Drewly: Shepherd’s Journal

 Shepherd’s Journal

Shepherd’s Journal: A detailed account of a nomadic shepherd’s journey to the lost city of Atlantis. The shepherd’s account could be used to retrace their steps and once again find the lost city.

I really love Atlantis: The Lost Empire. I really love Mike Mignola. I really loved finding out that Mike Mignola did the major concept push for the movie and that the animators were told to study and adapt his style as best they could. Look for Mignola’s tell-tale hands; Atlantis has Mignola hands.

What is Drewly?

#Drewly is the month-long art challenge for July, where you don’t have to make any new art. Just post art you’ve already made and celebrate all you’ve accomplished.

Rules:

Share art you have already made.

Share as often as you want.

When you share, tag your art with #Drewly and #Drewly2025

I will be posting art every day of Drewly, so check back in tomorrow for something new.

Check out everything I’ve shared for past Drewly’s here: #Drewly #Drewly2022 #Drewly2023 #Drewly2024

Since you’re here, please consider supporting:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

Become a sustaining supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ItemCardswithTheSpeakingSquid 

Buy a sticker: SpeakingSquid.redbubble.com

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Drewly: A Witcher’s contract

 A Witcher’s contract

Contract: Having a well written contract from the beginning can avoid much ugliness at the end of a job where the lack of a terrifying monster convinces some that they don’t need to part with as much coin as they might have said they were willing to.

Drewly 20th brings us to the end of the Witcher item set.  Eighteen items from the world of the Witcher that you could use in whatever sort of adventure you like.

What is Drewly?

Drewly is a month-long art challenge for July where you post art you have already made. No new art just for Drewly.

There are three rules:

Only post art you have already made.

Post as much or as little as you are comfortable with.

Tag your posts with #drewly and #drewly2024

If you enjoy my work, please consider donating:

Make a one-time donation with Ko-Fi:  https://ko-fi.com/theeasyspeaker

Become a sustaining supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ItemCardswithTheSpeakingSquid 

Thank you for your support.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: The black spot.

 Wind Waker: The black spot.

Moblin's Letter: Moe the Moblin is so moved by Maggie’s letter that he sends a heartfelt reply that cannot be delivered due to Maggie’s father’s prejudice. Link must deliver the letter directly to Maggie who reads the letter as a heartfelt marriage proposal and thanks Link by giving him a piece of heart. There may be a reading of the letter where Moe literally wants to eat Maggie, rather than figuratively wanting to eat her, but that is lost on Maggie.

Being given the spot is being given a warning, surrender yourself to the will of the crew or see your blood spilled. Some deposed captains are held in the brig to be turned ashore at the next civilized port of call, others are left marooned on a deserted island, and the unluckiest are put adrift in the open sea with a jug of water and a pistol with one shot. Only the bravest, slyest. or the most foolish captains ever try to resist the inevitable fall signaled by the delivery of the dread black spot.

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Based on my reading Robert Louis Stevenson created the idea of the black spot, and other classic pirate tropes, entirely for his novel Treasure Island. Makes you question how you know what you think you know.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A love letter for the princess.

 A love letter for the princess.

Maggie's Letter: Maggie was another citizen of Windfall Island who was captured and held prisoner in the Forsaken Fortress. When Link travels to the fortress to free his sister he also frees Maggie who returns home with a valuable Skull necklace. The necklace was a gift from a friendly moblin named Moe and it was so valuable it elevated Maggie and her father out of poverty. Maggie wants to thank Moe for his generosity, so she asks Link ti send Moe this thank you letter. 

Her beauty is beyond compare, her wit is as sharp as a tack, and her laugh is like an angel’s song. It is risky to send your love letters through back channels, but you simply must tell the princess how you feel. Just hope that no one intercepts your message before it can reach the princess, otherwise, her father the king will ensure you never have another moment with the princess again.

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Love Letter is a great small quick game that even works well with just two players. I wholeheartedly recommend trying out the little bag packed with big fun.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A special order from the butcher’s shop.

 A special order from the butcher’s shop.

Father's Letter: This letter was penned by the chieftain of the Rito encouraging his son to be brave as he faces the grief of losing his grandmother and the fear of having to present himself to the island’s guardian dragon as a rite of passage. Link is given this letter to be hand delivered to the chieftain’s son.

This Father’s Day, lean into stereotype with a fine cut of premium meat from your local butcher shop. Each of our premier cuts comes with our master butcher’s seal of approval. If you aren’t feeling so generous, you could also spend a third of the price and just get a regular steak from the store, but do you think he’ll notice?

