#hotu

[neverwinternighting]

30 days of Nevervember!

It’s November very soon and I was thinking about posting a list of NWN/NWN2-centric general prompts for each day in November! (Get it? Neverwinter + November? Never-vember?) It’s tricky to figure out since not everyone has played both of the games and all the campaigns in them, so something more general you could choose from to create seemed like the best idea.

You can write the prompt. You can draw the prompt. You can do a combination of both. Comics? Hell yeah. Everything is welcome!

If you decide to do these, please feel free to tag me in each one you do so that I can give you reblogs.

This challenge is not in the least bit binding and it is by no means an obligation or a contest - you can do few, you can do all, you can even do only one if you want. It’s entirely up to you!

Prompts listed below (take artistic license in interpretation if you need):

Day 1: your hero's home in their childhood days

Day 2: Your character meeting your (personal) favorite party member for the first time

Day 3: Your character meeting your (personal) LEAST favorite party member for the first time

Day 4: Your character and chosen party members lounging about at camp or in a tavern

Day 5: An embarrassing situation during an adventure

Day 6: your character's final (or most recent) positive memory from their childhood home

Day 7: Meanwhile, in ____... (this is your chance to write/draw the "other side" or the "b-plot" while your character is off doing something else!)

Day 8: The most impactful event your character went through

Day 9: A party member finding a way to cheer up your character

Day 10: The moment your character formed a (romantic OR friendship) crush

Day 11: Something little-known about your character revealed

Day 12: Your character or a party member is caught red-handed! (By whoever you like, doing anything)

Day 13: Your character saying something they end up regretting later during an argument

Day 14: Your character in a lesser-known location in the games (because some of those places need a little more love) (from the illustrious malgriff)

Day 15: Bridging the gap between campaigns if you keep your hero through any of them (even the lesser-known campaigns) (from the ultimate jorvach)

Day 16: Your hero or one of their party members in therapy (from the fantastical fable sage)

Day 17: Wrongly accused of something they didn't do (you can go with the obvious or not if you like!)

Day 18: Long-term consequences (of politics, society, inter-personal relationships, etc) (from the beauteous the-great-elwisty)

Day 19: Your character stuck with the most annoying party member

Day 20: Unexpected middle ground

Day 21: "Just in case we don't make it-"

Day 22: If Volo (or a newspaper like faerunian TMZ) did a news report on something your hero did (inspired by the wondrous malgriff, songofmadness, and lergahin)

Day 23: Uh-oh! Your hero (or party members or both!) suddenly got affected by a curse which turns them back into children for a day. How do they react or cope? Who looks after them? (from the stupendous songofmadness)

Day 24: Doubts

Day 25: A diary entry or scene described from a side character of your choice (inspired by the glorious songofmadness)

Day 26: In ruins

Day 27: How one of your party members views your own character

Day 28: What happens to the characters long after the game has concluded? Are they still in touch with one another/are the events still relevant to them/have they moved on? (from the mysterious the-great-elwisty)

Day 29: How the adventure should have really ended

Day 30: What's next in your character(s) adventures? (from the fabbu the-great-elwisty)

[drackomancy]

Favorite NWN character?

I assume you mean NWN1: it's gotta be Valen Shadowbreath, personally.

I like how the person you get to know contrasts with the "outside impression," and I appreciate the potential sides to explore in his character. I admire his sensitivity, his youthful gullibility that's been twisted into hardened cynicism through lessons learned the hard way, the sense of empathy that peeks through the outer carapace of that armor.

What can i say; i appreciate a man with layers.

[kazan-ne-ding-dong]

[racefortheironthrone]

In the House of the Undying prophecy Rhaegar is described by Danaerys but the woman is not described. Could this be Lysnna Stark and Jon Snow instead of Elia Martell?

No. Rhaegar never saw Jon Snow alive, because he died at the Trident several months before Jon was born - since Ned was present at Jon's birth and had ridden all the way from King's Landing to the Tower of Joy to get there.

Moreover, we can use context clues and process of elimination to figure out who's who. Since Rhaegar says "there must be one more," and the baby is referred to as a "he," the child must be Aegon.

Which means the woman absolutely is Elia.

Rhaenys was born in 280 AC, probably towards the end of the year since Elia and Rhaegar were married that same year. Elia was bedridden for six months after giving birth to Rhaenys, so Aegon's date of conception was probably at least three months into 281, which doesn't leave much time for Aegon to have been born at the end of 281/very beginning of 282.

