#a few of us are playing multiple characters for many reasons but also bc dm said yes to that

[jackkodiac]

Oh boy this is fun. Extremely long post ahead. Beware of ooc drama.

@holydestruction

"If someone has an issue with another mun, please do not send yourself ‘‘anons’‘ or have your friends send ‘‘anons’‘ as an excuse to try and attack/punish other muns."

Neither I myself, nor any of my friends know who sent the ask. I avoided answering it for 3 days because Ollie and I had not finished discussing the final outcome. I went into Ollie’s DM’s SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE of this ask to try to finally clear the air and have some kind of answer. The ask made me uncomfortable, and the 2 previous ones had as well. It had been sitting unanswered for 3 days before everything blew up. 

"Once someone has blocked me I keep it at that and respect their wishes, and i normally don’t give a fuck about the petty vagueposts on here--in fact, check my rules for how i generally approach situation."

Please show me where I apparently vagueposted about anyone??? I didn’t even tell my closest friends about the problem until today (5/2/2020) when I was informed of this callout post, let alone make vague public complaints about you OR Ollie. I blocked you knowing you would likely block me soon anyway. 

"However, if someone is coming up to me saying that people are posting things like this, and bringing private matters public while spreading misinformation then I’m going to respond."

No I’m pretty sure I didn’t air any dirty laundry, unlike you? I spoke the truth; in the end I did not get a choice. I got an ultimatum. And I dropped the subject after that ask. Good to know you have someone stalking my blog for you though.

You posted a screenshot of my ask response; a request to have the subject dropped bc I was hurt by a situation I couldn’t do anything about. How horrible of me.

"Hi yeah since you blocked me and Ollie is rarely on Tumblr any more cause of this exact shit right here, and you’re trying to vilify the mun OVER FUCKING WORD BARBIES, I’m stepping in to tell you top stop playing the fucking victim when I have chat logs of you trying to hold Ollie emotionally hostage."

Like I said, I blocked you knowing you would block me eventually anyway. I blocked him too, because I figured the same thing. He specifically stated to me in his last Discord message, and I quote: “After this conversation, I really do think it’s best that we don’t talk again.” So I blocked you both to deter the possibility of accidentally engaging with either of you again. As. Requested.

Also, it hurt knowing you have full reign to npc his character when I was denied even the possibility of npcing a *background relationship*. So yes. I blocked you. I could not forsee us ever interacting in a positive manner, so I cut my losses.

I am not sure how you think I’m “playing the victim” as if I wasn’t also hurt by his words and actions? There were no winners in this argument and you blaming all of it on ME is the actual vilifying.

Also good to know that wanting to talk about something instead of being told I have to end it on the spot with no explanation is “holding someone emotionally hostage.” I guess I will just have to avoid discussions with people ever again bc talking ooc is evil now!

"Ollie tried multiple times to contact you over this issue because they wanted to stay in contact."

This is actually true! Ollie contacted me to talk about general things as well as the topic of our characters a few times over the last month. I did the same thing just as often. He would contact me to say hi and ask how I was doing, we would small talk. I would contact him to show him pictures of my cat bc he liked them! We would small talk. Occasionally we actually would start to discuss things. Then we would either get busy, go to sleep, or have to go to work, and the discussion would end. Other times we had to stop because one or both of us was too stressed out over various factors and the topic was strenuous.

"Every time, you brushed them off begging Ollie not to have them break up because, as you stated, that was the only thing you had to look forward to that made you happy."

I did not brush him off EVERY time. Sometimes we started to get somewhere. He asked to stop talking just as often, if not more times, than I did. And while I did say the ship was ONE of the only things I was looking forward to, I did not say it was THE only one. The epidemic has been stressful on everyone, and with both of us being “essential workers” the external stress is even harder. I enjoyed having something to talk about when I got off of a hard day at the warehouse. I wasn’t ready to let go of that when HE even offered to have them work it out in the first place. 

"You then ghosted them for days that rolled into weeks, and Ollie would have to contact you AGAIN."

Correction: I left Ollie ALONE for days at a time, after he would request it. He would leave my messages unanswered just as often? But I didn’t complain about it, because that is something he has always done. We don’t always have time to stop and talk. He would get stressed out and I would drop the subject AT HIS REQUEST until he brought it back up. I think that is actually considered respecting someone’s space.

"Do you know what that is, acyl? That’s putting the responsibility of YOUR HAPPINESS onto OLLIE over a FUCKING ROLEPLAY SHIP, ACYL."

And yet, his choice to make both of us retcon/cut down months of character development between both our muses ISN’T putting the responsibility of HIS happiness on ME? Ok. If you say so.

"Ollie explained to you now stressful and anxiety inducing roleplaying had become, and how miserable they were roleplaying this character for reasons that I’m not getting into and don’t matter right now. The point is, ollie explained how they felt."

And just as many times, I expressed that he did not have to continue writing. He said he was leaving tumblr and going to restrict rp to Discord. I said Ok I can work with that. He said he wanted to drop the character. I said Ok I can work with that; I have had many partners drop muses or leave the rpc before, and this issue has NEVER arose in all 5 years I have been writing this blog. The characters have either been killed off by the original mun or allowed to be npc’d in a background relationship. (Ie, implied that they occasionally hang out or talk. No large modding of anyone else’s characters.) Not once has someone started a huge ordeal over this.

