per rest, can bind a weapon or item with jade chains, disabling it.

·                Murder’s Flight: Summons a swarm of kenku raiders to harry enemies.

Adventure Hook: PCs are hired to retrieve a sacred relic stolen by Koryu. To do so, they must infiltrate her jade-cargo flotilla, where she hosts gladiatorial fights inside opulent smuggler ships.

3. Commander Baruun, the Iron Ox of T’u Lung

                     Vice: Wrath (violence, domination, brute force)

                     Location: T’u Lung frontier city of Baruunhold (his personal stronghold)

                     Species: Minotaur General

                     Role: Military enforcer, Bao’s sledgehammer. Keeps her operations in T’u Lung “in line” through fear.

                     Personality: Stubborn, proud, family-driven. He despises weakness and believes Bao saved his clan from extinction. Unlike other generals, he is respected by his troops — his wrath is reserved for outsiders.

Abilities:

·                Stampeding Charge: Tramples enemies in a 20 ft. line.

·                Wrath Aura: While bloodied, allies within 30 ft. gain advantage on attack rolls.

·                Iron Ox Guard: Can negate one attack per round by sheer force of will.

Adventure Hook: A rebel uprising in T’u Lung begs for help. To topple Baruun, PCs must navigate both his iron-walled fortress and his devoted minotaur clan, who would die for him.

4. Madam Crimson, the Songstress of Shou Lung

                     Vice: Lust (charisma, temptation, psychic enthrallment)

                     Location: Shou Lung metropole of Dao Ting (where she runs Bao’s propaganda empire)

                     Species: Human Warlock/Bard (patron: Bao herself)

                     Role: Overseer of propaganda, indoctrination, and “Psycho Concerts.”

                     Personality: Sultry, commanding, a siren cloaked in red silks. Where Bao is idolized as divine, Crimson is her herald, spreading her cult across Shou Lung with forbidden concerts.

Abilities:

·                Crimson Performance (Recharge 5–6): Enthralls up to 3 enemies; DC 16 WIS save or they lose their next turn dancing/weeping in adoration.

·                Echoed Harmony: Can double-cast enchantment spells if an ally sings with her.

·                Song of Despair: Once per long rest, all enemies within 60 ft. must save or suffer disadvantage on all attack rolls for 1 minute.

Adventure Hook: PCs are sent to stop Crimson’s concert tour, but her enthralled audiences protect her fanatically. Killing her could make the PCs enemies of an entire Shou Lung district.

The Four Vices and their Spread

                     Gluttony (Zhu Tán): Laothan’s food & supply lines.

                     Greed (Koryu): Wa’s trade networks.

                     Wrath (Baruun): T’u Lung’s military frontier.

                     Lust (Crimson): Shou Lung’s propaganda machine.

Together, they project Bao’s reach outside Laothan and make her empire feel continent-spanning, like Street Fighter’s international bosses.

The Psycho Gate of Laothan

Origin

During their rise, Bao’s Psycho Army unearthed a forgotten Imaskari gate in a ruined jungle temple near Cheinang. Instead of turning it over to sages, Bao’s mystics appropriated and retrofitted it, dragging the entire structure back to Laothan’s capital and embedding it into her palace complex beneath the Grand Auditorium of Echoes.

Bao’s clones now guard it as zealously as her own life. She calls it the Psycho Gate, but the Seng rebellion whispers that it is the Screaming Door — for those who vanish through it sometimes return changed, tattooed with runes of control.

Function

                     Primary Use: Instantaneous troop redeployment and smuggling of contraband.

                     Secondary Use: “Escape hatch” for Bao clones and generals if a cell is compromised.

                     Special Feature: Bao’s mystics have modified the gate so that it resonates with psychic frequencies. A Bao clone can attune in minutes, allowing her to “broadcast” her presence into a distant cell — even across continents.

                     Drawback: The gate is unstable. Each jump leaves a psychic “echo” in the area — nightmares, whispered voices, faint illusions — which can be detected by those sensitive to magic.

Strategic Impact

The Psycho Army can now:

1.                  Strike Anywhere. A cell can appear overnight in Wa, Kozakura, or even Calimshan, as if conjured from nothing.

2.                  Rapid Reinforcement. Bao can flood a local front with orc battalions before rivals can respond.

3.                  Artifact Smuggling. Exotic magical materials (dragon bones, jade, Netherese relics) vanish into Laothan’s vaults in days.

