Est. Read Time: 35min
This Month's Font: Itim
Phew! We made it! January felt like it was four months long, but we made it to the end. And look at me! Getting a blog post up by my self-appointed deadline! Granted, it's MUCH later in the day than I would have liked, but still! Baby steps!
Along those lines, how do we feel about LycoRogue's Reading Corner? I have to admit, I did not anticipate that post being a 45min read! Glad I decided to break that off of my main posts. These "writing progress" updates would be at least hour-long chunkers if I hadn't split off my chats about what I'm reading! Which, honestly, is probably a not-so-small factor towards me managing to hit my deadline today. Which was part of the point of me creating LRRC in the first place. Also, added bonus that I somehow didn't consider... having to update my blog every two weeks is keeping me writing, which is getting the creative juices flowing again! I'll get to that in a minute.
Circling back real quick to LRRC. While I can never be certain anymore if any likes/views I get are actual humans or bots (man, I hate the advent of online bots....), my belated December update that I published at the beginning of the month had 30 views as of this writing. Whereas my inaugural LRRC post had 40 views! So, maybe you all DO prefer to read about what stories I'm consuming????
I hope at least SOME of you are still here to see if I've made any sort of writing progress.
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Assuming that you ARE here to see if I've made any advancements in my writing endeavors, I actually have a couple of things to talk about!
To start, love is still pouring in for You Pretended Not to Care and I Think I Like You (Maybe More Than I Should). Did my writing improve that much since May 2023? I'm so confused as to why these two stories - specifically ITILY - are still being found and liked but nearly all of my other stories fall into obscurity 3 months after I've published them. Exception being Woven Heartstrings.
This is why I'm so wary of bots. I haven't really gotten comments in a while, so are these stories ACTUALLY being discovered and read by humans still? Or did bots find me??? I really wish I knew without having to lock my stories so only AO3 users can read them. I don't want to have to put up that wall against my family, who probably don't have AO3 accounts and have no desire to get one specifically for my writing.....
Thoughts? Especially if you ARE a member of my family. Do you have an AO3 account anyway for other fandom reads? Are you willing to get one so you can keep reading my stories? Have you already gotten one to read my stories??? Should I just go ahead and lock my stories against non-AO3 members because you're not reading my fanfics anyway????
(that last one would be wild to find out, but I'm also half-expecting it???)
Shifting away from fanfiction for a bit, but leaning harder into nerd culture: D&D.
A member of our D&D playgroup works for the USPS. Obviously, end of November through January is a BUSY time for him. This means we usually break from our twice-monthly sessions during the holidays. Luckily, the first main chapter/story arc of our campaign was able to be completed before our hiatus. We're starting back up again the first Thursday of February.
The story thus far has been (this is gonna take a while, so feel free to skip ahead if you aren't particularly interested):
Many years ago, in an age long forgotten, many races lived together on The Continent. However, due to a cataclysmic event lost to history, the other races vanished, leaving only humans and whispers of magic. Races such as the Fae or Elves or Dwarves are known, but only via folklore, tall tales, and children's stories. Same goes for the more fantastical creatures: Dragons, owlbears, imps, etc.
The Estrean Empire rose from the chaos of humans recovering from their loss of a connection to magic. The Continent had been at peace for generations now. One way the imperial family maintained this peace was the annual Unity Celebration known as the Parade of Princes. Each of the nine kingdoms within the empire had a turn hosting this event, rotating every year. This year, the northwest kingdom of Benac played host to the week-long festival.
During this festival, "elderly" (in his 40s) radish farmer Jacob went to the kingdom's capital of Bell Hollow with his nephew in an attempt to sell his crops. Sailor Jack assisted his captain and a portion of his shipmates as they brought the shipment of goods for the festival inland (their ship has a conversion option that allows it to drive on land). Belly-dancer Fulgara made her way to the festival at the capital in hopes of busking; entertaining the masses there for the Parade of Princes. Clueless small-town girl Aubrianne had recently went out into the world to try to learn as much as she could on her otherwise aimless pilgrimage. It was only natural that she would take this opportunity to actually attend the Parade.
Despite citizens already setting up booths and making themselves merry for a day or two prior to the adventurers making it into the city, the festival didn't officially kick off until the next day, with the titular Parade of Princes.
The crown prince from each of the 9 kingdoms that made up the empire traveled to Benac in order to participate in a showcase. They had a literal parade, but then had a mini tournament. A display of strength as they dueled each other in a bracketed tournament. During this showcase, Aubrianne formed a bit of a crush on Benson Foxley, the strong and honorable crown prince of the northeast coastal kingdom of Foxley.
There was then an obstacle course set up for citizens to try out in order to win prizes. None of the adventurers managed to make it to the end, but they still won consolation prizes. Aubrianne's was a giant wineskin roughly the size of a sleeping bag and filled with vinegar. Yay....
During the events of that day, Jacob, Jack, Fulgara, and Aubrianne gravitated to each other. That evening, Jacob offered for his new friends to join him at a "secret party" that his nephew was DJing at.
Yes. They went to an underground club, which was literally underground.
