#dnd fic

[lucidmagic]

The Dame Aylin x Isobel fic is coming along great! And I just know it's going to be a long boi, like north of 8k (if you know me from my RE8 fic then you know my chapters are massive).

Somethings in the fic that I think some would appreciate:

It's from Isobel's POV and follows her internal struggles with her failing family.

Thisobald in the game claims Ketheric Thorm is his 'father', whether this is biological or a twisted form of creation like Frankenstein and his monster is unknown, but I'm putting him in the story as Isobel's older brother because it cements the problems with the Thorm family.

Expanding on Isobel's character (I wish Larian had gone into more depth with her character but I understand why they didn't because it's Tav's story)

Yearning, like lots of yearning, very lesbian

Making Isobel more powerful--I have a headcanon she was a high-level cleric before she died and was resurrected, like level 12 to 15, but due to her death, her power was leached away making her more on par with a level 8 cleric as seen in the game.

Aylin is a golden retriever himbo gf (I headcanon she was very inexperienced with romantic/sexual relationships before Isobel despite what others may guess)

There's nothing like relationship building like battling a dragon am I right?

Here's an excerpt:

#my fic #lucidmagic #dame aylin #isobel thorm #dame aylin x isobel thorm #aylin x isobel #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #dnd fic #larian studios #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #dame aylin x isobel #bg3 fic #fic wip #wip #lunar lesbians #dungeons and dragons #lucidmagic fic

[bunnidarling]

Another gorgeous commission from my girl @theartloca of my OC Grimm and @capraqueen's OC Claude

Chapter 8: "Ravenous Yet Gentle":

“But before we get into that,” Grimm said, releasing Claude’s hand, “I know you’ve never been with a man, but have you ever put anything there before? Or had a lover do it?” 

“Oh, well… yeah”, Claude blushed, darting his eyes away as if quickly recollecting some rather naughty memories. “I absolutely have. I guess one could call me experienced, even. Anyhow, it has been quite a long time since last, and you’re… big.” 

“Then it’s going to… take some time for you to be ready for me, but hopefully you’ll enjoy that part. I am absolutely certain I will.” Grimm’s calm, pleased smile turned rakish and his eyes glinted, earning another deep flush from his lover.

“That nightstand over there has to hold some kind of lube, for starters,” Claude said, hardly believing what he was so matter-of-factly discussing. “I’m quite tough, but I’ll want to know what you’re going to do before you do it, please.” 

“I won’t do anything without telling you. You’ve my word.” He gently nudged Claude to the side so he could rise again, checking over the various balms and salves on the side table; there was quite the array. He chose one in a green jar that had a slightly herbal aroma. “I think this one has healing properties, which could be helpful. He brought the jar with him and laid back down. 

“Get back on top of me, like you were.” 

“Alright… and now?” Claude said as he climbed back on top of him, looking at his face curiously.

Grimm coated his first three fingers with the balm and held it up for Claude to see, “First I’m going to massage you a bit to relax you some. Then I’m going to press one slowly inside of you. Is that alright?” He moved his hand to rest the palm gently against Claude’s ass, so there was no question of what exactly would be massaged. “If anything is too much or you don’t like it. Just tell me, and I’ll stop.”

“I like this,” Claude purred with his face just inches from Grimm’s, “it’s… unfathomably exciting when you talk to me like that, to be honest.” 

“Is it? You have no idea what your voice does to me. Except… I think you do know exactly what it does to me. Don’t you?” 

“I’ve come to understand that you’re quite fond of it,” Claude mused contentedly, “which is very lucky for me since I just never seem to be able to shut up.” He scooted up Grimm’s body by a few inches, his mouth so close to his ear that the words murmured directly into it drowned out all other sounds. “If I’m treated right, I can get… very vocal. Foul-mouthed, even. You’ve seen that a little bit already.” 

Grimm groaned softly as arousal spiked through him, “I plan on treating you so well, that filth flows from that pretty mouth of yours.” 

Get their whole story

#dungeons and dragons #dnd fic #dnd fanfiction #tiefling x half-orc #tusk and horn #claude and grimm #my favourite husbands #ao3 writer

[orcanist]

This kobold told a red dragon not to be evil, you won't BELIEVE what happened next!!

Read the story

🎨 : @bluescale (bluesky) 🐉 : @orcanist

#kobold #dragon #dnd art #dnd fic #urvosk #this is still probably my favorite short story. very happy with it #also if you're a TMBG fan you have to read this

[percyjacksonfan3]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Edgin Darvis/Xenk Yendar, Edgin Darvis & Xenk Yendar Characters: Edgin Darvis, Xenk Yendar, Holga Kilgore, Kira Darvis, Simon Aumar, Doric (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves), Forge (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) Additional Tags: Pre-Slash, Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, The rest of the party is there in the background - Freeform, Found Family, Edgin and Holga are Bffs, Forge is a weasel, Slow Burn, Comfort No Hurt, Unresolved Romantic Tension Summary:

Of course they run into Xenk again.

(On the way home they run into Xenk leading a captured Forge back to Neverwinter. It's only logical they camp together for the night.)

#edgin darvis #xenk the paladin #edgin the bard #xenk yendar #edgin x xenk #xenk x edgin #dnd: honor among thieves #dungeons and dragons honor among thieves #dnd fic #some late night talks and romantic moments by a campfire #what more do ya need #dungeons and dragons: Honor Among Thieves #the rest of the party are there #and Forge unfortunately #My fic #look it's me

[shrillvoices]

A little angst nugget I wrote at 2am last night on a very vague idea. Might turn into a full one-shot, but idk yet,,

It's no where near polished (or finished) enough to post yet though.

What are your thoughts on it so far?

#tales from the stinky dragon #tftsd #stinkydragonpod #dnd #not art #wip #kyborg #dnd fic #ficlet #drabble #not finished #kyborg the mighty #fic update #wip update #ShrillWips

[tharannas]

Hello everyone!

So after like a four year pause I wrote a fic. In English (which is not my first language). About NPCs I've made for a D&D campaign that we haven't started yet. Yay?

I'll be posting it twice a week, Monday and Friday, starting today! And sometimes there will be pictures. Hope you enjoy!

if I could just keep you from leaving (2413 words) by dhelmise Chapters: 1/7 Fandom: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Original Work Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Additional Tags: Original Character(s), Light Angst, Intimacy, Romance, Slow Burn, is it slow burn though if it's only 20k words?, Eventual Smut, Alcohol, Demisexuality, Developing Relationship, Imizztryl is a silly billy, these are not Lolth-sworn drow, but they do have Issues, also four hours meditation is for the WEAK, Pining Summary: Alabrian's life was decent, not counting some complications. But then he brought a half-dead drow into his house.

Chapter One, in which Alabrian doesn't want to bury a corpse

Chapter Two, in which Imizztryl goes into the closet

Chapter Three, in which Alabrian gives Imizztryl the eye

TW eating disorder, medical (?) procedure description

Chapter Four, in which Imizztryl can leave, but Alabrian can't

TW mention of suicidal thoughts

Chapter Five, in which Imizztryl tries to make amends

Chapter Six, in which Imizztryl almost dies of cringe

Chapter Seven, in which Alabrian watches over the carrots

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd character #dnd oc #dnd 5e oc #fiction #my fic #dnd fic #did i use a lyric from a vocaloid song as the name? #probably maybe possibly yeah #lower one's eyes has my balls in its clutches

[thetalesofno-one]

A full retelling of an ongoing campaign, novelized to preserve a story worth telling.

The entirety of a D&D adventure captured from the very start to its unwritten end. Tragedy or triumph, loss or love, silence or survival. A story crafted at the mercy of the dice and the Dungeon Master's sly hands. What end will befall the main players? None yet know, not even me.

Starting January 22nd, 2024

Pre-follow the story on AO3 or here on Tumblr so you don't miss a word (further links in bio)

#curse of strahd #dungeons and dragons #d&d #dnd #dnd fic #dnd fiction #dnd fanfiction #strahd von zarovich #fanfic #vampire fanfiction #barovia #vampire #dnd vampire #dnd campaign #d&d campaign #d&d villain #dnd villain #ao3 writer #ao3 fanfic #ao3 link #fiction writing #fiction #fantasy fiction #original story #dnd story

[birdie-told-me]

Red Sky at Night (D&D Fic, ~7.5k words)

Fandom: Dungeons & Dragons (homebrew setting)

Rating: Explicit Summary: On the final morning of the holy festival of Truatonalia, Faustine, a priestess of Truatoni is drawn to the seashore. What she finds there is unexpected

Contents: M/F; tiefling female x water genasi male; oral, handjob

Header art by vampariart!

Faustine is intensely aware of the approach of the festival’s third day: the Veneration of the Sea. The closer it gets, the more she feels that tug, deep within her, to venture down the rocky cliffside to the shore, to immerse herself in the crashing surf, allowing the salt water to overtake her. Twice, now, she has felt the elemental power of the Storm Maiden coursing through her, having been struck with divine lightning in both the holy Grove and the Temple, and received boons thereafter. She imagines submitting to the power of the sea would carry a similar terrifying thrill, the same new empowerment afterward. 

The sea is both refuge and restlessness. 

It is a constant, ever-present. The sound of waves crashing upon the cliffs beneath her window had been her first lullaby. The smell of it on the air is a familiar comfort. The sea featured in her earliest hopes and dreams: a promise of freedom, carrying her away from all of her unhappiness. 

It is a mystery, ever-changing. Its churning waters reflect the Storm Maiden’s moods: sometimes peaceful, sometimes violent. Its currents tug on the hearts of those connected to it, pulling them from the stability of home, imbuing them with wanderlust, yearning to embark on its rippling waters.

Naridius carries the sea with him. On his ship it hadn’t been as obvious, surrounded as they were by the thing itself, but here in the city, it clings to him even as it releases everyone else. His skin, his hair, even the air around him - he smells of a fresh salt breeze. His skin is the color of the sea on a warm, inviting summer day, and glistens enticingly with droplets of water, as if he has always just emerged from beneath the surf. His hair is a riot of seafoam: pale, tumbling curls forming a corona around his head, setting off the lovely aqua shade of his skin, giving him the look of a cresting wave. She longs to run her fingers through it. 

