#let! aasimar! be! weird!

[maroonian]

Baby Battles

(this is part of a thing im working on)

@skrunglebeasts

[katyakurae]

Come! Stay with us at the Hazbin Tavern! A DnD AU

Random facts under cut

Race: High Elf

Class: Warlock

Alignement: Chaotic Neutral (but more chaotic than neutral)

Goal: To have some fun, mess with Lucifer and... get rid of his patron

Smiles as in canon, but not all the times. When he is alone or (some blessed times) with Lucifer, he lets his guard down and his expression becomes more subtle, neutral even.

Born with magic. Decided it wasn't enough power and made a deal with some eldricht deity. Turns out it was a bad idea.

Those tendrils belongs to his patron. It taints his magic and feels awful. Dirty. Alastor hates it, but uses his magic all the time anyway.

The mark on his face also belongs to his patron, a constant reminder that he's been touched by something no one can understand.

Raised in a Selûnite clan, his family wanted him to be a cleric, maybe even the next Choosen of Selûne, but he went sideways.

(So yeah, Lucifer and him in this AU are kinda a sun/moon ship)

Made some friends in a Bhaalist cult and get an aquired taste for human flesh.

Has all kind of weird suitors. Once one of them offered him his own felsh, back in his Bhaalist cult days. Alastor ate him.

He also met Rosie back there.

After travelling, learning more magic and start hating his patron and their soul-binding contract, he went to the Underdark, where he had hear that an amazing Aasimar sorceress lived. That was Charlie. Amazingly powerful, yes, but with not enough control to help him.

So Alastor made his mind and decided to stay in the Hazbin Tavern, teach the girl to control her powers and guide her to his benefict.

Soon after that, Lucifer entered the picture. His was hate at first sight, but somehow they ended getting reaaaally along between arguments. Now, they teach Charlie together, but Alastor is still plotting behind their backs.

(Yes, his ring with a red detail belongs to Lucifer. No, no one dares to talk about it)

Does not hesitate to kill or pick a fight. Has also murder many travellers who enter in the Hazbin Tavern with dark or hidden agendas.

His favourite spell is Eldricht Blast.

Quite creative with magic. Specially in combat.

One time, Lucifer created a weird device that can send sound through the air, called it "radio" and gifted it to Alastor. The elf is fascinated by this new toy of his.

Previous character: Lucifer~

Next character: Husk

[roxyscave]

I really like how by the end of the year there will be at least two non-flavored official ways to play an actual wolf infused with magic and granted sentience by the end of the year in pathfinder

or any animal really... but yall pathfinder has so many ancestry options that lets you be a furry. Catfolk ancestry, ratfolk ancestry, kobold, lizard folk, tengu, spider people, little psychic rhino people that also has minor bug features, kisune, two flavors of snake people, two flavors of bird people, little pug dog people, weird spider horse people, 3 different types of playable plants( and sometimes the plants are shaped like little anthro animals), the fact that tiefling/aasimar/nephellim can have all sorts of animal features if you wanna be a holy or demonic fury, fleshwarps if you wanna be a weird monster animal creature. The way its written beatkin can let you be an owlbear furry or bulette furry if you want even.. THIS isn't even getting into class options and things like that can let you be a furry. THERE IS A RUNE YOU CAN PUT ON YOUR SWORD.... AND ITS MAIN PURPOSE IS THAT IT BASICALLY TURNS YOU INTO A DOG THAT CAN WIELD A SWORD IN ITS OWN MOUTH

[bluebrush09arts]

Percival is just such a wholesome bean. Weird looking as heck but that's what helps make him special. His parent's certainly think so at least.

Odd mix of a tiefling and an aasimar and people aren't shy about letting them know, but Damian fell head over heels for the tiefling he found hurt in the woods and it didn't take long for Lydia to feel the same.

Please do not trace or reupload my art

Commissions | Ko-Fi | Twitter | Discord

[smallnico]

6, 8, 13, 30 for the oc ask list please!😄

yippee yay yay wahoo! thank you for asking!!

6) If your OC is in a fantasy setting, what profession would they be in the modern day?

answered here!

8) What hobbies does your OC have? What do they do to unwind?

esper has a specific meditation ritual that they do to relax! they hum and pluck random strings on their lyre to feel the vibrations and let their magic just channel through them. stimming.

as for hobbies, aside from playing music for fun, esper collects and polishes swords. on top of being a scary assassin, they are a big sword nerd who likes to learn about different types of weapons, techniques for using them, and how to care for them. post-game i've decided that they take up gardening and herbalism (jaheira teaches them) and teamaking.

13) Does your OC have a rival? How did it start?

not sure! the only person i can think of who would qualify is gortash, and that's mostly because neither of them knows how affection works or how to have a normal friendship. short answer to how that started is that esper framed him for a high-profile murder as leverage to get him to do them a favour, and everything that came after was gortash trying to get them to work for him because they would be unbelievably useful to him. alas the only language either of them speaks is mindgames and one-upmanship.

then the joke answer is this. have an old drawing. they never knew each other as kids but if they did, this is how it would go. because this is basically how it actually went when they were both adults.

ft. baby esper. :)

30) My OC and your OC are friends. This isn't a question. I'm not asking. (How do they respond?)

esper and sunflower should garden together!!!!!!!!! i don't know that they'd get along right away but they can bond over being aasimar/divine-blooded beings who are pretty lonely. i think she would probably intimidate esper a lot, just because she seems like a really genuinely kind person and they have trouble understanding that -- they mirror the people around them but feel stifled by being shaped into someone bright and sunny and good by the emotions of the people they're with -- but i think they would balance each other out well once they got to know each other. i think esper would probably bring her out of her sheltered mindset and encourage her to try new things that seem unpleasant or weird.

as for valora, i think the bhaalblob would fill them with existential dread. they got bodysnatched by bhaal a lot back in the day so they have a bad reaction to the idea of it happening again, or it happening to anyone else around them. esper wouldn't be uncivil toward bb, but they would be uncomfortable, lol :,)

[motheatenscarf]

Man, I'm really disappointed by how LoVM handled Vex in this third season. I mean, I was a little disappointed by the first 2 seasons too, but in a subtler way. They made her a lot harsher, a lot more prickly than she'd ever been in the campaign. Which, y'know, I didn't love, but I figured if they flanderize her early on, it'll make her growth into a more compassionate, selfless person more dramatic later on, and it was setting the groundwork for Scanlan's legitimate complaints later on with how they disrepect him, so fine.

