Drewly: Oroborous Industries Badge

Oroborous Industries Badge

Badge: An official Oroborous Industries operative badge. Just flashing this badge can open many doors in very dangerous circles.

Oroborous Industries is one of two rival gunsmithing companies in my homebrew campaign. Today and tomorrow’s drewly post will be relating to those shady gun runners.

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 brooch from the forests of Lorien.

 A brooch from the forests of Lorien.

Leaf Brooch: These brooches held closed elven cloaks interwoven with magic to shield the wearer from unfriendly eyes. While the brooches themselves were not inherently powerful, they were treasured possessions to each who received one as a gift from the Lady of the Forest.

That was Drewly. We did it. A whole month dedicated to work we already completed. I took this month as a victory lap to be amazed at myself for the scale of work that I can get done. Not all of the art is amazing, but it is amazing to get any work done at all, let alone 31 pieces of art that have just been sitting waiting to see the light of day.

I am going to take a break and be back next Sunday with more items from Four Swords Adventures. 

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

Drewly: Verdant Spheres of House Sunstrider

 Verdant Spheres of House Sunstrider

Verdant Spheres: These three moon crystal shards were once a shield to defend the lands and lives of the elves. When that shield failed, the crystals were taken up and used as a devastating weapon against the enemies of the elves and any who got in between the elves and their bloody vengeance.

Drewly 23rd brings us the orbs that belonged to Kael’Thas Sunstrider, vengeance vengeance-obsessed blood elf from World of Warcraft. This whole week is items from the Warcraft universe that struck my fancy for one reason or another.

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

Drewly: The Dragonspine Trophy

 The Dragonspine Trophy

Dragonspine Trophy: The giant known as the Dragon Slayer takes gruesome trophies. Slung about their beck is the spine of a dragon, ritualistically torn from its corpse so that the dragon’s speed might enhance the Dragon Slayer’s already formidable attacks.

Drewly 22nd brings with it an item I, like most people, never actually owned. DST was a very nice trinket during the time of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade’s raids. I can’t count the number of times I led the 25-person raid into Gruul’s Lair hoping to even see this trinket drop.

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

Drewly 2023: A tarnished brass lamp.

A tarnished brass lamp.

Wishing Lamp: Contained in this simple brass lamp is a genie of great and terrible power. Rub the lamp to summon out the genie and receive your three wishes. But beware, genies are often capricious and will try to take as much as they give.

----------

This is just the colored version of the brass lamp from Oracle of Seasons.

Reposts are a totally okay way to celebrate Drewly! This week we are going to look again at items for my home game and also fan art of items from pop culture.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Drewly 2023: The head of a fallen witch doctor.

The head of a fallen witch doctor.

Head Fetish: The shrunken head of a departed witch doctor. It pulses with a fragment of her power, amplifying magic to contact, summon, and dominate the dead.

----------

This is an orc reskinning of the head fetish I drew for the Oracle of Ages card set. One of my players’ favorite NPC’s was a motherly orc witch doctor. Unfortunately, she died in a mostly avoidable accident when one of my players blew up the tower the entire party was in. All that is left of Maygar is her shrunken head and the guilt for murdering her.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Drewly: That’s a rock fact!

 Drewly 2023: That’s a rock fact!

Rock facts: In over the garden wall, Greg steals a rock from Old Lady Daniels’ property and paints a face on it. He then uses it as his mascot for the ever-dubious series of claims he calls “rock facts.”

One should not trust a rock fact. 

I rewatch over the garden wall most falls and you should too.

----------

Today is day one of Drewly!

Here is a quick breakdown of what Drewly is all about.

Drewly 2023

What is it?

Drewly is a month-long art challenge about celebrating all the art you’ve already made.

What do I do?

Post any art you’ve already made. It can be reposts, unfinished, whatever, but it can’t be new art made for this challenge, and you don’t have to post every day. 

Why Drewly?

Because keeping up with month-long themed art challenges stress me out, but I still want the chance to share my art with others.

How do I say Drewly?

Drewly (DROO-lai) rhymes with July (JOO-lai)

What tags should I use?

#drewly #drewly2023 #drewly23

I hope I see your art during Drewly 2023!

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A fool’s bauble.

A fool’s bauble

Triforce Shard 8: In the calamity that flooded the old world and created the Great Sea, the Triforce of Courage was broken into eight shards. This is one of the eight shards that must be reunited to craft the Triforce of Courage. Link can find these shards spread all over the Great Sea. The talking fish can often help him find the shards, though the rumors they repeat are so old that they send you looking for triumph forks instead of the Triforce.

This gaudy bauble is made from half the spoils from the first bit of piracy the fool captain ever did, which speaks to their humble beginnings. The fool captain inherited their key from a fallen captain but chose to transfer the key to a new item instead of keeping the original. No one knew if this transference would break the goddess seal, but the self-important fool cares more about their own vanity than the possibility of releasing a wrathful goddess from an unjust cage.

----------

The ninth and final piece of eight belongs to none other than Captain Jack Sparrow himself. That is all nine pieces of eight. Throw all in a bowl and say the right words and you can release an angry sea goddess to return control of the seas to the fickle whims of pagan gods.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A horn powder box.

A horn powder box

Triforce Shard 6: In the calamity that flooded the old world and created the Great Sea, the Triforce of Courage was broken into eight shards. This is one of the eight shards that must be reunited to craft the Triforce of Courage. Link can find these shards spread all over the Great Sea. The talking fish can often help him find the shards, though the rumors they repeat are so old that they send you looking for triumph forks instead of the Triforce.

The pirate priest of the south seas left a life of monastic peace to raid the foreign merchant navy invading their home. As their new profession ensures they are no longer welcome in their old temple, this simple calf horn box is their only remaining connection to that pet of their life. That strong emotional attachment made the horn ideally suited to become a nereid key for locking a goddess away.

----------

The seventh piece of eight belongs to Sumbhajee Angria, Terror of the Arabian Sea.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A playing card.

 A playing card

Triforce Shard 4: In the calamity that flooded the old world and created the Great Sea, the Triforce of Courage was broken into eight shards. This is one of the eight shards that must be reunited to craft the Triforce of Courage. Link can find these shards spread all over the Great Sea. The talking fish can often help him find the shards, though the rumors they repeat are so old that they send you looking for triumph forks instead of the Triforce.

When the pirate council created the nereid keys, each pirate lord chose a meaningful item to become one of the nine keys. The gambling captain chose the sole remaining card from the deck that won them their first ship. That ship would eventually become the flagship of a fearsome pirate fleet, and that key locked away a great goddess of the seas.

----------

The fifth piece of eight is a single card Chevalle the gambler used to win his first ship and launch his career as a pirate.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A rough-looking wooden eye.

 A rough-looking wooden eye

Triforce Shard 3: In the calamity that flooded the old world and created the Great Sea, the Triforce of Courage was broken into eight shards. This is one of the eight shards that must be reunited to craft the Triforce of Courage. Link can find these shards spread all over the Great Sea. The talking fish can often help him find the shards, though the rumors they repeat are so old that they send you looking for triumph forks instead of the Triforce.

This wooden eye was carved by a traitor captain and then given to his close friend before being executed. The traitor did not tell his friend that the eye was one of the nereid keys, only that it served as a token of office as captain. The eye is now held by a loyal buffoon who serves his thrice-dead captain devoutly.

----------

The fourth piece of eight belonged to Captain Barbossa, but was looked after by the unfortunate Ragetti.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A lucky bottle top.

 A lucky bottle top

Triforce Shard 1: In the calamity that flooded the old world and created the Great Sea, the Triforce of Courage was broken into eight shards. This is one of the eight shards that must be reunited to craft the Triforce of Courage. Link can find these shards spread all over the Great Sea. The talking fish can often help him find the shards, though the rumors they repeat are so old that they send you looking for triumph forks instead of the Triforce.

This shard of a bottle is kept by a pirate captain as a sign of luck’s favor. The bottle helped the captain in a bar fight that earned them their first ship and holds immense sentimental value. The shard is also one of the nine nereid keys to the great seal.

----------

This is the second of the Nine pieces of eight from the Pirates of the Caribbean. This one belonged to Eduardo Villanueva, the very reserved Spaniard.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Four Swords: Three more awards from Four Swords.

Three more awards from Four Swords.

Medals: Olympic medals for the Winter Olympics were not awarded this year. The athletes were unable to compete as there wasn’t enough winter weather to hold the games. The Olympic committee is considering creating a new climate change Winter Olympics that consists of events able to be played indoors or modified to not need snow.

----------

We talked about the medal of courage last week. These three medals are additional versions of that item.

Thanks for reading through my heavy-handed cautionary tale of climate change ruining established institutions.

Climate change is real and if we don’t all do more at the macro systems level, our planet will go through major climatic shifts that will be extremely uncomfortable and outright deadly for billions of people and other living things.

Use your voice to champion work to combat climate change now.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph 

Four Swords: A commendation from Four Swords.

 A commendation from Four Swords.

Medal of Courage: At the end of each stage a medal of courage is awarded to the one Link that has secured the most rupees. The prospect of a single-award creates tension between Links while they are trying to complete the stage while also finding the most treasure for themselves personally. Securing enough of these medals over time unlocks special opportunities in the games that Four Swords shared a cartridge with. This gave players a reason to try to collect these medals in addition to bragging rights.

Four of these medals were cast for the four heroes that saved the land from the villainous Wind Sorcerer. When only one hero returned from the Wind Sorcerer’s palace the people of the nation mourned the loss of three great heroes while celebrating the lone survivor. The hero was not able to convince the citizens that they were all four heroes rejoined, and many assumed that the surviving hero was not right in the head after their perilous journeys.

---------

Welcome to the first post of the new year. I’m still drawing and I have plenty left to draw before I get anywhere near done with this little project. We are nearing the end of the items from Four Swords so I am feverishly trying to finish the items from Wind Waker so that I have the complete set ready to go before I need to start posting.

I hope your 2022 is a year of growth and rising. Do what you can to make sure everyone’s year can be so productive and positive. 

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Lucky Charms: Its either a horseshoe or a hand grenade

A lucky horseshoe to ward away some misfortune.

Lucky Horseshoe: Different communities have different traditions on how best to use a lucky horseshoe. Some say it must be pointed open up to catch the luck, while others claim that it ought to be hung pointed down to let the luck fall onto those passing beneath the horseshoe.

----------

In researching lucky charms from around the world I found two explanations as to why horseshoes are lucky. One relies on the iron in the horseshoe to keep the tricksy fey at bay. The other tells a tale of how a blacksmith shoed Satan's hooved feet with such violence that Satan swore to avoid horseshoes ever after.

The US is still punching above its weight class in proving that things are not equitable and just for all people in the country. Fight for racial justice, be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Star Trek first contact day was yesterday

April 5th 2063 is when humans made first contact with aliens in Star Trek.

Comm Badge: Tap to talk, hands free positioning on and off planets, and ID badge all in one. 

Humans didn’t do a great job when they made first contact in 2063. We’ve got 42 years to get to a place where we can do a whole lot better. Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Holiday: Wishing you better luck this Easter.

 Wishing you better luck this Easter.

Rabbit's foot charm: To create the most powerful lucky charm, one must ensure that the worst and unluckiest alignment of omens proceeds the charm's creation. The strongest charms are created from a wild hare’s back left foot, caught atop the unmarked grave of a murderer, in an unhallowed cemetery, beneath a new moon, on a jinx day, by a gambler on a losing streak. Some superstitious cultures say that catching a witch’s familiar is even luckier, but only fools think inviting a witch’s wrath is lucky.

I barely invented or tweaked any of the lore around the rabbit’s foot charm. I’m still not 100% sure where it came from originally as there are some conflicting sources, but the practice may have been independently created across the globe. 

----------

I am not a religious person but I grew up in a home that wanted me to be Christian so I am aware of a lot of those holidays and observances from the point of view of having learned about them only as a child. I have always wondered how we bunnies got wrapped up in the festival celebrating the story of a resurrection.

Bunnies, especially white ones, were seen as symbols of purity and fertility by the early Christian church because rabbits can get pregnant while pregnant with another litter which gives the impression that they conceived spontaneously. A feat that Christians claim also happened to Mary. This immaculate conception connection, in addition to the spring/rebirth/bunnies through-line, explains much of the connection.

Practice your personal beliefs as long as they don’t harm others, but don’t force others to align to your personal beliefs. Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Holiday: Have a lucky coin that is entirely fungible.

Have a lucky coin that is entirely fungible.

Lucky coin: Finding a coin heads up on the ground is an auspicious sign. The free clink in your pocket is a sure sign that you have someone or something’s favor. Remember to use that coin and its luck fast so that it doesn’t have the chance to sour.

----------

NFT’s are for fools. As today is a day for fools, I will waste a bit of my time on them. NFT’s, or non-fungible tokens, are a hot topic right now. I primarily think they are bad because they create a sense of value by creating false scarcity. Digital assets are infinitely reproducible and NFT’s just want to use art as a way to add legitimacy to the token collection craze. This also entirely ignores the real environmental cost of running supercomputers just to maintain a decentralized currency so that people can say they own a URL.

Crypto may be here to stay but I for one am not impressed by its impact on art.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

 

Not an artist: Four items from Oracle of Seasons found in a temple during its restoration.

Four items from Oracle of Seasons found in a temple during its restoration.

D8: I felt the need to complete the set of RPG dice drawings. The d8 was nice because it gave me another opportunity to draw triangular objects in perspective. That sentence is only partially sarcastic as perspective is a really powerful drawing skill, but one I don’t have great mastery of yet.

The order who originally founded the temple was very fond of relying on luck and randomness. To determine how and where they began their morning rituals, a die was cast three times to determine which direction they should travel, how far they should travel, and how long they should pray to start each day.

Celebrating the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere with a little charm.

 A preserved Four Leaf clover to start Spring off with a bit of Luck.

Four Leaf Clover: While this lucky charm may not have thousands of years of folk history behind it, many know it as one of the main pillars of the lucky charm cannon. According to Wikipedia, they have about a 1 in 5,000 rate of appearance, which isn’t common by any means, but also isn’t the rarest thing either.

—————

The start of Spring is always an exciting time for me. It marks the beginning of life returning after Winter’s harsh grasp. I’m especially excited for the rains and the general vitality moving water brings into a landscape. 

See y’all tomorrow for some items from Oracle of Seasons.

Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph