#happens to die in the Shadowfell

[shaykai]

What if. Hear me out. It’s not likely. But what if all the scrying eyes in Moonrise belong to Gortash, including the one sent with Balthazar

[trappedinafantasy37]

Alright alright alright! Speedrun time so I can finish this run, finish the Act 3 write up, and start posting the Shadowheart origin fic. Did quite a bit all in one day, so let's gooooo.

Went to the sewers and found Nine Fingers Keene, someone on my list of NPC's who absolutely should be kissable but isn't cause Larian is full of cowards!

Went to the bank and found this guy.

Followed his stench right on back to the sewers. But unfortunately Jaheira got, *cough*, left behind at Moonrise so Minsc also got, uuuhhhhhh, left behind.

Unfortunately, a civil war broke out between the Guild and the Zhent. Sided with the Guild cause, who wouldn’t. Although, Minthara had some ideas about what to do with the undesirables once we take over the city. Always the little schemer she is.

Met some weirdos!

Met a pirate who had quite a thing for Minthara. I mean, "Captain Grizzly" was laying down that rizz HARD. But, can we blame her?

Killed Lora and returned to the Captain. Surprise, it's Ethel! Don't care, gimme my money. Also got an ally with a very useful skill for the most annoying fight later. *Minthara approves*.

Shadowheart went home and met her mother. Poor girl was boutta cry! Also had some pretty triggering memories while going through the cloister.

It has been so long since I've made Shadowheart go down the Selunite path that I forgot how much of a pain in the ass the House of Grief fight was. I wanted to rip my skin off the entire time! I spent thirty minutes watching Minthara and Shadowheart get blinded over and over and then have their asses beat. I actually had to go pull out the hirelings. Holy shit, I fucking hate the Sharrans! If you ever need a good reason to have Shadowheart go down the DJ path, this bullshit of a lineup is a good damn reason!

Viconia, on the ground, begging for mercy. Shadowheart did not care what happened and wanted Viconia to embrace loss. Minthara said "fuck your mother and fuck your mercy" and killed Shadowheart's mother. Gah, what a romantic she is!

I HATE SHAR! I HATE SHAR SO DAMN MUCH! FORGET THE DEAD THREE, LARIAN, LEMME KILL SHAR! THERE ARE VERY FEW THINGS I CONSIDER TO BE TRULY EVIL AND SHAR IS MOST DEFINITELY ONE OF THEM!

The price of freedom is never free...

What a whirlwind of a day. Fought in a civil war between thieves, ran into some old enemies, and Shadowheart went through one of the most traumatizing things in her life and killed every parental figure she’s ever had in a span of ten minutes! But, that’s okay. Minthara made her feel all better. After all, killing your parents is a rite of passage.

< The Wizard | The Foundry and Gortash >

[autistichalsin]

Some of my favorite, understated moments with heartbreaking implications for Halsin

1. Halsin threatening to turn into a mouse in the epilogue if the player brags about his achievements- he's so shy and humble that just being acknowledged for LITERALLY BUILDING A COMMUNE HIMSELF makes him want to hide. A mouse is a very symbolic choice here: not only easy to hide, but also easily overlooked and forgotten. The idea of his accomplishments being acknowledged is so terrifying for him that he wants to turn into an animal no one will notice, instead of his usual strong, large, noticeable bear.

2. "Sometimes, I think people look at me and imagine my feelings can't be hurt." This isn't the kind of thing that happens after one or two people act like jerks. This is years and years of cruel treatment, of his emotions being demeaned and mocked because of his size. Of people judging him before even meeting him- and forming an entirely wrong view of him. Halsin is a bighearted, tender, sentimental man, yet because he's big... Well, big people don't have feelings, surely. /s

3. "You and I may struggle to go unnoticed in such environs, Karlach[...] Folk of our stature can be a lure for drunkards seeking a brawl, I have found," combined with, "There is a particular discomfort to besting one you know to be weaker than yourself - even when needs must," from a different scene. People have sought him out and fought him because of his size (which had to have been terrifying, especially the first time), and he feels guilty when he takes out someone he knows is weaker, even if they STARTED it. How many times has the poor guy been traveling and then had to defend himself against someone 1/2 his size, making HIM look like the asshole to onlookers, and reinforcing that whole "people think I can't be hurt" thing?

4. "It was always destined to be so, if we prevailed. But the foreknowledge makes it no less bittersweet..." (About the players' paths diverging post brain battle), combined with "I see... After all my years of living, I know all too well that nothing lasts forever. Yet a parting can sting, nonetheless," if the player breaks up with him in the ending. This poor guy was having the time of his life adventuring with the group (and possibly falling in love there) yet never believed it would truly last (because of his abandonment issues). And then to have it confirmed.... he must have felt so awful in that moment, even if he was being dignified about it.

5. "You came for me... thank you. I feared Orin's accursed smile would be the very last sight I beheld," when Halsin is freed from Orin, combined with, "Orin's blades. I hoped my friends would save me..." If he is killed by Orin instead and Speak With the Dead is used on his corpse. The tone of his voice in the first line, especially added to that bit in the second... he never thought the player was coming to save him. He HOPED they would. Not "believed". Hoped. He thought he was going to die there- just like how he was in the Underdark for THREE YEARS and no one came to save him. And if it's confirmed... Yeah. That. (Sidenote: if you ask his corpse if he has any regrets, he says not telling Thaniel and Oliver goodbye, and not getting to see their land flourish. :( My heart. :( )

6. "I... have not had true confidantes for some time. The Shadow Curse robbed me of almost all my peers, and replaced them with the weight of responsibility. Perhaps that caused me to gild undeserving memories of my youth." Halsin was so miserable and stressed being Archdruid that he romanticized his past as a sex slave, viewing it as a safer, even happier alternative. There were actually times when Halsin thought he might rather be a sex slave than continue to be Archdruid. In a sense, for the 100 years the Shadow Curse was around, Halsin was just as much a prisoner as Thaniel was in the Shadowfell, but Halsin's prison had invisible bars. The Shadow Curse took away his entire support system, and being Archdruid forced him to be the strong one, always, never allowed to be weak or scared, forced him to take control of situations when he hated it, forced him to spend his time sorting out people instead of being in nature. And he was MISERABLE. For 100 years.

7. "You understand me almost perfectly. Only my late mother may have bested you." (Said if you get one question wrong at the love dryad test). He misses his mama. :( Especially when you consider that if you steal Balthazar's "Mother Dearest" and taunt him about it, Halsin disapproves (and is the only one to do so), while returning her gets you approval (which only Halsin approves of). And then the line when you look into a mirror while controlling him, "more like my father, with each passing day..." He really misses them. :(

8. "I am loathe to see anyone behind bars. It reminds me of my time as a guest of the goblins." He is, secretly, still quite traumatized from his time in the goblin pens, but he brushes it off. Just like every OTHER time he is hurt.

9. "I am aware [of having a habit of getting captured]. Perhaps I put too much faith in my skills of negotiation, or want to see good where there is none. It would be easy to resort to nature's fury whenever something stood in my way, yet I cannot help but feel I would be sullying the Oak Father's gifts. Naive perhaps... but I still draw breath." Halsin is aware he gets hurt often because of his desire to see good in people until he has no other choice, but refuses to give up anyway (which is backed up by that letter Gut had on her where she reveals Halsin TRIED to help the goblins, saying he could cure them of their tadpoles, only to be thrown in the cage, with Gut threatening to have his stomach cut open and maggots placed inside it.) Further, even though he is an Archdruid, and one of the most devoted, and explicitly has Silvanus's favor (Halsin says that gaining his favor was the only way he was able to open the portal to the Shadowfell), he still constantly worries about using Silvanus's powers, to the point of wondering if an actual threat to his safety actually merits using his powers. Which... combined with some other stuff, reads like one hell of a problem with self-worth.

