Backstory: The oldest of five siblings and the heir to one of Menzoberranzen's great houses, Asha Vandree grew up knowing she would have great power and influence over the world, and that she would use it to keep those she loved in comfort forever, until the day disaster struck. Her father was the head of her grandmother's honor guard, and when a demonic assassin broke into the council chamber, he leapt to protect Asha instead of her grandmother, who died in the attack. Asha's mother, now head of House Vandree, found herself forced to behead her husband for his failings. Doing so broke her spirit, and she retreated to her bed, neglecting her duties and her children (Asha loved her father deeply. Asha's on-the-record opinion on his death is "Mom shouldn't have been such a pussy about it"). Asha's aunt Fiirnel'ther seized control of House Vandree, relegating her immediate family to a smaller manorhouse and a life of (by Asha's standards) obscurity. Stymied in all attempts at advancement in the capital, Asha took a position at Velkynvelve outpost, as the junior priestess to the notoriously cruel and capricious Ilvara Mizzrym, whose last four acolytes, all immensely clever and qualified, died mysteriously. Hiding her wits behind a bubbly exterior and soothing Ilvara's ego, Asha has bided her time, waiting for a chance to depose Ilvara and take her post. When a group of prisoners escapes, and Ilvara sets out to pursue them, she spies an opportunity...

Party Niche (Mechanical): Throwing Guiding Bolts that miss.

Party Niche (Narrative): You know that one Parks & Rec bit where Ron asks everyone who broke the coffee machine to get them at each other's throats? Asha Vandree is my broken coffee machine. After she joined the party before Neverlight Grove, having gained their trust by putting her life on the line to help break Dewd and Sarith free after their recapture in Gracklstugh, she worked to isolate Zaen from the rest of the party so that she could capture the exiled queen of the Eternal Kingdom and cash in on the resulting social capital. And she succeeded resoundingly, fully pitting Zaen and Alderick against each other and gaining Dewd's friendship. I planned for her schemes to crumble as the gang escaped the Underdark at the end of Act One, with her trying to capture Zaen after Ilvara's death, and being caught as a traitor by both the drow and the party, because I love a hubris-induced tragedy. But Asha's plans, and my own, were both dashed by one thing: the players loved her as much as I did. Alderick trusted her so deeply that she broke down and told him her plan. When he broke down in turn and ratted her out to Zaen, Zaen sympathized with Asha's fear for her family and worked with her to come up with a better plan. I planned for Ilvara to find Asha out as a traitor in the final battle and Send to Menzoberranzen to have her family killed. Alderick ripped Ilvara's throat out before she even knew Asha had betrayed her. I planned for Zaen's sister Saria to similarly crush Asha's plans. Dewd cast Hold Person on her and a stray arrow knocked her unconscious. And Asha, fully unintentionally on both my part and hers, escaped the Underdark with what remained of Ilvara's warriors. She's now the Zaen's chief advisor and public image specialist, Dewd's bestie he confides his worries about Sarith to, and Alderick's purpose and closest companion (he's hers, too, not that she'll say anything about it).

Act Two Goals: Asha now owes her life to Alderick's protection and friendship and to Zaen's mercy. They have earned her loyalty, and she has hitched her own political star to Zaen's attempt to take the throne of the Eternal Kingdom. Asha is bloody-mindedly committed to the party's success, prepared to get her hands dirty and make the calls that they are too kind to make if that's what it takes to keep them safe.

Why I Am Deranged About Her: I've not done this section for any of the other NPCs because they're comparatively popular among folks who play this module, but I must spread the gospel of the valley girl. She's my exploration of privilege and entitlement and ambition, and whether those can ever be bent to noble ends. She's a well of bitterness and grief that she will never be willing to express as anything other than rage. Against my will and her own, she is becoming a better person. She only joined the party for personal gain. She wants to change the world for the better. She is certain the only way to change the world for the better is to rule it. She wants to help the party. She does not know any way to help that does not entail taking a person as her pawn and moving them to the place on the board she thinks is best for them. She is aromantic and a femme fatale. She and our ranger have cultivated the most toxic codependent QPR in documented history. She is calculating and insightful. She is the most out-of-touch How Much Could a Banana Cost? Ten Dollars? bitch you have ever met. She is a doting older sister who knows her quest for power will always isolate her from her siblings. She is willingly complicit in untold suffering. But! Most importantly ☝️She IS Miss Sugar Pink Liquor Liquor Lips.