She knows the Maiden would not begrudge her this, but resisting the lure is a habit borne of years of practice even before she swore her life to the goddess. Faustine has always been an expert at resisting temptation. Too cautious has she been, seeing Fierna’s phantom smirk behind every opportunity for pleasure. Too frightened to give in and allow herself to slip for even a moment and open the door for infernal influence. (Not to mention, of course, the thought of baring herself in such a way. Being seen beneath the swathes of fabric she always keeps her body concealed by). She has trained herself to be as remote and untouchable as the clouds.

But, she thinks, what if I want to be touched?

She has grown accustomed to it, lately, and she must admit, she craves it more now that she knows what she was missing. So many years of her life spent isolated, contact with others limited only to the most necessary of functions. Now she travels among friends who do not flinch when she reaches out a hand to touch them, even if said hand does not carry a spell to bolster them. She is still cautious, always watching for the slightest indication that her flesh is an unwelcome presence among theirs. But she has not seen one yet. And Naridius….

He had asked her to dance on the first night of the festival. Despite having invited him earlier in the day to come find her, she had still been surprised and a little flustered. She is not graceful - never was lithe and delicate, and now even less so since separating body and spirit, never fully fitting the two back together even after leaving the Astral Plane - but he did not seem to mind her stumbling feet and her flushed cheeks. He had offered his hand, and when she took it, pulled her against the solid planes of his body. 

Never had she been pressed so intimately against another. She hardly knew how to process the feeling of his muscle against hers, his hand resting on the curve of her hip, his sturdy shoulder under the hand she had drawn up to steady herself. A faint buzzing filled her ears, and she is quite certain her face went slack for a moment as she felt his warm breath against her skin. But the lively music wound its way to her ears, sparking her senses back to life and drawing a smile to her lips. She cannot pretend that their dancing was in any way polished or worthy of spectators, but she found that she did not care. It was enough to feel the rush of joy as she clutched him to her, allowing him to twirl her through the crowd. She tilted her head back and offered her delighted laughter to the heavens. She reveled in the feeling of him moving with her, against her, alongside her, as the music swept them up. He was close enough that his lovely curls brushed against her cheek, releasing a burst of his clean, fresh scent, and she wished she could breathe him in forever.

Inevitably their dance had ended too soon - duty had called her away, and Naridius had melted back into the crowd. She found herself cold and irritable, resenting her friends and their silly foibles for drawing her away from the moment of happiness she had managed to snatch. Perhaps she was harsher than she ought to have been with them, but she found it difficult to tolerate their continued foolishness as she enviously noted other couples slinking away from the crowd with clasped hands and furtive caresses. Her night would not end with such a tryst.

(In fact, her night had ended with a shadow fiend stalking her through the city streets and trying to kill her instead. But such is the life of an adventurer.)

The second day of Truatonalia had been a whirlwind worthy of her goddess. Official duties beginning very early in the day, blessing and cleansing and above all trying to retain a dignified yet approachable manner. And once the ceremonies were over, she was pulled from event to event, presiding over games and races and contests, all the while spending every spare moment shoring up what support she could from the various noble houses, wheedling and charming and complimenting and persuading. It was a relief when the evening performance finally came around and she could simply let loose and confront her problems with spellcasting and trident.

But now, in the silent predawn hours of the third morning, she feels that tug again. An urge to head down to the shore and submerge herself. While she has proven herself inconsistent at best when remembering the official rituals and ceremonies Maurina taught her, her individual veneration of the Storm Maiden has always been guided by urges like this: an insistent feeling that she ought to be doing something, allowing her intuition to guide her through the Maiden’s desires. And in this time, at the height of her patron’s power, on her holiest of days, who is she to deny a calling? 

She forgoes the heavy regalia she wears at most ceremonies - the robes of fine-woven chain and the fearsome breastplate. She does not need her shield. There is a moment when she lingers over the trident, but ultimately she decides to go empty-handed, trusting in the goddess to protect her. Instead she dresses only in the gauzy linen stola she had worn to the cleansing ceremony. The air is balmy enough she does not wrap a palla about her before she sneaks out of the villa. 

The path down the cliffside is one that her feet remember from years of childhood antics, and so she picks her way down easily. Even the few times she stumbles over scattered pebbles or slickened rocks, the wind itself seems to lift her and prevent a fall. She closes her eyes and smiles into the breeze as it pushes fallen locks of hair from her face: this is how her goddess shows her love. 

When she reaches the bottom, the sea is gentle and the tide is low enough to have revealed a minuscule beach - no more than a narrow bar of sand and some flat rocks. Soft waves rock back and forth, lapping at her feet with only the barest of splashes. She removes her sandals and steps in, wading out into the brine. The water lifts the gossamer fabric of her skirt and saturates it until one can hardly tell the difference between cloth and sea. It clings and drapes around her legs and she cannot resist the contented smile that tugs at her lips: she is clothed in seawater. Her tail loosens from its habitual coil around her ankle, and she allows it to float behind her as she wades deeper, up to her hips, where her fingertips can skim the surface of the water as it ripples around her. She swirls her fingers in a semblance of somatic spellcasting, leaving eddies and ripples in their wake.The water is warm as it slips and slides against her, rising up from hips to waist as she ventures deeper and deeper. Tendrils of seaweed brush against her legs. With a laugh, she tilts her head back to the sky and raises her arms in exultation, droplets of water trailing from them in streamers. The official public rituals for the festival are so rigid and unyielding; this spontaneous private ritual feels more like true worship, delighting in the Maiden’s domain on a personal level.

A sudden noise startles her, and she whips her head around to spot its source, instinctively crouching so that she is nearly immersed in the water as she scans the shore. He is easy to find, even in the dim predawn light; his bright, dewy skin picks up and scatters the last reflected glints of moonlight. He seems as surprised by her presence as she is by his. From this distance, she cannot quite make out the expression on his face, but his posture is hesitant, weight rocked back on one foot, hand raised slightly in surprise, as if to fend off an attack.  For a moment she wonders if she should be upset that he has interrupted her communion with the sea, but she finds she cannot bring herself to be. 

“I - I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean - “ His voice calls out from shore, more hesitant than she has ever heard him. He is backing up, his hands now both before him in a placating gesture. “I didn’t know you were - I just -“ She is struck by the realization that she doesn’t want him to leave. She feels that same tug deep in her belly that drew her to this place, drawing her to him. Her legs straighten to her full height once more, water sluicing up off her as she emerges, holding her hands out to him in a pose that mirrors his, beseeching. 

“Wait!” She winces at the tone of command in her voice, and softens it. “You can stay.” 

She picks her way carefully back to shore, somehow more difficult in this direction than it was on the way in. The rocks feel slicker and the tide slightly higher, while the waves beat with more intensity now, kicking up little splashes against her sides. He is rooted in place, watching her approach. He has not spoken again, but his hands have dropped limply to his sides, and his lips are parted. Only when her feet touch sand rather than rock does she let her own hands drop, tilting her head as she watches him in turn. The silence is heavy, and she cannot think of the proper words to break it, so she takes another tentative step toward him instead. 

The tiny strip of sand is barely large enough for them both to stand on, but he does not back away. He, too, seems caught up in the hazy atmosphere, unwilling or unable to cut through it with a word. The only sound around them is the steady rushing of the sea, and the rustling of a gentle breeze. The air around them feels thick and charged, as if a storm is about to break. 

He is staring at her. His eyes dart back and forth, from horns to lips to eyes to décolletage. She is suddenly very aware of the way her dress clings to her, translucent and waterlogged. There is but a momentary twitch of her fingertips, ready to call a swirl of fog to cover herself, but she defiantly forces herself to allow him to look. She wants him to look. She wants to keep looking at him. The expression on his face is one of…adoration. Nobody has ever looked at her with that expression before, and the realization is a bittersweet twinge that catches in her breast. 

The hand he lifts is slow enough to give her time to back away. She does not. His fingertips graze her cheekbone with such tenderness it feels much like the caress of a gentle breeze. She closes her eyes and tilts her head, leaning into that touch so that his fingers tangle into the curls at her temple and his palm cups her cheek. Like this, she can feel the rough calluses of his sailor’s hands, can hear the rasp of his breath so close to her, can sense the heat of his body leaning infinitesimally closer. She opens her eyes to find them locked to his. She has stared down dragons and her heart did not race as fast as it does now. 

“Can I - ?” He starts to ask, and she has not even registered the words themselves before she is nodding and he is drawing her closer with the hand still wrapped in the long strands of her hair, his other hand cupping the back of her neck as his lips meet hers with a frizzle of lightning that whisks her breath away. She is dizzy. She is floating. She steadies herself by grasping on to his broad shoulders. Their bodies align so naturally, curve against slope against plane. She cannot press herself close enough, though she tries, molding herself into him the way water fills a vessel. Her arms drape atop his shoulders and she finally, finally threads her fingers through those seafoam curls that have been enticing her for weeks. They are as luxurious as she had imagined. 

She does not know how long they stand like that, entwined together, with the rising waves lapping at their ankles, but it is not long enough before she must pull her mouth away, panting and gasping. They part just enough that she can see how wide his pupils have grown, black overtaking so much of his eyes that they almost resemble her own. His cheeks are flushed and for some reason the pink at the tip of his regal nose causes her heart to swell so much she can hardly contain herself. She grins, a smile broad enough he can surely see the sharpened canines she is usually so careful to conceal. A huff of startled laughter escapes him in return. His eyes are wide and his jaw a little slack, but he does not make any move to escape her embrace. Instead, he moves his hands, careful as he untangles them from her hair, and brings them to cradle her cheeks reverently before bestowing the most chaste of kisses upon her. 

“Come sit down,” he says, his voice roughened and deep. He trails his fingers down her arms until they interlace with her own, and he draws her toward one of the flattened rocks framing their little sand bar. She obliges, though her brow crinkles and her mouth twists into a moue of displeasure when their bodies are no longer pressed together. The distance between them serves to remind her of the state of her dress - the air rushes in to the empty space and chills the soaked cloth, causing a wave of goosebumps to ripple over her. 

