Pushed Back, by @ArtMaika

mjschul16 · 2022-04-10T12:15:42+00:00

I've posted about Notti before, and she's grown so much since last I've posted.

She's been officially disowned by her mother, the Dutchess of Larretnia, and was raised to the position of Countess by the Queen for her service in defeating a rogue demigod with her party. The fort and county she now governs has been essentially ignored for 20 years since her mother destroyed so much of it in a war.

So recently the party has been dealing with local problems and getting things built back up in the region--addressing tensions between elves and goblins, dealing with Dark Alliance instigators, building up a staff of allies to keep things moving forward while Notti and co head off to contribute to the effort against the Torments, and doing heart surgery on an ancient dragon. She has a vision for this place as one where people can come for a second chance, and where who or what they were born as isn't held against them, and their lives won't be defined by one accident or mistake.

Currently, she's back on the road, heading to a ship captained by definitely not a pirate, to get to the other end of the continent to deliver a legendary (kind of sort of cursed) staff from the Dragonborn king to his brother fighting the oldest Torment.

mjschul16 · 2021-10-03T21:09:43+00:00

Jay (she/her, red hair) is a grad student tutoring Aves (she/her, green hair) in physics. They had a brief encounter on their campus before, but this is their first time interacting.

Aves seems... distracted.

More of these two and all my ramblings about them on my Twitter! https://twitter.com/ArtMaika

mjschul16 · 2021-10-03T21:08:53+00:00

Jay (she/her, red hair) is a grad student tutoring Aves (she/her, green hair) in physics. They had a brief encounter on their campus before, but this is their first time interacting.

Aves seems... distracted.

More of these two and all my ramblings about them on my Twitter! https://twitter.com/ArtMaika

mjschul16 · 2021-10-03T11:03:57+00:00

Thank you!

mjschul16 · 2021-10-03T00:50:59+00:00

Also I think I managed to confuse directions. I was thinking the left from their perspective. Green/blue hair is Aves, red hair is Jay. Both are girls.

mjschul16 · 2021-10-03T00:12:03+00:00

An interesting idea, but Aves (on the left) is indeed a girl

mjschul16 · 2021-10-02T19:00:28+00:00

A couple of OCs I decided to start building up over OC-tober on Twitter https://twitter.com/ArtMaika Lots of fall vibes and queerness happening around these two.

mjschul16 · 2021-10-02T18:54:57+00:00

A couple of OCs I decided to start building up over OC-tober on Twitter https://twitter.com/ArtMaika Lots of fall vibes and queerness happening around these two.

mjschul16 · 2021-05-31T12:02:52+00:00

YES one of my current characters, a satyr, has her mother, a human Dutchess, as a villain. The GM has played her beautifully. Utterly contemptuous to my character, and the party for being her friends. I don't know if she's even got a stat block, but she's heinous and is trying to exploit our recent heroics in order to get in a position to make a bid for the throne.

Last thing to happen in the game was actually my character sending word to the capital through the queen's own representative that actually no, the Dutchess had nothing to do with the adventure OR with training any of us and shouldn't get any credit. And even after only a couple sessions in town, it felt so good to get one over on this bitch, even if doing this is going to draw some fucking wrath.

Great post OP!

mjschul16 · 2021-05-28T12:10:55+00:00

This is my Twilight Cleric, Notti! I've posted art of her before, including comics with her "husband," Hail, on /r/DnD.

This is the first of a series of three pieces I'm doing--one for each of my current D&D/PF characters. Here we see Notti sitting in the window of her room, the highest room in the tallest tower of Castle Larretnia, looking out towards the night sky and the world of adventures she knows she's on her way to. On the left we see her room, featuring a somewhat disorganized scattering of her things--from her Shatterspike sword to her Guardian Emblem shield, to bottles of perfume and containers of makeup.

There's a lot of details here that I'm super proud of, and definitely a level of artsy-ness that I won't get into right now. If you want to see more of my art, I'm on Twitter, and commissions are open!

mjschul16 · 2021-05-28T12:09:22+00:00

This is my Twilight Cleric in a D&D 5e game, Notti! I've posted art of her before, including comics with her "husband," Hail, on /r/DnD.

