The party has come into a busy port and decide to visit some other ships. Who might they discover, what might they find?

d100 Interesting Ships in a Port

Shani and Aurora's Tent of Two - The two goblin sisters Shani and Aurora sail providing services to port settlements. Shani claims to be a seer and charges 60gp for a "reading" of the future (she is not). Aurora 'The useful one' provides the service of casting identify for 20gp. She may also agree to sell some of her extensive library if offered the right price. [dweeb_bush]
The Bones Brothers - The bones brothers are a travelling group of jolly bards. As their name suggests they are animated skeletons. Jimbo-double bass, Timbo-guitar, Limbo-vocals, Dimbo-marimba and Franky-drums. They are very hospitable and put on a show for anyone who comes and visits them! [dweeb_bush]
The Lovers - A small nondescript boat lies just off the dock. The is no sign of activity on board apart from the dock inspector who is trying to find out who's boat it is. The truth is the owners of the boat died ten days ago and the boat has miraculously drifted safely into port. on a successful DC 10 investigation or perception check the party members discover two young male elves cowering in the cannonball chest. When the lid is lifted they start begging for their life. If pressed they reveal that the crew was attacked by sirens, the majority of the crew succomed to the siren's calls however the two young boys, deeply infatuated with each other did not care for their temptation. They ran out of food last night and thought they were surely doomed! [dweeb_bush]
The Crows - A large black boat rests in port, neatly secured off one of the more expensive jettys. The most defining feature of the boat is that it is bustling with activity, not by humanoids but 3d12 black ravens. One wears a small captains hat and appears to undersatnd the party. If the party casts speak with animals they discover that the crows were awakened through a series of trials on a new spell aimed to mass awaken a group of creatures. The crows have varying degrees of intelligence and are all chaotic neutral alligned. The crows rebelled from, Hignory Flip, the wizard running the trials on a small island about 2 days sail from the port, and stole his ship. [dweeb_bush]
Captain Redbeak! - A suspicious longship hovers low on the water. There is a steady stream of humanoids entering the covered boat and leaving a few minutes later with a small package. The ship belongs to Captain Redbeak, a feirce pirate captain who runs a drug trade: the drug in question is a relatively cheap drug called "Peak Water" and is collected dew from mountaintops, it gives the user a high that lasts 1d4 hours and gives the user a d4 of bardic inspiration. It costs 10gp per hit. The ship is manned by 2d6 Bandits, and if threatened or reported they will attempt to kill the party in defence of their lives. [dweeb_bush]
Crazy Mr McGee - A delerious man stands warding off the dock guards with what looks like a loaded blunderbus. He's yelling about his notorious reputation as a savage pirate and keeps claiming they have come to "Take away my princess". The princess he's referring to is his boat- he imagines that it is a glourious gallion but in reality it's just a rowboat. If the party manage to subdue the man the dock guards thank them and offer to buy them a drink later that night in the tavern. [dweeb_bush]
A Con??? - The players are drawn to a commotion hidden behind a crowd of people. A large goliath (Manneo) seems to have taken a small dwarf (Skalgrouth) hostage and is threatening to slit his throat if the dock guard do not meet his demands "I'll bloody well kill 'im if you don't give me what I want: 100gp worth of rubies and free passage out of this shit hole!". In reality the goliath and dwarf are working together pulling off this stunt at various ports in the area, so far, to great success! [dweeb_bush]
The Rat's Den - The players follow a stream of rats on board a decrepid looking riverfairing vessel. When they make cross into the canvassed interior they see an old kobold playing the pipes, he seems to be a rat-catcher. If the party interrupt him in his ritual he turns the a swarm of rats against the party and runs off into the port. [dweeb_bush]
Seeking Refuge - A smallish sloop titled 'The Diamond Endeavour' pulls into port, it's sinking and fast! A crew member (Emery Green) jumps onto the dockside and is yelling for help. The vessel was struck by a great storm while at sea and they sustained damage when they brushed by a reef. Luckily they werent wrecked but unluckily they could not repair all the damage with materials on board. They've been bailing for hours and can no longer bail as fast as the ship is filling up with water! If the characters wish to help they can make a DC 13 group athletics check to bail enough water to stop the crew from having to jump ship and leave it to sink. If the players are successful Emery thanks them profusely and offers them a map to a shipwreck they were on the way to dive at before the storm hit them. "It's rumoured that this is the wreck of the old pirate lord, Feather Toothed Bill's ship and may hold riches beyond imagine!" [dweeb_bush]
The Gilded Sail - A group of merchants, all of various races, each offering unique, and expensive, magical trinkets. True to their name, their sail is actually a thin sheet of gold, and the rest of their ship is covered in valuable metals and gems. It’s also very well armed, as are the merchants aboard. Keep an eye on the rogue when this one’s around. [Dragon_Overlord]
The Patchwork - A large ship which seems to have been destroyed and repaired numerous times with whatever material the crew had, from birch wood to copper metal to even welded armor and weapons. Speaking of the crew, they appear to be a mishmash of Kenku, Kobold, Halfling, and the occasional Tabaxi and Goblin. The captain appears to be a raccoon by the name of Majos, which, if your party stumbles upon the question of why and how a raccoon is a ship captain, she would respond with “a salty mage who didn’t know how to win a simple game of cards had a tantrum.” She would then offer the party a game of cards in which if the party beats Majos, she rewards the party a hefty sum of 100 GP, and if any party member is any of the races listed above, she rewards an additional magic item (DM’s choice) and offers a position to the party member for them to join her crew. Accept and the party is taken to an additional encounter to an island for treasure. Decline is acceptable and Majos would accept any favor from the party. [SpyroAndToothless]
The Feyr Winds - An elegant ship that carries goods and treasures from far off Elven lands run by a mixture of elven and faerie creatures. Their most illustrious goods are fruits that can do many things such as heal wounds, cure poisons, or even granting stat bonuses for a minute! (Vendor: Fruits are magical and can take on the effect of any potion you want.) [OSpiderBox]
Gnasher's Maw - A tribal-ized longship driven by a "merry" band of lizard folk. They obviously don't understand personal space or social norms, and are seeking people to help them with a Giant problem. (Hook: if your party is having downtime while they look for their next quest, this could be that hook they need.) [OSpiderBox]
The Esteemed Steamboat - Artificers run this marvel of steam engineering. However... it's currently in a state of disrepair. Looks like heavy damage from some monstrosity. While they're extremely proficient in fixing it, they have no money and are looking for work to pay for supplies. (Allies: party could hire some of them for an upcoming task/adventure, or even offer to fund the repairs in exchange for favopassage.) [OSpiderBox]
The Mainstream (You’ll never need a bigger boat!) - A casino cruise ship featuring a large game room, several bars, comfortable rooms, a pool and a hot tub fueled by a continual flame spell. It is captained by a tall, brown scaled lizardfolk woman named Kepesk. The dealers are kenku bards repeating rules and barking (“Step right up, try you’re luck at the Wheel of the Goddess of Fortune!”) There is also a large vault of gold on board, guarded by lizardfolk soldiers. One particular patron is looking for a few helping hands for a bit of a caper now that he knows the guards patrol schedules. [spiff2]
Rocinante - A relatively fancy and expensive ship being up kept by the Quijano family and their servants. The last living member of the family is a young man, obsessed with swords and thirst for adventure. He agrees to let the team borrow the ship, in exchange for him coming with them on their adventures to wherever they’re going. [DrFishPhd]
Deep Blue - In a corner of the harbour, a seemingly empty ship. Sails are neatly furled, crew seems to have left the ship mere hours ago. On the deck, small openings allows the visitor to enter the hold, in it, some barrels, hammocks. Beside one of the hammock, a book, quite old, written in an old version of Common language.In the middle of the hold, some blankets cover a group of trunks, under these trunks, another opening ... leading to another hold. In this hold, vessels, old fashioned lanterns, and some parchment written in ancient language. At the bottom of a bulkhead, an opening, some stairs gong down in another hold.Wood seems ancient, and strange figures are carved into the wooden parts of the boats. Some ancient runes are covering pillars. In the middle of the hold, a panel with nails made of some unknown metal, once open, stairs going down in the dark. From the shadows, the noise of little splaches. [doctor_providence]
The Mosquito - Run by a crew of githyanki pirates. What seems like a normal battle vessel, once on the open ocean, the sails begin turning outward and suddenly the ship begins gliding above the waters surface at fast speeds. [GladiatorJustin]
The C.H.U.D.- The Shell of a massive deceased Dragonturtle floats next to the dock, it’s ends sealed by mechanical claws, and a viewport fitted into the front. The C.H.U.D. (Chelonian Hammerworked Underwater Dirigible) was designed by the Gnomish Inventor Hector Copperspark. Crewed by gnomes and halflings as they are the only ones small enough to man the complex machinery crammed into the turtle shell, the C.H.U.D. is a mercenary vessel that hires out to perform naval attacks. Hector just got a lead on a new job, and he needs some muscle to pull it off... [Lakandalwa]
The Temple - A ship that serves as a mobile temple to a water deity. It goes from port to port to carry services. [SMGB_NeonYoshi]
Cloudscraper - One of the gems of the Romish Empire's formidable fleet, the Cloudscraper is a powerful warship specially constructed for defeating sea monstrosities of all kinds. Developed after the Queen's late husband was killed by an island feeder (colossal sea beasts known for swallowing swaths of land whole), this vessel with an imposing tower-like bridge is loaded up with all types of harpoons, cannons, and magical armor. Some even say that, thanks to a powerful magical engine, the top half of the ship can separate from the brig to chase after flying beasts attempting to get away. With how famous it is, plenty of townsfolk are eager to get a look at the shining bronze beast of a boat. But what's it doing here of all places? [MildlyConcernedGhost]
The Wistful Wanderer - A small sloop with a single cabin in the middle of the deck. A skilled observer might note that the sails and rigging as well as the rudder occasional shift to right the ship or tighten and secure themselves more. The cabin is actually permanently enchanted with a Mordenkainen’s Magnificent mansion and the ship is handled by a permanent crew of 20 unseen servants. It is owned by the Wandering Wizard Wesley Wrycroft. He sails the world at his leisure, seeking trade for scrolls and arcane artifacts. He also regularly hires adventurers to gather difficult to reach artifacts from unworthy hands whenever he finds a lead on the location of such a relic. [Lakandalawa]
The Magic Brawler - A merchant ship with a very strong looking captain comes to port. If the party chooses to look at their items the captain will challenge the party to an arm wrestling match. Beating a DC 20 strength check will award the party one minor magic item from the captain's personal stash, and beating a DC 25 strength check will award a magic item of the DMs choosing. [TheInstitute4]
The Friend Ship - A comfortable looking wooden ship full of people just hanging out on the deck. While aboard this ship you find yourself under the effects of the Charm Person spell to make everyone friendly with each other. [Stormkiko]
The Dragon Ship - Captained by a Dragonborn with a dragon head on the prow, this ship is a merchant vessel crewed by a muscular Dragonborn who sits on the deck smoking a long pipe. The ship has put down for repairs after grazing a rock which tore a few holes in the starboard side. [AndreTheSalty]
Kender - A rag tag ship filled with swashbuckling Kender. The ship looks like it was made from bits and pieces of many different ships.The Kender are very drunk and have no idea how they got to this port. [Slainlion]
The Poor Captain - A ship that looks broken and near sinking, in truth it's one of the most armed ship on the seas. It uses help calls or just their non threatening look to lure ships close so that they can attack them. [DungeonsAndScouts]
The Fisticuffs- A medium sized rowdy ship sits a little way out from the dock. The ship has two massive hands stemming from the hulls on long mechanical arms. The hands have an AC of 25, a damage threshold of 5, and 30 health each. They ship can leave the water and "walk" on the hands. The ship is primarily a combat ship and is crewed by a band of mischevious gnome tinkerers. In addition to attacking (+10 to hit: 4d6 + 8 bludgeoning damage) the hands can also cast Bigby's hand once per day. [dweeb_bush]
The Grain Barge - A large barge with a dirt floor and wheat growing. A single old man lives on the barge, and sells wheat for 2 pountds per copper piece. In the hull of the barge, accessible only by a trapdoor in the old man's shack, is a large pile of carrots. [serious_tabaxi]
Sea Rot - A large gallion speeds into port with a yellow flag raised. As soon as they dock and have paid the docking fee the captain, a large half-orc woman called Mishka, starts calling for help! She reveals that over half of her crew has contracted a strange plague and she fears for her life. She came to port to seek medical assisstance but fears she is infected so dares not go ashore.The plague - Sea Rot - Is highly contagious and air-borne: if a creature comes within 5ft. of an infected creature they must succeed on a DC 17 Constitution save or become infected themself, symptoms take 1d10 days to manifest. The symptoms of Sea Rot are gruesome, starting with the extremities of the body, the body starts depositing water in cytoplasm-like sacks. At the end of every long rest the creature takes 2d6 cold damage and must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution save or suffer 1 permanent constitution damage, the infected creature also has disadvantage on strength and dexterity checks. It can only be cured by magical means that remove a disease.If the party fetches help she rewards them with a small favour and a pouch full of gemstones worth 50gp, in addition, if the party can cure the 20 crew members and contain the plague she offers them passage anywhere, offers an additional 100gp, and her cutlass- a +1 scimmitar that also increases the holder's charisma by 2 while holding it. [dweeb_bush]
