Musings of a Messenger

Digging through my Flickr account I realized that I never posted the clay spell components and spells that Josh and I made for Cyneric last year, either. I have no idea how I forgot to blog about all these things here! At some point I'll make non-out-of-character posts. ;)



In no particular order:
-Berries for the "Goodberry" spell
-Holly for "Invisibility to Animals"
-Tangled vines for "Entangle", "Plant Growth", "Snare" and "Spike Growth"
-Blue bottle for "Water Walk", "Create Water", "Resist Cold", and "Water Breathing"
-Red bottle to represent potions or whatnot
-A staff/rod for "Augury" and to represent the "Rod of Beguile" that I have
-A rock/lodestone for "Locate Object", "Meld Into Stone", and "Stone Shape"
-A mirror for "Sanctuary" (or as Josh says, a frying pan for cooking or hitting over the head)
-A shamrock for "Shillelagh" and whenever I need an herb or plant
-A piece of iron for "Heat Metal", "Hold Person"
-A bowl of incense/smoke for "Pass Without Trace", "Protection From Evil", "Glyph of Warding", "Speak With Dead", etc
-A piece of parchment for "Detect Poison" and whenever I have a message to deliver
-A tree for "Barkskin" and "Tree" (where it would be used instead of my figure)
-A shiny sphere/globe for "Charm Person/Mammal", "Command", "Detect Magic", "Enthrall", and whenever I need to do a divination spell or charm someone.
-A flaming sword for "Flame Blade"
-A ball of flame for "Fire Trap", "Produce Flame", "Resist Fire", "Flame Walk", "Pyrotechnics", and any other fire spell
-A tornado-looking thing for my air elemental and for "Dust Devil"
-A snake for "Snake Charm", "Hold Animal", "Messenger" or any other animal spell
-A piece of wood for "Trip", "Shillelagh", "Warp Wood" or any other wood spell
-Cyn's Holy Symbol of a winged fox (not the best version- the one on the doll's shield is better).

Whew, that's a lot. I think he has a few more spells not included in these (note to self: put a small dragon in the spell box for "Wyvern Watch").

~Meri

I've been bugging Josh (the DM) to draw me a "kinda cute drawing of my D&D characters", and I guess he got annoyed with me asking all the time, so he drew this:

I think it's adorable and looks like something from a children's cartoon. I know I'd watch one starring an orc! ;)

I'm going to start posting little ficlets/memoirs- or, rather, Cyn will be writing them. I talked character development with the DM, and I think I want to give Cyneric some hobbies. The first one I thought of is writing since he's already scribing his journal and group blog, but I'd also like to expand on his backstory and maybe have him write something for SwampFox, as well. (And darnit, I miss ficlet writing!) Look for those at some point soon. :)

~Meri

Ye gads, have I really been neglecting this blog so much over the past fewmany months that I never posted about the recent plushies I made from the campaign? What kind of artist am I, not pimping my wares whenever and wherever possible? ;)

So without further ado, here are the dolls of characters in the campaign world (click the images to see them larger). First are the group dolls I made as Christmas presents for all the players:

Clockwise from top center: Ayman (human wizard), Ghost (elf ranger), Dallas (gnome thief), Linora (human fighter), and Caleb (gnome fighter).

Next up is Fox, Cyneric's ...er... fox. Yeah, he's not too creative with names.

Isn't he an adorable little fat fox? Cyn must be feeding him too many table scraps. ;)

Now for Dwight, the man who was once a member of the travelling party and is now a duke and a paladin:

I learned that beards look strange on dolls with no chins, and gauntlets and boots look strange when there are no fingers or detailed hands or feet.

And lastly, the one I'm still working on- SwampFox, Cyn's henchman, bodyguard, and friend:

He's been in the "to finish" pile for a while, mainly because all that's left to do is give him armor and I need help on sculpting that. *looks at the DM and gives big puppy eyes*

Next up will be finishing SwampFox and working on a Shocko plushie. Yay for being able to combine art with my favorite dorky pastime!

~Meri

May 1, 708CC, 1st day of Gladmoon

Most of my narrative of recently events can be found in the journal entry I just penned for the group, but I would like to add a few thoughts.

-I have found that I do enjoy being called "Senior Brother". I'm not normally one with a large ego; I had to pause for a moment before I realized the Messenger was referring to myself. It feels like just yesterday I was Called by Hermes; I suppose I don't really think of myself as "senior" yet. I mean, I'm just a Messenger.

-Random appearing and disappearing tattoos are disconcerting. If it hadn't been put there by someone I trust (and, frankly, it was a great honor for Khrom-Vel to call us his Champions!), I think it would have bothered me even more.

-I am going to miss our crazy ballistics gnome. Rest in peace, Caleb.

-I may not mention this enough, but I very much appreciate my friendship with SwampFox. As I witnessed yesterday when he prevented an orc from attacking me as I was engrossed in a spell, he always has my back.

-I am a bit worried that these Gates will make travelling so easy that ... well, Messengers will not be as respected as we are, and that people will begin to take us for granted. I likely have no reason to worry, or perhaps the real reason for my worry is that I enjoy travelling so much and I would not like to lose that. I will have to talk about this with Armand, or possibly the Head Messenger in Joven.

