#the half-fey bastard prince who's like half tree

[timeforelfnonsense]

A Chance Meeting

ASTARION x DAFNI

Rating: G

Ao3

Dafni is a Spring Eladrin, Cleric of Corellon Larethina/Fey Wanderer Ranger as a point of clarity. Elvish Translations: Hei-Corellon shar-shelevu remedium: Corellon, by your grace grant *healing ebrath: Friend

It was her! That woman from the ship. He’d seen her strutting about when he was confined to the pod. Astarion watched her from a safe distance, assessing the threat. She didn’t look like those beasts on the ship, rather she appeared to be a winsome elven maid. She was of small, unassuming stature, fuller-figured than most elves. Her petal pink hair was tied up in a loose ponytail, a few lose, curly strays framing her soft heart-shaped face.  Her freckled, sage green skin stood out against the battered and torn, puffy-sleeved cream blouse beneath her armor. She seemed a bit disoriented. Her brows pinched and her lower lip stuck out in a girlish pout. Deep purple foxgloves sprouted through her locks as she scowled. 

That was different...

He heard a loud cry followed by a string of elven cursing. One of those foul brain creatures had captured her wrist in its tendrils.. She gave it a punt, sending it a few feet back with a wet thud. From her back, she drew an elegant longbow nocking and losing two swift arrows into the wrench. The creature seized, collapsing into a heap of ichor. 

Perhaps she wasn’t with those tentacle monsters after all? Why would their servants attack her if she was? Still, she was his best chance at answers. 

Her reaction had been rather swift. She had dispatched her attacker with little effort and what appeared to be a fair bit of skill. That could prove dangerous. He watched her wrap a shaking hand around the angry red mark left on her arm. He could smell the blood even from a distance. His throat burned as a heavenly floral fragrance filled his lungs. 

“Hei-Corellon shar-shelevu remedium.”

 A brilliant azure light radiated from an amulet around her neck before flashing beneath her palm with a silvery chime. She had healed the gash leaving behind no trace of injury. Of course, she was a cleric. He almost laughed at the irony. It seemed he had been spared being set aflame by the sun only to be staked in the heart by a cutesy cleric of Corellon Larethian. 

 Corellon Larethian.

He could work with that. He crouched low beside a fallen tree, setting the scene. He did his best to look shaken and meek. “You there! Cleric!” He shouted, “Can you help me?”

Dafni’s focus snapped to a beach, littered with mind flayer wreckage. Huddled among the debris was a frightened high elf. Her feet could hardly move fast enough. Another survivor and Protector bless her, it was an elf! Her heart swelled at the prospect of a friendly face after all she’d been through. 

“Are you hurt, ebrath?” She asked, “I’m not sure I have another spell in me. A bit of old fashioned field medicine will have to do I’m afraid.” 

“I’m fine but hurry, I’ve got one of those brain things cornered” He beckoned her closer as he knelt low. “There, in the grass. You can kill it, can’t you? Like you killed the other.”

She looked him over as he hunkered down behind a hollow log. By his finery, she assumed he was out of his depth when it came to combat. She giggled under her breath. It was quite the reverse fairy story, the pretty damsel saving a princely fellow for a dangerous monster. A warm blush crept across her cheeks. He was rather handsome despite his current disheveled state, with snowy hair and porcelain skin.

 Drat!

 This wasn’t the time for lingering gazes or flirtation. It was her duty to aid and protect her people. She couldn’t let his striking cheekbones and perfect jaw distract her! 

“Of course!” She said before nocking an arrow on her bow.

In a flash he swept her legs out from under her, sending her bow clattering into the sand. The wind was knocked from her lungs as she hit the ground with a crash. 

She could almost hear her mother’s chastising all the way from the Feywilds. See Sprout, you should never have left. Mind flayers! Cutthroats! These are the things you traded your home for?

Damn it.

“Shh. Not a sound.” He whispered, his breath cool against her ear, “Not if you want to keep that darling neck of yours.”

“You bastard!” She spat, “Spider Queen take you!”

“How vulgar.” He scolded tipping her chin up to face him with the edge of his knife. Her eyes were brimming with anger so palpable she hoped he could feel it burning a hole through him. “ I believe I asked you not to speak. Now, I saw you on the ship, didn’t I? Nod.”

How dare he! 

How dare he be so ruff with her! How dare he threaten a cleric of his creator! Dafni could feel the hot rush of summertime rage building in her chest. The bitter, metallic smell of foxgloves burned her nose as a fresh batch sprouted from her head. She struggled against the stranger’s hold but he had her held tight against his chest. Did he think her some helpless child, unable to fight back? He was woefully mistaken. 

 With a sharp jerk, she slammed her head into his jaw. Her captor winced breaking his hold on her and allowing her to slip free. A dull throb began in her own head but better that than a slit throat. He snarled at her spitting out a mouth full of blood.  Both elves scrambled to their feet. Dafni drew the long sword at her hip, holding it out in front of her.  

“Come near me again and I will cut that smug head right off your shoulders!” 

“You rotten little brat!”  He growled. “You’re in league with them, aren’t you? Those tentacled –”

Astarion winced as his mind twisted with the little elf’s. Memories and fleeting feelings flashed through his head as if they were his own. A wanderlust so deep he felt it in his bones as he stared out a tower window. A statuesque elven woman with a loving but firm expression scolded him for venturing outside the village yet again. The heavy feeling of the material plane washing over him as he stepped into a ring of mushrooms. The disorienting sensation of being plucked from a city street and confined to a pod.

“They took you too. I saw it during... whatever just happened.” He put on his most charming voice a playful smile curled at his lips, “And to think I was ready to decorate the ground with your innards. Apologies.”

He saw her relax a tad as he sheathed his dagger. He slowly scooped her bow off the beach floor offering it to her with an extended hand. She let out a huff but accepted the peace offering. 

“Apology accepted. I suppose I might have done the same if I thought you were a thrall.” Her expression softened. A painfully sweet smile formed her full lips as she extended a courteous hand to him, “You can call me Dafni.”

He chuckled, “A kindred spirit. My name’s Astarion. I was in Baldur’s Gate when those beasts snatched me.”

“Oh! I’m a baldurian as well!” 

“Is that so? clearly move in different circles. ” He kept his voice flat and casual as he shifted the conversation away from himself, “So do you know anything about these worms?”

“Well, I met a gith woman aboard the ship…” Dafni hesitated, her brows knitting together again, “She told me they would turn us into mind flayers.”

A bark of wicked laughed burst out of him in response to her admission, “Of course it will turn me into a monster. What else did I expect?”

“Hey,” She spoke in a quiet comforting voice, “Things look pretty bad but that just means they can only get better!”

He had to stain not to roll his eyes at her naïve optimism. Things could- And often did go from bad to worse in his experience. Still, he was free of Cazador. Standing out in the afternoon sun. With a cleric, he had half expected to ram a stake through his ribs on sight. Perhaps his luck was changing? 

“If we could find an expert- Someone who can control these things there might still be time.”

“That’s the spirit! We could travel together!” She chirped, “Our odds would be much better as a team.”

How was she so cheerful and trusting after all of that? No one was that nice for no reason. Regardless, she made a good point. There was safety in numbers. Foolish and over-enthusiastic as she might be, the little elf had proven herself a good fighter. He could do worse for an ally given the circumstances. Besides she was quite eye-catching…

“You know I was ready to go this alone but, maybe sticking with the herd isn’t such a bad idea.” He mused,” You seem like a useful person to know. Alright, I accept.”

“Oh! Thank you!” She squealed in delight, “I was so worried I’d be in this all alone after I woke up without my friend from the ship! But between the two of us, we’ve got this thing as good as beat!” 

#astarion #dafni of gwynneth #bg3 oc #bg3 #elf writes

[frowningfox]

D&D Ask Meme: 31, 29, 17, 5!

5. Favorite NPC.

Don’t make me choose, you’re basically asking me to infodump on every NPC I’ve met or created

In a game I’m playing: Moira the half orc skeleton because she’s an absolute ass that means well. And Ikal the orc bartender because he’s the cheesiest sweetheart.

In a game I’m running: The Right Hand, the arch fey prince - humorous, mildly ostentatious in a fun way, but quick to temper, a lot of fun to play around with. Mancha because who doesn’t like a sweet, easily confused, talking dog. Talun because who doesn’t like a creepy, future telling, talking dog with human hands and feet. 

