#abomination artificer

[spaghetticat3899]

hello spaghetticat3899, is abomi arti home

[creeket]

@crazycakeparrotart

The fighter!

[tomb-of-flora]

I just started running a new D&D campaign for the first time in a year. It's a space western with heavy fantasy horror elements. Basically trying to fuse the energy of Firefly/Cowboy Bebop's scrappy bounty hunters with Star Wars/The Locked Tomb's sprawling space empires, noble houses, and spooky space magic/undead abominations. The first session was last night and oh my god we are off to such a good start. The set-up for this campaign is just a cocktail of all my favorite things. I'm playing with four of my friends and I am so in love with their characters.

The party is a disgraced reporter that has to work for fantasy Buzzfeed now (rogue), a wide eyed debutant with dreams of writing a novel (fighter), a thri-kreen bounty hunter desperate for work who constantly tries and fails to keep his head down (artificer), and an extremely cursed gothic man scamming everyone he can as he flees to the edge of the galaxy (warlock). I kept the first session pretty chill just giving them a chance to interact and poke into the weird tension building on the train they were on (a train robbery that quickly turned into an intense haunting). I genuinely can't remember the last time I laughed so hard the party banter was so electric. They've really gotten me back into the flow of things I forgot how much I adore being a Dungeon Master. They take everything I put down and make it a thousand times better. I'm editing poetry today but my brain just keeps drifting back to the session and all the horrors I'll get to unleash on these broke gay space cowboys.

We had a deliberately lackluster interview between the reporter and the bounty hunter, the debutant got scammed twice within like thirty minutes, a robot got roughed up by cavalry guys, the characters drew horny fanart of each other in game, and now everyone is about to get eaten by space ghouls.

I can't say much about what's to come because I know some of the friends in this game will see this, so I just want to say: I'm sorry I filled the train with ghosts. Try not to die.

(I'm just rambling about my session at this point, but I had such a good time and I'm so excited to be back in the saddle as a DM. Also I'm so thrilled to get to channel my Locked Tomb obsession into something and this campaign has given me a lot of fuel)

EDIT: I ENDED UP MAKING A SIDEBLOG FOR THIS CAMPAIGN. @yeehaw-in-magic-space is where I'll be recounting details about each session and offering little drops of lore when I feel like it. I think this will be a fun side project and a great way for me to record the campaign for myself to look back on.

[knightinkosherarmour]

List of Magi and Other Characters Associated with the First Deimos Explorator Fleet

Fabricator Minoris Technoarcheologist Magos Domina Aleph-Gimmel Bellerov-2.0 (she/her): a xenarite who is in charge of the fleet and mostly responsible for the current state of the fleet in a penitent crusade they have just not returned from. Her specialty is wraithbone-necrodermis fusions to cancel out warp energies. She is rather brazen about her xenarite tendencies that emerged after a meeting with Cawl a few hundred years ago. Before said meeting she was a hardline orthodox techpriest. She is however an incredibly competent technoarcheologist and administrator, keeping the Fleet together. She was originally a diplomat for the fleet and for that reason has not had a lot of outward facial augmentations to make coordinating with other parts of the Imperium easier.

Mechasapient Magos Tsephor (he/him): Aleph-Gimmel's oldest friend and a manipulus magos only concerned with the care of the pteraxii of the fleet. Pteraxii are both symbols of good luck and his only obsession. He is a blank and utterly unconcerned with matters of religious importance as long as he can ensure his "birds" are well taken care of. He is not a xenarite and only in the fleet's penitent crusade due to close association with Aleph-Gimmel. 

Datasmiths Pot-Ketl (he/it/they): a pair of Datasmiths or just one Datasmith who is either two techpriests who have augmented themselves into one person or one priest who split his brain in twain. They always speak in union and are on the FDEF for suspected experiments with Abominable Intelligence in their kastelan robots. However the Kastelans have been functioning better than ever before so this goes largely uncommented on. They have a piece of archeotech that allows them to communicate between each other across almost limitless distance. 

Skitarii Marshall Kattal-4/28 (it/they): head of security aboard the fleet and Aleph-Gimmel’s personal Ark Mechanicus, Deimos’s Cog, it is the perfect representation of Aleph-Gimmel’s experiments with xenotech with much of their own augments being supplamneted by necrodermis and wraithbone supports. Their own personal weapon was stolen from a slain Aeldari warrior. Kattal-4/28 does not speak often but aboard the FDEF it is known two things. They speak with the vox of their Fabricator Minoris and they are given far more autonomy than any skitarii ought to, even by the liberal standards of the FDEF. Before becoming a Marshall it worked often with sicarian units and have grown fonder and fonder of cloak and dagger operations. 

Admiral Ezekiel Bendavid (he/him): the head of the accompanying imperial Navy flotilla. He is the latest in a long line of scions of the Bendavid dynasty, skilled Navy commanders. He wished too be a general in the guard since reading the works of General Jenit Sulla and the exploits of Hero of the Imperium Ciaphas Cain. He is adept at void warfare and longs for the boarding actions of his youth when he was allowed to fight the enemy hand to hand and not kept cooped up in the battle deck of his ships.

Artificer Siderénia Teleiótita (he/they): the Chapter Master of the Ironsong Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. They claim in public to be sons of Ferrus Manus but in reality are an experiment made by the magi of Deimos using the geneseed of Fulgrim. Siderénia Teleiótita is the second chapter master of the Ironsong and has struck a balance between the industrial and artistic factions of the chapter embodies both ideals of a refined noble knight and master of mechanized warfare whenever the situation calls for it. 

