#at the very least a dm who will tell me my answers if the campaign falls apart before we get to elements of her backstory

[catherinnn]

I thought of this at work today and I couldn't stop laughing: Imagine Dustin having an older sister who's back from college. So when they need a sub for Hellfire, he asks her because she's the one that taught him how to play in the first place. As soon as she walks in Eddie's brain short-circuits because "Jesus H. Christ Henderson, why didn't you tell me your sister was my dream girl?!?!? I would've at least brushed my hair!"

Que Dustin not sure whether he should be disgusted because his sister keeps flirting with his DM all night or excited because there is now a very strong possibility Eddie could become his brother-in-law now.

Roll for Initiative eddie munson x henderson!reader warnings: nothing much really, just fluff overall. eddie self-doubts for just a second, no use of y/n, cursing. a/n: thank you so much for requesting! I really hope you like it. reblogs and comments are very very appreciated. 2.2k words masterlist

“So,” Mike starts talking, Dustin takes notice of his sarcastic tone. “Who the fuck do we know that secretly plays D&D and would want to sub for Lucas”

“Um, well…” but before Dustin can get a word out Mike interrupts him.

“I mean, we’re fucked! Eddie’s gonna hate us and kick us out of Hellfire!”

“Dude-“

“No Dustin, I’m serious! I’m gonna kill Lucas and all his stupid new friends”

“Mike! Do you remember what I told you earlier? About my sister?”

“Uh… no?” he confesses.

“Honestly! Do you ever listen to me?!” Dustin claims angrily. “What I told you is that she’s coming back home. And she used to play, dude!”

“Are you serious?” Mike exclaims, unable to believe their luck. He asks “When does she get here?”

--

Dustin's heart pounds with anticipation as he waits at the doorstep. It had been months since he last saw you, and he couldn't wait to catch up.

And as your mom’s car pulls into the driveway, Dustin cannot contain his excitement. He rushes to greet you, nearly stumbling over his own feet in his haste. You step out of the car, a weary smile on your face as you spot your little brother.

"Dustin!" you exclaim, opening your arms for a hug. "You've gotten even taller since I last saw you."

“You think so?” he asks with hope.

“Oh right? He’s turning into a whole handsome tall man already!” your mom butted into the conversation and you both cringe at her choice of words.

“Ugh, I missed you!” you hug him again and he laughs.

Once you’re inside the house, Dustin wastes no time in bombarding you with stories of his D&D campaigns. He told you about the epic battles and the incredible DM the club has. You make a mental note to tease Steve as soon as you see him since he’s no longer Dustin’s coolest older friend.

“That club sounds so fun!”

"Do you think... would you want to join our club as a sub?" he asks eagerly. "We're short one person since Lucas joined the dark side”

You frown in confusion and he explains. “He’s in the football team”

“Really?” you ask surprised.

“Yeah…” he sounds disappointed. “Anyway, would you help us? Please”

“You’re sure they won’t mind?”

“They would be so thankful if you help us beat Eddie’s ass”

“Okay, sure then” you agree laughing.

--

“Come on! We’re gonna be late!” Dustin shouts from the living room waiting impatiently for you.

“I’ve been ready for like ten minutes, you’re the one who’s taking so long” you answer calmly, not knowing what all the fuss is about.

Meanwhile in the drama room in Hawking’s High…

“Alright gentlemen, are we ready to start?” Eddie says as he walks in.

“Umm no, Dustin’s not here yet” Mike stops him.

“Well, where is he?”

“He’s probably arriving any time now”

“Wheeler, we don’t have all day-“ Eddie starts complaining but the door opening abruptly interrupts him. An agitated Dustin walks in and starts apologizing, but Eddie’s not listening to him.

The club leader still frozen mid-sentence, his brain seemingly short-circuiting as he laid eyes on you, standing by the door. He stumbled over his words, his thoughts are silent but screaming at the same time. Suddenly, the room seemed smaller, the air thicker, as if a spell had been cast upon him.

However, you’re still oblivious to the effect you had over him.

“Soo, who’s this?” Gareth finally asks after waiting for Eddie to ask that question, but he was not even moving.

“Oh, this is my sister” Dustin starts introducing you. Eddie’s trance is broken when he hears your name, the prettiest name he’s ever heard. “She’ll sub for Lucas”

“She will?” Eddie asks with a hint of hope in his voice. All of the sudden hoping Lucas won’t be able to join Hellfire ever again.

The rest of the boys are waiting expectantly for Eddie to ask you all types of question until he finds an unsatisfying enough answer and he’ll decide you can’t sub. But he never does. So Gareth starts asking if you even know how to play D&D.

“Sure she does, she was the one who taught me how to play in the first place” your brother steps in.

You tell the boys your level in the game and for some reason they all seem surprised. They start murmuring among each other. But you notice how the boy on the big throne leans over to your brother to whisper something. You play dumb and walk closer to them.

"Jesus H. Christ Henderson, why didn't you tell me your sister was my dream girl? I would've at least brushed my hair!" He whispers-shouts and a smile starts forming on your face.

You’d be lying if you said he hadn’t called your attention. His big puppy eyes, all the rings on his hand. You don’t know why he says that about his hair, you thought it looked really good like that.

At any rate, you take a seat next to your brother, which just so happens to also be next to Eddie. Happy coincidence. And you start playing, Eddie sets the scene. He makes you imagine every single little detail so you feel like you’re actually there. He makes different voices for each character which makes you giggle. He even stands up, or leans over on the table, he talks to every single one of you, not forgetting about anyone. It’s mesmerizing to see him like this.

“I love how passionate you get” you comment and it makes him smile so hard.

He noticed before, every time he would change the tone in his voice to imitate a character, you’d laugh, and now he keeps changing voices just to hear it again.

“Give me the gold! He says. Or I’ll set my hungry wolves free, right this second!” Eddie acts and without failing he’s able to hear your snorts. It distracts him in the best way possible. “You have an adorable laugh” he tells you with a smirk.

This obviously makes you giggle once more, this time with a pink blush decorating your cheeks. “Thanks, it’s just- you’re cute making all the voices”

Now it’s Eddie’s turn to blush and smile once more.

Dustin notices this exchange —all of the other boys did— but he can’t decipher how he feels about it. On the one hand, he feels a little jealous and uncomfortable that you two keep flirting. But on the other hand, it would be really cool to have Eddie as his brother in law.

However, the game continues and so does the places Eddie takes you all to in your minds. So much so that at one point you start getting dizzy.

“Wait, where are we again?” you ask.

“In the mountains near the lake” Gareth answers.

“Are we close to the palace?”

“No no, the palace is behind the woods” Mike explains now. They have more of an advantage than you do, they've been playing this campaign for weeks now.

“Wh- Do you have a map?” You finally ask Eddie and he nods passing it to you.

“Here’s the palace” he comes closer and signals on the map, “and here is where you are”

“Oh, okay”

“You know, if you’re still lost I can stick around to guide you” he whispers giving the closeness.

“Well, you’re the bad guy here,” you argue imagining you’re still inside the game. “How do I know you won’t try to kill me?”

“Me?” he gasps acting offended. “I would never!”

“You already killed Jeff!” you accuse him.

“Yeah, but he’s not half as pretty as you are. I’d miss you too much” he makes sure he’s whispering very close to you now, just because if Jeff heard him he’d start acting offended. Just because of that… no other reason.

“Can we keep playing now? My mom will be here in like ten minutes to pick me up” Mike complains.

Those ten minutes fly by. Before you even realize it, Mike’s mom is honking in her car to hurry him up. And so you finish for the day, starting to gather all your things.

“You know, you owe me a pencil” you tell Eddie.

“Oh really? Why’s that?” he asks playfully.

“I only borrowed it to you! I did not gift it!”

“So you’re calling me a thief? First a killer and now a thief? Glad to know you think so badly of little old me”

“I didn't just called you that!” you say in you defence and he makes confused face, signalling you to continue talking. “I also said you’re cute. You’re a really cute thief and killer”

He starts laughing. “Are you always this charming, or is it just when I'm around?"

“I could ask you the same thing”

“Oh only with you, sweetheart” he promises.

“Me too” you admit a little shyly.

“Yeah?-” he tries to keep flirting but Dustin cuts him off.

“Are you ready? Let’s go”

“Wow, since when are you so eager to leave hellfire?” Eddie notices.

“No reason” he lies, he’s still not sure if all this flirting between you two would be something good or not.

“I think he’s a little jealous his sister is taking all of Eddie’s attention” Gareth teases him.

“No, I’m not!”

“Aw Dusty bun!” Eddie joins in the teasing.

“I’m not jealous! Ask her out for all I care!” he says but regrets it as soon as it left his mouth.

“Really?” Eddie checks in but Dustin is a very proud person, he’s not one to bend. So he nods encouraging his friend.

Good thing you know him like the palm of your hand.

“Let’s go dingus, mom’s probably waiting for us”

Eddie feels this as punch right on his chest. Did he read too much into this? Were you not actually interested? Was it just some playful flirting?

As you walk out the school and into the parking lot. You open the car so your brother can get in but tell him to wait a second, and you walk over to Eddie who was about to get in his van.

“Wait! Thief!” you call him and he turns around. “I think you should, you know… ask me out”

He feels the happiness creeping back into his body. “Yeah? I should?” his playful tone back in his voice. “Would you want to go out with a thief and a murderer?”

“If he’s as cute as you are, then I’d think about it” you make him laugh again.

“How about tomorrow night? I’ll pick you up at eight” he proposes.

“I’ll be ready”

“Good”

“Yeah, good” you walk closer to him. “See you tomorrow then” and before leaving, you give him a kiss on his cheek. Hiding your need to kiss him more after seeing his flushed face. You’ll have plenty of time for that tomorrow.

Dustin sees you getting in the car with the biggest smile on your face. “Did you ask him out?”

“Um, yeah… listen-“

“It’s fine, really”

“No, listen. I know that maybe it’s a little uncomfortable to think of one of your best friends going out with me. But I promise I would never do anything to hurt him and make it weird between you two-“

“I know that, and I know he wouldn’t do that either” he interrupts you. “I’m just- I’m worried that I won’t be a priority to you or to him anymore”

“Dustin, are you kidding? You could not be more wrong about that!” you argue. “Imagine this date goes well, we’ll start hanging out at home and watch movies with you, we could go out to eat all together, go to the cinema, anything! You name it!”

And the more he thinks about it that way, the more he loves that idea.

So the next day, he helps you choose your outfit, he tells you which hairstyle will look better and then hurries you up when it’s 7:50 pm and you’re still putting mascara on.

“You look fine already! Amazing even! Grab your jacket cause he’ll be here any minute now!” and as soon as he says that, he recognizes that car outside with the loud metal music, seconds later he hears the door knocking.

“I’ll get it, mom!” he yells so his mother won’t embarrass you.

“No, you won’t. I will” you stop him before he can open the door. “Go back to your comic-book. I’ll be back in a few hours”

And he waits until you get back. 

When you finally do, he’s on the couch watching TV but mutes it as soon as he hears you.

“Hey” he notices the big smile on your face is on again. He also notices your lips are a little puffy and he cringes at that thought.  

“You can go to sleep happily now, the date went amazing” you explain. “God, I think I’m love with him!” you comment as you go up to your room.

“Already?” he judges a little.

But as you promised, the three of you hang out together most of the time. And as long as he looks away when you two kiss or ignores the fact that Eddie’s spending the night in your room after you all catch a movie and order some pizza. He’s really happy that you two found each other.

[spotsupstuff]

What happened to suns?

NSH: This man has done irrepairable damage to my mental facilities. That's a crime, y'know?! Messin' up an Iterator's noggin cogs??? They are a *filthy* criminal.

serious answer: a sequence of unfortunate events, basically. idk how long you've been here so i'll start from the beginning

Suns is a very early Gen 2 Iterator. the jump between the 1st n the 2nd Generation went physically very smoothly, but when it comes to the more subtle aspects of a person, it went worse. early Gen 2s r known for bein bad with emotions (the other Iterator that is like that that shows up is Fish. he's rather emotionally crass and unwieldy)

Suns scored the worst possible lottery result while spinning the early Gen 2 emotion capability wheel and their emotional skill and ability to produce the stuff in the first place is in the single digits. they are very conscious of this fault of theirs and instead of doing something more productive with it more often, they rather spend their single digit emotion capability on bemoaning and despising this fault

they do come to Nish for help with it, basically have therapy sessions with him (Nish is the most emotion-capable Iterator in like... Ever) and they do put up a front of this cool, chill, amazing guy persona around themselves to get better accepted by the other Iterators (all of them except Gen 3s know that this cool guy thing is a ruse though. they appreciate the effort however). so they kinda awkwardly fake emotions n go on through their life. this persona is who Pebbles ultimately decided to look up to as his mentor btw. it was never really the real Suns, only maybe some glimpses of it

next unfortunate event shows up first mentioned in my old big headcanon post for the canon Iterators:

(Suns is built quite close to the south pole, though the summer months can still get stupid hot)

at some point i started headcanoning that my Suns has very slow processing time. like absolute Shit reflex time. like

this is canon ☝

n then i put these two headcanons Together ✨ so basically: because of the lack of emotional capability, Suns feels a big need to compensate for stuff. even though the Solis colony is one of the sweetest and kindest colonies out there, they felt like they need to give More. so they started running hotter for the sake of their citizens. but yanno, periodic basically overheating is going to cause damage to hardware shit, not to mention the poor fauna that makes up an Iterator Hivemind. and that's how Suns damaged their processing speed

now as to why i say Suns would go offline in the post-mass ascension off string au: they are falling apart at the seams. torturously slow, but terribly. they are rotting alive- but not in the same way as Pebbles, it's not THE Rot. it's just... a rot. natural decay, not godly cancer. their nickname in DMs between me n shkiki is literally mr. Decay cuz of this

because of a combo of their slow processing time, their location (snowstorms + changing temperatures that go into extremes on pretty much both sides of the spectrum) and their pre-occupation with Pebbles related matters, Suns got yo normal booboo and didn't treat it and when they finally directed attention to themselves, a good portion of them has already decayed including the puppet

yes, they are That wigged that they didn't notice one of their most important parts rotting alive while even using it. this whole thing i refer to as hot girl summer arc btw

after Spears' campaign (they notice they have an infection during the slug's journey back to them) Suns is so fucked up over everything that they just go "Fuck it. why try anymore. i won't fight this. at least i feel *something* rather than nothing, i suppose. i deserve this." and allow their condition to only worsen and don't tell people about it

in the time of the Hunter's campaign i can imagine that they'd be so caked in all of this shit, all physically, emotionally and mentally, that they just wouldn't try at all to save themselves

and fact is, the others will try to help them. especially Wind will. but at some point a person needs to recognize that nothing is going to go anywhere if the other party refuses to put in any effort into getting better too and only drags the innocent one down right along with themselves

[sagesariadnd]

Please Watch March on Faewunder. I Just Think It's Neat.

