u/Nicholas_TW

I'm getting a little experimental in the kitchen and used some tandoori paste and Icelandic Provisions brand low fat skyr. Mixed them together to make a marinade, put them on pork ribs. Let them sit overnight in the fridge, then slow cooked them for the past several hours.

It's looking wonderful so far. Heavily seasoned, fall-off-the-bone tender, smells amazing.

The one problem is that normally when I made ribs, my last step is to fire up the broiler, slather some reserved marinade onto the ribs, and broil it for a few minutes. I've never broiled yogurt before. Is that safe (and a good idea) to do, here?

If it wouldn't be a good idea, can anyone recommend any alternatives that might make for a good pre-broil coating? I've got ketchup (ew), maple bacon onion jam, pecan honey mustard, and sweet barbeque sauce.

I'm not just looking for "a few silver to get fancy desserts" or "a goldpiece to hire a carriage for the day".

I'm running a campaign set in Waterdeep, the players are an investigation team. Each session represents a new case, then a tenday passes between each job. Every month (ie, ~3 sessions), they have to pay a "cost of living" (15-30gp depending on the character's circumstances). It's a fun little way to represent the value of money in a setting like this.

Naturally, while doing cases, they've already all made a fair amount more money than they need to survive, which is all well and good, but now that mechanic feels a little trite (after just a few cases and some ingenuity, most of them already have 60-120gp, 2x-4x their monthly CoL, and that number will only go up).

I can think of extra cost of living factors ("your landlord is raising rent," "oh no, your mom got hurt and needs a healer, it'll cost 5gp,") but I'd like to help them find more stuff they might actually want. Healing potions (50gp each) are an easy pick, but other than simple potions, I don't want to get into magic items being for sale, since anything noteworthy would cost a tier above that, and if anyone wants a powerful magic item, I'd rather it be from them carring out a quest associated with it, or as a reward for a particularly daring case.

What are some neat things players could buy that might cost from the 1gp - 15gp range? I asked them what sorts of things their characters would want, but other than magic items, none of them had any clear vision (other than buying some furniture for their investigation agency), so I want to try offering them options.

Would love any suggestions. Here's some ideas I've had so far:

• Jewelry (one PC has a wife so he could buy it as a gift, or PCs could get it for themselves)
• Hiring a personal carriage driver
• Upgrade their office space to a larger building
• More furnishings for their office

I'm currently employed, but my wife has been searching for jobs for the past 3 months. Zero responses. Absolutely nothing.

We've had multiple people check her resume, it looks good for the positions she's applying for. It's just, like I'm sure everyone here can agree, there's not enough jobs going around so you get dozens or hundreds of people applying for the same job.

She's searching for entry-level business support roles (stuff like HR Assistant, Administrative Assistant, Customer Support Specialist, that sort of thing). Her last job title was Business Analyst, making just under 50k a year, though she was a nontraditional BA role (more about handling files/processes than what most jobs advertise; she has no background in writing code) so searching for other BA roles aren't helpful. Before she was a BA, she worked in collections, making phone calls, and before that she worked phone support, taking phone calls. She's great with communications, especially written, and taking notes and understanding instructions and processes.

In a perfect world, she'd love to be fully remote, and applies to every remote position she's at all qualified for, but that's like winning the lottery nowadays. She wants to avoid retail. She has a slight immune deficiency so she wants to avoid any careers that involve interacting face-to-face with large numbers of people to avoid risk of infectious diseases, but it's not a deal-breaker if it's a really good career opportunity.

Our current strategy has been to apply to every remote position we can find on Indeed/LinkedIn that she at all qualifies for, most hybrid positions she qualifies for, and hope for a response. 3 months so far, no responses other than the very rare rejection.

So now we're trying to find ways to reassess our approach. A friend recommended we start networking on LinkedIn more, but neither of us really know how to navigate the social nuances of "Corporate Facebook". Should she just start sending "connect" requests with people at every company she applies to and hope they accept?

Another idea we had is for her to go to the town we hope to move to next and just go to every small business she can find that she likes and try talking to the manager, asking about employment opportunities, or if they know any other local businesses who might want to hire someone like her. Does anyone have any experience trying this?

I'm also thinking about looking into any networking opportunities, though all the ones I've found are for business-owners, not entry-level job-seekers.

Would appreciate any actionable advice. Thank you!

I've never done a strength build before, so I'm curious what some of the favorite weapons are in the community.

I've heard good things about the Exile Greatsword (early availability and I've heard the moveset is solid). I'm also very curious about the Black Knight Greataxe (I figure I can get it in the first half of the game if I push through super-hell and get to that one knight and grind until it drops), but the prereqs are pretty high and the scaling is unimpressive.

I've heard Heavy Exile Greatsword goes really hard, and you can' infuse Black Knight weapons, so it'll be stuck with poor scaling despite requiring 36 points in strength to use, but the base damage is high enough that maybe it'll be worth it anyway?

Would love to heard your thoughts, or if there are other weapons you recommend. Ideally I'd like something I can get before the second lord soul. I'm not looking to do a New Game+, so I'd want a weapon I have a decent amount of time with before the game ends.

