#((probably the same way a tiefling and a water genasi make a tiefling))

[legendsofthewitchlight]

It wouldn't be accurate to anything, but since I have a half baked plan for Shepard's drow wife (who he meets and subsequently marries after the events of CoS; he loves her and she loves him, but its got that happy ending futility many gothic stories have) who is already a member of the Nightborne family, I kinda want to make my Lethica be Shepherd and Iolena's daughter. Technically, it'd make Lethica a little under 300, which honestly wouldn't surprise me.

The question is how do we get a full drow from a tiefling dad and a drow mom?

[saphirered]

I had a cute thought today after getting sunburn lol - imagine the exu peeps are on the road during the colder months, and one shares a night watch with the reader who is like a walking furnace (maybe tiefling for infernal bloodline) and the reader just... scooches over to their chilly companion and hold them close so they don't freeze 💚💚💚💚🔥

Okay here we go. Hope you enjoy! 😘

(Dorian)

Never did Dorian think he’d be the one to be so cold. It’s impossible to repress the shivering no matter how much he tries to huddle up in a ball pulling his knees to his chest, arms closely tucked under his armpits. It’s like ice runs through his veins and there’s nothing he can do about it. He has half the mind to just put his hands in the campfire until he feels the heat burn but he’d rather not have to deal with burns for the rest of his life just because he felt cold one night.

You’re seated on the edge of camp paying close attention to the road nearby for any passerby's that may threaten you and your group. Once you deem it safe and its late enough to be sure no one traverses the roads at this hour you return to the camp to see Dorian trying to cocoon himself up in whatever he can find. You sit down in your previous spot not too far from him as he tries to get comfortable but simply can’t. The shivering is quite pitiful if not a little adorable.

Dorian’s eyes turn from the fire to you; completely unfazed by whatever cold he’s experiencing. When you take off your scarf and hand it to him he doesn't think twice about taking it and quickly wraps the warm fabric around his hands. How is it your scarf feels this warm? It’s almost unfair. You laugh as he blows air into his fabric clad hands to preserve heat.

“Are you laughing at me?” Dorian accuses with a hint of jest though he might actually just be very jealous of you.

“Maybe a little. Don’t take this the wrong way but you look terrible.” Dorian fake gasps because how dare you tell him he doesn’t look tiptop.

“Well since you seem to have me at a disadvantage, how about you share your mysterious ways to stay warm?” You laugh and scoot closer offering him your hands. Hesitantly he removes one of his from your scarf and when he feels the body heat preserved within you he pulls you in, wrapping his arms around you and making you his own personal heater.

“You’re welcome.” You say as Dorian’s grip tightens in recompense for your comment but mutters a ‘thank you’ somewhat muffled by your shoulder.

“As long as you know I will not let you go until the cold fades.” Dorian pulls away slightly to properly speak to you and regrets his words the moment your smug grin becomes apparent. Maybe he shouldn’t stroke your ego as such but right now the benefits far outweigh the downsides. When you don’t protest and instead welcome his wish he returns to your warm embrace fully burying his head into your shoulder once more. You get some weird looks from the next shift at the genasi having wrapped himself around you without any intend to let go until you have to move again.

----

(Orym)

Orym is no stranger to the cold. He usually sits it out and through until it passes or he’s on the move again. Now when it’s his turn to take watch he can’t really just fall asleep and let unconsciousness carry him to the morning away from the cold night. At first he sits twisting and rubbing at his fingers, wiggling his toes to keep the blood flow and feeling going but when that’s not enough he picks up his sword following the familiar steps of his routines keeping his muscles warm. It preserves some heat but he knows the moment he stops he’ll be freezing again.

You sit and watch Orym go through the deliberate paces, light on his feet, nearly inaudible. The motions are much akin to a practiced dance and you find yourself staring, ears still listening for possible dangers. He repeats the same routine a few times before moving on to a different one and another after that. While he keeps his breathing under control you know he’s exerting himself the longer he keeps this going so you get up and make your way over to him making sure to stay clear of the swinging sword. Not that you’d think Orym would be careless enough to hit you.

“Orym, while I appreciate the entertainment during this uneventful night, don’t you think you should sit down and take some rest too? You’ll be exhausted in the morning if you keep this going.” You gently remind him and Orym doesn’t stop moving but you know he’s aware you’re there and he’s listening.

“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.” He speaks timed right with another move as of not to throw off his breathing pattern too much. You carefully move in placing a hand on his shoulder and his movements halt. By just a single touch he can feel the radiant heat run through him like a divine light. Orym takes in a sharp breath, tensing up. There goes his routine but then again, he appreciates the warmth running through him.

“Come sit with me?” You ask gently guiding him over towards the fire. Orym obliges and puts away the sword taking a seat next to you. He can already feel the lack of radiant heat drain from his body when you remove your hand to take your seat. He rubs his hands together and even being in your near vicinity you have a warmth around you. He finds himself scooting closer inch by inch to go from frozen wastes to warm summer night but still he longs for just a little bit more.

“Hey, do you mind if I-“ Orym gestures to the space between you two and before he can finish his question you’ve pulled him into your side. He doesn’t refuse the embrace and instead welcomes it taking in a deep breath warmth returned to him.

----

(Fearne)

When you wake up for your shift with Fearne it’s still very cold in the early morning, a little over an hour or two away from the sunrise to hit at the end of your shift, you can’t afford a fire right now being chased and on the run. The smoke and light alone might put you all in a dangerous situation so the group would have to suffer the cold. Sleeping through the cold isn’t the problem. Being awake to keep watch is. At least for some. Not you. You’re fine. While it may be a disadvantage in certain circumstances or when facing the judgement of others, in these cases the infernal bloodline really shines through.

Fearne is huddled up pulling the hems of her dress close around her to keep in the heat. The lack of fire really does her no good. She could create one with the snap of her fingers but doesn’t have the luxury to do so now. Not even Little Mister curled up on her lap does much to preserve her internal warmth. Yet something calls her closer towards you like a moth drawn to a flame. She tries to resist the effect but whenever she moves, changes her position or the likes she feels as if she’s moved another inch closer to you.

You sit carving away at a piece of wood with your knife to pass the time and keep a look out but you’re aware of Fearne moving closer little by little. You don’t want to say anything as you’d probably get an answer you wouldn’t understand anyway and just let her do her thing. The faun’s got her reasons so just let them be. Besides, you don’t want to accidentally wake up the Little Mister again or you might just find monkey excrements stuffed between your belongings again.

“Oh! I get it now!” Fearne speaks to herself, ears perching up when she looks at you you raise an eyebrow and stop your whittling. She begins moving closer towards you carrying the monkey with her. Mister rolls onto his back when she’s seated right next to you and you watch as the previously puffs of smoke turn into puffs of ember. Fearne feels herself get warmer and warmer, heat rising to her cheeks and limbs.

“Looks like my kind of fire and yours aren’t so different after all.” She smiles and it takes you a second to figure out she means the hellfire from your lineage, the Plane of Fire flame of Mister and the wildfire within her. Just being close together raises the temperature for you enough to provide some comfortable warmth. Fearne waits for your permission and when you nod she curls up next to you putting her head in your lap mindful of her horns.

----

(Dariax)

Dariax glares into the campfire. It’s so not fair the fire gets to be warm when he is not. Yes he can warm his hands but the rest of him will remain cold and he’s not putting the rest of him any closer to the fire than he already is. He’s not stupid. A little oblivious at times, maybe but not stupid. He finds himself praying to whatever entity gave him his powers will bring him towards some warmth. A coffee would be nice, or a good roast. He could even do with a stew or some soup but every time he looks at the compass around his neck the arrow points towards you, adding another log or kindling onto the fire to preserve it throughout your watch.

“Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. I know you stupid thing. I know fire is warm but I can hardly throw myself into it without getting burned, now can I!” Dariax grumbles half the mind to throw the thing into the fire to see who’d have the last laugh. Why must this divine shit be so cryptic one moment and completely and utterly useless the next.

You stare at the dwarf in confusion at the sudden outburst as he keeps grumbling. Something’s clearly up but luckily from your peripheral you can see the others are still fast asleep none the wiser about Dariax’s frustrations.

“Everything alright, Dariax?” You ask. Frustration is written over his face but lessens when addressing you and turns a little more spiteful at something inward.

“Yes! Yes! Everything is completely fine.” He grumbles and you raise an eyebrow knowing full well that is not the case. Dariax knows you see through whatever poor attempt of an act he may have tried and failed to put on.

“If you say so. I guess I’ll keep this nice hot cup of tea to myself then.” You pour some water into a cup and use your magic to heat it until it’s steaming. Dariax looks on as if he’s a man stuck in the desert finding water for the first time in days. He hurries over and takes the cup from you before you can take a sip, downing it in one go.

“Ow. That’s hot. That’s really hot.” Dariax instantly regrets downing an entire cup of steaming hot tea. He can feel his throat burning an has no feeling left in his tongue and mouth in general but the warmth settling in his stomach is nothing short of being worth the pain.

“Thank you for calling me hot.” You grin and Dariax is about to say that wasn’t what he meant but it’s not like it’s not true. You are hot. Wait…. oh… Now he gets it. The compass wasn’t pointing at the fire. It was pointing at you. Without any hesitation he scoots closer to your side until he’s right up next to you. You wrap an arm around him and pull him closer into your side allowing your body to exude the heat and share its warmth.

----

(Opal)

Opal fiddles with her thumbs. Why did she agree to take first watch again? Oh right, because you’re there. What she does not appreciate is the temperature decreasing slowly to the point where she can feel the difference, her body not getting enough time to get used to the drop before it grows colder again. What she can’t stand is you seemingly unaffected by this all humming a sweet melody leaning back on your elbows to watch the stars above every so often. Opal is jealous and it’s not hard to tell.

You feel a glare burn into you with the heat of the hellfire your patron draws their power from. All you can tell is that it’s not something you’ve done as moments before you’re still holding pleasant conversation. Opal isn’t upset by something you’ve said or done. She may just be a little petty when it comes to directing her jealousy of your indifference to the cold at you.

“Hey Opal, are you cold?” You ask the girl as she pulls her cropped jacket closer around her shrinking within herself intensifying the glare.

“No. Why do you ask?” Opal scoffs biting her lip to prevent it from trembling as an icy cold gust of wind blows through.

“Oh, I don’t know. It’s just very nice and warm over here closer by the fire. I thought you might enjoy it.” If you know Opal to be anything it’s stubborn and now is no different. Ted must be scolding her as her mood sours considerably.

“I’m good out here. It’s nice and cool in the breeze.” You hear her mutter something else under her breath but can’t make out what from the distance.

“Okay, whatever you say.” You go back to your business letting the human wallow in self-pity. No one but Opal is able to convince herself to get over herself and give into the help of others when she’s trying to prove a point but that doesn’t mean you can’t persuade her to give in and let her take credit for doing something you suggested.