Malka the Phobeian (he/she):the head of one of Deimos’s several knightly houses who joined the fleet because her enginseer-Sacristan was sentenced there. He doesn't quite understand how a tech priest could commit heresy. That’s for more religious individuals, in the meantime she focuses on honor in battle, obliterating the enemies of the Emperor and ensuring the noble lineage of his house. He was never supposed to be the head of House Phobeian, the Terror of Phobos, but the next six heirs and children of her father all died in mysterious circumstances. Her Sacristan has assured her he is completely safe within her knight. Her melding with the throne mechanicum years ago stripped back many of her more shy and soft aspects of his personality. 

Inquisitor Seraph Seraphdottior (she/her): an inquistor self appointed to monitor the FDEF, a member of the Ordo Machinum who is sure that Aleph-Gimmel has already fallen to Tzeentch, Admiral Ezekiel Bendavid to Khorne, and Artificer Siderénia Teleiótita to Slaanesh. She will only act however once she has concrete evidence because several plants and fleets worth of ships and technology are on the line. Seraphdottior has worked with the Prefecture Magisterium in the past. She is far colder and more aloof than most of the tech priests aboard the FDEF, because she is after all the Judgment Of The Emperor and can be allowed no errors.

[riant-draws]

You're so big brain yes yes yes moon and younger pebbles thoughts yes I'm eating up your art

First, thank you!! Sorry I took so long to respond ;-; been pretty tired lately and had to give this a lot of thought… perhaps too much… eheheh buckle up, anon, you’re in for an essay~ (also, I know you asked about Moon and younger Pebbles but this is like, 90% an analysis about Pebbles, oops-)

^ excuse me what happened here

also please in mind that these are just my headcanons (although some of them are very closely tied to canon, which is why I’ll be referencing some pearls) sooo uhh yeah! rambles under the cut!

To talk about Pebbles as a “kid” (in quotes because I don’t believe iterators have a childhood or developmental period that can effectively be compared to humans), I first have to talk about his construction—mostly because it was so unique.

When reading the pale green pearl (exterior) to Artificer, Pebbles mentions that his construction was very controversial among the council. And, when given to Moon, one of the white pearls reads:

“‘We, of the Five-hundred-and-ninety-second High Convocation of the True Anointed Citadel, do hereby demand, with full force of Law and Religious doctrine, an Immediate end to construction of the Apostate Superstructure Abomination. To place shadow upon the Divine Body of the True Anointed Citadel is outrageous blasphemy and cannot be tolerated, no matter the circumstances...’ Clearly this was ignored.”

As we can see in the game, Pebbles was built mostly on top of what’s now Shaded Citadel—which really pissed off the monks and religious leaders of the True Anointed Citadel, a very holy site. While talking to Artificer, he speaks casually and plainly, so you can assume that he didn’t mind their disdain for him. Granted, by the time of Arti’s campaign, all his citizens are long gone, so perhaps he just doesn’t care about their opinions anymore (if he ever did to begin with). But. When he was still brand new, he would have had to listen to so much hate directed at him, all for simply existing. While I did say earlier that I don’t think iterators have developmental stages like humans do, they definitely still mature and develop. Just because you’re created with an adult brain doesn’t mean that you’re automatically mature and experienced. Even Pebbles reflects on how he’s changed while reading the viridian pearl (garbage wastes):

“[…] much of my early work was encrypted before storage. Though my younger self has done a very poor job. […] now I can just see all of the holes in it. Created from a youthful and reticent mentality.”

So, clearly, iterators do learn and grow. But getting back on topic, I imagine that especially since Pebbles was very young when all that hate was piled on him, it would’ve been traumatic. Additionally, it’s implied (again, mainly in the pale green pearl) that he’s not exclusively hated. The pearl’s author clearly doesn’t want to piss Pebbles off, and they also state that one problematic House “[has] less than forty members on the Council, but still Tilt the spiritual Discourse with Our Iterator in a direction that most obviously Displeases him, and is hardly High Held by anyone in the Community either! We can not Risk this!”

(Of course, the pearl’s author is probably biased so who knows if they’re a reliable source of info or not, but there’s no way to verify that and hey it’s in the game after all so I’m just gonna roll with it.) This means that there are citizens (possibly even the majority) who actually like him, or at least want to remain in his good graces. With him. Y’know. Being responsible for their livelihoods and all. And you might think: great! Pebbles isn’t being universally hated! Well. The outpourings of both love and hate from his creators would create such a toxic environment and cause a lot of cognitive dissonance in him: he’s adored, even worshiped, a proud iterator revered as a godlike figure. But on the other hand, he’s despised, called horrible things like “Apostate Superstructure Abomination,” generally told he has no right to exist, etc etc. And this probably went on for years and years (or whatever the in-universe equivalent is). That would wear down anybody’s self-esteem. Which, in canon, you can see echoes of those thought patterns when the storyline takes place, who knows how long later. This stuff has affected him deeply.

