#they didn't ask for that role

[blorbologist]

Y'know, I think I figured out why the Hells still feel like a new low-level party to me, even though they're level 13 and almost 100 episodes in.

I don't quite think it's the lack of conversations, or the fact half the party's plot hooks are big ties to past campaigns - though that definitely plays a part.

... Bell's Hells still primarily rely on quest givers.

Most of their goals are given to them and do not feel organic to the party, and constantly remind us that the Hells are pretty much never the most powerful people in the room. Which is usually something you see with a low-level party.

NPCs offering jobs is not a bad thing; it's a very common plot hook. Matt has been extremely skilled with using NPC quest givers in those two campaigns. Not only do they provide an obvious plot thread, but they can put the party in the path of others (say, the Nein running into the Iron Shepherds while doing a job for the Gentleman and everything that came of that). And the Hells had a solid start with it too - Eshteross was an excellent quest giver!

The problem is that Bell's Hells have never really not had a quest giver.

Maybe it's a byproduct of the more plot-heavy structure of this campaign? But while prior parties have felt like they decided on their course of action and what they prioritized, Bell's Hells feels less like level 13 (13! Level 13!) experienced adventurers and more like an MMO group clicking on the exclamation point over an NPC's head. Where does the plot demand we go next? Who do we report back to?

They're level 13.

At level 13, Vox Machina had just defeated a necromantic city-state to clear their name and Percy's conscience. And, you know, the Conclave just destroyed Emon. No one was explicitly telling the group to gather Vestiges and save the world (though Matt guided them there), and they were usually among the most powerful people in the room. They chose which Vestiges to prioritize, which dragons to tackle when, even if the over-all plot was pretty clear.

At level 13, the Mighty Nein were celebrating Traveler Con (another PC goal, I'll note) after brokering peace between two nations, accidentally becoming pirates and heroes of the Dynasty. The Nein regularly chose what to do based on personal goals, not grand ones. Though definitely smaller fish than Vox Machina at this level, they were very independent and gaining solid political clout.

While we're at it: level 13 is one level lower than the Ring of Brass, who had a huge amount of sway over Avalir. They ended the world, and also saved it, while in the grand scheme of things being only a smidge more powerful than Bell's Hells are now.

Can you really see the Hells wielding that amount of influence, when they're constantly being told what to do next?

The god-eater might be unleashed, so Bell's Hells have no time to do anything but what is asked of them. No time for therapy unless stolen from Feywild time, no travel on foot and late-night watches. They haven't even had time to grieve FCG. Percy was grieved in the middle of the Conclave arc. Molly was grieved when half the party was still in irons.

Matt is in the very unfortunate spot of not being able to give the Hells the same agency as the other two parties. Not only because of the world-ending plot introduced so early on; they are surrounded by characters they know (and the cast knows) are stronger and wiser than them - the familiarity of the past PCs and NPCs is to their disadvantage.

Why would the party reasonably ignore Keyleth's task that will help save the world and go off on a romp? Why would the cast when they know well Keyleth has to be sensible and with the best intentions in mind? The stakes are just too high.

It means that the Hells still feel like they're running errands instead of pursuing their own destiny. Their accomplishments are diminished as just being parts of a to-do list, and any stakes feel padded by several level 20 PCs/NPCs standing 5 steps away ready to catch them.

This isn't Bell's Hell's fault, nor is it Matt's. It could be amended, I think, if the Hells are really left to their own devices for a long period of time without support and shortcuts (like during the party split)... which would be really tricky to pull off at this point in the campaign.

They're level 13. They're big fish, but they're stuck in a pond full of friendly sharks, so they don't feel big at all.

[bittersweetyrn]

big fan of essek thelyss, not the fanon interpretation, which is either "smol bean, tiny fragile elf who's a sweetheart and basically a child" or people mistakenly calling betrayal of one's home country a "war crime" and then proceeding to be flippant about it anyway, but the real Essek

pretentious motherfucker that committed treason bc he though he was smarter than everyone else

learned to float literally just to impress other rich people

canonically neutral evil

basically head spymaster of his country and master of lies but sucks shit lying to his friends

stayed bitchy even after his redemption arc

"there is nothing I would love more than to not be around you all for the remainder of this day"

a space wizard that crushed someone with telekenesis just to show off (the person was already dying)

sexy feet, nice ass, overall hottie

fell in love with a traumatized wizard of his enemy country and it was mutual despite all the betrayal

faggot

gave away state secrets to enemy wizard bc he though he was sexy

discovered time travel with his boyfriend

proceeded to say they shouldn't use time travel (bc now he's a good boy) but was willing to sacrifice everything and help if his bf wanted to use it

once confessed he had such a bad fight with his dad that his dad ran into the demon caves and never returned (essek doesn't feel bad about this at all)

young for an elf but still 120 years old, he called his bf "young man" and flexed on him about how much more evil he is

[theabigailthorn]

spent ages preparing to audition for a role I really really wanted and it's looking like (still unconfirmed) they might not even be holding auditions at all but have just given it to someone directly

which, meh, that sucks but that's the industry!

I'm just like now what? I spent a lot of my free time the last few months prepping and I genuinely don't know what to do with myself now!

[ariadne-mouse]

Doodle prompt: What ultimately convinced the Platinum Sanctuary to add grips for Athudashionus so he could hang upside down in the temple.

It was really a matter of dignity.

[actiaslunaris]

You're not going to do anything with those notes, right?

[lavendertheys]

"Otohan has us in the tunnels. It's about to be over."

You know what's Crazy about this message, is Imogen specifically sent it toward the end of combat as a Hail Mary, but still couldn't bring herself to ask for help--to ask for anything at all, even in that moment of desperation--because when has begging Liliana for something ever worked for her?

[natelia-aldelliz]

After the Chicago mission ! (Soap probably asks Ghost to close the curtains after that)

[silentreigns]

1 year contract with no job security? Is this not what happened to Valtteri before he went to Alfa Romeo? You can build the team up to win 7 championships but the second they "want to go in a different direction" they will kick you to the curb

[thefirstknife]

sorry if this is an obvious question. but I've seen lots of people theorising that "The Conductor" is maya. Why are people saying this? I don't really know much of her lore or the stuff surrounding her (veil etc.) so any sort of explanation or lore on maya would be nice.

No problem! Honestly the whole thing with Maya started last year when they did a lot of extra little bits and pieces about her throughout Lightfall. Maya Sundaresh was one of the Ishtar Collective scientists from the Golden Age and heavily involved with various science, a lot of it connected to the Vex.

Probably the most relevant is the Vex simulations of Ishtar scientists; the Vex simulated 227 copies of Maya, her wife Chioma Esi and two others (Dr. Shim and Duane-McNiadh). The group decided to let the copies free into the Vex network to explore and see what happens. We didn't really know anything about this until Season of Undying (Shadowkeep) when the lore book Aspect released which details a lot about what the copies were doing there and then their plans to escape, with the help of Praedyth. We never found out if they made it out.

In Season of the Wish, last season before TFS, there was the exotic mission Starcrossed which ended with a secret room inside a Vex Citadel that appeared out of nowhere in the Black Garden. Inside that room, we found the symbol of the Ishtar Collective. The running theory is that this shows that the copies have finally escaped or there's some other connection to the whole story of the Ishtar team and the Vex shenanigans they've been through. My post about some extra details in regards to the whole Vex stuff during Wish. We initially also speculated about a possibility that there would be Venus stuff in Echoes, as well as possibly Nessus (or even Mercury or Io); turns out it was Nessus!

Anyway, this stuff with Ishtar and the Vex is a pretty direct link to the fact that Maya could have some influence and connections with the Vex. But why Maya specifically? This is where we go to Lightfall stuff and primarily the Veil Logs. In the Veil Logs, Chioma revealed that Maya was affected by the Veil quite a lot and more or less went mad experimenting with it. In her experiments, she constructed the whole thing to work like an "orchestra" with a "conductor." That word is the biggest clue honestly!

It was further also noted by Osiris when he analysed it all that this all seems similar to what the Witness' species did; some sort of a ritual with a "chorus" and a "conductor." This is also interesting because a lot of what's going on this season is showing us the Vex with references to music and specifically a "chorus:" they're called "choral" Vex. My post about these music references (there's been more since writing this). In one of the Veil Logs towards the end, Chioma explained that she one day found Maya dead in the "conductor's chair." Maya has been connecting to the Veil as a conductor for a very long time and did a lot of experiments with it, primarily attempting to "fabricate consciousness." She succeeded in this by creating Lakshmi-2: she used a dead Exo to essentially fuse minds into it and create something new.