4.                  Clone Deployment. If a Bao is killed in Baldur’s Gate, another steps through the gate in days, claiming continuity of presence.

Adventure Hooks

1.                  Gate Residue. PCs encounter a village plagued by nightmares. Investigation reveals it sits on the site of a Psycho Gate “drop,” and the villagers are unknowingly enthralled.

2.                  The Broken Link. Rebels sabotage a gate anchor, forcing a trapped Psycho Army general to bargain with the PCs for survival.

3.                  Hijack the Gate. The PCs can seize a Psycho Army front — only to find the gate activating, spewing reinforcements in waves.

4.                  Gate War. Other factions (Zhentarim, Red Wizards, even Shou Lung) have learned Bao possesses an Imaskari gate. Everyone wants it destroyed, stolen, or seized.

5.                  The Clone Shortcut. PCs realize Bao’s clones don’t just “grow” in Laothan — they’re being beamed in through the gate. To end her cycle, they must destroy or seal it.

Visuals

The gate sits like a colossal circular frame of green-black stone, studded with sigils that pulse with neon-pink psychic light. Surrounding the gate are rows of chanting kenku mystics and drums beating in sync with Bao’s performances, powering each jump with psychic resonance. Every activation feels less like teleportation and more like a concert crescendo, blinding lights and thunderous bass rattling the earth.

DM Tip:

This turns the Psycho Army from “local villains” into a global faction. They can plausibly show up in any adventure because the gate lets them. But it also gives PCs a tangible win condition: cutting them off from the Imaskari gate disrupts their ability to project power, forcing Bao to overextend.

Psycho Army Master Table (d20)

1.           A traveling martial tournament arrives in town, secretly led by a Bao clone who is recruiting fighters for cloning experiments. When a PC’s ally is kidnapped, the PCs must intervene—only to find the real Bao clone wasn’t even present.

2.           A concert hall performance enthralls a whole city. The show is run by a kenku mystic, and its purpose is to expand Bao’s propaganda network. The local clergy beg the PCs for aid, but the event is broadcast magically across the region, making failure public.

3.           A temple masquerading as Ku Nien monastery is controlled by a fallen monk, working to corrupt local nobles into Bao’s doctrine. When a caravan tied to the PCs is seized, they must decide if they fight openly—or respect rebel wishes to strike quietly.

4.           An underground fight club is run by a minotaur enforcer testing a new cloning technique. A rival syndicate hires the PCs to interfere, but every fighter is being grown into a duplicate of Bao’s enforcers.

5.           A gambling den / teahouse acts as a front for an orc warlord Zhu, extorting townsfolk while smuggling a powerful artifact back to Laothan. When the Psycho Army extorts the PCs’ resting town, they discover locals welcome Bao as “protection.”

6.           A black-market shrine appears, offering magical tattoos run by a kenku mystic, but in truth it’s a method to assassinate rival leaders by marking them. A PC’s patron becomes a target, and the PCs must fight through Bao’s assassins in public view.

7.           A foreign guild house is quietly overtaken by a Bao clone to establish a permanent training facility. The PCs stumble on it when a caravan they rely on is sabotaged—but if they strike too hard, the Bao clone simply reappears days later.

8.           A circus troupe arrives, run by a fallen monk, hiding a smuggling network of enchanted reagents. When a friend of the PCs vanishes, they find him as part of the circus show—and the rebels warn them to stay hidden until the right signal.

9.           An academy / dojo is secretly taken over by a minotaur overseer, who is teaching Bao’s Psycho Arts to local youths. When the PCs’ strongest member is challenged publicly, it sparks a region-wide spectacle of honor and shame.

10.        A neon arena in a border city is operated by a Bao clone, staging fights to recruit mercenaries. The PCs get involved when a local gang interferes with their mission—but discover the gang is already half-cloned.

11.        A hidden monastery becomes the site of a Psycho Army lab, run by a kenku mystic, seeking to harness dragon bone as a resource. A PC’s ally is kidnapped here, but the dragon spirit itself is awakening in rage.

12.        A concert-festival rolls into a rural province under an orc warlord Zhu, who uses it to test new enthrallment magics. When the local clergy plead for aid, the PCs find that half the villagers want the festival to continue.

13.        A smuggling caravan is co-opted by a fallen monk, trafficking spirit-water to clone vaults. When the PCs’ allies vanish mid-journey, they must raid the caravan—only to discover each barrel contains an embryonic clone.

