#so probably it's the flavor of bad stuff where it's actually fun to inflict it on your blorbos?

[chabbit]

it looks like shit’s really going down in the owl house fandom, huh?

[the-scandalorian]

Tempered Glass: Chapter 5

Pairing: Din Djarin x Female Reader Rating: M (will become explicit) Word Count: 6.4k Warnings: canon rewrite, slow burn, canon-typical violence, sexual harassment/unwanted sexual advances, cursing, sexy thoughts, pining Summary: When you’re caught in a firefight with a bounty hunter and the Crest is damaged, you and Mando stop on Tatooine to find a job. A shadow of your past catches up with you. Notes: Sorry not sorry for making Toro even worse than he already is. Taglist: @bbdoyouloveme @beskarhearts @dincrypt @dunderr @honey-hi​ @just-me-and-my-obsessions00 @mbpokemonrulez @red-leaders @speakerforthedead0 @theflightytemptressadventure @zoemariefit

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Image from The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian

After leaving Sorgan, you and Mando chose a second “backwater skughole” several systems away as your next destination. Mando set the nav, and the automated voice of the computer informed you that the trip would take almost five days. The thought of spending five days confined to the Crest was not appealing, but you knew it was important to keep your stops as remote as possible.

Time was a functionally meaningless concept in space anyways, hours and days bleeding together. Without the usual environmental cues to govern your circadian rhythm, you had to rely on a schedule to maintain some semblance of normalcy, keeping alarms on your chrono to remind you when to sleep. Mando, on the other hand, seemed so completely accustomed to this slippery sense of time that he needed no reminders; this was natural for him.

If you hadn’t already seen some of his skin, you might actually think he was a droid. Aside from his hard metal exterior, the most compelling piece of evidence to support this theory was the fact that he didn’t seem to need much sleep. He disappeared into his bunk for maybe four or five hours a day, plus twenty minutes here or there to eat. You suspected he settled into a half-asleep, half-awake hibernation mode when he sat in the pilot’s seat for hours at a time without moving. Once, he jolted so violently when the child sneezed that he had to catch him by his collar before he slid off his knee.

His relationship with the kid, though, was achingly, heartwarmingly, vulnerably human.

You lived for the glimpses of their bond—the way Mando would remove a single pauldron so he could rest the child’s head on his shoulder to lull him to sleep, whispering to him as he swayed gently. When the kid was restless and energetic from being cooped up, Mando would roll the little silver sphere from a control in the cockpit along the floor of the hull for him to chase. For a generally impatient man, his patience for the child seemed almost inexhaustible; he would hold him and pat his back endlessly while he wailed his way through particularly bad tantrums.

You collected these precious moments and held them close to your heart, unwittingly creating a catalog of comfort that you’d return to later. They weren’t necessarily your moments to claim, as a visitor in their world, but you treasured them nonetheless.

***

You were out of colored contacts. You could only wear each pair continuously for a month, and your current pair was due to be switched out any day. The morning you threw them away, Mando stopped you as you passed him in the hull with a light hand on your shoulder. The kid was tucked in his other arm.

He stepped in front of you, just inches away from your chest, tilting his helmet down to look at you. You looked up to meet his gaze, puzzled. He cocked his head, a silent question.

Not for the first time, you wondered about the color of his eyes.

You held your breath, unsure of what he was going to do.

He said nothing but brought his gloved hand up to your face, running this thumb along the crest of your cheek—so lightly, the leather was barely touching you. The tender gesture brought goose bumps to your arms, and your heart stuttered in your chest.

The kid reached up a tiny hand toward your other cheek, mirroring Mando’s movement. He babbled quietly, breaking the tense silence. You flicked your eyes down to watch him but remained still, not wanting to disrupt the spell of the moment. The baby wiggled his fingers and whined when he realized he couldn’t reach you. You smiled.

You looked back up into Mando’s visor. You wanted so badly to reach out and touch him back, to pull him closer, but you let fear keep you rooted to the spot.

To your astonishment, he dipped his helmet, as if he was going to lean his forehead against yours. He was inches from your face—you could see your surprise reflected in his visor and hear his steady breathing through the modulator. But Mando seemed to change his mind mid-gesture, and the moment was over before you knew it. He straightened, dropped his hand, nodded stiffly, and stepped past you. The child let out a frustrated cry in protest.

Without the kid’s lingering whines, you might have thought you imagined the whole thing.

Little by little, you were revealing your real self to the Mandalorian, placing your safety in his hands. This would have been harder to stomach if you weren’t getting pieces of him in return. Spending this much time in such close quarters with someone—even someone as closed off as Mando—was enough to get to know them fairly well.

For instance, you weren’t quite fluent, but you were getting really good at reading his body language. He relied on his armor to mask his intentions with strangers, and he wasn’t accustomed to people spending extended amounts of time with him—time to learn his patterns and tells. Over time, it became apparent just how many minute things there were to unpack: subtle tensions in his back and shoulders, clenching of his fists, tapping of his fingers, the lean in his hips, audible inhales or exhales, the tilt of his helmet. Plus, there were nuanced flavors of each movement: a sassy head tilt, an angry head tilt, a confused head tilt. Soon enough, you’d be able to create a dictionary of the Mandalorian’s body language. 

It was strange to think that you’d only been with him for a few weeks, and you might be the only person in the galaxy who could read him so well.

Something else you’d come to learn about Mando was that he was very particular about where his things were kept. This made sense—he’d clearly been living alone for years, if not decades. Of course someone with such a nomadic, unsettled lifestyle would want to carefully control what little in his environment that he could, but his compulsive organization was next level.

You came to this conclusion after you scooted his toothbrush and toothpaste over just slightly in the med cabinet to make a space for yours. The next morning, you opened the cabinet to find his things exactly where they had been before you’d moved them. You looked down to see that yours were sitting precariously on the edge of the sink, waiting to fall to the floor at the first sign of turbulence. Seriously?

That inspired you to devise a fun game—well, it was fun for you. You were pretty sure Mando hated it, though to his credit, he didn’t say anything about it for several days. Every day, you’d move one of his items just slightly to see if he’d notice and move it back. So far, he’d caught every tiny adjustment. He even reoriented his bar of soap when you moved it so it sat slightly off-kilter in its dish in the shower. He hadn’t even showered yet that day.

After three days, he finally cracked.

He was digging through a storage compartment, huffing dramatically though his modulator as he searched for something.