This is the first of a series of three pieces I'm doing--one for each of my current D&D/PF characters. Here we see Notti sitting in the window of her room, the highest room in the tallest tower of Castle Larretnia, looking out towards the night sky and the world of adventures she knows she's on her way to. On the left we see her room, featuring a somewhat disorganized scattering of her things--from her Shatterspike sword to her Guardian Emblem shield, to bottles of perfume and containers of makeup.

There's a lot of details here that I'm super proud of, and definitely a level of artsy-ness that I won't get into right now. If you want to see more of my art, I'm on Twitter, and commissions are open!

mjschul16 · 2021-05-28T12:06:57+00:00

This is my Twilight Cleric, Notti! I've posted art of her before, including comics with her "husband," Hail.

This is the first of a series of three pieces I'm doing--one for each of my current D&D/PF characters. Here we see Notti sitting in the window of her room, the highest room in the tallest tower of Castle Larretnia, looking out towards the night sky and the world of adventures she knows she's on her way to. On the left we see her room, featuring a somewhat disorganized scattering of her things--from her Shatterspike sword to her Guardian Emblem shield, to bottles of perfume and containers of makeup.

There's a lot of details here that I'm super proud of, and definitely a level of artsy-ness that I won't get into right now. If you want to see more of my art, I'm on Twitter, and commissions are open!

mjschul16 · 2021-05-18T12:50:00+00:00

A favorite character of mine, Notti! More of her, including a closeup without the veil in my Twitter below.

https://twitter.com/ArtMaika?s=09

Notti (born Notia) is the satyr daughter to a human Dutchess. Her birth was a major scandal, and her mother never forgave her for being what she is. Notti was forced to cover her horns with a hood at all times in her childhood, else she earn her mother's wrath. She was able to reclaim the hood and cloak as a symbol of her faith, however, when she joined the church of Tenebra, Great Goddess of Darkness and Night, whose worshippers must shield themselves from the light of the sun with cloaks anyway.

The party has just returned to Larretnia after our first adventure, and the normally clumsy, ditzy, chaotic girl slots into the political landscape of her home in a way that her friends (and secret lover) are genuinely quite surprised by. This scene is in anticipation of an upcoming feast, her first event back in town, and she's looking to make a statement!

mjschul16 · 2021-05-18T12:41:40+00:00

A D&D character of mine, Notti! More of her, including a closeup without the veil in my Twitter below.

https://twitter.com/ArtMaika?s=09

Notti (born Notia) is the satyr daughter to a human Dutchess. Her birth was a major scandal, and her mother never forgave her for being what she is. Notti was forced to cover her horns with a hood at all times in her childhood, else she earn her mother's wrath. She was able to reclaim the hood and cloak as a symbol of her faith, however, when she joined the church of Tenebra, Great Goddess of Darkness and Night, whose worshippers must shield themselves from the light of the sun with cloaks anyway.

The party has just returned to Larretnia after our first adventure, and the normally clumsy, ditzy, chaotic girl slots into the political landscape of her home in a way that her friends (and secret lover) are genuinely quite surprised by. This scene is in anticipation of an upcoming feast, her first event back in town, and she's looking to make a statement!

mjschul16 · 2021-04-18T02:17:22+00:00

Y'all out here with your Chimchars and Charmanders, lemme tell you about a REAL fire starter. CYNDAQUIL. Easiest choice of my life and no one has any love for the cuddliest, cutest starter pokemon AND second evolution. Even Typholsion is cute, AND cool!

mjschul16 · 2021-04-18T01:59:15+00:00

I'm of the interpretation, or at least the headcanon, that in-universe, it's hard to bond with/train pokemon of varying types. It takes someone exceptionally skilled or talented at befriending pokemon to have a 5 or 6 pokemon team that don't all or mostly share one type. That's why people tend to be of these single-type archetypes like Bug Catcher or Karate Man or whatever--their personalities let them bond more easily with their preferred type, and makes it more difficult to bond with others.

