abyssalbrews

Strings of the Cloud Hall

Added 2021-12-30 17:01:02 +0000 UTC

Greetings everyone!

I’m so excited to put this item out. A few weeks back, we crested 5,000 followers on Twitter and to celebrate, we randomly chose a community member to work on an item commission with us. I love getting a chance to work with the community and this item was the product of that commission. We were pleased to work with Momo from Minstrel’s Tale to create this wonderful harp.

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Design notes from Matthew:

The initial idea on this one was a harp of some sort and there were a lot of potential properties that Momo had in mind. I love working on these types of items that have a lot of potential use cases, but one of the most important things we like to make sure we stick to is theme.

We worked to develop a theme centered around the cloud giants and their regal nature. Once we have a theme in mind, the work becomes a lot easier for us. I started looking into cloud giant lore and thinking about the ways a musical instrument could be useful there. One of the key points of their culture is that it’s often bathed in opulence, so I wanted to make sure the properties conveyed the somewhat commanding presence of the cloud giants.

I started with some social utility with the group persuasion. That was actually the first property that was set in stone for this piece. I love the idea of a bard being able to command a group with the instrument as their weapon. It brings in some social push as well as they have to develop ways to work it in.

Petrification is a powerful mechanic, but I feel it’s a bit underutilized. I love the idea of stopping an enemy in their tracks for a bit of crowd control and to buy the party a bit of time.

Finally, I always love things that promote teamwork. The Encore ability provides another use case for Bardic Inspiration that’s usually only present on one subclass, but it implements it in a different way with a reactionary damage boost. Giving unique utility to a musical instrument really can open up good teamwork within the party.

Illustration notes from Fernando:

The cloud giant aesthetic is a mix of Roman and Egyptian themes so I looked at a lot of musical instruments from that era for inspiration but none of them looked regal so I expanded my search to armor and weapons which yielded more interesting results.

Once I had a feel for it I created a bunch of silhouette thumbnails looking for an interesting shape and sent them to Matt and Momo. The one we ended up moving ahead with was inspired by a venetian gondola in a looney tunes cartoon.

Momo wanted the colors to be purple and gold with beads on the strings so I made sure to incorporate those elements.

As we continue working through the holiday season, I know Fernando and I couldn’t be happier about what AB has accomplished with the help of the community this year. We’ve been working hard to bring more and more content as we continue to find the proper direction for AbyssalBrews to go. We’re really happy with the track we’re on and are looking forward to a new, full year of content!

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