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Part 6: The Wrath of Thaelkinei

Covering my session notes 19-23

After the Plane Shift, the party find themselves in an old manor in the depths of the lost city of Tol Kerdywel. Once part of the vast kingdoms of elves, Tol Kerdywel is now a landscape of red mist, ash, and vengeful spirits. Nerissa and Misha are still coughing, due to their curse.

Esmeray uses her Scrying Orb to contact Drifa, learning that she attempted to Teleport into the city, but was drawn into a magic barrier at the edge of the city, and she can't teleport out. Edrik and Anneliese are familiar with this barrier. Long ago, an earlier iteration of the party were sent to a castle to destroy a lich named Thaelkinei, but they messed up the final step, and awoke her. This barrier is preventing Thaelkinei from travelling any further than the area immediately around her castle.

The party start travelling through the streets of Tol Kerdywel, sneaking past monsters and avoiding the unsettling black water that has taken some of the lowlands. As they move closer to the city centre, they start encountering the terror of Tol Kerdywel. Drifa earlier warned them there was a giant red wraith monster sweeping the inner city, so they'd need to stop and hide every now and then.

The party encountered the monster several times, even sharing hiding spots with other monsters, but eventually, the group got to the edge of the city. As the time comes to hide from the red menace, hopefully, for the last time, they hide inside a house a hundred feet from the barrier. But the creature is much more tenacious in its search in this area, so even though the party attempts to stay still, its tendrils move right into Anneliese's eye, and she flinches. It found them!

* * *

The creature releases a scream that seems to echo across the whole city, and as the party carefully leave their hiding spot, they are greeted by a flying mass of tentacles and eyeballs. The Rothec starts launching attacks from its barbed tentacles, and psychically shoving party members toward the edge of nearby cliffs. The adventurers also see the shadows of countless other monsters approaching from the fog, so use a scroll of Forbiddence on the area to slow their approach.

The Rothec, scurge of Tol Kerdywel.

After quick flurry of attacks, the Rothec starts psychically wracking their bodies, initiating heart attacks, exacerbated by coughing fits in Nerissa and Misha. But the adventurers persist, and they eventually fell the monstrosity. But there is no time for rest, as more monsters start to flooding the area. Esmeray rushes into the fog to start heading them off, as Nerissa starts to observe the edge of the magic barrier, and Edrik has Misha and Anneliese start a blaze of cold fire to act as another barrier.

Esmeray encounters a group of dark elves, who fire upon her immediately. After some confused negotiation, the elves agree to leave the party alone. Although they are not on friendly terms, they also do not want Thaelkinei free.

As Nerissa starts to magically attack the barrier, a well dressed angry man erupts from behind a building. Her allies know this man as Charles Dute, the powerful mage who originally sent them to slay Thaelkinei, but is now on bad terms with them (partially because they botched it so bad). Dute is the one maintaining this barrier, and he is not receptive to the party's need to get through it and find Drifa. His lack of cooperation leads Nerissa to try and break the barrier, so he warps to behind her and pushes her into it.

Turns out this is a variant on Prismatic Wall, and Nerissa instantly is now dying on the other side. Edrik, who hated Dute with a passion even before this, loses control as soon as he sees the mage and leaps upon him. Misha throws a potion through the barrier, and Nerissa rises, but separated from the party.

Charles Dute and the party work together and against each other to defeat the remaining waves of giant undead and a gigantic ooze. Meanwhile, Nerissa gets a voice in her head, Thaelkinei. The lich telepathically tells Nerissa how to remove the barrier, and she wishes to be free,even presents the bleeding out body of Drifa when asked. But as Nerissa and Drifa approach the barrier, her allies gesture violently that Thaelkinei is not to be let out.

Thaelkinei, the Lich Princess, behind the Prismatic barrier.

Misha, a veritable tank of a dragon, pushes her body into the barrier, opening a small window beneath her legs. Nerissa drags Drifa through, and telepathically tells her allies to complete a circle so she can cast Plane Shift to escape. Charles Dute realises what's happening, and jumps into the circle at the last second, and they are whisked away.

* * *

The group arrive at Drifa's tower, but they quickly notice Misha is not among them. Thaelkinei must have held down the dragon as they left, and Misha is now the lich's prisoner. The party manage to break up Edrik and Dute, and Edrik leaves the room in a huff, Anneliese chasing after. Charles Dute and Nerissa work together to heal Drifa, and then Dute sits down the group to explain himself. His barrier is an attempt at a more permanent solution to Thaelkinei, and it seemed in Drifa's attempt to reach him, she ended up inside. Drifa needed Dute to complete her end of the bargain with the party, since Charles has the skills necessary to reach their ally Yög, and after the group berate him, he begrudgingly leaves for that mission.

The group catch up Drifa with their events in the Celestial Realm, and how they found Cassiopeia, who is still wandering around Drifa's tower. Nerissa asks how she would approach joining the Thaumaturge, and Drifa says they need to grow a bit more powerful to be ready.

Edrik becomes soured by what has happened to Misha, and Cassiopeia, who is partially omniscient, brutally tells him of the situation Misha has found herself in. Coltan also pops in via his phylactery, and teases them. Anneliese tries her best to keep Ed in one piece.

A short while later, Charles Dute returns, Yög in tow. Yög is a man who was once afflicted by many curses but used his mastery over alchemy to heal himself. Charles Dute gives Nerissa a paper list of ingredients and a knowing look before Drifa opens up a portal to the material plane. There, they will find allies and help with their current situation.

* * *

The party have found themselves in Castelor, a city of mages in Ostoya. They are in the manor of Mina Taliesin, a very powerful ally of the party, in both strength and influence. Butlers escort the party from this room of mirrors to a dining room, where a lot of their most powerful allies have been gathered.

Marusya: a powerful leader of the Valiken Clans (and Edrik's adopted mother)

Raghnall Khan: a skilled wizard at the pinnacle of lightning magic and a minister in Castelor

Ataeshia: a fire and ash elemental from the upper planes

Anna Drach: the leader of the Dragon's Head Merchant company, one of the most powerful traders in Etharis (and Anneliese's twin sister)

Mina Taliesin: a masked mage who is a master of mirror magic and the first (and seemingly immortal) ruler of Castelor.

The group bring Mina and her allies up to speed with their recent activity, also introducing Nerissa, and reintroducing Esmeray, who they had prior known as Ilze. Mina invites the group to sit and eat with them as they talk, and Nerissa is starstruck by some of the allstars at the table. Mina catches the party up with some activity too. Castelor had long been cursed with a sunless sky, but a couple weeks ago, it returned. The cold war between Ostoya and the Burach Empire is beneficial for trade, but conditions may change on a whim.

Marusya takes Edrik aside to help him vent. She is worried that his draconic transformation has stunted his emotional growth and has him practice meditation. He will need to be in a stronger mind state if he is to rescue his daughter, Misha.

Esmeray has a private discussion with Raghnall, who had become something of a family member of the party in prior adventures. Raghnall expresses that he and Marusya have been dating, but he wants Esmeray's approval. And that he also wants to adopt Esmeray, since the both of them have lost family. Esmeray accepts, and asks him to become a member of the Celestial Fey Court, since she is now their ruler. He easily accepts. Father and daughter now closer than ever.

Anneliese has her private discussion with Mina Taliesin. Anneliese tells her about her time in Ulmyr's Gate, and how she saw another user of Mirror Magic. She presents the letters she got from Adwii, Jemun, and Kymbyr. Mina reads the first two but ignores the third. She reveals to Anneliese that she doesn't need to. Because long ago, she was Kymbyr. She pioneered Mirror Magic in Ulmyr's Gate, used her control over the Mirror Dimension to survive its destruction, and now continues to hone her craft today. Anneliese falls to tears, and is relieved she finally gets to have closure, at least with Kymbyr/Mina.

When Anneliese first met Mina a couple years prior, Mina instantly recognised her, and though she had harboured a grudge for centuries, she had worked through it. Mina knew there was something more to what happened. If Gregor is indeed responsible, when Anneliese is ready to face him, Mina Taliesin will be at her side.

* * *

Later that afternoon, the group came back together to discuss their next steps, and so Esmeray can share her new family ties (her and Edrik are step-siblings now?). Mina and Anna discuss the possibility on saving the Celestial fey souls trapped in Coltan's Phylactery and how his followers, the Daughters of Light, have been increasing their activity lately.

The group bring up the list that Charles Dute gave them, and there's immediate familiarity with all of their allies. This is the formula to create a Potion of True Insight, a concoction that overloads the abilities of powerful creatures permanently and is an initiation requirement for members of the Thaumaturge. It also can also alter the body to appear at peak age and fitness. This answers the question of Raghnall and Marusya's apparent de-aging; they have recently been initiated.

Gathering the ingredients for the True Insight Potion will be the final test for the party to join the Thaumaturge. The group enlist Yög to help them mix it, after they go get the ingredients. Yög also helps Nerissa understand the method of curing the powerful curse she has, so she does, and is prepared to heal Misha when they get her back.

Anneliese has a very emotional conversation with her sister Anna, who decides the group needs to have a drink to take the edge off. The adventurers and their allies have a very boistrous night, and Nerissa finally feels she is part of them.

Although they're all sloshed, toward midnight, Mina introduces the party to a powerful mage named The Keeper, a master of soul magic and the undead. The Keeper takes a good look at Coltan's Phylacter. The fey souls are still whole inside, and they're confident they can start reviving them, but it will potentially take several months. Esmeray is fine with the time scale, as long as they can save as many Celestial Fey as they can.

Mina leaves the group to retire, and Esmeray follows. The pair drunkenly work through some of Mina's paperwork before she blankly confronts Esmeray on her long-term flirting. Luckily for Esmeray, her lust is reciprocated, and the pair make love.

Anneliese is confronted just before bed by The Keeper, who presents her a trio of letters. These are follow up from her previous letters from Adwii, Jemun, and Kymbyr. The first letters were angry and vengeful, but as Mina/Kymbyr hinted, this second set indicate that the trio of tiefling mages have forgiven Anneliese, and are cheering her on to get her revenge on the forces that trapped her in Ulmyr's Gate.

* * *

The group are given hangover cures the next day, as they finally make plans for the trip back to Tol Kerdywel. Mina gives them a magic coin that lets them contact Charles Dute remotely, because if anyone knows how to handle the barrier, its him. Charles is unhappy we have his contact info now, but tells us that his back-up plan involves using giant diamonds that can burn a small temporary hole in the barrier. We'll need two, one to get in, one to get out.

After the group confirm their plans with the other Thaumaturge, they notice Anna hasn't awoken. They soon burst in to find that Anna vomiting in the toilet, splatters of sick and blood across her room. Nerissa does what magical treatment she can, and scans her memories for a possible cause. Anna seems to blame a meeting with Adolar Markolf, son of Colphys Markolf, the leader of rival business, The Augustine Trading Company. Adolar was sick with some sort of fever when they last met.

Once they're happy Anna is asleep and resting, they get some Diamonds from Anna, and The Keeper returns to cast a masking enchantment, so that Thaelkinei will have a harder time finding them in the barrier. Mina arranges a portal and they return to Tol Kerdywel.

* * *

The group sneak through the streets of Tol Kerdywel until they find the barrier again. Using one diamond, they sneak into the barrier and begin the climb up the stone stairs toward Thaelkinei's castle. Near the peak of the rocky climb, they approach the outside of the castle, and laying in front of the front door is the sleeping dragon Misha.

Edrik Trumannson and Misha Edriksdottr .

Very carefully, Edrik shakes her awake, and Misha seems to be present but very shaken. Edrik manages to convince her it'll be OK, and she transforms back to her human form to follow us back down the stairs. Misha tells Edrik that she has been experiencing nightmares of this very scenario, and she's afraid this isn't real either, but very soon, the group get back to the barrier and make their way through.

Before they take the portal back, Nerissa casts a few precautionary spells to try and shake off any remaining grasp Thaelkinei may have, and tries to remove the curse on her. But for whatever reason her spells yeild no immediate change.

They step through the portal, and they immediately can tell Misha is definitely still suffering from the putrid curse; the wood in the walls and roof of Mina's manor rapidly rot in the immediately vicinity, and a part of the floor above collapses on top of Nerissa. Mina, Yög, and several staff arrive to the mess, and Yög helps Nerissa properly dispel the curse on Misha. Better late than never.

Hopefully, Misha's nightmare is over.

[supereffectiveartblog]

Part 6: The Wrath of Thaelkinei

Covering my session notes 19-23

After the Plane Shift, the party find themselves in an old manor in the depths of the lost city of Tol Kerdywel. Once part of the vast kingdoms of elves, Tol Kerdywel is now a landscape of red mist, ash, and vengeful spirits. Nerissa and Misha are still coughing, due to their curse.

Esmeray uses her Scrying Orb to contact Drifa, learning that she attempted to Teleport into the city, but was drawn into a magic barrier at the edge of the city, and she can't teleport out. Edrik and Anneliese are familiar with this barrier. Long ago, an earlier iteration of the party were sent to a castle to destroy a lich named Thaelkinei, but they messed up the final step, and awoke her. This barrier is preventing Thaelkinei from travelling any further than the area immediately around her castle.

The party start travelling through the streets of Tol Kerdywel, sneaking past monsters and avoiding the unsettling black water that has taken some of the lowlands. As they move closer to the city centre, they start encountering the terror of Tol Kerdywel. Drifa earlier warned them there was a giant red wraith monster sweeping the inner city, so they'd need to stop and hide every now and then.

The party encountered the monster several times, even sharing hiding spots with other monsters, but eventually, the group got to the edge of the city. As the time comes to hide from the red menace, hopefully, for the last time, they hide inside a house a hundred feet from the barrier. But the creature is much more tenacious in its search in this area, so even though the party attempts to stay still, its tendrils move right into Anneliese's eye, and she flinches. It found them!

* * *

The creature releases a scream that seems to echo across the whole city, and as the party carefully leave their hiding spot, they are greeted by a flying mass of tentacles and eyeballs. The Rothec starts launching attacks from its barbed tentacles, and psychically shoving party members toward the edge of nearby cliffs. The adventurers also see the shadows of countless other monsters approaching from the fog, so use a scroll of Forbiddence on the area to slow their approach.

The Rothec, scurge of Tol Kerdywel.

After quick flurry of attacks, the Rothec starts psychically wracking their bodies, initiating heart attacks, exacerbated by coughing fits in Nerissa and Misha. But the adventurers persist, and they eventually fell the monstrosity. But there is no time for rest, as more monsters start to flooding the area. Esmeray rushes into the fog to start heading them off, as Nerissa starts to observe the edge of the magic barrier, and Edrik has Misha and Anneliese start a blaze of cold fire to act as another barrier.

Esmeray encounters a group of dark elves, who fire upon her immediately. After some confused negotiation, the elves agree to leave the party alone. Although they are not on friendly terms, they also do not want Thaelkinei free.

As Nerissa starts to magically attack the barrier, a well dressed angry man erupts from behind a building. Her allies know this man as Charles Dute, the powerful mage who originally sent them to slay Thaelkinei, but is now on bad terms with them (partially because they botched it so bad). Dute is the one maintaining this barrier, and he is not receptive to the party's need to get through it and find Drifa. His lack of cooperation leads Nerissa to try and break the barrier, so he warps to behind her and pushes her into it.

Turns out this is a variant on Prismatic Wall, and Nerissa instantly is now dying on the other side. Edrik, who hated Dute with a passion even before this, loses control as soon as he sees the mage and leaps upon him. Misha throws a potion through the barrier, and Nerissa rises, but separated from the party.

Charles Dute and the party work together and against each other to defeat the remaining waves of giant undead and a gigantic ooze. Meanwhile, Nerissa gets a voice in her head, Thaelkinei. The lich telepathically tells Nerissa how to remove the barrier, and she wishes to be free,even presents the bleeding out body of Drifa when asked. But as Nerissa and Drifa approach the barrier, her allies gesture violently that Thaelkinei is not to be let out.

