Jan 31, 2023
I have perished
seen from Germany
seen from Russia
seen from Taiwan
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Japan
seen from Canada
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Russia
seen from Netherlands
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United Kingdom
seen from France
I have perished
psst. tiny pixel housewardens.
do whatever you want with these just dont say you made em cause i hyperfocused on this for seven hours
happy bday, lion
Keeping true to my word 😔 (He's not shirtless, but I decided to bake for funsies anyway...)
Made a tres leches (three milks) cake in honor of L*ona’s milkers/j 🫶 I guess this counts as his a birthday cake??
I also made a matcha crepe cake the color of L*ona's eyes, albeit this one was just for fun and to see if I could get the crepes right (which I thankfully did!!). They're a little crispy around the edges, but other than that, perfectly fine!
... AND I made a black tea pie; it's a homemade graham cracker crust like the sand L*ona makes filled with black tea-flavored pastry cream which is kinda L*ona colored. This one was just to get rid of some leftover graham crackers and milk that were not going to get consumed otherwise.
I took these to a weekend event ^^ I even made little placards with a list of ingredients (so attendees can avoid their allergens and keep to their dietary restrictions). To be cheeky, I freehanded the Clover family bakery logo on the backs of the placards~
Also this conversation happened
Once Skully J. Graves comes to EN servers and I get to play that event it’s all over. All over for my wallet. All over for my sanity. All over for any Night Raven patriotism in my body.
He will be all I write about for at least a month. Leona I hope your aura is strong to hold out because you’re about to lose a second throne in this life and that’s kinda embarrassing -
Anywho ppl much more eloquent than me have said it plenty, but I do very much adhere to the idea of ‘Jamil polices tf out of and helicopter parents Kalim bc that is one of the few ways Jamil can have some semblance of complete autonomy’
Things I’d personally favor to see for CR Campaign 4
Travis plays a Wizard or Druid. I feel like there’s insane potential here on the fact we haven’t completely unlocked his mechanic intelligence and I think he could pull clutches with either class though I’m leaning towards Wizard. There’s just something about the vast selection of spells and ways to play a Wizard I think Travis would have so much fun in showing his character’s development through spell selection and use.
Theurgy Wizard. This doesn’t have to be Travis or a main PC but I’m just fascinated by this subclass option. Especially given c3 finale.
Laura plays a Paladin. She’s really good with half casters/limited spells as seen with Vex and Imogen and this gives her a little more variety for combat as opposed to Bard which tend to be support whereas Paladins are known to be able to hold their own in combat which Laura might really enjoy. If not a spellcaster than Barbarian though I’d hope Matt cooks up a subclass for Laura as I fear Barbarian combat style could becoming boring and repetitive for her
In addition for Laura, I’d like to add a character with less stress inducing decision making/focus. Laura’s spoken about it a few times how unprepared she was to be the de facto leader of Bell’s Hells and driver of choices for the group where she acted as the catalyst for a lot of arc swings so I think she deserves to build a character more akin to Jester’s lightheartedness without being Jester 2.0. She’s just had too many nosebleeds as Imogen y’all
Full Rogue. It’s been awhile since we’ve had real sneaky one. No preference to who, although likely not Liam, Sam, Travis and Ashley as they’ve already dipped their toes so maybe Marisha could create something of interest and be unique as her characters tend to be. I’d also be interested in seeing Marisha play a Cleric considering Keyleth & Laudna’s apathy towards the Gods and organized religion in general and Beauregard’s Expositor Ioun stuff, I think Marisha could cook up a great cleric pov we haven’t yet seen.
Ashley as a Bard would be cute but I think Liam would be very fitting as well. I also think these two would make great Warlocks as there’s melee flavor and spellcasting flare they could work with. They feel like good players to be “gifters” between Bard’s inspiration and warlock pacts. These classes easily can mix spell mechanics into rp which can be carried into a scene. Liam and Ashley could just hop on a train and keep rolling with combat choices -> rp relationships, relations -> combat choices, it would never stop.
Siblings. We haven’t had two main cast members be siblings since the twins Vex and Vax and every campaign has continually had romantic couplings so it’d just be nice to have family dynamics back and perhaps a strictly platonic MxF friendship that NEVER considers romance or couldn’t be romantic due to sexualities not aligning. Just straight up a guy and a girl friendship who appear to have 1,000 green flags to be dating but in reality there’s 0 romantic attraction between them and no amount of outside pressuring will change it because they have a superior friendship/chosen family bond. I’m not a personal fan of the weirdly obsessive throupling of Keyleth with Perc’ahlia lately.