10. "At least you were not present. Grim as [the ruined battlefield] is now, it was worse on the day of the battle. A vivid wound upon my memory[...] I was lucky - I lived, when so many did not. It would take me a day and a night to recite the names of all the friends I lost" combined with, "I was [present when the Shadow Curse was unleashed]. Part of my spirit was shorn away from me here, and never left," and, if Last Light falls, "All gone... devoured by the shadows. Oak Father preserve us, it's just like a hundred years ago[...] We are [still standing]. Yet there is a burden to being the survivor... the witness to others' tragedies. It only grows heavier with time." He has so much PTSD and survivor guilt from the Shadow Curse. :( No wonder it's all he can think about- to the point that some of the other companions even get annoyed at him for his obsession.

11. "I never quite realised how burdened I was, until I met you. The threat of the shadow curse, the politics of the grove... I was forgetting who I was, but you lifted the fog. Thank you." Not only does this tie in with the above, with his PTSD from the curse and his utter misery at being Archdruid, but this HEAVILY implies Halsin had depression. Like... that "fog" line hits HARD if you have or have had depression, because that's exactly what it feels like. And the "forgetting who I was" bit too. Not just losing his sense of self to the depression, but to the neverending responsibilities of being Archdruid. I keep repeating myself, but damn, this guy has really and truly spent an entire century being absolutely MISERABLE. :(

12. "Forgive me. I... lost the run of myself. Sometimes, if blood runs hot enough, it's difficult to tame the beast." With that little disgusted groan/sigh, the fury and disgust at himself visible on his face, and the way he rushes to get out the rest of it- he thinks he fucked up so badly that you're about to leave him, maybe forever. And then if you reject him after this? "Ah... I see. Well, of course. Back to camp then." He has the most heartbroken look on his face here, and the way he says "of course" like he just... knew this was coming the instant he accidentally wildshaped. He felt that the first time he let ANY of his imperfections show, the player would leave him. :(

13. "Death is nature's final slumber - it awaits us all. Do not punish yourself over those lost, or give in to despair - not while there are still folk in need of your help." (Said to a Dark Urge if they tell him they're not much of a hero and most people needing them end up dead) Not only is Halsin speaking from experience here, but it's very clear he is STILL doing exactly what he tells Durge not to do, to himself- punishing himself over those who were lost, struggling with devastating survivor guilt.

14. "The grove has cut itself off from the world, to jealously guard its own little pocket of nature. No one shall ever enter or leave again. And I have been evicted from the very place I was charged to safeguard. A telling summary of my time as Archdruid, perhaps..." If the Grove is sealed and you ask him about it later, this is what he says. Interesting that he views being evicted from the place he was in charge of protecting to be a "telling summary." He was forced to take the leadership role there, and yet it was clear he wasn't wanted or respected by a great number of the Druids (exempting Nettie, Rath, and Apikusis). He got a truly thankless job that took damn near EVERYTHING from him emotionally/mentally, causing him to develop depression and causing him to backslide in his previous healing from his trauma from his time as a sex slave, he still gave EVERYTHING to the Grove, and in return...... almost none of his Druids appreciated or even liked him. (I could seriously write at least five metas about how obviously miserable Halsin was at the Grove, despite caring for it deeply).

15. "You could have done anything, gone with anyone... yet you chose me." Said at the epilogue to a solo romanced player who went to the commune with him. There's so many layers of heartbreak here. He is still surprised, six months later, that the player chose him. He even thinks the player will regret it, and will decide they want an adventurer's life after all after seeing everyone else. He doesn't think he is good enough- doesn't think he deserves the player, and yet at the same time he loves them so much that he is heartbroken over the possibility they might agree with him. He thinks that given a chance, there is little chance they would actually choose him again. (He is put at ease quickly when the player promises they picked him for a reason, but even the explanation he gives for why he was so worrie is heartbreaking- that he's so used to a tumultuous life that he thinks something must go wrong. He has been so traumatized so many times over the years that he just has almost no ability to think that true happiness is possible [or deserved] for him.) Something about that is just heartbreaking, even though his ending is one of the happiest of any of the companions.

Someone give this sweet bear man a hug, please :(

[tendermiasma]

Anonymous asked: Did Clover help Halsin with the shadow curse etc, or is their story divergent from the game?

He did, in time. In the Shadowlands he felt exposed and vulnerable with nowhere to run. When the party started ordering him down from taking extra watches he exhausted himself with concealment spells. Halsin in particular seemed concerned with his welfare, encouraging him to rest, which made Clover vow never to close both eyes again. Halsin's entanglement with the Fey made him, in his eyes, his greatest threat. Halsin's want to keep him close felt like

a hound guarding his master's kill, waiting for his return. He'd walked in darkness before and braved the Shadowfell when the little thing inside him that his whole life kept him alive, that screamed and screamed to run or die, reached a fever pitch. It ended poorly.

It pained Halsin more and more that Clover looked at him with such confused mistrust, that he shrank from him. He should let someone alone who clearly wanted nothing to do with him. A sting was natural, but knowing that it was what one wanted had always made it easier to part ways in the end. It made him restless. A pit opened in his stomach when he'd reach to relieve Clover of the heavy water pail to douse the fire and watch his gaze immediately struggle to find its sharpness under a bleary sleeplessness thick with nights spent holding up wards while the Weave frayed around him. Halsin's eyes roamed the treeline but he only thought of how Clover froze at his approaching footfalls at the change of watch. Halsin felt childish, selfish even. Why couldn't he just let this be? He knew why. Something was deeply wrong-- he was a healer and saw in Clover an injury of a different kind. He wished he could convince himself it was the only reason. He had never been a good liar, but this was the first time he cursed himself for it.

It was he who carried Clover back to the firelight and kept him in his own tent to recover. As kind as Halsin was, it was unwise for anyone to keep Clover from him then.

In its unfamiliar warmth was the first time Clover ever spoke of what happened to him. He spoke in the weight of forests holding lost years and spells and a man in the bones of an owl. It all lay about in a half-light, a moonlight throwing long shadows on what he could not say, what he could not remember, what choked him from fear to even whisper.

While he was unable to leave-- due to his physical state and later Halsin's strong insistence-- they had many hushed hours to spend together. It was the first time Clover noticed the heaviness in Halsin's eyes that would part like clouds for the sun when there was something to be done. Clover softened under Halsin's murmured conversation and learned not to pull from his hands. He was only able to stand so much though; Halsin's intentioned touch was overwhelming. It was gentle and mindful and consumed his entire senses and made him want to bolt for the Shadowfell once more. He wanted to cut out every part of him that Halsin's hands had touched because he wanted to think of anything else besides the memory of them lingering on his skin. He wanted Halsin to never stop touching him. He wanted to set the tent on fire.

The warm and deep scent of the blankets and furs that Halsin piled around him was intoxicating and dangerously comforting to Clover. He put nettles under his cheek to keep himself from falling asleep. It sometimes wasn't enough. When Halsin drew close, Clover was enveloped in the same scent.

