#paladin laudna

[cpprcoyote]

Pali Laudna brainrot strikes again

[luminousstardust]

thinking about the moonweaver after tonight’s episode. and how imogen said she’s spent her whole life reaching out to the gods but none of them ever paid attention to or loved her. and about how the moonweaver is tied to catha, intrinsically opposed to ruidus. and how imogen is so directly tied to ruidus. and how we know imogen (and laudna) have directly reached out to the moonweaver in the past yet received no obvious response. but what if imogen simply couldn't reach the moonweaver because her connection to ruidus overpowered her plea? what if, after everything, when predathos is sealed and ruidus is dormant again and the gods are no longer in danger, imogen can finally reach her? and imogen finally gets to be heard when she asks for help to save the one person she cares about the most in the world.

[incandescent-liveblogs]

I will be so interested in Imogen’s story if she turns faithful just in the hopes that a god could save Laudna. That would be extremely fun to watch.

[12pt-times-new-roman]

Bells Hells level 8:

Chetney gets a new feat called Savage Spirit. If he takes a level in blood hunter, he gets an additional crimson rite and the stalker's prowess feature, which gives him +10 speed and a bonus to his unarmed strikes. If he takes a level in rogue, he gets cunning action.

Laudna gets an ability score improvement if she takes a level in warlock, as well as a third cantrip. If she takes a level in sorcerer, she gets 3rd level spells.

FCG will very likely take a level in cleric, since level 8 is huge for them. They get an ability score improvement, their destroy undead goes up to CR1, and they get a domain feature, all in addition to a second 4th level spell slot and being able to swap out their cantrips.

Fearne gets a 4th level spell slot if she takes a level in druid, or cunning action if she takes a level in rogue.

Imogen will likely take another level in sorcerer since it gives her an ASI. She'll get an ability score improvement and a second 4th level spell slot, and she'll have the opportunity to swap out her metamagic options and cantrips.

Orym will likely take another level in fighter. He gets an ability score improvement and an opportunity to swap out his fighting style.

Ashton will likely take another level in barbarian. They get an ability score improvement.

[pstelwitchcraft]

So, I can't stop thinking about circle of spores druid Laudna.... thoughts?

[nellasbookplanet]

people have been fawning over how humanlike the gods are for a month now, but now its wrong to compare them to mortal powers because they're otherworldy beings that can't possibly be thought of in human terms? or is the suggestion that they're like mortals, but they're just an innately superior group of people that deserves to have power over everyone else?

Hello anon! Are you the same person who got all up in my askbox yesterday? You certainly seem to have an equally poor grasp on what I actually said and a willingness to make it somebody else's problem. However, I no longer have a headache and am feeling less cranky, so lets treat this as a genuine question.

I never said it's wrong or even inaccurate to compare the gods to humans/mortals. What I said is that some seem over-eager to equate them with groups or systems where they don't actually fit, or to project our own world onto them. This tends to lead to poor textual analysis. For example, equating the gods with mortal rulers (specifically tyrannical rulers, even), the one percent, a higher social class, rich people, or colonizers of mortals all read as comparisons made from the assumption 'gods are the most powerful sentient beings of Exandria; therefore I will compare them to the most powerful people of our world'. Do these comparisons make actual sense as parallels? No! Kings and rich people and colonizers aren't innately more powerful than others because we don't live in a fantasy world where magic is real. You can take said power from them and redistribute it fairly. You cannot do this with the gods.

Ultimately, the last few words in your ask neatly sum up the problem with this mindset: do the gods deserve to hold this power over everyone else? Lets look at this through a comparison: do sorcerers like Imogen deserve to hold power over everyone else? She, like most sorcerers, was born with powers others do not have and has no way to get rid of them. They cannot be taken from her and redistributed to the masses to make things more equal, because they are a part of her innate self. In using them, Imogen can do good, but she also sometimes ends up hurting people by reading their thoughts without consent or, at times, even meaning to. So, does Imogen deserve this power? By now, you might see the problem. It doesn't matter whether she deserves her power because you can't take it from her without killing her, no matter how unfair you think it is that she has it. 'Do they deserve their power' is an irrelevant question that people keep coming back to. What you're actually asking is, 'do the gods deserve to live', or even 'do we have the right to kill them' which is a lot more loaded.

The gods already evened the playing field as much as was possible by locking themselves behind the divine gate, severely diminishing their influence on Exandria. They can no longer cause any more harm than any mortal, because now they must act through mortals such as clerics and paladins, through which they do a lot of good (or have we already forgotten about c1 and c2, or even the resurrection of Laudna by a divine cleric and the actions of FCG in c3?). If this still isn't enough for you, you might want to ask yourself whether what you actually want is fairness and the good of the people of Exandria, or if you're just looking for pointless revenge for the sake of it.

[ariadne-mouse]

In honor of our new extremely flirtatious and available paladin-bard Braius Doomseed, in good fun here are some possible very serious ship names for him with, well, everyone, with my personal very serious faves in bold:

Braius + Dorian: Stormseed, Doomstorm, Brorian, Doriaus

Braius + Laudna: Braudna, Loomseed, Skinny Cow, Black Ooze Inc, Doom & Dread

Braius + Imogen: Imogus, Brimogen, save a horse ride a minotaur, Doomult

Braius + Ashton: Greydoom, Doommoore, Brashton, Just Don't Me

Braius + Fearne: Bearne, Fraius, Callowseed, Doomway, Callowdoom

Braius + Orym: big doom little moon, Brorym, Seedseed

Braius + Chetney: Chetius, Brockopea, Doom Pea, Pock o' Seed, Chaius, Bretney (it's bretney betch)

Braius + Essek: Bressek, Doomshadow, Shadowseed

Braius + Teven: Doomklask, hero worship, Braiueven (sorry), Traius, HR Violation

Braius + Ludinus (look, he's here and being on a mission to defeat him does not preclude hotness): Brudinus, Da'Doom, Luaius (sorry)

Braius + Veth (she's not here but she would if she could be and I have to respect that): Breth, Doomatto, Vethseed, Doomveth, Broomvatto, seagull at the buffet table

Please pipe up in the tags/comments with your favorites and additions to this heavy-hitting discussion.

[utilitycaster]

Bells Hells Level Up: Level 14

FUCK IT WE'RE DOING IT LIVE (I forgot to prep this well in advance like a press release as I am wont to do). Gonna be short, sweet, and as always if there are any factual errors let me know! If I simply did not list every single possible feat, spell, or other choice, that is because I did not wish to spend my wild and precious life doing that.

Chetney: With a 13th level in Blood Hunter he gets Brand of Tethering, which is GREAT for making people (Ludinus) not be able to leave. He can also use Blood Maledict 3 times per rest now. Looking ahead: I'm assuming he's sticking with Blood Hunter (or Blood Nutter as the case may be); at L14 he gets advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened, and a new crimson rite. He has flame and frozen, and L14 unlocks necrotic, psychic, and thunder options. Their enemies are often immune to psychic but honestly he can just use fire so. Live your best life, Chet.

Laudna: I support waiting to see how the ritual goes! If she levels in Warlock she gets an ASI/Feat (War caster wouldn't hurt; bumping up INT or WIS wouldn't either though my vote, as always, is for INT), another known spell, and continues her quest as Cantrips Georg. If she levels in Sorcerer she also gets another cantrip, as well as another known spell, and I think she should get a 3rd metamagic option but she seems to already have three? Anyway my vote is for Careful Spell. I'll hold off on further speculation until said ritual has completed.

Dorian: Two more spells! Magical secrets, ie, whatever the fuck he wants (true to my name my vote is spending at least one on Counterspell, but go nuts on the other) He also no longer has to burn his inspiration dice on flourishes, though he only gets a d6 rather than his full d10. Looking ahead: He gets 8th level spells of which Mind Blank might be wise given this campaign; he also gets a d12 inspiration die.

Braius is already level 14, thank you Braius.

Fearne: Ok I respect the ASI push but Transport via Plants would be real clutch sometime soon. With that said Dorian or Imogen could take Teleport or they can just hang out with Essek for a while longer. Anyway, as an Arcane Trickster she gets an ASI and another L1 spell; she's been keeping it utility-focused which is smart because her INT score is not high. The ASI move, in my opinion, is bump up INT and CON by one, but she could also benefit from War caster. Looking ahead: As said, take L11 Druid, get 6th level spells, profit.