“I can’t imagine you’ve lost something,” you said, from where you were sitting on a crate sharing a ration pack with the kid, who was perched on your lap. “Not with how terrifyingly organized you are.”

“Yeah, well, that was only true before you started moving my stuff around.” 

You grinned. “I was wondering when you were going to say something.”

“I was wondering when you were going to stop,” he huffed, but you detected the lightest trace of amusement in his tone.

“I haven’t actually moved anything,” you laughed. “Just... adjusted.”

He harrumphed, still digging around in the box.

The kid chittered and reached toward your hand for more food. You gave him another piece.

“If you let me leave my toothbrush and toothpaste in the med cabinet, I’ll stop.”

He looked up. “That’s it?”

“I’m a reasonable woman.”

“Deal.”

When you went to brush your teeth that night, one of the three shelves in the med cabinet had been completely cleared for you.

As you slowly began to insinuate yourself into Mando and the kid’s life, the guilt of not telling him about the bounty on your head started to weigh heavier on your mind. He deserved to know, but you couldn’t imagine him letting you stay if he found out. Why would he assume any extra risk? I’ll tell him soon. We probably won’t be together much longer anyways.

***

“I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold.”

The unfamiliar voice of the bounty hunter echoed over the com in the cockpit. A ship was hot on your tail, landing several shots that rattled the Crest violently. The child, who was strapped into the seat beside you, seemed to enjoy the excitement of the chase, arms raised and giggling. Mando maneuvered the Crest quickly and deftly, so the pursuer was suddenly directly in front of the viewport.

“That’s my line,” he said dramatically, as he pulled the trigger and obliterated the ship in his sights.

Despite the fact that your heart was pounding in your chest, you couldn’t help but let out an exasperated laugh at that. 

The chase had been short-lived, but the hunter had managed to inflict some serious damage. Alarms beeped and warning lights flashed along the console.

“Losing fuel,” said Mando. He was working hastily, his hands flying from one control to the next. He was trying to address several warning alarms at once.

“You work on that. I got this,” you said, unbuckling.

You stood next to him, attending to the controls in front of you.

“What are—Don’t do that,” he said, “Stop. I need to—”

He didn’t finish his sentence when he realized you were doing exactly what needed to be done to stabilize the ship.

“I thought you said you worked in programming.”

“I did. Mostly avionics.”

The second thruster sputtered and died. The cockpit went dark. All of the usual mechanical sounds that the ship made whirred to a halt. Mando turned in surprise, looking around. He clicked a few buttons. Nothing happened.

The child giggled from his seat.

“I’ll get it.” You walked to the back of the cockpit and wrenched open a panel to do a manual reset of the controls. Some of the lights came back on. Mando flicked several switches, and the displays came alive.

Together, you got the ship in good enough shape to limp to a nearby planet. Luckily, you were already close to Tatooine. The Razor Crest rattled alarmingly as it cleared the atmosphere, and Mando landed the ship with an unceremonious clunk in a bay in Mos Eisley.

Mando left the now sleeping baby in his bunk, despite your objections. That never works. He walked down the ramp to haggle with the mechanic.

Peli was a gruff woman, sassy and straightforward. You liked her right away. Mando deserved the sass Peli dished out, considering he had begun their interaction by shooting at her pit droids when they tried to approach the Crest.

He really hates droids.

You and Mando headed to the cantina to inquire about work. As soon as the ship went dead, you’d both known you’d need to pull a job to pay to fix the damage because there was no way the Crest was making it to your destination in its current state.

You trailed a few steps behind him, watching the intimidating way he stalked down the sandy street, his cape billowing behind him. He seemed less scary now that you knew he secretly had a sense of humor and an occasional flair for the dramatic. And that he once let you sleep on his shoulder. And tied your shoe for you.

When you entered the cantina, you shivered from the abrupt change in temperature. Outside the twin suns beat down; inside the dark cantina, it was cool.

Mando strode up to the bar. You followed him, taking in your surroundings.

“Hey, droid. I’m a hunter. I’m looking for some work.”

“Unfortunately, the Bounty Guild no longer operates from Tatooine,” replied the droid in a stilted voice.

“It doesn’t have to be Guild work,” you clarified.

“I am afraid that does not improve your situation, at least by my calculation,” said the droid, continuing to wipe down the surface of the bar with a rag.

“Think again, tin can,” interrupted a smug voice behind you. You and Mando turned.

A young man, his legs propped brazenly on the table in front of him, continued, “If you’re looking for work, have a seat, my friends.” He gestured to the seats across from him.

“Name’s Toro, Toro Calican. Come on, relax.” He beckoned for you to join him again.

You and Mando exchanged a look and walked over to where he was seated.

Toro swung his legs off the table and slapped a bounty puck down in front of him as you slid into the booth and Mando followed.

“Picked up this bounty punk before I left the Mid Rim,” Toro explained. The hazy image of a woman with dark hair hovered over the puck. “Fennec Shand, an Assassin. Heard she’s been on the run ever since the New Republic put all her employers in lockdown.”

Toro had thick brown hair and dark eyes, a boyish face despite the scruff of five-o’clock shadow on his jaw. He couldn’t be older than 25.

“I’ve heard the name,” said Mando.

You nodded beside him. Fennec Shand was a legend. Having been chased by enough hunters, you were familiar with the big players.

“Yeah, well, I followed this tracking fob here. Now the positional data suggests she’s headed out beyond the Dune Sea. Should be an easy job.” He shrugged.

This kid clearly has no idea what he’s doing.

“Well, good luck with that,” said Mando, standing up. You stayed where you were, relaxed against the back of the booth.

“Wait, wait, wait, hey. I thought you needed work?” Toro looked from Mando to you, confused.

“How long you been with the Guild?” asked Mando.

“Long enough,” Toro spat unconvincingly.

“Clearly not. Fennec Shand is an elite mercenary. She made her name killing for all the top crime syndicates, including the Hutts. If you go after her, you won’t make it past sunrise.”

Mando looked at you and jerked his head to signal that it was time to go. He started to walk away. You stayed seated, saying nothing.

Toro looked at you, pleading. You nodded toward Mando: “You’ll have to convince him.”

Toro scrambled after him. Mando turned to face him, and Toro had to look up to meet his visor.

“This is my first job,” he admitted in a strained voice. “You guys can keep the money, all of it. I just need this job to get into the Guild. I can’t do it alone.”

Mando looked to you. You smiled knowingly, and he let out a sigh and nodded.

The man cannot say no to someone who needs help.

Toro was visibly relieved.