Grok's Galley - A medium-sized ship piloted by a Tortle named Grok(He Understands Things)11. The ship is a 2 sailed vessel with few cannons and other wartime mechanisms on them. The crew is very resilient and full of ragtag non-humaniods. Gnolls, Dragonborn, Ratfolk etc.He's about to set sail back home as he's heard of this group of ratfolk that are trying to overthrow the government in his home town. [VKilledTInternet]
The Abigail - An old warship thought to be lost that had been renovated and turned into an inn. It’s run by two very attractive siblings, who turn out to be sirens and one night, they take the boat out to the sea and eat all the passengers. [TardyTortoise]
The Comfort - This massive galleon is an independent freebooter that refuses to pay allegiance to any nation or city. Housing a collection of skilled healers and clerics, the Comfort sails to areas struck by famine, plague, and war, providing healing to whomever requests it. The sailors aboard the vessel have all sworn the same oath, to defend the healers and their patients with their lives no matter the cost.While the Comfort usually is accepted at any port, it sometimes comes under attack when it travels to war torn regions and as such is well equipped to defend itself should it come under attack. [Lakandalawa]
Arabian Traders - An exotic merchant vessel filled with silks, spices, and strange spirits is disembarking. A dashing arabian prince asks basic questions about the city, potentially becoming enamored with one of the party members. He is rich and slightly crazy, and believes anything can be bought for a price. This gets him into trouble when he tries to buy someone's hand in marriage to add to his collection of luxuries and many wives back in his home port. [jfractal]
Deep Sea Scavengar - Salty, untrustworthy sailors (who look like pirates) are disembarking/unloading from their latest voyage. They have been at sea for months, and haven't seen a woman in that long - they openly hit on and jeer at any females in the group with a CHA score of 11 or higher. One sailor tells a fanciful story about sirens that they encountered on their voyage, killing 3 of their men (it's hard to tell if they are serious or not). [jfractal]
His majesty's secret - A heavily outfitted, small warship is in a secret mission from the king. Heavily armed/armored guards stand watch over the docks, turning away everyone, and refusing to divulge their purpose here. [jfractal]
Smallminded Yokels - A small, local fishing vessel filled with xenophobic, small-minded fisherman. The make disparaging remarks about any non-humans if approached. If the party gives them lip, they will get jumped by the crew the next time they wander the harbor at night. [jfractal]
Mussel's Mate - A large fishing vessel that has seen it's better days. Rigging is in tatters, masts are spliced together, mismatched patchworks sails. Oddly enough the captains quarters are extremely well apportioned not at all like the rest of the ship. [hamlet_d]
The Wayward Lady - This ship has an all female crew. The species on board are the outcasts from different lands. They serve as a place for any who are lost to have a home, though men don't tend to stay for long for some reason. After a successful DC 20 insight check it can be found that men on board the ship for 4 months become women. [42firehawk]
The Gypsy - On the deck is what appears to be a stage where beautiful female dancers perform to music provided by a small band of bards. One of the dancers, who is known as the Storyteller, tells stories through song as the rest of the dancers provide her the visuals/backup dancing. Her voice is noticeably quite low for a woman, but is very enchanting nonetheless. An insight check with a DC20 will reveal that all of the performers are cross-dressing men. [Crystalized13]
The Stable - A ship of decent size that carries horses (or any other kind of mount in your game) from port to port and sells them at a decent price to tired and/or injured travelers. It is crewed by a family of six (mother is the captain, father, three sons, three daughters) and a few extras the gathered along their journey, namely; a nice old man who wants to see the world, a young woman with a fiery attitude and an obvious crush on one of the party members, a muscular Dragonborn who has obviously seen some action who now tends to the horses, a bard who offers entertainment to the crew on board and is particularly liked by the children, a mute Druid who helps the horses and is good friends with the Dragonborn (who interprets their sign), and an ex-pirate who loves the sea but wishes to leave their past behind them. [Crystalized13]
The Penny Bucket - The penny bucket is barely a ship. It's looks like a wash-bucket with a wooden T nailed to it and has a large white shirt as a sale. As far as you can tell there's no way to steer, its an utter mystery to you how it ended up in port, let alone why the dock authority would charge it to dock. When you peer inside the bucket you see a small red pseudodragon peacefully sleeping on it's hoard, which consists of 3pp, 16gp, 103sp, and 56cp, 6 rubies worth 30gp, and a dusty diamond worth 300gp , and a small magical trinket of the DM's choice. If woken up the Pseudodragon wakes up and fiercely snarls , cowering, and protecting its stuff. The dragon will trade any of the items in its hoard if the adventurers offer something of value, or a large amount of food. If the party wants to adopt the dragon along with it's hoard it may be won over with gifts and a DC18 animal handling check. [dweeb_bush]
The Crafty Raft - A makeshift raft has floated down the coast and slammed into the dock. There is no one on board and it appears to be unmanned. There is a note fixed to the mast with a tiny butterknife. The note has directions, "at the lightning stump follow the stream and rescue us". The raft, and attached note were made by crafty goblins attempting to lure creatures down the coast right into a trap. The goblins have made finding their hideout incredibly easy. With a DC 5 nature (tracking) check the party can find the tree and follow it down to the river. The real trap is a series of pitfall traps cleverly hidden in and around the stream. If the adventurers continue along the stream they must succeed on a DC18 Perception check to avoid it and must succeed on a DC14 Dexterity save or fall 10ft. into spikes and take 1d6 bludgeoning damage and 2d6 piercing damage. They are then accosted by 2d4 goblins. [dweeb_bush]
The Illusory Boat - Moored in the port is a huge gleaming golden pirate ship, there must be at least 50 richly dressed halflings manning it. There's a long gangplank extending to the dock. Suddenly there's the noise of several cannons firing off. The guards rush over to the ship, fearing that they are attacking the port. They scream at the ship- "come down here and speak to us you cowards, we can't board your ship without permission but we will call the town guard!" A voice calls from the ship yelling insults at the guards aiming to infuriate them till they board the boat. If any one steps on the gangplank they must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity save or fall into the water, as they do the ship dissapears and it's revealed that the entire ship is a major illusion cast by three giggling wizards who run away from one of the neighboring piers. [dweeb_bush]
The Question - There's a metallic ship floating in the water. From it you hear loud beeping, chirping, and whirring noises coming from it and it's attracted a large crowd of 3d10 townsfolk, who are fearfully inspecting the ship. As you approach closer you begin to hear a voice in all the artificial noises. You hear it asking thousands of questions, in thousands of voices: "who am I?", "why am I here?", "What's that ugly thing over there?", "what is the meaning to life", "Why are there people watching me?", and other creepy remarks that give the idea that the ship is conscious and scared. When the adventurers look into the boat they see a blinking green, light with a swirling marbled texture on it. The light turns red and starts asking questions very specific to the party. Before long it begins speaking in tongues and a flash of blinding light appears. The adventurers make a DC13 constitution save. On a failed save they are blinded for a minute and take 4d4 psychic damage or half as much on a successful save. When the adventurers look again the ship is gone and there is just a small gemstone floating in the water, whispering to the party in tongues that are unintelligible. [dweeb_bush]
The mistake -A small boat that seems to have been renamed fairly recently. The - ake part of the name is in a different calligraphy and color from the rest of the name [Ido97]
The Barnacle - An old weathered gun-ship bearing it's scars from many a battle, but nevertheless being no worse for the wear. Built strong from some ancient hardwoods and it has been well maintained to the best a ship of that age could be. The crew is a rowdy bunch of salty Dawgs that work as hard as they play...and they fight even harder. They may squabble amongst themselves, but don't you dare mess with or insult one of their brotherhood. They have come to port ready to sell their wares, collect their bounty and spend it irresponsibly. All so they can find their next mission and do it all over again. [gothic03]
The Bauntoo - A strange ramshackle ship occupied by amphibious humanoids that spend near their entire lives out at sea, trade in weird cool stuff they've found deep diving into cool underwater locations like ocean ruins, and wont be at port for long. [Swerve-Bro]
The Leviathan - A huge ship listing hard to one side, its mast broken halfway up and the sails drooping to the deck. All of the wood is dark brown, slimy and rotting out. It looks like someone pulled a shipwreck from the bottom of the sea and it remained afloat by some miracle. If the party inspects the ship, they will find it has already been thoroughly looted and all that remains of the crew are skeletons. (Whether the skeletons are animated or not is up to you). The dock guards will tell you that a huge fog rolled in last night and this ship was there when the fog lifted. [painterinsomniac]
The Menagerie - A decent sized merchant ship, this one is run by all sorts of different creatures though none are humanoid. This ship was originally a travelling circus showing off all manner of awakened animals who were kept captive. The animals are quite amiable and will offer carry passengers in exchange for assistance selling their goods in markets. [painterinsomniac]
The Coffin - A casket-shaped ship that contains the body of a 21-ft giant. The top of the casket has been fitted with sails and rigging and is manned by a crew of humans who tell the party that the giant hired them before his death. He always wanted to sail around the world, so half of all his treasures would be given to the crew who sailed him around the world. The money is to be awarded upon the crews return to the giant's family home, and the crew must have an artefact from each land to prove their voyage complete to the family and get their loot. Of course, the crew isn't bothering with actually sailing around the world - they're content to just make port for a year and trade people for ancestral trinkets so they can return to the land of giants in a year and take their massive loot. They've been given a hefty advance to cover the cost of their long voyage, so money is no object. Adventurers can sell their items if the item is from a distinct background (eg a Dwarven Warhammer, an Elven scroll of healing, etc). [Anceaus]
The Lighthouse - This ship is captained by a young cowardly wizard and an equally nervous-looking crew of young human men. Atop the central mast is a large lighthouse light, which the owner uses to keep other ships far away from him while at sea so as to avoid any trouble. If approached, the captain will immediately begin grovelling and handing over loot at the sight of the party's weapons, offering them any onboard services he can think of for his crew to do for them (shoeshines, blade sharpening, armour mending).Turns out it's all an act - the captain is actually a conniving trickster who transports and deals in Light Blue Light, a magical drug that induces paranoia/twitchy behaviour but grants a 1d6 bonus to Strength for a period of 1 hour. [Anceaus]
The Nest - A vaguely ship-shaped bramble of collected branches and tar, this vessel doesn't look like it should even float, much less sail. It's run completely by Kenku's. They love to collect shiny objects and every nook and cranny of the nest is filled with glittering pieces of treasure and trinkets, among which are a range of magical items.Anything can be bought for a price, but what they especially want is for the adventurers to help them get a shiny old chalice that they've spotted beneath the waters of the harbour - they aren't big swimmers. [Anceaus]
The Half-Pint - An average looking, 2nd-rate ship run exclusively by halflings and gnomes. The crew are rolling a large number of barrels off the ship. A DC 13 Investigation Check will uncover that the Half-Pint has almost twice as many decks as a regular ship of that size and the diminutive crew use the extra space to smuggle illegal magical ale that has explosive side effects. If approached, the first mate (a scruffy gnome named Sebastiano who trusts people a little too easily considering his trade) will ask the party if they are 'for hire' or just want a cask.If the party is looking to buy, refer to the http://dndspeak.com/2017/12/100-random-potion-effects/ to determine what effect their beer has.If they're interested in the job, he would have them guard a supply wagon transporting contraband IPA to an old wizard who lives in an ivory tower in the nearby forest for a sum of 25gp each. What the party doesn't know is that the wizard is in the process of transitioning into a Lich, and the beer is the magical conduit by which he has been transforming. The wizard has the stats of a Revenant if the party chooses to fight him. If an unconscious creature drinks the illegal beer, they will be revived and become Undead. [Anceaus]
The "Blu Moon" - A two masted Caravel. An ocean going merchant ship, that has recently been damaged by pirates, but escaped because they dumped all cargo overboard. The ship is being repaired and expected to be ready in two days. The captain, Quintus "Full" Moon, already has agreed to transport 24 bales of dyed fabric to [INSERT DESTINATION] but is now looking for some more cargo for the same destination. The rest of the crew is: first mate Eldan Wind (m half-elf), bosun Karrla (f half-orc), helmsman Olfie Re (f half-elf), cook Carlin Zwiet (f gnome), and four human sailors: Frenk(m), Ra(f), Tjoris(m) en Huub(m). Huub is a 12 year old boy on his first trip. [Jeeve65]
The Leatherback - A merchant ship from a faraway land. It is made of a beautiful reddish wood and adorned with many colorful flags. About half the crew is made up of tortles and the other half consists of various other races they picked up on their travels. They are very friendly people and will happily buy you a drink or two in exchange for stories of your adventures or of the places and cultures you’ve experienced. If they take a liking to you they're even willing to give you free passage to wherever you'd like to travel... as long as that place happens to be the next port along their voyage. [TheMightyLoaf]
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Madison Square Garden - A Comprehensive History

Since there was a lot of positive response to my comment on the KD thread about The Garden, I floated the idea of a thread, and you all asked for it, so here it is! Here at reddit, there can be a lot of LOL this (Knicks) and LOL that (Knicks again), and while MSG certainly has its own shortcomings to say the least, there is a true story to be told about the buildings and how it came to be where it is today.
Known as ‘The Worlds Most Famous Arena’, MSG played a direct roll in making sports in America what it is today, and while many people criticize the current incarnation of the building, most people don’t know the full story - or that the current one is actually the 4th version (and 3rd location) of the building. The college basketball history at MSG, which I won’t give away yet, is one of if not THE main reason we have our beloved NBA and professional basketball in general today. This is going to be a very long read, like, very very long. But I’m going to try and throw all the really juicy facts in there that I picked up along my years of research from working in the tour department. I thought of splitting it up, but I wanted this post to be a comprehensive history of The World’s Most Famous Arena!
If you’re only concerned with the history of the joint once basketball enters into the picture, skip to MSG III.
If you want the juicy details on the controversy of tearing down old Penn Station then skip to MSG IIII.
If you have any questions on anything or want me to elaborate on anything that I only mention briefly, please feel free to ask! MSG’s history is full of not only amazing moments, but vengeful murders, and a whole lot of sketchy stuff. This is the story of how a small train station on the north east corner of Madison Square Park eventually led to the demolition of an iconic NYC train station some 100 years later. It’s not on Madison Avenue, it’s not square, and it’s not a garden, but there is a good reason for all of this - or at least a good explanation - I promise!
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN I
Ironically, just how this story’s climax involves tearing an iconic train station down to build the current arena, the beginning starts in much the same way. Just with a significantly less iconic train station. In the mid 1800’s there was a small railroad depot on the north east corner of Madison Square Park, occupied by New York and Harlem Railroad on East 26th street and Madison Ave and owned by Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. For those of you not familiar with the city (yes, we call it ‘the city’) that location is pretty central and throughout time has had a lot of important events happen there, which is a thread for another time. The park was named for president James Madison, just like the street, which was very common at the time. People loved that guy.
The railroad opened up another location you may have heard of, by the name of ‘Grand Central Station’ in 1871, therefor leaving the smaller rail depot on 26th street abandoned. After a few vacant years, the building was leased to PT Barnum, who converted it into what he called the ‘Great Roman Hippodrome’. This place was a big open air oval ‘arena’ where he did exactly what you’d expect. Circuses etc. What happens next is where things start getting interesting.
Then the building was leased to a band leader named Patrick Gilmore. Some historians in that field feel like Gilmore is a forgotten guy compared to the likes of John Phillips Sousa, who is really the only person we common modern folk recognize in terms of old timey band leaders. But Gilmore was a very important figure of his day. Gilmore purchased the building and…wait for it…called it Gilmore’s Concert GARDEN. ‘Garden’ was a semi-popular add on to entertainment centers in NY during that era, starting with what I can tell from my research when Castle Clinton (aka, the old fort turned venue turned place you buy your tickets to go out to the Statue of Liberty now) was converted into a venue called Castle garden in the 1820s.
The other notable contributions Gilmore made to The Garden are holding the first Westminster Kennel Club dog show, the longest running garden event obviously still held there today, and even doing the first boxing matches there. I always found this bit fascinating, because boxing matches were technically illegal at the time. He called them ‘illustrated lectures’ and as any good New Yorker trying to make a buck does, found a way around the rules and got away with it. This is a common theme within the history of The Garden as you will see.
The arena changed hands a few more times, first to an administrator with the dog show, who also started to do more sporty things like tennis and installing one of the first ‘indoor’ ice rinks in the US.
The building went back into Vanderbilt control when Commodore died, by his grandson William Vanderbilt. He was the one who decided, the ‘garden’ part was cool, but since it wasn’t leased by Gilmore anymore, he would rename it after the park which it shared a border. Hence the name, Madison Square Garden. He expanded the range of events that were held there including adding bicycle racing. This would be by far the most widely beloved event held at the Garden, including a long running race called ‘Six Days of New York’ where an insane SIX day bike race would be held. These were basically just endurance contests, with a single bicyclist doing as many laps as possible, they could sleep whenever and join back in whenever. This was all the rage, but also dangerous for not only the participants but the spectators. People who wanted to soak up all the action were easy targets for crooks who were also in attendance. These events were so popular nationwide however, that there is even a bicycle discipline called ‘Madison’ named after the OG garden.
The building however ran its course, because of its lack of roof and decaying infrastructure.
What I mean by decaying can probably best be summed up by the disaster which many people now a days don’t know of, when part of the building collapsed falling outward into the street and some of the roof also caving in with 800 people inside. Apparently it was chaos, and 20 something people were killed or injured. It’s pretty brutal, and if you want to know more about that incident you can read the newspaper article from the time here.
Vanderbilt sold the spot to who's who collection of rich white men. JP Morgan, Carnegie, Astor etc. So they decided to tear it down and build a new extremely extravagant arena on the same spot. They got renowned architect Stanford White (more on him later) and they demolished the building in 1889. After spending more than half a million dollars, MSG II was built.
Madison Square Garden II
By this point, MSG was still not the household name it would become in the future. This building was supposed to change that narrative, which is why these rich guys went all in on it. You’ll see, that they were maybe in over their heads. However, this might be the most fascinating of all the MSGs for several reasons.
Firstly, the building was extremely extravagant. That can not be overstated. I would encourage you all to just google pictures of the building, it was massive and you’ll see all the features I’m describing here. It featured a huge 32 story tall bell tower, which was good for the 2nd tallest building in the city at the time. The bellower was topped by a sculpture of the goddess Diana the huntress, which was sculpted by famous artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and was gilt in copper. They moved the statue not soon after, and you can see it today at the Philly Museum of art! It spun around in the wind, and their original brilliant idea was to have an actual cloth scarf draped on it, but since wind exists, it got blown away not too long after its installation.
Its main hall was the largest in the world. It had not only the main hall which sat 8,000 but just like today’s garden, had a small theater which sat 1200, and even another concert hall which sat 1500. Of course they also had the largest restaurant in the city, because why not. And because it is ‘The Garden’ they decided there should be a roof garden cabaret. They thought this would be a landmark the likes of central park, and it was certainly grandiose enough. They had the same kind of events that the first garden did, including sports, concerts, and all the random stuff they found fun before the invention of TV (not to mention radio, or at least the widespread broadcast of radio). But the problem was, the building was so damn extra, that they had a hard time making enough money to upkeep the place.
Now let’s talk about the architect. Stanford White is probably best remembered for designing the Triumphal arch in Washington square, but then closely followed by being murdered in his own building, MSG II, in a lovers quarrel. This was huge news at the time, and so was the trial that ensued, they called it ‘The Trial of The Century’. The building, being as ridiculous as it was, of course housed an apartment for White, and millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw was not too happy with White who apparently had an affair with his actress wife when she was 16. So he came through, and shot him dead in his own building. It’s all incredibly sketchy and simultaneously intriguing, involving major names of the day, which is probably why the trial was so juicy and gripping in the eyes of the general public.
Anyways, the building was ultimately a failure, and didn’t last very long in retrospect. Everyone knew what Madison Square Garden was, and it was a landmark from 1890-1926, but the building failed to live up to expectations, much less make money. A 36 year run is really nothing to write home about, especially with the illusions (or better yet delusions) of grandeur its rich owners had in mind. There were some important sporting events that happened there, but what would happen in the next building would be the reason The Garden is now known as, The Worlds most Famous Arena. Interestingly the building there today, the New York Life Insurance Company, was built on that plot directly after MSG II was demolished. They owned the mortgage on the building, so they just built their headquarters there. It’s an iconic building in its own right, and if you’re on the NE corner of the park, there’s a plaque on the building which notes that it was the location of the first 2 Gardens.
The only thing MSG still had was, well, the name. And in walked Tex Rickard, to seize an opportunity that proved to be golden.
Madison Square Garden III
If you’ve never heard of Tex Rickard, think PT Barnum, Don King, etc. He was the leading boxing (and more) promoter of the day, and was a very successful businessman, operating saloons, hotels, casinos, and the like. He was a country boy, born in Missouri and raised in Texas, but had a knack for business and promotion. Tex saw the opportunity to buy the name, and incorporated the ‘New Madison Square Garden Corporation’ in 1923. It was smart, although MSG II didn't make money, it was still a household name in NYC. The purpose was to build a less extravagant arena, but a place that would be iconic in its own right and host major sporting events, including NHL games. This is where MSG started to make a name for itself as a major player in venues, and eventually THE most famous arena in the world. So Tex bought a big block of land quite a bit of a ways away from the original site of The Garden, on 8th avenue between 49th and 50th street. He basically built a big box, designed by theater architect Thomas Lamb, at the cost of almost 5 million dollars and in a remarkable 249 days. I think it’s sufficient to say that ol’ Tex knew how to get things done. He had a bunch of rich backers, plenty of clout, and he threw his arena up in sharp contrast to the old garden. It did however have a very iconic marquee, and if you talk to anyone who was around at the time they will note that the marquee was the distinguishing feature of the building. The main draw originally was boxing, as that was Tex’s bag. They had major fights, and drew much larger crowds than the older gardens, mostly because they could cram almost 20,000 people in there. The site lines were apparently terrible, but by all accounts the energy that still haunts the current garden, was the main draw.
Then, hockey happened. This was the idea from the start, as fellow sports promoter Thomas Duggan had options on three expansion teams for the NHL, to be established in the US. One became the Bruins, and then one was arranged to be given to NYC’s most-celebrated prohibition bootlegger Bill Dwyer, who arranged with Tex to have the team play at MSG III. Tex had an agreement with the first team they started, The New York Americans, aka The Amerks (ever heard of them?), that they would be the only hockey team to ever play at The Garden. Although there was a clause in the contract that Tex claimed he would never exercise, that claimed if Tex and MSG ever made a bid for a team, the Amerks would support it. Tex kept his word for approximately one year, when due to the American’s success, he went out and got himself a hockey team. The tabloids dubbed this team Tex’s Rangers, an obvious play on words, and you can guess what that team that became today. The Rangers soon eclipsed the Amerks in success, and The Garden’s lore began to grow as the place to be in NYC.
One more note on Tex, and maybe the most important in my biased Knicks ‘no other arena is THE GARDEN’ mind. he started 7 other Madison Square Garden’s around the country. Including ‘Boston Madison Square Garden’ which as you may guess, became known as Boston Garden. Thats right Celtics fans, your building was named after ours. Thanks Tex, for unknowingly providing another iconic building, that the future inhabitants of your NYC building would lose in over and over again! Anyways…now is where basketball becomes the star - so you can all start paying attention!
At the time, nobody thought professional basketball was a viable way of making money. Rickard passed away in 1929, and during the great depression things stayed somewhat status quo, but also there were now a lot of days where the giant arena wasn’t being used at all. Then, in walked Ned Irish, a successful sports journalist who quit his job covering basketball games for the World-Telegram, to start promoting basketball games at MSG III. The Garden let him promote and hold games there, as long as he would just cover the rent, that’s how bad things were economically. To everyone’s pleasant surprise, the college games became a lot more financially successful than anyone had anticipated. Along with making money, these college games were probably the number one factor in growing the game nationwide in general. College ball became the marquee (pun intended) event at MSG III, especially the double headers. This was a time, before the infamous point shaving scandals, that NYC college basketball was a force in the college game. It’s hard to believe now, but teams like NYU and CCNY were the equivalent of today’s Duke and UNC. By 1946, they were selling out the arena, and the city (and country) had fallen in love with the game of basketball. The NIT was started during this time, and even the first televised basketball game happened there in the form of a Fordham-Pitt / Georgetown-NYU doubleheader. The previously mentioned point shaving scandal involving the NYC schools hamstrung Irish’s ability to put on marquee matchups at MSG III, as a lot of the major teams were banned from playing there, and the NCAA reduced its use of the arena as a result.
Ned, being the promoter genius that he was, saw the success of the college game, knew his limitations with that now, and thought…Why can’t we do this with professional athletes and start a league? There had technically been professional basketball being played at MSG III since its inception, but it was traveling teams like the original Celtics, which weren’t associated with a league. People just didn’t think there was enough money in it, or a means and arenas to have such a league. So with other owners of hockey arenas around the US (and Canada!) They started the NBA in 1946. It wasn’t instantly as popular as the college game as you may suspect, with the Knicks even having to play at the 69th (nice) regiment armory when a college game was on that took priority over the NBA. Ironically, the armory was a few blocks away from the original location of MSG I and II, on Lexington between 25th and 26th, it’s still there for those NYers who happen to walk by and notice the building.
There were other major nationally news worth events that happened at MSG III, including a host of politically themed ventures including both a packed Nazi rally (really, and people were NOT happy about it as you may imagine) and an anti-nazi rally. There are some very famous photos and press about the pro Nazi rally, which happened in 1939 and was organized by the ‘German American Bund’. As Nazi's were wont to do, they recorded the thing, and for what it's worth, its some of the best and most crisp footage of the old garden although the Nazi's really spoil it - Here are the receipts. If only they put their efforts into making beautiful videos of basketball games instead of hate. Too bad the guy who charged the stage didn't do any damage, and I hate to think of what they did to him. Anyways before I get too riled up, a few years later this group would be banned, but MSG certainly took some heat for allowing this to go down, and deservedly so. The tradition of MSG doing anything for a buck holds strong!
Probably the most noteworthy event ever held in that venue was also somewhat a political event. The most famous version of ‘Happy Birthday’ ever sung took place at JFK’s birthday party, sung of course by Marilyn Monroe, at MSG III. Most people probably had no idea where this took place, and it may be realistically the most famous moment from any of the incarnations of MSG.
Another one of my favorite stories from that time is when they had first built MSG III there was a boxer, who’s name escapes me but this is the NBA sub so you all don’t care, that didn’t realize there was a new venue, so he showed up at the site of MSG II only to see that it had been demolished. He scooted uptown as quickly as he could, and won his fight. There is a whole host of boxing history that went down there, but I won’t bore you all with the details, just go look it up if you’re interested! The boxing events most of you have heard of, such as The Fight of the Century, would happen at the building that stands today, MSG IIII.
Now, on to the controversy.
Madison Square Garden IIII (current arena)
This is all just fact, and I won’t get into my biased opinion on why or why not this was the right thing to do. I’m going to lay out the full controversy before I get into some fun facts about the current arena…So here goes…
Yes, there was an above ground Penn Station. It was thought of as one of the most iconic and beautiful landmarks in NYC. Look up some pictures, it’s very cool.
