In search of what once made him great, Alberto returned to the circumstances that once made him the shining star of the art world. He once again works from the atelier atop his family’s store and goes only by his birth name. But the return to the familiar did not illicit a return to form, and Alberto grew desperate. That was when he met a certain Yef Amai. The robed, almost faceless Amai claimed to be a vagrant wizard and patron of the arts. They appeared suddenly to Alberto and asked repeatedly for his name, that they might truly know the world’s greatest painter. Alberto simply lamented the many titles and pseudonyms that he now believed himself unworthy of, from the ‘artist of ages’ to the ‘prodigy of paint’, distracting himself in his own gloom and never directly answering Amai’s question. The latter’s incredulity over the conversation got the better of them and they vanished with a huff, leaving their own painter’s supplies as both a parting gift for Alberto and the only sign that Yef Amai ever existed. They have not been seen since.

Whatever reservations Alberto might have harbored about the paints and brushes left him at the first touch. His artist’s soul was immediately reignited and he sped to paint as much as his stamina would allow, terrified that his energy might again run out. Alberto painted himself into satisfied exhaustion and awoke the next day to a startling development. Every stroke of paint he had conjured from Amai’s supplies had come to life, animating as strange, vibrant creatures that now haunted his workshop. Not moments later, he was made aware that these beings held no love for their ostensible creator.

Alberto now struggles atop a new peak of desperation. The deadline for his painting approaches, a swath of paint creatures hold dominion over his atelier, and his parents remain blissfully unaware of the danger upstairs. All three of these might be solved if Alberto can only enlist the help of passing adventurers to clear the workshop of danger, allowing him to return and reclaim his position as an artist worthy of celebration.

Alberto’s Atelier

The stairs rise into a private space equipped for all manner of creative outlets. It features numerous individual work areas interspersed with displays and stores of the artist’s previous creations, along with several spaces that appear to serve no purpose other than contemplative relaxation. A loft rises above the entryway, decorated similarly to the rest of the space. And though an element of organizational chaos was expected, the apparent damage to the room goes beyond that of a frustrated auteur. Much of it is covered in paints, inks, and scattered art supplies that reach corners that no normal artistic mishap or outburst should ever accomplish.

Recent plights have seen Alberto Farrier return to his roots, including the atelier from which he first earned his fame. This workshop is a small space on the third floor of its building, above the ‘Farriers’ Fabulous Finds’ antique store, the second floor of which acts as the Farrier family home. The store is run by Alberto’s parents, Juno and Krista, who buy and resell antiques and various curios, including no small number of Alberto’s early paintings. The home above is modest, while noticeably more gold has been invested in Alberto’s studio.

The atelier itself is a private space equipped for Alberto’s many creative pursuits. This includes many sets of tools required for painting, sculpting, and carving, which show various degrees of age and wear. Most of these have been relegated to the shelves and other storage, with the room’s space currently being overtaken by Alberto’s painting supplies and attempts at completing his commission. The initial awakening of the pictomorph creatures resulted in additional splashes of paint scattered around the room. Fortunately, they did not damage the structure of the room or its furniture and ceased attacking once Alberto fled.

Artist’s supplies. Alberto has held onto the many tools he used throughout his career. A character that searches the room can easily find numerous sets of caligrapher’s supplies, painter’s supplies, potter’s tools, and woodcarver’s tools. Despite the number and variety of tools, Alberto is familiar with every one of them and quickly notices a set’s absence once he returns to the atelier.

Map & Asset Downloads

Alberto’s workshop is based on our own ‘Artist’s Atelier’ battle map, which is ready for you to download and run the encounter. If you’d rather construct your own map, we also have a variety of resources and assets to make that as easy as possible…

Alberto Farrier

(NG male half-elf commoner)

A foppish man frays at the seams, compulsively adjusting his expression and clothes despite the collapse of his internal world being clear to see. His hair is a well-groomed mop of curls and his clothes are decorated with the undeniable embellishments of wealth, in both jewelry and textiles. Yet almost every inch of his distinguished personage is marked by some unique splash or splatter of paint, granting a confusingly whimsical coating over the top of his rattled demeanor.

Having returned to using his birthname after a devastating setback, Alberto Farrier has recently been swept along by a current of constantly shifting emotions. The shame of his crushing failure was burnt away in fiery elation after receiving Yef Amai’s Painter’s Supplies, but this success was doomed to curdle into heavy, dreadful guilt once the secret of the paints revealed itself. This turmoil has left Alberto scrambling between emotions as hope and fear wash over him in equal measure, mitigated only by the appearance of someone who might help him.

Alberto is unable to hide his emotions and has lost the pride with which he would usually carry himself. He is quick to prostrate himself before anyone who agrees to help him, rambling his gratitude and struggling to coherently recall the exact events that led him to his dilemma. If he is calmed, Alberto recounts the tale in simultaneously excruciating and yet pointless detail, filling the conversation with tangential comments while gliding over important points if he is left to speak without intervention. It takes little skill to recognize that Alberto’s retelling is one of mistakes borne from desperation and shows that he owes far more to luck than he may ever realize.

