#she had a tabaxi druid wife

[tazzmanian-devil]

i wish i got to play grout(dnd half orc) more. i loved her. she was part of a mystery solving campaign and was awesomeeee.

[dumbassdungeonslime]

I’ve been making some OCs in the form of dnd characters (5e). For some inspiration I’ve done one from each class, but I haven’t done monk, fighter, ranger or artificer yet.

I’ve been giving them each a nickname, which is their vibe and class. So far there’s:

Beastly Barbarian: the Beast, previously known as Krattan (it/it’s). A Goliath who follows the path of the beast after its village was destroyed by a mage. Became self-sufficient in the woods and aims to become the apex.

Brazen Bard (retired character): Nim/Nimareht (she/they), a satyr bard of creation who was shunted from their competitive home in the feywild into a city, and had to learn to survive. Wants to plane shift back home.

Courtesan Cleric: Flovier Agrane (she/her), a fire genasi cleric who serves a young god of trickery. She is a sex worker who uses powerfully scented candles for the aroma and to contact her patron deity. She is quite well off due to nobles wanting ‘exotic’ races.

Dire Druid: Thal Iffy (she/he), a hexblood who killed her hag with a glass knife. He ran away in regret and shame, and began chatting the stars to pass the time and became a Druid of the circle of stars. Her horns and purple skin made it clear to a local village that he is, but she helped them through difficult times.

Wondrous Wizard: Mysticallium, the marvelous magician, or Misty (he/him), an owlin who flew from his tree after taking a spell book that was guarding it against rot. He spends time performing as a stage magician, a conjuror, and de-cyphering the spells in the book.

Plankformed Paladin: Automaton-1, or Auto (he/it), a wooden war forged, made by a kind inventor. He was never given life, but as it’s parts lay scattered in the forest, nature carved a magical symbol of life on its chest piece. He now lives as a paladin, sworn to redeem people.

Renegade Rogue: Treedot (Tree) Hauverly (he/she), a harengon (rabbitfolk) who was raised and trained to be a servant, and was very good at it, eventually was sexually assaulted by his master and stabbed him to death, his wife later sharing the fate. Now she infiltrated manors and the like, leaving in a bloodstained maid dress each time. An assassin.

Sleeping Sorcerer: Tabui Cotton (she/they), a shadow sorcerer who gained their power by stealing a wizards arcane focus and sleeping next to it for a long time. A theif and chronic napper by trade, she uses her tabaxi prowess and magic to take whet she wants without consequence.

Waterborne Warlock: Wave (Piss) Thandriel (she/her), a sea elf who took up the life of a pirate. Thanks to being amphibious, she was dragged down by a bound ocean god and had her eye clawed out and replaced. Now, she casts spells with the trade of giving that god a view of land. She can’t stay still for too long, nor settle and likely never retire.

And that’s all of them so far. I’m planning on doing pixel art side profiles for each of them but I don’t know when that’ll happen. Any ideas for the other classes are appreciated.

[princessxombie]

Twice I've tried to play a Tabaxi and both times I only got to play about two game sessions before the GM stopped running.

The first was a wild shape Druid who was looking for a cure for her wife's curse and had to travel around with their toddler son, Lone Wolf and Cub style.

The second was a disgraced leonine tabaxi who had a mane despite being a woman, as that's something that happens in nature with real lionesses. She had failed in defense of her Queen when she was betrayed by her best friend/lover. She spent years drunk and wasting her life after this, doing small prison guard duties for drinking money until she met a hobgoblin slave/prisoner that convinced her to take back up her sword in defense of a new cause.

Maybe someday I'll get to playthrough a full story line as a kitty cat...

I love hearing peoples DnD character concepts. I don’t care if you’ve never gotten to play that character, I want to hear about them!

[def-not-kaz-brekker]

Our dnd campaign consists of:

Ziggy, our (human if I don’t err) rogue. Currently checking the security mirrors so that everyone in the casino vault can get out safely after having seduced a casino security guard. He has the guards pigeon number and they will hook up later.

Dirt, our (Dragonborn) Druid. Currently carrying a shitton of money out of the vault after turning into a mouse to get out of a cell and he was in the cell because he cheated at a game.

Sardithas, our (tabaxi) bard. Currently making out with the casino’s owner/founder. To be noted that they are being bottomed after seducing the owner to distract him from the fact that there is a Dragonborn and a dwarf carrying sacks of money out of his vault. They have been proposed to after having secuced the previously mentioned casino owner and their wedding is in two days. This is their second husband.

Úlfa, our (human I think) Ranger. She’s being a bit excluded since she’s kind of a bitch but anyways she just wants to set something on fire for a distraction.

And Somdor, our (dwarf) barbarian. Currently carrying money in a sack and holding twenty coins in his beard. His beard is actually his wife (he is beardsexual) and he uses it as a whip. He had to cause a distraction earlier and when a bodyguard came to tell him off Somdor accidentally murdered him with his beard. He then intimidated the rest of the security team and can now do whatever the fuck he wants.

I am God in this campaign and I have been told/heard pick up lines, to roll to see if a bread attack murdered an NPC, that Dirt should turn into a kangaroo to break out of the cells, how many coins can a dwarf fit in his beard, and so much more— I am having the time of my fucking life

[kilannad]

Taunting/Insults

Her mother had been great.

That’s the first thing Cree of the Nightback Clan ever learned. That her mother had been great. Not Cree, though. Never Cree.

Kin Killer.

She doesn’t remember what the accident had been, what exactly she did that ended with—with—

Corrupted.

But she knows what came after. What her life became.

The Nightback Clan likes to move, never staying long enough for the curse to attack them. They want to cure the corruption of the Savalirwoods, but no cleric or druid of their people has ever even gotten close to an answer. So, they keep moving, building temporary homes of wood and woven walls in the tall trees and hidden amongst their roots. A week, two, hunting and investigating, druids speaking with the land and clerics carving altars and then they’re gone, always on the move, walking so many paths they all become familiar.

Cree, with no mother to claim her, is left with her mother’s sister’s wife’s mother. Family in the way that everyone in the clan is family, but Cree has never called her ila. It’s always Aima this, Aima that. Aima’s mate died shortly after their daughter’s birth and she’s too old to keep hunting or gathering so she’s left with the care of the children, Cree included. Except no one really wants to watch out for Cree and the children make that known.

Cursed.

They try to teach her the druid’s way, first. It’s what her mother did, after all, and she was so great—

Cree can’t make anything grow. The opposite, in fact. Black and purple spreads through the roots, rotting them deep into the ground and—

Rotten Roots.

They don’t try teaching her anymore druid magic.

It doesn’t take long for her to start disappearing when she can, stalking through brush outside of their hunting lessons. The adults will be so busy with some new find, or capturing the newest set of thieves and executing them, that it’s almost too easy to disappear. She meets a raven, once. For a moment she thinks it’s one of the Elders, come to bring her back and punish her for her disobedience but it never shifts, never changes. Just flies its way from tree to tree as she pokes around, trying to find something interesting.

She doesn’t, but she dreams of raven feathers that night, and it’s almost comforting.

They move on from hunting to actual combat. The rest of the children are eager to fight her, throwing insults and taunts as they battle, claws lashing out, weapons dulled only lightly. Something dark starts bubbling in her chest, with every scraped wound she has that goes unhealed by the clerics, with every reminder that her mother was great so why do we have you—

She pushes it down. Disappears into the brush and is visited by that same raven with the too smart eyes and too quiet call.

They don’t often go to the Run—the Elders hate every member of that town and the feeling is mutual. The clan has, after all, killed their fair share of Tribal villains. But winter is coming and the land says it will be worse than any other so they, begrudgingly, go into the Run to trade for some thicker furs than what they’ve managed to kill thus far. Cree isn’t supposed to be with them, but she’s bored and her hip hurts from the not-so-dull practice sword she’d gotten hit with—

Slow and weak.

--that she follows, and sneaks into town. She’s never been to the Run before and it’s disgusting. Dirty and old and falling apart in a way that she’s never really experienced before, with all the natural and magical resources the clan uses. The raven is still following her and she’s ready to sneak back, declaring the whole adventure nothing but a bore but—

But.

She meets one person. Just one, who catches sight of her before she can dart back into an alley. And he’s so bright. Bright in a way that the dull purple and gray of the forest never is. Bright like the plain, simple colors of tabaxi can never be.

Just…bright.

Cree never thought she was missing color in her life. That’s not the kind of thing she thinks about, when she’s busy trying so hard to be better, get better, to be useful for the clan so that just once they’ll look and see her instead of—

Her mother was great.

“Well, aren’t you a cutie,” he drawls in an accent she’s never heard before, thick and heavy in a way that’s pleasant to the ear but reads to her as false. He smiles, lavender skin and purple hair bright spots in the drab town. “You’re hurt though. New in town? They always go after the cute ones first.”

She shouldn’t be talking to him, the Elders would have her head, but there’s something about him that drags her in, that makes her stare at the flash of a fang, the easy loose way he holds himself like he knows no one will come after him.

The exact opposite of her.

“I’m not from town,” she says shortly and then explains the dried blood she hadn’t managed to get out of her fur by simply saying: “Training.”

“I hope the other guy looks worse,” he laughs. It stops short when he catches sight of whatever her face is doing, her tail curling low around her ankle to make herself smaller. His eyes narrow, horns sharp where they curl around his head and he bares his teeth. “Word of advice, kitty cat.” She huffs at the atrocious nickname. “Always go for where it hurts most. Before they do the same to you.”

“They’re my clan,” she protests, something in her squirming at the viciousness in his voice, the blood that drips from his promise.

“Clan, Tribe. What difference does it make? Someone attacks you—put them down.”

He grins again, boyish and charming and so, so deadly in a way that makes her breath catch and her heart stutter.

“What’s your name?” she calls as he walks away, seemingly done with the interaction. He doesn’t look back, just tosses a hand over his shoulder in a half hearted wave.

“Lucien.”

The next time the insults start getting thrown, it goes too far. She’d been charged with cleaning the returning hunters’ weapons, not the worse of chores, when two others had approached her. She doesn’t know what they say that sets her off—

Black core.

Useless daughter.

Cursed child.

--but acid is bubbling in her stomach, rage burning her throat and all she can think is what the strange man had said and—

She stops trying to be a good clan member.

She never can remember what happens in that fog of rage and hate and fury. But there’s power in her veins and a shortsword in her hands and—

Is this what happened to her mother?

There’s so much blood. Blood and blood and blood and so little of it is her own.

She runs. Runs and runs before the screams can start, before the Elders can call for her head. They haven’t gotten that far from the Run since their stop and she’s spent a lot of time disappearing into the woods. She knows the way, how to hide her tracks.

She doesn’t know what she’ll do, where she’ll go. Somewhere far, far away, where she won’t have to hear—

Rotted Roots.

Cursed child.

Deep disappointment.

Corrupted as the trees.

She runs into Lucien. He’s on the edge of town, close to the north side. He looks only vaguely surprised when she runs into him, catching her arms to keep her upright without seeming to care about the blood on her.

“Well, looks like kitty cat listened to my advice.”

“Don’t call me that,” she snarls, adrenaline making her stupid and brash.

Lucien only laughs, that deep, rolling chuckle that makes her fur stand on end and her eyes snap to his.

“Aw, come on. Nicknames are a sign of friendship.”

“Who says we’re friends?”

“Me, duh.” She startles at the ease of it, at the simplicity. She’s never had a friend before and she doesn’t really think this is how it’s supposed to go. “Come on, I’ll get you some food. And a bath. I’m heading out of town tomorrow—if you want to join me, I’d welcome the company, kitty.”

“Only if you never call me that again,” she mutters, but food and passage away from the clan are too tempting to turn down.

“You never gave me a name,” he points out with a grin. “Very, very rude, if you ask me.”

“Cree—” she chokes on the second part. Her mother is dead, her place in the clan forfeited after what she just did. She has no claim to the Nightback name, now. “Just Cree.”

“Well, ‘Just Cree’, I think this all stinks of fate. Or maybe that’s just the blood.”

[pkmnsdarkqueen]

The Young group, and the main plot

(I’m doing a lore wrap up at the end, and since some people have kids I gotta bring them into the fold)

part. 1 

part. 2 

part. 3 

part. 4 you are here

It starts when Janine, a shadow monk yuan ti, is told why her dad really went missing. She figured out that he was a part of the mafia a while ago, and befriended the son of the mafia leader, Silver, a rogue thief shifter, as they grew up together. He’s the one who tells her that her father deserted the mafia, so his father sent hers off to fight int he gladiatorial pits of some kingdom. Furious she decides she’s going to find him convincing Silver to come with her knowing he doesn’t want to be in this mess either. 