It took a great amount of trust for Clover to finally help Halsin lift the Shadow Curse and rescue Thaniel. He began to see Halsin's true heart when he very nearly made the whole world stop for him, just by giving him a place to be and a little bit of care without Clover having to look over his shoulder. Even if he still watched, he watched him differently. He defended the gateway with a ferocity and sense of purpose he could never remember feeling before; that something had meaning now. He knew the thing that Halsin would carry back with him. He did not know what he would do. But the little animal that lived in him that always told him to run was waiting for him, too.

[utilitycaster]

Hi there, I saw in one of your tags recently that "if you think the raven queen was being unfair, I'm not really interested in your opinions." I was wondering if you could talk a little more about that because I'll be honest, Vax isn't my favorite character but I've seen all of C1 and I really don't get why some people HATE the RQ, call her unfair, manipulative and pretty plainly say this moon conflict is mostly her fault because she took Vax and through a Domino effect Ludinus is releasing Predathos. Also, I enjoy your theories and analysis for CR so much you got me listening to Midst, so thank you.

Hi anon,

Great question! This is going to be a very long post, with a relatively short initial answer, because there is both the literal misinterpretation that indicates this is not someone with strong analytical skills nor knowledge of canon, and a number of potential mindsets that lead to this manner of thinking in the first place, none of which I respect. You happen to have sort of hit upon the foundational elements of my whole deal re: CR meta, so, buckle in.

The first part is simple: Vex died because Percy triggered a trap before she'd been healed up. We've seen this sort of trap elsewhere in non-divine contexts (Folding Halls of Halas); it's just a form of trap. A particularly nasty one, but this is for a very powerful relic she doesn't want falling into the wrong hands, and, moreover, the party could have likely disabled it either through rogue skills or magic had Percy waited. Vax, then, as the third part of the resurrection ritual, told the Raven Queen to take him instead of Vex. The Raven Queen did precisely as he asked. He did not need to offer this (Scanlan was going to make an offering, the other parts of the ritual had gone well, it was Vex's first death so the DC was low, and Vax could have made any number of other, less dramatic offers), and he did so with the understanding that he would die in lieu of Vex, right then and there. He did not. I think that's the only case, actually, where the Raven Queen was not 100% upfront with her intentions before Vax accepted something; but he offered it voluntarily. Vax was a person who formed extremely intense connections, to the point where it was perhaps unhealthy, and did not believe life without his sister was worth living, and was willing to sacrifice himself to a god.

Everything after that was extremely straightforward. Vax communed with the Raven Queen, who spoke very directly with him in his vision in the Raven's Crest. She was extremely clear when she met with him following his disintegration: he was given the option to refuse her offer, and he took it instead. It is not manipulative to give someone a difficult decision, and if a character you like makes a choice you don't like, it is not automatically the result of manipulation.

As for the moon conflict being her fault…that is, to put it bluntly, unhinged, and what's more, ironic given that that's the manipulative argument. Ludinus tried to commune with Ruidus using a random crystalline artifact beneath Molaesmyr, centuries before Vax was born. He was going to do this regardless. If he couldn't get Vax, he'd get some other sliver of divinity, and what's more, it's been all but stated that Vax is not actually supposed to be leaving the Shadowfell to protect Keyleth, and is disobeying the Raven Queen directly (and it's been stated that this isn't necessarily helpful for Keyleth, who is trying to grieve and move on). So: Vax made his choices with the knowledge of what they entailed, is trying to bend if not break the conditions to which he agreed with full knowledge in a way that probably isn't healthy for him or Keyleth, and it's bananas to be like "wow look at how the Raven Queen made Ludinus try to free Predathos." Like. Even if she had tricked Vax, which she didn't, Ludinus literally could have just kept on his racist imperialistic longevitymaxxing beat indefinitely and left the moon well enough alone. The domino meme is a meme. I mean, while we're at it, couldn't we trace it back to Vecna instead, for killing Vax with Disintegrate in the first place, since had he not done so, Vax would have either survived that fight or would have been resurrected normally? Or perhaps it's Percy for triggering that trap. Or the Chroma Conclave for being the reason why Vox Machina was seeking the Deathwalker's Ward in the first place…but that only happened because Allura and Kima didn't kill Thordak but rather sealed him, and because a priestess of Melora cursed Raishan so that she had reason to ally with Thordak. We can go on indefinitely; the point is, to assign blame specifically to the Raven Queen when Ludinus literally did not have to do a goddamn thing with the moon is a fucking stupid take.

Below the cut, I talk root causes behind why people might decide the Raven Queen was unfair and come up with the above nonsensical argument to support that, since I don't think people say stupid things just to be stupid.

I think one root cause for this mentality of this is that the person in question wishes Vax hadn't died and is looking for someone to blame because they don't want to blame Matt Mercer and Liam O'Brien, even though yeah, that's who to blame. The thing is, as we learned in Campaign 2, character death is quite literally on the table. Had Vax not made his bargain, either in episode 1x103 or his original one during Vex's resurrection? He might have simply remained dead. Had he not given his life for Vex's, he was pursuing paladin anyway with the Everlight, and we don't know what she'd have required of him. But more importantly, for all people like to bring up a PC-centric perspective (which, in Actual Play, is inevitable) Vox Machina's frequent use of resurrection spells was in fact a massive privilege most people in Exandria do not have. And, unsurprisingly for a table whose DM made up rules specifically to make resurrection more difficult, the Critical Role cast is open to a story where death exists. I do not think it's an accident that resurrection has been made even harder in the subsequent campaigns. I also happen to think that Campaign 1 is a far richer and better story with Vax's death, given the other events that occurred. Had Vax not been the sort of person who would offer his life for a god to take in exchange for his sister? Sure, he'd possibly have lived to the end. But he was, and that's the character those people who wish he were still alive loved. If he wasn't that person, they wouldn't have liked him in the same way.

D&D is fundamentally about exceptional characters becoming more powerful, and will be focused on those characters. I do not think D&D supports a story about characters who reject all power. They can give up political power (the Mighty Nein, for the most part, do this - certainly more so than Vox Machina, and Bells Hells is yet to be seen) but they will progress in levels, which is power. Even if unwanted, it is power, because most people in the world are commoners with 5 HP and 10 in all their stats. With that said, a lot of people desperately want a subversion of this power narrative. Vax is, I think, the closest we get. In D&D you are not going to get a player character who finishes a campaign and remains Just Some Guy. But you can have someone like Vax, who doesn't have any interest in power (compare to Vex, who very much is about power and who gets a much happier ending) who nonetheless ends up on the Tal'Dorei Council and the favored of a god…and yet, in the end, his equally powerful friends still can do nothing to save him. I think a Power Bad story is overly simplistic, but "there are limits to power, and ultimately none of us have complete control" is not. I think Vax's death gives the story of Vox Machina a finality and heft that it would lack otherwise.

A second possible cause is the "What if the gods are BAD" argument. I'm going to be totally honest: I did not see this in the fandom until Campaign 3, and honestly, not until EXU Calamity in any widespread sense, which does lead me to believe that most people did not come up with it as a reasonable idea on their own until characters started saying it, because it is so plainly in conflict with the themes of Campaigns 1 and 2 that to make this argument would be obvious projection. Do I think a nuanced view of the gods as flawed beings, rather than perfection, is warranted? Absolutely. Mortals, too, are flawed, and we don't kill them all for it. I think Vax's story makes them uncomfortable because it makes it clear divine favor is not, as Ludinus Da'leth tries to argue, the gods just bestowing and withholding their gifts arbitrarily, but rather that divine favor comes with a divine responsibility as well. Clerics and paladins do not study the way wizards do; but they must live lives in service, whereas a wizard can shut the book at the end of the day and do whatever. Clerics and paladins have powers that can be taken away; a wizard does not. That's the fundamental concept behind the Age of Arcanum - wizards trying to get around the fundamental rules of this world! Vax's paladin powers came at a price. His options are guided, but also limited, by the oath he took. He is far more fettered than a wizard, in the end, and I think that fucks with the narrative of the gods cruelly withholding their gifts from all but a select few, so they instead make their gifts into manipulative punishments…while still, contradictorily, arguing that characters such as Laudna or Ashton or Imogen were denied the mercy of the gods. Now, setting aside the obvious, that these characters have their backstories because Marisha and Taliesin and Laura decided they would because this is a story, and one in which someone had a perfect life would be boring and so the gods didn't intervene with Laudna because Marisha Ray wanted to play a Sun Tree corpse (see next section), it really is fascinating to see how people who hate the Raven Queen so neatly align with Ludinus. It's fine for sorcerers to have inborn powers, apparently, and Ludinus actually has himself tried to ape druidic magic; it's not about power, it's just about that power source. Honestly, they're not even above the gods as a power source - Ludinus used the crystal beneath Molaesmyr seemingly unaware if it were of the Archheart, and he's demonstrably using Vax, and everyone loves a resurrection from the gods, but heaven forbid you pay someone for the work you feel yourself entitled to. (Entitlement: this will also be a theme throughout the rant portion of this post.)

As a brief subsection to this: the idea that bad things happen to good people because the other side of that coin is free will is an ancient theological and philosophical discussion, and one we are obviously not going to solve here, though it is a little depressing I have had multiple rewarding conversations on this topic, thanks to an academically rigorous religious education, starting from the tender age of 9, and a lot of adults on Tumblr seemingly can't engage on the level of my third-grade classmates. I think, however, it tells a truth that fits in well with the wizard (and entitled fan) desire to control everything. People are terrified of random forces. Cancer, for example, is a matter of probability. There are things that can increase your chances of developing cancer, to be sure, but the simile I used when I was taught about radiation-induced cancers was that of lottery tickets: if you buy more, you have a better chance; but sometimes someone who bought a single ticket "wins" and someone who bought a ticket weekly never does. By believing the gods of Exandria are on trial for not intervening with every little hardship or for not taking Vax precisely as he intended, they reveal a profound terror of random chance and of the free will of people who are not them. Which is very funny when you consider we're watching Actual Play, where random chance is a deliberately induced element. I think the takeaway of all of this is "I think some of you guys are really mad this is a D&D game." But let's continue.

The third, and honestly most likely cause, is honestly sort of a continuation of the first but not centered around Vax so much as just a general, in my opinion deeply childish discomfort of any sort of tragedy or unhappiness in fiction. I've noticed this a lot lately, and I am not a cultural critic and don't have a high enough level view to pretend to be one, but as others have noted a lot of people seem affronted when whatever show they are currently watching does not meet their specific standards of "comfort media" or "hopepunk." It's a self-infantilization I don't care for, and it's certainly not limited to the CR fandom (see: any grown-ass adult passionately defending a choice to only watch children's cartoons and only read YA) or even fandom at all (see: the baffling popularity of the Mr. Rogers "look for the helpers" line which was intended for anxious young children, not for adults who can and should be the helpers). It really came into focus for me with CR when people referred to both EXU Calamity and to Candela Obscura's Circle of Needle and Thread as specifically "hopeless." They are, to me, deeply hopeful series. They are sad, and tragic, and many characters do not get a happy ending, but they are ultimately about how some people will endure, and will live on and find meaning after great loss. Calamity explicitly states that because of the actions of the heroes, while devastation will occur, total annihilation is mitigated. It's like the adage of how courage only means something in the face of fear; hope only means something in the face of darkness. Happy and fluffy tales are not hopeful; they are merely not things that require you to have hope. The root word of catharsis is that of cleansing and purgation and it originally related to physical excretion - cathartic stories are about getting those complicated and ugly emotions and fears out and feeling better for it by briefly feeling, perhaps, worse! Now, again, this has worsened with Vax's story with time. Shortly after Campaign 1, it was very common to see stories where Vex or Keyleth were utterly distraught, indefinitely, but those at least were engaging with grief, even if in a very shallow and unproductive way. But this has morphed into this idea that the fact that a work of fiction might make you even feel sadness makes it bad, and wrong, and hopeless, and the machinations of a cruel and heartless god. Which brings me back to the entitlement narrative: it's really as simple as "the story didn't give me what I wanted (whether that was a happy ending for Vax, or for Keyleth, or just a lack of sadness generally, or a narrative about the gods that validates my personal beliefs, or a way to justify Ludinus's actions), so it is bad." Which again is about being in control of the narrative, which again, in D&D, is simply not something anyone can claim. Why are these people here watching a D&D game? I don't know.

So that's really it: on a basic level, if you think the Raven Queen is unfair, you are profoundly ignorant of canon, so I'm already going to have to fact check anything you cite (if you cite at all), but there's a much deeper refusal to meet stories where they are and expand one's own comfort zone at play, and that means any analysis will never consider the possibility that your pre-existing beliefs were wrong (absolutely crucial in meta). You will always play it too safe and be uninspired and reactionary because the alternative is uncertainty and fear. I think a refusal to embrace tragedy in fiction is itself a profound tragedy; that is someone who is terrified to believe that life goes on.

[cookies-over-yonder]

hi yeah im not done naddpod c1 yet so please dont spoil me i just got to the second episode of shadowfell but. th way hardwon is soo everybody i love dies everyone i touch will die something horrible will happen to everybody i care about. what the fuck. fuck this shit. fucking hell man. fuck

[bigfatlesbian]

Does Dame Aylin have mommy issues? An essay nobody asked for

Disclaimer: This is not what I 100% believe to be canon but rather a train of thought I've been having for some time now so I decided to share. Feel free to disagree or add to it. (Yes, part of it might as well be me projecting, lol).

And of course: spoiler warning for both the act 2 and act 3 nightsong quest.

So, Aasimars usually have a celestial ancestor a few generations removed. Even with faint divine heritage they function as champions of the gods (which we see with Aylin as well).

Now, Aylin's divine heritage is much more recent with her being a direct descendant of Selune. This suggests greater involvement from Selune as opposed to the 'usual' Aasimar family dynamic (which is most often laced with expectations of greatness anyway).

We don't know anything about Aylin's mortal parent so this is just me assuming but considering she's been 'blessed' with immortality along with everything her life's purpose is obvious: being Selune's sword.

So she would have to have been raised as exactly that. And for a long time (maybe even centuries bc afaik she doesn't have a canon age), she was very content in being just that, a weapon. She obviously enjoys fighting, especially for what she believes is right (and she obviously believes in her mother's cause).

Considering Selune is a very responsive and involved deity there's no way she has time to be an actual mother figure in Aylin's life. Especially with her war against Shar, I would assume there's more of a general/sovereign relationship going on.

My headcanon is that she's only ever learned how to interact with mortals by playing the role of the demigod (which is why her dialogue with Tav is so stiff and 'knightly'). That only ever changed for Isobel because Isobel actually sees the person and not just the legend or the idea. In turn, Isobel shows her that she's not just divine but has mortal blood running through her as well.

Now, assuming she was content in her role as sword before, meeting Isobel might have put some cracks into that as Aylin learns that she can connect with mortals instead of just being a beacon of her mother's religion.

So then Isobel dies and with her Aylin's newfound identity as something more than just a divine pawn. She has a century of being killed over and over again to realize what her mother is using her for.

While gods aren't supposed to meddle in mortal affairs, surely (an actually motherly) Selune would've led clerics/ other adventurers to the Nightsong in an attempt to free her daughter. As far as we know that never happened. Now that could be due to Shar's influence and the shadow curse, but Aylin wasn't exactly aware of what was happening on the surface during her time in the Shadowfell so I imagine her faith must've faltered somewhat. All that time in the soulcage, being killed and resurrected over and over again must've changed her outlook on her immortality (if seeing Isobel die hadn't done that already). Where everyone sees a gift/blessing from Selune Aylin knows what it really is: a tool to make her a means to an end and in turn (for her as an individual) a curse.

So while I can get behind the theories of her breaking her oath by killing Lorroakan without due cause, I think what she truly lost might've been her undying belief in Selune and Selune's cause. She's realized that all people see when they look at her is her immortality and her servitude to her mother. And while she still wants to serve her mother because her core beliefs still align with Selune's teachings, she might also want a little more. She might want to actually have a life for herself, especially one with an end. So in the end she might get a little more selfish and a little less perfect and I think that's beautiful.

TLDR:

What if your mom was a god and you felt indebted to her? And what if she still let you suffer through a century of pure hell?

Or: I believe Aylin has a ton of potential for character growth that goes beyond her being the standard Mary Sue DMPC some people on Steam/Reddit make her out to be and Isobel is the catalyst for it. (Bc she's exactly what Aylin has always needed, we're romantic lesbians in this household, ok?)

[thisisnotthenerd]

new laudna reclass option from thisisnotthenerd: laudna as a warlock of the raven queen. there's lots of subclass options: celestial, hexblade, undying, etc. i’m using the latter bc we’ve seen hexblades multiple times on cr and celestial doesn't really fit the vibe.

i’ve gotten into both bard and wizard laudna before but you don’t even have to change her build for this. think about it.

---

she’s descended from the shadowfell, where the raven queen holds dominion. she comes down from the sun tree, barely makes it off as zombies attack whitestone, stumbles into a tiny shrine by the graveyard.

sorcerers are charisma casters. why, when their magic is inherent to their lineage? because it involves them projecting their will on the world and controlling those innate magics. an endless negotiation between the self and the forces of magic. matilda walks into the temple of the raven queen a first level shadow sorcerer, the voice of her killer haunting her mind as the runes of a magic jar line her ribs. she does not know whether she is alive by means of her own doing or because of the contingencies of the woman who murdered her.

she kneels at the altar, body cold and blood slow, not knowing what has happened to her. wishing for a miracle, a chance to be as she was before, but knowing clerical prayers would be as likely to destroy her as heal her.

matilda has the presence of mind not to consider making a one-sided oath, not when she was just killed by false promises, in the name of warning people she never met in her lifetime.

it’s not so much the swearing of an oath or the making of a pact as it is an agreement to look the other way. she sheds her name and her previous life and binds herself to the power of death. she tracks the threads that have fallen from the matron's realm or never passed through in the first place in exchange for the opportunity to try and pull her thread back into the weave.

the matron herself once learned the ways of the undying from the previous god of death, and then again as emhira. it would fit for matilda laudna to take that pact.

laudna draws on her inherent affinity for shadow and death, and is granted a way get back to a human state. it’s not without conflict—she bargains for time with every moment she spends awake. she will forever live alone, haunting the places she once inhabited, unless she can draw her thread of fate back to the matron’s realm, finding others who defy fate along the way.

it takes her a long time to simply recover from her murder, with limited healing and an undead body that breaks as much as it heals. it takes longer for her to learn the secrets of death, and start investigating what made her so different from a standard human.

she becomes a harbinger, a ghostly woman wearing tattered clothing, endlessly traveling where the wind takes her. she can smell death on the wind, and know that anyone drawn to her is either soon to die or hopelessly tangled up in fate.

she has the unsettling presence of the dead, with large glassy eyes and translucent skin, the blood beneath it near black in color. she looks ageless, skin not youthful nor wrinkled, but simply stiff and still. her voice is uneven, magic working to keep her vocal cords operational after 30 years of undeath. she is a being of magic, both arcane and innate.

---

campaign points:

instant god connection, but a different relationship than we’ve seen before—deliberate indifference as protection. contrast to otohan rejecting the duskmaven—opportunity for greater lore on a great bore. getting the mask would mean more, and they probably would have had insight on her position earlier.

more of a reason/way to infiltrate paragon’s call. you have ashton with ratanish. i will admit i think it fits a little better if laudna is a hexblade interacting with otohan, but that might just be me.

undying means she can stabilize people with spare the dying and pops up when she passes death saves, which has good synergy with strength of the grave from shadow sorcerer. it makes it difficult for her to die. it also means that bell's hells would have three tiers of medics between fcg, fearne & dorian (& braius), and then laudna.

opens up greater connections to chetney as a blood hunter—iirc raven queen had a hand in starting hemocraft. later in the campaign, if she leaned harder on warlock than sorcerer, she could get legend lore, which would be super helpful, esp after fcg passes.

stop beating delilah briarwood like a dead horse. i’m high key tired of her and was done with her nonsense by the time laudna was resurrected. she’s not very interesting. you can have a narrative of laudna sacrificing her future by reaching for power through sorcery rather than her pact, which she canonically did at each level up. the raven queen was the greatest wizard of her age. she probably has better arcana than delilah briarwood, partial resurrections georg.

it makes vax getting orbed more interesting as a priority for bell’s hells than just something the players are reacting to as vox machina. getting to the malleus key the second time and having to choose between the mission for exandria and the mission for the matron? good shit.

most critically, it gives laudna more of a reason to be involved. right now, it feels like she's just tethered by virtue of the group mission and then through imogen. this at least would give her more interesting points on the gods and more of a reason to be invested on her own.

[shadowfalllen]

I feel like no one talks about DJ SH saving her parents. I did that on my second playthrough bc I couldn't watch her parents die like that. There a special kind of pain there. She's still a powerful DJ but realizes just what kind of church she's been walking with the entire time and denies becoming Shar's chosen.

Thank you for the interesting ask! <3 I have also done that path. Actually I have done both of the DJ paths once (and the pain doing them once is more enough). I could only see making her DJ again for a SH origin run to see if there is some extra dialogue or scenes in there.

Anyway, at that scene, just before doing the decision, she looks so shell shocked and overwhelmed when Shar dumps all the memories on her and she realizes they are her parents. Like she has to take all that info in a manner of minutes, even seconds, like how overwhelmed she has to be in the moment? And if you choose the option to tell her she knows what's the right decision is, she just says she has lost the sight of what's right and wrong long ago and it's just better to serve blindly. Like how can I judge her in the moment, I can't, it's just too much dumped on her, her whole life, everything she has known and thought to be true, just grumbling before her eyes. No wonder she yearns to forget it all in that moment.

