#said to my dnd party member in a battle

[sesamenom]

alright you’ve been extremely extremely kind and indulgent to me about my oc and i cannot possibly thank you enough <333333 so MY turn now to ask YOU about YOURS. please tell me about maglor’s distant granddaughter who is also your bbeg?? .w. or about the chatty hobbits i would very VERY much love to hear about both!!!

~ @nelyoslegalteam, reporting from main <3

(long post, sorry for the random people stumbling upon this lol)

so I'm the dm for the chatty hobbits campaign and essentially it's set in a beleriand-adjacent continent, but with a few extra races and stuff. of the founders of the original settlements, the king of elende (the elf kingdom) is Gil-galad's (invented for the campaign) twin brother Finellach/Finwain. originally he was inspired by the fact that gil galad has a ton of names but only uses ereinion/gil, so I just invented a new character and gave him half the names. I headcanon gil galad as maglor's son, so finwain is in universe maglor's son (left at the havens with gil bc his wife divorced him for kinslaying and his kingdom, being next door neighbors with morgoth, is far too dangerous for small children).

Anyways, his descendant Elinyel (also known as aramire or elinnor) is the current queen of Elende! she's an evil fire-themed bard who is extremely feanorian in all the worst ways - her actual kingdom prospered under her reign, but she just does not care about everyone else as long as she's protecting her people. There were some tensions with one of the major kingdoms to the north (conflict over unclaimed territory between the kingdoms and some tariff stuff), so instead of risking the other kingdom starting a war and hurting her people, she just preemptively invaded it and started burned all the border territories to the ground.

her actual coronation was pretty weird- so she's the second child, but her older sister was born in wartime and there's a general belief in elende that children of peacetime make better rulers, so Elinyel was chosen as her family's heir. her grandfather (the crown prince of his generation) died defending Elende in one of the major wars, but his younger brother and two young kids survived. there's a whole feud between their houses because the brother chose to retain the kingship even after the kids were old enough to take the throne. anyways, two generations later Elinyel killed her cousin Arendil (the previous king of Elende) over a dispute about the legitimacy of his house (and what she believed to be a dishonoring of her grandparents' sacrifice) and took the throne.

obviously she has many Issues. arendil also has two surviving kids who are now essentially trying to stop her from murdering all their neighbors in proactive defense of her people.

however, when she first ascended she recruited her friend group as her elite guard/vassals of the kingdom. (aka the other bosses in the storyline). so it escalated to a war between her forces and the children of arendil, which ultimately culminated in her beloved sister being killed by one of arendil's children. this in turn led to her having basically a massive mental breakdown and feeling like she failed to protect her loved ones (exacerbated by some of her other friends being killed in battles she led). a normal person might decide this is was kind of her fault for starting a war and putting her friends in charge of the army. instead she decided she needed to destroy everyone who could ever potentially pose a threat. which is, in her eyes, literally everyone on the continent (except for her kingdom, of course).

so now she is at war with absolutely everyone of all factions! She is also somehow winning by virtue of Song almost on the level of maglor himself, and ten (now six) also incredibly powerful friends. Anyways, she has decided that the best way to wipe out the continent (except her kingdom) and start fresh is to literally find an ancient lost stone that can break the Doors of Night, summon Morgoth himself, and start the Dagorath. obviously this will Not go well for anyone at all if she succeeds, but she is on a full-on rampage and genuinely believes she (plus friends) can protect her kingdom from Morgoth's army while he wipes out everyone else.

Here's some old art of her btw!

And some slightly more recent unfinished art of her and the Evil Friend Group from when they were younger:

and here's (L-R) her cousin who is the 3rd boss, Elinyel, and her sister from before the war!

[professor-beaker]

Things i did on my very first session playing a lotr dnd campaign:

~Ate a mushroom i Definitely was not supposed to and survived on 1 hp

~Made a crowbar my main weapon

~Spent all my gold polishing said crowbar at the blacksmith

~One-shotted the first bandit i saw with said crowbar

~Pickpocketed three tavern-goers and was about to pocket merry (the hobbit) when my party member stopped me

~Broke down the inn door with my crowbar

~Insulted an armored war-lord to his face, initiated a battle that ended in all of the hobbits injured and unconscious, and kept insulting him while beating him with my crowbar

~Broke half his face open with my crowbar

~When the warlord was killed by a Nazgul, immediately looted his body instead of focusing on the new threat

~Got frodo killed at the first encounter, but he was revived due to Plot

~Pickpocketed an elf in rivendell

~Tried to steal the one Important Broken Blade from rivendell

~Stole the One Ring in the middle of the council meeting when everyone was arguing

~Then, when gandalf made me put it back, stole it again

~Resisted the One Ring's calls due to my love for my crowbar

~At the big "you have my sword!" "and my bow!" "and my axe!" climax, slammed my trusty weapon on the stone and shouted, "AND MY CROWBAR!!!" at the top of my lungs

~Was rejected by the rest of the fellowship

[artiststarme]

No Steves Allowed!

Okay guys, I decided to the DnD one first today but I'll probably end up posting the parent fic today too. I've never actually played DnD so if this doesn't make sense, let me know! I hope you guys like it and please leave your thoughts in the comments.

~*~*~*~

Eddie wasn’t a big fan of rules, or setting boundaries, or partaking in any form of mass conformity. When he made his DnD club, he wanted it to be a safe space for all the outsiders and outcasts to relax and enjoy their high school years. (And join his DnD campaigns so he could torture them but that was neither here nor there). However, there was one rule that was non-negotiable and grounds for immediate character damage and death. 

There was to be no mention of Steve Harrington. 

It didn’t matter if he was your partner in chemistry for a project or if you were complaining about his crony bumping into you in the hall, no one was allowed to mention him by name or otherwise as soon as Eddie stepped into the drama room. This confused the original Hellfire members as well as their successors but everyone conceded eventually. Especially when mentions of Steve brought about the painful and horrific deaths of their characters. 

Gareth, the little shit that he is, tempted the rule the most, even still. Even after all of the characters he’s lost (one named Stephen that was beheaded by a griffin carrying a blade from a fallen half-elf soldier and several others that tried to work the name ‘Steve’ into a background story), he still liked to poke the bear at least once a campaign. 

“Galahad, it’s your play. What course of action will you take to persuade the innkeeper into allowing you and your friends a place of slumber for the night?” Eddie asked him, his voice firm and powerful as he enveloped his Dungeon Master persona. 

He already regretted giving him the chance to speak after he saw a slow smirk spread across his face. “Well, dear Dungeon Master, I think I’m going to go back to the bar and collect my friend Stephen Nicehair. Then I’ll use his looks and luscious locks to seduce the innkeeper into giving us beds.”

Eddie could feel his left eye twitching in annoyance. ‘Stephen Nicehair’? That’s the best Gareth could do?

“As you turn around to go back to the bar, you hear the innkeeper release a battle cry. He drops the pillows in his hands to reveal a cursed dagger with an obsidian blade. The previously friendly man plunges the dagger into your chest without hesitation and twists it in your heart to deliver maximum pain. Roll damage.”

Gareth sighed but rolled his dice, “six.”

“As the life fades out of your eyes, the innkeeper leans in closer to your face and whispers, ‘no one tries to outsmart me in my inn’. You die just as you lived… Pathetically. Galahad the Bad is now dead, existing on the floor of the inn in a pool of blood with the dagger still protruding from his rib cage. Your party is now cursed by the Goddess of Death because your blood was spilled on the cursed obsidian blade. ‘Til next time, boys.”

The entire Party was silent for a moment in shock until Dustin loudly erupted. “What the hell was that?! The innkeeper? Eddie, he’s an NPC that was supposed to offer us shelter after saving the town, what the fuck?”

Jeff shook his head at him and patted Dustin’s shoulder, “hey man, Eddie really doesn’t like it when people break his rules. It’s better not to question the consequences.”

“What rules?” He turned to Eddie to point an accusing finger at him. “You said that you hated rules because they forced conformity onto people outside the mold. And all he did was say he was going to get his friend Stephen to help!”

Eddie’s eyes flashed dangerously as he leaned in closer to Dustin. “Roll for initiative and persuasion.”

“Eddie-” 

“Roll Henderson!” He screamed. 

Dustin sighed brattily but rolled the dice as directed, “fourteen for initiative and ten for persuasion with my modifier.”

Eddie grinned at him maniacally. “Elric steps up to the innkeeper to try and appease him of his anger only for the man to pull another dagger from his cloak and slice it across Elric’s neck. You can feel the warmth of the blood spill down your front and feel some of the traitorous liquid bubble into your mouth and through your lips. You can’t breathe and can only gurgle a single question. What do you ask?”

“I ask him why he killed me!” Dustin said, a mixture of alarm, shock, and outrage in his voice. 