As they travel they meet an experienced shadow sorcerer feral tiefling, Marnie who they ask to come with them as she is looking for her brother who apparently left the town he supposed to be running. the last lead she had was that he was at this college helping people study before suddenly leaving with some tabaxi and high elf. (Grimsley and Elsa)

They make it to the kingdom run by Triton’s (specifically Alaric’s kingdom) by way of some pirates who apparently are under new leader ship as their past captain a wood elf betrayed them, per the crew. (This will later be revealed to be Archie) The captain though currently is on another ship.

Also on board is another group. 

This group consists of a circle of the Shepard druid named N, an aasmir berserker barbarian named Gladion, and an aasmir unity cleric named Lillie. The groups talk some but each group seems to want to keep to themselves. However while in town both groups are lead to the same place seeing each other again at the gladiatorial pits hearing about a minotaur (Bruno) breaking their opponent a yuan ti (koga) out of the pit. Realizing they maybe useful N and his group explain their story. N starts by saying he used to be in an adventure group with his adopted father, ghetsis. He had been ripped from his plane to this one waking up to find Ghetsis open to take him in. However on that journey the party realized that Ghetsis served an evil god, and was in fact the one that used a machine his god instructed him to make that could shift planes which ripped N from his home. When they accused Ghetsis he attacked and killed them all, but N heard the whole thing running away. He now is back stronger than before wanting to stop his father. 

Gladion and Lillie were happy with their mother and father, till an experiment, plane shifting caused their father to disappear. Realizing their mother was loosing it Gladion ran off getting brought in by a bug bear Guzma who ran a place for races that were looked down on though secretly was working with the mother as well. He found out in her grief she made a deal with some god to merge all the plains into one through Lillie who stayed at home. However when he tried to tell Lusamine she was going too far she used him in her latest experiment which sent him spiraling into the fey wild for too long making his mind scattered enough for the the patron to give Lusamine something to control him. She and gladion later teamed up, gladion to get guzma back, and lillie her mother. They and N both suspect the same planar god is working them both against each other. 

They find out yes Janine’s father was the yuan ti but apparently this minotaur was oddly more sentient than any others, N figures it’s another planar shifter brought over by another test. 

Now since there is alot here let me just explain the other connections that will happen before the climax. 

Kanjo group will run into villain group. Koga will recognize Giovanni and a fight will break out as it is revealed his old boss was Giovanni who sent him to die. Eventually fighting will cease as Giovanni brings up that he doesn’t know where Janine is since she ran away with his son. He wants to find them, but has ceased leading Rocket. The groups go on one adventure together thinking they have a lead on the kids, but it is a bust, and Koga insists the groups split back up. The groups do discuss the children though.

Unknown to Cyrus the tech he’s investigating is old tech that was the god’s first attempt to merge the planes of existence together. Lusamine being there is able to now what is important due to her experiments with making a plane merging machine on a small scale. She was the brains and ingenuity the god needed having failed the first time around. She is able to inform her patron who informs Ghetsis to tell the person gathering up the needed tech where to look for what they need to grab. Ghetsis also tells of other locations Cyrus knows about for other agents to investigate.

That other agent is Piers who has no idea the kind of people he’s wrapped up in however he is following what his patron says occasionally telling the party he has a lead on his father when in reality it’s to go to these places the villain group hasn’t gone to grab what his patron says is important. 

The next group Kanjo runs into is this main group who they run into rather often as the journey progresses. Florie and Bruno hit it off well as Florie admits to not being from this plane either and ripped from her home. Alaric recognizes Bruno as one of the fighters from the gladiatorial pits in his home kingdom but keeps this quiet. They also inform Piers they’ve seen other people with his patrons insignia telling them where they are. 

The main group meets up with villain group. All is going fairly well until Ghetsis pull Piers aside to reveal they follow the same patron and begins discussing the items he was told to gather. He gives them over, but is suddenly feeling that something isn’t right, later rejecting the patron that night. Fiore is feeling the same suspicious of why Lusamine seems interested on when she got to this plane recognizing as her not from it. Meanwhile Maxie and Rose talk to Willie in great length as Willie’s land is interesting in nature for maxie and also lacks magic which interests Rose. The god confesses to Lusamine and Ghetsis they’re following the same patron, and that Piers is no longer trustworthy. He gives them the means to frame the other group for a serious crime as the Piers and Fiore tell the group that these people aren’t trustworthy.  The rest of the villain group being tricked to think these guys cause heinous crimes fight them only to have the group run away. Piers now bent on righting what he did takes up being a wizard to right his wrongs. 

The next group they run into is the young kids group. Piers and Marnie are delighted to reconnect, and Marnie is able to help Piers unlock his sorcerer abilities becoming a sorcerer of rock instead of shadow like his sister. Meanwhile The groups are able to talk about what they’ve learned and seen mentioning the other plane shifters they’ve seen such as Bruno and Sofia. Lillie recognizes the centaur and minotaur as people her mother brought over while experimenting bringing one person at a time over. At this point this party is has figured out the patron wants to bring all the planes together to absorb all of their magic. The first location of this happening was in Willie’s land which is why it lacks magic. However this was done by a ritual which wasn’t strong enough so they’re crafting a machine to make it strong enough to work. The timing of this happening matches up when N along with other genasi were suddenly brought into this plane, and when Gladion and Lillie’s father had that accident. Thus the ritual was only able to bring part of certain plains over, earth, water, fire, and air which is about all that the land has where Willie is from. It also explains why N seems to be made up the same rock of Willie’s home. Horrified as they realize that Piers may of just given the last pieces over to Lusamine and Ghetsis they want to hurry and find them. However Alaric at this point is fed up that things have traveled so far from finding his wife, and is worried for his kingdom deciding to go home wanting to be with family if the world truly does end. When he leaves Elsa’s god finally tells Elsa who she is, the run away wife of Alaric who was terrible and tried to imprision her. Though Elsa now wants revenge she agrees the fat of the world is more important. 

While this is happening Kanjo team has some of this plot together doing random adventures knowing some ancient god wants to absorb all of the magic. They know artifacts of tech keep being stolen from temples, they finally manage to follow a culprit who turns out to be Piers’s dad, Karen being a blood hunter can recognize the scent. Another thing they have been looking for is Will’s brother who apparently has been missing for some. They find the bard wizard with pier’s father who is operating Archie’s old crew as those transporting the tech for the machine. Archie had not told them the full story about being framed, but did recognize the symbol he had on him as the one these pirates have now thinking that Archie is in on it, Koga already not trusting them feels this is some mafia plot to gain magic power, and also what with Rose’s comments on original power they assume all of them in on this. 

They arrive to the machine first, and begin taking out people. That’s when the villain group arrives who they attack convinced their the bad guys while Lusamine and Ghetsis spur it on while finishing up the final parts to the machine. The battle is tight with kanjo loosing but the young group, and main group all arrive in time to help very quickly the physical fighting becoming tense talking as many strings are all coming together. Grimsley recognizes Ghetsis as the man to curse him, and Ghetsis admits he had used disguise self to get Piers to sign the contract which is why he didn’t recognize him when they first met. Gladion getting the thing controlling Guzma away from his mother, and breaking it, freeing the bug bear who makes the villian group realize they’ve made a terrible error. Archie explains his story about being framed for Piers and Marnie to recognize that was their father. N explains everything else recognizing Marnie and Piers’s father as one of the original party memebers. Lusamine now realizes she’s been helping the being who took away her husband, and is furious however it is too late. Cyrus is realizing how dangerous this tech was. Rose has learned magic is technically infinite but it won’t be if this guy takes it all. Maxie realizes what happened to Willie’s land and. Giovanni and Lysandre are PISSED to of accidentally helped evil again. Bruno and Sofia are angry this God dragged them from their world. Karen, Lance, Grimsley, and Elsa along with personal connections to party members are here cause well they want to live thanks.

Ghetsis has gone to do the ritual, using Will’s brother to read the first part of the ritual. Unknown to Ghetsis this kills him so that the god can over Ghetsis  claiming humans were the easiest vessels to operate. With that they start the machine as the ritual has been activated. As the planes  begin to collapse in on themselves the magic energy congregating the various parties now fully teamed up have to all fight essentially a massive god to stop it. 

[thesunlovesmuses]

One Word (An Introduction)

Prompt: Describe each character in the works with just one word

Author’s Note: So i’m using this prompt as a sort of introduction to my characters for my short stories just in case anyone get’s confused as to who the characters used in the prompts are, or if anyone's interested in learning a bit more about them past the short stories. Unfortunately, I’m not great at drawing, so I hope the description of them will do them justice. It’ll mostly consist of My main fantasy groups. But if I feel the need to write a random piece about different characters, I’ll include them below as well. But without further ado... Here we go!

The Mylanthia Series (Main Series):

Main Characters

Katiana Pensworth (An adventurer and storyteller who’s village gets burned down at a young age and gets taken in by a wizard and his partner. Now she wishes to make her own way in the word, making her own stories and maybe finding out where her biological family is now and who attacked her village) - Peacemaker

Izax Salisca (A royal wizard and teacher at the Fabalan Academy, who takes Katiana in after her home is eradicated. He taught Katiana all he knows about basic magics and how to defend one’s self on the road.) - Practical

Azra Bhaskera (A part time singer at the Cloven Cart Tavern in Serden Village and Izax’s Partner. He taught Katiana all he knows about storytelling and acting diplomatically in a confrontation) - Pacifist

Luka Harrington (Katiana’s Adoptive brother, who was also taken in by Izax after his parents died, who happened to be the old royal wizards of the kingdom.) - Intelligent

Mylanthia’s Gods

Eerina (Goddess of Beginnings, Life, Safe childbirth & Peace) - Loving

Mophy (God of the Sun, the Day, the Sky & Mountains) - Thrill-Seeker

Kisala (Goddess of Spring, Scholars, Knowledge & Nature) - Wise

Ilmari (God of Storms, Oceans, Wild Nature & Fertility) - Irritated

Aezir (Goddess of Literature, Stories, Music & Performers) - Flirter

Amion (God of the Night, Dreams, Summer & Magic) - Imaginative

Rosdia (Goddess of Love, Marriage, Happiness & The Moon) - Silent

Hendorr (God of Commerce, Fortune, Merchants & Luck) - Frivolous 

Rasulla (Goddess of Fire, Forges, Autumn & Deserts) - Bold

Iktar (God of War, Strategy, Wisdom & Perseverance) - Cold-Hearted

Zelara (Goddess of Winter, Ice, Family & the Hearth) - Motherly

Odum (God of Endings, Death, Glory & Remembrance) - Respectful

Mylanthia’s Royalty

Lawrence Farbridge (The current King of the Kingdom of Lenoa, who walks a fine line between party animal and tactical genius) - Boisterous 

Esmerelda Farbridge (The old Queen of the Kingdom of Lenoa and Ridge’s old lover, who sadly died in the war against the Angurian Empire) - Benevolent 

Pablo Coppermore (The King’s Royal Advisor, who spends most of his time trying to keep total war from breaking out between Ridge and Andreas.) - Overworked

Leonides Angura (The Emperor of the Angurian Empire, who only thinks of the survival of his kingdom, no matter wat the effect on the others he’s supposed to be in an alliance with.) - Vengeful

Lynn Angura (The Deceased Empress of the Angurian Empire , who died after giving birth to her son.) - Angelic

Dillon Angura (The heir of  the Angurian Empire, who doesn’t agree with his father’s methods at all.)  - Meek

Parvati El-Hassam (The duchess of Al-Bascriya, and puppet to her advisor and older sister.) - Exploitable

Zena El-Hassam (Parvati’s older sister and her advisor, who manipulates her in order to enact laws that benefit her and her lifestyle.) - Tyrant

The Fabalan Academy Arc

Iris Al-Hajjar (A knight student at the Fabalan Academy of Messengers, who only wounded up there through an accident involving uncontrolled magic.) - Tomboy

Luka Harrington (A magic student at the Fabalan Academy of Messengers and Professor Izax’s Assistant.) - Intelligent

Holly Willingham (A messenger student at the Fabalan Academy of Messengers, who caused the accident that made her and Iris come here.) - Butterfingered

Asriel Talasen (A knight Student at the Fabalan Academy of Messengers, who originated from the Nation of Al-Bascriya and is the #1 fencer in the academy) - Charismatic

Finnigan Fenrir (A senior magic Student at the Fabalan Academy of Messengers, who’s said t be the best magic user of his generation.) - Untouchable

Dillon Angura (A magic Student at the Fabalan Academy of Messengers and the Prince of the Empire of Angura, who fled to get away from his tyrannical father.) - Meek

Izax Salisca (The Magic Teacher at the Fabalan Academy of Messengers and the Royal Wizard for the king) - Practical

Diamond Jack (The Message Teacher at the Fabalan Academy of Messengers, the royal jester and a spy for the king) - Deceiving

Zula Flintward (The Knight Teacher at the Fabalan Academy of Messengers and well known mercenary across all of Lenoa)  - Apathetic

Midelia (The Fairy Queen and Ruler of the Fae, who holds the barrier between the mortal and fae worlds) - Alluring