I'm waiting on a few things before I start posting pictures like I promised, so in the meantime, I have a recommendation if you're looking for a D&D actual play show that isn't one of the Big Three.

I've fairly recently started dipping my toes into the World of Io, a collection of streamed short campaigns set in the DM's homebrew world of, well, Io. I started with, and am still in the middle of, March on Faewunder. I started it because my current parasocial squish Tom Fawkes is in it, and I'm sticking with it for some of the most wholesome and funny roleplay I've ever seen. A warning now that the following is an unhinged infodump about how much I love this campaign, but I promise a link is at the bottom!

Highlights include:

Actually streaming session zero! I don't know if other shows have done this, but it's the first time I've seen it and found it really cool to see the process in action. This includes an introduction to Io's history and world makeup and answering the players' questions about it, so it's great for onboarding new viewers because they don't have to have watched the other campaigns. Plus, hearing the players talk about the kind of characters they were making made me immediately excited for the campaign and the dynamics within the party, which was clearly the case for the people watching too because there was fanart literally that night.

Mark Hulmes - the host of High Rollers...you know, that actual play show that did the one-shot with the Baldur's Gate 3 cast last year - playing a half-lagomon paladin with the energy of DiC dub Sailor Moon. Yeah that's right, a grown-ass man is shamelessly playing his ideal bunny girl waifu and nobody judges him for it because Gloria is a precious cinnamon roll and must be cherished.

A southern belle dhampir ranger named Vidalia whose parasol is both a sword and a gun...crossbow...thing. Also she's a swarmkeeper ranger and her swarm is birds! Used to be corvids, now I think it's hawks. And she's the sweetest damn person you'll ever meet and doesn't even hide that she's a vampire.

An elf bard named Pandora who got her name literally because her player thought it was fun to say in her character voice, and she says it to herself in character when she's anxious. She's also a vampire hunter who's afraid of birds.

Disclaimer: Pandora is an emotional wreck of a character with a heart of gold and she WILL make you cry at least every other session.

Did I mention those three are totally in an awkward disaster lesbian cuddle puddle? Cause they totally are. Vidalia even calls Gloria 'hunny bun' and it's the most adorable thing in the world.

Hey, you wanna have lots of emotions about skeletons? Well Tom has you covered with Ribeye, the skeleton bard who wants to be a chef! (Gee, DM, how come your mom lets your campaign have TWO bards?) Don't be fooled by his punny name or his Ed Wynn voice, this skeleton will fuck you up emotionally almost as much as Pandora. This youtube funnyman has made his fellow players wail loudly into the microphone like Rocky freaking Lockridge.

And you wanna know why there's so many emotions about skeletons? Well for one thing Tom's just really good at roleplaying but the big catalyst is that neither Ribeye in character, nor any of the players out of character, know Ribeye's HP. The DM just tells him if he gets knocked out. The DM rolls his hit dice for him. And he can't be healed by normal healing magic, only necromancy. Yeah uh...nobody in the party can cast necromancy. They found a backup, but it's VERY temporary and the DM plays the game HARD. Your butt WILL clench every single time Ribeye takes damage. The party's butts sure do. No really, it's genuinely sweet how hard they all work to protect their skelebro.

I feel bad that I don't have a lot to say comparatively about the last member, the changeling monk Kagami. I think he's just along for the ride. But he's there, and he's as badass as a monk should be, and he's the source of a good few funny moments, including the ever optimistic statement "I haven't exploded yet!" (no you don't get context, watch the show) and the pure D&D energy of spending all your money on a stupid carnival prize because it's so ridiculous you just HAVE to have it. It even comes in handy, how the heck did that happen???

If you like crafting, Faewunder has you covered with all sorts of fun homebrewing! Every long rest is an adventure! Ribeye whips up all sorts of fun dishes and names them! Kagami supes up everyone's weapons and armor! Pandora desperately tries to keep up the supply of potions Ribeye can drink! The DM has a chart of all sorts of fun buffs they can unlock and put on their gear, so long as there's time to make it. It takes up a decent chunk of the sessions, but the party makes it work through...

Camp RP! Banter and sharing feelings around the campfire almost every long rest, including the ones that come from just travel time with nothing happening! I've never seen a party so willing to share their feelings with each other and they're so delightfully close, even if Kagami's still keeping things close to his scarily muscular chest at the moment.

Intense combat with some of the wildest luck (or usually lack thereof) I've ever seen on a VTT. I thought it was roll20 that hated us, who kicked Foundary's dog???

Crazy fae shit

Fucked up trees! Every DM needs to have at least one fucked up tree encounter.

Fun with voice modulators!

Distinct and lovable NPCs!

A disclaimer that the NPCs will never flirt with the PCs unless the PCs initiate. That's just a good rule of thumb to have in a DM-player dynamic! I mean, check that the DM is comfortable with it too, but really I'm just sad that 'not sicing a horny NPC on my players' is noteworthy.

A channel in the Io discord exclusively for rules lawyering, so the DM can receive feedback on goofed up rules (or ignore the ones from people who forget his houserules) without them cluttering up the twitch chat or distracting him from running the game! Now THAT'S innovation, y'all!

Fanart every night, and bingo cards that the DM fills out with the chat!

The DM is a racoon wizard! Seriously, how can you say no to that?!

Anyway it's really good, and if any of this sounds appealing the playlist is below. It's a relatively short campaign - 13 sessions averaging around three hours apiece. I'll definitely be checking out the rest of the Io campaigns after I finish Faewunder, but I feel like it's gonna be hard to top this group.

[sevilemar]

Hey,

anon beginner to dnd from before, with many additional and build-on questions. Thanks for answering these!

What's some ways to find a dnd or rp group? What if I'm bad at acting or get really nervous and closed-off with people I don't know? How can I make the time for this? What materials would I need to bring?

What are good strategies to start a dnd or rp group? Do you have to be dm, as founder? Is it from scratch and from the ground up? What materials would be needed to start off? What if there are people you know and think might be interested? And what if there's no one you know that may be interested in such a group?

You rock!!!!

I'm glad to share what I know, since I believe ttrpg is just awesome! 😍

- My first table was just me and my friends trying something new. But not everyone's friends are interested, so for my second group, I googled if there was a local ttrpg, roleplay, or DnD forum. I found a national one, with sections for each region, so I answered someone's post there. I would have asked in my local comic book stores next, or in other stores that sell nerdy stuff. Maybe you already have a coworker or acquaintance who is playing and can hook you up with some people, or at least with some links?

If you don't find anything locally, you also can opt for online groups. I don't have any good starting spots, but you should be able to google it pretty easily. Look for people who are roughly in the same time zone than you, it makes scheduling easier^^

- You do not have to be GM to look for or found a group. It's very common to look for groups as a player, though it might take you longer to find one. People who want to GM are rarer, and usually a GM has an easier time finding players than the other way around. If a group cannot find a GM, people who wanted to be a player sometimes take up the mantle so that they can play.

- Most groups who find each other start from scratch, but it is possible to enter an already established group as a new player. Both have their own challenges and advantages.

- If there are people you think might be interested, just ask them. Role play is all about communication and relating to people, and this is a good start. If there's no one in your vicinity, find a new group. It's very interesting how easily strangers become friends when you regularly slay monsters together 😉.

- I find that a regular playing schedule works best for everyone when it comes to sessions. My two online groups play regulary every other Monday and Wednesday for 2-3 hours, and my local table meets roughly once a month on the weekend for longer sessions. When our GM didn't have the time to prepare, he tells us so, and we just drop the session. That gives him two more weeks of preparation.

GMing is a lot of work for me. I find myself thinking about campaign stuff while doing mundane tasks, or while crafting. I also spent hours as needed writing notes, or drawing maps, etc., mpstly a day or two before the next session. I find session logs are best written down the next day, so I tried to give myself half an hour for that the day after a session.

- The only materials you need as a player are your character sheet (physical or digital), some way to take notes, and either a set of dice or a digital dice roller. As a GM, you also need monster stat blocks, your campaign notes, and whatever rule set you're using for references. That's all you need to get started, really.

It is helpful as a GM to use some kind of grid for encounters, and something that represents PCs and monsters. In a physical space, easel paper works well, or a grid-based map. You can draw a battlefield or locaton on it in preparation, but it's not necessary. In our first campaign, we just used whatever pens where at the table to make a battlefield, and we used dice or random snacks as PCs and monsters. White Othello or Backgammon pieces are nice, because you can write names on it, or whatever damage your monster has taken with a removable marker. In a digital space, you can use tools like map tool or roll 20 to upload maps and PC tokens on to it, but don't bother if it's too much hassle.

- A good strategy to start a new group is talking to each member individually while recruiting them, making a group chat for orga stuff, and having one or multiple session zeros where you get to know each other and can talk about what kind of game you would like to play, and create characters together. Recruitment and orga can be done by anyone in the group, session zero(es) is (are) usually lead more or less loosely by the GM once they know more about their world and the kind of story you all want to play.

- Every person in the group will be nervous when you meet for the first time, especially when you play with strangers. That helped me a bit when I met my group for the first time. It also helps that ttrpg is something that takes a lot of love and passion for something that's still a bit weird to most people. It's still very much the domain of nerds and theatre kids, so chances are high that you are one of those types, and you will have both types in your group. I meet more nerds in DnD, and more theatre kids in larp, but thats highly subjective.

- There are things you can do to help you with role playing, either as GM or as player. It's too much to list it all, so let me give you a few online ressources I found helpful:

Ginny Di's role playing tips

Matthew Coleville's thoughts

[hopefulstarfire]

Have a lil drabble about Kat and Ryous friendship as requested by @kira-quartz

"Thank you for coming over to help with these."

Kat looked up from the figurine she was working on, offering up a smile to her best friend. "It's no problem, Ryou!" She assured him. "I'm happy to help, and, besides, this is actually a lot of fun anyways."

The first session of the newest campaign he was going to be DMing was coming in less than a week. They'd gotten their usual little crew back together for it and Ryou had wanted to go all put with this one. Rather than use base miniatures he kept tucked away, he'd ordered custom models to be based around the designs the others had given him of their characters.

Technically speaking now, she had a sneak peak at her own characters soon to be made party, but Ryou would not budge on giving her any details -- names, classes, who of their friends was playing them, etc -- as it would "spoil the element of surprise". He also refused to tell her which ones were actually npcs or party members as well.

She hummed, attention flickering back to the figurine in her hand. It was a fairy with a flowing dress and bands around her arms, butterfly wings and she was supposed to have opalescent eyes, pink hair and a Fae characteristic of having a glittering mist around her.

"It's fun figuring out who they might belong to," she said, bringing her brush back to the hair. Max had taught her the proper way to color and paint in the lines and give depth to shading; she did great with coloring books and the likes, but actually drawing was a talent not even he could bestow upon her. "Though, I think this one's obvious."

Ryou gave a wry grin, looking up from the gnoll he was currently doing the detailing on. "I don't know; it could very well be Tristans."

Kat snorted in laughter, holding it up a bit higher. "I need you to look me in the eye and tell me you've ever even heard Tristan use the word opalescent to describe anything."

He bristled a bit, but there still remained a small smile. "He would, given the right circumstance!"

"Oh, I'm not doubting the capability; I'm doubting the notion he'd say it to begin with," she teased. She re-situated the figure a bit better, finishing off the first coat of her hair. "Besides, getting glittering mist instead also seems more Mihos style. That gnoll you're holding looks more like Tristans speed."

Ryou gave a slight shrug, though he himself had the answers; she'd been right on the fairy, but the gnoll had actually belonged to Tomoya instead. Tristan had chosen a human with an Artificer class, with it being his second attempt at DND and his first time playing an actual campaign versus a one shot.

"I guess you'll just have to see," he mused, shifting his focus to the miniatures clothes. "I will say, though, your little Harengon is certainly going to be in an interesting group."

