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Storytelled my first CtD (20th anniversary edition) one-shot set in Rus during Ivan the Terrible (so not long after the Shattering). Had a wonderful time, my players are very fun and creative people, so it was a blast :D

Here are portraits of NPC's I've made as well as some lore notes about each of them under the cut :]

1) Zlata, satyr childling. She was actually abandoned in the wood by her mortal parents who caught up on some weird thing going on with their daughter and being really superstitious (not surprising during that time) decided their kid is dangerous :(

Thankfully my players adopted her just as expected and at the end of one-shot she found a new home in house of Januarius and his wife.

2) Igor Indrick, beastie Thallein. He's also a head of local Oprichnina (personal soldiers of Ivan the Terrible who went around the land pretending to be destroyers of potential state traitors but in fact just robbing and murdering people) – a fact he abuses to specifically hunt changelings. All in all, terrible dude, in this house we don't like him.

3) Yuli, piskie Dauntain. Was tricked by sidhe he was serving into opening a cursed book, which Dreaming took personally. And by that I mean that Yuli became Dauntain with brand of the Lich, meaning that he from that point on had a phylactery which basically made him a thrall to whoever was in possession of said phylactery. Yay.

Yuli is actually a pretty good-natured guy, for Dauntain at least. As I said, he was a piskie once, so during the game he was trying his best not to harm Zlata and by association the players. In the end they got rid of vampire who possessed Yuli's phylactery and granted him freedom, except not so much – unbeknownst to Yuli, one of players stole his phylactery. Hasn't used it, but the possibility is there.

I really want to give Yuli a redemption in eyes of the Dreaming in later games. Dude doesn't deserve a thing that happened to him... I don't care that C20 is kinda opposed to idea of redeeming Dauntain. Rules are my plaything 😎

4, 5) Agrippina, Kiasyd, vampire who was in possession of Yuli's phylactery. They lived in secluded place in the local forest, so Agrippina mainly used her power over Yuli to use him as a hunter for her: he lead unsuspecting people and other creatures to their house and Agrippina ate them. Yay. Her backstory is pretty sad, but it doesn't excuse a thing, so my players ended up killing her.

I'm a bit upset I can't make up stories about her and reborn and redeemed Yuli in modern nights, but narratively it was definitely for the better 😌

6) Leptonyx the Men-eater, an Unseelie selkie. She hasn't, in fact, eaten any men, but she's definitely killed at least one in order to make a new selkie's coat - I used fanmade lore which says that in order to create a selkie's coat mortal or seal with selkie's blood should die. Oops.

She's shunned from selkie's society for her crimes, which doesn't upset her one bit. During the game she cheerfully asked players to lead another human to her, which they reluctantly did, leading one of Oprichnina to her. Which means that there is now possibly selkie who comes from Oprichnina – Leptonyx was looking for someone to pass the coat to.

7) Kirsa the Bloody, redcap. Leader of whole band of redcaps, she made players give her their possessions with a bit of threats before leading them to Januarius, whom she actually loves and who specifically asked her to lead any changelings escaping from Oprichnina to him. Sadly he didn't specify that those changelings are not to be robbed, and Kirsa's band needs something to eat... Oops.

There was a moment when Kirsa told players to give her everything of value they have and Zlata gave her flower crown which another player made for her. One of redcaps actually put it on, but sad eyes of Zlata made him ashamed of himself and he returned the flower crown to rightful owner 😌

8) Januarius of House Liam, autumn sidhe, ruler of freehold where players escaped to from their own, destroyed by Oprichnina. I dunno what to say about him. He's a good boy. Many adore him (even local redcaps, though they also enjoy messing with him), many think he is way to nice to be a capable ruler. For now his managing alright, but what will happen in the future? Only time will tell.

So. Uhm. Remember MtAs one-shot I've storytelled months ago?

There was an NWO agent who was really close to becoming one of Technephandi.

Well, my players managed to redeem him. And get him away from Technocracy for a while. So he has spent some time with Cult of Ecstacy of all people. And now he's one of them.

He's currently on a run from both Technocracy and Traditions, because the former is obviously not glad about the betrayal and potential information leak and the latter would like to "ask him a few questions" since not every day MiB turns Ecstatic, they need to make sure he's not a double agent and also get some information about Technocracy from him. And he doesn't want to give any information to anyone, he wants to be left alone. Oh, and also Technephandi are curious about where has he disappeared to as well, but they haven't caught up on the latest events or his traces. Yet.

For now he stays with one of Ecstatic loners and desperately searches for a way to blackmail each and every organisation looking for him in a way which will allow him to have some peace. Good luck for him, I guess. I mean, he has a chance since I, the Storyteller, am rooting for him. I blame my players for making me really invested in life on an NPC who was meant to die at the end of the one-shot. What a bunch of people 🙄 /affectionate

So yeah. Have a weird conceptual piece about personal growth and putting yourself in danger for it. From NWO agent to almost Technephandi to Ecstatic. What an insane character arc.

I have MtAs brainrot. Specifically, Technocracy brainrot. Send help these bastards won't leave my mind... N.W.O., is this your social processing kicking in? 🥺

Context under the cut:

This picture is honouring the fact that I got my hands on Revised edition Iteration X book and the way their relationship with Syndicate was described is hilarious to me. Check this out:

I adore how in-universe when ppl talk about Syndicate they sound like a gun is held to their heads 🤡

Oh, a bit more of explaining the picture.