Sam could be a Druid. Specifically a spiteful, anti-nature, fuck the stereotypes type of one purely to fuck with Marisha and Ashley’s past campaign characters. I feel like there’s a lot of content for him to generate for his friends’ personal enjoyment. Sam would also make a great Warlock for the angst/doomed narrative drama. If not a spell caster then a Barbarian as he has a trend with taking his previous campaign character’s bestfriend’s class: Scanlan & Vax (Rogue) -> Veth (Rogue) & Jester (Cleric) -> FCG (Cleric) & Ashton (Barbarian).
Artificer. I think this is a class that gets slept on way too much. The RP potential of Infused Items is great. The pettiness of breaking an infusion from one PC for another PC, the potential selfishness of keeping them for yourself versus selflessness of giving the infusions to others. I think they could easily homebrew a subclass if they don’t fancy any of the current ones.
Speaking of RP, more “filler episodes” where characters get to breathe on their own without plot strangling them. That’s one thing I very much disliked since the introduction of Red Moon Plot and would like to move away from. More lofty, slow traveling plot not necessarily Mighty Nein level of jumping city to city but definitely a group of PCs who are ingrained in the city they live in/work for before we start doing epic adventures at like episode 45/50.
PC creating shit that affects the story. Percy made arrows, guns, and Diplomacy. Caleb had his amber vault. M9 Star Razor arc. Bells Hells haven’t really made anything themselves for combat or utility nor have had the time to do so.
Classes. Not DnD classes but Exandria classes. We have multiple cities forever shaped from the chroma conclave with new politics or crime factions lusting for power, we’ve got world leaders with godly power lasting for centuries. Cities rebuilding and others which have fallen throughout all campaigns, a little more enrichment of a city’s history with like 2 PCs minimum could shine some light on how citizens have changed their lifestyle with the shift in power and set the theme and mood of the campaign. Are they fighting for the little guys overlooked and neglected? Warding off growing crime rates lead by warmongering gang leaders? Aiding a new political system in its delicate beginnings? Scarred land reclaimed by the people but haunted by creatures left behind? A lot of recent PCs come from too small of a place in the world to have any real impact of importance in the plot, and the ones who do have become almost utopian with a “nothing bad happens here” mentality to them now. I’d just really like to dive into a city and how the people make it work after all these world ending plots and see the PCs affected by social and economic diversity
A married couple. We always begin at the start of a new friendship which buds into romance. Let’s skip ahead and just get a domestic couple and navigate what marriage is like while adventuring. I think Travis could do really well in this pairing as Romance RP is still something he’s getting comfy with and someone who would support him while also pushing challenges his way could be Ashley or Liam.
Taliesin to not play the damaged broken tragic backstory character again: Percy, Molly, Ashton. Cad was a bit of a personal miss for me, I could never get attached, however I would like to see Tal take his shot at being the primary caregiver of the group since his characters have all had their selective traits: Percy’s gifts, Molly’s nicknames and Cad’s sage guidance, Ashton’s acts of services (tho is still the most reserved out of all of Tal’s PCs). I think it would be a nice switch of pace since we haven’t seen this side of Tal’s potential yet unlike Liam (Vax), Sam (Veth with the girls & it’s literally FCG’s name), Marisha (all her PCs tend to have this arc), and Ashley tends to create soft, tender characters who you know care and love, whereas Laura has done her rounds checking in as Vex & Jester and clocking out as Imogen. I think Travis always prioritizes his friends’ table emotions over PC emotions so Taliesin might be the better fit for in-game PC group dynamic checks and talks.
