#This is in light of how how HP is being used as a language revival text among several speaker groups of indigenous and minoritized language

[rotzaprachim]

doing some readings for class and now extremely interested if academic work has been done on the boarding school in Harry Potter as English/Anglo-American apparatus for assimilation and social control

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms Far Sides #6: Ciel

Today on Fate and Phantasms, Magical_Biche and I bring you the final of Tsukihime’s heroines, Ciel! Her build breakdown is below the cut, and you can find her character sheet over here. I’ll let Biche do the talking now.

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Hello there! Today, we’re building the last of the main girls, Ciel. I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest Ciel fan, so I kinda delayed her until I had no other choice, and here we are! I had to finish the main heroines before moving on to the villains, after all. As usual, heavy spoilers beyond this point. 

At first glance, Ciel might seem quite straightforward, but she’s far from being simple to build. She shows plenty of abilities, many more than Arcueid or Kohaku, actually. I even learned a bunch of things in the Type-Moon wiki, like how she could use magic. However, I know how reliable that wiki is, and I’ve mostly built Ciel with my own experience of the games, and tried to stick to it. I will also have to do Powered Ciel, as she’s quite different from OG Ciel, and certainly simpler to build. While Shiki Nanaya/Tohno and the three different forms of Akiha aren’t too different from each other, Ciel offers a whole new dimension in her alternative form. 

As for what we need for this build, we need to be skilled at fighting with our staple weapon, the black keys. As they don’t exist in DnD, obviously, we’ll have to stick with daggers. We also need a bit of hypnosis, to blend in with normal people, and we need to be quite fast and agile, to fit our fighting style of swift strikes. We also need to be an absolute beast at tracking and slaying vampires, of course. Finally, while we can’t be immortal, there are ways to avoid death in DnD, and we’ll try to grab some. 

With all that said, let’s dive into the build!

Race and Background

Despite being an immortal vampire, the variant human is the race that fits our character the best. We look exactly like one, and we used to be one, despite our immortality curse. Being a v. human allows us to put a +1 to our dexterity and constitution scores, and to grab the Fey touched feat, giving us a free use of Misty step and Charm person per day, as well as increasing our wisdom score by 1. Those 2 spells are quite useful to us, as one allows us to literally teleport behind enemies, and the other allows us to charm people and have them accept us as a part of their daily life. Being a variant human also gives us a free skill proficiency, and we’ll be taking the proficiency in perception, as we can’t grab it otherwise. It fits our role perfectly, as we’ll often have to search for our foes. 

Next, we are quite obviously an acolyte. This gives us a proficiency in religion and insight, perfect for doing religious stuff (we’re still employed by the church, after all), and finding whether people are secretly vampires or not. We also always have a shelter for the faithful, allowing us to take shelter in religious buildings, always nice, but situational. The two language proficiencies are entirely dependent on the game, but abyssal and celestial fit a religious character quite well. 

Ability Scores

Sadly, we can’t exactly have 4 stats at 15 from the start, so we’ll have to be toned down a bit. We’ll have to use point buy for this build, as we need many ability scores to be quite high, and we don’t really need the other ones. First, our two highest stats should obviously be our wisdom and our dexterity. We are very agile, and we have an easy time to understand other people. We are also extremely determined. Next, our constitution should be pretty high. However, thanks to our classes, we will have a hefty pool of HP, so we don’t really need to have our constitution too high. 13, with our racial boost, puts us at a comfortable +2, enough to tank hits for a while with our good AC. Next, we have quite average intelligence and charisma. We’re not particularly bad at those, but we’re not really good either. Next, we dump our strength. We’re actually quite strong, but we need a dump stat, and strength isn’t of any use to us. With point buy and our racials, our stats would be an 8 in strength, 16 in dexterity, 14 in constitution, 10 in intelligence, 16 in wisdom and 10 in charisma. With that set, we’re on to the class levels. 

Class Levels

1. Monk 1: Naturally, with high wisdom and dexterity, a religious background and no visible armor, being a monk seems obvious. First level monks get proficiency in two skills, and we’re going to be proficient with athletics and acrobatics. This will add a lot to our mobility, be it for climbing or jumping over people. We also become proficient with strength and dexterity saving throws, great to avoid being pushed around the battlefield and avoid dangerous AOEs. Next, we become proficient with a bunch of weapons, but we’ll only ever use our bare fists and daggers, as we have ways to mitigate their low damage, as monks. Finally, we get proficient with the cook’s utensils. We’ll obviously only ever do curry, but we need to be good at making it. 

Our first monk level also gives us our martial arts-allowing us to be efficient at hitting stuff quickly-and unarmored defense, giving us a quite decent AC of 16 right off the bat. 

2. Cleric 1: Of course, as we were raised by religious people, we are tailor-made for the cleric class. Level one cleric gives us spellcasting, including the powerful tool that is ritual casting, and access to all of the level one cleric spells, as well as three cantrips from the spell list. We’re grabbing word of radiance, to add a bit of radiant damage to our sacred arsenal (preferably used right after hitting something with a thrown dagger), resistance, to help with survival, and thaumaturgy, a great dramatic tool to have a louder voice, or have our eyes radiate light. 

As for the first level spells we should have prepared, shield of faith helps with AC, cure wounds allows us to heal quickly, protection from evil and good gives us a powerful defensive option against our not-yet-sworn enemy, and guiding bolt is a great way to start a battle and give advantage to our allies. 

Next, being a first level cleric also means that we can pick a domain, and we’re a cleric of the grave, because of our sacred task of tracking the undead and putting them back into their grave. The subclass gives us an improved version of spare the dying, adding to its range and allowing us to cast it as a bonus action. It also means we always have the false life spell prepared, which does a great job at making us less mortal, and bane, which doesn’t really fit in our build, as we’ll have more and more concentrations as we level up, and we’ll already want to spend ours to maintain shield of faith or protection from evil and good. We also get the circle of mortality feature, which helps us revive our fallen allies with cure wounds. Finally, our eyes of the grave allows us to detect any undead within 60 feet of our person, as long as they’re not magically hidden. This is a great tool to track vampires, who are obviously undead. 

3. Cleric 2: Being a second level cleric gives us our channel divinity feature, once per rest. As with all clerics, we can use it to turn undead, a great way to turn ghouls created by our sworn enemy. As a cleric of the grave, it also allows us to pave our foes a path to the grave, giving them vulnerability to the next attack it suffers from us or an ally. This is a great way to bypass some annoying immunities, but it sadly only lasts for one hit. If our DM allows it, we can also use our channel divinity to harness divine power, allowing us to recover some spell slots. As it is dependent on our proficiency bonus, we don’t need any more cleric levels to make this powerful, which is great. 

4. Monk 2: We’re diving back into the monk to reach our extra attack, this time. We get our first ki points, allowing us to do a bunch of stuff with our bonus action. We can use patient defense to boost our survivability, flurry of blows to deal a bit of extra damage with our fists, and step of the wind to move a bit during our bonus action. Our speed also increases a bit thanks to unarmored movement.

5. Monk 3: We enter the second tier of adventuring with that level, and the third level of monk gives us our monastic tradition, the way of the long death. This gives us a nice little ability to mimic the immortality we are supposed to have, the touch of death. This allows us to gain a bunch of temporary hit points when we kill a creature while in melee range. Pretty neat! We also gain the ability to deflect missiles, which does what it says, and if our DM allows it, we can also get the ki-fueled attacks, allowing us to still keep on the offensive while we spend ki points.

6. Monk 4: Reaching our fourth monk level gives us our first ability score improvement, and we’re pumping up our dexterity by two points. We also get slow fall, furthering our agility, and yet another optional feature we actually need, quickened healing, allowing us to heal ourselves with a martial art die by spending ki points. 

7. Monk 5: Fifth level monks gain an extra attack, which increases our damage output a lot. It’s a simple feature that fits our fighting style of throwing things, as we now do it faster and better. We also get the stunning strikes, which may be useful to stun creatures that have bad constitution saving throws. We also get our final optional feature with focused aim, another great feature to help hitting stuff, if our DM allows it. 

8. Fighter 1: Now that we are actually good at hitting stuff and not dying too quickly, it’s time to become better at throwing! We become a first level fighter, allowing us to take the thrown weapon fighting fighting style, at last. This allows us to draw our black keys (daggers) as part of our attacks, which means we can now use our bonus action for whatever else. Like throwing another black key. It also gives all our thrown weapon attacks a +2 bonus to their damage, which is very nice, as our martial arts die is still only a d6. Being a first level fighter also gives us a second wind, which allows us to regain some HP on a bonus action, nice for our gimmick of not dying. 

9. Fighter 2: Our second level in the OG martial class gives us an action surge, basically giving us a second action per turn once per long rest. With that, we can throw as much as 5 black keys in a single combat turn, which can down a boss pretty quickly. It only gives us a second action, though, so we can’t use a second bonus action on top of it. 

10. Fighter 3: We get a third level in the fighter class so we can reach exactly one feature from a particular subclass. It’s not that eldritch knight’s spellcasting is bad or out of character, but we’re mostly here for the other feature, weapon bond. Thanks to weapon bond, we can bond with up to two weapons and recall one of them in our hand as a bonus action. That basically means that we can have unlimited ammunition, which is totally awesome. However, we can only recall one weapon per turn, which limits us if the combat is too long. 

Also, this archetype gives us 2 wizard cantrips, and booming blade will really help with our melee damage. It sadly doesn’t work with thrown weapons. Also, even though we clearly don’t have the intelligence to use it correctly, sword burst can be used to materialize a bunch of black keys around us to hurt anyone at our contact. 

As for our first level spells, we’re getting absorb element, giving us resistance to elemental attacks and allowing us to increase our melee damage a bit, shield, which is always great for a character whose survival is a selling point, and find familiar, which lets us call our faithful Nanako to help us. Not that she will, but having her here can be useful to tank a hit or two. Also, we’re forced to make her a rat or a weasel, unless our DM is generous and feels like allowing her to be a horse, like she’s supposed to be. 

