Cryptidcariad - Queerplatonic Monster Hours - Tumblr Blog

thecreepfromsixfeetdeep

Bram may be a humble research assistant at the Ikari Institute, but the Bhande's skill with paper and ink and the ability to truly represent their subject, has gained them access to many restricted places and people across Ajurea. Their subjects range as much their world does; dedicating poachers and mayors and fallen gods to page, even receiving invites from the more...ego stroking, to have their portraits drawn and kept in the vast archives of Ikari. Just a few portraits of some of Confluence's NPC's that will be found in the Atlas! Was so fun to work with shadow and line, though I couldn't resist some colour, it's me u guys Now, Big Question: who'd you like to meet most?? All art is mine, see more of confluence on our twitter!

This year I got to work on a tabletop RPG doing some MonHun inspired characters and it was a ton of fun ✨ The game revolves around the wilders, mutated rangers that try to stop the frenzy, a virus that makes monsters violent and self-destructive. Not only hunters but also chefs! WILDERFEAST is live on kickstarter right now, you can check all about it and support it here!

gatecrasher

day 18!

The adopted father of Barden, scholar of the Sang’s and Librarian of the Tomeloft, the firbolg Mountain Sang has much on his shoulders and so much love in his heart.     And he is trying his best. Meet him in Strange Hungers, A DND livestream I’m part of, link below to the twitch!

Mystery: Oh, How the Iron Coffin Hungers!

There’s been a rash of graverobberies across the kingdom that have the authorities suspecting necromancy. For their part, the necromancer’s guild has nothing to do with these crimes and is willing to hire your party to help clear their name. The investigation will lead you to through tombs, black markets, and haunted crossroads of the realm, as it becomes clear the culprits are seeking far more than coin or corpses at the bottom of those defiled graves.

Clues & Complications:

A missing body is usually a dead giveaway that a necromancer has been involved in a grave robbery, as most criminals only care about grabbing what valuables they can and wouldn’t result to bodysnatching unless someone was going to pay them for it. How unusual then when a few of the bodies begin turning up days after they were exhumed, one in an abandoned cellar, one on the side of the road, and one in a completely different town, which may give a hint as to the culprit’s movements.

Working for necromancers has its benefits, the guild is aware of the habits of the corpse trade (only in a theoretical sense, you understand, yes?) and can use their magic to extract information from the cadavers. Strangely enough it appears all the corpses bear the marks of previous magical questioning, hinting that it might be information the robbers were after, not flesh or treasure.

The bodies all belong to minor gentry or well-to-do merchants, the ideal targets for graverobbers who don’t mind breaking into a tomb or fussing with a trap (both of which the party might have to do during their investigation) if it means access to better plunder. If the party press deeper however they’ll notice a recurring symbol, on a ring or a tattoo or etched into the gravemarker, resembling the crudest sketch of a jawbone.

Just like it seems the party is getting answers, the corpses they’ve been trailing sit up and lunge for the nearest individual’s throat, transformed by dark power into a rampaging ghoul. Chaos ensues as this awakening occurs not just with those corpses that have already been found, but also with those that were previously undiscovered as well as a half dozen or more random bodies scattered across the countryside. Though they seem too possessed with hunger to be capable of speech, if the party manage to restrain one of the ghouls and sate its unholy hunger, they may just get the last few clues they’re looking for.

Keep reading

🎁 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁!⁠ [4/14] This content has been generously donated by @kthomebrew to be shared while The Griffon’s Saddlebag takes a vacation! Please support these creators and their excellent content!⁠ ⁠ Related downloads are available *for free* through the link in my Vacation highlighted story! ⁠ ___⁠ ⁠ KibblesTasty is a super talented game designer whose clever insights and community I admire. His famous Inventor class is what I’d play if asked to play an Artificer. If you’ve playtested any of the subclasses from the Saddlebag on Discord, you’re familiar with the series of feedback questions I ask: those are based on questions Kibbles asks his patrons, and they do a great job of developing the content further.⁠ ⁠ You can get this subclass, plus TONS more, in Kibbles’ Compendium of Legends and Legacies! A massive book of martial might and magical mayhem for D&D 5e - 4 epic new classes, 30+ new subclasses, 30+ feats, and over 240 spells! I’ve got mine preordered, and I can’t wait for it! ___

✨ Patrons get huge perks! Access this and hundreds of other item cards, art files, and compendium entries when you support The Griffon’s Saddlebag on Patreon for less than $10 a month!

Lunar Eclipse

clean the dogs

socially inept prince attempts to communicate

Commission character concept/design - vampire knight Gwyar D'Arsy.

His monstrous and human form + close up and all details below

Thrash's party befriended a small kenku child (who they saved from a nightmare monster). She might think he's some kind of giant talking dog, but chasing sticks is better picking bits of dead squirrel out of your teeth. Sketch by @werelocke.

Art trade for @iguanodont featuring a collection of their beasts!

This is after the Primus tournament where Jayce actually gets framed by the other Dowsers bc they don't want him still in the running to potentially become the next Primus and getting him arrested was one of the best ways to keep him from doing so. Unfortunately... Jayce has a lot of PTSD around being arrested and imprisoned now after the other stuff he went through with being arrested before bc of the Dread and then locked in a soul box frozen for 5 years.

He kind of blacked out when he was being arrested again and people saw his beefier demon form for the first time and it didn't help his case, but he went a bit feral in response out of panic. He's been stuck in that form for a couple days and is terrified by the thought that he's lost even more years potentially.

Thankfully, Lucy is there to help him and defend his case in court that would be coming up soon and to help speed up the process. They still aren't even really "friends" at this point of the story, but have definitely been warming up to the idea more and more lately and think this only starts to solidify it more. Lucy wants to keep the Bureau/Dowsers accountable and to do better.

Dm Tip: Playing the Villain/ Guidelines for “Evil” Campaigns

I’ve never liked the idea of running an evil game, despite how often I’ve had people in my inbox asking how I’d go about it. I’m all about that zero-to-hero heroic fantasy not only because I’m a goodie twoshoes IRL but because the narrative-gameplay premise that d&d is built around falls apart if the party is a bunch of killhappy murder hobos. Not only would I get bored narrating such a game and indulging the sort of players who demands the freedom to kill and torture at will (I’ve had those before and they don’t get invited back to my table), but the whole conceit of a party falls through when the obviously villainous player characters face their first real decision point and attempt to kill eachother because cooperation is a thing that goodguys do.

Then I realized I was going about it all wrong.

The problem was I had started out playing d&d with assholes, those “murder and torture” clowns who wanted to play grand-theft-auto in the worlds I’d created and ignore the story in favour of seeing how much unchallenged chaos they could create. They set my expectations for what an evil campaign was, and I spent the rest of my time developing as a dungeonmaster thinking “ I Don’t want any part of that”

But what would an evil campaign look like for my playgroup of emotionally healthy friends who understand character nuance? What would I need to change about the fundamental conceit of d&d adventures to refocus the game on the badguys while still following a similar enough narrative-gameplay premise to a hero game? How do we make that sort of game relatable? What sort of power/play fantasy can we indulge in without going off the deepend?

TLDR: In an evil campaign your players aren’t playing the villains, they’re the MINIONS, they’re mooks, henchmen, goons, lackeys. They’re the disposable underlings of uncaring overseers who have nothing but ill intent towards them and the world at large.

Where as in a hero game the party is given the freedom to challenge and overthrow corrupt systems, in an evil game the party is suck as part of that corrupt system, forced to bend and compromise and sacrifice in order to survive. The fantasy is one of escaping that corrupt system, of biding your time just long enough to find an opening, find the right leverage, then tossing a molitov behind you on the way out.

Fundamentally it’s the fantasy of escaping a shitty job by bringing the whole company down and punching your asshole boss in the face for good measure.

Below the cut I’m going to get into more nuance about how to build these kinds of narratives, also feel free to check out my evil party tag for campaigns and adventures that fit with the theme.

Keep reading

Thrash as the human he used to be, sketched by the wonderful @plebies! As a human his name was Emmett, but he chose a fake name after being turned into a monster in an attempt to save his reputation. What would his friends say? What if his father found out!? He'd be ruined! The fact that this was such a high priority should tell you something about the kinda guy he used to be. The amulet around his neck said 'We without as you are within', so naturally he assumed someone was trying to frame him and ruin his good name!

But if he pretended to be someone else... it would avoid any embarrassment while he figured out how to get this pesky curse removed. He's still working on that part.

However, he was never that creative, so when the owner of the tavern asked his name all he could think of was the main character of a pulpy adventure novel 'Thrash the Barbarian!'. Sometimes he regrets his choice (it doesn't exactly help with people assuming he's some kind of wild beast), but he's pretty much stuck with it now!

Losing oneself

Some sketches of Thrash, done by @werelocke last year! I think they convey his personality pretty well: as a human he had a rich father, and was both conventionally attractive and a huge bully. Since getting cursed, he's gotten cut off from the family fortune and trapped on another plane. And old signature rakish grin doesn't hit quite the same with his new set of fangs... He's still a jerk, and insults people a lot because he's very insecure about his new form and how people perceive him. But he's also been forced to band together with others in order to survive, and become very loyal to the party (although he would hate to admit it). Their relationship is kinda like bickering siblings. I'll share the rest of these at some point, I enjoy posting about this guy! I'd be happy to answer any questions people may have as well, or hear about your own characters :)

BEWARE THE MAN-CAT !

and here's a non effect thingy version for funsies

Dungeon: The Seeping Tombs

The learned and pious council of the king’s advisors concluded that if sickness was a sign of moral failing, that medicine was a form of ennoblement allowing the sinner to bypass suffering without repentance. By royal decree the healers were thrown in along with their patients, the gates sealed behind them.

Keep reading

The Bug Bear! A curious Kodiak blundered into an alchemist shop and guzzled down the first flask he found! Now he's the horrendous and accurately named Bug Bear! With insect-like abilities and a mantis aided maul, this ursa is now the weirdest in all the woods!