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[lowstakesdilemma]

Hippo hayleydae

heeppy hoolida

[lowstakesdilemma]

Revenge comes for all of us in the end.

Hi, I hope You're having a tremendous day!

It's been a few weeks since my first post. My excuse: there were some technical difficulties with scanning my drawing. But You aren't here to hear my excuses, but instead to hear his story.

If You are interested in what I've been up to, I'll be happy to share that I'm working on some stuff. As always, the struggle of getting together for an rpg session is frustrating, and no one I know would be willing to make a D&D session anyway, so these characters aren't going anywhere for the time being. In the meantime, I'm trying not to get kicked out of college, and writing a book for NaNoWriMo, although my pace is way to slow to actually complete it within the time frame, so my progress on that is quite slow.

Today, the hero (?) up for debate is Kaller, a Reborn Barbarian/Fighter using the Unarmed Fighting Style, based on the great piece REVIVED by Derivakat. As a preface, let me tell You my stance on the whole SMP thing (bcs the song is about it). I don't really care for it. I'm not a fan, but like with most things, I don't dislike it. I only discovered that the song is based on it when I went to genius.com to check the lyrics five minutes ago, and it certainly doesn't change the fact that the song is an absolute banger.

Backstory

Upon meeting Kaller, most people would fall into one of two groups. Either they feared the savage being before them, kind of like a lone wanderer sneaking around to avoid the attention of a wolf they saw, or they called out his barbaric behavior and lack of manners. While he would ignore the majority of both, on some occasions, the latter ones would use the common phrase "Go to hell". These people are now having trouble speaking any words at all.

The first thing he remembers is a cell. Chains wrapped coldly around his arms and legs, the unbearable heat filling the air and forcing itself into his lungs, the laughter of imps. He didn't know who he was, or what did he do to deserve this. He knew only two things: his name is Kaller, and he has died. These, along with the demons torturing him daily, were the only certain elements of his life.

This lasted 13 and a half years, but each of those days felt the same to him. It all blurred together. Sometimes, they would drag him out of the cell and have him fight, either other humanoids or hellish beasts. That's how he found out another thing about himself: he must've been a demonslayer of some sort when he was alive, because he was able to manifest holy energy around his fists.

Finally, after all that time, an expedition came. On his last day in hell, he rejoiced when he heard the imps screaming in terror, running in fear, and dying in agony. Someone came. A group of paladins, to be precise. They went there as part of a confidential mission by their church, and were just as surprised as him to find that he was the only prisoner. Strange.

They escorted Kaller up to the material plane, and the team captain, Boxxon, said that there were high chances of him hearing from his saviours again. They left him a bit of money and were off to report their findings.

As Kaller tried to integrate with normal people, there was a little voice in his head, whispering to him what's right and what isn't. It turns out, most of what was happening was not right. The rich lords extorting the innocent was not. The constant conspiring and thieves were not. He wanted to live a peaceful life, but he felt like vomiting each time he witnessed an unhonourable act. And he spoke out against it, causing his enemies to multiply.

But it wasn't all bad. There were some that stood by him, and reminded him of the templars that rescued him from hell. When he met such people, it always involved a fight and the beginning of an unbreakable friendship.

Kaller always had a gut feeling that wherever he went, misfortune struck. Even with his standoffish attitude, there shouldn't have been so many attempts to take his life. Soon, the demons started coming, and it finally clicked into place. They wanted to cage him again. And he wanted to find out why.

Mechanics

Kaller is a Reborn simply for flavor, and this is one of those times were the most defining parts of him will be his subclasses. I'd personally go with a mix of Battlemaster and Zealot, picking up the Tavern Brawler feat along the way (if your DM agrees to change it into the BG3 version, even better). Of course, we're taking the Unarmed Fighting FS at level 2, and we're sort of pretending to be a STR-based monk. The BM maneouvres are our special moves - bonus points if you only use them while wielding an improvised weapon.

For stats, I'd go with 15(17) STR, 13(14) DEX, 14 CON, 8 INT, 12 WIS, 10 CHA. We need to invest in STR if we want to be a useful fighter, but You may opt to forsake DEX and just sport a full plate, which is fine, but I just think that the Unarmored Defense barbarians get is way to underused, and this is the perfect character to use it on. Similarly, depending on Your interpretation of the character, You may switch INT and CHA around, but I reckon Kaller is more uneducated (on the account of being resurrected) than rude. I wouldn't dump WIS though, he's more perceptive than Your average Joe.

