My goal was to build immersive, hard, but balanced and crash-free survival experience.

• New game on survival difficulty required
• All six DLCs needed
• Tested only on PS5
• Adding your own mods will break stuff

You start weak, tired, confused and with barely any gear. You are no one after leaving the vault. Avoid most encounters and quests. Try to survive, build a safe spot and carefully explore. Be aware of your surroundings, use what you find and don't engage in battles if you don't need to.
Before you there is a long way including exploration, difficult combat, building and managing settlements. But worry not. Enemies no longer are bullet sponges, however rushing towards them or standing in one place is guaranteed death.
Saving often in beds and making 'autosave drug' at the earliest possibility is a good idea (nearest chemistry workbench is at Abernathy Farm). Save menu is always on top of MISC category in Pip-Boy.
Discovering new places gives plenty of exp in the beginning, but quests are your main exp income.
Exploring safer areas like Sanctuary, Concord and smaller settlements first (avoiding powerful enemies) recommended. There might be a lot of combat in the background. Don't engage much, especially avoid supermutants, robots, turrets, bears - they are deadly even for high level, well developed characters. Raiders also hit hard, depending on their weapon and rank.
Weapon caliber makes huge damage difference. 10mm is pretty weak, but if you find rare .50cal rounds or some good explosives, you should eliminate tougher targets much more easily.
Investing in stats right after level 15 is a good idea. STR for carry weight, PER for accuracy, END for health, CHA for better prices, INT for more exp, AGI for sneak and speed, LCK for dmg and loot. Be sure of your choices. Watch out for 'revealing all map markers' and 'slow time when aiming' perks. Be sure you want and like them, there is no going back.
Deathclaw in the early minuteman quest is tough - try to use explosives to break his legs and some high caliber weapons to finish him off by shooting his face. Or maybe you'll get lucky and raiders will kill him. Or just simply avoid him until you get proper gear.
Don't waste ammo on zombies, use melee. Bullets are valuable. However zombies can grab and instantly kill you if your HP is very low, so watch out on low, early levels!
Aim for the head for much higher damage. Concentrating damage on arms or legs to rip them off is a good strategy too. Raider without arms wont do much to you except running around and alerting nearby enemies, that is.
Damage types are important. Ballistic damage is not efficient against turrets, melee against radroaches and so on. You need to figure out yourself whats best strategy.
Develop and protect your settlements, put walls to protect generators and other important structures. Repairing is costly. Gear up settlers. Scraping and cleaning settlements is a good early source of components.
Try to fully explore the map, kill enemies and do all quests. Most loot and enemies wont ever respawn so this is your chance to find new secrets in Commonwealth and clear the place.

========== CHANGES ==========

Combat, Enemies

• Enemies will flank, charge, take cover, run in fear, use and pick up ammo & weapons, swap to backup gun and so on.
• Headshots or weakspot hits do much higher damage than torso shots.
• Gun caliber greatly affects damage, explosives are powerful and damage type matters.
• Foes have special moves like biting and holding leg, wrestling moves, kicks. Dependent on enemy type and briefly stuns you.

Sound, Graphic

• Sounds are less flat because of added reverb and other tweaks.
• Very dark nights with wide, helpful flashlight.
• Atmospheric lightning: beautiful light from lantern and fire sources, dusk, dawn, moon, plus bullets illuminate environment when flying around.
• No dreadful, annoying, unimmersive: combat music, hearthbeat, sounds of generators, turrets, exp gain sound, most perk triggers and perk chart.

Crafting, Modifying

• Making and disasembling ammo. Upgrading clothes, rings, glasses in different ways.
• Legendary swapping, crafting legendary effects using technical documents. Some effects have been adjusted.
• Added crafting of new, lower damage explosives, but they have unique effects for ease of use.

Perks, SPECIAL

• STR affects carry weight, PER accuracy, END is health, max AP, CHA for better prices, INT for more exp, AGI for sneak, walk and reload speed, LCK for small dmg boost, loot, critical hits outside VATS and while using it.
• Leveling up does not give you health. You rely on stats, bonuses, gear.
• Perks tree mostly changed, level 15 needed to start increasing Special base stats, level of around 100 to increase stat to 10. To get all perks you would need 300 levels, so new modified 'idiot savant' will help a lot.
• Collecting magazines, bobbleheads, companion perks is now more helpful and recommended.
• Some skills are changed, reordered, much more interesting and useful.
• More perks are needed for crafting, especially science perk is required for most technology related stuff.
• Lockpicking everything is available instantly from level one, but perks and AGI make it reasonably easier. Bobby pins are more rare.
• Hacking is simplified to not do the repeating minigame. Now holotapes to reprogram and override terminals might be of use.

Settlements, Building

• Perks required to build important and useful objects. Buying component shipments available.
• You can hire guards for caps or risk regular settlers life on guard posts.
• You can't harvest planted fruit and vegetables, you get your share in workbenches, can gather in the wild yourself or assign settlers to gathering stations.
• Collecting resources by settlers changed. Bigger variety of settlers and they are now mortal.
• More objects to build and decorate your bases.

Locations, Loot

• Items like meds and ammo are harder to find and exist in appropriate containers.
• Quick travel available, but only to settlements.
• Only rare enemies like bosses drop legendaries.
• And many more...

! ! !

-------- BOLD_MODS_ARE_REQUIRED <----------

! ! !

LIST WITH CORECT ORDER:

1. Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch [UFO4P] [PS4] - Thousands of small bug fixes for FO4.
2. Looted World - PS - Removes 90% of loose loot in the world, so easily accessible and obvious places are almost empty. Makes you spend less time looting. You can still buy shipments of components from vendors and now scraping settlements is a great source of resources. If you are tired of constantly picking up loot, this is a good choice.
3. [PS4] Pip-Boy Paint Jobs - Colors Of The Wasteland Pack (Club Freedom) - Adds simple Pip-Boy skins. Remember you can click touchpad while using pip-boy to zoom. Again a master file.
4. Kane's Items Sorting (PS4) - Tags quest items, components, bones, bobbleheads, holotapes, notes, chems, liquors, syringes, 99% of junk for better item management and easier looting (water, aid, stealthboys, few food items and some mags are marked by Immersive gameplay). Empty bottles/vases are not marked.
5. [PS] Useful Technical Documents - Legendaries - You can swap legendaries for free, create new ones using technical documents.
6. Named NPC Protection [PS4] - Protects named quest npc's, merchants, important characters from random encounters with enemies.
7. Ghouls Of Commonwealth - Adds over 1100 feral ghouls for zombie apocalypse and chaos.
8. Tribals of Commonwealth - Adds tribal groups, often found in wilderness.
9. Hermit Crabs Of The Commonwealth - Adds 12 hermit crabs to the map.
10. Wolves Of The Commonwealth - Adds wolf spawn points to the map.
11. More Behemoths In Commonwealth - Adds 5 more behemots to the Commonwealth.
12. DLC Creatures In The Commonwealth [PS4] - Adds 200 creature spawns to the commonwealth for constant war, danger and chaos.
13. Behind Enemy Lines - Adds plenty of enemies to the glowing sea region.
14. Roving War Parties, Raiding Packs And Hordes Of MY - Adds wandering groups that attack some key locations.
15. More Radstags - Adds plenty of radstags, especially north and into forests.
16. Better Radstags - More agressive radstags.
17. Not a Princess - Humans can grab you/others and slam on the ground, make karate moves, dogs can hold your legs/arms, bloodbugs suck your blood.
18. Disable Minutemen's Annoying Quests [PS4] - Disables 7 types of repetitive and not important radiant quests.
19. [PS4] Grounded Updated By Sarinia - Adds tons of ground foundations, floors, walls, mounds of dirt to Structures-Concrete menu.
20. Miscellaneous Settlement Items Unlocked [PS4] By Callias - Adds 49 objects for building in settlements.
21. Cinder Block Walls And Sandbags Unlocked [PS4] By Callias - Adds 16 objects like cinder blocks and sandbags.
22. Constructible Faction Guards - Adds ability to hire guards for caps in build menu, but only after allying with a faction.
23. [PS4] OCDecorator - Adds inventory items as a decorational building objects.
24. [PS4] OCDecorator DLC - Support for addons for the above mod.
25. Tweaks - Survival Fast Travel Settlements All DLC - You can fast travel to settlements on survival difficulty.
26. 1st Person Animation Tweaks [PS4] - In first person mode you lower your gun automatically.
27. [PS4] Swinging Animated Meat Bags - Adds animation to supermutant meat bags and adds flies buzzing sound.
28. No Sneak Indicators - Completely removes all sneak indicators.
29. [PS4] Dogs Not Brahmin - Provisioners and traders use dogs instead of brahmin.
30. Vertibirds Unghosted - Tweaks invincible vertibirds for danger and realism.
31. [PS4] Simple Settlers (Mortal Edition) - Provides bigger settlers pool (five times more) and names them. Immortal version available.
32. Quieter Settlements PS4 - Vanilla - Generators, turrets and hammering are much quieter.
33. Fallout 76-Style Region Music - Changes music in regions for less boring/repetitive background tracks.
34. Reverb And Ambiance Overhaul - ALL DLC [PS4] - Tweaks sounds for better ambient and reverb and adds sliders to options.
35. Better Dialogue - Camera focuses on NPC, changes made to some irritating generic dialogues and tweaked dialogue interuption.
36. Esk QuietPerks [PS4] - Muted five annoying perks like idiot savant.
37. No Experience SFX - Silences sounds when gaining experience from various sources.
38. [PS4] Dead Beat - Removes heart beat sound at low HP.
39. Combat Music Remover - Mutes combat music, so there is silence and suspension when enemy detects you.
40. Commonwealth Visual Overhaul & DLC [PS4] - Changes colours, atmosphere and makes nights darker.
41. UCW - Unified Commonwealth Weather - Adjusted weather for regions and integrated DLC weather for Commonwealth.
42. [PS4] No More Fake Puddles - Removes ugly puddles that stay 24/7.
43. Reduced Rubble Etc. - Decreases intensity of grass, rubble, twigs and other unimportant objects.
44. TLS Fallout 4 Subtle FPS Improver - Small changes like decreasing grass and water movement speed, and tiny radius decrease of some light sources.
45. [PS4] Enhanced Flickering Firelight - Better light effects for fire sources including oil lamps.
46. Vanilla Moon (4x) - Much bigger moon. Anything bigger looks low quality.
47. Sunlight Alignment Tweak - Better Dawn And Dusk [PS4] - Changes sun and moon movement for better lighting and atmosphere during dusk, dawn and night.
48. Crafting Blur Removal (PS4) - Removes blur while looting containers, from crafting screen, power armor.
49. Ironsight Blur Removal (PS4) - Removes blur while aiming.
50. More Map Markers (PS4) - Adds some new markers on map.
51. VATS Third Person Only - As the name says, just changes the cameras used in VATS.
52. Component Tagging Helper - Allows to easily tag basic components on cooking bench and you can quickly view how many you have in total.
53. Grenade and Mine Pack - Adds some new weaker, but modified explosives.
    
54. Animations Be Gone - Removes plenty annoying hammering spots in sanctuary.
    
55. Power Goggles (All DLC) - Power Armor Mods For Goggles, Visors, And Glasses - As the name says. Two mods for glasses for high level characters.
    
56. Clothes For Every Stats Wz - Most clothes can be worn under armor and you can upgrade them after unlocking ballistic weave.
    
57. Bear Trap and Caltrops Fix [PS4] - Bug fix and small changes in how traps work and balance them.
    
58. See-Through-Scopes [PS4] - Adds new combat scopes in place of 2.5x and 4x magnification.
    
59. See-Through-Scopes - Nuka World [PS4] - Combat scopes for handmade rifle and western revolver.
    
60. See-Through-Scopes - Far Harbor [PS4] - As above but for 2 Far Harbor weapons.
    
61. Legalized Top Tier Legendary Effects [PS4] - Balances few legendary effects.
    
62. Targeting Sensors On Recon Scopes(Colour Coded NPCs Version)[PS4] - Modified recon scopes that highlight enemies, friends and dead bodies in specific colours.
    
63. Immersive Gameplay Combat Mostly PS4 - Core of this modlist. Hundreds of changes.**
    
64. Immersive-Gameplay. Low Tech, No Powerarmor Justification Patch. (PS4) - Makes fusion cores worn. Balances the game around power armor.
    
65. Immersive Gameplay Seasonpass Patch (Playstation) - DLC compatibility for IG.
    
66. Immersive Gameplay Rough Start (PS4) - Overwrites starting level to 1.
    
67. Medium Settlement Raids PS4 - Makes enemy raids less ridicolous and balanced.
    
68. Zombie Walkers (PS4) - Most feral ghouls act like slow rotten zombies.
    
69. Curse Of Darkness - Normal Edition - - Zombies are faster and more dangerous after midnight.
    
70. Esk No More Teleporting Creatures [PS4] - Molerats and radscorpions don't teleport.
    
71. Realistic Insects Health [PS4] - Makes insects easier to kill and balanced.
    
72. Loot Logic And Reduction Complete - Enhanced - Restricted harvest, lower and/or different production output for settlements, empty bottles renamed, Scrounger perk less ammo, less meat, less loot.
    
73. Rough Start - Less Handouts - Removed some workbenches in starting locations. Different loot in Vault111, radroaches strength changed, 14 starting stats.
    
74. Food, Drink and Crop Overhaul - Improved cooking, lead belly perk, cooked food provides food after reading farming magazines. Better recipes are locked behind perk ranks, added milk and crop seeds.
    
75. PreWar Food + - Prewar food is more useful.
    
76. Settlement Progression-Local Leader (UOF4P) - Changes cost and perk requirements of some important structures, changes local leader perk and adds rank 3.
    
77. Wasteland Baubles Ring Overhaul! PS4 - You can find unique rings at traders, in suitcases, cabinets. Allows scraping and modifying rings for special legendary effects.
    
78. (PS4) Improved Lighting Ballistics - Improves lighting for projectiles such as bullets, lasers, gauss, plasma, missiles, flares and explosions.
    
79. [PS4] Realistic Bullets: Improved Lighting Ballistics Edition - Makes bullets travel faster, more realistic and fixes some shooting bugs.
    
80. Immersive Gameplay Dismemberment - A Patch Or Standalone Feature. - Higher damage to headshots, easier to dismember limbs.
    
81. Tackle! Immersive Gameplay Knockdown Version - Lets you stagger enemies by sprinting into them after aquiring a perk.
    
82. Idiot Savant & Better Criticals Redone (PS4) - Idiot savant is better the more INT you have, muted perk chart, better criticals perk for crits outside VATS.
    
83. [PS4] STS - All-In-One - Allows scraping almost all settlement objects.
    
84. [PS4] STS - Extras - Living & Dead - Season Pass Version - You can get extra resources from scraping dead bodies in settlements. Watch out not to scrap someone alive.
    
85. Faster Positive Affinity For Companions - Removes cooldown between companions liking/hating your actions and gain five times more positive affinity.
    
86. [PS4]More XP Per Level (Base:600, Bump 120) - Increased experience required to level up.
    
87. Increased EXP - Increases the amount of EXP gained to make Immersive Gameplay and mod list balanced.
    
88. No Building Houses XP Gains PS4 - Building settlements don't provide experience.
    
89. Realistic Death Physics - No Animation - ALL DLC [PS4] - Decreases the amount of force of both melee and ranged attacks, so bodies wont fly away.
    
90. Increased Settler Limit - Awareness - Wire Length - Corpse Collisions [PS4] - More aware settlers with limit of 50 per settlement and longer wires. Mind the limit.
    
91. Power Conduits Radius Increase And No Build Limit - All DLC [PS4] - Infinite build limit and two times longer range electricity conduits.
    
92. Settlement Attack Spawns Outside The Settlement PS4 - Moves attack spawns outside the settlements.
    
93. [PS4] Creation Club Skins (Weapon & PipBoy) Generic Compatibility Patch - Makes weapon paints from Creation Club show up in crafting menu if you have any.
    
94. Pip-Boy Flashlight - Pipboy light is now a flashlight.
    
95. PS4 - Longer Headlamp Light - Makes flashlight much bigger and changes headlamp and power armor light.
    
96. [PS4] Starting SPECIAL = 7 - Changes starting SPECIAL stats to 1 in each category so you start weak.
    
97. No Enemy Respawns - Game areas don't respawn loot and enemies, after time have passed.
    
98. Accelerated Fast Travel - Fast travel takes less in-game time, should be also relevant to survival needs.
    
99. Time Scale Changed From 20 To 10 [PS4] - Day and night lasts twice as long.
    
100. Saving Survival Mode - Allows crafting misc items on chemistry workbench for anytime saving (3 standard autosave slots and 1 save shared/overwritten on all survival characters).
     

     Additionally after downloading:

101. After installing the mod list, restart your PS4/PS5.
     
102. Try not to remove mods on existing save file, unless its something simple.
     
103. Change game difficulty to survival in options.
     
104. Play on performance 60fps. Visual 60fps mode is laggy.
     
105. For even more immersive settings, go to Settings, Gameplay and turn off quest markers.
     
106. Go to Options, Sound and reduce ambience level by 5-8 clicks and reverb by 2-3.
     

* Dont forget to change camera sensitivity to max or your preference, in Options, Display change hud color to blue or your favorite, you can also lower transparency by 30% or more, set pip-boy colour (I use red pip-boy and minty hud to have the best compatibility with highlighting perks and scopes).

You can add/swap some mods if you want:

• 101... Immortal Cats - PS4 - Invincible cats, so you don't lose happiness increase when they die. Add after mod #83.
• 102...
• 103... Josephine Preset - Nice looking preset number 13 for female character creation. Change hair and other details if you want. Delete after leaving vault111 and saving (if you need mod list space that is). Add after mod #53.
• 104... No Affinity Cooldown - Removes cooldown between companions liking/hating your actions. Swap with mod #91 if you want slower reputation gain.
• 105... Silent Main Menu - To mute main menu sound, find duplicate sound slider named 'Master sound' and move it all the way to the left. Add after mod #40.
• 106... Quieter Settlements PS4 - Contraptions DLC - Quieter production lines. I ran out of space on mod list so this and next one are optional. Add after mod #33.
• 107... Quieter Settlements PS4 - Wasteland Workshop - Quieter fusion generators. Add after mod #33.
• 110... Pip-Boy Flashlight (Brighter) - For a smaller, brighter flashlight replace mod #95 with this and then swap places with #96 (or completely delete longer headlamp mod).
• 111... No Bugs In Vault 111 [PS4] - No radroaches in starting area, if its too hard for you to complete the prologue. Add after #6.
• 112... CleanVATS - Green Tint Remover PS4 - Removes fullscreen green tint effect while aiming in VATS mode. Add after mod #52.
• 113... Longhorns Of The Commonwealth - Adds longhorns to more empty areas on the map. Add after #28.
• 114... Radium Rifle Suppressed Sound Fix - As the mod name suggests. Must be on top of mod list, its a master file. Add after unofficial patch.
• 115... Gulpers Of The Commonwealth - Adds gulpers to more empty areas on the map.
• 116...
• 117... Explorer Restored - Cut Perk Mod PS4 - Adds rank two of VANS perk - explorer. Uncovers map.

Remove to have:

Stock Pip-Boy color - #3 No legendary effects swap and crafting - #5 No added 1000+ zombies and reverted ghoul behaviour - #8, #71, #72. No powerful groups wandering and attacking places - #15 Radstags be less agressive - #17 No additional building objects - #20 #21 #22 No settlement decoration items - #24 #25 Wandering trader brahmins instead of dogs - #30 Cash register sounds when gaining exp - #38 Old vanilla dusk and dawn lighting - #49 Stock VATS cameras - #53 Old combat scopes - #61 #62 #63 No 'uncover map' perk - #84 No support for weapon skins from Creation Club - #90 Faster leveling - #92 Building experience points - #94 Seven extra SPECIAL points to distribute at the start- #97 Loot and enemies respawn after some days - #98 Fast travel take time again - #99 Vanilla days length instead of double - #100

Known issues, bugs, glitches, exploits:

Some of those are present in vanilla game. I mention every problem encountered during testing and solution if there is any.
Action girl perk have only one rank on female character and two on male.
NO FIX: It's 25% AP regen loss for endgame if you choose female character.
Bubblegum seems to unintentionally quench some thirst and vendors give it for free.
NO FIX: Free candies to encourage shopping. No fix for now.
Few perk descriptions might be slightly incorrect or missing.
NO FIX: Nothing important to worry about. No fix unless immersive gameplay gets updated.
Three street lights and subway light have incorrect build costs.
NO FIX: These have too high build costs. Use alternative items.
Water surface sometimes flash black when moving underwater.
NO FIX: Its not very noticable and you don't dive much in FO4 anyway.
Hubby secret basement in Sanctuary.
NO FIX: Its up to you if you want to use inside contents. Makes game much easier, gives headstart.
Hacking rank 4 seems useless or has wrong description.
NO FIX: Needs proper check if it really does nothing.
Animal Fat doesn't drop from animals.
NO FIX: Its not important.
Can't complete prologue, radroaches kill me too quickly.
FIX: If you are not able to kill or avoid them before they kill you, try mod #111.
Ground textures in and around sanctuary flicker black.
FIX: Fixes itself over time.
Green chest containing flare gun and 10k flares after exiting vault 111.
FIX: Mod dev forgot to delete it. Ignore and forget about it.
Wall turrets sometimes glitches and play sound on repeat.
FIX: Re-enter the area or reload save.
Contact frag mines from mod # seems to have too low damage.
FIX: Ignore and don't craft them. Other new explosives should work fine and do decent damage.
Perception low, constant (-1) PER in stats because of poison damage/resistance bug.
FIX: Vanilla glitch. Safest way to install Vrexia's Magical Rings and equip rings. Should not collide with regular ring slot.
Pip-boy light wont transfer from first to third person camera view.
FIX: Turn flashlight off and on. Can't fix on PS4/5.
Incorrect cost to build concrete foundations and barn menu items.
FIX: Use mod #20 to add tons of foundations in newly added category StructuresConcrete.
OCDecorator replaces creation club menu.
FIX: Items from CC are still available in other building categories. Ignore this or delete mod #24 + #25 if you dont care about its function.
Can't use Wattz Consumer Electronics terminal, animation stops.
FIX: There is a radroach behind the wall. Kill it by swinging melee or using explosives.
v.1.00 - (15May24)Initial version. v.1.01 - (24May24)List updated to remove deleted mods, updated names, load order, text. v.1.02 - (29May24)Added mod #80, moved #112, #113 outside the main list. Fixed some item building costs. v.1.03 - (30May24)Fixed bullets not leaving the weapon chamber with some gun/scope combinations #83. Balanced legendary effects #64. Sorted bug list. Removed 2 meaningless mods. v.1.04 -

Have fun!

