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jq37 · 2 years

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Twice Upon a Time - Neverafter Ep 3

No Place for a Prince or Princess

Welcome to another entirely unhinged episode of D20 Neverafter and the first battle ep of the season. A battle episode with no dedicated healer with the whole party at level one? What could possibly go wrong? Well, let me tell you exactly what.

When I first started doing this commentary recap/posts, I did them in stream of consciousness bullet points and I'm going to do something similar for this recap since a battle ep means more nitty gritty that can be skipped over and also because I'm pressed for time due to being home for the holidays. Worry not though! I still have compiled all the most important juicy story bits for y'all. So let's get started.

When we last left off, the group lost the element of surprise as they readied to attack the Fairy Godmother and her army of half human/half furniture goons. Their goal in the fight is to steal the glass shard stuck into the Fairy Godmother that Cinderella stabbed her with and is greatly weakening her.

Puss right away Taun-Taun style dives into a dea cow while Roz distracts the Fairy Godmother by loudly declaring her princess status. As the mice told her, she can't resist a princess.

Meanwhile, Red draws a ton of enemies into a corridor which they nickname "Ylfa's Bottleneck" as if it's a hit nightclub and it comes up so many times you just KNOW it's gonna be a shirt or a poster at some point.

Pinocchio offhandedly mentions that he's been a puppet for about a year which helps us with the timeline a bit. Also, he's apparently using his broken off nose as a weapon which is...not amazing.

Roz gets hit by a spell and she sees a vision of zombie looking versions of the fairies from her christening looking at her in her crib and the blue fairy asking what she thinks her gift would have been if she hadn't had to soften the evil fairy's curse. [Note: Hmm, wonder if that Blue Fairy is Pinocchio's Blue Fairy]

Oh, also the Fairy Godmother says to Roz that curses are also gifts in their own way and idk if that's annoying fae-speak or an actual valid thing to say.

Roz and Red both have to make Cha saves and when Roz fails, Brennan gives her a red token which he tells her to hold onto without explaining at all. Siobhan is trepid, as am I, despite Brenna's claims that it's nothing to worry about.

Tim doesn't end up doing this because he wants to save his spell slots for healing (smart man) but his Vicious Mockery is a paternal "I'm very disappointed in you."

Puss tries to hide in another animal carcass, this time a mule (which Emily hilariously thinks might be Donkey from Shrek) but finds out that it's the mule of the 2nd brother in his fairy tale and also that he's just faking dead and is alive.

Brennan introduces a new game mechanic: If someone deals more than half of your remaining HP in damage in one blow, you have to make a Con save or take a level of exhaustion. This counts for enemies and PCs. Yikes! This doesn't appear to have anything to do w/ the red token.

The Fairy Godmother says to Roz, "Don't you want the kind of life I can provide? [...] They're taken your true love from you." When Roz insists that he's coming, the Fairy says, "Then why did his face change?" Siobhan is like, "How did she know that?" and I'm like, "Girl, same."

Pinocchio casts Hex on the Fairy which takes the form of spectral strings appearing on his body and his Stepmom's voice pouring out of him to berate the Fairy. The Fairy, of course, recognizes the voice as they're from the same story. Pinocchio gets the sense that more is happening than his mom told him.

Ger realizes that this Fairy is the fairy who cursed him to be a frog for being rude to her as a kid! [Note: I knew we'd end up doubling up on fairies at some point!] He is, if you'd pardon the pun, hopping mad at the realization.

Puss successfully lies to the Fairy that Cinderella sent him to help her get the shard out of her chest but that success will be fleeting.

The fairy says, "Magic was never yours. Magic is ours!" to Pinocchio (and really, I assume to his mom) and drops him. [Note: Hmm, magic hoarding? Is this like a Fae and Flowers deal? This feels like a line that we might be coming back to.]

Ger drops to an attack soon after.

Puss on an investigation check realizes that they've royally botched this and all that's left are bad and risky options. He tries to get the Fairy to give him her wand but that's a DC 20 check with disadvantage that he fails. Roz does 12 damage on her and it does enough damage that the group realizes that she's a total glass cannon that they should be attacking.

[Note: Y'all, I'm not the type to backseat D&D--and I wasn't yelling at my screen or anything while I was watching this--but you always take out the monster that is creating the other monsters! That's battle strats 101! Of course--spoiler--they didn't despawn when she died at the end but still! Taking her out and grabbing the shard would have been my plan for sure.]

Oh, also, Brennan introduced yet another mechanic. Because battles in the NEverafter are super risky, on a crit there is a save and if your fail the save, you're insta-dead. Great if you're giving the crit, bad if you're getting it.

At this point, it feels like I'm just reciting obits. Roz drops. Tim brings Ger back up. Puss goes down. Everyone is failing death saves--often with a fairy tale appropriate 3 on the die.

Ger yells at the Fairy, "Are you happy? I'm supposed to be a handsome prince!" The Fairy, surprisingly, agrees. She says, "We're trying to set the Neverafter to rights!"

Lou points out they're flaming out in the EXACT same way they did in the first fight of the first season--Fantasy High. He is hilariously correct.

Tim goes down. Ylfa goes down. The energy at the table is palpable as the inevitability of a TPK sets in.

Pinocchio fails his last save and black smoke sweeps through the dome. With his dying thoughts, he thinks about him and his father riding home to his village having escaped the belly of the terrible dogfish. He hears a voice--I think his father's--saying, "My little Pinocchio. She has lied to you." Then he fades. As his last action, he has to make a Cha save which he can choose to fail on purpose. He tries but fails and gets a red token.

Ger thinks about how the last time he needed to be brave--when his castle was being attacked--he hid with the children then ran. He sees Red and Pinocchio down and steels himself. There's no running or hiding today. He tries to get the glass shard and Brennan allows him to do it without a penalty IF he agrees to potentially get hurt in the process. He agrees and just meets the Fairy Godmother's roll, pulling it out. HOWEVER, as he pulls it out, the momentum sends it squelching into his own body, and he drops. The Fairy Godmother, as she dies, says, "Gerrard, we're here to help you! It's not what you--!" But of course, she's cut off.

As I said before, when she dies, the soldiers don't de-animate. And they WILL kill anyone who stabilizes. So everyone has to roll a Nat 20 or die. It's a weird situation where sometimes you have to roll a failure to keep doing with saves.

I'm going to tell you right now, no one saves. It's a true TPK. I'll run you through everyone's last thoughts.

Puss: Puss dies with a Nat 1 on the die (a cat butt that they briefly think is the image for a Nat 20) and he sees himself in Tomas' castle, resting in a shaft of light. Brennan says he sees the king and queen. Then the castle on fire. Then he's gone. He fails his Cha save and gets a red token.

Roz: Roz also dies with a Nat 1. She sees herself on her wedding day, going to meet her true love. Brennan says she sees two beautiful princesses turn to look at her. Then she's gone. She fails her Cha save so she's now up to 2 red tokens. [Note: Princesses. Her sisters?]

Red: Red gets the most intense vision. She sees herself with her grandma who then turns into a wolf and starts dragging her into hell. When she turns to face the wolf at his request he says, "Will you remember?" Then he says, "There are things trying to stop the turning of the pages," and asks her the 4 most important words. "Once Upon a Time?" she says. "I knew it was you," the wolf replies before she realizes he's falling into not hell or a boiling sea but a cauldron. She's blown out of a brick chimney and hears a voice from below say, "Got you now," with a suspiciously piggish snort. She seems to make her save and does not get a token.

Ger: Ger actually stabilizes but that just means she's going to die via furniture. He cries and says that he and Elody should never have gotten mixed up in this. He sees his wife in front of him who says that it's not too late and throws a golden ball in the air. As he watches it, he experiences drowning for the first time and then is gone. He is the only one who elects to fail his save on purpose. He gets a red token.

Tim: Tim thinks about the last fight he had with his husband who wanted him to just get rid of the book and stay home while Tim really thought what he was doing could help save everyone. And he still thinks that despite everything. He sees the Gander who mocks him. He sticks up his middle finger and says, "I got your third with right here." "Granted," says the gander, biting his finger off as he vanishes. He fails his Char save. That's a token.

Brennan asks Red again what her last thought was. She says she thinks she realizes what's going on. They've been thinking about things wrong. A book is about new memories, not just nostalgia. They have to be creating new stories and all they have to say is "Once upon a time." And that's where we end: with a TPK and those immortal words.

This new ep drops in less than 3 hours so I'm not gonna do a ton of speculation. I'm just gonna say that I haven't been this hyped for a new ep in AGES. Are we doing a time loop? Further fractured tales? How meta are we going? I can't wait to find out. Also, I'm glad we got such a mixed data set with regard to these tokens. Roz has two. Ger failed on purpose. And Red didn't get one. So we're gonna get a lot of data when this new ep airs tonight! Can't wait to see what Brennan has in store!

#dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #never after #never after spoilers #d20 #twice upon a time #sorry this is so late #but that will prob be the case while I'm home #a part of the reason I do this is posterity and late season reffing though #so I'm playing the long game here

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rottenbrainstuff · 11 months

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BG3 playthrough: Ethel’s hut + other notes, what makes a fuckable monster?

(spoilers)

As I tie up all the loose ends before I go into the underdark, I finished all the stuff in Auntie Ethel’s hut.

Oh damn was that ever fun! The big siege was definitely the most fun general fight, but Auntie Ethel is the most fun individual enemy. Hags are MEAN. Her whole area was so much fun, great atmosphere in the bog, my characters bled themselves several times on all the spike traps. And what a great big collection of horrible lies and suffering and misery. She is a fun character with a ton of really great lines.

And damn! her vicious mockery! I know everyone said to cast silence on her to prevent her from casting her annoying spells, but I was just enjoying the vicious mockery too much. Asking Astarion if he still had rat in his teeth. Teasing Wyll about his daddy issues. I knew she had specific insults for the companions, but I didn’t know she also had race-specific insults for Tav so that was a surprise. She told my drow character to “kneel, boy, just like the matriarchs showed you!”. To a half-elf she can apparently say, “I wonder which parent regrets you more, half breed!” Damn lady, damn!

Found Gandrel outside. I found the dialogue in this encounter and the chat with Astarion afterwards to be a little bit wonky, like maybe the scene was rewritten or re-edited a bit because there’s too many variables to consider (ie, did you already find out Astarion is a vampire or no? Are you romancing him or no?) and it’s been put back together oddly. Or something. It’s hard to explain. After fiddling around with all the options, it seems to me that the best option is to leave Astarion at camp for this encounter. If you let him talk to Gandrel, you’ll get a big chunk of approval if you let him kill the hunter, sure, and it would definitely be fun letting Astarion rip into a monster hunter that’s been set on his trail. But man, Gandrel has done nothing wrong? Yes they’ll take Astarion to Cazdor, but if you leave Astarion at camp, he’ll explain their kids have been kidnapped and they’re trying to get them back. I don’t want to kill this guy? Just leave Astarion at camp to avoid the disapproval you’ll get by not letting him commit murder, Gandrel will have much more information to give, about their kids and about Auntie Ethel, and then you can chat with Astarion afterwards. Seems like the best to me. Oddly again, if Astarion WAS with you, you can ask him what he did to the gur that they have it out for him now, and he’ll say he doesn’t know. (which appears to be true) If Astarion WASN’T with you, and you learn from Gandrel it’s because he was with the group of spawn that took their children, you can’t confront him with this information, which seems like it would be a pretty important topic of discussion that you’d want to hear more about!

Anyway like I said you do get a whopping 10 approval if you let Astarion have at ‘er, but I don’t need that approval, you don’t NEED to let Astarion do all the shitty things he thinks he wants to do. He stayed at camp and behaved himself. Interestingly, you have dialogue options to tell Gandrel that Astarion is under your protection, and you can tell him to back off. I assumed this would lead to him attacking us, but surprisingly it didn’t, and Gale will give you approval for defending your friends!

(I’m still romancing Astarion but damn guys I’ve really fixated on Zevlor as the background NPC that I’m going to get obsessed with… sad old characters with shame, can’t resist)

I went to clear out the goblins in the camp to make the road safer for my tiefling friends (boy I’m sure when I run into them in act 2, everything is going to be great!!!) and was pleased to see Abdirak isn’t hostile when the rest of the camp is. Extremely amusingly though, the AI had plotted him an exit through a burrow in a wall, so I found him standing in a corner fretting that he was too big to fit through the small hole, lmao.

I think I’ve got a handle on all the companion’s approvals and when to bring them out and when to send them back to camp, all except for Karlach. I don’t quite get her vibe yet. She usually likes the cute options and the sentimental options and sometimes the aggressive barbarian options, (ie hiring the ogres in the blighted village) but not everything and not all the time… I haven’t quite figured her out all the way yet.

I was joking with a friend about the possibility of a mindflayer romance later on and how I’m surprised that this option has absolutely zero appeal for me (at this current point in time anyways, we’ll see how things pan out) because normally I’m all about the monsterfucking. My friend said, awww, but aren’t the mindflayers just cute little baby cthulhus? And you know what, I think that’s exactly it right there.

I can be attracted to the monstrosity when it’s a metaphor for some kind of relatable human condition. Werewolves, vampires, walking corpses, fishmen, horrible disfigurement, whatever it is, when it represents loneliness or dangerous sexuality or alienation or trauma or whatever, that’s a fuckable monster.

Now Cthulhu and all the Lovecraft monsters were always really frightening in a way that’s totally different though, and totally unique, because they are very specifically not human in any way, they have no relatable human qualities, they cannot be reasoned with, appealed to, or even truly understood. That’s what makes them so frightening. And yeah. A mindflayer I think for me fits into that category of monster. It can’t be sexy because there’s no relateable humanity.

So then, it follows… in theory… all Larian has to do is make a mindflayer with humanity and then it’s a possibility I’ll be onboard. LMAO. Let’s see how things end up! I’m excited!

I’m wondering now if it was a good idea to play as a dark urge, and a drow, and a bard, all for my very first playthrough. The durge background adds so much interesting flavour, the dialogue details for drow are fun surprises, and bard IMO consistently gets the very best dialogue options, at least the ones I personally find the most amusing… I mean I am sure they put just as much detail into every other thing too, but man it’s hard for me to imagine enjoying another run with different options as much as I’m enjoying this one. I think next time maybe it would be interesting to play a paladin? See how far into the game I can get before a tough roleplay decision makes me break my oath?

Did I mention before, how amusing it is to be a dark urge? I get the option to tell pretty much everyone I meet about my violent fantasies. Just, oh btw also, I fantasize about blood and slaughter, haha, what should I do about that? Even funnier is that every single person I talk to completely doesn’t get it at all, and says oh haha everyone does that from time to time, just go kill some goblins and you’ll be good.

I just dealt with the fire in Waukeen’s Rest and cleared out the zhentarim hideout (fuck those guys) and am currently deciding what I want to do about that githyanki patrol, and then I have nothing left to do here - on to the underdark!

#bg3 #bg3 playthrough #baldur’s gate 3 #bg3 spoilers

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spelviin · 7 months

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Flower 7, 13 Honey 6, 19 Rieta 37, 63

aaa tysm for sending/letting me rant abt my lil guys!

Flower (bugbear ex-lawyer/peace cleric and hug enthusiast)

7. which party member do they understand the least? in terms of the whole party, definitely recurring npc jeff goldblum. bc of the running joke that jeff keeps getting credit for the parties' (current and past) heroic deeds, flower just doesn't understand how the guy who singlehandedly defeated strahd von zarovich and saved the city of elturel from its infernal bonds can barely land a vicious mockery in combat?

in terms of actual PCs, i'd probably say @birdz555's druid, lyria. they love her cheerful demeanour and her owl friend, but do find her a bit mysterious. also she spends a lot of time in wild shape and communicating via charades, so also like... they literally understand her the least lol.

13. what do they dislike about themself? why? they definitely dislike their past life as a mean, privileged, high-powered lawyer in the big city. when they were practicing, they were the greatest legal mind in their family (and possibly all of faerun), and they definitely used those powers, if not for direct evil, definitely solely for the benefit of the ultrawealthy shitheads of neverwinter. they've since changed their ways and renounced their old life and family, but their past still haunts them.

oh, and there's also the fact that they allowed an unspeakable evil ancient god to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting world because they DIDNT FUCKING CAST HOLD PERSON ON THE GODDAMNED SILENT ONE WHEN THEY HAD THE CHANCE (a misstep that fucking haunts *me* lmaooo). but, y'know, they try not to think about that generally. just to keep their usual positive outlook on life.

Honey (bugbear lawyer/paladin, flower's terrible older sister)

6. which party member do they relate to the most? in her current party? well, since both other PCs are, in her opinion, bleeding-heart do-gooder chumps for slogging it through the nine hells to save their idiot friend from her own bad choices, they're pretty much completely unrelatable to her. so i honestly think tiax, our guide npc burdened with delusions of grandeur, would be the most relatable to her. she still doesn't like him, but at least they share the same level of self-importance lol.

in her previous party, definitely morgan lol. in her eyes, he was the only one in the group who had any goddamn sense or perspective. and the fact that his deity is *lawful* evil also helped his case. which is honestly probably why she ended up setting up shop to work with him in the banite-controlled baldur's gate post-adventure.

19. what haunts them? what doesn’t? honey is so absurdly privileged and out of touch that she has very little in the way of conscience or compassion, so honestly almost nothing haunts her. the one thing that *does,* though, haunts her fucking deep (and i super hope i get to explore that whenever we get to whichever level of the 9 hells is about envy).

basically, honey's entire identity revolves around her legal prowess. she is hands-down the best *practicing* lawyer in her family, and she takes a lot of pride in that... but she knows, as mentioned above, that she only has that position because flower renounced their legal career and left to become a cleric. she knows, deep down, that everything she has, she has only because flower willingly gave it up, and that if they were ever to pick up the mantle again and return to their former profession, she would once again be relegated to second best.

(and like, second best in her family is still miles ahead of any other lawyer in the whole of neverwinter, but still... for someone as status-obsessed as honey, it would basically be a death sentence).

Rieta (tiefling sorcerer, currently imprisoned in the nine hells)

37. what is their favorite thing to hold? issarissa tbh ;;, @birdz555's half-elf grave cleric and rieta's gf (unless rieta's totally fucking blown it by secretly entering into a contract with a devil and lying to her about it for like two and a half years, but that remains to be seen as issa's still slogging it thru hell to save her from her own bad choices). between traveling to icewind dale on an adventure, and then getting dragged to hell for defying said devil's orders, she hasn't seen her in possibly close to a year, and misses her terribly ;;

in terms of a physical object, either some good quality wood to whittle, or, as a Certified Horse Girl, a set of reins, or like a horse brush or something idk.

63. what fight has scared them the most? oh god. i've been playing this motherfucker for like three campaigns, there are so many fights to choose from. like, obviously any of the fights she's actively tried to get herself killed to avoid/end (girl has the world's biggest martyr complex so there have been a few lol).

and THEN there's the time her bestie, our goliath barbarian/druid, got possessed and essentially hijacked by a ghost who almost killed the whole party and then fucked off. and like, she almost had to kill him, and he almost killed her and she was worried she was gonna have to tell johan that he got fucking KILLED on HER WATCH and it was just. not a good time.

but i think the ones that truly scared her most are the ones she has refused to let happen?

like, basically the reason she got dragged to hell in the first place is because the devil who holds her contract ordered her to allow a dragon to fuck up the towns she was trying to protect, and to fight her party if they tried to stop it. and she just could not bring herself to let all those people die, and ESPECIALLY couldn't fight her friends (esp after the ghost snafu lol), and so she defied the order and got reverse-raptured as punishment. so that's one.

but the REAL, number one fight that scares her more than anything, is the one that she's had recurring nightmares about for two and a half years - the fight that almost was, that involved her friends trying to get her out of her contract with gargauth by force. she is absolutely convinced that he would have (and potentially will) kill them horribly if they try to intervene, and it's just. the literal worst-case scenario for her, since her deepest fear is her friends and family dying for her sake (the hypocrisy of this is, of course, entirely lost on her lmaoooo).

anyway, all this to say i do NOT anticipate her taking it well when she learns that said gf and bestie are currently en route to try to save her dumb ass, actively putting their lives and souls on the line for her sake. so, y'know, that'll be fun when we get to it lol.

anyways OOF, hoo boy, i'm so sorry this got SO LONG, i just have A Lot of Thoughts abt my dnd characters.

tysm again for sendingg!!!! <3

#og #long post #soooo long again very sorry #blorbo from my campaigns

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tigerkirby215 · 3 years

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5e Sona, the Maven of the Strings build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Shilin Huang. Made for Riot Games.)

(Shit meme by yours truly.)

Revealing my Champion Mastery just to say that I play a lot of Sona. Don’t flame me for playing Seraphine and Yuumi I swear to god, and I have no idea why Teemo is in my top 10 highest mastery champs ngl.

Anyways you have no idea how happy I am as a Sona main that my girl is now top tier. I came to League of Legends from Overwatch (yes really) and I used to main Lucio in OW along with some of the more “techy” characters like Symmetra and Torbjorn. (Came to OW from TF2 where I mained Engineer and Medic.) Sona was a natural fit for me as a champion who was both easy to play and very similar to Lucio. It also helps that I joined the Rift during the single most engaging meta to ever grace this game. I was kinda too shit to play Janna but the Ardent Censer meta is also why I have such a high mastery on Lulu tbh.

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But enough about my history with League: Sona! Honestly when I think of an archetypical support Sona pops into my head a lot sooner than Soraka: a champion based on empowering their teammates in as many ways as possible with heals, shields, movement speed, and CC to hold the enemy team down. I’ve always loved playing her because she feels like much more of a macro oriented character than other supports, with team-wide support as opposed to keeping one person alive like Soraka or Yuumi or focusing on CC like Morgana and Nami.

I’m going to build most if not all the champions eventually but man I am happy to tackle Sona now. She’s always been on my mind as my main but it was pretty difficult to think of how to make her. I think this build is good enough though!

Wow that was much longer of an intro than I’m used to. You can really tell which champions I’m excited for lol.

GOALS

Everything in harmony - Sona boosts everyone on her team with her songs as they fill the air.

Triple time! - Sona’s ability to boost her whole team into a good position is always beneficial.

Crescendo! - Fun fact: Sona’s ultimate is canonically extremely painful as she forces you to contort your limbs against your will. Why is Sona needlessly macabre? Well remember that Riot also wrote Volibear as an Eldritch old god.

RACE

Sona is Human but if you want to be cool you can make her a Kalashtar for resistance to Psychic damage and advantage on Wisdom saves. Regardless we’re going to be making what’s known as a dollar store Kalashtar with Variant Human. Increase your Charisma by 1 as well as your Constitution because we kinda don’t need much else. You also get proficiency in one skill of your choice which will of course be Performance, and a language which you can pick as you fancy: you won’t be speaking it anyways lmfao.

That’s because “Only you can hear me summoner; what masterpiece shall we play today?” Grab the Telepathic feat to complete this dollar store Kalashtar package. Increase your Charisma score by 1 and get a 60 foot telepathy to speak while being mute. You also learn the Detect Thoughts spell and can cast it once without using a spell slot. "Did he want... four autographs? I don't understand."

ABILITY SCORES

15; CHARISMA - Charisma is tied to performance and all the other stuff a Demacian noblewoman is expected to be good at.

14; DEXTERITY - Something something medium armor; even if you wear a dress there’s no reason you can’t have some padding beneath it!

13; STRENGTH - Hey this isn’t something something medium armor!

12; CONSTITUTION - Sona may be squishy in League but I value not dying more than good skill checks honestly.

10; WISDOM - Speaking of not dying: Wisdom saves are more common, and Insight is more useful than most Intelligence skills.

8; INTELLIGENCE - We had to dump something so unfortunately Intelligence gets the short end of the stick. You may have studied under the illustrious Buvelle family but most of those lessons were music classes.

If you want a better stat array going 13 / 14 / 12 / 10 / 10 / 14 with Point Buy is perfectly viable, and if your DM is cool enough to let you multiclass without Strength then you’re more than welcome to dump it.

BACKGROUND

There’s two obvious backgrounds that fit Sona: the first is Entertainer for proficiency with Acrobatics and a skill of your choice (since we already took Performance lol.) You also get proficiency with Disguise Kits and your Etwahl! (That’s what Sona’s instrument is called btw.) Your background feature By Popular Demand allows you to play any stage once. "Some, just the once.” You can perform in exchange for a place to stay, and when you do so the local people will remember your wonderful performance!

But making an Entertainer Bard is kinda cliché, no? If you want to lean into Sona’s Demacian heritage go for the Noble background. This gives you proficiency with Persuasion and History as well as a gaming set of your choice: unfortunately Tellstones isn’t an option (unless your DM decides otherwise!) so a Dragonchess Set will do well enough. Oh and you get another language that you won’t speak: fun! Your Position of Privilege makes it easy for you to arrange meetings with other important people, and the commonfolk will be kind and cordial with you.

(Screenshot from the Tellstones: King’s Gambit trailer by Riot Games.)

I personally opted to go for Noble when making this build, but if you want to choose Entertainer go right ahead! Backgrounds don’t affect too much overall and it’s up to you (and your DM) to make your own Sona!

(Artwork from League of Legends Wild Rift. Made for Riot Games. RIOT PLEASE UPDATE MUSE SONA ON PC I’M BEGGING YOU!)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - BARD 1

I mean what else did you expect? Bards get proficiency in three musical instruments of their choice: a Lyre is the closest you’ll get to Sona’s Etwahl, though a Dulcimer is also pretty close. I’d also recommend grabbing a Lute since most magical instruments come in Lute variety.

You also get proficiency in 3 skills of your choice like Perception to watch wards, Insight to watch people, and Athletics for a bit of Tenacity to break out of grapples. (As well as potentially grab some people yourself! Although Acrobatics is also perfectly fine for escaping grapples.)

As a Bard you can boost your ADC with Bardic Inspiration, letting them add a d6 to attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws. You have a number of these equal to your Charisma modifier and they come back after a Long Rest.

But of course the main reason to play a Bard is to do Demacian-banned Spellcasting! You learn two cantrips from the Bard list like Vicious Mockery for some diminuendo, making it harder for the enemy to hurt your allies while also cutting them down to size. (I don’t know if your DM will let you slap your Etwahl angrily and then point at them judgingly, but you may have to break your vow of silence every now and then.) You can also learn Prestidigitation for all sorts of general magic stuff that you really shouldn’t do in front of anyone important.

You of course also learn 4 Bard spells like Cure Wounds and Healing Word for the atypical healing spells, Dissonant Whispers for some Hymn of Valor damage, and Detect Magic which you’ll likely be expected to cast as the designated support. *Sigh* Always gotta buy wards.

LEVEL 2 - BARD 2

Second level Bards could be called a Jack of All Trades, as you get to add half your proficiency bonus to any skill you aren’t proficient in. This means even if your ability scores are bad the skills you don’t have proficiency in are still good enough! You also get Song of Rest, letting your allies recover an extra d6 of health during Short Rests. And if you have Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Magical Inspiration will let your allies add their Bardic Inspiration to the damage or healing of a spell they cast!

And finally you can learn another spell: against as the designated support you’re expected to take Identify.

LEVEL 3 - BARD 3

Third level Bards get Expertise in two skills: Performance is an obvious must and Persuasion would probably be good as well.

But more importantly you get to choose your Bardic College and if you want to both shield your allies and speed them up look no further than the College of Glamour! That’s because Mantle of Inspiration grants 5 temporary hitpoints to a number of creatures within 60 feet of you equal to your Charisma modifier (which can include yourself by the way!) Additionally those creatures can move up to their movement speed as a reaction without provoking opportunity attacks, making this a great tool to reposition an ally who’s caught in a dangerous position!

You’re also capable of creating an Enthralling Performance: if you perform for at least 1 minute, you can attempt to inspire wonder in your audience. At the end of the performance you can choose a number of humanoids within 60 feet of you who watched and listened to all of it, up to a maximum equal to your Charisma modifier. Each target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you.

While charmed in this way, the target idolizes you, and speaks glowingly of you to anyone who talks to them. They also hinder anyone who opposes you, although they avoid violence unless it was already inclined to fight for you. This effect ends on a target after 1 hour unless they take any damage, you attack it, or it witnesses you attacking or damaging any of its allies. If a target succeeds on its saving throw the target has no hint that you tried to charm it, and you can use this ability once per Short or Long Rest.

Finally you can learn second level spells like Hold Person, for a one-man version of your ultimate.

LEVEL 4 - BARD 4

Ah the first of many Ability Score Improvements. You may have noticed our deliberately uneven Charisma modifier: that’s because I’m going to be taking the Fey Touched feat for +1 to your Charisma, the Misty Step spell (for Flash, of course), and the Gift of Alacrity spell from Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount for a Song of Celerity! Accelerated movement? I concur.

You can also learn another spell as well as another cantrip! For your cantrip take Mage Hand for help warding those hard-to-reach areas, and for your spell take Lesser Restoration, because yeah it’s also your job to buy Mikael’s. *Sigh.*

LEVEL 5 - BARD 5

5th level Bards get a Font of Inspiration that lets their Bardic Inspiration come back after a Short Rest as well as a Long Rest. That’s good because your Bardic Inspiration increases to a d8, which also boosts your Mantle of Inspiration to grant 8 temporary hitpoints!

You can also learn another spell like Hypnotic Pattern: while it won’t do any damage and your allies can’t hit the dancing enemies it’ll still be the best recreation of your ultimate for now.

(Artwork by Katie “TeaTime” De Sousa. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 6 - PALADIN 1

I hope you weren’t expecting this to be a pure Bard build, because then I’d just be building Seraphine again! Grab your something something Medium Armor as well as a shield (well technically you need both hands free to play a musical instrument) it’s Paladin time, master of auras!

Paladins get a Lay on Hands pool equal to 5 times their Paladin level for some more healing. You can touch a creature to give them any amount of health from your Lay on Hands, or use 5 hitpoints from your Lay on Hands pool to neutralize a poison or disease affecting them. You also get Divine Sense to locate any Celestial, Fiend, or Undead as long as they’re within 60 feet of you and not behind total cover. Don’t worry it gets a lot more exciting later.

LEVEL 7 - PALADIN 2

Second level Paladins can choose their Fighting Style and you’re still more of a mage than a warrior, so Blessed Warrior will give you two cantrips from the Cleric list that use your Charisma! Guidance is an obvious must for a support and Toll the Dead is a great option if you want to go full AP.

Should you have options for attacks to target enemies who have high Wisdom? Yeah probably: Sacred Flame might be a good choice.

Of course cantrips also imply more Spellcasting! You can prepare a number of spells equal to your Charisma modifier plus half your Paladin level (rounded down) which is currently a freaking lot of spells. Let’s just go down the list, shall we?

Bless is great to buff your team and make them harder, better, faster, and stronger.

Command is a mostly harmless Enchantment spell that will force your foes to do as you, well, command. I’d argue “dance” is a reasonable Command.

Protection from Evil and Good is never bad to have in your back pocket in case you’re fighting either Kayle or Fiddlesticks.

And Shield of Faith will let you boost your ADC’s survivability with Ardent Censer!

I know you can prepare more spells but there isn’t much I want from first level of Paladin. I am contractually obligated to mention that you can also turn your spell slots into a Divine Smite if you hit an enemy with a melee weapon, but you aren’t really going to be using weapons in this build. That’s right boys hop aboard the caster Paladin train!

LEVEL 8 - PALADIN 3

Third level Paladins get to choose their Sacred Oath and Oath of the Watchers may seem weird but it’s really good at defending your allies. That’s because you get two different Channel Divinity options: Abjure the Extraplanar works similarly to the Cleric’s Turn Undead feature except it affects Aberrations, Celestials, Elementals, Fey, and Fiends.

Watcher’s Will meanwhile lets you choose a number of creatures you can see within 30 feet of you, up to your Charisma modifier. For 1 minute, you and the chosen creatures have advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws. This means that in a party of 6 this ability can give your whole party advantage on all mental saves, which is huge for keeping everyone alive against nasty casters! See? Demacia can use your magic!

Speaking of magic you get Alarm and Detect Magic as Oath spells. (Might want to swap Detect Magic from your Bard list with Mass Healing Word ty Tasha’s.) You can also use Harness Divine Power to regain a spell slot equal to half your proficiency bonus a number of times per Long Rest. And you get Divine Health, because you don’t take a sick day to stop complaining about Seraphine.

LEVEL 9 - PALADIN 4

4th level Paladins get another Ability Score Improvement: cap off that Charisma for maximum AP scaling!

(Artwork by Kelly Aleshire & Esben Lash Rasmussen. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 10 - PALADIN 5

5th level Paladins can finally prepare second level spells! As a Watchers Paladin you get access to Moonbeam as well as See Invisibility, both of which are very good for dealing with incoming gankers.

You can also prepare spells like Aid to boost your allies’ HP, Prayer of Healing (ty Tasha’s) for some out-of-combat healing, and Warding Bond for a Knight’s Vow.

Oh and you get an Extra Attack, which sure would matter if you were actually using weapons.

LEVEL 11 - PALADIN 6

6th level reasons get the main reason Sona’s a Paladin: Aura of Protection! All your saving throws are increased by an amount equal to your Charisma modifier, which is a full +5 currently! But what’s special about this ability is that it also applies to your allies within 10 feet of you, letting you give out auras a plenty to keep your allies safe!

You can also prepare another spell but again: not much I really want. So we’re going to be waiting a little while longer once again.

LEVEL 12 - PALADIN 7

7th level Watchers Paladins get Aura of the Sentinel, or as I like to call it: Song of Celerity. When you or any creature of your choice within 10 feet of you roll for initiative, they gain a bonus to initiative equal to your proficiency bonus. While this may make positioning a little difficult (everyone’s going to have to huddle around you) this ability guarantees that you can speed up all your important allies to make sure they get their powerful abilities off!

LEVEL 13 - PALADIN 8

8th level Paladins get another Ability Score Improvement or a Feat. You may have noticed your uneven Constitution score: grab good ol’ Resilient Constitution for a boost to your health and even more insurance on your Concentration checks. With your Paladin aura and proficiency you’d have a +12 total to your Constitution checks currently, meaning that if you take 24 damage or less you won’t even have to roll for Concentration!

LEVEL 14 - PALADIN 9

You are probably the only Paladin who cares about spells, so it’s nice that you get 3rd level spells now! Watchers Paladins get two very strong third level spells: Nondetection will help you deward and keep your allies safe from enemies that may try to sneak a peak at you, but Counterspell is the true best choice to stop danger from befalling your allies. What’s very good about Counterspell is that as a Bard you get to add Jack of All Trades to the skill check, meaning it’s far easier for you to deny an incomming spell than any other spellcaster! “Mages have enough problems without you.”

Of course you can prepare some more spells like Aura of Vitality for Aria of Perseverance, and Revivify for an ADC’s Guardian Angel. But having access to spells like Remove Curse, Dispel Magic, Crusader’s Mantle, and even Daylight on the Paladin spell list are all extremely useful to be able to prepare. Remember that you are doing yourself a disservice by not taking time to think about what the best spells to prepare would be for your current quest. "Every note is important."