Just look at her... But I agree that if she saves her parents as a DJ, it's a very interesting path in itself. To have the truth revealed by Shar herself after Shadowheart has done her bidding in Shadowfell. After she has convinced all those other Sharrans join her cause and usurped Viconia. What a betrayal first of all and then to find the courage to say no, after being so deep in, so invested in it, and save her parents, who she didn't even know were alived just moments before. It's such a different experience from the redeemed, Selûne Shadowheart path where the only reason going back to House of Grief is to save her parents.

She also has to live with the pain of having killed Selûne's daughter, and in the process, although unknowingly when it happened, having condemned all those people to die at the Last Light Inn. There would be a lot to explore there for writers as well. Well on that whole path to be honest.

It's a bit bummer that there's nothing unique in the epilogue for this path, it's literally the same as Selûne Shadowheart with parents alive ending at the farm, just with black hair.

[y-rhywbeth2]

Is it ever revealed what Gortash got out of trading Karlach to Zariel? I’d assume it would be related to some sort of mechanical know-how he’s an artificer in my heart even if the game doesn’t really have that class option but also. My hc is that it’s directly related to him becoming Bane’s Chosen. The gods were picking their Chosen around this time, I think, and it would make sense that betraying a subordinate that trusts you with their life to a miserable existence of serving a tyrannical hell queen, in exchange for ambition serving power, would make Bane very happy. I could just be behind on my game lore, but I’m less familiar with how Gortash came around to Bane worship than I am with Durge/Orin (though those are rather obvious) and Ketheric.

Now that I’m typing this, I’m also confused about the mindflayer colony underneath Moonrise. How long has it been there? Did the Dead Three Chosen put it there intentionally, or was it just there and the Dead Three had a lightbulb moment? “Fellas, I know we’ve been plotting this world domination thing, and it’s just occurred to me that Shar has a guy whose house is overrun with Mindflayers. Should I dig him up?” -Myrkul in the groupchat

The fact that the Emperor/Balduran went there and was turned into a mindflayer really really muddies the timeline for me. Honestly, making the Emperor Balduran fucks up a lot of things, lore wise.

I'm pretty sure it's said somewhere that he got the schematics for the infernal engines, such as those in her chest, which he used to build the Steel Watchers. Not sure if that's in my head though. I don't think the game ever mentioned how Gortash converted to Bane, and information we might find on it isn't exactly reliable because the man's autobiographical notes are out of sync with other in-game information we find on the chosen, so anything he says should be taken with a grain of salt as half-truths and self-PR.

-

I don't think the colony has been directly under Moonrise for very long, though if you overlaid a map of Faerûn and the Lowerdark they might be in similar spots geographically (10-ish miles away, vertically).

Illithid primarily live in the Lowerdark; 10+ miles beneath the earth in conditions that are utterly inhospitable to most forms of life, including humanoids, half-way into the Shadowfell, in a lot of places, and would largely traumatise you beyond functioning if it didn't kill you. Small outposts occur in the Middledark, 3-10 miles down. You can find illithid in the Upperdark (extending from between the surface and the Middledark), but this region is mostly a trading zone, not really inhabited by the Underdark races in a settlement capacity. It's also the layer from which slave-taking raids are sent, which might account for Balduran. Maybe.

So the illithid colony moving into the Upperdark and building a colony directly under Moonrise is kinda weird. I guess there are some really good sea caves under that building because illithids hate the surface and the sun so much.

In a divine capacity, illithid are Ilsensine's domain, the Dead Three don't have a lot of sway here (and mind flayers don't often go in for religion - especially not for the gods of thralls.) If any of the Three had the idea to use mind flayers though, I'd expect it to be Bane (they're closest to his domain in theme).

I have genuinely no idea what's happening here, I don't think this much thought went into it. I would assume it works like this: Gortash and Durge eventually settled on "mind flayers" during the world domination brainstorming sessions (before or after acquiring the Crown of Karsus, who can say... Who even told them that existed, again? Was it mentioned in some texts somewhere? Were the Dead Three aware of it (Bhaal being Netherse, Bane having worked there)) And then they'd have to go deep beneath the earth - possibly all the way into the Lowerdark - somehow not die to a million hazards, get into an illithid city without dying or being enslaved, and then convince an Elder Brain to join the plan. Then the colony starts climbing upwards, as per the plan, and migrates to the Upperdark under Moonrise. Being situated over the sea, sea caves down there might provide a suitable environment for them (they need damn, dark, briny caves).

-

"Suprirse! Balduran is your mind flayer "ally"!" does feel a bit thrown in.

I'm still a bit surprised by the decision to make Balduran an elf, which could be canon to be fair, I've never seen anything on the guy, but I have always pictured him as human considering his namesake city is very much a human Tethyrian/Chondathan settlement. The elves were more populous back then, but the settlement was founded by humans and they very much do dominate and have for a while.

[bilbobibbins]

Lookin for Curse of Strahd Players!

Hi there, my name is Bilbo, and I am planning on running the game Curse of Strahd for dnd 5e! A gothic horror campaign, the module centers around the titular strahd and the land of Barovia, where you gather allies in order to defeat the count and escape! In addition to Curse of Strahd, I also am planning to run a little bit of Candlekeep mysteries before Strahd. And after the events of Curse of Strahd, I have plans on potentially doing Vecna: Eve of Ruin depending on player interest after the campaign!

Game is on Wednesday, 7 PM-10 PM PST

Content Warnings:

This campaign will be run with Foundry, Via forge. So, you will need to make an account for that (it is free, don't worry)

These campaigns (Curse of Strahd mainly) is filled with things that could be potentially triggering. These triggers include but are not particularly limited to: child abuse, murder, kidnapping, gaslighting, racism, sexism, torture, mind control, cannibalism, sexual assault, mental illness, animal cruelty, body horror, incest, suicide, drug addiction, and alcoholism. I will do what I can to lessen these, but I am only human and things may slip up. I am also going to be giving a consent form so that I will make sure what to mitigate the most.

This campaign markup is gonna be around 60% RP, 20-25% Combat, and 15-20% exploration.

Romancing is fine (and I encourage it), and Sexual content may be alluded and innuendoed to, but not explicit. Anything past that is fade to black, or taken to DMs (assuming any/all individuals involved consent).

There is a high liklihood your character will die. However, that will not be the end for them. There are multiple ways a character can come back from the dead

I will also be introducing the X card into the game. The X card is a short, simple, and relatively anonymous way to stop the game if you are feeling uncomfortable about something. If the X card is pulled, I will stop the game for around 10 minutes, and while the X card will be unknown to everyone (including me), I would like to ask that whoever placed it inform me of what is wrong, so that I can try to change or remove the triggering/uncomfortable aspect as much as I can.

The rules: -Must be LGBTQ+ friendly -If you have a disagreement on something, I will hear you out and try to explain what is happening, but ultimately I will have the final say on something -18+ only. -Will be using discord for VC -Have a decent mic with low-no background noise -Make sure to communicate -Missing/ being late to 2 sessions in a row will bring a talk from me and may constitute removal

Character creation: -We will be using Point buy, with a free feat if your background does not give you one. -all pre-2024 content is allowed, with the exception of twilight cleric and lucky feat. -With the nature of both Curse of Strahd and Vecna: Eve of Ruin, I highly recommend making characters from planes of existence and settings other than the forgotten realms. Some potential ideas for places may be the Shadowfell, Eberron, the Underdark, and the city of Sigil (However if you have other ideas feel free to let me know) -However, you cannot be a citizen of Barovia, native or otherwise. Much of the module is figuring out the land. -Homebrew stuff: no

House rules: -drinking a potion is a bonus action. -No flanking. -Regular ammo is not counted, but magical ammo is.

About me:

I am 21 years old and I go by he/they pronouns.

I started dnd in around 2019 as a player, and I have been a DM since around 2021! I still wouldn't count myself as particularly experienced, but I try to make things memorable for players:3 I like to be fun at times, and even though the campaign is serious, does not mean that I always will be! I also like incorporating player backstories when I can, I like em!

So here is what I want from you:

If you are interested, please fill out the google forms here, and we can set up a 20-30 ish minute little interview to see if we mesh well!

[moontheoretist]

Lo and behold, it finally happened.

Ladies and Gents and Nonbinary friends. Lo and behold, it finally happened. The magnificent Gale Bug manifested for me today. The issue is though that I heard they have fixed it, so why them fixing it for you all broke it for me? Unless, Gale silently pinning and saying nothing all this time was also a bug all in itself? Still I must say its timing is funny, because I just told Astarion that we can be together non-sexually if he wants, and then we went to explore the map a bit, finishing all the sidequests I had still hanging, met some Githyanki by pure accident, and then came back once again to Moonrise Towers just in case I missed something before going to Shadowfell, found some info about Ketheric's weakness which I didn't need, because I already knew about the artifact beforehand, and finally we went to camp to rest, because all of that wasted most of my spell slots.

And it was then, when the mighty dialogue "choose between me and Astarion" has appeared! I elected to ignore it and only ask Gale about the possibility of Nightsong saving his nice ass, and then ended the day. To my utter surprise, when everybody took off their armors and was wandering about in their pajamas, Gale suddenly wanted to talk and invited me for a magical night under the starry sky. And because I'm a sucker for him and I couldn't break the heart of a man that was literally sure this is his last night, and he is going to die soon, because next day we are going to the Shadowfell for the Nightsong, I was nice and romantic and reciprocated everything without ever saying "I love you too", and after that the romance was already triggered. Astarion, funnily, had no comments about it. And what's the funniest: "choose between me and Astarion" dialogue option disappeared from Gale's repertoire forever, so now I'm virtually romancing both of them. And neither has any comments about the other. I couldn't even mention Astarion during the very romantic "Imma tragically die, so I want you to know I love you" cutscene, that culminated with some astral sex.

Not during, not after. It's as if the other partner didn't even exist.

How was I supposed to say "no" to a guy who thinks he'll die?

Edit: I loaded a save before my romance with Gale got locked, and this time rejected Gale by choosing Astarion (I feel so bad still, OMG! Don't worry Gale, I have another Drow just for you, a nice little goody-two-shoes Paladin, I will give you the love you deserve in the next playthrough) and this time magical night under the starry sky was 100% platonic, not counting Gale throwing some googly eyes at my Wizard here and there. So I guess him being silent till now about his crush was a bug or it's how fixed version of the romance unfolds now. No idea. Anyway, this time Astarion had a reaction. I dare say that he was surprised but pleased that I chose him. Honey, I was the bestest Drow in Faerun, ignoring my Lolth-Sworn background, disrespecting Lolth at every turn and rolling my eyes at your silly disapprovals for helping people. If I stuck with you after / despite that, then there is nothing really that can change my mind at this point. You are stuck with this naive, big-hearted fool that you like so much now.

[trappedinafantasy37]

18. What is the worst possible ending for your OC and why?

26. Has your OC ever had unrequited feelings of any kind for someone?

Thanks @shjack180 for some juicy juicy questions! Not gonna lie, typing out the answer to 18 made me cry a little bit.

18. What is the worst possible ending for your OC and why?

After the night when Daedra loses control of herself, Minthara and Shadowheart come up with different solutions on how to handle Daedra if she ever lost control again and reached the point of no return. As much as she does not want to, Minthara is willing to kill Daedra if she ever loses control. But Shadowheart cannot kill Daedra. Had it not been for Shadowheart, Daedra would have died on the beach. So she falls into the sunk-cost fallacy, telling herself that there would have been no point of saving Daedra if she knew she was going to die. That she doesn't want to believe that everything that they've been through was meaningless. Like the terrible, horrible, awful Sharran that she is, Shadowheart is unable and unwilling to embrace the death of Daedra. So in the event that Daedra ever loses control, Shadowheart intends to throw Daedra into the Shadowfell in which she can never harm anyone or herself.

But it isn't really Daedra who is going in there, just some mindless beast, the Slayer. A Daedra who has succumbed to the urge and is full of bloodlust and rage and is beyond reason. She would be left screeching, and screaming, and howling for all eternity in Shar's domain. And worst of all, she would be alone. She would be cold. She would be scared. All she can ever do is fall and fall and fall. And what happens when Shadowheart eventually passes away? Daedra will be left there, alone, and no one will know she is there. Daedra would spend an eternity as the monster she never wanted to be, and she was damned by her best friend who was unable to honor her wish of just letting her die as the person she did want to be.

Shar killing Daedra while in the Shadowfell would be a true mercy.

26. Has your OC ever had unrequited feelings of any kind for someone?

Yes! This may come as a little bit of a shocker, but she did fall in love with Shadowheart. As I've mentioned in a previous post, Daedra falls in love so quickly and over the tiniest things. Shadowheart did not do something tiny though, she did something monumental and that was save Daedra's life. The two of them spent two days alone on the beach, with Shadowheart slowly nursing Daedra back to health and taking care of her. And for one of these days, they couldn't even communicate because Daedra didn't realize she could speak common and was talking in drowic the entire time. It's kinda hard for anyone in that situation not to fall in love with each other.

But Daedra is afraid of her urges and very early on in Act 1, she has violent and bloody thoughts of Shadowheart that frighten her. So Daedra pulls away from Shadowheart to a certain extent and keeps her feelings for Shadowheart to herself. Unbeknownst to her, Shadowheart is also falling in love with Daedra at the same time. For a lot of Act 1, it really is just the two of them together. Even with other companions, it was more those two than the others. But Shadowheart is too wrapped up in Shar and keeping her own feelings to herself, that she never expresses any romantic affection towards Daedra either (and the one time she did, Daedra did not get the hint. It just went right over Daedra's dumbass head). So we have two people who were in love with each other, refused to admit that they loved each other, and never acted on that love.

And then Minthara comes along and Shadowheart learns the hard way that if you have feelings for someone, it is better to act quickly and decisively. Otherwise, someone is going to come along and steal the one you love. For a while, Shadowheart actually does resent Minthara for this, and even threatens Minthara's life at one point.

[tiredflowercrown]

Princess Evangelina Metternich

Onto our princess of the Isle

Ancestry: Shadar-Kai

Shadar-Kai are elves of Shadowfell (a mirror of the feywild filled with death and decay)

The reason I made Evie a shadar-kai is because I love the idea of her being the Horned King's daughter. The evil queen wouldn't settle for just anyone, she's like the Tremaines, always wanting the best. The Horned King has some interesting lore to him, where he seems that he might have been human at one point, but also is striving to be a God; thus why not make him a long lived Elf used to death and who doesn't care is others die in his process.