The Rebellion Arc

Allister Sutton (One of the leaders of the rebellion and Lucien’s best friend. Fighting for his home so everything can go back to normal.) - Determined

Lucien Ingleton (One of the leaders of the rebellion and Lucien’s best friend. He was also the next in line to be mayor of Serden. Fighting so everyone exiled can live in peace again) - Sorrowful

Simon Ingleton (Lucien’s little brother who likes to talk big and had a fondness for explosives and spells) - Hyper

Tobias Creede (Simon’s best friend who abandoned his home so he can camp in the woods with his best friend.) - Caring

Comet (A villager bitten by a werewolf and hunted down, as the new mayor believed he would turn and kill them all.) - Sharp

Clarissa Nightingale (A friend of Lucien’s and Allisters and the daughter of the town’s cartographer. Doesn’t trust outsiders easily.) - Protective

Eenix (The new Mayor of Serden Village, determined to completely obliterate the vision the Ingleton’s had and turn it into a solely profit based community.) - Power-Hungry

The Mylos Village Arc

Ridge Astaril (A demigod and wizard who tries his hardest to squirm out of tasks the king gives him to do, so he can work on his ascension instead.) - Ambitious

Mikhail Belleville (Head Priest of Mylos Village, who’s family moved in as soon as Miles’s moved away) - Conniving

Samuel Belleville (The son of the Head Priest, who despite the kind nature on first looks, has a strange and sinister air about him.) - Deceiving

The Roaming Angels (The best guild members in their classes)

Felicity Mayweather (A Human Bard who is welcome in the Borealis court of the fae after being abandoned there, and explores the world to bring stories back to them) - Diplomatic

Kosmeros (A Tiefling Warlock and university student who had his voice stolen after making a pact with the Prince of Frost, and now roams the world looking for a way to break the pact.) - Graceful

Blaze (A Fire Genasi Artificer who searches the world looking for rare materials and rumours of a thief stealing other artificer’s projects, wishing to put a stop to the thief before making his own Magnum Opus.) - Perfectionist

Caspien Aquilus (A Triton Monk who fled from his home under the sea with his cousin to protect soome ancients texts of their god from a mercenary who will do anything to take it from him to her client.) - Soothing

Gareth Mordecai Faolan (A Shifter Bloodhunter who’s family got killed in a bandit raid, and now uses all the cons and ticks he knows to get by and find information on the head of the bandits, so he can kill him himself.) - Trickster

Scora Criashi (An Aarokocra Ranger on a mission for the princess to disband an underground crime ring and black market.) - Attentive

Irisa Nemli (A blind Aasimar Sorcerer who literally fell from the sky to come to the mortal world, in order to find a way to control her wild magic she was cursed with.) - Scatter-brained

Keiji (A Tabaxi Rogue, born an orphan, who steals to fund the orphanage he grew up in, and who’s currently on the run from a mafia group in the capital.) - Explicit

Sidra (A Half-Orc Druid who wants to destroy the artefacts stolen from a temple in the swamp her tribe guards, so no-one can raise the monster named Iblis again) - Feral

Arlayna Doncaster (A Half-Elf Wizard who ran away from home and is on the run after her family didn’t accept her loving a member of a rival house; Safira) - Proper 

Bradir Azzanurth (A Dragonborn who became a Paladin after his dad died protecting others. Taken under the wings of his dad’s friends, he now roams the land helping everyone he meets and aspires to be just like his dad.) -Rambunctious

Fengryra Brenfyx (A Firbolg Cleric who was raised by her grandma with three other apprentices, who’s looking for a way to stop the Twilight Forest from dying and turning to ash) - Welcoming

Kruznek Honeydew (A Dwarf Fighter who left his wife and kids after his entire battalion died in a fight against a pack of Orcs and Kobolds, on a journey to find himself and get rid of the guilt he feels) - Inhospitable

Rhodelia Shiendroth (A Centaur Barbarian who was sold as a child to a gladiator house. She escaped the house along with three other gladiators and now works as a mercenary.) - Fearless

One Shot Characters:

Zephyr’s Rising (Sky Island Fantasy, based off of a book in the main series)

Zephyr Redgrove (A sky pirate who stole a ship in order to explore the archipelago) - Cocky

Petra Halton (A villager and flutist who’s parents went missing during an exploration, who wants to see if she can find them after finding her mum’s diary.) - Timid

Abbi Krivanek (Zephyr’s friend and Navigator, who’s joined his ship to make sure he doesn’t kill himself while exploring the World) - Cautious

Almac Vegner (Pirate and Treasure hunter who Zephyr hired in order to find all the best spots and to help fish treasure from out of the cloud sea.) - Charlatan 

Orion Bizeron (Animal Tracker and adopted younger brother of Tamari, who’s helping Zephyr find a rainbow coloured Phoenix). - Thoughtful

Tamari Bizeron (A cloud ray rider who adopted Orion when she found him on the street. Went with Orion to hunt down a phoenix and now acts as the ship’s gunner.) - Outgoing

Esien Perisey (A friend of Petra’s who runs the library in town, who has agreed to help Zephyr only to make sure Petra stays safe. Also the only person who can cook onboard the ship.) - Sarcastic

Ferdinand Everton (The Assistant to the council members of the Cardinal Council, who has been sent to stay aboard the S.S. Cloud Ray to keep an eye on the crew for the council) - Stubborn

Galatea Sauroak (Head of The Cardinal Council and in charge of dolling out punishments to pirates) - Reliable

Jett Palinsky (A member of The Cardinal Council, who is also the number one Cloud Ray Surfer in the Archipelago.) - Heart-Throb

Jasper Denholm (A member of The Cardinal Council who is stuck in the traditionalist ways and believes all pirates should be hung.) - Cold-Hearted

Aamina Al-Jabour (A member of The Cardinal Council who gives all of her work to other people to do so she can do what she wants instead) - Lazy

S0-L4R-1S (Space Adventure)

Kai Rutherford (The Face of the operations and Captain of the S0-L4R-1S, delivering goods and people for any faction in space, as long as they have enough coin to do so.) - Laid-Back

Erinne Briggs (The Ship’s onboard engineer and the only one in the galaxy who knows how to fix such an old and outdated ship.) - Spunky

Atul Kusari (The Onboard Weapon’s Expert who keeps pirate’s off of their back when trying to deliver goods to people.) - Eager

Rymond Heisenburg (The Navigator onboard and Zarinah’s Fiancée. The only one allowed to choose which jobs the crew goes on... ever since the accident.) - Composed

Zarinah Heisenburg (Rymond’s Fiancée who helps to create disguises for the rest of the crew when they have to do something dodgy.) - Ditzy

[a-d-n-d-journal]

Game Session #10

Characters:

Mirri in the wind, tabaxi; rapier

Rysiel, half-elf druid; acid burns, simple clothing and leather armor, scimitar

Teir, tiefling warlock; acid burns, vibrant gold skin and black hair w/silver highlights, horns, hooves, expensive-looking clothes and leather armor, carries a dagger as his only (physical) weapon

Zastu, dragonborn rogue; white scales almost completely covered in a hooded cape and mask, leather armor, short bow and shortsword + dagger

Noteable NPCs...

Sydiri Haunlar, human (Chondathan) fighter; brunette, chain shirt, dagger, shortbow, wooden club

Zephyros, cloud giant; windswept white hair, wispy white bear, billow purple robe with gold stars

Amarath and N'von, two human cultists missionaries and their seven human cult followers friends; all dressed in tight fabric wrapped around their thin bodies, topped with head wraps and decorated with feathers. Amarath carries a disturbing "smiling bag"

We were all tired and braindead during this one, so details are sparse...

Zephyros welcomes the party (Rysiel, Teir, Zastu, plus Sydiri at this point) to his floating tower. He explains that his extra-planar allies have told him that someone would come to help fix the mess that is the Ordning. What is the Ordning? It's giant society. Ever since forever, giant society has been ordered by type—with Storm Giants at the top, and Cloud Giants (me, Zephyros) below that, then whoever –handwaves– below that (fire and frost giants, stone giants, hill giants). Giants used to rule this land, until the war with the dragons millenia ago (giants and dragons are mortal enemies you know). Well, with the recent uprising of the dragons (a couple years ago), Annam got angry at us and called us all lazy and complacent. Oh, Annam, he's the Giant god. He looks over everything. And he broke the Ordning, that's why you've been hearing about giant attacks lately—everyone is trying to prove they're the most fit giant to rule over all of us. Er, you have heard about that, haven't you? Well, I thought that king Hekaton, lord of the Storm Giants, would be able to keep his seat of power, and hold control over giant society. He certainly seemed like he was going to continue that way. But then... Well, his wife, poor Neri, went missing. She had a soft spot for the small folk (that's you), and met with them on a regular basis, on an island off the Sword Coast. She turned up dead a while later—murdered. Hekaton, as you can imagine, flew into a rage. He would have led the giants to smash every small folk settlement on the coast, if it weren't for their youngest daughter—Serissa—who held her mother's affection for the small folk. She convinced Hekaton not to destroy you all, for Neri's sake. But now he's... Well, nevermind. Rysiel and Teir pipe up, insisting that Zephyros finish that thought. He's resistant at first, but they guess the truth, or near to it. Hekaton has gone missing now too. He went in search of his wife's murderers, but hasn't been heard form for weeks. His youngest daughter—Serissa, remember?—holds the throne, with her elder sisters—Mirran and Nym—acting as advisors, along with her uncle Uthor probably.

The party decides that going straight to the Storm King's throne is the best idea, and ask Zephyros where it is. Unfortunately, it is beyond them for many reasons. Maelstrom is a citadel deep within the Trackless Sea. Technically Zephyros' tower can bring them there—or close anyway, but they'd definitely be destroyed without magical protection, and Zephyros isn't interested in risking death. He offers to bring them close, but assures them they would die (kind of non-chalantly, at which point Mirri tells them that Zephyros isn't all there due to his fondess for contacting other planes and sometimes going temporarily insane). He knows how to get there, but they aren't near important enough—yet—to be able to manage it. The party sighs collectively, and asks to go to their second destination—Triboar—to deliver the news of Darthag Ulgar's death to his ex-wife at the Lionshield Trading post there. Zephyros brightens up immediately and says it'll take about 11 days (275 hours exactly) to get there. He asks if there's anything else he can get them before he retires upstairs to consult his extraplanar allies (Mirri rolls their eyes, "Not again!") —I also tell the party that they can treat Zephyros as a sort of merchant, but his supplies might be limited since he's a giant. Zephyros mentions that Mirri's (+1) rapier used to be a clothes pin, so who knows what he might have. (Rysiel asks for -something-, but I roll for it and he doesn't have it :/ ); They get some food—very airy spongcake-type stuff, and Zephyros brings down one of his many journals from the Moonshae Isles, which he wrote and illustrated himself. Mirri can't read them, but has been looking at the pictures a lot. Rysiel translates for Teir, who is increbily interested. The journals are about 100lbs each, and 4-5ft tall, made of thick parchment. (They can be used as a mundane item that grants advantage on certain knowledge rolls, but specific information isn't really available unless I go read a jillion wiki articles about the Moonshae Isles and their history/fauna/flora/etc). There's also some roleplay with the Tressym (Rillix) as they figure out what to feed it. Zephyros drops a hunk of raw meat at some point (and some of the griffon's hay bedding for Bobble), and Rysiel creates a bonfire to cook with. Zephyros reminds them not to come up to the second floor, or the griffon aerie. (Not that they have the ability anyway) The days start passing... Teir seeks Sydiri's help in wearing armor and using shields (they improvise with a giant wicker coaster). On the first day, Zephyros approaches "Ryan" to tell him that someone is looking for him. They go aside (outside) to talk, and Teir sneaks behind to eavesdrop. Both "Ryan" and Teir are disappointed though, when Zephyros reveals that "someone is looking for you" is the entirety of the message. Zephyros doesn't seem to notice, but the next day he comes down after speaking to his allies again and tells "Ryan" that "A Rainy Kevin" (or is it "Kevin Rainy"?) is the one looking for him, but that it will be someone else that finds him. Ryan/Rysiel thanks Zephyros, but looks confused.