But, uh, 1, apparently Scanlan isn't leaving in anger now, lol? And 2, her only arc in this the season where she was supposed to soften up is some weird "I'm poison to love" dilemma being made text with her relationship with Percy. And like. Idk. Vex was my favorite character in Campaign 1 because of her subtle need for control manifesting as her obvious trauma. I didn't need it spelled so overtly, and in the way it was resolved, Percy was a large part of that character growth, but he didn't feel like the ONLY reason Vex softened up.

Was hugely disappointed that she didn't wind up going to hell with the others because her buying the freedom of those two aasimar kids was such a big moment of growth for her. Like, she'd been selfish and miserly and controlling and judgmental, and had slowly been learning to rely on others and to be more emotionally available, and her saving those kids because no one else was going to, her saving them by giving up the security her money brought her, her expecting no reward and just NEEDING to help them when everyone else was telling her they didn't have the time, that was so significant.

But, no, she had to stay with Percy so they could angst about their relationship, which is exactly what Keyleth and Vax are doing, which is already exhausting. People liked Percahlia because they were SO into each other and unashamed about it. Vex waited until it was almost too late to let Percy know how she felt and then let him in and loved him with her whole heart because that's how she does things. And now Percy angst is the ONLY thing she has to do or say or think about with her limited screentime this season.

It's so sad to me that there are people who are only gonna know her from the show and don't get to see how deep and complex she is when the story is given an ounce of breathing room.

Between Vex and Jester, Laura has a real talent for making strong, subtle characters who feel incredibly nuanced and multifaceted. She is living proof that you don't need to come up with a detailed backstory or some overwrought personal quest to create a good character. The voice, logic, and motivations of her characters are always internally consistent. The goal of her characters is usually internal, and man, she might not always have a lot for them to seek externally, but their presence is always appreciated by what they contribute to a scene and how she help facilitate the progression of the story or any given scene. And because of that lack of a personal quest for them so often, she gets her strongest moments when she leans into a moment that's happening in the narrative and how it would affect her character. She is the best "Yes, And"-er at the table and they have struggled so hard to adapt those strengths into an abridged narrative form like this where every second of screentime is precious and must be LOADED to the brim with progressing the plot. There's just no room for the quiet character moments where Vex thrives in reacting to the world around her, or those clutch combat decisions, or her getting to be the obvious leader and tactician of the team, or really anything other than for her to be traumatized by the plot.

Like, I know there just are not enough episodes, plot and characterization are gonna be too rushed to give this many characters the time and attention they need. And there ARE changes I like, Keyleth's characterization feels a lot more consistent! Pike getting to have an actual character arc is neat (Pike getting to be a character at all and not their infrequent heal-bot is very neat). I'm so glad they killed Kash! Not only because I hate Kash, but because stakes! Weight! Yay! They understand that death has to feel like a real threat, hence the changes with Percy, yay! But, also, like, idk, I'm bitter. Vex was my FAVORITE character from Campaign 1. It sucks to see her get done dirty like this.

Makes me nervous for Jester in the M9 animated series we're getting :T

[likeadog]

YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS

welcome to sistervirtue dot tumblr dot com. those of you who have read my url...seen my icon...may be wondering: who is this woman? who is Sister Virtue?

as the @original-character-championship bracket begins, I would like to take the time to introduce you to her. go on. take a seat.

[art credit: @/omusubigender, @/citrus-sours, @/kkbardd, @/pcktknife, @/celebiis, @/citrus-sours]

Sister Virtue is a not-quite woman not-quite of the cloth with a bit of a scowl and an unholy attitude problem. Formerly a cherub known as Theophania serving in the appellate choirs of heaven, she judged human souls and debated the dogma of heaven day in and day out.

Although a perfect machine of heaven, Theophania was not heartless. Through her friendship with the Archangel Gabriel, whom represents human souls and their interests in the courts of heaven, she learned about those she judged.

And I am going to let you in on a secret. Angels and demons are both creatures of passion, just their passion turns in different ways. Demons experience passion for the self. Angels turn their passion towards God. And for Theophania, her passion turned in a different way-- towards those silly little animals whom she watched day in and day out. (Even you!)

So when Gabriel came lamenting of the Seraphim's decision to bring forth the end of humanity, she may have done something a bit drastic. Drastic like stealing the Eye of God, an important artifact containing the summation of all knowledge, and then slamming it into her own skull in order to hold it hostage and kick up enough of a fuss that the angels acquiesced and agreed to come to some sort of truce. The ultimate blasphemy.

She would be felled. If she cared so much about those silly, stupid animals, she could spend the rest of eternity proving they were worth it. Shoved into a body made of flesh and her powers largely sealed behind seven penances, Sister Virtue is tasked with protecting humanity from all threats divine or diabolic. She cannot die; [officially banned to prevent any loopholes or complicated litigation later] but she can give up... but doing so would mean damning all of humanity in the entire process.

After crash-landing into a convent and taking the administrative lead of the attached school (now known as Eschaton Academy) Sister Virtue is establishing a network of those both blessed and possessed to aid her in the arduous process of keeping people safe, all while trying to figure out what it means to be human herself.

So Why should you vote for her?

Let's face it, we're not in high school any more.

Coming of age stories for teens are fun, but sometimes... you don't really start coming of age until your 20's, 30's, 40's... Virtue, 37 human years old, is here to show the journey of growing into your skin even if that comes after high school.

