Minion Monday: The Thrullg pink hunter of death

This big monster came in a package of minions. I asked my girls about which color to use: either a green camouflage or purplish.

So is now purplish-pink.

JP

Sunday Funnies: The princess and the frog(s)

I have been thinking of running games for my daughters and while looking at memes on the internet, I found this out.

Click for a larger view. Funny stuff.

JP

Mercenaries: Converted Talon "Number 2"

This Talon was the recipient of the part swap with the other talon I posted earlier this week. I realize that Number 3 and Number 2 were in wrong order. Bah! This one has a Cygnarite body. The inspiration for the paint job was the same.

This makes a grand total of four talons in my army! I am a big fan of their disruption ability. It can really annoy a warjack.

JP

Fiction Friday: A Living Greyhawk narrative

I was going through some of my old files and happened upon this piece of fiction I wrote for the County of Urnst. To give you a little background, the regional plot from early in the year, started with the death of the previous Countess (Contessa Elone) and all of her family. What followed was a storyline where we presented a list of four candidates to the PCs over span of 3-4 months, and had them chose the replacement for the Countess (basically influence the nobles in their choice).

The four choices were:

Duke Gellor a duke from the Bandit Kingdoms. He never actually appeared, but his followers promoted him as a possible choice. He came in last.

Archbaron Ragnar Gellor the old salt. Ruled one of the County's most powerful archbarony, and definitely someone who was used to power. Of all the candidates, he had the more secure-seeming family line, with three children of adventuring age (IIRC: Two warrior sons and a daughter who was a priestess of Pelor). He came in third.

Lord Darius Dane The career politician who had managed to save the County during some tough times. Lord Dane was a well-liked character with a clear and practical view of the County and its future. He was the only serious challenger to the eventual winner. (More details about the winner after the story).

---

URC06-M03: The Council of Peers

To the assembled crowd of nobles, dignitaries, soldiers and notables, the Lord Regent stands. The crowd speculates who it will be.

Two priests of Heironeous wearing heavy armor enter the room, bringing with them the Count's sword, representing his power to declare war. Then come two priests of St Cuthbert carrying the Count's scepter, representing his power to render justice. Then come two priests of Pholtus carrying a glowing orb of rulership, symbol of the Count's role in protecting the people from darkness. Two priests of Pelor form the last of the procession as they carry the Count's mantle and crown, symbol of his burden to the people of Urnst. The 8 priests gather around the Lord Regent.

"The Council of Peers has come to a decision." Silence falls upon the room as everyone awaits Lord Duncombe's next words with anticipation...

"The Council of Peers, composed of the entire population of the County of Urnst has selected..." Lord Duncombe pauses for impact.

"My beloved daughter, Lady Rachel Duncombe" The young woman stands there shell-shocked for a moment looking around as if she'd suddenly woken up from a very vivid dream. She walks to her father as if stunned.

The Regent speaks first, using the first used at the coronation of every Count since the County was formed. "Rachel Duncombe, do you accept the charge of Countess? Do you accept to lead the people with wisdom, compassion and with their better interests at heart?"

Silence fills the hall as Rachel looks around the room, as if searching for a way out. Her voice barely louder than a whisper, she answers. "Duty is not to be shunned, with power comes responsibility. I accept."

"Countess Rachel the First, let me be the first to kneel before you and swear my allegiance to you. LONG LIVE THE COUNTESS! LONG LIVE RACHEL THE FIRST!" The crowd begins to chant "LONG LIVE THE COUNTESS! LONG LIVE RACHEL THE FIRST!"

Drowned amongst the cheers, Lord Duncombe stands once more and whispers something to the Countess. The father smiles until the daughter replies something that seems to stun Lord Duncombe. At that point, the Countess smiles to the assembled crowd.

After the eight priests bless the sacred artifacts of rulership, they place them upon the new Count with the exception of the crown. Lord Duncombe picks it up, raises it as if to present it as an offering. "The Archpaladin, The Cudgel, The Blinding Light and the Shining One have given their blessing to this crown and to the new Countess. I, Terard Duncombe II, Archbaron of Eastmarch, Regent of the County of Urnst and Lord Chancellor of the County present this crown to all the gods in the Heavens that you may bless our new Countess."

