#since ale was a dnd character but since i have no one to play dnd with she's

[teecupangel]

Yes public answering is allowed.

Take your time, I know I am not the only one with asks.

Desmond Miles, Malik Al-Sayf, Kadar Al-Sayf, Altaïr ibn-La'Ahad, Leonardo Da Vinci and Ezio Auditore all playing Dungeons and Dragons pre canon (pre AC.) Desmond has no idea who his friends are cause he didn't pay attention to history lessons and drowned out his father after awhile of his bloodline importance speeches. Kadar is the Dungeon Master/Storyteller. Malik and Altaïr play Paladin and Cleric respectively. Ezio pretty much plays himself, charming flirt. Leonardo, plays powerful characters since he feels powerless often. His friends enjoy Desmond's company that when he goes missing they step up to find him. And Desmond's mind is blown after viewing Altaïr's memories that he figures out who the other two are.

Once again take your time.

Okay.

What if Altaïr is in a forced sabbatical?

Maybe it’s similar to what happened in 1191 where Altaïr’s actions led to the death of someone. Maybe it’s because he deliberately got between their team and the Brotherhood under William Miles.

If you want to keep Clay alive, maybe he saved Clay and that led the Templars and the Assassins into almost recognizing him so they’re all lying low.

Altaïr being not allowed to leave the house is his punishment XD

Malik is an inch away from actually strangling the man with the lan cable for his computer because a bored Altaïr is an annoying one and Kadar took a part time job because he’s that bored.

Kadar met Desmond because his part time job is a delivery man for a specific brand of alcohol that Bad Weather keeps on stock.

Kadar recognized him immediately as William miles’ runaway son and befriended him because he’s curious.

Their friendship leads to Desmond admitting he’s curious about DnD but doesn’t have friends to play with. Kadar invites him because he has online friends that he actually plays DnD with (one of those friends being Rebecca and, if you want a watch_dog reference, Wrench) so he gets the others to play DnD as well because they’re all varying degrees of noobs.

Also, this way, Altaïr would actually have something to do XD

Before Desmond gets there, Kadar makes them promise not to talk about anything Assassin related because Desmond is the first actual offline friend Kadar has made that wasn’t part of the whole ‘we sorta got reincarnated/transmigrated into the future but we’re not gonna talk about that I guess’ thing.

(I’m using http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/ for character info and I am absolutely not sure if they’re already available by 4e XD)

Unorganized Notes:

Kadar uses 4e rules but is fast and loose with them (because I wish to give them 5e but 5e was relased in 2014 TTATT). Leonardo makes the minis but Kadar makes the maps (he does check online for references). It’s his own campaign but his online DnD group helps him (he actually plays a Rogue online named ‘Altair’ without the ‘ï’ because he’s still a fanboy)

Everyone agreed Rogue is off-limits because they might all choose Rogue and also to not tip Desmond off so no one is a Rogue. Desmond screws this up by actually picking Rogue. Desmond actually goes for Assassin Rogue because he loves irony XD His backstory is that he left a cult of assassins as a child and is trying the adventurer life. Everyone just feels a bit awkward when he told them that backstory but Desmond just breezed through that so it was just for a moment XD

Malik is an Oath of Vengeance Paladin who share the same deity as Altaïr. In-game, this is because Altaïr is a Cleric on a mission to appease their god and Malik is there to keep him in check. Out of game, Malik wants to be the one to finally annoy Altaïr this time around and this backstory gives him an excuse to do it.

Altaïr is an Arcana Domain Cleric who is on a mission of redemption as ordered by his deity. The reason why he’s in a road of redemption is unclear and it’s clear that Altaïr has no respect for his deity. In-game, everyone who worship the same deity call him their god’s ‘Chosen’ and he hates it (Kadar absolutely loves to ham out the worshipping of the 'Chosen' XD). Out of everyone, he’s the player who is absolutely min-maxing his character.

Let’s be honest, we’re all expecting Ezio to be the Bard and he is. He even plays the guitar because, according to him, it’s better than a minstrel's lute, whatever that means. Absolutely a School of Swords Bard that has the highest Charisma stat among all of them. He’s the designated leader and the one who pulled everyone together into this weird group of adventurers. He may or may not be a noble who ran away from home.

Leonardo is an Artificer. While Artificers are already available as a class in 4e, their specialties were officially created for 5e but fuck it, let’s say it’s a modified Artificer class because Leonardo should be an Artillerist Artificer. If you don’t want the Artificer class because of how questionable it is possible for 4e, my alternate suggestion is Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer for pure magic destruction or Great Old One Warlock (unli Eldritch Blast). He plays Ezio’s character’s long suffering childhood best friend who joined the group because Ezio ‘begged’.

The campaign may or may not be a chosen one absolutely not wanting to do his mission as said chosen one and being dragged along by his god approved babysitter and a misfit company (the twist is Altaïr's mission is to actually find their god's child that is supposed to save the world... it's Desmond. Desmond's the god's child. The cult he's from is worshipping the same god as Altaïr but Desmond, Altaïr and Malik don't know it. Kadar thinks he's made such a good plot twist XD)

(I left their races ambiguous for you to play with. I personally would suggest making Altaïr a kenku for the lols XD)

#i’m just imaging them being as chaotic as the oxventure #damn i focused on the dnd aspect #sorry #ac characters play dnd #assassin's creed #ask and answer #teecup writes/has a plot #fic idea: assassin's creed #desmond miles #altaïr ibn la'ahad #ezio auditore #kadar al sayf #malik al sayf #leonardo da vinci

[watercoloredlie]

So I read Flight of Icarus and it wasn’t that bad.

I love that Eddie got his love for music from his mom. She sounded like a cool lady gone too soon. It’s cute that he shares her initials.

Al Munson can rot.

Wayne should be protected at all costs. I hate how people lump all the Munsons together when Al is the only real bad one. Wayne always had Eddie’s back and I love that.

Higgins can rot too. I hate that stereotype of the jocks getting away with bullying while their victims get in trouble.

Bev is cool for the most part. I didn’t mind the idea of Eddie also working at the Hideout.

It was cool to get a glimpse of another Hellfire campaign with Eddie as DM. Also kind of cool to get a glimpse of earlier versions of the characters we saw on the show.

Ronnie was cool. I can see why she and Eddie were compared to Robin and Steve. Love that Granny Ecker was cool with Eddie too. At least until he upset Ronnie. It was cool to see Ronnie not backing down to the bullies.

Paige. I expected her to be terrible given everyone’s reactions to her, but she really isn’t that bad. Eddie was his cute dorky self with her. I was surprised that she bailed him out after their argument though. It’s funny that people think Eddie was a virgin with no game. Man had Chrissy skipping up to his doorway. He had her smitten with him in the woods. But I digress.

Chrissy my love. She was so badass standing up for Gareth and Eddie. This book just made me love her more. I loved the flashback to the night of the talent show. She and Eddie were adorable.

Reefer Rick was pretty much just how I had headcanoned him.

Eddie meeting the Byers boys and protecting Will was awesome. I love that Will got the first invite to Hellfire. I wish Eddie knew how the boys didn’t want to play DnD with Will in season three. Oh he would have reamed them out.

I appreciate the Warners for being welcoming to Eddie. Props to Mr. Warner for calling Wayne a good guy. Sure, Eddie had to downplay stuff a bit, but it was nice to see a family like Paige’s not immediately brush off Eddie as no good.

Eddie deserved to live and to graduate. This book just made it clear how even more unfair it was that his storyline ended the way it did. There was a lot of foreshadowing to it in the book too.

It was also pretty cool to see Corroded Coffin band moments. I still think Dougie is the unnamed member of the band since they did say their rehearsal space was in his garage and that kind of does match up with what was shown in Season 4. Although he’s supposed to be a senior in the book so that doesn’t line up. I don’t really know if he is the unnamed band member or not.

Also unless I read wrong, did they really mess up Gareth’s wrist when he’s a drummer? Only to have Jason mess up his hand in season four? That was uncalled for. Leave Gare alone.

I appreciate how understanding Hop was with Eddie. I think deep down even he knew Eddie was a good kid for the most part.

Eddie’s LOTR monologues were just so Eddie lol. It was cool to see Ronnie try to help him with his studies though. Hurt to see him call the assigned reading for English bland, but I get it. There were some books we had to read for English that I didn’t like either.

It was a nice touch that they mentioned Eddie enjoying comics. Especially the Xmen ones since it kind of confirms he got the Hellfire Club name from the Xmen comics.

All in all, not a bad book. Third ST novel I read. Lucas on the Line was really good despite the descriptions of Eddie not really being accurate. Also read the Hopper book which was pretty good too.

#eddie munson #flight of icarus

[fairytaleliving]

Vtuber! Yuu

Hello after I thought of Vtuber Yuu more ideas popped into my head so use whatever you’d like lkdfhsd

okay for those who don’t know, vtubers have lore that goes along with their avatars (vox akuma being a demon, iron mouse being literal satan, etc)

and knowing twisted wonderland, there’s so much lore fodder that could be added

and since twst wouldn’t be a game, yuu would have so much material to use

nobody can even call them out on their shit bc the only person who knows abt twisted wonderland is yuu themself so they have all the creative liberties

i know that i joked that yuu would use malleus as an avatar, but let’s be honest all of them are prime vtuber ideas

mysterious king of the faes, malleus draconia? 

sunshine and friendly, kalim al-asim? 

mischievious and tricky, ruggie bucchi?

 unpredicable eel merman, floyd leech?

 shy otaku fire boy, idia shroud? 

pretty but short tempered, epel felmier? 

rational yet playful, trey clover?

lets be honest you simps the characters are one of the reasons you play this god damn game

everyoner has a type and there are 22 characters to choose from as a favorite like come on

prime claps fucking claps vtuber claps lore

Vtuber Artist: omg you’re so detailed and this design looks so realistic

Yuu, sending a candid photo they took with one of their friends:i have a very big imagination :D

if anything ppl would just think yuu was just a big disney fan lmao

like yuu talks disney and vaguely talks abt how similar it is with twisted wonderland and lets pretend theres no possibility of yuu getting sued by disney

OH MY GOD YUU WOULD HAVE THEIR OWN GRIM WITH THEIR “DESIGN”

grim doesnt say anything he just vibes on yuu’s shoulder or head

yuu wouldn’t have any personal info told by the students bc they’re not an asshole and made a promise but that wouldn’t stop them from mixing truth and fiction

like not the trauma or the reasons for the overblots

but cmon lets be honest theres so much clownery and personality each person has is a gold mine

yuu’s lore video would just be nrc shenanigans mixed with what yuu themself has experienced at twst

like seriously you’ve seen those out of context tweets, explaining shit abt twst wonderland to someone who doesnt know anything would be a wild ride

the fact yuu gets isekaied into a magical college and appears in a coffin of all things is crazy in it of itself

he could also be like fulgur ovid and pretend hes just using an old dnd character as an avatar

and since yuu is just friends with everyone, they probably have everyone’s personality down to a T

yuu is the campus therapist they kinda have to know whether they like it or not

tell me yuu would’ve exaggerate ace’s personality bc they’re petty

yuu name drops each person and twisted wonderland itself but nobody believes them bc they all think its a part of the lore

Viewer tweeting:wow twisted wonderland has such a cool atmosphere and they seem like they actually lived through this

Yuu, having flashbacks of whatever the fuck they did at nrc:...bestie you have no fucking idea-

yuu is friends with ace so they definitely have good voice impressions under their belt as well

yuu creates a crowley hate club amongst their fans bc of how much they complain and they have no regrets about it

no matter what dimension, yuu will always rant abt how much abt how much of an asshole he is

yuu describes Night Raven College and the dorms and ppl designate each other to each dorm

Viewer A: I think I would fit in with Octavinelle! Azul and the tweels look like they would be so much fun to hang out with

Viewer B: Pomefiere sounds so regal and I would love to have a beauty lesson from VIl!

