It was such an honor to get a commission from @nenalunes! The way she makes colors, sparkles, and backgrounds pop has always blown me away, so I was beyond grateful she was willing to work with an idea I had. She added so much more than I could have dreamed to the final product, this is just stunning! She was also extremely communicative and wonderful to work with, highly recommend commissioning her if you can.
This was very different than other artwork I've had made of this character, it was really fun. I like to imagine that maybe Blackstaff held a themed ball of some kind, so Damaia had a reason to get dressed up, which she hasn't often needed to do. She was quite pleased with how her outfit turned out ✨
I need to give @bwgnagna another round of kudos for blessing me with more insanely beautiful art, and for being just such a cool person to work with on commissions. It's incredible how she just understands the assignment and I barely have to say anything! The added details are above and beyond. Her style overall just sends me through the roof, and I get so giddy seeing my girl in it 😊
More fun tidbits just for me - the day I got the final piece from bwgnagna for this was the same day Damaia faced her second monster with a challenge rating of 23! My DM was so proud of how we just annihilated an insanely powerful creature (this one was a kraken, and it did successfully swallow one party member - but it's all good, she lived). Damaia was definitely channeling the badass vibes that are on full display in this artwork 🏹
Want to make sure to call out how insanely talented ekikeki is! I requested the Gale commission in this set, and it's so incredibly well done. They hit every detail spot on, and captured the vibe I wanted so effortlessly.
Their art overall is fantastic! I recommend checking their other work out, as well as commissioning them if you can. I find the way they draw Gale so satisfying, so seeing that brought together with my beloved character is really a dream come true 🥰
(just gonna add the image by itself here so it gets its own spotlight)
Recently got this incredible commission done by @kozh-lucium! I've always admired any works they've done with a bit of action or movement in them, so when they opened some slots for commissions I had an idea that I wanted to bring to them. Even though it was a big ask, they tackled it without hesitation - even helping me create an outfit for my character when I didn't have specific references to pull from. That part was meaningful to me because I have a very good idea of what this character wears in my current D&D campaign, but this moment was from a while back in-game (and actually, the NINE year anniversary of this session in real life is this Thursday, holy cow) and I had never given a lot of thought to what this character used to wear back then. Having that established and being able to see it now is really amazing!
kozh-lucium was very kind, and had a great understanding of what I was looking for just based on my description. They put a ton of hard work into making sure they created something I would like, and I could not be more grateful! I would highly recommend them for a commission for anyone looking. They also have an appreciation for Gale Dekarios, so they have great taste - and so much fun artwork of him that other Gale fans should check out if they haven't seen it already.
As an aside, I had this silly idea of writing out the context of the scene this art was inspired by. I know no one will see it but me, but I just like the idea of having it paired with this epic artwork that brought the moment to life from my first ever D&D campaign. I'm also not a writer in any shape or form, I only write private character studies/headcanons for D&D so this is absolute garbage. I basically took my notes from the session and mushed them with some quotes directly from the module. Keeping it below the cut so it doesn't offend anyone who does come across the artwork, lol.
The Battle of Yester Hill
The party had woken that day feeling heavy within their hearts, and the weather reflected it. Dark clouds pressed in from above, blocking the little light that was barely able to illuminate the land of Barovia to begin with. The faint sound of thunder made the atmosphere somehow more ominous than usual.
Damaia’s steps along the trail through the thick woods were sure, despite the gloom and the certainty that they would find trouble at their destination. She knew for a fact there would be trouble at Yester Hill, the literal hill on the edge of this domain where evil blights were born; that faint pressure nestled deep in the back of her mind - always there, a second heartbeat behind her eyes - told her so. She had sensed its sudden movement southward almost two days ago, at a worrisome speed. For most of her previous days here she had felt it from the east, tugging invisibly at her like a hooked thread.
Sure enough, the closer they got to the hill covered with dead grass and cairns of black rock, the greater the tension in her skull became. As they looked to the top of the hill, they saw a wide ring of black boulders and smaller rocks collectively form a makeshift wall enclosing a field of dead grass. Regular lighting strikes at the edge of the ring illuminated a ghastly, enormous statue made of tightly woven twigs and packed with black earth. It resembled a towering, cloaked man with fangs - and its muse could not be more obvious as Strahd von Zarovich himself stood within the ring of stones, atop a fiendish horse with a coal-black coat, glowing red eyes, and flames in place of hair.
When her gaze landed on the vampire, the tightness at the base of Damaia’s skull reached a new peak, almost to the point of pain. The violent desire within her ignited, but just as she was ready to act on it… she heard a whisper. A deep voice carried on the wind.
“Long have I waited for one who is worthy. My spear hungers for blood. Retrieve it, and rule these mountains in my stead, just like the mighty warriors from the early days of the Whispering Wall.”
Her amber eyes flashed. She, too, hungered for blood. Without a second thought, she took off at a run, a new thread pulling her in a direction that felt right, in her bones. Amongst the two concentric rings of cairns encircling the hillside - each a tall mound of slimy black rocks - just one mound of stone held what she was looking for.