On the third day, the party is surprised by some visitors, because no one wants to stand in the wind and cold to watch the fucking majestic countryside far below. There's a fluttering of many large wings, and then a moment later—some shouting. The voices ask—in the common tongue—for the owner and resident of the tower to come out and say hello. Zephyros is sleeping upstairs at the time, so the party waits until the owners of the voices make their way inside. Nine slendar humans appear, all dressed similarily in fabric wrapped around their bodies, tied tightly. They have more fabric wrapped around their heads, and are decoraed with feathers. Two of them appear somewhat more decorated, and one carries a shoulder back with a distrubing-looking smiley face. Teir recognizes the bag as magic, but doesn't remember why. The newcomers seems somewhat surprised to find some small folk, but ask if there's a cloud giant around. The party stands around looking offended until Zephyros calls down and greets them. "Have you heard of our Lord and Saviour, Yan C Bin?" One of the cultists missionaries asks. Zephyros looks confused. Two of them introduce themselves (to Zephyros) as N'von and Amarath, and explain that Yan-C-Bin wants his help to 'restore the planes to their rightful primodial state'. They're hazy on what this means, they just want a yes/no from Zephyros. Zephyros is confused, so he asks the party. Teir seems to think this is a bad idea, and is jealous of the newcomer's arrival, and also: how the fuck did you get here? The missionaries try to ignore him, but it quickly becomes obvious that he's not going anywhere, so: "On our giant vultures, of course." Teir tries to recall what he can about giant vultures (kind of an unusual choice of mount, but not unheard of) and what cultures/societies/groups were known to use them (no one close by! probably from another plane?) (I don't remember the rest of the conversation, but Zephyros goes upstairs to consult his planar allies on the matter, and the missionaries go outside because they like the wind and open air)

More than an hour passes and Mirri realizes that Zephyros must have had an 'accident' (he failed his saving throw on the spell), and is lying comatose upstairs. Teir sends his raven up to check on the giant, and then they have a game of pantomime to try to figure out what's going on (Zephyros is laying on the floor, but is alive). Mirri explains that he'll be "fine" in another 8 hours or so. A little while later, the two speaking missionaries pop back inside to see what's taking so long. (I don't remember what was said) They have an argument with Teir and Zastu (Rysiel is brooding in the corner or something? Idk), and Mirri walks by with 'Calm Emotions' (make targets indifferent), causing one of the missionaries and Zastu to chill out. The missionaries go back outside. Moments later they hear the flapping of wings and a scrabbling on the tower wall. Normally they'd ignore it, as the grphyons that Zephros keeps are constantly coming and going, but something is suspicious. Zastu sneaks outside and counts the missionaries and vultures there—only seven of nine of them are there. She goes back inside to tell the party. They are very offended by the presumptuousness of these cultists missionaries!!! To be continued...

Spells cast:

Mirri:

Abilities:

Cantrips: Mage Hand

Spells: Calm Emotions

Slots used: 0/4 1st; 1/3 2nd; Regained: All (multiple rests)

Rysiel:

Cantrips: Create Bonfire

Spells:

Slots used: 0/4 1st; 0/3 2nd Regained: All (multiple rests)

Teir:

Cleric abilities:

Cantrips:

Spells:

Rituals:

Slots used: Warlock 0/2 Cleric 0/2 1st Regained: All (multiple rests)

Killcount:

Mirri: 0 Rysiel: 0 Teir: 0 Zastu: 0

Treasure looted:

Supplies for 4 minor Potions of Healing (bought for 12gp ea. by Zastu)

Made 2 minor Potions of Healing (Zastu)

[beetlesayz]

Hit us with that good Egg content fam, lets get all the headcanon asks (or all the ones you want) -🃏

GOD BLESS YOU ACE

HHHOKAY HERE WE GO:

@ = How the character appears online- If she were to ever manage to be online you can bet your ass she’d run a cryptozoology blog. SHE HAS TO.

¥ = How the character handles money or spends it- OKAY SO BASICALLY SHE WAS A HERMIT AND NEVER HAD A LOT OF MONEY BUT HAS RECENTLY COME INTO A PRETTY GOOD AMOUNT OF IT. SHE IS NOT WISE WITH HOW SHE SPENDS IT (she bought an undead hand named Stabby Tim who probably will kill more people), but plans on trying to save up to help her best friend find his wife! ......And maybe open a baking shop with them.

° = The character’s temperature preferences- She is a dragonborn so she runs hot, but LOVES hot weather!

æ = The character and languages (Known or Want to Learn)- She knows draconic, sylvan and common. She also has the Speak with Animals spell so she really doesn’t see a need to learn anything else.

↔ = The character’s ability to read directions- She’s pretty good at this actually! Being a druid, her tracking/survival is A-okay!!!

♥ = Character’s preference for relationships (sexuality, type of person, etc.)- Dragonborns aren’t really supposed to fall in love but uhhhhhh she gay for one (1) tabaxi ;3c

zzz= What time the character enjoys sleep or being awake- She’s pretty use to staying awake for long periods of time (gotta watch yourself in the wild), but prefers sleeping once it gets dark if possible. She’s got that weird instinct birds have when you throw a towel over them; as soon as it’s dark she gets sleeby.

☂ = Weather the character enjoys- HOT.

♪ = What music the character likes- Very nature-y music, typically folk.

( =①ω①=) = What animals the character likes and if they have a pet/pets- ALL OF THEM. She very much loves her pet hermit crab Leonardo Da Pinchi!

(・∀・ ) = The character’s emotional state most of the time- Kinda just :P...bleppin.

☆～（ゝ。∂）= How the character greets people- SHE LIKES TO JUST STAND BEHIND THEM REALLY CLOSE UNTIL THEY NOTICE HER GVBHJGVHB.

⊙﹏☉ = What flusters the character- Her Tabaxi gf uwu

(≧∇≦) = What makes the character happy- Nature, animals, her gf, her friends...

(/□＼*)・゜ = What makes the character blush- HER GF

(;╹⌓╹) = What scares the character- Home. Her dad. Her friends finding out what she’s done.

（；へ：） = What makes the character cry- Thinkin about her brother...

(´ q ` ” ) = The character’s “guilty” pleasure- SHE REALLY LIKES THE SUGAR/CREAMER YOU ADD IN COFFEE BUT WITHOUT THE COFFEE.

（・��・；） = What makes the character uncomfortable- Being in cities/crowds. Also fire lmao.

(*^◇^)_旦 = What the character likes to eat and drink- ANYTHING (mostly crabs) AND EVERYTHING (except coffee)

｡ﾟ(TヮT)ﾟ｡ = What makes the character laugh- Her best friend Travertine ;w;

(´；Д；｀) = What worries the character- Right now it’s if her gf is okay and whether or not her and Trav are still friends;;;

(⑅ ‘﹃’ ) = What the character daydreams or thinks about- Bugs. Meat. Maybe finding a home of her own.

( ⌒o⌒)人(⌒-⌒ ) = Friends the character has or would like to make- She’d like to be better friends with everyone in her party. They’re getting there though! Also every animal ever.

[punishandenslavesuckers]

Somewhere in Faerûn, there’s a tabaxi, a bugbear, a werewolf, and a tiefling all sitting in a boat. There’s a triton in the water but she’s not alone. In a split second, one of the others will have to do something about it. An excerpt from my last homegame session. Combat-heavy one-shot.

Blue and Will are and have been giving each other the silent treatment for the better part of six hours now.

Rime is professionally friendly, but he can only make so much neutral single party conversation before getting annoyed and settling in to watch the river. Their three-boat caravan of small outrigger canoes continues steadily up river – powered by the tireless efforts of the hunkered bugbear jammed uncomfortably into the lead boat. With him is Bian – their smallish tabaxi navigator who’s perched somewhat absurdly on the back tip of the canoe like a lightly armored counter balance.

The second boat, lashed between Rime and Bian’s respectively, is empty save a single occupant. He lies very still, shivering occasionally beneath the worn travel blanket that Rime very carefully tucked around him some hours ago. Tivas hasn’t regained consciousness since the closing of the water purification ritual that went non-stop these last thirty-six hours. Rime was careful to pack the ritual instrument – the Blossom of Beauties – into the druid’s pack and tuck it protectively under his arm.

Tivas, even thralled by delirium, pulled the sacred thing close (pulled close the vehicle of his death) and Rime had to get back into the third boat. Blue commented, eventually, that the flowers ringing Rime’s headband were a weird silver and he told her, simply, “Yeah they do that,” with no further explanation.

So Rime is still in the back boat when they reach the salt marsh.

Bian has her back to Rime so he can see the twitching white length of her tail going this way and that as she scans the foggy western shore. Occasionally, she shoots Rime meaningful looks and Rime grimaces significantly back. Vorgut, the big black-furred bugbear, rows furiously while likewise sending glances toward the reed-choked river bank. His giant, tattered, bat-like ears swivel nervously.

Somewhere to Rime’s right, Blue rows as well, but less out of geographical anxiety than pure, domestic rage and need to put that rage somewhere. Preferably in the water and not directly into the back of her husband’s half-elf skull. She’s a small, blue and white blur of flexing arm muscle, muttering softly to herself in furious Aquan. So she doesn’t notice Rime taking a more attentive crouch in the boat.

Will looks up from his book and scans the waters.

“Hey, Rime.”

“Mmm,” says Rime, rather than use thaumaturgy to speak just yet.

“What’s going on? I’ve got the heebie-jeeebies.”

Rime snaps his fingers and the spell murmurs almost directly into Will’s ear: “Shh. Lizard folk live out there.” He jerks his head toward the salt marsh. “We need to be careful.”

“They wanna eat us,” Bian says without looking away from what she’s doing up front.

Blue, hearing this, growls something like, “Good,” under her breath.

And, naturally, that’s when the first javelin slams with a loud thunk into the side of Tivas’ canoe. The entire party stares, horrified, for moment. Except of course for Blue, who lunges eagerly to her feet with her wand in hand and anticipating a target. That does not happen because a second javelin already airborne immediately slams into Blue’s stomach with such force it knocks her with a scream into the bottom of the boat and blood splatters across Rime’s startled face.

Will howls, “Blue!”

But the javelins have already begun to rain down.

“Bian!” Rime hooks his arm through his battle shield and lunges back toward Blue. “Get us out of here!”

Blue – teeth bared, screaming like a banshee – is snapping the javelin between her webbed fists. She hurls the long part of the shaft into the water, keeping the head of the spear embedded in her gut. She doesn’t waver or try to rise. She raises her hands and instantly, an unnatural slither of white mist condenses from the river waters. A nearly opaque cloud-wall forms between the shore and their boat, veiling them in a literal smokescreen. Rime feels a wind driving like a kick into the back of the third canoe and Blue just lies there, bright-eyed and snarling, her off-hand gripping the javelin.

Magic floods Rime’s hands.

It courses hot from his heart down the track of his arms to his palms. He wills the magic like lightning courses to ground – Blue, Will, and Bian. The blessing diffuses through each of them. Unfortunately, it happens precisely as Will is attempting to jump from their boat into the middle boat and he nearly biffs it, boot slipping so he topples head first into Tivas’ canoe. Bian is already yelling to Vorgut to row faster and easterly. The boats begin to swing toward the opposite shore, far away from the marsh.

Javelins soar from the fog – hitting the walls of the boats, the water around them. One nearly wings the ropes that lash the third boat to the second. Seeing this, Blue waves a hand and a ripple-like mirage passes over the ropes… then a knotted tangle of a dozen ropes appears there, obscuring the target. Will, meanwhile, wrenches a javelin from the side of the boat and without warning, he swells. His spine bows up. Dark fur erupts from the back of his neck and spreads instantly across his body and as Rime watches, stunned, the newly shifted werewolf winds one massive arm back and whips the javelin right back across the shore.

Then he does it again. Over and over. Across the shore, there’s a scream as a spear going ninety miles per hour surely smashes through several lizard men.

Rime maneuvers to the back of the boat and kneels directly between Blue and the foggy enemy-infested shore. They crouch together behind his shield, peering into the mist but no more javelins come. There’s just… motion somewhere in the long grasses and reeds. As Rime’s vision adjusts to the fog… he realizes the shore is literally swarming with lizard folk. The reeds bristle with spears and glinting eyes.

Rime braces the shield more securely. “You see them?”

“Oh, yessss I do,” Blue hisses.

Rime hears her flick the wand of magic missile somewhere directly over his head. There’s a flash and eighteen screaming beads of neon light rip across the river like tiny, hyper-speed fireflies before arching up, then divebombing into the crowd. There’s a sound of wet screaming and bursting. Gore and skull fragments pop as if from red balloons along the shore. Behind him, Rime hears Blue muttering in Aquan and he’d bet it means, “Fuck you fuck you fuck you, I win!”

Will, seeing his wife at work, lays down his sword a moment and grabs the oars to join Vorgut in furious rowing.

Rime – seeing this and hearing the continued guttural shrieks of torment still issuing from Blue’s blast zone – closes his eyes. He presses one hand to his chest, over the three-star sigil of Lliira and for a moment simply mouths, “Show me,” and looks skyward.

It’s instantaneous. The knowing rushes through his head and through his body, takes possession of him in a jolt of sudden muscle memory. Rime shudders, then grabs the oars from where Blue left them and with a sailor’s stolen confidence, begins to pull them asymmetrically through the waters, swinging the tail boat into Will’s rowing, and then into Vorgut’s.

And the boats are suddenly traveling snug to the western shore, so far beyond the range of the javelins that again, no weapons are thrown. For a full ten minutes, Rime expertly navigates the outrigger along the edge of the shore until the light of Lliira fades like a touch from his mind and he loses that sailor’s expertise easy as amnesia. At the front of the boat, Bian is alertly watching the river with one eye and Vorgut’s navigation with the other.

