Borrowed Shadow Mishaps

Need surreal complications that create instant mystery without introducing another monster?

Roll when ordinary shadows should become active problems, suspicious guides, or unsettling clues. Each result adds a strange development the party can investigate, exploit, or desperately reverse.

Download JPG Version

Download PDF Version

Low resolution preview:

Discover 50 Roleplay-focused Characters or NPCs

Let us be clear: there is an enormous amount of content with no quality whatsoever being poured daily onto every social network and onto the internet in general, and of course that is bad. And I do not believe it is bad in a moral or ethical sense —that is not my concern, and in the end such things are nothing but idiocies— but because it works against the interests of serious, committed creators who use AI to complement our creative processes.

AI tools are enhancers of human abilities, and especially of creation —to keep the conversation focused. Those of us who are responsible toward our work and our craft, and who are committed to quality and effort, are the ones harmed by the avalanche of garbage content, because the consumer, anesthetized by the vast stream of crap, develops an allergic reaction to anything that has AI involved somewhere in its process. And that is not fair at all.

Another consequence of this hyper-reaction against AI in creative environments can be seen clearly on Reddit —fine, we already know people there are a bit stupid and have nothing better to do than live their parallel lives in their favorite thread—, a place where more and more communities have allowed themselves to be bent by pressure from haters into banning any content related to AI, and even the people who share or argue in favor of AI. A ridiculous and puerile madness in which the only ones harmed are us.

I suppose the solution lies in opening new spaces where AI is not forbidden, and watching those other places languish as the years go by.

Background

➥ Origin and creation

The kettle was hammered from plain black iron by a village smith who made more nails than art. Its shape is squat, practical, and a little dented near the spout, as if it learned early that usefulness mattered more than beauty. It was commissioned by Mara Vell, keeper of a poor roadside inn, who asked for “a kettle that can survive grief, rain, and bad guests.”

➥ Everyday use / original function

For twenty-three years, it hung over the hearth of the Last Mile Rest, where travelers paid what they could and often left owing more than coin. Mara used it for nettle tea, onion broth, boiled bandages, and once, during a winter fever, to melt snow for an entire room of strangers. Many locals remember the kettle’s whistle better than Mara’s face.

➥ A hidden secret linked to the item

Inside the handle, beneath a thin strip of old solder, is a folded scrap of oilcloth bearing three names and a crude map to a buried strongbox. Mara never stole the money in that box, though many said she did. She hid the map because the coins came from a dead courier, and returning them would have meant choosing which of three grieving families deserved the truth.

Adventure Hooks

1. A peddler sells the kettle cheaply, claiming it came from an abandoned inn that “still smells of onions when it rains.” That night, one of the names hidden in the handle appears on a local memorial stone. Someone has been quietly removing every trace of the other two.
2. Mara Vell’s descendants want the kettle back, not for sentiment, but because a family elder confessed to hiding something inside it. They refuse to explain further and grow nervous whenever the old courier’s road is mentioned. A rival branch of the family offers twice as much to have the kettle destroyed.
3. A dying innkeeper recognizes the kettle by its whistle and calls it “Mara’s mercy.” He claims Mara saved his life during the winter fever, but also says she let a courier die in the stable. His last request is for the party to find the strongbox and settle a debt no priest would absolve.
4. The kettle is identified by a traveling magistrate as evidence in an old inheritance dispute. Three families have legal claims to the buried coin, but each tells a different story about the courier’s final journey. The truth may ruin reputations that have remained clean for decades.
5. A roadside shrine has begun collecting tokens for Mara Vell, though no church ever named her holy. Pilgrims leave cups, ladles, and burned bread beneath a painted sign of a kettle. The shrine’s keeper insists Mara performed miracles, while old villagers mutter that she simply knew how to keep people alive.
6. When the party follows the crude map, they find the strongbox already unearthed and empty. In its place lies a child’s wooden cup marked with one of the hidden names. Whoever took the money left the cup as either an apology, a warning, or an invitation.

Rumors

1. “That kettle boiled through the fever winter without ever leaving the fire.”
2. “Mara Vell fed thieves, soldiers, priests, and plague-men from the same pot. Said hunger made them all kin.”
3. “There’s money hidden in it. Not much, perhaps, but enough to make honest folk dishonest.”
4. “Mara poisoned a courier and bought her inn with the purse.”
5. “No, no. She buried the purse and spent the rest of her life afraid someone would thank her.”
6. “My grandmother said the kettle’s whistle sounded different when bad news came up the road.”
7. “Three families lost someone that night. Only one ever received a body.”
8. “The dent near the spout came from a soldier’s sword, when Mara refused to serve him before a sick child.”
9. “A magistrate once searched the inn from cellar to rafters and never thought to look at the kettle.”
10. “Mara’s grave has no name on it, but travelers still leave tea leaves there.”

