#hestara halfelven

[cosmalumi]

Trade with @zenaquaria. Here's Hestara! Glad I finally got around to drawing her! Zen's great so you should check her out!

[zenaquaria]

New armor!~

In Episode 25 of @themetaisfutile's Curse of Strahd, Ula and Friends of Ula were traveling from Krezk to Vallaki, and saw some Vistani highwaymen before they got the jump on us, thanks to Idalia. They turned right around and offered to sell us something instead, emphatically addressing Hestara.

They had a beautiful set of burgundy plate armor with gold wing motif, which they'd happily haggle for because who doesn't like money? All they could tell us, is that it was slightly magical, and though it looked too big for her, it would adjust itself to a perfect fit once donned. And that they couldn't sell it outside of Barovia, for some reason.

Long story short, we agreed, using some of the treasure we took from the werewolf den, and bought Hestara the armor. She's wary, and understandably so, but it does fit remarkably well, and it's solid.

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[zenaquaria]

Yaaasss! Thank you so much again for the incredible work on my gals, Sheepy!~ Vess and Hestara both look amazing! <3 <3

Comms for @zenaquaria of her DnD characters Vess Falke and Hestara Halfelven ⚔

[zenaquaria]

From Episode 22 of TMiF Presents: Curse of Strahd, Old Friends.

A few sessions ago, Hestara was threatened by her fallen and turned brother-in-arms, Aranvir. Two innocent people, every night, until she "came home." Well, she came back to him, tried to keep him distracted long enough to trap him in a room, then after that plan got botched and all of them had to fight, had to do the hardest thing she'd ever had to do.

She had to make the call, take the final blow, and put her once-closest-friend in this hellscape, out of his vampirically-induced obsessive misery. And she hated every moment of it. The deep, gut-wrenching agony of putting that sword through his stilled heart will be with her for the rest of her days. However many that may end up being.

But until then, she'll be the paladin he can be proud of. She was his chuckaboo, and he was her brother. And she'll carry him with her to the end.

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[zenaquaria]

TMiF Presents: CoS, Ep26, That Which Hates Life

-Bloody Aftermath- Commissioned by NotFallenPegasi on Discord, this bloody scene happened during our Curse of Strahd game (played live on Twitch on Fridays via @themetaisfutile!)

Ezraan, healer catfolk, was bitten ruthlessly by a nosferatu, nearly dying. Theron, party vampire hunter and light cleric, managed to get him patched up and off death's door. Hestara, war cleric and budding paladin, interposed herself between the monster and Ezraan just as it regurgitated its meal all over them, then turned to face the creature and lay it to rest.

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~~~~~

Visit me at ZenDoes.Art to peruse my commission info!

[zenaquaria]

Aww man this moment made my stomach drop and my face go cold IRL! ;w; Such a pivotal moment in the campaign, solidifying the point at which Aranvir wouldn't be trusted by anyone in UaFoU except Hestara.

So cool to see this moment completed!

Finished up an old piece for Curse of Strahd from aaages ago at this point! Back when @rosexknight 's Aranvir, charmed by Strahd, threw Theron off the guest tower...

(also featuring @zenaquaria's Hestara, restraining Aranvir from causing any more harm, and calling for Ula- who had been magically Commanded to halt by Aranvir, to save their falling friend)

[zenaquaria]

Hestara Halfelven Refsheet, 2023 edition~

Hestie's been due a new ref for a bit. I made significant skill improvements in even just the months since her first one and I always ended up cringing a little when I looked back at it. lol

So now she's got a fancy new one! With her holy symbol(s), all her gear and things outside of the CoS storyline, and her common outfits! She's such a sassbucket when she's not being traumatized in the Barovian hellscape and I had fun portraying that in the outfit views~ Love my hotheaded hick hellraiser!~

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[zenaquaria]

~The Meta is Futile Presents: Curse of Strahd, Ep12  

After escaping Castle Ravenloft, minus one, we gained a companion with a big wolf, a native Barovian and friend of the Keepers of the Feather named Idalia Alastroi. Though met with shell-shocked hostility from Hestara, who will not abide Aranvir being referred to as a “devil”, she tagged along with us to the windmill where they make the dream pastries.  Unable to make the distance to Vallaki by nightfall, we camped out a half mile away from the windmill. Idalia opted to take first watch, and Hestara couldn’t sleep, so she sat up with the new member of the group. A rustle in the woods nearby caught Idalia’s attention and she went to check it out, and Hestara stayed put. Poor girl was completely numb, and stared into the fire. 

