tiffanyshearn

D&D 5e: Search for the Thieves’ Hideout – Part 2

After their night of stories and drinking with the satyrs, The Lethal Ladies decided to continue on rather than going back to town to silver their weapons. While they knew they would face a wererat, they thought they could handle it well as everything else encountered so far.

Aryn laughed and wondered if the hangovers contributed to no one arguing with Artemis in the morning about proceeding more cautiously that day. It slowed them, but they were able to avoid angering more of the local wildlife. As evening drew forward, the party came across a small hut in a clearing speckled with drying racks. A trail of smoke rose from the chimney.

“These could be the thieves.” Artemis cautioned.

“But if they are not, we should warn whomever lives here about the thieves.” Kuori argued.

Aryn nodded agreement. “You two stay back here ready to act, while I go knock on the door with Kuori.”

Valgrim shrugged. Artemis rolled her eyes at their brash behavior for the hundredth time this trip, but made ready with her bow.

A bushy and burly man answered the door. Bags under his eyes shouting to the world a clear lack of sleep in recent days. He introduced himself as DeBoushie, the local trapper, and invited them into his home after taking their measure in turn. DeBoushie told them he already knew about the thieves, and woke every night at even the slightest sound trying to protect the furs and skins he intended to sell in town next season.

He gladly accepted their offer to help keep watch through the night in exchange for a meal, and everyone slept better behind a closed door with a warm fire keeping the room comfortable. In the morning, DeBoushie asked them if they were certain about going after the thieves. When the party, even Artemis, were adamant about continuing and carrying out their mission, DeBoushie went into his back room and shortly returned holding two daggers toward them.

“These are silver daggers. You will need them against what you will face. I suspect they are camped at the old temple ruin about a half day away. If you can end the threat they pose, you have my thanks.”

The party accepted the weapons with gratitude, and said their farewells to make for the temple.

Approaching a Bandit Camp

The Lethal Ladies approached the temple ruins cautiously, and found a group of men laughing and arguing. It seemed word of the town hiring the guild had not reached the thieves yet, and maybe all the peril along the way was worth the speed.

Valgrim proposed waiting until they drank enough or at least fell asleep before attacking. While the other three agreed with him, they also wondered if there was a safe way to scout more details about the camp while they waited. The open area around the camp made that risky in daylight, so they were scratching their heads until Aryn remembered she could turn into a snake and scout around in that form much more easily.

The leader was easy to identify. They might not be able to tell why he talked to his shoulder all the time, but they knew who the wererat likely was and could plan accordingly. As night fell, and only one man remained on watch, they made their way to the cliff face, against which the camp was set, and crept forward. Artemis stopped first and took aim at the watchman, ready to fire the moment anyone was noticed. Aryn stopped next, a little closer, ready to entangle those sleeping in the lean-to should an alarm be raised.

Valgrim and Kuori clanked forward, staring intently at the man on watch and ready to charge the moment he noticed anything. Another clank of their armor and his head cocked to the side. One more and his eyes widened at the sight of a giant woman and short, hairy man creeping toward him. They charged, and an arrow thunked into the man’s side, making him cry out, before he took cover behind one of the barricades. Vines and other plants shot out of the ground around the lean-to, and the waking men thrashed about as they struggled to escape.

They were quickly dispatching the lackeys, but the boss rat kept disappearing into the underbrush only to pop up in another spot and throw more daggers at them. Kuori threw her silver dagger at him, missing, only to have the thief pick it up and pocket it with a wave of thanks in her direction before disappearing again and popping up next to Aryn.

She dodged time and again, but strikes would still land and she slowed even as her friends eliminated the last of the lackeys. Finally, they came to her aid and struck at the wererat, but little seemed to affect him. He shrugged off hit after hit and kept attacking. Aryn was too slow one to many times and went down. The thief slipped away and stabbed at Artemis. Kuori and Valgrim caught up to him, but not in time to keep Artemis from falling to his blows as well.

