The Early Stages Of A Project, I Had A Katana From BudK I Was In The Process Of Customizing When The

The early stages of a project, I had a katana from BudK I was in the process of customizing when the idea hit me. Disguise the sword to look like a sapling tree, so I started to apply and sculpt quickwood and steelstick epoxy putty. Many layers, I easily spent over $100. If it’s worth doing it’s worth over doing, it required many layers to get the thick sturdy coverage I wanted. The sheath is quite heavy, it also stands on its own. These pictures are months old, so I’ve finished this since then. I wanted to create a comic and draw it and color it and all that, I’ve named this sword “forest demon” as that was going to be the name of the sword in comic.

Side note, the katana is slightly longer than a regular katana, it’s not quite a tachi or Okatana. I also applied gun bluing to the blade, to make it black. I find black blades very beautiful. So I’m not sure what category it would fall into, the hilt was very long and full-tang, about 2 feet. So the branch and tree thing really seemed fitting

This was my most recent D&D character, his name is Grougaloragran Kaldur ‘ahm Malathuh ‘ahk Kara Kesh, those he considers close friends or lovers can call him Grougo. He’s a 312 year old half Orc, rouge (assassin) I think and warlock (pact of blade, his pact weapon is the sword of kaz). His backstory is kinda long, his mother was human, she wasn’t a Druid but she would practice Druid rituals. They lived in a very religious part of the city (I’m not very familiar with the names of most places in D&D because I rarely have the chance to play. The city started with a V like vasilheim or something) the church didn’t like nonhumans so they approached grougo’s mother with the intent to punish her as a witch or they could take her son and turn a blind eye to her “witchcraft” and being the wonderful mother she was, she gave her son to them. He was spirited away to the churches basement cells, where they began their experiments. Elves trying to contact the queen of blades had the idea of using Vecna’s artifacts to open a means of communication. They had in their possession Vecna’s scalp, which they attached to the young half Orc, after scalping him prior, and began the ritual. In the process of using him as a conduit his soul was lost to the void, claimed by some unknown entity. The ritual failed and he was placed in a cell and forgotten about for years, losing his soul had caused him to become a revenant-like being (I think that’s how the DM explained it. Grougo triggers templars who can sense undead tho he really isn’t dead) his skin grew pale and the telltale white streak from Vecna’s scalp was there. In the hundreds of years to follow Grougo created a 30 foot whip, woven from hair on Vecna’s scalp and decorated with a red ribbon that was part of a banner for the queen of blades (the bronze embellishments were added later after he escaped, he stole many religious figures and he’d them melted down). He then fled the city in nothing but a threadbare hooded priests robes, hiding his face and tusks and white streaked hair was important. With his pale skin, he more or less looked human. That’s when he joined the party, and after 312 years locked up in old church basement he was ready to get laid. During the parties adventures Grougo often didn’t need to spend any coin on lodgings, he would seduce some man that struck his fancy with a lucky nat 20 and stay with him for a few nights. Pesky guards not letting the party into the city, Grougo is on it! A short trip behind some shrubs and the party can continue the quest. Later on Grougo started having strange dreams, about a sword and revenge against Vecna. A trip back to the abandoned church and into the cells below, revealed a hidden room where the sword of kaz lie chained down. I reimagined what the sword would look like, the pictures I saw looked kinda boring for a magical sentient vampire sword. The hearts are Grougo’s flavored eldritch blasts, he blows heart shaped kisses that explode on contact and sound like a tongue pop. His outfit in this pic I drew is inspired by bayonetta, it’s Vecna’s hair turned into clothes. And he found those combat heels off a previous enemy, he sounds like a joke to most people when I describe him but he’s very reliable and versatile in combat

This is Pilum Murialis growing his fey tree weapon. I wanted him to look more predatory, not like the more deer looking firbolg I’ve seen. He has fangs, I just didn’t draw any open mouth sketches yet, I wanted him to have an apathetic expression like he just doesn’t care. He lives for the mission of keeping the green safe and the humans out of the fey wild. In my brain hole I decided to make a unicorn the ruler of the fey wild or at least a certain part of it. This unicorn has become ill from the humans destroying so much of the forests, he was tasked with the mission of killing the humans around the fey wild portals by the fey mother, doing so would help nature recover and the unicorn would regain his strength. (The dm had talked about the campaign taking place in some area where humans and other races had begun to industrialize, and they were destroying huge swathes of forest to lay train tracks to haul off the natural resources and what not. It was like a huge city building thing and all the pollution had started to poison nature. The firbolg clans had gotten sick as well and started to retreat further and further into the forests as they couldn’t handle all of those humans) I had decided that the fey wild kind of mirrored the world, not exactly but if a major change happened the fey wild would also be changed. And that’s what was causing the unicorn to become sickly and weak. I really would have liked to play with him and try out a completely evil character with a goal. But that never happened

I’d say this was the early stages BUT that’s a damn lie, this was after some weeks of progress. The jaw bones and teeth were added, the antlers were added, the mask was changed into a helm, the muzzle was extended, the cape was added, the mane/hair was added, and the artificial fixings were added (partially). It’s hard to see from these horrible angles, but the cape part is added to underside of the helm and to the back of the helm. The hair/mane was braided fabric strips with the leaves and feathers sewn to the braids, then attached to a jewelry wire “weft” and attached to the back of the skull with thermal plastic.

I’ve added a lot more leaves and such since those pics were taken, I also have more to add. I recently found this gorgeous moth wing cape on Etsy that goes with the theme, so I bought it. And I have a type of shirt/shawl thing I’m going to sew the cape to help keep it secured better when I wear it. I plan on going to events with this on, Halloween, renaissance fairs, cons, and the like. I want to make sure the helm doesn’t slide off

This part took the longest as was the most finicky part, and it still is! The blade doesn’t slide back in smoothly, something catches it inside. So I’ll need to find a way to fix that issue when sheathing the sword. I achieved the bark like texture with a combination of techniques. Thermal moldable plastic beads I bought on eBay, which I then shaped with my hands and squeezed to the plastic texture. My hands are rough from landscaping and weapon training, so it feels like bark. The veins add a nice touch as well. I achieved that blended mottled bark color with alcohol based markers, which blend nicely. I colored the plastic when it was cold, it’s natural color being white, then heated it back up with a heat gun to set the color into the plastic and not just on the surface. I added some fake leaves from flowered I took apart for another project, and boom. A somewhat realistic sapling with a hidden blade

Hey there!..how’re you doing? Are you me as message into the bdsm lifestyle? Send your response to

I’m not sure what you mean