A raven flew out of the woods and landed by Hestara. And it croaked out, in Aranvir’s voice, snippets of his reassuring Aranvirisms it had heard since we came across the ravens in the winery. And it cracked through Hestara’s cold numb shock, as she broke down into a full-body-shaking sobbing ugly cry.

She could practically feel his hands on her shoulder and over her hair as she sobbed, lamenting his absence and his fate and promises made broken...

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[zenaquaria]

~The Meta is Futile Presents: Curse of Strahd, Ep09  

After dinner, the party filed back out. Aranvir hung back for a bit, and so did Hestara at first. But trusting her leader, she reluctantly relented, and followed the rest. She was terrified, freaking out, and was so stuck in her own head that she would have run into the doorjamb if her gaze hadn’t been tracking the party in front of her.

She walked slowly, bringing up the rear. Theron, our one braincell of the group and the one most knowledgeable about vampires at all, came and gave the panicking and scared war cleric a reassuring pat on the shoulder. She hadn’t lipped off to Strahd, she hadn’t outwardly lashed out, nor any of the things she’d shown herself to do in the days prior. She’d managed to keep it keyed down.

She did good~

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[zenaquaria]

~The Meta is Futile Presents: Curse of Strahd, Ep09

Dinner at Castle Ravenloft, what could go wrong?

Literally anything. Things began well enough, the food was nice, it smacked of home for all party members. Some more than others. But what was this? These notes?  Hestara’s told her that her family, her adopted sister, needed her. But one of the party is a traitor, and they will raise their glass of white wine, and if she helps cast that traitor to the cobblestones below the spire balcony, she can go home. All she had to do, was raise a glass of white wine during the toast. But if she raised a glass of red, then she would never go back home. 

Now she assumed everyone might’ve gotten a note like hers. What if they also said something about the traitor picking the white wine? Not wanting to be the one seen as the traitor, she chose her red wine, and then looked to her leader and friend-

Aranvir raised the white...

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[zenaquaria]

~The Meta is Futile Presents: Curse of Strahd, Ep08 pt. 2

Part 1 here | Part 3 here

Right after Hestara stung Wintersplinter’s insides with the holy tolling, it spat her out of its mouth, over the inner space of the ritual ring and past the rocks encircling the area. Those rocks were lightning rods to the storm above us, and poor Hestara got sent straight through those electric arcs. 

That combined with the fall left her only just conscious, by the barest scrap of awareness. All she’d hear through the tinnitus was Aranvir’s voice hollering ol’ Splinter’s death sentence before blowing it to smithereens and saving the vineyard

Don’t worry, though! She coughed out a plea for help and Aranvir helped her heal herself back to somewhat-functional~ She was the only one left with spell slots remaining. Everyone survived, but everyone aside from her was magically tapped out.  She’s just having a bit of a breakdown with Vir right now. If he hadn’t healed her for everything he had, she would not have made it awake. And that terrifies her.

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[zenaquaria]

~The Meta is Futile Presents: Curse of Strahd, Ep09

Just a look at the dress that Strahd and/or his staff picked out for Hestara before the Ravenloft Dinner. Everybody in the party got fancy new duds, but gosh it just sits all kinds of wrong with her!

Oh sure, it fits perfectly, and the material feels nice, she s’poses. And it could be in an awful color, but it isn’t. All in all it’s a nice dress, but... Strahd supplied it. 

Ergo, it doesn’t fit right to her, and she tripped on it three times before they even reached the stairs. Also it doesn’t protect her neck or hide her scars and Hestara doesn’t LIKE that. She doesn’t mind having the scars visible but it’s that her neck is completely unprotected.

