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hmmm... now I see what all the hooplah is about...

Plastic Warjacks!!

Starting in January with the release Warmachine Prime MkII, Privateer Press will be releasing Plastic Warjack Kits for all of the factions. I knew they would looks awesome because Privateer Press makes everything look awesome, but wow! They outdid themselves this time. The only thing that makes me sad is that it makes my old metal warjacks look puny. Only one of these warjacks is new (the one above, the Decimator).. the others are plastic versions of the original metal ones, but I may have to buy some just because they are so cool. (even though I already have duplicates of some of the metal ones) I also don't play Khador as my main faction anymore.. I just have specific armies within the faction that I play, so I don't really need a bunch more warjacks.. but man.. they look so cool...

from cleric to cleric...

Well, yesterday was another Pathfinder RPG day down in Philly. Had a great time as always... however.. my character died. I was playing a cleric of Sarenrae (Goddess of the Sun)... and in perfect "bad omen" form... he died stumbling around in the dark. We were exploring a cave of a Medusa.. and only a few rooms in we encountered a room filled with Deeper Darkness, and none of us had enough powerful light spells to counter it... and this dark room was full of Grimlocks... I don't think further explanation is needed. I will say this... Jal Chavali (my character) probably had it coming.

No other character I have ever played has dropped to negative hitpoints more than this one. It took the DM quite a while to get the job done... our gnome sorcerer made a valiant attempt to save me.. he reached my body (mind you this is all happening in pitch blackness, during combat), and find my Wand (Cure Light Wounds). Though at this time at was at -8 HP. So he had two attempts to make his Use Magic Device roll... the DC was 20. He had a skill check of 10, so he had a 50/50 chance... and failed both times.

So now I need to create a new character. Since I was the cleric, and the only healer for the party, it seems I will need to fill that roll again. So my choices would be... Cleric, Paladin, Bard and Druid. I have ruled out Paladin, since there are many melee fighters in our party already (we have 2 Fighters, a Barbarian, and a Sorcerer) and I am leaning against Bard right now as well.. just don't have a good Bard idea at the moment. (and it also takes Bard's awhile before they become good healers). So that leaves Druid and Cleric. And in actuality.. I think I am just gonna go cleric.. but maybe multi-class a bit as Rogue. One of the main gods of Pathfinder is Desna, and she is the goddess of luck, Travel, Stars and Dreams. I thinking a Half-Elf who grew up in the city with his human family... the levels of Rogue represent his city life, and Cleric represents his chosen path... still have to hammer out the details...

transformers!!

Can't stop... watching.. it...
Can't stop.. smiling...

Earthynn continues...

So, last weekend we got together to continue our Earthynn campaign... much fun was had by all. I tried a couple new things in this one, mainly I wanted to incorporate more skill challenges to the adventure. They worked out pretty well (one was out-smarting the ogre, and the other was opening the magical door) I also built the dungeon beforehand using my Dwarven Forge pieces, and then photographed it so I could remember how it went together. It was a really cool way of creating a dungeon. That combined with the awesome online tools that WotC provides, and the ever useful Google Documents.. writing stories for 4e is a breeze and quite enjoyable. :)

Earthynn Adventure Log 2 – The Rescue of Thri Flamebeard

A Brief Breakfast

The party enjoyed a tasty breakfast of fish muffins and squid bacon , rested and recuperated from the previous trials… when a grizzled man and his large grizzled companion entered the tavern. The man introduced himself as Charleston, the finest archer, and lead hunter in Seaburgh. His aged features and stern countenance lent the news he brought carry more weight. The body of Liara was found along the river bank. He lightened the dark mood with news of hope. Thri Flamebeard may still be alive… oh, and the Ogre is still out there… Charleston offered to lead the party to the Ogre.. they set out post haste.