Kat shifted, nodding over to the painted figure of her little rabbit rogue. "I think she's gonna at least be fun to play." She was honestly more surprised he had yet to comment on the obvious inspirations from My Melody and Funny Bunny on the character. She had worked hard to put references galore in her new player character and she wondered how long it would take the rest of their friends to piece it together.

It took a little bit more time before she finished the fairy, setting it down to dry. Kat moved towards the rest of the unfinished minis, foot tapping as she weighed her decisions. She picked up what looked to be a guard of some sort to do, one that was set right next to a stack of books with the DMs manual resting on the very top.

"Maybe some time you can help me figure out how to be a DM?" She offered up, finger tracing the spine of the book. "Then you get a chance to play rather than have to oversee the whole story."

Ryou brightened, sitting up a bit straight, hands fumbling with the figure he almost dropped. He hadn't had much real experience being a player; most of the times, he was the master of the game, concocting the story and pushing players forward to the best of his ability. Perhaps it'd be nice to be on the other side. "I think I'd quite enjoy playing a campaign you got to create," he beamed. "Besides, it'll help me get a better understanding of what it's like on your guys side so I can better equip you in my own campaigns!"

Kat laughed, happily. "That would be really awesome to have, not gonna lie."

Before the white haired boy could further speak, the Ring around his neck began to glow, the points jutting out in different positions.

Landlord. I want in. I want to play a game hosted by my girlfriend. Immediately. Forget your campaign.

He bit his lip. The Spirit of his Ring had been working on being...nicer, to an extent. Kat usually kept him under control, made him apologize for some of his past behaviors, but, it hadn't been enough to wash away all the years of hurt fully.

Though, he had been making improvements; he wouldn't even steal to provide for her anymore, going to find ways to earn an "allowance" from Ryou, rather than consistently grabbing things he thought were pretty but usually, more often than not, belonged more in a museum than around her neck. And he hadn't caused any bodily harm since Battle City. Mostly out of threat from Kat.

His hand weaved around the Ring, and he gave an exasperated sigh. "Settle down; we're still doing mine first, you."

Kat cocked her head to the side, before her green eyes found the Item holding her boyfriend's soul and she moved closer, going to poke the eye on it. "We'll do a campaign later, you and me," she promised. "But, first, I want to play Ryous. And you have to keep from interfering. No pulling what you used to."

Now why would you all ever share those details to her? All I was doing was helping you and you paint me in a negative light. It's rude.

"Because you're a feral cat most of the time and we have to retrain you." Ryou told him with a tight lipped smile. His hand found the rope and he slid the Item off of him, setting it to the side. "Now, hush, I have other things to worry about."

Faintly, in the back of his mind, he could hear Bakura cursing him out bur for now he was more than happy to shift his focus back to where it was.

Kat picked her forgotten paint brush back up and refocused her own efforts. "It's just a thought, but, I have a slight idea for the campaign I want to run, but it's very magical girly."

"Now, that sounds like it'd be fun," Ryou beamed, moving to sit down next to his best friend. "And very you; the best campaign stories come from the most genuine places in its GMs heart, I think. It's why I always tackle mine from a place of what my own interests are."

She giggled. "Yeah, I kinda picked it up with all the occult references, the zombies, evil cultists--"

"All in good fun!"

"Yeah, and your idea of good fun is giving the rest of us the heebie jeebies!" Kat playfully shoved his arm, being sure to miss the spot where he'd been stabbed. He still had some nerve damage done there and she didn't want to risk anything.

Ryou laughed, good naturedly. "You're the only other person I've heard other than myself use that term, and you want to joke about Tristan not using opalescent?"

"Well, yeah, cause more people should use heebie jeebies," she mused, dipping the cleaned brush in a navy blue paint for the armor. "It's fun to say, it can be applied to a lot of more unnerving things--"

"It's very silly and very you. All along with your odd southern turn of phrases."

"Eh, I dunno, Ryou, I think the British ones are way weirder still."

He smiled, eyes closing as he tilted his head. "Mhm. I see. Well, whatever helps you sleep at night."

Kat hummed, glancing at her paint brush before getting a mischievous glint in her eyes. She turned, raising the brush and painted a navy stripe over his nose. "Rude."

He balked at her for a moment, before picking his brush back up and swiped a curved yellow line across her cheek. "Doubly rude on your end for that."

They stared at each other for a moment before the figurines were sat back down and their paint brushes were dipped back in the paint just as quickly before they went to use them to swipe at each other, laughing all the way through.

Kat never thought something like DND would bring people together; but, the moments that came with it were still some of her favorites with her best friend.

[zeynatura]

My DND character missenterpreted by my friends

an essay by Zey

I'll start by giving a small sumary of my character.

His name is Helel ben Sahar, he's an eladrin elf, 120-150 years old, he/they, masc nonbinary, pansexual, tall, androgynous, long hair, long nails, loves to dress feminine and be fabulous.

He's a storm sorcerer, youngest prince of a Kingdom in the Feywild, his hair colour changes based on the season he's attuned in (this is one of my fav characteristics of all time), he's chaotic evil and the second dnd character i ever made, also the first one to have a detailed backstory and even family npcs with their own description.

(I love this family so much askfhbafin)

He's a very spoiled prince, very flirty and charismatic ofc the complete opposite of my party ie my friend's characters.

Under all that he's a lonely sheltered child who just wants to find his own place in life, you know, because he's the youngest (big sis and big bro) he aint gonna be the next heir and his parents just let him do his own thing, that's why he leaves in search of adventure.

Now to the missinterpretation by my friends.

They think of my sorcerer as a whore, even more so than how he actually is like... i don't mind you thinking that but at least get your facts straight (heh)

So across our campaign there were 3 npcs that caught the attention of Sahar, 2 of them were actually married to each other, it was a couple of two husbands one of them asked our party to save the other and that's how we met.

Ofc one of the first things i ask when meeting an npc is "are they cute tho?" and my DM friend loved answering that ok, so when we meet the first husband my sorcerer was like "for someone as cute as you i'll be willing to do it" but in the middle of the quest, my character was dying of exhaustion so he was like "the 2nd husband better be hot to be worth all this"... turns out he was, so ... i flirted here and there with both of the npcs and even offered them a night of passion, but they weren't into polyamory so i left it at that.

"I'm not a monster Jake", Sahar respects people's sexual and romantic boundaries, in anything else he doesn't care.

For some reason my friends didn't get that... they tought i wanted to break them apart and kept joking about it, and i was "eh whatever" till i realized they actually meant it which made me so confused cause if i wanted to i would, that's the whole personality of my Sorcerer, he gets what he wants if not heads roll.

And that's how he was in any other aspect of the campaign just no on the romance part, our DM makes us write and sign a consent sheet of the content we are comfortable and not in having presented in the campaign, and all of us wrote off any kind of sexual violence cause nah, we don't want that...

So tell me, why did 3 of my 5 friends thought Sahar wanted to force himself into the npcs marital relationship!? Cause I have no idea

The 3rd npc was a pirate captain lady and actually one of my friend's character and my own did have some fun with her, all consensual, and she got pregnant o: so there was 50/50 chance the kid was mine, cause ofc she had to be a freaking dragon in disguise (dragons are literally free for all when it comes to interspecies reproduction lol)

After some dice were rolled turned out it was mine, and cause she aint a girl that wanted to settled down, she free she a pirate, and Sahar didn't want to live their life on a ship they decided she would keep the child, he would pay child support and visit here and there, and she was happy with that arrangment.

And once again my friends were like: you are an absent father, you just mess around and leave cause you don't wanna settle down, "eres como todo papá de latinoamérica"... bruh

Literally family is the most important thing for Sahar, he loves his family, what are you talking about!?

Also my Sorcerer ended up marrying a Fey lord, to save one of their friend's ass cause by that point in the story he felt endearment towards the party they weren't strangers anymore so he was willing to take one for the team, and so he did.

They formed a fey contract, Sahar was to marry him and he would give us the weapon we needed to progress the story.

So they married even after my friends did everything to crash and stop the wedding Shrek style, what they didn't know was what Sahar planned on doing right after the wedding...

Let's be honest if the Fey lord asked my Sorcerer's hand in marriage in any other fashion, maybe just maybe he would have said yes, cause he was a cute floral wolf but because he did it with a fey contract Sahar felt used... and he didn't like that, he's the one that uses other people, never the one to be used so ofc he killed his husband.

My Sorcerer went from single, to married, to widowed all in the same day asjhffgkjsgjns it was great.

Oh and he also had a collection of dildos he found throughout the story pfft i'm not kidding, in my inventory there were so many dildos, of different shapes, sizes, based on different species.... i even rolled a NAT 20 and found the rarest of them all or so my DM said... a Basilisk dildo xD

By the end of the campain Sahar went back to his family, to the Feywild, having matured and with a lot of stories to tell, he literally killed a God so he's ready to boast about it and receive all the praise they deserve.

[insane-behavior]

You are being mean.

I've seen you defend yourself and say you're not. I've seen you cite the dictionary definition of harassment. I've seen you say you're just offering constructive criticism.

No one asked for your criticism of their personality, though, nor of their poetry or sampling methods or anything else. You gave it anyway, and continued pressing when asked to stop.

You've publicly buddied up to a blog dedicated to hating and harassing a single person.

You have continually baited that person into answering questions in ways that you think will make her look foolish, so that you can offer more constructive criticism. (Admittedly, I can't prove that's your intent, but that's sure what it looks like, from the outside.)

You've also deceived and seemingly emotionally manipulated her for the purpose of proving a point.

You have blamed your actions on her for rising to the bait and being easy to bully.

What has this person done? As far as I can tell, she's expressed hatred for goths. I'm not saying this is particularly pleasant behavior, but she's kept her opinions to her own blog and not bothered anyone. Her opinions have been spread by people reblogging her posts to either harass or obsessively constructively criticize her, and it seems that the only people who see them think so little of her that their feelings can't possibly be hurt by her words. She also is reactive and quick to anger even with people who don't interact with her in an overtly hostile manner, but I would be too if I got the amount of hate she did lol. Other than that, I guess she's been a little bit annoying on her own corner of the internet? Does that warrant joining a bullying campaign?

Obviously I'm being a bit hypocritical here, sending you what would probably be best described as "constructive criticism" in which I tell you to stop doing that very thing. You don't have to listen to me. I'm sending you this message because I sense that you (unlike anyone else who targets her) really do believe you're not behaving that badly, and I hope that maybe reading this will make you realize that you are, in fact, being mean. And if I'm right in thinking that you're not trying to be mean, then maybe that means you view constructive criticism as helpful, and that's why you offer it to others. If that's the case, hopefully you'll consider what I've said.

Okay so first of all- yeah, I will consider it. There's a lot to unpack with this ask just in terms of what you've said and also a lot going on behind the scenes but overall I'll say this: I never claimed I wasn't being a dick. I know that. But I've been trying to be patient with her, constantly, and she's reactive the moment you express any disagreement with her. No, not all of that is her fault either- a lot of the hate she gets is absolutely unwarranted.

But at the same time, I've owned up and apologized when I'm being an asshole- apologies she consistently ignores, in favor of only interacting after I'm frustrated. I can screenshot the apologies, I don't care. I know when I'm being a jerk, and I always, or at least mostly, make sure I apologize for it. But there's more than one side to this and she is not an angel. I understand where you're coming from but you also need to understand where I'm coming from, and why I'm frustrated by how she acts. I'd recommend going back through a lot of her asks, and through posts and whatnot. Most of our DMs, I will not share, because I promised they were between us and no matter how I feel about her, I'm a man of my word. However, some instances (my apologies, for example, or moments where we clearly got along mutually), I will share if asked.

[bees-for-the-wildmother]

I just, I just really want to play in a d&d game with a DM willing to incorporate backstories, because I made this rogue character with an open-ended backstory with a number of details I don't have answers to (because she wouldn't know) and I just want to know how her story pans out. She's been sitting in my character folder for months and it just eats at me that I may never learn the ending of her story. And I'm too stubborn to write it myself because it's meant for someone else to fill the gaps.

[dmsden]

Empty Chairs at Empty Tables - When a player can’t make it

Hullo, Gentle Readers. We’ve all been there. You’re gearing up for a game, folks are arriving, and, suddenly, the email shows up, or a phone call comes. One of your players won’t be able to make it. And you’re left with the dilemma...what do you do? I was chatting with one of my players about how I tend to handle this, and it seemed like a good thing to address with an article.

There’s no right or wrong decision as to how few players is too few. At my table, we have a general “No more than one missing player” rule. If one player can’t make it, we still play, but two players missing usually means we’re missing 1/3rd or more of our group, and I’d rather wait until we have more folks available. I’m definitely aware, however, of tables that will play no matter how many people are available. As long as you all agree, usually when you’re setting up your campaign, as to what your group’s rules will be, the answer you come up with its the right one.

If you decide to play, there are several approaches to handling the missing player. It’s probably best to have an agreed upon method from the start. Some groups prefer to have the missing PC slide into the background, a la The Gamers and Mark. The PC is still there, but they just passively follow without comment and stand there silent and still when nothing’s going on.

