#drow shadowblade

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

On the left, the shadowblade! Cursed elves, 4′7″-5′5″ (1.5-1.7 m) range, generally sadistic assholes due to thier goddess personally hunting and killing any good ones. However, exceptions do exist, and shadow blades are more likely than most to not be actively malicious. The shadowblade can summon a shadow demon, levitate, and teleport! They're spies and assassins, and actually much less likely to be an asshole than most drow. They're usually freelance assassins or actively foiling their patron diety's plans!

On the right, the frost salamander! Ice elementals that slip into our world sometimes to hunt and eat anything warm. Huge size, so somewhere in the 16-32 ft (4.9-9.8 m) range. They like burrowing into the ice to form massive caverns, rolling in ice (scratches their back), and eating sources of heat (from people to fire). Only surprising bit is that their intelligence is on par with the average orc, letting them catch people off guard with their wit!

[pentacass]

A/N: Abstract piece set in Act 3. No spoilers, except for the hair thing. [Shadowheart/fem!Tav]

“First rule of assassination.”

Shadowheart rolls her eyes, but doesn’t fight the fingers that clasp her jaw firmly, tilting it upward.

“Never open an artery while you’re standing in front of it.”

When sulking lips part to argue, Solistre presses a damp rag to Shadowheart’s face, and wipes at the spray of blood half-dried over fair skin. Most comes off on the first pass, staining the rag a deep red, but the scowl remains.

“We were in battle,” Shadowheart bites back. “I had no time to worry about positioning-”

“Positioning is key to victory.”

“I saved your life!” Shadowheart tries to lean forward, but is held back by Solistre’s grip. “And you’re critiquing my technique? Really?”

It is impossible to hold back now - a smirk breaks across Solistre’s carefully neutral expression. Shadowheart’s eyes narrow, withering, and she aims a half-hearted slap at Solistre’s wrist.

“That thug hardly posed a threat to my life.”

Which is true, to an extent. That city-pampered cultist was barely a match for Solistre’s shadowblade training in the depths of the Underdark. A simple flick of the wrist, and her dagger would’ve sunk into her foe’s forehead, ending him before his greatsword could fall on her. 

But that doesn’t mean Solistre’s heart hadn’t surged with blood-rushing ardour when Shadowheart charged in, slashing her spear in a vicious arc across the cultist’s neck. Solistre couldn’t stop staring when Shadowheart turned around, face and pale blonde hair dripping with the blood of the slain, eyes shining with concern as she’d reached down to help Solistre off the ground. 

Shadowheart probably mistook her mute adoration for a dazed state after suffering a blow to the head, but Solistre doesn’t have the heart to break the news to her. Not yet…if ever.

“Then I shall leave you to fend for yourself next time.” Shadowheart retorts, frowning when Solistre folds the rag and wipes across her face again. “Are you done?”

“Be still,” Solistre warns, when Shadowheart tries to take the rag. Her hand falls immediately. 

Smiling at the unhappy pout, Solistre folds out a clean corner of the rag. She brushes off the last streaks of blood, tidying the smudged edges of black eyeshadow as she goes, and finally releases Shadowheart’s face from her hold.

“There. A little waiting didn't kill you, did it?”

Shadowheart smiles wryly as she feels about her face. “I swear, you only used that rag because you knew it’d take longer.”

A low chuckle warms Solistre’s throat, as she tosses the used rag aside. “Just be glad I didn’t clean you in drow fashion.”

“And that would be…?”

Solistre leans down - slow, deliberate - drawing Shadowheart’s eyes back to hers, locking in a gaze turned electric. “I would kiss the blood from your lips.”

Unbidden, green eyes flicker down to her mouth. “Tempting…but unhygienic.”

Solistre smiles, dipping in to claim a kiss from those soft, waiting lips. “Yet you are tempted nonetheless.”

Shadowheart sighs. “Forget I said anything.” 

She takes Solistre’s proffered hand, rising from the crate where she had been seated, and doesn't let go as they make for the cellar's stairs.

[amarmeme]

Luscinia Nightshade

Wood Elf, 112 years

Gloom Stalker Ranger 🏹

My first and favorite Tav, who pined over Halsin during EA. Detailed background below the read more.

Luscinia Nightshade was born deep within Faerûn's High Forest, in a well-hidden community of wood elves. She lived an idyllic life beneath the boughs of giant trees, frolicking with other young elves and animals.

The Nightshade community was secretive, but not insular, welcoming new members amongst their numbers when an individual proved trustworthy. One of these people was a wood elf with the purple eyes of a drow named Maraleth Shadowblade. He stumbled out of the forest wounded when Luscinia was in her hundredth year, and ended up staying long-term becoming Luscinia's mentor.

Despite the isolation of their community, quite a few members were skilled fighters, barbarians and rangers. Luscinia had been told, as every little wood elf was told, that it was important to be prepared for anything.

With Maraleth's arrival, Luscinia went from hunting to fighting, Mar teaching her the ways of a gloom stalker ranger.

By her 112th year, Luscinia was more proficient than her mentor at the bow (though Mara bested her with blades nine times out of 10). Her community recognized her fully as an adult and not just a young adult. Life was peaceful, if not monotonous.

During her community's Greengrass celebration (the festival marking spring), denizens of the Underdark spilled into Nightshade and began to kill her people, setting fires to buildings and destroying their gathering places without, what she could see, due cause.

Mara pressed her to flee, imploring her to seek a druid community nearby for help. Luscinia did not want to leave, but was effectively persuaded to search for help. Mara placed a curious amulet in her palm before jumping back into the fray.

Hours later, after running through the forest in an attempt to reach the druids, Luscinia was plucked up by the nautiloid.

When her guardian first appears in her dream, it is Maraleth. Luscinia is convinced he's dead, that her family is dead, and somehow he is protecting her from beyond.

[rumiraclemi]

so, thought. when they saw the drow again grizz mentioned they had the shadowblade they had last time that should've been on the ship, and the guys briefly wondered how they got it, and just moved on. but i haven't. did they sneak on to the ship and steal is back? do they have some sort of magic to summon it back to them? is there a mole on the ship? is there someone who coincidentally just joined their crew without much of a reason that they know nothing about and joined them right after they sailed into town with their flag on full display, alerting everyone exactly who they are?

