"... It Was So Dark In There, I Wondered If It Would Even Be Worth It To Go In. I Didn't Want To Risk

"... It was so dark in there, I wondered if it would even be worth it to go in. I didn't want to risk breaking my neck tripping on some antique doorstop or falling through the floor or something. But even as I started strategizing my recon mission into the old house, I caught sight of a painting above the fireplace.

It looked familiar.... Or rather, the person in it looked familiar. Somehow."

"... When Mz. Collins said "The Old House", I thought it would be just another extension of the manor, or maybe another, smaller manor someone had built on the estate.

Instead, after my little adventure with the thorns and the mud, I stumbled into a clearing. In the middle of this clearing, covered in vines and moss and mold, was a cottage.

Even in the middle of what felt like a hurricane, I stopped for a second. Just to stare.

I could tell it had been a beautiful place, once upon a time. A comfortable, warm place. Lots of happy memories had been made there.

Even though it was in ruins, I could still feel that."

Well DUH I've been playing BG3 this entire time. I grew up with the first two (which I highly highly HIGHLY recommend if you like BG3 but definitely get the *Enhanced Editions* from GOG - BG 1 & 2 were the first games of their kind, and also based on D&D 2e which was.... flawed) and seeing the incredible explosion in new fans has got me feeling a lot of nerd joy.

So here is my Tav.....'s dad. I see so many tragic orphan protagonists and OCs in D&D/BG3 that I felt like a parent of some kind was needed. And then this walking embodiment of a hug strolled into my brain.

In my canon here, Tav (short for Tavvari in my game) was raised by a single, extremely overprotective dad, who owns his own bakery in the city. He was very very very very unhappy when his only child went off to apprentice with a bard a few years ago and current events have done absolutely*nothing* to ease his mind.

".... It became significantly less charming when I walked inside."

"... She told me that David likes to go play around "The Old House" - an ominous name if ever I heard one. She also told me that the roads to the Old House had washed out long ago, and the safest way to reach it was through the woods on the east side of the manor.

Left out of this description was the mud, the giant rocks, the oddly thorny trees, and the spectacular lightning storm with 20 mph winds that kicked up the moment I set foot outside the house."

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Heya, I still have a few pages left of this story, so I'll be continuing into November! Yay!

A while ago, I did a painting inspired by one of my favorite books, Uprooted (by Naomi Novik).

A few hours after I posted it, I decided I hated it.

So I started a new painting. And then put it aside and forgot about it. And then I found it again, and finally finished it, and here it is. I do not hate this painting, which is a major accomplishment for me! If you want a comparison, you can find the original painting a few posts back on my Instagram.