#cr bh

[ginalongillustrations]

Yyyaaaalllllllllll I honestly didn't know how these window clings were gonna look, but I really love them? Especially Keyleth and Orym?

I held off on a few because I want to possible redesign them, but like.. they're super neat and I hope people they sell during the holiday season because I am endlessly proud of my VM and BH illustrations.

Like look at all these little guys!

[mobylace]

thesebitchesbewitches.jpeg

Based on Eugene Grasset's "Three Witches and Three Wolves" (1900)

[annamaggs16]

I genuinely do think Bells Hells would’ve been better placed in a Fey style campaign. Some of these PC builds are truly out there and not grained in Exandrian common folk reality which is probably as time went on throughout the campaign Orym became more and more of a realistic PC for me.

Just imagine what could’ve been if we started with Bells Hells all being banished or teleported to the Feywild due to their wacky powers and finding each other there in a completely different plane trying to get back to the material plane and determining what home meant to them.

Imagine if the whole unseelie fey hunting Calloways was the first step into this red moon plot and BH stumbled across the fey key, they gather the resources for Nana Morri to create a portal to send them back, they’ve developed personal stakes and enemies with the Unseelie Court on their ass.

Ashton, post recovery upon finding and returning with FCG gets teleported when they activate the space power and ends up isolated from FCG who has to search for answers.

Imogen has a white out blast in Gelvaan teleporting her and Laudna to the shadowfell not knowing the results of Gelvaan. They then have no choice but to rely on Delilah’s guidance. You can bring in Weva and Sheshadri here for early planting of the shadow key, and Laudna’s pursuit of life. Meanwhile Imogen has dreams of other Ruidusborn and can dream-talk with Fearne.

Chetney is looking for Gurge and FCG is looking for Ashton so they can team up and help each other.

Exu trio Orym, Dorian, and Fearne can still go to Marquet and meet FCG and Chetney, who are looking for missing people. Orym still has the Lumas Twins thread. Fearne is looking for answers as to who Imogen is and how to help her and Laudna and if it’s related to Orym’s stuff.

The Ira plot in the basement can go as it did but without Imogen, Laudna, and Ashton and when Ira goes to teleport away, the teleport spell gets fucked up by that little machine of his so BH get sucked in with him to the feywild and have no choice but to work together.

They find Ashton in the feywild and stalk around Ira for a little until Imogen and Fearne can dream-talk to meet up at Nana Morri’s. Imogen taps into that little bit of Fey side she has with Delilah’s teachings and makes a momentary teleportation connection to Fearne for her and Laudna as an Exultant, with Nana Morri’s help being an Arch Fey.

BH are finally all together, sitting down talking about their different stories as to all the weird shit going down while Ira and Nana Morri can have a dating show going on in the background.

This is when the Weave Lens and telescope comes up. Fearne’s parents are involved much earlier. Ruidusborn details are dropped. Nana Morri has to rest up after her recent expense of power. Ira basically hires the Hells to play distraction so he can get some parts from the nearest telescope from the one the Unseelie confiscated from him and it’s their first mission together as a party still weary about Ira’s intentions and navigating Unseelie territory. Ira then straight up ditches them back to the material plane to work on his telescope and having stolen the Weave Lens there’s now personal reasons to get back at him as he has basically framed Bells Hells.

Yu now has a lot more importance and significance to the story & driving wedges between the group.

BH have to bond and trust each other to get back to their definition of home/duties and save themselves from the relentless hunt of the Unseelie no thanks to Ira.

They get back to the material plane and the sky is fucking red. Would you not have some curiosity to know if you’re on the right plane and what the fuck happened? Would it be insane to find out the Unseelie hunting your friend and her family and thus all of you by extension are part of a bigger plan and your mom who has been missing your entire life shows up, your leader has been gravely wounded while you were missing, there’s the same vials being transported all over the place as the one in your head with your powers, the werewolves are fucked up by the red moon’s pull, the necromancer inside your head makes a play for power with divine magic being weakened upon coming face to face with Keyleth, your brother fucking dies and you have to go home to find out why, not sure if you’ll return??? This would be crazy all back to back with high emotions.

