Current
I'm sorry, you've reached his personal secretary, Department of Shrubbery, Floor 64, Desk 1024. How can we help you today?
4 mos ago
Or buy a van or a used rental truck. Something nobody would look twice at. You can put in a rack for the rope, duct tape, plastic sheeting, shovels....
4 mos ago
Never trust a car salesman - especially a used car salesman. Have a buddy park across the street and see how many stuffed body bags you can shove in there. Gotta have room for plastic sheeting, etc.
1
like
4 mos ago
Neil Gaiman wrote in his Good Omens bio that he likes it when fans send him $50. (He read Terry Pratchett's bio and figured it wouldn't hurt.)
4 mos ago
"Hack the planet!" is the movie Hackers playing with a teenaged Laura Croft and Sherlock Holmes battling the skateboarding Fisher Stevens?
3
likes
Bio
I am a seven-foot tall minecraft-playing hindu guru drag-queen alien.
Possessor of an Ancient Device™ Model 17. No, I don't know what it does. No, you can't play with it.
Pronouns: It. As in: "What is it? What does it want? Why is it here? Oh my god, it's got my... <insert random body part or object here>"
Likes: World Domination, Writing, Rpg, scifi/fantasy, anime, sketchup 3d models, and anime music videos.
Companions: a host of characters from other games, my personal muse Penny (as in Bad), and the Badger gang - Toothpick, Buttons, Shark, and Mongo. They grew up in the balcony of an old theatre that played a lot of gangster movies. Normally benign, but may invade the OOC forums.
The knight put herself in front of them and took the brunt of the strange bird's attack - but now it was trying to fly off with the knight and her sheild. Probably hoping to drop her from a great height like she was a turtle so it could smash through the knight's metal shell.
The ice mage iced one of its wings, but they needed to drag it down.
"I'm too old for this sh..." Jase yells, the young half-elf jumping onto the knight's back, knife still in hand. This giant bird probably snatched whole sheep and cows to bring to its nest, his weight along with the knight wasn't probably going to do much - but it was clearly a predator, a meat eater. The weird feathers on his belly would be shorter than its flight feathers, so he needed to jam his blade between the rows and slash, while making sure he stayed well away from its beak.
Crawling to the knight's side to where the sheild wasn't between him and the bird, he started jabbing at the bird's side, under its feathers, again and again, praying to strike an artery.
"I wish I had a shotgun...!" Jase calls out. "Or is that against I-see-kee rules?!"
Why people fall for this romantisized fantasy, he had no idea. The middle ages were brutal, short, and stank.
Jase's smile slipped as he saw the ice mage had cast his icicles at the bird's head - which it could easily bob out of the way.
"Center of mass!" he yells, "Center of mass! Aim at its torso!"
What he others were doing, he had no idea, but for now, its attention was on them. Hopefully, this wasn't a feint. If it darted around them to go for the others, it might still try to side-slash them with its wing. The knight at least had good protection, but how would it fare against the bird?
In any case, he had to be ready to jump - and hoped that he could with this strange, untrained body.
"Everyone get ready to fight for your lives! I'm not keen on dying a second time!" Javal yelled as the bird rushed them.
It was weird, the bird wasn't fighting the way it should.
"Vrelenor," Jase yelled, pulling out his knife and falling naturally into a knife figher's stance, the blade an extension of his arm. "Shoot it! Shoot it right now, and keep hitting it! I've got one, maybe two chances and then it'll be your turn."
If the outside was armored, the ice should shatter, making the best point to strike through its open mouth, driving the blade into the brain. Not something a creature like that would expect. But even with his skills, no guarantee of an instant kill, either. It was a nice arm, it would be a shame to lose it already.
Name Siri Nypan Race Human with a bit of elvish blood. Gender Female Age 23 Appearance:
This young woman puts you in mind of a mysterious raven. She has narrow, dark, disapproving eyes that are like an upright executioner's axe just before it falls. Her thick, straight, black hair is worn in a basic bun. She is below average height and has a wiry build. Her skin is like alabaster - she’s hoping to grow a mole or a wart on her nose. She has hollow cheeks.
Personality
A serious girl, seldom smiles, very reserved. Enjoys alcohol and sweets.
