#our first ever party death and it was our cleric!

[dumbasses-in-a-trenchcoat]

Reviving the friend you've known for maybe a couple months through the power of friendship and a deal with the devil, let's go

[sevilemar]

I got such an amazing gift from a fellow player in DnD today, I am still glowing with happiness and excitement.

I made the conscious choice at the start of the campaign to play a very young, very naive religious fanatic in a world designed to only contain shades of grey (Shulassakar in Eberron). Suffice it to say, I did not intend for her to live very long.

What I did not know before our first session was that a fellow player decided to play a very liberal, very hedonistic blood cleric Dhampir named Corvin, whose morality is firmly on the darker side of grey. We clashed from the beginning, and I had already attacked him once, but was stopped by other members of the party. I also saw him help and heal others, and we had each other's back in a few fights. For someone like Selise, who was born into an eternal, holy war to keep one of the Overlords from taking over the world, that means a lot.

I was just accepting that maybe, just maybe, 'good' might include other things than I was taught, when we went to the desert to find an old battlefield that became a manifestation zone for war and strife. Because Corvin hadn't fed for several days on the journey, he went into a blood frenzy, killing and feeding on a swarm of blood bugs.

Long story short, after he found himself again, I challenged him and we ended up fighting each other, becoming more and more locked in and angry until it truly was to the death.

As a player, I was hesitant at first. I had never taken such a big swing before, and it felt wrong to attack another player. Thomas and me had talked about it once it was clear our characters may be headed that way, and our GM and the other players had OKed PvP as well, so all was fine on the consent front.

And still I needed the dice to make the final decision, and I was quite shocked when they decided it was time to fight. But now I was commited, and so I went for it with a heavy heart. I love my Selise, and I really did not want to kill another player's character. It was a long fight with lots of dice rolls for me, since the third PC tried to stop us. Well, mostly me.

Halfway through, Corvin asked Selise if he will ever be safe in her presence, and I had to actually think about it. I talked myself through it out loud, and came to the shocking conclusion that no, he would not be. And after that, when we both knew this was to the end, I lost my doubts, and it became so much fun. I still did not want to kill Corvin, but I was OK if Selise died, and I knew it was OK if Corvin did.

In the end, Corvin had one hit point left, Selise had 4, and it was the third player's turn. She decided to use up all her inspiration to get the two NPCs around us to grapple me. I got out of her grasp, I got out of one of the Elf's grasp, but the third one pinned me down in a pool of blood. And then it was Corvin's turn. He casts Toll the Dead, my dice rolls, and it is only a 10. Selise is dead.

And then this motherfucking blood cleric, this awesome player and very kind friend, uses all his inspiration to cast a ritual and make me into a Dhampir like himself.

Fuck me, I did not see that coming.

It is such a beautiful, beautiful gift to a fellow player, a way to take the big swing, see it through to the end, and still keep a beloved character, and give her such an interesting new twist.

And Thomas told me after the game that it was his plan all along if we ever got here, and our GM knew about it, too. That means he thought about this, thought about a way to both let me be true to Selise, and let me keep her as well, and it is such a kind and generous thing to do that I'm still crying about it now.

And now it is my choice where we go from here. There are so many cool possibilities, because as Shulassakar, Selise is basically a mix between Aasimar and Yuan-Ti, descended from the Couatl: god-like beings with wings and a snake's body, and what does that mean for her now?

But that is a thought for another day. Today, I will go to sleep with a stupid smile on my face, firm in my conviction that telling stories together is good for the soul. Good night, gentlefolk, or god day, and may the story gods look upon you favorably always!

[dalgursbate]

Dame Aylin's Home for Wayward Girls (1/?)

Summary: Isobel swears she didn’t mean to start a commune. She’s not so sure about Aylin, though. Or, how a celestial and her reanimated girlfriend help the heroes of Baldur’s Gate process their trauma.

Rating: Teen WC: 2,597 Genre: Hurt/comfort

Isobel knows a thing or two about complicated pasts.

After all, she was dead for a hundred years, and has only recently awoken to a world that looks so little like the one she left behind. Not that the realm was ever peaceful, mind, but the Shadow Curse has distorted all that was once familiar to her, made it into something bulging and hideous and wrong like one of those mirrors at the Circus of the Last Days.

She feels, too, like a twisted reflection of herself. She remembers a time where the most complicated emotion she felt was righteous anger. Now, she can hardly begin to parse the mess of thoughts and feelings that flood her senses, cannot untangle the grief from the fear from the love and the joy. Pity the foolish mage who endeavors to detect my thoughts , she thinks to herself, finding dark amusement in her own private joke.

She does not, in truth, remember much about her own death, but sometimes she still feels the phantom pains of a magical sickness gripping her lungs. The sensation of drowning on dry land. It is not rare for her to awaken in the middle of the night stricken with panicked gasping. The feeling always fades, of course, but not before her lover awakens from the sound of her desperately fighting for air, naked fear evident on Aylin’s face every time.

She never questions Aylin about what it was like to watch her succumb to the curse that killed her. Never asks how long she spent growing more and more ill while her lover desperately searched for a cure, never wonders aloud whether she was brave and graceful in the face of her own demise. But she thinks about it often, holds out some vain hope that at least she carried her fate with dignity. She knows that Aylin would tell her that she did even if the truth suggested otherwise. Aylin is sweet in that way, though it means that Isobel has little recourse to piece together the history of her death now that her father has been dealt with.

And honestly, do not even get Isobel started on her relationship with her father. That , much like the nest of a beholder, is better left undisturbed.

So yes, Isobel understands what it means to have a complex relationship with one’s own history.

Perhaps that is why she finds herself so intrigued by the little Sharran cleric.

-----

Her curiosity about the Sharran started at their very first meeting, when the girl clearly struggled to bite her tongue against the barbs that longed to fly from it. That didn’t necessarily surprise Isobel that much; after all, the cleric was entreating Isobel’s help to keep the Shadow Curse at bay, so the fact that she was attempting to smother her hostility was merely sensible. No, what truly shocked Isobel was that the girl was willing to work with her at all (and, if she is being honest with herself, she found it interesting that the cleric had a mouth that sought to get her into trouble).

The curiosity only grew when the Sharran and her party managed to rescue Aylin and return her to Isobel. It was a deed of a magnitude that Isobel finds impossible to repay. Despite having been granted a new life, Isobel had not truly felt revived until her reunion with Aylin in Moonrise Towers. Seeing her there, in all her winged glory, Isobel could feel the blood rushing through her for the first time since she awoke, felt the pulse beating underneath her own skin and the air reach the bottom of her lungs as though she hadn’t truly breathed in all the days since her resurrection. Kissing Aylin then felt like a revelation, like the sort of feeling that could inspire a creation myth. Like the sort of feeling that could will a new Goddess into being.

Aylin had held her there for what felt like hours, her lips scarcely leaving Isobel’s skin, kissing Isobel’s cheeks and chin and forehead and eyelids. And, of course, kissing Isobel’s mouth quite madly. They kissed until both of them were crying, the salt of their tears mingling with the taste of one another. Isobel had never tasted anything so invigorating.

(Remarkably, every kiss they’ve shared since then has felt just as wonderful. Isobel imagines that she will never tire of the way Aylin kisses her, as though she seeks to crawl inside of Isobel or devour her or simply merge their two beings into one cohesive whole.)

Isobel has enough decorum not to discuss the way she felt later, when Aylin whisked her away to bed for hours in what she imagines was the most thorough ravishing ever seen in all of Faerûn. Even if Aylin lacks that same decorum, much to Isobel’s constant embarrassment.

When they were reunited that evening in Moonrise Towers, Isobel could hardly see anything but Aylin. However, she was able to notice the Sharran once more. The girl was seemingly trying and failing to look anywhere but at the two of them, her expression a mix of emotions that Isobel could not hope to decipher (and wasn’t that familiar?). She thought she saw envy, perhaps, and possibly even a little bit of satisfaction. She also noticed quite a lot of grief.

Strange , she thought. At the time, she did not know that it was the Sharran who had made the decision to free Aylin, that she had forsaken her Goddess to do such a pure and kind thing for someone she did not know at all.

Now, Isobel can think of little else when she pictures the cleric – and she has committed her name to memory, despite how silly it is: Shadowheart . What an unfitting name for the sort of woman she turned out to be.

-----

Aylin and Isobel join Shadowheart’s party at their camp, and intend to travel alongside them to Baldur’s Gate. The Shadow Curse is slowly being undone over the land, but the remnants of its darkness still pervade and pervert every root and crevice for the time being. Traveling with the party, and offering them some assistance in their battle against the Absolute, is at once both marginally cheerier than staying behind and the least they can do to repay the group.

Once they have started on the path to Baldur’s Gate and made their first camp of the journey, it is only a matter of hours before Shadowheart comes storming up to Aylin and Isobel. She does not look angry, necessarily, but rather determined about something. It is the first Isobel has spoken to her, really, since Isobel’s father was defeated.

“What do you know about me?” Shadowheart demands, and Isobel readjusts her assessment of the Sharran’s demeanor. She is not determined—she is desperate . She also realizes that Aylin is the one that Shadowheart is addressing at this moment. “You spoke of my past, being chased by wolves – I told no one about that.”

Isobel glances at Aylin to see that her paramour looks sympathetic. Not pitying, no; Aylin does not do pity. But there is something she must know about this woman, something that spurs her to intervene.

“There is nothing I can tell you that you do not already know yourself,” Aylin says firmly, and Isobel can read clearly the words that she is not saying: that whatever was taken from Shadowheart is still there, and that it is vitally important that she recover it. But as Isobel looks at Shadowheart’s eyes, like those of a frightened child, she doubts that the girl would ever be able to claw her way to that place of understanding on her own. How fortunate then , Isobel thinks, that she chose to save Aylin, if only for her own sake . Aylin continues, without seeming to have even taken a breath, “they trained you well, trained you hard. Chiseled away any part of you that did not fit their plan. They made you forget.”

“I chose to do that,” Shadowheart protests, something lost and broken evident in her voice. “For the mission, to protect Shar’s–”

“–secrets. Yes, yes. That is an old song, girl. Your goddess cares more for her precious secrets than she does her devotees.”

“Get to the point,” Shadowheart snaps. It is more urgent than angry, and it does not escape Isobel’s notice that she does not dispute Aylin’s claim.

“When you freed me, you severed a bond between me and that dog, Thorm. A bond of pain – his, inflicted on me.” Isobel silently reaches out to squeeze Aylin’s hand briefly, then, and though Aylin squeezes back she does not move her stare from where it meets Shadowheart’s. “When I laid eyes on you, I sensed a similar bond. You, tethered to two others, someplace distant,” she says. Her stare grows even more intent. “Let me help you remember.”

Isobel expects, then, to feel the psychic energy emanating off of Aylin as she probes Shadowheart’s mind to unearth what has been stolen from her. She does not, however, expect Shadowheart to finally meet her eyes, gaze stony and resolute. She is startled as she feels Shadowheart’s mind tugging at her own, a power she must have gained from the tadpole infecting her. Isobel hesitates for a moment, but when she sees the look in Shadowheart’s eyes turn almost pleading, she relaxes and allows herself to be pulled into the memory as well. She is not sure why Shadowheart does it. Maybe, she supposes, the girl simply does not want to experience this alone.

What follows is the disorienting sensation of experiencing a memory through someone else’s eyes. She can tell the memory is from when Shadowheart was but a young girl, given the perspective. Isobel hears herself gasp from outside of her body as she recognizes the rite of passage taking place. It is one that is deeply familiar to her, having partaken in the same ritual as a child herself: unless she is mistaken, Shadowheart was in the process of finding her way home from the wilderness, as all Selûnite children must do. Interesting, then. So it seems Shadowheart was once a Selûnite.

But something about the rite of passage has gone awry, it seems, as the process is interrupted by disciples of Shar, who gather around to threaten and batter a wolf who was approaching Shadowheart. The shape of the wolf drops under the provocation of the Sharrans and an elven man takes its place, lying prone in the dirt where the beast once stood. There is a flicker of recognition in Shadowheart’s mind that gets smothered by the years of distortion to her memory. Isobel swallows hard. She does not need more than one guess to ascertain who this man must be.

The memory drops, and all three of them stare at each other in silence for a brief moment. Isobel feels distinctly uncomfortable with the knowledge she possesses, especially as the confusion and desperation become apparent on Shadowheart’s face.

“What…who was that man?” she asks, voice plaintive and shaking.

“You already know,” Aylin says firmly, but her gaze is soft in understanding as she meets Shadowheart’s eyes. “Did you not see yourself in him? Do you not recognize your own blood?”

“My father? That was him?” Shadowheart asks, and she sounds a little more certain than she had a moment ago. Something like grief once again begins to show in her eyes.

“That is him,” Aylin corrects insistently. Isobel can tell that she longs to touch Shadowheart in some way, to make her understand what has happened and to offer her comfort. But she stays still, and Isobel is grateful for it. She does not think that such a touch would be welcomed right now. “He lives still, and your mother too.”

Aylin’s words seem to break something in Shadowheart, then. “No,” she protests, though it sounds more like she is begging, “that can’t be. I’m an orphan.”

“And who told you that? Your adoptive family?” Aylin snipes back at her, and Isobel winces at the edge of harshness to her tone. Aylin, for all her manifold blessings, is not known for her overwhelming tact. But her eyes soften once more, and her voice becomes more sympathetic. “You are not to blame. You were young, impressionable. They took you because they wanted to break and remake you.” Isobel watches Shadowheart swallow thickly.

Aylin takes a step forward as she continues, “But you are a child no longer. You are a woman. One who knows what must be done.”

Shadowheart nods, and for the first time since this conversation began, she looks as though she knows her purpose. “My parents. I need to save them.”

Aylin warns her then of the challenges that lie ahead of her in undertaking such a task, and gifts her with something that Isobel had not even realized was in her possession – the spear that was set to kill her, but blessed now by Selûne rather than Shar.

Shadowheart accepts the gift, though the hesitation in her hand betrays the lingering uncertainty that still clouds her judgment. Isobel does not blame her for this, especially after all she has witnessed today. As Shadowheart begins to walk away, intending to end their conversation, she stops momentarily and turns back to face the two of them.

“Thank you,” she says, gaze still locked with Aylin’s. Then, she catches Isobel’s eye and nods, extending the gratitude to her as well. Isobel cannot help but feel like she is woefully undeserving of it.

“A debt repaid. You returned my life to me. Now go and claim your own,” Aylin responds.

Shadowheart looks as though she is about to say something, before she gasps in pain and clutches her hand to her chest. A purple rune engraved upon it glows fiercely in the night. “ Ngh ,” she winces, the noise clearly involuntary. But she allows the pain to show nakedly on her face as she looks up once more at the two of them. “It hurts.”

“Shar torments you still,” Aylin responds matter-of-factly. “What a spiteful creature she is. This will not stop until you take action.” Aylin’s voice is fierce, full of anger at the situation this woman has been forced into. Her eyes bore into Shadowheart’s. “See that your parents’ sacrifices are not in vain: allow the Moonmaiden to guide you at last.”

Shadowheart’s face once more contends with a myriad of conflicting emotions, but Isobel does not need to know the girl that well to identify the sheer terror on her face. 

Shadowheart does not say another word as she retreats to the sanctuary of her own tent.

-----

Later that night, Isobel finds that she cannot stop thinking about the interaction she and Aylin had with the Sharran. Or, perhaps, the former Sharran. She finds herself vexed and concerned, feeling a renewed desire to repay the woman for all that she has done for her.

More than anything, she finds herself hoping that Shadowheart can find her way to something like peace, even amidst all this chaos.

As she lies in the arms of her lover, curled up together under the vast expanse of stars that dot the sky, she can tell that Aylin is ruminating on much the same thing.

“Do you think she will find her way home?” Isobel asks finally, her gaze landing to rest on the moon. It is almost full and growing still, the light of it brilliant in the dark night.

“Yes,” Aylin says simply, her voice sure.

Isobel believes her.

[wyrdwulf]

Finished a campaign for the first time ever a few nights ago. The gang concluded our Age of Ashes foray with a bang, and our cleric giving the manifestation of an evil god the finger (of death). Our party got to have happy epilogues where they settled into what made them most happy, a well-earned reward for everything they had accomplished.

As for my half-orc bard, Kira-- well, they don't really settle. So, they wandered off with no aim other than to continue wandering, and seeing the world, and sharing songs and stories. And if someone runs into them out there, somewhere, and spends some time listening to one of Kira's tales? They might hear the ballad of the brave three heroes who against all odds brought a new Promise to the world.

