#space ace dexter

[head-vampire]

Space Ace (1984) model sheet

Source

[kabishkat19]

Non/Disney NextGen

(Don Bluth : Space Ace🪐)

Austin (16) Golden child/Born leader

Max (13) Rambunctious dreamer

[lgspears]

I nominated Wolfgang Novogratz as Ace, Maude Apatow as Kimberly, John C. Reilly as Commander Borf and Tyler Wladis as Dexter in the Space Ace movie.

[pembrokewkorgi]

Cartoon Commentary - Circus Gnarly

In the newest installment of Cartoon Commentary @KrunchyLex and I go to the circus. THE SPACE CIRCUS! https://youtu.be/x_FwjA76Iw8

Posted using PostyBirb

[faeries-fires]

⋆⋅☆ Gale's illusions ☆⋅⋆

I've been wanting for some time to make a list identifying the spells that Gale uses during his cutscenes.

There are two spells in this list that most players will be familiar with, Minor Illusion and Mirror Image, because some of the spellcasters can learn them in the game, but most of them are things that Larian didn't include and you won't know about them unless you're a D&D player or you check a list of spells.

Long post under the cut.

───── Minor Illusion ─────

- Level: cantrip - Casting time: 1 action - Range/Area: 30 ft / 5 ft cube - Components: S M (A bit of fleece) - Duration: 1 minute - School: Illusion - Available for: Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard You create a sound or an image of an object within range that lasts for the duration. The illusion also ends if you dismiss it as an action or cast this spell again. If you create a sound, its volume can range from a whisper to a scream. It can be your voice, someone else’s voice, a lion’s roar, a beating of drums, or any other sound you choose. The sound continues unabated throughout the duration, or you can make discrete sounds at different times before the spell ends. If you create an image of an object—such as a chair, muddy footprints, or a small chest—it must be no larger than a 5-foot cube. The image can’t create sound, light, smell, or any other sensory effect. Physical interaction with the image reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it. If a creature uses its action to examine the sound or image, the creature can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the illusion becomes faint to the creature.

This one is easy to guess. A small image that doesn't move or make sounds, no point in wasting a spell slot when you can just achieve the same result with a cantrip.

───── Mirror Image ─────

- Level: 2nd - Casting Time: 1 action - Range/Area: Self - Components: V S - Duration: 1 minute - Available for: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard Three illusory duplicates of yourself appear in your space. Until the spell ends, the duplicates move with you and mimic your actions, shifting position so it’s impossible to track which image is real. You can use your action to dismiss the illusory duplicates. Each time a creature targets you with an attack during the spell’s duration, roll a d20 to determine whether the attack instead targets one of your duplicates. If you have three duplicates, you must roll a 6 or higher to change the attack’s target to a duplicate. With two duplicates, you must roll an 8 or higher. With one duplicate, you must roll an 11 or higher. A duplicate’s AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier. If an attack hits a duplicate, the duplicate is destroyed. A duplicate can be destroyed only by an attack that hits it. It ignores all other damage and effects. The spell ends when all three duplicates are destroyed. A creature is unaffected by this spell if it can’t see, if it relies on senses other than sight, such as blindsight, or if it can perceive illusions as false, as with truesight.

An illusion that looks and acts like the caster and stands close to them. The spell creates 3 copies initially, but they can be dismissed.

─── Programmed Illusion ───

- Level: 6th - Casting time: 1 action - Range/Area: 120 ft / 30 ft - Components: V S M (A bit of fleece and jade dust worth at least 25 GP) - Duration: Until dispelled - School: Illusion - Available for: Bard, Wizard You create an illusion of an object, a creature, or some other visible phenomenon within range that activates when a specific condition occurs. The illusion is imperceptible until then. It must be no larger than a 30-foot cube, and you decide when you cast the spell how the illusion behaves and what sounds it makes. This scripted performance can last up to 5 minutes. When the condition you specify occurs, the illusion springs into existence and performs in the manner you described. Once the illusion finishes performing, it disappears and remains dormant for 10 minutes. After this time, the illusion can be activated again. The triggering condition can be as general or as detailed as you like, though it must be based on visual or audible conditions that occur within 30 feet of the area. For example, you could create an illusion of yourself to appear and warn off others who attempt to open a trapped door, or you could set the illusion to trigger only when a creature says the correct word or phrase. Physical interaction with the image reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it. A creature that uses its action to examine the image can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the creature can see through the image, and any noise it makes sounds hollow to the creature.

The famous spectral messenger that appears the 1st time Gale dies in act 1 or in the epilogue if he sacrificed himself. A spell with a condition to trigger on his death, casted while he was still alive.

───── Project Image ─────

- Level: 7th - Casting Time: 1 action - Range/Area: 500 miles - Target: Any location within range that you have seen before - Components: V S M (A small replica of you made from materials worth at least 5 gp) - Duration: Up to 1 day - Concentration - Available for: Bard, Wizard You create an illusory copy of yourself that lasts for the duration. The copy can appear at any location within range that you have seen before, regardless of intervening obstacles. The illusion looks and sounds like you but is intangible. If the illusion takes any damage, it disappears, and the spell ends. You can use your action to move this illusion up to twice your speed, and make it gesture, speak, and behave in whatever way you choose. It mimics your mannerisms perfectly. You can see through its eyes and hear through its ears as if you were in its space. On your turn as a bonus action, you can switch from using its senses to using your own, or back again. While you are using its senses, you are blinded and deafened in regard to your own surroundings. Physical interaction with the image reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it. A creature that uses its action to examine the image can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the creature can see through the image, and any noise it makes sounds hollow to the creature.

The illusory Gale that guides you to his act 2 main scene. It could be another Programmed Illusion, but I've chosen Project Image instead because this one's eyes don't glow like the other's, which makes me think they were created with different spells. Also because the copies of Lorroakan and Rolan in Sorcerous Sundries are confirmed Projected Images and they look and act similar to Gale's.

I know it's labeled as "Gale's Mirror Image", but it can't be a Mirror Image because illusions made with that spell stay close to the caster and imitate them, but this one is standing there on its own and having a full conversation with the player while Gale prepares the next spell on this list.

───── Mirage Arcane ─────

- Level: 7th - Casting time: 10 minutes - Range/Area: Sight / 1 mile - Components: V S - Duration: 10 days - Available for: Bard, Druid, Wizard You make terrain in an area up to 1 mile square look, sound, smell, and even feel like some other sort of terrain. The terrain’s general shape remains the same, however. Open fields or a road could be made to resemble a swamp, hill, crevasse, or some other difficult or impassable terrain. A pond can be made to seem like a grassy meadow, a precipice like a gentle slope, or a rock-strewn gully like a wide and smooth road. Similarly, you can alter the appearance of structures, or add them where none are present. The spell doesn’t disguise, conceal, or add creatures. The illusion includes audible, visual, tactile, and olfactory elements, so it can turn clear ground into difficult terrain (or vice versa) or otherwise impede movement through the area. Any piece of the illusory terrain (such as a rock or stick) that is removed from the spell’s area disappears immediately. Creatures with truesight can see through the illusion to the terrain’s true form; however, all other elements of the illusion remain, so while the creature is aware of the illusion’s presence, the creature can still physically interact with the illusion.

In his act 2 main scene Gale veils the shadow-cursed sky with an aurora borealis.

The Waterdeep scene that follows in the astral variant of the romance path could also be part of this spell if we bend the rules a bit and let him have the Malleable Illusions feature that only Wizards from the School of Illusion get.

Malleable Illusions: starting at 6th level, when you cast an illusion spell that has a duration of 1 minute or longer, you can use your action to change the nature of that illusion (using the spell's normal parameters for the illusion), provided that you can see the illusion.

As for the Astral sex part and the boat scene, I think those are something else. The closest I've found is the next spell, from the School of Necromancy.

──── Astral Projection ? ────

- Level: 9th - Casting Time: 1 hour - Range/Area: 10 feet - Target: You and up to eight willing creatures within range - Components: V S M (For each creature you affect with this spell, you must provide one jacinth worth at least 1,000 gp and one ornately carved bar of silver worth at least 100 gp, all of which the spell consumes) - Duration: Special - Available for: Cleric, Warlock, Wizard You and up to eight willing creatures within range project your astral bodies into the Astral Plane (the spell fails and the casting is wasted if you are already on that plane). The material body you leave behind is unconscious and in a state of suspended animation; it doesn’t need food or air and doesn’t age. Your astral body resembles your mortal form in almost every way, replicating your game statistics and possessions. The principal difference is the addition of a silvery cord that extends from between your shoulder blades and trails behind you, fading to invisibility after 1 foot. This cord is your tether to your material body. As long as the tether remains intact, you can find your way home. If the cord is cut—something that can happen only when an effect specifically states that it does—your soul and body are separated, killing you instantly. Your astral form can freely travel through the Astral Plane and can pass through portals there leading to any other plane. If you enter a new plane or return to the plane you were on when casting this spell, your body and possessions are transported along the silver cord, allowing you to re-enter your body as you enter the new plane. Your astral form is a separate incarnation. Any damage or other effects that apply to it have no effect on your physical body, nor do they persist when you return to it. The spell ends for you and your companions when you use your action to dismiss it. When the spell ends, the affected creature returns to its physical body, and it awakens. The spell might also end early for you or one of your companions. A successful dispel magic spell used against an astral or physical body ends the spell for that creature. If a creature’s original body or its astral form drops to 0 hit points, the spell ends for that creature. If the spell ends and the silver cord is intact, the cord pulls the creature’s astral form back to its body, ending its state of suspended animation. If you are returned to your body prematurely, your companions remain in their astral forms and must find their own way back to their bodies, usually by dropping to 0 hit points.

I've included this one because I've seen several people refer to the sex scene with this name, and while it's the spell with the closest description, there are too many things off: the absence of the silver cord, the hight cost (2200 gp total), the 9th level (max spell level, learned at 17th+ character level), the ability to go anywhere in the Astral Plane and even use portals, the fact that it is a necromancy spell instead of illusion magic like Gale mentions both times...

Also the two scenes are different from one another despite both sharing the Astral Plane scenery:

On the Astral sex scene Gale and the PC are ethereal figures and there's no verbal component, the glyph in the book seems to be what activates it.