In 1959, Graham-Paige bought a 40% stake in MSG for $4 million. Then, in 1960, Graham-Paige president Irving Felt (old NYers will recognize the name, the Felt Forum, which was the original name for the theater under the arena floor) bought the right to Penn Station. The idea was always that he would tear the old station down, and build the sports complex. The Pennsylvania Railroad company sold the air rights to the property because passenger traffic was on the decline after WW2, and they weren’t making enough money to upkeep the station. I’m sure the Penn Railroad company wasn’t too keen on tearing the building down, but Felt made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. In exchange for the rights of a building they couldn’t support anymore, the Penn Railroad company got a brand new, smaller station completely below the street at no cost, and also a 25% stake in the new MSG complex. That probably worked out ok for them. People tried to save the old station, as it was a beautiful and a lot of people were outraged that the city would let this happen. At the end of the day, the city voted to demolish the building in 1963. A lot went into this, it was simply too much for the railroad company to upkeep, and like I said, they got a pretty great offer. Also, they had at first optioned the air rights to William Zeckendorf in 1954, and he had some plans which would reconfigure the train station into several different things including a ‘world trade center’ and a ‘Palace of Progress’. These things didn’t come to pass, again, this was a MASSIVE building. Now it should be noted, if NYC wanted to save the building, they could have saved the building. It would not have been cheap, but they could have done it. However the city thought that since it was originally intended to be a ‘cost-effective and functional piece of the city’s infrastructure’ it was now mostly just a ‘monument to the past’. Pretty cold, but the city had a history of destroying historic buildings to build even more historic ones. A lot of the criticism from people after MSG4 was built, was that this was not the case in this instance, as opposed to say - tearing down the original Waldorf-Astoria to put up the Empire State Building. That one in retrospect, doesn’t have as much contention. The city thought they were being ‘progressive’ and from what I can gather, people didn’t believe they were actually going to tear the building down until they actually started doing it. When they actually started tearing it down, it sparked international outrage. As another user pointed out on the other thread, this led to the establishment of the NYC landmarks preservation commission, which did in fact save Grand Central from demolition in 1968. So that’s a silver lining to all of this. NYC didn’t step up to save the old Penn Station, but its demolition was not in vain. The outrage that it caused has surely saved plenty of other historic buildings from their demise. Like I said, I’m not trying to say it was right or wrong, this post is simply to state the facts on what happened and why it all happened.
(((I realize that I may have been typing hastily and drunk when I responded with why the old landmark Penn Station building was torn down for the new MSG. Admittedly, my timeline was slightly off, as the ‘no property tax’ thing happened afterwards to keep the Knicks / Rangers / MSG in the city. I went back into my research and wanted to make sure I explained what happened 100% accurately. Even though nobody disputed this in the thread, my post may have been confusing and the timeline in my head was a bit skewed, as I said the threat of moving to NJ was a factor in them originally tearing the train station down. This was the reason for the property tax cut, but not the original demo of the train station, as you've just read. I wanted to make sure the accurate story was told. So this should clear up the timeline, and why and when things happened the way they did.)))
The next big controversy is what I had a little mixed up in my original post, as I clumped it together with the original controversy, and that is the threat of the teams moving to New Jersey. This did happen and this is where it gets very, very, VERY sketchy.
In 1982, when Gulf and Western owned MSG, they threatened to move the teams to NJ, as the Giants and Jets had done, and also the Devils although they didn’t come from Manhattan. NJ had proven a more than viable option for professional sports teams, as it was just a short train ride away to the new Meadowlands Sports Complex. The Garden was in need of renovation, so they made then mayor Ed Koch an ultimatum - give us a tax break to help us renovate the arena and add the new fangled luxury boxes that all the newer arenas had. That led to a full property tax exemption for the next 10 years.
Koch ‘didn’t realize’ that no one put in a sunset date for the tax exemption. Some think he confused the clause that stated the teams would be locked in for at least 10 more years, for a clause that said the tax exemption would only last for 10 more years. The first part of that is true, so interestingly enough the Knicks and Rangers are not allowed to play home games anywhere else but MSG, or they would break the agreement, so things like the NHL winter classic that the Rangers play in, even if in NY they have to be the away team. Knicks in London? Away team. Not that those teams would give up a home games worth of revenue, but still they technically have to be the away team. So the garden has saved somewhere around half a billion dollars, yes BILLION dollars in property tax payments. It’s around $50 Million now, and although there have been bills, most notably in 2014 to try and get this changed, so far it’s fallen on deaf ears.
The argument against this is pretty plain to see, the Knicks and the Rangers are the most profitable teams in their respective sports, and that they don’t need this tax break. Let’s make one thing clear, Jim Dolan definitely does NOT need the tax break. Everyone has to pay property taxes. Except, Dolan and MSG. It’s a hard pill to swallow, even as the most diehard Knicks fan. The City Council almost unanimously voted to take it to state legislature in 2014, which has authority over the cities tax rules. There is sketchy stuff all through this, like state assembly leader at the time Sheldon Silver having his daughter and one of his former top aides on MSG payroll. Oh yeah, Sheldon Silver was convicted of federal fraud and extortion charges sometime after that focused on large payments that Silver received for years from Goldberg & Iryami, a law firm that specialized in seeking reductions of New York City real estate taxes for real estate developers. Silver was alleged to have persuaded developers who had business with the state to use the firm, which in turn generated $700,000 in referral fees to Silver. Totally not sketchy at all.
Here’s where it stands today, as controversy will be back to a fever pitch in a few years.
In 2013, the NYC council voted unanimously to give MSG a ten year permit, as opposed to their current agreement which gave them operating rights in perpetuity. This means that MSG’s operating permit is up in 2023. Penn Station is in dire need of renovation. Like, more-so than the Knicks are in need of talent. Dolan also spent a couple billion on renovating the arena into the state of the art facility it is today. He’s not planning on moving it. If the city wants Dolan to move the garden so they can renovate the station, it would be massively complicated, and the city would be forced to offer huge subsidies to get MSG out of the way. So chances are, everything goes on, status quo. Now I will say, from my time receiving internal emails at MSG, Dolan does not want a fight with the city. They realize that there can potentially be a compromise here. Also, he has a ton of money, and politicians tend to respond to that.
One thing that is a step in the right direction, is the massive building across 8th avenue, the iconic post office, which just like the old Penn Station has gone largely unused but BECAUSE of Penn Stations demolition has been protected itself from demolition. It has already begun to be repurposed for the train station, and by 2021 they are supposed to finish the construction on the inside to a huge, new, modern train hub. This will do a lot honestly in reducing the congestion in the old underground station.
The other internal rumblings, were that Dolan was going to let them build into the theater. Cuomo actually announced this plan, which would leave the arena intact. I will explain the layout of the current building later, but underneath the arena floor up on the 5th floor, sits the 2nd largest theater in all of NYC. In my time there it was being used less and less, mostly because the garden also owns Radio City and The Beacon theater, which are much nicer venues. There have been iconic events down in the theater also, including many NBA drafts, and some epic Eddie Murphy stand up specials, but it is in need of renovation. It is the only area that they didn’t touch during the renovation, because the thought process is that they’d just be competing with themselves in Radio and The Beacon. So The idea is that Dolan will throw the city a bone, and let them build up into the theater, in exchange for keeping the status quo, which would give Penn a much larger footprint. Admittedly, I’m not sure what progress has gone into this plan, and if the Amtrak plan for the post office has changed any of that. Basically, we’re just going to have to wait until 2023 to see what the future really holds for MSG, but knowing a bit about NYC politics, I wouldn’t count on anything changing.
Ok, now that that’s all out of the way, lets talk about the fun side of MSG4, if it hasn’t already left too sour of a taste in your collective mouths.
The new building is actually a pretty fascinating piece of architecture in its own right. Some people think the facade is ugly, and that’s fair, but the inner workings are pretty cool. Charles Luckman was the architect, and he also designed the Forum out in LA, owned now by MSG as well. In my opinion, the most fascinating part of the structure is the cable system which supports it. 48 cables connect from the outer circumference of the building, meeting at the middle in a center tension ring. This allows the arena to not have visual support beams, like the arenas before it all boasted. No visual beams means better sight lines, and less obstructions. This is a cool article from the time about it if you care to know more about the actual construction. If you’re ever at The Garden, look for little circular plaques on the wall, numbered 1-48. These mark where the cables line up in the arena, and security can actually use these to dictate where they are in the building. You’ll probably never notice them, unless you’re looking for them.
The other cool thing about the roof, is that if you look closely you’ll see that the actual ceiling which sits between the cables, you’ll see that it has tiny holes all through it. Thats because the ceiling is designed to absorb sound, its filled with sound absorption material so when the sound passes through the holes it helps deaden the room. Usually arenas are the worst place to see a concert, and the general rule of thumb is - the bigger the room, the louder and boomier it will be. It’s certainly not as good sounding as a smaller concert venue but it is better than any arena you’ll find. As opposed to oracle arena, which has a concrete ceiling meant to amplify sound for sporting events etc. Which makes it even more impressive how loud it gets in there, despite the ceilings best efforts.
When the building was built there was a 48 lane bowling alley, an art gallery, a hall of fame, and a 501 seat cinema. Thats right, a 48 lane bowling alley. It closed in the 80s, but had a lot of bowling events including some sort of bowling TV show apparently. I haven’t been able to confirm this, but this was what I was told by a reliable source! Someone older than myself can probably speak to that.
Unlike most arenas, the arena floor of MSG is actually 5 floors above street level, which allows for the theater underneath the arena floor.
Although the ~~Felt Forum~~ Theater at Madison Square Garden doesn’t have as many events as it used to, they still have events and even at the same time that there are events going on up in the main arena. When I was working there, we had plenty of instances where there were crazy concerts or games going on upstairs, and other events going on in the theater. You would have never known the other was going on, and there is no sound transmitted from one venue to the other. Also if you’re familiar with the theater, the rumor is the lights (probably its defining characteristic) that pattern the theater ceiling, equates exactly to the number of seats in the theater. I never was bored enough to count, so that’ll just have to be a rumor for now!
The floor of the arena itself is pretty cool, and if you’re not familiar with how these multi-sport arenas work, the ice lives underneath the court all through hockey and basketball season. It’s pretty remarkable to watch the ice crew make the ice, and pretty sad when it gets melted. The fun fact here is, not only can they switch over in under 3 hours from one sport to the other, but they WILL do it and have to do it several times a year to do a Knicks and Rangers home game on the same day. All four sides of the arena have expandable seating, think high school gym, which allows for almost 2 thousand more seats during Knicks games as opposed to rangers games. They cover the ice with a fiberglass/plastic compound material, and then the floor fits together like a giant puzzle over top of the material. This current material has been used since the renovation, and the ridiculous thing is before the new material, supposedly they had to melt the ice once during the season - to accommodate for the longest running event in MSG history, the dog show. Apparently the dogs could sense the ice! I wasn’t there at that time, but that was what I was told was the scenario.
Another ridiculous thing is seeing them set up for professional bull riding. It’s insane, they bring in literally 20 something dump trucks of dirt and they do a ‘running of the bulls’ where all the bulls run up the ramp that goes to the street, and into their pens. It’s probably the wildest thing you’ll see being set up there, and also leaves the arena smelling like, well, you know, for several weeks. Not as bad as it smells after Phish comes through for NYE, and no I’m not talking about reefer. That would be one thing, but it just smells…grimy.
As much as we all collectively have some disdain for James Dolan, it hasn’t been all bad. He has hosted 3 of the biggest benifit concerts of all time, for 9/11, Katrina, and Sandy. All the proceeds from these shows went towards victim relief. But what people don’t realize is that the first ever benefit concert happened at MSG, in George Harrison’s ‘The Concert For Bangladesh’.
As for the new renovation, they really did a nice job in a lot of ways. It took 3 years, from 2011-13. First of all, if you’ve never sat on the bridge for a game, do it. It’s truly a one of a kind view. If you’re not familiar with the bridge, they are 2 suspended walkways that were added during the renovation, with several rows of seating that stretch across the arena. One side is the ‘Media bridge’ where there are TV’s with full cable, all kinds of plugs for laptops and internet and all that. They will sell tickets to this side when it’s a game that the media isn’t hogging the whole thing. I like hanging up there during games because there are advanced stats on some of the channels, anything you would need to be covering the game from a journalistic perspective, so it’s pretty cool. Also that’s where the radio, and the hockey TV broadcast booths are, since the vantage point is better up there for hockey than on the glass.
Pro tip - sometimes on stub hub or wherever, those seats can be cheaper than the ones further back not on the bridge. This is because they’re the ‘300’ level, where as the seats all the way up on the sides are the 200 level. However there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. And there are bars INSIDE the seating area, so if you’re up in the top of the 200’s, you can hit the bar without ever leaving the arena bowl and missing a single second of that can’t miss Knicks basketball. The 400 level is cool too, that’s the blue seats, which were the original color of all the 400 level seats.
Back in the day, when there were paper tickets, the seats in the different levels were different colors, and the tickets for those seats would be the same color as your seats!
The suite situation is very insane now a days. There are the event level suites, which are 20 suites located literally on the arena floor, underneath the seating. They have no view of the game, but they come with 8 seats each right in the first few rows. It’s the best of both worlds, so you’ll see the first few rows CLEAR OUT during half time to go into their little luxury caves. There are also suites all through the mid level of the arena, and then a 3rd level of suites up on the 9th floor, facing the stage.
There are also luxury clubs, including the Delta Club, which if you’ve never had a ticket with access to it, and can afford it - I highly recommend it. Everything (minus alcohol of course!) is free, and the food is honestly ridiculous. Further down the hall and down the stairs is the JP Morgan club (throwback!) where an even more elite club (closest 100 or so seats) can hang out. And even more so, there is a place called ‘suite 200’. I never knew about this until I worked there. You can only go there if you’re invited, which means you’re very famous. For some reason, my keycard had access to this, and I explored it a few times. It’s ridiculous. Original trophies, huge original paintings, etc.
Speaking of trophies - everyone used to ask me where the Knicks championship trophies are - and the truth is, back when the Knicks won it was so long ago, that the NBA trophy was like the Stanley cup and changed hands every year. So…no Knicks championship trophies. However if you go to MSG you’ll notice the defining moments collection, the top moments in MSG history that line the walls of the 2 main concourses. There is one dedicated to the 1970 championship, and it has the eastern conference trophy in it. Now this I can confirm is true - if you examine the trophy you’ll notice that the little basketball player on top is a different hue than the rest of the trophy. That’s because apparently when they were compiling these displays a few years ago, they found the trophy in storage with the basketball man broken off the top of it, so they had to replace it. That’s why you can visibly tell that there is a difference between him and the rest of the trophy, if you really examine it.
Obviously there have been so many huge events at The Garden, I don’t really need to get into that here.
Also if you ever get the chance, visit the 9th floor where the signature suites are located. The coolest memorabilia in the building is up there, including one of those signed 50 greatest lithographs, Patrick Ewing and Wayne Gretzky’s locker, and even the statue of Joe Gans, a legendary African American boxer. This statue has the patina pretty much gone from his outstretched left arm is it was tradition for boxers to tap gloves with Joe for good luck before they took the ring. Now it sits up there, right next to the scale that was in use during the time of the fight of the century featuring Frazier and Ali. They also have an old school ice resurfacer up there, which is pretty cool.
Well, I’m sure there’s a ton that I left out - If you made it this far, you’re a champ.
TL;DR - Boston Garden was originally called Boston Madison Square Garden and was named after the arena in NY. There is only one 'The Garden' and it's super duper important. ;)
Edit - I should have mentioned wrestling. It’s intimately tied to MSG, but really deserves its own thread and I have no more characters!

