#glar

My Dungeons and Dragons campaign is turning one year old today, 8 of September. I made a thread on twitter explaining bits and pieces of it, and figured out I could also show it here- Since well, it’s been such a huge thing for me! We're now in the 48th session and it's still going strong- In fact, they finished the first of three acts a week ago.

In order, the first picture is the map -and the second one is the logo-. They have been part of the campaign’s identity! Then, just below, there’s the 3 player characters and the patron, who’s served as a NPC:

First one is Hákarl, a dwarf-goliath artificer Second one is Glar, a human Astral Self monk  Third one is Laestis, a kalashtar rogue/hexblade warlock And last guy is her watcher patron, Vest!

They first started in an inn called the Nest, run by the Aarakocra lady and her adopted kenku grandkid, Kavla. There, they also met the first NPC that would kinda bring them in to big time chaos: Dalshen.

He was a knight in training of the Dharka, who found out something suspicious nearby the inn, and needed some help with it. From there, they followed the tracks until they landed in an old ruined city, and found a temple to the Five Ghardan gods (since it was before Uragan, the fifth god, was murdered), and a cult that was following said dead god, led by Novra.

They kicked her ass, and she was put in trial, but she died after something strange destroyed her from within. It’d be the start of a long investigation to find out what caused her death. It’d lead the players to travel to Jalia, in an old temple she lead before her assumed death.

Here’s few maps from the corrupted temple: It was attacked by some extremists of The Chain (a faction that is against the caste system of Gharda) with crystal grenades, and closed down, as they’re known to cause crystal corruption. There, they fought Nilodus, the first watcher they actually met: an undead crystal creature, result of said corruption. They had the first rough boss fight and then left, after a NPC that travelled with them (Kandris) got infected by the crystal corruption. 

Outside they saw some fight ongoing between The Chain and some of the Ghardan templars. They met Iratha, their leader, -and threw her a crystal grenade to her- and were aided by The Chain, which was for the most part against the use of violence. Then, they realized these grenades had been smuggled in by someone who wanted to stir chaos between Gharda and The Chain (and Remyra), in hopes to stir a war.

Said person was Uth’gaeel (the fancy drow warlock from up there). They followed him to an underground workshop, where they found out the crystal grenades are made out of crystallized people. They fought their second watcher down there, and followed Uth’gaeel to a crystallized tower (that last gif). They managed to down him relatively easily, but then, he promptly turned into a watcher himself.

And boy, that was a hard fight! They managed to beat him, but ended up realizing this whole conflict had way more to it than they expected. Watchers have been roaming around for over a thousand years, and they have been pulling the strings to make Gharda and Remyra get into another civil war since forever. Still, they had some free time to, uh...

Have a well deserved beach episode. Nothing important here. Nope, not at all. Other than meeting a friendly watcher running a mobile library and finding an old shrine to the five gods, with a strange warforged that may have been a god in disguise. But, anyways! After that break...

They travelled together with The Chain to their base, the fallen dwarven city of Dhum Urnam. They met a plethora of NPCs there and had some time to meet them, and recover Hákarl’s lab, as he was born in this city before it was attacked. But a few strange happenings made them realize there was something weird ongoing in this city. And when I say weird, I mean “there’s something making fake copies of people and fleshy lumps all around”.

They travelled to the inner part of the city, where they had to fight copies of themselves. They found these were controlled by the four big baddies- And realized there’s some big watchers behind all of this. 

After defeating them, down they went, and found out what was creating all these copies: a fleshy watcher heart down there, beating and full of eyes. They kicked it’s ass, and it seemed like Dhum Urnam was finally free of danger! Or not, because they can’t catch a rest-

After fighting a statue possesed by a watcher, they found out one of the NPCs - Myca- was a victim to the crystal corruption. They decided they wanted to try and heal her up, by going to her mindscape and cutting the corruption in it. That didn’t work out well. They found out they had been cornered by one of the big watchers -Solaralith-, who is inmensely more powerful within a mind than she is physically. That last gif is the battlemap of the fight, and she was pretty much as big as the whole thing. They were entangled in a battle they couldn’t win, until Vest helped them out... By killing Myca outside of the mindscape, thus severing their connection with Solaralith.

With no time to recover, they were told Iratha (yeah, that Iratha from ages ago) was planning to siege the city. After some quick preparations, the day arrived, and they advanced through the territory to find her out and finish her, to ruin her plan.

They first defended a point with cannons from attacking dragons, used by the Ghardan troops...

Then travelled to an old ruined temple in the middle of a big lake. There, they fought her dragon, Jimmathael, and Iratha herself.

A rather straightforward fight against a golden dragon and a paladin, which seemed like it was coming to an end. But then, the final boss of the act made an appareance. Iratha, who had been crystal corrupted ever since they threw a crystal grenade to her, severed her own’s dragon head and took it’s place, in a gruesome transformation that led to Amalgam:

This terrible creature gave them hell, as it transformed the battlefield and summoned five flowers to assist it. These flowers gave her few buffs and made her resistant, and each of them symbolized one of the five big watchers... Who seemingly, seek to replace the Ghardan gods.

But they managed to conquer it! With it, came the end of the first act. 

more

An assortment of sketches and memes from my campaign! In order:

Let’s say the monk decided to punch a shady figure in the end of a hall while alone. That may have been one of the BBEGs, Alieae. The party found him KO, and for now, the only hint they have on what happened is about a disagreement in fashion choices

A player suggested Alieae seemed like the kinda guy who would insert himself in random places to greet the party, like a fountain

Laestis recently got her pact weapon. We ruled she can change shapes in her bonus action. In a fight, she got a nasty crit, and her turn followed. The target was pretty far away, so I expected her to pick a bow and shot. Instead, she just said “i turn Vest (her patron, who resides in the weapon) into a gun and shot the fucker”, and I was 100% not expecting that.

Laestis struggles strongly with anxiety. Recently, I also do. While googling weighted blankets, “weighted vest” came as a suggestion. So I drew her with a weighted blanket and a weighted Vest

Two quick portraits in Darkest Dungeon style of two dopplegangers for the party -the human monk and Eine’s dwarf-goliath artificer-!