My third character in the Dungeons and Dragons campaign, Hoard of the Dragon Queen.
The drawing started as a fairly tame sketch of Mads Mikkelsen and rapidly devolved into a Hellraiser cenobite…
Character deaths and spoilers follow in addition to backstory.
Character One was a halfling cook who hunted and ate rare magical beasts in a quest for the perfect entree. He died in Greenest on the first night of game play in a “fair” duel with an NPC designed to kill a player character. Fuck you, Wizards of the Coast :p Second character was a religious student who was certain he could prove divine magic was any other magic source, there is no soul, and anyone can be a god. He died in a fight against the vampire in the flying castle. She ignored our limited suite of high level magic, which left us hosed.
Our party has steadily lost its humanity in this campaign. The bard lost her brother and fell into obsessive necromantic magics to “keep him alive.” The paladin has grown jaded and only cares that the Greater Good is supported no matter the cost. And the barbarian has given over wholly to his bestial nature and is little more than an animal on a leash.
Enter Indrid.
A lifetime cultist, Indrid has always been a minion to the monolithic cults seeking to destroy Faerun. Demons, human sacrifice, cannibalism, self mutilation, transport to the Abyss and Far Realm. Yea, he’s done it all. Cult of Shared Suffering, the Esoteric Order.
And every time the damn cults have failed. After a while Indrid started to think that it was he that was the determining factor. He was destined for greater things and each destroyed cult was a crucible he had to best.
His latest prey is the Cult of the Dragon. He’s followed their hoard thus far and he feels ready to destroy their pathetic attempts at control. And that’s when the party shows up, as if on cue, further proving Indrid’s delusions of grandeur are true.
The effects of this lifestyle are obvious - he’s horrifying to behold, icy of personality, and unphased by anything he sees. He draws on lesser vestiges of dead gods to feign magic. He’s made pacts with entities in the shadow realm to grant himself brief safe passage through their domain. His body is inured to pain.
Really I just wanted an excuse to play a bad ass who fears nothing and pushes the party further into damnation. He’s the party’s rogue and alpha striker, which we’ve really lacked.