Atticus Lark’s Journal - Part 4

(This part of the journal is most hopelessly smudged. After this point, only a few words can be made out…)

… Haven’t fought like that in years!…

…After that business with the lich, somehow, there was a breach on the slime cages…

..At that point located all over the inn!..

..Swollen stomachs, ripped clothing, wrecked figures, and sloshing all around!…

…That overfilled fruit Kahvie and his mad experiments got us into this mess, but what a fun mess it was…!

…Kahvie gulped the most to start, all his flamboyant fineries stretched to their max by a particularly aggressive cream-and-raspberry flavored slime…

…Customers demanding compensation for their sudden overstuffing… pah! I should add the lost stock to their tabs!…

…Kelton fought valiantly, but his dexterity wasn’t what it used to be… At his size, he was lucky to dodge the first few slimes, but his already heaving body was doomed to carry a few hundred extra pounds by the end of the night…

…Oohhhh… This stuff is still delicious, even when it’s stuffing itself into yer’ gob!…

…Jorji had the funniest method of tackling em- he bashed plenty o’ slimes to bits, but for any that gave him too much trouble, he just gulped em’ down instead! I think even the slimes were surprised… he became the fattest of them all! The way that gnoll sloshed and stretched… something told me he still wanted more, in the end o’ things…

…Hmm… when the dust settles, I bet all of my patrons will be even fatter and greedier than before - why would I mourn our waistlines, when it spells such great things for my inn? Profits will soar!…

… Oh, and that swollen scoundrel Garum, I think I saw him towards the beginning of the fight, waddling around in a panic, desperate to avoid being fattened any further! That once skinny rat had become nothing less than Fat, with a capital F, so his dexterity really ought to have failed him…

…I saw him nearly plunge into a slime or two as he ran about. Miraculously, he avoided being stuffed when I was looking at him, but I saw a decent-sized mob of slimes chasing after the rascal saw he scampered out of the bar. If I had to guess, that bulging buffon of a half-rat won’t be able to outrun that gooey entourage forever - and with a mob like that, he’ll be a blubbery blimp in a heartbeat!…

…Would it be inapproaprite to write a belch on paper? Hm - who cares… The last note I have for the night is what came out of my own fat mouth - “BUUUUUUUUWWWAARRRUPPPP!!!”
—-

This commission is one of the most important pieces of art I think I’ve ever worked on. The post for this is coming very late, as I originally worked on this commission all the way back in 2021, but, after waffling back and forth on the story and presentation of it for literal years, it’s time to bite the bullet and get it out.

I present to you all… Dungeons and Doughballs. A story of three heroes and the inn they base themselves out of. Over the course of this sequence, the party, and the tavern they call home, will change drastically - especially when it comes to food, drink, and of course, fat!

This piece was commissioned by my dearest friend  Jiskcar, and it features his characters Kahvie and Jorji, as well as Kelton, a character I made from an old D&D game I ran with him and some other friends called Bountiful Bloodlines.

This commission was produced at a rocky time in my life, and although there were a lot of bumps in the road, both in regards to the commission itself and my life at the time, I think this piece represents some of the best of my work. I’ve never used quite the same shading style for another piece, mainly because of just how complex it is! I did learn an awful lot from this commission in particular though, it occupies a special place in my heart and has influenced my art greatly.

Posting this piece after all this time is a great kind of relief, and I’m very pleased to share it with all of you. I wanted to give a huge thank you to my friend  Jiskcar for commissioning me to illustrate such a wonderful idea, and I thank him also for being such a dear friend for all these years. He is a constant inspiration to me, and I’m not sure I’d still be in this fandom without him.

I hope you all enjoy this piece, and thank you for taking the time to read this.