If the characters are going to be wacky out of this world type builds than the campaign beginning should reflect that instantly to display to the audience just how little control of their lives Bells Hells have and how they continuously get fucked over by powers greater than them, even including allies, parents, community and political figures.

This gives BH the time and reason to hit the Shadow Key with them having already done the Fey one unknowingly. This allows them a political in through Delilah attacking Keyleth leading them to VM and an arc for Laudna to determine her own agency/freeing herself from Delilah, introduces the Hishari more in-depth for Ashton. Imogen has to confront what happened in Gelvaan by talking with her father to know more about her mother, who has now begun telling Imogen to run because of hearing her description from the Unseelie faction. There’s a nice foil here for Birdie offering help & info versus Liliana continuing to run away and not giving Imogen much to go on. Chetney being affected by the red moon’s pull can still lead them to his arc that happened originally, if anything to be added it’s the original werewolf pack that wanted to leash/control him if he couldn’t get himself together by their standards.

If there’s anything to stress in the beginning it would be how “on the outs” Bells Hells is from the very beginning. Not only societal, but also information. The fact that all of them have been abandoned, or created for a purpose/intended to be weaponized, emphasize the forces of play trying to control Bells Hells and determine their fate. Drive home their resiliency and refusal to change for others’ plans (now framed as positive character traits), instead of it being so stagnant, hesitant, and circular convos.

What better gods than the Matron of Ravens, Wildmother, and Change Bringer to be the first gods Bells Hells start interacting with. It’s all about agency, fate versus free will, and power dynamics. By now, all the characters will have undergone several Mortal-level abuses of systemic power during the campaign to have conversations with the Gods to fully explore what fate and free choice is, the beauty of nature harvested and used for beneficial enrichment versus overgrowth, consumption, chaos and disaster left unchecked to reign on its own. And all these being a reflection of Ruidusborn on Ruidus with what’s being stripped away from them by outside systemic forces of power determining their worth. You now have the political road, the power road, the community road, and the religious road all throughly established to hit home for PC choices when interacting with Red Moon Plot and breaking the cycle of a system rooted in 1,000 years of elitism and perfectionism of human-guise that is inherently corrupt with power and greed for control over others which only benefits and works for 5% of the populace while everyone struggles or is left on their own. And the gods being confronted that their own absence, while may have have been good-intention for the best of humanity back then, the longer they’re apart, the farther the rift grows and thus returning to live amongst mortals would be presented as an opportunity to learn and love each other again instead of being presented as a threatening shotgun to the head in the 11th hour.

There was a way to do this campaign without Bells Hells becoming the forces they opposed, and them not having to have villain-esq style conclusion where they could’ve continued the CR motto of “its love that makes people not pain” as others have previously mentioned before. There’s a lot of humanity and humility that gets presented it this version even for the gods and mortal villains who BH and the audience could relate to despite the PCs and Plot being so cosmically high states insane levels of world altering conception from the start. The themes running through the story are grounded and based on defining/finding a home as an adult who feels little control over their life with everyone around you (including the government) telling you how to live your life and breaking that ownership over citizens creating a new system based on individual choice rather than mass survival of the fittest/best to adapt which is something everyone can likely relate to right now in the world.

[paintbrushinacoffeecup]

"It's not goodbye. See you later, that's all."

"It's... complicated"

[indigowallbreaker]

Me @ Matt for the whole second half of episode 34:

[indigowallbreaker]

The chat loving Pretty I'm in full agreement 😭 Shout out to the person who said "If anything happens to Pretty I'm gonna eat my house" ME TOOOO

[indigowallbreaker]

Not to be dramatic but I would die for this ogre

[indigowallbreaker]

Never has a physical whisper felt so good.