Preventative Cardiology Part 2: Lipids
Lipids, specifically circulating lipoproteins (which are varying quantities of cholesterol and triglyceride combined with protein) are the most important, established conventional risk factor for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Between 10-15% of the US population has high LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol, see below) often part of metabolic syndrome (extensive discussion to come in a subsequent post). This circulating LDL cholesterol deposits in blood vessels including the coronary arteries leading to first fatty streaks and later mature plaques. Those plaques can block the artery causing chest pain as well as spontaneously rupture leading to a heart attack. See diagram for a simplified overview of plaque development. Importantly, HDL lipoproteins can pull cholesterol out of plaques returning it to the liver and thus are thought to confer some protection from ASCVD.
A standard lipid panel that your doctor orders includes the following measures:

1. Total Cholesterol
2. LDL Cholesterol (Low-Density Lipoprotein)
3. HDL Cholesterol (High-Density Lipoprotein)
4. Triglycerides
5. Non-HDL Cholesterol

Your doctor then takes those numbers and puts it into a risk calculator to determine if you are low, intermediate, or high risk to make a decision about whether to offer you a statin or other cholesterol lowering therapy. The biggest risk factor is actually not cholesterol levels it's your age so a 40 year may not be offered a statin with the exact same numbers a 60 year old would. Longevity is based on primordial prevention, which is prevention long before diseases develop, so I think this is a fundamentally flawed approach. It works at a population level but for individuals it undervalues lifetime risk. As a 40 year old, I may have a 3% 10 year risk, but my lifetime risk of an event is 70%. Thus, in conventional practice I would not be offered cholesterol lowering medication. The moment I turn 50, and my 10 year risk exceeds 5%, then I would. Individualized decision making is key as is super early intervention with both medication and lifestyle (diet, etc).
Some nonconventional but still very important lipid markers not routinly tested are:

1. Lp(a) (Lipoprotein a)
   
2. ApoB (Apolipoprotein B)
   
3. Lipoprotein Fractionation
   
4. Omega 3 Fatty Acid Index
   

Lp(a), another lipoprotein, is a one time test. Elevated levels greatly increases risk of ASCVD irrespective of conventional lipid markers and often necessitate things like aspirin for primary prevention (fallen out of favor for most populations but reasonable with elevated Lp(a)) and more intensive control of conventional risk factors.
ApoB (Apolipoprotein B) actually doesn't measure cholesterol at all like the conventional lipid panel does; rather it measures the protein contained on all atherogenic (plaque forming) lipoproteins. That includes LDL but also VLDL and ILDL. Many people, including myself, thinks it gives a more complete picture of atherogenic risk and should be included with the conventional markers.
Lipoprotein Fractionation breaks down the LDL particles into their subtypes. This is important because we know that small, dense LDL particles are the most atherogenic. A relatively normal LDL number may belie a very elevated small dense LDL particle number, which would necessitate more intensive treatment.
Finally, Omega 3 Fatty Acid Index, measures the amount of EPA + DHA in your red blood cells (a surrogate marker for whole body levels). Omega 3s although a bit controversial are widely thought to be protective against ASCVD. Most Americans are deficient and 8%+ on this index has been shown to be protective in a number of well designed studies.
Treating lipids include Statin, Ezetimibe, PSK9 inhibitors, bempadoic acid, fish oil supplements, and fiber supplements as well as dietary approaches like the Mediterranean diet. Nevertheless it all starts with knowing your numbers and risk.
In part 3, we will discuss inflammation as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

So my dear juniors, I thought of helping y'all with the diagrams that you need to practice for boards. They are just some diagrams that you need to pay attention to and if they don't come in the exams, don't come back at me saying I'm the same as that mausi wala 😭😭

1. Structure of Chromosome**
   
2. Mitosis (all phases)**
   
3. Plasmolysed Cell
   
4. Turgid Cell
   
5. Structure of chloroplast**
   
6. Structure of stomata
   
7. Structure of RBC**
   
8. Structure of WBC (all types)**
   
9. Structure of Platelets**
   
10. Structure of Heart (LS)**
    
11. Structure of Artery**
    
12. Structure of Vein**
    
13. Structure of Kidney (LS)**
    
14. Structure of urinary system**
    
15. Structure of renal tubule**
    
16. Malpighian Capsule**
    
17. Nerve Cell**
    
18. Reflex Arc**
    
19. Structure of Brain
    
20. LS of Eye**
    
21. Structure & Correction of myopic eye**
    
22. Structure & Correction of hyperopic eye**
    
23. LS of Ear**
    
24. Location and structures of all endocrine glands**
    
25. Male reproductive organs (all)
    
26. Female reproductive organs (all)
    
27. Structure of human sperm**
    
28. Structure of ovum**
    
29. Tubectomy**
    
30. Vasectomy** [** very important diagrams] YOU CAN RELY ON ME, I SCORED 99 IN BIOLOGY!! (still took pcm lmao)
    

Hello all. The youtube channel, Kiyoko&Kanade are currently hosting a 3 part ASMR competition, with one of the divisions being for script writers (deadline June 21 [see their youtube channel community tab for more details]).
Because of this, I plan to write a lot more. And as a consequence of that, I plan to share my script entries here, because why not? I hope you enjoy it!
Side note - this script is okay for monetization.
Synopsis It's your first day at a magical university, and before you can get started attending classes and making friends, you have to take a special course in "Vampire History and Ethics." That's right, your a "vampire," the only human one in your class-- but what that word (vampire) means, and what you actually are, are two entirely different things. That is why this class exists, it's meant to teach you the truth about vampires, and make you aware of all the resources the university has prepared for you.
[Sound of general chatter]
[Sound of heeled footsteps as chatter continues]
Instructor: (Clap of hands) Attention, please. May I have your attention?
[General chatter quiets down] [Brief Pause]
Professor E: Excellent. It would seem that I am rather fortunate this year, to receive a group of well mannered students such as yourselves. I half expected you to try talking over me just now. Shame on me for my school-fostered pessimism (said cheerfully). Now then, onto introductions... My name, is Elaina Andrei Cojocaru, and as you may have guessed, I have the unique privelage of being your "Vampiric History and Protozeal Ethics" Professor, this year. It is a pleasure to meet you all.
[Applause]
Professor E: Oh goodness, all of you really are well mannered. Please stop, I know I gave a little half bow just now, but that's no cause for such a warm reception. Oh, curse my formalities, and these cherry cheeks.
[Soft laughter.]
Professor E: (Clearing her throat) Right then, as I've said, I'll be one of your primary Professors for the entirety of this year. And I'll be checking in with you all, regularly, for any additional years you choose to spend at Amortis University. Now, can anyone tell me why that is...?
[Brief pause]
Professor E: Yes; you there, in the back!
[Brief pause]
Professor E: (Sighing) No, young man, it is not because you're all "freaks." And for the record, please know that I am no different from any of you. Why, I still remember the days I spent, sitting where you are now; listening to my own Vampire instructor as he gave this exact same orientation. But I'll save that story for another time. So please, anyone? Can anyone tell me why you're all here?
[Brief pause]
Professor E: That's right, miss. The reason why you're all here, is because you have all been afflicted with the genetic disease most know today as "Vampirism." And as such, you all require additonal tutelage before you're allowed to go out and socialize with your fellow classmates.
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: Yes, dear, that is why none of you were permitted to attend the official orientation in the Campus Square. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry you were denied that. I know how frustrating it can be, to be told that you're no different from anyone else, only to be treated like a leper at every opportunity. That used to drive me up the wall. But-- that's why I studied to become a teacher, and why I volunteered to teach this class, it's because I wanted to be there for those who would experience the same things that I did. I wanted to be there for them, in the ways I wished someone was there for me. And speaking of...
[A few heeled footsteps sound] [Sound of a drawer being pulled out] [Sound of jingling keys]
Professor E: I knew that none of us would be attending the formal get together in the Campus Square. So I took the liberty of... procuring one of the Headmaster's vehicles, along with one of the company credit cards.
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: Why did I do that? Well, so we could throw our own party, of course! There's a demi-human diner only a few blocks away, and the sweets they serve are out of this world! It's normally quiet later in the evening, especially on weekdays, so nothing is stopping us from showing up in full force; and downing enough deserts to put us all in a sugary coma!
[Hoots and hollers]
Proffessor E: Shush, evryone! Shush! Please keep it down. You're going to get us caught-- and me fired! (Said with glee)
[Quiet giggling]
Professor E: Alrighty then, since it seems like we're all in agreement for later tonight, and since the spirits of those in the room have been largely lifted, I think it's about time we delve into our first lesson. Lights, please!
[Light switch being flipped] [Heeled footsteps] [Projector being turned on and running]
Professor E: (Clearing throat) To begin our lesson, I would like to take a closer look at the official name of this class. And that is...?
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: Correct, Mr. Brutus; "Vampiric History and Protozeal Ethics." Now, what do you all think these words mean...? Anyone...? Besides Mr. Brutus.
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: That's right, Miss Nadia, this class is meant to teach you the history of Vampires; and how we, their offpsring, are to conduct ourselves in a civilized society. So to start our trek into the past, why don't we begin with the world's very first recorded "Vampire." Lord Dracula himself!
[Clicker clicking] [Concerned whispers]
Professor E: Oh my, all of you seem so utterly bewildered. What ever is the matter? (Said sarcastically)
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: That's right, Mr. Ryuji, the picture on the screen isn't that of a distinguished, elderly man, but that of a petite young woman; whose beauty I would liken to a porcelan doll's. What of it? (Sarcastic and sassy)
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: (Chuckling) As fate would have it, Mr. Ryuji, this is Count Dracula; or rather, Countess. Allow me to introduce you all to our true progenitor. The singular human being from which all Vampire kind is derived... Lady Valentina Matei Parvu... the first being in recorded history to have ever suffered from "The Curse of Parvu," a.k.a. "The Vampar Curse," a.k.a. "Vampirism."
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: I see that we're all more than a little smitten with our Lady. Does anyone have anything they'd like to say?
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: Other than the fact that our Countess was very pretty, Miss Selica (small giggle)
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: Ah, That is a very good question, Mr. Tempus! How did the world confuse the image of this dainty little thing, with that of the imposing, amorous, and chiseled figure that is Count Dracula-- an image which the world of fiction deeply reveres? Well... the answer to that, lies with the failings of recorded history. As stories are chronicled and passed down, first hand accounts often yield to modern superstitions and hearsay, and this in turn-- makes recountings of historic events about as credible as modern tabloids. Very few ancient historians are actually worth their renown, and even then, these same historians largely concerned themselves with events that happened locally; meaning the stories of the rest of the world quietly passed them by, more often than not. Luckily for us, Lady Parvu was a countess of a noble house, so her story and her struggles managed to find their way to us; by way of her family albums and her own personal diary.
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: As far as her family albums are concerned... here we can see Lady Valentina Parvu being held by her mother, Lady Ileana Parvu, after just being born in a mountainside manor, on the eve of May 26, 1897. Lord Caius Parvu, Valentina's father-- whom we can see on the right, was the head of the Parvu clan; making Valentina, his first and only child, his sole successor.
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: The Parvu's were an ancient magus family, and as one of the biggest magical clans known to history, Lady Valentina should have inherited a life of wealth, decadence, and leisure.
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: Sadly, as we can see in this slide here, Lady Valentina was born with a sickly and frail body, leaving her bedridden most of the time; and hobbling around on a cane every other waking moment. Lady Ileana and Lord Caius chocked all of this up to general misfortune at first. They just saw it as "one of those things" that was outside of their control, and that Valentina would just have to learn to live with. However, all of this changed when Valentina turned 18. And her condition took an unexpected turn for the worse.
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: The man in the cloak that we see standing over Valentina here, is the Arch Mage: Augustus Von Draconis; he was a sage with wisdom beyond his many years, and he was a personal friend of Lord Caius. So when Valentina collapsed from a fever during her birthday dinner, Augustus was summoned to help her. After launching a series of investigative spells, Augustus learned what we all recognize today as common knowledge; that those who suffer from "Vampirism" have bodies that are incapable of properly harnessing mana. And this in turn, can lead to a myriad of chronic physical ailments, as mana is integral to proper bodily function.
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: In Valentina's case, "Vampirism" left her with an incredibly frail body, a ghostly pale complection, and horrendus eyesight. Fun fact-- Most of the tropes we have today regarding "Vampire weaknesses," are actually derived from misconceptions stemming from Lady Valentina's behavior. For example: Most people think that Vampires will die if exposed to sunlight, and thus, they have to avoid it. But as I've just said, "Vampirism" gave Valentina a ghostly pale complection-- along with terrible vision, meaning prolonged exposure to the sun would make her eyes hurt; and her skin, burn.
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: Hm? Oh, yes; that is why all of us are either wearing glasses, or very unique contacts. The bodily ailments that come with "Vamprisim" are usually passed down from parent to child; so chances are... if Lady Valentina had it, so will all of us. And as an added note, after reading Lady Valentina's diary in depth, I discovered that she had a very fierce loathing for her appearance; a kind of pre-historic body dysmorphia, if you will. She disliked her looks so much, she actively removed all mirrors from her room. So... if you ever wondered where the concept "Vampires don't show up in mirrors" came from... or if you ever wondered why you find it hard to appreciate your own reflection-- well, Lady Valentina is probably responsible for that, too. But we should finish going through all of Valentina's family albums before we get to her diary.
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: Getting back to Valentina's birthday disaster, Augustus tried all types of healing magic and anti-curse magic to help Valentina, as he believed an outside source was impairing her ability to absorb magic. He only realized that her affliction was genetic, and not heretic, after giving her an elixir that was meant to replenish one's mana. Funnily enough, Lady Valentina nearly ripped Augusts' arm off, in an attempt to snatch the bottle out of his hand, after taking a mere sip of its contents. Her sudden burst of strength, and ravenous consumption of the magical brew, prompted more and more elixir to be brought in for her. And after the span of an hour, Lady Valentina had consumed more than a gallons worth of potion, before finally passing out due to exhaustion.
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: This might have caused some of us to panic; but Augustus, ever the sage and alchemist, was able to think through the chaos, enough to see that Valentina was finally breathing normally and that her fever had broken. The picture we see here is Augustus comforting Valentina's startled parents, as several maids settle Valentina back into bed.
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: Armed with this new knowledge of Valentina's condition, Augustus worked with her, day and night, in order to help her manage her symptoms-- while he secretly looked for a cure. Unfortunately, none of the magic in the world, nor a philosopher's stone, could reverse what fate had done to Valentina. But even so, Valentina did not lose heart, and neither did her parents. And as we see here, not only were Valentina's parents ready to do anything and everything to help her, they were even the very first people that Valentina fed on. Which is why we see Valentina noming on her father's arm in this picture, and her mother's neck in this picture. Now, for those of you wondering why Valentina would even resort to feeding...
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: As we can see in this diagram here, a Mana Elixir actually contains little to no mana in and of itself. It's primary purpose is to help the consumer's body absorb external mana, with the little mana it does contain only serving as a means to "kickstart" that process. In contrast, when a Vampire feeds off of another living being, the fluid that enters into their mouths is 100% pure liquid mana, or Aetheron, for those Alchemy Majors amongst us. This is why Valentina consumed large volumes of the Mana Elixir on her 18th birthday, and it's why Vampires feed off of other beings to this day. It is simply more efficient. And speaking of feeding, I think it's time we get on to the Protozeal Ethics portion of our discussion today.
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: Society has many different opinions regarding the act of Feeding, but thankfully for us, the information contained on these slides is irrefutable fact. So if you didn't already know... Vampires don't actually drink blood, as we so often see in books or television. What actually happens is an extremely complicated, bio-magical transmutation process, that Alchemists the world over are still trying to replicate. But to put it as simply as I can, the abnormally elongated canines of a Vampire, or their quote/unqote "fangs," if your a normie-- act as polaric constructs that draw mana to them. When a "Vampire" bites down on a person, their fangs draw magic particles out of their prey's body, and then force those particles to condensate inside the Vampires mouth; creating a liquid the Vampire can then drink. And because all liquids containing mana have a propensity to turn red; it is easy to see how, from a distance, people may be lead to believe that "Vampires" consume blood. Which is a totally disgusting notion, by the way.
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: In feeding off of living beings, Vampires are given a kind of repreive from their bodily ailments. I'm sure all of you have experienced this yourselves, at one time or another, so I won't go into too much detail; but for the sake of the curriculum, allow me to just say that feeding makes a Vampire stronger, faster, more resilient, and just healthier overall. Though we still suffer from things like poor eyesight and/or easily damaged skin, no matter how much we feed. Remeber, "Vampirism" is a chronic, genetic condition; not an illness that can be cured.
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: And speaking of "Incurables" (sigh) I now have the distinct displeasure of telling you all how others might pervert the feeding process.
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: As most of you can imagine, it would be incredibly problematic if a Vampire's prey ran away from them before a feeding, or if they fought back as a Vampire was consuming their mana... And as if in response to this dilemma, the bodies of Vampires naturally adapted themselves, in order to provide a solution... Put succintly, a Vampire's bite is known to generate intense waves of Euphoria, and other such emotions, in the person being bitten. Leaving little motivation for anyone to resist having their mana taken.
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: On the surface, this seems like a good thing. The Vampire gets to feed, and provide essential nutrients to their ailing body; while their prey gets to feel good whilst donating some of their excess mana. Everyone wins. Or at least, that's what you would expect... (Deep sigh)... But unfortunately, there are many individuals out there who would take advantage of the effects of a Vampire bite. Using it to block out the pain of their lives, or introduce a new kind of stimulus to it. This is part of the reason why Vampires aren't allowed to attend the formal Freshman Orientation. It isn't only because we all need to learn when and where to feed, but rather, it's because we need to learn that others may entice us to feed of off them, in accordance with their own selfish desires... Please, don't let anyone make a tool out of you. Especially those who claim to be your friends. I know it might be hard to hear that, and even harder to follow through on, so please know that my door is always open; If you ever need to talk. The scheduled office hours on my door be damned. If you need me, I'll be there. I Promise.
[Sound of a clicker clicking] [Sound of the projector moving to the next slide]
Professor E: (Sigh of relief) And, that should about do it for our first lecture. Thank you all so much for your patience and attention. I'd like to open the floor now for any questions that you may have.
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: Yes; you, near the window.
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: Ah, an astute question. For those of you who didn't hear, Miss Seren asked why demi-humans of all kinds can end up as Vampires. If you take a look around the room yourselves, you can see that we actually have demis of all kinds in attendance here today. Mr Brutus is a Minotaur. Miss Nadia is a Scylla. Mr. Ryuji is a Dragonborn, Mr. Tempus is a Shifter. Miss Selica is a Harpy. And Miss Seren herself is a Gorgon. We all come from different magical lineages, and this in turn, might cause an uninformed person to think that Vampirism is transferrable. But as we have already discussed, Vampirism stems from genetics, so any species that has a history of reproducing with humans, has a chance of siring Vampire children. Hmm... now that I've mentioned humans, I have to ask, do we... have any in this class? Cause I don't think I we do.
[Chairs shuffling]
Professor E: Oh, I see a hand! There you are, you sneaky little thing, hiding behind Mr. Brutus like that. No, no-- don't be shy. I know that, as an Arachnid, my form may be a bit imposing; but I promise, the yellow stripes on my body are meant to scare away predators, not you-- precious. In fact, since you're the only human here, why don't you come up to the front and introduce yourself?
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: Oh, there's no need to be nervous. I'll have everyone introduce themselves at some point today, but since you're a human, and can weave through the various desks with ease, I think it makes sense to have you come to the front to make your introduction. That way, everyone can see you clearly, without having to try and peer behind Mr. Brutus.
[soft chuckling]
Professor E: You don't think you're that insteresting? Nonsense! As the only human vampire here, you must have a strong connection to Lady Valentina's bloodline. Why, I would wager that you have direct ties to one or more of the ancient magus families, making you arcanic nobility.
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: You're not sure? Well, how about this; you come up to the front and introduce yourself, and I promise to figure out the rest. Deal?
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: Yes, sweet thing; this is me volen-telling you to get up here, in the nicest way I know how (cheerful giggle).
[Brief Pause]
Professor E: That's the spirit! Let's get a big round of applause for our brave new freshman!
[Round of applause]
Professor E: (Whispering in Listener's ear) Sorry not sorry for the round of applause. When I saw how red you were getting up, I couldn't help myself, I had to tease you; even if only a little. Forgive me later... (Audibly, for the class) Now then, sweetpea, why don't you tell us what your name is, and what noble house of mages you belong to?
[END]

I really want to like the Roam and hopefully the Roam 2 (just stop enabling Loudness by default. It kill the sound). They are great for travel and using in the bathroom when taking a shower and getting ready.
But the Roam have a massive design flaw and why so many have become paper weights. There’s no way to bypass the battery.
In most high quality electronics with plugs/batteries, you can still use the device even if the battery is toast. I had a 2004 MacBook that had to stay plugged in for years to still work. As soon as you unplugged it, the system shut down.
This is a pretty simple electrical concept, but it doesn’t exist on the Roam.
Well, I just saw this job posting on LinkedIn, and it makes me think the issue still isn’t resolved in the Roam 2.
“Sonos seeks a Power Electronics Engineer to join the newly formed Portables Category, Mobile Power Systems Team. In this hands-on role, you will be responsible for some of the core analog and mixed-signal electronics at the heart of the industry’s most innovative portable products like the recently launched Sonos Ace. In the process, you will work with some of the brightest minds in the business across multiple disciplines of hardware, software, radio, acoustics, WiFi, and Bluetooth technologies. This is an opportunity to join a high-performing team tasked with shaping the future of Sonos Portables from definition to launch.
What You’ll Do
Lead the development of new and innovative power electronic concepts to charge and power Sonos’ Portable/Wearable products Identify and implement highly efficient wired and wireless charging solutions to deliver unmatched consumer experiences
Develop new features and maximize the potential of new and existing technologies Debug complex low-level problems that may span interfaces between hardware and software
Debug complex low-level problems that may span interfaces between hardware and software
Co-develop algorithms, state-transition diagrams/flowcharts, and analysis for each regime of operation
Power Electronics Schematic and PCB layout design and review”
I hope I’m wrong, but this job posting is exactly who I would hire to fix this problem.
The flaw exists in the PCB design of the system, and you need someone with experience in power design to do this setup.

