07 - Destinies of Elements Omake 007

by ~hreaper on deviantART




Finally, the introduction of another character. Our Fire Druid, George Sarnil.

07 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

Day 399

Last I checked the clock, it was 3am in the morning. There's no more hacking. Now, I'm kept awake by the noise of the saw. Kleos had the bright idea to use the saw in his kit now.

Sawing stopped at 6am. Now, finally, sleeeeeee~~~~...

Thieves in UK Hijack XBox Shipment

Two separate incidents in the UK have seen over £1 million ($1.93m) worth of Xbox 360 consoles stolen, in what appears to be specific targeting of the console by thieves.

As reported in regional newspaper Express & Star, the first incident occurred on Monday, November 20th, when a truck was stopped on the A38 in Staffordshire, in the English West Midlands, and the driver threatened and dragged from his cab. The truck was found empty on the same road with the loss of around £750,000 ($1.45m) worth of consoles.

The second incident occurred at a Staffordshire depot on Thursday, November 23rd when a £40,000 ($77,000) trailers was stolen containing £260,000 ($500,000) worth of consoles. Although it is unclear how many of the consoles were Core or Premium bundles, the value of the consoles suggests around 3,500 units in total were stolen during the two hijackings.

Staffordshire Police spokesman Peter Stevens commented, “We are appealing for information from anyone offered them in suspicious circumstances, such as in a pub, at a car boot sale or off the back of a lorry, to help us track down those responsible.”

That's a lot of XBoxes.
Here's more news of the incident.

2001 Things I Am No Longer Allowed to do in an RPG

I signed on to the forum and put up a few of my own.

2972. There's no such thing as a LG blonde half-orc Paladin with blue eyes no matter what his back story is.
2973. Said half-orc Paladin do not have a huge fascination of blood and keep cutting himself in rituals for his deity to the point that the other party members start wondering how much pints of blood he has.
2974. When creating a spell that disarms an opponent by force of wind, said wind does NOT declothe them as well (they called it dispelling gust or wind).
2975. May NOT prestidigitate a deck of 52 playing cards and then imbue said cards with powerful spells thus enabling you to cast it 52 times (imbue spell does not and should not work like this!!!)
2976. IF 2973 and 2974 are ignored, may not prestidigitate a deck of 52 playing cards and then imbue them with dispelling gust of wind and then throw the deck into women's dressing rooms.
2977. Party members should keep an eye on the NE Hexblade to make sure he doesn't start raping any of the dying drows.
2978. When receiving a powerful flying battleship, make sure that the crazy CN Tinker does not dismantle the cannon.
2979. If the CN Tinker did not dismantle the canon, make sure he's pointing it at the right direction and no other party members are in the way when he fires it.
2980. Before firing the canon, the shooter MUST first warn the party members in the blast radius.
2981. Do not leave the CN Tinker alone with a bagful of explosives that he just recently made. Especially when you're in the BBEG's castle and he's off somewhere tossing the explosives around for fun.
2982. Never ask the CN Wild Mage to break the chains binding your hands. You may never know if she'll just call down a Meteor Shower to help you.
2983. If the Ninja happens upon a heated argument between party members, he may not knock out all the party involved (including the innocent bystander), toss them into their rooms and lock them in and say that it's the best solution to resolve the problems.

Take a guess where all this happened?

06 - Destinies of Elements Omake 006

Link to Destinies of the Elements 006a and Destinies of the Elements 006b

by ~hreaper on deviantART






FINALLY! After so long, a special 2 part story. :p
I was very busy with work nowadays that I can hardly find time to make the omake. Even though it took some time, at least I managed to get 2 pages out.

This didn't actually happened in the campaign. I just want to introduce Asura and Sig. Sig did sign up for the tournament but I can't really recall what Asura's doing. She was wandering around somewhere.


Note: To see the full image, click on the flash or the link.
Click Read All... or the title to see the full blog.

Destinies of the Elements [Omake Compilation]

Update:
22/11/2006 - Added Destinies of the Elements 006

001 - Arrival at Bacrind.
002 - Saved by a Mysterious Merchant
003 - Getting a Job in Bacrind
004 - The Merchant's TRUE Identity
005 - New Friends
006 - Introducing Sig and Asura

Cool Video Links

Play B3yond
This is an ad site for the PS3. It advertises the processing power, high def and high capacity of the PS3. But it seems that people are more interested at buying the Wii at it's launch date than the PS3. But that doesn't mean that they are going to just give the PS3 the cold shoulder.

I myself would rather wait til there's some good games out for the console (and until I can scrape enough money to buy one).


Dice Stacking
It's the art of stacking up dices. But you've never seen anything like this one.

Amazing Kid Who Is Blind

You've got to see this to believe it.

Interesting Commercials

Dead or Alive (DoA)
Here's a very... "interesting" ad for DoA for the XBox

Banned XBox 360 commercial
The commercial was banned because it involves gunfights. But it's still funny to watch.

Banned Candy Bar Commercial
For you info, that guy was just cooling down from jogging.