Aegon's birth nearly killed Elia and rendered her infertile; it is extremely unlikely that Elia would have allowed Lyanna Stark anywhere near her precious "newborn" son (or been in condition to receive her) so soon after her humiliation at the Tourney of Harrenhal. Moreover, we know that around that time of just after the New Year of 282, Rhaegar unexpectedly left his wife and newborn son behind on Dragonstone and took to the road with his companions, riding back to the Riverlands to the area near Harrenhal where he rendezvoused with Lyanna.

Finally, it's just not credible that Lyanna could have made a secret trip from Riverrun to Dragonstone and back to Riverrun without anyone noticing. Given that Lyanna was almost certainly at Riverrun getting ready for her brother's wedding, there would have been people at the castle who would have seen her comings and goings - as in fact was the case when she did rendezvous with Rhaegar, and Brandon found out about it.

[illmatyrs-blind-devotion]

[sunny12th]

it's saauurr important to me how drogon ate the blue heart in the hotu. this wasn't a command from dany, she was zonked out in vision land, this was all drogon. boy just flew in there and started Munching on that thing, ripping into it and Eating. WHY. was it instinct? if it was to protect dany, wouldn't he first attack the warlocks biting and assaulting her? did he know that eating the blue heart would kill them? the blue heart was meat but it was also corrupted, magical, and pulsing with something evil - why did drogon recognize it as prey? is there some instinct in the dragons (fire made flesh, the heart of fire) to kill anything connected to the others (the heart of winter, ice, a death worse than death)? is it because drogon is Literally balerion come again and he recognized the blue heart's magic from shared visions with aegon the conquerer? was he just hungry and wanted a lil snack?

and what does it mean for when drogon gets to westeros. will the dragons even Need to be commanded to attack the others and the wights? are the others their natural prey or competitive predators in this magical ecosystem? is that why the wall keeps both dragons and the others from crossing?

would viserion or rhaegal have had the same reaction to the blue heart in the hotu? is that reaction something innate in dragons or just drogon (balerion come again)?

[eliamartel]

HoTU Visions | Kings Landing

I knew the description of Vaes Tolorro in ACOK evokes Dany walking inside a destroyed Kings Landing - A "sun washed" city (Aegon VI/ Martell imagery) bearing "scars of fire" (duh) but I didn't know that the six alleys coming together symbolises Kingslanding until I read @une-nuit-pour-se-souvenir meta on Viserion & Aegon vi.

Attaching screenshot

This is significant as Daenerys encounters six passages coming together in a chamber inside the House of the Undying too. I read her HoTU chapter again and realised that, all of scenes she experiences here, when taken together, symbolises the destruction of Kings Landing

Before entering the House of the Undying, Pyat Pree instructs Dany to always choose to enter the first door on the right if she's in a room with 4 doors, and to always climb up if she encounters any stairs.

Oval room with six passages leading out from it

The fourth room was oval rather than square and walled in worm eaten wood in place of stone. Six passages led out from it in place of four. Dany chose the rightmost, and entered a long, dim, high-ceilinged hall. Along the right hand was a row of torches burning with a smoky orange light, but the only doors were to her left.

Inside the chamber with six passages (symbolising Kingslanding), after Dany makes a choice to enter the rightmost lane, she enters a long hall with many doors on the left and no doors on the right. Only torches lighting the way were on the right wall.

Walking in the hallway; sounds from the walls and closed doors

The mold-eaten carpet (...) served to muffle her footfalls, but that was not all to the good. Dany could hear sounds within the walls, a faint scurrying and scrabbling that made her think of rats. Drogon heard them too. His head moved as he followed the sounds, and when they stopped he gave an angry scream. Other sounds, even more disturbing, came through some of the closed doors. One shook and thumped, as if someone were trying to break through. From another came a dissonant piping that made the dragon lash his tail wildly from side to side. Dany hurried quickly past.

While walking, she hears rats scurrying within the walls, something is trying to break through one door, and the sounds from the third door made her dragon lash his tail wildly. What it means exactly? -> Not sure but Drogon is agitated by this

While walking forward in search for a door on the right (the correct door to proceed furthur if she wants to survive the House of the Undying), she sees some visions through the open doors in the rooms on the left.

Vision 1 - War

In one room, a beautiful woman sprawled naked on the floor while four little men crawled over her. They had rattish pointed faces and tiny pink hands, like the servitor who had brought her the glass of shade. One was pumping between her thighs. Another savaged her breasts, worrying at the nipples with his wet red mouth, tearing and chewing.

Symbolises war in Westeros

Vision 2 - War Crime

Farther on she came upon a feast of corpses. Savagely slaughtered, the feasters lay strewn across overturned chairs and hacked trestle tables, asprawl in pools of congealing blood. Some had lost limbs, even heads. Severed hands clutched bloody cups, wooden spoons, roast fowl, heels of bread. In a throne above them sat a dead man with the head of a wolf. He wore an iron crown and held a leg of lamb in one hand as a king might hold a scepter, and his eyes followed Dany with mute appeal.