The secret of proportions in geometric symbols are in the eyes of the artist, to perform the conscious union of intellect and intuition.
The moral of the story is that without intellectual direction, one fails in incoherence, and instinctive qualities that are bound to fail.
Sacred measures are those units which have no single origin, but referring to natural the constants on many scales.
It is like to let ones proprioception extend into the universe.
The whole origin of the odd or even numbers are the intellectual’s faculties, which can scale their influence in the nature of reality.
Geometric application seen in spheres of the divine providence and its compassion to proof is seen by pyramids, sacred sites and is a language in its self.
Dynamic symmetry and the cultural influence and upbringing to the present are ones historic moments in proportions.
The results one wants to achieve will be in direct proportion, to the effort one applies in compassion to the calculated risk.
All lasting of the wealth obtained, is directly proportional to the honesty of its source, or it will not last.
Every diagram and system of numbers is in harmonic agreement in evolution with the cosmic formula, by simply keeping an eye on the bigger unity. The reflection is the natural bond uniting the love of creation and dynamic symmetry.
There is beauty in the immense curious figures of the cosmos, which grows further acquaintance, with the numbers we lover.
Conditions and its factors allow experiencing the realities of magic cones in the human intelligence and the cosmic truth.
Once own true measurement is the equivalence and symmetry of total, to those who need your love.
Consider that the part of the heart in beauty is the slice of grace for life, in symmetry to one's courage.
Conjured by the intensity of the human will and handicapped in action, the divine symmetry builds on true compassion that outlasts all monuments.
The body of life is the continuous medium and dynamic, to the circumambient atmosphere of ones place and time, in symmetry of the cosmos.

Hi I didn't know where else to post this, just wanted to vent.
My female coworker and I were working remotely on a modeling project during a working session. Our male coworker joined our Teams call about 30 minutes into our session and started ranting about our company because he didn't get a promotion. We were receptive and listening to what he had to say and engaged in some off topic discussion. Eventually we got back to our work and we were looking at one of my diagrams when he made this comment, "this diagram is so ugly." or something to that effect (it took me by my surprise so I can't remember the exact wording but the word "ugly" was definitely used). My heart kind of dropped and I just said, "oh...well is there anything I can do to make it better?" and that's when I think he realized he was talking about my diagram and awkwardly said "no" and went on about how that was his autism. He never apologized for saying that about my work for the remainder of the session. My female coworker was doing her best to provide constructive feedback and make the situation less awkward.
I can laugh it off because it was an awkward situation all around and I'm not super invested or attached to that particular piece of my work since it's only one tiny piece of my job among a host of many other things but looking back on the entirety of his actions I just felt like he really had the audacity to come up into our working session, throw a bitch fit, and then absentmindedly say something incredibly rude and not at all constructive. I understand things happen but I can't help but connect the dots and have a negative conception of this guy.

Through Wednesday, June 12 we resurrect (for a second time!) the January 2017 Murder Parties Bundle featuring open-ended live-action roleplaying party games of mystery and detection from Freeform Games. Invite your guests to an evening of food, drink, and investigation of a murder. One guest did the crime – but who? With no predetermined script, these party games put you and six to 32 friends in the heart of the action.
These Freeform Games titles are different from How to Host a Murder and its many imitators. Your guests won't get rigid scripts with pre-set clues they must reveal every 15 minutes. Instead, in advance of the party, you provide each guest a character profile with goals, contacts, and secrets, not unlike a conventional tabletop RPG. At the gathering, you all decide who to talk to, trust, or betray. In four hours or so, will the murderer be discovered? You won't know until the party's over.
With settings from Hawaii to Golden Age Hollywood to the Wild West, these .PDF kits include step-by-step instructions for the host, quick-start hints for guests, illustrated item cards, reference sheets, and much more. Many games provide versions for kids, extra "emergency characters" in case someone brings a friend, and other thoughtful touches. Check out Freeform's free introductory ten-guest Way Out West game. Then investigate this bargain-priced collection for groups of six to 30+ guests.
Pay just US$19.95 to get all four party games in this revived offer's Smaller Groups Collection (6-14 players, total retail value $150) as DRM-free .PDFs:

• A Will to Murder (6-9 players): In 1930s Britain, a wealthy family feuds over the last will of their murdered patriarch.
• Lei'd to Rest (6-12 players): A luau gone bad at a Hawaiian beach resort.
• A Heroic Death (8-12 players): The Superheroic Justice Doom Squad has to save the world, but first they must escape their volcano headquarters.
• Way Out West (10-24 players): The party's on at the Silver Dollar Saloon in Cactus Gulch, 1884.

And if you pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $29.95 to start, you'll level up and also get this revival's entire Bigger Groups Collection with four more complete games (retail value $175) for soirees of up to 30+ players:

• Davy Jones' Locker (10-15 players): In Tortuga, 1785, Caribbean pirates aim for the big haul – or the keelhaul.
• Spellbound (13-17 players): At the Tremaine School of Magic, students must investigate a memory-loss mystery while also taking final exams.
• Arabian Nights (18-24 players): An hour after the Sultan announces his daughter's betrothal to handsome Prince Ala 'ad-Din, the young prince is found dead in the marketplace.
• Hollywood Lies (16-32 players): At the post-award party for Dazzled to Death, film stars and producers wheel and deal despite the sad death of the award-winning star.

Note: Many Freeform Games party games have Standard and Extended versions; Extended versions support more guests. The games in this offer are all Standard versions. And be aware, you print out all the guest handouts before the party. For the larger games you'll be printing a lot of pages.
Ten percent of your payment (after gateway fees) goes to this Murder Parties revival's designated charity, Direct Relief. Direct Relief sends protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.
Time to start planning a summer party! Move fast, because this revived January 2017 Murder Parties offer vanishes again Wednesday, June 12.
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2024Murder

Book 1 Prev Next
He-Who-Guards remembered when he first met She-Who-Whispers.
She was stunning, he remembered thinking. The daughter of the then-ruler of Isthanok — as close a thing to a princess as their Great City could have. It wasn't necessarily her beauty that fascinated him, though that was no small part of it. It was her force of personality. She believed in a vision, and she took whatever steps needed to make that vision come to life.
He couldn't have imagined, then, what the Trials would do to her. How the Integrators would take that trait that gave her life and beauty and twist it into something monstrous.
"I want the city to be perfect," she told him. "Look at it. It's a ruin for what we call a Great City. We live in the remnants of what someone else built. One day, these towers will fly again."
To her credit, she'd accomplished exactly that. Many of the once-destroyed shards now once again hung in the skies of Isthanok, beautiful and pristine.
At the time, He-Who-Guards hadn't considered the price that might be paid for her dreams. He'd been enamored with her, really. A little foolish, in hindsight, but... their friendship had been genuine. He was sure of it.
"I am sure you will restore the city," He-Who-Guards said. He fidgeted, an unfamiliar nervousness coursing through the mist of his body . There was a part of him that was drawn to her determination, her willingness to enact change. He wanted to be a part of it.
"You'll help me, won't you?" she asked.
"Of course," he said, bowing his head. "I am here to serve."
She rolled her eyes. "You have to stop saying that," She-Who-Whispers said, throwing a pillow at him. "I can't believe my dad hired a kid my own age to guard the palace. And you know he wants you to be my friend, right? Not my servant."
"Yes, well..." He-Who-Guards shrugged, feeling a little self-conscious. "It is difficult to get used to the idea."
"Why are you a guard, anyway? You're way too young." She peered at him curiously. "What makes you so special?"
"Nothing," he said. It was a lie. The amount of Firmament he commanded was enormous. The strength he possessed, even at his age, allowed him to create perfect barriers that nothing could penetrate. It was the whole reason he'd chosen his name.
"You're lying to me," She-Who-Whispers accused, her body language emanating petulance. Despite himself, He-Who-Guards grinned.
"Perhaps I am," he said. "If you're lucky, you will get the chance to find out."
He remembered the way she laughed at that, her eyes bright. He didn't need to look at her pendant to understand that she was delighted by his response, though he couldn't fathom why.
He-Who-Guards had gotten used to her eventually. He allowed himself to relax, to become someone he never thought he could be. She-Who-Whispers made him feel normal — and that was a precious thing for someone like him. He'd been born with too much Firmament. His sheer strength was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because he could do things with his Firmament that no one else could, and a curse because the sheer strength of it eroded his own body and the very structure of his soul. The stuff that kept his Firmament in place.
He never told her, of course. As the days passed, he grew stronger, and the end of his life grew closer. He was shedding Firmament to the point where it was nearly visible — a constant glow to the silvery mist that made up his body.
There came a point where he couldn't hide it any longer.
"Why are you always glowing?" She-Who-Whispers asked. There was a playful lilt to her voice — she was teasing him. "It's not because you're around me, is it?"
He-Who-Guards was glad he was facing away from her, and she could not see the expression on his pendant. "It's, ah... private."
"Are you keeping a secret from me?" she narrowed her eyes at him. "You can't keep a secret from me."
"I think you will find that I can. I have so far," he said dryly. Then he cursed to himself. Evidently, he was quite bad at keeping secrets from She-Who-Whispers.
"Aha!" She-Who-Whispers exclaimed, triumphant. "You are hiding something from me."
"Only for your own sake," he said.
"You know how I feel about things being done 'for my sake'."
He-Who-Guards sighed. "It's just Firmament. No big deal." A small lie. It couldn't hurt that badly, could it?
"Oh." She-Who-Whispers stared at him for a moment. "You're still hiding something."
"Perhaps."
"I want you to be my consort."
That made He-Who-Guards sputter, the abrupt change in topic throwing him for a loop. "W-what?"
"You heard me!" She-Who-Whispers smirked. "I want you to be my consort. So if you've got something to hide, you better tell me now, before my dad announces it to the city."
"Announces it to the—" He-Who-Guards cut himself off. "Why would he announce it to the city?!"
"I asked him to."
"Why would you..." he sighed. "...Whisper, this isn't going to work. I like you, but I have ten Hestian cycles left in me. Maybe less."
"What."
He-Who-Guards remembered the abrupt change in her voice. It was chilling. She went from bright and warm and playful to something abruptly cold. The utter lack of emotion in her voice made dread coil through his Firmament.
"...I have a condition," He-Who-Guards explained. "My Firmament. It is too strong to stay together. It will all unravel — it is only a matter of time."
Silence.
When he turned around to look for her, she was gone.
He'd thought she abandoned him back then. That the news he'd given her was too much, for whatever reason — that she was choosing to protect her heart. He would have understood if that was what she did.
But no. She'd left to throw herself into work, into finding a cure. He'd never seen her with so many books, speaking to so many specialists and practitioners of Firmament. He'd never seen her try this hard even when it came to rebuilding Isthanok, and that had been her passion for as long as he could remember.
And then came Integration Day.
He flung open a door, then hurried down the staircase, looking for anything that might tell him where She-Who-Whispers was. She loved her schedules and her timetables — she was never missing. Not when she had something planned. For her to be more than an hour late was unheard of, and in combination with the news that thousands of Hestians had simply vanished...
He hoped against hope that she wasn't one of them — but when he threw open the doors to her room and saw the perfectly spherical chunk taken out of it, felt the remnants of foreign Firmament contaminating everything nearby, he knew.
Whisper was gone.
The worst part was that part of him had almost felt relieved. Not that she was gone, but that she would no longer be throwing herself into the pointless task of saving him. With any luck, he would be gone by the time she returned, and she would be able to put her energy back into the one thing she truly wanted to do.
Things hadn't worked out that way, of course.
Really, he should have known better than to underestimate her.
She-Who-Whispers came back changed.
He-Who-Guards knew it from the first moment he saw her — there was something in her eyes that was cold. He'd only caught a glimpse of that coldness once before, when she'd first learned that his death was inevitable, but now she seemed to wear it like armor rather than hide it within.
Her gaze warmed again when she looked at him, though only slightly. "He-Who-Guards," she greeted. The formalization of his name made his Firmament stir uncomfortably. "I have found a cure for your condition."
He didn't know then how much of a fool he would be to trust her.
His biggest mistake, he supposed, wasn't necessarily that he trusted her. He didn't regret trusting people he cared about — trust was something he had chosen to never regret. He gave his trust when it was earned, and if that trust was ever broken, he didn't blame himself for choosing to trust. It was on the other party for breaking it.
Whisper had certainly broken his trust. Whatever happened to her during her Trial had turned her into someone that was only a mockery of who she had been. He saw everything she used to be magnified to the point of absurdity. Mild perfectionism became an obsessive need for control; where she once respected the thoughts and ideas of others, she now only listened to herself.
He hadn't managed to learn much about what her Trial had been about. From the few details she'd told him, she had to rule over a kingdom of others. He couldn't tell if she'd been put in charge of it, or if she'd worked her way into being in charge, somehow. The subjects she commanded were apparently tied to her will, and constantly under siege from outside forces. Unless she controlled everything perfectly, she would lose and die, and start over with a different kingdom.
He could imagine how that might have changed her. He just couldn't have imagined it would change her this much.
"You'll be fine," she told him. Her voice was clipped, her focus on a bunch of diagrams and models floating in front of her. Scattered around her were mechanical parts, the technology several steps ahead of anything he'd seen in any of the Great Cities so far, let alone Isthanok. "The procedure might hurt a little, but you will be perfect afterward."
He didn't like the way she said 'perfect'. "I would prefer not to go through with this, Whisper."
She turned around to look at him. She seemed to consider his request for a moment — but then she shook her head sharply. "I can't have you dying," she told him. "I still need you to protect this city."
_There was a lot hidden in those words. '_I still need you.' He-Who-Guards glimpsed something genuine in that. But she'd followed it up immediately with 'to protect this city', and the dispassionate ruthlessness with which she'd returned had immediately taken over once more.
It was the same way he'd seen it when she first returned. She wore it like armor.
In truth, that made him wish he had done more to fight the Integrators. He had tried, when Hestians had first been taken, but there was nothing he could do — not only because they were stronger than he was, but because he had no means of getting to them. Their announcements came through their Interface, temporarily attaching to them just long enough to drop a message in their vision and then disconnecting once more, before they could learn anything more about it.
Whisper reached out, clipped something to him—
And then his world was fire and pain.
His memories were fragmented, after that. His body was different. He-Who-Guards became metal instead of mist. His Firmament was supported by Whisper's, and his mind was supported by technology. A cognitive prosthetic, Whisper had called it.
Sometimes it whispered in him, like it was alive. Like it, too, was struggling against all of this.
He remembered being ordered to do things he would normally have refused to do. He remembered putting down rebellions before they began, as the first whispers began to race across the streets. He remembered a hundred different bodies marching through the streets, each commanded to keep the peace, no matter the cost.
He remembered struggling against it. Once or twice, She-Who-Whispers tried to loosen her control of him — to see if he would obey her orders willingly. He would always pretend to, at first; he saw no other option. But the moment he got the opportunity, he tried to slip free of the leash.
Eventually, she'd stopped giving him those opportunities at all. Only very rarely did she ever allow him on missions outside of Isthanok, now; only when there were anomalies that were significant enough to pique her interest, or when she needed him to put on a show of force.
And then came the Fracture. Then came Ethan. He remembered the Trialgoer with startling clarity. The nature of his Firmament kept him from being erased whenever time was rewound, though he would never willingly share those details with Whisper. She had access only to what the technology attached to him recorded, and those were as vulnerable to temporal rewinding as almost everything else.
It was funny. In many ways, Ethan reminded him of who Whisper had been before the Trials.
He hoped the Trials wouldn't break him the same way. But there was a fire in Ethan he'd never seen in Whisper.
Maybe with Ethan, things could be different.
Book 1 Prev Next
Author's Note: Sorry for the late posts! I'm still kind of getting used to the new Reddit formatting (by which I mean I now have the extra step of needing to convert things into markdown because the new post submission thing doesn't preserve formatting from GDocs)
And that one extra step kills me. Executive function is hard for me at the best of times.
Anyway, excuses aside, I'm posting two chapters today, so there'll be one more after this. I think when I was writing this part of the book I was trying to experiment a little more with POV switches. They're kinda tough to do right.
As always: RoyalRoad, and any support on Patreon is always greatly appreciated.

PLEASE READ THE WHOLE POST!

This took weeks of picking and testing mods Played on PS5, should work on PS4 Order is stable, no crashes New game on survival difficulty required All 6 DLCs needed No unbalanced cheat mods added Very difficult but satisfying and immersive Adding other mods will break stuff, ask in comments Not tested on PS4 or PS4 Pro performance-wise

OVERVIEW:

This modlist is for people enjoying difficult challenge, exploration, combat, managing settlements and a bit of building. No more bullet sponges, loot/enemy respawns and rambo playstyle!
In the beginning you are no one. You leave the vault weak, tired, with barely any gear. Avoid most encounters and quests at the start. Try to survive, build a safe spot and carefully explore. Be aware of your surroundings, use what you find.
Saving often in beds and making 'autosave drug' at the earliest possibility is a good idea (nearest chemistry workbench is at Abernathy Farm). Save menu is always on top of MISC category in Pip-Boy.
Discovering new places gives plenty of exp in the beginning, but quests are your main exp income.
Exploring safer areas like Sanctuary, Concord and smaller settlements first (avoiding powerful enemies) recommended. There might be a lot of combat in the background. Don't engage much, especially avoid supermutants, robots, turrets, bears - they are deadly even for high level, well developed characters. Raiders also hit hard, depending on their weapon and rank.
Weapon caliber makes huge damage difference. 10mm is pretty weak, but if you find rare .50cal rounds or some good explosives, you should eliminate tougher targets much more easily.
Investing in stats right after level 15 is a good idea. STR for carry weight, PER for accuracy, END for health, CHA for better prices, INT for more exp, AGI for sneak and speed, LCK for dmg and loot. Be sure of your choices. Watch out for 'revealing all map markers' and 'slow time when aiming' perks. Be sure you want and like them, there is no going back.
Deathclaw in the early minuteman quest is tough - try to use explosives to break his legs and some high caliber weapons to finish him off by shooting his face. Or maybe you'll get lucky and raiders will kill him. Or just simply avoid him until you get proper gear.
Don't waste ammo on zombies, use melee. Bullets are valuable. However zombies can grab and instantly kill you if your HP is very low, so watch out on low, early levels!
Aim for the head for much higher damage. Concentrating damage on arms or legs to rip them off is a good strategy too. Raider without arms wont do much to you except running around and alerting nearby enemies, that is.
Damage types are important. Ballistic damage is not efficient against turrets, melee against radroaches and so on. You need to figure out yourself whats best strategy.
Develop and protect your settlements, put walls to protect generators and other important structures. Repairing is costly. Gear up settlers. Scraping and cleaning settlements is a good early source of components.
Try to fully explore the map, kill enemies and do all quests. Most loot and enemies wont ever respawn so this is your chance to find new secrets in Commonwealth and clear the place.

========== CHANGES ==========

Combat, Enemies

• Enemies will flank, charge, take cover, run in fear, use and pick up ammo & weapons, swap to backup gun and so on.
• Headshots or weakspot hits do much higher damage than torso shots.
• Gun caliber greatly affects damage, explosives are powerful and damage type matters.
• Foes have special moves like biting and holding leg, wrestling moves, kicks. Dependent on enemy type and briefly stuns you.

Sound, Graphic

• Sounds are less flat because of added reverb and other tweaks.
• Very dark nights with wide, helpful flashlight.
• Atmospheric lightning: beautiful light from lantern and fire sources, dusk, dawn, moon, plus bullets illuminate environment when flying around.
• No dreadful, annoying, unimmersive: combat music, hearthbeat, sounds of generators, turrets, exp gain sound, most perk triggers and perk chart.

Crafting, Modifying

• Making and disasembling ammo. Upgrading clothes, rings, glasses in different ways.
• Legendary swapping, crafting legendary effects using technical documents. Some effects have been adjusted.
• Added crafting of new, lower damage explosives, but they have unique effects for ease of use.

