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rpgchoices · 8 months

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Misdirection (Astarion romance route)

BG3 spoilers

I am obsessed with the misdirection in Astarion's romance. I said it before, I was absolutely tricked too. When you read a text or consume media every line is put there for a reason, it is a waste otherwise. By the party scene you kind of have a certain idea of what Astarion is. You know that he dislikes helping others, you know that he lies, he flirts a lot, he is vain, he is a killer, and he wants power (from the conversations about the tadpoles and Raphael).

At this point, if you chose him as a romance, it could also be that you enjoyed the idea of him being a vampire and all the tropes that come with it.

So when, after the first night together, you can ask him "It felt like you weren't fully there" there had to be a reason. From a writing pov, why was that line added?

As a player, you have to wonder. And by this point in the story it seems like a warning there is little that might convince you that what he answers with is not the truth, mainly because it falls right into the classic stereotypes of this kind of romance. Of course he is a danger, he did not want to lose control, be careful in the future - this is how it would sound to me if I romanced him without spoilers. I know because when I got his sex scene, I reloaded and romanced someone else because this kind of aggressive seduction vampire fantasy was not my thing.

If I had read this line, I would have been sure it was a small hint that romancing Astarion could end up very badly. Another small misdirection that could easily end up as a clue is in their second pre-sex scene together. Astarion is making sure the MC will stay with him, and he is very seductive. The funny thing is that if you choose the "yes" (1st option in the pictures just below) you don't get any other information or clue, but just flirting. You actually get even more of the fantasy, he talks about how he cannot stop thinking about you, he even presses on the word "dangerous", and his mannerism is all business

If instead you ask him to be better he goes on and on about his lines, he directly tells the player that these are all fake, basically. You can even ask him if these lines work on Cazador's targets, and he says "well, they worked on YOU".

So at this point as players we know that the player is being manipulated and teased up till a point. I definitely fell for it by immediately cutting the romance short, and never thinking about it again until I got the strenght potion scene. I got that scene as a friendship one, which has different options.

It is a bit different than the romance, he is much more direct in my opinion. He talks about his body as one of the few assets he has, and he is much more confused about why he was being "too precious" about the potion, he is actually surprised by himself.

And as I said, it is much more direct when he says that he never had a choice before (and he is specifically talking about sex). In the friendship version you can also convince him that he needs to use all of this that he has because he might, to protect himself and get advantage, which at least gives credit to our MC if we do romance him.

(TW!! for SA) In the romance scene instead you never get these options, you CANNOT convince him to keep using his body, and if you try to do so he will break up with you, as he should, he is much more confident.

And regarding the whole misdirection if you have not maximized his approval, you won't get his confession but you will find out the whole of his story after the drow potion scene. That is the scene where he thanks you for respecting his consent. I feel like it is such a monumental and surprising one, definitely not one I expected.

And the options are SO SO TELLING. The one sex option you get in this dialogue is the WRONG one. The game directly tells you that by choosing it you assaulted him and disregarded his consent.

There are instead 5 good options. I checked and they all seem to have the same amount of approval.

They are:

1. Showing him that your feelings are real so he can trust them. 2. Showing him intimacy without sex (hug). 3. Confirming that you want to be with him even with his burdens (he often mentions them in other dialogues, especially when you choose between him and Gale). 4. Saying you can be together without sex. And my favourite: 5. ASKING him what he wants, CARING about what he wants.

So yeah, I admit I absolutely fell for it, I was convinced this would take such a wildly different road. Glad to see it did not.

#baldur's gate 3 #astarion #meta #astarion romance #baldur''s gate 3 spoilers

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skullhaver · 8 months

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for athren!! 2, 13, 19, 45, 61

aww thank you for asking!! for anyone wondering, Athren Dahana is my fifth level drow rogue (swashbuckler) currently in the final act of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist 2. What was your original concept for this character? How did playing them change that concept?

Well, I knew the module was called "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist" so my initial idea was to make somebody daring, ambitious, and comfortable with theft. My rough sketch of who Athren was came in the form of "wouldn't it be funny and charming to be a surfacer drow who grew up in the Underdark, with a good relationship to his still-living parents who ALSO live with him on the surface. And he steals shit to fund their retirement."

His core concept never changed, but the biggest surprise from playing Athren was discovering that he has these intensely competing drives for security/anonymity, and lust for adventure/renown. Dragon Heist is a module that has the PCs rubbing elbow with powerful factions and powerful individuals, and Athren spent a lot of the adventure both desperately wanting to prove himself but also feeling like a small fish in a big pond, and thus being very polite and cautious with the people we interfaced with. If anything, he proved to be a lot more cautious/paranoid than I initially expected him to be, although that fits well with his backstory.

13. What are some motifs you associate with them? Did you intentionally bring in those motifs or did it happen over time?

Definitely that security vs. adventure inner conflict, as mentioned. Another motif that emerged unexpectedly was Athren consistently feeling nurturing/older brother-like to people around him. In terms of relative ages, he's only a bit older than the other characters (early 30s vs late teens and early 20s) but's so protective of them. Especially our teen half-elf warlock Thia, who jokingly calls Athren "grandpapa" because he's hundreds of years old as an elf, but also the way she's taken an interest in thieving and sleight of hand genuinely makes him proud. 🥲 And that's not even getting into the three orphan kids this party adopted.

Athren thinks of himself as a selfish person, and proudly so, but the circle of "my people who I'll stick my neck out to protect" has expanded beyond just his parents. 19. What sparks genuine, unadulterated rage in them?

I truly appreciate the ways that we have created our own version of Faerun (and in particular, the Underdark) that lesson the constant specter of slavery present in the world as written, but wherever slavery exists in our world, that injustice would get full rage from Athren, for sure. Wherever people's labor and lives are taken advantage of, he has the least patience.