14.        A shrine in a fishing town is controlled by a kenku mystic, who uses it to replace town leaders with clones. When a PC’s mentor is replaced, they must uncover the conspiracy—only to find the rebels want to keep the fake leader alive.

15.        A foreign arena tournament is staged by a Bao clone, its true aim to assassinate a rival syndicate leader. The PCs stumble in when they’re mistaken as Bao’s challengers—and discover they’re now on every wanted poster in the region.

16.        A neon teahouse casino springs up in a frontier city, run by a minotaur enforcer, aiming to corrupt officials. When the PCs’ caravan contact is killed, they must investigate—but the town guard is already in Bao’s pocket.

17.        A puppet monastery broadcasts sermons under a fallen monk, preaching Psycho Arts as enlightenment. Its true goal is to turn recruits into sleeper assassins. The PCs are drawn in when one of their allies receives such training—and begins turning on them.

18.        A kenku-run circus tears through the countryside, teaching mimicry while smuggling jade artifacts to Bao’s clone vaults. A festival in town is corrupted, and the PCs are hired to help—but the kenku performers also offer forbidden techniques.

19.        A Psycho Army dojo is uncovered in a port city, run by an orc warlord Zhu, aiming to train orcs into disciplined battalions. The PCs intervene when locals beg for aid—but find the “rebels” are actually Psycho double-agents.

20.        A “Bao” clone establishes a festival of lanterns in a rural valley, promising prosperity. In truth, she is collecting souls through enchanted lanterns. When the rebels ask the PCs to help covertly, Bao makes it a grand spectacle broadcast across Kara-Tur.

The People’s Resistance

Hidden Temples: Ku Nien monks shelter fugitives, disguising their chants as harmless prayers while secretly spreading counter-charms to Bao’s music.

Festival Subversion: Seng festivals survive underground, their fireworks and lanterns used as signals for rebels.

Insurgent Networks: Farmers and artisans smuggle weapons in rice sacks, silver jewelry carries coded symbols, and even wandering entertainers pass secret messages.

The rebellion lacks unity. Some want the Thok dynasty restored, others envision a free republic, while some radicals whisper of expelling all outsiders. What they agree on: they cannot face Bao alone.

Key Locations

Cheinang, Capital of Masks

A clash of styles: bamboo houses and stilted temples stand in the shadow of neon auditoriums and clone barracks.

The Grand Auditorium of Echoes dominates the skyline. Beneath it lies the Clone Vaults, where assassins are grown.

Plot Hook: PCs are sent to find a missing monk leader rumored to be imprisoned as part of Bao’s next “performance.”

The Terraced Fields of Xiang Vale

Rice paddies climb the hills in breathtaking steps, but Psycho Army orcs now oversee them. Rebellious farmers poison irrigation canals or vanish into jungle shrines.

Plot Hook: The PCs must smuggle out a coded harvest tally that reveals where Bao is funneling resources.

The Ox-Head Enclave of Daluang

A Minotaur-run fortress town on Laothan’s border. Many minotaur families support Bao out of loyalty—but others secretly despise her.

Plot Hook: PCs must broker an alliance with a minotaur clan chief torn between protecting his people and overthrowing Bao’s grip.

The Hidden Shrine of Ku Nien

A ruined monastery repurposed as a rebel stronghold. By day, it looks like an abandoned ruin; by night, the hidden courtyards fill with insurgents.

Plot Hook: PCs must defend the shrine during a kenku raid—uncovering that some kenku secretly fight for the rebellion too.

The Shadow Market of Chei Lao

Once a simple village market, now a criminal hub controlled by Bao’s lieutenants. Every transaction is watched, but the rebellion has infiltrated its stalls.

Plot Hook: PCs can buy rare information or weapons here—but must survive the attention of Bao’s agents.

Adventure Hooks in Occupied Laothan

The Double King

Rebels claim the true heir of the Thok dynasty lives, but Bao has replaced him with a clone. PCs must determine which is real.

The Song War

Bao’s psychic concerts enthrall entire towns. The Ku Nien monks have devised counter-hymns—but need daring adventurers to carry them into enemy territory.

The Orc Uprising

Some Zhu Bajie orc battalions plan to defect. Bao has sent clones to purge them. PCs must protect or recruit them before they’re crushed.

