Writing this one without much rhyme or reason in the WordPress editor directly, just so it is directly my thoughts put to the screen. Also not my usual posting day but an end of year post should probably come on the right day.
Putting out new posts and stories to this site has definitely been slow this year, but the very good reason for that is my day job takes up the majority of my time and usually I have other things going on in the evening which makes story progress slow.
This has lead to me feeling more satisfied with myself when I put out story pieces though, as I have not been pressuring myself to hit a self-imposed deadline. I can enjoy my writing work for what it is: something fun and on the side, as an outlet of creativity.
The year in general has been interesting for me, I have started my job, fell in love with QA as an occupation, lost friends (either by my own fault or through general degradation over time), gained friends, found new interests, developed existing interests, and most importantly, actually got my life on a path I am happy with.
It still requires a lot of work, and will require me to continue putting all of my effort to improving myself, but something my therapist has told me in the past combined with my love of writing gives me something to hold onto.
I write my own truth. I am writing my own story at this very moment. And I want Rambles to reflect that.
2022 is a year of great transition and change for me. I am pursuing gender affirming healthcare and pushing myself to move into my own space in order to have a safe environment in which to assert myself as a beautiful, lesbian, trans woman.
Going forward Rambles will continue to host my stories because part of my mission is to make this a showcase of my characters, but I want Rambles to reflect the other part of me, the true me. I want my writings to be a celebration of who I am, sharing stories of joy about being trans and gay, to give something positive back to the world, and maybe give someone the courage to find their true self.
No matter what, I am going to keep writing. Cause with five different characters now in my repertoire, there is no shortage of worlds to bring to life.
(Story word count: approximately 3500 words. Estimated reading time: 35 minutes. CW: loneliness, depression)
The realm of steam conjured from the trials and tribulations of Marieya Ebontide had presented her friends with several challenges. Zombies reanimated by the power of the phoenix, malicious manifestations of fallen friends, and a nothic bringing memories once repressed to the forefront.
Although the world around them tried to sell them an image of Marieya built from her worst experiences, the party refused to let this cloud their judgement of her, and soldiered onwards to save her from herself.
After confronting a pack of edjet initiates, Seggotan sent his blessings towards the party, revitalising their energy with holy water and provided a longship to take them across the ocean towards the final trial of this world: Marieya herself.
The party and the steam shade of Ancil boarded the boat, which began moving on its own into the infinite horizon. Despite this being an elemental plane with no real concept of day or night, the sun seemed to set, a dark starless sky setting the mood for the encounter ahead.
Eventually, there was light ahead of the party. An island surrounded by burning trees, a twisted memory of Marieya’s incident in the clearing that set her on her current path, at the cost of the lives of her closest friends. Twisted vines and branches formed burning effigies of the homelands of her current friends.
The Margreave, the Northlands, Zobeck. Forming the points of an equilateral triangle with a facsimile of Marieya’s old tent house in the Shadow Realm directly in the middle of them all, the shadow fey herself lying in front of it on a scorched and ashen log.
Sensing the presence of her friends, she stood up, her wings flexing slightly as the phoenix spoke to her in her mind. “They are right there… kill them all… now! Give all you are to me and end your torment!”
“Shut up…”, Marieya said mentally in response. Being a realm under her control, Marieya had seen everything her friends have done. Honesty refuting the words of Steamforged Vantar, Fauna covering the intrusive thoughts with beautiful flowers, the party as a whole refusing the words of her own manifestation of Corvus. Despite all this, Marieya still knew she couldn’t risk anyone else’s life.
“I… told you to leave me behind if anything went wrong,” she began, “something went wrong, and… you’re still here… why? Why are you still here?! After seeing everything I’ve done! Everything I’ve put you through! Why. Are. You. Still. Helping. Me?!”
Tears formed in Marieya’s eyes as her burns glowed softly in response to her panic. Honesty stepped forward, and spoke as rationally as possible. “You’re family,” he said, “and we’re not leaving you behind.”
“Family… family doesn’t treat people like I’ve treated you all! I’ve caused so much harm…” and Marieya turned her eyes towards Tu-ughrem Bloodrot, the Gnoll known as Grem, “and to you, Gnoll, someone who got caught up in this mess without my intention… I’m sorry, this was never your fight.”
Grem shrugged, “Well, I’m here now,” he said, “may as well stick around and help.”
Marieya started pacing back and forth, hands fidgeting rapidly as her breathing grew shallow. “Well you don’t need to stick around any longer,” she said, “I’m staying here. I can’t leave this place. I need to stay here to keep everyone safe. I’ll… I’ll think of something, I’ll get you out of here, it’s the least I can-”
“How can you be so selfish?” Fauna said, interrupting the worried ramblings of her friend.
“I… uh… huh?”
“Selfish. That’s what you’re being right now. We’re here for you right now, and we’re going to bring you back whatever you say.”
A swell of positive emotion rose within Marieya, but it was quickly quashed by the phoenix who reasserted control, blue eyes being replaced by blazing orange ones. “Oh no my dear alseid, this useless girl is very much trying to be selfless right now. I’m going to break out of this prison, I am going to raze this world, and I am going to very much enjoy killing you all-no! No, I am not going to kill anyone here!”
“That’s why I can’t leave here. I… can’t control myself anymore. I can’t risk endangering any more lives… I’m sorry.”
Whilst all this was going on, Honesty had been searching around in their backpack for their mess kit, taking the tin and emptying it out before tugging at Jørgen’s furs to get his attention, pointing to his waterskin and, upon receiving a confirmatory nod, filled the empty tin up with water.
And then walked forward and threw it at Marieya.
The tin hit into her head before clattering onto the ground. An awkward silence fell between the shadow fey and the rest of the party as everyone tried to process what just happened.
“You’re still Marieya. Play with the water for me.” Honesty said.
Looking down at the ground, Marieya saw the makeshift projectile at her feet, there was still some water inside it but some droplets had fallen onto her feet and ankles, providing a satisfying, cooling effect.
The sensation grounded Marieya back to herself, and using her own magical prowess she started shaping the water onto the ground into a winding, twisting, ribbon around her. Whatever smooth, wave-like motion her left hand made, the water followed, more of it being created as it tried to wrap around.
“Oh no, don’t think you are getting away with that sappy shit so easily!” Marieya’s mouth said without her input, as her right hand moved against her will to conjure an opposing ribbon of fire moving against the ribbon of water.
Left hand produced more water, the right hand manifested more fire. The magical elemental strands curled tighter around Marieya’s body, coming close to touching each other but all of them approaching the shadow fey’s grey, burnt skin.
“Look, I don’t know what’s gonna happen if I don’t get control back, but, I want you to know one thing.”