All of this to say, I think his arrogance and god complex (that he displays in canon) are coping mechanisms—whether he’s aware of it or not. He tells himself that he’s “godlike in comparison” to everything that walks this forsaken world, that he’s so much better. In doing so, he runs from his mistakes and doesn’t process his emotions and traumas, generally making a bigger mess of himself. Because to admit the truth would be to admit that he’s broken, that he’s lonely, that he hates himself, I could go on but this isn’t getting any shorter aha…

Moooooving on, not to state the obvious, but it’s heavily implied throughout various pearls and bits of dialogue that Pebbles was one of the last iterators ever built. Given that he was constructed far closer (relatively speaking) to the time of public mass ascension and the fact that Moon was struggling to care for them, his creators would’ve likely been desperate (and perhaps a bit sloppy) while building him. As a result, the parts of him responsible for regulating his emotions and decision-making (his equivalent of a prefrontal cortex) are stunted, as that would’ve been one of the last things to develop. All of this just contributes to his, well, susceptibility to mental health issues/instability. Yaaaay.

side note: I also headcanon that iterator cans are more grown than built. When reading the light pink pearl (outskirts), Moon mentions that structures are infused with microbes that initiate healing cycles that gradually heal and waterproof broken structures. While she’s likely referring to structures on the ground, it would make sense that at least all parts of an iterator below the rain layer would be made in the same fashion. And if you take the bronze pearl (Metropolis), for instance, Moon tells the player that “It’s a blueprint for a type of large immobile purposed organism. This one seems to be specifically for the cities built on top of our structures. […] newer designs began to use a mass-produced cellular build called living blocks,” she’s basically saying that the buildings on top of Pebbles and other newer iterators are primarily organic. So why not grow large parts of their superstructures as well? We already know that iterators are partly biological, and also, growing them certainly would make a lot of the construction process at least semi-autonomous. And this way, the ancients wouldn’t have to risk their lives to go below the rain layer and work on his legs, underhang, etc.

Time for one of my favorite headcanons! And one that’s much more headcanon-y than the others lol, that is, Pebbles’ puppet being child-sized. Big head, big eyes, sorta stubby limbs, rounder features (except his antennae, those are triangles for some reason ffs lol idk what I’m doing) etc. First (and more boring) reason is that if Moore’s law applies in some form in-universe (not an all-important Law of Science or anything, just an observed trend meaning that as time goes on and developments improve, tech gets both smaller/more space-efficient and better), that means Pebbles shouldbe both one of the most powerful iterators and one of the smallest. But if the whole reason e was built was to provide a home to Moon’s citizens because she couldn’t care for them very well anymore (deep green pearl, Metropolis—this is Moon’s reading, but Pebbles’ is interesting, too), why would they make his can smaller? Simple: they didn’t. Instead, his can has more empty space inside it as components are smaller, and his puppet is tiny. Like. Waist-high on an ancient.

Another reason he was designed to look childlike was to try to make him look as appealing & likeable to the public as possible. With how controversial his construction was, his creators and whatever equivalent of a marketing team they employed would’ve hoped to sway the monks and everybody who strongly opposed his construction, like, “look! he’s just a little guy! look at those pink cheeks! you wouldn’t hate a ‘kid’, would you?!?” (spoiler alert: they would)

But as consequence, his image was very marketable soooooooo

yeah idk man pebbles plushie canon

On the more angsty side of things, unfortunately for Pebbles, many ancients and even other iterators (looking at you, Sig and Suns) didn’t take him very seriously since he permanently looks like a kid. This just added fuel to the fire, making him even more frustrated and feeling unheard. Just. All of it is such a bad situation.

Moon, of course, sees how he’s being treated by his citizens (who used to be hers, and she wasn’t fond of them anyway) and her own peers, she knows it’s so harmful to him, but what can she do? She may be the local group senior and his administrator, but he strikes me as having such an independent personality (yay more stuff caused by trauma) that he feels like he’s caught in her shadow, perhaps. “Looks to the Moon’s little brother.” So he probably isn’t… very receptive to her attempts to build him up, but man, she still tries. And it’s worth mentioning that he’s also a workaholic, so he always thinks that he has “better things to do” than, say, spending time with his sister.

I bet she’d still try to play games with Pebbles (and he’d probably indulge her on occasion), show him cool things, engage him in conversation, try to get him to talk about his interests, etc., all to bond with him and get to know him better. And he’s a stubborn little piece of work, sure, but he genuinely does care for her (it’s in canon and shows up in several places).

I could say more but this has gone on long enough, but I do wanna clarify that while I don’t support his decisions or actions, his motivations are understandable. my guy is a dude who was put into a horrible situation and screwed over from the beginning. sure, all the stuff he’s been through doesn’t excuse his garbage, sometimes immature behavior in canon, but it certainly explains it. (good lord, I could write an essay on how he’s changed by the time of Rivulet’s campaign alone) uh anyway he’s a fascinating character who I spend too much time thinking about thank you for reading if you made it this far lol

(also, gotta say that a lot of these apply to my fic, too, shameless plug and some of them have already been mentioned or alluded to in it—it’s a time-travel fix-it that starts waaay back in the past so if that’s your thing, hey XD)

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Campaign and Characters: Basic Rundown

(The campaign I’ll be posting about here is a space western with heavy fantasy and horror elements. It draws quite a bit from some of my favorite things including The Locked Tomb, Star Wars, Darkest Dungeon, Cowboy Bebop, and some other cowboy themed D&D stuff I've run in the past)

The campaign starts 3 years after a massive crisis of succession that accidentally fused four different wars into one galaxy wide conflict. After over 30 years of fighting, a new Sovereign of the Galactic Kingdom has been named, and people are trying to pick up the pieces of their scattered lives. This has led a lot of people to flee towards the frontier worlds in an attempt to make their fortune and free themselves from the burdens of living under the various Dukes and Counts that hold dominion over their solar systems (though most fall immediately into the hands of outlaws who treat themselves as monarchs). It’s a mix between the energy of scrappy space cowboys, noble fantasy houses, and a horrifying galaxy filled with undead abominations (at least, according to rumors).  