(Artwork by Kelly Aleshire & Esben Lash Rasmussen. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 15 - BARD 6

Now that we’ve got all our auras it’s time to go back to Bard for Mantle of Majesty! As a bonus action, you cast Command without expending a spell slot as you take on an appearance of unearthly beauty for 1 minute. During that minute you can cast Command as a bonus action on each of your turns without expending a spell slot. Additionally any creature charmed by you automatically fails its saving throw against the command you cast with this feature. You do have to concentrate on this feature (like a spell), and once you use it you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.

You can also learn another spell but there isn’t much I want from the third level of Bard, really. Oh and you get Countercharm which is awful and I hate it, but since you didn’t take a 10th level in Paladin I suppose you have to use it. Spend an action to give allies advantage on their saving throws against charms and fears, I guess.

LEVEL 16 - BARD 7

7th level Bard; 4th level spells. Freedom of Movement will let you help either yourself or an ally with Mikael’s Crucible, and Dimension Door is great to get into lane fast, or back to base fast!

LEVEL 17 - BARD 8

8th level Bards get another Ability Score Improvement, and if you don’t like the look of something something Medium Armor then the Eldritch Adept feat might be able to help. Take the Mask of Many Faces invocation to be able to cast Disguise Self at will to change your skins as you please.

Could you have taken this earlier? Absolutely. Are there better invocations? Yeah probably, but by level 17 you can make some of your own choices. Build your own Sona: this is merely a guide and you can make your own choices.

Speaking of own choices: take whichever spell you want at this level. There’s plenty of great ones for a 4th level Bard and I can’t recommend anything in particular to you. Every musician has their own style, and it’s up to you to find your own!

(Artwork by Yan Li. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 18 - BARD 9

9th level Bards get to pretend that increasing Song of Rest from a d6 to a d8 by total level 18 is helpful.

You do get access to 5th level spells like Mass Cure Wounds, which is like Mass Healing Word but better! "Harmoniously."

LEVEL 19 - BARD 10

10th level Bards get Expertise in two more skills: Perception is an obvious must to watch over your wards but beyond that? Honestly pick your poison with whatever skill you want since by level 19 you can make your own choices. (Though my personal choice would be Athletics to hopefully give some more safety against grapples.)

But of course the main boon of reaching level 10 in Bard is the Magical Secrets! ...I’m afraid I’m going to have to disappoint you again: there honestly aren’t any spells in particular I want as Magical Secrets. Sure I could recommend spells like Haste or whatever but are they really going to be that great by total level 20? To be honest even the spells on the Bard list like Animate Objects, Greater Restoration, Hold Monster, Rary's Telepathic Bond, Scrying, and Synaptic Static are very good (although I’d sooner replace some of your old spells with them.)

Again I know this is supposed to be a “guide” but most people won’t hit level 19 anyways, so I don’t think it’s that bad for me to recommend you take your own steps to make your own Sona. Hell, build some AP if you want! I know I would!

LEVEL 20 - BARD 11

Our final level is the 11th level of Bard and I’ll be honest: it’s just to add Otto's Irresistible Dance to your spell list. It can only affect one person but it’s still your ultimate by total level 20.

Oh and you were supposed to get a cantrip last level. Uhhhhh I dunno take Mending lol.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

The rhythm connects us all - You have dozens of spells to keep your team alive and active during a fight, not to mention that all your Paladin auras and abilities really help them give 110%. It’s worth mentioning that Gift of Alacrity combined with Aura of the Sentinel is a d8 + 6 to an Initiative roll, which will almost always guarantee that whoever you want to go first will be going first!

A true masterpiece should celebrate living - Despite your somewhat weird level split you maxed out the only stat which matters for you: Charisma. And woah holy shit turns out Paladins are really good with maxed out Charisma! +5 to all saves means even your lowest save is a +4, and the saves your proficient in vary between +13 for Dexterity and Constitution (both very common!) and a whopping +16 save on Charisma!

Curtains up; I'm ready - Jack of All Trades also does quite nicely to help your middling skills. Even though I dumped most of your mental skills you’re still proficient enough that you won’t be completely helpless when caught off guard. And when you’re in the zone with Persuasion or Performance you are easily the best girl around!

CONS

Don't make me get off stage - It was my intention to recreate Sona’s positional gameplay with this build but it does present some gameplay issues when trying to maximize your effectiveness. Where do you position yourself as a character who’s still primarily a squishy caster despite your good saving throws and AC? Can you give everyone in your party support, or are they too spread out to get value out of your 10 foot range auras?

Quiet, please! - You have a damn good concentration check, but what do you concentrate on? Not only do you have a ton of spells but they all scale very good with levels and you have spell slots that go far higher than your maximum level spell. It can be hard to choose what to do with those 7th and 8th level slots.

The world is cruel... Until that changes, I'll never stop playing - One of many “meta” problems with this build was my choice to focus almost entirely on support. Sure Toll the Dead is a great damaging cantrip but your only two damaging spells are Moonbeam and Dissonant Whispers. Again: you don’t have to follow my build point-for-point and while you’ll be flamed in League for building Sona full AP I don’t think your friends will mind if you take some damaging spells.

But if you can’t tell it was really hard for me to come up with those downsides. With the exception of the positional requirements a Bardadin is a very strong build and Sona is a very strong support. Boost your teammates with your own amazing power and make sure everyone’s alive and jamming! Your power may have been forgotten over the years but no one’s ever upset to have a great support at their side. And remember: Seraphine may be in K/DA but you’re in Pentakill, and you have your own label! No one can replace DJ Sona!

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#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd build #dnd guide #League of Legends #League of Legends Sona #Sona #Seraphine didn't replace her #shut the fuck up #dnd bard #dnd paladin #music #Youtube

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grailfinders · 3 years

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Fate and Phantasms #162

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re making the woman who brought down the sun, Chacha! Chacha’s a Zeal Cleric to bring out the skeletons of the Toyotomi, as well as a Pyromancer Sorcerer to set the proper mood lighting with the hellfire that constantly burns within her.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: Alter ego? I barely even know ‘er ego!

Race and Background

Chacha’s Human. Not really much to say to justify that, but it gives you +1 to all abilities.

Your experience in the court of one of the most powerful men in Japan gives you the Courtier background, giving you proficiency with Insight and Persuasion. You’re kind of a kid right now, so shoot people the puppy dog eyes and they’ll be butter in your hands faster than you can flutter your lashes.

Ability Scores

Continuing from that last sentence, max out your Charisma. God knows you’ll need it if you want to get that bread. Second is your Dexterity- you’re a rambunctious little rugrat. Third highest is your Constitution, you’re tough enough to deal with constantly being on fire, but we won’t be getting much of that from two spellcasting classes. Your Wisdom isn’t great, but it’s a lot better than most berserkers- your madness enhancement is only E rank. Also we need it for multiclassing. Your Strength isn’t great, you did get summoned as a child, after all. That leaves your Intelligence to dump. Again, Chacha’s a child here, and she definitely strikes me as a “leap before you look” kinda person.

Class Levels

1. Sorcerer 1: The skeletons are what you do, but being on fire is what you are, so we’re starting with Pyromancy. (It also doesn’t hurt that starting with sorcerer gives you proficiency with Constitution and Charisma saves, plus Religion and Deception. She snuck into being the big bad of a whole event, I’m counting it.)

Being a sorcerer gives you Spells you can cast using your Charisma, as well as a Heart of Fire. When you cast a fire-dealing spell that isn’t a cantrip, you shoot fire out of your body in a 10′ radius around you, dealing damage to creatures you choose equal to half your sorcerer level (minimum 1, so it isn’t useless this level).

Speaking of spells, you get some! Prestidigitation lets you fit whatever fits into your hand for six seconds. There’s also other uses, but this is one of the closest things you’ll get to Golden Rule, so we’re using it for free stuff. You also get Sword Burst to shove swords in people, Green-Flame Blade for when you want to do it yourself, and Fire Bolt because we kind of got a theme going.

For first level spells, Burning Hands will activate your Heart of fire, and Mage Armor will help you not die. You die last, make sure it stays that way.

2. Cleric 1: Multiclassing into a Zeal cleric gives you proficiency with all sorts of armors and weapons, so if you want to slap on a mask and get in up close and personal with your foes, now you can. You also get another set of Spells, which you cast and prepare with your Wisdom. You also become a Priest of Zeal, so you can attack as a bonus action after attacking with your main action Wisdom Modifier times per long rest.

You’ll get plenty of use out of your specialty spells Searing and Thunderous Smite, but you can also use Bane to weaken your enemies. You also get more cantrips! Thaumaturgy is a great distraction when you have to get out of a punishment, or you could use Sacred Flame in a fight! Otherwise, you can use Light to see in the dark with your dumb human eyes.

3. Cleric 2: Second level clerics can use their Channel Divinity options once per short rest, either Turning Undead like normal or engaging their Consuming Fervor when they deal Fire or Thunder damage to deal the max amount possible instead of rolling. You can probably sense a theme in this build by now.

4. Cleric 3: Third level zeal clerics can make Magic Weapons or Shatter their enemies with second level spell slots. Magic Weapon’s much more in-character for you, but I’d certainly not turn down free explosives.

5. Cleric 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to grab the Magic initiate feat. This lets us pick up Bane once per long rest without having to become a bard, and you also get Friends and Vicious Mockery to add a bit of magic to your social cantrips.

On top of that, you still get one more cleric cantrip. Toll the dead is certainly appropriate thematically.

6. Cleric 5: Fifth level clerics can now Destroy Undead of CR 1/2 or lower when they turn undead, but more importantly they get third level spells. Haste and Fireball are both great picks, but we’re here especially for Animate Dead to make some skeletons. What a lovely family reunion!

7. Sorcerer 2: Now that we’ve got the rest of the Toyotomi clan backing you up, we can refocus on that hellfire. Second level sorcerers are Fonts of Magic, giving you sorcery points equal to your sorcerer level each long rest that you can spend on spell slots. There’s other stuff later, but for now you get slightly more spell slots.

You can also use those big-ol’ puppy dog eyes to Charm Person, forcing a wisdom save to charm someone for up to an hour.

8. Sorcerer 3: Your metamagic lets you enhnace your spells by using sorcery points. Your Heightened spells impose disadvantage on one target’s saves, and your Extended spells have a doubled duration.

Flame Blade technically isn’t a sorcerer spell unless you like Unearthed Arcana, but it’s fitting enough that we might as well chance it. It makes a flaming sword that uses your casting modifier to attack and lasts 10 minutes or until your concentration runs out.

9. Sorcerer 4: Use this ASI to bump up your Dexterity for a higher AC and your Wisdom for more attacks and better cleric spells.

You also get Create Bonfire and Aganazzar’s Scorcher for more fire. Again, kind of a theme here.

10. Sorcerer 5: Fifth level sorcerers can spend sorcery points on Magical Guidance to re-roll failed skill checks. You’re kind of a big deal, you don’t have time to do things badly.

You also get another UA spell, Flame Stride. Speed yourself up by 20 feet, avoid opportunity attacks, and deal fire damage to nearby creatures. Perfect for when you’re tearing a path through Chaldea.

11. Sorcerer 6: Sixth level pyromancers come packed with Fire in the Veins, giving you resistance to fire damage and now your fire spells ignore resistance.

You also get the spell Incite Greed. You might not be able to conjure gold like the other Golden Rule users, but it looks like you’re really rich, and that’s the important part here. This spell forces a wisdom save on any number of creatures within range, and if they fail all they can do until they break free is follow you around and stare at the gem you’re holding.

12. Sorcerer 7: Your brand new fourth level slots help you induce Confusion on your enemies. Probably your enemies. Seriously, avoid hitting your friends with it.

13. Sorcerer 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for stronger spells. You also learn Wall of Fire for more fire. Again, we’ve got a theme to work with here.

14. Sorcerer 9: Immolation is more fire, but it’s also more your speed than a wall. Set someone on fire to deal 7d6 fire damage or half on a successful dex save. On a failed save they also stay on fire for up to a minute, until you lose concentration, or they pass another dex save. Also, if this spell kills someone, they turn to ash.

15. Sorcerer 10: For your third metamagic option, go for Empowered spell to deal more damage when you’re out of divinity to channel. Since we’re not going barbarian, grab Blade Ward for a bit of that berserker toughness, as well as Creation to buy up whatever you might need at a moment’s notice.

16. Sorcerer 11: Investiture of Flame gives you yet another way to set yourself on fire, making you immune to fire damage, resist cold damage, deal fire damage to nearby creatures, and you can spend an action to shoot fire for up to 10 minutes.

17. Sorcerer 12: Use your last ASI to max out your Charisma for the hottest flames possible.

18. Sorcerer 13: Your seventh level spell is Fire Storm, creating flames that cover 10 10 foot cubes within range, dealing fire damage and setting objects on fire. More fire! Never enough fire.

19. Sorcerer 14: Fourteenth level pyromancers get Pyromancer’s Fury, letting you spend your reaction to deal fire damage to a creature when they hit you with a melee attack, ignoring resistances. More fire! Always more fire.

20. Sorcerer 15: To commemorate that time you destroyed your entire family and brought them to ruin, grab Sunburst as your eighth level spell to burst that sun and deal radiant damage to creatures in a 60′ radius and possibly even blind them.

Pros:

You’re really good with Fire, and thanks to your pyromancer features the fact that fire is a common resistance isn’t quite as big a deal for you as it could be. Being able to max out your fire damage also means you can deal big hits once per short rest.

Aside from raw damage, you’re also good at weakening enemies thanks to your high charisma and heightened metamagic.

Since you’re shouldering the dps burden, that leaves your skeleton army available to basically be a shield between you and whatever it is you’re killing, making it much harder for barbarians and the like to flatten you like a pancake.

Cons:

Oh yeah, barbarians can flatten you like a pancake. You have barely over 100 HP and an AC of 16, you’re not hard to take down if someone can survive your opening barrage.

Most of your spells aren’t very selective. Your party might give you a hard time for friendly fire, and you’re probably going to end up killing your skeleton family. Again. Sorry.

Quite a few of your spells require concentration, meaning you’ll have to pick and choose what you’re doing at any one time. It also means you might waste a spell slot if someone slaps you too hard after you immolate someone else. It’s an occupational hazard.

#fate grand order #FGO #chacha #D&D 5e #DND #Cleric #Sorcerer

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masterweaverx · 4 years

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You know who would be a great party member? Salem! She was an adventurer before--heck, she even tried to slay a dragon or two back in the day. And I mean, who wouldn’t want the immortal witch queen of the Grimm in their party? There’s no way this could possibly go wrong!

Of course if Salem’s going to go Dungeoning, she needs to be immortal. And have, like, real powerful magic and a lot of it. Sway the hearts of men easily. Also be able to command Grimm. On the surface, this seems like it might all be pretty difficult--but you just have to know where to look, unearthed Arcana gives people a lot of options.

You don’t get a staff of loyal servants willing to help you destroy everything without being really good at talking to people, so Salem’s Charisma is going to be her primary stat--fifteen points from the point array. Wisdom is next with fourteen points, since she needs to be able to read people, and intelligence after that with thirteen, she’s something of a genius. Of her physical stats, constitution is the most important, so twelve points go in there, and ten points go to Dexterity--not that she’s going to use it often, but she does have some running skills. That makes Strength the dump stat with eight points; surprising, given she flipped a table once, but magic can more than make up for that.

Now no standard race is going to fit Salem’s unique situation, but the Unearthed Arcana: Gothic Heroes has produced a Revenant subrace that can be applied to a lot of other races. Being a Human Revenant means Salem gets +1 to Constitution and two additional +1s to put on her abilities; putting them on Constitution and Intelligence evens those both out to fourteen. And as a Revenant Salem gets a Relentless Nature, letting her regain one HP per round if she’s below half health, regenerate within a day if she’s outright killed, and know the distance between herself and any creature involved in whatever the Goal keeping her alive is. Which... well, she was cursed to live until she knew the value of Death, so she’s always in a room with herself, but you know.

For Background, I once again went with nerd Sage, so Salem has proficiency in Arcana and History, as well as the Researcher feature. Basically, if Salem doesn’t know something, she knows where to go to find out what she doesn’t know. She spent a lot of time in that tower, and she knows the value of stories, so... yeah, girl’s smart as a smart thing.

Salem is a Master Caster, and also a Master Manipulator. For the first, she’s going to get eight levels in Sorcerer--Abberant Mind Sorcerer, to be specific, since she did toss herself into a pool of demon goop that one time. For the second, she’ll be picking up twelve levels in Eloquence Bard, which gives her more magic and actually means she gets ALL THE SPELL SLOTS.

And five whole Ability Score Improvements! We’ll burn one to give Salem the Menacing feat, which not only ups her Charisma by one for a total of sixteen, but also gives her proficiency in Intimidation and the ability to use an attack action to just Frighten anybody within thirty feet. The remaining ASIs give two ability points each--putting four in Charisma maxes it out to twenty, and putting two each in Wisdom and Intelligence bring those up to sixteen apiece.

Since Salem’s first class is Sorcerer, she gets profiency with a small grab-bag of weapons: Daggers, Darts, Slings, Quarterstaffs, and Light Crossbows. She also gets proficiency with Constitution and Charisma saving throws, and two skills from the Sorcerer list--Deception and Insight fit her pretty well. Multiclassing into Bard lets Salem have proficiency with Light Armor, a Musical Instrument, and one more skill--Persuasion is the most fitting, honestly. And of course, there are perks beyond that for the number of levels in each class.