Though Alberto is overjoyed to be offered assistance, he can do little to reciprocate. His descriptions of the creatures plaguing his workspace are, once again, both vivid and unhelpful, and he lacks any skill that might help the party face them. He likewise complicates the matter by requesting that the paint creatures be dealt with without alerting his parents to their existence, as he worries about the ramifications. Fortunately, this is made up for by his offer of a sum of gold generous enough to betray a startling lack of business acumen.

The Pictomorphs

An artist rarely paints the same picture twice. With a renewed font of inspiration and the tools to see it through, Alberto Farrier painted myriad new pieces, giving rise to similarly numerous shapes and shades of pictomorph. Each unique stroke became a unique ability, each color a form of weapon or armor for the construct to wield.

The different pictomorphs should come in all manner of varied and vibrant colors. Fortunately, our very own Token Editor is perfect for doing just that, allowing you to quickly and easily recolor any of our creature and character tokens into new variants!

Pictomorph Stroke

CR 1/8

A single brush stroke of paint hangs, suspended in the air. Another of the same color then continues it, extending its length as the first disintegrates to grant a curious illusion of gradual serpentine movement.

The enchanted painter’s supplies do not require the work of an artist of Roberto Farrier’s caliber in order to grant life. A single brush stroke is enough. These pictomorph strokes are single swipes of paint, the weakest and most basic of their kind, each one comprised of a sole color that determines the nature of its abilities. Unless disturbed, the strokes only snake through the air with a slow, captivating brilliance. But their curious beauty only hides the danger the strokes pose should they be threatened, as they would happily paint the world in a mixture of their colors and their enemies’ blood.

Several examples of different colored strokes have been provided. As you can likely see, the difference simply affects the damage type that they are resistant to and that their slam attack deals. This makes it very easy to make your own variants, no matter what color and associated damage type you wish to include!

Pictomorph Draft

CR 1/4

Several strokes of differently-colored paint wind together, extending and fading with the appearance of bouncing across the ground. Each leap scatters specks of color as the creature takes the loose shape of a person or animal, details indistinct as if painted by an amateur, and lingering for only a moment before breaking back into the colors that comprise it.

Artworks may go through myriad stages as ideas form and fade, and revisions are added or cast aside. These half-formed yet tested thoughts may animate as pictomorph drafts, fitting embodiments of the stage of the creative process that they represent. The drafts are more advanced than the pictomorph strokes yet are not fully realized, possessing no power unique to themselves. What form they are able to take is empowered by the multiple colors used in their creation, which they can call upon to protect themselves from attack and to strike haphazardly at their enviably complete opponents.

Pictomorph Landscape

CR 1

Brushstrokes cross over each other in a vertical screen. They paint the image of a landscape like an evolving tapestry, progressing with a turning viewpoint as it moves. The image is as interpretive as its fellows, yet there are moments where you think you can hear the sounds and feel the air of the landscape it depicts.

Supporting its kin from the backdrop of combat is the pictomorph landscape. The landscape is a creature of animated scenery with the ability to shift its subject between some of the most varied environs in the known world. One moment it might be a sweltering desert, the next a frigid mountain range, and after that a verdant forest. Each different setting modifies the landscape’s abilities and imparts a unique resistance upon its fellow pictomorphs, setting the scene for their victory.

Pictomorph Portrait

CR 1

The crude portrait of a humanoid shifts from its static, noble stance, remaining just as presentably stiff as brush strokes repaint it in motion. It turns to you, stopping momentarily as one might when perusing a gallery, before its face grows more detailed, its shape and shading becoming unnervingly familiar.

To paint a portrait is to capture a singular moment of a person’s visage. But what if that singular moment came alive? The pictomorph portraits embody this concept alongside their ability to adapt and change. They combine the two in the unsettling mimicry of those they face, serving not only to disturb their subject but also forming a magical link with them. This link forms an involuntary bond with the target, protecting the portrait by sharing the damage it takes with whomever it currently depicts. And as the pictomorphs tend not to remain in place for long, a portrait’s subject can change at any moment.

Pictomorph Masterpiece

CR 2

A graceful torrent of animated paint curls through the air. Its colors shift and flow, forming images of great monsters and valorous heroes in the moments of their most celebrated feats. These sequences move briefly, the paint replaying the climactic events in slow, silent motion, then rearranging again to depict a new scene.

Only the greatest of paintings can stand the test of time and be called a masterpiece. Many of these tell the tales of climactic battles, heroic deeds, and legendary monsters torn from the pages of myths. And should these tales be rendered with Yef Amai’s painter’s supplies, a pictomorph masterpiece might be born.

The pictomorph masterpiece is a terrifying reenactment of the scenes from great legends. They can call upon these tales to mimic the power of their subjects, whether they be terrifying dragons or triumphant heroes, and turn them upon their foes. Though these facsimiles lack the full effect of their original versions, the masterpieces’ ability to quickly call from such varied stories makes them far less predictable than the texts that inspired them and more likely to end in a decidedly less heroic manner.

The masterpieces have an advanced form of the Chromatic Adaptation reaction, which has been named Chromatic Evolution to set it apart. In addition to the effects shared with other pictomorphs, the masterpieces can also become immune to a particular damage type, requiring the party to put more thought into who is attacking and with what.

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