Two people on the upper part are ItXers. In the lower part we have some proper Syndicate buddie. Behind him are a Syndicate Enforcer and a MiB (without his suit, a pity).

You may say: "Okay, Enforcer is maybe playing a bodyguard or smth for the higher-ranking Syndicate member, but what is N.W.O. agent doing here?". Well, here's the thing. Both him and the Enforcer actually share and amalgam with girl in upper right corner. So even if they aren't related to Iteration X needing Syndicate's money, they are still quietly mourning the fact that they probably aren't getting any financing ever again just by association with this mess.

Meme redraw with my satyr gorl, Zlata

Original under the cut

❗cw: blood (a little bit)❗

My Dusk Caste Abyssal from Exalted ttrpg

His title is Quartz Crumbs of Wyrm's Teeth. Or Quartz for short. Or, if you're a meanie and a hater, Crumbs. Fun fact: "crumb" in my native language is also a slang for "babygirl". Do what you will with this information 😌

Quartz is that one anime character type who is just idiotic (/affectionate) and aggressive while also being a loser. It's not that he's a huge danger (to other Exalted, normal mortals have my condolences). It's just that his default settings are loud and screaming threats which he may or may not execute afterwards.

Honestly, he was an idiotic and loud creature when he was Solar as well, so personality-wise little changed after his Abyssal Exaltation. He didn't actually want to take the whole Abyssal deal, but Deathlord who laid his eyes on Quartz managed to, well, convince him. It wasn't a pleasurable process, but it happened. Now Quartz dutifully (yeah, very, he's the most dutiful servant to have (no)) serves his Deathlord, while quietly pondering whether he should try to get his freedom back or if the risk is not worth it.

Expect more pictures with this bastard sometime soon, he has my brain in a chokehold

❗ cw: much more blood under the cut❗

Quartz (my Dusk Abyssal OC) gets a watermelon because I like him. My silly evil son. Not a single thought behind those beautiful eyes...

(Quartz has actually bought the watermelon. With actual money. Terrifying everyone in the local village by appearing there and peacefully making the purchase. I mean, more like throwing money at some poor farmer who was ready to give Quartz anything for free in exchange for mercy for themselves and their family, but still. Quartz didn't want the unfortunate person or their family, he wanted a watermelon and decided to be somewhat nice about it. And afterwards Quartz just left without really harming anyone but still refusing to elaborate.)

(The money he gave to the farmer was probably thrown out the second Quartz left, and the farmer is probably now getting a lot of side-eye glances (at best), but oh well. It's their problems, not Quartz's.)

❗blood (a bit)❗

Tap on picture for better quality, as usual :]

The cipher on the right translates to "these swords still carry the warmth of your hands"

This picture was meant to be about touch starvation and trying to get softness where you can, even from things which harm you. To give your own meaning to things in order to feel just a little bit more loved, even if it doesn't make any sense in actuality. I don't feel like I did the idea justice. But whatever.

This is Quartz Crumbs of Wyrm's Teeth, my Abyssal Exalted OC, whom you might've seen in my previous posts. Of course I gave tragic backstory even to my aggressive and idiotic bastard (/affectionate). No character is safe from my desire to cry 😎

A bit of process and additional picture under the cut:

Process. I really like the lineart, especially my attempt at making Quartz's hands kinda relaxed and gentle in this piece. Nothing shows what I wanted to show better then gentleness to something that's killing you.

And additional picture. I don't know whose hand that is, by the way. I don't have an OC who would get this close to Quartz to show affection to him yet. I don't know if I ever will. I'm making myself sad thinking about it, mission accomplished, yay :'D

I continue my exaltedposting. Here is Hope for a Universal Summer, my Zenith Solar lady. She's from Whitewall, so I tried to include both asian and slavic elements in her design.

And something like Modern AU! Quartz, my Dusk Abyssal OC, whom you might've seen in my last, like, three posts. Only I have troubles designing modern characters in interesting ways, but oh well. I still like this pic :]

I'm participating in monthly challenge this year, but, like, in the most incorrect ways possible.

Firstly, I'm drawing WODtober, but not with this year's prompts (they are too boring to me :( ), but with 2023 prompts.

Secondly, despite my deep love for the World of Darkness, I've decided that I had neglected my original settings for long enough, so now I'm drawing WODtober using original settings. Yeah. At least I'm having fun.

This is the first day, "The monster in me". My first attempt at making a picture move in years. I did it in hour or so, so I'm pretty proud of the result, even if this is pretty basic and even lazy animation.

❗blood (a bit)❗

Hel and Baldur vibing in Helheim subway. Because surely Helheim has subways.

These is my take on these two for "Scion: becoming as gods" ttrpg. It's a really cool game about being a child of a deity (from literally any pantheon, not just greek or roman like in original pjo). So of course there are deities and some mythical beings. And of course I have to make an attempt at designing my faves from those.

I find it really interesting and tragic how Hel and Baldur parallel eachother. Both kinda did nothing wrong except being Loki's daughter and Odin's son. Both ended up in the afterlife for this. They're children of sworn enemies stuck here because of their parents. I feel like there is some sort of weird understanding in spite of their fathers animosity towards eachother. Or, more accurately, because of it. Yeah, I headcanon that Hel and Baldur became friends really quickly upon meeting.

Honestly their duet of life and death, warmth and cold, growth and decay is so underrated. I get that most mythology fans get that from Hades and Persephone, but these two are so slept on :'D