Because the DM usually has balanced encounters for the full party, some groups will prefer that somebody else actively play the character, at least during combat. Depending on your group’s wishes, this could be a player that the missing player designates or the DM. In my group, this is how we handle it, and I usually play the player, being very conservative with their expendable resources. Partly, this is because I enjoy imitating my players’ characters, which I *think* I do pretty well, given the chuckles I hear when I do it. I’d like to think they’re laughing with me, not at me.

If another player is going to play the character, it necessitates leaving a copy of the character with the DM, or printing it from an online source, or what have you. In a case like this, it’s incumbent on the missing player to say, “Don’t use all my spells” or “Go nuts; just keep us alive” or some other instruction so that there won’t be any hurt feelings down the road.

No matter who plays the missing PC, as a rule of thumb, I tend to try to avoid killing someone whose player isn’t there, unless the whole party would be killed. Your mileage may vary, but I would feel very bad having to tell someone that their beloved character was killed while they weren’t playing. That just seems icky. I don’t let the other players send that character first into danger unless that’s something the character would normally do. Of course, I also don’t generally play with the kind of people who would send a missing player’s character into danger.

I have heard of some interesting campaigns where a missing PC simply...isn’t there. They vanish, or become like ghosts, or just wander off on their own side-quests. I think something like this would need to be baked into a campaign from the beginning, otherwise it might feel strange and jarring.

If you have enough advance notice, and you know you’re going to be short enough players to cancel, you can make a decision what to do instead. Maybe you can play a board game or watch a movie together. Or you can pull out a game like Microscope or Alice Is Missing that can be played in a single evening. It’s nice to keep the camaraderie that otherwise might’ve been missing from the evening.

I hope this article is helpful to folks. If you have an alternative method to handle missing players, I’d love to hear about it. Until next time, may the Eye of Vecna be blinded to you.

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

The unplanned fourth part to my apparently-a-series on Essek Thelyss in the context of real-world espionage (parts 1, 2, and 3), today we look at an aspect of his story that doesn’t always apply in a D&D world: how do you prosecute espionage? 

Psych! That’s not the real question. The real question is: do you prosecute espionage? The answer is a) not as obvious as it might seem; and b) going to differ between D&D and the real world, because D&D governments are storytelling tools and IRL governments are...not.

The benefits of prosecuting espionage are obvious: the interests of justice are served, the person responsible can be punished appropriately and in accordance with the law, the full extent of their crimes are revealed (including potentially exonerating other suspects), counterintelligence gets to chalk up a win, and other people thinking about committing espionage themselves are hopefully discouraged. But there are a surprising number of arguments in the “against” column.

Some agencies that identify enemy assets want to leave them in place for their own purposes. For about 20 years during the Cold War CIA reserved the right to just plain not tell the Department of Justice if they had proof someone was engaged in espionage because they wanted the opportunity to turn them as double agents, feed them misinformation, etc. rather than outing and punishing them (President Gerald Ford ended this arrangement by executive order in 1976). This isn’t necessarily a good idea IRL, but it forms the bread and butter of RPG espionage storylines and is definitely something to think about in a D&D context.

In the real world, ideally someone can only be found guilty of a crime and punished accordingly after a trial, and an agency often finds itself with sufficient evidence to doubt a person’s trustworthiness but not enough hard proof to take to court. In those cases agencies may decide to leave that person in place but cut off their access to classified info. Ironically, sometimes this means promoting them - moving the person into a higher-ranking job in a different area that just so happens not to deal in secrets. Sometimes the asset realizes they’re close to being rumbled and goes along with the effort, maybe taking retirement early or changing jobs before they can be pushed, and the whole matter will quietly lapse without anything so formal as a trial. Sometimes someone makes a mistake and sidelines a loyal, competent employee. That’s a judgement call.

In the real world, ideally someone can only be found guilty of a crime and punished accordingly after an open trial. Given how severe the punishments are for espionage, civilized countries do try to stick to that even though holding such a trial carries risks. Providing proof that someone stole secrets generally requires talking about said secrets, which means revealing classified info in court, which may negate trying to keep the information secret in the first place. They may also not want to reveal in court how they figured out that person was a spy, especially if it was a double agent or cryptographic source that fingered them. In D&D-land where monarchs are common and still wield judicial power, fantasy rulers may hand down whatever punishment they please based on whatever evidence they (or the DM) will accept, so this isn’t as much of a concern.

Even a D&D monarchy that doesn’t have to worry about revealing secrets in court might think twice before publicly punishing a high-ranking spy, though, because the only thing more embarrassing than failing to convict a major spy is succeeding. A government having to admit that its people were compromised, especially high-ranking people, is a body-blow to its standing both at home and abroad. It damages trust in the government, makes the public feel unsafe, and makes allies hesitant to share information lest their secrets be leaked as well. Lower-ranking government employees may think, “My boss is selling secrets, why not me too?” or “Why bother to follow security protocol when some mole will give it all away?” Every decision and contribution made by the asset becomes retroactively suspect, even those that had nothing to do with whatever secrets they leaked. The foreign nation to whom they passed information inevitably gets drawn in as well, negatively affecting those relations. And of course everyone involved looks very, very bad.

All of which leads me to say I think there’s a chance - maybe not a good chance, but a chance - that Essek could privately confess the affair to the Bright Queen without major public repercussions. Leylas Kryn could simply declare him a traitor and order his public execution without justifying herself, but it would raise a lot of questions and none of the answers would help her or the ruling dens; Den Thelyss allowing Den Kryn to unilaterally execute a high-profile member - a child of the umavi - without explanation would stoke ferocious rumors about what Essek might have done and cast a major shadow over the entire den. But publicly declaring what Essek had done also doesn’t do the Dynasty any favors. It makes everyone involved look very bad - how could they miss a spy at the highest level? so close to the Bright Queen herself?? who can be trusted??? - especially Den Thelyss, which might lose its place among the ruling three as a result. Publicly outing such a high-ranking Kryn official as compromised might set off the Dynasty equivalent of a Red Scare, too, since the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount mentions the constant and well-justified Dynasty fear of agents sent by Lolth to destabilize the Kryn out of sheer spite that they got away from her.

By the time Campaign 2 ended the latest clash between Empire and Dynasty had been settled and neither side seemed to want to stir it up again right away. The fact that both stolen beacons have been returned also bolsters the case for letting the matter lie. A confession from Essek clears up remaining doubt on the Bright Queen’s end - while he doesn’t know every Empire agent in the Dynasty, he can tell her exactly how the beacons were stolen and who else was involved, probably clearing the names of many currently under suspicion. Essek would have to resign as Shadowhand, of course, and leave the Dynasty (at least for a couple centuries), but he never seemed interested in being Shadowhand and he wants to go exploring anyway. Den Thelyss definitely wants the whole affair swept under the rug and would go along with whatever story made that happen. Other than Verin I don’t get the impression many people would miss Essek except as a lost opportunity. I hope they’d give him long enough before leaving Rosohna to pack up his cool leyline-weathervane though. He could totally mount that on Yussa’s tower. Or Allura’s!

And that concludes this particular train of thought re: Essek Thelyss in the context of IRL spies and espionage. Again, all of this is only as relevant to the campaign as the players decide it is, so don’t go giving people crap for being “unrealistic” about their versions of how the beacon trade went down. Frankly the last thing you should want here is realism, because “realistic” espionage is a callous world of deception, manipulation, and general human pettiness with no sense of narrative flow.

None of what I’ve talked about is an excuse for Essek’s actions. But it is a reason. It’s why and how a person entrusted with precious national assets could get into a headspace where it seems reasonable, even necessary, to trade them away to foreign enemies. It’s how a person of otherwise decent character & beliefs can end up committing terrible crimes. It’s why that person might sincerely regret what they’ve done, and not just because they fear punishment. The Warmind Rasputin paraphrases Octavia E. Butler saying, “Misdirected by accident or intent, intelligence can foster its own ecstasies of growth and decay.” In other words: sometimes you get too far into your own head. Without an anchor to reality, without perspective, your own mind gets twisted up. Sometimes you just need a friend (or seven) to grab your arm and say, “Breathe.”

(This accidentally turned into a series on Essek & IRL espionage: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4)

[lovelivingmydreams]

Blazing song

Prinxiety week day 3 D&D This is my personal favorite of this week. Hope you all like it too!!!

Roman was very excited. It was Friday night and today a new campaign would start. This was Roman’s third campaign with Thomas and Emile under the flamboyant guidance of their DM Remy. They were setting up in Thomas’ basement while waiting for Remy to join them. They’d had their session zero at Roman’s place last week. This week, they’d really get started. Last time their characters had arrived in the village and crossed paths when a farmer called out for help because their sheep had gotten loose and they’d joined forces to find them and bring them back. Fought off a few monsters that wanted to eat them and had formed the first beginnings of friendship. Roman was excited to see where this adventure would take them. He’d put a lot of thought in his character and Remy had seemed interested too. Remy was a great DM and always took their characters into consideration within his story telling. So this was bound to be interesting. Roman was hoping to be challenged in his roleplaying. He had been playing firmly within his comfort zone in the past. This time he was trying to challenge himself a little.

“The party has arrived!” Remy announced as he skipped down the stairs. “The party has been here,” Thomas pointed out, making Emile giggle. “Aw, boohoo. I needed to prep a surprise. So we better get started so we can get to the good stuff. Tommy, love the snack spread. I'm lucky with players who get the assignment,” Remy said as he put down his bag and set himself up behind his DM screen. He grabbed a hand full of chips and nuts and glanced at his notes. Roman and the other two sat down. Thomas and Emile on one side of the table, Emile being closest to Remy because he always sat right next to his not so secret crush. Roman sat by himself on the other side.

“Alrighty,” Remy said, rubbing his hands before setting the scene. “So you are heading to the local tavern to spend some of the coin the farmer paid you on a few drinks, a meal, and a bed for the night. Suddenly, you hear a commotion up ahead. There is shouting and people are jumping out of the way. From the small crowd of people you see a figure emerge, followed by people in what you recognize to be guard uniforms…” on boy. That sounded like a test for his level 3 redemption paladin and for his own impulsive tendencies.

“Virgil, come down and tell them what they see wont you baby bro?” Remy called. Roman stiffened as he looked up to the stairs where he now saw Remy’s brother descend, emerging from the shadows he’d been hiding in. “I’m only an hour younger than you Rem,” the soft but rough voice pointed out. “Still younger. Now sit your ass down and help set the scene!” Remy demanded. Roman could swear they were all holding their breath. Virgil was his brother’s opposite. Remy was a party animal, a people person. Virgil had no friends. No one he talked to other than his brother. He was a loner and seemed opposed to the idea of changing that status. Roman knew that Thomas and Emile had tried. The only reason Roman knew about him was because he was Remy’s brother and he’d seen him whenever he visited Remy for a session or just to hang out away from their fans at school. That and they had a few classes together over the years, but even there he was so quiet and distant, he wouldn’t have noticed him if he hadn’t recognized him. For some reason the teachers didn’t even push him to answer in class most of the time. And now, he was here, in Roman’s haven of make belief… What if he told everyone… No. Remy wouldn’t have brought him here if he thought he’d ruin the fun of it. But why was he here?

“No worries guys. I’ll probably die by the end of the session and you won’t have to worry about me messing everything up,” Virgil muttered as he put down a character sheet, a dice tray and a few bags of dice. He was prepared at least. But Roman wasn’t sure how he felt about him sitting right next to him, eyes focused on his sheet and nowhere else. He had no read on this guy. There were plenty of rumors about him though. None that had any proof behind them. But Roman couldn’t help but wonder if they were based in some measure of truth. “I’m just here because Remy forced me,” he added. “Bitch you need to get out of the house every once in a while. You’ll thank me later. Now get started!” Remy commanded. Virgil took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay… So. Running towards you is a violet Tiefling with lavender hair in a braid that would probably go well past the shoulder when at rest. The horns are like an antelope’s, though the right one seems to shimmer in the light. They’ve got a white blouse, dark brown leather pants and comfortable shoes, along with a long sleaved, patched up cloak. Also there’s a knapsack and a lute and as they turns their gaze from their pursuers to look ahead of them you see they have silver eyes… Was that okay?” Virgil asked. If Roman was honest, that was a really interesting description. He already wanted to know about the shine on the right horn and from his description he could guess that this Tiefling was a bard. Which was not what he’d expected from the emo loner. Quite the opposite.

“That’s excellent V. Now ahead of you, among the citizens, you see this party of three that seems out of place. A half orc who is walking around in a sleeveless tunic showing off firm arms with a few nasty looking scars. A half elf, kinda scrawny looking, blond strands framing a pale face, ice blue eyes speak of a sharp mind and the books they carry support that observation. And a fire genasi, black skin contrasting against what seem to be red glowing fissures, fiery eyes and flowing red hair. The genasi is dressed in well-crafted armor with doves carved along his collarbones and a red cloak draped over his shoulders. They have definitely seen you. What do you do?” Remy pointed at each of them as he described their characters and for some reason Virgil shot him a glare when he was done before sighing and speaking up. “Well I’m probably about to change course until I see the doves. The guards are closing in on me and I know I’m probably not going to be able to get away from them in a town this small. So I sprint for them and call out to the armored one.” Virgil turned his body slightly towards Roman and though he still didn’t seem capable of looking at him he did speak to him. “Help! Please! I’m innocent!” It was funny. Virgil’s voice was still quiet, but he did sound urgent and scared. “And then I try to dodge to stand behind him. Hoping the guards will at least pause their chase out of respect for a holy person,” he mutters.

