#bart'leh

[affableanthropologist]

Dungeon Trash Squad

Today we had our last session of this campaign for the year. They have become...a very unusual party!

Va’Kym (he/him): at first a yuan-ti pureblood, Va’Kym became a malison just a few sessions in, with the snake head and everything. Plus he is also a graviturgist and, in this game, this is a school of magic he more or less invented himself. A pretty odd dude all things considered!

Kingston (he/him): a changeling (although the party ic still think he’s human) who became a werebat a while ago now. He can now turn into a giant bat, or a hybrid form, as he so desires. 

Phoebe (she/her): as of today, our lovely half-drow hexblade has a fiery breath weapon and draconic tail. 

Bart’leh (he/him): our drow necromancer has not changed at all since the start of the campaign, besides accumulating a few more shiny bits of jewelry and a vast hoard of zombies. So the necromancer is the most normal dude in this party, that...says a lot!

[affableanthropologist]

Trash Squad

I have a Trash Squad session tomorrow. The party have split and are on completely different floors of Undermountain thanks to Magic Teleporting Gates...with one wizard and one warlock in each location (Va’kym and Kingston are in the More Dangerous, Jumping Ahead, spot; and Phoebe and Bart are in the Actually Balanced For Their Level spot.) 

Phoebe and Bart I haven’t done too much prep for, because that’s relatively easy- they helped duergar mercenaries defeat a magic statue, but then the half of the party who Jumped Ahead stole an important magic dagger from the duergar leader, so. Should be a fairly tense, potentially hostile situation. If they can defuse that, the tiefling druid travelling with the mercenaries has promised to translate a Celestial text the party’s hexblade is carrying. Potentially cool stuff there! 

And if all else fails and I don’t know what to do, I can have umber hulks burst through the wall and throw them back into combat. =P

I’m very excited for Va’kym and Kingston’s adventures, as they’re going to meet Phoebe’s mum! Valyrissa and four other drow are out to kill a mad wizard’s mutated experiments (who were formerly people they knew, so sadface if Phoebe does end up joining this group!) I checked the balance and it should be a fair challenge for the drow team + two party members. If the whole party end up taking part it might be a bit too easy, but I’ll just tack an extra encounter onto the end if that happens. 

[affableanthropologist]

Messy WIP of Bart’leh, drow necromancer! My brother’s character in a DotMM campaign I currently run, Bart’s hobbies include: complaining about his ex, creating elaborate backstories for his zombies, and collecting pretty jewelry. 

In his very first fight he crit failed a save against drow poison and was knocked out for the duration. A promising start. 

[affableanthropologist]

Dungeon Trash Squad

Today the Trash Squad (minus Phoebe) were teleported away into a yuan-ti temple. Va’kym was very excited! Bart was...well, everyone was mean to Bart, with Kingston even introducing him as ‘some dick’, so he didn’t have a great time. But Kingston had a great experience! He made some friends, and agreed to do some questing for Ras Nsi, because yeah I totally just stole my fave section of Tomb of Annihilation and had Kingston’s patron send the party there to retrieve a magic item. 

The party...all have different motivations now, it’ll be interesting!

Kingston: agreed to destroy an Evil Magic Box, in exchange for which Ras Nsi will give him the Magic Item his patron wants, and said patron will return him to Undermountain to resume his quest there (she can get around the teleporting block, which of course Halaster will be curious about later!)

Va’kym: after Kingston accepted the above offer, Va’kym was approached by Nsi’s rival Fenthaza. They came to an agreement: if Va’kym makes sure Nsi ultimately and tragically dies, she will transform Va’kym into a malison. He is. So down for this.

Bart’leh: is having an awful time, really. Everyone was mean to him! Even his own party. =( But then, he met the ‘necromancer’ (totally actually a lich) Valindra Shadowmantle, who in this version is a contact of the yuan-ti. Ras Nsi sent the party to her, and she is taking them to the tomb to destroy the Evil Box and thus cure the country of this game’s version of the Death Curse. Valindra thinks his necromancy is cool, and will let him copy a spell from her spellbook if he and his party successfully remove the curse. So, that’s nice! 

We’re down Va’kym’s roleplayer next session but Phoebe’s rper will be back, so she will either control Va’kym or create a charrie to play for the remainder of this quest, since Phoebe is still back in Undermountain. 

[affableanthropologist]

Dungeon Trash Squad

Figured I’d give an update on where these terrible children are at after their first ten or so sessions. 

Va’kym (yuan-ti wizard, graviturgist): killed a yuan-ti leader so that the Nightmare Speaker would in return help Va’kym become a yuan-ti malison type one (he was formerly a pureblood.) Va’kym’s rper ordered a custom mini based on this new form, which I’m so excited to see! Va’kym can also now turn into a giant snake.