On the Astral sea scene only the boat is ethereal and there's a verbal component, "Astra Navigamus" (we sail the stars). We also know from Gale's words that it requires to maintain concentration, but Astral Projection doesn't.

Gale: Find me later, and I will show you something truly divine. I will show you what a crown like this could mean for both of us. PC: Can't you just tell me now? Gale: Afraid not. What I have to show you requires us to be its only witness, and our minds to share in the most exquisite concentration.

I don't think there's a real equivalent and they're simply homebrew creations.

────── Simulacrum ──────

- Casting Time: 12 hours - Range/Area: Touch - Target: One beast or humanoid that is within range for the entire casting time of the spell - Components: V S M (Snow or ice in quantities sufficient to made a life-size copy of the duplicated creature; some hair, fingernail clippings, or other piece of that creature’s body placed inside the snow or ice; and powdered ruby worth 1,500 gp, sprinkled over the duplicate and consumed by the spell) - Duration: Until dispelled - Available for: Wizard You shape an illusory duplicate of one beast or humanoid that is within range for the entire casting time of the spell. The duplicate is a creature, partially real and formed from ice or snow, and it can take actions and otherwise be affected as a normal creature. It appears to be the same as the original, but it has half the creature’s hit point maximum and is formed without any equipment. Otherwise, the illusion uses all the statistics of the creature it duplicates. The simulacrum is friendly to you and creatures you designate. It obeys your spoken commands, moving and acting in accordance with your wishes and acting on your turn in combat. The simulacrum lacks the ability to learn or become more powerful, so it never increases its level or other abilities, nor can it regain expended spell slots. If the simulacrum is damaged, you can repair it in an alchemical laboratory, using rare herbs and minerals worth 100 gp per hit point it regains. The simulacrum lasts until it drops to 0 hit points, at which point it reverts to snow and melts instantly. If you cast this spell again, any currently active duplicates you created with this spell are instantly destroyed.

Despite popular fandom belief, none of the Gale duplicates that we see in the game is a Simulacrum, they don't fit the criteria:

They are translucent and their voice sounds hollow, as if there had been an invisible successful investigation check.

When you destroy them they disappear with a puff of magic lights instead of transforming back into ice/snow and melting.

Notice that Simulacra clones are tangible, unlike the others from before. They are basically glamoured and animated life size ice/snowmen. They're also quite expensive and elaborate, not something you'd want to cast for a short single use (unless you're super rich I suppose).

That doesn't mean that there isn't any use of this spell in the game, there's in fact one:

That's right, the Elminster we encounter isn't the real one, but a construct made with Simulacrum, charged with finding Gale and delivering Mystra's will and spell. All that complaining about a long and extenuous journey, worn boots, and hunger is an act, an imitation of the real Elminster's mannerism. Makes you wonder what happened to all that cheese and wine that he "ate"...

───────────────────

Bear in mind that the devs have taken some creative liberties and there are lore inconsistencies. More than half of these spells are a higher level than what's possible to learn at that point, most aren't even in Gale's spellbook and, by the Wizard class rules, he' s only allowed to cast the spells that are written on his book and memorized during a long rest. So unless he secretly has with him the spellbook that he used when he was an Archmage or a scroll version of them, it shouldn't be possible to use most of these.

Oh well, sometimes it's necessary to change things a bit because they don't translate well to videogame mechanics and it would make things more tedious and not as enjoyable.

And that's it. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading!

[the-griffons-saddlebag]

⚔️ 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺! Hailstorm Bow
Weapon (longbow), legendary (requires attunement) ___ This bow is made of pure ice, which only becomes pliable in your hands once you attune to it. While the bow is on your person, your skin becomes covered in a thin layer of protective frost, granting you a +1 bonus to AC and immunity to cold damage. An arrow that’s fired from the bow becomes covered in ice, which deals an extra 1d6 cold damage to any target it hits. If you hit a target within 5 feet of you using the bow on your turn, the target also has disadvantage on any attack rolls it makes until the end of your current turn. The bow has 7 charges and regains 1d6 + 1 expended charges daily at dawn. While holding the bow, you can use an action to expend 1 or more of its charges to use either of the following properties. 𝙃𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙢 𝙑𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙮. For each charge you expend, you fire a magical arrow of pure ice from the bow into the sky centered directly above a point that you can see within 120 feet of you. Sharp hail then falls from the sky in a 20-foot-radius, 40-foot-high cylinder centered on the point. Each creature in the area must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 2d8 cold damage, plus 1d8 cold damage for each expended charge after the first. On a successful save, a creature takes half as much cold damage. The hailstones then turn the area into difficult terrain until the end of your next turn. 𝙄𝙘𝙚 𝙒𝙖𝙡𝙡. For each charge you expend, you fire a magical arrow of pure ice from the bow at a different point on the ground that you can see within 120 feet of you. Each arrow then grows into a 10-foot-square panel that’s 1 foot thick and perpendicular to the ground. Each panel has AC 12, 30 hit points, and is vulnerable to fire damage. If the wall cuts through a creature’s space when it appears, the creature is pushed to one side of the wall (your choice which side) and must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 3d8 cold damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Each panel remains for 1 minute or until it’s reduced to 0 hit points. ___ ✨ Patrons get huge perks! Access this and hundreds of other item cards, art files, and compendium entries when you support The Griffon's Saddlebag on Patreon for less than $10 a month!

[gameraboy2]

Dexter and Kimberly production cel from Space Ace (1983)

[soylent-crocodile]

Myr (Monsters)

(Silver Myr by Kev Walker)

(I FUCKING LOVE MYR! They're cute, they're iconic, they're interesting bits of worldbuilding... I HAD to make 'em! Mercifully, I've separated Mirrodin from New Phyrexia, and created the Plane of Steel, a fun little plot hook roughly referencing Mirrodin's creation. If you want to make these native to the Plane of Metal- new to PF2- or simply old machines of a dead culture, feel free.

Also, this will contain rules for Mana Myr, which I spiraled off the five colors of Magic, but expect more myr in the future!)

Myr are mysterious creatures native to the Plane of Steel, an artificial plane ripped from the Plane of Earth and turned into a vast network of self-sustaining machines. Myr themselves are the most common denizens of the plane, servitors to an unknown master and performing upkeep on their more complicated cohabitants.

Myr have been imported from the Plane of Steel in rare quantities, and serve as a rare treasure on the Material Plane, loyal servants infused with magical energy. Some, however, fear inviting such mysterious creatures into their homes, especially paranoid wizards and watchful politicians, as it's a known fact that myr are vulnerable to scrying- and it's a distinct possibility that their master is still watching.

Myr are unique among constructs in being easily repairable once slain. Upon reaching 0 health, a construct with the Myr subtype is not destroyed; rather, it turns inactive, and will reactivate upon being returned to positive hit points. However, a myr that reaches -20hp is destroyed as usual. Additionally, the knowledge of how to create myr has been lost or well-hidden, and they lack rules for construction. Fortunately for myr, they are capable of reproducing themselves, although attempts to study how they do so have not succeeded in creating animate constructs.

There are thousands of different kinds of myr, most being only slight modifications on a basic design; what is presented are some common archetypes and a few notable variations.

Mana Myr

(Myr Moonvessel by Danny Orizio)

Among the most common servitor myr, mana myr work on the machinery that makes up the bulk of the Plane of Metal, and these servitors are attuned to one of the eight schools of magic. Of the myr of the plane, it is the mana myr who are most desired, and those who find themselves in possession of multiple, or let them reproduce, sell them for exorbitant prices.

Each school of magic produces a myr of a different color. Even though they are all made of the same substance, the magic forged into their bodies makes them appear as one of a variety of colors; the mana myr of each school of magic is named after a metal or mineral it resembles.

This small humanoid construct has a strange head shaped like a heavy beak. It resonates with magical energy.

Misc- CR1 LN Small Construct (Myr) HD2 Init:+2 Senses: Perception:+3 Stats- Str:8(-1) Dex:15(+2) Con:- Int:4(-3) Wis:14(+2) Cha:14(+2) BAB:+2 Space:2.5ft Reach:0ft Defense- HP:21(2d10+10) AC:13(+1 Size, +2 Dexterity) Fort:- Ref:+4 Will:+2 CMD:13 Special Defenses: Construct traits Offense- Slam +2(1d3-1) CMB:+0 Speed:25ft Special Attacks:  Feats- Lightning Reflexes Skills- Perception +3, Spellcraft +0 Spell-like Abilities-  Share Memory /at-will Make Whole 1/day Special Qualities- Mana Servant, Scrying Focus Ecology- Environment- Any Languages- Common (Can’t speak) Organization- Solitary Treasure- None Special Abilities- Mana Servant- A mana myr is designed as a vessel for magic. When created, it is infused with magic from one of the eight schools of magic. When used as a focus to cast a spell of that school, the spell is cast at a +1 caster level and with a +1 DC. A mana myr registers as strong magic of its school when viewed through Detect Magic or similar spells. Scrying Focus- Myr are perfect vessels for scrying on. They get a -5 penalty to saves against spells with the Scrying descriptor, and magical sensors made to scry on a myr and its surroundings get a +5 bonus against rolls to perceive it. Additionally, myr- and any object or creature they are in contact with- are not protected by spells such as Nondetection and Screen.

[inglorionamy-ammy]

Of Home and Haven (Ch6/6) The end

Chapter snippet:

Gale is sitting beneath the elevated spectator stand, together with the emergency cleric team that is set up next to the ground entrance. He gives you a small smile of reassurance, though his posture is tense. Tara leans on his shoulder, her twitching tail betraying her anticipation.

The finale.

Summary: A tender tale between an outlander barbarian and a scholarly wizard, navigating life, love, and belonging (aka. What "being together" means for them) in Waterdeep and beyond.

Pairing: Half-orc Barbarian F!Tav X Gale Mature

Word count: 3k

@senualothbrok My beta, my reader, my friend. She aced all roles.

AO3 link: here

Chapter Five: here

[This chapter's illustration hides at the end ;)]

The first thing you see across the circular field is a gigantic steel sentinel.

