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XV | The Devil

Complete opposite from the last card, everything’s pretty open with the meanings, etc, which matches with the character himself so ig that works??

Drunk monk Duergar dude who showed up once, picked a petty fight with the party’s barbarian for no reason other than it’d be funny, then left :) he’s a joy, truly.

He’s got the whole panther lycanthropy going on too- enjoys the hell outta it and has a pretty good lid on it considering… literally everything else about him. Has absolutely bitten people before out of spite, and will most likely do it again.

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VI | The Lovers

Had an itch to draw a more rendered piece with Kalem, so revisited an old project :)

This was fun. There’s a lot of symbolism and references tied to the campaign in here, and just a lot about his background too.

The style’s a *lot* different from the old cards, but honestly the burnout’s been hitting hard lately and wanted to just go with a style I’m vibing with rn. Here’s the other cards tho- 5 of em are the player characters :)

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Faust, a celestial winged lion lad :) a good boy

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Another Dragonborn NPC?? Impossible

Abbot Aksel this time :)

Old, chill Dragonborn dude who’s the current leader of the religious which oversees Kydraig. He was a monk for a long time, but old age hindered that so he moved his wisdom to more clerical practices.

Good chance the party are gonna meet him, so threw some art together. He’s based off the 2024 gold dragon design, and has a more draconic appearance than most Dragonborn. Wanted to try and get a slightly ‘grandpa’ feel to him, especially as the party will just be meeting him during his normal, day to day life. He’d dress up a lot more formally for any sort of official business, but for everyday?? Comfy robes only please.

The staff shows a depiction of Dearg’loz, the draconic deity of rebirth. His whole vibe is a red dragon reborn as gold, so the staff kinda goes with that duality. Was fun to draw :)

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A couple of monk NPCs today :)

The first is Yvaine; a sun soul monk :) To put it kinda simply, her monastery and people are very focused on unifying your soul with your mind and body. She’s very artistic, and uses her abilities to create artworks across the continent as she travels.

The second guy’s Lanzo. He’s an ascendant dragon monk, and has a relatively direct lineage to a white dragon. Kinda resulted in a lot of the more., extreme personality traits getting passed on, and a lot of his own abilities come from redirecting that lineage into something useful and controllable.

Both are designed to potentially be anchors of sorts for one of the player characters. Think it’s gonna be a lot of fun :)

On an unrelated note too- this is only the 2nd Dragonborn I’ve ever drawn full NPC art for. 3rd if you’re including an old bust. Normally avoid drawing them like the plague lmao

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sometimes you simply must impulse redesign your ocs. as a treat for yourself

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NPC - Wren Verstyn

Wren! A lil tiefling lad, and adoptive son of Cazimira and Mirren :)

A wee menace, who simultaneously gets away with way too much and absolutely nothing. Mirren’s pretty lax - as long as he’s safe and not bothering people she’s happy for him to just be a kid. Cazimira’s… more strict, but her job keeps her out of town a lot more too, so she’s not there to keep him in line as much. Both of em love him to bits.

He’s a bit of a mirror of one of the player characters, in a way. Much earlier in life of course, but both have/had people looking out for them in similar ways.

(“Oh boy I sure hope this demonic heritage never screws with my kid. Gotta protect them from that mess.”)

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More Kalem art for the Masquerade Festival :)

The outfit was fun to design! He’s really not one for fancy clothes, but he’s been helping out a lot of people recently who all chipped in and bought him something nice for the festival. He doesn’t want to be the asshole who turns it down :)

He’s totally the kinda guy who would just throw on his old ‘every day’ boots with it though, so they kinda stand out a lil for anyone paying attention-

Version without the mask!

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NPC - Cazimira Verstyn

I could say important character related things here but clearly the most important thing is that at least half of the players are complete simps for her.

But anyway, this is Cazimira. She’s a member (one of five) of the Istaile Council; the leading political faction of Eiletìr. She mostly covers military operations and security of the country.

She’s got a fairly sturdy ‘anti-magic’ stance. One of the first things the players did was fail a stealth roll (Nat 1) to harass someone on a train using magic. The guy lowkey deserved it, but yep. First impression established. They did manage to deescalate it and due to other circumstances, it’s resulted in a fragile alliance for the time being.

I’ve drawn her a couple of times. This was the first, and below was the second. Just slightly updated to better reflect some things.

And here’s the third- the juiciest, and only drawn to give the players something fun ✨

Family!!

I’m planning a masquerade festival for the next city they’re visiting, so decided to throw Cazimira and her family in as someone they can run in to.

Literally just finished this 30 mins ago, because honestly drawing her in anything but her uniform just felt weird. Her wife totally picked out that outfit though.

This is honestly the most wholesome thing I have or will ever draw for this campaign. It’s nearly entirely influenced by the player’s headcanons too, so I think they’ll have fun with it-

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NPC - Dìon-Gylir Mystcross

Your local swamp frog druid man.