Eddie leaned in close to him, the evil glint in his eye still fully present and terrifying. He switches his cadence to match the hoarse voice of the innkeeper and says, “‘You can’t speak of Stephen or any of his aliases and stay in the world of the living.’ Elric falls to the ground and bleeds out all over the floor. The innkeeper steps over your useless body and says to your Party, ‘It’s a no to the shelter, take the bodies of your compatriots and leave or face the same fate.’”

Mike looks pissed and Lucas looks shocked at the turn this relatively happy session took. Meanwhile, Jeff and Grant were busy alternating their glares between Gareth and Eddie. Dustin just looked flabbergasted that his bard was murdered so callously by what he thought would be an innocent NPC.

“Alright, let’s pause there for now and we’ll pick it up next week. Some of you have new characters to make. Also, as a reminder to the senior members and a precaution for the new members, there will be absolutely no mention of Steve Harrington. Thank you, you’re adjourned.” Eddie spoke and waved them off. 

“What? But Steve-”

“I said adjourned, Henderson!” And from that moment on, Steve wasn’t mentioned at Hellfire. The kids slipped up here and there, especially given their hero worship of the guy but no one said his name aloud again in fear of losing another character. But then Eddie experienced the Spring Break from hell, found out that Steve Harrington was actually a pretty good guy, and started dating him.

The rule posed a problem once Eddie was finally able to talk Steve into joining a one-shot campaign. It took months of dating and illicit promises to get Steve to make a character, honorably named Steeb Munsington, and sit down with all of Hellfire to play. 

“So how’s this supposed to work? Are we just ignoring Steeb the entire campaign?” Lucas asked him.

“What why? Why are you ignoring me? Did I do something?” Steve looked adorably alarmed and glanced concernedly between Lucas and Eddie. 

Lucas patted his hand from his seat next to him. “Eddie has a rule about bringing you up during a session. If we mention you, our character gets serious hit points. No offense man, but I’m not taking that chance.”

Steve turned to Eddie with a hurt look. Oh shit, he had to fix this quick. 

“Obviously it’s void now! Obviously guys, shut up.” He turned to Steve. “Don’t worry Stevie, that was a joke.”

“Oh was it a joke when you murdered Elric the Bard for questioning Galahad’s unfair demise?!”

“Henderson, shut your mouth right now or you can kiss Kalston the Killer goodbye right now.” When he opened his mouth to argue, Eddie cut him off again. “The rule is clearly void now! I only had the rule in the first place so you guys wouldn’t be able to tease me about my crush on Steve. Now we’re dating so it’s fine. The rule has been discredited, no more capital punishment for mentioning his name.”

“You’re dating?!” Dustin screamed in shock. Eddie sent a panicked glance at Steve who was glaring at him with his arms crossed over his chest. He wouldn’t be getting any help from him. 

“You’re gay?” Mike muttered in bafflement. Wow, nothing got past that kid. 

“You murdered eleven of my characters because of a crush?” Gareth shrieked, his face turning red in anger.

Will stared at the two of them in shock while the rest of the Party raised their voices in uproar. He was completely frozen while insults and accusations were thrown, thankfully more due to the fact that Eddie had gone on a rampage as DM rather than them being gay. How were they not focusing on the gay comment?

“Not just a crush anymore, he’s been my boyfriend for months! And if you had stopped violating my rule, they wouldn’t have died! Anyways, let’s let bygones be bygones and move along with our campaign. We only have eight hours to get this done today before the sheep have curfew.” Eddie clapped his hands and grinned. 

Jeff shook his head at him and Grant muttered angrily under his breath. Gareth, though, exploded. “You murdered a shit ton of my characters for even saying words that sounded like Steve! And now you just want us to move along because you’re dating the guy now! Congratulations by the way, we all noticed you seemed happier lately. Steve, if you hurt him, I’ll kill you like he killed all of my characters for even saying your name. What the fuck, Eddie?!” 

“Jesus Christ, it was a long time ago! If you drop this, I’ll give everyone extra XP to start, okay? Double.” Gareth was still glaring at him. “Triple.”

“Fine but deep down, I’m still pissed off.” Gareth muttered. 

“Noted, now let’s start. Stevie, I can help you out if you need it. Steeb is going to do great, I’m sure. I’m not above torturing my friends when it comes to you, okay?”

“Eddie!” Everyone besides him and Steve yelled. Ah yes, this was going to be a good gameday indeed. 

Permanent tag list: @doubleb11 @nburkhardt @zerokrox-blog @newtstabber @i-less-than-three-you @carlyv @pyrohonk @straight4joekeery @trippypancakes @conversesweetheart @estrellami-1 @suddenlyinlove @yikes-a-bee @swimmingbirdrunningrock @perseus-notjackson @anaibis @merricatty @maya-custodios-dionach @grtwdsmwhr @manda-panda-monium @lumoschild @goodolefashionedloverboi @mentallyundone @awkwardgravity1

[lazodiac]

Spent all day writing out a full campaign story recap for my MTG themed DND game. I've posted it below because... maybe people would be curious to give it a read? Hope you enjoy!

SET 1: RIDDLES IN RAVNICA

Four planeswalkers; Signora Luna de la Cruz, a Soratami cleric and adventurer initially claiming to be a vampire. Kaneis, a Nyxborn wanderer seeking a place in life. Rodna, a vampire warlock secretly working for the Dimir. Wistralaxa, a Naga sorceress with an uncanny ability to not die. Each found themselves in possession of a letter requesting they head to a Ravnican café at a specified date. Upon doing so, they met with an Azorius arrestor with a mission that required finesse, strength, and secrecy.

The mission was, initially, to find the Goblin mob boss known as Krenko and bring him to justice. However, a mixture of “actually fuck the cops” attitudes, secret dealings, and sensing of foul-play being afoot lead our heroes to instead side with Krenko (after roughing up some of his men) and help him in taking down the Azorius instead. In doing so, a conspiracy of sorts was discovered, as well as Rodna retrieving a package from her Dimir handler, Etrata- a mysterious tome.

After the mission, the party has lunch and decides to keep in touch- they seem to work well together, after all. And so, each return to their lives; Rodna receives her next mission. Kaneis finds a letter placed on their bed labeled “A Friend”. Signora Luna’s inn-room is bombed. Wist encounters the mysterious Mr. Taz, who gives her an invitation to Eldraine- seemingly the mastermind behind all the goings on.

Our heroes reconvene to discuss what happened and what their next task will be. After some discussion, it is decided to tackle the bombing Luna narrowly avoided- seemingly caused by the Shattergang Brothers, goblin rivals of Krenko, their “new friend”. After some investigation, they head to the Undercity’s Golgari Markets to stock up, complete a task for an ally, and then rest for the night.

Our heroes then storm the Rakdos Cult nightclub the Shattergang Brothers are held out in, fighting through the twisty-turning pathways. Guards and goblins, but also at least one creature from Amonkhet, Wist’s home plane, something that should be impossible. This all comes to a head with our party successfully capturing the Shattergang Brothers… only for them to be found dead, slain when no one was looking. The truth of the matter is then revealed; Rodna is a Dimir assassin, unknown even to herself. Her true task, to hunt down Dimir agents who have gone rogue, and the link to all of these events is one said rogue agent; Ivreyla, and the “Friends of the Multiverse”, led by Mr. Taz Dranos.

A dark truth revealed, our heroes support Rodna as she breaks her pact with Rozumu, leaves the Dimir, and after recovering head off to Ivelya’s hideout, lead by a former guildmate of hers. Unfortunately it is a trap, and our heroes must fight their way through the hideout to save Rodna’s friend- captured by Ivreyla- and bring an end to her Dimir cell once and for all.

Strava, Rodna’s friend, is saved- though turned into a vampire to do so. The Dimir cell is destroyed, all members killed. Ivreyla herself seems to escape as her spark ignites and she planeswalks away, but a cursory inspection of the plane she ended up reveals she is likely to have been ripped to pieces by a werewolf. A satisfactory ending, that in the end leads our party- through Kaneis- to make actual contact with the so-called “Friends of the Multiverse”, an organization of Planeswalkers who seek to assist each other in various… endeavors.

The party categorically refuse, for understandable reasons, and instead head to Kamigawa- an old friend of Wist’s may be able to help with their current problems…

SET 2: THE IRON SCROLL

The Story Circle- a loosely connected band of Planeswalkers that share information and stories, a friendly group that is connected by faint threads more than the bond of battle and bloodshed. Wist is a friend of the ‘leader’ of that group, Tamiyo, and heads to her home on the plane of Kamigawa in the hopes of fulfilling their goals. Rodna needs to learn what is going on with her body- breaking the pact has seemingly unlocked some sort of mutation that is happening to her. Luna wants further adventures, and exploring her home plane is something of an interest for her. Kaneis has a want for connection, to more firmly define themselves through others. While some of this is accomplished something all-together more important pops up. One of Tamiyo’s Iron Scrolls have been stolen.