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I have a complicated relationship with my father which means I have a blind spot for Father’s Day. I never remember when it is or that people do things for it. I know many people also have complicated family relationships, so if this post doesn’t do it for you, that’s okay.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A letter home.

 A letter home.

Note to Mom: If Link can do an excellent job sorting mail on Dragon Roost Island, he will show the postmaster that a permanent assistant postal sorter would be invaluable. The person who gets this job will eventually ask Link to drop this letter in the mail to their mother. The letter apparently talks about how great Link is, but we shouldn’t be reading other people’s mail.

A simple letter from a son to his mother. No big news to write home about, just small simple everyday goings on. It is for all the simple everyday letters like these that we must sacrifice so much. 

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Not all of my item cards lend themselves to epic fiction, sometimes they are common everyday things that just add depth and texture to the experience.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A scroll of occult magic.

 A scroll of occult magic.

Ghost Ship Chart: This unique special chart allows Link to track the location of the ghost ship that sails the Great Sea. It will also allow him to board the Ghost Ship to earn a priceless treasure. Link can only find the chart at the end of a maze filled with floormasters eager to pull Link back to the beginning of the maze.

A scroll of occult magic from an ancient library. Occult mages uncover forgotten or forbidden truths and contact ancient uncaring beings to discover means of controlling the natural flow of magic. To pursue occult power is to trust your research to keep you from the darkest truths or trust your willpower to stay sane facing the naked truths not meant for mortal kind.

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This is the last of the five scrolls of magic. Each represents a different source that mages may draw their power from.

A little more than a week left of Drewly.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A scroll of primal magic.

A scroll of primal magic.

Tingle's Chart: There are exceptional charts among the special charts. Two of these charts are given to you directly from Tingle to celebrate your heroism. The first shows the exact location of Tingle Island and the second shows the locations of all eight Triforce charts. 

A scroll of primal magic painted onto an animal hide. Primal magic demands that the user attunes themself to the rhythms of nature to call forth its innate power to work magic. Often primal mages spend long spans meditating in the wilderness to connect to the primal source, but others contain an animal magnetism that naturally resonates with the font, and in rare cases, exhaustive observations have allowed the exceptionally clever to tap the primal power.

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I’m not sure this is a great drawing, but I really like the concept of a scroll of magic being inked into an animal hide. Seems more thematically appropriate than a druid carrying a bunch of parchment in scroll tubes.

More wands next week as Drewly 2023 continues.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A scroll of technomancy.

A scroll of technomancy.

Special Chart: These charts show the locations of people, places, monsters, and things of note in the Great Sea. Like most charts in Wind Waker, Link can earn, buy, win, or find them in all sorts of places during his adventures.

A scroll of techno-magic from the burgeoning field of magi-tech. Techno-magic seeks to use the raw processing power of computers to democratize magic to anyone with access to a computer. At least that is the goal, right now only the most powerful supercomputers can begin to control the flow of magic to cast spells.

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Magi-tech, hex tech, arcano-tech, almost sufficiently advanced technology, whatever you want to call it, I’m not the first person to say that technology might be used to do magical things.

Drewly is in full swing which is why you’ve gotten so many item cards from me this month. There’s more to come so check back in daily. 

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A scroll of divine magic.

 Wind Waker: A scroll of divine magic.

Triforce Chart: Similar to the treasure charts, the Triforce charts mark the location of a shard of the Triforce of Courage. Link must conquer a challenge to earn each of the charts, but he cannot read them on his own. He must take them to Tingle to have them deciphered for a steep fee. Once translated, the location of a shard is marked on Link’s map.

A divine scroll of magic intertwines spells and scripture to help the faithful channel magic. Divine casters use their faith in higher powers or divine ideals to direct the flow of magic into their spells. Some choose to study divine magic through long hours of memorizing holy texts, some seek clarity through meditation, and some rely solely on their personal connection to the divine.

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The magical scrolls miniseries continues. Look for all five over the course of the next few weeks with plenty of other items sprinkled throughout as I attempt to post daily for Drewly 2023.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A scroll of arcane magic

 Wind Waker: A scroll of arcane magic.

Treasure Chart: Scattered through the Great Sea are these treasure maps that Link can find, earn, win, buy, or just be given during his adventures. Each chart highlights a specific treasure somewhere in the Great Sea with a pillar of light that disappears when Link finds the treasure.