Yuu, remembering the time Floyd threatened another student and Vil scold Epel for the nth time abt his manners:...well you see-

someone has probably made fanart abt nrc thats eerily close to how the boys looks like and the dorms that yuu has to take a minute to contemplate everything

if the other twst boys find out it would be so entertaining

yuu wouldn’t hide the fact, but they wouldn’t admit to it either

yuu would be probably be giving them a tour of the real world when someone walks up to and says that theyre a dedicated cosplayer and yuu has to drag everyone away and explain lmao

idia probably watches vtubers so he would think the idea was cool

he would probably pass out bc of how popular his character would be if yuu decides to use him as a avatar

he would probably stream with yuu with the slight stress of trying not to refer to yuu as yuu and as a student he probably hasn’t interacted with-

azul would be impressed by the grind, especially if yuu gets paid for it

malleus would be confused yet flattered?????

vil would love or hate it depending on how well the artist drew his likeliness but wouldnt dm the artist abt it bc hes not an asshole bc you should respect artists for their works you fucking fools

the man doesnt understand technology but hey ppl like him and loves that yuu thought he was memorable enough to make a character for him to play

lilia probably thinks its fucking hilarious

like of course yuu would be the only person to do this type of shit

he would probably even encourage yuu to start their own vtuber streaming in twisted wonderland

but with a new avatar bc these are real ppl with reputations to use-

cater is proud and wants to know the secrets on how yuu became popular

would’ve considered making his own if he wanted to

all in all they’d either be: confused, concerned, impressed, amused, embarrassed, or all of the above

yuu would probably get more self conscious if the others end up watching lmao

ok im done back to watching vox recite the entire of fnaf lore

#marie.headcanons #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland yuu #twst #twst yuu #vtuber yuu #anyways watch nijisanji for good content #i blame them for me going down this rabbit hole

[niennandil-me-writes]

ace up their sleeve

CN: alcohol, gambling

[a small part of the backstory of one of my new dnd characters]

"I've been in chains since I was nothing but a kid We don't know freedom, not quite sure that we ever did Now that we have it, how will we make use of it? We've been committed now to what do we all commit? I used to have a home, now I don't even have a name"

Emilie Autumn - One Foot in Front of the Other

You didn’t just ask questions in the Feywild. That was one of the first things they had learned. Don’t ask open questions, don’t ask anything at all if you can help it. Don’t give anyone an easy way to impose their reality on yours. And so they hadn’t asked what kind of food or drink this tavern served, or what was charged for it, just ordered and said with conviction that they would pay later. The waiter – a person who was either a humanoid with a donkey head or a donkey walking on two legs – had scoffed, looking them up and down, but he had brought them a mug of ale and a bowl of something that might have passed for stew if it hadn’t been way too bright red in hue. While they hungrily shoveled the sludge into their mouth, they scanned the tavern. It did good to be alert in these parts.

There was a group of grung sitting at the bar counter, drinking a golden beverage through curving and looping straws. At the other end of the tavern, there was a satyr smoking from a pipe which he now and then offered to the guests sitting close by, filling their entire half of the room with rainbow-colored clouds that smelled of dried-up autumn. A shadow creature with a grin filled with sharp teeth was dodging between the patrons, balancing a cup of steaming hot chocolate with rainbow sprinkles and a plate of pancakes covered in molasses towards a table where a seemingly human girl was waiting for her meal. On the other end of the room, a heated card game was taking place, participants heaping little treasures on the table as bets.

“What’s this, then?” a hairless Tabaxi asked, holding up a fist-sized object that someone else just put down. “Broken watch?”

“A compass.”

“Broken compass, then,” the Tabaxi said. “I’m piss drunk, but I know where north is.”

“Points to your responsibilities,” the owner explained.

“That’s why it’s pointing to the bar,” the donkey-waiter said while passing by. “Pay your tabs, Kitty.”

They listened up at that. Leaving their half-eaten meal behind for whatever thief or pixie to find, they walked over to the table. “You got room for one more.” Keep your voice up, make it an assumption, not a question.

Raised glances pointed at them, annoyed at the intruder, but curious, too.

“Are you even old enough for gambling, child?” the Tabaxi asked. An indignant question – presuming them both a child and someone who stuck to human rules – but an opening as well.

“Sure I am,” they said, keeping their voice steady, asserting their own reality. They belonged here.

“Take a seat, kid.” The dealer – why was there a dealer here in this sleazy tavern, acting like it was a casino? – was the only one in the group who seemed relaxed, but the others seemed to take over his attitude now, making room for the new player.

“You know how to play, I assume,” the dealer said. He wasn’t as strange as some other patrons of the tavern, but even so, they had never dealt with a talking skeleton before. Walking? Yes. Fighting? Yes. Fully capable of killing them? Sometimes. But they had never met one you could have a conversation with.

“Sure I do,” they said, trying to keep their confidence, even though the only time they had played cards was with their sibling in the garden over biscuits and tea, and they doubted this was that kind of game.

“Simple, really,” the skeleton said. “You gotta place a bet for every card you get, maximum of five. At the end – no matter if you folded – you add the numbers on the cards, highest amount wins. Joker’s as big as the highest value but a null on its own, if you get a reverse card, keep it, that’s not supposed to be in there. Also, the cards are marked and counted” – he ran his bone fingers through the deck, dropping cards on the floor – “108 to be exact, and the tables are numbered as well, but there’s a reason for that. Any questions?”

They shook their head.

“Good, then you already know how to play.” He winked, in a way a skeleton shouldn’t be able to.

“What’re you placing?” a pale person with too many eyes asked.

The counterquestion was burning on their tongue. They didn’t want to bet too much, but betting too little would get them laughed at, or worse: sent away.

“Don’t ask questions if the answer is important.” That’s what the tall lady with the cloak of book pages had said. “Reality is malleable where you are going. Keep your reality for yourself.”

But the other person had asked. And now they got to decide what an appropriate answer was. They looked at the treasures and trash already spread across the table – bundles of herbs, blood red chalk, a gemstone that held a living flame – and then took the piece of ivory that was meant to pay for their food from their pocket. “Unicorn,” they said by way of explanation.

There were some raised eyebrows, but the company seemed to accept, and the skeleton dealt them a card. Nine. That didn’t seem bad. The drawing on the card depicted an elf sleeping on the bank of a river.

Everyone having one card, the company continued betting. The creature with too many eyes set two of them to the table and received a card in return. A white Harengan, seeming nervous, announced he needed to go, leaving his bet on the table. A Drow emanating a smell of fish protruded a magnifying glass from her robes, which only enlarged important things while trivia or falsehoods appeared smaller through it. A small fairy offered a thimble filled with a red liquid he swore was an extremely potent healing potion. A bloated creature with the head of a shark set down the pedigree papers of the horned dog resting at his feet (after some questions he clarified that he was betting the papers, not the dog, who seemed unimpressed). The Tabaxi threw in a necklace of teeth. A seemingly human man in a hunter’s cloak set down a glass vial filled with a black oily liquid. The person in the black hood who had bet the compass placed a comb made from mother of pearl on the table. The remaining two players folded as well.

It was their turn now. While watching, they had considered what else they could bet. It was not like they had much on them. Finally, they took the cold iron knife from their belt, and half the company flinched away. An invaluable weapon in these parts, and if they met the person in the black hood alone in the woods, they could just take the compass from them at knife-point. Like this, surrounded by dozens of witnesses, only half of whom had faerie blood in them, all it was good for was trading it for another card. A six. Well, that just seemed a mockery. This card had an entirely different design than the one they already held, the number represented by six yellow and red bells rather than in writing.

Around the table the bets went again: More eyes, a flute made of a crab leg, a diamond the size of speck of dust, a bundle of catnip, a red piece of string which (the man in the hood said) had once connected lovers, and some more folds. They couldn’t even judge the value of most of the items, but there seemed to be some rhyme to it, judging by the hums of approval and disapproval, and the way some of them bit their lips as they rummaged through their bags and cloak pockets. The bets seemed much more important than the cards, which were regarded only briefly. Another player joined them as well, a lanky creature trading a vial of werewolf blood for two cards.

Their turn again. They took the necklace of talismans and warding charms from around their neck. Most scoffed at that, but the lanky creature seemed interested, though her pitch-black eyes were directed at them, not the necklace. The card they received was an eight. They tried to keep the smile off their face.

And on it went, more bets being placed, more folds. And their turn again. They took the woven bracelet off their wrist.

“We’re past the decorations,” the Tabaxi said.

“A hag made it for me,” they explained. “A charm. Spun by the cursed.”

“Listen, kid, I didn’t just set a bag with my own balls in it on the table for you to bet a piece of cloth.”

They opened their mouth, and then closed it again.

“If you don’t have anything else of fair value, just fold,” the fairy said.

They couldn’t leave now. Not with all their treasures set on the table. Their heart beat in their chest up to their neck, like it wanted to jump out. And it knocked against the hard flat object they kept under their shirt.

“What can I do?” they had asked the lady in the cloak of paper pages, after she had told them who had taken away their twin and where they went.

The lady, who called herself the Librarian, had explained to them the ins and outs of the Feywild then. How in some places the inhabitants couldn’t tell lies, and in others they told only lies but coated in sugar. That there were no maps of the place, and never a sure way of knowing where you were going. She had spoken warnings to them, and encouragement.

And still they had begged for one more thing. Something to trade in, something to offer the Archfey who had stolen their twin away, to pay for their return.

She had looked so sad then. “I can give you one thing. But I might ask for something in return someday. I’m a librarian, not a giver of gifts, and my books are only lent, not given away.” She had led them to a part of their parents’ library they had never seen, then, and taken out a book from its shelves. “Don’t look into it, don’t try to read it”, she had said. “But this should be worth one soul at least. Though I cannot promise she will take up the offer.”

