I had a great time with our friends last night at another session of Pathfinder tabletop storytelling, and it reminded me of this great piece by professional artist Lauren, also known as Iguana Mouth.  This dragon is sitting atop a massive Hoard of Dice — click into the post to see the full image!  Between my husband and myself, I think we might own a collection of dice to rival this one, actually…

This is the second Pathfinder game we’re involved in simultaneously; my husband is also running Rise of the Runelords for us.  In that game, I play a Starsoul Sorceress named Hoshiko, a researcher who routinely flies above battles to stay out of reach and casts Fireballs at max damage and Disintegrate spells for 26d6.  I once nuked a giant’s fortress from almost a quarter of a mile away — it’s really nice to be powerful!  I think this next dragon is Hoshiko’s spirit animal, Lauren’s Hoard of Stars:

In our new game, following the Kingmaker adventure path, I’m once again a lowly level one adventurer, just getting my feet wet in this big scary world.  This time I decided to go a completely different direction from my usual spellcasting characters and created Nimaethiel Taldhen, an Elven Fighter who carries a glaive and throwing javelins.  (I had help coming up with her name using the Sylvari (Elven) Name Generator created by the folks at The Red Dragon Inn, check it out if you need some inspiration!)

I came up with her initial backstory as I built the character, and then the GM helped me tweak it a bit to tie her into events from the world where Kingmaker is set.  It’s not work on my novel or even my Neeka story, but it is writing!  And I like it enough to post here, so without further adieu, meet Nim:

Nim started her career as a guard of the House Rogarvia, the ruling noble family, in the Ruby Fortress in New Stetven, the capital city of Brevoy.  She worked her way up the ranks and became a member of the personal guard of one of King Urzen’s older daughters, Princess Usako, who took an instant liking to her new protector.  Nim is very fond of following the rules and was at first scandalized at the romantic advances of the Princess, but Usako was persistent, and Nim and Usako grew close and fell in love.  They pair tried to keep their affair secret, but the matriarch, Usako’s mother the Queen, found them out.  Luckily, the Queen approved of their relationship.

Then the Vanishing happened.  One night, Nim and Usako were sound asleep in Usako’s chambers, when Nim awoke with a racing heart to find that Usako had Vanished from their bed.  Terrified for her love, Nim struck out into the castle determined to find her, and was shocked to discover that in fact, every single blood member of House Rogarvia had Vanished as well.  It is an event that still has no explanation, and Usako’s disappearance still haunts Nim to this day.

As House Surtova swooped in to take power, Nim found herself out of a job and wanting to escape the memories of the city she’d explored with the woman she’d loved, and so she has taken up the charter to explore the Stolen Lands, hoping to find her fortune and new destiny as an adventurer.

Nim is tough, has a huge chip on her shoulder, and doesn’t trust easily; so once she does trust someone, she cannot tolerate betrayal.  She claims she “will never love again” (she’s maybe a little dramatic), is desperate to prove herself, and can be very stubborn.  In a land famous for swordplay, the glaive is her weapon of choice, as it makes her stand out.

And it turns out, Nim is quite the badass in combat as well, even though she’s only first level!  We took on some kobalds and goblins last night, and she easily dispatched them with multiple critical hits and massive damage with her glaive, which has a 10-foot reach.  I’ve never played a melee-combat fighter before, but it turns out, I think I have a knack for it!

So with weapons on my mind, I thought this last dragon from Lauren was the perfect way to end this post.  Here is Hoard of Knives, a collection of swords and other pokey things beneath a cute little pink dragon.  I’m sure she’s not as innocent as she looks, though — how else could she have gathered all these weapons?  (This artwork was a last minute switch too, which is why my post title was wrong for a few hours — oops! 😉 )

You can find all of Lauren’s Hoard of… artwork at her Storenvy shop, and I featured her two other times (in August and September last year) as well, so check them out!

So that’s it for me this week.  As always, thank you so much for reading, take care, and stay creative!

Image credits:
Hoard of Dice by Iguana Mouth
Hoard of Stars by Iguana Mouth
Hoard of Knives by Iguana Mouth