The Red Wedding where Robb Stark was killed under guest right by House Frey. Daenerys will commit a similar war crime in Kingslanding, attacking and killing Aegon VI and his army despite their surrender

There is also a wolf king watching with his eyes following Dany -> This is Robb at the red wedding, but I think this also symbolises Jon after KL blows up mainly because of -

Inside the tent the shapes were dancing, circling the brazier and the bloody bath, dark against the sandsilk, and some did not look human. She glimpsed the shadow of a great wolf, and another like a man wreathed in flames. - AGOT Daenerys VIII

and

What sort of man can stand by idly and watch his own brother being burned alive? - ADWD Jon IX

More here

Vision 3 - Dany's yearning for a home

She fled from him, but only as far as the next open door. I know this room, she thought. She remembered those great wooden beams and the carved animal faces that adorned them. And there outside the window, a lemon tree! The sight of it made her heart ache with longing. It is the house with the red door, the house in Braavos. No sooner had she thought it than old Ser Willem came into the room, leaning heavily on his stick. “Little princess, there you are,” he said in his gruff kind voice. “Come,” he said, “come to me, my lady, you’re home now, you’re safe now.” His big wrinkled hand reached for her, soft as old leather, and Dany wanted to take it and hold it and kiss it, she wanted that as much as she had ever wanted anything. Her foot edged forward, and then she thought, He’s dead, he’s dead, the sweet old bear, he died a long time ago. She backed away and ran.

Dany's yearning for a home sparked her desire to conquer westeros and sit on the Iron throne.

After this room, Daenerys runs forward until she gets out of breath and could run no more.

The long hall went on and on and on, with endless doors to her left and only torches to her right. She ran past more doors than she could count, closed doors and open ones, doors of wood and doors of iron, carved doors and plain ones, doors with pulls and doors with locks and doors with knockers. Drogon lashed against her back, urging her on, and Dany ran until she could run no more.

Drogon urges her on as she runs past many open and closed doors -> the presence of her dragons urges her forward on her journey to conquer Westeros

Part of her would have liked nothing more than to lead her people back to Vaes Tolorro, and make the dead city bloom. No, that is defeat. I have something Viserys never had. I have the dragons. The dragons are all the difference. - ACOK Daenerys III

Vision 4 - Burning of Kingslanding

Finally a great pair of bronze doors appeared to her left, grander than the rest. They swung open as she neared, and she had to stop and look. Beyond loomed a cavernous stone hall, the largest she had ever seen. The skulls of dead dragons looked down from its walls. Upon a towering barbed throne sat an old man in rich robes, an old man with dark eyes and long silver-grey hair.

“Let him be king over charred bones and cooked meat,” he said to a man below him. “Let him be the king of ashes.” Drogon shrieked, his claws digging through silk and skin, but the king on his throne never heard,and Dany moved on.

King Aerys wants to burn Kingslanding. Aerys was prevented from blowing up KL as Jaime killed him before the orders could be passed onto the pyromancers guild. Daenerys will succeed where Aerys failed, because she has dragons unlike her father

Vision 5 - Three heads of the dragon

Viserys, was her first thought the next time she paused, but a second glance told her otherwise. The man had her brother’s hair, but he was taller, and his eyes were a dark indigo rather than lilac. “Aegon,” he said to a woman nursing a newborn babe in a great wooden bed. “What better name for a king?”

“Will you make a song for him?” the woman asked.

“He has a song,” the man replied. “He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.” He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany’s, and it seemed as if he saw her standing there beyond the door. “There must be one more,” he said, though whether he was speaking to her or the woman in the bed she could not say. “The dragon has three heads.” He went to the window seat, picked up a harp, and ran his fingers lightly over its silvery strings.

Sweet sadness filled the room as man and wife and babe faded like the morning mist, only the music lingering behind to speed her on her way.

Three heads of the dragon - Aegon VI (“What better name for a king?”), Daenerys (He looked up when he said it and his eyes met Dany’s) and Jon (“There must be one more,") -> Dance of the dragons 2.0

The end of the hallway

It seemed as though she walked for another hour before the long hall finally ended in a steep stone stair, descending into darkness. Every door, open or closed, had been to her left. Dany looked back behind her. The torches were going out, she realized with a start of fear. Perhaps twenty still burned. Thirty at most. One more guttered out even as she watched, and the darkness came a little farther down the hall, creeping toward her. And as she listened it seemed as if she heard something else coming, shuffling and dragging itself slowly along the faded carpet. Terror filled her. She could not go back and she was afraid to stay here, but how could she go on? There was no door on her right, and the steps went down, not up.