An arcane scroll of magic written in a magical cipher. Arcane schools of magic rely on exhausting hours of study and memorization to learn the words and rituals that harness magical energies to the caster’s will. Only those with great intellectual skills or aweinspiring natural talents can hope to excel pursuing arcane mastery of magic.

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This is the start of a new minisereis in the Wind Waker set. I used the five chart/scroll items to draw a set of scrolls from five different schools of magic.

Also coming soon is my annual July art challenge Drewly. I try to post something that I have already drawn every day of July. Watch out for a lot more posts not relating to the Zelda Item Cards project daily during July.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: The true and correct atlas of the world.

The true and correct atlas of the world. 

Dungeon Map: As with most games in the Zelda franchise, a dungeon map appears in each dungeon and shows Link where rooms are, how they generally connect to each other, and which rooms Link has visited. Each dungeon hides the dungeon map in a different location, but it is generally one of the first items Link finds in the dungeon’s treasure chests.

The last great atlas of the world was compiled by Vash the Cartographer more than two hundred years ago. The volume was so famously expensive to produce that no one has been willing to finance the production of a revised edition. What would be discovered if a new set of maps were to be made?

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I feel like my books are getting better and more interesting.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Halloweekend: Manual of Witchcraft and Alchemy.

Manual of Witchcraft and Alchemy.

Manual of Witchcraft and Alchemy: This is the very book used by the Sanderson sisters to learn the secret arts of Witchcraft. The vile tome is inked in human blood, bound in human skin, and contains spells and recipes uttered by the devil himself.

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Happy Halloween!

I haven’t seen Hocus Pocus 2. I’m surprised Hocus Pocus earned a sequel after so many years. Seems like a heartless cash grab, but again I haven’t seen it so I don’t know.  Regardless, the book is a great spooky or horrific tome to use in your games.

I hope you enjoyed my spooky items celebrating Halloweekend this year. See you this Sunday for more items from Wind Waker.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Halloweekend: Sacred books from the Pharaonic Age

Sacred books from the Pharaonic Age

Book of the Dead: This locked within the book’s obsidian pages are spells to raise the dead as undead horrors and incantations to bind such creatures to your will. Such powers were deemed beyond the purview of mortals so the book was sealed in a hidden vault. If the vault were ever breached, the thief would need the long lost puzzle key if they wished to wield its dread power.

Book of Amun-Ra: Said to contain all the secret incantations known to the priesthood, this solid gold book was hidden to keep the powerful spells from falling into the wrong hands. One of the most dangerous spells could steal the life from a person and use it to restore life to the dead. Thankfully the book can only be opened with a special key that has been lost to time.

Puzzle Key: The golden and black books of the dead are both sealed with locks that can only be opened with a copy of this puzzle key. The key itself is a hollow box whose interlocking top opens to an eight pointed star. These keys must have been associated with the secrets of the dead they open not just the books, but also the sarcophagi of honored individuals and sealed relics of the god of the dead.

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Three items from the absolutely delightful Mummy films starring Brendan Fraiser. I earnestly love them with all my heart and hope you enjoy anything as much as I enjoy them.

Halloweekend is ending tomorrow on Halloween! Check back in tomorrow for one more spooky item befitting the season.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A get out of jail free card

A get out of jail free card

Fill-Up Coupon: As with the complimentary ID, the Fill-UP Coupon is obtained by earning enough loyalty points at Beedle’s Ship Shop. Making enough purchases to earn 60 loyalty points will find Link receiving a letter from Beedle with the coupon attached. The coupon can be exchanged for Beedle completely restoring Link’s health, magic powder, arrow supply, and bomb cache.

When you wished for a way out of this cell, you didn’t expect a card from a kid’s game to be slid under the door. That’s what you get for trusting in superstition to get you out of a real problem. Reading it out loud, you begin to hear a rising hum from behind the cell walls.

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I really think this item card worked out the way I wanted it to. It partially relies on a person’s previous experience with get out of jail free cards from Monopoly, but the phrase is ubiquitous enough for most people to get the concept upon hearing its name.

As a GM I would give this as a reward when I really didn’t have a great idea on meaningfully rewarding my players. I would allow the players to use this in a lot of different ways that open up a lot of new story pathways, especially if the players find themselves cornered by bad decisions and or rolls.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A passport from the Great Sea

 A passport from the Great Sea.