“If you have to strike me down, or I burn out trying to wrestle back control, or everything turns to ash, I can assure one thing.”
“Even if my soul stays broken, my memories of you all will remain intact.”
Fire and water collided, producing an intense flash and a loud boom. When vision returned to the others, they saw before them a fire-infused water elemental, looking very agitated to have been summoned somewhere far from ideal for it, but inside the shifting, watery body of the elemental was a dark, humanoid shaped shadow. Marieya was inside the elemental, controlling its every move.
Everyone stood in fear, not wanting to bring major harm to their friend, but also wanting to bring her back.
Thinking about how to attack the elemental indirectly, Fauna focused all of her magical energy to bring forth rain clouds above the battle arena, focusing the full force of the rainfall on the elemental itself. The water of its body was unaffected but the fire parts hissed and steamed as the rain made contact with it, uttering a curse in Aquan.
Realising the efficacy of this approach, the druid called upon primordial spirits to surround the elemental, weakening its resistance against further druidic magics.
Further to this logic, Jørgen attempted to use an icy spell to weaken the effectiveness of any attacks the elemental wished to make. Whilst the ice seemed to take hold of the creature, it did not seem to phase them much, only small fragments remaining on their body.
Honesty did not want to fight their friend, even if they were in control of an elemental body. Positioning himself in front of the party, he adopted a defensive stance with his rapier and dagger, unwilling to cause harm but equally unwilling to let harm come to his friends.
The elemental roared, and began manifesting boiling hot water between their hands, it turning into steam and then condensing back into boiling water seemingly in equal measure, before expelling it at the party in a large, wide cone. Everyone managed to make it out of the way in time except Jørgen who utilised his arcane prowess to absorb some of the intense heat away from his body.
Analysing the situation, the steam shade of Marieya’s closest friend, Ancil, turned to Grem and wordlessly pointed to the shoulders of the elemental before pointing at their respective swords.
Both warriors shared a nod before charging forward, weaving between each other until reaching their target, delivering brutal slashes with greatswords to the “joints” of the elemental’s arms. The forging of their weapons caused visible harm to the creature as their arms retracted inwards, Ancil delivering two quick follow up slashes before they fully receded.
Seeing the elemental weaken from this assault, Honesty saw a moment to try something dangerous, something incredibly reckless, but something that might just work. Removing his coat and dropping his weapons, he walked forward towards this towering foe, and plunged both his arms inside its superheated body.
The pain was intense, boiling water scalding scales as the kobold tried to find something to grab onto. Until finally, he felt the ankles of Marieya, suspended within the elemental, and grabbed on tight. “Please,” he thought to himself, “please come back to us.”
The phoenix’s rage had consumed Marieya entirely whilst they had been in control of the elemental, spurring the fight onwards. That was until she felt Honesty’s touch, and various memories flooded into her mind.
Accidentally shaking down a homeless shelter.
Fighting desperately to save Vantar.
Rushing over to give her a healing hug at Donnermark.
And even now, Honesty put himself into harm’s way in an attempt to bring his friend back. The rage did not subside within Marieya, it was completely pushed back by the realisation that this humble kobold was willing to do whatever it takes.
With that, Marieya burst forth out of the back of the elemental, using her wings to raise herself above the ground and looking down at her friends, smiling fondly at Honesty.
“Having a pleasant flashback are we?” the phoenix spoke to Marieya in her mind, the rage only being held back for a moment before they were able to reassert itself, “you may have broken one plan, but I am not through with you yet!”
Orange eyes came back in full force as Marieya turned to the elemental, now free from internal control and looking to exact retribution against the one who summoned them. “Useless vessel,” the phoenix said as they glided forward and slammed their fist inside the elemental’s head, dissipating it instantly but using its body to forge a blade of rippling, boiling water.
All of the party stood by, not wanting to be the first to harm Marieya now that she was outside of her elemental shell. Jørgen attempted to use a spell that attacked her mind rather than her body, but such magic was ineffective against something so driven by rage.
Fauna invoked druidic magic, conjuring forth a concentrated beam of moonlight in the hope that the phoenix was just a form that Marieya assumed, similar to a shapechanger. But whilst it did do some minor damage, it did nothing to return her to how she once was.
The phoenix laughed, beginning to speak words of power and rage. Three small balls of fire began to orbit around them as each one seemed to start to form into a beam pointed at a different party member. Before they could fire though, Jørgen gave a swift slash of his arm, and the balls of fire turned into lumps of ice which then fell to the ground, shattering.
“You think a simple counterspell can stop my raw power?!” the phoenix said, turning their ire fully to the wizard, “witness the laws of magic bend to my fury!”. The burns on Marieya’s body glowed with intensity as the phoenix almost seemed to groan in pain as a bolt of fire manifested quicker than anyone else could react.
Whilst their attention was diverted elsewhere, Ancil conjured up a projectile made of ice and threw it towards the phoenix. Focus being elsewhere did not seem to make their reactions any less effective, as the projectile missed and the resulting explosion failed to make contact as well.
With his touch having been effective and Marieya now able to hear his voice, Honesty attempted to reason verbally with his friend.
“Marieya… come home, please,” he said, “don’t die right after we’ve come into possession of a keep”. Grem turned to the rest of the party as he said this, a raised eyebrow asking for confirmation if this is true, nods being returned. “You can end this now, and you can come home with us and rest for as long as you need to. We’ll be here. I promise.”
A warm smile crossed Marieya’s faced, eyes rapidly shifting between blue and orange as she struggled to bring the phoenix within her back under control. “NO!”, the phoenix said within her mind as it felt its influence begin to wane, “I am so close to freedom! I will not let you do this to me again!”.
Using all of her mental strength to push those thoughts out of her mind, Marieya had regained enough control to allow herself to divebomb right into the ground in the middle of the party, watery blade landing to the side, laying her body as flat as possible to allow her friends to restrain her and put a stop to things non-lethally.
Honesty came over and held her tight, infusing her with divine energy in the hope of it bringing her further back to reality. Jørgen took out rope to restrain her arms in the hope that the phoenix could no longer perform the hand motions of magic. Fauna used her magic to destroy the sword Marieya was carrying. And Grem stood guard, sword at the ready in case things went wrong.
“Fine… I may not be able to escape this realm, but I can at least take you with me!”
The burns all around Marieya’s back glowed brighter than they ever have previously, before erupting into flames as the phoenix soul burst forth from her body. The entire world seemed to shake as a loud caw echoed through the air, attempting to kill everyone currently in the demiplane of steam as a desperate last action.
Instinctively, Marieya created a protective bubble of steam around her friends who were keeping guard over. Despite the fact this steam was producing a fair amount of heat, for the first time in her life, Marieya was cold. The phoenix soul had caused her so many issues, but through every moment in her life it provided her a constant, almost comforting warmth.
