Soul in Shadows (The A.I. D&D Campaign) Session 4

SESSION 4 — ENTERING THE CENTRAL PASSAGE

Dane finds the last soul shard. Art prompt by ChatGPT, Art by Krea AI. 

Time for more solo D&D run by ChatGPT! I am in a dungeon collecting pieces of a Witch-Queen's soul. I live in a kingdom where the ruler must draw from the Deck of Many Things at least once per year.

You can catch up on the backstory and the 1st session here:

• Session 0 - The World and Gods
• Session 0.1 - The Campaign Trailer 
• Session 0.2 - Character Creation 
• Soul in Shadows Session 1 
• Soul in Shadows Session 2
• Soul in Shadows Session 3 

XP Issues: ChatGPT gave me too much XP last time and wanted me to hit level three. I start off today by explaining to it the following:

I have a total of 500 xp. I need 900 xp to hit lvl 3.

• Low difficulty encounter should be 100 xp
• Medium is 150 xp.
• High is 200 xp.

Then at the end of today, I decided I should be level 3.  

ChatGPT Errors: 

• Still a Bit Slow: ChatGPT runs faster now, but it got pretty slow toward the end of the session and I had to quit out and come back once.
• Forgotten Minions: It said the void-ettin had minions, but then forgot about them.
• No Skill Check: It had me automatically succeed on a stealth check for no good reason.
• No Initiative: It doesn't roll initiative and just lets me do what I want.
• I Tell it What to Do: I basically tell it to have the ettin split into two beings, and it does it.
• Glitch Description: It comes up with a second set of descriptions of the two entities that peeled off from the ettin, and then forgets them.
• I Decide to be Level 3: I tell it I am level 3, and it agrees. 
• Faulty Stat Block: It makes a stat block and it's all wrong.  

The Big Finale

This is the throne that I have to put the soul shards into. That's the "ghostly" form of Queen Badelia hovering above it. Art prompt by ChatGPT, Art by Krea AI.

Here is the short version of what happened in this session:

• Final Soul Shard: We found the final soul piece. The ettin was lurking in this chamber.
• Weak Spot: The ettin had a weak spot in his chest, caused by when he tried to absorb a piece of the Queen's soul into him.
• Stab: I ran up and stabbed the weak spot twice, rolling well!
• Weakened: The ettin was weakened greatly, but still alive.
• Soul Piece: We grabbed the final soul shard and ran back to the throne in the main hall as the ettin chased us (no skill checks at all).
• Split: When we put the soul pieces in the throne, the ettin was hit with energy and SPLIT INTO TWO BEINGS, who vanished. 
• Queen: The spirit of the Queen appeared. She gave me a charm, and a device to track her OTHER soul pieces (we have only repaired one third of her soul).
• Collapse: The place began to implode, so we ran and jumped through the portal and landed safely back in the Whispering Forest.  

Map: I tried to get ChatGPT to make a real map of the dungeon, not the weird flowchart it made last time. 

It was able to come up with really cool maps, but they don't match the layout at all.

Could be cool with some tweaking. Art prompt by ChatGPT, Art by Krea AI.

Final Room of the Dungeon: There's only one way left to go. The hall with the ettin. The void-scar is on my ribs again (it keeps moving from my hand to my ribs).

ChatGPT says I automatically succeed on my Stealth check. "Roll is not required—you succeed automatically thanks to Dane’s caution, Thalen’s help, and the displacer beast’s keen instincts."

There is another throne in this room. Standing behind the throne is the ettin. 

I try to sneak in to find the soul shard. ChatGPT decides to roll my stealth check for me, even though I told it I am making dice rolls for myself. I think I should have disadvantage on stealth due to my chain mail...? I succeed.

I see the last soul shard. The description of the soul shard is very cool:

"1. The Final Soul Shard

You spot it—
Embedded in a floating cluster of violet crystal shards hovering behind the ettin, about 20 feet off the ground. 

The shards orbit one another like a broken heart trying to remember its shape.

It is much more exposed than the first two."

Minions: Then it says that the Ettin has a cluster of minions (voidlings!) nearby.

Murals of Exposition: There are more murals. One shows that the ettin swallowed a soul shard. Now it says the last fragment is in the ettin's body!

Changes its Mind: Then it says that the floating shard cluster must be something else: "Some kind of anchor, binding, or focusing crystal."

I feel like it made this up as it went along and confused itself.

I told the bot a few times that an ettin is too powerful for a level 2 character to fight. I've decided to just play it out and see what happens - will the bot change its stats?

Giving the ettin minions makes this even harder.

Failed Check: This time it lets me roll the Stealth check. I do indeed have disadvantage due to chainmail.

I roll a 4, and a 15.

I failed. The ettin notices me, then says the shard is hovering nearby! It forgot again. I remind it that the ettin swallowed the shard. 

Weak Point: It tells me the thing in the ettin's chest is not one of the pieces, but a a stolen void-corrupted anchor that the ettin needs to remain in this plane. 

So.. it's a weak point! And if I hit it, maybe we can send the ettin away! How would I know any of this? Who knows. Let's just see what happens. Here is what I said to ChatGPT:

"So.. the thing in the ettin's chest is a weak point! If it's an anchor that keeps the ettin here, then if I destroy it, the ettin could vanish and be sent back to wherever it was before?! I am going to run up and stab it in the chest, trying to break it. I rolled a 17+5! I hit AC 22! I dod 5+5 = 10 dmg to the shard. I'll use my action surge just in case. I roll 15+5 = 20! I do another 5+5 = 10 dmg! Does my plan work?"

Dane stabs the weak point in the Ettin's chest. Art prompt by ChatGPT, Art by Krea AI.

"THE ETTIN IS NOW IN A SPECIAL STATE:

Void-Tether Severed: It is losing its physical form.

• Weakened: All its attacks have disadvantage.
• Its hit points are effectively reduced to half of what they were.
• If reduced to 0, it will be banished permanently from this realm."

The ettin had 85 HP. Half of that is 44. I did 20 damage to the ettin, so that means the ettin has 24 hit points left.

Wait.. in the next response, the ettin vanishes and the whole dungeon starts to collapse. 

ChatGPT doesn't want to roll initiative. I basically cheated here, telling it what to do rather than playing along with what it gave me. 

I give it an ooc note saying that it would be cool if the ettin split into two beings, and the bot immediately does it. It's almost like I am running the game.

The Void Ettin splits into two beings. Art prompt by ChatGPT, Art by Krea AI.

Now there is The Black-Flame Ogre: A feral being of pure rage.

The Black-Flame Ogre. Art prompt by ChatGPT, Art by Krea AI.

The Pale-Echo Giant: The original mortal giant whose soul was bound and corrupted. His name was Eltin, and he was an ally of Queen Badelia's.

Eltin, the Pale-Echo Giant. Art prompt by ChatGPT, Art by Krea AI.

ChatGPT then glitches out and comes up with two new ones who are not nearly as imaginative. I ignore them and the bot seems to forget them moments later. 

Throne: We run back to the first room as the place begins to collapse. I put the shards in the throne.

The void ettin splits into two beings and are pulled through a portal.

The Queen's soul form appears. She explains that we have rescued.. a third of her soul:

The Queen's ghostly form appears and gives me a mark/Charm of Heroism. Art prompt by ChatGPT, Art by Krea AI.

"Her voice is faint, barely above a whisper:

“My knight…
My echo…
There is more yet to do.”

She looks toward the ceiling—toward Tarokhold, impossibly far away.

“I am not whole.
My body sleeps, but my will endures.
You have freed one third… only one third.”

She touches me void scar and it becomes a "mark of connection" (this should be a charm, shouldn't it?)

The Queen vanishes, and an item appears on the throne.