There, Aubrianne had a cryptic interaction with a man in a smiling radish mask (we the players knew this was Jacob's nephew disguised for his primary career of powdered-radish drug dealer.... and the mask in question is basically what the DJ Marshmello wears, but a radish instead of marshmallow). On the other side of the party, Fulgara ended up hooking up with a party-boy crown prince! I can't recall if it was Prince Lewis from Zaynith or Prince Simon from Kalzorien. I THINK it was Lewis??? Either way, Fulgara had a one-night-stand with a crown prince who had a bit TOO good of a time at the underground club!
The next day was one of the main annual events of the Parade of Princes: fortune telling for the upcoming year. A row of fortune-teller tents lined one of the capital's parks, and guests were welcomed to spend the day going to get their fortunes read. Unbeknownst to the royal family who set up the event, Fae managed to secretly return to The Continent, however briefly. They set up their tent and lured to them The Prophesied Heroes: Jacob, Jack, Fulgara, and Aubrianne.
Each party member was shown a mirror; a gorgeous (or sometimes twisted) Fae version of themselves reflected back. They were then each given a portion of The Prophesy.
The four newly-formed friends bonded further as they discussed the oddity of their fortune telling experiences. Especially when the tent they had all gone to abruptly vanished. During their discussion, they realized they each had a portion of a whole prophesy, and pieced them together:
Upon the Night of Omens, when the stars fall from the sky, the Nightmare Tyrant shall be freed.
That Which Never Sleeps shall reign until the Silver Fox lies in blood and light becomes shadow.
The Lord of Nightmares cannot be slain until the Black Cat rests upon the tomb and the Golden Scepter is broken.
In the Labyrinth of Mist, when blades pierce the sky and the Black Gate opens, the Palace of Dreams shall be revealed.That very night ended up being the prophesied Night of Omens.
The night sky filled with unfamiliar stars (the fae-world's constellations instead of the normal ones). A halo of prismatic light surrounded the moon. A cloud shaped like a crown appeared in the sky. Then came the prophesied "stars falling from the sky": a meteor shower, but the meteorites were still the size of boulders when they landed.
While Aubrianne and Fulgara tried to help with the panic and chaos within the walls of Bell Hollow, Jack and Jacob had wandered out of town, noticed the bizarre stars, and then were ambushed by a group of bandits. They survived, and hurried back into town to warn about the bandits trying to take advantage of the chaos the star shower was causing. The group raced to the castle to try to warn the king.
The castle was already destroyed between the raiders and the crashing meteorites. The group pushed their way through the castle in an attempt to find surviving members of royalty, as well as vanquish the raiding bandits.
Sadly, the king and queen had already been executed. The crown prince Athas was fatally wounded by the time the adventurers caught up to him, and they promised him they would protect the rest of his family best they could.
By the end of the horrid night, the castle was cleared out of the bandits - whom they later discovered were working for Nightmare Tyrant cultists - and Prince Athas' family was rescued. Aubrianne said a prayer over the deceased. Athas' widow and two children grieved both him and his parents. Athas' younger brother Prince Ashton accepted the weight of the crown, with his sister Sybil and his brother's widow (I don't think she was ever named! Whoops!) as Ashton's main advisors.
Ashton pleaded for the adventurers to go to the emperor and seek help. They were given a letter of introduction from Ashton - which also announced the passing of the king, queen, and crown prince of Benac and consequential crowning of Ashton - and then sent on their way.
On their journey, they were ambushed by cultists of the Nightmare Tyrant, who were assisted by fae beings. The party was able to wipe out the cultists, but not before our first casualty. One of the fae creatures managed to engulf Fulgara in flames so hot they cremated her on the spot! Devastated, Aubrianne gathered as much of the ashes as she could in order to bury her companion. The party then collected whatever of Fulgara's surviving belongings they wished to keep as mementos, and buried the rest with their former owner.
Pushing forward, they suffered another ambush. This time, they survived with the assistance of a random traveler. A warrior raised by a hermit that was obsessed with the Nightmare Tyrant prophecy: Ignerra. After the Night of Omens, the hermit sent Ignerra out to find the Prophesied Heroes and assist them in preventing the Tyrant's return to the material plane. She lucked out in guessing that they would be on their way to the Empire's capital of Rustminster.
As they neared Rustminster, they were shocked to see the city untouched by the shooting stars during the Night of Omens. That is, until they discovered that the imperial family had an army of mages in their employ, and said mages had put up an illusion to hide the devastation to the capital; a way to try to project power, strength, and security. In reality, a little over a third of the city was demolished, and both the emperor (called the "Grand King" within Estrean) and the empress ("grand queen") were killed during the disaster. Crown prince Trey Blackwell is the new Grand King (emperor).
Thanks to both King Ashton's letter and the party showing their copy of The Prophecy, they were granted an audience with Grand King Trey. As a member of the imperial family, he knew more than most about the Nightmare Tyrant and the prophesy. The imperial family had an ancient tome that talked about it. Luckily, it was sent to the southwestern kingdom of Zaynith for preservation and restoration efforts just before the Night of Omens, so it wasn't damaged/destroyed by the chaos of that evening's attacks and natural disasters. Grand King Trey then charged the party to follow the prophecy and end the Nightmare Tyrant.