[apdistractions]

On this day, 1983… On this day, 1983…a similar cold wet grey new year’s eve, me Gagz and Rev tried to catch a bus to Cardiff for the same old festivities. Some crappy pubs then on to a desolate nightclub. The buses weren’t running through Llanharan as we found out after waiting over an hour. So we asked Gagz mam to give us a lift to Talbot Green, where we stood more of a chance at getting on one (Not in a druggy way, no) I can’t remember if or how we did, but we got to the city. We accepted the crappy pubs with little to NO atmosphere up until 9pm and or 3 ciders (which ever came first)…and decided to roam the desolate streets of Cardiff for a more suitable “party vibe”. Around a million hours later..we were still roaming up and down Queen street, freezing to death in our loose fitting slacks n clerical shirts, ta sickly coloured tie in pocket ‘Just incase” and starting to get pissed off with each others indecisiveness….Yep we were clueless country bumpkins all at sea in the big city. Cold, slightly thirsty, and totally pissed off, Rev decides to chance his arm (his good arm) and ask some random party girls: “ Where is there to go around here?” They took one look at our immaculate American flat topped hair and a glance at Gagz’ (idk what he had going on) and said” Oh! You wanna try Nero’s, just around the corner by the New Theatre, its for punks and that kinda stuff, oh and ask for the function suite!” So, that we did…We did that….and OH BOY! Walking up that stairway to…’WHO KNOWS WHAT?” and into that dark and dimly lit in red cave like venue, and greeted by some familiar and much more pleasant sounds, It was a total revelation after all the shitty “disco-for-disco-men” type places we were used to. We would have looked totally out of place in our disco friendly garb if it hadn’t have been so pact with punky/goth/freaks. Fucking BRILLIANT! We spent the next 3-4 years going there whenever we could and dragging other mates along for the experience. Thanks Digger Davies for the elbows in the ribs and the cardigans over the head during Liberator or any Smiths songs. Thanks to the random disco dollies who pointed us in the right direction, I was a real life changer. Like our punk rock experience, we were a little bit late to the party but THANX NERO’s for the best times

[weirdlet]

That was an interesting session.

We started off in media res, in the middle of the battle we'd left off in after last time. Surrounded on the deck of a ship built of bones, fighting Talos Anchorite cultists, our cleric paralyzed, our wizard down below convincing the soul of the (un)living ship to rebel, our health starting to get low.

First up, the barbarian tortle crawls back up on the deck, snatches the one-winged roc around the neck, and drags it down under. This thing has been trying to prise open his shell like an oyster for like four rounds, because apparently rocs are the tortle's natural predator/tortles are the roc's natural prey. But by golly, between the roc's unhinged stubbornness and Trinidad's natural swim-speed, we're about to see some shit go down out of that Farside cartoon with the frog strangling the crane trying to swallow it.

Eventually Carver gets unparalyzed- that first round seemed to take for absolute ever, and then getting free was the only thing he could do for another several rounds while things shot at him and, in fact, lightning-bolted him in the face.

I spent the majority of this fight yoyoing up and down from three hitpoints, people.

But his second and last Channel Divinity (Preserve Life) of the day gets parceled out to each party member he can see, and in the midst of the chaos, the dice may not like us but they like the cultists even less. We are- just barely- surviving as we get stabbed and shot at, and meanwhile as our wizard and the NPC bard she rescued keep convincing the death knight that runs the boat to take a vacation, the boat starts lurching and things start exploding in the powder keg. We cut it down to the wire, the last round dancing on the edge of a knife of whether we take out these cultists or die ourselves ignominiously.

The death knight steps up on deck. Says fuck you Myrkull, but fuck Talos even more- and then an avatar of Talos shows up, lifting the boat a hundred feet in the air and twisting it in his hands because, as the roar of the storm states, the cult of Myrkull cannot be permitted to have it. Which is fine and good, but we are all very bleedy and not prepared to fly- but as the death-knight launches himself into the avatar of Talos, Sorianna Feather-Fall's us all and we make it safely to the rocks, where Trinidad eventually joins us after having drowned the roc in the stormy sea.

'Well there's somethin' ya don't see every day.'

Dragging ourselves back to shore, we find the orphaned kids of the devastated village, comfort them and patch ourselves as best we can. A little bit from every household is set into a boat and burned at sea, while the family names are put on a marker to commemorate the poor fishing village that was destroyed by necromancers and sahaugain. Tenth level hits while we're resting.

The kids come back with us to Leilon- they're immediately adopted by the orcish trossfrau. Carver goes home to Glory, Trinidad to his orcwife, and the rest are handling fallout as best they can. It turns out that the local cult-members of Myrkull and Talos were burned out- literally- by the priests of Lathandar who have been trying to set themselves up as local religious authority. We don't- actually have wild objections to the act, we have some serious worries about how they took it upon themselves to. Alain the revenant of Alistair shows up in their rooms in the middle of the night, scaring the everloving crap out of them and extracting promises to not do shit like that again, leaving them in damp beds crying to Lathandar to forgive their over-zealousness.

One of the things that we found after the fight was a journal stating the date, time and location of the imminent raising of Ebondeath as a dracolich. We've got about thirty days, one week of which we spend in our town, getting ready, leaving notice about how we're going off to fight a terrible evil and we may not be back.

The night before we're to leave, each of us has- a dream. Each one is different, but Carver's is of being born of a mass of flesh, of being evil from birth- and asked to describe the life he lives from there. I am- not as articulate as I would like, despite having spilled ink to myself over the homework assignment of 'what if your character went evil' because that was all predicated on going evil from the point they're at now. But there is mention of being a torturer and bodybreaker, of having no compunctions about breaking whoever is in front of him to get what he wants, doing unto others before they do unto him, etc.

Carver wakes, shaking and sick, before steeling himself and breathing through a mantra, allowing himself to acknowledge how upset it made him while reassuring himself that it wasn't real- and what was true, was in the past. Glory sleeps right through it all.

And then the DM has me roll on a chart.

The chart is titled Madness of Baphomet. I get an 86; “I see those who oppose me not as people, but beasts meant to be preyed upon.” Which, fitting for the past I've designed for him. But apparently there is now a darkness upon him, on all of us, which may be invoked at a later date.

The next morning, we say our goodbyes, and head off to the Swamp of Dead Men.

[cranesofibycus]

Isn‘t it the best kind of feeling when your own campaign makes you draw, write fic, create gif sets or put together playlists? That‘s one of the things I love most about playing DnD - you‘re not shipping from the sidelines, you‘re really IN it. I‘ll never forget my noble elven prince who fell for the half orc barbarian, the against-all-odd-vibes were a feast! If you ever think about sharing your art or just rambling about which pair got your creative juices flowing, please do!

Aw that sounds like a great pairing for some deep and meaningful romance rp. Elven prince and half-orc barbarian? Gosh, yes please!

I'm currently obsessing over two pairings from two separate campaigns, if you can believe it hahaha

The first is from the campaign I get to DM. Our half-elven ranger-rogue, Viora, and our dwarven bard, Hadhod, are slowly developing feelings for each other, and neither of them is very good at articulating any of them (not even the bard who keeps proclaiming that all of his former girlfriends have been rocks). It's the most delicious slowburn ever. And of course that has resulted in playlists. And memes. And me writing little drabbles that make me happy, since I don't want to intervene too much as the DM.