The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden [Campaign Log Compilation]

Campaign Start
Campaign Magic System

001 - Day 1 - Day 390
002 - Day 391 - Day 393
003 - Day 394 - Day 395
004 - Day 396
005 - Day 397
006 - Day 398

Physics Games

These games are pretty cool. If you think that physics is all about how to drift your car on that next hairpin or how far the guy flies when you hit him with a rocket launcher, think again.

They're no Half-Life 2, but these games use physics in much more interesting and innovative ways.

Personally, I kinda liked Armadillo Run by Peter Stock.

Build bridges and other stuff using the materials in your hands to help an armadillo (who's always rolled up in a ball for some reason) through a series of portals to get him home.

Download the Demo


You can get the full game at the Armadillo Run Website for USD 19.99.

2001 Things I Am No Longer Allowed To Do In RPGs

Some of my favourites includes:

3. There is no Gnomish god of heavy artillery.

6. Synchronized panicking is not a proper battle plan.
7. Not allowed to use psychic powers to do the dishes.
8. How to serve Dragons is not a cookbook.

10. Just because my character and I can speak German, doesn't mean the GM can.

33. There is no such skill as 'improvised cooking'

50. Not allowed to use thermodynamic science to asphyxiate the orcs' cave instead of exploring it first
53. Not allowed to start a drow character weighing more than a quarter ton.
54. Cannot pimp out other party members.
55. Before facing the dragon, not allowed to glaze the elf.
56. No matter how well I roll, a squirrel cannot carry a horse and rider at full sprint.


103. There is no such thing as a Club +3 of Cup Checks
104. Nor is there a +1 Longsword, +5 against party members.

106. I do not have weapon proficiency in cat.

130. I am not authorized to form the head.

141. My maid does not know kung fu.

143. Not allowed to by a holy symbol for every god just in case one of them is right.

146. Not allowed to play an Australian in any game set before 1600.

150. Not allowed to create recreational drugs in suppository format.
151. Halflings do not have a racial proficiency with the flamethrower.
152. When the guy is at -9 HP is not the best time for my cleric to convert him.

161. I will not nail every single female party member except for the elf chick played by that creepy guy.

168. I was also not recruited by 12 dwarves and a wizard to rob a dragon.
(FYI: References to JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit.)

180. I have neither the touch nor the power.
(FYI: Transformers: The Movie and He-Man references.)

204. I am not too sexy for the elf, too sexy for the elf, so sexy myself.
205. My 3rd ed. Red Wizard is not allowed to start a business named Thay Co.
(FYI: The Red Wizards of Thay are from the Forgotten Realms setting.)

247. If the king rewards me with a forest, I am to assume he intends for me to keep it a forest.
248. There is no Halfling god of groin shots.

252. I can not order the Druid to transform and roll out.

255: The brooding, dark figure with the hood and raspy voice shouldn't be killed before he's given the party the quest.
256: Nor after he's given the party the quest.
257: Nor after he's given the party the reward for the quest.

277. I will not put a fog spell infront of the archer
278. Especially not if there are our party-fighters in front of the archer
279.And REALLY don't do it if the DM has heard about "friendly fire"
280. Don' think that anyone in your group has blind-fight-
281. And dont use 280. as an excuse to put darkness over your 5th level group battling with a little army of gobos n orks...
(FYI: Goblins and orcs can see in the dark.)

284. If the DM decides to allow guns in the Forgotten Realms, I am not to nag him for an AK-47.
285. Or an Uzi.
286. Or a howitzer.

291: Lawful Stupid and Chaotic Badass are now forbidden alighnments.

293: If may bard uses perform (sing), I can not name him MC Hammer and sing "Can't Touch This"
294: If my bard uses Perfom (danse), I can not name him Micheal Jackson.

275. I must remember at dinner time Rock is not a dwarven delicacy.
276. I must remember at dinner time Log is not an elven delicacy.
294. My dwarf is not claustrophobic, likewise, my elf is not agoraphobic.

312: Presidigitation can not increase breast size.

323. I cannot start the game with a highly contagious deadly disease.
324. I cannot start the game pregnant.

340. I cannot start the game married to another PC without their consent.
341: The dog is not there to set of traps.

354. Tricking the party into killing each other off and then turning in their corpses for the bounty is frowned upon.
355. My monk's battlecry is not "Round 1: Fight!"

360. I must remind the GM that my Blessed can Raise Dead before he runs another murder mystery again.

362. It is very unlikely my half-ogre and the half-elf, half-dragon, tiefling and aasimar have the same dad.

366. Female minotaurs do not have udders. This issue is closed.

376. The barbarian must remember that 'human shield' is a figure of speech.

378. I can cannot give my character the moniker "Tim the Barbarian". Especially since he's the bard.
379. I am to stop asking the elf to put a good word in for me with Santa.
380. I cannot use the ventriloquism skill to convice the fighter his new sword is a magical talking one.

1260: May not "accidently" stab the party cleric and steal his things.




There are just too many. These are just a few that I liked.

Some of the quotes were taken from a LiveJournal post here.

06 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

Day 398

Lots of things happened so fast today, I don't know where to start.

After the rift fiend cut down the tree I was in, it went after Jack. It took me awhile but I managed to get my tangled butt out of the tree. I sneaked further back from the battle (to give myself a better tactical view... that's it... yeah) and that's where I found him.