Sorcerers get Sorcery points equal to their Sorcerer level, which they can spend to use Metamagic--options which let Salem tweak a spell she’s casting just a bit. The Distant Spell metamagic lets her double the range of casting, and the Subtle Spell metamagic means she doesn’t even have to say anything to cast whatever spell she needs. Ordinarily this would also be the part where I say she can melt unused spell slots for sorcerer points--which she can--but there’s a twist.

At sixth level, Abberant Mind Sorcerers get Psionic casting. That means that instead of paying the price listed to build a spell slot, Salem can just cast a spell directly by spending an amount of sorcery points equal to the spell slot. That is a major game-changer in terms of resource management, and that’s on top of the Telepathic Speech (lets her talk silently to one person within range) and the Psychic Defenses (resistance to psychic damage and advantage against being frightened or charmed). And any spell she casts using Psionic casting doesn’t need verbal or somatic components--it’s basically already Subtle Spelled.

Twelve levels in Bard, meanwhile, make Salem’s support and leadership roles absolutely top teir. She’s got five Bardic Inspiration Die, each a D10, that she can use to give her allies a bonus on attacks, ability checks, or saving throws--and she regains them on a short or long rest. She can also use a Song of Rest to restore 1d8 HP to her allies during a short rest. As a Jack of All Trades, Salem can add half her proficiency bonus to any skill check she’s not already proficient in, and she’s got Expertise in four skills--I’d go with Persuasion, Intimidation, Insight, and Arcana for, well, obvious reasons. When it comes to magic, Salem can use Countercharm to give her allies advantage on saving throws against being Frightened or Charmed, and she knows Magical Secrets--which means two of the spells she can learn from the Bard list can actually be from any caster list.

Eloquence Bards have Silver Tongues, meaning they can’t roll lower than a ten on Persuasion and Deception checks. Salem knows exactly what to say to convince people, and she also knows how to use Unsettling Words, sabotaging somebody with a Bardic Inspiration die instead of supporting them. Her Unfailing Inspiration means that the dice she does give out to help will stay with whoever has them until they actually help--they won’t be expended on a failed check or save. Universal Speech comes free once per long rest, and costs a spell slot every time thereafter, but given that it lets Salem talk to five creatures and have them understand her that’s not too much of a problem.

When it comes to spells, well, Salem’s got options. Since she’s got twenty full caster levels, she gets 4 level one slots, 3 slots each for second through fifth levels, two each in sixth and seventh, and one apiece in eighth and ninth. While she only has spells up to level six, she can upcast some spells with higher slots or melt them for sorcery points, so the higher slots won’t go to waste.

Twelve levels in Bard gives Salem four Bard cantrips and fifteen spells up to level six, two of which can come from any spell list. Eight levels in Sorcerer gives her five Sorcerer Cantrips and nine Sorcerer spells, up to level four--and Abberant Mind sorcerers get specific extra spells for free, although they can choose to swap out one of those spells for an enchantment or divination spell of the same level from the Sorcerer, Warlock, or Wizard spell list. I decided that Detect Thoughts was something that Salem couldn’t actually do, and replaced it with Suggestion--other than that, I kept the list of bonus spells intact.

Cantrips: --Firebolt (Sorcerer) --Frostbolt (Sorcerer) --Gust (Sorcerer) --Message (Bard) --Mind Sliver (Aberrant Mind) --Minor Illusion (Bard) --Prestidigitation (Bard) --Shocking Grasp (Sorcerer) --Thunderclap (Sorcerer) --Vicious Mockery (Bard) L1 (4 Slots): --Arms of Hadar (Aberrant Mind) --Chaos Bolt (Sorcerer) --Charm Person (Bard) --Dissonant Whispers (Aberrant Mind) --Fog (Sorcerer) (Concentration) --Id Insinuation (Bard) (Concentration) --Mage Armor (Sorcerer) --Magic Missile (Sorcerer) --Unseen Servant (Bard) --Witch Bolt (Sorcerer) (Concentration) L2 (3 Slots): --Calm Emotions (Aberrant Mind) (Concentration) --Darkvision (Sorcerer) --Pyrotechnics (Bard) --Skywrite (Bard) (Concentration) --Suggestion (Aberrant Mind Replacement) (Concentration) L3 (3 Slots): --Enemies Abound (Bard) --Fireball (Sorcerer) --Fly (Sorcerer) (Concentration) --Hunger of Hadar (Aberrant Mind) (Concentration) --Lightning Bolt (Sorcerer) --Major Image (Bard) (Concentration) --Sending (Aberrant Mind) L4 (3 Slots): --Charm Monster (Bard) --Ego Whip (Bard) (Concentration) --Evard's Black Tentacles (Aberrant Mind) (Concentration) --Summon Aberration (Aberrant Mind) (Concentration) --Summon Greater Demon (Bard MS) (Concentration) L5 (3 Slots): --Bigby's Hand (Bard MS) (Concentration) --Scrying (Bard) (Concentration) L6 (2 Slots): --Guards and Wards (Bard) --Mass Suggestion (Bard) --Psychic Crush (Bard) L7 (2 Slots) L8 (1 Slots) L9 (1 Slots)

Look at all dem spells Salem got. Look at ‘em. Bigby’s hand lets her flip tables and crush Nevermores, Scrying lets her spy on people from afar, and just... look, she’s got a lot of magic, alright? Some to control and summon Grimm and some to give her elemental magic and some just to make her a people person. Sure, she can’t really use too many weapons, but do you think she needs to? When she can literally summon and control and coerce demons? Salem’s going to manipulate everybody else and look dang fine doing so.

So yeah, that’s Salem.

#Dungeons & Dragons #D&D 5E #RWBY #Salem #Character Build

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brownstonearmy · 4 years

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2020-09-05: Juiced! (Part 4)

August 6 (Thursday late afternoon)

Today's adventure picks up in the late afternoon after a perfectly average workday. Earlier in the day, Spleenifer received a surprise "gift" from the aspiring necromancer from the previous adventure: a gently-used display model of the spinning princess casket that she had been eyeing the other day. It even has the label attached! "The rave from the grave that puts the FUN in funeral!" it reads. Perhaps this is an indicator that the wannabe-necromancer is trying to turn over a new leaf and make better life (unlife?) decisions?

After clocking out for the evening, the party convenes at Jangles' house to discuss what they should do about Zaribeth Quickfingers. Jangles mentions that Zaribeth is a successful businessperson that is probably using her various business operations to hide something shady. Lucky needs clarification on several points in the discussion because it gets difficult to differentiate between regular idioms and innuendos in this group. If Zaribeth is running a shady operation of any real significance, there's likely to be some sort of bookkeeping or paper trail somewhere that can be used as evidence. If the party can find that, they stand a real chance of thwarting Zaribeth's plans.

But before the conversation can conclude, Jangles shushes the party. Someone's tripped the magical alarms on the perimeter of Jangles's house! Q (who goes as Razzle today), tells Jangles to go hide just as the lock to the front door clicks open and several muffled whispers reach the back room where the party is hiding out.

Razzle starts a diversion with a stellar performance mourning the loss of their lover, Jangles. Tears flow, along with plenty of wailing and gnashing of teeth. The intruders weren't expecting anyone to be here, but they try to play it cool and announce that they are police who are collecting evidence as part of a continuing investigation against Jangles.

Lucky grabs a jar of fart powder from Jangles's work desk and turns herself invisible. She creeps out into the front room and sees three people in street clothes poking around. These folks sure don't look like members of the constabulary, so Lucky tosses a cloud of the fart powder into the air so it covers the trespassers. Spleenifer grabs some more fart powder for good measure, because you can never have too much flatulence in this game.

Two of the three get enough of the powder in their mouths to cause a coughing fit that quickly turns into a belching fit before progressing into a continuous burp. They grasp their throats to help air get in, but it's only flowing in one direction right now. Don't get this stuff in your lungs, folks, because there's only one way for the gas to escape, ya dig? The one who avoided the worst of the powder drags his companions out of the house and tries to escape from whence they came.

Razzle, Lucky, and Spleenifer follow the three amigos back to a shady-looking warehouse. Lucky is still invisible, and Razzle is sneaking through the shadows like a ninja. But poor tall Spleenifer, clad in noisy chainmail takes the most direct path to gain access to warehouse: asking politely to be let in (though only doing so at the suggestion of an invisible Lucky). The guard informs her that Yance is the only other person allowed in the warehouse aside from the lumpers and dockhands.

Yance is the only way to get in? LUCKY ACCEPTS THIS CHALLENGE. She casts Seeming and now Razzle is Yance and Lucky is Razzle. It's like Inception, but with layers of people instead of dreams. Anyway, Razzle-Yance walks up to the guard and asks to be let in along with his companions, Lucky-Razzle and Tall Lady. Yes, Spleenifer is introduced as Tall Lady, because you have to use a fake name when infiltrating a shady warehouse. That's just how it is, folks; I don't make the rules!

Several people of questionable moral integrity are standing around, and I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but you'd understand if you looked at these covers. One person is sitting on a stack of crates with a box full of rings that he seems to be counting, while the others merely eye the new arrivals with disinterest.

Razzle-Yance makes an executive decision to enter one of the rooms just off the main warehouse floor, silently hoping that it doesn't contain Original-Yance. Good news, there's just more crates and a desk in here! Lucky-Razzle asks Tall Lady to stand watch for a moment "for reasons" while she shuts the door. Lucky-Razzle's actual reasons are to loot the room, but she starts making loud suggestive sounds as a decoy. Razzle-Yance joins in the charade as they both inspect crates for anything of value.

During a particularly strenuous round of bedroom vocalizations, Razzle-Yance hears a thump inside one of the desk drawers, despite not touching the desk. Inside the drawer is a pile various papers and a false bottom that reveals a leatherbound journal with only 10 pages. Lucky-Razzle finds a pile of assorted spices that naturally get relocated to her satchel. And in case it becomes relevant to the plot, here's what she snagged:

Powdered pecans

White Pepper

Anise

Nutmeg

Cinnamon

Cloves

Cardamon

Nutmeg

When Razzle-Yance opens the journal, "Hey where are we on the deal?" is the only thing written on the first page. But before they can close the journal, more writing scrawls on the page. ""Did you find it yet? We need leverage soon."

Back in the central part of the warehouse, Tall Lady is still standing guard. One of the warehouse guards saunters over and tries to talk her up. Tall Lady responds by discussing at length the pain in her hip when waking up. But that just leaves room for the sleazy warehouse to try a pickup line. He's a hip specialist, you know! And he'd be glad to take a look at it in the other back room if she's interested.

Surprisingly, Tall Lady agrees, but not for the reasons you might think. The clueless john thinks he's gonna get a tall order of Tall Lady hanky panky, but Spleenifer would like for him to drink a tall glass of Respecting Women Juice. Of course, things do not go according to plan for either of them.

Inside the other back room, Holden Harcourt and Yance Elbereth are huddled around a table discussing business matters. Yance hasn't been able to find Brynnan's ring, and Yance lost most of his leverage with Brynnan by trading the horn to him. Holden and Yance both turn to the interlopers. Holden remembers Tall Lady from his previous arrangement to return Trashpit to the sewers in exchange for finishing the work of relocating the treasure. Perhaps Tall Lady could be a potential ally, and naturally he explains this in monologue form. Important talking points follow:

Holden wants to be the wealthiest person in town

Lawrence Stout cheated him out of a business deal, and Holden wants him bankrupted

Maybe Tall Lady and friends might be interested in a strategic partnership

Tall Lady extends her hand to make the deal. Holden does the same and a handshake happens. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! Tall Lady stomps on Holden's foot and dumps her share of the fart powder directly into his mouth. Holden starts gasping, then belching followed by the signature Continuous Burp. We don't negotiate with terrorists in this group!

A crack of lightning blasts through the northern wall of the warehouse and everyone's favorite douchelord walks into the fray. He has no quarrel with the party today, but Brynnan knows that Yance and Holden have been conspiring against him to find the ring. They won't find it, because it's in a secure location, but Brynnan's been doing some scrying of his own and knows where Holden keeps a certain important journal. Mind you, Holden can't stop burping and Brynnan casts Dispel Magic on him. Not be polite or anything, just to get Holden to shut up long enough for Brynnan to do his own Bad Guy Monologue.

Razzle-Yance is sneaking out the back door before things get too heated, but an invisible Lucky-Razzle is still in the room where the journal was recovered. Brynnan struts over to the drawer and rips out the false bottom... and the journal is still there? Lucky-Razzle used her minor illusion abilities to conjure up an illusory duplicate of the journal. Except she doesn't know what's actually in the real journal so she filled its pages with diary entries about Hilaria.

Holden interrupts Brynnan's monologue and tells him that the journal he has isn't what he thinks it is. It's just the way Holden and his boss communicate. Brynnan throws a tantrum and blasts a hole in the ceiling with another lightning bolt. Then he casts Chain Lightning on the occupants of the warehouse.

Lucky-Razzle unleashes a wild magic counterspell to stop the destructive lightning and succeeds. The lightning bolts are replaced with puppies that are running around and doing other regular puppy things. Brynnan grabs Holden by the collar and flies through the hole in the ceiling. He's gonna make sure Lawrence Stout bankrupts Holden, and that Holden is alive to see it. And then he drops Holden, who crashes into crates below.

But Lucky-Razzle has yet another trick up her sleeve! She breaks out the Mizzium Apparatus and uses it to cast Vicious Mockery on Brynnan. Brynnan’s delicate psyche takes the full brunt of the mockery and the insults rattle around enough to make it difficult for Brynnan to keep track of everything in the heat of the battle.

Original-Yance flips up the hood of his cloak and tries to sneak out before Brynnan notices him. Bird wings sprout from Original-Yance's cloak and he flies up and away. Or at least he would have done so, had Brynnan not cast Wall of Force in the air right above Original-Yance and the resulting collision knocked him out and sent straight to a hot date with the cold ground.

Lucky-Razzle runs over to Original-Yance and shouts "Lucky!" as though Original-Yance was actually an illusion worn by Lucky. I'm not gonna call him Lucky-Original-Yance, but only because there's already a lot of hyphens in the names from this adventures. This is some quality misdirection work on Lucky-Razzle's part, and Brynnan falls for the ruse.

Razzle-Yance is fleeing through the eastern alley, and Brynnan's aerial perspective allows to see the person he thinks is the real Yance trying to escape. He blasts Razzle-Yance with a Cone of Cold, but they're still standing. Brynnan announces that he's going to mercifully let Yance live because he still has the potential to acquire more artifacts for Brynnan.

Tall Lady whips her casket out like a beyblade and rushes into action to save her companions. Lucky-Razzle and Original-Yance hop in, though Original-Yance requires some assistance because he is clearly suffering from the effects of a concussion. The casket drifts and weaves through narrow streets and alleyways as Brynnan gives chase.

Razzle-Yance steps through a Dimension Door to end up in front of the mayor's house and divert Brynnan's attention. The casket crew are dodging boxes and uneven cobblestones to try to get Original-Yance some medical attention from Mom at the fighter's guild, but Brynnan is gaining on them. In a last-ditch effort to force Brynnan to retreat, Lucky-Razzle polymorphs a passing bird into a giant Roc. Continuing the chase proves to be too much effort for Brynnan, and he nopes out of there with prayer hands and a teleport.

Mom fixes Original-Yance back up, though he's still gonna have a headache in the morning. Original-Yance is offered Kalani's old cot at SHART HQ to sleep off his injuries. After all, he could be a valuable source of information.

While all this is happening, Razzle-Yance is running back to their apartment for safety. Remember to secure your own oxygen mask before attempting to assist others, as the traditional medieval saying goes. Once Razzle-Yance makes it to safety, the journal thumps in their pocket. They take out the journal and see that there is more writing on the page: "Heard sounds of a lightning fight, everything okay? I think we should relocate the books to Salem's in the meantime. In the usual box."

And on that little note, the adventure concludes for the evening. Stay tuned next time for more!

#shits and giggles #Dungeons and Dragons #adventure log #warehouse #fishdavidson #negotiation

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chronicles-of-kats-dnd-game · 4 years

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Band of Idiots Session 13: Raid on the Redbrands

•The party takes their rest in the Temple of Oghma, and all have good dreams, except for our Bad Decisions Warlock.

•Fin's patron summons him once more to his throne room in his dreams, holding a crystal ball showing the party. He thanks them for this insight on his future allies, and tells him the time when he will call upon him is approaching soon- but for now, to rest and grow stronger.

•Fin goes into the woods early in the morning to find some poison and Valark shows up again! He asks Fin what they have decided, and he tells them that he has not decided yet but believes that they will be able to help him.

•Valark asks him what he is looking for, and when he says he's looking for poison tells him to close his eyes and leads him to his personal grove of poisonous plants from his homeland. He gives Fin five of them.

•Fin returns to see Moorvi making breakfast again!

•The party discusses their plans for Iarno. Fin and Moorvi disagree strongly.

•Fin tells them the drow owing a debt to them is useful. Creak agrees, saying that he has helped them before. Moorvi and Penelope don't feel good about it, but go along with them. Cyra stays out of the discussion, strongly against this all.

•Fin and Moorvi go into the woods to meet with Valark. Fin tells him that they will work with him. Moorvi argues with Valark over morals.

•Valark tells her he appreciates seeing someone bold enough to stand up to him, and hopes that they can one day work together as equals. (Enemies to lovers slow burn 40k begins).

•Halia leads the party to Tresendar Manor! She tells them of how to get to the Redbrand hideout beneath, and of how to get through some of it. She warns them that stealth is very important in getting through, and to leave everyone alive if they can so she can question them later.

•Fin scouts ahead, seeing some rooms to the side with guards in them. He takes the form of a guard sleeping in one room, and distracts the guards of another. The others make it through to the stairs below making stealth checks 3 times and passing ALL OF THEM.