The party was sent off to the technologically advanced kingdom of Zaynith. This is where Jack's captain had purchased his ship that could convert to drive on land. As such, despite Zaynith's capital of Mustelidae Bay being a "port city", it is actually land-locked. Ships drive in and out of the capital and sail out of the actual bay roughly 20 miles south.
Zaynith made up for the loss of magic by investing in technology. Think a steampunk version of Wakanda. Due to this, they were able to survive the Night of Omens with minimal damage after managing to encase the capital city in a physical shielded dome shortly after the first meteorites fell.
The tome the adventurers needed was still being restored and wouldn't be ready for nearly a week. The royal family offered to house the adventurers while they waited. Not heroes by trade - with the exception of Ignerra - the party was glad to get a few days rest and catch their breath.
They opted to go on a week-long tour of the city via a tour group. Their first day was to the Wonka-esque confectionary shop: Serafina's Sweets. A fantastical trip where all members found at least one magical goodie to indulge in.
Their second day was much more eventful, but much less whimsical. They opted to tour the automaton factory. At one point, they were ambushed by more of the cultists that had inevitably killed Fulgara. The party was split up, and Jack was tossed onto the production line.
As the automated production line continued its work to build automatons unimpeded, poor Jack had metal painfully grafted onto his limbs, chest, and most of his face! Miraculously, Jack survived the torturous procedure, and managed to finish off the last of the cultists attacking his companions.
The next day, as the party left their respective rooms at the inn, they were collectively teleported to a fantastical land. They had somehow managed to shift into the Fae plane. Yet again, they were ambushed. This time by a troop of assassins lead by one of the Nightmare Tyrant's lieutenants.
The party took out the assassins and managed a mortal blow against the lieutenant. He retreated, and the adventurers quickly did the same. Hiding inside a cave, they set up traps to signal for intruders before taking a rest to recover. Aubrianne used Fulgara's zills to create a noise when the trap was tripped.
When the party woke up they were all back in their rooms at the inn. Each had a present waiting for them in the center of their room. Anything no longer on their person when they went to bed was left behind in the Fae plane. Aubrianne grieved losing one of Fulgara's mementos.
While the other party members received magical items for their gifts - Aubrianne received a cloak that adds to her armor, for instance - Jacob was gifted a rabbit. This magical bunny - a harengon - became the druid's faithful animal companion Thabbit. A companion capable of the reverse to the normal druidic feat of Wild Shape. Instead of the druid being able to transform into an animal, Jacob's harengon is able to transform into a humanoid form in order to attack. More specifically, the harengon transformed into a standard rabbit upon entering the material plane, but can shift back into his normal form via this reverse Wild Shape.
Since Thabbit is a rogue when he shifts - and the play group is also made mostly of Pokémon nerds - we all basically headcanon that he looks like the pokémon Raboot when he's in his humanoid form.
Official Pokemon Art Now armed with an unofficial fifth party member, the group returned to the travel agency to get fully refunded for the tour... ya know... because of Jack being mutilated and nearly killed....
The party was then summoned to the location the tome was being restored. It seemed unbelievably small at first, only for there to be a plane-shift inside the building. Think Doctor Who and the "bigger on the inside" TARDIS. The party then met the Zaynith royal family's lead advisor: Iris Stone. She explained the concept of the multiple planes of existence and how the more magical races (Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, etc) and creatures (dragons, etc) all left the material plane (where the adventurers live), moving instead to the Fae plane. Iris never heard of humans unintentionally shifting planes though. Usually they would need some sort of nexus point and device, like Iris did for her lab/the restoration location for the tome.
Tome in hand, the adventurers were directed to the eastern kingdom of Ambermoor, where they would find the hidden monks of The Hallowed Cavern within the kingdom's thick mountain range. While Zaynith was able to physically restore the tome, no one there could read the ancient language. Only these monks could translate what the adventurers needed to know.
Naturally, the adventurers had a perilous journey of ambushes and dangerous encounters, but they managed to find the path leading them to the monks. Only for their path to be blocked by sentient scarecrows. Oddly enough, these dang scarecrows nearly party-wiped us! They were hard to damage and there was a raging river conveniently there for them to drown us in! By the skin of their teeth, however, they all managed to survive.
The whole encounter reminded me of when Hubby ran his last campaign and Kriv's party was nearly wiped by a dang Rug of Smothering, aka "Murder Rug".
After getting past the scarecrows, the party had to navigate a cave. Jacob had recently come across a weapon that would randomly cast wild magic whenever he used it. Basically, mana is released with no real direction and the chaos of nature creates something random with it. On more than one occasion this has caused Jacob to temporarily have a prehensile tail and/or tentacles for arms, for instance. While in the cave, Jacob's wild magic created a horse. Both Aubrianne and Ignerra instantly bonded with the horse.
Then Jacob sent the horse ahead of them down a tunnel, the horse couldn't see its way in the dark, and instantly ran off a cliff and fell hundreds of feet down into the Underdark (a subterranean world where Dark Elves (Drow) and other such "evil" creatures tend to dwell). Basically, The Depths from Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
A few more near party-wipe encounters later, the adventurers make their way through the cavern and to the steps leading towards the temple of The Hallowed Cavern monks! The stairway was lined by numerous waterfalls. Each step up shifted them between different planes. It was like when America and Dr. Strange transported through multiple universes in Multiverse of Madness.