A lone assassin was in front of me, hiding behind one of the trees. I must've circled around behind him without him noticing. He was staring at the battle and didn't notice me.

So, I decided it's time for me to have a little chat with this guy to find out what in the world is going on here. To cut a long story short, me and my friend, the rock had a little chat session with his head. And when I thought it was over, I gave him another session... just in case.

By the time I tied him up and dragged him out, the battle was over.

The others started exploring the camp. Render was venting his anger on the corpse. He had a badly burned right hand. He should be more careful when playing with fire, I think. Jack came back after awhile... and I thought I saw a jam stain on his mouth there for a minute. Alex stripped off his armor and went off somewhere to wash off all that blood, I think.

Actually, I expect him to be wearing his underwears only under all that armor. So, I was kind of shocked when he started stripping. Luckily he was wearing a pair of pants under it.

After awhile, I turned to check on the prisoner but he disappeared! He must've been an escape artist! He was kind enought to leave the rope though.
Note to self: Must practice tying a rope.


We found him in one of the small houses. Render and I was at the back to block his escape while Joe and Alex guarded the only door. I saw him talking to a black communication orb before he saw Alex.

For a moment, he tried to take his own life! Alex was trying to subdue him so, he used his shield only. After awhile we managed to knock him out but he had bitten his wrist.

Alex took care of the bleeding though. And this time we tied him up real good. They didn't let me do the tying though (damn wanted another go at it).


Right after dinner, Alex and Jack went off to look for the way back. And now I can't sleep because KLEOS AND JOE HAD THE BRIGHT IDEA TO CUT UP THE RIFT FIEND'S BLADES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT WITH A SHORT SWORD. AND ALL THAT HACKING IS KEEPING ALL OF US AWAKE!!!

Where in the world is Alex and Jack. I wanna go with them too.

05 - Destinies of the Elements omake

Finally, what you've all been waiting for!
(Yeah right.)
Direct link to image: Destinies of the Elements 005 by ~hreaper on deviantART





While Arkh was in Tenshinron's Tavern, he met Kaede and bought him a drink. He took one sip of it and then was KO for awhile. Arkh had to drag him up to his room. <_<

I decided to create a Deviantart account. Thought I'd try it out.

Applying for Your First Game Industry Job

I got this very interesting article from Game Career Guide about how to apply for your first job in the game industry. But I think it's more for application of one of those big names in the game industry (EA, Microsoft, Ubisoft etc).

Time Magazine Interview with Takaya Natsuki (Author of Fruits Basket)

Fruits Basket is a very nice manga about the life of a first year high school student Honda Tohru and her relationship with several people of the Souma family who have a curse that turns them into members of the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals when hugged by the opposite sex.

I'm currently reading the manga, though I did watch the Fruits Basket anime which was aired around 2001. The story is still on-going.

Here's an excerpt from the interview with Takaya Natsuki which I have a keen interest in (mainly, manga story writing and drawing):

TIME: How do you define manga in terms of storyline, characters and visual style?

NT: I try to make it so that I don't hold a firm definition. Rather than be locked into that and have my creations become clumsy and awkward, I want everything to have a certain softness — a freedom.

TIME: What do you think about manga being attempted by non-Japanese creators? Do you consider it manga or another form?

NT: Simply put, I'm glad that manga as an expressive form is expanding. I think that nationality has no relation to that which gives rise to manga. Even among the Japanese, manga creators are making their creations everyday reflecting their own individuality, with none being the same. What is important isn't the differences between the creators but their love for manga.

Reading Eye Movement

Here's a few tips on how to read a person's thoughts by reading his/her eyes.

The direction the person moves his or her eyes can often determine whether the answer is from memory or not. It works the best with visual thoughts. A person will typically look upward to the left if reaching into memory and to the right if creating the answer or constructing imaged images.

Although most people follow this left-right rule, there are some who are just the opposite. It is good to determine which is which before jumping to conclusions. You can find out the correct directions of a person by asking some leading questions like "What was the color of your first car?" to get a response from memory, and "What is your opinion of the President?" to get a creative response.

An interesting way to see if someone's lying to you about something. :)

One Piece - Going Merry (Life Size Replica)

How cool is that? A life size replica of a ship in an anime.

The Going Merry is the ship used by the Straw Hat Pirates in One Piece in their travels across East Blue and the Grand Line to find One Piece.

The anime is still on-going and has spawned many games. The show has also suffered mutilation under the hands of 4Kids who owned the license in America.

As quoted in Wikipedia:
"...4Kids has altered some of its titles to the point where they have lost the qualities that originally made them appealing in Japan, by rewriting entire storylines, significantly altering character personalities, and replacing the original background music and themes."

Doraemon Voice Actress PWNs Arkanoid

Doraemon is a dysfunctional robotic cat from the 22nd century who came to the past to help the life Nobita Nobi, since his bungling in school and his career has left his family in poverty which is felt right up to his decendants.

Doraemon originated in Japan and was aired by TV Asahi in 1979 and have since become very famous, especially in Southeast Asia.