It’s no sleep hours, so can’t put much else together than that right now :)

But yeh, he’s a chill (but awkward) dude. No idea how to interact with people or how to handle relationships (platonic or otherwise), but he’s mostly easy enough to approach.

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NPC - Adaliah de Carpathia

The current antagonist to the party, and someone I’ve done a good bit of art for over the years:)

She’s a vampire responsible for a lot of shit happening to one of the old player characters, and she shares a warlock patron with another of the pc’s.

Her base design - they first met her at a fancy event, so ofc she had to be dressed to match the occasion ✨

A temporary outfit - she’d been travelling in the far north before the party messed with her plans. Wanted to give some hints of what exactly she was up to, so with a winter outfit and bit of snow escaping a teleport they pieced it together pretty quick :)

And yeah- her newest look. The party essentially took away the last two people she cared about or trusted (rescued one, and killed the other), and at the same time took away any motivation she had to keep resisting her patron’s influence.

Sad yeehaw moments.

Had to censor the comic text to stop the players from being able to read it, but it’s a whole lot of manipulation going on there you can be sure of that :)

In case it wasn’t obvious she’s absolutely my favourite npc of the campaign :) She’s just a really., sad character. Someone who’d be abhorred at what she’s become but can’t do anything to escape it, even if she tried.

She’s a character that’s reactive to the party’s treatment of her, but at the same time they have no explicit reason to trust or try to redeem her. One character tried once (sort of accidentally on their part), and got through to her a bit. Enough to have her briefly turn on her patron and leak some information to the party. Not much came of it, and it’s turned to a case of back and forth killing from either side.

And unrelated, but it’s been Arcane brain rot recently and both of these fit her defining character arcs near perfectly :)

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NPC - Kalem des Quirinus

This dude’s one of the first NPCs that showed up in the campaign- he asked one of the party to go meet with his boss, and the meeting very quickly ended with an assassin attack, so there’s a lot of confusion and distrust going on there.

Kalem’s a.. sad boy hours bit-of-a-himbo dude. Redemption paladin who took a pacifistic-like oath to honour his late partner. His power comes from a deity who took note of him, though Kalem himself has no clue where it comes from, nor does he really care all that much.

He’s a weirdo to play. He’s essentially a spy of sorts, and as long as he has his act to play he comes across as a pretty chill dude. A little nervous, maybe, but calm. The second he’s left to himself he’s down at the local fight pit throwing punches for coin. At heart, he’s much more of a street rat, but he’s spent a lot of his life trying to be anything else. Still, old habits die hard.

In other news, the party are planning to kidnap him if they run into him again. No idea how that’ll end but I can’t wait lmao

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Reposting this Ajanie piece- tweaked the lighting a little and fixed a couple things I didn’t notice until it was posted-

But yea, he’s fun :)

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More Fiadh!

We started the campaign today, so tidied up the sketch from a couple weeks back for a newer reference!

The session was a lot of fun- can’t wait to play with the party more 🔪

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NPC - Kamikla

Kamikla’s an aasimar of Scáth - something she struggled to accept for a while, but had good friends to help her on the way. Now she’s a ‘cleric’ of his, though the way the powers manifested is much closer to sorcerous in nature.

She’s a tattoo apprentice, and recently moved to Ouverth to learn the trade and refine her skills. Might even move into the magical tattoo department ✨

She’s another case of ‘party haven’t met her yet’, but she’s good pals with one of them so I’d be surprised if she doesn’t show up at some point-

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Deity - Scáth

Scáth is the deity of the largest moon. He’s seen as the God of Night and Refuge, and watches over the Shadowfell.

He holds extremely little bias against anyone- even people or creatures that other deities abhor. It’s not strictly a bad trait, but his desire to give everyone a home resulted in the Shadowfell becoming what it is. He has good intentions, just not the best execution.

He’s not come up in game yet. One of the more… dignified PCs loosely follows him, so there might be more interaction with him in the future depending which direction the character heads. I cannot WAIT to get there and see the player’s reaction when they realise he’s got chill stoner energy rivalling that of Shaggy.

Wanna change his head/mask design at some point, but the vibe’s still there??

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NPC - Maria and Manel Silva

Maria and Manel Silva - a pair of NPCs the players haven’t met yet, but most likely will soon.

Maria works with ‘the Seekers’; a small group of historians out to document ruins and relics of Athrei. Her partner, Manel, is a bit of an ‘honorary member’, and spends most of his time with the Creed (the ruling, religious faction of Kydraig).

They’re both shape changed dragons who find joy in spending time with people. Maria, ‘Airen’zol’, is a silver dragon, whilst Manel, ‘Onumha’zol’, is bronze. They’ve been together a long time, and will most likely stay together until the day they die.

The names ‘Maria and Manel’ were suggested by one of the players as, quote, “Bob and Bobina equivalent” names at 3am. And honestly, for two dragons that don’t quite understand humanoid naming conventions it was just too perfect to pass on.