One more of the Veil Logs also mentions that someone called "MSund12" was trying to access them in present time. This is Maya's 12th copy from the network. I went into this in the linked post; MSund12 accessed the OXA through the Vex systems at some point. This is interesting because this was brought up again in TFS in one of the Lost Ghosts quest which also name drops Maya Sundaresh directly and confirms that there are interferences from her going on here.

This set of exotics from the season pass with lore tabs also seems to be giving out hints that it's Maya. It requires some assumptions to be made but Maya fits pretty much all of it really nicely. There are also a lot of little curious details in the activity Enigma Protocol. After each section cleared when you get to the chest, there's three Vex confluxes which can be scanned. They reveal "queries," as if someone is using the Vex network to go through information and data on stuff. It's mostly related to very small personal stuff, Golden Age information, the Collapse and current stuff about the City or Lightbearers: as if someone is trying to connect to their personal things and learn about what the world is like now. For example, one of the queries is "port wine" - this was once mentioned by Chioma in one of the Veil Logs; she opened a bottle of port for her date with Maya.

With all of this combined, there's very little room for the Conductor to be anyone other than Maya, who is now able to control the Vex with those collars. We just don't know which Maya. Is it one of her copies? Is it multiple copies combined into something else? Is there anything of the real Maya in there? It would be interesting if it's just copies because then her teasing Saint as being a copy would be a neat reflection of her own insecurities. Either way, we'll have to wait a bit to find out about the details, but there's no doubt that all of this is setup for the reveal that it's Maya.

[ninjagirlstar5]

i think you forgot the tech wizard's birthday (mikado)

TO BE HONEST WITH YOU, ANON, THIS IS LESS, "Oh shit, I forgot one of my favorite character's birthday-!" AND MORE, "I've been swamped with work, school, and been more focus on a silly little stick figure show over SDRA2 and now I'm pass the deadline welp-"

Anyways, here's his birthday art that I tried to plan in advance but never finished it in time until today cause I didn't spend my time wisely.

Happy birthday to my worst boy(s)! I totally wasn't, like, four weeks late for this, hahaha!!;;;

(Featuring me still figuring out my IRLkado Lives AU coat design for him. Still not sure if I like it or not-)

[undead-knick-knack]

I thought Imogen's conversation with her mom sounded familiar 🤔

[ratinayellowbandana]

Hello! Can I request a number 22 "Do you trust me?" "I don't know." from the angst prompt list if this appeals to you at all?

Best of luck with getting back into the grove, I look forward to reading anything new <3

hi! thank you very very much for this prompt - it's delicious. might even reuse it for another idea I have rolling around. i hope you enjoy how this one turned out; it was a great warm-up piece and i got to play around with second person (very sorry if that's not your thing). and on a personal note - I'm a huge fan of yours, so this was a wild ask to wake up to!