2. She's hot as hell.

A nun in her work uniform, Sister Virtue at heart is a truckin', smokin', wrestlin' uncle of a woman, and her casual attitude and casual attire reflect this. And let's face it. A woman who hates wearing shirts and has a happy trail is a god-sent gift for all of us.

[art credit @ koiiluvz]

3. She's just a bit weird.

She named her car (a self-"upgraded" hearse) the Popemobile. She smokes cigarettes because she likes the taste. She doesn't mind nudity, but gets shy eating in public because digestion is just a little too intimate for an angel. She loves paperwork. Sometimes she regurgitates the angel equivalent of a hairball.

4. Don't know about all this original universe lore? She's got a D&D Iteration.

You can find her character sheet here-- She;s a tanky fallen aasimar paladin with 3 different ways to intimidate. Because you don't even need a gun with an attitude like hers.

5. She'd vote for you

At the end of the day, Sister Virtue is someone who runs on love. Love for all of humanity. Including you. Even if you don't believe in Virtue, virtue believes in you, and you should believe in you too.

Questions? Concerns? Comments? Check out my eschaton academy tag. Or pop into my inbox or dms.

(she even has emotes. art credit @/pcktknife, @/citrus-sours, and @/GR4FF1T1 [on toyhouse] )

[sadruru]

Suddenly inspired by one artwork where one artist's commander is depicted on different mythic path. It made me want to draw some of them too! Each choice will affect Melissa differently, both externally and internally.

Maybe some of you have thought of something like that too. I think it's really cool!

WARNING!!! That's a lot of letters ~ Because I can and I will I LOVE making long posts with lots of text. A-HA-HA!!!

Trickster: "No matter what I do, my life is a f*cking comedy for humans, gods, demons… And you know what? I don't give a sh*t about you motherf*ckers! / You watch Melissa go into hysterics. The insane laughter makes your blood run cold. She even seems to be dancing to music she can only hear in her head. / No one else will have power over me, not even the gods! From now on, I will write my own happy ending! Now let us play by my rules. I am the queen in this godd*mn theater, and you will be my jesters!!"

The True path. The alignment remains the same, Chaotic-Neutral. More madness and fun. Melissa certainly wouldn't give up the ability to interfere even with the universe if it were possible. The only outward difference is the occasional appearance of a strange mask on her face. At times like that, you never know what to expect from this tiefling. I had a hell of a hard time drawing that mask, but it turned out great. Just the way I wanted it to turn out.

Angel: "/ Melissa's eyes look down in confusion. You can hear the shaky notes of confusion in her voice. She is unusually silent. The weight of responsibility now rests on her shoulders. / I thought this was going to be an amusing joke. Tiefling's more like an angel, and she's got stupid wings! Sounds mad, doesn't it? My skin and hair… Do I really look like a human now? It's wild…. It's so weird to feel so many hopeful looks on me. I don't even know what to say…"

The alignment changed to Neutral. And from this point on, some of her views on life would have to be reevaluated, which was extremely discouraging. Melissa will become much more serious and calm, less 24/7 style jokes. More adequacy. Her skin will lighten and her hair will take on its usual human brown hue as will her eyes. The appearance of wings, of course, and a semblance of a warm glow from behind, like the aasimar's. She didn't choose this path because there was no point in bringing righteousness and law to a world that was already rotten. Easier to destroy everything… Isn't it?

Azata: "Okay, wait… What the?! Butterfly wings?! Plants on my head?! I look like a pink princess, only without the dress!" / Melissa looks extremely annoyed. No matter how hard she tried to pluck the flowers, they grew on her head again and again, covering her horns with fragrant roses. Slowly she begins to relax, realizing that it's no use. / Damn it!.. Okay, okay. I think I liked that. A little bit... Maybe bringing 'kindness' and 'freedom' isn't as stupid as I thought… Don't dare laugh!"

Chaotic-Good By the end of the game, Melissa becomes softer and kinder. But she's not thrilled with the sudden external changes anyway. You know, flowers and butterflies. The reason for her rejection of this path is simple. She doesn't believe in all that nonsense about friendship, loyalty, kindness and so on. Didn't grow up in that kind of environment. ...Azata - it's not necessarily blue colors. I just want red 🗿 No Desna. Just Cayden Cailean and Calistria!

Demon: "/ Her burning eyes reflected real rage and bloodlust. It was as if primordial chaos in all its horrifying splendor came into view. The thirst for destruction that had haunted her all her life had taken on new colors, and she was ready to carry it with renewed vigor. The girl's voice was no longer human, but rather frighteningly demonic. / I want to break someone's spine, fracture their skull, gut their insides... How ironic. All my life I've been called many things: monster, beast, demon. And now... Now I'm exactly what you thought I was. I hope you're all happy."

REALL Chaotic- Evil The saddest path for Melissa, in my opinion. Especially for a tiefling, considering they often do bad things under societal pressure. Absolute hatred for anything and everything. The appearance would be demonic.

The closest thing to her was the Demon path. Sure, it was very tempting to gain destructive power and take revenge on everyone who had hurt her, but that would be too easy. Deep down, Melissa really didn't want anything like that. If you got to know her better, you'd realize that she's not as bad as she seems at first glance.

P.S.: Yes, she has a big scar on her neck. There will definitely be pages later on about how she got it. It has to do with her death and sudden resurrection.

[running-tweezers]

I’m starting ANOTHER D&D game tonight!!! That’s 2 games I’m in now!!

I’m playing a weird biblical angel-coded aasimar freak girl :)

She escaped a cult where she was seen as a holy sign from god and her existence and purpose was hotly debated her entire life :)

She has a constant glowing halo and 3 sets of eyes :)

She’s constantly fighting the intense divine energy threatening to explode out of her at all times :)

When she finally has to let it out she gains 3 sets of flaming wings and searing radiant light pours out of her eyes and mouth :)

I love her :)

[pilot-boi]

Thank you for notifying me about this crime, I shall rectify it:

How did Jaune encounter his patron? Did she trick him? Did he misunderstand?