45. What lies do they tell themselves?

"Thia is responsible for herself and can make her own decisions, therefor I would not weep like a baby if the Stone of Golorr eats her brain or something."

61. Is there an in-game moment of theirs you think about and just laugh?

The obvious answer is finding the blank piece of paper in Urstil Floxin's pocket and suggesting a dozen outlandish ways it could be enchanted or have invisible ink or something, only to remember sessions later that it was the fucking blank paper bird that our party sent him. Rae you were so fucking funny for this.

My latest Athren quip that I'm pleased by is, "It's an all-knowing stone, not an all-telling stone."

#athren dahana

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sagasofazeria · 3 years

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Since my story is a D&D campaign, if people want to know, I will happily share some of the more game-y stuff behind the characters! (@talesfromaurea & @hellishhin i know you guys were interested! Here you go :D)

As of right now in the story, they’re about level 4! By the end of the campaign though they get to level 15.

Faulkron:

- Dark Elf/Drow Fighter (Champion)

- In a little bit (story-wise), my friend hit a lucky streak and the power of the protagonist™ kicks in. Faulkron gets... terrifying. He’s technically still “just a fighter” but he’s really really good at fighting. Like, scary hyper competent. I mean, he started with almost maxed strength, and it only got better.

- He did a lot of damage, consistently rolled high. Sadly, he doesn’t get better armor than leather for a while, but once he does he really wrecks the enemies’ shit, goes full Stronk™ and really starts just soaking attacks.

- He was a fun character for me to see my friend play because he had no clue about any of the “fighters are boring” things that people say, and so he felt free to just play without worry. He just had fun with him and went for it. He wasn’t the most complicated mechanics-wise, but he still was interesting and had personality, so it worked fine.

- Also, although he is a dark elf, and his parents were from the caverns beneath the earth like usual, he was raised on a small farm on the surface by a human, and so he is very different than many other dark elves, especially if they were raised in the Underdark. His darkvision is a little different due to his eyes having to deal with more light than most dark elves, and though he could do the elvish trance instead of sleeping he usually chooses to sleep instead, because of being raised by a human. (In my world, elves can choose to sleep if they want.)

Fuego:

Halfling Sorcerer/Rogue

- Being from Zul’Zagan, he is equivalent to a Lightfoot halfling

- His subclasses are a bit wonky: Draconic origins for sorcerer (although he doesn’t know it yet), assassin for rogue (eventually. We’re also not quite there in the story yet.)

- Despite what you may expect, does not only have fire spells. It is a near thing, but not quite. The variety increases as he gets higher up.

- He also wanted to do some cool flavor things (which I’m always game for) so his abilities look a little different than standard.

- An example, his sneak attack damage is reflavored to be him heating his weapon. He also wanted his draconic bloodline to be more dormant, so he doesn’t have any of the bodily alterations or know draconic, he’s just very good at fire (as far as he knows). That’s also why he doesn’t know what type of dragon he related to.

- Fuego was big on DPS but low on defense (of course) so he was usually having to be protected by/hidden behind somebody else (Shakari or Jetra most often)

Jetra:

- Human Bard (Valor)

- I would’ve done Lore bard because of her love for finding secrets, save the fact that I wanted her to have learned from both her parents. Her mother was a singer/performer and taught her to sing, and then her father, the Paladin, taught her how to create magic and how to fight. So she mixed that all up and boom, Valor bard.

- Jetra was definitely the most “utility caster” of the group. She had healing, buffs, pretty much something for everything. And a sword, if it came to that. She was easily the most adaptable of the group in and out of combat.

- She also spoke a bunch of languages, including Leinai (the one spoken in Leinos, since she was born there), Common, Celestial, Draconic, and was learning Azerian at the beginning of the campaign.

Shakari:

- Blue Dragonborn Fighter (Eldritch Knight)

- She was yet another Fighter, but she was designed to be more of a mid-range fighter so as not to get steal Faulkron’s spotlight. Since the khopesh could be thrown and summoned back b/c of Eldritch Knight stuff, it worked fine.

- They were very high DPS, especially with their spells/lightning breath, and then they’d finish the enemies off with a good ol’ sword attack (or just to help teammates out).

- At the later levels she takes some more utility spells (since she couldn’t those first few levels because of Eldritch Knight rules), but she’s still mostly damage.

- Also a neat lore note, Eldritch Knight is not called the same thing among her people, but it is a traditional position in the deserts she came from, and some of the other Azerian tribes.

Alejandro:

- Human Fighter (Gladiator*)

- *Gladiator is just a slightly modified version of the Samurai

- Unfortunately, I never had planned on Alejandro being a key NPC, so I had to come up with him over the course of the campaign. Thankfully, he ended up complementing Faulkron’s fighting style well (DEX based as opposed to Faulkron’s STR based build), and they made a really good tag team playing off of each other (once they trusted each other more, of course.)

- He ended up being a pretty formidable fighter in his own right, so he and Faulkron together was truly an intimidating duo. While Faulkron was tanking massive hits and dealing some of his own, Alejandro would run around with his bazillion attacks and chip away at the enemy with his swords.

- I also gave him a high charisma, being the gladiator that he was. But also just. Hot.

•••

Anyways, having three fighters in the group was probably not a great idea in retrospect, but that’s how it ended up. Everyone in the current party has swords and that’s sexy of them, honestly. Another funny note is that they all have decent charisma too, everyone but the main character. Shakari had 13 CHA as a dragonborn, Alejandro had a CHA 14 just as a stat investment (again because Hot), Jetra had 16 because she was a bard obviously, Fuego had a 17 because he was a sorcerer. Faulkron had the lowest at 9. He does end up increasing it over the campaign, it ends up at 16 or something so he’s fine, but for the first part of the story he’s not so good with people.