One of my players notes that chronicle our sessions!

About 2 months worth of sessions happened before this particular player joined my game but she has been taking really great summary notes and recently sent them to me. Not all of the info is correct/names of people places spelled wrong but it’s really cool to see my players perception of what’s going on. She was absent for the last two sessions so she took notes based on word of mouth so some of those events aren’t necessarily in chronological order. It’s a long read and it might be hard to keep track of but I hope you enjoy it!
Session 1 (Oct 6th) Kit was the huntress of Queen Briand/Castle Holbrook—the queen adopted a young girl named Draya who doesn’t seem to age, even as the Queen sickens and becomes unresponsive. She’s been fleeing for a month from Castle Holbrook after witnessing horrible cult sacrifice led by Draya, pursued by hooded figures that seem immune to arrows. She’s met on the road by blue dragonborn (Saar), person dressed like a scarecrow (Skully), female aasimar in platemail (Marikiel), red tiefling in Emerald Sky Academy uniform (Neiros), tabaxi (Tazak), human bard (Robinson—I don’t think you ever met him, Chris) and a sad-looking horse (Saponlloe/Palloeson), plus a regal-looking man in merchant clothing (Gabriel) and his assorted guards. Kit blurts out the story to the group and asks them if they can help her get to Bell’s Ring for help from the wizards of the Academy. Gabriel knows Queen Briand and Draya, tells us they are coming to Bell’s Ring in about a month for a political retreat and meeting of allies. We camp on the road, notice a hooded figure with a gold fanged mask plus 9 others watching us. Their feet don’t touch the ground, and he can either see through Neiros’ invisibility or sense him by smell. Saponlloe pulls out an amulet that produces sunlight, which seems to burn them. They advance, we run to the town. Kit falls asleep in the back of their wagon, and we get to the city, where Gabriel shows a medallion to the guard for entrance and Kit is placed in the Stockade/barracks for her protection. Saponlloe reveals that he is a druid able to transform into a horse and stays with her because he feels his story is somehow connected to hers, even though he can’t remember much. The others go to the cathedral of Vertis and a library, and Robinson and Neiros stay at a different inn.
Session 2 (Oct 13th)
The Stockade is attacked during the night—the torches gutter out, the guards outside the door and right inside are slaughtered by something invisible/shadowy and the doors open on their own. A figure with a golden mask enters Kit’s locked room and recognizes Saponlloe but calls him Palloeson (“do you still feel the guilt of Reda/Retta?”), tells Kit “I won’t let you harm Draya!” and attacks, transporting the two of us to some sort of shadow realm for a round of combat. The other attackers overwhelm the guards, and even make some of the dead come back to life and fight. Tessa enters the Stockade midway through the battle and helps. After some combat, a winged demon figure with a sun emblem on his belt appears, admonishes Guilt/Corona Albright (gold mask) that this wasn’t part of the plan, and portals the two of them away to a view of a dark sky and a palisade wall, although we hold onto his mask. Marikiel is killed, Taz badly wounded and left at the cathedral to recover. Tessa tells us of her vision and her intent to join the party. Skully has a spotty memory of the letters “A_L_U_D_C_R_U_M” in some order or combination connected to his past. Saponlloe/Palloeson tells me of Reda, a young man/”Blessed One” whose murder he witnessed, and he remembers the name “Alucard” and some sort of blood moon in connection with the murder somehow with Skully’s clue. Saar collects Marikiel’s body and tells us of his plan to bring her back.
Session 3 (Oct 20th)
Saar knows of Sigmaris, a fabled city to the north where the dead can sometimes be brought back to life, and he plans to take Marikiel there. Tensions are heightened in the city, but we head to the bazaar to buy rations and warm clothes to head north. The tailor tells us of white-skinned elf living in the woods who could be a guide for us (Aedris). The gates are guarded, so Skully leads us out of the city through the sewers. We find Aedris in the woods; he tells us that his whole clan was slaughtered by someone named Rage leading the orcs/beastmen and he wants revenge in exchange for his help. We head to a nearby monastery for advice; leader tells us to try the White Drake Academy to the northwest. We travel 3 days with no interruptions, see a sign on the fourth day warning us of “greenskins” and pointing to Northshore (N), Morioh/Eagle’s Rest/White Drake Academy (W) and keep going west. We’re attacked by a group of goblins/orcs on the fifth day, and Taz is killed, but we get info from a survivor that they recognize the gold mask. Rage has one, and she now rules Baelsergo, the city of beasts to the north, and the Blood Drinkers (symbol on the orc clothing). So now we have RAGE (Aedris’ enemy), GUILT (Corona), and FEAR (Draya) connected with golden masks. We travel to the town of Morioh and sell some loot. Kit goes to the temple of Velen to search for answers, gets a vision of a dark sun from the statue at the altar. Skully and Palloeson have some more info on their amulets being keys to the Temple of the Sunwalker, somehow connected to the druids of the Dawnfire Archipelago and their enemies (evil bat druids), and the name Alucard Cruorem, who took something from the good druids. ALUCARD = Gabriel, who they were traveling with at the beginning!
Session 4 (Oct 27th)
( was only here for the last hour and a half or so, so I don’t know what happened in detail at the beginning of the session with the circus and such) We get to Eagles’ Rest. People from the party visit a circus where a woman named Belona throws herself on spikes and isn’t hurt by them. They somehow see her golden mask and decide to assassinate her because of her assumed connections to the other golden-masked figures. Something about her triggers Palloeson’s memory, and then he connects with a woman named Sara, who breeds horses, and spends time with her outside the city. Saar has reservations on killing Belona, but casts Detect Evil and is staggered by the sheer force of evil and tormented souls around her. A plan is made to silver the spikes she falls on and try to kill her. Saar sees the image of Vestis watching them in the crowd, a serial killer they killed earlier in the campaign—he puts on a golden mask and disappears. Aedris is the only one at the circus to observe, since Vestis won’t know him. Belona falls on the spikes and transforms into some immense terrible demon and murders most people in the tent, but Sara the horse breeder transforms into some sort of bright moon goddess and fights it, and they chase each other away over the hills. The party runs to the docks, steals a ship, and sails for the academy, bringing the bodies of Mary and Taz. We have to leave Tessa and Robinson behind. RAGE = Belona
Session 5 (Nov 3rd)
We sail to the peninsula with the Academy and Neiros goes off to talk to his grandmother. We know Vestis is a golden mask now, but we don’t know what corresponding emotion it is. Most of us head to the library for research, and Saar finds the Tomes of Understanding he’s been searching for. Skully finds info on the amulets and the druids of the Dawnfire Archipelago/Celestial Isles (Hircine people = eleves loyal to the god of the sun, drow = elves loyal to the god of the moon). Kit researches the next eclipse, and talks to a professor about the Celestial Isles, the druids of the Dawnfire Archipelago, and their Ritual of Ascension (meet a spirit animal in their dreams to become druids). He doesn’t know anything about the Temple of the Sunwalker or evil blood druids. We stay for a long time to let Saar and Scully read the first Tome, and Skully learns about his previous life that he can’t remember. Tessa catches up and shows us her new tattoos, which are part of the ones she had in her vision, and tells us just a bit about Galadia and her sword/her backstory. We overhear that Eagles’ Rest has requested help from the Academy against the Blood Drinkers. Palloeson communes with the Briar King and now has formidable power and a thorn-wrapped arm with a pool of blackness in his palm. We are teleported to Northshore, the closest teleport option to Sigmaris. Skully talks the lady blacksmith into silvering our weapons. We decide to camp outside after the inn owner is racist to Saar, but the orc force attacks in the night.
Session 6 (Nov 10th)
The soldiers of Northshore are heavily outnumbered; Saar, Aedris and Palloeson rush in to help, Kit follows at a distance. Skully sneaks in to get some of our weapons back and get civilians out. The three party members are knocked unconscious and taken away by a giant lizard to the NE as the townsfolk are rounded up and told to go about their business under new beastman rule. Kit runs back and tells the other of the kidnapping, they meet up with Skully, and they track them NE. The three are taken to Baelsergo and imprisoned, and the amulet is taken to Rage. Palloeson escapes, confronts Rage, and is killed. We pull off an escape plan for the rest, and get out into the woods, crossing rivers to throw off the scent.
Session 7 (Nov 17th)
We keep heading north to flee, and then realize that our plan to get to Sigmaris is foolish, especially since we no longer have the bodies of Mary and Taz. So we change course to Caspia to get Tessa where she needs to go. Skully tells us everything he learned from the Tome and that the mask and the amulet is somehow what made him a skeleton person. His name used to be Aethis, he knew Palloeson as a member of a druid council, Skully didn’t get in, and they trained and did bad things. He knew the people who are now the golden masks (Alucard = Gabriel Mercrow, FEAR = Draya Braves, GUILT = Corona Albright, RAGE = Belona, MISERY = Dresden Nabacroft, APATHY = Vestis). The area they were, the Hirstfall Islands, was hit with a plague and Gabriel’s family died, and he is mad because the islands were blockaded and he thinks that’s why they died--revenge?. We reach the Great Lake and see kobold settlements around it, build a boat, and set sail. We are stopped by Thoss the black dragon and talk our way past him, but then find out Vestis is following us. We call Thoss to help, Vestis fights him and both are badly hurt. Vestis flees and the party kills Thoss but Skully dies in the process.
Session 8 (Nov 24th)
We loot Thoss’ hoard and lay Skully and Palloeson to rest, but keep Skully’s skull and Palloeson’s briar arm and hair just in case. Vestis is back to following us and tells us that Gabriel is coming to get the amulet in 5 days, so we should just give it up. We decide to head for Caspia and head into a series of caves back towards Northshore (with some kobolds in tow), but are attacked by a roper and brains on legs. We win the fight and press on.
Session 9 (Dec 1st): first session when I am in VT and unable to play
The party makes it back to the town controlled by beasts, does some shopping, and meets with Alucard/Gabriel. They agree to give him the amulet if he shows them what he is planning with the three of them and then leaves us alone. Neiros and Saar get tattoos using the ashes of Palloeson and Skully. The group sets sail towards the Dawnfire Archipelago with Alucard. Draya torments Kit alon g the way until Tessa intercedes. Our boat is boarded by a slave trader, and we discover that Saar has been framed and is wanted for slave trading. We win the ensuing battle and take the leader’s boat, then sail to the Dawn Fire islands with Alucard’s group, fighting some elves who think we are the slavers (thus becoming the villains). The trip takes a week, and we eventually reach an island with a culture of elves. The grandmother of Erny’s new character (El o’El? Am I spelling this right?) thought it was the goddess Lunarra the whole time (whole culture deceived by Kil’Jaeden), and cannot believe they have been misled, so she sends him with us to undone what has been done.
Dec. 8th (2nd session away)
It takes three days to reach the tower from the island, a whole day for the party and Alucard’s group to climb to the top of the tower in the Dawnfire Archipelago and another day for part of the group to make their way back down into “the prison not meant to be seen”. Kit, Nieros, Tessa, stay at the top of the tower, and then go back down to hunt for some provisions. Aedris, inside the tower, finds a portal at the bottom and vanishes into the Feywild, taking the rest of the inside group with him. Gabriel and his group take the crown and bracers they were seeking and disappear, but these items were what held the prisoner in place, and he is freed. It turns out to be Kil’Jaeden, the Great Deceiver, and he is released upon the Feywild, his form that of a monstrous naga/yuan’ti. The toweportal sinks into the ground and disappears, leaving the rest of the group back at ground level fighting other snake-like creatures drawn by Kil’Jaeden’s release. We travel to Caspia by boat, with the trip taking 16 days total. The group planned to lie about being the owners of the slavery contract and have members of the crew pretend to be slaves, but thought better of it and told their guards the truth, probably saving their own lives. Tessa travels to the Hall of Contracts and writes a message to her father, who seems overjoyed to know she is back and tells her to wait for him at a fancy hotel suite. Tessa also discovers that the place she needs to visit for the next step of her journey is a tomb in the common district. The session ended with Kit, Tessa, Saar, Raymond (Travis’ new character), and Nieros in a posh hotel room in Caspia, waiting to meet Tessa’s father, and Erny’s character and Aedris off by themselves in the shopping district. They think that Tessa is in danger from her father and don’t want any part of it. (Kil’Jaeden has been out for 17 days. We know through Kit’s research at the Academy that the next eclipse, the vision of the dark sun that Tessa and Kit have both seen, is about a year away).
Dec. 15th In the back room of the Golden Sun, Tessa, Kit, Saar, Raymond, and Nieros decide to go out and do some shopping/explore the city while waiting for Tessa’s father to travel the seven days from Zweilkhad to Zanarkand to reach them. Tessa and Kit go to Latheos the clothing merchant for new, less-conspicuous outfits; loose white robes with hoods in fine material. Kit, as a paler-skinned human, stands out somewhat in Caspia, so she covers up and tries to avoid notice. Kit and Tessa also travel to the Sandy Shards weaponry shop, where Tessa translates for Kit and we buy crossbow bolts for the crossbow taken from Thoss’ hoard. Kit also spots an intricate longbow made from some flexible metallic material, which proves to be designed to take strain off of the drawer and allow for greater accuracy and damage (+1).Raymond the mercenary buys manacles, Kit buys some Caspian gold bead and jewelry, Aedris buys a new brush for Bazul, and we buy a bunch of health potions as a group from a red-skinned tiefling owner of the Fire & Fury. Shopping episode! The tiefling is teaching some children in Caspian, but Nieros and Tessa translate and we learn he is teaching a class on rudimentary elements of magic and the danger of pact bargains. Aedris is badly affected by the heat of Caspia, but borrows Raymond’s ice spear to cool himself down. He also brings most of the money looted from Thoss’ hoard to the Hall of Gold bank and creates an account/changes some into platinum for carrying ease. The group walks to the Housing District to find the statue that Tessa needs to see, but are approached by two women in gauzy purple and blue clothes asking for a good time. They hang on Aedris, Nieros, and Raymond. Raymond shoos them away, but they discovered a good portion of their gold missing. Nieros attempts to search for them, but they disappear into the crowd. When we reach the statue, it depicts a man pointing a sword missing its point to the west and slightly south (the statue of Stormscale was pointing out over the ocean to the north). Around the base of the statue a building has been put up, which appears to be some sort of small house and church meeting place. An old woman is inside, and she invites us in after Tessa explains she is on a pilgrimage as a follower of Bahamut. We head in to allow Tessa to read some historical scrolls and search the base of the statue. The scrolls have some obviously redacted/missing sections, and no mentions of Bahamut (Zanarkand is devout to Ifrit) but we learn this is a statue to Abdul Jakar, an ordinary man who led a rebellion, and he is buried in Bela Cruz. Nothing turns up on our search of the statue. Kit asks Tessa to teach her some useful Caspian phrases in our downtime, and she also finds a phrasebook in a local bookstore. The group deposits the rest of our funds into the bank in a joint account. Two members must be present to make transactions, and if no transactions are made after 5 years, they will presume the group is all dead and take the money. Nieros has a new fancy set of clothing designed. Saar and Nieros head to the Court of Ambassadors, a giant library, and Saar tries to find books on ritual magic, but instead they meet Ignis Fireseeker, the High Judge of Caspia, a huge, buff man with arrow tattoos around his eyes and a golden insignia on his belt. He tells them that the female pickpockets work for Betra’s Serpents, an immensely powerful master assassin conclave. Ignis tells them that there is a contract/bounty (50,000 g each) for them , but warns of the likelihood of death if they take it. There are rumors that the bar Caspian Nights is being used as a hideout, and their leader is The Fang. When they tell the rest of the group, Tessa reacts to the name Ignis. We name the group The Silver Dawn, and come up with nicknames, then timeskip to Tessa’ father arriving. We are escorted out of the hotel by 20 Juda-Fen (high ranking soldiers, white-skinned tieflings with gray blindfolds), then meet his caravans outside the city. Domina Highland is a tiefling with skin that is red, bordering on slighty purple, in a fancy overcoat and gold jewelry. He greets Tessa warmly, glad to see her back, and then we go as a group to meet the Emperor Tur’Koatl. The palace is immense, and the Emperor sits on a flame-shaped throne as we approach, bowing. We introduce ourselves, and he interacts with us as we do: tells Nieros that he knew of his grandmother, makes comments on Tiamat when Saar speaks, informs Kit that Caspia is at war with Ivalice, and calls Tessa “The Whore”, although Domina Highland tries to stop him. We tell him the details of Kil Jaeden’s release, and he seems pleased that Tessa told him before telling her father. He takes it as good news, and takes us on a tour around the city to greet his people. Raymond plays Kingdoms/Cappicho against the Emperor, a game that is like a combo of chess and checkers, and does quite well for a beginner. The Emperor chastises Tessa for assuming he didn’t already have the information when she attempts to explain/tell him of the danger, so she falls silent. Kit asks more about the war with Ivalice, and gets the same treatment: a bit more info (closed borders, no trade, stolen caravans), but then a reprimand. We get back to the caravans speak with Tessa’s father. She learns from him that Galadia was killed by the Serpents, hired by the Abysswaters because she spurned the marriage that had been arranged between Tessa and their son. They are the ones the sarted “The Whore”, but her mother and older sister played into it. He also tells us that he has spies in Ivalice, and Holbrook has allied itself with the two other major cities, which is strange, because they are usually sworn enemies. He also informs Kit that Queen Briand has recently passed and Draya is fully in charge. Kit passes over the information of her cult. Tessa tries to negotiate with her father over retrieving Thoss’ treasure, and we ask for the ship to be repaired/renamed
Note: if people are interested I can try to keep this going with updates. Also I’m not sure if my player who took these notes is a reddit user. If she is I will eventually give her credit for the note taking.
Edit: added Dec 15 session notes.
Edit: Add new session notes.
Dec. 22nd The group travels on the caravan towards Tessa’s home, but midway we pass a woman on the road and allow her to join the caravan (Esmeralda). We pass by a signpost with Belacruz scratched out. Several of us are startled as we notice that the caravan has suddenly shifted from three carts to two, people have shifted in looks/age, and we appear to be in some sort of timeshift. Some of the party members do not notice, or believe that everything is normal. A younger Emperor Ter’Koatl is onboard (approximately 10-15 years younger), and Tessa has become Abdul Jakar, the Chosen of Bahamut. Tessa warns Kit to not interrupt anything, but just to watch and listen to everything around us. We travel to Abdul Jakar’s village, where we are greeted warmly and a great feast is prepared. Tessa keeps up the charade of being Abdul. We are attacked at the feast by a large group of warforged. Abdul’s wife and child are slain, and just as a creature is about to kill the Emperor, Tessa/Abdul leaps in front of the blast and saves him. We suddenly pop back to our original reality, only Tessa has a new set of tattoos and is sobbing hysterically. Only some of the party are able to remember what happened. We reach the Highland home, and Tessa must greet her mother and sister, who are acidic and unwelcoming. Lissandra blames Tessa for her childish behavior and running away from home, forcing her to marry Stega’Agar of the Abysswater family and take on more family duties. Tessa apologizes, but Lissandra and her mother are unmoved. We are given rooms in the Highland’s household. The group splits up for the night, with Tessa, Kit, and Saar going to the Casino with Tessa’s father and the rest going to the library of the Highlands to do some research. The Casino group plays a few rounds of a blackjack-based game, on Domina Highland’s tab, until a strange woman comes over and offers us a bigger gamble. She pulls out a deck of cards, and tells us that if we can pull one certain card from the deck, she will pay us handsomely. Saar draws a card from the deck and gains 50,000 exp and a magical iron flask. The woman pulls a card and she and the deck pop out of existence. Tessa and Kit drink at the Casino until it is time to go home. We run into the library group, and Saar finds out that the flask is magical from Nieros. He then opens it, and a giant creature made of fire pours out, until Saar convinces it to get back into the flask. Raymond, Elowells, and Nieros stuff a bunch of books into Aedris’ bag of holding. Dec. 29th The party gathers in the Highland home the next morning and discusses the need to visit the dwarves and Draconia, and how to release Lunara from her imprisonment in the Black Temple, Kil Jaeden’s plane. We did find a book with a spell that can bring us to the Black Temple, but we are not yet a high enough level to cast it. Aedris begins to examine the six magical books that he, Saar, and Nieros grabbed from the Highland library. Saar prays to his goddess, and an eagle lands in his window and then flies off to the west. Through her hangover, Kit prays to Velen for strength and guidance. Tessa joins morning prayers with her family, and while her father is pleased to see her, her mother and sister are not. She learns that Lissandra will be marrying Stega’Agar in approximately 2 months/7 moon cycles, and that this marriage will help solidify business dealings between the two families. The party heads to the Nine Hells Academy to do some research, 2 families away from the Highland estate, a massive building of jet black stone with a sharp, jagged appearance. The library is staffed by Transmuted Horrors, twisted masses of flesh and human body parts created by Domina Experiyankas as servants. Raymond develops a permanent fear of them. While at the library, Saar researches Kil Jaeden’s plane, the Black Temple. After the God Wars the gods all chose to stay in their own planes as an act of neutrality. Saar intuits that Kil Jaeden probably switched places with Lunara somehow, willing to bide his time in the Feywild to have someone release him. Using this method, he could avoid the gods detecting him as he entered the Material Plane through the Maelstrom, breaking that neutrality. This means that Lunara truly is trapped, since gods cannot willingly leave another god’s plane. He also learns that the plane is inhabited mostly by yuan-ti and lost souls, and the Temple itself is guarded by a hydra. Kit researches Velen’s beginning and tenets—Velen and his brother Virtus were part of an adventuring party (including Dhal Ul, Leolothwyn, Perthamal, Shallisara, Drasta Stormscale, Agnizarro) who helped out in the chaos before the God Wars and rose to fame and glory. Somehow the two brothers ascended to godhood after slaying Neshrac, although the process is unknown. The group leaves the library and goes to buy some magical items (at a shop next to the smithy where Galadia worked), including a cloak of fear for Aedris. He decides to test it as we leave the shop, catching Eloells unaware and causing him to shoot a Transmuted Horror in his confusion. Bystanders cry out at the incident, and the party scatters in fear. Several party members duck into alleys, but Saar and Aedris attempt to rush past some guards and are captured and brought to the Hall of Justice. Tessa, back at the shop, explains what occurred to a guard, then goes off to find her father to speak on behalf of the prisoners. We are all brought before the High Judge, Domina Justicar. We are ordered to pay 40,000 gold (10,000 for attacking a guard and 10,000 per soul for the three souls needed to make another Transmuted Horror). We take 10,000 gold out of the bank and Domina Highland pays the other 30,000 in exchange for a 90% share of Thoss’ hoard. Tessa parts on worse terms with her family than when we started, and we walk the 16 days back to Zanarkand. We pass a caravan full of caged animals on the way, and Saar learns that the creature in the flask he received can grant three wishes, but accidentally wastes one wishing it back into the flask. Back in Zanarkand, Kit goes back to the weaponsmith where she bought her bow, learns that the material is called steelwood, and has it engraved with a stylized version of Velen’s shield and the word “sacrifice”. We get on our repaired boat and sail 13 days towards the islands of Arathaal (sp?). Tessa learns that there is a holy temple of Bahamut somewhere on the island. We see that the HIrstfall islands are ringed by a combined Caspian and Draconian fleet, not allowing other ships close. Saar communes with Palloeson’s soul, and it does answer his three questions about the inhabitants of the island, but it appears to release him from some sort of prison and his oily black horse form gallops towards the island. It leaves large puddles of blackness on the ship that swallow anything thrown into them and causes necromantic damage. Saar uses one wish from the djinn to wish the souls of Tazak, Marikiel, and Aethis/Skully peace, and tries to include Palloeson, but his soul does not respond. He uses the final wish to wish us capable of handling the threat that is Kil Jaeden. Kit has a vision in her seasickness of “our party” (viewing this as Velen) holding a black crystal with a red center. I stab my brother and pour his blood over the crystal, and then do the same to myself, and my vision goes to black. We make our way to the island Palloeson ran towards to find a giant black ooze where a building once stood, and some of the party follow the horse’s black hoofprints to a hill. Saar traps Palloeson in the now-empty flask, and they battle the Briar Knight and his briarbeasts, barely escaping with their lives.