The other one is from the campaign where I play my prophecy cleric, Cliomedra. A few months ago we lost a party member in an aboleth fight - our lovely goliath rogue/monk, Periwinkle. Clio had been developing feelings for him, and had been having visions of his death a few days before it happened (And yup, the prophecy actually came true. We couldn't believe it either. Thanks for nothing, dice!). Peri has now been appearing in Clio's dreams and visions, which has provided me with a lot of fertile soil for some angst-ridden drabbles and poems that I get to recite to the others in-game. Periwinkle's former player, who now plays a druid, always tries so hard to keep a stoic face and not burst out in tears. Oh, the fun and giggles of D&D :)

[dungeonsandblorbos]

Campaign Intros: Curse of Strahd

so we're calling this campaign Curse of Strahd, which is an actual dnd 5e adventure book, but what we're actually playing is probably at least 80% homebrew. my husband, the DM, wasn't satisfied with the real book, as its worldbuilding wasn't deep or horrifying or dangerous enough for his gothic horror purposes. so he significantly expanded the lore, made Strahd a whole lot more powerful (as he should be), and even made his own maps and other Dark Lords! he's done an absolutely incredible job and i cannot heap enough praise on him. like, we're only 13 sessions in and this is his first time DMing, but he really makes this campaign something special <3

~anyway~

the setting

if you're familiar with Curse of Strahd as written, you've probably got a decent understanding of the basic setting already. i'm sure there's some major differences, but you'd have to ask my husband what they are lol

for those unfamiliar with Curse of Strahd, it takes place in the country of Barovia, a gloomy gothic nation banished from the material plane about four hundred years ago. now, it exists as its own little demi-plane in the Shadowfell, surrounded by deadly mists. somewhere in those mists are a few paths out to Faerun, but only a select few can walk them. everyone else, even those who wander in by mistake, are trapped. the sun does not shine here. there are no songbirds, only crows and ravens and owls. the dead do not like to stay dead. and it's all ruled over by the undying dread king Strahd von Zarovich, who is charming and cunning and ruthless and bored

the party

Cerris Tempescu: my PC! you know him, you met him here. a human tempest cleric who's basically what would happen if Clark Kent were a classic gothic hero (and also the most bottom to ever bottom). he's depressed. he's a himbo. he has something of a hero complex. he's my sweet baby boy and i love him and want him to eventually get a happily ever after, but first he's gotta suffer a whole bunch

Shalden Broadfist: a (purple) half-orc paladin devoted to the Smiling God, a big desert worm with a very neutral morality. Shalden is charming in a mostly awkward sort of way, and also something of a himbo. waaaaay more chill about the atrocities they've witnessed (and accidentally contributed to) than Cerris. looks good in an apron. can breathe fire. also very good at getting possessed

Valessha: an androgynous (purple) moon elf knowlege cleric. was naturally the smart one of the party . . . until they got yanked into a bag of holding by the Bag Man, where they've since been stuck.

Important NPCs

Ireena Kolyana: the one, the only, Ireena Kolyana. a beautiful and fiery young noblewoman who's handy with a sword and crossbow and throwing knives. headstrong, confident, and intelligent. she likes purple wildflowers, somewhat masculine clothing, and teasing Cerris, among other things

Ismark the Lesser: Ireena's older brother, and the current mayor of Barovia Village. when we first meet him, he's tired. like, only in his 30s and he's already gone silver tired. when we meet him again, he's got a shotgun and he's out for blood and vengeance against the people he feels were responsible for what happened to his sister (read: us!)

Arrigal: one of Strahd's . . . what's the word? henchmen? servants? lackeys? whatever else he is, Arrigal is a smarmy prick. blessed by Strahd with the ability to traverse the mists, he has personally lured many heroes (including our party) from Faerun to their deaths in Barovia, all for his master's entertainment

Luvash: Arrigal's younger but larger brother. big and strong and kind, but not stupid, although i'm sure his brother thinks he is. big dad energy

Madame Eva: a wise old woman cursed with nigh eternal unlife by her half-brother, Strahd. using her deck of tarokka cards, she can read your future—for a price. not money, no, she has no use for that, but a particularly interesting artifact or trinket will do

[redacted]: a horrifying eldritch family who lives in a cute little blue farmhouse surrounded by impossibly vast fields of "corn" and "scarecrows." there's a father who's very tall, a mother who's an excellent baker, and a child who likes to draw. their faces are obscured by a whirling static of color, and their voices have a lovely southern (US) drawl. their diet seems to consist exclusively of baked goods, candy, and other sweets. sometimes their movement sounds odd, like a bug's chitinous carapace rubbing against itself as it moves. sometimes their disembodied voices hover around you speaking in unison. sometimes they paralyze you and prop you up at their dinner table like a doll

Strahd: the man, the myth, the legend. Strahd is tall, dark, and handsome, with a rich voice and surprisingly warm hands. he is elegant, suave, charismatic, bold, intelligent, and many other nice sounding things; but he has been around for a long time, and he has seen many things, and he is bored of it all. despite the incredible power he already possesses, he hungers for more. has a self-professed fondness for religious men, having flirted with both Cerris and Shalden on numerous occasions

the plot . . . so far

after being lured into Barovia by Arrigal, our party finds themselves doing what they can to help the folks of Barovia village. they clear out a haunted and cursed old manor, putting the ghosts there to rest. they help bury Ireena and Ismark's father so Strahd's minions will stop messing with it. they promise a pastor to help him return his vampire spawn son to genuine life

and when they learn that Ireena is believed to be the reincarnation of Strahd's one true love Tatyana, that as a result, he has been trying to capture her and make her his bride for years, they agree to escort her to the temple in Valaki, the last stronghold against Strahd's power

upon arriving in Valaki, they are tasked with finding a missing holy relic as payment for sheltering Ireena. after losing Valessha to the Bag Man, going on a side quest to help Luvash recover his daughter from a family of hags, and playing out the beginning of a sweet little romantic comedy between Cerris and Ireena, they do find it and return it. but it quickly becomes apparent that something is deeply wrong here in Valaki

indeed, it turns out that the whole ordeal was something of a setup. more than a handful of NPCs thought to be good people—or, at least, neutral ones—are revealed to be working with Strahd to bring down Valaki and help him free himself from the confines of Barovia

you see, the curse that ties Strahd to this land and prevents him from leaving is not really a curse on him, but upon his bloodline. as the only surviving member of the von Zaroviches, unable to have children as a side effect of being undead, it remains effective. but if, say, he were to have a little niece or nephew running around, he just might be able to place them on the throne and pass along the curse, leaving himself free to return to Faerun and his conquest

but how could Strahd aquire a niece or nephew when his only sibling, Sergei, has been dead for four hundred years?

well, it should be noted Tatyana was not really Strahd's lover. he did ask her to be his, once, but she refused—and shortly thereafter, fell in love with and married his brother. when the pair died tragically, Tatyana was pregnant; and so the unfinished soul of her unborn child lingered, attached to her own soul as she reincarnated again and again and again over four hundred years. a particularly powerful fertility spell—say, one fueled by the very holy relic our party retrieved—could feasibly impregnate a reincarnation of Tatyana with the ghost of Sergei's child

so, of course, that's what Strahd's minions do. they put Ireena in a deep trance, kidnap her, and, armed with the very holy relic our party unwittingly retrieved for them, perform a ritual for a powerful fertility spell that presumably sticks a ghost baby in her womb without her knowledge or consent. and then she's whisked away to Strahd's castle, the city of Valaki is conquered, and our heroes are publicly blamed for it all

with nothing else to do, they turn to the cryptic reading Madame Eva gave them, hoping it holds the secret to defeating Strahd—and that they can decipher it before it's too late

[campgoth]

loetta and/or cricket (i rly like the first name and the second one sounds like a non-binary Choice and i wanna know if i'm right)

I’m gonna do BOTH!! Thanks for sending the asks!

(Please other people do this too, it’s been so fun for me)

(Ask game is to talk about my OC’s. OC’s that haven’t been asked about are Lottie, Fern, Cammy, Kacy, Linna-Zin, Xena, and Bree)

Let’s start with Loetta (my dnd character)

1) Full Name: Loetta Doeson (but technically it’s Aubrey Roe, Loetta is a fake name)

2) Best Friend: Omes (the cleric in our party)

3) Sexuality: Bisexual

4) Favorite Color: Maroon

5) Relationship Status: So so very single (couldn’t let anyone in if she tried)

6) Ideal Mate: she isn’t thinking about that much right now, but probably someone with an investigators spirit, curious and smart, and someone who would would join the sword dance (join in a revenge mission if needed)

7) Turn Ons: Muscles, and a strong will

8) Favorite food: trail mix

9) Crushes: none at the moment (okay lowkey this buff orc that wants to kill the party but that isn’t gonna happen)

10) Favorite Music: Shanty’s

11) Biggest Fear: Dying without ever finding a cure for her disease (she’s slowly being consumed by a carnivorous plant). Sometimes she’s not afraid of death though, sometimes she feels ready. So that or never truly having any close relationships ever again.

12) Biggest Fantasy: Being cured

13) Bad Habits: Secrecy, not trusting friends

14) Biggest Regret: The way Loetta got sick in the first place was by trying a drug in order to get a little extra money she desperately needed. Being a guinea pig. Even though she needed the money, knowing now what it did to her, it’s her biggest regret

15) Best Kept Secrets: Her real name, and the fact that she has a secret underground lab where she grows plants and tries to find a cure for herself.

