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ABOUT ME
CODE OF ETHICS
REVIEWS 1
REVIEWS 2

Exion has finally started to respond to my posts. It would be easier if Exion would unblock me and engage with me directly but they still refuse to do so. It would also be nice if they linked the posts they are responding to so anyone reading his posts can look up my posts. I made sure to do that for all his posts. In this post I’ll be responding to https://www.reddit.com/Quraniyoon/s/98oVSczZYe.
For the list of parts in my series see https://www.reddit.com/Quraniyoon/s/01K9X3Pjxj

In this post, I will be answering and refuting the individual who keeps writing posts about me and comments every second he gets trying to "refute" me and "expose" me. I am only doing this because some brothers and sisters have allowed themselves to be fooled by this dude.

In his last post before he started addressing my criticisms he made it clear he wouldn’t engage with my criticisms. It’s only after the mods told him to either respond or they’d remove his posts, as can be seen here https://www.reddit.com/Quraniyoon/s/c1XSgLQlZe, that he started responding to me. Given those facts I find it hard to believe his reasons given here for responding to me.

He begins by discussing my translation of the word "ישוחח," which I interpret as "argue" or "put forth."

That’s not where I begin. There is some important context before that. The first part of my first post was about showing the general sloppy nature of his posts using examples which he acknowledged his mistake, are things someone who knows Hebrew would be unlikely to make, and which he later copied elsewhere without fixing the mistake. The issue of ישוחח is just one part of this.

Firstly, in Biblical Hebrew, verb forms such as Qal and Piel (often referred to as Polel in some grammatical traditions) are distinguished by their specific diacritic markings (i.e., vowel points and consonantal diacritics).

Nope. The difference between the Qal and Polel forms in this case are not just in the diacritical marks but also have consonant differences.

Since I believe that the Masoretes distorted the Old Testament by adding these diacritics to reach a deviant interpretation, I do not consider them at all. I read the Old Testament without any diacritics. This is something he has yet to understand

Again in this case it’s not just the diacritical marks. I also understand Exion rejects them and in my responses I give reasons why his diacritical mark suggestions don’t work.

He later argues that the ancient Christian manuscripts (such as the Codex Sinaiticus, Septuagint, etc.) must agree with my claims and not with the Masoretic renderings of the Hebrew text, a conclusion he bases on thin air. I ask: Why is that so? Can you give us one good reason for this conclusion? You can't! He says this only because he considers these Christian manuscripts as divinely revealed criteria and translations.

Note the Septuagint was written by Jews not Christians. I’ve also given my reasons for why those should agree with Exion. He ignores those reasons and then attributes different reasons I never said. I’ll repeat again, Exion’s theory that he’s stated multiple times is that when the Masoretes added the diacritical marks they intentionally added ones that change the original meaning of the text to cover prophecies about Mohammed and Islam. He then claims he is discovering the original true meaning of the verses. If this is true then pre Masorete texts would still have the original meaning. Also any sources from after the Masoretes but which weren’t influenced by them should still have the original meaning. Also any before Mohammed and Islam wouldn’t have the same motivation to hide prophecies about Mohammed and Islam.

The Masoretes could even have been influenced by Christians and their manuscripts,

This is a textbook example of an ad hoc assumption. An ad hoc assumption is when an assumption is added without any evidence to modify a theory for the sole purpose of avoiding falsification of the theory by some evidence. Since these sources that should agree with Exion don’t agree he added a new assumption without evidence to modify his theory to avoid falsification.
It’s also a problematic assumption. The Masoretes were Jews. Jews and Christians were split a few hundred years earlier and so didn’t really influence each other. For the Septuagint this was written even before Christianity. It’s so far before Islam and Mohammed that it’s extremely unlikely they were trying to hide any prophecies about them. It’s one of our oldest sources for the text making them a good source for how early Jews understood the text. It serves as an excellent source for testing Exion’s claims since if they’re true we’d expect, at least a significant portion of the time, they’d agree with Exion. If no one else in history, even before the diacritical marks were added, agrees with Exion then Exion is not speaking the same language as everyone else.

In other words, both Qal and Polel essentially mean the same thing.

Here is what Exion said previously, “Regarding the phrase "Who will argue...", an alternative rendering could be "Who will claim..." However, using the word "argue" may be more faithful to the original text, as it carries a connotation of "complaining" or "disputing" rather than simply making a statement or engaging in ordinary conversation. This nuance helps capture the intended meaning more accurately.”
They specifically note the nuance of the meaning ‘complain’. What they failed to notice is that meaning is only part of the Qal form not the Polel. Both their original and new dictionary citation show this. Since the verb in question is in the Polel form that meaning doesn’t apply. Both source clearly listed the two different forms and the meanings for both. Either this is another case of Exion not reading his sources properly or he didn’t realize the correct form of the verb. Either way it shows the general unreliability of Exion.

Thus, he has fixated on this specific word, insisting it is (without a shadow of a doubt) in the Polel form (because his Pauline forefathers said so)

Actually I insist it’s in the Polel because I understand the different verb congregations. It’s not just diacritical marks but consonant differences as well. A key way we can tell is that the final consonant, ח, is duplicated.

Let's see if the Polel form does anything to save him:

This whole section is a lengthy that follows completely misses the point. Here is the original discussion, https://www.reddit.com/DebateReligion/s/f3XrmqDNqi. Like back then his response misses the point. I go on to note how is translation depends upon connecting two parks of the sentence where the diacritical marks have a break. I asked given all the mistakes he’s made up to that point, with the mix up of the Qal and Polel being the most recent at that time, why should we trust him over the Masoretes. The idea was to show how Exion is unreliable and doesn’t know Hebrew so he can’t be trusted over Hebrew speakers. He doesn’t justify why we shouldn’t take a break at that section, we’re just supposed to trust him but with all the mistakes he makes we can’t trust him. Furthermore after adjusting his translation to accommodate the Polel meaning the next day he copied his post to this subreddit without making the same correction but leaving the mistaken Qal meaning.

I believe (if I remember correctly) that he translates it as:

Nope. I never gave my own translation for this verse. He could have just checked the discussion but instead he made another sloppy mistake where he misrepresented what someone else has said. The discussion is public for anyone to read it themselves and see I never said that.

He goes on to say that I quoted from a fictitious source, which is not true at all. I simply didn’t bother looking through my entire library to find a quote I mistakenly mis-referenced, mainly because the quote turned out to be quite irrelevant, and I don’t waste my time like that.

That’s just an excuse. After giving the original citation a few people tried and couldn’t find it. He was pressed on the issue. Finally after some back and forth he gave a new book name and new author. However, the citation still couldn’t be found in that new book. It was at that point where he just ignored any further requests for proving the source exists. This is the first time since then he’s acknowledged it. Given that course of events it’s strong evidence the citation doesn’t actually exist. Until he provides proof the citation actually exists we should take the citation as fictitious. Though even if the source does exist his acknowledgment of a wrong citation is still evidence of his sloppy work and unreliability with representing sources, something he does very often.

So, I will not bother to refute every single point of the old stuff that I’ve already conclusively answered.

He never did. For the issue about copying the verse number and making it part of the verse all he could say before is that it’s a minor mistake that I’m overblowing. However, as I note the error is not a minor one but actually requires several points of failure, some of which are hard to accidentally make. E.g. removing the space between the verse number and first word after copying takes intentional action. For the pronoun suffixes his response boils down to just claiming every single person who has ever translated it is wrong and he is right. He refused to give a general account of pronoun suffixes that supports his translation along with a source to back up his account. I on the other hand took a picture of my Hebrew textbook showing the full chart to prove he is wrong.