At the top of the stairs, the temple was housed on an elevated island, as if it were the narrow peak of a tall mountain rising up from the Underdark. All around the island, pouring down the disconnected cavern walls roughly 50ft from the island's boarder, were more of those waterfalls that had lined the stairway. Each waterfall a window into another world. Each one reflecting that other world - that other plane of existence - in their waters. The temple was housed on one of those plane nexus points that Iris had talked about.
The monks agreed to translate the tome for them, but they would need a few days to do so. Aubrianne was nervous that they were probably under a world-ending time crunch, but there really wasn't any way to rush things. The rest of the party gladly accepted this chance to rest and recover.
Jacob planted radishes to make himself feel more at home. We'll see if that amounts to anything later....
While exploring around the temple, Ignerra amused herself by looking at the surrounding waterfalls and peeking in on the other planes of existence. She then made the mistake of looking too long into the mirrorverse waterfall, and her counter nearly killed her. After witnessing this happen, Aubrianne quickly learned to be wary of reflections, especially of herself.
The text finally translated, the monks informed the party that their temple was actually built above the Labyrinth of Mist that was in the prophecy. No one could safely navigate the labyrinth because there were many entry points, but most led to dead-ends. Only one entry way had a through-path to the Black Gate. Thanks to the tome, the monks were able to decipher which entrance was the correct one.
Even so, the party was still in a labyrinth. One that kept us about a half-dozen sessions and over 2 real-world months to make our way through! Mostly because we had to 100% the labyrinth in order to gather everything we needed: 3 pieces to a statue and 5 ornate swords.
After finding everything we needed - and nearly dying a handful of times - the party discovered the room with the Black Gate! It wouldn't open until the adventurers could unlock it. They rebuilt the statue in that room, and it directed them to the night sky painted across the ceiling.
In the Labyrinth of Mist, when blades pierce the sky and the Black Gate opens, the Palace of Dreams shall be revealed.We needed to figure out which slots out of dozens within the ceiling mural made up the lock for the Black Gate, and insert the ornate swords into them in the right order! To prevent "brute forcing" this puzzle, each incorrect slot would violently hurl the inserted sword back down to the floor. The poor party got pretty beaten up before sorting out the puzzle....
Generated by Bitmoji Stupidly, once they figured it out, they didn't actually open the Black Gate. Instead, they looked at the map Jacob and Jack were tag-team drawing, and noticed some holes. They had gone this far to completing it! Might as well check out the whole thing. They excitedly found a treasure room as part of the unmapped portion of the labyrinth!
Well... earlier in their adventure (I can't even remember when), Ignerra had found the "unbreakable arrow of Aziel (goddess of war)". She had used it for something other than ammo - figured it would make a good crowbar while opening a chest - and it snapped. Seemed it was only "unbreakable" if it was used properly, and it snapped as punishment for abusing it???
Upon entering the treasure room, Jack discovered the partner bow to the arrow. As soon as he touched it, the broken arrow still in Ignerra's inventory repaired itself, teleported to the bow, nocked itself, and then fired at Ignerra. Before the party could react, Ignerra was smited by the vengeful goddess as punishment for abusing and misusing her gift to the world.
We were all in shock (and I do mean WE - the players, as well as the characters). There wasn't even a body to try to revive or bury. Ignerra vanished in an explosion of light!
Taking that as their cue that their priorities needed to be recalibrated, the rest of the party rushed back to the Black Gate.
Upon opening it, they were again ambushed by the Nightmare Tyrant's lieutenant and a new squad of assassins. It was a tough battle. Especially when we were down one party member. Each one of us briefly fell, only to be revived by our partymates. After a fierce battle, the heroes managed to kill everyone. Including the lieutenant!
Now the party had time to rest, recoup, and grieve the loss of their second fallen comrade.
And the players had FIVE WHOLE LEVELS to advance our characters! We didn't level the entire labyrinth, so Hubby had us do all of our leveling afterwards. Upon leveling up Aubrianne, we discovered that I actually have Divine Intervention now! She can call upon her deity for help once per long (8hr) rest, as long as her deity doesn't actually answer her prayers. If they do, then there's a week-long cooldown before she can even attempt to try to call on her deity again.
Collectively, we knew what Aubrianne would do upon sensing this new level of connection with her deity: Legali of the Mask; God of Death (which, honestly, I'm surprised he'd ever answer since Aubrianne mistakenly believes herself a cleric of Zabaltha of the Candle; Goddess of Life, and therefore would be praying to HER). Regardless, Aubrianne prays for the return of Ignerra. It was a deity that smited her, maybe another deity could placate the angered goddess and return their felled companion. If nothing else but to give the Prophesied Heroes a fighting chance to stop the Nightmare Tyrant.
And... IT WORKED! Ignerra is back! And more powerful than ever (she was also able to level up to Level 10 like the rest of us).
Now two out of four pieces of the prophecy have happened. The party is now lost on the Fae plane as they head to the Palace of Dreams. We still have to decipher the second half of the prophecy, though:
That Which Never Sleeps shall reign until the Silver Fox lies in blood and light becomes shadow.