Optional: Minor Magical Version

• Active (1/dawn): You can cast prestidigitation from the item, but only to warm, chill, flavor, or clean food and drink.

Common Questions

Low resolution preview:

Discover 50 Roleplay-focused Characters or NPCs

Bridge Toll Drama

Need a planar glitch that feels weird without stopping the session cold?

Use this table when reality thins, magic misfires, or the party brushes against another plane. Each result gives you a quick anomaly with a problem, clue, or choice attached.

Running this as part of a longer journey? Use The 3-Clock Journey to turn this bridge scene into a real travel pressure point, or follow it with Roadside Shrine Trouble for another quick stop on the same road.

Download JPG Version

Download PDF Version

Low resolution preview:

Discover 50 Roleplay-focused Characters or NPCs

Objective

Hexless travel 5e turns a dangerous route into a playable scene with pressure, attrition, and discoveries, without requiring a keyed hex map. The table stops asking “How many spaces are left?” and starts asking “What are we willing to risk to arrive faster, arrive intact, or uncover something valuable?”

This subsystem uses three 6-segment clocks: Exposure, Fatigue, and Discovery. Exposure tracks weather, hunger, terrain pressure, depleted supplies, and mounting danger. Fatigue tracks exhaustion of rhythm, damaged gear, poor decisions, tension, and travel friction. Discovery tracks clues, shortcuts, shelters, resources, vantage points, and useful signs.

It is a light wilderness travel rules 5e procedure: each leg creates a choice, a roll, and a consequence. Use it when travel should matter, but you do not want to prep a full hex map or turn the journey into repeated Survival checks.

How to Run It

• Player intention. The party declares what they prioritize for the current leg: speed, safety, or exploration.
• DM framing. The DM sets the DC, states which clock will advance on a failure, and explains what success can control.
• Duration. One leg equals half a day, a full day, or a clear narrative stretch between two meaningful points.
• Shared participation. One character leads the route; others support with different tasks so travel does not become one repeated Survival roll.
• Closure. At the end of the leg, the DM updates the clocks and narrates a consequence, advantage, or new choice.

Concrete Instructions

1. Draw three clocks. Exposure, Fatigue, and Discovery begin at 0/6. When a clock reaches 3/6, reveal a minor sign. When it reaches 6/6, trigger a major effect, then reset that clock to 0/6.
2. Set the leg DC. Use DC 12 for clear routes, DC 15 for uncertain terrain, and DC 18 for hostile wilderness, pursuit, deep darkness, severe weather, or unreliable information. Use DC 20 only when the route should feel exceptional.
3. Choose the party’s priority. Pick one travel stance before any roll is made.
   • Fast pace: on a success, the party completes the leg ahead of schedule; on a failure, Fatigue advances by 2.
   • Careful pace: on a success, reduce Exposure by 1 or prevent it from advancing; on a failure, Exposure advances by 1.
   • Curious pace: on a success, Discovery advances by 2; on a failure, Exposure or Fatigue advances by 1, chosen by the DM.

Prompt: visible cost. Before the first roll, state the cost of failure: “If this goes badly, Fatigue rises by 2 and you arrive tense or late.” The choice should have teeth.

4. Choose a route leader. One character makes the main Ability Check: usually Wisdom (Survival), Intelligence (Nature), Wisdom (Perception), or Intelligence (Investigation), depending on the obstacle. Add the character’s Proficiency Bonus if an appropriate proficiency applies.
5. Limit support checks. Up to three characters can support the route with different tasks. Each support must describe a different contribution.
   • Scout ahead: Wisdom (Perception) or Dexterity (Stealth).
   • Break the path: Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics).
   • Manage resources: Wisdom (Survival) or Intelligence (Investigation).
   • Read signs: Intelligence (Nature), Intelligence (History), or Wisdom (Insight).
   Each successful support check against the leg DC generates 1 Control. A failed support check generates no Control. If a support check fails by 5 or more, the DM advances Exposure or Fatigue by 1.
6. Spend Control immediately. Control is temporary and must be spent before the leg closes. For each point of Control, the party may choose one option.
   • Reduce Exposure by 1.
   • Reduce Fatigue by 1.
   • Increase Discovery by 1.
   • Give Advantage to the route leader, if the support was narrated before the main roll.
   • Cancel Disadvantage caused by weather, pursuit, poor visibility, or lack of information.
7. Apply Advantage and Disadvantage clearly. Grant Advantage for a reliable map, a local guide, solid rest, proper tools, or previous scouting. Apply Disadvantage when supplies are missing, visibility is terrible, the party carries awkward cargo, or they move under immediate threat. Do not stack multiple advantages; convert extra favorable factors into Control or narrative positioning.
8. Resolve clocks at 3/6 and 6/6. Each clock creates a different type of consequence or reward.
   • Exposure 3/6: a minor pressure appears: rain, thirst, insects, broken ground, an enemy trail, or spoiled supplies.
   • Exposure 6/6: each character makes a Constitution Saving Throw against the leg DC. On a failure, the character loses 1 Hit Die without healing. If they have no Hit Dice left, they gain 1 level of Exhaustion.
   • Fatigue 3/6: the next support check in the leg has Disadvantage unless someone spends time, care, or resources to stabilize the group.
   • Fatigue 6/6: the party chooses: stop and lose time, or press on and begin the next leg with Disadvantage on the main route check.
   • Discovery 3/6: the party gains a reliable clue, a useful omen, or one concrete question the DM must answer.
   • Discovery 6/6: the party chooses one reward: shortcut, shelter, resource, strong position, hidden route, or critical information.
9. Use a spark table when needed. Before a leg, roll 1d6 or choose one result.
   1. Harsh weather: Exposure +1 unless prevented.
   2. Broken terrain: Fatigue +1 unless someone clears a path.
   3. Old signs: Discovery +1 if investigated.
   4. Crossed trail: the route leader has Disadvantage unless supported first.
   5. Uncertain shelter: reduce Exposure or risk a complication.
   6. Open horizon: the first route check gains Advantage.
10. Use a Discovery table when the clock fills. When Discovery reaches 6/6, roll 1d12 or choose one result.
    1. Shortcut.
    2. Dry shelter.
    3. Clean water.
    4. Enemy trail.
    5. High ground.
    6. Useful plant.
    7. Minor ruin.
    8. Hidden path.
    9. Danger sign.
    10. Lost traveler.
    11. Repair material.
    12. Clear view of the destination.

Guided Example, Step by Step

1. The party must cross a mountain ridge with no hex map. The DM divides the journey into three legs: ascent, ridgeline, and descent. The first leg is difficult but readable, so the DC is 15.
2. The DM states the cost: “If the route push fails, Fatigue rises by 2. If any support check fails by 5 or more, Exposure may also rise.” The players choose fast pace because they want to arrive before their pursuers.
3. The ranger leads with Wisdom (Survival). She is proficient, so she rolls d20 + Wisdom modifier + Proficiency Bonus. Before that roll, the other characters declare support tasks.
4. The fighter breaks the path with Strength (Athletics) and rolls 17 against DC 15, generating 1 Control. The mage studies old stone markings with Intelligence (History) but rolls 10, generating no Control. The rogue scouts ahead with Wisdom (Perception) and rolls 21, generating 1 Control.
5. The party spends 1 Control to give the ranger Advantage on the main route check. They hold the other Control in reserve in case they need to reduce Fatigue. The ranger rolls with Advantage: 14 and 18. With modifiers, she beats the DC.
6. The leg succeeds at fast pace. The party reaches the middle slope earlier than expected. The DM describes distant smoke below and falling stones behind them: the world is moving, but the characters are ahead of it.
7. Because the rogue’s scouting revealed useful signs, the party spends the remaining Control to increase Discovery by 1. The clocks now read: Exposure 0/6, Fatigue 0/6, Discovery 1/6.
8. For the second leg, the DM rolls 1d6 on the spark table and gets 2: broken terrain. The DC remains 15, but if no one clears a path, Fatigue will rise by 1 automatically.
9. This time, the party chooses careful pace. The fighter attempts Strength (Athletics) again but rolls 9. Because the result fails by 5 or more, Fatigue rises by 1. The main route check also fails. Because the party chose careful pace, Exposure rises by 1: cold wind, numb hands, wet straps, and slower movement.
10. At the end of the second leg, the clocks read Exposure 1/6, Fatigue 1/6, Discovery 1/6. No combat has occurred, but the journey matters: they gained time, paid a cost, and uncovered a partial sign that might become a shortcut during the descent.

Mini-Glossary

• Leg: a narrative unit of travel; it measures one meaningful decision, not a grid space.
• Control: a temporary resource earned through support checks and spent before the leg closes.
• Exposure: external pressure from terrain, weather, hunger, danger, and depleted supplies.
• Fatigue: internal wear: poor rhythm, frayed tempers, damaged gear, bad footing, and travel mistakes.
• Discovery: positive progress toward clues, safer routes, useful resources, and valuable information.