It is similar to the ones that guarded the school entrance, only this time bigger, almost the height of a two-storey house. On top of its shoulder is an average build humanoid man in a wizard’s robe, seeking whatever high ground there is in this vast empty space. His eyes are glowing slightly, their color matching his steel companion, controlling it in concentration.

The second thing you notice is, in fact, your husband, behind your opponents. Gale is sitting beneath the elevated spectator stand, together with the emergency cleric team that is set up next to the ground entrance. He gives you a small smile of reassurance, though his posture is tense. Tara leans on his shoulder, her twitching tail betraying her anticipation. Your gazes lock for a second.

Technically, the battle should be non-lethal, but both of you know that only melee attacks can be controlled with such precision. In addition, to prevent the fight from over-stretching, you and your opponent are only allowed to bring one healing potion, unfavorable to a typical barbarian’s reckless fighting style. To test how much room for error you have, you close the distance with a small leap before throwing the trident, aiming for the man’s face.

Clang!

With a whoosh of the sentinel’s arm the trident is sent flying right to the ground, the amour untouched by the small thunder explosion it caused. For a construct of this size, its attack is strong and unexpectedly fast. A small cheer comes from the crowd. You frown.

The Nyrulna returns to your hand. You and your enemies start stalking around each other like a pair of beasts waiting for the other to strike first. You must think of something to break the stalemate.

The sun is now behind you. Shrouded in shadow, you discreetly produce a small gadget from your pack, sending it to the man’s head again. A contemptuous smirk crosses his face as the sentinel swats it like he is dismissing a fly, but this time it explodes inwards.

The void bulb. It was one of your best discoveries from the Nautiloid, lovingly reproduced by the skillful deep gnome craftsman Barcus Wroot. When he had sent a box of these as your wedding gift, Gale had had a good laugh.

In an instant the man is pulled off the sentinel. He falls, with a yelp, unceremoniously towards the ground.

You are just about to strike when he mutters a quick incantation in midair. Misty step. You watch as he appears far behind his companion, another flick of his hand renders him invisible. You huff. His dexterity is annoying, but rather impressive.

The sentinel now sprints towards you. You narrowly dodge the first swinging fist and roll forward to escape the second. Any one of these would send you prone, and without lightning spells it seems indestructible. It’s time for some distance. You jump, striking your trident to the ground, and ride its force for a great leap forward and over, landing somewhere far behind it. This should buy you some time —

A snap of magic. You are hit, full force, by a lightning bolt.

Cheers erupt from the audience. Gale, now only tens of meters from you, is white as a sheet.

Suddenly you are overwhelmed by the need to reassure him. You bite your tongue to sharpen your half-burnt mind, pulling yourself together. With a fast gulp of a healing potion, you let out an exaggerated sigh.

“’S that all you got?” You raise a challenging eyebrow. Sometimes it is the attitude that matters.

The man is having none of it. He remains careful, guarded, and with another misty step lands right back onto his metal companion.

A grunt of frustration threatens to escape your throat, but you force it down. Instead, you try your luck. For the third time in a row, you throw the gadget in your hand at him.

Now cautious with the trick, he pauses for a split second. That is all the opening you need.

He realizes too late that it is only an empty healing flask. At the same time, your reinvigorated surge of action powers your great leap and you jam your trident into the armor’s elbow gap with a loud clang. He tries to shake you off, grab you by his other fist, but you are fast as you crawl and grab and push yourself up to where he is. Your grin is manic as you sense his panic building up. He is, after all, a fragile human against a frenzied half-orc. His control starts to slip, the sentinel’s movement imprecise. In desperation he escapes right before you strike him, abandoning the construct with another misty step, landing far back where he hits you with that damn lightning.

You now occupy high ground. The Nyrulna strikes into the neck of the sentinel — a bit deeper than necessary — as you balance yourself. It is after all much easier to dodge someone’s attack when you are on top of them. Looking down on him, you mock his disheveled state in a booming volume, “helpless without your toys, little wizard?”

At that, something snaps. You frown as you realize his concentration with the sentinel is severed.

Then, a sharp, invasive pain penetrates your brain. You gasp as you realize he wants to make you his toy. You only have the time to draw out one last item before he has taken total control, and that tiny pack slips from your hand and falls, its content spilling over the ground. You pray that it’s enough.

The arena is now silent, breaths held back for this battle of wit.

On the first round, you mind is hazy as you slowly climb down from the unmoving sentinel, your movements precise, almost polite, for they are not yours. Your Nyrulna lies forgotten behind you.

On the second round, you are made to do a little twirl. It should be insulting, but the mist in your brain is shrouding any coherent thoughts. For a moment you think you see Gale, knuckles white as he grips so hard he almost tears his robe. It somehow pains you too, but the sensation is fleeting, and soon fades to oblivion.

On the third round, you walk towards him, as he tries to position you within his attack range. You take one step, and another, then step on something.

One of the spiked bulbs you spilled explodes.

The small scratch is all you need. In an instant your wisdom is back. You leap across the field and tackle the surprised man down, his head hitting the floor with a concussing force. A quick flick of your hidden dagger makes him hiss. But he is relentless. Even pinned under you, he attempts an incantation, a dance of his hand — but there is nothing.

He has been silenced.

His eyes slowly widen in shock, finally catching on the blue glowing blade in your hand—a sussur dagger. He begins to shiver.

“DO YOU YIELD?” you demand with a growl, pressing the dagger against his throat.

Carefully, the man nods. Gasps echo in the arena.

You rise. Your gaze falls upon each and every person in the spectator stand, before returning to the man at your feet. When you extend your hand out to him, he turns away in defiance.

You sigh. Might as well take a chance.

“…The first time I lost a fight to my father, who trained me, I hid in the toilet and cried for three hours,” Your voice projects in the amphitheater. As he tentatively turns towards you, eyes full of suspicion, you continue with a nod.

“At first, Ma and Da were worried, especially Ma, and she knocked and cooed relentlessly. But then Da wanted to pee, and he kicked open the door so hard he broke it. We didn’t have a proper toilet door for three months.”

A snort. The man shakes his head and slowly stands up. He still doesn’t take your hand, but as he wipes the dust off his butt, he says, “We have spells for that. If only he knew Knock.”

Suddenly, you recognize his voice — a solid version of that hollow echo shared between the two Academy entrance guards, who barred your entry a year ago, believing that you had lied about your relationship with Gale. It still has the same pinched haughtiness, far from welcoming, but much less condescending now.

“Yeah,” you smile, “if only.”

--

The fight is over, but there are no cheers, no boos. The audience is stunted. For a while, the only motion in the field is the cleric team, who dutifully approaches and checks on the pair of you.

Then there is Gale and Tara. Gale, who has been hanging on the edge of his seat for so long, is now splinting towards you, his face flushed with elation. As he crushes into your waiting arms, Tara elegantly glides through the air, landing gracefully before you.

“A wonderful display of strength and tactics, young Mrs. Dekarios,” she appraises calmly, as if she had always predicted your victory, though her tail, still a bit puffed, betrayed her dread just a moment ago. She looks past you cautiously.

You turn and find your match — Endorick, the clerics called him — a senior apprentice in charge of security matters. He seems to have the talent of maintaining a straight face and a puffed chest despite looking absolutely disheveled. As he raises an eyebrow at you, you find yourself more amused than annoyed.

“My husband.” You stifle a smirk as you purposefully flash him your matching wedding earrings, and he rolls his eyes. In defeat, you assume.

Gale is drenched in cold sweat, but as he pulls back and looks up at you, his voice swells with warmth.

“My love, my heart, my beautiful wife.” He punctuates every declaration with a kiss on your bruised knuckles, never letting your hand go. “What a fight that was. What a sight you are!”

You suspect Endorick has had enough of whatever this is, as he turns to pace away with a sigh, limping slightly.

You look back at Gale. His bright brown eyes are shimmering, his body quivering with giddy excitement. The smile on his face is so eager, so tender, it makes your heart so full it could burst. You simply must do something about it.

So, you scoop Gale up and twirl him in midair, silencing his surprised yelp by crushing your lips to his. His legs immediately wrap around your waist to pull you closer, deepening the kiss. Finally, there is some proper cheering.

--

It is winter again, and this year, you receive an invitation to the annual Blackstaff Winter Ball as part of their faculty.

To be fair, you are more an adjunct part-time lecturer on temporary contract, managing an elective combat-based course that students either love or hate, but still.

In this past academic year, you encountered some conservatives who insisted that Blackstaff is a serious arcane research institute and should not provide such extra curriculum activities. Yet there were also enthusiasts who sought your help in developing magic-infused melee weapons and testing their combat skills, sometimes in very passionate ways.

Endorick, surprisingly, was the latter. He still carries an air of arrogant nonchalance, but somehow, he would mysteriously appear by your table every first-day lunch break, yapping about the lack of funding for security, the declining manpower and resources, so on and so forth. Recently he had even allowed you to visit his sentinel workshop, and as you have learnt to deal with wizards, you dutifully allowed him to impress you. This has become a fun little experiment, and you are rather curious to see how far this strange relationship can go.

There were days when your teaching left you covered in bruises. It earned you a very stern warning from Professor Dekarios, albeit those often ended up delivered in bed or in the baths he insisted to draw you. In any case, you enjoyed the thrill of battle too much to truly walk away, not to mention that you had caught glimpses of him multiple times when you fought in your class, eyes blown wide and lips parted, his own duties temporarily forgotten.

As you have predicted, students who dreamed of being adventurers enjoyed your lessons the most. One of them even decided that the arcane arts were, after all, not their true calling, and consulted you on taking melee trainings instead.

What you didn’t expect were those who took an academic interest in half-orc matters. From what you have heard, there hasn’t been a half-orc associated with Blackstaff for a long time. You received some interesting invitations to record what they call "oral history", which basically boiled down to you telling stories of your life. You humored them with snippets from your childhood, both the epic and the mundane, and the students listened in bated breath as they relived the memories with you.

You told them about mud wrestling, how Da saw it almost as a sacred ritual when he taught you how to cultivate the soil before stepping into the ring. Their eyes sparkled in curiosity, and that evening ended in an impromptu wrestling workshop, drawing confused gazes from other mages.