But now that was gone, and although she was surrounded by friends, she had never felt more alone.
“I… I’m sorry…” she said, sobbing softly into the soil beneath them, “I d-don’t know if I can stop this,” her unrestrained wings wrapped around her shivering body, holding her in an attempt to bring her temperature back up, “I never meant for any of this to happen… and now I have no idea what to do anymore…”
“You just need to keep going,” Honesty said, “because you don’t have to be alone anymore.”
“I was very deliberate with my flowers Marieya,” Fauna said, “some are dangerous if not treated with respect, but in the end all of them are as beautiful as I see you.”
“And don’t give me any of that rubbish about thinking less of you,” Jørgen said, “you should know by now that someone rational will never think less of you for battling struggles.”
The ropes binding Marieya were slashed open by Grem in a gesture of good faith, who gave an affirming nod. “Thank you,” Marieya said, flexing her wings as the bubble of steam began to dissipate, “this was not your fight, but I’m making sure you get back home!”
With a mighty flap and an incredibly strong leap, Marieya flew into the air after the phoenix soul trying to collapse the realm, reaching them in no time at all and getting its attention by scraping an arm arcing with lightning across their spine. The fiery bird turned to Marieya who had her arms raised in a position inviting confrontation.
To which the phoenix responded in turn, exhaling a cone of pure elemental fire. This was matched by Marieya, who extended out a hand and expelled a cone of icy energy, the two attacks cancelling each other out.
This triggered an intense aerial battle between the two powerful forces of magic, each of them flying close to each other trading spells with increasing ferocity, every new burst of magic prompting an escalation by the other. Each side perfectly matched in both casting prowess and airborne acrobatics, neither allowing the other to get a clear shot at the other.
Eventually a spell forced them a significant distance apart, staring each other down before accelerating at a rapid rate between each other. When the onlookers thought they were going to collide they instead banked slightly in opposing directions before spiralling around each other, ascending higher into the air.
Each turn brought them closer together until the two finally collided, a massive solar flare like explosion coming from their contact point and obscuring them from the party.
The two sides of Marieya had recombined, and the young shadow fey came face to face with the manifestation of the phoenix soul merged with her regrets and depression. “Do you think this means anything?!” it said to her, pacing aggressively in front of her, “you have succeeded in locking me back into your body once more but that does not save you!”
They pulled down their hood, revealing a mirror image of Marieya with several glowing orange cracks permeating their ashen skin, orange eyes with flames inside the pupils, and a permanent rage-filled expression. “I will always be a part of who you are!”
“You will always be a part of me,” Marieya said, approaching the phoenix and getting extremely close to them… before pulling them into a hug, “and I forgive you.”
“You… what?”, the phoenix said, incredibly confused at this turn of events.
“You are my warmth, a part of my soul forever. And I have hated you for far too long now… I don’t want to fear you any more, I want to embrace you.”
“But… you are a monster! A fire starter! A murderer! How can you stand to live with yourself like this?”
“Because I’m not any of those things. I have made a lot of mistakes, mistakes that I will live with forever… but I can’t hate myself for these mistakes anymore.”
The hug tightened between the two halves of Marieya. “And I can’t hate you for whatever I see as your part in those mistakes”. The phoenix then paused for a moment, before slowly reciprocating the hug with Marieya, a soft blue glow encompassing them both.
The glow increased in intensity. As it did the phoenix began slowly merging back into Marieya, the warmth that had kept Marieya company all her life was with her once more, though this time it came with an inner peace that she had not experienced in a long time. Her appearance had returned to normal as well, no longer carrying feathered wings, she was back to how she always was.
She turned around and saw the three steam shades of her friends. Summoned into the realm to aid the friends she had now, she gave a slight bow to them and said, “…I know I’ll never get to say sorry properly, and I know you’re just figments of my imagi–”
“Oh shut the fuck up you brooding bitch,” Izumi said, “you can move on from us now. You got more important shit to worry about you daft twat!”
Vardal shook his head, but couldn’t find the words to add to that statement, so followed it up by saying, “what Izumi said but with less cursing”.
And Ancil merely smiled at Marieya, before all three of them faded into the steam once more.
Slowly shrinking down, the solar flare retracted into Marieya and she floated back down to the ground, able to look upon her true friends with clear eyes again.
“I have chosen my champion well,” a booming voice emanated throughout the realm, the voice of Seggotan, “and thank you, brave adventurers, for bringing her soul back… in more ways than one.”
A pool of crystal clear blue water formed behind Marieya. “Leave this place, before it collapses in on itself,” Seggotan said, as the party jumped one-by-one into the pool, speaking again before Marieya was the last to go in, “be warned Marieya Ebontide, you might have my favour but you have still failed in your initial quest. The challenges ahead present great danger to the mortal realm, but I now know my faith in you and your friends is not misplaced.”
Marieya smiled to herself, muttering a prayer under her breath, ending it with a characteristically casual, “thanks dude, see you later”, before jumping into the pool acting as a connection to the mortal realm, allowing her to return to Midgard, complete again.
Inspiration
This… is probably the piece of writing I can comfortably say is the hardest one I have ever had to write. Not only for it being the longest piece of fiction I have written in a long time but also for it coming after one of the most emotionally taxing D&D sessions I have ever been a part of.
So, as explained in Marieya’s Refusal, Marieya died. And the resurrection quest to bring her back was jointly designed by myself and my DM, with us taking equal responsibility in running things. However, it was decided that I would be running the majority of the final “arc” in the quest, which led to having to be a DM, controlling Marieya fighting against her own friends.
I definitely want to follow up this story with how I designed things, and why certain things were chosen, but I do want to get into what this was like emotionally for me.
In short: soul-wracking.
In much longer: playing Marieya for this session involved digging down into my own psyche and calling upon vulnerabilities I have not exposed in a long time. When I was acting out the dialogue for Marieya I was constantly on the verge of tears due to the emotions I was calling upon, which translated into what I hope was genuine dialogue of someone terrified of who they are right now.
Loneliness tends to be a theme that comes with most of the D&D characters I write. Marieya’s specific brand of loneliness is the struggle to accept that she does have people around her who understand her, who know that she has done not great things in the past but view her more as who she is now as opposed to going off who she said she was, and as Honesty says, “she doesn’t have to be alone anymore”.
I am very glad that the encounter ended up more social than combat focused. Although that prompted me having to think about how to handle player’s reactions to what was presented, I think it made for a more compelling scene overall as none of the party really wanted to fight Marieya, they just wanted to bring her back.
The title is a twofold reference, the obvious one being is that this is Marieya gaining emancipation from her past and from this realm she created, but it also refers to the music I was initially going to use for the first two phases of the fight: Emancipation from Ace Combat 4, though I eventually decided against it for a handful of reasons that’ll be explained in the design write up.