Quick DM Guide

• Do make every leg ask a clear question: faster, safer, or more curious?
• Do let failed rolls change the situation instead of blocking the journey.
• Do not ask everyone to roll the same skill.
• Do not use Exhaustion as the first punishment; let it appear only after resources are already under pressure.
• Do make Discovery concrete: a shelter, a route, a clue, a position, or a resource.
• Do not turn hexless travel 5e into bookkeeping. Three clocks are enough.

Need a concrete travel complication for one journey leg? Drop in Bridge Toll Drama when the party reaches a ferry, bridge, checkpoint, or narrow crossing.

Common Questions

Discover 50 Roleplay-focused Characters or NPCs

Weird Planar Aftershocks

Need a planar glitch that feels weird without stopping the session cold?

Use this table when reality thins, magic misfires, or the party brushes against another plane. Each result gives you a quick anomaly with a problem, clue, or choice attached.

Download JPG Version

Download PDF Version

Low resolution preview:

Discover 50 Roleplay-focused Characters or NPCs

The Living Ink Theme turns magic into a crawling black substance: wet shadow, spilled night, and viscous smoke that clings to stone, skin, steel, and breath. It does not simply glow or flare. It seeps, stains, threads, blots, and writes itself into the world.

For a DM, this is a strong signature layer for secretive, haunted, obsessive, or theatrical spellcasters. It suits arcane tricksters, warlocks, shadow-touched sages, melancholy bards, masked priests, or any character whose magic feels like a private darkness learning how to move.

The magic may appear as liquid ink poured from the fingers, calligraphic shadows dragged through the air, living sigils crawling across surfaces, or dense black vapor that behaves like a creature. It whispers against the edges of things, leaves temporary stains, and makes every spell feel like the world has been overwritten by something darker.

School-by-School Theme Guide

➥ Abjuration (Protection & Blocking)

The Aesthetic

Abjurations appear as defensive blotwork: shields of black lacquer, ink barriers stretched like wet parchment, and bands of shadow that wrap around the caster or an ally just before danger lands. The magic does not shine; it darkens the space it protects, turning incoming harm into ripples across a glossy black surface.

These protections often look handwritten into being. Circles, warning marks, crossed-out glyphs, and thick brushstrokes snap across the air with the speed of an instinctive signature.

Popular Spells in This Theme:

• Shield – A sudden splash of black ink erupts between the caster and the attack, flattening into a curved pane of liquid darkness. The strike skids across it, leaving silver ripples before the barrier collapses into dripping stains that vanish before touching the ground.
• Counterspell – The caster flicks a finger, and a black slash cuts through the enemy’s magic like a censor’s mark across forbidden text. The opposing spell unravels into loose strokes, smears, and fading motes of ash-dark vapor.
• Pass Without Trace – Ink pools beneath the group’s feet, swallowing footprints as soon as they form. Their shadows stretch thin and cling close to their bodies, while the air behind them quietly stains itself clean of passage.

➥ Conjuration (Transport & Creation)

The Aesthetic

Conjuration spells manifest as things drawn out of darkness rather than summoned from light. Black smoke gathers in corners, ink wells open in midair, and shapes pull themselves free from glossy surfaces as if reality were a page being illustrated by an unseen hand.

Movement through space looks like being poured rather than stepping. Objects, helpers, and creatures arrive with the wet sound of a brush lifted from an inkpot, their edges still dripping with half-formed shadow.

Popular Spells in This Theme:

• Misty Step – The caster collapses into a splash of black vapor and wet ink, leaving only a dark stain that evaporates a heartbeat later. At the destination, the ink climbs upward from the floor or wall, reforming them in a swirl of smoky ribbons.
• Find Familiar – The familiar crawls out of a spreading blot, first as two bright eyes in the dark, then as a body shaped from flexible ink and feathered shadow. Even if it takes a familiar form, its outline occasionally trembles like a drawing that refuses to stay still.
• Mage Hand – A floating hand forms from black calligraphy, each finger shaped by looping strokes and dripping knuckles. It leaves faint trails in the air as it moves, as though the caster is writing invisible commands across the room.

➥ Divination (Information & Insight)

The Aesthetic

Divination under this Theme makes secrets visible as ink rising through paper. Hidden traces appear as black veins, answers bloom as written marks, and unseen forces leave calligraphic trails only the caster can follow.

The magic feels quiet and invasive. It stains perception rather than illuminating it, revealing truth as if the world were a document full of erased notes, marginalia, and names written beneath the surface.

Popular Spells in This Theme:

• Guidance – A small mark of black ink appears on the target’s wrist, fingertip, eyelid, or tool. It twitches like a living annotation, subtly guiding the next motion with the sensation of a cool thread pulling beneath the skin.
• Detect Magic – Magical auras appear as wet stains spreading across objects, creatures, and places. Stronger magic shows as layered script, dense knots of ink, or smoky halos that bleed slowly into the air.
• Hunter’s Mark – The chosen quarry gains a dark sigil that only the caster clearly perceives, written across their shadow or pulsing beneath their outline. Wherever they move, the mark leaves a thin black trail, like ink dragged by an invisible brush.