Lord Duncombe turns to the kneeling Count(ess). "This crown bears the blessing of all the gods in Heaven and the hopes of the people of Urnst. Rachel Duncombe, before the gods and the people it is my privilege to bestow upon you the title of ruler of the County of Urnst." As he places the crown on the new Countess's head, the assembled crowd erupt in acclamation once more!

Some of the Silver Swans present will later paint, write or sing about the sweet melody that must've been trumpet archons playing in unison the coronation of a new Countess. Some of the same Silver Swans also noticed the absence of ambassadors from Nyrond or the Duchy of Urnst.

---

Lady Rachel Duncombe was a knight paladin and the second in command of the Countesses' own knightly order, the Knights of the Swan. She was the black sheep in a family of very pragmatic and opportunistic rulers. She was the only one who did not want to rule, but her candidacy was promoted very strongly by her Father.

As year six came to a close, we finally had in hand all of the tools we needed to write some of the best stories the campaign had seen. I must say that we were cruising along with bigger and better ideas when the death knell of 4e happened. Still the council of peers managed to receive no less than 500 favors from the players (just under 300 went to Rachel, 150 to Lord Darius, most of the rest to Lord Agnard).

This event was one of the most interesting I had the pleasure of putting together, and the players really got behind it. Definitely a success in my gaming career.

*Sigh* I miss LG.

JP

Menoth caster Severius

Coming to the end of the Menoth mega-lot. Here is the Grand Scrutator Severius. The paint job was fairly simple. The body was dark blue with an over-layer of black to darken. I may have over-colored it and it now pretty much black.

The main highlight is the cloak, which I chose to paint in red with a flames motifs upon it. The flames really came out quite nicely. I used a wetter technique than on the warjacks, and it really pops. The contrast with the black robes really make it pop. So I left it as it.

The observant will notice the switch on the staff arm. That's because the model came to me with a broken and and the staff was nowhere to be found! I used a hand from a 40k Imperial Guardsman, a piece of a hoplite spear, a skeleton spear head and a random piece from my bitz box for the top. It was the closest I had to a religious icon, esp after I built my Sisters army so many years ago...

JP

Mercenaries: Converted Talon "Number 3"

You remember the big Menoth lot? Well these are the last ones of the lot... Tired of painting Menoth, I decided to see what I could do with pieces of light warjacks. I became intrigued by the talon's description: an old chassis refitted and refurbished by mercenary warlords. So the idea came to me: what if they built talons out of parts from other jacks?

Makes perfect sense to me.

The again, I am an Ork Player, and any battlefield debris is only two hammer blows away from behind fully effective once again. WAAAGH!

Wait. Wrong game.

Or is it?

Back to the model: this revenger body was given a few Cygnar parts to create the mismatched look I was going for. The paint job had a bottom layer of blue or white (depending on the origin of the part). Then I did a camo-green overcoat to give it the typical mercenary color and gave them a few "Magnus" marks.

I guess I would like to play Magnus... Some day...

JP

Another Sorcha, now with another variant pose!

Yep... another Sorcha! This one I got in a big lot I won on Ebay. Like a number of minis in that lot, it has a number of broken parts. I did what I could to rebuild the model. Not bad in the end.

This model, I chose to give her a white cloak and a red bodice. Sorcha is a really cool model, and the variant pose is also quite good. Funny thing is: three different models of her!

This is the third Sorcha model I painted. Here are the other two. The first one from January of 2012 (since then sold on Ebay) and the other from December of 2013 (and a gift for my daughter).

Minion Monday: Feralgeist

Continuing my series of Minion Mondays.

The feralgeist is a creature that allows you to keep a warbeast somewhat alive a little longer. I painted it with a very classic look.

JP

Reinholt the Gobber Mercenary

A simple Reinholt for my mercenaries... He's a cool goblin and would be my choice for a goblin or goblinoid character. Since I don't have one... I wonder when I'll get to use him...

Perhaps a Warmachine event?

JP

A Drow. Or an Exodite?

This model I painted up for an upcoming game idea... She is one of Paizo's Compleat's Encounters models they did way back when. The sculpt and models are quite nice. I managed to buy two for myself. I will be posting the rest of these encounters in the future. There is a demon and a portal.

JP

The Legion Grows: Beast Mistress

I bought this model months ago and it just sat on my table as I procrastinated to get it done... I painted her the "usual" colors of my legion with the blue hair being unique.

The banner on her back, I used a "Sauron" motif which I actually like quite a lot.

A simple job, but one that will look real nice with the rest of my army. I can't wait to play Warmachine some more...

JP

Arcanicon Fallout: How to name my thing...

One of the great things about Arcanis is that the world does not have "+1 swords." Rather, items with magical properties have a name, and a legend attached to them. Thus, Excalibur's legend is linked to but also not limited to King Arthur's own.

As I posted on this blog, during the Vault of Larissa's Lament at Arcanicon, I emerged with a weapon of my goddess, a sidesword with some cool runes upon it.

I contacted Tony, the campaign man, about when can I get my cert. I can't wait to get it, you see. Then gloat and giggle over the awesomeness that is the sword...

But now I must think of a name. Not just a name, but a good one. Because I expect the sword to add to my legend, and I to its.

I have been thing about a number of names. Now Larissa is both a temptress (whore) and a diviner (oracle). So a number of names came to me, from the dirty (no, I won't put them here) to the more romantic like "Lover's Kiss", to the comedic "Pillow Talk", "Boob Slapper" or "Cunnibladus".

While funny, the novelty wears off. So I needed to come up with something quite interesting.

After a number of Google searches for something poetic, I think I will go for "Morning Glory". For some reason, it reminds me of something dirty, but it is also a beautiful star-patterned flower in shades of purple, pink, white or even brown. Yes... now you see how it can be... dirty.

In the 19th Century Language of Flower the morning glory was used to mean "impossible love due to an outside factor". I like that. Somehow fits the theme of the Vault where it was found.

I will be sending my response to Tony tonight "Morning Glory" it is!

JP

Minion Monday: Alten Ashley

Kicking off the first of many Minion Mondays, is Alten Ashley, the monster hunter. Alten will work for a number of factions I have, so he is a bonus. I painted him in a fairly classic style.

JP

Legacies to allow Leadership feat: Input sought

For the past weeks I have been working on a number of things. One of the things I loved from other games was the use of the Leadership feat. I took the feat myself in Living Greyhawk and Living Arcanis to add extra spice or needed skills to the party.

I had previously thought about cohorts, way back in 2010 (in this post) and I re-read these thoughts as I was coming up with a set of rules could be beneficial for the players AND the GMs. Really, I wanted to make sure things would remained balanced, allowing for the best game experience.

So, with FOELegacies.Com launching, we will be posting more news. If you follow the Legacies/Review, you will find a link to the Cohort Guide. This guide is not final as we are asking for your insight about what we have. Let us know what you think before it becomes part of the campaign!

JP

Witch Hunter: THIS ONE IS MINE edition.

Today when I got home, I found something awesome waiting for me... MY WITCH HUNTER BOOK!!! Finally it has arrived. I had hoped to get it at Arcanicon, but events have conspired against me on that one. Finally, I will be able to finish my adventure... the adventure I feel really bad about because it has been dragging on for so long... So So long...

My character in that campaign is Sister Marie who is based on one of the iconics (I will now redo a few parts of her). She is a Catholic Nun from Quebec. I can't wait to play more of this... It's quite cinematic...

There are some quite interesting combination and characters in that campaign. A lot of flawed heroes fighting the good fight. I may try to run a game or two of it here in the Louisville area.

THANK YOU TEAM PCI!!!

JP

Ultimate Psionics: Now ALL MINE!!!

This one is mine! After such a long time! My own version of Ultimate Psionics has arrived! I don't care about the PDF... but this one is mine! ALL MINE!

JP

Arcanicon is in the book: Con Review

It seems like forever since I posted. I've been meaning to, but most of the things I am working on these days are "Secret Projects." And teasing you, my readers, for a long time is something I can't do. I have to bring something to the table. Something new and exciting, something to say that is meaningful.

So, after passing over Winter Fantasy, here is my convention report for Arcanicon. This year's convention was held in exotic Detroit, Michigan. All right, all right, not the most exciting of places, but some place that is somewhat central to the population of Arcanis players. As I have been playing Pathfinder a LOT this year.

In the last month (so starting from Winter Fantasy), I have been playing a lot more Arcanis. After having a terrible character for the last while, I am finally beginning to become quite effective. Yes.. almost 4 years later and I am starting to kick some butts... Although I'm a valley girl noble. Like, totally!