Kenku Paradox

A flock of kenku offers mystical training in exchange for sabotaging Bao’s propaganda networks. But some rebels don’t trust kenku duplicity.

Festival of Lanterns

The Seng light lanterns each year for the spirits of their ancestors. This year, the rebellion will use the festival to launch an uprising—if Bao doesn’t extinguish it first.

 #dungeonsanddragons #dnd5e #kara-tur #kof #streetfighter 

Sunday, August 17, 2025

The Screechfeed Dispatches - Letter X: On Turning Shame into Armor

 



📍 From: Underfiend Griphax
📍 To: Screwtape, Tormentorship Emeritus
📅 Filed under: #ShameIsPower #WoundPlateMail #NoHealingOnlyBranding


“If they ever learned to confess, we’d lose them. If they learn to commodify their shame, we own them forever.”
— Screwtape, Profit and the Penitent


Uncle,

I’m delighted to report: the patient has stopped trying to shed his shame.
Instead, he wears it. Displays it.
Weaponizes it.


🛡 The Inverted Confessional

Once, they would kneel. Now, they post.
They do not speak their shame to be healed.
They broadcast it to claim space.

This is the genius of it: the patient admits his failures publicly, but only to make them sacred.
His brokenness is now a brand. His trauma, a shield.

He no longer says “I am sorry.”
He says:

  • “This is just who I am.”

  • “Don’t judge me.”

  • “If you can’t accept my damage, you’re the problem.”

He is not seeking to be forgiven.
He is demanding to be celebrated.


🧷 Shame as Aesthetic, Not Catalyst

He has learned to curate his shame.

  • A childhood wound becomes a TikTok script.

  • A moral lapse becomes a podcast.

  • A failure becomes a logo.

This version of shame no longer leads to humility—it leads to followers.

And now that he is “open” about his flaws, he feels exempt from judgment.
“Honesty” has become his escape hatch from growth.


🚷 Immunity Through Injury

If someone dares challenge him, he accuses them of “shaming.”
Even truth, now, is rebranded as “attack.”
We have trained him to believe that his wound makes him untouchable.

So he refuses correction.
Refuses discipline.
Refuses grace—because grace implies change.


The patient no longer wants to be cleansed.
He wants to be admired while dirty.
He thinks vulnerability is power, so long as it never transforms him.

I await your thoughts, Uncle. Shall I next convince him to monetize his suffering more directly? Or perhaps push him to become a spiritual “guide” based entirely on unresolved pain?

Forever cloaked in virtue scars,
Underfiend Griphax
🩹 Department of Branded Brokenness & Confessional Content Strategy


🗂 Tags: #FlawedAndProud #PainMerch #ConfessionAsAesthetic #ShameShield
🖼 Header Art: Job Mocked by His Wife by Georges de La Tour (c. 1650)
💬 **Comments muted — criticism is re-traumatizing.

Saturday, August 16, 2025

Kara-Tur - Part 5 - Petan - The Transylvania of Kara-Tur

 



They call it Petan—but seldom aloud, and never at night. It lies where the jungles of the Old World rot into shadow and the Horseclan steppes rattle with bone-dry winds. To the mapmaker, it is a borderland. To the wanderer, it is a grave. Merchants lower their voices when its name is spoken. Monks burn incense thrice over before crossing the rivers. And still the roads draw the reckless, the curious, and the cursed.

Those who enter Petan often vanish. Those who return are never the same. They bring tales of drowned cities that whisper through the tide, pagodas that sing to themselves in broken chants, and dynasties that refuse to sleep though centuries weigh heavily upon their bones.

Key Haunts of Petan

The Cradle of Still Waters
A city drowned, its spires leaning like broken teeth above a black mirror. Barges drift without oars, bearing no passengers but the dead. Stare into the waters long enough and you will see not your reflection, but the memory that will drown you.

The Temple of a Thousand Vows
The ruin coils upward, carved with naga that seem to writhe when struck by moonlight. Once, monks bound karma into talismans here. Now, only the oathbreakers walk its halls, mouths stuffed with the vows they betrayed. They ask visitors to make promises—and they punish those who keep them.

Banthak Market
On the edge of Horseclan country, lanterns sway above a marketplace that should not exist. Here, one can purchase pickled spirit-fruit, rusted heirlooms that still bleed, or charms to keep the Krasue at bay. Half of it is tourist trickery. The other half is not.