They needed this book. They needed it to trade. But how would they ever get a chance to trade it if they never found their twin or the person who had taken them? And they were at twenty-three. They could win this. All of it. The compass and everything they had bet and all the other things on the table which could buy them food and better clothes and maybe a comfortable room at the tavern for a night.

They slid their hands under their shirt and took the bag that was strapped around their chest, taking out the book and placing it on the table. The Tabaxi scoffed again, but the rest of their party seemed content, and the Drow leaned forward. Her heart seemed to be beating faster as well, or at least there was something squirming under her robes. The skeleton handed out the card. Five. Not bad, but not good either.

So it went. After this round, there were only four more players left taking new cards: Themself, the creature that had started with too many eyes and now had too little, the Tabaxi and the Drow.

Their turn. They looked around. A lot of people who had folded were chewing their lips, while others seemed confident in the cards they had. The Tabaxi was too drunk to make good decisions, that much was clear. Twenty-eight wasn’t enough to win, they knew that. But what else did they have to bet?

“I can bet a memory,” they said. They had already sold some of those, and every time they had promised themself it would be the last time. But this was how things stood.

Their offer elicited laughter around the table.

“Don’t you think the people here already have memories enough that they want to be rid of?” the hunter asked with raspy voice.

“I have good memories.” They knew there was too much doubt in their voice to sell it.

“What else you got?” the Tabaxi asked.

They remembered the bakery they had slipped into a few days ago, just to warm themself from the freezing wind creeping under their cloak, finding themself staring at giant loaves of bread, still steaming from the oven heat, cakes decorated with cream and fruit or dripping with honey, biscuits in all colours of the rainbow and then some more. The smell alone was enough to make their mouth water. The woman with the cotton candy hair and an apron woven from mist had smiled at them, a warm smile, and asked them if they’d like to have anything. With trembling voice they had offered to pay with pixie dust, all they had on them at that point. Still smiling, the baker had shaken her head but then offered them to let them have anything in the bakery if they gave her but one thing. Back then, they had reacted in panic, shaken their head and left the house, running away as fast as they could.

Now they said: “My name.”

Stupid.

“I can bet my name.”

Stupid stupid.

At least it made the people around the table shut up. The creature with no eyes tilted its head. The Drow’s lips curled into a smile. The Tabaxi seemed very nervous all of a sudden. The person who had bet the compass leaned forward again. Their features were still unfathomable under the hood, but two blue gleaming dots appeared that might have been eyes. Other people from around the tavern were drawn close now.

It was the skeleton that broke the silence. “Sure you wanna do that, kid? You know what power a name has?”

“I’m not a kid,” they said. “And I know what I’m doing.” They hoped they sounded more confident than they felt. “My name as my last bet for the fifth card. Whoever wins gets to keep it.”

“Is not a nickname, right?” the Tabaxi asked, still nervous but also suspicious. “Like, none of those wrong names business.”

“My given name,” they said.

“Damn, kid,” the Tabaxi said. “You’re not joking around, are ya?”

They didn’t know what they had imagined trading away your name would look like, but what they hadn’t expected was a skeleton handing them a little piece of ripped off paper and a chewed-on pen. They wrote the name down between smudged notes and then placed the strip of paper on the table among all the other treasures.

The skeleton dealt them another card. They picked it up but didn’t dare look at it yet.

This being the last round, everyone around the table set down their cards, announcing their score by the order that they had received their last card. The ones who had folded early barely had anything over a twenty. Only the fairy held a twenty-nine in their three cards. Then the final five:

“Thirty-four,” said the hooded person.

“Thirty,” said the eyeless creature.

“Eight,” scoffed the Tabaxi and then called to the waiter for more ale and a bundle of new catnip he couldn’t pay for.

“Thirty-two,” said the Drow, looking in disappointment at the book.

And now, they had to turn the card around. They stared at the number in disbelief.

“Well,” the skeleton said.

“Twenty.” Their voice was toneless. They rubbed their thumb over the card, like that would make the little minus symbol next to the eight disappear. From the corner of the card, a kobold was laughing at them.

The person in the black hood nodded in approval. “I win.” They started collecting their prize, letting the objects disappear in the folds of their cloak one by one. The other patrons gradually left the table, disappointed, ruined, or glad they had stopped betting early. The skeleton collected the cards. The hooded person put the slip of paper carrying the name into a little pocket at their chest. Then they reached for the compass.

“Wait!” the nameless called out.

The winner tilted their head in question. Their eyes were still burning blue. The skeleton looked up from the cards he was shuffling.

“One last game,” the nameless demanded.

The hooded person looked at them. “You don’t have anything left to bet.”

They knew their next words were a mistake. “Your compass against my True Name.”

It was like all sounds in the room were suddenly stopped, the talk, the laughter, the moving of chairs, even the noises from the kitchen were gone. Then the skeleton continued shuffling the cards.

“Do you know what you are doing, kid?” he asked.

They nodded. “Yes.” If their voice was confident enough, they could make it true.

“Do you know your True Name, child?” the person in the hood asked.

“No,” they said. “But that makes it even more valuable, doesn’t it?”

The talk had seemingly broken the spell because all of a sudden the noise returned, dozens of people talking to them all at once, concerned voices begging them to reconsider, others advising them to play for more, someone whispering in their back why they would bet on it if they could trade it and that they would pay them greatly for their True Name. The nameless shut all the voices out and stared into the darkness beneath the hood.

“I’m not a cheat,” the hooded person said then. “I’m betting a fair value for that.” They removed all their little prizes from their cloak again and placed them on the table. All except for the piece of paper, the nameless noticed, but they didn’t bring it up. Their eyes were fixed on the compass, as they said: “Winner takes all, then. One card.”

The gleaming blue eyes disappeared as the other lowered their head in a nod. The skeleton placed one card in front of each of them. The nameless picked it up with both hands, trying to keep them from trembling. Slowly, they lifted it up and looked it in the face. They could feel the colour draining from their cheeks, cold washing through their body originating from the lump of ice that must have formed in their stomach and reached all the way to the tips of their fingers A singular spade stared at them.

Their opponent placed their card on the table. “Well, child, can you beat that?”

They didn’t have to look at it. They knew the result.

“I win,” they announced and played their ace.

There was a hum going through the watching crowd. Doubt was running high in the tavern. Good.

“7 beats 1,” the person in the black hood said. An assertion, not a question this time. They had realized their mistake.

“The ace is the highest card in the suit,” the nameless one said. “Every child knows that. After all, everyone knows the saying of having an ace up your sleeve. Nobody would cheat using the lowest card.” They picked their words carefully, cautious to not let even a rhetorical question slip in there.

The doubt turned to agreement. It made sense. Sayings were worth their weight in gold in these parts.

“Ace beats 7,” they said, putting as much conviction as they could muster into their voice. “I win.”

“Congrats, kid,” the skeleton said, and that was when they finally allowed themself to sigh in relief. The other patrons cheered for them, the Tabaxi slapped their shoulder by way of congratulations, the Drow offered to buy them a drink, and their opponent glared at them from beneath the hood, their eyes flaring violet now and illuminating their face, sharp and hateful features with bone growths puncturing their skin.

The nameless took the compass first and put it safely in an inner pocket of their cloak. Then they quickly grabbed whatever else was useful: the knife, a stronger talisman and some of the smaller treasures they could trade for food. They were reaching for the book when the hooded person demanded in a voice that was no longer calm: “Well, a graceful winner as you are will surely allow me to win back my losses, as I did for you.”

“No,” they said. And then, louder: “Drinks are on me. Just tell the kind person in the hood what you’d like.”

Immediately, the crowd moved in on the person in the hood, yelling for ale and beer and hot chocolate, and the nameless person dodged between them. From the corner of their eye, they saw a tentacle sticking out from the Drow’s chest grab the book and disappear it in her robes while she feigned interest at the shark-headed creatures’ talk about his dog. The nameless decided to accept their loss rather than risk further complications and snuck out of the tavern room and into the gloomy twilight of the woods. When they had brought some distance between themself and the tavern, they halted and took out the compass. The needle was pointing deeper into the woods and they turned to follow it, nameless now, but a whole lot less lost.

#my writing #oc writing #ash (like from fire) #if you spot all the references in this i'll write something about their twin

[praxisia]

So I mentioned before that I’m playing Vampire the Masquerade, and I wanted to talk more about how the last couple of sessions have gone.

So, I stepped into this campaign (no, I don’t know if that’s actually what they call a long standing game. I’m a dnd nerd first and forever, and this is all I know.) about halfway through. There is already a whole world of shit that has been established that I AND my character aren’t aware of. My first session starts off in Los Angeles in the 1930s, and my character Casimir Boudreaux has just relocated to the city with his husband/sire, Gervaise.

Casimir wakes up, tired and irritable from the move, and immediately starts drinking.

Listen, I never said his marriage was a happy one.

While talking with Gervaise in their kitchen, Casimir has a vision about an attack on the TCL Chinese Theater. I’m talking fire, gunshots, casualties— the works. Gervaise, seeing an opportunity to establish themselves in their new vampiric community, drags Casimir out of their house to go and warn the people at the theater.

Over at the theater before this attack takes place, the other players were having a meeting concerning local vampire politics.

Now like I said, I am very new to VTM, so I am going to try to explain things I know slightly more than jack shit about and if I get something wrong then sssshhhhh shush no I didn’t. Anyway, a new group of vampires called the kuei-jin has moved to L.A. and are arguing with the other pre-established vampires in the area about how they want more land for them and their people. The other vampires don’t want to give them anything at all, including a fucking break, and have instead elected to harrass and bully the kuei-jin. The other players are okay with allowing the kuei-jin some extra territory, so long as they don’t try any weird shit.

Apparently, being generous with people is a fucking crime in some people’s books, because someone who was in that meeting decided to attack everyone else in the theater. With, like, guns and fire and monsters and shit.

Casimir and Gervaise arrive just in time to warn everyone so that way they aren’t taken completely by surprise, and Gervaise insists on following the other PCs out to their territory to ensure that they all arrive safely.

They all talk for a bit, and although Casimir isn’t a fan of getting involved with other vampires or their politics at all, he DOES offer the other PCs the advice of considering their resources while making deals with the kuei-jin. They could either offer the kuei-jin resources instead of more territory, or they can gatekeep resources from the kuei-jin to keep them from trying to do any sneaky shit.

Gervaise, always one to take advantage of an opportunity, offers Casimir up as a useful tool to the other PCs. No, Casimir is not happy about that at all and it is pretty obvious to the other PCs.

Casimir isn’t very co-operative with this. He isn’t trying to be straight up awful or rude, but between his anger at having no say with being made to work with the other PCs by his sire, a large amount of ignorance about the local vampire politics due to him being largely isolated from vampire culture (something he chose for himself, for the most part anyway), and quite a few misunderstandings between him and the other PCs, he does come off as a dick.