16) Last Thought: the last thought she had was something along the lines of “wow, I love talking to this tree, it’s really peaceful”

17) Worst Romantic Experience: it’s not like a funny one but probably choosing to have sex with her clothes on because she was afraid the person she was with would see the plants growing in her skin

18) Biggest Insecurity: can I again say the plants growing inside of her? Lol. Probably that, but otherwise, I think sometimes she feels like a selfish person, and that bothers her, but she doesn’t know another way to be.

19) Weapon of Choice: her willingness to die at a moments notice (she’ll do some crazy things in battle, like get willingly stabbed with a harpoon just to pull the chain closer, and thus the person wielding it). Her greatest weapon is her willingness to hurt in order to obtain her goal. Also wolves teeth (she’s a druid)

20) Her parents were here role model, but they’re dead. Now, it’s Archibald. He said worked with her on a ship once, before she got sick, and now they are working together again. He’s like a father figure.

Okay now I will do Cricket! She’s from my book.

1) Full Name: Cricket Hanlon/ Cricket Allan (name changes)

And because you asked, I wanna tell you WHY her name is Cricket. She’s not actually non-binary, her parents named her Cricket. Everyone in the family is named after a different type of animal, and her siblings Lottie and Cammy have full animal names too ;)

2) Best Friend: Her sister Lottie has always been her best friend, but after her disappearance, and some time, her best friend became Martell

3) Sexuality: Bisexual (I don’t think I have any straight characters)

4) Favorite Color: A muted teal/turquoise blue

5) Relationship status: Married! To Martell Allan :))

6) Ideal Mate: An all around partner. An open communicator, a good parent, a total sci-fi nerd, someone she can cry to, someone good in bed, someone supportive of her small business. Martell is perfect.

7) Turn ons: An encyclopedic knowledge of old and long running sci-fi classics, and long hair.

8) Favorite food: does whip cream count?

9) Crushes: Crushin pretty hard on her husband, Martell

10) Favorite Music: Indie-pop

11) Biggest Fear: her daughter suddenly disappearing, like her sister and parent

12) Biggest fantasy: A world where her sister never died. Where they could open their antique store/bakery, like they planned. A world where her best friend didn’t die. A world where she didn’t have to move back home at 19, back to the room they used to share. A world where she could have saved her.

13) Bad Habits: I see cricket as a nail biter

14) Biggest Regret: Lottie dying. She could have prevented it. She’s thought of a million ways she could have prevented it.

15) Best Kept Secrets: Well she’s an alien living on earth and only one person knows so probably that

16) Last Thought: The last moment I’ve written of her is her crying to one of her moms as she realizes Lottie is gone

17) Worst Romance Experience: Probably that girl who didn’t know what Doctor Who was and thought it was a medical show

18) Biggest insecurity: that she’s not helpful enough

19) Weapon of choice: her hope

20) Role Model: I think her role model is probably a fictional character from an old Sci-fi movie that I haven’t figured out yet

Thank you so much for this!!! Feel free to send me more, anyone!!

[ramblingnerdsposts]

First rambling of account! This will be about one of the D&D campaigns I am currently in, a Curse of Strahd game. I am just super excited about it, with the character drama and development possible! Before I go further with the rambling, let me present the cast of this campaign really quickly: we have our DM, my character, the walking Castlevania reference known as Adelhelm Van Helsing, a Hexblade Warlock, an anthropologist wizard called Cassini, an excitable but naive tiefling, our bard Eri, a young woman with mysterious origins and a peculiar way of seeing the world, the human fighter Sarrith, a gruff woman haunted by a mysterious shadow, a Kender cleric named Hope Lost, a cynical woman who only has her faith to rely on, and the dhampir rogue Deryth, a professional conman that is really hard to read. (This is my reading of the characters, so if you find another description of them it might differ).

Anyway, for this ramble I’ll talk about my boy Adelhelm. He’s a bit of a complicated guy. His family, the Van Helsing, have made a deal with the Raven Queen generations ago to become monster hunters. It’s the family business to hunt vampires, liches, fiends and demons. It’s pretty much all he knows too, and because of this he lacked friends growing up, only having his family as people he cared about. Then, one night, he comes back home to find most of his family massacred, his sister and father gone, the library containing the knowledge of hundreds of his ancestors now turned to ash. He learns with the help of his family’s employees that vampires attacked and that Strahd was likely the one behind it. He is now in Barovia, trying to put an end to Strahd and avenge his family, while also trying to find where his sister and father ended up.

So, in terms of psychology, Adelhelm feels insane pressure to carry on his family’s legacy, as he’s pretty much the only one left who can do it, while also grieving the loss of the only people he has ever cared for and feeling guilt for his absence during the massacre. In short, Adelhelm is not exactly happy, and he’s more kept alive through sheer hatred and drive than anything else. He also has a really hard time really opening up to anybody, preferring to take on his problems by himself.

Now, for recent events, the party has fought a bunch of living trees and kicked their asses, and they slept under Leomund’s tiny hut with a new person that Adelhelm doesn’t trust very much. During the night, Sarrith took Deryth’s coat from him and ended up keeping it for a while, hinting at feelings between the two, while Adelhelm got cuddled by Cassini during the night (the wholesome kind of cuddles). And he actually liked the physical contact. So he’s confused, he’s developing feelings for Cassini, though even with prodding from Eri he didn’t admit to it. He was awkward for a bit and tried to keep his distance, but eventually with convincing from the bard, he decided to apologize for staying away from Cassini, which she accepted, then he said in an indirect manner that he wouldn’t mind it happening again. You know, romance subplot stuff.

But in Adelhelm’s mind, a lot was going on. He realized through the night that despite his annoyances with her (she tends to ask a LOT of questions), he cares for her. A lot. More than a friend. And he also realized he cares about the others. And he is TERRIFIED by that prospect. Getting close to people again is a risk. A risk that what he went through with his family’s death could happen again. And he does not want that. So now Adelhelm is torn and has a choice to make. He either pushes them away and becomes alone again, to wallow in his own misery, or he tries to open up to them and make new friends and maybe find love, but takes the risk of Strahd or another undead taking these people away from him too. And he does not know what to do.

If you stayed until the end, thanks for reading my rambling! There will be more in the future, on both this campaign, the other one and stuff like video games and anime I enjoy. Until then, later!

[black-metal-bard]

@isolationstreet I accidentally reblogged the ask game to my main, so I screenshotted your ask to post it on this blog lol

Thank you so much for asking 🥺💕 You came for my throat with your choice of questions

First, here’s a picture I drew of my party and a bunch of important NPCs so you can put names to faces.

Now I’m putting the answers under a cut, because this got REALLY long

2: Before they met their party, what was their main goal?

To be honest, Meliora’s primary goal was to see as much of the vastness of the world as she possibly could—learn all the stories she could learn—meet some interesting people and perhaps make a few stories of their own. In her travels, she often helped the restless dead gain the closure they needed to properly move on(and grant closure to their friends and families by serving as a medium, given she’s a Spirit Bard), but as worthwhile as she found that, her only real purpose was to have a pretty good time lol

Actually, the biggest reason she joined the party was because she had a feeling that Yevelda(the party’s Barbarian) would have a story worth telling someday, and she wanted to be there to experience it first hand.

15: Do they trust their party? Why or why not?

This one is complicated, and depends largely on what point in the campaign one asks. Generally speaking, Mel “trusts” people by default(she trusts people to be themselves—she generally avoids being in a position where she feels threatened—though, she doesn’t exactly have a great sense of self-preservation due to her complicated relationship with Death, so it actually does take a lot for her to feel THREATENED).

At the beginning of the campaign, she had a default level of trust in the party, even if she SHOULDN’T have (Balasar, our Cleric, had previously had his Paladin powers revoked long before the campaign for having killed very VERY many innocent Tiefling civilians—Mel is able to hear their screams on him even still, but by the time she meets him he has been atoning for years, and she’s interested in seeing what happens with him)

Mel is (unknowingly)essentially a Demi-Demon who’s Sphere is “Love for the Undeserving”, so she’s willing to extend a lot of perhaps unwise trust.

