#the fire fiend and the raven

[weirdlookindog]

Charles D. Gardette and Edgar Allan Poe - The Fire-Fiend and The Raven: The Story Behind a Literary Hoax. (Gerry De La Ree, Saddle River, New Jersey, 1973). Cover art by Stephen Fabian.

[cyn-write]

“Hellfire, Dark Fire”

Prompt: Rollo has been eyeing you since your arrival, seeing you as the diamond amongst coals. At the Ball, he corners you into a dance, but your BF is not going to let this slide...

Pairings: F!reader x Trey, Cater, Ace, and Jack (Separate)

Warnings: Possessive behavior, suggestive, manipulation and obsessive (Rollo), established relationship, romantic, swearing (Ace)

Notes: This is part of a request from @justahufflepufftoday that I will answer with links to all the glomas series! Apologize for this taking so long, honestly some of these left me stumped and I had to mull it over for a while. That and life happened, but I am slowly working through the asks and am so thankful for everyone's patience! Thank you to everyone who has been keeping up with the series and supporting me! This is part of my Glorious Masquerade series! So if you want to read the other parts of this series staring different characters click the links below:

“She Blazes in Me Beyond All Control” - Azul, Idia, Malleus

“I Feel Her, I see Her” - Riddle, Deuce, Ruggie, Jamil

“Her Smoldering Eyes Still Scorch My Soul” - Rook, Epel, Silver, Sebek

“The Sun Caught in Her Raven Hair” - Leona, Floyd, Vil

“Heaven’s Light” - Rollo

"Who might you be miss?"

Y/n gave a kind smile and nodded her head in greeting "I'm y/n, it's nice to meet you," she stayed next to Trein as she was there as his assistant.

"Yuu is our magicless perfect of Ramshackle. She will be working as my assistant throughout the trip," Trein added.

She felt Rollo's eyes scan her and, unlike his greetings to the rest, he held out a hand. Being polite, she offered her hand as well, and he lifted it to his lips, grazing her knuckles quickly. "It is a pleasure to meet you, y/n. I understand it must be difficult, being surrounded by mages every second of the day. I hope you get a chance to relax this trip."

Y/n blushed at the motion and bit her lower lip. All the while, she could feel her boyfriend glaring daggers at her and Rollo.

"I-I'll do my best..." Y/n replied.

Throughout the entire trip, Rollo seemed to gravitate towards y/n and used every excuse to isolate her from the group. They chatted about her difficulties at NRC and of the festival. Due to her being Trein's assistant and the constant reminders to behave, she and her boyfriend had little time together.

This all accumulated at the Masquerade. Rollo had given Y/n a proper dress for the occasion instead of the attire his counsel had chosen. The (color) fabric decadently adorned her figure and stunned the NRC boys with her beauty. But before her boyfriend could ask for a dance, Rollo stole y/n away. He whisked her to the dance floor, and they started chatting.

At this point, Y/N's boyfriend has had enough of the student council president, but what sends him over the edge is when he takes you to the balcony and dares suggest the worst:

"Y/n, stay here with me." Y/n turned quickly on her heels to look at Rollo in shock and confusion, "Those fools at NRC do not deserve your purity. You belong here. with me." He has her pinned against the balcony, "This is your sanctuary."

Y/n pushed Rollo away slightly and spoke up, "Thank you for the offer, but I have no intention of leaving NRC. It is difficult at times but I wouldn't have it any other way. Now if you excuse me, I want to go back to the ball."

Rollo grabbed y/n's wrist and pulled her against him. "It's because of him, isn't it? He has bewitched you!" He pinned her between the balcony wall and him. "Those fiends have enchanted you, but I will free you from those chains and show you salvation! No matter the cost!"

Trey was a patient man who was at this point, an expert at dealing with difficult people and situations, but this was a true test of his calm demeanor. He had followed Rollo and y/n from a distance when they left the ballroom and had been listening to the tense confession through the door. His heart was beating in his ears as he listened to Rollo confessing his love for HIS Sweetheart. The only reason he didn’t barge in then and there was due to the trust he had in Y/n to handle the situation. But when Rollo forced himself onto her after she declined, he had to do something.

“Y/n!” Trey called out as he pushed the balcony doors open. Rollo stepped back from y/n, making it seem as though nothing happened. Y/n looked shaken as she tried to separate herself from her captor, but Rollo blocked her with an arm.

“Clover, what are you doing away from the festivities?” Rollo’s asked.

“I could ask you the same thing.” Trey moved closer to the two, his grip teething around his magic pen.

“The Perfect and I came out for some fresh air. So many mages gathered together can be a bit suffocating.” He replied calmly.

“It can be,” Trey was only a few steps away. His features strained to remained relaxed, he wanted so badly to blow up like his dorm mates and cause a scene, but he did not. He instead put on a smile and kept his composure, “But, this is also a special evening, it’s not often that this many mages meet. Besides, it is a wonderful evening for us, right y/n?” He shifted his gaze to Y/n’s beautiful eyes. A plan had formed in his mind and it seemed to be perfect, “Don’t think I forgot our anniversary?”

Y/n’s eyes lit up and she smiled sweetly. “Trey, how could I forget,” She said and managed to make her way to Trey and enveloped her boyfriend in a hug of joy and relief.

Shock and disappointment flashed over Rollo’s face but was gone in an instant. He nodded to the happy couple and started to walk away, “congratulations… I hope you enjoy the ball. Y/n, please let me know if you ever reconsider.” Before he walked past fully, Trey placed a hand on Rollo’s arm and stopped the president.

“If you force yourself onto her again and I will make you regret ever throwing this ball.” Trey whispered. His eyes were no longer kind, but cruel. It was beyond the look he gave disrespectful underclassmen, this glare was reserved for anyone who dared hurt his sweetheart.

Rollo understood the glare and left with a shred of dignity.

Once he was gone. The stiffness left Trey’s body and he felt his sweetness melt into his arms like putty. Tears started to pool in her eyes all the fears hit her at once. But Trey knew what to do. He stayed there, holding her close, and kissed her forehead. “It’s okay. I got you…”

After whispering a string of sweet nothings to reassure her. Y/n looked up and said, “our anniversary isn’t until winter break silly…”

Trey and y/n chuckled a bit. Of everything she commented on that. Trey looked at the perfect’s beautiful eyes that complemented her stunning gown. “The anniversary of becoming official… today is the anniversary of me realizing how hopelessly I’m in love with you.”

The perfect’s smile grew and Trey couldn’t help himself but kiss her. The kiss was loving and passionate, the kind that could last a century.

The music started to swell and their names are being called by the other Heartsyble students. The kiss ends and Trey looks back. “I knew they would be coming sooner or later.”

“Well you did promise me a dance.” Y/n said and Trey smiled. He felt like a commoner before her, begging for a chance to dance with the princess.

“I did didn’t I.” He stepped back and removed his hat, extending a hand out to her. “Princess will you grace this humble baker with a dance?”

Cater was kicking himself. He knew that he had a social media problem, but he never thought it would result in him missing someone, much less their illustrious host, flirting with HIS girl. Cater had been documenting the trip on magicam and he was constantly taking pictures, clogging, editing, that he has been neglecting his perfect. This all came to fruition when he saw y/n enter the ballroom in the most stunning dress he had ever seen. She looked like a princess out of a storybook. He reached to get his phone out so he could post a picture of is beautiful partner, but as he did someone else approached her. Rollo. The host of this event stole y/n’s first dance and in that moment he realized how much he missed. Rollo and y/n were talking a laughing as they danced. Talking about everything they did over the trip. Cater felt his heart drop as he realized how much he missed through the screen. As he was trying to get the best angle on a photo, Rollo was romancing his lonely partner. At the end of the song, Cater was ready to apologize, but Rollo took y/n away from the ball room and the two disappeared. Cater searched the ballroom till he saw the two on the balcony. He was about to walk out when he realized what Rollo was doing.

“…stay here with me.” Cater’s heart dropped. He listened through the pain and part of him thought she might take it. But the other part of him believed in their love. When he saw her step away from him, his heart jumped, he knew his girl. But Rollo would not relent. Out of instinct he went to the camera on his phone and pressed record, a plan formed and he hopped it would be enough.

“…Cater didn’t put an enchantment on me! I love him and he loves me. No charms needed! Now GET OFF!”

“Diamond? He is your partner?” Rollo scoffed, “He seems to be more infatuated with his phone than you. He treated you so coldly. Not answering your questions, ignoring you in favor of those people only. I don’t think I saw him touch you once.” Cater’s heart panted. He wasn’t wrong. But it still hurt to hear. “None of them appreciate you. You have done so much for them and they brush you off.” He could see her resolve breaking, and Cater could feel his as well. Not everything they said was wrong, she has done so much and hardly gets the recognition. He watched as Rollo’s grip softened and she turned away. Rollo placed his hands on her shoulders, they were really close now. She was thinking, “My dear, you deserve so much better. A school that will nurture and enhance your talents, friends who will recognize and celebrate your skills,… and a partner who will look at you and not a screen. Why… if I was your partner, I would never be able to look at anything else but you… my flame…” he began to caress her cheek and cater was about ready to leave and give in, but his Jewel surprised him yet again.

She grabbed Rollo’s wrist and pushed him away. “You’re wrong. My friends do care about me. And Cater is the best partner I could ask for. He loves me for me and never asks me to be anyone else. He respects me and my boundaries. He sees me for me and I see him for who he is. Yes he has his problems, but we work on the together. He sees me as a person, not an infatuation or an object to be saved. He is twice the man you are so leave me alone. I need to go find him-“

As she started to move away, Rollo grabbed her again and took out his magic pen, “You really leave me with no choice then, my flame. I will show you salvation even if I have to force it upon you-“

“AND HERE FOLKS is what we call a pervert!” Cater took the signal to come out of hiding and acted like he was recording the whole thing. “Rollo Flamme, Student Council President of Nobel Bell College confessed to My girlfriend and when she said No! He tried to kidnap her. Total Yandere behavior if you ask me. The kinda stuff they throw you in prison for.” Cater’s arrival stunned Rollo and he let go of y/n for long enough for her to run to Cater. “Now Cay-cay followers. If I release this video, that means something has happened to me and y/n. And he is the culprit.” Cater ends the video and puts his phone down into his pocket. “If you lay a hand on either of us again. I will release that video and you will be ruined. But I am nice and respect that y/n doesn’t like to be on social media a lot. So this is your only chance. Leave and never speak to us again.” He stood tall and held y/n close in a Possessive manner.

Rollo was visibly shocked and took out his handkerchief, nodded to Y/n, and said, "There is no need for hostility... I hope you have a pleasant evening." And left the two.

After Rollo left, Cater melted into Y/n. He was shaking and kept whispering, "I'm sorry.. I'm sorry, I am so sorry..."

Y/n tightened their grip and said, "Cater, why are you apologizing? You saved me, I-"

"Rollo was right. I-I was so focused on Magicam that I neglected you." He was nestled into her hair as he spoke, "I know I have a problem, but I didn't think it was this bad..."

Y/n stepped back and smiled at Cater, wiping the tears from his cheek. "Cater. I do not blame you. Do I wish we could have spent more time together this trip, yes, but I also know that my duties as an assistant had me moving everywhere and your group also kept you busy." She then stepped close and pressed her forehead to his, "We still have tonight to make it up."

This is the reason he loved y/n, she grounded him and made him see the light at the end of the tunnel. "We do. So here." He handed her his phone to put in her dress pocket. "No phones, no magicam, just us." He then knelt down before y/n and held her hands in his, mirroring the knights of old. "Y/n, will you be mine and mine only tonight?"

“LET HER GO!” Ace yelled. He had been watching the scene from behind the balcony door, and it took all his willpower to not attack Rollo on sight. Instead, he marched towards the two and pulled y/n away from him. He held her close and felt how much she was trembling. He glared daggers at Rollo and said, “She said no to your salvation bullshit so drop it.”

Rollo returned the glare, but returned to his calm composure, "Mr. Trappola, I'm afraid you have misread the situation. Miss L/n and I were just sharing a conversation, weren't we my dear?"

Y/n looked terrified as Rollo grinned at her. Her trembling grew worse and her voice came out meek, "t-that's one name for it..."

Ace hated seeing her like this. The last time she was this terrified was during Riddle's overblot when she was nearly squished by a rosebush. Since then, Ace promised to keep her safe, and that was a promise he intended to keep. "Sounded less like a conversation and more like a lecture."

"I was simply pointing out how Miss L/n would be happier here. We would actually appreciate her contributions to the school rather than push her aside." Rollo smirked and motioned to Ace, "That seems to be your specialty Trappola, wouldn't you say?"

That is when Ace's restraint broke. Much like when Riddle insulted y/n all those months ago, Ace punched Rollo square in the nose. While Rollo reeled from the punch, Ace grabbed his collar and pushed him against the railing. "You. Don't. Know. ANYTHING! No one loves Y/N more than me! She does more for NRC than any of the housewardens and EVERYONE knows it! We don't thank her as much as we should. But I am sure of one thing: I will protect her no matter what and stay beside her no matter what. Your righteous ass could never do that!!"

He let Rollo go and took y/n's hand. "If you talk down to her like that ever again. I promise you'll get more than a broken nose." and stormed off the balcony with the Perfect in tow.

Once they made it to the other side of the doors, out of sight from the crowd, and from Rollo. Ace stopped and turned back to y/n.

She looked up at him with awe in her (e/c) eyes. Despite the tear streaks and bruises on her wrist from Rollo's grip, she looked as beautiful as the moment she walked in. Ace whipped the tear streaks from her cheeks and asked, "You okay?"

She placed her hand on his and said simply, "You said you loved me..."

Ace's face went red. They hadn't said that word yet despite the feelings being there. "Y-yeah, I guess. I-I was just caught up in the moment and I-I...." He felt like Deuce, tripping over his words like a cat had hold of his tongue.

Y/n smiled and pressed a chaste kiss to his stuttering lips, "I love you too, my Jack of Hearts."

She knew those words would boost his ego. Whose wouldn't when they were compared to the bravest knight in all of the Queendom?

Ace's smirk returned and he leaned in so their foreheads were touching. "Is that any way to thank your hero, m'lady?"

He then properly kissed her. Deeply and Passionately. He held her close as the kiss deepened. One hand cradled the back of her neck while the other pressed against the lower part of her back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he felt like one of those fairytale heroes, finally getting true loves kiss.

When they finally parted to breathe, the couple heard the faint calls of the other first years.

"Sounds like we're needed," Y/n said softly. The music started up again on a new song and Ace got an idea.

"Well, you still owe me a dance." He removed his hat, placed it on his chest, and kneeled before y/n. He still held one of her hands and smiled, "Y/n, would you spare a dance with your Loyal Card Soldier?"

“Let. Go.” Jack had an iron grip on Rollo’s shoulder. Wolves were protective by nature, and no one messed with their mates.

Jack had been watching the scene through a crack in the door. He trusted his girlfriend to stand up for herself, but what Rollo was doing crossed a line. Rollo turned his head to see the seething wolf glaring at him.

Rollo loosened his grip on y/n's wrist enough for her to slip away from the monster and into Jack's arms. Once he felt her in his embrace, Jack let Rollo's shoulder go and turned to Y/n.

He cupped her cheek and looked her over once. She was trembling and her one wrist was bruised, but other than that she seemed fine. After assessing her for damage, he kissed her forehead and said softly, "It's okay, I've got you."

He turned back to Rollo, who was watching the two, and snarled. He grabbed his robe and growled, "You try to threaten her again, and I'll make you wish the fires burned you to bits."

Rollo just looked stunned. This Freshman dared to threaten him. But Rollo knew better than to start a physical altercation with Howl. "No need for force. I get the message." He kept his poker face, stepped back, straightened his robes, and walked towards the door.

"Enjoy the Ball, L/n," He said "And remember, Nobel Bell's doors are always open if you need them." before exiting the balcony doors.

Now alone under the sparking stars of the City of Flowers, Jack turned back to his princess and wrapped her in his embrace. Now it was his turn to tremble.

"I'm sorry." He said softly, "I should've seen this coming and stopped it."

Y/n leaned back and put a hand on Jack's cheek. "You have nothing to apologize for." She put her forehead on his and smiled, "You saved me from Rollo. I should be thanking you."

Jack sighed and cupped her face, "Still, I haven't been as attentive as I should have. If I was he wouldn't 'have gone this far if I stayed close to you, or was more affectionate. He would've known to back off."

She put her hands on top of his and nuzzled into their warmth, "Sweetie, I don't think that would have changed anything... But if you would feel better about this if we were more public with our relationship and affection, I'm happy to do so." She kissed his palm and saw his tail begin to wag from the corner of her eye. "Just, please don't blame yourself for this."

Jack's concerns seemed to melt away as she spoke. She could always read his mind and it always amazed him. "Anything for you Princess."