The rock he leads her to is conveniently sized and shaped, large enough for them both to recline on, low enough to step onto without trouble, and situated up against the cliffside such that one could comfortably lean against it. She does not know enough about stonecutting to tell whether it has been formed naturally or purposefully carved out, but she finds she does not really care. If this is a place for trysts, it must be only fitting that she has been called here, and a partner as well. There is no room for serendipity during the holy days. In the pause as she steps onto the stone and seats herself, she takes a moment to consider why the goddess would arrange such a thing. This does not feel like a command - the itching feeling at the back of her mind when the Maiden desires her to do something specific is not present. This feels more like…approval. Encouragement? Relief rushes over her and loosens the tension in her limbs she didn’t realize had crept in: this is still her choice - she can walk away if she wants to. 

The sight of Naridius kneeling beside her is enough to remind her that she wishes to stay. His lips are swollen and his tunic is askew. Her fingers carding through his hair have left it wild and untamed, and as he leans in toward her, she is struck again by that thought that he is the sea itself, a foam-capped wave come to engulf her. She had come here this morning to embrace the sea and she decides to do just that, pulling him to her so that she can reach his lips once again. The fine silk of his tunic crumples as she clutches at him, but he does not seem to mind; he is too busy complying with her unspoken plea. 

His mouth is warm and gentle against hers, his kisses soft and lingering as he cradles her face between his palms. While she finds this perfectly lovely, she can feel the restrained tension in him beneath her hands. She pulls back for a moment and looks at him directly, taking in the whole of him. Instantly, he also draws away, putting more space between them, and for a moment she is hurt before she realizes that he is following her lead, taking things slowly to make sure she is comfortable. He is holding back for her. She licks her lips, uncertain of how to encourage him. 

“You can - “ her voice is husky and raw. She tries to make a gesture to encompass the two of them, and gives a helpless little shrug, unable to even begin to find the words to tell him everything she wants. “If you want. Don’t worry.” 

He hesitates, weighing her words, so she underscores them by drawing him close once more, pressing her fingers firmly into his flesh. This time, he surges back into her like a wave crashing upon the rocks. No longer confined to gentle caresses of her hair and cheeks, his hands roam their way down her body, electrifying her skin in their wake. Every place he touches sears with heat - her throat, her ribs, her hips. The chill on her skin dissipates as he replaces it with delicious warmth that seeps through her, soaking in to her muscles and pooling deep within her very core. 

His mouth strays from her lips and down her jaw, her neck, her collarbone, alternating between kissing and sucking and licking. She gasps at a spot that sends a jolt through her, and he rewards her by lingering there, running his tongue over it again and again as she moans her encouragement. But then he is moving on, raining kisses across her collar and to the spot at her shoulder where her fibula pins her dress in place. He pauses and shoots a glance up at her, but makes quick work of unfastening the pin as he sees she is already nodding, reaching for the brooch at her other side. 

The sodden linen of her stola sticks to her skin, so he must strip the fabric away in order to reveal her breasts, and the exposure causes her nipples to tighten into peaks in the open air. Her tail flicks nervously as he stops and stares, and she almost moves to cover herself once more, but she allows him to continue unimpeded. Now his movements are slowed by reverence rather than reluctance. He is caressing and stroking the sides of her breasts, murmuring praises to the softness of her skin, the firmness of her flesh. He presses his lips to the exposed column of her throat and sucks that same spot that had stolen her breath before, while his thumb grazes across a nipple. The air she sucks in is a sharp hiss, and her back arches instinctively, offering him more access. He accepts her offer, granting her a deluge of attentions as he rolls the hardened nub between his fingertips, pinching and squeezing first one, then the other, as she writhes beneath him. The sharp, insistent burst of pleasure tinged with pain contrasts so keenly with the sensuous rolling of his tongue along her neck. Her hands roam, searching for something to clutch on to, sliding over the broad musculature of his arms and shoulders and chest. 

Their legs are a tangle, hers still wrapped in gauzy seasoaked fabric. She can feel little splashes spraying her feet as the sea churns beneath them, waves crashing more insistently upon their rocky refuge. Naridius, emboldened, bestows her with a searing whirlwind of lips and tongue against hers that she hurries to follow, returning his intensity with her own. There is a perplexed wrinkle on his brow when he breaks away from her to catch his breath, and his hand comes up to cup her jaw, thumb pulling down at her lip so that her mouth drops open for him. She is confused until she realizes he is peering at her tongue. Before the mortification can even begin to creep through her, he is grinning, returning to his ministrations, unperturbed by the revelation that the tongue that slides against his is forked in two. 

It takes her a moment to catch up, overwhelmed as she is by the dizzying series of emotions this conjures. She tries to cut them off and focus only on the sensations as he works his way back down her body with both hands and mouth. The wonderful frisson of lightning under her skin in every place he touches. The building warmth that is smouldering and pulsing within her, shooting sparks through her veins. The solidity of his body as it presses against hers. She is mostly successful, though tears do still prick at her eyes as she registers the words he is whispering against her skin: murmured homages to her beauty, her power, her perfection. This last, spoken as his questing mouth finds a nipple and engulfs it in the most delicious wet heat she has ever felt, sucking and licking and scraping his teeth against it, making her writhe with pleasure. 

He is terribly attentive, lingering in each place or with each motion that draws a gasp or a twitch or a moan from her, until she is squirming and desperate and ready to melt. She ceases to notice where precisely he has aimed his regard, drowning as she is in bliss. It does not matter which part of her he encounters; each of them is met with the same intent adulation. She is free to float upon a sea of sensation, basking in his worship.

He makes quick work of the girdle that cinches her dress at her waist, and she hurries to help him tug away the garment once its ties are released. She is fully exposed, no barriers between her skin and the outside world. However, she barely notes this momentous occasion, distracted as she is by the feeling of his mouth moving down her stomach and over hipbones, fingers pressing in to the flesh of her thighs, urging her to allow him access to the depths between them. When her legs part instinctively, he bolts forward to lavish her with even more rapturous attention. 

This is the overwhelming, elemental force she came down to the shore to experience. She is surrounded everywhere by the essence of the rising sea - the brine of it filling her nostrils, her ears rushing with a roar that evokes the wildest of squalls, her blood pulsing with the rhythm of her waterborn partner between her thighs as his curly seafoam head bobs and retreats back and forth in time with the waves that beat against their rocky refuge. Her hands bury themselves in his hair and her tail winds reflexively around him, attempting to draw him closer, to hold him in place as he does something with his tongue that shoots bright white lightning through her entire body. The wordless gasps and pants that emerge from her meld into and are swallowed up by the sounds of the seascape. The waves are high enough that the water has begun to break over the ledge of their stone more consistently, sending salty surges of seawater lapping against her skin in counterpoint to the lapping of the skilled tongue occupied at her most intimate parts. 

She cannot help the blasphemous words that flash through her mind: divine, glorious… ecstasy. 

While his mouth has dedicated itself to a single spot, his hands have not been idle. They work their way over her thighs and hips, kneading, squeezing, pressing, stroking. Teasing fingers swipe over the more sensitive parts of her skin, drawing closer to where his lips and tongue continue their clever work, causing her to shudder and clutch at him. This appears to spur him on, his efforts redoubled as one arm hooks her knee over his shoulder and the other tugs at her hips to change their angle. 

Her horns clatter against the stone of the cliff as she throws her head back. She didn’t know it could feel even better, but somehow it does, the new position of his tongue against her pressing so perfectly her vision begins to blur. Those nimble fingertips draw patterns and circles around her entrance, tempting her with the prospect of delving within, but he withholds them. Coherent thoughts have ceased to flow through her mind, replaced only by a litany of Ohs and Pleases and Mores that fall from her lips like scattered drops of rain, but a sudden thought does break through the haze with striking clarity: If he is the Sea, then you are the Storm. 

The Sea may be master of its own currents and tides, but the Storm may descend and enact its whims upon it, changing courses and churning up the waters. Her hands cannot quite reach his from this distance, but her tail wraps its way around his wrist and leads him to the place she most needs to feel him. His startled hum of approval reverberates through her as he wets his fingers with the slick moisture that has gathered there. The foot she has draped over his shoulder presses in to his back, urging him on, while her hands, still threaded through his riotous curls, position his mouth exactly where she wants it. 

He concedes to her demands, finally dipping his fingers inside her just as she has arranged his head to her liking. The combination of sensations overcomes her, and she cannot help the immediate rocking of her hips or the scraping of his scalp with her nails as her fingers clench, scrabbling for something to anchor her as she feels herself start to come apart at the seams. He continues his onslaught, steady as the pulsing waves surrounding them, and it is not long before she is cresting, breaking on the rocks alongside them, swept up in the tide that has welled up within her. The lightning in her veins buzzes through every part of her, setting her lips and fingers and toes tingling, contracting her muscles, searing through her vision with a blaze of white. She can only gasp and allow it to wash over her. It is not unlike the times she has been struck by holy lightning, only this time there is no pain, just throbbing waves of pleasure that shock their way through her over and over. 

He does not pull away until she has settled. Her limbs loosen and her fingers unthread from the locks of hair they had wound around themselves, and finally his tongue stills. When he lifts his face to look up at her, it catches at her heart, sending a sharp ache darting through her breast. He is so beautiful, with his wide, dark eyes and his tousled hair and his slickened mouth. The expression of exaltation as he stares at her is too much for her to bear. 

She tugs at him and pulls him so that their bodies align once more, face-to-face, and presses her lips languidly against his. She can feel the hardened flesh of him against her hip. While he does not press her to do anything about it, she understands that he remains wound tight, has not reached the same heady release as she has. Though she can admit to herself that she finds the prospect daunting, she finds that she still wants to try. Wants to do for him what he has done for her, to fill him with the same rapturous delight. She licks her lips and murmurs against his cheek,

“I’d like to return the favor. Will you guide me?”

The breath he lets out is half laughter, half groan. His hips give a little jerk against her, but his tone is sincere.

“You don’t have to.”

“Please. I want to.” 