“Meet us at hangar three-five in half an hour. Bring three speeder bikes and give me the tracking fob,” instructed Mando, holding out a hand.

Toro’s shoulders pulled together. Someone doesn’t want to let go of the fob.

Without any warning, he smashed the fob on the wall. It sparked.

Mando gave Toro his angry head tilt.

“Don’t worry, got it all memorized,” assured Toro, tapping a finger on his temple.

“Half an hour,” growled Mando.

“Looks like you’re stuck with me now, guys,” Toro said triumphantly, turning to look at you.

Mando pushed past Toro and walked back to the booth, leaning down toward you. “I am not that predictable,” he muttered in a low, irritated voice.

“You really are,” you smiled up at him. “I’ll meet you at the hangar in 20. I want real food.”

He nodded and left.

Toro looked very pleased with himself, grinning at you.

“You better go track down those bikes,” you reminded him, gesturing for a droid to come take your order.

Toro ignored your advice. Instead, he looked you up and down in a way that made your skin crawl and slid back into the booth across from you.

“You know what? I have an even better idea. Me and you can take Fennec ourselves. You look like a girl who can handle herself. Let’s ditch that rusty bucket right now and do this together. Fewer people to split the reward.” His eyes sparkled.

Is he fucking serious?

You already weren’t a huge fan of Toro and his cocky attitude, but the minute he called you “girl” like that, your regard for him plummeted. What little patience you had for this kid was wearing thin.

“Not interested.”

The droid came over, and you placed your order.

Toro, still looking at you expectantly, scooted around the table to sit next to you, and you moved in the opposite direction to maintain the distance between you.

“Mando is old, you know? I don’t know if you can tell, but I can. That’s an old man under that shiny armor. You look like you need someone younger to keep up with you.” He winked conspiratorially, as if the two of you were sharing a mutual joke.

You watched him through narrowed eyes, a sour feeling settling in your stomach.

He was clearly terrible at reading people because he responded to your disgusted look by reaching over to run a heavy hand along the inside of your thigh. He barely made it an inch past your knee when you ripped his hand off your leg, tightening your fingers around his wrist until your nails dug into his skin.

“Touch me again and lose a hand,” you spat at him, releasing him and pushing up from the table. You wrapped your fingers around the hilt of the blade at your hip.

“Whoa, whoa! I was just being friendly, sweetheart,” he said loudly, holding his hands up in mock surrender. He looked around at the other patrons as if seeking outside confirmation that you were the one who was being unreasonable in this situation.

“You should leave.”

“I was obviously kidding about ditching Mando,” said Toro, shaking his head. “You really need to lighten up.” He didn’t even have the decency to look abashed.

You spared him a biting response, fixing him with a glare instead.

“I’ll go find those bikes.” He stood to leave, purposefully brushing past your shoulder as he went.

***

After finishing your meal, you stalked out of the cantina and back to the terminal to find Mando.

He was sitting at the top of the ramp of the Crest fiddling with an open control panel in the wall. He looked up to nod at you when he heard you approach.

“I don’t like that kid, Mando. I don’t trust him. I don’t think we should do this.” You stopped in front of him and put your hands on your hips.

“I know. He’s inexperienced, but he’s harmless.”

“No, that’s what I’m saying—he’s not harmless.”

“What did he say to you?” Mando continued working on the open control panel, only vaguely listening to you.

“He tried to talk me into ditching you and teaming up with him, so we didn’t have to split the reward three ways... He also hit on me.” You added the last part as an afterthought and grimaced at the memory of his gross hand on your thigh.

His head snapped up to look at you. “He—what?”

You looked at him, waiting for him to verbalize a more coherent question. You weren’t sure which part of what you’d shared horrified him the most.

“I—what—uh, yeah, I know... I don’t trust him either,” he continued, “but there are two of us and only one of him. We need the credits—and we’ll get the full reward, like he agreed, whether he likes it or not. We’re not going to find many other jobs here, and I don’t think he’s smart enough to pull anything.”

“I guess,” you shrugged. Toro doesn’t seem capable of critical thinking, let alone concocting and carrying out an elaborate scheme. The bounty was too high and other jobs too scarce to resist.

“We’ll keep a close eye on him. Let’s just finish this job quickly, and then you, me, and the kid can move on.”

“Okay,” you agreed, reluctantly. The way he emphasized the fact that you and him and the kid were a team was an obvious attempt to quell your worries. And it did. Mostly. It was a little startling how well he knew you already.

“Where’s the baby?” you asked, suddenly realizing the door to his bunk was open, and it was empty.

“He left the ship, and Peli found him. She agreed to take care of him while we do this job.”

Again, here he is, trusting a complete stranger.

“I told you he never stays put,” you scowled.

“Don’t worry, Peli already gave me an earful about how much I don’t know about kids.” He sounded defeated, so you decided not to pile on.

“You’re doing a good job, you know. The kid really loves you.”

He seemed surprised by your sincerity, his shoulders pulling back slightly. “I’m not, but thanks.”

It hurt your heart a little to hear him say that. 

***

When you left the terminal fifteen minutes later, Toro was outside, leaning against one of two speeder bikes with a cocky smile on his face.

Peli, who was holding the kid and arguing with Mando about payment, stood in the doorway to see you off. You caught the curious look that Toro gave the baby in Peli’s arms.

“Hey, what do you think? Not too shabby, huh? I could only track down two. You guys will have to share,” Toro said.

You and Mando looked at each other. Mando started to inspect the bike closest to you. Before he could beat you to it, you threw a leg over the speeder bike and sat down at the front of the seat.

“What are you doing?” Mando asked you.

“Driving,” you said, shrugging and reaching into your bag. You pulled on a pair of googles and wrapped a scarf around your nose and mouth. You secured your bag on the back of the bike.

When you noticed that Mando had made no move to join you, you looked at him and tipped your head back toward the seat behind you. “Let’s go.”

You could tell by the resigned drop in his shoulders that he knew it would be more work to try to convince you to scoot back than was worth it. He climbed on the speeder behind you, crowding you forward and reaching his long arms around you to grab the controls.

“Nope. Nice try,” you said, slapping his gloved hands away and grasping the controls yourself.

He sighed and wrapped his arms around your middle. You hoped he didn’t notice the goose bumps that appeared on your neck when he touched you. It was way too warm out under the two blazing suns to explain them away.

You jerked your wrists down and leaned forward to take off across the open sand, not waiting for Toro to mount his speeder.

“What the hell??” he yelled after you.

He caught up after a few moments.

