New year, new post!

Happy New Year!

And to kick off this new year, I would like to share with you a drawing I have started and maybe the story behind it as well...

So back in October, a bunch of my friends got together to make a dnd group and held maybe 2 sessions of the main campaign.

This story takes place involving our campaign dm, one of the other dnd-starved players, and myself (so, 3 if you got confused cause I word weird).

The group session was canceled at the last minute once again, so the dm decided to make up a oneshot for us taking place on the same island.

We rolled up characters in a single day and had the one-shot, not using our characters from the main campaign to prevent confusion.

I created Sebastian J. Sebastian, a 6'10" bronze dragonborn monk with a spear and a pretty decent strength stat.

My other player made up a 5'10" teifling ranger with a deep hunger for violence by the name of Ahmon.

(Thank you for the wait.)

(We skipped introducing the characters to just save time and braincells.)

So, Sebastian and Ahmon make it to what I believe to be the capital of this sprawling city that spans across the entirety of a glass desert that makes up a pretty decent chunk of this continent. So, as they were just beginning to take in the sights of "Specula" and it's central courtyard, the ground begins to shiver and quake.

Something that is apparently not a thing that usually happens, judging by how flightly and panicked the aaracokra and the humans that make up the majority of the citizens have suddenly become.

Apparently, all hell breaks loose, and people are now either fleeing the city or seeking shelter as the solid glass ground of the around us that was perpetually polished and perfect suddenly started to splinter and crack.

Some city/royal guards show up in town Square and start collectively casting a big clock looking spell.

Right about then, Sebastian has a vision mid harassing one of the villagers who was running by for information. Apparently, blood-lust the ranger didn't like the feeble answers this bluejay-man hybrid was giving him, and so he stabbed him in the arm.

The bird man became more bird like, grew wings from his arms, and bird feet. Sebastian got grossed out and rather unceremoniously set the bird guy down. They flopped around for a second and then clumsily flew away.

They decided to approach the guards and found out that the vision Sebastian had was because of their spell, a message from the future to warn us of impending doom. Sebastian described best he could what he saw after revealing he was the receiver, and then those group of guards abandoned their time spell and took them down a cramped little tunnel deep underground.

Ahmon fell on Sebastian at some point. It was a good time. A 6'10" dragonborn with a spear is not going to have fun going down a sloped tunnel meant for people 6-foot and smaller.

They get to a dungeon-like chamber containing a giant monster made up of coal and lava magically bound in place and also part of the floor. A real fire and brimstone type vibe.

Sebastian made the goblin guard who lead them down here uncomfortable by asking questions about the town's history and the relevance of the monster that they called "the creator" while the other 4 guards were magically straining themselves trying to keep it contained. Ahmon tried his luck and tried to threaten the guard with their own dagger because they had looked scared and uncomfortable... he would have probably gotten stabbed, and both of them arrested if Sebastian didn't do what Sebastian does best. So, Sebastian lifted Ahmon away so his friend's throat wasn't in danger of being sliced with the dagger the guard had been threatened with...

Then Ahmon apparently had the ever brilliant idea to try to convince this God that he was better than it whilst still being dangled about a foot off the floor. Sebastian was not feeling like dealing with Ammon antics and dropped him, leaving Ahmon to unceremoniously fall to the floor. He must have hit his head on the fall because he then had a brief encounter with a God who was a minotaur (I'm technically not supposed to know who he saw, but I wanted to share the details.) And just reached out and touched a wall and then looked very bewildered.

Sebastian asked if he was OK, to hear Ahmon saw something...

Attention back on the big monster, it started creating smaller, more mid humanoid size golems to start feeding the big monster more rocks to create more golems and destabilize his containment.

So we start combat, Ahmon didn't really have a plan but rolled higher for initiative, so he looped his bow over the head of one of the mini golems and tried to flip it like you see in action movies... that didn't go well...

Ahmon broke his bow string, trying to flip a statue.

Sebastian started using the head of his spear to remove the heads of the golems. It worked really well, but the golems weren't stopping. So Sebastian tried talking...

Using Ahmon as a translator because the monster could speak Infernal, but Sebastian couldn't, they started communicating.

Turns out the desert was once the monster's home domain. He was free to just exist on his own and protect his territory like a dragon guards its hoard. Then one day the humans came and he fought them off, then like 3 races came and waged war on him, resurrecting their fallen into more bird people to continue fighting until the monster was cornered underground and trapped. In a fit of rage, he went "if I can't have the desert, nobody can" and boiled the desert. Making it that giant lake of solid glass...

By his own guess, the monster hadn't seen the sky in centuries.

Some bickering on all sides ensued but eventually Sebastian and Ahmon gradually negotiated a cease fire on both sides and bargained to have the empire craft a suitable new island for the monster to call home and the monster wouldn't burn down the city.

The mother of all vibe checks ensues, and the monster understands Sebastian is being completely sincere and determined in his promise to even try helping out as much as he can to give the golem a new home.

The golem seems to consider Sebastian a true and trustworthy friend and creates one more golem, but in Sebastian's shape, to act as an ambassador...

Though being led by those guards from earlier, Sebastian and Ahmon personally escorted the golem up and out of the tunnel were it had to shield its non-existent eyes against the light, having not seen the sun or the sky in about 300 years.

(Here's where we get the picture).

Overcome by emotion, the golem drops to its knees and just sits there for a few quiet moments. Using his spear as a walking stick, Sebastian crouched down beside the golem and took a knee to watch with it as the sun started to set below some sand dunes beyond the horizon.

Next day the 3 of them spoke to the council and Sebastian convinced them to take up his promise, and even noted his offer to help make it happen. Ahmon tried his luck by asking for a house for himself with a pile of gold on the monster golem's new island. Sebastian just laughed to himself and, when asked for what reward he himself wanted for preventing the end of the world, Sebastian simply asked for a replacement bow for his colleague who had broken it in service of the city and empire.

Game session ended with Sebastian opening up the big magical looking door to find a character from a previous oneshot that the other player had been a part of and nearly died to. A squirrel wearing a fancy red cape...

Though I headcannon since the characters and actions will shape the environment of our actual campaign, and from the fact that the dm asked for a copy of my character sheet leveled up for later use. Sebastian occasionally visits the new island to see his friends and has also picked up how to speak infernal so they can properly talk without constantly pestering Ahmon.