"You then got MAD AT OLLIE, and LASHED OUT because Ollie deleted their blog, and told them that OLLIE SHOULD HAVE CONSULTED YOU FIRST???? AS IF YOURE ENTITLED TO THEIR BLOG??"

I was never once mad at Ollie. I was shocked and hurt by the last message Vwig had dm’d to Crow on tumblr before Ollie deleted the blog. I was concerned for Ollie over what had caused this sudden change. I had just gotten off an 8 hour shift at work and seen the aftermath, and I went into Ollie’s DM’s on Discord asking what was wrong. The previous night, when the characters had been fighting, I asked Ollie multiple times ooc if he was ok. I asked if he was bothered and he told me no multiple times. He said it was all ic and he was perfectly fine. I dropped it and the next I heard from him was THAT. I asked what was wrong, what had happened. I was concerned for my friend who just previously said he was ok. He said he didn’t want to rp vwig anymore and we started to talk about what to do since he was leaving the community. Not once did I say he had to ask my permission to delete his blog. I asked why he didn’t talk to me first about what had upset him, but I did not tell him he had to have my permission.

"YOU DO NOT OWN ANY RIGHTS OR GET TO HAVE ANY SAY IN WHAT OLLIE DOES WITH THEIR PROPERTY, NOR DICTATE WHAT OLLIE DOES WITH A HOBBY MEANT TO MAKE THEM HAPPY AND RELAXED. YOU DO NOT HAVE THAT CONTROL OVER OLLIE."

At no point did I ever express that I did. I expressed concern over his change in demeanor. 

"You DO NOT get to do nothing but guilt trip Ollie to try and make them do what YOU WANT. You DO NOT then get to try and use anger to INTIMIDATE Ollie into doing what YOU WANT. You DO NOT get to ghost Ollie after they try to reach out, and pin the blame on them. You DO NOT get to try and vilify ollie because YOU DIDNT GET YOUR WAY."

Good to know that expressing my own discomfort, and concern is suddenly all of these things. Good to know that trying to find out why we can’t work things out all of a sudden is manipulative.

Good to know that internalizing my pain over this fight and going out of my way to avoid talking about it to literally anyone in order to avoid vilifying him in any way is me trying to make him look bad.

"Ollie stated why they were uncomfortable with you NPCing their relationship, and it is your responsibility to RESPECT it. Even if you disagree, it is THEIR CHOICE."

Just as well, I stated why I was uncomfortable with retconning months of writing and development. But apparently it is not his responsibility to respect that and try to come to a compromise. I am the one supposed to only respect him and not expect him to respect me back.

TLDR; You claim I am out here slandering and defaming someone I have never once mentioned in public about a private issue. Yet you name drop and vilify me in a callout post, yourself. You are being a hypocrite, and I would appreciate it if you did not mention me again. Have a nice day.

[lcgendcfzvlda]

☆ — wait , is that ZELDA KING ? dean lockwood has been looking for them . you didn’t hear it from me but , apparently the JUNIOR might know something about the whole omega chi & kappa tau situation . while they can be BRASH & IMPULSIVE , they’re far too WELCOMING & COURAGEOUS  to be involved , right ? those who know them say they’re reminded of FLANNELS WRAPPED AROUND THE WAIST, THE CLICKING OF A CAMERA, A COMPUTER SCREEN ILLUMINATING A PITCH BLACK ROOM, THE “IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA” THEME, BAGPIPES PLAYING IN THE DISTANCE whenever they’re around .  honestly , the DIGITAL MEDIA major should try to keep their head down . after the events of last semester , lockwood is out for blood . did you know that ZELDA is a member of GAMMA RHO ALPHA ? that might explain why their name is being brought up .

                                               you’re an explosion , you’re dynamite                                                   playlist. pinterest. to listen as you read.                                                like for a plotting dm on tumblr , react for a discord dm                                                rocky lynch lovebot / hylia.#0329 on discord.

WOOOO I really can’t keep myself from holding only one muse can’t I. WELL. This is Zelda , a bit more of a happy-go-lucky muse compared to Sam !! She’s both her own character mixed with a few others I have - I love her dearly , so please please please feel free to come at me for plots !! <3 HERE WE GO :

HISTORY

Zelda’s backstory isn’t anything special - growing up in Scotland her parents had a nice marriage , she grew up an only child , always got good grades

But she always felt... average. She never was really anyone to anybody , so Zelda had a bit of a knack for wanting attention and trying to get her voice out there. So some took this as endearing , some took it as annoying.

In high school , she was lucky enough to be selected for an exchange student program in Salem , Massachusetts - and then she’d meet the FIRST person who would make her feel special in SAGA ( Sexuality And Gender Acceptance ) Club , a cheeky blonde boy named Cyrus who had a tendency to hide in the corner of the room and not talk to many people. And they’d date for about a year , up until Zelda would have to go back to Scotland.

They had to break up when Zelda would leave , but remained extremely close and communicating daily through digital connections.

ANYWAY , that little one year romance sort of gave her more confidence to use her voice and try and light up the room - since if she could do it for one person , she could do it for multiple people. That’s what gave her the idea to pursue a career in DIGITAL MEDIA -  namely , film & video ( with digital art and photography on the side ) in the more comedic aspect. Screenplaying and the technicals behind sketch-comedy skits. Stand-up comedy , even though that was more performing.

Think like Saturday Night Live - and then think of all the technical stuff that goes into it besides the acting. The script-writing , camera angles , etc. Zelda just wanted to make people laugh.