Another hack, another slash. They dodged and took stabs and bites until finally…finally…the rat was eliminated. The two of them rushed to their friends, who were barely clinging to life, and did not even notice the invisible creature take wing away from the scene. Its departure released the seal on the hidden cave door, and the silver dragon trapped within. He would resume his care of this land, he told them, but the party needed to leave his lair immediately.

As quick as they could, they grabbed the items stolen from the town and left the dragon in peace. DeBoushie sheltered them once more when they returned his knives, thanking him profusely and taking the time for Artemis and Aryn to heal. Finally, they could return to the town victorious, return their stolen valuables, and let them know their protector was free once more to care for these lands.

Afterword

Thank you to my friends for allowing me to share our misadventure. I hope you enjoyed reading about it, and I will bring you more adventures of The Lethal Ladies as we play again.

I have some cover art to share, so next week I will be back with another post on writing / publication.

D&D 5e: Search for the Thieves’ Hideout – Part 1

This weekend we jumped on Discord to play a virtual session of Dungeons & Dragons. Welcome to our “episode of the month” style game world.

Your primary cast of characters in “The Lethal Ladies” from the Guild of Montesso are:

Artemis – a ranger who loves the world and is curious about everything in it, but is just as afraid of pretty much everything and errs heavily on the side of caution. She would probably call it “being the voice of reason.”
Kuori – a fighter with a bit of a savior complex. She is taller than everyone around her, but does not mind leaning over to get in your face about something.
Aryn – a druid with all the curiosity of Artemis and none of the caution. Unless there are blaring signs of danger – and maybe not even then – or friends to stop her, she will walk right into any situation.

To round out their group, they invite one or two temp workers along on missions to help out. This mission they picked up the indecisive Valgrim. A barbarian-fighter wielding two handaxes and a whole load of bravado.

Paths and Satyr Parties

The Lethal Ladies were sent by the guild to help a town normally relatively free of crime suddenly beset by thieves stealing valuables in the night. The town council directs them to some fresh tracks, but the tracks fade into the forest cover only a short way beyond the town’s perimeter. Artemis and Valgrim discern between three and ten thieves, and with them are the tracks of what they believe to be a giant rat.

Artemis argues for returning to town each night as they narrow down the path taken by the thieves, but Kuori, Valgrim, and Aryn will hear nothing of wasting valuable time on something like “safety” in an area only “slightly” overrun with monsters. There are much more dangerous areas and regions in the world. A group well armed and alert can certainly protect themselves for a few days of searching in these woods and camping out at night.

After being surprised awake by a swarm of stirges the first night, followed by Kuori nearly strangled to death and carried off to be eaten by a vine monster on day two of the search, the party finds a group of three satyrs partying in a forest clearing making merry with ale and a roasting boar. Despite Artemis’s reminder satyrs are notoriously mischievous, they decide to introduce themselves and ask to join them for the night as well as warning the fun creatures about the thieves. Artemis tagging along and shaking her head in dismay.

They are welcomed over to the fire, and the satyrs tell them to take care because a wererat runs the group of thieves in question, and such creatures are not to be trifled with. With their warning given, the groups drink and trade stories late into the night. The Lethal Ladies tell them of taking down the vine monsters and frightening off a pack of vicious boar. Kuori is not the best story-teller, but the satyrs paste smiles on their faces through even her rendition and carry on with the fun. As the night wears on, they take out their pipes and play a haunting melody, pushing the party into sleep…all but one.

“Huh.” One says, looking at Aryn. “You can hold your ale.”

“I drink like the fish-person I am. I guess I have first watch then.” She responds, glancing at her friends asleep all around the camp.

The satyr scratches his horn. “This is embarrassing. We did not expect any of you to still be awake. See…We are completely out of food after this boar, and we were going to take all of yours and leave you here. We respect someone who can stand up against our ale and song though. What if we give you these two health potions in exchange for ten rations?”

