Magic, Myth, and Occasional Mayhem
A painting of Evelos in his ren’dorei (void elf) form. This was my second attempt at using my new drawing tablet, and my first attempt at adding shading to a character by making use of multiple layers.
You can read more about how I did this in its accompanying Special Edition post. You can read more about Evelos the character in these posts, though at present, no stories about him once his transformation into a void elf have made it onto this website.
My birthday gift to myself was a new XP-Pen tablet. I took it on a test run, and got this out of it:
“I am not Keelath. Not the one you remember. I never will be again.”
This scene was based on and uses pieces of the song “Memory” by Andrew Lloyd Weber. Perhaps in time when I clean this up as a stand-alone original work, I’ll write in my own poem, but in its fanfiction form, I figured pulling from two well-loved inspirations wouldn’t go too awry. Continue reading “Reunion”
“You can’t make him into your brother,” Mirium said quietly. “Evelos is Evelos. Not you.”
He didn’t much like children, with their sticky fingers and runny noses. That his brother’s toddler showed no inclination to meet him was just fine by him.
Sad news today. I just received word that Neverwinter will be closing down its Foundry for good.
Neverwinter is an MMORPG set in Dungeons & Dragons’ Forgotten Realms setting, using a version of the 4th Edition D&D ruleset. It had an editor named the Foundry that gave players the ability to create their own quests and dungeons, complete with branching dialogue, monsters, simple puzzles, and (pre-generated) quest rewards, for other players to play through and critique.
Though it had its flaws, for me and many others, it was the main draw of the game. I won’t forget adventures like faithful renditions of Drizzt’s battle with the Many Arrows orcs, doing my in-character introduction for my roleplay guild <Order of the Broken Path>, knocking over mountains of crates just for the heck of it, evenings spent in specially created taverns chatting with other roleplayers, and even a quirky quest about saving a village from hallucinatory cheese.
I myself created a small campaign following the story of a drow who had fled the Underdark after his daughter had been turned into an evil priestess of Lloth. He surfaced somewhere in the Anarouch Desert, met a sharp-tongued wood elf who reluctantly befriended him, and eventually found faith in Amaunator (Lathander), the god of the sun and truth. The campaign is still available until April 11th on Neverwinter. If you care to give it a look-up, it is called the Fox’s Den; author is @kevaar. Please note, given the current status of the Foundry, some bugs may exist that I can no longer control.
I’m just a little choked up it’ll all be gone soon, really. Over the next few weeks I’ll be salvaging what I can, perhaps to retool for a pen and paper module. Or perhaps greater things lie in store? The community of Foundry authors, while small, has been wonderful, and we’re considering refocusing our creative efforts into making a community based on creating quests and perhaps even our own indie RPG. It’s too early to tell yet.
In the meantime, it was good while it lasted. We’ll miss you, Foundry. Should you resurface in some form, whether in this game or another, don’t be a stranger, hey?
In my efforts to start up a small bookselling business on Amazon, I ran a little experiment on the World of Warcraft economy. As described in my February Update post, I determined I would start with a small amount of ingame currency, then proceed to play the Auction House to see how much of a profit I could make with it. This was to simulate the real world market of buying items used and trying to sell them up for a profit.
It’s now one month into the study and I’ve decided to post my findings thus far.
Continue reading “Playing the Auction House: A Qualitative Study”When the magic finally stopped, Croatius once again opened his eyes, smiling lazily at Lanlyth. His master was frowning. Perhaps because he could not find a spell to truly best Croatius…?
Avaliet is a large volcanic island off the western coast of the Shey Lands.
This is a teaser to an RPG supplement I will be putting out later this year (2019). It describes the large island of Avaliet and some of its notable cities and landmarks. Continue reading “RPG Teaser: Avaliet”
Akor’mari (singular: akor’mar) are the cave-dwellers of the ‘mar races, and can be found in most inhabitable parts of the underground Reaches. On the Surface, they are rare… This is to the relief of most other races, who throughout history have suffered the attacks of the akor’mari and term them one of the greatest evils of the known world.
This is a teaser for one of the races being added by the new RPG setting I will be putting out later this year (2019). Being only a preview, some details may change upon publication. Continue reading “RPG Teaser: The Akor’mari”