Regarding the stone God mentions that was to be placed in the Temple of God, he says that it is saying

Notice in this section of his response he changes his original translation to include the second instance of the word stone that he previously missed. This acknowledges that he was originally wrong and missed that word. He just tries to rework the translation have that second occurrence of the word stone while still referring to God’s stone. Let’s see if it works.

The next word is אל: This is taken as a preposition according to them, and it generally means "to" or "toward," and never "upon." It is used to indicate direction or movement towards something. While the following word is, again, a stone "אבן."

I deal with his simplistic view of Hebrew pronouns in my pt 2. Once again we have the same problem. The relationship between pronouns in Hebrew compared to English is complicated. The pronoun in my pt 2 analysis has 8 pages in the BDB. אל has 2 pages. For על, which we be relevant in a moment, it has almost 6 pages for the proposition part. It’s far more complicated than giving a short list and only limiting translation to that list.
Regarding אל the BDB under note 2 points out there is a tendency to use it interchangeably with על. For על it lists upon as one of the meanings. Exion goes on to argue the limited set of meanings he gives don’t make sense and from that argues אל should instead be taken to be God. However, when we realized prepositions are more complicated than he makes them out to be and that אל can mean upon this argument fails.

Here, "אל־אבן" would translate to "God's stone" or "stone of God."

Here is the chapter from my textbook on the construct relationship singular. https://imgur.com/a/TWa8x4B. Take the first example. The first word on Hebrew is סוּס which means horse. The second word is הַמֶּלֶךְ which means the king. The translation given is “the horse of the king”. The second page gives examples of how this is translated into English with a ‘s. Based on that “the horse of the king” would be “the king’s horse”. This example shows us if we accept Exion’s claim אל means God and this is a construct relationship then the translation would actually be “God of stone” or “stone’s God”. Exion has flipped the words in his translation.

Thus, the phrase "מטרם שום־אבן אל־אבן בהיכל יהוה" would be understood as "before placing a stone as God's stone in the temple of YHWH" or "before placing a stone, God's stone, in the temple of YHWH"

Actually with the correct word order we’d have “before placing a stone, God of stone, in the temple of YHWH”.

Or you could simply not take "El" as a construct state. In Hebrew, a noun followed by another noun can indicate possession without needing a construct state (i.e. the equivalent of adding 's in English). This is often called "smikhut" or construct form, but it is not always necessary to explicitly form it.

This is confused. He thinks construct state refers to a specific different form or the noun but the possession meaning doesn’t require that different form. My textbook shows that’s mistaken. Yes it’s true the possession meaning doesn’t require a different form, however it’s still called the construct state. This is evident from my textbook. It notes at the bottom of the second page the construct state is sometimes the same as the absolute state. I didn’t mean to say Exion was taking it as having a different form from the absolute state but was pointing out he takes the phrase as indicating possession. That’s why I said if we add the missing word at take the phrase as indicating possession we’d get “stone’s God’s stone”.

This is something he doesn't know because, well, who knows why.

As my textbook proves it’s him that doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Explicitly contradicting your claim that it doesn't exist, but you didn't know that because you have probably never even read the entirety of the chapter to begin with. The Temple was already there. A stone was to be placed in it, God's stone, the black stone of the House of God, and not that it was to be built or built anew. This is why I even wrote the article, because the temple of God was already in existence. How you could have missed this, if you've read the chapter in it entirety, is very baffling to me.

What’s baffling to me is how someone can be so confident and condescending while being so wrong. Not only did Exion fail to research the historical context of the literature he tries to interpret, he failed to notice my summary of the history. Haggai gives explicit historical markers for when the prophecies were made. “In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest:” Haggai‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬ ‭ESV‬‬. This places the prophecy in 520 B.C. This was after the Babylonians conquered Israel (specifically the southern kingdom as the northern was already conquered), brought them into exile, destroyed the first temple, the Persians conquered Babylon and allowed the Jews back to Israel to rebuilt the temple. They started to built the temple but stoped when opposition arose. Haggai’s prophecies are about pushing the Jews to continue rebuilding the temple. You can read about the fall of Israel by the Babylonians at the end of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. You can read about the return to Israel in Ezra and Nehemiah (note the events in Ezra are before those in Nehemiah).
Exion mentions Haggai 2:3 to disprove me. This is another case of him misrepresenting his sources. Let’s analyze it carefully part by part.
"Who among you is left, who saw this house in its former glory?” The word former indicates it had that glory in the past but no longer has it. That is because the previous temple was destroyed.
“And as you see it now”. This calls to attention a comparison of the former glory with the current glory.
“is it not as nothing in your eyes?" This expresses the current glory calling it nothing in their eyes. That’s because the previous temple was destroyed and not yet rebuilt.
Also check out these verses: ““Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.” Haggai‬ ‭1‬:‭2‬-‭11 ‭ESV‬‬. It’s pretty clear the previous temple lies in ruins and God is calling them to rebuild it.

This is why Jacob

Jacob lived long before the temple was built. His life is recorded in Genesis. There is a lot of history in between Jacob’s life in Genesis and the building of the temple in 1 Kings/2 Chronicles. Either Exion is completely ignorant of the history he is commenting on or he’s cherry picking which parts he wants to accept.

Lying and adding words to the Word of God to make it look like another House would be raised.

But that’s literally what happened in history. The first temple was destroyed and the later rebuilt. Again check out the books I mentioned for the historical background, especially Ezra which records the events during the time Haggai was prophesying.

The preposition "the" is not there before "Chemdat," while it is before "Goyim" (heathens), which makes sense because "Chemdat of all the heathens (will come)" and doesn't translate to "The treasure of all the heathens (will come)," as they have it.

Exion takes the lack of the definite article before chemdat as indicating it shouldn’t be translated with a “the” as its indefinite. He then argues taking chemdat the traditional way doesn’t make sense without the definite article so we should instead take it as a name. This again shows he doesn’t know Hebrew.
Note Exion translates it as Chemdat of. He interprets it as possession indicating he takes the Hebrew as being in the construct state. I linked above the chapter on the construct state. The first page notes a noun in the construct state never has the definite article. Instead the the last noun as the definite article then the noun in the construct state is also definite, and if the last noun is indefinite then the noun in the construct state is indefinite. Exion also acknowledges the last noun as having the definite article. When we actually understand the construct relationship we see that while there is no definite article on chemdat it’s still definite since it’s in the construct form with the last noun having the definite article. This undermines his argument for why chemdat is a name.

The phrase "הגוים" (ha-goyim) translates as "the heathens,"

The BDB lists this word as meaning nations/people. Heathen has very negative connotations which are not necessarily implied by the word.

He then says He will fill this house, which they saw as nothing, with glory. The house already exists;

Again look at the historical markers Haggai gives and the historical books for the historical background. Also look at the passage I quoted from Haggai 1 which clearly mentions the current temple in ruins and God calling the people to rebuild it. The promise God is making in Haggai 2:7 is about the new temple being greater than the former.

Going back to Haggai 2, the 18th verse also confirms that the Temple already was there:
"Consider, please, your heart from this day and onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the temple of the Lord was founded, consider your heart."

This particular section is Haggai 2:10-19. By this time the Jews started rebuilding the temple again and had laid the foundation. Haggai 2:15 and 18 are parallel passages calling the people to consider the time since that work on rebuilding the temple was done. God then points to the blessing they’ve experienced since then. That is in contrast to the hardships listed in Haggai 1:10-11 that God says we’re because they weren’t rebuilding his temple.

Nevertheless, he is right about one thing regarding this chapter: it does not mention the new moon to new moon and the end of the Sabbath—that was in Isaiah 66. My mistake.

Yes it is a mistake and it is one of way too many to count where he messes up representing his source in some way.

the second phrase can be interpreted as an end (if we interpret "Shabbat" as "End")

Actually it can’t. I missed this in my post but u/c0d3rman caught it in his comment on Exion’s post. The definition Exion gives in his post is the verb “to cease”. However, “an end” is not a verb but a noun. His translation doesn’t match his own definition.

but it is Biblically and generally interpreted as "Sabbath."

Because as a noun it means Sabbath.

A literal translation of the phrase in the 23rd verse would be:
‎>שבת (shabbat) - "Sabbath"
‎>בשבתו (be-shabbato) - "His Sabbath"
‎>יבוא (yavo) - "it will come"

Putting יבוא as part of this phrase has 3 problems. First it breaks the parallel in grammar and idea with the previous phrase. Second the subject of the verb then becomes the sabbath but that’s not possible. The gender of the verb and subject need to match but sabbath is feminine while יבוא is masculine. Third Exion’s translation has יבוא translated twice, both as part of this phrase and as part of the following phrase. However the word only occurs once in Hebrew so it can’t be translated twice into English as a part of 2 different phrases.
I also explained how this phrase is an idiom in my first post. I referenced the BDB which explains how we know it’s an idiom and what the idiom means, which corresponds to the traditional translation. The verse is not talking about a sabbath coming to a sabbath or coming to an end. It’s saying the frequency that all flesh shall come to worship before God.
I’ve mentioned the BDB often as a source. For those unaware there is an online version where words can be searched, https://www.sefaria.org/BDB. I’m mentioning this because unlike Exion I want to be sure people can easily find the sources I reference. If anyone has trouble finding any particular word I’m not sure how to link to specific words but I’m happy to take pics of my physical copy.
u/TheQuranicMumin you said “If he fails/refuses to do this, we will remove his posts for misinformation.” Can we agree already this counts as a failure to respond and consider his posts misinformation or do I really need to continue addressing his posts/responses?

So if you want to ask anything it might be here
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Site:
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If you have other questions, me and others can answer in comments!