You told them about the collection Da built for Ma to honor her noble past, and the more sentimental students swooned. But when Gale joined in to supply his anecdotal observations of your parents’ relationship with great enthusiasm, by the end of the session, you were the one who swooned.

When Ma learned of the project, she earnestly invited the group to her rooftop greenhouse for a chat over tea. That was when you realized there was so much more about your parents that you didn’t know. You sat there, thoughtful, as the students laughed roaringly at Ma’s retelling of how she convinced Da to try the bizarre etiquette trainings she went through as a child.

At the end of the day, you find yourself smiling more often, the stillness that once trapped you receding further. It makes you feel hopeful, knowing that in a way, Da will live on in these bright, eager minds.

Tonight, however, your task is more demanding. Being presentable and sociable in a formal setting still drains you. Associating with the title of Blackstaff, even just slightly, has allowed you to access a degree of comfort and respect that used to be out of reach. It is somewhat ironic that the work you do is essentially the same — combat — but suddenly you are allowed among polite society, among people whose acceptance you used to crave, particularly when you were desperate for an anchor in a new life.

You are learning a foreign language, of nods and bows, of feasts and fashions, and of titles and status. In these social events, you are usually content with observing from the sidelines.

Of course, there is one person you particularly enjoy observing. Gale is charming and witty, true, but most recently you realize something else — he has newly acquired the magical ability to turn an intoxicating status fight into a mutual appreciation of the arcane arts, his sincere passion sometimes capable of winning over the most skeptical hearts. It is truly a beautiful sight to watch: Your husband’s eyes keen and bright, his communicative hands assisting his presentation as usual, as the colleagues around him listen intently with set brows and occasional nods.

You are sampling the delicate little cakes when you catch his gaze across the hall, amusement evident on his face as he sees how full your plate is. You frown, then wipe some cream off the corner of your mouth. His smile breaks into a teasing grin.

In return, you lift the long table in one swift motion, allowing the poor waiter to clean up a glass of spilled champagne beneath. You know how your muscles look when you flex them. You barely suppress the smugness on your face when he turns away with a cough, his ear flushing red. Perhaps it’s time for a more private conversation.

"Ta'V?" An exhausted voice calls you from behind. You huff.

Endorick strides towards you, unwillingly caught between you and Gale again. He gestures to a pair of figures behind him. "A guest would like to meet you,” he mouths, “a funder.”

“And isn’t that our newest edition, the talk of the Academy?”

The man’s voice drips with feigned familiarity. You recognize him as Fenris Goldsinger, one of the closest apprentices to the Blackstaff herself. You know this because he never stops flaunting this fact.

As you give him and the elderly lady by his side a stiff bow, he continues to turn between you and the lady. “A true rarity, she is. Not only a half-orc but a non-magic user, who has, against all odds, fought her way into the heart of our institution!”

The lady tilts her head as she appraises you. She has the regal air of an ancient elf. Only her ears betray her human race. Despite her age she stands tall, silvery hair braided into a tight and elaborate bun. Her attention is piercing, and it lands straight at your golden necklace, the gift from your mother.

“Ta’V, you must meet —”

The lady stops Fenris with a rise of her palm. Her emerald eyes now languidly measure you.

“Lady Riversong,” she lets the words hang for a few moments and observes your reaction, before she continues, “a patron of the arcane arts.”

She raises an eyebrow as if expecting an answer, but you are too stunned by her first words. Your gazes lock silently, and she gives you a half-smile.

“Now forgive me, for I’ll have to leave for a meeting soon. But I am most eager to meet you, and your husband, somewhere, sometime.”

You thought she would just turn away, but she is in fact waiting for your answer. So, you agree, mind still whirling. With a satisfied smile from Lady Riversong and an awkward shoulder pat from Fenris, the pair turn and disappear into the night.

Endorick is visibly relieved. “For the love of Mystra, what have you done?” he exclaims in a hushed tone, but you aren’t paying attention.

You can’t wait to tell Ma what happened.

The end

Dear all, thank you for embarking on this journey with me. I am beyond honored that you read through Ta'V and Gale's adventure, or even more so, be touched by it. Even with tears, I think this story is ultimately rather hopeful, rather optimistic. I am particularly thrilled with how many liked the original characters, with Ta'V, and especially Da! I did not expect him to be a reader's favorite (the quiet loving dad and husband who speaks with action eh?), and how it makes me smile to read all of your comments and learn your thoughts.

I think I will do a celebratory drawing giveaway in these two weeks. If you're interested in that, stay tuned!

More of my works: here

[strawberrylemonadeswagtourney]

please give a warm welcome to the 64 contestants of the strawberry lemonade swag tourney, part two !!

we have 23 returning competitors and 41 brand new contenders vying for the crown ! starting on 07/05/2023, we'll start voting to determine which of these pink and yellow characters is the swaggiest of all time !!!

ROUND ONE MATCHUPS

PART ONE - 07/05 Phoenica Fleecity - Epithet Erased VS Yoomtah Zing - Epithet Erased Lickilicky - Pokemon VS Galarian Slowpoke - Pokemon Cherrim - Pokemon VS Shiny Weavile - Pokemon Dakota - Total Drama VS Sugar - Total Drama Geoff - Total Drama VS Jacques - Total Drama Princess Carolyn - Bojack Horseman VS Francine Smith - American Dad Kouign-Amann Cookie - Cookie Run VS Birthday Cake Cookie - Cookie Run Pastel Meringue Cookie - Cookie Run VS Butterbear Cookie - Cookie Run

PART TWO - 07/06 Dee Dee - Dexter’s Laboratory VS Helga G. Pataki - Hey Arnold! Amitie - Puyo Puyo VS Harpy - Puyo Puyo Ulala - Space Channel 5 VS Schall - Pop’n Music Iris - Pokemon VS Ortega - Pokemon Bonita Femur - Monster High VS Gooliope Jellington - Monster High Viperine Gorgon - Monster High VS Gigi Grant - Monster High Love Momozono - Fresh Pretty Cure! VS Ageha Hijiri - Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure Sayla Mass - Mobile Suit Gundam VS Satoko Hojo - When They Cry

PART THREE - 07/07 Pasca Kanonno - Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology VS Lilith Aileron - Tales of Destiny Poppy Pipopapo - Kamen Rider VS Regina George - Mean Girls Utena Tenjou - Revolutionary Girl Utena (Manga) VS Giorno Giovanni - Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Nui Harime - Kill la Kill VS Shirahoshi - One Piece Princess Peach - Mario Series VS Lucia Nanami - Mermaid Melody Ami Onuki - Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi VS Umbrella Renoir - Skullgirls Foxy - Ace Attorney VS Regina Berry - Ace Attorney Isabelle - Animal Crossing VS Pearl - Splatoon

PART FOUR - 07/08 Giovanni Potage - Epithet Erased VS Kazuichi Souda - Danganronpa Elise - Story of Seasons VS Miu Iruma - Danganronpa Kaede Akamatsu - Danganronpa VS Maribelle - Fire Emblem Awakening Effie - Fire Emblem Fates VS Forrest - Fire Emblem Fates Princess Eilonwy - The Black Cauldron VS Charlotte La Bouff - The Princess and the Frog Saki Tenma - Project Sekai VS Princess Zelda - The Legend of Zelda Hikaru Hoshina - Star Twinkle Pretty Cure! VS Mana Aida - Doki Doki! Pretty Cure Wanda - The Fairly Odd Parents VS Barbie - Barbie Franchise

[khalixvitae]

★Under The Skin ★

Rook Hunt x Reader | ~3k words

Warnings: mentions of death and dying (not descriptive), a smattering of angst but we don’t have time to unpack all that; semi suggestive at points because I cannot seem to help myself; mentions of book 6 but nothing too descriptive! Reader is also implied to know Floyd. Vaguely canon compliant, takes place ambiguously after book 6

Info: I’ve been obsessed w the idea of Rook w an implied goth reader who collects bones and makes bone jewelry. Entirely self indulgent (i am goth and I collect bones and make jewelry Lmao). GN reader, no physical descriptors used other than that the reader wears jewelry.

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Rook Hunt was an odd duck, you’d always known that much for certain. He was hyper observant and yet seemingly unaware of social norms, constantly invading the personal space of those around him. Ever the chatterbox, he’d seamlessly suck any passersby into a whirlwind of a conversation, gleaning whatever information or entertainment he’d sought out before discarding his still confused target with a friendly adieu. He would regularly monologue, lyricize, and wax poetic about even the most mundane of things. Frankly it was difficult not to notice such glaring personality traits- he had a habit of making his eccentricities everyone’s business.

Even so, his outlandish tendencies and flowery language only further obscured what kind of person he was hiding beneath the surface (and beneath that bizarre hat). He was in Pomefiore, after all- and a Vice housewarden no less. It only made sense that his public persona, as bewildering as it may have seemed, was carefully crafted by his dexterous hands. Always guiding the conversation away from himself with a practiced ease, it was obvious he sought to keep any clear image of his character permanently out of focus. He was like a mirage- not quite tangible, his perimeter fuzzy and constructed only of contradictory statements or nearly mythological anecdotes. No matter how hard you tried to get a peek behind the veil, he was always just out of sight. You had always been certain that the trajectory of any arrow fired by those same hands would be far straighter, cleaner, than any conversation you could ever hope to have with the huntsman.

Which is what made your current situation all the more unexpected.

“And this one?” His eyes darted to another one of the many trinkets you’d scattered across your bed. Lithe fingers hesitated over the pendant he’d zeroed in on, an owlish gaze flickering up to meet your own. He wanted permission. How very unlike himself, you thought. Or perhaps it was more like him than he’d ever been in your presence- you had no way of knowing, of course. You pushed the thought away and instead nodded affirmatively. He plucked the necklace from the duvet, its weight remembered by an indentation in the plush down.

“Yeah, I found that amber while digging around on the beach with Ace and Deuce. I’d never seen inclusions like that before. It just needed a little polishing up and it made for a really nice piece. The other stones are tigers eye- I got those online.” He held the petrified resin up to the sunbeams streaming through your bedroom window, nodding affirmatively as you spoke.

“Magnifique! How lucky you are, mon Trickster.” He rolled the stones between his fingers, a musical lilt coloring his speech. “You have quite the collection- a proper Cabinet des Merveilles.”