Background A pair of adventurers, Sirius and Elinoa Hazestone, having made a very large score, decided to retire in Little Nerton by starting a vineyard and raising a lot of kids. Which they did - Sire (m), Sirena (f), Sirish (m), Sirhaan(m), Sirvan(m), Sirish(m), Siri (f), and the twins Siraj(m) and Sirak (m). When asked about it, Sirius explained that among his people it was common-place to name a child after their father. Collectively, the village called the children "the Sirs." Sirius was more than a little lavish with their money. It was not just the expense of buying up a farm and the seedlings, or setting up the winery, but Sirius liked to throw a lot of parties. Elinoa didn't mind at first, but grew concerned. She began setting aside some money for the children for when they became of age. Sire and Sirena both received their strongboxes when they got married. The twins seem to take a lot out of Elinoa when they were born, the half-elf took a long time to recover. Sirius was understanding, at first, but began to press his wife. Eventually, she became pregnant again, with many misgivings by the new midwife, Mother Tenebris. Elinoa took Siri aside, telling her if anything happened, she was to take the twins and their strongboxes over to Sire's place, then see Mother Tenebris.
When Elinoa went into labor, Sirius didn't send for Mother Tenebris, saying she wasn't needed, Elinoa had already had so many children, what did they need a midwife for? But as the labor when into the evening hours, Sirius’ confidence slipped and he sent Sirish to fetch her. By the time he returned with the midwife, Elinoa and the baby had died. In his grief, Sirius turned to drinking hard cider leaving his sons and daughters to tend to everything. one night killed his neighbor’s prized pig when he let it drink some bad cider. In a panic, Sirius decided to turn highwayman and got killed a few days later by a dandy on the road to Middlesborough.
Siri wasted no time seeking out Old Mother Nina Tenebris, only to find Nina busy shrinking her belongings and slipping them into a bag. When Siri asked, the witch replied that some idiot farmer’s pig had died, and was blaming her. And within the hour, he’d be leading the townsfolk to her house to burn her.
Siri begged to come along as her apprentice, telling Nina that she needed to get out of town too before someone decided to sell her into serfdom to pay off her father’s debts. Nina agreed, changing Siri’s appearance while stripping away the old woman disguise she’d worn. As they went down the Middleborough road, the suddenly younger Nina gave Siri her first lesson in being a witch - always choose a place on the far edge of town and disguise yourself should it be necessary to leave suddenly.
Siri then spent her teenage years in training, and forming a pact with Nina’s patron, a fallen old god who she called Mister Wolf, who mostly spoke through a crystal ball Nina kept covered.
Talents
Languages - has a working knowledge of most common languages. Witch - Pact with the Old Wolf (A fallen god)
Orphic, as it is practiced today, is a form of magic that uses Mana to power its spells and imbue items. Due to persecutions now passed, there's a tradition that this style is taught in semi-secrecy, from masters to just a single apprentice at a time. There was once another form of Orphic magic- that appeared not to rely on Mana- but that "High Path" is now lost to history.
Orphic was the style of magic practiced by the Oscana kingdom, and was split into two disciplines - the High Path, and the Low Path.
The High Path is now lost to us, all that remains is the Low Path.
Orphic teaches that there are little known currents of energy flowing in and around this world - in the sky, in the land, in fire, and the sea - and are known as ley lines, that only those with the mage sight can see. Depending on their size and nearness, they can provide a slow trickle or an immense flow of power. In Oscana, many important buildings would be constructed either on a ley line, or where two or more ley lines cross to take advantage of these flows.
A side-effect of this flow of power is that books of magic would often need to be chained to the shelves - to prevent their escape.
For those on the Low Path, in order to access this power, they needed to convert it into a more stable, usable form, known as Mana. To aid them in this, they would borrow power from a mana reservoir to imbue their staves, then use their staves to draw power from the ley lines to refill the reservoir.
It is very important for the one who takes power from the reservoir to return it, lest it leeches off of them to restore its balance. They, in turn, may try to leech off of others, but this only temporarily quenches their thirst.
Those on the Low Path could then use the mana they collected to power their spells, or imbue items with abilities beyond their simple appearance that almost anyone could use.
The Roulon Empire viewed magic to be reserved for their aristocrat class, and resented this "commoner magic." This, more than anything, lead to their invasion of Oscana. Books were burned, reservoirs broken. Practitioners of Orphic were declared witches or warlocks, not unlike their own bastard children who showed any sign of magic, and were burned at the stake. In an act of cruelty, the nobles would prolong their victims' agonies by providing them with air so they wouldn't die from breathing the smoke before their flesh began to burn.