MCU Movies Behind the Scenes Facts *Wanted to do this for fun* Day 6: The Avengers

So i'm going to go on IMDB and look at each MCU movies behind the scenes facts and POST THE MOST INTERESTING ONES here, I will post each movie a day instead of what I did before where I did 10 posts, I will start with the first Iron Man and each day will be the next MCU movie after it, ending with Guardians 3, I will also do the Netflix Shows, Agents of Shield and Agent Carter

THE AVENGERS

1. Robert Downey Jr. kept food hidden all over the lab set, and apparently nobody could find where it was, so they just let him continue doing it. In the movie, that's his actual food he's offering, and when he was eating, it wasn't scripted, he was just hungry.

2. Reportedly, Iron Man's "Let's just not come in tomorrow" speech was improvised by Robert Downey, Jr., as was "Doth mother know thou weareth her drapes?"

3. There were very few times that everyone was in town at once, but on one night when they were, Chris Evans sent them all a text message simply saying "Assemble" (the tagline to the movie), prompting a night out on the town. Clark Gregg has stated that this is his favorite text message that he has ever received.

4. Robert Downey, Jr. asked the Marvel production manager permission to take away the letter "A" that was on the Stark Tower with him, but he declined. However, on his next birthday, the manager gave it to him as a gift.

5. Reportedly, a scene was filmed where, during the final battle, Captain America saves an old man trying to protect his grandchildren. He tells him to "Get them to cover", but as he walks away, the old man asks him "Cap, is that really you?" He turns and, noting the man's World War II veteran lapel pin, trades salutes with him. As Captain America sprints away, the children ask their grandfather, "Do you know him?", and he replies "We ALL know him."

6. Gwyneth Paltrow is noticeably barefoot in all of her scenes in Stark Tower, while Robert Downey, Jr. is in three or four-inch platform shoes, so he looks taller than her.

7. (At around two hours) When the missile is released over Manhattan, the pilot calls detonation in two minutes and thirty seconds. The sequence between then, and the detonation, is two minutes and thirty seconds of film time.

8. In the final end credit scene, Captain America is the only one not eating. That is because Chris Evans got a buzz cut, and grew out his beard after this movie was done filming. He was called in later to do this extra scene, and refused to shave off his beard, due to filming Snowpiercer (2013) at the time, so they gave him a prosthetic jaw. He holds his hand over his face because the prosthetic made him look like he'd been attacked by a hive of angry bees. He also is unable to eat or talk with the prosthetic on. The wig he wears is also quite clearly visible in certain shots of this scene.

9. To prepare for the role of Agent Clint Barton (Hawkeye), Jeremy Renner was trained by Olympic archers.

10. Joss Whedon explained that two of the founding Avengers members, Ant-Man and Wasp, were cut from the script because the film had too many characters. Also, the screenwriters didn't want Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe until his movie was released.

11. (At around fifty-four minutes) According to writer and director Joss Whedon, the "That man is playing Galaga!" line was ad-libbed by Robert Downey, Jr., and worked so well that Whedon decided to add in an image of Galaga on "that man's" console as the scene's punchline.

12. (At around forty-six minutes) After Thor takes Loki off the Quinjet down on the mountain side, two large ravens fly by them as they are talking. In Norse mythology, Thor's father Odin had two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, who would bring Odin information from Midgard (Earth). (This film repeats the "family tree" error from the original Marvel comics.)

13. Chris Hemsworth had to increase and expand his food intake in order to maintain the physique he built up for Thor (2011), consisting of chicken breasts, fish, steak, and eggs every day (Hemsworth said he had to consume "his body weight in grams of protein.").

14. (At around two hours) The shocked expression of Loki, after being slammed by The Incredible Hulk, was created by animation director Marc Chu, shaking Tom Hiddleston violently and repeatedly.

15. (At around fifty-five minutes) Chris Evans was unsure about his character's line, "I understood that reference!", because he was worried that it would make audiences think that his character was unintelligent. However, he was quickly comforted after he watched the movie with an audience, and he saw that they found the line humorous, as opposed to stupid.

16. (at around two hours and five minutes) The Hulk bringing Iron Man back to consciousness by roaring at him was improvised by Mark Ruffalo during his motion-capture performance.

17. (At around thirty-nine minutes) The German police car skidding on its front end after Loki blasts it was a complete accident, as it failed to flip over initially.

18. Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury is from the Ultimate Marvel Universe, created in 2000 to re-imagine and update the Marvel heroes for the twenty-first century. Fury's likeness was actually based on Jackson, who gave Marvel permission to do so. Subsequently, based on that likeness and his star power, Jackson was cast as Fury for all Marvel Cinematic Universe films, starting with Iron Man (2008).

19. Clint Barton (Hawkeye) is an ambidextrous archer (although Jeremy Renner is left-handed). He is seen shooting right-handed in Thor (2011) and both left-handed and right-handed in this film.

20. The final end credit scene was added after Robert Downey, Jr. encouraged a scene re-write. After Tony Stark falls back to Earth, he originally awakens and asks, "What's next?" Robert Downey, Jr. thought the line could be more interesting, and the idea of going to a local shawarma restaurant was born. The scene was added one day after the global premiere. Since then, shawarma sales in Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Boston have reportedly skyrocketed.

21. (At around one hour and eleven minutes) The laboratory scene, where Bruce Banner explains how he once attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself in the mouth is a direct reference to a deleted scene from The Incredible Hulk (2008), where Edward Norton's Bruce Banner tried to commit suicide in this manner out in the middle of Alaska's wilderness, only to be stopped by his transformation into the Hulk.

22. Joss Whedon suggested to Marvel that there should be a bigger villain plotting behind the scenes, which enabled Loki to conquer the Earth, and that someone should be Thanos the Mad Titan. The executives just rolled with it.

23. According to writer and director Joss Whedon, the original cut of the movie was over three hours long. About thirty minutes of the excised footage are included on the Blu-ray, most of which revolves around Steve Rogers (Captain America) struggling to adjust to the modern world.

24. There are two spoken references to the early The Incredible Hulk comic books. When Captain America is giving orders, he says "Hulk, smash", a catchphrase uttered by the Hulk in the comics, as well as The Incredible Hulk (2008). After the Hulk thrashes Loki, he says "Puny god", a reference to another oft-repeated Hulk phrase, "Puny humans".

25. The first Marvel Cinematic Universe film to earn $1 billion.

26. Samuel L. Jackson's role as Nick Fury in this film makes him the second actor (after Hugh Jackman, who has appeared in all of the X-Men movies) to play the same comic book character in five different movies.

27. Joss Whedon had earlier been considered to direct X-Men (2000) in the 1990s. A big fan of the X-Men, he even wrote a script, from which only two lines made it into the film. He wrote the story "Gifted" for "Astonishing X-Men", which became the basis for X-Men: The Last Stand (2006).

28. Sound editor Christopher Boyes has stated that he went through a complicated process to craft the Hulk's voice. The final product "turned out to be (a combination of) Mark Ruffalo, some Lou Ferrigno, and a little bit of me and two people from New Zealand."

29. There was going to be a brief fight scene between Iron Man and the brainwashed Hawkeye as a nod to Hawkeye starting off as an Iron Man villain in the comics.

30. (At around fifty-three minutes) According to Joss Whedon's commentary, Bruce Banner's saying of Loki, "You can smell crazy on him" was a set-up for when the Hulk faces off against Loki in Stark Tower. Originally, Loki was going to make multiple versions of himself and the only way the Hulk was going to discern where Loki was, was to smell them. Only the real Loki would have a scent.

31. Originally, Joss Whedon had not intended the film to include supporting characters from the heroes' individual films, reasoning, "You need to separate the characters from their support systems in order to create the isolation you need for a team." However, he eventually decided to cast Stellan Skarsgård, Paul Bettany, and Gwyneth Paltrow (Paltrow was cast at Robert Downey Jr.'s insistence).

32. Tony Stark casually refers to three of the other main characters, Loki, Thor, and Hawkeye, as either movie characters, or movie titles. He calls Loki "Reindeer Games", Thor "Point Break", and Hawkeye "Legolas".

33. Edward Norton was originally set to reprise his role from The Incredible Hulk (2008), but negotiations between him and Marvel Studios broke down. Norton was replaced with Mark Ruffalo, who had also been considered for the role in the prior movie.

34. The character to whom the Other is talking in the credits is Thanos the Mad Titan, a major supervillain in the Marvel Universe. He is a cosmic mass murderer, who is literally in love with the personification of Death, which is why he is smiling at the phrase, "To court death".

35. (At around two hours) After Iron Man flies through a Leviathan, he can be seen crashing on the ground in front of a Shawarma Palace, which later appeared in the post-credits scene.

36. (At around one hour and twenty-nine minutes) One of the cards in Agent Coulson's Captain America card set is a reproduction of Captain America's first comic book appearance, where he punched out Adolf Hitler.

37. The crew hired twenty-five members of the Ohio-based 391st Military Police Force Battalion for the attack on New York City, to add realism to the battle.

38. According to writer and director Joss Whedon, the film is strongly influenced by the early 1960s Avengers comics, of which he was a fan while growing up: "In those comics, these people shouldn't be in the same room, let alone on the same team, and that is the definition of family."

39. Disney had the film's title changed in the United Kingdom to "Marvel Avengers Assemble" to avoid confusion with the iconic British espionage franchise The Avengers (1961) and The Avengers (1998).

40. Surpassed The Dark Knight (2008)'s record of $1,001,921,825 to become the highest-grossing comic book film of all time.

41. In the movie, Captain America is a founding member. In the comics, Captain America was unfrozen in Avengers #4, when he was accidentally discovered, when the team was looking for Namor the Sub Mariner.

42. Writer and director Joss Whedon supposedly had a detailed backstory for Hawkeye written up, but was unable to even reference any of it due to time constraints. During the early planning stages, Hawkeye was envisioned to be depicted as a circus performer, trained by supervillains, who manipulate him into fighting the team, essentially a modernized version of his 616 origin story. At another point, he was planned to debut in Iron Man 2 (2010) as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., who works closely with Natasha Romanov, a.k.a. Black Widow, and Nick Fury.

43. According to Joss Whedon, the arrangement of the monitors on the Helicarrier bridge were arranged to resemble the wings of the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo. The eagle head can actually be seen at the foot of the conference round table at the end of the film, when repairs are being made.

44. Lou Ferrigno contributed to the voice of the Hulk in this film. He has played the Hulk in almost every live-action version since 1978: he played the Hulk in the television series The Incredible Hulk (1978), and its subsequent three television specials. He voiced the Hulk in the big-screen The Incredible Hulk (2008), in which he also played a security guard. He also played a security guard in Hulk (2003). He also has voiced the Hulk in various animated productions.

45. Alyson Hannigan from Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1996) (and wife of Alexis Denisof, who plays The Other in the film), recommended her How I Met Your Mother (2005) co-star Cobie Smulders, for the part of Agent Maria Hill.

46. The cast became good friends while filming, so if all of the cast members happened to be filming scenes together in the same place, they would go out together afterwards.

47. This was the highest grossing film of all time not directed by James Cameron (it was third under Titanic (1997)'s second place and Avatar (2009)'s first). It has since been replaced by Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015).

48. (At around two hours) When filming the scene of Loki yelling at the Hulk, Tom Hiddleston had a rope tied to his leg, and since the Hulk is just CGI, when the rope was pulled, it would appear that the Hulk had grabbed him. Tom knew it was going to be pulled during the speech, but he didn't know when, so that he wouldn't be anticipating it.

49. Mark Ruffalo claims to be the only actor to date (2012) to play both The Hulk and Bruce Banner in the same movie. Technically, Eric Bana and Edward Norton had done motion-capture work for their respective Hulks, but Ruffalo is the first actor to perform the Hulk live on-set via performance capture. What is most certainly a confirmed "first" for Ruffalo's Hulk, however, is clearly defined chest hair (of which Ruffalo has plenty). That has absolutely never been done before in any portrayal of the Hulk, whether it be live, animated, or drawn.

50. (At around twenty-six minutes) Tony says Coulson's name is Agent. This refers to the fact that originally, his character was only going to be called Agent.

51. According to Vulture Magazine, this is the amount of screentime each hero has in the film: -Steve Rogers/Captain America: 37:42. -Tony Stark/Iron Man: 37:01. -Natasha Romanov/Black Widow: 33:35. -Bruce BanneThe Hulk: 28:03. -Thor: 25:52. -Clint Barton/Hawkeye: 12:44.

52. The name "chitauri" originates from Zulu mythology, and is used to describe a "serpent race from the sky". Mark Millar, the creator of "The Ultimates", took the name from the writings of David Icke, who argues that these "chitauri", are in fact aliens, bent on dominating humanity.

53. Tom Hiddleston describes Loki in this film as having evolved since Thor (2011): "How pleasant an experience is it to disappear into a wormhole that was created by some super-nuclear explosion of his own making? I think by the time Loki shows up, he's seen a few things, and has bigger things in mind than just his brother and Asgard."

54. Thor is knocked off screen four times: twice by Iron Man, and twice by The Incredible Hulk.

55. (At around one hour and forty minutes) Tony Stark describes his group as "Earth's mightiest heroes, that kind of thing." This refers to the famous tagline that has been featured on the cover of "The Avengers" comic books since its 1963 debut. The phrase was also used as the subtitle for the animated series, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010).

56. The female superhero The Wasp was included in an early draft of the script. She was, however, replaced with the already-existing Natasha Romanov, a.k.a. Black Widow.

57. Thor spends most of this movie in his Asgardian armor, but with bare arms, a nod to his early appearances in the comics. During his time on the Helicarrier, he is also seen without his cape, an allusion to his Ultimate Comics appearance.

58. Loki brings the Chitauri alien race to Earth to help him invade it. The Avengers are formed to prevent this from occurring. This is in keeping with the first issue of their self-titled comic book series, in which Loki is responsible for manipulating a chain of disasters that bring The Avengers together in the first place.

59. Dr. Bruce Banner doesn't turn into The Incredible Hulk until one hour and fourteen minutes in.

60. (At around twenty-seven minutes) When Agent Coulson visits Stark Tower, Pepper asks him about the cellist in Portland. Tony is also heard telling Coulson he could fly him to Portland (at around fifty-three minutes). This woman ends up being a plot point for an episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013).

61. Natalie Portman was going to cameo as Jane Foster, but had to drop out when she became pregnant.

62. An alternate opening and ending frame the movie as a flashbacks from Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), allowing them to simultaneously flesh out her dislike towards Fury's methods and her undying loyalty to S.H.I.E.L.D.

63. Scarlett Johansson turned down a role in Total Recall (2012) due to her commitment to this movie.

64. Mark Ruffalo's performance of the Hulk is the first created by motion-capture. Previous live-action versions have either had Bruce Banner and the Hulk be played by separate people (Bill Bixby and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno), or were key-frame animated.

65. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey described the film's look as visceral and naturalistic: "We wanted this to feel immersive, and did not want a comic book look that might distance an audience. We moved the camera a lot on Steadicam, cranes, and on dollies, to create kinetic images, and we chose angles that were dramatic, like low angles, for heroic imagery."

66. The Chitauri appeared in the first story arc of "The Ultimates", an alternate universe retelling of the origins of the Marvel superheroes. In the comics, their leader claims that they go by many names, including Skrulls. It was originally assumed that the reason for using "The Chitauri", instead of "The Skrulls", was because Twentieth Century Fox owns the rights to the Fantastic Four and their supporting characters. However, Marvel Studios' President of Production Kevin Feige stated in an interview that the film rights to the Skrulls are not owned by either Marvel Studios or Twentieth Century Fox. They were not being used as Joss Whedon did not want to use shape-shifters in the first film.

67. Jon Favreau was at one point attached to direct, and stayed on as executive producer.

68. Thor doesn't appear until almost forty-five minutes in.

69. Mark Ruffalo describes Bruce Banner as "a guy struggling with two sides of himself, the dark and the light; everything he does in his life is filtered through issues of control." He furthermore describes Banner's alter-ego the Hulk as "a loose cannon. He's the teammate none of them are sure they want, it's like throwing a grenade into the middle of the group and hoping it turns out well!"

70. (At around fifty-six minutes) In the film, Bruce Banner references the fact that the last time he was in New York City, he "broke Harlem". This is a reference to The Incredible Hulk (2008), when The Hulk fought The Abomination in Harlem, New York.

71. This film holds an unusually high number of Academy Award nominees in the cast and crew for a comic book movie: Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Joss Whedon, and Seamus McGarvey, possibly many others. This tops Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2010) which each had four acting nominees a piece.

72. (At around one hour and thirty minutes) Harry Dean Stanton, who appears as the janitor who discovers Banner after he fell from the Helicarrier, asks "are you an alien?" Stanton was known for his role as Brett in Alien (1979).