He always felt like the Beast from the Shaftland Tale when he was with her. She seemed to make him a better person, just through proximity. The music began to swell in the ballroom and his ears perked.

He looked at her beautiful gown and thought of something Vil told him once after he found out y/n and Jack were dating, "Flowers are meant to be seen, not hidden away."

Jack finally understood what Vil meant by that.

Jack stepped back from Y/n's embrace and bowed before her. He took her hand and kissed the back of it, "Care to Dance, Princess?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note: Please Like, Reblog, and Follow for more! If you are interested in seeing more characters in this scenario or these characters in different scenarios, please let me know! (Do not Steal)

[enchantedbook]

'The Fire Fiend and the raven' by Stephen Emil Fabian

[y-rhywbeth2]

Hello I love bane totally normal amounts, so do you have any favorite fun (or fucked up) trivia facts about my emotional support god of tyranny?

I might've mentioned some of this before, but here's some trivia (and sometimes my musings upon it):

He has absolutely no indoor voice when he's excited. -

If you're invited to pray with the Banites and refuse, expect Bane to curse you with constant debilitating pain that prevents you from being able to cast spells (too much pain to concentrate) or fight, or walk very fast. This doesn't go away until you get a cleric to cast remove curse on you. If you do join them in honouring the Black Lord then your alignment will magically switch to lawful evil and you basically convert to Banite on the spot (if you're a priest then your god fires you immediately and won't take you back); this is either 1e nonsense or a sign of Bane brainwashing you, and either is just as likely. -

He - in his own words - has an "ever-gnawing hunger for miracles and wonder". He also has 10 levels of wizard, which might tie into that. -

He seems to have a monster making hobby. There are so many monsters and monster variants that have been copyrighted by Bane it's ridiculous: banedead, baneguard, baneliches, banelar nagas... I'm pretty sure that Bane is actually credited with creating the beholders ("eye tyrants") of Toril, though I don't have the time to go looking for a source on that.

Either way; he has a lot of beholders in his service. -

I'm pretty sure I remember something about his inventing his own traps during his stay at Zhentil Keep, so there might be an engineering hobby in there somewhere. -

He's a nerd about human biology and geeks out about blood cells and neuroscience - not that he'd admit it because the idea of being thrilled by mortality terrifies him (also I think he just hates positive emotions in general). Before the Time of Troubles he used to enjoy possessing mortals as hosts instead of manifesting avatars, which would presumably allow him to experience what they did and geek out about it while pretending he wasn't (although he didn't look after them very well and inevitably ran them into the ground - basic human needs are beneath him). -

He seems to like using black and red lightning of some sort as a kind of signature. -

(...I think this guy would be very happy as a supervillain living in his secret lab somewhere, performing mad scientist experiments as he plots to take over the world.) -

His domain can be annoying to pin down, because technically it started off in the plane of Acheron, but he's also supposed to be rooming with Loviatar and Bhaal in the Barrens of Doom and Despair in Gehenna, so who knows! -

He has a pet raven called Koravis, who he has a mild telepathic connection with. This raven is actually a fiend in the shape of a raven, but that pretty much just means he has an evil pet raven.

It's been stated that in his mortal life his character class was Blackguard - or an evil paladin, in 5e terms, dedicated to the service of evil powers. I suspect his patron was his master, the primordial Maram, who he served as a battle slave. As the evil pet raven is a Blackguard class feature (fiendish servant) I suspect he had Koravis when he was mortal. The bird/fiend was likely given to him by Maram (much like a warlock's pact familiar comes from their patron) and I guess the bird stuck with the winner. -

He managed to piss off the earth goddess Chauntea at one point, trying to destroy her sacred pools/portals in the Moonshaes. I can't find the sourcebook for the details at the moment though (it was successful enough that his followers still have the moonveil spells though). Bhaal was also trying to kill her over there at some point, so I wonder if that's connected?

[hexed-padlock]

“A New Type of Vampire”

AU/Headcanon where Tav was part of the party that killed Strahd.

Pairing: Hinted Astarion x Tav but mostly gen. Party & Tav

Warnings: PTSD, flashbacks

Notes: A few people are mentioned, old party members of Tav: Alfvin (human wizard), Rägen (human rogue), and an unnamed Paladin.

Summary: After defeating the Orthon, Raphael upholds his end of the deal and reveals the information behind Astarion’s scars. The tale that’s unraveled reminds Tav of the mists.

————————

Yurgir put up much more of a fight than expected. Even with Karlach’s warnings, they had still been caught off guard with the Orthon’s fondness for explosives. One moment, Tav was clearing out a group of merregons, and the next they suddenly found themselves flung off an overhang with a defeaning boom. Shadowheart had to patch them up with a hasty Healing Word but couldn’t do much more as she was preoccupied with several more merregon.

Now, hours later, they were hurt and still so very sore from the whole ordeal. Shadowheart took the second most hits, while Gale was mildly scuffed up. Astarion, the bastard, somehow avoided getting hit until the end when an unexpected explosion sent him flying straight into the growling displacer beast. Needless to say, they were all happy to have that fight over with.

Tav sighed and dropped onto their bedroll with a low thud. Huntress, they’ve just about had it with fiends.

As if to spite them, the scent of sulfur began to waft through the old, stuffy air of Shar’s Gauntlet. Tav barely had a moment to clamber to their feet before a low orange glow signaled the arrival of Raphael. The rest of the party grabs their weapons as the cambion appears in a flash of brimstone and fire.

“Splendid! I should thank you for making quick work of Yurgir.” The devil was all smiles, fanged and hungry. He briefly mentioned his plans of re-educating Yurgir, which had Tav almost concerned for a moment, before swiftly turning to Astarion.

Raphael actually upholds his end of the deal and Astarion listens with rapt attention as the devil unveils what he learned. A contract, a ritual—between the Archdevil Mephistopheles and the vampire lord Cazador Szarr. Through this rite, Cazador would gain untold power and become a new type of vampire—The Vampire Ascendant. An evolution of sorts that will allow Cazador to gain untold levels of power, backed by an Archdevil of the Hells.

A dark power, a deal, and an all-powerful vampire lord, Raphael summarized.

Tav feels their hands go numb as a low ringing fills their ears. A pit forms in their stomach as a familiar fanged smile flashes through their mind.

The cambion continues speaking, Astarion giving him his full attention. Tav finds their eyes drifting over to Astarion’s and- Oh, gods. A familiar dread slowly crawl ls up their spine, the ringing growing ever louder, as Astarion’s eyes fill with fear… and hunger. Cold grips their insides and a soft caress of a familiar fog wraps around their limbs, clouds their eyes.

In an instant, Tav feels the mists around them- they wander aimlessly but there’s no way out. It’s blinding, disorienting—suffocating. A thick fog spans out in every direction, blanketing the Valley in an eternal gloom. They hear the distant howls of wolves, the eerie childish laughter, and the whispers. He was always watching, Tav knew. No matter where they went, it was never safe. It felt like a nightmare, and maybe it was—for what reality would allow such terror to exist alongside the living? All those souls lost in the pursuit of a monster’s hunger for power. Van Richten, Esmeralda-

Scenes flash through the mists, feeling all too real.

They hear The Huntress calling for them. They feel the Blood Spear echoing the land’s old magic, digging into Tav’s soul, empowering, hungering, thirsting-

They turn sharply in the mist and find a raven-haired human looking back at them, gripping onto a black dagger and clad in dark leathers. A friend. They were safe. Rägen. She was was as deaf as a rogue could be and as paranoid as a bat. Her heart was in the right place once you earn her trust. They’ve handled countless monsters together, having to rely on strangers, now family. Tav blinks and- They see her body, trapped within the amber- cold, cold, cold and alone-

“(Tav)?” … Alfvin? Alfvin. Their wizard, a brilliant arcane scholar and diabolist. A sharp mind and a trusted ally. Sharp brown eyes and black veins along the sclera, a scar running over the bridge of his nose, the familiar smell of sulfur and ash- His body hung from the gallows, the mists caressing a limp cat at his feet.

Raphael vanishes in another swirl of hellfire, descending once more into Avernus.

“Well, that was definitely something.”

Astarion’s lips feel dry as he processes the information Raphael provided. The Rite of Profane Ascension. A ritual that guarantees his death, but also untold potential. Power, freedom. He could keep himself safe, could keep Tav safe.

He expects some wry comment from Tav, but silence is all that greets him. He expected a quip or two about Raphael, maybe a seething comment about the ritual and infernal contracts- not silence.

He turns and finds the party all staring at a very much catatonic Tav. Their eyes are wide and empty, distant. They see something not there and their body shakes with subtle tremors as the air swiftly begins to cool. He flinches because it doesn’t make sense. Tav is bright and shining, someone laughs at danger and taunts fate itself. But this Tav was silent, staring but not seeing.

Astarion wants to reach out, to comfort, but the look on Tav’s face has him glued to the ground. A fear, horror, but of what?

It doesn’t take long for someone to approach Tav. Gale, sweet Gale, calls to Tav and shakes their shoulder.

—————

Someone shakes their shoulder and Tav flinches back, the tadpole responding and lashing out, overwhelmed with the sudden onslaught of memories.

Flashes of manic, chanting voices calling out. “He is the ancient, he is the land.”

A land cloaked in an eternal mist

trapped. trapped- no way out.

empty husks of people walking the streets

ravens crying out in warning

a flash- Blood red eyes, long raven hair

flames eating at a burning windmill. Ye Old Bonegrinder.

the stench of death and a lich’s grin

shadowed entities glinting within the amber that traps them

and a single man, sitting atop a throne, fangs glinting in the candlelight of Castle Ravenloft.

———

The party is flooded with flashes of memories- vivid, horrifying memories. A single name echoes above it all. Strahd.

The tadpoles grip onto the name and a final memory flashes. Strahd, astride his nightmare, plunges a black longsword through their- Tav’s- back. It’s a pain unlike any other. Shadows overwhelm them, darkness taking and taking. The Blood Spear’s tries desperately to stave off the dread plane’s magic as it takes and takes and takes.

A blinding light fills the room and Tav glances back to see a blade of radiant light pierced through Strahd’s middle. Behind him, their bloodied paladin, a Banite sent to conquer but one who’d chosen to instead save, smiles weakly.

Tav whispers, a voice unfamiliar to the party but still overwhelmingly Tav’s, “We’re free.”

They’re wretched from the visions as Tav seizes on the ground, clutching their middle the same way they had in the vision- the memory.

They blink up at the others, eyes wide, as they weakly mutter, “I can explain.”

“What in the Hells was that?!” Astarion screeches. He feels the horrible, pained cries. Sees the horror wrought by a single vampire’s will. Thousands of people, of souls, trapped in a demi-plane because of a single man’s selfish wish. He could practically taste Tav’s own fear, constant, all-consuming, as Strahd played with his new toys. Monsters clawed from the shadows as the dark gods laughed.

The whole party is shaken from the whispers in their heads.

Gale weakly pipes up. “I believe we saw some… interesting memories.” Definitely interesting. Dark magic unlike anything he’s ever seen should count as interesting.

Lae’zel hisses back, “Obviously.”

Shadowheart is silent as the memory quickly passes, echoes of a familiar shadow magic fading as the images vanish.

Wyll shudders as, for a moment, his limbs are frozen. He’s the Blade of Frontiers. He’s slain devils and monsters alike, but the power of a dread lord in his own plane was nothing like he’s experienced.

Karlach surges forward to hug Tav and moves to grab the rest of the party. There’s complaints and a lot of squirming, but they all settle into the hug.

Tav, suddenly surrounded by warmth, sobs. They’re safe.

They’ll explain another time, Tav thinks as they relax into the warmth of their party.

They all understood pain, they all shared their stories, and Tav supported them all with no judgement. They’ll wait. For now, it was time to return the favor.

(Bonus:

(Astarion very pointedly tries not to stare as the memory of sweet, darling Tav killing Strahd fills his mind. Seems like the gods finally answered his prayers.

The slayer of Strahd himself, now fighting to protect him and the rest of Faerün. His heart races at the thought and yep he’s definitely in love now.)

————————-

Hello! Sorry for taking a while to post the next reveal fic. I’m not sure how I feel about this one but it’s a scenario I had drafted up already. I tried my best bur writing really isn’t my strong suit lol.

Next fic is gonna be a lot sillier.

If anyone has some reveal ideas or prompts they have, feel free to reach out!

Tag list:

@writingmysanity @furblrwurblr

[morrigan-sims]

D&D OC Intro

(inspired by @goldenwaves's post!!)

[transcript under the cut]

This is FAR from everyone, but it's the characters I've played for more than a oneshot, and the ones I actually talk about. (I would have added Asra, but I didn't have a pic of her with a black background. I'll probably update this later.)

TRANSCRIPT:

Zenara Raventhorn (aka Zen)

Tiefling Warlock (Pact of the Fiend)

The first D&D character I ever played.

Only got to play two sessions with them.

Unintentionally inspired by Critical Role Campaign 2

Backstory written between 1-3am on my phone.

Has an imp familiar who looks like a raven.

Occasionally gets possessed by their patron, and then gets given new powers as an "apology".

Fire theme.

Rook (Adrian Lockwood)

Half-elf Rogue (Swashbuckler)

First (and only) character to make it past 8 sessions. (So far.)

Disaster bisexual pirate boy with SO MUCH trauma.

Wields a magic rapier that was a gift from his captain + first mentor.

Enemies with a different pirate captain who wants to capture him.

Has decent charisma but relatively terrible social skills.

Bastard son of a nobleman. Has daddy issues.

Reckless and impulsive to a fault. Would die for his friends.

May or may not be cursed by a demon lord.

Asola Riava Ashmark

Aasimar Paladin (Oath of Vengeance)

Made it 8 sessions before we switched campaigns.

Doesn't know she's an aasimar. Her powers show up when she experiences extreme emotions and it's only ever happened twice in her life.

Got briefly possessed and then force-shut-down by a literal god.

Has a habit of picking up stray traumatized young people.

The party's moral compass. Tried to keep them somewhat in line.

Believes that laying down her life to save someone else's is worth it. Swears she doesn't have self-worth issues.

Morana Novak

Witch (Curse Patron)

Character for an eventual Pathfinder game.

Named after a Slavic goddess of death and winter.

Necromancer, got kicked out of her hometown for graverobbing and experimenting on corpses.

Her familiar is a raven named Miro, who she rescued and trained.

Autistic as hell, which will be fun for me to play.

Very creepy and unsettling person.

One of her future party members nicknamed her "Mortician".

Cyra

Fire Genasi Barbarian (Path of the Storm Herald)

Newest character on this powerpoint.

Fights with a magical flaming quarterstaff that she can summon from inside herself.

Has a stolen, magically powered vehicle.

Formerly part of a cult. Only stayed around for their toxic then-girlfriend.

Somehow basically the least traumatized member of the party. That was NOT the plan.

[teawithmagician]

The table was plenty. Full of food: delicacies, poultry, aged cheeses, fruit. Bottlenecks stuck out proudly as soldiers at a parade. Raphael let go of her shoulders, transforming into his devil form with smoke and cracking, fire in the fireplace roaring and changing colours.

“Since we’re here to talk business maybe let's skip the seduction part and go directly to drinks?” she asked, taking off her gloves. She was strikingly beautiful despite her age, and the grey streaks in her raven-black hair only added to her beauty. But there was something to her that was unpleasant and sharp like a blade and crunchy-cold like first ice.

“We have things to discuss, that for certain, my lady,” Raphael smirked. He ignored her lack of acknowledgment of his transformation, yet he couldn’t say it didn’t disappoint him. It was his favourite trick in the end.

She nodded, earrings in her ears swinging.

“Anyways, some small talk for starters? What you've been up to? Seducing some easily impressed maidens with fulfilling their deepest desires?”

“Oh, you've been asking around then? I like your attitude, but no. I have been working on some other things” he brushed it off with slight annoyance.

“Oh, you did, you fiend”, she chuckled in good humour, examining the bottles. Raphael watched her, enjoying the familiarity of the feeling.

“You have champagne from that one world? I always loved it” She looked at him over the shoulder saying 'I always loved it' as if it meant not quite champagne. But the impression only lingered for a second and passed quickly.

“I have many things, I have enough to satisfy any taste,” Raphael boasted casually, signalling the champagne to open itself. “It’s from that silly little place called France. I think I took you there at least once?”

“Self-driving carriages” she snapped her fingers. “Yes! I was so scared.”

“Love to see you scared, a rare sight,” he laughed. They lingered by the chairs in silence. He waited until the glass poured itself and gave it to her. She drank, looking aside. Her black velvet jacket seemed dusty, as if after a long journey. Raphael looked at her, sipping on his champagne. For some reason, neither of them sat: he was leaning on the chair, and she leaned on the table.

“I'm under a rather strange predicament these days. I'm responsible for a bunch of troubled kids, including a vampire, a Shar priest, a mage, a vigilante, a spectral warrior, and Zariel’s protégée. And now I need to decide on their behalf. And on behalf of humanity, I guess.”

“I remember the vampire boy, Astarion, right?”

“The boy wants to talk to you about his master. Devil tongue, I remember you've been good in it considering it's not your primary language.”

“My dear, I think you know that another one hinting at me being half-blood would not live long enough to enjoy the joke,” he reminded her, but she brushed his threat off.

“If you wanted to kill me, you would have already done that. But I admire human souls, so take it as a compliment from someone who doesn’t have one anymore.”

“That kid and his master. Their souls are interesting. I could help, yes. But what do I get in return? You know, I don’t particularly do favours.”

“Raphael,” she frowned slightly, looking at him. “You don’t have to be stingy. You’ll get the world, figurally speaking. You can help the vampire kid. He is a nice kid after all.”

“Oh, I would do anything for you” Raphael laughed, playing courteously. “But I don’t quite trust your judgement. Once you considered me a nice kid too.”

“You were one… to a certain extent.” She shrugged.

“What can I say? I’m my father’s son” he spread his arms jokingly.

“But then do you remember the last time you did something you truly wanted? Not to spite your father, or to prove him he was wrong about you?” she looked at him sharply.

“I do remember. I do remember well. I was young and innocent back then. I had dreams, you know? I had the wish to be a famous musician and sing in front of thousands of people. However... I was forced to be what I am by my father, and I had to make him happy.”

“Yes, with a father like yours, it's a matter of survival. I remember how I was a young bard and a spy. I made a deal with you to live forever and you warned me I may find it a burden. And the moment I regret it, my soul is yours.”

“So, do you regret your deal?”

Somehow, he wanted to hear both ‘yes’ and ‘no’. And, yet he’d rather she said ‘no’. Strangely, he didn’t want her to regret anything. To his relief, she shook her head.

“No. I still find my life entertaining”.

He moved the chair, finally inviting her to sit. But as she sat, he didn’t take a chair, still holding her chair’s back in his hands.

“I liked you back then” she mentioned it casually, but he fell silent for longer than a conversation could allow.

“And I liked you as well”.

It felt like a confession, and it was one.

“Hold me close and hold me fast,” she sang quietly, “the magic spell you cast, this is la vie en rose.”

“Give your heart and soul to me, and life will always be la vie en rose,” he finished with a soft chuckle. It was ironic how it was exactly what she did. But it never was her heart.

She sat on the edge of the chair, turning to him, and asked.

“You really want this crown, do you? Become the ruler of the nine hells and the rest that goes with.”

“I want everything. And that never would be enough” he snapped. “It belongs to me. By the birth right and by the right of the fittest.”

There was sudden sadness to her gaze, her dark eyes were starless as she looked at him. Driven by impulse he leaned in to her.

“And you know what is the next thing I’ll want.”

“You never change, you cocky unreadable man,” she laughed. He finally took the chair, turning it to her and sitting next to her, feeling outraged for no particular reason. Yet, the reason was too clear, he just couldn’t admit it. It was like stepping on pride.

“Watch your tongue, dear. I’m not a tame cat.”

“No, you write silly poems and you never clean your House properly, and your ego is in a size of a continent. What a curse you are, really,” she sighed.

“Curses are my job, darling,” he leaned to her, and she smiled with the corners of her lips. The dimples on her cheeks was almost girlish. That brought back memories. “And my ego is of proper size for my plans.”

“Don’t be silly” she ruffled his hair. “I lied and you believed me. That proves my hypothesis of you being silly.”

“What did you lied about?” he asked in a relaxed tone, yet he was immediately alerted like a hellhound on a track.

“That I don’t have a heart to love you.”

The response was like a slap. And even a devil could be taken by surprise.

“How do you think I would put up with you for so long if I were not even a little affectionate about you? How do you think you convinced me into this deal of yours in the first place? I wouldn’t lose my soul to miscalculation. As a secretly dramatic nature, I would only go for a dramatic cause.”

She sipped on her champagne, leaning her elbow on the back of her chair.

“So, you say you are in love with me and expect me to believe you?” he raised his brow. He only needed to win some time to truly assess the situation. But time was what they were always short of.

“I don't expect you to believe anything,” she fixed his collar, her confidence always swept him off his feet. “You were a boy. And I was in love with you.”

“Why would you lie then?” that was the only question that was on his mind.

“To have the upper hand, naturally,” she shrugged her shoulders. “You know how you are at times. Just can't help to use every leverage you have. I couldn't give you that. You men can't handle a graceful surrender.”

“You got me. I do like to think, I am always right. But you know what's really funny?” he chuckled. “I lied too. And that said, I didn't even have a reason to do it.”

“I know. I was quite striking back then. And I counted on you to fall for me to get a better deal. Seems like we both miscalculated.”

[djbunnie]

DnD Hell hounds are monstrous fire breathing fiends that take on the form of powerful dogs. They can be found throughout the lower plains, where they serve evil creatures as companions and guard dogs. They are smarter than most beasts and their lawful nature makes them good at following orders. Unfortunately their malevolent hunger makes them difficult to train for anything other than killing. If it’s not allowed to indulge in the hunger it will turn on its master. Hell hounds that are on the loose will hunt in packs and they’ll feed on any creatures that even appear edible.it won't hesitate to hunt and kill larger and more dangerous enemies. They will pursue their prey to the bitter end. They have the ability to breathe fire which comes from this eternal flame that is consistently stoke from the flesh that they eat and have the ability to shapeshift to any breed of dog to blend into the human world undetected.

I have a fun idea! Imagine if John Constantine and Toddler Raven recently returned from Japan. During their trip, Toddler Raven discovered her love for Japanese Shiba Inu Dogs. She was sad to leave them behind and return home, especially since she couldn't play with the kind old lady dog that John left her with while he was saving the day. Toddler Raven had been pleading with her adopted father, John Constantine, for months to get her a Shiba Inu. However, John had always refused her request. Despite this, Raven persisted in her appeals. Nevertheless, everyone has their limits.

John Constantine learned that “Hell Hounds” were on the loose. In the abandoned graveyard. Toddler Raven escaped from the House of Mystery and followed the British Warlock.

Toddler Raven: “Daddy why are we here?”

Dad Constantine: “Daddy is here to-WTF!!! Rachel, why are you here!?”

Toddler Raven: *🤩* “LOOK LOOK!!!” *shows a poorly drawing of herself hugging a Poorly drawn Shiba Inu* “See daddy! Look how happy I’ll be with my own Shiba Inu!!!!”

Dad Constantine: “Racheal not now. Open a portal and go home. We'll talk about this later.”

Toddler Raven: “No.”

Dad Constantine: “I beg your pardon?”

Toddler Raven: “NO I WANT! A SHIBA INU NOW!!!”

A toddler was throwing a tantrum and Constantine attempted to quiet her down. Unfortunately, it was too late as three HellHounds heard Raven's cries and were ready to hunt and kill. However, when the HellHounds got closer, Raven lost control and transformed into a demon, unleashing a powerful wave of dark magic that scared the HellHounds. The HellHounds, instinctively sensing danger, listened to Raven and transformed into Shiba Inu dogs to soothe her. This tactic worked and Raven calmed down, happy to see the three dogs.

Raven is the proud owner of three Demonic Shiba Inu dogs. It's adorable how she never outgrew her love for Shiba Inus! She has Shiba Inu-themed stationery items, a backpack, fashionable clothing, plushies, a blanket, and everything else.

[disney2dnd]

Disney DND Builds--Villain #1: Maleficent

Hello, welcome to a series where I create Dungeons and Dragons builds out of classic Disney characters. I'll be starting with the villains as I think they are more fun and interesting to design.

MALEFICENT

Maleficent is the most iconic Disney villain. She's an evil witch with a raven, an army of goblins and the power to turn into a dragon, what's not to love? So what better villain to start this series, and this blog with than her? This build can be used as the basis for a villain for a campaign, or as a playable character.

I will be limiting myself to the 1959 Maleficent, so no Kingdom Hearts or Angelina Jolie Maleficent--Those could very well be their own builds someday, but not today.

Race:

Maleficent's race is a hard one but I decided to go with the Elf race, specifically the Drow/Dark Elf subrace. This is because of the Drow's association with evil and it's Fey Ancestry. Maleficent is often identified as an evil fairy (or a witch but that isn't a race). I don't think she is referred to as one directly in the 1959 film though so technically this is breaking my rule about limiting the features to that of the 50s Maleficent, but it's necessary for the build I think. She won't be serving Lolth the Spider Queen though, we'll discover her master later. I know that some might pick Tiefling due to Maleficent's horns but I personally think it's just a helmet.

Class:

I personally feel the best choice for Maleficent is a multiclass of Druid and Warlock class. I'll explain the biggest reason for Warlock in the next section, although it's also worth mentioning that Warlock is one of the most typically evil DND classes. Fair warning though, Warlocks are lacking in spell slots, but when cast their spells are always the highest slot level available. For example, as a level 17 Warlock our Maleficent's highest spell level is 5th Level. If she is a 17th level Warlock and chooses to cast Witch Bolt or Fireball they be cast at 5th level no matter what. I think this fits Maleficent's power level and ego, I cannot imagine her deliberately casting a 1st level spell if she was level 20. As for Druid it provides Maleficent with useful elemental spells. She'll be taking 17 levels in Warlock and 3 levels in Druid.

Subclasses:

Warlock has several subclasses (or "pacts" as the subclass shows what patron the Warlock serves) but I believe the best choice thematically is the Pact of the Fiend. One of Maleficent's most memorable lines is "now shall you deal with me O' Prince. And all the powers of HELL!" so there's definitely a connection to demons and devils. This also gives her access to several fire-themed spells, and fire was a major element of Maleficent's magic in the original film.

As for Druid, I'll be picking Circle of the Land, specifically the Mountain version for one spell in particular. I found another build that combines these two subclasses as well, which definitely served as inspiration.

Background and Alignment:

In the original movie, Maleficent's backstory is left unknown and we are not using information from the Angelina Jolie film. I'm going with the Outlander background since Maleficent seems to live off in the mountains far away from the King's palace.

For Alignment I think Chaotic Evil makes the most sense since Maleficent has no morals and enjoys being evil for the hell of it.

Pact Boon:

Of the Warlock Pact Boons, I think Pact of the Chain is the easiest choice (again thematically). Maleficent's pet raven Diablo is one of the most iconic aspects of her character, and Pact of the Chain adds the spell Find Familiar to her spell list, and the raven is one of the possible choices for a Familiar. We'll talk more about Diablo and how he works as a Familiar later.

Invocations:

Warlocks can gain extra powers by choosing Invocations. As Maleficent is a Level 17 Warlock, we can have up to 8 Invocations.

Armour of Shadows: Lets you cast Mage Armour at will. No real basis in the movie, just picked as filler but you can use it to protect Diablo if he gets caught in the crossfire during a fight.

Beguiling Influence: This gives Maleficent Proficiency in Deception and Persuasion, which is useful for tricking princesses into touching deadly spindles and also for tricking a prince into believing his dear bride-to-be is still at home (causing him to walk right into an ambush).

Agonising Blast (Prerequisite: Eldritch Blast cantrip): Adds your Charisma modifier to the damage of your Eldritch Blasts. Included just to make the cantrip Eldritch Blast more powerful, again Maleficent is incredibly powerful, famously one of the most powerful Disney Villains and I don't see her accepting Eldritch Blast in its standard form when improvements are available.

Eldritch Mind: This gives you advantage on Constitution saving throws to maintain concentration on a spell. Given that several of Maleficent's spells need concentration, I feel this will be useful.

Sign of Ill Omen (Prerequisite: 5th level): Lets you cast Bestow Curse with a Warlock spell slot once per day. And curses are pretty much Maleficent's thing.

Bewitching Whispers (Prerequisite: 7th level): This lets you cast Compulsion using a Warlock spell slot once per day. Perfect for luring unsuspecting princesses to a deadly spinning wheel!

Visions of Distant Realms (Prerequisite: 15th level): This lets you cast Arcane Eye at will without expending a spell slot. Maleficent is apparently an excellent spy, as one of the fairies says "even walls have ears" when shushing the other two.

Spells:

(this will not be counting spells Maleficent gets from Feats, Invocations and Mystic Arcanum, we'll discuss those later)

Cantrips:

Eldritch Blast (Warlock): Not only is this easily the best and most iconic Warlock cantrip, A damaging "beam of crackling energy" fits well with the appearance of some of the magic we see Maleficent use in the movie.

Minor Illusion (Warlock): I originally picked this because I could've sworn Maleficent mimics Aurora's voice to lure Prince Phillip in before she captures him, but looking back at the scene she doesn't. I'm still including this cantrip though, because early on the movie, she creates an image of bats and devils and the famous spinning wheel with her staff. Major Image can do this too and you could consider just having it and ignoring Minor Illusion but there is actually a reason I think she should have both the cantrip and that spell.

Frostbite (Warlock): Maleficent apparently uses frost spells to ruin the flower gardens of the good fairies, according to a brief exchange between them.

Prestidigitation (Warlock): Minor magical effects. Mainly included for filler, feel free to replace it with another Cantrip (in fact, feel free to replace anything with anything, this isn't the way you HAVE to play this build).

Produce Flame (Druid): We're going to be putting a heavy emphasis on fire for this build.

Gust (Druid): Early in the movie, a gust of wind heralds Maleficent's introduction.

Thunderclap (Druid Bonus Cantrip): Does Thunder damage, which ties into the theme of deadly elements being used for Maleficent's spells.

Dancing Lights (Drow Magic): Manipulating light might not fit Maleficent's persona but you get this magic naturally if you play a Drow.

1st Level Spells:

Witch Bolt (Warlock): A lot of Maleficent's spells appear in the form of lightning bolts. Since Warlocks don't get many Lightning spells, we'll be using Witch Bolt to represent this.

Command (Warlock): Taken for the same reason as Bewitching Whispers, for compelling people to do stuff for you...like approaching the spindle you want them to touch! Feel free to swap this out for Charm Person if you think that spell works better.

Burning Hands (Warlock): Fire is a key element of Maleficent's magic, and we'll definitely be prioritising spells that do fire damage.

Entangle (Druid): "A forest of thorns shall be his tomb" These thorny spells are the main appeal for picking Druid.

Thunderwave (Druid): Does thunder damage, and again, lightning spells are prominent for Maleficent.

Faerie Fire (Drow Magic): You just get this naturally by being a Drow.

2nd Level Spells:

Misty Step (Warlock): Maleficent uses teleportation powers about three times in the film, though she is surrounded by fire instead of "silvery mist" so make of that what you will.

Invisibility (Warlock): Turned invisible to hypnotise Aurora.

Scorching Ray (Warlock): Because fire.

Flaming Sphere (Druid): Again, fire.

Spider Climb (Druid): No basis in the movie, but this spell is always prepared if you go Circle of the Mountain.

Spike Growth (Druid): More thorn magic, and this time more dangerous than Entangle.

3rd level Spells:

Major Image (Warlock): Same reason for inclusion as Minor Illusion. As this is a Concentration spell while Minor Illusion is not, you can technically combine these spells to create more effective illusions.

Fireball (Warlock): Gimme an F! Gimme an I! Gimme an R! Gimme an E! Also this is just a great spell period.

4th level spells:

Fire Shield (Warlock): Now this fire spell is actually similar to one used in the movie, which Maleficent uses to dissuade the King's guards from attacking her.

Dimension Door (Warlock): Same reason for inclusion as Misty Step, only better, although that spell remains useful since it is a bonus action unlike this spell which takes a full action.

Elemental Bane (Warlock): Pretty much all the damage types mentioned aside from acid have been used by Maleficent.

Wall of Fire (Warlock): C'mon you know the drill by now.

5th level spells:

Flame Strike (Warlock): The "divine" aspect of the fire is a bit unthematic with Maleficent's evil-loving persona but it's the best I could find and is still quite powerful.

Scrying (Warlock): Again, Maleficent is apparently an excellent spy. This also has problems, namely that Maleficent is not able to detect Aurora whereas she could easily with this power but what the hell maybe Aurora makes really consistently good Wisdom saves.

Mystic Arcanum:

These give you access to spells higher level than what Warlocks usually get. Two of these spells were perfect for Maleficent while the other two were mainly filler and can be swapped out for other spells.

Investiture of Flame: Basically a superior version of Flame Shield, ideal for Maleficent.

Finger of Death: Filler, but fit Maleficent best out of the remaining spells.

Power Word Stun: Filler but powerful and deadly enough to gel with Maleficent.

True Polymorph: With this you can become the mighty dragon Maleficent turns into in the movie, making it by far the easiest choice of the 9th-level spell options. Adult Red Dragon breathes fire and is generally stronger but the appearance of the Adult Black Dragon is closer to the one in the film, despite it breathing acid instead of fire. Just pick whichever dragon you feel suits best.