She will be your Bubblegum Bitch. That is a threat and a promise 💖✨

Art Dumpppppppppp!!!

Finally, and most importantly:

Backstory: Dem came up with a cute fun horse guy and knew she needed to get him to the Underdark. To try and get a feel for his vibe, she listened to a bunch of showtunes, including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which led to Dewd's character premise: Dewd grew up on a sickeningly idyllic mountain as the eldest of eight siblings and his parents' and youngest siblings' favorite, largely sheltered because he's just such a cute fun little guy, with most emotional burdens being pawned off on his sister Willow. So, after an exhausting road trip to try to get medicine for their youngest brother, Willow sold Dewd to some Zhentarim in a tavern without his knowledge, and he was clocked in the head and woke up enslaved in an Underdark outpost, deeply unprepared for the horrors awaiting him.

Party Niche (Mechanical): Despite his -1 INT stat, under dem's control, Dewd is a HAUNTINGLY adept support caster. Every time I think I have the party in a corner or a beloved npc fully doomed by the narrative, there that dumb fucking horse is with a well-placed Daylight or Sleet Storm or Hold Person or a god damned Fog Cloud that lets the party stage a full prison escape unaided and a session early forcing me to throw all my notes out the window (deeply affectionate). He also has the highest Strength and Charisma of the party, which is frankly terrible news for the party.

Party Niche (Narrative): Dewd is the party's collective comic relief and sunshine, a role he Sure Isn't Chafing Under at All After a Year. As he's suffered trauma after trauma and hard truth after hard truth, he's grown increasingly wary and jaded. However, the rest of the group uses his kindness and innocence as a barometer for their ability to do the right thing, and it's slowly creeping into him believing he can't do anything wrong. He's gone from a guy horrified by the mere concept of violence to a guy who, when startled, will cast Blight and ask questions later--a guy who, rather than waiting for the Zhentarim agents they're dealing with to double-cross the party, will poison them with spores to get the information he wants first.

Act Two Goal: Dewd has the most personal/least world-focused motivation for this second half of the campaign. His extremely trauma-bonded boyfriend, Sarith (pictured above on Dewd's back, will be getting his own post), is infected/possessed by the spores of Zuggt'moy, the Demon Queen of Fungi, leaving him only occasionally lucid, rarely verbal, and slowly drifting towards death. Dewd, feeling displaced and not himself even after having fought his way safely home to his family with Sarith, is venturing back into the Underdark in hopes of finding a cure for Sarith at any cost and maybe finding some part of the peace that was stolen from him when his sister sold him away.

And now, most importantly. Photodump of beautiful art of him dem has made arranged chronologically to sum up the arc thus far:

Backstory: In the version of Out of the Abyss I've been running, Eldeth remains intensely proud of and loyal to her home city of Gauntlgrym. I decided her parents were soldiers in the inner guard of King Bruenor Battlehammer. Her father was killed and her mother paralyzed by a spinal injury during the re-taking of Gauntlgrym from the drow, and she's been raised internalizing that her family is only so esteemed and well looked-after because of the grand deeds her parent committed. Her mother's love for her is unconditional. But her pride in her is not. Growing up, Eldeth was eager to follow in the footsteps of her parents and the great heroes she heard sung of in legends. Her instructors were often quick to observe when she failed to measure up to those standards, so when she heard someone being attacked on the outskirts of the city, she rushed to their defense, to find Zaen, our party's monk, under attack by Shoor Vandree. Together, they were captured and imprisoned by the drow.