The latest voice actor for Doraemon, Oyama Nobuyo have appeared in a tv show showing her skills in Arkanoid. However, she mentions that she's only good at Arkanoid and no other games. :)


Doraemon's favorite food is dorayaki. If you're interested in finding where they sell the snack in Malaysia, here's where you can find it. :D

[Edit 2006/10/10]
An anouncement as of 13/3/2005 in Anime News Network have confirmed new voice actors for Doraemon with Mizuta Wasabi as Doraemon. What's surprising is that Seki Tomokazu (Sagara Sousuke - Full Metal Panic, Yzak Joule - Gundam SEED) will be voicing Suneo. :))

I wonder how he will sound like. :D

Destinies of Elements Omake 004

Phew, finally! The 4th one!
Experimenting with manga style panels, so excuse me if the ordering of the panels are not very clear.

This scene did not actually happened per se. Our Ninja friend DID take off his disguise in an alley, if memory serves, and it happened a little later. His clothes did not fall off like that though. But hey, it's an omake. It's supposed to be exaggerated. :p

Prince of Persia the Somewhat Original Version

Ahh yes, Prince of Persia. I remember the old times when I played the game in the PC. I forgot whose PC it was but anyway, it was a fun game.

I was really delighted when they start to modernize the game and make it 3D. I tried Prince of Persia 3D and I felt that it was a real let down.

When I heard of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and see that Ubisoft was the one making the game, my apprehension of another Prince of Persia remake in 3D was overcome with expectation. It's Ubisoft, right? They wont screw it up, right? Fortunately, they didn't and it became one of the best selling games in 2003.

I was just casually scanning through Jay Is Games and found this flash remake of the original Prince of Persia game (sort of). Enjoy :).

05 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

Day 397

One thing led to another and now I'm up a tree watching the others fight some strange people from a tree. Definately not bandits this time. They seemed angry... could be because we accidently found their secret base/village in the forest.

Ah Jack's with me. He just strolled back into the woods and climbed up next to me. After he, Alex, Joe (the mech), Kleos (my hired gun) and Asil walked into their compound to say hi, that is. Can't see Sigel and Render though. They must've did the smart thing and hide in a tree like me.


How I got on the tree here is a long story...
They walked back to the camp last night and told me that there was a Rift Fiend in the woods. They came back to resupply, apparently they've lost their provisions. That's what you get for being careless.

Rift Fiends. Haven't heard of them for a long time. Though most of those chaos creatures died after the great war, some still survive in the wild as nothing more than animals. Big, dangerous animals that's built for killing everything else.

So, I decided to get back to the truck and bring more help right away. I brought Kleos and Joe the next morning. Although the drive to Blackwood is only about half an hour, why it took me the whole night to bring them back to camp? Well... it's... it's complicated...

Anyway I brought them back to camp and then I decided that I should lead the team this time. Yup, that's me, brave, self sacrificing... and that Alex was holding my arm as he walked in front of me is because... he's scared and need reassurance... really.

We went back to their camp and retraced their steps. We found some tracks that lead to a pile of icky monster skin. The creature is apparently molting. The bad thing is, it's gotten more dangerous in its new form. The good thing is, it should be weak after the molt for a few hours. If we can kill it then, everything should be ok. Hey, you don't spend half your life with adventurers without knowing a thing or two about them.

Well, how we found this village is another strange thing. Render dropped his mother's lucky charm and he didn't know what it was. I've seen enough of Fayne using it so, I tought him how to use that Spyglass of True Seeing. Which is when we found out that the gorge in front of us is not a gorge at all, actually it's another part of the woods.

We saw these people here and they have to march straight in the village to say hi, presumably. Without a word, they attacked the party. Luckily I had the smarts to climb up the tree to... observe.



Did some tree fell in the woods? Felt a large thud just now. The battle's almost won. I saw a few of the attackers seemed to take their own lives than be taken ali... there it is again. What IS that... uh oh... oh no... oh no... big big... ha(@fsla!@#joalj The tree is cut! I'm FALLIIIIIIINNNG!~~~~~~~Q@#!

04 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

Day 396

We reached Blackwood without incident. Alex (the Knight) and I are now standing in line to recharge the truck and his bike's crystal batteries. The others went off somewhere exploring the town. I think Sigel's still sleeping though... oh how he can he sleep. It's 1 in the afternoon and he's still~ oops moving along.



It's dark now and I'm stuck in the woods with three men of the town's milita. How did I get here?

Well, it all started when we met the mayor in the Ether Node complex where we were recharging the batteries. Apparently they are having some serious problems with animals running out of the forest and attacking people. Apparently those wolves we encountered were originally from this area.

The mayor sent some of his militia to Blackwood Forest to investigate. And he asked us to look for them since they didn't report back for days.

Well, being the noble, kind hearted and helpful person that I am I decided that we should aid these poor people. And the fact that they have a stockpile of unsold famous Blackwood Wine due to these problems and are willing to give us a whole cart of the stuff which could possibly fetch me more money than I'd earn in a year has nothing to do with it... honest.

Anyway, I got Alex, Asil, Render and Sigel (after much head-dumping-in-water-basin by Alex) to go along and hired a car to get us to the wood's edge. The road there's too small for the truck.
I did notice that Asil got a quarterstaff on her back. Hmm... wonder where she's been hiding that.