Another soft sound that might be a laugh as he nuzzles his cheek along hers. His voice is pitched low and she can feel it vibrate through her as he responds, lips catching and brushing at her earlobe.

“Then I would be a fool to deny you.”

This is met with a laugh of her own, and she turns her head to catch his lips again. There is a momentary pause as they adjust, shuffling positions so that he is now leaning against the cliffside, Faustine kneeling between the splayed V of his legs. He takes the opportunity to remove his tunic, folding it and solicitously offering it as a cushion between her knees and the rough ledge they sit upon. She bites her lip, touched by this concern for her comfort. Her whispered thanks are heartfelt.

She finds she isn’t sure where to begin, now that the whole of him is spread before her, clad only in his undergarment. Expanses of enticing skin and planes of perfectly-sculpted musculature call out to her, but she cannot decide what to touch first, overwhelmed by choice. He waits, patiently, allowing her the time to move when she is ready, but she can see the heavy rise and fall of his chest belying his desire. 

The water that always glistens from his skin is more pronounced now, enhanced by the spray of sea, so that tiny streams drip down in captivating rivulets that her eyes track greedily. She watches as one curves around the swell of his pectoral and she barely realizes that she has leaned forward to catch it on her tongue, swiping up to follow its sinuous path to the place where his shoulder curves into his neck. She cannot tell if the burst of salt on her tongue is from him or the seawater, but she hums in delight either way. 

The long straight column of his neck is before her now, and she laves her way up the side, collecting more droplets as she goes. With her hands braced on either side of him, the change in position brings her breasts up to skim along the skin of his chest, sending a little shiver of pleasure through her that is echoed in him as well. She pauses at this realization, before bringing her lips to close around an earlobe with the softest scrape of teeth. He shifts and sighs. She never was a very good student, but she finds that this is a skill for which she has an aptitude - her perceptiveness and insightfulness giving her the advantage she needs to fumble her way through it. She might not have the experience of having done this before, of knowing where to touch or how, but she can at least catalogue his reactions and find out what pleases him the most. 

She draws her hands up his sides, caressing his ribs, his shoulders, down his arms, reveling in the feel of the smooth muscle padded by just enough soft flesh while her mouth remains at his neck. Her lips tingle with exquisite friction as they drag over his skin. Her tongue rolls over the taut tendons he has stretched out as he tilts his head back to invite her to continue. She moves slowly, achingly aware of every minute twitch, every catch of his breath, every groan that escapes him. She finds which swirling motions of her tongue cause him to gasp, and which spot beneath his jaw makes his hands come up and fist in her hair. She passes over his chest with long, broad swipes, and finds that she can make him tremble and call out her name with a strangled moan if she catches a nipple between the two bisected halves of her tongue. His sides seem ticklish so she is more firm in her attentions to them as they lead her to the peaks of hipbones just barely jutting out from the cloth wrapped round his loins. She presses her lips reverently to the hollows they create, and his hips rock in response. 

While it cannot be said that she has ever truly been frightened in her life, she does find the mystery of what lies beneath his last remaining article of clothing to be a bit too much to tackle just yet, and so she passes over it, moving on to find what spots on the insides of his thighs are most sensitive. Hands and lips and tongue roam together down the long stretch of muscle between one hip and knee, before switching sides and making the return journey from knee to hip. The scent of him is deeper here, muskier rather than salt-sharp, and the damp heat coming off of his skin is thicker. There is a particularly beautiful curve of flesh along the inside of his leg, a lovely soft place that calls out for her to sink her teeth into. She gives in to this urge, and is rewarded by a cry that is wrested from his throat - an “Aaah!” of both shock and pleasure as his hands clutch at her head. The jolt of his hips this time brushes the cloth-covered bulge of him against her cheek, and she is struck with a burning satisfaction beneath her breast at the contact. Her tail gives an involuntary swish behind her. 

She lifts her head and looks up at him, soaking in the picture of his flung-back head and his scrunched brow and his flushed cheeks. He is drenched in seawater now, the waves having grown fiercer and the tide higher in their time here, and it only accentuates his otherworldly charm. Her fingers brush at the folds of cloth at his hips, accompanied by a tilt of the head and a raised eyebrow. 

“Yes. Please,” he hisses through clenched teeth. 

She merely hums her acknowledgment of his plea, but does not immediately act on her unspoken request. Instead she continues to run her fingers over the cloth, exploring the topography of him that has yet to be revealed. His restraint is sorely tested, and he cannot refrain from the eager twitches of his hips as she ghosts the softest of touches across him. She rises back up onto her knees proper, and straddles one of his legs, bringing her lips up to his ear and leaning into him so that they are chest to chest, skin to skin. Her tail winds around his leg behind her. She braces one hand against his shoulder, while the other works its way beneath his undergarment and presses her palm flat against that part of him she has been avoiding, surprised at the rigidity she meets. Her fingers curl around him, drawn to the shocking silkiness and warmth of his skin.

“Will you show me? What you like?” she whispers, more breath than voice. 

His hands are instantly upon the knots keeping the cloth tied in place, working at them with not a little desperation. She keeps her hand still in the meantime, wondering at the feel of him in her palm, marveling at the texture beneath her fingertips. While she is not completely ignorant of what lies between a man’s legs, no bathhouse fresco or bawdy song had prepared her for this reality. Inexplicably, she feels saliva pooling in her mouth. Her fingers squeeze just a bit and she feels an answering throb beneath them. She muffles her gasp into the hair at his temple. Finally, he works the knots free and he is unclothed, completely. 

She pulls back from him just enough that she can peer down as his hand wraps over her own, showing her how tight to grip, how to move her hand over him. The only word that comes to mind is ridiculously apropos: fascinating. Her attention is rapt, focused on this single point between them as she follows his lead in pumping, squeezing, stroking. Though mostly obscured by their entwined hands, she can see enough of him to admire the becoming proportions - this is no comedically engorged phallus in a farce, nor a demure, flaccid one on a public sculpture. She can feel the blood pumping through him, and it seems to match her own heartbeat thrumming in her ears. She turns her head to crush her lips against his and she imagines she can feel both of their heartbeats pulsing in time there as well. There is a rhythm shared between them that they are both caught up in, and she realizes that it is the same as the rhythm of the waves upon the shore. 

“Do you want to -“ he does not even break away to speak, instead allowing his lips to continue to brush against hers with the formation of every word. Affection flushes through her when she realizes he is trying gallantly to remind her of her offer to return his favor in kind without pressing her to fulfill it. 

She does want to. 

It is strangely comfortable, settling herself between his legs as she does. From here, she can more clearly see the organ that had so captivated her. It truly is a stunning sight: flushed a reddish purple with hot, vigorous blood, jutting out from his body with a pleasing arc. There is a drop of fluid at the bell-headed tip, a different consistency than that she has seen on his skin before. She wraps her fingers around him once again, careful to remember the tightness he had preferred, and brings her lips up to capture that pearl of moisture. It is bitter salt that blooms on her tongue, but she does not find it unpleasant - in fact, it seems to unlock something in her, some driving desire to wring more of this from him. 

His skin is so, so soft, and she delights in skimming her lips over it; no fine silk or velvet has ever felt so luscious against her - not even those she admired in the City of Brass. But she can feel his restlessness in the shift of his hips, the little groans he lets out. He is not in a state to endure her lingering, and she takes pity on him. Her tongue swipes along him in a broad, thick line from root to tip, leaving a trail of slickness in its wake. She experiments a few times with different ways she can wrap her tongue around him, searching for the one that makes him spasm and buck beneath her. It is when the two halves of her tongue split and run in tandem under the flared edge of the head that she is successful. His hips surge forward and his hands clutch at her head, grasping not at her hair as before, but along the curve of her horns. 

Her mind stutters for a moment as she tries to decide whether this is acceptable or if she should shake herself free of him, but then he is using the leverage to tilt her head, to draw her back down, and the sensation clicks with some deep primal urge within her. She opens her mouth wide and takes him in, receptive to the merest pressure of his hands on her horns, as if she is his ship, guided by his steering oar. 

The feeling of her lips stretched around him, of his warm, hard flesh stroking along her tongue, of being filled with him in a way she has not been before, is remarkably satisfying. Her tail swishes once back and forth in languid approval. One hand braces herself at his hipbone, and the other wraps around the base of him, steadying as she moves her head back and forth. He shudders and rocks his hips in counterpoint to her motions, thrusting deeper into her mouth, his body rising as hers is falling in a dance just as exhilarating as the one they had shared nights before. 

He is speaking again - jumbled words and fragments of sentences interspersed with moans, praising her, telling her how brilliant she is, how perfect her mouth feels around him. He starts to say something rather poetic about the shape of her backside but it is cut short by his strangled cry as she swirls her tongue around the head of his phallus. She finds it easier to accept compliments like this, mouth occupied so that she does not have to stutter back her embarrassed thanks; she can merely hum and preen and duck her head to redouble her efforts, determined to earn every drop of esteem he has rained down upon her. 

She raises her eyes to look up at him, to watch his face as she licks and sucks and bobs. He meets her gaze, awestruck and full of ardor, and it sends a seeping warmth spreading under her ribs. She cannot manage a smile with her lips stretched as they are, but she hopes he understands the softening of her eyes for what it is. One of his hands dislodges from her horns and cradles her cheek, caressing her cheekbone with a gentle swipe of his thumb. 

Somehow, this serves to embolden her, single-minded now in her desire to bring him to completion. She is relentless in her pursuit, increasing her speed, moving her tongue in swirling patterns along his length, attuned to his every breath so that she may extract every possible drop of pleasure for him. She is the hurricane that their home is named for, bearing down upon him with unbridled fervor. He rises to meet her, matching her passion with his own. His hands are upon her horns once again, gripping tight as he buries himself between her lips, so deep that he catches the back of her throat. Her answering moan is muffled by his girth. She does not know if the moisture dripping down her face is sweat or spit or seaspray, but regardless, it eases her way, slickening both of their skin with lubrication so that she can slip up and down without resistance. 