•They make it quietly down the stairs- and poor Creak rolls a nat one. She tumbles down the stairs loudly, alerting the Redbrands in the next room.

•Fin manages to convince the 2 guards that later follow that the first guard was a fake, and slips one of the poisonous plants on him, saying that he led the intruders in and is planning on poisoning their leader.

•Penelope casts Disguise Self to become the first dude, convincing the others. The Redbrands fight each other. Fin furiously signs in Thieves Cant to Creak and Cyra to tell them of the plan.

•Creak runs to the corner away from the Redbrands fighting above her.

•Moorvi casts Word of Radiance on Dude 1, but he makes his save and looks her directly in the eye to denounce her god.

•As the others inspect the poison, it spreads to them. As the poison starts to take effect on the Redbrands, all of them slowly lose their strength and ability to move. All of them roll hilariously bad to hit each other and the party.

•Moorvi tries to slap the dude that insulted her god but missed.

•Everyone rolls terribly for multiple rounds and no one does any damage to each other.

•After trying to attack Fin all combat, Dude 1 finally hits and stabs Fin in the shoulder while glaring at him before the poison drains his strength even more.

•Penelope looks at the pathetic poisoned man and casts Vicious Mockery. She walks up to him sweetly and insults him in an anime girl voice, causing the man psychic damage.

•Another Word of Radiance is resisted. Moorvi doubts her connection to her god.

•Creak has not landed an attack at any point in this campaign

•The two Redbrands eventually collapse from the poison, and the party thinks back to the fact that Valark has an entire grove of this stuff.

•The session closes after I planned for combat and got an absolute mess instead!

#May 22 2020 #recaps #Lost mine of Phandelver #lmop #dungeons and dragons #band of idiots

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goldanna-blog · 5 years

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Uhh can you do “Can you keep holding my hand, please?” with Varric?? I'm so excited that you made a DA blog haha

soft sentences!↳ varric tethras / lora hawke.

notes: set in inquisition after the whole nightmare demon problem. my kids are not all right, but i think?? it’s a little more hopeful than my usual fare.rating: teen, again!!words: 914

Off the path, Varric’s found, when alone is just another path. And he has to check himself often to prove that he still feels.

The Fade ate a life, some might even speculate in exchange for Hawke’s. Part of him knows the guilt that’ll seep into her bones, she always was a little soft for sacrifice. Varric leans against the snow-topped battlements, staring out into the snowy field.

He feels a pull to mourn, though it isn’t the closest call they’ve ever had. The first Fade field trip comes to mind, or the business at the Chantry. Still, what happened feels oddly real. Upsettingly real. Hawke almost lost, the rest of the world might’ve moved on but she almost lost.

Varric would’ve lost, too, more-so than he’d ever be able to let on. But to throw oneself into thoughts like that scares him worse than any nightmare demon. His shoulders tighten and he focuses on the colours glinting off the ice, cast by the setting sun.

He turns after half an hour, his face red with cold and retreats back inside. His pace is calm, cool, collected. But he wants to run headlong in the direction of Hawke, who’s already packing to leave for Weisshaupt. She was never one to let matters lie.

Varric doesn’t have to wait long before an expectant friend wanders towards his spot by the fire place. She knows where he is by heart.

“I was waiting for you to come see me,” she says. Varric turns quickly, her lip is busted. Lucky woman, that’s all the damage done. He makes a noncommittal noise and gives a shrug.

“Parting is such sweet sorrow, etcetera, etcetera,” he’s not really trying to defend himself. Her attacks have never been vicious in his regard, he’s cared for too much to attract any real ire. Lucky man.

“You know, absence doesn’t actually make the heart grow fonder,” she continues, circumnavigating the long table and coming to stand by the glowing hearth.

The hall’s empty enough to talk. Masked Orlesian’s and court representatives have moved on to bed. It’s just Varric and Hawke before a roaring fire, warm to the touch.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he cocks his head to the side, glancing at Hawke in a losing attempt to be inconspicuous. She catches his wandering eye and smiles. “I missed you, after all.”

“Varric,” she says, looking wistful all of a sudden. He shifts, slightly uncomfortable with the way she says his name. He’ll never know what to do with real intimacy. “I miss you all the time. Absence makes it harder.”

“Please,” he all but scoffs. Varric steps closer to the fire, watching the flames leap and dance. “You’ll have your back to Skyhold in a couple hours and be better for it.”

“This place is cozier than I expected,” Hawke admits. Her smile’s a little sad, now, when Varric turns to look. “You have it good here. I’m glad, you deserve to be part of very big things.”

“Cassandra might disagree,” Varric says, “but it’s interesting to be included in major events twice. Some might even consider it flattering.”

“Fate knows how important you are, clearly,” Hawke smirks at him, leaning in his direction and nudging his shoulder with her hip. Varric’s glower holds no bite or hatred, it’s pure mockery.

“Or how someone needs to be here to write everything down,” he tempers her idealism, as always. In the process, he pulls a laugh from her split lips.

Her arm’s near enough to grab, Varric reaches out and takes her hand. Proof that she’s solid sure is something. It’s been years of letters and close calls, long nights wondering in the dark if that’s all it might ever be— until one of them dies, that is.

The path alone is boring, she understands that just as keenly as he does.

So, he holds her hand. The gloves are off, the pressure’s affectionate. All that time apart melts away easily, it’s kind of scary how simple things can feel when she’s standing next to him.

She feels it, too, Varric knows by how she tries to pull away. Not for a lack of affection, because that’s what she feels, but out of a desire to spare him that all-consuming devotion. He won’t let it happen.

“Hawke,” he says, “can you— can you keep holding my hand, please?” it’s not much of a question, he already knows what her response will be. She changes just as suddenly from reserved adoration to more open fondness.

She holds his hand at her side with perhaps a little too strong a grip. But Varric’s tough, he knows it comes from the best place in the world. Hawke’s going to leave in the morning, he knows it. She’s usually gone by breakfast, anyway, but it never gets any easier.

Who’s afraid? He is, it’s not a new fear. He’s afraid he’s never going to see her again, just like he always is when she goes. Varric worries more than he lets on that he’ll be left in this unfair world with a broken heart and an empty hand.

When will we meet again? She wants to ask, but doesn’t.

Will we meet again? His question pushes at his mind with a force, but it goes unspoken.

Varric and Hawke look at each other, nervous but loving. Regardless of what’s said or not-said, the answer is exactly the same. We must meet again.

#varric tethras #varric #hawke x varric #dragon age: inquisition #varric x hawke #oc: lora hawke #Anonymous #this has only inspired me to write them messing around in kirkwall after trespasser lmao #my lovelies need a break

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littlemissgeek8 · 6 years

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Okay I just wanted to say I love your dnd art like so much!! It’s amazing!!! If you don’t mind me asking, can you summarize what you’ve done in your campaign with Jemima Appleblossom so far? She’s so cute and I would literally die for your PC

Aww!! Thanks! It’s always a joy to run into people who likemy characters! :3 I can totally give you a summary of our campaign thoughunfortunately it is 30 episodes atthe time of writing, with 31 going up later today, and I was unable to shrinkit to a reasonable size. I’ll put it under a cut to save on people’s dashspace, and I’ll also put links here for the youtube playlists in case there’sanyone who’d like to watch it instead of just reading about it. XD And for anyone interested in the series, this recap will catch you up in time for today’s episode to go out!

For those not wanting to read through all 8,930 words ofthis, TL;DR: “Ragtag group of adventurers get pulled into another world wherethey find themselves rubbing elbows with gods, fighting monsters, makingfriends, reviving demigods and unwittingly unleashing some massively dangerousthings onto the planet. In between accidentally dying a few times.”

[Ghostwolf] [EscoNitz] [CriticalHat]

Well, we started off in Parnast, sent by our individualfactions to investigate a missing wizard. My halfling bard Jemima is a Harper,same as our other bard, the human Gineye. Our other party members included Lei,the Tortle Paladin, Zuradar the Tiefling ranger, Lilystra the half-orcbarbarian and Zareem, the Aasimar warlock (who works for the Zhentarim, theonly other faction I remember.) On our way to find the missing wizard, we raninto a bunch of Kobolds who attacked us, but one Kobold --with distinctivewooden legs and one arm-- was trapped inside a cart by his own people and gaveus some assistance. When we finally found the wizard he was in the process ofsummoning something that turned out to be a Water Weird, which subsequently atethe whole party, ending the first session.

We woke up a week later inside an infirmary, which we soondiscovered was in an underwater city—the water weird didn’t just eat us, ittransported us basically to another dimension far away from Faerun. Seeing usas adventurers, one of the triton soldiers from the town we woke up in took us upto the surface to the port town of Audio Bay. (I might be spelling it wrong,sorry, I don’t have good notes this far back.) There, a dwarven merchant namedJonah gave us a quest to track down some missing gear that was stolen from him,a quest which lead us to a well with a Zhentarim symbol on it (surprisingly,since none of our factions exist in this dimension) and inside said well, weencountered a “dungeon” of a dubious nature filled with hobgoblins and bugbearsin leather armor and chain shirts. (Yes it was a kink dungeon, no I don’t wantto remember much about it. XD) After thoroughly stomping everyone involved, aminiscule orc calling himself “Bob” entered the room, shouting at us forhurting his people (whom he then revived with no effort at all.) We told him ofour mission and he agreed to let us take the stolen weapons back, along withgifting us a mysterious box filled with magic coins and a magical shield to ourpaladin. It wasn’t until later that we discovered that “Bob” was actually thegod of slaughter, not until after Zareem managed to roll a natural 100 and hithim with an eldritch blast.

As we left the dungeon, we were greeted by a pack of strangelooking wolves and a tall, blond man in a black coat who asked us to give himthe weapons we’d retrieved. He wouldn’t accept “no” for an answer, nor did wehave much time to try convincing him that we’d been assigned to collect thembefore our hair-trigger warlock decided to cast Charm Person on this newcomer.Unfortunately, the man was carrying a Staff of Charming and nullified the spellbefore it could affect him, before wildshaping into an earth elemental andproceeding to do his best to squash us. It wasn’t until Zareem and Zuradarmanaged to capture one of the “wolves” who turned out to be another druid thatthe man relented, changing back and calling off his friends. He admitted hisactions were hasty and together we traveled back to Jonah’s store with thestolen weapons, where it was revealed that the weapons were a special orderfrom the druid himself, Edan. In return for the weapons, Edan financed someupgrades for our group through the organization he works for (including a sweetring for Jemima which changes her vicious mockery from a d4 to a d6.)

The next day saw Edan taking us to an open air market on thedocks to shop around for supplies, before taking us to a tavern and treating usto lunch. (It was a pretty low-key session though there was a lot ofnon-story-important horseplay.) At the tavern we ran into the druids we’dfought the day before as well as a familiar face: Hanzi, the Kobold with thewooden limbs. While we ate, Edan mentioned that the druids, Hanzi and himselfwere all from Faerun originally and offered to let us join the organizationthey were working with when they went back to their base at the end of themonth. Shortly afterwards (after Jemima spent some time performing for thetavern patrons) Edan left the tavern, citing a “call” from his celestial parent(which Jemima immediately recognized, due to her own bardic master having beenan Aasimar as well.) Before they could pursue, the party was given a quest toinvestigate something in the tavern’s cellar, which turned out to be a wholeton of giant spiders (and a lot of screaming from Jemima) as well as a mimicwhich had taken the place of a box intended for Jonah.

As we returned to Jonah’s shop with his shipment, a heavystorm had started rolling in off the ocean, and after checking in with Jonah(and asking him if anyone would have been trying to kill him by sending him amimic) we headed out to the courtyard to find Edan standing by a scorched areawhere several lightning strikes had taken place. One of the lightning strikesleft behind a glowing orb that turned into a box which he quickly pocketed andrefused to tell us what it was, but we learned some troubling information aboutthe how though the portal we’d come through was a common occurrence, somethinghad interfered with it and kept his organization from closing it on time. Afterthings nearly came to blows between him, Zareem, Zuradar and Gineye, we allheaded off to prepare for whatever the next day would bring and eventuallysleep.

The next day was stormy again, but we set out with Edan anda few others to the docks, hoping to stave off whatever horrible thing wasapproaching the town from the portal in the ocean. Almost immediately, Edanflew off towards a monster out in the ocean, leaving us to deal with a largenumber of minor water elementals who did a good deal of damage before welearned we could destroy them by damaging the summoning circles they came from.Meanwhile, Gineye (with his Special Eyes) noticed “Bob” and several cloakedfigures watching the proceedings from the air nearby. As we defeated theelementals, a massive bolt of lighting shot from the storm over the ocean,right into the monster Edan was fighting, killing it and throwing Edan’slifeless body onto the docks nearby. Jemima tried in vain to use Healing Wordto revive him, only to be shut down by someone sending her a clear mentalmessage that she was wasting her time. Soon afterwards we found ourselvesfacing the same Wizard we’d been sent to find, who had merged himself with thewater weird. The battle was short and fairly one-sided as we all charged himbefore he could do much, eventually leading him to attack Lei one-on-one.Nobody’s entirely sure what happened but the wizard disappeared and Lei learnedhe could shoot a beam of radiant energy from his mouth.

That concluded, the realization of what happened to Edan hithome as a few of us tried to go over to him, only to be stopped by two of thecloaked figures Gineye had seen. One, a massive bugbear went to solemnlycollect the body, while the other (a skeletal form we couldn’t see well) tooksome glowing orb from Edan’s head before leaving. We’d managed to save thecity, but we’d lost a friend in the process. The next week was spent helpingthe city rebuild from the attack, though for Jemima it was a week of privatemourning and a grim realization that the fairy tale heroics she’d dreamed ofwere only a fantasy in the face of harsh reality. Then, we were called in toJonah’s again, only to find “Bob” sitting there, along with a large box and thedruids we’d met earlier. He gave us a mission we couldn’t really reject—travelwith Jonah and the druids to take the mysterious box to a town calledSylvenstand, checking in with a few towns along the way. When asked why hechose our group to do this, he admitted that we’d been specially requested, orrather Jemima had been requested for this job and it followed that everyoneelse would come too. In addition, Jemima was given three gifts—the owl-headedStaff of Charming that Edan had used, his bag of holding, and Bob’s holy symbolon her wrist as a sign of protection. And so, the group set off cross-countryto Sylvenstand in an enchanted cart with a box they weren’t allowed to touch(or let anyone else touch either, save for one contact they were told to meet.)

Their first destination was Flatol, where they were sent toinvestigate some reports of some strange goings on. This lead the party toinvestigate a crypt, one decorated with symbols and writing praising Orcus, andinside we found the necromancer that we’d been sent to find who almostimmediately trapped us into seeing our worst fears, but before anyone couldreally dwell on them, the Necromancer himself was murdered by the thingconjured up by Hanzi’s fear: a terrifying shadowy cleric. The battle thatensued was brutal, with us trying to defend against the cleric’s powerfulattacks or healing each other as best we could, but in the end the nightmarecleric was defeated. However, the cost of fighting him turned out to be Lei’slife, for the killing blow on the cleric sent our unconscious paladin into hisfinal death saves (Thanks, Zareem for not moving your Shatter spell somewhereelse.) However, instead of outright dying, a glow surrounded him, bringing himback but without his hard shell and with a much longer tail. The coins we’dreceived from “Bob” on our first meeting with him had each bonded with one ofus and this was the first time they’d revealed their powers: saving the bearerfrom death but bringing them back with a change or two.

We ushered our now semi-naked Tortle back to the cart andprepared to move on (though not until after a horrifying lunch in which ourTiefling nearly petrified several people with some of the dishes he’d made and did actually petrify himself for a shorttime.) Then, we moved on to Glens, the next town on our journey. TheNecromancer we’d run into had gone to Flatol from Glens and we were informedthat another necromancer had been in town as well, along with a frighteningbounty hunter who was hunting him down. Our search for clues turned up little,but as we all went to meet up in the town square, a huge hulking barbarianleaped down into our midst, wielding a massive axe. We weren’t much of a matchfor him, until Lei managed to grapple him, giving Gineye a chance to use a boltof petrification he’d picked up earlier. The Barbarian failed his save hard,turning to stone before our eyes, but as Gineye removed his hood, a familiarface stared back—Edan’s, thoughframed by dark hair instead of blond. Needless to say, Jemima didn’t take itwell, and we carefully moved the petrified man back to the cart to be restored.Before we left, however, the axe the barbarian had been using decided to attachitself to Gineye, revealing itself to be not only cursed but sentient as well.

A cleric who was currently traveling with us managed torestore the barbarian, and a conversation later revealed that he was not, infact, Edan. He introduced himself as Ivan the Lucky, a bounty hunter who hadbeen chasing down the necromancers we had run into, and he’d been working longenough to have a solid reputation, so the chances of him being Edan withamnesia or something was extremely low. However, we couldn’t let him leave asone of the jobs in our contracts was to investigate the grisly murders in Glensand there was a good likelihood he was involved somehow. So, with Ivan in towwe headed off to the next town, Crance, which was currently embroiled in arebellion of some kind. However, we had to stop there to meet up with acontact, and since we weren’t given a description of the contact we had tocross our fingers and hope we found him. A couple of men in a tavern claimed tobe the people we were looking for and agreed to come back to the wagon inexchange for some help with a situation they were in. It was only after givingthem the information we had and letting them inspect the box (which thankfullythey didn’t tamper with) that we found out they were not, in fact, our contact,but a mysterious half-orc in town might be. They were with the resistanceagainst the tyrannical government in the area and they directed us to a guardshack where the half-orc and some of their own people were being held.