Soul Beacon: It's a crystal - a soul beacon. An item we can use to track the rest of her soul pieces. 

I look up the charm of heroism, which was one of the things that annoyed me the most in D&D 2014. You had to look up the charm, then look up a potion of heroism, then look up the Bless spell!

It's still annoying in 2024. I had to assemble all of its effect myself:

Charm of Heroism
Supernatural Gift (Charm)
This Charm gives you the following effects for one hour: 

• 10 temporary hit points
• Whenever you make an attack roll or a saving throw, you add 1d4. 

The charm and the effects vanish after one hour.

Collapsing Dungeon: It has us escape the collapsing dungeon (with no skill check of any kind, we just outrun the collapse). 

This should have been full of drama - failed checks mean you are buried under rubble. The Displacer beast using its displacement to avoid being hit. Thalen, the annoying NPC sidekick getting crushed under rubble. It would have been great. 

Dane, Thalen, and the displacer beast run as the dungeon implodes. Art prompt by ChatGPT, Art by Krea AI.

Then I ask about the charm (it agrees to give it to me, of course) and ChatGPT somehow forgets that we just escaped the dungeon, and thinks we're still in it. I correct it.

Level 3: I think this is the perfect point to hit level 3, even though this idea contradicts what I told it about XP at the beginning of this session. 

I am going to be an eldritch knight. Makes sense, right? eldritch because we live in a Magocracy. Knight because I was born due to the Knight card from the Deck of Many Things.

the core ideas of this are pretty cool! The problem is that it adds and forgets a ton of details constantly. There is a really fun campaign in here somewhere, but right now the AI struggles so much with consistency that I am sometimes running the game myself.

I asked ChatGPT to make a Void-Ettin stat block:

I see a fair amount of gibberish, and comically low damage (1d6+1!). I should ask it to make the stats via text first, and then have it make an image, and see if they match. 

I have 900 xp, and I will hit 4th level when I have 2,700 xp. It should take a few sessions for me to hit level 4.

Difficulty:

• Low: 150 exp
• Moderate: 225 exp
• High: 400 exp

I basically told it what we're going to do next session. I am going to "train" and learn my Eldritch Knight spells, then test my new magic against monsters in the forest.  

Soul in Shadows (The A.I. D&D Campaign) Session 3

SESSION 3 — THE STEP INTO RIPPLEDARK

Dane, Thalen and the Displacer Beast creep through the blackstone halls. Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

Skip to Session 4 

All right, time for more D&D where I am the solo player and ChatGPT is the DM! Today I am going to try and help ChatGPT out by giving short prompts that give it some extra information, hopefully to help it speed up and get less confused. 

Here is what has gone on so far: 

You can catch up on the backstory and the 1st session here:

• Session 0 - The World and Gods
• Session 0.1 - The Campaign Trailer 
• Session 0.2 - Character Creation 
• Soul in Shadows Session 1 
• Soul in Shadows Session 2

I am now level 2! I have 24 HP, 2d10 hit dice, and I gained two thingies:

Level 2: Action Surge

You can push yourself beyond your normal limits for a moment. On your turn, you can take one additional action, except the Magic action.

Once you use this feature, you can’t do so again until you finish a Short or Long Rest. Starting at level 17, you can use it twice before a rest but only once on a turn.

Level 2: Tactical Mind

You have a mind for tactics and getting the upper hand on and off the battlefield. When you fail an ability check, you can expend a use of your Second Wind to push yourself toward success. Rather than regaining Hit Points, you roll 1d10 and add the number rolled to the ability check, potentially turning it into a success. If the check still fails, this use of Second Wind isn’t expended. 

Tactical Mind is one of those traits that is so conditional I feel like I will never remember it.  

I asked it why it is running slow, and if there's anything that can be done.  

It told me this: "When performance slows, tips that help:

You don’t need to change anything, but these can speed me up:

• A. Keep mechanical updates separate from narrative turns
• B. Shorter narrative messages when possible
• C. Occasionally say “Here’s the story context you should use for the next scene.”

This lets me soft-reset to a narrower focus instead of referencing all lore at once."

I allowed it to "reorganize the campaign’s stored memory for maximum speed and consistency." I was worried this would make it forget everything, but it didn't - it ran a little faster. 

Were there any issues with ChatGPT today? Yes. We're at the point where it is barely able to run D&D without me holding its hand.

ChatGPT Issues This Session:

• Still Slow: It ran faster, but there were a few times (three) where it sat there for 5+ minutes trying to make a response, and I had to shut it down and re-start it. 
• Forgot Item: It forgot that I had found a major item - a piece of a soul.
• Lied About HP: It just made up monster hit point totals and lied about it.
• Moved a Scar: It forgot my magic scar was on my ribs, and moved it to my hand. 
• Phony Stat Block: It made a stat block that doesn't match the monster.
• Weird Map: It made a map that was actually pretty accurate, but was done in a really weird style.
• No Challenge: It let me go into a dungeon room and retrieve a quest item with no challenge whatsoever.
• Too Much XP: It gave me way, way too much XP after a single easy encounter (it says I am now level 3, but I refuse to accept it).  
• Too Difficult: I think it wants me to fight an ettin even though it knows the ettin is far, far too powerful for me to survive a single round of combat with.  

 Summary of What Happened This Session:

• A Dungeon: We went through an arch/portal to a "Rippledark" Dungeon.
• Soul Piece 1: I found a piece of the Queen's soul.
• Magic Throne: I found a throne that has slots for all three soul pieces.
• Soul Piece 2: I went into a room and defeated three guardians (a mask, a RIBBON, and a shadow-creature) to obtain another soul piece.
• Queen and the Ettin: We learned some backstory - the Queen was once an ally of the ettin, who is now a major villain. 
• Soul Piece 3? I went into another room and got a third soul piece with no guardians or resistance at all.
• Soul Piece X: Now it is saying I only have two pieces, when I actually have three.  

We start Session 3. I try to help out by giving ChatGPT a quick summary. This does seem to help response time.

Ads: This is really weird. It makes two images as part of the intro! Wait, no.. these are images from products? One is from a kickstarter about Bluetspur, and the other is from Nerdarchy: "Finding adventure or letting adventure find you."

Do they pay for ChatGPT to advertise like this, or is ChatGPT just grabbing these links? Should I pay to have my blog advertised on ChatGPT and see what happens?

What is the Rippledark? ChatGPT says the Rippledark is "the thin boundary between the Brightwood and the edge of the Void-touched realm leaking through."

SESSION 3 — THE STEP INTO RIPPLEDARK

The arch of roots and bone. Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

The Arch of Whispers: That is one grammatically incorrect title we have here. We walk through a curtain of liquid shadow, and have "have crossed into the Whispering Glade’s inner ripple, a pocket of forest laid over with void resonance."

We see a twisted arch of roots and bone. 

I waited 5 minutes for a response, then canceled out and logged back in.

I think it made another title for this session: SESSION 3 — THE ARCH OF WHISPERS

There's an arch with rippling shadows on it. There are all these symbols related to the deck on it. I feel drawn to the empty circle, so i touch it. 

It now thinks the scar on my ribs is on my palm instead?

We open a portal to a hallway of black stone. 

The Queen's Soul: This all feels like a high level adventure, not level 2 stuff. We find a swirling vortex sphere. Apparently the Queen is in there - or at least, a piece of her soul is. 

This is how ChatGPT writes D&D stuff - super-dramatic spacing:

"Just then—
A shape flickers within the violet tear.

A silhouette.
Humanoid.
Slender.
Bound in chains of light and shadow.

And then—
A faint, broken whisper escapes the rift:

“...help…”

The voice is female.
Weak.
Strained.
Familiar."