The Lord of Nightmares cannot be slain until the Black Cat rests upon the tomb and the Golden Scepter is broken.
Wish us luck! We at least know that "the Silver Fox" refers to one of the Nightmare Tyrant's generals, and that he's trying to revive the Tyrant. See, we also learned that when the Tyrant first attacked The Continent, no one could defeat him. So, in a classic fantasy trope, mages instead banished the Tyrant. However, they feared that he was still too powerful, so they sacrificed much to be able to separate the Tyrant from his mana/magical power. The Tyrant is locked away in the Palace of Dreams on the Fae plane, but his mana is somehow housed in this limbo between the Fae and Material planes.
Let's see how the back half of this campaign goes!
All of that was months - even years - ago, though. And it was collaborative story writing mostly directed by Hubby. How does this relate to MY writing?
Well, for one, I'm obviously part of this collaborative storytelling. For two, who knows where the story will go next, and I like relaying over a recap of the past 20 months of roleplaying (well... 14 months if you take out our winter hiatuses). You might be entertained to know our campaign plot, and it's a nice refresher for me before we go into the next leg of our campaign.
For three, our playgroup was ready and itching to start D&D back up earlier this month. Hubby, however, was not quite ready yet. So, I decided to step in.
The Actual Play D&D group Hubby and I follow - Oxventure - had a couple of one-shot sessions that looked so much fun. The concept? Every player character is a Kobold.
Pretty much every D&D player knows what a kobold is. Along with "rats", kobolds are introductory monsters to throw at the party. As described by the D&D Monster Manual: "Kobolds are craven reptilian humanoids that commonly infest dungeons. They make up for their physical ineptitude with a cleverness for trap making."
Most notably, kobolds only have five hit-points and have an armor class of 12 (you need to roll 12 or higher on a 20-sided die to hit them). In other words: easy to hit, easy to kill.
The fun of "Everyone's a Kobold" is the knowledge that the characters are going to die easily and frequently, and then the player will just get a new kobold to run as the adventure continues.
When Oxventure ran their first two-hour-long "Everyone's a Kobold" one-shot the party of 5 collectively lost something like 28 kobolds.
When I ran my version for roughly the same length, I only lost 3 kobolds.... I definitely went easy on the group, and now I don't want to kill off the surviving kobolds if/when we do another Kobold one-shot! I'm attached, OKAY!?
That said, as I mentioned, part of the fun of Everyone's a Kobold is the rotation of new kobolds as player characters die. It seemed that Luke - who was DMing for Oxventure - might have had a Kobold Generator of some sort for his first go, but I couldn't find one myself despite spending nearly a full day searching.
Alternatively, for their second go at Everyone's a Kobold, since it was a live show, they had the audience write up Kobold names and matching epithet. While I couldn't ask my players to do that for me, I liked the idea of having a pre-made "Kobold Machine" you could pull a new character from. I pre-made a 100-kobold "Gacha Machine". A list of 100 of these little dudes: name and epithet. I then had the players roll a d100 to randomly select their kobold from the list.
Now that our first game is over, I'm going to pull the used kobolds and "refill" my Kobold Gachapon in preparation for our next kobold one-shot.
Kobold Gacha Machine metaphorically built and filled, I then made up reusable character sheets. It has the kobold base stats and a spot for the player to write down their current kobold and any extra notes that they might have. I then "redneck laminated" the sheets by covering them with clear contact paper. That way they can write on them with dry erase markers. Brilliant move! Glad Hubby suggested it for me.
I also looked again at that description from the Monster Manual: "They make up for their physical ineptitude with a cleverness for trap making." I needed to give my players a way to really utilize this trait. So, I gave them the "Flashback" mechanic from Scum & Villainy. Each new kobold that the players run gets one instance to "flashback" in order to come up with a trap that was already there prior. A trap that maybe the enemies would trip or a device that the kobolds could use to help them.
During the session, Hubby was the only one to remember this feature, and used his Flashback to create a pit-trap for the adventurers to fall into, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
OK, so I had the Kobold stats. While there's separate stats and mechanics specifically for when you run a kobold as a player character, we were running these kobolds as if they were the enemies adventurers have to deal with. Base stats work best.
They were then given this new mechanic: Flashback.
I then looked at the epithets. The members of Oxventure are entertainers, YouTubers, and improvisers. They had fun getting these epithets and letting that inform them of their character, how to play them, and what kooky antics their kobold might get into. Our play group, however, is not quite the same level of creative or as gifted at improv. So, why not give them a little help? Each epithet meant that kobold was more skilled at something than their comrades.
Cool! So the kobold names and epithets were generated, Flashback was added to the stats and skills, and I came up with bonuses for the players when they ran each specific kobold (well... I started to, at least, I'll loop back to that). Now to figure out what adventure they were actually going to go on....
I didn't want to steal wholesale what Oxventure did as if it were a module, for no other reason than Hubby had watched those adventures with me. He'd know the various plot beats built into the adventure, and it just wouldn't seem as exciting as if he went in blind. I couldn't think of an adventure where the kobolds weren't just easily slaughtered, either. I mean, part of the fun of the game concept is watching your kobold die and getting a replacement to play, but if it's an undefeatable massacre, it's less fun....