Our group headed over there and found the guards to besurprisingly easy to defeat, and in the cells were a group of heavily injuredresistance fighters and one massive, angry owlbear. The half-orc however wasnowhere to be seen, until we headed to a room in the back. There, we found himstanding over the corpse of the head guard, pulling a knife out of thestill-warm body. The distinctive red teardrop tattoo on his face marked him asthe person we were searching for, since it matched the mark Jemima had receivedfrom “Bob” at the start of our quest. The half-orc, Grug, followed us back tothe cart to properly inspect the box and pay us for the tasks we’d alreadycompleted, but took an immediate dislike to the currently sleeping Ivan. Heexplained that Ivan was Edan’s Alternate—somewhat but not quite the same personborn in another dimension, though many differences in environment and home lifecan lead to wildly different characteristics, jobs and lives. He then warned usto keep Ivan away from the box, stating that it was dangerous to have himaround when Edan was in such a “weakened state.” Yet again, Jemima freaked out,demanding to know what he meant by that before Zareem completely stopped theconversation by boasting about how Bob approved of him b/c Zareem had managedto hit him. In a fit of rage, Grug dragged Ivan’s sleeping body away andunleashed a bunch of monsters on us, since pissing off a paladin by boastingthat you’d hit his god is probably the worst idea ever.

Once the monsters were defeated we raced outside after Grugand Ivan, finding Ivan yet again possessed by Gineye’s axe as he’d been thefirst time we fought him. After getting the axe back from Ivan (which sent thelarge barbarian back to sleep) we turned our attention to Grug and the animatedswords he was currently attacking our cart with. A few near deaths later, ourfight was interrupted by Grug vanishing and “Bob” appearing in his place,demanding to know what was going on. Thankfully we were in our rights to defendourselves and “Bob” admitted that Grug was overzealous and a huge problem forhim, but he was obligated to keep the half-orc around due to Grug’s familyconnections. Still, Bob fixed our wagon for us and decided to travel with us toSylvenstand, stating that he couldn’t just teleport there due to the nature ofthe place. A few days of travel later, we reached the woods surroundingSylvenstand, a dark frightening forest that seemed to twist and move around,confusing travelers who dared venture into it.

Which is when we ran into the dinosaurs. About halfway intothe forest we were stopped by a dead end and a voice demanding to know why wewere there. When we explained our mission, the voice told us we could only passafter it had “tested our mettle” upon which an allosaurus and a swarm ofdeinonychus showed up. The battle was surprisingly long, made worse by thearrows being shot from an unknown source deep in the woods. However, thedinosaurs eventually backed down, but not until after Jemima heard a veryfamiliar male voice saying the phrase “You can do better” before their woundswere healed. The fight over, we trooped back inside the cart, following theAllosaurus (named Sharp) to the secret town of Sylvenstand.

When we arrived, Jonah took the mysterious box away, whileour group accompanied by “Bob” went to a building built into the massive treein the center of town. Before we could turn in our quest, we checked in with aman at the front desk by the name of Eldon. It was he who finally explainedwhat exactly it was we had been transporting all this time—Edan’s body,magically preserved and warded to prevent decay so that a reviving ritual couldbe performed once his soul was reclaimed. Then, we were ushered upstairs intothe massive tree to an enormous room where a humanoid figure seemingly made ofwood or possibly completely encased in wooden armor sat. Seeing as it wastechnically her quest, Jemima was chosen to speak for the party, turning in theletter they were sent with as well as being given a bag of coin to be dividedamongst the team later. Lei’s divine sense however, picked up the massive amounts of divine energy comingfrom the figure in front of them, as well as noticing the oak leaf symbol onthe man’s chest. Though the contract said we’d been sent to report in to a mannamed Tay’rados, there was little question that the true originator of thequest was none other than Silvanus, the god of nature and druids himself.

After some impromptu shopping at a small bazaar in town, weheaded off to the temple district to meet with one Captain Taylor who wassupposed to be able to help Zareem with a mysterious mark he bore on his chest.Captain Taylor agreed to help on the condition that we spar with him, anexperience none of us were quite prepared for, as he turned out to be anextremely high-level paladin who was pulling his punches. Midway through thefight, having taken a decent amount of damage, Taylor grabbed Jemima beforereaching an arm into her bag of holding, coming up with a purple coin that she’dnever seen before (she’d been getting small trinkets including a bag of dragonbone from Edan’s bag over time, but never seen that coin in all her searching.)Again, Edan’s voice chimed in with the phrase “You can do better” as Taylor’swounds began to heal. In an almost uncharacteristic display of kindness, Zareemhelped her get the coin back and to keep Taylor from taking it again, Jemimadropped it down the front of her shirt with a glare. Then, taking the staff ofcharming she’d inherited from Edan, she stormed over and slapped him deadbetween the eyes, shouting at him “How dareyou touch my things?” only for Taylor to shout back “How dare you take mybrother’s things?” When the fight finally ended, she confronted him about thosewords, discovering that Taylor (who is, in fact, the real Tay’rados and thenext in line to take over for Silvanus) wasn’t kidding about Edan being hisbrother, and the coin he’d taken was an Ioun stone that Edan had obtainedduring one of his many travels. The voice she’d been hearing was simply theHealing Word spell he’d kept inside it being activated.

After our sparring match ended, Tay invited us to join himat the local tavern for drinks to celebrate Edan’s approaching revival, thoughnot before we returned to the large tree building to answer a few questionsabout the wizard we’d fought back in Audio Bay. That was where, after the armorthe wizard had worn attached itself to Lei, that the wizard hadn’t justdisappeared that day, he’d been stowing along in Lei’s brain the whole timewithout anyone knowing. He hasn’t shown his hand yet, but the eventual effectsof this are unknown. Then we trooped off to the tavern, Lei and Zareemintending to party and have a good time, Zuradar and Gineye picking a fightwith a time-manipulating satyr who’d magic’d away some of our gear earlier (wegot it back thankfully) and Jemima meeting a nice man who gave her a book oncreating a Guard Drake from dragonscale (which she conveniently had thanks tothe bag of bones and scales in Edan’s bag of holding.) The party lasted allnight, though most were passed out before it got too late, particularly Zuradarwho was the first out after he failed to seduce an elf lady two times in a rowand left to drink until he couldn’t remember anything.

The next few days were less eventful, mostly everyone havinga bit of downtime and resting up, preparing for the next phase of the revivaloperation: retrieving Edan’s soul from wherever it had ended up. The owlbearthat we’d encountered in Crance had been put into a crystal by Grug fortransport, and thanks to Eldon, it was healed (though it had to be magicallyde-aged to save it) and given to Zuradar as a companion under the name Pip.When the time came for the expedition to set out, Jemima made sure our team wasinvited, since she desperately wanted to be able to save Edan. The expeditionwould leave Sylvenstand through a portal that had been set up over the last fewdays, though the endpoint was unknown until the portal was actually opened,bringing with it a group of dimensional “police” who wanted to know why we hadopened a portal onto a plane known as “Lunacy.” Tay seemed visibly distressedat the mention of that location, but in the end we were permitted to pass,providing he didn’t come with us (astipulation he didn’t challenge at all.) Armed with a glass jar with a locatingspell cast on it, we headed off into Lunacy.

The jar lead us through marshy woods until we came upon ascene of grisly carnage. Two hags had been torn apart along with a shambling moundor two, and as we approached we saw the one who had caused such destruction: acreature seemingly formed of wood with a featureless wooden mask. Immediatelythe jar Jemima was holding began to glow and vibrate, but just as quickly thecreature melted away into the ground, causing the jar to go dark again. Afterwe were set upon by another hag (and discovered that the damaged Weave on thisplane made casting spells a risky chance that often triggered wild magic tohappen) we continued on, the trail having been picked up again by the jar.After some walking we came upon a small tavern, the inside of which was emptysave for a lone barkeep in fancy eveningwear. He offered to give us informationor magic trinkets, and explained that the creature we had encountered, the“Beastmaster” was keeping him trapped. Our whole party was sure it was a trap,with the notable exception of Zareem, who made an agreement to smuggle a blackshard out of the plane in exchange for a magic sword and an axe.

Thoroughly disgusted at our companion, we continued on untilwe came to another clearing. As Zareem dashed across the grass towards a gate,the ground turned into more shambling mounds which proceeded to attack theparty. Midway through the fight, a large bear with a wooden mask lumbered in,attacking the mounds with us. However, once the mounds were destroyed, the bearturned towards us instead. Jemima had already put together that the jarresponding to both the Beastmaster (whose mask looked shockingly likeSilvanus’s) and the Bear (one of Edan’s common wildshape forms) were somehowconnected to Edan’s soul and she was reluctant to fight until being remindedthat druids change back from their wildshape forms after losing all their HP.When the bear finally fell, it morphed back into Edan, before dissolving intodust with a cry of distress, causing part of the jar to light up. This spurredthe party forward, towards the next location. There they ran across Eldonagain, who had followed them into the plane. He was badly wounded butsurrounded by corpses, including one giant spider wearing a wooden mask.Another piece of the jar lit up as Jemima approached it.

Then, Gineye managed to spot something across a nearbylake—on an island in the center, strapped to a cross-like structure, was Edan,or at least his soul. Coming from his body were five tendrils, two of whichwere rapidly dissolving. Using the teleportation that he had gotten from a wildmagic surge, Gineye teleported over to the island and summoned his axe, usingthe soul-collecting power of the axe to free Edan by having him slice off thetendrils. Edan’s soul disappeared, along with the fragments in the jar and theBeastmaster across the lake, but as soon as he’d done that, a massive shapeappeared in the distance. Sensing danger, Gineye returned, driving us all torun with Eldon in tow, back to the portal we’d come through.

The giant creature, which revealed itself to be a Terrasque,chased us all the way to the portal, eventually parking itself right on theother side of the portal but very much within striking range should we try toescape. Then, it revealed itself to be the same person Zareem had made a dealwith--the one who had marked him with the symbol of Vecna—itself an old andpowerful Primordial. It offered to let us pass as long as we kept the guardsbusy enough for it to escape, since the plane was rapidly dissolving around usas the weave unraveled. We agreed, while secretly planning to alert the guardsonce we were through, and escaped through the portal. The dimensional “police”were on hand to help, and drove back the massive claw that came through, butdespite our efforts, a tiny portion of the creature broke off and disappeared.Still, we had what we had journeyed for and after relinquishing the axe to Silvanus,so that he could extract the soul, we nervously awaited the revival itself. Wewere graciously allowed to be present for it, and the process went surprisinglysmoothly for all the trouble we put in. Upon waking up, groggy and disoriented,Edan asked for his bag which Jemima unquestioningly returned. However, insteadof keeping it, he simply took out the wooden box from the month prior andopened it, revealing a deactivated Void card from the Deck of Many Things. Witha glare he turned to Silvanus, telling his father to try harder the next timehe wanted to kill him before storming out of the room (just in time for Gineyeto return from searching the town for a saxophone in order to serenade Jemima’sreunion with the man she was clearly crushing on.) Gineye’s return lead to anembarrassment-fueled brawl, culminating with the party members involved (sansZuradar and Zareem who had left to talk to Jonah again) waking up the next dayin the infirmary.

When the party reunited in the tavern the next day theyfound out about a list of jobs open to them, now that they had been acceptedinto Mantle, the organization based in Sylvenstand. The party was very excitedover an upcoming tournament (though Jemima had her eyes more on the Bardcollege which nobody even looked at twice) but Gineye demanded they go to thecapitol city Paplus first, upon seeing not only the capture of the resistanceleader they’d encountered in Crance, but also a name he recognized—Lord Darius,a man he’d known before we first met up who seemed to be somehow connected tothe scars Gineye hides under a porcelain mask. As we geared up to go, we askedEdan if he wanted to come along, which he agreed to do, as he wanted to get asfar away from Sylvenstand and his family as possible.

The furthest we could travel by portal was to Paplus’sneighboring town StoneHelm, a two day’s walk from Paplus. Once the journey byportal was completed, Edan took his leave, stating he would be taking the jobat the Bards college there, though the party (save for a heartbroken Jemima)were too busy making plans for marching order and cooking arrangements to evennotice. A days walk later, they set up camp, dividing the nighttime watch intoshifts. During the second shift, after Jemima had bedded down for the night atthe end of her watch, a group of drow appeared, demanding Zuradar tell them thename of the halfling in the nearby bedroll, and at her last name ofAppleblossom the drow attacked, easily subduing the sleepy party and cartingthem off.

We awoke in darkness, with our arms and legs bound, with theexception of Zuradar who had been inadvertently untied by his owlbear Pip, andZareem who instead found himself in a nice room as if he’d been invited as aguest instead of kidnapped. It wasn’t long before the drow returned, removingtheir blindfolds and walking them out of their cells to a large central roomwhere they saw Jemima trussed up and suspended over a fire, and a hooded man atthe end of the room. The man demanded Gineye be brought forward and demandedhim to take off his mask or risk Jemima’s life. Grudgingly, Gineye complied andthe man removed his own hood, revealing the face of a man Gineye had worked withbefore during a similar rebellion back in Faerun, Tiberius. Like many of the peoplethey’d met, Tai had found his way to this world as well and joined the currentrebellion due to his own curiosity at how similar it was to the one in theirown world, even down to the blonde lady behaving shockingly like Gineye himselfhad done. A betrayal from within their ranks had gotten her caught by LordDarius’s forces, and the traitor in question happened to be the reason theywere captured in the first place—they were searching for a young halfling manwith the last name of Appleblossom who was known to use polymorph spells withthe aid of an enchanted broom. Alternates again, the party realized as theygrouped back up.

As we had found our way not only to Paplus but the rebellionwe were supposed to aid, we found ourselves tasked with helping them take downsome high-priority targets. Namely, we were sent to investigate a guard house(since trying to talk a gnomish inventor into helping us without copiousviolence was sadly not anywhere close to our forte.) Inside we found no guardsat all, but instead a massive iron golem guarding the place which we wereforced to fight after the attempts to bluff our way past it failed. With sometricky maneuvering (and a hand grenade), Gineye managed to deactivate the golemand we entered the captain’s office. Our suspicions were on high alert when theguard captain’s voice didn’t quite seem to match his body, but before theErinyes possessing him could do anything, Gineye petrified the captain with acrossbow bolt, then shattered the resulting stone form to prevent the Erinyesdoing more harm.

By the time we returned, the other team had safely securedthe inventor who was currently very clearly possessed himself. After a gooddeal of fooling around and failed attempts at exorcism using the Command spell,Lei realized that as a paladin, he could perform the exorcism himself. With theinventor finally free of possession, he demanded we shut down the factory thathad been making the golems and mechanical enforcers for Lord Darius, butinsisted that we not harm Darius when the time comes for he was in fact, a goodman. The revelation that the revenge Gineye sought would be deflected by yetanother Alternate did not go over well.

So, we set off towards the golem factory with Gineye leadingthe charge, revenge still smoldering behind his mask. When we arrived, thefactory seemed deserted, but when the guard dogs that came out of a few nearbykennels turned into hellhounds, and an ice devil dropped in from above, werealized we were in trouble. The battle, though brief, was tough, painful andlikely made worse by the absence of help from Zareem (who spent all of his timeattempting to get one of the hellhounds to trust him in an attempt to keep it.)Meanwhile, the ice devil managed to get inside the mental world Gineye used toconverse with the spirit of his axe and begin to corrupt it, leading to Gineyebeing unable to get back in. In a desperate bid to regain control, he demandedLei kill him, hoping that the soul trapping powers of the axe would give him aback door and a chance to find “Axey” again before his coin revived him. With aheavy heart, Lei and Zuradar complied, using their own weapons to kill theircompanion.

Gineye fell, then disappeared, reappearing shortly afterwardsacross the room, but something was very much different. Instead of the cheerymask he wore, there was a more sinister one with a jagged smile and a sinisterred glow from his eyes. As it had several times before, the axe had taken overGineye’s unconscious body, puppeteering it into using all of its abilities toattack his friends. Hoping to somehow break its control, Lei, Jemima andZuradar threw themselves into combat while Zareem continued to ignore the fightand attempted to gain favor with the hellhound in the corner. Even aftercalling for help, Zareem didn’t join the fight, stopping only to retrieve anice spear that had fallen from the ice devil’s body and throwing it into a furnace,completing the job of destroying the factory that they had been given.

Meanwhile, inside his head, Gineye was locked in a battlewith a being that resembled a corrupted version of the mostly benevolent spirtwho had helped him for the last several weeks. Assuming (probably correctly,though no confirmation has been given on this point) that this was in fact thepower source of the axe, built from the many slaughtered souls trapped insideit, and having corrupted the actual “Axey,” he sought to free her from thecorruption. A few times her consciousness seemed to flicker, as if his attemptswere getting through, but he was running out of ideas. In one last desperate move,he pulled her into a hug, and when that didn’t work, he used the power of theaxe to summon two spears, stabbing them both through her back and into his ownchest, aiming for the coin around his heart.

Back in the real world, the spear tips manifested out ofGineye’s body before they and he vanished again, leaving only the axe behind.The party barricaded the factory and then rested, worried about their friendbut too battered and tired to leave (save Zareem who had done basically nothingthe whole fight.) As they were ending their rest, a figure began to crawl outof the axe nearby, eventually solidifying into Gineye, though mysteriouslywearing the dress his spirit friend had worn. Naturally the team had questionsbut Gineye was evasive and wanted to move on, stopping only to shoo Jemima awayafter noticing that her poking his leg was causing no sensation of touch.