[headlesssamurai]

My Lazy, Poor, Stupid Person’s Attempt to Paint Tabletop Miniatures

by headless

This has nothing to do with covid-19 really, it’s just something I reckoned I’d share.  For several years I’ve played Dungeons & Dragons, and occasionally others like Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green, or Shadowrun. Though, I say ‘play’, when I mostly run games as a Dungeon Master. It’s one of those “hobbies” that is a lot of fun for someone like me, but requires a ton of dedication, so it isn’t always easy to get a dedicated group together.

Anyhow, I generally homebrew settings and adventures, never really been too big on running pre-written games, even if some of them are fantastically written. And one of the most frustrating things is I some times want to have a miniature on the battle grid that looks a certain way. This is hardly a big deal, since miniatures are just markers meant for reference in combat encounters, the real image of the characters is in all of our heads.

Still, I sometimes want to have something especially specific, a lot of the players in my current group appreciate cool looking miniatures, and seeing as I’m usually hard-up for cash, I can’t always buy pre-painted mini-figures, unless I get a good bulk deal on ebay or something.

One of my recent attempts to acquire bulk miniatures came a few years back when I realized during the 4E days, Wizards of the Coast had released boxed board games themed with the D&D style, which all came with a great deal of unpainted miniatures; these came in sets like Wrath of Ashardalon, or The Legend of Drizzt, with lots of themed minis for the board game’s scenario.

Anyhow, I’ve had a ton of these unpainted miniatures forever and use them often for nobody-NPCs and other characters the players run across. Lately, however, the group I’ve been running in a campaign for about eleven months (usually weekly), ran across a problem where their dragonborn ranger Grixxis was captured by and then negotiated his away out of the clutches of this ancient entity who calls herself Gorgoth (who appears to be a pale, beautiful young woman, but probably isn’t; even the not so arcane-y Grixxis intuited that much). She was actually impressed that he resisted her Sleep spell, and offered him a deal, she’d let him go but he needs to complete a task for her in the next seven days, and if it isn’t completed in that time frame his soul will be bound to her forever.

The task was to go to a mountaintop and retrieve something that resides there, though Gorgoth did not explain what the object was, so the party set off to find this mysterious mountain. The journey led them to an area of bad wilderness where no one lives, and where roving bands of orcs constantly hunt and war with one another, so only a few people know anything about that region. The party ended up hiring a guide, who was a wood elf exile named Skaya. They seemed to be intrigued by her because she’s living in a city which is currently at war with wood elves, so there’s a lot of prejudice and racism against her kind. Skaya does have facial tattoos that indicate she’s been exiled from her tribe and therefore no longer truly considered by her people to be a wood elf (their worst form of punishment in this universe), but still, the party seemed immediately fascinated by this single NPC among the potential seven or so they might’ve hired for this expedition.

Anyhow, my players have only gotten truly invested in one other NPC they’ve met before this; a small little orc toddler named Gruuba who they saved from a bunch of slave trading bandits early on in the campaign. I’ve had difficulty finding a good miniature for Gruuba too (because she’s really small and scrawny), but since she’s at the same developmental level as a human six year-old they try to keep her out of combat scenarios (despite Gruuba’s excited insistence that she enjoys using clubs “for smashings”). Since the party have begun to really enjoy Skaya as character, the longer they’ve slowly, slowly gotten to know more about her stand-offish personal history, I really wanted to get a miniature for her that reflected my image of her better than the one I’d been using.

So, even though I got basically no experience doing so, I bought a miniature from Reaper Miniatures, and after looking up a few tutorial vids for beginners like me, I set about trying to paint my first mini-figs.

Two things, if you’re looking into this yourself; First, I’m not totally unartistic, I write creatively and I sketch with pencils and ink. Painting’s fairly new to me, but it’s not like I have absolutely no artistic talent. I also solder a lot of really small wires and components in my normal daily job, so I may have better muscle control for this sort of thing than some people. I only mention this because I may have had a few advantages in this undertaking. I just don’t want to make people overly confident, keep things in perspective. So whatever your level of expertise at this, if you want to start just try to patiently measure your expectations, and don’t get discouraged if your first results aren’t so great. All things improve with time.

 And B. if you’re poor, lazy, and stupid like me, there’re ways to get around that. This video I watched gave me a good rundown of the basic steps which are; - scrub the plastic down with some dish soap, luke-warm water, and a toothbrush; allow at least 1 hour to dry (I let them sit for a day because I’m paranoid), and be sure there’s no lingering moisture before you start painting - get a good primer or base coat on the model before you start adding other colors; lighter base coats allow more colors to show up easier, while darker base coats tend to make the colors you paint over them darker - stay calm and take your time - try to paint the colors that’ll go under other colors first, like, if a barbarian dude is shirtless but’s wearing a few pieces of armor, paint his shirtless skin first, then paint the armor he’s wearing second because it layers over better that way - use thinner paints and multiple coats of a color to get an even final color instead of one thick coat - allow each coat of paint to dry for 10 - 20 minutes before applying the next coat - learn about washes, pigments, and inks, because they’re awesome - get a decent varnish for a final protective coat, matte varnishes make the model look dryer and flat, gloss varnishes make the model look shiny and wet, if you do a coat of gloss and a coat of matte varnish it equalizes it pretty good

And this video here sort of laid to rest my fears that I’ll need to spend $600 on paints and washes and stuff. The very helpful lady in that video explains how she uses generic acrylic paints from the craft store (I got mine at Wal-Mart) to paint her Warhammer miniatures, and she even offers a method of making your own washes from a combination of paint and flavorless mouth wash. It’s genius. So try not to stress too much about buying the really nice brand name paints, because it’s not necessary, those paints just have an optimal mix I think, otherwise they’re the same damn thing as generic acrylic paints. Also, you’re just trying to learn, so unless you really, really feel like emptying your bank account, just use the generic stuff.

I started out painting something I didn’t care about. I wanted my miniature for Skaya to look badass and awesome, so I wanted to start with some practice miniatures. Grabbed a few from those 4E board game sets and gave it a shot. But I had also recently gotten hold of a Goliath Barbarian miniature from the Player’s Handbook Heroes sets (also from the 4E days) a rare find, since it usually goes for like $60.00 by itself. Randomly found some dude on ebay selling an unopened box set for $20.00, so I got a wild elf druid and a human berserker along with it. So I started out touching up the goliath’s armor to make it look more like armor and less like weird blue stuff.

Here’s a before-and-after for him (I didn’t take photos of them before because I wasn’t anticipating this, so I just found examples from around the web):

Next I tried a re-paint. A friend of mine had recently guest-played in my campaign and created a half-drow monk (his backstory was fantastic), so since nothing like that exists, I took a Soulknife Infiltrator miniature seen here:

And repainted it to sort of look like his half-drow Monk of the Open Palm:

I finally had the courage to do a full paint, so I grabbed the Dragonborn Elementalist from the Wrath of Ashardalon box, and painted her up with reddish scales (I’m one of those who thinks dragonborn should have physical attributes of their heritage).

In the box her name’s Heskan. I definitely used way too much wash on this one so she looks super shiny.

I then took the orc archers in that same box, and not really paying too much attention this time, quickly painted them, because I lack many orc archers:

At this point, I felt it was time to finally paint Skaya, the wood elf exile. I used the Reaper Bones model Deladrin, Female Assassin ($1.99) for Skaya’s mini.

And taking way more hours than I did on the others, which were only about 1-3 hours each, when you count waiting for the coats to dry, I managed to sort of make her look like Skaya, I guess:

After this, the fact that it wasn’t complete and utter shit, which is what I expected, I was encouraged. So I tried to do out party’s tortle cleric, named Daruuk of Chult (who oddly speaks with a Slavic accent, so that’s how people from Chult sound in our campaign), for whom we’ve lacked an accurate mini-figure for some time. I bought a pack of Spikeshell Warriors ($2.99) from the Reaper Bones line.

But Daruuk characteristically wields a large shield and a warhammer, so for some reason I got super detailed and bought a pack of loose shields from the Reaper Bones line ($0.99), then bought Halbarad ($1.49) a human cleric.

I clipped off Halbarad’s hammer at the hilt, then I trimmed the spikes off of the spikeshell warrior’s club, and used a dremel to carfully mill a hole inside the shaft of the spikeshell’s club, then pinned the hammer inside and secured it with gorilla gel. I used an actual cork board pin to push the shield onto the spikshell’s offhand after cutting off his turtle shell shield in order to pin it before gluing, then clipped off the rest of the cork board pin. Somehow, this ended up making the shield look meaner because it now has a like pyramidal spike sticking out the center. After allowing the glue to dry I painted him up, and my attempt at Daruuk the Death Cleric turned out thus:

I guess his hammer looks sort of Acme-level cartoony, but he’s a giant 350 lb. turtle-man who talks like Omega Red from X-Men The Animated Series, so I’m okay with that. The spikeshell also fits well with the razorback sub-race feature I allowed Daruuk’s player to homebrew for himself. I was really proud of this one.

Finally, because I’m an insane asshole who is getting obsessed with my new hobby, I decided it was dragons or bust. So I bought a pre-primed unpainted Young Blue Dragon from WizKids ($13.99).

And spent, like, three days meticulously testing different paint layers to see how they come out. I tried to paint her in the tradition of blue dragons as they appear in the art of Forgotten Realms material, but gave her a somewhat darker cast, and added metallic blue layers to her claws and spinal ridges. I still need to paint her base, put some highlights on her eyes to accentuate the glowing effect and add my washes to give her a final layer of dimension, but here’s how she came out so far:

Behold, Stormfang! Mistress of Thunder...

Anyhow.

This is super long and I wonder if anyone will bother to read any of it. But just wanted to put this out there. From a dude who, if you asked me a year ago if I thought I could do this, I’d have said I’m too stupid, poor, and lazy. I still think of myself as all of those things. The real pros use crazy detailed techniques with like seven layered highlights on their models, and airbrushes and all kinds of other madness. I use maybe three coats total and I don’t get too worked up if I make a mistake here and there, and I haven’t spent more than maybe fifty bucks total across six weeks, and most of that was wasting paints because I was still learning how to mix different shades. 

So if you got something you feel like you’ve always wanted to do but are too stupid, poor, and lazy to figure out, just go for it yo. I managed to crack out these bastards and I still think I suck, but it’s way better looking than I expected. For real though, you should see some of those Warhammer players, they got mad crazy god skills at this stuff compared to me. But your level of skill isn’t the point. The point is to have that moment with that thing you did, and look at it, and just go “Yeh, I did that” when at one time you never believed you ever could.

There’s always going to be somebody better than you, but even they, like all of us, are still learning.

              侍    headless                     

[likeafoxdm]

Loot Drop

Ok! Time for Part 2 of the monster loot drop! I personally love it when bad guys have super cool weapons and items that allow them to pull of crazy abilities or deal extra nasty damage. For the most part, bad guys in D&d follow the regular stats for weapon type and damage, or follow the logic that weapons for larger creatures deal double the normal damage (a Planetar’s greatsword deals 4d6 slashing damage, for example), or a huge creature’s weapon might triple that damage. Sometimes there are exceptions though, and some of the coolest ones pop up in Mordenkeinen’s Tome of Foes! These are the enemy items we will be looking at today! 

First up is the Narzugon’s Hellfire Lance! 

       An interesting item, and we’ll get to why but for starters, it operates perfectly as a regular lance. For the Narzugon, it deals an extra 3d10 fire damage, so lets say that if the wielder moves at least 10 feet before hitting with the lance, they may add 1d10 points of fire damage per 10 feet. For a hasted creature or a mounted combatant, this could get pretty impressive! The extra cool part about this lance remains true no matter who wields it - as written in Mordenkeinen’s Tome of Foes: “A narzugon's lances are forged in hellfire. The soul of anyone killed by such a lance is shunted to the River Styx for rebirth as a lemure. Each lance is unique to its owner, bearing the marks of both the narzugon and its master.” Killing with this lance may draw the attention of the Narzugon’s master - and that attention may be favorable... or vengeful. 