So, I needed something that would be challenging, but not necessarily deadly.
Oxventure's first go at this concept had a group of adventurers invading the kobolds' home. The adventuring party were uncharacteristically non-aggressive towards the kobolds due to one member being a bit of a passivist. She wanted to see if she could treat the kobolds like "locals" that could maybe lead the party through the cave network, and convinced the rest of the party to not be as aggressive against the kobolds. The players still lost over 20 kobolds by the end of the session because of various shenanigans where some accidentally killed themselves and others were killed when the adventurers' patients ran thin and began to attack. The kobolds always had a way to win against the adventurers though.
I kept those thoughts tucked in the back of my mind: "Have a reason why the adventuring party wouldn't just default to being aggressive against the kobolds, and have a win condition for the kobolds despite many of them potentially dying."
I pondered the second Oxventure foray into the kobold game. For this one, the dragon the kobolds worshipped was feeling ill; possibly dying! They needed to find a specific leaf to help her recover. However, they're kobolds. They live in a cave network. They don't know one leaf from another. They have to venture out into the woods and hope they find the right leaf. The encounters here are all optional. Some sleeping bears they might be able to sneak past. Hunters and hunting traps they could avoid. Humans within a nearby village they could skirt around. Each presents an opportunity to kill off more kobolds in fun and unique ways, or they could be dangers future kobolds can avoid so it's not just an endless slaughter with no actual plot progression.
I liked this, but still wasn't sure what I could do that gave the same vibe.
I went back to the original idea, the one with the adventuring party. Maybe I could work with that. I went ALLLLLL the way back to my college days as I remembered the webcomic and subsequent comic dub of 8-Bit Theater by Nuklear Power.
For those who don't know, Nuklear Power "drew" the comic by grabbing game assets - the character and background sprites - from the 8-bit era Final Fantasy games. This sort of "drawing" comics (known as Sprite Comics) was super big in the early 2000s. As someone with minimal drawing skills, I kind of wished I was able to jump on the sprite comic bandwagon, but I never came up with a story concept before this era of webcomics died off.
Anyway, as stated in the Wikipedia article: "The comic initially follows and parodies the plot of the first Final Fantasy game, following the 'Warriors of Light' who are supposedly on a quest to find four elemental orbs to help them defeat Chaos. Instead, the characters mainly serve their own selfish interests, causing destruction in their wake."
The main characters that make up the "Warriors of Light" are all named based off of the class/job they have: Fighter, Black Mage, Thief, and Red Mage. A group of bumbling buffoons. Fighter is your classic gym-bro meathead. Black Mage is a sarcastic, ultra-violent sadist. Thief is a self-serving opportunist. Red Mage pokes violently at the 4th wall. He doesn't full-on break it, especially since the other characters treat his behavior as delusional, but Red Mage treats the world as if it were a tabletop game, typically rambling off D&D stats or using information provided from a Final Fantasy playthrough guide (although Black Mage does also do the same thing vis a vis the playthrough guide, full-on pulling one out within the first couple of comic strips).
There's also reoccurring characters: White Mage, a kind and competent priestess mastering in healing magic whom Black Mage is infatuated with, and Black Belt, a capable monk and expert martial artist.
The Warriors of Light were my perfect adventuring party. With the exception of Black Mage, who would just blast everyone on sight, the party would be so incompetent that they might not pose a threat to the kobold community!
I mean, I got introduced to the series via someone quoting the lines:
[Black Mage:] "OK, let's think."
[Fighter:] "I like swords."
[Black Mage:] "Correction. I'll think."
I just needed to find a way to rein in Black Mage's tendency to blast everything to kingdom come. Easy! The kind White Mage whom he's pining over. She could play a similar role as the passivist in the Oxventure game. She'll want to be patient and peaceful with the non-threatening kobolds, and Black Mage would begrudgingly resist killing everyone as a way to appease White Mage. Fighter would be too dopey to consider being aggressive except for in retaliation. As a result, Thief would also hold himself back until opportunity struck.
Perfect! I had my group! I even had a reason for them to be in the cave! In the first comic of 8-Bit Theater, when we get introduced to Fighter and Black Mage, Fighter is trying to find the Cave of No Return in order to find the Armor of Invincibility! These idiots will think that the kobolds' cave is the Cave of No Return and that they are hiding the Armor of Invincibility.
Now to create quick character sheets for the adventurers.....
OK, so maybe that's not SO quick for me to do.... even if I did keep them at level 1 or 2.....
I ended up spending so much time working on those character builds and coming up with a plot hook for the players that I never did go back and finish creating stat adjustments to the various kobolds I had prepared.
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Sooooo I had to come up with the new stat blocks on the fly. I had the players roll for their kobold. I would read off the name and epithet. Then I'd ponder for a second or two as to what effected stats would grant a kobold said epithet. I think I did pretty decently for doing this on the fly.
Then the game started. I had them describe the caves to me and had them describe how they were spending their day before the invasion. I even mentioned that the dragon they worshipped - the players chose a green dragon - was currently holed up brooding with her clutch of eggs. My plan was for the adventurers to try to enter the dragon's nest, thinking that's where the armor was, and so the kobolds would have to try to stop the party. As if I were writing a story and the players were my characters... everything pretty much instantly went off the rails!