Aryn can do all the math in this situation and gladly makes the exchange, letting them leave in peace. Rather than blissfully sleeping until noon as the spell would have otherwise made them, she wakes Valgrim for his watch and with each following, they are on the trail of the thieves again early the next morning, despite a few headaches. They briefly consider turning back to have the town smith silver their weapons, but it does not seem worth it without knowing for certain their weapons would be ineffective. They have a few spells and one magic weapon. What could go wrong?

Find out next week as we conclude our adventure.

Canning and Making Pasta

The book is out to beta readers and the cover art is in-work, so this week is all about family pasta night!

We are limiting our interaction to immediate family still, but that made an evening of making pasta and sauce with my sister and her two kids a perfect weekend event. I’m glad my husband and I planned ahead and did a test run last week. If we had tried this with all the refreshers needed for the pasta making with the two of them impatiently breathing down our necks, it would have never worked. We also did most of the preparation before they arrived.

Starting with the sauce.

The sauce we make is an old family recipe from my husband’s side. If you are going to use canned tomato sauce, they say the only possible option is Hunt’s. This is partially because other sauces often have sugar as an added ingredient, which is an absolute no. It is like he can taste the sugar in a sauce before the plate touches the table. So…no sugar. The Hunt’s loyalty goes beyond that; though, as even finding another brand without sugar is not an option. So, of course we bought eight of those giant cans for current and future sauce making needs.

Today it was only one giant can with some water added, then spices. Bring to a boil and simmer for eight hours. Yes, eight hours. If you were curious about the water add, this is why. We started it early in the morning so it would be ready for our family activities later in the day. Over those hours it evaporates down to a nice, thick sauce.

Ravioli Time!

The sausage and cheese stuffing also happened to be two-thirds spinach and zucchini, so we mixed it up ahead of time to avoid questions from the kids that might end with them judging the poor vegetables too harshly. My husband also made one batch of the pasta dough as they were expected to arrive. This was so we could distract them with the pasta machine when the time arrived for the long eight minutes of kneading.

Ten to fifteen minutes of corralling excited children later, we each had our pile of flour with egg and started mixing and kneading with varied success. All told, we made six batches for close to one hundred ravioli and a few nests of scrap mini linguini. About half would be frozen for later use with the extra sauce, depending on how many the kids ate.

Fortunately, they are pretty good about trying new things. They wanted to start out with only two each in case they did not like them. I am happy to report it did not stop at two. It ended up around eight to ten with all the work they put in making dinner and running around being told not to scream in the house driving their hunger up. Review from my niece: “It was really good. I would do this again.” High praise indeed.

Canning Our Sauce.

Canning is one of my periodic hobbies. I’m not an expert, but I have done a variety of canning with relatively good success. One of the reasons we buy the giant cans of tomato sauce is so we are able to can a good portion of it for future use. It takes so long, there is no reason not to make a larger batch.

I like to use the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving for my canning instructions. There is a larger and more detailed book I also have, but this one is small enough to move around easily and has the key recipes I need for my usual canning. I have enough jars at this point I only need to buy new lids regularly, and early on I purchased the bundle with the basket and grabber.

Of the sauce we did not use for dinner, we canned two quarts and two pints that all sealed up nicely. It is always comforting to hear the pop of them sealing shortly after removing from the water bath. I have done enough of these to know that if you have to wait too long, it is probably not happening even if you try to wait the 24 hours.

If my cucumber seeds ever sprout, maybe you will hear about some pickles this summer!

Custom Cover Art

People are scary. At least they are to the chronically shy. Maybe you are like me, maybe you know someone like me, or maybe you are going to shake your head like my extroverted husband, but interacting with people is not comfortable at all. I was voted “shyest” in my middle school class for valid reasons.

More than once as a child, I finished my meal and asked for an ice cream cone. My parents gave me a dollar and said I could go order one. Sure. No problem. They would watch, which meant I would be the one going up to the counter and talking to the teenager at the register… That did not happen. There was either no ice cream or I bribed my little sister to order for me.