Perks, SPECIAL

• STR affects carry weight, PER accuracy, END is health, max AP, CHA for better prices, INT for more exp, AGI for sneak, walk and reload speed, LCK for small dmg boost, loot, critical hits outside VATS and while using it.
• Leveling up does not give you health. You rely on stats, bonuses, gear.
• Perks tree mostly changed, level 15 needed to start increasing Special base stats, level of around 100 to increase stat to 10. To get all perks you would need 300 levels, so new modified 'idiot savant' will help a lot.
• Collecting magazines, bobbleheads, companion perks is now more helpful and recommended.
• Some skills are changed, reordered, much more interesting and useful.
• More perks are needed for crafting, especially science perk is required for most technology related stuff.
• Lockpicking everything is available instantly from level one, but perks and AGI make it reasonably easier. Bobby pins are more rare.
• Hacking is simplified to not do the repeating minigame. Now holotapes to reprogram and override terminals might be of use.

Settlements, Building

• Perks required to build important and useful objects. Buying component shipments available.
• You can hire guards for caps or risk regular settlers life on guard posts.
• You can't harvest planted fruit and vegetables, you get your share in workbenches, can gather in the wild yourself or assign settlers to gathering stations.
• Collecting resources by settlers changed. Bigger variety of settlers and they are now mortal.
• More objects to build and decorate your bases.

Locations, Loot

• Items like meds and ammo are harder to find and exist in appropriate containers.
• Quick travel available, but only to settlements.
• Only rare enemies like bosses drop legendaries.
• And many more...

! ! !

-------- BOLD_MODS_ARE_REQUIRED <----------

! ! !

MOD LIST WITH CORECT ORDER:

1. Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch [UFO4P] [PS4] - Thousands of small bug fixes for FO4.
2. Radium Rifle Suppressed Sound Fix - As the mod name suggests. Must be on top of mod list, its a master file.
3. [PS4] Pip-Boy Paint Jobs - Colors Of The Wasteland Pack (Club Freedom) - Adds simple Pip-Boy skins. Remember you can click touchpad while using pip-boy to zoom. Again a master file.
4. Kane's Items Sorting (PS4) - Junk is sorted and some other things too.
5. [PS] Useful Technical Documents - Legendaries - You can swap legendaries for free, create new ones using technical documents.
6. Named NPC Protection [PS4] - Protects named quest npc's, merchants, important characters from random encounters with enemies.
7. Tribals of Commonwealth - Adds tribal groups, often found in wilderness.
8. Ghouls Of Commonwealth - Adds over 1100 feral ghouls for zombie apocalypse and chaos.
9. DLC Creatures In The Commonwealth [PS4] - Adds 200 creature spawns to the commonwealth for constant war, danger and chaos.
10. Longhorns Of The Commonwealth - Adds longhorns to more empty areas on the map.
11. Gulpers Of The Commonwealth - Adds gulpers to more empty areas on the map.
12. Wolves Of The Commonwealth - Adds wolf spawn points to the map.
13. More Behemoths In Commonwealth - Adds 5 more behemots to the Commonwealth.
14. Behind Enemy Lines - Adds plenty of enemies to the glowing sea region.
15. Roving War Parties, Raiding Packs And Hordes Of MY - Adds wandering groups that attack some key locations.
16. More Radstags - Adds plenty of radstags, especially north and into forests.
17. Better Radstags - More agressive radstags.
18. Not a Princess - Humans can grab you/others and slam on the ground, make karate moves, dogs can hold your legs/arms, bloodbugs suck your blood.
19. Disable Minutemen's Annoying Quests [PS4] - Disables 7 types of repetitive and not important radiant quests.
20. [PS4] Grounded Updated By Sarinia - Adds tons of ground foundations, floors, walls, mounds of dirt to Structures-Concrete menu.
21. Miscellaneous Settlement Items Unlocked [PS4] By Callias - Adds 49 objects for building in settlements.
22. Cinder Block Walls And Sandbags Unlocked [PS4] By Callias - Adds 16 objects like cinder blocks and sandbags.
23. Constructible Faction Guards - Adds ability to hire guards for caps in build menu, but only after allying with a faction.
24. [PS4] OCDecorator - Adds inventory items as a decorational building objects.
25. [PS4] OCDecorator DLC - Support for addons for the above mod.
26. Tweaks - Survival Fast Travel Settlements All DLC - You can fast travel to settlements on survival difficulty.
27. 1st Person Animation Tweaks [PS4] - In first person mode you lower your gun automatically.
28. Power Line Physics [PS4] - Swinging power lines in settlements.
29. No Sneak Indicators - Completely removes all sneak indicators.
30. [PS4] Dogs Not Brahmin - Provisioners and traders use dogs instead of brahmin.
31. Vertibirds Unghosted - Tweaks invincible vertibirds for danger and realism.
32. [PS4] Simple Settlers (Mortal Edition) - Provides bigger settlers pool (five times more) and names them.
33. Quieter Settlements PS4 - Vanilla - Generators, turrets and hammering are much quieter.
34. Fallout 76-Style Region Music - Changes music in regions for less boring/repetitive background tracks.
35. Reverb And Ambiance Overhaul - ALL DLC [PS4] - Tweaks sounds for better ambient and reverb and adds sliders to options.
36. Better Dialogue - Camera focuses on NPC, changes made to some irritating generic dialogues and tweaked dialogue interuption.
37. Esk QuietPerks [PS4] - Muted five annoying perks like idiot savant.
38. No Experience SFX - Silences sounds when gaining experience from various sources.
39. [PS4] Dead Beat - Removes heart beat sound at low HP.
40. Combat Music Remover - Mutes combat music, so there is silence and suspension when enemy detects you.
41. Commonwealth Visual Overhaul & DLC [PS4] - Changes colours, atmosphere and makes nights darker.
42. UCW - Unified Commonwealth Weather - Adjusted weather for regions and integrated DLC weather for Commonwealth.
43. [PS4] No More Fake Puddles - Removes ugly puddles that stay 24/7.
44. Reduced Rubble Etc. - Decreases intensity of grass, rubble, twigs and other unimportant objects.
45. TLS Fallout 4 Subtle FPS Improver - Small changes like decreasing grass and water movement speed, and tiny radius decrease of some light sources.
46. [PS4] Enhanced Flickering Firelight - Better light effects for fire sources including oil lamps.
47. [PS4] Dark Mode - Abandoned Settlements - Empty settlements don't have light sources.
48. Vanilla Moon (4x) - Much bigger moon. Anything bigger looks low quality.
49. Sunlight Alignment Tweak - Better Dawn And Dusk [PS4] - Changes sun and moon movement for better lighting and atmosphere during dusk, dawn and night.
50. Crafting Blur Removal (PS4) - Removes blur while looting containers, from crafting screen, power armor.
51. Ironsight Blur Removal (PS4) - Removes blur while aiming.
52. More Map Markers (PS4) - Adds some new markers on map.
53. VATS Third Person Only - As the name says, just changes the cameras used in VATS.
54. Component Tagging Helper - Allows to easily tag basic components on cooking bench and you can quickly view how many you have in total.
55. Grenade and Mine Pack - Adds some new weaker, but modified explosives.
56. Saving Survival Mode - Allows crafting misc items on chemistry workbench for anytime saving (3 standard autosave slots and 1 save shared/overwritten on all survival characters).
57. Animations Be Gone - Removes plenty annoying hammering spots in sanctuary.
58. Power Goggles (All DLC) - Power Armor Mods For Goggles, Visors, And Glasses - As the name says. Two mods for glasses for high level characters.
59. Clothes For Every Stats Wz - Most clothes can be worn under armor and you can upgrade them after unlocking ballistic weave.
60. Bear Trap and Caltrops Fix [PS4] - Bug fix and small changes in how traps work and balance them.
61. See-Through-Scopes [PS4] - Adds new combat scopes in place of 2.5x and 4x magnification.
62. See-Through-Scopes - Nuka World [PS4] - As above but for 2 Nuka World guns.
63. See-Through-Scopes - Far Harbor [PS4] - As above but for 2 Far Harbor weapons.
64. Legalized Top Tier Legendary Effects [PS4] - Balances few legendary effects.
65. Targeting Sensors On Recon Scopes(Colour Coded NPCs Version)[PS4] - Modified recon scopes that highlight enemies, friends and dead bodies in specific colours.
66. Immersive Gameplay Combat Mostly PS4 - Core of this modlist. Hundreds of changes.
67. Immersive-Gameplay. Low Tech, No Powerarmor Justification Patch. (PS4) - Makes fusion cores worn. Balances the game around power armor.
68. Immersive Gameplay Seasonpass Patch (Playstation) - DLC compatibility for IG.
69. Immersive Gameplay Rough Start (PS4) - Overwrites starting level to 1.
70. Medium Settlement Raids PS4 - Makes enemy raids less ridicolous and balanced.
71. Zombie Walkers (PS4) - Most feral ghouls act like slow rotten zombies.
72. Curse Of Darkness - Normal Edition - - Zombies are faster and more dangerous after midnight.
73. Esk No More Teleporting Creatures [PS4] - Molerats and radscorpions don't teleport.
74. Realistic Insects Health [PS4] - Makes insects easier to kill and balanced.
75. Loot Logic And Reduction Complete - Enhanced - Restricted harvest, lower and/or different production output for settlements, empty bottles renamed, Scrounger perk less ammo, less meat, less loot.
76. Rough Start - Less Handouts - Removed some workbenches in starting locations. Different loot in Vault111, radroaches strength changed, 14 starting stats.
77. Immersive Gameplay Dismemberment - A Patch Or Standalone Feature. - Higher damage to headshots, easier to dismember limbs.
78. Tackle! Immersive Gameplay Knockdown Version - Lets you stagger enemies by sprinting into them after aquiring a perk.
79. Wasteland Baubles Ring Overhaul! PS4 - You can find unique rings at traders, in suitcases, cabinets. Allows scraping and modifying rings for special legendary effects.
80. Settlement Progression-Local Leader (UOF4P) - Changes cost and perk requirements of some important items, changes local leader perk and adds rank 3.
81. [PS4] STS - All-In-One - Allows scraping almost all settlement objects.
82. (PS4) Improved Lighting Ballistics - Improves lighting for projectiles such as bullets, lasers, gauss, plasma, missiles, flares and explosions.
83. [PS4] Realistic Bullets: Improved Lighting Ballistics Edition - Makes bullets travel faster, more realistic and fixes some shooting bugs.
84. Explorer Restored - Cut Perk Mod PS4 - Adds rank two of VANS perk - explorer. Uncovers map.
85. Idiot Savant & Better Criticals Redone (PS4) - Idiot savant is better the more INT you have, muted perk chart, better criticals perk for crits outside VATS.
86. Realistic Death Physics - No Animation - ALL DLC [PS4] - Decreases the amount of force of both melee and ranged attacks, so bodies wont fly away.
87. Increased Settler Limit - Awareness - Wire Length - Corpse Collisions [PS4] - More aware settlers with limit of 50 per settlement and longer wires. Mind the limit.
88. Settlement Attack Spawns Outside The Settlement PS4 - Moves attack spawns outside the settlements.
89. Power Conduits Radius Increase And No Build Limit - All DLC [PS4] - Infinite build limit and two times longer range electricity conduits.
90. [PS4] Creation Club Skins (Weapon & PipBoy) Generic Compatibility Patch - Makes weapon paints from Creation Club show up in crafting menu if you have any.
91. Faster Positive Affinity For Companions - Removes cooldown between companions liking/hating your actions and gain five times more positive affinity.
92. [PS4]More XP Per Level (Base:600, Bump 120) - Increased experience required to level up.
93. Increased EXP - Increases the amount of EXP gained to make Immersive Gameplay and mod list balanced.
94. No Building Houses XP Gains PS4 - Building settlements don't provide experience.
95. Pip-Boy Flashlight - Pipboy light is now a flashlight.
96. PS4 - Longer Headlamp Light - Makes flashlight much bigger and changes headlamp and power armor light.
97. [PS4] Starting SPECIAL = 7 - Changes starting SPECIAL stats to 1 in each category so you start weak.
98. No Enemy Respawns - Game areas don't respawn loot and enemies, after time have passed.
99. Accelerated Fast Travel - Fast travel takes less in-game time, should be also relevant to survival needs.
100. Time Scale Changed From 20 To 10 [PS4] - Day and night lasts twice as long.

Additionally after downloading:

• After installing the mod list, restart your PS4/PS5.
• Try not to remove mods on existing save file, unless its something simple.
• Change game difficulty to survival in options.
• Play on performance 60fps. Newly added mode visual 60fps is more laggy and has awfull VATS framerate.
• For even more immersive settings, go to Settings, Gameplay and turn off quest markers.
• Go to Options, Sound and reduce ambience level by 5-8 clicks and reverb by 2-3.

* Dont forget to change camera sensitivity (I play on max), next go to Options, Display and change hud color to blue or any other that makes sense (not red), lower transparency by 30% or more, set pip-boy colour to your preference (I use red pip-boy and minty hud to have the best compatibility with highlighting perks and scopes).

You can add/swap some mods if you want:

• 101... Immortal Cats - PS4 - Invincible cats, so you don't lose happiness increase when they die. Add after mod #83.
• 102... [PS4] STS - Extras - Living & Dead - Season Pass Version - You can get extra resources from scraping dead bodies in settlements. Watch out not to scrap someone alive. Place after mod #81.
• 103... Josephine Preset - Nice looking preset number 13 for female character creation. Change hair and other details if you want. Delete after leaving vault111 and saving (if you need mod list space that is). Add after mod #53.
• 104... No Affinity Cooldown - Removes cooldown between companions liking/hating your actions. Swap with mod #91 if you want slower reputation gain.
• 105... Silent Main Menu - To mute main menu sound, find duplicate sound slider named 'Master sound' and move it all the way to the left. Add after mod #40.
• 106... Quieter Settlements PS4 - Contraptions DLC - Quieter production lines. I ran out of space on mod list so this and next one are optional. Add after mod #33.
• 107... Quieter Settlements PS4 - Wasteland Workshop - Quieter fusion generators. Add after mod #33.
• 108... [PS4] Simple Settlers (Immortal Edition) - Instead of #32, so generic settlers don't die during settlement attacks.
• 109... Vrexia's Magical Rings - Add after #55 only if you get poison/perception bug where your PER is shown as (-1). You can offset it by equiping multiple rings from this mod (created at chem bench). Didnt found a better way yet.
• 110... Pip-Boy Flashlight (Brighter) - For a smaller, brighter flashlight replace mod #95 with this and then swap places with #96 (or completely delete longer headlamp mod).
• 111... No Bugs In Vault 111 [PS4] - No radroaches in starting area, if its too hard for you to complete the prologue. Add after #6.
• 112... CleanVATS - Green Tint Remover PS4 - Removes fullscreen green tint effect while aiming in VATS mode. Add after mod #52.
• 113... [PS4] Swinging Animated Meat Bags - Adds animation to supermutant meat bags and adds flies buzzing sound. Add after #28.

Remove to have:

Stock Pip-Boy color - #3 No legendary effects swap and crafting - #5 No added 1000+ zombies and reverted ghoul behaviour - #8, #71, #72. No powerful groups wandering and attacking places - #15 Radstags be less agressive - #17 No additional building objects - #20 #21 #22 No settlement decoration items - #24 #25 Wandering trader brahmins instead of dogs - #30 Cash register sounds when gaining exp - #38 Old vanilla dusk and dawn lighting - #49 Stock VATS cameras - #53 Old combat scopes - #61 #62 #63 No 'uncover map' perk - #84 No support for weapon skins from Creation Club - #90 Faster leveling - #92 Building experience points - #94 Seven extra SPECIAL points to distribute at the start- #97 Loot and enemies respawn after some days - #98 Fast travel take time again - #99 Vanilla days length instead of double - #100

Known issues, bugs, glitches, exploits:

Some of those are present in vanilla game. I mention every problem encountered during testing and solution if there is any.
Action girl perk have only one rank on female character and two on male.
NO FIX: It's 25% AP regen loss for endgame if you choose female character.
Bubblegum seems to unintentionally quench some thirst and vendors give it for free.
NO FIX: Free candies to encourage shopping. No fix for now.
Few perk descriptions might be slightly incorrect or missing.
NO FIX: Nothing important to worry about. No fix unless immersive gameplay gets updated.
Three street lights and subway light have incorrect build costs.
NO FIX: These have too high build costs. Use alternative items.
Water surface sometimes flash black when moving underwater.
NO FIX: Its not very noticable and you don't dive much in FO4 anyway.
Hubby secret basement in Sanctuary.
NO FIX: Its up to you if you want to use inside contents. Makes game much easier, gives headstart.
Hacking rank 4 seems useless or has wrong description.
NO FIX: Needs proper check if it really does nothing.
Animal Fat doesn't drop from animals.
NO FIX: Its not important.
Can't complete prologue, radroaches kill me too quickly.
FIX: If you are not able to kill or avoid them before they kill you, try mod #111.
Ground textures in and around sanctuary flicker black.
FIX: Fixes itself over time.
Green chest containing flare gun and 10k flares after exiting vault 111.
FIX: Mod dev forgot to delete it. Ignore and forget about it.
Wall turrets sometimes glitches and play sound on repeat.
FIX: Re-enter the area or reload save.
Contact frag mines from mod # seems to have too low damage.
FIX: Ignore and don't craft them. Other new explosives should work fine and do decent damage.
Perception low, constant (-1) PER in stats because of poison damage/resistance bug.
FIX: Fallout 4 glitch. Add mod #109 and equip perception rings. Dont delete the mod after. Cant find safer solution for now. Rings don't take equipment slots.
Pip-boy light wont transfer from first to third person camera view.
FIX: Turn flashlight off and on. Can't fix on PS4/5.
Incorrect cost to build concrete foundations and barn menu items.
FIX: Use mod #20 to add tons of foundations in newly added category StructuresConcrete.
OCDecorator replaces creation club menu.
FIX: Items from CC are still available in other building categories. Ignore this or delete mod #24 + #25 if you dont care about its function.
Can't use Wattz Consumer Electronics terminal, animation stops.
FIX: There is a radroach behind the wall. Kill it by swinging melee or using explosives.
Flashlight in Vault111 has incorrect beam look/color.
FIX: It will fix itself after mods load right after you leave Vault111.
v.1.00 - (15May24)Initial version. v.1.01 - (24May24)List updated to remove deleted mods, updated names, load order, text. v.1.02 - (29May24)Added mod #80, moved #112, #113 outside the main list. Fixed some item building costs. v.1.03 - (30May24)Fixed bullets not leaving the weapon chamber with some gun/scope combinations #83. Balanced legendary effects #64. Sorted bug list. Removed 2 meaningless mods.

Have fun!

PART ONE THOUSAND AND FIFTEEN
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Sunday
Mason straightened at the sound of an incoming message on his phone, lifting the screen just enough to read it. Then he jumped to his feet.
Khai: I’m here.
“YES!” he shouted, slapping his hands together as he took off for the living apartment’s front door. He knew Khai wouldn’t have come the mortal way and, as such, fully expected him to be on the other side of that door rather than the massive entry door to the whole floor.
“Mas’n!” Maddy cried, causing Mason to skid to a halt. Both Maddy and Levi were sitting with their backs to the wall the living room shared with the half-bath, watching the big screen TV above Llyr’s chair.
Well, Maddy was. Levi looked partially lobotomized.
“Hey, guys! I didn’t expect you to still be here.”
“Lucas ducked out to grab us some supplies, though he should be back by now.” Levi patted himself down and must have realised he was only wearing boxers and a shirt … as in no pockets for a phone. He eased himself forward and gently balanced his weight on his medical boot before shoving up onto his feet in one move.
“You know, medically, that’s not doing you any—”
“Zip it,” Levi grumbled, waving his lecture aside.
“Where ya goin’, Daddy?”
“I’m just going to our room to get my phone and find out what’s keeping Uncle Luke.”
“Unca Lu-cas,” Maddy corrected, emphasising the second syllable.
The fact that a three-year-old could get it right and her father couldn’t had Mason snicker-snorting, though he quickly covered his mouth and nose with both hands to hide the evidence.
Levi’s filthy glare still said plenty. “Right. Uncle Lucas … and Auntie Charlie,” he drawled without looking back at her. He hobbled around the couch to the hallway. “Be right back, Peaches.”
Mason would’ve loved to stand there and chat, but his boss was at the door. He moved through the alcove and opened the front door. “You came,” he said, beaming up at his newest mentor a beat before stepping back to let him in. “Come in.”
Khai stepped into the apartment and removed his shoes without asking before entering the living room. “This is more like what I was expecting of Llyr’s residence,” he admitted, spotting and dismissing Maddy sitting on the sofa, who was staring at him wide-eyed.
“It’s okay, bunny. This is my boss from work.” When Khai didn’t answer, Mason nudged him. “Say ‘hello’ to Maddy.”
Only then did Khai’s eyes find the little girl. “Hello.”
“How in the world are you a father?” Mason muttered more to himself, then overcompensated with a huge grin. “He’s gonna help me study so I can get even smarter. Isn’t that cool?”
But Maddy’s eyes never left Khai.
Meanwhile, Khai focused on Boyd’s carving on the coffee table. “A housewarming gift from Kala?” he asked, gesturing to the piece.
“No,” Mason chuckled. “Though the big guy’ll get a huge kick out of knowing you thought so.”
Khai frowned and moved closer to the carving. “Are you sure? This is exceptional work…”
“Positive. Llyr gave him some … errr … special tools, so there’s no stopping him now.”
“Ahhh,” Khai said, with a nod of understanding, his eyes flicking once more to Maddy. “Well, your friend had better be careful. History is littered with people getting their hands on those types of special items or gaining some manner of assistance and then deluding themselves afterwards into thinking the outcome was their own. Look at Jason and the Argonauts. He had no idea he had Zeus’ son in his crew when Hercules accompanied him on his adventures.”
Knowing all that information would flow right over Maddy’s head, Mason squinted at his boss. “That’s the golden fleece dude, isn’t it?”
Khai’s painful wince would’ve been funny under any other circumstances.
“Hey, I’m a vet. Not a mythological historian.”
“Anyway, please tell him not to believe the skill is his. It never ends well when they do that.”
Mason didn’t want to argue anymore, despite knowing Hell would freeze over twice before he’d say anything of the kind to Boyd. “Did you want some lunch before we start?” he asked instead.
“No, I’m good, thank you.”
Mason turned his attention to Maddy, who was still staring at them like a deer in the headlights. “You stay right there, baby girl, okay? Daddy said he’ll be right back.”
“’kay.”
A few seconds later, Levi passed them in the hallway on their way to Mason’s room. “Hey,” Levi said, nodding at Khai before extending his hand. “Levi. Levi Dobson.”
“Khai Nasc—Khai Hart,” Khai returned, shaking his hand without exerting any other emotion.
Levi grinned, obviously catching the slip. “I figured you had to fit in somewhere to be allowed into the inner sanctum.” He glanced at Mason. “Luke said he was—Lucas! I mean Lucas said he was on his way back.”
Mason smirked and nodded. “We’ll be in my room if anyone’s looking for us. Studying,” he stressed when Levi raised an eyebrow. Mason pointed briefly at Khai. “His wife is expecting, and his sister is my boss. So get your head out of the gutter. He’s here to help me study for my finals.”
“Nice,” Levi said, bobbing his head. “Sorry, in this household, anything’s possible.”
“You have no idea,” Mason muttered under his breath as Levi headed back into the living room. And speaking of oddities, he suddenly remembered Brock was still using his gaming system. “Before we go in, my youngest roommate is in there playing online games in the corner. But he’s truly in the inner circle and knows all about you and the divine, so you don’t have to watch what you say or use the phrase or anything because it won’t work on him anyway.”
“You have an interesting household, Mason.”
You have no idea, Mason repeated in his thoughts as he reached for the doorknob, opened the door and stepped inside. “It’s awesome, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He gestured briefly at the gaming machine on his way to his desk. “Brock, Khai. Khai, Brock.” He didn’t bother looking at Khai. “He probably won’t hear you, but just covering bases in case he’s in a lull between fight scenes.”
Khai didn’t respond to either of them, so Mason assumed he’d done something to know Brock was, in fact, fully submerged in his game. “Here, you have my seat, and I’ll go and steal another from Sam’s office.”
Mason returned a minute or so later, pushing Sam’s giant executive chair ahead of him.
“I thought you said Sam was against wealth.”
“Yeah, well, he’s drowning in it, so it’s a case of sink or swim.” Mason twisted it beside his own and was about to sit down when Khai lifted himself out of Mason’s chair and slid into the new one.
“You sit where you usually do. I’m the only one between us who can stretch enough to reach everything,” he said in explanation.
A few minutes later, Khai showed him precisely what he meant by elongating his arm over the five-foot desk to take control of the Sectra table with fingers that sprouted dozens more to program an image of a feline’s shattered back leg and hip. With so many fingers working at once, Mason couldn’t ascertain what the parameters were before the image appeared on the screen.
“Okay,” Khai said, pointing at the display. “You have a distraught client in Consult Two, bringing with her a large Maine coon who was hit by her father’s plough while it was clearing snow. She’s had the cat now for over ten years, ever since her mother died.”
“That’s a low blow,” Mason growled at him.
“You were the one to point out the emotional element, Mason. Now, back to the board. You’ve done an initial check of the hip and found it broken in numerous places and the foot is hanging by the skin with the bone exposed at the ankle. After an x-ray and CT scans, this is what you see.” He refocused on Mason. “What do you do?”
Mason took a deep breath to clear his thoughts, putting himself into the roleplay. The x-rays showed the hip had been wrenched free of the spine, with the left side shattered in several places. His first instinct had been to end the animal’s suffering, but the owner’s connection became part of the equation. “How long ago did this happen? What does the bloodwork show?” Maybe there was a chance to salvage this. Maybe.
More buttons on the Sectra table were pushed, creating a fake bloodwork report that showed no sign of blood poisoning yet, which only meant the accident was recent enough to have not had that complication. More proof that he was a beloved pet that had been rushed to the clinic.
The rest of the information was far from good. “We need to find out how bad the damage is to the sciatic nerves in both hind legs.” He stood up and went over to the scan, pointing at the crushed bone and the subsequent mass on the CT. “It’s caught up in this mess, it could be damaged as well as pinned. If he’s really lucky, it might just be pinned, in which case surgery to release the pressure is an option.” He looked Khai in the face. “Right?”
Khai tilted his head. “Depends. What do you tell the owner?”
“The truth. Always the truth. We can’t tell the extent of the damage to the legs until we operate, though, at this point, it’s not looking good. In fact, I’d let her know before we proceeded that it was as bad as she feared and that euthanasia was a strong possibility.
“She needs to know that if she agrees to the surgery and we open him up and find the nerves in both legs are severed, no amount of work on our part will make a difference. I’d also tell her to stay close to the phone, for we’d need her to make that final decision.”
Mason’s heart ached under the weight of the news to an owner that didn’t even exist. “And then I’d offer her a hug because I think she’d need one.”
“How do you do that?’ Khai asked, breaking the illusion of the role play.
“Do what?”
“How do you engage so thoroughly with people … even ones that don’t exist? You act like you personally know them…”
“I put myself in their shoes, Khai. Or I put someone I care about in their shoes. If it’s an older woman, I put Mom there. If it’s a young kid – I picture my sister there. Either way, I make it personal.”
Khai hummed thoughtfully.
“What?”
“Just thinking how unfortunate it is that most of my immediate family are too old for this to be applicable…”
“Isn’t your wife—uh…mate—whatever you call them…isn’t she pregnant right now?”
“She is,” Khai said cautiously.
“Right. So, there’s your touchstone for pregnant women. You wouldn’t be blunt if it were her, would you?”
“I would,” Khai admitted. “Choi is a warrior. She’d rather have all the facts as soon as possible.”
“Even if the fact you had to relay was one of your other kids had accidentally been killed due to goofing off with their siblings while she was away?”
“That would then become a case of self-preservation. She would literally kill whoever had been tasked with watching over them and failed, even if it were me.”
“Your wife sounds scary.”
“She’s a blooded warrior, like all border veterans. Cross her at your own peril.”
“Okay, well, what about your kids? What if one of them comes in with a native pet that they’ve attached themselves to, and it’s been … I don’t know … bitten by a poisonous snake, and they want you to fix it.”
“Then I would.”
“I’m beginning to see what the problem is here,” Mason huffed in frustration. “C’mon, bossman. If you want to feel empathy for your clients, you need to see the heartache or the hope that that person has in your ability to cure their beloved pet and ask yourself ‘how would I feel if that was….’ And put in a name. It won’t take long for that stance to become a default setting because caring and healing is what we’re all about, right?”
“That may work here, but once I go back to the border, empathy isn’t a luxury I can afford.”
“Maybe not in the heat of battle, but once the emergency is over, a little empathy for those around you might bring you into a tighter team.”
“Why did you want to be a vet?”
Mason was startled by the question. “What do you mean?”
“You could make a lot more money going into human medicine, and your personality, for the most part, is well suited to psychology. Why did you choose animals?”
Mason’s grin was immediate. “Maybe because they can’t tell me no when I’m trying to help them.”
“Don’t deflect.”
Mason hadn’t meant to, but that had always been his go-to answer and no one had ever called him on it. Now that Khai had, he honestly wasn’t sure about the whys of his decision. Thinking about it now, he realised while farming was in his blood, it wasn’t what ignited his passion. “I can’t picture my life not being surrounded by animals, but I wanted more out of life than just raising them.”
“High IQ and EQ.”
“High enough, anyway,” Mason argued, lifting his chin towards the gaming console in the corner. “Brock over there is a real genius. If he sat for an IQ test, he’d probably reset the top score.”
Khai glanced back at the machine the young man had wrapped around him. “Perhaps that’s why he seems so intent on trying to decrease it with computer games.”
Mason snickered.
[Next Chapter]
* * *
((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I’d love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗))
I made a family tree/diagram of the Mystallian family that can be found here
For more of my work, including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.
FULL INDEX OF BOB THE HOBO TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!