Proficiencies and Ability Scores:

I believe Arcana and Intimidation are the two best choices thematically and with an Invocation you'll end up with proficiency in Persuasion and Deception anyway. As for the Ability Scores, we'll be going with the same general concept as this build again, with Charisma>Wisdom>Intelligence>Strength>Dexterity.

Feats and Score Increases:

I'll be taking two feats and using the ability score increases on Charisma and Wisdom, the abilities most important for Warlocks and Druids respectively.

Magic Initiate (Wizard): This gives Maleficent two Cantrips and a 1st level spell from the Wizard spell book. I'll be picking the Control Flames and Ray of Frost Cantrips due to their elemental themes and the spell will be Sleep for reasons that are obvious.

Elemental Adept (Fire): This Feat ensures resistance to fire damage will not affect your many many fire spells.

Minions:

Diablo the Raven:

As mentioned, Diablo will be a Familiar for this build, and the spell and the Raven stat block are already linked in the Pact Boon section. Keep in mind that a Familiar cannot attack without a Feat from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything but since Diablo is more of a scout than a combatant in the movie and the Raven isn't a terribly strong Beast anyway it is not a huge problem.

Goons:

Identifying Maleficent's "Goons" is quite difficult, and I've seen them identified as both goblins and orcs, but to be honest they could be neither. The bug-eyed bat-like one does like somewhat goblin-like though and a few of the pig-faced ones resemble old depictions of orcs so I'll be making them mostly Orcs with a couple of Goblins. You could even include at least one Lizardfolk and a couple of Kenku to represent the crocodile and bird-looking ones. To my knowledge there is no spell that lets you summon orcs, goblins or any of the other monsters mentioned so I'd just make them recruitable NPCs. If you are using this build for a Maleficent player character, I doubt the DM will let you just bring the Goons with you willy nilly, as having a small army might make things unfair, but they might let you bring them for attacks on strong enemy armies or the BBEG. However, the Goons are better for a Maleficent-inspired BBEG than they are for a Player character.

And with that our Maleficent build is essentially complete, as a Fiend Warlock/Mountain Druid. You can use lightning, fire and thorny walls against your opponents, command a small army of monsters and one crafty raven and of course, turn into a ferocious dragon. Please let me know how you would design the build or any improvements I could make, and you are welcome to suggest Disney characters for future builds. With that said, thank you for reading, and I hope you were satisfied by this build in its current form.

[bananathebookworm]

TLOVM Season 2 Eps 4-6 Ramblings

EP. 4

- More baby twins. I love getting to see these flashbacks of things that were only briefly mentioned during the campaign.

- Trinket origin story! Baby trinket is so adorable.

- Ugh... and right back into this absolutely brutal moment. The first of several moments that are going to be absolutely gut wrenching to see animated.

- Trinket defending his mama. 

- “Take me instead you Raven bitch.” Love that they keep these iconic lines from the campaign.

- “Holy shit, I’m amazing.” Humble as ever Kash.

- Love Vex laughing in response to them telling her she died. Because sometimes it’s the only way to process things.

- Vax getting Death Walker’s Ward. And thus the decision that seals Vax’s fate in the end.

- Zahra is so cool. I love her.

- Vax’s flashbacks to the Calamity... I really hope we get a Calamity film at some point.

- And a passing of the torch from Purvan to Vax. Going from Vax getting the shit beat out of him, to him then accepting his fate and coming back and saving everyone. I love it so much.

- The tensions between Percy and Vax beginning... 

- The necklace for Trinket!

- Was not expecting that little jumpscare at all... though I really like them adding these Calamity flashbacks as part of becoming the new Champion of the Matron of Ravens.

- Westruun in flames...

EP. 5

- BABY KEYLETH! 

- “Pass through fire” reference. I’m a little sad that the context has changed so much, but I appreciate that the sentiment still exists in this world. I guess this also means we won’t be seeing Kerrek at all. (Which makes sense given Lyra and Thorbir were also cut.)

- Grog and Kraven Edge. Simultaneously the funniest and most terrifying relationship in the show. Also love that they included the Grog and Scanlan convo.

- Pike and Grog singing together! I love it.

- And the secrets of the broom unlocked!

- Was Vax this much of an asshole during this part of the campaign? I don’t remember him being this much of a dick towards Keyleth...

- KIMA AND ALLURA! HELL YES!

- “You know what you fight fire with?” “Fire?” “Me.” Never change Grog.

- “We can certainly try.” Fucking incredible. I love it so much.

- I love any time Percy loses his cool. 

- ALLURA. FUCKING. VYSOREN.

- I have very little recollection of Keyleth and her dad together in campaign, so I love getting to see them together here.

- I wonder if between the Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein series we’ll get to see Keyleth and her mother reunite.

- Keyleth is the best member of the team. I will not be taking any questions or criticisms.

- Seeing Keyleth’s new look, my brain immediately goes to getting the red tunic to resist fire in Ocarina of Time...

- Plane shifting beginnings.

EP. 6

- And now getting into Grog’s backstory a little more. I love that season one was them solidifying them as a team, and now season two is letting us see more into their individual backstories.

- Oh Percy...

- My recollection is that Scanlan never let anyone manhandle him in the campaign. He always insisted that everyone else heal themselves first and refused to be picked up most of the time. (With the occasional exception during battle like the fast-ball special.)

- Kraven Edge is terrifying

- Sphinxes are so cool

- Arcane Piano. This is ridiculous and amazing all at once.

- During the campaign I never stopped to consider what it actually looks like when Scanlan stop to sing in the middle of battle.

- Scanlan bonding with the Sphinx was not what I expected from this trial. But I love it.

- MYTHCARVER! Time to slay a Pit Fiend.

- Not as brutal as ending on Liam/Vax’s sobs last week, but that was still awful. 

- I'm interested to see where this goes because so far Pike is their only healer, unlike the campaign where Vex, Scanlan, and Keyleth were also able to heal when needed.

[fantasies-fairytales-n-fics]

Thranduil and Josie Part 74- Halt and Catch Fire

Summary: 5 days till Halloween with a time jump coming soon to a wicked party. Garrett and Josie scope out the library in search for Ashmole 782 and share some humor and feels along the way. He tells and shows her his version of Clover's(Raven's) upbringing and the night of the Laketown massacre. Garrett also has a secret that he confides in Josie. Something's burning. Garrett risks a number one vampire killer to save the evidence. A major truth is revealed as Josie has a memory induced meltdown. A pair of icy hands keeps her sane. She later stumbles across the wrong bedroom. An encounter with Lestat goes horribly wrong. Josie's two left feet never fail her. Raven ruffles Thranduil's feather's and he puts the vexing vampire in her place. She seeks revenge in more ways than one. The witchy vamp sets her eyes on a pawn. Seems even animals loathe the fiery fiend. Haldir is not acting himself. Garrett is mortified at a vision. Thranduil is appalled. Marius rages. Josie turns OG. Haldir panics as the Phoenix rises from the ashes.

As you and Garrett walked into the dimly lit entrance of the library, the gibbous moon gaped at you through the cathedral window and snow was falling in massive quantities at an expeditious speed. The orbs were also there.

"They're following me." you whispered as ran your hand through them in amazement.

"Or they're guiding you somewhere since they were already in here?" Garrett suggested. "Annnnd they're turning the pages of a book." he said with a stunned look upon his face. Clearly it couldn't be Ashmole 782 just sitting out in the wide open.

You went to look at it. "The pages....they're blank? Odd..." you pondered as you stood inside the swirling balls of energy. Your eyes suddenly became heavy and you stumbled back.

"Whoa, hey there. You alright?" Garrett asked in worry as he held you against him.

"Yeah...yeah...it's their energy...I can feel it. It's magnetizing like...." Your eyes drifted off in thought of Narcisse. That's how you felt when you touched him.

"Like?" Garrett was now quite the curious cat.

"I'm sure you know who Lord Narcisse is?"

"Unfortunately. Just another who believes I am responsible for Laketown's massacre. Why do you ask?"

"Well...it's just that...I experienced this feeling with him...and...now I know that he is a witch. It's just strange since he's not even here."

"Thank god." he snarked and walked over to a book case acting as if he were interested in the contents. It was clear Narcisse was a sensitive subject so you dropped it and followed him.

"God Garrett, there are so many books. I will never find Ashmole, if it's even here at all." You ran your fingers over the aged books in hopes of being able to feel what you were searching for.

You did this for a good 15 minutes around the room as Garrett stood watching you. He was completely fascinated with your intuitive abilities.

"Ugh!! Nothing! This is such a waste of time Garrett. It's probably not even here."

"Patience little one. This is only one room of many in the archives."

"Well I certainly have no patience for that!" you fumed and coughed from the dust as you slammed another book on the growing pile that you now could not be seen behind.

Garrett chuckled in amusement. "Well, how about try calling to it? You know, use that magic hidden inside of you."

"Or maybe you could help me instead of standing there taking pleasure in my suffering." you snarked and sprung up with a pouty mouth which only made him laugh more. With that, you picked up a book and hurled it at him.

"Whoaa!" He roared in laughter and ducked as the book just missed his head. You picked up another and hovered it above your head with a sly grin. "Alright alright uncle uncle!! White flag is up!" he chuckled as he blocked his face with his arms.

You then laughed and dropped the weapon. "Alright so you want me to call to a book...how? Like do I just start chanting "Oh booooooook" like Winifred Sanderson? Maybe that black cat will come too, what's his name?"

"Ha ha yeah great movie! Thackery Binx. My favorite part. Think I was in my mid 20's then....." He instantly clammed up and his face fell flat as he stared at the ground. "Anyways...Lestat actually has a black cat running around here somewhere. He don't talk though...as far as I know." he laughed as he tried to deflect again from his accidental reveal of his past life.

"So...uh....is it true what Raven told me? About your birthday?"

"Yeah I heard that part. Hoped you would forget about it." He went over and continued looking through the books where you left off.

"Gar...I think you know I would not simply just forget something like that."

"Well Jo...please do. I would rather bleed out than speak of my life." He got up and whirled around the corner into another room. His sarcasm and anger were clear by his reference to you as Jo in reply to you shortening his name. You went after him to apologize.

He stood peering out the window at the snowstorm violently beating on it. ""Garrett....I...I am so sorry. I did not mean to upset you or to push you. And...your name, if that upset you too for some reason, I apologize as well for that."

He turned with a half smile. "It's alright little one. I just haven't been called that since I can remember. It's better than G though. Makes me sound like some OG or something." he snickered.

You let out a light laugh. "What? You don't roll with the homies?"

"I roll with you don't I? Homie.." he smirked and gave a wink.

"Ha ha. Yeah, I don't blame you. Raven's got it bad for you. Could you at least tell me more about your time with her back then? I know it was all revealed today, but...I...I'd like to hear your side. Your words I will believe over anything my moth...Caroline told me. And for the record, I know you were trying to tell me about it the night we sat around the fire until you were shot, so I know you weren't trying to keep it from me."

He stared you down in awe of your trust in him. "Sure...if you've got a few hours." he grinned.

"I have awhile. Thranduil is resting and Haldir and Legolas are watching over him. Come...sit with me. I'm all ears."

He shyly sat down beside you on a couch but kept his distance. "Where to begin...hmm. Well, I suppose her episodes are as good as any. As you can see, Clover...I mean Raven...god I'll never get used to that...anyways, she's always had that rage in her. Spoiled rotten brat for one thing and honestly, I think Caroline feared her as she was so out of control throwing her powers about if she didn't get her way. She began killing Lestat's staff. First her seamstress. Let me show you what I saw." His cool soft hand laid upon yours and you saw it play like a movie.

Then her doll maker and onto her music instructor.

One night in a fit of rage, the pyromaniac set the place on fire trying to kill Lestat's companion Louis.

Lestat had enough of her shit and she had a complete meltdown the night she snuck off to Laketown. She and he argued something fierce.

"Then she continued to cut off all her curly hair she had at that time but it grew right back and she flipped out."

Then off to Laketown she went, following others on their midnight feedings. Not only did she slaughter all those children, but she set the town ablaze as well. Caroline and I saw it from the air as we arrived. We were too late. So you see...wild child indeed, a Drew Barrymore at that, and she still seems to be a bad apple. I did everything to help her but it never mattered."

"Little did I know that Caroline did what she did after the fact. The only thing that saved my ass from Viktor's death dealers was the fact he knew Raven caused the mass destruction and murders."

"Don't that make you a little bitter that Caroline willingly let you and your people take the blame to others though?"

"It did. Very much. Can I confide something in you? I trust you like no other." Garrett looked a bit shaken about whatever it was.

You placed your hand back on his. "Of course. My lips are sealed. What is it?"

He sighed deeply. "Josephine....I am one of those that informed Viktor who did it. Clover had to be stopped as much as it hurt me to betray her, and Caroline too. For the life of me, I do not know why Lestat has harbored them both all these years. Anyone in their vicinity is at risk by the hunters. Possibly because Louis had a soft spot for Clover, god knows why after she tried to kill him...I assume because he was fucking Caroline, which is what I think set Clover off. Sorry...didn't mean to just throw that at you, but it is what it is. Lestat and Louis are very close. He made Louis. Louis has kept his distance ever since the tragedy and if anyone is bitter, it's Lestat. Why do you think it was so easy for him to turn on your mother? He can only be pushed so far and his loyalty to Louis will pretty much go straight out the window one of these days."

"My god...I knew there was more to it. Thank you Garret, for trusting in me and respecting me enough to tell me the truth." you said and squeezed his hand.

"Anytime little one. How bout we continue on our witch book hunt eh? Kinda burnt out on talking about all the fiery stuff. Pun intended." he joked.

You both stood up to go to the next acre of the enormous encyclopedia wing. "Garrett?"

He stopped and turned. "Sup?"

"Why do you call me that?" you asked softly.

"What? Little one? Well look at your shrimp ass. I get a kink in my neck looking down at you." His grin was large and wide.

"Hardy har har. Maybe if you weren't such a beautiful giant, I wouldn't seem so little." Off you went in a playful huff.

"Wait, did you just call me beautiful?" he said enthusiastically.

"Let's go Garrett." you said as you rolled your eyes.

He quickly followed and pointed at you. "You did...you called me beautiful." he raved proudly with a smile as he frolicked in your shadow.

As you walked, you began to feel warm. "Is it hot in here suddenly?"

"Oh sorry. That's just my beautiful vibes radiating off of me."

"Garrett...stop." you said and smacked his arm. "I'm serious."

"Ok...Well, I can cool you down. I'm a portable air conditioner." he winked and held his arms out to you.

"Dear god, I've created a monster. PUN intended!"

"Ohh!" He grabbed his chest and sang. "Shot through the heart, and you're to blame, darlin you give looooove, a bad name."

"I'm going to pretend that did not just happen...."

You then stopped. "Do you smell smoke?" As you turned the corner, there was a fireplace and it was blazing. No wonder you felt hot but it had no affect on Garrett since he was from the ice age. "Jesus, why is that fire so huge?"

Garrett's humor quickly vanquished as he stared at the raging flames. "That's because something is in there!" He whisked to the blaze and reached in yanking out a burning book, then stomped on it.

"Garrett!! Oh my god, your arm. Are you insane??!" you yelled as you ran to him. "Here, let me heal you!"

"Josephine, calm down. I am fine. Watch." Your panicked eyes turned to amazement as you watched his blistering skin heal all on it's own. "Poof. Magic. Save your healing for when I'm dying." he smiled. "Now let's see what someone was trying to rid of." He said in his best Fred voice.

"Someone? Who would have done this??"

"I don't know Velma but I may have a clue. Colonel Mustard with the candle stick in the library?"

"Arrrg! Garrett come one. Can you be serious for once??"

"What?...well you do have red hair and so does Velma soooo...although you look more like Daphne...she is hot ta ta."

You glared at him. Good lord it was obvious he was a Scooby Doo fan in his past life. "Ok Shaggy.." you snarked.

"Really? Is it because I'm tall and skinny? Ahhh wait...is it the hair? It's the hair isn't it?"

"Garrett Lee!"

"Ok ok, negative Nancy Drew. Sit down and look at the book. Is it the one you have been looking for?"

You did as he said and picked up the completely unscathed book even after Garrett danced on it. Although there was smoke coming off of it, the book felt cool to your touch. "I...I'm not sure..."I've only seen it in my dream for like 2 seconds."

Strangely, you opened it to a certain page and the scent of your father rushed up your nose....a scent you could never forget from when he was sick....chamomile tea with red clover. He drank it all the time, even when you were little before he became ill, but in his sickness, he wreaked of it. Your heart sank into your stomach at the spell you saw. Red clovers with deadly nightshade aka...Belladonna. A plant that's so toxic, even the smallest amount of the leaves or berries can kill an adult...or....poison them over time. "G...Garrett???" you whimpered as you shook.

He swiftly sat down beside you with all kidding aside and rubbed your back. "Josephine? You're trembling. What is it sweetheart?"

You couldn't move as you gazed into the fire. A triggered memory intruded your mind.

"I...I used to have night terrors as a child of the witch from snow white trying to give me a poisonous red apple. It was right after I saw my mother on my 7th birthday....and...and...then....my dad...he got sick 9 years ago when I was 15....A...a...an old woman came to the house. She said she was from our church and had a gift for my father. Homemade red clover syrup for his tea. She assured me of how much he loved it and had asked her for some. I...I had no reason to not believe her because I knew he drank it all the time. It...It was a small glass bottle with a pretty ribbon on it and...a key...I guess for decoration? She..she told me to put only a single drop in his tea every time he wanted a cup. My dad drank tea every single day, multiple times. With this, he was always more sleepy than usual and slept so soundly. I once thought he was dead as his pulse was so faint, it could hardly be detected.

I would always decorate his plate with red clovers I picked from the patch by our house. He loved the fragrance and would sometimes add some of the petals to the tea while it was piping hot for extra flavor. I myself hated the smell and never liked tea so I only made it for him."

You began to hyperventilate while grabbing your chest and dropped the book. "Garrett!! I...I...I think I poisoned my own father and....killed him...."

"Hey hey hey...come here, come here!"

"I..I can't...breathe....she....she did this...."

"Josephine look at me...LOOK at me." Garrett snapped his fingers in front of your face. You brought your soaked eyes to his and they began to roll back. He quickly placed his icy hands on your cheeks which thankfully shocked you back to reality. "That's it...come on. You're ok. Breathe..."

Once you finally took in a deep breath, you spewed it straight out and broke down bawling. "I...I killed my own father!! She made me kill my daddy...." Garrett did not hesitate this time to wrap you tight in his arms and you reciprocated, clinging like glue to him as you buried your face in his neck. For the first time in his undead life, he swore he felt his heart beat...............

He pried you from him and looked you dead in the eyes. "Josephine...you cannot breathe a word of this...to anyone. Not even Thranduil. Not yet. It is too dangerous for all to have knowledge of this right now. If you go accusing Caroline....well...you've seen what she does when backed in a corner and you don't seem to have full use of your powers yet to protect yourself or others. Your shield can only do so much. Someone attempted to destroy this book for a reason. You must hide it and keep it safe. Promise me. I'm not letting you leave here until you do."

"H...how am I going to hide this Garrett? It's not exactly small and....and..." You closed the book and stared at the cover. Then began flipping through the pages in confusion. "Garrett....this is not Ashmole 782. It looks nothing of what I saw in my dream. Raven said it only appears and opens for a true witch. If that book is as powerful as it's reputation precedes it to be, there's no way someone would try to destroy it. And I highly doubt it can be destroyed. This...this book here is purely black magic....evil. It also seems to be protected since it didn't burn. God...I am so confused. I have to go find Thranduil."

"Alright...but promise me Josephine, that you'll keep quiet for now."

"I will unless I feel it necessary to speak of it. That's the best I can do. Garrett...where will you be if...I need you? How will I find you?"

"I'll be around. Trust me. I won't leave you." he said with all sincerity.

You smiled big, took his face in your hands and placed a kiss on his comfortably numb cheek. "Thank you, for everything. I'll see you soon then ok Shaggy?"

He placed his hand on one of yours. "It's a date Daphne." he grinned.

On your way back to your room, you got lost which was no shocker. You knew this place about as well as you knew your mother. Not at all. You should have had Garrett come with you because now you were feeling a bit uneasy walking these dark halls alone. Suddenly, a huge whiff of black licorice and leather filled your path. You gasped as your eyes darted all around in search for the vampire Lestat but he was not there....or was he? you thought. You creeped down the hall following the scent. An open doorway lied ahead so in your curiosity, you peeked inside to see a very large luxurious ebony stained bedroom chamber. The walls looked as if they had been colored with a charcoal pencil that surrounded an Alaskan king bed with an iridescent black velvet comforter spread neatly atop. Behind it were mirrors which you found odd. Three cathedral windows took up an entire wall that revealed the snow covered frozen earth outside and a fireplace glowed on the other side of the room. There stood the vampire in the middle of it all. His gaze at you was daunting.

"Boo..." is all you could strangely muster up.

"I...I'm lost." you squeaked.

"That you are." Lestat then stood with his eyes fixated on yours, making you feel extremely vulnerable.

"I...I...I'm sorry I disturbed you. I'll just be going now." You turned around to leave and there he was standing in front of you. A light scream burst out of you as you jumped back. "Can you not do that??" you snapped.

"What have you got there?" he inquisitively asked as he peered down at your hands that were behind your back clutching the hardback.

"N..Nothing...it...it's just a book I took from the library to read."

"If it is nothing, then why conceal it?" He reached his hand out and the book flew out of your hands and into his.

"Hey! Give that back. It is mine." you fumed.

"Is it now? How is a book that came from my library...yours?" he asked as he nosily opened it and turned the pages.

"I..I didn't mean....can I please just have it back?"

"Since you asked nicely. This book will do you no good unless you are looking to.....kill someone?" His tone told you he knew....he knew what you knew. Of course he did. Damn intellectual vampires.

"Then where is Ashmole 782? You said you had it. May I please see it?"

"I never said it was in my possession, but that I knew where it resides. If you wish to know the whereabouts, then you need to offer me something in return as I have previously explained." He said in a tantalizing manner and then diligently reclined on the leopard print sofa and half grinned.

His alluring eyes were inviting you to sit beside him. "I don't bite.....hard." His sense of humor did not appease you like Garrett's did. You skittishly sat down with a stiffened posture.

"What is it that you want? I really must get back to my husband."

"I have already asked it of you. Simply your time. One evening. Just the two of us."

"Are you truly that lonely? And why me?"

"In the end we are alone and there is nothing but the cold dark wasteland of eternity. You? I thought I knew what beauty was in women, but you...you surpass all the language I have for it. You're the hunter, the warrior. You're stronger than anyone else here. Your blood is like no other. That's your tragedy."

"It rather seems that it is your tragedy....I know what happened with Louis...and my sister. Lestat...I am sorry that he left you." You compassionately placed your hand on his.

"Don't do that." He coldly said and moved away from you. Like Garrett, he wanted nothing to do with real talk.

"I..I'm sorry. I do not mean to pry. I just don't understand why you've shielded my mother and sister and still do after all they have done which caused Louis to withdraw."

"And yet, do you not do the same? Many have betrayed you, hurt you, yet you still you still offer them your undeserving loyalty. A certain vampire comes to mind. Garrett. He has done despicable things to you, yet you care for him."

"Garrett has nothing to do with any of this."

"And might I add....protect him. I have welcomed you into my home and have done nothing to harm you, yet you won't grace me a night of your company." Lestat walked towards you with a sinister look in his eyes. Instinctively, you slowly moved back until you were adhered to the wall. He placed his hand on the wall above your head and leaned his face down to yours. Your heart began to race as his arctic breath took yours away. You were imprisoned by his devilish charm. He bit his wrist and held it just inches from your mouth. "Tell me....shall I have you drink my blood to have my way with you or should I just mind fuck you as we stand body to body, allowing us both to release against each other? Is that not what happened on Devil's Island?"

You trembled as the volatile vampire's eyes turned as black as his room and his aroused cock grazed your pelvis. You ducked out of his hold with a gasp. How was he doing this?

"Get out of my head! I gave you no permission! You're sick!" Lestat was obviously and irrevocably jealous of Garrett and this worried you.

"No sicker than he now am I? I do not need your permission for anything." He said with a look of disgust and then yanked you against him. "If I wanted to take you right here right now, I would and could. There is nothing you could do to stop me." He then pushed you away from him.

"But that is not who I am. Next time, think twice before intruding in my personal life, for you only think you know about me. I, on the other hand, know all of your dirty little secrets. Now, get out of my sight before I change my mind." The only other time you ran as fast as you did just then, was when you were running from Peter's cabin.

There was a rapping at Thranduil's door. Legolas opened it to find Raven's unwelcomed presence. "What do you want?" the Prince snarled. He certainly did not forget how she treated him when all he did was try to help her.

"Relax Lego, I am here to see if my sister is back from hanging with Garrett and to see how her hunky hubs is doing." Raven got the reaction she was anticipating from her words.

Thranduil abruptly appeared, stepping in front of Legolas. "My wife may desire your presence, but I do not. You have merely come here to stir trouble just like your mother. You do not fool me."

If Thranduil's eyes could emit lasers, Raven would have been disintegrated with the way he glowered at her.

"Oh Thrandy, don't get your balls all in a knot. I am not trying to fool anyone. What you see is what you get. Now, is she here? I come with news."

"We do not want what we see. And No, she is not. Now state your business and be gone witch, before somebody drops a house on you." Legolas sarcastically answered as he stood at his father's side.

"Oooh. Robin of Mirkwood got jokes.... Huh...odd she's not back yet. She left me to be with Garrett quite awhile ago. Well...anyways I came to..."

Haldir pushed through Legolas. "Enough with the charades. I'll go find her." He then bumped Raven's shoulder hard and heavy as he quickly walked passed her in a pissed off state.

"Geez. RUDE!!"She obnoxiously screamed down the hall at Haldir as he marched off. "Well...I guess it's just you, me and the boy wonder now."

"Wrong Robin. Now leave." Legolas swung the door shut, but Raven stopped it with her hand.

"You both wear girly tights so.....anyways you haven't heard the good news I bring."

"What news could you possibly have that we would share interest in?"

"I bring news of and invitations to a masquerade ball. All Hallows' Eve. It was my mother's idea and Lestat has approved. It's going to be so wicked cool. The moon is supposed to be full too and even better...it will be a blood moon. Like...how perfect!! Since ya'll got nothin better to do during this whiteout, I assume you will come. It will be expected anyways and horribly insulting to the emcee Lestat if you dip."

Just then, Thranduil came out of the washroom in a change of robes. He was feeling recharged and was worried and Haldir looking for you did not make him feel at ease so he decided to go himself.

"Ooohhh la la." Raven said in a randy manner as she bit her lip and ogled him from head to toe. "Don't you clean up nice for a sprite. No wonder my sister digs you so much."

She went to touch his collar and Thranduil slapped his hand around her wrist mid air. "I would greatly advise you to keep your hands to yourself or you may lose one."

"Mrroww." she snapped and yanked her arm away. "You're lucky you're my sister's husband right now." It was clearly a barefaced threat.

"Get out of my way." Thranduil undauntingly ordered through his teeth.

She back up and watched him leave as her eyes turned sour orange.

Legolas grinned at her and slammed the door shut behind him as he followed his father.

You came to a torchlit stone stairwell and as you began to dash down the second flight, you stupidly looked behind you in fear causing you to miss a step and begin to fall.

All you could do was suck in a gasp and close your eyes.

As you were helplessly diving forward, cold strong arms swiftly and gracefully swept you into the air knocking a squeal out of you and the book to the floor. The fear of it being Lestat was immediately gone when you smelled the irresistible maple syrup. You lifted your head and smiled as he twirled you around near the ceiling. "Garrett! You saved me...and my daughter."

"I told you I'd be around and that I would never leave you." he proudly said with a wink. You hugged him so tight as he slowly danced you in circles on the descent to the ground.

Haldir was coming around the corner and witnessed the entire encounter between you and the elven enemy.

Neither of you saw him and just as he was about to reveal himself, a hand seized his arm. He turned to find Raven slyly surveying you and Garrett. "Wait...shhhh. Come here." She whispered and pulled him a few feet around the corner.

He tore his arm away from her with an appalled look. "What do you think you are doing?"

"Will you just shut up and listen?"

"I will not spy on her. Why would I do that? I am going to go get Jo and take her back to her husband where she belongs."

"Oh please spare me the virtuous honorable loyal bullshit. You don't feel she belongs with him any more than you like me. You secretly still pine for her, wishing she was yours, dreaming of fucking her like you did befo..."

"Shut your filthy mouth. Do not ever speak about her in that manner again....wait...how..."

"Donnn't worry Haldy, she didn't tell me that. She didn't have to. When we spoke of you, it was written all over her face and her defense of you to me."

"She...she spoke of....and defended me?"

"Is there an echo in here? Yeaaahh. Pretty much threatened to kick my ass if I ever harmed you. God, you look and sound like a pathetic little heartsick puppy. Look...you and I can't stand each other."

"Understatement.."

"AND...we don't ever have to like each other, but...we can certainly help each other."

"And why the hell would I ever do that? What help could you possibly offer me?"

"You burn for her. I burn for him. We can work together to get what we want. Allies per se."

"I knew you were mental but this is....besides...she does not want Garrett. She is madly in love with Thranduil and that will never change...trust me. I should know." Haldir's eyes fell to the ground.

"Are you sure about that marchwarden? I mean...she did do you. Must be some feelings there of some sort." Raven debated as she peered around the corner and watched you and Garrett.

"It's all one sided. Her feelings for me are purely a love for a best friend, which is all she considers me as." he said as he also peeked around the corner.

"Ha! Best friends with benefits though, so there's more to it than that. Trust me, her defense of you was insane."

"Look! It was one time....ok twice but...it only happened because she thought he had been unfaithful. We've been through a lot together. But....she always chooses Thranduil."

"You can spin it any way you like. But somehow I get the feeling you both would die for each other. If that ain't love, I don't know what is."

"Enough of this. She is your sister that you have just met and you want to conspire against her? And Thranduil and myself are finally in a better place. I kind of like having my head attached to my body. I would think you do also. You cannot make someone love you."

"I don't see it as conspiring, just merely taking Garrett's attention away from her and guiding it to me. Besides, like you said, she loves Thranduil."

"And there it is. How does this help me? This is all about getting what you want. As mush as it makes me ill to say it, Garrett's affections for Jo will not just stop. He is in love with her."

"Do not ever say that to me again!" Raven fumed.

"It is only obvious truth that I speak. You are living in some delusional fantasy. A crush. You know nothing of love. I love Jo more than anything and when you love some one in such a way, you do for them what makes them happy, even if it tears your heart out. I will not let you hurt her. You were right. I would die for her. Now, I am going to go to her and let her know what her loving sister is planning."

"Like hell you are." Raven swayed her hand at Haldir as he tried to leave and slammed him against the wall, then slowly clenched her fist as she held it in his direction, which began to choke him. "You will speak nothing of this to no one and you will do as I ask or....see this?" She held her other hand up and twirled her fingers. A flame appeared and danced about the tips. "Your precious Jo will pay the price for your defiance. One little POOF and she'll be burning...all for you."

"You...s..sick little...." he coughed.

"Ah ah ah Haldy. Watch your tone."

"She....is your..sis...sister...and..w...with child! Your...moth...mother will kill...you."

"Your point is? Since when have I cared about children? Ya'll bought that little act earlier hook line and sinker. It wasn't hard at all hiding my true self from you. Although the Elvenking is tougher than I planned but he'll be handled soon enough...And fuck that hag. She is no mother. It's time I take my life back. Besides...you can easily get what you want very very soon if you cooperate. Thrandaddy won't be an issue much longer. Garrett was mine first! No one is going to take him away from me. And if they try, they will suffer a great loss as well. Jo is no better than me. All these men drooling at her feet makes me sick....SO...how bout we just hang out here for a minute to let you ponder on your options. But I think we both know the one you will choose."

"This...will all...backfire on..you. Jo...she will see right...through you. Thran....Thranduil already...does."

"Hush now hidden hero nevermore." Raven's eyes were purely diabolical matching that of her sinister words.

The marchwarden was slowly losing consciousness as he whispered..."Jo...I love you."

"So...will you walk me back to my room please?"

Garrett sweetly smiled. "Sure thing. Don't forget that book."

"Got it." Off you both went down the hallway. Garrett was too caught up in you to have heard the manipulations of the nefarious Raven.

Down the hall was a chair by a window, with a black feline perched upon it watching the snow fall.

"Oh my god Garrett look! A kitty!! Here kitty kitty kitty." you chirped as you crept up to him. The jet black pussycat gazed upon you with his curious golden spheres, then greeted you with a tender meow and a head nudge against your hand.

Garrett smiled at the two of you. "I told you Lestat had a cat. That's Louie. This entire wing was Louis'. Maybe you noticed the 2 stone cat statues on the stairs before your....flight?"

"Ha! I saw them after we landed." you giggled. "So I take it Louis was an animal lover? Was Louie his?"

"Yeah. He was just a kitten when Louis brought him in but then all that happened with Raven and he left, never giving the cat a name, so Lestat named him. Which you can see why he chose that name."

"Awww. Well, it was so nice to meet you Sir Louie. I hope we will meet again. Have a nice window viewing." You stroked the purring feline's head and then you and Garrett continued on down the hall.

As you both turned a corner, there was a large gothic style mirror on the wall.

You glanced into it as you passed it, then gasped. Garrett stopped but would not turn around. He knew you had seen his reflection. It was the one Marius told you about, the only mirror that would cast a vampire's image.

"Garrett....I..."

"Can we keep going?" he said in a disgruntled tone without looking back.

"S...sure." you replied and continued on beside him. You felt so incredibly sad for him, and now worried about how he was going to react to the painting you asked Marius to create of him. You didn't have to wait any longer though.

"Jo...G! Wait up..." Raven called from down the hall behind you. You turned and saw a very distraught Haldir with her as Raven carried something quite large that was covered with a cloth.

You immediately went up to him. "Haldir? What are you doing with her? Are...you alright?"

He fake smiled. You could tell. And he wouldn't look you in the eyes. "Yes. I am alright. I was just out looking for you and came across her in the hall."

"Oh...is everything alright?? Is Thranduil Ok??? I was trying to get back and I got lost. Garrett found me and was helping me."

"Yes Jo...Thranduil is doing much better now. He was with Legolas when I left."

You tilted you head at him and laid your hand upon his cheek. "Haldir...are you sure you're alright? Your voice...it seems a little raspy."

"Oh that...yes well. I believe it is from your mother's smoke out earlier. I will be fine. Do not worry about me Jo. What are you doing with the likes of him??" Haldir was right when he told Raven you would know something was wrong and you certainly did.

"O...Ok...well. The likes of him helped you, Legolas and Aragorn which you failed to tell me about." You huffed. "Or did you have one of those brain farts and forget? You could thank him you know."

"I will do no such thing. And your husband is livid that you have been with Garrett when you told him you would be with Raven and then be back soon."

"And just how did he know that?"

"Your ever so worried sister came to check on you and gladly informed me of your whereabouts." Thranduil's voice angrily sounded from the other direction. You spun around to see him holding and stroking Louie while Legolas stood at his side glaring at Raven.

The cat saw her and hissed. "Be gone you little maggot before I slip some rat poison into your milk." A low emitted growl rose from the furious feline as he jumped from Thranduil's arms, baring an arched back with all hairs and tail fluffed out like a porcupine.

"Raven!! Leave him alone! It's alright Louie. I will not let her hurt you. Come here kitty." The cat circled in a figure eight through your legs, then stretched his front paws up your thigh asking to be picked up. You obliged and held him snug to reassure him he was safe, which only infuriated Raven more that you were desired and she was not.

"I was only kidding geez! I would never hurt LeBrat's precious Louie. He's all he has left of the dearly departed Louis. Well, departed as in flew the coupe. Only ever cared about himself."

"From what I hear, you're the reason he left?" you asked to see her reaction.

She immediately glared at Garrett. "I see you've been telling my sister stories huh? You know he tends to exaggerate on things Jo. G..why would you do that?"

"I only told her the truth Clover. She deserves to know."

"My name is RAVEN thank you." she snapped.

"I have heard enough. Josephine. Let's go. It seems we have things to discuss." Thranduil's tone told you he was less than pleased at finding you with the vampire.

"Wait! Since everyone is all here, I have something you might all enjoy, especially you G." She didn't even explain and just ripped the cloth off the object she fondled. She saved the bogus explanation for the aftermath.

There was the painting of Garrett and how she got her hands on it was baffling beyond measure.

Everyone stood in silence gawking at the artwork. Garrett stumbled back against the wall with a look of horror and panic all over his face.

"G...don't be such a drama King. Jo had this made for you out of the kindness of her heart."

You knew he may react negatively but not like this. It may have gone much smoother if he hadn't been caught off guard in such a deceiving manner. You were shaking and slowly walked over to Garrett. "I...I...It wasn't supposed to be like this. I was going to tell you first...Garrett, please try to understand, let me explain. I..I don't know how she got it!"

"I do!!" Marius swept in with steam coming out of his ears and bee lined straight for Raven. "How dare you enter my chambers and take what does not belong to you! Let's go!!"

"Oh Marius. Take a chill pill. The painting was done and just sitting there collecting dust. It was so beautiful that I became overly impatient and wanted G to see it. What's the big deal?? Ya'll act like it's the end of the world."

To Garrett, it was. You caught a glimpse of his betrayed tear stained eyes before he whooshed away at an incredible velocity, blowing your hair and dress back. His eyes...they were....human.

"Garrett!!! Wait!! I'm sorry!!!" You whirled around to Raven in pure rage. "What the fuck is wrong with you!!"

"Me?? What is wrong with you!? You're the one who had it done for him so why are you so hot and bothered that he saw it??"

"You are either completely dense or as wicked as our mother. I'm willing to bet on wicked. You did this on purpose! Why would you hurt him like that?"

She belted out a laugh. "Me hurt him? You're the one who had the stupid painting made when you knew he didn't want to see himself!"

"Then why did YOU show him if you knew that huh?? You just wanted him to be angry with me because you're jealous! and you intentionally went to Thranduil to twist the knife. Oh sister dear, I see right through you."

"Jealous?? You should watch what you say to me. Don't you have a husband you should be worried about cuz I think you should...You've already managed to alienate not one, but now two of your groveling men. Soon you'll have none." She smirked as she peered behind you.

You turned and saw Thranduil walking away. "Thranduil!" You ran after him and grabbed his arm. "Please wait. Don't go."

"Wait for what? To watch you argue over another whom is my sworn enemy? One who has committed foul acts upon you? Upon us both? Yet over and over, you help him. Seems I should have let you turn the day he bit you since you desire the dead's presence over mine."

You sucked in a loud squeak at his sharp tongue. Thranduil then flipped around and charted off with a confused Legolas in tow.

"Legolas??" you called after him. He half turned to only see his profile and then continued on.

"Make that three." Raven gloated. "But hey, hunky Haldy's still here waiting for a piece of that sweet cherry pie."

You felt fire boiling in your blood as your fingers clenched into a fist. Haldir's eyes grew large as he knew what was going to happen but he couldn't react fast enough. BAM! You swung and busted her right across her jaw. With her being half human, it didn't hurt as much as it did when you cold cocked Garrett. She grabbed her mouth and whipped her head back to you in utter shock.

She laughed a most malevolent laugh. "Ohhh you should not have done that." Her head snapped to Haldir. "I'll just remove number four for you as well." Raven raised her hand towards him as her eyes and fingertips burned of molten lava. "This is for my father!!!"..............

@redeemer46 @mirkwoodwarrior

Masterlist

[tugoslovenka]

Warding Bond - Chapter 11

The Fatal Flaw of Mortalkind

A/N:

Well I've had a little hiatus after some personal issues and a bit of burnout, but I'm happy to report we have a new chapter everyone! Rejoice!

Hope whoever is still reading this will at least appreciate it. I cannot be more grateful at the incredible support I've gotten since starting this. Honestly, thank you!

Also posting on AO3!

Three corridors. Three corridors separated her freedom from Raphael, forever.

Varra watched in a daze, not paying attention when the devil had exchanged a few words with his concubine. She didn’t say anything when he walked past her, merely bowing as he exited the chambers. She heard Haarlep’s incessant whines while he climbed into the bed, draped in the revealing black harness that the devil loved tearing off with his teeth.

The incubus had instructions to wait for his master.

Master was leaving the House of Hope on urgent matters. An orthon needed summoning, as did some cambions that swore their loyalties to Raphael. Varra couldn’t be sure, but there was mention of a hammer and a devil’s fee. Whatever affair called for such heed was sure to be important. The son of Mephistopheles never moved with haste, not in his home.

“What an utter drag,” Haarlep groaned, positioning himself against the soft pillows, holding a familiar pose—a beckoning for the guest, Varra, or Raphael.

Her ears perked up at the footsteps in the halls. The fluttering of wings followed. Hellsboar, imps, and other lesser demons, all crowded into corners, and with the faint click of fingers, presented themselves as simple debtors once Raphael willed them to. He continued walking, a smaller woman with raven hair by his side, draped in crimson and black.

Throwing a glance at the incubus presenting himself like a gift, then back at the illusioned servants aimlessly wandering the halls, Varra’s eyebrows furrowed. She stepped out of the room, and once Raphael was out of sight, began tailing him, careful not to take any paths forbidden for her. 

Two corridors. Two corridors separated her from the barrier she was not allowed to pass through.

He was too caught up in discussion to notice her following. The lady, whoever she was, had a staff resting at her back. She could hear worry in her voice as she explained something, gesturing with gloved hands. Raphael behaved calmly, but the skip in his step told a different story. She had observed that body language only a few times, as each one followed a long, drawn-out celebration complete with hellfire and sex.

As quiet as a mouse, her feet were barely audible against the rising volume inside the fiend’s residence as she continued her pursuit. 

One corridor. One corridor separated her from the portals that could introduce her to Althea of Cania—

The pair promptly turned, striding down the hallway that led to the dining room. Varra breathed through her nose, eyes closed, gathering courage for what she knew was going to be the beginning of her new life or her complete demise. She counted the steps in her head, hands making fists as she approached the limits of her volition—the same turn that her master had just marched through effortlessly.

Her feet stopped, as though they had been nailed to the floor. Clenching her jaw, Varra’s nails pressed into her fists—sobbing—though she wasn’t sure if it was from frustration or self-inflicted pain. Phrases echoed inside her mind; eternal paralysis, little lamb, ignorant mortal. She began sweating. Like a blacksmith’s sword, she felt herself dipped in oil, awaiting the raging fire to coat her insides. She stood there, stretching her right leg forward as she attempted to lean through whatever mental fence Raphael had set for his little lamb.

Her muscles tensed at the attempt, and she began screaming as though being gutted. The quiet inside the House of Hope only made it louder. Varra did not need to know many things to understand Haarlep was sure to investigate the disturbance, and whatever punishment would follow was not to allow her a second—third—chance at this.

Like before, she focused every semblance of her will into moving. It was just a corridor. Just a corridor, she repeated to herself. She was allowed to—she could have—walked through to get to the other side. With another guttural screech, her right foot moved, and Varra’s eyes snapped open.

With one leg outstretched, she looked down to see herself past Raphael’s border. For the first time in her responsive existence, Varra’s mouth stretched into a grin. The wrinkles that showed where her smile used to be would have hurt, had she not been utterly perplexed at their existence. Alongside the sweat on her forehead, tears now poured down her cheeks. 

No more corridors.

Her head snapped to the right, trying to see if Raphael had heard the noise, even from another Plane. Nothing could have prepared her for what she did see. The food once bathed in splendor and richness had rotten away. The furniture was dilapidated, with pieces of wood debris and stuffing strewn across the marble floors. Skeletons sat atop the chairs that were still intact, jaws opened. Someone had ruined the feast.

Her gaze shifted back to where she came from, looking for signs of servants heading in her direction. The only sound that came was bubbling from the distant rivers of lava. Avernus was quieter than she remembered. Her head was quieter than she was used to.

“There are three things you need to know about Raphael. He’s almost home now—closer than a kiss. His favorite color is blood and he probably knows a thousand ways to kill us.”

A voice, low in volume but panicked in pitch, rang in the distance. Almost instinctively, Varra crouched low to the floor, using her arms to shield her face as though something painful was coming. It’s not until a second voice, a more masculine one, followed with a quip, that she realized guests had entered the House of Hope.

Unwanted guests.

From the gap in her fingers, she tried focusing her vision beyond the dining table that she now noticed was covered in blood.

“Better to die than live in a cambion’s debt. Believe me.”

The reflection from the chandeliers hitting the smooth silver on a greataxe centered her stare to a muscular woman with similarly reddish skin to every devil she’d ever seen. And yet, this one had only one horn, with a strange energy that emanated from inside her body—as though a living infernal war machine. She wasn’t entirely certain, but there was something oddly familiar about this devil.

A man in purple robes and wielding a staff was urging the group to hurry, in a direction unfamiliar to Varra. Raphael had never taken her there. She wondered what other places in the House of Hope she wasn’t privy to.

A group of rather alarmed newcomers. Although, judging by the state of some corners of the house, it was quite obvious they were disturbing the peace of the devil’s abode. 

Disobedience never went unnoticed in his home.

Disturbance, on the other hand, was a death sentence.

What Varra should have done was turn heel down the one escape route. The chambers were open, and she could faintly discern the magical fizzling of far-away worlds, which brimmed with possibilities of a new life for the little lamb. The biggest mirror showed a giant fortress, draped in banners unknown, with a bridge crossing into an enormous city.

The fates, however, seemed to decide differently.

“You.”

Varra froze at the gruffing voice that echoed through the House of Hope. Raphael had returned. Quickly, she searched her vicinity for the source of the voice. Blood rushed to her head as she tried willing it away, dread seeping in with the realization that this would be the end of her. He would not allow himself to tolerate such a display.

But then, the devil continued. 

“There are many things in your world that I loathe. Litters of kittens, chattering children—the noise and the chaos of it all. In my world, in my house, there is order and there are rules. You have broken the most important rule of all and committed the cardinal sin.”

Walking—sliding down the marble like a scolded child—Varra inched her way towards the dining hall.  She jumped when she felt something touch her foot, as a half-eaten apple rolled towards the middle of the room.

“... You went against your word and defined our contract. In doing so, you brought the chaos of your world into mine. I will not abide it.”

The hallway the guests had hurried towards was lit with the flames of the chamber that lay ahead. Varra flattened herself against the walls, hoping her presence wouldn’t disturb the tense conversation. Low rumbling sounds nearby were those of a hellsboar, as it rolled covered in blood, not fully dead from the blows inflicted upon it.

Slowly, she turned her head to see five figures who she did not recognize lined up inside a circular chamber. On the opposite side, with an expression angrier than she had ever seen, was Raphael, in his human guise. A giant beast stood next to him, crossbow in hand, covered in blood and laden with skulls.

“Your house is in disarray. The guards couldn’t stop me from freeing Hope.” A woman piped up. She was  clad in silver armor, and her hair was wrapped in a long ponytail. As she spoke, she pointed a spear in the direction of the devil.

Hope?

“SISTER, OH SISTER I’VE WEPT AND I’VE CRIED. BUT ALL WOULD BE WELL IF YOU WERE BY MY SIDE.”

Varra was too far to see, but she could hear the resounding, high-pitched voice shouting riddles in response. Raphael simply looked down, a smirk playing on his face. With a gulp, she gripped at the smooth walls of the House of Hope, steadying her breathing when she felt her nerves waver.

A smile was never a good sign in the House of Hope.

“Oh, Hope, you are such a precious thing. All it takes is a crumb from the table, and you forget the centuries of starvation. The insolence has earned you centuries more.”

Varra tried her best to shut out the ringing in her ears. She tried calming her heaving chest, remembering the feeling of unfeeling, the fullness of nothing, the cavernous void his punishment would bring. The muffled voices she couldn’t fully register continued speaking, as she nearly slipped on the sweat that had begun pooling at her feet.

“Varra?”

Haarlep’s incubus form pierced her anxiety, prompting her eyes to open. He stood at the other end of the dining hall, a puzzled look on his face.

From the chamber, Raphael’s voice continued.

“It’s the fatal flaw of mortalkind. Take away their free will, and they call you a tyrant. Allow them to indulge in it, and they become tyrants. You would have been heroes if you’d only dealt fairly with me. Instead, you’re not so different to doomed Karsus, overreaching your limits and burning your world to ash.”

The fiend took one step into the dining hall, to which Varra took a step back. Haarlep cocked his head to the side, perplexed at what he was witnessing. Before he could ask the myriad of questions that likely plagued his mind, the loud voice of Hope continued. 

“WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! THEY WILL SAVE THE WORLD AND SMASH YOU TO SMITHEREENS!”

Haarlep’s wings spread as he picked up the pace. Varra too, moved, instinctively placing one foot behind the other, one hand grazing the wall as though it would help her balance. The incubus smiled, cracking his neck in the process as he outstretched both arms towards her.

“Oh, how I will relish this, little lamb.”

The last words Varra heard before the doors shut was Raphael, as confident as she had known him to be.

“If you have any last words, make it quick. It will only take a moment to finish you.”

In an instant, Varra whipped around and broke into a run. As though acutely aware of her surroundings, she hopped over the pieces of debris and molded food that littered the floor—head low, legs outstretched, back straightened—as though she knew what to do. The hissing sound from the fiend behind her only spurred her further when she jumped the three steps that separated the dining hall from the small corridor leading to the Outer Portals.

To safety.

Time seemed to warp in that very moment. All she could hear was the thumping of her own breathing and her feet sliding against marble. For the first time in ages, she felt as though her limbs belonged to her. With one leap, she found herself surrounded by visages of worlds unknown, inviting her inside. She screamed when she felt flames lick her skin. Haarlep had summoned his powers, but was still some distance away.

Panicked, her eyes searched the many tall mirrors, trying to identify the one that would make her Althea of Cania. Bogs, darkness, deserts, wastelands—a collection of places so different to the fiery prison she was trapped in.

“You can never escape him, Varra. He owns your soul, a contract signed in blood that you can never break. As long as he lives, you will never—”

A choir of voices, screams of pain and agony reverberated through the home. The ground beneath Varra quaked, and the mirrors rattled. She watched in horror as one began tilting forward, threatening to crush Haarlep.

Something cold soothed Varra’s skin. She turned to face one of the portals, seeing a curtain of white mists condensing into water droplets. What was before a poisonous wasteland had swirled into itself, revealing a vast white fortress covered in ice.

Cania.

She quickly leaned back—as though knowing—dodging the incubus’ clawed swipe. He looked crazed, with lips drawn into a light smile.

“Poor. Little. Lamb.”

The tremors continued, making even just standing an incredibly difficult task. Varra instinctively spread her legs, tensing her feet until she found balance. Haarlep, in his efforts to grab her, rocked his feet and fell face-first onto the marble that was by now cracking.

With no time to think, Varra simply moved. A loud yelp from the grounded fiend melded with the orchestra of clamor, as the very walls of the House of Hope began to tear apart. Shared suffering was not uncommon among Raphael’s servants, but the physical torment that seemed to have overtaken everyone only pushed her to escape—to find release. She flung herself into the portal, yelling as the cool air collided against her body. Instead of landing on her feet, however, she began tumbling down, until her momentum was stopped by  something solid.

Silence.

Batting her eyelashes, she began stirring. The pain no longer lingered. The voices no longer spoke. 

Free.

It was then that realization had set in for Varra.

No longer was she comforted by the warmth of Avernus. White flakes swayed from the gray skies, seemingly disappearing once they touched her body. She hugged herself intuitively, letting out a mist of hot air into the coldness of whatever wilderness she found herself in.

It wasn’t until a sudden urge overcame her that she had realized something was very wrong.

Her tongue lapped out for something, lips smacking as though starving for food—and yet her stomach was satiated with the feeding given to her by her master. This was something different, something akin to a primal impulse that tickled away at her nerves.

A torch light illuminated the vastness of the woods surrounding her. Trying her best to blend into the environment, she lowered her body, flattening herself into the soft, white cold ground.

“Are we lost? Wretched hellspawn, we should have listened to that cursed creature, Nathaniel!”

“I am not going to start trusting devils just because we are surrounded by them.”

Two mellow voices exchanged conversation, though Varra could tell they were wracked with fear. The footsteps closed in on her location, the sound of crunching snow rendering their direction discernible.

“What in the Hell—”

“Leave it. Another trick of this plane.”

A gasp escaped her mouth once she realized they had spotted her. Her knees curled together when she attempted to rise to her feet, stumbling awkwardly onto the mushy ground. With hands outstretched, she took a stance wide enough to run if need be. Following from the tattered leather on their boots, she took note of the ripped fabric on their clothes until she met their eyes. Two men, human by the looks of it, stood opposite her with the same apprehension—one holding a torch, and the other pointing a sword in her direction, hissing in pain.

The smell of iron nestled itself inside her nostrils.

“Stay back!”

The swordwielder had a gash on his neck, fresh enough that blood was still pouring from it. Varra licked her lips involuntarily at the sight, like a starved beast ogling a fresh carcass. Sensations she had never felt before overwhelmed her. A throbbing pain in her mouth caused her to hiss, which caused the pair to back off. She cradled her head when a shooting pain in her hands followed, and she yanked them from her face to witness her nails turning into claws.

“I told you we shouldn’t have come here!” One of the men yelled, continuing to walk back towards the woods where they first appeared from.

A growl escaped her lips, no longer cowering away, but now facing the two men stunned by the sight before them. Her chest heaved as her breathing had turned into snarling, and her mouth smacked when the discomfort of large fangs pierced through the thin, paling skin. 

“What is that?”

Any plans brewing in her mind had been replaced by a desperation, an urge that seized control over her movements. Raphael was no longer a threat. The House of Hope simply felt like a dream from long ago. The wishes of the master were of no concern to her.  

A voice—not of a person, nor a devil—gushed inside her mind, prompting her to step forward with bared fangs.

Varra had one objective in this frozen wasteland.

To feed.

[clericofsune]

Dimensions & Demigods: Building Raven at Level 40

For those not in the know, I’m currently playing in a campaign that’s basically Descent into Avernus stretched out to include all Nine Circles of the Nine Hells, followed by a detour through Into the Abyss, and then running out to Barovia for some milk, pack of smokes, and bullying the local goth shut-in. This campaign is designed with the players intended to fight Archdevils, Archdemons, entire armies, and a hyper roided-out Strahd. As such, the DM has told us ahead of time that our level cap will be level 40. I have dubbed playing at this level “Dimensions & Demigods” because by level 40, a mere dragon in a dungeon is child’s play. And as part of a little treat, I’ll be building the ENTIRE Teen Titans for a Dimensions & Demigods level playstyle. But, I am starting with Raven because in case you’re new to my page, she isn’t just my favorite character in the show, she’s my favorite superhero PERIOD. DC, Marvel, or otherwise. So, it would be an insult to my queen to not give her the honor of being first.

PARTY BALANCE

Before we get into actually building Raven herself, I need to talk about how the Teen Titans fares as a party. Broadly speaking, there are 5 major roles that need filling in a party: DPS, Tank, Healer, Blaster, and Stealth. For the Teen Titans, Raven is not the “Blaster”. That role belongs to Starfire. Starfire is the damage-heavy “black mage” of the party, while also being somewhat of a secondary Tank alongside Cyborg/Blue Beetle and Beast Boy. Raven, by contrast, is what’s called a Utility Caster. A Utility Caster is someone who can use their spells to get the party around tricky situations, such as using magic to open a locked door, scout ahead, disarm traps, help the party get past obstructions in their path, and more. However, there’s a major role that the party lacks: Healer. Whenever one of the Titans gets hurt, it’s usually Cyborg who looks over the team member in the sick bay, but Raven has displayed the rare occasional ability to heal wounds, but only ever by touch. This means that the role of Healer is split between Cyborg and Raven. Neither is a dedicated healbot. However, Cyborg is an Artificer, which is a half-caster, whereas Raven is a full caster. As such, more of the responsibility would fall on her. Furthermore, if you’re going by the DC Animated Universe team composition, Cyborg is technically in the Justice League and not even in the party. While he’s with the team in the first movie, he’s completely absent in the Judas Contract. Thus leaving the entire burden of Team Healer on Raven. Yes, Beast Boy is a Druid, but he has no magical powers. While someone could build a fantasy counterpart Beast Boy that is a dedicated team healer, we can’t rely on a Beast Boy player to want take up the mantle of healer because Beast Boy does not canonically have magical powers beyond his wild-shaping. As such, someone wanting to play as Beast Boy may not want to take any spells, and might even dump his Wisdom stat just high enough to qualify for the Druid class. So, we need Raven to fulfil the Healer and Utility Caster roles for the party.

Raven Roth is the half-fiend daughter of Trigon the Terrible and the mortal woman, Arella Roth. Arella was lured into a demonic cult where she was chosen to lay with their demon lord to conceive his heir. Afterwards, Arella and the unborn child were spirited away by Azar and the Monks to the plane of Azarath, where Raven was born and raised. From a young age, Raven was taught to conceal and control her emotions, focusing her mind to accomplish great psionic abilities.

On paper, Raven sounds like a perfect Tiefling. She’s a humanoid with fiendish ancestry, and it’s not a bad choice. However, I feel there’s a stronger choice for Raven’s race: Fallen Aasimar. Tieflings get Fire resistance which, near as I can tell, Raven is not particularly fireproof in the slightest. Whereas Fallen Aasimar lets Raven unleash her Dark Side. Starting at 3rd Level, Fallen Aasimars get Necrotic Shroud. As an action, they can take on a dark and frightening form so horrifying that all nearby creatures have to pass a saving throw to avoid being scared of her. For the next minute, she adds her level in Necrotic damage to one attack damage roll per turn over the course of 10 rounds. I don’t know about you, but to me, that reads like she’s tapping into Dark Raven, or even Red Raven. Plus, Aasimars get Healing Hands, a feature we can see that Raven obviously possesses. They still get Dark Vision just like Tieflings, and get two resistances instead of one: Radiant and Necrotic, which in DnD, are often used to signify Holy and Unholy magic, tying Raven closer to her brand of demonic magic.

Raven is an extraplanar visitor from Azaroth, which I would most likely call the Astral Plane, though the Upper Planes would also make sense. A DnD counterpart to Raven could have also been raised by her father in the Nine Hells or the Abyss. Regardless, Raven is a newcomer to the Material Plane having come from another plane of existence. I would label her a Far Traveler, giving her proficiency in Insight and Perception. Two skills which are very important for an empath like Raven.

For Alignment, I believe that Raven is Lawful Good, though she can veer into Neutral Good when necessary. Raven has a strict moral code and enforces mental discipline on not only herself, but those around her. When her teammates react emotionally, Raven reminds them to apply logic, even to the point of suppressing and denying her own feelings on the matter. When Robin appears to have become a full-fledged supervillain, Raven is the first Titan to say that they have to stop him, no matter how they might feel about it. Their duty as superheroes comes before their feelings about it being Robin. Occasionally, Raven will stoop to less Lawful actions like convincing Gizmo to help the Titans fix Cyborg by scaring him with something horrible under her hood and being thrilled to tease Beast Boy about his real name being Garfield, stating that she’ll ‘get a lot of mileage out of this one’. However, by-and-large, Raven puts her beliefs, duty, and discipline before anyone and anything else, so long as it serves to benefit the greater good.

WARLOCK FIEND PATRON (PACT OF THE CHAIN)

While I am aware that Concentration is one of the best saving throws in the game, I’m also aware that a common weakness of Raven is that it’s very easy to break her concentration on spells. She’s often interrupted, loses focus, or even becomes weak and enfeebled after using a lot of power, especially in the DC animted films where she faints often after using a lot of magic. So, for accuracy’s sake, we’re starting Raven as a Fiend Warlock because they get proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saving throws. As a Warlock, we’ll Give Raven proficiency in Arcana and Intimidation skill checks. If you’re trying to Power Build, by all means, grab Sorcerer at level 1, but I’m trying to also stay true to Raven as a character. We want anywhere from 2 - 20 levels in Warlock. This is really a build-your-own-Raven because between the three subclasses I’m showing you, there’s not really any wrong way to go. Having Raven Hurl Through Hell her enemies is just as in-character as being a heal-bot. So cater to what the party needs. For her familiar, go with a spectral raven.

WIZARD

No matter what kind of Wizard we choose to build, we’re going to want at least 14 - 20 levels in Wizard. It will be our primary class for building Raven. There’s a lot of good choices for Wizard subclass, but the main thing we’re here for is that massive spell list. Raven’s psionic powers translate well to a wide variety of spells, and Wizard really lets Raven do a lot of the more interesting things with her spells. The 18th level feature also lets Raven cast any 1st and 2nd level spell indefinitely. Throw Shield and Blur on her, and she has a permanent +5 to her AC and enemies have disadvantage on hitting her. Choose Detect Magic and Detect Thoughts, and she’ll be able to really flex her extrasensory perception.

SCHOOL OF ABJURATION

As an Abjuration Wizard, Raven becomes a shield maiden for her team, able to protect herself and others with her forcefields. While her forcefields are by no means her main method of combat, she uses them often enough that the School of Abjuration feels like a good fit for Raven. Plus, in the early levels, having a little extra Temporary HP on a Wizard is extremely valuable. At higher levels, she can protect her friends with her Arcane Ward which you could flavor as her sending out her astral raven to guard them, projecting her soul as a shield. And by late game, she becomes resistant to all magic damage, showing her to be a true master of magic.

SCHOOL OF ENCHANTMENT

For anyone familiar with Raven from the comics, the School of Enchantment is very fitting for Raven. Dealing with the manipulation of emotions, senses, and mind control, the School of Enchantment would let Raven summon two demons and be able to cast Dominate Monster on both of them. Twin casting enchantment spells is extremely good, and on brand for the types of things we see Raven do in the comics. She doesn’t do this sort of thing as much in the show or movies, but emotional manipulation is a part of her empathic abilities.

SCHOOL OF PSIONICS (UA)

To this day, I am salty that this subclass was never formally published, but Psi Knight and Soul Knife were, because it basically screams ‘Raven’ at the top of its lungs. If I were to pick the perfect wizard subclass for Raven, this would be my first choice. However, because it never made it past the Unearthed Arcana phase, some DMs might not allow it. Granted, this is a build for a level 40 character, so your DM is probably going to allow UA. I’ve never had a DM that didn’t allow UA. But, those DMs do exist, so I have to put a little asterisk next to this subclass, even though it’s the best choice for Raven. As a Psionics Wizard, Raven can cast Friends without enemies turning hostile, turn into her astral raven form, add her INT mod to Force and Psychic spell damage rolls, can cast Telekinesis, Scrying, or Dominate Person once without using a spell slot, and at later levels, her Astral Form can move through solid objects, letting her fly through walls. Also worth pointing out, Eldritch Blast is a Force damage spell. So a Fiend Warlock with Agonizing Blast, Empowered Psionics, and has maxed out both INT and CHA is rolling 4d10+40. At least, so long as all four beams are aimed at one enemy. Empowered Psionics only works on one enemy per turn. Still, dealing 44 force damage at bare minimum is going to really help elevate Raven from out of the Utility Caster role to let her do a bit of Blasting, helping her to feel more useful and powerful in combat encounters. I’ve never gotten to really use a Raven build for a full campaign, but the few times I’ve tried to build her in a campaign, she lagged a bit behind in the combat department due to her squishy hit points and abundance of utility and support spells. So, this combo really turns Raven into a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. And you can get both features as early as level 12, so it comes on relatively early as well, at least for a level 40 build.

SCHOOL OF THEURGY (UA)

The only reason you should grab this subclass is because you need a healer, but you also want all of the Warlock levels. If you want to build a pure Wizlock, but also be a healer, then this subclass will be a good fit. Similar to Psionics, this subclass never made it past Unearthed Arcana, so you will need your DMs approval to use this subclass. You also get to pick features from a Cleric Domain. Life, Grave, and Knowledge are great choices for Raven, though even Peace can fit her. If you choose Knowledge, Raven gains Expertise in Arcana and either Religion or History. Since Arcana was a skill we chose as a Warlock, if you’re planning on taking the Knowledge Theurgy route, take Intimidation and either Investigation, History, or Religion as your second Warlock skill.

SORCERER DIVINE SOUL ORIGIN (EVIL)

There are two reasons we want these Sorcerer levels. Firstly, it’s a way to give Raven healing spells without being a Cleric and splitting her casting stat focus between three stats. The second is that it gives Raven access to Sorcery Points and Metamagic Options. Lorewise, this is the most accurate way to build Raven. Her powers stem from her demonic heritage, though they are also a gift from Trigon. Her powers are also tied to her emotions, so connecting her powers to the emotion stat is very appropriate. I count Trigon as working for the Divine Soul Origin because he maps very easily onto Asmodeus, the King of the Nine Hells, who is also a Greater Deity. You don’t need to take any Sorcerer levels if you only want to build a Wizlock, but if you only want 2-4 levels in Warlock, you can take 18-20 levels in Wizard and 18-20 levels in Sorcerer. This is why I haven’t really given any hard numbers for this build. If all you want is 8 levels of Sorcerer, 14 levels of Warlock and 18 levels of Wizard, by all means. Again, the main reason we’re here is metamagic and healing spells. If your party is set on healers and you don’t care about metamagic, you don’t need it.

MAGICAL OPTIONS

ELDRITCH INVOCATIONS

Agonizing Blast

Armor of Shadows

Ascendant Step

Chains of Carceri

Devil Sight

Eldritch Mind

Eldritch Sight

Gaze of Two Minds

Gift of the Ever-Living Ones

Grasp of Hadar

Maddening Hex

Repelling Blast

Visions of Distant Realms

METAMAGIC OPTIONS

Careful Spell

Empowered Spell

Heightened Spell

Twinned Spell

Quickened Spell

FEATS

I want to point out that these are merely suggestions, and you do not have to grab all of these feats to build Raven properly. This is merely a masterlist of all the feats I feel are appropriate for Raven.

Alert: Raven uses her extrasensory empathy to sense incoming lifeforms.

Eldritch Adept: For when you want more warlock in your warlock

Fey Touched: Just call it Devil Touched for flavor.

Linguist: Raven is a polyglot, speaking multiple languages

Magic Initiate: For when your Wizard wants to learn Cleric spells

Metamagic Adept: For when you want more sorcerer in your sorcerer

Observant: Your an empath that can sense the locations of people. High passive perception is never not good.

Prodigy: Expertise in Perception or Insight goes a long way to turn Raven into a living lie detector or the ultimate Hide-n-Seek champion.

Resilient: Give Raven proficiency in a necessary saving throw like CON, WIS, or DEX.

Shadow Touched: For the goth palette swap of Fey Touched

Skill Expert: Same as Prodigy, Expertise in Insight or Perception is very good on Raven.

