#volstruckers

[abbra-cadaver]

HEY GUYS SORRY I FORGET THI SPLATFORM EXISTS

my dnd character for yall<3

[harpymin]

Exandria B, Bren and Essek

from the fic series reflections and other illusions of control by @atlasarcana extra tidbits and process gif under break :D

total time: 50ish hours (i didnt measure exactly lol)

as soon as i finished reading this series, i knew i had to draw something. i mightve gotten possessed in the process, this is the most detailed sg painting ive made in a WHILE a lot of aspects in esseks design was inspired by this piece by zmees with some of my own elements added in bren's design was mostly my own ( i have a double breasted vest i made like his thats blue :3)

[revvethasmythh]

you know, it really does make perfect sense in retrospect why ludinus was not only okay with trent's volstrucker program, but also admitted to finding it useful for his own means. when imogen asked liliana how ruidusborn are awakened (exalted, presumably, for the purpose of being a potential vessel for predathos), liliana responded, "through turmoil. and training."

that's....not very different at all from how trent created the volstrucker. the only real difference is that ludinus' exalted ruidusborn are for an even worse, potentially world-ending purpose

[ariadne-mouse]

Regarding the initial confrontation between Essek and Astrid, the tone of the situation, and what exactly Astrid's stance is right now, I have a couple of thoughts:

Astrid has presumably not joined Ludinus because she is currently hiding in a smut shop. She also presumably hasn't joined the Exandrian Accord because, again, she is currently hiding in a smut shop & the Accord is sending missions after her. Maybe she disagrees with Ludinus but feels she can't safely outright oppose him. We don't know yet! Provided she isn't rooting for Ludinus, it's very possible she could be enlisted to help (I hope this happens btw), but Astrid is first and foremost a survivor and ambitious achiever who has gotten to where she is now by working within the greater system, not against it, even when she disagrees with it. She remained a Volstrucker until Caleb and the M9 turned the tide against Ikithon, and she later took on the role of Archmage that Caleb refused, continuing her original trajectory ("race you to the top!"). She has a great deal of power now and we don't have much information about what she does with it. I am very curious, though, Astrid please tell us your secrets.

"Bren sends his regards" - we don't know if Caleb told Essek to say this, but whether or not he did, I do think it was meant to convey "this is all with Caleb's knowledge and direction", for whatever measure that means to Astrid, most likely "you are safe for the moment". The purpose of this encounter is to have a conversation instead of a fight. And Essek's intent in saying it does seem to be to disarm Astrid, but his presentation puts some layers and edges on it that are likely independent of whatever Caleb might be feeling on his end (other posts have summarized the juicy possible layers well so I won't cover all of that here).

More high level on Essek's angle: even if "Bren sends his regards" was meant to signal to Astrid that she is safe in this encounter, one of the very first things Essek does is declare Astrid as Trent Ikithon's "successor", which Astrid of course disagrees with ("I'm his usurper!") but nevertheless this is an insult and condemnation coming from Essek. The subtext reads to me like "I don't like you or agree with you and you're on thin fucking ice how I see it". Is she safe from physical harm? It seems so, for now. Is she safe from bitchy comments and thinly veiled judgement? Certainly not.

Notably, Astrid tried to bamf out after hearing "Bren sends his regards", so the mention of him or what that message would mean coming from Caleb is not enough to get her to play ball by itself. This is perfectly reasonable to be honest; shit's all fucked up now and Essek basically cornered her with a squad of unfamiliar adventurers. But her skittishness despite the "friendly" signal implies a great deal of tension in her position, and Essek's behavior shows tension on his part as well, separate from whatever Caleb might be feeling offscreen and the purpose of this little mission for the Accord. I am very eager to hear the conversation that comes next!