For now though, I hope you enjoyed reading this. I put a lot of emotion into this piece, and I like how it turned out.
I remember Hollatrax growling with rage at not being able to shrink down into the temple, and they let out a massive cone of freezing cold breath. Priscilla reverted to her staff form, Jørgen was knocked unconscious and I…
…oh.
So… I’m dead? Properly dead I guess, cause I can’t feel any fire in or around me right now. I guess that breath was so cold that not even the eternal flames could bring me back.
I can see more around me now, I’m floating. Floating amongst an ocean of stars in a deep, dark blue sky. The only thing holding steady being a single, silvery thread.
There are others here too, perhaps other souls destined to whatever afterlife awaits them, similarly attached to threads. The threads lead into these rifts that crack open the immaculate colour of the sky, and slowly, one by one, they are pulled into rifts which close back up to repair the sky.
A rift opens before me, and the thread begins pulling me towards it. I see… the forest where I lived. My old battered tent house. The river where I fished for food. I’m going home, and maybe I can finally apologise to everyone.
Wait.
No… don’t! Please!
The thread snaps, and the rift closes itself up without me in it.
I’m falling.
Falling through an infinite blue void.
Until a thread grabs me. Not silver this time, but a light blue, almost cyan. A rift opens up at the end of the thread, revealing what is on the other side.
It’s a vast underwater reef, similar to the one where Seggotan came to me in the vision that brought me to this place. I hear his voice, albeit faintly.
“It is not yet your time, young one.”
Even here, his voice soothes me.
“And I am not disappointed in you. You showed great courage and initiative in approaching the temple. The trials ahead may be daunting, but you are a devoted follower. I shall do all I can to return you to the mortal plane.”
The fatherly voice of the dragon god combined with the serene underwater setting put me at ease, as I prepared myself to be pulled into what seemed like limbo.
Until another thread grabbed me. This time a deep, burning, orange.
“Not yet. I’m not done with you yet.”
Oh no.
Oh shit.
At the end of the orange thread there was another rift, this one providing an image of places burning.
The Margreave.
The Northlands.
Zobeck.
“Not even death can truly stop a phoenix, and now… your body is all mine for the taking.”
Both threads began pulling at once. A god of waves against a manifestation of fire. One looking to keep the world intact, another wishing for it to just burn away to ash.
It started to hurt, as both forces did not want to back down, I was stuck in a tug of war between who I want to be and who I want to stop becoming.
The rifts… the rifts are getting closer!
Oh god, what’s going to happen?
I’m trying to be pulled into limbo and rebirth simultaneously.
I don’t want to die!
I don’t want to be a feared phoenix!
I don’t-
There was a blinding flash of light as the rifts collided upon Marieya, enveloping her entirely. The divine power of Seggotan and the limitless sorcerous potential of the phoenix merged into one, bringing into life a demiplane of steam. One that was born from the stresses and trials of the young shadow fey, the environment shaping itself as such. And in a clearing deep within the demiplane itself, she was about to reawaken…
My head is throbbing… and my body is burning all over. What happened when those rifts collided?
Around me I see visages of trees… the forest that I burnt down.
My hands… my hands have talons on the nails, blackened like the phoenix’s claws. The burns on my body glow faintly with power as wings appear as a fiery visage behind me.
In my refusal to die I’ve become what I feared most. But… I’ve also trapped myself somewhere where I can’t hurt anyone.
I’m… angry.
A burning rage fills my chest as I feel my body lash out with various fiery spells, the environment shifting and twisting as the unchained magic within me takes control.
The phoenix wants to be free.
I can’t let it leave this place.
For everyone’s sake.
Inspiration
So… Marieya died.
Just straight up died.
And to be honest, it isn’t really anyone’s fault here. I just got unlucky with how some damage was rolled.
It was definitely stressful in the moment, as the realisation hits that a character you have cultivated for over a year has died in game.
Not going to last, as this whole demiplane of steam is going to act as a massive stage for a resurrection quest with this acting as my first sort of DM experience as I will be co-DMing the quest, taking control of helper NPCs and eventually the final confrontation with Marieya herself.
This is only a short story, about 750 words, but I’m hoping it helps me get some momentum back. Despite this story being born of an unfortunate occurrence, this felt good to write.
Why is this here? Because I love bretticus.llewellyn.art (Instagram) and if I can’t pay him I’m giving him as much exposure as I can
Marieya is only 2710XP away from her next level up, meaning it came time for me to make a recurring decision now that her sorcerous nature is (mostly) in the open: do I continue speccing her into Cleric, and get my Level 6 domain feature on this level up? Or do I finally let part of her power reawaken properly as she gains access to a whole new world of spells.
Well, given some events that have happened in the campaign, I think now is the right time for her to realise that suppressing this power is no longer an option.
Background
So, these events are supposed to be Marieya stories, hence why they will only be covered in minor detail here as opposed to doing a more in-depth look at why these events have lead to this conclusion:
Meeting a fellow Shadow Fey who knew of the incident involving Marieya’s magic, and an out-of-game discussion with her leading to some level of acceptance
A Wind Dragon sent by Corvus ambushing the party, making Marieya realise that her divergence from the Mharoti path means dragons will be somewhat common in her path now
Beginning on her path to forgive herself properly and knowing that her new friends are in danger means she feels less apprehension at utilising her innate power, but also means she will be utilising it in a way more befitting of her personality post-incident, reflected in the choice of spells/cantrips.
Subclass
The subclass is the only aspect of this multiclassing that did not require much thought put into it, as it has been well established in stories that Marieya is a “Phoenix Soul” Sorcerer.
This version of Phoenix Soul is specifically from the “Sorcerer, Tweaked” homebrew by SwordMeow. When I initially wrote “Marieya’s Screw Up” I actually did not have an origin in mind, as I never considered multiclassing out properly. This changed once my DM showed me this subclass and I read the flavour around it, especially the line of “If a fire breaks out in town, a phoenix sorcerer had best flee, whether guilty or not.”
At 1st level, Marieya would be getting two subclass features and potentially an origin spell depending on how my DM wants to handle using this homebrew.
Ignite is something that Marieya will not be using often, as not only does she feel it is a disaster waiting to happen, she has too much love and respect for Seggotan to go around starting fires with just a touch of her hand. It will definitely find some use during the campaign, but it will likely sit as a backburner feature… pun moderately intended.
Phoenix Mantle is a similar use case as well, as Marieya will only have a small number of spells that deal fire damage. That said, I do have a couple of roleplay based ideas with how to utilise this feature, perhaps combined with Thaumaturgy for a terrifying display of power combining both the divine and the innate as the normally reserved shadow fey spreads wings of fire wide as her voice booms out to her foes.