((I'll write a serious, in character post as Cyn soon, but right now I wanted to continue this silliness. ;) ))

To Meri, my annoying writer-
I see that I'm stuck being the comic relief of the party, which I guess is okay in principle since I do love mischief and fun, but you're taking it a bit too far. I mean, having me turn into a tree so that the rest of the party can hide under me to escape wyverns is fine, but letting the gnome girl climb me and hide in my hair… er… branches is embarrassing. And then you had me help clean the dragon's lair which was also fine, but you joke about me carrying a feather duster and wearing an apron, and how it looked so nice with my “dress” and accentuated my hips. It's a robe, for Hermes' sake! And then the DM joins in and mentions SwampFox wearing a French maid's costume, too! Fortunately, he didn't understand what you two were talking about, and I wasn't about to translate that insanity into orcish. Sheesh! I'm going to go hide in the cavern somewhere and see if I can be granted any spells that would work well against you; do you think "Summon Insects" or "Trip" could cross worlds to get there?

No love,
Cyneric Conroy, Order of the Fleet Fox

And here's another OOC post- I finished the plushie of Cyn this week and figured it should go on his blog. I think he'd be more narcissistic about it if he didn't look so girly in yarn form. Hey, I can't help it that he wears a robe and has long hair. ;)




So here he is! His quarterstaff and shield both have his holy symbol (a winged fox) and his robe has a large hood attached. Technically, his skin would be a bit darker (he's very tan- blame Messaging for a decade), but I didn't have yarn in quite the right color.

Here's a closeup of the shield:

Boy, is it hard to paint when your canvas is concave and only an inch and a half wide!

I'm working on a SwampFox plushie now, so I'll post that when it's done, and I'm also thinking about crocheting a fox. As for Cyn, at some point I also want to make him armor, a mace, and some javelins. :) (I'm also going to make a plushie of my old D&D character, but don't tell Cyneric because he'd get jealous.)

~Meri

March 30, 708CC, 2nd day of Darkmoon

That inconsiderate, narrow-minded hick of an innkeeper! How dare he deny service to SwampFox! It honestly took me a moment to realize what he was saying; I am unused to being denied service or lodgings (because who in their right mind would slight one of the few people who can be trusted to carry important messages and packages both quickly and safely?), so I just couldn't believe the gall of that man. Sure, Dallas was willing to lend SwampFox her disguise hat, but I most definitely did not want to give that fool any coin after that attitude he showed. When I finally regained my composure, I said a few indignant words and stormed out. The rest of the party were wonderful in following soon after.

I suppose this is something I should get used to, but we've been fortunate in staying either outdoors or in the establishments of people more willing to accept coin than to worry too much about the scruples they may have with other races.

Anyway, Ghost pointed out that she would spread the word in Joven and Woodland that a member of the Mercenaries' Guild was turned away in Montvale, so hopefully the innkeeper will reap what he sowed. And even if he doesn't lose custom that way, I got some instantaneous revenge in the form of "Summon Insects" cast on the inn. (No one degrades one of my close friends and gets away with it!) Perhaps next time he'll recall that Hermes is a Trickster as well as a Messenger, and that His followers can act accordingly.

I'm not really sure what SwampFox thought of all this; I think it was mild amusement that I felt such insult on his behalf, anger at being treated that way, and some pride in the fact that the party stood up for him. It's hard to tell what SwampFox feels, though; he never says much, even to me.

((This letter is out of character, in an in character way. Someone on one of my message boards started a thread with the idea of writing as your D&D/roleplaying character leaving you a note, so I wrote this up a few days ago. I think this is a cute idea, so I may do more of these in the future. If I do, none of these posts will be canon; obviously this is out of character because he's talking to me, but it's sort of in character because it's Cyneric doing the talking.))

To my writer, Meri:
I know you miss your old bard, but get over it! It has been almost four years since that campaign, so you'd think you would have forgotten about it and embraced the current one by now. Don't make me charm you into some sense with my Rod of Beguile; it still has nearly fifty charges left, you know, and I'm sure Hermes would approve. Besides, you should be proud of me; I'm going to be High Messenger in the relatively near future, and that silly elf of yours never accomplished anything near as great! He never even got a henchman, despite his annoyingly high charisma (granted, my henchman is an orc, but still; I'd like to see him turn an orc into a civilized bodyguard and trusted friend!). Also, speaking of charisma, stop assuming that I'm not attractive just because I can't pass a disguise check; 12 is a perfectly good stat for a scrawny priest who is overly tan and perpetually covered in road dust and twigs after being a Messenger for the past ten years. I'd like to see you traipse around the continent nonstop, and without a horse, no less!

And go finish that "plushie" you’re making of me. It's bad enough that you made the rest of the group first, but now you've left me half done! ...What’s that? ... Oh, SwampFox says he also wants to be one, so you better get to work and hope that you have the right green. It isn't our fault that you didn't know me well enough to know I'd befriend an orc, and then plan yarn colors accordingly.

~Cyneric Conroy, Order of the Fleet Fox and SwampFox, Badfang Clan