73. The title screen doesn't appear until twelve minutes into the film.

74. Only the paint on Captain America's shield is scratched in the film. In the comics, his shield is made of an adamantium and vibranium alloy, with a third mystery catalyst, and can only be damaged by beings who possess nearly ultimate power, such as Molecule Man, Rune King, Thor, or Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet. The shield is otherwise impervious.

75. (At around one hour and eleven minutes) When Banner talks about having tried to kill himself, by putting a bullet in his mouth, but the Hulk spit it out. In the deleted scene of The Incredible Hulk (2008), where Banner goes to kill himself, he clearly never got the chance to shoot himself, since the Hulk starts to appear to stop him.

76. (At around thirty minutes) In order to create a total extra-terrestrial look for the Chitauri, they have four thumbs, two on each hand. This can be seen, when Loki is talking with The Other.

77. Several members of the cast participated in adaptations of comic book and/or graphic novel adaptations outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Scarlett Johansson appeared in Ghost World (2001), The Spirit (2008), and Ghost in the Shell (2017). Chris Evans appeared in Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), TMNT (2007), The Losers (2010), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), and Snowpiercer (2013). Powers Boothe (who provides a cameo in the film) appeared in Sin City (2005). Alexis Denisof appeared in several DC productions beforehand. Samuel L. Jackson appeared in The Spirit (2008).

78. (At around two hours and ten minutes) At the end of the film, when the news clip of Beth the waitress appears on Nick Fury's computer screen, it is listed as S.H.I.E.L.D. File A113. "A113 is the room number of the animation classroom at CalArts. The A113 reference is a running gag in films made by Pixar and Disney, starting with Toy Story (1995), a film partially written by Joss Whedon, who wrote and directed this movie.

79. The outdoor scenes, which were supposed to take place in Germany, but were filmed in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, contained numerous Cleveland Historical landmarks including; Tower City, Higbee Building and Casino, the Renaissance Building, and the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument.

80. The film's shooting schedule was ninety-three days, but filming was completed one day early.

81. The first film to gross $200 million in its first three days in the U.S.

82. The weapons powered by the Tesseract are all engraved with H.Y.D.R.A.'s emblem.

83. Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans appeared in The Perfect Score (2004) and The Nanny Diaries (2007). Robert Downey, Jr. and Mark Ruffalo appeared in Zodiac (2007).

84. The twelfth film to surpass the $1 billion mark worldwide, and the tenth to surpass the $400 million mark in the U.S. It tied with Avatar (2009) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) for surpassing the $1 billion mark worldwide in the fastest time (nineteen days), and set the record of surpassing the $400 million mark in the U.S. (fourteen days).

85. This is the first Marvel film to be distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.

86. Two founding members of The Avengers from the comics were left out of this movie: Ant-Man and The Wasp. They were replaced by Hawkeye and Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow, in an attempt to better integrate S.H.I.E.L.D. into the story.

87. Due to UK copyright issues over the name, Marvel had to release the film in the UK under the name "Avengers Assemble", as there had already been an unrelated film with Sir Sean Connery and Ralph Fiennes released by Warner Brothers, The Avengers (1998). That movie was based on The Avengers (1961), which starred Patrick Macnee. As Warner Brothers UK owned the copyrighted name, and objected to Marvel using it, Marvel were forced to change the name to "Avengers Assemble" for its UK theatrical and home video release. As film prints and marketing for the Republic of Ireland were handled by Disney UK. They decided to stick with the name change for that territory too, for cost effectiveness reasons.

88. Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes was considered to have a cameo in the post-credits scene, where he is wearing his War Machine armor, only to find out he came too late for the battle, and sits down with The Avengers, but the scene was thrown away to where they just show The Avengers eating.

89. This is only the second time that Bruce Banner, a.k.a. Hulk, and Thor have appeared together in a movie. They previously appeared together in NBC's television film The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988), which starred Bill Bixby as Dr. David Bruce Banner.

90. Before Mark Ruffalo was cast as The Hulk, Joaquin Phoenix was rumored for the part. Joaquin Phoenix was also rumored for the part of Dr. Stephen Strange in Doctor Strange (2016).

91. Due to this movie's record-breaking success at the box office, it made Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey, Jr., and Scarlett Johansson three of the top ten highest grossing actors and actress of all time at second, fifth, and tenth respectively.

92. Morena Baccarin, Jessica Lucas, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Cobie Smulders screentested for the role of Agent Maria Hill.

93. Powers Boothe, who played a World Security Council member, was also featured in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013) playing the same character, whose name was revealed to be Gideon Malick.

94. (At around seventeen minutes) Mark Ruffalo also ad-libbed touching a baby's cradle in the abandoned house, in which he meets Natasha Romanov, a.k.a. Black Widow.

95. One draft of the movie had it taking place from Tony's point of view.

96. The Science and Entertainment Exchange provided science consultation for the film.

97. The sixth and final chapter of Phase One in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

98. (At around one hour and forty-five minutes) Enver Gjokaj played the young police officer to whom Captain America gives orders at the beginning of the battle of New York City. He also played Agent Sousa on Agent Carter (2015).

99. The highest grossing film of 2012.

100. When Loki is held prisoner on the helicarrier, the computer screen monitoring him shows an infrared image of the cell. Loki's temperature is shown as blue (cold) due to the fact that he is a frost giant by nature.

101. (At around thirty-two minutes) When Agent Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) is on the Helicarrier showing Captain Rogers (Chris Evans) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) around, she's wearing a black jacket and pants with a red shirt underneath, signifying the iconic colors of her code name: Black Widow.

102. As of October 2014, this is the highest grossing Marvel movie of all time.

103. The film was originally rated R. It took Marvel three tries with the MPAA to grant the film a PG-13, instead of an R rating, because of Agent Coulson's death scene. Originally, Loki's staff was seen bursting through his chest. Instead, a gruesome sound effect was added after Loki appears behind him, and then a quick-cut to Thor's reaction.

104. This was the highest-grossing film in Malaysia, grossing about $10.96 million.

105. This movie is the second highest-grossing film of all time in the Philippines, with over 601 million PHP (over $13.3 million U.S.) in box office revenue, behind Iron Man 3 (2013).

106. The film was released in theaters on May 2012, one year and four months before the 50th Anniversary of the original "Avengers" comic.

107. Lindsay Lohan reportedly auditioned for a role.

108. Joe Carnahan was considered to direct the film before Joss Whedon was finally chosen.

109. Amanda Peet was considered for the role of Agent Maria Hill.

110. This movie, as well as Avengers: Infinity War (2018) are the only times where two Infinity Stones are in the same movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

111. Loki's name is mentioned or used by other characters thirty-three times.

112. The only film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in which Thanos is not played by Josh Brolin.

113. As each character is introduced, the previous scene references that character. It begins when Fury says to call in the rest of the team, leading to the next scene of Black Widow being called. In that scene she is told to bring in "the big guy", referencing the Hulk. The next scene has her luring Bruce Banner. In the next scene, Fury is having a video conference with the World Security Council and says a war is won with soldiers, leading to the next scene with Captain America. In that scene, he says the tesseract should've been left in the ocean, leading to the next scene, in which Iron Man is in the water.

114. Since landing on the Helicarrier, Bruce Banner wears a purple shirt. In the comics, The Hulk predominantly wears purple pants.

115. Tony and Steve's constant bickering towards each other and near confrontation on the Helicarrier is a nod to their Civil War story line where they took opposing sides to superhero registration.

116. CAMEO: Stan Lee: (At around two hours and ten minutes) Creator of such Marvel comics as the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, and many others, is the old man being interviewed at the end of the New York battle montage who says: "Superheroes in New York? Give me a break!" and then returns to a game of chess with a fellow senior citizen. He also appeared in a deleted scene: after witnessing a waitress flirt with Steve Rogers, Lee's character says, "Ask for her number, you moron!"

117. According to Joss Whedon, it was his decision to include Thanos in a post-credits scene: "He, for me, is the most powerful and fascinating Marvel villain. He's the great-granddaddy of the badasses, and he's in love with Death, and I just think that's so cute. Somebody had to be in control, and had to be behind Loki's work, and I was like 'it's got to be Thanos'."

118. (At around one hour and nine minutes) While Fury and the Avengers are arguing with each other on the Helicarrier, characters throw certain remarks that coincidentally foreshadow plot points in subsequent films: Steve asks Tony what he is without his armor, a topic deeply analyzed in Iron Man 3 (2013); Fury aggressively chastised Thor about foreign species going to his planet to "blow stuff up", which comes into play in Thor: The Dark World (2013), with the invasion of Asgard by the Dark Elves. The most unassuming one (which is ironically translated into the biggest plot point in the whole cinematic universe) is when Bruce asks Natasha if Captain America is on threat watch, to which she replies "we all are". In Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Steve (and by extension, Natasha) becomes a fugitive of S.H.I.E.L.D. after the "murder" of Nick Fury. Natasha also mentions that S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors potential threats, which plays heavily into this film as well.

119. (At around one hour and twelve minutes) A few seconds before Hawkeye's attack on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier, Bruce Banner finds the Tesseract's location on the computer. This explains why he later arrives in New York City during the invasion of the Chitauri, after the Hulk fell to the ground from the Helicarrier, during Hawkeye's attack.

120. Body Count: one hundred fifty-one (including the Chitauri).

121. (At around thirty-seven minutes) Jasper Sitwell, outed as a H.Y.D.R.A. operative in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), makes an appearance in this film. He is the Agent who first finds Loki in Germany, through the facial recognition they were running.

122. It was revealed in an interview that the Galaga playing SHIELD agent was dusted behind the scenes of Avengers Infinity War.