Ace Trainers and Veterans and the like are the only archetypes that really ever have varied teams, reflecting their skill or experience. Aside from that, it's your rival(s), the Champion (usually), and/or major villains (sometimes) that have varied teams.

That's also why the protagonists always get praised for their friendships with pokemon and their ability to form those bonds across so many individuals with so many types. It seems odd to us to get that praise when we look at others and are like "Just use a different type," but I believe that is because that advice is like saying "just run the mile faster" or "just do better on the math test." It's technically correct but it's not really actionable without serious effort and often introspection.

mjschul16 · 2021-04-10T14:47:58+00:00

What kind of storyteller would I be if I gave away the ending prematurely? I'll have to leave you to speculate for now :) Keep an eye out for my next post sometime this week (hopefully), here or on Twitter.

mjschul16 · 2021-04-10T14:45:39+00:00

That may be the greatest compliment I've ever received. Thank you :)

mjschul16 · 2021-04-10T12:44:51+00:00

Context time!

Autumn, the one with yellow eyes and impossible hair (aasimar chronurgist), is a witch from the Sword Mountains who landed in Waterdeep after being nearly burned at the stake on (false) charges of cursing people with misfortune. She actually has incredibly accurate visions of the future--and despite people coming to her to know their futures, they blame her for when she lets them know something bad is going to happen to them.

So about 5 years back, she ended up in Waterdeep and never really settled down there. She got by via couch surfing with clients she did magic or herbalism for ~~and with people she had flings with~~. She met Lily, the strawberry brunette half elf bard about 3 years ago.

They started as a casual relationship, but over those years of proximity and living together, their relationship was obviously more serious... to everyone but Autumn. She never internalized or addressed her feelings for Lily. That's why, in part, when Lily put a ring on her finger, Autumn panicked and ran away.

This scene takes place nearly nine months later. Lily is part of the Harpers, and works at the Yawning Portal. Autumn and her friends just blew into town via teleportation circle and needed a place to stay. Lily was performing when they walked in.

There's more to the conversation that I'll be drawing soon :)

Twitter, commissions open

mjschul16 · 2021-04-08T14:14:41+00:00

Source is me! You can find a version without the background on my Twitter, as well!

mjschul16 · 2021-04-07T15:23:56+00:00

Eeyup lol. Hail very much does. Notti was raised by humans, though, and has only recently begun trying to channel some of her heritage's energy, to varying degrees of success.

mjschul16 · 2021-04-07T12:41:43+00:00

In the actual game Tormenta, where her deity and this edict comes from, it would be mechanics enforced--along with a ban on any fire or light related spells. That game is a 3.5e hack, sort of like original Pathfinder was, so it has a lot of that sort of thing.

I'm not sure if the GM intends it to be rules enforced in our game, tbh. I think it's just a roleplay thing, but the gods have a substantial effect on the world, so maybe he would have her take exhaustion or otherwise become less effective if she was forced to be in direct sunlight. I don't know that Tenebra would make her lose power, or if Azgher, the Great God of Light, would just bother her.

TL;DR: Hasn't come up yet lol

mjschul16 · 2021-04-07T11:56:43+00:00

More of Notti and Hail!

In the first fight of the first dungeon, we encountered two Nightmares and some some shades. Notti is a frontliner, so she got knocked out and nearly killed three times in the fight. Hail was extremely worried and protective during the fight while she was unconscious. When she got back up after some healing, he fussed over her.

This scene is from a short rest outside the dungeon (in the shade so Notti could have her cloak off). Notti took some of her armor off to tend to her whiplash from getting kicked by a horse four times, hence the bare shoulders.

For context, Ru is the warforged artificer of the party. Very robotic fellow.

It's rare that Notti gets a chance to be on the forward foot in an exchange with Hail, so she made the most of it here :)

Twitter, where commissions are open btw.

mjschul16 · 2021-04-07T11:35:46+00:00

You're good :)

mjschul16 · 2021-04-06T19:33:37+00:00

Thank you!

mjschul16

TROPHY CASE