Josh Kent's Blog

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Much thanks to Elegant Walrus Studios in St. Albans, WV for coming by to snap photos of my art! They turned out great and the photographer is one of the coolest dudes I’ve ever met!

As soon as we’re able to get quality digital copies of the art, we’re going to set up print ordering so that you can order any of the originals in different sizes. I will continue to take requests, the original pieces that I create will be scanned and digital prints will be available. If you […]

Welcome to Mudpie. We’re setting up. Come back in a few and see what we do. Thanks for stopping by!

Toshik’s friend was named Joshif, but everyone called him Rabbitface. They were playing in the field when the Necromancer opened the gates of the ruined temple. At first, Toshik, Rabbitface, and the little halfling girl just heard people shouting. Then, it got worse. The hideous, guttural noises that the ghouls made, the crunching of bones. They stood silent and frozen with fear. Then, they saw him. The Necromancer was running through the woods – running for his life. Toshik would never forget his face, the eyes close together, the shabby beard and scabs across his cheeks, the terror in his green eyes. Toshik’s father was killed that day by an undead monster. Joshif’s entire family met their fate in the terrible hands of those creatures. Toshik’s mother adopted Rabbitface and the two became brothers in tragedy. The little halfling girl, Ivy Forrester, moved away with her Aunt Miira to work in Neverwinter eventually Ivy and Miira owned a small pub in Trimbleton. Toshik had a different path and Rabbitface went where Toshik went.

Toshik became aware of two things after the traumatic events of what the townsfolk of Mackle’s Finding called “Temple”. One, he began to have strange dreams, premonitions, he dreamed of ravens; two, his hands were nimble. He could hide small objects, distract others, misdirect…Toshik took advantage of this. Playing “Dragonbane” or “Five Lords”and using Rabbitface as a lure. He would draw in a crowd by acting frustrated as Rabbitface beat him and won larger sums of money. Toshik had memorized the deck and was lightning quick at counting the cards and sleight-of-handing winning cards into Rabbitface’s draw pile.

When he slept a female presence began to visit him. She never used words, but she spoke in images. Sometimes softly, sometimes with rage. She promised he would avenge his father’s death. She promised to help him do it in return for his devotion. He came to know her as the Raven Queen and she offered him unnatural gifts and protection. She offered him power and importantly, revenge.

Sometimes the good guys start bad. Dwyer Fenwrehr never knew his parents. He grew up a street urchin in the small town of Trimbleton just north of Luskan. As happens with lots of kids like this, he spent his teen years working with a gang of small-time pickpockets and charlatans who were able to eek out a living bothering travelers and rich folk. He showed a lot of promise and the big bosses took notice. His keen senses and quick study of human behavior made him a first pick for complicated jobs. He could tell you how many men were in a room without looking and sense when an ambush was brewing.

When Dwyer reached his early twenties, he caught the eye of two prominent business men. One was legit, Jimmy Gundry. One was not, Benithar Therat.

Gundry was a logistics guy, a big fish in a little pond. He had a few crews that moved goods, animals, and sometimes people in caravans between towns and did his job very, very well. Mostly he dealt with folks in Trimbleton, Gottles, and a mining town at the Spine of the World called Mackle’s Finding. Jimmy made Dwyer a part of his delivery crew whenever he could.

Benithar, on the other hand, promised a lot and the jobs went sour a lot. Dwyer knew this, but he wasn’t scared of this. He trusted his senses and didn’t trust Benithar, so he figured he could make it work.

His very first job for Benithar was one that went sideways, really, really far sideways.

This adventure is a “homebrew” created to help the characters get past level three before starting a module. I designed it so that the characters from the starter could link to the module in certain ways. I’m going to keep record of what’s happening in the group in the style of an easy ready novella. Here’s part 1.

Along the Sword Coast lies the lesser-known port of Gottles. A small village grew up between a ragged, rocky coastline and a fetid swamp region. Ages ago, this land was used by Sea Gnomes as a secret respite from the world. Then, a wizard brought her goblin militia to the swamp to build a place for her to conduct her experiments. Viridia Malvania, for good or ill, sold her potions and trinkets to those who passed near the swamp. She fell in love with a Necromancer named Kephalos Klotho who joined her in her morbid experimentation.

Soon, nomads stopped frequently to buy items imbued with magic, fishermen and pirates set camp on the shores and a trading market grew from the swamp to the coastline. The village that grew around this bazaar now boasts about three thousand souls of all races and creeds. Gottles is a place where once a Tiefling brother and sister led a revolution against slavers, where a plague of particularly deadly strain of cackle fever killed a third of the residents, and where a wizard still lurks in a haunted swamp.

So, I’m new at this. I used to play Palladium RPGs pretty much exclusively when I was a teenager. I think I played Advanced Dungeons and Dragons once or twice and I also played the Shadowrun RPG and ICEs Middle Earth Roleplaying game (MERP). I just love 20-sided dice and rolling different dice for damage so it’s harder for me to get with games that just use a bunch of d10s or d6s. About one month into COVID a few of my high school friends and I got in touch and decided to start playing. One of them was already pretty consistently playing D&D on Roll20 with discord accounts. I had been using Zoom for work, so I already had an account, so we went with that and used the free version of Roll20.

For the next few months, Mysterioussources is converting to an adventure journal. Following several TableTop Roleplaying campaigns. If you are a fan of D&D 5e and are interested in seeing how some of the common adventure modules play out. Specifically, Rime of the Frost Maiden, Dragons of Icespire Peak, and Storm King. You can follow along here. If you don’t want to spoil the content don’t follow. We will not publish any official art, game stats, content, copy, etc. This will only be a journal. We will refer to the rules and rulebook. For a good source, use 5e Tools or DnD Beyond. We play online using Zoom and Roll20 and we use real dice instead of virtual dice rolling. We like dice.

Hey, gang! Super excited that another one of my short stories will appear in Murder They Wrote Volume 2 from Serial Sikk Publishing! It’s coming out in the Fall of 2020.[image error]