I am no longer that hesitant, but talking to strangers requires preparation and a great amount of energy to push through some interactions. Quotes for a fence repair – script, job notes, and a self pep-talk with each call. Figuring out how to get cover art and sending messages to artists? While I would prefer things magically appear with zero interaction, at least most of this is via email.

A note first: there are standard templates you can use for digital self-publishing through the main retailers, and they are often free, so I would say to not let the cost of a cover keep you from publishing. However, publishing is also about marketing your product, which is your book, so I decided to spend some saved up marketing money and look for a digital artist to bring my vision to life.

To begin my search, I lurked around a Facebook group my husband found dedicated to beta readers of fantasy novels. Eventually someone – not me – asked in a post where all the great cover art came from, and the responses pointed me to ArtStation. There are others artist sites, but this is the one primarily recommended to me. With my vision in mind, I performed multiple searches, scanning the results for images sticking out to me as similar to what I want for my cover.

Much scrolling later, I documented three artists with work I could reference in my request. Considering reaching out to them was too much for that evening, so I waited and wrote up a draft of my message the next day to send. I am now discussing my idea with artists, and the initial sketches are promising. I have heard a price-range of $300-$1000, so we’ll see what it ends up at for these quotes.

If I had to share lessons from the process so far, I would say this: Do not be afraid to ask the author / reader community questions instead of waiting for someone else. Have an idea for your cover art and share some basic information about your book with the artist so they can help it fit the theme. Know that custom art is not cheap, and respect your fellow creatives for the time and effort they put into their work as well.

I am going to have this same difficulty talking to beta readers, and receiving their feedback, but that is a concern for another day.

Introducing Tiffany

My name is Tiffany Shearn, and I am an author.

The published part of being an author is still in-work, but I’m getting so close to jumping the last hurdles and putting my work out there. I started this blog to share my journey.

I have a full-length novel written, so what is next? I will admit I am still learning this part, but my list right now is:

Beta readers.
Copy editor.
Cover art.
Publication

This is where it gets scary. You put so much of yourself into work that you love, it is difficult to receive the constructive feedback you need to take your work to the next level. I love my story, and I love how it has evolved as I have grown, but it is at the point where I want to share it, and I want it to be good enough to share.

I have always had an active imagination, drifting off into worlds all my own. In college I started writing these ideas down simply so they would not keep distracting me from the much less interesting lectures. That is all they were at first. Ideas. Vague concepts that floated on the pages without much substance holding them together.

I don’t know the moment I decided to weave in the threads of a story, or when that story became a world with people I wanted to know. Now here we are, ready to move forward one more time.

As this is about introducing me as well as my work, I should share some of my background. I was born and raised in the Puget Sound (Washington State, USA) and have stayed here all my life. I love traveling, but this area has so much variety to offer and limited poisonous creatures, so I always want to return home.

I work in Finance and have now worked at two of the big employers in the area. The numbers and problem solver are my favorite parts of the job, and I have worked with some great people over the years. Big business office politics can drive me bonkers, but no job is perfect. You try to focus on the parts you love.

Some of my hobbies other than writing:

Reading. I am a fan of the fantasy genre primarily, but I also dabble in mystery, romance, and science fiction.
Attending soccer games – Go Sounders!
Playing Dungeons & Dragons with our friends. I play in my husband’s game and he plays in mine.
Ziplining. Okay, this one is not exactly a hobby, but we try to go once on every vacation if there is one locally.

Right now, I have two aspirations. One is to publish my book, so I’m working on sharing my personal story and working through the steps to sharing my literary story. A second is to go in to finance counseling. I love numbers and budgeting, and I would love to be able to offer these skills to people who can benefit most from them. Helping someone get out of debt or buy a first house would be as great as seeing my name on the cover of a book.

I will keep you in the loop on all of this as the weeks fly by, and I hope more people join along the way.