“Questioning elicited the information that he feels almost as if there is a veil between him and other people through which they cannot reach him, but he prefers this veil to remain intact.”
—
Sometimes he looks around him, horrified by the weight of it all, the career of paper. He sits in the data-spew of hundreds of lives. There’s no end in sight. When he needs something, a report or transcript, anything, any level of difficulty, he simply has to ask. The Curator is quick to respond, firm in his insistence on forwarding precisely the right document in an area of research marked by ambiguity and error, by political bias, systematic fantasy. But not just the right document, not just an obscure footnote from an open source. The Curator sends him material not seen by anyone outside the headquarters complex at Langley, material that includes the results of internal investigations, confidential files from the Agency’s own Office of Security.
—
Knowledge was a danger, ignorance a cherished asset. In many cases the DCI, the Director of Central Intelligence, was not to know important things. The less he knew, the more decisively he could function. It would impair his ability to tell the truth at an inquiry or a hearing, or in an Oval Office chat with the President, if he knew what they were doing in Leader 4, or even what they were talking about, or muttering in their sleep. The Joint Chiefs were not to know. The operational horrors were not for their ears. Details were a form of contamination. The Secretaries were to be insulated from knowing. They were happier not knowing, or knowing too late. The Deputy Secretaries were interested in drifts and tendencies. They expected to be misled. They counted on it. The Attorney General wasn’t to know the queasy details. Just get results. Each level of the committee was designed to protect a higher level. There were complexities of speech. A man needed special experience and insight to work true meanings out of certain murky remarks. There were pauses and blank looks. Brilliant riddles floated up and down the echelons, to be pondered, solved, ignored.
The members of the committee would allow only generalities to carry upward. It was the President, of course, who was the final object of their protective instincts. … The White House was to be the summit of unknowing. It was as if an unsullied leader redeemed some ancient truth which the others were forced to admire only in the abstract, owing to their mission in the convoluted world.
But there were even deeper shadows, strange and grave silences surrounding plans to invade the island. The President knew about this, of course—knew the broad contours, had a sense of the promised outcome. But the system still operated as an insulating muse. Let him see the softer tones. Shield him from responsibility. Secrets build their own networks, Win believed. The system would perpetuate itself in all its curious and obsessive webbings, its equivocations and patient riddles and levels of delusional thought …
—
“The invasion failed because high officials didn’t examine the basic assumptions. They got caught up in a spirit of compelling action. They were eager to accept other men’s perceptions. There was safety in this. The plan was never clear. No one was ever responsible. Some of them knew a disaster was in the works. They let it ride. They put themselves out of reach. They wanted it over and done.”
—
“Some things we wait for all our lives without knowing it. Then it happens and we recognize at once who we are and how we are meant to proceed. This is the idea I’ve always wanted. I believe you’ll sense it is right. It’s the high risk we need. We need an electrifying event. You’ve been waiting for this every bit as much as I have. I believe that or I wouldn’t have asked you to come here. We want to set up an attempt on the life of the President. We plan every step, design every incident leading up to the event. We put together a team, leave a dim trail. The evidence is ambiguous. But it points to the Cuban Intelligence Directorate. Inherent in the plan is a second set of clues, even more unclear, more intriguing. These point to the Agency’s attempts to assassinate Castro. I am designing a plan that includes elements of both the American provocation and the Cuban reply. We do the whole thing with paper. Passports, drivers’ licenses, address books. Our team of shooters disappears but the police find a trail. Mail-order forms, change-of-address cards, photographs. We script a person or persons out of ordinary pocket litter. Shots ring out, the country is shocked, aroused. The paper trail leads to paid agents who have disappeared in Venezuela, in Mexico. I am convinced this is what we have to do to get Cuba back. This plan has levels and variations I’ve only begun to explore but it is already, essentially, right. I feel its rightness. I know what scientists mean when they talk about elegant solutions. This plan speaks to something deep inside me. It has a powerful logic. I’ve felt it unfolding for weeks, like a dream whose meaning slowly becomes apparent. This is the condition we’ve always wanted to reach. It’s the life-insight, the life-secret, and we have to extend it, guard it carefully, right up to the time we have shooters stationed on a rooftop or railroad bridge.”
—
Historic names, pen names, names of war, party names, revolutionary names. These were men who lived in isolation for long periods, lived close to death through long winters in exile or prison, feeling history in the room, waiting for the moment when it would surge through the walls, taking them with it. History was a force to these men, a presence in the room. They felt it and waited.
The books were struggles. He had to fight to make some elementary sense of what he read. But the books had come out of struggle. They had been struggles to write, struggles to live. It seemed fitting to Lee that the texts were often masses of dense theory, unyielding. The tougher the books, the more firmly he fixed a distance between himself and others.
He found enough that he could understand. He could see the capitalists, he could see the masses. They were right here, all around him, every day.
—
Pocket litter. Win Everett was at work devising a general shape, a life. He would script a gunman out of ordinary dog-eared paper, the contents of a wallet. … They wanted a name, a face, a bodily frame they might use to extend their fiction into the world. Everett had decided he wanted one figure to be slightly more visible than the others, a man the investigation might center on, someone who would be trailed and possibly apprehended. Three or four shooters would vanish completely, leaving scant traces of their affiliation. … Then one other figure, one slightly clearer image, perhaps abandoned in his sniper’s perch to find his own way out, to be trailed, found, possibly killed by the Secret Service, FBI or local police. Whatever protocol demands. This kind of man, a marksman, near anonymous, with minimal known history, the kind of man who surfaces in murky places, disappears, is arrested for some violent act, is released to drift again, to surface, to disappear. Mackey would find this man for Everett. They needed fingerprints, a handwriting sample, a photograph. Mackey would find the other shooters as well. We don’t hit the President. We miss him. We want a spectacular miss.
—
It was all so curiously funny. It was rich, that’s what it was. Everyone was a spook or dupe or asset, a double, courier, cutout or defector, or was related to one. We were all linked in a vast and rhythmic coincidence, a daisy chain of rumor, suspicion and secret wish.
—
Somewhere in his room of theories, in some notebook or folder, Nicholas Branch has a roster of the dead. A printout of the names of witnesses, informers, investigators, people linked to Lee H. Oswald, people linked to Jack Ruby, all conveniently and suggestively dead. In 1979 a House select committee determined there was nothing statistically abnormal about the death rate among those who were connected in some way to the events of November 22. Branch accepts this as an actuarial fact. He is writing a history, not a study of the ways in which people succumb to paranoia. There is endless suggestiveness. Branch concedes this. There is the language of the manner of death. Shot in back of head. Died of cut throat. Shot in police station. Shot in motel. Shot by husband after one month marriage. Found hanging by toreador pants in jail cell. Killed by karate chop. It is the neon epic of Saturday night. And Branch wants to believe that’s all it is. There is enough mystery in the facts as we know them, enough of conspiracy, coincidence, loose ends, dead ends, multiple interpretations. There is no need, he thinks, to invent the grand and masterful scheme, the plot that reaches flawlessly in a dozen directions.
Still, the cases do resonate, don’t they? Mostly anonymous dead. Exotic dancers, taxi drivers, cigarette girls, lawyers of the shopworn sort with dandruff on their lapels. But through the years the violence has reached others as well, and with each new series of misadventures Branch sees again how the assassination sheds a powerful and lasting light, exposing patterns and links, revealing this man to have known that one, this death to have occurred in curious juxtaposition to that.
—
“U-2 planes. The planes that spotted the missiles the Soviets were putting into Cuba. We used to call the photos pornography. The photo interpreters would gather to interpret. ‘Let’s see what kind of pornography we pulled in today.’ Kennedy looked at the pictures in his bedroom as a matter of fact. … Spy planes, drone aircraft, satellites with cameras that can see from three hundred miles what you can see from a hundred feet. They see and they hear. Like ancient monks, you know, who recorded knowledge, wrote it painstakingly down. These systems collect and process. All the secret knowledge of the world. … I’ll tell you what it means, these orbiting sensors that can hear us in our beds. It means the end of loyalty. The more complex the systems, the less conviction in people. Conviction will be drained out of us. Devices will drain us, make us vague and pliant.”
—
He would put someone together, build an identity, a skein of persuasion and habit, ever so subtle. He wanted a man with believable quirks. He would create a shadowed room, the gunman’s room, which investigators would eventually find, exposing each fact to relentless scrutiny, following each friend, relative, casual acquaintance into his own roomful of shadows. We lead more interesting lives than we think. We are characters in plots, without the compression and numinous sheen. Our lives, examined carefully in all their affinities and links, abound with suggestive meaning, with themes and involute turnings we have not allowed ourselves to see completely. He would show the secret symmetries in a nondescript life.
An address book with ambiguous leads. Photographs expertly altered (or crudely altered). Letters, travel documents, counterfeit signatures, a history of false names. It would all require a massive decipherment, a conversion to plain text. He envisioned teams of linguists, photo analysts, fingerprint experts, handwriting experts, experts in hairs and fibers, smudges and blurs. Investigators building up chronologies. He would give them the makings of deep chronos, lead them to basement rooms in windy industrial slums, to lost towns in the Tropics.
—
Life is hostile, he believed. The struggle is to merge your life with the greater tide of history.
—
Maybe what has to happen is that the individual must allow himself to be swept along, must find himself in the stream of no-choice, the single direction. This is what makes things inevitable. You use the restrictions and penalties they invent to make yourself stronger. History means to merge. The purpose of history is to climb out of your own skin. He knew what Trotsky had written, that revolution leads us out of the dark night of the isolated self. We live forever in history, outside ego and id.
—
Two weeks later he followed directions to a house in the Sanya district of Tokyo. He made his way through a ragpickers’ village built with material scavenged from other parts of the city. Old women jogged through the alleys carrying empty bottles, broken chair legs, pieces of indefinable junk. Houses were shoulder-high, made of old packing crates and strips of sheet metal, the walls stuffed with cardboard and rags. There were lines of people selling blood at mobile units, people who seemed hollow-bodied, so small, in such collapse. It would never bottom out. No matter how far down you went into the world, there were distances still to go, worse things to see and experience. He made it a point not to hurry through the area. He wanted to see what was here.
—
It produced a sensation of the eeriest panic, gave him a glimpse of the fiction he’d been devising, a fiction living prematurely in the world.
—
Nicholas Branch has unpublished state documents, polygraph reports, Dictabelt recordings from the police radio net on November 22. He has photo enhancements, floor plans, home movies, biographies, bibliographies, letters, rumors, mirages, dreams. This is the room of dreams, the room where it has taken him all these years to learn that his subject is not politics or violent crime but men in small rooms.
Is he one of them now? Frustrated, stuck, self-watching, looking for a means of connection, a way to break out. After Oswald, men in America are no longer required to lead lives of quiet desperation. You apply for a credit card, buy a handgun, travel through cities, suburbs and shopping malls, anonymous, anonymous, looking for a chance to take a shot at the first puffy empty famous face, just to let people know there is someone out there who reads the papers.
Branch is stuck all right. He has abandoned his life to understanding that moment in Dallas, the seven seconds that broke the back of the American century. He has his forensic pathology rundown, his neutron activation analysis. There is also the Warren Report, of course, with its twenty-six accompanying volumes of testimony and exhibits, its millions of words. Branch thinks this is the megaton novel James Joyce would have written if he’d moved to Iowa City and lived to be a hundred.
Everything is here. Baptismal records, report cards, postcards, divorce petitions, canceled checks, daily timesheets, tax returns, property lists, postoperative x-rays, photos of knotted string, thousands of pages of testimony, of voices droning in hearing rooms in old courthouse buildings, an incredible haul of human utterance. It lies so flat on the page, hangs so still in the lazy air, lost to syntax and other arrangement, that it resembles a kind of mind-spatter, a poetry of lives muddied and dripping in language.
Branch doesn’t know how to approach this kind of data. … It is vital to his sense of responsible obsession that everything in his room warrants careful study. Everything belongs, everything adheres, the mutter of obscure witnesses, the photos of illegible documents and odd sad personal debris, things gathered up at a dying—old shoes, pajama tops, letters from Russia. It is all one thing, a ruined city of trivia where people feel real pain. This is the Joycean Book of America, remember—the novel in which nothing is left out.
Branch has long since forgiven the Warren Report for its failures. It is too valuable a document of human heartbreak and muddle to be scorned or dismissed. The twenty-six volumes haunt him. Men and women surface in FBI memos, are tracked for several pages, then disappear—waitresses, prostitutes, mind readers, motel managers, owners of rifle ranges. Their stories hang in time, spare, perfect in their way, unfinished.
Photographs. Many are overexposed, light-blasted, with a faded quality beyond their age, suggesting things barely glimpsed despite the simple nature of the objects and the spare captions. ... But Branch feels there is a loneliness, a strange desolation trapped here. Why do these photographs have a power to disturb him, make him sad? Flat, pale, washed in time, suspended outside the particularized gist of this or that era, arguing nothing, clarifying nothing, lonely. Can a photograph be lonely?
This sadness has him fixed to his chair, staring. He feels the souls of empty places, finds himself returning again and again to the pictures of the second-floor lunchroom in the Texas School Book Depository. Rooms, garages, streets were emptied out for the making of official pictures. Empty forever now, stuck in some picture limbo. He feels the souls of those who were there and left. He feels sadness in objects, in warehouse cartons and blood-soaked clothes. He breathes in loneliness. He feels the dead in his room.
—
It was his goodbye to Russia. It signified the official end of a major era in his life. It validated the experience, as the writing of any history brings a persuasion and form to events.
Even as he printed the words, he imagined people reading them, people moved by his loneliness and disappointment, even by his wretched spelling, the childish mess of composition. Let them see the struggle and humiliation, the effort he had to exert to write a simple sentence. The pages were crowded, smudged, urgent, a true picture of his state of mind, of his rage and frustration, knowing a thing but not able to record it properly.
Always the pain, the chaos of composition. He could not find order in the field of little symbols. They were in the hazy distance. He could not clearly see the picture that is called a word. A word is also a picture of a word. He saw spaces, incomplete features, and tried to guess at the rest.
He made wild tries at phonetic spelling. But the language tricked him with its inconsistencies. He watched sentences deteriorate, powerless to make them right. The nature of things was to be elusive. Things slipped through his perceptions. He could not get a grip on the runaway world.
Limits everywhere. In every direction he came up against his own incompleteness. Cramped, fumbling, deficient. He knew things. It wasn’t that he didn’t know.
Even in the rush of filling these pages, he was careful to leave out certain things that could be used in legal argument against his return to the U.S. Yes, the diary was self-serving to a degree but still the basic truth, he believed. The panic was real, the voice of disappointment and loss.
He knew there were discrepancies, messed-up dates. No one could expect him to get the dates right after all this time, no one cared about the dates, no one is reading this for names and dates and spellings.
Let them see the struggle.
He believed religiously that his life would turn in such a way that people would one day study the Historic Diary for clues to the heart and mind of the man who wrote it.
—
Plots carry their own logic. There is a tendency of plots to move toward death. He believed that the idea of death is woven into the nature of every plot. A narrative plot no less than a conspiracy of armed men. The tighter the plot of a story, the more likely it will come to death. A plot in fiction, he believed, is the way we localize the force of the death outside the book, play it off, contain it. The ancients staged mock battles to parallel the tempests in nature and reduce their fear of gods who warred across the sky. He worried about the deathward logic of his plot. He’d already made it clear that he wanted the shooters to hit a Secret Service man, wound him superficially. But it wasn’t a misdirected round, an accidental killing, that made him afraid. There was something more insidious. He had a foreboding that the plot would move to a limit, develop a logical end.
—
He thought the only end to isolation was to reach the point where he was no longer separated from the true struggles that went on around him. The name we give this point is history.
—
“It’s the job of an intelligence service to resolve a nation’s obsessions. Cuba is a fixed idea. It is prickly in a way Russia is not. More unresolved. More damaging to the psyche. And this is our job, to remove the psychic threat, to learn so much about Castro, decipher his intentions, undermine his institutions to such a degree that he loses the power to shape the way we think, to shape the way we sleep at night.”
—
It was remarkable how often he talked to her about these things. The Agency was the one subject in his life that could never be exhausted. Central Intelligence. Beryl saw it as the best organized church in the Christian world, a mission to collect and store everything that everyone has ever said and then reduce it to a microdot and call it God. She needed to live in small dusty rooms, layered safely in, out of the reach of dizzying things, of heat and light and strange spaces, and Larry needed the great sheltering nave of the Agency. He believed that nothing can be finally known that involves human motive and need. There is always another level, another secret, a way in which the heart breeds a deception so mysterious and complex it can only be taken for a deeper kind of truth.
—
He’d stopped commenting on this oddness of hers. She said the news clippings she sent to friends were a perfectly reasonable way to correspond. There were a thousand things to clip and they all said something about the way she felt. He watched her read and cut. She wore half-glasses and worked the scissors grimly. She believed these were personal forms of expression. She believed no message she could send a friend was more intimate and telling than a story in the paper … Because these are the things that tell us how we live.
—
In the Old Senate Caucus Room they asked him to name the members of the Real Control Apparatus. This is like naming particles in the air, naming molecules or cells. The Apparatus is precisely what we can’t see or name. We can’t measure it, gentlemen, or take its photograph. It is the mystery we can’t get hold of, the plot we can’t uncover. This doesn’t mean there are no plotters. They are elected officials of our government, Cabinet members, philanthropists, men who know each other by secret signs, who work in the shadows to control our lives.
—
On his fourth day with Castro he shot a government scout, aiming through a telescopic sight. It was uncanny. You press a button and a man drops dead a hundred meters away. It seemed hollow and remote, falsifying everything. It was a trick of the lenses. The man is an accurate picture. Then he is upside down. Then he is right side up. You shoot at a series of images conveyed to you through a metal tube. The force of a death should be enormous but how can you know what kind of man you’ve killed or who was the braver and stronger if you have to peer through layers of glass that deliver the image but obscure the meaning of the act? War has a conscience or it’s ordinary murder.
—
The Curator sends the results of ballistics tests carried out on human skulls and goat carcasses, on blocks of gelatin mixed with horsemeat. There are photographs of skulls with the right cranial portion blown away. There are bullet-shattered goat heads in close-up. Branch studies a picture of a gelatin-tissue model “dressed” like the President. It is pure modernist sculpture, a block of gelatin layered in suit and shirt material with a strip of undershirt showing, bullet-smoked. There are documents concerning exit velocities. There is a picture of a human skull filled with gelatin and covered with goatskin to simulate a scalp.
—
He sends an actual warped bullet that has been fired for test purposes through the wrist of a seated cadaver. We are on another level here, Branch thinks. Beyond documents now. They want me to touch and smell.
—
The Oswald shadings, the multiple images, the split perceptions—eye color, weapons caliber—these seem a foreboding of what is to come. The endless fact-rubble of the investigations. How many shots, how many gunmen, how many directions? Powerful events breed their own network of inconsistencies. The simple facts elude authentication. How many wounds on the President’s body? What is the size and shape of the wounds? … [Branch] concedes everything. He questions everything, including the basic suppositions we make about our world of light and shadow, solid objects and ordinary sounds, and our ability to measure such things, to determine weight, mass and direction, to see things as they are, recall them clearly, be able to say what happened.
He takes refuge in his notes. The notes are becoming an end in themselves. Branch has decided it is premature to make a serious effort to turn these notes into coherent history. Maybe it will always be premature. Because the data keeps coming. Because new lives enter the record all the time. The past is changing as he writes.
—
“Signs that you exist. Evidence that Lee Oswald matches the cardboard cutout they’ve been shaping all along. You’re a quirk of history. You’re a coincidence. They devise a plan, you fit it perfectly. They lose you, here you are. There’s a pattern in things. Something in us has an effect on independent events. We make things happen. The conscious mind gives one side only. We’re deeper than that. We extend into time. Some of us can almost predict the time and place and nature of our own death. We know it on some deeper plane.”
—
“Think of two parallel lines,” he said. “One is the life of Lee H. Oswald. One is the conspiracy to kill the President. What bridges the space between them? What makes a connection inevitable? There is a third line. It comes out of dreams, visions, intuitions, prayers, out of the deepest levels of the self. It’s not generated by cause and effect like the other two lines. It’s a line that cuts across causality, cuts across time. It has no history that we can recognize or understand. But it forces a connection. It puts a man on the path of his destiny.”
—
The Agency forgives. There wasn’t a man in the upper ranks of the four directorates who didn’t understand the perils of clandestine work. They would be pleased by his willingness to cooperate. What’s more, they would admire the complexity of his plan, incomplete as it was. It had art and memory. It had a sense of responsibility, of moral force. And it was a picture in the world of their own guilty wishes. He was never more surely an Agency man than in the first breathless days of dreaming up this plot.
—
To Nicholas Branch, more frequently of late, “Lee H. Oswald” seems a technical diagram, part of some exercise in the secret manipulation of history.
—
Street by street the crowd began to understand why it was here. The message jumped the open space from one press of bodies to the next. A contagion had brought them here, some mystery of common impulse, hundreds of thousands come from so many histories and systems of being, come from some experience of the night before, a convergence of dreams, to stand together shouting as the Lincoln passed. … They were here to surround the brittle body of one man and claim his smile, receive some token of the bounty of his soul.
—
The media crowds collected and rocked in the corridors. They were waiting for the prisoner to come down to the interrogation room here on the third floor of the Police and Courts Building. TV cameras sat on dollies and there were cables slung over windowsills, trailing through the offices of deputy chiefs. Nobody checked credentials. Reporters took over the phones and pushed into toilets after police officials. Total unknowns walked the halls, defendants from other parts of the building, witnesses to other crimes, tourists, muttering men, drunks in torn shirts. It was a roughhouse, a confoundment. Every rumor flew. Disk jockeys arrived to fill in, blinking, flinching, wary. A reporter wrote notes on a pad he balanced on the back of the chief of police.
Hours going by. Blank faces arrayed against corridor walls. Men crouched near the elevators waiting. They sensed the incompleteness out there, gaps, spaces, vacant seats, lobbies emptied out, disconnections, dark cities, stopped lives. People were lonely for news. Only news could make them whole again, restore sensation. Three hundred reporters in a compact space, all pushing to extract a word. A word is a magic wish. A word from anyone. With a word they could begin to grid the world, make an instant surface that people can see and touch together.
—
Whenever they took him down, he heard his name on the radios and TVs. Lee Harvey Oswald. It sounded extremely strange. He didn’t recognize himself in the full intonation of the name. The only time he used his middle name was to write it on a form that had a space for that purpose. No one called him by that name. Now it was everywhere. He heard it coming from the walls. Reporters called it out. Lee Harvey Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald. It sounded odd and dumb and made up. They were talking about somebody else.
—
They took him back to the cell. He stripped to his underwear and sat on the bunk, thinking, feeling the noise of the assembly room still resonating in his body. A cell is the basic state, the crude truth of the world.
He could play it either way, depending on what they could prove or couldn’t prove. He wasn’t on the sixth floor at all. He was in the lunchroom eating lunch. The victim of a total frame. They’d been rigging the thing for years, watching him, using him, creating a chain of evidence with the innocent facts of his life. Or he could say he was only partly guilty, set up to take the blame for the real conspirators. Okay, he fired some shots from the window. But he didn’t kill anyone. He never meant to fire a fatal shot. It was never his intention to cause an actual fatality. He was only trying to make a political point. Other people were responsible for the actual killing. They fixed it so he would seem the lone gunman. They superimposed his head on someone else’s body. Forged his name on documents. Made him a dupe of history. He would name every name if he had to.
—
Lee Harvey Oswald was awake in his cell. It was beginning to occur to him that he’d found his life’s work. After the crime comes the reconstruction. He will have motives to analyze, the whole rich question of truth and guilt. Time to reflect, time to turn this thing in his mind. Here is a crime that clearly yields material for deep interpretation. He will be able to bend the light of that heightened moment, shadows fixed on the lawn, the limousine shimmering and still. Time to grow in self-knowledge, to explore the meaning of what he’s done. He will vary the act a hundred ways, speed it up and slow it down, shift emphasis, find shadings, see his whole life change.
This was the true beginning.
They will, give him writing paper and books. He will fill his cell with books about the case. He will have time to educate himself in criminal law, ballistics, acoustics, photography. Whatever pertains to the case he will examine and consume. People will come to see him, the lawyers first, then psychologists, historians, biographers. His life had a single clear subject now, called Lee Harvey Oswald.
He and Kennedy were partners. The figure of the gunman in the window was inextricable from the victim and his history. This sustained Oswald in his cell. It gave him what he needed to live.
—
If we are on the outside, we assume a conspiracy is the perfect working of a scheme. Silent nameless men with unadorned hearts. A conspiracy is everything that ordinary life is not. It’s the inside game, cold, sure, undistracted, forever closed off to us. We are the flawed ones, the innocents, trying to make some rough sense of the daily jostle. Conspirators have a logic and a daring beyond our reach. All conspiracies are the same taut story of men who find coherence in some criminal act.
But maybe not. Nicholas Branch thinks he knows better. He has learned enough about the days and months preceding November 22, and enough about the twenty-second itself, to reach a determination that the conspiracy against the President was a rambling affair that succeeded in the short term due mainly to chance. Deft men and fools, ambivalence and fixed will and what the weather was like.
The stuff keeps coming. The Curator sends FBI surveillance logs. He sends a thirty-five-hour film chronology of unedited network footage shot during the weekend of November 22. He sends a computer-enhanced version of the Zapruder film, the 8mm home movie made by a dress manufacturer who stood on a concrete abutment above Elm Street as the shots were fired. Experts have scrutinized every murky nuance of the Zapruder film. It is the basic timing device of the assassination and a major emblem of uncertainty and chaos. There is the powerful moment of death, the surrounding blurs, patches and shadows.
(Branch’s analysis of the film and other evidence leads him to believe the first shot came much sooner than most theories would allow, probably at Zapruder frame 186. Governor Connally was hit two point six seconds later, at Zapruder 234. The shot that killed the President, crushingly, came four point three seconds after that. Even though he has reached firm conclusions in this area, Branch will study the computerized version of Zapruder. He is in too deep to stop now.)
The Curator sends a special FBI report that includes detailed descriptions of the dreams of eyewitnesses following the assassination of Kennedy and the murder of Oswald.
There are worrisome omissions, occasional gaps in the record. Of course Branch understands that the Agency is a closed system. He knows they will not reveal what they’ve learned to other agencies, much less the public. This is why the history he has contracted to write is a secret one, meant for CIA’s own closed collection. But why are they withholding material from him as well? There’s something they aren’t telling him. The Curator delays, lately, in filling certain requests for information, seems to ignore other requests completely. What are they holding back? How much more is there? Branch wonders if there is some limit inherent in the yielding of information gathered in secret. They can’t give it all away, even to one of their own, someone pledged to confidentiality. Before his retirement, Branch analyzed intelligence, sought patterns in random scads of data. He believed secrets were childish things. He was not generally impressed by the accomplishments of men in the clandestine service, the spy handlers, the covert-action staff. He thought they’d built a vast theology, a formal coded body of knowledge that was basically play material, secret-keeping, one of the keener pleasures and conflicts of childhood. Now he wonders if the Agency is protecting something very much like its identity—protecting its own truth, its theology of secrets.
The Curator begins to send fiction, twenty-five years of novels and plays about the assassination. He sends feature films and documentaries. He sends transcripts of panel discussions and radio debates. Branch has no choice but to study this material. There are important things he has yet to learn. There are lives he must examine. It is essential to master the data.
—
He believes people are distorting his words even as he speaks them. There is a process that takes place between the saying of a word and when they pretend to hear it correctly but actually change it to mean what they want.
—
He is miscast, or cast as someone else, as Oswald. They are part of the same crime now. They are in it together and forever and together.
—
The camera doesn’t catch all of it. There seem to be missing frames, lost levels of information. Brief and simple as the shooting is, it is too much to take in, too mingled in jumped-up energies.
—
There was something in Oswald’s face, a glance at the camera before he was shot, that put him here in the audience, among the rest of us, sleepless in our homes—a glance, a way of telling us that he knows who we are and how we feel, that he has brought our perceptions and interpretations into his sense of the crime. Something in the look, some sly intelligence, exceedingly brief but far-reaching, a connection all but bleached away by glare, tells us that he is outside the moment, watching with the rest of us.

Currently trying to find rent to do no contact with my parents. Before this i have mentioned how it made no sense to not want me to adult, have a job and continue edu. Please keep in mind im the only female child and they use it to justify their misogynistic views such as having to be the only cook, to only clean and not actually have time for myself, raising their children, not allowed out of the house, being a dependent. I was bombarded with, “Why would you want to abandon your brothers?” “You live here rent free and your basically spoiled” “why work when we pay for everything” “You don’t need a job, you need to watch your brother, do you hate him, is that why you want to leave” “Your a problem, you always want to go out(Context:i asked for their schedule so i can make an appointment, and no they still haven’t told me and don’t plan on it) and everything else that falls similar to that.
Another thing my parents do is fear monger. Most of the time making scenarios up on how i’ll be assaulted and killed and how ill be the “stupid one” Even for simple things like walking to the mailbox, Even if nothing happens I will come back to an argument.
Also for the “everyone is downplaying my abuse” they solely thinks all the items i have are from my parents, they don’t even provide toilet paper or groceries not even soap, but since it’s all ordered from their acct and reimbursed with cash they have convinced themselves they do.
For the financial abuse part, i wasn’t allowed to open a bank acct(i did it secretly recently) Theirs a lot of things im not allowed to do, So listing what i’m allowed to do is a shorter list compared to the other.
I’m allowed to use the stove. I am allowed and timed to go outside to walk and pick up kid for 18mins.I can order things only on my parents acct. I can wear what i want with only their approval, i can only use the bathroom only at 6am and at 12am, I can only go back in my room at 11pm. I’m allowed to talk to the male siblings only in the living room, I can use my phone to listen to music but it has to be on speaker so it’s not inappropriate, I can throw out trash after sundown with a hoodie on, I can wash my clothes once a month on the last sunday. My google search history is supervised same with my photos.(i bought secret devices and use a hotspot with my own phone plan)
Thoses are what i can think of atm but everything else is pretty restrictive and doesn’t apply to my male siblings (They are younger than me btw) And when witnessing this they say i’m either being difficult or that i did something wrong.
Our local sheriffs has came recently over being a disturbance (parents bickering) even though i was in the same room (in front of them)my parents whole heartly believe i called them over them being “abusive” meaning they are aware what their doing to me, So no they aren’t logical.
In conclusion. I can’t tell what abuse i’m facing. It might be a mixture. Also i have called my local dv centers and i keep going in circles, most of the ones by me are just resource centers requiring to drop by to get handouts also being redirected to their website. Another is not respondinn to emails and calls. Also for the women’s homes i’ve been put on a wait list since they’re so full. Feeling at a lost. But i did pack everything and emptied out my room so i feel kinda ready same with scared. I would seek out help from the church but they have failed me again over and over.

Recently somewhere on social media I defended the homeless, I've been homeless myself four times, and the things that were being snarkily asked and assumed were irritating. I got backlash for it, and the whole attitude people had made me start to think back on my homeless times.
I dealt with social workers, keyboard warriors, strangers, neighbors, non-profit workers, and even recovering drug addicts all say some of the meanest, cruelest vitriol slung at me in any way they could possibly shove it in. Whether it was off-hand comments about poor money management, laziness, wanting handouts, or making excuses. Patronizing questions about things that would literally take all of maybe a minute of real thought to answer and people stuck in maddening loops of flow chart generic solutions that when my situation didn't match their pretty picture they just repeated it with judgement and aggression.
The comments I made and the reactions I had to it were minor, but it reminded me of something I wish wasn't the case: the general population really thinks horribly about people who are homeless, all while forgetting the most important part: that you are people.
So I want to remind all of you in that position right now, of not having a home, and having a lot of people - even seemingly kind people - think poorly of you I wanted to remind you all:
You are a person, worthy of existing. You are a person worthy of dignity, of basic respect, worthy of your existance being acknowledged in a way that doesn't spit on you. You deserve to get help, to get empathy, understanding, compassion and you are worth existing. You are not a plague, you are not scum, you are not just awful people who are bad with money. You deserve to be spoken about even as a generic group with respect and dignity and most of all humanity.
I've been in an apartment for going on 4 years now, and I still need to correct my own friends I've known for over 10 years of how homeless people aren't the problem, how theyre not all people who just want to attack you, how the anger and the resentment and the bitterness is valid and justified because no one is really seeing you as a person when you are. You are not the problem! You are the visual proof of a feature in the system that needs replaced and you never deserved to be caught in it.
None of you deserve the vitriol. I don't care if you've broken into cars, stolen food, done drugs or alcohol to numb the reality, swiped at a guy because he threw change at you like an animal: You deserve to be treated like a real human with dignity and respect. You're in survival mode, doing what you can to survive. You're stressed and abused and neglected by society and by even sometimes the social workers and nonprofits who promised to help you. No human would thrive under those circumstances. No human in those circumstances needs judgement on how they're keeping their heart, body and soul above water so you don't succumb.
So this is your reminder to not let those heartless bastards in the world make you feel like you're not worth it. Don't let their hating on you about what you buy, or what resources you choose to get help from, or how you coped to keep yourself from going beyond rock bottom sink in. There are people still out there who know you are not the bad things they say, and that your situation is not so simple that it's for lack of trying.
Sending big hugs and huge doses of hope to you all. ❤️

I got bored and with finishing up GTO recently, I went ahead and counted how many pages it has.

I divided the number of pages based on each major arc. Chapter Covers will be counted on their own unless they directly contribute to the story (Dialogue, taking place within the setting, not striking a pose in an unrelated background, etc.). Double Page Spreads will also be counted on their own; if taken into consideration as part of the page count, it'd be additional two pages to the current page count. The appearance of Double Page Spreads will also be listed. Both Chapter Covers and Double Page Spreads will contribute to the overall page count.
I refer to Double Page Spread Chapter Covers in an acronym consisting of those words' initials: DPSCC.
Drawings for Volume Covers and Sketches won't be contributing to the page count but will still be counted on its own.
Diagrams, Info Bios, and Character Profiles which will be counted towards the Page Count and also be counted on its own. Diagrams will be counted if the diagram remains the main focus of the page.

GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka: 200 Chapters, 8 Bonus Chapters, 3,922 Single Pages, 329 Double Page Spreads (328), 7 Chapter Covers, 13 Double Page Spread Chapter Covers, 20 Info Bios (8), 25 Diagrams (4), 1 Double Page Spread Diagram (0), 22 Character Profiles (3), 1 End Cover, 3 Colored Pages, 2 Colored Double Page Spreads, 3 Colored Double Page Spread Chapter Covers:

Total Page Count: 4,627 Pages

Sketches/Volume: 1 Doodle, 10 Volume Sketches, 33 Panel Sketches, 20 Volume Drawings, 5 Volume Skits, 5 Info Bios (Volume), 5 Character Profiles (Volume), 4 Volume Recaps, 1 Double Page Spread Volume Recap, 7 Miscellaneous Pages, 29 Volume Pages

Averages Per Chapter:
Total Pages: 22.2451923077
Single Pages: 18.8557692308
Double Page Spreads: 1.58173076923 or 1.57692307692
Averages Per Chapter (Excluding Bonus Chapters):
Total Pages: 22.145
Single Pages: 18.775
Double Page Spreads: 1.59 or 1.585

The Legend Begins: 2 Arcs, 11 Chapters, 301 Total Pages, 259 Single Pages, 20 Double Page Spreads, 1 Double Page Spread Chapter Cover, 3 Character Profiles (0), 1 Colored Page, 1 Colored Double Page Spread, 1 Colored Double Page Spread Chapter Cover, 2 Volume Drawings, 1 Sketch:
​
Enter Eikichi Onizuka: 6 Chapters, 201 Total Pages, 171 Single Pages, 14 Double Page Spreads, 1 Double Page Spread Chapter Cover, 2 Character Profiles (0), 1 Colored Page, 1 Colored Double Page Spread, 1 Colored Double Page Spread Chapter Cover, 2 Volume Drawings, 1 Sketch:

Ch 1: 51 Pages + 7 Double Page Spreads (2, 22, 28, 30, 48, 60, 66) + 1 Double Page Spread Chapter Cover, 1 Colored Page, 1 Colored Double Page Spread, 1 Colored DPSCC, 1 Character Bio (2 - 3), 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Sketch (6)	Ch 2: 34 Pages + 4 DPS (2, 4, 10, 22), 1 Character Bio (4)	Ch 3: 26 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (2, 16, 24)
Ch 4: 20 Pages	Ch 5: 20 Pages	Ch 6: 20 Pages, 1 Volume Drawing

​
The Teacher's Certification Exam: 5 Chapters, 100 Total Pages, 88 Single Pages, 6 Double Page Spreads, 1 Character Profile (0):

Ch 7: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 12)	Ch 8: 20 Pages	Ch 9: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (8), 1 Character Bio (1)
Ch 10: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (12)	Ch 11: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 12)

Welcome To Holy Forest Academy: 2 - 4 Arcs, 6 Chapters, 120 Total Pages, 107 Single Pages, 6 Double Page Spreads, 1 Chapter Cover; 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Info Bio (Volume), 3 Character Profiles (0):
​
Onizuka-Sensei is Born!: 3 Chapters, 60 Total Pages, 53 Single Pages, 3 Double Page Spreads, 1 Chapter Cover:

Ch 12: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spread (2, 10)	Ch 13: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)	Ch 14: 19 Pages + 1 Chapter Cover

Introduction to Class 3-4: 3 Chapters, 60 Total Pages, 54 Single Pages, 3 Double Page Spreads; 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Info Bio (Volume), 3 Character Profiles (0):

Ch 15: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (14, 16), 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Info Bio (Volume)	Ch 16: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (18), 3 Character Bios (11, 13)	Ch 17: 20 Pages

Kunio Murai & Noboru Yoshikawa: 4 Arcs, 10 Chapters, 205 Total Pages, 192 Single Pages, 5 Double Page Spreads, 1 Chapter Cover, 2 Diagrams; 1 Character Profile (Volume), 2 Volume Drawings, 1 Panel Sketch:
​
Onizuka vs Murai: 3 Chapters, 60 Total Pages, 57 Single Pages, 1 Double Page Spread, 1 Diagram:

Ch 18: 19 Pages + 1 Diagram (1)	Ch 19: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)	Ch 20: 20 Pages

An Eye for an Eye, A Butt for a Butt: 2 Chapters, 45 Total Pages, 43 Single Pages, 1 Double Page Spread, 1 Panel Sketch:

Ch 21: 25 Pages, 1 Panel Sketch	Ch 22: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (6)

Onizuka vs the PTA: 2 Chapters, 40 Total Pages, 37 Single Pages, 1 Double Page Spread, 1 Diagram; 1 Character Profile (Volume), 2 Volume Drawings:

Ch 23: 19 Pages + 1 Diagram/Ch Cover, 1 Volume Drawing	Ch 24: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2), 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Character Bio (Volume)

Murai's Lesson: 3 Chapters, 60 Total Pages, 55 Single Pages, 2 Double Page Spreads, 1 Chapter Cover:

Ch 25: 20 Pages	Ch 26: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)	Ch 27: 17 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (9) + 1 Ch Cover

Tomoko Nomura & Hiroshi Uchiyamada: 4 Arcs, 11 Chapters, 222 Total Pages, 202 Single Pages, 7 Double Page Spreads, 2 Chapter Covers, 4 Info Bios, 1 Character Profile (0); 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Info Bio (Volume):
​
The Art of War: 4 Chapters, 80 Total Pages, 71 Single Pages, 3 Double Page Spreads, 1 Chapter Cover, 2 Info Bios, 1 Character Profile (0):

Ch 28: 16 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2) + 2 Info Bios (4, 5)	Ch 29: 19 Pages + 1 Ch Cover, 1 Character Bio (3)
Ch 30: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)	Ch 31: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (8)

Inside Looking Out: 2 Chapters, 40 Total/Single Pages; 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Info Bio (Volume):

Ch 32: 20 Pages	Ch 33: 20 Pages, 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Info Bio (Volume)

Talent For the Whole World: 3 Chapters, 62 Total Pages, 53 Single Pages, 4 Double Page Spreads, 1 Chapter Cover:

Ch 34: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 14)	Ch 35: 18 Pages + 2 Double Page Spread (2, 20)	Ch 36: 19 Pages + 1 Ch Cover

The Spring of Hiroshi Uchiyamada: 2 Chapters, 40 Total Pages, 38 Single Pages, 2 Info Bios:

Ch 37: 20 Pages	Ch 38: 18 Pages + 2 Info Bios (6 - 7)

The National Test: 3 - 4 Arcs, 14 Chapters, 290 Total Pages, 257 Single Pages, 16 Double Page Spreads, 4 Character Profiles (1), 1 Info Bio (0), 2 Diagrams (0); 1 Character Profile (Volume), 1 Volume Skit, 1 Panel Sketch:
​
Teshigawara's Secret Love: 5 Chapters, 100 Total Pages, 89 Single Pages, 5 Double Page Spreads, 3 Character Profiles (1); 1 Character Profile (Volume):

Ch 39: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2), 2 Character Bios (15)	Ch 40: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (12)	Ch 41: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (10)
Ch 42: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (12), 1 Character Bio (Volume)	Ch 43: 17 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (8) + 1 Character Bio (1)

Onizuka vs The National Scholastic Achievement Test: 4 Chapters, 82 Total Pages, 80 Single Pages, 1 Double Page Spread, 2 Diagrams (0):

Ch 44: 20 Pages, 2 Diagrams (8, 14)	Ch 45: 20 Pages
Ch 46: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)	Ch 47: 22 Pages

Edging the Corner: 5 Chapters, 108 Total Pages, 88 Single Pages, 10 Double Page Spreads, 1 Character Profile (0), 1 Info Bio (0); 1 Volume Skit, 1 Panel Sketch:

Ch 48: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 18)	Ch 49: 15 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (2, 14, 18), 1 Panel Sketch	Ch 50: 19 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)
Ch 51: 18 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 18), 1 Info Bio (5), 1 Volume Skit	Ch 52: 20 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 18), 1 Character Bio (2)

Urumi Kanzaki: 4 - 8 Arcs, 14 Chapters, 282 Total Pages, 245 Single Pages, 18 Double Page Spreads, 1 Chapter Cover, 2 Character Profiles (0); 1 Volume Skit, 1 Character Profile (Volume):
​
Enter Urumi Kanzaki: 3 Chapters, 60 Total Pages, 58 Single Pages, 1 Double Page Spread, 2 Character Profiles (0):

Ch 53: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (4), 1 Character Bio (7)	Ch 54: 20 Pages, 1 Character Bio (19)	Ch 55: 20 Pages

Onizuka vs Kanzaki + Office Saejima Part 1: 5 Chapters, 100 Total Pages, 84 Single Pages, 8 Double Page Spreads; 1 Volume Skit, 1 Character Profile (Volume):

Ch 56: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (10)	Ch 57: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 18)	Ch 58: 14 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (2, 8, 18)
Ch 59: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 16)	Ch 60: 20 Pages, 1 Volume Skit, 1 Character Bio (Volume) E

Her Secret: 3 Chapters, 60 Total Pages, 55 Single Pages, 2 Double Page Spreads, 1 Chapter Cover:

Ch 61: 20 Pages	Ch 62: 20 Pages	Ch 63: Ch 62: 15 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (14, 18) + 1 Ch Cover

The Extracurricular: 3 Chapters, 62 Total Pages, 48 Single Pages, 7 Double Page Spreads:

Ch 64: 14 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (4, 10, 14)	Ch 65: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 18)	Ch 66: 18 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 18)

Slices Of Life: 3 - 5 Arcs, 8 Chapters, 166 Total Pages, 152 Single Pages, 6 Double Page Spreads, 1 Chapter Cover, 2 Character Profiles (1), 1 Volume Skit, 1 Info Bio (Volume):
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The Witch Club: 3 Chapters, 60 Total Pages, 54 Single Pages, 3 Double Page Spreads, 1 Character Profile (0); 1 Volume Skit, 1 Info Bio (Volume):

Ch 67: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2), 1 Character Bio (15)	Ch 68: 20 Pages	Ch 69: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 10), 1 Volume Skit, 1 Info Bio (Volume)

Hooky: 2 Chapters, 42 Total Pages, 37 Single Pages, 2 Double Page Spreads, 1 Character Profile:

Ch 70: 20 Pages	Ch 71: 17 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (14, 18) + 1 Character Bio (1)

Kunio Murai's Adventures: 3 Chapters, 64 Total Pages, 61 Single Pages, 1 Double Page Spread, 1 Chapter Cover:

Ch 72: 22 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)	Ch 73: 19 Pages + 1 Ch Cover	Ch 74: 20 Pages

Miyabi's Scheme: 5 - 7 Arcs, 20 Chapters, 414 Total Pages, 355 Single Pages, 29 Double Page Spreads, 1 Diagram, 1 Character Profile (0); 3 Panel Sketches, 2 Volume Drawings, 1 Volume Skit, 1 Info Bio (Volume):
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The Lightness of Being: 2 Chapters, 60 Total Pages, 58 Single Pages, 1 Double Page Spread, 1 Character Profile (0):

Ch 75: 20 Pages, 1 Character Bio (2)	Ch 76: 20 Pages	Ch 77: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (4)

School Embezzlement: 5 Chapters, 105 Total Pages, 85 Single Pages, 10 Double Page Spreads; 1 Panel Sketch, 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Info Bio (Volume):

Ch 78: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 6), 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Info Bio (Volume)	Ch 79: 19 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (4)	Ch 80: 17 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (5, 7, 17)
Ch 81: 19 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (4), 1 Panel Sketch	Ch 82: 14 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (4, 14, 16)

8 Millon Yen Hunt: 5 Chapters, 103 Total Pages, 86 Single Pages, 8 Double Page Spreads, 1 Diagram, 1 Volume Drawing:

Ch 83: 15 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (8, 18) + 1 Diagram (1)	Ch 84: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (16, 20)	Ch 85: 22 Pages
Ch 86: 17 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 10)	Ch 87: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 10), 1 Volume Drawing

The Mercedes Bendz: 5 Chapters, 106 Total Pages, 92 Single Pages, 7 Double Page Spreads, 1 Panel Sketch:

Ch 88: 17 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (11)	Ch 89: 22 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread	Ch 90: 17 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 16), 1 Panel Sketch
Ch 91: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (4, 18)	Ch 92: 20 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (4)

Metamorphosis: 2 Chapters, 40 Total Pages, 34 Single Pages, 3 Double Page Spreads; 1 Panel Sketch, 1 Volume Skit:

Ch 93: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (4, 18), 1 Volume Skit	Ch 94: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2), 1 Panel Sketch

Tomoko's Big Adventures (Bonus Arc): 7 Bonus Chapters, 153 Total Pages, 130 Single Pages, 10 Double Page Spreads, 1 Double Page Spread Chapter Cover, 6 Character Profiles (1), 2 Info Bios (0), 2 Panel Sketches:

Ch 92.1: 22 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads + (2, 26) + 1 DPSCC, 4 Character Bios (2, 6, 10, 18)	Ch 92.2: 16 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (18) + 1 Character Profile (1), 1 Character Bio (3), 1 Panel Sketch	Ch 92.3: 23 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (21)
Ch 97.1: 17 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 8), 1 Info Bio (16), 1 Panel Sketch	Ch 97.2: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (4)	Ch 97.3: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 10)
Ch 97.4: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (6), 1 Info Bio (9)

Okinawa: 4 - 7 Arcs, 14 Chapters, 307 Total Pages, 265 Single Pages, 21 Double Page Spreads, 1 Diagram (0), 1 Character Profile (0); 1 Panel Sketch, 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Volume Skit, 1 Character Profile (Volume):
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Arrival in Okinawa: 2 Chapters, 43 Total Pages, 39 Single Pages, 2 Double Page Spreads, 1 Character Profile (0):

Ch 95: 21 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (7)	Ch 96: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (4), 1 Character Bio (1)

Great Treasure in Okinawa: 5 Chapters, 112 Total Pages, 90 Single Pages, 11 Double Page Spreads, 1 Volume Drawing:

Ch 97: 16 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (4, 12, 16)	Ch 98: 18 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 18), 1 Volume Drawing	Ch 99: 16 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (2, 6, 10)
Ch 100: 18 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (4, 16)	Ch 101: 22 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)

Confessions in Okinawa: 4 Chapters, 86 Total Pages, 76 Single Pages, 5 Double Page Spreads, 1 Diagram, 1 Panel Sketch:

Ch 102: 20 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)	Ch 103: 19 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (20), 1 Panel Sketch
Ch 104: 19 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)	Ch 105: 18 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (8, 16), 1 Diagram (1)

Last Day in Okinawa + Officer Saejima Part 2: 3 Chapters, 66 Total Pages, 60 Single Pages, 3 Double Page Spreads, 1 Volume Skit, 1 Character Profile (Volume):

Ch 106: 20 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (20)	Ch 107: 18 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 20), 1 Volume Skit, 1 Character Bio (Volume)	Ch 108: 22 Pages

Mayu Wakui: 4 - 5 Arcs, 16 Chapters, 348 Total Pages, 295 Single Pages, 26 Double Page Spreads, 1 Chapter Cover; 3 Panel Sketches, 3 Volume Drawings, 10 Volume Sketches, 1 Character Profile (Volume), 1 Volume Recap:
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Enter Mayu Wakui: 5 Chapters, 111 Total Pages, 99 Single Pages, 6 Double Page Spreads, 1 Panel Sketch:

Ch 109: 20 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (4)	Ch 110: 21 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (20), 1 Panel Sketch	Ch 111: 18 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 16)
Ch 112: 20 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (1)	Ch 113: 20 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)

Onizuka vs Mayu Wakui: 5 Chapters, 108 Total Pages, 93 Single Pages, 7 Double Page Spreads, 1 Chapter Cover; 1 Volume Drawing, 7 Volume Sketches, 1 Volume Recap:

Ch 114: 20 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (6, 22), 7 Volume Sketches	Ch 115: 20 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2), 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Volume Recap	Ch 116: 17 Pages + 1 Ch Cover
Ch 117: 20 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)	Ch 118: 16 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (2, 12, 20)

The Underground Arm-Wrestling Match: 4 Chapters, 77 Total Pages, 57 Single Pages, 10 Double Page Spreads, 2 Panel Sketches:

Ch 119: 14 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (2, 6, 18)	Ch 120: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 12)
Ch 121: 13 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 6), 1 Panel Sketch	Ch 122: 14 Pages + 3 Double Page Spread (4, 8, 18)

Triptophan: 2 Chapters, 52 Total Pages, 46 Single Pages, 3 Double Page Spreads; 1 Panel Sketch, 3 Volume Sketches, 2 Volume Drawings, 1 Character Profile (Volume):

Ch 123: 19 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (4, 22), 3 Volume Sketches	Ch 124: 27 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (14), 1 Panel Sketch, 2 Volume Drawings, 1 Character Bio (Volume)

Bad Memories: 5 - 7 Arcs, 18 Chapters, 361 Total Pages, 294 Single Pages, 33 Double Page Spreads, 4 Info Bios (1), 1 Double Page Spread Info Bio (0), 2 Double Page Spread Diagrams (0); 2 Volume Drawings, 2 Misc Pages (Volume), 1 Panel Sketch, 1 Double Page Spread Volume Recap:
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The Loneliest Heart in The World: 2 Chapters, 40 Total Pages, 38 Single Pages, 1 Double Page Spread, 1 Double Page Spread Diagram (0):

Ch 125: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (18), 1 DPS Diagram (18)	Ch 126: 20 Pages

Onizuka & Urumi: 3 Chapters, 60 Total Pages, 55 Single Pages, 2 Double Page Spreads, 1 Info Bio:

Ch 127: 20 Pages	Ch 128: 17 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (16) + 1 Info Bio (1)	Ch 129: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (4)

Urumi vs Miyabi: 4 Chapters, 80 Total Pages, 64 Single Pages, 8 Double Page Spreads, 1 Double Page Spread Diagram (0), 1 Info Bio (0); 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Double Page Spread Volume Recap, 1 Panel Sketch:

Ch 130: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (14, 16)	Ch 131: 15 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (14, 16), 1 Panel Sketch
Ch 132: 17 Pages + 2 Double Page Spread (2, 12)	Ch 133: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spread (6, 8), 1 DPS Diagram (6), 1 Info Bio (18), 1 Volume Drawing, 1 DPS Volume Recap

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Note: The page counts for the following chapters are likely inaccurate as I'm just going off of the commonly used scan online. It's somewhat noticeable when pages of a new chapter come after the end of the current either because the next chapter starts with a double page spread or a new part, or element, of the story is introduced at the last few pages.
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Crime & Punishment: 3 Chapters, 58 Total Pages, 48 Single Pages, 5 Double Page Spreads, 1 Info Bio (0):

Ch 134: 19 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 8)	Ch 135: 17 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (1, 17), 1 Info Bio (1)	Ch 136: 12 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (1)

Memories That Hurt: 6 Chapters, 123 Total Pages, 89 Single Pages, 17 Double Page Spreads, 1 Info Bio (0), 1 Double Page Spread Info Bio (0); 2 Misc Pages (Volume), 1 Volume Drawing:

Ch 137: 18 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (9, 15)	Ch 138: 14 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (1, 5, 13)	Ch 139: 16 Pages + 4 Double Page Spreads (1, 13, 15, 23), 1 DPS Info Bio (15)
Ch 140: 12 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (1, 11, 15)	Ch 141: 13 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (1, 5, 15)	Ch 142: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 14), 1 Info Bio (4), 1 Volume Drawing, 2 Misc Pages (Volume)

Fallout: 2 Arcs, 4 Chapters, 77 Total Pages, 66 Single Pages, 5 Double Page Spreads, 3 Info Bios (1), 1 Diagram (0), 1 Panel Sketch:
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Born Anew: 2 Chapters, 37 Total Pages, 34 Single Pages, 1 Double Page Spread, 2 Info Bios (1), 1 Panel Sketch:

Ch 143: 15 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2), 1 Panel Sketch	Ch 144: 19 Pages + 1 Info Bio (16), 1 Info Bio (19)

The Burden of Friendship: 2 Chapters, 40 Total Pages, 32 Single Pages, 4 Double Page Spreads, 1 Info Bio (0), 1 Diagram (0):

Ch 145: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (16), 1 Diagram (4)	Ch 146: 14 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (2, 14, 18), 1 Info Bio (7)

Suguru Teshigawara: 4 - 6 Arcs, 10 Chapters, 238 Total Pages, 200 Single Pages, 18 Double Page Spreads (17), 1 Double Page Spread Chapter Cover, 4 Info Bios (2), 5 Diagrams (0), 5 Panel Sketches, 1 Colored Double Page Spread Chapter Cover; 19 Volume Pages, 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Miscellaneous Page (Volume):
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Enter Makoto Fuyutsuki: 3 Chapters, 60 Total Pages, 54 Single Pages, 3 Double Page Spreads, 2 Info Bios (0), 1 Diagram (0):

Ch 147: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (4), 2 Info Bios (6, 17)	Ch 148: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)	Ch 149: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2), 1 Diagram (10)

Unraveling Ballad: 2 Chapters, 40 Total Pages, 29 Single Pages, 4 Double Page Spreads, 1 Double Page Spread Chapter Cover, 1 Info Bio, 2 Panel Sketches, 1 Colored Double Page Spread Chapter Cover; 9 Volume Pages, 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Miscellaneous Page (Volume):

Ch 150: 11 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (2, 12, 16), 9 Assistant Pages (Volume)	Ch 151: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (6) + 1 DPSCC (2) + 1 Info Bio (1), 1 Colored DPSCC, 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Misc Page (Volume), 2 Panel Sketches

The Metamorphosis: 2 Chapters, 47 Total Pages, 39 Single Pages, 4 Double Page Spreads, 3 Panel Sketches:

Ch 152: 17 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (5, 7, 13), 3 Panel Sketches	Ch 153: 22 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (22)

Heroes And Zeroes: 4 Chapters, 91 Total Pages, 78 Single Pages, 7 Double Page Spreads (6), 1 Info Bio, 4 Diagram (0), 10 Volume Pages:

Ch 154: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)	Ch 155: 24 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (6, 18, 26), 1 Diagram (8)
Ch 156: 17 Pages+ 1 Double Page Spread (16) + 1 Info Bio (1)	Ch 157: 19 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (20), 3 Diagrams (1 - 2, 4), 10 Volume Pages, 1 Double Page Spread? (22)

Second Semester Begins: 4 Arcs, 8 Chapters, 190 Total Pages, 162 Single Pages, 14 Double Page Spreads, 2 Info Bios (0), 3 Diagrams (0), 1 Colored Page, 1 Colored Double Page Spread, 4 Panel Sketches; 10 Volume Pages, 2 Volume Drawings, 3 Volume Recaps, 1 Miscellaneous Page (Volume), 1 Info Bio (Volume):
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Misuzu Daimon: 2 Chapters, 67 Total Pages, 53 Single Pages, 7 Double Page Spreads, 1 Info Bio (0), 2 Diagrams (0), 1 Colored Page, 1 Colored Double Page Spread, 3 Panel Sketches; 1 Volume Drawing, 2 Volume Recaps:

Ch 158: 38 Pages + 4 Double Page Spreads (2, 10, 40, 46), 1 Info Bio (7), 2 Diagrams (8, 25), 1 Colored Page, 1 Colored Double Page Spread, 1 Volume Drawing, 2 Volume Recaps, 2 Panel Sketches	Ch 159: 15 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (2, 12, 20), 1 Panel Sketch

Yuuki Miyamori: 2 Chapters, 42 Total Pages, 38 Single Pages, 2 Double Page Spreads, 1 Diagram (0):

Ch 160: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)	Ch 161: 20 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (4), 1 Diagram (13)

The New Students: 2 Arcs, 4 Chapters, 81 Total Pages, 71 Single Pages, 5 Double Page Spreads, 1 Info Bio (0), 1 Panel Sketch; 10 Volume Pages, 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Volume Recap, 1 Miscellaneous Page (Volume), 1 Info Bio (Volume):

Ch 162: 20 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (4)	Ch 163: 16 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 12), 1 Info Bio (14)
Ch 164: 14 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (4), 10 Volume Pages, 1 Misc Page (Volume)	Ch 165: 21 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (20), 1 Panel Sketch, 1 Volume Drawing, 1 Volume Recap, 1 Info Bio (Volume)

Ai Tokiwa: 2 Arcs, 9 Chapters, 222 Total Pages, 166 Single Pages, 24 Double Page Spreads, 4 Double Page Spread Chapter Covers, 1 Diagram (0), 2 Panel Sketches; 1 Miscellaneous Page (Volume), 1 Volume Drawing, 2 Character Bios (Volume):
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Guardian Angels: 5 Chapters, 121 Total Pages, 91 Single Pages, 13 Double Page Spreads, 2 Double Page Spread Chapter Covers, 1 Panel Sketch:

Ch 166: 15 Pages + 4 Double Page Spreads (6, 8, 18, 20), 1 Panel Sketch	Ch 167: 22 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (4, 6)	Ch 168: 20 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (4, 6)
Ch 169: 18 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (14, 20) + 1 DPSCC	Ch 170: 16 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (4, 18, 20) + 1 DPSCC

Vengeance Of An Angel: 4 Chapters, 101 Total Pages, 75 Single Pages, 11 Double Page Spreads, 2 Double Page Spread Chapter Covers, 1 Diagram (0), 1 Panel Sketch; 1 Miscellaneous Page (Volume), 1 Volume Drawing, 2 Character Bios (Volume):

Ch 171: 15 Pages + 4 Double Page Spreads (2, 8, 12, 24) + 1 DPSCC, 1 Panel Sketch	Ch 172: 22 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (14) + 1 DPSCC, 1 Misc Page (Volume)
Ch 173: 22 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (4, 8, 10), 1 Volume Drawing, 2 Character Bios (Volume)	Ch 174: 16 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (2, 12, 20), 1 Diagram (4)

Yoshikawa & Anko + Officer Saejima Part 3: 5 Chapters, 88 Total Pages, 78 Single Pages, 5 Double Page Spreads, 2 Panel Sketches:

Ch 175: 18 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (18)	Ch 176: 16 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2)	Ch 177: 11 Pages, 1 Panel Sketch
Ch 178: 13 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2), 1 Panel Sketch	Ch 179: 20 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 22)

Miyabi Aizawa: 3 - 4 Arcs, 10 Chapters, 285 Total Pages, 229 Single Pages, 27 Double Page Spreads, 1 Double Page Spread Chapter Cover, 2 Diagrams (0), 3 Panel Sketches; 2 Miscellaneous Pages (Volume), 2 Volume Drawings:
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The End of Summer: 2 Chapters, 46 Total Pages, 38 Single Pages, 4 Double Page Spreads, 1 Miscellaneous Page (Volume):

Ch 180: 20 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (4, 20)	Ch 181: 18 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 20), 1 Misc Page (Volume)

Hostage Situation: 3 Chapters, 71 Total Pages, 61 Single Pages, 5 Double Page Spreads, 1 Diagram (0), 3 Panel Sketches, 1 Volume Drawing:

Ch 182: 17 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (2, 16, 18), 1 Panel Sketch, 1 Volume Drawing	Ch 183: 19 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (6), 1 Panel Sketch, 1 Diagram (21)	Ch 184: 25 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (2), 1 Panel Sketch

The Secret of Class 3-4: 5 Chapters, 168 Total Pages, 130 Single Pages, 18 Double Page Spreads, 1 Double Page Spread Chapter Cover, 1 Diagram (0); 1 Miscellaneous Page (Volume), 1 Volume Drawing:

Ch 185: 23 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (2, 10, 28)	Ch 186: 27 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (3, 15, 31)	Ch 187: 30 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (2, 6, 32), 1 Diagram (22)
Ch 188: 28 Pages + 4 Double Page Spreads (2, 16, 30, 34), 1 Misc Page (Volume)	Ch 189: 22 Pages + 5 Double Page Spreads (4, 10, 20, 22, 30) + 1 DPSCC (2), 1 Volume Drawing

Endgame: 2 - 3 Arcs, 11 Chapters, 1 Bonus Chapter, 358 Total Pages, 268 Single Pages, 39 Double Page Spreads, 5 Double Page Spread Chapter Covers, 6 Diagrams (1), 1 End Cover, 1 Colored Page, 1 Colored Double Page Spread Chapter Cover, 4 Character Profiles (0), 4 Panel Sketches, 3 Miscellaneous Pages (Volume), 1 Volume Drawing:
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The Plan to Kill Onizuka: 5 Chapters, 125 Total Pages, 95 Single Pages, 15 Double Page Spreads, 3 Diagrams (0), 1 Panel Sketch:

Ch 190: 22 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (12), 2 Diagrams (2, 5)	Ch 191: 18 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (12, 18)	Ch 192: 21 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 18), 1 Diagram (4), 1 Panel Sketch
Ch 193: 14 Pages + 6 Double Page Spreads (2, 12, 14, 17, 22, 24)	Ch 194: 20 Pages + 4 Double Page Spreads (4, 8, 18, 20)

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Sayanora: 5 Chapters, 149 Total Pages, 103 Single Pages, 21 Double Page Spreads, 2 Double Page Spread Chapter Covers, 2 Diagrams (0), 1 Panel Sketch, 2 Miscellaneous Pages (Volume), 1 Volume Drawing:

Ch 195: 18 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (2, 16) + 1 DPSCC (4), 1 Diagram (15), 2 Misc Pages (Volume)	Ch 196: 19 Pages + 4 Double Page Spreads (4, 24, 26 28) + 1 DPSCC (2), 1 Diagram (16), 1 Panel Sketch, 1 Volume Drawing	Ch 197: 14 Pages + 5 Double Page Spreads (6, 12, 14, 20, 22)
Ch 198: 22 Pages + 3 Double Page Spreads (4, 10, 16)	Ch 199: 30 Pages + 7 Double Page Spreads (4, 12, 22, 24, 30, 32, 40)

Forever: 2 Chapters, 84 Total Pages, 70 Single Pages, 3 Double Page Spreads, 3 Double Page Spread Chapter Covers, 3 Diagrams (1), 1 End Cover, 1 Colored Page, 1 Colored Double Page Spread Chapter Cover, 4 Character Profiles (0), 2 Panel Sketches, 1 Miscellaneous Page (Volume):

Ch 200: 33 Pages + 2 Double Page Spreads (32, 36) + 1 DPSCC (2), 1 Colored Page, 1 Colored DPSCC, 2 Panel Sketches, 2 Diagrams (10, 30)	Ch 200.5: 37 Pages + 1 Double Page Spread (26) + 2 DPSCCs (1, 4) + 1 Diagram (44) + 1 End Cover (45), 1 Misc Page (Volume), 4 Character Bios (6)

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Today we got the information for YM camp that’s in about three weeks. In past years, the ward/stake didn’t ask any upfront payment from the families for attending camp. This year is different — they want $50 per boy attending — which if perfectly understandable and reasonable. But today is the first time I’ve heard anything about it and my heart is aching because I don’t know how I’m going to come up with the funds by the deadline for all three of my boys. I would have liked some time to budget for this and the incidental expenses that go with attending camp (which I had planned for).
I don’t want a handout; but I would have liked a bit more warning than three weeks. $150 may not seem like a lot to some people, but I’m a single parent that’s just getting by each month. Coming up with it may not be doable without more time to budget for this. I want to cry because it’s the ONLY activity my inactive child loves going to each year. I know I’m not the only single parent in the ward to that is going to struggle with this.
I want to say something to the leadership of our ward without sounding like I’m asking for a handout. Any ideas on the right way to approach this?

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!
The Lost Mine of Phandelver is a classic, one of the very first Mini-Campaigns that new DM's run. Hell, it's part of the starter set after all! The issue though, as with many other Campaigns, is that it doesn't describe the best way to transform the contents of the book into an actual session. The Book-to-session conversion can be difficult. Between figuring out when things should happen, understanding motivations and even balancing encounters.
Well fortunately for you 99% of that work is done! Only a few things are really left:

1. Consider the needs of your group. As you've heard or are about to hear a million times, every table is different. If you plan on combining this with a campaign you'll have to make tweaks here and there. (Bonus points if you include your players' backstory)
2. These notes aren't meant to be end-all-be-all. Tweak to your heart's content and don't consider any of what's written to be set in stone. For me, having notes like this helps give me the confidence to go off the rails and follow along with what my players want. It helps me understand where things were meant to go and why. Having that understanding allows me to guide the players and create other new and interesting stories. These are all things that will come with experience though, so don't freak out and enjoy the journey!

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes for The Lost Mine of Phandelver (Part 1 Cragmaw Hideout): DM Notes

As always, if you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated!
Cheers, Advent
I can't fit everything due to Reddits formatting, but the proper color coding, playlists, etc. are available in the Google Docs!
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The Lost Mine of Phandelver
Part 1 – Cragmaw Hideout
Key:

• Purple = DM Notes
• Blue = Loot
• Red = Combat or Insert player info
• Green = Player actions
• Highlighted Blue = Links

Recap – How you start this session will be different for every person, I had my players play A Wild Sheep Chase as a session 0 followed by Death House in order to get them to level 2, due to the fact that the start of this module is extremely deadly (Some may call me crazy because Death House is also extremely deadly!) Below is my recap followed by what the start of the session looked like. One alternative if you don’t want to start the players at level 2 is to have an npc cast Aid on the party in order to give them 5 temporary hp for 8hrs. This can make the first encounter much more survivable!
Play Forest Music
Narrowly escaping the cascading mist, all that lies before you is the Tower which you awoke from and the surrounding forest.

• As you…(insert player actions)…you begin to hear footsteps in the distance, what appears to be a young man bursts through the forest panting “oh thank the gods I made it and I think I lost it too”
  • Was being chased by a goblin
  • They’re getting more and more aggressive as of late
• How do you respond?
• I (Jeremiah Hallbrook) was sent here to deliver a message to Shinebright
  • Gundren Rockseeker would like to call in his favor
  • He’s requesting an escort for his goods to the town of Phandalin
  • “I was told Shinebright usually has people helping him”
    • “You don’t happen to be those people do you?”
    • “He would like you to meet him back at The Dancing Horse in Neverwinter”
    • “Would you mind if I went back with all of you, I’m worried that goblin is still looking for me”
• When players head back to Neverwinter
  • On the Journey back while they’re camping a goblin tries to kidnap Jeremiah
    • 1 x Goblin Boss (Fight Music)
    • Goblin rolls stealth, party rolls perception for whoever's keeping watch
  • Continuing along you eventually come upon the large gates of a city which you assume to be Neverwinter. Tents and people line the sides of the road with guards lazily waving people through.
    • As you enter the city following along Jeremiah, you notice a dichotomy of sorts. Much of the city seems relatively new, but also has parts that are just falling apart. Many of those parts do have scaffolding, but it doesn’t seem anyone is working on them at the moment.

Play Tavern Music

• When in NeverwinteHeading to the Tavern
  • A short walk with Jeremiah, brings you upon The Dancing Horse, a very well built two story tavern with a beautiful looking horse painted on its side. Looking around you can see the tavern is surrounded by merchant stalls and stables and there even appears to be some outdoor seating. You notice that a festive drunken energy seems to prevail in the area too.
  • The first thing of note when entering The Dancing Horse is a smoky smell and warm atmosphere. The lights of the hanging chandeliers seem to be just getting lit by a portly looking man with a strange contraption on his arm.
• Speaking with Gundren
  • As you’re looking around you hear someone call out Jeremiah’s name
    • “oiye Jeremiah, glad to see you made it back in one piece” “These must be the adventurers I sent you off for”
    • “Perfect, why don’t ye take a seat and we can discuss business”
    • “So what I’m needing is rather simple, I would like you and your group to escort my wagon to Barthen’s Provision over in Phandalin, it's a few days travel south east of here.” “I would do it myself, but I need to get there early to take care of some business and the cart won’t be ready till tomorrow. It should be a rather simple job and I’ll pay you 30 gold a piece.
    • If I’m being honest though you all look like you’ve been through the shitter, I’ll tell you what, I’ll have your room and food covered for the night, I recommend trying the green dragon ale.
  • After they accept and some drinks
    • With that being taken care of why don’t you follow me out front and I’ll show you where to pick up the wagon
    • You follow Gundren around to the stable near the Inn and notice a beautiful white horse being groomed by a tall grizzled looking human male with long wavy brown hair.
    • What would you like to do?

Play Travel Music

• Leave for Phandalin (2 days to reach triboar trail)(3 day total journey)
  • Ask for Marching Order
    • 1st day nothing happens
  • Oxen/cart doesn't move unless held by reigns
    • Contents

More Travel Music

• 2nd day Horse in Road

1. Roll perception check
   1. As you come around a bend, you spot two dead horses sprawled about fifty feet ahead of you, blocking the path. Once a beautiful white, but stained with crimson. Each has several black-feathered arrows sticking out of it. The woods press close to the trail here, with steep embankments and dense thickets on either side.
      1. With high perception point out(This helps avoid surprise tpk)
   2. What do you do?
      1. If player look at horse

Play Ambush Music

1. “Surprise” Attack by goblins (Roll stealth check vs perception)
   1. After 3 are down 4th goblin attempts to escape down trail

Play Forest Music

1. Heading down Goblin Trail
   1. Looking about the area you find a trail hidden behind some thickets on the north side of the road that leads northwest.
      1. Survival Check DC 10
   2. Marching order
      1. Lead Character
      2. Lead Character

Cragmaw Hideout

1. Cave Mouth
   1. Following the goblins' trail, you come across a large cave in a hillside five miles or so from the scene of the ambush. A shallow stream flows out of the cave mouth, which is screened by dense briar thickets. A narrow dry path leads into the cave on the right-hand side of the stream.
      1. Thicket is impenetrable from west side
2. Goblin Blind
   1. Having a moment to peer around you notice that on the east side of the stream flowing from the cave mouth, a small area in the briar thickets has been hollowed out to form a lookout post or blind. Wooden planks flatten out the briars and provide room for guards to lie hidden and watch the area.
      1. 2x Goblins hiding (Fight Music)

Play Cragmaw Hideout Ambiance

1. Kennel
   1. Just inside the cave mouth, a few uneven stone steps lead up to a small, dank chamber on the east side of the passage. The cave narrows to a steep fissure at the far end, and is filled with the stench of animals. Savage snarls and the sounds of rattling chains greet your ears, where three wolves are chained up just inside the opening. Each wolf's chain leads to an iron rod driven into the base of a stalagmite.
      1. Wolf x 3 (Fight Music)
      2. Animal Handling DC 15(10 with food)
      3. Fissure
2. Steep Passage
   1. As you move along you can see that the main passage from the cave mouth climbs steeply upward, the stream plunging and splashing down its west side. In the shadows, a side passage leads west across the other side of the stream.
   2. If Players have darkvision
      1. Because you have darkvision you can just barely make out a dim shape in the shadows of the ceiling to the north, it appears to be a rickety bridge of wood and rope crossing over the passage ahead of you. Another passage seems to intersect this one, twenty feet or so above the floor.
   3. Western Passage
      1. You can see that the passage is choked with rubble and has steep slopes leading up
3. Overpass

• The stream passage continues up beyond another set of uneven steps ahead, bending eastward as it goes. A waterfall sounds out from a larger cavern somewhere ahead of you.

1. If goblin spots them, screams to trigger flood and throws javelins 1d6
   1. Only if goblin did not sneak away earlier
2. DC 15 Athletics to scale wall
3. Bridge AC 5/10HP

• Flood: One round after alerted

1. The passage is suddenly filled with a mighty roar, as a huge surge of rushing water pours down from above!
2. DC 13 Dex or swept away to the start of the cavern
   1. Prone + 1d6 Bludgeoning damage
3. Second flood if they succeed and goblin isn’t killed

• Enemies (Battle Music)

1. 1 x Goblin
2. Goblin Den

• This large cave is divided in half by a ten-foot-high escarpment. A steep natural staircase leads from the lower portion to the upper ledge. The air is hazy with the smoke of a cooking fire, and pungent from the smell of poorly cured hides and unwashed goblins.
• Taking a look around you can count 6 goblins all staring fiercely at you. 2 seem slightly larger than the rest. You can also spot a familiar looking face, Sildar bound on the southern ledge of the cavern. He looks beaten, tormented and barely hanging on.(1hp)

1. Enemies (Battle Music)
   1. 6 x Goblins
2. If players are about to win Yeemik(Big goblin) grabs Sildar and says:
   1. Truce, or this human dies!
   2. Kill Klarg, Bring Head. Human go free. Me new boss.
      1. Will ask for ransom if they are successful anyway

• Sildar Hallwinter

1. I’m a member of the Lord’s Alliance. I was investigating a missing Wizard who was also part of the alliance. That’s when I met Gundren in Neverwinter. He spoke of an old mine in Phandalin that had the power to both create and enhance powerful magical items. Apparently his brothers and himself discovered an entrance to Wave Echo Cave where the forge may lie and so I agreed to accompany him back to Phandalin. Where better to find a wizard, than a place where magical items could be made.
   1. Tharden and Nundro (Gundrens Brothers)
2. From what I overheard, Klarg wasn’t only the leader of these goblins. He was ordered to bring Gundren to someone called the Black Spider. If I’m being honest I’ve never heard of someone by that name
3. Gundren did have the map to the entrance of Wave Echo Cave on him. Which I can only assume is why he was taken. If they were to bring him anywhere I would imagine it would be Cragmaw Castle. That’s where the chief of these goblins calls home. Unfortunately I don’t know where it would be. Your best bet for information would be someone in Phandalin
   1. Now I do appreciate you saving me, but I’ve got two favors to ask of you. One can you put an end to the one that did this to me and two would you mind escorting me back to Phandalin. I’m in no shape to make it there myself. I’ll even throw 50 coin your way. I’m sure I can take out a loan when I get back.
4. Twin Pools Cave

• This cavern has two empty pools of water. What you can only surmise to be the water that washed you away. A narrow waterfall high in the eastern wall feeds the pool, which drains out the western end of the chamber to form the stream that flows out of the cave mouth below. A wide exit stands to the south, while two smaller passages lead west. The sound of the waterfall echoes through the cavern, making it difficult to hear. You notice 3 goblins ready and waiting to attack.

1. 3x Goblins
   1. One goblin immediately runs to warn Klarg
   2. (Fight Music)
2. Klarg’s Cave

• Sacks and crates of looted provisions are piled up in the south end of this large cave. To the west, the floor slopes toward a narrow opening that descends into darkness. In the middle of the cavern, the coals of a large fire smolder.
• If coming in through secret entrance

1. A larger opening leads north down a set of natural stone steps, the roar of falling water echoing from beyond.

• Klarg(Bugbear), Goblins, Worg(wolf if starting lvl 1)

1. Will hide(for sneak attack) if warned
2. Boss Music or Boss Music 2

• A menacing looking figure watches you intently as you walk in. In a guttural roar he screams who dares defy Klarg?

1. You see a spear fly through the air as he screams:
   1. Klarg will build a throne from your bones, puny ones!

• Treasure

1. You find a series of crates with the name of Lionshield Coster Phandalin Branch. They’re rather large and wouldn’t be easy to transport without a wagon.
2. You also find a treasure chest behind Klargs makeshift throne.
   1. It contains 600cp, 110sp, two potions of healing and a jade statuette of a frog with tiny golden orbs for eyes(40gp)

• With the cave now quiet, your enemies vanquished, what would you like to do?
  • You make your way out of the cave, through the forest, avoiding the traps easily enough and find yourself back where the ambush once took place. You have about a day’s journey left before you arrive in Phandalin. Is there anything else you’d like to do before you make your way?
  • Camp

Play Phandalin Theme

• 3rd day
  • As you rise for the morning and make your way out, the rest of the day goes quite smoothly. Eventually the rutted track emerges from a wooded hillside, and you catch your first glimpse of Phandalin. The town consists of forty or fifty simple log buildings, some built on old fieldstone foundations. More old ruins, crumbling stone walls covered in ivy and briars-surround the newer houses and shops, showing how this must have been a much larger town in centuries past. Most of the newer buildings are set on the sides of the cart track, which widens into a muddy main street of sorts as it climbs toward a ruined manor house on a hillside at the east side of town. As you approach, you see children playing on the town green and townsfolk tending to chores or running errands at shops. Many people look up as you approach, but all return to their business as you go by.