As a character

Possible plot hooks for the DM:

Sir Boxxon arrives with the letter from his church, asking for help with an urgent matter

A devil appears, proposing a deal: You do something for me, I'll tell you about your past life

The voice in your head grows louder, and wants you to go to your... family? Are they still alive?

An unjust lord has set a bounty on your head to prevent you from coming to his land. What a weird invitation

You're having weird dreams about your prison, and an ominous feeling, enticing you to go back to the place it all began

As an NPC

Possible quests to give:

There is an execution in the town the party's staying at. Kaller, chained up and dragged to the executioner, shouts insults at the crowd and their silence, while calling out the lord for his deeds.

When the party's in a tavern, a brawl starts up. All of the participants seem to have a problem with taking one guy, who's fighting with just a beer mug.

A person has gone on a rampage in a nearby village, screaming about how everyone is a devil and killing civilians. Contain the madman, or stop him for good?

Loot:

Simplicity has a nice charm to it, so I'd give him Bracers of Defense and maybe brass knuckles with a mini-smite attached to them?

The song relevance (imho)

Like I said at the beginning, I had no idea that this song was already telling a character's story. This means that my story is based on another story, which makes all of it kind of like a polaroid picture of a polaroid picture, but the picture of the picture is very distorted and You don't even see a picture in that picture.

REVIVED is much more upbeat than our previous entry. It's aggressive, confident, even arrogant at times, pointing to a character with a lot of "I'm always right" moments in their life. Another thing that it brings to mind is the topic of resurrections, and how they redefine You. This is purely hypothetical if we're talking actual resurrections here, but becomes much more practical when we define resurrection as a change of paradigm, like in the phrase "They're like a whole new person".

I'm pretty sure that everyone has at least one such moment, where you draw the line between the old you (who is now effectively dead) amd the new you, who, despite being the same person, is another person. The ship of Theseus and all that.

Alright, getting a bit off-topic, and, what's worse, philosophical. Ugh.

Like always, feel free to use this in your games!

May Your calendar align with your friends'!

[lowstakesdilemma]

Braving the elements, all alone.

Hi, I hope you're having a beautiful day!

I'm new to tumblr, recently moved here from reddit, where I spent my days as a lurker. I thought to myself: let's expand some horizons. Tumblr seemed like a cozy place to share my ideas, so here we are.

Along with the decision to move came the inspiration to make some ttrpg characters, and in a fun way: by making a character for each song in my ever-growing Spotify playlist. I know I won't cover them all, but if something strikes me as interesting, I want to explore it. If I get the chance to improve my awful drawing skills, that's a nice bonus.

I don't know whether to make a separate post explaining all this, so for now let's just do the introductions here: this will not be a blog about optimizing dnd characters. 5e is a system very close to my heart (which sucks considering half of my players hate it passionately), so most oc's I post will likely be made using its framework (no homebrew, but all the official books are fair game), but as with pretty much all character ideas, they are fairly universal and can be adapted to many other systems. Additionally, I probably could optimize them - I'm not opposed to min-maxing, after all, but I think it's very liberating sometimes to actually try making sub-optimal characters. If you're good at the game (besides roleplaying, I'm just talking about combat here), it should pose an interesting challenge.

Gods, this post is so long already.

But we're finally getting to the actual topic. Today's song, for no particular reason, is The Darker The Weather // The Better The Man by MISSIO. I won't post the song lyrics, I'll just assume you either don't care or looked them up. If, in any of these posts, the song is on your playlist, please let me know, I won't feel as lonely in this sad world.

Our adventurer is Vishara, the Kalashtar (not really) Wizard. Let's start with her

Backstory

Vishara comes from a long lineage of warlocks living in the snowy tundra, employing the help of fiends and fey to fend off the freezing temperatures. From a very young age, she was the target of jealousy among her siblings, being treated by their grandfather as a prodigy, while rejecting the idea of selling her soul for power. She began studying the school of evocation, wanting to sever her family's dependence on the devilish magic. Once mother found out, she sent her away to study magic in the big city, protecting Vishara from her relatives.

At the academy, Vishara turned out to be a mediocre wizard at best, clearly showing the potential unique to her blood, yet not utilising it. The teachers were confused, but turned a blind eye to it, and let her pass a few years out of pity. She didn't care, and spent countless nights cramming the spell formulas, memorising the names of great wizards and witches. She made some friends, who recognised her for her kind soul, and after a few misadventures, forged a tight bond. Their group became known in the nearby villages as The Wands of Loyalty, beacuse even though they could physically be snapped in half like twigs, their camraderie proved unbreakable.