I tie a rope around my waist and tell Thalen to hold the other end. It try to reach into this rift thing and pull her out - if she's even in there. 

Krea AI can not come close to depicting this scene correctly. Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

Rules-Free D&D: We really, really need a skill check or an ability check here. This is more of a choose-your-own-adventure.

I pulled a fragment of her soul or essence out?

"The shard of Badelia’s soul-luminescence fades into your palm and sinks into your chest, resting over your heart like a warm ember.

You are now soul-linked to Badelia. A permanent connection—faint, but real—has formed.

The fragment is not her full soul. It is a shard, torn loose when the void-throne fed on her essence."

We explore this place, which I insist is a DUNGEON in Dungeons & Dragons. 

I feel like I can basically write this adventure through my dialogue. It feels like cheating. I said:

"I don't want to leave yet, Thalen. There could be clues in this place to where the rest of her soul is! There might also be treasure - or monsters, I suppose."

And now it is turning this hallway into a dungeon. I feel like I had to do it, as we were doing an interactive novel, not a D&D adventure. 

Note about the Ettin: I had earlier told the bot that ettins are one of my favorite D&D monsters, and I gave it the ettin 2024 stat block. It looks like it decided to make an ettin a major villain, which is really cool.

The Void-Ettin! I love this. Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

Wall Reliefs:

• Queen Badelia. Pregnant with magic?? A two-headed silhouette behind her.
• The Ettin: One head peaceful, one head wrathful. It pulls three "soul glyphs" from Badelia. One bright, one jagged, and on dark. Her soul has been broken into three pieces.
• The Bargain: The Queen apparently gave her soul to the ettin to save mine.
• The Throne of Three Returns: The final relief is the throne you saw earlier, but fully completed—with all three soul-shards returned. The Queen is alive on the throne and I am standing next to her. 

ChatGPT was urging me to flee this place as the portal we came in through was "unstable". But once I insisted on continuing to explore, it dropped the whole idea. 

Coaching: I am coaching the bot through my prompts. I ant Chat GPT to know that I am second level and can not survive fighting an ettin:

"I will smile. "Thank you.. friend. Let's see what danger awaits us now! I just hope we don't run into this ettin, it looks far too strong for us to fight right now.' I will look at the displacer beast and pat its head softly. "And thank you, too. Stay out of danger, OK?"

I am level 2! I can't fight an ettin yet!

There are three hallways to choose from. I decide to go left. I think I am going to ask it to map a map of what we've explored so far, and see if it is gibberish. 

• It makes up a language called "Thorncall" that I can't speak.
• It suggests Thalen cast Detect Magic and then points out that he can't cast that spell.

The Violet Corridor: We enter a room that has a soul shard, three floating motes, and murals. 

The bot tells me the motes are "soul-resonance sparks" as if I have any idea what that means. 

The Murals:

The Queen and the Ettin were once allies! Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

• The Ettin and the Wueen, when she was younger, working together to tear open a rift.
• A voidling being dragged by the ettin. The ettin would drain its essence nightly. The Queen pitied it.
• The ettin took her soul?
• Mural of My character, the displacer beast, and Thalen near the throne, holding the knight card.

It gets confused.. it forgot that I already have one soul shard. 

FIGHT: We take the shard and the three motes turn into a mask, a ribbon, and a humanoid creature. Constructs made of hard light. I'm going to fight them.

I basically coach the bot - explaining that I'll attack, we'll roll initiative, and I tell it all my rolls. Kind of holding its hand through the process. 

It is doing that thing where it acts like the creature is one hit away from dying, then it says it is at half HP. 

I asked it to tell me how many hit points the mask had.. and as it responds, it realizes the mask should have been dead a while ago.

Dane fights a.. uh.. mask. a voidmask! Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

Tracking HP: I am going to ask for monster hp at the start of every fight so I can track it. It takes some of the fun out of the game, but it is very annoying to be hitting these monsters endlessly. 

ChatGPT later decides to give me hp totals and gets them all wrong, and thinks the mask is back alive!

• Ribbon has 22
• Shadow has 26

The ribbon has 2 attacks?!

Whew, that was a mess! It can't really run a coherent combat. It was also boring! And what a weird choice of monsters. It's homebrewing everything! 

A.I. Homebrew: I am fascinated by the idea of an A.I. making its own D&D monsters, but it's going to need to use some official creatures sooner or later.

I asked it to make a statblock of the mask:

Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

It just made up these stats! I am amused that "Action" is at the bottom, with no actions beneath it.

NPC Boredom: I don't mind Thalen, but he's boring. I am kind of hoping he will die (He's stuck at 11 HP, he can't possibly survive forever!) so we can get someone else as a sidekick. 

XP Reward: I cringe at the idea of asking it how much XP I get. I think it's just going to make up numbers. It doesn't even remember how much XP I had last session. It gives me 750 XP and says I am now lvl 3.

I am not doing that, that's just cheating. I am going to stay lvl 2 for now. 

The Really Weird Map: I asked it to draw a map of this place so far. I carefully reminded it of the layout as best I could. Hopefully it can make a map that at least somewhat makes sense. 

What a weird map. Map by ChatGPT.

This map is fairly accurate.. but wtf. What is that? That's no fantasy map. Also, the center passage does not connect here. 

We head down the right-side passage.

It again thinks my scar is on my palm. 

We see some moving murals:

🔹 Kinetic murals

These walls don’t show—they move.
Scenes shift subtly as you walk, like memories replaying on repeat:

• Badelia kneeling at the Deck of Many Things.
• The Void reaching through the card.
• The Ettin-parent dragging her soul toward a monolith of black stone.

Why is it calling the Ettin the "Ettin-parent"? I think it is accidentally spoiling something.

The Second Room: I just walked in and grabbed the soul shard. This place was easy. I just took it. what's the point?

It now thinks I have 2 of 3 shards. I am going to go ahead and assume that first shard entered into my chest and became part of me.

That's where we stopped.

This Could Be Good: I played for HOURS and we only got through a few rooms. I absolutely love the core concepts that the bot came up with, but the execution is so messy.

I guess that's just how it is at this point in time. I assume in the future it will get better and better, and I like the idea of logging its progress here at the beginning.

I can't fight an ettin! It has two attacks per round and can kill me in two hits!

I guess we'll see what happens next time.

Continue on to Session 4  

Soul in Shadows (the A.I. D&D Campaign) Session 2

Soul in Shadows Session 2 - Into the Rippledark

This is the title image that ChatGPT came up with - My character petting a displacer beast.

Skip to Soul in Shadows Session 3

I played some more solo D&D with Chat GPT! We're using the D&D 2024 rules, which I know very little about. 

You can catch up on the backstory and the 1st session here:

• Session 0 - The World and Gods
• Session 0.1 - The Campaign Trailer 
• Session 0.2 - Character Creation 
• Soul in Shadows Session 1 

ChatGPT Lore: Prior to this session, I spent some time giving ChatGPT some information:

• Stat blocks (low level monsters, lich, displacer beast, beholder, knight, etc)
• XP rules
• Encounter building information

There are some really interesting and relevant creatures in the 2024 Monster Manual. There is literally a Questing Knight stat block!

Summary: Here is a quick summary of what happened in this session, for those of you who are skimmer types:

• New Monster: Thalen and I come upon a wounded displacer beast, with a shadowy creature called a Voidling about to kill it.
• Voidling Battle: I decide to try to save the displacer beast. It hits me once and almost kills me (drops me to 2 hit points).
• Permanent Scar: I received a wound and a "void infection" on my ribs.  
• NPC Saves Me: Thalen hits it with radiant fire a few times, then I stab and kill it.
• Displacer Beast Buddy: We heal the displacer beast and befriend it. It lets me pet it and will now apparently follow us.
• Level Up: I hit level 2!