[jibril-thelibraryangel]

I love the fact that Braius’ tragic backstory that was the result of the Mighty Nein’s reckless actions wasn’t about:

- The entire Cobalt Soul temple Yasha slaughtered

- The massacre at the water plant the Nein did for no reason

- The entire ship they sank

- The atrocities they committed at the asylum

- The time they accidentally helped release the champion of the god of torture, that then went on a murder spree across Exandria

- The whole ass war Essek started because they wouldn’t give him a grant

No, it was about the time Jester painted dicks on a church. That’s the thing that created the champion of Asmodeus and it’s possibly going to change the course of Exandrian history

[artofcarmen]

Caleb Widogast - The Butcher of Rexxentrum

Evil AU art of Caleb (Bren) if he was neutral evil, met Essek while he was a full scourger, and instead of healing each other, fed into their darkness and conspired to remove the rest of the Assembly and Kryn elite from their way.

[utilitycaster]

I need to let this cook but it feels like the D20 fandom's tendency to reduce all messages within the story to fit within a fairly flat understanding of modern US-based leftism, and the CR fandom's tendency to project homophobia onto villains are very linked. Like, both feel like people are saying "I need to have very clear lines of who is a Good Person and who is a Bad Person and I don't want to have to think about why they may be categorized as that let alone that things are far more complicated than Good/Bad, so I'm using things I know are bad, like capitalism and bigotry, and if a character falls outside these buzzwords I don't know how to assess them."

[c-kiddo]

7jan2023 redraw of this not-so-good art from 2020 🔥✸

p happy with improvement so thats nice :’-3 

[Image ID: A gloomily lit drawing of Astrid and Eadwulf from Critical Role from the chest up. eadwulf is smirking and summoning a flame in one hand while Astrid looks forward with a dead eyed stare and a tear dripping off her chin. Eadwulf is tall and thick with olive skin, buzzed dark brown hair and maze tattoos on his bare forearm. Astrid is short and thin with pale white skin and chin length side shaved dirty blonde hair. End image ID.]

[vxlinor]

I feel like shadowgasts moved on too quickly from the fact that Dairon implies that the metal the volstrucker stabbed Caleb with was likely given to her by the dynasty-empire double agent they were hunting down (Essek)

[astrid-beck]

Thought too hard about Astrid interacting with Soltryce academy students and I had to lie down forever

[elliotofmakinstuff]

The Horrors are Endless but Bren Stays Silly :3

I’ve been rotating Caleb/Bren in my brain bc of a delightfully horrible fic on ao3- a body in absentia by nonwal. I read it all in one day and then promptly needed to scream about it

doodles 👀

[demisexualemmaswan]

a fucked up widomauk au would be a phantom of the opera au

but caleb is the phantom

and molly is the ingenue/christine daae

[romeoandjulietyouwish]

anyway I don't know if I've talked about it but I have a widojest au where Caleb is a volstrucker and Jester is the princess of Nicodranas and as part of a war or something (idk it's not important lol) Caleb is given to Marion as a show of trust from the empire as a guard.

And Marion assigns him as Jester's personal guard because 1) she wants to see if it's possible to break Volstrucker programming and 2) if anyone can do it, it's Jester.

Just imagine the drama and the romance and the vibes

[demenior]

On the heels of the latest Mighty Nein Solstice show, I felt like my setup for a BeauYasha + Astrid situation was (barely) relevant again.

This is set, in theory, post-campaign 2, and prior to Ruidus shenanigans.

--

Beau tucks her napkin into the collar of her shirt and patiently waits for Yasha to bring dinner to the table. Beau set all the cups and bowls and everything out, but her wife likes to bring the meal.

“Are you ready?” Yasha calls.

“I’m so ready!” Beau calls back.

Yasha rounds the corner, a steaming dish in her hands. She’s wearing a black apron that says ‘kiss the cook’, and nothing else.

The apron is suitably sized for someone a little more average than Yasha’s big, muscular frame, and so it’s really working to keep her decent.

Beau’s thoughts are far away from decent. She can’t pick her jaw up off the floor.