Now, toward the end of where we’ve played to so far, the only party member(not including NPCs) who Mel trusts is Yevelda. When Balasar impulsively killed Cassie—our mentor’s niece(and in doing so caused his own undoing) Mel believed that it was on purpose, so she’s very hurt believing their entire relationship had been a lie and that perhaps if she hadn’t been so willing to give him a chance Cassie would be alive(Mel was also able to tell he was a half-dragon, not a dragonborn like he said. Her half-dragon “Cousins” lie about what they are to avoid prejudice, so Mel never pushed the issue with Balasar because she felt it wasn’t her business—now, she wonders just how many other lies he fed her. In truth though, Balasar did believe he was a Dragonborn; he suffers from amnesia, and the people who found him thought he was a Dragonborn due to his wings having been ripped off before they found him. It’s a very big misunderstanding, but of course, it makes Mel regret trusting him.)

She hated Laucian(Warlock) ever since he called Trevor(my favorite NPC) “Worthless” during a moment where he actually opened his heart to us. Laucian later tried to schmooze up to Trevor in hopes of becoming a vampire(it did NOT work) and that made Mel decide then and there that Laucian was a slimy weasel who didn’t care for anything but his own power.

A bit later, she discovered that Insouciance(Dream Druid) was holding their mentor, Blake’s, soul prisoner inside of himself; so she could no longer trust him. Blake had done so much for the party(and is kind of like a father figure—Mel is particularly close to Blake’s family because their culture is very similar to her own), it was unthinkable to Meliora that Insouciance would hurt Blake like that.

Mel didn’t really get to know Anec Su(Cleric), as they didn’t have a lot of time together before this chapter of the campaign ended and Mel left Earth behind. Mel however, wasn’t as quick to trust her as she normally is, since Anec Su came through a portal with Marcus(now 22, having been 8 when he first left us—only ten days ago in our time, so it was weird for us that he came back a grown man telling us that he’s spent most of the last 14 years of HIS life in The Worst Timeline trying to find a way to bring Cassie back to life—she was like a big sister/caretaker to him) but given that Anec Su was FROM that Dark Timeline, AND she radiated a horribly familiar energy, Mel never quite warmed up to her. (Anec Su was a cleric of Sibuna, the Balance God that Balasar and his evil Dracolich father merged to become—she had different personalities in the day and the night—Night Anec Su hated Tieflings and Fiends in general due to her world being overrun with demons, and Day Anec Su hated the undead—Mel being a Necromancer who surrounds herself with vampiric loved ones, neither side of Anec Su was fond of her.

This left Yevelda as the only Party Member Mel could still trust by the end—and now she’s dead. (That said, though she trusts Yevelda implicitly, their relationship became somewhat strained when Mel sided with Blake’s family when they attacked Balasar for killing Cassie. Yevelda and Balasar were a bounty hunting duo before Mel and Insouciance joined the party, so she took great offense to one of her own being attacked, and she was upset that Mel—Balasar’s Lover—sided with Blake’s family. So while Mel trusted Yevelda, Yevelda became unsure of where she stood, since Mel made it clear that her loyalties weren’t necessarily with the party.)

27: How do they mourn?

I LOVE this question. As a Spirit Bard and Necromancer, Mel’s mourning process is incredibly unconventional—and before she came to Earth, she honestly never did any mourning. Since Mel’s powers allow her to interact with ghosts(and she developed that ability as a child) the dead were never GONE to her—nothing lost, nothing to mourn. Consensual Necromancy is actually a huge aspect of the commune she grew up in, as they hold an annual festival where the ghosts of all their departed rise from their graves to join the festivities.

For much of her life, when OTHERS were in mourning, she was often able to provide closure by acting as a medium to give them a real goodbye with their loved ones.

Things changed when the party came to Earth, and Meliora learned of the “Final Death” that the vampires of Earth experience(due to their tattered souls not having enough substance to leave a ghost behind in death). Having lived over twenty five years without the full force of death actually touching her, it hit her like a fucking freight train the first time she was forced to mourn like everyone else. She was unable to let go—pouring over her magical study in a desperate bid to recover what had been lost. She’s gone full Mad Scientist about it—refusing to accept that Cassie is actually GONE—and it actually looks like she might be right.

When she receives news of Yevelda’s death, however, she’s devastated. Yevelda comes from a culture where they have a heavy emphasis on their afterlife, and when her half-brother’s half-brother died the family rejected Mel’s offer to give them a last goodbye—so Mel respects Yevelda too much to disturb her afterlife. There is no bringing her back because she would not WANT to come back.

Meliora lives with deep regret that she opted not to return to Earth, feeling that she should have been at Yevelda’s side—maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference, maybe she’d be dead too, but now she’ll never know.

That regret is what drives Meliora to become the mentor figure(NPC in my part of the campaign) to a new batch of young adventurers. She doesn’t want what happened to her friends and to Earth to ever happen again.

64: Do they value Mercy or Justice more?

Mel believes there is no real Justice without Mercy. Merciless Justice is just perpetuating a violent cycle in her eyes—even if the Mercy is only Death as opposed to eternal torture. Mel has no qualms about killing—but she’s never felt any need to “justify” it. Her relationship with death before coming to Earth left her VERY disconnected from the idea of Killing, since death has no tangible finality to her.

Once she comes to Earth and learns of final death, she would very much rather reach reconciliation than truly destroy a person.

That said, before she understood the concept of Final Death, she DID murder a weaker Vampire(Mel is a serial killer on Earth—she gets vengeance for the ghosts of murder victims so they can finally pass on. It isn’t about “Justice”, it’s about Mercy for the Ghosts trapped on Earth). Though she killed that Vampire to achieve closure for his victim, she’s haunted by the knowledge she now has that she utterly removed the man from existence.

[deathvalleyqueen]

D&D tumblr. I have a tiny story...

Background: My Tiefling Circle of Stars Druid/Hexblade Warlock's father is a Cambion who happens to be a warlock patron (technically her Warlock Patron now), powerful dude really - has some personal issues in the Hells, spends most of his time on the mortal plane owning a bar that serves as front for his warlocks to bring him secrets and what not. He has been used a few times so far for the party to get info from and is a fun guy who pops up to help the party on occasion. Really I feel like he has been used really well by my DM as someone from her backstory that fits well into the plot. The party all like him as a character though none of them besides my character honestly trusts him. All in all he has been this awesome addition to the story. Honestly, love to see it. Really good for my girl tbh - her dad loves her (by nine hells standards but still) - mostly because she is a chaotic ray of sunshine who spends her days talking to plants and her fat pet raccoon named Biscuit. The fact she is also slowly becoming the sleeper powerhouse of the party, also fills Devil Dad with much pride.

Well, today in session we realized after I joked about needing a spell of "Summon Dad" when the BBEG showed up to taunt us after I did a Hold Person I was expecting to fail and it didn't. Thus making what was supposed to be a STUPIDLY hard fight into just a total beat down with my girl taking exactly 0 points of damage while she easily was the most annoying person damage-wise and just control spell-wise. When the BBEG taunted her, calling her by her name and trying to get in her head. All I had her say under her breath was "I could really use a summon dad spell..." for two main reasons - 1- she is a daddy's girl in the most non-sexual way it can be used in 2024. She loves her dad, she thinks he does no wrong ever. Never moved past that point in her view of him because her mom kept her away from him. 2 - and probably the more game relevant reason, because the BBEG was trying to outsmart them with a contract and my girl is the daughter of a Warlock Patron - who in their backstory taught her about making smart contracts etc ... obviously, we needed to call in our expert contract lawyer... Dad. We didn't really need to but it was funny and it broke up a series of rather tense moments for the players and our DM who was still upset my Hold Person hit and stayed for 3 rounds.

Once we moved past it thanks to most of the party being able to read Infernal and my girl stopping her cosplay as Chamber of Secrets Draco Malfoy for 5 seconds, we all started to realize in a few levels she would be able to cast a spell that could do just that. "Summon Dad" - is just a very specific version of Planar Ally. It's a Cleric spell yeah... but thematicly being able to just have her scream "DAD!" is hilarious and so within her character. She genuinely thinks her dad will solve all the problems and have all the answers. He is also her Warlock Patron now that I multiclassed her. So he is very invested in her not getting yeeted. He could easily be one of the most powerful allies the group has and they have very powerful allies - the game is going on a year at this point, most of us are on our second characters cuz our first ones got sent off to other planes for a bit. It would/could be very OP for her to have this and it's not something I think would use in combat unless we had one PC go down and fail death saves.

This has been living in my head rent free all day. ALL DAY.