➥ Enchantment (Mental Influence & Control)

The Aesthetic

Enchantment spells become whispered ink slipping into thought. They may appear as black threads curling toward the ear, stains blooming behind the eyes, or elegant script wrapping briefly around the target’s head like a crown of dark ribbon.

This magic is intimate and unsettling. It does not smash the mind open; it edits, underlines, erases, and rewrites the emotional margins.

Popular Spells in This Theme:

• Vicious Mockery – The insult leaves the caster’s mouth as jagged black script, each word twisting into barbed strokes before sinking into the target’s shadow. The victim hears the phrase echo in their own voice, as if the thought had always been written inside them.
• Silvery Barbs – A thin line of ink lashes through the moment, striking the target’s confidence like a black correction mark across a finished sentence. At the same time, a second ribbon of shadow curls toward an ally, whispering a sharper, cleaner possibility.
• Sleep – Dark ink beads in the air like slow rain, then drifts down as soft black dust. Those touched by it seem to have their eyelids gently painted shut, while their shadows spread around them like spilled blankets.

➥ Evocation (Damage & Raw Energy)

The Aesthetic

Evocation in the Living Ink Theme is not bright and clean; it is violent, staining, and full of pressure. Force, flame, and restorative power appear as black eruptions, boiling smoke, ink-bursts, and shadow strokes that strike with the certainty of a thrown blade.

Even healing magic feels dramatic here. It may stitch, bind, and seal with dark thread, leaving the sense that the body has been corrected by a careful, merciless hand.

Popular Spells in This Theme:

• Fireball – The caster hurls a compact black droplet that spins like ink in water. When it bursts, the space blooms into a dark, fiery rosette: black smoke, ember-red veins, and scorching petals of shadow unfurling outward before collapsing into soot.
• Eldritch Blast – A lance of dense black vapor snaps from the caster’s hand, edged with sharp calligraphic hooks. It strikes like a bolt of compressed shadow, splattering briefly across the target before recoiling into the air as smoke.
• Healing Word – The spoken word becomes a thread of black silk that darts to the wounded creature and stitches across the injury in quick, precise motions. The wound closes beneath shadowy sutures, which fade like dried ink soaking into parchment.

➥ Illusion (Deception & Sensory Trickery)

The Aesthetic

Illusion spells are where the Living Ink Theme feels most at home. Images are painted over reality, silhouettes detach from bodies, and black vapor fills gaps in perception until the false thing feels more convincing than what stands behind it.

The magic often looks two-dimensional for a moment before gaining depth. A painted door becomes a real-seeming passage, a smear of darkness grows into a figure, and a whispered mark on the wall becomes a sound in the ear.

Popular Spells in This Theme:

• Invisibility – Black ink flows over the target from head to toe, coating them in a glossy second skin. Then the surface breaks into smoke, and the creature vanishes as the darkness dissolves into the air around them.
• Minor Illusion – The caster sketches a small blot, symbol, or loop of ink into empty space. It spreads and thickens into the chosen sight or sound, its edges almost too smooth, like a perfect drawing pretending to be real.
• Mirror Image – Three ink-dark doubles peel away from the caster’s body, each one a slightly smeared version of the original. They slide and stutter around the caster like reflections seen in black water, their outlines lagging a half-step behind.

➥ Necromancy (Life, Death & Souls)

The Aesthetic

Necromancy in this Theme treats life and death as ink written into flesh, bone, breath, and memory. Souls may appear as dark stains, pulse-marks, or smoke trapped inside the ribs. Death is not only an ending; it is a page blotted, crossed out, or rewritten in an older hand.

These spells carry the smell of damp paper, old grave soil, and extinguished candles. The shadows around the dead grow attentive, as though waiting for instruction.

Popular Spells in This Theme:

• Revivify – The caster presses blackened fingers to the fallen body, and threads of living ink race across the skin in branching lines. The shadow beneath the corpse shudders, then snaps back into alignment as breath is written into the body once more.
• Toll the Dead – A black ring appears in the air like an ink-drawn bell, trembling without a visible clapper. Its sound is low and hollow, and the target’s shadow ripples as if something beneath it has heard its name.
• Animate Dead – Ink seeps into bone, torn cloth, or dead flesh, filling joints and empty spaces with crawling black script. The corpse rises with shadow pooling in its eye sockets, moving like a puppet whose strings are written directly into the air.