The Iron Scrolls, she explains, are three very powerful stories she has collected through her time traveling the multiverse- stories that MUST be recorded, but in the recording have been granted overwhelming power that befits their very import. Plane shattering stuff. So our heroes head off in pursuit of the thief, reaching a nearby Nezumi village. Assisting the locals and entreating the local kami-god Nezu-kyo- and telling each other the stories of how their sparks ignited as payment- our heroes are pointed in the right direction, heading to a city on the edge of civilization.

Our heroes reach the Painted City, a beautiful place of neon paints and colour. A Soratami planeswalker- known as Eshi- lives here, and Nezu-Kyo has pointed them towards him to find that which they seek. Going to see Eshi however involves them finding a strange diorama of a tall tower… that our heroes then find themselves within! Strange puzzles and antics are has… as well as one of Wist’s cooking knives being drawn in as a massively powerful yokai that our heroes must run from.

Eventually, our heroes locate Eshi’s painting room within this strange diorama. An enigmatic sort, with paintings of various lands in Kamigawan style- most relevantly, a scene from Theros, and a painting marked with the symbol of an Innistradi cult that Rodna found in that cursed tome of hers. This turns out to be relevant, as whatever mutations Rodna is undergoing, something similar is happening to him, and he provides some information about it- as well as pointing them towards how they can contact the Friends of the Multiverse and locate that scroll.

Eshi lets our heroes leave after he finishes Signora Luna’s painting- a strange thing, that seems to shift as one looks at it, and perhaps more questions than answers, especially with regards to the Tide Star Seer, something that Luna finds familiar… but that’s brushed off as they further explore the city looking for Sen the Silent. Our heroes engage in Sen’s fight club, learn of some leads, and after some shenanigans involving a shadow kami end up getting the information they need- though not before said kami puts on a little show for Luna, taunting her about something she doesn’t quite understanding.

With information in hand, our heroes journey through the old wilderness of Kamigawa… and find themselves changing. Rodna grows stronger, fiercer, in defense of her friends. Wist grows impatient and reckless as the worry of what this Iron Scroll could do weighs on her. Luna starts to welcome in the power of her home, dragon-cries echoing in her dreams. Kaneis starts to define themself, a whirling dervish of blades and tendrils and jellyfish dresses. The old magic of the plane, the conflicts they encounter, turn our heroes into Heroes, befitting the quest they’re on. Little do they know what this could mean…

 Partway through, they encounter the Tiger Claw bandits, and end up storming their fort through stealth and guile and absurdly intense power. The honestly quite pathetic leader of this crew and his minions are dispatched quite easily by our heroes, but in the doing they discover some oddities- the leader’s Dominarian armor, a Zendikari elemental trapped within a room of the hide out as a digging tool. More things that suggest the Friends of the Multiverse have been here, twisting lives for their own gain.

The confrontation draws near. The planeswalkers reach the mountain where the Friends’ hideout is, and explore it in search of their enemies. With some assistance from an old kami known as Night’s Reach, our heroes find it- in exchange for taking a mask representative of her power with them, to bury on another plane at a later date. Our heroes reach the hideout of the Friends of the Multiverse… and reality crashed down upon them, as words echo across them- echoes of Dominarian history.

They are reading the scroll. There is not much time left. Our heroes rampage through the undead samurai and Innistradi spirits and other would-be monsters defending their lair, and all the while echoes of magic ring out across the pagodas. The world reverberates and rattles.

In tackling the pagoda fortress, our heroes split up. Kaneis on their lonesome, the rest together facing the undead hordes- and faltering. Luna is unconscious, Wist is being hounded by spirits, and Rodna is doing her best. It is here, at a tea room positioned between pagodas, that Kaneis runs into another kami- though this one is not a servant of their enemies. She asks if they need assistance, and Kaneis says yes… in exchange for a favor. Kaneis has a beast to hunt, and will know when the time is right to repay this debt. With a golden hand, the spirit plucks the remaining heroes from their rooms and places them in the tea room, where our heroes take a moment to breath before confronting their foes.

Within the final chamber are the twins of the Friends of the Multiverse; Seele, a Geistspeaker, and Corpus, a Ghoulcaller, both from Innistrad. The twins and their servants (plus the animated remains of the ninja Higure) ready themselves to fight, and our heroes charge to meet them. Corpus continues his reading, the magic crackling through the very fabric of the plane itself, reality starting to shift.

The battle is chaos incarnate. Luna fights Seele, having previously fought her in Sen’s fight club. Wist provides support. Rodna engages Corpus directly with her strange powers and her katana. Kaneis whirls and carves and kicks and fires off spines in defense of their allies. It is break-neck, frenetic, and our heroes are pushed to the limit. Finally, it happens! Rodna slays the ghoulcaller and he dies with portentious words; “It’s the wrong scroll”. Followed by a hideous, hissing roar as a behemoth of a black dragon, scales metallic and shiny, tendril lord cords lashing out from its hide steps through a smokey rip in reality. It screams “THERE WILL BE SILENCE.”

Seele turns her remaining soldiers about the creature, but it simply isn’t enough. A stream of caustic acid bellows forth from the dragon’s maw, and the Geistspeaker is washed away in a sea of glowing liquid. Luna barely survives this, but falls unconscious. Rodna does her best to carve into it. Wist is worn and weary, attrition taking its hold. Kaneis’s spines clatter against its metallic hide- but then, a solid blow! A hammer-shaped spine shatters one of the dragon’s eyes, and the second, sharper spine enters the gap in the creatures skull. It unleashes a horrid screech, worse than anything they’d heard before.

And then, Silence. The dragon’s flailing roars, their own haggard breathing, all of it blanked out. They can barely even hear themselves think. The dragon’s head twists upside down and unfurls into a cylindrical device… and starts glowing, light flooding from the hairline fractures that open up into it.

It is, quite clearly, a bomb. Our heroes run, Luna managing to wake up in time- though not before seeing a vision of nine stars slicing through the sky in formation before scattering to the winds. She and Wist each other as support as they run, Rodna chasing after, and Kaneis quickly passing them all as they rush ahead- the healthiest of them all, trying to clear the way. But all the spirits and undead that remain seem frozen. They run, footsteps silent, hearts pounding, the impending doom behind them glowing fiercer. Rodna falls, out of breath. Wist and Luna try to pull her to her feet. Kaneis doubles back to help. They feel as though they’re running in sand, and then- vision gone white, a massive explosion piercing the silence.

Our heroes awaken on the front yard of Tamiyo’s home, each in a pile of pristine white sand, soft and gentle. Luna has a golden ring marked with a face in her hands, she does not know from where, with a message held between the teeth. She looks at it, a mystery. Wist collapses in the sand, crying from exhaustion. Kaneis sits there, shaken. Rodna just lays face down. They have barely survived.

Then, a faint glow. A woman in gold robes, the kami Kaneis met, appears. A silver dragon perched across her shoulders. She introduces herself as Michiko and Kyodai, the Sisters of Flesh and Spirit, the patron gods of this plane- higher than any other, but bound by the metaphysical rules of their domain, as they explain in the wake of Wist’s anger at what has transpired. They apologize for what has happened, for as much as that matters, and after some discussion reveal that Luna is the Tide Star Seer- one of five blessed by the dragons of Kamigawa, and the strange visions and dreams are her future sight manifesting.

With that, the Sisters grant our heroes each a boon. Wist uses hers to task the Sisters with restructuring society upon the plane, so no one is powerless to shape their own fate. Rodna asks them to rid her of the corruption stemming from her palm, and is given a wolf shaped amulet that will absorb the power of that which changed her, ridding her of that corruptive force. Kaneis simply asks “Why am I?”, and they answer that they hold within them an intensely beautiful soul- to return to Theros with their companions will answer the questions they seek, and Kaneis receives a compass to guide the way. Luna, meanwhile, does not know what boon she will ask- but when she does, the Sisters will act.

In the aftermath of all this, our heroes return to Tamiyo’s home- not difficult given they’re on her front porch- to regroup, recover, and inform the poor Soratami of what all happened. Luna inspects the ring she found in her hand, the note telling “Those who fought the Black Dragon, seek out the One Made Five”, but decides they’ll handle that later. As well, much to Tamiyo’s horror and the concern of our heroes, the Iron Scroll casings are now each marked with a symbol that they swear was not there before- an upside down pyramid with a ruby in the center.

But those mysterious will have to wait. Instead, our heroes have made a decision… Rodna is too important to them to leave in a lurch like this. Next stop, Innistrad.

SET 3: LIGHT OVER INNISTRAD

Innistrad is an awful place at the best of times- always cold, often dark, the wilderness full of all manner of creature with a desire to kill you. And that was before the Trevails, when the ancient eldritch creature known as Emrakul came to the plane, corruption in her wake… though a different set of heroes solved that problem well before our heroes ever met. But it is in that aftermath of a world that Rodna, Luna, Wist, and Kaneis find themselves, on the hunt for information about Rodna’s mark, and how to cure it.