Kingston (changeling warlock, archfey): asked a werebat to infect him this past session. He is unsurprisingly now a werebat. At first his bat form was tiny so, while annoyed at the warlock, Bart grabbed him and yeeted him through a portal. He made a goblin friend on the other side, who Bart somehow hated even more, ultimately fireballing the poor dude. 

Phoebe (half-drow warlock, hexblade): her hexblade is now a flametongue. She is. Devastating in combat. But also super sweet without, today she danced with a sweet earth genasi lady called Rosaline, and promised she will come back to visit her again. Even as, at the same time, Kingston was off trying to get bitten by a werebat and Bart and Va’kym were standing around offering commentary and taking notes. 

Bart (drow wizard, necromancer): with his two loyal zombie companions, Rob and some guy the party were too slow saving from a fiend, Bart is ready for adventure! Or so he’d like you to think. He’s not had a great time lately but hey, at least he’s still Phoebe’s favourite, and that’s something. 

[affableanthropologist]

Thornrambles (Dungeon Trash Squad)

Our lovely hexblade Phoebe is away next session, and so I’m having the archfeylock’s patron swoop the other three party members away to retrieve a magic item for said patron (since his player established in character creation that this is what he does for her, it works out perfectly!!) And I’ll be using my fave chapter of a different published module for this, woo!!!

Anyway, that’s all next session, so for now here are some recent highlights from the Dungeon Trash Squad! Which consists of: Phoebe (hexblade warlock), Kingston (archfey warlock), Bart’leh (necromancer) and Va’kym (graviturgist.)

Phoebe, to her party: “Don’t start stuff!” Phoebe’s rper, texting me about next session: “...expect them to start stuff.”

Phoebe: “Should we kill him, should we give him a chance?” Va’kym: *goes up and kills the Alchemist while the others are arguing*

Kingston: “Can’t we put the other zombie in the bag of holding as well?” Phoebe: “We don’t have another spare blanket [to wrap it in], and we don’t want to make the bag all gross.”

Phoebe, every time she lies: *bad Cockney accent intensifies*

Bart’leh: “We definitely shouldn’t kill children. They’re too small to even make good zombies.”

The entire party *screaming insults and firing spells into the water in an unsuccessful attempt to goad an aboleth into attacking them*

^That last one about perfectly sums up this party. 

[affableanthropologist]

Trash Squad Rambles

Dungeon Trash Squad consists of: a drow necromancer (Bart’leh), yuan-ti graviturgist (Va’kym), half-drow hexblade (Phoebe) and changeling warlock of the archfey (Kingston.)

-The party met a mind flayer! It tried to teach them dragonchess. Only Va’kym picked up the game. It thinks he is very smart and hopes to meet him again! =D =D =D 

-Phoebe bonded with a new goblin friend over their cute hair ribbons. 

-The party all got travel papers with what passes for ‘photo ID’ in ye olde settings. The locals weren’t really sure how to draw a yuan-ti so Va’kym looks like...a snake with arms. 

-The zombies also have papers, which got stapled to them. 

-Phoebe, who loves history: “you like history too?” The mind flayer, bored: “does this conversation have a purpose?”

-The party ended the session entering a new level of Undermountain...we’re on level 4 next session, woo! Still only level seven which is...worrying...but as Phoebe’s RPer said, they haven’t really been tested so far and need to be some time! 

[affableanthropologist]

Trash Squad Rambles

Last night's Trash Squad involved a lot of improvising haha! But out of that the party made three new friends: two wights called Herbert and Zac (who are here to serve our resident necromancer Bart'leh, having heard of his greatness from afar!), and a yochlol demon called Ezmina.

They also got to beat up the Giver of Gifts, Kingston's pet god-fragment, but Kingston himself got away. The Giver of Gifts will just come back as well, which is great because I have a super cool mini I wanted to use for him that I didn't get to paint before the session!! xD

[affableanthropologist]

Made the whole Trash Squad in HeroForge! Happy with how they turned out. <3

Bart'leh "Bart" Drowgula (he/him): hideously insecure drow necromancer.

Ephebias "Phoebe" Auvryndar (she/her): half-drow librarian-turned-adventurer. The sword she wields contains the spirit of her mysterious patron, Wishful.

Kingston (he/him): teenage changeling, whom Phoebe took under her wing after learning his horrible backstory. Depicted here with his magic longsword, Tearulai.

Va'Kym (he/him): yuan-ti graviturgist, who recently came into the possession of a sentient (and very clearly evil) spellbook.

Kenrac (she/her): the newest member of the party, Kenrac is a tiefling who can see ghosts...and who collects knives.