One of the kobolds, completely clueless as to what "armor of invincibility" would be, said that it was on display within their museum! Yup. Guess this colony of kobolds are advanced enough to have started up a museum! I mean, I did give one of the kobolds the epithet "archeologist" so..... yeah. Museum!
They then bickered back and forth about which direction they needed to go to get to the museum, confusing the party of adventurers. As they made their way, they had to avoid spiked pitfalls, and got ambushed by reanimated skeletons. This was the first big opportunity for the adventurers to show off their power!
Except.... I'm the one who was rolling for them. Me and dice are not the GREATEST of friends.... I rolled too low to do anything for just about all of the adventurers. I just kept laughing. Yes, in the comics, despite being idiotic 99% of the time, the Warriors of Light still managed to hit like TRUCKS. They were almost over-powered when they actually managed to attack something. However, their vast incompetence just felt like it translated properly into my homages by having my versions fail MISSERABLY with every swing.
In the end, the "heroes" were able to take out the skeletons, but it also proved to the players that they MIGHT be able to take down the adventuring party, if needed. Also, it allowed for them to have their kobolds show off a bit, which was fun.
After dealing with various traps throughout the trip, and then the reanimated skeletons, the kobolds managed to bring the adventurers to the museum: random scratchings carved into the cave walls; display of pretty rocks; a notable Kobold club that managed to stay intact after a few uses. That sort of thing.
And, in the center of the museum, a large chunk of metal that had peeled off of a ship, I think? Again, I had my players describe the museum to me (since they ARE the locals). The sheet of metal was impenetrable for the kobolds' weapons, therefore, they believed it to be "invincible". This lead them to believe that this metal must be the "armor of invincibility" that the adventurers were looking for.
Annoyed at everyone for the runaround, Black Mage started raging. Blasting off dangerous spells. Destroying the displays as he attempted to kill the escorting kobolds. They had ducked behind the "armor of invincibility" for safety, and Thief had joined them to also dodge Black Mage's wild attacks.
Eventually, Fighter and White Mage were able to corral Black Mage and escort him back out of the cave. Thief begrudgingly followed the rest of his party, but not before losing a bet against Hubby's kobold, making him the second-richest kobold in their colony after winning a single silver coin.
All-in-all, there were lots of laughs, but barely any deaths! It's to the point where I felt guilty killing off the otherwise full-game survivors during Black Mage's raging. So, I fudged the numbers a bit and let them rest on just one hit point. Give them a fighting chance to survive. AND THEY DID! So, two players had their kobold survive the whole session! For shame on me. I need to go harder on them next time we try this style of one-shot!
In the meantime, how about some somber Hunger Games style memorial canon fire for the fallen?
RIP
- Degdesk the Clown, drowned in a river while trying to hide from the adventuring party
- Dakrid the Archaeologist, shredded by the jagged edges of The Pit after failing to safely jump across it
- Scoker the Protective, decapitated by a reanimated skeleton shortly after writing "Danger" across the chest of another reanimated skeleton
I think I have the makings of a plot hook for the next Kobold One-shot that I'll run. I'm trying to have everything pre-prepped. That way, if Hubby isn't prepared - for whatever reason - for a scheduled campaign session, or if someone has to cancel last minute, I can break out the next Kobold idea so we can still play D&D that night.
Along those lines, however, if any of you have some ideas you want to pitch my way, I'm all ears!
Either way, it was just fun to be the main creative again. To come up with plot hooks and story ideas. I needed that. I didn't need the stress of trying to come up with something by a deadline, but having that deadline - that need to come up with SOMETHING - really helped jumpstart my creative juices!
Naturally, this lead me back to Seduce with Caution.
As you know - especially if you read LycoRogue's Reading Corner - I read a lot of romance stories. A lot of slow burn. A lot of subtle flirting and blushing. Yada yada yada. All of which had me thinking about Marinette and Chat Noir realizing they can't continue ignoring their feelings after an unexpected kiss lean-in.
I have debated for years now whether the two of them should actually kiss before verbally acknowledging their feelings or if they should just lean in for a kiss, only to be interrupted at the last second.
I finally decided on "near kiss".
Something happens. They are caught up in the moment, forgetting everything. They don't think about the fact that they haven't verbalized their feelings yet. All they know is that they are desperate to kiss the other person, and said other person seems just as willing for that kiss. They cautiously lean in. The other person does the same. Their lips are millimeters away from touching. But something stops them! Does one of them come to their senses at the last second and pull away? Are they interrupted? Was the lean-in not meant to be for a kiss????
That last option is courtesy of a trope I've been seeing in those romance stories. The Male Lead (ML) and Female Lead (FL) would have a quiet moment to themselves. FL gets surprisingly vulnerable and open with ML, only to be embarrassed about it and shovels food into her mouth to get herself to shut up. ML, super serious, has her put down the food and leans in close, stroking her cheek. FL freaks out. "Are we about to kiss!?!" she thinks.
Buuuuut, nope. ML simply spotted some food on FL's face by her mouth (on her cheek, next to her lips, on her chin, etc). He wanted to wipe it off for her. Neither party knows why he didn't just point it out for her to get. It's obvious he just wanted an excuse to be that close and to touch her in a more intimate manner. Neither acknowledge that fact.