Party Niche (Mechanical): Since the party already had a ranger in Alderick, I re-spec'd Eldeth as a fighter with the Unarmed Fighting style so that the party had a frontline tank. Once she accrued some better armor, and a 20 AC, she could start functioning as an effective tank without as an NPC dealing so much damage that she gets kills too often.

Party Niche (Narrative): Eldeth is the first to think about how the party's story will be told. She's been raised on a tradition of retold epics and grand heroes, and she's the first to grasp when an action they choose might be a blight on their legacy, or a chance to become people worthy of song. This has played out very interestingly in her relationship with Zaen who, despite being a royal, struggles heavily with accounting for public perception of her actions. It also makes Eldeth acutely conscious of her status as an npc. She is a plain, non-magical fighter, in love with the wronged and noble queen of a great nation. She knows, when push comes to shove, which of them in this story is meant to die to save the other. Zaen lives forever, and death is a horror to her, but for Eldeth it's a necessary bookend to a story, and the two of them haven't fully reckoned with how they see that disconnect. Also, on a lighter note, when the party has an idea that is truly bugfuck insane, Eldeth, as the only person here who received any level of STEM education, is the character I reach for to nip it in the bud.

Act Two Goals: Despite losing her parents' shield and hammer in captivity, Eldeth returned to Gauntlgrym a hero, having rescued Zaen from the Underdark and brought crucial news of the incursion of the demon lords into the Underdark. Like her parents before her, she is a respected member of the king's inner circle. She spent all of Act One fearing she would die in ignominy, and now she labors under the knowledge that for better or worse, her actions will be remembered for centuries to come. She has a Part. She's the Knight. She has to become the person she always dreamed of being, on pain of death. And her girlfriend/queen cannot stop getting downed and falling limp in her arms.

Art dump! Featuring Eldeth's reaction to Dewd and Zaen's plan to use Destroy Water to "get rid of the Darklake and just walk from here", her truly dreadful lockpicking skills with an assist from lizard!Dewd, and her dynamic with Zaen:

Backstory: Zaen was the Crown Princess of the timeless Eternal Kingdom in the Astral Sea, raised by her father the king, and her mentor Iryen, a deep cover Harper agent sent to keep the Kingdom from returning to the tyrannical ways of Zaen's grandparents. Zaen has a lasting fear of heights due to an altercation in which her stepsister Saria (profile forthcoming) pushed her from a window when they were young, and her stepmother Merialeth, a powerful wizard, has continuously tampered with Zaen's memory to make her forget her knowledge of statecraft and sabotage her ability to rule. By the time Saria poisoned her father on Merialeth's orders and framed Zaen for it, Zaen had no recourse but to flee to the Underdark, where she, alongside her future partner Eldeth Feldrun (profile to follow), was captured by Tits-Out Fuckboy Shoor Vandree (profile to follow).

Party Niche (Mechanical): Frontline fighter Tough Feat Tank babeyyyyyyy! Is this an ideal position for the queen in exile who must survive to save her people from imperialism and warmongering? No! Does she give a fuck? Also no!!! She also has History expertise because of her background. All important political lore was erased from her brain, but she remains the party's resident demon expert because, due to a well-timed nat 20 that we had to narratively justify, Fruuths and I decided that Zaen's favorite teen book series was a Percy Jackson ripoff called Daughter of Darkness about children of the various demon lords and their emotional issues. Fruuths has a fucking gift for spinning lore I give her into YA-speak on the spot, and it's a delight to witness.

Party Niche (Narrative): Against her wishes, and her charisma score (-1 with no proficiencies in any CHA-based skills), and all odds, the leader. Zaen is always the first of the party to call a hard truth, and while in the first act that fact combined with her disinterest in tact was usually the most likely thing to start a fight, she's become the most principled and morally grounded party member because she can't afford to be otherwise. She's shown mercy to both Saria and Asha (profile SO forthcoming) that has led both of them from the brink of doom to chances to change and better themselves. If her principles and resolve hold, she could be a good queen. Even if she cannot pass a charisma check to save her life and, if this were an actual show, would be consistently cancelled on this hellsite for *checks notes* not sufficiently coddling Dewd and Alderick's feelings.