From the beginning...
Cast

Part 2, Chapter 10

The next morning dawns cold and clear. It is plain that autumn is upon the land, and with the Great Glacier just leagues to the north, winter will come soon. The party goes about their morning business, eating (everyone), checking the state of the beard and deciding whether or not to shave it off (Arthur, generally, but also Atticus as Novos doesn’t grow a beard and Zander doesn’t shave his), climbing into armor (pretty much everyone except Dillium, Felicity, and Pocky), feeding and loading horses and asses (pretty much everyone, but particularly Zander, Arthur, Atticus, and Pocky), and finally packing up the pavillionsol (Dillium). Ready for the day’s journey, the group mounts up. On cue, the guide appears, apparently having prepared well ahead. If he’s irritated that the party slept all the way until dawn, he has the good grace to keep that to himself.
Felicity speaks up. “We’ve changed our minds, actually. I don’t think there’s any particular benefit in going to Dragon’s Perch—”
“I agree.”
“—so we’re going to go to Samek instead.”
“Samek? Hmmm. Do they know you are coming? If they don’t, it will take them a while.”
“No, they don’t know we’re coming, that I am aware of.”
The guide nods once and sets out. Much of the day is uneventful, and it does warm up to a comfortable level. By late afternoon, those with tender backsides are wondering when the ride will conclude when the guide raises his hand in a universal gesture of ‘stop and shut up a minute.’ The party still hasn’t learned that gesture, but fortunately there are no giants about [1]. “We’re here,” is all he says.
“Where?” “I don’t see anything.” “What are we supposed to see?” Like tourists on vacation, they peer around in all directions. They can’t see the entrance for the hill. Or rather, the entrance to the gnomish town of Samek is so well hidden in the side of the hill that for a while, only Dillium can see the faint outline of the round doorway. One by one, Flea, Arthur, and Zander finally pick it out. Novos is absolutely certain they are playing a prank on him. Arthur is first. Knocking on the hill seems odd, but practically before he gets a third knock, a small hole opens up around waist height. Two beady little eyes peer out (at Arthur’s belt).
“What!?”
“We are here—”
“So I see.” The window closes.
Zander walks up and knocks. The same window opens, and the same beady little eyes peer out.
“What!?”
“Do you know who I am?” Zander asks.
The beady little eyes look him up and down. “No,” and the window closes.
Dillium tries next. Knock, window, eyes. “Good day. We are here to see—”
“So see.” Window shuts.
Novos walks up. “I know how to do this.” Knock, window, eyes, increasingly aggravated tone. “Let us in.”
“No.”
Felicity has had enough of this. Walking up to the door, she stands for a moment gathering her thoughts. Knock, window, eyes, aggravated tone. “Good day. I’m here on behalf of the Duke of Soravia to see the wise men of your town, or those in charge.”
“Which ones?”
“What?”
“Which ones, the wise men, or those that are in charge?”
“How about if we start with the ones in charge, and perhaps they will decide to allow us to speak with the wise ones.”
The beady little eyes peer out, look around at the party, and appear to give that some thought. “Wait here.” The window closes.
Minutes pass. Tens of minutes pass. Novos gets bored and walks up to the door. He barely gets a third knock in before the window opens. A different set of beady little eyes peers out, and a different aggravated voice says, “What do you want now?”
“We’ve been waiting for a while, and—”
“—And you’ll continue to wait!.” The window slams shut unnecessarily roughly.
“Why you—” Rough arms grab Novos from behind and pull him away before he can do something regretful.
“We’ll wait, as they’ve asked,” Felicity says. She looks around to ask the guide how long they can expect to wait, but he’s disappeared.
The evening passes. As the cold sets in, Atticus and Pocky gather enough light branches for a fire. There’s no benches or logs to sit on, so they squat or sit on the ground. Arthur has taken to pulling off portions of his armor and working on polishing and repairing the scorch marks from the lava snakes [2]. Atticus and Mar debate the relative benefits of following the letter of the law versus being merciful, though in the end, both of them seem to be arguing the same things in violent agreement. Pocky falls asleep against Modred’s side as Beaker plays with a bone left over from… Wait, where did he get that bone anyway?
Finally, the reality that the night is upon them sets in. A proper camp is set, and watches begin. Zander takes the first watch, but sees nothing of interest. He does hear the chirping of grasshoppers, the droning of the cicadas, and the baying of the hounds. Suddenly, the hounds stop. Unnerved, Zander wakes Arthur, who has the next watch. Arthur, Atticus, and Zander take a turn around the camp, but cannot see nor hear anything that sounds like dogs. Arthur agrees to start his watch a few minutes early and Zander takes Pocky inside the pavillionsol to sleep. Arthur’s, and then Dillium’s watches pass uneventfully. Novos, as normal, takes the last watch. As usual, he is so wrapped up with his puzzle box that he notices absolutely nothing.
The cold morning brings breakfast, bickering, and an irritated Novos marching up to the door to bang on it. “We’ve been here all night,” he informs the guard.
“Yes. Yes you have.” The window closes.
Knock. Window. Eyes. “When will we see—”
“When it is time.” The window closes.
Before he can knock again, Dillium grabs his wrist, pushing him back, she squares herself to the door. “When it is time, please inform us.” She says to the closed window.
The window opens and two beady little eyes peer out. A slightly irritated voice replies, “What else would we do?” The window closes.
Several hours pass as the valley warms up. Arthur, Pocky, Atticus, and Mar all work on armor, doing the necessary daily ritual of dusting, oiling, checking rivets to make sure they are still tight and sound. Polish is applied, worked into the metal, and removed. Bickering, some good natured and others not, flows. At midmorning, the guide turns up suddenly, and squats down near the fire. Minutes later, the window opens and familiar eyes peer out. Felicity quickly crosses over to the door.
“Is the council ready for us?” She asks.
“Council? You wanted to speak with those who lead.”
“Yes. I assume that would be your leadership council.” Felicity replies.
“So it is. So it is. There certainly are a lot of you. You can’t all come.” The window closes.
Felicity thinks quickly and makes a motion to Dillium. Knocking gently, she waits for the window to open. “How many of us may come?” She asks sweetly.
“Uhm… “ The window closes. A minute later it re-opens. “Three.” The gnome says.
“Fine. I agree.”
“You agree? I mean, Yes, of course you agree. Come, come!” Suddenly in a hurry, the gnome opens the door, which slides open silently.
As Felicity and Dillium take a step toward the door, the guide steps up behind them. “Where are you going?” Flea asks imperiously.
“The little ones know me.”
“Which ones?”
The guide thinks. “Mayhaps all of them?” With a slight shrug, Felicity accepts that, and they all pass into a dark room, barely tall enough to stand up in.
Dillium is the tallest of the small group, and she has to stoop over to get through the passageway. The guide bends his head down a bit, but Felicity strides forward as if she owns the place, the top of her hair only occasionally brushing the ceiling of the passage. There are guards in dark metal armor in front and behind, but the guard who let them in the door is wearing a much more colorful shirt. As their eyes grow accustomed to the darkness, they note that there are luminescent lichens on the walls, providing a dim light that casts no shadows and fails to illuminate the armored gnomes.
The corridor stretches on for ages. There are branching tunnels to either side, and once, down. Tiny faces can be seen in the dim light as word spreads of the Big’uns. Dillium’s back is screaming by the time they finally reach a room and stop. A door on one side of the room is guarded by two more of the dark-skinned, dark-armored gnomes and a small fire is burning in the middle of the room. The benches around the room are designed for shorter legs and smaller butts, so the guide simply squats down. Dillium sits and starts to work the kinks out of her back. The guards don’t speak, but every once in a while, a face peers in through the open doorway they came in. Some faces are much smaller than others, and a motherly hand frequently grabs the tot and hustles them along.
The trio waits.
***
Pocky and Zander practice sword work as Atticus watches and occasionally tosses out suggestions. Mar naps. Arthur works on removing scorch marks from his armor while Novos plays with his puzzle box and loafs. Something draws Arthur’s attention. As he looks up, he sees eyes staring at him intently peering out from a bush. Without breaking eye contact, he feels around until he grabs Novos’ head and points it at the bush. Novos stares, uncertain what he’s meant to be looking at. “Zander!” Arthur hisses. He points at the bush with too many eyes. Well, two is too many for a bush. Zander looks. He looks some more. Arthur looks away for a moment, and when he looks back, the eyes are gone. Everyone runs over and crowds around the bush. Novos sees what looks like prints—paw prints not unlike Modred’s pawprints, though Modred is being lazy over next to the pavillionsol. Novos looks around, but sees no other paw prints. The men walk around the bush looking for other tracks, but only manage to obscure everything.
***
An hour passes. The guide lounges as if he has nothing on his mind. Dillium meditates, while Felicity tries to work out what the team’s next move should be. Somewhat abruptly, a young gnome opens the door and comes through. “Ready are you?” The darkened room has only a few dim lights. An ancient gnome sits on a three-legged stool in the middle of the room, a small rod in his hand. Eight or nine other gnomes cluster around the small room, some sitting on tiny gnome-sized benches, others standing. Any whispering that might have been going on ceases when the Big’uns come into the chamber.
The eldest speaks. “Warren. Several turnings it has been since last among us you came. Tell. What is the state of the above-realm?”
“They grow bolder. I have seen them throughout the valley, and without fear. If you are to act, you might contemplate doing so soon.” The gnomes chatter amongst themselves in a foreign tongue. The elder lets it go for a few minutes, then he raps on the floor with his rod. Silence returns.
“As I have feared it is. Soon must we act. Well to see you it is. Not so long to visit should you wait.” Turning his attention to Felicity, he inquires, “Please to tell name and purpose for disturbing.”
Felicity tells who she is, and allows Dillium to introduce herself. Flea announces that war is soon to be upon the land. The Duke of Soravia needs friends and allies for the coming conflict, and wishes to include the gnomes. The gnomes chatter nervously, and some of the chatter sounds of anger or fear. Again, the elder waits several minutes and then raps his rod upon the ground.
“Aware of the duke we are, but no call to extend friendship hand we have heard. What does the duke wish of us?” The chatter now is less nervous and more fearful.
“The danger to us all is great, but the duke understands that each should contribute within their talents and means. I suggest that your greatest assistance may lie in logistics, and supply. Perhaps providing some of the greatly admired gnomish craftsmanship would help to raise funds. Any assistance that you willingly provide for the benefit of one and all is exactly enough.” The chatter and babble of the gnomes in the room sounds almost relieved, but still a touch fearful. The elder allows it to go on for several minutes before he raps on the floor once. Saying something in gnomish, he raises his hand. One by one, the gnomes lift their hands out parallel to the floor. It takes a moment or two, but finally all of them agree.
“Determine what we can contribute, we must. If any. As talk we must, a favor for us could you do.” He speaks a few words of gnomish before continuing.
***
“So what is inside that puzzle box you keep playing with?” Arthur asks. He seems more tired of the delay than curious, and is simply passing the time. Mar casts an irritated glance at Novos.
“Dunno. Perhaps a great treasure. Maybe all the misfortune in the world. Probably nothing. Dillium gave it to me months ago.” He continues manhandling it, pushing, prodding, tapping, and so on.
Zander comes over and plops down next to Novos. “Can I have a go?”
“Sure.” Novos hands the box over to Zander, who takes it gingerly in his large rough hands. After a minute or two of working with it to no avail, he hands it over to a beckoning Arthur who seems to have seen something the others missed. He didn’t. Atticus and Mar both have a go before Pocky takes a turn. In three deft moves, the box is opened, revealing an empty space in the middle, roughly large enough for three large silver coins stacked on top of each other. He shrugs as he hands it back to Novos.
With a sigh, Novos starts trying to close the box.
*** “Many generations ago, when but a babe my own great-grandsire’s great-grandsire was, did Callarduran Smoothands of a king tell us. When nigh was the time would he arise. Half of a golden crown he gave us, and a tomb of a great warrior king showed he us. When greatest was our need, take our half of the golden crown to the tomb we are to do, and with the other half reunite it. Drawing close the time is. Our enemies the tomb have discovered we fear. The other half of the crown have they stolen. Taken our birthright, they have. The other half of the crown return to us?” [3]
Dillium recognizes Callarduran Smoothands from a lecture that seemed to last forever, but probably was just before lunchtime. Callarduran is the god of the Svirfneblin, and is held in high regard—perhaps more so than the head of the gnomish pantheon, Garl Glittergold [4].
“Who are these enemies?” Felicity asks.
“Evil ones they are. From us they rob. Our people they kill. Monsters they are.”
An older gnome arrives from the darkness. He is wearing dark armor, and carrying a soft bag made of what appears to be moss. The eldest reaches into the bag and withdraws an arc of gold. It certainly appears to be what you’d expect half a tiara or head band to look like, but it is nearly entirely devoid of ornamentation or decoration. The full crown must be rather plain indeed. Dismissing the trio with a “Think on your words we will,” Felicity, Dillium, Warren (the guide), and Ser Reginald the gnome are escorted from the hall and out of Samek.
Ser Reginald greets them as friends, and chatters through much of the trek up to the surface. He says he is one of a very few remaining ‘royal escorts,’ first named soon after Callarduran Smoothands gave them their half of the crown. They have, over many many many many many many generations (he was unable to count them all), been responsible for guarding the crown and preparing for the arrival of the king. He’s fought the evil ones, and admitted to hunting and killing them in their beds, but would not give a physical description of them. He also admitted that he knew precisely where the tomb was, but had never been inside, “as the time was not yet to hand.”
Finally, they reach the doorway to the outside. With a warning to shield their eyes lest they be struck blind by the sun, Ser Reginald leads the group out to find the rest of the party scrambling to their feet. To the consternation of Ser Reginald, they take the time to break camp, saddle their beasts, and mount up. Ser Reginald wants nothing to do with the horses, so the party creeps along at gnomish walking pace. It is quite possibly the slowest escort quest ever.
Several hours later, the group approaches yet another clearing when they everyone hear a loud rumbling WHOMP! Everyone recognizes it as the sound of rocks falling inside a cave or building. Ahead, a cloud of dust pours out of a cut stone entrance into a hill. “We need to get a move on. The evil ones are already inside!” cries Ser Reginald.
Leaving the horses and asses outside, the party enters the main hall. Arthur asks Atticus to remain with Pocky and the animals, but Mar accompanies the group inside. The moderately sized room has two doorways, though both appear to have been blocked by the recent rock movement. A few minutes of contemplation leads Arthur to believe that one side would take considerable effort to unblock, while the other could be done rather quickly. As he gets to work, the others take in their surroundings. Just inside the door is a carving in an archaic form of common that says “Allies Over Enemies”. Zander notes that there is some indication that there is a test, and one of the mostly broken archways has the word ‘Wit’ carved above it. Felicity notes that according to the archaic writing, there are two tests inside. Dillium is drawn to the faded frescos, though they tend to depict war and destruction.
Soon enough Arthur has the passageway cleared well enough, and the party groups up to go into a large room. The door slides shut smoothly behind them, though there is a door on the far side. Arthur inspects it, “just in case” it is unlocked. It isn’t. The room is more or less devoid of decoration or ornamentation, but there are four columns, one each corner of the room. Novos looks at the column, but fails to note that each side has a letter on it. He does see that he can turn the column one quarter turn, so he does. Once it turns, it refuses to turn again. Members of the party spread out to try to understand the test. Someone notices that there is a small mark on the wall beside each column, but it takes everyone writing down the letters on each column before someone decides to make an effort to coordinate. Arthur suggests that since each column contains an “L”, they should turn the L’s toward the center. Novos points out that he can’t turn the column any further, but Zander turns another column easily. Mar turns another one. As Novos leans up against his column, it turns. The party realizes that the columns can be turned to spell words, and Mar identified the word that was spelled out when they entered. This gets the group going, and with some tactics employed, spell out a word that they hope will open the door. As the last column clicks into place, the door opens smoothly.
The doorway leads to a huge cavern with a five-foot wide natural stone bridge crossing what appears to be a deep, wide chasm. The cavern is pitch black, and while there might be some air movement, the ceiling is too far above and the floor of the chasm too far below to see. The party sets up a marching order with Arthur in the lead and Novos in the rear. Dillium Lights up her staff so that the humans can see and they set out. Ten or fifteen paces across, the party is surprised to come under attack by arrows and javelins. Everyone dodges out of the way of the poorly thrown darts, but one strikes home. No one can see where the javelins came from, or whether it is some sort of trap or if they were thrown. Unfortunately, no one notices that one of the party members has fallen off the stone bridge, either. At the other end of the bridge is a door that opens easily, and everyone makes it into a small foyer. Except for Felicity, who lies at the bottom of the chasm, nearly impaled by a stalagmite. [5] Novos disappears and makes his way to the bottom of the chasm where he finds Felicity and feeds her his last healing potion. Zander pulls out his Wonderous Figurine and activates it. A good-sized wyvern appears on the bridge. He tells it to go down into the chasm and bring back the human. He might have said ‘woman’ but the stone wyvern doesn’t know the difference anyway. It takes off and glides down into the chasm below, and when it finds a human, the wyvern grabs it with his sharp claws and brings it back up to Zander. Novos picks himself up, dusts himself off, and winces at the fresh puncture wounds. Zander, a little annoyed, tells the wyvern to go get the other one, and he does, fresh puncture wounds and all.
Meanwhile, Arthur, Dillium, Mar, and Ser Reginald continue on into a large room. The room is dominated by a huge stone in the middle, with some sort of gemstone embedded in. They also see a dog-like creature standing on the stone, with a piece of golden metal in one hand and a bow in the other. Ser Reginald shouts, “The evil one has the other half of the crown! Get it!” Arthur races forward and Smites the creature.
Mar snarls, “Gnolls. I should have known their stench. She manifests a Spiritual Weapon and attacks with it, then casts a Guiding Bolt. The gnoll, clearly outmatched, fires his bow (missing) and climbs down off the stone. By this time, Novos, Zander, and Felicity have come in (minus the wyvern). Novos speeds over to take a flanking position on the gnoll, but the recent puncture wounds from the wyvern still ache, and he misses entirely.
Around the same time, a larger group of gnolls, armored and armed with swords and axes, enter from the other side and take up positions. One of the larger ones raises his axe to cut down Novos, but one of the gnolls barks out something in a barking sort of bark. All of the gnolls stop and refrain from attacking. Except the one with the huge gash down his front from Arthur. He comes up with a sword and stabs at the air near Arthur. Dillium, likewise shouts for Arthur and Novos (and Mar) to stop.
“Who leads?” asks the female gnoll, as she wraps her shawl around her.
Zander raises his hand. “That would be me. I am the leader of Task Force Chimera.” He sheathes his sword and meets the female gnome in the middle of the room. “I am Zander Roaringhorn, from Cormyr. Perhaps you’ve heard of me?”
“Raa’ka. Ssand’r. Sand’r.” Her mouth doesn’t quite make all the sounds as she tries to get his name right. She tells Zander that they are here to fulfil a prophecy that tells of an Alpha Gnoll that will arise in their hour of need. Unfortunately, the crown is… not what they expected. Arthur climbs up on the stone and agrees that the gemstone in the middle seems to connect two pieces of a crown—there’s three pieces total, rather than the two that both the gnolls and gnomes thought.
“Give me the crown!” Ser Reginald cries. Mar snarls.
“I will not. Perhaps we should put the crown together, and then figure out what to do. It is obvious neither of us have the whole tale.” Ser Reginald, thoughtful, agrees.
“You put your piece in first, then.” He says.
“No you put yours in.” Raa’ka replies.
Arthur says, “How about you put them in together. At the same time,” clarifies when the gnolls seem unsure. He jumps down from the stone and gives Ser Reginald a boost up. Raa’ka needs no help.
Gently placing the two pieces of the crown in small cutouts in the stone that appear to be made exactly for their pieces. Ser Reginald and Raa’ka watch for a moment. “Now what?” The crown welds itself together before their eyes. The gem in the center pulses, then shines brightly. Then the whole crown sinks down into the stone. “NO!”
The room rumbles and shakes. The giant stone is cracked into pieces as Raa’ka and Ser Reginald leap to safety. As the dust swirls around and the rumbling fades away, all hear a booming voice.
“AT LAST I AM FREE!”

