Pop Culture Party – Elfin Flight

(l-r) Tanaraq (Alaghi-Barbarian-Path of the Totem Warrior); The Talisman (Minnenewah-Warlock-Archfey Patron, Pact of the Talisman); Twoyoungmen (Minnenewah-Spirit Shaman-Spirits of Elemental Nature); Narya (Aarakocra-Druid-Circle of the Moon).

(l-r) Stellamaris (Elf-Monk/Wizard); Marrina Smallwood (Elf (aquatic)-Druid-Circle of the High Seas); Aurora (Elf-Cleric-Light Domain).

(l-r) Judd Blackrazor (Dwarf-Monk-Way of the Shadow); Our Lady of Vindication (Human-Paladin/Warlock-pact of the blade, Undead Patron), Box (Warforged-Fighter-Champion).

IN THE REALMS

When the Sahuagin of Itzcali grew so powerful they began to destabilize the Great Sea and even tread upon the shores of the ancient elvenhome itself, Evermeet, the last great kingdom of elves, acted. Leveraging their mighty arcana, they formed a pact to combat the sea devils- personified by an adventuring party made of representatives from many realms and christened with an ancient title: The Elfin Flight.

From the Sword Coast, the Lord’s Alliance sent forth the knight of Moonshae known as Our Lady of Vindication, a paladin and warlock (haunted – quite literally – by her dead husband). She brought with her the Warforged fighter, Box, and Judd Blackrazor, a dwarven shadow monk haunted by his own literal demons.

From the little known realm of Anchorome, the spirit-men known as the Minninewah sent their premiere shaman Twoyoungmen and his daughter, a warlock bound by her sacred Talisman with the power to harness mighty spirits. The hairy forest folk sent the mighty Tanaraq, a barbarian empowered by the spirit beasts, and the birdfolk of Amoyeli sent Narya, a moon druid of the icy northern climes.

The alliance’s sponsor, Elfmeet, offered two of their finest: Stellamaris, the Fist of the North Star – a sun soul monk and wizard; and his sister Aurora, a Cleric of Light. They arrived escorting a young, but immensely powerful druid of the North seas, the aquatic elf Marrina Smallwood.

But all is not as it seems. As the Elfin Flight faces down their sahuagin enemy, Itzcali’s human ally the Master of the True World, and a variety of other foes in the north of the Great Sea, they will discover a terrible secret in their own party. For Marrina is actually a Malenti, a mutant sahuagin infiltrator…and unless she overcomes her own evil instincts – the Flight could end up facing her in her most terrifying form: that of a titanic leviathan!

And not everyone will walk away.

SOURCE MATERIAL & CAMPAIGN IDEAS

I hadn’t intended to include a reasonably modern super-team like John Byrne’s Alpha Flight in my D&D Pop Culture Party series, despite my own mildly patriotic fascination with them. It was just that I had already drawn D&D versions of Sasquatch, Snowbird, Shaman, and Talisman for my Marvelous Anchorome series, so it didn’t seem that much of a stretch!

(Although it was a stretch – there were so many characters I ended up not being able to fit them in one .png!)

Get to Class

Northstar became a monk and wizard mainly because of one of my own personal heroes, Tulok the Barbarian and his video on how to create the Flash – a D&D character so ridiculously fast that it’s actually not very useful. Aurora’s background had her raised in a convent, so a cleric of light made easy sense. They both have always had pointed ears in the comics, although I understand the explanation that they are half-elven has been retconned out.

Vindicator (Heather Hudson) only took up her husband’s armour upon his death – so a homebrew warlock with an empowering pact with the ghost of her husband sounded pretty cool to me – and throw in a paladin for good measure, considering it also keys off charisma and represents her heroic devotion. Box is pretty self-explanatory. Puck (Eugene Judd) could also have been a warlock, given that the character has a demon named Black Razar trapped with him, but I think there’s enough multi-classing in this party already and I wanted to draw a ninja dwarf!

Marrina, a member of the Plodex race, is most memorable to me for the Avengers storyline in which she transformed into a monstrous leviathan and her husband, Namor, was forced to slay her with the Black Knight’s invincible Ebony Blade (so epic!). So a circle of the moon druid worked well.

You can find my thoughts on Shaman/Twoyoungmen, Talisman, Tanaraq, and Snowbird in their individual entries.

Campaign Notes

Running a campaign with this many PCs is not going to be easy. A few years ago I played a massive multi-table RPG that might provide a clue. Many roleplayers will be familiar with this set-up. We were an army assaulting a beach and village and each table was a different squadron. Teleportation mines could switch us between tables. GMs for each table could run us through their challenges, and when we got to the village, there were packages for each building. So if the party tried to go into a building, and the DM found that the package was gone from the DM table, he knew that another party was already in that building. The finale saw the whole crew up against a massive monster. I’m confident a committed group of GMs and players could adapt this for a longer-form campaign as well.

The Pop Culture Party Series follows a similar line to my Motley Crew series. Only while that nerdly rotogravure imagined sci-fi motley crews in Firefly’s ‘Verse, this will imagine various casts of adventure media as D&D characters.

Marvelous Anchorome – Tanaraq & the Alaghi

Tanaraq (Alaghi-Barbarian-Path of the Bear Totem), Umpleby, Alaghi Runt

The Anchorome Campaign Guide does include analogues for the North American legend of the Sasquatch. This includes both the Alaghi – a race of beings who inhabit the Adusgi Forest in the East of the continent – and their simpler cousins, the Umplebies. The latter are so hairy that they regularly build up a static charge which comes into play in combat. Both the Alaghi and the Umbleby are found in old Monster Manuals. The ACG also adds Alaghi Runts as playable races – some of whom wear clothes to more comfortably interact with non-hairy folk.

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This was a an opportunity to draw Alpha Flight’s Sasquatch – also known as Walter Langkowski or Tanaraq, one of the Great Beasts. The Great Beasts, a Marvel invention, were spirit beings who opposed the Inuit gods of Marvel, the Inua. They were banished from the realm and it was non-Indigenous scientist Walter Langkowski who accidentally freed Tanaraq, whose body he inhabited in order to become Canadian superhero strongman Sasquatch.

Tanaraq (Alaghi – Barbarian – Oath of the Totem Warrior (Bear Totem))

In Anchorome, Tanaraq is a Bear-Totem Barbarian of the Adusgi Forest, drawing on the power of the Beast Spirits to protect the Northern forests. He was freed from captivity by Faerunian wizard Władysław from within Fort Flame and the two have made a tentative alliance for good.

Get to Class

Bear totem barbarians are, I think, a classic choice when going for enormous strength.

The Outlander background for Athletics and Survival would be a solid choice. Or if you wanted to lean in to the Walter Langkowski scientist angle, Sage background for Arcana and History.

Further Thoughts

The Sasquatch story is actually a Western/Pacific one. Some of the early stories were told by the Salish to a Western folklorist, and later to an Indian Agent who published them – albeit altering the words used to a Halkomelem variant. The Pacific Coast is a fascinating area linguistically because the dozens of First Nations groups who live side by side nonetheless often have completely different languages. I believe it is the most linguisticaly dense area of Indigenous North America.

The Historical Natives podcast, by Indigenous persons, recently did an episode on the Sasquatch.

The Marvelous Anchorome Series imagines Marvel Comics Indigenous characters as D&D PCs and NPCs from the Forgotten Realms “True World” setting, including Anchorome, Maztica, and Lopango. See also my new Distinguished Anchorome series and Random Anchorome series.

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Marvelous Anchorome

Adaptations of (mostly Indigenous) Marvel Comics characters into Maztican (or other True World) D&D characters.

Distinguished Anchorome

Adaptations of (mostly Indigenous) DC Comics characters into Maztican (or other True World) D&D characters.

All True World (Anchorome, Maztica, Lopango)

All True World art, including adaptations and original art and character design.