Will, in his boat, says, “Fuck. They’re coming.”

There are splashes from the far shore. Bodies getting quickly through the waters toward them as about forty lizard folk abandon long-range in favor of swimming directly at their small canoes. Blue, behind Rime, staggers up still impaled by the javelin. She hisses, “Let me at ‘em!” and before Rime can tell her to stop fucking moving with a spear in her gut, she raises her arcane focus and throws a fistful of sand into the water.

Magic flashes. Suddenly about half the charging lizard folk go limp mid-swim. Rime sees their eyes slide peacefully, magically shut as they are sucked down by the river’s current and disappear beneath the dark waters.

A force of over twenty furious, screaming lizard-folk are still powering like scaly, ravenous missiles through the water. Rime again takes position between Blue and the enemy, pulling her close behind him and bringing the shield up in one hand. With the other, he raises it palm out toward the waters… and he hesitates.

He can hear Will yelling and hacking furiously as the first wave of lizard men attempt to swarm his canoe. Bian is hissing and snarling, just beheading and hacking into the water. Rime can smell Blue’s blood on the wood and slick on her dress.

Lizard folk hit the third boat.

Wounded, the water frothing with blood, they claw and grab. Gored by Bian, mutilated by Will, the survivors bump down the line of the outriggers to claw madly at the last boat. The grapple the rigs, pulling themselves up, trying to get at both Rime and the wounded sorceress behind him only to be bashed in the face by a shield, but they’re starting to pile on. Rime can’t… he can’t just drive them off. They dragg the boat like an anchor, water sloshing into the…

“Fuck,” Rime whispers.

And summons his spiritual weapon.

It manifests instantly, a bright spinning ball of carnival ribbons hovering like a giant dandelion tuft just above the water… then it swings down, gliding to skim the water, the ribbons foaming the surface as it hooks down to pass along the right side of the head boat where, in a spray of pureed bone, blood, and meat, the razor-sharp ribbons shear one lizard man’s arm off at the elbow, then beheads the fellow behind him. Then on down the line like a meteorite of frothing water and blood, dismembering and bludgeoning any clinging enemies until it reaches that last boat.

The weapon stops directly in front of Rime and grinds a bloody, screaming, person-free space into the waters next to Rime’s shield. This does not last. There are… far too many and even the horror and losses don’t seem to sway them. The lizard folk bash against Rime’s still raised shield, hooked over the side of the boat and he shoves them again, bashes one of them in the face, watches that face shred off the skull when he falls into the weapon.

Blue grabs Rime’s shoulder.

She hisses a little frantically in his ear, “How do you feel about taking a hit?”

To which Rime grits, cheerfully, using his real, demonic voice in all its hissing horror, “Pretty good!”

“Okay!”

Then Blue dives off the back of the boat like a suicidal swimmer toward the lizard-folk infested waters. She arcs up, twisting midair, arms out. A wind catches her Triton frame like a slender kite on an updraft. It carries her upwards, spinning her so for a strange, impossible moment she is almost vertical, upside-down, white hair blown out around her face with her hand out… and she casts thunder wave.

She casts directly at the last boat, Rime, and all the lizard folk upon it.

Rime slams his shield down, grabs a bench and braces as the electricity hits him in a white-hot, screaming wave of pain. Every muscle seizes with a hideous rigor as the lightning courses through him. It hits him like a blow to blast him back, but he holds the fuck onto the boat. He hears the wood splinter, water flood over his boots. For a horrible moment he sees white, then stars, and then the sky reeling above him. Lizard folk are still screaming. He can hear them scrabbling at the out rigging, banging into the canoe walls as they still, still keep on coming.

Then Blue drops with a little shriek into the boat again, almost knocking Rime over, and Will is bellowing, “Jump! Jump! You gotta get in here!”

Rime moves on a dizzy, static-buzzed instinct. He rolls, pivoting to face the middle boat and Will who stands at the back with one hand frantically out stretched and the other holding a blazing scimitar. Rime staggers, still seeing stars and feeling the buzz in his bones. He reaches the front of the boat, drives one foot down on the bow and jumps, landing directly in the second boat and immediately losing his shield from his static-numb arm.

Blue. Is Blue –?

He turns… just in time to see Blue try to follow him. He’s in time to watch it happen, as if in slow motion, as the sorceress’ blood-slick boot squeaks out from beneath the driving lunge off her right leg… and she loses half of her momentum instantly. Rime watches her fall, one arm outstretched toward them – Will and Rime both staring in horror – as she falls into the writhing, blood-red waters.

Split second: Will is screaming.

Split second: The lizard folk start to swarm.

Split second: Bian yells.

And Rime feels his focus like a razor’s edge along the arcane line from his mind to the spiritual weapon. The cyclone ball of ribbon rockets up the side of the boat and every ribbon in its composition loses any bluntness they formerly possessed. What hits the bodies of the lizard folk hits with molecular-sharp indifference and with no clear difference in texture between bone, meat, and water, the weapon plows down into the river and the waves blacken, then redden, then thicken with blood and body parts. The ribbons are no longer any other color but blood red.

Blue tucks into a ball as the weapon screams a horrifying orbit around her, over and over, clearing a ring of mutilation. It’s so precise, it never touches her. Only the ones it intends to harm.

Eventually, the river is clear around her. The remaining lizard folk still alive, screaming, and mauled, swim away back toward the marsh. Blue unfolds herself beneath the water, kicks up, and her head breaks the water by the back of the second canoe now cut free of the third. The water is red around her pale blue face. She blinks up at Rime, bright eyes a little shell-shocked and glassy. Her white hair is pink as Rime catches her arm with a shaking hand and pulls her from the river.

Rime does it carefully, turning her onto her back as he drags her into the bed of the boat.

Will is already pulling Tivas (still unconscious) to the other side of the boat to make room as Rime arranges the tiny Triton woman on the floor and immediately checks the fucking head of the javelin still stuck between her hip bone and her belly. Rime promptly rips her dress open a little to get a better look and presses his fingers into the flesh around the puncture, trying to gauge the depth. Blood pulses around the head of the spear, turning the water puddled beneath her a dark red.

“Blue.” Rime smacks her cheek a little until she looks at him, his real voice grating and seething with whispers. “Are you okay?”

“Eh-heh?” Blue kind of whines.

Rime takes that to mean she’s in shock and therefore not fully aware. So with one hand he yanks the javelin from her gut and with the over dumps a minty-hot rush of healing magic down the tunnel of shredded muscle and perforated gut. Lightly perforated though. Just barely. Rime feels the magic knit her back together until the spell runs dry beneath his fingers. He peels his blood-tacky palm from her stomach… and there’s nothing but a shallow, scabbing cut where a four-inch gouge once gaped.

“You’ll gonna be fine,” Rime says, water dripping from the circlet of flowers around his head. He knows without seeing them, they will be an eye-aching orange. “Dummy. Why the hell did you stand up? You just wanted to give them a target? Give me something to do?”

Blue kinda grins dimly up at him.

“I got ‘em,” she slurs.

Rime looks over the side of the boat, to the receding red waters as the river current eddies and pulls the blood out to sea. He thinks, vaguely, I’ve just lost count. I don’t know how many I’ve killed now. Then he looks back the Blue and Will and Bian perched anxiously at the back of the first boat. Bian’s eyes are big, her tail fluffed anxiously out. He puts on a smile.

“We’re fine,” he says. “Let’s get to Daggerford.”

[baronfulmen]

My daughter’s boyfriend continues to be a menace to the entire D&D group.

I had everyone in my family and our Doppelfamily (Also has three adopted kids, wives have same name, similar levels of nerdy, etc.) make 5e characters.  It started as something for my youngest two, but soon everyone was joining in.  We had our first game with everyone last night.  This is way more people than I would normally run in a game.

7yo Daughter: Elvish Druid

11yo Son: Kenku Assassin

15yo Daughter: Aasimar Sorcerer

16yo Bonus Daughter (not technically our kid but we’re keeping her forever): Hafling Bard

17yo Bonus Son (not technically our kid but we’re trying to get him out of his shitty group home so he’ll probably be living with us soon): Goliath Barbarian

Wife: Dragonborn Warlock

DoppelMom: Tabaxi Monk

DoppelDad: Lizardfolk Cleric

DoppelKid, now dating my 15yo: Half Elf Swashbuckler

Game setup is pretty typical.  Someone they rescued in a previous game hires them to retrieve a lost magical item.  They get teleported to the University of Arcane Engineering, miss by a bit and have to fight some Arctic Gnolls.  The Assassin and Druid are sent to bed and the Warlock follows to make sure that actually happens, and I ensure a plot explanation for their departure.  Now we can start with the rest of the game, where... oh shit they just decided to rob the University instead of following the plot.

Barbarian, who has no real talent with any of this, makes a wizard disguise that essentially consists of a pointy hat.  Tries to talk to people to find out where the valuable stuff is, they all roll garbage on Insight and somehow fail to be suspicious of the eight foot tall guy in a sloppily made fake wizard hat asking what he should steal.  Bad Insight only goes so far though, and when he rolls a one he essentially openly asks what he should steal and has to run away.

Swashbuckler and Sorcerer both know how to use a disguise kit and have high charisma, so they have good disguises.  Somehow they haven’t thought about the fact that, since this is a place where people make magic items, there’s some security in place.  Sorcerer, through blind luck, happens to melt through a door with acid in a way that doesn’t immediately trigger the alarm although it still goes off when she tries to take an item out of the storage room.  Her pursuers literally fumble and after a few rolls she gets away with a Crowbar of Opening (it casts Knock once per day).

The Swashbuckler flat out tries to pick a lock, and sets off the alarm without ever getting in.  Almost makes it out, gets paralyzed, and is dragged back in to be used as a guinea pig.  Thankfully they don’t try a jailbreak, and instead work with their contact to get him out.  He has extra thumbs now and a -2 Dex, but they manage to fix that before it really causes any trouble.

The next part goes fine, they catch the person who stole the magic item and (because this is how this group does things) adopt him, he takes them to who he sold it to, they Zone of Truth that guy into saying who HE sold it to, and they arrive to find the farmhouse half melted by some sort of devastating acid attack.

So they end up having to deal with the young black dragon that has been disturbed by use of the object they need.  I picked a young black dragon because it’s something they could hypothetically kill if they really go all out, but which they absolutely shouldn’t fight because it’s far too risky.  A full attack or acid breath attack could easily kill one of them in one hit if I roll well, so they have to choose between a few options.

Leave.  Tell the contact they found the item but can’t safely retrieve it.

Carefully position themselves, and then hit the dragon with everything they have in an attempt to kill it really quickly.

Sneak in, try to steal the item and get back out.

Attempt to negotiate with the dragon.

They end up doing secret option 4b, which is “stumble around, kinda try to negotiate with the dragon but without any real plan”.  So this was already going really badly, it was to the point of just trying to convince it to let them leave alive at all, and my kid’s boyfriend looks at this dragon that already seems annoyed at him, stares right fucking at it from just ten feet in front of its acid-dripping jaws, and says to it 

How do you make acid?

I don't know what answer he was expecting. He was the only one surprised to hear "watch closely" followed by the dragon rolling initiative.  The cleric blinded it and so it skipped the breath weapon and also missed part of its attack, meaning the swashbuckler (barely) lived. The monk, who can move 100 feet AND take an action, ran to the far side of the room to grab the item they needed and then she and everyone else, suffering from an attack of common sense, noped the fuck out of there - except the barbarian who was totally

And felt he needed to at least try to kill it.  Once he saw that his party had completely left him alone with a dragon he got one more hit in and then successfully ran away.

[rainbow-squirrels-7]

Highlights from tonight’s murder mystery episode of my DND campaign, The Kleos Guild!

