Wynd the Wise Woman

wynd the wise woman dungeons and dragons

I’ve been meaning to share this sketch and the story of this woman for a while now.

Wynd the Wise Woman is an NPC (Non-Player Character) in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran last year. This woman is actually tied into the origins of the world I designed, but without getting too spoiler-y: she’s the wise woman who lives in a fancy house in the south part of Jopennt, the first town the players enter.

People in Jopennt say to avoid her house, though, because no one knows what kind of magic she does – all they know is that there are little people who work in the house, and things explode all the time. And lately, people have been disappearing when they get close to the property.

Wynd lives with a band of 12 gnomes, and they’re figuring out the magic and science behind gunpowder, weather forecasting, and bags of holding. She’s a treasure-keeper and has ancient armor and weapons, and she only accepts payment in the form of jewels – no copper, gold, silver, or platinum allowed.

Wynd’s house also has unusual features, like a cabinet that remains empty except for whatever object she needs at that moment. In one session the players were helping her make dinner and she said to one player, “Dearie, get into the cabinet and get the salt for me,” and when the cabinet was opened, the shelves were empty except for a single salt shaker. A few minutes later she said, “Oh darnit I forgot the tea. Can you get in the cabinet again and get the tea for me please?” The player opened the same cabinet and all the shelves were empty except for a single hot pot of tea. No burner or flame was present.

One side quest the players can do is solve a mystery – two of Wynd’s gnomes vanished and it’s the players’ job to find them. Poke around enough, and the players find out that on one end of the property there’s a veil that connects to the realm of the faeries. The gnomes (and some towns people) have been vanishing by inadvertently walking through this veil.

That’s just a sampling of what she does in the campaign. Next time I’ll share a sketch of another important NPC from the campaign.

Thanks for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

The Forest Spirit: An Illustration

the forest spirit illustration by kelci crawford

The Forest Spirit is more than just a spirit – she is a deity. She has been around since before written history. Her name has been lost to the ages, but she is forever present within the trees. When she moves, she moves slowly, thoughtfully, but deliberately. And when she is found, she will guide travelers by testing them – fail the test, and you are taken out of the forest, forever unable to find it again. Continue reading “The Forest Spirit: An Illustration”

Art for My Dungeons & Dragons Campaign

For those of you who don’t know yet, I’m nerdy enough to be the Dungeon Master for Dungeons & Dragons and run a home-brewed, not-based-on-any-campaign-books campaign.

So it falls to me to illustrate some things for the campaign, which I can totally do, and I’m happy to do so.

A good chunk of the campaign takes place in a section of the world called The Weird Wastes. This is a realm where all the magic in the world exists, because it bleeds from a place called The Rift. The magic in this realm can cause things like pirate ships to sail in deep forests, trees to be colored various shades of blue and violet, and for the boundary between desert and arctic to be a literal line in the sand.

The Weird Wastes also allow for unusual creatures, like Pom.

pm dungeons and dragons spirit sketch Continue reading “Art for My Dungeons & Dragons Campaign”

Making an Illustration in Colored Pencils

colored pencil art and illustration set up

This post is going to be informal because that’s how I do.

Normally I work with Copic markers (they have SO MANY colors available and are easy to blend, but are pricey like woah).

However, I’ve been itching to do some new illustrations in a technique I haven’t employed for a long while – colored pencils. It’s not that I don’t like colored pencils. It’s just I don’t get to use them everyday because my default when it comes to coloring anything is markers.

So I’m making what I call a “test illustration,” an illustration made just to practice with the tools. Kind of like my Native American woman, my last illustration I made with watercolors.

First thing I did was I drew – and shaded – the whole image with graphite pencils. Continue reading “Making an Illustration in Colored Pencils”