Now for some cool Drow weapons!   

     Inquisitor’s Death Lance: Actually a sort of short-spear. requires attunement by a non-good aligned creature. For the Inquisitor, it deals 1d6 piercing +4d8 necrotic, and reduces the target’s hit point maximum for a value equal to that necrotic damage. The Drow Inquisitor is a spell caster, and CR 14 so I don’t mind giving this item straight up to the PCs, who must be pretty high level at this point to defeat the Inquisitor, with the exception that it be attuned by a spellcaster. If we are giving this to just any PC, lets give it 1d8 necrotic, and on a crit, reduces that target’s HP max for the Total damage dealt in that attack. A mighty weapon for an assassin rogue PC! 

     The Drow Matron’s demon staff is a pretty amazing item as well, and for her  it deals 1d6 bludgeoning like normal, plus 4d6 psychic AND forces a DC 19 wisdom save, with the target becoming frightened for 1 minute (with a chance to repeat the save at the end of turns) on a failure. Pretty badass and she is a CR 20 villain, so once again I am totally down with giving this to a PC spellcaster wholly, with perhaps the caveat that we give the staff 3 or so charges to channel that fear effect. Otherwise I could picture a druid turning into a giant ape and just going... well, going ape with that staff. 

     Dropping back into the lower Challenge ratings, we have the Drow Shadowblade, who’s Shadow Sword deals regular shortsword damage, plus 3d6 necrotic PLUS 3d6 poison, AND then lets the drow fill an unoccupied 5 foot square with darkness for 1 minute. This darkness triggers an amazing ability of the shadowblade; If the target of an attack with the sword is within 10 feet of one of those cubes of darkness, the darkness disappears and the target takes 6d6 necrotic damage, once per turn. So I had a cool idea with this one! Requires attunement by a rogue, the reason being that the rogue’s sneak attack damage may now be dealt as poison or necrotic damage, and they get to make that darkness appear when sneak attack is triggered. Lets also throw on that when the attacker is within dim light or darkness, they don’t need advantage to use sneak attack, and when attacking from magical darkness, can use it more than once per turn, but no more than once per target. This will create some pretty strategic use of the darkness.   If we don’t have a rogue PC though, perhaps we can simply stack on a sneak attack-like ability - when attacking from dim light or darkness with advantage on the attack, you may add 1d6 each of poison and necrotic damage, and if attacking with advantage from magical darkness, it increases to 2d6 each, and using the extra damage triggers the magical darkness cubes.       Still in the realm of the underdark, lets take a look the Duergar Xarrorn’s Fire Lance! Unique among the Duergar weapons in MTOF in that it is not an entirely psionic special weapon, but also alchemical. It simply deals an extra 1d6 fire damage, and otherwise is a lance. Even at CR2 I’m fine handing that over to the PCs, but the weapon also has a fire spray recharge ability, that shoots a 15 foot cone of fire, OR a 30 foot line, that deals 3d6 fire damage on a failed dex save, DC12 so not super high. I’d say once per day we can hand that ability over to the PCs as well, IF they can recharge it over a long rest with an alchemy tools test. I really enjoy this idea because I love using tools in a game and they rarely get to be applied.  Maybe they’ll even have the idea to use alchemy to channel some other element types into it! Cryofluid is a good deal easier to make than napalm in the real world, so I’d let a clever PC turn this into an ice lance if they thought of it!

     Stepping away from the Underdark, but not yet into the light, we move on to the Shadar Kai, those agents of the Raven Queen herself. 

    The Gloom Weaver is another high level spell caster with a powerful staff weapon. Their Shadow Spear deals and extra 4d12 necrotic damage on a hit. I would say that when not wielded by the Gloom Weaver herself, this is a regular staff that requires attunement. Once attuned, once per day the wielder may cast a Shadow Blade spell on the staff - causing it to become a spear. The blade deals necrotic instead of psychic damage and the wielder can either cast it at 4th level, dealing 3d8 necrotic, or spend a spell slot of 5th or 6th to increase the damage to 4d8, or else a spell slot even higher level to cause the weapon to deal 5d8 necrotic. 

     The Shadow Dancer is an excellent baddie, who swings spiked chains wrapped around their arm, which in addition to some gnarly damage (2d6 piercing) also force a DC 14 dex save, the cost of failure being either the target is grappled, knocked prone, or takes an extra 4d10 necrotic. This one I’d let anyone who can use a whip wield, and on a hit, force that DC 14 dex save against being grappled if the wielder uses their reaction to make it so. Once grappled, the wielder can use an attack to automatically do that 2d6 again and force the target prone, or they can remain grappled without taking any further damage. If the wielder happens to be a warlock of the raven queen, I’d say they can use the extra 4d10 necrotic once as an Eldrich Invocation against a target grappled in the chain. 

    The last creature gifted with an extra special weapon we are going to look at now is the Star Spawn Seer. The Comet Staff they wield deals extra psychic damage, a hallmark of all the Star Spawn, but also forces a DC 19 con save against incapacitation until the end of the target’s next turn.  The Seer is a decently high CR, at 13, and is usually in the company of a  Star Spawn Hulk, a pretty powerful combination so we can assume a party that defeats them is pretty powerful already. The incapacitate ability is super useful but the Star Spawn have such amazing abilities I cant resist handing one over to the PCs! So that being the case, lets make it a regular staff with a 1/day ability to use Collapse Distance, the Seer’s recharge ability. “The seer warps space around a creature it can see within 30 feet of it. That creature must make a DC 19 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the target, along with any equipment it is wearing or carrying, is magically teleported up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space the seer can see, and all other creatures within 10 feet of the target's original space each takes 39 (6d12) psychic damage. On a successful save, the target takes 19 (3d12) psychic damage.” Lets say the DC is a solid 16 for the item itself, and make that AOE psycic damage 3d12 as well so it isn’t too too crazy. 