We picked up their trail, and after a few numbing hours of walking in the woods, we found these three camping here, next to a part of the woods that's too dark for me to see. It's as if there's two separate forests.

Apparently, the other 10 went in there and never came back for four days. The others decided to follow them while I stayed back with the remaining militia.


So now here we are exchanging stories and stuff. They told me a bit about this place. Blackwood started out as an outpost 50 years ago. Some soldiers stumbled upon this place and its Ether Node and thought it was a good place to have an outpost south of Cardia.

A couple of years later, they abandoned it for a better position north of here and civilians started moving into Blackwood. They found the soil very good for grape growing and there's plenty of clean water. Thus the famous Blackwood Wine began production. I've seen some of the rarer red wine fetching for 50,000 credits a bottle. Some people even go as far to say that some of their white wine have healing properties and can heal many illness (but they apparently do not heal hangovers).

Blackwood was so named because of this part of the woods. Two different type of trees grow here. The tall less leafy ones near the town and the shorter heavy leafy types here. The shorter trees casts a perpetual shadow and apparently the locals don't travel very deep inside that part of the woods.



We heard a loud scream just now. Doesn't sound like anything human. I hope they are ok in there. More importantly, I hope we are ok over HERE. I hope I remember the where I parked the car...

Inspiring Quotes

Persian arrows were so numerous that they blotted out the sun.
"So much the better, we shall fight in the shade." - Dienekes, a Spartan soldier at the Battle of Termopylae.


King Xerxes of Persia asked Leonidas to surrender their arms.
"Come take them". - Leonidas, leader of 300 Spartans at the Battle of Termopylae.



The Battle of Thermopylae is a famous battle in 480 B.C. where 7000 Greeks led by 300 Spartans fought a Persian army many times their size and held them at bay for 2 days at the Pass of Termopylae.

Manga Drawing

I've been searching for sites that teach manga drawing, especially for one on the pc using Photoshop, Illustrator or GIMP. I've found some, and thought I'd share it. :)


Akiba Angels
A site that feature news on the "Otaku" culture. They have a bi-weekly webcomic by Naze Kazekawa that explains all you want to know about "Otaku-ness", Anime and Manga. The site comes in English and Japanese flavors.

They have a small tutorial section on how to draw manga electronically.



Polykarbon
Polykarbon is another good site that has tons of tutorials on how to draw manga by Patrick Shettlesworth. Besides traditional pen and pencil, there are also tutorials on using Photoshop and scanning as well as a little lesson on Japanese.

The Touch Music Video

Ahh, the nostalgia...
The Touch by Stan Bush for Transformers: The Movie is still my favourite after all these years. But I'll have to admit, this is the first time I've seen the music video.

And there's a puppet Optimus Prime... quality's not very good, but still brings back memories. XD

Designing UI for Games

The Role of Director in Designing the Halo 2 Interface by David Candland
David Candland of Bungie Studios talks about Adobe Macromedia Director and how he used it to help design the UI for Halo.

I have used Macromedia Director before, and I would have to say that I agree that it would definately help in designing a prototype UI. It's also much safer for you to do some experimentation.

You just test your ideas on Director (don't do too much scripting) and see how it goes. If the idea doesn't work, then you just lose a few days instead of several months if you try out your experiments on the real thing.

Nice Flash Games

Nanaca Crash
Nanaca Crash is a Flash game which uses anime characters from an adult PC and PlayStation 2 game called Cross Channel. See how far you can get the main character to bounce around.

Weapon Fire
Play as a stickman who's got plenty of guns and wanton destruction in mind. Quick short fun.


Some flash games I ripped off EWA's site >:p
Sling
Play as a blob of slime and solve puzzles by slinging and s ticking onto grab areas. A very nicely done flash game.

Dice War
A strategy game involving dices ala Risk.

More Cool and Useful Tools

These are a few nice tools from Sysinternals

Autoruns
A very useful software to monitor the registry and programs that run at startups instead of playing around with the messy regedit.

Process Explorer
This tool helps to monitor programs at run time. You can use Ctrl+Alt+Delete, but with Process Explorer, it tells who created the processes. You can check your pc to see if there are any strange processes that are run by viruses and the like.



PDF Readers
Foxit Reader
This is very useful tool for reading PDF files. Acrobat loads lots of things which are really useless if all you want to do is just to open and read a PDF file.

PDF Creator
A nice tool which lets you create PDF files. It creates PDF files in a very roundabout way, though. This software creates a virtual printer. By selecting this virtual printer and printing, instead of a hardcopy, you will get a PDF file instead.

Inspiring Quotes

"Without a vision, we become a debating society and a place where habit quickly becomes 'tradition'." - Pug the Black Sorcerer [Raymond E. Feist's Shards of a Broken Crown]

Log of Kai Sunreaver

Ok, found the log for that blonde half-orc's encounter at the temple grounds in the old campaign.

Log of Kai Sunreaver

The cleric's statement was apparently something I said off-game. :p

03 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

Day 394
Phew, some rest. Nothing much today.

We met the patrol on it's way out of Cardia and delivered the bandits to them. The bandits were happy to be leaving since the stripping incident yesterday.

Is it just me, or is Jack and that mech archeologist having some perverse fun in this.