➥ Transmutation (Physical Change & Adaptation)

The Aesthetic

Transmutation spells look like the world being revised. Bodies blur into new silhouettes, weight is crossed out, speed is underlined, and matter bends as if soaked in black fluid and reshaped by invisible hands.

The Living Ink Theme makes change feel smooth but unsettling. Flesh, clothing, feathers, claws, and air all become temporary drawings, redrafted in motion before settling into the spell’s visible result.

Popular Spells in This Theme:

• Polymorph – Ink pours over the target in a rushing wave, hiding their shape beneath a slick black cocoon. The cocoon stretches, splits, and peels away to reveal the new form, still marked for a moment by dripping shadow along its eyes, teeth, feathers, fur, or scales.
• Haste – Thin black lines race across the target’s limbs like speed marks in a furious sketch. Their shadow can barely keep up, smearing behind them in long strokes as every motion becomes sharp, sudden, and over-inked.
• Feather Fall – Dark ribbons unfurl from the falling creatures like torn strips of painted silk. They do not stop the fall with lightness so much as rewrite its violence, turning the descent into a slow drift through black, weightless vapor.

Sensory Palette

Living Ink magic feels damp, secretive, and predatory. Its spells stain the scene before they change it, filling the air with the sense that something has been written in a language the world itself is afraid to read.

Colors & Light – Deep black, blue-black, violet shadow, wet obsidian, smoky gray, tarnished silver highlights, ember-red veins, glossy reflections, ink halos, spreading stains, calligraphic strokes, dark ripples.

Sounds – Brushstrokes on paper, soft dripping, a quill scratching too quickly, muffled whispers, wet tearing, smoke hissing through teeth, pages turning in an empty room, distant bells, a heartbeat under water.

Smells & Tastes – Fresh ink, rain on old stone, damp parchment, candle soot, iron, bitter smoke, wet leather, grave soil, cold tea, dust from a sealed library.

Textures & Physical Sensations – Cool slickness on the skin, clinging vapor, damp pressure, soft threads tugging at wounds or joints, the prickle of being watched, heavy air, velvet darkness, sticky fingertips, a chill moving behind the eyes.

Power Verbs & Thematic Vocabulary

Use these as quick inspiration when describing Living Ink magic at the table.

You can now describe any spell your players cast as if magic were a living stain on reality — whether it protects, heals, deceives, curses, or transforms, the Living Ink Theme makes every spell feel written in shadow.

Common Questions

Discover 50 Roleplay-focused Characters or NPCs

The Tradition of Art and Artificial Intelligence

It seems that, like a virus, the idea has been spreading that the use of generative AI is unethical or inappropriate, as if this made any real sense. There are people who have gone from indifference —or even from looking favorably upon the arrival of this set of new technologies— to seeing them as something malevolent or immoral, adopting the anti-AI slogan as a pseudo-religious mantra that, they believe, places them on a higher moral plane, as if they were fighting against some form of injustice. Of course, this is not the case, but a small number of people fall into the web of lies spun by those interested in not losing their business.

It is therefore vital to tear down that lie about the theft of artists’ intellectual property, because it reveals a lack of deep knowledge about art and the tradition of art that is intolerable in anyone who calls themselves an artist. Perhaps calling oneself an artist is part of the problem, but we will go deeper later into the relationship between the artist’s ego and the ominous lack of humility shown by some of them, because the main problem that articulates this virus of hatred toward so-called AI art —I do not believe that what an AI generates can be called art— has nothing to do, at least initially, with intellectual property, but with money, as I stated at the beginning.

The main issue here is that there are individuals who, taking advantage of a widespread need, have trained certain skills in order to monetize them. Put that way, this is no different from any other job or occupation, such as working as a translator. In this way, these people, with that skill, sell their services to others, thereby establishing their business model. But they lose sight of something fundamental: they are no longer in the realm of art, but in the marketplace: the law of supply and demand. These people sell artistic products, and are therefore subject to competition, and those competitors may lower the cost of their services, make use of technologies that make them more productive, or copy their products to some extent.

Burger King and McDonald’s have been doing this for six or seven decades; and it is not a useless comparison, because just as they do not produce food but food products —it is not about nourishing people, it is about getting them to buy and eat by appealing to gluttony— artists who sell their art make artistic products. Those who create their works without the intention of monetizing them, however, can indeed be said to be making art, because art is created out of passion, necessity, to calm the mind or heal the soul; it is a pleasure, not a business. The moment you charge for what you do, you turn it into a product, especially if we consider that this execution does not arise from one’s own will, nor from desire, nor from inspiration: an artist who works on commission is a mercenary, like someone who makes a custom cake, renovates a home, or tunes a car. And all of them —like the translator— use their trained skill in order to monetize it, with the risk that their competitors may do it better or cheaper, or that one day they may be replaced by machines or artificial intelligences capable of translating texts without human intervention: this is called progress.