Class: Wizard - School of Enchantment

Enchantment Wizards are those who manipulate and control people. We already see Evie doing this in the movies with her sleeping perfume and her knowledge of why the tear matters when making the cookie.

Main Ability Score: Intelligence with High Charisma

Wizards are a self taught class, their knowledge and usage of magic comes from how much they've learned, so they have to have high intelligence.

While Wizards aren't known for having high charisma, Evie as a person is highly charsmatic and this helps loop in with her magic because if she's always like this how do you know if you've been spelled?

Skill Proficiencys: Arcana, History, and Medicine

Arcana is self explanatory.

I feel that Evie would know an incredibly detailed history of the differing royal families and the social politics around them. The Evil Queen may not have wanted Evie to be smart, but committing a social folly by being out of the know is far more damaging to her royal prospects.

By the nature of dealing with herbs and differing chemical makeups, you pick up a few things that can help someone out. It's not always the most relevant thing, but it sure came in handy on the Isle.

Background: Hermit

The hermit background is basically what it sounds like, one living in solitude for a long period of time. That's exactly what happened with Evie and her banishment with her only getting out maybe a year and a half at the earliest before the first movie. That girl knows barely anything about the Isle and its culture

Feats: Metamagic Adept

What this feat demonstrates is the will and knowledge to twist magic and grant oneself magic that comes inherent to others. (And just maybe she stole it from someone she thought didn't deserve it)

Weapons: Dagger

She doesn't want to get anywhere near the actual fighting. If necessary she will stab someone if they get too close, but she would rather cast her spells or throw her daggers.

Armor: Mage Armor

Again, Why would she want to get close enough to warrant real armor. (Also that would cover her outfits and thats criminal.)

That's it for Evie!

If yall want to explain or go more in depth, just let me know!

[moonsrequital]

― AYLIN'S GUILT

Aylin's time in the Shadowfell never swayed her from her mother. She knew that her mother could not reach her no matter how many times she prayed. Her dreams were quiet, save for nightmares that Shar inflicted when she grew bored and messed with her niece. At times, Shar would pretend to be Selune, taunting her, and messing with her.

It never caused Aylin to resent her mother. For how could the moon touch a place that was not even on the mortal plane where the moon could touch? Aylin could always feel her mother, hear her, and see her in her dreams. The fact she could no longer appear or speak told her that she was indeed out of reach other her mother.

Aylin's imprisonment was one hundred and eighteen years. After Balthazar trapped her in her soul cage, Ketheric was linked to her through that magic, leaving her like a little bird. Bathlazar messed with her for years and then came the start of the Dark Justiciars, where she could see Ketheric watching from a distance. She would suffer each trial, and the torture went on for hours. Wings ripped, knives cut, spears into the chest, or whatever tool the Dark Justiciar was best with. She was a ritualistic sacrifice that Ketheric and Shar watched over. these rituals went on for almost twenty years, though Aylin's concept of time was distorted. In the Shadowfell a day could feel like years, and years could feel like a day. It's hard to tell how much time passes, only that she is lost in the swirling mist of it.

After Ketheric turned from Shar and the Dark Justiciars stopped arriving (because Yurgir started hunting them all down but she did not know) came the near eighty years of silence. This was a time of loneliness with only Shar to keep her company. She no longer bleed but the scars that Balthazar inflicted upon her were a constant curse of pain. And Shar encouraged this pain, she would torment her, talk to her, insult her. Shar made her feel every ounce of loss she could; from Selune to Isobel to Melodia and everyone else. She plunged Aylin into darkness loss and pain.

Sometimes this torture was worse than the physical torture. Shar reveled in the pet she had, turning Selune's daughter into her playtoy. All this did was continue to build her rage and vengeance for Ketheric and all those under him. She vowed that she would be merciless and none of them would live once she was free. They would die in the name of Isobel, of Melodia, of every innocent they killed (selunite or innocent civilian). She would be their sword, to avenge them and what had been done. But evne Aylin would succumb to the regret, guilt, and sadness that Shar would inflict upon her at times.

For even Aylin, as immortal as she is has the heart of humanity within her. Her father's love taught her to feel, to see, the love as mortals do. It hurt her most when Shar would dangle Isobel in front of her only to rip her away, increasing the pain of loss. What should have healed, was an open wound that Shar cultivated and encouraged.

Aylin avenges everyone who died who shouldn't have, but she carries the guilt that all of this may be her fault. If she had done a better job as Reithwin's protector, as the Thorm's guardians; perhaps Ketheric would have never been swayed, perhaps Melodia would have not died of a mysterious illness and Isobel would have not been murdered. Aylin carried this upon her shoulders like an atlas and the earth. It's truly not her fault, she can't see everything and know everything.

Still, she believes it is her fault that everything that happened, did.

[utilitycaster]

Wizard Breakdown Tracker, 3x50

Welcome back to the feature that no one asked for but everyone wanted, the Wizard Breakdown Tracker. As a reminder, in the context of Campaign 3 Caleb Widogast is an NPC and will be included, but we are sticking to wizards who have explicitly made an appearance in Campaign 3 AND are confirmed wizards. That's right: do not fucking @ me about Oremid Hass.

Caleb Widogast: the man, the myth, the non-werewolf himself. Dirt Wizard has become Dust Wizard. Anyway, let's consider the scenario. He's hanging out with Beau so that's good. He got to watch a bunch of dumb idiots take down a mecha, which I think he'd enjoy. He's tracking Ludinus Da'leth, his current greatest nemesis now that Trent's been rotting in prison (presumably? Ludinus did apparently break out but also Trent has the spicy collar for naughty wizards who bark too much at teen prodigies perma-glued to his neck. Plus it's been 7 years so maybe he just fucking died). However, it sounds like things went a little sideways in the Shadowfell, he's wearing a fucking high collar with a scarf in the desert which cannot be comfortable, and, as has been far more eloquently pointed out elsewhere, this is his only apogee solstice and he's spending it dealing with Ludinus's bullshit. Man is cranky. 6/10.

Planerider Ryn: well. she is currently a rock. technically there are benefits to this, but they do not outweigh the considerable drawbacks. 0/10 breakdown because she's unaware of anything happening, but I'm going to guess...7/10 on the mohs hardness scale?

Gus of the Green Seekers: This is all well above his pay grade. He's probably chilling out in Jrusar, trying to make it work with Ogdes. 2/10 because the paperwork sucks.

Tuldus: Is he dead or is he just trapped with Baryn and Ebenold in the fire plane? Unclear. Who cares! He is, as Ryn said, a fucking idiot, and I doubt he's been left to run free, and also, go to fucking therapy and leave everyone else alone, dipshit. 9/10.

Ludinus Da'leth: I must admit. I will hate to see him go; he's a fascinating villain and it's incredibly possible that he has been using the Cerberus Assembly for its entire existence as a wizard council body to try to kill the gods because of misplaced generational trauma, which is the sort of long-game elf wizard machinations I live for. With that said his plan sucks and is terrible and countless people would die for no reason. I suspect he's got a clue that Beau and Caleb are on his trail, and also, I bet he fucking hates this weather just as much as Caleb does, and the Feywild Key is leveled and the Shadowfell Key damaged and there's sand EVERYWHERE. 8/10. FINALLY, we've gotten under the skin of Exandria's smoothest wizard operator.