-We began with the PCs waiting for word when to go out to set the trap for the Song Thief

-My Druid (Bec, half-orc) was cheating at playing pool

-My Paladin (Gixa, white dragonborn) was eating ice in the cafeteria 

-And my Bard (Alexander, half-dark elf) was actually composing a sincere apology for acting so shady behind Peregrine and Gixa;s backs last episode. It was very sweet actually

-He said that his bardic mentor said ‘words have power, especially for bards’ or something, and that gave me SO much backstory fodder. But it’s kind of ironic because none of them know their backstories actually happened in the future

-Anyway, then Daisy (the orc guildmaster of the Sapphire Division) came in and announced that at the location of the last Song Crystal... there’s been a murder

-So the crew warps out there and ends up in the ski-lodge like town of King’s Reach. Gixa is very happy to finally be in a place that is not sweltering 

-They go up to Bremen manor and admire the Tree of Life and none of my players get the Musicians of Bremen reference I made with the statue of the animals on top of the fountains and I had to explain it to those heathens 

-Agatha Bremen, daughter of the murdered man Edgar Bremen is outside waiting for them. Inside, they meet the suspects: Beatrice the tabaxi maid, Crispin the human who’s a one-armed retired Paladin, Darren the human (Agatha’s child), and Jeremy the halfling chef

-Agatha shows them the scene of the crime, seeing some impressionist paintings on the walls of the portrait gallery just before

-They find Edgar Bremen dead from three parallel slash marks on his throat. I was hoping this would make them immediately suspect Beatrice, but alas

-Right as they left that room, they heard a crash from downstairs and a scream

-Alexander and Bec then Feather Fall over the balcony, and Gixa slides down the bannister

-They go into the kitchen to find that Jeremy the chef has just been murdered in the same way as Edgar was. It was Beatrice who screamed

-Beatrice had a high, very scared of everything voice. She was constantly freaking out (as I was trying to hype up her red herring-ness). Crispin had my very best Barry Bluejeans impression voice. If Darren talked, I don’t remember their voice, and I don’t think Jeremy talked at all. Agatha just had a regular voice, but Gixa’s player said she pictured her with a British accent. I did a British accent for another character back in episode 3, and I didn’t like it, so I didn’t do it again. 

-Crispin also talked with Gixa at one point, as they have Paladin in common, and Crispin explained that he was part of Phineas’ legion when they were defending Bard City a few months back from the monster attack, and the monster bit off his arm, so he retired from being a Paladin. 

-The players then began going through all the Clue-style rooms (my original plan was to just plop down a Clue board, but I didn’t have one) looking for clues

-I did manage to red herring them with the silverware set up, which was really just Jeremy not getting to set the rest of the table, but Alexander thought it was suspicious that six of the knives were missing, and there were six slash marks total. 

-They found Edgar’s will in the study, which included the name Leonard, whom was someone who wasn’t present in the manor, and also had one crossed off name at the bottom. In the lounge, they found more paintings, and found that they were signed by Leonard. Agatha then told them Leonard is her husband and a painter who works in Ferryrock. She also says he’s been into music lately, and that they just got a new piano. In one of the paintings, they see the staff of the manor, and one tabaxi man who isn’t present either, but he’s dressed like a butler 

-In the ballroom, they found a grand piano and some sheet music. It’s described to have been written in pencil and a title was there but erased and rewritten multiple times before the writer just wrote ‘title goes here’. The writer turned out to be Charlie Jones, the bard kid who travels with the salesman Gerald, and who is a fan favorite. He and Gerald came through town recently, and Charlie had been working on this composition, and Leonard had asked for a copy to try to learn to play. The song was unfinished though, and is the first 30 seconds of this:

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arIymDYA2y8

-Anyway, they ask Agatha about the butler, and she says that he’s Virgil, and he worked for Edgar, but he was fired a few years back after he was caught embezzling money

-The PCs then go upstairs to continue the investigation, only after Alexander goes back in the kitchen and finds the flatware that had not been set. He takes the knives

-Upstairs, they find Darren’s room, which is a typical messy teenager room. They also find some papers that we would recognize as characters sheets, and also a set of dice. It’s all from the hot tabletop fantasy game popular across The Land: Suburbs and Sedans

-In Agatha and Leonard’s room, they find a book called Bardic Inspiration: For Dummies. Gixa shows it to Alexander saying “Hey, this’ll be your next birthday present.”

-They also find some messed up wallpaper, but nothing but a wall behind it

-Down the hallway, they find the library, which is the first real library they’ve been to, since the other library in the very first episode in the Town of Heroes was full of fake books

-They find that the wallpaper in this room has been messed up too, and behind it, they find a door that leads to the vault room

-Inside, they find the floating cat ghost form of Virgil, trying to steal the money from the safe. I tried to give Virgil an impression of Jenkins’ voice, but idk if it was accurate. Either way, it was pretty good.

-And it all freaking dissolved into ghost humor

-”Why does a ghost need money? IS THERE GHOST CAPITALISM??”

-But yeah, they fought the ghost Virgil, and I quickly realized that my fights are way too easy. Virgil didn’t even land a hit on them. I made a mental note to make my enemies stronger

-Anyway, after Virgil “went poof into a poof of ghost mist”, there was a bit of banter when Alexander opened the safe and Gixa was afraid he would steal the money. She poked him with her halberd, and Alexander then closed the door on the other two and Mended the wallpaper back. They got out pretty quickly, though.

-Once they got back to the balcony, they heard music coming from outside. Alexander’s player immediately said he was going to the window so he could climb on the roof, but then I realized I forgot to say that it wasn’t piano music (which would point to the Song Thief), but cello and violin music.

-Bec and Alexander Feather Fall off the balcony again and Gixa Misty Steps (or she “BAMFs down to the first floor like Nightcrawler” as I described it) and they all rush outside

-Just in time to see Daisy swing around her cello and konk the Song Thief in the back of the head. Bec immediately falls in love

-Agatha gives the players a 150 gold reward for solving the crime and ghostbusting, and Peregrine reminds everyone of the urgent Song Thief business and they all head back to Ferryrock

-Bec also asked Daisy if when this all is over, if they could get drinks sometime. Daisy was flustered and it was real cute and she said “Yeah, that would be really nice,”

-Though in my head I was thinking ‘oh heck they’re about to be sent to the future I’m wrecking this date’ even though I really want it to happen. I’ll make it happen later, after they save the world. Because I really like it. Reminds me of Aubrey and Danny

-Anyway, they warp back to Ferryrock, and Peregrine calls another town meeting to tell everyone of the Song Thief’s capture. My players manage to find Leonard in the crowd and inform him “your wife’s okay! the butler did it!”

-Oh and the Song Thief is paraded down to the city center, and my players see him without his mask for the first time. So that’s cool

-Peregrine then makes a speech about the hard work of the Kleos Guild and everything good and all that, but that she has to leave and take the Song Thief back to the future

-my players laughed too much at the ‘back to the future’ line

-She then does a magic prayer, making a time portal doorway appear. It looks like a floating rectangle of white light with a circle in the middle. Not exactly a PMD Dimensional Hole

-She was praying to Mother Time, by the way

-And she pushes the Song Thief into the portal and calls up the PCs for heroic recognition. She thanks them and the crowd loves them. And she echoes Alexander saying ‘words have power’ and she says that she wants to play one more song for them

-and she plays the Tree of Life

-which freezes them in place

-and she pushes them into the portal

-they all black out and wake up in complete darkness. not even Darkvision people could see. And they couldn’t hear anything. They tried to make sound, but it didn’t work. Any light spells they cast only lasted for a fraction of the time they’re supposed to. I ‘opened up this can of worms’ when Gixa also tried to pray to her goddess, Selune, but it didn’t work, she didn’t get any response a la Merle in The Suffering Game

-it’s cause all the gods except for Mother Time abandoned the silent future

-They all also decided that Peregrine was the evil one now (no one is evil stop putting my complex morality story into such black and white terms) and Gica tried to stumble around in the dark to release the Song Thief who was still knocked out in the room with them. 

-and I ended with “and thus begins... Arc Three.”

-I want this time in the silent future to be like as bad as the hero and partner felt in their dark future, or maybe even something like The Suffering Game. I want there to be real stakes. I’m planning to make the enemies harder and have there actually be danger. And they’re going to have to decide where they stand and who they trust. Because they thought they knew Peregrine was ‘good’ and the Song Theif was ‘bad’ but Peregrine just pushed them into the portal so...

-I also accidentally established immediate silence, which I didn’t want to do because it’s going to make the next part difficult. I did need some dialogue. But Peregrine and Kes know Drow sign language, and it was already established that Alexander knows a bit of it. So maybe that’ll work. It’ll at least give me the added bonus of the PCs only getting part of the information since they’ll only be able to get fractured conversations. 

-at least I have three months to figure it out. This was my last session before summer vacation. So I left them on a cliffhanger ahah. I really want Kes in the next episode to do K E S in sign language to them, so they at least know his name. 

-but yeah! I’m gonna construct a very bad time for my players in this silent future! fun times!

[a-d-n-d-journal]

Game Session #17

Characters:

Rysiel "Riceboy", half-elf druid (Circle of the Moon)

Zastu, dragonborn rogue (Thief)

Mirri in the wind, tabaxi bard

Kix, changeling rogue (Arcane Trickster)

Noteable NPCs...

Darathra Shendrel, human; Lord protector of Triboar

Narth Tezrin and Alaestra Ulgar, humans; Own and run the Lion's Share trading store

Darz Helgar, human; Groundskeeper for the two large caravan camps in Triboar; squirrelly

Urgala Meltimer, human; ex-adventurer and owner of the Northshield House (inn); her late wife died during an adventure

Ghelryn Foehammer, dwarf; master armorsmith, claim to fame is fashioning armor for the kind and queen

Othovir, human; runs a harness workshop, has impeccible work; apparently a mage

Urlam Stockpool, human; owner of the Triboar Travellers, a caravan escort company; dresses very well and sports a bright red eye patch with the Zhentarim winged serpent

Valken Naspeer, half-elf; Urlam's friend and body guard; dresses almost as suave as Urlam, his posture suggests that he's very dangerous.

Nemyth, tiefling; owner and proprieter of the Triboar Arms tavern

Jacoby and Persson Hysstryn, humans; two brothers who are looking for their long-lost brother, Mirak

Silvarren Loomshank, human; disgraced cleric of Helm

Kaelen Sarssir, human; owner of the Talking Troll tavern

Tolmara Hysstryn; Mirak's widow and owner of the Six Windows rooming house

This session kicks off immediately where we last left our adventurers...

It’s still late late evening, and Kix has returned to the Northshield House to fetch Mirri, hoping to use the fact that the tabaxi is a cleric (spoiler: theyr’e not actually) to win over Silvarren, the poor cleric at the Talking Troll (dive bar). ((They run into Darz on the way, who tells them about a wanted criminal and a reward, as way of thanks for fighting the giants’ party))

When Kix introduces Mirri to Silverren, it becomes apparent that the cleric takes offence to Mirri’s presumed comradery. Mirri fancies themself a cleric of Tempus (despite being a bard), the god of sky and war, who fights for fighting’s sake. Silvarren follows Helm, also a god of war, but mostly of justice and order. They do not get along. The poor cleric tries to explain this, and fails. Meanwhile Kix figures buying him drinks will help win him over, and it does to a degree, but doesn’t help clear up the misunderstanding. Silvarren must report to the temple in Red Larch, to the south, but he can’t leave because of his 5gp tab at the bar. His dedication to the god of order forbids it, even as he calls himself a poor cleric. Kix pays for the rest of the tab, and promises to meet up in the morning, also arranging funeral rights for those who died in the giant attack.

(note: they are now level six!)

The next day, they seem to forget about Silvarren (and the related quest with the two brothers’ dead brother), and start making preparations to head to the east, along the Evermoor Way. Urgala greets them in the morning, telling them that she can’t have them stay there on order of the Lord Protector (Darathra), and asks them not to be too hard on her. She also gives them a letter of introduction from Ghelryn to the King and Queen of Citadel Felbarr, in case they head out that way. The party arranges to travel with the caravan leaving town that day. Eventually they realize that this is the first time they will need food and supplies, and that the Lion’s Share Costor is an adventuring emporium, not a clothes shop. They stock up and buy a map, and Narth (the co-owner) pays them to take a delivery that’s on the way (they inherit a horse and cart), in Noanar’s Hold.

Eventually, the party leaves town, travelling about two and a half days to the fortified city of Yartar. The city sits on the other side of a river, with a walled citadel on the near end, connected to the main city by a wide stone bridge. The party undergoes a brief inspection, giving the guards no difficulty, though they give the side-eye to both Mirri (tabaxi) and Zastu (dragonborn).

Once inside, they find an inn to stay at, then set about looking for a place to drink. Mirri and Kix notice a rather extravagant boat at the docks, and take a closer look. It’s at the ‘rich’ end of the harbour, where the docks are behind gates and patrolled by guards. After watching for a while, Kix concludes that this is a boring city council//business style party, and no fun at all. Meanwhile, Zatsu breathes a sigh of relief at being in a proper city again. She looks around for signs of the local underground, and leads the party towards what she’s pretty sure is a secret bar or tavern.

They head down an alley and are stopped quickly by a couple of female human rogues... They speak in theive’s cant to Zastu, telling her she can come inside, but the others may not, because ‘The Hand of Yartar’ is women-only. Their plain speak to the rest of the party is gruff and spurning. They turn to leave, but Rysiel starts to cast a spell (to dump water on the rogue’s heads). Being overly cautious, and not well-versed in magic, they warn the druid not to try anything, and raise their crossbows. Rysiel appears to accept this, but he hides his hand motions and casts the small water spell on them anyway.

They were warned... Crossbows twang, and four bolts fly through the alley. The rogues have hidden backup! And a fight begins.