And more recently Nikolas the sweetest, overly excited vampire, but he’s only been in one session, albeit a 15 hour one. He’s got a husband who is a very outwardly austere, by-the-books in appearance vampire. They’ve got an adopted daughter who is permanently 6 years old who is the worst combination of pretty girl and tomboy- she loves dresses and frills but also climbing in trees and wading through swamps, so she ruins every single dress she gets her hands on.

17. What are some house rules that your group has?

WHOO BOY PREPARE FOR A WALL OF TEXT OR TWO

Universe specific: 

Necrotic spells heal undead.

If someone tries to heal an undead with standard healing magic (dubbed positive energy) without knowing they’re undead, they will instead harm them. They cannot purposefully harm with positive energy though.

Prayer to the “gods” (eldritch entities but whatever) can have a random impact if you RP and/or roll well enough

do not play as though the standard racial and cultural backgrounds are canon to this universe because they’re not and if you play by that assumption you’re gonna accidentally get into big trouble in-game

Drow aren’t completely confined to the Underdark and therefore are not sunlight sensitive. Orcs have a complex society and aren’t naturally less intelligent than other races.

Great swords and spears have reach because have you seen how long those bastards are in comparison to other weapons

Great clubs are classified as heavy weapons and do 1d10 because have you seen a great club

Specific to my campaign: 

serious damage done results in serious injury - the specific injury is decided using context or specific rules around homebrew monsters I come up with (ex. the rockodiles roll a d4 to decide which limb they latch onto, and if a PC/NPC is dropped to 0 by a bite attack or latched on roll attack, they lose the limb. so far this has only come into play with the 12 year old wizard NPC who already lost the use of a different limb through a magical mishap. he’s not having a fun time)

healing magic isn’t a perfect cure-all- with serious injury comes consequences (ex. the tiny wizard that got his leg ripped off did get it reattached using one of DnD’s many “aaand let’s just erase the consequences” spells, but now he has a limp and a dropped movement speed.) This has led to a few emergency surgery RPs in which healing magic was used as a tool instead of a insta-fix-it wand - they were surprisingly fun. Very tense.

You can gain advantage or drop a DC with good enough RP attached to your roll. Gaining advantage is usually through well thought out RP and describing what you’re doing, dropping DC is usually mentioning something in the RP that would specifically relate to reaching the goal (ex. a poisoning cup has a hidden compartment that only opens when the cup is tilted up, the player describes tilting it and looking in, thus specifically describing one of the only ways to notice this contraption)

The standard houserule of crit fail/crit success(within reason) on skill checks

Liminal spaces can act as gateways to the Fey Wild if you know what you’re doing.

You can use your reaction to choose to fail a dex save (ex against fireball) to shield another player/NPC or shove them out of the way

Initiative rolling is partially retired in favor of reactive combat based on context. “Context initiative”? (Ex. someone starts something with somebody. instead of pausing for an initiative tally, the other retaliates, and if applicable allies might join in on either side in order based on their initiative score and/or proximity.) It keeps the flow going a lot better, especially with bigger groups on either side

A lot of little things similar to that to promote reactive and interactive combat

If you can sufficiently explain why and how you would use a different skill for something than is standard, (ex. acrobatics-ribbon dancing your way down a series of ropes instead of athletics- just climbing and swinging) go for it. we’re here to have fun and be inventive

You must use a reaction to utilize evade or deflect missile, etc.

MONKS CANNOT DEFLECT A CANNONBALL.

29. Do you prefer RP heavy sessions or combat sessions?

RP heavy with a dash of perilous combat that leans on RP to help keep immersion

31. What is your favorite class? Favorite race?

Bladelock/Paladin. I like “front line magic users who use their magic to hit things really hard with their weapon”

The furry/monsterous races. Gnolls and bugbears are best boys.

Undead (which should honestly be a subrace template or something but that’s not the homebrew we found so whatever)

and weirdly I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for Drow though I’ve only ever played an undead one.

#whoo boy look at all that text #I'm gonna stop now before I think of more #also fuck monks #gamebreaking bastards #I say as I multiclass my druid into monk so he can be basically yet another 'front lines magic user who magically hits things really hard u #hologh0st