Orphic practitioners of the Low Path hid themselves, shaving their staves into wands that could be hidden up sleeves. One woman, it is said, hid her stave as the shaft of her parasol, all the while working as a nanny to hide from the empire's witchfinders.
The spells were shuffled into smaller, more specialized books, so that if you knew what line they belonged to, you knew the spells they could cast. Instead of teaching in groups, there would be one master and one apprentice, working in secret. The apprentice's first task would be to copy the contents of their master's book. They would then study them in secret after their master had left to learn how to cast those spells. Later, they would take an apprentice and train them before moving on themselves.
Orphic line mages soon acquired apprentices in other lands, some in which their apprentices could work openly, like some of the Elvish kingdoms. However, most of the Orphic continue this practice of training one apprentice at a time before moving on, even though the Roulon empire has collapsed.
Flaws
- Sense of duty - Blunt
Equipment
A satchel she wears over her shoulder. Pockets in the lining of the bag hold various miniaturized boxes that she can expand at will. A library box full of books and papers A field desk that holds her potion brewing equipment An apothecary chest A bag holding painting supplies A field kitchen box A trunk that holds her clothes. She also has a tarot deck, a fist-sized crystal ball in a cloth bag (to prevent spying), and a locked lexicon on a small chain (to prevent escapes), and a pocket mirror.
A black bag that holds her medical supplies. A wand hidden in a sheath strapped to her right leg, hidden by her skirt A walking staff she can beat people with A small knife in a belt sheath
Jase grinned as their hike seem to pay off - the trees thinned out and they could see a river coming out of the forest, flowing into a lake. Water! There had to be an outlet away from the lake, and with luck, that would lead them to civilization.
When the overhead shadow past over them, Jase instinctively looked up - and froze as he caught sight of a giant bird, wearing what looked to be armor was decending towards the edge of the lake. If that wasn't an optical illusion of some kind, it suggested there was civilization here - but why would a bird wear armor? Was it to protect itself from beings like them? Or was there something else flying in the skies above?
"Don't make any sudden moves," Jase whispered. "Just slowly sit down here. It's probably seen us already. If we rush over there, it might attack."
"Am I crazy, or does it look like it's wearing armor?"
I'm good as helmsman as long as I get the chance to do a landing party every so often. Or maybe a doctor if needed.
I do have my own oc race, the Valkyrii. They're female (and only female) clones born from egg -shaped cloning tanks known as "Mothers", every one of them a warrior. Their wings however work best in zero-g, and they're telepathic only with each other. Only a handful are born with the ability to connect telepathically with alien races, everyone else just gives them a nasty headache.
Primarily work as Zero-G engineers and mercenaries - their planet is poor, so this is the best they can manage.
I am a seven-foot tall minecraft-playing hindu guru drag-queen alien.
Possessor of an Ancient Device™ Model 17. No, I don't know what it does. No, you can't play with it.
Pronouns: It. As in: "What is it? What does it want? Why is it here? Oh my god, it's got my... <insert random body part or object here>"
Likes: World Domination, Writing, Rpg, scifi/fantasy, anime, sketchup 3d models, and [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmKRgqWGrWc]anime music videos[/url].
Companions: a host of characters from other games, my personal muse Penny (as in Bad), and the Badger gang - Toothpick, Buttons, Shark, and Mongo. They grew up in the balcony of an old theatre that played a lot of gangster movies. Normally benign, but may invade the OOC forums.
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;">I am a seven-foot tall minecraft-playing hindu guru drag-queen alien. <br><br>Possessor of an Ancient Device™ Model 17. No, I don't know what it does. No, you can't play with it.<br><br>Pronouns: It. As in: "What is it? What does it want? Why is it here? Oh my god, it's got my... <insert random body part or object here>"<br><br>Likes: World Domination, Writing, Rpg, scifi/fantasy, anime, sketchup 3d models, and <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmKRgqWGrWc">anime music videos</a>.<br><br>Companions: a host of characters from other games, my personal muse Penny (as in Bad), and the Badger gang - Toothpick, Buttons, Shark, and Mongo. They grew up in the balcony of an old theatre that played a lot of gangster movies. Normally benign, but may invade the OOC forums.</div>
Izurich
Alby47
FulgrimLives
washcloth
Sylvan
Timemaster
Fading Memory