Soooo… when she told her parents that would be what she wanted to do , her average home-life would turn sour CONSIDERING they didn’t want her to explore such risky career choices. An easier life would be to become a lawyer or a doctor - more stable. But that’s not what she wanted. So after a LENGTHY argument with her parents , Zelda would be thrown out of the house with only the money she saved ( thankfully , she’d always been the frugal one ) , and would call . . . her ex-boyfriend and his mother. Since even though they’d only been communicating digitally over the past two years , it still felt like home in Massachusetts.

Her ex’s mother would pay for a flight for her to go back to the United States , and after some time of adjusting , she’d get into Hollingsworth to pursue her career in Digital Media - staying there , but often traveling home ( being where her ex and his mom lived ) routinely.

Pledging to Gamma , her insistence for encouraging people to live their life to the fullest and readiness to include people in her free spirited antics would leave a great impression on the sorority - eventually even leading to her current position as its president.

CHARACTER / FACTS

So again !! Zelda is my trans female pansexual bby , 5’11 bc tall girls make the world go round and she is the LIVING EXAMPLE of the Halcyon label. She’s loud , carefree , optimistic - never really known to pass up an opportunity to have fun.

...that’s so basic of an intro to her personality BUT IN MY DEFENSE IT’S EARLY

BUT YEAH Zelda ?? Does not give a shit about anything. She holds no grudges towards anyone , waaaay too chill - but she flips from extremely chill and laid back to “HEY HEY LET’S GO DO THESE TEN THINGS” and it’s. Definitely a 360. But nobody’s ever seen her angry and it sort of makes people wonder if she even feels anger or if she has a secret dark side nobody knows about.

...She doesn’t. Zelda’s only habits when angry are that she’s short , to the point , and WILL call you out if you’ve done something wrong. But making her mad is extremely hard and she’ll only remotely get upset if you prove time and time after again to be a shitty person.

Which , can sort of lead her to get taken advantage of because of her chill nature - that’s how the previous issue with Gamma getting in trouble at one of their parties happened. Zelda got pissed. She knows she’s chill but she doesn’t think about how that could lead SOME people to thinking “oh I can do anything I want and she’ll be fine with it” because she doesn’t. Get angry about much.

ALSO THAT DOES MAKE HER A BIT NAIVE - just again. She’s easy to take advantage of because she believes the best in everyone and automatically assumes people will do the right thing as people. Doesn’t really understand why people will do things to hurt others and doesn’t really want to.

Also kind of jumpy like she’s a social person and definitely flips between lax and loud but it is SO easy to startle her.

AS FOR HER INTERESTS IN DIGITAL MEDIA - she is extremely talented with the entire Adobe Creative Suite , especially Premiere , Photoshop , and After Effects.

She has an Instagram dedicated to posting manips , edits , etc. she made in both PS & AE. You know those funky Insta edits you see all the time ?? Zelda makes those.

She ALSO does a lot of editing and promotion for Gamma - a lot of times they’re memey little videos or advertisements or skits that display how welcoming Gamma is , and they do a great job at leaving a good impression on possible recruits.

Her BIG thing though would be a little YouTube channel she runs where she often posts videos just around campus - think Billy On The Street , which is what she really wants to do with her digital media career.

“I’M RUNNING AROUND HOLLINGSWORTH WITH A PACK OF WILD LESBIANS”

“LET’S GO LESBIANS LET’S GO”

She either wants to do that - or mockumentaries to put on Youtube ( or even documentaries in a whole that she approaches with her extremely sunny demeanor on conspiracies or the like ). She’d also like to film her own show to put on TV , either something like reality comedy , a reality show spoof , or even something like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia or The Office or Brooklyn 99. Comedy film is her passion.

Commentary videos are ALSO something she’s considered , much like iNabber or Strange AEons , but she thinks mockumentaries , skits , and her other work

Also that person who Photoshops heads on people’s bodies and makes memes for all the group chats she’s in

She really doesn’t take herself seriously often but frankly that’s just Gamma as a whole so it WORKS.

A good portion of Zelda’s existence is a meme tbh I honestly adore her

She has a LOT of tattoos that were designed by her ex-boyfriend since he was an art major and now is a tattoo artist in Salem - I’d point you in the direction of Hannah Pixie Snowdon’s body art as a reference , just Zelda isn’t nearly as covered as she is.

This would be the best reference I can think of rn , lots of pretty designs and some animals, maybe some symbols and references from stuff. 

Olivia doesn’t have any tattoos but WE CAN CERTAINLY PRETEND

A lot of her spare money is made doing either graphics commissions or even photography from whoever needs her services !! The majority of her stuff has been done for cosplayers , budding models , budding actors and actresses , and even for other fraternities and sororities around campus. Zelda knows no rivalries when it comes to these things.

She’s also 100% that person who keeps around a polaroid camera so she can hang up pictures she takes she’s just That Person

Decorates the Gamma house with a lot of polaroids she’s taken and memey edits she’s done in Photoshop

INSIDE JOKES ARE HER THING

She also plays guitar and is fairly good at it but doesn’t have a band or anything rn bc she’s just someone who does it bc she wants to look cool ( and also bc the guitar’s a neato instrument but yeah she started it out just bc she wanted to play SOME kind of instrument at least )

,,,but she also knows how to play the bagpipes

and she owns a pair.

they’re in the gamma house. zelda plays them at meetings.