     That’s all for the unique items potentially dropped by monsters from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes! In part 3 perhaps we’ll look at Volo’s Guide to Monsters or some other sources! If you find these interesting or useful, please let me know! If you think they’re absurd or you have better ideas, let me know that as well! 

[szarkais]

1. How do they move and carry themselves? Pace, rhythm, gestures, energy?

It all depends on Sylas’ mood ,  which he can be in several different moods but for now let me accentuate more on his ‘ normal / relaxed rhythm . ‘  On a normal day he carries himself typically in the back of the group since he is the tallest ,  he also has LONG strides , hands constantly near his sides & swaying ever so slightly with the light footwork he gives.   Sylas carries himself in a charming yet elusive manner , he can smile , show his prominent canines , when he is smooth-talking he often smiles much more & gives more gestures as to appear friendly / easy to talk to .  Multiple hand movements , a nod , even laughing whilst tilting his head back , body language relaxed.   Normally he has decent energy  ,  being from the Underdark & Arash , Sylas was trained to the bone to do things regardless of his energy & how tired he is , so he will push through ,  However if its ‘ vibes ‘ we are speaking of to a normal person he can give off a mysterious , interesting feeling but with further prodding it lingers further on haunting & intimidating / dangerous.

Sylas makes sure to carry himself with a tall stature , with his head held high ( like most drow ) and complete confidence .   

Confidence :  Stepping on the tips of his toes , faint boot-work from his thigh highed boots ,  hands behind his head , a prominent smile and relaxed expression as the rogue carries himself with a spring in his step - showing that those before him are not a threat  &  one he isn’t worried about .  Gestures including are smirking , winking , a throaty chuckle , even bending one knee a tiny bit as he leans against a wall .  

Anger :  Short strides , prominent foot steps , loud crunching of the dirt beneath leather ,  claws digging into his palms ,  incantations ready to summon his magical shadowblade at will .  His pace is CALCULATED despite his anger ,  his pace is quick & often passing up those around him ,  rhythm is erratic ,  the gestures would be clenching of jaw , biting cheek , baring teeth , even going as far as snarling . 

Melancholy :  Normal paced , short stepped , light footing . head still up ahead to show that uncanny confidence drow has but his facial features reek of sadness . The way he keeps hands loosely to his sides or even crossed to his chest show that maybe he isn’t all that confident & feels isolated .  Softer , shorter breaths ,  paranoid eyes drifting back & forth & even behind him .  His pace is slightly slower than his normal pace , his rhythm is slightly sluggish . 

[tentacleteapot]

Meero Tihimvi, as rendered by @prawnlegs (left) and @mcbenik (right)!

This is my dumbass edgelord, my gay ninja lizard. Meero is a kobold, one of 37 children, trained by a martial arts master as a teen along with three other kobolds. During the Voyages of the Shooting Star campaign Meero lost her wife to the drow, saved the world, adopted a son, started dating again, defeated the kobold warlord who killed her master and stole his katana, and gained the favor of a crew of undead zombie pirates. Meero was also responsible for one of my favorite quotes I ever said during a tabletop session: “Meero doesn’t know the word for this in common, but kobolds have an expression: ‘lull them into a false sense of fire extinguisher’.” After retiring from adventuring, Meero became the empress of all kobolds and continued to moonlight as the Shadowblade, a Black Panther-style vigilante. She was a ridiculous, hilarious, badass character to roleplay and I’m so pleased with where all her adventures took her. 

I’ll miss you, Meero!

[probablyottrpgideas]

Game Recap Series: EIS 0

Since I started this series I’ve only been playing my Dungeonbowl campaign, which has meant I had completely forgotten to do an Up-to-Speed post for the actual real proper campaign I’m running. Since we had our first session of that game in over 2 months last Sunday, I need to do a recap, so I’ll push through the update as quickly as possible before I get to that session. Here goes:

In the land of Caerwyn, there is one central government, the Tyrian Empire, and the largest institution within the Empire is the Imperial military. Given this juggernaut of resources, many people enlist as a means to pull themselves out of debt or receive training they otherwise would have to pay a lot of money for.

Through a variety of reasons, a pool of new recruits all join at the same time, and underwent basic training. 

Group A (PCs)

Avoyelles Isani: Drow, Circle of Twilight Druid, Charlatan (Feygate) Arner Diomal’st’ano: Eladrin, Sorcerer/Cleric, Archeologist (Encarlin) Nerra: Half-Elf, Skirmisher Rogue, Criminal (Imperial) Eleric “Relic” Mort: Human, Champion Fighter, Gladiator (Imperial) Jimothy Tames: Githyanki, Battlemaster Kensai, Merchant (Imperial)

Group B (NPCs)

Nichollo Gioirdani: Eladrin, Evokation Wizard, Folk Hero (Feygate) Sorel Conera’st’ona: Deva, Storm Cleric, Outlander (Encarlin) Errol Goddard: Pixie, College of Maestro Bard, Artist (Imperial) Farren Selch: Feytouched Githzerai, Path of Brawn Barbarian, Urchin (Imperial) Robert Tames: Razorclaw Shifter, Inquisitive Rogue, Charlatan (Imperial)

During their training, rather than be transferred to one of the many formal units, they are instead put through a rigorous induction test (involving being dropped with minimal resources and separated from one another in the middle of a blizzard) to join the mysterious and prestigious Empire Intelligence Services.

After their induction the two teams were assigned separate senior agents; Group A would be led by Celia Sapienza (Eladrin, Shinobi Kensai, Guardsman, Feygate) and Group B would be led by Glymmer d’Embry (Elf, Wyrmling Shogun, Scion, Imperial). Group A were then given their first mission; investigate a series of disappearances in the northern town of Farren’s Landing that had the local guard puzzled. 

