#wizards off the coast

[wall-eye]

a handful of my and my friends favs in some cozy scarves :]

[baileyondemand]

I love the cultural implications of Summerview because people canonically give each other deadly weapons as tokens of betrothal, and also decorating for a child’s birthday party is a joint effort by the entire community, including the people who do not know how to decorate.

[lily-valley-hyperfixates]

Constantly consistently rotating the unprepared casters arc 1 and 7 characters in my mind. Except it’s not like a microwave, it’s like one of those carnival rides that goes a mile a minute. They all have whiplash now.

[elle-mack-wednesday]

Current Order: 11, 5, 9, Tightrope, 6, 3, 10.

[mystic-crochet]

Day 12! The final day of my project to make an icon for each arc* of Unprepared Casters

And for our finale, we have Arthur Ashcreek in his dragon form for Arc 7: Wizards Off the Coast!

Took me a while to decide on this one, because I thought it would be a bit too complicated but I really like how it turned out, especially for my final square

Now all is left is to sew them all together! And I'll post that whenever |I finish it

*up to Arc 12

[rabbiteartrans]

MOTHERFUCKING L A T H E!? ? !

[libsreese]

I’m relistening to arc 7 and I forgot how in love I am with Aura Ashcreek. She’s a beautiful dragon lady who chose to horde books?!? An icon

[overgrown-estate]

88 Asmodeus the Archfiend, by Aleksi Briclot for "Adventures in the Forgotten Realm"

[small-chaos]

Does it feel to anyone else that WOC or Hasbro or whoevers in charge now is trying TOO HARD to monetize D&D now? We get it, its wonderful, but does this world really need another monopoly?

Also NERF is cool but really????

[wall-eye]

"dogs playing poker" but make it "uc familiars and animal companions playing fantasy uno with mage hand for those who need it"

Going around the table starting with Storius on the far left we have: Storius, Normal Man (and Definitely not Pork and Beans in a trenchcoat), [background cameo of @Kori_Dearest's designs of Fey Moss and Bombyx in the window spotting the game], Snakespeare on the table, Wilbur looking at Snakespeare's cards, Airycorse, Charles on Airycorse's head, Sugar, Edward, Coco, Tippy, and Ann, with Ringo and Monty up on the lamp above

[baileyondemand]

John’s voice for SK-73 is so “disinterested shitty boyfriend on a voice call,” you know? Like I can just imagine him asking about my day and then “uh-huh”-ing his way through the next thirty minutes of conversation

[lily-valley-hyperfixates]

The biggest red flag about me is that I kin Sir Mister Person.

[elle-mack-wednesday]

Current Order: 11, 5, 9, Tightrope, 6, 3, 10, And Back Again, 2.

[ooc-miqojak]

This isn't solely why I play Pathfinder (it's still a DnD iteration after all...I don't get why more people don't try it - Critical Role began as a Pathfinder game, even!) ... but their treatment of their fans and employees does play into it. When I was broke, I still had full access to all of their materials online for free - and it's a great system that I love (and Paizo isn't scummy), so I bought all the materials when I finally was financially stable enough to support a company that I don't feel bad putting money into. And hey look, then that hard earned money went into Pathfinder 2.0, a more streamlined/less crunchy version of the game... a la DnD 5.0 (but...better)!

Corporations understand dollar signs - not complaints - something I regularly remind fans of The Sims 4/EA (the community is so quick to blame the devs, it's sad). The parent company is run by 'the suits' and they are not your friends. They are not your favorite DnD streamers. They are Ebenezer Scrooge, minus the ghosts of 'you done fucked up, richman'. They are life-sucking parasites who will sacrifice everything you love for a penny of profit.

If you feed the beast, don't be surprised when it bites that very same hand as it grows ever hungrier.

(I've reminded myself of the creature dubbed 'Hollow' in Scavenger's Reign, and it's growing hunger, with that analogy... so go watch that and feel... 'better?' It's beautiful and you won't think about the scumbags firing hard working, talented people who made something you love, at least.)

man fuck Hasbro and fuck all these CEO's laying off game devs fr

also:

[foldingfittedsheets]

It started with cantrips, which is why it took people a while to notice. The first few events were people on the news talking about how they’d been needing a light and then suddenly they’d waved a hand and said words and there was light. No one really believed them but as more reports were verified suddenly more people came forward with even less believable stories of what everyone really didn’t want to call magic. Even though it was pretty obviously magic. Spectral floating hands grabbing things that were out of reach, whispered messages that reached their friend seated too far away to hear them.

An EMT who whispered a word and suddenly saved a dying man.

Then the darker stories started filtering in. 

Words spoken in anger causing explosions. Poison spewing forth from a hand gesture. One person gave a retort so witty that someone was hospitalized. 

Everyone was scared, but the nerds started to figure it out fastest. It sure wasn’t the scientists who were doing the equivalent of crying on the floor in the fetal position in their respective labs while reports poured in globally of these occurrences. A growing movement online started spreading lists. They had all the blessings people might have gotten and regardless of how many people scoffed no one could really deny that every instance of magic correlated to a website listing the cantrips in Dungeons and Dragons. People pooled their collective resources to help quantify what was happening and facts started to emerge.

Everybody got one. You had to be at least thirteen to use the magic. That pretty much summed up the only other common denominators. Otherwise it seemed completely random, the magic didn’t line up with any existing character traits. You just unlocked one piece of magic each. People with aggressive cantrips were almost loaded up into camps for suddenly being so dangerous- however many hit points real humans had it was apparently not a big number. A lot more deaths occurred than anyone could feasibly track and the global population panicked.

The legislation for the camps got struck down. There were riots and confusion and for a while everything was pretty chaotic. Firebolts and Eldritch Blasts went off from sheer exuberance as much as anything else. Amidst the rioting were people just living their lives, not using their cantrips. It took a while for things to settle down, but humans can get used to most anything if given enough time.

Almost everybody scanned the list to figure out which they got, but someone with Chill Touch just enjoyed frostier beverages than most even if it made you think about death more to drink something after the skeleton hand had been wrapped around it. At least it looked cool. Most people didn’t really do anything other than play around. A youtuber who had gotten Shape Water suddenly surged in popularity as she pivoted her channel to creating beautiful patterns with colored water. Other online personalities quickly followed and those with combat focused magic set up backyard target practice to show off. Some fires resulted as well as numerous noise complaints and a law was passed limiting where people could practice magic. It was virtually unenforceable but the people in charge were trying to keep a grip on the situation.

Noticeably the largest subset of the population that used their magic were those who had gotten Spare the Dying. Every government turned out the call that such individuals would receive a generous stipend for taking to the hospitals and stabilizing the sick and injured. Death rates dropped substantially, but it was still only a cantrip. Cancer marched on, but many got to live after miraculous recoveries.

Months passed and things started to become a little more normal. There were still debates about what had caused it and how to regulate magic but day to day life settled down. Speculations over what the long term ramifications would be continued as well as why those cantrips. Wizards of the Coast refused to comment for the first six months, closing its doors to the rioting and keeping them closed. At the end of six months they abruptly published a new line of cantrip cards with all kinds of utility and no combat usage whatsoever. The internet exploded and the government wasn’t pleased, but nothing happened. No one got any new magic. People wondered if those under thirteen would manifest the new stuff, but no one did. They just blew out their thirteenth birthday candles and got handed a cantrip like everyone else. 

A year later a mechanic in rural Canada was peering into the engine of a busted car. He realized he needed some lubricant and instead of reaching for his can he waved a hand and splattered the car with Grease that had burst from his hand. He was a calm sort of fellow so he called up the local news and said there was more magic. They asked first what cantrip he had- folks who received Prestidigitation had made a number of false alarms on receiving additional magic. The mechanic told them his cantrip was Infestation which he’d never had cause to use after figuring it out. 

The press descended and demanded a demonstration. Most people had read up on the basic rules of magic at that point, so everyone understood when the mechanic said they’d have to wait until the next day. A media storm went up the next day with headlines blaring that first level magic had been unlocked after the passing of the lunar new year. 

A wide contingent had been waiting for this opportunity. The spell list went out again amidst less panic but more chaos. There was a rash of identity thefts no could trace and eventually people realized Disguise Self posed a significant challenge to daily life. Celebrities had trouble convincing people they were who they said as random citizens took their faces on numerous joyrides. A scandal broke when it turned out an A list actor had hired someone else to play them while they went on vacation but the details were kept very hush hush.

Hospitals called out desperately for anyone with healing magic and most of those blessed with Cure Wounds and Healing Word answered. People with Goodberry formed community food kitchens and for the first time it seemed like hunger could actually be eliminated. Veterinary offices and zoos made special positions for those who could cast Animal Friendship and Speak with Animals.

A celebrity chef hit the jackpot with Purify Food and Drink and made a whole spinoff series where she went dumpster diving and made five star meals out of rotting leftovers. Several people changed careers entirely to lend their services to study ancient texts with Comprehend Languages. Even one hour a day led to huge leaps in discovery and understanding of ancient civilizations. 

A small murmur of worry followed the new influx of skills and power. What would happen when more magic was unlocked? The amount of people now running around with dangerous combat spells was even greater than before. Would people have to worry about necromancy? New crimes were being invented faster than laws could keep up as magic was put to novel and interesting uses. 

A year passed and everyone waited with bated breath for the lunar new year, but nothing happened. 

But I’m pretty sure I figured it out. We got handed cantrips. And we waited a year for first level spells. I’m pretty sure it’s one more year, and then things will really start to get interesting.

Inspired by this poll. If you enjoyed my writing consider leaving a tip on my Ko-fi!

[csphire]

No-no-no-no!!!!