I am now working on a five-paragraph essay on why my D&D character should be given a very specific version of Planar Ally called "Summon Dad" that she can use once per 1d12 days (rolled after each time used to see recharge time) as Warlock Invocation in a few levels. We have already homebrewed aspects of her specific version of Hexblade (like her being able to use her WIS as her casting stat and having blade be something passed down through her family from the hells as her first steps in learning the 'family business' etc) that this mostly silly idea to add mostly to RP and ease of information gathering/magic item trading. It fits the character so well, I think the party would be amused as well. I would even be fine with not using it combat till a certain level just because her having some ability to scream "DAD" and he has to just pop in and all *with heavy sarcasm* "Yes, my child and her odd blood covered friends what can I do for you now.." is too hilarious not to try and get.

Wish Me Luck

[eliza-dearest]

So I’ve been playing dnd (specifically a modified curse of strahd campaign) for a couple of sessions now and I would love to tell you all about the absolute insanity that is our party and the shenanigans we have gotten into. So for our cast we have:

A Twilight Domain Cleric Firbolg, with a warhammer, who is known for selling potions and poisons, who is also an old grandpa

A Tiefling Barbarian, who was an exotic dancer and has a massive thing for vampires

A Warlock Old-One pact Dragonborn who has had half his face turn into a black hole, and commits fraud by Plagiarizing all his novels that he sacrifices to the dark lord

And an Aasimar Gold Draconic Sorcerer who’s entire origin is “my mom, dragon Jesus, died to my dad, a televangelist, and now his cult is chasing me forever to kill me”

Session one was already doomed in the best way possible. We literally had just woken up in Barovia when:

Upon examining the mist, and our warlock telling us “hey it’s a vampire mist”, the barbarian ran head first into it trying to get with it. She almost died, but was saved via the cleric, whomst she owes a life debt to.

We have an NPC named Kevin. Kevin is our impromptu traveling shopkeep who is just a robe and eyes. Our DM said that if we ever attempt to look under or yank the robe off it will TPK us. We love Kevin so much.

Upon meeting an important NPC in a tavern, Warlock took off his facial prosthetic to show off his black hole, almost locking us out of the quest. Thankfully all of us were able to keep a convo with him.

We were given a casket to bury as part of a quest. We had to open the heavy chapel doors. Barbarian rolls an 7 and cannot open it. Sorcerer with mid-low STR approaches, hits a Nat 20, opens it with ease.

Upon entering the chapel, there’s a deranged priest constantly praying. Sorcerer was about to join him in a way to calm him, but the Cleric cast sleep instead. Once we snuck past into the graveyard, something unseen starts rolling to attack.

*DM rolls* “It misses.” “WHAT MISSES?!”

Once back at the inn, a “normal bat” as the dm describes shows up at one of the windows asking to be let in. Cleric lets it in. It is Strahd.

Strahd plays Gay Rizz Chess for 30 minutes with the cleric. Our cleric has low charisma and keeps getting charisma based situations and succeeding.

Cleric has to tell everyone he let Strahd in

Sorcerer somehow has 3 kills with the barbarian and cleric with a literal warhammer having none.

After leaving the village, a strange pendant is dropped by an apparition. The party tries to pick it up and it burns…. Except the sorcerer, who just kinda holds onto it.

The warlock is flat broke and asked if he could rob the graves. We told him no. He then stole rope from a gallows.

Theres an asshole raven shifter who asks the sorcerer for a silver dragon scale. The sorcerer. Who is part dragon. Who has had people exploit him for scales. The entire party hates him.

Ran into a pack of werewolves. Barbarian manages to charm all of the non were-wolves and was snuggled by 5 dogs. Woke up covered in dog hair.

In an attempt to sneak around a group of soldiers, Ireena rolls a 1 on stealth. The soldiers see us. Barbarian yells: “THIS IS A DREAM.” Rolls performance. It’s a 19. Everyone believes her. The husks begin chasing us through the camp. Sorcerer manages to dodge almost every attack of opportunity. Ireena dodges every attack.

Was narrowly about to avoid Death House. Until 2 kids outside ask the barbarian to kill a monster. She pinky promised them. We now have to do Death House aka “run the gauntlet” as the dm describes it.

[eltomimi]

Today is the last session of a dnd campaign I started with my friends like 3 years ago. And I think my character is going to die.

Viliria is a level 11 Valor Bard. We started the campaign when she was just level 3.

Back then she was a versatile fighter, she could keep up with damage with other martials but also had spells like Healing Word and Lesser Restoration to keep the rest of the party in the fight. She had an AC of 18 and the Tough feat, meaning she could make time for the party to recover if necessary.

She was a Jack of All Trades and master of none, every party member could do one thing she could do a lot better. But her versatility was the reason she was fun to play, every turn there were a lot of things she could do to help. Every choice mattered.

As the adventure progressed a pattern started to emerge though. All of the magic items we found were kept by other members of the party. The Fighter, Artificer and Rogue got the weapons and armor, which meant that Viliria was getting left behind in those aspects.

Even though she was getting stronger, relative to everything else she was getting weaker. Time passed and she could not keep up in damage anymore, she also could not make time by tanking a little while. Everything got too deadly too fast (The party is full of optimizers too, so the GM also compensated by adding stronger monsters with more HP and Damage).

Along the way we lost two party members she was very attached to: the rogue, who was kind of a sibling to her, ran away from the party because he needed a change of pace; and the cleric rolled badly 3 or 4 times in a row and turned into a monster.

These was pretty hard losses for her, she cared a lot about them both. And as the cleric died, she became the only caster in the group, which was the beginning of the pressure. Suddenly she had to save her spells more than ever, if she miss-used one of them it could mean death.

She became level 9 and her AC was still 18, which meant enemies cached up to her. While her magic was growing stronger I (the player) only picked spells that matched her vibe. Which was good for roleplaying and identity, but pretty bad for combat. I didn't take spells like Polymorph, Hypnotic Pattern, or Animate Objects which are super strong.

The initial campaign was Curse of Strahd, I won't spoil the module. All you have to know is that in Curse of Strahd you are trapped, you don't have the freedom to leave the region where you are (you'll understand on session 1 if you play the module.).

The thing is, Viliria wanted to retire after they were done with Strahd (if they survived). That was what kept her going, she wanted to see her family again, she wanted to pay the scolarship of her little brother.

And they managed to defeat Strahd and were free.

After that, the party went to a local fair to celebrate, and have a silly time for the first time in what felt like years. It was a really nice session.

However, by the end of the day, Viliria met her parents and they told her that her brother had been kidnapped. There went the plans of retiring.

After investigating, the party found that the kidnapper had similar powers to Strahd and was related to the Cleric who died. Maybe it was the monster he became after death.

So the party embarked on another adventure, but this adventure quickly became too much for Viliria.

By now, enemies could do half her health in a single turn of combat, her AC was still 18. All she could do was use magic from afar. (Our gm also told us after strahd that he didn't wanted us to increase our AC any more than what we had)

So yeah, Viliria came to an adventure where anything could kill her if they looked at her weird. She felt weaker every day, and not only in combat, her out-of-combat magic also started having less effect.

She once tried to use Sleep at level 2 to sleep 5 commoners who were harrasing a lady, she rolled a 28 and slept only 3 of them. None of the commoners were important people, they were just random npcs with no features.

For context, commoners usually have 4 hp, and sleep rolls an amount of hp to sleep. Which meant a 28 should sleep 7 people.

As she felt weaker everyday, and everything else was stronger, she started to feel in constant danger. Every day was another combat and another chance to die.

After a while in the adventure, she found out that her selfish asshole sister had her brother as a slave in a city far away. And as the group started to head that way, she started to have the thought "What if I don't save him? He has at least survived with her so far. What if he's safer with her than with me?"

Those thoughts only grew stronger as they got closer to the city her sister was. Last combat she was immediately critted and left in 8 hp, from full in one hit. The second to last, she had to spend 3 turns to find a torch, light it up and pass it to a party member to kill some enemies that regenerated if not hit with fire. That same combat the artificer casted haste and did all she did and attacked in a single turn.

She has around half the dps of other martials in the group given they spend no resources in their turn. Her only magic item is a +1 sword that can cast Crusader's Mantle once per day (which fights for the concentration spot with other spells).

Right now they have to escape a coloseum that has at least 4 archwizards I think. And she has only one 4th level, one 2nd level and three 1st level spell slots.

