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Deadly Nightshade

Character Quote: “One by one, they all fall down...”

My newest player decided to change her mind and for with a unicorn Timelost Specter rather than a sphinx Spirit of Adventure. And this is with her being informed that her weapons and gear from the future would be literally irreplaceable if lost or destroyed, and she’d have to make her own ammo as the campaign’s current setting currently only has flintlock firearm technology.

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SPHINX

System: Courage is Magic by LittleLunaMoonMatron

Compliant to Edition 2.2

Sphinx Traits

Ability Scores:  +1 Knowledge, +1 Agility

Size: Medium

Speed: 5 Squares (Ground), 4 Squares (Flight)

Vision: Low Light

Racial Skill Trainings: History and Perception

Flying Creature: You may take Spirits, Destinies, and Merits that require flight.

Natural Predator: You are always considered to be armed. Treat your Unarmed Strikes as melee weapons of your level.

Riddle Me This: Whenever attempting to solve a riddle, or puzzle, you get an immediate second chance to do so if the first attempt fails, with no penalties. This is treated as one attempt and does not cost any additional actions. You also get the I’m a Treasure Hunter Merit for free, even if you do not meet the prerequisite.

Sensitive Ears: Your perked up ears are well-tuned to finding new creatures to pounce on. You receive a +5 Perception or Insight checks that involve hearing.

Vigilant Stone: You can temporarily transform into a stone statue of yourself. While in this state, you remain aware of your surroundings, require neither air nor sustenance, and become difficult to harm in any meaningful way (+5 AC, +1 point of Damage Reduction per Level, and any previously existing Ongoing Damage is put on hold). You also recover faster while you are stone, requiring only half the time for Short and Long Rests (30 minutes and 4 hour respectively). 

These graceful and enigmatic predators are said to have once served as guardians of ancient tombs and treasuries in distant lands. Their ability to turn themselves into unyielding stone allows them to remain ever vigilant at their posts, though they must revert to flesh and blood should they decide to act. Many would be thieves have met their end due to the ever watchful gaze of a guardian sphinx.

Sphinxes greatly value cleverness and wit, and often take great pride in their ability to create (and solve) riddles, traps, and puzzles of all kinds. In fact, their love for such conundrums can sometimes be used to distract them from their posts. Beware though, for while they may reward a cleverly applied loophole or alternative answer, they have little tolerance for liars and cheats.

Play as a Sphinx if you want…

To be considered to be mysterious, clever, and wise

To come up with clever solutions to unusual problems

To be a predator among herbivores

To be mistaken as a statue while keeping watch over your friends and companions or guarding a specific location.

Race Specific Merits:

Living Stone

Prerequisite: Sphinx Only

Benefit: You are now more attuned with your Vigilant Stone form, enabling you to maintain your mobility while retaining the attendant AC and DR bonuses. However, you are still too heavy to swim or fly while you are in your stone form.

Rough Hewn

Prerequisite: Sphinx Only

Benefit: You are now more attuned with your Vigilant Stone form, increasing your DR to 2 per level while you are in that form.

Other Notes:

It should be noted that, in setting, sphinxes are mostly a blend of feline, avian, and pony physiologies rather than a blend of feline, avian, and human physiologies, although tabbies still have human style breasts regardless. This is part of why their bodies and heads have pony-like proportions.

Tabbies tend to outnumber toms due to a somewhat uneven male to female birth gender ratio, although the actual demographic varies from population to population.

Design Notes:

This is what I came up with for the Sphinx race when one of my players who really likes cats stated that he wanted to play one in the Courage is Magic campaign that I was starting up. This was well before any sphinxes had made any canonical appearances in the show itself, and also before the My Little Pony movie had been announced so the cat-like Abyssal race wasn’t a thing yet either.

They are loosely based on the sphinxes of Egyptian and Grecian mythology, which is one of the reasons why my tabletop gaming group agreed that the tabbies should have human style boobs between their forelegs. Well, that, and everyone thought that it would be hilarious to have a race in that actually had prominent exposed breasts in an otherwise mostly cartoonish setting. Said group at the time included a married couple and the girlfriend of the married man’s brother. And later, a new female player decided that she also wanted to play a sphinx character, and made Nightshade, who while nowhere near as disturbingly promiscuous as the first PC sphinx, Siri of the Questionable Morals, has no problems with proudly displaying her bare bosom to the world like every other tabby PC or NPC that has shown up so far.

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Nightshade

One of the new player characters in the Courage is Magic campaign that I occasionally run for my friends and I. Nightshade is a Spirit of Adventure class Sphinx.

Nightshade’s player is new to the group, so the other players let her look over their characters. Oddly enough, against my expectations, she liked the sphinx race that I homebrewed for the game, boobs and all, and simply requested that I do Nightshade up with dark blue fur and green eyes.