Also I can’t 100% guarantee she didn’t get her name from the Legend of Zelda series if y’all know me u know how much I adore that series so yeah

WANTED PLOTS / CONNECTIONS

GIVE ME A COMEDY SQUAD PLEEEEEEEEASE maybe even ppl she works to make a webseries or something with ?? give me people who work constantly just to make other people laugh

People she routinely takes photographs of !!

Whether they pay her or she uses as a muse for whatever

OTHER PPL FROM THE GREEK ROW THAT JUST DON’T… LIKE ZELDA FOR WHATEVER REASON

Maybe they think she’s too chill. Maybe they think she’s hiding something. Maybe they don’t like how she’s running Gamma but for whatever reason they just DON’T LIKE HER and I want enemies so fucking give me enemies

This is so general but more Gamma sisters would be lovely Zelda’s so eager to bring in more people to make their sorority feel like home

Give me crushes Zelda pines over !! Crushes that pine over Zelda !! Gimme that skinny love shit bc my god it gets me going !!

Hookup plots are also 100% acceptable bc again Zelda’s a carefree spirit and gives No Fucks

Also 100% down 4 cute romantic plots too - Zelda is ur regular poly pan babe w/ room in her heart for 12000 suns

it’s very on brand of me to place the romance/sex plots right smack in the middle as I’m thinking of what to put down

Okay when I was in high school we had majors and I was a Digital Art major and all the Visual Art majors had this bond with us for no reason so I’d really love some Vis. Art buddies that Zelda gets along with much like the bond she has with her ex-boyfriend now

OTHER PEOPLE TO DESIGN MORE TATTOOS FOR HER PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE one day she hopes to be a coloring book

I’D LOVE SOME UNLIKELY FRIENDS TOO JUST SOME GRUMPS ZELDA’S CONSTANTLY BOTHERING W/ HER SHIT

Memey group chat pls

THATS ALL I CAN THINK OF FOR NOW maybe i’ll do a more detailed / organized list soon but yeah !! Come at me !!!

[grammaticalmustaches]

KETTLE KATCHERZ FEEL FREE TO READ

under a read more due to length oops

suddenly overcome with love for my players. its a constant emotion but im feeling it so big right now. 

theyre just so invested in the world! and their characters! and theyre so kind!?! truly i think dnd brings out the best in people.

i gave them some kenku that are having trouble integrating with a community because of the language barrier and now my players are out of game diving into esl education to make a communication book to help them get basic ideas across.

it is an ongoing joke that they adopt every npc i give them and its not much of a joke bc no lie i think there are just as many npcs who travel with the party as there are actual pcs. actually i just counted there are exactly as many party npcs as there are pcs. three of those npcs are kind of just one npc who at one point shared a consciousness but are now separate(-ish) beings and one of those npcs is just a small horde of dust bunnies that occasionally either makes or cleans up messes so you could argue the numbers dont actually line up but it is still an absurd number of npcs to have adopted. i have to plan reasons npcs cant or dont want to go on adventures as one of the first character points i make otherwise their party would be triple its size. i am constantly forgetting how many npcs they have with them at all times but they Dont forget and make points to include them in conversations and decision making.

i just think dnd brings out the best in people!!!

also i lowkey hate making maps but maps are important for understanding the world so iv been doing research and shit and trying to get better at it but! my players literally help with that? not just in making it fun and rewarding but like literally help with the task of it? 

as in we just came from a city that one of my players spent a few years at so he drew a map of the city and wrote me out a Huge world building document about the city and its culture and like, climate and neighborhoods and what was important to his character while living there and everything! and another player gave me a six page document that included maps about the territory their character grew up in like, almost at the very beginning of our campaign! i havn’t even had a chance to use any of that information yet because they come from a very far away place! they dont care they Had Fun making me this big old document! and now we’re visiting a player’s childhood home and They’ve offered to make the map for the area! that would be three whole maps all player made!!! 

theyre just so invested and make things so easy on me!!! it is so easy to dm a group that is constantly focused on Working With the world and moving their characters forward!

and its a super homebrewed campaign partially bc i honestly think thats not only more fun but how dnd is Meant to be played, with some creativity and making shit up on the spot, but also my players are so good!!! about shit being homebrew!!! when something comes up we dont know the rules for or which rules dont exist for we work together to decide what happens!!! if someone knows a rule i dont they let me know and i can ask them what they think happens given the rules that do apply and we make decisions together on how it works with a focus on what makes the most compelling story! 

its just so truly OUR game!!! my beloved comrades!!!

Also like, its been off and on and we’ve taken breaks but we’ve been playing since March 2019? and people have added and left and like i said we’ve had to take breaks but in the end this is not a campaign i can imagine not being in anymore. i cannot imagine this campaign ending just because, like, there’s just so many of them who are so invested!!! and Im so invested! to be honest this campaign is one of the most fun and rewarding things in my life and one of my favorite things about it is how confident i am that it is going to be a constant in my life for a long time. like im really able to just Revel in this campaign and sink hours of work into weird bullshit and plan out arcs and enemies and friends and plot hooks and aesthetic bullshit i dont expect our party to meet for Quite a while because i just! i have no fear that this is going to end!

One of my players got a symbol from our campaign tattooed onto their flesh body? art that i made for dungeons and dragons? it will be on their human body for the rest of their life? and another got a tattoo that (partially) represents what this campaign means to them? another has told me they would love to get a campaign related tattoo with me someday? there is a tattoo in game that binds (most of) the pcs to each other and there has been talk about us getting that tattoo together?

i cannot think about this for too long or i go insane. i made some shapes on canva and spent the whole time wishing i had ms paint because ms paint is my level of art and these are designs that are being added to bodies because we have collectively installed so much emotion and meaning into them. 

i am losin gmy mind.

and like, iv already sunk lowkey a kind of unreasonable amount of time (esp for someone who just went back to school and has homework!) into making my kenku soundboard and mixtape but its been such a passion project already and the whole time iv been working on it iv had Zero fear of the reception because i Know and Trust that my players will think my first attempt at using garageband is sick as hell even if its kind of not because they are just crazy supportive and love our world like i cant even really call it my world its truly Our world and! we all love and contribute to it!!!???!!!

I just love my party so much!!!

i just!!! truly think!!! dnd brings out the best in people!!!

at the end of every session we do a rose/bud/thorn (thing we liked/thing we’re looking forward to/thing that could be improved or issue wed like to bring up) to check in with how the session went!!! we discuss things we didnt like and how wed change them!!! 

they challenge me Constantly not just in pushing my capabilities as a growing dm but they also speak up and challenge my decisions when they disagree! 

i jsut cannot get over how truly we are Working Together in all aspects to make this campaign what it is. 

i have a tendency to move dnd at a crawling pace where every hour of every day is meticulously role played. and they told me they didnt like that and now we work together to make things move faster! and it doesnt always work and we still dont move that fast but weve brainstormed several options and tried a few new things to make it easier for me to go faster!

PROBLEM SOLVING INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF GAME

dnd! brings out! the best in people!

and also also also theres like, Multiple players who really hate using technology and sometimes esp video chatting. and most sessions currently people’s thorns have been tech issues/being on video. but wer still all (mostly) show up every session! we still submit to the mortifying ordeal of being seen/heard on discord!

some of my players have an accented character voice and i love them So So So Much for this and it makes me feel confident and comfortable enough to try my best at (when i remember to) doing character voices for npcs but we are not critical role and we are certainly not voice actors so none of our voices are very good or consistent! and my players with accents get self conscious about this pretty often but like!!! they are TRYING!!! they are GIVING IT THEIR ALL!!!

what more could anyone possibly ask of them?

multiple players have come to me concerned and looking for advice/help because they dont think theyre very good at role play/staying in character. we’ve got people who so dedicated theyre stepping Way outside their comfort zone and then turning around and apologizing for how far a walk it was??? they are giving it Their All and their biggest concern is how to give MORE?

i had a moment last session where i realized that our current arc is literally exactly the kind of arc i Dreamed of dming when i was first starting out. like, not to toot my own horn but its legitimately open world and they have a mystery that they need to get to know a small community and find out what everyone knows and put all the pieces together to figure out what happened. i used to scroll through dm forums Endlessly looking for Any advice on how to plan a good mystery and i didnt think id ever be at the point where i could actually pull a mystery Or an open world arc off. but like, here i am. its going pretty great so far.

also this current arc is one of the First i ever thought up for this campaign. obviously it’s changed and evolved a lot since original concept but like. just a Bit emotional over, ya know. finally getting here and having it be even better than i imagined. how far we’ve all come, in and out of game. the fact that my players had so much fun talking to my prize npc kenku whom i have been developing for literal years now and adore beyond reason that they are learning about esl studies to help them integrate into the coven they are trying to join.

DND! BRINGS OUT! THE BEST IN PEOPLE!

COLLABORATIVE STORYTELLING. WORKING TOGETHER TO CRAFT MEANING. LOVING AND SUPPORTING EACH OTHERS CREATIVE DECISIONS. MAKING DICK JOKES.

THIS IS WHAT DND IS ALL ABOUT BABY. 

[aflockofbyrds]

My D&D campaign that ran a little over a year ended last night, and honestly ended on the best note possible in my opinion. I let one of my players take care of it since he had a really good idea and jesus did he deliver. Gonna put this undercut because while it does connect to characters I RP here (specifically Garrett, Rose and Dusty) I will warn that it’s a tiny bit graphic because y’know, D&D and people fighting. Also it is LONG

So, we start out Christmas eve, at the players’ mansion they owned with the players + Garrett and Rose/friends of the players since the players are friends with them, with a party. We learn from our DM that since we took over a major company in the world, we’ve had multiple hits put on us, but none successful. Out of Garrett and Rose I pick Garrett since he’s a level 10 when she’s 9 which worked better with the party. Part way through the party, Tony, our favored soul of Nerull, hears a knock at the doors, answers it and finds a letter that says “Merry Christmas” on it, and a coin. He brings the coin in, and asks if anyone knows what it is, and when none of us can figure it out, Garrett casts detect Magic. Only for it to blow up in our faces, and while part of us are unconscious, in walks in the one person we all thought was dead, a fucking CE sorcerer kolbald named Alduran, who smirks, and knocks everyone else out. 

When we come to, we find small rock on the ground, which Tony picks up and immediately gets told through a message that everyone else at the party+ one player character (who wasn’t playing) and his entire family were kidnapped. Then the rock floated and lead the way to a statue where we got a couple friends, specifically Dusty since he’s a powerful NPC (both level and socially), Tina who’s a friend who can’t be violent, and Weave, a friend of the party that works with Alduran’s (technical) brothers, Zeke and Fizz, who went missing. We go into the portal that had opened up in the statue, and immediately, all of us are separated. 