A PC race from a different plane of existence. Give me a fire genasi from Hell or an Astral Elf from the Astral Plane, Eladrin Elves from Elemental Planes. But let’s also not get too crazy with character creation it doesn’t make sense for them to be with a group and a part of the story
Seasons. Holidays. Cultures. Some natural celebrated calendar events where shit can go down instead of dramatic PC lore punching them in the face (we’ve done this a lot already: Percy, Fjord, Imogen). Bring back accidents where the PCs are simply wrong-place wrong-time witnesses and have the power to do something about it. Attack of Chroma Conclave is iconic for a reason: there was on-screen pre-established history and emotional ties to the incident. Allura’s tower falling, the race to save Gilmore, the Sovereign’s family -> it could’ve all happened to Whitestone later on if VM didn’t do what they did during the attack that day. M9 stumbling across the dodecahedron. Other people’s lives are happening congruently with the PCs’ story
Magic exhaustion & impact on bodies. You get this with Warlocks and Sorcerers a lot, but what about healers constantly using spell slots to take care of others and never having anything left to take care of themselves? As a table they fight hard to get their long rest refresh but I’d actually like to see Matt stress the importance of quality rest on the players whether it be independently through PC lore of sleep problems (I think Imogen’s story could’ve benefited from this with her dreams always getting interrupted/hijacked/spying—would’ve add more weight of severity and could’ve helped navigate choices) or there being more night attacks/missions where PC sleep schedule is fucked up they have to push a 24hr and ration spell slots. Liam does really well with expressing Orym’s mechanical depletion of superiority dice for maneuvers in post combat RP. Idk I feel like there’s lots of juicy rp potential
Clever, merciless, tactile villains. The Briarwoods killed whoever without care, yet everything they did led up to something more terrifying then what they already committed—they got worse in a good way. Lorenzo didn’t hesitate to end Molly, there was urgency to save lost party members and kill these assholes hurting literally everyone they came across. Yes, Ludinus is Wizard Intelligent and Otohan goaded and teased a lot against Imogen, they just aren’t on the same level as someone who genuinely gives no fucks about who you are individually but still takes pleasure in murdering you, implying they’d do so to anyone. That’s a horrifying villainy everyone can cheer against while still following along to the plot. Ludinus is too much of a chest board player to really qualify for this type of villainy and Otohan made it obsessively personal against Imogen to the point it got redundant and ridiculous. We’ve been told about their wrongdoings several times more than we’ve seen them do wrong in real time. I want to feel impacted by villainy not informed of villainy.
A parent/child PC relation. The cast has hit it out of the park with PC & NPC family dynamics but I’d really like to see an adventuring duo that’s a late 40s/50s parent with an adult child in their 20s (translated into whatever race lifespan) who choose to adventure together. This is a dynamic that wouldn’t be a 3 episode one side of the story interpretation but fully fleshed out from childhood to present day. There’s so much you could do with this and to be able to explore dynamic change and challenges during adventuring where either one could die at any time is absolute gold material.
Rejections. Lots of PC romances just end up together at the first admittance of crush even if it is subtle and it would be something refreshing to watch a character deal post rejection and the dynamic journey after. And rejections not just only in romance but in the workplace: denied promotion, fired from a job, passed over for another applicant. Or even in home life: cut off from family’s wealth and kicked out of home, denied housing, lost custody of a kid or not allowed to adopt. Rejection can be a great motivator for some interesting character choices. Maybe a cleric became a cleric not out of faith for the divine but because it gave them a roof over their head and meals to eat so they did whatever they could to keep it and that’s where their devotion comes from
Bounties. I think bounties are the best thing in DnD mechanically and entertainment wise. Not only is it a good way to start a campaign looking at a bounty board but an interesting way to display character limitations and morals is the bounties they will and won’t take and the ones they decide to break. Whether it’s hunting creatures, rescue and recovery, or a dead man wanted style bounties always bring to the table. And they can be done whenever too for like 3 episodes, bounties just change the pace for a bit and tossed into the story several times which could unravel a larger later campaign plot. Bounties are simply versatile and great for helping narrative direction. Especially when you take into consideration people are going to be searching for the god babies and some will have ill-intentions and to see a group decide whether or not to hunt and kill a potential god baby or their protector would be crazy.
Defensive liars. It’s not that they’re lying with intention, it’s just that they keep getting interrogated and they’re uncomfortable with strangers asking such pervasive specific questions. Just because the Cast knows this is a DnD adventure and they’ll be a group doesn’t mean the characters do. Like what if a PC casually lies about everything and effectively creates a false life/fake identity because their real backstory can’t have them blaring personal details to anyone, they befriend people without ever letting them know 100% of their livelihood. And it’s not done in a malicious intent.
Limit magic items. I’m a firm believer that if your group needs to fetch quest 20 items to fight the thing they’ve been requested for they’re heavily underpowered and the narrative is too strong for them. I don’t care to see characters become dependent of magic items or rotate them between a few of them for min/maxing. Give me spellcasters who want to only rely on their own power, who actively refuse to accept outside help or assistances. Give me a Warlock who refuses to be taken advantage of for quick power but actively took the time to find a quality patron with a healthy positive dynamic. Better off give me characters who are so magic avoidant they don’t know how to work with those who are spellcasters and think it’s cheating and weak to have to need power to handle daily life. Give me overconfident normies with no desire whatsoever to use magic items let alone converse about them and their creation.