After awhile, you let yourself relax back against Mando’s chest, and you smiled to yourself when he tightened his arms around you. 

The suns slipped lower in the sky as you coasted over the shifting surface of the Dune Sea.

***

You and Toro slowed your bikes to a halt when Mando released your waist to hold up a fist.

“What’s going on?” asked Toro.

“Look. Up ahead,” The rasp of Mando’s modulator in your ear and the concurrent rumble in his chest made you shiver, so you hastily hopped off the bike.

Mando stayed seated while you and Toro each pulled out a set of binocs to scan the landscape. Neither of you had the heightened vision that Mando’s helmet afforded him.

Through your binocs, you spotted two Tusken raiders standing beside two very hairy Banthas a short distance ahead. You lowered your binocs and scanned the immediate area.

“Tusken raiders. I heard the locals talking about this filth,” spat Toro, who was still watching them through his binocs.

You stepped back toward the bike as two Tuskens crested the hill you were on. Mando reached out a hand to grab your wrist, squeezing gently. You looked at him, and he nodded reassuringly.

“Tuskens think they’re the locals,” Mando said coolly, turning back to Toro. “Everyone else is just trespassing.”

“Well, whatever they call themselves, they best keep their distance,” Toro remarked.

“Yeah? Why don’t you tell them yourself?” asked Mando.

You grinned. There’s that flair for the dramatic.

Toro turned, and the two Tuskens screeched at him. You laughed at the way Toro positively jumped. Mando stood, raising a calming hand toward Toro, and told him to relax. You followed him as he approached the Tuskens and started gesturing to them, clearly proficient in their sign-based language.

Mando’s hands moved smoothly though deft, controlled movements. You looked down and bit your lip, trying to focus on twisting the toe of your boot back and forth in the sand to prevent your mind from wandering somewhere less appropriate.

“What are you doing?” Toro asked Mando.

“Negotiating.”

The Tuskens signed back to Mando.

“What’s going on?” asked Toro.

“We need passage across their land.”

“What did you think he meant by “negotiating”?” you said, raising your eyebrows at Toro.

“Let me see your binocs,” said Mando, holding out a hand to Toro.

“Why?”

Mando said nothing but kept his hand out, waiting. The two suns, now low in the sky, reflected brightly off his helmet. Toro handed them over begrudgingly, and Mando tossed them to the Tuskens. The Tuskens looked satisfied with their payment.

“He—hey! What? Those were brand new!” stuttered Toro in surprise.

“Yeah? They were.” Mando stalked away and remounted the speeder bike. You followed him.

And there’s that sense of humor. It’s sassy.

“You couldn’t have taken hers instead?” Toro asked, nodding at you.

“Nope,” said Mando.

You smiled sweetly at Toro as Mando scooted back in the seat and let you climb on in front of him.

***

The next time you stopped more abruptly. Mando raised his fist and barked, “Get down!”

You and Mando sprang off your bike in unison and crouched down. Toro, struggling to keep up with what was happening, fumbled with his goggles before following suit.

The three of you made your way to the edge of the dune in front of you, staying low. You set yourselves up on your stomachs at the top of the rise. Not far below, a dewback trudged forward slowly with what looked like a dead rider trailing after it, a rein wrapped around the figure’s limp ankle.

“Is that her? Is that the target?” asked Toro.

“I don’t know... I’ll go.” He looked at you to say, “You two cover me.”

You nodded.

He looked at Toro to emphasize, “Stay down.”

You and Toro pulled out your blasters. Mando ran hurriedly down the dune, his own blaster drawn. He approached the dewback slowly with a reassuring, “Whoa, whoa.”

Mando flipped over the prone body.

“So, is it her? Is she dead?” yelled Toro.

Mando turned, “It’s another bounty hunter.”

Toro turned to look at you. “He’s not planning to keep all that stuff for himself, right? I at least want that blaster.”

You rolled your eyes at him. “Can you shut up for one second?”

He gave you a disbelieving look. You ignored him and focused your attention back on Mando.

Mando started to rise, turning suddenly to yell, “GET DOWN!” as blaster fire hit his pauldron, knocking him to the ground.

“Mando!” you yelled.

He scrambled back to his feet and broke into a run. He crested the hill as a second shot screamed after him. Again, it hit him in the beskar, sound reverberating off the metal. He threw himself down with a grunt, rolling towards you in a shower of sand.

“Are you okay? You didn’t get hit, right?” You reached out towards him.

“Yeah, it hit me in the beskar. And at that range, the beskar held up.” He sounded winded.

“What happened?” asked Toro, as Mando set himself back up on the crest of the hill, lying between you and Toro.

“Sniper bolt. Only an MK-modified rifle could make that shot.”

“Fennec,” you said. Mando nodded.

“Did you see where the shot came from?” he asked you.

“Yeah, from that ridge.” You pointed.

“Okay, we’re gonna wait until dark.”

“Well, what if she escapes?” asked Toro from where he was resting on his elbows on the other side of Mando.

“She’s got a good position,” you said. “She’s not moving.”

“Exactly,” agreed Mando. “She’ll wait for us to make the first move.”

Mando rolled over and stood only part of the way up, offering a hand down to you. You grasped it and got to your feet. You both hunched low to keep yourselves behind the protective swell of the dune.

“We’re gonna rest. You take the first watch. Stay low,” Mando said to Toro.

You followed Mando back to the bikes.

“Be extra careful. I don’t like you being out here with no beskar,” he said to you, more quietly.

“I will.” 

Your stomach clenched at the way Mando’s voice warmed when he was talking only to you. He spoke to Toro in a clipped tone, like he was scolding an unruly kid. He spoke to you like an equal, a partner. You couldn’t pinpoint when he’d started talking to you this way, but it had shifted recently. It was a tone you’d heard him use with the kid and with Omera. Something that felt a lot like hope sparked in your chest at this realization.

He slumped down against your speeder bike and reached up to pull you down next to him. You leaned back against the bike next to him, your body flush with his, and let your cheek fall against his shoulder.

After a few moments, you could hear a light snore rasping through his modulator. Apparently this man can fall asleep anywhere.

Eventually, you fell into a light sleep, not trusting Toro enough to sleep deeply.

***

You woke to Toro saying, “Time to ride, guys.”

“Come on, wake up!”

You opened your eyes and lifted your head. It was dark out; the last lavender traces of the sunset were disappearing along the horizon. Mando was still beside you, his chest rising and falling rhythmically.

“Look at him, asleep on the job. I told you he was an old man,” leered Toro.

You felt the cadence of Mando’s breathing shift beside you.

“You’re right. He’s ancient—basically dead already,” you quipped, patting Mando on the knee to signal that you knew he was awake.

Toro couldn’t tell if you were mocking him or joking with him, so he just looked at you, slack-jawed, trying to parse it out.

“Not quite,” Mando said, jabbing you in the ribs lightly with his elbow. Toro started at Mando’s words.

You stood, this time extending a hand down to help Mando up. It was more of a symbolic gesture than anything else—he weighed way more with that armor on than you could ever lift. Nonetheless, he took your hand as he hauled himself to his feet.

“We’re going to ride as fast as we can towards those rocks,” explained Mando, pointing to where Fennec was presumably perched.

“That’s your plan?” scoffed Toro. “She’ll snipe us right off the bikes.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t seem remember the amazing plan that you came up with?” you sniped, raising your hands in disbelief.

Mando snickered, a short rasp through the modulator, and in answer to Toro’s question, he tossed a small item his way then handed something to you.

“They’re flash charges. You two will alternate shots. It’ll blind any scope temporarily. Combine that with our speed, and we got a chance.”

You looked down at the charge in your hand, noting the button that would set it off.

“A chance?!” blurted Toro.

You bit back a scathing retort, turning back to your bike.

“Hey, you wanted this. Get ready,” replied Mando, tipping his helmet at Toro.

Mando stepped close to you, lowering his voice. “Let me sit in front this time. In case she manages to make any shots.”

You nodded in agreement, appreciating his protective nature.

You mounted the bike behind him and wrapped your arms around his middle, the charge grasped tightly in your right hand. Mando wrenched his wrists down, and your speeder bike took off, with Toro in your wake.

Mando pushed the bike as fast as it could possibly go, launching it over the swells of sand. You gripped him tighter, and the wind whipped the edges of his cape against your legs.

Apparently Fennec spotted you easily from her vantage point on the cliff because she started her assault immediately, firing at Toro’s speeder first.

Mando reached one hand down for a moment to squeeze your arm, and you understood. Holding his waist tightly with your left arm, you reached your right one up into the air to set off the charge. It went off with a screech. Even through your closed eyelids, you registered the blinding flash of light.

Fennec recovered fairly quickly. She resumed firing only moments after the light dissipated. Mando weaved the bike in a serpentine pattern to avoid the shots.

He turned to Toro and yelled, “NOW!”

Toro let off a charge. Another searing light rippled across the landscape.

After a moment, Fennec fired again, her aim becoming more precise as you drew closer to the cliff. This time, she didn’t miss. A direct shot screamed across the sand and hit the front of your speeder bike. You let go of Mando in the jolt of the impact, and you both flew over the top of the bike and landed in the sand.

Ouch.

Toro zoomed past, looking back for only a second. You didn’t like how easily he left you both behind, but logically, you knew that someone needed to get to Fennec as soon as possible.

You stayed prone on the sand, lifting just your head to see where Mando had fallen a few feet ahead of you. You were relieved when he sprang to his feet and ran back towards you. Without any warning, he lowered himself down over you to protect you from any more incoming fire. He braced himself on his elbows and knees so his body was pressed against yours, but he wasn’t crushing you with the combined weight of his body and armor.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice right behind your ear.

“Yeah.” Your face was pressed against the warm sand. “You?”

“Good. You got the charge?”

You handed it up to him. Luckily, you’d managed to hold onto it during the impact. Mando fumbled for a moment, then lifted an arm to set it off.

After the searing light faded and the dark blanket of night returned, another blaster shot landed in the sand a few feet from your head. Mando edged forward and rested his helmet on the sand above your head. You were completely shielded.

“Thanks,” you muttered up to him, slightly self-conscious that this purely protective position was affecting you so much, a slow heat coiling tight in your stomach. His whole body was flush with yours, his breath heavy and fast in your ear, and you could feel the steady rise and fall of his armored chest against your back. The places where he wasn’t covered by beskar pressed warmly against you. Think about anything else.

A shot pinged off his back. Mando tensed and grunted at the impact. You gritted your teeth and focused on burying your fingers in the sand, definitely not thinking about what other things might draw similar sounds from him.

“Alright, I think Toro got to her. Let’s go, but stay behind me,” Mando rasped in your ear, squeezing your shoulder with a gloved hand.

You nodded beneath him, stifling the shiver that was threatening to run up your spine. Think about anything else.

He rolled off you, and you both got to your feet. You breathed a sigh of relief and positioned yourself at his back, both of you drawing your blasters. In the dark, you could see red streaks of blaster fire on the cliff where Fennec had been perched.

“We gotta run,” you yelled, pushing him forward. “Toro wont be able to take her alone, Mando!”

You stayed close behind him, a hand on his lower back, so he knew you were with him.

When you reached the foot of the cliff, you could hear Toro’s groans and Fennec’s grunts, but you couldn’t see them. You and Mando scrambled up the sandy incline that was littered with boulders and crested the cliff right as Fennec wrestled Toro to the ground.

“Nice distraction,” said Mando, training his blaster on Fennec. She reluctantly released Toro from her hold and put her hands up in defeat. You waited, partially concealed behind Mando until you knew she was restrained.

Toro grunted in pain as he stood up slowly.

“Cuff yourself,” Mando ordered Fennec, tossing the cuffs in front of her.

“A Mandalorian. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of your kind.” She stood. “Ever been to Nevarro? I hear things didn’t go so well there, but it looks like you got off easy.”

Fuck, just how much has she heard about what went down on Nevarro?

Fennec smiled even wider when you stepped out from behind Mando. There was no avoiding her now. Sure enough, recognition flickered in her eyes.

Uh oh.

“Well, well, well... if it isn’t my favorite bounty,” she drawled, and before you could react, your name—your real name—fell from her lips. “You lead me all over the damn galaxy, sweetheart.”

***

Chapter 6

[paint-lady]

Thinblood Mechanic Update 1: Homebrew Flaws

reposted from the RP sideblog

Tampa by Night is both a fun time to hang out with a couple of thinblood loving friends, but it also is to test out some concepts and fully fleshed out mechanics for homebrew thinblood content. We love these funky little Gehenna portents so much and we know it will either be a long while (or never) when new content for these alchemists arrive. (Yes the ashfinders in cotbg are accounted for).

So, I wanted to update you all with our findings and what new things we are playing with.

We built our three characters with the normal neonate 15 bonus experience at character creation. We each took at least 1 by the book thinblood merit or flaw- and at least 1 homebrewed thinblood merit or flaw.