Her jaw aches and she can hardly catch enough of a breath to keep going. Her lips prickle with the beginnings of numbness. Yet none of these things matter in the face of the heady intoxication that surges through her. She can hear the change in his breathing, the new quality to his gasps that hint at his nearness. Her hand sneaks up to graze the pendulous sack that hangs between his thighs, delicately testing its weight, then rolling it along her fingers, and she is delighted by his visceral reaction. 

There is a sudden frenzied haste to his movements, and he is pulling her mouth off of him, covering her pumping hand with his own to set a punishingly fast pace. She follows his lead and remains knelt in front of him, watching, waiting. Several quick strokes and his face contorts, as his member throbs in her grip. Warm ropes of pearly essence spray onto her face and chest and spatter on the ground between them, and he sags against the wall of the cliff. Bitter salt floods her mouth as the substance begins to drip, slipping between her parted lips.

She blinks. Suddenly the storm has run its course and they are in the quiet calm that follows. She rises, kneeling upright between his languorously splayed legs. Her hand is drenched in heaven knows what, and the fluid on her face tightens her skin as it cools. Leaning to rinse her hands in the churning water, she realizes that it has risen to the very edge of their stone, each successive wave threatening to be the one that covers its surface with the rising tide. She brings a cupped handful of water to her face, habitually wiping it in the motions of her ritual ablutions to cleanse it of the congealing fluid. The sky is still dim, but the horizon has taken on that hazy quality that heralds the rising of the sun. She can hear the faintest rumble of thunder approaching in the far distance and her lips curve into a jubilant smile. 

He is breathing heavily, limbs hanging limp, and a fierce little flame flickers in her chest - pride at having accomplished this - tempered by an aching tenderness. Careful of the stickiness still coating her chest, she leans forward and brushes a stray lock of hair from his damp forehead. Saltwater drips from her fingers onto his cheeks: an anointing by the sea. His lashes flutter and his eyes lock in to hers.  The smile he musters is sleepy, and he lets out a soft huff of not-quite-laughter as he takes in the sight of her glistening wet face. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to - “

She cuts him off with a dismissive noise made between tongue and teeth. She rises to her feet and holds out a hand to him.

“Would you like to go for a swim and rinse off before the sun rises?”

He accepts her hand, and they slip together into the embrace of the sea. 

#original writing #original fic #dnd fic #original character #my writing #writing #writeblr #romance

[floatysparrowthing]

“I need this to be over, or I’ll soon join the dead.” This time his strangled laugh verges on a sob. “For fuck’s sake, that’d probably be a better fate. I’d be born into a different body… a different life.”

Wouldn’t that be so much easier? he thinks. He could start over. Be someone new. At least until he grew old enough to remember this life. And then what? Would he just be sent back here? Or would he run away before anyone of Den Thelyss found him again. But then he’d have to live with himself, knowing he’d abandoned so many people.

The Savior of the Damned

Chapter 4: The Sexterrogation

In which Verin gets creative and takes matters into his own hands.

It’s time, Verin decides, to go on the offensive.

He summons his echo in the cell with Mairon, feeling some dark satisfaction at Mairon’s nervous shift backward and the unease flickering across his face.

“I’ll play your game, Mairon,” he says, directing his echo to advance on Mairon and push him against the wall.

A small part of him wants to hurt Mairon. The part of him that’s grieving his fallen comrades, who just witnessed one of his greenest soldiers disemboweled by an invading monster, and who feels ready to combust at the sight of another demon. He wants to scare Mairon, because he can’t make the other demons flinch. He wants to see him squirm and inflict the same pain he’s been steeped in.

But that’s the part of himself he reigns in and buries deep. It’s a dark, roiling shadow licking at the edges of him that’s been steadily growing over these last few years. Truthfully, it scares him.

So rather than draw its shadowy blade, his echo leans in and kisses Mairon. Verin watches Mairon’s surprise turn into pleasure as his eyes close and he reaches up to pull the echo closer. While it still mostly resembles a shadowy, half translucent version of Verin, it solidifies at each point of contact between it and Mairon.

It’s unquestionably weird watching a version of himself kiss Mairon. His hands are slipping under Mairon’s shirt and his lips are moving to Mairon’s neck, but it’s not really him. If he wanted, he could slip his consciousness into it—he could see the gold freckles up close and hear Mairon’s breathy little exhales—but he doesn’t.

Amused, Mairon’s gaze turns to Verin all while he tangles his hand in the echo’s hair and presses the other against the small of its back.

“You won’t come in here yourself, Verin?”

Read the rest here:

#verin thelyss #verin #echo knight #taking creative liberties with an echo knight’s echo lmao #call of the netherdeep #critical role #dnd fic #dnd ocs #enemies to lovers #incubus #the savior of the damned #critical role fanfiction

[thespacelizard]

Graduation Ceremony

Tags: original drow characters, D/s dynamics, teacher-student relationship, master/apprentice, mutual pining, restraint, drunk!Ashenivir

Summary: Ashenivir has passed his exams, and now receives his final reward—graduation from the Arcanum, a Master himself, ready to take his brother’s place as wizard of House Zauvym. But an offer from Rizeth has him rethinking all his plans, and amidst much celebration, Ashenivir must make a choice; be the good son he has always striven to be, and serve his Matron? Or take a chance on his Master and an unknown future?

—

Keszriin’s Chataurvvin picnics were the stuff of legend, but the one she’d arranged for Ashenivir that day had been a quiet one. Just the five of them, secreted away in a perfect grove of young zurkhwood stalks, with narrow nightlight fungi providing soft, faintly pulsing illumination. They were deeper into the fungal forest than could entirely be called safe, but they were all wizards of no small ability, and besides, the Myconids never came up this far. The worst they had to worry about was a giant centipede or two taking an interest in their food.

Ashenivir was glad for the peace of it, and that Keszriin had taken to heart his dislike for the grand designs she’d had the last time he’d been poised to graduate. He was less glad at the extravagant gifts she’d presented him with. It was nothing to her, with House Eilist’tra’s coffers at her disposal, but receiving such things always made him uncomfortable.

Moonstone earrings, enchanted with Eilistraeen blessings of protection and good fortune, now decorated his ears. And a new cloak too, also enchanted; it would shift through whatever style was fashionable as he—or rather, as Keszriin—wished it. She liked playing dress-up with him, given half the chance. It was folded away in his bag now, over by the remains of the picnic. He and Keszriin lay side by side on the blanket, on their backs with their ankles hooked together.

“Feeling okay?” she asked.

“Fine,” Ashenivir replied. Keszriin knocked the toe of her boot against his.

“You sure about that? You got through the exams alright, but if you go off the deep end again about the ceremony—”

“I’m alright, Keszriin, I promise. If anything, I’m excited.”

There was a shriek from the edge of the grove, and the sound of magic ricocheting off an arcane shield. Dresvan and Pellanue had wandered over there a while ago, certain they’d seen a rare moth, and tipsily determined to catch it. Vuzree had gone after them, though whether for supervision or entertainment, Ashenivir wasn’t certain.

“Don’t burn the damn forest down!” Keszriin shouted, and was rewarded with a chorus of cursing. “Idiots.”

She reached over and linked her fingers into Ashenivir’s, lifting their hands into the fading duskglow. It was getting late, and even accomplished wizards knew to be careful in Chataurvvin at night.

“I’m going to miss you,” she said.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Ashenivir said. “You know where I live, you can visit whenever you like.”

“I know, but it’s not the same. And your Matron will be there, waggling her eyebrows at us.”

Ashenivir sighed. It wouldn’t be the same. Keszriin and the others might visit, but they’d still be apprentices doing the thing he loved the most, and he’d be stuck weaving decorations for the Zauvym estate and keeping his mother company.

And he wouldn’t be able to see Rizeth at all.

Read more on AO3

—

Obedience is a D/s, m/m dungeons & dragons fic series set in my homebrew drow city, featuring two wizard boys, the kinky magic they get up to, and the feelings they definitely don’t have for each other.

Read the series so far here: Obedience - thespacelizard

#fanfiction #dungeons and dragons fanfiction #dnd fanfiction #dnd fic #m/m #m/m fanfic #oc fanfiction #dnd #obedience fic blogging #that's it that's the last one for arc 3 lets goooo #and now we hiatus until The Book is done #listen if you re-read the whole thing including side fics one per day #that's like an entire month of fic #also btw thank you everyone who's been along with me for this #truly love and appreciate you all #and im not sorry about the brainrot i've induced

[space-writes]

7 snippets tag

tagged by @oh-no-another-idea a while back, thank you! i'm going to leave this one open tag - feel free to tag me to share your snippets!

I'm going to go through the 7 recent files on my wip-list, and pull my favourite bits from each for this, just for a bit of variety today~

cut for length. below you'll find a mix of fic from BG3, War of the Spider Queen, The Legend of Drizzt, and Dungeons & Dragons

1 - drink me dry - (baldur's gate 3, Durge/Astarion)

And they both have missing pieces. Cazador—walking corpse, he thinks, undead is not dead, is not offal, is not carrion—took Astarion’s life and embedded a mystery in his skin as a display of mastery. Someone stole Rune’s life and left him with an empty head and a hungry knife and he doesn’t know why yet, but soon he’ll make that rotted little butler talk.

2 - light me up - (Obsession series, War of the Spider Queen/Forgotten Realms, Vizaeth/Rhylfein)

Rhylfein leans towards him, voice low. “Go on then, Thaezyr. Make me bleed.” Vizaeth’s pulse pounds in his temples. He can’t let go and he can’t look away, and whilst he’s trapped, Rhylfein takes the predator’s chance and darts his head forwards to capture Vizaeth’s mouth with his own.

3 - a delight to be around - (baldur's gate 3 , bard Tav/Gale/Astarion)

“Well, that’s sweet of you, but I don’t drink. So why don’t you two enjoy your wine and I’ll just go…find another bear or something.” Delight, never one to fall at the first, second, or even fifth hurdle, has already planned for this. They smile, and hold up their wrist. “I thought Gale and I could have wine, and you could drink as you normally do.” Gale makes a sort of strangled noise, like a cat choking on a hairball. Astarion’s eyebrows raise. He eyes Delight’s wrist, then shrugs. “Alright. I’m game if you are, Gale.”

