#azrithart

G pen doodle for @azrithart !

Hi!! I'm a perfectly normal amount of insane about Sarith and am always on the lookout for more content of him and OOTA in general (I've found very few other fans, sadly). I love your stuff, including your Sporeblood comic, and it always makes me really happy to see anything you share. :)

Anyway, I'd be happy to share some info about our Sarith!! I'm our group's DM and we are currently in the second half of our OOTA campaign, where Sarith is alive and well.

His background (that my party is aware of):

Sarith belonged to a lesser noble house of Menzoberranzan. They aren't a ruling family.

He attended Melee-Magthere and prefers stealth and ranged fighting.

Due to certain experiences, he privately questioned Lolth's propaganda early on and doesn't subscribe to her ideology.

Partially out of a desire to spend as much time away from Menzoberranzan as possible, he pursued a career in cartography. His job was to explore across the Underdark and map out new areas. He's very passionate about his work and once stabbed a man for ruining a map by marking it with a knife.

So far, the above points are unique to us and not in the module.

(MODULE SPOILER) This is how he ended up in Neverlight Grove. In our campaign, he and a traveling partner discovered the previously-unknown myconid colony. Sarith gained a strong appreciation for it and deliberately didn't mark it on his map. During their stay, the myconid Stool grew attached and followed him when his journey continued.

(MODULE SPOILER) Sarith and his partner were infected without knowing it, and it was only a matter of time before one turned on the other. Sarith lost control first and murdered said partner in front of witnesses at a trading post. He doesn't remember the act.

Sarith was arrested and taken to nearby Velkynvelve, where he met the party.

The story so far:

Early on, Sarith was sullen, guarded, and distrustful, but he was fiercely protective of Stool. After observing their relationship dynamic, the PCs told Stool what a father was and how to refer to Sarith as "dad" in Common.

Sarith's health was slowly deteriorating throughout the early campaign, and he made significant efforts to hide this weakness out of fear of being left behind or killed off.

He cooperated with the party for survival, but he also went out of his way to refuse any attempts to help him personally, expecting that he would owe the others something in return.

Despite this, the PCs were determined to befriend him, and slowly but surely managed to break down his defenses. His personality began to shine through: that of a shy, quiet man who preferred being in the wilderness over being around people, and who would ramble passionately about his interests if you could figure out what they were.

As he grew to trust the party enough, he started encouraging them to travel to Neverlight Grove, which he considered to be a safe haven. It would have plentiful food and water to sustain them, and was mostly unknown by outsiders.

(TW terminal illness) As they got closer, Sarith got sicker, and he was prepared for the grove to be his final resting place; this way, at least he would die free, Stool would be returned home, and the people he'd grown fond of would be safe from their pursuers.

(MODULE SPOILER) Thankfully, the PCs were smart and picked up on the hints I sprinkled along the way. They were wary of all the strange behavior, kept a close eye on Sarith, and sent a very small PC-only team to investigate deeper into the grove. After experiencing The Horrors™, the party fled and vowed to find a cure for Sarith.

With more knowledge of exactly what they were dealing with, the PCs found small ways to help manage Sarith's symptoms until he could be properly treated by healers at a major location.

(MODULE SPOILER) As the party got closer to reaching their goal of the Surface, Sarith began to fear what would happen to him when they reached it. There was no place for him in the world above, nor did he have a place in the Underdark. But to everyone's surprise, the least likely person stepped up to offer him a home: the dwarf Eldeth, who he'd previously had a lot of tension with during Part I of the campaign. She had gained a lot of respect for him in the past months (especially from one particular event) and now considers him "one of us."

(MODULE SPOILER) During the Intermission - which the PCs spent on the Surface - Sarith and Eldeth stayed in Gauntlgrym and grew surprisingly close. The PCs insisted on keeping in touch via letters, and when the time came for them to be summoned by King Bruenor, Sarith was fully prepared to follow his friends back into the Underdark.

Present day:

Though Sarith is no longer terminally ill, he did develop a chronic illness as a result of the internal damage done to his body. Old habits die hard, and he's doing his best to hide this so he can be useful to the party.

Two of the PCs are currently in the process of courting Sarith into a poly relationship. It's going well. :)

I love this man so much and have a lot to say about him, but this is by no means exhaustive lol. I'm actually writing a private fanfiction for OOTA (which may or may not ever see the light of day) exploring his character and various themes more in-depth...

!!! Thank you so much, I'm super happy! As adventures go we'll have a big one soon. No matter how it will end, me and @alliedn are working on an au for u. Have some not cleaned up sketches

Art for the 2023 Potluck Secret Satan art exchange! Evari Tesvynn, an awesome Elf Paladin for @equinoxialsolstice (Click for better image quality)

Gromph and Kimmuriel