Casimir DOES help, though. He is still helpful.

When another player takes him on a trip into the city to look for animals that they could use as spies, they come upon a dog who had been laying wounded in a random alley. The dog had been shot and left for dead. Casimir ended up extracting the bullet, surgical style, and allowed the dog to live in his home for about a week before he caved and admitted to the other PCs that he could not have the dog in his house anymore.

It has been decades since Casimir had taken care of a dog, and having to deal with a dog on top of dealing with how stressed he is from the mood and from Gervaise constantly being on his ass literally all the fucking time… well, let’s just say that the week wasn’t very pleasant.

Casimir had a big argument with Gervaise and threatened to leave him, which genuinely caused Gervaise actual harm due to their blood bond. He left Gervaise with that argument hanging over his head, because he wanted Gervaise to be stuck with the pain of it.

Casimir snatched up the dog and took him to the other PCs so they could figure out who the dog belonged to.

Turns out, the dog’s owner is a cousin of the leader of the kuei-jin. Her house had been ransacked by a group of local vampires who call themselves The Crypt Sons had been harassing their people for some time by that point. They kidnapped the dog and shot it because they have been trying to start a terf war between the kuei-jin and the pre-established vampire groups in the city. On top of that, The Crypt Sons were trying to frame another group of vampires for the attack, too.

It turns out that The Crypt Sons don’t want to give up any land to the kuei-jin, but they don’t want to be blamed for starting a war. Now it’s up to Casimir and the other PCs to shut down their plans and de-escalate tensions to keep a war from breaking out.

That’s as far as things have gotten, so I’ll be updating again when more stuff happens.

#vampire the masquerade #vtm #personal #ttrpg

[blustories]

The beginning of another

As I woke up that day to my alarm going off, as I woke up, I looked at the time, 6:50, “SHIT!!” I saw I was running 20 minutes behind and that if I didn’t hurry, I would miss the bus to school. As I quickly got ready and grabbed some coffee from my mom I yell, “See you later! Love you!” As soon as I get to my stop, I see I got there just in time. Once I got on the bus, I found a seat in the back and put my headphones on to listen to music. After a few minutes we got to school, as I went in, I thought, “welp time for hell…” . . .

Wait…. I forgot to introduce myself, Hi I’m Alois Galegure, but I go by Al. I have no siblings and barely any friends. In school, I’m nobody, but online I’m in a gamer group who play dnd. DND is a role play board game where players can create their own characters and adventures. So…… I’m a gamer geek when it comes to my life outside of school. My parents, my dad, are never home. My mom is there in the mornings but even that is rare to everyday life for me. Long story short, I’m always home alone and I was okay with that.

Anyway, after school was out, I was walking home, and I saw weird looking object rolling towards me on the sidewalk. As I looked at the object, I realized that it was a d20, the color was a black-ish purple with what looked like light purple glitter swirling around in the dice. After looking at it for what was about 20 minutes, I picked it up and looked around for its owner, but I never found one, so I put it in my pocket and continued my way home. But what I didn’t notice is that the dice started to lightly flash a lilac color in my pocket.

Once I got home, I started to get ready for one of my group’s online DND session over discord. As I logged on VC (voice chat) I said hi to our dm,” Hey Drax, how ya doin?” “Not bad elan, you?” he said addressing me as my character name. “Pretty good” I said, after that we talked until the rest of the group logged on. 15 minutes later me, Drax, Max, Flein, Toot, and Vasco were online, and we started the session.

The session went on for about 5 hours before we started to wrap up, “As he got ready to swing his large katana at y’all and……...That is where we will stop for today” Drax said, “Damn it Drax why!?” I said, Max said, “Why!? It was just getting good dude!?” Drax argued, “What do you mean ‘Just getting good’!? we’ve been at this for 5 hours!” Toot then said, “Max you just don’t wanna do your homework.” Why didn’t you do that before the session? Would’ve been easier, dude” I said to max. “But its math! I hate math!” Max whined while Toot, Drax, Flein and I laugh at his predicament. “Well, I need to get some sleep. I’ll see y’all next week” I said to the group remembering that I need to get ready for bed. After everyone said goodbye, I took a shower to go to bed. Once I was in my pjs, I sat at my desk thinking if I should watch some videos or not. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a lilac flash of light coming from my jacket pocket that was hanging on the door to my room. “Huh?” I walked over to the door and grabbed to source of the flashing light and saw that it was the dice from earlier that day, “Huh…. Cool so is there a button. Whatever, I should see if it rolls good.” I went to my desk to roll the dice when I tripped over my own 2 feet and dropped the dice, “OUCH!!! Ugh… damn it” As I started to get up off the floor, something pulls me back down. When I looked, I see what looks like a black hole in the middle of my room. “WHAT THE HELL!?” I screamed. I tried to crawl away from the hole, digging my nails into the carpet, but it was no use. “Come on! UGH! COME ON!!” Then…I slipped, “NO!!” then everything around me fell to black. . . . . .

It felt like days, even hours since I fell…I start to open my eyes but closed them quickly as a white light temporarily blinds me, causing me to squint to restore my vision. As my vison starts to clear, I see that I’m looking at the sky…. meaning, ‘WTF!’ “HOW DID I GET OUTSIDE!?” I scream as I jump up looking around franticly. As I looked around, I see that I’m in a forest, with no way to know where I am or how to get back home. ‘*sigh* There has to be a way back’ I calmed my nerves and started to walk ahead hoping there would be a way out or a road nearby.

-Time Skip-

After walking for a few minutes, I found a clearing with a lake, “*sigh* should probably get something to drink at least” I said as I walked up to the body of water. As I bend down to cup my hands, I see my refection and stop, “WHAT THE FUCK!?” I yell seeing my appearance. I still had my purple hair with platinum bangs, but my ears were pointier, and I had an entirely different outfit and build. I had on black, studded leather armor with a black dress shirt buttoned up over it. Along with a black tailcoat over my clothing, I had a bag tied to my belt and my robotic goggles that I use when I tinker at home. After getting over my shock, I try to figure out what is going on, looking at my reflection I sit down and feel something against my torso inside my coat. I reach in my jacket and grab the object, as I pull it out I realize that it was a gun, but not just any gun, it was a pistol with a silencer on the end of it with a mark on it, the mark of repeating shot. “Oh my god…….This is……no way… the only way I would have this is…” I was speechless, as I came to the conclusion as to where I have ended up. Coming to this realization I stutter out, “I-…..I’m in……..D-DnD…”

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To Be Continued….

[the story is also posted on my Wattpad and ao3 (whenever ao3 is back up) I am currently writing out the second chapter of this book if you have questions about the main character feel free to post them and I’ll get to them as soon as I can. I hope you liked the story and continue to read my others as soon as I post them.

-blu]

#dnd ocs #dnd story #original content #writerscorner #idk what to do #idk how to tag this

[thecaduceusclay]

Since u play dnd what are ur top 5 characters you've played?

This one is super super tough tbh but like I'm gonna give it my all here. It's going under a cut cause this got Out of Hand.

Also for a bit of context, while I play A LOT of dnd, I'm kinda the forever DM so the list got tough towards the bottom.

Wilde (reborn, necromancy wizard)

Wilde is super based off of Victor and Adam Frankenstein. He's a tragic gothic hero. He's autistic, he's a bitch, he's manipulative, he's a mad scientist, the only reason he didn't murder his thesis advisor is cause he was too drunk to do it. He's a girlboss. He's also from Scotland. Like the real place in an alternate history victorian England. He talks to corpses.

I don't get to play him often but I love him so so much, he's so fun to be. Like, I need you all to understand, I have a whole spellbook for him, it's got actual info on how he casts these spells (in depth) and medical diagrams and stuff. It's a little scrapbook dedicated to him.

2. Festus Goldsun/Krait fer de Lance (yuan-ti, whispers bard)

The son of a shitty noble, he's a spy, he's a slut, he's utterly useless. He's only this high cause despite the campaign being so so shitty I loved every second of playing him.

Once he unhinged his jaw and tore out a man's throat.

3. Count Augustus Silas Enoch Levesque du Belrose / Silas (vampire, ghostslayer bloodhunter)

Silas has a tender place in my heart. I love him. He's based off of being (basically) Louis de Pointe du Lac but so so much worse. He's full of intense guilt about being a vampire so he decided to kill other vampires. This only occurred because he and his ex boyfriend mutually emotionally abused each other and had a falling out. He has no real moral ground on which to stand. He's complicit in mass murder and doesn't actually feel guilt, he enjoyed it. He would bathe in blood given the chance.

He'd be higher, but...honestly being The Drama in this way wasn't as much fun as I hoped. He's a vampire tho, so....

4. Al (human, storm sorcerer)

Al is a cowboy. They were married to a crime boss who was a shitty husband. One day their homestead was attacked and instead of freaking out, Al did What Needed To Be Done. They shot their sleeping husband in the face before the rival bandits could do anything, threatened to kill them too, and then stole his horse and his identity.

They were for a oneshot but I love them.

5. Tycho (human, gunslinger smuggler)

Okay, okay, this is cheating and I know it. I should put another character I've played in ACTUAL dnd, but I simply can't. He's only last cause he's for FFG's Star Wars system.

Tycho is an ex imperial, current smuggler. He plays into a lot of my favorite tropes (redemption, difficult sibling relationships, playing stupid when you're smart). He's a radical, he's a punk, he's a fashion icon, and recently I got to honeypot a man as him, so.....

#honorable mention to enfys for being my first character

[majormeilani]

been thinking about adding another character to ale's story who travels with her and helps her on her journey but not sure what they should be since ale's an elf? and i kinda want to make the character a boy or at least masculine or somethin

#they're a kinda reluctant partner for ale tho she let's them travel with her and befriends them #they won't replace donut but even though she encounters many people on her journey #she does get attached to some of them #but idk if i should pick another dnd type to fit with her or. something #since ale was a dnd character but since i have no one to play dnd with she's #an oc now and i gave her her own story #any suggestions are appreciated tho

[sparring-spirals]

alright folks, medium paced and moderately tarnished liveblog time, TLOVM S1, ep 7!

oh percy was that kind of student huh. of course he was. i want to ruffle his lil hair.

wait fuck i should be paying attention, i’ve been vaguely wondering what residuum was ever since beau used it to drug a giant baby (that’s a fun C2 reference for anyone not in the know ;) ;) we were also all very shocked ;) )

yo prof i feel like they should at least have some PPE if you’re gonna be exploding rocks in their hands

fucking hell they’re both so baby. so smol. 

