Wanted to gift our group(s) something for the holidays, so drew up and printed both party characters for each person + 2 of the DM's fav NPCs, as stickers.
Small exception for one of the players, who is part of just one group, so Rasthun gets a double-feature, as the regular outfit and "party mode" bard-barian. And because another's a player in one and a DM in another did both of their Somniatores guys (cause one died, so he had 2).
Kerren and Dara didn't get printed, since they didn't fit the original sheet, but I finished them up anyway as lil keepsakes~
You don’t often get a DM who will go FULL Ocean’s 11/12/13/8 on you - soundtrack, and scene cuts, and everything (<3) - but when you do, by gods do you need to immortalize this with a spoof poster.
Mainly influenced by the Ocean’s 8 one, but with some mixing here and there~
(feat. humanish!Dara, via some Disguise Self facepaint shenanigans. Also we’ve adopted an unhatched black dragon egg, and its irresponsible to leave a kid alone at that age, so obviously it had to come along).
"Now remember when I told you that's the last you'll see of me
Remember when I broke you down to tears
I know I took the path that you would never want for me
I gave you hell through all the years"
– I Bet My Life, Imagine Dragons
Four Years Ago, Ardenweald
The Veil that stood between Life and Death was still tenuous, then. No longer torn asunder but gossamer-thin in its renewal. Growing stronger. Healing. Soon enough, they said, few would be able to travel between the mortal realms and the Shadowlands.
Kyuusei didn’t care much about what they had to say.
The Dream remained as close to Ardenweald as a lover. And if she went to the cool depths of Tel’andu and slumbered, Kyuusei could walk those forests again in her waking dreams. See the twilight sky littered with stars strange to her, stretching above the canopy. Feel cool grasses beneath her feet.
Could walk with her again. With Delyra.
Sometimes, her love was a fox, lambent and shimmering in her soul’s shape. But on rare occasions, she walked in the form that Kyuu remembered. Slender like the willow, hair laden with midnight. Secrets in her smile. A form outlined in stars.
They talked of nothing most times. After the tears, and the confessions, and the forgiveness. The mending of what had been broken by fire, all those years ago.
But in this dream, Delyra was quiet. She walked silently on two legs next to Kyuusei, their hands entwined, Delyra’s feet leaving no trace in the soft grasses.
“We can’t do this much longer,” she finally said.
Kyuusei looked across. “I know what they said, but we’ll find a way. I’ll go deeper into the Dream. I can make it w-”
Delyra put a finger against Kyuu’s lips, the touch a spark against her skin.
“Shhh. Listen to me, Sei-sei. The Winter Queen’s preparing a gift for Tyrande, for all the kaldorei. A seed made from Elune’s tear. And she’s made an offer to all the souls that suffered. To be part of it, part of something that’ll grow and bring hope to the places it was lost.”
“But… that’s not where you died,” the one still living protested. “I - you died before all that, in the Firelands.”
“You think I didn’t suffer?” Delyra suppressed a quiet laugh. “Sei-sei, I was so angry. Angry at the Horde’s incursions, angry that Tyrande and Malfurion didn’t seem to be doing anything, angry at all of it, so much that I let myself fall under Fandral’s spell. Under his madness. But even in that madness, you were the one I sought out when they came to the Firelands. Beneath all of it, I knew what the Flame had made me. In the end, I realized how wrong I was.”
She looked upwards, midnight hair falling back as Delyra regarded the lights beyond Ardenweald’s canopy.
“When I woke up here, I suffered. Not just because of what I did but because I knew how much you’d suffer. How much you’d blame yourself, hate yourself.” Delyra's soul looked down again, her eyes finding Kyuusei. “And you, you silly thing, you wallowed in it for the longest time.”
Abashed, Kyuusei looked to the grasses at her feet. “I suppose I did.”
“You suppose? If you didn’t have a little bit of Ashamane watching over you, if you hadn’t had me watching over you, you probably would’ve ended up here yourself. And it’s Not. Your. Time.” Del smirked, drawing a finger beneath Kyuu’s chin. “Not yet. I have it on excellent authority.”
Kyuu grasped her lover's star-limned hand, a lopsided grin stealing across her face. “Are you keeping secrets from me, Del?””
“Spoilers, sweetie,” she drawled. “Let the dead keep their secrets. But listen to me. I want, I need you to promise me something.
“Dora dor. Just tell me what.”
“Always leaping in before you know where you’re landing." A soft smile eased Delyra's words. "I’m going to be part of this gift, this hope. And when the time comes, I want to know you’ll be there to guard and protect it. That you’ll watch over it, watch over me, like I’ve been watching you.” She drew in Kyuu’s hand, brushed her lips across sharp-tipped fingers. “Will you promise me that?”
“Of course I will, Del. After everything? Of course. But how will I know? It’s not like I’m someone Tyrande Whisperwind speaks to. I doubt she even knows who I am.”
“You’ll know. Ardenweald’s so close to the Dream they almost touch; they’re part of the same cycle. You know this. Trust me.” She held Kyuu’s hand between both of her own, encasing it in faded stars. “You’ll know. Now promise me, promise you'll watch.”
Kyuusei brought up her other hand, clasping Delyra’s fervently. “I promise to you. Whatever it is, I’ll watch it. I’ll protect it. I’ll protect you.”
“Thank you.”
Delyra’s soul stood still for a moment, then tugged at Kyuu’s hand as she began to walk again beneath the forest’s canopy.
“Now… tell me more about this other druid. What’s her name, Alania? And a druid of the branch, too.” Delyra suppressed a grin, her eyes dancing. “Isn’t she a little young for you?
“She’s a hundred and twelve!” It wasn’t clear if Kyuu’s outrage was genuine or feigned.
“Robbing the creche!” Del’s laughter echoed among the trees, sending shimmermoths fluttering from their perches. “You’ll be a millennia before she’s two hundred. Really, Sei-sei, you and some fresh-faced fledgling who doesn’t even have her tattoos…”
“Hey! You know she does! Lani earned them at…”
A squeeze of Delyra’s hand silenced Kyuu’s protests. “So long as she makes you happy, Sei-sei.” Her tone was softer, reassuring. “That’s all I want, is for you to be happy.””
“I will be,” Kyuu murmured, though doubt belied her words.
As the party’s getting to know one another more we’re discovering a whole slew of fun new tid-bits about each character, including our librarian having a worryingly good talent at skinning freshly-killed bears, apparently x3
Tucked away in the high branches, the two young kaldorei’s giggling conversation fell to silence at the strident voice from the ground below. Delyra covered her mouth with her hands, eyes wide in mirthful mock-alarm, while Kyuusei’s expression immediately fell. Her mother’s tone was unmistakable.
“Kyuusei! Come down here at once!”
“Min’daaaa, we’re fine up here.”
“You are perched in the branches of an Ancient!”
“He doesn’t mind,” Kyuu protested, patting a branch, “do you?” The Ancient of Lore’s boughs shifted gently, a low, creaking rumble the only response.
“It is disrespectful, child. Come down here immediately.”
The edge in her mother’s tone had grown sharp; Kyuusei was fully aware that either lengthy prayers to Elune’s grace or exhausting training under a watchful, unforgiving eye were to follow. Likely both. Her grimace at her fate, fortunately, was hidden from below by the Ancient’s branches. Hidden to her mother, but not to the other girl sharing their perch.
Delyra leaned forward, her eyes dancing as she placed a quick kiss on Kyuusei’s cheek. “It’s okay Sei-sei, I’ll see you in Nighthaven. You better go.”
Hands gripped Kyuusei’s shoulders, too strong for her to resist, and she was pushed face-down to the stone slab with her arms pulled cruelly behind her.
“I came to join you!” The kaldorei’s voice rang out even as the stone pressed against her face - hot enough to redden her skin. “I offered myself!”
“You offered nothing.” More than the harsh sound of his voice, she felt the blaze of his nearness - the slab beneath her cool by comparison. “You hoped to find her, to quench her Flame rather than embrace your own. There is no place for you here.”
“She doesn’t belong with you!”
An abrupt movement behind her, caught only in the edge of her sight, as claws shredded the leather tunic from her back and left bloody runnels in her skin.
“It’s you who do not belong, who are not devoted to his service,” the voice said, the scent of sulfur and soot overwhelming as he leaned close. “The Flame casts you out. But first you will be marked. You will remember, druid.”
Kyuusei felt his fingers press high into her back, hotter than any brand, the stench of her skin burning at his touch. The hot tang of blood on her tongue as she bit through her lip, trying desperately to defy him in her silence.
It wasn’t until he turned his hand, pulling at her melting flesh, that she finally screamed.