You shrugged at that, glancing down at the innumerable treasures you’d accumulated. Well, treasures was a subjective title to say the least. Bones or teeth belonging to unknown animals, each fragment you’d found in the woods and painstakingly cleaned to later preserve. Carefully dried flowers from plants you’d never seen prior to your arrival in Twisted Wonderland, as well as some familiar varieties you’d taken comfort in coming across. Sea glass, petrified coral, and iridescent shells you’d collected on trips to the coast with your friends. A shadow box of butterfly specimens found around the school’s botanical gardens, each one you’d mounted with care. Evidence of your time there, proof of your experiences and your memories and your love for a foreign place you’d slowly made home.

When you managed to untangle yourself from your own sentimentality, you realized he was watching you. He was waiting. His vibrant green eyes were too green in the early evening light, shining like pools of opaque, still wet oil paint.

“I’m glad you like them,” you answered simply, your voice far more hoarse than you’d anticipated. The bizarre nature of your situation only hit you further when he shifted his weight, his attention now focused solely on you- as if you were a specimen in your own collection.

All of this because he’d inquired about your earrings in homeroom.

They were simple things, really. Pretty green glass beads strung together with tiny bones you’d unearthed on one of your many hikes. They had belonged to something small, and you were certain the delicate pieces were vertebrae. It was a wonder they were so intact- however despite their relatively pristine condition, you had no idea what creature they’d belonged to.

You figured they’d caught the light just right, or maybe you’d tilted your head just so- it didn’t take much to catch the hunter’s attention, after all. Whatever the case, halfway through the lesson you’d noticed his keen eyes on you. Your recognition did nothing to deter his blatant staring; in fact, he’d waved at you. As strange as it may have been, you didn’t pay it much mind. Rook was odd, sure, but he’d never done anything outright malicious. Well, not towards you. This kind of behavior was well within his usual repertoire and therefore easy enough to ignore.

In much the same way, it wasn’t totally unexpected for him to descend upon you as soon as the bell rang for dismissal. Rook wasn’t an especially large guy, at least not compared to some of your other classmates. He was broad shouldered and sturdily built, sure, but he wasn’t a notable giant like Jack Howl. And yet something about Rook made him loom, an imposing presence despite his cheerful cadence and charismatic smile. He always toed a fine line, giving the impression that he was all over you without ever once making physical contact. Your encounter that day had been no different; he’d spouted off a laundry list of greetings and praises, only half of which you’d managed to catch, before dipping in closer to view your handiwork.

“Oh! Beau savoir-faire! Did you make these yourself, Trickster?” The way he’d honed in on the dangling vertebrae made you keenly aware of how they framed the vulnerable column of your throat; the equivalent to a neon sign for any apex predator, Rook himself included. Feeling ever more exposed, the rest of the conversation passed with a quickness you had grown to expect from the hunter. Before you knew it, you’d invited him to come by Ramshackle so he could view the rest of your collection. After all, it wasn’t often that someone took vested interest in your little hobby. Ace thought it was outright creepy. Shells were fine, and he could almost (almost) give the butterfly thing a pass, but bones were where he drew the line and made a point to tell you so. And tell you he did. Frequently. Deuce was less outright rude about his discomfort- he wasn’t Ace, after all- but the squeamish look on his face was enough to deter you from showing him any unusual specimens.

When you’d arrived home from classes that day, Rook was already on your doorstep. He looked excited, nearly childlike in his enthusiasm. You’d resolved to yourself then that letting him into Ramshackle would do no harm- Rook was strange, yes, but he was only as dangerous as the rest of your peers. He’d never been remotely unkind to you; in fact, he’d been extraordinarily helpful on more than one occasion. Besides, he was already there, patiently waiting for you on your own stoop. Turning him away now would be just plain rude, not to mention he often made pleasant company.

And so there you were, settled across from Rook Hunt of all people. Alone, in your otherwise desolate dorm- the Great Seven only knew where Grim had slinked off to when your guest arrived. Even the ghosts had made themselves scarce since you’d guided Rook to your bedroom. That being several hours prior, you were astonished that not a solitary soul had intruded upon your peace. Normally something or someone would’ve stirred up trouble for you by then, but the dormitory was silent. He was still silently observing you, and that exposed feeling from earlier in the day seeped back into your bones.

“The ones you’re wearing. May I look at them again? The lighting here is much better, no?” As always he sounded so sublimely agreeable, and it would’ve felt even more revealing to tell him no. Not that you wanted to tell him no, necessarily. If anything, you didn’t mind the thought of him getting closer. That was a damning thought you forced down immediately as you gave him the go ahead. He removed his hat and placed it somewhere beside him- you didn’t keep track of where, far too focused on his reasoning for doing so. He leaned in closer, so close in fact that the brim of his trademark accessory would’ve prevented him from achieving the proximity.

“Snake vertebrae,” he murmured, as if identifying them didn’t take a moment’s thought. “And my, how wonderfully preserved! You’re quite talented, mon Trickster.” His breath grazed your cheek as he spoke, words ringing impossibly close to your ear. The sudden thought that he smelled nice passed over you, only serving to grow your list of absolutely damning thoughts about Rook Hunt. The subsequent realization that there was a list to begin with would have made your blood run cold had the heat of your embarrassment not warmed you down to your bones.

You briefly recalled one of Floyd Leech’s many complaints he’d voiced to you on your living room floor. He’d dropped in uninvited, if memory served you right, but you’d digress for the moment. You weren’t sure of the full context- you didn’t make point to pay that much attention when Floyd was in one of his moods- but what you did remember was a rather innocuous detail he’d given you about the hunter sitting on your bed. That he only wore perfumes when he wanted to be noticed. Of course Floyd’s delivery had been much more coarse and insulting, but nonetheless. And the herbal, nearly floral scent you’d caught was definitely cosmetic, you were sure of that. So he wanted to be noticed by you, then? Another idea to add to your ever growing list.

The soft shuffling of leather brought your senses back into sharp focus. He’d removed one of his gloves, brandishing his bare hand in your line of sight. “May I?”

You nodded silently, watching it for as long as you could. A gentle tug on your earring let you know he was turning the charms around, looking it over carefully with those unnerving eyes of his. Wheatgrass strands of his cropped hair tickled your skin, but you held as still as one of the courtyard statues.

When he finally sat back he looked more than pleased. “Your finds are most impressive,” he chittered, tapping his bare fingers against his gloved ones. You watched them for a moment, taking note of the practiced calluses on each exposed fingertip- marks of his upbringing that even Vil’s carefully coordinated skincare routines couldn’t fully erase.

“But why do you collect them?”

The question wasn’t entirely unexpected- it was quite common for people to be curious about what motivated such a strange hobby. What was unexpected though was the glint in his eye. Something hopeful and genuine brewed behind his placid expression, something you couldn’t quite place but intended to figure out.

“Because they’re beautiful,” you replied, far surer and more steadfast than you’d been moments before.

“Even though they’re dead?” He raised a manicured eyebrow at you expectantly, the shine of his eyes catching the sun’s last bright rays.

“Of course. I mean why wouldn’t they be? It’s not like death itself is innately ugly. And dead things aren’t either.” It was your turn to lean forward, soaking up his expression that wasn’t all that unlike surprise.

A quiet laugh bubbled up past his lips. “So you do not fear death, then?”

You shook your head, matching the soft smile he offered you in exchange for your thoughts. “Death, no. Dying? Absolutely. Dying has a sensation- well, probably, its not like I’ve done it before- and that’s what I’m afraid of. What it feels like. I’m way more impartial when it comes to death itself. Mostly because it’s also impartial. It just is. It’s not malicious, or calculating. It’s just there.”

You brushed a hand over your trinkets, choosing your next words carefully. “I guess the only scary part about death is that when you’re dead, you run the risk of being forgotten. I mean, that’s why stuff like ruins and run down cemeteries are a thing. It’s not that those things don’t matter anymore because they’re dead, but because they’ve been forgotten about. Bones are a lot like that. Just because they aren’t up and moving anymore doesn’t mean they just cease to exist. The thought of dead things being forgotten about… bothers me? I guess? Especially when they’re beautiful things. Because all beautiful things were loved at some point, even in passing.” Perhaps this was all getting a little too introspective. Part of you wondered if you were a forgotten thing back in your own world; what had your loved ones done? Sometimes you felt like a dead thing with no body, no grave for them to visit. Something that had truly ceased to exist outside the memory of those around you. You worried you were revealing far too much, however his wide eyes and parted lips were all the encouragement you’d needed to continue forward.

“So I like to find them and clean them up. Yeah they’re inanimate now, but they deserve to be remembered and loved, even if they’ve changed. And I do love them. They’re special to me, just like the times and places I found them.”

Rook was wound taut like a bowstring, his posture rigid and features affixed in an expression of unmistakable awe. And there he was. Suddenly his usual shifting demeanor was frozen in time. The smoke and mirrors he usually deployed were no longer in effect, and you were absolutely sure that you were getting an honest look at him. Staring at him like that, you could recall a few instances where you’d seen him in momentary clarity. When he’d jump to protect his juniors, or when he nearly took off alone during the STYX debacle, and when something would catch him so off guard he’d throw his head back in unpracticed laughter. This was that Rook. The prolonged sight made it hard to breathe.

The final fiery glows of the setting sun illuminated him, now uninterrupted by the wide brim of his hat that still lay discarded on your bed. In the warm evening light you could faintly see the ghosts of freckles along his high cheekbones and the bridge of his nose, faded but still a part of him. His soft woodsy perfumes, the bare hand laid flat against your duvet and the hopeful way he stared at you, as if begging you to accept some sort of invitation you’d never consciously received.

For the first time you could recall, he looked weak.

And just as quickly, he began to slip away. His long lashes fluttered and he forced a quiet laugh- he was beginning to recompose his facade piece by piece. He went to work slipping on his missing glove, beginning one of his typical monologues- he was running. Whatever silent offer he’d given you, you’d sorely missed your chance. If you didn’t think of something, anything to stop him, you were sure this wouldn’t happen again. “Magnifique! Another devoted to the pursuit of love, much like myself! How dreadful it is that the evening is drawing to a close-“

“You’re so beautiful.”