Love that this conversation is (very well done) but also essentially: “so percy.... what the fuck is up with you... and also... what IS that....” *points at gun* Percy: *Source: it came to me in a dream.png*.

me: aw keyleth is doing disney princess things. 5 minutes later: oh nope, thats fire. ... guess that could also be disney princess things.

did vax.. just.. pour ale on a fire to put it out? Does that work? Isn’t that- *torn between google and science experiments*

*whistles through teeth* Veeex........ *sees Vax take Keyleth’s side and Vex’s expression* oH p. oh boy.

Scanlan why would you make a joke about too-close-siblings with the peak of codependent sibling relationships in stabbing range.

knowing what I know about campaign 1 has me... so nervous about this conversation... like i know how this episode is gonna go, but by god the character implications. stop insulting scanlan like that cmon :(

what does it say about me that I heard Sam’s voice say “master” and immediately expected “debater” right after.

I find it so funny that of everyone besides Percy/Vax, Vex seems to be closest to Scanlan so far. Like its good, I like their relationship a lot so far, but also like, damn Vex, you’re that allergic to expressing emotions/affections like a regular person huh. 

this is a cute ditty. im liking scanlan, honestly.

HEY THEY’RE PLAYING THE THING IN THE THING ABOUT THE THING HEY LOOK HEY 

"who made this decison" "... you." "no one ever listen to me again." me the fuck too. i feel it.

aw vex, bonding the best way she knows how: talking about sibling relationships. ... and... scanlan.

Scanlan don’t drop your belongings, don’t you want them back? You don’t want to leave your anal beads do you???

(a moment of silence to reflect on how i got to a point where i’m typing that out)

S C AN BOOOOO

(side note: im having a LOT of fun trying to pick out what the DnD equivalents to things would be)

Groggo.... ragin... nice. VM teamwork. nice. :)

aw man :( not nice :( awww man :(

oh fuck, they end it there?

overall:

- Genuinely enjoyed Scanlan here. Juuuust the right mix of unsure and VERY sure and bravado and panic. Excellent. Also his entire rampage through the house was beautifully paced. excellent.

- hmmmmm. might just be sleep deprivation but some of the dialogue... wasn’t quite landing for me, beyond Scanlan’s bits. Can’t quite put a finger on it- not bad, but.... something. VM felt a little more.... tropey? And I can’t pinpoint why.

- Also I’ll admit it here: knowing about Perc’ahlia makes me maaarginally less invested in their conversations? Similarly with Vaxleth, to an extent. This has less to do with the specific ships and more just.... me, and romantic pairings in shows. I like these ships! And characters! They’re fun, and good, but I might be a lil more *grabby hands* at other dynamics.

- Seeing DnD turn mechanics into animated action sequences is genuinely so neat. I kept thinking about what would be an action, what wouldn’t. And also being mildly concerned they didn’t seem to have a long rest? Did everyone get their spells back? If they rested why didn’t Archie wipe the blood off his mouth? Archie just wipe the blood of your mouth ple ase.

- as always, living for characters just Doing Shit in the background of shots. Its my favorite.

- SCANBOOOOOOOOOO

#im very sleep deprived this one might not be great #critical role #cr spoilers #tlovm #the legend of vox machina #tlovm spoilers #lvm spoilers #full episode liveblog #TO CLARIFY MY BULLET ABOUT SHIPS before anyone gets too heated: i like em! but the way relationships tend to be portrayed in shows #Dont usually draw me in as effectively as the non romantic relationships and im getting the feeling that MIGHT hold true here too. #i think its mostly a medium translation thing- its hard to do due diligence/more nuanced relationship building + balance it with other rels #in a show vs a 4 hr episode #anyway ill get off my soapbox and maybe delete these tags once ive had more sleep #but WOOOOOO SCANLANNNNNNN #cr liveblogging

[skoomroom]

Actual Play Podcast Rating: Rusty Quill Gaming

Hi! I listen to absurd amounts of Actual Play podcasts and I’ve decided that I want to do in depth ratings of them. This is my first since I recently finished S1 of RQG, and I have some thots. I’ll be doing these for every podcast season I’ve listened to. There won’t be any spoilers for the story but obviously if you want to go into these podcasts completely blind, don’t read this review. 

So I’m gonna break it down into categories. DM, Players, Misc, and Total. Each category will have multiple sections, and I hope to keep it consistent for any podcast I review. Obviously this is just my opinion, but since I’m always looking for podcasts I thought this might help people who are picky like me: 

Dungeon Master: Alex Newell

Setting: 9/10 The campaign is set in the real world, kind of. It is a steampunk version of 1800 Europe. Cities are not exactly the same in the campaign as in the real world, but it is familiar. The first season is almost entirely in London and Paris. I like this a lot more than I thought I would. Usually, real world based games turn me off but the familiarity in this story actually makes it better in my opinion.

NPCs: 5/10 The NPCs are just okay. There are a couple interesting ones that are worth remembering but they all have similar personalities. Voices are somewhat limited. I wouldn’t really care if any of them died. 

Gameplay: 7/10 The combat/puzzles are interesting most of the time, but not exceedingly memorable. This is pathfinder 1E so combat is definitely a sludge if you are used to DND 5e or pathfinder 2E. Combat and puzzle creativity is definitely better than an average home game and there have been a couple of memorable scenes, but I’m not jotting down notes for when I DM. 

Pacing: 5/10 It is a sludge for the first 30 episodes. Sometimes the same combat will take 2 or 3 full weeks (again, this is pathfinder which is SLOW). There have been 60 episodes and they are barely level 4. The story doesn’t really pick up much until the last 20 or so episodes of the season and things only really get exciting in the final 10. Luckily, episodes are only 45 mins or so without commercials and you don’t have to wait for any to come out so you can power through them. 

How they treat the players: 6/10 Alex treats his players harshly. Combat is often unforgiving and bad things happen that maybe aren’t best for audience retention. Nat 20′s are not as exciting as they are in other games. That being said, it makes for higher stakes situations and it feels like characters don’t have plot armor. I personally don’t really like this but I definitely understand why some people do. 

Overall: 6.4/10

Players/Party: Sasha Racket (Lydia Nicholas), Hamid Saleh Haroun al-Tahan (Bryn Monroe), Bertrand MacGuffingham (James Ross), Zolf Smith (Ben Meredith)

Sasha: 6/10 Sasha is a rogue, and she reminds me of rogues that I’ve had at my table. Sneaky, awkward, shy, materialistic. I do like her, I think she is one of the characters that holds the party together, but she does feel like a character one of my friends or I could have created. 

Hamid: 7/10 Hamid is a sorcerer who thinks he is a wizard, but is slowly discovering his powers come naturally. It is an interesting concept. He is very polite, grew up very rich, and is well connected. Hamid is the other person who holds the party together. Sometimes his speeches are too melodramatic.

Bertrand: 8/10 Bertrand is a human fighter who is an asshole. James, his player, aims to make him be viewed as a horrible person to the audience because Bertie is loud, classist, and just generally a bad dude. That being said, he’s probably the character least like a PC that I would see at my table and is very entertaining. He is not a very realistic person and doesn’t feel real. I am actively rooting against him in season 2 and I hope he dies. 

Zolf: 6/10 Zolf (who is a dwarven cleric) also reminds me of a character that you’d just see at your table. It takes a hot minute for him to blend into the group. He seems to be constantly on the edge of a breakdown which is kind of fun. The relationship with his God seems to be on the rocks for no real reason.  

Party Cohesion: 7/10 When this podcast started, the charisma between the group was not fantastic. I had a hard time figuring out the group dynamic. Now, I can see why they are all friends and they riff off each other more easily but I don’t feel there are major stakes in their relationships. They don’t seem super bonded together in the same way parties from other podcasts are but their relationships feel more in depth than most tables I’ve been to. 

Combat Ability: 5/10 I blame the combat issues on the system more than the players, but my god low level pathfinder characters truly cannot do shit. On top of that, the characters don’t seem all that optimized. Sasha hits with a -1 and gets -1 damage on a d4. Hamid uses magic missile and consistently does 1 or 2 d4 damage. It hurts me physically. That being said, the players have personality in combat and make decisions based on what their characters would do and not necessarily what is best, which I think is a good thing in a podcast. 

Overall: 6.5/10

Miscellaneous 

System: 3/10 I hate listening to pathfinder 1e podcasts. You might not hate it if you’re into the crunch, but my god. 1e was my first system and honestly I still don’t completely get the rules. It is anticlimatic (for example, you don’t always crit on a nat 20, you have to roll to confirm), slow to level, slow in combat because there is just so much calculating to be done. Combats will take multiple hours in this podcast and to me that is entirely because of the system. Crunchy can be fun to play but it is not fun to listen to. 

Music: 9/10 I enjoy the soundtrack a lot. They add in things like footsteps or cave noises as ambient sound which is not something I see a lot of podcasts do. It makes you feel more involved and gives a completely different vibe from other shows. I also like the theme, it is extremely British sounding in a fun way. 

Sound Quality: 6/10 The sound quality is not great, just on a volume and noise level. I think they just need better microphones and that’s fine. It’s not impossible to listen to but sometimes certain players are much quieter than others especially for the first half of the season and that makes it difficult to listen to out loud. Headphones are usually fine as long as you have decent quality headphones. The editing is good though and you don’t hear background noises. 

Humor: 7/10 It is a funny show but not a hilarious show. I don’t think I’ve laughed out loud ever but the jokes are creative and typically broad enough for me to get and I literally know nothing about pop culture. Everyone is pretty witty and group dynamic gets better as time goes on. 

Story: 8/10 I would give this a lower rating for the first half and a higher rating for the second half of the first season. My least favorite part is that the character backstory involvement seems a bit forced sometimes, and comes out of left field. I think when you are doing a podcast the story should be completely focused around your characters, and this feels like the characters were placed into the story a bit. But, the story itself is super interesting. I love the setting, the plot is maybe the most original out of any podcast I’ve listened to. It’s a good mix of sci-fi and fantasy in a way that I think both groups of fans would enjoy. It does take a hot minute to get interesting but once it does it REALLY does. 

Overall: 6.6 (but should be higher, pathfinder 1e just sucks bad nuts) 

Overall Rating (Averaged) and Final Thots: 

Overall rating: 6.5/10

I like RQG, I like the story and setting in particular. I think the characters are fun but not endearing. I don’t like the system. It is not the best for character development or interactions but if you need something to listen to and can get through like 45 episodes of meh, the end of the season is really interesting plot-wise.

#Rusty Quill #Podcast Review #Actual Play #dnd #dungeons and dragons #d&d #Rusty Quill gaming #RQG #podcast #dungeons and dragons podcast #dnd podcast #actual play podcast #review #sasha racket #zolf smith #Hamid Saleh Haroun al-Tahan #Bertrand MacGuffingham #anyway thats all hope i dont' make anyone mad

[ren-c-leyn]

Happy WBW, Ren! Idk if this counts, but would it be possible to ask more about some of your fave dnd campaigns? What kind of world it was, what kind of character you had, what kind of party? I played it only once myself and I love the concept and the stories that come out of it (and your flavour of stories obviously) so I would love to hear something more...

