In most D&D games, NPCs exist to provide information, sell a healing potion or two, and then fade into the background until the players need them again. But the best NPCs? They don’t fade. They claw at the party’s nerves, throw shade, and drag the story into unexpected corners.
Take Arynthea, for example, if only she could voice her own opinion on things…
Aurora would not shut up.
Tulip this. Petra that. Barris—ugh, that name alone scraped down my spine like a dull blade. Astrael—don’t even get me started—and that insufferable halfling bard. On and on, her voice winding through the air like a buzzing insect I couldn’t swat without staining the sheets.
I’d been letting it wash over me, tuning it out, drifting into the pleasant afterglow of Zal’s earlier brutality… until I caught the shift in his expression.
That subtle narrowing of his eyes. That slow incline of his head. The almost imperceptible flex of his jaw.
And then—those fateful words.
“We’ll locate them.”
My head snapped toward him, the silk of my robe whispering across my skin.
He wasn’t joking.
He wasn’t posturing.
He actually meant it.
My stomach twisted in that dangerous way it does when I know trouble’s already sewn into the seams of my life.
Mother. Fucker.
What in the Herebos was he dragging me into? Some doomed rescue? A political mess wearing the skin of a favor? Another of his labyrinthine games where every move costs more than you realize until your own blood is on the board?
My lips curled into a sharp, humorless smile as I looked between them—Aurora with her wide-eyed urgency, Zal with that infuriating air of unshakable command.
I rolled my eyes so hard it’s a wonder they didn’t get stuck in the back of my skull. “Oh, of course,” I muttered, voice dripping with sweet venom. “Let’s just collect every stray and headache in the city while we’re at it. Maybe we can open an orphanage while we’re on this noble streak.”
But inside? Inside I was already counting the ways this could spiral out of control… and calculating how many throats I’d have to slit to keep it from dragging me under.
free the NPC …!