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[zenaquaria]

~The Meta is Futile Presents: Curse of Strahd, Ep11  

The party, with Theron cast off the balcony and taken under the castle by vampire spawn, and Aranvir defending his choice despite Hestara’s outrage, began to crack apart. Hestara, gregarious firebrand that she is, tried to hold the remaining four together. We had to try and find Theron, if he was alive.

We found him in the dining hall, strangely calm but alive. But where had Aranvir gone? He was shoved back inside the door with his hand to his neck and the haunted look of a man being crushed by guilt. Strahd said we had to choose who went home.  We didn’t choose; Strahd technically said he owed us one boon. But after we found the Sunsword and crashed out in the dining hall, the next morning would not bode well.

With barely minutes left before the castle gates closed, Strahd announced the game was beginning and we bolted for the exit. Throwing us the Amulet we thought Theron still had, Aranvir doubled back to go get it. It cost him. The gates were closing. Ezraan, Ula, and Hestara were already outside, with Theron and Aranvir at the rear. Hestara turned around for a split second, to make sure they were behind her.

What she saw in that second, broke her.

Aranvir had been lost.

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[zenaquaria]

~The Meta is Futile Presents: Curse of Strahd, Ep08 pt. 3, out of session RP

Part 1 here |  Part 2 here 

The Yester Hill fight had left its mark on the young war cleric. Proving that if things could go awry in this place, they would. 

The thought of being left behind, or alone, is just as distressing to Hestara as narrowly avoiding death almost five times. Aranvir’s the closest person to family she has right now- he’s like the big brother she never had, and she can’t stand the thought of losing anyone in the party.

TL;DR: Sometimes you just really need a reassuring hug from your older brother figure~

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[zenaquaria]

Just some doodles of three of my clerics!~

Spooks has interesting potential in her future as a pure grave cleric. She was born in a month named for her deity, during a lunar eclipse, and came out different from her siblings. She’s devoted solely to Heriot, passionately so, and works very hard to embody what Heriot represents: A warm, guiding shepherd to souls on their way to resting in the Halls of Silence. So this is a look at how she’d appear if Heriot blessed her to be the goddess’s exemplar. 

And then there’s Hestara. My dear hotheaded hick who’s having a hell of a time in Barovia~ She’s had a lot of angst lately but to be fair narrowly avoiding death when you’re 18 and in the Barovian hellscape is pretty traumatic. So I gave her a chance to see how braiding the other half of her hair looks on her! Also I mapped out the scars she’s gained other than the two bite wounds from Strahd and the ghasts. The puncture scars from the pitfall, and the lichtenberg figure from Yester Hill lightning.

Also yes that’s her pestering Thunder, too. lol Thunder’s crew was at an island in Axia where the Navy’s HQ’d for now, and other characters of the group’s have cameo’d there. Namely Hestara and Eilonwy, for story reasons. Hestara has seen the aftermath of what Janeira is capable of (she beat the crap out of Eilonwy), and she dearly wants to see how she can stand up to the Lament’s resident monk. xD

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[zenaquaria]

~The Meta is Futile Presents: Curse of Strahd, Ep08 pt. 1

Part 2 here  | Part 3 here

This session culminated in the Yester Hill fight against Wintersplinter and its druidic cadre. A berserker and a half dozen druids confronted us as we tried to interfere with their plans to ruin the Wizard of Wines vineyard. Ula and Theron went in to save the poor vineyard family members being sacrificed, Ezraan maintained support and heals, and Hestara and Aranvir went up against the berserker. 

Hestara did a fair job of tanking the bastard, with Aranvir’s ranged support. She downed him with two magical bell dirges, and by that time, Wintersplinter had been awakened.  Thankfully we saved the civilians! But ol’ ‘Splinter had hold of Theron, and soon Ula, and the moment Hestara was able to switch targets, she came in with spiritual guardians a-whirl. Theron and Ula were ripping and burning and giving everything they could to whittle the thing down.

Oh it didn’t like that at all. Three of us in its gnarled root-y grasp, it quickly beat Hestara senseless and threw her into its mouth, unconscious. Aranvir, by some miracle unhindered by the monster, dashed up its mossy bark hide and put all his paladin healing into pulling his bearcat of a subordinate back from the edge of the Veil. And the second she came to, she freaked out and hit it with one more of those divine knells.

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