Yasha’s face flushes— she still blushes when Beau hits on her even though they’ve been together for like 8 years now, and married for 3 of those. It makes Beau fall even more in love with her. And then her wife tries to do a sexy walk over to the table. Yasha is anything but graceful— she’s a force of nature— and Beau’s too far gone to think this awkward strut is anything but hot.

Yasha sets the serving dish onto the table, and lifts the spoon out of it. There’s definitely something doing it pretty good for Beau with how the strew is thick and dripping. And that’s also something she’ll take to her grave because it is so embarrassing that stew can make her horny, but in her defense it’s being served by the hottest woman in the whole world.

“Hungry?” Yasha purrs.

“Starving,” Beau says, and opens her mouth.

And that’s when Caleb appears in the room. He’s holding someone.

“Send me back!” Astrid screams, “I had him!”

Blood hits the floor in a loud splat.

“Help me!” Caleb shouts.

Astrid bares her teeth, and raises her arm to strike and— Caleb’s holding her left arm over his shoulders to keep her up. Her right arm doesn’t raise because it’s gone.

“Fuck!”

Beau flies out of her seat, and is across the room.

As Astrid registers her missing limb, as blood continues to fly from the wound, Beau skids to a stop at her side. She catches Astrid as her knees go out, and together she and Caleb get Astrid to the floor.

Beau registers the smell of smoke, of arcane magic. Astrid’s tattoos are still bright and pulsing on her remaining arm. Both her and Caleb are covered in soot, in blood. Their hair is singed. Caleb’s got that jittery, caffeinated look he has when he’s been working heavy magic. Beau rips off her loose top and tries to staunch the blood.

“You had no right,” Astrid snarls.

“He was going to kill you,” Caleb snaps.

“Blood for blood,” Astrid hisses, “I’ll take his fucking head!”

Astrid fights at Beau and Caleb, and she’s too weak to push either of them off.

“What the fuck?” Beau shouts.

And it’s now that Yasha reaches them, a fucking angel who’s entire body lights up as she reaches for Astrid. She’s still wearing the apron and nothing else.

Astrid’s back arches as the healing magic surges through her. When she drops, her whole body goes limp. Yasha checks her pulse to make sure the shock of healing didn’t kill her.

“That will keep her from dying, but she needs to see a real healer,” Yasha says.

“Dude what the fuck?” Beau demands.

Caleb groans out a sigh, and wobbles like he might collapse as well. He braces both hands on the floor to keep himself stable, “she— she went after him. I tried to stop her, but she—”

“Who? Trent?”

“Ludinus.”

Beau’s stomach drops. She looks down at the unconscious idiot between them. Despite Yasha’s healing, Astrid is white as snow. Her eyes are closed. Beau checks the wound— the bleeding has stopped, the amputation appears as if it’s had a few weeks of healing, but it’s still raw and red.

Caleb nods, as the severity of the situation sets in, “I— I had nowhere to go. They’re still fighting— the Assembly, and the Volstrucker. Other factions. She might have started a civil war.”

“Or a massacre,” Beau realizes, “Ludinus— fuck! He’s the fucking guy! We don’t have enough to pin him yet, and now? Fuck! I thought she was helping us, what happened?”

She has to shake Astrid to wake her up.

One of her eyes is red with blood. Thanks to Yasha’s healing, the wound is handled, but it will take time for that to clear out. It gives the woman a decidedly unsettling look.

Astrid glares up as they lean over her, and then turns to Caleb, “did you take me to a fucking titty bar?”

[saribrum]

More colored doodles of my angy guy~

He’s toxic and I love him

[aeli-tan-art]

$3/Shot Request!

hello lovely followers! wanna see some of my older fandom animatics completed? for $3+ donation to PCRF, I'll fight my severely short attention span and work on a shot! here's one from a Critical Role C2 au Wicked Nein feat Volstucker Bren vs Bright King Essek!

PCRF donation link