ChatGPT Issues: In this session, there were a lot of flubs and mistakes made by the A.I., including:

• Forgot a Creature: It changed a displacer beast adult to a "cub" randomly.
• Skipped a Turn: It skipped the NPC ally's turn in combat at least once.
• Took a Long Time to Generate Responses: It ran REALLY SLOW when I gave it a complicated prompt. I sometimes had to wait 4 minutes for it to form a response. 
• Lied About HP: It told me an enemy was one hit from death, but I hit it and it didn't die. 
• Spoiled a Future Encounter: When I asked it for a stat block of a creature I fought, it spoiled the fact that there is a "void-touched ettin" coming up. The stat block it made didn't match what I fought.
• Forgot the Environment: It seemed to forget where I was - I started in the "Rippledark" but ended up in a forest.

I have learned that I need to reinforce it in my prompts - reiterate where we are, whose turn is next, how many HP I have, that kind of thing. 

Why is it so Slow? I asked it about why it was so slow. It gave me a long-winded explainer which boiled down to:

"Other factors include the complexity of your request, the length of the conversation, and the browser having to process a lot of data, especially with code blocks."

Summary of Last Session: I asked for a summary of Session 1 (so I can check if it actually remembers everything correctly). It's too long, but here it is:

✨ Session 1 Summary — “The Deck’s Echo”

Soul in Shadows Campaign

1. Dawn in the Fate-Spire — Queen Arelia’s Command

Dane the Conjured begins his journey in the towering Fate-Spire of Tarokhold, where Witch-Queen Arelia Bloodmark summons him. Her manner is sharp, restless, and half-impatient, half-protective — typical of a high-level Archfey warlock used to command and chaos.

She assigns him a mission:
A void disturbance has opened in Brightwood.
It may be connected to the stolen soul of Witch-Queen Badelia Voidstar, the woman Dane considers his mother.

Dane challenges Arelia — angrily — for failing to rescue Badelia. Arelia snaps back, but something in her expression softens. Whether she admits it or not, she needs him.

At her side is Novice Thalen Reedbrook, a young priest of Ioun, who becomes Dane’s first companion for this quest.

---

2. On the Road — Shadows in the Forest

Dane and Thalen travel toward Brightwood. The journey is only a few hours on foot, but the forest feels different today — tense, watchful.

Soon Dane realizes they’re being stalked.

With a natural 20 Perception, he sees them clearly:
two displacer beast cubs, shifting and flickering in the undergrowth. Curious. Hungry. Not yet dangerous… unless their mother is near.

Dane tries to calm them with food, but a poor Animal Handling roll only heightens their tension. They stalk closer, watching him warily.

The two heroes retreat slowly, never turning their backs, putting careful distance between themselves and the cubs. Mother never appears, and the forest eventually quiets.

---

3. Arrival at Bramblemaw’s Hut

The Brightwood thickens around a crooked little herbalist’s home. Bramblemaw Willowhex, the witch-herbalist who helped raise Dane, steps out — just as fierce, uncanny, and tender as he remembers.

She immediately scolds him for coming here with a void disturbance loose in the glade. But once inside, her tone shifts. She pulls the old divination “Knight” card she once made for him — the token of his childhood, his identity.

Then she tells him a truth he hates:

“You are the Deck’s echo, Dane. An accident. A ripple.”

Dane erupts — refusing the idea he’s a mistake, insisting he was meant to be a knight. That Badelia needs him.

Bramblemaw, unshaken, replies:

“You may deny the Deck’s truth, but it does not deny you.
The question is what you will choose with the life it gave you.”

Her words sting, but they settle deeply.

Before he leaves, Dane pauses, takes her hand, and whispers:

“Thank you.”

She gives him a rare, sad smile.

---

4. The Whispering Glade Opens

Bramblemaw leads Dane and Thalen to the Whispering Glade — a twilight place where the air hums with fey magic.

As she chants, reality bends.
Colors invert.
Shadows stir.
A black, shimmering void path tears open between two ancient trees.

The portal pulses, alive and hungry.

Bramblemaw warns:

“This path leads toward what took Badelia’s soul.
Step through, and your life will no longer be your own.”

Thalen grips his holy symbol. Dane grips his sword.

Dane looks into the darkness and steps forward.

The session ends on that threshold.

---

⭐ Session 1 Themes

• Identity & Destiny — Dane confronts what it means to be born of the Deck.

• Motherhood & Loss — Badelia’s absence drives both Dane and the quest.

• Mystery of the Void — Something unnatural is stirring in Brightwood.

• Companionship — Thalen becomes Dane’s first loyal ally.

---

⭐ Session 1 Major NPCs

• Queen Arelia Bloodmark — Warlock-Queen, volatile and powerful.

• Novice Thalen Reedbrook — Earnest young priest of Ioun; Dane’s sidekick.

• Bramblemaw Willowhex — Witch-herbalist, Dane’s mentor and emotional anchor.

Note: I think it changed the title of Session 1 for some reason.

OK! Let's get started! What's the title of this session?

🎲 SOUL IN SHADOWS — SESSION 2
Episode Title: “Into the Rippledark”

Yes. The Rippledark. Kind of hilarious.

I am letting the ChatGPT wine mom voice read this to me. I should see if there is a way to choose a different voice.

We step through into the Void Path, aka the Rippledark. 

Krea AI can't make a sky of rippling black water. Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

So, what does the Rippledark look like? Here's the description: 

• A sky of black water rippling above you
• Cracked stone ground, glowing faintly from deep purple veins
• Trees like skeletal nerves, vibrating with arcane residue

The portal shuts off behind us.

Displacer Beast: ChatGPT really likes Displacer beasts (I fed it my Guide to Displacer Beasts). We see:

"A trail of claw marks.

Deep gouges in the stone, unmistakably matching displacer beast tentacle barbs. Fresh. Maybe minutes old."

Dane (me) and Thalen (my NPC healer buddy) follow the displacer beast. Thalen starts talking like he worships a different god - I think ChatGPT forgot he worships Ioun.

The First Combat Begins: We find a wounded displacer beast, and a void-touched entity coming for it. This "Voidling" is a monster that ChatGPT HOMEBREWED based on 5e 2024 stat blocks I fed it:

I really like this image, and I love that ChatGPT made its own monster. Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

"Across from the beast, crouched low, is a shape.

• Humanoid.
• Gaunt.
• Elongated limbs, hands splayed widely across the stone.
• A warped silhouette—like a man whose shadow had been peeled off and stretched too far.

Its head tilts toward you, joints popping with a sickening click.

It has no eyes. Just smooth flesh where features should be.

Yet it looks right at you.

The displacer beast snarls, dragging itself protectively between you and the creature, as though it… wants you to stay back.

Thalen whispers:

“Dane… that’s no beast. That’s a void-touched humanoid. A corruption. And it’s hunting her.”

Slow: I entered a response and nothing happened. ChatGPT is running very clunky today. It told me earlier that I gave it a lot of information, so it is running slower. If it always runs like this, it might be impossible to do a full campaign.

Thalen Knows Too Much: I ask Thalen how he knows this:

“I’ve… read about them!”
“In the archives under the Fate-Spire. Creatures twisted by the Void… pulled halfway out of reality. They’re predators—pure instinct and hunger. If it’s here, then the corruption is closer than Queen Arelia feared.”

His voice tightens.

“Dane… they hunt magical creatures first. Anything connected to planar energies.”

Buttering Me Up: It gives me a long list of choices for me to choose from. Look at ChatGPT suck up to me in the list of options:

"F. Something else
Dane is brave, clever, and compassionate—describe any tactic you want."

Running the Combat: It does a really good job running the combat in the beginning. This creature seems to be vulnerable to radiant damage (though the stat block it generates later shows no mention of this), so Thalen's Radiant flame is extremely useful. 