Their mission complete and their party gathered, theyventured forth to return to the rebellion’s hideout, only to find the doorwelded shut and a trail of blood leading them towards the other door and an unconsciousTai. Thankfully his injuries were minimal, but Tai’s story was grim: during thetime they were away, the hideout had been attacked by the robotic enforcersthat Lord Darius was using, but during that time they had made contact with adivination wizard by the name of Monty who was also a transplant from Faerun,one willing to aid them in their cause. Monty had given them a tip, telling thatthe leader of the rebellion was going to be publicly executed the next day, whichhappened to be only hours away now. Together they went to the town square, nowfitted with a gallows and a horde of people gathered to watch the execution.

Something was very much off, however, as the party hid amongthe crowd, waiting for their chance to strike. The man introduced as LordDarius was a far cry older than the man Gineye had known, and something feltvery wrong about the whole scenario. Those feelings were proven right whenGineye was attacked by one of the masked enforcers and the cloak was knockedoff of the “prisoner,” revealing yet another masked enforcer. The crowd ran asour heroes found themselves surrounded by more of the metallic men. Having dispatchedhis own attacker, Gineye used his axe to create a rope and swung over to thebox with the elderly Lord Darius, soon after followed by Lei using his ownmisty step ability to teleport over.

Inside the box, while the old man may have been recognizedas Lord Darius to the crowd, behind him, hidden from the audience, sat a muchyounger man with a stony expression on his face. The same Lord Darius who hadscarred Gineye’s face. Gineye readied one of the many small powder keg grenadeshe owned, but before he could exact his revenge, the two figures flanking theyounger Darius revealed themselves—one, an arch devil and the other, a demonlord. The demon quickly whisked Darius away, while the arch devil took off intothe city, leaving a swath of destruction in his wake. Before long, our heroesfound themselves in the midst of a holy war, with hordes of demonic forcespreviously hidden in the town, rising up to fight an onslaught of paladins, clerics,and other warriors blessed by divine forces.

Flanked by Zuradar, Gineye ran after the arch devil that hadfled from the observation box, but quickly ran into a group of paladins andclerics who were also pursing the same target. Two of the group, marked by thesymbol of the Raven Queen, immediately took offense at Gineye’s existence, callinghim a “filthy undead” as one attempted to smite him with a lightning bolt. AsGineye protested the inhumane treatment (while the gaping hole in his chestproved their accusations correct) a paladin marked with the symbol of “Bob,”the god of slaughter they had met previous, came over and uppercut the one who castthe lightning bolt (said storm cleric looking shockingly like Zareem.) Thepaladin of Bob revealed soon himself to be in fact Grug, released from thepunishment he had been given by Bob, who urged them to leave before somethingworse happened.

The older Lord had been retrieved from the observation boxby the time Gineye and Zareem returned, but as they returned so did the archdevilwho Gineye had failed to catch before. Introducing himself as Bael, he demandedthe old man be turned over. The party refused, attempting to stop him throughcombat, but their efforts proved futile as he simply walked over and took whathe wanted, before disappearing. Through the use of a haste spell and his own paladinskills, Lei was able to track Bael’s movement back to the Lord’s castle, but itwas decided that the party should rest before continuing on. After a short rest(in which Jemima hounded Gineye for a while in regards to his new undeadstatus, one he couldn’t really deny when the gaping hole in his chest magicallypatched itself up) they trooped off to the castle, preparing for a confrontation.

Lord Darius was inside when they entered, Gineye fullyprepared to take him down one-on-one, were it not for the young noble killinghis older counterpart in front of the bard. Remembering the request from thegnome earlier, Gineye used a new spell, revivify, to revive him before whiskingthe old man outside to protect him. Then, as he returned, finally ready for hisrevenge, that moment was stolen from him as a dark shape appeared behind theyoung Darius, taunting the party before snapping his neck and summoning shadowsto attack our heroes. After having fought them once thanks to Grug, the partyknew how to deal with these shadows and the fight was brief, but by the timethey finished the shadowy creature had left, leaving behind the empty husk thatwas once Gineye’s most hated foe.

Gineye was all set to use his magic to revive or preservethe body, but the arrival of a man through a dimensional door stopped him. Itwas Monty, the diviner they’d been told about, who was more than happy to usehis magic to prove that even if Gineye preserved the body, there was no soulleft to revive him. However, Monty was able to speed them along on their waytowards finding the rebellion’s missing leader, as he directed them towards a dungeonarea that his scrying couldn’t see into—which must be the place as he couldfind her nowhere else.

Inside the dungeon lay a maze of traps, pitfalls andsentient doors who kept their rooms locked with riddles. Inside the very last doorin the maze was a set of stairs leading down to a large room, where a strange,sinister ritual was taking place. A number of cultists surrounded summoning circles,two of whom were wreathed in flame, the one in the middle conjuring up a domeof solid darkness. As stealthily as they could, the party slid closer, Gineyemanaging to make it all the way to a door on one side of the room where he cameacross a terrifying sight: the same exact cell in which he had been tortured.

Unleashing the full power of the axe, he demolished the cultistsin a single hail of swords, which left the summoned fire elementals free toattack at will. Again, the fight was short, the most notable event was Jemimadoing her best to attack one of the elementals with the rapier she’d beencarrying all this time—while forgetting that without magical properties to it,the enchanted fire could easily melt it. Rest in peace, rapier, you were loved.Once the fires died down (literally) the team set about investigating the roomand the dome of darkness in the center of the room. Sadly, efforts to dispel itproved fruitless so the party turned their attention towards a mural on thewall, one depicting a multi-segmented circle, each with a crowned creature carvedinside. After close inspection—including noticing that one segment seemed todepict the same tarrasque they had unleashed upon the world previously—the partyguessed the mural was related somehow to the cult they had encountered, worshippingprimordials from the different planes (each of the elementals seemed to bedepicted, along with ones that looked celestial and infernal.) Finally, theygave one last attempt to dispel the dome, finally breaking the spell with awell-placed arrow, but instead of finding the leader inside as they’d hoped,all they saw was a shadowy creature who disappeared in seconds, followed by hermagical cloak which Zareem kept for himself.

As they went to leave, who should they run into but Grug andthe same paladins and clerics from before? Gineye, remembering their reaction tohim, attempted to hide in the stairwell, but the storm cleric (who still lookedshockingly like Zareem) detected him with his own divine sense. As the partyrushed to protect him, Zareem himself squared up, drawing his sword anddemanding that the paladin face him instead. It only took one single mightyblow from the paladin’s mace to instantly kill the already injured Zareem. Therepresentatives of the Raven Queen left, telling the group to keep “theirundead” on a leash, as everyone tried to figure out what to do now. It was thenGineye posed an idea: someone should let him borrow a 3rd levelspell slot. His words were cryptic, but nobody had any third level slots leftafter the long day they’d had, so Gineye lowered it to a second level slot. TentativelyJemima offered him one of her second level slots, and Gineye in responseplunged his hand into his own heart, pulling out an axe and handing it to her,fading into the axe as his mask appeared on her face. From inside her mind, heused her body and magic to cast a spell to preserve Zareem’s body, before the groupset about a much longer rest.

About halfway through their rest, Zareem revived, his coinhaving activated—giving him permanent wings and a new set of powers. Gineye leftJemima’s mind and reformed in the physical world, and after a bit of foolingaround with him trying to mind-hop into Pip the owlbear’s mind that ended withGineye accidentally killing (and immediately reviving) the poor creature, the teamdecided it was time to move on. The war had died down across Paplus, and theirmission was over though at great cost. After delivering the news of the outcometo Tai, the team set off in search of a Gnoll paladin of Silvanus who they weretold had a scroll for them

What they found instead was a mysterious bar—the same barthey had encountered in Lunacy, still run by the extremely shady feeling manwho just so happened to sometimes be the primordial of Earth. Zareem andZuradar both asked to see what goods he was peddling today, leading to Zareemgaining a +1 chain shirt and Zuradar acquiring himself a +2 bow (for only twoof his hit dice, a total “bargain!”). Meanwhile, Jemima found the gnoll seatedat a table and retrieved the scroll from him. The man let them leave afterthat, noticing how uncomfortable the other three were, but with a reminder thatthey could find him if they only looked for him.

Outside the shady bar (which had mysteriously vanishedagain) they discovered that the scroll was a teleportation sigil, but one thatthey weren’t capable of activating. One person however, was, and it took only asingle utterance of Monty’s name for him to appear through a tear in reality,casting the spell that would take them off to the tournament.

After the chaos of a holy war and a rebellion all in thespan of less than a week, the gang was happy to have a chance to settle down andrelax. Once in the tournament building, they had to sign up, either in solo matchesor groups of 2, which lead to Zareem and Zuradar becoming a group (fittinglynamed Heaven and Hell), Lei and Jemima teaming up (as Swords and Chords) andGineye going solo (under the name “The Entirety of France.”) Then, with an hourto prepare, the teams wandered the building, discovering their old friend Jonahhaving set up a merchants stall there. Jemima immediately informed him of theloss of her rapier, relinquishing the melted remains. In return, he gave her asword he’d fashioned from some of the dragon bones she’d given him, a rapierelegantly combining master swordcraft with the sublime beauty of the naturalworld.

Geared up once more, the matches began. Zareem and Zuradarfound themselves heavily outmatched by a pair of orcs. After Zareemaccidentally hit the younger (and far more badly damaged) of the two with acritical hit poison spray, inadvertently killing the orc, the older and moreexperienced orc proceeded to knock both of them out. Jemima and Lei’s roundwent much smoother, against a lizardfolk and a man in a strange leather dusterwho carried what could only be referred to as guns. Despite the strange man’sapparent prowess with his weapons, he managed to score only one hit on Jemimabefore he was knocked unconscious himself, and the Lizardfolk surrendered soonafter.

Gineye’s match however was stranger still. His opponent wasa man who seemed to disappear shortly after the match started, stayinginvisible or hiding behind dust clouds the whole match, but doing significantdamage to Gineye in the process. Finally, angered, Gineye readied a crossbowbolt, striking as soon as he saw the man’s arm clearly. The petrification boltworked perfectly, petrifying the man and winning Gineye the match (though notbefore a contingency spell activated, using lesser restoration on the man whograciously conceded.)

After their match concluded, Gineye left to find his friendsin the infirmary (though only Zuradar and Zareem needed much attention.) In themidst of their conversation, the man he had just fought walked in, joining thediscussion of the fights he had witnessed. He introduced himself as James and extendedan offer to Gineye to meet him for breakfast at a specific tavern the nextmorning. Tired from their battles, the group headed out to an inn to rest. Itwas agreed that Gineye should go to the tavern to meet James the next day (sincethey might be more relaxed if it was just him) while the rest would return tothe tournament location to find out what was going on. The tournament itselfwouldn’t start for two days, and the actual matches were entirely team-based,but since Lei and Jemima both had passed their matches (as well as Gineye) theywere allowed to form a team and invite the two who had failed their matches aswell.

Gineye’s investigation only put him more on edge. Jamesseemed very eager to recruit him away from the others, even offering to “helphim leave” should Gineye need it, in a way that suggested assassination wouldbe involved. He also knew more than he should, particularly about the war inPaplus and how Gineye’s party had come through a portal in Paplus that shouldhave originated north of the town of Tance, the same as another group whoarrived recently (where, unknown to James, the hidden town of Sylvenstand waslocated.) Gineye played along as best he could, mocking his teammates and theirdecisions and offering to send a package later that day that might be useful toJames’ group. However, once he returned, he clearly wasn’t eager to join such ashady group, but instead had Lei send a package over to the tavern—one containingthe Axe Gineye had pulled from his own heart yet again. However, to his dismaynobody actually took the axe while he was there and in fact nobody was home forthe full day, leaving him to sneak out the next night with a pilfered spellbookand a sour mood.

Finally however, the day of the tournament arrived. The gangwas among the first to compete, finding themselves soon in a large arena packedwith thousands of onlookers. In the middle of the arena, a Kenku introducinghimself as Veo Elmwood was acting as the Emcee, introducing first our heroes asthe “NaCl Pain Delivery Service” and their opponents as “The Hands of Nature.” Theparty (and especially Jemima) were pleased to see Edan again, along with hisalternate Ivan, the ranger Alice (whom Zuradar had attempted and failed to seduceback in Sylvenstand) and Leafsong, the Gnoll paladin from earlier.

However, instead of a fighting competition as the party hadexpected, it was instead a series of games and tests of skill, each with a “firstto 3 points” system of one-on-one matches. The actual games were chosen by diceroll, with the first being a drinking contest. Gineye stepped up, certain hecould win with his undead constitution, even against his opponent Ivan, butonce again Ivan’s luck was on his side as he came back with three points toGineye’s two. Next, Jemima found herself face-to-face with Edan in a challengeof pure luck as they rolled dice, each hoping for a higher roll than theiropponent. Right at the last moment, when it looked as though Edan would scoreanother point for his team, Jemima caught a glow around Ivan’s hand for amoment as the dice flipped over onto a natural 1. Finally, it was Lei and Leafsong’sturn, a test of endurance as they were forced to withstand increasingly harderthrown rocks without crying out in pain. In the end however, Lei managed tohold out the longest, scoring another point for our heroes. And as we left themat the end of that session, they were preparing for the next round of combat: atrial by combat, forced by Ivan again using his luck to twist the die to his favor.

And there you are, thirty episodes summarized as best Icould, with deep apologies for not being able to condense it even further. Ihope you enjoy reading it, and feel free to check out our episodes on youtube!

#d&d #dungeons and dragons #dnd #NaCl D&D #i'm so sorry about how long this took #turns out 8900 words takes several days to write #i could have been more succint i'm sure but i didn't want to miss anything #consider this a recap for anyone wanting to catch up?#again i'm sorry for the extreme length XD i'm more wordy than i think #venusvirago

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dungeons-and-danis · 6 years

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time for some session updates

We had our last session recently and it was INTENSE. Lots of story driven roleplaying and high emotion scenes, as well as two solo instances, as I like to call them. Basically, we do like Critical Role and ask all but a one or two people to leave the table for an individualized roleplay experience.

For reference:

Syndra is our drow rogue

Aurra is our half elf barbarian

Amnestria is our dragonborn sorcerer disguised as a human with magic

Zenirith is our tiefling paladin

Bobby is our wood elf life cleric

Ash is our NPC human bard/cleric multiclass

But what we have so far, i’m gonna place under a cut

Syndra discovers she has a newfound power (of which i have to be vague about because my players follow this blog) and begins to bond with an apprehensive Aurra over similarities in their pasts

Syndra and Aurra spot a familiar orc from Aurra’s past emerging from the cave of the orc who’s throat Aurra slit last session.

They eventually tie him up and question him after a long battle with him, four orcs, and an ugly ogre who shouts

They find out through a conversation in orcish this orc’s clan was hired by prophet named Nirnasha who belongs to a shadowy religious cult that worships a once dead war goddess named Apollyon to kidnap Aurra’s teacher for “getting too close to things he shouldn’t have”

Eventually, the orcs comments that you just killed his entire family. syndra responses “now you know what it feels like” and quickly slaughter him

The party moves on to find Agatha, a spectre who is very knowledgable and offers to answer one question truthfully after the party successfully shows her enough respect and persuasion.

They ask where the key to open Apollyon’s bible is (which Halia, an Apollyon cultist, gave them after the party talked her down from a hostage situation last session, but her lips were magically sealed to prevent her from speaking)

They are told the key is at the end of Wave Echo Cave, their final destination

The party then moves on and find a natural hot spring. But before they can jump in, their NPC companion, Ash, challenges them to a sparring match and positively kicks their ass via powerful spells and lots of psychic taunts with vicious mockery

Ash lectures the group on their weaknesses, the main of which being that none of they know each other all that well. The party then agrees to get to know one another as they all jump in the hotspring (everyone except bobby, our only guy character lol)

Amnestria whips out a flask and everyone drinks and goes around the circle revealing facts about themselves

Eventually, Amnestria and Aurra get out only to realize that they both have a half of a necklace that belonged to a long dead mutual friend of theirs, killed by King Stormwind, Aurra’s father.

Aurra, previously admitting to being the long lost daughter of the empire that Amnestria lead a rebellion against, is puzzled when Amnestria is angry over her ownership of the necklace. So she uses firebolt and burns both the necklaces to smithereens

Aurra clobbers Amnestria and begins punching her over and over again, attracting the rest of the part as everyone CONSECUTIVELY FAILS their strength rolls to hold her back as Aurra is ridiculously strong with a strength of 17 and a bonus in athletics.

Ash eventually casts hold person on her and breaks up the fight. She also casts mending and fixes the necklaces, commenting that we should hold onto things of importance to us, as they give us reason to fight.

However, despite many lectures, the two do not make up yet. But of course, there will come a time and place.

And thats mostly it tbh. It’s hard to get out the intensity of the situation and how well my players roleplayed everything, but they did such an amazing job. I only wish I was capable of recording a nice looking video of my sessions for yall to see. But alas, all I have at my disposal is some descriptions. ;u;

#dani speaks #my campaign

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rtarara · 7 years

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On Supergirl and Homophobia

I am seeing a lot of posts saying how calling out what happened at SDCC as homophobic is ‘ridiculous’. I’d like to address first the scope of what homophobia is, then move onto how the incident was driven by homophobia.

Definitions:

When you hear the term homophobia, it conjures up images of assault or of slurs being thrown out in the open. This is often not the case. Incidences of homophobia can range from the above to smaller instances that make you question whether of not you’re being ‘hysterical’ or ‘dramatic’ for thinking you’re being discriminated against or not. Merriam-Webster defines homophobia as: irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals.

An example that I have in my own life is that my conservative Christian relatives often ‘forget’ to call and invite me to gatherings. Another is that they will avoid any talk saying I’m married. In these cases, it falls under aversion for not wanting to be around us because we’re gay, and discrimination for not treating our marriage as equal to that of my sister or cousins. It would be easy in the silence to say that these things were the result of personality conflicts or something in my own behavior (Was I too touchy? Did I say something that mentioned homosexuality or gay culture when they didn’t want to hear it?), but time, study and the support of allies in my family has helped me to see the behavior for what it is: homophobia.