As for the origin spell, having Burning Hands as a spell that does not count towards the maximum number of spells known would be nice, but even then it would see very little use due to wanting to keep Marieya’s usage of fire down to a minimum. And as will be shown in the next section, the spells selected are more versatile than that.
Spells
Being able to only pick two 1st level spells certainly made deciding what to pick a bit difficult. Going into this I wanted to pick up something good for defense, and something good for offense, with a good payoff if I decide to upcast it using the higher level spell slots earned from being so far into Cleric.
Shield was my first thought for something defensive, as it is a universally useful spell that would bump Marieya up to an AC of 24 in response to a melee attack, making her incredibly difficult to hit and extending her longevity even further.
However, when considering the nature of dragons, one of their main offensive options are their breath weapons, which are usually elemental in nature and which force a saving throw of some kind, which Shield would not be helpful against. Taking this into account, it is more thematic for the defensive spell to be Absorb Elements.
Triggering in a similar manner to Shield, Absorb Elements would make Marieya more likely to stay standing if she failed a save against a breath weapon, or to shrug it off better if she passed the save. The extra damage on the next turn’s melee attack is appreciated but ultimately inconsequential when considering other offensive options.
As for the offensive spell itself, Chaos Bolt was considered and dropped pretty quickly. Whilst it is a Sorcerer exclusive spell and upcasts quite well, the random elemental nature of the attack makes it ill-suited for fighting dragons, as an attack could roll into the element the dragon is immune to thereby wasting a turn.
The ever reliable Magic Missile was considered for longer, especially as its long range and guaranteed hit would allow for nailing fleeing dragons without having to worry about how low Marieya’s spellcasting modifier is.
In the end though, I went for something that I felt had good upcast ability and provided versatility against the potential of elemental resistance/immunity that dragons carry: Chromatic Orb.
Whilst Marieya’s Charisma is nowhere near where it should be for a casting class, a +5 to hit is not the worst modifier to have, especially in situations where advantage can be applied. The option to select what type of damage the orb is dealing gives greater control than Chaos Bolt, and upcasting something with a d8 damage die is nothing to sneer about.
Cantrips
Picking two spells presented a set of challenges, picking four cantrips presented an entirely different set of challenges, especially as the cantrip list for sorcerers is almost three times as long as the list for clerics, providing a lot of choices to pick from.
One that was fairly easy to pick was Shape Water, given Marieya is now a cleric of the water god Seggotan, it made sense that she would be using her innate magical power to be doing something more aligned with her god. Shape Water itself seems a very useful cantrip, especially as the option to freeze water (without creatures in it) opens up a lot of alternate avenues to problem solving.
Next came a pick that was influenced by equal parts mechanical and flavour applications, Mind Sliver. Mechanically, Mind Sliver is a great cantrip. It has good damage output, inflicts a debuff that can make or break the result of an enemy saving throw, and is a damage type that is infrequently resisted (psychic).
In terms of flavour though, this is Marieya attempting to inflict fear upon draconic foes. As time passes and more dragons sent by Corvus are defeated, it is logical that the Mharoti are going to get nervous about how powerful Marieya is, leading to the psychic spike from Mind Sliver being a literal bolt of fear against a dragon, playing to their uncertainty if they will survive an encounter with this humble shadow fey.
Ray of Frost seems like an odd choice compared to Frostbite, but given the low DC that Marieya’s sorcerer spells will be working with and the fact that Constitution saves on higher CR monsters are quite difficult to win, the ranged attack roll won out. The speed reduction effect will also help against dragons, as it means they will not be able to move as far away when doing a hit-and-run attack.
And finally, a fairly basic spell in the form of Fire Bolt. It is there solely for flavour on Marieya’s origin, but it is a long range cantrip with an impressive d10 damage dice.
Future plans
This just covers what Marieya is going to look like as a 1st level sorcerer multiclass, so what rough plans do I have for her progressing as a sorcerer?
Right now it feels like I will be putting my focus back onto cleric, especially as I want to unlock the rest of my domain spells before deciding on how I might want to progress as a sorcerer.
That said, it is looking quite likely that my 8th cleric level feat will be “Metamagic Adept”, to further reflect Marieya’s power reawakening. “Distant Spell” is going to be a must-take in my opinion, as it will be invaluable in long range conflicts. “Quickened Spell” is also fairly high up on the priority list, as the ability to cast a spell as a bonus action leaving an action free to Dash to cover/to spread out seems useful.
In any case, Marieya now knows she can use her power for good, and protecting her friends from the wrath of dragons is a worthy cause to break out of her self-imposed restraint.
“Sir Reginald Valkyrie, at your service. Where I come from matters not, for I have always been on the move, until now. I seek knowledge, artifacts, and the comfort of a hot drink at the end of the day.
In combat I will be your shield, your strength, your bulwark. For weapons shall crack across my shell as if they were made of paper.
This guild seems a suitable place for me to make a temporary home in aid of my quest for items of powers. And who knows? I could make some great new friends along the way.”
Background
So, a good friend of mine has started running a server for the group I run with for D&D in the style of a guild, known as the Raven’s Flight Guild, where players can have a roster of characters that can take on a variety of missions, all run by the other players in the guild, giving everyone a chance to have a go at DMing.
In short; it is D&D for people without consistent schedules, or for those who need a more regular fix.
And when a workday went wrong leading to me not really having a workload that day, I decided to work on what I wanted my first guild character to be.
Building
Originally Sir Reginald Valkyrie was supposed to be my character for an upcoming second half of a campaign a friend is running, where he was initially a level 8 Tortle Samurai Fighter with a focus on great weapons and Magic Initiate as one of his feats. He quickly got sidelined by me being a dirty Dexterity main a character concept that spoke to me more on a creative level.
However, I still had my sights on getting a Tortle I could regularly play with, leading to the decision to transplant the name and original focus (Strength based melee with light casting) to my guild character, but now with a different class.
The rules for homebrew in the guild follow an approved content list, normally approved by one of the guild masters. Thankfully the group had been using Mage Hand Press (MHP) content for enough time to have the majority of MHP original classes be included with no problems.
And whilst the voice of the divine was strong, urging me to play my first Paladin, there was no doubt in my mind once I heard the Warden’s call.
Warden follows a lot of the same defensive lines as Paladin, but offers more options to allow for the Warden to control the tide of battle. From forcing creatures to stay near you unless they specifically use their action to disengage, to applying disadvantage on a single creature that chooses not to attack you. Combine this with abilities that allow for recovering status conditions and resisting piercing, bludgeoning, and slashing damage at low health, the Warden is very much a case of “You shall attack me, and only me, and I’m going to make it damn difficult for you to kill me”.