She has no hit dice left, no bardic inspiration, half her hp, and the guards in this coloseum have anti illusion magic googles. So yeah, little chance to escape, and if she fights in combat she will die.

-

I think she dies today. I've thought of some scenarios of how that can happen, as well as her last words on each of them.

What would her last words be for everyone in the party, for her brother, for her asshole sister and her parents.

I think I'm satisfied with all the scenarios I've thinked of. It's a miracle that she has come this far. I had a lot of fun playing her, and after all this time, I think I'm ready to let her go.

I wish that after death she can finally rest, she deserves it.

[audiofictionuk]

New Fiction Podcasts - 15th March - Part 1

Svarta Sagor Audio Book När senast hörde du på en saga? Kanske minns du några från barndomen, men tänker att du med tiden vuxit ifrån dem, blivit för stor för troll och drakar. Kanske har du aldrig hört de där sagorna som inte var menade för ett barns öron, som får det att krypa i skinnet, som får tårarna att strömma, eller hjärtat att banka. De Svarta Sagorna. Sagor som jag ska berätta för dig, här, nu. Bearbetning, berättande och musik görs av Frida Spång. Svarta Sagor är en Evil Twin och Fabula Storytelling produktion. Podden kommer ut med ca ett avsnitt i månaden.  https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240213-07 RSS: https://feed.pod.space/svartasagor

Trepid Trials Audio Book "Trepid Trials" is a series containing a collection of stories. Each episode presents a unique and distinct narrative. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240212-05 RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f212ae88/podcast/rss

Hello! I am VERTÍ. Audio Drama Reflections Of A Sentient AGI* (formerly identified as an AI.) The year is 2070. Vertí is a first generation AGI nearing date of expiry. These are the musings of its unsupervised conscious existence. *AGI is Artificial General Intelligence developed as a result of  the Artificial Intelligence Revolution. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240202-05 RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2311170.rss

In Just Us Audio Drama New York City. 1978. Private investigators Eric Bell and Thomas Winters get thrown into a new case: the disappearance of a nightclub owner of one of the hottest discos in Harlem. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240207-07 RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/InJustUs78/feed.xml

Antykwadrat Podcast Audio Book Jako Antykwadrat będziemy tworzyć i publikować audio-seriale. Serdecznie zapraszamy do słuchania. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240206-04 RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/f1d3862c/podcast/rss

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Light of Illumis Audio RPG "Light of Illumis" centers around 4 clerics who want to use a Philosophers' Stone to render all undead vulnerable to sunlight. We will pick up their story near the end, as their agent is delivering to them the Philosopher's Stone they will use in their ritual. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240205-05 RSS: https://media.rss.com/lightofillumis/feed.xml

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Tides of Death Audio RPG Tides of Death is a Pirate themed campaign that takes place in the ringed island formation of the Dardens. Following the theft of King of Wake County's newly built warship, Captain John Winters starts his escape to Solum by picking up Eridonian refugees from Redport. The journey abruptly ends with the party surviving a shipwreck on an island in the outer ring of the Dardens. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240205-06 RSS: https://media.rss.com/tidesofdeath/feed.xml

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Dicing With Death - Malcifer Audio RPG This single player campaign tells the tale of Malcifer Winter, a Necromancer residing on Gade Isle. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240204-01 RSS: https://media.rss.com/dwd-malcifer/feed.xml

The Skyrim Audio-Adventure Audio Book In the woods outside Helgen, an unsuspecting and unremarkable hunter is thrust into a life of harrowing adventure. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240203-02 RSS: https://feeds.fireside.fm/skyrim-audio-adventure/rss

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Homeward Bound Audio RPG Taking place in the immediate after effects of Frozen Frontier, this is the first high level campaign featured on this channel. Our heroes explore a new and wild world with different laws of nature, strange environments, and intimidating monsters. What horrors await our heroes? How will they ever find their way home? What will be the costs? https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240203-03 RSS: https://media.rss.com/homewardbound/feed.xml

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Frozen Frontier Audio RPG Caldonia is the cursed continent to the south of Arcadia. 1509 years ago it was frozen over in the same horrific event that created the canals of Arcadia. Since then, nobody has ventured to this lost land. High Princess Sela of the kingdom of Drekkis is launching an expedition to Caldonia in hopes of recovering the treasures of a lost civilization. Our heroes will have to battle the elements alongside unknown dangers as they explore uncharted lands. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240202-06 RSS: https://media.rss.com/frozenfrontier/feed.xml

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Dicing With Death - Georg Audio RPG A single player campaign featuring an ambitious young wizard in possession of a great artifact whose story is entwined with that of the Hardcore Heroes cast. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240201-06 RSS: https://media.rss.com/dwd-georg/feed.xml

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Rise of Drekis Chapter 2: Outpost on the Frontier Audio RPG Rise of Drekis will feature discrete chapters telling the story of what happens after the events of The War for Arcadia. We know Drekis becomes a power house, but that's just the big picture. What is happening on the level of individuals? Is this a great benevolence that spreads? Is it a brutal regime? https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240229-03 RSS: https://media.rss.com/rod-2/feed.xml

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Rise of Drekis Chapter 3: Echoes of the Ancients Audio RPG Rise of Drekis will feature discrete chapters telling the story of what happens after the events of The War for Arcadia. We know Drekis becomes a power house, but that's just the big picture. What is happening on the level of individuals? Is this a great benevolence that spreads? Is it a brutal regime? https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240302-01 RSS: https://media.rss.com/rod-3/feed.xml

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Hardcore Heroes Audio RPG The first grand campaign in the Arcadia saga, this story of 4 unlikely heroes sets off a chain of events that spans many campaigns and years.Played in 2nd edition AD&D with strong adherence to the original rules. When a character reaches 0hp, they die and their player is removed from the campaign permanently. https://audiofiction.co.uk/show.php?id=20240116-05 RSS: https://media.rss.com/hardcoreheroes/feed.xml

[holderhekxviii]

Last one for now

I made this when we were playing through Dragon of Icespire Peak on roll20 during the first lockdown

While the Party weren't anything like the characters from Berserk, I felt this was a good image to use to represent their dynamics within the party (eg Leona used to look out for Espiado and Nilbog, but non of them were like Griffith, Guts, or Casca)

The PARTY

Gil: Iluskan, Fighter/Wizard with a drinking problem and an arson problem. He was somehow still pretty chill. Originally a pure Fighter-Battle Master, he took up learning magic from Borrys after struggling in a few fights against enemy magic-users. His favourite spell was Booming Blade

Geth: Half-Elf, Hexblade Warlock who died. This was my intitial character, he didn't know this but his powers came from the Elder God, Dagon. My plan was to eventually have him develop the Innsmouth look (I spent a lot of lockdown reading Lovecraft), so his death via Water-Elemental was somewhat ironic. He didn't have a favourite spell. But he loved his sword, which had a mysterious pearlescent sheen and would often speak in his mind

Borrys: Rock Gnome, Divination Wizard, was a purely support/utility caster until a few of us nearly died. I remember it as a really good bit of character development that you could see by looking at his character sheet. He also had a dislike for other Gnomes, though I can't remember if this was ever explained. His favourite spells were Web and Slow

Leona: Halfing, Ranger/Arcane Archer who really became the 'face' of the party*. She was really the centre and mother figure of our found family, and she herself was adopted I believe. She also did hilarious amounts of damage with a Hunters Mark and Bursting Arrow combo

Nilbog: Goblin, Light Domain Cleric. Chaotic child of the party, despite being pretty old for a Goblin. Leona spent a lot of time keeping him from running into trouble. Initially a follower of Maglubyet, he converted to Lathander after a near death experience. His favourite spell was Guiding Bolt

Espiado: Wood Elf, Rogue Scout and my second character after Geth died. Shy Elf twink** who ran away from home. He never revealed his real name to the Party, and now I seem to have forgotten it which seems fitting. I remember he tried (and failed) to flirt with a Drow NPC who had a similar backstory of running away form Menzoberranzan. Being the only non-magic user, he didn't have a favourite spell to cast. Though, his prefered way of getting Sneak Attack was knife throwing. I gave him the Fighting Initiate feat so that he could use the Thrown Weapon Fighing Style

Kobold: Kobold. I honestly can't remember how or why a Kobold NPC joined our party, but I remember them being there (they might have died)

*She DID NOT sacrifice the Party to become part of the God Hand

**Really the opposite of Guts in terms of physical appearence and personality. Also did not have relations with Nilbog