A figure Damaia had not noticed at Strahd’s side clocked the movement and stepped forward, a lethal looking bow already drawn and nocked with an arrow. She was elvish in appearance, but her skin tone was the telltale dark shade of a drow - an odd sight in a land mostly filled with humans. She fired with impeccable aim, her ammunition finding purchase in Damaia’s side. The tiefling let out a roar of pain, almost indignant; to her there was something offensive about an archer being struck by an enemy's arrow. She stumbled, her running pace faltering.
Behind her, the others were already mobilizing as well: Poksu was moving a safe distance away, and Naiyana placed a Ring of Protection on herself and Bellamy. Meanwhile Bellamy had a plan all her own. The small gnome bent forward, her form rapidly growing and stretching until in her place stood an enormous saber-toothed tiger, much larger than the tiger her friends had grown accustomed to her wildshaping into. Seeing Rictavio (or rather, Rudolph) with his saber-tooth animal companion in Vallaki the other day had clearly given her new inspiration.
The massive beast took off, reaching Damaia in just a few bounds and giving her a pointed nudge on her arm. Understanding quickly, Damaia hoisted herself onto the druid’s now much larger backside, with nothing but fur to cling to with one hand, the other putting pressure on the arrow wound at her side. Bellamy continued her run, allowing Damaia to guide her through tugs on her fur.
Beyond them, the battle of Yester Hill continued. With a muttered incantation, three duplicates of Strahd appeared around him; luckily a quick blast of fire from Naiyana dispelled the false imitations easily. A small cluster of druids, looking much like the ones that they had cleared from the Wizard of Wines vineyard, were occupied with a chant next to the horrible wooden statue. They moved about rhythmically together, repeating strange words and gesturing to the effigy in what appeared to be a kind of ritual.
Damaia shouted for Bellamy to stop in front of one of the cairns. The spear the whispered voice spoke of, she could feel it there, buried under the rocks. Still half frenzied, she threw herself from the tiger’s back and began shoving rocks aside. They were by no means light, but the adrenaline coursing through her allowed her to quickly roll them away. The pain emanating from the protruding arrow in her forgotten, she worked till an earthen grave was revealed, hidden under the cover of sod and dead grass. Using only her fingers, Damaia hurriedly dug through the dirt until she hit something hard.
There in the soil lay a set of bones, crusted with mold that must have been growing for centuries. Skeletal fingers were still grasped around the handle of a spear stained with blood. The jagged edges of its tip spoke to a life of heavy use, of merciless hunting and brutal killing. As Damaia reached for it, that new pull on her mind whispered to her again: Kavan. She could almost see the barbarian chieftain, ruling his ruthless tribe in the mountains long before the devil ever came to these lands. Moving in the night, drinking the spilled blood of his prey and letting it fuel his stamina with revitalized life.
She gripped the spear, pulling it free of its former master, and the earth began to erupt around her. The other graves beneath the cairns were being undug, this time from the inside. Wild-looking, half decayed figures caked head to toe in bluish-gray mud clawed their way to the surface. They clutched crude stone axes, their hair long and tangled and their eyes wild with pent up violence. Those eyes, six sets of them, were locked onto Damaia, expectant.
The original hook in her mind was still tugging, persistent and familiar, and she turned to its source. Pointing the spear at Strahd, and the others who occupied the center ring atop the hill with him, she snarled in a voice almost not her own, “Kill them all.”
Without hesitation, the horde moved in an enraged frenzy up the hill. Strahd’s eyes narrowed in displeasure, and with a raised hand he brought down some of the ongoing storm’s lightning to strike at the new threats rushing toward him, though it did not do enough to slow them down. The drow archer registered the disadvantage she would be at in hand-to-hand combat and made to retreat - but the swarm of berserker warriors caught her quickly. Despite her call for blood, even Damaia watched in horror as they brutally ripped the drow’s head clean off of her body before whipping around to find another viable target.
Strahd pulled the reins of his nightmare and it ascended to the air, conveniently out of reach of the berserkers below. The druids within the stone circle continued to chant and dance around his wooden statue, showing no signs of stopping despite the chaos around them. Without a care for their survival, the vampire above them hurled a massive fireball into the circle, killing all but the eldest looking druid and at least half of the barbarian warriors.
The party persisted, Bellamy using her saber-toothed form to rush into the fray, Damaia rapidly firing her arrows, Naiyana wielding her divine magic. Poksu noticed something at the south end of the hilltop - a sickly copse, a grove of dead trees and shrubs with a huge, misshapen tree at its core. Blood oozed like sap from its twisted trunk, embedded with a shiny battleaxe. Most concerning were the gangly, needle-covered humanoid creatures skulking around its base: blights.
Poksu pulled out the staff they had recovered from the body of a druid at the vineyard; a spongy, black length of wood. Made from the branch of the Gulthias tree, where the first blights originated from - perhaps the very tree located at this hilltop. He eyed the lurking blights again, gripping the staff more firmly. He had an idea.