I love my friend group. We're also all working adults. The core group is five people, two of us live with family, three of us have our own places. My wife and I always organize hangouts.

For years we've gone through the effort of setting up potlucks, or game nights, or seeing movies. Usually we have to schedule a couple months out because, again, we're all working adults, so schedules can be tight.

In the past five years, there has been one time somebody other than my wife and I organized a group hangout (it was a cookout, wonderful time). Everybody has a lot of fun when we meet up and gets along and stuff, I don't think there's any hidden resentment or apathy or anything. But it's frustrating when my wife and I are the only ones who take the initiative to do it. If we don't reach out for six months, nothing happens for six months.

What would be the best way to broach the subject? I don't want it to come off as confrontational, I don't think they should feel obligated to need to arrange things, but I'd like it if other people would start doing it from time to time so it's not just us.

I've got a Camarilla game I'm going to run set in 1930, and I want to introduce an antagonist with kind of an out-there backstory that ties into a separate splat. I'd like a bit of advice on if it sounds compelling and if there are ways I could tie it together better, but here's the idea:

One of the unalterable facts about True Magick is that upon death, the soul moves on, and that after that point, even if the person is brought back to life (such as via the Embrace), the ability to perform True Magick is forever lost. However, if the person is revived quickly after death, and the soul does not move on, there is still the potential for the survivor to awaken to an avatar.

This is exactly what happened to Carl Monrose, who died for a few seconds in a factory accident in Boston, 1880. His heart stopped beating, brain activity ceased function, and for a moment he looked into oblivion, only to be forced back to life by his father's quick action and sheer luck. Rather than remembering this as a traumatic but ultimately fortunate incident, Carl's mind awakened to the idea of magick, the experience of being so close to oblivion tearing away his connection to the consensus. His magick manifested in Spirit, Entropy, and Forces, plunging the factory in unnatural darkness and causing machinery and architecture to collapse in on itself. Typically, other mages would have sensed the incident when it happened and swoop in to help guide him to the path of the Traditions, but unfortunately, this incident was noticed by Boston's Tremere chantry, and the vampires arrived faster.

Injured and scared, the Tremere primogen of Boston fed Carl a drink of his vitae, a substance which poisons one's avatar. For Carl, it made it feel manageable, and he gladly accepted more and more vitae, becoming a ghouled mage before anyone could rescue him.

The primogen groomed Carl for years, exploiting his newly-awakened (and already dwindling, due to the vitae) powers and studying what he could of true magick, until his avatar was choked to death and Carl was of little use as a mage anymore.

Carl also had a brother, named Daniel. Daniel was estranged from their father, but still loved his brother greatly. He split off from their destitute family to become a criminal, starting with petty thievery and scrapping with other young homeless people in the streets of Boston. He grew in power and influence until he had a small crew put together and became a gangster, knocking over stores and cars and banks. Daniel would meet with Carl in secret sometimes, still loving his brother dearly. His rise in power through force and cunning despite his circumstances caught the attention of a Sabbat Lasombra who desired a childe, and after Daniel's entire surviving family (apparently) died in a horrible factory incident, the Lasombra decided to use that as the start of Daniel's test of mettle, crushing every other aspect of his life to see how he would cope with it. Eventually, his gang wiped out and finances ruined, Daniel proved he was strong enough to keep fighting and growing, and the Lasombra Embraced him.

The two were actually Embraced within a year of each other, though Daniel had no idea Carl was still alive.

Daniel became a feared warrior and ductus among his Sabbat pack (this was before the Code of Milan, but some Sabbat subcultures used those terms long before the code was established), taking on the Path of Self-Focus in attempt to overcome his grief at the death of his brother. He was able to accept much and learn to live in the moment, to master himself as much as he mastered others, but he always had that one secret unforgiveable weakness among the Sabbat Lasombra: continuing to love one's mortal family.

For Carl, after being Embraced as a Tremere, he was horrified at his new undead state. He believed his sire's lies that his connection to True Magick was ephemeral, though, and threw himself into being a good servant to the Camarilla, studying thaumaturgy (especially Spirit Thaumaturgy). He began to do jobs for his sire, including protecting against the Sabbat...

Eventually, inevitably, the two learned of each other, and Daniel led his pack on a mission to kidnap his brother and force him to take part in Vaulderie. The mission was a success, and all at once Carl realized what had been taken from him, that he was forever damned instead of being able to lead a life as a true mage, all because it caught the interest of a vampire. He returned to Boston, where he knew his sire kept haven. He knew from his time as a ghoul how to enter the haven uninvited, he knew how to avoid the wards and security, he knew the secret room his sire dayslept in which his sire was certain nobody knew of, and he knew his sire, low-humanity as he is, would enter torpor at least an hour before sunrise. Carl found his sire in a state of torpor, staked him, and committed diablerie, then looted his haven in the few short minutes he had, stealing a charm of nondetection and whatever magical tomes he could fit, and returned to his Sabbat brother for protection.