Arriving in Farren’s Landing and setting up their temporary base in the top level of a local inn, the group began investigating the three disappearances that they knew of, as well as organising a meeting with a locally known smuggler who might be able to provide them with information. Within the course of their investigation they discovered a number of details; all three disappearances featured a paw print as of a large dog, and two of the three featured closed and locked doors. They also discovered that one of the disappeared was a member of the local crime family, and that all three had interacted in some way with the local manor. Arner and Relic visited a local dog training yard with a mould of the paw-prints and confirmed Arner’s suspicion that the culprit was using some kind of Blink Dog. 

Using Celia’s cover story that they were the retinue of a minor Feygate noble to establish an audience with the Duke, the team investigated the manor and discovered that a number of scholars from the arcane library had been recently dismissed. One of those figures, a young sorcerer named Dareg Shille, had been messing about with Blood Magic, and after discussing with the senior arcanist what sort of mutations could be achieved using blood magic the team began to believe that Dareg Shille had twisted a once good-aligned fey into assisting him in abducting townsfolk.

Using both the Pollan crime family and the local guard for assistance, the team tracked Shille to the flood-water tunnels under the city and, despite being forcibly separated by the Blink Dog’s ability to grab hold of them and teleport them away, they slew the dog and Shille, although they were too late to rescue any of the abductees. 

While in town, they received a message from command of a new mission; the late brother of the Duke of Farren’s Landing had apparently been having an affair with the young sister of the Empress, and the two had been trading letters that, should they be made public, would embarrass the royal family. The team had to track down the hiding place of the letters and bring them back to command. By discussing the details of the Lord’s personal life with the residents of the Duke’s manor, the group identified a hunting lodge deep in the nearby forest, and travelled out there to retrieve the letters. However, as they pulled the letters from their hiding spot, the group was ambushed by unknown assailants, who used blinding and stunning alchemical explosives to temporarily subdue the party. When they recovered the assailants were gone and the letters still remained, and no-one was quite able to work out what had been taken/done. Still, they returned the letters to command, and their CO Warren Caine told them not to worry about it, as without more to go on they couldn’t really do much more anyway.

Returning to the field base the team had a week of rest before being sent off on their new mission; a mercenary guard for a lord of the royal court had been accused of the murder of the lord’s son. Ma Wei, a talented and dangerous arcane archer, had resisted arrest and fled, heading north. The last word anyone had was of her boarding a boat at Farren’s Landing.

The team geared up and returned to Farren’s Landing, without Celia (who was on another mission at the time), finding the docks and asking around to see if anyone had seen an elf matching Ma Wei’s description. A few people mentioned they had seen her getting on an ice-cutter, implying that she was heading further north into the frozen polar continent of Kalteheim, although they could not remember the name of the ship she had boarded.

Needing passage to the north for themselves, the team went looking for someone with a similar ice-field ready ship, and were directed to Emilie Greys (Shade, Nightstalker Shadowblade, Pirate), captain of the Viaggiatore. Greys turned out to be a Shade, and what’s more her entire crew were comprised of the dregs of mortal races, be they shadow creatures or shapeshifters or even an ogre. After a minor scuffle with sahaugin saw the team step in to protect the crew, they were accepted as friends and the journey continued much more congenially.

Halfway to Kalteheim, the Viaggiatore stopped off at a small island town called Isla Helado to restock, and the team, with nothing else to do, decided to investigate a local haunted castle. Once there they destroyed the ghost of the old Imperial commander and the skeleton soldiers, broke the enchantment on the armoury, and cleared the place out. In the process, a ghost of a dog imprinted on Relic, and now follows him around (the team now call him Zero, after the ghost dog from The Nightmare Before Christmas).

While stuck on Isla Helado, the team were treated to a story/mass hallucination by the skaldic ships quartermaster, Lucas Rimeweather AKA Old Man Exposition. Through his storytelling the team got to live through the story of how Captain Greys became a shade, 1000 years previously when the Viaggiatore crew were only six;

Captain Ysalt Margaine: Deva, Shugenja Cleric, Pirate, Imperial E4-G13 AKA Birdbot: Warforged, Path of the Eagle Totem Barbarian, Gladiator, Imperial Amaya DeSaad AKA Goldfist: Lightborn, Sweet Science Pugilist, Vigilante, Imperial/Fallow Elena Willow: Hamadryad, College of Courtship Bard, Courtesan, Feygate Everett McCree: Changeling, Shadow Spy Rogue, Cultist, Imperial Emile Greys: At the time, a regular human

The story went that Emilie, seeking the power to wreak vengeance on those who had killed her family, had tried and failed to become a Shade. So the crew went to Marnati City and sought out the expertise of a non-binary Elven magician called Maester Delver. Delver told the crew that the only way to save Emilie was to complete the full ritual, turning her into not only a Shade but a Shadowblade. The ritual could only be found in the Isle of the Lost in the Shadowfell, and to get there they would need to be able to travel across the planes. They suggested that the best way would be to bind the soul of a planar travelling creature to their vessel, and they provided the crew with some soul-binding artifacts. Meanwhile, the crew tracked down rumours of a Shadow Dragon hiding in the islands south of Caerwyn, and so travelled there. They got the location of the Shadow Dragon, found it, slew it, and bound its soul to the Viaggiatore. Once complete, they travelled into the Shadowfell and found the Isle of the Lost. 

Retrieving the correct ritual required them to complete the challenge of the seven virtues. The first room was a puzzle, testing their wisdom, where they had to solve a riddle to find the key to the next room. The second was a large battle arena with a cage door that only allowed a single combatant through. Birdbot went through and faced off against an Earth Elemental on his own, testing his courage. After this was completed the cage lifted and Birdbot was attacked by a fearsome dracolich, forcing the others to rush to his aid, testing their loyalty. Once they realised there was no way they could defeat the dracolich the team had to lay down their weapons, testing their humility. They then passed into the next room, which was filled to the brim with treasures untold, which they had to walk past without touching, testing their temperance. At the end they had to place something of value in the empty chest in front of the door, testing their charity. The last room was a gigantic library of scrolls; this, a test of their faith, simply meant they had to select one scroll without looking at it and continue on. Here, at last, they messed it up, and while they retrieved the ritual they were forced to leave Birdbot behind. They rescued Emilie and the story ended there.