Complimentary ID: This ID is sent to Link attached to a letter from Beedle the shop owner after Link has earned enough loyalty points at Beedle’s Shop. Link earns loyalty points every time he buys anything from the shop. Link can return the complementary ID to Beedle in exchange for a heartwarming compliment that is so well spoken that it restores Link’s hearts to full.

Much like terrestrial boundaries between countries, the metaphysical boundaries between planes have wards and guards. The boundaries to many axiomatic planes are guarded not only by strong barriers but also by labyrinthine bureaucracies. To enter or exit such planes, one must be prepared to share a valid interplanar passport and consent to a thorough inspection of body and soul.

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Now that we are two weeks into August, I begin to get the feeling that summer is coming to an end. Fall is always a time of great change for me. If there are any disturbances in the posts here, it is probably because of life stuff from the fall. 

I hope I can pre-write enough of these posts to give me a buffer to have something every Sunday for you all until the end of the year. 

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: An absolute pardon.

 An absolute pardon.

Cabana Deed: This deed grants the holder ownership of the Private Oasis Island. The oasis has a pool, cabana, and hidden charts leading to treasure and a shard of the Triforce. Link can exchange 20 joy pendants to Mrs. Marie of WIndfall Island for the deed.

Whoever holds one of these pardons is completely absolved of sin for as long as the deed is on their person. Only a handful of these pardons were ever drafted and most are held in the dead hands of influential and corrupt individuals who were not prepared to face true judgment in death. Such crypts are hidden and well guarded so that the sinful bearers might avoid punishment for their wicked lives.

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I was really happy to take July to publish a ton of work that I have made but not really shared. It was freeing to know that it was behind me so that I can move forward and keep making new things.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a wider variety of my drawings. I will be returning to the much more sustainable pace of weekly updates here with the occasional one-off post for the foreseeable future. 

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Skyrim 10th Anniversary: An impossibly complete volume of lore from twisting pathways of Apocrypha.

An impossibly complete volume of lore from twisting pathways of Apocrypha.

Oghma Infinium: This magical tome of knowledge was penned by the wizard Xarxes and records the unimaginably vast information revealed to Xarxes by Hermaeus Mora, daedric prince of knowledge. Reading from this skin-bound tome instantly gives the reader a greater understanding of a selection topics, but the entire book is too vast to be fully absorbed by a sane mind and therefore the reader can only glean a small number of the secrets contained in the many pages of the tome.

As far as magical books go, the opened pages of the Oghma Infinium as it appears in Skyrim work pretty well as any generic magical book or tome of forbidden knowledge. Drawing interesting but meaningless magical runes is far more difficult for me than many other types of details. I always wonder how other fantasy artists approach drafting visually convincing magical texts.

On the sixth day of Skyrim,

tenth anniversary,

limitless knowledge,

one dragon priest mask,

a Talos icon,

knee seeking arrows,

Golden Dragon Claw,

and a helmet of iron and horn.

Two more days in the eight days of Skyrim’s tenth anniversary. Tomorrow brings us back toward the neck with an item I assume almost every Skyrim player uses for a long time.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

 

Not an artist: Four items from Oracle of Seasons you can find at a garage sale.

 Four items from Oracle of Seasons you can find at a garage sale.

Cuccodex: The Cuccodex is the comprehensive guide to all things Cucco. It provides invaluable advice on raising and caring for Cuccos. Link is given the guide by its author Dr. Left after Link lights the torches in Dr. Left’s house using ember seeds. He needed the light to read and continue his work and is overjoyed for the illumination. The lonely author Dr. Left is a heavy handed reference to Mr. Write, the mysterious sender of love letters Link meets during his journeys on Koholint Island during the events of Link’s Awakening.

What seems to be another Pokédex toy is actually a Persondex that gives you Pokémon style info blurbs about all the different people you meet. It is a great way to get to know people in a way you never could before. Can you meet them all?

I'm not an artist: Five items from Oracle of Ages you could use at summer camp.

Five items from Oracle of Ages you could use at summer camp.

Funny Joke: Link is given this hilarious joke by the only comedian in Lynna City in exchange for the cheesy mustache. It seems the comedian needs something to make people laugh and he is resorting to prop comedy. In exchange, he says he will teach Link the funniest gag he knows, but how funny can that be since he needs wacky facial hair to liven up his act.

          Hello again from camp,

It has been HOT for the last two weeks. Most days I just split my time between swimming in the lake and snacking on popsicles in the shade. I think the popsicles are from a different country because the jokes are written in a language I can’t read.

Not much else going on lately. Hope you are having a great summer. 

Can’t wait for your next letter.