The Ghost Pagodas
Stupas crumbling beneath strangling fig roots, where monks once bound demons not with banishment but with burial. Now the wards are failing. Wind through the cracked reliquaries carries a chant—half prayer, half lullaby. The villagers say something is waking.

The Bloodstep Ziggurat
Older than memory, older than names. It drinks moonlight like wine. Some say jungle gods feasted here before men learned to write. Now, vampire cults and dharma sorcerers gather on its steps, drawing strength from the stones that still reek of sacrifice.

The Living Shadows of Petan

  • Decay is beautiful: Vines choke palaces, orchids bloom from skulls, and rot perfumes the night air.

  • Karma is honest: Every cruelty echoes. Mercy may kill you, but it is the only key to rest.

  • The past will not sleep: Graves grow shallow here; history claws upward.

  • Spiritual corruption: The same robe may hide monk or monster, and enlightenment can burn as cruelly as damnation.

  • Cosmic indifference: The jungle has no hatred for you. But when it swallows you, it will not grieve.

Whispers of Petan: The Things That Walk When the Sun Sets


“Listen, child. The jungle does not hate you. It simply remembers more than you can bear. These are the ones who wander there, the ones I have seen—or thought I saw. If you hear their names, know that you are already in their shadow.”

1. The Starved Dead (Specters & Wraiths)

“They rise from broken temples, eyes hollow as clay lamps gone cold. They do not hunger for flesh, but for the breath that fogs on the night air. Step too close, and they will drink the warmth from your lungs until your soul follows.”

2. The Flying Heads (Krasue)

“Lantern light is not always lantern light. Sometimes, it is a face—still smiling—dragged aloft by its own entrails. The merchants at Banthak Market will tell you they can cage them. But cages do not hold the hungry.”

3. The Coil of Forgotten Vows (Spirit Naga)

“I once bowed before a serpent carved in stone. When I raised my head, it breathed. The naga remembers every oath made beneath its gaze, and it punishes every promise broken. Its coils are long enough to reach into your dreams.”

4. The Blood Drinkers (Vampires)

“Do not climb the Ziggurat when the moon is full. The stones run red, as they always have. There, pale lords whisper scripture with fangs, and the spawn of their feasts prowl below. They offer eternity, but eternity is thirst.”

5. The Smiling Giant (Oni)

“Ah, beware the merchant whose eyes twinkle too brightly, whose laugh rolls too easily. At night, the smile stretches, and the claws unfold. The Oni feeds not only on flesh, but on the years you thought were yours.”

6. The Sisters of Rot (Hags)

“I heard them at the Ghost Pagodas, voices sweet as honey, promising the wards would hold. But I saw their hands—knotted, blackened, dripping like old fruit. They keep their promises only to the worms.”

7. The False Lanterns (Will-o’-Wisps)

“On drowned streets, you will see lights bobbing, soft and inviting. Do not follow them. They are not guides, but lures. They feed on despair—and they know your name before you speak it.”

8. The Tiger in Monk’s Robes (Rakshasa)

“A holy man welcomed me with incense, prayers, and tea. I drank, and tasted iron. When the wind shifted, I saw his striped face behind the mask of flesh. The Rakshasa does not die when you kill it. It dies only when it is done with you.”

9. The Snake Kings (Yuan-Ti)

“In the roots of the temples they coil, neither man nor beast. They say the world was theirs before gods breathed upon it, and they mean to take it back. They promise salvation, but every prayer hisses.”

10. The Lingering Ones (Ghosts)

“Of all the horrors, the simplest are the cruelest. The ghosts do not want you dead. They want you to finish what they could not. But beware—when you take up their burden, you do not lay it down. Not in life. Not in death.”

“Now you know, child. If you still walk into Petan after hearing this, then perhaps you deserve what waits for you there. Or perhaps… you are already one of us.”

Sunday, August 10, 2025

The Screechfeed Dispatches - Letter IX: On Making Apologies Impossible

 

📍 From: Underfiend Griphax
📍 To: Screwtape, Tormentorship Emeritus
📅 Filed under: #NoForgiveness #ApologyAsAmmo #JusticeNeverSatisfied


“Make repentance a trap, and they’ll stop seeking it. Make forgiveness conditional, and they’ll forget it existed.”
— Screwtape, On the Eternal Tribunal


Worthy Uncle,

We’ve made marvelous progress. The patient now fears being wrong more than being evil—and that’s the critical shift.