So my trip started on Friday morning when I left home roughly the same time I usually do, to teary-eyed daughters and a son going "See ya! Now Action-Five!" The trip was uneventful, 1:30 flight, spoke to a decent fellow from Green Bay throughout.

Now, just so you know... There are three different Holiday Inns that pick up people at the airport. Make sure you ask before you get on, the drivers won't tell you which is which. That's right... I ended up having to endure an hour-long trip there and back to the wrong hotel. Lucky for me, I made it on-time and was able to complete everything before the slot started.

This weekend was ALL about premieres: new adventures that advanced and continued the storyline.

Friday, I played two slots with the same group. I will not go into the adventure details. I will say that the difficulty level for the game has gone from okay/difficult to OHMYGODTHISISRIDICULOUS!!! One of the things about creating new systems is that judging difficulties and balancing challenges and characters with different skill levels. I am quite encouraged that when presented with a situation that mathematically was impossible (I needed to roll a 27+ on 2d10+1d8 to hit while I was "at level")

In the end, we prevailed, but it wasn't easy. Had a lot of fun times with some val'Mordane and a val-hating human. He still doesn't know what his place his...

Really the reason I came to Arcanicon was for the day-long mega adventure, which featured a dungeon exploration, a LARP and a battle interactive all rolled into one. The logistics of it was both staggering and titillating. As a designer and thinker of interactive myself, seeing how they would pull it off is always something that I have wondered. A massive even with people all going through together.

I am happy to report that I adventured with a val'Borda legionnaire, two val'Mehan sorcerers (one of whom could summon two monstrous demons that could both take and smack the snot out of things), a kio priest of Beltine and a mysterious undir soldier claiming affiliation to the Borda family. All under the unfortunate GMing of Edmontonian Cody-H. What a wacky band of crazies we were.

Let's talk situation. The Emerald Society has called to itself many adventurers, scholars and explorers to explore a massive underground complex known as The Vault of Larissa's Lament. For those who don't know Larissa is the goddess of love, pleasures, but also the oracle of the gods. She is thought to have shed a single tear after she looked far into the future. This tear became a gem, now known as the Tear of Larissa's Lament.

I am an avid devoted of Larissa in her most hedonistic aspect. So of course, I had to attend. However, I belong to a group that rivals the Emerald Society, so I did not want the Society to succeed.

The dungeon had five levels, each with about 100 rooms to explore. Some items or events were single-shot, while others could be repeated at each table. While most people simply headed to the bottom of the vault, looking for the coolest items, we explored and strolled through levels 2-5 (level 1 was the deepest level), searching and discovering a lot of awesome loot and bits of story, doing our best to explore areas that had not been covered already.

I managed to find myself a magical sword for Larissan devotees. Really, really awesome! It replaced my customary war fan as my weapon of choice for the rest of the adventure. And I managed to kick a fair amount of rear ends too! We fought mostly ghosts that another player had freed from another room. One we never actually went through. Our table was rather solid in the many checks, and most of those we had to do: Larceny, Linguistics, and knowledges being the most common ones. We had decent skill levels meaning that someone could always succeed. Most of the locks, I was able to unlock by doing a passive (equivalent of a take 10). I must've opened AT LEAST two hundred locks. And when I could not make the checks, I received assistance, which boosted my level even more. So we were able to do a lot without too much worries.

From that. But the challenges within were quite varied and I am glad I had a good table. Because there were quite a few hairy parts. The Battle, where Reaver Dwarves and trolls invaded the plateau where the dig was, had a few tough moments. These guys are tough and we split some of our damage but eventually succeeded in repelling them. I took down one of the casters by myself, to which I squealed in delight. The rest of the fight, I assisted others, and made a nuisance of myself to the baddies. The team did well and we all got out of trouble alive.

If there is one thing that did annoy me about it was the fact that we did not get a final Cert for the event. So right now, I don't know how much XP my character has. Now with the width and quantity of potentially unique items, I was fine with waiting for my cert for a "unique" item.

Listening to the other tables, we managed to get out of it without any curses, without extra phobia (one PC at our table did, but he got it through combat), and without strange character twists and rebuilds.

So. We won!

JP