“You know, for a human you’re holding up very well. I don’t think I could sit all the way over there away from the fire weren’t it for my infernal blood keeping me warm. It’s always nice and handy to not need to carry as many layers just to stay warm. Though, some people are bothered by the warmth of my skin upon contact. They say my blood must be boiling in my veins. I just take that as a compliment.”

As you continue on listing the benefits of your infernal ancestry Opal grumbles to herself getting up from her spot and strides over to you. Without a word of warning she sits down in your lap wrapping her arms around your neck.

“Comfy?”

“Shut up.” You’re not going to push your luck and allow the freezing human to cuddle up with you and bask in your natural body heat. Secretly Opal is thankful but Ted’s little ‘I told you so’ does not do well for her mood. Better get used to being her personal heater because Opal is not forgetting this.

[hiccanna-tidbits]

The RotBTD+ Gang Plays DnD! (Feat. my ships, sorry not sorry XD)

So highkey I’ve actually been wanting to do a “The Gang Plays DnD” type post for AGES now, but then I saw @hobie-brown and @ohlooksheswriting-wips do DnD AU posts for RotBTD, and then I was like “Ah shit, I really should finish mine, eh?” So thank you to both of you for inspiring me to get off my ass and actually write the post!!!

Hiccup DMs. He comes up with this super complex plot revolving around dragons (because of course) where the party has to dismantle this society ruled by evil knights who want to genocide all of the dragons. Imagine his chagrin when the party wants to do nothing but fuck around in towns and aggravate NPCs 90% of the time.

They usually end up playing at Jack’s apartment, mainly because Hiccup’s dad doesn’t really want a bunch of loud nerds yelling about 20-sided dice in his household while he’s trying to work, if he can at all help it. Jack’s sister regularly barges into their living room and roasts the fuck out of Jack and his friends for being such damn nerds and eats all of their DnD snacks they’ve set out. If they’re in the middle of a combat session, she always gleefully proclaims that they’re all going to die. While Jack is annoyed by this, the rest of the party finds it deeply hilarious.

Jack Overland plays the absolute mayhem warlock Jack Frost, who got his powers through making a deal with the archfey Prince of Frost and has absolutely no qualms about being an evil god’s mortal Sower of Chaos. He spends the vast majority of the campaign doing such useful things as creating ice slicks under annoying NPCs and freezing people’s drinks. He also plays a Tiefling because absolutely no one can talk this boy out of playing the creepy demon race.

Rapunzel plays a woodland nymph druid who is also the party healer (because of course she is). Her name is probably Sunlily or something else suitably hippie-esque. Whenever there’s downtime (or whenever the rest of the party is also dicking around, and she can get away with it), Rapunzel likes to go into the nearest forest and pick the best berries and nuts for the rest of the party. She also loves baking fruit pies and cooking the best nymph food for her companions when given the chance. Definitely the party Cinnamon Roll (every party has one!). She often will turn into cute animals to distract the guards while the party infiltrates a building.

Merida’s character is the party archer and general ranged weapon master, as well as a raging lesbian. Hiccup learns very quickly that any male NPC who tries to flirt with her will very quickly get impaled with an arrow. She can’t ever decide if she wants to be a ranger or a rogue, so she multiclasses in both for flare. She also plays a Tiefling, and continually insists that her character is both scarier and sexier than Jack’s. In combat, she either Leeroy Jenkins her way in with a sword and just starts slashing every which way, or just shoots 90% of the enemies with arrows before the fight even starts. There’s really no in between. She can get away with this because she’s highkey one of the party tanks, and consistently deals a shitton of damage.

Anna plays a human bard, basically having read over the class options and going “Wait, in this one I get to make stylish medieval music??? And wear dramatic and garish outfits and a dumb hat??? And cast wacky illusion spells??? And do silly little magic tricks??? And INSPIRE EVERYONE??? Hell yeah, I’m in!!!” She mostly uses magic attacks in combat (definitely favors Tasha’s Hideous Laughter), but occasionally when she’s out of spell slots she’ll just take to slamming enemies in the face with her lute. She also has WAY too much fun with Vicious Mockery, let’s be real.

Elsa, upon hearing Jack’s character concept, rolls her eyes so far up in her head she can see her damn brain, and vows to play his concept, but serious–solely out of spite. She rolls up a super OP elf Chaos Sorcerer, filled with lots of brooding angst about how uncontrollable her winter powers can get if she isn’t careful. She combines it a bit with Storm Sorcerer so she can create literal blizzards, and Hiccup ends up allowing it just because he thinks it’s cool. Although Elsa’s character is undoubtedly aggravated by the rest of the party’s antics, she starts becoming grudgingly protective of these idiots and can deal some pretty crazy damage when her companions are threatened. She also contains one of the party’s only brain cells.

Eugene of course plays dashing rogue master thief Flynn Rider. Although his high deception and lockpicking skills certainly come in handy, he’s the most chaotic neutral fucker you’ve ever met and will take any excuse to rob NPCs blind or cheat them out of every cent they have in a tavern card game. It’s nigh impossible to get him to cooperate with the rest of the party much of the time, and often Elsa’s character has to either bribe him with some of her family’s gold or threaten to freeze him to stop him backstabbing one or more party members. Eugene’s character forces Hiccup to add in many more heist plotlines than he originally intended. This delights Eugene immensely, and sometimes he goes a bit crazy planning elaborate heists.

Moana plays a sorcerer water genasi. She can control any body of water, but she has a special affinity for controlling saltwater (i.e. the ocean lol). She also requests an animal handling bonus, but only with marine animals, solely because she thought it would be funny. She’s also an ex-pirate who robbed a lot of wealthy merchant ships and freed their slaves back in the day, which Merida thinks is incredibly badass. Moana tends to get bored and unengaged when there are no bodies of water to play around with, so Hiccup ends up having to add a lot more lakes, rivers, and oceans to the campaign than he originally planned on. Moana also takes a sailing skill, and thus the party often ends up traveling by boat. Typically Eugene and Rapunzel will infiltrate and hijack it, and Moana will sail it. Moana probably contains the party’s only other brain cell.

Astrid plays a gigantic berserker orc barbarian who is never without his trusty axe. Astrid is hands down the party’s top tank, and unquestionably deals the most damage every combat session. Much like Merida’s character, Astrid’s character is absolutely a shameless power fantasy. Hiccup pretty easily picks up on this, but is too polite to say anything about it. Jack also picks up on this, but is hardly as courteous as their DM, and teases Astrid mercilessly. Astrid is not amused.

Rapunzel requests that her weapon of choice be a frying pan, her justification being that her character found a discarded one at the edge of a human village outside her woods and mistaked it for a highly-dangerous human weapon. Hiccup is like “…you know what? Fuck it” and rolls up stats for a goddamn frying pan. Jack has nigh-endless admiration for Rapunzel for choosing such a goddamn memey, absurd, yet oddly effective weapon and it definitely makes the poor boy even more smitten with her than he already is.

Eugene and Merida have a bet going on who can sleep with more sexy barmaids. Merida is currently winning, much to Eugene’s chagrin. She’s not even inherently better at seducing NPCs, she and Eugene have the same charisma stat–she just consistently rolls better than Eugene. Eugene is incredibly salty about this.

Anna and Elsa want to be sisters in-game as well, but neither want to change their race–so Anna decides her character was adopted. Hiccup and the rest of the party go along with it, mainly because there’s something deeply hilarious about a regular human bard being adopted and raised by a family of high-powered elf ice mages.

Astrid is absolutely the sort of player who tends to get bored and restless outside of fights, and tends to fidget and twiddle her thumbs waiting for the next combat session. Jack picks up on this, and purposely does more roleplay for longer just to piss her off. He’s also just a very dramatic fucker and highkey loves roleplay.

When she’s not causing mayhem around the town or sleeping with hot women, Merida tries to entertain Astrid between combat sessions by offering to spar with her. Unfortunately, this does not usually end well for poor Merida, as even the most hardcore and badass of tieflings is prone to getting dumpstered by an 8-foot-tall barbarian orc with an axe. Astrid is, nonetheless, grateful to have someone to fight.

Rapunzel, Elsa, and Moana will humor Hiccup and attempt to actually play the main plot. Meanwhile, Jack, Merida, and Eugene are a DM’s worst nightmare. They constantly derail the damn campaign to fuck around, cause mayhem, and do inane shenanigans in every. Damn. Town. They go to. Anna is kind of a wildcard–she’ll typically go with whatever group looks like they’re going to be doing something more interesting. Astrid will go along with whichever group is more likely to get into a fight–which, often as not, is Jack and his posse of terrible Chaotic Neutrals (who have definitely pissed off a number of NPCs into attacking them).

As the campaign goes on, Elsa and Eugene become the beleaguered Party Mom and Dad. Both are quite aggravated by this–especially poor Eugene, who just wanted to play a morally-gray charming rogue who stole everything and got away with it and then accidentally ended up caring about these idiots he got stuck with.

Anna initially joins the campaign because she has a planet-size crush on Hiccup, and inevitably is the one who dragged Elsa into it too. Being the hopeless romantic that she is, Anna writes a love interest into her backstory. Hiccup eventually has the party run into said love interest, and Anna is overjoyed. He starts flirting with her as the love interest, and it’s easily the best 30 minutes of Anna’s life.

Moana and Elsa also give Hiccup pretty detailed backstories, and he works in little subplots for them. Moana gets to bring water back to a dying part of the jungle in the middle of a draught, while Elsa gets to go on a whole sidequest to explore her family history and how they came to be sorcerers.

Jack, Merida, and Eugene also give Hiccup fairly elaborate backstories, but Jack’s and Merida’s are like 99% memes and Dumb Shit. Hiccup tries to give all of them backstory-related plot hooks, but inevitably any hooks he provides are either stabbed, robbed, or frozen. Honestly any plot hook offered to these 3 will be all but spat in the face of and tossed off a cliff.

The one relevant part of Eugene’s backstory is that he and Rapunzel decide they used to be partners in crime before the campaign started. Rapunzel would infiltrate and scout out places he wanted to rob as small, unobtrusive animals (her preferred Wild Shape is a chameleon) and later distract the guards as a bunny or kitten while he went in and took every gold coin in sight. In return, Flynn Rider would bribe builders to not develop into Sunlily’s forest. Rapunzel and Eugene partly came up with this For Funsies, but also it was Rapunzel’s sneaky way of tricking Eugene into having prior connections in the party so he’d be less likely to betray them. It works pretty well–although the entire party is protective of Cinnamon Roll Sunlily, Flynn is certainly especially protective of her.

Astrid does the absolute bare minimum as far as backstories go. She is literally just here to smash stuff, slice people, and beat some fuckers up.

Rapunzel has a backstory, but she’s typically so invested in the main plot and the other party members that Hiccup rarely needs to bring it in to keep her engaged. She’s highkey the party emotional rock, and probably the only one keeping them all together.