Imogen: Revelation in Flesh is upon us; I assume it will be electricity themed rather than the traditional Aberrant Mind option which appears to be "cursed axolotl"-themed. This means she can use sorcery points to make herself fly OR swim/breathe water OR see invisible creatures OR squeeze out of tight situations. Looking ahead: 8th level spells next level! Incendiary Cloud seems to be on-brand but Power Word Stun OR Sunburst (miss you Ayden) are both pretty fantastic.

Orym: Fighters get a zillion ASIs, as always; Sentinel might be fun but he could also bump his CON to 16 (if he does this...I must admit I'm warming on the idea of Orym Paladin and wouldn't scoff at a CHA 13 bump either), achieve Chetney-like intellect with an INT bump, or take any number of feats. I am pretty boring with feats honestly so I'm excited to see what Liam picks but I have no good ideas. Looking ahead: At L15, he gets two more maneuvers, which I will definitely look up before they hit L15; he also gets a free superiority die if they roll initiative while he is fully tapped. Fighters: they are unstoppable.

Ashton: It's a path feature! I have no idea what the fuck will be up with that but I'm looking forward to finding out, which, coincidentally, will give us the full picture of Path of Fundamental Chaos! Looking ahead: They get persistent rage at L15, which will make them even harder to knock out, a thing that is already very difficult to do.

[kerosene-in-a-blender]

Robbie made a point of noting that Dorian was very ill-at-ease while the party spoke with the Arch Heart (at least until it became clear that they were proposing something that is personally appealing to him), which is understandable given the only god he's communicated with extensively is Lolth, does make me think he'd be similarly uncomfortable speaking to any god, at least while he remains in the place he's in currently. Which is an interesting position for him to be in since the Matron of Ravens has reached out to Laudna so the possibility is there for the party to seek her out.

However, there is someone who I do think it would benefit Dorian a lot to talk to whom the Matron could potentially point him in the direction of, given her domain and the fact that he was last seen in the company of one of her paladins. Cyrus. Things have been so hectic for Dorian since he died that he hasn't had time to properly mourn or even process his death. He said to Dariax after it happened that he was angry and he wants revenge (even as he dislikes feeling this way) and events have been so harried that it's clear part of him still feels that way. Dorian has also mentioned that he's trying to do what Cyrus would, trying to save the most people and do the right thing, as a way to honour him. But the "right thing" has been so muddled that he's genuinely had very little direction in regards to following through on that goal. This is why Corellon's plan is so appealing to him! It presents an option where no one has to die, gods included, but they leave Exandria and cease to have power over mortals anymore, and what happened to Cyrus and Opal can't happen again. It offers the closure he's been very sorely lacking.

Which is why I think he'd benefit from having one final conversation with Cyrus. He needs closure, and time is not on his or anyone else's side. But being able to talk to the brother he is desperately trying to honour might give him some.

[pink-lightsabre]

people talking about dorian's corruption arc just starting now that cyrus is dead kinda. idk it rubs me the wrong way. and i know not everyone watched exu prime. so i don't expect everyone to know that dorian STARTED chaotic good and got his alignment changed to chaotic neutral by the fucking spider queen because he KNEW what the villains in exu prime would do and didn't care if it meant he could save his friends.

if there's gonna be a true corruption arc for dorian, not just vengeance arc (which is what i think), that corruption started waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when.

and his anger. ooooooooh boy dorian's anger. is so precious to me. but he has always ALWAYS been angry. robbie plays it so well and there have been several other Excellent posts on here about dorian and how his anger is always just... bubbling under the surface. how he hides it behind joviality and charisma.

he has the anger of a discarded second son. man his middle fucking name!!!! signifies exactly how he's viewed at "home." and i'm sure his parents and the people of the silken squall would argue that "secondsun" is an honor and a privilege. and i am equally sure that dorian hates it with everything in him. and hates it EVEN MORE now that cyrus is dead.

the 7th level geas was... so fucking sexy. just absolutely chefs kiss. but it's not! new! the interactions with cyrus at the ball! he blackslides into that icy anger more than once in the first episodes of c3 because it's always there!