Each of us go through our character’s nightmare situation. Tony is told to kill his adopted family, and when he refuses, he’s dropped out of the hallucination. Evee, our cleric, is told to drown after being left alone in the ocean, and she refuses, breaking her hallucination. Vel, a (male) drow scout, has to cut his arm off or die in a sacrifice to Lolth, and Illya has to watch her family die in a fire to escape. Vel starts to cut his arm off, and Illya tries to pull her family out of the fire, burning her hands. Neither of them wake up yet. Garrett’s on the other hand is to cut open his (hanging) sister to get the key to escape. 

He at first refuses, but when he hears her whimper he goes to help. Once he does, Rose falls on top of him, and he hears her bones crack. Garrett carefully gets out from under her, and stands up to look at her. She’s bleeding from her eyes and twitching, but not saying anything. The DM expected me to refuse to do it, but he forgot one thing. Garrett is part of the ruling elites of a drug cartel, and he’s already seen his sister die once (in a tourney that was held). So to put her out of her misery, he ended her. 

Garrett breaks out of his hallucination with that, and joins Tony and Evee with three unconscious people: Vel, bleeding from his arm; Illya, with burned hands; and a new character, Adrian, a warlock aasimar, who is tossing and turning. Tony woke the others out with dispel magic, and a door appears which has Dusty, Weave, La Mano (a disembodied hand who’s Dusty’s best friend), and Tina. We slowly make our way out, and into a room. 

This room fills up with toxic vapors which makes us start throwing up, and we notice enough vials for all of us to drink (minus La Mano bc he’s a hand and doesn’t need it). After a few minutes, of vomiting, we suck up our fears and drink the vials. They’re poisonous, and a couple of us get hit for Constitution damage (which we instantly have fixed bc the favored soul has a spell to fix it). We move on to the next room. 

Next room, we find a bunch of shells, and a timer that is counting down. In a stroke of genius, everyone except Dusty puts a shell to our ear. Second the timer hits 0, we see Dusty start screaming and holding his ears as blood trickles out. Then, the shells start growing across our face, suffocating us. Dusty, even though he’s fucked up, manages to break the shell on Garrett’s face while our warlock shatters the rest of them. We heal Dusty, and while he looks shaken, he’s fine and we move on. 

The next hell hole, is a room with a pendulum swinging back and forth. We have to roll a will save, which Weave (our tank), the warlock, and Evee fail. The three that fail see us that succeeded as monsters, and start to attack. The fight has Tony getting stabbed in the side by Weave, Illya having her arm stabbed through by him, Vel temporarily paralyzing Weave, and Dusty trying to kill him before he became unparalyzed. Eventually, Illya turned Weave into a lizard, and we figure out the only way to progress is to kill someone with the pendulum. Weave volunteers since there’s no way he’s useful as a lizard, and we can’t change him back. Second he’s dead, we’re teleported out of the room. 

We find ourselves in front of a map for a maze, and Tony and Garrett manage to take a picture before the party is hit with some kind of mostly debilitating spell. Tony and Tina manage to pass their checks, and are told by Alduran that we have to draw our own blood to proceed. Slowly and surely, all of us that are fucked up manage to draw our own blood. Evee by dropping her weapon on her own foot. Tina and Weave are the last ones, and all of us out watch on a TV screen as she tries to help Weave. Eventually, Weave makes it out, and we are stuck watching Tina on the TV. She tries to draw her own blood, but because of her vow of non-violence, she can’t. Her knife breaks when she’s tries, and we get a heartfelt good bye from her, in which she reveals that she’s not actually  aasimar like we thought, but a dragonborn. The video feed cuts out before she dies. 

Next room we enter, it’s a small platform with a pit on the other side, and a wall covered with half inch holes with the phrase ‘marry me?’ written over them. A feather is slowly falling to the ground, and as it comes closer we get more anxious for some reason. Even though we all have an idea about what will happen when we stick a finger in the hole, Vel goes ahead and does it, and he disappears leaving the hole he used bleeding. Eventually we all work up the courage and do the same, including La Mano. Last one was Illya who tries to catch the feather and when she gets close, is hit with a wave of extreme anxiety, and she almost runs into the pit to escape. She doesn’t and then we all get to the next room. 

This room is sterile white, and all of us are dripping blood from where our ring finger use to be, a black vein up our arms connecting to once finger, while the other arm has the word “forever” branded on it. The vein burns and hurts like hell. La Mano is also missing at this point. We slowly head out of the room through double doors with no puzzle in sight, and find a keypad that asks “How many are gone?” 

We answer three, and after video of our friends dying, the door opens to a cell block. There are multiple skeletons at first, but as we go down we see other races in them. All of them have scales and horns growing out of their skin, all in weird places. A tail growing out of a man’s side, horns growing into another’s eyes, etc. We walk down, ignoring them to another keypad. “How many are you willing to lose?” 

After some debate with Dusty wanting to put in 7, the remaining number of people, and other wanting to put in another number, we try 0 first. incorrect. We type one, and the door open. Tony takes a step in, and the door close before we can follow. We type in 6 and the doors open again, with Tony on the other side, and we head up the flight of stairs. 

At the top, we find a platform with a catwalk leading to it, and cages on either side. Adrian flies over to look at the cages and the person on the other side of the platform, then comes back to tell us it was Aldarun and our missing friends/family. Vel and Dusty moves first, casting invisibility on themselves and going to sneak attack Aldarun because they’re assassins and they studied him long enough to try and death attack him. Second Dusty steps on the catwalk, lights come on and Aldarun notices the party. Specifically, the party minus Vel and Dusty. 