Character Quote: “Hey look! A dark alley! Let’s check it out!”

Update: Nightshade’s player changed her mind upon finding out that I was allowing the possibility of two Timelost classes that are being produced by a compatible game also being made by LittleLunaMoon, and is now playing a Timelost Spector unicorn (basically a sci-fi sniper type suitable for Fallout or Mass Effect).

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The Windrose Agency

This is the organization the party works for in the Courage is Magic campaign that I occasionally run for my friends and I. It is based off of the organization by the same name from SoothinCoffee’s MLP:FiM CYOA fic “The Windrose Agency: Equestria Will Prevail” on Sufficient Velocity, although in the campaign this building is a branch office with the main office being in Canterlot. It is still ultimately headed by Prince Blueblood though, and (like in the fic) is named after his grandfather.

In the campaign, the Windrose Agency handles all sorts of missions as long as the missions don’t actively work against the good of Equestria.

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Sweet Relief

One of the NPCs that the party sometimes hires to come along on missions with them in the Courage is Magic campaign that I occasionally run for my friends and I. Sweet Relief is a Spirit of Kindness class Earth Pony, and the party’s preferred healer to hire to come along on missions, even despite her tendency towards making friends with critters that rest of the party nervous.

Character Quote: “Oh look! I think that bear wants to be friends!”

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Nabiki the Travelling Merchant

A recurring NPC in the Courage is Magic campaign that I occasionally run for my friends and I. Nabiki is a traveling merchant who occasionally hires the party for escort duties. Nabiki is a bit greedy and self serving, but not overly so, and her skill set falls within the Spirit of Generosity class.

Character Quote: “Have I got a deal for you!”

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Tag

One of the player characters in the Courage is Magic campaign that I occasionally run for my friends and I. Tag is a Spirit of Shadows bat pony.

Character Quote: “I can hit any target, day or night!”

Please note that this is a recolor of one of Equestria-Prevails’ pieces overlaid onto a stock background. To better appreciate the original artist’s work, please visit their page on DeviantArt.

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Siri of the Questionable Morals

One of the player characters in the Courage is Magic campaign that I occasionally run for my friends and I. Siri is a Spirit of Laughter class sphinx whos race I homebrewed because the player really likes cats. At the time, the My Little Pony movie had yet to be announced, so nobody knew that the cat-like Abyssals were even a thing.

Siri is basically a quintessential stereotypical bard, hitting on anything that moves, and managing to get herself kicked out of two different bordellos because she made the mares working in them feel weirded out by her pick-up lines.

Character Quote: “Hi, I’m Siri! Wanna have a good time?”

Not sure where I got the sphinx pic from originally, but I added some of the accessories.

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Scorch

One of the player characters in the Courage is Magic campaign that I occasionally run for my friends and I. Scorch is a Spirit of Embers class dragon, and has the dubious distinction of accidentally killing one and a half fellow party members when he rolled a barrel of black powder into a cluster of enemies who were engaged in melee combat.

To be fair, Scorch’s player was dead tired after a chemo treatment, and it was literally the last thing he did right before heading off to bed.

Character Quote: “I found the snack bag! Hey, sweet! I love sapphires!” (Scorch had just found the loot sack after the party had defeated a band of bandits).

Please note that this is a recolor of one of Equestria-Prevails’ pieces overlaid onto a stock background. To better appreciate the original artist’s work, please visit their page on DeviantArt.

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Rough Cut

One of the player characters in the Courage is Magic campaign that I occasionally run for my friends and I. Rough Cut is a Spirit of Determination class minotaur, and the party’s secondary tank.

Character Quote: “Come here! I want to axe you a question!”

Rough cut is basically an Iron Will recolor without the tie or ear mic, and with a battle axe added.

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Ice Floe

One of the player characters in the Courage is Magic campaign that I occasionally run for my friends and I. Ice Floe is a Spirit of Archeology class Pegasus.

I don’t remember where I got the original pegasus pic from, but it is a recolor of a pic I had found.

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Gary

One of the player characters in a Courage is Magic campaign that I occasionally run for my friends and I. Gary is a Spirit of Contest class griffin who tends to act as one of the party’s tanks.

I don’t remember where I got the griffon pic.

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Tempest

One of the player characters in a Courage is Magic campaign that I occasionally run for my friends and I. Tempest is a Spirit of Loyalty class Pegasus whos player loves having him use hit-and-run skirmishing tactics.

Character Quote: “Can you guys go... I dunno... About 20% faster?”

Please note that this is a recolor of one of Equestria-Prevails’ pieces overlaid onto a stock background. To better appreciate the original artist’s work, please visit their page on DeviantArt.