On that note, Rapunzel’s character is the ONLY one who can get Jack’s character to take the plot even REMOTELY seriously. Like he’ll be dicking around in the nearest tavern challenging the nearest orc to a drinking game, and Rapunzel will come in and ask him to help them on a Main Plot Quest. And he’ll be like “come onnnnn I’m having funnn” and she’ll be like “Jack pleeeeeease?” and you just. Can’t resist Sunlily’s puppy dog eyes. At all. Also, whenever Sunlily is genuinely threatened, any silliness immediately goes out the window and Jack Frost is OUT FOR BLOOD.

For better or for worse, Rapunzel is not immune to being looped into Jack’s shenanigans. Occasionally if either Merida or Eugene have a particularly hare-brained scheme she’ll go along with it, but by and large Jack is the most successful in convincing her to temporarily abandon the plot and cause mild mischief with him. They once wasted half a session creating an elaborate “ice theme park” for some squirrels in the forest.

Hiccup tries to get Merida to play the main plot by eventually having there be no more sexy female NPCs to seduce in the towns they go to. Unfortunately, this backfires–Merida just hooks up with Moana’s character instead. When asked to roll for how good the lay is, Merida gets a nat 20–and thus her character and Moana’s character end up hooking up regularly throughout the rest of the campaign.

Hiccup introduces a few Wise Old Mentor-type NPCs to guide the party throughout the campaign. While Rapunzel, Elsa, Moana, and Anna actually try to listen to them and take their advice, Merida, Jack, and Eugene absolutely refuse to take them seriously and mercilessly play pranks on them.

At one point, Hiccup gives the party the option to attempt to tame a group of wild dragons and use them as mounts. They all have to make animal handling checks. Anna, Rapunzel, Elsa, and Moana pass. The rest of the party fails, with Jack and Eugene crit-failing. Hilarity ensues.

Hiccup ends up bringing back Anna’s backstory love interest as an NPC regular. Anna thinks he’s just being a good friend and a good DM and trying to incorporate her backstory as much as he can, but really, he just wants an excuse to regularly flirt with her. He hardly has the balls to out-of-game.

Merida comes out as gay toward the end of the campaign. Everyone in the group is extremely supportive, of course, but everyone is also like “Merida…with the amount of barmaids you’ve banged…and the amount of times you and Moana’s character hooked up…this isn’t exactly surprising.”

Hiccup actually finds a way to use Jack and Elsa’s same-concept-opposite-execution characters to the plot’s advantage. He decides one of the main villains will have a prophecy saying he’ll be taken down by a powerful ice mage. The party manages to fool this guy into thinking this ice mage is Jack, and sends Jack to fight him. As soon as the villain sees Jack, he’s like “WHAT??? THIS clown???” (word has absolutely spread throughout the land of Jack not using his ice powers for anything besides mildly annoying trolling). Naturally, the bad guy lets his guard down after thinking he’s going to fight this literal joke, and then Elsa crashes in from the side and absolutely dumpsters him.

Jack tries to defeat the final boss by just annoying him so much that he leaves. Unfortunately, he just annoys him so much that he attacks Rapunzel’s character. Jack’s just like “oh HELL no” and attacks with absolutely nothing held back. Turns out he’s pretty terrifying when he’s not using his magic for Dumb Antics.

During the final boss of the campaign, the Big Bad tries to one-shot Moana’s character, and Merida’s character super theatrically jumps in front of her to take the blow instead. Rapunzel just barely manages to heal Merida’s character, but it’s a really close call. During all this, Merida is like “ah shit...maybe I’m NOT just in this to get fantasy-laid.” After the fight’s over, her and Moana’s characters have a big dramatic love confession and share a Big Damn Kiss in front of everyone. It’s pretty epic.

After the final session of the campaign, Merida drags Moana outside Jack’s apartment and sputters and trips over her words for a solid minute before she finally gets out that through all this nonsense...well...maybe it’s not just in the game that she thinks Moana is hot. Moana just gets this HUGE grin on her face and says “c’mere, Leeroy Jenkins” and just pulls Merida in and kisses her. Cue the rest of the party barging in on them. Merida and Moana freeze, and there’s a moment of terrified silence...and then the entire party starts cheering them on like “took you long enough!”

The entire rest of the party could detect the sexual tension. Literally all of them.

But Eugene is like “HA, THIS MEANS IF WE DO A SEQUEL CAMPAIGN I’M WINNING THAT BET! BECAUSE YOU’RE GONNA BE DATING MO’S CHAR AND THUS NOT ABLE TO SLEEP WITH ANY MORE BARMAIDS!”

By the epilogue session, Jack and Rapunzel are dating. Merida and Moana are also dating. Hiccup and Anna STILL haven’t figured out why they’re so prone to spending half the session flirting when Anna’s love interest shows up, and Hiccup STILL hasn’t figured out why he likes to have Anna’s love interest show up so often. Bless their souls. Maybe they’ll figure it out next campaign...?

Damn I actually really like this...maybe if people like it I’ll do some incorrect quotes or a drabble or something??? Or maybe some HCs from next campaign???

[sagasofazeria]

My Attempts At Making Unique Nonhumans Part 4: Aasimar/Tieflings/Genasi

Listen, time is soup. I forgot it was Wednesday. It’s been a Week. Anyways, have some funky magic people.

Taglist (just ask to be added/removed!): @hellishhin @talesfromaurea

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Aasimar: I really like the lore for the Aasimar so I really didn’t change much besides the ways they are created, of which there are now 3 kinda loose categories. The first is the normal way, a semi-celestial born of mortal parents due to some sort of divine happenings or a mortal infused with celestial energy. The second is being literally part celestial from a very different kind of “divine happenings”. The third is that they were created by direct divine intervention, which is much more rare, and usually results in a more obviously celestial appearance (as well as often being created as fully grown adults with no mortal template). I also kept the stuff about their “purpose” though I do think it’s a little more loose and hard to determine than the official lore makes it seem. Anyway, onto the funky stuff! Aasimar are immensely varied due to mainly two factors: 1. They don’t have genetics since they’re literally angel people, and most celestials primarily self-actualize. 2. The ones that used to be a part of/were born from mortal species will retain those features as well. So honestly, an Aasimar could be just a plain looking human who sometimes sprouts glowing wings, or an Aasimar could be an 8 foot tall lady with silver skin, glowing markings, and wings on her ankles that match the 4 that appear on her back. So yeah, they can get all sorts of weird. Extra eyes, all sorts of wings, holy markings, weird colors, glowy bits, all of it. A lot of it fluctuates too, especially with the more emotionally driven of aasimar. For example, they might glow slightly when happy or proud, or their eyes might get cloudy when confused or angry. And any Aasimar’s appearance of their angelic features might change based on how they feel, due to the self-actualization bits of their celestial heritage.

•

Tieflings: Tieflings, my beloved. Same as the Aasimar, I kept most of the lore and just added some ways they are created. (Also I removed the racism against them because I don’t like it. They aren’t even fully fiends, leave them alone.) The first way is obviously via curse or fiendish pact passing down bloodlines like the official lore. The second is that they are the product of mortal/fiendish relations, because monsterfuckers. The third way is when fiendish energy infuses a place or person it can create tieflings, especially if the person/someone nearby is pregnant (baby becomes the tief). I also decided there should be demonic Tieflings too, because I want to, and it really makes sense for that third way especially. (In my world, places of great evil/sorrow/etc can create demons based on what happened there, so that sort of applies with Tieflings on a smaller scale.) Also, like Aasimar, Tieflings can vary widely as well. Could be an average bloke whose eyes are just red orbs or it could be a fourteen-fingered ivory-skinned half-demon with a set of horns shaped like a crown on their head. So yeah, pretty much anything. Some commons ones are wacky eyes, acidic or boiling blood, spines and horns, tails, pointy bits, and pretty much anything slightly spooky you can think of. Generally though, these traits will mirror or mimic the curse/fiendish magic/demonic heritage that makes them a tiefling, and unlike Aasimar this rarely changes even throughout generations.

•

Genasi: Okay so I did it again, I added some new origins for genasi, because there’s so much potential. First way to get genasi is for elemental magic to imbue itself in someone, which could mean you were born during a magical storm or you witnessed an opening to the realm of fire or a thousand other things. Second way is to have elemental heritage, which is far less common, but it still happens. (I also extended this to not just djinn, because again, the potential). I also added some more types of genasi besides fire, water, air, and earth. In my world there are also storm genasi, smoke/steam genasi, dust/sand genasi, ice genasi, and life genasi. Genasi can be widely varied as well, depending on what elemental energies they have, but within elements many genasi can look different too, based on how much elemental magic they have. For example, a fire genasi could be just a human with glowy eyes and fire powers OR someone with glowing fiery tattoos and literal fire for hair etc etc. I think as far as biology goes here there isn’t really a lot besides the manifestations of the elements over top of whatever mortal species they would have been/their other heritage is. Like, a dwarvish ice genasi would still have all the dwarf things (like the two hearts and metallic bones and etc) but they would also have a body temperature of next to nothing (even worse for a mountain dwarf lol) and smooth icy skin and the ability to freeze water by touching it and all the ice genasi things.

•

Now where all of this gets really weird is when you start mixing these three. Tiefling or Aasimar based Genasi is probably the most common since elemental magic is cosmically neutral and would just lay on top of the other thing, but like. A half Tiefling half Aasimar I’m sure would be very interesting, and who knows what the mortal bases for that were (imagine if they were different too). Also, Tiefling/Aasimar/Genasi bloodlines tend to overpower mortal ones so there can be generations of them from one event.

Basically, I like to give my players the opportunity to make the most complicated character designs possible, is what I’m saying.

•

Thanks to @hellishhin for the suggestion for this week! Probably gonna do dragonborn next week if I’m not struck with inspo for something else first.

[captainofthefallen]

OC Interview

Rules:

1. Choose an OC.

2. Answer as that OC.

3. Tag 5 people to do the same Open tag because you’re lazy 

So about six million years ago @queen-scribbles​ dropped me a tag on one of these in case I wanted to talk about a character and so I’m cashing in on that because I want to talk about Zeph (my wonderful amazing air genasi monk who deserves all the happiness in the world who I unintentionally cursed with anxiety worse than mine. Poor darling.) 

1. What is your name?

“Zeph.” She hesitates. “Okay fine technically it’s Zephyr but nobody I actually like calls me that. So if you want me to like you, don’t.” 

2. Do you know why are you named that?

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, because I’m an air genasi and the monks couldn’t think of anything better when I was dumped on them.” 

3. Are you single or taken?

Her annoyance melts instantly as she blushes and ducks her head, almost trying to hide her smile. “Um... taken. Much to my surprise.” 

4. Have any abilities or powers?

“Let’s see... good at punching things? I learned the other day I’m pretty good at hockey. I can levitate things, and sometimes I can blink into another plane if I can’t dodge something quickly enough.” She shrugs a little, almost bashful. 

[we spent the first hour of our last session playing fantasy hockey; Zeph was the goalie thanks to the monk’s deflect missiles ability. It was delightful. Also indirectly led to her getting asked out which was a plus.] 

5. Stop being a Mary Sue.

She raises her eyebrows. “I’m not sure if I should be flattered you think I’m perfect or insulted you think it’s unrealistic.” She laughs, then sobers. “Really though if you think I’m perfect you’re not looking hard enough.” 

6. What’s your eye color?

“Gray.”

7. How about your hair color?

“Silver, mostly. Think there’s some blue in there.”

8. Have any family members?

She shrugs dramatically. “Fuck if I know. None that I know of. Maybe my parents are dead, and maybe they just dumped me, but either way I guess it doesn’t matter.” 

9. Oh? How about pets? 

Her smile returns. “Well the party has our blink dog, Ptoast. Long story.” She turns around to look back toward the docks, where a water genasi is play wrestling a gnoll. “Cotton Eye Joe doesn’t count, he can talk.” 

[yes we adopted a gnoll. And we named him Cotton Eye Joe. Long story.]

10. That’s cool, I guess. Now, tell me something you don’t like?

“Wererats,” she says immediately. “Especially if they’re in a crime syndicate and frame people’s friends for enough crimes to get them thrown in jail for way too long. Also when people tell me I can’t do something.” 

11. Do you have any activities/hobbies that you like to do?

“Oh, loads. Pretty much anything I can get my hands on, really. Puzzles, cards, I think I could probably still juggle if I tried.” Her gaze shifts upward as she thinks. “Does fucking with Ptah count as a hobby?” (”Yes,” three voices respond immediately. “Fuck you!” adds a fourth.) “Guess so.” 

12. Have you ever hurt anyone in any way before?

She bites her lip. “Sure, I guess. Tends to happen when you get in fights. Got arrested for beating up a tabaxi in a bar once.” 

13. Ever… killed anyone before?

She nods. “Not... much. Some gnolls, some wererats, some weird mushroom things. People... not really easy to get used to that. Though there are a few I’d make exceptions for. And besides I’ve got an assassin and a... well, Ptah, for friends, they can handle it.” 

14. What kind of animal are you?

“Like, what animal would represent me? Some kind of cat, I think? Maybe a tiger. Gods help anyone who suggests I’m a bird.” 

15. Name your worst habits?

She laughs. “Oh boy. Well I overthink things. A lot. Somehow I also manage to be reckless sometimes. And I spend way too much time and effort trying to figure out what other people want from me.” She sighs. “Working on that one.” 

16. Do you look up to anyone at all?

“My friend Bright. Learned a lot from him. About the world, and about me. He’s about the closest thing I’ve got to family, I think. At least until I met these assholes.” 

17. Are you gay, straight or bisexual?

She inclines her head. “Think you missed a few options there, but I’m bisexual.” 

18. Did you attend school?

“Not in the traditional sense, no. I was educated in the monastery where I was raised.” 

19. Ever want to marry and have kids one day?

She laughs again. “Bold of you to assume I even know what I want to do next week.” She bites her lip. “I haven’t really thought about it. I guess I wouldn’t be opposed, but it doesn’t seem... I don’t know. I’m trying to live in the moment right now.” 

20. Do you have any fangirls/fanboys?

She grins. “Does my boyfriend count? I’m kidding. Um... not me specifically, I don’t think. There may be a few fans of our group, since we kind of stopped evil snake people from taking over the government, but I don’t think anyone would have much of a reason to be my fan.”

21. What are you most afraid of? 

She blinks a few times. “Being forgotten,” she says at last. “And... well. No. I think I’ll keep that one to myself.”

22. What do you usually wear?

She gestures to her clothing--flexible, dark-colored pants and a tank top, along with the wraps on her hands. She’s also wearing a dark cloak that sparkles just a bit when she moves. “It’s a cloak of protection,” she says. “Ptah gave it to me, to see how I’d react. I was very drunk at the time (and so was he, to be fair) so I’m a little hazy on the details, but...” She blushes faintly. “Anyway.” 

23. What’s one food that tempts you?

“I love pecan pie. Also, cookies and pastries and such in general are pretty great. Especially Ashyew’s reactions to them.” 

24. Am I annoying you?

She raises an eyebrow, smirking. “Are you trying to? Try harder.” 

25. Well, it’s still not over!

She smiles. “Full speed ahead, then.” 

26. What class are you (low/middle/high)?

She gives a bemused sort of grin. “That’s a very weird question right now. I guess financially we’d probably qualify as middle class at this point, but we were also recently given a villa, so.... No idea. I really have no idea.” 

27. How many friends do you have?

The smile stays. “One more than I thought I did a few days ago.” She thinks for a moment. “Brin and Bright, and Rhede, and the group, are the ones I’d call close friends. Kazimir and the others might qualify, to an extent, but seeing as I wasn’t even sure I was friends with Morana... so about eight.”

28. What are your thoughts on pie?

“Pie is amazing and wonderful. Do you have any?” She sighs. “Thought not. Worth a try.” 

29. Favorite drink?

“Hmm. Never really thought much about it. Alcohol is pretty much nasty, yet for some reason I still drink it.” 

30. What’s your favorite place?

“So far? Aargau. The dwarves have fucking indoor plumbing. And hockey. I really wish we could’ve stayed longer. And not just because I was promised a date.” She thinks for a moment. “I’m also a fan of the rooftop deck at our villa in Kalmar. But overall, gotta be Aargau.” 

31. Are you interested in anyone?

She blushes, grinning widely. “Just a little. If I wasn’t clear up to this point, well, it’s still kinda new. But Ptah is my boyfriend.” Her entire face lights up with her smile as she says it. “So yes, I guess you could say I’m interested in him.” 

32. That was a stupid question…

The grin doesn’t fade. “To be fair to you, I was being a little vague. Don’t worry about it.” 

33. Would you rather swim in a lake or the ocean?

She thinks for a moment. “I haven’t really spent much time in either. Other than that giant octopus, though, I have enjoyed the ocean. Especially if Ash is there as a dolphin or something.” 

34. What’s your type?

She laughs out loud and buries her face in her hands for a moment. “According to my track record of one, it’s dumbass tieflings who don’t seem to ever shut up and who are really fun to get drunk with. If you’re looking for a serious answer... it’s because he listened to me. I... I doubt myself, a lot, and I usually do okay at hiding it but I didn’t need to hide it from him. I could tell him anything, and not only does he not judge me he somehow always manages to say exactly what I need to hear. So...” Her blush deepens. “Yeah.” 

35. Any fetishes?

“If I did, I wouldn’t be about to tell you.” She winks, despite her blush. 

36. Camping or outdoors?

“Can I have both? You mean like... in a tent or under the stars? Depends on the weather. But if it’s clear? Stars. I didn’t retain much of what I read about the stars, but they’re beautiful.” 

[diceforanaltmode]

Team Fire: Session 3, Egg?!; Part 2:“I still have no idea who half of you are.” Introductions... over Brunch?

The adventures of Session 3 continue! TEAM FIRE

Rodimus by Frosty (tiefling sorcerer) Drift by Space (earth genasi rogue) Ratchet by Hawke (firbolg cleric) Magnus | Minimus by Tuna (half-orc paladin | human/tethyrian wizard) Megatron by Briar (goliath paladin) Rewind by Robin (high elf wizard) (out for this week, but back soon) First Session | Second Session | Third Session: Part 1

After finishing breakfast, Ratchet and Roller head back to Swerve’s. Magnus heads upstairs to join the others for brunch. 

Rung and Nightbeat have already returned to Swerve’s, and they’re also sitting around. Warthog is around the bar, they look like they are not so much hungover as still drunk from celebrating the night before. Prowl has briefly emerged from the downstairs headquarters area, and he has a mug of coffee that the party can smell all the way across the room, and it’s terrifying; if it spills, no one knows what’s going to happen, but it’s not going to be good. Ratchet side eyes the mug.

The rest of the party is beginning to congregate around a large table. 

Rodimus is still sound asleep. Ratchet asks Drift about his absence at the brunch table, “Your little friend, he isn’t here?”

“I tried to wake him, I think he needs a little longer.”

Not satisfied with that, Ratchet goes upstairs to kick Rodimus’s door three times, as hard as he can, and yells “Wake up! Wake up, there’s food downstairs!”

This does the job and wakes Rodimus up. “Why… let me sleep.” In spite of his groaning, Rodimus gets up and comes downstairs with his cape around him like a blanket.

The team orders brunch from Swerve. Ratchet gets eggs and bacon for his brunch. Drift gets the first thing that catches his eye, which is also eggs and bacon, and tea, and Rodimus follows suit. Megatron, having no desire to stick out from the group, also gets eggs and bacon and coffee. 

Magnus breaks the trend.  “What is the largest meal you have?”

”Uhh… Uhhh…” Swerve considers. “There’s a breakfast platter, but that’s normally for five people”

“Perfect. I’ll take five.”

“Five… platters?”

“Yes, five platters. I am not exaggerating.”

“Ooookay.” Swerve takes that order. Everybody else’s comes out first after Swerve makes the tea and enchants the food. Swerve then burns basically all his spells for the day on Magnus’s brunch.

One platter has a pile of scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage links, pancakes, french toast, and a side of fruit. Magnus now has five of these. Magnus eats them as politely as possible, but just keeps going and going and going…

As they eat, Rodimus looks around the table. “Okay, so I know we kicked Zeta’s ass, had a bunch of emotional stuff and all that, but I still have no idea who half of you are.”

“Well, I’m Drift.”

“I know who you are, Drift.”

Ratchet, being snarky, asks, “But does he know who you are inside?”

Drift makes a noncommittal hand gesture.

“Since no one else wants to talk,” Rodimus starts, “I’m Rodimus. I’m a sorcerer, obviously.”

Ratchet comments, “Yeah, you set things on fire.”

“Yes. I do. That’s kind of what I do.”

“That was impressive, yesterday. Very impressive. Impressive as shit, even.”

“Thank you. And who are you, by the way?”

“Name’s Ratchet. I’m a cleric.”

“Thanks for making sure I didn’t die. That’s kind of important.”

“Yeah… y’know, you did a bit of a stupid there, and for a minute I thought you were going to croak, but you made it through, and - it’s nice to not see kids dying. War’s dangerous, Rodimus.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

Drift adds. “I’m Drift, I’ve been traveling with Rodimus for a while. I don’t do anything fancy. Uh - it’s nice to meet you?” 

Ratchet waves his coffee mug at Drift in welcome.

“So that’s great, I know three of you. And you, over there,” and Rodimus points to Megatron, “who exactly are you, tall, dark, and scary?”

Drift starts laughing, knowing that Rodimus knows exactly who he is. “Roddy!”

“Megatron. Of Kaon. You may have heard of me.”

“Sure, I just wanted to make sure.”

Rodimus turns to Magnus, “Okay, you, hungry.”

Magnus stiffens and vaguely points to herself. “Oh, me? I’m Ultra Magnus, uh, former Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord.”

Rodimus does not know what that is. “Okay, nice to meet you Mags.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well. You were absolutely amazing yesterday.”

“Thank you. I get that a lot.”

Ratchet side eyes Rodimus. Just a little. Just a tad. He’s mulling over the fact that Rodimus asked who Megatron was. 

Megatron is also staring at the table quietly hoping that Rodimus was just fucking around. 

Ratchet does something that may be extremely stupid, and asks Megatron, “You look a little lost, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I am - fine? I mean, I did get tortured for a week, so as fine as you can be, considering.”

“Eh, that’s fair.” With a mouth full of egg, he asks, “y’don’t get many people asking about your name, do you?”

“I am… fairly sure he was joking.”

Across the table, Rodimus has finished the food on his plate and is now eating his fork. 

Drift, “Roddy!”

Megatron is looking at Rodimus like he’s lost it. 

Magnus stares at him. “Rodimus I - do not believe that is proper etiquette.”

“You’re going to have to pay for that one, kid,” Ratchet says.

“Drift can pay, don’t worry,” Rodimus says

“You can’t just rely on your friend like that,” Magnus says. “Oh, sweet Solomus…”

As the topic of paying comes up, Warthog, still at the bar, drunkenly yells out, “You’re not payin’ for nothing, Swerve! Swerve! They’re all on my tab! None of you are payin’ for nothin’ in this town! And Swerve! SWERVE! Don’t water down the spiky kid’s drinks! We all know you do it!” And then Warthog collapses on the bar.

Ratchet’s eyes and wallet light up. Magnus breathes a sigh of relief. 

Rodimus starts to eat the plate.

“Roddy - Roddy - Roddy,” Drift says, “Just order another plate of food!”

“Drift, please, I still have a perfectly good plate.”

Drift puts his face in his hands briefly before going back to his breakfast.

Megatron is definitely not going to ask about the all-eating tiefling. He stares straight ahead. He is not seeing this. This is not his problem.

Magnus is staring in disbelief. ‘How… how… that shouldn’t be possible.”

Ratchet turns to Magnus, “Hey, former Duly Appointed Enforcer, aren’t you going to do… anything?”

“Seeing as I’m former Duly Appointed Enforcer, uh... I don’t think I can do anything.”

“Oh, well, I know Magnus is very famous for being this very uptight, very by the book person, so I was just curious.”

Magnus, of course, takes this as a compliment. She blushes a little.

“I’ll let you in on a secret, kid,” Ratchet says, leaning across Megatron to talk to Rodimus. “You probably shouldn’t eat shit that belongs to people, y’know?”

“I know…” Rodimus says, “but I can.”

“He’s a lost cause.” Drift says, mournfully.

Ratchet grabs the plate out of Rodimus’s hands and shouts to Swerve, “Hey, this kid needs another plate of eggs!”

Swerve notices that Rodimus has eaten part of the plate, but Rodimus is also sitting at the same table as Megatron so he’s not going to say shit.

When Swerve hesitates to get close to the table, Ratchet shouts again, “I’ll bring it over, just make the eggs!”

Ratchet keeps the chewed on plate to contem-plate / analyze later, as he’s very curious about Rodimus’s munchery. Ratchet’s seen a lot of shit, but he’s never seen such an … omnivorous tiefling.

Rodimus, without his plate to munch, tries to take a piece of food from one of Magnus’s platters. She slaps his hand away. Drift eyes the fruit but doesn’t make the same mistake. Magnus is through about three platters now. Rodimus can relate to the eating part, and Drift is used to Rodimus. Ratchet has glanced at the half-table consuming scene of Magnus’s food with wonder and appreciation. 

Rodimus asks, “So… what are everyone else’s plans? This has been lovely, just fantastic, but are we going our separate ways, or? This breakfast has been great, don’t get me wrong, but you're still all basically strangers”

“For the most part,” Drift says, giving Megatron a Look.

“I am staying here,” Megatron says, “and joining the rebellion, I guess.” He considers, then continues in a tense voice, “it will be so much fun to work with Orion again, I cannot wait.”

“Speaking of Orion,” Ratchet says, “I was talking to him, and someone’s child went missing, so I guess I’m going on search and rescue, so if anyone wants to come with, you’re invited.”

“Cool, me and Drift are going too,” Rodimus immediately chimes in.

“Great, I would love to,” Megatron says.

“Absolutely,” Magnus joins in.

“Because apparently our lead for the Knights was a bust, and so we have nothing better to do, so why not save a kid?” Rodimus continues.

“Uh, save a kid from what, exactly? And whose kid?” Drift asks.

“A fellow guardsman of Orion’s. Apparently, while she was under mind control, Zeta took her kid.”

“Oh - oh, okay, I’m in, where do we start?” Drift asks.

“Do you remember what we found in Zeta’s place? Do you remember the plans? Do you remember the secret - thingy? I have a hunch that what we’re looking for might be in there.”

“Well, no time like the present, we’ve all eaten, let’s go.”

Magnus finishes the last of her five platters. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

“Alright, let’s mosey,” Ratchet says.

--- Continue to Part 3!

[eotheria]

The World of Eotheria according to Lady Valentine

Part 8: Elementals, the Genasi, and Other Elemental-Kin

Because the world of Eotheria was molded by the Elemental Primordials, it has a very strong connection to the elements and the elemental planes. Indeed, the elemental planes are where the Primordial Ban is at its weakest; almost as if they did not want to inconvenience their kin too much. Regardless, these properties are why unbound elementals are fairly common in Eotheria. There’s always a few popping in from the elemental planes on their own volition all the time. Not strong ones, thankfully--those cannot be brought to Eotheria without a proper summoning--but still enough that those who make a living slaying or binding unbound elementals tend to be very well off. Indeed, bound elementals can serve a number of purposes, such as providing infinite amounts of steam  for engines used to power trains and airships, providing heat to power great forges, or providing water to sustain large fields of crops. However, what most in Eotheria do not realize (or care to acknowledge) is that elementals, especially the more powerful ones, are intelligent creatures, rather than the mindless beasts of burden they’re often used as. And many of them are quite insidious, not the least of which is the most powerful elemental of all: Malenom, the Primordial Chaos.

The Great Scar

I’ve mentioned the Great Scar before, but it’s time to go in-depth about it. It is simply the path that Malenom took when he awakened during the battle between the Kordran and their celestial allies and the humans and their fiendish allies. Actually I should probably have wrote that as celestials with Kordran allies and fiends with human allies, as they were the true principle players in this fight, but I digress. He awakened in Mt. Klesiv in southeastern Kresnik, cut east all the way through the Aesir Mountains, crossing over into LaCroix in the process, then U-turned and came back around into Kordran territory to the southwest, before finally stopping and burying himself back into the earth from whence he came. He covered leagues in less than a day. And the sheer speed in which he moved meant that there were few survivors from the battle, and that few had any time to evacuate. The arch-celestial who orchestrated the war, Malakhi, was not one of them. It’s widely believed that Malenom doubled back to Kordran for the sole purpose of slaying Malakhi, who had fled the scene the moment Malenom awakened. 

Malenom’s awakening had disastrous effects on everything he touched. The land that he crossed over became an ashen wasteland where nothing can survive. A thick veil of ash covers the sky, and the earth is barren and spoiled. The water that was once plentiful and pure in these lands is stagnant and blighted. While the dwarves and other races that were displaced one day hope to regain these lands, now only crazed elementals of all types thrive, attacking anything that approaches. While thankfully the destruction has been limited to the Great Scar, many fear what might happen if Malenom were to awaken again. The truly scary thing is that what we saw forty-five years ago may have only been the tip of the iceberg. Who knows what might have happened had Malenom not fallen back to sleep.

The Genasi

On the subject of elementals and their kin, there are also the genasi, who are thankfully much more reasonable and less prone to violence than true elementals. Although they are one of the oldest races in Eotheria, little is known about them due to a combination of their reclusive nature and their tendency to choose extremes for their habitats. They are said to have been created from the bodies of the three fallen primordials that Malenom had slain: earth genasi from Maegranys, air genasi from Dornal, and water genasi from Kolira. This is a theory that has some acceptance among scholars, given the total lack of any fire genasi until fairly recently.

Physically, the genasi resemble humans, though their true nature is immediately obvious at a glance. They tend to have skin tones that closely resemble the elements that they represent. Earth and water genasi tend to be a bit more heavy set and stocky, whereas fire and air genasi tend to be lighter. Some genasi tend to be more exotic than others, resulting in crystal scales growing on an earth genasi’s skin or actual flames in place of hair for a fire genasi. In older times they were often mistaken for genies, though few have the impressive magic power that genies often possess, and unlike their elemental kin, they are native to Eotheria and not considered outsiders as a result.

The genasi were only known to Eotheria through a lot of secondhand hearsay for the longest time, to the point where many thought them mythical, much like Malenom himself. The truth is the genasi simply live in very remote places in Eotheria, but not so remote that they were completely hidden. The air genasi built cities and fortresses in the sky, and as such were spoken of for a long time by purple dragons who did the same. The earth genasi lived deep underground. Even deeper than the drow and other subterranean races, but not so deep that they were unknown to them. The water genasi lived on the surface of the ocean floor, but every now and then, there come a report of green skinned mermaids who helped shipwrecked sailors to safety.

Nothing is known of genasi history during the First and Second Ages. Though the genasi are not xenophobic, earth and water genasi tend to be withdrawn and speak little of their culture. Air genasi aren’t quite as shy, but they do tend to be so boastful that it is difficult to determine if what they say is fiction or reality. It was not until the year 941 GE that things changed. As if stirred by the awakening of Malenom, many of the genasi left their remote homes to explore Suvitha. Few, even among the genasi themselves, are certain why this is. At first it could be chalked up to simple wanderlust in individual genasi. But a few is coincidence. Thus far thousands of genasi have been sighted, suggesting a pattern. Additionally, while many of the subterranean races, such as drow and kobolds, have been displaced by the Cataclysm, the earth genasi, by and large, have not.

And then you have the fire genasi. They were unknown, even to the other genasi subtypes, for the longest time, until 943 GE, when they first came down from what was left of Mt. Klesiv. They’re quite a bit different from the others, being brash and arrogant, even by air genasi standards. Unlike the others, fire genasi are extroverts, flaunting their unusual appearances rather than hiding them. They tend to be seen as ill omens by the other genasi, who look to them as children of Malenom just as they are children of the other Primordials. Indeed, their existence brings into question whether Malenom is even still alive or not, but considering we’re not being flooded with angels and demons this very minute, I would guess that Malenom is quite alive, still. The fire genasi themselves are not certain of their origins, save that they claim to have dreamed for a very long time. A dream they are only now awakening from. Among non-genasi they tend to be a pain in the ass and have a reputation as rogues, criminals, and charlatans.

Most genasi in Suvitha tend to be nomadic, and while they often seek the company of other genasi, few will remain among the other races of Suvitha for too long, so as not to overstay their welcome. They live slightly longer than humans, having an average lifespan of 100 years. The closest thing they have to a central city is Lazaranth, a small town located in northern Kresnik. Though few genasi actually call it home, it’s considered a safe haven for genasi of all types, and many go there to trade, share stories, or meet old friends.

Elemental Cults

Being as powerful as they are, it is not strange that humans and other races would choose to form cults devoted to Malenom and other elemental beings. As proof that this is not simply a human trait, many renegade drow hold deep reverence to Malenom, who they claim will cleanse Eotheria of the surface dwellers and usher in a glorious age for all who give reverence to him. Among those who worship the Primordial Chaos, the drow are among the most notable, to the point that many attribute the curse bestowed upon all drow to these insane elemental worshippers.

However, other smaller, splinter cults exist, some devoted to the darker nature of individual elements, limiting them to aspects of destruction. Indeed, rumors persist of some of these smaller cults having footholds within the less populated frontiers of Suvitha, such as the Beastlands, and perhaps the Great Scar itself. Some claim that these cults are merely extensions of the Cult of the Primordial Chaos itself, but thus far their actions are too subtle and too covert to determine this.

In the next chapter I will speak on the celestials of Empyrea, the fiends of Sheol, and their progeny; the aasimar and tieflings.

[catastrophe-conglomerate]

Elemental Affairs - Session 5 Summary

Night has fallen in the Defiant Ship, silence crawls through the halls until the air suddenly carries a horrible scream and the sounds of a struggle. Lara and Rei, being elves, don’t need to sleep and hear the racket going on upstairs. They immediately run over to see what’s going on.

In the guest room where Blatrenn is, Auk is confronting him with their rapier drawn, in another attempt to end Blatrenn’s life. Rei and Lara manage to hold them off barely, though Auk still wants to kill him and is seconds away from just going through with it.

At this point, Lynnae wakes up and sees that Auk is no longer in the room with her. When she hears screams upstairs, she assumes the worst and runs over immediately, only to find things exactly the opposite of what she expected. Luckily, she manages to cool Auk off enough, telling them that she has a plan and that she needs Blatrenn alive for that. She takes them back to their room and waits until morning.

Once downstairs, Lyn distances herself from the group and keeps glaring at Hadall and Trick: the situation from yesterday hasn’t quite blown over and she distrusts them greatly.

Hadall takes Trick and the toddler aside and he starts talking to the child. She’s a fire-genasi tiefling with tiny little tusks and she’s absolutely adorable. When Hadall asks about where the child lives, she just answers with a happy “home!”. She also describes her home as “green” and with many “birbs”. Hadall asks for her name: she can say it, but it comes out a little fucky. She says “Kaya Covinus”, and Hadall’s face tightens immediately. In order to help her calm down and have fun, Rei casts minor illusion and makes a bird for Kaya to play with.

Now Hadall starts talking to Trick: he’s interested in the reason Trick gives out so many fake names to others. Not just that, too, the massive scar on Trick’s side has also piqued his interest. Trick explains how she had a reputation of playing harmless pranks in her hometown, until one day her family home burned down and she got the blame for it (despite the fact she witnessed goblins burning her home down). Her parents and siblings all perished in the fire and Trick was arrested. She broke out of prison and has been on the run ever since. She doesn’t know if there’s anyone still after her. Hadall asks her if Trick is her real name, to which Trick answers “it is now.” Trick spent some time in the circus, traveling around and performing. She misses that life.

Trick, in return, has some questions for Hadall: she’s wondering about the name that Rosa first addressed him with (Kuvan). It’s one of his names. Hadall reveals he’s from Fass, from a little village called Glynshyr, which Trick has visited with the circus once, at least a few years ago.

Lynnae butts into the conversation at this moment, telling Hadall and Trick that they still have something to discuss with her. Lyn wants to make it very clear that she will not appreciate being “fucked over” like yesterday, at which Hadall starts yelling that he wasn’t really the one fucking her over, but that she fucked over the team instead. Lyn’s convinced Hadall could have stopped her in a different way. They shout about matters of trust, how Lyn doesn’t dare trust Hadall anymore and, in return, how Hadall’s afraid that he can’t trust Lynnae in stressful situations because she’s practically a ticking timebomb. At this point Lynnae turns to Trick, asking her what the fuck she was thinking threatening her with her biggest fear. Trick had absolutely no clue that the threat of being charmed was that bad for Lynnae, and neither did Hadall. Hadall cools off a little and tells her that if he had known this would upset her so much, he never would have taken her hostage. Trick tells Lyn she still would have used the threat out of a wish of survival, to “do what must be done”. It was the uncertainty and loss of control that got Lynnae in such a state of stress in the first place.

Just as Lyn starts losing her shit again, Trick casts Calm Emotions and dispels the anger immediately. Both Hadall and Lynnae feel better at once. Hadall tells Lynnae to, next time, at least try to restrain herself a bit better, to which Lyn says that she has always had the tendency of exploding at these moments. They talk about how Lyn should think of the good of the group more. Hadall assures Lyn that he only means well, and that he never would have taken her in if that weren’t the case. With promises of improvement, the two finally make up and Lynnae gives him one of her business cards, but instead of “I’m sorry for the way my party treated you”, it now says “I’m sorry for the way I treated you”. Lyn admits that she wouldn’t be alive now if not for Hadall, and she gets up from the table, announcing that she needs Hadall, Trick, and actually the entire group including Rosa and Blatrenn.

The group reconvenes, and Lynnae says she wants to interrogate Blatrenn. To prove her trustworthiness she gloves her hands, and promises not to hurt Blatrenn unless he gives her a valid reason, even asking Hadall to hold her back if she blows up again.

Lynnae pulls out a list of questions and starts the interrogation.

 Who of the five missing children from Pasekar are dead? Blatrenn didn’t ask their names. And where were the other three taken? The remaining three children of Pasekar are with Vurryl in Trestyr What are the chances they are still alive? Blatrenn has no clue. There is a chance but that’s it. Were you the one who killed them? He was. What is the name of your cult? There’s no official name, but they call themselves the Followers of the Many Eyed. Any subdivisions or anything? No more subdivisions apart from Vurryl’s and Falk’s. What is your deal with the Gold Dragon of Wyntir? That was Hykaril’s business. Is this related to why you use Draconic for your writing and communication? It’s the language of magic and it’s unrelated to Hykaril’s fascination for the Gold Dragon. Is Hykaril’s hunting party still out there and are their crystals connected to the same set as ours, considering they belonged to Hykaril’s group? Hykaril’s group was very small and he depended on Vurryl and Blatrenn a lot for the hunting. Blatrenn doesn’t know who else can listen in on us. What was the spell Kauthrien enchanted you with? Blatrenn doesn’t know what it’s called. He describes it as being commanded. Kauthrien repeatedly told him to “not disobey her”. You mentioned in your diary that you and Kauthrien had a meeting here in town a while ago. When was this exactly? A few weeks ago What was it about? In order to “reassure her orders”. Blatrenn was enchanted one year ago, and during the meeting the spell was cast on him again and renewed in that sense. Anything about her behavior that struck you as odd? Not weirder than usual. Is there a possibility she’s still closeby? He has no idea.

Now this is where Lynnae gets down to business:

How do we contact Kauthrien? There’s a possibility you can only do it with Kauthrien’s face in mind, but Blatrenn’s not sure. You do, however, have to focus on her. Can Kauthrien spy on us through the crystal or does she have other means to do so? What are the chances we’re being watched? He has no fucking idea man. He mentions she probably knows magic for it but he doesn’t know anything for sure. Is there some kind of code language you use for communication through crystals? There is, actually! The enchantment placed on him prevents him from talking about it, but through another game of hangman we figure out that the greeting is: “May his eyes be on you”, and the answer to this should be: “May his tyranny reign true.” When does Kauthrien usually expect a “call”? Kauthrien is the one who knocks. She usually calls her underlings instead of the other way around.

 With this, Lynnae finishes her interrogation and turns to the rest of the party, at which she starts proposing a plan for ambushing Kauthrien by contacting her. The rest of the party quickly shoots the plan down: it’s too risky. Lynnae then yells that if she has to die again, she’d rather do it for her friends – she then immediately gasps and covers her mouth. Hadall starts questioning her about her slip-up but she refuses to say anything else.

We start discussing out next move. Although we want to head to Fass and Suald as soon as possible, Rei still has business in Tyreh. Therefore we first decide to go to the Kaydan-ter island to visit the monastery they want to go to.

That, however, means having to go on the seas again, setting Lynnae back into an anxious rambling spree. When Hadall and Trick tell her that hey, at least she didn’t die last time, she goes awfully quiet. Considering what she accidentally revealed before, Hadall puts two and two together and asks her if she drowned, to which she nods.

We leave for the docks then realize, yo, we’ve still got Kaya with us. Bad idea to take the toddler out to sea, of course, so we decide to leave her in Rosa’s care and pick her back up on the way to her home in Fass. Blatrenn offers to sail us to and fro on his own fjullgan, an offer which we gladly accept. There’s a problem, though: the islands of Tyreh float around on the water along with the tides and currents, and it’s almost impossible to map the region because of that. We have no idea where to go. Since there might be places where they sell maps of the Tyreh currents or otherwise have information on how to pinpoint where Kaydan-ter might be right now, we decide to split the party and take a look around town.

Trick, Hadall, Lynnae and Auk go to the library. The friendly dragonborn librarian guides them to the geographical books section of the library and the group starts looking around. They find what seems to be a sailor’s book with information on the currents and tides of Tyreh, and with his knowledge of sailing Hadall starts trying to figure out where Kaydan-ter is right now. Lynnae copies the relevant information in her notebook.

Meanwhile, Laraëssil, Rei and Cassandra are in Melora’s Gifts, the general store of Tyressil. Lara gets her hands on a beautiful tidal chart made for sailors, while Rei buys a component pouch while they’re there anyway.

We converge on the docks once more, and using Lyn’s info and Lara’s map he manages to figure out Kaydan-ter’s general location. We set sail and start heading to the monastery’s island. In order to distract herself Lynnae starts working on a health potion. The first day of this journey goes without a problem but the second day we lose our way for a moment as a thick fog sets in and a ghostly ship comes into view. On the side of the ship, it says “The Rotten Dahlia”. It must be the phantom ship that the tavern in Tyressil was named after. Blatrenn mentions it happens more often, and as the fog lifts we correct our course and boat on.

On the third and last day of this journey, Trick takes Hadall to the side and out of earshot for a moment. She expresses her concern for Lynnae’s loyalty and how she might use the crystal anyway to contact Kauthrien. Despite the fact they don’t trust Lynnae at all with her crystal, they feel they have no choice but to leave her be.

We reach the tiny, tiny island of Kaydan-ter in the evening and we see a beautiful white building on there. It’s the monastery we have been looking for and immediately, an enormous goliath man approaches and greets us. Rei gives him a tiny package which holds a golden statue of Pelor, the deity Rei reveres. The goliath is happy with it, and invites us in to stay the night and eat. He introduces himself as Master Kindarian and he brings us to the main part of the building, beautifully decorated, and in the evening rays of the sun the floor lights up in an intricate pattern. We dine (it’s… not great food) and head over to the dorms to sleep.

However, in the middle of the night the two Trouble Tieflings decide they haven’t had booze in a while yet and they want to get drunk, so they get out of bed and start nosing around in the kitchen. Though someone takes notice of them, they’re quick enough to duck out of the way and remain unseen. There’s no booze in the kitchen, so they head over to what seems to be a storage room for ceremonial supplies. There. Is. No. Booze.

So they exit and are immediately caught in the act by a monk, a human man. He takes them back to their dorms, and though the two tieflings again try to escape and look for booze, the hallway is now being guarded and – persuaded by a very cranky and sleepdrunk Lynnae – go back to sleep.

We wake up and eat breakfast the next morning (again… not that tasty) and head out towards the docks to return to Tyressil immediately – no time to waste. The Master of the monastery bids us goodbye and tells Rei they’re always welcome amongst them (and of course, because we’re assholes, we all say “amonkst” us). On the way to the docks we get to see some of the monks’ daily activities: it seems like they’re a much more fun-loving monastery than Rei’s. There’s some kind of training area where monks are sparring with each other, and there’s actually some monks RUNNING ACROSS THE WAVES, RACING EACH OTHER LIKE D&D JESUSES. There’s a very light and cheerful atmosphere, standing in stark contrast to the monastery in Solitude where Rei is from – there was a much more serious and gloomy atmosphere there, almost cold, like everything in Kyllm.

We get back on the waves to go back to Tyressil. Lynnae finishes her healing potion on the way, but that’s about the most exciting thing that happens in the three-day-journey. We hit land again on the evening of the third day, planning to pick up Kaya and leave with the ferry right away. However, as we ask the dockmaster when the next ferry leaves, he tells us it left yesterday and the next one won’t leave for another week. Blatrenn offers to bring us to the port town of Terstys, where we started our adventure in Tyreh in Session 3.

Trick and Cas head to the Defiant Ship to pick up Kaya, and Cassandra gets herself three bottles of booze for the road. In the meantime, Lyn takes Auk to the side and asks them how they’re holding up: it’s not going great. Lyn also admits she doesn’t know if she can stay friendly with Blatrenn for much longer, at which Auk assures her that they have her back if she decides to attack him.

We decide that since Terstys is just a few hours away by boat, we can make the trip now and just arrive at dawn so we can head back into Fass first thing in the morning. We get back on the boat to make our way back to the port town. On the boat, Lynnae realizes that the crystal she sent to Kara must have arrived in Parshyr right about now, and she doesn’t like that her elder sister still hasn’t contacted her.

We reach the shores of Terstys in the early morning. When discussing where to bring Kaya, Trick says we don’t really have a name to go on but Hadall begs to differ: he recognized what Kaya was trying to tell him before. When saying her name, Kaya didn’t say “Kaya Covinus”, she said “Kaya Corvinius”. The Corvinius family is a big merchant family Hadall knows very well, and they have a huge manor near the town of Fjynlen, about 5 days walking from Terstys.

Trick asks how Hadall knows the family, to which he answers that he used to work as a mercenary for them, but he didn’t quite leave them on good terms. One day he just up and left, because it didn’t work out according to him. The rest assures him that it might be good if he brings back the kid, because it’ll help his reputation a fair bit.

The town of Runar is on the way to the Corvinius manor, and Lynnae wants to stop by to see how the watchtower is doing because Blatrenn crystal-bullshitted to his hunting party that after being ambushed, he fled to Hykaril’s old base. When asked where the hunting party is right now, Blatrenn mutters into his crystal to ask and find out and learns that his hunting party is in the very north of Suald, in the town of Parwyn. This startles Lyn to the bone but she refuses to tell why. As Lara makes a telepathic connection and asks if there’s anything life-threatening going on, Lyn replies that there very well might be.

Though tired, we make quite a bit of progress on our first day. We make camp, Lynnae starts on an ointment against sunburn and Rei goes squirrel hunting. Since Rei has double the walking speed of a squirrel and hella good Dexterity, they eventually manage to catch a live, wild squirrel, they stash it in their bag, and name it Bøbiël (this is a massive inside joke but okay we now have Bøbiël the squirrel).

On the second day of traveling something Lyn has feared for a while comes to pass: the crystal around her neck makes a crackling noise and a female voice speaks the words “May his eyes be on you”. Lyn distances herself from the group, then with Alter Self turns herself into the wood elf Aerith Araynore to change her voice. She answers Kauthrien’s call with “May his tyranny reign true”, and thus the contact is established.

Kauthrien is obviously not amused with “Aerith” having taken Warden Hykaril’s crystal. Aerith tells her that she was poking around the Runar watchtower a while back to look for rare herbs and stones – as she is a potionmaker – and she stumbled upon the dead bodies of Hykaril and his underlings in the ritual room. Intrigued by the stones, Aerith took them and next found some documents in the office that detailed how to use them. For a moment, things seem to be going in the Conglomerate’s way but the second Aerith says that this went down three weeks ago, Kauthrien’s demeanor seems to shift. She calls this fact interesting, thanks Aerith for the information and tells her: “The Many Eyed will be watching you”, and proceeds to break contact.

In an anxious rant Lynnae relays to the party what happened, but as we discuss what just took place and the possible consequences of this, Blatrenn steps back a little as he too receives a call. Since he answers in Draconic and no one speaks Draconic here, Lynnae casts Comprehend Languages to hear what he’s saying.

Kauthrien is definitely onto us. She interrogates Blatrenn, using the enchantment to force the truth out of him. Blatrenn is forced to reveal that he’s with us, and that we were the ones who killed Hykaril and his entire division. Kauthrien apparently orders him to kill us next: Blatrenn drops contact, asks us to knock him out, and draws his swords.

The battle is ended within 3 seconds: Cassandra gets the first strike, Blatrenn then attacks her back but Trick – with a fantastically executed Inflict Wounds – knocks him unconscious at once. We tie him up and take his crystal, at which Lyn realizes the gravity of what’s going on and stresses out. Cas and Hadall tell her to take off the crystal or hand it over, at which she gets defensive and says that she needs her crystal. Hadall reminds her that she should work with the team more, Lynnae snaps back that she is working with the team by keeping her crystal and protecting the others from Kauthrien’s contact. The rest seems to be worried that, since Kauthrien was able to control Blatrenn through the crystal, she might also be able to control Lynnae after establishing contact. Lyn’s adamant that she’s safe because it technically wasn’t her who answered the call. If Kauthrien would have been able to see her, she would have seen a wood elf.

Trick wakes Blatrenn up, he seems to no longer be under the direct command that he must kill the party. We offer to destroy his crystal but he tells us it’s even more suspicious if he suddenly falls off the radar altogether. Hadall proposes Blatrenn returns to Tyreh alone with the crystal, but that would also put him in extreme danger. As we go back and forth, proposing ideas to keep both Blatrenn and the party in relative safety from Kauthrien, Lynnae commits another attempt on Blatrenn’s life, using a subtle spelled Burning Hands to make it look like she had a wild magic surge (ironically, she actually does get an actual wild magic surge while casting the spell and her age reverts to 18). Despite the fact it looked like a surge, Hadall sees through the deception quite easily (Lyn just uttered the most sarcastic “whoops” of all time) and he berates Lyn for breaking the promise she made before. He then picks up Kaya and legs it away from Lynnae – he does intend to keep his promise of not hurting the sorceress.

It’s an awkward evening around the campfire. While Kaya has no idea what’s going on and is happily playing with Hadall, Lyn and Trick keep sharing distrustful glances. Rei even tries to steal Lyn’s crystal but she notices them and slaps their hand away.

Although there’s once again a tension lingering within the party, the rest of the journey goes well and after three more days, we reach the iron gates of the Corvinius manor, decorated with great black crows. Hadall now turns towards the party with a nervous look on his face: there’s something about the Corvinius family he needs to tell us. He reveals that he was at first working for them as a mercenary, but he then married the heiress of the family and left her rather suddenly a few years ago…

…meaning Kaya Corvinius might in fact be his daughter.

[riddles-of-the-unknown]

*Notes: Tournament of the Fey

Traces of magic

Weave pink and sky blue threads around the stones.

Flares to life after 20 minutes.

Second time much easier~

Bright pinkish

Chris

o   Is at first unable to get through

§  Flying

o   Can go through with Lafi

The mouth seems to be sleeping

City built into the trees, carved out of trees

Part of nature

 Bent and coaxed into different shapes to make a large, beautiful city

Image in our minds.

You will find it now that we know

Seelie are unique people

We just walk~

 Chris seemed interested in what happens when we get hurt

o   That time heals some injury.

They stay that way (injured) until someone puts them back together

o   Interesting.

Shapeshifters

o   Werewolves

o   Weretigers

o   Friendly if you’re into that sort.

o   Lafi probably is~

Centaurs

o   Weird, if you see one be polite

Wemics

o   Has a stomach up where its heart is

o   Then has another stomach where it should, and a third… in the bottom ‘body’.

o   3 stomachs

o   Or so Chris claims

We talk a bit about time~

Seelie are very protective of what’s theirs

600 sisters

Faeries sprout out of flowers

o   Lilac

 Fairy water

Large bridge leading to a city sized tree

o   Little holes burrowed into the side of the tree

o   Gate made out of wood

o   Music playing within

o   Soft harps

o   Chasm – roots extend very far down

Remember the Seelie are friendly, but still very protective

o   Might try to play some tricks on us

No guards

Faerie light all throughout the insides of this tree

Music gets louder, sounds more festive

o   Somewhat sad sounding?

o   Has a clear pattern

City seems lively

People look a lot taller, spidery, very long features

o   Some have very large wings

o   Butterfly, batlike

o   Everyone seems to get along

Same water

o   Golden, smells like fermented honey

o   Some people walking up to the walls, cupping hands, drinking it.