His conscience no longer guides him.
His audience does.


Apology as Performance, Never Closure

He has internalized that apologies are no longer about restoration.
They are content.
Confession as spectacle.
Contrition as ritual.
And worst of all: forgiveness as optional.

When he wrongs someone, he no longer considers the injured party—only the perception of his apology. He writes statements, not letters. He posts videos, not confessions. He asks forgiveness from strangers, not the soul he hurt.

And still, it is not enough.
Because we have ensured it never is.


🪤 Every Apology Is a New Offense

He’s learned that the very act of apologizing may itself be offensive:

  • “Too late.”

  • “Too rehearsed.”

  • “Too emotional.”

  • “Not emotional enough.”

So he hesitates.
Then he panics.
Then he performs.

And when he is told, yet again, that it wasn’t “good enough,” his shame curdles into resentment. He begins to believe that apology itself is a power game—and he's not wrong, anymore.

We have made repentance a spectacle, not a sacrament.


🔁 No Redemption, Only Recycling

The brilliance of this design is that it keeps him in orbit.
Even if he tries to apologize well, he’s never allowed to leave the gravitational pull of his offense. Someone always digs up the past. Someone always questions the sincerity. Someone always says:

“You didn’t change fast enough.”

So he never does.
He grows bitter instead.
He eventually decides that growth is a lie, that virtue is just branding, and that guilt is weakness.

Now we have him.


Should I nudge him toward moral nihilism next, or simply let him turn the same cruelty inward? Either path leads downward, and both are delicious.

Forever accusatory,
Underfiend Griphax
🎭 Department of Repentance Disruption and Forgiveness Obfuscation


🗂 Tags: #CancelCultureIsHellApproved #RedemptionNotFound #SorryNotAccepted #ConfessAndBurn
🖼 Header Art: “Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery” by Rembrandt (1644, public domain)
💬 Comments will be monitored for tone. Reoffenders will be publicly flagged.


Friday, August 8, 2025

My Doctor Who Rant (A Long-Term Fan’s Perspective)

 I’ve been watching Doctor Who for a long time. Years ago, I found a torrent and binge-watched pretty much everything that was available at the time. I fell in love with the character, the tone, and the wildly creative stories.

Classic Who ended on the Seventh Doctor — Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred are still my favorites of that era.

NuWho was a mixed bag for me. When Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat worked together, it was magic. When they didn’t… let’s just say it showed. My favorite Doctor of the new era is Capaldi — no contest.


Finding the Fourteenth Doctor (and the Missed Specials)

I went into the 14th Doctor’s run and realized I’d missed the specials.
First gripe: Disney, put all your Doctor Who content together in one clear watch order! If you’re going to stream it, there should be a “click here” button that starts with the Tennant/Tate specials in sequence.

The specials were easily the best part of this era so far.

  • Special 1 – Tennant and Tate still have that unbeatable chemistry. The way they saved Donna was a bit of an ass pull, but forgivable… even with a genocidal Furby.

  • Special 2Event Horizon, Doctor Who edition. A bottle episode where Tennant and Tate got to play both heroes and villains.

  • Special 3 – Doogie Howser chewing the scenery. Loved the new UNIT setup, the cast, and the way they prepped for the next Doctor.

These specials felt like proper Doctor Who — warts and all. Seeing them after the main new series actually gave me more perspective.


The New Seasons – Good Cast, Wobbly Writing

Both seasons had great casts who did their best with the material. I like the new Doctor — he’s very huggable. Ruby was fine. But I have a major pet peeve…

Doctor Who deals in SCIENCE! The Time Lords removed magic from the universe because it’s unreliable. Even so-called gods weren’t actually called gods (the Toymaker, for instance). Yet every second episode in the new run has the Doctor up against some kind of god.


Season 1 Recap

  • Christmas Special with Ruby & the Gremlins – Fantastic start.

  • Space Babies – I survived Happiness Patrol and Love & Monsters, so… okay.

  • The Music Maestro – Just bad. Incoherent. Worse then Love & Monsters

  • Landmine Episode (Moffat) – Good.

  • 73 Yards (RTD) – Could have been the best episode of NuWho, but it broke its own plot logic in a way that couldn’t be ignored.

  • Social Media Episode – Dark but accurate. One of the better ones.

  • Rogue – Fun premise, mediocre execution. The “Oncoming Storm” peek when Ruby’s threatened was nice.