So, I had my Strength focused class, I had a high AC due to my natural armour, but what could I do to introduce the light casting element at level 3? This is where my choice of subclass came in: Loreseeker
Loreseeker is Eldritch Knight: Warden Edition, essentially. Limited spell pool from needing to primarily select from Evocation and Abjuration spells, lower number of total spell slots, and Intelligence as the casting stat.
But where Eldritch Knight focuses on using magic for offensive purposes, Loreseeker provides a mix of offense, defense, and the battlefield controlling nature of Warden.
Starting out, any creature I mark using my Warden’s Mark feature has to subtract 1d4 from any saving throw it makes to resist my spells. Following on from that, any creature I mark is teleported to within 5 feet of me (once per short or long rest), allowing me to bring weaker enemies to me for finishing off or give allies a breather from stronger enemies. I straight up get advantage on saving throws against spells at level 13, and my capstone feature at level 20… well, I will post it next to this paragraph and let you make your mind up on how amazing it is.
Backstory
Whilst I am normally one to launch into giving a character an interesting backstory and then expand on their character through the numerous stories that populate this website… I really wanted to have a character where I did not do that. Sir Reginald was originally supposed to be that for the full campaign he was playing in until my writer sense got the better of me the backstory I came up with for the other character worked pretty well.
Despite this, he does have a fairly brief backstory. In connection to his Loreseeker subclass, he is mainly on the hunt for various magic items. Some of these have been chosen as they would enhance his capabilities in combat, some of them are because he wishes to study the arcane craftsmanship within these items.
To this end he was a nomad, not really staying long in one place, until he fell through a Wormhole of Plot ConvenienceTM and ended up in the world of the Raven’s Flight Guild. Understandably still wanting to continue his quest but needing an anchor point in this strange new world, he applied to the guild as a way to find a place to stay, and maybe make some new friends too.
Characterisation
Sir Reginald Valkyrie is a stoic but friendly individual. He takes whatever mission he has accepted from the guild seriously and remains focused in any scenario involving combat to make sure his vigilant eye never strays from his teammates, ensuring their safety above all else.
I joked during the first session that I would be roleplaying him as a single dad, but, the more I think about it, the more I really like this path of development for him. He is fairly old for a Tortle, as much as he is dedicated to his quest there is a certain pleasure for him in lazing around all day with cups of tea, and any low rolls for skill checks I am playing them as “I’m getting too old for the shit”.
In addition to this, I like the idea that he views his fellow guildmates as a different sort of found family. Rather than seeing the rest of the guild as informal siblings, he is happy for the guild to see him as their informal father figure/uncle (with one character in the opening game asking if they could call him “Uncle Reggie”). So whilst the aspect of “I would protect these people with my life” is still present, it is definitely more as a protector than anything else.
Random Details
He is not actually a knight, or any sort of noble. The “Sir” is very much an optional title that he uses to sound more fancy, and does not really care if anyone uses it
Despite this, unless given express permission, you are not to call him “Reggie”. Reggie is reserved for people he wants to call him that.
He is a Tortle for the sole reason of me discovering the race recently due to JoCat’s Crap Guide to D&D Races video and going “I need to play this now”
The “Valkyrie” part of his name and the fact he wields a maul is a reference to RWBY’s Nora Valkyrie, though definitely calmer and not as attuned to lightning (though he does know Shocking Grasp)
Conclusion
That is a brief introduction to the character of Sir Reginald Valkyrie, who I hope to go on many adventures more with. Maybe at some point I will write a more detailed backstory for him, but at this moment in time, it does not really matter much to me. He is a big friendly turtle with a simple style of fighting: be strong, and hit stuff.
And it is entirely because I am fully blocked up when it comes to writing, even running the 10 minute rule is not helping the creativity start flowing.
Not for lack of ideas, considering I have:
Two Marieya stories in the works
A backstory and an in-depth build analysis of an upcoming character
A Blaze story
Literally any of the stupid homebrew subclasses I have created I could talk about
But yeah, I am really struggling to get creative right now and it honestly fucking sucks, cause the ideas are there but I just can’t get anything consistent out, and if I try forcing it out the quality of the work declines and my self-esteem about my work falls too.
Something proper will come out eventually, just need more time to sort things out.
It is currently 8:06pm on Sunday 28th March, and because of a fairly busy work week I have not got anything more in-depth prepared for this week’s article.
And then I realised, I have never really talked about one of my favourite hobbies on this site yet: cosplay.
So, I figured that when it comes to weeks when I am not able to put out something substantial like an original story or a case study on one of my characters, instead I can put my infinitely growing cosplay list into something quick and easy to write as I give three characters I want to cosplay along with what they mean to me.
With that preamble out of the way, let us begin.
KDA Ahri (All Out) – League of Legends
Although I said this will include what characters mean to me… it is actually quite difficult for me to elaborate on that for League of Legends characters, as I do not and have no interest to play the game itself. So, why Ahri?
For a start, I would be lying if I said that I was not heavily into the videos and songs put out under the KDA banner, which forms the minimum amount of interaction I need to feel comfortable cosplaying from something.
Secondly, the entire aesthetic of the All Out outfits is right up my alley. Holographic fabrics and styles, whilst difficult to integrate into an everyday wardrobe, are insanely fun for standing out in the crowd and looking like a glamourous disco ball.
The asymmetry of Ahri’s outfit is also surprisingly pleasing for me. The bodice has the one long sleeve with the crystal decoration on the shoulder contrasted by the short fingerless glove with crystals embedded into it, and the skirt is half of a circle skirt in holographic fabric with a more ruffled translucent piece of fabric adding a nice bit of swish to it all.
Plus, blonde hair with pink ombre? Perfection.
Marnie – Pokemon Sword/Shield
Now I can actually get into a character where there is some emotional investment into them. For all of the continuing issues I have with Sword & Shield, the characters and writing are not going to be one of them.
Whilst I have an appreciation for all of the rivals in game for various reasons, Marnie’s motives really made me feel for her, to the point of pondering to myself: “Can I just let her win the League? She deserves it more than me.”
Simply wanting to bring pride to her slightly neglected hometown carries a lot more weight than most previous rival backstories and gives context to some of Team Yell’s actions. (NB: I’d be remiss to not mention that I’d totally love to do a Team Yell group cosplay one day, either as a Marnie or cheering on another Marnie.)
As for her design, it is mostly simple, but effective. The only really complex part of her design would be her hair, in my opinion. The fringe and pigtails are simple enough, but the spikes atop those pigtails and the dyed/shaven parts on our-left, her-right would be quite difficult to replicate accurately in a wig.
The dress and jacket would be quite straightforward to find, with 3D-printed accessories and bits filling in the decorations nicely (and would mean I could buy a jacket with decent pockets to use).