Telekinetic: Raven has Psychic powers.

Telepathic: What did I just say?

Toughness: How to stop your Wizard from crying after being hit once in an encounter.

War Caster: Opportunity attacks with magic and advantage on concentration saves is always useful.

MAGIC ITEMS

Arcane Grimoire (+1, +2, +3): Higher wizard spell DC and attack roll bonus.

Bloodwell Vial (+1, +2, +3): Higher sorcerer spell DC and attack roll bonus.

Rod of the Pact Keeper (+1, +2, +3): Higher warlock spell DC and attack roll bonus.

Cloak of Protection: The cloak’s not just a fashion statement

Astral Shard: Raven teleports after every use of metamagic

Far Realm Crystal: Raven creates dark tendrils that attack, deals extra Psychic damage, and enemies might become frightened of her.

Heart Weaver’s Primer: Wizard Spellbook for the School of Enchantment.

Mantle of Spell Resistance: Raven’s cloak repels enemy magic.

Outer Essence Shard (Evil): Enemies take extra necrotic damage when Raven uses her metamagic. Perfect for Raven’s forehead gem.

Shadowfell Shard: Enemies have disadvantage on a saving throw of your choice until the end of your next turn.

Wings of Flying: A magic cloak that lets Raven fly. Useful for limitless flight/levitation.

Ring of Telekinesis: Permanent Telekinesis is very on-brand for Raven.

Grimoire Infinitus: The ultimate wizard spellbook

Robe of Stars: A black or dark blue robe that lets Raven teleport to the Astral Plane.

Robe of the Archmagi: White robes on Raven usually signifies that she’s older, wiser, and more powerful. So these legendary white robes that boost her AC so high are a very fitting high level item for her.

Book of Vile Darkness: Trigon’s unholy doctrine is fitting for Raven.

Demonomicon of Iggwilv: A Pokedex for Demons.

PIETY & PATRONS

While Raven is not strictly-speaking a Cleric of Trigon, her mother was in his cult, and she does owe some of her power to Trigon granting it to her, though he does not seem to be able to take her powers away from her. Piety was a system introduced in Mythic Odysseys of Theros. However, while it is not a “core” mechanic, I still enjoy it enough that I thought I’d take a crack at giving Raven her own Piety for serving Trigon.

TRIGON

EARNING PIETY -Destroy your enemy ruthlessly, especially if you land the killing blow. -Learn knowledge you were not meant to know -Outsmart Devils and intimidate demons into obedience -Give in to anger, hatred, jealousy, and vengeance -Gain and maintain power through domination, fear, and control

LOSING PIETY -Show mercy to those who have wronged you -Failing to seek out knowledge and expand your mind -Falling for the tricks of devils, or dominated by demons -Refusing to give in to hostile emotions -Allowing yourself to be subjugated through domination, fear, and control

3+   You learn Hellish Rebuke 10+ You learn Summon Lesser Demons 25+ Fiends summoned by you that are CR 1 or lower are friendly towards you. Furthermore, when a Fiend type creature summoned by you makes a saving throw to stop obeying you and turn hostile, the saving throw amount rolled by the fiend is reduced by half your level rounded down. 50+ Increase your Charisma or Intelligence by +2 to a maximum of 22

WARLOCK SPELLS

Due to the fact that the Warlock and Wizard spell list overlap quite a bit, I aimed primarily for spells Raven can only grab as a Warlock. However, since Wizard is the primary class for this build, 

C Eldritch Blast, Friends, Mage Hand, Mind Sliver, Prestidigitation 1 Arms of Hadar, Hellish Rebuke, Hex 2 Darkness, Flock of Familiars, Shadow Blade 3 Enemies Abound, Fear, Hunger of Hadar 4 Blight, Shadow of Moil, Summon Greater Demon 5 Dream, Enervation, Far Step 6 Circle of Death 7 Etherealness 8 Maddening Darkness 9 Psychic Scream

DIVINE SOUL SPELLS

C Guidance, Resistance, Sacred Flame, Spare the Dying, Thaumaturgy, Toll the Dead 1 Cure Wounds, Inflict Wounds 2 Lesser Restoration, Warding Bond 3 Spirit Guardians, Spirit Shroud, Speak with Dead 4 Control Water 5 Commune, Mass Cure Wounds 6 Heal, Planar Ally 7 Regenerate 8 Divine Word 9 Mass Heal

RAVEN’S WIZARD SPELLBOOK

Wizards can learn 44 spells by level-up, but they can also learn any spell on the wizard spell book by purchasing a spell and recording it in their spellbook. So, I’m going to put more than 44 spells in Raven’s wizard spellbook, because these are more-or-less every spell on the Wizard Spell List that can work for her, and I’ll leave it up to the player to shape her spell list how they want to. Obviously, there’s going to be some overlap with the Warlock spell list, though that’s fine if you prioritized Divine Soul over Fiendlock.

CANTRIPS Blade Ward, Chill Touch, Friends, Mage Hand, Mending, Message, Mind Sliver, Mold Earth, Prestidigitation, Shape Water 1ST LEVEL Catapult, Cause Fear, Charm Person, Detect Magic, Feather Fall, Find Familiar, Identify, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Shield, Tenser’s Floating Disk 2ND LEVEL Arcane Lock, Augury, Blur, Borrowed Knowledge, Crown of Madness, Darkness, Flock of Familiars, Gift of Gab, Hold Person, Knock, Levitate, Mind Spike, Misty Step, Nystul’s Magic Aura, Phantasmal Force, Shadow Blade, Suggestion, Tasha’s Mind Whip,  3RD LEVEL Bestow Curse, Blink, Clairvoyance, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Enemies Abound, Fear, Fly, Gaseous Form, Magic Circle, Protection from Energy, Spirit Shroud, Summon Lesser Demons, Summon Shadowspawn, Tidal Wave 4TH LEVEL Arcane Eye, Banishment, Charm Monster, Confusion, Control Water, Dimension Door, Divination, Edvard’s Black Tentacles, Locate Creature, Otto’s Resilient Sphere, Phantasmal Killer, Polymorph, Raulothim’s Psychic Lance, Summon Greater Demon 5TH LEVEL Bigby’s Hand, Contact Other Plane, Dominate Person, Dream, Enervation, Far Step, Geas, Hold Monster, Infernal Calling, Legend Lore, Modify Memory, Negative Energy Flood, Planar Binding, Rary’s Telepathic Bond, Synaptic Static, Telekinesis, Teleportation Circle, Wall of Force 6TH LEVEL Arcane Gate, Eyebite, Fizban’s Platinum Shield, Globe of Invulnerability, Mass Suggestion, Mental Prison, Move Earth, Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise, Summon Fiend 7TH LEVEL Etherealness, Forecage, Plane Shift, Symbol, Teleport 8TH LEVEL Demiplane, Dominate Monster, Feeblemind, Maddening Darkness, Telepathy 9TH LEVEL Astral Projection, Gate, Imprisonment, Psychic Scream, Time Stop

LEVELING GUIDE

As stated before, I feel the most accurate way to start Raven at level 1 is to start as a Warlock, proficient in saving throws to control her willpower and her emotions. Raven should spend the first 4 levels as a Fiend Pact Warlock, picking up the Pact of the Chain for a shadowy raven familiar. From here, what you choose to focus on first is entirely dependent on what you think is more important to pick up around the level 20-ish midpoint of the campaign. If you focus on getting Wizard to level 18 first, Raven will be able to cast a single 1st and 2nd level spell at their lowest levels at will, which can be extremely useful for a lot of utility spells like Cure Wounds, Detect Magic, Hellish Rebuke, Hex, Find Familiar, Mage Armor, Shield, Blur, Hold Person, or Suggestion. However, by taking Sorcerer early, you could have limitless flight and Unearthly Recovery for most the campaign, which is very useful on a squishy caster, but trades off having a wide array of powerful spells by the midgame for being a powerful healer for most of the game.

Ultimately, I believe the best use of Raven is to give her 4 Levels of Fiend Warlock, 18 Levels of Wizard, and 18 Levels of Divine Soul Sorcerer. However, if you’re not interested in all those high level Cleric spells, Raven could also work with 14 Levels of Fiend Warlock, 18 levels Wizard, and 8 levels of Divine Soul Sorcerer. Depends on how badly she needs to be the healer, and how fast she needs to get good at providing that service to the party.

Again, this build is for the ultimate Raven. The Raven who can fight Trigon. The Raven who can fight off a demon invasion and stop apocalyptic-level threats. Obviously, not every DM is going to want to run a Level 40 campaign, the Dimensions and Demigods play style is not a common thing. But, if you get lucky and your DM wants to challenge themselves and the party, this can be a great example of what Raven can do when she’s fully realized. And like I said, I’ll be building the whole Teen Titans team so that Raven doesn’t have to face the armies of Trigon alone. Together, they might just be strong enough to bring down a god-tier foe.

[noahkahansversion]

HELLO fine people, I have some more Regulus Black Headcanons! He’s my boy and I’m still a sad lesbian who cares about him more than life!

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

-he was actually a fairly good swimmer, grew up next to a lake and swam with sirius all the time

-didn’t move to london until he was 9, spent most of his childhood in france, and they continued to speak french often at home

-would’ve done literally anything for his friends. anything.

-a horrible driver. this one stems from ahb! but regulus black could not drive well and it was really bad

-pandora was the first person he kissed

-knew barty and evan before hogwarts, they were already close friends when they went to hogwarts. if we use the hc that pandora was evans twin, then they knew pandora too, but met dorcas in hogwarts

-the sorting hat really did think about putting him into ravenclaw. as i said in my last one of these, it’s only due the blood supremacist thing he was sorted into slytherin

-he was an excellent liar. he could get himself out of anything if he could talk for long enough

-he liked oranges and hated bananas

-loved to dance. when he was alone, he could dance for hours

-he warned sirius as best he could when sirius got kicked out. reg had overheard his parents talking about it and he went to sirius, but sirius just snapped at him

-his animagi form would either be a raven, cat, or fox, same with his patronus

-he could cast fiend fire. it was a trait of the black family especially, since they were some of the most powerful wizards. the potter family could also cast it, they just never really knew

-would sometimes cast spells in french to catch people off guard

-had a collection of random things he found interesting, cut outs from magazines, movie tickets his friends gave him, bottle caps, safety pins, anything like that

-would’ve gotten along excellently with hermione, due to them both being in favour of house elf rights

-was with barty for a short time before he was with james

-after his death, he watched over james and lily

-would have quite literally screamed at draco for making the same mistakes he did

-of his cousins, he was definitely closest to narcissa

-french vanilla ice cream lover

-had a habit of breaking quills. not that he was clumsy, but he wrote too fast and pushed too hard, resulting in him snapping far too many quills

Ok that’s all for now! If I can think of more for him or a different character, I will!

[blorbologist]

Two for joy - Chapter 9

They find Tova on the table.

“Oh!” says Tary. “I guess it wasn’t everyone that died, after all.”

Tova groans, massaging the frayed flesh of her wrists gingerly. “Nice to see you too. Do I get a bonus for this?”

Vex swipes one of her brother’s spare cloaks to drape it over the dwarven woman’s shoulders. “You can both sort out payment once we’re out of here.”

Tova comes along, obviously.

--

It’s the Nine Hells - of course something was going to end up on fire, at one point or another.

Just so happens to be now, and Vax, and Taryon, and that mechanical marvel of his. Surprisingly the men endure the heat better than the construct, which crashes to the ground with an awful clang. Not as loud as it could be, metal softened by the heat, already beginning to glow.

“Doty!” Tary howls, making to run for his machine before another bone devil intercepts him. He scrambles back, slapping a glow Vax recognizes as Sanctuary on his chest. The whites of his eyes are incandescent so near to the fire.

Vax grits his teeth, pushes this back to hack, stab, taste the copper behind his molars. Galdric is beside him, teeth sinking deep into the pit fiend’s bicep - more effective than Vax expected from a wolf. Perhaps there is something special to him, to be buried in that tomb, to be in the Raven’s Slumber for centuries. A keen desire for death, at least, as he tears a chunk out as he’s thrown. The wolf lands on his feet, bristling.

Kynan’s shots and Grog’s bellows both make his ears ring, just a bit - Galdric shakes his head with a whine before finding another target. Hearing is making a languid return by the time their target falls, the world blaring faintly, faintly, louder, louder.

“Guards incoming!” Vex calls from beyond the doorway. “Let’s get our game faces on, shall we?”

“But Doty!” Taryon cries again.

[One for sorrow] [Ch 1] [Keep reading on AO3!]  

[thecreaturecodex]

Qlippoth, Ekolid

Image © Wizards of the Coast, by Ted Pendergraft

[Commissioned by @coldbloodassassin. The ekolid was one of the first obyrith published, the primordial demons introduced in 3.5 that were the qlippoth with a slightly different paint job. So converting this into a qlippoth was pretty easy. The biggest change was dialing back its number of attacks--seven attacks a round on a CR 4 creature is definitely not Pathfinder standard.]

Qlippoth, Ekolid CR 4 CE Outsider (extraplanar) This creature is vaguely insect-like, but the resemblance stops at the twitching limbs and membranous wings. Its head resembles several skulls with too many eyes; all of them stacked one atop the other. Its six wings grow from nipple-like cysts running along its back. It is wider in the back than in the front, with pulsing sacs seemingly connected to its six annulated, stinger tipped tails.

Ekolids are qlippoth of parasitism, and swarm through the Abyss like ravenous, dog-sized bot flies. If a mortal is exposed to the horrific appearance of one of these creatures, it hallucinates that its skin and orifices are swarming with minute bugs and worms, but ekolids can inflict such tortures in actuality as well. Their primary motivation is constant reproduction, and they sting any creature they come across in order to fill it with their ravenous maggots. Such maggots are injected as an egg, which rapidly hatches in the skin of its victim and gnaws its way back out. Ekolid maggots grow to adulthood in a matter of hours if left to their own devices, but often turn on and eat each other. In combat, an ekolid will sting as often as possible and as many enemies as it can, and then retreat to watch its young hatch. They rarely fight to the death, as they want to maximize their number of hosts.

Ekolids are of human-like intellect and great mental fortitude, but rarely care enough to develop permanent dwellings or other forms of material culture. They are typically on the move, as demons try to exterminate them whenever possible, and an ekolid’s natural weapons can deal little damage to other fiends. Only if protected by a stronger qlippoth or when escaped to the Material Plane will they settle down, making hive-like dwellings of resin and bone. They prefer warm and dry climates, and are found more frequently in desert and wasteland-like layers of the Abyss than anywhere humid.

An ekolid is about two feet tall, but six feet long including its whipping tails. They weigh around 50 pounds. 

Ekolid     CR 4 XP 1,200 CE Small outsider (chaos, evil, extraplanar, qlippoth) Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +12 Defense AC 17, touch 14, flat-footed 14 (+1 size, +2 Dex, +1 dodge, +3 natural) hp 37 (5d10+10); fast healing 2 Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +5 DR 5/lawful or cold iron; Immune cold, mind-influencing effects, poison; Resist acid 10, electricity 10, fire 10; SR 15 Offense Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (average) Melee 3 stings +6 (1d4+1 plus infest), bite +6 (1d6+1) Special Attacks horrific appearance (30 ft., Will DC 14) Statistics Str 11, Dex 14, Con 15, Int 11, Wis 18, Cha 15 Base Atk +5; CMB +4; CMD 17 (25 vs. trip) Feats Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Mobility Skills Acrobatics +10, Climb +16, Fly +12, Perception +12, Sense Motive +12, Stealth +14 Languages Abyssal, telepathy 100 ft. SQ speed surge Ecology Environment any land or underground (Abyss) Organization solitary, pair, pack (3-8) or host (9-16) Treasure incidental Special Abilities Horrific Appearance (Su) A creature that succumbs to an ekolid’s horrific appearance suffers from delusional parasitosis for 1 day. During this time, they suffer a -2 penalty on all skill and ability checks, and must succeed a concentration check (DC 15 plus spell’s level) in order to cast a spell. This is a mind-influencing effect. Infest (Ex) A creature struck by an ekolid’s sting must succeed a DC 14 Fortitude save or be implanted with one of the qlippoth’s horrible young. The maggot emerges 1 round later, dealing 1d6 points of piercing and slashing damage and causing the creature to be nauseated for 1 round unless it succeeds another DC 14 Fortitude save. Multiple emergences in 1 round cause additional damage, but a victim that fails their second Fortitude save is only nauseated for 1 round no matter how many maggots emerge from them. Maggots are Diminutive creatures with an AC of 14 and 1 hit point, but are incapable of dealing damage. Implanted maggots can be removed with a remove disease spell automatically, or with a successful DC 15 Heal check made as a standard action. Immunity to disease does not provide immunity to this ability. The save DC is Constitution based. Speed Surge (Ex) Three times per day as a swift action, an ekolid can take an additional move action on its turn.