Remy nodded. “Domonique do you let him seek refuge behind you?” Roman thought on that a moment. “Well, I’m probably surprised, and I haven’t seen him do anything harmful yet. Of course I’ll let him seek my protection. Awaiting more details on the situation.” The rest of the group nodded. “Um I step in closer to Dominique, trying to be supportive,” Thomas offers. “Oh and seeing my old buddy and my new buddy are going to protect the little purple devil, I make myself look extra big and cross my arms like super intimidating,” Emile said, trying to sound though making the rest of them laugh… Or well. Virgil just gave a little smile, but that wasn’t something Roman could remember ever seeing him doing. Scowling and avoidant was his usual look. “I um… I’d probably hold onto his cloak as I glance past him,” Virgil added, sounding embarrassed and uncertain, making it almost a question.

“Awesome. So the guards slow their approach and see you three seemingly protecting their suspect. ‘That demon there is a thief! Hand him over so we can bring him to justice,’ the bigger one demands,” Remy tells them looking around to see who’d react. “I tried to tell you I didn’t steal anything! They just think I did it because I was in the same street and I’m a Tiefling. I offered to let them search me but they said I’d probably gotten rid of it already. They have no proof! Please you gotta belief me,” Virgil rambled, doing a pretty good job at roleplaying. “Okay I hold out my arm to shield him more and address the guards. And I say: ‘Do you have any proof of wrongdoings other than his lineage?’” Remy nodded. “Okay, are you fired up?” he asked. “Maybe a little,” Roman allowed. Presumed guilt would upset his character. “Okay so your fissures glow a bit brighter and your hair starts to spark a little. Roll an intimidation check for me to see if they’ll cool down,” Remy instructed. “Can I assist, since I’m big and strong and all that?” Emile asked. “I’ll allow it,” Remy nodded. “Okay… Nice, that’s a natural 18,” he was pretty sure the DC wouldn’t be too high for this. “That’s really nice. The bigger guard lowers his weapon and takes a step back, looking real embarrassed. Um, well.” Roman saw an opportunity and jumped on it. “So you accused the first semi suspicious individual you saw and didn’t bother to consider alternatives?” He stated, letting his voice betray a tiny bit of temper rising. “Now… Well… I suppose?” Remy replied making his voice small and a bit scared. “Well, how about we keep an eye on this one, while you go do your job rather than half-assing it? If you find concrete proof that you were right we’ll give you back your suspect with a formal apology and an IOU. But until then, I don’t want to hear a single accusation. Understood?” He was feeling pretty happy with this. Previous characters of his would probably have been more suspicious of this Tiefling character, but that was not the kind of guy he was playing right now. “Nice one. Okay so the guards look a bit put off but they start to leave. They are glaring at the Tiefling behind you, but for now, coast seems clear.”

Roman nodded satisfied. “Okay so I’m going to turn to our new friend. ‘Well that was a serious pickle you found yourself in. My name is Dominique he/him. These are my new companions, Bantu and Varian both also he/him. May we know your name and pronouns?’” he asked, going for charming, but a little disapproving on the first part. Virgil glanced at Remy who must’ve given him some kind of encouragement because he actually looked at Roman this time. “Um, yeah. Sorry about that. Call me Chant…. They/them, please,” he said, clearly nervous about using different pronouns in game. Aw… That was kind of adorable really. Had there been a sweet bean hiding in that rough bolster this whole time? Was this just something Virgil chose for this character or was he trying out the pronouns because he was on a journey? Roman didn’t know if the emo was part of the alphabet mafia. But as a member of their school’s queer community he should try to reach out to him to offer him a support system. Was that why Remy brought his little bro in? “Pleasure to meet you. How about we get to the tavern, and you can tell us what happened in more detail. Maybe we can help clear your name. I would love to believe that one warning will make the guards rethink their judgements, but helping them out might save us all some time,” he suggested. Virgil nodded. “Um… Sure, thank you again… Uh, let me buy you three a drink. It’s the least I can do,” he offered. “Oh, I like them. Can we keep them?” Emile suggested in his gruff character voice. “They’re not a stray pup, Bantu, old friend. They might have other places they need to be,” Thomas said weightily.

Virgil let a soft laugh escape him that time. Just something very brief. But it intrigued Roman. Maybe, if he got Virgil to feel comfortable, he’d see more of this hidden side of his and be able to figure out how he felt about it. There was already a sense of protectiveness at the knowledge that he might have a baby queer on his hands who needed some help finding his identity. Their party headed for the tavern where they first introduced themselves more properly. “I seek to travel the lands and spread the light of my lady Sarenrae to the farthest reaches of the world,” Roman informed Virgil. “I am chasing a dream,” Thomas tells them, Roman gets a sense that he is picking his words with care. “Can I, um… Insight check?” Virgil asked nervously. “Go ahead,” Remy smirked. “Okay. Oh that’s good. Natural 20,” Virgil said. “Good. What are you looking for?” Remy asks. “Well…” Virgil turns to Thomas. “I want to look for signs that Varian like… mistrusts me or something. Like, do I think he’ll get rid of me at the first opportunity or something?” Ow. That might be a bit more insight in Virgil’s state of mind than Roman was prepared to get. Sure it could just be something his character would do. But it felt a bit too real. Roman could tell that Thomas and Emile caught up on that too, but none of them said anything about it. “Varian is very neutral about Chant. He isn’t going to put his life in their hands right away, but he doesn’t assume they’re up to something either,” Thomas offered. Virgil nodded to himself.

“I’m just here to keep my buddy safe while he travels. Nothing special,” Emile explains with a shrug. “Nothing ‘just’ about it. That sounds like a great reason to hit the open road,” Virgil argued. “Oh gosh. Bantu is blushing you guys. His grey skin darkening just a bit around the cheekbones,” Emile giggled. “I agree with Chant here. A very noble and selfless calling if I ever heard one,” Roman added. Emile turned to Thomas. “They aren’t wrong my friend. You have a noble heart. I consider myself lucky to be considered your friend and I pity the fool who makes you an enemy.” Emile buried his head into his arms, making everyone, yes everyone, laugh. “Alright. It seems we are tormenting our muscle man. What about you though? Are you local or on a journey as well?” Roman asked Virgil. “Oh, um. I’m a good bit away from home. I finished my education and figured I should perform all over and stuff. Maybe, hopefully, make it so people might think better of people like me,” Virgil’s voice trailed off as he explained this. “Can I take a closer look at their right horn?” Roman asked Remy. “Roll me a… A perception check.” Roman nodded and rolled the die. “We are doing good tonight. That’s a dirty 18,” Roman announced. “Okay. You see that the shine comes from what seems to be a silver coating of some sort. It looks very pretty.” Roman nodded with a frown. That meant that at some point at the very least, this Chant person had the coin to spend on something like this. The question was why did he do it? “Well now we simply must clear your name,” Roman announced.

“Virgil a perception check if you will?” Remy announced. “Oh, um… Dirty 13?” Virgil was very quick with his calculations Roman noticed. He hadn’t asked even once what modifier he needed to use… Maybe he was a seasoned player? “You really know your way around the dice,” he noted. Virgil ducked his head. “Thanks,” he muttered. “Would you believe that until a week ago he’d never even seen a D20? We made a deal at the start of summer that he’d try one social activity every month. I helped him built his character, we did a session zero together and now he’s here playing like a pro,” Remy grinned. “Shut up. I just didn’t want to ruin the start of their campaign,” Had he really spent the first week of his summer studying up on D&D, just so they wouldn’t be slowed down by a new player? “Virgil, that is very sweet of you. But we would’ve happily helped you out. If you are uncertain about anything, just let me know okay?” Thomas offered. “Yeah, you should’ve seen us stumble our way through our first campaign. We were lucky Remy sort of knew what he was doing,” Emile added. Roman nodded his agreement. “Uh, thanks I guess. But like I said. I’ll probably die in the first few sessions or something. So don’t worry about it,” Virgil shrugged. Remy was grinned like the Cheshire cat. He obviously hadn’t missed the fact that Virgil had gone from one session to maybe a few already. And Roman found himself being glad for that as well. If things worked out over the summer they’d have at least 8 sessions together. Meaning 8 chances of several hours to figure out what this hidden side to Virgil was and if he wanted to approach him as a friend when school started up again.

“What about Chant’s perception check?” Roman asked wanting to get back on track. “Ah right. Well, it was more for funsies. There’s something moving around in your cloak,” Remy tells his brother. “Oh, um I jump up and take it off, looking for what it might be,” Virgil says, looking confused. “Okay, a snow white weasel skitters across the floor and runs up Varian’s leg all the way to his shoulders where it drapes itself in a comfortable position,” Remy tells the group. Thomas chuckles awkwardly before falling into his in control, formal character. “‘Well, now is as good a time as any to introduce you to Scamp. My familiar.’ Scamp kinda looks up at everyone before getting comfy again as though he is going to take a nap.” Aw! A familiar! That’s adorable! Roman loved familiars. They were essentially party pets that couldn’t really die or get hurt. “Why was Scamp in my coat?” Virgil demanded, for the first time raising his voice a little, though still keeping it kind of quiet. “Searching you. I figured that way any doubts of you misleading us could be put to rest before they even come up. You already mentioned you were willing.’ Did Scamp find anything?” Thomas asked. “Roll investigation for Scamp,” Remy tells him. “14,” “Not even an inside pocket on that cloak to stash a bit of coin,” Remy states.

Virgil huffs. “Chant sits back down, scowling. ‘I made that cloak specifically so no one could accuse me of anything while travelling. Didn’t do me any good I guess.’” “Dominique lays a hand on Chant’s shoulder. ‘You shouldn’t have to do that. Don’t worry, we’ll clear your name. Tell us what happened and we’ll make it so those guards have to apologize to you,’” Roman vowed letting his voice get a little rougher to the end. Virgil smiled at him and explained the situation to them. It seemed very obvious that the guards had not even been trying. That became more apparent when they heard from the townsfolk that there had been a series of objects going missing over the past few weeks. Odds were they would find all stolen goods with whoever had truly stolen the medallion Chant was accused of swiping.

Through some excellent detective work from Thomas, gotta love that high intelligence score, and some good thinking on Virgil’s part. They found a kleptomaniac creep in the woods. Dominique tried to reason with the man, of course, but he was very rude and just attacked them with some dark magic when he offered to return the items and see if they could get the town to go easy on them. Virgil did great in his first battle. Roman was impressed. His fighting style was a bit risky though. He might not have been kidding when he said he wasn’t planning on making his character survive the first session after all. Chant fought like a melee fighter rather than a support class. And considering he pulled off a sneak attack, Roman figured that Virgil had started as a multiclass Bard/rogue. Ambitious. Roman hadn’t gone for a multiclass yet. But this meant that while they were all at their 3rd level of their chosen class. Virgil was only a level two at one of his two chosen classes. Considering Chant performed a song of rest for them, Roman would say they were a level 2 bard and a level 1 rogue. He’d played a bard last campaign, he remembered most of the stuff he’d learned about the class. Maybe next time he’d go for the mysterious rogue.

The guards arrived and found the downed enemy with all the stolen goods. They cleared Chant’s name and did apologize. That is when Virgil surprised them all in a pleasant way. “It’s alright. In fact, once you clean up this mess, come to the Happy Hog. I’ll be performing there tonight.” Roman was very happy for his character to hear that. If Chant had indeed fallen in battle or turned out to be a bad egg, it would have been a heavy blow. This however. This would make him feel good about the path he’d chosen. Virgil’s description of Chant’s performance was exhilarating. Filled with acrobatics and song and dance. When he finally took his final bow he was showered with praise and handed quite some coin.

“Chant drops himself on the seat next to Dominique. ‘That was a day! Listen the tavernkeep told me I could get two rooms for the night after that performance. If two of you are okay with rooming, they are all yours.’” Oh no. “Dominique grabs Chant by the shoulder. ‘There is no you guys. There is an us. We’ll all divide the rooms and share the cost of any extra rooms we might need. You are stuck with us now you charming fiend.’” Virgil laughs at the nickname. And rolls a die. He nods and gestures something at Remy who gives him a go ahead gesture. “Chant is a bit surprised by this. ‘You sure you want someone like me on your team? I don’t know if you noticed, but I tend to draw the wrong kind of attention.’” Roman looked at Emile and Thomas. Virgil was giving them an out. He had no intention of letting him bail on them quite so easily. And he had a feeling his friends didn’t want to send Virgil away either. “Nooooo!!! Varian! They’re going to stay right?” Emile pleaded with Thomas, dramatically draping himself over the latter’s shoulders. “Bantu, crushing me,” Thomas wheezed. “Oops, sorry.” Virgil tried his best to contain his laughter. “No matter. Though I share the sentiment of my party members. You are a good ally in battle and a pleasant companion outside of it. If you want, we’ll be more than happy to add you to the party.” Roman was impressed with Thomas’ roleplaying. A subdued character was so opposed to how he knew his friend.