Thaelkinei, the Lich Princess, behind the Prismatic barrier.

Misha, a veritable tank of a dragon, pushes her body into the barrier, opening a small window beneath her legs. Nerissa drags Drifa through, and telepathically tells her allies to complete a circle so she can cast Plane Shift to escape. Charles Dute realises what's happening, and jumps into the circle at the last second, and they are whisked away.

* * *

The group arrive at Drifa's tower, but they quickly notice Misha is not among them. Thaelkinei must have held down the dragon as they left, and Misha is now the lich's prisoner. The party manage to break up Edrik and Dute, and Edrik leaves the room in a huff, Anneliese chasing after. Charles Dute and Nerissa work together to heal Drifa, and then Dute sits down the group to explain himself. His barrier is an attempt at a more permanent solution to Thaelkinei, and it seemed in Drifa's attempt to reach him, she ended up inside. Drifa needed Dute to complete her end of the bargain with the party, since Charles has the skills necessary to reach their ally Yög, and after the group berate him, he begrudgingly leaves for that mission.

The group catch up Drifa with their events in the Celestial Realm, and how they found Cassiopeia, who is still wandering around Drifa's tower. Nerissa asks how she would approach joining the Thaumaturge, and Drifa says they need to grow a bit more powerful to be ready.

Edrik becomes soured by what has happened to Misha, and Cassiopeia, who is partially omniscient, brutally tells him of the situation Misha has found herself in. Coltan also pops in via his phylactery, and teases them. Anneliese tries her best to keep Ed in one piece.

A short while later, Charles Dute returns, Yög in tow. Yög is a man who was once afflicted by many curses but used his mastery over alchemy to heal himself. Charles Dute gives Nerissa a paper list of ingredients and a knowing look before Drifa opens up a portal to the material plane. There, they will find allies and help with their current situation.

* * *

The party have found themselves in Castelor, a city of mages in Ostoya. They are in the manor of Mina Taliesin, a very powerful ally of the party, in both strength and influence. Butlers escort the party from this room of mirrors to a dining room, where a lot of their most powerful allies have been gathered.

Marusya: a powerful leader of the Valiken Clans (and Edrik's adopted mother)

Raghnall Khan: a skilled wizard at the pinnacle of lightning magic and a minister in Castelor

Ataeshia: a fire and ash elemental from the upper planes

Anna Drach: the leader of the Dragon's Head Merchant company, one of the most powerful traders in Etharis (and Anneliese's twin sister)

Mina Taliesin: a masked mage who is a master of mirror magic and the first (and seemingly immortal) ruler of Castelor.

The group bring Mina and her allies up to speed with their recent activity, also introducing Nerissa, and reintroducing Esmeray, who they had prior known as Ilze. Mina invites the group to sit and eat with them as they talk, and Nerissa is starstruck by some of the allstars at the table. Mina catches the party up with some activity too. Castelor had long been cursed with a sunless sky, but a couple weeks ago, it returned. The cold war between Ostoya and the Burach Empire is beneficial for trade, but conditions may change on a whim.

Marusya takes Edrik aside to help him vent. She is worried that his draconic transformation has stunted his emotional growth and has him practice meditation. He will need to be in a stronger mind state if he is to rescue his daughter, Misha.

Esmeray has a private discussion with Raghnall, who had become something of a family member of the party in prior adventures. Raghnall expresses that he and Marusya have been dating, but he wants Esmeray's approval. And that he also wants to adopt Esmeray, since the both of them have lost family. Esmeray accepts, and asks him to become a member of the Celestial Fey Court, since she is now their ruler. He easily accepts. Father and daughter now closer than ever.

Anneliese has her private discussion with Mina Taliesin. Anneliese tells her about her time in Ulmyr's Gate, and how she saw another user of Mirror Magic. She presents the letters she got from Adwii, Jemun, and Kymbyr. Mina reads the first two but ignores the third. She reveals to Anneliese that she doesn't need to. Because long ago, she was Kymbyr. She pioneered Mirror Magic in Ulmyr's Gate, used her control over the Mirror Dimension to survive its destruction, and now continues to hone her craft today. Anneliese falls to tears, and is relieved she finally gets to have closure, at least with Kymbyr/Mina.

When Anneliese first met Mina a couple years prior, Mina instantly recognised her, and though she had harboured a grudge for centuries, she had worked through it. Mina knew there was something more to what happened. If Gregor is indeed responsible, when Anneliese is ready to face him, Mina Taliesin will be at her side.

* * *

Later that afternoon, the group came back together to discuss their next steps, and so Esmeray can share her new family ties (her and Edrik are step-siblings now?). Mina and Anna discuss the possibility on saving the Celestial fey souls trapped in Coltan's Phylactery and how his followers, the Daughters of Light, have been increasing their activity lately.

The group bring up the list that Charles Dute gave them, and there's immediate familiarity with all of their allies. This is the formula to create a Potion of True Insight, a concoction that overloads the abilities of powerful creatures permanently and is an initiation requirement for members of the Thaumaturge. It also can also alter the body to appear at peak age and fitness. This answers the question of Raghnall and Marusya's apparent de-aging; they have recently been initiated.

Gathering the ingredients for the True Insight Potion will be the final test for the party to join the Thaumaturge. The group enlist Yög to help them mix it, after they go get the ingredients. Yög also helps Nerissa understand the method of curing the powerful curse she has, so she does, and is prepared to heal Misha when they get her back.

Anneliese has a very emotional conversation with her sister Anna, who decides the group needs to have a drink to take the edge off. The adventurers and their allies have a very boistrous night, and Nerissa finally feels she is part of them.

Although they're all sloshed, toward midnight, Mina introduces the party to a powerful mage named The Keeper, a master of soul magic and the undead. The Keeper takes a good look at Coltan's Phylacter. The fey souls are still whole inside, and they're confident they can start reviving them, but it will potentially take several months. Esmeray is fine with the time scale, as long as they can save as many Celestial Fey as they can.

Mina leaves the group to retire, and Esmeray follows. The pair drunkenly work through some of Mina's paperwork before she blankly confronts Esmeray on her long-term flirting. Luckily for Esmeray, her lust is reciprocated, and the pair make love.

Anneliese is confronted just before bed by The Keeper, who presents her a trio of letters. These are follow up from her previous letters from Adwii, Jemun, and Kymbyr. The first letters were angry and vengeful, but as Mina/Kymbyr hinted, this second set indicate that the trio of tiefling mages have forgiven Anneliese, and are cheering her on to get her revenge on the forces that trapped her in Ulmyr's Gate.

* * *

The group are given hangover cures the next day, as they finally make plans for the trip back to Tol Kerdywel. Mina gives them a magic coin that lets them contact Charles Dute remotely, because if anyone knows how to handle the barrier, its him. Charles is unhappy we have his contact info now, but tells us that his back-up plan involves using giant diamonds that can burn a small temporary hole in the barrier. We'll need two, one to get in, one to get out.

After the group confirm their plans with the other Thaumaturge, they notice Anna hasn't awoken. They soon burst in to find that Anna vomiting in the toilet, splatters of sick and blood across her room. Nerissa does what magical treatment she can, and scans her memories for a possible cause. Anna seems to blame a meeting with Adolar Markolf, son of Colphys Markolf, the leader of rival business, The Augustine Trading Company. Adolar was sick with some sort of fever when they last met.

Once they're happy Anna is asleep and resting, they get some Diamonds from Anna, and The Keeper returns to cast a masking enchantment, so that Thaelkinei will have a harder time finding them in the barrier. Mina arranges a portal and they return to Tol Kerdywel.

* * *

The group sneak through the streets of Tol Kerdywel until they find the barrier again. Using one diamond, they sneak into the barrier and begin the climb up the stone stairs toward Thaelkinei's castle. Near the peak of the rocky climb, they approach the outside of the castle, and laying in front of the front door is the sleeping dragon Misha.

Edrik Trumannson and Misha Edriksdottr .

Very carefully, Edrik shakes her awake, and Misha seems to be present but very shaken. Edrik manages to convince her it'll be OK, and she transforms back to her human form to follow us back down the stairs. Misha tells Edrik that she has been experiencing nightmares of this very scenario, and she's afraid this isn't real either, but very soon, the group get back to the barrier and make their way through.

Before they take the portal back, Nerissa casts a few precautionary spells to try and shake off any remaining grasp Thaelkinei may have, and tries to remove the curse on her. But for whatever reason her spells yeild no immediate change.

They step through the portal, and they immediately can tell Misha is definitely still suffering from the putrid curse; the wood in the walls and roof of Mina's manor rapidly rot in the immediately vicinity, and a part of the floor above collapses on top of Nerissa. Mina, Yög, and several staff arrive to the mess, and Yög helps Nerissa properly dispel the curse on Misha. Better late than never.

Hopefully, Misha's nightmare is over.

[supereffectiveartblog]

SIX FANARTS (ANY)

Its been a while since I uploaded the individual arts for this batch, but it recently occurred to me that I never uploaded the bunch in a compilation post. Given the other compilation posts seem to do well, I thought its time to put this one together.

For this round of SixFanarts, I gave no specifications for requests and, as a result, I came upon with a wide variety of characters.

I do plan on completing one more round of Sixfanarts (no restrictions) in the next month or two, so if any tumblr followers have ideas, lemme know.

Spider-Man (Marvel Rivals version)

Tess Ronblloko (Waku Waku 7)

Hulkenburg (Metaphor: ReFantazio)

Dragonite (Pokémon)

The Zoologist (Terraria)

Licorice (Cookie Run)

[supereffectiveartblog]

Part 5: The Fey Conspiracy

Covering my session notes 15-18

Previously (end of Part 3's notes), the group of adventurers were preparing to attack the construct that had been hunting Celestial Fey. Esmeray asks her friend Aneira to stay with her other fey allies at Lunar Keep. They cast their prep spells, then reactivate the warp gate to Asteria Keep, where the construct is prowling.

They soon spot the monster (imagine a quadruped Metal Gear), dodging its projectiles on Misha's back using an Antimagic Field, which Nerissa cancels as soon as they enter the construct's mouth, which as they'd hoped, is a portal.

The group are transported to a dark cave with scrapes on the ground, blood splatters and manacles at the edge of the chamber. A powerful spell on the cave means Misha is unable to fly, and as she gets up, we greet a partially crushed Anneliese, whose meddling with time magic dumped her here. After Anneliese is caught up, we start to explore the cave, and through divination magic, find a lone fey figure standing in a pool of dark liquid. Given the difficulty in navigating the cavern, Esmeray tries to call Aneira to them, but too late, they find the magic on the cave also guards against teleportation. Is Aneira lost? In an effort to find that lone fey, Esmeray finds a bundle of letters addressed to Anneliese, from Coltan.

After some difficulty, they navigate down to the pool, which seems to be an entire lake of blood. Difficult to swim through, a thoroughly exhausted party finally find the fey, who uses enchantment magic to draw them closer. The creature charms several party members into stepping onto a button just below the blood's surface, magically draining a LOT of their blood. Edrik and Misha manage to hold the fey down long enough for Nerissa to dispel the magic on her.

The fey reintroduces themselves as Cassiopeia, a seer who worked closely with the Celestial Court. She was captured by the vampire lich Coltan, and forced to draw every other Celestial fey who entered into the same fate. The lake of blood is made of hundreds of dead fey who's Celestial power has been used to fuel Coltan's phylactery, which is under the plinth they stand on. And now that Cassiopeia has been freed from the charm, Coltan knows where they are.

The Vampire Warlord Coltan, pulling the strings on Cassiopeia to empower him with the blood of the Celestial Fey.

The horrified party get Cassiopeia to explain how to remove the phylactery and deactivate the magic preventing them from teleporting away, and they soon arrive back at Lunar Keep, where Esmeray gives Anneliese the letters. They are from the three mages she met in Ulmyr's Gate, and detail their sense of betrayal. Anneliese is distraught at this, but chooses not to share what she'd gone through to the others. But she does tell Nerissa about the tieflings she'd met, and how the Tower Master in particular shared a lot of resemblance, and her name.

Aneira and the other fey had disappeared from Lunar Keep, and Esmeray soon finds an array of severed hands resembling loved ones from each of the adventurers. She perceptively determines they are fakes, but its clear Coltan is threatening them. Since no one is here, the party decide to teleport to Drifa's Tower to look for answers.

* * *

Once there, Esmeray goes by herself through Drifa's personal portal to the Winter Court's castle, and Nerissa goes to Drifa's office with the phylactery. She soon finds that Coltan can talk through the phylactery, and he tries to convince Nerissa to give it up and/or kill her friends. After she refuses to play ball, she is soon attacked by an elvish assassion, which her allies help her defeat.

Worried about Esmeray's safety, they rush to the portal after her.

Meanwhile, Esmeray had found the Winter Keep's halls covered in gore. Guards and other staff lay slaughtered at her feet. She rushes to the throne room, and interrupts an assassin trying to kill Prince Findlay (who she is not overly fond of).

Nerissa and the others soon arrive outside the throne room, and are ambushed by a company of fey assassins, led by a fey lich similar to the one who they encountered in Ophion's resting place. After a tough fight on both sides, they reuinite with Esmeray and Findlay and kill the Fey Lich Assassin. Not familiar with their previous encounter with Fey Liches, Findlay is compelled to touch its Soul Gem, and vanishes.

* * *

A now extremely paranoid party soon overhear the remaining castle guard, the spymaster Aspen, and the Queen's personal guard Tushar trying to break in from the outside, perhaps they were locked out. Esmeray saw Tushar's corpse on her way in, so, not knowing who to trust, the party shove some of their assailant's bodies into their portable hole for later interrogation and move on.

They find themslves following a mysterious creature into the castle catacombs, and it seems this creature has eaten all of the castle's prisoners. The creature is not an enemy however, as it leads them to a stash of helpful potions and a book. Anneliese thinks they've encountered this creature before, and it is still unclear whether its an ally or not. The book belongs to Aspen, so they sheepishly take these supplies back to Drifa's Tower, shutting down the portal until they've had time to better analyse the situation. Although they'd usually retreat to their magic tent (Magnificent Mansion inside), Coltan's phylactery seems unable to move into pocket dimensions (similar problem with Bags of Holding). So they have one party member at a time watch the phylactery in turns while the others discuss tactics and rest in the tent's privacy.

Nerissa convinces her allies of the importance of opening up, given how traumatic recent events have been, and they have several discussions on their feelings. Her and Esmeray decode some of Aspen's book, but neither understand one of the cipher languages, Morencian. Edrik tells the party that Gormadraugh's influence makes him lose control in proximity to his arch enemies, so cannot help with Coltan. Anneliese also finally feels she can talk about what happened at Ulmyr's Gate.

Anneliese gives permission to Nerissa to magically scan her mind, to look for clues as to why it had to happen that way. Nerissa eventually finds a memory missing during their last encounter with the fiend Gregor (during Part 1). It seems that Gregor had magically compelled Anneliese to eventually destroy Ulmyr's Gate, and then erased that memory. Why? They would find out later. Her allies agree to help her confront him when the time comes.

Later during their downtime, they receive a magical delivery of several curious vials. Unfortunately some poor handling from Esmeray results in several of the phials exploding violently, Nerissa almost dying, and a giant hole being made in the side of Drifa's Tower. Anneliese ponders if she can use the formula to make her guns more powerful.

When all is calm again, Nerissa asks her god if they can trust Aspen. She gets a yes.

* * *

The party finish their long rest, having all recieved a nightmare in the night. The next morning, after some more delving into Anneliese's mind, Nerissa recieves a warning directly from Gregor. If we magically fix that missing memory, he will be our enemy. He makes a deal with Nerissa that he will tell her their contents later, but she may not share them. She agrees, but decides to cash it in later.

The party, worried about Drifa's absence, start to theorise where to start, but Esmeray gets a message from Aspen. They need to talk.

Aspen is more calm than they'd feared, but he's concerned that there's conspiracies beyond their understanding. The party share what they did at the Shadow and Celestial Courts, and how they found Cassiopeia and Coltan's Phylactery. They decide now is the time to interrogate those bodies, and Nerissa uses forbidden magic called Consume Mind to absorb the memories of a couple Fey Assassins.

The footsoldiers were apparently mass produced, one of them having no name or title beyond the designation "672". It seems whoever sent them had the power to amass an army of emotionless soldiers with a week's notice or less. The assassin's ringleader has more worrying memories still. A secret cabal of conspirators called The Dawn's Chosen have infiltrated each of the main four Fey Courts, and have been secretly recruiting others to their cause from within each court. Esmeray was their target here, Findlay was a red herring.

The Fey Lich Diaspora, who the party have now fought twice, backed by the endless army of The Dawn's Chosen.

Although the concept of a Fey Lich should be impossible; fey souls disappear upon death; a being known as the Dawn has given its followers the power of eternal life. Any time one of them dies, they are immediately reborn. The Fey Kraken Lani (Part 3) was recruited directly by the fey they now probed. The ultimate plan of The Dawn's Chosen is the cleansing of all fey who get in the way of their plan to take over all fey courts and their realms. Aspen is horrified to hear this, and convinces the party to leave the fey realms until he has more information.

Nerissa Plane Shifts the party to the material plane. Clues have pointed Drifa's last known location to a haunted kingdom known as Tol Kerdywel. But as she prepares the spell, spiders and bugs spill from hers and Misha's bags, and the two are overcome with a coughing fit. The Fey Lich's rotting body has inflicted the pair with a debilitating curse.

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Part 4: Ulmyr's Gate

Covering my session notes 14

Anneliese's last memory was grasping a Chronomancy artefact, part of a collection that will allow her greater control over the flow of time. But this particular piece shunted her through time and space, and she woke up in a lush forest, an imposing cityscape in the near background. As she tries to get her bearings, three tieflings greet her.

The three are powerful spellcasters, and their experiments have been picking up temporal disturbances with increasing rapidity. Anneliese's arrival was predicted. The tieflings all have purple skin and glowing white eyes, but as Anneliese soon learns, they are very different in their approach to magical studies (and fashion).

The three mages have a big presentation ahead of them, each trying to impress the most powerful mage in the city, and ruler of Ulmyr's Gate, The Tower Master. They invite Anneliese to accompany them to their performances, so they may keep an eye on her.

As she rides in a flying carriage over the futuristic mage uptopia to their quarters, Anneliese can not help but wonder. In her time, Ulmyr's Gate is a lost civilisation in ruins, whose inhabitants were shunted out of this world by an unknown magical disaster. Is she in a parallel reality? Or has she been transported back in time to the city at its apex?

***

While the tieflings make last minute preparations, Anneliese sits in a viewing platform over the theatre the mages will perform, and spots one more Tiefling with long white hair and an air of splendour and majesty. This must be the Tower Master.

Jemun, Grand Pyromagus and Igniomancer of the Eternal and Unquencable Infernal Sphere, performs first. His spell is a transformation into a starry dragon, who's flame breath is able to burn cleanly through all types of armour, even magically reinforced.

Adwii, Shadow Minister of Evocation, Glyphs, and War Magic, performs next. Her spell is a huge crushing psychic and physical prison that restricts a target completely while being harmless to all who are not the intended target.

Kymbyr, Lord of the Arcane and Mystic of the Occult, performs last. His spell is a summoned altered mirror dimension, a reality which Kymbyr is able to step into, swapping places his mirror self, and does some showboating in cooperation with his copy.

All three performances recieve crowing applause and a commendation from The Tower Master, but none without constructive feedback. At the end, the Tower Master summons all three mages, and Anneliese, for their grading, first asking Annelise on which she thought most impressive. Anneliese says that Kymbyr's mirror magic was her favourite, and the Tower Master agress that the potential application of the magic has the greatest potential. Kymbyr accompanies the Tower Master for a private chat, so Adwii offers her place for Anneliese to stay for the night.

***

Adwii asks Anneliese to judge the character of each mage, and confesses a mistrust of the Tower Master. That highest mage has plans beyond the understanding of any of her three most powerful students (her, Kymbyr, and Jemun). Winning this contest means that Kymbyr may potentially take the Tower Master's place one day.

Anneliese is told she'll have to wait until morning to talk with the Tower Master, and the two go to bed. In the middle of the night, Anneliese wakes to find Adwii's apartment in shambles. She soon finds Adwii's corpse, and as she readies her guns, a mysterious force constricts her and she sees Kymbyr arrive, and slash her throat.

***

Anneliese wakes up on a grassy knoll, three tieflings looking expectantly at her. Time has looped! In order to find where things went wrong, she follows all prior actions exactly, but once the performances are complete, she chooses Jemun as her favourite, and again the Tower Master agrees with her.

She again sleeps at Adwii's apartment, but when wakes up early to prepare for the ambush, but she still finds Adwii dead, and is slain herself.

***

Anneliese experiences several more loops, following events as close as she can, but changing who she chooses as her favourite and who's apartment she sleeps at. She even confesses to Kymbyr and Jemun that she's from the future, and they tell her the Tower Master has a time piece similar to what brought her here. It was part of the prize for winning the contest. But every time, she finds the tiefling mages dead, and is soon killed herself.

***

Anneliese soon tries telling the tiefling mages the whole story, time travel and looping, from the moment she meets them, but when they attempt to read her thoughts, they die, so she kills herself to restart the loop.

She soon tries an approach where gets to the contest, and tells the Tower Master she can't decide, and this leads to her going to the Tower Master's chambers. The Tower Master seems less vulnerable to fate than her students, and once Anneliese tells her story, she is allowed to stay. But during her sleep, Anneliese is kidnapped and brought into a secret lab under the tower. She escapes her binds, and finds hundreds of pods containing clones of purple tieflings. The Tower Master attempts to restrain her, but Anneliese manages to shoot herself and reset the loop.

She follows this route one more time, this time recruiting her tielfling mage allies, but when they open the pods, its revealed there is a magical illness on these clones that would soon kill everyone in the city. So she resets the loop, but with an important difference. She stole the Tower Master's copy of the time piece.

***

With new information on hand, Anneliese explains the story to Kymbyr, Adwii, and Jemun. But before they can act, The Tower Master telepathically summons them. They need to lay everything on the table once and for all.

At the Tower Master's office, it is explained that the Tower Master was long ago inflicted with a magical curse that soon festered into something contagious and deadly. Her cultivation of the clones was to use as experiments to find a cure, and she raised her three students to run the city and perform magic on her behalf, since the curse meant her full magical might was spent containing the curse.

She has readied a solution; the curse is only dangerous when the physical self is vulnerable, so if she and her three students performed a powerful ritual, they could blip the whole of Ulmyr's Gate into the Ethereal Realm. The curse would not follow and be gone by the time the city returned.

Anneliese and her allies agrees to give the spell a try, and leave Anneliese to guard a large gem, central to the completing the magical circuit. Anneliese, alone, has a sudden impulse to destroy the gem. But she resists, and the tieflings return half an hour later to say its been a success.

But Anneliese collapses and the loop returns. She now realises what her role in this is. She needs the Tower Master to initiate the ritual, and whatever force brought her here wants her to sabotage it.

So, on the verge of tears, she relives that final loop, saying goodbye to her confused new friends. But before they go, she asks the Tower Master for their given name, and as she had suspected, learns it is Nerissa.

When the moment comes, she fires her gun at the gem, and Ulmyr's Gate is destroyed. Anneliese fades to black.

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At the start of 2025, I was invited to join a friend's long-running D&D campaign (already like 70 something sessions in). Every other campaign I've drawn art of, I was there for session 1, so it felt awkward if I was to draw these characters that had existed for dozens of sessions before I got there, and initially, I didn't.

These sessions also run more frequently than my other group, so when I did finally decide I would draw them, I decided against doing a session art for every session. Now I'm playing catch-up, and for every 4-5 sessions, I'm doing one art.

All this to say that these session arts will come infrequently after I've done this initial burst of catch-up, and the session descriptions will be less detailed per session (except when I need to do broad introductions like in this session).

Part 1 - The Winter Court

Covering my session notes 1-4

A party of adventurers had been travelling in the eastern parts of the Charneault Kingdom (a southern region in Etharis), working for the Company of Free Swords in Voros. The party (lots of homebrew and third party):

Anneliese Drach: Time Warden Ranger

Ilze Barenis: Blade Dancer Rogue

Edrik Trumannson: Dragon Rider

Misha Edriksdottir: Edrik's Dragon partner (in human form)

Ostarion Longfeather: Witherbloom Druid

The party has been tracking a mysterious man named Casper, Anneliese's estranged father, who is working in disguise within the Free Swords. The party do a little investigation and are introduced to a tiefling named Nerissa, who helps them find faked letters from their Free Sword contact, Andross.

Nerissa Lazâr: Eldritch Domain Cleric (me!)

Nerissa is a cleric dedicated to bookkeeping and knowledge. Her piety is in service to searching for more knowledge. In a world of dead gods, having prayers answered is a bad omen.

The party decide to put on a talent show to cover their attack on Casper, but during the chase, a group of assassins start to attack their allies. Ostarion uses a powerful sphere of Annihilation in a last ditch effort, and when the dust clears, the assassins and Ostarion are gone. Meanwhile, the other party members find and confront Casper. Nerissa paralyses him, opening a flurry of attacks from Edrik and Anneliese, he never stood a chance.

Anneliese puts down her father Casper.

The party and the Free Swords dispose of the assassins and Casper by fire, and they psychically recieve a foreboding message saying they shouldn't have that. The party know this is Coltan, a vampire warlord who has been a thorn in the group's side for most of their adventures together. Coltan had also been operating within the Free Sword's fortress, and after some more investigation, they find the office he'd been using, and some notes on what he's become. Not just a vampire, but an amalgamation of many powerful monsters.

One of the party knows an old ally of theirs, Yög, knows how to reverse monstrous transformations. But it turns out Yög is in captivity, and they'll need an ally from the Thaumaturge (a powerful legion of spellcasters) to get him out. One some Thaumaturge can be found in the Fey Realm's Winter Court. Nerissa knows the spell to get there, but needs an attuned focus. Ilze summons a fey ally named Aneira to help them get there, who reveals Ilze is actually a Changelinger from the Winter Fey Realm named Esmeray.

* * *

The party find themselves in a wooden storeroom, approached by a mysterious man named Gregor. The party knows Gregor as a charlatan fiend, and he has a deal to cash in with Anneliese. He allows the rest of the party to grab a magic item of choice while he talks to her, and Nerissa finds an amulet to her god (who she previously did not know the name of, Typharia, goddess of knowledge. A short time later, they're let go and finally arrive in the Fey Winter Realm.

Aneira guides us to the town of Hailstorm, where we meet the Queen of the Winter Court. She releases Esmeray from her oath, allowing her to finally discuss her identity with the party openly. We meet the Winter Court's spymaster Aspen, who feels us that the Mage we're searching for, Drifa, is looking into the disappearances of two ancient courts outside of the main four season courts. She can be found in her tower, a couple days travel across the snow.

* * *

The icy fields they travel across are perilous, and the group are mostly exhausted by the time Drifer's tower is in sight. Except for Aneira and Esmeray, who are at home in the biting cold of the blizzard. The tower is hundreds of feet tall, and they take a while to reach the top.

Aneira and Esmeray guide their less cold-tolerant friends through a blizzard.

Drifa the Mistress of Blizzards is very cold to Esmeray, and after a long conversation trying to convince Drifa to help us, Nerissa reads Drifa's mind to conclude that Esmeray has been cursed with an effect that causes Drifa to hate her. This invasion of privacy goes badly, but after we deescalate the misunderstanding, Nerissa successfully removes the curse on Esmeray and Drifa's mind is cleared.

Nerissa searches Esmeray's mind for more clues, but determines whoever laid this curse did so before Esmeray's earliest memories.

* * *

A calmer Drifa tells the party about her research, about the Shadow Court and Celestial Court, the 5th and 6th fey courts, that were scrubbed from fey society a millennium ago. She will help us retrieve Yög if we travel to the now uninhabited Shadow realm and find clues to the now unreachable Celestial realm. The party begin their journey across the Winter Court's horizon into the lightless and sickly Shadow Court.

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Part 3: The Celestial Court

Covering my session notes 9-13

After removing the sword that kept him frozen in time, Shadow King Ophion began to breathe slowly, but he was still in a deep slumber. Esmeray and Nerissa work to read faint glowing runes on his body. They are meant to protect him from his injuries, but they also prevent him from awakening. The party spend a day preparing to dispel the enchantment, during which time, the King of the Winter Court arrives, has a stern talking to the Queen about keeping secrets from him, and finally greets Esmeray as his niece openly.

In the morning, the group of adventurers and powerful fey finalise their preparations and remove the enchantment. Although they botched the timing; Nerissa's Regeneration spell took old AFTER Ophion had lost a lot of blood; they managed to stabilise the fey king.

After some recovery time, King Ophion and Queen Eirwen both agree that Ophion and the sword being removed from the altar would have begun the process of reopening the Celestial Realm, and it would be best if we got there before our enemies.

***

The group leave Leviathan Castle, and Ophion leads them through a pathway towards the stars, which were previously absent from the Shadow Realm's sky. A hypnotic effect and sense of vertigo overwhelms the party. They blink and find themselves surrounded by a sea of stars, atop a rocky island floating in the night sky. The Celestial Realm.

After some investigation, the group managed to activate some ancient magical bridges, but it seems someone had intentionally been deactivating certain devices around the Celestial Realm. Waygates that allow long-distance teleportation had been broken, and giant holes had been bored through a couple of the floating islands. The entourage navigated through an abandoned artisan town, finally finding signs of life at a crumbling castle, Lunar Keep.

Lani, who was once the Celestial Court's chamberlain, and Knight of the Void Star (you have to say the whole thing), who was the Queen's personal guard. After healing him of magical paralysis, the Knight of the Void Star recounts how a group of cultists from the material plane arrived soon after the Celestial Realm was cut off, and they had left a colossal mechanical monster that saught out and consumed Celestial Fey.

From the descriptions, the party assume the cultists are The Daughters of Light, allies of Coltan, and that Anneliese's father Casper might have been with them. After consulting with her god, Nerissa reveals that those Celestial Fey the machine "ate" were in fact transported to a separate plane where they're being kept prisoner. She also realises that our time in the Fey Realms has meant we've lost weeks of time in Material Realm time.

***

The party begin making plans on how to approach the mechanical giant; their main idea being to use magic to get as close as they can and then enter the portal in its mouth.

The adventurers also take time to talk about their feelings and actually discuss how recent events have gotten to them. Esmeray and Ophion discuss how time has been cruel and how Ophion misses his wife. The Knight of the Void Star is enraged to find out that the night sky has changed since he was first paralysed, an indication that those Celestial Fey imprisoned elsewhere may be getting killed off one by one. Esmeray decides she needs this upcoming mission to go well, for her people's sake.

Esmeray and her father, Shadow King Ophion, reminisce about Queen Celeste and the time they should've had together.

Edrik, Misha, and Nerissa study the castle grounds to discover that a giant magic circle encompasses part of the building, centred where the Knight of the Void Star was paralysed. This look suspicious.

Esmeray finds Lani has taken Ophion to look over some of Queen Celeste's old things, and tells her fellow adventurers that she doesn't trust Lani.