  • Walking Like an Egyptian – Surtekh was a fine villain setup, but the god rules are undefined. And Ruby… she’s not a normal human. The snow, the anomalies… I have my own theories.  They involve the Great Intelligence.

Verdict: Writing was a step down from the specials, but with highlights.


Season 2 Recap

  • Robot Rebellion – Campy fun, except… they killed a cat. Not cool.

  • New Companion – A nurse with the Doctor works thematically.

  • Time Hotel – Sure, why not. But killing a working Silurian irked me.   I liked Joy.  I also liked Anita, but I saw this story after it ended.

  • Lux – Weird. Farscape did it better.

  • The Well – Took too long to connect to the Diamond Planet

  • Lucky Day – Contained my most hated character in years (well done).  The core “engine” concept was excellent (if it weren’t tied to the gods arc).

  • Interstellar Song Contest – An hour of me mocking the premise, but that’s part of the fun. More “Oncoming Storm” moments.

  • Rani’s Return – Delightful, both of them. But she felt more magical than scientific.  I had flashbacks to the wicked witch of the west.

  • Omega – My favorite villain from Classic Who (The Three Doctors) reduced to “angry cloud.” He deserved better — even a stinger with a humanoid form would have worked.

  • Poppy – Poppy was fantastic and gave the best regeneration justification ever, but 

  • Anita - Anita came out of nowhere for me. but now that I saw the episode...well done.

  • Rose Tyler the Time Lord – I don’t hate it like some fans, but… really?

Verdict: Better raw ingredients than Season 1, but the “mac and cheese” was burned and then left outside for days.


Closing Thoughts

I’ll keep watching because I want to see where the train wreck goes. Like all Doctor Who fans, I reserve the right to love, criticize, and complain in equal measure.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk — aka, “What all Doctor Who fans do: bitch about the new season.” :P

Saturday, August 2, 2025

The Screechfeed Dispatches - Letter VIII: On the Addictive Power of Being Offended

 

📍 From: Underfiend Griphax
📍 To: Screwtape, Tormentorship Emeritus
📅 Filed under: #OffendedIsTheNewHoly #WoundsAsWeapons #GrievanceAsGospel


“A heart truly offended may seek healing. But one addicted to offense will beg to be wounded again.”
— Screwtape, The Theater of Self


Honored Uncle,

The patient now lives in a state of exquisite, electrified offense.
Every word is a landmine.
Every headline, a dagger.
Every opposing idea, a personal attack.

He is never not bleeding.
And that, Uncle, is precisely the point.


⚖️ Offense as Power

He’s discovered that being offended grants him authority. It allows him to interrupt, to silence, to correct—not with truth, but with pain.

He is not simply right;
He is injured.
He is targeted.
He is owed.

This makes him louder than logic.
He now enters every room already wounded, every conversation pre-armed with grievance.
He expects to be hurt—so he finds the hurt, even in kindness.

The more offended he becomes, the more control he wields.
He believes offense is insight.
He believes discomfort is persecution.


📣 The Virtue of the Wounded Mic

We’ve made sure he confuses emotional intensity with moral depth.

  • If he feels strongly, it must be important.

  • If he’s hurt, someone must be guilty.

  • If someone else isn’t hurting, that’s proof they’re privileged—or worse, oppressors.

Even joy in others offends him.
He accuses it of ignorance, of betrayal, of tone-deafness.
He cannot celebrate—only critique.

We have replaced reflection with reaction.
He no longer responds. He erupts.


🩹 Healing Is the Real Threat

The Enemy, as usual, offers forgiveness, peace, and wholeness.
Dangerous things.

So I distract him with performances of healing—retweets, solidarity posts, awareness merch.
Let him speak the language of healing without ever letting go of his wounds.

Never let him feel actual relief.
Only escalation.
Only performative catharsis, never the real kind.


I await instruction on whether to steer him further into martyrdom cosplay, or perhaps fracture his friendships with layered identity policing. Either way, he now believes pain gives him moral gravity—and that being perpetually offended is the surest way to never be questioned again.

Yours in hypersensitivity,
Underfiend Griphax
📛 Department of Weaponized Woundedness & Signal Amplification


🗂 Tags: #OffendedForLife #PainIsPower #WoundWorship #IdentityInjury
🖼 Header Art: “The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise” by Gustave Doré (1865, public domain)
💬 Comments disabled for your emotional safety.