“Hmmm… Okay. I suppose it’s probably for the better,” Virgil allowed as he turned to Roman with a smirk. “Chant raises his hand, showing he’s been holding something for a bit now. ‘Someone has to keep an eye on me. Who knows what kind of fiendish trickery I might get up to otherwise.’ He is playing with a silver chain that holds a little bronze figure at the end.” Roman gasps dramatically as he realized what Virgil snatched without his knowledge. “Hand that back right now!” he demanded. Virgil chuckled. “‘Of course. I was just having some fun,’” Virgil promised as he mimicked tossing something at Roman. “‘Can’t promise I won’t do it again though. You are way too easy a target and I gotta keep my skills sharp. You understand don’t you firecracker?’” Oh he was trying to provoke him. Roman played out a flustered speechlessness making everyone giggle. “To those who are still looking at you Dominique your face is glowing red as if magma is getting closer to the surface,” Remy informed him teasingly. “And with a new friendship forged, an ally gained, you get ready for the night. The rooms you were provided each have two beds. How do you divide them up?” their DM asks. “Oh me and Varian are rooming right? I wanna stay with my buddy,” Emile announced. “Sounds good to me. That way hot shot over can keep an eye on me.” Roman quirked a brow at Virgil. He’d clearly gotten more comfortable with the roleplay over the past two hours. And Chant had gotten increasingly less timid around the party.

“Where is that timid Tiefling from but a few hours ago?” he demanded though he allowed a smirk to let him know that only Dominique was at a loss of how to handle this sass. “Look man, I just really didn’t want to be put in a cage. Be glad. This means that I’ve decided that you guys won’t let me go to jail if you can help it,” Virgil explained. That made Roman’s backstory sense go off. It might just be a common sense. But maybe it was a hint to something more complex. Virgil had shown he understood the game. “Whatever. Sure I’ll share a room with you. Someone has to keep an eye on you,” he said teasingly, a little smirk on his face. Virgil was clearly glad to see that Roman’s character could to more than just get flustered. “So long as you don’t set the room on fire we’ll get along fine,” Chant taunted. “Well… You’d feel right at home if I did,” Roman quipped back, before clasping his hand in front of his mouth. “I am… So sorry. That was probably very insensitive of me,” he rambled. “Hey, no its… Its okay. You didn’t hurt my feelings. We’d joke about it back at home all the time,” he said reassuringly, still in character. “That does not give me the right to… Never mind. I am glad I did not insult you… Shall we turn in for the night. I wish to hit the road early tomorrow, see where it takes us next,” he offered. He was secretly very excited to see the glances exchanged between Virgil, Thomas and Emile. “Okay. Good night,” Virgil told the others a bit awkwardly. “Good dreams. Right Varian?” Emile said. “Let us hope so,” Thomas nodded.

“Alright, you all enter your rooms. Is there something you want to do before you let sleep take you?” They all shook their heads. They were genuinely tired. “Okay. So you get ready and with some questions about your new allies and hopes for the future playing in the back of your head we end today’s session. Awesome job guys. Virgil that was disappointing. Didn’t even get close to fulfilling your promise,” Remy grinned. “Well, there’s always next time,” Virgil shrugged as they all got up and started cleaning up. “Don’t you dare die before I know all the juicy details of your backstory. You got me hooked already,” Roman declared. “Well… I guess I’m kinda curious what you guys are all about too,” Virgil allowed. They discussed the session and speculated on where they could go next. “Hey Virgil,” Roman said as he zipped up his backpack. Thomas and Emile had gone upstairs already and Remy had just told his brother that they should get going. But Roman had something to say to this unlikely new friend, because he had decided that he wanted to try and be friends with him. “Um sure. I’ll see you at the car Remy,” Virgil told the high energy contender to the drama queen crown. “Sure. Be good you two,” Remy said casually as he disappeared through the door.

“I hate him so much,” Virgil muttered before turning to Roman, suddenly shy again. “Did I do something wrong? I didn’t mean any of the teasing. I just… Thought it might be funny to have someone challenge your paladin a little… But if you hate it I can…” Roman raised his hand to stop Virgil’s rant. “No, I loved the session. But I wanted to ask something a bit more irl… Though it is related to a character choice. Virgil… Are you um… Are you curious about the LGBTQIA+ community?” Virgil stiffened, panic clear. “You don’t need to answer. It’s just. If you are… The Q is for Queer and Questioning. So even if you aren’t sure, so long as you are at least an ally,” Roman dug in his backpack for one of the flyers he always carried with him. “There is a place you can go. We’ll welcome you there, no questions, no pressure. You can ask your questions and read some queer friendly literature.” Virgil accepted the flyer. “I didn’t know you were…” he muttered. “I’m not out at school beyond the community there and even the pride club has members who think I’m just an ally helping out to support my brother. Remy and the others know. My family knows. Remus wants to tell his bff/so. I don’t know where they are in their on again of again thing. But he doesn’t cause I honestly don’t like or trust them. My fans would likely not take well to me being as gay as a rainbow unicorn.” Virgil chuckled. “Fans?” “The people who hang around me but would likely drop me if I actually relied on them,” Roman shrugged. “Remy has them too.” Virgil nodded. “Yeah. I noticed,” he muttered, looking at the flyer. “So… When… I mean. If I wanted to check it out. I’d need a guide or something I guess… Someone there I already know…” Virgil was blushing and didn’t seem to know where to look. “I would be honored to be your knight in rainbow armor guiding and defending you on this journey to your truth,” he promised. “Cool… Chant is still going to be a nightmare for Dominique to deal with though.” Roman let out a loud, careless laugh, kind of relieved for the joke. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said. With that, they headed upstairs. Eager to return to the game table next week.

@moonlightshow00 ​ @naturallyunstablegamer ​ @m-i-r-p @meowthefluffy ​ @frida0043 ​ @angelic-cali ​ @selenechris ​ @theblackveilinreverse ​@prinxiety-week-2022

[creacherkeeper]

How is the cowboi doing? :) I’d love to hear about some of their recent adventures.

OH WELL IT'S ME + ALSO MY DICE HATE(/love) ME SO YOU KNOW THEYRE GETTING WHUMPED CONSTANTLY LMAO

there have certainly been some Events Unfolding so those are under the cut, casey since youre in our campaign now NO PEEKING

fair warning this is .... long ..... you have asked me to talk about my dnd character and you simply CANNOT stop the floodwaters now. enter at your own risk

okay so basically the first arc of the campaign kind of kicked off with them getting a vision from their goddess (the grain goddess/goddess of agriculture) saying that she was trapped in a fey gate and that they needed to come rescue her

so erley immediately Rallied The Posse and set off to do that. they NUMEROUS times tried to pray to her, commune with her, basically just get ANY sort of communication or guidance from her, but the dice like to tell their story so i literally never got above an 11 (paladin with only +2 to religion my beloved) and they never heard from her, which was making them. pretty nervous. when it seemed like everyone else was able to talk to their gods just fine

well we eventually figured out that there was a huge gathering of fey in the woods (me: this might be too big for us to fight. what if its like 30 fey? / my dm, glancing at his notes where he has 2000 fey written down: (: ) and basically the fey like. had captured and were trying to kill what was left of the pantheon so they could bring back gaia as the One True God

we found all this out because it turned out several members of the party had been lying about how much they knew of the fey and had personal connections to the fey they'd kept hidden. and erley, who is ALSO HIDING A LOT from the party like. immediately went on the offense and was just generally very unhappy about this

there had been this fey merchant who kept popping up wherever we were trying to sell us magic weapons that seemed tied to us specifically. erley was always VERY suspicious of her and did everything in their power to stop the others from buying her weapons (which we literally had to buy with -5 to a skill point, not money, v sus) to mixed results. but basically when we got to the fey gathering (we called it gaiapalooza) erley rolled a 1 on their survival check to get through the magic field and like. got teleported to her. and they really wanted information from her so they basically were like LEORA I DONT KNOW WHO TO TRUST I THINK MY PARTY HAS BEEN LYING TO ME, CAN YOU TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT THEM CAN YOU SEE US WHEN YOURE NOT THERE? and basically pretended to need a therapy session in order to milk her for information lmao. she also seemed like. REALLY interested in erley and i was also very nervous about that

and i was RIGHT to be suspicious of her because we found out she WAS ACTUALLY THE BIG BAD and we had to fight her in the arc finale. and several of our party members had rl stuff and were not there, and in game our druid was away casting an 8 hour long spell to try and stop the palooza ceremony, so our party was SUPER nerfed and also as soon as erley realized it WAS actually leora who was behind all of it and she WAS trying to hurt them with those weapons (the weapons were tethers to the gods to be able to kill them basically), they got .... a little angry

and my party found out after irl a year of playing these characters that erley's first level is barbarian :))

so erley raged and did frankly a staggering amount of damage in this fight, and also only stayed up because of rage because they took a LOT of hits. but also. they dont rage FOR A REASON so it sort of took them over and when leora dropped, one of the other pcs ran over to stabilize her as she was making death saves and erley :) maybe :) drove a spear through her heart and killed her :)

and her body immediately just like. overgrew with plants and vines and flowers and basically wrapped the spear in a bed of plants and it was very cinematic and cool

(we have since found out that leora was like. actually an aspect of gaia so. that is. interesting)

of course then erley popped out of rage and was like FUCK this is why i dont do this, i went too far, it always goes too far, THIS is why im ashamed of this, and just got very emo boi about it. so they used their last spell slot to cast restoration on the space they had fought in and reached out to their goddess, having just saved her and the rest of the pantheon like she had asked them to

and i rolled a nat 1!!!

(the dm was like "you have committed this violent act, you feel so low and so bad and in need of guidance, and reach out to your goddess. and the absolute lack of a response just makes you feel empty inside" and i was like :) oh :) okay cool :) you love to see that with your paladins huh)

at this point the druid came back in and, instead of erley like. examining any of their own shit immediately lashed out at her and was like "why did you lie to me about the fey, why did you lie about why you were here, why ARE you here because i realize now it wasnt to help me"

and at that point ONE OF THE FEY QUEENS WALKED IN and the druid was like "... mother ..." and we were all :O

so it turns out the fey queen is her birth mom but had like? kidnapped one of the children of her firbolg tribe and was holding her hostage and the druid was on a quest to find her and bring her back

so erley :) felt :) even more bad about that :) and very shamedly pledged their help to her, and basically was like "as long as youre on this noble quest i will follow you if you'll have me"

so we're on our second arc now, which is traveling across the country to go meet the fey queen and get this kid back. as we were traveling my dm had me roll religion and a luck check and i got a 21 ON RELIGION FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER and a 6 luck. and he was like "you dont usually dream, but you have a nightmare. you know this nightmare was given to you, it was divinely inspired, but you dont know who sent it" and it was just erley killing leora over and over and over again. so they were like. well fuck

(my dm also messaged me privately and we talked and he was like. yeah you can get rid of your oath of devotion and change it to oath of the ancients, i am not telling you or erley why the subclass has changed and you also might get nerfed later. also level up barbarian for the next fight)

so erley was. feeling PRETTY DANG BAD and very guilty and stressed and all that. they did also realize their barbarian side was getting stronger which, considering their backstory is all tragic barbarian shit they were NOT happy about. i was fully prepared to have them be more ostracized from the party and go into full angst mode, but then the druid actually like. pulled them aside and explained why she had hidden information from them, and had a very sweet conversation with them and held their hand and it was VERY touching (she also had the baller line "you think your goddess can hear you and she's not answering. but maybe you're talking in a whisper and she needs to hear you scream")

we had another fight (we're level 7 and my dm told us after it was a cr 32 fight like. dude??? what the fuck?????) and once again erley didnt go down only because of rage

THEY ALSO UNINTENTIONALLY CAST MISTY STEP (which is an ancients spell they didnt have before) and were like WELL NO TIME TO UNPACK WHAT THAT WAS RIGHT NOW, HAVE TO NOT DIE

after the battle was over i asked to roll a check to figure out why i had access to that spell and got :) yeah you guessed it :) another nat 1 :) so erley has literally no idea how they cast that or what it could mean. we just had a new pc introduced who is a sorcerer so erley is definitely going to talk to her and see if she knows anything. because they are FULLY IN THE DARK about their subclass change or what that means in game

we're also (because of the fucking cr 32 fight) going to be leveling up again soon, and babey you KNOW im leveling barbarian. after rage kept me up and then rolling another nat 1 religion check, and also me the player not knowing whats up with their goddess/magic, i simply cant level paladin rn. so im BETWEEN A FEW SUBCLASS OPTIONS and ive been thinking them over but i think it really depends how the next few games go

my FULL ANGST option was to make them level into zealot barbarian like their awful dad, but i thought that made the least sense in universe rn

secondary angst option is to level into berserker, which i think fits pretty closely with how i've been roleplaying the rage so far. trading off an extra attack for a level of exhaustion fits pretty closely. also whump central

the NICE option is to have them be a totem warrior barbarian, and have both their paladin steed and their totem be a bull :) (they are a cowboi after all) i think thats the closest i can marry their two classes and potentially have some healthy growth for them, let them see that the rage doesnt HAVE to be a bad thing, that being a barbarian isnt something they HAVE to be ashamed of. reskinning the bear totem would give them resistance to all damage but psychic while raging, and im planning on taking the tough feat, so theyd pretty much be ... an unstoppable tank. plus i can still divine smite while in rage so theyd be VERY powerful

and now youre all caught up on my very special boi :))))) bet you didnt expect quite that much of an infodump but. listen. listen im simply obsessed with dnd i cannot help it. any chance to talk about my characters i WILL TAKE IN A HEARTBEAT (thank u for prompting my ramble lmao)

[romulanfucker]

tell us abt tov

>:3333333 you humor me .....