4 - many hands - (the legend of drizzt, gromph/kimmuriel)

“My physical body possesses but one set of hands,” Kimmuriel said. “My mind may possess as many as it wishes.” “Four hands ought to be quite enough for anyone,” Gromph replied. No sign whatsoever of any amusement from the psionicist. Only a measured blink and then two more hands manifested at his shoulders; then another two at his ankles. “Eight might be called showy, my teacher.” “Do you protest because a mage hand provides you with but one arcane limb? Or because you fear what I might do with more?”

5 - untitled praise kink breakdown fic - (Obsession series, War of the Spider Queen/Forgotten Realms, Vizaeth/Rhylfein)

“Hey, shh, come here.” Rhylfein is still stroking his hair. He’d be disgusted if he knew how Vizaeth got it. He’s not good, he’s not perfect, he’s not beautiful; he’s a freak. A patchwork of scars and necromancy posing as a boy.

6 - untitled degradation kink fic - (Obsession series, War of the Spider Queen/Forgotten Realms, Vizaeth/Rhylfein)

He doesn’t like being on top like this, but he likes how Rhylfein’s hair fans out around his head, a tangle of red. He’s not going to tell him that—he’s learned quickly how little Rhylfein enjoys compliments. For whatever reason, anything that would make Vizaeth squirm with suppressed pleasure make Rhylfein recoil in disgust.

7 - sacrificium - (Dark Ascendance campaign fic, experimental BBEG OC backstory fic)

the magic that blooms with her adolesence is unsightly. untrained, unwanted, unpredictable—burnt hands, broken plates and shattered windows. matron shouts and sisters sneer and zeerith—magicless, forgotten—zeerith salves her burns and repairs the plates and sweeps the glass. he has nothing, and what she has is not worth having, so together they are less than any t’sonri should be.

#writeblr #tag games #7 snippets tag #fanfiction #snippets #wip #fic wip #bg3 fic #dnd fic #oc fic #obsession fic blogging #c: rune #c: delight #c: vizaeth thaezyr #c: rhylfein dyrr #c: elvrae t'sonri #these are like 90% dialogue i have a problem #(it's not a problem i love dialogue) #i should finish the elvrae fic i miss her

[cogentsummoner]

hiiii i wrote another fic about my dnd character, the lady of the woods!!! this time its about her as a child meeting the ~spooky~ bog witch, who turns out to be the not -so-spooky imoatha. this fic is short, but its important that i tell yall that they become lifelong friends after this

#oc: the lady of the woods #dungeons and dragons #dnd #dnd character #dnd pc #dnd fic

[thedegu]

Chapters: 1/23 Fandom: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Original Work Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: omolale|ale & sashara|sash, omolale|ale & Eriana Rakena, omolale|ale & Revazi Characters: Original Dungeons & Dragons Character(s), Omolale|ale, Sashara|sash, Eriana Rakena, Revazi, Grandfather - Character, original dragon character(s), Nychor, Original Human Character(s) Additional Tags: Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, Dungeons & Dragons campaign novelization, dnd binder, dnd witch, DND Wizard, Necromancy, Minor Character Death, dnd barbarian, Dungeons & Dragons Homebrew Content, dnd homebrew setting, Finding a Family, Found Family, party creation, Major Character Injury, Chosen Ones, Friendship, Developing Friendships, Canon Trans Character, Nonbinary Character, Intersex Character, everyone in the party is trans tbh, Campaign Novelization, POV First Person, Somewhat Unreliable Narrator

Summary:

Ale had been alone for all of their life. Even when traveling with companions, they were just alone-together; now, after their escape from a prison island, they travel with a group of people who are just as freakish as they are. Sashara, the witch from the wastelands of Zabisrakh. Erina Rakena, the Necromancer noble from Lucigon. Revazi, the dragon-blooded barbarian whose family lives in the mountains of Zabisrakh. And ale, the one-and-only narrator of this story. A binder from Massurama and a self-proclaimed freak among freaks. Much to their chagrin, ale find themselves in a whole new, much more complicated world of legends, chosen ones, and curses. While their life wasn't easy before, it definitely isn't easy now, but at least it pays well === a dnd campaign novelization updates on Thursday or Friday

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thank you to @viridiandruid, @halfandhalfling, @recoveringrevenant and @werepaladin

#original fiction #dnd #dungeons and dragons #dnd novelization #dnd fic

[shrillvoices]

Thanks for the tag @scruffydogcreative !

"He couldn't stop himself from glancing at the elf’s slender hands, tightly balled into fists, clenching and unclenching from their position at his sides."

The fic this is attached to is going live in a few days, so this challenge was timed perfectly.

#tales from the stinky dragon #tftsd #stinkydragonpod #dnd #dnd fic #kyborg #bart #kyborg the mighty #not art #bart the bard #stinky dragon pod #fic #wip #fic wip #shrillwips #shrillfics

[meow--or--never]

I want to make a side blog based on my dnd characters. so. bad. but I never draw or write them 😭

#dnd #dnd oc #dnd character #dnd fic #dnd art

[thetalesofno-one]

Curse of Strahd, Act I: Pt. 1, Ch. V -Shadow Of Barovia-

D&D Campaign Retelling Part 1/? Chapter 5/5 ~5.1k words Content Warnings: Curse of Strahd typical content, Read at own risk

Summary Free of the deadman's path, the disparate travelers continue on across the misty lands into the shadow of a ruined village. Barovia. Civilization found, and hopefully answers, unknowing that their troubles have only just begun. Read Previous Chapters also available on AO3

Emet stares at the empty ground where the corpse grew its roots the last they passed this tree. The dirt empty and undisturbed, yet the deadman gone. No footsteps scar the mud, no scrabbling prints of some beast come to claim its rotting meal. And yet the body is gone.

He checked for undeath. His god may have forsaken him, but the remnant of that divine power granted to him when he first took his oath never faded even after all that happened. He felt the power, sensed it in his veins like a presence. A doorway he can still open. One his god did not lock and one Emet would have tried to break down if he did. But he hadn’t needed to. When he called on that power, it answered. And that power sensed no undeath when he used it. The body should still be here. 

Evrrot steps widely over the area to not sully any trail, his cognac eyes sharper than bourbon checking for any sign of what happened. Finding none he sinks an accusing glare into Emet.

“I thought you checked this shit.”

“I did.”

“Clearly not well enough.”

Emet’s lip curls in a half snarl and he turns back to the wagon path. The road stretching on, open now as freely as when they first walked it. No trick, no compulsion to continue circling the deadman’s path, no clawing thoughts at the edge of their minds, urging them to try again, try again. So why did the deadman obsessively run himself into exhaustion? Why continue clawing tallies into trees on a path that went nowhere when he must have crossed the wagon trail forty-three times? What made death by exhaustion a better choice than following this road? Or did the road not exist for him? The trail clearly started and ended where this group’s feet first set foot in the misty forest. Perhaps their arrival carved it into the land like a sign post, guiding them somewhere. Or perhaps it only exists for those it’s meant to exist. But then where else would the deadman have come from? 

Roshan clears his throat though it doesn’t clear the tension in the air.

“I am not the smartest man, but surely the man could not have been this dumb,” Roshan says, confirming Emet’s own thoughts, “Forty-three times.”

“Unless something addled his mind.”

“Maybe he thought he had to,” Evie adds. She looks back at the road that started them on this path and then ahead to wherever it might lead. Glancing at the spot where the body once rotted, her eyes flicker to Emet a moment. She’s the one who knew how he checked, so what does it say to her that he failed? That he is a liar? Or his god?

“Maybe the flaming horseman chased him off the wagon road,” Roshan nods as though that is the only possible answer. He points down the wagon trail, “But this is our only path left now.”

Emet wishes he was wrong—certain the others feel the same way by Evie’s wary look down the road and Evrrot’s scowl—but that may have been the deadman’s wish and look where that got him. Perhaps wishes are dangerous things in this place. 

Evie slips the compass from the pouch on her belt again, setting the bronze device in her palm and giving the needle a moment to settle. Her other hand twists the brooch about her neck, unconsciously mimicking the back and forth movement of the red needle still refusing to find North. Roshan twists his feather in a similar fashion, praying to it like a stick of incense and Emet finds himself absently checking the amber shard lashed to the back of his hand, seeking any guidance that led him this far. But the stone remains dark and empty and the compass needle never finds North. It no longer whirs violently beneath the glass at least.

Evrrot glares at them all.

“What do all of you have?” He narrows his eyes, “What are you playing with?” 

Roshan looks up from his feather, “I told you. It is a blessing from my god.”

Evie quickly drops the brooch, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Just my spell casting focus,” Emet lies, though only partially he supposes.

“Got any spells that can get rid of fog?” Evrrot asks sarcastically.

“Afraid not.”

Then what good are you, the tiefling’s expression seems to ask. Evrrot clearly doesn’t believe any of them and other than perhaps Roshan, Emet knows he and Evie are lying. They all saw each other get pulled into the mist by these trinkets. All except Evrrot who seems to have nothing as far as Emet can tell. So why did he follow?

The glares persist, each person daring the other to question their answers in silent challenge. But the standoff is quickly broken as Roshan starts trying to blow away the fog with his breath, the mist only swirling about lightly. 

Evie smiles dangerously and points a finger at the charmer. Magic infuses her words as she whispers, “I can’t dispel the fog either, but does this make it creepier?”

Her tinted lips move, forming words without sound, her finger still pointed sharply at Evrrot like a dagger. Emet hears nothing, the magic of the message spell stealing away her words and giving them solely to Evrrot. The tiefling flinches suddenly. Emet almost laughs thinking the charmer has never been on the receiving end of a message spell when Evrrot grabs his head and winces painfully, roaring.

“What the hells?! Stop it!”

Evie’s eyes flash wide at the outburst, holding up her hands and ending the spells casting.

“Devil boy, what is the matter with you?” Roshan demands, sounding exactly like a father tired of his son’s dramatics.

“She’s casting spells!”

The initial concern on Evie’s face rolls away with her eyes as she gives Evrrot the ‘done with your shit’ expression of an older sibling realizing their kin reacted to a pat on the shoulder like it was a slap to the face, “It was a joke, man. Chill. No one’s ever been hurt by a message spell.”

“Jokes don’t hurt!”

“Hurt? I did the little sneaky message thing—”

“That wasn’t a little message,” Evrrot mocks, “That was the voice of the damned screaming in my head. I don’t know what you did, but stop casting spells on me.”

“Mate, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Look, I’m not very magical, I can send little messages and I can do this,” she lights up her armor again with the deep bluish light.

Evrrot stabs a finger, still rubbing his head, “Watch her.”

“My magic is very bad, basic at best!” Evie continues, snapping her fingers to summon a small burst of green flame. She double takes a glance at the flickering fires dancing atop her pinched fingertips like she’s never seen such a thing before. “And that’s green now for some reason—” 

A dull whispering voice follows the flame, every ripple of the fire like a whisper from beyond. The green flames dance wildly along her chipped painted nails, more erratic than typical arcane flame. Evie stops talking, staring at the small magical fire with wide kohl painted eyes and a genuine expression of horror. Either this is new and she’s not lying or Emet has sorely misjudged who needs to be watched in this group.

“Okay that’s creepy.” Evie snuffs out the flame.

Roshan eyes her warily, “Did you kill someone in your past life?”

“No!”

“Then this place is haunted.”

Evrrot sweeps an angry finger across everyone again, backing up with his body lightly curled in a fighting stance, hand somehow always near a weapon at any given time with a well practiced ease, “We’ll all playing nice now, but I’m watching each of you. And if anyone stabs me in the back I will not hesitate.”

“Devil boy,” Roshan sighs, “Take the gnarled branch out of your ass. We have to be together for this, okay?”

Evrrot gives him a derisive snort and twists on his heel, the tiefling storming down the wagon road without another word. 

“Follow me,” Roshan sighs, waving to Evie and Emet like a father herding his unruly children after one threw a tantrum.

“We’re all walking in the same direction!” Evrrot growls ahead, “We’re not all following you.”

“Okay, whatever you say, devil boy.”

Roshan grins mischievously before jogging ahead to catch up with Evrrot and irritate him further. Emet sighs and offers Evie a shrug that says, this is our life now, and follows. The half elf groans behind him. It’s a moment before he hears the sound of her heavy platform boots stomping reluctantly behind.

Emet tries not to look back at her. The whispers of her green flames echo dully in his memory, haunting soliloquies at the edge of his mind. They did sound like the dead. Voices distant and stolen away. Here, but leagues apart. The desperate cries of spirits screaming into your ears, yet the fathom between life and death dulls their screams to a barely heard whisper. Words shouted right into your ears, yet too distant to make out.

He wonders if they cling to her too or if her flames merely gave them voice.

The dark woods fall away like words at the end of a page. The tree line breaking apart and stopping with the sharpness that can only come at the edge of an axe. Nature halted by the hand of civilization. Beyond the edge, the lands arms open wide and stretch across a large sweep of grassy valley. Only a ribbon of river bisects the knolls, cutting through the fabric of the fields. Still gloomy and misty, the fog drifts as low as a blanket across the gentle hills. It pours out from gnarled forest behind them like river water over a dam, thinning to the swirling stream dancing over the whispering fields of tall grass. Above, roiling thunder clouds twist and boil the dark skies, choking out whatever sun must hang above into little more than thin grey light.

Sharp jagged mountains pierce their teeth into the skies beyond the shadow of the vale, evergreen trees spilling down the mountainsides and enclosing this valley between sharp stone and needled trees. Snowcaps bleach the jagged grey edges of the stone teeth towering imperiously over the land, the vale swallowed in the maw of some godsbeast. 

And yet it is still a far more welcome sight than the forest behind.

Ahead, sickly yellow grasses and farmland sway in the ever shifting tides of mist and wind, wrapping around the sharp edges of some small settlement hunkered down in the trough of the valley. The pale river cuts past the settlement, the winter blue ribbon reflecting the roiling sky in its crystalline waters. 

And looming high above the settlement, perched at the edge of a sheer mountain cliff, a dark twisted castle, all spires and stone spines sitting alone in silent oppressive watch. A stone beast haunting the cliff’s edge, the village below its hapless prey. A thread of lightning cuts across the dark skies in a flash, casting the keep in sharp shadow and violent light before a sudden swell of thick fog sweeps across the vale in a wave, concealing both castle and settlement from view.

But at least they know that it is there. 

“That place looks pretty nice,” Roshan comments wryly.

Evrrot scoffs, “Yeah compared to here.”

Roshan claps his hands together, “We can all rest up and have a good night’s sleep. And then everyone will be less stressed.”

“Let’s hope it’s not one of those crazy villages where they believe the weather is controlled by sacrifice or some shit,” Evrrot mumbles. “You’d be the first to go.”

“Some gods do like you to sacrifice people, but that is a whole ‘nother thing.” Roshan waves everyone forward, “Come along.”

Emet barely cares where they are going at this point. His stomach stopped its complaining hours ago to settle into a disapproving dull ache and his leaden legs have resigned themselves to swinging forward with each step by momentum alone. It’s only when he stops that Emet feels like he could simply sink into the dirt and never move again. Better to keep trudging along until they find a real bed to rest, lest his body decide the ground is good enough after all. 

He’s not sure how long the others have been on their feet, but more hours have passed since they left the deadman’s trail and he’s guessing they are nearing eight or more hours since the mist swept them into strange lands. He was ready to end the day back in the leaning Daggerford barn, now he is close to collapse. 

The slate grey armor hanging from his shoulders felt like bars of iron back in Daggerford, now they sit like anvils after so many hours. The clothing beneath is soaked entirely between the rain and the sweat, and the black cloak draped over his shoulder hangs as heavy and damp as a wet blanket. If it wasn’t for the constant chill of this place freezing the sodden wear to his skin and the ever present sense of danger prickling at his frayed nerves, Emet would have started drifting off to sleep long ago whether he was on his feet or not.

Evie seems equally exhausted, her arms wrapped around herself and tugging at the short skirt beneath her armor as though she can stretch it out to keep the wind off her exposed legs. She chews at a lip piercing irritatedly, occasionally blowing a strand of fallen hair from her face with a huff. 

Evrrot seems warm however, that charcoal scented leather long coat of his keeping his clothing suitably dry and warm in this winter breeze. Emet wonders absently if his infernal blood warms him as well or if that’s only a rumor. He’s known a few tiefling in his long life, but mostly as clients. Never well enough to venture such a question. And he certainly won’t ask this man lest he give him the fire he needs for warmth through irritation alone.

Misery keeps their company and exhaustion their silence. Only Roshan clings obnoxiously to every fragment of hope this gloomy place spits at them. Where the old man gets his vitality, Emet will never know. The old human looks as weathered as old leather draped in scratchy white cloth—now soaked—but somehow his every step bounces with a spring in it and that near constant smile of his curls up the edges of his salted beard as reliably as the sun rises each day.

Evrrot glares at the old man every few paces with the irritated hatred born from a day that’s gone on for too long and Evie lets slip a small smirk when she thinks no one is looking, but Emet finds his mind drifting to Azem. Roshan’s bouncing gate reminds Emet of the sun elf every time they had set out together on a journey. No matter how long the day or early the morning, Azem always finds a way to brighten it. 

Sun elf and sun god, both so bright.

The muddy wagon path twists ahead of them, rolling across the grassy hills down into small valleys thick with puddles before rippling up again. The land folded and rippled like cloth. And all the while their sodden boots trudge it further still with the hope that the mist doesn’t completely swallow up the village ahead in more than sight. It already devoured their last one after all.

Evie nods toward something off the road, not daring to unwrap the warmth of her arms from around herself to point. “What’s that?” 

All heads swing to where she stares off the trail into the strange mist and the veil of it thins briefly to see a dark weathered stone atop a small knoll.

“Maybe it is a mile marker,” Roshan’s voice betrays the tiredness he is hiding better than the rest, “I will go have a look.”

“I’ll join, shouldn’t be splitting up,” Emet says, not wanting to stand still.

Evie shakes her head, “Don’t worry about it, we should keep going.”

“It is barely 20ft feet away,” Roshan waves his hand at the stone definitely more than 20ft away, “We will be fine.”

“I’m getting bad vibes from this place, let’s not go and explore every weird, creepy thing we come across.”

“Yes, let’s definitely go and together.”

Evie frowns, “That’s not what I said.”

Roshan trudges off path, sweeping aside the tall grasses with Emet in tow. Neither Evie nor Evrrot follow. 

Certainly isn’t a mile marker, Emet thinks as they get closer to the dark stone. The stone is slick with rain and soaked through, but rain-darkened words are carved into its rough surface in the common tongue—a good sign. Emet reads the epitaph chiseled into the gravestone. Rose and Thorn, and beneath the inscription the phrase, Lost to the world, Found in Judgement.

“This is a burial proverb of Kelemvor, yes? The God of Death in our Faerûn?” Roshan asks, kneeling beside the stone and brushing away the grasses already grown long around it. Emet notes the grave marker barely looks as though it has weathered a year. Roshan looks up expectantly at the tall moon elf, but Emet keeps his silence hoping the holy man will mistake it for ignorance and not familiarity. 

The holy man shrugs, “I think it is.”

Before departing the holy man offers a brief blessing, his hand marking the symbol not of Kelemvor, but of Lathander. Emet doesn’t quite remember which domain that god embodies, he never was the most devout in his order. Maybe that’s why things ended up the way they did. But then again, Roshan seems to have an abundance of faith and he’s still here in this mess beside Emet. So maybe the answer is that none of the gods care.

Roshan slaps his knees as he stands, breaking Emet out of his thoughts, “All done, thank you for waiting. We should head back now.”

The two trudge back through thick grass and uneven ground to Evie and Evrrot, the half elf and tiefling watching them carefully and impatiently. Evrrot’s horns drip droplets of water past his shoulders, hair more slick than ever in the wet rain and wetter still for them having made him wait as the rain picks up a little heavier. Emet is half surprised the tiefling didn’t simply leave as he’s so fond of threatening at every occasion. 