I have a bad feeling about this group.


Been up all day ~ driving, tired ~ feel sleeeeee ~~~

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Day 395
It's morning, and I woke up with a neck ache. Slept on the driver's seat instead of the bunk behind.

Note to self: Don't sleep with journal open.
Discovery: Drool spreads ink, can smear 3 pages worth of journal and is hard to remove from paper.


Wolf attack! And I'm stuck in the cabin.
I can see the others fighting. Maybe I should give them a ha...

GAH!
Or maybe not... Wolf outside the door.
I'm not a fighter anyway. Why can't we all just get along?

Nice doggy.

Someone help...

It's amazing that I'm still writing my journal in the face of danger. More amazing that I'm writing this down instead of saying it out loud to that oversized dog outside.


Fight's over. Jack's down, unconcious. I'll have to see if I can help stabilize him. Be right back.


Day 396
Now that I look at them. The wolves ARE kind of skinny. Maybe they were just hungry.

Anyway, off we go again. We should reach Blackwood today.


We reached Blackwood around noon. Wine country! After this is the desert.
I'm going to recharge the truck's battery and maybe fill up on more supplies.

Note to self: When buyin new truck, check the crystal battery life first.

02 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

Day 391
Met Fayne and her family yesterday. She still looks beautiful. She said she had to turn down my invitation for another adventure. Now I have to babysit her son instead. Hope he's as good as his mom.

He did bring a mech along with him. But Fayne's husband, Render, I think, brought it back home.

Spoil sport.

Found out later, the boy's named after the dad. Wonder if the personality's the same too.
I did noticed that she gave the boy her "lucky" charm. It should be useful in the days ahead.


Had prepared some breakfast for them this morning. The Grour werewolf, Jack, I believe has some weird love of jam. He finished the whole jar... just the jam, nothing else. And the mage, Sigel, ate the whole bar of butter.
I have a bad feeling about this group.

I did find another mech to come with us. He looks interesting, dark, moody. Never knew mechs can be moody. You learn new things everyday.



I brought some pillows for the truck's cabin, double-checked the living trailer and the supply trailer. Everything's good to go. We should be leaving at noon.


On oUr Wa~----~~~~~~/
NOTe To SeLf: NoT a goOd iD~ea to wrITe joU-rnAL whIle OnroaD.


Day 392
Met a patrol on its way back to Cardia today. They mentioned something about bandits in this area.
I'm sure they have everything under control.


Day 393
Ok, managed to steal some time for myself. Busy day, attacked by bandits.
The crew I got managed to overcome them. They have them tied under the tree near camp here.

I can see them from where I'm sitting by the warm fire and hot chicken stew. I also see Jack next to those poor captured souls. He's seem to have a hand on one guy's pants and he's... be right back.

01 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

Day 1
New journal! Yay! Starting a new expedition.


Day 377
Found the journal under my desk drawer.

Note to self: Get supplies and equipment first BEFORE getting journals.


Day 383
Wrote a couple of requests for mages and healers for my expedition. Sent them to the Academy this morning. Don't really like having old men with long beards and pointy hats around but I think I should have them along.

I remember what happened in the last expedition. Will never see spoons the same way again... Anyway, no good in dwelling in the past. Wonder what I'll have for dinner.


Day 390
The Academy sent young people! And the two healers are girls! I didn't know there were young people learning magic. Always thought they started as old men with long beards and pointy hats.

Still... they will eventually become old men with long beards and pointy hats.

They sent a Knight with those three too. Could use an extra sword.

I hired a few extra muscles too, just in case. Some gunner, a Grour blacksmith and a mecha archaeologist (love those mechs).

Note to self: Got to get one of those cool bikes the Knight was using when I get back.

Destinies of Elements Omake 003 [Edit 09/07/2006]

Yep, I'm trying out new styles. These are two separate scenes that happened to... a friend :-" (a friend who played a blonde half-orc) in the campaign. I just combined the two scenes together (the scenes where he went to look for a job and when he met a... guard who's proud of his sexual direction).

[Edit 09/07/2006]
I edited the image. It's a guy demmit! Xp

Recent Issues

Article taken from The Star Online on 1st Sept 2006.

Buddhist chief monk K. Sri Dhammananda dies

Rev Dhammananda: A wise and caring man who related well to the young and the old.
PETALING JAYA: The Chief High Priest of Malaysia and Singapore, Venerable Dr K. Sri Dhammananda Nayaka Maha Thera, passed away peacefully at the Subang Jaya Medical Centre at 12.42pm yesterday. He was 87.

Those who wish to pay their last respects may do so at the Buddhist Maha Vihara in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, until 2pm on Sunday.

A eulogy ceremony will be held at 1pm on Sunday and the cortege will leave at 3pm for the Nirvana Memorial Park in Semenyih.

Devotees are advised to use public transport and also not to send wreaths during the funeral ceremony. They are also advised to wear white.

Rev Dhammananda was born on March 18, 1919, in southern Sri Lanka. He came to Malaya on Jan 2, 1952, to administer to the needs of the Buddhist community here.

Revered by both Buddhists and non-Buddhists throughout the world, Rev Dhammananda wrote more than 47 books on Buddhism which were distributed worldwide and translated into various languages.

