Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickbeam" data-source="post: 531821" data-attributes="member: 635">Post-Battle Exposition, Round #1GRACE UNDER PRESSUREFirst Impressions & Impulses:** Immediately upon seeing the ingredients list, the mischievous toy maker and his animated cavalry of soldier/burglars sprang to mind...probably because of all the holiday shopping we've done of late.  The other item that jumped off the page was the kazoo.  It practically screamed annoying gnome bard, and was an easy tie in with the deceitful toy maker...someone who would reap great pleasure from convincing the naive, childlike bard that one kazoo was not nearly enough to properly render fitting performances.  This may have been a sidelight as my story was eventually posted, but Nat Bundungle was there from the start.  He was the comic relief for players and DM in the scenario.** Dysphasia entered the picture early on also, mainly in tribute to a friend of mine who always includes some bizarre pschological or physiological trait for his PC's.  I saw this as another opportunity for DM fun, and creative character investigation while piecing the puzzle together.** The angry halflings were initially going to be a family with the great misfortune of living near Bundungle, constantly subjected to the noise of his poor kazoo playing and children's song festivals.** The hydra was initially going to be a polymorphed creature that Grace himself was designing a Figurine to house permanently...but how does a cleric get such a beast in the first place?  That stumped me for a while.** The Wishing Well was originally gonna house Grace's stolen goods, but I didn't know how or why, and the Hat of Disguise was the wild card for me early on.  What to do, what to do?Development:The more I fleshed out Grace (who seemed to be the focal character), the more his background and history evolved.  I clearly saw a disfigured man who'd endured years of teasing and torment as a child, and desperately wanted to USE children as a means of furthering his own ends thereafter.  This man was primarily raised by someone with their own axe to grind in life, someone who could offer him power and safe haven from the outside world in exchange for his blind devotion to faith.  A little more thinking, and Grace's mentor became a rogue cleric who'd been made a refugee at the hands of halfling clerics wielding a powerful item.  Something she would always remember, and teach her pupil to covet.So Grace creates animated toys to satisfy his chaotic and mishievous bent, and much like the proprietor in Needful Things, makes certain that everyone (especially children) can afford his wares...to his ultimate benefit.  The more I thought about these toys marching about, the more it made sense to have them move secretly, and cover of night was not enough.  Thus were born the coal tunnels, and the hub above them covered by Gladwin's wishing well.  That just left the polymorphed hydra and Hat of Disguise.  I liked the idea of Grace not really being evil, just chaotic and a bit warped, and an evil wizard as the real villain took form.  This wizard would form a pact (forced or voluntary) with Grace to help solve my ingredient dilemma, and present him with the means of hiding his grim visage.The rest is just details <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />.EDIT: Other notes...I didn't like using dysphasia more than once -- it seemed forced at that point, and might have compromised an otherwise neat concept.  Also, I agree with nemmerle that the story so totally revolves around roleplaying, that combat is essentially ignored.  Sure the party might end up fighting the hydra or Malandoc, or both at the same time, but those events aren't guaranteed.  The Xorn and Grace are designed to avoid conflict, leaving us with a lovely tale that doesn't pack much punch.  And like my opponent Zappo, I was already so far past 500 words that squeezing anything else in would have been silly.  Heck, as things stood I felt as though I were scimping on the background set up, not to mention specific combat encounters.  And finally, look at my avatar -- I just HAD to include some kind of malevolent toys!!</blockquote>

Verification