Whatever door he’d tried to close was promptly blown off its hinges. There was a heavy silence that settled over the two of you as his already wide eyes grew to the size of saucers. The sun had fully dipped below the horizon, and now the fluorescent street lamp by your window illuminated his visage in new shades of blue.

“Excusez-moi?” His honey colored lashes fluttered as he once again met your gaze. You may as well have punched him in the gut.

“I said you’re beautiful, Rook.” By lightly nudging his hand away from his hat you only further disarmed him. Something in his posture went lax; the bowstring had finally snapped, leaving him boneless, powerless beneath your intense gaze. He looked relieved. Being so exposed was exhausting, yet set a visible shiver down his spine.

All at once you placed that glint in his eyes from before, his silent request coming into vivid focus. An aching desire to be a part of your larger collection- something to be coveted, something to be loved regardless of form. You supposed one devoted to the pursuit of love would crave it the most. Had that been what this was from the start? His benevolent assistance, his endless compliments, his unwavering attention? You’d written it off as his usual eccentricities, but had he been subtly peacocking this whole time? The way he allowed you to ever so gently remove both gloves and press your skin against his gave you all the confirmation you needed. When you trailed your fingertips along his forearms before encircling his wrists, he all but pushed them into your grip. There was something else in his verdant gaze, something that told you he’d ask you to maim him and enthusiastically thank you after the fact. Not that you’d ever want to harm him at all; no, seeing him in such a state gave you an abrupt and thorough understanding of his desire to protect all things beautiful.

However, Rook would, in fact, leave shortly after. Your time had drawn to a close, and he did have duties to tend to at his own dormitory. Part of you worried he wouldn’t come back- that the moment of weakness the huntsman shared would be regretted as soon as he slipped away.

How foolish of you.

A few days afterward on your way to class, you noticed something glinting in the morning light. An arrow, cleanly wedged into the clapboard by your front door. A little bag of trinkets had been secured to it, along with a note.

“Pour le Cabinet des Merveilles de mon amour” - R.

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Tag list for those of y’all who were on the same wavelength over the last few days! Feel free to DM to be added! A Vil fic is probably gonna be next bc I have Pomefiore brainworms alsjdkdj (and dm if you wish to be removed ofc! <3)

@v-anrouge @vtoriacore @phoneymedic @gum-gum-time

[head-vampire]

Space Ace (1983) model sheet

Art by Don Bluth

Source

[lesbianalanwake]

Did some Pathfinder builds for Remedy characters, which I've done before, but there's been a PF2e remaster and I wanted to do it for Saga too, so.... Saga as a psychic, Alan as an oracle, and Jesse as a summoner, up to level 5.

Saga Anderson, Psychic 5

Ancestry: Human, Heritage: Aphorite Aphorites were first forged by axiomites, the primary inhabitants of the Eternal City of Axis, the plane of pure law. The original aphorites served as liaisons between their lawful progenitors and frustratingly unpredictable mortal allies. Marrying the logical thought processes of conformity to law and the gift of self-determination, early aphorites spread across the Material Plane to serve as Axis's proxies and enact its will. Over time, their appearances and personalities grew to resemble their mortal comrades as they were increasingly born among mortals. Aphorites still exhibit Axis's touch in their metallic skin coated in crystalline dust, aptitude for logic, strength in artisanship, and propensity for order and cooperation. But despite these links to their purpose-built origins, contemporary aphorites are undoubtedly their own masters. Background: Detective You solved crimes as a police inspector or took jobs for wealthy clients as a private investigator. You might have become an adventurer as part of your next big mystery, but likely it was due to the consequences or aftermath of a prior case.

Attributes: Strength +1, Dexterity +2, Constitution +1, Intelligence +3, Wisdom +2, Charisma +4 Perception: +9; Low-Light Vision, Darkvision Skills: Acrobatics +9, Athletics +8, Deception +11, Diplomacy +11, Intimidation +11, Lore: Underworld +12, Medicine +9, Nature +9, Occultism +10, Society +10, Survival +9

AC: 19 (Unarmored); Fortitude: +8, Reflex: +11, Will: +11 HP: 43; Resistances: Mental 2 Speed: 25 ft. Ranged Weapon: Jezail, Air Repeater, Crossbow

Class: Psychic The mind can perceive truths hidden to fine-tuned instruments, house more secrets than any tome, and move objects and hearts more deftly than any lever. By delving into both the conscious and subconscious aspects of your inner self, you have awoken to the might of psychic magic, allowing you to cast spells not through incantations or gestures but by the power of your will alone. While the thin line between your mind and reality means that a single errant thought could have unintended consequences for yourself and your companions, you know that anything is possible, if you can imagine it. Conscious Mind: The Infinite Eye Conscious Mind Spells: Sure Strike, Augury, Organsight Psi Cantrips: Detect Magic, Guidance, Glimpse Weakness The true strength of the mind lies in the knowledge it contains, with each new observation contributing to the totality of its experiences. To grow your experiences—and with them, your power—you devote yourself to observing as much as possible, casting your senses through space and time with clairvoyance and precognition. Subconscious Mind: Emotional Acceptance Psyche Actions: Restore The Mind The mind's truths come not in learned words or mathematical formulas but in deeper feelings and sensations. Emotions unlock the door to your power—you might consider your heart the source of your strength, or you might find that the infinite complexity felt in a moment expresses your power more efficiently than any string of mystic words ever could. Your thought components are emotions. You might summon the sense of freedom to buoy you through the air or let fear grip your heart even as you plant it in another's mind. Emotion components tend to impart abstract or vivid effects to your visual and auditory spell manifestations as well as more intangible flashes of emotion, such as swirls of joyous color or a sense of growing melancholy.

Other Psychic Features Clarity of Focus, Precognitive Reflexes, Signature Spells, Unleash Psyche, Counter Thought, Mental Buffer

Occult Spells 3rd: Hypercognition 2nd: Clear Mind, Umbral Mindtheft 1st: Object Reading, Runic Weapon Cantrips: Infectious Enthusiasm, Read The Air, Wash Your Luck

Aphorite Feats: Lemma of Vision, Internal Cohesion General Feats: Weapon Proficiency Skill Feats: Cognitive Crossover, Eyes of the City, Streetwise

---

Alan Wake, Oracle 5

Ancestry: Human, Heritage: Versatile Background: Artist Your art is your greatest passion, whatever form it takes. Adventuring might help you find inspiration, or simply be a way to survive until you become a world-famous artist.

Attributes: Strength +1, Dexterity +1, Constitution +2, Intelligence +3, Wisdom +2, Charisma +4 Perception: +9; Low-Light Vision Skills: Acrobatics +1, Arcana +10, Athletics +1, Crafting +12, Intimidation +11, Lore: Art +10, Nature +9, Occultism +12, Religion +9, Society +10, Stealth +8, Survival +9

AC: 18 (Unarmored); Fortitude: +9, Reflex: +8, Will: +11 HP: 58; Resistances: Physical 4 Speed: 25 ft. Ranged Weapon: Dragon Mouth Pistol, Double-Barreled Musket Melee Weapon: Stiletto Pen

Class: Oracle Your conduit to divine power eschews the traditional channels of prayer and servitude—you instead glean divine truths that extend beyond any single deity. You understand the great mysteries of the universe embodied in overarching concepts that transcend good and evil or chaos and law, whether because you perceive the common ground across multiple deities or circumvent their power entirely. You explore one of these mysteries and draw upon its power to cast miraculous spells, but that power comes with a terrible price: a curse that grows stronger the more you draw upon it. Your abilities are a double-edged sword, which you might uphold as an instrument of the divine or view as a curse from the gods. Mystery: Cosmos Celestial bodies great and small exert influence on you, giving you sublime cosmic power. Perhaps you see the glittering stars as a divine blessing, or perhaps you feel drawn to the infinitely dark spaces between. You might uphold deities like Desna, Sarenrae, or the deific lovers Shizuru and Tsukiyo who represent the sun and the moon—or you might draw power from dark entities from beyond the stars, like certain Outer Gods, or destructive gods of the night like Zon-Kuthon or the rat goddess Lao Shu Po. Mystery Benefit: Your body is as much an astronomical one as it is physical. You gain resistance equal to 2 + half your level against all physical damage. Mystery Cantrip: Dancing Lights; Revelation Spell: Spray of Stars Mystery Domain: Darkness; Domain Spell: Cloak of Shadow

Oracular Curse: Curse of the Sky's Call You have your head in the clouds—and not just figuratively. Your body is drawn toward the heavens, making you lighter and less substantial than you should be. Your eyes glow with starry light, and your hair and clothing float and drift around you. Minor Curse: Your unnatural lightness makes it hard to keep your footing and interact with other physical objects. You are enfeebled 1 and take a –2 penalty to saves and DCs against Grapple, Shove, and other forms of forced movement. Moderate Curse: Your body is drawn further skyward. You are enfeebled 2, and the penalty from your minor curse increases to –3. You are treated as one size smaller for wind effects. You gain a +2 status bonus against Trip attempts, you only take half as much damage from falls, and you gain the effects of the Powerful Leap and Quick Jump skill feats. You weigh only half as much, and your Bulk, should someone need to carry you, is also half as much. Major Curse: As your body rises, you float just above the ground beneath you. You become enfeebled 4, and the penalty from your minor curse increases to –4. You can walk on liquids as if they were solid; you gain the effects of the Cloud Jump skill feat; and you don't leave tracks, trigger weight-sensitive pressure plates, or otherwise connect with the ground below you.

Other Oracle Features Domain Acumen (Additional Domain: Moon, Domain Spell: Moonbeam), Glean Lore, Revelation Spells, Signature Spells

Divine Spells 3rd: Holy Light, Scrying Ripples 2nd: Radiant Field, Fear the Sun 1st: Breadcrumbs, Command, Bane Cantrips: Illuminate, Light, Message, Void Warp, Divine Lance

Human Feats: Gloomseer, Haughty Obstinacy General Feats: Fast Recovery, Weapon Proficiency Skill Feats: Arcane Sense, Magical Crafting, Specialty Crafting

---

Jesse Faden, Summoner 5

Ancestry: Human, Heritage: Versatile Background: Otherworldly Mission You're called to serve a specific purpose—your deity told you so, and so it must be true. Maybe you grew up knowing all along, or maybe it came to you one day in a vision, clear as a bell and twice as loud. You have some task that only you can accomplish. You mission might be as dangerous as killing a deadly tyrant or as simple as opening a particular door on a particular day. Once per adventure, you can ask the voice you believe to be a deity for orders and get some kind of instruction—you never get any kind of explanation, simply a command to go somewhere or do something. Following those commands isn't always safe, but it's usually interesting.