We get a little monolog, and the platform drops after Aldarun mentions that “well, guess either Dusty or Vel are alive still since one of you set off the lights…” Dusty just barely keeps from falling, and Aldarun disappears into a glowing red crystal behind him. We realize this is a problem, but we need to save our friends, so we set about doing that. We manage to get Zeke and Fizz out before Aldarun reappears, as a horrific dragon. Second he steps on the platform, it collapses under him, and Adrian, Tony and Vel fall to the ground with him, with Vel and Adrian invisible. Dusty, Garrett, Evee and Illya are still on the other side, and Dusty casts feather fall on all of them, before shoving them in the pit to help out their friends. 

This dragon is pure white like Aldarun was, with red eyes, and a glowing red crystal on his back. Of course, this shit scares everyone except Death Jesus Tony and Illya, Dusty drops darkness, and the fight starts. None of us do any damage at first because of the fact Dusty covered the monster with a giant black void, but Garrett formed a plan to distract him after Alduran breathed a cloud of acid, lightening and fire at Evee, Illya and Garrett. The plan failed, and Aldarun immediately grabbed hold of Garrett because he want to prove how useless the distraction plan really was. Vel and Dusty stay off to the side, studying what they can to try and attack him, while Tony climbs his way along a wall to watch us, and Adrian tries to free people. 

While this is happening we start to notice the smell of burning flesh, and realize that the cages are starting to heat up. The people inside couldn’t tell us because they were unconscious and we are now fighting against the clock with this. Next turn, Garrett did the only thing he could do with his low health. He pulled off a necklace he had been saving for a fight against Vel and let it drop, and that necklace immediately exploded as it hit the ground. It went through all 7 charges that the thing had, dealing a solid chunk of damage to his health. Downside, it took Evee and Garrett with them, leaving only a pile of ash. 

Dusty immediately dispelled the darkness because he realized what Garrett had done, and Vel went to attack. Only to miss. Dusty went to attack, and missed. Finally, now that Adrian could see the monster, he flew above him, and dropped onto the crystal, attacking it right away. This make the crystal start sparking, and Alduran lashed a leg out at Vel, then tried to breathe the cloud of Acid/Fire/Lightening at Adrian. Only it caught. He tried again. It caught. Alduran roared at us, tried one more time only to have acid dribble down his chin, and he moved to take out Zeke and Fizz. Before he could though, he finally collapsed, dead. 

The world around us immediately shook, and Dusty rushed to pocket some of Evee and Garrett’s ashes to hopefully bring them back. Next thing we knew, we were back outside of the statue, with our friends and family badly burned but still alive, two piles of ashes, and three stones, one blue one (Tina), a grey one (Weave) and a sickly flesh tone one (La Mano). And as we stand there in shock, it slowly starts to rain, and with that, our year long campaign finally closed. 

[childliike]

hi everybody !! ( hi dr nick! ) im ARI, pst, she/they pronouns ( your pick go wild ), and boy do i love murder :)) i bring 2 u my mixed up ghost of a son, JOHN “JD” DOE !! i understand his bio is basically a novella, so the TL;DR is that he was raised in captivity by a serial killer, and when said serial killer was caught he just kinda,,, wandered the streets? he’s only really been participating in the world for like three years, so in a lot of ways he is like a small child. a small child who really likes playing w dead bodies. ( istg this all makes some kind of sense in long form sigh )  anyway,,,, if you did read the bio and youre like ‘that was great but how do i give even MORE of my valuable time to this stranger?’, you can find some headcanons under the cut !! ( i mean, youre also free to read them if you didnt read the bio ofc, but i cant guarantee they’ll make sense ok ) OH HEY you know what else you’ll find under the cut ?? some vague ideas for connections. yeah. sexy stuff like that. in a group this size i generally prefer to establish our charas dynamic before jumping into threads, so if you see something you like, let ya boi know !! otherwise hop in my DMs or ill hop in yours and we’ll work something out, it’ll be great. OKAY i’ll stop rambling now enjoy the stuff kids !!

headcanons —

JD always eats quickly and desperately, like it might be the last food he gets for days

also hell eat like, anything. catch him scraping mold off bread and then eating it.

he has a dog, some kind of rottweiler mutt, that he picked up on his travels. his name is dog. JD sometimes feeds him human meat.

he loves fire!!! so much ok hed probs marry it if he could if theres a fire anywhere in the vicinity he either lit it or is looking for it so he can feed it

aside from some unwanted touching from random sketchy hippie-types, JD is a virgin

he feels sexual attraction occasionally, but he mostly associates sex with violence, and stays away from it for that reason. he’s pretty sure that he’s never felt romantic attraction, but he kinda hopes he will someday

he feels more comfortable with women than men, but is conditioned to do just about anything a man tells him to do

that said, gender seems rather trivial to him, in the sense of both attraction and identity. if he lived in a more enlightened time, he would identify as agender.

he is somehow both the most innocent and the most disturbed boy you will ever meet. its an unsettling combo.