After obtaining the diplomma she wanted, Vishara said goodbye to the Wands and went back to her family home, having honed magic potent enough to melt the ice endangering any travelers. As a parting gift, the Wands gave her a robe with cantrip formulas written on it, and a few basic spell sigils woven into the fabric.

The journey was long, and even though Vishara could protect herself from harm, her frail body was tested to its limits. Upon finally arriving, she saw the family stronghold empty, devoid of life, and filled with corpses. She rushed over to her mother's room, only to find it empty and suspiciously clean, with the only thing out of place being a weird amulet she always saw her mom wear.

With a storm of questions boiling in her head, and no answers in sight, she was struck dumb, unable to form any response. That's when she felt it. The creeping chill. She heard the whisper, one her grandfather taught her to listen to, promising power, and information. A lonely spirit, just like her. Drawn to her inner flame, wanting to corrupt it. This was how Vishara met her new mentor.

Mechanics

Vishara is not really a Kalashtar. She could be anything from a human to an elf, it doesn't matter. We choose the Kalashtar race to represent Vishara's mentor - the being attached to her, the literal devil on her shoulder (well, it can be a fey or undead, but the point still stands). It protects her mind from outside interference ("it's occupied, dammit! Find your own mortal to possess!"), but sends her dreams of death and bitter cold, warning her that they will come true if she doesn't accept the deal, blah, blah blah. If the DM's cool, the Mind Link ability might also be the spirit, and we have to ask them to convey a message to someone. Pretty cool, right?

For stats, using the standard array, I'd pick something like this: 8 STR, 10 DEX, 12 (13) CON, 15 (17) INT, 14 WIS, 13 CHA. Vishara is a wizard, first and foremost, so the intelligence is a must. It can be a bit lower if you want to roleplay the 'bad wizard' thing, but we do want to help our party, not hinder it. The wisdom getting a 14 justifies our refusal to dabble with infernal powers, and possibly opens up the way to becoming a cleric, which might be appropriate. The charisma is our bloodline, and of course setting up a possible giving-in-to-temptation moment and multiclassing to warlock. The physical stats represent the fact that we're a wizard and we'll die from an average slap to the face.

As a character

Possible plot hooks for the DM: - A letter arrives, signed as Vishara's mother. - The remnants of her family come, seeking revenge, thinking it was Vishara that killed their relatives - The tundra is getting colder by the day. Someone should investigate, it may be a curse - Who made the first deal in the family? What was it about, and did it condemn all their children to being soulless? -A member of the Wands appears, they need help. Now.

As an NPC

Possible quests to give: - Escort her to a temple in the middle of the tundra, maybe lift the curse? - Vishara attacks the party, thinking it was them that killed her family. Who sent her on the party's trail? - The nearby magic academy has lost it's headmaster in a tragic fireball-related accident. Nobody wants to take up his mantle, so the staff hires the party to find a graduate for the position.

Loot: - The coat with spell formulas written on it. It can be just a fancy spell focus, or maybe a multi-spell scroll, or just a coat with Glyphs of Warding. What's their trigger? Who knows.

The song relevance (imho)

The first thing that comes to my mind when listening to this song is 'loneliness'. The way the singer pronounces "Distant", and the music backing him, is just... surreal, evoking a scene of drowning in an ocean, slowly, as your vision grows darker and darker. I know the opinion of "edgy character bad", but it's such a shallow take I won't even try to refute it here. I'll just say, complicated characters make for compelling stories, and tragedies complicate things really well. The surrealness also plays nicely into Vishara's dreams, which this passage could be all about.

The pre-chorus sets the scene just as well, giving us an easy setting for most of Vishara's story.

The chorus breaks the subtlety, shielding itself with only a metaphor from being taken literally, word for word. It's filled with anger, and hope at the same time, which isn't that easy to pull off for one, and makes for great material in the gym. Determination. Theoretically we don't need to make a character to say this part to (like I did with the devil), but it's just such a perfect quote for a warlock in the making, that I couldn't resist. I love the class so much.

The second verse is less connected to Vishara, but, interestingly enough, I think the third and fourth lines are fantastic characterizations of her to-be patron, who (at least in my version) latches onto this mortal not to hurt them, but to connect to them.

Alright, that should be everything. If you made it this far, let me just officially say: feel free to use anything you found here in your games.

May you and your friends' calendars align!