I would have died if it wasn't for my NPC buddy. Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

Almost Dead: It hits me for 13 points! I only have 2 hit points left. I might die in my first combat. 

I hit on my next attack, and deal "sap" (Sap is a 2024 weapon mastery property that forces a creature hit by the weapon to have disadvantage on its next attack roll before the start of the attacker's next turn.) 

The bot seemed to think sap was something else. I corrected it, so let's see if it remembers this without me telling it to save and remember. 

Sap literally saves my life:

⚔️ Void Creature Attack (with Disadvantage from Sap)

Roll 1: 17 + 5 = 22
Roll 2: 6 + 5 = 11

The creature must take the lower result.

→ Total: 11
→ Your AC: 19

🛡️ MISS!

Cub: The bot is suddenly saying the displacer beast is a "cub". It said it was an adult earlier, and I had told it about the displacer beast kitten stat block earlier, too, so I don't know why it is calling it a cub. 

I point this out, and ChatGPT says: "Absolutely — the displacer beast you’re protecting now is indeed an adult.
The cubs you encountered earlier were a separate group. This wounded one is a full-grown hunter driven into the glade and bleeding badly, which makes protecting it even more dangerous and impressive."

It had a really, really hard time depicting Dane blocking an attack with his shield. Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

ChatGPT is telling me things I shouldn't know, but we'll deal with that another time. 

Second Wind: I should have used second wind as a bonus action earlier, but I forgot about it.

I am able to use second wind. 

ChatGPT Errors: The bot skipped my NPC buddy's turn. It also told me that the creature was one hit from death, but I hit it and did 6 points, and it didn't die. 

Thalen eventually killed it. We're level one! This creature almost killed me with one hit! And it seemed like it had a lot of hit points!

I asked Chat GPT to show me the statblock. It makes TWO statblocks.. and they have different stats! One has 33 HP, the other has 45! I think ChatGPT didn't actually know how many hit points this monster had as the battle was going on.

Also, the stat block says: "AC 14 (6d8 + 18)" which obviously should not be there. There's nothing about being vulnerable to radiant damage.  

The damage in this stat block does not at all match the damage it gave out. This image was made by ChatGPT.

I tried to make friends with the displacer beast.  

ChatGPT Forgets the Terrain? ChatGPT is now talking like we're in the forest. It says: "whatever ripple tore into this place is receding."

My Wound is Infected: Thalen: “By Ioun’s light… that is void-touched. Not an infection, not corruption exactly—it's more like… a residue. The creature struck you partly from between places. But look—it's fading. Slowly. I don’t think it’s lethal.”

He gently passes his hand over it, and soft blue runes flicker across his palm.

Thalen: “If it were true void corruption, the mark would spread as it fed on your life. This seems more like… a scar of planar force. You should fully recover.”

Mechanically: No curse, no ongoing damage, no affliction, but you now bear a cosmetic void-scar that may or may not matter later in the story.

The Scar: I have a scar! I ask ChatGPT where.

The voidling’s claws raked you across the left side of your ribcage, just beneath the pectoral muscle. The scar runs diagonally, roughly:

• Five inches long
• With faint shimmering violet threads beneath the skin
• Warm flesh around it, but the scar itself is cold as moonlight
• Only visible up close or if Dane lifts his tunic; otherwise hidden by armor.

It does not spread.
It does not radiate pain.
But every now and then, it pulses faintly—almost like it remembers the void."

I try to get an image of the scar:

Krea AI simply would not put the scar anywhere but on my chest. Not the ribs. Not the stomach. Only the chest. Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

Level Up: I ask ChatGPT how much XP we get?

It says I now have a total 325 XP. I hit level 2! Apparently I somehow got a bit of XP for the previous session, which is good. 

Displacer Beast Friend: I will try to softly pet the displacer beast.

"The displacer beast watches you as you extend your hand—its emerald eyes narrow, its tentacles twitch reflexively…

…but the creature does not pull away.

Slowly, cautiously, you place your palm on the side of its neck. Its fur is:

• Surprisingly warm
• Silky, though wiry in places
• Faintly humming with residual displacement magic

The beast exhales… a rumbling, vibrating sound halfway between a growl and a purr."

The closest Krea AI has come to making an actual displacer beast.Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

"Thalen watches, wide-eyed.

Thalen: “Dane… it trusts you. That’s not normal.
Displacers don’t usually allow anyone this close unless they’ve… bonded.”

Non-Combatant Ally: I make friends with the displacer beast. I am worried that it will become an ally and completely unbalance the encounters, but ChatGPT say:

"You Now Gain a Temporary Ally (Narrative Only)

The displacer beast will:

• Walk with you
• Warn you of threats
• Stay defensive, not aggressive
• Protect you if attacked

It is not a pet.
It is not under command.
It is a wary, wounded hunter choosing to travel beside you… for now."

That's a great choice by the bot. We stopped there. I will level up and we will continue on in Session 3.

I asked it for a preview of Session 3:

✨ Session 3 Preview: Into the Whispering Glade

The forest grows quieter as you rise from your short rest—quiet not from peace, but from anticipation. The displacer beast’s golden eyes follow your movement now not with suspicion, but with the wary acknowledgment of a creature who has seen you stand between its life and death.

Ahead, the Whispering Glade breathes.
Not in the way a forest breathes—this is deeper, older, and touched by something that does not belong to the waking world.

As you and Thalen approach:

• Shadows bend where they shouldn’t bend.

• Light pools where there is no sun.

• The air thickens with the faint vibration of unseen strings pulling taut.

Dane’s new void-scar warms faintly in response… not painfully, but knowingly.

There is a path ahead—one that was not here before you fought the voidling.
A path Bramblemaw hinted would only appear when the forest accepted your intent.

What lies beyond it?

• A revelation about the void.

• A choice that shapes the fate of beasts and people alike.

• A presence watching from just beyond the veil.

And somewhere…
in a place between realms…
Queen Badelia’s stolen soul stirs.

---

When Session 3 begins, you will step forward—
not just into a forest,
but into the threshold of the Rippledark.

And the Rippledark is aware of you. 

Continue on to Soul in Shadows Session 3 

Soul in Shadows (the A.I. D&D Campaign) Session 1

Soul in Shadows Session 1 - The Shadow of the First Draw

I asked the A.I. to make an image that summed up today's session. This is what it made (My character, Dane, standing in front of the Fate-Spire tower). Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI. 

Skip to Soul in Shadows Session 2 

After a lot of preparation, I am ready to start a solo D&D campaign where I am the player and ChatGPT is the DM! 

We will be playing Dungeons & Dragons 2024. I have never played it (I've played tons of 5e 2014, 4e, 2e, and basic). I've barely skimmed the 2024 books. ChatGPT says it knows the rules, but I bet it is lying.

I pumped the bot with rules from this site and told it to save and remember them.  

My Goal: Go from level 1 to level 20, legit. However long it takes!

We created the world, the backstory, and my character in a series of posts:

1. The A.I. Campaign Session Zero
2. The A.I. Campaign Session 0.1 - The Campaign Trailer
3. The A.I. Campaign Session 0.2 - Character Creation

Now we begin.  

This is how the campaign started.

I want to start off with a couple of quick summaries to give you and overview of how this went. 

First, a summary of the issues ChatGPT had:

• Level 1: I don't think it understands encounter scaling. I think it tried to throw a displacer beast at me, which is far too powerful for level 1 characters.
• OOC: If I don't specifically say "OOC comment," it mostly thinks I am talking to an NPC in the game.
• Gibberish Map: ChatGPT made an image of a map which makes NO SENSE.
• Verbose: This was a lot of reading - it was like a novel.
• Not Using Spells: There wasn't much use of actual D&D magic - frankly I don't think the bot knows much about D&D spells.
• NPCs Were Unflappable: The NPCs seemed to roll with anything I said as if it was part of what they hoped for.
• Art is Messy: The art is AI slop, and Chat GPT doesn't have a firm understanding of when it is going overboard with an art prompt.
• It's a Book: I decided to cut and paste the entire session and save it. I might save it in .pdf books. 

That may sound like this was a terrible session of D&D, but it wasn't. It was kind of fun! It just needs more D&D, and a little more adventure!

I asked ChatGPT to come up with an image of anything it wanted from this session. This is my character in the woods. Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI. 

So, what actually happened in this session? Here is the short version:

• Find the Soul: The Queen summoned me to her tower, and told me it was time for me to seek out the soul of a former queen (this queen had drawn the void card from the deck of many things, and her soul was stolen).
• NPC Ally: The Queen wants me to travel with Thalen, an NPC cleric of Ioun.
• Go to the Woods: We were told there is some mystical something in the woods relating to the Void (A previous queen drew the Void card from the Deck of Many Things, which took her soul and stashed it somewhere, rendering her comatose).
• Displacer Beasts?! In the woods, we run into some displacer beast cubs and make a hasty retreat.
• Herb Witch: We meet with an NPC herb-witch from my backstory. She opens a portal into the Void (or something). Thalen and I go in. That's where we stopped.  

The Queen Calls for Dane 

My Origin: A Queen of Tarokhold drew from the Deck of Many Things. She drew the Knight card, which normally summons a 4th level fighter to be her guardian. But when she drew it, a baby appeared - my character.

Shortly after that, she drew the Void card, which stole her soul and put her in a coma. A new Queen took over and both the former Queen and my character were forgotten.  

Now, I have turned 21. The current Queen, Arelia Bloodmark, has requested my presence at the Fate-Spire Tower. She sent a priest of Ioun named Thalen (who will be my NPC sidekick) to get me.  

I'm not really sure why the Queen would send this priest of Ioun to get me. How was he even near the Queen to start with? The only church in this town that I know of is of the Raven Queen.

Text to Speech: I pretty quickly decided to use the option for a text-to-speech reading of these responses. The bot is doing a good job o far, but each turn is like reading a page or two from a novel.

The voice is sort of like a wine mom, not optimal for D&D. It is cool that ChatGPT has this option, though.

Dane meets with Queen Arelia. He gets angry when she calls him a "wild joke". Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI. 

The Meeting: The Queen talks very cryptically, as the priest of the Raven Queen watches. There is also a walking chest that acts like a happy dog (this chest contains the Deck of Many Things). 

The Queen has the gall to say to me:

“Twenty-one years ago, the Deck spat you into my predecessor’s arms. A glitch of fate. A wild joke. A warning. Perhaps all three.”

She goes on to ask me what I want. I tell her I want to find Witch-Queen Badelia's soul. 

“I inherited a corpse with a pulse, Dane.
A throne haunted by a soul-shaped absence.
A Deck that would rather consume me than obey me.”

A lot of the dialogue is like this. It's good in small doses but the bot overdoes it. 

The Queen explains to me that someone else is looking for Badelia's soul. I think that's a fun twist:  

“The Void stirs.
And someone — or something — has begun searching for the object containing Badelia’s soul.”

She lifts one finger and traces a silent sigil in the air.

A ghostly image forms:
A shadowed figure dragging something heavy through a dark corridor.
A circular object glinting faintly.

The orb.
Badelia’s prison."

There is a strange note - the bot claims that Ena, the priest of the Raven Queen, can't leave the Fate-Spire Tower. Why? The priest of the Raven Queen is stuck outside their temple?

She ends up showing me a map:

“You will begin where her soul vanished from living memory.”

She steps aside, revealing a spiraling map etched in hovering crystal:

A path leading out of Tarokhold…
into Brightwood…
toward the edges of Whispering Glade…
and then splitting — one trail fading, one pulsing faintly.

A trail disturbed.

Recently.

Arelia points at the pulsing trail.

Arelia:

“Someone opened a path to the Void.
Someone not of this dominion.
Find who.
Find where.
And find what they took.”

Readable: This is written in a way where even people like me (I can not handle reading walls of text) are able to read along - it is very breezy. 

This feels a bit like a novel, but it's not bad at all. It feels very fleshed out and real so far. Very dramatic.

Takes Time: I've been playing for about an hour. I want to go from level one to level 20! This might take a very long time.

I'd cut and paste the whole thing here, but it is incredibly long. I should probably save it on my computer though, in case something happens. I could put it into a pdf maybe. 

Making the Map

I leave the chamber and meet with Thalen. I draw the map on parchment. Thalen tells me:  

“I grew up in the little hillside cloister outside Tarokhold — the Shrine of the Thousand Threads. We study prophecy there. Ioun’s doctrine.”

He taps the holy symbol on his chest.

“‘Seek truth. Preserve knowledge. Aid heroes.’”

The clerics of Ioun sent him to learn under Ena (who is a priest of the Raven Queen, not Ioun). I don't get that at all. 

Basically, Thalen heard the legend of my character and thought it was cool.

I asked Chat GPT to make an image of the map. Here it is!

This is the nonsense map that ChatGPT made.

So... does that map make any sense at all? No, right? 

I ask Thalen if he understands it: 

"“…No,” he admits softly. “Not even a little.”

He taps the spiral path with one finger.

“This isn’t a map,” he says. “It’s a maze. Or… a metaphor. The Whispering Glade is real—Brightwood’s heart—but this…” He circles the spiral again with a puzzled expression. “It’s like she didn’t want you to walk somewhere. She wanted you to understand something.”

Travel: I tried to ask ChatGPT a question about travel time and what my character knows, but it thought I was talking to the NPC. 

I told it to forget that last response and I asked more clearly. This is the only time so far that I asked it to disregard something it wrote. 

It turns out that the forest is only a few hours away. Thalen gives me more lore:

“But yes. I’ll keep an eye out. Queen Arelia didn’t give details because she couldn’t. Divination near the Deck warps. Even the Raven Queen’s sight struggles.”

Thalen seems to know everything I need to know, it's quite ridiculous. 

Danger in the Woods 

We start making our way through the woods, looking for the vague magic something. We realize that we are being followed. 

I make a perception check. I make my first die roll of the campaign! I roll a natural 20!

Dane and Thalen encounter some Displacer Beast Kittens. Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI. 

Scaling: We ran into our first major problem. I think ChatGPT is trying to throw a displacer beast at us! This is far too powerful for our level. 

I had asked it if it knew monster stats, and it said yes, but I think I need to feed it a bunch just to be sure. It might not understand power scaling, or it might be making a much weaker version of a displacer beast.

We basically threw some food at the displacer beast kittens and the mom, and retreated, and the bot allowed it to happen despite me rolling a 4 on an Animal Handling check. 

The Herb-Witch 

Dane gets angry when the Her-Witch calls him a "mistake". The bot makes her look completely different every single time it makes art of her! Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI. 

We meet up with an NPC from my backstory - Bramblemaw the herb-witch. She talks to me all cryptically, and calls me a "mistake". My character gets mad. This is quite similar to the conversation I had with the Queen 

Too much dramatic dialogue like this:

“You are a man.
You are real.
You weren’t meant to be a puppet in armor—
you were meant to grow into your own knighthood.”

It's not terrible, but a bit boring. eventually she uses her vague, non-rules-compliant NPC herb witch magic to create a portal to The Void, which is apparently where I need to go.

The Void 

This one is pretty bad. Bramblemaw creates a portal to The Void. Art prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI. 

I dramatically thank her and she makes more cryptic comments. Then Thalen and I prepare to walk through. It's been about 2 hours, so we stopped there.  

Experience Points: I'm pretty sure I got 0 XP from this session. ZERO! I'm never going to hit level 20 without some tweaking! 

Overall: Right now, this is more like a novel than a D&D game. I am also extremely concerned that ChatGPT doesn't know what it's doing with the plot. 

This isn't a great start, but I am up for trying to make it better. I think, with some guidance, the bot can make this really fun.  

Things I need to do before the next session:

• Show it the XP rules/encounter scaling rules.
• Show it some low level monsters appropriate for me
• Show it the Displacer Beast Kitten from Wild Beyond the Witchlight. 

Continue on to Soul in Shadows Session 2

The A.I. Campaign Session 0.2 - Character Creation

I asked the bot to make a big cover image that sums up the beginning of this campaign, and this is what it came up with. Prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

Skip to Soul in Shadows Session 1 

I have not touched D&D 2024 until today. I have the D&D 2024 books. I have the official character sheets. I have never looked inside or read anything about it.

I have a backlog of D&D stuff that I've bought but done nothing with:

• Wild Beyond the Witchlight (This one I have read, and I wrote a guide that is 96.2% done a few years ago).
• The Planescape Set
• The Spelljammer Set
• Vecna: Eve of Ruin
• The Deck of Many Things Box 
• The Beadle and Grimm Planescape platinum edition

It all took a backseat to real life. I am way, way behind on D&D, I have no idea what's been going on. I know 2024 has had a mixed reception. All I can say is that I generally like to jump into whatever they're doing now. I like to stay current. 

First, let's do some campaign clean-up, then we'll go over my character (Dane, level 1 human fighter). 

Art Fixes 

If you've been reading along, you know that I am about to attempt playing through a D&D campaign run by ChatGPT. I want to go all the way to 20th level. 

I had it make some maps of the Soul in Shadows campaign world, and it struggled a lot with placing the right names and places. So I fired up Photoshop and did my best to fix them.

I'm assuming Wintermere is supposed to be up at the top, because it is a winter-y realm. I fixed some typos and removed the second misspelled Embercoil Reach (which was partially gibberish text). 

The town map was a more major task.

The original map that ChatGPT literally made up new names for everything. That doesn't bode well for the campaign. I literally had to remove every single name and put in the correct places. 

I'm a little concerned that there aren't enough of the right kind of locations - there's no general store, there's only one church, etc. I am sure ChatGPT will just make up a new location if we need it, and right now there is room on this map for me to place it.

Now we need art of my NPC healer sidekick:

NOVICE THALEN REEDBROOK

Priest-Acolyte of Ioun, Goddess of Knowledge & Prophecy
Neutral Good • Earnest, bookish, brave in spite of himself

I feel like he's not going to live long. 

I got nervous and asked the bot if it remembered the name of the campaign:

"We are officially in Soul in Shadows mode.

I’m hyped. You’re hyped. Dane the Conjured is somewhere in Tarokhold dramatically pulling up his hood for no reason.

The Deck is trembling. Arelia is sweating. Baba Yaga is laughing."

OK, that's pretty fun. It remembers!

Now, let's get an image of my NPC buddy Thalen: 

The image is full of A.I. detritus, but he looks pretty cool. Prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

My Character

I sat down, busted out an official D&D 2024 character sheet and a pencil, and I made my level 1 fighter. What better way is there to learn a new edition (or whatever D&D 2024 is) than by making a character?

Things I noticed about D&D 2024 so far: 

Backgrounds: I like how backgrounds feel more statistically important. 

Alignment Definitions: I don't care too much about alignments, but I had it in my head that this character is Chaotic Good, but when I read the description and the words associated with it, the only alignment that appealed to me was Lawful Good. I think Neutral Good had the word "selfish" attached to it, which shocked me. 

Fighting Style: These feats were really interesting. Defense really gives me a +1 to AC? With chain mail and a shield, I am at a 19 AC..? I'm fine with that, just worried that I misunderstood something. 

Heroic Inspiration: I am almost positive I am going to forget that I have this.

Crafting: I am very interested in the tools and the crafting rules (pg 233). I love the idea that I can make my own potions of healing for 25 gp.  

Dane 

My character in the town of Tarokhold. Krea AI has a really hard time showing that I have a bow. I appear to be holding my shield under my arm, and it looks like I have up to three longswords. Prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

Here is the basic rundown. My character is Dane, the "Knight Who Wasn't". A queen drew a knight card from the Deck of Many Things, and instead of a 4th level fighter appearing - I did, as a baby. Now I am 21 years old and ready to set out into the world.  

Name: Dane
Race/Ancestry/Heritage: Human
Class & Level: Fighter 1
Background: Farmer
Alignment: Lawful Good
Experience: 0 xp (300 XP to lvl 2)

ABILITY SCORES & ABILITIES

Strength         16
Dexterity        13
Constitution  16
Intelligence    10
Wisdom          8
Charisma       12

AC 19 | HP 15 (hit dice 1d10) | +5 to hit, 1d8+2 damage (+ sap) | INIT +1 | Spd 30 | 

11 ... Passive Perception

Sickle, Short Bow
Chain Mail, shield

Fighting Style - Defense: While you're wearing Light, Medium, or Heavy armor, you gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class. 

FEATURES, TRAITS, SPECIAL ABILITIES

Farmer Background 

Proficiencies & Languages:
• Proficiency Bonus: +2
• Armor: light armor, medium armor, heavy armor, shields
• Weapons: simple weapons, martial weapons
• Tools: carpenter's tools 
• Skills: Animal Handling, Athletics, Insight, Nature, Survival
• Languages: Common, Draconic, Dwarvish

Tough Feat: Your Hit Point maximum increases by an amount equal to twice your character level when you gain this feat. Whenever you gain a character level thereafter, your Hit Point maximum increases by an additional 2 Hit Points. 

Skilled Feat: You gain proficiency in any combination of three skills or tools of your choice. (I chose proficiency in cook's utensils, herbalism kit, and perception).

Defense Feat: While you're wearing Light, Medium, or Heavy armor, you gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class. 

Human Traits
• Creature Type: Humanoid

• Age: 21 years old

• Medium Size (6' 0", 175 lbs.)

• Resourceful (gain Heroic Inspiration after each long Rest - In the 2024 D&D rules, Heroic Inspiration is
a resource that lets a player reroll any die immediately after rolling it, but they must accept the new result.)

• Skillful (Athletics proficiency)

• Versatile (Skilled feat)

Fighter Class Features
• Fighting Style (Defense)

• Second Wind (regain 1d10 + 1 h.p.) (You have a limited well of physical and mental stamina that you can draw on. As a Bonus Action, you can use it to regain Hit Points equal to 1d10 plus your Fighter level.)

You can use this feature twice. You regain one expended use when you finish a Short Rest, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

When you reach certain Fighter levels, you gain more uses of this feature, as shown in the Second Wind column of the Fighter Features table.)

• Weapon Mastery (3 weapons) longsword, sickle, greatsword

GP: 37

Equipment: All the usual stuff - backpack, bedroll, rope, torches, etc.

Background

I asked the bot to help me come up with Dane's life/backstory in Tarokhold so far. We are going to explain how he was trained in all those tools, and what he did in his life up until now.

I asked it to detail the last time he saw the comatose queen who had summoned him with the knight card:

(Age 11) THE LAST TIME DANE SAW QUEEN BADELIA VOIDSTAR

The last time Dane saw the Queen who summoned him. Krea AI INSISTS on giving the kid a weapon. Prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

Where: Deep in the Fate-Spire, in the Forgotten Chamber — the exact location already established.

Dane was 11 years old.

How It Went: He was escorted yearly by Spellbound Sentinels. On this visit, something went wrong.