hes so curious about everything. seriously. hes basically only been in the world for like 3 years ok theres SO much he doesnt know and he wants to LEARN

especially curious about families and hometowns and human relationships bc that shits all like, bizarre and surreal to him lol

will hover silently around you until you directly address him or tell him to stop, and maybe even after that

catch him crossing boundaries constantly (figurative and physical, hes just as likely to ask you if your mother loved you cause it seems like probs not as to play with your hair without permission)

hell apologize like crazy if you call him on it tho, he just literally has no sense of like, how human interaction is supposed to work

like hes faked it ok-ish for the last few years but only because he mostly keeps his mouth shut and moves around a lot yknow? hes self aware enough to know he’s not human-ing right, but not self aware enough to actually learn how to human right

hes basically illiterate :( he never had any formal schooling and pretty much everything he knows about letters and numbers he learned from sesame street. if he tries really hard he can decipher basic things like street signs and menus to some degree, but most of the time he just fakes it

hes an open book in that hell answer just about any question truthfully (at least within the club) and will sometimes casually spout some very personal, truly disturbing shit like its nothing, but hes not the type to ever just bare his soul, and its doubtful anyone in the club knows his whole story

for him, killing is less about the actual act, and more about the access to a body. he loves exploring. he plays with his food, so to speak.

he has a complicated relationship with killing in general, due mostly to his mixed feelings about hank. he doesnt want to be like hank, but he also feels a bloodlust that he cant deny. he thinks about killing most people that he interacts with, but he suppresses the urges as best he can. when he does kill, its in an almost disassociative state- his usually careful demeanor becomes delirious and vicious.

connection ideas —

( note: many of these could overlap, or be filled by multiple people )

the person who introduced him to the kill club !! probably someone drifter-y or sketchy who would swim in the same semi-homeless circles he does. ie. knows him from that spot under the bridge where kids get stoned or that abandoned strip mall with all the mattresses and burned-out oil drums in it or some place like that. my son doesnt really fuck with institutions.

someone whose couch he crashes on currently/occasionally. could be anyone who doesnt mind a hover-y waif of a boy and a big growl-y dog in their space (or,,,, come to think of it, someone who DOES mind,,,)

which is a prefect segue to: someone who hates this kid. in my totally biased opinion, hes crazy lovable, but maybe your character doesnt like being asked a ton of personal questions? maybe they just find it creepy how he hovers around everyone? maybe theyre unsettled by how his eyes go all black like an excited cat when he gets to play with someones innards? maybe they knew one of them women he helped hank kidnap/murder???? idk man the skys the limit

on the other hand, how about someone who takes on a parental/big sibling type role? someone who disregards all the fucked up shit about him and just sees a lost and confused little boy who so desperately needs someone to take care of him and teach him stuff

a best friend???? hes never really had any friends at all so idk how this would go down but its worth a shot????

someone who,, kind of takes up the mantle that hank left empty? a manipulator who sees JD as the well-conditioned beta bitch that he is and uses him for their own gain

uhhhhh maybe someone he somehow knew before the kill club and is shocked to find there?? they probably wouldnt be as shocked tho he has a certain ~vibe about him lol

idk i think thats all ive got for now but im super open to other ideas hmu yo god bless

[staggeringsmite]

multiples of 7?? these questions are so 🥺🥺

ahh thank you tess!! they were very fun to write <333

7. if you could give one piece of advice to first time gamemasters or people thinking of running their first game, what would it be?

alskjglkfjlk SO many thoughts in my brain but i think most of all would be make sure YOU'RE having fun!! it's so important to remember the dm is a player, and while you're guiding the story in a way that makes sure everyone else at the table is having fun, check in with yourself!!! it'll help you take note of what you like and don't like running, and if you like dm'ing at all or enough to do it longer term without it being stressful! i wish i had done this the first time i ran bc i was a nervous wreck (which could just be the mental illness but yea) and did have fun, but i think i let the stress of first-time running realllly get to me. in the end it is a GAME!!! it's supposed to be fun for everyone.

14. answered here!

21. where do you draw inspiration from when you’re getting ready to run a game?

wooooweeee lots of media no shame in absorbing a fun thing/environment from either a ttrpg show or other content that i think would be neat for my players in-game (adapting things to fit ofc) but also music!!! gestures to my 16+ hour finished wandering isles playlist nothing helps me think of a setting and atmosphere more than curating a specific feeling with a collection of songs that gives me the mindset and feeling of the place or characters i'm going to be

28. what do you have to have in front of you to feel confident going into a session?

a million tabs (this is also just how i live bc i'm fucked up and evil <3) i use OneNote for all my session/overall campaign notes, usually divided up into PC-specific lore out and about, World/Party/Overall plot lore out and about, and then a page for each session where i write my recap and make my session notes (or the module document + onenote or word doc with my additions/changes). that's the main thing but also! any dndbeyond tab for npc's i'm currently playing in the party, as well as a few home page ones or blank search engine tabs for quick references in case i forgot to pull something major up or need to pull something out of my ass. (i also keep fantasynamegenerator and npcgenerator bookmarked or pulled up in case i need to throw an npc out real quick) any major items i might have to interact with or remind them of. roll20 prepped with the map and stuff if we're doing combat. and finally discord in case i need to drop anything in the chat or someone's internet goes out or endless reasons really since it's where our dnd server is <3 i also like to have my dice organized for any npc's or other character things i might be rolling for

35. how do you wind down after an intense session?

party talk time is fantastic! sometimes we can stay on call for 2-3 hours post session wayy late talking about things that happened in the session and doing some epic meta stuff together, but it always devolves into some "chorus of nonsense" that is great when we've had a particularly intense/emotionally heavy session. sometimes social interaction is not where it's at though! if i'm feeling burnt out usually it's easier for me to take to tumblr/discord to type up feelings about the session. any of this or doing some playlist work helps me get the post-game rush of thoughts and feelings out enough to feel like i can actually shut down enough to go to sleep.