For further information, the public may call 03-2274 1141/ 86, or contact Leslie Tilak at 012-212 0154.

Buddhist Maha Vihara president Sarath W. Surendre described Rev Dhammananda as a wise and caring man who related well to both the young and the old.

I went to the Brickfields Temple on Friday night (1st Sept 2006) with Ronnie to pay my last respect to him, and to help out where we can. He was a great man and have written many books on Buddhism, and in them, he also preached religious tolerance. He went around the country to give talks and I've been to a few of them when he came to the Seck Kia Eenh(SKE) Temple which I attended in my hometown of Malacca.

Here's another article from The Star Online.

Late Rev Dhammananda served all mankind, says Ong in eulogy

KUALA LUMPUR: The late Venerable Dr Rev K. Sri Dhammananda - Chief High Priest of Malaysia and Singapore - was a man who dedicated his life to promoting peace, understanding and harmony.

“Rev Dhammananda served not only the Buddhist community but also all mankind. It is for this reason that he won the respect of people of all races and religions,” said Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting, who represented the Government at a eulogy ceremony at the Buddhist Maha Vihara here yesterday.

Ong said Rev Dhammananda, who founded the Buddhist Missionary Society Malaysia (BMSM) in 1962, had conveyed Buddha's message on peace to every corner of Malaysia as well as throughout the world.

Rev Dhammananda, he added, would always be remembered for his strong role in promoting inter-religious harmony in the country.

DEVOTEES’ SENDOFF: Thousands converged at the Buddhist Maha Vihara in Kuala Lumpur to bid farewell to Rev Dhammananda
“He was a firm believer that all religions have an important role to play in making human beings behave in a noble manner,” he said.

Through the BMSM, Rev Dhammananda published 70 books which were translated into more than 16 languages. Ong added that Rev Dhammananda never wanted any fame or glory and had lived the life of a simple monk.

Others who delivered eulogies included Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Malaysian Consultative Council for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism deputy president Pradip Kumar, BMSM president Ang Choo Hong and Malaysian Buddhist Association president Venerable Sik Jit Heng.

The eulogy by Buddhist Summit president Most Venerable Dr Kyuse Enshinjoh, was read by Buddhist Summit of Japan secretary-general Venerable Fujikura.

Happy Merdeka Day, Malaysia

Happy Merdeka(Independence) Day. This day in 1957, Malaysia declared its independence from colonial British rule.

I don't really have any plans for today other than stay at home and enjoy the day off. :P I'm never going to any Merdeka Day celebration again. Ever since that day 2 years ago when my friends and I were packed like sardines in a can on our way back from KLCC.

And it all happened outside the train station. They wouldn't let so many people crowd around underground in case of suffocation. Even outside, I saw a lady near me faint and a guy next to her was fanning her. If it was this hectic just to get on the train, think about the traffic jam. <_<

Nonononono... never again...

Cool Open Source Stuff

I have a collection of useful Open Source drawing applications that I wish to share. They are pretty useful and you can make really good drawing/3D model with them and best of all, they are FREE!

Inkscape is a vector graphics drawing application similar to Adobe Illustrator.

GIMP or GNU Image Manipulation Program is a photo/image editing application that's has a lot of similarities with Adobe Photoshop. It also can be used to make animated GIFs.

Blender lets anyone create 3D models. If you can't afford Maya or 3D Studio Max, Blender would be a good choice.

Google Sketchup is another 3D drawing application. It's not really open source, but it's free. And I like it. :) It's quite limited in functionality compared to Blender, but if you need to make 3D prototypes of your designs, then Sketchup is a very good choice.

How I Role-Play

When role-playing, you take control of the lives of a character who might be different than you. When, I role-play a character, I think of what he would do in that situation, not what I would want him to do.

For example, if there's a couple of orcs in a corridor with you, and at the end on your side of the corridor, you know there's a large oak door with a latch, my character would rather run back through that door and close it behind him. He would want to survive the encounter rather than fight them and take a beating, unless there's no other way but to fight them, or the character loves to fight (which is the usual way most players play their character).

Most of the time, players would attack the two orcs, calculating that you can kill both of them and get more XP(experience points) for the kill albeit with some serious hurt on your side, but you'll survive.

I blame the player's laziness in not thinking some other way to avoid the fight. They would argue that the quickest way to overcome them is to kill them, which I think is not true. Or saying that, they would lessen the number of enemies by killing these few. It might, or it might not, it's up to the DM. :)

In a way, I also blame the DM. It's the system of killing monsters for getting exp that makes players play this way. In my opinion, XP should be given if the players manage to survive an encounter or did something to avoid such encounters, such as hiding and then slipping behind their ranks (in some cases... no wait... in a LOT of cases, they go behind them just to kill them while their backs are turned <_<) instead of going in with full guns ablazing.

Giving monsters XP for the players to harvest is just not right, which is why I'm not giving XP for the number of monsters killed in my campaign. I have a set of XP for each encounter, if the player can survive the encounter, either through guile or force of strength, I will still give them the same amount of XP regardless of the number of kills. The party survives, all members gain experience regardless of whatever action they take. If you run away while the others fight (if it's in your character to do that), sure, same XP. The player would just have to prepare for the consequenses later if he/she is left alone to fend for him/herself.