11. Ranger 1: Yes, we’re adding yet another class to this build. Multiclassing into a ranger gives us a new proficiency, and we’re now someone who’s good at survival, which makes sense, given that we can survive in harsh environments. We also get the favored enemy feature, and we’re picking undead as our favorite enemy, because… they are. Our favorite enemy, that is. We’re taking this feature over Tasha’s variant, favored foe, because of the flavor, and that’s about it. We lose in efficiency, and that’s about it. We’ll still get hunter’s mark later, so it doesn’t matter too much. However, it makes much more sense to take the optional feature for the other trademark ranger feature, deft explorer. That feature is quite simple and gives us an expertise in a skill of our choice, in our case, acrobatics. 

12. Ranger 2: Our second level in the ranger class grants us a new fighting style: two-weapon fighting. This can be used with thrown weapons, which means that now, all of our attacks with thrown weapons can add our dexterity modifier to them. It also works when we hit things in melee, by the way. We also get yet another round of spellcasting, with the ranger’s unique spell list this time. We have fewer options, and a lot of them require concentration, though. 

We’re taking hunter’s mark, to add a nice little d6 to pretty much every one of our hits, to increase our ability to kill undead (and other things), and zephyr strike, which works perfectly with our hit-and-run tactics. 

13. Ranger 3: With this level, we reach our fourth and last class archetype. We become a monster slayer, giving us access to a new spell we already had (but now it’s always prepared, so it allows us to prepare another cleric spell instead), protection from evil and good, which makes us extremely hard to hit by our favorite enemy, among other things. 

While we’re in spells, we learn a new spell, which is going to be jump, making us even more agile than we were. 

We also gain a hunter’s sense, allowing us to peek into our target’s defenses. We also get the slayer’s prey feature, which acts like a watered-down (as it’s limited to once per turn) hunter’s mark, that can’t be upcast, but since it’s not a concentration, it can be cast with hunter’s mark. Also, the time limit is until our next short or long rest, which is great if our target manages to escape, for example. 

14. Cleric 3: Back into the cleric class for the last time. Third level clerics only gain access to their second level spells. However, there is plenty of great options there, like enhance ability, which obviously helps us moving around with the cat’s grace, or tank hits with the bear’s endurance, lesser restoration, allowing us to recover from many status effect affecting us, and hold person, which could be seen as us pinning down things with our black keys. At that point, if we add all of our spellcasting features, we are considered a level five spellcaster, meaning that we have 4 first level spell slots, 3 second level spell slots and 2 third level spell slots to use. We don’t know any third level spells to use our biggest spell slots, but we can always upcast guiding bolt and absorb elements. 

15. Monk 6: Back into our main class for the rest of this build so we can get decent martial arts dice. The sixth monk level makes our unarmed strikes magical thanks to ki-empowered strikes. This is nice in a low magic campaign, but in a regular campaign, magic daggers should be pretty common. Plus, we already have booming blade and a bunch of spells to deal magical damage already. We also gain a new subclass feature, hour of reaping. With this feature, we can literally scare off creatures that fail a saving throw, which fits our build quite well, actually, as we do not want bystanders to be caught between us and our prey. This can also be used to scare some undead, too. 

16. Monk 7: Seventh level monks gain the evasion feature, making us extremely difficult to touch when it comes to most damaging AOE spells. Needless to say, this fits our agile and resilient build quite well. We get even more resilient thanks to our stillness of mind, letting us end a charm or fear effect as an action on our turn. 

17. Monk 8: We become level eight in the monk class, and reach our second ability score increase… at level 17. Since we can’t exactly fit feats into this very varied build (not that we need to, although tough would have been great), we’ll have to increase our wisdom by two points this time, so we kinda keep up with our other party members when it comes to casting. 

18. Monk 9: At level nine, monks can finally walk on walls and water! It’s nothing too fancy, but that means we can now jump on walls, walk on them and take our enemy by surprise, which is incredibly cool. 

19. Monk 10: At their tenth level, monks become immune to disease and poison, thanks to their pure body. It’s about time we had this in the build, since we’re supposed to be immortal. 

20. Monk 11: At last, we reach the eleventh monk level. We only get one feature, in theory, which is mastery of death, which lets us not die up to eleven times per short rest, which means we are essentially immortal for up to 11 attacks. Yes, it’s that good. It’d be even better if we’d taken more monk levels. But we also get a “passive” improvement at this level: our martial arts die becomes a d8, which means our puny daggers now deal 1d8+6 damage when they’re thrown, and we can throw them up to 3 times on regular turns. We’re not even bad at hitting stuff in melee too thanks to booming blade and sword burst. 

Pros: Thanks to monk levels and 2 fighting styles, our black keys are a deadly weapon we can pretty much spam everywhere, making us effective at both close and medium range. We’re also quite mobile thanks to jump, being a monk, our single use of misty step, zephyr strike, hold person and booming blade. We also get a pretty good AC thanks to being a monk, and we’re quite the cockroach thanks to our monk subclass, healing from second wind, healing from the cleric spell list, false life, resistance, shield, absorb elements… Next, we also have a ton of ways to rack up damage, with booming blade, hunter’s mark, Slayer’s prey and Zephyr strike. Finally, we have quite a lot of useful class resources, including 11 ki points, 4 hunter’s sense and the ever powerful action surge. 

Cons: However, we’re clearly not a perfect being. We had to limit our constitution because of how little ability score increases we could grab. Also, mixing the cleric and ranger spell lists means that we have a lot of concentration spells. We also have an almost useless spell with sword burst, which uses our bad intelligence stat, but fits our theme so well. Finally, our bonus action is quite crowded, and we’ll most likely rarely ever use our potential 3 attacks per turn, since we have to set up hunter’s mark and recall weapons from time to time.  

[skittymon]

Finally finished Tales of Eternia!! 

And that makes 11th tales games finished and 15th overall played in some degree (Phantasia, Legendia, Innocence, and DotNW being the ones I havent finished yet).

Once I started again in December I decided that instead of liveblogging I’d make a review at the end instead.

So here we go! I will keep this spoiler free as possible!

I’m pretty scatterbrained but I’ll try to divide this into: combat, story, characters, and other game mechanics.

Combat: So obviously, the combat is above Phantasia and Destiny’s, being made after them. I honestly have grown fond of the 2d linear style format. There’s so many different boss fights in this game that can only work in a 2d field rather than 3d. 

On the flip side, that’s not always a good thing. I count bosses like the wild dog thing in Vesperia, and Fodra Queen of Graces to be among the hardest mandatory boss fights in tales. Welp, Eternia added one to the ranks. Rem (aka Aska the light spirit) is one of the most frustrating boss fights I’ve done. Apart from constantly slowing healing itself, on the field it brings a shiny ball with it. You cannot destoy the orb, it’s there all fight, and if you touch it it hurts you. And of course it blocks the way to Rem. There is a way past it, it moves up and down so you just have to wait until its up to move past. BUT GUESS WHAT THE AI DOESNT DO. So your party will probably either be dying or constantly in pain. AND REM CAN MOVE THE ORD ANYWHERE. Also you cant physically hit Rem while its casting a spell only far away skills. So if you ever play this game just cheese it and spam variations of Sonic Blade.

Of course, on the flip side it’s every easy for you to cheese boss fights and just back them up into a corner unable to move or do anything until they die, so it evens out.

The sprite animations for the artes are gorgeous. Reid moves so fluidly in his artes, he’s honestly my third favorite protag to play as behind Yuri and Ludger because of this. The caster animations are great as well, granted it can become cluttered and hard to see in when artes like blizzard and earth shaker are used. BUT GOD DAMN I CAN WATCH MEREDY USE METEOR ALL DAY IT LOOKS SO COOL.

Nitpicks about the combat system are, Life, the reviving spell Farah has, takes to long to charge, and for Meredy and Keele to use healing artes you have to mix and match who has what craymel (spirit). There might be a guide but I didnt look beyond reddit so Life was the only resurrection spell I had. 

Last nitpick comes from the Aurora Artes. Aurora Artes are skills only Reid can use, but in order to use them you have to have health below 15% and press circle, square, and x at the same time, so it’s very easy to mess up and die. Then to use more Aurora Artes you press the same buttons repeatedly, and after you use them Reid is left with 1 hp. AND the final boss has an automatic kill skill, you have to press the buttons at the right time to activate it and keep everyone alive, or you can cheese it like I did and have Farah hold a reverse doll to revive her after she dies. Did I also mention this skill happens in phase 2 of the fight when the bosses health is less than 20,000 after starting from 300,000? If you fuck up thats like 10mins of redoing.

But to end on a better note for this section, I love the way artes are learned. You have to use certain artes a number of times before you can unlock it (I THINK abyss and vesperia and many others are like this but this is the first time I found it rewarding). I grinded like hell to get the best artes for Reid AND YOU BET IT WAS WORTH IT. Omega Demon Chaos I love you,,,,

Story: Like countless other Tales titles, the conflict comes from two worlds being at odds with each other. However this game does something that none of the other games have done with this story beat. Language barriers! It’s super cool in the first couple of hours theyre just trying to figure out how to talk with Meredy. Of course by the end this point is nearly dropped entirely, everyone else just getting the special ear ring I spent 3 hours to get so the plot can move on.

Like most tales, theres a moment you thought the story would end but BOOM the twist. I wasn’t shocked by it, but that’s because I knew who the final antagonist of the game was prior to playing it, but still it was executed well. 

Something that makes this Tales stand out is how they deal with backstory. So the main fours backstory is vital to the story and their characters but they don’t show it till like 20 hours in. It’s like if Graces you start off in main arc and learn about the childhood arc 2/3 of the way through and went “ohhhh that’s why they were distant with each other.” And other stuff about it but I won’t spoil it.

Overall a good story, though I do feel like I’m missing things either from missing some side quests, or because of no skits.

Characters: The main ones to shine are the four main characters (Reid, Farah, Keele, and Meredy), everyone else literally is either one dungeon and/or optionable. Chat does still feel like a character being the owner of the Van Elita aka means of transportation for half the game. Max and Ras tho rip. ESPECIALLY MAX. Ya know how every tales there’s the mandatory Talk Before The Final Battle? Yea well they all get one except Max. You see him, but he doesnt talk, YET THEY CRAYMELS DO.

Another odd, yet charming, thing is that there’s no big moment of character development for anyone like Luke cutting his hair, Magilou keeping the portal open, or punch in the face like Alvin. They just. Slowly change. And its really weird cause for all of disc 1 Keele is basically an unbearable asshole and he just? Learns to be a better person from everything he sees? There’s no callout or moment of realization, he just slowly learns and it’s super refreshing. 

Reid is probably one of the most relatable protagonists up there with Jude. I’m sure most of you know the “he doesn’t want to do shit lol” persona he has BUT GOD WHY HE’S LIKE THAT BABY I LOVE YOU. Farah’s personality is also explained in the backstory, so for any of you crestoria players that Farah’s backstory is really different like how Emil’s is, but the sentiment of why she’s like that is the same and stem for a similar event.

Meredy’s also great. I thought I’d get annoyed of her and her “You bet!” but god when she says it the last time at the end of the game, I was pretty moved. I wish I knew more about her backstory but I’m pretty sure a certain section of her life info was left to skits and ya know we didn’t get those till Symphonia :)))

As antagonists go, besides the Craymels who are there to test you before you get their power, there’s just two. Main boss and their lackey. The lackey is eh. You see him once at the beginning of the game, then see him destroy a  city, then one last time where you kill him. You do get his backstory and stuff but eh I’m usually not fond of tales mini villains minus Chimerad, God Generals, and Artorius’s lackeys

The main antagonist tho, I really don’t wanna spoil it but it’s hard to talk about why I’m conflicted on it without spoiling. So it’s like Destiny’s final boss but written better in some part and worse in others. So at one point it’s super emotional and pretty powerful with the message eternia wants to send but at the same points its a jrpg where you gotta kill god cause he doesn’t think humans are worth it. 

Oh one more thing thats honestly hilarious, there’s literally SINGLE animated cutscene by Production I.G in this entire game minus the op. 

Other things: the amount of mini games in this game is insane, but the amount you have to do IN JUST THE SECOND DISC to continue the plot is more than any other tales game I can recall. Some of them are fun like the card game, others like the bomb one I want to throw in a fire. 

There’s also so much Destiny pandering in this game. There’s portraits of the characters, you can collect lens, I’m 95% sure the way a certain character is done is because they wanted another Leon, you can SUMMON THE SWORDIAN USERS ARE AS AN ACTUAL SUMMON. While all Phantasia gets is the cameo battle and the Eternal Sword. I mean I didn’t mind cause I’ve finished Destiny and it’s one of my fav tales games but damn it was pretty obvious. 

EXPLORATION IS SO FUN IN THIS GAME. Mainly near the end when you have free reigns. YOU CAN DIVE UNDERWAY AND EXPLORE THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA WHAT OTHER TALES GAME LETS YOU DO THAT??? 

In conclusion: A fun game! I don’t think it was worth 133 dollars tho consider my play file was 35 hours and thats with a good chuck of side quests and ex bosses. Probably in my top 5 combat systems of tales and final villains, but not in terms of story or characters. A really hope it gets remastered soon I’d love for more people to play it.

[drawlfoy]

Mirror, Mirror P.3

masterlist request guidelines requests are open! just please be sure to read my guidelines before sending one in :)

pairing: draco x femravenclaw!reader

request: the original idea is all mine, but p.3 has been requested

summary: while on their prefect rounds, y/n runs into both an issue and a mirror that she knows nothing about (but her partner certainly does).

warnings: foul language, light physical violence. i hesitated to write the slap since i don’t believe that anyone should ever hit someone. especially in a romantic relationship. but also this is magic and fictional and this draco is getting on my damned nerves

a/n: fr i’m so flattered that you all wanted a third part, i really am, but oh my GOD this particular draco is being such an intolerable dickwad and not cooperating with anything that i want him to do. thank you for your patience

music recs: i listened to the hp soundtrack while writing this so that’s pretty meta

word count: 1,239

tags! tags! @accio-rogers @geeksareunique

Y/N huffed as she stamped off to find Professor Flitwick, her hair falling loose from her bun as the sharp movements jerked it out of place.

That git that git that git that git that git....

How had he known? Y/N was secretive and so were her friends...as far as she was aware of. Perhaps she had fallen asleep in Potions that day and uttered her undying love for her fantasy Malfoy, but while the Slytherins were cunning and sly, there was no way they all wouldn’t have laughed at her. And she wasn’t even tired, thanks to the Wide-Eye she was permitted to take after her 10-12 shifts. 

She was pondering the thought as she neared the end of an unfamiliar hallway, suddenly struck with the realization that while she was deep in concentration, she had missed the turn to Flitwick’s office. The end of the corridor was oddly familiar, though, and when she turned to the left, she knew why.

The mirror she had seen with Draco was right in front of her. If she squinted in the dark, she could make out the letters ERISED on the top, something she committed to memory for her next library visit. But before she could spend too much on her many tricks to memorize a word, a movement in the mirror distracted her.

“Aah! Malfoy!” 

He had appeared next to her, gazing into the mirror with a teasing expression on his face. A smirk formed as he closed the distance, resting his chin on top of her head and shutting his eyes contently. 

The only problem with the picture was that when Y/N looked to her side, Malfoy was nowhere to be seen. He only existed in the mirror, and it appeared as though her reflection wasn’t a perfect copy as well when she looked closer. Y/N was donning formal ministry robes that only high ranking members of the Ministry wore...the very career path she wanted to follow. She laughed, lacing her fingers through Malfoy’s and squeezing.

Y/N watched, speechless, as the pieces all began to fall into place. Just like the many riddles she had had to solve in the past to enter her common room, the confusion slowly drifted away until she was left, staring right at the answer.

Erised was simply the word Desire reflected. She desired a high ranking career in the Ministry and Draco Malfoy. That was no secret, at least not to her.

But Malfoy knew now. She had confessed to seeing their reflection in the mirror when she was holding onto his sleeve to make him stop. While she thought the claim of it being a regular old mirror innocent enough, she had been dead wrong. And, somehow, he had known what the mirror was.

Now she had to find Professor Flitwick.

<>

“That’s kind of funny,” Rena admitted, dicing her beetroot with practiced precision. “But mortifying. What are you gonna do?” 

Y/N sighed, adding her own ingredients to the shared cauldron between them. “I don’t know. I talked to Flitwick, but he refuses to switch us. Something about house unity and maturity. I would push harder, but I want him to choose me as a prefect next year too, so I’ve just got to roll with the punches.”

“So how are you going to act around him? Are you gonna be the same or come clean?”

“Well, he knows now,” Y/N mused. “But I was thinking that instead, I could tell him that he was getting his knickers in a twist about nothing because I went back there and just saw my simple reflection.”

“That’s evil, and you know it.”

“You say that as if he’s not evil.”

“Fair, fair.”

The two worked in silence, finishing up the extra credit assignment in the cold dungeon air. Y/N shivered as she began cleaning up the ingredients and noticed that Rena was yawning profusely.

“Rena, you don’t need to stay. I know you stayed up late studying last night. I’ll take care of it, you hurry up to our dorm and I’ll be there soon with some tea.”

Rena smiled. “You sure? You don’t look too well-rested yourself.”

“Absolutely. You forget that I fell asleep watching you lean over your desk last night. You deserve to sleep a little more.”

“Okay. Love you, Y/N!”

“Love you too.”

Rena skipped off, suddenly revived. Y/N rolled her eyes but smiled after her, gathering up the rest of the ingredients and washing the cauldron.

While she knew that she had done the right thing sending Rena back to their room, she couldn’t help but wish that she hadn’t. The dungeons were creepy at all times of the day, but especially so if it was 11pm and you were alone. Y/N thought that she had heard some suspicious sounds from the corridor but brushed off the notion. 

No one’s down here except for the Slytherins, and they’re all holed up in their swanky common room. 

Ah, yes, the Slytherins. Y/N cringed at the thought. She was in Malfoy’s territory, something she wasn’t too pleased about. The most disobedient part of her mind wanted to catch a glimpse of Malfoy in his natural habitat, but she knew that that was a bad idea.

Before she knew it, her station was completely clear and it was time for her to depart into the dark and freezing corridor. Gross. She didn’t understand how Rena had managed to look so cheery skipping into a corridor that probably had its own budding rat civilization. 

She shut the door quietly behind her, hissing as a water droplet fell on top of her head. The chill as it slipped down her neck caused her to yelp, jumping nearly a foot in the air. In her surprise, she almost didn’t hear the amused snort from the shadows somewhere to her left. 

“Who’s there?” 

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Shit. She could recognize that drawl anywhere. 

Draco Malfoy stepped into the dim lighting by the torch, wearing his signature silk suit. Does he ever take that off? His hair was annoyingly nice looking considering how late it was, and its silver glow, brought out by the torchlight, made her knees weak.

He cocked his head expectantly, waiting for her scathing comeback. She just stared, her eyes wide and dilated from the dark. What could she say to him? 

“I went back to the mirror after our rounds.” The words just tumbled out of her mouth, quick and shaky. 

“And?” His mouth quirked and his eyes sparkled.

“And I don’t know why you’re so enchanted by it. I just saw my reflection again.”

He frowned, but she could still see a shadow of amusement dance across his features. “Really, now?”

Y/N was frozen in place, but she so desperately wanted to run away from the situation. “Er...yeah?” 

Before another word could come out of his very well-shaped mouth, the frozen spell over her had broken and she was already speeding halfway down the hall.

“Hey! I wasn’t done talking to you!” 

Refusing to look back, she turned to the stairs and began jogging up them, praying that he couldn’t hear her feet on the stone as she was literally running away from him. 

This was so, so embarrassing. Ravenclaws didn’t run, they remained and outsmarted their opponents with their wit and wisdom. But, for some reason, when it came to Draco Malfoy, all of that went away. 

final a/n: so the wait for this one was long and it didn’t even turn out that cool, but i want a lot more time to actually construct the next meeting of them during their rounds, and that should be out soon. i’m sorry for making this one so short!! i’m thinking there will be either 1 long part or 2 more short parts before the end of this is reached. thanks for reading!

[satoshi-mochida]

Spike Chunsoft will publish FuRyu action RPG Crystar for PlayStation 4 and PC via Steam on August 27 in North America and Europe, the company announced.

All physical PlayStation 4 and digital copies will include the “Summer Collection Costume” add-on. The “Day One Edition” will include a mini art book, which features a look at the game’s world as illustrated by character designers Riuichi and ntny.

Here is the official fact sheet:

Specifications

Title: Crystar

Release Date: August 27, 2019

Platforms: PlayStation 4, PC (Steam)

Players: One

Genre: Action RPG

Website: Spike Chunsoft, Steam

Rating: Rating Pending

Languages: English text, Japanese and English audio

Developer: FuRyu Corporation / Gemdrops, Inc.

About the Game

For when I weep, then I am strong.

A girl named Rei and Mirai, her little sister, are dragged into the afterworld of Purgatory. To save her sister, Rei signs a contract with the Demons of Purgatory to fight the monsters infesting their world. Rei and her fellow Executors must face their pasts and confront their tears to overcome the Torments and monsters ahead of them. Will Rei save her sister’s Soul before it’s too late?

About the character designers, Riuichi and ntny

Riuichi: Character designer based in Japan. He specializes in goth-aesthetic themed characters. His Crystar character design progress can be seen in this video clip!

ntny: Character designer and 3D model creator. ntny has worked on multiple famous titles before CRYSTAR.

Key Features

Fight through Your Tears in This Action RPG: Combat the Souls of the dead as you explore the afterworld of Purgatory. Play as four different characters and unlock their memories to learn the truth behind their stories and secrets.

Power through Grief: The battle system includes an otherworldly being who fights alongside you. Gather your grief and endure Torments to summon your Guardian!

Tears Give You Strength: Crying will help you take down monsters and empower your equipment. In Crystar, tears aren’t a sign of weakness, they are a sign of strength.

Get the announcement trailer, a more in-depth overview, and our interview with producer Fuyuki Hayashi below. View a set of screenshots at the gallery.

Announcement Trailer

Game Developers Conference 2019 Presentation

■ For when I weep, then I am strong.

A fantasy story where the protagonist cries and fights in the afterworld. Driven by the concept of Catharsis: the purification of the oppressed mind through releasing pent-up emotions. A tearful, emotional journey with an invaluable, one-of-a-kind story.

Revive the Little Sister You Killed

A girl named Rei and her little sister Mirai are dragged into the afterworld of Purgatory.

Scared and confused, Rei tries to lead them home when they are attacked by a terrible monster.

To protect her sister, Rei unlocks the strength hidden within her and fights back. However, she loses control of her new powers and kills her sister.

As Rei despairs, two Demons whisper in her ear:

“If you hunt the wandering Souls in this world and give us the tears of your suffering, we will bring Mirai back to life.”

For her sister’s sake, Rei takes their offer. Now, as an Executor, her story begins.

Guilt

Lament for Your Sins: The final screams of the Souls she defeats haunt Rei as lingering Torments.

Memoirs of the Dead: Discover the stories of your enemies’ past lives by defeating the dead in Purgatory.

Catharsis: Cry to Grow Strong

Improve Your Power through Your Tears: By crying, the girls can purify their Torments and mentally grow in order to obtain the power to fight in Purgatory.

Cry to Awaken: Cry in Purgatory to increase the Tear Gauge, which will build over time. You can summon your Guardian and activate special moves by awakening them through the Tear Gauge.

■ Game Overview

Game Cycle

Reach the End of Purgatory: To revive her sister, the main character goes back and forth from Purgatory to the real world. Her goal is to reach the final layer of Purgatory.

Purgatory (Dungeon): Eight total stages.

Reality (Your Room): Customize equipment, view the Gallery, play with your dog, and more.

Purgatory

-Battle: Experience seamless battles in Purgatory. Your party will change as the story progresses, with up to four total members. Characters can be switched at any time.

Four Playable Characters: One-hand sword, gauntlets, dual-wielding, and long range. Weapons and abilities differ for each character.

Skills: Each character has over nine skills. You can switch them out for your play style and enemy type.

-Guardian: Playable characters each have a unique being called a Guardian. Guardians will attack after you awaken them. Depending on your remaining HP, they will assist you by auto-guarding and countering.

Cry to Awaken: During battle, by pressing the Cry button (L1) or by taking damage, the Tear Gauge in the bottom left corner builds up. When the Tear Gauge fills up, you can awaken your Guardian to do stronger attacks.

Auto Guard: No damage taken!

Counter: Counterattack after taking damage!

Your Room

-Sentiments: By purifying Torments, you can create weapons and armor called Sentiments. Also, you can upgrade and customize your Sentiments by fusing skills.

Purify Torments: By crying in your room while haunted by Torments, you can purify Torments away and obtain new Sentiments.

Upgrade: New details appear every time you upgrade. They reveal each girl’s feelings and philosophical beliefs.

Attach Skills: Sentiments have random open slots. These slots can be used to add skills such as Paralysis Resist, Attack Up, and more.

-Collect Essence and Dive Deeper into the Afterworld: In your room, you can view the items you have collected, such as the Memoirs of the Dead in your diary.

Memoirs of the Dead: Stories for each monster you defeat. More of the story gets added by defeating the enemy. You may discover the truth behind this world or human relationships that were not brought up in the story.

Diary: The main character’s diary is updated after each chapter is cleared. Read the story from her perspective.

Interview

Crystar is developed by Gemdrops, a little-known developer and one that FuRyu doesn’t seem to have worked with prior. Why were they right for the project?

Fuyuki Hayashi, Producer: “There are multiple reasons why we chose Gemdrops, one of them being an indie game they developed called Headbutt Factory. When I first saw it, the artwork caught my eye and I thought it was beautiful. The character designer on Crystar is ntny, who is actually the designer of Unity-chan, and when I found out that Headbutt Factory was created in Unity, that’s when I reached out to Gemdrops. One thing I really like about Gemdrops is the atmosphere of the company—everybody there is really passionate about games, and whenever I proposed an idea, I would get 10-times back the amount of feedback, which I really appreciated.”

Why did you choose to make an action RPG over other genres?

Hayashi: “I’m glad you asked that question! We chose an action RPG this time because the main focus of the game and main draws are the characters and story, and we thought that by making an action RPG, it’d be easier to relate to them. We were mostly invested in playing as the characters, defeating enemies, becoming stronger, and having more of a connection with the characters.”

Did you look at any other action RPGs for inspiration?

Hayashi: “I actually really liked a game called Drakengard, which is where a lot the inspiration came from. As for the actual gameplay, I drew inspiration from Ys, are you familiar with that one?”

I’ve heard a thing or two about it. (Laughs.) Can you share shed some more light on the game’s themes?

Hayashi: “The main message and concept of the game that I really took inspiration from is the concept of light shining through the darkness, and moving forward through hardships and heartbreak. And I really find beauty in that theme. I think that one thing that really encompassed all of that was ‘tears,’ which is why there’s a lot of focus on that in this game.”

OK, so we knows that story follows Rei, who accidentally kills her sister, as she purges the Souls of the dead to bring her sister back to life. How does she cope with her guilt?

Hayashi: “The main thing that drives Rei is her love for her sister and the road to save her, so even though she does fight and feel this guilt, she is able to endure it and grow as a character throughout the game. And as the story goes on, she does encounter other protagonists that will help and support her through the game, which will also help her grow.”

Speaking of which, we know that Rei is one of four playable characters that you can switch between as the story progresses? But do the other three playable characters have their own stories or do they all develop through the course of a single story?

Hayashi: “There are several chapters in the game, and each of these chapters will focus on the different characters throughout the game and flesh out their backstories, and why they’re fighting as well.”

So is the character-switching mechanic is still available even when doing chapters focused on a certain character?

Hayashi: “Yes, you can switch between them when you fight in real-time.”

Does each character have their own health bar? Say I’m low on health with one character and switch to another character…

Hayashi: “They each have their own health bars. If you have a damaged character, you can switch out for a character with more HP.”

Crying purifies the Torments that linger from the souls killed by Rei, and makes her stronger. Can you explain how this mechanic works?

Hayashi: “There are two mechanics that we’ve worked into the game. The first is, defeating enemies will inflict Guilt on Rei, which will be reflected in the game as you progress. Rei is able to cry to release those emotions and turn them into her strength. To go a little more into detail, this Guilt manifests in the form of text on the screen, which will actually sort of visually impair you a little bit. You can see the text floating on the screen as you defeat certain enemies. And when you release these Torments, since Purgatory is a spiritual world, these Torments can be converted into Sentiments, which are basically equipment you can use in the spiritual world. The second thing is, there is a Tear Gauge, which you can cry to build up at any time, and once it’s full, you can activate a more powerful form. In regards to Rei, you can activate her Guardian, which is an ability she gained when she became an Executor.”

How differently does each character play from each other?

Hayashi: “Rei, the main character, is an all-rounder and well-balanced time. There is another character called Kokoro, who is a closed-quarters power-type. The third character, Sen, has two swords that she fights with and is more defensive in her stats. Then there’s also a long-range character. So they all have their own abilities, stats, and ways that they fight.”

You mentioned Guardians earlier. Can you talk a bit about that mechanic? Would you attribute it to being each character’s super attack?

Hayashi: “Once activated, the Guardian will fight alongside you in this mode. And it will also give you access to a special ability that is unique to each character.”