im going to put this under a cut because its going to be 1) insanely long and 2) backstory secrets for the one person following me who's also a player in this campaign so borgan if youre reading this do not open (tw for discussions of violence, attempted murder, and cults. nothing graphic but. it is in there)

SO!!!! tov is a dragonborn sorcerer and he is my character for a waterdeep dragon heist campaign that has been on pause for ... far too long ... some basic physical description: - like 6.5 feet tall - silver scales, but they don't reflect light like most metallic scales would - i'm a full believer in the lizard shit so he's got a tail, clawed digitigrade feet, a long snout, and spinal ridges - he's buff for a sorcerer (in fact, there's an alternative universe version of him for which i have designed a full sheet where he's multiclassed into barbarian) so his backstory is (i'll try and fail to keep this short) that he comes from a clan of dragonborn who pride themselves on being the descedants of some of the original dragonborn created as soldiers of bahamut in the draconic wars (this is deep deep d&d lore so if you don't know; bahamut is one of the good guy dragon gods and there used to be a lot more of them and then they started getting greedy for power and created dragonborn to use a footsoldiers to fight their wars for them). as such, his clain retains a spark of that draconic magic in its blood; ie. members of his clan are born w/ a latent draconic magic. now it varies from person to person how much power they have, some have very potent magic, others can only cast some basic cantrips. and there have been some born without any latent magic at all - but very few, and tovroth senxcec (tov) is currently the only one alive without anything. obviously, this caused a lot of teasing and shame and notwhat in his childhood, and so his baby brother nagrax (rax for short) decided to try and tutor tov in book-learned magic instead.

it was very slow going. tov is bad at reading and worse at reading sigils, and their clan was also very rural and they had very limited access to arcane books. they spent years working on it, with no luck. eventually tov gave up and took an apprenticeship training as a jewelrymaker just to have Something productive to do.

then one day while in town, rax finds something buried in a library tome. it's an old historical document, it talks of a gateway to another plane, and if one passes through it, they will gain the power of that plane. and him and tov say hey actually, we know where that gateway is supposedly located. how bad could it hurt to just check it out, right?

so they charter a boat and sail for two months until they reach these ruins. now, problem. the historical text left out two very important details: one, the plane the gateway goes to is the shadowfell (if you don't know d&d its like ... the depression plane. everything is gray and horrid and food has no taste and everything either is suffering too much to notice you or actively trying to kill you) and two, because the shadowfell is like that, it takes a bit of your soul every time you enter.

so tov bops on through the gateway and ends up in the shadowfell, and its horrible and fucked up and he wants to leave, and as he turns to go, he sees this twisted visage of his brother, and something in him just ... snaps. he Needs to kill this thing, he needs to destroy it, more than he's ever needed anything.

he lunges at it, begins to fight it. in the fight, he travels back through the gateway. he realizes he's back in the real plane, and he's facing his real brother, not his shadowfell brother anymore. the urge doesn't cease and he keeps attacking.

his brother manages to subdue him, and he asks tov for answers. why would he attack his own brother like that? and tov answers him truthfully - the gateway took me to a horrible place, and i saw a horrible version of you, an evil version, and i wanted to destroy it. i must have come back while fighting it. and rax asks him. did you know you came back? did you know it was me you were trying to kill at the end? and tov says ............................. yes.

rax is (understandably) horrified, and he tells tov this has gone too far. he doesn't know who his brother is anymore. he isn't welcome at home. but as one last act of mercy, he's going to take the boat back alone and tell the clan that tov never came back through the gate, so as to preserve his memory.

and tov lets him go. so now he's alone across the sea, with this seed of hate and violence planted deep inside him but hey! at least he's a sorcerer now!!!!!

so he spends several years wandering around the woods, avoiding society as much as possible because he's terrified of that rage overtaking him again, and trying to figure out what to do with himself, because he doesnt know who he is anymore, and doesn't like what he's become. the more time he spends alone with himself, the worse it gets.

on a supply trip into town, he hear tales of some anonymous hero that killed a beast that had been harassing the town, and realized it was an animal he'd killed a few days ago. and he goes. hey, maybe monster hunting could be ... something? its a way to put that violence inside me to a beneficial cause, if i can take out things that have been bothering good people. so he starts wandering around, entering towns more often, looking for people in need of a freelance beastkiller.

this is where the campaign picks up!!! i'll spare you the details of the whole shebang because this is already SO long, but the important thing is that the party's currently caught in the crossfires of a few different criminal investigations, and to get some allies on their side, a few party members have joined guilds in the city.

tov personally joined the order of the gauntlet, a guild that's dedicated to law and justice. he almost didn't let himself join at first, because he didn't think he deserved to become a paragon of justice when he was Like That. but the leader of the guild, savra belabranta, took him aside and was like. look. this guild is a place to earn your forgiveness.

and she tells him that, before joining the guild, she was caught up in some very very nasty cult business. like. murder cult business. and she didn't think she could ever be a good person after she left, but people here believed that she could be, and she believes that tov can be too, if he'll let himself.

and for the first time since rax got back on the boat alone, tov is beginning to think that he might be able to become the kind of man who can go home and face his family again. so he joins. and he spends more and more time with savra, and he starts to really like her. like really like her.

so far in game, they've gone on one date and savra ended up having to sleep in the party's house after (they live in apartments above a bar) and so he lied and said they had a guest room and then shoved all of his belongings in a closet, directed her to his room, and slept on his party mate's floor. because he didn't want her to think he was propositioning her after just one date.

but like, the dm is 100% on my side in this, and we already have begun putting together a post-campaign marriage plot for them and im very soft about it all the time because like .... its just these two people at two different points in their journeys to forgive themselves, and they're helping each other reach that final goal, and they're both finding happiness they didn't think they'd ever actually see and i aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

anyways thats tov thanks for asking

[threephasebird]

Hello friend, it's Nicole from TAD discord, so sorry for awkwardly & randomly sliding into your dms. I've noticed that you've been reblogging a lot of The Untamed recently and I have just finished The Untamed & literally cannot think about anything else. I'm obsessed. Anyway, I've also noticed from your blog that your favorite seems to be JGY and I find that *fascinating*. He's very much not my fav, but he's such a complex character that I would love to hear your thoughts & feelings & analysis?

And to be completely clear, I will never try to debate with you or say your opinions are wrong or immoral or anything. I'm not an anti, I've stanned plenty of villains in my time. I'm just genuinely curious. I think the fact that you have such different feelings about this character is part of the beauty of stories and a testament to how complex and smart this particular story is.

Hello friend! First of all, thank you for your ask -- I love talking about my fictional faves, so there’s no need to apologize at all! There are definitely people out there who have already posted much more cohesive and succinct character analysis for JGY, but I’ve sat down for a bit to find an answer to the question of why I, personally, like him so much. I ended up finding six possible ways to answer this question, which I’ll list below and then go into (a lot) more detail under the cut. Hope you enjoy!

1) I like him because his motivations as a villain are complex and understandable

2) I like him because there’s no easy solution to his conflicts

3) I like him because he interacts with the story in a unique way

4) I like him because when we see him on top of his game, it’s fun to watch

5) I like him because LXC likes him

6) JGY is very small and has dimples

So, onward! (2.7k)

1) I like him because his motivations as a villain are complex and understandable

One possible way of looking at JGY is that throughout the entire story, his end goal is to eliminate all of the Jin family and come out on top as sect leader, chief cultivator and most powerful person in the cultivation world. However, I personally find it more intriguing to think that his specific plans shifted throughout the story and that he didn’t follow a long con the way NHS did, but that the common ground in everything he does is that he’s motivated by wanting security. Then, everything that he does afterwards is a step-by-step escalation when no matter what he does and how far he comes, his goal is always dangled right in front of him, but ultimately impossible to reach.

When he joins the Nie clan, on a superficial level it seems that this place could offer him the security he wants and needs, especially with NMJ protecting him -- but on the flip side of the coin, no one apart from NMJ and NHS seem to respect him, and his security entirely depends on NMJ’s goodwill. It’s an exteremely fragile position that could probably only ever last for a limited amount of time. Even if JGY never killed the guard captain and wasn’t thrown out of the Unclean Realm, how would the future have looked like for him? NMJ’s life expectancy was low to begin with, and once he had died (of natural causes, in this hypothetical case), NHS wouldn’t have been able to hold the same protective hand over JGY as his brother, and JGY would have become the disrespected advisor to the disrespected clan leader. (On a side note, I personally don’t think JGY released XY to get the yin iron -- I think it makes more sense that he wanted to use XY as bargaining chips against WC, seeing how he goes to free him immediately after WC asks for NMJ to release XY, to save the Unclean Realm and, in extension, his own ass.)

After JGY is thrown out, he’s basically out of options -- it’s go big or go home, because which other clan would take him in now? So he sets his sight on being recognized by JGS once more, and in order to succeed, he derives the plan of becoming a spy under WRH and do something so “heroical” that after the war, JGS has no other choice but to accept him into his clan. And at first, it seems like he succeeds and that he finally gets everything he wished for -- his father recognizes him as a son and gives him a position, he’s part of the Jin clan, he has power, he’s secure! But then it turns out that he was wishing on the monkey’s paw. His father doesn’t truly recognize him, and even in the Jin clan he’s disrespected (by JGS, by Madam Jin, by Jin Zixun), he doesn’t truly hold power (he just has to do whatever JGS tells him to), and he’s not secure (JGS instrumentalizes him because he’s useful to him right now, but does that mean he’ll be useful forever? So there’s a constant threat there).

I think the only reason JGS officially adopts JGY is that it allows him to claim the victory over WRH for the Jin clan and to expand his own power. Instead of JGY being recognized, JGS instrumentalizes him from the very first second and to make it worse, he makes JGY his attack dog the same way WRH did. I think the things JGY does under both WRH and JGS are absolutely horrifying, but I can’t help but also feel horrified for him. Under WRH, I think he tells himself that whatever he does is the lesser evil because it’ll end the war quicker, and that it’ll all be worth it in the end, and as a result, he loses parts of his own humanity there. And then under JGS, it’s the same fucked up shit again, except that this time, he also wants so very badly for JGS to value him, and in addition, he’s also completely out of options now. Without wanting to excuse the things he does under JGS, the only alternative at this point is for him to leave the Jin clan and the cultivation world as a whole, and I do think there’s a definite possibility that JGS would have him killed if he did because he knew too much about JGS’s plans.

Without passing judgment on his involvement in JZX and JZX’s deaths, as well as him killing NMJ and JGS for now (the latter being the one thing that I’m personally most horrified of), I don’t see JGY as a villain who enjoys being the villain the way XY does. I think he’s constantly horrified at himself and compartmentalizes to a degree where he’s actually derailing his own plans. Him throwing out XY immediately after killing JGS reads to me as him wanting to close the chapter of everything they did under JGS -- I think he must have acted out of a visceral emotion there or else he wouldn’t have left XY to die at the side of a road so carelessly (and, in effect, allowed for someone to live on with detailed knowledge of his own deeds). After rising to power (and finally, seemingly, really getting the security he’s always wanted), he doesn’t use that power to become WRH 3.0, but instead to do genuinely good things (such as building the watch towers). That’s not supposed to mean that him not being a cruel despot makes up for everything he’s done, but I find it interesting to think about from the perspective of, what kind of person could he have been if this opportunity had been given to him freely -- if his own class and social standing didn’t prevent him from that? I think he’d have become an incredibly powerful cultivator and clan leader if he’d have the same privilege as JZX.

In a way, I see JZX, WC, and JGY as narrative foils. WC shows us who JZX might have become if JGS treated him the same way as WRH treats WC. But, JGS doesn’t -- he shields his own son from this part of the Jin clan, and basically allows him to live in a completely different reality as JGY! JZX’s whole character arc is one of personality development, and becoming a hero, and falling in love -- he doesn’t have a clue about his father wanting to get his hands on XY and the Stygian tiger amulet and arguably about at least part of the war crimes he commits against the Wen clan. It’s not part of his life. In a way, JGY is the sacrifice being made to allow him to live his life unaware because in him, JGS found someone else to do his dirty work.

2) I like him because there’s no easy solution to his conflicts

Sometimes, when you want to be a villain apologist, all you need to do is point at one or a few bits of the story and say, “well if they hadn’t done that...”. (See, for example, Anakin Skywalker -- you wanna write a RotS canon divergence fixit? Just have Obi-Wan come back approximately one hour earlier and you have it, because before Anakin kills the Jedi even the Younglings he’s basically completely redeemable.) With JGY, you don’t get to have that. There’s no single turning point where you could say, “if he had picked the other option, he could have had a happy ending”. And part of the reason for that, which makes him a tragic character in my eyes, is that he crucially lacks options at many turning points.

In order to write a canon divergence AU for JGY where he comes out unscathed and redeemable, you’d have to go pretty far back in the story, and even then, you’d have to work hard to find a solution to his story that doesn’t a) rely on someone saving him (such as: LXC brings him to Cloud Recesses, or: JGS has a change of heart, frees his mother, and sends them a comfortable monthly pension), b) having him be dependent on someone else’s goodwill (such as: staying in the Unclean Realm in a delicate position).