***

The Winter King and Queen had left to meet with the other courts' royals, so that the fate of the Celestial Realm may be decided. Esmeray and her allies start to go through the stores of books and treasures Lani had spent centuries organising, hoping to find clues to her malfeasance. They find a painting of Ophion, with an invisible message from Queen Celeste, but it's in code.

Since Esmeray is well versed in ciphers, she starts to decode, but needs King Ophion's help to finish understanding the message. It is a warning that Celeste knew she was in trouble, soon before her death. And the message seems to imply Lani and another Celestial fey named Cassiopeia were acting suspicious.

Ophion is strangely quick to defend Lani, and in further discussion, he refuses to say one bad thing about her.

Edrik, Misha, Nerissa, and a freshly summoned Aneira attempt to try out this magic circle they found, unsure of its effect when activated. The Knight of the Void Star volunteers to step back into his previous pose, hoping to recreate past conditions, and Nerissa volunteers as the target.

They activate the magic just as Lani and Ophion come into view, and it becomes clear what the magic circle is for. It is a charm to make others fall under Lani's spell, and Ophion (and now Nerissa), are ready to fight for her.

Lani, who has feelings for Ophion, plots to turn him against Esmeray.

***

With supernatural speed, power, and range, Lani starts to force choke Betzalel, strike aside Edrik and Misha, and throw Esmeray across the room. Esmeray manages to break through to Nerissa, convincing the Cleric to remove the spell on herself. Nerissa then also removes the spell on Ophion, which enrages Lani.

Lani starts tearing apart the castle's interior; Esmeray, Misha, and Edrik doing their best to keep her at bay. Nerissa begins hearing a voice beckoning her, and as she listens in, her patron Typharia grants her the power of a Seraph. As a Seraph of Typharia, Nerissa is able to dispel Lani's disguise. She is not a Celestial Fey, she is a fey Kraken.

The heroes divide the kraken's attention and attack from all sides. Lani knocks out Nerissa in her anger at being denied Ophion, but Edrik fires one last arrow right into the kraken's eye. The creature erupts in a shower of viscera and magic, leaving behind just an impaled eye.

Although seemingly out of danger, the group of heroes soon realise that kraken are known to reincarnate elsewhere upon death, and Nerissa's patron tells them Lani's essence went to the Spring Fey Realm. The group patch up their injuries and then resume preparations for the Celestial Fey rescue mission.

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Part 2: The Shadow Court

Covering my session notes 5-8

The Shadow Realm is a place of darkness and undead monsters. Barely able to see beyond a few dozen feet, the party travels until they find a large river. Drifa told them directions and landmarks to where they can find ancient ruins of the Shadow Court. They brush past skeleton amalgamations and ghosts, trying to follow the river as close as they can to the bank without bumping into danger. At one point, Nerissa, followed by Edrik and Misha, peer into the river to see sparkling lights, but Esmeray warns them that they could be the eyes of monsters. So the party continue, avoiding looking into the water from then on.

Nerissa, Misha, and Edrik look into the shadowy River. The river stares back.

After reaching a certain landmark, they travel into a hilly region where Edrik senses a shadowy monster following at the edges of their senses. Soon, they stop and meet with the creature, who says he smells Gormadraugh, the world-ending dragon God, on Edrik. Edrik argues that this is because he draws from the great dragon's strength in an attempt to keep it at bay, so the shadow being asks us to slay a monster that Gormadraugh let into the Shadow Realm as proof of our good.

We meet the King Fissure Worm in its nest, and spread around the cave to disorient it. But the colossal creature senses through vibrations and is fast, so it soon swallowed several party members. But Edrik's bow and Esmeray's blade finally fell the beast, letting the others out through its mouth.

The shadow being asks us to accompany them to his home at a nearby volcano where they can gather supplies for a trip to the ancient Shadow Court capital and answer some of Drifa's and our questions. He introduces himself as the Shadow Court General Betzalel, likely one of the last living members of the Shadow Court.

Shadow Court General Betzalel.

Betzalel's home has a few interesting relics, including a statuette of the former King of the Shadow Court, Ophion, and his wife, Celeste, Queen of the Celestial Court. Their union is the likely cause for the other four courts to revolt and enact war against them. This union also resulted in a child, which Betzalel thinks is Esmeray.

* * *

The party are confronted by a shadow fey dragon on their way out of Betzalel's lair, but are allowed to leave peacefully. The journey to the Shadow Court city is arduous, and at one point, the party have to hurriedly rush across a canyon as a whole swarm of King Fissure Worms rush past. This is why Betzalel fears Gormadraugh.

The party eventually leave the swampy wastelands to arrive in a gothic city seemingly frozen in time, the Shadow Court capital, Leviathan. Betzalel says that before they can leave the Shadow Realm, they must undergo a ritual at Leviathan Keep, to wash off the curse that creatures in the river laid on them. The castle's throne room door opens at Esmeray's touch. Betzalel is smug, Esmeray tries to reject her destiny. In an outer courtyard, on the river is an alter with a time altering talisman on top.

Anneliese received a related temporal device from Gregor, and is trying to reunite all its components. So after the party successfully complete the cleansing ritual, Anneliese steals the time piece, and Nerissa Plane Shifts them back to Drifa's tower.

* * *

At Drifa's office we are met Eirwen the Winter Queen. She and Drifa have been having an argument over Esmeray. Her curse on Esmeray was meant to stifle investigations into the Shadow and Celestial Courts, and stopping Esmeray from finding her heritage. Eirwen was Celeste's sister, and she tried to work with Ophion to get her out of danger, but Ophion failed and Celeste died. The Celestial Court and its survivors were locked away, and now knowing we can undo this puts Esmeray and her allies in danger.

After a night of disagreements between Betzalel, Drifa, and Eirwen, they decide they'll help us find the Celestial Realm, and cover us from persecution. The party take a potion allowing them to see better in the Shadows (and the residual effects of the powers of each party members). They travel to an outpost where the most heinous criminals of other courts had been exiled, and kill them with powerful Cold Fire (a power Edrik got from Gormadraugh), hoping this will distract fey spies on their tail.

Anneliese finds another time piece, and this causes her to warp into another mine and space.

* * *

Unsure of Anneliese's fate, the party and their fey allies return to Leviathan Keep, where Betzalel brings them to a door to a ritual chamber. Esmeray puts her hand out and has a vision of her master Dansari, who taught her how to fight and dance. The chamber opens up revealing the body of a large Shadow fey creature with a giant sword through him. This is Shadow King Ophion.

Nerissa reads the corpse's mind to find that he's still alive. Edrik senses invisible creatures prowling from the shadows. And once they are perceived, they strike.

These Lich Fey Assassins, who'd been trapped with Ophion's indestructible corpse for 1000 years, lash out with vicious cruelty, and even with the number's advantage, Esmeray and her allies are almost slain. But teamwork and perseverance win he day.

The party turn to Ophion, using their magical expertise to understand the magical locks and enchantments used to keep him in stasis. With Nerissa's dispelling and Esmeray's blood, the sword is pulled free.

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Welcome to Etharis Masterpost

The land of Etharis, based on the world in the Grim Hollow setting books, is a world of monsters and madness. The gods have died, curses abound, and the remaining people do their best to get by. This post will serve as a Masterpost for my art covering my friend's Welcome to Etharis campaign.

Unlike my other D&D session post arts, each of my Etharis arts will be covering multiple sessions worth of story content, as this campaign's sessions happens too often for me to do a one to one.

Session Arts and related posts can be found on this blog under the tags #welcome to etharis, #etharis, and #grim hollow

Session Posts:

The Winter Court

The Shadow Court

The Celestial Court

Ulmyr's Gate

The Fey Conspiracy

The Wrath of Thaelkinei

Other Art:

Nerissa Lazar

Anneliese Drach

Drifa Mistress of Blizzards

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At the start of 2025, I was invited to join a friend's long-running D&D campaign (already like 70 something sessions in). Every other campaign I've drawn art of, I was there for session 1, so it felt awkward if I was to draw these characters that had existed for dozens of sessions before I got there, and initially, I didn't.