All in all, they had a good dynamic with lots of potential for ass kicking which they definitely utilized, so who cares? Anyways, just neat stuff.

#not story #d&d things #character stuff #Faulkron Rhodes #Alejandro de la Espada #Jetra Avaki #Shakari #Fuego Tamir

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incorrectly-quoted-queers · 4 years

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Mass Effect fanfiction Shakarian prompt: Sole Survivor FemShep freezes during Grunt's loyalty mission (ME2) when the Thresher Maw appears. Garrus is the only one who notices and manages to snap Shepard out of her fear/PTSD. Maybe afterward have a concerned Garrus confront Shepard alone and check up on how she is doing?

This is a great idea! I am so happy you gave it. I might have to use some of this for my long-form FemshepxGarrus fanfic.

Anyway, here’s: The Maw of Memories

...

Anya Shepard couldn’t believe the pillar of writhing death rising above her. It was like something from a far-off, ruined fairytale, where she was someone else who laughed harder and danced across the battlefield because everyone else had her back, right?

And it stood there like a nightmarish idol reminding her that she would always end up alone.

A foot from her, her Krogan was practically vibrating in anticipation. His smile was wider than she’d ever seen it and he kept hopping from foot to foot, like he was going toe to toe in a boxing match, not facing off with something that leeched the marrow from her bones just by looking at her.

Grunt said, "Now that looks like a good fucking fight." On the other side of the spectrum, Anya could feel her face paling, this overgrown leech taking everything it could from her.

And she didn’t know how to stop it. Not when all she could see was Commander Garen in the gape of its mouth, being torn to shreds by its teeth. She couldn’t stop it. She never knew how to stop it.

She remembered the last thing he said to her, when that thing showed up out of nowhere. He hunkered the rest of her team down, pointed at the release button for her tactical cloak, and said, “Run.”

Like an idiot, she did.

On the other side of Grunt, Garrus was chuckling, but it sounded so far away, like she was underwater and they were on dry land, no clue she’d gone.

She could even move.

Garrus answered, saying, "Yeah, sure, kid. Guess since dancers on Omega won’t work, washing Thresher guts off me for weeks is the price to get you back in working order."

Anya knew she should laugh. It was funny; it was exactly what they would joke about on a normal mission, the average beat-down.

But this wasn’t average, not when she could still hear Erim screaming in her ear. He was even screaming her name. She forgot that he screamed her name. When his blood splattered on her, Anya had felt it hot and burning down her arm while she just kept running.

It’s what her Commander told her to do, right?

That’s what she was supposed to do, right?

"Let's go behind cover and switch to our snipers, right Shepard?" Garrus was talking to her, and she should answer, tell him he was right, but she was as stiff as Winkler’s body after the Thresher arm tossed her into the air and slammed her on the ground. Every bone in her body wasn’t hers anymore; it was broken, wrong.

Anya could see Winkler’s helmet fly off into the air like it didn’t matter. Compared to a Thresher, it didn’t.

This one didn’t have the same bloodstains on its body, but she could swear she saw them, staining it all back on her hands.

All those people dead, and she just kept running.

Commander Garen’s orders weren’t a good enough excuse. Insubordination wasn’t rare for her. Why didn’t she stay?

She could’ve stayed.

She was their best sniper; what if she saved them?

Anya should’ve fucking stayed.

"Shep- shit." Her lips were shaking, underneath her own heavy helmet. She wondered how much it would take for the Thresher to toss hers off. Some acid spit? A few swipes? One single bite?

Anya knew Garrus’ arm was grabbing hers, that he was dragging her body like a soggy rag doll behind some cover. But she couldn’t feel it, none of it. Garrus was yelling, "Grunt, keep it's attention."

"Don't mind if I do."

Garrus was yelling. Grunt was yelling. There were so many people yelling.

If Shepard could, she’d be screaming, too.

His hands were on her helmet, lightly knocking her face. It felt like he was making her bob at the water’s edge, surfacing but never able to keep herself up. She was leaning into some sort of object, but she couldn’t look because if she did she might glance over and see it ripping them apart, over and over and over and-

"Shepard. It's okay. We got this." Even though she was trapped under a helmet, suffocating, drowing, remembering, dying, surviving, he was stroking it like it was her face, soft and lovable.

She wasn’t lovable.

She was the sole soulless fucking survivor.

Garrus tried to reassure her, "Even if you need to sit down and breathe, we got this."

Finding her voice, she said the only things she could: "Erim. Winkler. Garen."

"Anya." This time, he grabbed her arm, like it could make her surface. But her limbs weren’t the problem. It was the screaming, the images flashing, the soreness of her muscles that she hadn’t felt since that day, where she just kept running.

Why did she keep running?

Why wasn’t she running now?

She couldn’t save them then, she couldn’t save them now. "You aren't stuck there right now. You're here with us. With me." Garrus pulled her into his arms, tight. “You’re Commander Anya Shepard and you’re not running anymore.”

It was like she finally broke the surface. Gulping for air, Anya felt her chest heaving up and down. Maybe it had been doing that the entire time. It was sore, she was breathing so hard.

Still gasping, Anya said, "I haven't seen one this close since-"

"I gathered." Garrus was calculated, making quick glances between her, the Thresher, and Grunt shooting his little heart out. "The faster we shoot our asses out of here, the faster we can get back on the Normandy and watch Bond movies or talk about it, alright?" Shepard knew those sounded nice, or they should sound nice. But right now they just felt so far away. Her limbs her heavy and also so light that she could float away at any moment.

Right into the Thresher’s maw, a free snack for anyone who’d claim her. That’s what it was like, right?

They hadn’t had a fucking shot.

Garrus placed his hands on her shoulder again. "You're Commander fucking Shepard. So you'll be okay or I'll rip that thing apart with my bare hands." He pressed his helmet’s forehead against hers and, while the contact was second-hand, it felt like something to hold onto. “I took care of the one on Edolus for you. Trust me that we got this one and stay.”