They march down the road to Ulm, the town nearest their arrival. A simple town, with more than a few problems, and our heroes feel the need to do as heroes do and help out. There’s a murderer on the prowl, the town is down to the last dregs of humanity who wish to survive here, and it is only through helping solve this case that Ulm will be saved.

The investigation begins, the party splitting up to cover more ground. Kaneis bonds with a small child. Wist examines the four victims. Rodna infiltrates secret areas of the local parish. Luna makes friends. Far too much happens in far too much detail to properly set up in a recap in any reasonable length of time which is wild because look at how big this document is already dear lord.

Fact is, our heroes discover some of the many secrets of Ulm, and end up finding the murderer- a cultist and his son, who they swiftly dispatch after exploring his strange, haunted hideout. Within, they discover something far more important; a portrait of Rodna, from before she was turned into a vampire. Turns out, the cult has ties to her origin… and someone in town has seen a woman who has the same fiery red hair as she does.

Journeying through the woods to find said person, the planeswalkers encounter a tribe of strange were-panthers- previously encountered during the investigations. They are led to meet the leader of their tribe, to negotiate a peace with Ulm. Said leader is a tall panther-man with a  deep, strong voice and a penchant for speaking in metaphor- Kaneis matches wits with their own poetry, Wist strikes to the heart of the issues, Luna is less than thrilled, and Rodna is wary. The man, calling himself the Sage, leaves them with cryptic comments and a singular warning; the shadow of a Planeswalker leaves a long shadow. He does offer to make peace with Ulm as Wist requests, and our heroes leave to continue their search.

It does not take very long; in a clearing of the woods, far enough from civilization to be reasonably called idyllic, they find a simple log cabin. A woman with fiery red hair, working her day. It is Rodna’s mother, and the reunion is terrifically sad. Not least of which because… reunions often mean departures. Rodna is oh so very tired, and this is the first sign of something stable and comforting in a long time. She opts to stay, for now, to learn of her history and why she became what she is- the attempt at revitalizing a dying house of vampire nobility, mutating for reasons still unclear save for being marked as some grand Matriarch of import.

Rodna would rather not have to deal with that, so she rests, and our heroes leave with heavy hearts. They know they may see her again, but for now it is goodbye. Their next task; learn the truth of that mysterious symbol. And so they leave for Dominaria, to investigate the mighty libraries of Tolaria…

SET 4: THE PAGES OF TOLARIA

Wist, Luna, and Kaneis find themselves on the plane of Dominaria. Not the first time for any of them, though Tolaria’s coastal locale is a new one. School is currently out for the upcoming autumn season, and the library should be mostly empty. But other mysterious faces roam those storied halls…

Splitting up to cover more ground, Luna heads off and encounters two such faces- Myfanwy, a Faerie wizard from Eldraine with many a secret of her own, and Linessa, a local Human wizard. Seeking the adventure most likely to be found within this school, she joins the two of them in their quest to access the so-called Forbidden Texts. Myfanwy thinks all knowledge should be free, Linessa has a thesis to write, and Luna sees this for the adventure it truly is.

Wist and Kaneis meanwhile scour the shelves for books pertaining to the strange mark, and find a mysterious face of their own; Linessa, a human wizard local to the plane. The mystery of these same-named folks obscured for the time being, they assist her in hunting down tomes, eventually finding a handful of promising leads; a book on demons and a diary of an extremely ordinary, dull man.

The diary is so boring that Kaneis nearly falls asleep reading it… only to pierce the veil of this illusion and receive a strange poem of a riddle. Before they can bring it up, disaster strikes as Wist pries open the demon book with a blast of magical ice, unsealing one of the demons from within; a demon from her own home plane. They fight it tooth and claw and tail, but only thanks to the appearance of Myfanwy (who has completed the exam and gone exploring) that they manage to survive the beast.

Myfanwy then leaves again as our heroes recover, reuniting with Luna and the Linessa she met to reach the Forbidden Texts room, guarded by a delightful talking door. Gaining access, they pore over the books inside to find something, anything, that may give them the answers they seek. Myfanwy finds a book on the stars of multiple planes, Luna finds an old scroll on the history of Kamigawa, specifically regarding the Dragon Stars, and Linessa… finds what she is looking for, before vanishing in a gust of wind.

The Linessa with Wist and Kaneis vanishes as well, having satisfied her curiosity with the two planeswalkers, just in time for Luna and newcomer Myfanwy to return. They reconvene, and if you’re reading this right now that means you’ve caught up! If you’ve got any questions please ask me! I'd love to ramble about this (but no spoilers some of my players follow me)

[jaesrri]

So idk if anyone cares much, but I just gotta throw this out there-

DND Tumblr, send us some luck. I beg of you.

We open session tomorrow with initiative rolls and the facts are these:

We are level 8

Our playgroup is insane-we have a fully homebrew world, run Valda's Spire of Secrets from Mage Hand Press alongside most official 5e content and any other shiny bits that suit us

No really we're nuts. We have 1.6 conlangs (one full, a dialect thereof, and a few extra phrases) This campaign has already spawned a prequel novel, two prequel one-shots, thousands of words of prequel and concurrent text roleplay, an in-universe romance novella, and at least the threat of a prequel detective fiction-of-some-length. Plus assorted art, and an intro and an outro vid, and many, many playlists

The party consists of:

a 13 year old half drow necromancer who isn't exactly an orphan. Raised by the third of her mom's poly triad (terrorist cell leader, jealous AF, sus). Recently chosen as high priestess of Drow goddess of Death we.... May have released/awakened.

A playboy human guardsman (short king, twink, disaster bi) witch/fighter with two souls and royal blood. Also a very good loving mom and stepdad and lotsa excellent (vulnerable) siblings. Recently discovered blood dad and niece rather more questionable

A big (very strong, bit fat, busty) human Magani (oppressed desert culture- the conlang is theirs) fighter/cleric (battle master/twilight) and reluctant Prophet. Her boyfriend (secretly husband (secret wedding 4 in-game days ago)) is Magani by blood but not culture and also a state official (now rogue but not yet officially caught) ((Me!!!))

A Magani amethyst dragonborn aberrant mind sorcerer with a taste for gossip and a successful shop (girlfriend is half-orc craftsman smith- super sweet n talented, shit at finances). Incapable of minding her own buisness

Fairy mad bomber alchemist with a history as an expert fireworks maker and family back home in another country. Here investigating/troubleshooting fuckery in the Dreaming (existential threat to our world). In over their head (we all are)

Human warmage rebel/spy with serious history and beef with the imperial establishment. Recently reunited after 10 years with her sister. Things are rather tense, since said sister is now a warlock of a powerful member of the government (not quite as bad as it sounds, but very awkward)

We have 2 allied NPCs for this encounter, our fighter/cleric's boyfriend (husband), an eloquence bard (9th, poss 10th lvl), and one of the two high government officials that's been trying to make nice with us (sus, but we're pretty desperate) (sister's patron) who is a 20th level Wizard

Our opposition:

one equivalent government official who is absolutely opposed to everything we care about, is genocidal (Magani are probably next), and may infact be some sort of planar horror stuck here for reasons not yet understood. Also a slimy bastard.

And his pet horror who is strongly theorized to be our necromancer's dad, transformed and magically leashed. TBD if there's any of him left

Also of interest

None of us are full up on spells, including our npcs

Being caught doing magic by anyone but our friendly govt guy would be bad

I, (fighter/cleric) gave our witch/fighter my steel sword to hold onto, for I am in possession of the hilt of my ancestor's Thoughtblade which was broken in his last stand. I have learned that in order to reforge I I must simply (not easy) believe. So if I don't believe sufficiently I have no weapon

My steel sword is the only weapon our witch/fighter has, having given his rapier to his younger brother on parting and accidentally left his whip hanging in the coat-closet of the burlesque club we just left.

Our warmage is low-key actively plotting to throw the govt wizard NPC to the creature

Once again, the creature might be our teen necromancer's long lost dad

We have no idea what the super villain govt guy is packing. Wizard? Sorcerer? Horrible abomination? We just don't know

Things we (meta) know

The Dm has said the creature's statblock is unfair

That we should remember running away is an option

That the 20th lvl Wizard would find this challenging

There are five battle maps prepared "In case you do the smart thing and run"

"If you guys play this smart, you may all live to escape. If you guys are very smart, you may even defeat it. If you guys run in like a bunch of idiots, you *are* going to lose PCs. Maybe even permadeath, or very hard to cure death at least."

My character's whole deal is protecting people

We are *not* smart

Several of us are very adverse to allowing collateral damage. Others don't care much

This is a big city. Most of us don't know it well.

We should remember running away is an option

Thank you and I'll update on the fallout after. Hopefully without a blank character sheet in hand.

[faereina]

I intended this to just be a sketch, but i liked it so much that I ended up making a mini ref sheet of Aerine, the first dnd character I ever made. I’ve only been playing for around 2 years but out of over a dozen campaigns that ended early or fell through, she’s been the longest standing one ! So while her design and story is a bit “basic” compared to other characters I’ve made since then, she has a special place in my heart 🩷

here’s her spotify playlist and pinterest board too hehe

more random infodumping about her below !

Her campaign (Tales from Estaria) is from a homebrew world by my amazing dm! It’s very Victorian-era / steampunk inspired with lots of eldritch horror elements. The dress in her reference sheet (designed by @angeliets ) is intended to be her wedding dress! I had tried to draw her wedding dress myself before (which you can see in this tiktok i made about her ) but after seeing his design when joining his ko-fi membership, I knew I had to change it immediately. The veil is a bit different than his original design, as she would be using a veil gifted by her mother! Here are some more outfit ideas I’ve drawn (please ignore my inconsistent art style lol)

As for the quote I put on her ref sheet, it comes from something I said during a session. For context, our party visited a very religious country where magic coming from any source other than their god is illegal. We brought with us a child our party has been protecting, Peter, who who had celestial runes carved into his arms after his family was slaughtered by a cult worshipping a being known as the Lady of the Woods, one of the four eldritch beings who are trying to end the world.

While stopping in one of the towns for a rest, Peter’s scars were noticed by a civilian who thought we had kidnapped/harmed him. We tried explaining, but they were unresponsive and Peter, who has aasimar blood and is a draconic soul sorcerer without full control of his abilities yet because he’s a literal child, freaked out trying to pull away and used some magic. With that, the civilians then started calling HIM a monster and attacked him which is all it took for the entire party to go off on them.

Of course, as a party consisting of two tieflings, a hexblood, a warforged and Aerine, and with 3/5 being casters, it wasn’t a good look and the people started calling us devils. We did manage to do (mostly) non-lethal damage, and the warforged ended up crashing a carriage into the building for us to get away. Aerine said that line before slamming the carriage door shut which was honestly a badass moment for her as she’s normally very polite and gentle in her speech. She was extremely upset at the audacity of these people to use their religious beliefs to excuse hurting an innocent child, especially when moments before they were SO concerned.

She is very protective of the innocent, especially children. Which is also why her dislikes include the part about not liking when her party members giving children weapons. Several of the members have given Peter weapons or taught him how to use them. They do have good intentions, as they want him to be able to protect himself in case of the worst of they aren’t there to do so. However, she strongly believes that it isn’t a responsibility or burden that should ever be placed on a child, and that they instead should work to improve themselves and their abilities so that there is never a possibility of such a situation occurring.

NOW AS FOR THE MONSTER PART LMAO

So everyone knows the reputation bards have, and well, she’s probably the least bard of all bards in that manner (hooray strict and sheltered upbringings in a society literally inspired by the Victorian era!). I thought it would be a funny idea to roll the dice any time we encountered an NPC to see how attractive she found them, and it backs a long running joke. However, she would always roll super low for everyone ! It wasn’t until mid-battle one day when the warlock (who has a weird Venom-type situation going on) was in their monstrous form that I was like, hm, wouldn’t this count as an npc since it’s technically a different being? that I randomly decided to roll and got like an 18 or something really high like that 😂 since then, I’ve rolled for many more npcs and even monster type creatures (such as this death lich we came across) and she’s only - ONLY- rolled higher than a 14 for monsters.

Well, she did also roll very high (actually, it may have even been a Nat20) when I rolled for the tiefling ranger after he came back from 5 months(5 minutes in the material plane) of being stuck in the Feywild with a hot nymph with a beard from not being allowed to shave. It may or may not have sparked a small crush on him since then. Funnily enough, last session we encountered his human version in an alternate timeline from our own, and she did indeed roll lower in her attraction for his human version than his original version. So apparently the farther from human, the more attracted she is. A true monster lover!

Anyways this ended up , much more of a lore dump than I expected! I love talking about her and her adventures with the party, so I’ll probably be sharing more once in a while. Maybe even sharing art of the party members? Who knows !

[writeious-hand]

Holding Out for a Hero: Part 5

Beep Boop - I rewatched the movie on Paramount + (its an extended cut, btw) and found inspiration to continue on.

Xenk X Cleric!OC, expanding the movie further along with Sword Coast, using dnd logic in a story format.

As always, No Beta, we die like Edgin's Wife.

IDK how to link the previous parts, I don't post THAT often so you should be able to find them on my page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

His head felt... cloudy. Light.

Actually, his entire body felt that way.

Immediately sitting upright and opening his eyes was not his best idea, however.

He could feel the tenderness of a freshly healed wound, the phantom pain that tended to linger after a wound was healed with magic.

The battle. The cursed Nor'enth. Alariel!

His last memory was of her leaning over him, hair falling from the braid to frame her concerned face. He had said something to her, but he wasn't- No. How many times had he told the same advice to recovering criminals? The most harmful lies are the ones you tell yourself.

Xenk could remember his blather, the weakness he had shown at being close to her again. Of course, he had just been stabbed in the back by an assassin, but that was no excuse. Had she noticed?

Looking around at the tent he was in, he was surprised to see the chair by his bedside was occupied by the object of his thoughts. At first, he had felt his heart jump at her open eyes, until her lack of movement or focus on him made her state of trance apparent. He hadn't traveled with many full-blooded elves since they had traveled together. Xenk had for a moment forgotten the trance of the elves, their ability to go for much longer without a full sleep as mortals did.

He had been lost in his memories, seeing her sitting there. Xenk had reached a hand towards hers, which lingered on the edge of the cot he had been placed on when there was a quiet *ahem*. Not quite sure why he felt embarrassed being caught in the situation, his hand jerked away from it's intended destination and he had trouble looking the bard in the eyes.

"If you were wondering why it's me and not say, Simon, its because we drew lots and I got the short stick."

"I would expect you to want to bask in my discomfort."

Edgin uncrossed his arms and moved to help Xenk by passing him his overcoat. "Yeah, but when Little Miss Sunshine over there stormed in earlier, she scared Holga."

"I find it doubtful that it was true fear."

"Yeah well," Edgin turned his back as Xenk finished getting his clothes together "Let's just say Holga thought her small-clothes were in a twist."

Xenk turned sharply, "Holga could see her undergarments?"

"No! No, she could just tell how upset she was. If you had been awake for the tongue-lashing you were given - and no she didn't actually hit you with her tongue - you wouldn't have been staring at her like that when I walked in." Edgin moved to his side, "What's up with that, by the way. You certainly weren't looking at her like you were the one to end the relationship."

Xenk turned back to the sleeping elleth. He could not hide the tenderness in his eyes, nor the deep sadness. Even if his oath forbade it, Xenk was a bad liar. "Weakness. She was always my weakness."

"Oh," Edgin paused with him "You didn't like feeling weak so you ditched her. At least I now know what makes Mr.Perfect-"

"That is not why I had to leave Alariel."

Edgin was egging him on, "Well if you say it like that-"

"You also know my surname is Yendar."

"Maybe you should explain it a bit more, to make sure no one gets the wrong idea." Edgin sat in another empty seat by a thankfully empty cot.

"I once gave you advice. To drag your lady... Your lady-love back to her old life is to deprive her of her new one. Alariel and I had started our journey together under the guise of traditional party members. There were others with us, but they came and went, our missions were so aligned that it made sense to stick together. Until it wasn't."

Xenk could feel the memories threatening to drown him. "But somewhere in-between that you two fell in love." Edgin looked confused.

"That's what I said."

Edgin was confused.

"So you loved her because she had the same goals as you?"

"No."

"Okay, maybe start at the beginning."

So Xenk began the tale of his engagement with Alariel.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

See where this is going? Now I get to write knight fluff. :)

[genericnam]

After spending way too long working on these on and off, I have finally finished some OC character drawings. These characters are pretty overpowered, but in my defense, they were actual parts of a DnD campaign I was in that reached level 20, so that's why they're so strong, lol. (Also, forgive my shit photo-taking skills, the only lighting I have is the lightbulb on my ceiling)

First up is Huskoshe! Huskoshe is a cunning, dealmaking devil, and a Warlock who follows the word of a god of Life and the Sea. Huskoshe spent the first of his many centuries alive traversing the ocean alone, where he met his god and became a Warlock, obtaining powerful magic.

Soon after, he was recruited to a pirate crew known as the Sea King's Ships as the barrelman (lookout), though he was much more popular among the crew for his near perfect track record on successful missions. Huskoshe spent many centuries aboard the Sea King's Ships, becoming one of the senior members of the crew.