What sort of customization elements will Crystar offer players?

Hayashi: “As far as customization goes, each character can have up to four abilities that they have access to at a time. You can choose any one of those to suit your play style.”

Spike Chunsoft representative: “On the visual side, for the first-print edition, we’re planning to have bathing suit downloadable content, so that’s another customization you can do. We also have plans for other costume downloadable content coming down the line.”

How much will the Memoirs of the Dead acquired for defeating each monster play into the over-arching story?

Hayashi: “The main focus is on Rei and her story, but playing through that will mainly only provide her point of view, which may leave some questions unanswered. But the Memoirs of the Dead will kind of fill in those gaps and show some connections between characters that you might not have seen otherwise.”

This is your first original console game, Hayashi-san. Can you talk about what you’ve learned from development and where you hope it will lead you in the future?

Hayashi: “This time, I focused a lot on the conceptual and visual side of the game, so next time I would like to keep on pursuing those sorts of attractive characters and story, but I would also like to round out the other aspects like the action and improve on those sides, as well.”

The western release of Crystar is coming to PC in addition to PlayStation 4. Are any other platforms being considered, such as Xbox One or Switch, or is it just those two platforms?

Spike Chunsoft representative: “For now it’s just those two, yeah.”

OK, to finish this off—are there any final messages you’d like to share regarding Crystar, Hayashi-san?

Hayashi: “I believe this game turned out to be very beautiful, and it may help you find new meaning in tears. I want everyone to experience this game, and hopefully it brings them tears as well!”

I’ll cry my best. (Laughs.) Thank you for your time, Hayashi-san!

[zichiandhisnonsense]

I see at least one (1) person is interested in my bad DM ramble, so that’s good enough for me! I shall shove this ramble under a readmore too because it gets preeeetty long

Okay, so cut back to 2015/16, my last year in university. I stumbled upon an advertisement in my classroom for the campus’ d&d and board gaming group. I thought “y’know what? I’ll give it a go, I do play d&d online but I have yet to experience an in-person game, y’know?”

I had no idea what I was about to experience.

Now, the first session was an experimental piece. Everyone played munchkin, a couple of board games, got to know each other etc etc, there was also 2 DMs and so we got split up into groups. Once we were acquainted with each other, we learned it was d&d 3.5 and we learned the groups we were playing in, it was time to pack up and let the LGBT society have the room. Everyone would make their characters and e-mail the DM if we got stuck and he was nice enough to trust we wouldn’t cheat, but that would be his only redeeming quality as DM... Well, that and he didn’t force an over-powered DMPC.

Now, as this was a new group and there were plenty of newbies, I rolled a dwarf cleric named Halrin Stonebeard and I kept my backstory and personality simple. (Clan halls raided by dragon, took up adventuring to become strong enough to challenge dragon & find allies). I normally play wizards, but I figure I would play a supportive role who could buff, heal and protect my allies.

Let’s cut to the start of the first session, we all meet back up and learn a bit about each other’s characters, the only woman in the group was playing a halfling rogue, who would later become a close friend of Halrin. They both acted as the voice of reason and caution but were able and willing to bash some heads in. Then there was the next player, a pretty fun and boisterous guy who was playing a Half-Orc Monk who basically maxed strength and did what he could for everything else. There was also two newbies. One newbie played an elf ranger, with a massive focus on using the longbow and the other one was a gnome cleric. Now, the DM immediately had a gunning for the gnome cleric, purely because he was a gnome and the DM hated gnomes. Never mind it was a newbie who he made feel like he made a terrible decision, but nothing comes out of it for a while... There were a few other players but this is now 3 years ago and I can’t remember them all, unfortunately.

So we gather round the table, level 1 characters ready and all eager...

Aaaand we all begin in a dungeon

Now, this is a massive pet peeve of mine. The ‘begin in a dungeon’ thing had been done to death in my online games, literally everyone who DM’d had done some form of it and I had grown so damn bored of it. And I’ll be honest, it’s a terrible way to start with completely new players. ‘Hey, all those cool abilities you just got? I’ll be taking those away.’

So we were all chained up and struggling to get out. Naturally, HR (Halfling Rogue) escaped with ease and the HoM (Half Orc Monk) busted his way out. Everyone else was basically ‘well fuck looks like we’re stuck here’ until the other two saved us. Naturally, HoM was the MVP for this first section, suffering no penalties due to having no reliance on equipment. He punched his way through and we all just sorta followed behind.

At some point in the dungeons, we come across a guard dog who does some serious damage to one of the newbie players. Not wanting to hurt the dog, I try non-lethal damage on the creature and actually get lucky. As fun-flavour text, I claim I suplexed the dog. Keep this bit in mind. I dealt non-lethal damage to a dog that nearly killed one of the newbies. 

Cut forward to the end of the dungeon, we are met by a platoon of dragon rider knights. (I’ll admit, back then me ‘DMPC Mary Sue alert’ alarm went off) They explained that the whole dungeon was a challenge set by the local king/lord and having escaped, said ruler wished to speak to us. We got all our gear back and were ‘escorted’ by the dragon knights. It felt a little (a lot) railroading, but I didn’t sweat it at the time.

Now here comes the first ‘bad dm’ alarm. The first call that made me go “dude, what the fuck” at this guy. So one newbie player -the elf ranger- was finding the whole march-in-silence thing to be kinda boring and decided he wanted to pet one of the dragons. The DM allowed him.

“The dragon bites your hand off”

No save. No ‘what’s your ac’, just straight up hand bitten off. Now as a reminder for you guys, this newbie player was intending his ranger to be an archer. And archery requires two hands to pull off. And he just got one bitten off. His character is basically screwed, stuck to using a longsword and nothing else.

And the DM won’t go back either, what’s said is said or w/e. So with that out the way we’re suddenly at the king’s chambers. Y’know, no opportunity for any players to react to this utter bullshit. And we get given our main quest.

The ruler’s scouts report a large orc army approaching from the Northeast and he wants us to scout the army and maybe delay it while he mobilizes his forces, or something. I don’t remember the exact wording but key concept was “Orc army” “help pls”. Never mind the fucking dragon-rider platoon right next to us. Given how it’s the obvious main quest we accept, and we get given magical items to aid in our quest.

I can’t remember what everyone else got, but thankfully the DM wasn’t enough of a dick to give the one-armed ranger a longbow. I remember that I got a “Ring of Healing”. Basically, whenever I cast a healing spell, I healed an extra 10%, rounded down.

Now, let’s pause again and quickly talk about that.

First of all, I actually knew what I was doing with my character, and Halrin had a lot of protection/defending spells prepared, shield of faith and whatnot. I knew that it’s better to spend 1 spell to give a buff that blocks damage, than to heal some of the damage taken, so it’s not the best item anyway.

Then I re-read that. 10%, rounded down.

For those who don’t know, in d&d3.5, cure light wounds (the only healing spell I know) heals 1d8+your cleric level HP, not +wisdom. And we were level... 1.

1d8+1 = 9 max. And it rounds down.

This ring was literally useless to me right now. Even when we levelled up and my cure light wounds healed 1d8+2, that was a 10% chance this ring would activate. It was pathetic.

Okay, so let’s cut a few sessions as the party travels to the potential battlefield to meet with other defenders of more or less filler. One-Armed Ranger is constantly screwed over because when we level up, Rangers in 3.5 get two choices: Specialize in Archery (which is no longer an option) or specialize in...

... Two Weapon Fighting. So yeah, he picks archery on the hope that he can get his hand healed as a reward for saving the town and go back to his original archer-build, not half a fighter.

But anyway, time passes, in game and irl. I end up missing a session due to illness, and when I come back, half-orc monk is dead, revived as a zombie.

Basically, the party reached the frontier, only to find the orcs beginning to attack and most/all of the defenses gone. It was so obviously the DM trying to TPK us. But the Monk managed to pull something off, what exactly I don’t know, but he did it with three natural 20s in a row and successfully routed the orc army, but died in the event.

However, he didn’t stay dead, because death was missing. Yeah, I was fucking confused too.

See, what we didn’t realize/weren’t told was that the 2 DMs were working on a shared universe idea, and both groups were running around on separate parts of the world. The other group had apparently done something that caused death to go missing, which meant that souls were not being taken to the afterlife and were remaining on the material plain. Of course, the monk took a fuckload of penalties (charisma and constitution being the worst-hit) but he considered it a fair trade, saving the party from a TPK.

I think, however, that’s when the DM began secretly harbouring a grudge and determined to fuck us over so hard.

So cut forward to a few sessions, and the gnome cleric dies. When his spirit is unable to pass on, it inhabits the body of a rabbit.

Yes, the spirit doesn’t return to the body, the DM has the gnome become a rabbit. And you thought the elf got fucked over? Oh boy were you wrong. The gnome now had no damage output. He couldn’t use weapons, his claw attack was “one damage” and even worse, he couldn’t use 99% of his spells. The player successfully managed to keep one language, sylvan (which no one else spoke) but the DM then said because he had paws and not hands, he couldn’t cast any somatic components, which is more or less all cleric spells. Worse still, because of this death-curse, he couldn’t just kill himself and roll a new character. He was stuck, for two sessions, unable to do anything.

Even better, at the start of the next session, the DM revealed he had ‘made a mistake’. The mistake? The monk wasn’t supposed to return to his body, so his character, at the start of a session, got retconned out of existence and he had to spend the first half of the session making a new character.

The session after however, I think the grim repear was rescued/replaced, so the gnome was basically “I climb up and jump” and killed himself. He said he’d have a new character ready for the next game...

He never came back. I wonder why.

Also, the half-orc monk player was now playng a lawful evil hobgoblin knight, and I think he had decided to fuck with the GM as much as possible in retaliation for the bullshit he had to deal with.

Now, let’s cut a few more sessions, and at some point, the ranger has the opportunity to heal his hand. He goes through with it... And ends up with two left hands.

At this point, the player decided to reroll a new character and says his elf is retiring, traumatised and damaged by the experiences. He says he’ll have his new character ready for the next game...

