#beaver dragons

[shadesofmauve]

So D&D black dragons are supposed to live in swamps, right? Pretty amphibious, live in swamps, lair in...

caves. With a main entrance and a back entrance.

In swamps.

I really have trouble with the idea that there's these dragon-sized caves in an area with such a high water table, y'know? We have to go through miles of swamp to reach this lair, it's not one little boggy place in a mountain valley otherwise filled with nice caves. And the cave has to have two entrances, too? I can believe in dragons, but not this geology.

So... maybe it's not geology. Because a lair in a marshy place with exacting design specifications sounds a lot like a totally natural thing --

A beaver lodge.

So now I have this new image of black dragons industriously gnawing down giant trees to construct their mighty swamp lairs, and I am so much happier.

[mostsanescarletspiderfan]

The super-pets: bitedenity crisis was gut wrenching honestly.

I can't do this rn.

[jacks-stupid-doodles]

Prompts from friends:

1: an aardvark

2: a snail at the dmv

3: a beaver who got sent mechanical pencils instead of wooden, like he had ordered

4: a robot who accidentally welded themself to a column while working on a skyscraper

5: Moonwatcher realizing she has protagonist syndrome

[2minutetabletop]

Draycott Village and its Were-Problem

Our latest article features a peaceful farming village, a missing generation of skilled monster hunters and... violent rampaging beavers??

→ Read more about it here!

[darkeeveeanimatesus]

New headcannon that I refuse to turn down until proven wrong!!!

After the merge, Echo Zane ends up in worse condition. He stumbles across the Chima beavers and the first thing that happens is his arm falls off. They all scream- "Fix the robot!" And end up completely repairing him. Now Echo just lives with them in their new lodge and is perfectly happy about it.

[threewaysdivided]

Hobson Heckled into Historical Haute-Couture

Continuing the Dan Jones & Dragons gala parade with Hobson, the Flower Crowns' oft-harried Halfling Warlock (played by the ever-wholesome Dan Floyd). Is he trying to massage away the realisation that letting his literally-half-brained patron choose his gala attire might have been a mistake? Is Valse giving him a headache over something else entirely? Did he use Detect Magic in a room full of powerful items and accidentally flash-bang himself? Yes.

More Flower Crowns Gala Outfits: Morenthal | Gelnek

As always, design talk under the cut:

But before that, a short story: I've been following Dan's content on Youtube for... oh jeez, that sure is almost a decade now, both on his current New Frame Plus/Playframe channels and back when he was the primary founder and narrator for EC. His old games education videos helped me get one of my earliest jobs in project work and introduced me to a bunch of media production concepts (like scope management) that would go on to inform some of my own storytelling analysis posts. It was a startling little moment of artistic ouroboros to realise I was mentally running through key points from Dan's own Pose Design 101 video as I was drawing his DnD character. Never expected things to come full-circle like that, but if you're seeing this, Dan: here's to you 🫡 If you're not Dan and haven't already, do go check out his stuff - it's all super well-produced, informative, funny and he's just an overall stand-up guy.

Now: onto the tiny little nerd and his passé party attire

This was a really fun costuming challenge, with a bunch of interesting curveballs thrown in the mix. Unlike the rest of the Flower Crowns, Hobson didn't choose his own party outfit: it was picked out by his patron after Valse kibbitzed him into giving up and letting a heroism-obsessed Fey call the shots. Dan cited Valse as having the fashion sense of Stede Bonnet-as-depicted-in-OFMD, briefing a vaguely 19th century-style outfit that had frilled sleeves and 'would have looked gaudy even when it was in fashion a century earlier'.

Actually dating his outfit was the first challenge. D&D settings are kind of an anachronistic uchronia, with classic swords-and-sorcery fantasy campaigns potentially pulling inspiration points from anywhere across the Arthurian era up to pre-war modernity. Which leads to the question: how do you make something seem dated in a setting where most everything looks vaguely ye-olde-fantasy? The other challenge was that, IRL, the 19th century (i.e Victorian era) was when menswear started taking on a lot of the shapes that would eventually become modern suit and top-'n'-tails fashion. Since Trilby was already going to be wearing classic top-'n'-tails formalwear, I decided to set Hobson's style earlier in the 1800s-1820s and pull in some 18th century Stede Bonnet flourishes to visually set them apart. This article provided some great reference images, and once I hit on the figured silk waistcoat I knew I had a potential starting point.