When a dangerous religious cult began to spread across the lands, Huskoshe, his party members; Kin and Kalotoff (not my characters, so I haven't drawn them yet), along with the rest of the Sea King's Ships, led the war that eventually was the downfall of said cult.

As he went, Huskoshe obtained further and further power, amassing a personal army of devils he obtained through soul contracts and deals. Huskoshe's army was small in numbers, but its power was vast due to one special distinction: each person who joined his army did so willingly. There was no treachery or betrayal, as everyone from his strongest generals to the weakest Imps were loyal warriors who Huskoshe knew personally, and shared the glory of victory with.

At the end of his journey, Huskoshe made a proposition to the God of Death—Asmodeus—for a spot on his court. After recovering three ancient artifacts of Asmodeus', Huskoshe was allowed to battle Mephistopheles—the Archduke of the 8th layer of Hell—to the death in combat for the title of Archduke.

Huskoshe won, and now he rules the 8th layer, turning it into a land of water and ice, populated by the only Archduke in the history of Hell to be beloved by their minions (who didn't use mind control, at least).

Of course, he wouldn't have made it nearly as far if it weren't for his first ever minions.

Rhirale the Blade is a towering Pit Fiend who uses the power of ice to cut through his foes. His two weapons, Frozen Blood (right) and The Buckler of Ice (left) were forged from his own life force. Even upon death, he doesn't go down without a fight, exploding into thousands of sharp ice crystals harder than diamonds.

Rhirale was not always this powerful however. Once, he was a runt of an imp, who was born alongside his sister, Zankas. Rhirale's left wing is deformed, being smaller than the other, and it caused him much trouble. However, the imp possessed great ambition and a warrior's pride. Rhirale trained, becoming more powerful than any other Imp on his layer, and being promoted up in his ranks.

This went on for many years, until Rhirale had become an Ice Devil, and become satisfied with his physical power, choosing to pursue the power of wealth through working under a Dragon on the material plane.

He and his sister (we'll get to her) worked under the dragon Baryon, until the Sea King's Ships arrived. For you see, Baryon was a leading power within the cult they were battling against, and the pirates had come for his head.

Huskoshe saw the power and potential of the devils hired by Baryon to block their way, and offered them a deal. Each and every devil in the room could join his side and fight for glory and wealth beyond their wildest dreams, or they could choose to flee, and be spared. Some devils fled, but many of them joined Huskoshe, becoming his first minions.

When Rhirale made the deal with Huskoshe, something happened. Fate seemed to recognize the Pride that Rhirale possessed, and as he had begun serving under the future lord of Pride, it saw fit to give him his final promotion. Rhirale the Blade was reborn as one of the highest ranks of devil one can acheive, only below becoming a Duke of Hell: A Pit Feind.

Rhirale became one of Huskoshe's two generals, uzing his power and sheer will to command respect and charge his way to victory.

I did mention Rhirale's sister, no? Well, this is Zankas Septum, the second general of Huskoshe's army, and Rhirale's sister.

Like her brother, Zankas was born a runty Imp. She too, had a wing that was too small, being her right. Zankas held as much pride as her brother, battling with speed rather than brute power.

Zankas weilds the powers of Poison, and possesses a weapon known as the Revolving Longsaber, a flaming golden blade that can polymorph into a snake-scale revolving gun.

Zankas worked her way up the ranks of the devil heirarchy as well, ending her training as a Succubus before she began work under Baryon.

When Zankas made her deal with Huskoshe, she was gifted power equal to Rhirale, becoming an Erinyes, titled Zankas Septum.

Zankas' speed is unmatched, capable of using her claws and sword at speeds faster than any mortal can react, and anyone who is able to dodge her attacks can be defeated with manipulation, as her ability to manipulate and mind control her enemies exceeds what any Succubus or Incubus would ever be capable of.

Zankas Septum and Rhirale the Blade are Huskoshe's closest allies, managing his army while he deals with fiendish politics. The three of them have plans of expanding their reach in the future, but for now they are content to be the unmatched army of the 8th layer of Hell.

[eggman91]

random dnd worldbuliding stuff I quess of the world of edo

ok so I play dnd with my friends for years now and over that time we bulid up our world with random stuff also some wargames play a part and existing stuff but yeah here 5 random things that I got written down in my world book warning I may ramble

5 cult of hastut (made by my brother he play couple of clerics and paladins of this faith)

while the follower of hastut covered in scars and blood rushing into battle like gore mad berserkers, they are the quite opposite of what you think they would be.

They are followers of god of justice, the god of fairness of sacrifice. No one know where the worship began but the legend said it hastut was a mortal man his village had committed some great crime and so the gods punish them But he hastut step up to take all the punishment for his people all all know torture and pain hastut was still standing all his skin gone his eyes burned suffer pain greatly then any other and so he ascended to the pantheon or not .became his own god

his followers ranges form the scars of the free who fight the southern slavers city states of gash freeing the slaves there to the order of broken hand giving shelter and food to the poor in the herzland “a odd sort ain’t a mad and flaying their own skin i don’t how they still live by they they kill slavers so cool by me “ gallo a member of the one anti-slavers groups in gash hilllands

4 cor’Quessir ath swi “‘’king of swing” (made by me as a dm and warlock

A Fae being of sorts a one focus on music partying and having a good time his worship and followers bought many strange things to edo such as jazz swing and other stuff other fashion trend like top hats

(but that a myth the first top hats was made by the Halfling of erdia and it was common for those wearing top hats to be attack by religious fanatics or anti-fae people but that practice stop after marley one of the major naval power government officials and lords start to wear them so that became uncivilized thing)

not hav seen this king of swing himself in ages but his court is still playing the Savoy in his realm the band still popping there was one time a bunch of city goblins who was influenced by the fae king they along with the local ratmen form a family of sorts a criminal family in the city of sunhaven which spread to other cities

3 Olaf murinson (this mostly happen in games of one page rules and this happen the most recently and don’t underestimate dwarf miners they got bombs)

in the fourth age like that of the elves the dwarves was falling many holds and fortress was lost to greenskins the underdark or the underearth was losing to drow and other creatures of the dark and infighting and clan wars was numerous and mirrormere stars was fading the oldest mountain hold the twin peaks was still ruled by a dragon

(fun fact, one of the games actually involve that dragon muratasxa and my player actually help her)

it was not looking good for the dwarves of all kin but in the hold of kelgathgard a thane rose after a battle with the men of the herzland and this thane Olaf murinson of clan blackshovel rose though many things the battle of kegath hold (Pepsi hold) the battle of the ruined house (there was a magic gem of the old elven Phoenix empire and he was able to get it) he united the northern leagues and clans into a new high kingdom which spead to the new holds like the south an across the sea ( fun fact dwarves try to build a navy to fight the eleven one in the secondth age the great stone fleet was quickly erased form the history stones)

reforging the old dwarven kingdom even with the slag or petty dwarves form the Kodar mountains trying heal the rift he basically dwarven, Charlemagne and Aurelian and ( my players did join in those efforts when we played an All dwarf party as a one off but that was happening on a different continent then we normally played) but before Olaf could reclaim the twin peaks he was slayed in battle by undead but his kingdom did not collapse a council of leagues thane and petty kings try to hold it together who knows but the kodar dwarves already left who knows if the kingdom of rock and stone fall again or will it hold?

2 elves yay😕 most like elven falls

Ok so elves start as the first race made by the earthmother or light goddess or elune or whatever they was the first to fight teh shadows of old myth and drove them back to there plane of darkness and these elves was the most of unearthly tall and black eyes but after a time there children became tire to the world and embraced more civilizations naming nature elune or whatever which confused there older kin (like why pray to this earthmother there. Perfectly good tree over there and etc)

these elves would raise as the high elves or ella’quor and rivaling with the dwarves and the left over giants and dragons (which they got there magic form the dragons)but then boom first demon invasion that never destroy them but boom Elrond came and destroyed them destroying the portal gate, whatever that was bringing them into the world( those demons who was left later interbreed and became Teifling and etc)forming his Phoenix empire that would last 300 years

then like the eldar decadence, hedonism, self-righteous end that was the Phoenix empire at it end wizard kings rule and princes fought each other over petty things cults of dark gods like lolth or kahine rose and well then the human migrations happen coming from the north with there serpent ships so like rome they panic there armies was overglorify spearelves and well they turn to magic to stop them…oh shit they got magic too like runes and thennic magic

(thenns was a large cultural group of the humans migrations, mostly settling in the western continent many was with the East there magic a mix of tomb necromancy and runes and minor magics and since there was more shamans then there was wizard kings and minor elven sorcerers well quantity over quality )so they turn to blood Mages and there flesh crafted starting off from the basic gremlin and ogre throw in some capture humans the greenskins was born orcs and goblins of many different breeds along with anthros(breath in wulfen tirgans marleians foxvisn and etc etc )and minor stuff like centaurs they sent them to go fight the human well just like rome that backfired hopefully the oven empire fell apart many fled but many more was slaughtered The Elven groups that survived were divided into two groups, light and dark, which was extremely bias light made up of remained high elves wood elves and snow elves dark made of drow and many many different dark elves groups (also sea elves but those freaks are just jumped up, ancient pirates)

1 infernal and the abyss

What is hell? Where the souls of the Damned are sent? Infernal id just normal dnd hell princess and all etc throw in some seven deadly sins and chaos gods but

The deeper you go, you arrive to the abyss with no demon of a infernal dared to go for they are just the imps compared to what down there true hell laid there abandon all hope who enters there.

any questions?