In the end, I decided to go with "they were interrupted". Although, Aurora Morgen agreed that "shovel food in mouth after embarrassing self" is very much a Marinette-style move. As is "seriously lean in as if to kiss, only to clean off some crumbs" is very much a Chat Noir/Adrien move. Especially if he was intending to kiss her, only to think better of it last second and using the "you had something on your face" as an excuse for the closeness.
So, I may go back and rewrite THAT scene. See which one I like better.
In the meantime, I DID write something!
I had intended to go back and rework MariChat's first night together now that I have more experience under my belt post-You Pretended Not to Care. However, when I opened the story folder I instead focused on the unfinished attempt at that kiss lean-in scene. That's what I had been thinking about for a little while. Why not try to write it out? I even had a basic skeleton that I've been meaning to write for - again - years now.
Roughly when I was first working on SWC, Hubby had us watch Pitch Perfect. Excuse the minor spoiler, but.... There is a scene where the male lead Jesse is visiting his love interest, the female lead Beca. He is a complete nerd about movie soundtracks and wanted to show Beca specifically the ending to The Breakfast Club (after being amazed that she had never seen it). As they watch the closing scene, Jesse starts talking about the music, how good the ending is, and he does the fist-thrust in tandem with the movie. Beca is more entranced and amused by Jesse and his passion, so she's watching him instead. Slowly leaning towards him to see him better in the darkened room. He turns, a bit startled to catch her so close to him, and comments on how she's missing the ending. She apologizes, turns to the screen, only to instantly turn back to notice he's still watching her. They lean closer to each other. The lean-in transitions into one where they're about to kiss.
Only for Beca to suddenly pull away last second.
I instantly was like "Yes! This! I need to recreate this for my MariChat story!"
I just love that trope as well:
Person A is talking passionately about something. Person B is so mesmerized by this passion that they naturally just lean closer. Person A, so engrossed in their hyperfixation that they don't notice Person B's lean-in, turns to address Person B directly. Holy smokes! They're so close!
Both parties pause. The tension is there. Person A is now the one leaning. They nearly kiss... but either one pulls away last second or they get interrupted.
Like. That's SOOOO GOOD. Right?
I had failed to properly capture that magic the first few attempts back then. I put the scene aside to try again after clearing my head. I then just... ignored it for a few years.
I was determined to try again the other day.
A little over 3 pages and a little under 1300 words later, I had my scene. Not the full scene. I still need to sort out the lead-in. But I have 97% of a scene.
Problem is, much like when I tried and failed years ago to recreate that Pitch Perfect scene, I again missed my mark. Instead of that "I'm invested in your enthusiasm" unintentional lean-in, I ended up with a pseudo tickle-fight. At the end, when Chat Noir thinks himself victorious, he's overcome by how sensual Marinette looks to him in that moment. Hormones and desires override his brain, and he starts to lean in. The same happens to Marinette, and she tries to close the gap.
Aaaaand then they're interrupted by an akuma alert!
Chat Noir is needed out in Paris, so he begrudgingly leaves to assist his partner. Meanwhile, poor Marinette is trying to get herself calmed down so she can fight beside Chat Noir as her superhero persona.
I figured there's lots of juicy drama stirred up this way, compared to my original plan. Said plan was to have Chat Noir feel guilty at the last second about Marinette not knowing that he's Adrien, and pulling away. Only for them to independently freak out in their respective bedrooms about what the near-kiss must mean.
But postponing that freak-out? Having them not deal with it while it's fresh and instead have to focus on an akuma battle? I like that drama. Even if I don't like the prospect of having to come up with another akumatized villain.
The show itself has recycled/reused old akumatized villains. Do you think the fandom will let me get away with reusing canon akumas as well???? If so, which one(s) should I use?
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Regardless of how I handle the akuma attack, I'm still wondering if the pseudo-tickle-fight is the best way to go for this pivotal moment. Should I keep it? Should I try once more to direct these two idiots (who clearly like to think for themselves and pull the narrative their way) in order to better recreate that Pitch Perfect scene? Do I go with the manhwa "you've got something on your cheek" fake-out trope?
What do you peeps think? Also, I'd love pitches for potential akuma attacks throughout this story. If you have any akumatization concepts that work with the awkward "Marinette as Ladybug is trying to ignore her feelings for Chat Noir while Chat Noir is trying to not feel guilty about his love for Ladybug waning" vibes, I'd love to hear them! Drop them in the comments section below!
In the meantime, I'll work more on my next Kobold One-Shot prep and see if I can get any more chapters of SWC to shake out of my head.
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I think it should be fairly obvious what I am grateful for this month. I mean, don't get me wrong, January has been trying. 2025 did not start off on the greatest foot.
That said, though, how can I NOT be grateful that I'm getting back into a writing rhythm. To the point where I hit both blog update goals (even if LRRC was a few days late), AND I got this update published in the month it was for!
And to come up with ideas for my kobold game, and to actually get back into working on Seduce with Caution? I mean, come on! Good things. Lots of good things to focus on.
And with that, I'm going to try to ride this motivation into February! Catch you all around Valentine's Day!
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