There is no door on the right in the entire hall -> No right path to proceed after she makes her choice in Kingslanding (oval room with six passages)

All doors are on the left, darkness is creeping after her, and she hears something shuffling and dragging itself to her which terrorises her (It might be the thing that was trying to break through the closed door in the beginning of the hall). She chooses to enter the last door on the left.

Two more rooms - Aftermath of blowing up KL?

She blindly runs through 8 more rooms, (choosing the right door every time) until she stops to take a breath, in this room (room 9) a vision of Pyat Pree(actually a pale, wormlike creature) tries to trick her towards him. (Maybe assasination attempt? By someone disguised as a man with blue lips/or a warlock/or a priest, since this was only a pale/wormlike creature disguised as a vision of pyat pree) Daenerys' quick thinking saves her from him.

She exits that room with a door to the right, climbs the stairs and enters a door made of Weirwood & Ebony (This part may be related to Arya as the door is similar to the door of the House of Black and White). Inside that room(room 10) there are 4 people (again these 4 people try to trick her, second assasination attempt?), Dany snaps out of their haze when Drogon starts gnawing at the door(Drogon's behavior saves her) and she exits through a door on the right. In the next room she meets the undying ones, who give her visions

[artsietango]

Finally finally FINALLY finished this spread for @fellamarsh and @b-a-pigeon character Kor from Hierarchy of the Unseen!! I love Kor so much, he made me laugh so hard, and I just find his motivations incredibly relatable.

If you haven't read HOTU, go read it it's so good. 💖

[gabriellasantos-martins]

Valen Shadowbreath

[b-a-pigeon]

Ignore the ARC disclaimer & look at how nice this paperback cover turned out!! 💞 It's hard to believe I'll be holding a physical copy of this book in my own hands so soon :')

(Obligatory reminder that you can also hold this book in your own hands—or, somewhat likelier, download your very own ebook copy lol—by taking a minute or two to apply for an ARC! They'll be available early-mid-May depending on format!)

[authortango]

Hierarchy of the Unseen ARC Book Review

I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of Hierarchy of the Unseen by B. Pigeon ( @b-a-pigeon ) & Fell A. Marsh ( @fellamarsh ) in exchange for an honest review. 

Mitzli is a devout demon hunter, dedicated to their craft in order to make up for being born half-vampire, half-human. Kor is a demon who doesn’t even believe in the god he serves, much less the god the human’s believe in. Kor and Mitzli effectively get handcuffed together by fate and are forced to work together, even though their personalities, beliefs, and goals are complete polar opposites to each other. But if they don’t work together, it could mean the end of life as Mitzli knows it, and the end of the life Kor has been dreaming of having for so long.

This book is incredibly interesting due to the complexity of worldbuilding and the religious politics that hold it together, as well as the captivating personalities and motivations of the characters. It takes a second to get through the first couple of chapters as you familiarize yourself with the world and the main characters, but once the big realizations start happening it really takes off, and it’s easy to keep turning the pages to learn what happens next.

I’m very excited to see how the next book explores Kor and Mitzli’s relationship further as they continue to try and save the world. I really enjoyed watching their relationship develop as unwilling partners to being the only one the other can trust, and I can’t wait to hopefully see more of that. 

Hierarchy of the Unseen releases June 21st, so if you’re interested in checking it out, preorder the ebook (https://books2read.com/HierarchyUnseen ) and save it to your TBR on Goodreads and Storygraph!

[maofenglokrp]

Day 12: Your character or a party member is caught red-handed!

[drackomancy]

Thanks, deeks

[kazan-ne-ding-dong]

Deekin has something to write in a new book

[illmatyrs-blind-devotion]

Nevervember day 7

Meanwhile in Waterdeep’s streets the band of companions sent back to the Yawning Portal from the depths of Undermountain, had re-equipped themselves and taken to patrolling with the city guards. They had to split up to cover more streets, other adventurers met and passed them though many were also slain before them. Near a full tenday had passed before the attacks stopped all of a sudden. Still they patrolled, sharing hesitant glances with the guards, not knowing if this was the end or if something else was coming. Their instincts, sadly proved right. 

Tomi sounded the alarm first, many fled the city all together, flooding outward to neighboring villages and towns. All while all manner of devilry filled the streets. The cobbles melted into slag, and fires spread faster than they could be put out. 

The band regrouped on the roof of the closest guard house to the portal, watching in abject horror at the enormous devil emerging into the city with a malicious chuckle that sent bile into every throat that heard it. 

“Does this mean…they failed?” Tomi asked, looking up at the fear stricken faces.

“For everyone’s sake I hope not…”