Act Two Goal: The least personal and most world-focused, in contrast to Dewd. Now that she's faced down against her stepmother once and acquitted herself well in a trial before her allies, she doesn't have a choice but to step up as the leader of the expeditionary force the party is guiding into the Underdark to face the demon lords. She has goodwill to build, a reputation as a leader to establish, and a kingdom to take back. Everyone is looking to her to call the shots. As her companions continue to take drastic measures in fear, it falls to her to shoulder the weight of the team's conscience and keep her hands and reputation clean, even if it runs against her nature.

Annnnnnnnd artdump!!! Featuring Zaen's Act One long hair before she got her intermission emotional crisis bisexual bob from the nearest morally suspect valley girl. (Once again in roughly chronological order)

Backstory: Archie Fletcher was a good hunter and a good son, providing for his mother in the wake of his father's death and pining for his childhood best friend Jay (profile forthcoming), in a small rural village. He was, until the night he set out in search of a vampire plaguing his village, and found her. Thinking this woman alone at night in the woods was in need of help, he approached her only to find himself brutally drained and left to die in the snow. But he didn't die. On waking, he was disgusted and horrified at what he'd become, and when a worried Jay found him drinking from a deer's throat, he fled into the Underdark. Clinging to the Cool, Intimidating Vampire angle as both a shield and a hope of tracking his killer, this freshly-murdered farm boy spent all his coin on a goth outfit, crept into the Underdark, and was immediately Guiding-Bolted by Asha Vandree, an ambitious drow valley girl who coveted his Loubotins and his malleable nature.

Party Niche (Mechanical): DPS, with a vengeance. Has the highest kill count in the party and a worrying knack for killing enemy casters in the first two rounds of combat. Between his longbow and his sunblade Dawnbringer, he creates a legitimate problem for every boss I create at both short and long range, and with Dewd often occupied with debuffs and AOEs, is the most likely to dole out a life-saving Cure Wounds in the midst of battle.

Party Niche (Narrative): Alderick has the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair, and his -2 Charisma score means that he cannot open his mouth without turning a situation for the worse. Raised as part of a collectivist village in which he always had a clear role (an Archer, a Hunter, a Son), he is floundering horrifically trying to craft an identity from scratch, and his number one goal is to make sure everyone around him gets along. This is not as helpful a trait as it might seem on the surface. While in the early, frantic days after the initial prison escape, Alderick's attitude helped bind the party together, it made him comically easy to manipulate, a fact that Asha has exploited to such a degree that his personality at this point is whatever Asha says it is, even as the ghost of his gentle, cooperative nature slowly infects her and makes her more compassionate. Going into Act Two, he's Asha's the party's attack dog, ready to throw himself in front of any threat that comes their way and rip its throat out without question.

Act Two Goals: After breaking out of the Underdark and reuniting with Jay at the end of Act One, Alderick told himself his troubles would be over, and that he would be Archie again, even if he'd promised Asha he'd re-shape the Underdark with her, and even if he'd gotten very acquainted with the taste of blood in his mouth. Instead, he spent three months basking in everything Archie ever wanted, and realizing instead that "Being Archie" felt like puppeting a corpse. When Asha called him back to help with the threat of the Demon Lords, he jumped at the chance to return to the feeling of purpose and strength he felt as her ad hoc adviser and killing machine. Zaen said, in the last session, "Obviously, none of us is here because we want to be." But Alderick Neuer sure as hell is, because he doesn't know who he is if he's anywhere else.

Photo dump! Nainers makes by far the most art of anybody in the group so narrowing this down was a fun quest through the chat backlogs thank you queen for making so much delightful art of your wet cat man: