I've recently gotten into visual novels - specifically ones that I saw a YouTuber that I just found playing. The most recent obsession is basically yandere shenanigans... probably not too surprising considering what I've been relogging on tumblr.
Criminally Yours and Binary Star Hero are ones that really got me started, and I keep circling those worlds... I recently asked on the Criminally Yours discord a long complicated question about what species and classes/subclasses the trio would want to play if they were still in college. I have this weird college AU set in my head, playing out, and Wes said he liked D&D and it's kinda been a hyper fixation for the last 4 or so years -..-
The only thing I want to understand more about Binary Star Hero.... would be like... a superhero style database where the heroes and their powers are listed, as well as what the aliens are and their capabilities and how to kill them works.
But like... it's weird but... this might be a thing that's getting me into writing again. Just fan fiction, and just for myself right now. But... I've separated myself from writing so much... I just lost all hope and drive and direction for it... and this is getting me writing again? The world is... people are weird.
I thought, I'm really not doing much with this tumblr. So why not post some of the D&D stuff that happened tonight.
I run D&D sessions at the game store where I work. I used to do this about 4 times a week, but now I only have to run D&D 3 times a week :3 at most.
Tonight, I had most of my regulars at the table. We try to do nightly one-shots, but there can be background campaign stuffs happening or stuff that lets the players have a sense of imprint or time and place. My usuals are my boyfriend who plays a female High Elf Monk/Wizard named Thia, a white male dragonborn cleric named Blue, a female gnome ranger/monk named Jinxie, a half elf male sorcerer named Dubstin, a male human paladin named Thurston, a female halfling monk named Dell, and a male dwarf fighter named Mystic. Blue wasn't here tonight, but we had Django, the male human rogue in his place.
The family (Thurston, Jinxie, and Dubston, who are a dad, mom, and son respectively) had been absent for about 3 weeks, and they're going to be missing for a little while after tonight. So, I wanted something...different for tonight.
I told the crew that they're often going off to do a lot of things that felt a little like monster of the week-ish. So, I was going to kick off the night by letting them have a "bottle episode" of sorts, where they can stay home and work on skills and forming bonds with NPCs or their animal companions, or maybe letting them improve their skills and such.
So every sets about what their characters want to do in their down time. They go through it bit by bit. I get through about half of the players' requests and I have one of their local NPC friends knock on the door. It's Giles form Giles Mercantile. He's knocking on the door to remind them that he's down the road and if they need anything, he's here. It's not like there's anyone in town, so his stock is not exactly being used. So...he's in a state of limbo (Oh, yeah, the town they live nearby is mostly burnt down, except for the mercantile--another story).
He leaves, and I go through the rest of the group. When I feel like the entire party has been seen to, I describe a sound that's like a thundercrack in their backyard. A brilliant flash of light flashing after the sound. Everyone rushes to the back yard. There's a hill in the distance, and upon that hill sits a large glowing tree. At least, that's usually what's up there. The tree has been chopped down. A single slice right through it. (Oh yeah...there's a tree in the back yard that's a portal to the feywild. It was a gift from a fey lord...it's regular). The group ascertain that the slice is clean, but it left behind singe marks. It almost looks like lightning burns if it weren't so cleanly cut. They also find tracks leading away from the tree....but the tracks are strange. They're misshapen and whatever this creature is, it doesn't carry its weight on its heel.
They make it through the back of the property, they find a woman in complete cover. She's wearing a mask that only leaves her eyes exposed and a heavy cowl. Every part of her is covered, except for her eyes, and there's a staff on her back. They fight her, though some try to talk to her. Thia, being a dhampir, uses her bite attack and she notices something strange about this one's blood. It's similar to someone else in the way her body reacts to it, but it's also different. She asks which deity the woman serves, and the woman says, "Herassi." But she doesn't seem eager to tell them more. Django casts burning hands on her, and she wails in pain as her whole body is consumed and all that's left behind is sand.
Jinxie is quite traumatized by this. The woman didn't get the chance to fight back (she rolled a super low initiative, and she was vulnerable to magical attacks). She takes the majority of the sand and takes it back to her forge where she manages to make glass out of the sand. She tries her hardest, and manages to make a type of urn out of the sand-glass. Meanwhile, the dwarf inspects it by licking it. He doesn't learn much, but he can taste heavy concentrations of salt and iron in the sand.
Jinxie wishes that they could get more answers about this. Thia casts Speak with the Dead on the urn which serves as the woman's remains. They have three questions. Did you chop down the tree? and What or who is Herassi? are the first two. To the first, she says "Yes." confirming that she chopped down the tree. To the second she responds, "Light of the Path.". The final question was, Why did you chop down our tree? and she responded, "To close the portal." Dubsten debates on whether or not he wants to pee in Jinxie's urn.
That's the majority of the day. Everyone takes a long rest, and Jinxie wakes up needing to connect to her gods. Jinxie has several gods, and she's set up a sort of 'Mind Palace' place which looks like a smaller version of a stone henge style garden. The gods try to reassure her that she was not responsible. She goes into town to speak to the Widow Taffy. Taffy consoles her and gives her a sap to spread on the tree. She says, it might not be in their lifetime, but the sap will encourage regrowth in the tree. Jinxie goes back home with the sap, heading straight to the tree.... and the tree is whole.
Meanwhile, Mystic tried to track out to the area where the woman was last seen. He wants to see if there are tracks on the other side of the fence. He eventually noticed that there were not tracks whatsoever. As though no one had been here at all.
And Jinxie is elated. She rushes back to tell everyone about the tree. The others assume that her gods did something to restore the tree. She shrugs and assumes that that's probably what happened. Mystic rejoins the group, and after messing with him for a minute, he finally tells the group about the missing tracks. Django, having made contact with the goddess of death, asks his goddess who the person he killed yesterday was. She said, "You didn't kill anyone yesterday." He thinks about that for a moment and announces to the group, "Oh! She wasn't a person!" they all nod. That must be it.
They're a little more vigilant now, and that's when Thia spots someone moving at the back of the property. She gets her house manager, Madalyn, to wing-shot him. The party rushes out to find a man doffing an invisibility cloak (which gets stolen and re-stolen and then returned). This is a man named Alan. He moves through the wilderness between the dwarven kingdoms of Razindu and H'rok Undor. He gets claustrophobic in their deep roads, and he uses the invisibility cloak to keep predators off him. Some well-rolled insight checks tell the party that he's being truthful. He didn't know anyone had taken the property again, so his is a crime of ignorance. They heal him and see him back to their home. They work out a deal, securing some goods and merchants from the dwarven kingdoms.
Then there's a knock at the door.
It's Giles form Giles Mercantile. He's knocking on the door to remind them that he's down the road and if they need anything, he's here.
...
"Geeze, Giles. What's the deal? Why are you repeating yourself?" Thurston complained. "You did the same thing yesterday."
Giles turns to look at him, perplexed before saying, "What are you talking about? This is the first time I've come to visit you guys."
That's when everyone realizes.... that something's...not...right. They ask him a few questions, and he leaves feeling confused.
And then I describe a sound that's like a thundercrack in their backyard. A brilliant flash of light flashing after the sound. They all rush out back, but not to the tree. They rush to the spot they know the woman will be at. They actually talk to her, one of them successfully casting charm person on her. She tells him that she will continue to chop the tree until none of her slivers are left. With nothing else left, they attack and kill her (again), and she dissolves into sand. Jinxie makes another vase.
They know that they're in some sort of time loop, and they aren't certain if they've escaped it.
The next day, they wake up and the tree is whole. Thia goes to find more of her capable NPC friends, recruiting them for the battle. She joins the rest of the party as they camp out by the tree. Madalyn, also having noticed what's going on, brings the group food and water while they wait. In the afternoon, they hear a bzzzztht! followed by an 'OOOW!', and Madalyn rushes by, only to rush back, dragging a slightly wounded Alan in tow.
The the woman appears. She pulls out her staff, and an arc of lightning buzzes out from the end of it, turning it into a wicked looking scythe. They all take turns attacking her, realizing that magical attacks are hurting her more. Still, hitting her feels like punching a sandbag. She's splitting herself into more pieces, and this division is taking its toll. Finally she falls, and Thia picks up her staff. There's a strange charm on it, more visible now that the light-arc of the lightning blade is gone. It's a bronze doe with a single diamond in its forehead.
They find out that the bronze doe is a symbol for the goddess Tzafanya. The goddess of History, Time, and Memory....
....and that's the story of how my players spent the entire night at home living through their own version of groundhog day :D
So, it turns out one of my friends hasn't finished playing The Forest... So, we decided we could try and play together. I even have a server set up and everything :3 Here's the intro episode.
Greenlilly ~ tonight, the party’s investigations led them to Mary Greenlilly… The old lady herbalist, who was more than what she seemed. They did manage to take her out before her sisters could converge on them…. what awaits them next week…? We shall see :3 (at Greater Memphis Magic Arena)
Further Update: ok, so… Not only did my character die last night.. but the custom made Hero Forge mini dropped right out of my hand, and she cracked off just above her boots. Luckily, it was a clean break, and it wasn’t something small or super delicate. She can be restored. I really need to invest in some sort of padded carrying case. Minis are delicate, kids, be careful with them. (at Cordova, Tennessee)
So…We’re probably gonna die. We came upon some pirates in the jungle, and decided to take the initiative (giggidy)… even though we were down one party member…I’m sure it’ll be fine!
UPDATE: only my character died… the rest of the group made it and got some sweet loot. I’m excited to roll out my next character. (at Greater Memphis Magic Arena)
Sooo, this is my new girl :) I may have made her after a long car ride which gave me the opportunity to reconnect with my favorite podcast, Welcome to Night Vale. It occurred to me that her backstory was...wordy. So I decided to put it behind a cut :) Enjoy.
Cc may have been a normal bard... as normal as bards get at least. Her parents were traveling performers, her big brother a sword juggler and occasional guard for their troop... She would've learned that trade if all had proceeded normally. When she was 8 (nearly 9), she went exploring in the woods near Grastenwald. There she found a strange trinket.
It was solid silver, though she didn't know that at the time. It looked like a deer head, but a cloth had been placed over it, except the antlers. The antlers were the most visible, as the cloth functioned as a veil over the deer. She thought it was interesting... and kind of pretty. What she didn't know, and what no one could've known, was that it was the holy symbol of a long-dead god.
The god Huntokar had not been worshiped in centuries. What little vestiges of her remained in the ethereal plane, branching out to leech energy off of her existences in alternate realities. But the gentle touch of a small girl, stirred some of this deity’s consciousness.
This contact forever altered both of them, Huntokar could never offer Cecilia the boons she once offered her following, and Cecilia would never be able to contribute to Huntokar’s existence as a lone (child) worshiper. In spite of this, the two of them were very fond of each other. Cecilia was not part of her family’s act yet, so there were plenty of times when she was on the sidelines…but Huntokar was always there for her.
It wasn’t long before her family noticed something was off. Their daughter, who had previously been always underfoot, was now constantly isolating herself and also talking to… people? They had thought, ‘oh she has an imaginary friend’, but then… it seemed there was more than one person ..and those people knew things. Things a small girl couldn’t possibly know. This was mostly because Huntokar had absorbed knowledge and experience from her followers… their ties to her existing like lingering ghosts. But when they asked, she only said, “oh it’s Huntokar.”
Hunktokar, Huntokar, Huntokar. Her father grew sick of hearing this name. He attempted to throw the symbol of Huntokar into a fire when he found it… While the symbol had lost its shape and the veil had burned away, it found its way back to Cecilia. No matter how many times her parents attempted to destroy or pawn that lump of silver away, it always found its way back to Cecilia’s person.. in a pocket or under her pillow, even woven into her hair once.
Numerous attempts to separate their daughter from this strange, otherworldly influence resulted only in the knowledge that she would never be separated from Huntokar. Not without suffering damage to her own person… And then, the other appeared.
When Cecilia was 14, a new presence made itself known. Both of her parents were human, so neither of them understood what was happening when celestial energy actually began to affect her. They had also been so far removed from Fiona the Red Lion to know. Fiona had been a paladin of Oghma, and gained a boon from one of his servants. This boon worked in her favor, but the latent energy from it lay dormant in her bloodline until Cecilia was born.
Mykiel had hoped to approach Cecilia when she was of age… this is why he waited until she as 14 to introduce himself. Unfortunately, he was not the only voice in her head at that point, and Huntokar was definatelyl more trusted than he was. He always tries to dote on Cecilia, to remind her to be a decent person… but even when his voice turns doting or gentle, he isn’t entirely trusted.
So. At the bare minimum, their daughter had two very significant voices inside her head that were not her. They decided to incorporate it into her life. They taught her how to read tarot cards, and Huntokar helped her with how to read people. Occasionally Mykiel would even contribute, but only if he thought it would help the person she was “reading”. She was now, part of the act…even if the trials of her parent’s concern had tainted their relationships.
Eventually, her brother took the job of town guard in Freeport, choosing to set down roots. The distance between her family and herself only seemed to increase… But Mykiel and Huntokar were always there for her.
She leaned into that, taking comfort from the only ones who were always there for her… And as she set off on her own, she was excited to set her own pace and discover new things… Maybe things about Huntokar, but also things about herself.
I'm gonna be doin little scribbles in my sketchbook and on my computer and whatever.
If u want a shitty little scribble (I'm talkin like, Way little scribble, we goin Full Garbage Baby Mode) yeet a ref at me in the reblogs or smth so I can keep track of it.
(I mean like, Really Really Little Scribbles, like This, baby scribbles)
My brain refuses to focus on doing like, Real Quality Work so we're going for one of my scribble styles. (Also hi yis that 2nd pic is andonias bc his design activates my gremlin need to draw Flowy and Gold it's awesome his design is the Best. He belongs to @ajoloart who is a PEACH)
y’all…I know I’m late…but…Sunset Overdrive is a game that knows exactly how ludicrus it is x3 I present Her and Him, the two characters I made. They don’t have names, because what the hell? the game doesn’t care about character backstory (at least as far as I can see in the first hour of playthrough), so I’m not even giving them names. They’re just two version of outrageous.