and anger is very easily corrupted into something sickly and harmful. i get it. but this isn't the start of dorian going down a deeply juicy and interesting path. it's a 300 level kick into the tragedy of it all. but it's always been there. and the end result of this is NOT going to be him going full darkside/joining ludinus and/or the vanguard. because again. all this anger is boiling over into vengeance because people he LOVED were hurt/corrupted/killed themselves. you think he's gonna join up with the group that killed laudna and orym and fearne and chetney AND fcg while he was gone??????? and yes fearne, orym, chetney, and (after a lot more work) laudna all came back. but they were still DEAD because of the actions of people!!!! not the gods!!!!!

he's going rageful, wrathful, vengeance paladin. he's gonna salt and burn the earth to protect his people and ruin the corpses of people that oppose him. and hopefully. HOPEFULLY. at the end. he'll have enough people left around him to pull him back from the edge. remind him why he's fighting. and keep him safe.

[cpprcoyote]

Devotion Paladin/Sorcerer Laudna Brainrot

[demigoddessqueens]

Masterlist 11

Writing Drabbles

Intimacy

avert your eyes

SFW writings

Match up pairings - Valkyrie // Trevor Belmont // Alucard // multi-fandom pairing //

Song 🎶 fics - Vax fic // Percy fic // Grog // Caleb // Cadeuces // Grog - fic 2 //

Song fic: multi-party - Pike/Jester/Laudna // Wild 😜 Ones //

Pretty Little Liars 💋/Original Sin 🔪- being mouse’s sibling //

Genshin Impact - Neuvillette flirting //

Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon 🐉- aegon + writing prompt // aemond headcanons // incorrect quotes // jock 💪 aemond //

Ewan Mitchell - Martin (in the modern world) //

The Decameron - Dr Dioneo fluff // Dioneo and the artist //

Hades - making out with Moros //

Marvel

MCUniverse - Namor + female general // Paradox ⚡️ headcanons // incorrect quotes // incorrect quotes 2 // incorrect quotes 3 // incorrect quotes 4 // incorrect quotes 5 //

Werewolf by Night - Jack Russell fluff //

X-Men - relationship headcanons //

Bridgerton - Benedict SFW (+ NSFW) //

Fallout - found family + Lucy //

Dune - Chani + sister!figure //

Ultraman Rising - kenji x male!reader //

A Quiet Place: Day One - dating Eric //

Monkey Man - writing prompt ask //

Blood of Zeus ⚡️- ares x Hindu!god!reader // Dionysus with pregnant!reader + twins // hard to get Ares // can’t carry a tune 🎶 // Hermes and Apollo twins // sneaking with Poseidon // childhood friend // rise of Venus 💕 // friends of monsters // plus size reader //

Critical Role 🎲

Vox Machina - thicc thighs // (my darling) yandere // grog + sorcerer!reader // Percy + harpy kiss // yandere Vax and Percy // bard oc + scanlan // kidnapped?! // wild witch 🧙// domestic + affectionate //

Mighty Nein - hold my ale // you get separated //

Bell’s Hells - constellation Druid //

Other -

Dungeon Meshi - toshiro headcanons //

Castlevania/Nocturne 🌙 - once upon a December // Fae healer lover // fall asleep on their shoulder // Trio + modern au // lover’s voice kink // divine paladin, cleric //

Assassins Creed - Kenway friend // drunk Haytham // Connor and author s/o // the cuddling type // gyaru reader // altair and day off // Altair and eagles // Malik headcanons // markings of Eden // supportive Altair //

Codexmonthly prompts

July “magic”

August “rooftop”

September “leap”

Baldurs Gate - linking pinkies // peck 💋 on lips // practicing “I love you” // Gale + insecure!body reader // blue dragon in the rain // too close to call //

Batstarion 🦇 Week 2024 - day 6 // day 7

Star Wars - Rey skywalker + reader with anxiety //

NSFW writings

Twisters 🌪️ - sweet darlin //

Trap (2024) - bonnie and Clyde //

Critical Role 🎲

Multiparty - match freak //

Vox Machina - lover & giver // ride of your life //

Mighty Nein - your reward + round 2 //

Bell’s Hells - braius fic //

Castlevania - you taste good (ft C.R.) //

[cringefaecompilation]

i hate the "dorian is going to join ludinus to spite the gods for taking away his friends" concept so much. i could just reblog that one post that says "people criticizing the gods does not mean they support the vanguard" and call it a day but this is part of a worrying trend of villainizing the cast members of color who don't support the gods wholly. even within the hells not everyone is devout.