Anya wanted to scream, to run.

But despite her instincts, she trusted his voice. She nodded and he let go of her. Sniper and Krogan working side by side, they fought the Thresher Maw.

And despite her better instincts and screaming insides, Anya Shepard stayed.

...

After the Thresher Maw, Shepard got flown back to Chakwas and spent an hour or so with the good doctor. She was given a fast-acting benzodiazepine. Chakwas also gave her water, juice, and chocolate to try to get her back to herself.

And a lot of time to breathe.

When she was finally released, she went back to her room. Even though the PTSD-related panic attack was over, she could still feel her body shaking all the way to her toes.

Anya wasn’t surprised by the door pinging only a minute later, though. She knew someone wouldn’t just let her ignore what happened.

His voice was as low and soothing as ever, even when his chuckle was fake as fuck. “And here we are again, talking in your room.”

Anya was on her couch, staring at an old picture of her team, her knees tucked under her chin. She used to smile so stupid and big, back then. “I thought I was over it.” Sighing, she put it back down on the ledge. Garrus took the opportunity to sit across from her, just barely touching the tips of her toes with his thighs. Anya admitted, “I guess it was dumb, thinking I’ll ever be over it.”

“You’re not dumb.”

Snorting, Anya didn’t mean to let her laugh be so shaky. The walls of her chest still felt so unstable. “You say that, but I just turned into a pile of oatmeal that wanted to take up jogging in front of one of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy.”

“If that was me out there, you wouldn’t be saying I was dumb.”

“I dunno. I might.” The turian glared at her. Anya hated it when he called her bluff, and ended up groaning. “Fine. You’re right. But that doesn’t make me feel better.” Pulling at the ends of her long brown hair, twirling strands between her fingertips, she asked, “I mean, what kind of Commander am I if Thresher Maws turn me into oatmeal?”

“The human kind.” Anya glared at him. “I know you like to forget that, but everyone has weaknesses.” Even though she was a ball of angst, Garrus opened his arms and pulled her into his arms. “C’Mere.” She didn’t say yes, but she didn’t fight him. Settling down between his legs, caged in his arms, Anya let him wrap her in his comfort.

Even though she didn’t deserve it.

Sighing, she said, “Whatever you say probably won’t make me feel better.” When Garrus grumbled behind her, she just told him what she was thinking. It was all Anya had right now. “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

“Such a lack of faith in me.”

“It’s more a lack of faith in me. I’m stubborn and troublesome and-”

Garrus pressed his face into the back of her head before saying, “Mine is C-Sec officers.”

“What?”

“My weakness is C-Sec. Awkward, since I worked there for years. But I was a loner for a reason. If I ever was arguing with one of my co-workers, I couldn’t get a hold of myself. It would always get out of hand. Something about them always reminded me too much of my father, which isn’t a great thing for me. But they were versions of my father that I could punch. Not that I punched them... often.” While he talked, he intertwined his fingers with one of hers. Anya just kept staring at his hand in hers, something she wasn’t completely disappointed with right now; even when talking about punching fellow officers. “Let’s just say, I probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer even if I hadn’t left.”

Anya said, “That’s... not good.”

“The point is, you think I’m a good person. But that’s an unpleasant flaw of mine, one that sometimes gets other people hurt. And sure, I wish it didn’t happen and the punching part was my fault. But if it's an association I can’t control, then...”

“Then you shouldn’t keep blaming yourself for feeling certain things. You should just control what you can.”

“Exactly.”

“And you’re saying I do well otherwise, but I can’t control the fact that those... things get to me.”

“So the student becomes the teacher.”

Anya leaned into his forearm and groaned. “I don’t like when you’re right.”

“Why not? I find it refreshing to have someone else get to be the brains around here.”

Pressing her lips to his arms, he glanced up at those wonderful blue eyes of his. Even though she still felt like she broke half her ribs screaming from the inside, looking up at him didn’t feel so bad. “Oh, but I love being the one always right.”

“You can be right about everything else. But when it comes to Thresher Maws, you don’t have to always be the hero. There’s a reason you have a team, Anya.” Now that? That made her hold a little tighter on her knees. “You have every right to fear them; hate them. But you’re not alone anymore. Let us make sure they never take something away from you ever again.”

She didn’t have anything good to say. She felt overwhelmed, remembering Erim’s amazing pies or Winkler’s chess prowess or how Commander Garen secretly practiced ballet with her in the mornings; he taught her how to tap.

So many years she stayed tough.

Then Garrus’ arms tightened around her and Anya figured maybe she didn’t have to be so tough. Not all the time, at least. He added, “If that fear ever turns angry, though, I’ll be happy to go on a revenge spree with you. Hunting’s not normally my style, but anything bothering you is free game in my book.”

Anya laughed. Not just when she should, but because she wanted to, even if it hurt her sore ribs. “You’re stupid.” Turning around, she pressed her lips to his cheek and scanned his face, never wanting to forget a single detail. Maybe next Thresher, she could remember that this face was there to make sure she was okay. With a smile, she said, “But you’re my kind of stupid.”

And they spent the rest of the night together, not running, not punching, just staying right there in each other’s arms.

Neither of them were alone.