These sessions also run more frequently than my other group, so when I did finally decide I would draw them, I decided against doing a session art for every session. Now I'm playing catch-up, and for every 4-5 sessions, I'm doing one art.

All this to say that these session arts will come infrequently after I've done this initial burst of catch-up, and the session descriptions will be less detailed per session (except when I need to do broad introductions like in this session).

Part 1 - The Winter Court

Covering my session notes 1-4

A party of adventurers had been travelling in the eastern parts of the Charneault Kingdom (a southern region in Etharis), working for the Company of Free Swords in Voros. The party (lots of homebrew and third party):

Anneliese Drach: Time Warden Ranger

Ilze Barenis: Blade Dancer Rogue

Edrik Trumannson: Dragon Rider

Misha Edriksdottir: Edrik's Dragon partner (in human form)

Ostarion Longfeather: Witherbloom Druid

The party has been tracking a mysterious man named Casper, Anneliese's estranged father, who is working in disguise within the Free Swords. The party do a little investigation and are introduced to a tiefling named Nerissa, who helps them find faked letters from their Free Sword contact, Andross.

Nerissa Lazâr: Eldritch Domain Cleric (me!)

Nerissa is a cleric dedicated to bookkeeping and knowledge. Her piety is in service to searching for more knowledge. In a world of dead gods, having prayers answered is a bad omen.

The party decide to put on a talent show to cover their attack on Casper, but during the chase, a group of assassins start to attack their allies. Ostarion uses a powerful sphere of Annihilation in a last ditch effort, and when the dust clears, the assassins and Ostarion are gone. Meanwhile, the other party members find and confront Casper. Nerissa paralyses him, opening a flurry of attacks from Edrik and Anneliese, he never stood a chance.

Anneliese puts down her father Casper.

The party and the Free Swords dispose of the assassins and Casper by fire, and they psychically recieve a foreboding message saying they shouldn't have that. The party know this is Coltan, a vampire warlord who has been a thorn in the group's side for most of their adventures together. Coltan had also been operating within the Free Sword's fortress, and after some more investigation, they find the office he'd been using, and some notes on what he's become. Not just a vampire, but an amalgamation of many powerful monsters.

One of the party knows an old ally of theirs, Yög, knows how to reverse monstrous transformations. But it turns out Yög is in captivity, and they'll need an ally from the Thaumaturge (a powerful legion of spellcasters) to get him out. One some Thaumaturge can be found in the Fey Realm's Winter Court. Nerissa knows the spell to get there, but needs an attuned focus. Ilze summons a fey ally named Aneira to help them get there, who reveals Ilze is actually a Changelinger from the Winter Fey Realm named Esmeray.

* * *

The party find themselves in a wooden storeroom, approached by a mysterious man named Gregor. The party knows Gregor as a charlatan fiend, and he has a deal to cash in with Anneliese. He allows the rest of the party to grab a magic item of choice while he talks to her, and Nerissa finds an amulet to her god (who she previously did not know the name of, Typharia, goddess of knowledge. A short time later, they're let go and finally arrive in the Fey Winter Realm.

Aneira guides us to the town of Hailstorm, where we meet the Queen of the Winter Court. She releases Esmeray from her oath, allowing her to finally discuss her identity with the party openly. We meet the Winter Court's spymaster Aspen, who feels us that the Mage we're searching for, Drifa, is looking into the disappearances of two ancient courts outside of the main four season courts. She can be found in her tower, a couple days travel across the snow.

* * *

The icy fields they travel across are perilous, and the group are mostly exhausted by the time Drifer's tower is in sight. Except for Aneira and Esmeray, who are at home in the biting cold of the blizzard. The tower is hundreds of feet tall, and they take a while to reach the top.

Aneira and Esmeray guide their less cold-tolerant friends through a blizzard.

Drifa the Mistress of Blizzards is very cold to Esmeray, and after a long conversation trying to convince Drifa to help us, Nerissa reads Drifa's mind to conclude that Esmeray has been cursed with an effect that causes Drifa to hate her. This invasion of privacy goes badly, but after we deescalate the misunderstanding, Nerissa successfully removes the curse on Esmeray and Drifa's mind is cleared.

Nerissa searches Esmeray's mind for more clues, but determines whoever laid this curse did so before Esmeray's earliest memories.

* * *

A calmer Drifa tells the party about her research, about the Shadow Court and Celestial Court, the 5th and 6th fey courts, that were scrubbed from fey society a millennium ago. She will help us retrieve Yög if we travel to the now uninhabited Shadow realm and find clues to the now unreachable Celestial realm. The party begin their journey across the Winter Court's horizon into the lightless and sickly Shadow Court.

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Inkryptid Jiggles

Stupid interaction with my friend on Bluesky I wanted to make an art about.

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Hatslime Migoo dayo!

(My slimegirl Miku design)

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The party left Beliard for the road toward Dellmon Ranch, where they've been told orcs have been attacking. On the way, they help a family at a smaller farm who'd been attacked by orcs. But since their farmhouse is burned down, they travel with this group to Dellmon.

Jassolim and Cereg meet with the druid who sent the help message, and the families who'd gathered at Dellmon after their own farms were destroyed. Soon after the introductions, they hear a call that another wave of orcs are on their way.

The four party members present spread themselves around the ranch's perimeter to bolster their numbers, but their defence is barely good enough. Half a dozen orcs die, but almost as many farmers do too. The orcs retreat after a small skirmish, and the farmers tell the party that they'll be back tomorrow.

The party work with the farmers to strategise and rework the terrain to their benefit, and the next day, they're ready for the orcs' next strike.

Dain and Cereg are the MVPs of their respective spots, and Jassolim manages to destroy most of the orcs on his side with a Fireball centred on himself.

Josira lead a smaller force at a troop of orcs with an armoured orc mage at their front. Josira cuts them to ribbons, and an untrained commoner named Jim lands the killing strike on the orc mage. Unfortunately, the retaliating strike is too much for most of Josira's squadron, but the war horns of a band of elves (who'd been contacted weeks ago) arrive just in time.

Jim and a couple of other farmers didn't make it, remembered as heroes. The elves and the adventurers stay at the ranch for a couple of days to help care for the injured and rebuild.

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Sameko Saba soon 🐟

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After their visit to the Sacred Stone Temple, the party finally returned to Feathergale Spire. They recount the encounter with the Cult of Black Earth to the tower matron, Savra, and meet up with Josira's previous fling. Both of which rub Josira the wrong way with their attitude, and she swears secret revenge for when we enact the true reason we came back to the Tower.

To slay the Cult of Howling Hatred.

We reach the top of the tower and talk to the tower's leader, Thurl Merosska. But it seems he also had betrayal on the mind. As he brings Jassolim over to the edge, Cereg sees Thurl ready to toss the dwarf off the edge.

The group intercept, and Thurl calls reinforcements, leading to a flurry of slashes, arrows, and bolts of magic, ending with the leader of the Howling Hatred dead at their feet.

Fearing more cultists cutting off their escape, the adventurers rush down stairs, only to find that nobody else seemed to know that Thurl (and the party) were planning a betrayal. So the group burst into different parts of the tower, one room at a time, and get the first strike on several groups of Howling Hatred cultists.

This blitzkrieg reaches its conclusion when Savra and her closest guard find the party, and a furious Josira gets to draw blood for that earlier microagression.

After the party make sure the tower is empty of all threats (letting one stablehand flee), they have a short rest, finding a note adressed to Thurl mentioning some hostages captured by his boss elsewhere. The group decide they need to visit a larger city to get more help.

After a few days on the road, the group recieve a cry for help from Animal Messengers, saying a company of orcs have locked down a ranch a few days travel away. The party decide they should tackle this quest first, and travel first to the town of Beliard, and then beyond.

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Celebrating birthdays after 30 be like.

Late Happy Birthday art for Nyanners.

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Vivi trying some new fashion ideas. Inspired by @/lordhavem3rcy on instagram and her really fun outfit ideas.

Mercy's account:

https://www.instagram.com/lordhavem3rcy?igsh=MXdqcjIwYXk0cWlodw==

Colour alts.