Also, why do I get the feeling Jaune is accidentally good at illegal shit?

*cracks knuckles* Let me find my notes…

Strap in this is gonna be a long one

Like a really long one. I haven’t gotten to talk about this AU in MONTHS so prepare for what is basically a whole overview of Jaune’s whole arc throughout the campaign

Jaune’s wasn’t even aware that he was an aasimar until he was like 15. His whole family was born with golden hair, and sapphire eyes, and the mark of the Sun on their forehead, so to him it was just how things were

Besides, there’s people from his village who can make trees bloom with a wave of their hands, so being especially blonde wasn’t that weird

Not sure how it happens, kidnapping, trafficking, village is attacked, but somehow the boy and most of not all of his siblings are captured and thrown into a fighting ring scenario

Cue awakening of aasimar heritage in all the Arc kiddos, which helps them survive in the ring. Trauma time woohoo, they’re trapped there for literal months

Eventually, in a dream, Jaune accidentally makes a deal with a dark entity, telling it “I don’t care what you want, just please get me out of here”

The entity obliges, to the letter, JUST getting Jaune out of there, and leaving the ring burning in their wake

His siblings aren’t dead, they escape during the chaos and eventually make their way back home, but Jaune thinks that he’s responsible for all of their deaths

And as the days go on, he realizes he can… do things that he never could before

“Magic, my little bird. A gift for performing so well for me,” a dark voice whispers in his dreams

He doesn’t know it, but his patron ends up being the BBEG, AKA Salem. And for once, I didn’t decide this, you can blame @harmonylight for that one

Plot goes on, Jaune questioning every choice he makes because is it really his choice? Or is it this dark force giving power to protect people and himself? How free actually is he, or is he still trapped just like he was in the ring?

Late campaign is rough, when the party starts speaking out against Salem. It’s obvious she’s the BBEG by this point. There’s a whole cult, Nora’s mom was a member of it. Nora stops trusting him for a bit until Jaune deep in his feels does something SUPER reckless to protect her.

They more they speak out against Salem, the more she manipulates Jaune into thinking his friends hate him. Worse, they unknowingly make it easier for her by distancing themselves to protect him

The party keeps waking up for watch with him watching them, or standing over them. Anything Salem can puppet him to do to be less trustworthy. Trying to put a schism between him and them

Jaune of course remembers none of this. “See? They don’t trust you, little bird. They don’t CARE about you”

Jaune doesn’t remember doing it, but he also fully believes it’s happening. And while he believes Salem that his friends must hate him/be afraid of him he also takes it as the threat it truly is

“Look how easily I could kill them, and you can’t stop me? Look how helpless you are”

Penny is a big part of helping him realise that Salem isn't fully in control of him that he can resit and he can beat her. There’s nothing shippy, they’re bros

There’s an arc just before the end that goes REALLY bad for Jaune, he’s becoming more and more convinced that he’s a bad person, that he’s dangerous, that he’s going to get all of his friends killed just like his family

And THATS when he finds out that his family is actually alive. And that gives him something to resist for, because now he has a home to return to. Because one thing that is true about all Jaunes, he is dogshit at fighting for himself and great at fighting for others

Luckily, because she’s just his patron, they can kick her ass without worrying about hurting Jaune. The campaign ends in the nine hells, fighting Salem herself

Cinder is also a warlock of Salem. They meet her a few times throughout the campaign, each time a little more corrupted. She’s actually the first minion they fight when they reach the hells, and by that point she’s FULLY puppet, not a scrap of Cinder actually left

Sort of a “This is what could’ve happened/could STILL happen to Jaune if this doesn’t end soon” It went faster for Cinder because she’s been bonded for longer and also because she fully indulged in what Salem wanted of her

But by the end of the campaign the first bits of corruption are starting to show on Jaune. They mostly go away after Salem is sealed away, but the physical affects are still there

After all of that, obviously Jaune doesn’t have magic. No patron means no warlock. He borrows some books from Tai and Emerald (both wizards) and studies to learn what he can.

But mostly he finally relaxes, surrounded by the family he thought he lost, and the family he gained because of that loss

[sunflowergem]

Got hit by inspiration and decided to pop off all of the camp clothes and what her undergarments and cracks fully look like. Okay so this looks like I popped out a lot but a good chunk of this was duplicated layers because a lot of it's reused clothing. Let me explain.

One is first camp night and it's the same dress as fresh off the nautiloid but the bottom had to be cut off. I did not show it with the art but the figurine from before has the blood all around the bottom and there's no way you're getting that out of cotton so she had to cut it all off and it was quickly hemmed at the bottom to make a shorter nightgown. Second her camp outfit after she gets some armor. She decides to keep on her pants from the yellow robes to offer some extra coverage at night and they're super baggy because they didn't belong to her at first since she had haggle to get them. Number three she started to notice cracks of light appearing on herself which she thinks is a little weird but doesn't opt to tell the group because it doesn't seem to be a bad thing. She decides to just cover it up instead, she probably should have asked somebody about them and it wouldn't have been a big deal. But they had enough things on their plate in her mind. So she tightens up the neckline and adds gloves to cover her hands. And after the wings pop out number four would be the look for the rest of the game as far as default camp clothes. This dress has gone through the ringer and after growing wings the sleeves were basically gone. So now it's more of a sundress look! And then finally some basic underwear look for her along with the visuals of all the cracks and glowing effects when she fully grows wings. Within the game basically what would happen with her character model is every time she levels up her skin starts to crack and a little bit of glowing shows up underneath it. Very light at first but it starts to get harder to cover up as they get closer the end of act 2. It wouldn't be until about level 5 or 6 that the sternum and tips of her fingers and toes start to glow as well. Then it became really tricky to cover up but it would be very shortly after that she would grow wings so after that it didn't matter. Oh and somebody complimented the glowing and I need to point out that I am not the one to come up with that. Credit where credit is due. That's from the mod I was using to make her an aasimar in the game, Whispers of the Divine by Trips, from Nexus. I adored how it made her look in the game file and it just became my default of how she looked in my mind. I tried to check around to see if the glowing sternum and tips of the limbs was a thing with aasimar anywhere else and I think it's a unique addition??? If anyone has any more knowledge on that I'd love to hear it. I was discussing some things anyway today and I think I might need to start to write down all of my ideas about how aasimar's work. Just so I have a good reference and can put in some information when I finally turned this into a fanfic, but that's troubles for another day.