Most of the party run toward the entrance of the alley, but Rysiel stands his ground and starts casting attack magic. Zastu plays it safe and unhooks her shortbow. Mirri tries to be a peace-keeper, but the violent actions of the rest of the party undermine her attempts. Soon, three human rogues are dead (one having disappeared backward into a hidden window above them), and the last one is running.

Will the party take chase? She had quite a head start... But if they don’t, what are the repercussions?

[wildwildpolycats]

I have thought long and hard about who would be what races/classes

Eraserhead/Aizawa: Main DM, only plays beastmaster rangers/ or druids, ONLY plays tabaxis

Mic: Bard, of course! Plays many races but usually a Kenku

Midnight: Barbarian Goliath/Lizardfolk. She gets REALLY into character and goes absolutely apeshit

All Might: Rarely plays with them bc he’s busy DMing a campaign for the Dekusquad, though he has a lotta fun with Wild Magic sorcerers

Recovery Girl: Plays clerics but has NO healing spells. She mains war cleric.

Vlad King: Fighter/Warlock. He never meant to play a warlock but that’s how it turned out. He has a lotta fun with orcs/halforcs

Hound Dog: The SOFTEST gnome wizard EVER. His PC is a pacifist and startee violently sobbing when they accidentally killed someone with a misained fireball

Power Loader: Forge Cleric/Thief Rouge. Definitely a Kobold, makes the DM’s life a living hell

Cementoss: Monk that’s stuck being the reasonable one. He has like 20 wisdom and acts like it. Probably plays warforged.

Nedzu: Barbarian. Plays a homebrew raced called ‘Normal Dog’, his Barbarian has 20 int but nobody knows it until he starts rolling int checks

Edgeshot: Assassination Rouge, half elf. Spends most of his dnd time saving Mt. Lady and Kamui’s characters from death.

Mt. Lady: High Elf bard that SPECIFICALLY exists to be a powerhouse and flirt with Kamui’s character. She ALMOST multiclassed into a warlock/Cleric just so she could flirt with her patron.

Kamui Woods: Human Druid/Warlock that spends most of his time TRYING to flirt with Mt. Lady’s character but he gets too embarrassed to do so. Became a warlock out of spite just so he cpulf flirt with his patron.

Mikuro: Tabaxi Monk/Barbarian that WILL kick your ass. Her character has three children and a loving wife, she also gets REALLY into character and Aizawa’s a great DM so she started crying when her character reunited with her family.

Fatgum: He’s ABSOLUTELY a Druid Dad™️, probably a halfling, spends most of his time healing and talking the party out of shitty situations.

Ms. Joke: Bard, but she doesn’t flirt, no, every spell she cats is vis puns. It’s all puns. The other half of her stuff is self deprecating humor and once she got arrested hut being horny on main.

Ragdoll: Tabaxi Paladin!! Absolute sweetheart in character, had 10 pets and keeps getting more.

Pixie-Bob: Tabaxi Gunslinger. Went gunslinger just bc she wanted a gun

Mandalay: Tabaxi Ranger. She just wanted a panther companion.

Tiger: Tabaxi Monk, exists just to tank everything for his friends.

AU where a bunch of pro heros run a westmarch DnD campaign podcast together. Aizawa is the main DM.

[a-d-n-d-journal]

Game Session #13

Characters:

Mirri in the wind, tabaxi "cleric" (of Tempus); rapier, lute, robes

Rysiel "Riceboy", half-elf druid (Circle of the Moon); acid burns, simple clothing (vest w/bare chest) and leather armor, scimitar

Zastu, dragonborn rogue (Thief); white scales almost completely covered in a hooded cape and mask, leather armor, short bow and shortsword + dagger

Introducing...

Kix, ?race? rogue (Arcane Trickster); nice clothes, leather armor, rapier, shortbow

Saying goodbye to...

Teir, tiefling warlock;

Noteable NPCs...

Sydiri Haunlar, human (Chondathan) fighter; brunette, chain shirt, dagger, shortbow, wooden club

Darathra Shendrel, human; Lord protector of Triboar

Narth Tezrin and Alaestra Ulgar, humans; Own and run the Lion's Share trading store

Darz Helgar, human; Groundskeeper for the two large caravan camps in Triboar; squirrelly

Urgala Meltimer, human; ex-adventurer and owner of the Northshield House (inn); her late wife died during an adventure

Ghelryn Foehammer, dwarf; master armorsmith, claim to fame is fashioning armor for the kind and queen

Urlam Stockpool, human; owner of the Triboar Travellers, a caravan escort company; dresses very well and sports a bright red eye patch with the Zhentarim winged serpent

Valken Naspeer, half-elf; Urlam's friend and body guard; dresses almost as suave as Urlam, his posture suggests that he's very dangerous.

Nemyth, tiefling; owner and proprieter of the Triboar Arms tavern

I'm a little late writing this, but notes from Rysiel's player really helped! :D

The adventurers wake up at the Northshield house, in a small two-bed room they decided to share, despite having more than enough gold to get separate rooms. Sydiri paid for her own room. Teir's brain has been spinning all night regarding the issue with upsetting some members of the Lord's Alliance. He decides to buy a horse from one of the stables and travel back to Waterdeep--alone--in order to petition the nobles there for forgiveness on their behalf. (Reminder: Rysiel attacked dwarves loyal to queen Dagnabbet of Mithril hall, at Zephyros' tower without provocation) He tells the others his plan, but doesn't invite them along.

Without her employer, Zastu has a momentary crisis about what to do. Luckily, Rysiel suggests they pay back those snooty guys at the Everwyvern Inn for being so rude. (Sydiri stays behind at the inn to hang out with Urgala, the innkeeper) They decide to break into the wine cellar, but first they head over to the Lion's Share to get servant costumes. Once there, Narth tells them that they don't sell such things. The Everwyvern Inn is an upscale establishment that provides its workers with uniforms. Besides, the Lion's Share isn't that kind of store... But whyever would they want to dress like servants anyway? The three of them visit the Triboar Arms to find something for breakfast, and to talk to Nemyth (the tiefling owner) about the Everwyvern House. The party is mostly upfront about their goal-robbing his 'competitor'. Nemyth balks at the idea, but maintains his suave composure. The Everwyvern Inn has very different clientelle, plus they have rooms, while he does not. "I can't be seen with their wine! I would go out of business. What did you think I would say?" He subtly guides them out back for a more frank conversation. He doesn't like the people who own the place, but if anyone asked him about a robbery there... He would have to pretend like he knew nothing. And no, he's not going to help! Here's what I know, he says... Half the people there are actors, paid to make the place look busy and exclusive. Second, the owner, Draven is a mage, so be careful of any magic, though you probably could tell that just by looking at all the glowing lights and floating plants. Third, he hires thugs to keep the riffraff out (the party had a run-in with them as they were considered riffraff themselves). The party presses him for information, such as how to get into the cellar, but Nemyth frowns at them. He knows nothing. It's uncertain if he's telling the truth or not. They give him a big tip of 100 coppers (1 gold/10 silver) for their meal, and head off to the Triboar Traveller caravan escort service to ask the same questions.

They approach the man wearing a red eyepatch with the Zhentarim serpant emblazoned in black, Urlam. They seem surprised when the immaculately-dressed human (and his suave half-elf bodyguard, Valken) recognizes them. Rysiel asks Valken if he's up for some mischief but doesn't offer context. Valken says he's on the clock, so Rysiel asks "Later?" Valken asks if he's hitting on him, and Rysiel asks in Valken wants him to be. Then they become more upfront about what they're after: "Hey, we want to rob the Everwyvern Inn's wine cellar. Do you want any?" Urlam purses his lips and shares a glance with Valken. He gives them a shit-eating grin. "Their wine is quite good, but I can't be seen with contraband bottles. Wouldn't want to have Darathra on my back." They try to get some information out of them, but all they find out is that the two of them like to eat there occasionally, and are on good terms with the owner, Draven. (I check Urlam's alignment, and roll a d100 to determine whether or not he tips off Draven, with 51-100 being a yes... I roll a 91)

The three adventurers stake out the inn from the trees, for about 40 minutes. They're waiting for a servant to come out of the inn, but grow impatient. They joke that they turn to crime as soon as Teir leaves. Riceboy turns into a cat to go in through a window at the back of the inn and unlock the door for the other two. Rysiel easily finds his way downstairs, but he also finds burly guards in waiting for them in the cellar. They're talking openly about Draven being tipped off, and the dubiousness of the warning. He reports back and they decide to try to steal from the other fancy restaurant instead. Despite the fact that this restaurant wasn't the one that was so rude to them, now they just want some pretentious wine, and to cause some mischief. They move to the trees on the perimeter of the Pleasing Platter, and Rysiel changes into a cat again to scope out the place. it's very busy in the kitchen, as lunch is approaching, but Rysiel is stealthy enough to sneak in. He finds someone (Kix) drinking behind a makeshift wall of barrels, who is happy to see him and offers cat-Rysiel some wine. Rysiel lets out a confused maow and then darts off to report back to his companions.

Rysiel and Mirri start performing out front of the restaurant to distract the workers, so Zastu can sneak in through the kitchen. (Keep in mind that this is a fancy restaurant in the country, not a bar in downtown Waterdeep) Zastu goes around back to the open kitchen door, and tries to convince the cooks to go see the performers, but they're suspicious and uninterested. "Why would we care that our bosses hired musicians out front? That happens all the time, and besides, it's almost lunch." She then tells them she has to go to the cellar and talk to someone who went down there. Somehow she's convincing enough that they go with that. "New Girl" takes Zastu downstairs, but there's no one in sight. The girl notices that the barrels are stacked oddly, and the two of them discover that there's a youngish-looking person in nice clothes wasted and drinking wine. New Girl leaves to get her supervisor. Zastu immediately tries stuffing bottles into this rando's bag, but quickly discovers that the weight and clinking of the bottles is inhibiting. She only has a moment, so she empties the bag again and just grabs one bottle. She also grabs the rando's arm and hauls him out of the cellar. They run into New Girl and Supervisor on the stairs, and somehow Zastu bluffs her way past them.

They collect Mirri and Rysiel--who are playing out front for no audience--and they go to the nearby abandoned house, which has obviously been grafitti'd and carved up by the local teens. New person/Kix is already pretty drunk, so the other three split the sole bottle of nice wine that Zastu stole. I guess they chat or something?

Their short rest is interrupted by a boulder crashing loudly into the building in front of them--the splinters and shrapnel flying everywhere while people start screaming. More boulders fly overhead and more crashes are heard. The field before them dips down to another level, hiding the approaching enemies. Only two heads on two broad sets of shoulders are visible at first, then several large flightless birds with axe-shaped beaks appear from behind the ridge with orcs riding them! They enter the town quickly and start harassing and chasing down townsfolk. They don't seem to be trying to kill anyone, but they aren't pulling their strikes as they ride past either. Lagging behind the axebeak birds are two groups of six goblinoid-shaped creatures, with skin like molten lava, all glowing and sinister. Everything they touch catches on fire, and they like to touch a lot of things! Seconds later, three larger orcs march up wearing heavy platmail, and behind those three another orc on an axebeak, but this one has a single ominously glowing eye...

Roll for initiative! Some of the townsfolk get ready for battle... I hand out character sheets for Darathra the Lord Protector, Ghelryn the orc/giantslayer, Darz the ex-rogue, Narth the wannabe adventurer, and Urgala the retired adventurer. ((Riceboy takes Darathra, Zastu takes Darz, Mirri takes Urgala, and Kix takes Ghelryn; I take control of Narth and Sydiri)) Mirri casts Vicious Mockery at the enemies as they advance. One of the Orogs (large orcs in platemail) is hit with psychic damage and has disadvantage on its next attack. Narth dashes from his store to see what's going on, and to see if he can help. The magmin (goblin-looking things) have fun lighting trees and fences on fire. Darz follows Narth to see what's going on. Urgala leaves her inn and takes out her shortbow. She sticks two arrows in the closest magmin, killing it. Kix takes out his shortbow as well, and sticks another magmin with an arrow, then uses their bonus action to hide around the corner. Sydiri shoots her own shortbow, sticking an orc with an arrow. One of the orogs jumps the fence of the abandoned house's yard, and attacks Zastu. Fortuntely, it misses with both swipes of its axe. Darathra sees Narth and Darz, as well as the advancing enemies. She dashes toward them, but isn't fast enough to engage just yet. The orcs on axebeaks advance. -one goes towards Urgala and Sydiri at the inn -one leeps the fence to attack Zastu, but misses -others continue to harass the townsfolk -three see the dwarf, Ghelryn, and attack their mortal enemy, injuring him greatly The two fire giants move forward, stepping over the fence, seemingly approaching Zastu. Zastu, intimidated, backs up to where Mirri and Rysiel stand. Rysiel casts the Tidal Wave spell, and manages to knock an Orog and one of the Fire Giants to the ground. The second giant is hit, but stays standing. Oddly, that giant only checks on their partner before continuing past the adventurers. The one-eyed orc is Norgra! He sees his sworn foe: Sydiri, and rides toward her on his axebeak, casting Spiritual Weapon as he approaches. The spectral spear attacks Sydiri, but misses. The dwarf Ghelryn manages to escape the three orcs by falling back into his house and barring the door. He dashes through to the other side to get away. --end of round one--

[a-d-n-d-journal]

Game Session #9

Characters:

Bakunawa, dragonborn paladin; copper scales, chainmail, a shortsword and shield

Zastu, dragonborn rogue; white scales almost completely covered in a hooded cape and mask, leather armor, short bow and shortsword + dagger

Rysiel, half-elf druid; simple clothing and leather armor, scimitar

Teir, tiefling warlock; vibrant gold skin and black hair w/silver highlights, horns, hooves, expensive-looking clothes and leather armor, carries a dagger as his only (physical) weapon

Introducing...

