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Slice of Life for Gnorok Almetl

A blurb from the life of Gnorok, a Half-Orc Paladin out to avenge the wrongful death of his family.

Gnorok swung his axe wildly into the wooden beam before him. From all around, the sounds of grunting, labored breathing, and the ring of metal on metal created a cacophony so familiar, it was almost soothing. Mistress Erin shouted at him, in one of her usual fits over his technique, “Dammit you wild-eyed buffoon! That’s the third practice pell you’ve ruined this week!” In a voice gravelly and brutish in nature, Gnorok sighed, “Y’aint wrong on that mistress, but I haven’t ‘ad the time of late to sleep, let alone practice with that ascension coming up.” The hard look on Erin’s eyes softened a little as she regarded Gnorok. Though wild and easily distracted an acolyte as he was, the oaf meant well. She only worried about whether or not the Grand Masters would even consider him fit for the service of the Gods. Though he was a deadly threat with an axe or ballista, Gnorok simply had a hard time with his studies. For the last test, when asked about the rites and rituals that should be annually performed to please various members of the pantheon, he had drawn a turkey leg, claiming ‘Everybody’s gots to eat, mistress.’

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Slice of Life for Locien Greenbottle

The Fellowship sat around a crackling fire, surrounded by dead logs they used as seats. Locien had already headed to bed. As the smoke rose through the air, a sudden crack from the fire caused Gnorok to speak, “Well, what kind of action should we take ‘bout Mr. Bad-guy?” Ignale stared into the flames with a furrowed brow. “Well, its not like we can just track him down. He appears to be everywhere at once.”

Off in the background, Locien snorted in his sleep. He wriggled on his bedroll and whimpered as though having a nightmare.

Inside Locien’s mind, he saw darkness. Great tumultuous clouds of darkness crept along the ground towards his twin, Lidda. Lidda was staring at the wreckage of her own cart, seemingly puzzled by its burning remains. A snap of a twig behind her caused her to turn around. In that moment, the darkness struck. Lidda screamed.

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Happy new years everyone! Stay safe! #newyearsday #rollingadventures #keepitrolling

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Closing out another day of adventures, with high hopes for the future

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About to set sail on some new adventures!

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Sorry to see vacation end, but man am I ready to start putting out more content!! (at Florida)

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Check out Rolling Adventures on Facebook and Tumblr for story updates on Rufus and other characters!

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The Journey Underway quip

Rufus awoke to the sound of drizzling rain kissing the roof of the forest canopy. Wiping the grit out of his eyes, he judged by the warm smell of herbs and spices, that Kodlak had already started in on this morning’s stew. Rising from his bedroll, the young druid-in-training afforded himself a generous stretch while taking in his surroundings. He and his master had been on the road for a couple of months now, bound for the town of his birth, to complete a sacred druidic rite of passage. This was to be the winter where Rufus finally joined souls and fates with an animal companion. His esteemed tutor had regaled him with stories of the most memorable conjunctions of spirits, namely Grand Druid Kalafar’s close encounter with an angry camel. Rufus sent up a silent prayer to the Great Spirits that no such misfortune would befall him.

The young man made his way over to the camp’s fire, where Kodlak hunched over a steaming pot of what smelled to be squirrel stew. Small brown chunks of cooked rodent floated amongst the remains of their stores of fresh vegetables. Sensing his protégés thoughts, the old hedge wizard glanced over his shoulder. “I’ve just fashioned and planted new greens for tomorrow, youngling. Don’t look so distraught!”

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An Illustration of Rufus, the Human Druid by his player @lookaplane She did such a badass job!

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A quip from Rufus' origin book

The flames licked the tops of the trees, voraciously consuming any life they came in contact with. On the ground near his parents hut, lay a young infant, screeching at the top of his lungs. The orange glow of firelight shone behind his pupils as he took in the horror before him. Stampeding boots from every direction nearly extinguished the youths life. The sound of an unfamiliar gravelly voice, companied by the smell of burnt hemp and wood smoke flooded his senses, calming his screaming. Kodlak lifted the distraught babe in his arms as his aroma put the baby to sleep. Wheeling backwards to face the oncoming horde of mere mortal humans, he roared to Kordus in the language of the forest, “Cover me, Kordus! Shield me with your might! We must fly!” With a swishing sound of his cape, the old man disappeared into the night, leaving his old friend to fend for himself. He could only hope that he would be okay.

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Lords of the Wastes Session 2

"Gnorok lept, roaring a battle cry, into the maw of the beast from below the sands, his gleaming sword plunging quickly into the monsters pallet. A shower of blood sprang from the creatures mouth, bathing him in all its acrid, gory glory. It was finally done."

Tonight was a badass session two for my "Lords of the Wastes" campaign, starring an equally badass group of players. Thank you for taking the time out of your week to make this happen. I hope to make this a full and complete campaign, and I would never be able to do it without your help. Special thanks to Matthew Polin and Brent Massey for such a great solution to our earlier technical difficulties, and Kudos to Ciaran Brown-Garcia for creative and effective use of Inspiration to slay the deadly Sand Dragon.

Until next time, may your rolls be high, and your crits bountiful.

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Giant Dragon (Cheval Dragon Long Ma) by La Machine, Calais, France.

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Wizard Arcane Tradition: Nivix Guildmage (Download)

This post was suggested by one of the winners of my 1000 follower celebration, @sarkhan-punbroken! 

The focus for this subclass was to mirror common Izzet themes. In particular, the Research and Development ability is based on the Nivix Guildmage card ability of “draw a card, then discard a card,” in that it allows the player to gain access to additional spells, and discard those that they didn’t find useful. Likewise, the Replicate ability, (while also mirroring the original Izzet mechanic in name and function) reflects the card’s ability to copy spells. The Mizzium Accumulator ability actually took some inspiration from the Energy mechanic of Kaladesh (particularly the expansive array of what one can do with the new resource), which I then reverse-engineered for this subclass. Basing it on casting spells, the first ability mirrors cards such as Wee Dragonauts and Nivix Cyclops, which gain attacking power from spells being cast. The second takes inspiration from Tibor and Lumia, granting a flight ability. The third was more D&D-centric, but seemed an appropriate addition to enhance the player’s spellcasting powers.

For the final ability, I knew the best option would be something that carries the theme of an “Epic Experiment.” For this, I came up with a number of experimental powers, based on a number of different Izzet Cards, including Dragonshift, Thoughtflare, and others. By using the “d4-2″ system across all experiments, it allows them all to fail in spectacular ways, as is often the case with the experiments undertaken by mad scientists.

Designing this subclass was wonderfully fun, and it isn’t a standalone piece. I’m already working on sublcasses for four of the other 9 Guildmages of Ravnica, which will vary widely on which classes they will be parts of. Formatting the pages of this subclass, like my others, used the fantastic tools over at The Homebrewery, I highly recommend them for other homebrew designers! 

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Set up the house to spook our players! We even booby trapped the front door!