Strahd Shenanigans

Hey! Are you interested in commissions? Cuz I'm open for commissions.

Welp, I'm doing it. I'm starting up an artblog again.

My book may be out, but there’s still characters I can make sketches of. Here’s the last of the main cast: Mephis Shyde!

Mephis is also a Fey, but unlike Aleras, he belongs to a clan that left the forests years ago to live in the human world. These “New Fey” prefer to trick people with business deals instead of magic, so Mephis was born to an extremely wealthy family. As the current heir to the Shyde family, Mephis is polite, intelligent, and well-versed in social situations. But behind his pleasant mask, it’s difficult to know what he’s really thinking.

When Maia discovers that the Shyde family has ties to her father’s mysterious research, she enlists Mephis’s help to track him down. Mephis readily volunteers his social skills and business connections to help her in the search. Still, Maia can’t help but notice something a little… off about Mephis. He’s not really like the other Fey…

SEARCHING FOR MAGIC is now available on amazon as an e-book! Please go check it out!

Number three in the character sketches promoting my book: meet Aleras!

Aleras is a young Fey living in the Fey Forest beside Maia’s home. The two are childhood friends, and he taught her a number of devious spells that she uses to get up to mischief. He’s currently studying under a great Fey wizard in the hopes of becoming a great wizard himself someday. 

Aleras is a little more in touch with the modern world than most Fey, due to his friendship with Maia, but he’s still definitely an outsider. He’s rarely strayed far from the forest he was raised in, especially since leaving the forest means his magic will become weaker. But when Maia’s father goes missing, he pledges to help her search for him. 

Next up in the character sketches promoting my book - meet Haley!

Haley is a Drakhan, AKA a human who has strong draconic ancestry. Their most striking features are typically pointed ears, sharp teeth, and golden eyes. They also tend to be larger than most humans, and possess incredible strength and stamina - however, they often struggle with magic and make poor mages. Haley bucks the trend and has earned herself a full scholarship to the same magic college that Maia attends. The two were roommates in their first year and quickly became best friends.

Despite her bookish tendencies (she’s the sort to read academic papers for fun), Haley is quite adventurous and always up to try new things, even if they’re dangerous. Especially if they’re dangerous, in fact, as it turns out that she’s dabbled in forbidden magic. But when she joins Maia in the hunt for her missing father, that forbidden magic may be necessary…

So I wanted to do sketches of the characters in my upcoming book, and figured I’d start with the protagonist herself - Maia!

Maia’s a 19-year-old mage with a talent for fire magic. She’s been attending college for magic studies, but hasn’t yet figured out what she wants to do with her life. Her father is a state-sponsored sorcerer who’s spent the past several years observing a local population of Fey, so Maia’s grown up alongside the Fey Forest and subsequently picked up a penchant for mischief. She has a bad habit of getting herself into trouble, so she’s gotten just as good at getting herself out of trouble through a combination of magic, wits, and sheer pluckiness. Turns out those three traits come in handy when she has to investigate her father’s mysterious disappearance…

If you want to read about her adventure, please check out my book here!

So It’s been my dream for as long as I can remember to be a published author, and that dream is about to become reality! I’m publishing my first fantasy novel on amazon and it’s currently available for preorder. Allow me to introduce SEARCHING FOR MAGIC, the first book in a planned trilogy!

SEARCHING FOR MAGIC follows the story of Maia, who comes home from studying magic off at college just in time for her father, an eccentric sorcerer, to disappear under mysterious circumstances. Armed with only her wits and a handful of clues, Maia recruits the help of her two best friends and sets off to discover why her father disappeared so suddenly, and why it seems to coincide with a mysterious rash of spell failures.

Set in a world much like ours, but filled with magic and gods, SEARCHING FOR MAGIC is a coming of age story filled with drama, mystery, and a dash of romance. It also features openly LGBT characters, a diverse cast, and NO LOVE TRIANGLE BULLSHIT. Also: there’s dragons! (Eventually. They’re planned for book three).

It’s currently available for pre-order as an e-book, with print versions hopefully coming in the future. Please check it out and drop a review if you’re interested! It would mean a lot to me.

Ever since my group finished the campaign, I’ve been DESPERATE to read about other people’s experience playing Curse of Strahd. So I made this list of questions for y'all to answer, whether you've completed the campaign or not!

Feel free to repost and fill out wherever, but please consider tagging me (mandisawesome) if you do. I really want to read your answers!!!

Text version under the cut:

If you could play any other D&D Module (i.e Storm Kings Thunder and the like) which one?

Do you have a favorite set of dice? (I am a dice gremlin)

I have not read the Strahd books. They're on my to-read list, alongside a mountain of other books. I really should read them tho, I'm a sucker for vampires.

I would love to play Waterdeep Dragon Heist. I've DMed it for my fiancee, but never had the chance to be a player in it.

Also Dragon Heist looked so fun when I did a glance through!

Here you go!