Chris

o   Asks someone about

Half-summer tournament

o   Quite exciting

o   Tournament

o   Losers drink, winners drink

o   Local blacksmiths often

The elves haven’t come by for thousands of years

We speak to a prince

o   Royalty is

Trial of wit, of combat, of alacrity

o   Puzzles, several, have to walk through many of them

o   Combat is 3 rounds

o   Alacrity is obstacle course

Oberon

o   If you say his name, he will hear it.

o   Prince of the Seelie Court

o   Very dangerous

Rules

o   Earn a patron

o   If you win on their behalf, they owe you a boon

o   Only Royalty can enter in all three

o   Everyone else must enroll in one

o   Creators enter in combat

o   Scholars - trial of wit, to show off their smart

o   Alacrity – scouts or runners, not much in the way of boons

o   Typically teams

Air grows colder as we search for Trixly

o   Find the forge area

o   Weight settling on your chest, hard to breathe

o   Uses cold to forge instead of heat

o   Lot of magic, weather magic keeping the place cold.

Open stalls

o   Various creatures

o   Satyrs, nymphs, centaurs

o   Big blocks of ice billowing fog off of them

o   Striking pieces of greenish glass

o   Weapons are being created

o   Chipping away almost like sculpting

o   Armor and weapons to greenish-gold glint

§  Somewhat like the guards of portals

Trixly

o   Seems somewhat shifty

o   Contract

o   Wants us to enter in the contest on his behalf

o   Otherwise doesn’t believe that we are here for Drumthen

o   Will give us the armor if we win.

House made out of vines - Inn

o   Small and large door

o   Not many people in here, only us

o   Everything made out of vines

Eladrin sized cups for us

o   Chris did a good job bringing them over.

Oberon

o   When someone turns him down

o   Just kind of sucks it up.

o   When he’s insulted, things get less alive than they were

o   Chris

§  Says that if we win, we become his property / servants

§  Not like slaves, but he owns us.

o   Didn’t seem offended after we spoke to him at least…

o   Albeit got bored of both Ren and Lafi speaking.

We’ll find out if we live~

Can use magic

o   2-3 rounds

o   Just proclaim that Trixly is our patron

o   No killing (on purpose) Mortal wounds are ok

o   Proclaim before every round

o   Center of the city, walk away from the walls

o   Declare together

o   Pass by some potion shops

Chris curled up in Lafi’s hair

Some

We just vanish and appear out of the arena

4 people teleport in

o   Don’t look like fey

5 faeries, almost like imps with bows

A fighter, with a shield

A crow like person popping into the shadows, then popping out to take out pixies

Person, small orbs of water about them, call out vines from the ground and shoot out lightning

Red skinned humanoid dancing around with kicks

For the Trial of Wit

Some of the riddles are very boring.

o   It’s incredibly disappointing; I could likely write them better riddles.

o   Some have very little cohesion either.

§  Though that doesn’t really bother me, for one remains in the Unknown, it’s all the more fun when there is an answer~  Perhaps what they refer to is that which is not known~ For how could one answer a riddle if they have never heard of what it refers?

o   Some people don’t look very happy after failing the riddles

§  Though really, I could hardly believe any would fail to such things.

o   The tiefling is answering them very well.

o   Seeing her there means that they are a party participating for Royalty.

Person in the front eladrin (fighter)

Kenku / Crow person (rogue)

Genasi (druid)

Tiefling (monk)

Adventurer’s guild symbol

o   They are all here for a job.

o   Apparently from Sigil

o   Is there an Adventurer’s guild in Sigil?  I mean it’d be weird if there weren’t, but…

[d4bbl3zdnd]

Children of the Gods

((Sorry for the delay to the post. Personal life is creeping in and I didn’t have time to get this out earlier in the week. Things should be smoothing out soon.))

Now that we’ve tackled the daunting task of introducing a playable race that didn’t exist back when I was originally planning the world of Cambreon, we now get to indulge in adding some of my favorite playable races: the planetouched. For those of you not familiar, the term “planetouched” refers to races that have some touch of planar heritage in their blood. They aren’t fully extraplanar, or even halfway, but the planes to enhance their natural abilities in ways that make them distinct. The most well known, currently, are tieflings. These planetouched have fiendish blood, but not enough to make them half-fiends. Their opposites are the aasimar who are touched by celestial blood, but we’ll be focusing on them in a later installment. For this week, we’ll be focusing on the genasi, or elemental planetouched.

It’s Elemental, Dear Watson

As I mentioned, genasi are individuals whose bloodlines have been touched by elemental outsiders. Since the elements in Cambreon are the gods themselves, these are individuals who are touched by those gods, much like the heroes of Greek mythology. While not direct children of Cambreon’s deities, they still somehow exhibit traces of godly power. Perhaps they were born during a strong storm, or their mother froze to death but they survived. Regardless of how they came into this world, they are treated as scions of their respective patron.

Genasi were a type of character race that I ran into way back in 2001 when I bought my first D&D book; the Monsters of Faerun Monster Compendium for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. At the time I didn’t know what the Forgotten Realms was, nor did I own any of the core rulebooks, but I knew that I could borrow what books I needed and that this book had monsters none of my friends had ever encountered. The genasi in that book were strictly an NPC race, but mechanics for use as a PC race weren’t far behind.

As soon as I decided how much the elements had a hold on the world of Cambreon, I had to make genasi a playable race. Thankfully, the Princes of the Apocalypse player companion had them as playable races, so I was able to take what I liked from the Pathfinder version and make them work in 5e. My final race were very much a homebrewed hodgepodge of both Pathfinder and D&D5e genasi, but they fit the world that I wanted them to be a part of. I think I got them pretty right because one of my players even decided that he wanted to play an earth genasi over any of the other races. Now that the mechanics were set, I just needed to decide how the different genasi made their places in the world.

To Each Their Own

Air genasi, touched by Auris, are natural travelers. They are lithe of build and quick of wit, and usually revel in their connection to the Laughing Wind. When an air genasi child is born, the parents usually sigh knowing that their son or daughter will likely grow up to be quite a handful. Genasi, in general, are treated differently because the elemental touch often manifests itself physically in some way. In air genasi, this can appear as white or blue hair, skin that is pale or looks frostbitten, a soft wind that always moves around them, flesh that is always cool to the touch, or any number of other air-related anomalies that make it pretty obvious the person is touched by Auris. Air genasi combat this by embracing their nature; often becoming rogues or bards, wandering the land and living by their wits. Because of their planar influence, all genasi also have a predilection for sorcery, so a disproportionate amount of Arcane Tricksters are air genasi.

The influence of Auris also manifests itself in some less-than-obvious ways. Having been created in part by elemental air, all air genasi are breathless. After a while, breathing becomes more of a habit than anything; a courtesy to normal folks who expect to see the chest rise and fall when someone speaks. Air genasi can also use the air itself to cushion their falls like a feather fall spell, though it requires a lot of energy and can only be done every so often. The 5e air genasi cast levitate instead, but I liked the Pathfinder version better in this case.

Earth genasi, touched by Terris, are stern and stubborn. They have broad builds and are usually gruff and quiet loners. Parents of earth genasi are usually devout Terrans, and the arrival of such a child is an event to be celebrated. Rarer than the other genasi, they can be identified by their rough skin, coal-black or gem-colored eyes, gravelly voice, disproportionately large feet or hands, or even something as obvious as green or iron grey hair. Because of the nature of their birth, earth genasi are often apprenticed to the church of Terris at a young age, and many work as rangers or druids to protect the wild spaces that they feel akin to.

Terris’s influence gives earth genasi superhuman abilities, like all genasi. Because elemental earth is mixed in their veins, earth genasi are resilient against electrical damage. The earth inside of themselves just absorbs a good deal of the energy, harmlessly diffusing it into the ground at their feet. All of Terris’s creations also respect earth genasi, which allows them to act as though under the influence of a pass without trace spell once a day. I felt that the Earth Walk feature of the 5e earth genasi was redundant with the pass without trace, so I went with the Pathfinder resistance.

Fire genasi, touched by Friga, are hot-tempered and impulsive. Strong and stern, they command the respect of everyone around them. Due to Friga’s penchant for anger and destruction, fire genasi are probably the least welcome of any genasi child. Many parents stoically raise their fiery child hoping to lead it down a proper path, but more often than not fire genasi run away from home and strike out on their own as soon as possible. Fire genasi revel in the greed of their elemental influence, often wearing garish or expensive clothes and jewelry. Even if not decked out in such a way, you can always pick them out by a number of possible physical attributes such as charcoal grey skin, red or orange hair that moves like flames, eyes that glow when they get angry, unusually warm skin, or some other ignan trait. Easily upset and always itching for a fight, fire genasi make excellent mercenaries, often going down the fighter or barbarian path.

Being children of fire brings with it a few perks that can assist the ostentatious fire genasi on their paths to glory. Their elemental blood keeps them warm when it’s cold, but also means that they are completely comfortable with extreme heat as well. It’s not uncommon to see fire genasi in any climate wearing the most garish outfits without a care in the world. This fiery blood also means that they can produce fire from nothing much like the produce flame cantrip, and they can do so as much as they like. I actually liked this trait from the 5e version better than the Pathfinder, but I got rid of learning burning hands at level 3, as well as the darkvision, in exchange for the cold resistance from the Pathfinder version. It may actually have made them a bit OP, but I’ve yet to have a chance to playtest them.

Water genasi, touched by Aquos, are thoughtful and kind. They may be slow to anger, but their wrath is formidable. Most genasi are born to human parents, but water genasi are equally as likely to be born to elven parents, due to their connection with Aquos. Personable and kind, water genasi are a delight to be able to raise and often grow up to be very well-adjusted members of society. While often teased simply because they’re different, in elven communities this teasing comes more from the genasi being pampered and favored by all of the adults. The aquan nature of their heritage manifests in ways as obvious as the growth of gills, hair that always looks wet, or scaly skin, to more subtle things like webbing between the fingers and toes, large dark eyes, or blue/green hair. Because Aquos has such a devoted following (especially in elven communities), water genasi often become clerics of their patron. Even those that do not take to the faith still find themselves drawn to water and frequently become sailors of some ilk.

This affinity for water is built into the very fiber of every water genasi. They can breathe freely both in and out of the water, whether their gills are obvious or simply an adaptation of their lungs. Being so free in the water also means that most learn to swim at a very young age and move as well in the water as they do on land, if not better. Their sometimes clammy skin also makes them resistant to acids as they simply wash off without doing much damage at all. Like all genasi, there is some sorcerous nature about them. This manifests in their ability to shape water like the cantrip of the same name and eventually create or destroy water like the spell. The water genasi is the only one where I sided almost completely with the 5e rules. It actually added more to the subrace than what was done in Pathfinder, and still considered it balanced, so I wasn’t going to argue.

And that’s the way it goes; four genasi for the four elements. I absolutely love this playable race and would love to be able to find a game to play one in, but not every DM allows them as they have never been considered a “core” or “standard” race. It really is a shame because the genasi give a lot of cool RP opportunities to people who play them. Even in a world populated by half-orcs and dragonkind, you kinda stick out like a sore thumb. Don’t worry though, next entry we get back to some normal stuff with everyone’s favorite annoyance; the gnomes.