Attributes: Strength +1, Dexterity +3, Constitution +1, Intelligence +2, Wisdom +2, Charisma +4 Perception: +11 (+2 initiative) Skills: Acrobatics +10, Arcana +9, Athletics +8, Crafting +9, Intimidation +11, Occultism +11, Religion +9, Society +9, Stealth +10, Survival +9

AC: 20 (Unarmored); Fortitude: +10, Reflex: +10, Will: +11 HP: 63; Speed: 30 ft. Ranged Weapon: Pepperbox

Class: Summoner You can magically beckon a powerful being called an eidolon to your side, serving as the mortal conduit that anchors it to the world. Whether your eidolon is a friend, a servant, or even a personal god, your connection to it marks you as extraordinary, shaping the course of your life dramatically. Focus Spells: Boost Eidolon, Evolution Surge Eidolon Type: Construct; Tradition: Arcane, Home Plane: Astral Plane Evolution Feat: Energy Heart; Energy Type: Sonic Your eidolon is a mental construct based on an astral thoughtform and given physical presence and life by its connection to you, its shape limited only by your imagination. Your eidolon's appearance and physical form vary based on your shared vision for its construction, from clockworks to stuffed dolls and everything between, and it's not uncommon for that appearance to change greatly as your construct gains evolutions. Because it arises from an astral entity, your construct is no mindless servitor, but a fully thinking being with its own ideas, goals, and even emotions. These entities are extremely diverse; while many construct eidolons come from a powerful symbiotic connection with astral denizens, just as many arise from the forgotten memories of ancient empires and craftworks drifting across the Silver Sea of the Astral Plane.

Other Summoner Features Act Together, Link Spells, Manifest Eidolon, Share Senses, Shared Vigilance, Unlimited Signature Spells, Meld Into Eidolon, Defend Summoner

Arcane Spells 3rd: Levitate, Haste 2nd: Telekinetic Maneuver, Dancing Shield, Fleet Step (Heightened +1) Cantrips: Telekinetic Projectile, Phase Bolt, Read Aura, Warp Step, Telekinetic Hand

Human Feats: Clever Improviser, General Training General Feats: Fleet, Incredible Initiative, Untrained Improvisation, Weapon Proficiency Skill Feats: Skill Training (Athletics), Streetwise

---

I didn't do archetypes or multiclasses to keep it simple, but in the absence of 2e mythic adventures and origins (though they will be arriving soon), and since these babies are Very Special, I'd probably use it as a limited secondary leveling-up system with a bit more power (instead of archetype feats replacing class feats or alternating classes one level at at time).

Example:

If I did a multiclass for Saga, it would be Interrogation Investigator, and probably the Psychic Duelist archetype. Also, godlings are from 1e, but if the shoe fits....

If I did a multiclass for Alan, it would be Enigma Bard (less "people person" charisma and more "force of personality" charisma), and maybe with the Shadowdancer archetype as well (less "you choose the shadows" and more "the shadows choose you"). Or maybe even the Curse Maelstrom archetype...

If I did a multiclass for Jesse, it would be Spellshot Gunslinger, and then the Pactbinder or Living Vessel archetype (or both!) for sure.

Also: I need to finish QB for real before I do Jack, but I think he'd be another Oracle, for the Time Mystery, and Chronoskimmer or Time Mage for an archetype. Which means it's Oops All Charisma Classes so far.

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders #329: Sakamoto Ryouma (Lancer)

today on Grailfinders we’re building the best argument for a completely superfluous Grailfinders episode, Sakamoto Ryouma (Lancer)! it’s Sakamoto, but again! in-game it’s a stronger version of the original, but here we take all the builds to level twenty regardless of their rarity. what I could do to differentiate this build from the first stumped me for a while, but I think I’ve hit on something.

Ryouma’s still an Echo Knight Fighter to summon his wife as a bonus action, but now instead of a monk and a rogue, he’s a Lore Bard to learn some buffing spells for oryou’s super-saiyan mode.

check out their build breakdown below the cut, or their character sheet over here!

next up: you better watch out, you better watch out, you better watch out! you better watch out!

Ancestry & Background

I won’t bore you too much here, it’s exactly the same as before (except for one thing). Variant Human, so that’s +1 Wisdom and Charisma, Stealth proficiency, and instead of that UA feat we’re getting Magic Initiate for some Druid spells. Primal Savagery is how oryou will be attacking most of the time now, using her acidic claws instead of your piddly strength score. you also embrace modern technology like weather stations with Druidcraft, and Oryou can keep you safe thanks to her Protection from Evil and Good. Ryouma’s still a Soldier though, so that’s some History and Intimidation proficiency for you.

Ability Scores

this one’s 100% the same. highest to lowest- Charisma, Dexterity, Wisdom, Intelligence, Constitution, Strength. I would love to be able to stat up oryou this time around, but sadly Ryouma’s still the main servant.

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: this Ryouma’s a bit more martial since he’s a knight class, so he’s starting off as a Fighter. this means his starting proficiencies are completely different, getting proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, as well as Insight to see through political bullshit and Animal Handling to stretch the definition of “animal” to its breaking point. and “handling”, for that matter.

also, starting as a fighter gets us oryou’s Fighting Style earlier, so pick up Unarmed Fighting, just in case those claws don’t work out. if you’d rather grab something for Ryouma, I’d just go with Two-weapon Fighting and reflavor a rapier as a light spear, with a shortsword in his off-hand.

you also get a Second Wind once a short rest, giving you back some HP as a bonus action thanks to the power of oryou’s healing spit. …she does really have healing spit, right? I didn’t just hallucinate that while forcing my way through the event?

2. Fighter 2: second level fighters can make an Action Surge once a short rest, adding an action to your turn so you can fight like there’s two of you. because there is.

3. Fighter 3: as a third level fighter you become an Echo Knight, letting you Manifest Echo as a bonus action. now oryou can float around in her own space without using your action to move, as long as she’s within 30’ of you whenever your turn ends. it has a good AC but only one HP, so expect to spend your bonus action bringing oryou back a lot. while she’s out you can swap places as a bonus action, and you can attack and make attacks of opportunity from her space. primal savagery doesn’t count as an attack for this, so I guess oryou’s relying on her fists when she’s not hanging around you. that’s disappointing, but we’ll find a way to make her awesome later on.

also, you can Unleash Incarnation once a day to make an extra attack from the echo’s position. if you want to let oryou use a dex weapon, I won’t tell anyone, promise.

4. Bard 1: bouncing over to bard gives you proficiency in Persuasion, as well as the ability to cast Spells using your Charisma. you can also give Bardic Inspiration to your allies Charisma Modifier times per day, letting them add a d6 to any one attack roll, save, or check they make in the minute after you hand it over.

to be more specific about spells, you have Blade Ward to be protected by oryou physically with resistance to weapon damage, and Mage Hand to have her carry random stuff around, for your cantrips. you also get spells like Distort Value to be a smooth-talking bastard that can convince a whole town to sell him their rice supply, Heroism to make everyone else more ardent supporters of restoration, Feather Fall so oryou can save your frail ass from falling, and Thunderwave so she can punch people so hard they go flying.

5. Bard 2: second level bards are Jacks of All Trades, so now you’re at least half-proficient in every skill. you also have a Song of Rest, so you can add more health to your party over short rests. your gf with one hit point will be grateful.

you can also use Unseen Servant now; in case you need to send oryou off on some errands. a vastly, vastly weaker version of oryou, but an oryou none the less.

6. Bard 3: third level bards can learn up on some Lore, giving you an extra three proficiencies, like in Deception, Arcana, and Athletics. this is still Ryouma after all, did you think I’d forget deception? this is also the level you get Expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency bonus in Insight and Persuasion.

you also get second level spells like Gift of Gab. Ryouma’s good with words, but you probably aren’t. at least, not as good as he is. with this spell you can undo any unfortunate wordings and rewrite your last six seconds of dialogue.

when you want painful dialogue, you can use Cutting Words to spend inspiration on weakening a creature’s attack, check, or damage roll. if your wife only has 1 HP, she’ll need some protecting too. only a little.

7. Bard 4: fourth level bards finally get an Ability Score Improvement, so you can bump up your Dexterity for better spearing an better dodging.

you also learn the Friends cantrip to force your way into conversations, and the Aid spell for our first taste of healing. is giving your echo an extra 5 HP a good use of a spell? god no. could it be cool? maybe! at least you can also give that buff to a couple other friends at the same time.

8. Bard 5: at fifth level you are a Font of Inspiration, so your inspiration dice refill on short rests as well as long ones. they’re also d8s now, so they’re more effective over-all. on top of that, you get third level spells like Mass Healing Word to top off the whole party in one go.

9. Bard 6: sixth level bards get Countercharm, but that’s pretty much useless, we’re here for Additional Magical Secrets, a feat that I will never get tired of pointing out comes before the first magical secrets. basically, you get two extra spells, and they can be from any spell list. use Tidal Wave to send a little splashback at your enemies, and Primal Savagery again to use charisma instead of wisdom. it’s still tied to just you, but now we’re using your good casting modifier.

for his normal spell Sakamoto gets Motivational Speech, a slightly more offense-based heroism, because by this point Acquisitions Incorporated might as well be bankrolling this build.

10. Bard 7: seventh level bards get fourth level spells, and now oryou can finally set off completely on her own with the help of the spells Phantasmal Killer.  every turn the target has to make a wisdom save or they’ll take psychic damage. real simple, but real effective.

11. Bard 8: use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for stronger spells and more inspiration, and now you can Charm Monsters. I mean, you already charmed one!

12. Bard 9: ninth level bards have a better song of rest, and you can also use fifth level spells like Scrying. literally just. send oryou off to spy on people.

