#theshapeshifter100

[rogue-of-broken-time]

Spill the DnD characters, Rogue! (I'll be in bed when you answer most likely, but still!)

I have a lot of them, so I'll share the one that's taking up most of my brainspace right now:

*cracks knuckles*

Mini the Autognome

(pronouns they/them)

Mini is an autognome bard! For anyone who doesn't know what an autognome is, it's a bit like a warforged, but they're small and were actually created by rock gnome tinkerers (the official publication of the race for D&D 5e came with the Spelljammer: Adventures in Space set). In modern-day terms, they're essentially a robotic construct. As such, Mini doesn't actually play an "instrument" in the typical sense– they have an internal music box they use to play their magical tunes!

As I play them now, Mini (which was originally short for "Minstrel") is a happy-go-lucky little bot with a lot of love to share and a deep misunderstanding of how the world actually works. To them, everyone should just get along and be happy, and they genuinely don't understand why anyone would prevent that from happening. And with their limited comprehension of the way the world works, you'd probably wonder how they came to be in the first place, right? Surely their creator must've been just as cheerful, right?

The truth is that the people who invented Mini in the first place had much darker intentions (or at least, one of them did).

Mini's story begins with two rock gnomes: Alston Silverthread (artificer) and Callen Dazzledark (wizard).

The two of them, back in their younger days, came up with an idea:

What if there existed technology that could make someone immortal?

It was a wild concept to them, just wild enough to grab them both and put their heads together. Alston, master tinkerer, got to work on schematics and functionality, while Callen, secretive necromancer, researched tirelessly to see if such magic would even be possible.

Together, they came up with a name for their little project: the Metallurgic Immortality Network Services To Realistically Extend Lifespans, which they later gave the nickname "Project MINSTREL".

The first invention under Project MINSTREL was the Metallurgic Immortality Network Interface, an automaton-like device that was designed for one purpose and one purpose only: healing. Whatever your ailment, whatever your injury– whether it was a common cold, a wound on your body, or even just the frailty of old age– this thing could fix you with its magic. And if you kept using it, it could literally keep you alive for longer than your race's typical lifespan, essentially making you immortal until a time of your choosing.

This would've been considered nothing short of miraculous technology, if Alston and Callen hadn't had to keep it a secret. Where they lived, most magical practice was frowned upon at best, so any hint that they were making such innovations beyond the eyes of the law would risk everything for them.

At the beginning, Alston was more than happy to play guinea-pig to his newest creation, the prototype MINI. He had to be sure that the technology worked, after all– and for a time, that's exactly what he did (all the time he'd spend testing on himself effectively extended his life by a good handful of years in gnome standards).

But as time went by, Callen kept coming back to him with darker and darker ideas for additions to their inventions and research. Alston repeatedly turned him down, and the two eventually split off from one another due to disagreements on their morals. Alston kept the MINI, but without Callen's help maintaining it for its original purpose, it eventually fell to disuse.

Callen, on the other hand, grew mad with curiosity. All this time, all this research he'd poured into necromantic energy and preserving souls from death– why should he have to give it all up?

In response to Alston's rejection, Callen only became more driven. He'd plot out theories and calculations of how to extract souls from life and contain them in other things, reinvigorating his own life energy in the process. And eventually, because of his cruel experiments, Project MINSTREL was dissolved and the two largely fell out of contact, save for matters of extreme importance.

Flash forward some odd years in gnome standards. Alston is an old man now, even having had the continuous treatment of the MINI back in the day. He's having regrets about what he'd spent his life doing, and somehow, some way, he seeks to do something to make up for it all.

In the end, Alston knew he couldn't be saved; he'd done too much bad and too little good in his life to merit that. All the dark experimentation, all the secrecy, the dangerousness of it all– no, it was too late to redeem himself now.

But as he was nearing the end of his life and his eyes drifted over to an old automaton he'd once made with someone he once considered a friend… he realized, with what little time he had left, he could save something else.

In his final weeks, he worked tirelessly as he never had before, reconstructing the MINI for a new purpose: entertainment. He never took out the healer programming entirely, but he adjusted the MINI's prime directive slightly and designed them to be able to make their own choices and have their own personality, striving to make them completely autonomous in their own right.

And yet, when death edged closer and closer to him by the day, something was missing.