I’m not really interested in having characters carry over lore plots from previous campaigns maybe a max of 2/3 but they gotta have agency and curiosity for their own lives. I’m looking forward to fresh backgrounds, new city, different walks of life, hopefully not much of a time skip as it would be cute if we got a De Rolo baby PC and maybe a petty ‘why did I choose to become a cleric during the fall of godhood?’ Juniper gnome. We could have traveling cousins having to carry the burden of their name and societies expectations while also trying to live their own independent lives from their families’ legacies. I’m down to have cult kid #5? as long as it isn’t a fucking barbarian again or some basic warlock/sorcerer origins. Let’s use the change in religion-political-academic foundations as way to talk about what c3 finale brought upon the world.
Hey what if a god stole a soul. Like just straight up hijacked a resurrection ritual or maybe a cult performed a sacrifice and instead of waiting 20 years for consciousness to take into effect we get a god in a Billy Maximoff situation asap. What if the gods were so willing to “reincarnate” because some of them already had plans being acted out in tandem to BH? We could get a Persephone and Hades love story with a dash of Luxon memory fuckery. Betrayer god in a Greek sculpture chiseled body please and thank you. And let it be Bane or Asmo for the “who hurt you” scorched earth angst of it all. Chained Oblivion in a flesh vessel with thorny barbed wire chain tattoo-scars of pure pain and agony being held with gentle loving hands. I beg of you this could be THE best C4 concept and reveal in years.
Speaking of Luxon. Reincarnated Lovers. That M9 Dodecahedron moved around a lot. Sam could do the funniest yet most serious heart wrenching shit with this.
Final PC Builds:
Travis: Wizard & BrainThinker/Strategist who is practical and level headed (Theurgy subclass, heavy with utility/AoE terrain spells)
Laura: Paladin & Warden Role/Fly on the Wall, the person who keeps over everyone’s physical well-being from a distance, has a good heart in 1-on-1 scenes but is quiet and reserved in group settings. Probably has some heavy familiar trauma holding them back from adopting a new freer lifestyle. Maybe she plays a reluctant adoptive mother figure, a ppd mom struggling to adapt to parenthood, or has suddenly become responsible for a niece/nephew/godchild left in her care from a close friend’s death.
Marisha: Cleric & Leader of the group who stepped up because no one was willing to, the Mom friend who does ‘the thing’ when no one else can (Juniper PC has that Gnome lifespan to survive a timeskip)
Sam: Barbarian & Reluctant Second in Command who desperately doesn’t want to lead and is glad someone else is but is also responsible enough to be the one in charge when the Leader needs rest or aid. May or may not be the betrayer reborn or intended vessel for a timecheating possession plan.
Liam: Bard & ‘I Keep Receipts’ personality learning to let go of the mentality of transactional relationships and is the one who gets unconditionally loved
Ashley: Warlock, Multiclass dip into Fighter (Genie with Talisman Pact Boon would go hard for her) & is the Shady Charmer who suspects others have ulterior motives, Emotionally reclusive/refuses to bond close but craves to be loved and cared about. May or may not be the child now all grown up linked to Laura’s PC backstory struggling with transitioning into adulthood on their own and still requires some adult/mentorship guidance.
Tal: Rogue & Primary Caretaker and Face (maybe a Healer’s feat for non-magical r&r rp scenes. A fitting subclass for any Tal shenanigans could be the Mastermind, although I do see the appeal to carry over a big plot thread of Ruidusborn and Soulknife subclass would do just that despite personally hoping we stay away from Psychic mindreaders and mental powers from red moons for a bit lol)
Robbie: Artificer & Overconfident Suave who gets Punched with a Reality Check (plz let him stay. let Robbie express his love for his friends through his class and role again. Let him have a whole storyline)
Do you SEE the vision?
All being said, I don’t actually care about whatever PCs the cast cooks up as I ultimately will tune in to watch C4 beginnings for the fun that comes with starting a new story and the cast’s giddiness at first interactions with each other. This post is just for some fun speculation about the next campaign.
Day 7: Vil Shoenheit/Leona Kingscholar from Twisted Wonderland
this ship being this high up is a product of the current hyperfixation. i got into twst a couple months ago, and theyve had one of my fave character dynamics overall. like. yall. they literally flirt with each other in canon. i take screenshots. i have proof.
Reading Leona’s birthday personal banner and-
More at tag-