cw: mild gore, self-doubt

length: ~1250 words

~~~

You watch as Imogen steps forward. Once. Twice. Her head tilts, and her eyes narrow. Another step. You back away. Your chest is heaving. Why are you shaking? The cold calculation in Imogen’s gaze is unfamiliar. You have been reduced to an object—a threat to be sized up before you are dispatched by those capable hands. And, in a way, you are, aren’t you? A threat. An object. A strung-out puppet without a home.

She is-was-could-be your home, you think. Maybe. She has been. At least, you want to believe that is the truth of it. But how can you be sure? Home has always been an abstraction to you, a thing kept just out of sight, dangled like a lure bobbing just beneath the surface, tempting you up from the depths. It remains just out of reach, it seems. You feel yourself sinking, sinking back into the places the sun cannot reach. It’s safe there, you have learned. The shadows protect you. They are just as much a part of you as the scars that litter paper-thin skin, reminders of rising a little too close to the warm-bright world above.   

Imogen’s stare is piercing, the faint purple glow radiating faintly, only detectable in the darkness. Two pinpricks of violet that bore into you from a safe fifteen paces away. 

Jagged rocks loom, emerge from the ceiling, the walls, like fingers crooking accusingly in your direction. The heel of your shoe catches on a massive hooked chain, snaking and coiling and disappearing in and out of the shadows. Mist curls around your ankles. Hands clutch at a corseted chest as if fabric and boning could freeze the magic leaking from taloned fingertips. 

“This isn’t me,” you swear, and the words sound hollow, distant, echoing, like the air is swallowing them up before they leave your lips.

“It isn’t,” Imogen replies sardonically, but her hands remain pinched at her hips, a faint crimson flickering at her fingertips. “Did you do this?”

Your brow furrows. Three crackling purple spheres appear overhead, and the mist thins. Shriveled corpses sprawl across the stone floor between you. Their skin is ashy and gray, lips dried and drawn back in wild grins that reveal stained, rotting teeth. Bulging eyes too wide for their sockets, bloodshot and unseeing, stare vacantly at the ceiling. Stiff fingers curl into claws, digging into bodies contorted and frozen in expressions of agony. 

“No,” you say, “no, of course not.” You shift back, away, away, and stumble over a red-robed thigh. “I wouldn’t,” you insist. 

“No?”

You repeat, “I wouldn’t. I–”

“How would you know?” Imogen’s tone is cool, “If you did.” She steps over one mangled body, tutting, thunderously calm. A spark flashes in her fist.

“I–”

“You wouldn’t know, would you? If it was you.” She pauses, stares. Her words are biting. “You told me yourself. Maybe it was Delilah.” You shrink back, away, away, until your back hits the jagged wall, and you relish in the pain because it means that something is solid. The fog in your head is thick, clouding, as Imogen stalks toward you. “Is there a difference anymore?” 

A chill runs through you, and the beautiful new corset you wear seems to constrict around your chest, squeezing, strangling. Imogen doesn’t believe you. She doesn’t believe you, and if she doesn’t believe in you, can you believe yourself? She was your home, once, (right?) but the foundation is cracked, leaking ichor and electricity that fries your toes. You need to know. Suddenly, it is the most important thing in the world. Imogen’s confidence in your goodness. That something in you is worth saving. Worth something. (There must be something.)  

“Do you trust me?” Your voice is thick, rattling, when you whisper through dusty cords. 

Imogen is five paces away, now, and moving closer as you press all you can into the wall. Perhaps you could become a fossil for the next generation of adventurers to find. Compressed and hardened between shale and mineral and away, away from piercing violet. Imogen studies you, unmoving, untouching. 

“I don’t know,” she says at last. She brings a hand up to grasp your chin, and you flinch. You have never flinched from her before. (You haven’t.) Her grip is firm. “Should I?”

“Yes,” you say, desperate. “Yes. Please.” Because you need her to understand so badly you could tear your heart from your chest and lay it at her feet if only so she would know it’s there. 

“You hurt us. You hurt your friends, Laudna. Look at them.” She releases your chin and spreads her arms.

Bathed in dim purple light, the corpses wear the clothes of your companions. (Have they always looked like this?) Fearne in FCG’s tattered coat, seafoam hair limp and stringy. Bor’dor, his green shawl stained dark with ichor. Chetney, his throat torn out. Orym, bruised, with Seedling and the Summit Blade fallen at his side. Ashton, arm in pieces.

“I didn’t.” You sound uncertain even to yourself. 

Imogen scoffs. “Running away again?” (Again?)

Always running. You always run. It has always been easier to run. It would be easier to run. (Why can’t you run?) You want to run away. You cannot go far from Imogen. (Can’t you?) The wall is moving. (The wall shouldn’t be moving. Walls can’t move. Why is the wall moving? Are you moving? Are you? A r e  y o u) 

“This is your fault.”

Your tongue refuses to move. It sits limp in your mouth like rotting meat. Sour. Disgusting. Useless, useless. Imogen doesn’t believe you. Doesn’t believe in you. Did you do this? This is your fault. Your fault. Your fault. Your fault your fault your fault your fault your fault