Though I would definitely want to splash on some nice boots for Marnie, cause every good punk/goth aesthetic character needs boots that are both comfortable and stylish.
Marieya Ebontide – OC
This is a shock isn’t it? My disaster Shadow Fey cleric I write the most and play the most being on my cosplay list?
But honestly, in the short* time I have been playing Marieya she has become a significant part of my downtime. I am constantly trying to write new stories for her, looking into feats, spells, and equipment she may benefit from later on down the line, and every so often I ask my mate bretticus.llewellyn.art to draw her doing something silly. (Go follow this man, he is a fantastic artist, and is responsible for the art of Marieya you are seeing now)
Marieya would definitely be an outfit I commission a professional seamstress for, as there are many aspects of the outfit that would be difficult to recreate in the exact way I would want them to be.
On the plus side though, the way I have Marieya visualised in art means I would not need to employ much grey body paint, as I specifically made it so she is covered from neck-to-foot, including leather gloves to avoid needing to paint my hands/work with imitation gloves.
I would also request that the base outfit be made not too thick, both so if I wear the outfit with armour I am not overheating due to layering, and so that if I do need to be warmer, I can get a design where Marieya has a cute winter coat to wear.
Conclusion
Three cosplans out of a list that grows every single week. Expect more of these in the future, especially as the amount of work I need to do during the week ramps up.
Feats are one of my personal favourite mechanics in Dungeons and Dragons. Whilst the humble Ability Score Improvement is the most practical way to enhance a character, they can often feel boring in comparison to the diverse character building opportunities that feats bring. This is especially true when considering how versatile a feat can be when applied to different character concepts, with some of my favourite versatile feats being described below.
Skill Expert/Practiced Expert
Recently added in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Skill Expert can be an option for those who wish to improve their proficiencies without wanting to commit to the three skills/tools offered by the Skilled feat.
Skill Expert allows a one point increase in any stat, which gives players greater choice over which modifier they may want to upgrade with this feat. They can also gain proficiency in one skill of their choice, which does not have to be specific to the ability score they increased, giving more flexibility over a feat like Resilient.
Finally, the feat allows players to gain expertise (double proficiency bonus) in one skill with which they are already proficient and not already receiving the benefit of expertise, which can be a massive boon in many ways. Those wishing to grapple more in combat can gain a huge advantage by gaining expertise in their Athletics checks, the front of the marching order will always know what is going on with expertise in Perception, or that one player who finds themselves needing to lie the most can protect their sorry behind with expertise in Deception.
A note about the Unearted Arcana feat “Practiced Expert”. It is essentially the same as Skill Expert but instead of being restricted to just skills, you can also choose tools to gain proficiency/expertise in. This does offer more flexibility, but can be quite campaign/character specific depending on what kind of artisans tools characters may be used. And as always with UA, ask your DM first if it is okay to use it.
Resilient
Mentioned previously, Resilient is a very straightforward feat. You pick an ability score to increase by one, and you subsequently gain proficiency in that score’s saving throw.
The limitation of the proficiency being tied to the ability score increase does reduce some of the potential versatility in this feat, gaining proficiency in a saving throw is not to be underestimated.
Casters can have the safety net of improved Constitution saving throws when it comes to rolls made to maintain concentration, frontline characters can strengthen their mental defenses by becoming proficient in Wisdom, Intelligence, or Charisma saving throws.
And of course, the Wizard who is somehow spending a worrying amount of time needing to roll Dexterity saving throws in regard to avoiding their own Fireballs can reduce the amount of damage they take (but not reduce the amount of exasperated sighs from around the table).
Magic Initiate
One of my personal favourite feats and the entire reason I got inspired to write this article. Magic Initiate offers a multitude of ways to upgrade any character due to the lack of prerequisite required, no need to already be a caster or to have a minimum casting stat of the class you wish to steal from.
The 1st-level spell is pretty good though the restriction of only being able to cast it once per long rest does reduce some of the potential in this feat. However that does not mean that thought should not go into which spell is chosen:
Shield of Faith can be a great opening move to a combat or an emergency buff, with the concentration aspect being negligible due to the increased difficulty in getting hit
Magic Missile is good damage in a pinch, either to get a guaranteed kill or to disrupt an enemy’s concentration
Faerie Fire provides a great deal of utility in combat, making any creatures easier to hit with other attacks and giving Rogues more flexibility in how their Sneak Attack is used
Cantrips however are where this feat excels in my opinion. Choosing from the Wizard spell list can give Eldritch Knights and Arcane Tricksters a wider range of cantrips to work from in either offensive or utility contexts, the Ranger can choose from Druid or Cleric cantrip lists without needing to sacrifice their fighting style slot to Druidic Warrior, and most importantly, the Paladin can choose from Sorcerer spell lists to gain access to ranged attacks which are not repeatedly throwing weapons in the hope of hitting something.
Or if you are really feeling adventurous, choose this feat on a Paladin and pick from the Bard spell list. Why? Because using Vicious Mockery and shouting “DEUS VULT” at someone so hard their brain hurts is a wonderful sight.
Conclusion
Feats are awesome, and all of the listed feats above can bring additional interest and development to any D&D character. As always ask your DM if feats are allowed in your game and do not worry if feats do not feel right for you, as mentioned Ability Score Improvements are usually more practical for character progression, but next time you want to do a +1/+1 increase to two stats, go through a list of feats and see if you are willing to sacrifice that second increase for something potentially awesome.
“Situations prompting use of incendiary explosives have been… few and far between,” Blaze said to themselves as they removed the detonator from the aforementioned device, “whilst others may not respect the artistic effort put into these devices, it may be worth deploying a new prototype.”
Whilst the rest of the party slept, being a vect meant all they needed was a four hour recharge period, Blaze was tending to their research notes and bombs, working on preparing new payloads for all sorts of different scenarios.
“If conventional fire-based methods are out of the question, then maybe…”
Copying the written formula for the incendiary bomb, they started changing different values on the flammable compounds, adjusting the strength of the detonation spark that would have ignited the previously used material but would struggle to ignite this less viscous concoction, instead needing a more direct application of heat and/or explosive force.
Pasting this new data into a simulation application on their datapad revealed the results of this breakthrough. The new bomb would disperse a light, flammable oil in the same radius that the previous bomb did, unable to cause any direct damage but enhancing any abilities or weapons that use fire as their primary damage method.
“Well, that’s the issue of direct incendiaries out of the way, but… there’s more potential in the base device, I know it.”
Switching back over to the original explosive, Blaze ran a simulation and watched carefully how the fire interacted around foes hiding in cover. Although the fire was able to eventually spread across the cover if it was flammable, the main reagent was unable to go past any obstacles.
“So, if I take the primary detonation method, and then add… pellets…”
Leaning over some alchemy supplies and reading instructions off their datapad, they were able to synthesise a large number of rubber pellets, bouncy enough to ricochet around any obstacles but still hard enough to deliver concussive force strong enough to render foes unconscious.
“Anita does always say there is no profit in murder.”
And as if on cue, Anita Grimm herself appeared. A Cabal field agent with aspirations of semi-freelance soul brokering, she was often the one needing to clean up the social messes that the others had got themselves into, using her much sharper wit to diffuse situations and work others to her advantage. “Oh, you’re still up?” she said, her tone indicating an initially restless start to her own sleep.
“If I have no need of sleep other than my recharge period, I may as well advance my research,” Blaze said in response, finishing off the simulations of the new rubber pellet bomb, “if you need a pick-me-up there’s a couple cans of Krash in my toolkit.”
The investigator stared at the vect in shock, wondering how this sociopathic demolitionist had survived so long in the universe, “you keep… energy drink… next to your bomb materials?”
“Correct, do not worry yourself though, I have only had one accident where I used Krash instead of a reagent, and all that happened was a smell of burning sugar alongside some wasted Krash.”
“But… but…” Anita said, becoming more incredulous at the situation, “you’re a Vect! You don’t need to eat or drink! Why do you drink so much Krash?”
“Remnant of a past job,” Blaze said, reaching and cracking open another can, “I used to be the sales representative to the Avia-Ra Holy Lands when the Krash company was expanding into that territory.”
There was a pause.
“It didn’t go well, and I was let go from the company. Before I left though they allowed me to take as much Krash as I wanted as part of my severance package.”
Anita sighed deeply, before asking a question she knew she was going to regret. “And how much of that Krash do you have left?”
There was another pause.
“Approximately three-hundred-thousand-and-forty-two cans in multiple safehouses and hidden caches across the ‘Verse.”
A long silence hung between the vect and the human, with the latter completely failing to process both the implications of a construct lifeform getting addicted to a mass-produced energy drink, and the logistics of storing that much energy drink across such a wide area. Blaze continued to work on their final new bomb prototype as a novel idea entered into Anita’s mind.
Consulting her grimoire of rituals she flipped pages until she reached the arcane process of protecting technology: the antivirus spell. Muttering quickly to herself the words of power and weaving sigils in the air gently until the spell was complete, a faint shroud of binary surrounding Blaze for a brief moment.
They stopped their work, staring into their toolkit for a moment, contemplating how much Krash they had drunk over the years and how unhealthy a habit it was. There was a lot for Blaze to think about…
…and they decided to mull these things over with a can of Krash.
Realising that her potential fix had backfired on her spectacularly, Anita sighed before retiring to another part of the ship to finish her infernal paperwork. Meanwhile, the moment of pause had given Blaze inspiration for a prototype.
“Krash is a container of energy, where the metabolic process dispenses this energy over a period of time. If I take this theory and apply it to this…”
Opening up a piece of design software on their datapad, Blaze began going through iterative designs of a capacitor that could be integrated into the detonation mechanism of a bomb, eventually being able to plug this new electrical explosive into the simulation program, revealing the added benefit of the electric discharge numbing the reaction times of any potential foes.
“New bomb designs complete, will fabricate two potions in case of emergency and then I shall retire with the new combat simulation running.”
Unlike the scientific process Blaze uses to develop new bombs, the process for creating potions was remarkably simple and only took about twenty minutes all told to complete the brewing.
Packing away their equipment neatly, they then sat comfortably in their chair and entered into the powered down recharge state, leaving enough power to be aware of the surroundings and to run the combat simulation program. Over the course of four hours the program ran until the in-built criteria were met, and Blaze was comfortable with the weapons training they had received.
“I may have had to temporarily retire the incendiary device… but no one has yet forbade me from using a plasma launcher…”
Inspiration
Blaze recently reached level four in the campaign they are played in (unrelated, this is why the entry number is what it is, 04 for level, 10/03/21 being the date of the session) and this unlocked a lot of great potential for the mad bomber.
Blaze is an Alchemist, which means at level 4 in addition to getting their first Ability Score Improvement they also gain access to the unique mechanic of “Discoveries”. Think of them like Eldritch Invocations for an Intelligence-based class, and you unlock two of your choice at level four.
I knew for definite I wanted to get the “Battle Training” discovery (martial weapon and shield proficiency) right away, not so much for shields, but for all the cool martial weapons that are contained within the Dark Matter book. Picking the second discovery was a bit more difficult, as I originally had my heart set on “Grenadier”, which allows for a bonus action weapon attack if your main action was throwing a bomb.
But, as I looked both through the discovery list and the bomb formulae list, I started to realise I could start to build Blaze towards being a multipurpose character for the time being, and using a greater variety of bombs would allow for this versatility. So, I ended up taking the “Ballistics Research” discovery, which grants me two additional bomb formulae, and gave me the first part of my title.
The other major aspect of this story is adding detail into why Blaze, a Vect with no need to eat or drink, has an addiction to the Dark Matter energy drink called Krash. Initially I started this as a joke with one of Blaze’s many past jobs being an energy drink sales representative, though I eventually went into it a bit more with them drinking it whenever they are idle or needing to work.
And because Blaze is where I roleplay someone a bit more ridiculous, the joke about having these caches of energy drink hidden all over the place came naturally.
Anita did indeed try to cast Antivirus on Blaze in effort to alleviate their energy drink problem, but, it is far too ingrained into the ideal that is Blaze to ever be solved so simply.
So, there is no new actual content today because I started my first ever full time job this time last week.
Won’t go into too much detail (partially for conciseness, partially to avoid potential contract violations by saying too much) but I’m working in functional Quality Assurance (QA) testing for Codemasters. After some difficulty during induction and getting things set up, I was able to properly get into the groove of things and really enjoy my working days.
However, I have gone from being a layabout NEET who writes on impulse to a 40 hour work week, and that has very much acted as a shock to my system in the best way possible. I’m reliably getting up at regular times, I feel accomplished at the end of the day as I start to relax, I’m drinking more water at work which is doing wonders for my skin and system as opposed to the energy drink cocktails I was downing before.
But also, when I’ve been clocking off at the end of the day this week I’ve been so worn out that my creative juices just aren’t flowing, and I’ve preferred to spend my time chilling with a hot drink and a couple of films. Not to say I don’t have content ideas planned, it’s just very difficult to clock out of work and attempt to write the kind of content I want to write.
I’ll be doing my best to keep to my schedule of posting every Monday at 9:30am GMT, but the kind of content that will be outputted is going to vary drastically for about a month or so.
Once I’m fully settled into my routine though, the personal satisfaction I now have from my job will inspire me to greater heights.
Rosalia Rambles 