End of part 10.


[1] Unlike last chapter.
[2] in Chapter 8
[3] Modified slightly from Race for the Crown, Adventures of the Potbellied Kobold, by Jeff Stevens Games.
[4] The Gnomish Pantheon
[5] Remember, stalagmite “might” reach the ceiling, and stalactites hang on tite to the ceiling. Or, you can do the boring National Parks Service way of remembering.

I am NOT OOP. Original post by u/JupiterLucetius in Vegan, and by a deleted-user in AmIWrong
Editor’s note: Sadly according to the OOP they have OCD and delete everything on their account often, so we don’t have comments posted by the OOP on the original post. Hopefully most can be understood by context.

Start of Post 1

Posted by u/JupiterLucetius
My brother’s gf fed my son meat, I feel devastated. - 31 May 2024
This is just me needing to rant. I feel really heart broken right now.
I (M25) have sole custody of my son who is 6. I've been vegan since I was 11 and I have raised my son vegan. I needed to go out of city for a work trip and I left my son with my brother and his girlfriend. My brother has always been supportive of me being vegan even though he says he "doesn't understand it". I've never had any issues with him pressuring me or my son to have animal products before.
He stayed overnight with my brother and when I picked him up later in the day he was complaining about really bad stomach pains. I rang my brother and asked him if they ate anything out of the ordinary because my son is quite sensitive to new foods anyway. He told me no nothing out of the ordinary.
I ended up calling 111 and they suggested going down to A&E because of how bad the pains were. I put it in the family group chat, and my brother texted me like an hour later saying that they had fed him pizza with cheese and meat in it. He told me my son "enjoyed it" but he felt guilty keeping it from me and that that was what was probably wrong with him.
I went crazy at him, telling him how irresponsible and selfish, he said he's sorry and that it was his GF's idea because they thought he was missing out. He said he was sorry but I just couldn't so I blocked him and now I'm sat here thinking did I over react? I don't think so but my mom is asking me to unblock him. I'm just so angry and so upset.
Edit: for those who keep asking, my son was not aware he was being fed non-vegan food. He understands (as much as he can at his age) and supports veganism.

End of Post 1

Some relevant comments:

Comment thread 1
HiroshimaSpirit:

Meat AND cheese to boot

deleted comment
DionysusLyaios:

Honestly that shouldn’t even matter anyway. If you’re agreeing to look after a kid you’re agreeing to meet their dietary requirements. If not make that clear beforehand.

Comment thread 2 mike8675309:

Alot of trust was just lost. Sounds like your brother should take most of the blame as he knew better and didn't stand up for you and your convictions.

rainmouse:

Trust lost for sure. But I also seriously doubt this was the first time.

Comment thread 3 MushMoonRoom:

“they thought he was missing out”

peargreentea:

yeah I hate when people say "you're missing out!!" like on what? contributing to things that go against my morals? no thanks.

Start of post 2

Posted by deleted-user
AITA for allowing my boyfriend’s nephew to try pepperoni pizza? -1 June 2024
A couple nights ago my BF’s brother (“Noah”) asked if we could baby sit his son (“George”) for the night. This was, I won’t lie, a huge inconvenience for us. I don’t really like children all that much and because I had worked 50 hours so far that week I was looking forward to a chill afternoon with my BF where we both had no work in the morning. My BF agreed to look after the boy (which he does a lot btw) while Noah went on a last-minute business trip. I can understand why Noah did this, he had the opportunity to earn a lot of money in the night, but he had to do the quick deal because the buyer or whatever threatened to walk away if they couldn’t get it signed that night.
Noah and his son are both “vegans”. Honestly, I personally believe Noah’s son is being forced into the lifestyle by his dad and as someone who grew up with controlling parents, I really feel bad for the boy. Noah is so smug with his veganism it grates on me so much and George is skinny, has long hair and is small for his age, he looks ‘vegan’, that sounds bad, but you understand what I mean by that. When Noah dropped on us that we were going to have to look after his son, my BF let him know that we were going to order a pizza. Noah said great and gave my BF the money to order George his own vegan pizza. Great, whatever. Noah dropped him off and we were stuck with the boy again. Now again I feel that Noah forces the lifestyle upon George, so my BF and I decided to order a normal pizza for George. I thought it would be a great time for him to try it in a safe environment away from his father’s influence.
George ate the pizza and loved it; his words were that it “tasted way better than usual”. I knew that I had done right by getting him the pizza, he ate half of the pizza all by himself. My BF and I didn’t think we needed to tell Noah because we knew that Noah would just get all preachy about it, so we kept it to ourselves. George even asked for the other half the next morning, which we gave him as a treat. Noah picked him up and everything was fine.
We got a call later in the day that George was complaining of really bad stomach cramps and asked if he had eaten anything unusual. My BF told him no, mainly because we expected it to just blow over and be nothing. But about 2 hours later my BF texted Noah that George had eaten non-vegan pizza and that might have been what was wrong with his stomach. Noah went off on one about how we ‘broke his trust’ and how he couldn’t believe what my BF had done, called us some really nasty names which I won’t repeat here. We put back that George had really enjoyed the pizza so much that he had asked for seconds, this was probably a petty thing to say, I regret it now even though it was the truth. After that Noah blocked my BF and I on everything. My BF rang his mum and explained the situation to her, and I could tell that she was sympathetic to us even though she said we shouldn’t have given him the food. She told us Noah won’t unblock us.

End of post 2

Some relevant comments:

Comment Thread 1:
meoemeowmeowmeow:

Lol I just read the other side of this

TheMoatCalin:

Please post the link!

meoemeowmeowmeow:

I'm trying to find it!

DionysusLyaios:

It was on vegan last night. The post was removed I think or deleted I’m not sure. I had a screenshot of it and I posted it on my profile. I’m glad I wanted to send it to my friend so I took the screenshot lol

meoemeowmeowmeow:

I wonder why they deleted it

DionysusLyaios:

I could tag the OP of the post on vegan to make him aware of this post or to ask if this is actually the aunt, idk if that’s a good idea though.

meoemeowmeowmeow:

This is Reddit hunny bunny. BRING ON THE CHAOS!

DionysusLyaios:

Okay well u/JupiterLucetius is this person your brother’s girlfriend?

Comment Thread 2:
JupiterLucetius:

I wouldn’t normally post someone’s name without their consent, but since you so happily used both mine and my son’s legal first names on here without my consent, I’ll use yours.
Stacey, you are an incredibly stuck up and horrible person. And you’ve left out an immense amount of details.
Firstly, you have been dating my brother for less than a year, you do not work, you had to move into my brother’s house because you got evicted from your flat. Shut up with the BS that you worked 50 hours that week or whatever, no you’re on universal credit.
Secondly, my brother and I have an agreement where he takes him whenever I have to go on these out of the blue business trips. My brother volunteered for this because he said he loves spending time with MY SON. and I have never had any complaints from him before, literally ever.
Thirdly, yes I am raising my son vegan, that is my personal choice and you have NO say in that. The fact that you lied to my son telling him the food was vegan and he ended up in hospital doesn’t clue you into the fact that you are the ARSE in this situation?
I’m so glad you posted this here actually because at least now you can see what a cockend you’ve been.

deleted-user:

I do work, being a housewife is work. I have to do a lot that you don't even see because you have a cleaner come into your house, so sorry we can't all be privileged making 6 figures by the time we're 25. Joseph hates having to drop everything and look after George whenever you feel like it, don't you think that we have a life outside of being your babysitter?
Fuck you Noah, George loved eating the pizza you daft vegan stuck up spoilt POS. He "ended up in hospital" yeah you took him there when Joseph told you he had had meat as a statement and to make Joseph feel guilty. Well, congrats because we had the biggest argument we ever had last night about you and your brat of a child. Now I am sleeping in my car because you won't unblock him. I hope that I get robbed or worse and you can have it on your conscience that I am hurt and it is your fault. I hope that ways on your mind for the rest of your life.
You care so much about the animals that you can't see the damage you are doing to your own family, to your own son. He is weak, short and underweight. I am sure he is bullied at school for his long girly hair. I would bully him because he is just as pathetic as you are. You ruined my life Noah. So what this little echo chamber agrees with you? If they met you in person they would see how insufferable you are.