[starlitangels]

So, like, two years ago, some friends and I were playing a level 20 one shot for DnD

I was playing Skye, a storm sorcerer. Whose passive perception was like an 18. Pretty good, but nowhere near the best in our party (I think our monk had like a 24)

We had just finished an intense battle with a dracolisk (part dragon, part basilisk. Terrifying. Skye nearly dropped) and our whole party was tense

And one of our party members (Ranger/monk multiclass) decided to stealth around the area and check for tracks for someone who escaped us

Well on his way back to the party, he rolled Super High for stealth. Like a 23. And our full monk (who was standing with Skye) had a passive perception of like 24 and noticed the ranger/monk

Skye didn’t with her 18

And Ranger/monk popped up directly behind Skye and said “No tracks” (or something similar)

And Skye screams in surprise, whirls around, grabs him, and casts Shocking Grasp

And beats his AC by a decent chunk (his AC was like a 20 and I rolled like a 24)

And Shocking Grasp is a cantrip, but we’re at level 20. So instead of 1d8, I rolled 4d8

And dealt 18 points of lightning damage to my own teammate because he scared Skye since she didn’t notice his approach

Everyone at the table cackled

[myspacepoet]

Go OFF I wanna hear about this au 👀👀👀

HI ANON. um this is gonna be a long one.

so basically its a dnd inspired fantasy au, with the party as their dnd characters, classes pulled from this post , definitely didn't have to scrounge through my save blog for that, by @/elekinetic, if they didn't already have them. because it's real and true.

basest plot outline i can possibly give you is as follows; as young children all of the members of the party were Marked somehow for Evil and Villainous purposes, or perhaps Good and Benevolent purposes, but it stands that they marked. (by whom? well. tch. heh.) this mark comes with this innate.. pull? i guess? to the other members, but not strong enough to be noticeable, more of a seeing the others and thinking "oh! there you are! i've been looking for you!" despite never meeting before. the group starts as mike and will finding each other, before it all kinda spirals and they form a little adventuring party, led to their next destination by their faithful cleric, who alongside the original pull, feels another drawing them all to wherever the universe decides they Need To Be.

that's like. the concept i guess? i really don't want this to run too long so i'm putting more ideas and villainy and art and such under the cut :-D be warned i hate most punctuation and i love to ramble.

OK SO. first of all edward and henry are twins so jot that down. something Terrible and Unspeakable happens to the rest of their family when they're like 12ish and they run for the hills, eventually stumbling upon the mansion dwelling of a reclusive and moderately to severely insane mad... scientist? not entirely sure what brenners fantasy world equivalent profession would be. anyway yeah its brenner the twins are tricked duped swindled and had until theyre locked in his basement and become his newest experiments.

brenner is basically training them to be his guard dogs/weapons of mass destruction and is doing. canon typical things to them. until henry's like hey maybe you're right the world kinda does suck but id be sad if it all burned to the ground :-( i don't see how that's helping. (this is possibly spurred on by a spot of creelarke and scott chilling in gardens and teaching him that not all science is bad and mean and also that brenner is kinda full of shit) and for this grave crime he is locked in the attic.

vague handwavy magic plot bullshit (motives? where were going we dont need motives) blah blah edward has Marked/Cursed the party members woah oh noo!!!

this is mostly a vehicle to think really hard about fantasy byler and lumax and pre-UD-esque henry interacting with the party through their dreams to aid their Great Quest so try not to breath on it too hard. it may or may not fall apart.

OK ART YIPPEE YAHOO LETS GO

side note i know jack shit about dnd races and quite frankly do not care. i said dnd inspired not dnd were going TYPICAL FANTASY RACES ONLY I'M TALKIN ELVES HUMANS DWARVES AND SHIT ELSE.

they all have a more casual outfit for downtime and one for traveling and/or battling etc etc. you get the gist. dustin and lucas aren't done yet and you'd have to take drastic measures to get me to do anything other than type rn.

also have some doodles bc i like you :-) ft. a henry and miwi's first meeting.

i have way more thoughts (particularly regarding max and mikes backstories and mikes oath and 8 thousand other things). but i don't wanna be annoying.

final thing is that for extra credit you are welcome to listen to the moon will sing by the crane wives and think about this au's henry okay byyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (slowly fading away)

[wolfthekid]

A few friends and I started doing a multi-player campaign of Baldurs Gate much sooner than expected. I'm the only one who finished the game thus far. One player explored everything before the underdark, while the other two are either very early on or haven't played at all. Yet we really wanted to give it a shot, even if we have to stop at a certain point to prevent too many spoilers.

I decided to go for my DnD Character I'm playing in a friend's campaign, a dual wielding human battle master fighter. I may respec down the line to a Paladin, but if I do it won't be anytime soon. The other members are a high elf Storm Sorcerer, human Paladin/College of Swords Bard, and a half elf drow Divination Wizard.

However. Plans changed once we started, as we took down the demon who was fighting the mind flayer on the ship. This gave me the everburning blade, which is making me consider switching my build. At least right now. I can always respec later, like I said before.

Multi-player was a ton of fun, and the party has some wacky synergy. Since my sword is on fire, if there is oil or grease under an enemy I can hit them to make it explode.

I was also able to blitz the owl bear at level 3 and almost take it down in one turn with a fienting attack, action surge hit, and an opportunity attack.

The goofiest thing, however, was what happened on the Risen Road. The wizard of the party and I have both been to that area in our own games and knew of a certain paladin there. One who is very very strong. So I decided to pull no punches and attempted to disarm them with a maneuver, then I action surged. While I missed the action surge, I critically hit him with my first attack. He was low enough where I knew my party could finish him. But the wizard willing decided to attack others, even though we all know he could easily one shot me with my measly 28 health (which he did). It was very funny because I was pleading for him to help and he remained silent. While the other two players knew he would slaughter me, they didn't know exactly what he could do.

I was so bamboozled that he just let that happen, but in hindsight I shouldn't be surprised. He wanted to show them how wild that paladin is. But still it was a super goofy situation.

I might stick with a great weapon build since I haven't done a great weapon fighter. But we'll see!

[hiscleric]

Blythe I have many questions istg because I love this fic, it’s one of my favourites and we’re only two chapters in 😭

1. Is El a Mage?

2. Do the rest of the party members (I mean Mike, Lucas, Dustin and Max) have the attributes of their DnD positions; for example, Lucas is a ranger which I believe has a skill for archery, and the house Sinclair are full of great archers!

3. Now this is one I don’t see often, but is there gonna be Will and Holly meetings because whenever I read a fic where Will looks after Holly with Mike or something, it’s always so funny and sweet!

4. What are the actual ages of the characters? I might have missed it but I don’t remember Mike having an age before he said “ten years later” when he went back within his memories

5. How do you PLAN your stories? Because they are all so good and I just wonder how it works behind the screens!

6. Will we see Max in the next few chapters?

7. Is being a scholar something Mike still wants to accomplish? Will that be apart of his internal conflict?

8. THIS IS THE LAST ONE (I think, I’m sorry I’m just so invested 😭) with the visions you describe in the story, how are they, like, done? Is it like, glazed eyes or is it a little seizure (hope that isn’t an offensive term to call it 😅) and do they only come across certain people such as Clerics, kings, heirs etc?

i had to pull out my laptop to answer this one, and believe me, i am SO excited to do so.

1.el is a mage!! getting a bit deep into lore bits here, el wound up on hopper's doorstep when she was around five, and was already showing signs of magic posession (in this world, magic is an inherited trait; some are born with it, some aren't, some families have higher potential of magic passing on while others almost never see it). hopper, interestingly enough, comes from a noble family sworn to house henderson. his family has a strong history of becoming learned healers and dabbling in that sort of magic, and growing up in this environment allowed him to pass on his knowledge to el, and, as we will see in will chapters to come, will as well. so yeah, the wonder twins have cool powers!!