He never came back. You guys sensing a pattern here?

So some time after that we get to an interesting sub-story that some of us are actually interested in. The starting town with the dungeon had been taken over by a lich and we were asked to put a stop to it. Naturally we were all eager, being good-aligned players and/or in it for the lich loot. At this point, we are joined by a few new players. Alongside out dwarf cleric, halfling rogue/fighter and hobgoblin knight, we have a half orc druid who is “really fucking old” (and I’m worried the GM is secretly rolling for ‘dies of old age’ every night), and the other two players... Okay, so it got a bit weird here.

So, a friend of the DM decides he wants to have a go at DMing, and in order to give him a taste and because the DM is getting bored, this guy takes over the game. The DM isn’t like “hey, run a one-shot” or “hey, run a published module”, he goes “hey take over this game that I know all the solutions for and is half way through and everyone is level 7 and things are super complex”.

Surprisingly, the new-DM is pretty competent for the one session he runs, and I think he deliberately changes some things to prevent former-DM from screwing things up. But yeah, former-DM and his girlfriend decide to join in and holy fuck their characters were... Well...

So, DM played a human paladin, but he played him as like a private investigator, who would get to the bottom of a case and find the truth, instead of a crusading knight. I was actually pretty impressed... Until he basically took control of the party and inserted himself as the leader, which was a role myself and halfling-rogue had been sharing as the ‘sanest party members and only surviving original members’. His girlfriend played the DM’s secretary... And was basically a super-smoking-hot everybody-loves-me elf sorceress. I was almost tempted to change Halrin from bisexual to gay just to avoid her deus-sex-machina’ing me, but fortunately it was just kept to the DM.

So, with our rag-tag bunch of misfits, we infiltrate the castle using all of our skills. The castle siege was perhaps one of the most fun things we ever did and everybody got to have a role in doing something, whether it was the druid inspiring the horses in the stable to run amok, the rogue sneaking in and lowering the drawbridge, the knight and myself bottle-necking the lich’s minions and the sorceress getting some fireballs into the bottleneck.

So, the siege ends and the guest-DM is done, back to the old DM! His girlfriend also disappears, I guess she got bored or something, but that’s not my problem. The DM has it so that they leave to help the surviving townsfolk escape while we combat the lich.

The lich fight is actually pretty awesome, all things considered. I basically got to go super sayan with the spell “divine power” and the battle was an epic clash... And then...

And then...

And. THEN.

The DM fucks up the entire game by revealing that “SURPRISE, THE LICH IS YOUR FAULT!”

So, remember that dog I non-lethally took down? At the start of the game? Dealing NON-LETHAL DAMAGE?

IT DIED FROM IT’S NON-LETHAL WOUNDS.

And apparently, the dog was the court mage’s favourite pet, so obviously, the court mage TURNED HIMSELF INTO A LICH TO REVIVE HIS DOG.

THAT WAS THE REVEAL.

THE ENTIRE LICH THING WAS OUR FAULT.

SHAME ON YOU PLAYERS, FOR NON-LETHALLY KILLING HIS DOG.

I was literally speechless at the table, and told the DM, to his face, “you’re just making shit up, aren’t you?”

Oh, and the session immediately afterwards, he made me kill a demon baby that the male half orc gave birth to.

And in the same session, he tricked the hobgoblin knight into killing two gnomes because with the information provided, it’s what his knightly vows would have him do... and made lose all of his knight powers.

AND WE AREN’T EVEN DONE, GUYS.

[godsofterror]

The Many-Faced God: Part 2

This is the second part of a Gods of Terror theory that posits that the Many-Faced God of the Faceless Men is the Cthulhu Mythos Outer God Nyarlathotep. Review Part One here for more background about how this connection was made and how he has manifested in a major character.

Part of the meta-analysis encompassed by the theory is that GRRM is showing that he can write better than most other heirs to Lovecraft. I think he took the ideas of the Cthulhu Mythos and extended them to include other myths such as the Green Man, and extended it to include his world building from the Ice Dragon and other earlier stories.

For example, he married the masks/forms of Nyarlathotep to create the Many-Faced God, worshipped by the Cult of the Faceless Men. He created the Drowned God to represent memories of Cthulhu. And there are tons of other examples that exhibit GRRM’s vast knowledge of the extensive Cthulhu Mythos stories and characters.

For me, the connections to the Cthulhu Mythos are more than just world building. Sure, it seems at first to be background filler… but the closer I look, the more I realized that the filler is in the foreground as well. If the gods of Terros are directly imported from the Mythos, are worshipped by the people of Terros for their powers as exhibited in the Mythos, and obey the ‘rules’ of the Mythos, than A Song of Ice and Fire takes place within the Mythos.

What does that mean for A Song of Ice and Fire? Importantly, it means that these “gods” are real, and that they are not “gods” in the religious sense. They are actual cosmic beings that exist in the universe of ASOIAF, that have appeared on Terros but mostly live in outer space.

It is important to understand that these cosmic beings mostly hate each other and have great wars that threaten the lives of humans and other lesser beings. These cosmic beings care very little about humans (except Nyarlathotep, who love to torture humans), and humans are caught in the middle of these wars.

Every time humans encounter these beings, horrible things happen, but the power demonstrated by these beings invokes terror and wonder, and the human religions of Terros spring up to worship the beings they have encountered. The Cult of the Faceless Men worship Nyarlathotep, while the Iron Islanders worship the Drowned God, who correlates closely to Cthulhu. The Storm God, the Toad God, the Lord of Light, Shub-Niggurath, He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named: all Great Old Ones, and all worshipped by different groups on Terros.

The Cthulhu Mythos also helps explain the presence of the giant black blocks of stone found throughout the world:

“Old Castro remembered bits of hideous legend that paled the speculations of theosophists and made man and the world seem recent and transient indeed. There had been aeons when other Things ruled on the earth, and They had had great cities. Remains of Them, he said the deathless Chinamen had told him, were still be found as Cyclopean stones on islands in the Pacific. They all died vast epochs of time before men came, but there were arts which could revive Them when the stars had come round again to the right positions in the cycle of eternity.” - HP Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”

Within the Mythos, Nyarlathotep is special, as all of the other Great Old Ones are sleeping or banished to space. Nyarlathotep can still walk among humans, and he takes many different forms on Earth as he works to spread terror through fear, torture, and pain. As I explained in Part One, Nyarlathothep has been present on Terros throughout history, and is currently inhabiting a number of avatars to work towards his dark ends.

The Long Night and the Bloodstone Emperor

As I wrote in Part One, the Long Night was started by the Bloodstone Emperor, who worshiped a black stone that fell from space. The story The Haunter of the Dark tells of the Shining Trapezohedron, the black stone used to call a god of terror known as the Haunter of the Dark, who is a manifestation of Nyarlathotep. This direct link between the horror of the Long Night, and the Church of Starry Wisdom, which was founded by the Bloodstone Emperor, spells ill omens for the future of the story.

Euron Greyjoy has been taken over by Nyarlathotep. He has either been driven mad by an interaction with Nyarlathotep, or has been taken over completely by the Faceless God.

He is working to secure the Shining Trapezohedron, which I believe is housed in the Hightower of Oldtown, where it has been watched over by the descendants of Uthor of the High Tower, who slew a dragon and established his house on Battle Island in the mythical past of Westeros. Uthor is a corruption of Ulthar, the Mythos god and son of Sothoth sent down to Earth (or Terros) to watch over the Great Old Ones as they sleep.

When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great city of R'lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious surrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready for Them. But at that time some force from outside must serve to liberate Their bodies. The spells that preserved them intact likewise prevented Them from making an initial move, and They could only lie awake in the dark and think whilst uncounted millions of years rolled by. They knew all that was occurring in the universe, for Their mode of speech was transmitted thought. Even now They talked in Their tombs. When, after infinities of chaos, the first men came, the Great Old Ones spoke to the sensitive among them by moulding their dreams; for only thus could Their language reach the fleshly minds of mammals. - HP Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”

In this passage, we can uncover a lot information that relates to the Great Old Ones (the group of cosmic beings to which Cthulhu has been assigned by Lovecraft), and also relates to the prophetic dreams of the Dreamers, whose actions may be influenced by these psychic waves eminating from the mind of Cthulhu as he sleeps in R'lyeh.

The most important bit of information is that someone, or something, must awaken the gods because they are sleeping using spells that prevent them from waking themselves. It has been theorized that after a great battle in the past, the Great Old Ones were put to sleep by the Elder Ones. Could this battle have been the great battle for the Dawn?

The Outer God Ghroth (the Harbinger), an entity introduced by Ramsey Campbell (a Mythos writer and friend and editor of GRRM), is described as a red sphere that passes through space, singing a siren song known as the Music of the Spheres. As he passes through space, he awakens any sleeping Great Old One on the planets that he passes. This has been the cause of mass extinctions on Earth.

Ghroth reminds me strongly of the red comet at the beginning of A Clash of Kings. Perhaps Ghroth passed by Terros, and helped to weaken the spells of the Elder Ones, and awaken the magic of dragons, but the spells require a great blood sacrifice to end them once and for all. With the help of Nyarlathotep and his avatars, the Great Old Ones will be freed from the spells that bind them.

Blood Ritual

As we see in the Aeron sample chapter, Euron is preparing for a blood sacrifice in the sea off Oldtown. He has strapped holy men of many different religons onto the bows of ships, including his own brother, Aeron Greyjoy. What is his endgoal with this sacrifice?

Euron’s treatment of Aeron, and of the 4 warlocks of Qarth, are perfect examples of his ability to torture men to madness. He kills one of the warlocks, to show that he meant business, and then chained them up and made them eat the dead warlock (and probaly themselves). In “The Forsaken”, we see what’s left of Pyat Pree: a man without legs, who has clearly been driven mad:

Last were two warlocks of the east, with flesh as white as mushrooms, and lips the purplish?-blue of a bad bruise, all so gaunt and starved that only skin and bones remained. One had lost his legs. The mutes hung him from a rafter. ?Pree,? he cried as he swung back and forth. ?Pree, Pree!?

His speech to Aeron displays his desire to kill men and replace the gods recalls the role of Nyarlathotep as a trickster gods of terror. Lovecraft’s epic poem Fungi from Yuggoth gives clues about how Euron’s blood sacrifice will begin the descruction of the world, as the “idiot Chaos”, or Nyarlathotep, births death from the sea.

Soon from the sea a noxious birth began; Forgotten lands with weedy spires of gold; The ground was cleft, and mad auroras rolled Down on the quaking citadels of man. Then, crushing what he chanced to mould in play, The idiot Chaos blew Earth’s dust away.

I think that this passage portens both the terrible doom that is about to befall Terros, and the nature of the gods involved in the coming Long Night. The second line (“Forgotten lands with weedy spires of gold”) invokes the Westerlands and the gold of the Casterly Rock, and the fourth line (“Down on the quaking cidadels of man”) I associate with Oldtown, home of the Citadel.

Towers By The Sea

It’s no coincidence that Euron is preparing for the invasion of Oldtown. In fact, it has been hinted about by many major characters.

Melisandre has visions of a tower by the sea overwhelmed by a dark tide that rises from the depths:

Then the towers by the sea, crumbling as the dark tide came sweeping over them, rising from the depths. (ADWD, Melisandre)

I saw towers by the sea, submerged beneath a black and bloody tide. (ADWD, Melisandre I)

Moroqqo, who I have also associated with Nyarlathotep after his transformation in the sea (check out the difference in how he is described between the Tyrion chapters and the Victarion chapters), mentions a similar vision in this exchange with Tyrion:

“Have you seen these others in your fires?” he asked, warily. “Only their shadows,” Moqorro said. “One most of all. A tall and twisted thing with one black eye and ten long arms, sailing on a sea of blood.” (ADWD, Tyrion VIII)

Euron’s ultimate goal is not just to drive men mad and to spread chaos and fear. He is the harbinger of doom, Death, the Lion of Night, here to remake the world again. And he will do this by calling back from the dead the terrible Great Old Ones.

He will have some help with his terrible mission, from a mysterious and dark House of Westeros.

Oldtown and the Hightowers

The plot of The Winds of Winter promises to focus on the taking of Oldtown by the Ironborn. This ancient city, long the domain of the even more ancient Hightower family, has two notable features: the eponymous Hightower, a stone tower built on top of an mysterious black stone fort on Battle Isle, and the Citadel, the major center of learning in Westeros, where all maesters are trained and where Samwell Tarly has been sent at the end of A Dance with Dragons.

I have long suspected that the Hightowers of Oldtown, that ancient family that traces back to Uthar Hightower and Maris the Maid, were involved in worship of the Outer Gods. Not only are they ancient - much too ancient, really, for any of the timelines of the arrival of the First Men to make sense - but they are also known to dabble in sorcery.

Anytime that a wizard or sorceror is using magic in the Cthulhu Mythos, they are attempting to communicate or call one of the Great Old Ones or the Outer Gods. Usually, it takes blood sacrifice to get the attention of the gods. I suspect that the rumours of sorcery by the Hightowers (in particular Leyton Hightower and his daughter, the Mad Maid), are related to the desire to awaken the Great Old Ones.

Ulthar

If you have been following the Gods of Terror theory to this point, it should come as no surprise to learn that there is a Cthulhu Mythos diety named Ulthar (or Uldar or even Ultharathotep), who is a son of Yog-Sothoth and is considered and “Elder God”. Ulthar, according to the (fictional) Sussex Manuscript was sent to Earth to keep a vigil over the sleeping or banished Great Old Ones/Outer Gods.

The words of House Hightower: “We Light The Way”. What way are they lighting? For whom are they lighting the way? It’s worth noting here the definitions of “vigil”:

wakefulness maintained for any reason during the normal hours for sleeping.

a watch or a period of watchful attention maintained at night or at other times:

a period of wakefulness from inability to sleep.

Could the words of House Hightower relate to a vigil for the sleeping Great Old Ones?

Killer of Dragons

Uthar Hightower, according to legends, killed a dragon roosting on Battle Isle and then worked with Bran the Builder to build the Hightower on top of the ancient black stone fort. He then claimed (or stole) Maris the Maid from a giant (who swore revenge on Uthar) and founded the line of Hightowers that continues into the contemporary story.

The Church of Starry Wisdom

Euron and the Hightowers are not the only players in the mission to call back the Great Old Ones and remake the world.

As seen in The Haunter of the Dark, the Church of Starry Wisdom has the Shining Trapezohedron stored in the high tower of the creepy church. And the cultists of the Church perform blood sacrifices to The Haunter of the Dark, the terrible avatar of Nyarlathotep with a three-lobed burning eye with wings.

The Church of Starry Wisdom is present throughout Terros in the modern era, worshiped at port cities by sailors and others. It has been mentioned in A Dance With Dragons and is also hinted at in A Feast for Crows, as it is suspected that Marwin the Mage visits their temple in the port of Oldtown.

I suspect something else. The Shining Trapezohedron, the black stone that fell from Earth and was worshiped by the Bloodstone Emperor, which he used to call the Lion of Night, could be in the Hightower. It would explain Euron’s desire to capture the Hightower: his plan to awaken the sleeping Great Old Ones. With the help of the Hightowers and blood sacrifice, Euron will invoke Nyarlathotep, the Lion of Night.

…and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to revive His subjects and resume His rule of earth. The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.

The Citadel

The Citadel was founded by decree of the second Hightower, who declared that its mission was to learn the arts of man. It is known to be anti-dragon, and is also suspected to be complicit in the downfall of the Targaryens.

I don’t know the degree of control over the Citadel that the Hightowers hold, but there is a deep association. They were founded by them, and have collected information about the lords and the laymen of Westeros from that beginning. In fact, in reading the Princess and the Queen and The Rogue Prince, there is a lot of innuendo about their role in starting the Dance of the Dragons.

Why do they hate the Dragons so? Is it just because of their institutional aversion to magic? Or does it go much deeper?

Faceless Men and Braavos

Are they an international cult of assasins who are working to hasten the return of the Great Old Ones? I do have my suspicions. The Faceless Men have been trying to get the book on killing dragons, and they probably helped to cause the Doom of Valyria, so they do seem to have it out for the dragon people who might oppose them, whatever their ultimate goals might be.

War Between The Gods

After deep study of the world book, it seems clear that the founders of Norvos and Qohor, while Valyrian, were not dragon-riding Valyrians. In Norvos, they stuck with Hastur, The Great Shepherd. In Qohor they switched to The Black Goat. In Volantis, they worship the Lord of Light.

The followers of the Lord of Light hate the followers of the Norvoshi religion and the Qohorik religion, and the feeling is mutual. While I think that the Norvoshi worship Hastur, the Magnum Innonominandum or He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-named, the Black Goat is Shub-Niggurath, The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young. (It’s worth noting that in “The Mound” by Lovecraft, Shub-Niggurath is described as the wife of the Not-To-Be-Named One, who is Hastur.)

Importantly, the enmity between the followers of R'hllor and these other religions represent the greater war between the Gods of Terros. I don’t say this lightly; I’ve devoted a ton of time over the last few years trying to understand what is really going on in Westeros and Essos and Sothoryos and Leng and beyond; this Tumblr is the result. But this was all building to this point: that these gods are not make-believe, but are instead powerful beings beyond the understanding of humans, that are at war with each other.

Indeed, we see the war between Cthulhu and Hastur in the hatred of the Ironborn for the Storm God; and the battles at Storm’s End between Durran Godsgrief and the Storm God. We see the death cult of the Many-Faced God arise in Valyria as Nyarlathotep battles Cthugha (the Lord of Light), which may have resulted in the Doom of Valyria.

Perhaps some of these beings have aided humans in the past, to score a victory against their rivals? I suspect that may be a possibility, as it is a large part of the Cthulhu Mythos. For example, in the introduction of Cthugha in “The Dweller in Darkness”, August Derleth (a Lovecraft disciple) pitted him directly against Nyarlathotep.

The relationship between the dragonriders of Valyria and the Lord of Light deserves its own essay, but for our purposes here, I’ll just mention three interesting tidbits. Cthugha is a giant ball of fire and is served by the Flame Creatures of Cthugha. Most importantly, his only protegy is Aphoom-Zhah (a Lin Carter diety; Lin is another of GRRM’s friends and editors), who is also known as the Cold Flame, a “vast, cold, grey flame that freezes whatever it touches”.

In a story of Ice and Fire, deep within the Cthulhu Mythos, these two gods are going to be significant.

Conclusions

Why does all of this matter to the story? Isn’t this a story of humans, dragons, ice demons, and telepathic paraplegics?

I suspect something else. The story will have a twist so massive that it’s taken years to get it right.

As Leo Tyrell says in the beginning of A Feast For Crows, the story has changed, and an age of wonder and terror has begun:

Dragons and darker things. The grey sheep have closed their eyes, but the mastiff sees the truth. Old powers awaken. Shadows stir. An age of wonder and terror will soon be upon us, an age for gods and heroes.

As the Others have been lurking over the story for five books, it is both perfectly normal for them to be seen as the old power that have returned. But I suspect that it is a feint, a ruse even, by George, as cruel as that may be to his readers.

In fact, I believe that the Others will not be the ultimate evil faced in the story, and Old Nan will be proven wrong once again. Instead, the evil will come from the “gods” themselves as they seek to return to Terros.

I believe that the great war that will end A Song of Ice and Fire will not happen in the North, against the Others, but will instead be centered around Oldtown and the Riverlands.

Tinfoil Time

Here is my predictions for how all of this will be set up in The Winds of Winter (I’ll save my A Dream of Spring predictions for next time):

Euron’s blood sacrifice will be used to awaken an ancient evil: the Deep Ones. He will call an army of these terrible hybrid beings to help him invade Westeros. The blood sacrifice will not be strong enough to break the spells keeping the Great Old Ones sleeping, but the Deep Ones, the half-human/half-fish descendants of the gods, will come above water en masse for the first time since the Battle for the Dawn. These beings are known as the squishers in the east, silkies in the far north.

He and his hybrid minions will strike at Oldtown, where they will overwhelm the defenders of the city. Euron will capture the Hightower, where he finds a willing partner in the Mad Maid, Malora Hightower.

Euron and Malora will join forces to perform a blood sacrifice using the Shining Trapezohedron. But they need a person with incredibly powerful blood to sacrifice: Daenerys, the Mother of Dragons.

Euron has already set his plan in motion to capture Dany, by sending Victarion to Slaver’s Bay. Using the dragon horn, Victarion will bind the will of a dragon, but he will not capture it himself. Instead, Euron has enchanted the horn to make the dragon respond only to him. Victarion thinking himself strong enough and desiring Dany, will blow the horn and die, and the dragon will fly off to find his new master: Euron.

Dany, mother of dragons, will suspend her war in Essos and her planned invasion of Westeros to find her dragon. She will follow the dragon to Oldtown and will be captured by Euron and the Mad Maid. Her fleet and army will follow, but may be too late, for the blood of kings flows through her veins, and only that magic can break the spell and awaken the Great Old Ones……

End Scene

Post Script

This theory borrows and extends PoorQuentyn’s Eldritch Apolocalypse theory, so I must give him credit. But I’m taking it further, into the Land of Lovecraft, because that’s where I see the ultimate twist occuring: the form of the ultimate evil, and the role of the “gods”, who I believe are the cosmic beings of the Cthulhu Mythos.

More to come!

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #38: Cú Chulainn (Caster)

That’s right, the good boy with the good boys is back once again for another DnD build. CasCú’s a Wildfire Druid, which replaces his wildshape ability with the ability to summon a flaming elemental to crush his enemies (convenient, huh?). 

As always, there’s a spreadsheet for the build, or you can check out the level-by-level breakdown below the cut!

Race and Background

You’re the son of the sun, meaning you’re still an Aasimar. We’re changing things up a bit this time, though! Thanks to your dedication to being a guide in this spearless form, you’re not a fallen Aasimar, but a Protector Aasimar instead!. This gives you +1 to Wisdom and +2 to Charisma, 60′ of Darkvision, Celestial Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage, Healing Hands that can heal your level in HP per long rest, and the Light cantrip.

Your background is a trickier question. You could have the same background as your other selves, but you seem to know a lot more than you’re letting on. That and your self-imposed ‘druid’ shtick should be just enough to push you into the Hermit background, giving you proficiency in Medicine and (It should be religion, but let’s swap it out for Arcana. Nobody will notice).

Stats

Your goal is to guide others, so your Wisdom and Intelligence are pretty high. You’re no Emiya, but you also don’t try to sit people down for a lecture in the middle of Fuyuki, so you’ve got that going for you. Next is your Dexterity, you may not have a spear but you do have your training. Following that is your Constitution; you’ve been trained by one of the most brutal masters out there, so even as a caster you’re pretty tough. After that is Charisma, you’re still pretty rough when it comes to dealing with other people outside of mentoring them. Finally, dump Strength. We don’t need it, nor do we want it.

Class Levels

1. As stated in the opening, you’re a Druid, and first level druids learn Druidic and how to cast Spells. Druidic is a secret written language that only you and other druids know and requires a perception check for others to even find, let alone decipher. You prepare spells from the druid spell list, and use your wisdom to cast them. Because they’re swapped out so easily, I won’t be covering individual spells here.

As a druid, you also get proficiency in Intelligence and Wisdom saving throws, as well as in two skills from the druid list, here Nature and Survival.

On top of their spells, druids get two cantrips, so grab Guidance because that’s what you do (and it won’t be useful past level one anyway) and Shillelagh because sometimes you’ll have to deal with people who refuse to learn. Shillelagh has the additional bonus of being almost as difficult to sound out as your own name.

2. At second level you gain Wild Shape, a.k.a. the reason druid won’t be showing up that often in these builds. At this level, you can use your action to transform into a beast with CR 1/4 or lower, as long as it doesn’t have a flying or swimming speed. A beast shape lasts for half your druid level in hours, and you can use it twice per short rest. In beast mode, you have the beast’s physical stats, your mental stats, and combine your proficiencies, using whichever is higher. You can’t cast spells, but you can use actions of spells you’ve already cast. Technically, we never see Cu turn into a bear in FGO, but we never see him say he can’t, so technically we’re still canon compliant.

You also join the wildfire circle this level, letting you Summon Wildfire Spirit. With this feature, you can burn a wild shape charge to instead create your Wicker Man, sort of. The wildfire spirit you can summon is technically small and can fly, but it’s nothing a little creativity won’t solve. You summon the spirit somewhere within 30′ of you, and every creature within 10′ of where it comes in must make a dex save vs your spell DC or take 2d6 fire damage. The spirit is friendly, but you have to use your bonus action each turn to give it orders. The spirit sticks around for an hour, until reduced to 0 hp, or until you summon another spirit.

You can also use your Wild Shape uses to summon a Wild Companion, giving you a free casting of Find Familiar. It’s not quite a wolf, but it’s something.

You also also get Circle spells, like Burning Hands and Cure Wounds. Good for you.

3. Third level druids get second level spells, including your circle spells Flaming Sphere and Scorching Ray. A little extra fire power (ha ha, funny pun) never hurt anyone-except who you want it to.

Also, your solar ancestry kicks in and you become a Radiant Soul. You can spend your action to transform in a different way for one minute, making your eyes glow and giving yourself spectral wings. You gain a flying speed of 30′, and can deal radiant damage equal to your level to something you’re already hitting once per turn. You can use this feature once per long rest.

4. You get a Wild Shape Improvement, letting you transform into beasts of CR 1/2 that can swim. You also get an Ability Score Improvement, which we’re spending on the Elemental Adept feat, because spoilers, we’re going to be using a lot of fire. Now you ignore resistance to fire, and you count 1s rolled on fire damage as 2s. Unfortunately, I don’t think this applies to Wicker Man, as they’re their own person.

Speaking of fire damage, you get another cantrip at this level, so grab Produce Flame to produce some flames.

5. Fifth level druids get third level spells, including your circle spells Revivify and Plant Growth. The latter gives you more stuff to set on fire, and the former will help out any teammates who wander too close to your firing range.

6. You now have an Enhanced Bond with your Wicker Man. While your wildfire spirit is active, you can add 1d8 to your fire or healing spells. This bonus only affects the damage or healing of one creature. You can also cast spells with a range longer than self from your wildfire spirit. This means your spirit can now cast Hold Person, which is the closest we’re getting to a proper rendition of your NP in this build.

7. You can now prepare fourth level spells! Your new circle spells are Aura of Life and Fire Shield. The latter is a good multipurpose “don’t hit me” spell, and the former is nice if your teammates refuse to stop dying in front of you.

8. Your Wild Shape improves once more, and you can now transform into any beast of CR 1 or lower. You’re pretty smart when it comes to using rune magic, so use your next ASI to become a Ritual Caster. When you get this feat, you learn two first level rituals from the wizard spell list, and you can learn even more by coming across other spells that have been written down. The spells you copy have to be half your level, rounded down.

9. You learn 5th level spells, including Flame Strike to marry your fire damage and radiant damage halves and Mass Cure Wounds to try and keep your various lancer forms from shindeiru-ing.

10. At tenth level, you get another cantrip. Druidcraft lets you see the future, and unlike most clairvoyance spells has no chance of being wrong. Forcing your DM to stick with a decision can be very powerful in the right circumstances. As a wildfire druid, you also learn to create Cauterizing Flames. When a small or larger creature dies near the Wicker Man, a spectral flame pops out of their corpse for a minute. You can use your reaction when a creature enters the same space as the flame to either heal them or deal fire damage. In either case, it’s 2d10+ your wisdom modifier. You can react this way a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus.

11. You get 6th level spells, and unfortunately you no longer get any circle spells. I would suggest looking at Sunbeam for more radiant damage or Find the Path to enhance your role as a guide to others.

12. Use your next ASI to finally improve your ability score, specifically boosting Wisdom.

13. You get 7th level spells, and I’d suggest Fire Storm, for the obvious connection it has with your build.

14. Your last wildfire bonus is your Blazing Revival. If your spirit is nearby when you drop to 0 HP, your spirit can take the hit instead, healing you to half your hit points. You can use this once per long rest. Dying is for the other yous.

15. You gain the ability to prepare 8th level spells, including Sunburst.

16. Max out your Wisdom with this next ASI.

17. You can now prepare and cast any spell in the cleric spell list, including 9th level spells, including Foresight in case you want to be right in literally every way.

18. You now have a Timeless Body, which ages one year for every 10 that pass. You also get the Beast Spells feature, letting you cast spells from your wild shape, so long as they don’t have material components.

19. Put your last ASI into Constitution for better concentration and a little more survivability.

20. You become an Archdruid, giving you unlimited wild shape uses. You can also cast any spells in your wild shape, so long as it doesn’t include materials that cost money.

Pros: High level druids are already difficult to kill thanks to their wild shapes. You take it to a whole new level by cheating death with your Blazing Endurance, then immediately healing yourself back up with your Flames of Life. Your wildfire spirit is also very useful for casting spells at range. Picking up Ritual Caster also gives the build a lot of utility that doesn’t require your wild shape or spell slots to be useful.

Cons: Your wicker man doesn’t really hold up at higher levels. It will always have a low AC, and 1d6+6 fire damage per turn doesn’t mean much at level 20. Combined with your own reliance on fire damage, you may find yourself in situations where you can’t really use a major part of your build.

Looking on the positive side, this is just another chance for you to step back and help other members of the party be their best, which is the most in-character thing you can do.

Next time: We’re going swallow hunting.