You shudder and gasp, and suddenly, Imogen is holding you, but that cannot be right because she doesn’t trust you and why should she because who are you if you are not yourself and maybe you are just Delilah but how can you be sure and and and 

“Hey, woah,” Imogen croons near your ear. “Hey, you’re all right; you’re okay. I’ve got you.”

Stale cavern air that tastes of death and decay floods your lungs, and you heave. Your hands and knees scrape against the floor. You need to get away, away. Away from her. You need to run. Before you hurt anyone. Before you hurt her. 

“Okay, hey, you’re okay, honey. Dominox got you good, huh?” 

Your vision darkens, and your ears ring, and your teeth lengthen.

“What’d you see?” Chetney crows. 

Imogen’s arms tighten around you, and you stiffen.  

“Give her a minute.” 

You shake your head against Imogen’s chest. Bits of debris lodge in your palm, and you savor the sting. Dark hair hangs in a curtain where it has been torn loose. 

“Take your time,” Imogen murmurs. Her eyes are not glowing; her hands do not spark. They trace small circles along your back where you can still feel the imprint of sharp stone, and you shiver at the dissonance. “It wasn’t real, Laudna. Whatever it was, it was the demon messin’ with your head.” 

A shaky exhale escapes your lips. “Do you trust me?” 

“What?” Imogen pulls away slightly to meet your wide eyes. She hesitates. Her mind presses against yours. You can feel her skimming, paging through your surface thoughts like a stone over water before she settles, bobbing, tempting. 

“Is it her?” Orym asks warily. 

“I think so,” Imogen says, but she remains intently focused, searching.

You repeat yourself through the weight that has settled low in your stomach. “Do you trust me?” 

“I… Why are you askin’ me that?”  

[ransomnote]

keanu reeves futch scale

[swaldblues]

One of the most heartbreaking things to me this season has been how through the revelations about him participating in the cruel initiation culture, Erik has in a way died a second time for Wille 😭

[ariadne-mouse]

Prompt! Shadowgast dancing

Essek is leading even though he is floating; he is talented like that.

[ethosiab]

Did you get asked about the boatboys pirate au yet? That sounds so awesome 👀👀👀👀👀👀

hehe im glad you think so !

the AU concept essentially sprung from my sleep-deprived and angst-craving brain, on a flight to melbourne at 2am.

The basic idea is that Etho and Joel are pirates in a nautical fantasy world, with gods, magic, and fantastical sea beasts (+ Lizzie).

Etho and Joel end up with their souls linked after the two of them take and use cursed magic items 'belonging' to the god of souls, a vengeful being who feeds on the emotions and souls of mortals (it does not have a name yet-). So now they share injuries which means neither can satisfy the urge to strangle the other without causing themself harm. Sad! The items do give them powers though, which is a bonus. Yeah Joel might be seperated from his wife and has to deal with etho but he can also turn into a wolf so its not all bad.

Prior to meeting Joel, Etho was a loner, having already lost his soul in his shitty deal with the god (yet somehow still being alive... hmm... smells like a plot point....). He spent a fair while running around causing chaos (got involved with King Ren a while and worked for him, because despite being a pirate and generally against the idea of a monarchy he will not pass up the chance to get some extra coin if it suits him), but eventually settled down in a seaside pirate-ridden town because he was massively wanted after betraying the King's trust and also kind of tired. Here and there, he did the bidding of his god, which generally consisted of killing people (the god could just smite them but this is more interesting for it to watch). Etho's cursed item is a dagger that gives him the ability to go unnoticed when he's sneaking around places. If people are looking for him, their eyes gloss over him, if he's trying to be quiet he will literally not make a noise, and if he's picking someone's pocket his touch is feather light. Unlike Joel's amulet, there's nothing special about the dagger that gives him these powers, it just grants whatever the user would find coolest or most useful. Etho avoids using the dagger in combat for... reasons, and instead opts to use an arsenal of other knives he has.

Before Joel had his soul split in two (because note that difference, Etho was running around soulless for a decade before this somehow) with one half shoved in Etho's glass eye, Joel was a pirate captain with a crew consisting of Jimmy and probably some other empires people, or just random bg characters. Joel was probably one of the most dangerous pirates to encounter out there, not because of his ships firepower (though they've got a lot of that), but because he somehow always had the environment on his side. (Almost like the Ocean Goddess was his wife... or something...)

Most of the plot revolves around them being sent on a long errand by the soul god to find one of its other 'followers' that it lost track of. They end up putting together a shabby crew, meeting character's from their pasts, and desperately seeking a solution to the soul-linked issue that doesn't end up with both of them dead.