Pretty excited to do her next reference, I'm going to try and figure out what she wears for the majority of the first part of act 3 and then I'm doing like the final battle outfit for her which actually is an armor set in the game. Feel free to try and guess although one person cannot say anything cuz they already know. They get all the secrets about Sunflower. Then it's on to post game content/the five different endings I have thought up for her outfits (⁠✿⁠^⁠‿⁠^⁠)

[prankprincess123]

There are alot of things about my sister's husband that really annoy me, and I will admit that he has gotten significantly less yikes since they got married (though the fact that they were 17 & 25 when they first got together will always leave me distrustful) but the way he approached the family D&D campaign we just started really highlights alot of the little reasons he drives me nuts.

So it's my baby sister's first real campaign. She's 11yo and very much still a child rather than a wanna be teenager, but wants to play D&D with us, so we're trying to keep it pretty PG and tame. Mama also hasn't played much since 3.5 and thus isn't used to all the weird new races. So we decided that we are going to do an overall Chaotic Good party, with races limited to ones the players handbook and fae. All three middle kids were a little annoyed by this, but settled in such a way that we had an aasimar, a satyr, my gnome and a bunch of elves all either CG or CN.

We also weren't planning for it to be an evening thing as baby sister still goes to bed at 8:30 and has school in the morning. But BIL works till 5, and has to be part of any and every D&D game, and he was genuinely expressing an interest in being part of family time for once. So we agreed to start in the afternoon, take a break for dinner & to pick him up, then resume & let baby stay up a little later than usual to play with everyone.

And as we're creating characters I'm trying to talk to everyone about what our 3rd level party's backstory is and how we met & know eachother, and asking for input on what my ranger's favored enemy should be. But he won't talk to me, and my sister says his character is a surprise, and she won't give any input on my favored enemy either. So I roll my eyes in exasperation, decide that my favored enemy is kobolds because Ada loves using them as low level enemies, and figure that BIL's character will be introduced as part of the story when he shows up mid session.

And BIL gets there finally, and we start playing, and he doesn't add a mini to the board or introduce his character or anything. So we're all starting to get annoyed, but continue on and resume the quest. Then 5min into the battle against kobolds and goblins, a NE kobold barbarian jumps into the fray, so my CG gnome ranger whose favorite enemy is kobolds instinctively shoots it. And at this point, Mama is about ready to strangle BIL, baby is starting to get over tired and just wants to loot the bodies and go to bed irl, and Ada let's me shoot him cause it's funny and tracks that in a battle against my favorite enemy I'd shoot another one of that race who I don't know. And BIL whirls on me with remarks about how if he attacked me that way my character would be downed instantly - which yes, but if you followed the rules for the campaign it wouldn't be an issue - and very pointedly helps everyone but me - and I'm only even struggling slightly with the wargs so whatever. But he draws the battle out long enough that it's now an hour past baby's bedtime, and in game only my sister (his wife)'s character (whose backpack he was apparently hiding in) knows who this random enemy character is and he's still not answering questions, and baby is overtired and we don't have time for his nonsense, so we wrap up the sessoin as fast as possible and leave it for next time. And after game as Ada is putting baby to bed I ask him what the heck that was and he just grins and says 'Z said you'd react this way and say it's what your character would do. When she told me your favorite enemy is kobolds I just laughed.'

Like what the actual heck dude. We're trying to have a low stakes, low drama, introduction campaign for a kid who already cries herself to sleep because family relationships have been strained since BIL entered the picture. And hes intentionally breaking the rules because he knows it will annoy both Mama and me, picking fights in game, and drawing the game longer after the 11yo's bedtime.

I just want to scream and wish my character were tough enough to take his out easily.

[stick-or-treat]

So here's the thing about languages in the 2024 PHB rules.

There are now two language tables, one of languages that are commonly spoken throughout the multiverse and one of languages that are "rare" and therefor not as easy to pick up. They added Common Sign Language in the "common" table and I think that's awesome. Shit like Primordial is in the "rare" table, which... good.

In theory, I like the divide. I think it's helpful, especially to new players, to be like "here are the ones you might run into and here are the ones you will probably never run into unless the plot goes there".

HOWEVER, none of the core species have a language baked in to their description anymore. Tieflings don't automatically speak Infernal, aasimar don't automatically understand Celestial, etc.

This in itself isn't inherently an issue but it gets kind of sucky when you get to the "pick your languages" section and learn that you can only pick two languages off the common table and that is it.

Infernal and Celestial are both on the rare table. Which means that unless your tiefling or aasimar specifically took a background/feat that lets them learn a rare language, they CANNOT speak those languages off the bat. WHICH IS REALLY WEIRD FOR TIEFLING, ESPECIALLY, because the species description specifically starts with "Tieflings are either born in the lower planes or..." and yet they can't have picked up Infernal or Abyssal at some point?? The main languages spoken in the lower planes??

I would not be quite as annoyed by this if all the species had their sort lineage-themed-language blocked by the rare table but dragonborn can pick up Draconic because it's on the common table, SO BOO

YES, I can easily homebrew a change here but I find it very weird that they've completely blocked off the rare languages unless you've taken a specific feat that lets you learn one. I feel like it would have been very easy to let people pick either 2 common languages or 1 common and 1 rare language. In blitzing through the PHB I'm actually not even sure if there is a background or feat that lets you learn a rare language at lvl 1. It's a bizarre choice.