JupiterLucetius:

Genuinely you are psychotic. I couldn’t give two fucks if you’re sleeping in your car because of your OWN actions. Btw I’ve screencapped this post and sent it in the family group chat. I hope you’ll enjoy everyone seeing your true colours Stacey.
And no I didn’t take my son to hospital for effect or after you told me he ate nonvegan food. You and Joey lied to me saying he had eaten nothing out of the ordinary so I had no fucking clue what was wrong with him.
My son is 6 years old you psycho. Saying you’d bully him? What the actual fuck is wrong with you mentally.
Also Joey has NEVER ONCE expressed to me that he didn’t like having George. I would have found other arrangements if that was the case. My mom would happily have him short notice. The only reason Joey does is because they like spending time together or at least I thought they did.

Ok_Sadie_:

Then keep your precious little Georgie at home with a different babysitter. Why would you drop your kid off with someone that you feel is a "horrible person"?

JupiterLucetius:

George loves my brother, he loves him a lot. The only reason I drop George off with him rather than my mom is because George loves him and I thought he loved having George.
He’s never once told me he didn’t want him, or I would have just left him with my mom when I needed to go on the trips.
I haven’t known Stacey for all that long, she’s been dating my brother for less than a year. And been living with him for less than that. I have tried to keep the peace for the sake of the family but fuck her. I could not care less now.

Reminder, I am NOT OOP, please do NOT comment on original threads or contact OOP.

You may remember or not about this post. I had spent around €2000 in MTG cards to build a giant Chrome Box which is a kind of Cubelet. It was 900-1000 cards at the time and pretty wacky, with functional quasi-clones and, well, too much of everything. Games always lasted more than 30 minutes due to different kinds of imbalance and could last more than an hour and a half in 1v1.
Now a year has passed and about 70-90 games were played. During the last couple weeks I've been spending some time sorting the whole stack and cutting off around 700 cards depending on their play rate and success. Now we're down to 350 cards, with that number not being a choice, only the result of removing and color-balancing.
Some interesting aspects of the cutting process :

• Functional lookalikes are not always good to remove. For instance I did keep Fact or Fiction and Gifts Ungiven (I did remove Truth or Tale though)
• Small French vanilla creatures do allow for some early aggro and can still make good land mid- or late-game, but they're really too boring compared to the rest of the pool. It's better to have a slightly slower pace for more exciting situations. I still kept a few of them but only if they have an ability that gives them real potential (unblockable/landwalk, deathtouch).
• 6-mana cards have to be overwhelming and 7+-mana cards have to be a win condition on their own.
• The most important thing that I believe also applies to classic BB especially with young players or newbies: my first cut pass consisted in looking very quickly at every card one by one and indiscriminately putting aside any card which rules text was 5 lines or more. Since the first creation of that Chrome Box, I've realized that I had been a firm believer in the idea that more complex situations arose from more complex cards, and that this belief was not accurately true. In fact, pleasantly complex situations do not require complex cards; you only need good cards for that. So, hear me out if you don't already know: being a combo lover does not make you a good pool builder. That process alone allowed me to take around 300 cards off the pool, and after going through all the rest, it was okay to put a few of them back in.
• Also from my stupid brain always looking for combo play: look at each card and consider it in a vacuum. If it's not a good card on its own, it doesn't make it into the list. Any card that's too situational doesn't make the cut. It took me some time to accept that. I love the game, been loving it for 30 years now, but I've never actually been good at it. So I guess I took a small step up there.
• Some cards are just too good and shouldn't be in the pool. I'm looking at you, Trepanation Blade. So many times I've been tutoring for something else and decided to take that one instead, and it was the best choice every time.

Now a game lasts 15-45 minutes, which is way better, isn't it?
I'll be posting a comment here to remind you of the rules for Chrome Box. I'd be delighted to know if someone has tested it.
Link to the list

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• $mAPE - Deposit your staked $APE for $mAPE.
• $mKLP - Deposit your staked $KLP for $mKLP.
• $mLVL - Deposit your staked $LVL for $mLVL

(Interest bearing assets can be utilized for loans/leveraging on abracadabra.money, or utilized using different protocols.)
KEEP IN MIND!! $MIM has an intrinsic value of $1 no matter what the market prices it thanks to the collateral backing it. Interest rates CAN BE increased to incentivize repayments until the $1 (or in this case 1 USDT) parity is reached in the main pool!!
HELPFUL LINKS:

• (https://abracadabra.money/)
• (VPN/IP BLOCK WORKAROUND) https://abracadabra-us.money/#/ - Forked by Spellcaster roxx3r
• (VPN/IP BLOCK WORKAROUND) https://abracadabramoneyunblocked.on-fleek.app/#/ - Forked by Reddit Mod MagicThePuff (SpellcasterPuff📖🪄)
• GREAT PLACES TO GET $MIM!-

https://app.camelot.exchange/
https://swap.defillama.com/
https://curve.fi/

• Abracadabra Debt can be found under “MIM Cauldron” debt!! —> (https://zapper.xyz/apps/ethereum/abracadabra?tab=holdings&addresses%5B%5D=0xa71a021ef66b03e45e0d85590432dfcfa1b7174c&addresses%5B%5D=0xdf2c270f610dc35d8ffda5b453e74db5471e126b)
• Breakdown of Abracadabra Debt —> (https://zapper.xyz/bundle/0xdf2c270f610dc35d8ffda5b453e74db5471e126b?tab=dashboard)
• (https://x.com/MIM\_Spell?s=20)
• (https://x.com/MIMSwap?s=20)
• (https://zapper.xyz/daos/abracadabra) (Check out the abracadabra treasury wallet)
• (https://portfolio.nansen.ai/dashboard/0xfddfE525054efaAD204600d00CA86ADb1Cc2ea8a) (Check out 0xmerlin.eth’s wallet on nansen.ai)
• (https://zapper.fi/account/0xmerlin.eth?tab=dashboard) (Check out 0xmerlin.eth’s wallet on zapper.fi)
• (https://wenmerl.in/) (Check Buybacks/Collections for sSpell/mSpell - Community Driven)
• (https://forum.abracadabra.money/)
• (https://rekt.loan/) (Community Driven, Check liquidations) - by mDreamy4
• (https://analytics.abracadabra.money/overview) (Official analytics page to keep track of Abracadabra.money)
• (https://www.abrastats.money/about) (Community Driven analytics page to keep track of Abracadabra.money (may be out of date))
• (https://dune.com/brab/beam) ($MIM Beaming analytics page, setup by brab AKA u/stablebrab)
• (https://dune.com/melenxyz/abracadabra-mim-beaming) ( $MIM Beaming Revenue page, setup by melen AKA u/melenxyz)
• (https://youtube.com/@shadowboy835) (Video versions of AMAs)
• (https://soundcloud.com/stablebrab) (Audio versions of AMAs)
• (https://mirror.xyz/0x5744b051845B62D6f5B6Db095cc428bCbBBAc6F9) (Abracadabra.Money Blog, learn more about tokens like $mAPE and $mGLP)
• (https://mirror.xyz/0x8A7f7C5b556B1298a74c0e89df46Eba117A2F6c1) (Daniele Sestagalli’s Blog, “Chief Frog of Frog Nation”) NOVEMBER 21, 2022: DANIELE HAS BEEN DECLARED NO LONGER ACTIVE AS AN ABRACADABRA TEAM MEMBER
• (https://app.bubblemaps.io/eth/token/0x090185f2135308bad17527004364ebcc2d37e5f6) (BubbleMaps for Spell Token)
• (https://app.bubblemaps.io/eth/token/0x99d8a9c45b2eca8864373a26d1459e3dff1e17f3) (BubbleMaps for MIM)
• (https://snapshot.org/#/abracadabrabymerlinthemagician.eth) (Voting Proposals for Abracadabra.Money)
• (https://www.lensfrens.xyz/magic.lens) (Abracadabra.Money’s social graph)
• (https://abracadabramoney.gitbook.io/abracadabra-english/) (Abracadabra $MIM $SPELL documents can be found on Gitbook)
• (https://github.com/Abracadabra-money/abracadabra-ui) (Check out abracadabras front end tech)
• (https://hackmd.io/@Clonescody/BJ2qk4A0F) (Awesome article by Clonescody on staking spell)
• (https://rantom.app/abracadabra) (Check Abracadabras transaction activity)
• (https://www.tally.xyz/profile/romy.eth) (Romy’s delegate profile)
• https://www.tally.xyz/profile/0xa71a021ef66b03e45e0d85590432dfcfa1b7174c (Abracadabra’s delegate profile)
• (https://dune.com/melenxyz/abracadabra-mim-beaming) (MIM Beaming Fees/Analytics by u/melenxyz)
• (Beam (dune.com)) (MIM Beaming Origin/Destination percentages by u/brab)
• Abracadabra Money Galxe - Follow Abracadabra on Galxe and try out the quests when available!!