Our protagonists are a cluster of drifters and runaways who for one reason or another find themselves on an interstellar train that will take them to the edge of "civilized society", which is where they run into each other and experience the first rumbles of the hauntings and horrors that lie beyond what the Galactic Kingdom has managed to conquer. I have 4 players in this game whose characters I'll give a brief description of below:

Dolly (she/her): Dolly is a disgraced reporter who once captured the events of the war and rooted out corruption wherever she found it. Eventually, she poked a little too hard at a cluster of powerful nobles, and a scandal broke about her selling information (and having intimate relations with) some of the outlaw leaders at the edges of the galaxy. She now takes jobs from "Choice Information" a trashy tabloid that has her basically writing buzzfeed style articles and doing vapid interviews for upstart bounty hunters. They give her lackluster information and sexy costumes to wear to every interview. She is a Human Inquisitive Rogue.

Chuck (he/him): Ch’k T’k, nicknamed Chuck, is a bounty hunter who takes any odd job he can find. He’s an expert tinkerer, fast with his shooting hand (which is helped by him having four of them), and is never seen without his Automaton companion, MAC. He does his best to keep a low profile and take jobs that will be easy money without gaining too much attention from the authorities or high profile outlaws, but he seems to have a bad habit of being dragged in over his head and finding dangerous gigs. He is a Thri-Kreen Battlesmith Artificer.

Geraldine (she/her): Geraldine is a wide-eyed debutant from a new money family. Her family didn’t make as much money as they were hoping to selling weapons and supplies during the war, and their lack of progress left her with a lot of free time on her hands. She used this free time to perfect her shooting at the local range, and to indulge in romantic novels that paint pictures of love, lust, and adventure in the frontier worlds. She decided that she dreamed of writing a story of her own, and wandered off to the nearest train station to find a crew to take her on an adventure. She is a Human Battle Master Fighter.   

Prometheus (he/it): Prometheus is a mysterious con artist, and is visibly the most cursed gothic man ever conceived of (though he really doesn’t seem to notice). He is fleeing to the edge of the galaxy, and scamming as many people as he can along the way. He slings snake oil potions, certificates for distant stars, and shockingly openly brandishes eldritch magic when the situation calls for it. Prometheus is a fellow with an untrustworthy face, but a shockingly smooth tongue to compensate. He’s wandering further and further into the galaxy for reasons that perhaps aren’t clear to most, or maybe even to him. He is a Human Great Old One Warlock.

This is our primary cast and crew, and soon I'll be diving into how they met and the shenanigans they got up to during our first session.

[tyrantisterror]

So I've been meaning to watch the Hatchefield musicals and my friends showed me a song number featuring the setting's local eldritch abominations, who take the form and personas of, like, children's edutainment puppets. And I'm sure on the surface it seems like a simple "haha isn't it funny to have the aesthetics of something made for kids but what happens is really fucked up and grim" joke - which is fine on its own, I think those kind of jokes can and have been pulled off well before.

But it's kind of an ingenious idea for an eldritch abomination because, like, what makes children's edutainment unsettling? Well, the artifice of it, firstly - the bright colors, the forced air of enthusiasm, the overly happy and cheerful world that is very much not like reality in any way. But there's also the fact that edutainment is trying to help children understand concepts their brains are not ready to grasp in full yet, be it spelling or math or science or what have you. Edutainment is, in essence, a being that understands reality to a much higher degree talking down to beings who are incapable of that understanding. Even when done well, it is condescending by nature, and when done poorly - combined with all those manipulative unrealistic elements designed to catch and keep one's attention - it comes off as insulting or, well, creepy.

And, ultimately, what is an eldritch abomination? It's a creature that works on rules of reality that we humans don't and possibly can't understand fully, and one that often understands those rules better than we do. Eldritch abominations also often don't have our best interests at heart, and so their communication with humans tends to be manipulative and deceptive by design. So yeah, they would talk to us like a bad children's show host would talk to its audience, full of patronizing condescension and baby talk as they treat us like gullible, easily swayed morons for them to toy with.

It makes perfect sense that Cthulhu and company might act like the Wiggles. We're basically children in their eyes, after all.

[spaghetticat3899]

My Slugcats (so far)

I’ve been wanting to make this post for awhile but just… never got around to it, for whatever reason. Sorry if this ends up super long, I ramble quite a bit about my characters, no matter what they are or where they originate from. If you’re curious, read below the cut!

‼️[RAIN WORLD SPOILERS LIE AHEAD]‼️

Alby - The Willful - (any/she/it)

Alby is a slugcat born with albinism, a wanderer of the wilds, and scarred in appearance. They lived in Outer Expanse in their early life, although never strayed too far from the cover of the great trees growing there, as they’re extremely prone to sunburn. Later, they wandered far, finding a new home in Shaded Citadel. Despite the darkness making their poor eyesight more strained, the lack of sun allowed them to traverse the area without worries of burns. They began to grow ill, though hadn’t noticed the severity of their condition, fighting on despite their weakening state. Whilst venturing away from their typical hunting grounds, they stumbled across two other slugcats, both peculiar in appearance. One called itself The Outlaw (Sprite), the other, The Guide (Gild). Whilst initially skittish, Alby grew to appreciate the company of the two of them, but their condition only worsened with time. Gild noticed their decline in health, and realized his duty was to be met with the upmost haste, bringing Alby and Sprite to enlightenment, and eventually plunging them into the void sea. The two of them ascended, leaving the world they knew behind. Trivia:

Alby started out as a recolored Hunter for a Jolly co-op campaign, and was the very first slugcat I ever made and played as.

In an alternate universe, Alby dies before ascending and becomes “Alby Long Legs”.

There’s a separate AU/Co-Op playthrough in which Alby is stuck with a blue slugpup and returns it to Outer Expanse.

Lin - The Archivist - (they/any/it)

Lin is a purposed organism created by an iterator by the name of Several Shooting Stars. They were made for the sake of “pest control”, maintenance, and companionship throughout cycles. Unlike natural Slugcats, Lin has the ability to cling onto and climb the walls of cans, as their sharper digits provide grip. They lack a mouth, and instead feed off any wayward “pests” using siphoning quills from their tail, which can also be embedded into walls. This provides a built-in failsafe, requiring Lin to preform their duties to survive. They also have small, retractable spines that are meant to deter predators. They’re programmed to be naturally friendly and curious, despite their aggression toward “pests”, being perfect for Stars’ tastes. They prefer enclosed spaces, and most often rested in storage compartments for pearls within Stars’ can. They were often physically affectionate with Stars, sometimes.

There comes a time in which Stars threatens collapse, assigning Lin to seek out any and all information or help they can find, afraid of being lost to time. In that moment, it’s revealed Lin had been embedded with a specialized pearl, whose purpose wasn’t explained, but importance was conveyed. Lin goes off on their journey, collecting all the pearls they can get their paws on, no matter how long it takes. It’s on their journey they encounter Gild, who they quickly gained an attachment to after getting over the initial skepticism. Gild often tried to take them off the track they followed, but Lin stayed determined to fulfill the duties they were given, much to Gild’s frustration and admiration. Gild later points out the flaws in the mission assigned to Lin, and wondered if there was another motive than initially thought. Lin initially dismissed this train of thought, but found themself asking a similar question. To try and prove Gild wrong, they venture all the way back to stars, hoping the data they’d spent so much time collecting was worthwhile. When returning to the can, Gild pointed out the snow, saying that typically functional iterators are too warm to have snowfall near them. Lin kept ignoring the indications of something wrong, only to find Stars’ can collapsed, and her puppet motionless. They went through a long depressive episode, Gild trying his best to comfort the distressed creature. Eventually, they were able to exit this state, and Gild led them to Outer Expanse, joining the local colony and accompanying Gild for as long as the cycles would allow them.

Trivia:

Lin also initially started as a jolly co-op recolor with the same group of friends, although spearmaster instead of Hunter. There’s actually a canon reason for this, however. Several Shooting Stars spoke to Seven Red Suns on occasion, and nabbed the plans for their messenger projects.

Lin lacks the ability to grow old due to being artificially created. They can still die, but will come back as long as they’re apart of the cycle.

Lin uses sign language to communicate to other beings. They're mute except to those 'attuned enough'. They taught the colony they'd been brought to by Gild how to sign.

They'd initially had a negative reputation amongst scavengers, due to their hostility when living with/in Stars. However, when travelling with Gild, they realized allying scavengers was beneficial. They enjoy the company of scavs, and sometimes finds themself letting them shelter with them.

Abomination Artificer - “Abomi-Arti” - (she/it)

Once a normal slugcat living in the garbage wastes, Arti was a mother to two slugpups trying to make the best of her odd home. She was affectionate, but protective, never letting the pups evade her gaze. Some days she thought of the colony she’d originated from, but she preferred the life of solitude she found herself with. There came a faithful day in which her life changed forever. Upon passing a scavenger toll, her pups took advantage of her distracted gaze and tried to swipe a pearl from the decorative strings, angering the entire pack. Unprepared, arti panicked and ran, holding her pups close, only for a spear to land in the chest of one. Her sadness turned into anger, she hunched over her lifeless child and snarled with a feral rage. The loss of a pup was tragic, her grief seeming to change her from the inside out. Could it be a metaphor coming to life? Some odd genetic experiment? Not a clue. The scavengers remained aggressive, still chasing her throughout the wastes, spears slicing through the air as frequent as the rains. Whilst trying to leap over leech-infested waters, an explosive spear flew into her eye, knocking her unconscious, and sending her pup flying away from her. By the time she awoke, wounded and barely able to think, her remaining pup had been swarmed by leeches, dragged into the murky depths of the discolored waters. Ever since, she swore upon an endless, hate-fueled revenge on all of scavenger-kind. For countless cycles, she had wiped out troop upon troop of scavengers, using her bizarre mutated abilities to commit atrocities with ease. She eventually made her way up to Metropolis, slaying the scavenger chieftain and solidifying her path of violence. Later in life, she crossed paths with Gild, who was surprised she was a Slugcat at all, let alone someone he could communicate with. Despite her wrathful outward nature, Gild could see the warped state of mind she was in, and was fascinated upon realizing that her monstrous nature was not a constant. He often left and returned, much to Arti’s confusion, viewing herself as somehow irredeemable and in the right simultaneously. Gild grew frustrated with her odd vigilante complex, but still felt the need to preform his duty, nonetheless. Through a long, painful journey, Arti was shown another way, though she was unable to undo what has been done. Gild showed her to the void sea, despite the guardians attempting to halt the two of them, where she plunged and was never seen again.

Trivia:

This character was oringinally made by slapping a bunch of DMS parts together while using an OP Artificer mod. For whatever reason I got attached, I think I liked the idea of the metaphor for Arti's rage transforming her into an unrecognizable monster being visual as well as emotional.