If we don’t want to go back right to the very beginning or change fundamental parts of the story, well... As I’ve mused about above, if we let him stay in the Unclean Realm, he’d have never reached his goal of security either. If he never became a spy during the Sunshot Campaign, he wouldn’t have been accepted into the Jin clan and would have been out of options. If he never committed the atrocities for JGS, JGS would probably have kicked him out or killed him. (I do think there’s a lot of truth in what JGY tells NMJ in the empathy flashback, on that instance.) If he didn’t kill NMJ, there is a distinct possibility that NMJ would have killed him -- we see him try three times on screen, after all. (I’m leaving out the parts about him being directly responsible for JZX’s and JZX’s death in the show, as well as for controlling the corpses at Nighless City and JYL’s death, because it’s not in the book and I think it takes away from WWX’s character. As for QS’s and their son’s deaths...I personally do not see strong motivation for him to kill them, but in the end, we just don’t know which is, on a side note, a thing I really like about The Untamed/MDZS! Sometimes we just don’t know because the only people who know for sure can’t tell us anymore.) One option could be for him to confide to JZX, bring him over to his own side, and non-violently overthrow JGS, which would be a good and satisfying ending both to his and JZX’s character arcs -- but I also think there’s a high possibility JZX would hold JGY responsible for what he and JGS did, and never trust him with power again.

(Again, one thing I really do not wish to excuse away is how he killed JGS, and I just. Desperately wished he didn’t.)

I’ve been going over and over the possibilites for fix-its and canon divergence AUs, but in the end, I’ve arrived at the conclusion that the only real choice JGY has throughout the story is whether to remove himself from the narrative or stay in it. He could make the choice to give up his mother’s dream, reject his father, and leave cultivation world (and, on a meta level, the story!) to become a “nobody”. (Small side note, though -- living on which skills?) If he doesn’t -- well, as soon as he enters the game, the cards are stacked against him.

To pick up on the meta level comment, I do find it fascinating that in a sense, JGY not only has to struggle for respect and recognition within the story, but that what he does also serves to keep his character part of the story. He could choose to give up and leave (and thus come out of the story redeemable), but then he wouldn’t be part of the story anymore.

3) I like him because he interacts with the story in a unique way

Continuing with the last point, JGY interacts with the story in two unique ways that distinguish him basically from all the other characters. He’s not actually supposed to be part of the story, but that he basically claws his way in. But that also means that his class and social status cannot be removed from any of the conflicts he encounters in universe -- they’re at the heart of all of them. In the empathy flashback, he says to NMJ, “You always scold me for indecent scheming. You always say that you are just and straight [...] A decent man shouldn’t resort to devious stratagems. [...] You’re of noble birth and have profound cultivation. What about me? How can I be the same? First, I don’t have the foundation of cultivation. No one has ever taught me that since I was a child! Second, I don’t have any background. Do you think that my position is very solid in the Jin clan of Lanling?” What I find so intriguing about this scene is that he’s right when he says he’s different from the others both in text and on a meta level because most of the other characters are never faced with the same decisions and have a natural place within the story (apart, to some degree, WWX and XY, where also interesting parallels can be drawn). And the other characters are, in a way, self-righteous to judge him when almost none of them come out of the story without blood on their hands -- WWX’s revenge, JC torturing demonic cultivators after WWX’s death, and so on...The entire cultivation world (even NMJ! even LXC!) were complicit in the war crimes against the Wen. But when the cultivation world turns against JGY, they are the most appalled by the things I as a viewer would be the most lenient towards (murdering JGS), and don’t care at all about the thing that horrifies me the most (murdering the sex workers).

There’s an interesting post by @pumpkinpaix​ analysing how class dynamics work in the story, which I highly recommend! I don’t want to repeat what has been said there already in much better ways than I can, but among other things, it makes some really interesting points about how much JGY’s class is tied with his motivations.

4) I like him because when we see him on top of his game, it’s fun to watch

Aside from any analysis, part of the reason why I like him so much is that when he’s acting as a villain, he’s just so much fun to watch. When WWX breaks into his vault in paperman form and JGY has approximately 5 minutes to get rid of the head, the torture bench (?) and anything suspicious, contact and inform Su She, run to a different building and come back, and nonetheless he manages to convince everyone but WWX and LWJ that he’s the victim in this situation, it’s just. Peak entertainment? For a short time, he’s on top of the game, and then he’s backed into a corner and becomes sloppy, and finally loses it all due to sentimentality (if he didn’t want to take his mother’s body with him and say goodbye to LXC, I’m sure he could have fled the country). I think Zhu Zanjin did an amazing job as an actor to portray how JGY is constantly assessing everything, how 23638 emotions flicker over his face in half a second, how his whole body language shows the constant anxiety and pressure and stress and fear he’s under, and how we actually get to see in his microexpressions when JGY chooses a path and commits to the acting and emotional manipulation to follow it through.

5) I like him because LXC likes him 

Here’s a secret: Actually, LXC is my favourite character. And LXC loves JGY a lot. So I’m kind of contractually obliged to at least love JGY a little bit as well?

On a more serious note, I’m very intrigued in their relationship because I do think what they had was genuine. I view it as two people being very open and honest and true with each other, while placing a lot of things outside the brackets and crossing them out. LXC even says that he was aware of some things JGY did (which ones? how? I need to know) but that he justified them to himself. I think they both realised that they could have had something very special, but under the given circumstances, LXC wouldn’t have been able to help JGY (see: point 2) even if he knew everything. Still, they were obviously very close and trusted each other as much as they could. I think in the end, when LXC seemed to have decided to stay and die with him, JGY pushed him away because he was the only genuinely good part of his life, and he felt like he couldn’t rightfully deprive the world of LXC. It’s all very tragic, and I’m very intrigued to explore what they could have been in a slightly softer world.

6) JGY is very small and has dimples

I can only speak for myself, but when I was watching, I was so prone at any point to believe in him no matter what was revealed. Look at him! Could this man do something wrong?

[silverislander]

can't believe i am queerbaiting my friends and pulling a bury your gays right now irl (dnd ramble)

we’re soon gonna play curse of strahd so our dm can get to play his (amazing very fun and cool) character and one of the others can take a turn dming, so i’m working on backstory for mine recently!  juno is a dhampir warlock, and she’s basically a common language studies professor with some very severe impulse control issues, so i had to write a bit about her past as a professor and her relationship with her colleagues/how she became a dhampir.  i ended up making up her school (a practical school- no magic is taught, just for commoners who’d like to learn some trade skills) and some characters- clem ninomae, the disgraced science prof who accidentally turned her, and keziah guillebeaux, the medicine prof who she’s... close friends with.  the first thing i’ve written for her is set at the university’s winter ball and goes wrong for juno when keziah realizes juno is no longer fully human, and i just wrote it to explore some relationships and opinions really?  but i sent it to the discord bc we share our writing all the time :) and now naturally everyone thinks juno and keziah are together lol

and then i remembered that because juno has the sage background, she gets “a letter from a dead colleague posing a question you have not yet been able to answer”... and it just has to be keziah, doesn’t it.  so the letter asks her what her stopping point is- she’s become inhuman, and then she sold her soul, so what else would she do?  would she kill?  would she die (for real this time)?

but obviously i can’t tell them about all that yet- they’re not supposed to know what the letter is.

so in the end, here’s the story: juno and keziah have been dancing around each other for years.  they’re best friends and even pen pals- keziah takes a lot of trips away since she’s a very gifted healer, and juno writes her from the university where she practically lives- and even though juno makes some impulsive mistakes sometimes, they always work through it and repair their relationship.  before juno decides to try summoning her patron, she sends keziah, who is off on another business trip, a letter alluding to soon doing something she might regret.

and it fucking works, against all her expectations.  she really summons niidaepheles, which was her only goal anyways, and she’s about to close the ritual when he offers her a deal she can’t refuse: serve him with her soul, just a small bit of help every now and again, and he’ll give her access to knowledge beyond anything available on the planes.

like i said,  she can’t refuse.

after that, juno is rightfully freaked out and having a bit of an existential crisis, and, faced with her own mortality, decides that life is just too short to let this pass.  as soon as keziah comes back, she’ll ask her on a real, official date.  she can’t live with not knowing if they could have had something together.

keziah never comes back.  two letters arrive for juno a week after she was supposed to return.  one is a confirmation that the ship keziah was on sank and  states that keziah was one of the confirmed casualties.  the other is a half-written response from keziah herself.  how far will juno go?  does she have a stopping point at all?

they never got their chance together.  in the end, it was always the right place, wrong time.

but all my friends know right now is that juno has a “friend” from back home with a lot of romantic tension, and they’ve run with it and conviced themselves juno and keziah end up together/are at least dating by the start of the campaign.  and i can’t tell them anything otherwise just yet.  and i know this is a bit evil of me, but... what if i play it like juno pretends keziah is still alive?  speaking about her in the present tense, keeping the letter to herself, purposefully avoiding questions about where she is now... i could do that.  and they wouldn’t know until partway through the campaign when it comes out.

so yeah, right now i am acting like a a shitty dramatic television writer and playing with my friends emotions, and god damn am i having fun with it <3

[whumpmebabyonemoretime]

Look at me, actually posting something I wrote for once.

This is a little whump I wrote based on one of the NPCs in my dnd campaign I'm running. They're cultists, which makes my job as a DM both easier and more difficult because nobody has morals.

The character this talks about, Dagon, is a young wood elf. Elves age much slower than humans, reaching maturity around 100 years. In human years he's currently around 16ish.

Enjoy?

CW: language, blood, minor derealization, negative thoughts

~~~~~~~

He channeled all of his magical power through the trident with shaking hands. His voice trembled as the word "Obey" fell from his lips. As soon as it left, he felt… better. Powerful. A twisted crown of thorns and leaves and sunflowers formed around the changeling's head, and he felt more in control than he'd ever felt in all his time on this world. The man went stiff, panic in his eyes, sweat beading on his brow. He wasn't in control anymore.

It felt dirty. It felt wrong. But torture appeared to be on today's agenda.

"Drop the kobold." he commanded, all weakness gone from his tone. The changeling did so immediately and without hesitation, turning swiftly to face him. The kobold cried out as he hit the ground, eyes widening. He seemed to recognize the spell but kept his mouth shut.

Dagon's body shook from the immense amounts of energy he was exerting with the spell, but he pushed forward. "Tell me what you know about the cult."

The man gritted his teeth, resisting as much as he was able. "I don't know shit about a cult."

The wood elf pushed further, stepping closer, gripping the trident like a lifeline. He could feel blood dripping from his nose. "Where did you meet the kobold?"

"In a bar. My patron told me to protect him. I've done a shit job of that, I guess." his response was immediate, unbroken. Was the spell getting stronger or was his resolve getting weaker?

"Who's your patron?"

He grinned. "Titania of the summer court. She-"

"I know who she is." Dagon snapped. He was a wood elf. He'd heard enough about the feywild, the very lands they were standing on. He was in deep shit if they didn't get out of there. "Who's your… boyfriend?" they had been on their way to a library. This idiot was dating some lesser deity, apparently.

A manic, crazed laugh tore from the man's throat at that. "His name is Tordugia. He's a shapeshifter."

Oh gods. He was going to face the wrath of their whole fucking family. If this fucking spell didn't kill him first. He wiped the blood away with trembling hands, trying to stay focused. What would Bea ask? What would Killian do? Fuck, fuck.

"Kid, just let me go. You're going to die if you keep it up."

"Shut. Up." he snarled, not realizing the spell would take it as a command and force the man's mouth closed.

His father's voice rang in his ears. "You're playing with magics you don’t understand, Theodluín. You should have stayed home, should have stayed with me."

That wasn't his name. He had a new name, a new family. His father was dead. He was dead.

"Tell me what your group was doing in Tellevor." He commanded, putting all of his effort into keeping the spell up and not falling over. The man didn't even answer. He hadn't learned anything useful, there was at least one pissed off god on the way, and as soon as the spell dropped, the changeling was probably going to kill him. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Why did he always manage to get into these situations? Why couldn't he just be happy? Didn't he deserve that? He was almost 81 years old. Most humans in the world died before then! The only time he'd felt happy was when… wait… had he ever?

Dagon fell to one knee, trying desperately to keep his grip on the trident, on the spell, on consciousness. There was blood on his face, on his hands, in his lungs. Someone was talking to him. His father, maybe. Telling him how badly he was doing. That was nothing new. He heard voices all the time. The only one who ever complimented him was Bea. Would they be proud of him for this? Or horrified?

….was this going to kill him?

When he hit the ground, he couldn't hold on anymore. His trident slipped from his hands, the spell lost its hold, and he could breathe at last. Everything was dark, his vision was too blurry for him to make out what was happening.

What had he been thinking? He wasn't a warlock, he was an artificer! He wasn't meant to use spells like that; he was supposed to be a builder, an engineer. He was going to fucking die trying to get the approval of someone who wasn't even there. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

His eyes wouldn't open. He couldnt move. He could feel the blood gushing from his nose, sloshing around his lungs, could feel his life force ebbing away bit by bit as he laid there on the cold forest floor. By the gods, he was dumb. His father had been an incredibly advanced warlock, why the fuck would he have been able to perform any of those spells without consequences?

Maybe if he was stronger. Maybe if he survived this. Maybe.

His head felt fuzzy, like it was being wrapped in a blanket. He struggled to stay awake, to focus on something, anything to keep him grounded, his breathing, the panicked gasps of the changeling, the nearby footsteps. Someone was coming. He was fading. He heard someone scream his name, and then he was gone.