[maroonian]

so the underworld saga of epic dropped recently and i had brainworms

this is a wip lets see if i ever actually finish it YAHOO

more gush under cut

basically i had this image in my head for a small animatic regarding my current campaign PC, an aasimar oathbreaker paladin/divine soul sorcerer multiclass. his name is azrael zyvan luque and hes kind of a fucked up little guy.

hes kind of a weird aasimar, in that per the campaign story he originally looked like a blend of the heritages his material plane parents had (tabaxi mom, kenku mom), with celestial features from his unknown celestial parent.

he was indoctrinated into a cult as a child after basically being stolen from his parents (tricked under the guise of a "religious studies scholarship"). and then he was consumed by the goddess of a cult (echidna the mother of all monsters, in this campaign, is a horrible giant horrorterror style monster goddess that is enclosed within the planet in amber) and horribly mutated partway into an aberration.

its given him horrible mental instability! he sometimes frenzies and the rest of the party has to put him down. recently he got an """upgrade""" to this that makes him Even Worse :) so that was fun !!!

hes totally normal about this (hes not). this animatics kind of a metaphor for the trauma of his loss of self. killing the old self and becoming the new, worse version of himself while waiting to die :,)

hes currently on the cusp of an oath change to redemption with his original god! and also learning how to live and not. waiting to die. and also learning to rely on his DEFINITELY NOT friends

[missingcarrion]

carrion // ch11 teeth against flesh

masterlist

note : a short chapter bc im getting impatient about getting to the good shit

taglist @tapioca-milktea1978 @neapolitantoebeans

-

Aasimar’s apartment smells like him, sweet with hints of lavender and rose with some salt. It briefly crosses his mind that Aasi might be accustomed to saltwater than fresh, but his mind is brought to something else entirely. His home was messy, but in the lived in sense. He had an odd stuffed animal on his couch, a cross between a bear and an owl.

            “’m very hot,” Aasimar mumbles, and begins undressing as he walks deeper into his apartment. Shepherd follows, haphazardly ducking beneath the doorways leading to Aasi’s bathroom.

            The apartment isn’t anywhere near as friendly towards having a fish resident – there’s no space for much else other than the bare minimum, and Shepherd barely fits into the bathroom as is, but Aasimar slides into the tub, prefilled with water. Shepherd sinks beside him, outside the tub, eyeing him with a small smile. Aasimar lets out a weird snort noise before his breathing visibly changes and Shepherd sees his gills open and close.

            “What… what was that?” He asks, eyes focused on Aasi’s gills, his brows furrow.

            “Mm? Oh, I uh, to breathe from my gills. It’s, ah, hard to explain. I can switch where I breathe from, basically? It’s all boring and very complicated, sweetling,” Aasimar stares at him lazily, head cocked to the side. His voice sounds more… natural, like speaking with oxygen intake through his nose had hindered his speech greatly. He sounds like a siren, his tone almost like a song, even without singing.

            Shepherd leans against the tub, swiping his hand through the water, “it feels better, doesn’t it?”

            “Mhm,” he nods, golden eyes softening, “you barely fit in here. You didn’t have to follow me in here.”

            “I didn’t want you to be alone, you could get hurt. You’re what they would call a lightweight, it seems,” Shepherd muses, and he snorts, “it was just vodka, wasn’t it?”

            “I’ve never handled vodka well, or any other alcohol for that matter, but I like the taste. C’mere,” Aasimar leans forward and presses a kiss to Shepherd’s cheek, and then another against his jaw. “I want to run away from the Institute, y’know? I wanna start a club, call it Delirium, make it a safe space for everyone who walks in.”

            “That sounds nice,” Shepherd whispers, “do I get to come, too?”

            “We’re in this together,” Aasimar nods, inhaling slowly, “you don’t deserve to spend the rest of your existence in servitude. Every little bird deserves to exist outside their cage.”

            “Why do you stay, then? You’ve been here a while, haven’t you? Why not just leave and make that club?” Shepherd cocks his head to the side.”

            Aasimar snorts, “no one leaves the Institute alive. Oleander was a testament to that, a promise to the rest of us that if we did what he did, we’d die like he did. Only, we didn’t know exactly what had happened to him. The only way out is to dismantle the compound and ruin them. But with the Institute on your back, you’ll never truly be free. Once you’re in, you’re in for life. And when you’re a creature like me, your life stretches on for a long time.”

“We could figure something out, we could get Hannah here and figure out a way to escape, then we can get that club.” Shepherd says, defiantly, and assuredly. The Institute would crumble beneath his feet, he was just sure of it.

Aasimar stares at him oddly, “you know we’d have to essentially destroy the compound, right? We won’t be able to escape long enough if too much of the compound’s systems are still usable. They’d track you down in a heartbeat.”

“I could separate myself from the mainframe of the system. They still have a sliver of agency over me, I can use that as leverage into their systems and sneak past their firewalls and damage them from the inside.”

“I don’t particularly want to know how you figured out what any of that means or how to do it, but that only solves one issue. Taking out their tech solves one half of the problem,” Aasimar shakes his head and slowly begins to stand. He gasps for air for a second before he snorts and shakes his head vigorously. “Fuck, never gets better. But, uh, point being Shep, treason to this degree needs to be planned. We won’t have room for failure.”

Shepherd pulls away, giving Aasimar room to dry himself off. “We should still try, Aasi. Like you said, every bird deserves to exist outside their cage. You included.”

He hesitates and he sighs, towel wrapped around his body. “We don’t even know if Hannah wants to join us on this endeavor.”

“Only one way to find out,” Shepherd grins, “you have her number right? What better time to plan than now?”

There’s a pause and then a sigh as Aasimar trudges to his bedroom with Shepherd in tow. He rummages through his drawers, grabbing whatever he deems comfortable enough to put on.

“You want me to call Hannah and bring her over here to talk about committing treason?” He asks, both incredulous and amused. “You’ve gotten quite bold, Shep.”

“I want… I want that dream with you. I want the club, the freedom. I want it.” Shepherd casts his glance elsewhere and he finds a peculiar photo sitting on Aasimar’s night table. “That…. That was me, wasn’t it?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, sorry. I haven’t been here since you, ah, woke up.” Aasimar doesn’t look over, opting to get dressed with his back towards Shepherd. “For what it’s worth, I’ll message Hannah. I don’t know if she’ll come over, I can’t guarantee anything, but… I think we should still try.”

Shepherd stares at the photo, sitting stiffly at the edge of Aasimar’s bed. He looks so entirely different now, it’s almost like they were always two separate people. He sighs.

“Can I stay the night? I want to sleep here, with you,” Shepherd turns to look at him, expression almost pouty.

“You’ll come to learn that dating me means my space is your space too, lover mine.” Aasimar snickers playfully.

“I love all the nicknames you have for me,” Shepherd admits quietly, smiling. He leans back, making himself as comfortable as he can. “I feel spoiled every time you do it. I feel bad I don’t have one for you.”

“You can always come up with one yourself,” Aasimar shrugs and crawls into bed beside him, pressing up against his side. “You can call me whatever you’d like.”

“Lamb,” Shepherd murmurs, grinning, “because I’m Shepherd.”

Aasimar sighs and snorts, “mm, sounds nice when you say it. Just for me.”

—

Hannah shows up the next morning, brows knitted in worry almost as soon as she enters the apartment.

“You’re gonna get him erased, Aasimar,” she accused, zeroing Aasi out with annoyance. “This…. This whole meeting, him being here, they’ll know something’s up. You’re gonna get him killed.”

The instantaneous nature of her ire takes Shepherd by surprise, but it comforts him to at least know that Hannah cares for him, even if she’s angry as she is. He doesn’t like that she’s mad at Aasimar, like he hasn’t been the one to start this, like Aasimar hadn’t been hesitant to the idea.

“Hannah, wait,” Shepherd reaches out, as if to shield Aasimar from her wrath, “this was my idea. Not his. He doesn’t even want to do it!”

“W – What?” Hannah furrows her brows and her wrath dissipates almost immediately, “you want to rebel? I don’t… I don’t understand. Where is this coming from?”

“It’s always been there, I think,” he looks away, lips pursed, “will you join us, Hannah? I – I know how to keep us safe, but I don’t want to do it without you.”

She fidgets, leaning to the side, “they’ll fucking kill us, Shepherd. You may get a chance, but we won’t. Once we’re out, we’re out. Do you even know the magnitude of what you’re doing? What it means? It’s better to be in servitude than dead, you of all people should know that, Aasimar. Shepherd, you’re new, you’re… you don’t know the Institute like we do, but you cannot escape. No one can.”

Shepherd purses his lips and his gaze shifts towards her, he’s unsure, uncertain of her words, but he feels almost insulted that she regards him the way she does. “I know their wrath, Hannah, I have felt their doting hands as they dole out their affection. For hours they made me and unmade me, for hours they made sure I knew their only answer was death. I know and I want something more. Will you join me, or will you stand aside?”

Aasimar glances between them, his jaw clenched but he says nothing. His gaze leans to Shepherd, watching him. After a moment, he sighs and leans his head back.

Aasimar tilts his head, legs crossed. “We didn’t think the Institute was forever, did we? We’ll have to free ourselves eventually, why not now? Either we die slaves, or we die with freedom in our eyes. Which would you prefer?”

Her silence is loud – Shepherd isn’t sure what she’d choose, not with the way her expression seems angry, like she’d waste nothing to turn them in for treason. But then she sighs and cocks her head to the side.

“What plan do you even have for this? The Institute practically owns everything around us. Pretty sure the Institute is on our birth certificates,” she sits, arms crossing over her chest. It feels him with little hope, but some is better than none.

“You need to get a piece of my memory core into the control room of the compound,” Shepherd clears his throat and he looks away, “I will be able to shield them from you and Aasi. I’ll erase you both completely from the Institute’s knowledge. I can blind them long enough for us to all get out.”

“Hm, not bad, but they’ll never let you into the control room. They won’t even let Aasimar in. It’s high security clearance, humans only. I don’t even have half the clearance necessary for that room. You’ll need a diversion of some sort.” Hannah hums thoughtfully and purses her lips in thought. “We could blow up the lab? It’s far enough away from the control room that it’ll keep people away long enough for you to do what you need to do.”

“I’m sorry what? You want to do what with my lab, you know, the one I’ve spent the last several years of my life proving I deserved?” Aasimar eyes her cautiously, frowning. “You must be fucking mad to think I’d let you do that.”

“Do you have any better ideas?” She snorts, “it’s just a lab, if you value your freedom, you’d throw it all away.”

“That’s not fair,” he hisses.

“No? Neither was you asking me to throw everything away for you two. I want freedom, who doesn’t? But why would I give all this up for a crack shot chance that maybe I’ll be free? They gave me a home, a job, money. Out there? If we do this, what will we have? And don’t fucking say each other, Shep. That friendship is magic bullshit isn’t real.”

Shepherd stares at her in disbelief, but decides to stay quiet. Aasimar can handle himself, he’s far more capable than anyone had ever given him credit for, and yet it’s Hannah’s words that strike a chord in him.

“Do you know what they did to him? To my Oleander,” Aasimar asks, and there’s a level of fondness in his tone that Shepherd’s only heard him use in privacy, where no one can hurt him. “They killed him, they killed him. Do you know what they did after, Hannah?”

Hannah furrows her brow and looks at him oddly, “what do you mean? What… what happened to him?”

“I –” Aasimar looks back, like there’s more he wants to say, more he wants to reveal, and so Shepherd waits patiently, “he’s Shepherd. Oleander is Shepherd. Now, at least.”

She pauses and her face turns ghostly white, “w…what?”

“I’m Oleander,” Shepherd shrugs slowly, “I have his memories, his… his everything, I guess. They took whatever he was and made him into me. They took the key parts of Oleander, locked away the rest, and left the rest in me.”

“Wait, so this whole time…” Hannah furrows her brows and starts to pace, muttering to herself, “do none of us see an issue with you two fucking each other? You were supposed to move on from him, Aasimar, not… date him again!”

Aasimar shrugs, “okay, so I’m willing to admit my taste is not always that great when it comes to romantic partners, but Shepherd isn’t… he’s not Oleander anymore and you know that. He’s his own person now. The circumstances to allow such a thing is entirely less than ethical or ideal, but something good did come out of it.”

Shepherd can’t help the way something flutters within his chest. He feels as if there is something he must do to earn the way Aasimar speaks of him. “I would’ve told you sooner, when I was first beginning to remember, but… I wasn’t sure how you’d react. He didn’t seem to be your favorite person ever.”

There’s a moment of silence before Hannah just sits down and drags a hand across her face, “oh my gooood. This cannot be happening. You cannot be serious. Of course, Oleander died wanting to run from the Institute. It’s – I guess it makes sense that you’d want to go too.”

“So? Will you do this?” Shepherd asks, brows furrowed. “Will you run away with us?”

“I… I don’t know how far we can get, but… maybe we could give it a shot,” she nods slowly, “let’s do it.”

[shiawasekai]

1,25,28 for the KC ask game! - Yunessa

Hello!! Thank you for these, @yunessa!! They're from this ask game

Spoiler warning!

1. Do they think they're going to make it out alive?

Now that's a difficult question and one that evolves a lot over time. During the prologue and act 1... No, not really. She's terrified and putting a strong front, but she has no confidence of coming out of this alive. Especially with a strange wound in her chest that simply refuses to heal.

Over time... She stops considering the question at all. Mostly because the answer is....... who cares? Deep down, under all that denial and desperate attempts to hide herself from the truth she already knows, she realizes it. This isn't her time, everyone is dead and she's alone in the world. There is nothing for her. No home to return. Her country has changed so much it may as well be called something else entirely as far as she's concerned.

Maybe it's easier if there is no after. No need to ask herself what's going to happen. How is she going to deal with having nowhere to go. Delving on the question at that point would not have a happy ending, I think. It's purely self-preservation.

As Nela settles in and makes Drezen her new home, however, she gains the mindspace to consider it again... just as the worst of the mythic metamorphosis starts to happen, the situation forces her to admit the actual truth to herself and the reveal about the consequences of closing the Worldwound herself come around.

Death is a likely option, especially if Areelu refuses to collaborate, so she can't be sure about her survival. Both options are possible to her, and she finds herself making an active effort to live. She finds herself unable to give up, even if the future is still terrifying to her.

25. How did they welcome the physical change that came with their mythic powers? Did they embrace it/reject it?

This question has many, many layers to it and relates to her personal issues with her appearance so let's go by steps.

First point to take into account, because it goes a long way towards defining her relationship with mythical powers: she hates being an Aasimar to the point of getting tattoos to ruin her own looks. She never had a good relationship with her body, her appearance just a symbol of what was hurting her. The wild, impossible expectations; the denial of who she was by those around her.

Second point to take into account: She can't even recognize herself in a mirror during the game, because she has suddenly aged into an adult and she is coping badly. There is a mental dissonance between her image of herself and what she has become she is struggling to reconcile with. The person in the mirror is not her.

Adding the physical chance of mythic powers on top of that has weird and contrasting effects. On one side, being recognized as an angel and not an aasimar is something she likes. Transforming to an angel was, up to a point, a choice she took (a limited, forced choice, but leagues better than being born as one).

It is also strangely validating: if she is finding success as an angel in these Crusades, if actual angels look at her and find one of their own... it proves there was nothing wrong with her all along. That those berating her for not fitting their ideal of perfection were wrong. She welcomes the idea of her angel identity completely overwriting the aasimar part of it.

Besides, the angel instincts quiet down the intrusive thoughts from the Fallen Angel part of her (Emberkin) and, given how terrified she had grown of those, she considers that a blessing.

On the other hand........ she is a mess and already struggling with her inability to recognize the person in the mirror. It makes it exponentially worse, especially after the full transformation in Rank 9. Her transformation is particularly invasive for an Angel Commander, and no amount of hiding her wings is going to fix it. It's plain to see for anyone.

Rank 9 is the breaking point, where her mental issues reach a point of no return and the post-game breakdown becomes a certainty.

28. Would they be a companion instead of the KC? What would their storyline and personal quest be?

Her story would be mostly similar if made into a companion. Still an experiment by Areelu (just a failure), still out of her time, still struggling with an older and changed body (not in the same way as the mythic metamorphosis, different changes). The main change is that she isn't in charge of anything, and hence doesn't have to keep a strong front or play up a Commander persona like her KC self. She can allow herself to be more vulnerable.

That doesn't mean she's going to be honest about her situation to the KC. She is found wandering in the Worldwound during Act 2, unsure of why is she even here. She only gives the KC her first name, not her surname (out of a misguided attempt to protect herself, but ultimately because otherwise Sosiel could connect the dots and that's not a good idea for a companion quest. He comes from the same part of Andoran)

Ultimately, her quests would be about prying out the truth from her and finding a way to help her recover. As a companion, Nela's ultimate motivation for collaborating is her resentment towards Areelu. But make no mistake she is just as troubled by having absolutely nothing in the world as her KC self.

There are two solutions to this problem: repeat what Sosiel does in the KC-verse and reunite her with her twin brother, now an elderly man, and let him help her through the worst of it, or talk your way through it, choosing the right options to guide her through the trauma to find a reason to live.

One requires you to research her background and dig out the necessary clues, the other requires the KC to have the emotional intelligence to support and guide their companion through a mountain of issues to a point she can keep working it out on her own.

And I say reason to live because she would take herself out after the game if the quest is failed. Vanishing forever, in a place you can't find her body.