Obviously, one does not murder the primogen of a major city without retribution. Carl and Daniel, reunited during an era of Camarilla expansion and Sabbat civil war, fled westward, using every trick imaginable, sacrificing members of Daniel's pack for the sake of buying themselves time. Decades later, the two carved out completely new identities and are on the other side of the country, far away enough that they can settle down again, planting roots in a city they can make their own. Carl, now a member of House Goratrix and Thaumaturgy powerhouse (after diablerizing a Tremere primogen) still has a deep, burning hate for the Pyramid and seeks to destabilize it. Daniel similarly harbors great resentment toward the Camarilla and is building a new pack, the two of them working together to create plans to fuel dissent, paranoia, and weakness among the Ivory Tower.

For point of comparison, it's pretty straightforward how vampire clans get new members: a vampire is a member of a clan, that vampire turns a human into a vampire, that new vampire becomes a member of the same clan.

But from what I understand, a lot of the time, Mages just kind of happen. From the wiki:

>What does this Awakening mean? Well, it can mean a lot of things. It might mean a conversation with God, the finding of the perfect bit of blotter acid, or the realization of a theory that had been bothering the Awakened for years.

I can see how those awakening moments would all slot pretty easily into Traditions (eg, someone who awakens because they take some acid which is just THAT GOOD would probably end up in the Cult of Ecstasy), but how does a mage actually end up affiliated with that tradition? Does the Cult of Ecstasy just have people going around searching for newly-awakened mages who meet their criteria? Do most mages NOT belong to traditions?

I know "the Disparate alliance" is a thing, but that in itself just feels like a bunch of small Traditions stacked in a trench coat. Are there shitloads of non-allied individual disparates who just never really found "their group" and became part of the greater Mage society because they awakened on their own and had to figure out all the rules by themself? Do Traditions actively attempt to create new Mages by crafting ideal awakening scenarios and that's where most Mages come from?

I LOVE the magick system in MtA and would love to portray Mage in my WoD stories, but I'm just really confused on the intended (not that I strictly need to follow the lore as intended, but I'd at least like to understand it before I decide if I want to diverge from it) way that new Mages end up becoming part of the Traditions.

I'm at the Cathedral, opened the front doors, and haven't triggered Rosaria's bonfire yet. I reloaded the area, and Siegward appears in the well. However, when I go to where Patches is supposed to appear, he just doesn't.

Interestingly, though, the lovable Siegward DOES appear where Patches is supposed to. Strange thing, must be a glitch. I'm sure it'll fix itself later.

EDIT: Oh no! I've been tricked!

First-time player (for DS3). I just completed Lothric Castle and my build is where I want it to be, physically, so I decided to branch out and start pumping my Faith. Just got my Faith to 20, not sure I want to put many more levels into it. I haven't leveled attunement a single time all game, but I might start soon if I decide I like the spells I have access to, now (instead of just using Faith for an alternative healing/buffing method).

I've been using pyromancy as my limited range option for most of the game. I have a +6 pyromancy flame and a +6 Saint-tree Bellvine. Testing out both spells against some of the undead outside Firelink Shrine, Fire Orb costs 16 FP and deals 180 damage against a random unarmored undead. Lightning Spear costs 23 FP and only deals 100 damage (interestingly, it dealt 100 damage before I upgraded it at all, and still deals 100 damage now that it's +6). (I don't have any rings equipped which boost spellcasting).

A few questions:

1. Is the only way to get Lightning Spear to deal more damage to keep pumping my faith? Or is there a different reason why using an upgraded Bellvine deals equal damage to an un-upgraded one?
2. I assume regular undead enemies are vulnerable to fire which is why the difference in damage is so stark, but does Lightning Spear just kind of suck in this game? Feels weird to me that a higher-cost spell deals so much less damage, but it could just be that my Faith is just that low.
3. If I don't want to go higher than 25 in Faith, is it worth continuing to pursue Lightning Spear instead of just remaining a pyromancer?

I'm an American with an American passport. Do I need anything else to drive across the border? Back in 2022, my wife and I drove across the border and we were told there was some kind of form we were supposed to fill out before we could cross, and he showed us an app or something, but let us through anyway and told us to make sure we did it next time. We hadn't seen anything on the Canadian travel website about it.

In 2025 we flew to Canada and just needed our passports, no mention of an app or any paperwork to fill out.

Now we're planning on driving up again. Is there anything we need to do beyond go to the border with our passports? Any paperwork we have to submit, any apps we need to download, anything at all? Does anybody have any idea what the border guard might have been talking about back in 2022? We've never found anything on the Canadian travel website for what he was talking about since then.

From what I understand, the field of neurology as we currently understand it (ie, what it does and how the brain works) was something which was pioneered in the 1920s.

I assume people still cared about understanding what the brain did and how it worked before then (even if there were entire fields which have since been disproven, like phrenology) but I'd love to know some terms and fields which were common at the time, which countries were maybe a bit closer to modern understandings of neurology, and especially what the state of neurology was like in America before 1920.