#Mass Effect Fanfic #Shakarian #Thresher Maw #Sole Survivor #Garrus x Femshep #Femshep #Garrus Vakarian #Anya Shepard #PTSD #Grunt loyalty mission #Tuchanka #friends to lovers #comfort

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the-wotog-collection · 4 years

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true canon: an explanation

True Canon is set in a typical High Fantasy D&D ye olden age world, with monsters and magic and dragons galore. It started out focused entirely on Eve and Viktor and a few others’ travels through a country called Witherhurst, and as we made more characters and stories and kingdoms, we expanded the scope of WotOG (the original D&D game) to cover all of them, until we had a nice world built up around the characters. Since not all of the stories related to the events of WotOG (and WotOG part 2: Electric Boogaloo), we decided to change the name to True Canon, so we knew which universe for sure was the foundation upon which our Many AU’s Stand. Here’s a quick n dirty timeline, for reference:

(much more under the cut)

-Eve, Viktor, and a few others that aren’t relevant to the story travel around Witherhurst on a job or something from a lady who’s Definitely Not Important At All (Her name is Prenella). At some point Prenella ditches the party and they’re stuck without a cleric for a while

-They make it to a big city, and through shenanigans that include travelling the city for fun and also almost dying to a pack of rabid dogs, Eve convinces Intem to join the party.

-Eve, Vik, and now Intem (plus one more pc) unravel a cult plot, something about the end of the world, blah blah nothing really important there. They end up taking out the cult and fighting Prenella, the cult’s leader, who also happens to be a dragon. Neat.

-After that horrifying ordeal, the party reconvenes and decides, ‘fuck it, let’s go find a new place to travel together’ and thus board a ship that they then steal from the captain (after Intem’s “pet” eats said captain).

-So begins the few years the party spends as pirates.

-Things happen, they end up fighting an eldritch god for world-ending rights, and go on their merry way.

- Intem falls into the role of reluctant (but no less ruthless) pirate captain, with vik as his first mate and eve as navigator (despite the fact that she can’t read. they figure it out)

-This is around the time Intem goes from lilac-haired sunshine boy to disgruntled cynic who’s Done With Your Shit, Viktor.

-Eventually the crew docks, and picks up Therai and Pippin for a while. Eve also brings up the idea of reviving Vik’s old travelling companion, Dante (two bros, chillin in a tavern, no feet apart ‘cause they’re so gay), and Intem’s like “Sure why the fuck not” and they set off to find his grave or whatever.

-Hatch and Xander are in the area and end up getting picked up by the crew.

-Dante gets revived, and for the next year or so, everything is fine.

-Eventually the crew docks near Therai’s old home kingdom, and he dips, taking Pippin, Xander, and Hatch with him (he really only meant to take Pip). They spend a while travelling to his kingdom, Aer-Vinn, and encounter Hatch’s long time (boy)friend Aerglo. He joins the party, at Hatch’s request.

-A little while later (vague time frame I know but exact years don’t matter here), there’s some Good Therai Angst when- Shock! Horror! - they end up stumbling upon Tal, who shares ~history~ with Therai. Not the good kind, mind you. They leave soon after meeting Tal.

-There’s a few more encounters with Therai’s old companion before Tal eventually softens up and joins the party, hell yeah. Warren joins too, because he was nearby and Also shares ~history~ with Therai and Tal. (They were all in a party together before this)

-AT THE SAME TIME THIS IS GOING ON: Rain sets out on a holy mission from their church to prove themselves worthy of being a Paladin of the Church.

-They meet Rosemary along the way, and after a small adventure together, they decide to help Rose out and find Catherine with her, because a while back Rose accidentally turned Catherine into, well, a cat.

-They do find Cat, after she’d gone through some Shit in an alternate dimension featuring a Sun Goddess and her complete mental breakdown. Cat Killed A Goddess (or two, we’ll see how the campaign goes), and made friends with the cousins Mikhail and Valentine. Mikhail doesn’t matter to the timeline right now.

-Anyway, Rain and Rose find Cat, and settle down in a little seaside village where they work together to turn Cat back into a human.

-They Succeed!!!

-Uh-oh there’s a stranger at the door- Oh! It’s just Rain’s Cleric friend from their church, Rahon! Turns out Rain kinda went MIA and everyone back home is having a Panic, so Rahon’s here to make sure Rain is alive and well, or collect their belongings if they’re not-

-But they’re alive, so Rahon calms down and decides to stay (after sending a message back home, of course), to keep an eye or two on Rain.

-Rain is Delighted :)

-The party (minus kal) were traveling somewhere, kal ended up going the same way, and they ended up in the same city for a while. rahon saw her Up To No Good, so he kept an eye on them and saw them getting stabbed, and decided to nurse her back to health, and thus Kal Joins The Party. Rahon is an absolute sweetheart to them

-Eventually Rose, Cat, and Rain head out to a nearby cave system bc of Reasons, and end up kinda sorta stumbling into a system that leads to this world’s version of the Underdark. They need help navigating, because Fuck These Tunnels Are Confusing, and come across a little hermit drow who’s living his “best” life in his underground hut with tattered clothes and ratty books and cracked glasses.

-He just wants to see the surface but is terrified of how the world will treat him if he goes up alone, so he offers to guide everyone through the Underdark in exchange for them taking him up to the surface. Everyone agrees

-Astralus, little hermit drow lad, does so, and soon finds himself stumbling out into broad daylight. He’s got light sensitivity and everything Burns, but he’s so fucking happy oh my gods. Also he’s crying but it’s okay, he’s kinda really emotional.

-Aster joins the party! And they find out he’s cousins with Rose, who practically adopted him as a brother anyway let’s be real.

-Somehow Val learns of Cat’s whereabouts, and pops by to say hi to his trauma buddy. Cue shock as he sees her as human for the first time. Aster develops an immediate crush, and takes to following Val around like a lost puppy.

-Val is having a Time because, Aster looks just like a person he knew in an alternate universe and things didn’t turn out well for them. Yikes.

-Val joins the party, if only to tease Cat and finally have a place to be for a while

-MEANWHILE: Bree finds an abomination living in the abandoned mineshafts near her village. She decides he could probably use a friend, since the entire village is pretty scared of/hostile towards him, and becomes that friend. She finds out his name is Ve, and he’s a sweetheart. She makes immediate friends and he teaches her sign language, because he Literally Doesn’t Have A Face, he can’t speak.

-A few weeks later, either Ve or Bree decide to leave bc Fuck This Town, except they don’t say Fuck because they’re both softe beans (they both legally cannot say fuck. and i actually had an idea for how they leave ovo). Either way, they leave, and through shenanigans, they pick up Three More Tieflings, what the hell, which is kinda funny because previously, Bree didn’t think tieflings existed at all.

-Tarvaii and Trancey are travelling together as a Chaotic Mischief Duo, and end up joining the party because Bree made friends

-Same situation with Chaym, though he was alone and depressed because his entire village got massacred. Bree made friends, and Chaym joined the party

-Chaym also ended up teaching Trancey magic, specifically Necromancy, which is kinda really stupid dangerous but it’s fine, Chaym survived, why shouldn’t Trancey? (flawed logic but okay Chaym)

-Cut to a few years later, back with Eve and Co.

-They’re in a tavern, Eve sees a depressed tiefling at the bar. What does she do? Immediately go try to cheer him up.

-She finds out he’d left his pregnant girlfriend on a mission to go help out somewhere, and ended up stuck in a weird place where time passes differently for him. It’s been 26 years, though to him it felt more like a handful of weeks. He’s scared and confused and would very much like to find his family, but he has no idea where he is.

-Eve’s heart breaks bc! he’s so sad and his girlfriend is pregnant and he’s got a family and just wants to get back to them, how could she not want to help? and thus she decides to help the tiefling, Viren, find his family.

-Through a series of events, the find out Viren’s family was living in a beautiful city built into the mountains, that fell quite a few years back. Luckily, his girlfriend left beforehand, and moved to a small mining town, where she gave birth to, and briefly raised, their son. She named him Ve, after his father, who she assumed was dead.

-There was a fire at one point, and Angelica, Viren’s girlfriend, died saving Ve. Viren is absolutely devastated when he finds out, and Eve offers to resurrect Angelica, y’know, bring the family together again, even if for just a short time.

-Vi agrees, and they do so! Woo! Also Eve and co. meet up with Ve for a while so the family really is back together.

-Intem, doing a sneaky trick, makes it so Angelica’s soul keeps the body and just, lives until the body dies, be it natural or unnatural causes. He only tells Eve and Angelica about it, and waits to see how long it takes Viren to realize ‘oh shit I’m not losing my fiance so soon’

-Also Viren and Angelica get engaged! Woo!

-A little while passes, Viren and Anne join the party, and Eve gets pregnant with Intem’s kids. At this point the party’s stopped adventuring, and they all settled down somewhere nice. Anyway Eve’s pregnant and gives birth to twins, Olive and Evergreen (Evan for short), but Olive looks more like Therai than Intem and it’s kinda weird, but nobody really minds because the twins are just, so cute. Also Therai (and co) came back and built the party a nice house, so, yeah.

-Olive and Evan grow up, and Evan takes an interest in Druid Magic. Vik lets Evan access his Giant Library and teaches him general magic stuff. Olive scares her whole ass family by taking an interest in Necromancy, and eventually someone gets in contact with Chaym (and by extension Trancey), and has him come over to teach Olive.

-Olive becomes a necromancer! And then heads off with Evan in tow to start their own life of adventuring.

-Eve has another kid, Avery, with Therai

-Olive befriends a Whole Ass Dragon, gives him the nickname Jade, and introduces him to Evan. By the time the trio make it back to Jade’s hoard, Avery’s taken on the role of Fighter and heads out into the world to do her own thing. She also meets Clover, another fighter, and they travel together for a while before joining Olive, Evan, and Jade.

-That’s it, that’s where we stopped on the timeline of True Canon. It’ll go on, of course, but, here’s the general timeline in 4 pages

#long post #true canon #so! there's the Entire true canon timeline #with some stuff missing here and there but i'm sure we'll get there #anyway this took an hour to write and took up four entire pages on our google doc #so. yeah #mod ash

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cyberkevvideo · 4 years

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Throne of Night Theory Builds Part 11: The Veiled Commander

In September 2014, Gary shared a couple monsters that the players could expect waiting for them while sailing the Sunless Sea. One of them was the CR 20 nightwave undead monstrosity, which I’m mentioned previously in another entry, and at the time I didn’t know, but the other creature showcased was the veiled master. At the time, the veiled master was not OGL, and couldn’t technically be used for anything out of Paizo adventures. I say “technically” because with having special connections with Paizo staff, I would assume that Gary could gain special permission to use it and possibly others. Now, however, the creature is part of Bestiary 6, and much more available. At the time I thought it still couldn’t be touched, and made the picture of the three aboleths waiting in the water, the end boss encounter, and it could still very well be the case. The veiled master might not even be the end boss of Book 5, nor is there anything saying that it would be as advanced as I’m making it now. It might even just be a straight sorcerer, or it could even be an eldritch knight (which was my initial idea).

The ecology for the veiled master says that they are the nobles of the aboleth hierarchy, but aren’t considered the masters of the aboleth, per se, because all aboleth know that their are things far more powerful and can pull the strings of the noble veiled master. Funny enough, that’s what inspired today’s build.

As always, the encounter is cropped for space purposes.

All images shared here were done by the forever fantastic and amazingly talented Michael D. Clarke, aka SpiralMagus.

This picture doesn’t appear to be in colour, but it also could be done in a way such as to convey the darkness of the depths and the shine of the light from the creature. When I first saw the nightwave I thought it was unfinished as well, but there’s not much light when you’re that far underwater. Especially when, from the point of the view of those with darkvision, everything’s basically in black and white anyhow. The only colour in that particular was the dark crimson colour of what was likely blood. It’s not like either picture is black and white. Just not very vibrant. That really adds to the atmosphere and terror of the situation.

The veiled master’s original M.O. (modus operandi) was to transform into something that looked like one of the locals, infiltrate, and secretly look for any secretive uprising or rebellion among the slaves/citizenry. While that still works here for the underwater tribes of skum-like drow, and any other underground races, that they’ve warped and transformed, it makes more sense for this particular one being the one behind all the recent disappearances.

The reason for Book 5 and 6 existing is that after the fight with the drow army and the demon entourage, the PCs learn of a series of random kidnappings that have slowly been increasing as of late. Most of them took place near the waters. This is supposed to spurn the party to go rafting and find out what’s going. Because veiled masters can transform into other creatures, it would sense that this one would learn about the drow, steal some memories of nearby victims, show up on land, infiltrate and learn as much as it could, go back and talk it over with the other aboleth, and then over time mind control a bunch of drow to go out into the waters, expose them to the mucus, and convert them into loyal slaves.

When I was coming up for this build, I wanted it to be a terrifying encounter, but I also wanted to give it a fitting background. The original idea was just go all sorcerer, then I thought fighter/eldritch knight, but that seemed so boring. Then I thought, mystic theurge. What if this particular aboleth was receiving visions from the star spawn of Cthulhu from the end of the series? This was already supposed to be Lovecraftian in a way, so why not go even further? Have the veiled master start to receive visions, dreams, and telepathic messages that it didn’t understand. Have it slowly corrupt the creature and empower it. Even better, what if the sudden rush on more slaves wasn’t for the sake of the aboleth, but for the new master pulling the strings. The Sun Killer isn’t going to build itself. It might need a structure built to help power the crystal or magnify its power and radius.

Something to note, even when it transforms into a drow or other creature, it still has the clouded vision look in its eyes. Its disguise ability likely wouldn’t help with that. Not that anyone would ever question it. There’s plenty of oracles out there. That said, the veiled master could wear contacts to hide that fact. It has no way to produce faerie fire like a real drow, but it does have access to glitterdust, and it can use other drow-like spells to make it look like it has their spell-like abilities, despite being actual spells. I will mention that there is a D&D 3.5 item called ring of drow blood that gives you “dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire as spell-like abilities, each once per day.” It costs 4,800 gold to create. Not out of the realm of possibility to have a custom version of it made for this adventure, or because it’s a home game, it could be the original version.

This creature could be something hanging out in the background during the time PCs are in town taking it over, or stopping the current regime. It could easily observe them and learn of their abilities. It would help determine whether they could be a threat or not. As well, how much the veiled master and the other aboleths will have to prepare should the PCs ever go looking where they shouldn’t. They could even discover the veiled master while out at sea, in a female drow form. Female drow, typically, do have more divine power than males, so it shouldn’t set off any alarms. It could say it received visions about tentacled creatures taking “her” people out into the water, and despite telling the drow nobles and their courts, “she” couldn’t convince them of sending help, and decided to head out on “her” own. She could even help the PCs. The veiled master will likely know about the undead threats, and not want to deal with them on its own. Even going so far as to heal the PCs or aid them with spells, if need be, to help with the ruse. Its own name isn’t that far from a drow’s name so it shouldn’t be that suspicious sounding to a dwarf PC, but a drow might get suspicious of it. If it thinks anyone suspects it after it says its name, the veiled master will say that’s “her” official name, but her drow family name is “Sharril“. If possible, it will try to play up a sorrowful background of being a half-drow with a demonic parent, and “her” name is honour of “her” birth.

Btw, while it says “unique”, all I really did was switch a couple of spells around because clerics and wizard spell lists are so similar. It also makes sense that if there’s undead swimming around, the aboleth master would have something to deter them from trying to eat it and others of its kind.

SHAIODRR’RUL (CR 20; 307,200 XP) Unique veiled master oracle 8/mystic theurge 2 LE Large aberration (aquatic, shapechanger) Init +13; Senses darkvision 60 ft., blindsense 30 ft., blindsight 15 ft.; Perception +25 Aura mucus cloud (30 ft.) DEFENSE AC 34, touch 19, flat-footed 25 (+4 armor, +9 Dex, +1 insight, +11 natural, –1 size) hp 383 (26 HD; 24d8+2d6+268) Fort +18, Ref +19, Will +23 Defensive Abilities evasion; Immune electricity, mind-affecting effects; Resist cold 20; SR 25 OFFENSE Speed 10 ft., swim 80 ft. Melee bite +27 (2d6+5 plus consume memory and slime), 2 claws +27 (1d6+5 plus slime), 4 tentacles +22 touch (2d6 electricity plus thoughtlance) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (20 ft. with claws and tentacles) Special Attacks brain drain 2/day (8d4, W-DC 24), delayed suggestion Spell-Like Abilities (CL 21st; concentration +31) Constant—mage armor At will—detect thoughts (W-DC 22), dominate person (W-DC 27), hypnotic pattern (W-DC 22), illusory wall (W-DC 24), mirage arcana (W-DC 25), persistent image (W-DC 25), programmed image (W-DC 26), project image (W-DC 27), veil (W-DC 26) 3/day—dominate monster (W-DC 31), quickened dominate person (W-DC 27), geas/quest, mass suggestion (W-DC 28) Oracle Spells Known (CL 11th; concentration +21) 5th (5/day)—mass inflict light wounds (W-DC 26), slay living (F-DC 26) 4th (7/day)—cure critical wounds, black tentacles, blessing of fervor, inflict critical wounds (W-DC 25) 3rd (8/day)—aura of cannibalism (F-DC 24), bestow curse (W-DC 24), dispel magic, inflict serious wounds (W-DC 24), prayer, tongues 2nd (9/day)—aid, dust of twilight, ghostbane dirge, inflict moderate wounds (W-DC 23), shield of fortification, spiritual weapon 1st (9/day)—cure light wounds, entropic shield, forbid action (W-DC 23), know the enemy, inflict light wounds (W-DC 22), murderous command (W-DC 23), shield of faith 0 (at will)—bleed, detect magic, detect poison, guidance, mending, read magic, resistance, stabilize, virtue Mystery dark tapestry Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 15th; concentration +25) 7th (4/day)—mass hold person (W-DC 30) 6th (7/day)—globe of invulnerability, symbol of persuasion (W-DC 29) 5th (8/day)—feeblemind (W-DC 27), symbol of pain (F-DC 27), teleport 4th (8/day)—dimension door, enervation, phantasmal killer (F/W-DC 24), symbol of slowing (W-DC 27) 3rd (8/day)—clairaudience/clairvoyance, explosive runes (R-DC 24), hold person (W-DC 25), secret page 2nd (9/day)—blindness/deafness (F-DC 23), invisibility, levitate, symbol of mirroring (W-DC 23), touch of idiocy 1st (9/day)—charm person (W-DC 23), comprehend languages, erase, ray of enfeeblement (F-DC 22), silent image (W-DC 21) 0 (at will)—arcane mark, dancing lights, daze (W-DC 20), disrupt undead, ghost sound (W-DC 20), mage hand, message, prestidigitation, touch of fatigue (F-DC 21) STATISTICS Str 20, Dex 28, Con 31, Int 21, Wis 23, Cha 30 Base Atk +19; CMB +25; CMD 46 Feats Arcane Strike, Combat Casting, Combat Expertise, Deceitful, Eschew MaterialsB, Extend Spell, Greater Spell Focus (enchantment), Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Quicken Spell, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (dominate person), Spell Focus (enchantment, necromancy), Weapon Finesse Skills Bluff +30, Diplomacy +21, Disguise +23, Intimidate +21, Linguistics +9, Knowledge (arcana, history, nature) +23, Knowledge (planes) +18, Knowledge (religion) +14, Perception +30, Sense Motive +30, Spellcraft +25, Stealth +30, Swim +32, Use Magic Device +29 Languages Aboleth, Abyssal, Aklo, Aquan, Common, Draconic, Drow Sign Language, Elven, Undercommon SQ change shape (any Small or Medium; greater polymorph), combined spells (1st), oracle’s curse (clouded vision), revelations (brain drain, cloak of darkness [+6 AC/+4 Stealth], gift of madness), runemastery, swift transformation Gear spellguard bracers, circlet of persuasion, ioun stones (deep red sphere, dusty rose prism, incandescent blue sphere, orange prism, pale green prism, pink rhomboid, pink and green sphere), page of spell knowledge (1st—identify, magic missile, shield; 2nd—darkness, glitterdust, mirror image, silence; 3rd—displacement, fireball, nondetection; 4th—greater false life), ring of counterspells, ring of evasion, gold rings and jewelry worth 3,500 gp in all SPECIAL ABILITIES Consume Memory (Su) When a veiled master bites a creature, it consumes some of that creature’s memories. The creature bitten must succeed at a DC 28 Fortitude save or gain 1 negative level. A veiled master has 5 hit points restored each time it gives a creature a negative level in this way, and it also learns some of the target creature’s memories (subject to the GM’s discretion). This is a mind-affecting effect. A veiled master can suppress this ability as a free action. The save DC is Charisma-based. Delayed Suggestion (Sp) Whenever a veiled master successfully uses dominate person or dominate monster on a creature, it can also implant a delayed suggestion that triggers when the dominate effect ends. Typically, this suggestion (which functions as a spell-like ability, CL 20th, Will DC 23 negates) is for the previously dominated creature to seek out the veiled master and submit to a new domination attempt, but sometimes, a veiled master implants other suggestions (such as a suggestion to attack the first person the creature sees). Mucus Cloud (Ex) While underwater, a veiled master exudes a 30-foot-radius cloud of transparent slime. All creatures in this area must succeed at a DC 28 Fortitude save each round or lose the ability to breathe air (but gain the ability to breathe water) for 24 hours. Renewed contact with this mucus cloud and failing another save extends the effect for another 24 hours. The save DC is Constitution-based. Runemastery (Ex) A veiled master is particularly skilled at casting spells that create magical writing, such as explosive runes, secret page, and spells with the word “symbol” in their names. It never requires material components or focus components when casting such spells, and the save DC of these spells increases by 1. A veiled master’s symbol spells are difficult to disarm—the Disable Device DC for these symbols increases by 2. Slime (Ex) A creature hit by any of a veiled master’s bite or claw attacks must succeed at a DC 28 Fortitude save or have its skin and flesh transform into a clear, slimy membrane over the course of 1d4 rounds. The creature’s new flesh is soft and tender, reducing its Constitution score by 4 as long as the condition persists. If the creature’s flesh isn’t kept moist, it dries quickly and the creature takes 1d12 points of damage every 10 minutes. Remove disease and similar effects can restore an afflicted creature to normal, but immunity to disease offers no protection from this attack. The save DC is Constitution-based. Swift Transformation (Su) A veiled master can use its change shape ability as a swift action. Thoughtlance (Su) Four of a veiled master’s tentacles end in glowing spheres of light. These spheres deal 2d6 points of electricity damage on a successful touch attack and also blast a creature’s mind with waves of mental energy. A creature touched by one of these tentacles (regardless of whether the touch deals electricity damage) must succeed at a DC 28 Will save or be staggered for 1 round. Additional touches increase the duration of this effect by 1 round. While a creature is staggered in this manner, it must attempt concentration checks to cast spells as if it were experiencing extremely violent motion while casting (DC = 20 + spell level). The save DC is Charisma-based.

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Next time I’ll be working on drow nobles. There’s one picture in particular I shared around, and thankfully someone was far more observant than any of the others. Was most definitely a huge boon.

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