The Issue:

In the case of the SDCC video, we see Jeremy Jordan start off singing about the season and joking that hoover was the only thing that rhymed with Vancouver. It was fun and silly. He moved on to sing that Kara Met Lena and they were best friends. This was great. He then, unprompted, turned to the camera and shouted that they were only friends. By changing his focus to the camera, he shifted the address to the people watching and those who shipped Supercorp specifically. This is an audience of predominately young queer women. Melissa Benoist loudly joined in and Jeremy continued that they were not getting together and they were only friends. The rest of the cast present was laughing.

The cast gleefully mocked and dismissed a group of young queer fans. By addressing them directly, this action was a form of silencing and bullying. Part of his message was to shut up about queer things because they won’t be canon. It was a JOKE to think they could be.

The greater societal context of that is that they won’t be canon, BECAUSE it’s two women. The level of joy in the mockery was really a way of distancing themselves from gay people and othering them. This is an act of homophobia because wlw (supercorp supporters) were singled out for mockery and silencing. It had a profound negative effect on a lot of people. This is a natural human reaction to being mocked, especially for disenfranchised groups because it is devaluing those who are already devalued by society.

During the recap they also failed to mention the canon lesbian storyline, which was one of the bigger ones for the year, lending to the overall impression that gay people were not important or welcome or worthy of any sort of inclusion.

The interviewer spoke that, “Any show like this naturally has such a fandom that there’s the natural shipping that goes on.” He gestures to Melissa and Katie and says ‘your two characters, you know about this...” They joked about having no idea while Mechand was like ‘I know about this.” Between that and the singing, this shows that the fandom is one that the show is aware of, members of which (young queer girls), they have been seeing online and at various events. They have a context for who they are talking about.

Jeremy then took over and said that he felt like he was going to get destroyed, Melissa said something along the lines of, “Maybe, yes” and Jeremy gave a joking ‘I’m sorry’ and said “I just debunked Supercorp live.” Melissa said, “That’s pretty brave.”

Yes, Supercorp is a vocal fandom. It’s a large fandom, but calling it brave to mock a group of wlw publicly because they might be called out on their homophobia speaks to the self-congratulatory martyrdom of those who speak out against gay marriage and then point out how ‘cruel’ gay people are when they get blowback for it. It’s a lousy thing to do and it serves a greater homophobic purpose as setting up wlw as the ones perpetrating bigotry and ‘forcing their beliefs on people’.

The interviewer asked if they were caught off guard by fans seeing things that might be there or could be there and what they made of it at this point.

Melissa said that, ‘It was surprising, not what Katie and I expected to say the least.” She looked very uncomfortable at the prospect of a character she plays being perceived as queer, but did not say anything further negatively.

Katie was very affirming/not at all uncomfortable. She spoke about how she often plays character with that subtext and she thought this time that it wasn’t there, but, “Wow I was wrong, apparently.” She went on to say that they’d talked about it and was adamant about how wonderful it was that people could take away so many things from the art that they created—that anyone could read into and see anything and that was what THEY saw in it, then to take that away. This was wonderful and a great example of being a great ally. Melissa did nod along at this point as Katie tried to elevate the conversation.

Chris broke in and said, “Sexuality is all about others perceptions of yours.” He tried to cover it by saying, “That was sarcasm.” This was really a particularly vicious jab because what he was implying was that it’s terrible of gay people to see themselves in this characters because they’re straight. It implies that by not seeing them as 100% straight, queer people are invalidating their (the fictional character’s in this case) straight sexuality and that is wrong. He is saying that a queer reading of the text has no value. It is homophobic because it devalues queer people and plays into a heterosexist world view that because something seems straight it CAN’T be queer.

Jeremy played the, “I went to musical theater school. I know all about other people’s perceptions of sexuality.” As to say that being perceived as gay was a negative experience that he knew a lot about.

There was a lot to unpack in a relatively short interaction, but I hoped this helped explain to some extent. There is also the fact the wlw representation has historically been treated as a joke, ratings stunt, or way to titillate straight men. Mocking what would be a really healthy ship based on mutual support as some sort of lunacy is incredibly harmful.

A Few Themes:

1. It wasn’t that supercorp was gay. It was just that those fans are annoying/intense.

There is definitely a section of fans who is too intense and lacks boundaries and manners. I’ve seen this section of fans in a lot of fandoms, both in wlw ships and in sci-fi fandom in general. It does not make it right, but young wlw fans are the ones being singled out AS A GROUP for it. This is really common with minorities and it in no way excuses degrading them because they are girls who like girls. Mocking a group of queer people and making them a punchline is not an appropriate response to this.

2. Well Eliza says things about Bellarke so it wasn’t just Supercorp.

The possible Supercorp relationship in no way degrades either of the characters or a marginalized group of people (as is the case when Eliza speaks about Bellarke). She has also, to my knowledge, never directly mocked those shippers in song. There is no history of straight ships being mocked or derided. This is an apples to oranges comparison.

3. They were shitty to Rahul so they deserve it. People are just responding.

There were some very shitty things said to that man and he didn’t deserve it. Some were from Supercorp shippers and some were from people mocking Supercorp shippers (the tweet that he retweeted and called out was mocking the wlw fans by being shitty to him). This is why it was completely acceptable for him to talk about the intensity of the Supergirl fandom and even Supercorp. He didn’t mock anyone and people were not mad at him, they just wished that the hate was less visible and that things had gone down differently.

That doesn’t mean that the cast has a free ticket to mock wlw shippers.

4. It’s just a fanon ship, so they’re sick of being asked about it. They are being too pushy.

Content creators decided to tap into fandom as a revenue stream and way to increase ratings/merchandise sales. I think this shift started around Twilight and the Jacob vs Edward debates. Content creators encourage shipping to promote sales. It’s not altruistic. They almost always leave any mention of queer ships out. Queer people have stopped accepting that because they are less afraid than they used to be. It’s actually pretty brave to ask in the vast flurry of Peeta vs Gale, to declare yourself Team Joanna and ask about that. It isn’t rude to be gay and engage in the same way as straight shippers do. It isn’t rude to see your ships as equally valid. There are those who take it too far in all aspects of shipping, but gay people aren’t terrible for pushing for representation.

I think it would be more productive to ask why actors were so bothered by the idea of a main character being bisexual that they decided to mock a large swath of their fanbase.

5. They didn’t mean it. They have done X, Y, Z things for gay people in the past.

Doing something homophobic, doesn’t mean you are strictly a giant homophobe. Everyone is a little homophobic in the way that everyone is a little racist. Growing up in a heterosexist society does a lot of damage. What matters is learning and moving on. I’m going to give Jeremy a chance to show change. Good allies listen when they’re told that they’ve made a mistake. The rest of the cast has not apologized yet, but if they can do so meaningfully and show change as well, then that would be for the best.

6. People are Overreacting

You don’t get to decide how people feel about being mocked for their sexuality. They are not being awful for posting things like this, calling out bad actions and asking for change. They aren’t even wrong for saying that they no longer wish to watch the show or interact with a certain actor or actress.

You CAN call out individuals if they are using hateful language themselves, as always, but you can’t lump all the hurt wlw shippers together in one boat and say negative things about them.

#supercorp #supergirl #homophobia tw #I'll try and be done after this #but this was a really fucked up situation #and justifying it isn't really helping people to heal or feel like valid humans

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toxicdogars · 4 years

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Tumblr Meets D&D

Dokuro Homika

So. I like Pokemon. And I like D&D. Thing is, those two things don’t mix very well. Pokemon makes a very bad tabletop game, without having some structures in place to calculate the absurd amount of things required for something of that measure. I know there’s a few fan-made systems by I’ve tried them and they are a dumpsterfire to work with. So. I would like to introduce you to a new endeavor on this blog. I’m going to see what I can do to make a version of beloved Pokemon characters using all available material, both official books and UA articles, for Dungeons and Dragons 5e. Let’s start with my version of Homika, or rather Roxie from Black 2 and White 2.

Ability Scores

These ventures will use standard array, a set of numbers given as a sort of average stat pool. Feel free to roll for stats if you wanted to use this character, just treat this arrangement as a general order for what stats are most important. Just keep multiclass minimums in mind, since she’s gonna need it.

Strength: 8 (Not needed) Dexterity: 15 (Most important) Constitution: 12 (Wish I could put more, but others are needed more) Intelligence: 10 (Not really important, didn’t want it lower than Strength) Wisdom: 13 (Will get higher later, needed for multiclassing) Charisma: 14 (Also useful, needed for multiclassing)

Race

Homika is a Human. I could have gone Lightfoot Halfling, playing up her short stature and giving her some extra luck and bonuses to Dexterity and Charisma, but there are other ways to give her those sorts of things. Variant Humans also get some snazzy bonuses. Put the two free points Variant Humans get into Dexterity and Wisdom to round those odd numbers up to evens. She also gets a base speed of 30 ft, a skill proficiency, and a free Feat. Let’s take Animal Handling, since she’s pretty good with the Pokemon around Virbank. And as for her Feat, she has those rollerblades in her boots, so how about Mobile?

Mobile: Your speed increases by 10 feet. When you use the Dash action, difficult terrain doesn't cost you extra movement on that turn. When you make a melee attack against a creature, you don't provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether you hit or not.

Class and Background

I know what you’re thinking. She plays the bass, she’s in a band. So she’s gotta be a Bard, right? Wrong! The one direction I took differently with my interpretation here is her ties to Koga and Janine’s (or rather Kyou and Anzu’s) family. Homika was trained as a ninja since an early age, so she starts with a different class. I considered Rogue, but the best way to make her really good with a pair of daggers is in fact... Monk.

Monks start with a d8 hit die (which isn’t terrible), proficiency in Strength and Dexterity saving throws, simple weapons, shortswords, and two skills from a short list. She’ll take Acrobatics and Stealth here, other things she needs she can get from other sources. She also gets proficiency with an instrument or an artisan tool, so here let’s take her lute. No bass guitars, so I figured this was the next best thing.

As for her background, let’s reflect that early ninja training and give her proficiency in Perception, since she’d be pretty observant, and Persuasion, since she’s a little rascal who can get people to do what she wants. Since backgrounds can also give you tool proficiency, let’s take the poisoner’s kit to allude to her connection to Poison Type Pokemon.

Since I don’t want this post to be massive, let’s summarize her leveling. Her first five levels will all go into Monk, giving her a number of features that let her become devastatingly brutal in combat even without a weapon. Martial Arts lets her punches and kicks do damage as well as improve the damage die of her daggers over time, Unarmored Defense and Unarmored Movement help her avoid attacks and move quickly respectively, and her Ki lets her do a whole heap of rad ninja things. Her character sheet, link below, will go into greater detail. She can also Deflect Missiles after hitting level three, where she also gets a chance to pick a Monastic Tradition.

Know how I said I wasn’t going Bard? Well that’s kind of a lie. Since we’re injecting some Bard into this Monk with the Drunken Master tradition. She gets free proficiency in Performance and the ability to brew her own booze with the Brewer’s Supplies. I’d say any disciplined rock star can still fight at her best while sloshed to hell and back. She also gets an Ability Score Improvement at level four, which we’ll put the +2 into Dexterity, and Slow Fall, which lets her reduce falling damage. At level five, it’s Extra Attack and Stunning Strike. The former is obvious, it lets her slash with each dagger in her hands. The latter is also obvious, giving her hits a little more bite so she can stagger her foes more easily.

So she’s got some training. How bout we start her music career? And for that, we’re going to go into Bard. Yes, I lied about that too. Multiclassing into Bard gives her light armor if she wanted it, but more importantly it gives her another skill proficiency, which we’ll take Athletics to help with her low Strength. With her first bard level she gets Bardic Inspiration, which she can give to her allies to bolster their rolls, as well as the ability to cast a few spells through the power of MUSIC. She starts with two cantrips and four first level spells from those in with bard list. First, the cantrips:

Minor Illusion: Gives her some weird ninja tricks. Vicious Mockery: Lets her weaponize her snark to deal psychic damage and make her enemies just a little bit less likely to smack her or her friends.

And the spells:

Thunderwave: Line your foes up and blast ‘em with the power of Rock. Even though your specialty is Poison. Animal Friendship: Will help you start to gather up some bestial allies. Charm Person: For when your persuasion ain’t enough, use magic. Hideous Laughter: Helps you stall your enemies, underestimatin’ you.

Now let’s take three more levels of Bard, bringing our girl up to Monk 5/Bard 4. These levels give her Song of Rest, a way to give her and her allies some extra healing during short rests, and Jack of All Trades, giving her a half-proficiency bonus to every ability check she isn’t proficient in, like Arcana or even Initiative rolls. It’s pretty good and one of the best parts of going Bard. She also gets some schooling at Bard 3, and let’s expand her view of the world with the College of Lore. Lore gives her a new way to abuse her Bardic Inspiration, using Cutting Words to weaken her foe’s dice rolls. The college also gives her three more skill proficiencies, which we’ll take in Medicine, Nature, and Survival to reflect her knowledge of poisons. It also compliments her Animal Handling, making her quite handy in the wilds. Speaking of which, this level also gives her Expertise, letting her double the proficiency bonuses for two of her skills- let’s make those Performance for obvious reasons and Nature for buffing her knowledge of plant-based poisons. Since there’s just so many Grass/Poison Types, right? These Bard level also give her three more spells and second level spell slots, so she can learn second level spells. Let’s take advantage of that.

See Invisibility: Synchronizes well with your ninja abilities, so she would be able to see what others can’t. Locate Animals and Plants: Helps you find some creatures to use those nature-based skills on. Speak with Animals: Wouldn’t it be nice to talk with Pokemon? This was she can. Assuming they’re beast-like, I guess. Also meshes witht he other animal-based spells you got.

Oh, and Bard 4 gives her another Ability Score Improvement. Max that Dexterity at 20, and, speaking of Dexterity, I want better daggers, let’s go back to Monk for five more levels.

These five levels will buff the damage die on her daggers, give her some movement options and the ability to redirect attacks with Tipsy Sway, as well as make her fists magical so she can punch all those nasty Steel Types that she mighta broken her hand on before. Level seven gives her Evasion, making it easier to avoid damage from those Dexterity save spells- which you also have a dang good save for anyway- as well as Stillness of Mind. Here’s the easy way to stave off the fear effects that Halflings would have had bonuses toward, but this also includes charm too. Level eight nets another Ability Score Increase, let’s dump that +2 in Wisdom to get a better Armor Class.

And Monk 10 gives us the whole dang reason I went so deep into Monk- Purity of Body grants immunity to disease and poison, which includes both the poisoned condition and the poison damage type. Why is this crucial? Because it’s the skill Homika had to develop to be so close with her Poison Types like, Dogars, the ones constantly radiating toxic gas or sludge. Now at character level 14, let’s swing back to Bard for four more levels.

Bard 5 makes her Bardic Inspiration dice fresh on short rests, so she can play more concerts. Bard 6 gives her Countercharm, a way to give her allies a taste of being super awesome so they gain advantage on saves against being frightened or charmed. And because of our college, she gets a core Bard ability early, Early Magical Secrets. It lets her select two spells from any list, so let’s actually get some Pokemon on this Pokemon Trainer. With access to third level spells from Bard 5 onward and fourth level spells at Bard 7, she’s got some options. First, her Magical Secrets:

Fly: How could she not get her trusty Crobat to fly her places? Pass without Trace: A handy ability to make other people nearly as sneaky as her, and it could be flavored as a sort of arcane smokescreen, which ties in well with her Dogars.

And for the other spells from her Bard levels:

Earth Tremor: A solid representation of her Scolipede’s Bulldoze move. Hold Person: It takes some flavor, but this could be a bunch of grasses and vines tying down a foe, a good example of Ruffresia’s Grass Knot. Stinking Cloud: Took some time, but we have poison damage now with this stink cloud, which could be a great Sludge Bomb or Sludge Wave sorta thing, representing Dogars really well. Phantasmal Killer: And finally, a spell added to the Bard’s list from a recentish Class Feature Variant UA. This creates a nightmarish creature that spooks the heck outa your foes to murderify things. Sounds like a good Gangar substitute to me! And lines up with your other abilities pretty well.

Bard 8 also gives her another Ability Score Improvement, let’s dump that +2 into Charisma so she isn’t such a terrible Bard.

And finally, two more levels in Monk to buff her Martial Arts one step further and give her a final Ability Score Improvement at Monk 12, so dump that in Wisdom to finally have a pretty dang respectable AC of 19.

Final Thoughts

Monk 12/Bard 8 is a pretty solid combination. She doesn’t lose out on any ASIs, she has great damage with a capped Dexterity, varied ways of dealing damage with Bard spells, and spectacular team play with Bardic Inspiration. Not to mention fantastic utility with all her skills.

Unfortunately, that usefulness came at a cost. Her hit points, taking the average, are well under 100 and fully capable of getting squooshed easily. Not to mention that neither her Wisdom nor her Charisma are capped, which weakens both her Ki saves and her Spell saves respectively. Having to focus on two mental stats makes her a little bit less effective at both of them. That said, this build works best as a sort of ambush tactic. Cast one of your ranged spells to lock down a foe, move in close to stabby-stab, and then duck out so you don’t get hit. Your movement speed is freakin’ 60, make use of that.

Here’s the character sheet I made with Dicecloud.

Note: ASIs might be arranged differently, since the character sheets aren't always designed with the leveling path in mind.

#[Tumblr Meets D&D]#(Doin' something new)

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