In the time the MINI shared with Alston, he was never able to get them to "wake up", so to speak. They were never able to override the base programming they had to obey whoever told them to.

So, after a long deliberation, Alston made one final reach to Callen, asking for one single favor: to erase the MINI's memory of their creators entirely after he passed on, in the hopes that they'd make their own life someday without the burden of grief.

Callen was more than happy to oblige, and, once he heard the details, he got an idea.

An utterly fascinating, horrible idea.

As Alston lay on his deathbed, Callen prepared to do his bidding. He was to use the spell Modify Memory on the MINI before it reactivated from its slumber, locking any knowledge of its creators behind a secret failsafe in its programming that even it wasn't aware of. This, Callen could do.

It was as Alston was drawing his final breath that he put his real plan into action.

Just as Alston was fading from life, Callen cast True Polymorph on his old friend, transforming him just before his spirit had the chance to depart.

All of the years Callen had spent researching necromancy, he'd tried, and thus far failed, to do what he successfully did to Alston. His theories and calculations– all were in an attempt to see if he could preserve one's soul by transmuting it into an object, just before departure. And all his experiments until now were failures, because he couldn't get the timing exactly right to capture the raw life essence before it was gone for good.

Alston was his first true success, and that was all the proof he needed to see that his vision had always been correct.

Because laying before him on the bed was not Alston Silverthread's elderly body, but a single leather-bound book.

And on that book's first page was this:

The rest of the pages were blank.

And Callen could find no better purpose for this tome than to give it to the very being whose message it was meant for.

So, deep within the MINI's chest compartment, he locked it away. And then he modified the automaton's memory, and then, well, he left.

…

A little while later, Mini woke up for the first time, a little confused but otherwise feeling more alive and themselves than they'd ever remembered feeling before.

And what did they do with this newfound autonomous feeling?

They went on an adventure.

[theshapeshifter100]

Assignment 5, Chapter 3 is up now!

[iiitsnotbase]

im so in love with the circle of protection so far but I genuinely keep picturing a nineteen year old Mina hanging out with her circle but leaving being like “I have to go play with a beast before it vandalizes something” or “oops I promised I’d go help with an experiment” with no added context like it’s the most normal thing in the world

i mean yeah that’s exactly what happened everyone was super chill. I can picture Charlotte being curious once and going with her to see Elsie in an experiment!

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@theshapeshifter100

[shamrockace]

@theshapeshifter100 's character Moxy, photoshopped into a Hawaiian shirt from our dnd campaign Oak Lords.

[rogue-of-broken-time]

Happy bithday!

Haha, no worries friend! Hope you have a good day as well ^^

[theshapeshifter100]

Circle of the Black Ring, Assignment 4, Chapter 3, up now!

@fairyofsomething @autumnleafauthor

[shamrockace]

Unsurprisingly, Insfr, our wizard turned evil after "neutralising" the evil rock. Here's a meme rendition of how the party solved this issue.

@theshapeshifter100

[theshapeshifter100]

Circle of the Black Ring, final part of Assignment 2: The Ebony Mirror, is now up!

[shamrockace]

A conversation between our party wizard, Insfr, and monk, Moxy during our campaign Oak Lords.

@theshapeshifter100

[theshapeshifter100]

Circle of the Black Ring, Part 4 of Assignment 2: The Ebony Mirror, is now up!

[shamrockace]

@theshapeshifter100 @astraeus-moon

[theshapeshifter100]

Circle of the Black Ring, chapter 2 of assignment 2 is up!

[theshapeshifter100]

Circle of the Black Ring, Assignment 2, The Ebony Mirror

First chapter is now up!

[theshapeshifter100]

Our first interlude

New Chapter of the Circle of the Black Ring!

[shamrockace]

@theshapeshifter100

The last character you drew/wrote about is now stuck in the last game you played. How screwed are they?

[theshapeshifter100]

Circle of the Black Ring, Assignment 7 Chapter 1, is now up!

Two voices can be heard from behind the door, voices carrying up the stairs and into the university. “Please, I am trying!” “Not hard enough! How much longer?!” “I don’t know. Please, it will take time.” “I can’t take it anymore! Please! Please-!” “I am going as fast as I can! You need to calm down.” “Calm down? CALM DOWN?!” The approaching student barely had time to duck, as the door flew off its hinges.