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3 years ago ::
Oct 21, 2010 - 9:46PM
#1
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Dungeon 183
Creature Incarnations
Ecology of the Scarecrow
When the Moon Rise High, the Strawman is Nigh…By Steve Townshed At harvest time, when death revisits the twilight world, eerie scarecrows loom in silent vigil over the domains that they protect. With immortal patience bound to their master’s command, the stoic sentinels hold their post through wind, storm, and flood. Fear is the scarecrow’s singular purpose, and fear is its grimmest weapon. Fear binds it together and draws it like a hunger. Gaze too long into those formless canvas faces and you will see fear and death smoldering like corpse candles in the scarecrow’s dark, sackcloth eyes. This article discusses the purpose of the scarecrow, the ritual behind its construction, variations based on their stuffing, and presents three new types of scarecrows with which to terrorize brave heroes.
In folk tales, humanoids that made enemies of powerful evil beings such as demons, fomorians, hags, and oni were warned by these creatures that they would have their bones ground down and their entrails stuffed into scarecrows. Only too late do some poor fools discover that this fate is not just a storybook threat.Talk about this free Creatures Incarnations: Ecology article here. 
A great man once said "If WotC put out boxes full of free money there'd still be people complaining about how it's folded." – Boraxe
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3 years ago ::
Oct 21, 2010 - 10:12PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Apr 27, 2006
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*checks calendar date*
hmm, they could have waited another week before releasing this article.
happy halloween!Â
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3 years ago ::
Oct 21, 2010 - 10:23PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Sep 19, 2007
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More of these please. Ecology articles are great.
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3 years ago ::
Oct 21, 2010 - 11:23PM
#4
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- Stampeding Hybrid
- Dragon Slayer
Date Joined:
Dec 12, 2008
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Hurray for Steve Townshend! He is easily the best thing to happen to the magazines in a while and he does write the best articles. Â This article was fantastic, and I would love to see more like this from him. Â Really good article, I enjoyed reading through it.
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3 years ago ::
Oct 22, 2010 - 1:10AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Jul 14, 2008
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I can feel the side story forming already, with a possibility of a return later, there is nothing like a good article to spark the inspiration. Hmmm how to terrorise my friends....
To be or not to be.......Bill couldn't decide if he like the idea of being a Bard or possibly a Warlord or maybe a Spell singer........
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3 years ago ::
Oct 22, 2010 - 7:11AM
#6
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Date Joined:
Apr 27, 2006
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“Pass over this place, ye cold and restless ones, for when Death is nigh, we do her subjects honor.â€
fixed
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3 years ago ::
Oct 22, 2010 - 7:29AM
#7
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Date Joined:
Dec 29, 2003
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Very, very well writen.
That's one good Dungeon article, too bad they have to be so scarce.
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3 years ago ::
Oct 22, 2010 - 7:35AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Aug 17, 2007
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Yeah, excellent article. This is the sort of thing that 'wows' me - keep it up!
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3 years ago ::
Oct 22, 2010 - 7:47AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Sep 29, 2009
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Fantasic article.
Steve - I really enjoyed your work in MM3 (however my gaming group's character's... not so much - tpk), and you continue to impress with this piece.
This sets the bar of 'wow' factor writing.
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3 years ago ::
Oct 22, 2010 - 7:56AM
#10
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Date Joined:
Dec 31, 2003
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“Pass over thisplace, ye cold and restless ones, for when Death isnigh, we do her subjects honor.â€
fixed
Thanks, folks! I'm glad people are enjoying it so far.
I wanted to respond to this comment in particular, because the choice was deliberate and I wanted to share the rationale.
In one of my side comments to the editor, I noted, "Just so we're clear, I'm talking about Death as personified by peasants here, not Nerull or the Raven Queen or any other D&D world god of death."
I wanted to depict Death (capitalized!) a little bit more as it might look to the medieval mind--as a personified force that "visits" a populace terrified of it. To my mind, this doesn't negate the Raven Queen as the goddess that holds sway over that force or domain.
(Although for a while I'd considered the possibility that when these events transpired, it was far enough back that Nerull was still in charge, before the Raven Queen killed him and took his stuff... and in that case, death/Death would remain a male persona.)
Ha, in the end I decided to capitalize it, clarify the choice to the editors, and then leave it for you to decide.
-Steve
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