Finally arriving at Fort Rast in Kalteheim, the team signed on as crewmembers of the Viaggiatore so that their names could be withheld from the ships manifest and then quietly came ashore, seeking out a local inn named the Frozen Hearth. There they asked around with the locals to see if anyone had seen Ma Wei, and they were directed to a local Bard who had been away for a while and recently returned. Av and Jimothy interrogated the boy, and found that he had indeed come through on the ship Illusion of Choice, where he had been friends with Ma Wei. He directed them to the hunting paths north of the fort, and the group decided to see what they could find. While this was happening, Nerra thought she saw someone following the group, but said nothing.

On heading out for a look around, the team became acquainted with the peculiarity of the local fauna of Kalteheim; largely, that everything was giant. Proximity to high magical fields had caused all natural creatures to take on colossal sizes, with rabbits the size of lions and wolves as big as mountains. Also at around this time, Celia appeared with bad news; Robert, Jimothy’s husband and member of the B team, had been badly injured on a mission. Jimothy left to be with his husband while he recovered, and the team were joined by Kitt Delkatt (Human, Hunter Ranger, Consort, Imperial), a new recruit. 

While out on the Hine Plain, a frozen wasteland north of the fort and the apparent direction Ma Wei had travelled, the group encountered an Ice Titan, a snow fox three or four times the size of an elephant. They tried everything, from hiding to running to fighting, but the creature seemed to barely notice their attacks. In the end, the group were saved by an unlikely ally; another Ice Titan, a wolf so large that its head was a mere shadow in the sky, which crashed out through the snow and snapped up the fox in its jaws like it was nothing. 

The team continued on until they reached a gorge, where they found evidence of someone having climbed down inside. Following the trail, the team was attacked by a hail of magical arrows, and they might have been in danger had Celia not revealed that they were there on behalf of the Intelligence services, not the police. Ma Wei, nervous but now curious, allowed them inside the old Stealth Corps. fox-hole she was hiding in. The two groups discussed their positions and came to the conclusion that someone was setting Wei up; the best bet would be to take her into EIS protective custody while they looked into the frame job.

While they were discussing things, however, they were attacked by pursuer that Nerra had almost seen; a Chaotin (homebrew elvish subtype) assassin with powerful psychic abilities. The team were all, barring Avoyelles, paralysed by the assassin and would have died, were it not for Zero possessing an Ice Titan and eating him. 

On the way back to the Fort, half the team fell into a fresh ravine and discovered an ancient, abandoned temple, where a gauntlet of necromantic power was killing any wandering traveller and turning them into skeletons. One such skeleton had retained his mind, Mac Bonney (Awakened Undead Skeleton, Marksman Rogue, Archeologist, Imperial) and he assisted the team in fighting off the hordes of skeletised bugbears, minotaurs, ogres and a powerful bone naga. In return, Mac was brought back with them to the EIS camp.

After this lengthy trip the party were paid their salary and given the chance to come stay in the Imperial Capital city of Tyria for a while, which would give them the ability to visit Robert and catch up with Jimothy. While in town they got to know their fellow spies, including getting better acquainted with Errol, Farren, Warren and Glymmer on a personal level, as well as go shopping and generally explore the metropolitan excesses on display. Jimothy, who had begun to develop a reverence for Kord, found a temple to the thunder god and explored the possibility of becoming a paladin. He also got into an underground boxing match with Relic and handed the fighter’s ass to him.

Their leave was cut short however when Warren received word that the two cultists who had been captured after the attack that had left Robert injured had revealed something in their interrogation; something terrible was going to happen in the small town of Brattenhome, east/south-east of Faelmarch. The team were dispatched there as quickly as possible.

When they arrived, Relic detached himself from the group; Avoyelles, who had been flirting heavily with the fighter, took this as an opportunity to sulk following the recent revelation that he had a wife, and so no-one questioned it. In truth, he was spending his time on a separate mission for Warren, looking for an old equipment cache hidden somewhere in Brattenhome which contained some documents Warren needed retrieved in secret.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team filled his spot by befriending another traveller passing through the town, a copper dragonborn named Alketh (Dragonborn, Evokation Wizard, Sage, Imperial). They began their investigation, and quickly discovered that a young elvish storehand, Yushiro Nakai, had disappeared. As it was late when they arrived they turned in shortly after, but the next morning Yushiro reappeared, shortly before mutating into a horrifying spider creature. The team dispatched her, and then spoke with the sheriff of the town to discuss what had happened. He asked them to keep the investigation quiet, but that he would help them out if they needed it. 

The team then took a quick trip into the forest to follow up a lead (dead-end; the Walshes were not cultists at all but vryloka isolationists, and while they were antagonistic towards the team intruding onto their land they were not investigated further). On their return to town, however, they found that five more townsfolk had been kidnapped in the night, and the town was now in uproar. Getting a meeting with the mayor, the team identified what they were in town to do and the mayor gave them access to whatever resources they wanted. The group split up to conduct parallel investigations into a number of leads, including the homestead of one of the disappeared folks, the fishing boat of another, and a creepy warehouse at the edge of town. The group in the warehouse were attacked by another mutated villager, a trio of giant spiders and a swarm of regular spiders, and they barely escaped with their lives.

Which brings us, at last, to the most recent session...

[moonsp1r1t]

It has been seven years since Athaso of House Nathven, a Shadowblade of the Lolth’s Seekers, was sent on a mission to assassinate a group of adventurers. While seven years may not be a long time to an elf, it was enough time for the Drow to leave her life as an assassin behind for good. Seven years wasn't long enough for the organization she left behind to forget Athaso or her treachery, however, leading to her kidnapping and transformation into a Drider. Now Athaso must choose to live with her punishment in the place that she left behind, or she must try to escape the Underdark once more and risk that her love would only see her as the monster she has become.

...