@writingonesdreams

And a happy wbw to you as well ^^

So, my favorite DnD games aren't any of the campaigns I ran, mostly because those only lasted 3 sessions at most so our playing groups, unfortunately, didn't get much of a chance to explore and flesh them out. (I seem to have a knack for starting campaigns right before everyone's schedules change :/)

My group hasn't been active in a long time, conflicting work schedules and other responsibilities made it pretty well impossible to schedule regular games, which makes me sad :(

I'm going to put this under a read more since the answer got away from me a bit.

I think my favorite campaign is still the longest one we played, though it's been so long the details are fuzzy now. We started it all the way back before I started writing, (My dnd group has been together for a long time) and it ran for about 2 years, even though we never finished it due to a character death depressing everyone but that character's player to the point we couldn't play it anymore ^^' It was a homebrew campaign, so the DM had made the world up himself.

My character was Drusila, a depressed elven druid whose initial response to every major challenge was 'We're going to die, we are definitely going to die this time, you crazy peole are going to get killed.' She wasn't elegant, she wasn't sweet, but she didn't give up, even when it really looked like the party would die. She was only my third DnD character ever, and I've been thinking about working her into The Shackles of Time for nostalgia's sake. Possibly as a member of The Dawn Isle Guild.

The other characters were a pair of elf twins, one was crazy and loved shiny things and starting trouble with Drusila and the dwarf in the party. He was the one that got killed by a sea monster. The other twin elf was his sister, the scout, unlucky archer, and unhappy mom-friend of the chaotic team. W2hile the dwarf was a party-animal who loved ale, pressing random switches and buttons, and playing with things he shouldn't. He became a recurring NPC in several of the campaigns that same DM ran later as a running joke.

It was a pretty wild party with very fun, chaotic found family dynamics. Even though they all annoyed the pudding out of each other on a regular basis, they never left each other behind.

The world itself was in the middle of a massive war. I think I remember the DM saying it was inspired by The Lords of the Rings, because our main enemies were orcs and dark wizards. There was even a cave troll in one of the sessions ^^ It had it's own flavor, though. We definitely weren't in middle earth. There were jungles, and lost islands, a country that was similar but the opposite of our homeland, and a lot more faction-related world building than world lore. The monsters were more varied too, seeing as our DM liked to flip through the manual and go 'oh, they'll hate this. Let's do it.' lmao XD

And I think there'll always be echoes of that world in my writing, if only in the fact that I'm writing at all. It's the campaign that made me fall in love with telling stories. By the time it ended, I was starting poetry. When we went a long time without a new campaign to take it's place, I turned to prose. In a way, you can say Drusila was the start for the characters you love now. Her fear of death, lust for revenge, petty arguments with her teammates, and knack for accidentally getting herself into more trouble that she was trying to get out of was the start of me wanting to build more adventurers. I had fun with the two who came before her, but she's the first DnD character of mine whose name I remember.

That's the big standout campaign to me, though we played lots of others too, but I think explaining them all might turn into a novel all on it's own lol.

Thanks for stopping in, dreams. It was fun to think about the old campaigns again. <3

#world building wednesday

[v-poreons]

kova's backstory is so sad, like I knew it was sad but reading that still :((( anyways more kova lore bc I'm invested

I can talk about the campaign he was in then! :))

I'm so mad Tumblr deleted everything I wrote hold on while I try to fix this

Basically what I said before was so fucking long I simply can't rewrite it in as comprehensive a way i did before so this is gonna be a lot shorter I'm PISSED.

I don't remember everything that happened in the campaign because it was four years ago but the party was me as Kova, Asher (Wood Elf Ranger), Lan (Changeling ((in the form of a High Elf)) Fighter), Mislia (Tiefling Sorcerer), and Savory (Tiefling Monk, we had an inside joke that Kova spells her name Savoury).

We were on a job delivering some stuff from one town to another I believe when we were attacked by some goblins who we beat the absolute shit out of. Lan was checking one of the goblins when she found a ring with an eye symbol engraved on it. She put it on and it latched itself to her finger and shot a beam of light into the woods, presumably for us to follow. We hid our wagon and set up camp in a cave for the night. I don't remember who was on watch but we were ambushed by some Dark Elves who took us to the Underdark to their queen who welcomed us and decided to throw a party in our honor.

We were all varying degrees of intoxicated but Kova, who was nursing his first cup of ale since he hates drinking since it inhibits his reasoning skills and he was a little wary of the whole thing. Lan also was suspicious so the two chatted for a bit and planned to do some investigating together later. When we had been escorted to our rooms we found out that we had been magically locked in so we found a way to bypass the spell and sneaked out with the rest of the party, but we were caught and taken into the throne room where the queen revealed she had led us here for a reason. She activated a big rune on the floor and we all blacked out. Then when we woke up our skin was translucent and you could see our skeletons under our skin because plot twist we were dead and had been sent to the underworld (the reveal slapped so hard david if ur seeing this u popped off so hard)

We ended up having to do like a gladiator type match where Kova and Lan created the legendary knife cube combo (Kova casts cloud of daggers Lan throws enemies into the cube and theyre promptly turned into bad guy soup). We won and were brought before Hades and Persephone (Kova and Savory charmed her because they're both nice :) ) and then we were thrown in prison because Hades had a stick up his ass.

We met Brutus and Milquetoast in jail and decided to do a prison break I'm not sure exactly how it went but it involved the warden and a prison riot and Lan killed the warden and was inexplicably drawn to this dark spooky hallway which supposedly held Thanatos but when she reached the end of the corridor all that was there were empty chains.

We had a sick ass chariot race with Hades and Lan flipped him the bird as we escaped down a big cavernous hole in the ground. We woke up at the bottom and learned if we wanted out we each had to go through trials to judge our characters.

I don't remember the exact order we went in but Mislia's was a fight with their ex wife and ended with them choosing Savory's life over the ex, Savory's took place in her old monastery which she had been banned from, Asher's was a puzzle that ended in a fight with his former friend and leader (who happened to be his player's other character from a different campaign remember this it's important), and Lan's (which was the last trial and also the last session since we unfortunately didn't finish the campaign) took place in her childhood hometown but everyone but her had lost their memories and she had to convince us all to come with her and get our memories back.

Kova's was a quiz show type trial during which we would gain or lose things (body parts, knowledge/memories, items, etc.) The trouble with playing a character who's smarter than you is when ur DM asks you what the components are to an X level Wizard spell (something Kova would probably know but I sure as hell didn't) you end up spinning the bad wheel (a la taz suffering game) and losing Kova's harmonica which was a gift from his dead friends dead daughter. Also it got turned to ash :)

The game show host ended up being Medusa and we killed the hell out of her and Lan and Kova struck the final blows.

I ended up asking the DM what the campaign would have gone like from the last session and he said the twist would have been that Brutus was Thanatos and I don't remember how but he could not longer continue being Thanatos so Lan, who had the ring, would be given the choice to become the new god of death or not.

From there we have two endings:

The 'canon' ending, in which Lan accepts her role and remains in the underworld while the rest of the living party members return to their lives. Kova is alone and lonely returning to his travels but has healed somewhat and learns to accept people into his heart again.

In the ending where Lan refuses, the party returns to the living world and parts ways. Lan and Kova reluctantly separate since Kova wishes to keep traveling and seeing the world but Lan is exhausted by everything that has happened in her life up until this point and just wants to settle down. The two visit from time to time but reminisce on their past and wonder how they could have remained close and developed their relationship (art in the video is drawn by Lan's player lil.bunny.prince on Instagram)

In both endings (and here's where you remember that importance regarding Asher's trial), because the story has established that it takes place in the same world as another campaign, Kova meets

Gwyn, and becomes a father figure to her and essentially adopts her. They're perfect for each other. Gwyn was cast from her clan and disowned by her family, and now she finally has a solid adult figure in her life who loves and accepts her and helps her overcome her fears of rejection and accidentally hurting the people she cares about. Kova has lost so much and with Gwyn he is able to raise her like he would have helped raise Iris and learns to overcome his survivors guilt and both of their scars and trauma heal together I love them so much.

Kova does outlive Gwyn by a couple hundred years (damn dnd lifespans) and whichever direction his life goes his endings are always bittersweet but he is able to heal despite always feeling a little sad and when he gets older he settles in a nice town and owns a library. And obviously his canon storyline isn't sad enough so I have aus for that (villain au my beloved). ❤

#cutieacefuck #Kova #so mad I had to retype this all out again it was so perfect and this is still good but I'm absolutely certain there are things I forgot #to mention the second time around but its fine IG 🙄🙄🙄 #rainy ask

[sentient-stove]

Ranking every Pixar movie

From worst to best.  As an extra challenge, tag five people to do it too.  @falling-oceans @sweetkirbi  @briefstrangerchild  @matchasweettea @tehhappypl-ace