ashton? literally said they refuse to worship the gods, period. that if they want his help they can ask him themselves. imogen? her guilty conscience towards the concept of killing her mother and her own sorrow at being neglected by the gods makes her also uncertain if she trusts them fully. laudna? is seen as inherently evil by every paladin in a five-mile radius because she’s undead. and if predathos takes a big munch out of vecna’s face, delilah’ll shit herself and die and free her from her grasp permanently.

and yet they all desire ludinus’ head on a stake and do not trust the vanguard nor believe what they are doing is right.

do i think orym and dorian are going to butt heads over their viewpoints on the gods? naturally! it’d be weird if they didn’t! but i just cannot see a universe in which dorian storm would backstab the surviving people he cares about over spite. he’s angry, he’s hurting, but he’s not going to trust a genocider. neither would deanna or FRIDA despite their compunctions and questionings.

honesty, the person i’m scared of getting corrupted by the vanguard is dariax. cults specifically go after people that feel isolated or lost, and dariax just got abandoned by all of his friends after a god pushed them apart. poor guy is a perfect pawn if ludinus ever stumbled across him.

[centaurianthropology]

Ashton and Silence

One of the things that has fascinated me this campaign is how ready-built Ashton is to be a leader, but how Taliesin plays low charisma to constantly stop them from being one.  Ashton has great ideas, and tends to be one of the two most grounded members of the group.   He has excellent moral intelligence (far better than they’ll admit), and one-on-one Ashton excels at talking people down from their worst points.  

But they also are in constant pain, and they’ve spent their entire life being told that they’re worthless as anything other than a slab of muscle.  So they silence themselves.  And the more unfamiliar the environment or the more people around them, the more they clam up.

Last episode was one of the best examples I’ve seen yet.  Ashton was almost entirely silent this episode.  He admitted to hating camping, likely to do with the chronic pain, but also to do with the unfamiliar environment.  Ashton is a city barbarian through and through, and they thrive in cities.  They are far more confident in cities, even when they don’t know them as well as Jrusar or Bassuras.  But the wilderness?  On an unknown continent?  He’s already on the wrong foot.

And then they go to the village, and before they know it things are spiraling.  It turns out this place was a powderkeg waiting to blow, with two factions that are, at least from appearance, both highly suspect.  The Vasselheim faction are clearly outsiders come here to impose their culture on the locals, taking too much from their land, bleeding their farms dry for distant tribute, and recently sending more and more armed thugs and more religious oppression.  Add to that the Flameguide being clearly an asshole who won’t listen to reason (very classic lawful stupid paladin, and I agree with Emily, likely a Conquest Paladin, some of the worst to deal with), and the Dawnfather folks are clearly assholes who aren’t wanted there.

But though the townsfolk in general seem sympathetic and just want to live free and worship as they will, their charismatic leader also seems to be full-on with Ruby Vanguard ideology.  She wants to tear the gods down, mistaking gods who are behind a divine gate and can’t interact with humans without a great deal of faith, with the corrupt religious institutions that sprung up around them.  But at the same time she gives a distinct feeling of hating those institutions because she’s not them.  She flat-out said that she didn’t want to stop with the town.  She wanted her own elemental worship to take over the world.

It’s a great set-up, because the townsfolk just want to be free, so they’re throwing in their lot with someone who has grand and terrible ambitions.  It’s Ludinus writ small, and playing out on an intimate scale.

And the team wasn’t really given any choice.  Once they were exploring the options, they were already sort of stuck with the elementalists.  And they mostly just want to prevent casualties, but the people in charge of those potential casualties have no care for the people who could die.  They see only glory and their own faith.

