#aqua's rambles

[aquadestinyswriting]

Hi! Here's some questions from that character ask game I reblogged :D

When creating characters, do you start with role, appearance, or personality?

Do you have any fictional crushes on any of your original characters?

Who is your smartest character?

Hi alinaaaaaa, thanks for the asks.

When creating characters, do you start with role, appearance, or personality?

I usually go for personality first. I always have an idea of how a character will act before having any idea of what they look like or what they do. Selene, being the first ttrpg character I ever created for a campaign, is the only one where I started with appearance first.

Do you have any fictional crushes on any of your original characters?

I could lie and say no buuuuut... Yeah. I totally have a fictional crush on Meredith (beards are attractive to me, what can I say?) I also have a little fictional crush on another rpg character I made for a Star Wars campaign called A'ashe. She was a Twi'lek pilot/mechanic and was buff enough to trigger the 'oh no' thoughts at one point.

Who is your smartest character?

That would be Selene by a huge country mile. As a wizard who has studied magic since she was quite young, she's got a lot of knowledge stashed away in that head of hers. But like every character that is intellectually intelligent, she is extremely lacking in the social skills and emotional intelligence department. She is also the most obviously neurodivergent character of my roster so far.

[aquadestinyswriting]

Ok, so the story I am writing about Meredith and her imprisonment in the dungeons of the Cathedral of Kherillim has become a multi-chapter affair instead of just a one shot like all the other stories I've written for Fangthane's Folly. I'm actually quite excited about this. No idea how many chapters it's going to be right now, but I don't *think* it will be enough to warrant a whole separate wip post for it (watch it turn into 10 chapters now I've said that 🤣).

I'm going to try the whole 'write the whole thing out first then post the chapters piecemeal' approach, so I'll be keeping everyone posted on the progress of it as I go.

[aquadestinyswriting]

You know, it is a unique challenge for your traditonal adventuring types when the Bad Guy (tm) is Lawful to the point where they can quote the local law to you and can use the wording to completely screw you over.

I think those of us at the table forgot that Grimbeard, being a Church Inquisitor by profession, had to know the intricacies of Church of Moradin doctrine, Fangthane local law and Toreguarde local law: Fangthane law because dwarf who spent most of his life there, and Toreguarde law because that's where he ended up later in life.

It's been fun to remember that little detail and make use of it in this latest story. Needless to say my husband is extremely proud of me, and is cackling with utter glee whenever I tell him the latest way Grimbeard's screwing Merri over.

[aquadestinyswriting]

I've been spending time re-reading Fangthane's Folly and have decided that Meredith needs more of my 'loving' attention.

Given that the Church of Moradin in Fangthane was being infiltrated by the forces of the void through both Grimbeard and Firetome's efforts, I thought it was about time I had a think about how that would affect those clerics and paladins that are more sensitive to such things.

I have got a worldbuilding post in the works, but first, I think writing up a follow up to 'Fire Hollowed Soul' is in order.

[aquadestinyswriting]

I have been percolating ideas for a couple of the prompts for the writemas event that dropped this morning. However, in order to actually start writing something for it, I am trying to remember when Selene would have actually fallen over into unconsciousness with Edwin also badly injured during their campaign...

@druidx, can you think of any fights where that would have been the case? I need to torment Edwin with the Horrors via a nightmare or flashback 😭.

also tagging in @lexiklecksi and @asher-writes for funsies

[aquadestinyswriting]

Random Character Thoughts

tagging: @druidx and @asher-writes because you two will definitely get a kick out of this ramble and a bit.

On the note of Chrackle being the Best Character, apparently, I've been listening to the playlists again and have come to the conclusion that Chrackle is That "Pet" when it comes to Selene.

You know the one. The pet that seemingly hates everyone that comes onto their master or mistress until The One shows up that they either tolerate or absolutely adore themselves, and that just leaves everyone who knows said pet utterly confused and befuddled.

Chrackle, being a mostly wild bird, doesn't understand the nuances of human attraction. All he knows is that Selene does not care for this romance malarky, and does not like it when other people fail to understand this. So he's probably been pretty hostile to anyone that's tried to court Selene during her tenure as Grand Magus, if only because he's getting bombarded by Selene's feelings of 'ew, wtf?!' through their empathic connection and the suitor in question is totally ignoring those vibes.

Now imagine everyone's, bar Dwena's, surprise when Edwin shows up, is extremely obviously in love with Selene and basically not hiding that attraction and Chrackle does nothing about it. Ok, so Edwin, being the utter cinnamon roll gentleman that he is, doesn't make any moves on Selene at all, which is already a big plus. However, I think there were probably other men and women who, likewise, made no moves but were not subtle about their attraction who, nevertheless, were chased away from Selene's vicinity by Chrackle anyway. If Chrackle didn't like the idea of Selene getting into a relationship at all, Edwin being a close friend of them both would not stop him from being protective, though he might be a little more subtle about it than with everyone else due to said friendship.

I dunno, I just like the idea of half the wizard's tower noticing that Edwin isn't being divebombed every other visit and clocking that the bird actually Approves of this one.

[aquadestinyswriting]

Well, today's writing stint is going to get interesting. I've decided to try carrying on with the 'Selene argues with Schreiber about the whole being dicks to dwarves thing' and my brain has decided that my dear Sel needs to get herself directly involved in the situation.

I mean, I'm not complaining, I love throwing Selene into Situations. However, it does mean that at least a part of the Gardens of Galana miiiiight be getting a little bit vandalised and maybe a teeny bit burnt or exploded, I haven't decided which yet. Sorry @druidx 😅.

On the plus side, this means I get a chance to show off what a badass Selene can be when her buttons are pushed hard enough. While I can't let her go absolutely feral (otherwise the entire city would get exploded), I think showing off even just a smidge of what she's capable of is going to be a tonne of fun for everyone.

[aquadestinyswriting]

happy storyteller saturday! are there any inside jokes in your stories? how about little easter eggs?

Hi, happy Storyteller Saturday and thank you very much for the question.

The most obvious one that comes to mind is the constant reference to renaming Toreguarde to 'Target'. This is mostly because Old Toreguarde was destroyed a total of 3 times before the Demon War finished it off for good. And even when it wasn't being destroyed it was constantly being attacked or having other bad stuff happen to it. It was discovered at the end of the first campaign that it was because there was a huge leyline nexus lying underneath the damn town that drew Evil toward it (when it wasn't being accidentally blown up by the Party 😛). The joke first came about when our Dwarven Fighter, Ivan, noted how many times the place had been attacked while he was a member of the Party and it stuck with the now-remaining characters because that is exactly the sort of dry humour they love.

There is one other prevalent inside joke that I should probably reference more often. The setting I write for is High Fantasy, so Evil is absolutely a thing. Whenever something bad happens, even in the 'current day' someone will always mention the "filthy rotten cultists". This is mainly because 99% of the time the Evil stuff that happens is because of cultists dedicated to the Evil Gods or Lords of the Void. It honestly doesn't matter how small said Evil Acts are, it is guaranteed that there is some sort of cult behind it who are usually planning some sort of larger Evil Act that will probably destroy the world.

There is one more inside joke that's a little more niche to the Destiny's New Servants group "*Name* is not the messiah, they are a very naughty *gender*!" usually followed with "That means they are the messiah!!" by a very over-excitable NPC. Yes, a Monty Python joke is canon to a D&D campaign setting. This one got its start early on in the Destiny's New Servants Campaign, when one of the player characters, Alphonse, picked up a cursed sword that convinced everyone around him that he was some sort of deific figure. This was then carried on when Felix misunderstood the "Vassal of Kurtulmack" thing that happened to Elowyn following her resurrection by an old kobold priest after she was nommed on by a giant Dire Weasel. Unfortunately, despite all of Elowyn and Meredith's best efforts to disabuse Felix of the notion that Elowyn was some sort of Chosen Champion of the Gods, he kept it up to the point that pretty much everyone in Toreguarde believes it to some extent. This has not been helped by Snotgrut polymorphing Elowyn into a godsdamned angel at some point during the run-up to Ragnarok.

This was a lot of fun, thanks again for the question!