22. The Good Dinosaur: I hate Arlo. As a character, he has no spine, spends most of the film whining about how terrible his life is and then when he finally gets a grip, the movie is over. As for animation, the dinosaurs were too cartoon like to feel right for such a landscape based film. I did like the Pizza Planet truck in the opening scene, ten out of ten for hiding it with the asteroid belt. 21. Monsters University: nothing interesting happened here. Moving on. 20. Finding Dory: sigh. This film was well animated, I love Pixar and water, but most of the stunts felt, too unreal. Where Nemo and Marlin fountain hop was what killed me. I liked Hank, but when the film had him drive a truck with all the fish inside, I gave up. I did like the closure on what happened to the fish from the tank in Australia, but however they got to Cali beats me. It was nice to see Crush again. 19. Cars 2: MATER IS A SIDE CHARACTER. Ok, rant over. I thought it was okay, but still, very disappointing for a Pixar sequel. 18. Cars 3: The trailer was better than the movie. Pixar should have stopped after Cars 2. I personally didn’t care for McQueen’s end paint job. 17. Cars: The idea is nice, the soundtrack is killer, I just don’t like the Cars movies at all. I’m sorry, but McQueen is egotistical and a jerk. Just because he got stuck in Radiator Springs, doesn’t mean he’s got character development. I do however love when he arrives that first night, easily the best five minutes of the movie. 16. Toy Story 4: It felt more like a marketing strategy, rather than a continuation of the Toy Story universe. Forky and his existential crisis is a solid mood. I’ll admit, I walked out halfway through the film, it wasn’t worth my time. I wish that they left it at three movies. 15.  Monsters Inc.: I liked the idea of the movie. But, feels like the plot drops too fast and that the resolution drops as well. Mike’s comedy act is game though and Put that thing back or so help me remains one of my favorite things to yell at siblings. 14.  Coco: the animation is Gorgeous. I loved this movie when it first came out. The story is beautiful, they handled the villain with grace and it gave me warm fuzzies. However, it’s overplayed. Every family reunion I’ve been out since this film came out, they’ve played this. Stop. I think the songs are okay, but I get tired when they’re stuck in my head. Pixar created a masterpiece that my relations ruined, which is ironic, since the movie is about family. 13. Toy Story 2: they reused the, ‘I’m not a toy!’ plot and that made it tired. I liked Jessie. And the horse licking Cheeto dust off of Al’s fingers. Al looked a bit like my middle school theater teacher, so that made me feel uncomfy. Other than that, decent film. 12. Inside Out: Joy is annoying. The idea is great, although they missed a great pun opportunity with when they had to walk through long term memory. Could have used a memory lane pun. The rest of the puns were amazing and I loved the concept, just wasn’t well executed. 11. Up: I don’t cry during movies (Frozen 2’s show yourself is the exception), so I didn’t really feel upset during the first ten minutes of the film. I love Kevin and Russel’s friendship and then the pleasant surprise that there were baby Kevins. Carl had great character development and I’m grateful Pixar showed real world challenges people go through. 10. Incredibles 2: Voyd is amazing. So is Violet and Dash, I loved the boat, but my favorite part is right before the battle with Screenslaver. You don’t talk, you watch talk shows. You don’t play games, you watch game shows.... The monologue over Elastagirl hunting the big bad gave me literal chills. I would pay to watch this again and again. I loved the limo driver that messed up his line to Frozone as well. And the little girl with the sign at the protest reminded me of similar signs I’ve seen, and made, before. 9. Bug’s Life: Very mature for a Pixar film. Held onto some ideologies I’ve studied and I personally think it’s a lot better than Antz, which took a similar direction but failed. 8. Toy Story: the animation may not have aged gracefully, but for when it hit theaters, it was something the world had never seen before. I love the magic eight ball, the aging of the room was a nice touch and the dog was a riot. 7. Toy Story 3:great finale. Great characters and development and great animation. I love Barbie and that she broke up with Ken instead of just being an airhead of a toy. 6. Finding Nemo: Cinematic masterpiece. Pixar and water is a great combo, and it’s got a great story. 5. The Incredibles: Violet is so relatable. Mirage is awesome, easily the most underrated bad guy to good guy I’ve seen. Mom and Dad hero pair, amazing. Dash running on water, amazing. Violet growing up and saving her brother from the Omnidroid, amazing. Edna Mode voiced by Brad Bird, amazing. This film was incredible. 4. Brave: yes, this movie gets a lot of hate. And I mean a lot. But I’m a sucker for a heroine who takes charge. Merida fights with her mom, we all fight with family and that makes it feel realistic. The music is amazing. Chase the wind is still one of my favorite songs. The will the wisps are accurate to myth and th amount of sheer detail goes unnoticed in this movie. DunBroch, Mordu’s fallen kingdom, the Stonehenge, the sky are all so artfully animated. The witch is an absolute riot and I love her. 3. Onward: DND references everywhere. I love it. Ian Lightfoot is a relatable character with his social anxiety and lists of what he needs to do, and his sacrifice is commendable. Barley is a supportive older sibling and he’s a role model with how he helps his younger brother learn to drive, learn magic and so many other things. The Manticore is excellent and a salty character I live for. The mom is bad a, and I think that it’s amazing she got so much screen time compared to other Pixar moms. Ride of the Valkeryies playing while Barley salutes his van’s final voyage? Tearjerker. The curse beast having the face of the high school’s dragon mural? I was the only one who laughed in the theater I was in. It was relatable and heartfelt, a Pixar masterpiece. 2. Ratatouille: this movie was the start of my love of baking and of Paris. I was young when it came out, but it’s so, so artistic and beautiful. Remy is a well thought out character and having Gusteau as his shoulder angel was amazing. Alfredo Linguini literally means white sauce pasta, but I’ll ignore that. The end with the new restaurant is amazing and Chef Skinner is salty and I like it. 1. WALL.E: space. This was my childhood. I’ve seen this movie maybe upwards of a hundred times. The animation is gorgeous, the characters beautifully scripted. For a movie that has only 22 minutes of speech, it conveys a message far more powerful than any words could. WALL.E is a sunshine child with his hyperfixation on humans and as someone who hyperfixates, this was amazing to see on a big screen. That it was okay to have quirks and unique interests and viewpoints. The spacedance is beyond anything and it still has bits of humor, along with heartwarming scenes and images. EVA fixing WALL.E at the end was painful, and then the Spark bringing back WALL.E’s life was the best ending I could have ever gotten. And his whole goal was just to hold EVA’s hand, it was soooo cute!  I might have to revise my list when Soul comes out, but here’s the current!

#miraculous mused #pixar #ranking every film #walle #ratatoullie #onward #brave #the incredibles #finding nemo #toy story 3 #toy story #bug’s life #incredibles 2 #up #inside out #toy story 2 #coco #monster’s inc #toy story 4 #cars #cars2 #cars 3 #finding dory #monsters university #the good dinosaur

[be-ready-when-i-say-go]

A Little Bit Like Home

You moving to school has been tougher than Calum would like to admit but there are some moments that make it easier to bear, there are small moments where it’s not so bad. 

A continuation of these two blurbs (Blurb 1 and Blurb 2) Again it’s hella self indulgent. Inspired what really happened to me in my DnD campaign, see this post.  

**Contains spoilers for the Waterdeep Heist from Dungeons & Dragons if you are currently playing that module!!!**

Enjoy my masterlist!

Support me on Ko-fi

___________

“Can I make a perception check on the walls? See if there’s anything else funky in this room?” you ask, clicking over in your browser tab to the dice roller. The DM allows you to make that call and you click on the d20. 

“Your the only one rolling well on those things tonight,” one member of your party, playing an Orc sent out to learn magic and getting packed in with your ragtag group, notes after their failed attempt to pick the lock. You managed to pick that that too, but you chalk it up to you being a Drow Rogue and lock picking being one of your skills. 

“18,” you call out, looking back at your character sheet to make sure you’ve done the math correctly. 

“18?” The DM asks, just to be sure. You nod. “Okay, so you look around the room and there’s not really anything worth noting besides some dirt and blood. But no traps, no buttons in this room.”

“This room,” the entire party echoes laughing. The six of you have just survived barely a lightning trap. Which you still refuse to admit to setting up, but it was definitely you since as the marching order had you in front. 

“We’re going to have to go back to that mimic room,” the paladin of your group declares. Your party was warned that the room at the start of your adventure in this hell of a magic maze could be a trap and a mimic could be in the depths of it. But there was a chest still yet to be opened. However, you took the advice of your Orc and backed out of that room to avoid a fight just yet. 

Your previous encounters in other rooms leaving some of your party is better shape than others. This early in your adventure together the five of you didn’t really want to risk loosing anyone just yet. Lightening and your pirates love of ale seemed to be your only foe at the moment. 

“We should maybe just see what’s in here first,” Calum, playing as a Druid, counters. “Though it seems like if we find yet another key to a door that’s already been picked, it’s might be useless.” 

You know the tease is directed at you. “Hey, look here buddy, I will not hesitate to shoot a quiver into your ass. I see a lock I’m going to pick it,” you defend. 

“Besides,” your party’s pirate starts, “we’ve ducked a lot of rooms afraid of getting into another fight. If they pick a lock or two and we find the key later, at least we can add to the Bard’s collection.”

“Thank you,” you laugh. 

Soon your party’s able to direct their attention back on the adventure and magic maze you’ve found yourself in. You and Calum end up smashing mirrors in a room to avoid any sort of magic in them that would cause your party to fight your soul doubles. This leads to a five minute debate of how to leave said room that didn’t involve shoving the unicorn that your party was tasked with finding up someone’s ass due to a riddle unveiled, Everything you see is mine.

“Wait,” you say, laughing at the argument about who can fit the unicorn into their mouth. It was deemed to be more dignified. Your pirate waits outside the room, still naked thanks to the magic that rips all the clothes, weapons, and armor off of anyone that attempts to leave the room. “Everything you see is mine. If the mirrors are smashed, then nothing can be seen right?”

“No, shards can be face up, so technically things can be seen,” the party’s Bard counters. 

“No, no, you’re onto to something,” the pirate starts. 

“Oh my god, we’re so fucking dumb,” the orc hollers. “Someone cover their eyes. You means us. Anything we can see can’t leave the room.”

Thankfully, you’re still dressed having only attempted to leave the room and letting others continue with their naked escapades. “Holy shit,” you shriek as you direct to your DM how you cover your face with your hood and hold it tight around your eyes so you can’t see anything and step through the door. You’re able to cross completely clothed, swords, crossbow, and pack still in tact. 

“We’re so fucking STUPID,” you laugh. 

Calum’s giggle cuts through the speakers of your laptop. “How were we so prepared to just be fucking naked through the rest of this maze?” He directs to the DM that he redresses, having also attempted several times to brute force the magic door with no success. 

“We never speak of that,” the orc demands through their own laughter. “Never.”

The party comes to a stopping point about another hour later, saying goodbyes before leaving the Zoom meeting. Not even thirty seconds later after ending that call, an incoming FaceTime call comes from Calum. You answer it, wiping at the corner of your eyes. He’s grinning as the call finally connects. The weekend that Calum came up to visit, a friend in the cohort asked you if you’d be willing to going a beginner’s campaign. You had wanted to give the game a whirl but you knew it would be a time suck and asked if it was okay to bring someone else along too. 

After getting a yes from the DM you know you had to convince Calum to join in. It took less effort than you thought for him to join in and the two of you spent a couple hours the night before picking out your characters before you emailed the information back to the DM. Now every Saturday night you and Calum spend about three hours in a Zoom getting into all sorts of trouble. He settled easily on the Druid but spent forever trying to find an artist rendering of his character, Okolian, that felt right. Long black hair with streaks of white was a must along with a single braid as well, which he stole from your character’s look though your hair is all white. 

Slowly, it was decided that Okolian would have blue skin muscular, but not overly buff and refused to wear sleeves in order to wear leather arm bands around his biceps which could easily be mistaken for tattoos or markings of his people. Okolian prefers his staff but is also armed with a sickle and mace. The Calum touch of course was to add ferns rather than feathers. 

“I can’t believe you were going to let me be the one to have to figure out the unicorn,” Calum teases. 

“Hey, it was only six inches. Not that bad.”

He sputters his laughter. “Is that payback for calling you out for picking all the locks?”

“I would never do such a thing but maybe.” 

“Anything else on the agenda for tonight?”

“No not really. Whatever work there is out in the world, I’ll get to it tomorrow. What about you? The night’s still young.”  