Orym spoke up, because that’s what Orym does.  But Orym’s confidence has been shaken, and there was little to no way he was going to manage to sway two fanatics.  Denise sort-of spoke up, as did Laudna, both trying but both also failing.  Bor’Dor and Prism were both basically on the side of ‘let’s fuck up the gods, whoo!’ from the off, Bor’Dor because he doesn’t really know what’s going on, and Prism out of academic bitterness.  In another life, she would have been hard-core Rube Vanguard fairly easily.

And then there’s Ashton, silent in the back, deeply uncomfortable, surrounded by an elementalist group that feels a lot like a cult with a charismatic leader.  How much must he be associating this with the Hishari?  Does it have any connection?  Some remnant faction?  Are they fighting on the side of his nightmares?

But they say nothing.  They stay silent.  They are barely noticed, despite being a big rock person in an elemental-worshipping town.  People should be all over them in fascination, but they aren’t, because Ashton has practically vanished.  They needed to speak up.  They needed to stand with Orym to try to de-escalate things, but instead they are sneaking in the background.  Why?  Lack of confidence.  Self-loathing.  Fear.  This is where Asthon’s low charisma springs from: they will never trust themselves to do the right thing, to say the right words, to really step up and be counted.  So they hide, and things crumble.

[notori]

On a more genuine note from my previous post though: I do not think Imodna will go the same way as Vaxleth for a few reasons.

Vax's story was very personal to Liam. It always frustrates me when people act like the Raven Queen 'took Vax away' (and thus she is a bad goddess) when in fact she answered his prayer and granted his wish. Vax's story is about "Take me instead!" - not some kind of "Don't let Vex die!", and certainly not someone who was raised from the dead without their consent and bound like a puppet. Unless such an ending is expressly what Marisha wants for her character, I don't see it being narratively satisfying. Even if Laudna dies in sacrifice to save the others, because of the breadth of Delilah's power, it would be more of a general "I'm dying to save everyone" and less personal (and impactful) than Vax's trading his life for Vex's.

I joked about how this is Delilah Briarwood vs Laura Bailey again, so don't sweat it, but it's true! The players play their characters differently. Liam loves tragedy and plays it well; Laura loves romance and plays it well. Percy also had a dark streak with a hunger for power, and Vex would not let him go. I see more parallels with themes like: "I feel cruel, but in control." and "Take the mask off." Meanwhile, Imogen and Keyleth are different characters and their love interests have different relationships with death. In the end, the reason Keyleth could not do anything against the Raven Queen isn't because she's a god and Keyleth is not, but because Vax - as a paladin - chose to honour his faith and uphold his end of the deal. Imogen is not in that position because Laudna is not in that position. Laudna may see herself as just a puppet, or a risk, or a dead end - but we the audience, and Imogen, know that she is not (maybe a bit of a calculated risk). If anything, I see us on the precipice of an arc of Imogen inspiring Laudna to fight for her independence again and figuring out a way to do that (this is a world of magic after all).

And that theme of fighting for independence is something that has been there since the beginning. We have seen it both in analysis and confirmed on 4SD that Laudna's relationship with Delilah is in many ways similar to struggling with addiction. And now, into year three of C3, we are really seeing that take form when things get rough. When things get out of control, when you get desperate, that's when you grasp at anything to make it easier. It would be a real kick in the teeth to have her not overcome that struggle. Of course, there's the possibility that she does overcome that struggle by getting rid of Delilah and dying as a result. But out of game it has been referred to more in line with addiction that is constantly managed rather than addiction that is ended cold turkey - which for some people is the only way. I'll admit this one is more a personal preference but I do see it overall leaving a bad taste if Laudna were to die from Delilah in some way (again). Presuming they resolve issues with the solstice and resurrection spells, True Resurrection does exist and I'm certain the Hells would work off a 25k GP debt to bring Laudna back for good (which I see as more of a final episode/epilogue/post-game situation).

Regardless, it's a beautiful story and I'm sure that whatever happens will be what the players want. However, in this case I genuinely don't see them repeating something they have done before. Although we saw many parallels last night, there is still much which sets Imodna and Vaxleth apart narratively.

[ozbian]

Catching up on Naddpod and I can't believe we nearly had Emily as a Paladin of Vesh the Bloody Siren

Glad they went with Prism because I love her, but given what we know about Vesh, the au where Laudna meets this paladin is fun to think about