Evie just stares past them, out to the stone marker, her mohawk nearly flattened and drooping half way to her armored shoulders. She’d dug a ditch in the mud with her platform boots while waiting, chewing on her darkly tinted lips as though she half expected some terrible thing to burst out of the fog and snatch away Emet and Roshan on their way back. Not out of the realm of possibility, unfortunately.

“It was a just tombstone,” Roshan offers as Evie lifts her head expectantly.

“Ah yeah, nothing creepy about a random tombstone in the middle of nowhere,” she comments.

“You never know, this could have been their favorite hill.”

Evrrot uncrosses his arm, “Alright, you’ve had your fun. Follow me.”

“Of course, devil boy” Roshan grins, “We follow you.”

Devil and holy man walk side by side, already having forgotten Emet and Evie in their unspoken competition. Emet shakes his head and is about to follow when he realizes Evie doesn’t move. She stares off at that grave marker, arms crossed across the wet chainmail on her chest. She barely seems to realize half of them have left.

Evie takes a breath and steps forward, but not toward Emet. She determinedly marches for the gravestone alone. Emet nearly follows, wanting to keep anyone from being alone in this place, but something tells him to hold back. 

Platform boots slipping in the thick wet grasses up the knoll’s side, Evie barely realizes she’s gone to the grave marker before she finds herself standing in front of it. It’s not like she wants to be here, just that…she needs to. Or that she should. She doesn’t know anymore. 

Her eyes trail over the stone’s carving catching on the curl and slant of the ‘R’ in Rose and the sweeping ’T’ in Thorn with a prick of familiarity. She shakes her head and rereads the names and that small sense rewrites itself in her mind as coincidence. Found in Judgement. A familiar proverb from a familiar god. One she’s probably read or said a hundred different times in her twenty-something years. 

A snake curls in her stomach reading it. 

She never really knew how she felt about that phase. Evie knows it’s supposed to be a source of comfort, that the bad will get their due and the good will be absolved and find their eternities in their heavens. But at the same time, it feels like a watchful gaze. A reminder that everything you do, every mistake you make, and every person you disappoint becomes another tally in a book made to immortalize your every sin. A permanent record of every failure that you’ll carry forever…

Evie sighs and quickly makes the symbol of Kelemvor.

Duty fulfilled, she wraps her arms back around herself and trudges back through the mud to where that giant shadow waits for her. She narrows her eyes at him, giving him a look that asks Why are you still here, poncy idiot before angrily stomping past him. He keeps pace, not trailing behind as if he actually remembers she doesn’t want him behind her, and they hurry to catch up with the angry tiefling and the endless well of happiness irritating the ever living shit out of ‘devil boy.’ She almost wants to laugh seeing them both still vying to stay ahead of each other, but it catches in her throat and the sound is all too similar to a sob. She bites it back and keeps walking.

Emet keeps to Evie’s hurried pace, careful not to fall behind.

The ever present mist has thankfully not swept away the settlement like a vision, the tall shapes of stone and wood structures looming within the fog, slowly peeking out between the waves. Mud gives way to slick wet cobblestones beneath their feet and for the first time since the barn, Emet doesn’t feel like he’s in a dream.

Dwellings border either side of the main thoroughfare with windows as empty and dark as the dried broken sockets of a skull. No sound to cut the silence, no light to signal life. Emet has lived through conflicts before in the extraordinarily long life granted to those of elven blood, and the buildings here look like those who have suffered much and been afforded little in the aftermath. Crippled things, wood and stone scarred by blade or claw with glass long shattered and replaced by crooked planks of wood, all leaning against another as though the wall beside it is all that keeps it standing. Remove the one and all will crumble.  

Only the flapping of wings fills the streets as a raven swoops toward them from across the way. The little bird settles, perching with a flutter of black feathers atop an errant railing. It fusses with its wings a moment, a curious shade of blue tipping its silken edges before folding them neatly behind its back. It stares at the group expectantly. 

Evie’s eyes light up a moment when she sees it. The blue-tipped raven caws loudly and stomps its little feet before taking off, following the street toward what must be a town square up ahead. Beyond this lane, the buildings open up a bit more with what appears to be a statue of some kind at its center.

“I think it wants us to follow it,” Evie says.

Roshan squints after the raven as though seeking some sign, “It looks like a normal bird.”

“It cawed when it looked at me though. When you look at most birds, they just…” Evie flutters her hands, mimicking wings taking off.

Roshan gives Evie the same look the others have given him whenever he pulls out that feather of his to seek guidance. Seems the only one allowed to have signs from the gods is the holy man. 

The raven perches on a signpost across the town square, too distant to read from here at the edge of the village. None seem eager to take the first step into unfamiliar territory—and ruined territory at that, the buildings abandoned and dark as far as they can tell. But they all know there is no where else to go. 

“Should we be nice to anyone we come across?” Roshan asks.

“Don’t see why not. They’ve not done anything yet,” Emet’s eyes search the darkened windows, the quiet streets, “If they’re even here.”

Roshan studies the grim group. Weary from the days of travel, edges frayed and nerves short, they all wear a mask of misery. Were this a normal town with streets filled with souls, all would avoid them warily with the grim air about them.

“Maybe you should smile, Emet.”

The words slide between Emet’s ribs with a dagger’s edge and drift down his throat like poppy wine. Both numbing and warm and stealing away the pain long enough to feel the heat blood spilling over his ribs and mistake it for comfort. Memory is held in that painful warmth and he doesn’t hear Roshan’s voice, but Azemir’s. A faint smile, hollow and a ghost of what it once was answers and flickers across Emet’s face before the words turn sharp and he feels the dagger behind the wine. The pain of remembered words once spoken dearly by another soul awaiting his return.

The smiles fades as quickly as it appeared, yet none see the blood.

The holy man moves on, unknowing of the bittersweet blade he buried in Emet’s chest. 

“And maybe you should be happy, Evrrot. Angry devils are usually a very bad thing. Evie, you are fine.”

“Do I not come off as a happy person,” Evrrot comments, face as grim as a gravestone.

“Do I not come off as a miserable person?” Evie asks, affronted.

Roshan grins, “No and no.”

“I’m very cheery,” Evrrot glowers.

“Maybe once you’ve had some food in your stomach.”

“That’s probably the first thing you’ve said that’s made any sense.” Evrrot throws caution to the wind once more and strolls down the street, “Let’s go find an inn and see if you’re right.”

Muddy cobblestones scrape beneath their boots, the sound as loud as horse hooves in this eerie silence. If this place is occupied, there should be at least one or two people in the streets, shouldn’t there? Someone fetching the days errands, or a merchant tending their harvest stand, a kid chasing a dog, anything. But no, hollow as a tomb and quiet as the crypt. Only the wind whispering through the broken glass windows gives voice to this dead village. The swift breeze creaks a few half broken signs with rusted wails.

As they near the square, a beam of light briefly breaks through the darkened clouds and casts a pillar of pale white glow upon the statue. Even freed from the prison of clouds, the sun’s light is choked and faded, sapped of all warmth as it falls upon the figure dominating the square. Carved of old stone, the armored man’s shoulders are chipped and cracked from disrepair, matching the destitution of the village it protects. He holds a blade triumphantly aloft in stark contrast to the loss echoed all around him, a heavily booted foot resting atop the severed head of another man. Fangs jut from the severed head’s mouth, the snarling lips curled back with its jaw hung open at a broken angle. A sign of protection for those who live here and a warning to those with ill intent, but one that rings hollow through the empty shell of ruins. 

The metal of the weatherworn plaque at the base carries the green tinge of aged copper. Deep clawing gouges from some beast cut across the words hammered into the surface, but the name is still legible. 

Ismark Antonavich the Great

Burgomaster of Barovia

Bane of Vampires

618-662 BC

BC? That’s not the common dating notation utilized in Faerûn or anywhere that Emet’s heard of. And Barovia is equally an unknown. Granted, the moon elf isn’t the most well traveled, or even the most well read despite his past, but one glance at the others tells him he is not the only one lost as to when or where any of this is.

Roshan is the first to voice their questions, “What is Barovia?”

“What is BC?” Evie asks.

“Oh, is that strange too? I don’t know the actual years, so I don’t know what it is supposed to be.”

Emet and Evie’s eyes settle on the holy man. Not knowing the day or maybe the month is understandable, but the year?

Evrrot remains fixated on the plaque, “Bane of Vampires…”

Roshan lifts a finger, grinning, “That word I do know.”

“Are there vampires here?” Evrrot wonders.

Emet tilts his head to the shrouded skies where the dim light of sun weakly pours through the heaviest of the storm. Its beam sallow and faint as though the skies themselves suffocate their star. Every day a slow and agonizing breath above the land, a single gasp above the night’s waters before it is dragged below each night into stillness.

“If there aren’t then there were,” he answers. 

Evrrot joins him in squinting up at the skies, the thin beam snuffing out at last as a wave of thick clouds rolls overhead, “It’s certainly ideal if this is the weather every day.”

A shrill caw breaks their conversation, the blue-tipped raven shouting its displeasure at being ignored like a lordling demanding attention. The bird stomps its small feet with little clicking sounds as the talons dance along the top of a wooden post jutting out from the side of a building no more remarkable than any of the others. Though its build and size suggests it may indeed be an inn. A wooden sign hangs precariously from the post by a single chain—the other broken and clinking lightly in the wind—is painted with a once vibrantly green vine dripping in what may be blood or wine. The paint half chipped and cracked by the natural fissures in the wood still bears the name. 

The Blood on the Vine Tavern. 

“Hey, look at that.” Evrrot casts a hand toward the sign, “The raven led us to beer.”

Satisfied its message has been received, the regal raven quickly flutters off into the mist. If Emet were a faithful man, he’d call it a sign.

“Seems your prayers were answered,” Emet murmurs as the tiefling makes his way to the double doors.

NOTES

Thanks so much for reading Part 1! I'm going to be taking a brief hiatus to catch up on some writing and notes, but I will be back. Part 2 will be available on April 23rd, hope to see you then

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