#othiat

[everdreamart]

I made a shitpost AU featuring the main villains from a D&D campaign I'm in! They're so silly and I love them sm--

(DM) @ashes-to-asher Suffer >:)

(Other Players) @traumallamarama @blazingjuniper You're welcome <3

[ashes-to-asher]

Call it what you wish - a hunch, a whisper, or perhaps some well-earned paranoia - but you knew something was wrong. Visiting the Or’nite Haven for Unsheltered Youths was a spur-of-the moment decision; your party had arrived in the city earlier than expected and had some time to kill, and the orphanage was asking the public for donations to improve the lives of its residents. You made a donation, but quickly began to suspect that something was off. A few of the residents mentioned children who had “run away”, but they seemed reluctant to go into detail on the matter. Taking it upon yourselves to investigate further, you discovered a hidden closet with a urine-stained floor in the cellar, and a pair of muddied shovels in the attic. You then witnessed a bloody fight break out between two of the residents and were politely invited to leave by the Haven’s Director. Taking note of the muddied shovels, your group returned later that night to search the forested back end of the property for buried secrets. You identified a few out-of-place shallow depressions in the earth, and made the decision to dig. The ground had been hardened by the icy chill of winter, but that did not deter you. You knew something was wrong, but this is far worse than anything you’d expected. In the dirt at your feet lies the body of a pre-pubescent lizardfolk child. The frozen soil has delayed the decomposition somewhat, but you’ve seen more bodies than you would care to admit - this boy died only a few short months ago. The Haven’s grounds are expansive - how many more bodies lay hidden here? A twig snaps behind you, and you whirl around, only to come face to face with Glen, one of the Haven’s residents. The odd little satyr is hugging themself - you’re unsure if due to the cold or due to fear. They look up at you, eyes pleading. “Who… who is it?” they ask. There is no shock or surprise in Glen’s voice or expression; rather, they seem resigned, as if finally have been given the answer to a long-burning question. “There’s a b-body down there, right?” the child stammers. “Who is it?”

A upcoming scene from the homebrew campaign I DM.

i may or may not have a reputation in my group for child murder

This is the first art (beyond rough sketches) that I’ve done in minimum 6 months, probably longer. It’s also my first piece in probably 2 years with a background. I’ve never done snow before, so this was largely an experiment? ^^;

please don’t judge me too harshly

The child depicted is Glenys “Glen” Talfryn, 13-year-old they/them muntjac satyr. They’ve been at the Haven for 7 years now, and don’t expect to be adopted any time soon (or ever). Having been there longer than any other resident, Glen has noticed more than a few odd happenings, and has long been suspicious that not every child who left the orphanage has done so alive - the party’s investigation is the first time Glen has had actual proof of such, and they aren’t about the let this chance for justice pass them by.

glen may or may not be in danger

i am a very cruel dm, lol

[everdreamart]

Made a shitpost with characters from my current dnd campaign!

Characters:

Clover - Fairy Star Druid (me)

Anya - Tabaxi Monk (@traumallamarama)

Tris - Satyr Eloquence Bard (@blazingjuniper)

Figured I could share this here lol

[ashes-to-asher]

Storytime, I guess? X'D

So, I'm a DM for a homebrew campaign (Othiat) with 3 players (@everdreamart, @traumallamarama, and @blazingjuniper). We live very far away from each other (the closest player to me is over 400 miles away), so we play via Discord. Whenever a map is needed, I've always turned to Owlbear Rodeo.

Last session, I ran the biggest encounter I have ever run.

The party had to stopped to spend the night at an inn in a small town they'd passed through before. They noticed that something was off; flies were buzzing around even though it was winter, there was a general smell of decay in the air, the townsfolk mentioned that the well had turned foul, etc., etc. The players knew something was up, but I don't think they realized just how bad it was gonna get.

Long story short, that little town was about to be at the center of a demonic invasion.

The PCs were woken in the middle of the night to screams and a poisonous green fog flooding the streets (and their room). They rushed outside, not having had time to put their armor on (so AC was low af). They almost immediately got attacked by a Bulezau, barely dodging out of the way in time.

That's when the map came out.

It's an absolutely monstrous thing: probably 50x100 grids, with each grid representing 15x15 feet. The entire town was on this thing, and the party had free reign to hide, fight, or just run and leave it all behind. Problem is, that green fog made it so they can't see jack.

Owlbear Rodeo had a huge update relatively recently, and now there's a bunch of new extensions and features. One of those extensions is called Smoke and Spectre (by Battle-System and Armindo Flores). I've always been a fan of using fog to hide things on maps, but Smoke and Spectre took things a step further. Each PC had their own independent radius of visibility, and I set it so that everyone could only see out to a radius of 30 feet. I also gave them a few visible points on the map, representing locations they knew of, but the vast majority of the map was empty nothingness to them.

I had been worried that the lack of visibility would turn out to be too frustrating for the players to enjoy the encounter, but it actually worked out well. Everyone was forced to slow down and plan out their moves carefully; the town as swarming with demons, and getting too close to one would prompt an attack. Everyone was going one grid at a time, anxious and terrified (in a good way!) of things lurking just out of sight. Movement also became an issue in general, since one of the PCs (a tabaxi monk) is a lot faster than the others, and another PC (a fairy druid) could fly over certain obstacles.

The party actually got split up in the chaos, leading to them desperately trying to coordinate when they couldn't see each other or even their own surroundings.

They eventually individually made their ways (makin' their way) to the town center, where the invasion had begun. There, they encountered a Wastrilith in the well, which was way too high level for them to actually take down. Knowing that there were still survivors in hiding, though, the level 6 party was determined to end the threat.

See, this wasn't necessarily meant to be a combat encounter; it was meant to be a survival encounter. The demonic invasion has ties to the larger plot, and is supposed to serve as set-up/lead-in to certain things the players are still only vaguely aware of (things I will not be spoiling via tumblr). I expected the players to engage in combat here and there, and they did had combat with some of the lower CR demons around the town, but the overall point was to set up plot and give the players a unique encounter.

They almost had a TPK with the Wastrilith? ^^;

The thing downed two of them, but the druid had just enough spell slots to keep the others from dying. The party was doing decent damage, but there was no way they could survive more than two or three rounds of this thing's damage output. Finally, low on HP and spell slots, the satyr bard pulled a clutch Dissonant Whispers. Wastriliths have great Strength and Constitution, but their Wisdom isn't all that impressive.; it failed the saving throw and was forced to flee, giving the party a chance to escape its radius.

A whole lot more happened (little Opportune Moment has a rough night ahead of him, courtesy of a Tlacatecolo), and the encounter isn't technically over (next session, the party is going after the Sibriex that started it all), but holy crap was it a good session! X'D

My laptop almost caught fire trying to process the map and all the tokens on it, but this was a planed event I'd been excitedly dreading for so long, and it worked!

The limited visibility is what really sold it. Fog effects only go so far, and this encounter would not have worked if the players had been able to see their surroundings. The fear and anxiety about the creatures lurking in the dark heightened the experience for all of us, myself included; I got to play around with the visibility of the demons, figuring out how much they could see and hear.

Next session will be a bit more straightforward, but you can bet I'm gonna use Smoke and Spectre again; in fact, I already have a few ideas... >:3