Mirri in the wind, Tabaxi;

Noteable NPCs...

Sydiri Haunlar, human (Chondathan) fighter; brunette, chain shirt, dagger, shortbow, wooden club

Alara Winterspell, human (Rashemi) fighter; deceptively light and warm head wrap, chain shirt, dagger, shortsword

Kaelen Zam, human (Illuskan) fighter; bald, small handlebar mustouche, chain shirt, dagger, greataxe

Torem Breck, human guard (fighter); spear and shield

Xolkin Alassandar, half-elf leader of the "Seven Snakes"; charismatic and handsome; scimitar and dagger

Kella Darkhope, human (Chondathan) spy for the "Seven Snakes"; crossbow, shortsword and dagger

Morak Ur'gray, dwarf innkeeper of the Nightstone Inn

Hiral Mystrum, human (Tethyrian) priest of Lathander (has no actual magic)

Zephyros, cloud giant; windswept white hair, wispy white bear, billow purple robe with gold stars

We had a short game this one, which is good because I was so tired... It was also our first game without any fights! (Probably because what we did was not explicitly part of the module.) I was able to address a few things I had been waiting for, and the players got some stuff done too.

When the party wakes, they've each gained a level and Rysiel's magic dragon skull provides him the ability to understand and speak the Giant language. Teir's brush with death leads him to become even more dedicated to the Raven Queen, and he takes a level in Cleric. As they prepare for the day, Rysiel, Bakunawa, and Teir find that their gold is missing. It comes out that Zastu did steal their money and they have a really good chat about that. Everybody's families are fucked up and they're all trying to prove themselves in their own way. Zastu ends up giving the money back. Teir gives Rysiel a token—an empty glass vial—for having a more messed-up family than his. Rysiel tries to share his magic dragon skull, but Teir declines (for more reasons than the fact that it won't fit over his horns), and Zastu is squiked-out (because dragon skull, dragonborn... yeah). Then Rysiel gives Zastu 5 gold (because he doesn't know what to do with it anyway). During the awkward silence that follows, Teir spends a moment in contemplation, checking for undead with one of his new abilities. Torem—the guard who stayed behind in the fort during the rescue—notices how acid-pocked their armor is, and offers to outfit them in some new leather or chainmail from the guard's supplies. Bakunawa gets a new Chain shirt, and Teir gets one as well (having been suddenly divinely inspired to wear heavier armor...), while Rysiel takes a set of Leather armor because his druid oath prevents him from wearing metal. Soon the party starts talking about what to do about their current situation. They can't just leave Xolkin and the Black Network in Nightstone, they're bad! But they also don't want to endanger the newly returned villagers—a valid concern. They discuss a few different ways they might isolate the bandits, including getting the villagers to act as a distraction. Morak enters the fort without knocking, showing how comfortable he is with the place. He looks preoccupied, but the first thing he says is how terrible the acid scarring is (and then asks how the party is doing with the related emotional trauma). They brush off his question, and ask what's going on. Morak has quite a bit to say, but first—a letter came back for Zastu from her contact. (She didn't share it with the group, but I posted to them publicly by accident already...)

"We're impressed you're still alive, and that you've managed to scrape together a few coins, but we think you can do better.

p.s. If you piss off the Zhentarim, we don't know you."

She's not happy with the response and it shows on her face, but she brushes it off. Morak starts off with a request... Several people died during the giant attack, and the subsequent capture by goblins. Many of them were his friends, and he's worried about notifying their loved ones.

The Tressym that has been following them around belonged to his friends—Melantha and Lathan Xelbrin—until a boulder crushed their house and them in it. Their son Miros lives in nearby Goldenfields—if they might take the creature to him and let him know of their passing.

Darthag Ulgar used to run the Lionshield trading post, until he was eaten by giant rats (the party interrupted that party with a fatal spell that killed everyone and splashed their guts all over the wall). His ex-wife runs a similar shop in Triboar—a little farther out from Goldenfields—and would want to know of her ex-husband's death.

Semile Southwell was a chicken and pig farmer until she was flattened by a rock. Her brother lives in far away Bryn Shander, Icewind Dale—if they might tell him of her death.

Morak segues into what he's learned of the happenings in the wider world. Xolkin received several messages back late the previous night, one of them reporting several giant attacks on frontier settlements like theirs. Something has stirred them all up, and they're starting to encroach on 'normal-sized people' lands. It's a scary time to live through, especially following that business with the dragons a couple years ago. He tells the party that Xolkin has offered the services of the Zhentarim mercenary group for free—well, in exchange for using their village as a base. He knows of their bad reputation, but he feels like they don't really have a choice. Without the support of a noble like the late Lady Velrosa Nandar, they wouldn't be able to afford any protection (and they've already been attacked once!). Teir fidgets as he resists offering his family's support—he's trying to distance himself from any of that responsibility. Morak continues to explain how much he doesn't want to accept the Zhentarim into his village (but they're already here). He mentions that Xolkin told them that there's a Sternhelm and several Stalwarts (ranks in the Zhentilar army) on their way—some of the best-trained fighters around—and they alone cost 20 gold/day. He seems to be pleading for the party to help with the situation (while cautioning them as to what they might be getting into)... At the same time, he suggests prudence. Seek allies. He tells them about the Harpers, a goodly group of spies and spellcasters who were instrumental in the recent struggle against the dragons. They're always looking for strong adventurers, and they're diametrically opposed to the Zhentarim. The other option is the Lords' Alliance, their allies. Teir's ears perk up—he's heard of them, or more specifically: Lady Laeral Silverhand of Waterdeep, one of their members.

The party discusses, thinking it might be a good idea to head to Waterdeep to seek the help of Lady Laeral, using Teir's connections to get an audience. How would they get ahold of the Harpers? Well, they're spies, so it's not easy, but they are everywhere... Morak tells them a little bit about Bryn Shander (part of a ten-town coalition in the cold, heavily fortified), Goldenfields (a walled farming settlement in the frontier, supplies the coast with almost all its soft fruit), and Triboar (a loosely laid-out trading town). They decide they might find more opportunities in Triboar. "One more thing..." The cloud tower with the wizard hat, the one that the elves mentioned to Zastu the previous night, it's show up again and it's making Morak really nervous. Would they mind checking it out?

It's at this point that Teir, Rysiel, and Zastu notice that Bakunawa has snuck out during the discussion. (Sneak roll: 16 without modifiers, passing the Passive Perception of everyone). The three of them panic and start searching. Teir goes outside and sends his raven flying around the fort, and then Nightstone. The Raven takes its time, eventually returning to communicate that it did not find "the big scaley one" (talking to a raven is difficult) He then goes in and checks the den and library, remembering to go up the ladder. Rysiel goes upstairs to search, eventually coming across the chest that Zastu had opened but not looted (due to a magic flying sword). Zastu checks the roof and the environs of the fort. Since they haven't found Bakunawa yet, they decide to surreptitiously search the village. Rysiel turns into a panther and starts tracking Bakunawa by scent. They're able to make their way up to the town square and across to the inn. Villagers give them alarming looks, and Teir tells them that this is his "seeing-eye panther". Despite the fact that he is not very convicing (roll:6), and not acting blind at all... It works concerningly well (rolls:3,4,17), except for one lady who gets up and leaves VERY QUICKLY.

Rysiel's nose detects that Bakunawa didn't go much farther, and that Xolkin and his crew were here (a fact they already knew). He leads them outside again, but loses the scent. During this time Teir's spectral raven is flying around outside. It sees the bandits (sans Xolkin) moving toward the drawbridge, but has no way to identify them or communicate back to Teir what's happening. Once outside, Teir does send his raven to do another round. Now the bandits are on the roof of the two towers flanking the bridge. Hiral, the Lathandar priest, sees them hiding outside his temple and comes to talk. Teir convinces him that they're just out for a walk(?) and manages to one-up him in religious history. Or something. He goes away. Teir looks through the raven's eyes and sees Bakunawa laying in a meadow with blood around him. Xolkin is walking across the bridge, wiping his sword. He goes up one of the towers and sends away the bandits posted there so he can speak to Kella alone.

Teir and Zastu sneak and follow panther-Rysiel back around the village and to the break in the bridge to the fort. They climb down and swim across the moat and then take the long way around the village to avoid the drawbridge. At the edge of the forest—where they camped briefly the night before—they formulate a quick plan. Teir edges closer to Bakunawa's body, pretending to be some rando with his cloak up (and fooling no one, but staying out of crossbow range), and casts Spare the Dying at range (normally a touch spell that causes a dying creature to become stable, but ranged due to his cleric grave domain). Nothing happens. Rysiel transforms back into a half-elf, and then into a warhorse in anticipation of carrying away Bakunawa. Teir approaches Bakunawa and casts a new spell (for him)—Cure Wounds—which would be maximized due to a cleric ability. Unfortunately, nothing happens. The warlock makes a medicine check (20) and realizes that their companion is dead-dead. Wasting no time, he investigates Bakunawa's pockets, ostensibly searching for some sort of personal effect to return to...? Well, they never did find out who's important in Bakunawa's life. It's around this time that Sydiri comes across the drawbridge riding Bobble. The bandits on the towers leave her alone. She joins up with Teir, and they meet with Rysiel and Zastu. Sydiri asks to join the party, saying that she never really planned on being a guard forever, and with the death of Lady Velrosa Nandar, well... Adventuring has some appeal. They discuss riding arrangements for a while, and Teir casts Guiding Hand to figure out how to get to Triboar. Unfortunately, the spell points the shortest distance in a straight line—north—which leads directly through the forest. They decide to follow the road south and loop around the forest until they follow the hand.

It's about this time that an ominous shadow appears above them—a great cloud with a great tower, topped with a whimsical wizard's hat in blue with stars. It follows them until they crest the hill south of the village, then a long incline of cloud stairs descends toward them, landing at the ground. The party is understandably very nervous. Minutes pass, until they hear the sound of music floating down. A medium-sized figure comes strutting down playing a lyre. As the figure gets closer, the party sees that they are a cat-like creature (Tabaxi) in robes. They introduce themselves as 'Mirri' and invite them up to the tower, assuring them safety and telling them that the owner of the tower would like to meet them. The party goes up the stairs... When they reach the top, a cloud giant appears from a landing high above them and floats down to greet them. He introduces himself as Zephyros, and the party members introduce themselves as well (Rysiel shifts back to half-elf form, and Mirri comments on his 'cleric' magic). Zephyros invites them inside, apologizing for his lack of accommodation for little people. A blue curtain hangs over the entrance wafting gently in the breeze, and when they cross through, the air stills and warms to a comfortable level. There's a small bed rool and unlit campfire with cooking pot in one corner of the massive one-room tower floor. Giant glass orbs hand from chains in each of the six corners, and a massive stone desk takes up one wall, and that's it. There are no stairs, but a hole in the ceiling reveals a second floor a hundred feet above them. This is high even for a giant, for Zephyros stands around 25 feet tall. Zephyros asks them not to go to the second floor or the aerie (as the grphyons are not well-trained), and then tells them how he's been so excited to meet them...

So, if you haven't figured it out... Bakunawa's player has decided to roll up a new character, and that is Mirri in the Wind!

Spells cast:

Bakunawa:

Paladin abilities: None used

Spells: None cast

Mirri:

Spells: None cast

Rysiel:

Druid abilities: Wildshape x2 (Panther, Warhorse)

Cantrips: None cast

Spells: None cast

Teir:

Cleric abilities: Eyes of the Grave

Cantrips: Spare the Dying

Spells: Cure Wounds

Rituals: Guiding Hand

Slots: 0/2 Warlock 1/2 1st Cleric

Killcount:

Xolkin (presumably) killed Bakunawa this game.

Treasure looted:

From Lady Velrosa Nandar's chest:

velvet sack containing 180 sp (money used to pay the guards)

a silk pouch containing four gemstones

and a silver jewelry box containing three beautiful gold necklaces

From Bakunawa's body:

Tinderbox

Lamp

Lantern

waterskin

4 rations

3 torches

hemp rope

dagger