2. yeah, they do! while lucas is a knight and can swing a sword pretty well, he always carries around a bow with him, too. the sinclairs are a house known for their wisdom in battle strategy and they often end up training the best soldiers in the kingdom, so lucas is a great example of these house sinclair traits. he can handle pretty much anything that comes his way with a clear head, unlike dustin, as we will see in chapter two when they encounter the cursecaster. dustin definitely has bard like traits; he would be the one to tell stories and sing songs on a long expedition like the one they are on now. max, on the other hand, may have some traits of her dnd character (i don't even know if zoomer is a real class but whatever). max is the commander of the king's guard, basically the big boss of all of the knights of hawks nest, and she is known as 'the sun's knight.' i guess she is pretty fast on horseback, so... i suppose she can be considered similar to her dnd counterpart!

3. will and holly will certainly have a meeting when he is still disguised. mike eventually grows smitten with the cleric, and introduces him formally to his family, so there will be a will and holly meeting at one point!

4. in the current timeline, the characters are all 20. when mike was in his flashback sequence, they were was 10; will has been missing for 10 years. nancy is 13 in the flashbacks, and 23 now, same with jonathan. mike became a knight when he was 15, and has been a knight for 5 years when the story picks up!

5. when it comes to planning, i'm not the best actually?? i kind of just think up the ideas in my head and ... remember them. like, this is my first time truly writing any of this down, because honestly it mostly just exists in my brain lol. that's all there is to it.

6. yes!! max makes an appearance at the very end of the upcoming chapter 2 when our cast finally returns to king's crest. she has a very important and vital role in the story.

7. YES!!! mike's dream since he was little was to be a scholar, and we saw that get tragically ripped away from him in chapter one, and in chapter two, we see an event happen that truly seals the deal. he had no desire to be a lord, and he certainly had no desire to be a knight; however, being from house wheeler, when he has become loyal to someone, it is difficult for him to turn away from those oaths/vows, a main issue for his character coming up in the future chapters.

8. visions are a tricky thing to describe when you are outside of the pov of the character experiencing them. in the prologue, with wilmot the wise, we see him get visited by ienta herself to provide him with the prophecy we see later on. i'd imagine that to the outside viewer, wilmot would simply be staring off into space with glazed eyes, and any sort of interruption or shaking would not be enough to wake him. will experiences visions the same way.

this was SOOOOO much fun. as you know, i love answering questions, so this really made my day. sorry if i wrote to much lol. thank you for taking the time to do this. :3

[ask-the-royal-absol]

Mornin'! Hope the day's a good one! Related to D&D, do you have a favorite session that's happened, and if so, what was it like if you wanna share?

(I've played dnd for a while off and on. I wouldn't say I have a favourite session. More like favourite moments. I'll share a few.

My campaign (modern setting) part 1:

The characters are Joseph the human, Bill the changling, Terrwyn the Tiefling, Leto the Dhampir and Ribbert the Grung Caste (frog race). In order to gather information from the company they were investigating, Bill decided to pretend to be an NPC the characters knew was being taken away and get taken away himself. Bill has kinda been a jokey character so far so it was an interesting moment. They didn't know if he was going to survive because the company is known to dispose of those who it deems useless. Through the power of Bill, he was able to escape with some information. It was the moment when he escaped and made it back to everyone that made it for me. Terrwyn approached him and hugged him and said he was an idiot for leaving. Terrwyn had never really expressed her care for the group before so it was a touching moment.

Leto, Ribbert and Terrwyn were chasing down a character and got him near a river. He wasn't telling the information they needed (he was 16 and being manipulated by the evil company) so Leto decided to pick him up and hold him above the river to threaten him. When the character did not want to speak, Leto dropped him in. Ribbert, with his time magic, reversed to the moment before Leto picked him up and stopped him before it happened. Ribbert is the only one that knows how far Leto is willing to go.

Joseph's girlfriend had been missing for years and, whilst walking through the city, he spots her but sees she turned invisible. Confused, he goes up to Bill in a spare moment and ask, "Bill, can you turn invisible." In which Bill responds with a, "No, can you?" And Joseph responds with a, "No." Joseph then proceeds to ask all of the characters and the conversation goes the exact same way each time. It's now an in joke we reference time to time.

Different campaign:

The characters are Prophentus the Human warlock, Urn the warforged death cleric, Paitr the halfing rogue, Ithildae the Aaracokra ranger and my character Synth the lizardfolk bard. It was the final battle in this dungeon and we were facing this giant snake creature who was ridiculously strong. Some of our party had been knocked out and it was my turn. I had a while thinking about what to do. I had Synth heal one of the party members. Next turn, she insults the creature and it's so effective that it comes out of the water and synth uses this opportunity to grab the creature and fling it out of the water, meaning we were able to kill it. It was fun.

My first campaign I ran:

Every moment with Saladin the Paladin. My friend's character. A centaur paladin who did things in the name of justice. The voice and everything was just so much fun.

I have so many more I could describe but I feel this is enough for now. Thank you for the ask!)

[yzafre]

while having a breakdown while trying to sleep last night over a point I forgot for my fic, I came around to a very interesting question:

What is up with Aqua's Keyblade situation?

Right, okay, that probably requires some explanation to makes sense. We'll wrap back around to her later, there's some points we need to establish first:

One, dual wielding. Roxas' dual wielding, as the notable instance, is due to a dual-heart/ connection situation(excepting kh3? Maybe?? Idk what's going on at that point), whichever heart you particularly want to think it is(I take word of God as like... A helpful recommendation, to be ignored at my will. If it's not in the game it's not canon to me, sorry).

Even Sora's drive forms are tied to absorbing his party members, though. The other method is someone just... handing off their keyblade to you, like in the kh2 Xemnas boss battle.

Two, what I might call... abandoned Keyblades? Like in the graveyard and with Master's Defender. Seems to be a thing that happens upon death? But maybe not always? Confusing.

Anyways, specifically when Sora picks it up in kh3, it seems to work as just another form for his Keyblade, like using a keychain. His one Keyblade changes into it then back when showing Riku in the realm of darkness.

SO

All that being said. Aqua at the end of birth by sleep.

She passes Rainfell/Stormfall/her keyblade off to Terra before yeeting him out of the darkness for... unknown reasons? Was it needed to keep the armor in-tact, or something? In any case, it goes to the realm of light to become part of the pile of metal Xemnas creeps on.

Then, in the realm of darkness scene after, she is seen using Master's Defender. (I think she also uses this in 0.2, but it's been a while since I've looked at that game)

My question is ...how?

By established rules, summoning your Keyblade should get rid of previously existing instances - like that one dnd spell/ability, whatever it was. You can't just summon all the different versions of the keyblade you've acquired at once. You've got one keyblade, and you chose which keychain to use on it.

But Rainfell is still up there, for the aforementioned Xemnas creeping, while Aqua is actively using Master's Defender.

So. That leaves us with one of two conclusions:

Summoning Master's Defender and summoning her usual keyblade are two separate things, and she could have dual-wielded them if she wanted to. This conclusion would maybe hold water, given picking up a dead person's keyblade is obviously very different, except we've already established that Sora cycles to that form just like he can change out any of his other Keyblade's. It doesn't actually work differently. Add on that dual-wielding is tied to some sort of doubled-heart connection, and it becomes even more unlikely. You could perhaps argue that she's connecting to Eraqus's ghost, but... eh. With all the holes you can poke in this option, that leaves a completely different, very interesting theory:

It is possible to sever off your connection to a specific keyblade, letting it exist outside your influence and preventing you from summoning it. Whether this is a simple fact of Aqua being in the realm of darkness and the key being in the realm of light, or a more conscious decision, I don't know, but it's interesting to think about.

[violetren]

I'm slowly making Oracle Barbra Gordon as a DnD character.

It's more thematic than mechanical in nature so what it basically amounts to is me shoving in as many hidden references and traits I can pump in before anyone gets suspicious.

So far I have used translations or gender variants of DC character names Barbra is Varya, Jim is Yakov, Dick is Rickard, Lucius is Lucilla etc. Not perfect but just enough to have a connection. My character is a redheaded woman in a wheel chair, a wizard who uses a nightstick/eskrima for a focus (and to whack anyone who tries to push her wheelchair without being asked). She's gonna have all the fun "know shit" spells and "communicate stuff" spells and also if I can swing the martial adept feat without fucking up my ASI gain so she can have a couple of maneuvers to help analyse the battlefield and "order" her party members about a bit then I 100% will.

Divination wizard would be the obvious sorta choice but as I said this more story/themes/personality than mechanics and so I decided to take her backstory of having been a librarian by day secret crime fighter by night and think about the whole she has battle experience, or at least a lot of theoretical knowledge of battle tactics and approaches before she was given reason to give more than a cursory glance at arcane ways of doing things and made her the battle mage subclass instead.

I don't think the DM will notice but a couple of my fellow players might. Two of them have read (at the very least) Wayne Family Adventures and another one just gets random DC and Batfam vids in his YouTube autoplay because I was left to my own devices while at his house with control of the tv remote and the other has played the full Arkham series of games and has gone down side research rabbit holes because ADHD. So in theory most of the table has enough knowledge that they could realise, but whether they will or not is a whole different thing.