Hostile Wildlife

The travel had been fairly uneventful, the lack of bees and wildlife was disturbing, and made for a quiet walk. The party had at time, felt to presence of eyes watching them, following them.. but saw no sign of anyone. After close of two days of travel, the party set up for camp. Maresk Thorntongue drew the last watch, and just before dawn… heard a tremendous amount of rustling in the bushes. The party arose and scouted out the scene… Flying mosquito-like bug/bat/bird things (stirges) circled a struggling kenku who was all tangled up in some horrible blood-craved plants. After some preliminary attacks the party decided to team of with the Kenku to best the evil foliage and the opportunistic stirges. The Kenku was far sneakier than his brethren, and after the plants were subdued darted behind a rock to hide. The party spotted him, and the interrogation began…

Bird Brain

The Kenku was tied up and the questioning began.. the chaotic finger of Nowhere and the draconic lungs of Tannim were enough to sway the bird to speak. He cackled out his name in his bird language and revealed he was ordered to spy on the town of Seaburgh and later his orders changed to spy on the party. When asked who gave him the orders.. he simply said “She did”.. He did not know her name, or refused to speak it. There was a bit of fear behind his eyes when mentioned “her”. He caw’d to be let go, that he would stop following them.. he was no threat to them.. His whimpering and cawing was too much for the mighty Goliath whose frustration got the better of him and he wacked the bird of the noggin. Now fearing for his life, the kenku became even more loud and annoying.. and readied himself for battle. Before more needless blood was spilled the soothing tones of Dyrge brought everyone back to a more reasonable state. The party was then able to glean a bit more information.. the location of the hidden rebel base…Dantooine. I mean… Murasha… their roost was in a ruined watchtower outside the ruins of Port Murasha. But there were still Ogres to defeat and dwarves to rescue.. so the bird was released and the party continued on.

At the Court of King Drooj

They reached the clearing where the Ogre was said to be residing.. and they quickly spotted him. He sat atop an old overgrown dwarven Gate Hold. The Gate Hold was a squat solid stone structure sticking out of a large hill. The Ogre had made himself at home, fire, piles of hides for sleeping.. and looked settled in for a long haul. The party decided to split up and have the Dyrge approach him and speak with him. The others followed him under the tree cover, or went around to take position above the orge on the hill. Dyrge Warsmith approached and engaged the Ogre in a dialogue.. or sorts. The Ogre seemed proud and defiant toward the dwarf, proclaiming his kingship over the “dwarf castle”. King Drooj was his name.. and he stubbornly refused to allow Dyrge to enter his castle. Dyrge’s diplomatic skills only got him so far in the negotiations with the self-proclaimed king. It became obvious to the others that Drooj seemed to be under the effects of some kind of charm… not fully himself. Drooj told of the others who were inside with their friend, and that he was unsure if the dwarf was alive. Then, a bargain.. Dyrge offered to play a song from the mighty king. Then.. the music.. oh the bagpipes! The pipes, the pipes they were a blowin’! Drooj was intrigued at first.. and then sat down to listen to the dwarf’s piping…enthralled. The bag pipes seemed to due the trick, the ogre allowed Dyrge to enter the Hold as along as he promised to play again for him on his way out. Dyrge, alone, entered the Hold. After some quick scouting the Dwarven forged hold the sneaky dwarf stepped on a rat, and seemed to alert the current residents of the structure… fleeing, he made it to the door before being discovered. Warily, he exited, played his pipes for Drooj , and once again asked to enter, this time with his friends. The Ogre agreed, as long as the dwarf agreed to owe him a “favor”. The party emerged from their hiding and entered the Gate Hold.

Intruders at the Gate

The inner hallways of the Gate Hold were adorned with ancient heraldic shields that depicted the symbol a tower breaking in half. The party’s historic knowledge told them this was the Gate Hold of the Tower Breaker Clan. The explored the hallways.. and came to the room where Dyrge was almost discovered.. the door was closed… so the mighty Dragonborn Tannim walked up to it… and knocked. The startled residents turned out to be gnomes. One wearing dark armor and a wielding a short sword; the other wore a long trench coat and brandished an evil book… or sorts. The short conversation and survey of the room left no doubt of the pair’s foul intentions.. they wanted the great ornate door at the far end of the room, and had tried to use Thri to open it. Battle ensued. Strange motes of shadow detached from the seeming “normal” shadows to hinder the party. The gnome in the trench coat turned out to be quite a spellcaster and his Curses and Eldritch Blasts, combined with his illusion magic, made him a formidable foe. The gnomes exchanged some words.. “she sent us help” and on cue, three fell taints appeared.. firing beams of pure hate at the party.. their writhing twisted forms floating in the air. The battle was long and fierce, but in the end the roguish gnome was captured.. the other foes all dead.

Interrogating the gnome revealed he was hired by the gnome arcanist to open the large door. So far, they had failed. He also did not know much of the mysterious “she” that had been mentioned. The two gnomes also both had matching tattoos on their chests… that of a 7-pointed star. The arcanist’s book revealed that they were attempting to open the door as well, but were not getting anywhere. And on the inside of the book, was the same star symbol, but modified to have two wavy lines across the star image. (the book also contained a ritual) The roguish gnome would not reveal the origins of the tattoo.. saying he would rather die first.

The Almost Final Resting Place of Thri Flamebeard

The party scouted out the rest of the Hold, discovering a room which was an old barracks… and a painting adorned the wall of an a band of dwarves storming a tower and bringing it to ruin. In another room, an old armory, they found Thri , diseased and unconscious lying on the floor… they came to his aid.. and after exploring the room, found a hidden vault in the wall containing a few magic items, a shield with a saying scratched onto the back of it, and lots of rats. The rats were easily dispatched. Thri’s fever was bad, but it was determined Thri would pull through.

The Gate Opens

Through various extrapolations.. reviving Thri for info, studying the door, examining the painting, and the shield with the saying scratched into it (“the clan rises”) the party determined a pass-phrase was needed to open the magically sealed door. The pass phrase needed to contain four keywords spoken in the correct order to open the door. Through some trial and errors, the examining of some arcane energies surrounding the door, the party determined the pass phrase. “As The Tower Crumbles, the Clan Rises” The ancient stone door of the Tower Breaker Clan Gate Hold swung open.

Inside was simple room, with no other doors. A pair of finely crafted dwarven statues stood vigil across the room, a pair of stone Tower Breaker legionnaires. Upon entering the room a stone of floor revealed itself to be a door going down into the earth. However; before they could reach it, horrible spears erupted from the ground.. a trap had been sprung! And at the same time.. the statues stepped off their pedestals and engaged the party. The statues were simple, yet stalwart foes.. and the spear trap was an troublesome hazard. In the end, the statues were reduced to rock and the spears stopped. The portal in the floor revealed a dark opening into the earth. The group opted for prudence over blind bravery, and closed up the door in the floor. They licked their wounds, sealed up the magic door behind them, gathered up their sick friend and their gnomish prisoner, and headed for home.

This picture right above was the final room of the dungeon.. the statues were actually old Chainmail models from my old Mordengard faction. They were Dwarven legionnaires. I found them in my bits box and re-painted them to look like statues matching the stone of the dungeon. The Mordengard emblem was a tower breaking in half, and since these models had it on their shields already, I decided to use that symbol as the symbol of the old clan that used to work in the dungeon.. the Tower Breaker Clan. (I knew there was a reason I kept those old Chainmail models around)

Dragon Age!

Video Games - E3 2009 - Video Game Trailers

It soothes the pain of ODST...

Super Street Fighter 4!

from 1up.com today...

It seemed abundantly clear that we were witness to an impressive hoax or simply an early look at a new Super Street Fighter game after a leak surfaced over the weekend. Screenshots showing, among other things, a returning T. Hawk led us to believe it was real and now we have confirmation of Super Street Fighter 4. Despite the popular theory that the new game would be released as downloadable content for the existing Street Fighter 4 game, GameSpot reports that Super Street Fighter 4 will be released in the form of a disc next spring for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 -- and it won't be a full priced release.

The very immediate and obvious question that springs to mind is just why Capcom made the decision to make this a disc-based released, as opposed to simply doing it as DLC. Producer Yoshinori Ono explained that this was due to the fact that Street Fighter 4's code wasn't designed with this sort of expansion in mind, and the game simply wouldn't be able to support the features being added in SSF4. A downloadable release was considered but ultimately ruled out due to these technical constraints. To ease the minds of SF4 owners, Ono promises that there will be some sort of bonus given to SSF4 buyers who own a copy of SF4, but just what that bonus might be is unclear at this point. You'll definitely want to hang onto your copy of SF4 if you plan on playing online with non-upgrading fans, as the two games won't be compatible with one another.

You can expect to see "roughly" eight new characters -- though that figure could still change -- in addition to the 25 that Street Fighter 4 shipped with. Among the additions are T. Hawk and the brand new Juri, who may not be the only new character added to the mix, as Capcom is looking to add both new and retro characters alike. Other changes include various balance tweaks, new ultra combos for the existing cast of SF4 characters, and an enhanced online component (no specifics on just what's being improved here, except a hint of a potential lobby system).

More details are sure to emerge as we approach the game's release next spring. At least now we know that we can firmly file this rumor as "fact."

I am, of course, excited... I love SF4... can't wait!

Update! Footage of T Hawk and Juri! T Hawk looks awesome :)



from Shoryuken.com:

Some of the information was listed as two new characters, Juri, and Hakan (Hakan being a Arab grappler associated with lots and lots of oils), and EIGHT returning cast members from other Street Fighter games. Dudley, Ibuki, and Makoto from the Street Fighter III series. From the Street Fighter Alpha series, we have Cody, Adon, and Guy, and from the Super Turbo series, we have T. Hawk and Dee Jay. We will have to wait and see what Capcom reveals to see if any of these rumors turn out to be true.

some quick musings...

Wow.. amazing eh? Two blog posts in two days.. and no YouTube videos in sight! (though if you haven't watched the cat one I have a few posts down, go do that now)

I am glad that Fall is here... though sometimes I feel like I missed summer. I spend a great deal of my time indoors in air conditioning that the summer sun never really makes itself known. But I miss the days of sitting or walking in the sun, its just not as fun anymore when you have no one to walk in the sun with. So, I stay indoors. But Fall weather is always enjoyable... "sweatshirt weather"...

The other good thing about Fall is the return of regular TV shows.. heh. (yeah, I know, I have silly priorities...) With Torchwood and BSG done for good, and David Tennant's Dr. Who done as well, I need shows to fill the void. The first episode of Dollhouse was this weekend, and I enjoyed it much. And in a couple weeks the new episodes of Clone Wars start... new Myth Busters and Legend of the Seeker soon also... So, regular good programming is on the horizon! I started watching True Blood by way of DVD (Netflix) and its quite good. I think Rome was a better HBO series... and Game of Thrones is gonna be amazing... (pilot episode starts filming next month). They also have revealed the Star Wars live action show will be on air as of 2012. Seems so far away... but I hope they take all the time they need to make it good.

Have a couple friends coming over tomorrow to play some wargames.. gonna play Infinity and try out the new MkII rules for Warmachine... looking forward to it. As of this post Halo ODST is still not working... driving me a but nutty really. Bungie has said in their forums that they are working on it... but a solution does not seem to be coming quickly... maybe I will get some Asassins Creed play time in after all.

I need to read more.. the new Landover novel is out. I will have it on my Christmas list.. my mom always buys me the latest Terry Brooks novel for Christmas each year. But my book back-log is pretty long right now... I need a book club or something to make me get my reading done... heh... I do greatly enjoy reading, but with so much other media competing for my time I find it hard to get much reading done. Once I get started in a good book though, I find it hard to put it down... its just getting started that is hard for me anymore.

If it wasn't for my geeky hobbies... I'd be lost.