![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starspray) wrote2025-08-18 12:15 pm
A Hundred Miles Through the Desert - Chapter One
Rating: T
Characters: Sons of Feanor, Elrond, Feanor, Daeron, various others
Warnings: n/a
Summary: After years in Lórien, Maglor and Maedhros are ready to return to their family and to make something new with their lives--but to move forward, all of Fëanor's sons must decide how, or if, they can ever reconcile with their father.
Note: This fic is a direct sequel to High in the Clean Blue Air.
Prologue
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes…
- “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver
- -
ermingarden) wrote2025-08-18 12:12 amSix Sentence Sunday
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tolkienekphrasisweek - my first attempt at a reembodied Maedhros. (I thought it woulld be a short little ficlet...it got away from me.) "At last the lady Vairë came to me, and asked me, if I would not leave the Halls, still to accept the gift of embodiment, and to come and work under her direction. 'For,' she said, 'it is not in the thought of the One, nor is it the wish of His servants, that anything should be wasted.' And so I acquiesced, and was embodied, but dwelt still in the halls of the Weaver as the living among the dead. And I worked, and I saw that the work of my hands was fair - that my hands, whatever else I had done with them, might still be turned to fair work."
Indeed, his hands were moving on the loom even as he spoke, threading wisps of cloud across a pale blue sky.
But why, I almost asked - and though I bit my tongue, perhaps he perceived the question in my face, or else his thoughts ran this way already.
"I know not why she came to me," he answered my unspoken question. "It was not for what craft was in me, for though I learned to weave in my youth, and liked it well, I did not then come to mastery - and in Beleriand my hand never touched the loom. Perhaps it was for love of Fíriel, her cherished handmaid, though she herself had never known me. What is certain is that it was not because I deserved mercy. I did not. I have never deserved any of their mercies, but they have been merciful to me regardless. Merciful beyond telling."
I could think of nothing more to say to that. His hands, the fair and the marred, kept moving smoothly on the loom, passing the bobbins in and out, in and out.
ermingarden) wrote2025-08-16 09:57 pm
TTRPG Review: Escape from the Dinkins Building
I ran Escape from the Dinkins Building for
fiona15351, and we had an absolute blast! I highly recommend it. It's designed for parties levels 2-5; we ran it with two PCs at level 6, one rogue and one paladin, and that worked fine. The setting is modern-day NYC, but magic and typical D&D fantasy elements are real and an acknowledged part of society. As adventurers, your characters are city employees in some capacity.Here's the summary:
Having fallen asleep during a mandated training, the party awakens to find themselves trapped in the haunted basement of the Dinkins Building. To escape, they must face a series of challenges and find the sign-in sheet that proves they attended, lest they be cursed to repeat the training, forever.
As the summary suggests, it's a very funny adventure, although some of the jokes may be too obscure if you don't live in NYC, and many appeal primarily to city employees and other people very familiar with local government bureaucracy. (Fiona was forced to consult the Wikipedia pages for Fiorello La Guardia and Staten Island Chuck.)
There is a hilarious special mechanic, which I am going to discuss behind a cut. If you think you are likely to play Escape from the Dinkins Building as a player, don't read this; it's supposed to be secret from the PCs! ( Read more... )
The adventure is designed to take four hours, assuming the players and DM are experienced. As I recall, it took us less than that, and there are suggestions for what to cut if you don't have that much time. The module is clearly written, with a good amount of detail (and good maps!), such that I think it would be a good choice for an inexperienced or even first-time DM. It's ideal for players interested in roleplay and social encounters - this is definitely not a pure dungeon crawl - but the fights are solid as well. Overall, it's just a really fun oneshot and definitely worth playing!
I cannot say that I ever expected to use my dayjob tag on a post about a TTRPG, but I am so, so happy this exists.
dawn_felagund) wrote in silwritersguild2025-08-14 08:41 pm![[admin post]](//www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/admin_post.png)
Admin Post: New Challenge: Kids These Days
![[admin post]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/admin_post.png){kind=small}
If there is a unifier among generations, it is complaining about the kids and teens in the generations coming up behind them. There was likely an ancient Mesopotamian complaining about the brainrot effects of that newfangled cuneiform and kids carving their names on the ziggurat walls. Likewise, there is no reason to believe our beloved Tolkien characters were immune to these timeless worries and whinges about the young people around them (or experienced the ever-helpful "advice" of their elders when they were themselves whippersnappers).
This month's challenge will offer a bingo card chock-full of perennial complaints about kids and teens. Choose one or several prompts to include in your fanwork. Numbers will not be called; you can select any prompt you want at any time. Your fanwork does not have to be about kids and teens; as always, we welcome creative interpretations of our prompts.
There are special stamps available for completing rows, columns, diagonals, or (if you are old enough to withstand the effort of going uphill both ways) a full card blackout where you manage every prompt. Note that, to complete rows and blackouts, you do not need to use all of the prompts in a single fanwork but can use them across multiple fanworks. Let the moderators know if you need one of the special stamps.
You can find the bingo card and text prompts for the Kids These Days challenge here.
Thank you to hîn_isil for this month's adorable stamps!
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 September 2025. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
dawn_felagund) wrote in silwritersguild2025-08-14 06:14 pm
Admin Post: Prompts Needed for September's Jumble Sale Challenge!
Have you ever noticed one of our challenges or prompts that would be absolutely perfect … for someone else to write? Or maybe the perfect storm of challenge and prompt combos that would be entirely delicious, intriguing, perplexing, or evil? For our September challenge, Jumble Sale, you will have your chance to offer up past challenges and prompts to other creators to work their magic!
How It Will Work
You can offer up to five items "for sale" at the jumble sale! Items should consist of a past SWG challenge or a prompt for a challenge. You can combine challenges and prompts, but all challenges and prompts should come from the SWG collection. You can find the full list of challenges here. Items will be listed as the prompts in the Jumble Sale challenge for other creators to make fanworks for.
How many challenges/prompts can you include in your item? As many as you want! Be tame, go wild, the choice is yours!
Next, you can set an optional "price" on your items. These are extra conditions that the creator must fulfill in claiming your item. Remember that the SWG is a positive-focused space; make sure your price is what you want to see, not what you want to avoid.
Some examples:
- It's Magic challenge using the prompt "The stain will not come out…" from the First Lines challenge
- Combine the Soap Opera prompt "secret family" with the Also Appearing prompt "mockumentary"
- Notion Club Revival challenge; price: include the pairing Celegorm/Maeglin
Ready to put some items in our Jumble Sale? Use the form here to send us your items!
starspray) wrote2025-08-14 03:24 pm
A Hundred Miles Through the Desert - Prologue
Rating: T
Characters: Sons of Feanor, Elrond, Feanor, Daeron, various others
Warnings: n/a
Summary: After years in Lórien, Maglor and Maedhros are ready to return to their family and to make something new with their lives--but to move forward, all of Fëanor's sons must decide how, or if, they can ever reconcile with their father.
Note: This fic is a direct sequel to High in the Clean Blue Air.
Unhappy Into Woe | Clear Pebbles of the Rain | High in the Clean Blue Air
AO3 / SWG
Next Chapter
( Read more... )