Hey so I’ve been looking for things to do during quarantine and, lacking any campaigns to be a part of but a burning interest in D&D, I created a couple of characters and shipped them together. After all, if I don’t write the exact forbidden elf romance that I want, who will? Anyway, I’d be appreciative if you gave it a read!

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

The shadowblade! Cursed elves, 4′7″-5′5″ (1.5-1.7 m) range, generally sadistic assholes due to thier goddess personally hunting and killing any good ones and spending thousands of years actively corrupting the rest. However, exceptions do exist, some are decent people. The shadowblade can summon a shadow demon, levitate, and teleport! They're spies and assassins, and actually much less likely to be an asshole than most drow. They're typically fairly neutral, either working as freelance assassins or actively foiling their patron diety's plans! Just would've felt weird to me to put them with the others given the looks and personality are fairly different.

[pentacass]

1, 13, 19, 31, 44 😘

*crashes thru your roof with chocolate dice* tenk u <3

1. Tell us about your Tav! Name, class and subclass, race, pronouns. Do you have a headcanon for where they're from? Their family? Are they a Dark Urge? Or did you choose an Origin Character? Was it an easy decision?

Solistre Velondris. Rogue, Arcane Trickster (though I style her as a Drow Shadowblade in fic). She/her. She's from Menzoberranzan, the third daughter of House Velondris - a minor noble house that was destroyed in their play for power.

She's not a Dark Urge, an easy decision cos I had her since EA and didn't really want to change much.

13. Do you have a favorite character from the Underdark? Is it the same as your Character's?

Hmm I don't really have a favourite character in the Underdark. But I do like Blurg and Omeluum.

Sol doesn't have a favourite, didn't have the emotional capacity to connect with anyone else at that point anyway. Someone was already sapping away her attention.

19. Did your Character spend a night with a companion either the night of the party or earlier? Is it someone they have a continued interest in?

Anyone who's read my unhinged posting knows lmaoo. She spent the night with Shadowheart in Act 1, and will follow through with her until the end. I like to think they have little moments since that date by the waterfall, until they declare for each other after Shadowfell.

Sol had a passing...er, lust for Karlach and her muscles, lowkey flirted, but by the time Karlach could touch people in Act 2, Sol's already got it bad for Shadowheart and wants to know exactly what the fuck is wrong with her.

31. Does your Character have new or old phobias or superstitions that affect their story?

Like most Lolthian drow, Sol never hurts spiders (unless they try to eat her first). Even when she was driven to the surface, disfavoured and disgraced in the eyes of Lolth, she still keeps a certain reverence for spiders. Old habits die hard.

She let slip a prayer from her lips after they killed the spider matriarch below the blighted village, and winced from the knee-jerk reaction. The last thing she wants to do is draw Lolth's eyes on her.

44. Asker wants Blogger to choose a question from the list. - 40. Is your Character used to strange dreams from before the events of the adventure?)

Sol's had dreams before, but only vague ones, when she was absolutely wasted from alcohol or drugs. She never remembered them, was never bothered by them. But having that first dream with the visitor disturbed her a lot, so she refused to go into trance until Karlach and Shadowheart staged an intervention a couple of days later.

[pentacass]

tfw ur dream hottie has the wrong hair colour 20 hours in

solistre backstory lore dump cos brain go choochoo

Ilivastra was a bard in the employ of Solistre’s house for decades, and was Solistre’s lover for nearly as long. The matron mother had intended to have Ilivastra disposed of when Sol seemed too enamoured with her, but was allowed to stay after surviving a brutal trial of loyalty devised by the matron herself.

Ilivastra was kept on a tight leash by the matron, who found a use for her bond with Solistre - which was sincere, as much as it could be among the drow. Though Sol was invaluable as a shadowblade, eliminating the house’s enemies without trace, she was also a hedonistic little scoundrel, always one vice away from being a liability. Ilivastra had a way of keeping Sol focused, always nudging and pushing her into peak performance, to be a deadly force that the third daughter should be.

While the house was under attack by a rival house, Solistre arrived too late to save her family - including Ilivastra, the last and only one she found still standing, bleeding from a stab wound, pale from poison. Sol would’ve stayed and died by her side, if Ilivastra hadn’t shoved Sol onto the teleportation circle she’d conjured, then stayed behind to dispel it so none could follow Sol.

That the tadpole takes Ilivastra’s guise is incredibly jarring for Sol. Though she’s furious at its desecration of Ilivastra’s memory, she’s also afraid of how much she wants to listen to the tadpole, despite knowing her lover is dead. The gentle touches and silken-smooth croons, the promises that ‘You can be stronger. I will help you become stronger.’, are dangerously reminiscent of the time they’d spent in the Underdark together.

But, as tempting as not-Ilivastra is, every dream with her is another twist of the knife - a reminder that makes Sol refuse the tadpole’s offers, again and again. That doesn’t mean she isn’t tempted to use the tadpole’s powers, to look upon Ilivastra’s visage once more… And that is the edge the tadpole wields over her.

[rppik]

Very funny to me that the propaganda for the shadowblade is like "this one is a Baddie but there are exceptions to the 'Generally Evil as a Rule' thing! Get with a drow that's mysterious and violent but maybe also soft and a rebel for a good cause 👀 🥺 "

And then for the salamander it's just. "This thing is going to vore you. You're going to get vored."

On the left, the shadowblade! Cursed elves, 4′7″-5′5″ (1.5-1.7 m) range, generally sadistic assholes due to thier goddess personally hunting and killing any good ones. However, exceptions do exist, and shadow blades are more likely than most to not be actively malicious. The shadowblade can summon a shadow demon, levitate, and teleport! They're spies and assassins, and actually much less likely to be an asshole than most drow. They're usually freelance assassins or actively foiling their patron diety's plans!

On the right, the frost salamander! Ice elementals that slip into our world sometimes to hunt and eat anything warm. Huge size, so somewhere in the 16-32 ft (4.9-9.8 m) range. They like burrowing into the ice to form massive caverns, rolling in ice (scratches their back), and eating sources of heat (from people to fire). Only surprising bit is that their intelligence is on par with the average orc, letting them catch people off guard with their wit!