Our selected Homebrew Flaws were originally written as follows:

1. Thinblood Homebrew Flaw: Harbinger- supernatural flaw "Bad stuff just seems to happen to you at the worst possible moment. Maybe you were unlucky in life, and unfortunately, it followed you in death. Whenever you roll a 1 on your hunger dice, it removes a success on the check. This renders you far more likely to bestially fail.” 2. Thinblood Homebrew Flaw: Deficiency-  feeding flaw. "You have to eat food in order to lower your hunger.   Your body requires necessary supplements that the blood alone cannot provide. You have to endure the pain of keeping food down if you do not possess the Eat food merit, the life-like merit, or high humanity (8+). If you do not consume food or supplements every night, you cannot lower your hunger below 2.”   3. Thinblood Homebrew Flaw: Hemophilia- lifelike flaw. You must take the Lifelike merit to take this flaw.  You cannot will the blood to clot, it just bleeds and bleeds. Whenever you take damage from slashing and piercing weapons or environmental factors, you automatically suffer an Impairment, a -2 penalty to all rolls until you can properly cover the wound and help it clot. Any Vampire nearby at Hunger 4 must make a Hunger Frenzy test.  

Right off the bat, we misread our own rules with Harbinger. We were subtracting successes whenever Damien rolled 1s rather than just on his hunger dice. The poor guy could not catch a break. Once we addressed this, we realized there is an accountability issue. Since we are using digital dice, it is easy to overlook subtracting 1s from the Hunger dice alone. Some dice rollers dont show the rolls, just count successes and failures and criticals. We believe that this flaw is actually fairly well balanced in comparison to some of the books, it just requires the player to be vigilant, just as they would be for vitae dependency or mortal frailty. Originally, the Harbinger flaw was a 3 dice pool given to the storyteller to use once per session to reduce the harbinger's successes. This didn't foster a dread inducing dynamic of when is harbinger going to kick in. Instead, it fostered a much more "you versus the dm" culture. While the storyteller has a lot of power, this is not a healthy dynamic to push- especially in a game of personal horror. So instead, we changed it to a static all 1s on hunger subtract successes. This way your character actively struggles against their even worse luck and probably more active beast- and can offset it with risky blood surges and willpower rerolls.

It took longer to recognize how Deficiency is much more lax in comparison to the by the book flaws. While it is continuously funny to watch Tommy sneaking microwavable burritos into their mouth when the Camarilla court isn't looking- if caught it's more played off as "well that's odd" not "wait a moment--thinblood!!" In a modern setting where there's something to eat at every gas station, convenience store dumpster, or neighbor's refrigerator- there's never an issue of getting food. Additionally, we never set how you must endure the pain of consuming food. So we started implementing that you must rouse the blood to use blush of life to activate your digestive system. This is fairly effective- so far. As written in v5, thinbloods always look as if they have blush of life active. However that does not mean they purposefully have it turned on. Another option is making the character roll Stamina or Resolve checks to hold the food down. This feels less optimal as the two dot Eat Food merit would get rid of these checks.

Tommy’s player has suggested that failing to eat food deals superficial damage to your hunger tracker. Reaching hunger 5 in superficial damage means you aren’t in torpor, but are rolling 5 hunger dice- or more. Upon consuming food, you clear a single box (1 scene spent consuming food = 1 box). Every time you eat, you need to rouse the blood, which may further raise your hunger. With higher hunger, you increase your chance of messy criticals and suffering compulsions. Ey also floated the idea of having any superficial hunger renders you unable to use voluntary rouse checks- such as supernatural healing, blood surges, or using disciplines. Our goal is to test the superficial hunger track first- and see how the thinbloods react to rolling a lot more hunger dice. If it feels too lax even then, we will test further punishing factors- but may need to go back to the drawing board completely.

Hemophilia has yet to showcase how dangerous it can be. I play as Hazel with this flaw, and am overly cautious about how close I get her in fights- because I wrote the flaw, I know how bad that -2 impair is. We recognize that this flaw should be coming into play much more frequently, as Hazel utilizes the calcinato method to brew her alchemy and must have her vessels drink her vitae for it to work. This requires the vitae to come directly from her, requiring a cut or open wound to pour it into the mouths of her vessels. There are a few thoughts to this flaw. Firstly, it does not feel necessary to restrict this flaw with the lifelike merit. The flavor text on how vitae, thinned vitae, and regular blood look and taste varies from table to table and storyteller to storyteller. Originally, we wanted to showcase the negative aspects of having lifelike- such as feeling cold, sweating, and never unlearning the need to breathe. But these feel more like flavor text than actual debilitating flaws to a thinblood- and maybe an astute vampiric eye would pick up on these behaviors.   Secondly, the player is allowed to supernaturally heal the wound closed despite the wording on the flaw. We will have to specify if it is superficial or aggravated damage when a wound is self inflicted, such as when Hazel opens her vein for her alchemy. By the book, thinbloods take aggravated damage from almost anything except sunlight without the Vampiric Resilience merit. To heal aggravated damage, it is three rouse checks on the next night to heal 1 box. This can be potentially debilitating for a character without an easy supply of food. Additionally, in combat, it takes a full round or more to heal. Thinbloods are already at extreme disadvantages in combat without proper planning, this would exacerbate it. However that is the point of the flaw- you don’t want to bleed. We will have to keep exploring to see how limiting this is when in full effect. Which means I gotta get Hazel in a knife fight.

The other thing we noticed is that a lot of the by the book flaws tend to  not have mechanical disadvantages. They are narrative disadvantages that  can have mechanical effects.   Some sessions we do not roll any dice other than a nightly rouse check to awake. Some sessions have us rolling checks for every other action. Ultimately, as we explore and finalize these flaws, we aim to craft them that they are less reliant on the dice. However, that might mean we have to completely rewrite them. This is not too big of a concern, as some of the by the book flaws give  static mechanical penalties, such as Bestial Temper (frenzy like a  full-blooded vampire), Clan Curse (retain your sire’s clan curse), or  Dead Flesh (-1 to all applicable social tests).   There are some other flaws we have written that fit this mold a little better, such as Tagged and Tracked, and Blacklisted.

Tagged and Tracked:  You have been captured by F1rstlight. Operatives are not only aware of your existence, but actively keeping an eye on you. The character may or may not know about their surveillance. They may also be aiding the agents that claim them. Regardless, if other thin-bloods (or kindred) find out what you are, at best you will be blacklisted. More likely, you will be killed.

Blacklisted:  Even your fellow mercurians keep their distance from you- at least the ones in the know do. Whether you have been deemed dangerous in their small circles, crossed a leader, betrayed them in some way, or have been set up- you are a scapegoat among the scapegoats.

So, here are some rewrites to our Homebrew flaws we selected:

1. Thinblood Homebrew Flaw: Harbinger- supernatural  flaw "Bad stuff just seems to happen to you at the worst possible  moment. Maybe you were unlucky in life, and unfortunately, it followed  you in death. Whenever you roll a 1 on your hunger dice, it removes a  success on the check. This renders you far more likely to bestially  fail.”

2. Thinblood Homebrew Flaw: Deficiency-  feeding flaw.  "You have to eat food in order to lower your hunger. Your body requires necessary supplements that the blood alone cannot  provide. For every night you fail to consume food, increase your hunger superficially by 1. This superficial damage is not alleviated by daysleep. For every superficial slash through your hunger, you must spend a scene consuming food. In order to properly digest it, you must use blush of life or possess a relevant merit. If the thinblood reaches Hunger 5 with superficial hunger- they do not go into torpor or frenzy.”

3. Thinblood Homebrew Flaw: Hemophilia- kept the same You must  take the Lifelike merit to take this flaw.  You cannot will the blood to clot, it just bleeds and bleeds. Whenever  you take damage from slashing and piercing weapons or environmental  factors, you automatically suffer an Impairment, a -2 penalty to all  rolls until you can properly cover the wound and help it clot. Any  Vampire nearby at Hunger 4 must make a Hunger Frenzy test.  

Next up is our Homebrew Alchemy. Some of us spent experience to take new  alchemical powers, and im certain we will see how quickly they break  everything including the masquerade. Tommy has taken steps towards Hermetic Alchemy, which brings old Alchemical Thaumaturgy into V5, Hazel has taken upgrades to her far reach and eventually will take recipes for Thermotics- melting things! Thanks for reading!  Can’t wait to tell you all about our findings next time!

[ramblefang]

 I’ve been watching quite a bit of Hearthstone’s Battlegrounds mode ever since it was added to the game—watching because I have a history of not being able to healthily have free-to-play progression mechanics in my life. Despite only watching, I have some ideas regarding game balance/design; it’s hard to avoid in Tw*tch chat or on R*ddit. (Also, I’ve had a lifelong passion for games and game design, though I haven’t been able to pursue it.) The main reason I’m writing my thoughts here, instead of on official forums or R*ddit, is because I don’t actually care to have anyone listen to me. It’s just a fun exercise to me.

Murlocs

A lot of people insist that murlocs need some sort of nerf at the top end, but, as I understand it, all of the different tribes are designed to have different “power spikes” throughout the game. And murlocs are specifically designed to have the nigh unstoppable super-late game snowball, but with a weak early and mid game. As such I wouldn’t be interested in changing their late game at all.

If I were to make changes, it would be to the parts of the game where they are meant to be weak. In particular, I’d look at Felfin Navigator and Murloc Tidehunter. The former because it really improved the murloc mid-game, and the latter because, despite murlocs supposedly being weak early, Tidehunter is one of the best tier 1 minions regardless of strategy.

Regarding Felfin Navigator, I feel that it’s too strong overall for murlocs. It has one of the biggest bodies in the tribe, competing favorably in general by the time you can get it. It being an additional board-wide buff also allows murlocs to more quickly and consistently get the snowball going, especially once they gain access to Primalfin Lookouts. One nerf could be to simply move Felfin Navigator from tier 3 to tier 4, where it can still contribute to the late-game snowball, while actually starting later. Another possibility, if it’s preferable to have a murloc option at tier 3 and keeping 4 as a relatively empty weakpoint, is to replace Felfin Navigator with a murloc that simply has decent independent stats without offering any sort of buff: essentially something to serve a similar role as Murloc Tidecaller and Old Murk-Eye on the earlier tiers.

As for Tidehunter, one possibility is to remove it and add a similar minion to tier 2: perhaps a 2/2 murloc that summons a murloc scout. Alternatively, if it would be preferable to keep the economic option of a “token” generator, a new one could replace Tidehunter at tier 1 for a different tribe or as a neutral minion. With the latter option, it would probably be appropriate to add a new murloc at either tier 1 or 2.

Mechs

Mechs have been in a bad spot since the last Battlegrounds patch (and I don’t think they’ve been too hot ever since Deflect-o-Bot replaced Cobalt Guardian), and I think they’d need to some significant rework. I’d consider removing Piloted Shredder from tier 3 and moving down Iron Sensei to take its spot. I think it would make sense to swap Annoy-o-Module and Junkbot, considering their actual power-levels. While that last change would likely be a nerf, I’d actually lower one of the tier 6 minions into tier 5 and add something new into tier 6: a powerful Magnetic minion perhaps? For other replacements, I’d definitely look at tier 1. Mecharoo and Micro Machine are both incredibly underwhelming options. I do like Mecharoo refreshing Deflect-o-Bot’s Divine Shield, so I’d rather replace Micro Machine with Paladin’s Glow-Tron.

Overall, I think these changes would position mechs as a powerful mid-late game tribe that are particularly powerful when people are getting to tiers 5 and 6. They still won’t scale as strongly as other tribes, but they start building up earlier with Glow-Tron at tier 1 and Iron Sensei at tier 3, capitalizing on those buffs with Annoy-o-Module at tier 5 and whatever new minion is added at tier 6.

Demons

Demons have been historically quite weak, with a relatively brief moment in the spotlight when Floating Watcher was originally introduced at tier 3. I’ve actually always felt like demons were strangely designed because they have two very distinct paths: exchanging health for big buffs with Wrathweaver, Floating Watcher, and Annihilan Battlemaster or using Soul Juggler with token-summoning minions. They don’t really mix together because big demons have few bodies, which are unlikely to die, for a Soul Juggler to trigger off of, and big demons that don’t die don’t leave much room for any tokens to be summoned. I feel they could use a more comprehensive redesign that better connect these disparate build paths.

One thing I’d like to design towards is the idea of inflicting self-damage for more tempo, so more minions that inflict self-damage could be interesting, likely with Floating Watcher returning to tier 3 to be a central player. To link the big and token strategies, maybe there could be a minion that summons imps when adjacent demons take damage (and it could be similar to Arcane Cannon and not be able to attack itself.) Another possibility, Soul Juggler could be changed to trigger on your demons taking damage instead of them dying, which would likely require it to be put in a higher tier and/or its damage being lowered. One last idea: if self-damage becomes more central to the demon gameplan, perhaps there could be a minion that sets your hero’s health to a relatively low number that is still high enough to allow for extra self-damage (say, 10 health.)

Overall, I think it would make sense for demons to be the tribe that becomes powerful quickly, spending your health to do so. They sort of are that already with Wrathweavers, but I’d like to lean into it more. But they require more changes to their fundamental gameplan than I feel up to designing.

Heroes

Recently, two heroes have been notably stronger than everyone else: Captains Hooktusk and Eudora. There are also a multitude of under-performing heroes. So I’ll take a crack at balancing them.

First I’ll discuss Hooktusk since she’s particularly unique and has a variety of ways to be changed. But before that, I want to discuss the way I see her design. It seems, to me, that she was designed around Galakrond and Malygos. Galakrond transforms a minion to one a tier higher for 1 gold, Malygos transforms a minion to another of the same tier for free, and Hooktusk “transforms” a minion to one of a lower tier for free and gets to Discover it. While Hooktusk is clearly stronger since she gets the minion in hand and gets to use the Battlecry with additional easy access to triples through the Discover, it was probably decided that there was plenty of room to be better than Galakrond and Malygos and still be fine overall. They honestly weren’t too far off, though she is a tad too strong.

The simplest change I can imagine to Hooktusk is having it cost 1 gold. The ability to easily find tier 1 triples seems to be strong enough for this ability to not be free, though I think this may put her down with Galakrond and Malygos. An alternative solution I’ve seen is for her to not be able to use her hero power on tier 1 minions at all; there’s nothing below tier 1 after all. Another possibility that primarily aims at weakening the Battlecry options, especially the token summoners, is to make it so that the minion is transformed on board without going to hand; I’m not a huge fan of this one because actually transforming the minion doesn’t really match the flavor.

And Hooktusk is pretty much the only hero I have significant thoughts about. The others should go by relatively quickly.

As for the other particularly powerful hero, Captain Eudora, the simplest option is to just make it so that it takes 5 digs to get the golden minion, up from 4.

Now for buffs, going alphabetically, A. F. Kay could be changed quite a few different ways. She could go back to her original incarnation and get one tier 3 and one tier 4 minion (instead of two tier 3 has it is now). Alternatively, they could mix things up and add a third minion: maybe a tier 3 and two tier 2, or whatever mix is balanced. Another option is to give her a bonus other than an extra minion: maybe extra gold for just turn 3.

Alexstrasza (and Ysera) is highly sensitive to what options there are for dragons, so it would probably be better to look at changing dragons in general rather than the dragon-synergy heroes themselves.

For Aranna, the simplest option is to just lower the number of rerolls needed to get the reward, but that removes the matching sevens (seven rerolls to see seven minions.) Another possibility is to give the upgraded hero power an additional active functionality. Maybe something that buffs a minion for one fight?

Bartendotron could use a more interesting hero power. My idea is that instead of tavern upgrades being cheaper, you get “tips” in hand when you upgrade (similar to Elise getting maps on tavern upgrades). These tips could simply have the effect of reducing the cost of the tavern upgrade, but they could become more powerful at the later tiers. You could also save them up to make a later tier particularly cheap. Another possibility is for there to be different tips at different levels: maybe one that gives you extra gold for a turn, another that buffs a minion, etc.

Elise could probably have cheaper maps, costing 2 instead of 3.

For both Galakrond and Malygos, I’d consider making it so that you can only use their hero powers on minions in the shop, but you transform the target into two minions, giving you a better chance at finding something you want.

I’m actually not sure what to do about George since giving anything Divine Shield is really strong. Making it any cheaper could easily be too much. He feels fine being designed as an early game hero who gets really strong later when he can afford to hero power stuff. It’s probably better to generally slow down the meta than change him directly.

Illidan mostly needs more minions that care about attacking first. He’s already quite strong with Monstrous Macaws.

An idea I had for Toki is for her hero power to upgrade the tavern for that one turn only. I think it would be fine for it to still cost one because you’d have to spend more gold on rerolls to get any benefit from it, and it doesn’t have the guarantee of the current incarnation. I don’t know if this would be significantly better, but I think it’s interesting.

Lady Vashj could probably just transform everything in the shop to match the upgraded tavern tier, instead of having to awkwardly arrange a shop with a bunch of higher tier minions before upgrading.

Lich Baz’hial could really depend more on any self-damage synergies added to demons. Or even just Floating Watcher going back down to tier 3. Otherwise, I’m not sure how to change her directly.

Jaraxxus is similarly dependent on demons and their strategy, and I’d look at demons before deciding what to do about him. Though, he isn’t too bad currently, if a bit boring.

Oh, Maiev could probably get a small nerf: remove the +1/+1 buff. Getting a minion for 1 gold is really good as it is, even with the delay.

I wouldn’t mind Millhouse being returned to his original incarnation because him being terrible is on brand.

It would be cool if Millificent’s hero power upgraded over time. It just makes sense to me for the mech hero to get upgrades. It could upgrade after buying enough mechs. First it could just upgrade to +2/+2 buffs. Then maybe it can gain an active component in addition to the passive buffs. One thought is an “Overdrive” hero power that buffs all mechs for the next fight.

Patchwerk could probably just go back to having 60 health. Alternatively, maybe he could regenerate health every turn?

I wonder if it would be too much for Queen Wagtoggle to give +2/+1 instead of +2/+0, matching Lightfang Enforcer’s buff.

Reno’s hero power could probably be free since it’s a single use.

You might be able to get away with changing Shudderwock to double all Battlecries that turn. Maybe bring it back up to 2 gold if that proves to be too strong.

I’m not sure what to do about Sindragosa. Maybe she could have a transforming hero power too, upgrading after you freeze the shop enough times. The buff could just be stronger, and/or it could gain an active component.

The Curator is mostly sensitive to what kinds of buffs exist in the game. His amalgam could become stronger just with the addition of new keywords from new tribes.

Akazamzarak could use some new Battlegrounds specific secrets, as well as the removal of crappier options like Snake Trap and Effigy. No idea what those new secrets could be though.

The Lich King seems more dependent on minions that synergize with his hero power, because I’m not sure how to make it better inherently; reducing it to 0 would probably be too strong.

And that’s about it. If I didn’t mention a hero, I don’t think they need to be changed or I don’t have any thoughts regarding them.