The mutations hybridized her with a cyan lizard, vulture, and scavenger. How? No clue, it just seemed cool. Her pseudo-flying comes from the first two organisms, but the scavenger is what gave her the fluff (also becoming the very thing you sought to destroy or something).

There we go, a long, long post about my 3 scugs (although one is just a modified canon one, but-). There will be more eventually but I hope you enjoyed! I love these guys alot for some reason.

⬇️ Also check out my friends’ scugs! ⬇️

robotcowboy - Rented

[clockworkcontraption]

it all started rather innocently. we just found two magical rocks in our d&d campaign - one that produces heat, and another that creates water. my character (well, okay, my character was a warlock and not an artificer, so it was mostly me, really) put two and two together and figured out that this may be used as an infinite source of steam. tech level of our campaign allowed us to manufacture or commission custom parts made of metals like bronze, copper, platinum, et cetera. and so, shenanigans ensued. out of character, i devised a contraption that would shoot a blast of steam and parboil anything that stands in front of it. war crimes, yay!

so, i turned to fusion360 to produce a feasible design for this nightmare contraption. as we had access to copper and bronze, i figured out that a simple tube shape with a conical nozzle could realistically withstand the heat and hold the steam pressure. one compartment holds the water rock, the other has a copper radiator with the heat stone inside of it. pull the lever, water contacts copper, water go whoosh and boom, steam cannon! for some unknown reason, i actually turned to thermodynamics and material science to figure out how thick the tubes should be. i suppose i was just taken by fey mood and went full turbonerd on this. ah well.

then, the first prototype was finished and rendered. after some back and forth, and quite a bit of negotiating with our DM (i'm really sorry for exposing you to my bullshit, Telen) we agreed that this could feasibly be produced within our setting. but something felt off. i was not quite satisfied with how it looked.

i carried on and added a collapsible tripod for easier deployment, and a handle on the top for better portability. (realistically, of course, this contraption would be awfully heavy, and only the strongest member of our party could carry it around. ah well). and finally, i had a stroke of inspiration. or maybe just a regular stroke. i though, what if we build up the pressure instead of just releasing it immediately? what if we somehow block the main nozzle for a while, and let it cook? the blast would be much stronger when you finally release it. and so -

the final version took form. i added a sliding attachment to the main nozzle that could block the output for a while (we figured it would be reasonable for it to take a full turn in combat to build up steam pressure), and then release it through one of the nozzles. and as the final stroke, i named this abomination - "Heated Exchange".

witness.

[tanyabadtime159]

OKIE EVERYONE GET READY THIS WILL BE A BIG WALL OF LORE TEXT

RAIN WORLD PESTILENCE STORY BEFORE MAIN EVENS OF THE AU

let's get started!

Okie so

Pestilence timeline starts before golden pearl was delivered to Five Pebbles by Spearmaster but bug maze pearl already happened. Artificer rampage starts much earlier and Moon also creates Rivulet.

After sometime Golden pearl happens and Pebbles blocks everyone like in canon also blocks the entrance gate so Arti won't disturb him.

Meanwhile Moon sends a warning to local group.Sig starts creating Hunter out of worry for Moon. But he rushed the process with leads to Hunter getting the Rot. But he was quick enough to stabilize it and stop the growing. So Hunter can coexist with her Rot. Suns sends Spears again to try to talk with Pebbles.

In the meantime Pebbles starts second guessing himself which leads to him losing focus and ends up losing control over his experiment. Bam! Rot created! Pebbles flashed the Rot but some still stays inside.

Rot that was flashed ends up in garbage wastes. But there was not much food and prey down there. So one particular Rot cyst starts consuming its own kind. With leads to its mutation. This Rot cyst becomes sentient. This mutated rot cyst figures out that it has control over other Rot cyst and stuff. So it becomes some sort of Alfa Rot. So sentient Rot with its cyst Rot army starts take over Garbage wastes. And it founds out about its much serious new ability once it's encountered the scavenger population. It can infect and control other creatures. With leads to much quicker spread of the Rot and turns garbage wastes into rotten wastes.

Soon enough with some help from infected scavs the Rot finds new area to infect. Shaded Citadel. It also tried other close region - waterfront facility but quickly finds out about its new weakness. Water. So Shaded Citadel is next target. This new Rot spreads so fast that it got to Pebbles legs in a few cycles. Pebbles in meantime tried to deal with Rot that manage to stay inside.

But Alfa Rot soon got to underhang and infected some lizards on its way. And soon enough got inside the structure.With help of overseers Pebbles notice that new very dangerous type of Rot. So he calls out Artificer and thinks about an emergency escape plan.

Meantime Spearmaster arrives in facility grounds. They don't find anything different until they reach the bridge to the wall. They saw a king vulture. But not normal king vulture. This one was covered in blue Rot cysts. So they decided to hide from this horrifying abomination. Now they know. Something is not right.

Soon enough they reach Five Pebble's chamber.

Pebbles structure was now full of rot and it already on its rivulet state. Pebbles notice the messenger. Spears delivers their pearl but it was not the perfect time for that. Pebbles tells Spears about escape plan and asks for help. The plan is Pebbles quickly finished his very old experiment with modified overseer that he can use as the vessel for his consciousness. The slugcats will take the rarefaction cell(that was already removed by Arti) and important pearls and will escape to his sister's structure.

Once they leave the Alfa cyst reaches the puppet chamber. And takes over now empty puppet and whole superstructure. This cyst learns about so much by using Pebbles memories and finally picks itself a name

Erratic Pulse

Also it founds out about ancient desire for ascension and max karma symbol. With looks very similar to itself and the reason behind its creation. So Pulse starts to believe that it and it's kind is the triple affirmative that iterator kind tried to find for so long. So why not to help them by spreading itself further? Also it founds out about it's neighbor. It's sister that is really kind and was treated poorly by Pebbles, who Erratic Pulse now hates. so why not to try talk with her?

Moon in meantime with Ruffles tries to understand what happened. Pebbles finally heard her pleases? And scans her structure to know about the damage

And she gets a message from her brother? But something is not right. He doesn't talk like this. She asks for a call but he refuses to pick up. So she uses her seniority privileges to force the call. She was not ready to find out that her brother was replaced by a rotting stranger. Erratic Pulse tells her about itself and asks her to join and accept the "triple affirmative". Moon ends the call and blocks the stranger.

Meanwhile Pebbles, Arti and Spears already reached Moon's wall. Iggy(Moon's overseer) noticed them and leads them to Moon's chamber. Moon was shocked to see her brother in overseer body but she was happy to know that he is alive. Moon lets Pebbles connect to her structure and now he can use hologram of himself and tell Moon everything.

In the meantime other slugcats start to arrive to the facility grounds. Hunter with a pearl from Sig, Gourmand with Survivor, Monk and Watcher(night cat) on the adventure to find more or new food for the colony and Saint, a nomadic scug that ascends only ones who seeks ascension. They all menage to reach Moon structure and not get infected by Rot infected creatures or by Rot itself.

Erratic Pulse send out the triple affirmative with the files of its genome to spread on over iterators.

And there is one slugcat that accidentally entered it's chamber and fell in love with it. Enot. The lust thirsty scugcat gets turned into infected but menage to save his desire for love. Which annoys Pulse

In Moon's structure. Moon, Pebbles and slugcats are thinking about plans for elimination of Erratic Pulse and the Rot.

So that's how main events of the au started

thank you for reading this! ❤

[witchertorsten]

@ormir location: Eterna, Castle (forgot the name). notes: I failed to produce a Lostlands starter and I won't subject Ormir to a thread in Werewolf Village.

Flames danced before Torsten's mind's eye. He saw the many-headed dragon and her rides, the High King in her claws. Torsten felt the acid eating away at his nerves, his bones, and how his own body had been made to betray him with a single strike from that woman's sword. She'd commended him for what came next, there in the snow Torsten severed the limb and let it fall to the ground before the acid would take the rest of him. He was The Sword, and if his arm would not fulfill its duty - if it betrayed him in the heat of battle - then the witcher was left with no other choice if there was even a chance he might have saved the King.

In the end, the woman named Aethelryth spared his life, commented on the handprint over his heart, and left.

Torsten saw her now and again, he'd catch sight of the stalwart woman as if she were watching him through the window and he saw her in dreams of places he'd never been. Moments of quiet relief and blatant happiness, moments that Torsten had never known. Not since childhood, and the dreams of her were anything but those that belonged to a youth.

He saw her lose an arm just as he had, watched her crumble as her leg was taken as well. There was blood, so much blood. Violent screams of unending conflict, dragons that fell only to rise again. He fought in glittering mithril, a streak of silver and power enthralled in the shadows of an anti-mana.

That was all that was familiar to him, violence came easy to the witcher.

In his dreamscape, he turned toward an ogre as it swung its great club down upon him, and with a sudden jolt, he awoke. Torsten pulled a sword stored between the mattress out from where it lay and raised it into the dark, a quivering beacon of quicksilver that captured the moonlight streaming through the ornate, Lysaran windows. The fire was low, nothing but dull embers through the witching hour. Torsten peered through the dark, and observed each of the shadows as his breathing steadied - he was confident that they were alone.

Torsten looked toward the prince he'd fallen asleep holding, grateful that Eldar had not swapped with Afshin and left in the night - or stabbed Torsten while he slept.

The events of the last few months had given him a great deal to think about. Here he slept in a castle enshrined in magic, a witcher at the heart of abominations. The High King was taken, and now a storm giant's inscription sat upon Torsten's chest. A keep of his former brethren still shrouded in so much mystery. There had been arches there, it was for witchers - spellbreakers - the translation had called them, but was traveled by druids alike. That alone spoke of its age. It was in the First Age when the druids were hunted to near-extinction with Iskaldrik. Not sent to the mines, but killed. Their sacred sites were destroyed, and their magic was thoroughly broken.

Into the air of the castle Torsten wandered, some paces to clear his steps before he ended up on one of the balconies of the wing that the Queen had been gracious enough to gift the hand and the heir. Torsten saw it differently, this way they were close, not quite prisoners... but also not quite free.

"A sleepless night for the raven feeder," Torsten commented as he looked over his shoulder, aware only after a few moments that the balcony was not as empty as the witcher had initially perceived. It had been his hope that these... Witches and artificers might be able to craft something to compensate for the limb he'd lost, but nothing mystical took to the witcher's form. He had a prosthesis, but it was nothing but fiberglass and weight that impeded his balance when he tried to fix a shield to it. "for the Kingsguard as well." His King slept soundly, that was what mattered, that was what Torsten told himself.

[ritunn]

This outlaw is just your average D&D artificer I see. Yeah, we've had gun, but have you considered five guns? Proceeds to pull out this abomination and oneshot the BBEG.

[k0xytocin]

3 and 6???

Hey, thanks for asking me!

I wasn't expecting any asks but I can go for it. :)

I rambled a lot haha. Curse of Strahd spoilers below.

So, I DM Curse of Strahd for two different groups of players. I'll call them A and B.

3. What did your players do with Doru?

A: My players' characters are very sweet and are trying to help Doru.

They've been taking him along with them and protecting him. They tend to keep him out of conflicts, even though he's still stronger than them by this point. The Warlock (Great Old One) has even been giving Doru vials of his blood to keep him fed.

They recently met Van Richten (who is very against vampires regardless of the context in my game) and managed to persuade him to spare Doru so long as he doesn't harm anyone.

The party heard about the Abbot from Donavich, so their plan is to try and take Doru to him. In my game, there is a "cure" for vampirism, but it involves fully killing the vampire and reviving them as a mortal once more. Since Doru sees himself as an abomination in the eyes of the Morninglord (who hates undead in the lore), he agreed to it.

B: Most of my players' characters are unhinged lmao.

They're also taking Doru with them. The Warlock (Raven Queen) is mostly in charge of him, and she always intimidates him into listening to her. They mostly get him to do silly things, like wear the "maid outfit" in the Death House (Durst Mansion).

But they take good enough care of him lol. The Artificer in the group is very sweet to him, too.

Like my other group, they heard about the Abbot from Donavich. They have a similar plan. However, the Warlock intends to kill him if he endangers them or if the "cure" doesn't work. Her patron, the Raven Queen, doesn't like undead because they defy the natural order of life and death. So if the cure doesn't restore Doru's mortality, she'll just make him dead-dead.

6. Did you make any NPCs more sympathetic than in canon? Or less sympathetic?

I'm using the same lore for both groups so I don't have different answers for this one.

In general, I made the characters more sympathetic. I feel like a lot of the characters are badly written in 5e, they feel too one-dimensional and one-note. Somehow, so many characters are just secretly irredeemably evil. Like, that's their whole thing, and that' s all they get to be.

Even someone like the Abbot who is built up as this light in the oppressive darkness is secretly evil and unreasonable. I expanded his backstory to be more sympathetic and changed his goals. He's still cooking up flesh golems, but for a different reason (in summary: he thinks if he can recreate the night of Sergei's murder and have Strahd see the error of his ways and choose differently, he can lift the curse). He's also actually reasonable in my game lol.

And don't even get me started on Strahd! I could write an essay about him, haha. When it comes to the I, Strahd Novels, he has a lot of depth, and his evil actions are given a lot of sympathetic context. Meanwhile in 5e, he's just this emotionless husk who couldn't be reasoned with to save his life (unlife?). I won't go off here, but suffice it to say, when it comes to Strahd, I'm much more inspired by the I, Strahd Novels.

I made Rahadin much more sympathetic, and not outrageously evil. I removed the whole "Patrina is killed, which leads to Strahd ordering Rahadin to punish the dusk elves, which leads to Rahadin killing all the dusk elf women so they can't have anymore children" thing. It wasn't just to make Rahadin more sympathetic, but also because I just despise how women are treated in this module lol. (I'm even keeping Patrina alive and plan on doing something completely different with her).

I'm making Baba Lysaga more sympathetic by expanding on her backstory and having her motives of love and protection come through. But she operates from the shadows, because she knows deep down Strahd wouldn't accept her and it breaks her heart.

The Vistani as a whole got a revamp. I wanted to characterise them as a people with their own history, culture, and reasons for being in Barovia. Not just a bunch of messed up stereotypes Wizards of the Coasts defined them as.

My one exception is Van Richten, I guess. I'm keeping his backstory as sympathetic as it's described (with what happened to his family). But, given that he's planning a hate crime on the Vistani (who are already handled horribly in the module lol), I really don't see a way to make that sympathetic. When it comes to racism, I wouldn't want to spin it in a sympathetic way, either. I could just remove that from his story, but I feel like this type of story (with Van Richten being more of an antagonist) resonates more with my players.

Thanks for the ask! And thanks for reading.

I love Curse of Strahd so I could go on and on lmao.

[robotcowboy6969]

Shoutout to Pyro, I love you Pyro

(Feat. @spaghetticat3899 ‘s Abomination Artificer and their love child Korn)

[willow-boop]

Dr. Ari Sokolov.

Mad scientist, vampire, abomination, artificer, flesh specialist.

Stoic, cold and intelligent with a heart of gold.

Art of his opposite Gabriella and his three eyed cat coming soon!

[meep9898]

I summon forth an abomination

Wool + Minerva’s kid

Name: Johann Lucidae

Gender: Male

General appearance: Tall, lanky, and athletic like Wool, with Minerva's softer and more 'elegant' features. Has his father's white hair, which is usually covering one of his eyes. Has Minerva's brown eyes, but with a darker tone, as if some purple got thrown in the mix.

Personality: Elegant, flirty, and social, when it comes to interacting with others, Johann got the best stats from both of his parent's, maxing out his charisma. However, if one manages to turn the tables on him, he becomes an shy mess. When the young adventurer finds himself alone, he acts more freely and becomes a total goofball with a passion for adrenaline, always getting himself in some kind of trouble or danger.

Special Talents: Has Wool's combat skills thanks to his training. He inherited Wool's arcane abilities, though he's not as adept with magic thanks to Minerva's human side. He makes up for this by combining magic with technology, like an artificer would. A very decent cook, too.

Who they like better: Wool

Who they take after more: Wool 

Personal headcanon: Programmed his very own 'Minnie' called 'Johnnie', which works as a companion and guide during his adventures (like Navi from Zelda, but less annoying. Actually, probably just as annoying). 

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