Let's get a little weird... in any number of ways. So the idea of what the first character I might make from the 2024 version of the PHB has been floating around in my head for the last little while, and the one new subrace that they floated that really caught my eye was the Chthonic tiefling.
Which led me to this week's DnD Character Colouring Book... Liberty, Chthonic Tiefling Sailor, Great Old One Warlock and Swashbuckler Rogue.
I know what you're thinking... because, literally, it was what I was thinking up until about 75 seconds ago when I googled "chthonic"... it's less about Lovecraft and Cthulhu and literally just means "underworld". Which, honestly, makes it make a lot more sense. And had I realised that at the time, might have altered my theming... but instead I discovered the Piscoloth, which is one of the possible Neutral Evil fiendish ancestors.
So, why wouldn't I lean into the cool, purple, aquatic, nightmare lobster and make it more people-like. Also, leaning into that idea meant being able to make a hornless (bald) tiefling. Which I dig. Originally he didn't have a tail, because I wanted to lean away from a number of the regular Infernal tiefling visuals. But he just ended up looking like a purple dude... so, sometimes you can't get rid of all the tropes.
The tattoo is a combination of a "Great Old One" sketch I found, two lots of "Lovecraftian" text (keeping in mind that Lovecraft was a racist asshole) at 90 degrees to each other, pulled from the Dagon short story (specifically the passage describing the titular creature) and a symbol for same. The idea would be that it's less of a tattoo and more something his patron inflicted on him.
I also, mostly for my own benefit, I included screen shots of the specific Warlock Eldritch Invocations he would have with six levels of Warlock and four levels of Rogue. I'm not convinced about the Gift of the Depths option, it would be one of those there I'd have to have a conversation with the DM and ask "is this a thing that's actually going to come up or be useful at all?". Because if there's like, one room in one dungeon in the whole adventure where this might be useful and nowhere else... then I'll just take Eldritch Smite (maybe).
The tail cuff was originally three rings, but the more I looked at it, the more I went... "that would just be uncomfortable and impractical", so instead I defaulted to the singular cuff. And engraved it with the name of three ships he's served on. One of which might just be a Spelljammer ship (probably a Damselfly Ship). Because as much as I probably don't ever want to PLAY Spelljammer, tying him into that idea might be fun. I also just realised that two of the three ship names I came up with are alliterative... so either I need to change the one that isn't so that they're all like that, or change one of the ones that are.
In my head, he would also have light, silk robe/jacket that would go over the armor... but that's not a thing that would work in Hero Forge. Think something that's kinda Burning Man, kinda Coachella, very dramatic, big wide sleeves (or no sleeves)... something you could get a good "King Thranduil" shablam moment out of before a battle... yeah. That.
And lastly, because he has Mask of Many Faces, I also mocked up his... default disguise. Because as much as the playtest information says "thanks to the victories and sacrifices of these legends, tieflings throughout the multiverse enjoy widespread acceptance", widespread isn't total and there's going to be times when it's much easier to pass as a brown skinned gentleman with a relatively normal tattoo than it would be to be a very distinctive purple gentleman with a tail. The names of the ships appear up in the tattoo also.
Anyway.
This week was Birthday Week.
But before we get to that...
I'm not going into this too deeply, but my landlord is literally the most awkward man to ever live. Also, I finally got my stovetop fixed. Because it kept fucking up... but nobody actually seemed to bother investigating what the issue WAS, the electrician just upgraded the fuse that the oven and stovetop runs on. So we'll assume that fixes the issue. I guess. But also, because electricians can't ever give you a time, he was supposedly coming "mid afternoon" and it was basically 4pm by the time he showed up. So that ended up being most of my Wednesday, at least from a "taking up space in my brain" perspective.
Most of the week was me hiding in the aircon, because fuck the last throws of Summer, which always thrashes around like a dying octopus before it disappears out the door.
Thursday was my actual birthday... and I just realised that I did not do my annual "it's my [number] birthday and also [insert male celeb's name who shares my birthday]" image... because, frankly, I completely forgot about it. Also, I'm basically recycling celebs at this point. So... maybe we skip this year? Maybe. Which is sad is the only other time I skipped it was 2021... and, honestly, yeah, I was clearly in a mood for the entirety of 2021.
And did I just take a detour and go and do a search to see if anybody new or interesting had popped up? Yes, yes I did. But I also don't know that I want to go, create an image and then backdate a post. Seems like, honestly, too much work. I forgot, so maybe we'll pick it back up next year, maybe it's a meme that had it's day. Which is something of a shame this year, given that it's my 50th. Also, I'm 50, who the fuck let that happen.
So, getting back to Thursday.
I started off with a message followed by a phonecall from Ma wishing me Happy Birthday. Then I did my usual visit to Boost Juice and Baker's Delight in order to collect the free shit both of those places give you when it's your birthday.
Thursday Night DnD is... as Fluffy and I have remarked on many occasions, cursed beyond the telling of it. So, that fell over and died, because our host wasn't well. Which meant that I had a nice quiet evening.
Friday was Chiro Day... so I went and did my usual wandering around town after getting my back sorted out. I did spend a while pottering around Dymocks considering potential books to buy with the money left over from last birthday's gift voucher. But I have two issues when it comes to books right now. Stuff that I have read and enjoyed... I'm not sure that, for most of it, I actually need to own it or, for right now, wouldn't really be that bothered going back and rereading (mostly because, right now, I'm enjoying just cycling through all kinds of new and exciting books)... and when it comes to things I haven't read yet... well, why wouldn't I borrow it from the library first to ensure I'm actually going to enjoy it? Which then turns into the first issue.
And the one book that I did think that I might buy just so that I actually own it... they didn't have. But wandering around books was an enjoyable way to spend a little while.
Then we get to Friday Night DnD...
And it turns out that directly after I have everybody a "hey, important birthday coming up, but I don't really need STUFF, but I also don't know what I want... you figure it out and don't ask me things..." just after Valentine's Day, they commenced Planning Things.
Some of that planning came to fruition when Fluffy asked me "a quick question about a totally fictionalised situation that will have no bearing on actual events". Which turned out to be a question about cake. And that I initially said I didn't have a lot of strong opinions about, and then proceeded to have several strong opinions about. Because marzipan, white chocolate and baked cheesecakes are all, in fact, literally The Devil.
So it wasn't a great surprise when Fluffy messaged me when he got here on Friday to say "could you get the door for me and spare some room in your fridge". Because you have to put hypothetical cheesecake in the fridge, obviously.
Then when we got there, it turned out that they'd been plotting and scheming and working together. But due to circumstances, the plan didn't quite work as it might have done... but that was okay, because for the plan to work, time travel would have needed to be involved. So we dealt with the timeline we're currently in.
Because, honestly, you don't want to give me the power to mess around with the timelines at this point. Not least of all because I'll just go and buy a bunch of Apple stock and several copies of Action Comics #1 featuring the first appearance of Superman. Or something.
Where was I? Oh, yeah, presents. There was a set of group presents... that's a confusing sentence. There were three presents, from the group. A present "to celebrate", a present "to remember" and a present "to inspire". Yeah, like I said, they'd been plotting and planning.
Celebrate was a... well, I don't know what the official name of it would be... a diadem or a corolla, maybe a coronet... not a tiara though, because it's a full circle... essentially it's a tiny crown. Which is made of some kind of metal and has little fake gemstones and repeating fleur-de-lis... which is funny because my first tattoo was, in fact, a fleur-de-lis.
And why... because, I am, in fact a Pretty Pretty Princess.
Does it fit my oblong head? Not remotely. Is it clearly designed to be worn by a bride with a veil and connection points where you attach it to a hairstyle with bobby pins? Yes. Is it very cute? Also yes.
Remember was a very lovely Sketchgoblin portrait of my girl Nightingale. Is it the version of my girl that I would have designed if I'd been dealing with the artist directly? No, but I think they were working from the 2020 version of my girl... and I think I've slightly redesigned her several times since then, and, honestly, she's about to go through another slightly update next week when they drop some new jacket pieces. Also, I'd possibly be a nightmare dealing with an artist. Or else send them a full terrabyte of reference images.
But, again, this is "remember". So, basing it around the version of her that finished the game is entirely appropriate. And I'm also perfectly happy for this to be... "fan art" of my girl. Also, just so we're clear, it is quite lovely. And the perfect group gift from this group of people. Because that was the first character I played with them when we started doing our Friday thing back at the end of October 2019.
Entirely fitting.
Inspire was scarlet yarn. Several balls thereof. Half of which was acrylic and half of which was merino wool. Weirdly, if you'd showed me the acrylic yarn and asked if that was my preferred colour of red, I would have said "absolutely", right up until I looked at the merino wool, which is slightly darked and a less orange leaning scarlet.
What am I going to make with it? Not a fucking Scooby. Scooby Doo. Clue. You got that, right? Cockney Rhyming Slang.
And then we have some very delightful tropical/passionfruit cheesecake from the Cheesecake Shop and played a game of Sheriff of Nottingham and a game of Sushi Go (both of which Fluffy won, because I goaded him into not playing Sheriff the way he normally plays it, and none of us really ended up challenging each other when we were clearly all lying). But it was a pleasant evening.
Anyway.
Today was also pleasant.
We did the supermarket thing, came back here and watched more of the UK Portrait Artist of the Year only to discover that the episode marked as Episode 4 was actually just Episode 3 again (nobody cares, I understand)... also that the last episode that seems to appear online is like a month ago... so that train may have run out of steam. Then we watched Canadian Pottery Throw Down, which is just Great British Bake Off but for pottery (well, actually it's the Canadian version of The Great Pottery Throw Down, which is just GBBO for pottery... again, nobody cares)... only to discover that the Totally Legal and Absolutely Autorised Version that we were watching cut out literally two seconds before they announced who was going home this week. Rude.
Then we went down to the Parade, avoided the insanity going on today at the Irish pub on the other corner for St Paddy's Day tomorrow, and went to the same cafe we went to for Ma's birthday last year.
Should I have gotten the focaccia/baguette instead of the chicken burger? Probably. And when the problem with the chicken burger is... the chicken. Well, what are you going to do really? It wasn't bad... just... highly underwhelming.
So, Happy Birthday to me I guess. On the plus side, I do have half a cheesecake in the fridge right now.
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