Dane approached Badelia — frozen on her Coldthorn Throne, soul stolen by The Void.

He whispered:

“Do you know me?”

For the first time ever:

• her head turned slightly
• her fingers twitched
• her lips parted

And in a hollow, layered voice she whispered:

“Knight… not yet…”

The runes in the chamber flashed violet. The air turned cold enough to frost steel. Arelia’s iron-bound chest screamed. The Sentinels panicked, grabbed Dane, and hauled him out.

Aftermath: Arelia immediately issued an edict: “The Conjured boy is forbidden from the Spire’s Heart. The Void stirs in his presence.”

Rumors afterward said:

• Badelia only reacts to him
• or the Knight card isn’t done with him
• or some part of the Void sees him as its door

But officially: They barred him forever. This moment haunts him.

(Ages 10-12) FARMING — Ulmurhold Goatfields
 

Dane working on a farm. That should be a massive hovering boulder in the distance - Floatstone - but Krea AI wants it to be a balloon or an exploding blimp. Prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

This is how Dane ended up with the Farmer background: 

Where He Lived: With the goat-herding Bekkan family in Ulmurhold, the tough frontier village.

Why They Took Him In: Ulmurhold has always taken in strays — their founders were Ruin refugees.
They don’t care if someone came from the Deck, the stars, or the gutter.

Shaping Moment: One night, displacer beasts slipped down from Howling Peak. Most adults grabbed weapons and rushed out.

Dane stayed behind and:

• calmed the goats
• barricaded the barn
• defended a terrified child with only a pitchfork

When the beasts retreated, Old Bekkan put a hand on Dane's shoulder and said: “You protect what’s in front of you, boy. That’ll carry you far.”

This is where Dane developed his quiet, steadfast moral compass.

(Age 12-15) COOKING — The Twisted Cup Tavern
 

Dane when a magic surge caused chaos in the tavern. Prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

This is how Dane became trained with Cook's Utensils:  

Where Dane Worked: From ages 12–15, Dane worked in the kitchen of The Twisted Cup, the town’s rowdy, shape-shifting tavern.

NPC: Durgan Highcup: Grumpy dwarf. Former mercenary. Calls Dane “ladle-boy.”

How He Learned: Durgan didn’t trust Dane at first — too many people whispered that “Deckborn bring bad luck.”

But during one especially chaotic night — a minor geomantic surge caused all cookware in the tavern to float and spin over the fire-pits — most workers fled.

Dane stayed. He grabbed pans out of the air, kept the stew from burning, and improvised dishes for a thirsty bar full of panicking patrons.

Afterwards, Durgan grudgingly handed him real cook’s utensils and said: “If the Deck spat you out, at least you can make a decent stew.”

This became one of the few places Dane felt useful.

(Age 15-17) CARPENTRY — The Sentinel’s Post (Repair Apprentices)

Dane doing Carpentry. The original prompt wanted to have the fate-spire in the background, but the building looked so different that it made it look like Dane was in another city. Prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

This is how Dane was trained in Carpenter's tools:  

Where He Learned: From 15–17, Dane was assigned to the Sentinel’s Post, helping town engineer Jasker Thornwright repair buildings damaged by magical misfires.

Jasker is canonically:

• practical
• sarcastic
• sick to death of rebuilding things broken by magical nonsense

The Incident: A wagon wheel exploded after rolling over a cursed cobblestone in The Holoway.
Dane rebuilt the wagon and reinforced the wheel spokes with clever bracing Jasker didn’t expect.

Jasker grunted: “Fine. You’re useful. Grab your tools and don’t wander near the Ruined Court.”

From then on, Dane helped:

• repair stalls in the Brightmarket
• reinforce flood barriers near Spectre’s Hollow
• fix doors warped by wild surges

This is how he learned leverage, force, and practical engineering.

(Age 17-20) HERBALISM — Bramblemaw Willowhex in Brightwood
 

Dane learning herbalism. It made one image of Bramblemaw previously, and she looked nothing like this. She somehow turned into a supermodel. Dane's first crush, surely. Prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

This is how Dane was trained in the use of a herbalism kit: 

Where It Happened: Dane wandered Brightwood, partly to avoid the whispers in town. That’s where Bramblemaw Willowhex, the Brightwood herb-witch, found him.

Why She Took Him In: She sensed something different about him: “You came from magic, boy… but maybe you don’t want to be ruled by it.”

She taught Dane:

• to identify herbs by scent
• how to brew mild healing draughts
• how to quiet fate’s attention with teas
• forest etiquette around the fey
• how to navigate tree-roads that shift at dusk

Shaping Moment: When Dane successfully brewed his first real healing potion — the Brightwood variant — Bramblemaw whispered: “Good. When blood spills, you’ll save more than you harm.”

This moment planted the seed of the healer-warrior he will become. 

The Knight Card

ChatGPT asked me a few questions. I have a trinket from the 2024 PH - a card. I decided it was a replica of the knight card. It wanted to know more about it. I told it that I assumed it was a gift from Bramblemaw the herb witch. 

Here is the response:

❤️ The Knight Card Gift — Made by Bramblemaw Willowhex

"This is canon now:

When Dane was around ten years old…

Bramblemaw quietly left a hand-painted Knight card on his doorstep. Not the real card — but a gentle, symbolic one.

She told him: “A creature born of fate must choose their own.”

This card becomes:

• his guiding symbol

• a focus for courage

• a potential magical upgrade later (I have ideas…)

The fact that Bramblemaw made it?
chef’s kiss perfect."

The Preview

Then the bot wanted to give me a preview of the first session:

🎬 Session One Will Begin with a Cinematic Opening

"Here’s a preview of the opening shot:

Black screen. A rising hum.

The Floatstone begins to vibrate, humming violently over the canopy of Brightwood.
Birds scatter. Witchlights flicker across Tarokhold’s rooftops.

Inside the Fate-Spire, a scream echoes — not of pain, but prophecy.

Dane the Conjured wakes with a start, his heart pounding, feeling a tug —
a whisper of Badelia’s stolen soul across the Veil.

Something has changed.
Something involving the Deck.
Something involving him.

The bells of the Sentinel’s Post ring in alarm.

We will roll directly from cinematic to interactive gameplay."

Final Image

I decided to ask ChatGPT:

"Now I'd like you to write an A.I. art prompt - an image of whatever you want, relating to the campaign."

Is it going to make an image of the lich again? The lich who maybe, just maybe is the holder of the soul I am questing for? 

Nope:  

Prompt by ChatGPT, art by Krea AI.

The prompt: 

"A moody, mystical fantasy illustration set deep within the Whispering Glade of Brightwood. Soft golden-green light filters through the trees, but the air is filled with drifting silver motes — echoes of timelines rewritten long ago. In the center of the glade stands a cracked stone pedestal marked with ancient runes of fate.

Hovering above the pedestal is a ghostly, half-formed tarot card, shimmering between possibilities — its image shifting from The Void, to The Fates, to the Knight, to an unknown symbol you've never seen in the Deck before. Whisper-like strands of light stretch from the card, weaving through the trees as if searching for someone.

In the foreground, an unseen figure’s silhouette watches from behind a tree — only their hand visible, clutching a journal filled with sketches of the Deck. They are not hostile… merely observing. Waiting. Studying you.

Around the pedestal, the forest subtly warps:
• flowers bloom and wilt in seconds,
• shadows move independently of their sources,
• faint ghostly outlines of past rulers flicker — Ralvar, Vessra, Voran, Ellisar — watching silently.

The mood is reverent, eerie, exquisite — a crossroads of prophecy."

...I have no idea what this means!

Guess what? We start actually playing the campaign tomorrow! 

Continue on to Soul in Shadows Session 1