13. Bard 10: tenth level bards have d10s for inspiration, plus another round of Expertise! now you’ve got better animal handling and deception. you also get Thunderclap for a free oryou punch, and another round of Magical Secrets!

now you can Summon Draconic Spirit for a full oryou summoning with much more than 1 HP. they get a bunch of resistances, and she even shares one of them with you! on top of that even at the lowest level you can cast it at, oryou will be able to make three attacks each turn! if you just want uppies, you can use Freedom of the Winds to get a piggyback ride from oryou, giving you a flight speed, as well as advantage against being grappled, restrained, or paralyzed. oryou can also yeet you away from an incoming attack or spell, and if you land outside of its range, you take no damage. of course, this also means your ride is over.

14. Bard 11: remember how I mentioned Ryouma conned a whole town out of their food? now it’s time to use it. Heroes’ Feast gives everyone who partakes a panacea against disease and poison, immunity to poison and being frightened, advantage on wisdom saves, and increased HP, all for 24 hours. this is the benefit of being a 5 star.

15. Bard 12: use your last bardic ASI to receive the Gift of the Metallic Dragon. with this, you can cast Cure Wounds once a day for free or by spending spell slots, and oryou can shield you or your allies as a reaction, adding your proficiency bonus to their AC, and you can do that proficiency times a day.

16. Bard 13: thirteenth level bards get seventh level spells like Etherealness. for up to eight hours you can travel around the ethereal plane without having to worry about anything on the material plane, creatures or objects. this seems out of place for Ryouma, but tbf literally every servant should have this spell.

17. Bard 14: at level fourteen your Peerless Skills lets you add inspiration dice to any ability check you make. you’re two people, you should roll like two people. well, one and a half. you both have your weaknesses and it evens out.

you also get one last round of Magical Secrets, turning yourself into oryou in one of two ways! if you want raw power, Tenser’s Transformation gives you plenty of extra health and stronger attacks, but if you want a more thematic transformation, there’s always Draconic Transformation, giving you blindsight, a breath weapon, and wings.

18. Fighter 4: going back to fighter gets you yet another ASI, so bump up your Dexterity for more lancing.

19. Fighter 5: fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack each attack action, that’s two per turn, four with action surge, and up to five with unleash incarnation. sorry it took so long to get this, I just felt the dragon stuff was higher priority.

20. Fighter 6: fighters are awesome, so we get to end this build with another ASI! this time we’re getting the Gift of the Chromatic Dragon, allowing you to add elemental damage to your weapon for up to a minute, and you can react to gain resistance to one instance of elemental damage proficiency times a day. now oryou protects you from everything!

Pros & Cons

Pros:

you have a lot of Protection, so actually getting a solid hit in on you is tough. you have a pretty good AC, plus many, many ways to increase your AC or your save or reduce incoming damage.

you’re also great outside of combat, with tons of expertise in social skills, high charisma, and a way to add even more dice to your skill checks. you will definitely be the face of the party. either you or oryou, at least.

I know I bring this up every time, but flying is awesome. it nullifies most enemies, and it’s just a really cool way to get around.

Cons:

you need all that protection because you’re a politician, not a fighter. you have barely over 100 HP, so a sneeze will put you into power word kill range.

echo knight is super fun, but this time it’s hard to use in combat for us, since oryou’s in-character options for hitting anything are “attack with a -1 to hit” or “hope the DM is kind enough to bend the rules for you.” without a good way to deal damage, the echo knight stuff is just an easily popped balloon.

our biggest goals don’t happen until late game, so for most of the campaign your build will be more awkward than anything else.

[pathfinderunlocked]

Assassin Rabbit - CR4 Slayer / Assassin

Weep long into the night, staring deep into the full moon and starry sky. For everyone you know is dead. You killed every last one of them.

Artwork is official art from Rabbit and Steel, by Mino_Dev on Twitter.

Rabbit and Steel bunny-girl number four. Turns out that being an anthropomorphic animal instead of a human isn't totally useless. The extra racial hit die lets this creature qualify for the assassin prestige class a level earlier than a PC could.

Being a tiny creature, she's incredibly good at stealth, so if you use all five of these bunny girls in a single combat encounter, the PCs might think the combat only has four bunny girls instead of five until round 4 when she emerges and uses death attack on one of them. Given the lighthearted nature of a fight against tiny bunny-girls, and the general bullshit nature of assassins as enemies, you should probably make the death attack inflict paralysis instead of death.

She can't really make melee attacks most of the time, being tiny, so she almost exclusively throws kunai from short range. Being tiny, it's relatively simple for her to find cover for the purposes of stealth, and flanking doesn't work on thrown weapons, so after each attack she usually spends her next turn hiding and drawing more weapons as part of her move action. Alternately, if she has a hiding spot close enough to throw weapons from, she might try sniping; her stealth bonus is good enough for it.

The potions of vanish are an alternate option for her to use after running away from enemies, which her Tactician ability makes her very good at. They're mostly useful for fights in larger open areas.

Assassin Rabbit - CR 4

The tiny woman with rabbit features - barely a foot and a half tall - holds a rose close to her chest. She hops through the grass on bare feet at a quick pace.

XP 1,200 Anthropomorphic animal (rabbit), vanguard slayer 4 / assassin 1 NE Tiny animal Init +7 Senses low-light vision; Perception +4

DEFENSE

AC 20, touch 17, flat-footed 15 (+3 armor, +5 Dex, +2 size) hp 31 (2d8+4d10) Fort +6, Ref +12, Will +1

OFFENSE

Speed 50 ft. Melee Hidden Rose +6 (1d3-1/19-20 plus diplopic serum) or kunai +5 (1d2-1/19-20 plus gelidburn oil) Ranged Hidden Rose +12 (1d3-1/19-20 plus diplopic serum) (10-ft range increment) or kunai +11 (1d2-1/19-20 plus gelidburn oil) (10-ft range increment) Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft. Special Attacks sneak attack 2d6

STATISTICS

Str 8, Dex 20, Con 11, Int 5, Wis 10, Cha 5 Base Atk +4; CMB +1; CMD 16 Feats Escape Route, Run, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot Skills Acrobatics +11 (+19 to jump), Disable Device +8, Disguise +2, Perception +4, Sleight of Hand +10, Stealth +22 Languages Common SQ lookout, poison use, tactician Gear Tiny mwk spider-silk bodysuit, Tiny kunai x8 (each poisoned with gelidburn oil), Hidden Rose (poisoned with diplopic serum), potion of vanish (x3)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Death Attack (Ex) If an assassin rabbit studies her victim for 3 rounds and then makes a sneak attack with a melee weapon that successfully deals damage, the sneak attack has the additional effect of possibly either paralyzing or killing the target (assassin rabbit's choice). Studying the victim is a standard action. The death attack fails if the target detects the assassin rabbit or recognizes the assassin rabbit as an enemy (although the attack might still be a sneak attack if the target is denied his Dexterity bonus to his Armor Class or is flanked).

The target of a death attack must make a Fortitude save (typically DC 8). The save DC is Intelligence-based. If the victim of such a death attack fails the saving throw against the kill effect, it dies. If the saving throw fails against the paralysis effect, the victim is rendered helpless and unable to act for 1d6+1 rounds. If the victim's saving throw succeeds, the attack is just a normal sneak attack. Once the assassin rabbit has completed the 3 rounds of study, she must make the death attack within the next 3 rounds.

If a death attack is attempted and fails (the victim makes her save) or if the assassin rabbit does not launch the attack within 3 rounds of completing the study, 3 new rounds of study are required before she can attempt another death attack.

Studied Target (Ex) An assassin rabbit can study an opponent she can see as a move action. The assassin rabbit then gains a +1 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks attempted against that opponent, and a +1 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against it. An assassin rabbit can only maintain these bonuses against one opponent at a time; these bonuses remain in effect until either the opponent is dead or the assassin rabbit studies a new target.

If an assassin rabbit deals sneak attack damage to a target, she can study that target as an immediate action, allowing her to apply her studied target bonuses against that target (including to the normal weapon damage roll).

Tactician (Ex) Once per day as a standard action, an assassin rabbit can grant the Escape Route teamwork feat to all allies within 30 feet who can see and hear her, even if the ally doesn't meet the feat's prerequisites. This feat allows allies to move through threatened squares without provoking attacks of opportunity as long as they are within or adjacent to each others' spaces. Allies retain the use of this bonus feat for 5 rounds.

[the-griffons-saddlebag]

🛡 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺! Blowfish Armor
Armor (padded), uncommon ___ This padded armor is adorned with spiked, leathery shoulder guards. At the center of each patch of armor is a darkened spot, which feels slightly firmer than the rest of the armor. While wearing this armor, you can use an action to magically inflate and transform into a padded, 10-foot-diameter sphere. You remain in this form for 10 minutes or until you end the effect (no action required). Your body and other equipment are engulfed by the sphere for the duration. You can’t see what occurs outside the sphere, and any Wisdom (Perception) checks you make to hear sounds outside it are made with disadvantage. You can speak, but your voice is muffled by the padded sphere. Your speed is reduced to 0, although another creature can carefully push the sphere to roll it; doing so requires the creature to spend 2 feet of movement for every 1 foot it moves while rolling the sphere. While inflated in this way, spikes extrude from the sphere. Any creature within 5 feet of the sphere that hits it with a melee attack or grapples it takes 1d6 piercing damage from the spikes. The sphere has 15 hit points, AC 10, resistance to all damage (except for piercing and slashing), and immunity to bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage. When the sphere is reduced to 0 hit points, it deflates, and you return to your normal form. Any damage dealt to the sphere is not carried over to you. This property of the armor can't be used again until the next dawn. Any creature within 5 feet of you when you transform must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or take 3d6 piercing damage from the sudden spikes. Regardless, any creature within the sphere's new space is pushed into the nearest unoccupied one. If there isn't enough room for the transformation, the sphere attains the maximum possible size in the space available. If you transform into the sphere while underwater, you immediately rise 60 feet toward the surface. While you remain transformed, you rise 60 feet toward the surface again at the start of each of your turns. ___ ✨ Patrons get huge perks! Access this and hundreds of other item cards, art files, and compendium entries when you support The Griffon's Saddlebag on Patreon for less than $10 a month!