July 29th, 2019: Cawdor23 Interview

Tell us a little about yourself.
I'm just a guy in his early thirties living in the oven that is called Phoenix, Arizona with a wife (If you're reading this, hi honey!), cat, and two ferrets. After too many stops and starts I've finally started going to school consistently and am officially starting at ASU in the fall studying Biomedical Engineering. I'd eventually like to work on artificial limbs.
Or turn people into cyborgs.
On top of delivering pizzas and school I also do a little bit of Amplifier repair work and deal Craps and Blackjack for various casino party companies.
When did you first become interested in horror?
The first books I could ever remember reading were the Goosebumps books by R.L. Stein. That combined with the fact that my father was a big horror fan himself (He let me watch Alien for the first time when I was about eight years old) eventually led me to start reading Stephen King. I can't definitively say when I first became interested in horror as a genre as it's basically been around me all of my life in one form or another.
Was there a specific moment you knew you wanted to write in that genre?
I wrote stories of all types for a long time without any real direction on what type I wanted to focus on. While I did read a lot of Stephen King and grew up with him I also read a lot of Sci-Fi and Fantasy along the way as well. When I really decided to focus in on horror was after reading "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski for the first time when I was eighteen. That was when I learned that horror wasn't just scary monsters or people in hockey masks chasing horny teenagers around a lake. It evoked that deeply unsettling feeling that you can't define and makes you more terrified because you can't.
I knew I wanted to evoke that feeling in people. That feeling of 'something's not right but I can't pinpoint it'. A terror and looming dread hiding in the periphery of your vision that you think you saw for just a second but when you look is no longer there.
I don't think I've gotten there yet. But I'm working on it.
Where do you find inspiration? Have real life experiences ever made their way into your work?
I try to find inspiration anywhere I can. A lot of my ideas come from thinking about something weird that I saw or can't explain and coming up with some sort of story around it. A good example of this is the sign in "I deliver Pizzas". I can't speak for the extradimensional abilities of the street, but the sign and street are real and it's really goddamn weird. Especially since the sign says 'no exit' and the street it's on actually does have an exit.
Sometimes it's something mundane that I see if I can make weird or creepy (like Canada Geese, for example).
One of the biggest fears I have is losing control of my own mind and will to some type of disease like Alzheimer's and that's led to a decent amount of ideas. That has served as one of the major inspirations for a couple of my stories, the main one being "I was a test subject for a medical experiment..."
How did you discover NoSleep? What prompted you to begin writing for it?
I actually got an amazon recommendation on my Kindle for the PenPal ebook quite a bit ago and bought it with no knowledge of its origins on reddit. When I looked up more information about it I found the creepypasta channels on Youtube (CreepsMcPasta and MrCreepypasta specifically) and listened to the other stuff they had.
It was a number of years later that I finally found where the hell all of these stories had come from. I had stopped writing for quite a bit of time when I turned twenty three because of the amount of rejection letters I got from various Litmags and was fed up with trying to get published anywhere.
A little over a year ago while browsing reddit I found the writingprompts subreddit and thought it looked fun so I tried that for a little while. It's good practice but the most notice I got over there was a response that was essentially an extended rickroll. When I looked for a subreddit dedicated to original writing not based on prompts I stumbled on this little corner of the internet.
Was it difficult transitioning from the WritingPrompts format to writing for NoSleep?
It's a fun activity and great practice but I had pretty much no problem switching to the NoSleep writing format. I had already been listening to the stories on the more well known youtube channels for a little while and caught the general idea of how the stories should be formatted pretty quickly, although there have definitely been a few stumbles along the way (Mostly the believability rule).
But honestly I just enjoy writing horror stories so much more than the Scifi/Fantasy stuff that permeates that sub, and as anyone can tell you that if you enjoy it it's hardly work.
Do you have a favorite writing prompt you wrote for the sub?
[WP] When the king dies, a 100 floor tower falls from the sky and the crown returns to the top floor. Many climbers form adventuring parties to reach the top in hope of being the next ruler. Posted by u/lordhelmos
I enjoyed it so much I ended up writing 12k words that made up the beginning of a novel. Unfortunately I have a terrible attention span and it didn't manage to hold my attention at the time enough to finish it. Although once I get my short story collection out it's my plan to try and flesh it out into an entire novel. I think it'll be nice to have a bit of a departure from my usual stuff.
What NoSleep stories and/or authors have had the strongest impact on you?
u/1000vultures definitely as it's the first piece of fiction I'd read from the subreddit. u/The_Dalek_Emperor is another favorite (I know I'm not the first to say it, but Borrasca is an absolute masterpiece).
Since becoming involved and reading the subreddit more I've really enjoyed stuff by u/EZmisery, u/Colourblindness, u/Scott_Savino, u/Poloniumpoisoning, and many more that I'm going to feel bad later for forgetting to mention because this place has so many good writers on it.
What is the most terrifying thing you have personally experienced?
When I was fifteen my Grandmother was on her deathbed in a hospice. She was in her late eighties and had been sick with pneumonia for a couple of days. When it was obvious she wasn't going to get better my siblings and I were taken out of school. I can remember waiting outside of her room with my brother and sisters while, one at a time, each of us went in to say our goodbyes.
This was a women I had seen nearly every single week for my entire life. She had all of these machines hooked up to her. An IV. A breathing mask. It was hard to actually see the fragile old woman buried underneath the tubes and blankets.
I started crying and couldn't stop. I could hear the looming specter of death in every raspy breath. It was the first time I could ever remember seeing someone that close to death.
We're incredibly sorry for your loss, that's heartbreaking. Thank you for sharing. <3 Do you think that experience played a role in your interest in writing stories that explore the concept of an afterlife?
Time doesn't heal all wounds but it definitely dulls it. It was 17 years ago and it doesn't occupy my mind too much lately. But thank you :)
I don't personally believe in an afterlife, but it definitely made me think about the concept more than I had at any point in my life up until then. My parents were never very religious so I hadn't been to synagogue or church enough to really think about it much. It was a nice thought at first to think that my Grandmother was around and watching over us. That she was still capable of feeling love.
Over the years though the thoughts became a bit darker. As I got older the concept became less and less nice to think about. Eternity is a very, very long time and no matter how pleasant would eventually get to the point that it would be impossible to enjoy anything. There is no adversity to overcome in paradise, and hence nothing to strive for.
Paradise sounds boring. And an eternity of boredom doesn't sound like paradise to me.
What are some of your biggest influences from media?
I love Brandon Sanderson's world building.
Stephen King, as I said before, has been a huge influence as well. I could only dream to make as realistic characters as him.
Pretty much everything Neil Gaiman has ever done. The Sandman comic book series especially. The Twilight Zone.
H.P. Lovecraft minus the racism.
The Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.
And of course the comedy stylings of the MST3K crew on the satellite of love.
Other than writing, what are some of your hobbies? What other creative mediums do you enjoy?
I'm a gigantic nerd and am always up for a good game of Magic the Gathering or a session of DnD. While I don't like puzzles very much I do enjoy solving problems around the house. It makes me feel useful when I can fix a garbage disposal or replace a broken stair railing.
D&D, eh? exits out of a tab with an alignment chart spreadsheet of all the NSI mods We may have played a campaign or two before. What's your favorite character class to play?
Warlocks! Whether I'm making a deal for a book of shadows from a celestial or enslaving an imp with the power from an unknown elder god from the great beyond I enjoy the variety of things a warlock can do. Plus getting back spells on a short rest is always nice.
Do you ever explore writing other genres besides horror? If so, what other styles of writing? Which do you prefer?
Before nosleep I was mostly interested in Fantasy and Science fiction. On my subreddit I have about the first 15k words of an unfinished fantasy novel and the first 10k of an unfinished Science fiction comedy novel. I still haven't decided if I'm going to finish either eventually.
You've dabbled in humor before with your Possessed Dumbass series. Did you find writing something with more comedic tones to be more fun or challenging?
It's definitely a lot of fun. A ridiculous amount of fun, if I'm being honest, but very hard to pull off in an effective way. If you lean too far into the horror of it than the comedic parts are jarring and out of place and if you lean into the comedy too much than the horror falls completely flat. I honestly don't know how Gas Station Jack manages to do it as well as he does with how many words he's written.
How much time do you spend writing in an average day or week? Do you have any rituals that help you focus?
When I was first starting to write on here I kept myself on a strict schedule that I've since lapsed on. As of now I average about three days a week and four hours a day. So, about twelve to sixteen hours a week? Now that I've actually thought about it I should probably put more time into it.
As for rituals, a nice playlist of music in the background always helps settle the writing vibes in the right way.
When crafting a piece of fiction, do you generally start with an outline or simply begin writing?
The only outlines I've ever produced are for the novels that I've tried working on. When it comes to anything shorter than that I let the idea ruminate and stir in my head for a day or two before I decide to write it down or not. If it gets past the brainstorming stage I just write it down as fast as I can without worrying too much about it. Being pretty critical of my own ideas most of the time I find that outlines don't really work for me unless I have to keep track of a lot of characters over a long period of time.
Have any of your stories ever involved research? If so, what was involved?
For some of them, definitely. The most research I've ever done was the story about Canada Geese migration patterns. Despite that research I somehow still managed to call them Canadian Geese by mistake. I actually managed to find a couple of scientific papers about the average and top sizes for populations of them and figure out exactly where they end up and where they go.
As for most of the other stories, a little bit of research always goes a long way to making it sound more realistic and believable. Which of course is the backbone of this subreddit :)
In I Closed Twenty Two Doors Today the narrator suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Was the true horror of the story an unknown entity making its way into the narrator's home or panic from a miscount?
Whichever one scares you more.
What inspired the concept of The Thing in Manzanita Hall?
I wanted to make as truly unique of a monster as I could so like any good writer I smashed a bunch of ideas together until something I felt was good came out of it.
I have a bit of a soft spot for stories told from the perspective of someone who finds something they probably shouldn'tve seen. Sinister is a really good example of this type of story and I wanted to make something like it.
Demons make an appearance in many of your stories. Is that a topic that interests or terrifies you?
Definitely more interesting than terrifying.
I feel demons are a great concept to use in place of the more terrifying aspects of humanity. They can be the memories you want to forget. They can be the symptoms of mental illness. They can be the metaphysical concept of infinity given life.
Your work often includes general theological themes, notably in your most popular series, I was dead for six minutes and saw Heaven. I'd rather go to Hell. Why do you think so many people feel religion marries well with horror?
Religion tries to describe concepts so far beyond the realm of mere mortals like us. It tries to describe in words things that are, by definition, indescribable by words. Horror is similar is a lot of ways.
Of course there's also the fact that so many people are terrified of religion in general. A gathering of people sitting in a room once or twice a week getting told about how if they do things that this one book says they'll be given everything they want, but if they deviate from that then they'll be sent to a place of indescribable torture. No room for error and no room for disagreements.
Given that, it's not surprising that it makes such a good horror topic.
You've been involved in several collaborations with different NoSleep authors. Are there any challenges or unexpected benefits in working together with others?
I love doing collaborations. Despite how a lot of people see writers, sitting alone in front of a computer typing to themselves, I'm of the idea that the more cooks baking the pie the better it gets. The more eyes you have looking at it the more opportunities you have to catch mistakes and make your own work better.
The biggest challenge, of course, is keeping a good schedule. Like in any creative endeavour it can be like herding cats, as u/deathbyproxy can attest to when everyone was working on our giant october collab last year with the Skinner Foundation.
You use the name Tim for characters in several of your stories. Are these all the same Tim, or separate Tims? What's the significance behind the name?
I'm not going to lie here. There's no intended significance behind the name and is most likely just a giant coincidence because I've never noticed it myself. Although there was a Tim I met a couple of years ago that is probably one of the worst human beings in existence.
My Aunt is married to a Tim as well though and he's a nice enough guy. So, to answer that question, I have no clue.
Will we ever see more installments of the series about your best friend?
I was intending to write a fourth part for this story, I really was. I even had two separate ideas about how to end it that I got halfway through writing before realizing they just weren't good.
I don't know what it was about this story specifically that I had so much trouble with. And from some of the feedback it seems like some people were just as frustrated by the unintended ending as I was, although the last part I posted still sorta works as an ending so I'm going to leave it as is.
I may end up finishing it at some point but I wouldn't expect it anytime soon.
Are there any topics you feel are too controversial for you to address or that you prefer not to explore in your writing?
As for controversial topics, that's hard to say. Horror is meant to push the boundaries and buttons of the people that are reading it in the worst ways. There's a fine line between effective horror and just plain horrifying. As for myself, there are a couple of subjects that I won't mention by name that I'm personally not comfortable talking about. Moreso because I don't have the experiences or knowledge to portray them correctly than out of any fear of offending someone.
What are your feelings toward NoSleep's immersion/believability rule? What impact, if any, do you think the suspension of disbelief format may have when transitioning your work toward a mass audience unfamiliar with NoSleep?
It can be frustrating sometimes when a story gets removed but the believability rule is what makes the subreddit unique. I wouldn't have it removed or changed for any reason, otherwise the sub wouldn't be what it is today. As for transferring to a different audience, I think it'll help out with making a more believable story and characters. There are obvious stories that wouldn't make sense out of the context of nosleep but I think most of them work just fine as standalone pieces.
Do you have any favorite reader reactions to your writing?
I loved pretty much all of the comments for I was dead for six minutes and saw heaven. It was a nice combination of theological discussion and the most amount of discussion about the story of anything I've written. It was really cool to see all of the speculation and discussion about the story and possibilities.
Also, I silvered a comment for a particularly funny joke and he sent me a picture of his pet hedgehog. And it was adorable.
What story or project are you most proud of?
My favorite story I've written is The Lost Ones. I think it's the story where I hit the best balance of 'What the hell is going on' without adventuring too far into the 'This isn't interesting' category.
What's the most valuable lesson you've learned since you began posting to NoSleep?
Not everyone is going to like what you put out. No matter how popular or how successful something is, there are going to be people who hate it and feel the need to let you know. A hard lesson to learn, to be sure, but a necessary one.
You can't please everyone.
As a successful author on NoSleep, do you have any advice for new contributors?
I don't think of myself as that successful but the best advice I can give is to be persistent. Most of the time, in pretty much anything, people end up failing because they stop trying when they hit resistance. The first story I ever posted got about 350 upvotes and was narrated by one of my favorite narrators on Youtube.
The second story got a grand total of five upvotes over a day before I deleted it.
The next couple of stories after that didn't even break fifty.
Persistence is key.
What are your short-term and long-term writing goals?
Short term - Finish editing my goddamn book. I've been taking too long with that. I promise it'll be out before October! There I go setting a hard deadline for myself.
Long Term - Gain the ability to pay rent with my writing
Community Questions:
From PLF__0519TTV: What got you in to horror?
The genre has been around me my entire life so it's kinda hard to pinpoint an exact movie or book that really solidified my interest in the genre. If I had to make a shortlist, it would probably be the Goosebumps books, the movie Alien, and The Stand.
Submitted anonymously: Are there any stories you've wanted to tell that you couldn't due to NoSleep's rules?
Plenty.
Even though my main focus is on the stories I post here I still enjoy writing in other genres that definitely don't fit on Nosleep. I enjoy the worldbuilding aspect of Fantasy and Science Fiction a lot and want to explore that a bit more.
Submitted anonymously: What's your favourite story that you didn't write?
It's a toss up between PenPal, Borrasca, and The Strangest Security Tape I've Ever Seen. All three are great in their own ways and it's hard to pick one over the other two.
From Colourblindness: Your demon possession stories were massively popular. Do you intend to ever return to the concept again?
Definitely. Once I flesh out an overarching story with them a bit more you'll definitely see the Cranberry Ginger Ale swilling meat suit inhabiting immortal concepts again.
Submitted anonymously: Have you ever been to Cawdor or Cawdor Castle?
Unfortunately no, but I would absolutely love to visit it someday.
Submitted anonymously: Is it Canada goose or Canada geese?
Canada Goose if one, Canada Geese if multiple. Just whatever you do don't call them Canadian Geese or else you'll definitely get corrected by angry Canadians.
Submitted anonymously: Other than the geeses, what do you think the creepiest thing about Canada is?
What's with the bagged milk? WHAT AREN'T YOU TELLING US!
Submitted anonymously: If you were able to spend the day with any figure in the horror community (author, director, actor, etc.), who would you choose and why?
Ari Aster (Hereditary and Midsommar).
To start off with, he's one of the few directors or writers living today that's displayed grief on screen so accurately and with such deep understanding. He makes it so goddamn terrifying that it becomes scarier than any possible jumpscare that he could put on screen. It's hard not to be terrified when the feelings are so visceral and real.
From Colourblindness: You participated in a nosleep April fools gag where authors swapped stories to confuse readers. What was the experience like and do you feel like you thoroughly confused yourself and or others?
Mine got removed!
Well, the one I wrote got removed. I didn't realize at the time that alternate reality stories weren't really allowed on the subreddit and wrote something about the Mandela effect that I thought turned out ok. The author that wrote the story that I posted under my name turned out so much better than mine I honestly wish I would've thought of something as absolutely nuts as that.
The entire event was fun and probably pretty confusing from the reader's side of things although I imagine the Mods confused the subreddit a bit more when they temporarily shut down the subreddit.
From ByfelsDisciple: What do you think is your most underrated story? Your most overrated?
I think my most underrated story is The Lost Ones. I spent a lot of time crafting that particular story and hoped it would get a bit more attention than it did.
As for overrated, I would say 19 Reasons why I know there's a monster under my bed. It took me about thirty minutes to write and thought it wouldn't get much attention. I did have fun writing it, of course, and enjoyed it as much as any other story I've written but was quite surprised that it ended up at the top of the page for any amount of time.
Submitted anonymously: If you had to live in the established universe of one of your characters, which would you choose and why?
Let me preface this by saying I wouldn't like to live in any of them (as most of them are terrifying to think about the implications), but if I HAD to choose it would probably be the ones with the demons. Unless you seek them out or screw with them they don't care about you.
Submitted anonymously: Which actor who's played James Bond do you think is most likely to secretly be a serial killer? Which one would you most want to eat cereal with?
I wouldn't be surprised if they find women's skulls on Sean Connery's property after he kicks the bucket.
As for cereal, definitely Timothy Dalton. Mostly for the fact that he seems to actually have a sense of humor about himself (if Hot Fuzz is any indication).
Today paper roll; over or under?
Over. What kind of monster puts it under?
Asmodeus, is that you? If it is could I get a new hellhound? The one you gave me chased a car down when it got out of the backyard and I don't have any more room for bodies.
Submitted anonymously: What is the greatest album of all time and why is it Metropolis Part II: Scenes from a Memory?
Are you going to yell at me if I say I'm not much of a Dream Theater fan?
The Shaming of the True by Kevin Gilbert. Seriously, go listen to the entire thing. It's wonderful.
Submitted anonymously: I'm going to McDonald's, do you want anything?
A couple of hashbrowns and a sausage egg mcmuffin please.
From Poppy_moonray: Favorite Greek or Roman myth?
Daedalus. That man had such a tragic life in so many ways. Par for the course when dealing with the Greek gods unfortunately.
Kangaroos: Happy hopping friend, or faux-fanny pack wearing foe?
Does this answer your question?
What fruit do you empathize with most strongly? What fruit fills you with an unbridled fury?
Starfruit is so underrated and delicious and I wish more stores carried it.
Where do you get off just being everywhere, Honeydew? You managed to get yourself in everything and somehow be the worst of whatever you're a part of.
You said we're allowed to ask you anything besides where the bodies are hidden, and we, like, totally respect that. So, uh, hypothetically speaking though, where would you hide bodies if you had to? Just wondering, no reason.
I mean, hypothetically, there's a lot of desert where I live. Hypothetically there's this particular rock that's been spray painted half black just past the city limits sign. Hypothetically, you could turn left at that rock and drive down the dirt road until you reach a wooden sign with "Abandon all hope" written on it. Hypothetically, if you got out of your white pickup truck and walked for a mile due north you might find an abandoned water tank with unmarked crosses along the outside of it. Hypothetically, of course.
If you were to write an installment in the Final Destination franchise, what's the first death scene you would write?
The scene opens with a school trip to Ringling Brothers circus back in the day when they still abused the shit out of lions and elephants. When they bring out the elephant to do it's thing one of the carnies don't lock the cage for the lion all the way and sneaks out into the main performance area. The lion, scared and confused, frightens the elephant to the point that it tries to find the closest exit big enough for it to get out of the big tent, which unfortunately is right through the teachechaperone on the way back to the students and he gets trampled.
On it's way out it knocks down some of the supports and the large tent starts collapsing, causing the crowd to go into even more of a panic. The main character's best friend gets trampled by the crowd but dies just after the escaped lion bites open the jugular of the main character's best friend, leaving to confusion of death order later in the movie. Two of the kids that no one care about die when one of the supports finally collapses and smashes both of them at the same time.
Just as the main character and their love interest look like they are about to get out of the tent alive a stray support rope that was holding up the tent from the outside snaps and smashes the love interest in the face. Just as the main character sees this happen they hear the growl of the escaped lion directly behind them.
From OnyxOctopus: How do you take your tea? What kind would you like? One lump or two? How many snickerdoodles can I get you? Are you warm enough? If not, I can get you a hand-crocheted afghan! Would you like one? ❤
Iced Passionfruit tea, unsweetened. Unfortunately I live in Phoenix and it was 106 today so I'm good on the blanket.
Submitted anonymously: Favorite guilty pleasure song or movie?
Please don't think less of me for this, but I unironically enjoy a couple of Papa Roach songs.
Submitted anonymously: Favorite book?
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.
Submitted anonymously: If your house was on fire and you could only rescue one physical thing (all living beings made it out safely), what would it be?
My Magic the Gathering burn deck. I don't feel like spending a couple hundred bucks to replace those pieces of cardboard.
If I couldn't get that, my wedding photos.
From Colourblindness: As a frequenter of writingprompts myself it pleases me to see you turn up inspiration in unexpected ways! Therefore I want to challenge you with a writing prompt of my own! Make it something unique for me please? “You found out that all of your family are actually puppeteers and they’ve been holding back the secret art of puppetry. Explain why.”
Give me a couple of days and watch for my next post :)
Craving more Cawdor?
Cruise on over to his

NSI would like to say a whole flock of Canadian ~~geese~~ ~~gooses~~ ~~geeses~~ angry pale duck bois worth of thank yous to the talented and terrifying Cawdor! You're a true gem—but, like, a spooky gem, that the ghost of a small Victorian boy carries in his ghost pockets. <3
We'll see you back here on Monday, August 12th when we speak to NoSleep's own murderous Mary Poppins, that night-crawling ne'er-do-well, NocturnalNanny! We'll be taking questions for her in /NoSleepOOC next Monday. Before then, make sure you follow her Facebook, Twitter, and Userpage so you never miss a new nightmare!

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[Let's build D100] Ships you might come across in a busy port.