Comiket 70

Comiket is a bi-annual event that is held at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center in Japan. It's the world largest comic convention. Otakus come from all over Japan and around the world for this event to get a chance to buy doujinshi and other anime and manga related items.

Here's a Youtube link of Comiket 70, which was held from 11th - 13th August 2006. I was curious as to how far otakus in Japan would go... and now I know. O_O

My Campaign Magic System [Edit 08/31/2006]

The magic system in my campaign uses runes to cast. Why I do this is because, the campaign was originally an idea I had for a manga story. In that world, the way magic is cast is very different.

Plus, I wanted a way for the players to be able to create their own spells. For this, I did some research on D&D and Mage: The Ascension magic system. D&D's magic system is ok but it's a little too rigid when it comes to developing new spells and it's vague on the cost of the spell. Mage, on the other hand, is just plaing vague on everything.

How It Works
In this world, there is a form of energy called Ether. Mages are able to manipulate Ether and use them to draw the runes.

A mage is sensitive to Ether and is able to convert Ether to Mana which is the power source for their spells. Each mage have a limited mana pool and they must rest to regain their lost mana.

First, the mage draws a magic symbol (usualy a circle), which will be the base for the runes. The mage would then begin their spell chant. Each phrase will command a rune to be drawn onto the magic symbol. With the various combinations of runes and spell chants, the mage will be able to mold the mana into the spell.

Since I'm a programmer, I'll use programming as an analogy.
Magic Symbol = Integrated Development Environment (IDE) - programming application
Chants = Programming Language (it doesn't matter the language, the IDE knows it)
Runes = Program Code


Runes
No matter what spell, the first rune drawn is any one of these base runes:
Fire – fire and flames
Earth – rocks, earth
Water – water, ice and steam
Wind – air and sound
Lightning – electricity
Light – brightness and illumination
Dark – darkness and shadow
Mind – mental affects (mind blasts, illusions, fear)
Space – movement, teleportation, area of effects, gravity
Time – speed up, slow down, time stall

The other runes become available at a higher level. The higher the level, the more powerful the runes become however, the more mana that it will consume.


Personal Comments
Currently, in the campaign, a single rune will have a limited effect. The higher the mage's level, he/she is able to add more of the similar rune to bolster the spell's strength (max 3 similar runes in a single magic symbol for now).
E.g.
1 Fire rune - Firebolt (1d4+1/lvl fire damage 1 Mana) starting at Mage level 1.
2 Fire runes - Greater Firebolt (1d6+1/lvl fire damage, 2 Mana) starting at Mage level 3
3 Fire runes - Empowered Firebolt (2d6+1/lvl fire damage, 3 Mana) starting at Mage level 5
The players can name their own spells (but in my campaign, I'll have no "Takie" or "Jumpie"... nononono... that is so wrong - yes, you know who you are).

The mana pool, for now, is calculated in a similar method to calculating the Hit Points (Hit Die + WIS modifier).

This way, players have a guide on what kind of spells they can create and what the cost of that spell will be.

All these are still in the design phase, however. I'm still playtesting this to see if there's any problem with this system. I wanted to add some pictures but, since I'm still designing it, I'd thought better of it. I'll give them some more thought first.

The inspiration for this kind of magic comes from some of the anime and mangas that I've watched like, Scrapped Princess, Gatekeepers, Mahou Sensei Negima and especially Magical Lyrical Nanoha amd its sequel Magical Lyrical Nanoha A's

[Edit 08/31/2006]
Now, THIS is what I call Techno Magic!


It's a Sub Machinewand

My Old Art

Here are a few images that I did in my university years. It was originally for a project that I had. It was the first time I fully colored a drawing of mine.



The first human drawing that I colored. I kind of liked the lighting though I think the position of the leg is a bit off.


I kind of liked drawing animals. That's how I started to learn to draw. Nowadays, my creatures are kind of Digimon-ish, if you will. :p

I kind of like this one. It's the only other one I played around with the lighting. I kind of forgot to shade the rest.

My Campaign

Last Friday, I've started my own campaign. It was originally an idea for a manga that I had. I expanded the idea into a RP campaign.

The campaign setting is a world that has a blend of technology and magic. But I'm not into those Cyberpunk kind of games. I'm thinking of more towards a Final Fantasy kind of setting. The world is filled with my races and classes of my own making. I also developed my own magic system based on runes.

I'll talk more on them later.

Destinies of Elements Omake 001 & 002

omake (o-mah-keh): Bonus footage for interviews or comedic relief.

These are some comic strips I made for Yong's campaign. I've some more but I've been busy lately. I'll try to finish them up when I'm free.






I'm trying to improve my art. So, these are just test runs for me before I delve into something more serious.

More Role Play

Well, Yong's campaign was over quite some time ago. I just didn't want to post the log anymore... it was too bizzare. Anyway, we have continued with Ivan's campaign. It's been about 5 sessions now. There's been a lot of weird PCs (Player Characters) since he gave us the freedom to make up whatever we want. But I dunno, still feels a bit overpowering... and the fact that the enemies are overpowered as well doesn't make me feel better.