Calum shrugs. “A friend was supposed to get back to me about drinks tonight,  but I haven’t heard anything yet. If he gets back within the hour or so, I’ll probably tag along but if not, it’s not a big deal. But you never did tell me about last night. How’d that go?”

You cover your face for a second, remember how many drinks were consumed the night previously. Calum laughs at the slightly panicked look that crosses your face. “There was two drinks too many past my usual limit and I felt it. Big time,” you answer. 

He’s glad to hear you getting out more. It’s in turned made him feel a bit better about getting back to his normal routine, getting dinner more with the guys or other friends. Missing you doesn’t hurt so bad anymore for Calum. He feels most often right before he’s going to bed, when he’d normally curl up into your side and open his arms wide for you to curl up into him. But it hurts less during the day. 

Getting used to the cohort and getting out a couple Friday’s in the month has helped you as well. You don’t feel so chained to your phone, don’t feel so beholden to being there for every text right away. It’s still hard when you start to cook dinner and almost reach out for a second plate still by habit. And in the morning when you’re fixing your cup of coffee your brain still wants to pull down a second cup. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you just give in because you need it. Need to let yourself sit with those feelings. 

“I’ll be sticking with cider after last night,” you tease. “Wine makes me myself too much. Never doing that again.”

Calum’s been privileged to see you wine drunk a couple of times and he can already imagine the type of trouble you nearly got yourself in. “Is your picture on the wall at the bar?”

“Not that bad, but close,” you giggle. 

“What am I going to do with you?” 

It’s just a joke but for a moment it makes you pause--what’s going to happen when you go back for break? Are things going to be different? Most of your clothes and things are still there though slowly more and more has been shipped to you. Is Duke going to remember you? Miss you too?

“Promise me the house isn’t too different?”

Calum furrows his brows, head titling just a little to the side. “What do you mean, baby?”

“Like without me, is it all going to be different when I come back?”

“It’s all pretty much the same here. Duke’s the king of the castle. Still have plenty of hoodies for you to steal and your side of the bed still misses you. I still miss you.”

“No, I--I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like I don’t want you to find ways to cope but I don’t know. What if it never feels right? Like so much has been missed that I just won’t ever fit in again?”

Calum shakes his head. “Babe, no. You still belong. Your shoes still have space in the closet. Your mugs still sit in the cabinets. There is so much of you still here--it’s how I get through the days.”

Maybe that’s what’s rough for you. There’s not much of Calum at your place. There’s none of his dirty laundry that’s halfway hanging of laundry baskets and there’s no bass rumbling and there’s snoring next to you at night. It’s all you, which is nice. But you wish you had a little bit of Calum too. 

“There’s none of you here,” you say softly. 

“I can fix that.” It’s a steady confidence, a nod of his head at statement. “Don’t you worry.”

You two steer the conversation to something lighter before you call it a night. And it’s harder to get up the next morning, to peel yourself out of the sheets. But you do it, you push up with a grunt and get your day started. Coffee, a quick bowl of cereal and fruit. You call Calum right before lunch to check in and then get back to work. 

As the days pass, the conversation the ache gets buried in some stress. However, you get a text about a package to get from the lockers at the front of your complex so shuffle down the path thinking it’s the new mattress pad you ordered. It shipped late last week but you hadn’t expected it to arrive this soon. 

As the door swings open to the locker you spy Calum’s handwritten on the label of the package. What the hell had be gone and done? You pick up the box and kick the door close with your foot before taking it back up to your apartment. Setting the box down on the kitchen counter, you find the scissors and cut into it. Right on top is a small envelope with your name scribbled across it. 

You said you didn’t have anything of me. So I knew I had to correct that. I hope they help. And a little thing from the old man, well not from him. But you’ll understand when you get to that. 

Love you. 

Digging into the box, you notice a few guitar pics, a couple extra t-shirt and then a long thin box. You pick it up, noticing it looks like a necklace. But with Calum you never can be sure. As you crack it open, you laugh, finding a gold chain staring up at you, attach to it is a tiny locket that as a paw print on it. You crack it open though and find a tiny picture of Calum and you inside of it and your eyes well with tears. It’s from your last vacation before you left for school, just two of you reclined on the beach and Calum kissing your temple. 

You draft a text to Calum. Tell Duke it feels like home now. 

#calum hood #calum hood blurb #calum hood fanfic #calum hood angst #calum hood fluff #h writes #5sos #calum 5sos #calum hood x reader #calum hood x reader insert #5 seconds of summer

[just-your-local-cryptid]

DnD Headcanons - Damian Wayne

Build

Background: I think criminal makes the most sense for Damian, due to him being raised to be an assassin by Thalia al ghoul and the league of shadows which is  criminal organisation (cult really), however acolyte could also work due to the devotion given to the league and the bat clan

Race: human variant with either the linguist or animal handler feat. linguist because Damian canonically Arabic and I can imagine though his training he learnt many languages. Animal handler as Damian loves animals more then most people… batcow … ace … Goliath …Titus… Alfred the cat to name a few

Class: now if I didn't pick this class and subclass I would be stupid, Damian would totally be an assassin rogue, he’s just this super serious 5’2” ball of pre teen rage who wields theses Katanas and has been trained in the arts of assassination since birth.

Other: technically he could also be a hollow one with Jason as he has canonically died before

Headcanons

Damian is the second most dnd adapt out of the family after Jason.

When maps asked him to join the detective club for games night at Gotham academy he didn’t want too look like a fool so he asked Jason to tell him everything.

Damian is a very much go hard or go home intense person when it comes to interests so as soon as he latches onto something he likes to know everything he can and takes it a tad too seriously.

By time it comes around to game night he has a massive folder spell cards dice everything.

He would totally be a dice goblin i’m sorry, he would collect them make them buy them for people just an insane dice bag like Laura Bailey  but like serious and strategic.

Damian would defiantly main ranger or druid because he gets to be badass and have pets that kick ass.

I think when he first plays he would still be very uptight about all of it ( an absolute rules layer at first partially because he spent so long memorising all of it) so his first character might be a lawful good human paladin who is totally not an idolised version of his dad, as well as a completely min maxed tank who is a purely combat character but as he gets comfortable he makes these intricate characters with 10 page backstory whilst also being edgy and goofy.

Defiantly plays the weirder/ rare races but also would make at least one character a lycanthrope or vampire cause he thought it would be fun

Also very good at staying in character

If he where to dm I think he would run the coolest dark/edgy/ urban campaigns that don’t feel like there trying too hard, like I can see him running the curse of strahd and ghosts of saltmarsh

His first time DMing he would think it was dm v players and try and kill everyone

When it comes to home/ family days he is just 90% exasperated sighs and face-plants.

Jason is weirdly proud of him and is happy they found a common interest to bond over, also wouldn’t hesitate to help him with homebrew and writing campaigns

If he wrote a campaign he would take heavy influences from classic grime fairytales and folk stories, so it would just end up full gothic fantasy with lots of deeper meaning.

this is the second in this series of headcanons, my writing may not be perfect as i have dyslexia. any more suggestions for characters or headcanons feel free to add them in the comments or my ask box.

#damian wayne #dnd #dnd headcannons #Dungeons and Dragons #DC comics #dc #Headcanon #DC Headcanon #damian wayne headcanon #batfamily #batfamily headcanons #robin #gotham academy #gotham academy headcanon #ttrpg #table top rpg #dccomics #comics #comic books #dc imagine #damian al ghul #damian wayne imagine #dc imagines #Batman Headcanon #batman imagine #dnd 5th edition #dnd headcanons

[bizarreplatinum]

la squadra + their dnd play styles & characters

> modern au, dungeons & dragons fifth edition, xanathar’s guide to everything

> note: risotto and prosciutto aren’t here as they weren’t playing in my first post, i do have some ideas for if they played so let me know if you want to see them in this au (^.^)

(part one - imagine playing dnd with la squadra)

(part three - risotto and prosciutto)

melone

half wood elf. bard, obviously. college of glamour.

melone has some experience in dnd, moreso than the rest of the party. he’s a nerd and there is no hiding that. 

always makes sessions interesting. his improv is on point.

looks you in the eyes and says he rolls to seduce. 

his charisma stat is ridiculously high even since level one and always manages to roll good. his high modifier is the bane of your existence.

backstory: no one really knows his bio, not even you, the DM. it’s all in the subtleties of his character’s words and actions. 

you do definitely know that his character left a small, secluded forest village for the outside world.

though he can be a humorous character, he’s serious when it matters.

pesci

halfling monk, way of the open hand

awkward at character role playing but he does get better! just give him encouragement & openings to interact with the plot!

pesci loves collecting dice! has a preference towards those two colored marble looking sets. 

he sets aside the dies that roll 1s in a shame bag

both he and his character are baby

backstory: his master went out from their monastery and never came back. it’s been half a year and he left as well to look for her. (solving this mystery will be tied in to your campaign.)

illuso

human warlock, pact of the fiend (alt: pact of the old ones)

definitely chaotic neutral

the type of role player that shows in their body posture, not their voice and/or accent.

his character’s vice is alcohol but he’s an extreme lightweight. so whenever he does get his hands on some ale, there’s bound to be a tavern fight that the others drag him away from

backstory: his mother sold her first born (aka him) to a lesser demon. this demon would be his patron and the one who raised him. 

he and his patron bicker a lot, some of the most fun roleplaying of the campaign.

ghiaccio

half high elf wizard, school of evocation (alt: conjuration or transmutation)

the type of new player to study the player’s handbook cover to cover before the first session and over thinks it

spends free time methodically picking out his spells for optimal usage

a lot of his character details are made up on the fly during the first sessions and fleshed out in his downtime. 

ghiaccio is unsure about the whole creative aspect, so he went to session one with the bare essentials. he thinks he’s bad at it, but won’t express it to the others, except for you. feel lucky

enjoys combat and investigating.

is surprisingly chill(er) while playing. its a fictional world with fictional rules and that’s what makes him not so stuck up 

he still can’t tolerate stupidity, and can be a bit of a rules lawyer

formaggio

half orc barbarian, path of the berserker. (it’s the easiest class for a new player plus he just loves the chaos)

at session zero, he said something like “lmao who needs intelligence, i’m gonna fight” boom, barbarian

kills enemies in like, one shot. highest kill count of the party, but who’s counting?

does the obligatory barbarian player screaming: 

“i activate my RAAAAGE!”

gets really into the plot

chaotic good, low key feral, he’s trying his best

“yes, but i think this shopkeeper MIGHT be hiding something from us”

#sorry if this is disorganized #ghia studying the phb is based on me as a newbie #well actually... #a lot of ghia was based on me as a newbie #au: squadra and dragons #au: dnd #melone #pesci #illuso #ghiaccio #formaggio #la squadra #jjba #vento aureo #jojo part five #jjba x reader #la squadra x reader #platonic #bizplat.txt #bizplat.pen