The elder druid within the stone circle continued his chant, and his efforts alone were enough to complete the twisted ritual. Suddenly an enormous plant-like creature burst out of the wooden statue, sending twigs and earth flying. It resembled a dead treant, with green light seeping out of its chest. Its nature paralleled the much smaller blights still shuffling amongst the dead trees and shrubs across the hilltop, with its spongy wooden flesh, thorny branches, and rubbery roots trailing behind.
Seeing his chance, Poksu raised the rotten wood staff into the air with a hand on both ends, forcefully bringing them downward so that it snapped in half with a loud crack!
From within the blackened wood came a terrible, inhuman scream, loud enough to be heard all the way to the forests surrounding the hilltop. The blood-soaked, ancient tree monster had only taken a few lumbering steps when it instantly withered at the sound, its roots and branches shriveling and curling inward until it looked as innocuous as an ordinary dead tree. In the same moment the blights gathered across the hilltop, at the Gulthias tree, wilted and perished as well.
Out of the center of the now inanimate tree blight, where a heart on a living creature would be, a large stone tumbled onto the field. It was as large as a pinecone, and glowed with a green light as bright as a torch. This was what they were here for - the vineyard’s stolen magic “seed,” the source of the protection for the vines and their grapes against the land’s darkness. With this, the Barovians were closer to having their wine back, one of the only indulgences left to them that kept them from losing their last shred of hope and succumbing to utter despair.
Seeing his efforts ruined, the elder druid turned and made an attempt to flee. However the remaining berserkers, just two left, were still following Damaia’s deadly order. They swiftly caught and carried out their brutal execution against the ritual leader, leaving Strahd von Zarovich as the only target left alive.
But the vampire was still out of reach, glaring down at the scene below him atop his demon steed. With his usual stiff poise, he dropped a single piece of paper into the center of the blackened, ruined stone circle atop the hill. “You are invited to my castle,” were his only words before turning his mount in the air and riding away, vanishing quickly from sight.
The pressure in Damaia’s head subsided somewhat with his departure, its draw moving to its familiar easterly direction. The dull pain of her arrow wound was also slowly beginning to come back to her awareness. The two barbarian warriors, now without quarry or orders, stood motionless in the spot underneath where Strahd had been, and looked to her once more.
She was still standing by the dismantled cairn where she had unearthed the blood spear, which had been strapped to her back so her hands were free to wield her bow. Her bloodlust was subsiding as well, though she could swear she felt an almost thrum at her back, the spear craving more. More death, more blood. She felt she could deliver that during her time here. She carried a violent thirst of her own, after all.
Turning away from where she had been watching the eastern sky, her attention became absorbed on the lone paper still lying on the ground. She marched up the hill to its peak, picking up the offering and reading its contents. The words were written in gaudy, curling script, and next to the signature was a wax seal imprinted with a large raven in front of the outline of an all-too-familiar castle. It was clear this note had been written prior, carefully prepared for whenever its author was inclined to bestow it to its intended recipients.
My friends,
Know that it is I who have brought you to this land, my home, and know that I alone can release you from it. I bid you dine at my castle so that we can meet in civilized surroundings. Your passage here will be a safe one. I await your arrival.
I cannot overstate how in love I am with this piece! @bwgnagna has an absolutely gorgeous style (go see her other artwork you won't regret it) and I had been dying to see my character in it - did not disappoint even a tiny little bit.
Also a delightful human to work with! Her appreciation for tieflings makes my heart happy, and every compliment of my character legit made me feel fuzzy inside, lol. She had great communication and did not waste any time putting this beautiful piece together for me <3
And if anyone cares about OC/character stuff, this piece just means a lot to me. This is a D&D character I've played off and on for almost 10 years, and she's been through a lot. I like to imagine this is a night of peace she had before everything really got turned upside down (I also used her in my one and only BG3 run, hence the other artwork with Gale on my page!)
Been a fan of @redreart for a while and finally jumped at the chance for one of her recent YCH pieces - I knew I would like it, but I did not expect it to hit me SO hard! There's just something about seeing your character brought to life that is hard to describe.
So I'm giving a huge shoutout to this artist for being such a delight to work with! She took all my crazy details in stride, gave a more than fair price, and quickly came back with such a beautiful finished product. Highly recommend commissioning her if you get the chance.
I took a very long break from commissions and now I am ready to take them again, if you're interested in commissioning me you can go to my commission page for all the info. If you have any questions you can ask me through tumblr dms but actual comm requests should be sent through email.
Definitely recommend a commission from morebird!!!
My commission from them is in this post, so I thought I’d shout out what a wonderful experience it was to work with them. They met a specific - and honestly quite complicated - idea I had with understanding and enthusiasm, and had so much integrity in the process of bringing it to life! They cared so much about every detail and providing the best work possible, and the end result literally took my breath away.
They were the first person I ever commissioned and it was such a positive experience that I felt confident to do it again with other artists.
super late on reblogging this because I don't know how to have an internet presence, but I still wanted to make sure I did in case anyone didn't know about this artist! @mosskiposski is a delightful human, a talented artist, and a trooper for following through with two commissions for me (I literally couldn't pick just one of their sketches they initially sent me, that's how I ended up with two at once)
this was a wonderful experience that I would fully recommend to anyone interested!!