The fact that humans no longer need to study languages in order to understand messages in other tongues, or to watch YouTube videos that were previously inaccessible to them, is an advantage. Is it not also an advantage that each person can create their own illustrations? It is not an advantage for those who charge for it, because it affects their modus vivendi, but for the rest of humanity, for those who want or need images, it is highly positive. A true artist will continue creating their art and enjoying it forever. That is a value no one can take away from them. However, what can indeed be taken away is what they use to obtain money, as with any other job: you can lose it at any moment, or it may stop being as profitable if market circumstances change.

And so, these people, annoyed because their business model is collapsing, suddenly spread this false idea of intellectual property theft. A few fall prey to this spell and repeat these slogans endlessly, as if they were a divine mantra, or a truth written on the tablets of the law. They fall prey to their ignorance —and perhaps to their ego— and dedicate themselves to feeding hatred toward users of generative AI, to promoting brigades aimed at changing subreddit rules, harassing people on networks like Facebook or the former Twitter, even, sadly, falsely accusing artists of using generative AI when they have not done so, because their perfect detection radar simply failed.

But do you know what? It turns out that a generative AI does the same thing we humans have been doing for at least some five thousand years: recycling everything that came before.

This is where the concept of the tradition of art comes fully into play. Octavio Paz said that trying to escape tradition is useless, but that it is a phenomenon that always happens as part of tradition. Let us demolish this with one definitive and simple blow: what would H. R. Giger have done if he had been born 1,000 years ago? Can you imagine Tolkien living before the entire cultural heritage of medieval Europe? Before Chrétien de Troyes? Do you think The Lord of the Rings would exist? And without that work, do you think Dungeons & Dragons would exist?

No artist could have done anything if all the creators who preceded them had not existed, creators from whom they stole —consciously and unconsciously, and this is important— everything they know today and everything that, through a great deal of practice —training— they managed to consolidate in a particular way. In the Middle Ages, in poetry and painting, masters were always copied, because that was the only way to learn.

But it is not only a matter of making conscious copies of previous material, or of the effort required to master the hand so that it does what you want it to do. We ignore the fact that, from the moment we are born, we are being exposed to reality, and therefore to countless works of art, each one of them gathering countless centuries of cultural heritage. But beyond that, there is another crucial fact: before an artist or writer has the conscious thought or impulse to create something, this very exposure to hundreds or thousands of works has been impacting and, in some way, educating their brain, redirecting it in a particular direction. So, in addition to that passive, unconscious learning, we must emphasize a fundamental point: having consumed certain works is perhaps what has motivated you to do what you do.

Perhaps Lovecraft would never have written anything if he had not read Poe, Bierce, Chambers, Dunsany, Machen, Shelley, and others, because those works would not have nourished him and awakened his interest in creating.

And it is at this point that ignorance is intensified by a lack of humility, a broken ego, and the need to stand out or be recognized. To be an artist, regardless of your art, is to become a living homage to tradition. It is an honor to be able to integrate all those influences into new works that exist only because of the works from which they were nourished. Learning from others or copying their works is a privilege to be grateful for, because nothing you do as an artist truly belongs to you —only an insignificant minimal fraction related to your personality, tastes, or style. The rest belongs to all the millions of your predecessors from every corner of the world, as well as to the increasingly close dialogue among arts that feed back into one another: literature, cinema, painting, photography, comics, and so on.

So artists train and learn from their tradition —or from other artistic traditions they consume— reusing and retreading previous works, and that is fine; but when generative AI does it, it is wrong? It is somewhat absurd, incoherent, or, what is most likely: malicious. We would return to economic interest as the true focus of this momentary fever against AI, and the circle would close.

But perhaps it would be sensible to propose that every artist pay royalties to every other artist from whom they learned —stole, copied, were inspired by— something, just to be fair. But of course, the training dataset of an AI is somewhere and can be verified, whereas there is still no technology capable of scrutinizing and mapping the human brain in order to show how works of art leave an imprint, an inspiration, a lesson, a burst of creativity that pushes you to create something, and what exactly you are copying. Who knows, perhaps one day it will be possible and we will be in for a great surprise. But if we add to this impossibility of knowing the specific source, or the fundamental influence of those works on our own, an enormous lack of perspective and humility, and probably an unhealthy ego…

The irony is that the anti-AI crusade is doomed to fail. There have been reactionary movements against many technologies in the past. Today we do not question factory machines, the printing press, or computers, just as people will not question AI a few years from now. Photographers became intense about computer photo editing; portraitists rebelled against photography —they even spread the idea that photographic cameras captured the human soul. The printing press and the typewriter were received as assaults on the art of handwriting, and Plato criticized writing, saying that it was bad for memory and the mind. In some of these cases, people said: “No, this time it is different.”

And yet here we are, creating without end.

Guildhall Job Complications

Need a guild job that creates pressure before anyone reaches the dungeon?

Use this table when the party visits a guildhall, faction office, or trade house and you want the job offer to bite back. Each result adds suspicion, leverage, trouble, or a strange reason to investigate.

Download JPG Version

Download PDF Version

Low resolution preview:

Discover 50 Roleplay-focused Characters or NPCs

Background

➥ Origin and creation

The awl was made in a riverside quarter where every trade depended on damp weather and patient hands. Its handle is plain dark wood, worn smooth by years of pressure, and its iron point has been sharpened more often than anyone can count. Old shoemakers say it was first given as a wedding gift to a cobbler who promised his bride that no traveler would leave their door with broken soles.

➥ Everyday use / original function

For decades, the awl pierced leather boots, harness straps, mule tack, satchels, and the thick gloves of dockworkers who could not afford replacements. It lived beside a small oil lamp in a shop that smelled of wet wool, tallow, and scraped hide. People came there less because the cobbler was cheap and more because he listened while he worked, setting grief and gossip into the rhythm of stitch after stitch.

➥ A hidden secret linked to the item

Inside the handle, beneath a plug of old wax, is a rolled scrap of sailcloth bearing six names written in a cramped hand. They are not customers, as most assume, but smugglers who vanished after betraying the wrong ferryman during a flood season. The last owner of the awl knew this and kept repairing boots for the descendants of those names, waiting for one of them to recognize the truth by the shape of a family scar.

Adventure Hooks

1. A rain-soaked traveler offers the party the awl as payment, insisting it is worth more than coin in the next town downriver. When the characters arrive, three different families claim it belonged to them. None will explain why they want it until the town watch begins asking the same question.
2. A cobbler’s apprentice begs the party to recover the awl from a pawnshop before her dying master notices it is gone. She believes the tool is only sentimental, but the pawnbroker has already found the sailcloth hidden in its handle. Now he is quietly selling the names to anyone with old grudges and newer knives.
3. During a funeral, an elderly dockworker recognizes the awl in a character’s pack and spits at the ground. He says the tool “stitched shut six honest mouths” and refuses to say more in public. That night, someone leaves a pair of children’s boots outside the party’s door, each sole cut open with deliberate care.
4. A merchant asks the party to deliver the awl to a monastery where abandoned tools are kept as memorials to the dead. Along the road, strangers keep offering repairs, shelter, or warnings in exchange for a look at it. Each encounter reveals another fragment of the flood-season betrayal, but also makes the delivery feel less like charity and more like burial.
5. The descendants named on the sailcloth gather for a river festival, unaware of their shared inheritance. A quiet faction wants the party to expose the list before old alliances are renewed. Another wants the awl destroyed, not because it is magical, but because proof can ruin a family more thoroughly than any curse.
6. A ferryman refuses passage to anyone carrying the awl, claiming his grandmother told him it belonged at the bottom of the river. He will relent only if the party helps retrieve a sealed strongbox from a collapsed boathouse. Inside is a ledger that makes the six hidden names seem less like traitors and more like scapegoats.

Rumors

1. “That awl never broke, not once. I don’t mean it’s enchanted. I mean the old cobbler was too stubborn to let a tool die before he did.”
2. “They say every boot mended with it found its way home. That’s tavern nonsense, of course, though plenty of widows kept the repaired boots by the door.”
3. “There’s writing inside the handle. My cousin saw it. Names, he said, and not the kind you put on a customer ticket.”
4. “The cobbler used to fix shoes for free on storm nights. Said no one should meet death with wet feet.”
5. “A ferryman once tried to buy it with a silver ring, a mule, and half a bottle of pear brandy. The cobbler laughed him into the street.”
6. “It belonged to a murderer. Or a witness. Around here, those words depend on who’s buying the ale.”
7. “The last apprentice hid it because her master talked to it when the rain got heavy. Not prayers. Apologies.”
8. “My father swore the awl was used to sew a false sole onto a smuggler’s boot, and that the false sole carried enough jewels to start a war.”
9. “No one wants the tool. They want what it remembers.”
10. “If you find six names in it, don’t read them aloud near running water. The river has too many friends.”

Optional: Minor Magical Version

This optional version presents the trinket as a very low-magic common item for tables that want a small supernatural touch while keeping it mostly narrative.

• Active (1/dawn): You can cast mending from the item.

Common Questions

Low resolution preview:

Discover 50 Roleplay-focused Characters or NPCs