#dr ward

[myrastuff]

Self-experimentation + self-isolation = a winning combination.

[myrastuff]

I was going through a bit of a style transition while playing Dr. Ward, and I felt like she never got the full-colour portrait she deserved. So, here’s another take at my worst mad scientist and her lightning cane, drawn with hopes for an eventual sequel game.

[myrastuff]

Slowly trying to figure out how to finish personal art again.

[myrastuff]

Finally got to play my first full game with Dr. Ward last weekend. Introducing team Sapphic Victorian Monster Hunters, as played by myself, @wingedashley, @winterwombat, and @link4422.

[myrastuff]

Working on a better picture of the group, though I won’t be able to finish this until after Christmas. From left to right, names and classes and general character descriptions:

Dr. Iona Ward - Mad Scientist An amoral scientist from modest means, she got to where she is through genius, compromise, and the occasional vial of poison. Recently between jobs after quitting her last position when her noble patrons began meddling in her research on the nature of monstrosity, likely because they were the ones causing the monstrosity in question.

Shakti “Trish” Trishul - Diabolist The unfavoured, biracial daughter of an ancient noble family of assassins and demon summoners. She was away in Victoria attending university when the Victorians finished annexing her country, escaping the recent purge that left her family dead and her in possession of the family fortune and the family demon pacts.

Vi - Vampire Former soldier, who’d disguised herself as a man to increase her chances of acceptance within the Victorian army. Her commanding officer turned her into a vampire after testing her mettle against a series of hellish suicide missions, for which she hasn’t forgiven him. Now making her living as a boxer and mercenary.

Luna Jaeger - Werewolf The daughter of a blacksmith, who stepped up to defend her village against a monstrous wolf attack. She succeeded, but the scratch it gave her left her cursed, and the next full moon her village wasn’t so lucky. She’s got control now, but has traveled to the big city to find a cure and maybe do some good along the way.

[myrastuff]

Tired, singed, recently homeless, and careening towards flat broke. Things are going great for Dr. Ward...

[myrastuff]

My art style’s been a mess lately and I’ve ditched two other pictures of Dr. Ward that I’ve hated, but hey this one turned out alright.

[myrastuff]

My tablet’s acting up (probably because the cord is frayed, I’ve ordered a new one) so the art here’s fairly plain, but I needed something to go with this write-up.

Dr. Iona Ward, Mad Scientist:

Born to a family of modest means, Iona attended the Academy of Natural and Unnatural Sciences on full scholarship. After a few years of keeping her head down and being ignored, she switched tactics and wardrobes and earned the mentorship of Professor Morrison, well known for making connections between promising young scientists and wealthy patrons. Prompted by ready access to the worst parts of Victorian society, she made it her life's mission to scientifically study and comprehend the nature of monstrosity, and of evil itself. After graduation, Professor Morrison helped her set up her own laboratory where she could dissect and study monsters. In exchange for funding, she handed research over to her noble patrons, and developed weapons and tools out of the evil she was studying. She was more concerned with knowledge than personal safety, and would use herself as a test subject when it was more convenient than finding someone else. After years of successful partnership, Dr. Ward's patron family began asking her to change her research goals, steering her away from certain topics. When she continued studying those topics anyways, she found her notes began to go missing, her equipment got broken, and other 'accidents' around the lab made any sort of progress impossible. Realizing that her patrons were most likely monstrous themselves, and thus biasing her research, she cut ties with them completely. Now between jobs, Dr. Ward is surviving off savings and the royalties from previous published works. She is continuing her research in her home lab, and at the university when she can borrow space from a colleague. Dr. Ward is in her mid-thirties, hard to miss in a crowd between her eerie red-brown eyes, her impeccably tailored wardrobe, and her towering six foot stature. Her devotion to science and the pursuit of knowledge is both Dr. Ward's greatest vice and the closest thing she has to a redeeming quality. She is relentlessly driven and thoroughly married to her work, seeing no reason to enjoy herself or form meaningful emotional ties beyond the bare minimum required to keep a human sane and functioning at peak efficiency. The world has been cruel to her, and she has become adept at answering it in kind, but she takes no pleasure from violence or torture unless it teaches her something new. The closest thing she has to a hobby is relaxing in the evenings with a good history book and a cup of tea.