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Witcher Rooftops


I don't know where these rooftops are located, but they look like they could appear in a bustling village in an episode of The Witcher. OK, the bricks (and is that a skylight?) are a bit off theme, but imagination does the needful. I've been following the TV show, but had not delved into the books of Andrzej Sapkowski until recently. I've been reading (well, listening) to The Sword of Destiny, purportedly a solid introduction to the world. The impetus: a few friends of mine have invited me to join in a Witcher-themed campaign of Dungeons and Dragons, which I know even less about and had not played before. 

Now, every other Sunday, I find myself gathered around a table with a handful of D20s and D8s (many-sided die). As a Bard-class character, I cast "spells" and roll for ability checks, wisdom checks, and probably other checks yet unknown. And if I'm going to role-play in the world of Geralt and Ciri, I'll need grounding in the setting. And the setting is a smidge dismal and squalid, something like a noir detective novel set in the age of portcullises. Demons of varying caliber lurk in every town, and Witchers are the semi-human agents trained to hunt them for a small fee. Often, though, Witchers are asked to kill more than monsters and must negotiate their already tinted code of conduct.

I began this wash with a tint made literally of tea. I'd never tried it before, and organic tints and inks are becoming interesting to me. I sketched in pencil and inked with Micron fineliners, which were actually be too precise for my taste here, so I often recrossed the lines to make them messier. I then worked in with my usual wash in a few layers. I considered working in with white for highlights, but the tea tint is a pretty light base, and anyways, I want it murky.

Probably a striga or a noonwraith or some other suitible target for Witchers would flit between these buildings during a transitional moment, which is what this view captures. In the story of these rooftops, someone is crouched, one arm around a crumbling chimney, waiting for something to begin.

Note: I used a photo reference for this image. Credit to GripsPix on Flickr.

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