Colour-wise, I stuck with the burgundy-and-gold palette the Dans gave Hobson in his official gala stream art, since those looked good together and matched up with Dan J's tendency to draw Hobson wearing greens/earth-tones and Valse in reds/jewel-tones. The combination is a lot more colourful and richly saturated than is typical for this style of Victorian-adjacent clothes, which felt appropriate for Valse's gaudy tastes.

Fabric-wise, I figured a fun way to gaudy things up even further would be to lean into the silks and satins that were fashionable at the time, but make all of his outfit shimmery rather than just a single feature piece. As a bonus, silk and satin clothes tend be hot, inelastic and have horribly itchy seams if worn unlined, which felt like exactly the kind of thing Valse's all-form-no-function sensibilities would inflict upon the small, long-suffering fellow. Both these fabrics also have a habit of behaving hideously and ripping themselves apart when worn wet, which makes this a great outfit to, say, accidentally fight an Aboleth in. Poor Hobson.

Some other details, just for fun: 1. Hobson's sketch layers include a drawing of his un-removable cursed left bracer. He's pulled the frilly, puffy sleeve over it but you might spot hints of the shape and the gem if you squint. 2. The reference waistcoat I used had floral embroidery on it. Had this actually been a Hobson outfit, I would have converted them to his garland flower (Forget-Me-Nots), but since it was a Valse pick I decided to make them Senaliesse chrysanthemums; a flower given out to friends of the Feywild's Summer Court as a sign of protection and favour. (It also adds extra layers to Pocket mistaking Hobson for a denizen of the Fey, which is fun).

Close crop on the details because I'm very happy with how they turned out:

[loudlyhappycupcake]

Mixer slayers @shironezuninja @ppgxrrblove @frozensedits @minijenn @bitter-yet-civilized @cartoonfan21 @collector-noceda-clawthorne @disneysuniverse @snoopierdass @angryscreenshot @sakulovejulius12 @homuncvlus @kuskicanlove @untitled14360 @waltdiegi-theartist @evander2511 @d-blue02 @serentiydraw5678 @aamericanotaku @gametoon @miniaturejudgeturkeytree @ashtableh

[kamilyflyswatter34]

Kamily flyswatter: oh.. poor little bug he's is so tired to something

Kamily flyswatter: i miss my little silly sister...

[diprotodon]

[imnotjellyatall-art]

newest TTRPG lad—a beaverfolk inventor named Bracken!

[revunant]

Chewing on a telegraph pole.

[shadesofmauve]

That was fast

The beaver-dragon post broke containment in under four days. Apparently beaver-dragons hit a nerve! Now there are facebook groups talking about how I forgot magic exists and overthink things, to which I must say: overthinking things is how you get more interesting fantasy and sci-fi worlds.

You could just say "The dragon magics its preferred home into existence." You can totally do that!

It's just kind of boring.

Tumblr, by contrast, tends to be 'yes, and...' so people take the same idea and ask "How does acid breath change this?" which is way more fun.

[artfella]

Still making art, just been terrible at posting here. Have some sketches from this year!

[tealmussel]

DND Ranger C0mmission!

[fieryskydragons]

Doodles

[darkeeveeanimatesus]

So....

About the beaver Echo thing...... I have some ideas.

This is a mimic.

Insanely tall tree monsters from an unknown realm. These menaces began terrorizing the poor Beaver Tribe for literally no real reason other than they're not used to others being around and it makes them mad. They usually disguise themselves as unsuspecting trees in the forest, then jump out and attack. But recently, they've started coming full force to the Beaver Lodge and destroying it. They would be fine with this destruction, since it means they’d have to fix things more often, except the members of the tribe are actually getting very hurt during these attacks. Echo, being programmed to protect those who cannot protect themselves, ends up getting fed up with the destruction and acts. His over protective mode kicks in and he fights them off. They begin to leave the beavers alone, but start terrorizing a village near by. Echo hears about their dire situation, and decides to help. After saving the village once, the Mimics return a few days later. So, realizing it's his purpose to help people, he dawns a secret identity, with a costume made by one of the beavers, and gets to work. He eventually runs the Mimics off for good, supposedly, but still vows to keep protecting the area.

And before you ask, yes, this is based off of the Mr. Echo headcannon. Although I no longer believe it, I thought it would still be cool. Except now he's running around with a mask as a force of good, not evil. Also, incorporating little ears on his helmet to match his beaver persona was an adorable opportunity. He has a metal fighting staff that retracts into a small stick. (Like Robin or Catnoir)

Unlike the Mr. E thing though, it's still just Echo being adorable. However, he does prefer not to talk when hes in character. And if he does, it doesn't really matter- cause the helmet kind of warps his voice.

I have an entire story I'd like to tell around this premise, but that'll be for another day.