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.