If you try to unblock more than 10 people, you will soon find that when you select 'unblock', nothing happens.
This is because there is an unseen throttle on how many unblocks you can perform in a minute.
This only shows up in the logs, but is not exactly a bug, so I thought it might be helpful to instead spread knowledge that this is the case, to save people some time.
It shows up in the logs like so:
[0042.45] DevOnline: WebRequest_X_40 SEND: https://api.epicgames.dev/epic/friends/v1/\[...\]/blocklist/\[...\]\
[0042.57] DevOnline: WebRequest_X_40 RECV: 429 {"errorCode":"errors.com.epicgames.common.throttled","errorMessage":"Operation access is limited by throttling policy, please try again in 47 second(s).","messageVars":["47"],"numericErrorCode":1041,"originatingService":"friends","intent":"prod"}
[0042.57] Log: WebRequest_X_40 type: HTTPError, message: {"errorCode":"errors.com.epicgames.common.throttled","errorMessage":"Operation access is limited by throttling policy, please try again in 47 second(s).","messageVars":["47"],"numericErrorCode":1041,"originatingService":"friends","intent":"prod"}
[0042.57] ScriptLog: EOS: HTTP request failed with error: Operation access is limited by throttling policy, please try again in 47 second(s). (errors.com.epicgames.common.throttled)
There's presumably a good reason for this, it would be nice to see feedback in the UI but it's a rare use case and I doubt it's worth the dev's time unless it's a quick fix.
Irrelevant and even more uninteresting info about why I was doing this spoilered to save you braincells:
I was unblocking people because I had quite a large block list, about 50-100, from when I started RL and played a lot of 1s, plus some people harassed me after I played a streamer smurfing in mid ranks and lost badly. Seems pointless to block toxic people to me now, and I have concerns about the community integration with Epic, as I get framey when I have a lot of people in my friend list online - so I culled my friend list and then thought, why not cull my block list also. Maybe that will save some CPU cycles somehow.

Lol! My life right now feels like a movie, a shitty rom com! I can’t believe this happened to me. I don’t even know how to feel right now.
Backstory. At the beginning of November last year, he broke up with me out of the blues, said he was going through some really tough things that he needed to deal with alone. It didn’t make sense to me that he ended a two year relationship for that reason. My instincts told me there was someone else involved but for those of you in love, we all know that Love and Instincts can’t co-exist in the same sentence. I tried to make us work, I begged, I cried, I blocked him then unblocked him, I tried “no contact” but I couldn’t resist reaching out, I told him to tell me to wait and I’ll wait(he didn’t), I even tried to guilt trip him into coming back to me but nothing worked. In April, I decided to pick up what was left of my dignity and move on with my life, so I went full No Contact and this time around I was determined not to crack. One month later, he came back begging, telling me how sorry he was, how he now realizes that I was the best thing that ever happened to him. I was happy but I still felt hurt and betrayed cos I found out he got close to another girl during our split.He assured me that it was nothing and “she’s insignificant”(in his own words)
We were still in the process of working things out until last night, I paid him a surprise visit on my way back from work and let’s just say I got the shock of my life.
I think I’ll give love a very long break for now.

So, three years ago I bought 100 foil copies of Crackdown Construct @ $0.50 each and they've sat in my closet ever since. So failed spec, right? Not necessarily. Today I bought another 160 NM foil copies @ $0.66 each, mostly inspired by the decklists I've seen for Nadu, Winged Wisdom. Assuming that Nadu doesn't get banned in Commander in the near future (hmmm), I predict a lot of players will build the deck. And I think Crackdown Construct has a natural home in the 99.
In Nadu, Crackdown Construct will most often be a 4-mana creature with an arbitrarily large amount of power & toughness. Any kind of unblockability (like Distortion Strike), trample (Rancor), or even an Altar of Dementia quickly makes it a lethal threat.
So how does a 2/2 get so big? In combination with many of the best cards in Nadu, of course: Lightning Greaves, Shuko, Umbral Mantle, Seeker of Skybreak, and Aphetto Alchemist. Additionally it goes big with Basalt Monolith, which might also be in the deck. Outside of UG, Crackdown Construct also goes big with all the en-Kor and a few other things.
And at the end of the day, maybe Crackdown Construct just costs too much mana (4) for it to find a home in the 99 of Nadu. Only time will tell. But I still think Crackdown Construct is a very underrated card for how big it can get in combination with any of 5 cards that will definitely be in the 99 of Nadu.
As far as speculating on Crackdown Construct goes, it's mostly a bulk uncommon from from a relatively recent set (Aether Revolt) so there's a deep supply. It's also easily reprintable, although it only has one printing to date. Personally I am only buying NM foils ,and only at under $1.00. Even 3 years later I still think the card has the potential to be a $5 foil uncommon.

Pick a card and click on the BLUE WORD below. It will direct you to your reading!
WOLF CROW DEER
MORE MESS:
Let’s talk about your love life
Yes or No?
What is going on in your love life?
How can you unblock this connection?
What is the truth of this connection?
Timeless Love Reading
Messages from your pet
How can you let go and move on?
What do you need in a partner?
What blessings are coming your way?
——
ABOUT ME
CODE OF ETHICS
REVIEWS 1
REVIEWS 2

Since 3 weeks I've been working on a side project to solve one of common issues we are facing. So usually in a software team, every dev aims to complete a number of tickets in a sprint which spans over 2-3 weeks. what I've realized is quite often even when most tickets are completed, they remain stuck in the review queue waiting for a dev to be 'free' to pick up the code reviews.
And this is a big bottleneck in our whole delivery process. Also this has an impact on the test team which needs the tickets reviewed as quickly as possible to start their testing.
In order to improve that process, I thought of creating a chrome extension that would assists devs complete their code reviews by using AI and thus, unblock those tickets and push for testing.
Please do have a look and let me know your thoughts. thanks.
CodeKosmik is a chrome extension that offers automated code review capabilities for a wide range of programming languages.
Link > https://site.dodogeny.com/codekosmik